DVD Review: The Tribe (2015)

We have never before had the experience of seeing a movie which sign language to tell its story instead of the spoken word, and in that respect, The Tribe is one of the most interesting and different movies that we've ever seen. Director Miroslav Slaboshpitsky deserves a ton of credit for not only having the balls to try and make a movie in such a different way, but in being able to pull it off as well as he did.

The Tribe is the story of Sergey; he's the new kid at a school for the deaf who is quickly initiated into the school's ruling gang, where he and his new pals run around mugging people, pimping young girls out to truck drivers, beating people, stealing, and having sex. Sergey ends up getting the hots for one of the girls he pimps out, Anya, and they end up "dating" each other.

That's really all there is to the plot. We're not trying to be dicks about it, but that's pretty much what it is. This movie is far more about the experience than it is any sort of narrative... although the overall narrative is pretty important to that experience... at least thematically. I don't know. It's a different kind of flick.

UKRAINIAN ROCK-PAPER-SCISSORS.

The Tribe contains no spoken dialogue, its characters communicating via sign language only. There no subtitles or voiceover for the sign language either, so if you don't happen to be up on that particular brand of communication, then the movie will play for you as it did for us: as an almost silent movie of sorts.

It was a different sort of experience for us, watching a movie in which no one spoke. We probably missed a lot of plot development, and even nuance, throughout this one because of the our lack of understanding, though to his credit, director Miroslav Slaboshpitsky crafted this movie in a simple, straight-forward sort of a way, which actually allowed us to follow along with everything far easier than we ever though we'd be able to. After the first few minutes, the fact that everyone on screen was signing, and that we had no idea what they were saying to each other, didn't even register anymore.

THOSE ARE SOME PRETTY FUCKED-UP TOILETS.

The Tribe is a very violent and sexually explicit movie. There are multiple scenes of sex between teenagers; people get mugged, robbed, and brutally beaten; people get their heads caved in; there's a rape; and the ending was particularly WTF-inducing. Given the subject matter and mechanics of this movie, the scene with the truck backing up was pretty damned disturbing too.

Worst of all though, was the especially horrific back-alley abortion scene that was so fucking horrific, that we couldn't watch most of it. The fact that during that scene, we finally heard Anya's voice as she cried out in pain, made it even more horrific. Yes, we just used the word horrific three times in two sentences. Trust us, it's warranted.

JESUS CHRIST.

We had two real issues with this movie:

One, is that there really isn't any story to follow. The Tribe plays as more of a snapshot of the daily life of Sergey and a few of his troubled classmates, which is fine, but it doesn't really go anywhere. In that way, it reminded us a lot of the 1995 movie, Kids.

The second issue, which is made worse by the first one, is that none of the characters in the movie are very likable or sympathetic. Most of the kids, including Sergey, exist to do nothing other than beat, rob, rape, pimp ,whore themselves, and kill. We couldn't even feel all that much for Sergey, as he just shows up to the school, joins the gang, and starts doing some horrible shit like he was joining the football team or something. We did manage to feel some sympathy for Anya, in two especially fucked up scenes, but even she seemed to take the horrible things that they were all doing in stride, as if it was commonplace.

Then again, maybe that was the point of the whole thing.

LIFE IS ROUGH IN UKRAINE.

The Tribe is a great Arthouse Film that offers Horror fans plenty of realistic brutality, but not much in the way of story or character development. It's not a particularly enjoyable movie either, but it is one that makes a statement, and does so in a very powerful, bold, and unique way.

It won't be for everybody, and in fact, it may not even be for most people, but if you like experimental Arthouse movies that do something completely different from the norm, then it might just be for you.

B

The Tribe  is available now on Blu-ray, DVD, and VOD.

Yana Novikova is one brave, brave actress.

VOD Review: Ghoul (2015)

Oh, Found Footage, why hast thou forsaken me?

We know that most FF/POV Horror flicks tend to suck, and we know that they aren't going to stop being made any time soon, but for the love of all that is holy, can we at least start trying to make them worthwhile?

The real problem with most FF flicks, aside from the fact that most of them are ridiculously unbelievable, is that they all basically do the same thing, in just about the same way. Some try admirably to be different and put a unique spin on things, but most never manage to be anything but predictable. That's pretty much the story with Ghoul.

Ghoul at least has an interesting premise going for it, in which a group of wannabe documentary filmmakers travel to the Ukraine, to investigate the rumors of mass cannibalism that happened there in the 30's. Aside from the fact that shooting a TV Pilot based on real-life cannibalism is about the dumbest idea that we've ever heard, the Ukraine is a great setting in which to unleash such disturbing subject matter. So, so far, so good.

The crew is lured to a remote farmhouse that was the site of a gruesome murder, with the promise of hearing the actual murderer's tale of death and cannibalism, first-hand. There, they meet a local witch, and decide to have a seance using a Russian Ouija Board carved into an old table, and an upside-down glass. Alright, still with you, I suppose.

WHAT KIND OF HALF-ASSED OUIJA BOARD IS THIS?

During the seance, they make contact with the spirit of Andrei Chikatilo; a prolific Russian Serial Killer who sexually assaulted and murdered more than 50 women and children between 1978-1990. We're not sure what that has to do with cannibalism that happened way back in the 1930's, or with Boris, the cannibalistic murderer who they're there to interview about his crimes, but hey, the dude was terrifying in life, so he has to be even more terrifying as a malicious spirit, right?

Well...

BORIS OR ANDREI?

The ghost of Chikatilo tells them they can't leave the farmhouse (something that the witch reaffirms over, and over, and over again), and that he wants them to eat each other, or some such shit. When you find out that one of the girls on the film crew is pregnant, then you can pretty much guess where the movie is going to go from there: Nowhere good.

WHAT WAS WITH THAT COAT?

Ghoul is actually a well-made movie that boasts a fantastic location which makes for the perfect setting for this kind of Horror flick. Early on, Ghoul is also a fairly creepy movie that builds up a decent amount of tension, even if that tension doesn't last all that long. The cast is surprisingly good in this one too, all of them bringing a natural feel to things. Of course, some of them turn out to be stereotypical Horror movie tools, but that's par for the course.

Ghoul's biggest problem was that it tried to do too much. It complicated things by complicating things, if that makes any sense. Was it about cannibalism, Serial Killers, ghosts, or Demonic possession? Yes! It's about all of those things, but not enough about any of them to make for a very coherent story.

The movie worked well enough until Chikatilo was brought in the story, where everything takes a turn for the mundane. The spirit of Chikatilo really serves no purpose here other than to bring some name recognition to the story, and I suppose, give us something even greater to to fear. When Chikatilo's evil plan is revealed though, it only serves to make things even more lame. This movie went from promising, to Genre Trope City, in a short time.

IN UKRAINE, MAN ONLY CRY WHEN DEATH.

To its credit, Ghoul actually built up a little bit if steam heading into its ending, but all of that quickly went away when we were treated to another shaky-cam trip through some winding corridors, only to find a "shocking" fate waiting for our characters at their end... and of course everything ends in an abrupt jump scare, and then the camera cuts to black.

Sound familiar? Well that's because 498 other Found Footage movies have ended in just about the same way.

YEAH, US TOO.

Ghoul is a decent enough movie that buckled under the weight of its own mechanics. Maybe at this point we're just burned out on Found Footage movies, and their overly-familiar tricks and tropes, but as the movie wore on it became less and less enjoyable, and got to the point where it was obvious how it was going to end.

At this point, I think we're far too jaded to be objective about a Found Footage flick like this, especially when it feels like every other one we've ever watched. Sorry, Ghoul, at last you had us going for a while.

You might like it though. You never know.

D

Ghoul is available now on DVD and VOD.

If nothing else, Jennifer Armour was the bright spot in this movie.