Magic Marmalade 27th Oct 2023
| | Rated 7/10Global warming based, detective buddy cop, serial killer creature feature.
Not that bad actually!
It does reek of: film-makers who know what they are doing, but are on a very limited budget, in terms of production design, sets, and affects... But overcome this by use of carefully selected locations, use of lighting to create mood and atmosphere, using the camera well, and most tellingly, the: "Don't show too much of the creature" choice, which works well, as even when you do finally see it, it is fleetingly, and selectively shot (Great, in that they basically borrowed the design wholesale from Alien's Xenomorph)
But a very short hour and a half movie, that jumps straight in to the action, wasting no time with set-up, electing instead, to tell bits and pieces of back story as it goes.
...And so it is, we jump straight in with Rutger Hauer's broken obsessive hard-bitten loose cannon cop going into a nightclub to stop an apparently deranged serial killer from striking again - one that he has been tracking ever since the killer murdered his partner.
Regarded as a nutcase in his police department, he is saddled with an Academic type, fresh faced policeman as partner, who shadows him as he hunts down the maniac in question.
...So you have the old stereotype maverick cop with a past, joined by the stereotypical nerd as great juxtaposition of character types, for stereotypical "odd couple" buddy cop set up.
It transpires that the killer may not be entirely human, but rather something (inexplicably, and unexplained) thrown up from the largely flooded London city scape, submerged (quite astute in the foresight here, given when the movie was made!) in the risings from the sewers.
It's incredible how many people you know and recognise in this, given how cheap the production seems, and maybe the climax is let down somewhat by some less than spectacular effects, but it is short-ish, rattles along for the most part at a very brisk tempo until then.
...And with a quite light and snappy use of humorous dialogue (A little overdone at times, and preposterous) and script writing, makes for a fairly enjoyable hour and a half for those who like fairly cheapo sci-fi / horror flicks.
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