Gemini (1999) - Horror Film Review

I had never heard of the 1999 Japanese horror film, Gemini until learning it was coming to Blu-ray for the first time in Europe and the UK this year. It was directed by Shin'ya Tsukamoto who wrote and directed the cult horror, Tetsuo: The Iron Man. Gemini was a captivating movie which blended the realistic with flamboyant and theatrical performances.

Yukio (Masahiro Motoki) is a well respected doctor whose life was made complete after marrying the beautiful Rin (Ryo). This enigmatic woman suffers from amnesia after she was involved in a house fire, and so it is not known where she originated from. After the sudden death of his parents Yukio is confronted by a strange man named Sutekichi (also Motoki) who resembles him in every way. This man pushes Yukio down a well and takes over his life.

Objectively the story told here is quite simple, but it is shown in a way that kept me guessing as to what was going on. There is a unique look to this film world which is split into two halves, that of the rich people, and those from the slums. Much like the movie The Corpse Bride there is a distinct look for each of these collection of characters. Yukio's world is one of order, people are very ritualistic, show little emotion, and are very measured in their responses to the world. The characters of the slums on the other hand feel like they are stage performers, the rags and make-up they wear all very exaggerated, along with their performances. The scenes that occur within the slums felt like something out of a musical. One of the core themes here is the divide between the rich and the poor. Despite being a doctor, Yukio can't help but feel disgust and disdain for the poor, a belief that his father put into him. This comes to a head at one crazed point in the film when a poor woman arrives at his house begging for help for her plague ridden child. Yukio ends up ignoring her in order to instead see to the town Mayor who had had an accident while drunk.

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (1999) - Zombie Horror Video Game Review (Playstation)

Last year when the remake of Resident Evil 2 was released I decided to replay the original one to see what the difference was. This year it is the turn of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis to be remade, and so again I found myself travelling back in time to play the original, which was released way back in 1999. Of the original trilogy the third game was the one that I enjoyed the least, despite that it was the one that actually had the most replay value. Each time you completed the game there was an additional epilogue unlocked, I think there was around ten of these in total, due to this it meant I played this one repeatedly until all were unlocked. I hadn't played the game since getting that final epilogue, and so was interested to see how it holds up nowadays. Due to this being kinda old I'm not going to hold back from spoilers for the purpose of this review.

The game takes place in Raccoon City and its first half takes place 24 hours before the events of Resident Evil 2. The city is in chaos, with the undead absolutely everywhere. Unable to delay it any longer, former S.T.A.R.S member Jill Valentine decides it is time she must escape the doomed city. During her escape attempt she discovers that the evil Umbrella company have sent in the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service (U.B.C.S) on the pretence of rescuing civilians from the unfolding disaster. This group were made up of mercenaries and were totally unprepared for what was happening, as such nearly all of them have been wiped out. Jill stumbles across the survivors of this group; Carlos Oliveira, Mikhail Victor, and Nikolai Zinoviev and decides to team up with them in order to make it to their designated evacuation spot. However, there is a nightmare hunting down Jill, a hulking, seemingly indestructible monstrous creation of Umbrella codenamed Nemesis who will stop at nothing to wipe out her, and the other remaining S.T.A.R.S members...

Initially this game was supposed to be a spin-off of the main series and it does show in its design. Where before you had tightly designed singular locations (such as the mansion in Resident Evil, and the Police station and secret lab of Resident Evil 2) here you have a variety of much smaller locations which never come close to matching the complexity of previous ones. On paper the idea of exploring a huge city instead of a single location does sound fantastic. In actuality you get to explore a series of claustrophobic alleyways, and smaller underwhelming buildings. These new locations are all fun to play through, don't get me wrong, it is just that I wish they had all been bigger than they were. The clock tower, the hospital, and the dead factory were all wonderful locations, it is just the reduction in size means there isn't so much in the way of puzzles and secrets to be found.

Silent Hill (1999) - Horror Videogame Review (Playstation)

You know, I can't actually recall if I have already wrote about this game, or indeed the series, but what the hell, it's my fave survivor horror series, so here it is again; a review of Silent Hill.

While there have been some dubious entries in the Resident Evil series, the Silent Hill series has never been over-saturated (and has also resulted in quite a few ace graphic novels). There has been the weird Japanese Silent Hill visual novel game on the Game Boy Advance, and there is a remake of Silent Hill being made for the Nintendo Wii (Silent Hill: Shattered Memories), but other than that the series has remained quite pure and undiluted. With the exception of Silent Hill: The Arcade light gun that I had fun with, but had shockingly bad dialogue (that was quite fun on my only go of it though!). Anyway I digress...

Silent Hill was originally released for Playstation back in 1999. Many expected it to be a clone of successful survival horror game Resident Evil, but instead it carved it's own niche by focusing on psychological horror, rather than jump scares. The game put you in control of Harry Mason, a man desperately searching for his adopted daughter who has gotten lost in the foggy and strangely deserted town of Silent Hill. Along the way he discovers the twisted secrets of the towns past and how it links to his beloved daughter.

The game is terrifying in a way no survival horror had been up to that point. There was a great feeling of unease throughout the whole game with you never really feeling like you were safe.. The limited view, the static of Harry's radio as enemies approached, the random screams and noises in the background, haunting music, and sheer impending dread resulted in a smorgasbord of horror.

The game world is split into distinct feeling layers. Foggy Silent Hill where despite the horror things seem like they are still in the real world, then the nightmarish steel meshed totally FUBAR distorted Silent Hill that appears to be in Hell. This transforms the already creepy town into an utter terror ride. By the time you return to the foggy version of the town it feels quite like heaven, and never feels as creepy as it once was, this a feeling which sadly has never been successfully replicated in its better looking sequels.

I have felt absolute terror in just two games. Project Zero (also known as Fatal Frame) is terrifying (play it!) The other really scary game I have played is Silent Hill. I still remember the fear I had with this. I still lived with my parents at the time. They had gone away for the weekend, so I had moved my Playstation downstairs to the big family TV rather than the tiny one I had in my bedroom. It was about 01:00, I had the volume turned up really loud, and all the lights off. I had gotten to a hospital in the game in the foggy version of the town. I had explored the fog world version of this location all I could. Returning to an elevator, I noticed there was an additional button which had not been there previously. I pressed it. Upon exciting to this new floor I despaired to discover I was now in the dark nightmare version of the town rather than the relatively safe fog Silent Hill. Then I was assaulted by zombie nurses...I had to turn the frickin' game off! I just couldn't handle it, I was utterly terrified! I won't forget that ever.

The plot for Silent Hill is obscure, and there are lots of alternate endings, the game is really scary. I cannot recommend it enough. I highly doubt the Wii remake (Wii-make?) will be half as good or atmospheric. On a side note the demo for this had you fighting child monsters in the school. By the time the game got released these had been changed into much more monstrous looking beings.

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