WE ARE STILL HERE - DVD/BLU-RAY Review By Greg Klymkiw - Anchor Bay Entertainment Canada unleashes this Creepily Effective Old-Fashioned Haunted House Thriller on homevideo - COUNTDOWN TO TADFF 2015

My countdown to the 2015 Toronto After Dark Film Festival (TADFF 2015) will feature a variety of pieces on great genre work in the tradition of this terrific film festival which occurs in Toronto, Canada, Oct. 15-23, 2015. Let this countdown serve as a buffet of delectably exotic appetizers before the Big Meal Deal of my festival coverage.

COUNTDOWN TO TADFF 15 #3 is in honour of Anchor Bay Entertainment Canada's recent BluRay/DVD release of Ted Geoghegan's We Are Still Here

We Are Still Here (2015)
Dir. Ted Geoghegan
Starring: Barbara Crampton,
Andrew Sensenig, Larry Fessenden, Lisa Marie, Monte Markham

Review By Greg Klymkiw

There's always room for a solid "things that go bump in the night" haunted house picture, so long as the proceedings are handled with proficiency and a minimum degree of stupidity. Ted Geoghan's first feature film We Are Still Here succeeds on both counts.

Yes, we've been down this road before. The Sacchettis are an attractive, well-to-do couple still grieving from the accidental death of their only son. They've chosen flight from familiar surroundings to heal and move into a gorgeous, old house in the wide open spaces of Inbred-ville, New England. Situated on a gorgeous estate, isolated, but not too far away from a nearby village (full of inbreds), the couple appear to have nailed the real estate find of the century.

Uh-oh.

We all know that when an old, long-unoccupied house in the middle of nowhere goes for a steal, there's bound to be some ectoplasmic shenanigans going on. Luckily, we are not the Sacchettis. We are the audience. We know better, which is always a good deal for us, yes?

Anne (played by the always-delectable Barbara Crampton of Re-Animator fame) feels her son's spirit is still with them and that he's followed them to their new digs. Paul (Andrew Sensenig), being the lowly male of the equation is far more practical about such matters, but he sensitively humours her and agrees to a visit from their longtime spiritualist friends. May (played by the gorgeous Lisa Marie of Vampira fame in Ed Wood and unceremoniously booted by director Tim Burton in favour of the ratty-mopped Helena Bonham Carter) is psychic. Her hubby Jacob (the always wonderful character actor and Habit director Larry Fessenden, looking more like Jack Nicholson in The Shining with every picture) is a dope-smoking old hippie with new-agey powers in crystals and seances.

It's always convenient when bereaved couples know spiritualist couples. It makes horror movies so much more lively, yes?

Of course, what would a New England community of inbreds be without a couple of real whoppers of inbreds? Creepy old neighbour Dave McCabe (Monte Markham) and his nutty wife Maddie (Susan Gibney) pop by for a friendly visit wherein we get all the dope on the Sacchettis' new home.

It's an old funeral parlour, situated on unhallowed ground and formerly run by a family who pilfered bodies and sold them to a nearby medical college. Or so we're told.

Yes, it's always convenient when bereaved couples move into old funeral parlours on unhallowed ground formerly run by inbreds who sold bodies to be sliced and diced by med students. It's even more convenient that the inbreds might actually have been innocent of this crime and murdered by the inbred townspeople.

Are you with me? Good. This is what our impish filmmaker has laid out for the mega-scares to follow. Though screenwriter Geoghegan doesn't really go beyond the stock tropes of most ghostly melodramas, Geoghegan the director does go through some mighty impressive gymnastics of helmsmanship to knock us on our collective butts all the way through this effective chiller.

Babe-O-Licious Barbara Crampton as HOT now
as she was in 1985's RE-ANIMATOR. Hubba-Hubba!

The real star of the film is Canadian cinematographer Karim Hussain who superbly handles Geoghegan's morbidly creepy mise-en-scene with considerable aplomb. The camera feels like a character unto itself - its gorgeous compositions and lighting make us feel like something genuinely unholy is actively observing the proceedings whilst occasionally making us feel like we're seeing stuff that may or may not be there. Hussain moves the camera so deftly and subtly that we're often chilled to the bone - not just by the gorgeously captured winter climes surrounding the house, but by the manner in which it glides and/or settles upon the dank details of the house and especially, the basement. The chilling musical score and alternately shivery, heart-attack-inducing sound design are also brilliantly rendered, giving us ample creeps and shocks.

Especially in the basement.

Oh yes! 'Tis always convenient for a haunted house to have a clammy basement with a boiler on the fritz causing temperatures to rise and a strange wall that supposedly has nothing behind it.

Then, there are the ghastly apparitions and, the blood.

They are plenty ghastly.

And yes, there is plenty of blood. (And thanks to a lovely Straw Dogs-inspired climax, the picture racks up a very impressive body count.)

All that said, if you're looking for a bit more meat on the bones of the bereaved couple horror scenario, you're not going to find it here. There's potential to have steered the film into the complex, layered territory of Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now, but Geoghegan seems content to keep us in the shock-o-rama territory of his more clear influence, the grand Italian shock-meister Lucio (The Beyond, The House by the Cemetery) Fulci.

I accept this.

The movie forced me to soil myself on numerous occasions. Luckily, I've learned long ago to always wear adult diapers for my sojourns into the cinematic territory of haunted house thrillers. Thankfully, this one is up there with those pictures keen on skilfully delivering all the visceral thrills and chills which, ultimately, are the hallmark for all fine horror pictures.

THE FILM CORNER RATING: ***½ 3-and-a-Half-Stars

We Are Still Here from Anchor Bay Entertainment Canada and Raven Banner is now available on a superb Blu-Ray/DVD release which comes complete with extras including a superb commentary track from filmmaker Ted Geoghegan.

WE ARE STILL HERE - Review By Greg Klymkiw - Creepily Effective Old-Fashioned Haunted House Thriller at the 2015 FANTASIA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL in Montreal

We Are Still Here (2015)
Dir. Ted Geoghegan
Starring: Barbara Crampton,
Andrew Sensenig, Larry Fessenden, Lisa Marie, Monte Markham

Review By Greg Klymkiw

There's always room for a solid "things that go bump in the night" haunted house picture, so long as the proceedings are handled with proficiency and a minimum degree of stupidity. Ted Geoghan's first feature film We Are Still Here succeeds on both counts.

Yes, we've been down this road before. The Sacchettis are an attractive, well-to-do couple still grieving from the accidental death of their only son. They've chosen flight from familiar surroundings to heal and move into a gorgeous, old house in the wide open spaces of Inbred-ville, New England. Situated on a gorgeous estate, isolated, but not too far away from a nearby village (full of inbreds), the couple appear to have nailed the real estate find of the century.

Uh-oh.

We all know that when an old, long-unoccupied house in the middle of nowhere goes for a steal, there's bound to be some ectoplasmic shenanigans going on. Luckily, we are not the Sacchettis. We are the audience. We know better, which is always a good deal for us, yes?

Anne (played by the always-delectable Barbara Crampton of Re-Animator fame) feels her son's spirit is still with them and that he's followed them to their new digs. Paul (Andrew Sensenig), being the lowly male of the equation is far more practical about such matters, but he sensitively humours her and agrees to a visit from their longtime spiritualist friends. May (played by the gorgeous Lisa Marie of Vampira fame in Ed Wood and unceremoniously booted by director Tim Burton in favour of the ratty-mopped Helena Bonham Carter) is psychic. Her hubby Jacob (the always wonderful character actor and Habit director Larry Fessenden, looking more like Jack Nicholson in The Shining with every picture) is a dope-smoking old hippie with new-agey powers in crystals and seances.

It's always convenient when bereaved couples know spiritualist couples. It makes horror movies so much more lively, yes?

Of course, what would a New England community of inbreds be without a couple of real whoppers of inbreds? Creepy old neighbour Dave McCabe (Monte Markham) and his nutty wife Maddie (Susan Gibney) pop by for a friendly visit wherein we get all the dope on the Sacchettis' new home.

It's an old funeral parlour, situated on unhallowed ground and formerly run by a family who pilfered bodies and sold them to a nearby medical college. Or so we're told.

Yes, it's always convenient when bereaved couples move into old funeral parlours on unhallowed ground formerly run by inbreds who sold bodies to be sliced and diced by med students. It's even more convenient that the inbreds might actually have been innocent of this crime and murdered by the inbred townspeople.

Are you with me? Good. This is what our impish filmmaker has laid out for the mega-scares to follow. Though screenwriter Geoghegan doesn't really go beyond the stock tropes of most ghostly melodramas, Geoghegan the director does go through some mighty impressive gymnastics of helmsmanship to knock us on our collective butts all the way through this effective chiller.

Babe-O-Licious Barbara Crampton as HOT now
as she was in 1985's RE-ANIMATOR. Hubba-Hubba!

The real star of the film is Canadian cinematographer Karim Hussain who superbly handles Geoghegan's morbidly creepy mise-en-scene with considerable aplomb. The camera feels like a character unto itself - its gorgeous compositions and lighting make us feel like something genuinely unholy is actively observing the proceedings whilst occasionally making us feel like we're seeing stuff that may or may not be there. Hussain moves the camera so deftly and subtly that we're often chilled to the bone - not just by the gorgeously captured winter climes surrounding the house, but by the manner in which it glides and/or settles upon the dank details of the house and especially, the basement. The chilling musical score and alternately shivery, heart-attack-inducing sound design are also brilliantly rendered, giving us ample creeps and shocks.

Especially in the basement.

Oh yes! 'Tis always convenient for a haunted house to have a clammy basement with a boiler on the fritz causing temperatures to rise and a strange wall that supposedly has nothing behind it.

Then, there are the ghastly apparitions and, the blood.

They are plenty ghastly.

And yes, there is plenty of blood. (And thanks to a lovely Straw Dogs-inspired climax, the picture racks up a very impressive body count.)

All that said, if you're looking for a bit more meat on the bones of the bereaved couple horror scenario, you're not going to find it here. There's potential to have steered the film into the complex, layered territory of Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now, but Geoghegan seems content to keep us in the shock-o-rama territory of his more clear influence, the grand Italian shock-meister Lucio (The Beyond, The House by the Cemetery) Fulci.

I accept this.

The movie forced me to soil myself on numerous occasions. Luckily, I've learned long ago to always wear adult diapers for my sojourns into the cinematic territory of haunted house thrillers. Thankfully, this one is up there with those pictures keen on skilfully delivering all the visceral thrills and chills which, ultimately, are the hallmark for all fine horror pictures.

THE FILM CORNER RATING: *** 3-Stars

We Are Still Here from Dark Sky and Raven Banner enjoyed its Canadian Premiere at the 2015 Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal. For further info, visit the fest's website HERE.

THE UNINVITED - Review By Greg Klymkiw - Creepy ghost thriller from Hollywood's Golden Age gets the deluxe Criterion Collection treatment on a sumptuous new Blu-Ray and (if you must) DVD.

A city-dwelling brother and sister (Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey) on vacation, fall in love with a gorgeous old British countryside house overlooking the sea. Pooling their finances together, they buy the house from a nearby landowner (Donald Crisp) who sells against the wishes of his granddaughter (Gail Russell) who, as it turns out, was born in the house. Once the siblings move in, they discover it's haunted. Really haunted. It harbours several tragic secrets and not one, but two ghosts. The intrepid couple begin a horrifying journey into the very soul of this diseased domicile to discover the truth and hopefully exorcise the thing that possesses it.

GAIL RUSSELL - Tragic Unsung Talent

The Uninvited (1944) *****
Dir. Lewis Allen
Starring: Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, Gail Russell,
Donald Crisp, Cornelia Otis Skinner

Review By Greg Klymkiw

During the very tail end of cinema's first half-century point, no major Hollywood studio production featured a genuine supernatural ectoplasmic phenomenon until Paramount Pictures unleashed director Lewis Allen's The Uninvited in 1944. Previous films utilizing ghosts presented them within the context of chicanery at the hands of corrupt sideshow-style mediums or as faked incidents to inflict madness, confusion or scams upon certain characters or simply real (or imagined) entities in comedies with macabre settings. Based upon a novel by Dorothy Macaradle, Allen's haunting picture is indeed a haunting yarn of a bonafide haunting within the walls of a truly haunted house. "Haunt" is the key word here.

Though decades have passed since the picture was unleashed (and how, in recent years, shocks and special effects have gone completely over the top), the movie still has the power to give an audience considerable gooseflesh and does so with a stately dignity and mutedly, shuddering horror.

What strikes the viewer at the beginning of the film, is that the two house-owners-to-be have been enjoying a gorgeous, sun-drenched day and whilst still in the thick of a far-from-nocturnal romp, they enter the beautiful old house that is as benign in its interior as it is out-of-doors. It's a bit dusty and un-lived-in to be sure, but warm light beams through every window and casts a lovely glow over all the usual nooks and crannies that normally (in such pictures) are dark with portent.

The other thing that hits us in the early going is that this is going to be a movie imbued with a genial sense of humour - not tongue-in-cheek, by any means, but rooted firmly in character, action, situation and narrative. The twosome are clearly urbane and witty - tossing off nicely-timed quips in each others' direction - and their entire discovery of the house occurs after their teensy idiot white dog goes tearing after a squirrel and disappears into the home's interior. The fact that the bantering brother and sister don't merely retrieve the dog, but use it as an excuse to snoop around is also amusingly light-hearted (and a telling touch in terms of character).

The element of natural comedy also comes into play with the romantic subplot involving Ray Milland's attraction to Donald Crisp's granddaughter. It's not quite a meet-cute, but upon her first appearance, the stunningly radiant Gail Russell does everything in her power to dissuade the couple from seriously pursuing their interest in the house. (Russell, by the way, was a lovely actress, but suffered from alcoholism that limited her participation in films and eventually killed her tragically at the age of 36. She remains still, a great unsung talent.)

Russell's combination of vulnerability and camera-loving sex appeal hints very strongly at the wonderful performances she would deliver in subsequent movies - albeit too few and far between. The character's sense of "unfinished business" with both the house and the mother she really can't remember pervades much of the latter half of the film and a great deal of why we do care is rooted in the delicate performance of this young actress who was barely out of her teens when she made the film. One of the more disturbing subplots to which Russell handily acquits herself is when her grandfather packs her off into the clutches of an especially diabolical psychotherapist (played with reptilian flourish by the great Cornelia Otis Skinner).

The relationship that does eventually blossom between Milland and Russell, however, is extremely fun and genial, though always tempered by the young lady's obsession with the house and her long-dead Mother. That we get a very funny sea-sickness sequence as Milland attempts to seduce the fetching young lady that's bizarrely buffered by some clearly disturbing events is for me, and always has been, one of the things I loved about the movie.

There's very little here that feels by rote. Perhaps so much of it can be attributed to the movie being the first of its kind, but I also feel that Lewis Allen's direction is sharply intelligent. It's an early work in his career - a first feature after a couple of documentary/propaganda shorts - and one senses a youthful exuberance in his play with the medium. As well, there's no denying that when the film delivers up the scares, Allen plunges us into a kind of overdrive in the sinister department.

Oddly, Allen never really attained the artistic success his work here might otherwise predict. His followup was an entertaining, but inferior thriller from the same studio the following year (1945's The Unseen) and of the fifteen or so features he delivered, his only real exceptional work was Suddenly. The latter title is especially well-directed by Allen from an excellent Richard Sale screenplay that rather unpleasantly foreshadowed the Kennedy assassination and, in fact, offers a super-scary parallel to Lee Harvey Oswald in fedora-adorned star Frank Sinatra's performance as a would-be presidential assassin. The bulk of Allen's career was spent in the early days of television as a camera jockeying director on some of the better genre series (Perry Mason, The Rifleman, Gunsmoke, The F.B.I.). That said, two exceptional features and a wealth of tersely enjoyable T.V. dramas is a pretty decent output.

If anyone doubts Allen's direction in The Uninvited, though, one needs only to experience the various scenes involving requisite bumps in the night, sickeningly urgent footsteps padding amongst the halls and the utterly horrendous moans and wails of a voice belonging to a woman cannot be located. If anything is amiss in the film, it might be the odd screenplay which includes back-story elements that seem far less interesting (and even a tad convoluted) to us than the visceral scares. God knows, however, that most contemporary films even more clumsily bear this flaw. The Uninvited is clearly, in most ways, well ahead of its time.

Finally, this is a movie all about creeping us out against the backdrop of psychological turmoil mixed with uncanny metaphysical gymnastics and after so many years, it has any number of moments that continue to deliver the goods and to reiterate, ever-so emphatically, Lewis Allen's direction seldom disappoints. The actual physical appearances of the ghosts (which are admittedly pretty fleeting, though aptly grotesque and very nicely rendered by good, old fashioned optical effects), were not even part of Allen's mise-en-scene and had to be added at the studio's insistence (rightly). In spite of this, though, one needs only recall how the film's director approaches the very first entrance into a top-floor artist studio in the old house that's been mysteriously locked. Sun blazes into the room and yet we, along with the characters cannot help but feel the chill in the air and the shudders created by the huge windows overlooking the rolling grounds, steep cliffs and roiling waters of the open sea.

Oh, how the sea beckons. So strangely and beautifully.

And murderously.

"The Unseen" is available on a newly restored Blu-Ray transfer from the Criterion Collection. There is, for those who love cinema, and particularly classic genre cinema, absolutely no reason NOT to add this package to their permanent movie collection. The disc has any number of nice supplements: A 2K digital film restoration, with a wonderful uncompressed monaural soundtrack, an interesting but strangely critical visual essay by filmmaker Michael Almereyda, the requisite trailer and booklet, plus the always delightful late night aural treats of a radio adaptations - though in this case featuring not one, but two different broadcasts from 1944 and 1949, both starring Ray Milland. The movie is also available on DVD, but why you wouldn't own a Blu-Ray player and HD monitor is beyond me.

THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF ROSALIND LEIGH - DVD Review By Greg Klymkiw - Atmospheric Canadian Supernatural Thriller is now on DVD. Presented by Raven Banner, Rue Morgue and released in an extras packed DVD via Anchor Bay Entertainment Canada

The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh (2012) ***
Dir. Rodrigo Gudiño
Starring: Aaron Poole, Vanessa Redgrave, Julian Richings

Review By Greg Klymkiw

Review of Extra Features
(original review of film below):
THE COMMENTARY TRACK:

Now available on DVD from Anchor Bay Entertainment Canada, Rue Morgue Magazine founder and publisher Rodrigo Gudiño's feature length debut as a director comes as an extras-packed DVD for fans of the film. First and foremost is the superb commentary track with director Gudiño which focuses on practical aspects of the production as well as thematic issues with respect to the tale he chose to tell (and the manner in which he chose to tell it). Part of the success is due to the expert moderation/interview technique of Stuart Andrews who nails every question on would hope to get answers to as one watches through the feature (well most questions were covered, but knob that I am, there were a few I wanted to ask). For me, the most interesting aspect of the commentary is just how much emphasis Gudiño places on thematic elements. This is a fine goal for any filmmaker and one I especially appreciated listening to. That said, I made a point of seeing the film three time prior to wending my way through the film with the commentary on and prior to listening to the track, I made a special point to examine my major speed bumps in the middle section and I feel I need to stick with my original reaction when I first saw/reviewed the film for its Sinister Cinema theatrical launch across Canada. When I listened to the track, I was able to pinpoint a common mistake first time feature filmmakers make wherein they put more emphasis on thematic layering rather than narrative and in so doing, tend to muddy the works. That said, the film still works in its first and final third extremely well and Gudiño's responses to Andrews are always intelligent and deeply considered. My ONLY disappointment here is that nobody thought of including (or if they did, exigencies of time, money and/or availability prevented it) a commentary track (perhaps also moderated by Andrews with lead actor Aaron Poole who delivers a brave performance and who might have added a very unique perspective on the film.

THE OTHER EXTRAS:

Other extras include the de rigueur "making of" documentary which is well enough done, but ALWAYS my least favourite element of any DVD extra. I find they zap too much out of the magic of both the film and movie making process. Included on the DVD is Gudiño's short film (co-directed with Vincent Marcone) which is certainly a very interesting cinematic experiment, and as such, is mercifully short. All of the usual publicity materials are included, but one of my favourite extras is an interview profile with Turkish-born Canadian composer Mercan Dede which presents a compelling portrait of this highly creative musical artist and, though NOT the intent, still offers enough incentive for someone to be possessed with a sudden need to get as many of his CDs as possible. I enjoyed the transfer a bit better this time round and suspect my original fears about the darkness and contrast not being high enough. Still, it's probably a matter of taste, but I balanced my monitor to add 3 points below the zero mark on the brightness control and upped the contrast to about the 2/3 point. This afforded me a viewing that was far more atmospheric and did indeed address my concern with the look of the house itself and to add a bit more depth and richness to the superb cinematography. The price point on this DVD is indeed worth considering the purchase if you're a genre fan and look forward to watching a very unconventional approach to haunted house movies. In its own way, it's far more interesting, original and intelligent than the overrated James Wan feature "The Conjuring".

AND NOW, THE REVIEW OF THE FILM ITSELF..... 

A voice from the dead - at times determined, at others tremulous - cascades through the large, dark and cluttered house as if it were a living, breathing, moving thing. It is as much a will and testament as it is a warning - infused with portent - rendered for the benefit of one who's been gone for too long, but has now appeared to both claim and dispense with a lifetime of worldly goods.

You, Sir, will spend the night.

Alone.

This is perhaps not the wisest move when, in life, you broke away from your mother for the longest time and have returned, after her death, to profit from an antique-filled treasure trove. You're riddled with memories of a difficult childhood past, a strained relationship, a fundamentalist - nay, downright fanatical upbringing. As much as you want to rid yourself of all the things that bring back flashes of a pain long-repressed, your mere presence in this, your recently deceased mother's house, infuses you with second thoughts, upon second thoughts.

You will slowly seek truth, but if the truth finds you first, it could kill you.

And, dear sir, there appears to be a creature you don't want to mess with.

Suffice it to say that Rue Morgue Magazine's founder/publisher Rodrigo Gudiño has crafted an unexpectedly restrained genre picture for his feature length debut as a director. Restraint in horror can be a very good thing and The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh is nothing if not restrained. Fans used to a preponderance of gore, lightning bolt pacing and an emphasis upon cheap shock tactics will be less than enthralled, but if patient, many of the film's rewards will creep up on them and bite them most indelicately on the ass.

That said and in spite of the picture's considerable virtues, it would only be fair to point out that the film is saddled with a few elements that don't quite gel. In terms of narrative and pace, the film takes a profound dip in its middle portion. We're treated to a slow, measured and riveting first act and a final act that delivers very nicely in the drawer-filling department. Part of the problem stems, I think, in Gudiño's screenplay. Not adequately tying the central character Leon (Aaron Poole) to his late Mother's mania (or at least rooting it more firmly within the mise-en-scene) is something the film has a hard time shaking. This is one of the causes for the movie to sag in its second act.

Another problem is the house itself. An exterior shot reveals a standard and seemingly (or at least relatively) modern suburban home. Once inside, the decor of the structure itself shrieks modern or at least, modern reno. As well, many of the set decorations and props feel out of place - either in and of themselves or within the context of the interior's physical structure and look. Given the character of Rosalind Leigh herself, the "antique pieces" are not (at least for this fella') reflective enough of who we think she is. When Leon steps into that house, we expect, but do not experience the kind of bygone atmosphere necessary for us to check our thought process at the door because the stately and (often) effective pace give us too much time to notice when touches like these are amiss. Where this hurts the film most is that it loses a lot of the "creepy" factor in the middle act that both the pace and narrative are begging for.

A major speed bump that keeps the movie from attaining stratospheric heights might seem unfair to level at Gudiño, since the picture is what it is at this point, but here goes. Maybe it's just me (I don't think so, though), but even genre-bending efforts like this gain a whole lot more mileage when you have the presence of a female lead. A young, hot, preferably nightie-and/or-undie-adorned babe is what I'm talkin' about here. Think Catherine Deneuve in Polanski's Repulsion, the final half hour of Ridley Scott's Alien and a goodly portion of one of my all-time low budget faves, Richard Stanley's Hardware.

Just do the math:

Hot babe + monster/ghost/robot/weird-shit = Unbeatable Combination.

Not that Gudiño's lead Aaron Poole doesn't acquit himself nicely - it's a finely textured performance, but changing the character to a woman and having a babe in the role would have worked wonders. Even when Polanski re-imagined Repulsion as The Tenant and cast himself in the perverse twist on Deneuve's loner in the apartment role, he made damn sure to find numerous opportunities to slide the ravishing Isabel Adjani into the picture (in addition to putting himself in drag).

More math: Polanski in Drag + Hot French babe = DynOmite!!!

Not meaning to be a Philistine here, but I do think something changes when you have a woman in peril - not in a stereotypical, misogynist sense - but to actually address a myriad of issues within the framework of cinematic storytelling that ultimately allow for more compelling viewing. Then again, I always recall the hilarious story of a genuinely famous Canadian producer who once cautioned a young filmmaker about to embark upon his first feature with a litany of Old Country advice. It culminated with: "Goddamn son of bitch, you want to show man too much! Is not to my taste. Is to be truthful, very distasteful to have too much man. But I tell you something for sure, everybody like to see the woman. The man, he like to see the woman. And the woman, she like to see the woman too."

Sage words from a wise member of the Eastern European diaspora.

Aside from my aforementioned niggles, this is a worthwhile effort that signals a directorial talent we'll want to hear more from. In fact, Gudiño's displayed enough filmmaking savvy and chutzpah here to make you grateful you got in on his ground floor, so to speak. On the level of fashioning an ideal low budget movie, the screenplay cleverly approaches a few supporting roles that not only work perfectly within the context of the narrative, but allowed the filmmaking team to affordably cast and get a super performance from Vanessa Redgrave (not to mention fine work from the inimitable Julian Richings and Steven Eric McIntyre among others).

My dissatisfaction with the look of the house and its interiors notwithstanding, I was delighted with cinematographer Samy Inayeh's work. His compositions are first-rate, his moves infused with grace and his lighting is both delectably and suitably moody. Frankly, I think there's a lot of latitude in his footage to go back into the colour timing suite and darken the picture substantially to deal with the less than stellar interior design. Inayeh has done his bit to make the house's interiors look like Miss Haversham's home in David Lean's Great Expectations or the mysterious house the old crone in Val Lewton's Curse of the Cat People lives in, but he's only able to go so far and I'm really convinced one could safely heighten contrast whilst maintaining detail in a John Alton noir style. (By the way, every filmmaker, D.O.P. and production designer needs to read Alton's great book "Painting with Light".)

"The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh" can be purchased from Anchor Bay Entertainment Canada).