Watch Me - Scopofile Productions (2006) |
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Posted 24 April 2007 Reviewer: Robert Hood If ghost films such as the Japanese Ring , Ju-On: the Grudge , Dark Water and Kairö , as well as various Korean, Thai and, yes, American variants, can be best understood as an aesthetic movement rather than as mere imitation (a position argued by David Kalat in his excellent book J-Horror ), then Watch Me is the work of an Australian offshoot of the "School". This is its primary artistic heritage, despite phantom hints of Argento and other horror masters -- including Sam Raimi via one particularly noticable nod to his low-budget classic, The Evil Dead . The Asian influence (along with others) is freely admitted on the film's website , but anyone well-versed in contemporary horror won't need a primer to see the J-Horror connections. There's the female ghost with long hair, partially hidden features and visually discordant movement (in Watch Me the hair is red rather than black -- and the way this colour visually segues into hints of bloodiness works extremely well -- and the ghost's "nightshirt" yellow). There's the technology-driven mode of propagation (here an email spam video clip). There's the background of violent exploitation (murder in the form of a snuff film). There's the strong female victim who is forced to face up to the viral "curse" and must investigate it in order to stop its spread. There's the relatively subtle and atmospheric approach to horror and the use of various techniques for unsettling the audience that are reminiscent of Hideo Nakata's modus operandi . Then there's the carefully utilised auditory landscape, a source of extreme creepiness... But like the best of the post- Ring J-Horrors, Watch Me manages to achieve an identity of its own. What it does is take the subgenre's basic conceptual elements and forges its own vision of them, melding a slightly different narrative approach, subtle trope variants and some new thematic elements onto the template. Director Ansley and producer Sam Voutas may not be creating a new aesthetic, but they have produced an effective extension of the old one. The film is cheaply made, there's no doubt about that, and this shows throughout. Resource limitations affect the depth and texture of the digital image and stops the film from achieving a greater expansiveness, both in terms of setting and narrative possibilities. This results in a conceptual glitch here and there, but cheapness need not translate into shoddy film-making. Ansley makes the most of what's at hand; she paces scenes for best dramatic effect, has a terrific sense of colour and movement and directs her actors well. Lead Frances Marrington is sympathetic and convincing as Tess Hooper (echoes of Tobe Hooper in the name perhaps?), a cinema-studies student whose friends view a spam email attachment headed "Watch Me" and subsequently die, their eyes sewn shut. Tanya McHenry is effectively weird as the redheaded ghost. Sam Voutas, though, is a highlight, giving an unsettling performance in a role that helps make Watch Me different from other J-Horror pastiches and gives it self-identity. His Taku, the "freak boy", is an unlikely "hero", but we believe in him as a character and his strained relationship with Hooper gives the fairly standard narrative line considerable added impact. All in all, despite some minor narrative weaknesses and in defiance of its minimal budget, Watch Me proves to be an involving entertainment and a more-than-decent addition to the J-Horror aesthetic. |
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