masonsaul

The Vourdalak is an old school vampire movie with an exciting take on vampirism that turns the horror into a uniquely personal family drama for the characters involved. There's a few darkly comedic moments interspersed throughout but the film's greatest strengths are the aesthetic it creates and how it adds to the disturbing nature of the most shocking sequences. It makes it clear fairly early on that this won't be pulling its punches.

Kacey Mottet Klein is a deliberately pathetic protagonist who's attempts to be brave quickly pivot into fear. Adrien Beau's voicework nails the manipulative and controlling nature of his undead head of the family whilst almost always remaining completely calm. It's combined with the impressive puppetry to convincingly bring this blood sucking monster to life and everyone else's reactions to his presence really sells the sense of fear he instills in them.

Adrien Beau's direction is comfortable letting the atmosphere get stronger as it goes along which is enhanced by suitably squelchy sound design. All the old school effects employed genuinely imbue the film with the look and feel of a hammer horror that goes further in its grotesque scenes, especially the ending which elicits horrified laughs through the shock of what's happening. The score by Martin le Nouvel and Maïa Xifaras brings the necessary sinister edge.

Warfare offers an incredibly intense depiction of combat that aims to deglorify war as much as possible, resulting in one of the strongest anti-war films to date. Exclusively focusing on in the moment action keeps this very investing and creative choices like only using diegetic audio adds to the sense of realism which is enhanced further by David J. Thompson's clean yet mobile cinematography. There's no sense of victory or defeat here, just survival.

The cast is full of young upcoming actors who are all highly convincing as Navy SEALs. You learn nothing about them other than how they respond to the life or death situation they find themselves trapped in and their performances show a wide range of reactions. Some remain composed behind a commanding resilience (Charles Melton), some understandably can't function properly (Will Poulter) and others are in between (D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai & Michael Gandolfini).

Directors Ray Mendoza & Alex Garland strip this film to the bare essentials which is a great style choice. The overwhelming sound design is the film's greatest asset, taking the most common sounds in a war movie and making them hit like never before. When the IED goes off it's one of the most effective jump scares put to screen and it's extremely impressive how it's able to show each soldier's subsequent shock through the uniquely muffled audio.