APRIL 3 — More new movies are slowly trickling into Malaysian cinemas, as our march towards normality in all facets of our everyday lives continues.
There’s still a long way to go, as the vaccination programme is still in its early stages and most of the public are more than a few months away from getting vaccinated.
But at least the news that the vaccine is here has made a lot of us a bit more hopeful that the light at the end of the tunnel is getting closer and closer, although it would be foolish to drop our guard now that we’re getting closer.
That hopefulness and optimism surely contributed to the fact that Godzilla vs. Kong made a huge splash at the local box-office, collecting a total of RM8.71 million on its opening weekend, reportedly becoming the biggest opening weekend for a Warner Bros. MonsterVerse film in Malaysia, which means it beat the Malaysian opening weekend collection for Kong: Skull Island, Godzilla King Of The Monsters and Godzilla (2014), and all this during the Covid-era.
Heck, it even made US$70.3 million (RM291 million) in China alone on its opening weekend!
Now let that sink in.
With this kind of box-office performance, getting tickets for Godzilla vs. Kong is probably going to be a bit of a challenge, even if it’s now entering its second week in Malaysian cinemas.
But worry not, there are some unsung gems currently playing so if you’re feeling a bit more adventurous, seek these films out!
The Mortuary Collection
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that The Mortuary Collection is opening in Malaysian cinemas starting this week as it’s one of the many horror flicks from last year that I’ve been dying to see but just never got the chance to.
Arriving on Blu-ray in the US sometime later this month, I’m just thankful that a local distributor has picked it up for local consumption as it’s not every day that a horror anthology film (albeit one that’s directed by one director, like Trick ‘r Treat, instead of the usual multiple directors doing their own segments) arrives in local cinemas.
Having only one director handling each segment means that there’s a unity of vision here that’s quite pleasing to the senses.
Despite what must surely be a low-ish budget, the technical achievements here are truly solid, with wonderfully detailed art direction and some very classy cinematography and lighting.
The stories themselves, there are four of them, are told via a wraparound story (involving a mortician interviewing a new hire and showing her the ropes) that cleverly provides room for some sly meta-commentary are delightfully scary and fun, with some even touching twisted and disturbing territory.
The stories, some as short as 10 minutes and some much longer, all involve bodies that have passed through the mortuary, with the mortician keeping volumes of books containing the history of not only what happened to the bodies, but also why and how.
Some are funny, some are gnarly, some are both gnarly and funny, and at least three out of the five are home runs for me, which makes this a very solid entry into the world of anthology horror films. Catch this one if you’re looking for some scary fun!
Run
Another genre film from last year belatedly arriving in Malaysian cinemas, understandably so since the coronavirus has a habit of wreaking havoc on everyone’s plans and schedules, Run, which I first saw late last year when it first hit streaming and VOD in the US, was even an honourable mention in my favourite genre films of 2020 list.
Made by the same director who did the excellent John Cho vehicle Searching back in 2018, Run more or less confirms director Aneesh Chaganty and his co-writer Sev Ohanian as masters of creating simmering tension and nail-biting scenarios using the most minimalist of settings.
The film is more or less a two-hander involving a mother, Diane (the always excellent Sarah Paulson), and her sickly daughter Chloe (an electrifying Kiera Allen, making her feature film debut), who was born with all sorts of ailments and illnesses including arrhythmia, asthma and diabetes, and who’s now reached that age where she dreams of going to college and living away from her mother.
After 17 years of home-schooling and more or less spending the whole of her life only with her mom at their remote house, far away from everybody, it is perfectly understandable that Chloe is dreaming of an “independent” life.
From this very simple scenario, Chaganty and Ohanian managed to conjure all sorts of suspicious, suspenseful and downright edge-of-your-seat situations involving Chloe and her mother, which is simply remarkable coming from a filmmaking team so new to the feature film game.
Is Chloe imagining things? Is Diane a bit evil? These are the kind of questions that the filmmakers have a field day putting into your brain as you’re watching this, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
This is thriller filmmaking of the highest order, and after two outstanding works already to their name, I can’t wait to see what they do next.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
