STACK #159 Jan 2018

DVD&BD REVIEWS

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What if your life depended on a stranger? THE MOUNTAIN BETWEEN US

Wedding crasher turned convict basher. BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99

Release Date: 10/01/18

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Release Date: 31/01/18

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The day before her wedding, Alex (Kate Winslet) is trapped at an airport and struggling to get home in spite of a heavy storm outside. Ben (Idris Elba) is in the same situation – he’s a neurosurgeon set to perform an operation the next morning, with no way of getting to the hospital in time. Alex decides to charter a local plane to get them to where they need to be, but, as it inevitably must, everything goes horribly wrong and the pair find themselves stranded and injured on a snowy mountain peak.

Writer-director S. Craig Zahler follows up his ferocious feature debut Bone Tomahawk with an equally measured and brutal prison flick that's immediately notable for casting Vince Vaughn as the stoic protagonist, who's primed to explode. Former boxer turned drug runner Bradley Thomas (Vaughn) gets to unleash his pent-up aggression behind bars, after he is blackmailed into murdering an inmate. While the bloody mayhem that's unleashed in the high-security slammer doesn't exactly qualify as a brawl, watching Vaughn's

These two strangers must forge a connection in order to survive the extreme elements. Adapted from the novel by Charles Martin, The Mountain Between Us is romantic drama repackaged as a survivalist adventure, with Elba's natural charm providing plenty of warmth. AK

simmering descent into head-crunching hell has all the impact of a mighty punch. A masterful mix of arthouse and grindhouse, Brawl in Cell Block 99 consolidates Zahler's status as one of the most exciting auteurs to come along since a guy named Quentin. SH (see page 32)

The saw is family. LEATHERFACE

Office work can be a killer. THE BELKO EXPERIMENT

Release Date: 31/01/18

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Release Date: 10/01/18

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Tobe Hooper's 1974 horror classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has spawned so many sequels, prequels, and remakes, the franchise can be considered an extended cinematic universe. So where does Leatherface fit? It's an origin story that attempts to reset a series that has run out of gas. Ten years after young Jed Sawyer was committed to a psychiatric hospital for the murder of the sheriff's daughter, a riot breaks out and a nurse is taken hostage by a bunch of inmates – one of whom may be you know who. French

The employees of the Colombian Belko Corporation are about to have a really bad day at the office, and the overtime is killer – literally. When their remote Bogotá high-rise is suddenly sealed up, the 80 workers inside are informed that 30 of them will die during the next eight hours. That number will double should they refuse to participate in a Battle Royale -style massacre, and following a gruesome demonstration to prove it isn't a prank, the bloodbath begins in earnest. Written by Guardians of the

filmmaking duo Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury deliver a TCM prequel every bit as gruesome and nightmarish as you'd expect from the directors of Inside , and fans of Rob Zombie's films will appreciate the grimy hillbilly aesthetic that evokes The Devil's Rejects . AC

Galaxy 's James Gunn (in a welcome return to his schlock-horror roots) and energetically directed by Wolf Creek 's Greg McLean, this blackly comic corporate take on the Stanford Prison Experiment makes a tough day at work feel like a Happy Friday. SH

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JANUARY 2018

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