FILM: Creep

Kate (Franka Potente) brushes off the advances of Guy (Jeremy Sheffield) at a fashion event and heads into London's West End to a more upmarket party, determined to meet George Clooney. Unable to find a taxi she takes the tube instead, only to fall asleep and find herself locked in the station...


With today's post-modern twists, teamed-up evil franchises and gory comedies, you might not expect to see a standard horror flick anymore. Creep takes things back to the days when the heroine was blonde, dressed inappropriately for a chase scene and had no idea how to get away from a monster. While some people may find this a refreshing return to simpler times, it does make for a formulaic and uninspired movie.

The basic chase plot makes up most of the movie, with a few other characters thrown in along the way. A homeless couple living in the station (Paul Rattray and Kelly Scott), an imprisoned sewage worker (Vas Blackwood) and Guy all find themselves stalked by the same unseen terror. Low-budget horror usually relies on frequent shocks to make the audience jump or psychological tricks to set the tone, but this movie lacks both. It's also hard to suspend disbelief when you keep asking yourself, why doesn't she try the internal phone or pull the fire alarm switch that's in shot in the background?

The performances are adequate for what the script has to offer, although Sean Harris is menacing as the Creep. Potente's best moments come when we see her frustration at being trapped in the underground station, a massive structure of tunnels that still manages to give off an eerie feeling of claustrophobia. Her inability to escape her surroundings has overtones of the trio is lost in the woods in The Blair Witch Project. Sadly this isn't enough too save Creep from being just another low-budget horror fare that isn't clever enough to punch above its weight.

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DVD: The 4400 - Season One

A comet travelling close to Earth suddenly changes direction and heads for the US. Those arriving at what should be the crash site are astounded by the sudden appearance of 4,400 people. The ‘returnees’ all disappeared from different years and places around the world and after being held in quarantine they are eventually released back into the population...


Like a massive version of The Flight of the Navigator (where a young boy is returned to his family years after being abducted, having not aged a day) this has the scope and ambition to be a top-notch genre show. It starts magnificently, with bewildered people from different times struggling to come to terms with everything from suddenly being in the year 2004 or having outlived their families, to dealing with loved ones who have moved on.

The most interesting character is Richard Tyler (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali), a black man pulled out of a racist 1950s. His reaction to the new age is explored in a poignant way and it’s a shame the series didn’t follow this line with more characters. Tyler has already battled a taboo by dating a white woman in his own time. However, when he finds that a returnee he starts a relationship with is the granddaughter of the woman he used to date, this modern day taboo is passed over.

It’s here that the show takes a wrong turn, as insightful social commentary is replaced by a focus on the new powers that the returnees have been given. This leaves the two main investigators from Homeland Security – Diana Skouris (Jacqueline McKenzie) and Tom Baldwin (an uninspired performance by Taken’s Joel Gretsch) – to do a poor imitation of Mulder and Scully.

The other main loss of believability comes in the way America deals with the problem. When in the real world suspected terrorists are held in Guantanamo bay, it’s difficult to see why the returnees wouldn’t be pulled back in when it becomes clear they have dangerous special powers. Strangely, this is only tackled in throwaway remarks by the characters.

It’s also worrying that in six episodes two of them feel like filler, with only the opening and final chapters fulfilling the show’s promise. Overall, this is a superb idea that unfortunately doesn’t deliver.

Buy The 4400 - Complete Season One on DVD at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

FILM: White Noise

When his wife disappears and then turns up dead, Jonathan Rivers (Michael Keaton) is devastated. A man who claims he can hear and see the dead in the untuned static of televisions and radios offers to help him. The system of EVP – Electronic Voice Phenomenom – transmits the voices and images of the dead, but not all of them are friendly...


These days a horror film has to contend with the best spooky offerings from Asian cinema (and their American remakes). White Noise attempts to hold its own in terms of atmosphere, but inevitably it has to fall back on the kind of cheap shocks that slasher movies do much better.

Even though this is based on a 'real' phenomenon, there are obvious influences in previous films. For starters, Tobe Hooper's Poltergeist sees Carol Anne communicating through the static on the television. White Noise also has shades of The Omen, but things are never so derivative as to spoil the movie. Director Geoffrey Sax has a good visual eye and the juxtaposition of the dead white noise images on televisions with the computer screensaver of Jonathan River’s son shows his fall into obsession better than any dialogue could.

The one element of this movie that is completely misjudged is the end title track. The inappropriate soft-rock ballad kills the mood and completely destroys any feeling of suspense that had been built up.

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BOOK: Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz

Pastry chef Rudy Tock is at the hospital tending to a pregnant wife who is about to give birth and his father who has suffered a stroke. The grandfather-to-be dies at the same point as the son is born, but before he goes he makes Rudy take note of five days in the future. These dates are when something very bad is going to happen to the child...


Like 24’s Jack Bauer, Jimmy Tock is about to have some very bad days. Unlike Kiefer Sutherland’s character, Tock has an edge in that he knows exactly when they’re going to happen. The only supernatural element in this novel is the prediction of the dates and that is all played out at the beginning of the book. What follows is a more everyday story showing the way Tock deals with that knowledge as a realistic part of his life.

Caught up in these predictions is Konrad Beezo, a circus clown expecting the arrival of his own son on that same fateful night. When things go awry he becomes almost as scary as Pennywise from Stephen King’s It. Beezo engenders fear in Jimmy’s family not because of any special powers but down to the dangerous nature of his insanity and paranoia. The two families lead parallel but very different lives in a neat thread running through the book – one a vision of the American Dream so pure it would be in black and white footage if it was on film and the other a destructive, abusive force passed down from a bitter father to son.

The only element that jars is the perfect dialogue which flows through many of the more tense scenes. The large number of quips would be difficult to come up with in the course of a normal conversation, let alone when you’re facing a dangerous assailant or imminent death. Where the book makes up for this is with the realistic way the family deals with its future knowledge. Just because they can’t change what is going to happen doesn’t mean they can’t prepare for it.

While this book lacks the usual scares you’d find in a Koontz horror, it makes up for it with the emotional tie you feel for the Tock clan. The study of insanity presented by Beezo and his son is believable and will make you glad you didn’t run away to join the circus.

Overall, a tale of family, fate and murderous clowns that is both endearing and original.

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BOOK: Gene by Stel Pavlou

This tale of reincarnation and revenge follows the battle of two men across 3,000 years. Stel Pavlou’s novel brings the savage world of ancient war to the modern day streets of New York. Greek warrior Cyclades is killed at Troy but is cursed to be reborn seven times. His nemesis Athanatos, a Babylonian mage, has been keeping himself alive by passing on his memories. Athanatos' struggle to find the genetic secret that allows Cyclades to be reborn blends hard science and drama. Unfortunately, while it takes time for the tension to build, in the end it's all for nothing as the story peters out with a disappointing conclusion.

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DVD: The Chronicles of Riddick

A fugitive from the law is drawn back to the people he saved on another planet, to find out why they have placed a bounty on his head. He finds himself caught up in an attack by the Necromongers – an invading force that converts people to its religion or kills them, wiping out whole planets as it moves through the galaxy. If the prophecy is correct, his involvement may not be accidental...

Vin Diesel reprises his role as Richard B. Riddick, who was last seen going toe to toe with alien monsters in Pitch Black. This time he’s running from bounty hunters, leading him back to the survivors from the first film – the holy man Imam (Keith David) and Jack, (Alexa Davalos), who is now calling herself Kyra. It’s the film’s need to shoehorn in characters from the first film that creates problems with the story. If the scriptwriters had decided to go with the character of Riddick as the main focus and ditch all the other baggage, it would have saved a lot of time and wasted scenes.

The other main problem is the change of style between Pitch Black and Chronicles. The epic scale of the second film has traded the atmosphere and ingenuity of the low-budget Pitch Black for grand sets and lashings of CG effects. While it looks beautiful, the edgy thrills and dark humor have been lost along the way.

Some thought has gone into the DVD extras, with good use of the bounty hunter Tooms in his chase log and a full level of the Riddick Xbox game if you put the disc in your console. The Insider Facts – which can be turned on to pop up on the screen as you watch the movie – impart some great information for fans of the series. A tour of the sets, an interactive guide and trailers complete the extras.

With all the money thrown at this project it can’t help but look good. Unfortunately, the script and character problems that affect too many Hollywood blockbusters are evident here once again.

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