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6
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9 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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Guest
Review by Troy
Howarth |
A
self-help group is terrorized by undead, cannibalistic woodsmen...
Choking
Hazard — the title comes from the symbol used on toy
boxes to warn parents of potential choking hazards for children
— is a smart and stylish mixture of New Age psychology, juvenile
humor and gory horror. Shot on a low budget in the Czech Republic
by up-and-coming director Marek Dobes, it's not an entire success,
but it does succeed more often than it fails.
The setup is
an amusing one: a self-help group lead by a pretentious, blind
philosopher (an amusing performance from Jaroslav Dusek) is
disrupted by the unexpected arrival of the living dead. The
group is comprised of an unorthodox group of misfits — including
the nihilistic Verner (Jan Dolansky), alcoholic Krenovcova (Eva
Janouskova), and a Jehovah's Witness/star of countless hardcore
sex films (Roman "Izzi" Izaias). As this motley crew of characters
look deep within themselves in order to find life's hidden meaning,
they are terrorized by the most ridiculous looking zombies this
side of Zombie Lake.
As a horror
film, Choking Hazard is never particularly
effective. There are certainly some gory moments along the way,
but they tend to be treated in a farcical manner. As mentioned
above, the zombies are much too fun to pose much of a threat.
However, in terms of audacity and humor, the film sometimes
exceeds itself — the sequence in which Dolansky, for example,
electrocutes a dance floor full of zombies, who proceed to break
dance is inspired in its lunacy. The sequences focusing on the
group's psycho-babble discourse are also very amusing, with
Dolansky's indifferent reactions to Dusek's cryptic 'insights'
providing some nice interplay.
Though shot
on digital video on a very tight budget, the film is strikingly
photographed and surprisingly slick in its appearance. Director
Dobes makes nice use of the 2.35 frame, and a few sequences
are handled with a really inspired sense of space. The use of
Czech rock, punk and rap tunes adds to the film's idiosyncratic
flavor.
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| Media
Blasters/Fangoria International's SE release of Choking
Hazard is very good indeed. The 2.35/16x9 image looks sharp
and colorful, with no problems in the authoring department. Colors
are vivid and detail is very good, given the limitations of the
film's DV origins. The 2.0 Czech soundtrack has a lot of punch,
and the English subtiling (barring a couple of omitted clarifiers)
is easy on the eyes. Extras include a making-of featurette, a
music video, a still gallery, a trailer for the film and other
Media Blasters releases, and a running audio commentary by director
Dobes. Dobes explains early on that he is not entirely comfortable
speaking in English, but his soft-spoken, accented delivery is
easy enough to understand. He is perhaps too laid back as a commentator,
but the track has some interesting anecdotes and insights into
the film's genesis and production.
6/06/05 |
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