混乱生活

　　两个正在“成名路上”摸爬滚打的工薪阶层YouTuber，为了取回不小心丢进一座废弃豪宅的篮球，决定进入这个诡秘的地方。他们在屋里互相恶作剧，打闹嬉戏，还用手机记录下这次“短暂冒险”。为了吸引更多粉丝，他们在视频里特意添加了一个假鬼影效果。没想到，视频一经上传就迅速走红。　　于是，他们发起一个大胆挑战：如果视频播放量达到预定目标，他们将会在深夜再次进入这栋老宅，这次毫无防护，完全“裸探”。随着粉丝们热烈响应，他们真的兑现了承诺。然而，这一次，他们不仅将揭开豪宅背后的秘密和那些神秘“住客”的真相，也逐渐意识到一个令人毛骨悚然的事实——或许他们自己已经不再属于这个世界了。　　面对这一切，一个问题浮现：为了成名，你究竟愿意付出多大代价？

洛杉矶警探乔瑟夫（克莱格·谢菲尔 饰）是个标准败类，嗑药嗑得比谁都勤快，调查命案不忘顺手牵羊，更枉顾家中妻小，专搞迷人可爱的阻街女郎。一宗幼童谋杀案现场，乔瑟夫捡回一只受过诅咒的奇异盒子，打开后怪事不断一桩接一桩：昨夜搞上的妓女意外身亡，他瞬间成为头号嫌疑犯；一连串似幻似真的恐怖体验更不断尾随，无脸怪人四处追杀人群，《养鬼吃人》系列当家猛鬼－针头鬼（Pinhead）也重出江湖，一个头两个大的乔瑟夫该如何解决这谜一般的虚实梦魇？本片改编自克里夫巴克（Clive Barker）恐怖小说「受地狱羁绊之心」The Hellbound Heart，这颗坏心肠的主人正是故事男主角乔瑟夫，身为警察的他自身行为不检点也罢，涉嫌谋杀难以脱罪的他竟然嫁祸好同事，善恶终有报，恶徒乔瑟夫果然陷入万劫不复的魔鬼梦魇，活著比死更痛苦。

　　被誉为“史上第一部爱尔兰语恐怖片”，《弗雷瓦卡》围绕一位名叫休的护理工作者展开，她被个人悲剧所困扰。休被派往一个偏远村庄照顾一位患有广场恐惧症的女性，她既害怕邻居，也害怕纳希德——她相信几十年前被这些神秘民间实体绑架。随着两人建立起深厚的联系，休逐渐被这位老妇人的偏执、仪式和迷信所吞噬，最终面对她自己的过去所带来的恐怖。

　　Set in an underground dungeon inhabited by bundled, ragged human beings, after the nuclear holocaust. The story follows the wanderings of a hero through the situations of survival. People wait for the Ark to arrive and rescue them while their habitat falls apart.　　Delving deep into the dusty and long abandonded vaults of b-cinema in search of lost gems always leaves me with a bittersweet taste. On one hand the discovery of unexpected gems where no one would think them possible is a rewarding experience. On the other hand though it makes one wonder how many of these remarkable low-budget oddities, personal love affairs of directors never quite famous and now all but forgotten, have almost forever slipped from memory?　　n any case what we have here is a little post-apocalyptic gem from Poland that is really better than it has any right to. The dystopian near future of O-BI, O-BA finds a group of survivors of the nuclear war that ravaged the Earth inhabiting an underworld concrete bunker and biding their time as they wait for the mysterious Ark, an air ship of some kind that will come and save them. The Ark proves to be an elaborate hoax, carefully designed to give hope to the malnourished and desperate denizens of the bunker, while in the meantime the dome that separates their miserable existence from the nuclear winter outside is slowly caving in.　　What first striked me about the movie is the design of the bunker and the depiction of the survivors. The survivors are gaunt, filthy and terrible-looking penitents, dressed in rags and aimlessly wandering the neon-lit halls of the bunker like automatons. The bunker is a rundown, seedy place, with bright neon lights peering from all sides like the eyes of malignant beasts.　　On one hand it is a slightly 80's depiction of the dystopian future but the movie never stoops down to MAD MAX cheese. Instead it combines biting political satire with the bleak outlook of a world with no future, black comedy with barbs on apathy, religion and power. The survivors, for example, are fed some kind of flour dropping from a tube that hovers in the air - later on we discover the food supervisor uses books and the Bible itself as filler for this meagre meal. There are many such short symbolic touches, perhaps not life-changing or faith-restoring, yet playful, clever and inspired.　　One thing is for sure; O-BI, O-BA is not your run-of-the-mill sci-fi schlock. It overcomes its modest budget with creativity and has genuine artistic aspirations both from a writing and directing perspective. My opinion is that it should have been filmed in black and white instead of colour though. The director uses atmospheric light and shadow to great effect and it would have registered even better in stark black and white. The blue-green neon on the other hand outstays its welcome after a while. Just a minor gripe in an otherwise solid b-movie with its heart set in all the right places.　　Imagine a less bleak THE ROAD (Cormac McCarthy) being injected with the satire and humour of DR.STRANGELOVE and you're getting there. See it if you can find it.