GET A HAIRCUT, MISS CLAVEL!
OTHER SPOOKY TALES Starring Andrea Libman, David Morse and Stevie Vallance Directed by John D. Wilson Written by Betty G. Birney, Libby Hinson, and Martha Morgan Shout! Factory Kids
MADELINE’S HALLOWEEN AND [Our favourite eleven-year-old writer checks in
with a Halloween review.] When I was younger, I loved the Madeline series.
The Disappearance of Alice Creed: Not your standard kidnap caper.
of Solace, Clash of the Titans (2010), Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time) who, in this British thriller, is kidnapped, stripped, bound and gagged – not for the usual reason (uh, love, right?) but for money. Her daddy is filthy rich, you see, and if he doesn’t pay up a fat ransom, her two greedy ex-con cap- tors (Danny and Vic) will make sure she really does disappear. What could have been
an exploitation film or a torture porn affair is ac- tually a straight-up kid- nap caper. So why is this being
marketed to genre fans, and why should we care? Well, wannabe filmmakers could learn plenty from the way it uses just a hint of horror to great effect. It doesn’t need a big effects budget to give you the creeps. The Disappearance of Alice Creed has been a
festival favourite, and has caused a fair amount of anticipation over in England, mostly amongst Arterton fans, keen to catch a glimpse of her birthday suit. It’s also a fantastic calling card for
new writer/director J Blakeson, who does a lot of things right. He keeps everything simple but his plot twisting. A cast of three excellent actors are stuck mostly in one location (a flat converted into Alice’s prison) for the entire 100 minutes, with double-crossings and gunfights aplenty. Yes, you can see some of the sur- prises coming (surely, it’s no spoiler to tell you she would have escaped if it wasn’t for those damn cellphone prob- lems!) but there’s at least one that should throw you for a loop, as the relationships between our trio come into focus. And in the end, even the title is not what it ap- pears. The studio has shrewdly
released the first five min- utes of the film in its entirety as a free preview. The scene, played without any dialogue, introduces Danny and Vic as
they matter-of-factly go about the grisly prepa- rations for the abduction. It will likely hook you and, if you’re not hell-bent on gore or frights, the whole tense romp proves to be a slightly nasty delight.
LIISA LADOUCEUR
I liked it because it was smart, and I could learn a bit about another city and another language, be- cause the series is set in an orphanage in Paris. Madeline is an orphan, and she has eleven class- mates that are also orphans. A nun named Miss Clavel raises them all. The girls have a neighbour named Pepito, a mischievous boy who has three horrible cousins that wear nasty-looking hats. Madeline and the other orphans refer to them as “The Horrible Hats.” Madeline is the youngest of the orphans but she is also the bravest and most adventurous. In every episode there is a cute lit- tle song that they sing based on their thoughts. All five of the episodes
on this DVD are spooky. My favourite is “Madeline and The Haunted Castle” because it is about the orphans having a famous friend over who is star- ring in a movie that takes place in a haunted cas- tle. It was funny and cute. The girls believed that the castle was haunted because they kept hearing odd noises and seeing weird shadows. They wanted to scare their famous friend by dressing up in costumes and making ghoulish noises. It did- n’t work out very well, though. They thought that they heard Miss Clavel coming, but instead they saw a monster’s shadow! The shadow looked like it had a monster’s head. Then, when it got brighter, it was just Miss Clavel with a bad hairdo. The Madeline episodes are for ages six and
under, because the stories aren’t too scary for a child that age. The episodes are not bloody or gruesome. So if you are looking for a funny and
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