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Albert Pyun Roulette, Part 7
Adrenalin: Fear the Rush -
Plot: In a not-too-distant future, a lethal virus sweeps across Europe, prompting the creation of quarantine refugee camps in the United States. Police officers Delon (Natasha Henstridge) and Lemieux (Christopher Lambert) learn of a grisly murder in the Boston camp and team up to investigate. Suspecting the ruthless killer is infected with the virus, the pair have just hours to stop him before he becomes contagious and infects the entire population.
While this movie's economical runtime was not up to Pyun - the Weinsteins reportedly trimmed his desired almost two-hour runtime down to 77 minutes - it highlights the director's skill at doing more with less all the same. Like he did in Cyborg and Nemesis, Pyun did as much to leverage dilapidated infrastructure as gentrification does. Pyun not only made the Slovakian building where most of the action occurs a marvel of claustrophobia, but also a standard of the beauty and atmosphere that explain why there are so many social media communities devoted to abandoned buildings and liminal spaces. The scenes with the shafts of light in particular made me want to pause, or at the very least, hope that Henstridge and Lambert would stop and smell the rubble. The movie is not just notable for its aesthetics, though: I approve of how our disease-carrying villain embodies the title by being expertly elusive and always able to get the drop on our heroes when they least expect it. That he's also a human ticking time bomb is icing on the cake. I was also impressed with Henstridge and Lambert's emotionally charged performances, which further strengthen the claim that the best acting occurs in confined spaces.
This movie and Daylight, which came out not too long before this one (and that I believe is less entertaining, for what it's worth) did not make the world crave more "stuck in a giant concrete structure" action or horror movies, which this one’s flaws likely explain. While it thankfully breaks up the action with regrouping scenes, this does not excuse that a lot of it is tediously repetitive. It makes you wonder if that 77-minute runtime is a typo, in other words. Also, who knew that so many eastern Europeans ended up in Boston in 2007 or that judging by the police uniforms, Romania annexed the city? The Weinsteins may be more to blame for such gaffes than Pyun, but it's still worth calling out that thanks to them, most of the comedy is unintentional. If you are into claustrophobic horror and/or abandoned building aesthetics, though, you should seek this out. Even if you’re indifferent to both, it’s worth watching to remind yourself that the pandemic like the one it depicts is behind us.
Adrenalin: Fear the Rush -
Plot: In a not-too-distant future, a lethal virus sweeps across Europe, prompting the creation of quarantine refugee camps in the United States. Police officers Delon (Natasha Henstridge) and Lemieux (Christopher Lambert) learn of a grisly murder in the Boston camp and team up to investigate. Suspecting the ruthless killer is infected with the virus, the pair have just hours to stop him before he becomes contagious and infects the entire population.
While this movie's economical runtime was not up to Pyun - the Weinsteins reportedly trimmed his desired almost two-hour runtime down to 77 minutes - it highlights the director's skill at doing more with less all the same. Like he did in Cyborg and Nemesis, Pyun did as much to leverage dilapidated infrastructure as gentrification does. Pyun not only made the Slovakian building where most of the action occurs a marvel of claustrophobia, but also a standard of the beauty and atmosphere that explain why there are so many social media communities devoted to abandoned buildings and liminal spaces. The scenes with the shafts of light in particular made me want to pause, or at the very least, hope that Henstridge and Lambert would stop and smell the rubble. The movie is not just notable for its aesthetics, though: I approve of how our disease-carrying villain embodies the title by being expertly elusive and always able to get the drop on our heroes when they least expect it. That he's also a human ticking time bomb is icing on the cake. I was also impressed with Henstridge and Lambert's emotionally charged performances, which further strengthen the claim that the best acting occurs in confined spaces.
This movie and Daylight, which came out not too long before this one (and that I believe is less entertaining, for what it's worth) did not make the world crave more "stuck in a giant concrete structure" action or horror movies, which this one’s flaws likely explain. While it thankfully breaks up the action with regrouping scenes, this does not excuse that a lot of it is tediously repetitive. It makes you wonder if that 77-minute runtime is a typo, in other words. Also, who knew that so many eastern Europeans ended up in Boston in 2007 or that judging by the police uniforms, Romania annexed the city? The Weinsteins may be more to blame for such gaffes than Pyun, but it's still worth calling out that thanks to them, most of the comedy is unintentional. If you are into claustrophobic horror and/or abandoned building aesthetics, though, you should seek this out. Even if you’re indifferent to both, it’s worth watching to remind yourself that the pandemic like the one it depicts is behind us.
