HoopTober 8: Mosquito Takes Mandragon

Movie 50
7th of 12 countries: Netherlands

Right, I only watched The Vanishing for the first time last week, and going by what these Dutch film-makers seem to be trying to tell us, I'm guessing I should avoid any kind of road trip in Europe for the rest of my life? The place must be packed with fucking psychos. And they're all hanging around motorway services, apparently.

I'll preface this review by saying I actually enjoyed this movie quite a bit. I have major issues with it, but I really did like the hell out of it. However...

Look, we all know this is a common feature of the horror film. But the characters in Tailgate have the most acute case of SDS (medical term for Stupid Decisions Syndrome) that I think I have ever encountered. It gets to the point in this film where I was honestly trying to figure out whether or not writer/director Lodewijk Crijns was just intentionally taking the piss. It gets genuinely comical how badly this married couple - both the husband and wife - fuck up at every single point in this film, and I cannot tell if Crijns thinks we should see their actions as understandable or he's just messing with us.

Either way, it's quite good fun. Because the thing is, once you accept that these idiots will unerringly choose the only course of action that will keep them in mortal danger of this madman AT EVERY SINGLE DECISION POINT even though there are countless opportunities for them to either get away from him or take him out, the film is suspenseful to an almost physically painful degree. It really is edge of the seat stuff.

The psycho killer in this is really something unique. It's a bit like if lovely old Mr Patterson from the newsagent suddenly decided he'd had enough and that the only way to teach good manners was to drum it into people by killing them. The whole concept of some old dude ambling around calmly with a chemical spray gun with the express intention of killing you is so unlikely, but as the film plays out (and again, it doesn't quite manage to make you think "Jesus, this could actually be a blind spot in society, we better look out for something like this happening for real" because everyone - including the cops - is so fucking hopelessly incapable of defending themselves it's hard to imagine it ever playing out this way), but in the rather silly world of this film and its own warped internal logic, this guy becomes pretty damn terrifying.

If nothing else, this is a horror / suspense film quite unlike anything else I've seen and it would be fun to watch it with a crowd - I can just imagine the groans of disbelief but also the jolts of "holy FUCK!" Despite the very superficial echoes of The Vanishing (which may well be very self-conscious, given the stature of that film in the Netherlands - I'm sure every Dutch genre film maker is very strongly familiar with it), this is a very unique and satisfying little rollercoaster ride of a film.