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HanShann
Reviews
Session 9 (2001)
An Effective Thriller
An excellent film, with an extraordinarily atmospheric location. The script could have used a little tightening, but maintains enough interest, and builds in intensity to a satisfactory conclusion. This is an effective thriller, with truly creepy moments. The location of filming and the excellent editing, create a coherent vision that holds you to the end.
This film puts any of the 'Jason' or other slasher perennials to shame, both in terms of quality of script, and execution. It is by far superior to most films in the 'slasher' genre. 'Session 9' is more in the tradition of De Palma and Hitchcock's psychological thrillers, than the Italian giallo slaughter-fests.
That doesn't mean 'bloody murder' doesn't occur here, it most definitely does, but the film does not rely on simple shock, but character and plot development, to convey it's chills.
Special kudos to Peter Mullan, in the role of 'Gordie.' This could not have been an easy part to play, and he pulls it off magnificently. (7 on a scale of 10)
Tawny Pipit (1944)
Tawny Pipit was filmed in Gloucestershire
Tawny Pipit was filmed in and around Bourton-on-the-Water, in Gloucestershire. I know this because my mother is one of the children, front and center, in the church choir scene. She was one of those children evacuated from London, and living with her grandparents during the war. I have been searching the world for a copy of this on video, but apparently it has never been been released to video. I sure wish it was. My mother is now 65, and would love to possess it as a memento of her childhood.