Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc (15)
Verdict: Twisted romance
You know how it is. Boy meets girl. They fall in love. Boy is half-demon and can sprout chainsaws from his limbs and face. Girl is also half-demon and can do similar but with bombs. They end up fighting and levelling half a city.
Or at least that’s how it is in Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, a Japanese anime whose absurd title is perhaps the most restrained thing about it.
Because – gosh! – this one is as stylish, violent and unhinged as you can imagine. It’s based on a just-as-wild series of comics, but, more specifically, it’s a sequel to a season of animated television adapted from those comics. Denji, the teenage boy who turns into Chainsaw Man, has had previous adventures.
Is that a chainsaw in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? Our hero Denji hitches a ride on a shark
Anger management issues: Denji transforms into Chainsaw Man
And that’s one problem with the film. Although it does a lot to explain this evil-infested version of our world and introduce its likeably offbeat characters, there’s a lot going on here for newcomers. Shady organisations. Knotty relationships. And, most confusing of all, Denji’s agonised sexual longings.
Speaking of which, the, er, chainsaw in his pocket leads him to Reze, a simpering girl who seems just a little too keen on our hero. The first half of the movie is effectively just their courtship, a surprisingly slow-burn romance.
She’s the bomb: Our hero falls for Reze, but she is not what she appears
And the second half? Mass destruction. Once Reze’s true form and plan are revealed, there’s an extended punch-up that’s dazzling in its virtuosity but disappointing in its conclusion. After a whole movie, a whole TV series and so much warped originality, is that all there is?
Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc is in cinemas now.
The Strangers: Chapter 2 (15)
Verdict: Don’t get to know it
Has a movie ever had less reason to exist than The Strangers: Chapter 2? To help answer the question, here’s a bit of background information.
The original The Strangers, a classy and terrifying home-invasion horror, came out in 2008. It got a sequel in 2018. Fine. But then it was announced that the whole series would be rebooted with a trilogy of connected films, starting with last year’s terrible The Strangers: Chapter 1 and ending with next year’s (I’m going to call it now) terrible The Strangers: Chapter 3.
Making this the flaccid middle part of an elongated slasher story that no one needed, wanted or should pay good money to see.
It begins in the immediate aftermath of Chapter 1: heroine Maya (Madelaine Petsch) is in hospital, a few pints of blood lighter and several stitches heavier, after a cabin break with her boyfriend Ryan (Froy Gutierrez) was interrupted by a trio of masked lunatics. Or perhaps that should be ex-boyfriend? Very, very ex. Ryan got bumped off at the end of the last movie and makes a cameo appearance here as a corpse.
You can run, but you can’t hide: Madelaine Petsch as Maya finds temporary shelter behind a tree in The Strangers: Chapter 2
But the masked lunatics aren’t happy to let Maya rest in bed. They track her down and then chase her. Unceasingly. The whole movie is basically a chase sequence or a repeating game of hide and seek. Maya runs screaming from her would-be murderers; conceals herself somewhere; is discovered again; runs screaming; and the cycle begins again.
And so we go from hospital to wood to lakeside house to… nowhere, really. Thanks to veteran director Renny Harlin, there are some moments of weird elegance, such as an attack by the masked lunatics’ pet boar. But nothing that justifies the aimlessness of this second-rate second act.
In fact, the thing that stands out most is Maya’s shiny gold nail varnish. Despite her body being put through all sorts of tortures, it remains perfectly unchipped throughout. Maybe it’s Maybelline? Or maybe it’s just a film that doesn’t care as it butchers its originator’s legacy.
The Strangers: Chapter 2 is available to stream, rent or buy now.
