Fatal Instinct (1993)

Carl Reiner's pastiche of 1940s film noir and the erotic thriller genre smashes together spoofs of Double Indemnity, Body Heat, Cape Fear, Sleeping with the Enemy, Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct. A lot of the reason this works for me is because Armand Assante completely commits to the bit as a completely oblivious buffoon (he plays both a cop and a lawyer here). As with all parodies, it's exhausting if you're not in a receptive mood, but at just under 90 minutes, these films tend not to overstay their welcome. While some of the gags are hysterical, it seems to work better in smaller doses, and it's a bit uneven as a whole. This type of genre has to take big swings, even when it's batting 1 for 2.

2½ traumatized skunks out of 5

Meridian (1990)

aka Meridian: Kiss of the Beast / Phantoms

An orphaned daughter, the lady of the castle, a weeping ghost in halls of diffused light and suitably gothic trappings all help give Meridian the feel of a picture-book fairytale romance painted in dark colours. It's the kind of thing that might appeal to a young, female audience, but the film isn't suitable for kids for reasons I won’t go into. It’s very much an adult spin on a Beauty and the Beast inspired tale. I'm a hopeless sucker for all things fairytale, so I watched it even though it wasn't very good. Most of the elements it needed to work are there, almost in place, but they never really gel.

2 inheritances out of 5

RAZE [2013]

Josh C. Waller's vicious exploitation flick, Raze, is guaranteed to make even the strongest of stomachs wince at least once.
50 women are abducted by bored rich folk and forced to beat each other to death in one-on-one matches to save their own loved ones from being murdered.  Sound familiar?  Probably.  It's nothing new with the exception of it being women this time around and it wisely avoids all the gratuitous nudity, lesbianism and rape scenes one would expect from such a film.  However it doesn't skimp on the stomach-turning bloodshed.  The level of graphic brutality earns the film a comfy spot in the horror genre based on the violence alone.  At first the film doesn't offer much but mind-numbing cruelty but as we become more familiar with the characters and they with each other, the choices, consequences and sacrifices make it both interesting and distressing to watch.  It's decent performances and clever writing raise the film above it's spotty premise and that's a disturbing yet pleasant surprise.

3 Death Proof girls out of 5