Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
: Shutter Island :
by William the Bloody
It's 1954 and US Marshall Teddy Daniels and his new partner Chuck are on a ferry to aide in the search and investigation of a missing mental patient, a criminally insane woman who had murdered her children. Shutter Island is one of the most respected mental research facilities in the country, but they have some very strict rules, some of which hinder the Marshall's investigation, and that could be either by coincidence or by design. Teddy and Chuck are asking questions, and are frequently hit with roadblocks from the staff, who all act a little peculiar... are they hiding something? Something they want to keep from "outsiders"? What's going that no one is allowed to talk about? Will Teddy and Chuck get to the bottom of it all before one or both of them cracks? Or will they never make it off the island?
The Good: There were some pretty swell camera angles and visuals going on here. I was actually surprised to learn after seeing it that several different locations were used to "make" the Shutter Island facility exteriors and that they were all blended via CGI. I really couldn't tell, and I'm such a big CGI stickler! There were several dream sequences that Teddy had which were really neat to see and reminded me a little of Tim Burton type stuffs, like in Sleep Hollow. Most of the acting performances were well done, but then it was stocked with some high caliber A-listers.
The Bad: This could be partly my fault here, but I feel like they totally marketed this film incorrectly. The trailers I saw definitely gave it a strong horror/thriller/maybe-even-supernatural vibe. If anything, this movie was a light thriller, more of a psychological mystery, if that even means anything to anyone. They were just selling it all wrong. However, I can adapt to these things and learn to like something on its own merits regardless, but this film didn't have too much to offer. I was able to figure out the "twist" ending within the first ten minutes of the film. I saw the plot going one of two ways right off the bat and was totally right about and therefore not the least bit surprised. Seriously, the way the film opened was such a cliché for the sort of movie it was that there was really nothing else it could have been. I don't know about you, but I like my mysteries to be MYSTERIOUS, not obvious, and to keep me guessing with clues. And I get the feeling that this thing was supposed to be suspenseful and creepy, but it really wasn't. Oh, and that was one seriously angry cello scoring thing film.
Overall, I was greatly disappointed with this movie. I went in expecting something frightening and creepy, and got a long and boring predictable snore fest. Didn't keep me interested or guessing one bit.
D
