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Codex Atanicus
Codex Atanicus is a three story anthology by Spanish director Carlos Atanes. Before watching the movie I never heard of the guy, but the introduction video on the DVD by one of his regular actresses Arantxa Peña made me realize that I'm in for a hell of a ride. Experimental, bizarre, sick, strange - these are some of the words that describe the stories contained in Codex Atanicus. The anthology is opened by a 20 minute short from 1995 called Metaminds & Metabodies. I am really not into this kind of experimental videos, but I will try to summarize. It opens with a girl singing in the club. Everything looks ultra underground and the girl is connected with some wires to the walls. Strange people are watching her...
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Movie Review: Sickhouse, The

Story
An archaeologist breaks into an abandoned plague hospital the day before it's set to be demolished to search for clues that ultimately lead her to the spirit of an homicidal 17th century plague doctor who comes back from the dead to bring in new flesh. About the same time, 4 reckless teens break into the same hospital and find that there's no way out, and the doctor is in!

Comments
In the beginning we meet our star Anna, played by Gina Philips, better known as Trish from Jeepers Creepers. Anna is an archaeologist and the grounds where she's excavating at the time, an abandoned 17th century plague house, is about to be demolished. Now she's determined to get in and get a little more time to look for artefacts that may lead her to what she believes is a doctor involved with what she calls "The Cult of Black Priests". She shows pretty substantial evidence to her superior who claims that the dig site is way too dangerous and that there are traces of the plague within the confines of the hospital.

Needless to say Anna isn't going to give in so she sets out to go it alone in the creepy old hospital, and at first she's pushed off by the site's security guard but lucky enough for her, he didn't lock the padlock to the chain keeping her out. So after the security guard heads off to patrol she breaks in and goes down to her dig sight and strangely enough, finds a set of handprints on one of the walls inside the hospital that looks like an X so she breaks on through and crawls down a tunnel and digs up a mysterious box. Now at about the same time this is happening, four reckless teens are cruising around in a stolen car and end up in front of the hospital just as Anna finds the body of a doll in the mysterious box she just happens to have the head for, ironically made out of a bird skull, so she puts the head on and puts it in place, and at the same time, the teens hit someone or something and the car gets demolished. Needless to say, the scared teens head to the hospital for one, to get away from the cops and two, because one of the boys is pretty badly hurt. So they stash the hurt kid in the reception area of the hospital and go in to hide from the police and patrolling security who come back to the entrance to find it's unlocked, and now the hunt is on as security is looking for the teens and unknowing Anna.

Curtis Radclyffe's The Sickhouse Horror Movie Review Curtis Radclyffe's The Sickhouse Horror Movie Review


Fast forward a little and Anna runs into the teens but not until the hurt teen makes his way into the hospital and locks the padlock sealing everyone within the building, and then the fun starts as the spirit of the plague doctor that inhabited the hospital, comes back to life and possesses and ultimately kills his guests in ways prophesized on the hospital walls. As the kids and Anna hide from not only security, but the twisted bloodthirsty doctor, there's only a matter of time until the sun comes up and they are locked in their tomb to never see the light of day again.

Now where do I start with this little gem? First of all I think that the entire cast did a damn good job; they were all extremely well scripted and developed and everyone had their little part of the story to them, which you don't find in many movies these days. This movie, to me, is more psychological than anything which I totally love being that I'm all about mind games in my horror movies. The Plague Doctor himself is so creepy he gives you chills just looking at and I think he was nicely developed, and equally creepy and convincing. The story didn't have too many snags and although it kind of had moments where your totally lost it bundles itself in a nice little black bow at the end and sets up an interesting and twisted ending.

Another thing I want to note is that this is the first time I can remember that I've seen a naked pregnant girl in a mainstream film, which I thought was daring, considering that there's a lot of people that would go against it, and the boldness of that alone set me in high spirits for this movie. In all I'd have to say that The Sickhouse is a nice little jaunt into the depths of sinister spirituality and never lets up on the suspense and terror. If you're into ghost stories you'll be very happy with this film, I was thoroughly impressed, and that says a lot being that there's not enough good horror being made these days. Check this flick out, you got blood, guts, twists and turns and a pregnant girl giving birth to what looks like a million leaches! You gotta love it!

Final Comments
In a time where most horror is cliché this movie sets itself in a different mode and pace than most which is very comforting. I'd definitely suggest you all watch this movie, just be sure to put on the subtitles, the kids have strong English accents... yeah as in London England. This movie is definitely highly recommended!

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Sickhouse, The

ALTERNATIVE TITLE: The Host, The Prey, The Sick House
MOVIE YEAR: 2007
DIRECTOR: Curtis Radclyffe
WRITING CREDITS: Curtis Radclyffe, Romla Walker
GENRE: Horror
CAST: Gina Philips, Andrew Knott, Alex Hassell
COUNTRY: UK
RUNTIME: 90 min

RATING: 9/10

Sickhouse, The Website/IMDB Click here
Sickhouse, The Trailer

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