Film: Into the Abyss

You might think that Into the Abyss is a horror film. It's not - it's a Werner Herzog documentary about a triple homicide in Texas, and centres around interviews with all sorts of people involved with the men convicted of the crime, one of whom is on death row.

The interviewees are the stars of the show. There's the cop that investigated the crime. There's the reverend who accompanies the condemned to the "death house", with their permission, of course. He's opposed to the death penalty and gets very upset when describing executions. There's the former captain of the death house team, who quit, forfeiting his pension, following a disturbing execution - the first of a woman in which he'd participated - when she looked at him, just before the end, and thanked him for all he'd done for her. There are the relatives of the murder victims, who are made to hold photos of their murdered relatives and talk about how it affected them.

There are the convicted men, both of whom deny any part in the crime. And a dreadful crime it was. One got a life sentence after an emotional courtroom plea by his father, who's also serving life. He was interviewed too, and was all penitent over being such a bad father. And there's the woman who married his son. She's the least unhappy person in the whole business, only having got to know him after he'd been convicted, it seems. Kinda quirky, kinda coy, especially about how exactly she got pregnant with her husband locked up and no conjugal visits allowed..

All in all, a fascinating collection of characters and I was glad to hear their tales, although the film itself dragged in parts.

Tomorrow was supposed to be The Conjuring. But I got a phone call today that changed all that. See, it's only previewing at the moment, and only being shown by the Slacker's Club at the Picturehouse cinemas. And it turns out that's just for students (who get to see films for free). So I'll have to wait until next week at least.. but I will get a refund. Top of my now greatly depleted list to replace it was World War Z, but tomorrow that's only on way out of town, involving much unnecessary travel when I can see it in the city centre on Thursday. So, instead, I moved to a new low point on my list. Drum roll please.. for tomorrow, I have booked a ticket to see A Hijacking, which is rated at just 7.1 on IMDB! Doesn't mean it's a bad film - far from it. It's just there's so much choice in London that up to now I haven't gone below 7.3.. Oh, and it's in the Odeon, and I've saved up enough points with them that I got it for free. Goodee!