Freeview films of the day : sunday 2nd of February

Drag Me To Hell (2009 94min.)[C5 9.00pm &+1]

Supernatural horror starring Alison Lohman. Christine Brown, an ambitious loan officer at a mortgage company, is in competition with a dynamic new colleague. In an effort to impress her boss she refuses financial help to the mysterious Mrs Ganush, a decision that Christine will soon come to regret.

Director Sam Raimi (who's rather good at this sort of thing) chucks absolutely everything into the mix (including, just for Fink-Nottle in a wildly over-the-top old fashioned jumps'n'scares horror comic.

There's moments of gross-out slapstick which the sensitive should avoid but the whole thing is rather like a funfair thrill ride - it's obvious what's coming next but if you just relax and go with the flow it's terrific fun.



The Skin I Live In (2011 115min.) [BBC4 9.00pm]
Freeview premiere

Drama starring Antonio Banderas and Elena Anaya. Following the death of his wife in a car accident, plastic surgeon Robert Ledgard becomes obsessed with synthesising a perfect skin to withstand burns. Ledgard uses a test subject called Vera to aid him in his work, who he keeps incarcerated in a locked room in his luxury mansion. But who is Vera and what is her relationship to the doctor?

Sly old Pedro Almodavar takes the euro-horror/thriller tradition of the likes of Eyes Without A Face and bends it his own needs in this tale of the effects of desire and the nature of identity.

Banderas is on ferocious form and although the journey takes rather a lot of excursions and by-ways it's an outstanding piece of work by a director working at the height of his talents.


The Page Turner (2006 81min.) [Film4 1.35am monday &+1]

Psychological thriller starring Catherine Frot and Déborah François. Ten-year-old Mélanie's budding music career is ruined when a female judge distracts her during a vital piano audition. Years later, she secures a job working for the same woman, renowned musician Ariane, who is now beset with anxieties about her career and in need of a trusted assistant.

There's a great performance by Catherine Frot at the heart of Denis Dercourt's genuinely gripping thriller which is clearly a homage to the superb low-key sixties thrillers of Claude Chabrol. Terrific.