Day 24: Attack the Block (2011)

Attack the Block (2011)
Starring: Jodie Whittaker, John Boyega, Alex Esmail, Nick Frost
Category: New(ish) favorite
Plot Tags: invasion from outter space, child(ren) in peril
Original release: May 2011
Format viewed: DVD - own collection
Directed by: Joe Cornish
Written by: Joe Cornish
Studio: StudioCanal, UK Film Council
Distributed by: Optimum Releasing

If even half the people who went and saw the last 'Martin Lawrence puts on a fat suit and somehow fools people' movie saw Attack The Block instead, director Joe Cornish would be a household name. But alas, they didn't. While I can't completely hate on Martin (seeing as he was in Nothing To Lose and Bad Boys), I can hate on the audiences a bit for not seeking out wholly original film making like this one. This is absolutely one of my favorite films of the last 5-6 years and every time I've watched it its grown in my esteem. From the creature effects (part practical, part CGI and part...wait for it...rotoscoping!!!!) to the dialogue to the story itself to the hero arc to the humor and all the rest, this is just one of those movies I just love up one side and down the other.

The story centers around a rough London neighborhood and a group/gang of street youths led by Moses (a brilliant John Boyega) who generally go around causing problems. I call them a group/gang because they really aren't a full fledged gang as they are youngsters and really aren't bad at heart. Anyway, the film starts with them mugging a nurse (Jodie Whittaker - Perrier's Bounty) and soon after seeing a flying object land in a nearby barn thing. They approach with Moses leading the way. The thing that lands attacks him, scratches his face and a battle ensues. They kill the creature and thinking it might be worth something, the lug it back to their neighborhood drug dealer's flat (played by Nick Frost - Sean of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Paul) to store in their weed room. As it turns out, many more creatures are following this one and not long after they are there, they see a ton of streaming things from the sky, leaving the small dead creature there. They are set upon by the police who have Whittaker's character in the police van to help identify them. In the process of being arrested, large, jet-black things with bright glowing blue teeth show up and kill the police officers and nearly get our group. They flee with Whittaker in tow. What follows is a series of near misses with the creatures, mounting tension, tense and scary scenes and a sense of what is really happening with these monsters and why they are after our group. As the story comes to a head, the hero's arc because something of grand display (without being cheesy) and if you aren't rooting for that character by the end of it, there is certainly something wrong with you.

There is a laundry list of why I love this movie but part (or rather 3 parts) of the reason is...well, I have to preface this because it makes me sound kind of evil. I really love adventure/scary movies where children are in danger. Legitimately. Not like crazy crap is going on all around them but never touches them no matter what. I mean, legit danger. Take fish movies. Jaws is amazingly effective because of the youth death pretty early on. It changes the expectations and the rules and totally puts you on edge for the duration of the film. On the other side, Piranha (not the brilliant Corman/Joe Dante one, the remake) totally lame-asses out on this and put two children in dangerous situations but frames them in such a way that you know full well nothing will happen to them. Tension level -0-. I'm getting off track, so Attack The Block is great because it puts our group of youths in seriously bad danger. Some characters across the film do die. It's not like everyone who is likable makes it or they just keep killing the guys from Star Trek with the red suits. Again, legit danger. This is wonderful, brings a certain excitement to it that really draws you in.

Another reason is the script/humor and writing style. Nothing, and I repeat nothing is more lame than horror movies trying to be funny when they mug for the laugh on a misplaced joke. Like someone dies right in front of them and then a clever quip is the next line. Give me a damned break. It's not funny and not realistic and just plain crap. Perfect examples of this are the absolutely abhorrent Night of the Demons remake, Fright Night remake and maybe Valentine. Bleah. Attack the Block brings the same crisp humor from Sean of the Dead and/or Paul where they don't treat you like an idiot and they don't treat their characters with disrespect. These youths are sharp and charming and when they get going, riffing on each other, it is just grand. One character in particular, nicknamed 'Pest' is really great at this and has one of the best lines in the movie in a back and forth with Jodie Whittaker's character. Priceless.

The last reason I love this movie (at least what I have time to write about) is the effects themselves. Having a dinky budget means you have to be creative and smart about what you do and how you do it. The combination of effects techniques combined with the filming style and overall look make it seem so much grander than it is. The monsters themselves are marvelous - black haired and glowing teeth and all. They move amazingly well and occupy their spaces with true menace and exude fear. Watching the making of on the Blu-ray is freaking awesome - you gain an even greater appreciation for what they did. So the effects are just wonderful - not crutching on big, overblown CGI crap to cover a bad script or lousy acting.

Damn, okay, one more thing. The actors are all fantastic. Jodie Whittaker, John Boyega are the leads in every sense of the word - the teenage boy and the adult woman occupy the same authority and earn the two feet they stand on. By that I mean, you believe them and you believe in them. This is the mark of smart writing and good acting. Across the board, the ensemble is so wonderful to watch that you wonder how on earth they pulled it off (again, watch the making of).

So bottom line, I freaking love this movie. I really do. It is fun, scary at times, exciting, funny and just the kind of original project that should be celebrated as often as possible. Truth.



Day 23: The Objective (2009)

The Objective (2009)
Starring: Jonas Ball, Matthew R Anderson, Jon Huertas
Category: New(ish)
Plot Tags: unexplained phenomena, breakdown, survival
Original release: Feb 6th, 2009
Format viewed: DVD - rented from Vulcan, naturally
Directed by: Daniel Myrick
Written by: Daniel Myrick
Distributed by: IFC Films

This was an interesting movie - really deep when it comes to concept and the idea of it all but lacks somewhat in the forward moving structure leaving some scenes kind of repetitive. So on the one hand, I really dug it, but on the other hand I wished they'dve made better choices when it came to putting people in peril and advancing the story forward hand in hand. It's like in the Wizard of Oz where Dorothy keeps stopping and getting involved with each of the characters there en route to the Emerald City. If they had a few more characters for her to pick up, it would get pretty tiresome but with three, works pretty well. In this film, the instances of 'stoppage' because of attack or unexplained stuff count over 7 or 8 times with not a ton of variation. This raises tension but also robs itself of more tension because of the repetitiveness. The director also did Blair Witch Project, so annoying repetitiveness might be in his blood.

Okay, the story itself, basically we have a highly trained team of soldiers (including Jon Huerta from Castle) being assigned to accompany a CIA operative in Afghanistan to find a cleric guy with sensitive information about, I think, weapons or trade routes or some such. They set out on this assignment in the desert (filmed beautifully in Morocco and Iraq, crazily enough) and are soon set upon by a series of strange events - lights that look like headlights heading towards them and then separating off and flying into the sky, the deafening sound of a helicopter overhead without being able to see it, no bodies left after a firefight with militants and on from there. The CIA guy is pretty set in on this infrared camera thing where he is documenting everything that is happening. It becomes pretty clear pretty quickly that something else is going on and as the group size dwindles, an encounter with a desert dweller guy goes badly etc, the CIA guys true motives become more clear and their chances at survival become less and less likely but not because of some big ass desert monster or something. There is a whole secondary level of breakdown psychology that comes into play at this point and it would be a shame to ruin it - especially considering the last (give/take) 10 minutes of the film. They really amp up the reality of what is going on and hammer home the situation these soldiers are/were in and what the real goal was.

I'm being intentionally vague here because, again, the last 1/3 of the movie is just excellent. I wish to God the first 2/3rds had the same level of urgency and structure because the ending is nothing short of brilliant and unnerving and interesting. I will say that this is a stretch to call a horror movie, but, if you can work in mental breakdown, misbegotten missions as sources of horror, then it qualifies. I'll take an overall concept like in The Objective much more than a standard horror type setup/military like in something like Dead Birds where NOTHING FREAKING HAPPENS. So anyway, there you go.

Day 22: The Roost (2005)

The Roost (2005)
Starring: Tom Noonan, Wil Horneff, Vanessa Horneff, Karl Jacob
Category: new classic (I guess)
Plot Tags: monster, zombie, stranded and in peril
Original release: March 2005
Format viewed: DVD rental from Vulcan, of course
Directed by: Ti West
Written by: Ti West
Distributed by: unsure - DIY I think

So Ti West is easily one of my favorite directors in the scary movie genre'. "House of the Devil" and "The Innkeepers" are just wonderful works that play so well against expectation that you don't realize how unnerved you really are until you're already way deep into it. Especially in the case of "House of the Devil" where I successfully scared the crap out of myself walking past a mirror downstairs in my house. One forgets mirrors reflect things they are placed in front of, and in that case, it was my own silly self that scared my own silly self. Getting off track, basically what I'm saying is that I love his filming style and the way he puts together stories. There is a 'throwback' aspect to it that relies just as much on what is shown as it does on what you think about during and after watching his films. I admire him greatly for it.

However, The Roost is a somewhat silly and confusing exercise in throwback film making back to the road breakdown, attack of the -blank- monsters type of stuff from the 70s and 80s. Most of these were relegated to late night local TV access shows and, seeming to understand this, West has a little intro at the beginning of the film done by none other than the great Tom Noonan. Beyond that little intro thing though, the fun kind of slowly seeps out. The story basically surrounds four friends (boyfriend, girlfriend, a dude and another guy) heading to a friend's wedding. Their car craps out in the middle of nowhere and after venturing around trying to find somewhere to get help, they happen upon a farmhouse and big barn where things start to go screwy. We are already aware of the location, however, because at the start of the movie we see an elderly couple seem to be attacked by some unseen creature when they venture into said barn.

Anyway, our group of people are having that age old phone issue whilst in the middle of nowhere and since no one seems to be home at the farmhouse, they start to bicker about what to do, who should go where etc. This is where some of the issues in this film start to come out. For one, my understanding is that they worked a lot of these scenes (if not all of them) as improv without a full structured script. The bickering becomes so very annoying very quickly because (at least for me) they reminded me of improv exercises in theatre and how utterly repetitive and lame they are. So this started to get on my nerves quickly. Now, there are many 'mumblecore' type movies that I quite like, The Puffy Chair, Cold Weather etc etc so I'm not completely closed off to the style but in this case, just grates on me. The budget is clearly small but that would've been forgiven with a quasi good script.

So pretty soon we're introduced to the fact that there are big bloodthirsty vampire bats in the barn whose bites seem to turn people into zombies of some form or fashion. I think. It isn't 100% clear exactly. The group dwindles, there are epic confrontations with the bats, the zombie people and then once we think part of our group survives...well, sufficed to say, if we cared more about these people then the last part of the film would impact more. I kept thinking about the film Cabin Fever (Ti West actually directed the sequel) where this unseen virus infects a group of campers and causes them to slowly fall apart, literally. One of the many reasons why that film is so damned good is that we care for each of them in a different way, so the slow, steady decline and demise is very important, if not emotional. In this one, I figure the bats can have 'em.



Day 21: Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
Starring: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Lon Chaney, Bela Lugosi, Glenn Strange
Category: Classic
Plot Tags: Universal Monsters, comedy/scary
Original release: June 1948
Format viewed: Alamo Drafthouse - Kids club screening
Directed by: Charles Barton
Written by: Robert Lees, John Grant
Distributed by: Universal Studios

I was very confused to learn this film was released to theatres in June, 1948. Did studios not take advantage of theme specific movies and place them on/around the holiday? A lot of Christmas films releasing in July? Anyway, thought that was odd. I got to see this (with Conlin, of course) at the monthly kids club screening at Alamo Drafthouse. I think the last time I saw it was at least 20+ years ago and might've been around the same age Conlin is now. Be that as it may or not may, this film is fun silliness.

The story centers around two men (Abbott and Costello) working at a railway baggage department. They receive a call from London from a man (Lon Cheney) calling to warn them that two packages they are going to receive should not be delivered to their owner - a museum of the weird type guy who is VERY interested in making sure the contents are undisturbed. He goes so far as to have an agent from the insurance company there to inspect the boxes. Before he can explain why, Cheney transforms into the wolfman and the line goes dead. They go on about their business. They deliver the packages to the museum and have a series of hilarious 'one guy can see something but the other guy never sees it' type bits with Dracula (Lugosi). That is one thing to keep in mind, movies like this draw their humor from the vaudeville type setups and punchline jokes from well before talking films. The audience is always in on the joke, but people in the scenes really aren't. The story progresses and our two heroes are drawn into this odd plot hatched by this doctor lady and Dracula (again, for no real understandable reason).

What makes this one a fun, silly little 70 minute diversion is the sheer goofiness of the script. On paper, the concept of Dracula shipping himself to America along with Frankenstein's monster to revive him and replace his brain with a pliable one (two guesses as to who that might be) is very flimsy. They never really explain his motivation for doing any of this beyond working with this doctor lady who is in on it (for some reason). Beyond that framework of a plot, they basically drift from one setpiece to the next with a lot of mugging for the camera. Unlike Will Farrell type-mugging though, Abbott and Costello seem to make it classy. The sideplot of two women all smitten with Costello is very amusing and the puns fly fast and goofy. It is always a joy to watch Lon Chaney and Bela Lugosi in anything, so that is an added bonus - really, this one works well because it absolutely doesn't take itself seriously but has the presence of mind to care about the end product. Fun all around and appropriate for all ages.

Day 20: Bajo La Sal (Under the Salt) (2008)

Bajo La Sal (Under the Salt) (2008)

Starring: Humberto Zurita, Plutarco Haza, Richardo Polanco, Moises Arizmendi, Blanca Guerra, Damayanti Quintanar

Category: , Favorite, new classic, foreign 

Plot Tags: murder mystery, supernatural

Original release: October 2008 (Mexico)

Format viewed: DVD - own collection

Directed by: Mario Munoz

Written by: Angel Pulido, Mario Munoz

Distributed by: Peliculas Imaginarias, Warner Bros. Mexico

This film is another reason why I wanted to go forward and attempt this horror movie project for October. I originally saw this back a few years ago and got my hands on a copy and have watched it a few times since. There are times where the story itself or the twist and turns and reveals of the mysteries and all that don't have to be super crafty. Sometimes the story can be standard and straight forward and still do a simply remarkable job of working without being completely unseen before or be way clever. That is the case with Bajo La Sal, as it is (from a plot standpoint) your standard serial killer mystery, procedural type story. These are great because they put you on the edge of your seat, give you scenes to sweat out and try to determine who the killer is etc and have it wrapped by the end. This is a good thing - what you see is what you get. However, the difference between a color-by-numbers type films of area and a film like Bajo La Sal is the execution. This film looks remarkable, feels original, is so well acted and is interesting to the final frame without going for the huge twist gimmicks. 

The story centers around a small Mexican town that exists by and large because of a large salt mine on the outskirts. The mine is enormous and quite impressive to look at from the opening sequences and throughout the film. A body is discovered during the mining process one morning and, because of other murders in the area, is linked and an outside detective is brought in to sort it out. At the same time, the story also focuses on a teenage boy and his father who run the local mortuary. The boy's mother has recently died and the relationship between the boy and his father is one of distance, misunderstanding and sadness over the mother's loss. The boy is a huge horror movie fan and constructs reenactments of scenes from horror movies in stop motion in his room and films them. These 'films' are just breathtaking in their execution and style but, at least to me, not done in a way that would make you doubt that he made them. Not unlike the kid films in Super 8, these are crude to a point and do not force you to suspend disbelief that he makes them. Because of his demeanor and interests, the focus at one point of the story is on him as a suspect. 

As the story progresses, the detective (played amazingly well by Humberto Zurita) starts to unravel a mystery surrounding the local Catholic school, a tragedy there and connections between the victims of the murders and the school and towns past. The  detective and the boy never 'team up' though to solve the thing together and this was something I admired greatly. So often in murder mystery stories there are unlikely teamings of characters that stretch the laws of logic. This story never does that and it makes the whole thing play more real. Similarly, the detective and the boy both have shortcomings that play into the story but never dive head long into that whole 'seeking redemption' or 'underdog makes good' kind of baloney that often happens. Again, this was a choice that I thought really set the story apart from so many others in that it made our main characters sympathetic but sympathetic because they are well written, smart characters and not because of a a+b=c type setup done 1000 times before. 

I cannot say enough about how beautifully this film is made - from the set locations to the filming style and all the rest - it is often like a moving painting versus a film. The relationship between the boy and his father is played to such a sharp point that big long speeches aren't needed to convey the sadness and disconnect that exists there. Similarly, events in the detective's past are brought into the story but not in a cliche' way at all - they are a part of who he is. While the film does have its disturbing imagery and a couple of jolting moments, it is overall more easy to access for the average viewer not crazily into scary movies. It was one of my favorite movies the year I saw it and is most certainly a favorite upon repeat viewings since. Very worth seeing. 

Day 19: Maximum Overdrive (1986)

Maximum Overdrive (1986)

Starring: Emelio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Laura Harrington, Yeardley Smith, Frankie Faison, Giancarlo Esposito

Category: new classic ( I guess)

Plot Tags: attack of the -blank-, survival, disaster event

Original release: July 1986

Format viewed: DVD rental from Vulcan of course

Directed by: Stephen King

Written by: Stephen King

Distributed by: De Laurentiis Entertainment Group

One of the great, confusions of life as a horror film/subject matter person is the general lousy nature of most Stephen King adaptations into film/TV. For whatever reason, his stories hit a rough road when it comes to making the transition and more often than not, they are goofy or unscary and in some cases really annoying. The Green Mile, Stand By Me, The Dark Half and a couple others are the only exceptions I can think of off the top of my head. Misery is another one and Pet Cemetery (not any of the sequels) would be included in that group. 

Sadly, Maximum Overdrive is not one of them, despite being directed by the man himself. Now, that is not to say it isn't fun, but by and large the pacing is all over the map, the progression of relationships etc make no sense and the overall dread of the event is undercut by the thought that many if not all of the mishaps that happen could be easily avoided. The basic story is that earth passes through the tail of a comet and the dust or electromagnetic something or other or some other nonsense is messing with all the machines on the planet, turning them murderous. When this is most effective is when the person doesn't know what is happening and not acting like an idiot. Unfortunately, about 80 to 90 percent of the time, people offed by machines or cars or whatever else are acting so stupid and unaware that their demise isn't shocking so much as just obvious. Case in point, the fantastic Giancarlo Esposito (Nothing to Lose, Breaking Bad) has a bit role as a guy in a truck stop arcade. All of the machines are going goofy and spitting out money and all else. Instead of seeing this as a sign of danger and getting out of there, he loads his pockets with money and packs of cigarettes. Okay, fine. But then one of the games starts showing interesting imagery and for some reason he goes over to play it and is electrocuted. Now you've just stolen some money and other items but can be sidetracked from your exit by pretty colors. Riiiight. This happens a lot, the waitress cut on the arm by an automatic knife/saw thing that TURNED ITSELF ON AND REPOSITIONED ITSELF NEXT TO HER ARM (I for one certainly wouldn't notice a buzzing electric saw moving ever closer to my arm), The draw bridge resetting itself and raising with people on it all the while making all manner of noise in the control room that the two guys there seem completely oblivious to. etc etc etc. 

The other glaringly ridiculous thing is the romantic relationship between Emilio Estevez' character and a hitchhiking girl brought into the truck stop/restaurant he works in. Right in the midst of this mess they seemingly have time to get to know each other, hop into bed and create all manner of closeness between them. This all happens in about a 20 minute span. I get that adventure type movies require (by law I assume) the lead have a girl waiting in the wings but in this case, it was just plain dumb. So as you might've guessed, machines keep attacking people, our group gets trapped in the truck stop by a herd of semi trucks and fight back with the sizable arsenal the truck stop owner seems to have collected. The convenience level is annoying because, yes, many people collect guns but many people also collect porcelain figurines or bottle caps or stamps or whatever else. How this truck stop owner has enough explosives and guns to outfit an entire army is never really explained. 

Okay, so bottom line, there are some fun scenes in the thing and some level of dumb fun to be had. However, the directing is really choppy, nearly nothing is motivated by actual thought and by the end of it you're kind of rooting for the semi trucks, or at least I was. 

Day 18: Silent Hill: Revelations (2012)

Silent Hill: Revelation 3D (2012)

Starring: Adelaide Clemens, Kit Harington, Deborah Kara Unger, Martin Donovan, Malcolm McDowell, Carrie-Anne Moss, Sean Bean

Category: new

Plot Tags: alternate world, kidnapping (kinda), video game adaptation

Original release: October 26th, 2012

Format viewed: Pre-screening via Ain't It Cool News

Directed by: Michael Bassett

Written by: Michael Bassett

Distributed by: Open Road Films, Lionsgate

Through Harry Knowles and the good folks at Ain't It Cool News, I was able to attend a prescreening Thursday night of Silent Hill: Revelations 3D prior to its release. I wouldn't claim to be a huge fan of the first film but I loved the PSP version of the game and was interested in the story overall (the mythology if you will) so I was excited to be included in this type of screening. Upon arrival I was greeted by two nurses all dressed up in bloody attire which was impressive, but considering they still had faces, not all the way game-style. It was 3D too so I was given glasses and then scanned with a metal detector (for some reason) prior to entry. In the theatre there were people dressed in costumes and others playing the new game on the movie screen. This was quite cool except for the fact that whomever was playing hadn't worked out the perspective of the character so she spent most of the time wandering the halls of the sanitarium looking as though she was trying to smell her shoulder. 

After a costume contest, it was time to start the film. There were three little things telling you to put on your glasses. I was annoyed by this, thinking you'd have to be blind not to know at this point to put them on. Then it occurred to me that, if blind, you wouldn't get much out of a 3D movie. Slight chuckle. And onto the movie itself. Having the opening set into the main street of Silent Hill with the ash/snow looking stuff fluttering around was awfully neat. This is one of the more unnerving effects in the game, lulling you into a false sense of calm prior to crap careening towards a nearby fan. In this case however, they revert to a dream within a dream gimmick to set up that our main character Heather (Adelaide Clemens - who did a fine job with the script she had to work with) and her father Christopher (Sean Bean) are constantly moving to evade police. She thinks this is because of a murder that happened years ago, but in fact it is more to stay a step ahead of evil forces that seem to be after them. The trouble is that she keeps having dreams and seeing visions of freaky stuff that lead her to a realization that there is this alternate world (Silent Hill) where these things seem to come from. Now I could go on for pages and pages about the rest of the story but the gist is that Heather is the remainder of the rest of what was good in the girl taken in the first film. I think - I can't 100% remember but it basically boils down to the bad creatures in Silent Hill wanting her back to give the evil girl power but this cult of white haired weirdos wanting to kill her to keep that from happening. Or something along those lines. Again, to even come close to trying to explain the story would take for freaking ever and honestly, it isn't really worth the effort. 

I was reminded of a thing John Waters once said about his mom. She and his father would come to screenings of some of his films and if you know anything about his films they aren't the typical fare for retired age middle America (via Baltimore) types. Anyway, his mom (grasping at a way to not be negative) would say 'well goodness, I don't know where they find the energy.' This is kind of what I feel like for this film overall. On the one hand, a lot of the visuals are really remarkable (Pyramidhead, the freaky nurses and the mannequin monster in particular) and how much the locations looked just like they did in the game are just remarkable, but on the other hand, my understanding of film making is that one should have a more or less serviceable script to use in making of said film. The actors all do fine, in particular Sean Bean and Adelaide Clemens, but often they are left to look a bit silly with very uninspired writing and setup scenes that deflate the scene they are there to set up. It's as if Akiva Goldsman had the weekend off and decided to hash out a horror script with a teenage girl troupe and a couple llamas for dictation. So many bad dialogue choices. Again, this takes a lot of suspense out of things when you're too busy rolling your eyes back into place after being hit with another stinker. This is a shame because the tension of the thing in parts could have been made all the better with a sharper, more dynamic script. 

One last thing I'll say. Carrie-Anne Moss is great. She was just grand in the Matrix films and I loved that she was in one of my more favorite zombie meets Lassie type films, Fido, but seriously, casting her as the evil mother/demon/white haired lady was completely distracting. Every scene she was in was completely useless because she stuck out like a sore thumb. Again, she is great, but not in that role. 

Overall, I was very glad and happy to be included in the screening via Harry and AICN and hope to get to go to more events. But, while this could have been a Cronenberg level brain freak out of a story, it ended up being very confusing a bunch of the time (and I knew the damned backstory) and devoid of suspense by and large and overall was an exhibit on how to make neat creatures and give them very little to do. 

Day 17: Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night 2 (1987)

Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night 2 (1987)
Starring: Michael Ironside, Wendy Lyon, Louis Ferreira, Richard Monette
Category: (I guess) new classic, boxes that scared me as a kid
Plot Tags: possession, revenge, goofy
Original release: October 1987
Format viewed: DVD - rented from Vulcan of course
Directed by: Bruce Pittman
Written by: Ron Oliver
Produced by: Peter R Simpson
Distributed by: Norstar Releasing

So my plan was to watch the original Prom Night (1980 with Jamie Lee Curtis and Leslie Neilsen) and then this one in succession. However, it is October and playoff and World Series baseball is played in October so time management has become a minor issue. Sleep being the primary issue really. Mainly because I keep falling my ass asleep on the couch towards the end of, or right after movies end. It is a confounding thing to wake up on the couch in the middle of the night and wonder if you actually finished Maximum Overdrive or not. I guess it's a universal problem. Getting off track, so that was my plan but I settled for just sticking with the one that fit into the 'scary VHS box group'. I'm not 100% on why it was that this one freaked me out beyond the fact she is looking right freaking at you! Yeesh. Plus the back, as I recall, is all manner of ucky. Anyway, it fits.

This is a goofy movie. It is legitimately tense in a couple parts but from the onset you know what will happen in the next scene. This is the thing with movies about possession. You know that it ramps up bit by bit until the stuff hits the proverbial fan. There are few examples of a possession movie that involves a demon or entity that decides mid movie that he'd rather go play a round of golf or shop for curtains and just leaves everyone alone. So, once you get the gist of what is going on, the next step or five steps are pretty much layed out. However, this might then explain the abject strangeness of many of the scenes. This strangeness comes from the rhythm of them, or just odd stuff that happens but I get this feeling that because of the relatively cookie-cutter map of the script they opted to amp up the odd.

The story is basically this, in 1957 a harlot/hussy type character (introduced initially in a church confessional) is at the senior prom with her date Bill (played later by Michael Ironside - Top Gun, Total Recall) and, upon sending him off for punch, sneaks off behind the stage for a roll in the hay with Buddy. Upon discovering this, Bill is a bit put out and storms off. He discovers two guys working on a stink bomb in the bathroom but before they finish they have to abandon it in the trash can before an incoming teacher can discover it. Bill takes it and heads up onto the scaffolding above the stage. Mary Lou is crowned Prom Queen and while she accepts her crown, Bill throws the stink bomb down onto the stage. Instead of blowing up and causing a stink, it catches her dress on fire and burns her alive - not before she sees it was him that did it. Buddy starts to run towards her with his jacket to help put out the flame but backs away. She dies.

Fast forward to today and we're introduced to Vicki, a seemingly nice girl with friends at the school, a nice dad, an overbearing religious mom type character. Why? Who really knows. They dress in 80s clothes, she dresses like an extra in Inherit the Wind. Anyway, discussing the prom and not being able to buy a dress, Vicki's friend suggests checking out the prop room for something. She does and happens upon an old trunk with Mary Lou's dress, crown, sash and other assorted stuff. This unleashes her spirit - I think. From this point forward many things make no damned sense. The initial impression is that putting on the dress or clothing allows her spirit to take over the person, but almost nearly immediately, Vicki's friend is left alone in the art room with Mary Lou's crown and cape and doesn't actually put them on but is set upon, attacked and ultimately hung from the light fixture. People assume this is a suicide because it was revealed she was pregnant. Now, I would have known this ahead of time but the sound mastering in the 'reveal' scene for this was so darn lousy that after rewinding twice I just gave up. Okay, so back to when things stop making any amount of freaking sense. If Mary Lou's spirit can just up and fling a girl around a room, control objects and cause all manner of craziness, why on earth does she need to inhabit a person's body? Seems like a wholy unnessessary step in the process of terrorizing a bunch of people. Well anyway...

Poor Vicki is beset by weird visions involving stuff in gym class, stuff with the cheerleader jerk character and other random stuff - to the point where the rocking horse in her room goes all red eyed and talks - well, sort of talks. Kind of just goes 'blllleeehhh' or something like that. These things continue until Vicki is completely taken over and starts the killing bit in earnest. Some creative ones here (crushing someone in a locker, electrocution via a power cord) but again, none of this stuff needed to be done while inhabiting someone! Makes no damned sense. We get to the final act and Bill (now the school principal) tries to intervene and stop everything. I realize now that the actress who played Mary Lou looks a ton like Regina Spektor - sheeesh, that has been driving me nuts since last night. a bunch of people get killed (sadly, the school cheerleader jerk gets it in a very uninspiring way - disappointed by that) and we careen into the last of the movie. There are a couple twists there towards the end but, unless you plan to sit down and watch all four at once, the continuation of the story isn't all that critical.

Overall, I was hoping for more an abject massacre of a thing (a la Dead Alive) but instead you get a few good set pieces, some goofy-ass dialogue and puns and a lot of roundly confusing things. I guess all in all it was a fun way to spend an hour and a half but there certainly was a chance to make it a cult classic that they missed.

Day 16: Absentia (2011)

Absentia (2011)
Starring: Katie Parker, Courtney Bell, David Levine, Justin Gordon, Morgan Peter Brown, James Flanagan,
Scott Graham, Doug Jones
Category: New, favorite
Plot Tags: abduction, supernatural, fairy tale
Original release: March, 2011
Format viewed: DVD - rented from Vulcan of course
Directed by: Mike Flanagan
Written by: Mike Flanagan
Produced by: Morgan Peter Brown, Mike Flanagan, Justin Gordon, Joe Wicker
Studio: Fallback Plan Productions
Distributed by: Phase 4 Films

The film Absentia is one of the reasons I got to thinking about doing this writing and reviewing project in the first place. I saw this the first time this spring (and three times since) and it is most certainly one of my favorite films (of any kind) this year. When you combine sincere storytelling, interest in characters' bonds and development, original ideas and strong performances you get a film that exceeds expectations and frustrates at the same time. Frustrates because this is the kind of film that deserves larger audiences and more notoriety as opposed to many/much schlock drifting around a good portion of the time. This comes with a couple caveats but they aren't big ones. Primarily, this is hyper low budget so if you're expecting huge splashy CGI effects, you won't get them. There are a fair amount of jolts and a general errie-ness that amps up the heartbeat for long stretches but this is not achieved by piles of big time effects. Honestly, I couldn't imagine it with all that stuff. Also, the way it is filmed, you aren't going to get a ton of depth that you'd get with film film. I understand that this is a budgetary issue and I respect that you get the most out of what you can use but I felt in a few scenes where the feel of film would add more to the overall deal. That's it, those are my caveats.

The film centers around the story of two sisters, a pregnant Tricia (Courtney Palm) and Callie (the lovely Katie Parker) reuniting over a traumatic event. Tricia's husband (played remarkably well by Morgan Peter Brown - this gives nothing away, he is in a bunch of the movie) has been missing for seven years. The film opens with Tricia removing tattered 'missing' signs for her husband and replacing them on power poles around her neighborhood. We then meet her sister Callie (Katie Parker) who is there to help Tricia work through the filing paperwork for declaring her husband dead by absentia after the length of time he was missing. In addition to this, her pregnancy has come from a relationship with the detective that originally worked her husband's missing person case. Anyway, back to Callie's arrival - it is made clear pretty early on that she has been a wayward soul in every sense of the word - driving from halfway house to rehab center to this and that and apparently has found a good bit of religion in the process of getting sober. What is funny about that is that she still seems like who she was as a person/personality, just with a more grounded sense of things thanks to rehab and God.

As we are meeting the two women, getting a feel for their relationship etc, we start to see haunting and terrifying visions of Tricia's missing husband as they grow closer to packing the house up and signing all the paperwork. These visions come when she is awake and asleep and represent some of the early chills in the film. Callie takes a run and goes running through a tunnel near Tricia's house. This tunnel (a real place/thing in this neighborhood) is so damned freaky in and of itself that they didn't need to do much to make it foreboding thing it is. Upon her run back, Callie comes upon a badly beaten up, pale looking guy (Doug Jones - Hellboy films) who seems overjoyed and also scared that she can see him. He starts to offer to trade, rambling about his boy etc and tries to reach into his pocket for 'trade'. Callie gets away from him and back to the house where she explains to her sister that this 'Christian thing' means you have to reach back to help and she brings a tupperware of dinner leftovers to the tunnel but cannot find him. She leaves it there and the next day, upon return to the house after her jog, she is greeted with a pile of metal trinkets, keys and stuff all wired together in a heap on the doorstep. She tries to take it back to the tunnel but is advised against it by a man walking by. 'You can't return it'.

Soon after this, Callie and Tricia are in the lawyers office signing the paperwork to declare Daniel (Tricia's husband) dead in absentia and she sees yet another scary vision of him. ((As an aside, one of the reasons I absolutely loved the way they handled these visions is that they are startling and all, but not in a super-jump scare type of way. They startle you but there is a lack of menace so much as a presence that maybe isn't as easily explained as guilt)). They come back home and Callie recommends Tricia go out on a date and pushes her in that direction. She gets ready to go, the detective guy shows up and upon leaving they spot Daniel out in the street. Initially Tricia thinks it is a vision but the detective guy sees him too. Immediately the police are rousted up and set upon the case to try to figure out where he has been and who took him etc. As this is going on, there is a growing disturbance that is making all manner of issue for Daniel and the sisters which seems like it is coming to get him back. All the while you have Callie's drug past creeping back on her and the relationship between Tricia and the detective guy straining under all of this.

Things continue to amp up and a series of scary events and nerve wrangling things twist and turn to bring what happened to Daniel and what is happening to all of them now to a head. I feel like none of this works without the fully realized relationships the characters have and the care we as the audience have for them. With those things in place, the suspense of the final act is greater because of the investment the viewer has and as everything falls into place and it all comes together, the tragedy of it is felt more honestly and fully. I cannot say enough how much the craft of this film and the work put into the ground level of it makes the whole of the rest of it that much better. With stereotype cardboard cut outs or standard fill in victims or any of that, none of the emotional and tragic turns the story takes would mean a whole lot. But on the whole, Mike Flanagan, Morgan Peter Brown and company have made what I consider to be a unique and wholly remarkable film that I appreciate even more now than I did the first time I saw it. My hope is that they will continue to build on their full success of Absentia and bring the same full circle storytelling and character development to their future projects because in my mind, it is how it's done.

Day 15: Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)
Starring: Nathan Baesel, Angela Goethals, Robert Englund, Zelda Rubinstein
Category: New Classic, favorite
Plot Tags: docu/mocumentary, serial killer, comedy/horror
Original release: August 2006 / March 2007
Format viewed: DVD - rented from Vulcan of course
Directed by: Scott Glosserman
Written by: Scott Glosserman, David Stieve
Studio: GlenEcho Entertainment
Distributed by: Anchor Bay Entertainment

It's funny how things work out sometimes. I had the Belgian film "Man Bites Dog" on my to-see list forever. It is considered a cult classic and has received a Criterion release but it is not easy to find. Regardless, I got to thinking about it again because of wanting to include of my favorite movies last year, Behind the Mask, which I understood had a lot of similarities. On a very base level, they are both told in the documentary style and center around a serial killer as the primary subject. In the case of Behind the Mask you have a near sympathetic character in Leslie Vernon, someone you (despite better judgement) start to relate to on a human level. This is not the case for Man Bites Dog however, as the central character is so devoid of anything human the chore of watching the film crew get drawn into his life and the purely evil, random things he does is just lousy all around. So, instead of wasting any more time on that, I'd rather get to talking about a great, funny, charming, thrilling and all together excellent piece of work in Behind the Mask (I'm in a good mood today on these things as this one and Absentia are favorites and its always fun to talk about things you really like).

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon is a movie split between a documentary style and a standard movie-movie style about a documentary film crew profiling a serial killer, Leslie Vernon. Leslie has a back story not unlike hundreds of other horror movie villains with family abuse/drama/murder etc etc. Leslie has returned to Glen Echo (somewhere in Portland) to exact revenge on, who else, a bunch of teens and a specially selected girl who is supposed to recognize the grander plan he has unfolding. This is all a bunch of nonsense of course, as the setup is nothing new or special and we know that the final girl always works it out, gains near superhuman strength and defeats the thing. This is where Behind the Mask becomes a supremely great film. The crew follows Leslie around and learns the many tricks of the trade in setting up the final girl, selecting the location and all the rest. Instead of just being the connect the dots horror slasher for the 90,000th time, they take a great deal of care and time dissecting all the things that happen, and even better, why they happen.

I hate to give some of this away but everything from thinking you see someone to the doorstop you setup giving way and slamming the door to those running scenes in horror movies where the running victim turns around to always see the attacker meandering along at a calm pace but growing closer - they all are explained to a very humorous end (the running/walking thing is just all manner of classic). As the time grows closer, things take a weird turn as an Ahab shows up and alters the plan. An Ahab, Leslie explains, is a scientist or cop or whatever that is very invested in the villain or victims, knows a ton and shows up to explain everything and/or battle the villain. In this case, the Ahab is played wonderfully by Robert Englund (unlike his appearance in Jack Brooks Monster Slayer which, while his performance was just fine, the movie was lousy). Anyway, we keep going until all the victims are assembled into the remote house on the apple orchard. Oh! and there is a whole sequence with Leslie's mentor too but I don't want to give any of that away at all - if you're a horror movie person, you'll get a ton of the references. Back to it, once everyone is at the house, our documentary film crew starts to have a change of heart and....

And at this point, I do not have the brass tacks to lay out the rest of the story. I had had it half figured out but the unravel and reveal is just to grand, down through the final act and even through the credits. Nathan Baesel is great as Leslie, Angela Goethals does a masterful job as Taylor/Tay, Zelda Rubinstein shows up as the librarian and if I have to tell you who she is...well I augtta...Teen Witch? Poltergeist?? Anyway, this is an absolute must for any horror fan as the humor and nonstop inside baseball are so very much fun. All in all, just enjoyable all the way around.

Day 14: An American Werewolf in London (1981)

An American Werewolf in London (1981)
Starring: David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, Griffin Dunne
Category: New Classic, favorite
Plot Tags: werewolf, comedy/horror
Original release: August, 1981
Format viewed: Original VHS - own collection
Directed by: John Landis
Written by: John Landis
Studio: Polygram Filmed Entertainment
Distributed by: Universal Pictures

I'm going to get up onto my old guy chair for a minute and ramble about why things used to be better than they are now. In this case, I'm going to ramble about movies - particularly those of the scary variety. Re-watching American Werewolf in London is both really enjoyable and also very frustrating. It's enjoyable because the movie itself is fantastic. It is frustrating because it brings to mind the general lack of skill and craft many modern horror movies have - particularly in the character development and character relationship areas. Now, this isn't universal across all films and I'll highlight one a little later on (Absentia) that absolutely suceeds on all levels in that arena. Buuuuuutt, by and large, the blueprint is to throw a bunch of model-like twits into a harrowing situation, pick them off, fling together a backstory for the killer (or ghost or angry monkey or disease or whatever) and leave one to two of them standing at the end. The trouble with this is two fold: one, it is completely hollow and lacks any level of character development which might inspire empathy when they do meet their fate and two, it is very profitable. This might seem counter-intuative but the profitability of many of these moden brainless films doesn't challenge filmmakers or producers to really push what it means to develop a strong personal connection to the characters, tell their unique stores, flesh out their relationships and their fate. If they make money, what do they care? Every over-caffinated video director can blaspheme a classic 70s/80s horror movie if they PG-13 it up and follow the model. This becomes ever more frustrating when rewatching American Werewolf.

Because by and large, this is a near perfect monster/horror film. John Landis does such a masterful job of developing the relationship between the two American leads backpacking through Europe that we care nearly immediately. These guys aren't cardboard cutouts, they are real people who really do care about each other. The story is pretty simple, two Americans are backpacking through London and happen upon a pub in the middle of nowhere. They go inside and are faced with a not-too-friendly clientele of drunks and farm folks who glare and insult and make them feel less than welcome. There is a 5 pointed star on the wall which leads to uncomfortable questioning and ultimately their leaving the bar. An argument insues once they leave that they should have been warned, they shouldn't have been allowed to leave etc. Too late, as the men become lost in the forest and then tracked and attacked by a werewolf. Well, we know it is a werewolf but the only eyewitness report was of a manman being shot during the attack. Regardless, one of our guys is killed badly and the other ripped up pretty well. The story then progresses to a hospital in London where the survivor is being cared for and nursed back to health all the while being questioned about his crazy story.
He is constantly haunted by strange dreams and visions and, in a bout of sheer brilliance on the part of director John Landis, his dead friend who comes to warn him about the curse he is afflicted with - the humor here is great but also sad as our survivor wrestles with the impending 'change' and sadness of the loss of his life and that of his friends.

So, like many other films I've touched on, I could keep going on and on from here as the story leads to his transformation in an Academy award winning special effects job by the great Rick Baker, his acceptance of his situation, how it affects the nurse lady who he has taken up with and on from there. The thing of it is though, there are a ton of lines I could highlight (zoo scene is so very funny - balloons) or scenes or how the finale comes together in a wonderful and sad but true (almost King Kong) sort of way, but I figure this is one of those ones best seen and enjoyed with all those things intact to discover. Landis really set the bar high when it comes to real human empathy for this film and I wish to God more modern directors would learn what it means to tie the characters in their stories to the audience and how much more that means (yet another reason why Absentia is one of my favorite films, of any kind, this year and I can't wait to write a bit about it).

Day 13: Them! (1954)

Them! (1954)
Starring: James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon, James Arness
Category: Classic, favorite
Plot Tags: 50s monster movie, mutant, giant-attacking thing
Original release: June 1954
Format viewed: DVD - rented from Vulcan, naturally
Directed by: Gordon Douglas
Written by: Ted Sherdeman, George Worthing Yates
Distributed by: Warner Brothers

I have a fairly large soft spot in my heart for monster movies from the 1950s. There is a charm about them that, one the one hand draws from the classic Universal Monsters (Frankenstein, Wolfman, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dracula etc etc) but on the other hand taps directly into political feelings and fears of the time. More often than not, the fear of atomic attack, of the Russians or some combination of the two fueled these movies. There were many mutant creatures brought to life by atomic radiation that caused all manner of havoc but Them! is my favorite of these. Giant ants...really what else do you need?

The story centers around a nuclear test site in New Mexico where strange goings on are afoot. A child is found wandering alone in the desert and a wrecked RV is found torn apart not far away. A drunkard pilot reports seeing flying saucers the shape of ants. The discovery of said big-ass ants happens pretty quickly and the race is on with a team of scientists and military personnel to find the nests and destroy them. This brings about a number of greatly amusing sexist statements and arguments about the place of a woman (the main science guys daughter is also a scientist - and, conveniently, they both know a ton about ants) and other matters of the time. This is one of the reasons I love these types of movies, the contextually ridiculous stuff. Like in Hitchcock's 'Shadow of a Doubt' or Charles Laughton's beautiful 'Night of the Hunter' - the time period becomes its own character. Not like a period drama or something bogged down by fluffy ridiculousness of overwrought costumes, these 50s movies are a time capsule and have a charm because of it.

The ants themselves are pretty neat considering the time period. I don't know that anyone would think they were real, however, watching them crash through windows and burrowing out of tunnels is pretty darned impressive, considering. Another reason why I love this one so much is that there is an undercurrent of counter cultural sentiment embodied in the musings of the old scientist character who spins off a wonderful monologue about the atomic age and seeming to suggest (in a very subtle way as to get past the censors - this was pre-code after all) that biting off more than we can chew for the sake of doing it has unforeseen consequences. In this case? Big-ass ants.

Anyway, this is one of my all time favorite 50s monster movies for all its grand ambitions and great period effects, great performances including the wonderful James Whitmore (Battleground, Asphalt Jungle, Oklahoma! Tora! Tora Tora!) and just an overall funness that can't really be replicated.

Day 12: Blacula (1972)

Blacula (1972)
Starring: William Marshall, Vonetta McGee, Denise Nicholas, Gordon Pinsent
Category: Weird
Plot Tags: vampire, exploitation, cult classic
Original release: August, 1972
Format viewed: DVD - rented from Vulcan, naturally
Directed by: William Crain
Written by: Raymond Koenig
Distributed by: American International Pictures

So pretty much there is no way to put Blacula in any other category than weird. It is fantastic in that way, but is decidedly screwy. The story starts with an African prince Mamuwalde visiting Count Dracula in 1780 to get his aid in stopping the slave trade. Now, there are a number of historical issues with this, but let's just go with suspension of disbelief as the backbone of watching this film. Dracula gets all bent out of shape, says some inappropriate things about his wife and proceeds to turn him into a vampire and imprisoning him in a coffin and trapping his wife to die in the room. He even bestows the name 'Blacula' on him which is just goofy beyond belief.

Fast forward to the 70s and two interior decorators in the region to buy antiques (in two uncomfortably funny stereotype gay characters) and purchase the lot of the house decor and ship back to America, including Blacula's coffin. Once back in the states, they open it and become his first victims. Now, I feel it is important to note that there are a number of inappropriate gay jokes and references in this film. Culturally speaking, this makes sense for the time but can be a little off putting if taken to seriously. Okay, back to it - the story then grows to include a scientific detective brought in on the two men's murder and even more so when one of the bodies disappears. He is kind of a cross between Shaft and Richard Belzer's character in a very blunt, unfunny sort of way that leads to one of the funnier lines in the movie spoken by the undertaker where one of the victim's funerals is taking place.

Anyway, as the science detective guy amps up the investigation, Blacula takes a shine to a woman who bears a striking resemblance to his wife at the start of the movie. Those of us who know a lot about the dracula legend know this is kind of a theme with the character. Those of us who are normal might be surprised by this. I digress.

More victims fall prey to Blacula and the story continues along to reveal the price for the vampire biting everyone, there is a great scene in the morgue where you know where it is going but still thrilling regardless and very well acted by the female victim. Okay - so as per usual, I could go on and on and on but the bottom line is this: fan-freaking-tastic soul soundtrack by Gene Page, amazingly funny dialogue 'maann, he is one straaaaaaaaaaaannnge dude' and a fun, silly story that flirts with being all camp but instead just makes all manner of fun in a relatively tight package. So yes, seek this one out but rent it with Scream Blacula Scream! as it is highlighted by a totally badass appearance of none other than Pam Grier. If you can't get both, start with this 1972 wack-a-noodle original.

Day 11: Re-Animator (1985)

Re-Animator (1985)
Starring: Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton, David Gale
Category: New Classic
Plot Tags: mad scientist, dead come alive, dark humor, splatter/gross
Original release: October 18th, 1985
Format viewed: DVD - rented from Vulcan, naturally
Directed by: Stuart Gordon
Written by: Stuart Gordon, William Norris
Based on: Herbert West, Re-Animator by H.P. Lovecraft
Produced by: Brian Yuzna
Distributed by: Empire Pictures

So nothing will ever get to the volume of grossness/awesomeness that Peter Jackson's 'Dead Alive' did. That one sort of stands alone. However, there are many off the wall/gross/weird type films that employ grossness in spurts intermixed with a strange story. Poultrygeist and Black Sheep are a couple I can think of but the big daddy of this type is Re-Animator. Based on the story by H.P.Lovecraft, Re-Animator tells the story of Dr. Herbert West (a brilliant Jeffrey Combs), an obsessive, twitchy and all together entertaining kook who brings his studies of the re-animation of dead flesh in Germany to a college setting in the states. He takes up residence with medical student Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott) and by extension his girlfriend (the dean's daughter) and their cat. He begins conducting experiments in the basement and after a questionable set of circumstances, quasi brings Dan's dead cat back to life - sort of:

Dan: You can call, or write a note. (reacting angrily to West telling him after the fact about his dead cat)
Herbert West: I was busy pushing bodies around as you well know and what would a note say, Dan? "Cat dead, details later"?

The inherent issue is that the re-animation of dead flesh is tricky (birth is always painful, West says) and it seems to create a sort of mindless rage in the newly-not-dead-anymore-thing. This is particularly amusing with the cat, as he is in parts on the desk. Nothing too menacing about a creature not fully assembled coming back to life. Upon letting the dean know about the experiments, both Dan and West and expelled. This only magnifies their efforts and upon sneaking into the school, they try to reanimation stuff on a body in the morgue. Things go awry. The Dean is killed and then promptly brought back to life. There is confusion about his condition and he is institutionalized. All the while West and Dan are trying to get a handle on the experiments, controlling who knows what and dealing with an increasingly interested professor at the school. His interest seems to come from being proven wrong by West's German mentor but his (the professor at the school) motivations aren't really revealed until the final act.

Many more things happen leading to the conclusion of this chapter of the story. It is often quite icky. However, it is often quite funny too. The underpinning of humor never gets too campy but the film as a whole doesn't ever get deadly serious either. This is a great thing. I found myself giggling at the sight gags and fun ways they play against the gruesome imagery and story (how do you keep a severed head standing up in a pan versus rolling to its side? you'll find out) to keep things moving and keep the viewer comfortable. I think if the whole tone was all serious, no humor, West's fierce determined nutty-ness would get a little old but with that little valve release, his performance is classic.

I don't want to give away more than I have so I'll just close out by saying that this movie is pretty great if you can stand the really gross, splattery way it often goes. Considering the dinky budget and all else, they did a great job with a film that holds up amazingly well 26 years later.

Day 10: Chopping Mall (1986)

Chopping Mall / Kilbots (1986)
Starring: Kelli Maroney, Tony O'Dell, John Terlesky and an appearance by Dick Miller, Paul Bartel
Category: Boxes that scared me as a kid
Plot Tags: Robots, malfunction of some kind of other, campy
Original release: March, 1986
Format viewed: DVD - rented from Vulcan, naturally
Directed by: Jim Wynorski
Written by: Jim Wynorski & Steve Mitchell
Produced by: Julie Corman
Distributed by: Concorde Pictures

I've not, to this point, included much in the producing areas for the movies. Save for a few folks here and there that have some level of a track record, producers can as often be passionate movie people as they can be strange money launderers from Latvia. Nothing against Latvia, I just get the feeling like maybe shady money launderers come from there. That and potato pancakes. No wait, those are latkas. Off topic...my mentioning this is that this ridiculous film was produced by Julie Corman, Roger Corman's wife. Found that interesting.

Back to the task at hand. I feel like part of this thing that I'm doing is as a public service to friends and family. As in, I will watch some of these things so you don't have to (I'm looking at you, Abominable). In the case of Chopping Mall, this was one that I very quickly recalled as being a VHS box that scared the crap out of me. There was a robot/armor looking hand, a shopping bag full of body parts - yeesh. But as it turns out, it is a profoundly cheesy, ill-conceived film that pits a bunch of teenagers (you know, those 80s teenagers that all looked like they were in their late 20s) against some robots in a locked down mall overnight. The story basically is that a security company is pitching these security robots to be used at the mall for overnight watch. They have tazers and darts to subdue badguys until the police get there. The robots kind of look like a cross between those weird robot toys some kids had that you poured fuel into and they smoked/steamed, Johnny 5 from Short Circuit and a toaster.

On their first night on the job, a group of aged teenagers make a plan to stay in the furniture store for drinking and fun. A lightning storm strikes the building and frizzle fries the robots, turning them into killing machines. So they keep their general plan of protecting the mall - but in a much more murder-y way. I could go on for paragraphs about basic plot points and who gets got when, but it really boils down to the following line delivered by one of the actresses (can't remember which one, interchangeable really - might've been in a binder) after an outburst and argument:

"I'm sorry. I guess I'm just not used to being chased around the mall in the middle of the night by killer robots."

So there you go. That pretty much sums it up. There are a few great effect shots but all in all it was a bit of a chore to make it to the end. The writing was amusing at times (both intentionally and unintentionally) and with fun cameos by Paul Bartel (the bald bearded guy in nearly every 80s movie you barely remember) and Dick Miller (uncle in Gremlins among many many others) it isn't a completely useless movie if you've got an hour to kill and want to watch pissed off home appliances chase people around a dark mall in Los Angeles. Elsewise, I hope I'll be able to get you better fare moving forward. Considering I've got Blackula, Re-Animator, Man Bites Dog, We are what we are and Tomb of the Blind Dead coming up, I think you will.

Day 9: The Blob (1988)

The Blob (1988 - remake)
Starring: Kevin Dillon, Shawnee Smith, Donovan Leitch, Jeffrey DeMunn, Candy Clark, Joe Seneca
Category: Boxes that scared me as a kid
Plot Tags: thing from outer space, child(ren) in peril, monster
Original release: 2009 but actually 2012 (sort of)
Format viewed: DVD - rented from Vulcan, naturally
Directed by: Chuck Russell
Written by: Jack Harris, Frank Darabont
Distributed by: Tri-Star Pictures

So the 1957 version of The Blob (or the 3-4 other names it was known by) was a little silly but there was a singular focus of people versus the thing. In this 1988 version, a secondary horror is introduced that splits the focus between the creature itself and another menace for our heroes. I hate doing this but I think in order to talk about it, I'll have to lay out that part of it. Sorry.

So the film starts with a funny hobo sort of guy out in the woods doing hobo related things. A large meteor sails overhead and lands nearby. He goes to investigate and finds an encrusted thing with some goop bubbling and moving around just inside it. He pokes at it with a stick, the goop takes offense and latches onto the stick and then onto his arm. Thus starts the movie, zooming in on a football game complete with the jerk friend, the potentially decent friend, the cheerleaders etc etc complete with banter about dating girls and all the rest. We are then introduced to our hero, a wrong side of the tracks guy played by Kevin Dillon. More accurately by Kevin Dillon and his hair. Seriously, must see it to believe it. Anyway, my timeline here might be a little loose but all the parts are there. Dillon is confronted by the hobo guy in the process of trying to cut his hand off with the goop on it. The guy runs off and into the road where our potentially decent football player guy is on the date with the cheerleader (played by the Saw series' Shawnee Smith) are driving along (preceded by a really funny gag involving his jerk friend at the pharmacy buying condoms and confusion - very funny). They slam on the brakes, knock the hobo over and are confronted by Dillon's character. They decide to take him to the hospital. In the time it takes them to fill out forms, the hobo guy has been eaten in half by the goop and we lose another character.

I'm intentionally not saying what happens to who when because I found that to be a wonderful part of this film. They don't 100% play to expectation about order or fate and for that, I commend them. More often than not in the scary movie trade you can essentially look at a group of people and figure out who goes when. In 'The Blob' that isn't the case, so good on them.

From this point things just happen in a quick, frenzied way. We are introduced to people, the die. We think we've got it nailed for who does what when, and then the Blob comes and changes that plan. There are great scenes involving the jerk guy and his date out in the woods and their fate(s), the earnest sheriff, the cook at the diner and on from there. There was a decidedly 'tales from the darkside' feel about all of this, kind of one frenetic crazy thing after another. Guys in containment suits show up and start to corral all the townsfolk into one area and begin to pursue the creature. It becomes very quickly evident that they are not all in it for protecting people and are looking to weaponize the creature. A very great series of chase scenes in the sewers and woods add actual tension to the craziness which culminates with the final showdown with the creature. There is a classic classic scene in a movie theatre (which you've seen if you've gone to Alamo for an evening showing) which pays homage to the original along with people getting gotten in all manner of ways by the thing. As anyone knows, The Blob is no match for cold and they figure out a way to combat the monster and win the day.

Now, there is one injury (not death) that comes back around at the tail end of the film that I don't want to ruin. Not unlike the end of The Stuff, there is a darkly comic aspect to the ending(s) that is best enjoyed in the context of the movie itself. Not bleak like in The Omen but more kind of a nod to the EC comics of the 50s - that type of thing. Anyway, I found it amusing.

Overall, there is a good bit of grossness to the film with many people being eaten and attacked in a myriad of ways and a fair amount of tension in the sewers and alleys in the chase scenes but I wouldn't call it scary per se. It was fun and campy but again, I have to tease the young version of myself for being a scaredy-cat over it.

Day 8: The Hole (2012, or, 2009)

The Hole (2009 - released 2012)
Starring: Teri Polo, Haley Bennett, Bruce Dern, Chris Massoglia, Nathan Gamble, Dick Miller(!!!)
Category: New
Plot Tags: ghost, child(ren) in peril
Original release: 2009 but actually 2012 (sort of)
Format viewed: DVD - rented from Vulcan, naturally
Directed by: (the great) Joe Dante
Written by: Mark Smith
Distributed by: Bold Films, Big Air Studio

So, for many serious and meaningful reasons, there is no justice in the world. But for silly and superfluous reasons (like in the entertainment industry) there is no justice in the world. Case in point, Joe Dante. The man who brought us The Howling, Gremlins, Explorers, Innerspace, The 'Burbs and the Roger Corman classic, Piranha, seems to have trouble getting major projects done. This is speculation, of course, but it seems like his name isn't attached to many upcoming projects. Maybe freaking production companies can stop hiring music video and commercial directors with a perma-twitch and no discernible attention span to direct their projects and hire a damned legend instead. Might have better results. Ranting over.

Anyway, I've been waiting for an opportunity to see his latest project for some time now. It has been rumored for a release, then supposed to be included in this festival or that one and on and on from there. Finally it was released on VOD and DVD on October 2nd and I took the first chance I had to get ahold of it. God love Vulcan Video - they are the best. While the overall film is not without flaws, I absolutely loved the small touches that brought out the charm of the story in the form of family values and earnest healing in the face of loss.

The story surrounds a single mom, Susan (Teri Polo - Meet the Parents) moving to a new town in, essentially, middetown USA. Her boys, the younger Nathan and older and moody teenager Dane are adjusting in different ways. Nathan looking to his brother for fun and companionship and Dane bemoaning the move and leaving friends behind and all the rest. One of the many things I liked about the boys' relationship is that Dane is not all together cruel and mean and Nathan is not all together sweet and saccharine. That gets a little tired. Nathan is sweet but whip smart and Dane seems to see the world for what it is, despite not being what he wants. Also, Susan is not uber-mom either and is a bit scattered so, all in all, the family dynamic makes some sense and has depth. As she transitions to the new job, the boys are left to sort out their surroundings including a padlocked door in the floor of the cellar and a teenage girl next door. I rank these things together because for both the boys, these things represent fear and that is a overlying theme in the film. Julie (the next door girl - Haley Bennett) is quite friendly and once things start to go screwy after the basement door is opened, she becomes intricately involved. Bruce Dern makes an appearance as a former resident of the house with a thing for lightbulbs and the great Dick Miller makes an uncredited appearance that made me grin.

The middle part of the film gets slightly confusing because we're faced with possibly demonic toy (with direct or indirect homages to the Puppet Master films), a possible ghost girl and another menace. It is disorienting because you're thinking it is one thing, then it changes with little word as to why or what is next. This turns out to make more sense as the film gets into the final act but I've decided I don't want to go into what is going into or coming out of the hole and why. The more I've thought about it, the more I think it is just better to let things come together for you if you choose to see it. While one thematic element (personal fear) has been addressed many times, the theme of abuse in the context of a separated survivor felt more new.
I don't want to talk out my butt, but, I got the feeling that some decisions were budget based. There were some that were utterly charming (puppet stuff) and others that were a little much (backgrounds towards the end) but I guess because of the 3D aspect of it, they had to shoot digital. Personally, Id've loved for them to shoot on film because the unique way Dante arranges shots and works around objects gets lessened with the digital sheen. Again, I might be butt talking but some someone who handles the shots and assembles a film the way he does, I wished there was more natural ambiance and creepiness in the air. Regardless, you can see his touches throughout and it gave me a good bit of joy to find them. I loved that Dick Miller showed up briefly, however I wished he was delivering a smushed pie (a la Gremlins 2). Regardless, glad he was in there.

Bottom line, this is not a jump and scream and get nauseated type of movie. If you've got a 11-13 year old, they should be fine with it. The themes surrounding family and healing from loss and the direct nature of things like fault and abuse are good topics to discuss with children. All in all, this film didn't deserve the bouncing around that it has had over the last few years and I'm glad to have had a chance to see it. Here's hoping for more films by one of Corman's guys.