Halloween Horrorfest 2018: THE HOWLING II: YOUR SISTER IS A WEREWOLF (a.k.a. HOWLING II: WEREWOLF BITCH 1985)

Remember how I referenced Philippe Mora the other day?  Welcome to the insanity that is his world.

I am not going to defend the quality of this film.  As with all of his films, it’s inept and sloppy and frequently illogical.  The editing is particularly bad, as Mora seems to randomly cut to objects, a creepy owl, parts of a performance by a band called Babel, and shots from earlier in the movie.  He also apparently never met a screen wipe he didn’t like, because this film is swimming with them.

But man, is there an energy to this film, especially in regards to the narrative flow.  Experiencing a Phillipe Mora movie is akin to listening to a story being made up on the fly by a school kid on a sugar rush.  You have to go into this acknowledging that stuff will happen because...reasons.  Why do werewolves explode when hit with vials of consecrated oil?  Reasons.  Why does Sybil Danning decide to wear a really uncomfortable looking plastic Sci-Fi Queen outfit?  Reasons.  Why does the knife wielding dwarf come back from the dead to attack Christopher Lee?  Reasons.  Why are some werewolves immune to silver, but vulnerable to titanium?

...you get the idea.

Trying to summarize this film is pointless.  The Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf (the script, by Robert Sarno and Howling author Gary Brandner, has characters recite that subtitle three times) is best experienced by letting it wash over you.  Just let yourself be taken over by the sudden shifts in tone and narrative digressions and enjoy yourself.  This is the kind of movie where one shot of Sybil Danning, playing the alternate titular werewolf bitch Stirba, baring her breasts is intercut repeatedly by reaction shots from the film in some bizarre  Eisensteinian experiment.

This is the second movie Mora made with Christopher Lee, who stands out by classing up the joint and giving credible readings to actively stupid lines.  He definitely stands out in contrast to co-leads Reb Brown and Annie McEnroe, who are wooden enough to be cut into 2x4s, and the legion of Czech actors speaking phonetically.  The werewolf characters are goofy, mainly played by guys in ape suits because there’s apparently an ‘evolution’ you go through the longer you are a werewolf.

And then there’s the Furry Werewolf Sex Scenes.  There are...quite a bit of those.  There’s one sequence where Stirba, who Mora describes as ‘bi-curious’ engages in a threesome with her two henchpeople that seems to last for hours, and a big ol’ Furry Werewolf Orgy filled with bare-breasted gals dressed in black leather fetish wear.  When we see main henchperson Marianna (played by the quite striking Marsha A. Hunt) lounging around the Werewolf Castle, she’s wearing a dress that bares one of her breasts like Janet Jackson after a duet with Justin Timberlake.  Hell, when we see the werewolf cult conducting their ceremonies to transform an aged hag into Sybil Danning, they all dress in black leather fetish wear.  I can’t help thinking that Mora was working out some sort of deep sexual kink in this movie--he is reported to have said the whole film was inspired by ‘New Wave Eroticism.’

I know it sounds like I’m bagging on this movie, but I’m anything but.  It is glorious and I enjoy it thoroughly.  It’s not my favorite of Mora’s work--I would place The Return of Captain Invincible and The Howling III: The Marsupials higher in my esteem.  But it is a wonderful example of how appealingly...alien...his work can be.

I recommend it, as long as you understand this is not to be judged by the Hollywood Movie Ruler.  It is possible for a movie to be objectively bad, but also be validly entertaining, fun and engaging in an unironic way.  And here, my friends, is your proof.

You can still head over to my Twitter Page to vote in The Back From The Dead Grand Finale Poll to determine what I watch today.  And please let me know if you would like me to do something like this--not on a daily basis, but maybe bi-weekly--where I conduct a poll to dictate what I watch, 'cause it's been fun.

Well, maybe not the day I had to watch The Mummy.  That sucked.

Halloween Horrorfest 2018: THE MUMMY (2017)

You really hate me, don’t you?

There are so many problems with this film...but the fundamental problem with The Mummy is that it’s a superhero movie with a sheet over its head in an attempt to make us believe it’s a horror movie.

Now don’t get me wrong--there is a history of making mummy movies that aren’t really horror movies.  1999‘s The Mummy is really an adventure film in the Indiana Jones tradition bolstered by the charm of Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz.  But this movie doesn’t even try to hide its intentions; the only purpose of The Mummy is to give us the origin story of Tom Cruise’s character--let’s call him Bandage Man--and set up story threads for the ‘Dark Universe.’  Nothing else matters.  There’s no characterization, no sense of the world existing beyond this story, no atmosphere, nothing.  It’s a bunch of promises of future thrillers filled out with bits and pieces culled from other movies designed to give you a vague memory of enjoyment through a thorough Husker-duing.

More importantly, it’s a film that doesn’t trust you to pay attention.  We are given roughly fifteen minutes of solid exposition right up front, and before that exposition about Sofia Boutella’s character--let’s call her Hottie HoTep--is over, we’re getting flashbacks to things we just saw.  Instead of assuming we’re smart enough to make the connections in the plot, director Alex Kutrzman (of the unholy duo of Kurtzman and Orci) accompanies Every Reference To Hottie HoTep And Her Plans with a flashback to that first fifteen minutes.  It becomes tiresome long before the film hits the halfway mark...

...and stumbles into another Big Bout of Exposition, only this one is far worse.  This is the Exposition Dump that sets up the Prodigium, the SHIELD stand-in for the ‘Dark Universe,’ The film pretty much stops and luxuriates in its World Building Porn as Russell Crowe’s Dr. Jeckyll fills Bandage Man on this 'world of gods and monsters’ (fuck you for quoting a classic line from a classic film for this crap, Kurtzman).  There’s a pointless parade of Easter Eggs, an even more pointless fight between Crowe and Cruise, some pep talk from Annabelle Wallis’ useless cardboard stand-in for Maria Hill--let’s call her Blondie McBlandhammer--before we get to the next action set piece and the story starts up again.  You could excise this whole sequence with some minor rewriting and get back twenty minutes or so of our lives.

This movie commits the worst sin any movie can commit--it’s boring.  And that’s because you see the moving parts and not the story.  All throughout the film, I was reminded of other films this one is cribbing from and thinking to myself, ‘I’d rather watch that film.’  And considering one of those films it cribs from is Lifeforce, which I think is the epitome of Rock Stupid, that’s saying a lot.

I have affection for a number of bad movies because at least they try on some level.  I know people look at me askance for defending Jason Goes To Hell or the films of Phillipe Mora, but there’s a lunatic energy and creativity on display that can be appreciated.  Even derivative crap like Zombie Hunter has some misguided attempts at style.  The Mummy has none of these redeeming qualities.  It’s the Meh-est of Meh.

I would only recommend this to my worst enemies.  Or the worst enemies of my worst enemies.

You can still head over to my Twitter Page to vote on tomorrow’s Halloween Horrorfest Movie of the Day.  It’ll be the last Poll before the Back From The Dead Grand Finale to determine what I watch on Halloween Night.  Stick with me.  You owe me for making me watch this.

Halloween Horrorfest 2018: THE BLOOD ON SATAN’S CLAW (1971)

This weekend, one of my twitter friends opened up a conversation about what was The Greatest British Horror Film Ever Made.  His nominee was The Descent, a movie I’m very fond of that made me a fan of Neil Marshall for life.  While I admitted my love of the film, I pointed out that Britain has such a long history of horror films that it was sort of short-sighted to declare it The Greatest Ever Made.  My friend mentioned that a lot of the people responding to his statement cited The Wicker Man, and I agreed with that and added this movie as a possible candidate as well.

This is, along with the Vincent Price starrer The Witchfinder General, the crown jewel in the crown of Tigon.  In the past, I’ve called Tigon the mentally challenged younger brother of Hammer and Amicus, because their features were, well, goofy (ask me to tell you about the one featuring the bloodsucking were-moth).  This film is anything but goofy, however--it’s a creepy little number filled with ‘that guy’ British actors that manages to create a veracity and sense of chaotic, uncontrolled dread.

The chaos comes, I think, from the fact that this was originally an anthology film.  If you keep in mind that co-writer/director Piers Haggard had already started shooting the movie when the studio demanded that he turn the three tales into a single narrative story, you can sort of see what the stories were going to be--but unifying them gives you a sense that something is consistently wrong in this little town, sliding its fingers into different spaces all at once.

The film bills Patrick Wymark and Linda Hayden equally before the title card, and it’s well-deserved.  Wymark’s The Judge (we never really learn much about this character, save that he was once sweet on a woman in this unnamed village) is a compelling character that really leaves its mark on the film, even during the long stretch in the second act where he’s missing.  And Linda Hayden is absolutely spectacular as the villain, Angel Blake.  A stunningly beautiful blonde, Hayden plays the leader of a satanic cult of children, and her charisma is front and center.  You believe that the kids would follow this girl and engage in some horrific acts--including murder and supernatural incest rape--at her behest.  Even in the final act, where she’s saddled with some ridiculous black crepe eyebrows, you just can’t take your eyes off her.

There’s lots of other great character actors playing the Hell out of their roles (I'd single out Barry Andrews, Wendy Padbury, Michele Dotrice, and Anthony Ainley), and they all contribute to creating a coherent reality that makes the goings-on all the more scary.  This feels like a real, living village, which amplifies the horror.  And Haggard, frequently using natural lighting and ambient sound, knows how to build suspense while emphasizing the sense of place.  It’s a magnificent experience--and I can say definitively that it holds up to repeated viewing.  I somehow end up watching this film once a year. and I always enjoy it.

The Blood on Satan’s Claw was made during the tail end of The Golden Age of British Horror, where the studios struggled to make their gothic sensibilities relevant in the face of the increasingly extreme cinema coming out of the United States...which is probably why it may have fallen through the cracks for years.  Obviously, I recommend this film.  I’d even go so far as to say it’s an essential film for horror fans.

You can still head over to my Twitter Page to vote on tomorrow’s Halloween Horrorfest Movie of the Day.  It’ll be the last Poll before the Back From The Dead Grand Finale to determine what I watch on Halloween Night.  Stick with me and make your voice heard!

Meanwhile, Over At Dread Media....#583

It’s the week of Halloween, which means Thanksgiving isn’t far off, and then we have to deal with Christmas.  What better time to look at an anthology of horror films set during the....holidays?  Join Des and Duane as they review Holidays, a film that a whole slew of directors got together on looking at the major holidays of the year through a dark and grim lens.  Then Rich The Monster Movie Kid reaches the end of his journey with the last film in The Bloodthirsty Trilogy, The Evil of Dracula.

The trailers for both films are below, as is a song from a band called Holidays In Hell.

Listen to Dread Media #583 here

Halloween Horrorfest 2018: WITCHBOARD (1986)

I’m not sure when I saw this originally.  I know it was on video, and I’m sure it was before she made her big splash writhing on top of a car for then-husband John Coverdale, so we’re talking roughly thirty years ago.  But I know it was the film that made me fall in love with Tawny Kitean, and probably jump started one of my sexual turn-ons...but I’ll get to that later.

Watching it now, I have to report that Witchboard does not hold up as well as I thought it would.  The film is populated by some wretched male actors--the two leads, who we’re supposed to be treating as the protagonists, are selfish douchenozzles who emote woodenly, and the characters surrounding them are one dimensional jokes.  It could easily lose a half hour, including an entire subplot about a cop who wants to be a magician.  It’s awkwardly paced, and contains ‘twists’ that are badly handled and make no sense.  This experience makes me actively wonder if I overestimated Kevin S. Tenney as a director overall...Hell, I’m almost afraid to revisit what is probably his masterpiece, Night of the Demons.

What charm the film has lies in its female actors--not just Kitean, but Kathleen Wilhoite, who plays the small role of New Wave Valley Girl Medium Zarabeth.  Wilhoite is a comic relief/designated victim character which should annoy me to no end (her ‘psychic humor’ came close to making me want to punch her), but she brings a real laid-back energy to a film where the two leads leech all the fun out of this flick.  And while I don’t think Kitean was ever going to win an Oscar (or, more appropriately after seeing her shower scene, a Golden Globe--I’m going to drive this joke into the ground...), she has a charisma that shines through even when she doesn’t quite sell her sudden personality changes.  To be fair, there’s not much to her character--she’s there to be acted upon, not to act--but she does what she can with what little she has.

...I should probably also mention her far-too-short ‘possessed by an axe murdering sorcerer’ scene at the very end.  She’s genuinely great in that scene, and it makes me curious to see the scene without Tenney’s overmodulation of her voice.  Plus she’s dressed in a black men’s suit, a dress shirt and tie and looks spectacular.  Seeing this scene for the first time made me have a perchance for women in suits that influence me to this day.  So women, if you wanted to know how to dress to turn me on...now you know.

I’m hesitant to recommend this now that I’ve viewed it with fresh eyes.  I know that critic William Bibbiani recommends this whenever the Ouija movies come up, but I think that says more about the Ouija movies than about this one.  Of course, if you think Tawny Kitean was the height of 80‘s sexiness, then this film will satisfy.  Use your discretion.

You can still head over to my Twitter Page to vote on tomorrow’s Halloween Horrorfest Movie of the Day.  We’re only a few scant days to the finish line, so your chances to dictate my fate are diminishing.  There’s even a choice you can make if you want to hurt me emotionally!

P.S.--Here's the cover art for a later video release in Britian...is it just me, or was the artist trying to convince us Karen Gillan was somehow involved with this film--a full year before she was born?  That would've been spooky....

Halloween Horrorfest 2018: TOURIST TRAP (1979)

I haven’t watched this one is a long time--the last time I think I saw it was on an episode of USA Up All Night at least two decades ago...or I think it was USA Up All Night; I’m really unsure as to that fact.

But boy, did I remember it...one scene in particular stuck with me for a long time.  And watching it now, it still has its charms, even if it’s not as super-scary as I once thought it was.

This is the first collaboration between producer Charles Band, who would go on to create Full Moon Features, and writer/director David Schmoeller, who would go on to create the Puppet Master series.  It actually serves as a template for the Full Moon ‘brand,’ for even though this film is self-consciously Psycho-esque--If you’ve ever wondered what Norman Bates would be like if he was telekinetic and had a thing for creepy-ass mannequins, this is for you--there’s a large dollop of Quirk spread liberally throughout the film’s 85 minutes running time.  Every time you think you’ve got this film figured out, Smoeller cuts to a scene where the designated slasher ‘Davey’ is having a meal and a conversation with one of his mannequin ‘family’ that sets you off-kilter.

There’s no characterization of the quartet (it used to be a quintet, but the other male in the group is killed in the opening sequence) of young people who end up at ‘Slausen’s Lost Oasis’ save for the fact that two of the three girls wear shorts and skimpy tops, whereas the other one wears a knee-length white dress and heels.  Not surprisingly, it seems that Molly, the girl in the white dress, is our Designated Final Girl and it’s a pity, because she’s played by Jocelyn Jones, an actress whose only technique is to bug out her eyes and whine.  She’s not as vibrant as either Eileen (‘Robin Sherwood’--I’m sorry, but I don’t believe she was born with that name) and Becky (Tanya Roberts, who wears the most heroically revealing-while-still-appearing modest tube top and apparently hates shoes), and I think that’s more the actresses and the outfits themselves instead of the characterization.  They’re there just so we have a kill every twenty minutes or so, and to discover things about the plot, some of which never go anywhere (that realistic-feeling mannequin of Slausen’s dead wife that may be the actual wife stuffed and mounted?  Never addressed...)

But the weirdness of the film serve to keep it watchable.  Schmoeller taps into our innate distrust of mannequins, and frequently cuts to shots of the many statues moving ever-so-slightly, or appearing in one shot then disappearing in the next.  ‘Davey’ himself is a pretty compelling slasher, with his mannequin masks and propensity for switching personalities at a drop of a hat, even though his true nature is apparent very early on. And there’s a point in the last act where Schmoeller washes his hands of any logic in favor of total surrealism.  It also helps that Chuck Conners is largely responsible for much of the weirdness, as the man seems to be having a ball exploding his on-screen persona.  Tourist Trap’s running time is just short enough that the wild switches in tone doesn’t interfere with us enjoying the film.

Wait, what?  That scene...it’s shorter than I remembered it being, and I didn’t remember that the victim’s friends are forced to watch the kill, but it’s still effective.  It involves a lot of Plaster of Paris and the death isn’t for the reason you thought it would be.  I don’t want to go into details, as it’s the centerpiece of the movie, but it’s real scary on its own.

I would recommend this film, especially if you’re interested in the history of indie horror.  It’s a chance to see a major player in the direct-to-video horror boom of the late 80‘s and 90‘s in its nascent form.  And it’s got One Great Scene.

You can still head over to my Twitter Page to vote on tomorrow’s Halloween Horrorfest Movie of the Day.  There’s only two votes as of this writing, so there’s a chance your vote will be a tie-breaker.  There’s even a choice you can make if you want to hurt me emotionally!

Halloween Horrorfest 2018: JOHNNY GRUESOME (2018)

Through the first act of this Greg Lamberson joint, I wasn’t sure what exactly the tone of the movie was.  There was a feeling that maybe Lamberson was taking this very basic story--guy gets  generally tormented, guy gets killed, guy’s death is made to look like an accident, guy comes back, guy gets revenge on those who tormented him and killed him in life--too seriously. 

And then there’s this glorious scene where two gravediggers bitch about their lives while Johnny’s corpse comes stumbling across the background.

What Lamberson has done is what some of the goofsin the Neo-Grindhouse movement (like the guy who made frickin’ Zombie Hunter) wishes they could--he’s recreated the first effort in an 80‘s slasher franchise.  The film wears its low budget nature as a badge, sticks with practical effects, and concentrates on creating a monster that can be used again and again in subsequent Johnny Gruesome films (presumably with diminishing returns).  This is a film that embraces grindhouse sensibilities and creates a scenario that fits in well right next to the Mary Lou Maloneys and Angelas of 80‘s horror cinema.



Based on Lamberson’s novel of the same name, the emphasis of this film is on telling a story as opposed to emulating the Grimy Cool that wasn’t necessarily always there in actual Grindhouse Cinema.  Quite the opposite, in fact--Lamberson manages to make the gore and carnage fun (how can you not when there’s a scene where Johnny Gruesome suffocates his high school principal with a bag full of his own guts?) while also emphasizing the horror of what is happening.  This film knows that the humor stands out more when it’s used sparingly, picking and choosing the best spots for it. 

There are some problems with the film.  I wasn’t quite sold on Anthony De La Torre’s take on Johnny; he doesn’t quite attain the level of menace I think was needed to sell me on his character.  Two relationships central to the plot aren’t quite developed enough, leading to set pieces (including one that is supposed to provide our hero’s motivations in the final act) that don’t quite make sense.  And the mythology needed a little more heft (Why does running water hurt a revenant?  We’re never told, and it nags throughout the rest of the narrative.).

I do want to point out some of the other actors, who are genuinely good.  Playing the villain, Chris Modrzynski acquits himself quite nicely--of course, it helps that he has one of the most punchable faces I’ve ever seen.  When she’s called upon to play someone crushed by PTSD into numbness in the second half, the singularly named AprilAnn is pretty decent.  Michael DeLorenzo looks at first to be a cardboard Deadbeat Dad, but reveals some nuance in the character after Johnny is killed.  And I would be remiss if I did not mention Jon Cesar, who gets one of the biggest laughs in the second of his two scenes as the comic shop/coffee bar/model kit store...to be honest, I’m not sure what the business model of that place is...Blind Bill.  These performances help bolster the film when it sags, and gives it a momentum it might not otherwise have.

I would recommend this film, especially if you want to understand what a real grindhouse experience is like. 

You can still head over to my Twitter Page to vote on tomorrow’s Halloween Horrorfest Movie of the Day.  I am most likely going to hibernate for several days come November 1st, so enjoy this final stretch!

Halloween Horrorfest 2018: FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN (1943)

This is a really important film because it’s the first time I know of where a movie studio acknowledged two of its characters existed in the same continuum.  We look around the firmament nowadays and see everyone--including the failed attempt by Universal to make this magic happen again--trying to desperately create their own ‘Cinematic Universes,’ and these attempt always forget what this film taught us...namely, that these things have to happen organically and not be forced into existence.  The Universal of the 30‘s and 40‘s didn’t plan for this to happen.  It just did.

And that’s probably why this film seems so...ordinary.  An argument can be made that this actually marks the beginning of the end of the Universal Age of Horror.  It’s just business as usual, with the crossover marking a desperation for a sequel.  There’s not much to say about this film.

The thing I took away from this re-watch is how interesting Lon Chaney Jr.’s physicality is.  We sometimes look at the acting in these films as lame and over-the-top; I have vivid memories of Chaney’s Lawrence Talbot being a running gag on the cartoon series Freakazoid.  But it seems to me that Chaney put a lot of thought into how to play this role.  I got the sense that his Talbot is a man in a constant state of holding back because he’s intimate with the beast within.  And when Chaney is the Wolfman, he’s in a constant state of motion, as if the beast is intent on making the most out of his release.  Chaney--who bears the distinction of playing four out of the five major Universal Monsters--is probably the best part of the film.

Lugosi, however, is another story.  I can’t get over
how tired Bela looks playing the role he initially turned down because he would have no dialogue.  I felt sad for this Frankenstein Monster, and not for the reason I usually feel sad for him.  All that make-up doesn’t hide the fact that Lugosi seems miserable playing second fiddle to Chaney and his displeasure interferes in my enjoyment of the all-too-brief climactic confrontation.

I do think you should see this film if you’re interested in the history of our genre, or if you are into the Universal Monster Cycle.  You just have to be prepared to accept that by this time, series fatigue had set in and what you’re going to watch is more of a comedown after the sublime gothic heights of the beginning.

You can still head over to my Twitter Page to vote on tomorrow’s Halloween Horrorfest Movie of the Day.  We’re now less than a week to the finish line.  The Big Finale is coming up, so be sure to be part of the ride!

Halloween Horrorfest 2018: SEE NO EVIL 2 (2014)

When I was living in Ridgewood, I used to frequently visit the K-Mart on Metropolitan Avenue and then go to the nearby Arby’s for lunch.  One of the joys of these visits was sorting through the five and ten dollar DVD bins and finding cheap-ass ‘instant collections.’  Sure, most of these were questionable grey-market slapdash things from second rate imprints like Echo Bridge and Mill Creek...but you also got 4-film collections from actual studios.  That’s how I ended up with a copy of See No Evil, a slasher film from Lionsgate and the ‘Is that still around?’ subdivision of WWE, WWE Films.  It was on a collection with both Stir of Echoes* films, and that’s why I bought it.

See No Evil...is a really, really bad film.  It’s also one of the filthiest, and not because it’s rude or directed by porn auteur Gregory Dark; it takes the grimy aesthetic of that first, iconic Saw and goes way overboard with it.  I swear, it looks like you’re watching the entire film through a thick sluice of garbage water. 

See No Evil 2 is directed by The Great and Terrible Soska Sisters--who pretty much should be declared my Queens of Halloween 2018 between this and American Mary--and is an improvement.  For most of its run time, it’s a vast improvement because Jen and Sylvia know they’re making a VOD genre flick, embrace that aesthetic, cast the film with charismatic actors, and just. Let. Fly.

This is an energetic, fun slasher sequel that has almost nothing in its head but to be entertaining.  Sure, the last fifteen minutes may slow down too much--pretty much after one very shocking twist--but the Soskas keep the pace going and finds inventive ways to keep interest.  It helps that the script by Nathan Brooks and Bobby Lee Darby spends time with our six pack of potential dead meat; in ten minutes, I feel I know more about the characters than I did about the faceless actors that were stalked and slashed in the original during its whole running time.  Setting their scenario in a morgue gives us some novel-looking weapons for Goodnight to wield.  Hell, there’s even a plausible reason for this slasher to use his signature hooks...and a novel way to incorporate them.

I do want to single out Katharine Isabelle, who is so on point here.  Playing the Kinky Girl in some sort of weird pseudo-school girl outfit, she does some things that are patently ridiculous like wiggling on top of Goodnight’s corpse to entice her boyfriend, then spends the bulk of the film literally running and screaming in a way that’s knowingly comic.  Every second she’s on screen is a joy, and I think it should be Law that Isabelle appear in every Soska Sisters film from now on; hell, put her in a little postage-stamp sized picture frame in the lower left hand corner having lunch or something in Rabid...

Not that the other actors are without merit.  Danielle Harris and Kaj-Erik Eriksen provide an excellent spine as the lead couple, and the rest manage to breathe life in what could otherwise have been two-dimensional stereotypes--you know, like in the first one.

However, this is not an unqualified rave.  Brooks and Darby do seem to fall prey to the Rob Zombie Halloween trope of trying to make our villain ‘understandable.’  Glenn Jacobs’ Goodnight was this silent, monolithic presence in the first film, but here our writers seem insistent on casting the killer as a....product of abuse?  They even have Jacobs speak in spots, which doesn't feel right.  Don’t get me wrong--I used to watch WWE when Jacobs was doing a lot of speaking as his in-ring character Kane and found him an engaging performer (He even had a propensity for comedy, which I found pretty amazing)...but a character like Jacob Goodnight should be a force of nature, a human-shaped grizzly bear, and not have the audience’s sympathy.  And the film could have done without the John Carpenter-esque last five or so minutes; I understand it is to give us a breather before the credits roll, but the shot outside at the gates of the morgue which reveals the fate of our Survivor would have been the perfect ending.

See No Evil made me want to forget that I spent approximately a dollar and a quarter in obtaining this.  See No Evil 2...made me glad I took the time to watch it.  If WWE Films decided to continue the franchise, I wouldn’t complain, especially if the Soskas or somebody with a similar energy and sense of humor helmed it.

You can still head over to my Twitter Page to vote on tomorrow’s Halloween Horrorfest Movie of the Day.  I’d really appreciate your vote tonight, since as of this writing only one person has chimed in.  The Big Finale is coming up, so be sure to be part of the ride!

*--Yes, there was a Stir of Echoes 2.  No, you do not want to see it.  It’s truly low-budget wretchedness.

Halloween Horrorfest 2018: SLEEPY HOLLOW (1999)

I grew up during the slow, last gasping breaths of Hammer Studios.  Much like the Universal Monster Cycle defined what cinematic horror was to my mother’s generation, my perception of what a horror movie was was defined by that little English studio.  The lushness, the now-quaint sort of sexuality, the low budget period detail--the fate of Hammer was sealed when their American distributors put pressure on them to set their films in the modern day--all meant horror to me.

Apparently, Hammer meant horror to Tim Burton, because Sleepy Hollow is his attempt to do a Hammer film if it was set in America with a much bigger budget.  Hell, the pre-credit sequence starts with Christopher Lee pretty much handing the reins of the film over to Johnny Depp...you know, just in case you didn’t get the concept right off the bat.  And viewed on that basis, it works.

Not that everything does work.  This was made at a point in Depp’s career where the line between character and caricature was beginning to blur, and what is mainly a fairly interesting performance is frequently sabotaged by ‘fear’ acting that seems to come out of Old Dark House comedies.  Every time he mugs for the camera, he tears himself out of the film, creating a clash between the film’s reality and our own suspension of disbelief.  Burton spends an awful lot of time recreating that sort of fairy-tale ‘neverwhere’ ambiance that the best Hammer films had; in an instance, Depp destroys that ambiance for a few moments.  It’s almost as if he didn’t get the memo.
 

The film is almost painstaking in its recreation of the Hammer  aesthetic.  The village the film takes place in is populated by ‘I know that guy’ actors, including a few like Lee and Michael Gough who appeared in the real thing, there’s that eerie sense that this film takes place somewhere outside of reality, the monster (played silently and magnificently by Christopher Walken) is distinct...and more importantly, it doesn’t feel like playacting like other ‘recreations’  (I’m looking at you, neo-Grindhouse).  Of the younger actors, Christina Ricci seems to grasp what Burton is getting at the most, providing a little nuance while also recognizably being there to be decorative as most Hammer Horror Beauties were.  And the special effects manage to be modern while still feel...quaint, being bloody and wild without being gross-out gory.

I can see why Burton did this film when he did.  He was taking advantage of the post-Scream boom in horror to fashion a real love letter to a style of cinema he truly loved.  I loved the Hammer style as well, so for 90% of the film, it worked very well for me.  I just wish Depp’s more winky, self-conscious style could be more integrated to make Sleepy Hollow more immersive.

Even with my misgivings about Depp’s performance, I would recommend this film.

You can still head over to my Twitter Page to vote on tomorrow’s Halloween Horrorfest Movie of the Day.  In today’s poll, I’m pitting present Horrorfest Champions The Great and Terrible Soska Sisters against The Also Great and Actually Quite Amiable Gregory Lamberson--although for some reason Jenn and Sylvia seem to be saving all their smack talk for Ryan Reynolds.  There’s a little over a week before the Big Finale, so be sure to be part of the ride!

Meanwhile, Over At Dread Media....#582

We’ve got a clinical bent to this week’s episode.  First up, Des and I review a film called, appropriately enough, Clincal, where a PTSD-ed Vinessa Shaw endeavors to return to her normal life but has some issues with a patient she’s treating.  Then a doctor travels to a Japanese lakeside village to investigate a rash of vampiric murders as Rich The Monster Movie Kid covers the middle chapter of The Bloodthirsty Trilogy, Lake of Dracula!

The trailers are below as always, as is a music video from a band called Clinical Trials, a female electro-grunge duo (their words, not mine)!  They're pretty okay, and they've got two albums available as 'name your price' on Bandcamp.


Listen to Dread Media #582 here

Halloween Horrorfest 2018: IT FOLLOWS (2014)

I actually tried to watch this film on Netflix once before, but sort of stopped bothering about twenty or so minutes in.  I don’t know why; I don’t recall thinking it sucked, I just never went back after watching the opening act.  So when I decided to choose this as the Witney Seibold entry of today’s Special Critically Accclaimed*  Themed Halloween Horrorfest Poll, it was so that I would have an opportunity to try again, an opportunity that would force me to watch it to the end. 

I’m kinda glad I did.  Don’t get me wrong; I’m not willing to declare this a Modern Day Classic like some people have.  I am willing to declare it a subtle, quiet and engaging little film.

One of the reason I like It Follows is because it’s so quiet.  Our cast, led by Maika Monroe, never loses sight of the fact that, as young adults, they’re maybe not equipped to deal with this situation.  They do conduct some research, but only receive the most general and vague of answers--there’s this thing that is transmitted through sexual contact, it follows you, only you can see it, it can appear to be anyone, when it catches you it gets messy and...that’s it.  Their solution seems desperate and half-assed, and it doesn’t necessarily work.  Then they panic and end up doing what was suggested to them in the first place, and even then the danger might not be over (quite the opposite; the final few shots imply they put all this effort in for nothing).  There’s no punch-the-air empowerment moment, no ‘wise man/woman’ with the expository information the protagonists need to defeat the beast, no pithy catch phrase the heroine uses as she vanquish the boogeyman...just a brief respite from feeling besieged.  As such, this film feels a little more real than the usual stuff that qualifies as mainstream horror.

Writer/Director David Robert Mitchell knows he’s making the equivalent of a ghost story, and he paces it deliberately, and it benefits the story.  I felt that the story was taking its time to unfold without ever seeming to drag.  He also takes full advantage of the Detroit setting, so that when our crew ventures into a run-down area of the city in the last act, it feels like they’re journeying to a crumbling gothic realm.  There’s a certain veracity he maintains that bolsters his cast’s performances and helps enhance the feel that This Is Really Happening.

This is an interesting film.  As I said earlier, it’s not this Great Document of Indie Horror, but it is a compelling watch that will provide you with enough entertainment for an hour and three quarters.  I do recommend this film.

You can still head over to my Twitter Page to vote on tomorrow’s Halloween Horrorfest Movie of the Day.  There’s still ten days until this little adventure in crowdsourced movie watching is over, and I’m determined to see it through to the end.  And given that, as of this writing, there’s only one vote in tomorrow’s poll, I encourage you all to participate.

*--if you are not listening to Critically Acclaimed or its sister podcast, Canceled Too Soon, you need to start.  Seibold and his co-host William Bibbiani are fun to listen to, insightful and interesting...and they’re horror-positive.

Halloween Horrorfest 2018: RABID (1977)

Just like our last entry, you should thank The Great and Terrible Soska Sisters for this discussion.  Jen and Sylvia are presently remaking this Cronenberg entry with Laura Vandervoot (a beautiful young woman whose career seems inextricably linked to Supergirl--she played the character in Smallville and was one of the major villains during the first season of the present TV series) playing the Marilyn Chambers role of Rose.  One of the things I appreciated about American Mary was the shrewd casting sense the Sisters seem to have, and I have faith that Vandervoot will be an improvement over Chambers.

Not that I am going to blame Chambers for anything.  A lot of reviews I have read of this film criticize the former porn star for her performance, and it’s not that she’s bad or that she’s there just for the copious nudity; it’s that Rose isn’t really a character.  There are very few attempts throughout Cronenberg’s script to give the people in it any back story or personality, which results in them being cyphers. We have no sense of who is related to who except when one of the character expressedly states what these relationship are.  It’s kinda funny that Joel Silver’s aptly named Murray Cypher is a background character, and yet seems the most realized--which, oddly enough, is why his fate has the most impact.

It’s the one thing I found most frustrating about the film--that this was obviously made before Cronenberg was able to integrate the plot with the story.  Without characters I could relate to, I felt a strange detatchment with what was going on in the movie.  I ended up watching this as a document of a disaster and not a narrative film, and it works very well on that level.  I can’t help but think that Cronenberg had Night of the Living Dead on his mind, as there are little fiddly bits like the ambient news reports that echo Romero’s classic.  By the time the weird, lumpen proto-John Cusak hero (Frank Moore) is driving through an infected Montreal’s streets, disturbingly empty save for the stray rabid victim and army sharpshooter, the sense of things being totally out of control is more effective than the shaky-cam reeling its way through a rioting mob many a recent film has given us.  Taking it as a record of an epidemic, Rabid is actually kind of fascinating.

Rabid was only Cronenberg’s fourth feature-length film (I am counting Crimes of the Future and Stereo, which I did see at the Museum of the Moving Image some time ago), and it seems to me that Rabid is mostly a plot that isn’t connected up with its story.  Luckily for us, Cronenberg finally got that balance right in his next horror film, The Brood, which is one of my favorites.  As it stands, Rabid is more interesting than engaging, and is best approached as the last step before Cronenberg perfected his mix of emotional and clinical horror.  I do recommend it.

You can still head over to my Twitter Page to vote on tomorrow’s Halloween Horrorfest Movie of the Day.  You can even vote in today’s poll as of this writing for the next two hours.  I’ve kept the pace of a movie a day even though I sometimes posted two days’ worth of articles in a row.  I don’t plan on letting up until Halloween Day’s Special Last Chance Poll.

And a special thank you to the Great and Terrible Soska Sisters, who energized the polls for the last two days.  Go visit their Twitter Page to keep up with the fun things they're doing. 

Jen, Sylvia...I’m glad we’re buddies.