FIVE FILMS - SATURDAY MORNING MYSTERY, BENEATH, PACIFIC RIM, JUG FACE, ABSENCE

SATURDAY MORNING MASSACRE/MYSTERY

SATURDAY MORNING MYSTERY (Formerly known as SATURDAY MORNING MASSACRE) is a live action parody of Scooby Doo with sex, gore,  and a dog that is neither smart nor resourceful.  A very clever funny horror film that is not afraid to go there.

BENEATH

 I can forgive BENEATH for its b movie lack of logic (the teenagers in peril are never more than 20 feet feet from the shore) due to the film’s unpredictable plot and the non-CGI (monster is a model not computer generated) plus I am a sucker for lake cryptids.  Dumb but fun – the director I think is winking at the audience.

PACIFIC RIM

In the moments when the monsters and the robots are not on screen, PACIFIC RIM drags but when they are the child within me hollers his approval.   A rush like from five slurpees and a giant-sized Milky Way. The plot is secondary.  

JUG FACE

JUG FACE’S unabashed perversity and overall weirdness salvage it from b movie turf. Good flick with some good acting (Many of these actors were also in Lucky McKee’s THE WOMAN)

ABSENCE

ABSENCE is a complete waste of time.  I would like my 80 minutes back.  Don’t mind slow burner horror but only if there is a point which there isn’t here.  Crappy, stupid found footage film that resembles the last and worst segment of V/H/S 2.

THE BROOD AND THE EXPELLED AND CREATING YOUR OWN AVENGER

Samantha Eggar’s character in David Cronenberg’s THE BROOD gives birth to her own avengers as a result of an experimental psychiatric procedure.  The albino dwarves she gives birth to proceed to kill those who get between her and her teenage daughter.

THE EXPELLED finds David Schofield as a teacher who is a victim of violence by a student.  Not supported by his school, he loses his wife and the respect of his daughter and is one step away from being fired.  At that point, one evening, the school he works at is attacked by faceless, silent hoodie wearing teenagers(or beings might be a better description as do not know if they are in fact human) who start killing off people who have wronged him.  They are seemingly indestructible (until Schofield’s character kills one at the end) and have superhuman strength.

Although it is never stated (but hints are there), I believe these creatures are creations of his psyche just like The Brood was a creation of that female character’s fevered mind.  They are avengers and are seemingly temporary beings like the killer dwarves of Cronenberg’s film.

THE BROOD is a classic thriller eerie and disturbing with an intelligent plot showcasing an original idea.  THE EXPELLED is a decent thriller too short but tight and I liked the ending.

Why not create our own avenger like Black Sabbath’s Iron Man?  The creatures our own vengeful minds would come up with would be fearful indeed. 

KILLER PARTY AND TOTAL FILM'S LIST OF 50 AMAZING FILMS YOU'VE PROBABLY NEVER SEEN

An interesting list from Total Film http://www.totalfilm.com/features/50-amazing-films-you-ve-probably-never-seen/

I’m always looking for good unknown movies to see (finds I can write about).

I think I’ve probably seen about a third of these movies – COME AND SEE, THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE, A QUIET PLACE IN THE COUNTRY, THE POWER in particular are all films worthy of more attention.

But one film that they’d included  which is quite unlike any other film of its type (and which they correctly praise for its “Anything can happen” vibe) and which I am going to write about is KILLER PARTY.

It’s not a masterpiece but as I said it is a unique piece of work.  Not a slasher film at all but something that turns that genre so popular in the 1980’s inside out the way CABIN IN THE WOODS did recently but without as much fanfare.

For starters, this is a film that is clearly poking fun at itself.  Not only is the story going on but underneath is a current of self-reference, mockery perhaps but not constantly humorous

KILLER PARTY starts off with a five minute horror scene that turns out to be in a drive in movie watched by a young couple.  Their story which turns into another horror vignette turns out to be part of a music video which segues into the credits of the movie then the real story gets under way.

The plot is by the numbers.  College sorority house decides to hold a Halloween party for new initiates, other frats etc. at an abandoned frat house shut down years ago after the death of one of its members due to hazing.  Of course reopening the house means murders will occur but that’s the only predictable part of this film.

Not very many murders occur in the first hour (Only the two faculty advisers  but then there is one murder after another for the last 20 minutes which is not the way action usually unfolds in this type of film. 

About halfway through, the plot (Particularly what the threat is) goes in a much different direction and the last 15 minutes is like something from THE EVIL DEAD.  The ending is a black joke I didn’t see coming.

The fact that this film came out in the 1986 is part of the goof.  At times, it seems to be making fun of itself as if it was made sometime after the 80’s and is looking back and making fun of the fashions, the way people spoke and acted etc.

Like ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE which I wrote about here http://rgdinmalaysia.xanga.com/669813511/all-the-boys-love-mandy-lane/  the structure gets tweaked but there is a winking going in – The filmmaker winking at the audience so we are in on the joke.

     

THREE DOCUMENTARY FILMS ABOUT THE VIETNAM WAR - HEARTS AND MINDS, WINTER SOLDIER, IN THE YEAR OF THE PIG

Recently saw the documentary HEARTS AND MINDS which got me thinking about two other Vietnam War documentaries WINTER SOLDIER and IN THE YEAR OF THE PIG and how they compare and contrast with each other.

HEARTS AND MINDS, while perhaps the more well known film, is the least successful of the three.  It wants to be all things to all people starting off about how the US population was conditioned to be unquestioningly pro military no matter the nature of the struggle then going off on a number of tangents on history, on fighting, on life before returning to soldiers' suffering PTSD and crying as they relive their experiences in Vietnam.

When it is showing how Americans have been brainwashed for decades, the residual effect of the “good” war WWII, and how this brainwashing is connected to racism and xenophobia, the film works but in the end it tries to tackle too many themes and ends up with a wimpier, confused approach to a period of American history that demands directness and honesty.

 

WINTER SOLDIER is a much better film because it focuses on one specific facet of Vietnam – the atrocities committed by US troops.  Hearing and seeing the returned soldiers testify in shaky voices in front of the US Senate and in interviews about the kind of things they’ve done – shooting children, disembowelment, rape, is much more disturbing than seeing the actual acts recreated on film.

WINTER SOLDIER makes no effort to undercut soldiers’ statements with phony even-handedness.  The camera is relentless as it lingers on the naked horror of their statements.

IN THE YEAR OF THE PIG is the best of the three films and one of the best documentaries I've ever seen.  Shot from the viewpoint of The Vietnam War as a war of national liberation against colonialism from first The French then The Americans and Ho Chi Minh as comparable to George Washington, PIG does good job showing us the history of Vietnam.

It also shows us the racist attitudes that US servicemen had towards the Vietnamese….Not just the servicemen but even the high ranking officers.

Of particular interest is the segment where the Gulf of Tonkin incident is shown to be phony as to force the US into further war.  The comments of the two senators who voted against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, Wayne Morse and Ernest B Gruening, are eye opening.

I admit my own opinions are much like this movie.  I applaud the brave Vietnamese for standing up to imperialism and I believe American troops committed atrocities in Vietnam and should have faced a war crimes tribunal.

And as far as documentaries go those that try to be all things to all people are less successful than those that focus on one or two particular areas exploring them in greater detail. 

         

TWO FILMS - EUROPA REPORT, THE BUTTERFLY ROOM

I had high hopes for EUROPA REPORT after viewing the trailer.  I thought it might be a successful mix of close to scientifically accurate sci-fi and fantastic horror unlike the ridiculous and silly film of several years ago APOLLO 18.

It’s partly successful.  The first 2/3’s, told slightly out of chronological order, showing the space journey to Jupiter's moon Europa by a privately funded expedition and the pitfalls they encounter on the way and their landing on Europa are painstakingly crafted and very realistic.  It did feel like the documentary it was pretending to be.

However, after that they land, the film gradually switches gears into a found footage horror film.  This is where it breaks down.  The tense scenes showing a couple of the astronauts stalked by a glowing something under the ice are well handled but short. 

It all culminates in a disappointing ending in which extraterrestrial life is revealed to be a tired, cheap cliché.  Too bad….I guess it was like APOLLO 18 after all.    

THE BUTTERFLY ROOM functions as a showcase for horror queen Barbara Steele.  She dominates the film as the character and as a vessel of horror movie acting gravitas.

But there is more to this complex, intelligent tribute to 70’s pre- Giallo Euro horror.  It is full of unusual characters (one-legged prostitute) and really creepy scenes.  It’s not particularly gory but the violence when it does happen (almost all of it perpetrated by Steele) is shocking and savage.

There are not a lot of surprises.  It’s easy to guess what’s going on and what’s going to happen but that is part of the fun.  Takes place in Los Angeles but feels like a European film due to the atmosphere of decadence and cruelty.

SCIENCE VS FAITH IN THE FILM SUNSHINE

I’ve never been a big fan of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY despite its impressive visuals.  This is partly due to its fractured vignette type storyline but also due to its blurring of science and faith.  This undercuts the science in science fiction.

SUNSHINE is a film that gets the balance right by contrasting the indisputable nature of science fact through its level of detail of the rigors of space travel, of the spaceship itself against that of faith represented by the insane captain of a prior expedition.

The mission of both the current starship expedition and the prior one was to restart a dying sun with a giant hydrogen bomb and save the Earth from a fatal ice age.

From the moment this expedition veers off its course to explore the derelict ship of the old expedition (this in itself is an act of faith).  Disaster strikes.  The last 1/3 of the film turns into a horror movie because of the appearance of Pinbacker the captain of the prior ship who talks about having conversations with God and God’s will being the death of the human race.

When Pinbacker appears, he is blurry or in shade or otherwise distorted, this is partly to spare the audience the sight of his badly burned body but also because he’s a man who has become detached from reality, the reality of space, of physics etc. 

Science wins of course at the end.  The mission is accomplished.  The rules of the natural world apply.  Faith only exists to get in the way of science but is finally triumphed over by rational people.