FOUR FILMS - SLASHER HOUSE, RAPTUREPALOOZA, AFTERSHOCK, THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE

SLASHER HOUSE

A credible well-thought out horror film that is hurt by a low budget.  Some strengths- Numerous scary sequences, cool protagonist and antagonists, and a good story plus a truly disgusting killer clown sequence.  I would like to see this redone with a bigger budget.

RAPTUREPALOOZA

Silly, wild, inventive comedy.  Don’t know why someone hadn’t thought of an end of days comedy sooner.  If I judge a comedy by how much I laughed then I would give this film high marks.  Quirky idea – Having the Anti-Christ played by THE OFFICE’s Craig Robinson.

AFTERSHOCK

So terrible, so awful a film that it ends up being entertaining for that reason.  Eli Roth is annoying as hell but the characters (Including Roth) die in gruesome ways so there’s that.  Even in a golden turkey like this, tsunamis are cool.

THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE

Steve Carrell and Jim Carrey are only funny in small doses and consequently this film is only funny for the first 20 minutes with its Siegfried and Roy/David Blaine jokes.  After that it devolves into the usual “hero becomes a better person while triumphing over adversity” BS

A NOTE ON THE DIRECTION OF THIS BLOG

A friend asked recently if I was going to be focusing this blog on horror only.  It may seem that way based on recent entries.

I will be doing some longer essay type writing on classic films etc. in the near future similar to entries I made when I first started this blog.

But as I’ve noted before, when discussing recent films, indy horror is where it’s at.  It’s where the creative plots, innovative storylines, and brave filmmaking are occurring.

Mainstream Hollywood films are dead to me.

LINCOLN?  No thanks!

SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK?  I’d rather jump off a bridge.

TWO FILMS - MON AMI, THE SLEEPER

MON AMI is like FARGO directed by a psychopath.  It’s the generous dollop of lunacy and the rising levels of ridiculousness that power this horror/humor hybrid.  Does this tale of two idiots who attempt a kidnapping that goes very wrong go too far?  Most likely but the relationship between the two main characters and their moronic patter and Three Stooges-like incompetence makes for a film that is at times highly entertaining, at other times just insane.

A homage to 80’s slasher horror films, THE SLEEPER gets more right than wrong – Not so much the look but the overall feel, the film stock, the pacing, the cheesiness, the fake scares followed by real scares.  The Sleeper himself with his white eyeballs, bursts of frenzied violence (never imagined so many different types of possible mutilations with a hammer), and malevolent little child’s voice is an ultra creepy villain, far scarier than Jason or Michael Myers.  A good time with a retro bent and even beautifully sets up a sequel (in a hospital no less – does that sound familiar?)

WHY NO ONE LIVES IS A BIG EVOLUTIONARY STEP FORWARD FOR THE HORROR MOVIE

NO ONE LIVES is a fast paced horror film with a good story and I enjoyed it tremendously.  I am tempted to say it should have been grittier but the violence was strong and made me wince on more than one occasion.  It was well-made movie – deeply nihilistic but great fun.

But what makes NO ONE LIVES an evolutionary link in ongoing horror film history is the combination of certain elements.  First, it is not an indy film.  It is a Hollywood production with good looking production values but it eschews many Hollywood horror conventions.  The ending is not just a surprise ending but a proudly evil one.  The hero is a serial killer and, unlike Hannibal Lecter or Dexter, his victims aren’t just criminal and lowlifes, some of them are innocent people.

The main character is played by a popular young actor Luke Evans and he plays the part the  way one plays the iconic loner hero be he spy or cop or other figure of action.  In addition, there is hardly any backstory given as to why his character is a serial killer so the audience has nothing upon which to hang emotions on and therefore dilute the interpretations of his horrific actions.  

So the end result is a slick Hollywood film about a guy who kills people without any sense of morality or any punishment at the end.  The secondary villains of the film, a gang of incompetent thieves, can hardly be seen as being on the same level of evil

Hollywood is already sociopathic but films of this nature should embrace their content without watering the plot down or chickening out at the end. Such honesty coupled with bigger budgets will make horror films more powerful and thus better.  NO ONE LIVES is a big step forward for the horror genre.    

  

V/H/S 2 AND THE ANTHOLOGY HORROR MOVIE AS MORALITY PLAY

Saw V/H/S 2 sequel to V/H/S.  While it had a bigger budget and bigger visuals than the first film, I didn’t find the stories as interesting.  Out of the four stories and the wraparound narrative, the second story, which was about zombies, was the best.  It was short and tight and slightly moving and an interesting take on the well worn zombie tale.  The first story, another well used idea that of the eye transplant revealing ghosts, was also decent.  The third story, which was the longest and had the most spectacular effects, didn’t make a lot of sense.  The fourth story was a big nothing as was the wraparound story.

While it is nice to see the anthology horror story coming back, one thing that the V/H/S movies lack that classic anthology horror movies from Hammer and other British studios is the morality play.  That is, the sense of repayment for some past bad thing the character has done.

This was of course the foundation of the EC comics of the 1950’s and also the Twilight Zone and Night Gallery TV shows.  British films like THE VAULT OF HORROR and TALES FROM THE CRYPT (both adaptations form EC comics) as well as DR TERROR’S HOUSE OF HORRORS, THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD, ASYLUM (my personal fave) etc generally had someone do something evil or in some way disturb a supernatural force or engineer their own demise in a grimly ironic way.

The morality play was important because it invested the audience in the story – gave them a reason to watch because you saw the character, understood him, and wanted to see what would happen.  In a film where the horror is random, each segment becomes random and the result ends up being all about the gore and the special effects.

But that being the case I still think the first V/H/S film was very good.  I wrote about it here http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2012/08/three-films-absentia-iron-sky-vhs.html

  

THE BURROWERS AND THE BATTERY -TWO MODERN HORROR FILMS THAT WORK

In this day and age, it seems horror movies, like every other type of movie, are running out of ideas.  The good news is this is less so than in other genres.  Foreign and indy horror has breathed new life into the horror film away from the corporate teenage slasher flick and torture porn neither of which are particularly interesting and inventive and are also often offensive.

THE BURROWERS ,which came out in 2008, works because it does two things - One the classic horror film does and one the successful modern horror film does.  Like a classic horror film (which it is), it has a slow burn introducing us step by step by to the monstrous menace and giving them an explanation and a methodology that fits the storyline beautifully.  There is not much gore and we don’t get a good look at the monsters until the end which are both to this movie's benefit.

It’s like modern horror with its downbeat ending and the injection of a social issue into the proceedings - In this case the treatment of Native Americans.  This is presented very effectively without the movie becoming preachy.

The Wild West setting helps as does the notion of undiscovered creatures – Cryptozoology themes are a win usually (although there have been too many Bigfoot films recently).

THE BATTERY, which I saw recently, works because it takes a really tired theme and makes something new and interesting out of it.  The theme in this case is zombies which are really over.  THE BATTERY works however because the zombies are incidental.  This is really a film about people getting along, friendship, survival and last but not least baseball.

The low budget hurts a bit but the great dialogue in the first half of the film, the awesome locales, and the firm grasp on the characters the two actors have more than make up for this.

I write about non-horror too but when it comes to modern films, horror is where it’s at and here are two films that function as a reason why.  

THREE FILMS - BLACK ROCK, STATIC, BEHIND THE CANDELABRA

BLACK ROCK

The successful feminist revenge/woman striking back film works because its focus is narrow – women getting revenge after the way they were treated by men.  This is not a very good film as its focus is confused – Is it men vs women or something else? – a comment on the Iraq War, a discussion of gender, an analogy on female friendship.  None of the characters are likable - not the men but even worse the women we are supposed to like and identify with.  It does have beautiful scenery though.

STATIC

The “we were dead all long” ending is really getting old and overused.  It’s become a cliché.  Despite that, this film does a decent job at creating a scary tone and the building tension is managed well.  Nice to see Sara Paxton from THE INNKEEPERS.  

BEHIND THE CANDELABRA

This is a bad film but an enjoyable one.  It’s bad like MOMMY DEAREST, a bio pic gone wrong.  Tremendously fun in places, so ridiculous that it makes me wonder if the whole thing isn’t a trolling operation.  Camp as hell but Michael Douglas and Matt Damon are clearly trying very hard (A lot of man on man kissing).