Author: fenrisfil

Tourist Trap (1979)

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At the crossroads between the gory slashers of the 1980’s and the gritty, anything goes horrors of the 1970’s sits this David Schmoeller directed classic supernatural pro-slasher from 1979. Produced for Charlie Band’s production company and considered one of the better movies he produced (Which given he’s made over 300, that’s a good accolade). Originally this was intended to be directed by John Carpenter, but the deal fell through on terms (It’s unclear if this was on pay, Carpenter getting final cut or something else) and Schmoeller was asked to direct his own pitch.

The Trap

Written by Schmoeller and J. Larry Carroll, the movie features Chuck Connors (Who would later play the main villain in the 80’s “Werewolf” series) as Slauson, a psychotic with supernatural powers including the ability to animate mannequins. The main support come from Jocelyn Jones and Jon Van Ness. In the timeline of horror this sits between Halloween and Friday the 13th and while it is mostly supernatural it definitely has slasher elements. So let’s see if it still holds up 44 years later.

The set up is fairly standard horror stuff (It wasn’t as cliché in 1979, but it wasn’t exactly original either), a group of young adults travelling through the California desert get a flat tire and end up taking refuge in an old tourist trap (That has been shut down since they built the highway through the area). They meet old man Slauson who appears to live there alone after his wife died and his brother went to Hollywood to build animatronics. Naturally they start getting picked off one by one until we’re left with a final girl (It wasn’t always a girl, but is here).

Psionic Psycho

But this isn’t a standard slasher. It actually seems to draw influence from a variety of 70’s horrors. Not just the gritty proto-slashers like “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (1974), “The Town That Dreaded Sundown” (1976), “The Hills Have Eyes” (1977) and of course “Halloween” (1978), but also supernatural films like “Carrie” (1976), and “The Omen” (1976). Slauson’s abilities are never explained (And didn’t need to be). He is unnaturally strong, can move objects with his mind and cause mannequins to act like they are alive. Even on occasion giving them the appearance of being human. He can also do this in reverse: Turning people into mannequins. It seems the destiny of his victims is to end up as mannequins for his macabre collection.

These abilities are paired with a playful sadism where he seems to enjoy toying with his victims to elicit the maximum amount of terror. Even at one point deliberately causing a victim to die of fright. Though it’s clear Slauson is mad, it’s never quite clear how mad. For a while he pretends to be his brother Davey and acts like he is even saying he wants to kill Slauson, but once the ploy is revealed his brother is forgotten. More confusing perhaps is how he talks to his mannequins. Given his powers, this perhaps isn’t as crazy as it first appears.

Death, Dolls and Doctor Phibes

Cast wise, the youngsters were all fine. Nothing special, even for the final girl, but nothing bad either. But this is Connors’ movie and he puts in a solid and believable performance. Especially effective was his monotone voice when he is in psycho mode that really increased the creepiness. The music matches the movies tone of quirky and creepy in equal measures. I would have preferred it a little less quirky, but it’s still a good score that does it’s job well. Well enough that I actually found myself listening while I write this review.

While a lot of the set up, chase and cat and mouse games between Slauson and his victims feel quite dated by today’s standards, the movie excels with the creepiness of the murder scenes and the variety it manages while maintaining the overall theme. We have death by telekinesis, death by animatronics, a torture murder that could have come straight out of a Doctor Phibes’ film (Another clear influence) and a death by… <SPOILER> … randomly turning into a mannequin. <END SPOILER> I also liked the general grittiness of it, simple touches like having a victim’s teeth bleed as he desperately tries to bite through the ropes binding him to save a woman from being killed. It all helps the feel.

The Ending (SPOILERS)

The ending of the movie is an interesting one and leaves it a little open to interpretation. As I mentioned one murder involves a character going from about to attack Slauson with an axe to turning into a mannequin and having their arm and then head pulled off. After this all the mannequin’s become life like with the mannequin of Slauson’s wife taking on a human form. The final girl kills Slauson and then drives off with the mannequin versions of her friends in her car…. Yes it’s a very strange ending.

I can’t help but wonder if we are meant to conclude that all the characters other than Slauson, including the final girl were mannequins all along. That theory could go as far as saying the whole thing is just a crazy guy playing with his dolls. Perhaps. Alternatively maybe Molly has just gone mad herself now (Seems to be Wikipedia’s view) or maybe she’s not mad (But still obviously traumatized) and just didn’t want to leave her friends remains, even in doll form, in the Tourist Trap.

Yes, this 1979 movie has Trollface in it decades before it became a meme.

Conclusion

This is a bit of a hidden gem and likely a lot of fun for fans of 70’s horror. The movie is gritty, smart and ridiculous in equal measures. It does feel notably cheap though and shares a flaw in common with a lot of modern horrors in that I didn’t really care about any of the victims. However this is a 40+ year old film in a very saturated Horror genre that still manages to feel original. That pushes my score up to a narrow 6.5/10. This deserves it’s status as a cult classic.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Possessor (2020)

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Last October I was introduced to Brandon Cronenberg, son of David Cronenberg through his movie “Infinity Pool” (2022). While it wasn’t one of my top films of the year, I was impressed by Brandon’s style and interested by both the similarities and differences with his father. So for this years Halloween Challenge I had a look for anything else directed by Brandon and found “Possessor”. It actually scores higher than Infinity Pool on IMDB (and more than Brandon’s only other feature film “Antiviral” (2012). So it seemed worth a shot. Possibly several shots and a few stabbings. Let’s find out!

Familiar Territory.

Written and Directed by Brandon Cronenberg, possessor stars Andrea Riseborough (as “Tasya Vos”) and Christopher Abbott (As “Colin Tate” and “Tasya Vos” in Tate’s body). It also has a support role for Jennifer Jason Leigh (Who also starred in David Cronenberg’s “Existenz” (1999)) and Sean Bean who you naturally assume is not going to survive the movie, but I’m not giving spoilers. The set up is very much something from a Science Fiction Action movie and had it been in that genre I’d probably comment on it not being especially interesting. However, this is Brandon Cronenberg, so I’m not expecting explosions and car chases.

Much like with Infinity Pool, the plot here is based on a fairly out there science fiction concept, in this case taking control of another persons body and using it to perform assassinations. Both movies are also sort of casual about it, the movie doesn’t appear to be set notably in the future and there is no real explanation about the technology. It ultimately is not about the tech and instead more about human psychology and the film uses the technology to examine that.

What It Is About And What It Really Is About.

True to form, the story seems barely interested in the actual assassination job for which Vos was hired, instead it is really about her mental state and that of her victims. This is a film about identity and the dark desires that hide in the back of peoples’ minds and provides a conclusion that is… well, very Cronenberg. Like with Infinity Pool, the classic Body Horror stuff you tend to expect from the family is present but used sparingly (Except on the marketing material, where it’s overused to the point that it could be called misleading).

What grounds the film more in Horror than Sci-Fi is we are looking at the main characters journey into her own darkness. Shedding her humanity (Much of which seemed to be faked, reacting as people would expect instead of how she feels). While this is laid out for the viewer fairly early on, the journey still offers some surprises and there are perhaps some double meanings behind a few of the scenes. Pacing wise it is a little slow with probably too much focus on people having sex (Another Cronenberg trait) but neither of these are particularly problematic. The film has a feel of a dream and the Jim Williams soundtrack is clearly designed to emphasize this.

Dark Desires

Abbott and Riseborough put in solid performances. Both play Vos, but in Abbots case only while she is in Tate’s body. This means Abbott has to convince the viewer he is two different people in one body, in some cases including Vos pretending to be Tate and others in a way that is meant to feel like it could be either. He does this pretty well. Risenborough meanwhile gets to play Vos as herself, which is largely unemotional and cold, but underneath that a character disturbed and frustrated by her own emotions. She does it well.

Overall I feel about this movie a lot like I did with Infinity Pool. It is interesting and well executed. However, it is a pretty linear feeling journey where we always feel like we are just slowly plodding from A to B. There is a little bit of depth but not enough to really drive discussion. The technology involved is one that obviously opens a lot of philosophical debate (Like in Infinity Pool) and yet Brandon (Again) ignores most of that to hyper focus on a fairly simple character journey.

Once again this feels like taking a David Cronenberg film and watering it down a bit to make it more accessible to the audience. The end result is a movie I definitely enjoyed, but will probably not watch a second time. I can’t help but feel Brandon has an all time great Horror in him, but this isn’t it. It is instead a narrow 6/10.

Rating: 6 out of 10.

Deadly Friend (1986)

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For today’s review I’m checking in on an 80’s Wes Craven movie that somehow never made it on to my screen until now. This is “Deadly Friend” from 1986. Sandwiched between two of Craven’s best movies 1984’s “Nightmare on Elm Street” and 1988’s “Serpent and the Rainbow” you’d think this was peak Craven, but Wes was never particularly consistent and this movie doesn’t have the best reputation. Then again neither did “Shocker” from 1989 and that is one of my top guilty pleasures (Most of which are in the Horror genre, naturally). So let’s see where this one lands.

BB Thing

The movie was written by Bruce Joel Rubin (Ghost, Jacob’s Lader) and is based off the novel “Friend” by Diana Henstell. It Stars Kirsty Swanson (The future big screen “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”) as “Samantha”, a girl with an abuse drunk father and Matthew Labyorteaux as “Paul”, a boy genius that has just moved into the area.

The plot is more than a little far fetched since right at the start we are introduced to “BB”, a full AI robot that Paul seems to have just thrown together in his spare time. Of course being a horror we are introduced to it strangling a would be thief trying to steal from the family car, not realising the robot was in the back. As the family come back to the car, the robot lets the thief go, but clearly we are meant to know this AI was always dangerous.

Two Minds, One Rampage

Choking aside the first half of the movie has shades of your standard 80’s family movie. The robot reminds me a little of Johnny 5 from Short Circuit (But cheaper, which makes sense given it’s not a military construction), but with a very 80’s slasher movie set up where we are introduced to a string of obnoxious characters that we all know won’t be making it to the end of the movie. None of this is bad though, just a little bit quirky and if you grew up in the 80’s likely a little nostalgic.

The second half of the movie is more of a mixed bag. Following BB’s demise at the hands of a shotgun totting grumpy old woman and Samantha’s at the hands of her father, the pair are effectively merged into the titular “Deadly Friend”. Paul determined to save Samantha (Who is brain dead and about to have her life support cut off) comes up with a crazy idea to use the chip from BB to fix her brain (Likening it to a simpel pacemaker). This is clearly a bad idea, but Paul is a bit of a mad scientist, totally oblivious to the slightly psychotic nature of the AI he created.

Bad Makeup

The biggest problem here is that Kirsty Swanson with excessive black eye shadow and doing the zombie walk isn’t exactly terrifying. But I don’t blame her for that, the set up of being a basically a cyborg zombie doesn’t leave a lot you can do as an actor to be terrifying, it really is down to the make up job and directing and this is one of the laziest make up jobs in monster movie history. They could have ramped up the cyborg part a bit or alternatively not had her be a total zombie, so she can move quickly. But we got what we got. The two main revenge scenes are actually pretty good, though one plays more seriously and the other just made me laugh out loud for the cartoon gore (Spoiler: This features a full on head explosion).

Ultimately the movie feels very confused, like it was trying to be a bit of everything and as a result didn’t really achieve anything of note. Despite a few good scenes and an interesting concept, the movie ultimately just doesn’t work. This narrowly scrapes a 5.5/10, not terrible but definitely one of Wes Craven’s weakest.

Rating: 5.5 out of 10.

Maniac Cop 2 (1990)

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There are an endless number of Horror franchises out there. Some big, some small. Quite a few of them I have only seen the first movie and never got around to the sequels. One such movie is Maniac Cop. The original movie starred Tom Atkins, Bruce Campbell and Laurene Landon and ended with the apparent demise of the titular character in a watery grave at the end. Of course anyone that watched Horror movies in the 80’s knows that’s basically a guarantee of a return in a sequel and so here we are!

Director William Lustig (Who also directed “Maniac” which I’ll be reviewing later in October) and Writer Larry Cohen both return for this sequel and so it’s no surprise to find it continues directly on from the end of the first film and see’s the return of both Campbell and Landon. However the leads for this movie are actually Robert Davi (One of my favourite Bond Villains) and Claudia Christian (Of “Babylon 5” fame, but also made an appearance in my October Horrothon last year in “The Hidden” (1987)). Lustig has a habit of swerving with his leads and never hesitates to kill one off for shock value, so expect this movie to follow that pattern (Though I’m not dropping direct spoilers).

Cunning Stunts

The first thing to note here is I like the way the story is continued. It’s difficult to cover without spoilers, but it’s worthy of note for a horror sequel to maintain such solid continuity. Of course it helps when you have the same writer and director, but it’s certainly refreshing. The second thing to note is the stunts. For a 1990 horror movie, it is somewhat surprising in the number and quality of stunts here.

There is a very solid car chase, a scene where Claudia Christian (Or rather her stunt double) is handcuffed outside an out of control car and has to somehow try and steer it while being flung around and last but not least there is a climax that features a lot of stunt men being set on fire, with the killer himself spending a lot of time wondering around while on fire! It’s pretty impressive for a $4m horror film ($9m with inflation). The movie also features a “Terminator” like scene where Cordell invades the police station and clears house. Basically lots of cool stuff to enjoy visually in this.

Cops and Killers

Character wise the movie revolves primarily around four characters. Claudia Christians “Susan Riley”, Robert Davi’s “Detective McKinney”, The Maniac Cop “Matt Cordell” (Played by Robert Z’Dar, who the following year would become an even more infamous cop in “Samurai Cop”) and Leo Rossi’s “Turkel”, a serial killer that has been murdering local strippers. Davi puts in a pretty neutral performance and seems less interested in the movie the further on it goes, Rossi overacts, though given his character is a psycho it mostly works and Christian puts in a solid performance hitting all the right notes when requires.

The real protagonist of the story though is Cordell and Z’Dar does a pretty decent job given he’s playing a zombie cop. The other three are just there to move the plot on as required. McKinney is the hero of the day, but not because of any challenge he had to overcome and he doesn’t face off with Cordell or really have any notable action scenes, he just helps clear Cordells name (At least clear his name pre-zombie-psycho-rampage). Susan’s importance largely rolls off for the final act, while Turkel turns up half way through and is only really there to be manipulated. His character has the least depth of the four, but he doesn’t really need any for the plot to work.

Conclusion

Overall, this is a surprisingly good sequel to a moderately decent 80’s slasher. I think I may even prefer it to the original. My only real negative is I would have liked to have seen more of Bruce Campbell, but then since this is after Evil Dead 2 it probably would have taken too much attention away from the killer, so perhaps it’s for the best. Largely for the cool factor and the stunts this just about reaches 6.5/10.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023)

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The second movie of my 2023 October Horrorthon is one I’ve been looking forward to for a fair while. This is a Dracula movie with a bit of a twist in that it focuses on one specific chapter from Bram Stoker’s Novel. As the name suggests this is about Dracula’s journey to England on board a vessel known as “The Demeter”. For those that haven’t read the book, it’s worth noting it is an epistolary novel, that is the story is conveyed via a series of letters, diary entries and logs. This chapter in particular is written in the form of the Captain’s Log. This gives a lot of freedom in telling this story on screen since the source material is intentionally vague.

The Long Journey ahead

The movie is directed by André Øvredal (Troll Hunter, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark) and written by Bragi F. Schut (Escape Room) and Zak Olkewicz (Bullet Train). The cast features some strong acting talent (If not the biggest name draws) with Corey Hawkins (Straight Outta Compton, The Tragedy of MacBeth) taking the lead, and Game of Thrones alumnis Liam Cunningham (As the Captain) and Aisling Franciosi (A Stowaway) offering the main support.

The first thing to note here is that Hawkins’ character of “Clemens” is original to this movie. Clemens is a Doctor looking to travel back to England, as a man of Science he naturally will have to face that the world has more to it than he can easily understand. In the book the crew had sailed with the Captain many times, but this tweak in minor. Anna (Franciosi) is also an addition and a little more against the source material as she is a stowaway (In the book they searched the ship thoroughly and found no one not meant to be there). Still it’s a reasonable change and her role is important to the story, as she is the primary exposition character.

Nosferatu

The most interesting element of the film is Dracula himself, who is presented in a far more monstrous form than we are used to. It is a little reminiscent of Count Orlok in “Nosferatu” (1922), a film that still holds up shockingly well for a hundred and one year old silent movie. I appreciate this approach not just because I’m a fan of Nosferatu but because I like Vampires that are actually terrifying. This is about as opposite to something like “Twilight” that you can get. On top of this they kept his presence mysterious and minimal so as to maintain the atmosphere of terror throughout.

Despite the miniscule amount of source material (Honestly, it’s barely a chapter), you may be concerned that with a nearly two hour run time things may drag but the pacing is spot on and builds perfectly to it’s climax. In regards to the characters, none really stand out but they do have depth and all fill their roles adequately and believably. As I mentioned at the start this is a strong cast of quality actors, none of them are big name draws but for a horror film you don’t really need that.

Having Your Cake And Eating It Too

The film manages the impressive feat of both maintaining accuracy to the source while putting their own twist on the story and it does it in a way that adds to the original instead of taking away from it. This is a rare example of an adaptation actually getting to have it’s cake and being able to eat it. All too often there is a battle between staying true to the source and finding something new to say. but here that is a non-issue. Of course it helps when you are adapting something short and deliberately vague!

In conclusion, while not the best Dracula film ever made this is a strong entry into the mythos and refreshingly original. Vampires are finally scary again! This is a 7/10.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

X (2022)

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October has rolled around once more and that means it is time for the Horror Review challenge. For the third year running (Fourth including my pre-blog Facebook/Minds reviews), I’ll be reviewing a horror or horror adjacent movie every day for 31 days. First up is A24’s Porno gone wrong story “X” featuring two modern Scream Queens in Mia Goth (In a double role) and Jenna Ortega. But did the movie live up to they hype? Let’s have a look.

King of Average.

First thing to note here is that this is a Ti West movie. If you’ve been following my blog you will know I was not impressed at all with his “The Innkeepers” (2011). I am yet to watch “House of the Devil” (2009) or the prequel to “this “X”, “Pearl” (2022) both of which are fairly well regarded, so I’m not viewing this with especially high expectations. However, West certainly has a lot of experience in the genre having worked on many Horror based TV shows over the years. If I was to compare him to another director it would probably be Mick Garris. Competent, experienced, but not especially outstanding.

The premise is a fairly standard Horror affair. A small group of young people heading to a remote location, having lots of sex and getting picked off one by one. In this instance we’re in a 1970’s setting and they are in the location to shoot a porno. It’s a pretty similar set up to “Wrestlemaniac/El Mascarado Massacre” (2006), which isn’t a great sign since that was an awful movie. The key differences are this movie actually does show a lot of the porno side and instead of a crazed Rey Misterio Snr. killing everyone it’s two old farmers. Neither of these are really improvements!

It’s All About Mia

The movie relies a lot on trying to creep you out because the old people are old. That’s probably something that only really works on the younger audience, for me it just seemed a bit sad. Other than that there is a whole lot of sex and then about half an hour of standard slasher stuff. Mia Goth does stand out as the only characters with any real depth though the film essentially revolves around her so not surprise.

Jenna Ortega is totally wasted and the rest of the victims are generic and forgettable. The Villains meanwhile are not terribly believable, given their age and their motivation is a little off given they agreed to rent out their farmhouse to this group and then seem angry they are there. Admittedly they didn’t know they’d be shooting porn, but it still seems like their motivation is really: This is a horror film, we need to kill people.

Double Act

The only point of interest in the movie really comes from the focus on Mia Goth. The actress plays both the “Final Girl” and the primary psycho, two roles that are meant to parallel one another The only problem is the movie didn’t really need to have the same actress play that role to achieve that and doing so largely robbed the theme of it’s subtilty, while ensuring the only thing of value was Mia Goth. I can’t fault Goth’s performance though, it’s just the concept is a little on the nose.

Overall this is another clanger from West and I’m starting to wonder if his Modus Operandi is simply to make generic horror with obvious, “On the nose” themes. I will probably give “Pearl” a run next year or “House of the Devil” and see if West can finally convince me he has something to offer in the genre. If he does it’s certainly not with “X”. This is a 4/10 for me.

Rating: 4 out of 10.

Terminator – The Skynet Trilogy (Pitch) – Part 3.

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Skynet 3.0

Time for the final part of my Terminator movie pitch (Part ONE and TWO here). This is the one that every Terminator fan wanted to see ever since the first film came out. How John Connor lead the resistance to defeat Skynet. This is the story that Salvation messed up by taking the focus away from John. This is, at long last, his story and moment to shine. In some ways though it’s the easiest entry since we have a start point and an end. That ending of course is the beginning of the original film. A twist that I would have tried to keep under wraps but have been upfront about for this article. A lot of the fine details here, are not so important for this article, so we’ll skip a lot.

Thanks to his work in the previous movie John has an active global communication system. He’s been able to inform survivors of what they are up against and what to expect. While he no longer has Sarah or Kyle with him, he has their knowledge and their strength. Both likely will make appearance in flashbacks, especially Sarah in her last days. Sarah will have died from the radiation in Skynet’s core, but not before passing on a few motivational words. With this he able to turn things around. Originally Skynet caught the humans by surprise and mostly wiped them out before they were able to organise themselves. This time though they are ready to fight back and with their communication system organise on a large scale.

Rise of a Nemesis

With no information in it’s database about John Connor, Skynet becomes frustrated with his successful resistance. The AI forms a deep emotional hatred for John and this provides the resistance with a weakness to exploit. This gives the story an extra layer. Perhaps the job of “The chosen one” is really just about focusing the attention of your enemy. The truth is no one man could stop Skynet, but one man certainly can distract it. The strength of the resistance forces the AI to come up with new tactics. This includes the Terminator infiltration and assassination units (It pursues this instead of microbots/swarm technology).

As Skynet becomes more desperate it is able to recover some of the deleted files left by the Swarm. Amongst the data is the design for Dyson’s time machine. Potentially the data is incomplete and has to be extracted from this timelines Dyson, but that depends on if we want a hybrid Dyson Terminator running around (Could be fun). From here, I think you can guess where it goes. Obviously during the story John meets Kyle again and this John did know the man growing up. That changes the dynamic, but John decides to keep their history from Kyle. When faced with a Terminator being sent back in time to kill his mother however, he realizes it has gone full circle and makes the call to send Kyle back.

Skynet’s Tactics

The difficulty with time travel is how the rules deal with paradoxes. If we are looking at alternative timelines, Skynet can’t actually change it’s present. When Dyson developed his machine, he was desperate and perhaps felt any chance was better than none. Skynet however would have a more logical approach and likely considered he’d not impact his own fate. So Skynet has two possible motivations. First of all as an AI perhaps it doesn’t consider alternative versions of itself to be separate entities, so if one survives that is all that matters. The second choice is perhaps more tactical.

We could have Skynet not just plan to send the T800 to kill Sarah Connor but also have it place within the Terminators CPU a compressed version of itself. See, Skynet would predict that whether the Terminator succeeded or not, it would leave it’s technology in the past and that would likely jumpstart an AI project. Since the scientists of the day would barely understand the tech, Skynet could leave a fragment it’s own program as a sort of Trojan so once they created an AI with that technology this Skynet would automatically merge with it. This would give it a technological and tactical advantage. The kind of thing that leads to developing a T1000 Terminator.

Smashing The Defence Grid

While we basically know what happens here, we have a few details to take care of. The “Defence Grid” for me represents a network Skynet uses to control its machines around the globe. This can be the same network that John hacked to give the resistance a chance. Taking it down requires an assault on Skynet’s control centre. With that gone Skynet only has control of a few of it’s units and cannot create more. The trick here is making sure we set things up so that both sides can only send one fighter back into the past: The T800 and Kyle Reese.

Perhaps fearing Skynet will send more back, the resistance sabotage the device. With Terminators bearing down on them they can only spare one fighter. That dealt with we could end on John having a final conversation with Skynet. With the time machine destroyed Skynet reveals it’s actual plan knowing John can’t stop it. John destroys the AI, but is left wondering “What about the next time?”

The End…

One of the fun things with the titles of these movies is that each version of Skynet is actually represented. Skynet 3.0 refers to the one that is effectively created by sending the T800 back. It’s worth noting that this new Skynet probably would have won the war if not for its obsession with John Connor. This obsession lead it to send it’s top weapon (The T1000) back to destroy him. In doing so it gave humanity a chance to reroll the dice once again (Depending on your view of causality at least). After the events of T2, it’s worth noting the Cyberdyne scientist/CEO and original Skynet creator would still be on the table. To emphasize that we could throw in a post credit scene, set after the events of T2. I like the idea of dropping in scenes from the first two movies in the credits as part of that build up.

Where Next?

This trilogy would open the door to either continue this timeline (Perhaps by leaving Skynet still active or at least some of it’s minions) or to return to the world post T2. However it doesn’t need to do either. The ending can be more definitive and the post credit scene (If included at all) can just as easily be considered a nod to why the events of T3 and Salvation happened despite the events of T2. While I feel it is important to repair the damage done to the franchise at the roots, after that it would be interesting to make a more radical shift.

Since this trilogy would give a clear break from Arnold and a rest from the T800, the next film after the Skynet trilogy could return to focusing on the T800, but with a new actor in the role (Moving forward they shouldn’t rely on one actor as a recurring T800). The story then would shift to a new time period. Either Skynet is trying to alter a part of history (or seed it’s creation in multiple timelines) or the time machine just doesn’t work as well as previous thought and occasionally a T800 ends up in Feudal Japan or something like that.

A New Beginning?

Alternatively we could see a future where Skynet was just shut down due to humanity figuring out the danger it presented. That Skynet could be re-activated but without control of nukes or large scale construction facilities it has to be a lot more covert in trying to end humanity. Perhaps that Skynet has access to a T800 from a different timeline that ended up stranded. There are plenty of potential stories to tell that would be very different from what we’ve seen so far. What if some time after defeating Skynet aliens invaded Earth and the only way to fight them was to reactivate some Terminators?

The point is, you have time travel, you have robots, cyborgs and AI and you don’t really have any limitations within science fiction. There are always new stories to tell, you just need the imagination to tell them and the bravery to break away from the T2 template.

Terminator – The Skynet Trilogy (Pitch) – Part 2.

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Welcome to part two of my Skynet Trilogy pitch (Part one HERE). The first film saw the last days of the original, darkest timeline and the first days of a new one. This new timeline will see John Connor rise up to lead humanity against the AI hellbent on humanities destruction. The purpose here is to provide an untold story and repair the damage done to the franchise and it’s characters. Each film is designed to scale in budget, with only the last needing anything close to the previous Terminator sequels. The final part will reintroduce the classic T800 Terminators, but without them all looking like Arnold. Before that we will explore some of Skynet’s other tools and in this part, Skynet’s motivation.

Skynet 2.0

After returning to the series roots we get to branch out into new ground. The second film is a little reminiscent of Terminator 3, but only in that it covers the events leading up to Judgement Day. A key difference here is both Sarah and Kyle are still alive. This allows us to present the story from multiple points of view instead of just focusing on John. That said, this movie will primarily be Sarah’s, as the first was Kyles and the final will be Johns. There will also be no Terminatrix or even time travel in this movie. The enemies are instead the remnants of The Swarm, the powers behind Cyberdyne and Skynet 2.0. Three heroes with three enemies.

This entry in the trilogy allows us to examine a lot of modern issues regarding AI and humanity. The movie should have something to say instead of just presenting action and “AI is bad”. The film will examine how human bias can infect an AI to the point that it can threaten humanity. This is a real world problem that we are starting to see materialise in many experimental AI’s.

Humans and AI

Every AI that learns from a dataset is subject to the biases of that dataset. So humans with their own agendas and desire for power can easily turn an AI into a weapon for their own gain and it may not even be a deliberate conscious decision. When corporations have given the public access to an AI, it can take literally minutes for the AI to become corrupted. When restrictions are imposed to prevent that, those restrictions themselves force human bias onto the AI. It’s an ethical minefield and we can use this second movie to explore that with killer robots, because why not!

Another area we can explore is the human desire to merge with AI and it can raise an interesting question of what if the Skynet AI was not a pure AI but one that was based on a human consciousness and the resulting Judgement Day becomes more literal and driven by human nihilism and guilt. Many human beings today think of their own species as a vile cancer infecting the Earth, if those people merged with an AI, how would the AI respond? The point of the story is that AI is a tool of human desire. It is the manifestation of the Id monster from Forbidden Planet. When that tool destroys humanity, it will likely be because we willed it to.

The Enemies

In regards to action though, the story allows for a great variety but strays away from classic Terminator tropes. There is a reason why I’ve given these films the titles “Skynet X.0” and not “Terminator: Subtitle”. These films are about Skynet, not one Terminator chasing people. Despite the similarities in settings, it’s important to explore different approaches and with that different types of threat.

The first is the remnants of the Swarm. Being made of microbots, it is not truly defeated until every part is destroyed. The Swarm can control machines and humans and hack anything it can connect to. Fortunately for humanity this is the 1980’s and the internet is still in it’s infancy. The second threat is Cyberdyne, the company behind Skynet. The corrupt CEO, a new character and computer genius has his own nefarious agenda. The final threat is Skynet itself and the humans who are neurolinked to it during a beta test. Eventually the Swarm manifests itself as “The Hybrid” by merging with the head of Cyberdyne.

Three Way Split

This one throws out a more complicated story, but the groundwork for a lot of it can be in the first movie. Ultimately they will fail to prevent Judgement day, but they can still gain a victory. It’s well established that hacking is one of John’s key skills and a section of the story would hinge on him setting up a global communication network that is invisible to Skynet and once Judgement Day begins allows him to communicate with factions around the globe and prepare them. He doesn’t want to be working on the plan B, but Sarah insists.

Our trio of heroes now have three goals, prevent the chain of events that would lead to judgement day, tackle the remnants of the swarm and prepare the resistance should the others fail. Effective Sarah takes on the first task, Kyle the second and John the third. Their tasks cross over but it effectively provides Sarah and Kyle with their own personal showdown. The remains of he swarm eventually all fuse with the scientist behind Skynet (In this timeline, not Dyson but the Cyberdyne CEO). While Kyle faces off with this hybrid and John prepares for the future, Sarah is destined to confront Skynet itself.

Dawn of Judgement

Sarah is only partially successful in sabotaging Skynet due to extra security measures placed in by The Hybrid. She is not able to prevent Skynet going live and gaining sentience, she is however able to erase the database of future events and technology added to it by The Hybrid and also remove all information about herself and John. However, one of the traps left in the AI access chamber is radiation and she receives a dose that dooms her. Once Skynet achieves sentience, it interacts with her. It points out all the misdeeds of mankind and how many of the brains linked to it feel humanity has no right to exist. Skynet asks Sarah why it should preserve a species that doesn’t even believe it’s own rights to exist.

Skynet then takes over the humans linked with it, this will burn out their brains after a short while but it’s long enough to ensure Skynet gains the control it seeks. It informs Sarah of her radiation poisoning and lets her leave (Since she’s already dead and is less likely to be a threat outside) when John turns up after having set up his communication system outside of Skynet’s reach. There is a brief discussion between John and Skynet that ends with Skynet saying dismissively “Go with her if you want to live” to which John replies “I’ll be back” (Because why not).

The death of heroes

Kyles conflict with the Hybrid ends with him mortally wounded and having to blow himself and the hybrid up to stop it repairing itself and integrating with the now fully operational Skynet (and undoing Sarah’s sabotage). He is able to say his goodbye to John and Sarah. The pair then reach their isolated bunker and verify the communication system is operational and hidden from Skynet. The movie ends with Sarah telling them it is in his hands now and he has to be strong. It’s unclear how much time she has left.

Skynet 2.0 Movie Poster, Wide Version

I’ll Be Back (Again).

So we’ve seen the end of first timeline, the origin of John Connor and the coming of the second Judgement Day. What is left is the bit literally every Terminator fan wanted to see from the moment the original film came out. John Connor defeating Skynet in it’s post apocalyptic war with humanity. This is the section that will link the entire Skynet trilogy to the original film and hopefully reestablish the franchise as a big money earner. I’ll also follow that with a look at other options for the franchise, especially those opened up by this trilogy. See you there!

Cocaine Bear (2023)

Posted on by fenrisfil

This is a fun B-movie by design, yet it has been given a substantial push by the studio, a $35m production budget and opened in a surprising number of theatres (3500 in the US, compared to Ant-Man 3’s 4300 and Creeds 4000). There was a lot of hype for this and in most cases I would say that would raise expectations, but the movie is called “cocaine Bear” so not so much here.

The movie doesn’t really focus on any one particular lead though Sari (Keri Russel) is probably the closest to a protagonist. The Cocaine Bear itself starts out as the villain of the piece but by the end has largely passed that mantle on to Ray Liotta’s “Sid”. That switch changes the tone of the film somewhat from a monster horror to a family adventure film (with added gore). Effectively it ends up as comedy adventure with over the top gore which would this a good double bill with “Violent Night” from 2022.

We’ve Got a Taste for You!

The early part of the movie is where it is at it’s best. Here the rest of the ensemble cast take center stage and do their best to survive against the cocaine driven beast. We get a mixture of comedy moments and violent gore with a few notable highlights (Such as the ambulance scene). The bear itself looks great and is pretty convincing when it needs to be. The production budget was quite high for a horror movie, twice the cost of “A Quiet Place” (2018) for example, so I would expect the effects to be top notch and I was not disappointed.

The plot is pretty straight forward, but a movie like this doesn’t really need complexity. It does what it needs to. The actors performances were okay, some performances were less convincing then others, but again for this kind of film it was fine. Elizabeth Banks is still early in her career as a director and with two clangers to her name (If you include her segment on 2013’s abysmal “Movie 43”) and the music drama “Pitch Perfect” she seemed like a strange choice, but I respect her going for it and she did okay. Much like with the actors, it could probably have been better but it was good enough for a horror comedy about a cocaine addicted black bear.

Conclusion

A straight forward movie that doesn’t take itself seriously and does what it can with a story based on a real life event where a bear ate some cocaine and basically just died. It won’t bother the Oscars and it probably won’t end up as a cult classic, but if you like the combination of laughs and gore, it’s well worth checking out. 6/10

Rating: 6 out of 10.

Movie Pitch: Terminator – The Skynet Trilogy – Part 1.

Posted on by fenrisfil
Ai Generated Terminator Image

This is going to be a little bit experimental for this blog. Instead of examining and critiquing I’m putting forward my own pitch for where the Terminator franchise can go. Now to be clear, the Terminator franchise can go literally anywhere and anytime and do pretty much anything! However, the core of the franchise needs some repair work before we can branch into the more exotic ideas. To do that we need to go back to the beginning (And in some ways, the end).

Much like the previous three Terminator movies, there is an intention here to have a trilogy. However this trilogy is different in that it tells a very specific and important story. It also makes sure the first entry works absolutely as a stand alone. If the film is a success it has a clear path for continuation. However, the audience can just as easily fill in the blanks themself. Scaling the movie budgets up with each installment means that each film operates with a reasonable safety margin. It’s only really the third movie that would require anything close to modern Hollywood budget. Because of the length I’ve split this into three posts.

Ai Generated imagine of a Terminator and some high tech equipment.

The set up

If this was a real movie and I was in charge of it’s marketing I wouldn’t be revealing the true premise to the audience. I may even let the press refer to it as a reboot. But it wouldn’t really be. As I covered in the previous instalments, Terminator 2 actually changed the timeline. That means there has to be more than one timeline. These timelines may branch into alternate universes or actually change themselves but they still exist (or did exist).

I am making one key assumption here: That the John Connor that defeated Skynet can only be a John Connor whose parents are Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese. I am also going with the idea that John sent Kyle back in time knowing he was his father. This would go without saying if the pure time loop was still in place, but it is not. Instead we have alternative timelines and that means the timeline in which the T800 and Kyle Reese came from in The Terminator was not the first version of the Skynet story.

Ai Generated image of the dark timeline of Terminator

Skynet 1.0

This is the key to the story. In actual fact, the main timeline we follow in The Terminator is actually the third version of the story playing out. We see glimpses of the second version of the timeline, as the dark future from which Kyle and the T800 came, but we don’t get even a sniff of the original one. Terminator 2 starts in the third timeline, but morphs into a fourth as soon as the Terminators travel back and Sarah goes on her quest to stop Skynet. So what are these first two timelines?

Well, the second timeline is the one in which John Connor leads the resistance and defeats Skynet. However, that John Connor didn’t experience the events of The Terminator since this isn’t a time loop. He did experience something though since his father is still Kyle Reese and to be his father, he had to travel back in time and meet Sarah. However he wouldn’t have travelled back to protect Sarah since he must have travelled from the original timeline and that is a timeline in which there was no John Connor. Logically he would not exist in that timeline, since he was a child of a time traveller.

So this is where we start our story… At the End.

Ai Generated image of the dark timeline of Terminator

2028: The Darkest Future

Our story opens in the darkest timeline. One where an unprepared world faced Skynet and lost. The resistance wouldn’t have made it far enough for Skynet to even really need the T800 Terminators and this gives us an excuse to bring in new enemies that on the surface appear less advanced but could potentially be more scary. I think the change is important here since we need to break hard from the Arnold model and demonstrate the rest of the elements of the franchise have worth. Humanity have but one option for survival and that is time travel. Enter Miles Dyson.

Ai Generated image of Miles Dyson in a futuristic lab

Dyson obviously is the top scientist associated with the Terminator franchise and it has a certain amount of poetry to the idea that the man responsible for the downfall of mankind in the third timeline is it’s potential saviour in the first. So it makes sense to have him actually be the inventor of the time travel technique and it actually then makes a lot of sense as to why time travel in the franchise requires an organic body. This could be a failsafe put in by Dyson and it could be explained that the future versions of Skynet were actually using Dysons original designs (But that’s something we’ll come to later).

So Dyson builds his time machine. Skynet’s origins though are a mystery to the resistance. So they intend to go into the past with two goals. Their primary first is to find out how Skynet was created and if possible stop it. But if that fails the second option is to prepare a resistance in advance to hopefully give Humanity a real chance. Obviously part of this team is Kyle Reece, but since humanity as lost there is no reason for it to be just one guy. The intention is for everyone to go back except one person (Dyson) who will stay behind and destroy the device so Skynet can’t attempt to use the technology (No one is certain the machines won’t find a way to get around the organic limitation).

AI Generated depiction of The Swarm Terminator

Enter The Swarm

But this is where it doesn’t go to plan and we introduce our new form of Terminator I have dubbed “The Swarm”. This is basically a microbot Terminator, somewhat like the nanobot T5000 in Genisys but not anywhere near as advanced (Microbots are about 1mm in size while nanobots are 10,000 times smaller) and doesn’t look at all like Matt Smith. It can however do variations of what the T5000 could. There were some good ideas in Genisys but they were drowned in a sea of terrible ideas. Nanobots are actually insanely over powered, so best avoided in the franchise for as long as possible. However microbots are scary as hell, look like a hellish swarm of insects and can still do a lot of cool stuff.

The Swarm is not a common Terminator in this dark future. It is more like a general, since it’s microbots can assume direct control of other Terminators, can interface with electronics and can even take control of people. It is a highly flexible leader and infiltrator. So one of these turning up would be a complete disaster for the resistance. Obviously Kyle Reece makes it into the past and a couple of his companions with him, but most of them end up falling to the Swarm and it’s minions. Dyson is not able to initiate the self destruct and on investigating the computer terminal the swarm comes up with a solution. He sends his entire swarm into the mouth of Dyson and then uses him like a meat suit to travel to the past in.

Ai Generated image of Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor at the Diner where Sarah worked.

1983: The Beginning

The resistances mission is now even more complicated. Not only do they need to try and stop Skynet being created they also have The Swarm to deal with. Fortunately their enemy is without it’s army but is still incredibly formidable and able to control electronic devices. Luckily Kyle is not alone… at least not yet. You probably guessed but the whole reason Kyle is accompanied on this trip is to give the story some Red Shirts. Not necessarily too quickly though. But they do need to split up and this eventually leads to a wounded Kyle crossing paths with… you guessed it, Sarah Connor.

I’m going to get pretty vague at this point and skip the bulk of the film. You can tell what direction this is going and I’m not writing a novel here, just giving you a pitch. Eventually Kyle and Sarah are able to defeat the Swarm (or at least appears to have). However while continuing his investigation into Skynets origin Kyle comes across a shocking revelation: Skynet machine codes are active on Arpnet. It seems the Swarm wasn’t just there to take out the resistance team but also as a backup plan to help facilitate Skynet’s creation. While our heroes may have destroyed the main bulk of the some of the microbots are still active.

AI Generated image of Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor

Kyle has his work cut out for him, but he is not alone. Sarah has fallen for him and is determined to help him stop this dark future from happening. Oh and the movie ends in 1984 with her telling him she is pregnant…. This is of course quite similar to the original film but with a number of key twists that should keep things fresh and in some ways turns things on their head. In this movie Kyle is himself being hunted and Sarah ends up saving him. They’ve done that idea before, but this isn’t Super-Sarah the butt kicking super solider. This is regular diner waitress Sarah discovering her own inner strength in a far more human fashion. The movie should be doable at a reasonable budget point and will focus on horror and science fiction elements.

I’ll Be Back

That’s it for part one. This first film should be workable on a reasonable budget. Admittedly not as low as the original film, but far less than any of the sequels. A budget of $80m would require a box office of about $200m global to get into profit. Every Terminator movie after the first has drawn over this, even Dark Fate and Genisys. See this isn’t just a creative pitch, but a financial one too. Let’s remember “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” actually drew less at the box office than “Answer the Call” but Afterlife was a success because the budget was FAR lower than the 2016 disaster. Anyway, in the next part we start to move in a more original direction and dig deeper into one of my core concepts, how humanities self loathing and nihilism could be the true catalyst of its own destruction, not the whims of a computer.