Author: fenrisfil

Barbarian (2022)

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Tonight’s feature is the recently released film “Barbarian”, written and direct by Zach Cregger and staring Georgina Campbell with support from Bill Skarsgård and Justin Long. This has built itself up quite the degree of hype recently and done alright for itself at the box office (That is to say, it’s made back substantially more than it’s $4.5m production budget). Does it deserve that hype? That’s what we are here to find out. As this is a new release I will tread carefully with the spoilers. They will be mild, but I’m not going to directly reveal the nature of the threat in the movie or tell you how it ends. I am going to go further than the trailer however (Which includes no footage from after the 40m mark, though it’s not actually hiding much of note with that). Anyway let’s dig in.

October Review Challenge – Day 26.

The film begins when our heroine Tess (Campbell) is heading to her AirBnB, she finds the place already occupied due to an apparent mix up. At first she doesn’t trust the other renter, Keith (Skarsgård) but eventually she realises he is okay and actually a decent guy. He agrees she can stay and take the bed while he takes the sofa and after a fairly restless night she wakes to find he had to head off. She goes to her job interview (the reason for the stay) and on returning Keith still isn’t back. Left in the house alone she becomes curious and looks around but ends up locked in the basement when the door closes behind her. While trying to find a way out she discovers a secret passage with a hidden room with a bed, a camera, a bucket and a bloody hand print on the wall.

Tess panics but hears Keith trying to get in (Tess has the front door key), she attracts his attention at the small window to the basement and he frees here. She tells him about the room and so he investigates. When he doesn’t come back Tess looks for him and realises there is another secret door behind the first. This is where we reach serious spoiler territory, so I’m going to skip a bit. Things happen in the basement, but around the 40 minute mark, after exhausting all the trailer footage we pretty much reset.

Enter The Douchebag.

We begin again, this time following “AJ” (Justin Long), a sitcom actor and apparently a bit of a douche. He’s facing financial ruin after a co-star made allegations of rape against him and as such having to sell a lot of properties he owns to pay for his legal defence. Once such property is the Airbnb that Tess and Keith were at. He decides to visit the property to assess it’s value. When he arrives he discovers the pairs belongings and suspects them to be squatters as there is no record of the place being rented recently.

While investigating the house naturally he too finds the basement (It’s clear he’s never visited the property), though instead of responding in shock to the first room he just starts measuring it up considering it an asset in the sale. On discovering the second door he too ends up in trouble. At which point we get another total change of scene and flashback to the 80’s for a sort of explanation to what is happening (and what happens next). That’s as far as I’ll cover the story, since this is fresh out and clearly the film makers wanted most of this to be a surprise

The Good, The Bad And The Unnecisary.

So the first thing to say about this is I really liked the first 40 minutes. I was thinking “This is going to be a 7/10 film at the minimum” for a lot of it. We had a 20 minute intro to the characters, then some creepy stuff happens and we are at the crunch moment of any horror film where the world gets turned upside down at that 40 minute mark. But then… then we start from the beginning again but with a less likeable character. We get about 20 minutes of this douche just going about his life before he starts investigating the basement and we’re back to where I thought we were nearly half an hour earlier.

Then once that segment is over we get our origin story which frankly was totally unnecessary. I’m sure they felt it was visually good to do it, but the character that introduces barely factors in to the story, what it tells you about the rest of the story could have been discovered by other means and the whole section is just a time waster. It’s especially a time waster when another character shows up in the main story that is a classic exposition dump character. This character basically informs the audience exactly what it is all about, making the whole flashback totally redundant.

More Padding Than A Padded Cell.

On a personal note, I really hate exposition dump characters, especially when their time in the film is so short that you know they were literally written in for that one purpose and especially when most of the info wasn’t actually necessary for the film. Along with the double start, the double explanation (Flashback and Mr. Exposition) I can’t help but feel that Cregger simply couldn’t decide which path to follow and so just did both. Either that or he realised he only had about an hour of material and desperately needed to pad it out.

The thing is you could edit this film down to around an hour. Take the first 40 minutes and the final 20 and you wouldn’t actually miss anything. At that point you have a pretty good hour long story, though it has to be said the final act is not great either. Not only do we have an exposition dump character we also have cops so incompetent that it breaks suspension of disbelief. The AJ character is also too far over the top at one point throwing his own gun away because he’s that much of an incompetent tool.

Conclusion

What is in the basement is actually well done and creepy. The actors do a good job and sound design and music add to the tension but it’s not enough to make up for the time wasting pace crash in the second act and the generic cheese of the third. If I was to rate each section we’d have 7/10 for act 1, 4/10 for act 2 and 5.5/10 for the conclusion. That averages at 5.5 but a film isn’t just three acts separately (Anthologies aside) and as a whole there remains some additional gaping plot holes that were never addressed. So with that in mind I’m marking this down as a 5/10. Disappointing.

Rating: 5 out of 10.

Alone In The Dark (1982)

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Tonight’s horror movie is 1982’s “Alone in the Dark”. This is no relation to the 1992 video game or the Uwe Boll. This was the first movie actually produced by New Line Cinema (Previously they were only a distributor). This is the second movie of my October reviews this year to be directed by Jack Sholder (“The Hidden” being my previous one). This however was his feature film debut.

The movie features a lot of recognisable names. The lead however is Dwight Schultz who you may recognise as “Mad Murdoch” from the A-Team. This movie clearly gave him a lot of tips on how to play crazy people. Notable support includes horror legend Donald Pleasance as “Dr. Leo Bain”, the great Jack Palance as “Frank Hawkes” and Martin Landau in one of his strongest performances as Byron ‘Preacher’ Sutcliff.

October Review Challenge – Day 25

The story begins with psychiatrist Dan Potter’s first day on the job at the experimental psychiatric hospital “Haven” in New Jersey. He is replacing a doctor that has moved on to a different hospital in Philadelphia and amongst his new charges are dangerous psychopaths Frank Hawkes (Palance) a former POW twisted by his experiences, pyromaniac Byron “Preacher” Sutcliff (Landau), the child molester Ronald “Fatty” Elster (Erland Van Lidth) and shy serial killer John “The Bleeder” Skaggs (named for getting nosebleeds when he has the urge to kill), who refuses to show his face.

The security system that keeps the psychopaths in check is one that relies entirely on electricity. Which is obviously a terrible choice and leads to them getting out when shortly after there is a power cut. Thanks to Hawkes tendency towards conspiracy theories the group believe that Potter has murdered their previous psychiatrist so he can take their place and that he intends to kill them next and so they intend to hunt him down first. When the town has a total power cut they kill theri lone guard and escape and head to town where they tool up. “The Bleeder” separates from the group after he kills a random person (He will of course show up later) and the rest head to the Doctor’s house.

Isn’t Everyone Crazy?

With the Doctor not at home the killers lay in wait. Elster poses as a baby sitter for the doctors daughter Lyla and then he and Sutcliff brutally murder her actual baby sitter and her boyfriend while she sleeps. While that is going on and Dan is at the hospital, Toni and Nell are arrested while at a protest against nuclear power and meet up and are helped out in jail by a man named “Tom Smith” who lets them take his turn to make a call. The three of them arrive back at the house to find Dan and the police already there. They have apparently found out that Elster was present in the house (presumably the daughter described him to Dan).

Out of caution police Detective Burnett remains with the family for dinner and Toni invites Tom to stay too. After they hear a noise outside and Burnett is killed with a crossbow they realise they are under siege by the group of psychos and the rest of the film turns into a tense stand off between the group and the family. Since I don’t like to spoil the end of movies for my readers, this is where I’ll leave the plot break down. Let’s get to the analysis.

Psycho Happy Fun Time!

On the positive side, the film features quality actors doing a great job of playing interesting characters. This is the movies strength by a long way. First of all we have Donald Pleasance as the hippy psychiatrist Dr. Bain in charge of the asylum. A man who seems to be stoned most of the time and doesn’t like terms like “psychopath”. I can’t help but feel Bain has spent too long around madness and that his own grip on reality has failed. The fun thing here is in how this character contrasts with Pleasances more famous psychiatrist role as Dr. Loomis in the Halloween series. Another character of note is Lyla Potter, the families daughter that manages to add a touch of comedy to the story while still be suitably terrified when needed.

The key to the movie though are the psycho’s themselves, lead by Jack Palance who doesn’t get much screen time at all but is so good when he does that it raises the quality of the entire film. He feels genuine in his craziness, both dangerous and vulnerable at the same time. Most of the screen time for the psychos though goes to Martin Landau and Erland Van Lidth. Landau delivers a fantastic performance as “Preacher”, the least stable of the psychos. He really makes you feel that he could flip and kill someone at any given moment. Van Lidth’s doesn’t have the most difficult role role as the Paedophile killer “Fatty”, but he still performs it admirably and gets the best two kills of the movie along the way.

Chop Chop

The movie features a soundtrack by Italian composer Renato Serio and it’s exactly the kind of soundtrack that nostalgia bait 80’s films try to impersonate. It’s worth noting outside of the work of John Carpenter, these kinds of horror soundtracks tended to be from Italian cinema and composers like Serio. Not that it’s all like that, there are the classic horror stabs and a notable performance by punk band “The Sic F*cks” that seems to fit effortlessly into the theme of the film (with a performance including a huge fake axe and machete). The soundtrack finds a good balance between style and purpose.

The Messy Bits.

The plot here has a lot of holes and there are a lot of pacing and coherence issues. While watching I could tell there were scenes missing that really needed to be in there. For example we go directly from Toni and Nell’s meeting with Sutcliff posing as a mailman at their house to them in jail after being arrested at the protest with little on screen to explain it. We also go straight from Lyla’s baby sitter calling her boyfriend to him showing up to a trail of clothes leading to the bedroom, one hour later, but with little to indicate the passing of time. Meanwhile a lot of other scenes could either have been cut or reduced in length (Especially mid siege).

In regards to plot holes, the main one is how a doctor that appears to be permanently stoned was allowed to run an asylum with dangerous psychopaths with a security system that is entirely dependent on electricity, with no failsafe, that in a power cut basically just allows the psychos to wonder out with nothing to stop them. The entire film relies on this stupidity and it’s hard to believe. On top of that there is a big reliance on both the police and psychiatrists not knowing what one of these psychopaths looks like. Sure the Bleeder likes to hide his face, but he was in an asylum, there would be a record and you’d think people would have seen it.

Conclusion.

Overall, this is a movie with pacing issues, a few aspects that just didn’t really add anything (Such as the older daughters mental illness), and a plot that doesn’t bare much in the way of scrutiny. On the positive side the story is lifted up by some superb performances and interesting characters. It features at twist that while predictable does a good job of hiding itself in plain sight (though it brings in additional questions that it’s best not to dwell on). Donald Pleasance is a definite highlight, despite his limited screen time there are some fun kills. Not quite enough here to drive the score up towards the higher end of good, but this is a solid 6/10.

Rating: 6 out of 10.

Phantoms (1998)

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Today I finally look to answer the age old pop culture question: Was Ben Affleck the bomb in Phantoms? If you are scratching your head at this point you probably haven’t seen “Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back” or maybe just didn’t like it. Understandable but back in 2001, when Kevin Smith was still funny and in touch with pop culture I was watching and had never actually heard of the film Phantoms (Which only came out 3 years earlier). It’s been on my list ever since but only now, 21 years after that throw away line of dialogue that put the film on my radar have I finally gotten around to watching it. So is Affleck the bomb?

October Review Challenge – Day 24

First thing to mention here is that this is a Dean Koontz adaptation. Often I find Koontz doesn’t translate especially well to screen, however in this case Koontz himself wrote the screenplay (Something he never repeated). The movie is directed by Joe Chappelle whose previous two movies were Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers and Hellraiser IV: Bloodlines. Perhaps not the strongest of films to have on the CV but at least he was experience in the genre.

The movie stars Affleck, Joanna Going and Rose McGowan with support from Peter O’Toole and Liev Schreiber. The casting is perhaps a little confusing. O’Toole received top billing, but was in less than half the film, Affleck meanwhile is clearly the hero but doesn’t himself turn up for the first 20 minutes or so. The story mostly follows McGowan and Going though they are mostly just along for the ride. Schreiber meanwhile is effectively the human face of the antagonist.

Two Girls and One Cop

The story begins with sisters Jennifer (Going) and Lisa (McGowan) Pailey arriving at the small ski resort town of Snowfield, Colorado (Where Jennifer works as a doctor). They find the town appearing deserted but upon further examination they find a number of bodies killed in a variety of ways, all gruesome. At first Jennifer thinks it may have been a virus but as she finds more bodies, including decapitated heads they realise something more sinister is happening.

Into this arrives our hero, Sheriff Bryce Hammond (Affleck) along with his deputies (Including Schriber as Deputy Stu Wargle) who is investigating the killings. They arrive at a hotel where they find the words “Timothy Flyte” and “Ancient Enemy” written on a mirror. The deputies are killed off, one mysteriously and Wargle by a bat like creature. However Wargle appears shortly after to Lisa in the bathroom in a creepy scene and the grop find the body is missing. Hammond radios out for assistance.

The Witness

And this is where things start to come together. The government moves in and brings with it Dr. Timothy Flyte (O’Toole) to investigate. However they are quicly all taken out (other than Flyte and the original three survivors) with something taking over their body to communicate with them. The entity reveals itself as “The Ancient Enemy” (Theorised about in Dr. Flyte’s book) and that it deliberately brought him to it so he can “Bear witness”.

The creature seems to believe it is the devil but Dr. Flyte summises that the organism absorbs knowledge and intelligence from the life forms it feeds on and as it fed on more humans it became more intelligent but also absorbed their spiritual beliefs and beliefs on what the creature is. Thus it assumed the role of a demonic god like being. It then comes down to this remaining four to find a way to stop the monster.

The Thing From The Same World

So first thing’s first, “Thing” being the operative word. The creature here very strongly resembles the alien from John Carpenter’s “The Thing” from 1982 and while this story is source from Koontz novel, that only came out in 1983. The novel is clearly influenced by H.P. lovecraft, but it’s hard not to make some parallels at least in regards to how it is portrayed on screen with The Thing. In any case it’s impossible not to compare the films. In that regard… well I can’t help but feel Phantoms is far inferior. The monsters are far less creative and the effects less scary despite having 16 years more advancements in effects available to them. They even heavily feature a dog monster that simply can’t stand up to Carpenter’s version.

Comparison’s aside though, the effects aren’t bad and the scenes where they create freakish monstrosities are reasonably entertaining, though in this movie these effects are used sparingly. The odd thing is the use of the dead Deputy Wargle as a sort of wise cracking villainous face of the monster. He often seems to act independent of the larger monster and with a twisted sense of humour reflecting the man before he died. It seems odd that of all the things absorbed it is the only one (Well maybe the dog when it first appears) that seems to demonstrate individual characteristics. While there could be in universe explanations for this (and certainly budget ones), I can’t help but feel it doesn’t fit with the rest of the story. That said Schreiber is at least good at playing creepy characters.

Characters and Actors

As far as characters and performances go though, while this is a solid cast and they perform their part well, outside of Affleck’s Sheriff the characters themselves seem largely lacking. Affleck ultimately is the character with the story arc and that leads the battle against the enemies. Jennifer and Lisa mostly are just there and their story climaxes with a fight against the corrupted Deputy Wargle (Who seems isolated from the whole and acting independently), a character who was basically being creepy to the pair even before he died. It almost seems like they are in the wrong movie. It’s a shame because the actresses are talented.

O’Tooles Dr. Flyte though is totally wasted. He comes in very late on, comes up with the way to defeat the ancient enemy and then writes a book about it (Which of course no one believes). While his performance is as top notch as you’d expect from this exceptional actor, the character is largely there to move the plot on and little else. In my view, especially given he has top billing, it would have been nice to have his character involved at the very start. Perhaps this is a problem with having the author write the screenplay, they may be too precious about their work to make necessary changes for it to work on screen.

Conclusion

When all is said and done, the movie is actually entertaining. Unsurprisingly from Koontz the premise is a good one and the acting is solid. However, the pacing is a little iffy, most of the characters seem wasted, the ending comes a little too quickly and easily and ultimately the enemy is just a less cool version of John Carpenter’s The Thing. But is Ben Affleck the bomb? Well, he stands out largely only in comparison to other characters in the film, but yeah, I can agree with that. The film itself though just about makes a 6/10. Better than it’s IMDB score suggests, but perhaps not as good as you may hope from the names involved.

One final note. I think this is a film that has actually aged well. When it came out it was perhaps too similar to a lot of films that had come out in the 80’s and 90’s (The Thing, The Blob, Tremors, Screamers, Mimic, Event Horizon… the list is endless really). I suspect this is a good part of why the movie was originally panned, but now this kind of idea feels a bit more fresh and a change from all the uncanny valley based horror we have these days (Where things look mostly human but then move or do something that doesn’t fit with human, triggering discomfort in the viewer). That alone may make it worth revisiting or checking out for the first time.

Rating: 6 out of 10.

The Haunted Palace (1963)

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Tonight’s movie is the Roger Corman horror “The Haunted Palace”. Although considered part of the series of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations Corman did with Vincent Price in the 60’s (Starting with House of Usher in 1960), it is actually an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward”. Corman wanted to do something different but the studio didn’t want to take the risk so they worked in Poe’s poem “The Haunted Palace” and presented it as another Poe adaptation. Retrospectively this is a shame as this is actually the very first adaptation of Lovecraft’s work and as far as I can tell the first appearance of the Necronomicon in a movie. The “Haunted Palace” in Poe’s poem was actually a metaphor for the human mind, but here it is implied to be about the mansion in which most of the action happens.

October Review Challenge – Day 23

The movie is set in the fictional village of Arkham (A regular Lovecraft setting, though not actually the setting in the source material). A dark shadow looms over the town thanks to a curse placed by the evil warlock Joseph Curwen (played by Vincent Price) upon his death at the hands of the villagers. It is believed the curse has caused many of the new born of the village to have horrendous mutations (often missing one or both eyes) and after 110 years these mutants are numerous. The remaining non-mutated ancestors of those that killed Curwen live in fear of the second part of Curwen’s curse which was his promise to return and take direct vengeance on those that burned him to death. Curwen’s old mansion looms over the town from a nearby cliff and has remained abandoned since his death.

Into this comes Curwen’s descendent, Charles Dexter Ward (Also played by Prie) and his wife Anne (Debra Paget in her final motion picture performance before retiring from the business). Ward is a decent man and not a superstitious one, but having just been notified of his inheritance (Curwen’s mansion on the cliff top) he has decided to visit his new property and assess what to do with it. Due to his striking resemblance to Curwen the villages are on the whole hostile to him and they all encourage him to depart and burn the deed to the mansion. Ward ignores them and travels to the mansion where he is greeted by a painting of his ancestor. The painting seems to have a hypnotic effect on the man.

Yog-Sothoth and the Necronomicon

Over time Curwen’s evil presence starts to take over control of Ward and while in control he continues his plans which revolve around two things, his revenge on the villages and his original goal which he was engaged in prior to be lynched over a hundred years ago which was to use the ancient evil book, The Necronomicon to summon the Elder God Yog-Sothoth and then breed captured women from the village with the creature with the goal of creating a race of super beings and unlocking the door to Yog-Sothoths realm. This it turns out is the reason for the deformities amongst some of villagers.

Curwen with the assistance of two other necromancers manages to bring his fiancée (Cathie Merchant) back from the dead, meanwhile Anne has sought help from the local doctor, Dr. Willet (Frank Maxwell) and the townsfolk after finding two of their own dead are ready to form a new lynch mob to take care of Curwen’s descendent. Curwen and his evil group capture Anne and plan to give her to the Elder Gods, but as the mob reach the mansion and set it on fire, they burn the painting of Curwen giving Ward a chance to take back control. But will it be enough? I’ll leave that part for you to find out should you chose to watch.

Assessment

The movie features a strong cast. Vincent Price gives the kind of powerful and creepy performance you expect from his horror appearances, but getting to play a villain and a victim he also gets an opportunity to show more vulnerability (something he was also very good at when needed). The rest of the cast includes a number of recognisable faces, probably most notable is Lon Chaney Jr (A horror legend himself as 1941’s “The Wolfman”), but I was also happy to see character actor and Horror and Film Noir regular Elisha Cook Jr. (“The Maltese Falcon”, “Rosemary’s Baby”). To be clear though Price is who people are tuning in for though and he doesn’t disappoint.

The plot is a little messy. It certainly has interesting elements but it feels a bit like it should have been a little more simplified or increased in length to properly explore the different elements. The Elder Gods and Necronomicon are somewhat wasted on a plot that didn’t really need them, though the deformed villagers certainly give the piece a bit of a Lovecraftian tone but they too are underused. Ultimately as tends to be the case with Corman’s horrors the source material is largely pushed to the side to allow for something that seems a little bit generic and it’s a shame when dealing with something so unique as the first Lovecraft adaptation. Slapping on the Poe poem doesn’t add anything of worth, this is a Corman film first, a Lovecraft film second and Poe Film a very distant third.

Conclusion

The movie is above average for a horror, but far from exceptional and this isn’t a surprise as that was pretty much Corman’s thing. Regularly producing decent horror films on a low budget. Not many of them could be considered classics, but many managed a good enough standard to entertain the audience in the day and to entertain me decades later. This one was weak in some places almost descending into self parody but strong in others, especially in Price’s performance. Overall it made for an entertaining experience and I do recommend checking the movie out. I’m going to give this a firm 6/10.

Rating: 6 out of 10.

The Black Cat (1934)

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For tonight’s horror I’m going back to the golden age of Universal’s dominance of the Horror genre and visiting the very first collaboration between the two biggest legends of that era – Bella Lugosi and Boris Karloff. This is “The Black Cat” from 1934. Universal’s highest selling movie of that year, a movie that lay the foundation for the Psychological Horror sub-genre, a pre-code movie (meaning it could be edgier than those that would follow for the next few decades) and last but not least was one of the earliest movies to feature a continuous musical score (present for about 80% of the movie). Question is though does this 88 year old movie still stand up?

October Review Challenge – Day 22

Our story starts with Newlyweds Peter and Joan Allison (David Manners and Julie Bishop respectively) on their honeymoon in Hungary where they meet Dr. Vitus Werdegast (Lugosi), a Hungarian psychiatrist that is returning after being in a prison camp in Serbia for 15 years after WW1. After the bus they are on crashes, Peter and Dr. Werdegast take her to the home of Hjalmar Poelzig (Karloff) an Austrain architect. The home is built on the ruins of an old fort, which Poelzig used to be the commander of. Werdegast explains Poelzig is an old friend, though in truth they are bitter rivals with Werdegast believing Poelzig betrayed him and his men to the Russians during the war resulting in the death of thousands.

Once inside things start out friendly enough but soon become sinister. Werdegast believes Poelzig stole his wife from him, and later after he is shown her preserved body that he has killed her. This may be true as it seems Poelzig has a collection of dead women on display in glass cases. Also in the mansion, but unknown the guests is also Werdegast’s daughter. Poelzig has married her and told her that her father died in the war.

Eventually it becomes clear that Poelzig wants to sacrifice Joan in a Satanic ritual, but Werdegast is determined to stop him and take down his rival once and for good. Initially he plays Chess for the freedom of the newlyweds, but loses to Poelzig who then prevents the newlyweds from leaving, imprisons Peter and prepares Joan for her sacrifice. It is a conflict that would see few survivors of that fateful night. But you’ll have to watch this classic to learn any more.

Bitter Rivals

Karloff and Lugosi are better actors than they are usually given credit for and they both put in a good performance here. Interestingly playing bitter rivals on screen may have been the start of their real life rivalry. Despite working together eight times, Karloff usually got top billing and that never sat well with Lugosi. It’s possible their rivalry started during filming this movie, after all the top two horror stars of the day playing bitter rivals on screen, hard not to imagine them wanting to outperform each other and of course since they are playing bitter rivals that comes through on screen and makes for a definite highlight for the film.

The rest of the cast is just sort of there but when you’re on screen with two icons it’s hard not to get lost in the shuffle. None of them were bad though. Being a 30’s movie there is little in the way of effects and the horror is all implied, though those implications can at times be pretty grewsome, including someone being skinned alive (Just not on camera, though you see some shadows). As a psychological horror it doesn’t have to rely on monsters or direct conflict, a lot of it is about the build and it handles this pretty pretty well.

Sound and Fury

In regards to the musical score, this is something that while fairly ground breaking, hasn’t actually aged that well. The movie features a mixture of compositions by Liszt, Tchaikovsky and Chopin instead of original material and as a result lacks the same sort of impact as scores would later give to horror movies and also makes the soundtrack somewhat interchangeable with a lot of other films of the 1930’s. Of course as you’d expect from those three composers the music itself is of a very high standard but it tends to be a bit too overbearing and draws too much attention to itself.

That said it’s hard to judge how this was received at the time. Audiences used to silent movies were used to hearing continuous music, but earlier horrors of the 30’s such as Dracula and Frankenstein would have felt strangely silent, with an opening and closing theme but little else in between. Of course the same year as The Black Cat came out King Kong changed the game for film scores forever by featuring an entirely original score, so this was a product of a short transitional period for movie soundtracks.

The Black Cat

The title “The Black Cat” only really factors into the story a couple of times. It seems Werdegast has an extreme fear of black cats. So naturally his rival keeps a few of them around. The Black Cat is also pointed out to be symbolic of evil in the film and of course Poelzig is Satanist. But really the title of the film was just an excuse to link the story to Edgar Allan Poe’s story by the same name, to which it bares no resemblance at all.

One of the most interesting things I find with this film is that were it to be made in the 2020’s it would probably be 3 hours long, yet they told this story in one hour and five minutes. It’s not like the plot is overly simple either. True some characters could have been given more time, but the story is all there and the truth is the audience even in the day probably only cared about Karloff and Lugosi anyway. So if the daughter seems somewhat wasted and the husband and wife couple of little consequence, it’s not the biggest blow to the movie.

Conclusion

Anyway, all told there is a reason this is a classic. Rating it from the point of view of how it stands today however instead of how it must have felt when it came out I give this a strong 6.5/10 (Meaning I’ll likely make that 7/10 for my IMDB rating since I can’t do half points there). If I was reviewing this in 1934 though it would probably get an 8/10. So, it’s lost some points after 88 years but a 6.5/10 is still a strong score from me. Once again I am reminded why Universal’s Horror movies of this era are so well regarded.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Count Dracula (1970)

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Tonight’s movie is Jesús Franco’s take on Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” from 1970. This is reputed to be the truest adaptation to the novel and a version of the story I’ve never seen before. It is also in the unique position of being Christopher Lee’s single non-comedic appearance as Dracula outside of the many Hammer films. Indeed it was actually made in a year when he appeared twice for Hammer in the role and had a cameo as the character in a Spike Lee comedy. For someone concerned with being typecast it seems like probably a bad move. Lee’s interest in this particular movie though stems from one of his long standing issues with his Hammer appearances: He always wanted to play the character more like he was in the novel. So now he had his chance.

October Review Challenge – Day 21

The story starts with lawyer Jonathan Harker (played by Frederick Williams), travelling to Transylvania to secure property for Count Dracula. If you are reading this you probably know how this goes by now so I’ll keep it brief. Dracula is of course going to feed on him after doing the necessary paperwork for his new property in England. After the first feeding though Harker manages to escape and finds himself back in England (Apparently someone found his unconscious body in Transylvania and transported him asleep back to the UK. Handy).

Back in the UK, Harker finds himself at a psychiatric clinic owned by Dr. Van Helsing. Naturally no one believes him about Dracula, until Van Helsing spots the bite marks on his neck. Harker’s fiancée Mina and her friend Lucy arrive to take care of Harker, but unbeknownst to them Dracula has followed and begins to prey on the women. Lucy dies and returns as a vampire herself, at which point Van Helsing and company set out to rid themselves of Dracula and his cohorts. This eventually leads back to Transylvania where the Count is attempting to return.

Production Quality

Despite the expanded role for Lee (Who never talked much in the Hammer series) and the accuracy to the source the movie clearly lacks in a lot of the production values Hammer brought to the table. The sound designed is grating to say the least and a number of times the effects reminded me of those used in Bela Lugosi’s time (40 years earlier). On top of this a lot of the camera work is downright shoddy. I know this is low budget, but I wasn’t expecting it to look that low budget. While the music obviously couldn’t utilise Hammer’s themes for the character, what it does present doesn’t seem to quite fit.

The plot meanwhile, while relatively true to the source really seems to drag, despite the relatively short run time for the film. The conclusion of the film feels anti-climactic and I can’t help but find myself missing the more action orientated endings of the Hammer films. Those always seemed to deliver a dramatic finale, but here it’s a bit of a matter-of-fact ending; It just sort of happens.

Characters and Performances

Christopher Lee does an decent job, but by his standards it is below average and the truth is while he may talk more than in the Hammer films he still doesn’t get a lot of screen time. Like in the novel Dracula initially appears as an old man but gets younger every time he feeds, this doesn’t really factor in to much in the plot outside from a casual reference later on.

Klaus Kinski puts in a very good performance as the bug eating Renfield, though the characters role in the film is relatively short. Herbert Lom performs his part as Van Helsing with authority but the character itself seems largely wasted in this version, having a stroke about 2/3rds of the way through and then being relegated away from the action. In the novel while he doesn’t kill Dracula himself, he is still involved in the action, disposing of his minions. The rest of the cast are pretty average.

Conclusion

Overall, while a bit of a curiosity and perhaps of mild interest to fans of Christopher Lee or Bram Stoker’s novel, it is ultimately a poor vampire horror that compares badly to the original Hammer Dracula with Lee. The opening scenes with Harker at Castle Dracula are good, but it’s all downhill after that. This is a 4/10.

Rating: 4 out of 10.
https://youtu.be/jsxst69muTY

Crimes of the Future (2022)

Posted on by fenrisfil

The movie of the night is David Cronenberg’s “Crimes of the Future”. Naturally being Cronenberg it’s a weird body horror movie. This is based on a story Cronenberg was working on 20 years earlier, but never got around to making. The movie also shares a name with another Cronenberg film from 1970 having no direct relation to it (Though I suppose they could be considered part of an anthology series, just an odd one with a 52year gap between entries). Since this was Cronenberg’s second feature length movie maybe it’s intended as a return to his roots or maybe he just liked the title. Anyway the film stars Viggo Mortensen and Léa Seydoux with support including Kirsten Stuart.

October Review Challenge – Day 20

The film opens with a young child eating a plastic bin and then being murdered by his mother. Yes, it’s that weird. None of this gets an explanation until later in the movie, instead the scene switches to our protagonist Saul Tenser and his partner Caprice who are a world-renowned performance artist couple. Saul has a condition that causes him to rapidly grow new organs in his body, organs whose function is unclear. Instead of letting them grow he makes their removal part of his performance art but the changes are also causing him to have issues sleeping and eating.

At this point it is important to know a few things about this world. This is set some undefined period of time in the future. Humanity has started to develop strange mutations, which has lead to most people no longer having a sense of pain and being immune to disease and infection. This has lead to surgery going from a dangerous, uncomfortable procedure requiring aesthetic to something you can basically perform on yourself. Indeed it’s become a sexual kink and this is where the performance aspect comes in.

Preserving Humanity.

It also triggered a reaction from the worlds governments (or at least this undefined countries government) to protect the status of humanity and as such it seems it is a crime to deliberately modify your own biology and all new organs must be catalogued and tattooed. Into this we find an underground faction that consider it a mistake to turn against evolution to preserve a fixed idea of what it is to be human.

Saul and Caprice come into it when the father of the child from the start of the film asks them to use the modified autopsy machine which they use for their performance to do an actual autopsy on his son as part of their performance. The father wants to expose how his son was born with these modified organs to prove the future of humanity is embracing the change. The performance and it’s aftermath form the conclusion of the film, so I’ll leave that there.

But What Does It All Mean?

Unsurprisingly the movie is weird, gross and yet sexual since this is Cronenberg’s MO. There seems to be quite dense subtext here and the movie asks questions about what is art, what is beauty and what does it mean to be human? Alongside that there is hints at an environmentalist message, an examination of how far a jaded species will go to find their next high and a look at how we influence the next generation even outside passing on our genes (Manifested by the child inheriting the body modifications of the parent).

The trouble I feel though is none of these questions are that distinct and the answer not that clear. Indeed I’m not totally sure some of them are even meant to be questions. I do feel accepting inevitable change, including at a biological level is key part of this story as this feeds to the movies conclusion, which is based on a revelation that the viewer will have figured out already. I don’t however think it was meant to be a twist though and rather just to show the protagonist finally embracing inevitable change.

Conclusion.

My biggest issue with the movie is it just isn’t very entertaining. There is nothing really to the movie other than the dense layers of subtext. By Cronenberg standards the body horror is mild, the characters are uninteresting the plot sort of goes nowhere. This is all art and message with no entertainment and I’ve never been a fan of movies like that. As a Cronenberg film this is a long way down in the ranking and pales when placed next to a masterpiece like Videodrome. As a movie in general I don’t think many people will find anything here worth turning up for. That said, it’s not a terrible movie so I think a 4.5/10 is a fair verdict.

Rating: 4.5 out of 10.

Seoul Station (2016)

Posted on by fenrisfil

Tonight’s horror film is Korean animated zombie feature “Seoul Station” from 2016. This is the animated prequel to incredibly good zombie film “Train to Busan” that was released earlier in 2016 and along with it’s sequel “Peninsula” from 2020 forms a sort of trilogy. It’s worth noting, much like George Romero’s Night/Dawn/Day trilogy, though based around the same zombie apocalypse, none of the films have any direct ties to each other. None of the characters carry through and each film works perfectly as a stand alone movie. This series all comes from the creative mind of Sang-ho Yeon, who is also the man behind the Netflix series Hellbound (Which is also worth checking out). This is a director/writer to watch out for in years to come.

October Review Challenge – Day 19

Because this is animated and in Korean I can’t make any useful comment on the actors involved, but should you be familiar with Korean voice actors the key voices are provided by: Shim Eun-kyung, Seung-ryong Ryu, Joon Lee and Jang Hyuk-jin. The key character though is Hye-Sun, a young girl that ran away from home and ended up as a prostitute, having run away from that life too she is now on the verge of homelessness only able to stay away from it by hooking up with an abusive boyfriend Ki-woong, a lowlife that refuses to work and wants Hye-Sun to act as a prostitute again, though with the goal of robbing people instead of sleeping with them (Or so he claims).

While we are getting to know Hye-Sun’s story another one is unfolding involving the homeless people squatting in Seoul Station. A homeless man is found by another badly wounded, looking like he has been bitten by someone. His friend who noticed the man bleeding attempts to get help for him, but he is frustrated at every turn being rejected by authorities and pushed around by other homeless people. Eventually he manages to get some pain killers and an energy drink which he takes to his friend, only to find the man dead. When he reports this to the authorities they investigate, but finding the body gone they assume it is crazy homeless people being crazy homeless people. Eventually the homeless man finds his friend apparently alive, but he is then attacked by him.

Zombie Uprising

These events seem to be happening all over and because of their vulnerability and how their actions are ignored by the authorities the zombie plague spreads quickly amongst the homeless. Hye-Sun ends up caught up in it and in fleeing from zombies she finds herself in the police station. The cops though assume the problem is the homeless have all gone crazy and report the situation as such. Meanwhile Ki-woon is confronted by Suk-gyu, who says he is Hye-Sun’s father and demands to know where she is. They too end up caught up in the outbreak and find themselves driving around the city searching for her.

Eventually Suk-gyu finds herself in a barricaded section of the city where many of the survivors, but those survivors are trapped between the zombies and riot police that have mistaken the outbreak for an insurrection. From here I’m keeping quite since talking about the ending in any capacity would really be a spoiler at this stage. So you’ll have to watch to find out what happens.

View From The Bottom

The characters are perhaps a weakness as none of them are especially likeable. You certainly feel sympathy towards Hye-Sun and towards the homeless people, but that is about it. Hye Sun largely just follows other people and often gets them killed when they try to help her. Indeed there would be several more survivors from that night had she simply died the first time a zombie charged for her. That doesn’t mean she’s a bad character and it is likely intentional but I do like to have at least one character I want to survive when watching this kind of film, just to get me more invested in their fate.

The main purpose of this movie though is to look at how a zombie outbreak would impact the bottom end of the societal hierarchy and through that investigate the plight of the homeless and near-homeless in a city where they are basically treated like they are already the living dead. At one point when Hye Sun is travelling with an older homeless man through the underground subway tunnels she breaks down crying and saying she wants to go home (To her father, that she ran away from). The old man too breaks down saying he too wants to go home, but he doesn’t have one and the pair spend a time crying together. It places a contrast where we feel sympathy for both but we also realise the higher level of despair for the old man that has nowhere to even dream of returning to.

How Does It Fare As A Zombie Film?

I’ve always said zombie films need social commentary and this is one that doubles down on that area, but does it well and with it’s choice of social commentary it finds a neat way to give us tragedy too, another key element of these films. The only area in lacks somewhat is the absurdity, but it isn’t totally absent. At one point Suk-gyu and the old man she is travelling with are desperately trying to lift a gate to a subway tunnel to escape an approaching zombie, only to find as the monster draws near it wasn’t a zombie at all but a crazy homeless woman. That scene does a great job of adding humour, but also tragedy and social commentary all at once. That’s the only lighter moment of the movie I can recall however.

The weakest part of this zombie film is the zombies themselves and that is probably down to it being animation. While the animation makes the zombies significantly less scary (and less gory), the format is not really taken advantage of to show us anything that they couldn’t have done in live action. So it seems a waste to me. Maybe it is just down to personal preference, but for me the story is good enough to warrant making it in live action. It is a classic zombie story with an ending worthy of George Romero. However, when I compare this to Train to Busan it becomes clear just how much is lost by doing it in animation.

Conclusion

Overall this is not the classic that Train to Busan was, nor is it quite as good as Peninsula though that is a better comparison. It suffers as a zombie film from being animated and it lacks a bit character wise. However it score a lot of points for story and the clever social commentary. This is a very strong 6.5/10. I may even end up revising it up a notch before the end of October. Had this been done in live action though I think it could have been a 7 or 7.5.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

The Hidden (1987)

Posted on by fenrisfil

I’m back to the 80’s horror now and with body snatching space slug film “The Hidden” from 1987. Staring Kyle MacLachlan looking pretty much exactly as he did in Twin Peaks a few years later and acting a bit like he did in the series relaunch more recently. He plays FBI Agent “Lloyd Gallagher” who teams up with cop “Tom Beck”, played by Michael Nouri. The film is also the feature debut of Claudia Christian (Ivanova from Babylon 5). The film is directed by Jack Shoulder (Alone in the Dark, Nightmare on Elm Street 2) and written by Jim Kouf (Stakeout, National Treasure, Rush Hour).

THE HIDDEN, Kyle Maclachlan, Michael Nouri, 1987

October Review Challenge – Day 18

The film kicks off right away with a violent bank robbery and a car chase, with the robber having a whale of a time blasting out rock music while driving recklessly to evade the cops. Eventually he gets gunned down, but is taken to hospital and put in intensive care. At this point FBI agent Lloyd Gallagher turns up at police headquarters looking for the same suspect. However on discovering the suspect dead at the hospital his hunt turns to another patient that had contact with him. Both suspects are unusual because they showed no sign of criminal activity or malicious acts in the past and just seem to have flipped and gone on a rampage. Both sharing a love for sports cars and rock music.

Of course since this is a science fiction horror there is more to it and as I opened up by calling it a “Body snatching space slug film” you can probably guess where this is going. The real antagonist is said space slug and it transfers itself between victims and then uses them to go on it’s sociopathic crime sprees. After wearing out the bodies of the first two it takes control of a stripper, Brenda (Christian) leading to a tense chase with Gallagher and Beck. Gallagher though has a secret of his own and a personal vendetta with the alien. Things become more difficult for our heroes as their target starts to get more ambitious with it’s choice of bodies, leading to a dramatic final showdown.

A Source of Inspiration?

This is an interesting film and a pretty original take on the body snatcher idea. It reminds me a lot of the film “Fallen” (1998) with Denzel Washington, and I can’t help but wonder if they took some influence from The Hidden when writing that. Fallen is the better film, at least as a horror and did a lot more with the idea, but that’s not to say The Hidden is bad. The movie is pretty light in the horror and science fiction aspects and is really an action movie with a horror/sci-fi premise and in that regard it is pretty satisfying. There are a lot of shoot outs and the body thief can take a lot of punishment before at has to flee a body making it a little bit like a Terminator film.

Kyle MacLachlan playing a weird FBI agent before he starred in Twin Peaks is interesting too. There is almost no way this film didn’t play into his casting and long before his “Dougie Jones” days (In the recent Twin Peaks continuation) he showed his talent for playing “not quite there” characters. Thes rest of the cast do an adequate job and I always enjoy seeing Claudia Christian (As well as playing a fan favourite on Babylon 5, she just seems like a cool person. One of the few celebrities I never regretted following on social media).

Assessment

The action scenes are pretty solid and the plot pushes along at a good pace so you are never bored watching. The plot tries to keep itself simple and a lot of that requires suspension of disbelief and not thinking too hard about what the reaction from most people would be to these events (Like when people they’ve known for years suddenly turn into unstoppable killing machines and go on murder sprees for no apparent reason). There are definitely some holes there, but the fast pace stops you dwelling too long on them.

Overall this is a pretty good movie, but it trades exploration of the premise for quick action and by the standard of 80’s action movies it is not especially notable. As a body thief horror though it comes up very short against the similar Fallen (or the first two Body Snatchers films), so it isn’t in the upper reaches of good, but it is well worth checking out some time. This is a strong 6/10.

Rating: 6 out of 10.

Gabriel (2007)

Posted on by fenrisfil

Tonight’s movie is another low budget Australian film, but this time from 2007. This is directed by Shane Abbess and I’ve seen his movies before so know exactly what to expect. A good idea, good world building, but not much else. For the record “Infini” is probably his best work, but it’s only average. Why do I keep watching his films you may ask? Well, I do really appreciate someone coming up with good ideas, even if they tend to fail in the execution (and let’s be honest, a good part of that is done to budget limitations). I can’t help but feel Abbess is going to pull something great out one day and I want to see it when he does. Anyway, this is a movie about Angels fighting Demons in purgatory and stars Andy Whitfield (a.k.a. Spartacus from the TV series) in the title role.

October Review Challenge – Day 17

Our film begins with a brief explanation of the world in which it is set. This is purgatory, a giant city that is inhabited by the souls of those deemed not evil enough for hell or righteous enough for heaven. Here the inhabitants remain until they earn the chance to move up or down. Unlike on Earth though the forces of good and evil take a direct approach to their recruitment. Seven Angels and seven Fallen Angels fight for control of the city and to lead it’s inhabitants one way or the other. It seems these entities join the fight one at a time and apparently not synchronised. Basically this is WCW War Games but with Angels and Demons. Just like War Games, it seems the “heels” enter first so always get the numerical advantage with the final “face” being the hero that has to clean house.

Gabriel is that hero and our story follows him. The demons (Well fallen angels, but I’m just going to call them demons) have the upper hand and all the Angels have gone into hiding and are generally washed up and run down. Gabriel sets out to find them so that together they can restore the balance, not an easy task as most of them have given up. The strongest previous Angel, Michael has gone completely missing, presumed killed by Samuel, the head Demon. Getting this group together those seems to be exactly what Samuel wants as only when they use their powers can the demons sense where they are and move in for the kill.

City of Angels, City of Devils.

This is a movie with some good ideas and a mind towards style, but a lot of it doesn’t work. The Angels fight using guns, which is a little goofy and seems entirely a style choice. The purgatory city is interesting but the humans don’t have a whole lot of an involvement in the plot, so it’s basically Team X Vs Team Y in a setting that is basically “Dark City” and trying to do it with a bit of Matrix flair. This is definitely a movie that wants to be in the 90’s. I can respect that though, 90’s gothic was cool.

The acting here is not great, with the exception of Andy Whitfield who largely has to hold the film up by himself. Andy made a name for himself after this in the TV series Spartacus but sadly his life and career was cut short by cancer so we’ll never know how far his career could have gone. The rest of the cast is filled with various “Home and Away” Alumni that weren’t quite able to break Hollywood. This lot have varying degrees of talent but some of them, especially most of the villains were just awful.

Lacking Soul.

While the concepts and world building is pretty reasonable, the actual plot and the characters leave a lot to be desired. There really isn’t much to the story and the characters don’t really get to show their depth. All the Angels aside from Gabriel are worn down and depressed, while all the demons are basically psychopaths other than their leader. Gabriel himself despite having a good actor, is not exactly complex. The only character with complexity is “Sammael” (played just about passably by Dwaine Stevenson) but his complexity is built into the fact he is part of a painfully obvious twist.

The plot itself is really an exercise in time wasting. We all know Gabriel will end up fighting Sammael, but first he must get his team together and act that turns out completely pointless because in the end he has to kill all the villains himself anyway. It is a plot that probably would be fine stretched out in a TV series or compacted down in a shorter movie, but this was the wrong length for that plot. The music and the effects meanwhile both scream “low budget”, but are actually both okay. None of it took me out of the moment and for a $200k (Australian dollars) movie from the late 2000’s it’s not bad really.

Conclusion

After my Halloween Ends review I actually don’t mind watching a regular old bad movie. At least the people behind this had their own ideas and had them stand on their own feet. Admittedly they then fell over a little drunk, but I still respect the intention. The world building here is actually pretty good and the basic concept is one I approve of. It’s only really the execution that lets it down. I’m going to be generous and give it a 4.5/10 for the concept (goofy as it is), setting and a few nice visuals. Like all of Shane Abbess’ movies it’s painfully close to good, but not quite there.

Rating: 4.5 out of 10.