Soresport Movies

Boston Science Fiction Festival 8

2012-02-27T02:00:00.001-05:00

On the Saturday before the marathon I went in for two feature films both premieres. The first was a film called Time Again (2011) written and directed by Ray Karwel it is a story of fixing the past. It is not a bad first time out for Karwel The imdb plot description, "A mysterious woman helps prevent a notorious underworld criminal from getting his hands on a set of strange coins that can tip the balance between life and death." Does not quite explain this story. After her sister Sam (Tara Smoker) is killed by a thug named Mr. Way, Marlo (Angela Rachelle) is visited by an old woman offering her a chance to change the past. Mr Way (Scott F. Evans) is trying to get his hands on some ancient coins that allow the user to travel back in time. hmmm wonder how pretty little Marlo travels back? Since Marlo attempts to head back to save her sister and get the four coins so guess how many chances she gets? So the cycles of her trying to change things are destined to fail at least until she gets to her last try. Now lets give credit where it is due, the director earned some credit through the editing of this film. Holding back some pieces of information in each of the cycles and showing others the film remains pretty entertaining. The lead Angela Rachelle is a beautiful woman although she still needs to grow more as an actress. I saw her in the film The Kiss (2008) where her stunning blue eyes caught my attention. The film although not the best acting and the easy to see twist at the end is also limited by location blues. Made for very little money 125k it pretty much stays in one building and so is very limited in scope. It feels like a small budget film and but still does a lot with very little. We at these science fiction festivals are audiences that have seen many time travel films so we are hard to please. This one showed some promised but ultimately needed more money and time than it had to get a recommend from Soresport Movies.
The second feature was a wonderfully complete story of time travel and love lost called Dimensions: A Line, A Loop, A Tangle of Threads (2011) - A brilliant physicist haunted by the loss of friend in the past figures out a way to travel back in time and change the past in one of the infinite time threads that make up our universe. The film is well written by Antony Neely and directed by Sloan U'Ren it builds slowly but with a care to develop the characters and motivations needed to hold the audience. Set between the first and second world wars the film follows three young friends as they play together on the edges of wealthy society. The setting where the fathers of the children have not returned from war is a world where their Mothers set the supervision of the children. It leaves the children with way too much unsupervised time. Young Steven (Sam Harrison) and Victoria (Hannah Carson) are close friends with Conrad the third wheel but all are welcomed in this almost "out of time" childhood. Their reality is shattered by a horrible accident that leaves poor Victoria dead and both boys blaming themselves. Years later and still troubled with the loss of their friend Steven (Henry Lloyd-Hughes) and Conrad (Sean Hart) work diligently on a time machine so they can go back and change their past.
Now that simple explanation is not even close to the depth that this film has. This is a film built through the characters and their relationships so it is not so easy to tell the story without giving too much detail. The young men driven through the genius of Steven are close to having their dreams come true. At this same time physics student Annie (Olivia Llewellyn) comes into the picture as an assistant to the men. She is soon very in love with Steven and her role is so heartbreaking. She ends up loving a man who can never return her love. Of course three people in interaction often create triangles and because of that new conflicts surface in the group. In the one really cliche moment in the film poor Conrad, falling for Annie walks in on a hug that sends his mind spinning. He moves towards a betrayal that leads to a death and leaves the three questioning the work.
When the climax of this film comes it is bittersweet but also a wonderfully and carefully built reveal. There are so many things I liked about this film. It deals with the idea of time travel a staple in science fiction. When "the Professor" (Patrick Godfrey) shares his ideas about it at the garden party he uses a mask with eye slits that becomes a visual queue throughout the film holding the time travel idea in the forefront. There is the use of the tree the children run around as a transition tool for moving forward in time to the adult versions of the characters. There were the mirror scenes of the fist fight at the well. The boys in the first occasion it being about the boys fear of going down the well and in the second about who should go down. The wonderful way film spends time with the characters and their motivations so every decision is organic and real.
Beautifully filmed it is an idyllic setting outside the turmoil of the world outside where the story is allowed to grow and come to completion. Cinematography is stunning and moody and the acting is excellent all the way through. If there were any criticisms that should be brought I would say that the music is a bit too strong and sentimental. It was strongly pushing the emotional impact points at times instead of accentuating them. Already mention the betrayal scene was initiated through a very cliche piece of writing and really was the only time I was pulled out of the story. Some may also point at the final scene and how it could come off as a bit gimmicky but I actual hope for that.
Overall this was a wonderful film and although received a bit luke warm at the Marathon I think the fact it was shown after a long night of films when people were tired that such a character driven film probably was not a good fit in the time slot. I loved it.

Boston Science Fiction Festival 7

2012-02-26T11:51:00.001-05:00

On the Friday before the marathon I went in to see the feature Sol and the shorts program Steam punked. I was feeling a bit worn out at this point in the festival but really wanted to see Sol (2010). Made by the Obsidian Collective of North carolina, a multimedia group trying to make high quality productions for their clients. The film a world premiere is about a group of academy students left on a distant planet. They compete as teams each trying to be the first to spot the Earth's sun in the star filled sky. Opening with some impressive special effects as students come through the transport door, but something is wrong and not all the members of all the teams make it through before the door breaks. So we have a collection of roles from different teams all on the wrong planet (as they soon figure out). Quickly the leader from the team that has the most members, Gemini takes charge. Obviously leadership lessons did not really take with this kid as he blunders and bullies the students from the other academies to follow him. The only thing worse than his leadership skills is the actors acting. Stilted dialog through both acting and writing by Benjamin Carland made the interactions between team member very challenging to watch. The collection of young actors were probably the weakest part of the film but not totally because a couple of them certainly has enough credits to suggest that they should know what they are doing. The film becomes a survival movie very quickly, with the Gemini leadership moving the group away from the door only to be attacked by some giant rat/wolf creatures in the night. Why did the group move away from the door? It was really established that if some kind of rescue was going to happen that it is at the teleporting door that it will happen. So instead they move across a barren wasteland of sand with very little water in the middle of the day. Really? After the attack in the camp a small group of boys take refuge in the nearby ocean. No one notices it is a fresh water ocean even though they spend hours in it. Only later when we have the inevitable "we are out of water" scene do the test it. Eventually as they travel down the coast they are attacked by a sea monster so they now have a choice between dying inland and dying on the coast. While trying to find the sun they need to somehow phone home they just don't know enough about where they are to get the location in the sky to look. It is about this time I stopped taking notes, so put off by the "then this happened" storyline I was drifting thinking about getting a beer to dull the pain. It's not that the film did not try but the execution was just not where I wanted it to be. There eventually is an attempt to send messages back to earth that eventually leads to the survivors rescue. One thing though I have to mention since it was such a poor piece of problem solving through plot manipulation that it is truly note worthy. The group needs time to execute their plans and has been driven inland where the rat creature roam. So having figuring out the creatures don't like light and holding them off for several days with said lights, the batteries start to fade. So they find the hole where the creatures go during the day. Looking in we get a comment about it going all over the planet under ground. So they decide to build a fire in front of the hole, and low and behold it is magically the only way for the creatures to come out at night. Whatever is what I was saying to myself at this point. Anyway this is not a movie that I would recommend and really am surpirised I stayed through to the end. I am not sure it is the 2.8 of 10 rating it has on IMDB but it was not very good. The value was the effects were not horrible so there is something for the Obsidian Group to build on.
The second part of the night was Steampunk shorts, some good some not as good but the large and enthusiastic audience made for a good close to the night.
Schlonburger Certainty Postulator - was an amusing short about mixing of universes and the negative effects that can have. Wriiten and directed by Steve N. Bradford it was an enjoyable start to the shorts.
Molly and the Masked Storm - was amazing in the story behind it. Filmed by a group of middle school student this short showed what an amateur group can do. Written and directed by Ben Kadie it is a story about Molly Marlow and her attempts to protect Merlin's magic from a bunch of wind demons.
Doctor Glamour - Was a hilariously fun short about a scientist who has to travel to another dimension to save the woman he loves. In his travels he is help by a rock god and learns more about himself and his wants than expected when he set out.
Steam Driven - A romance between two factory workers and the troubles it causes them is explored in this silent(mostly) featurette. Really not my style of film the audience seemed to like it even while I was wishing it would just end. Maybe I was too tired at this point but a silent film love story was really not what I was looking for so late at night.

Aliens (1986) Action Suspense Alien

2012-02-25T03:18:00.001-05:00

Aliens (1986) - Here we are again reviewing what we at Soresport Movies considers a classic. Where the 1979 Alien was a classic in horror science fiction the sequel that debuted a full seven years later was a classic in action suspense. Directed by James Cameron it is the perfect sequel to a great film. I watched the special edition and have to say at the outset, that the added scenes in this film were taken out with good reason. When they are included they do a number on the pacing and they also whack you over the head with the subtext of mother/daughter relationship that Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) has with Newt (Carrie Henn). So if you have a choice watch the theatrical release.
Like the first film I like how this one foreshadows the bad guy. Burke (Paul Reiser) is a company guy who as the film goes on really becomes a mirror of the Ash character from the first. Sure his motivations are a bit more personal and greedy but still he is the sleazebag willing to sacrifice human life in order to get the alien into captivity. The way the foreshadowing happens is an excellently executed scene. Ripley has been found drifting through space and she is brought back to an orbital space station. There Burke enters her room carrying Jonsey. "I guess you two have met huh. I'm Burke, I'm Carter Burke. I work for the company, but don't let that fool you, I'm really an okay guy." Anytime someone defines themselves as a good guy you have to wonder about them. Then Burke spills how long that Ripley was drifting in space in hyper sleep, 57 years. It doesn't come off as genuine regret to him that she learns about it this way. Sure he makes the motions of apologizing but you can tell he is a bit of a weasel. Ripley suddenly feels something. In her chest, the convulsions start and we know there is going to be a chest burst. An alien is inside her and she begs Burke to kill her. She wakes from this nightmare giving the audience a great fake out.
The fact that Burke is her representative at her hearing concerning the destruction of the Nostromo is also and indicator. He is the instrument of her loosing her license to fly ships in the guise of being her ally. He is the perfect company man, all smiling and friendly but ultimately he is just using those around him to try to climb that corporate ladder. The entire hearing is a sham a way to blame the little guy of the company for loss of revenue. It was after all in adjusted dollars a 42 million dollar loss. The important thing here is that we learn that there are colonists on the planetoid attempting to create an atmosphere.
Now not to let a really bad movie from outside the four that we are reviewing in playing along at home with the Zombiegrrlz podcast. I bit the bullet and watch Alien vs Predator, and in that film long before the goings on from the original aliens the Weyland company knew about aliens. Having sent a group to the multicultural temple buried beneath Antarctica they learned of both the Aliens from this movie and the Predators from its series. Question is did the one survivor from AVP tell anyone what she saw? If she did then this whole hearing and everything from the series is totally thrown out of whack. Lets pretend though that that movie was never made since that is what most Alien fans do. So although the company may have known or not known, Ripley was clear in her communications about the alien. There was no good reason to send people of to that location again other than to try to get someone else infected.
Several months later when the company loses contact with the settlers on the planetoid we have to assume they feel a certain amount of panic in the conference rooms of the company. Having been warned this would happen. It could be a PR nightmare to have Ripley on every newscast of earth talking about how she warned them of the dangers and they did not listen. They have to at least get her away where she can't blow the whistle. So offering her her flight license back to go on the mission to check out the colony is the perfect solution. She is not the perfect character though, still racked by nightmares she is barely functioning in the world. She really doesn't want this and knows it is going to turn out bad. She though in the end must face her fears and possible save some people in the process.

Playing off war movies, particularly Vietnam flicks we get the inexperience commanding officer inheriting a squad of experience soldiers. It is a great set up for this film giving the audience a reason to know thing are going to go wrong. Ripley gets to be the grounding force among these men and women. They are all piss and vinegar having killed many lesser species in the past. She tries to reality check them having experience the real horrors of war.

The special edition adds in many scenes first showing how Newt's family were the first to come in contact with the face huggers. They went out to lay claim on that part of the rock and after leaving the kids in the transport, the parents go and check out the ship only to come back with a creature on Dad's face. Trauma for sure for such a cute little girl. Of course when they get back to the settlement we can guess what happened. So this little girl survived and Ripley becomes her adopted mother, other scenes show Ripley finding out about the passing of her daughter and mourner her death. She floated out there for a long time and we see how James Cameron originally had way too much of the mother daughter connection in the film and then wisely took them out. It is a fine example how good editing works to improve a movie. The promise to Newt by Ripley to get her no matter what really was all that was needed. She follows through on that promise all the way until the end and when Newt grabs Ripley around the neck and cries "Mommy", it is a perfect connection even without the extra scenes of the special edition.

There is a distinct mother daughter parallel between the queen alien and the eggs she is laying and the Ripley, Newt relationship. They both care for their charges and want to protect them. When Ripley finally gets Newt back after she was cocooned she stands there looking at the queen, threatening her eggs with a flame thrower to get her guard aliens to back off. After Ripley torches the eggs anyway and they make their get away the screaming queen alien rips herself away from her birthing appendage and comes after Ripley for vengeance. On the ship as they leave the planet the queen does not come after Ripley but instead goes after Newt, she want Ripley to feel the pain of losing offspring. Of course then we get the great reveal of Ripley in the loader suit, "Get away from her you bitch!" and the fight is on.
We also see more about the Aliens, that there is a society in play here. It is not a bunch of insects to be exterminated in a "bug hunt". It is a hierarchy with a queen who rules with some kind of communication to her workers. She has Alien guards who stay close to her when she is laying eggs. Ripley saw her telepathically call them off in her confrontation with the queen. The aliens are smart enough to figure out how to test the automated gun, and then again to get into the compound by climbing above the hanging ceiling. There attacked are coordinated and planned. While the first film was about a lone drone alien fighting for survival the second film is about a colony well defined and controlled by the queen.
This is another excellent film
Rating (8.9) 5.0 and up are recommended

Boston Science Film Festival 6

2012-02-23T11:19:00.006-05:00

Boston Science Film Festival 6 - Well the event has past and since with the marathon and work and all happening in short order I failed to get my writing done as it went along. So here is an attempt to get caught up.
I caught the "Anything to Declare" short program on Thursday Feb 16th, Beside the behind the scenes footage of the upcoming animated movie(?) "War of the Worlds : Goliath" there was a film about a watch maker "Frankie" who receives a pocket watch that allows him to time travel. Unfortunately for him though he is not the only one who knows the secret. Unfortunately the sound was off on the downloaded version that was played. It seemed an interesting enough story but the sound being a few seconds ahead of the picture was very distracting.
Wonder Garden a S. Korean film about a virtual gamer who works in a convenience store and has to solve the problems in real life and then to her surprise also in her virtual garden. The short had a lot of personality but it was really not the style I like. It was quirky and strange but not in a way I enjoyed. I am sure some people liked it though. It was well put together and filmed.
The best of the night was a Italian entry called "Future in Your Hands" a wonderfully dystopian look at a future where people are forced to take daily urine test to make sure they are not breaking the ever increasing list of government rules. The main character is a young man with the horrible condition of the bashful bladder, Paruresis. Fear of peeing in front of others but he has to do it and the nurse watching him has to watch. It plays out well and all the way to a surprising ending.
The feature was a World Premiere called "The Golden Age of Science Fiction" Which was a refreshingly honest look at Science Fiction icon John W. Campbell Jr. The man who wrote "Who Goes There?" the story that would later become the films, The Thing From Outer Space, and influenced John Carpenter's "The Thing". He would then become the editor of Astounding Science Fiction magazine and was responsible for bringing many of the greatest hard science fiction writers of our time to audiences around the world.
Through interviews with many of great writers we learn of the many writers he challenged to be better and his methods to do so. The list of writers is amazing and includes Brian Aldiss, Samuel Delaney, Barry Malzberg, Harry Harrison, Isaac Asminov, Thomas Disch. Robert Heimlein, Ben Bova, Philip Jose Farmer, and more made a compelling piece about a complicated man. This film was not only talked about the Golden Age of Science Fiction, the 50s through early seventies, but also captured the importance of Campbell's magazine on the period.
Campbell was a complicated man and the film does not pull punches in exploring the man. An ego driven editor he challenged writers to improve their writing, often with his own ideas. He was an antisemite and racist who often made comments many people considered offensive. Film maker Eric Solstein does an excellent job bring the many hours of interviews into a cohesive storyline that fully explore the man and his effect on science fiction writing.

Alien (1979) Horror Alien

2012-02-22T06:10:00.001-05:00

Alien (1979) - The main reason most blogs do not review the classics is because so much has been written that it is impossible to be original. Seriously what is there to write about this horror science fiction masterpiece that is loved by genre aficionados everywhere? Not being a professional writer I would not even know how to approach this from some fresh new angle. So instead I am going to give an attempt at least, to talk about what this movie has meant for me. In 1979 I was finishing my freshman year of high school, a pimply faced dweeb who already really liked the horror genre. Growing up in Boston meant I had an every Saturday dose of the "Creature Double Feature" so already had a background in seeing monster and horror movies. Sure they were the old films of the 50s and 60s but every week they were there to fill our imaginations. We were very poor as a family so going to the movies was a rare event. So I can't say that Alien was the first horror film I saw in theaters, I remember I sneaking into the theater as a boy and saw and was terrified by the Exorcist (1973), and did the same thing for Jaws (1975) so I already had the horror bug. What was unique I think is the fact that I was a teenager, trying to figure out what it was I was going to define myself as. Its a time when I think we see grab hold of many of the things we will love and honor for the rest of our lives. (Can you love and honor a genre film?) Looking back many of the films I love, whether good or bad I saw in my teen years. I do have to admit something though, Star Wars is not on that list. I don't think I saw it until VHS in the eighties and since I was drunk most of the eighties it just never made my canon. Alien though is a different story. I remember the buzz around this movie and how everyone talked about the chest bursting scene. How some kids bragged about not turning away. A startling scene for sure, even by today's standards but nothing compared to the stomach turning torture porn displayed on screens now. Still at the time it was state of the art and everyone wanted to see this movie. I remember loving every minute of it, a well thought out and executed science fiction horror movie. It also contained the iconic imagery of H. R. Giger's designs and the movies first real woman hero ( I know this is an arguable point). There were countless stories about Sigourney Weaver and how this role redefined women in horror and science fiction. I have seen this film countless times since then and have enjoyed it every time.
Written primarily by Dan O'Bannon there are several influences he cites primarily Planet of Vampires, The Thing from Another World and Forbidden Planet. O'Bannon worked on Dark Star(1974) with John Carpenter wanted to use a Hitchcock style and not show everything. Boy that's a lot of references in a short amount of time. You see that a lot in extras on the DVDs Hollywood people constantly referencing people the admire, worked with, or wish to work with. There were several years and many people working on this script. It was sort of in the works when Star Wars hit and was a giant hit. The studio wanted to follow up and this was a script that was pretty complete that could be the next space film.
Directed by Ridley Scott who has a good if somewhat mixed track record. This was early in his career and he does an excellent job setting the mood and pacing the film. Since I watched the special edition release in 2003 I saw a slightly different version of the film. Scott in his introduction was pretty clear that he felt the special edition with added scenes would not add to the story, more just give you more to think about. In fact I don't think directors like when there are "Special Editions" and they are expected to change the work they have already completed.
We all know the story basics by now, the deep space mining ship Nostromo picks up a signal of unknown origin on a small planetoid it is passing. The ship computer wakes the crew from hyper sleep to investigate. When one of the crew is infected with a face hugging creature he is brought back on board. In the most startling scene the seemingly recovered crew member has an alien pop out of his chest and go scurrying off into the ship. It grows really fast and the searching crew looking for it is killed off while looking for it. Eventually our heroine must face it one on one to survive.
Primarily the added scenes add some more depth to the film but kill the pacing a bit. There are a couple places where they actually ruin things, on is when Brett (Harry Dean Stanton) is searching for the cat Jonsey. He enters the room with the chains hanging from the ceiling. Washing his face with water the added in clip shows the alien hanging in the chains. The original is much more effective, the alien settles down behind Brett before we ever see it and is only revealed when it attacks him.
Another really large give away is a scene after Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) sets the self destruct for the Nostromo, she is moving through the bowels of the ship and hears a moan. She find Brett and Dallas (Tom Skerritt) cocooned in the alien silicon. Dallas pleads to be killed. This reveal more spoils the second movie Aliens where it is a major reveal to the alien behavior. Here it certainly adds depth to the creatures but where this is basically a survival horror film it is not needed and probably why it was cut in the first place.
I notice in this viewing how well cast and foreshadowed the Ash character was. Ian Holmes does an excellent job with his quirky but not outwardly menacing role as the android with the agenda to bring back the alien. He wants the investigation of the alien vessel. When he learns of the alien he is either reporting back to the company and they have every intention of bringing back the alien alive. The crew is expendable if necessary so this piece of information is an explosive reveal in the film. Early in the film Parker and Brett are talking about getting full pay shares since they are doing this unusual investigation which is really outside the limits of there normal work. Ash says to them "You'll get exactly what's coming to you."
He really begins to tip his hand a bit more when the away team is investigating the signal. Ripley continues to use the computer to try to decipher the signal, she says she wants to call back the team but the signals have gotten too static filled to communicate. She suggests to Ash that she should go out after them, he says nervously that they will be back by the time she gets there. So does he already know that there is an alien species out there? Does the company know ahead of time what they are getting this crew into?
Then when the crew returns with the facehugger on Kane (John Hurt) he is the one who breaks quarantine and manually opens the airlock letting the away team and the alien onto the ship. She confronts him about his actions and his motivations are clear in his comment that "I do take my responsibilities as seriously as you. You do your job let me do mine." This is long before he finally flips and attempts to kill Ripley by shoving a magazine down her throat. We also learn he is a synthetic robot so he is probably acting on programming and not making independent decisions. Ash and the company are as much of a bad guy as the alien is. They challenge the idea that human life is the most valuable above all else. Instead they choose the killing machine alien over the crew. Ash certainly repeatedly foreshadowed this but not in a too obvious way making the reveal of his motive very effective.
In talking to friends about this film I have gotten several reactions to the fact that Ripley risks a lot to save the cat Jonsey. My first reaction to saving the cat is "Fuck the cat" but one friend suggests that it is a more honest representation of Ripley and how a woman would treat the ships pet as opposed to how a male action hero would respond. I don't necessarily by this sure it could be in Ripley's character but I am not sure it is because she is a woman. Do you think the writers intentionally had the cat sequences to define the differences between a male and female hero? Was it a way to have Ripley be a strong character but not just a character that act like male roles more traditionally seen at the time? They certainly didn't just want a women playing a traditionally guy role just acting and making decisions as a man would. They wanted to write her to be a strong women making decisions that fit her character and they were succe3ssful in this.
So what do you rate one of your favorite all time movies? Now since I watched the special edition I do have to take off a fraction of a point for the reveal of the cocooning. Of course it is a recommended film and in the Zombiegrrlz rating system you should own this movie. Did I mention that this review is in support of the zombiegrrlz podcast. Check them out they do a great job.
Rating (9.5) 5.0 and up are recommended

Boston Science Fiction Festival 5

2012-02-16T06:30:00.008-05:00

After taking a day off on Wednesday to spend some quality time with my Valentine, 25 years with my lovely lady. I went back to the festival a bit tired. Either I am not sleeping well or the act of actively watching so many things is wearing me down so I was dragging a bit and decided to only stay for the shorts. Twisted Twisters was the title for the night and here are some thoughts.

Dr Grordbort Presents: The Deadliest Game (2012) - Taking the great white hunter to an alien planet and set the characters in 1920s garb and verve. Add some wonderful CGI and a playful script and you have this great short from New Zealand. Directed by Media Design 3D Program leader James Cunningham it was a great story of a female reporter talking to a expedition leader who seem the most callous and clueless chronicler of life on a foreign planet imaginable.

Haze (2010) - A fascist future world where two rebels attempt to get into positions of power to take down the regime. Alec is being looked at by the Colonel Berg more closely than he likes and his cohort Janine is up for the promotion she need to get into the right place to do real damage. When the colonel presents her with a morale dilemma she seizes the moment to fulfill her plans. The world presented is a scary dystopian world where everyone is watch all the time and no one is easily trusted. Somewhat standard stuff for Science fiction :)

Air (2011) - At the end of the world there is still room to fall in love. Meteors have been falling and creating poisonous gas areas where they pass over. It really could be the end of the world. Aaron (David Chrysanthou) and his mate Kenyon are working in the attic of a old man when he comes across an old gas mask. Goofing he puts it on, at this moment Kenyon convulses and falls dead in front of him. Aaron freaked wanders out into the world to see people dead everywhere. His lucky find saved his life but here he is alone as everyone else in the world dies. He sees a girl Emily (Adelle Addington) who looks to be a patient in the hospital and they get together, she too is alive by the lucky chance that she happened to be on oxygen. The two realize though that her take will run out in five minutes and go on a frantic search for a new source of air. Throw in Clown Bud(Rick Stupple) a bullying hulk who wants the safety they have to replace the helium he is breathing from his collection of balloons and you have a tense show down. Well paced and a small world in larger cataclysms make this an enjoyable entry. Shame about that damn car driving through the background of the final shot though.

Mirage (2011) - The sound was off on this one so not as enjoyable as I think it could have been. The story of a man who works in the projection room of one of the last old time theaters in a future world. Some how he manages to find his way into the film he is showing and through the experience finds love.

Attack of the Mutant Chickens (2011) - original Muri Keno Mutant, is a delightful cartoon short about what else, mutant chicken. Great personality in this one which was completely enjoyable. You can see clips at youtube, Trailer 02 and the Teaser.
Great to see pieces from around the world get some attention, this one by Nayeem Mahbub deserves a viewing.

Bugbaby (2010) - Little Sammy is a special child and not because he is the light in his parents eyes. Bugbaby is a playful short about a baby who just happens to be an insect and the parents attempt to get help from the government in dealing with him. I have to say I really marked this one down because there was no bug baby reveal but it was still entertaining.

Boston Science Fiction Festival 4

2012-02-14T06:40:00.018-05:00

Monday night consisted of three features and my daughter's 20th birthday. So first off all the most wonderful wishes a father can send his little girl on her first day after her teen years. Like your name you are a Joy in my life. Of course she is off at college and could not be at today's program.

The Boston Science Fiction Festival is in full swing providing a steady stream of features and shorts to New England audiences, festival passes and passes to the Movie marathon can be found at the their website. Individual tickets to screenings can be purchased at the Somerville Theatre up until time of show.

The Collapsed (2011) - A family of four is hiding in a warehouse, the sounds of gunfire can be heard outside. They don't feel safe where they are and the father Scott Weaver (John Fantasia) leads them out into the streets to find a more secluded location. He takes point and stares them around people he sees, its the end of the world apparently and its a dangerous place. With him are wife Emily (Lise Moule) daughter Rebecca (Anna Ross) and son Aaron (Steve Vieira) and they eventually make it to a subway and sleep on the platform. The decide to make for Dovers Bend (or some such place) where they are hoping their other son Daniel is still surviving, it is a less populated center which could also be good. So the next day through the chaos they picks their way through the streets until they find a car they can take. Interactions at this point are about how to get where they are going and it seems Scott is unquestionable more paranoid than he should be. This viewer started to wonder if there wasn't something not quite right with him. Stopping at a gas station they collect supplies. When Dad spies a couple big guys with guns pulling into the gas station he pushes his family out the back door and off into the wood fleeing. Although armed with an old rifle and a revolver the family has limited ammo and fleeing seems like the smarter choice. What was noticeable at this point is that the only one who is actually seeing the threats is Scott which lead to the early conclusion that he is a bit delusional and may be taking his family on a fantasy ride through his paranoia. Then in the woods the family talks about a presence they all feel and you are brought back to the idea there really is a threat of some kind. Could there be an alien invasion of something like that. Conversations reveals that Dad may have killed Rebecca's boyfriend but that it was deemed necessary.
When the two guys head back to the store to find it empty and it is the Scott who checks the gas tank saying it is empty, well I was right back to it being Dad who is imagining things. As they get bad to camp Aaron stops to pee and when he arrives in camp he find his Mother and sister dead. One stabbed and the other with a broken neck, Scott blames the men from the store but his cover is blown. It was so obvious at this point that he has lost his mind and killed them. Now it is just a matter of time before he does the son and then realized that he is the killer. Long... before that though we get lots of walking in the woods by the two men. Scott's dreams push you towards believing his subconscious is feeling mighty guilty about his wife and daughter. Long before Aaron is shot dead by a mysterious sniper and Scott is captured by another group of paranoids it is clear what is going on. So the explanation handed to you of a virus making everyone paranoid killers is not a surprised at all. Scott's anguish at realizing his deeds is belittled because it was figured out way too early. The horrible cliche reenactments as he suddenly remembers his crimes means that this is not really very original. Still some credit is due for creating a mood and following through with the idea. The idea that we could finally be done in by some kind of virus that gives us all mental illness is a wonderfully frightful one. I just wish the script and execution of the script by director Justin McConnell was a bit more stealth. (3.6) 5.0 and up are recommended.

The Book (2010) - This film came with a warning to look past the over the top costumes and acting and pay attention to the plot. Okay if that is what has to be done, its a long festival and sometimes some patience is needed with some of the movies. The film completely created by Richard Weiss, who for some reason wanted to be known as a symbol so we will refer to him as the symbol former known as Richard Weiss, is not half bad. He did just about everything in this film from costume design to editing to directing and producing. This is obviously a film Mr. Weiss had to make. Yes you really have to get past the costumes and strange sets but after you do there is an alien invasion story here that is not bad. It's not good but is a passable little tale with some really rather fucked up ideas. What if we all shared one set of moral and religious values and all interpreted them the same. Would we have a peaceful world without violence and hate?
Sarah (Genevieve Antaky), her father and Bratt (Phil Baradat) are being taken to a secret ceremony where they are going to learn the story of The Book" In the voice over and reiterated at the ceremony we learn that the book has changed the world. All who have read it have were permanently changed by the book and released from negative thoughts. The ceremony has the The Keeper burns the book and then tell its story. The story, 200 years before of a writer Alex Paris (Stan Weston) who with his family, wife Cleo (Felecia Faulkner) and daughter Julie (Pamela Wycliffe) are replaced by aliens in a bit of a "Invasions of the Body Snatchers" style. This so they can get the book published and take over the earth through its ideas. You see once changed by the book you will no longer be the unhappy soul you are now but will be happy and without negative thought. The downside of course is the loss of free will. The majority of the film really looks at this man and his family, his publisher Romeo and his girlfriend Sally as the initial aliens take their places.
Then we come back to the ceremony to learn that these people tell this story as a warning. That none of them have read the book because they are all illiterate, so they still have free will. It is not quite ignorance is bliss but it is at least the dumb shall save the world.
This movie created more conversation afterwards than any so far. The strange style aside it has really a unique message. The illiterate burning the book and feeling they have free will only because they can't read was a turn not expected. When the movie started you thought it might be about the book itself but no, its a story being told by those who have not read the book and see it as harmful to the society. It was proposed that maybe the film was a anti Scientology message. The alien who inhabit the humans are the Thetans and the book is Scientology, the purging of negative emotions i mentioned in the film, and even possible an en meter. Could this be a reference to the engrams of consciousness Scientology believes in? Could the book be Dianetics? No, at his website for the film you can learn the motivations, http://www.thebook-themovie.com and they are not about this. It was a strange little film with brightly colored costumes and makeup, strange camera angles (used to give the subconscious feeling of looking up as a child does) and cheesey special effects. I have not read The Book so all I can say is...
" Blessed are the illiterate for we were saved."
All in all not a horrible film but I would not seek it out either so Rating (4.5) 5.0 and up are recommended.

The Last Push (2012) - The last and best film of the night was this story by writer/director Eric Hayden about the first manned mission to find life on Jupiter's moon Europa. Hayden with mostly special effects credits certainly shows us some in this contemplative but compelling story. Nathan Miller (James Madio) and Michael Forrest (Khary Payton) are private astronauts working for Walter Moffitt (Lance Henriksen) a billionaire looking to be the first to send men out into the solar system. Having seen what appear to be whales of some kind on images of Europa he quickly puts his billions to work to get a manned mission to the moon. The idea is to put them into hypersleep and then shoot them around Venus to slingshot back past Earth where they will pick up more speed and head out to Europa a nine year journey. Once past earth they are at a point of no return and have to continue on to do their mission before returning nine more years later.
Unfortunately while in hypersleep on the far side of Venus the sleep / reentry module is struck by a micro asteroid and although Michael makes it into the living capsule Nathan is lost and the mission is a failure. Now awake without a hypersleep chamber Michael must fix the ship, and keep his sanity for the three year journey back to earth where the mission will be aborted. In the capsule without the window Michael only has the delayed interaction with mission control for interaction with other humans. His primary contact Bob Jansen (Brian Baumgartner) does his best to give him a friendly hopeful face in a somewhat hopeless situation. He also has problems to solve, that will mean life or death for him and his return home. The automatic switches that signaled the engine burn that will push him out of Venus' orbit has failed and he must find a way to rewire the system and do the burn manually. He has time and the film spends many scenes showing his growing frustration at failing to be successful. It is a marathon and if not for finding a few things hidden by his dead shipmate in the bowels of the ship he may have completely lost his mind. Still he loses it to an extent and we see his routine slowly deteriorate with each fail test at engine burn. Mixed in the film are messages to Michael of hope for his safe return from people all over the world that are poignant and build our connection to the character.
Through the journey we see Michael the more serious of the to men really become human as he struggles with creating and keeping a routine both physical and mental. He recites the Presidents of the United States, then by first name. He imagines a globe on the walls of the tiny room and where cities and countries would be, recites the periodic table and the seven dwarfs anything to keep his mind focused in the absolute loneliness of space. Still this kind of isolation will have its toll and the hallucination of voice from the burned out reentry capsule drive him a bit nuts. When next to Venus there are some stunningly beautiful effects of what the ship would look like passing that close to the planet. Michael for his part finally gets enough courage to reenter the burned module and clean it up and look out the window at the sites. It is calming to him seeing what no man has ever seen. It is a real reminder what he is there for, to be the eyes of man in the solar system. When after 25 failures or more he gets the burn to work next to Venus he is reinvigorated and just a couple years from home. He has renewed purpose and drive and one could say starts to flourish on the journey. His routines are reestablished with focus and drive. He fixes the landing capsule best he can and it is looking like he is going to make it back to earth. When the time comes though Michael has really been transformed by his experience. He understands who he is as he reaches the orbit of his home planet. He is completely in touch with his motivation for volunteering for this mission. He and Moffitt have there final conversation before the capsule returns to earth and the ship continues onto Europa. Acting was exceptional with Payton capturing the rigidness of a scientist and the frayed edges of a person alone in a desparate situation.The visuals are stunning, space never looking more beautiful and the sound and plot are winners here too. The real handicap was keeping the tension while so much of the film was just Michael in a room, but that was done pretty well. This is such a solid science fiction film just perfect for fans of the genre.
Rating (7.7) 5.0 and up are recommended

Boston Science FictionFestival 3

2012-02-13T05:44:00.000-05:00

Hell Night (1981) Horror Freaks

2012-02-13T05:08:00.000-05:00

Hell Night (1981) - This review is done in coordination with the wonderful and talented Stacie Ponder and her wonderful blog feature The Final Girl Film Club. This film with Linda Blair a decade after the highlight of her career in The Exorcist (1973)[If you don't count Savage Streets (1984 ) hee hee ] in a pretty see through horror film that lacks depth and surprises. Not that it can't be looked at with a certain amount of nostalgia, it is right in my sweet spot of years where horror films shaped me and my generation.
This somewhat forgettable film may have came and went pretty fast of course being drunk through most of the eighties I can only guess at that. This viewing left me unimpressed with a way too predictable plot, and somewhat stale acting.
The film starts with a giant out of control frat party, kids making out, beer drinking and the such. We are quickly introduced to the theme of the night. Its Hell Night the night when all the pledges to sororities and fraternities must face some mistreatment or challenge to be accepted into the clubs. On this night the head Frat guy Peter (Kevin Brophy), his accomplice Scott (Jimmy Sturtevant) and side kick girl May West (Jenny Neumann) have cooked up some real scares for the four pledges to Alpha Sigma Rho. Using the local haunted house as a place to terrify the four, they wire it up for sound and set up other frightening gags. Then when the time is right all the partiers are gathered and our pledges are locked in the grounds of the house. Still if you are attentive and listen to the haunted house story about the mongoloid children and the murder suicide then you will know exactly what is going on when all the shit hits the fan for the college students. Sleeping in the house with its sound effects and scares will be the least of their worries.
Two couples end up in the mix with our three pranksters, those pledges are Seth (Vincent Van Patten) who quickly hooks up with party girl Denise Dunsmore (Suki Goodwin) leaving good girl Marti Gaines (Linda Blair) to hang out with rich boy Jeff Reed (Peter Barton). The character development is scarce but we do get the rich boy / poor girl banter where we learn Marti is a capable mechanic and this little gem.
Jeff: What makes it so evil to be rich, and so noble to be poor?
Marti: Its just the rich capitalist feeds on the life of the downtrodden poor.
We also have a bit of dialog between Seth and Denise where they are frolicking in the bed and he does his surfing routine on her. So deep, wow just takes your breath away, his love of the waves that is. So before the killing starts this is the film, some mild character development then the pranks to be played on the pledges. This is a smart group though and they figure out the house rigging pretty easily. They quickly detach any rigs they find in the house never suspecting anything besides frat shenanigans is going on.
Peter and Scott give a bit of exposition to let us know that this house is special in that there are tons of hidden passage ways and tunnels in it and they can move around easily to perform their tricks. Still Peter and Scott have more than loud noises planned and send May off to create a diversion while they start the next prank. As she walks near the outer wall she is nervous and then suddenly arms reach out from a hole(vent?) in the ground and she is pulled below. Screaming and fighting she is pushed against a wall and her head is chopped off.
The killer is pretty obvious and once the killing starts it goes somewhat quickly through our pranksters. When a killer runs out of pranksters what is he to do? How about start in on the pledges. When Seth heads to the bathroom we know who is first poor Denise does not stand a chance. When he returns it is not Denise under the covers next to him but instead the head of May. Something I like about this film is how quickly the remaining three head for the gate. No shitting around here, Seth finds the head in the bed yells and boom the three head to the gates. With the gun given to them for emergency by Peter they shoot off the lock open the gate and escape with their lives. No wait... those are blanks in the gun, damn. So Seth has to climb over the sharp point tall gate to go get help. Will he impale himself? It is one of the few good moments of tension in the film. It is not disappointing to see him safely on the other side. He goes off to fruitlessly attempt to get some help. It is hell night after all and no matter what he says to the police about killers in the old mansion they are not going to believe him. In fact they threaten to arrest him for bothering them. He eventually has to steal a rifle from the police station (their security seems a bit lax) and car jack a car from some dude before driving back to rescue his new friends. Its a real shame though because of course it will cost him his life.
Jeff and Marti hold up in a room awaiting his return but when the killer raises from under a rug Jeff's fight or flight response kicks in and he shoves a pitchfork through the prick. The cloaked figure falls through the window into the garden and it is up to the couple to make sure it is dead. After a second encounter and sure the killer is dead they can relax. This is a horror film though and again if you were paying close attention at the house history story you know where the scythe comes from that impales Jeff.
Our final girl Marti while running from the new killer comes across all the bodies of most of the people who have been killed up to this point in the film. Its a lucky thing because she is able to pry the gate key from the cold dead hand of Peter and makes her way to the gate. She sees the stolen car waiting for her outside and clumsily gets through the gate. It is awesome to see her lock the gate behind her. After all she is being chased by a crazed killer. So often the killer is given one more shot at the final girl it is refreshing to see her get away clean. When the car won't start you know since she is a mechanic there is no problem; Awesome so no real hitches. The problem is in turning around she crashes into the gate knocking it down damn it! The final sequence commences with this opportunity for the killer to get to her. When she finally wins and collapses on the steering wheel in exhaustion we know her nightmare is finally over. She wakes to see the sun rise to officially end her Hell Night.
Rating (4.0) 5.0 and up are recommended in the Zombiegrrlz system Rent it for Nostalgia sake!

Boston Science Fiction Festival 2

2012-02-12T12:17:00.010-05:00

Boston Science Fiction Festival 1

2012-02-11T09:38:00.008-05:00

It is that time of year where I spend 10 days on Science Fiction films. Most of the reviews will really be quick hits. There are so many things to see in such a short time that I wonder when I will have a chance to write. On top of it my video card went bad this week and I have to make some time to replace it or I won't have my regular workspace. I warmed up for this event by playing along at home with the Zombiegrrlz podcast and watching the four Alien films, Alien, Aliens, Alien3 and Alien Resurrection. I have draft reviews on those in the works at the same time hopefully I can get them out before long.

The first day at the festival was a mixed bag, one good and one tragically bad film. I missed the starting shorts program because silly me left my pass at home and had to go get it after work. The first feature I saw was called:

Pig (2011) -titled 1.2 A man (Rudolf Martin) wakes up in the desert his hands bound and a hood over his head. We see him struggle to free himself and make his way out. He is found by Isabel (Heather Ankeny) and hewr small sun. With the help of the area doctor (Steve Tom) they nurse him back to health. As he heals we learn that he has lost his memory but has a name on a piece of paper "Manny Elder". Is he Manny? How did he get in the desert? Isabel has some ideas about it, possibly he was invovled in the drug trafficing? There relationship grows as he takes the time needed to fully heal. She lives in the desert so he is far from town and the isolation adds to the ease of their getting to know each other. Still the lack of memory is eating at the man and the name Manny Elder may be the key. He can't let go of it so when she is in town she googles the name and when she comes back with a phone number for Manny he has the choice to call it. When he does he knows he is not Manny as the answering machine has someone elses voice. Still the need to know who we are is the driving force for the man. He eventually convinces Isabel to take him to LA to meet Manny. He has found her gun and brings it along without her knowing and when he approaches the door with the gun the film stops.

Title 1.3 Again he is in the desert and struggles to survive, a mountain lion in the dark. At this point I am thinking that this is some kind of time travel movie. We don't see the mountain lion get the man but it is implied. It is a smart turn by the film maker Henry Barrial, it sidetracks our perception of what kind of film this is making the eventual reveal more effective.

Title 1.4 again he wakes in the desert and this time we see him make his way to Manny Elder in LA. He is a nice guy who apparently was his landlord. He starts learning about his life by looking at his stuff and it seems he is making progress, he is Justin Reeves and not the greatest of people but looking at his stuff he definately was living a life. It seems although he still does not have his memories he is making progress. Then another great turn when while sitting outside a woman Anouk (Ines Dali) shouts to Justin speaking in German. He reponds perfectly in the same language and we start down a new trail where Justin discovers another life where he is a bit of an asshole, a guy named Lukas Ernst. She talks to him about how his personality is different, how he is kinder and softer. Certainly the film explores this how we are defined by the experiences we have. That our memories define us and help create our personalities. Still Justin is struggling with the idea that he could have two lives.

1.5 Again in the desert, he passes out and we see a couple pairs of boots move his body to where Isabel is going to find him. But wait there is a twist. Lets not get into it here as you will want to see this film but the Justin/Lukas is not who we think. The theme of how we are who we are is nicely explored and although the film seemed to drag just a bit at times it is an interesting enough film. I fell in love with Isabel in the first sequence and if only I could mneet the actress I know she would love me too. :) The acting in this film is very good, the plot interesting and it keeps enough under the covers for reveals that are surprising. A solid entry but as the first thing I viewed has the task of being compared to each thing I see this point on. So a rating (6.1)

The second film of the night was a hilariously bad monster movie called The Millenium Bug (2011) A story about the Haskin family who escape to the Sierra Diablos mountains to avoid the Y2K turning of the century. Unfortunately for them they run into some deformed "Hills Have Eyes" hillbillies who are looking for new blood to mate with to expand their family. Also just so happens Roger Patterson a scientist is also in the hills looking for a creature he is sure will rise from the earth. The creature does rise and it is very large and hungry. So as the kidnapping and bad acting runs rampant through this movie, the killing and gross practical effects take over. Then the monster starts feeding and there is yelling, running and screaming. There is a lot of screaming, and did I mention bad acting. Part of the problem is that the parts are such characatures that they are just horrible and limited. There also is just some really poor acting and it takes away from what might have been made iton a decent moster movie. There is a real strength to this film though. The practical effects are excellent and gross and just a please to cringe at. So I won't recommend this one but I have to say there is a soft spot in my heart for movies like this. I love a monster movie even if it is bad and I would probably watch this film again but add my own home commentary. Rating (3.2)

Sombre (1998) Thriller Serial Killer

2012-02-03T04:38:00.001-05:00

Sombre (1998) - Writer/Director Philippe Grandrieux bring this quiet emotionally disturbing piece of transgressive cinema. The story of Jean (Marc Barbe) a puppeteer and compulsive serial killer, okay the puppeteer job really plays a small part in the story but is also very interesting. Early in the film before we know anything about Jean we see children in an audience, the faces tense with the nervous interest in what is happening in the show they are watching. They fidget and react to the puppet show we never see totally controlled by the master Jean behind the scenes. It is Jean, the man who needs to be in control who creates that reaction and we see later it is not the only control he is compelled to hold.
Jean is a serial killer, a man with a particular routine, compulsion that he can not control but controls him. The transference of that control onto the prostitutes his picks up and kills is a rigid ritual they and he must follow. Stand, small the midriff and crotch, sit and lay back, spread the legs, he command of the prostitute. The engulfing embrace from behind, the smelling of her hair, her struggles as she is strangled to death. His need to walk away from the body fulfilled and shamed. The Director establishes this three times so we are in tune with the killers need, each time he drives to a remote place to dump the body. Each time he finds a new victim. He seems to be following a bike tour in his driving and we see the people lining the roadways of France. Jean can prey more easily in this way, lots of people on holiday, easy to not be remembered in a crowd.
His third kill has a stunning reveal shot, beautifully framed and executed. We see Jean pick a women up at his hotel. She drives with him most of the day and we know her fate having seen his actions twice to this point. Jean is seen from behind, shimmering water frames his head the camera pulls back and you see at his feet the poor third victim. So well executed that you stick with this rather slow and deliberately scatter film making style. On his way from that experience Jean comes across Claire her car broken on the side of the road. He offers to help and give her a ride which she reluctantly accepts.
The film shifts here and more must happen off screen than we are allowed to see. Claire (Elina Lowensohn) and her sister Christine (Geraldine Voillat) are on holiday following the same bike tour? They seem to now be traveling with Jean although it seems a quick and risky thing to the viewer. There seems to be a connection between Jean and Claire. We learn she is a virgin and the more amorous Christine may be the one at risk with this guy. Late one night Claire unable to sleep notices Jean coming out of the club across the street from the hotel with a couple strippers. She watches from the shadows as his ritual plays out. Then she doesn't say anything? No police?
It plays out like this a scattered artistically interesting film that plods a bit. When the girls realize how crazy this guy is it is too late to flee. He has Christine tied in the hotel room and forces Claire to come out with him. His desire is for her and she for him but she also knows poor Christine will not stand a chance when they get back. So she parties hard and attracts a couple of bisexual men to try to get help, by getting them to take her and Jean back to their place for sex. It is a strange way to go about getting help but I suppose that since this is a world without cops it is a solution. The drunken party that happens as she leads the men on gets out of control and Jean is punched out by one of the men. This gives Claire the opportunity to get the car keys, get back to her sister and escape. Then at the train she puts her sister on it and goes back to find Jean? WTF?
Again with Jean she is offering him a chance at something more than what he has. An intimacy and acceptance he has never known. Her virgin body is his and he does not have to stay on the destructive path his is on. As he makes love to her he begins his ritual, but stops himself and forces her away with a women in a car he flags down. He can not be with her and he knows it she must be sent away before he kills her. It is an act of love that Claire can not comprehend but again she can live.
The woman tells her a story of love missed in her youth and the regret she carried in her life because of it. This make Claire go back to Jean one last time with forcing his final decision to either accept this new form of love or stick to his compulsion.
Like I said earlier this is a tough film to watch in it is a jagged style of filming, with limited dialog. It does have though a serious and formidable emotion heart that beats a steady rhythm throughout. I can recommend it but know you are getting into an artsy slower film that is not for strict pulse racing horror fans.
Rating (5.2) 5.0 and up are recommended

Dark House (2009) Horror Ghosts

2012-01-26T06:20:00.001-05:00

Dark House (2009) - Claire (Meghan Ory) is a traumatized woman, as a child she saw the horrors of a mass murder of the seven other children in a foster home. Now as an adult in college she struggles with paralyzing fear, taking medication and seeing a therapist Dr. Freeman (Tim Snay). His brilliant idea is for her to confront her fear by going into that same house, of course he adds no other supports for her, like making sure he goes with her. No just send the terrified girl back into her place of horrors and ensure her she will come out on the other side better off. Claire really wants to get over her emotional hangups, unable to form healthy relationships, and unable to be in touch fully with her feeling because of her medication she struggles in her college acting courses. In fact she has been avoiding her meds just so she can be more connected to her emotions during class.
Well wouldn't you know the opportunity arises when horror entertainment mogul Walston (Jeffrey Combs) arrives to offer the actors in Claires class a chance to work in his latest horror amusement the Dark House. He has purchased the very same house that Claire was so traumatized in and has spared no expense to
create a horror themed fun house. He needs actors to man the place though and this is an opportunity Claire for one will not pass up. She lies and says she has never been to the house even when the other actors talk about the tragic murders that took place there 12 years earlier. After convincing the rest of her class to join her off they go to see the place.
The house is something to behold with state of the art holographic technology it has a cast of terrifying characters that look so real they scare the actors. A strength of this film is the make up department headed by Megan Areford who make the non computer effects wonderfully imagined hideous in effect. After a quick demonstration of the scary holographic characters the actors learn their roles and prepare to do a run through for a couple horror amusements beat writers. ( Is there such a thing as an amusement beat writer?)

As the fun begins down in the cellar things are not going too well. Harris (Michael Albala) the computer genius who came up with the technology is killed by the ghost of the murderer Ms Darrode played with vigor by Diane Salinger. Now as he lay dying on the keyboard the

ghost enters the machine. This is such a weak part of the film, somehow it is always really cluncky when the supernatural is melded with technology.

Its probably because science has shown us there really is no such thing as the supernatural

so it challenges the logical parts of our brains when we see the two together. Writer / Director Darin Scott tries through flashing computer screen warnings to convey the idea that the evil spirit has entered the holographic programming and has corrupted the code with pure evil.
The effects of this conceit is that now the holographs will be able to kill the players in the house. Once just scary projections now they will slice dice and clobber the actors and others into pulpy messes. Here again is a weakness in the film, most of the kills in these sequences involve really shoddy computer effects that take away from the scare in really comical ways.

Like when Eldon (Danso Gordon) is attacked by the knight with the mace. Beside that fact that there is a roomfull of people who just watch instead of banding together to try to help, when he finally has he head clubbed off, the spew of bits from the computer effect is ridiculous is its fountain of red. On top of that in each scene where the CGI is featured there is never a natural consequence from it. I mean to say there are no puddles, blood smears or anything that would tell you someone died here. It really leaves the viewer uninvested in the hyper reality of the story when after a kill there is no evidence it ever took place.

*******SPOILERS******

It is very quickly a fight for survival and Claire is seeing it for what it is. The ghost in the machine appears to her on occasion and just terrifies her deeply.

One by one the characters are killed off until of final girl must confront the ghost and her past. Then this not quite passable film pulls the cliche that sinks it. The police arrive and find Claire in the kitchen acting crazy and stabbing the floor repeatedly. We quickly move to the explanation of the entire film. Lets me say that if as a writer you have the need to wrap things up at the end of your script by recapping the entire film, you're not doing it right. Especially when you have

Bob Pinciotti (Don Stark) from That 70's Show deliver it. In this case I am sure that the writer was very clever in what information he left out.

In the early scene when Claire was just a girl it was played to lead the audience to think she was the little girl who, on a dare, entered the scary house to find the murder scene. That scene ends when looking through a keyhole, another eye peers back. So there was a survivor from the massacre, guess which one of the two Claire is.

Wait you don't have to guess because you get an entire scene showing how she as the leader of the foster kids got all the other kids to burn their bibles and thus set off Ms. Darrode's killing spree. Lesson, never burn your bible. Christian foster mom will never be able to check to see if "Thou shalt not kill." is a commandment and so will slaughter you all. Just in case this was not enough for you to understand the story, we get a scene with the other little girl, all grown up visiting the house too. She and her boyfriend are doing exactly what Claire's therapist suggested but in a much healthier way, Claire's way as explained by the cop was to lose her mind and kill off all her actor friends. WHAT? WAIT! Yes that's right everything we say for the last hour and a half never happened. Instead Claire lost it soon after entering the house and being off her medication and worked her way through the players and employees until she was all alone.

To add emphasis to the point we finish the film with a shot of Claire in a rubber room wearing the expected straight jacket. Oh my, that did not end so well. Even though this film had Meghan Ory, who we here at Soresport movies have loved to look at since seeing her in Decoys (2004) it was just not enough to pull a recommended out of us. She can be currently seen at times in the first season of Once Upon A Time on ABC. Also recently she appeared all sexy and evil on an episode of Supernatural. A pretty face can only take you so far and all the problems with this film overwhelm any of the good.
Rating (3.3) 5.0 and up are recommended, In the Zombiegrrlz system Skip It!

Boston Science Fiction Fest and Thon

2012-01-24T08:03:00.003-05:00

I am gearing up for 10 days of Science fiction which will completely take over this blog. This year's Fest and 'Thon happen Feb. 10-20, 2012 at the Somerville Theatre in Boston, MA. You can get information about this GREAT event in a couple places, on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/BostonSciFi and at their own website http://bostonsci-fi.com/

Everyone should buy tickets and attend!

Penetration Angst (2003) Horror Vagina Dentata

2012-01-18T20:41:00.002-05:00

Penetration Angst (2003) - Purchased in a discount bin for $3 this film cover entitled Angst was a mystery, its full name not yet revealed would have cleared up a lot of that mystery. When in 2007 the film "Teeth" made horror headlines for its unusual subject matter, vagina dentata, we at Soresport Movies thought that the subject was probably seldom covered and doubted we would ever come across another movie on it. Of course if we had taken the time to go to wikipedia.org we would have seen this film listed under the subject. Instead a chance purchase and here we are reviewing an earlier film on the same subject. Writer / Director Wolfgang Buld has put together a strange, not uninteresting film with unique situation and characters and of course vagina dentata.
Helen (Fiona Horsey) is a traumatized (by an incident in her childhood) virgin who is not ready for sex. She is loved by wimpy loser Dennis (Paul Conway) but does not return his affection. When tricked into a compromising position by her boyfriend Jack she is raped, as he does this heinous deed suddenly whooop! He is gone. Devoured by the very vagina he could not wait to have contact with. Shaken and confused Helen turns to see Jacks clothes left behind and can not explain the incident. She knows something is not right with her body so she has to try to get answers. Seeing her doctor for answers seems like a solution but unfortunately for poor Helen her doctor is a real creep too. They talk out her fears of vagina dentata and do an exam. After giving her a sedative he takes a turn on the unconscious girl. She wakes late in the night with a used condone between her legs and a pile of clothes on the floor.
Her interactions with Dennis do not add anything early but do establish the two as a possible future couple. Laying in bed poor Helen now gets the full extent of her condition as her vagina screams at her "Feed Me!" over and over, using the rainy night to set the mood for a turn she goes to the kitchen to feed herself hotdogs. Her crippled step father harasses her even as the fights the voice. Clocking him with a pot it is time for her to make a break. There is no way she can stay there. Still the voices won't let her rest and get really persistent when she is at the bus station with Dennis. She is going to Feed her vagina but Dennis stops her saying he loves her but doesn't want dirty sex in a bathroom.

Saved his damn life too.

Cut to seven months later and Helen works as a prostitute trying to pick the slimiest guys to feed her condition. It is not always easy but she manages to deal with her problem even with the guilt when she kills a family man.

At this point the story starts getting a bit strange, okay stranger. The Siamese twins Silvia (Amy Steel) and Sonia (Beth Steel), Silvia the bookworm meets and connects with Dennis in a London bar. They hit it off but Sonia is more inclined to want to have beers and get laid in a night out, not like the poetry readings and candlelight favored by her sister and Dennis. Eventually they work it out so Dennis is coming over to consummate his love for Silvia. Only problem is that nagging Sonia can't let them enjoy the sex. Dennis and Sylvia decide from the back might be the position for them and the twins turn over. Dennis uses the opportunity to hold Sonia's head into the pillow so she can't ruin the mood with her incessant talking and finally gets to have a go. When done he realizes the never switch sides of the bed and actually fucked Sonia while keeping Sylvia from stopping him. Sylvia is pissed and Sonia gloating at his stupidity which just sets Dennis off and he takes an electric knife to the twins.

Really the entire purpose of this is to move Dennis into the role of fugitive and it works as he grows a mustache and sleeps in parks. Sylvia survives to become a celebrity on a crusade for vengeance

against the man who killed her twin.

After a terrifying scare with a John who tied her up, our girl Helen finally meets a good guy who just happens to be named John (Matthew Brint).

She is in love but even after their wedding night is putting him off on the sex front. She of course does not want to devour him so instead she sneaks off and gets other less desirable men. N This is not the honeymoon John was hoping for having taken the plunge in the hopes he could finally get in Helen's pants. So they drive around an island in an RV and John becomes more and more frustrated with the situation. Helen for her part plays the past trauma card well enough to keep him at bay. We the audience only see one way this situation can end.

Yet things do not always go the way you think they will. Dennis while hiding out in a strip club is recognized by stripper Bonnie (Natasha O'Brian) who likes the idea of being with a murderer. In fact she has an idea for the two of them to score big.

A robbery on the very island Helen and John are honeymooning on. Dennis agrees as he really needs the money and would

now have to kill this stripper since she knows who he is. They do the robbery but Bonnie kills the security guard and the two need a place on the island to hide. Just happens Bonnie comes across an RV with a couple in it. Guess who? She ties up the couple and covers there heads with bags, which means that when Dennis comes in he does not recognized Helen.

Enough of this though, if you have made it through this fairly mediocre film you don't want me spoiling it. Okay I will go all the way, whenever the review is a not recommended it is easier to give things away. Eventually John shows himself to be a douche and Dennis recognizes the sound of Helen's vagina. Helen figures out her trauma and magically the desire to eat men vanishes. Sylvia appears to help move the craziness forward. Bonnie flips and in the end John and Bonnie are blown up in the RV.

I don't even remember what happens with Sylvia? Oh yeah she ends up on the beach trying to get to the gun before Dennis does. Anyway this film is totally nuts, not completely but just enough to leave you scratching your head. While Dennis and Helen walk off on the beach together finally getting to be the couple they were destined to be.

So for Helen and Dennis it is a journey to finally be together but really the film shows an awful lot of carnage to get them here. The penetration angst of the title ends up being cured just by remembering the trauma. Not really any growth just plain old remembering so it is not satisfying for the arc of the character. I see that a lot of it was played for humor but not really in a funny way. So in the end I can not recommend this film, just a bit too strange and unfulfilling.

Rating (4.4) 5.0 and up are recommended, in the zombiegrrlz system Skip It!

Copenhagen (2012) (Flat Earth Theatre Company)

2012-01-09T07:55:00.013-05:00

Copenhagen - It is a rare event for Soresport Movies to head out to a play but that is indeed what we did this week. Boston has an active high quality theater community and including the Flat Earth Theatre Company a small but active group producing several plays a year. Choosing challenging plays from a wide variety of subject matter the group challenges their audiences to be active and thinking in experiencing their work. Shows include "The Goat" by Edward Albee, Steve Martin's "The Underpants", and Tracy Letts "Bug".
Copenhagen by Michael Frayn is a challenging look at a meeting between two of the most famous physicists of the WWII era. German scientist Werner Heisenberg traveled to occupied Denmark to meet with his mentor Niels Bohr, a Jewish physicist known as the "father of modern nuclear physics" who received this vist prior to fleeing his country and joining the Manhattan Project in the United States, that group eventually developed the atomic bombs that were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Over the decades much has been guessed about the meeting between Bohr and Heisenberg but little actual details are known about what was said. This play looks at the relationship of these two men, their motivations and roles in the war and in the development of nuclear fission.
Lets not pretend that Soresport Movies is adequately knowledgeable in theater production or acting to give valuable review of this production. Lets instead take these comments for what they are the impression from the night. Firstly is the play itself, well written as an examination of meeting between two men at a key point in history. The Germans were working furiously to develop a fission bomb and included Heisenberg as one of the leads in that effort. They had little success and the play proposes a possible reason for that. Most of the worlds theoretical physicists were Jewish and most fled to the United States early in the war. Bohr remained in his homeland Denmark after the German occupation and would only escape later after the fateful meeting with Heisenberg. Looking at that meeting and challenging each others views about motivations the three characters of the play weave a story of science, politics and challenged integrity. It both informs and challenges the audience to think about the moral decisions people have to make in times of crisis and that there are different views of the decisions that are made.
The players Matthew Zahnzinger as Niels Bohr was subtle and physical at the same time. In becoming the older man, shrinking his posture, limiting his flexibility of movement and creating hand and voice mannerisms that really sold it. He was strong from begining to end. Using a British accent you are reminded of many of the old war movies where whether German, Italian, or Danish, everyone shared the same accent. His delivery was sharp and concise with active interaction with the script that even when having to deliver complex scientific ideas was crystal clear. Margrethe Bohr played by Emily Hecht was good as the audience surrogate. Her role the lesser in this play about two men but still important in clarifying motivations for the audience. Emily has a strong presence on stage but sometimes seemed to be waiting for her lines, whether this is a problem with the script or the actress is for better minds to decide. Kevin Kordis' Heisenberg seemed to struggle a bit more than the other two actors, certainly a competent actor filling a large demanding role there were times when he seemed to muff a bit of the dialog. Understand that there are some complex and lengthy explanations of scientific theory he has to recite and those seemed the most challenging. He also seemed a bit one toned in his physical delivery with a constant clenched body language that seemed more nervous than intentional. Still over all the cast was very engaging and the execution was not off putting.
The layout of the stage was certainly a surprising and enjoyable experience. A small circle in the center of the room, the audience first row up against it. A nucleus for the actors to stand on and then to orbit around passing behind the first row. The small space holding only 40 or so seats was excellent for this smaller more intimate play. The actors using the stage and the circular aisles weaved back and forth around and across the space like protons and electrons orbiting a nucleus. An excellent decision that worked well. Director Jake Scaltreto said it was a play with no stage direction so this innovation was a production decision. It enhances the experience, fits with the subject matter and increases the energy of a play that frankly is a conversation and runs the risk of stagnating. After the intermission the second half increases the characters movement around and across this small stage reinvigorating the audience as the story moves towards its climax.
Copenhagen was an engrossing and enjoyable night out and runs for one more weekend, more information and tickets can be found at the Flat Earth Theatre website

Demons 2 (1986) Horror Demons

2012-01-03T04:12:00.008-05:00

Demons 2 (1986) - "Demoni 2: L'incubo ritorna" directed by Lamberto Bava and written in concert with Dario Argento, Franco Ferrini, and Dardano Sacchetti this is a sequel to the movie theater madness that was Demons. Instead of a theater this time we have a highly secured luxury apartment building called The Tower. Safety is first to these people and that need for security sure has a way of backfiring. The film starts in darkness with a voice over to set the atmosphere "A terrifying centuries old prediction foretold the spawning of the demons on earth. That prediction came true when spectators in a movie theater were transformed into blood thirsty fanged creatures and spread death and contagion. Days of terror that convinced the world demons can exist." It is unclear whether this voice over is for us viewer or is the start of the "movie within a movie" that runs throughout Demons 2. Similar to the first Demons film there is a movie about Demons being played during the unfolding of the plot. In the first film it is why all the people are at the theater in the first place and in this sequel many of the people in the apartment building are watching a film on television. There is the woman with the dog (Anita Bartolucci), the boy left alone Tommy (Marco Vivio), the security guard (Lino Salemme) Sally Day the birthday girl (Caorlina Cataldi-Tassoni) and a variety of other guests. It is a fairly well executed technique, we get to learn the players in the apartment building and at the same time the plot of the inevitable demon cross over approaches. A bit of exposition to let us know that the demons pass the demon plague on through their nails and body fluids. It is the single most important plot point. It is because in both instance the film and the real life events sync up that the demons can cross over into this world but we are getting ahead of ourselves.

The opening scene is a humorous misdirection, a close up of a knife with what could be dripping blood, a man's feet an apron red with the fluid, pan out to the baker putting the finishing touches on Sally's birthday cake. This is the introduction and then we head off to the main set at the apartment building.

This is a large cast and many people are introduced as living working and playing in the building. There are George (David Edwin Knight) and Hannah (Nancy Brilli), she is pregnant and he is a student who live in the building. The Haller family consists of Mr Haller

(Antonio Cantafora), wife Helga (Luisa Passega) and daughter Ingrid (Asia Argento), there is the prostitute visiting a client named Mary (Virginia Bryant).

Of note though if you read Soresport Movies early review of Demons (1985) then you know of the "Pimp with a plan" Bobby Rhodes and here we get to see him again as the gymnasium instructor with the same gusto her brought to his first role.

This film like the first uses the method of cutting the scenes within the building, people watching the scary movie, the party goers dancing, George studying with the scenes from the movie within the movie. In that film two couples are investigating what is call the forbidden zone,

The clunkiest part of the plot is the party and the cross over of the demons. Sally is a borderline personality who can not seem to be happy that her birthday is here. Recently broken up with Jacob she is pissed when she learns he is coming over. This is set up to draw another parallel to the first film where we saw a group of punk rockers driving in a car eventually making it to the movie theater and letting the demons out into the world.

In this film Jacob and his three friends drive towards the party playing hard rock music and acting very much like the punk rockers in the first film. The problem with this stuff is that it has no bearing on the plot at the apartment building.

Jacob drives really fast and in the end crashes into Tommy's parents' car in front of the building.

It does not really do anything, it does not attract police to the crisis. None of the people end up getting into the building, it is really a dead end. It does moves Sally into her bedroom away from the party that seems to just go on without her. Not even her best friend bothers to join her in her room. She sits watching the horror movie moping while the party goes on without her.

In the movie in a movie the two couples investigating the forbidden zone come across a demon body dried out and trapped beneath rubble. On of the girls cuts her arm and drops land in the mouth of the demon, this starts its rebirth. Pam (Eliana Miglio) sets up the group for a photo with the demon even with none of them noticing it coming back to life. At the same time at the party Ulla (Maria Chiara Sasso) is setting up the party goers for a group picture. When the two women snap the photo at the same moment, in both cases the flash fails and this little bit of synchronicity joins the world of the demon movie and the apartment building. Sally watches in horror as the demon in the screen seems to see her and walks right at the television screen. Its face pushes out and when she turns it is in the room with her. This is a really weak connection but it gets the job done and it is a short jump until Sally is a demon also and the friends in the other room are target of the Sally demon.

Not before Sally spills bodily fluids from her body, a new form of demon acid blood or something that eats through the floor and drips through the ceilings of the floors below. Its only purpose is to create a way to spread the Demon transformations more quickly.The party is quickly a total demon feast. Unlike the first film where the transformation from wounded human to demon took a bit of time it is not so here. Really about a half minute is all that is needed for the change to happen, so very quickly Sally's apartment is full of hungry demons.

They break out of Sally's apartment and the entire building is now compromised. The smart reviewer out there must see this as a historic piece connecting to the two recent [rec] movies, [rec] and [rec]2 films of recent years. Another film that may have taken or at least shared ideas with this film is The Horde which also used an apartment building as a centerpiece, in its' case a zombie and revenge film rolled into one. Although those films reduced the scope of the building and have original origins for the demon infestation the mechanic as pretty close to being the same.

The rest of the film breaks down into scenes of each of the areas of the building and the people in them and how they are effected by the outbreak. The woman with the dog, hears the dog growling and sees the demon blood dripping from the ceiling.

She watches in horror as the dog transforms into a demon dog.

Then the struggle for her is to try to avoid it and stay alive.

Tommy, home alone gets locked out of his apartment and in so doing must hide in the ventilation system to avoid the Sally demon who is prowling the halls. In the gym the leaking demon blood transforms a man in a steam box which then sparks another chaotic fight between the "Gym Instructor with a plan" Hank and his muscle heads against an ever increasing number of demons.

Three workout women are huddled hiding in a car when the demons attack you see not only are the windows rolled down but the sunroof is open making for easy demon feeding. Can't figure out that choice at all.He and his crew and the Haller family all end up in the parking garage but find that the building is locked down so tight that no one is getting out. They are going to have to make there stand right there. Arming themselves as best they can they circle the wagons for a final battle. It is so useless, with the claws of the demon converting each person they scratch it does not seem it is a winnable battle. Poor little Ingrid (Asia Argento in her first movie role) has to watch as her parents are killed and she is surrounded by demons. While we are talking about the garage scene there is the most ridiculous thing in it.

George and the Hooker are trapped in the elevator when the power goes out. She has already been set up as terrified of elevators and so there is quite a bit of hysterical behavior on her part and calming words on George's part. Through a crack they can see the carnage befalling the residents of the building but are helpless to do anything about it. For them the challenge is finding a way out of the elevator.

George is part of the through story and he the actor is a bit stale in the role but he has the internal drive to get back to his pregnant wife. In the commentary Lamberto Bava talks about not really liking the actor very much, feeling that he was not giving his all in the film. George does eventually make his way back to his apartment and finds his darling wife Hannah has survived a dual attack. The first part by a little demon child who squeezes in through the changed door and then by the true demon that emerges from its stomach. George arrives just in time to save her.

The final sequence is Hannah and George making their way to the roof so they can repel down the side of the building onto the roof of the television studio next door. All the while having to fight off demons and the very persistent Sally demon. When all is said and done George and Hannah have a brand new baby boy and they are free from the apartment building. How they get there is worth your time. So although not as scary as the newer films I mentioned in this review, this film is a very competent attempt at making a demon film with chaos and struggle that work in group and for individuals. The effects are all eighties cheese and the soundtrack include the likes of The Smiths and The Cult. Sure there seems to be things that go nowhere but that has often been the case with Lamberto Bava films. In this movie at least those things do not impact the overall storyline. You can't say that everything is perfectly explained but for the most part the simple story of survival plays out to a some what satisfying conclusion.

Rating (5.7) 5.0 and up are recommended

Terror and Black Lace (1985) Horror Thriller

2011-12-31T05:00:00.000-05:00

Terror and Black Lace (1985) - "Terror Y Encajes Negros" is what some call a Mexican version of a giallo. It is not quite that but it is a story that is heavy on moral message wrapped in a thriller. Isabel (Maribel Guardia) is a young wife of an older man, she is a kept woman safely ensconced in her penthouse apartment she longs to interact with the world. Her husband Martinez (Gonzalo Vega) likes to know where she is, to know what she is doing, as well as controlling her access to money. It is always great when a scene sets up a character without exposition about that character and there is a great simple one to show how Martinez thinks. He comes home and there is a service truck in front of the entrance, he gets out of his car and rips off the wipers from the van before it can speed away. When upstairs with his wife she is doting on him, calming him with a drink and dinner. She tells him she made him pork chops and rice. He says he already had something like that today and then proceeds to take her in the kitchen and explain how she will make him a "tortuga" totally ignoring the work she did in preparing him a meal. He is bit of a dick but it sets up both her and him. His overbearing behavior is going to drive Isabel to do things she probably not do. Of course the moral lesson is hers to learn and through her the audience gets the message.
Little do the residents of the apartment building know that there is a deviant in their midst. Cesar the instrument maker has a compulsion that will blow up into murder later in the film. The movie does a good job hiding his predilection with a bit of misdirection. The opening scene has the creeper Cesar (Claudio Obregon) in a mall following a woman onto an escalator. He stands really close to her and after he gets off we continue to follow the woman. Suddenly people notice that her dress has been cut up on the back. Did that creeper really just cut pieces off her dress in public? Later we see Cesar in the elevator of the building fighting the urge when women enter. He says to himself, not at home not where he lives. You get the picture from this that his urge is strong and it takes all of his will power to restrain himself. Still though it is surprising when you see what his real deal is. If you pay attention to his interaction with the cleaning girl Coquis (Claudia Guzman) you can figure it out but this viewer was a bit slow. We cut to scenes of Cesar and his mistreatment of women throughout the film. We really get the full picture of his fetish and know that at some point it will come into play with the main story.
That main story about a kept woman romanticizing about a different life is a bit mundane. It is well developed if not particularly interesting. Isabel decides to change her life by getting out more and in so doing she meets another man. The black lace outfit she initially thought would get her husband back to treating her like more than a useful piece of decoration is now a way to break from her boring life. She meets and flirts with Ruben (Jaime Moreno) on a few occasions. So her husband was right all along thinking that if he gave her too much freedom she would soon stray? She decides to meet Ruben at his apartment on a weekend when Martinez is going out of town Ruben for his part is thrill with the idea of finally getting this woman in bed and who wouldn't Maribel Guardia is a former Miss Costa Rica and a beautiful women. Ruben is exactly the reason Martinez is so protective of his wife. He is a single man who thinks nothing of trying seduce another man's wife. His smarmy coolness makes the viewer cringe and thus he is the perfect foil for the moral tale being told here. So when he gets Isabel to agree to join him at his apartment we are set up for the lesson.
Isabel for her part will have to make a decision before the night is out. She sees her husband off and gets ready for her night out at Ruben's. She knows what she is getting into dressing in the black lace outfit she is beautiful and then puts her blue dress over it and heads out. It is sort of a shame really what happens to her. Martinez with a chance to impress his boss and possibly get a promotion has some really bad luck. A flat tire and a bad car jack make him miss the opportunity of a lifetime. He heads home a broken man. His scenes are really played almost for comedy with every one of his reactions a real exaggeration. Isabel has equally bad luck, even after making her decision at Ruben's she is punished for even thinking about cheating on her husband. As she rides the elevator back to her apartment she has the misfortune of coming in contact with Cesar.
He has been having his own bad night and it has spun completely out of control. An argument with Coquis turns fatal and it is poor Isabel's fate to be in the elevator just as Cesar is trying to get rid of the body. This starts the rather good final sequence of the film where Cesar does all he can to get Isabel and make sure no one ever knows about his crime. It is a long sequence and Isabel has several very close calls in and out of the elevator, the roof and her apartment. When finally she manages to reach the apartment of the party and it seems she is safe, the moral lesson smacks her one more time. Her husband arrives home as she is being calmed on the balcony and from his viewpoint it is his wife in a black lace outfit surrounded by men. He is furious and refuses to listen to anyone pulling her out of the party and forcing her back into the elevator, the place of her trauma. As she cries in a ball in the elevator he walks up the stairs to see the door of his apartment hacked open, he realizes something more has happened and cries for forgiveness.
The lesson in this film is a rough one with Isabel even though she ends up making the right decision is a victim for just thinking about cheating on her husband. In a way the film presents her as young and naive and Martinez as her protector. This is a bit of a relic of a pre-feminism world maybe reflecting Mexican society at the time but maybe not even that. Reflecting on it with today's views Martinez comes across as more manipulative and Isabel is responding to his smothering personality. A women though who would cheat on her spouse becomes fair game for any psychopath lurking in the world. It does not matter if she follows through or not, if only she had listened to her husband and accepted her cage nothing bad will ever happen to her. Not the most modern of messages. Still the film was reasonably well constructed and the final sequence well done. So it will get a pass from Soresport movies. Oh and since you are wondering here is the toruga recipe
1. Open a roll and pull out most of the bread leaving a hollowed crust.
2. Refried beans spread on one side, avacado and chilies spread on the other.
3. In the middle Ham, slices of tomato, avacado, cheese, onions, and some chili peppers.
Eat and be merry!
Rating (6.1) 5.0 and up are recommended.

TrollHunter (2010) Horror Trolls

2011-12-27T10:09:00.000-05:00

TrollHunter (2010) - TrollHunter takes the Scandinavian myths and brings them to life in a surprisingly entertaining film. It is a slow starter but with enough leaking of information to keep the viewer interested. Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud), Johanna (Johanna Morck) and Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen) are a group of college students investigating bear poaching and hunting in Norway. In particular they are following a man named Hans (Otto Jespersen) suspected of poaching. The film spend a fair amount of time having the students attempt to get Hans into an interview. Hans at first wants nothing to do with them but after a lot of staking him out and following him he starts to interact with them. He only agrees after spilling that he hunts trolls. They had followed him out into the forest one night and find his empty car. Off in the distance are sounds and flashes of light. Hans comes running out of the darkness and yells for them to run and "TROLL!" The troll takes out the kids car and when they find it need a ride from Hans. They still have seen nothing and this guy could just be a crazy. Even after Thomas is bitten by a troll as they flee he thinks it may have been a bear. This is really the first third of the movie and it is a bit slow. The filmmaker Andre Ovredal does a nice job only slowly revealing the monsters.
Things pick up when they get to go along on a the hunt. Hans again leaves them and goes off to face a troll. He is armed with a light gun which plays into the myths, where trolls turn to stone in the sunlight. The students are left at the vehicle wondering if this is a goose chase. When Hans comes running out of the forest screaming for them to haul ass they are treated and terrified with their first up close and personal troll experience. The combination of night vision camera shots and CGI troll are very effective. We are with Kalle the camera man for the scene and boy does he just get away by the skin of his teeth. The honest reunion when the group finds each other after the episode is also refreshing. It is excited and relief at the same time. The crew has seen what they thought was only myth. They had a very close and dangerous encounter and come out unharmed. Well done scene.
It is great that this film also touches upon beliefs about the government in its plot. We learn that Hans works for the government, a hunter that is doing his job controlling the troll population. After he kills any troll that leaves it's territory and comes in contact with humans or domesticated animals. They are predatory animals and need to be controlled. After the kill Hans calls the wildlife service bureaucrat Finn to come in and make the troubled area seem like an area where there is bear activity. The idea is to keep the trolls existence secret. Finn (Hans Morten Hansen) comes in and sets up a bear caucus that will be found and made the scapegoat. Later when the group goes to a electricity provider about some downed wired, there is an amusing scene where the unquestioning employee explains how the power lines that the power travels out from the plant in a giant circle and back to the plant. Hans explains later that the wires are actually an electric fence to keep trolls in a particular territory.
The film really is pretty enjoyable and build on the troll myths by giving answers to how and why trolls are killed by sunlight. They really take the time to allow the audience to have a full story. This while there are encounters with several different kinds of troll. There is a great scene when the group while investigating a report of troll activity get caught in the cave that is inhabited by a clan of trolls. It is a wonderfully tense and frightening scene, with the hairy penis nosed trolls.
The final expedition out into the north of Norway is against a giant troll and whether or not the crew will come out of it alive is in play. Overall this was a very competently done film with an interesting story that takes a set of myths and builds on them creating an accessible modern myth. The scares are decent and the CGI very expertly done.
Rating (7.0) 5.0 and up are recommended

Living Hell (2000) - Horror

2011-12-23T01:23:00.000-05:00

Living Hell (2000) - Original title Iki-jigoku, is a gory family drama with an unexpected twist. This film's packaging bills it as the "The Japanese Texas Chainsaw Massacre" which throws up a red flag right from the get go. It sets up all kinds of expectations about the kind of horror we are about to see. It may not be a fair thing to do to a film. The opening scene is standard horror fair. A noise in the house, was it the dog, wakes the wife while the husband sleeps soundly. She gets up and carries a baseball bat out into the hall to investigate. Why don't people ever turn on lights? It seems like the first thing you would do if you were investigating a noise in your house. No though on this dark and stormy night it is just a woman in the dark with a baseball bat. When she reaches the end of the hall we see her shocked expression as she stands behind a girl down on her knees who is... what?... Eating the dog? The woman with the bat is horrified who would eat a dog, raw? Too bad she was not paying attention in her fear because at this moment she is struck from behind. On the floor now the woman is turned face up and the killer places a stag beetle on her eye and it immediately borrows into her head. Where did that come from? Next we see the husband as he wakes to see a hammer heading into his skull.
This first scene although a couple of the elements are a bit bizarre is really a standard piece of work. In screenwriting you want the first couple scenes to really pull people into the film. To raise questions that will be answered as the film proceeds. It has to be compelling to capture the audience. This first scene okay but nothing special, it gets added to the next scene of the cops at the house investigating the deaths to set us up with who the killers are. We learn that the they think it is not an outside killer but a family member, the girl near the dog disappeared. They only find the 72 year old senile granny alive in the house and she is destined to be locked up as crazy.
So we set up the story proper for the film a group of adult live at home children and there often absent (working) father accept into their home some distant relatives, an old lady Chiyo (Yoshiko Shiraishi) and the Mute grandaughter Yuki (Naoka Mori). Ken (Kazuo Yashiro) is the oldest of the children, with adopted daughter Mami (Rumi) in the middle and both caring for the youngest wheelchair bound Yasu (Hirohito Honda) must accept the newcomers no matter how strange they are. The film takes some time in the early going to show us some nicely shot scare scenes where Yasu is frightened by the newcomers, but is he hallucinating. The point is made to have Ken and Mami talk about their little brother wondering if he is getting worse.
The movie at this point devolves into a long slow torture session for Yasu. Chiyo and Yuki at first creep him out, then outright scare him and then harm him repeatedly and without mercy. Yasu's life becomes the living hell in the title of the film. Along the way there are some excellent scare tactics for the viewing audience. Some is to make you think that Yasu is actually having hallucination, some to lead you into thinking that there is something supernatural in the story. Some just to gross you out. It is important to note though, that although there is some blood in the film it is by no means a gorefest. Most of the torture is not seen on scene while it is happening. Using cut away and them coming back for the after affects is useful in creating the illusion but by no means is this a gory movie. Well okay there are a couple things that should not be spoiled by writing about them.
A secondary storyline is a reporter Mitsu who is tracking the original murder story and continues to delve into the strange old lady and her silent granddaughter. It serves essentially to have there be the chance that the weirdos will be caught and that there is hope that Yasu will be saved. Unfortunately for Mitsu he happens to be working at the paper where Ken works and although this creates some tense scenes as Mitsu closes in on the home where the family lives it also gives away that Mitsu can not be successful. He is useful though in laying out everything there is to know about Chiyo and her children.
Through a Dr. Kurando, who meets with Mitsu we learn about Chiyo and her son became part of an experimental program. How she was part of an experiment to have and separate Siamese twins. The doctor describes the woman as a monster and her son as worse. All of this is already known by poor Yasu though and the final part of the film where he receives the revelations of all the information the audience has has to be seen to be believed. As an audience member you are probably thinking that this movie is more of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation and possibly feeling pretty disappointed with the plot of the film. Well a final twist will have you shaking your head and wondering why?
Overall the film does not live up to the hype. Wait was there really any hype? What is has though, which gets it a recommendation from Soresport Movies, is some very effective scare tactics. Some of the camera tricks in those scenes is excellent. The smaller amounts of practical gore effects are well done. Personally I enjoy when someone suddenly appears and runs right at you terrific low key jump scare. The story seemed convoluted and the twist really unnecessary at the end of the film, after everything else had played out and a bow could be tied on the film. Writer, Director and player of the part Mitsu has done an effective enough job to give this film a pass.
Rating (5.1) 5.0 and up are recommended

Strigoi (2009) Horrorish Vampire Quick Hit

2011-12-16T06:06:00.001-05:00

Strigoi (2009)- Quick Hit ( Not a full review but at least something in passing) This is a quirky little film that really isn't a horror movie, but although there are some comedic elements is not a comedy either, not even a dark comedy. What is it? A drama murder mystery that uses the traditional pre-hollywood ideas of vampires as a center piece to move the story forward.
In a Romanian village a conspiracy is carried out against the wealthiest land owner and his wife. Constantin Tirescu (Constantin Barbulescu) and his wife Lleana (Roxana Guttman) are killed by the villagers and there property taken. They are accused of a crime that is not specified but this could just be an excuse. He is the largest land owner and richest member of the village having even built the church. The villagers are tired of one guy having so much though and they take it all away through murder. The problem is these two corpses won't stay buried.
The story from there centers on Vlad Cozma (Catalin Paraschiv) an underachiever in a family of doctors who dropped out of medical school in Italy and has returned to the village to get his bearings. He is staying with his cute little old grandfather Nicolae (Rudi Rosenfeld) and helping the old man while he avoids the rest of his family. After leaving his house in the morning in search of cigarettes Vlad comes across his neighbor Mara (Camelia Maxim) passed out in her doorway and gets her up and in the house. She feeds him and talks about having to prepare food for the funeral of another villager who has passed away named Florine. Vlad makes his way to Florine's to find the mayor Stephan (Zane Jarcu) and some other villagers sitting around the body talking. It is a tradition to sit with the newly dead for three days and nights to make sure the dead does not come back as a vampire. They sit and tell stories and talk to the body then after the time period the funeral will take place. Vlad notices that Florine is wearing a very nice watch. Much to expensive for a peasant he questions the group about it. He is a sharp guy and notices other things too, fancy shoes on on man etc. strange he thinks.
As he talks to people in the village he senses something is amiss, were those bruises he saw on Florine's neck? In speaking with the village priest and his friend growing up he learns that Florine's death was ruled an accident and a paper was filed that he supposedly signed as the one who examined the body. Although everyone wants him to drop it he is going to investigate this. The next day he contacts his police officer friend and then visits the home of the Tirescu's. to the audiences surprise they are there. Lleana facially a bit bloated with blood and very disheveled leads him to her husband. We learn a bit about this form of vampirism from the appearnce of characters. The Tirescu's are bloated dead bodys that leave their graves to wander back into the familiar places of their lives. They can communicate and function but the sound affects of the bubbling gases they contain and the flush of there faces give away that something is not right. Vlad though does not know they have been killed and talks to them as he normally would. He is subject to a bit of history about Romania of hoe the Constantin gathered up his land holding by first working with the Russian invaders and then using the money he had accumulated from them to buy up the village lands since it was all confiscated in communism but was now available.
Mara at this time has her own problems as the undead Lleana arrives at her house and proceeds to eat everything that was prepared for Florine's funeral. The undead are insatiable and poor Mara is nervous and frightened and franically starts making more food to appease Lleana. She will get to play this storyline out as she runs out of food the undead Lleana will have only her to eat.
Vlad with some slow meandering will solve the mystery of the town. In doing so the viewer gets to be surprised to learn who is undead and who is alive in the town. Not wanting to spoil this film lets leave it as a solid mystery with Vlad being the protagonist and the villagers who are in the plot the antagonists. There are some very good scenes between Vlad and Nicolae where the old man relays what life in Romania has been like since WWII. First the Germans invaded he says and they were forced to fight a war they wanted no part of. When the Germans lost he had to walk all the way back from Russia alone. Then the Russian came and were far worse. The Communists took the land that had been in his family for generations, said it was no longer his but he had to work it as he always had and give his bounty to the government. Then when the Russians left men like Constantin used their corrupt money to try to buy the land from him. These scenes were very touching and well acted and so improved the story. Overall the film is a bit off center but in a compelling enough way. The acting is solid and the mystery compelling. So this quick hit is a success, it is available On Demand in FOIS but not yet available on Netflix.
Rating (5.5) 5.0 and up are recommended

Offspring (2009) Horror Cannibals

2011-12-14T09:04:00.000-05:00

Offspring (2009) - How is it that Soresport Movies ends up with so many cannibal movies. You would think that in the thousands of films at our disposal that these would be few and far between. In this case it was all luck, picked up in a discount bin and filed away in giant books of DVDs Offspring was chosen completely by chance, a dice roll to be more specific. Sometimes when we just want to review something but do not know what to choose we just roll some 20 sided dice and let chance decide. So was Offspring a lucky choice, a movie of worth, well I guess that is what this review is all about.
Deep in the woods of Maine for more than 160 years there have been nomadic tribes of feral people just looking for a cave to sleep in and a bite to eat. Because we civilized humans have been encroaching on their habitat these feral nomads have taken the opportunity to get that bite to eat at our expense. Picking through our garbage like raccoons in the night? Ransacking our vacation homes for can goods? No, littering the countryside with our corpses as they kill and eat us. That is the premise and by golly this idea will be explored to the gore filled fullest.
To set it up we get the early kill we need to understand how vicious these people are. A drunk woman named Gloria (T.J. Graye) comes home, there is no way she should have been driving in her car with how much she staggered when she got out of it. A belligerent drunk Gloria yells for the babysitter when entering the wide open front door of her house. To her surprise the babysitter is in the kitchen, well it wasn't a surprise that she was in the kitchen really, it was a surprise that she was dead in the kitchen being eaten by cannibal children. Her alcohol fogged mind slowly comprehended what was going on and she turned to see another cannibal with the parts of her baby in a plastic bag. Yeah those cannibal children are a nasty ( hungry) bunch.
A quick introduction of the characters before we get into the bulk of the story. Computer game programmers Amy (Amy Hargreaves) and David Halbard (Andrew Elvis Miller) live and work in their home in the woods. They are a happy couple with a little baby named Melissa. They talk about being visited by their friend Claire (Ahna Tessler) and her son Luke (Tommy Nelson) who after being abandoned by her scumbag, financial manager husband need to get away from possibly being tracked down by the abusive lout. He also is a criminal like all those Wall St. types just in case being an abuser is not enough. They are coming for some quiet time in the woods and they will get part of that. Steven being a fucking thief he is also misogynist and all around asshole when he dies you are expected to feel good. Played with a spite filled gleam in his eye by Erick Kastel you do not even have to hate him for his implied financial crisis connection. You can hate him for just being a woman hating and abusing douche bag. Did I mention he was an alcoholic? Now that is just piling on.
He does serve a role though beyond being a driving force in bringing Luke and Claire to Maine. He is a counter evil to the cannibals. They are feral hunters who just happen to hunt humans. Predators who seek the easiest prey, most certainly dangerous but for reason outside of good or evil. Steven on the other hand shows how you don't have to be feral to be a predator. His personality was shown very well in a scene of him driving his Porsche to Maine to track down Claire. He stops to pick up this college girl who is hitching to Portland she is friendly and nice, but he is suggestive and cold. When she sees him drinking while driving she wants out. There is this dialog where he tries to convince her to be his guide in getting to hi upstate location even though she is not heading anywhere near there. He phrases it as an invitation with sexual possibilities but when she balks he plays it off as not that. She insists on getting out so without slowing down he tells her to get out of the car with a seriousness that is intimidating. Then he does what this kind of asswipe needs to do, to show control over the woman. He makes her throw her backpack out the window before he will stop. She is reluctant but sees it as the only way out so she lifts it with both hands to chuck it. As she does he takes a long firm feel of her breast. At least he only takes it that far but the girl is definitely feeling like she dodged a bullet when she got out of that car.
The remaining characters are the old retired cop George Chandler (Art Hindle) who was on the job the last time the feral tribe came through town years before. He is recruited by the local cops to help in tracking them down. Is expertise consists of not stopping them before they moved on the first time so it is surprising that he can be any help this time. Then there are the Cannibals lead by Woman (Pollyanna McIntosh) who no doubt got her role in the more acclaimed "The Woman" from her performance here. She brings a fire to the role of the woman in this film. I did not quite get why it was a matriarchal society since her male counterpart at least in age seemed more physically superior. It may be that they wanted a counter to the strong male roles already in the film. Whatever the reason she is menacing and able to lead. The kids are somewhat interchangeable as the tribe with the exception of the blond, maybe called First Stolen? Maybe Girl, I am not sure.
The plot is simple enough, this group of fine young cannibals attacks the home of David and Amy, there is killing and capture. Fleeing with baby Melissa are Claire and Luke. They hide in the wood in a tree house but when they see one of their friends being taken to the cannibal cave Claire heads out to save the day. At the same time Stephen arrives at the house and is run off by the crazy cannibal children. Drunk and belligerent he runs right into the police and George who are hot on the trail of the tribe. The rest plays out in a sluggish and standard survival movie way. Who will survive by fighting off the cannibals? Will Luke and the baby find help? Will the old cop still have what it takes to deal with the threat? Will a horror movie ever end without first setting up for a sequel?
Thoughts on this movie are these: It is a hard premise to sell. In a 160 years a group of survivors from a shipwreck went from being a civilized group to no more than cannibalistic cavemen? They mostly lost their language and apparently the ability to act human really? 160 years ago my could have been your great grandparents, so that would mean that living in the woods caused your grandparents to become cannibals, to not teach language to the next generation and thus your parents just have half words and grunts, they are possible eaten by their children because there was no obvious maternal caring in the tribe. No I just don't buy it, it is not a sound theory. Maybe the writer could explain it. What I did like about the movie were some of the characters and the wonderful gore. It was bloody and gruesome even though the film itself is just mediocre. Art Hindle was great a veteran actor in the horror genre with parts in some well known films like Black Christmas, the 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and The Brood. Actress Amy Hargreaves gets a Soresport point for appearing in the best Edward Furlong movie ever as Kimberley in Brainscan (1994).
So I am barely going to recommend this film but it is truly a borderline call. You may just hate it for its stupid premise and ridiculous cannibals, or like me really enjoy the blood and guts of it and appreciate the writing of the character Steven. I normally don't feel so much venom for a movie character as I do for him.
Rating (5.0) movies rated 5.0 up to 10 are recommended on this blog.

Bloody New Year (1987) Horror Sci-Fi Ghost

2011-12-11T14:17:00.010-05:00

Bloody New Year (1987) - This film is a bit of a mess, not sure if it is a sci-fi film with horror elements or a Horror film with some sci-fi mixed in, probably the latter. What it is for sure is a somewhat poorly done and not well though out film from the eighties, with unfathomable scenes that really add nothing to the film. Okay that's being a bit harsh, it is just the early scenes really have just one purpose, to bring a group of people together for the main story. The problem is all except one is already in there group so why have such an elaborate set up to get that person onto the sailboat. Lets start from the beginning:

The first scene is at the cusp of the new decade of the sixties. A New Years eve party with a drinking and conga line and fun. The night is winding down and the last of the participants is closing the room. She walks over to a mirror and suddenly her reflection reaches out and grabs her pulling her through the looking glass. Ghost story? You don't know but at least later on when the sci-fi plot point comes up you can judge whether this was effective or not.

Cut to the group who will be the focus of the film, all young and having fun at an amusement park.When a woman, Carol (Catherine Roman) is harassed by some carnies the group help her get away and are all chased into the fun house. This whole scene seems to have just a few reasons, it brings Carol into the group for the story to come later. It also foreshadows that bad things are going to happen by having Janet (Nikki Brooks) and Lesley (Suzy Aitchison) visit a fortuneteller who is terrified by what she sees in the crystal ball. It is a elaborate set piece that ends with one of the group drives his Land Rover, sailboat in tow, through the wall of the fun house and picks everyone up. They drive off with the carnies running behind them. The third thing it does is introduces the sailboat which is used briefly in the next scene.
Next we see the now six people are out on said sailboat having a good time. Joining the girls are the brave men who defended them, Spud (Colin Heywood), Rick (Mark Powley) and Tom (Julian Ronnie). Very quickly the boat hits a rock and the group has to swim for the shore of the island they are near. As they are struggling onto the rocks and out of the water someone is watching from the woods. Searching they come across some old plane wreckage and then the old abandoned Island Grand Hotel and we see it is the same place that was in our opening scene. Now the bulk of the film can take place. They are at this big creepy hotel and we get to see it get scarier as the film goes on. Well not really because although they were going for scary they really only reached the level of strange.
Ghosts and things moving on there own, then aggressive ghost and the deaths of some of the characters it is all so weird. We learn from a 1959 television report about a experimental plane that is trying to bend light and do some sort of time travel experiment. What seems to have happened is the plane doing the experiment crashed on the island back then and the people that were there are some how trapped in time, as ghost or some such thing. They are pretty pissed off from what I can tell. It does not make a lot of sense that the victims in that experiment would kill these new arrivals. It is what happens though right down to a final girl. One of the strangest things in the film is Spud Janet and Rick are watching a movie that is playing in the mini cinema of the hotel. Spud is up from doing impersonations of what is happening in the movie. Suddenly and without explanation the Arab stereotype in the movie leaps out of the screen and onto Spud and proceeds to kill him. WTF! Other equally bizarre things include a killer possessed fishing net, footprints appearing on the sand of the beach but no one connected to them, snowing in the living room of a house, a table monster that you have to see to believe, and random quicksand that is in the paths for no other reason then to kill them.
This movie is really a mess from beginning to end. About the only positive thing I had happen in my time working with this film is that I was researching the actresses and Nikki Brooks happens to also be the name of a porn star so a bunch of her images came up when I searched the name. Made by the "cult" director Norman J. Warren who did Inseminoid(Horror Planet), and Alien Prey I was expecting a bit more from this. Why I was thinking that I don't know neither of those films was particularly good but one always hope for good. I might cover his 1976 Satan's Slave at some point but it will not be until I get the taste of this one from my mouth. That might just take awhile. This film just did so many things wrong that it can't even be put into the category of campy fun.
Rating (3.5) 5.0 and up are recommended

Wait Until Dark (1967) Crime Thiller

2011-12-08T14:16:00.002-05:00

Wait Until Dark (1967) -Fredrick Knott wrote the play for this suspense story of con men trying to get a doll full of heroin from a blind woman. Knott also wrote Dial M for Murder which later was made for the big screen by Alfred Hitchcock. In this case the play was turned into a film with a screenplay written by Robert Carrington and Starring many greats, Audrey Hepburn(Roman Holiday, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Charade, My Fair Lady), Alan Arkin(Catch-22, Edward Scissorhands, Gross Pointe Blank, Little Miss Sunshine), Richard Crenna (Over-Exposed,Marooned, A Man Called Noon, First Blood, and Rambo) , Jack Weston ( On tons of 50's &60's television series then a later career including The original Thomas Crown Affair, Fuzz and Dirty Dancing), and Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (77 Sunset Strip, and I knew from The F.B.I. in the 70's but an actor with 93 credits to his name). Such a great cast and bring to that the music of Henry Mancini and this is a film to look forward to.

This pretty much one set piece is masterfully done with the direction of Terence Young who had early success making James Bond films before Wait Until Dark then never quite reached this height again but we here are Soresport Movies look forward to someday possibly checking out his 1973 entry "Le guerriere dal seno nudo".
The setup of the film is simple enough. A young drug mule named Lisa (Samantha Jones) fearing capture when bringing a shipment of heroin from Canada in a doll loads the doll off on a photographer, Sam Hendrix (Zimbalist Jr.) at the airport. It is not the high security days of the modern world but a more relaxed time when you would take a package from a total stranger and wait for them to come pick it up. Unfortunately for Sam and Susy this kindness will have unforeseen consequences.
Hepburn is excellent as Susy Hendrix, recently blinded and learning to deal with life in the dark. She is intelligent and observant while still being innocent and vulnerable. While she is out Roat (Arkin) and Lisa come to the apartment looking for the doll full of drugs. Since they can not find the doll Roat kills Lisa. We don't know this yet because the scene does not play out in such a linear way. Instead we have Mike (Crenna) and Carlino (Weston) arrive at the apartment. They are small time con men who will worm their way into Susy's life to figure out where the doll is. They search the place and only find the body of Lisa in the closet. Roat arrives to employ them in the dupe by basically framing them for Lisa's murder. They have touch stuff all over the house thinking they were doing a basic burglary but soon realize that when Lisa's body is discovered in the apartment it will be them and not Roat who pay for it. A very smart setup for a couple of not so smart thugs.
The three men dispose of Lisa and plan how best to get Susy's help in finding the doll. Mike comes visiting as an old friend of Sam's from the army. He gets to know Susy a bit and through phone calls and signals with the blinds the three thugs build an elaborate story where Sam could be suspected in the death of Lisa. The whole time terrifying poor Susy and keeping Sam away from the apartment through a series of photographer jobs where the clients fail to show up. The story they develop is indeed way too complicated for what they are trying to accomplish and since it involves Roat coming in as a couple different characters it give Susy, ever observant the idea that something is not right.
As things develop Susy is more and more sure that something about the stories is wrong. She gets the help of the little girl, neighbor Gloria, to help in solving the inconsistencies in the Mike and his partners play acting. Little does she know that Gloria has had the doll all along, having "borrowed" it from the apartment. There is also all the audio cues that Susy has been picking up from the men, Roat who came in twice as two different characters during the scam wore the same squeaky shoes. Why is it that calls from the police are made to her house as if planned perfectly to fit the story. Why do the different characters play with the blinds in the window even though it is dark out.When Gloria quietly returns it and the climax of the film begins. Gloria is sent off by Susy to intercept her husband. Knowing something is wrong Susy prepares the apartment as best she can for the trouble to come. Roat becomes to be a very mean man. He no longer needs the two con men and deals with them and now will face off and scare the doll's location out of Susy. In its theatrical release what was done in the theater at the climax is a fun story. Movie theaters would turn out house lights when Susy goes around the apartment smashing the lights. Audiences in the theaters got to watch the final 9 minutes in total darkness in an attempt to up the suspense which includes quite a bit of black screen. We at Soresport Movies did the same while we watched in the TV room and it is a nine minute stretch worthy on the effort. By today's standards the film is not particularly terrifying or scary but what it is, is a well put together thriller with excellent acting. Arkin is particularly menacing, his character like a snake in the grass. He appears laid back but you can sense the danger behind his dark glasses. Hepburn makes everything she is in better and Crenna is likable even though he is one of the bad guys. It is easy to skip over some of these classics with the flood of horror that is spilled out each year. If you do you are doing yourself a disservice. So take a chance on this blast from the past. It is worthy of a watch and worth the time. No spoilers here so all you youngsters can get it from Netflix.
Rating (8.0) 5.0 and up are recommended

Ugetsu (1953) Historical Drama

2011-12-05T14:14:00.015-05:00

Ugetsu (1953) - Original Title "Ugetsu monogatari" won the Silver Lion award at the Venice Film Festival and is considered a masterpiece of the "Golden Age" of Japanese film. It is a story set in the 16th Century when war is coming to the Lake Biwa area and the main characters must struggle with not only the danger of coming armies but with the personal questions of what is a good life. The story follows two families from a small village at the edge of the coming battle. Genjuro (Masayuki Mori), his wife Miyagi (Kinuyo Tanaka) and child Genichi (Ichisaburo Sawamura), and his friend Tobei (Eitaro Ozawa) and his wife Ohama (Mitsuko Mito). Genjuro is a clay pottery maker who because of the coming conflict has been fortunate to sell his wears to the nearby aristocrat. He is very poor and sees this conflict as a real way to pull he and his family out of their poverty. Greedy is more descriptive of his actions. He made the one score and is willing to do almost anything to make an even bigger sale before the war reaches his village. His friend Tobei tries in vain to become a soldier by begging a samurai for the chance, he is laughed at and told he must have armor and a spear if he is to be a warrior. Poor also he is looking for a way out of the tiny village and to find honor and importance in the eyes of others.
The wives are the counter to the men, they want happy lives with enough to eat and personal safety. Ohama tells Tobei he should not be running off but staying behind to be with her. He is determined that the way out of poverty is through soldiering and if she must wait for him so be it. He will make their lives better through his actions. Miyagi also works on her husband, as he sits looking at the silver from his first sale and plans how he can increase his pottery production to make the next larger sale, she reminds him that war is coming and instead he should be preparing a way to keep them all safe. He can not hear her though, in his mind a lot more money from another sale would be the best way to fend for his family. The story winds its way to the realizations that the men need to make to bring the families into harmony but not without first facing an incredible amount of struggle.
Genjuro and Tobei work throwing pots for days on end and manage to get a large amount to sell at the next city over. Even though the kiln process was interrupted when soldiers raid the village they sneak back to find the process complete. It is lucky they even got out of the village during the raid, so worried about keeping the kiln heat up for the correct amount of time made it so they were almost captured and sent off to work camps. Even after this close call the desire for wealth drives the men to take their goods and their families onto Lake Biwa in a dangerous journey to the city. Scared by the threat of pirates Genjuro leaves his wife and child on the shore to make their way back to the village while the remaining three continue on.
This is where the journeys divide with Miyagi and Genichi left to fend for themselves. They must take a dangerous trail back to their village avoiding soldiers along the way. She hears the rape of the women who are caught and must hide and skulk to avoid that fate. The other three manage to reach the city and are very successful in selling. When Tobei has enough money he leaves Ohama and Genjuro when he sees a general pass by. He immediately buys armor and weapons so he can make his name as a soldier. Ohama laments his leaving and looks for him but can not find him. Some soldiers capture her and take her into a house to be raped. It is implied and the last soldier to leave her crying on the floor throws coins at her and is gone. She laments her fool husband who has brought this pain down on her with his absence.
Genjuro alone selling his goods is asked by a mysterious wealthy woman to deliver a large quantity of his wears to her mansion. He of course sees this as a great profit and gladly agrees. Little does he know his fate is one of enchantment by the dead ghost of the mansion's hostess Lady Wakasa (Machiko Kyo). She puts a spell on him and he gladly loves her and spends his days holding her in his arms. This ghost aspect is a fascinating twist. It is broken only after a Buddhist Monk happens upon Genjuro in town and sees her is cursed. The final confrontation where Genjuro comes clean to Lady Wakasa about his wife and child is a dark and serious scene that resonates his anguish and her strong desire to keep him. When the spell is broken and he wakes we see he is sleeping at the ruins of the mansion long since burned down. It is a lesson for our lead character about that blind greed he was so in favor of and how only misfortune comes from such pursuits. He is penniless and has to make his way back home but at least he has his life.

Tobei and Ohara are an even sadder tale, yes Tobei find fame and fortune. Taking advantage of a situation he finds favor and is rewarded handsomely. So we find him traveling back towards home with men and horses a famous warrior. He is really full of himself and knows he will impress his wife when he gets home. Stopping at a village on the way he and his men head into the local whorehouse for a night of drinking and story telling. As he decides which woman to buy for the night his heart is broken. His lovely wife Ohama is a prominent lady in the establishment. The two have a sad confrontation where Tobei realizes instead of chasing fame he should have been caring for her. Lesson learned again by the man in the relationship.
The final twist I will not spoil but it is a hard lesson for Genjuro when he returns to his small shop to start again. His life completely changed by the events he set in motion through greedy ambition he is a changed man. Now dedicated to his artistry with clay he has learned his lesson and accepts the good in the life he has instead being unsatisfied.
This is an excellent film with a firm message that is universal. Acceptance and acknowledgement of what is good in your life makes living more fulfilling. This writer does struggle though with the idea that a very poor person should accept their fate and not push for a wealthier life. Granted the blind ambition of the characters in this film was a negative feature. They ignored all the coming danger in the pursuit of wealth never once questioning the wisdom of their actions. Still ambition to better yourself can be balanced with thoughtful planning to change your station in life. This excellent film is most certainly recommended
Rating (8.8) 5.0 and up are recommended

X (2002) Crime Thriller

2011-12-01T07:34:00.012-05:00

X (2002) - "Equis" is the story of Javier (Antonio Resines) a cop fighting a alcohol addiction that on this occasion has him waking in a strangers bed without memory of the night before. With a hangover he has to piece together his night which he learns included a gay lover being brutally murdered and the murder weapon in his possession. Unlike the comedy version of a hangover movie this is all very serious for Javier. No Mike Tyson tattoo on his face but with the lack of memory a whole bunch of problems. Was he involved in the murder? Could he have killed the hairdresser? Will his drunken absence to fulfill his sexual needs finally end his marriage? Just who killed the man he was with? Javier struggles through this very competent Noir slowly finding out bits and pieces until he solves the mysteries. The "X" in the side of the building across from where he wakes is something that pulls him to the place. Later when he learns that there was a murder there it puts the bag with the bloody scissors in his car into stark focus. Posing he manages to be on the scene and learn small amounts. Always paying attention to what is going on and noticing details is what this cop does. He manages to stay ahead of the investigation, both keeping his presence at the local guy club out of those details as well as not becoming a suspect himself until he figures the case out.
Several thing about this film are really very well done. The information is dribbled out without it seeming forced. Each time Javier learns something it still does not give him or the audience the full picture.Like the woman he wakes up with who brought his drunk ass up from the streets hoping to get laid, tries to get money from him to be an alibi. She is motivated by a crappy marriage to a spineless dweeb. She is past her prime and dresses to the nines to go out and pick up men for sex. It seems fine that she may want to be helpful to Javier but she and her husband have further ambitions that will most assuredly be there downfall.
The poor victim is a wonderful guy. Everyone liked him and thought he was great. A gay hairdresser living out his dream ends up with Javier and then dead in his own establishment. When Javier talks to his sister he learns how her brother took care of her. He had caused the accident that crippled one of her legs and he pays to get her the operations she needs to function. One as time goes on do we learn the full story. Her resentment that she is this way and the blame she still has towards her sibling. About how his coming out destroyed the conservative parents and split the family asunder.
More slowly turned out information:
We slowly learn of the money that was in the empty bag in Javier car and how it is connected to some local mobsters who want it back.
Javier and his wife Beatrice (Marta Belaustegui) have a relationship that is on the rock. His proclivity for men and excessive drinking is more than she can stand. She has tried, even getting pregnant hoping that would bring him fully into the relationship.
His police friends have always respected him and turned the other way when he expressed his preferences but more and more they look at him with suspicion. He is lucky in many ways to be able to play this story line out before they catch up to him. Javier is a very broken antihero who just manages through his wit and police skills.
In the end this is not a bad movie, I wished that the main character was a bit more likable but he was acceptable. The plot was well written and directed with just the right amount of luck versus skill. The ending is a bit of a downer but not unexpected since the story dictates the ending. The music was a bit too on the nose as far as wanting to elicit an emotion. They could really have toned it down and still been effective. The acting was very good throughout and should get some praise. The image of the ham is for my daughter who still remember her student exchange time in Spain where the family she stayed with continually sliced off the same unrefrigerated ham the whole time she was there. :) So overall I am going to pass this one onto you with a fairly decent recommendation
Rating (6.2) 5.0 and up are recommended.

Devils of Darkness (1965) Horror Vampire Cult

2011-11-25T10:06:00.018-05:00

Devils of Darkness (1965) - This was a strange film that throws every possible genre trope at the audience and then disappoints by failing to resolve the conflict of the film in a compelling way. It starts with a graveyard scene where a red caped man carries a black candle to a grave. The sculpted bat on the grave is the symbol we will all see again. Some supernatural weather event just happens and the crypt breaks open.
Tania (Carole Gray) a gypsy girl dances for her future husband Bruno (Walter Brown). It is a happy day, their wedding day and the village is thrilled and in celebration. Unfortunately nearby from the broken grave, a large bat flies into the sky. When the gypsy villagers see it there is screaming and terror and mumbling about curses, poor Tania falls dead at the sight of it. Immediately we go into a scene of the mourning of Tania as the funeral procession moves through the forest to her burial sight. A supernatural force effects the weather and kills the priest sending the villagers scattering. Sinistre (Hubert Noel) the evil vampire opens the coffin and raises Tania from the dead to be his bride for eternity.
This is the setup that does not really begin to get into the complicated story to follow. It sets up Tania and Sinistre as the "bad guys" and then jumps to 1964 and starts in on the main plot. Our main body of characters are visiting Brittany in France. A couple guys are going spelunking and there relatives are staying at the local estate. The men in the cave scenes are cut with the relatives and local villagers doing a "All Souls Day" celebration. We are not sure if the celebration is the reason that Sinistre and Tania are suddenly on the scene, but unfortunately for the spelunkers come across the coffins in the caves. One empty and the other with Tania in it. A flash behind one caver like magic and hands grab him from behind. They are dead and the officials are saying it was an accident. Paul (William Sylvester) and one of the spelunker's sister Anne (Rona Anderson) are distraught and can not believe it even after a gypsy in the forest told them they are under the sign of the "Black Death" and the "evil eye". This was a foreshadowing that was way too much right before Keith's dead body was pulled from the cave. They really did not hold back on the tropes we have seen before.
Sinistre and Tania are suddenly in the picture at the estate. It is confusing at this point but makes a bit more sense later on. He targets Anne and takes her from the estate. When she goes missing this starts Paul on a journey trying to understand the mystery the events of those days. He hears her scream does not find her, but does find a small bat medallion where she was taken. It is not a straight line in this film though. Anne's body is found and the Inspector of the small village says it is suicide. Paul can not accept this and wants the bodies shipped back to England for a second opinion. When the bodies vanish in transport Paul suspects that there is a serious mystery. We also know that Sinistre and Tania are looking for a way to get the powerful talisman back, they suspect Paul has it but can't seem to find or get it back.
Paul tries to figure out the meaning of the bat medallion and everything else but there is a sinister cult behind it and it is not so easy to crack. He visits his friend Madeleine (Diana Decker) but she seems suspicious, not to him but certainly to the viewer. She seems to be trying to distract him at every turn. At her party he meets the lovely Karen (Tracy Reed) who suddenly becomes a focal point for Sinistre also. In fact the vampire who raises the dead is totally infatuated with her and there is the possibly that the equally lovely Tania may be on her way out as his main squeeze.
The story twists and turns its way through finding out who the cult members are and Sinistre's desires and plans. It spends the time to identify everyone even though the story when it climaxes does show in a very anticlimactic way. In fact the second half of the movie is totally off the rails from what the set up is. Paul eventually has to try to save Karen but does so without actually doing anything. In fact the final outcome for the villain is so ridiculously flawed that the viewer is left disappointed. It all makes sense but the resolutions could have been more exciting. It was like there was never really anything at stake for Paul. Here is this guy who loses some of his best friends early in the film but never really seems to deal with the grief that came with it. So he just moves on without any emotion and the plot swings him into the hide the bat medallion section. He never really finds out about what is going on other than to do some research into the occult origins of the piece. There is no feeling so the transition is hollow. Then when Karen becomes the focus it really does not carry force because really he does not know her too well but behaves like he has known her for years. I guess I was just disappointed with it in the end I think the problem is the characters were never quite developed enough to create empathy.
Rating (3.9) 5.0 and up are recommended.

Bikini Bloodbath (2006) - Horror Slasher Satire

2011-11-18T20:08:00.001-05:00

Bikini Bloodbath (2006) - Bikini Bloodbath is a really low budget, slasher satire with some pretty bad acting, horrible gay football player jokes, a silly killer French Chef, and lots of boobies. So naturally it was great. No it wasn't but we wanted it to be great. It will be known in my head at least as the film Debbie Rochon dies in and her last words are "Beaver". The plot is simple, there is a killer on the loose looking to kill for killings sake. The Chef as he known is one really crazy french guy played for laughs by Robert Cosgrove Jr. He flits in and out of the picture making kills with really low budget practical effects. The local girls volleyball team is having a party this particular weekend at Jenny's (Leah Ford) house. The are all buxom babes not afraid to show a bit of skin. There is the obligatory shower scene and girls goofy off and picking on the outcast of the group Smelly Suzy (Sheri Lynn). Of course the women playing the teens are way too old and the dialog is awful but it is amusing that they can get through the scenes without cracking up laughing at the stupid tropes and cliches they are spilling across the film.
The movie bounces between the girls getting together at Jenny's, Smelly Suzy sitting at home by herself, and the football players party at another house. The main point of the girls scenes are to get them in as few clothes as possible and have them party and play games like Twister. The Suzy scenes are to show the lonely girl as she starts to worry about the killer being around. This is also played for comedy with the actress Sheri Lynn doing a fairly competent comedy turn. She manages to fall and knock herself out twice. The Football players party, you know they are football players because they all wear shirts that say "Football Player" on them, are all about gay jokes. We all know that the homosexuality and jocks go hand and hand job so this is played to the max. The two freshmen of the team come to realize with excruciating clarity that all the males at the party ore sort of acting gay with each other. These section of the film are so hard to watch. Every joke is obvious and ham handed. It was necessary to keep repeating that it was done for satire effect that someone didn't really think these jokes were funny. Or did they?
When the killer finally closes in on our main group there are poor decisions, lots of drinking, silly antics and unimpressive deaths. For this reviewer the scene where Sharon (Anna-Karin Eskilsson) heads out to get help and then is seen sitting in a taco joint eating a burrito is the best part of the whole movie. Now don't get me wrong, although as a reviewer this "film" is pretty awful but personally I love this crap. There is a duality here that I struggle with. I can't recommend this film to anyone. In fact if you watch it from reading this review don't blame me. On the other hand I loved that I watched it. I in fact would love to be in a movie like this. It is silly and fun but just not good. Sick I know but what can I say.
I loved the extras on the disc particularly the music by White Liger and Rebecca Nurse.
Rating (1.1) 5.0 and up are recommended

House of Voices (2004) - Ghost Haunted House

2011-11-17T10:41:00.001-05:00

House of Voices (2004) - Writer / Director Pascal Laugier is a current hot item for his recent torture porn film Martyrs (2008) which has the reputation to be hard to watch but not because it is poorly made but because the subject matter is relentless and unflinching. We at Soresport movies have the film but have yet to viewed it for just this reason. House of Voices, originally entitled Saint Ange is a slow burn ghost story that ends up, by its' end somewhere other than the viewer thought it would. The opening scene is deceiving in it scary setting and sudden terror. In the large Victorian house that serves as his orphanage home, a young boy Alex gets up to go to the bathroom. It is dark but armed with his flashlight he makes his way through the deserted corridors. Joined by a little girl they make it into the large bathroom and Alex proceeds to turn the knobs of a row of faucets. He mentions something about "the scared children" and how the always touch things in the bathroom. After the two head back to be we hear the water go on in the faucets and Alex heads back to turn them off. Did he see something in the mirror above the larger sink? Climbing up to look he is shocked by something he sees and falls hitting his head and from the screams of the little girl when she comes back we learn he died. It is a well done scene with excellent atmosphere and pacing and a promising start to the film.
Unfortunately the pacing then crawls and the film has a really difficult time creating the tension needed to tell the story. Its 1958 and the death has created a political witch hunt that closes the facility. The head mistress Francard (Catriona MacColl) meets cleaning woman and main character Anna ( the lovely Virginie Ledoyen)at the bus. Catriona MacColl has a storied history in horror movies having appeared in such films as, City of the Living Dead, The Beyond, and House by the Cemetary. Laugier has said in interviews he imagined House of Voice as an unconnected sequel to The Beyond, and certainly the strange other worldly shift the film makes can lend a bit of credence to that idea.
Anna arrives as the children are being loaded up in buses to head off for their new homes. Little Marie comes to Anna and whispers in her ear to be careful of the scared children. She is left at the house with the older cleaning woman Ilinca (Dirina Lazar) and her charge the slightly off her rocker Judith (Lou Doillon). The three have the task of closing down and cleaning the giant building. All is not what it seems as noises and constant stormy nights create a creepy atmosphere for young Anna. She soon discovers Judith and slowly learns that she is not quite all together in the head. Still the work and the weather and the large empty house make for a setting. Anna's strange dreams and sickness gets the viewer wondering but this is quickly dispelled. Anna is revealed to be sick because she is a young pregnant woman who is wrapping her midsection in bandages to hide her condition. That is not all though, she has scars on her back from being lashed. It is a revelation that explains some but opens up just as many questions. The time period sort of makes sense to hide and unwanted pregnancy. She has also shown a desire to hurt the child by punching her own stomach. Could the social ostracizing made her hate the fact she is pregnant? It is 1958 after all and many a young girl with child was sent to the country until their term was complete. Could the lashes on her back be from her family when they found out?
As the haunting come on with sounds of kids playing, moving items and the such, the film starts to drag a bit so we can find out Judith was one of the kids who came towards the end of World War II. Some of those kids did not survive and could be the scared kids that the Ilinca mentioned to Anna. Anna wants to know and starts a somewhat sinister plan of her own to coop Judith to get information. Ilinca has been controlling the young women with medication but Anna gets Judith to stop taking the pills. It works and after a time, too long for most viewers Anna knows a dark secret about the orphanage and why it is haunted.
She acts to go look at the secret area behind the mirror that Alex fell from in front of in the opening scene. She pushes through and starts to explore taking a dumbwaiter down to what appears to be a secret underground laboratory or hospital. This is when director Laugier goes from practical haunting story to psychological nightmare. Poor Anna is in the midst of a nervous breakdown and although the astute film viewer will recognize it the average person may be scratching their heads wondering how the film can shift in tone so drastically. The sad ending does not help this movie either and so at the end it is not very satisfying. The music and visuals are very effective in this film but the left turn can not be made up for. So in the end I can not really recommend this film.
Rating (4.7) 5.0 and up are recommended. Too slow to go! Skip It!

The Cannibal Man (1971) - Murderer Psycho

2011-11-14T14:18:00.000-05:00

The Cannibal Man (1971) - La semana del asesino (original title) More like "The Week of the Assassin?". I am going with the date on the film itself instead of IMDB on the year it was made. This is an odd film about a poor Italian man Marcos (Vincente Parra) who accidentally kills someone and because of his belief about how society would treat him decides not to go to the police. The effect of this decision starts him down a road he can never come back from. Commenting on Italy's social classes and their interaction the film is by no means heavy handed in this. Marcos, the main character lives in one of the last small houses in his neighborhood which is being gentrified with many high rise apartments occupied by the wealthy. In the opening scene he is sitting is the heat of the house, shirtless just listening to the radio. It is all he has and we find out later it is not even his house but that of his brother Esteban (Charly Bravo) who is off on business. The Soresport can empathize with Marko, there were times in my life where I was so poor that I was the one sitting in the house, nothing but a radio, no fans or air conditioning. It is tough being poor and Marcos is stuck with his life. He is a low level worker at a slaughterhouse that supplies meat for the Flory soup company. His life is small he goes to the local diner and eats and flirts with the waitress. He has a girlfriend whose father is not happy she is dating such a low man. So much so that she needs to sneak out to see him. He works and he sits in his brother's little house.
One of the ways the film comments about the class differences is by having a wealthy character who befriends Marcos, in this case Nester (Eusebio Poncela). He lives in the large apartment building near Marcos and it seems he may be gay. Marcos has these roof windows in his house and Nester peers down with binoculars at the shirtless man. There is this awkward tension as the two get to know each other on one hand Marcos gets a taste of the wealthy man's life but on the other hand he is pretty sure he can not have the relationship go where Nester would like it to. In a scene that solidifies that Marcos is correct in how the lower classes are treated by the authorities he and Nester are out for drinks one hot night. The police come up and start harassing them to show identification. Marcos shows his but Nester had left his at home. The police really starts lecturing about always having your papers on you but as soon as he learns that Nester lives in the high rise he apologizes and leaves. This is important to understand Marcos and his reactions to what is happening in the plot.
He goes out on a date with his girlfriend Paula (Emma Cohen) and while they are making out in the back of a taxi, they are confronted by the driver (Goyo Lebrero) who does not like that behavior. They are kicked out but the driver is very aggressive and attacks them for the partial fair he is owed. In the struggle Marcos strikes the man in the head with a stone. It is completely the taxi drivers fault this fight happened but unfortunately for Marcos he hit the man too hard and killed him. He could probably argue self defense. Since it is his belief he will not be treated fairly he wants to keep quiet and let the case go unsolved. Paula though can not live with that outcome and insists he go to the police or she will. The guilt would be too much for her. In the argument Marco makes one of many bad decisions as instead of letting her leave he chokes her out and hides the body under his brother's bed.
From there things sort of spiral out of control, his brother returns early and the body is still in the bedroom. Again an argument about going to the police leads to a similar conclusion. Then the next day when Esteban's fiancee, Carmen (Lola Herrera) comes by she discovers the two bodies and there is only one thing for the increasingly unstable Marcos to do. This is the problem, there are people connected to people, you kill one and anyone that knew they went to your house will come looking. It is a dilemma Marcos can not avoid in this film and as the bodies stack up the question also becomes how will he get rid of them. He has no car and the area around his house is so open and exposed that there would be no way to move the bodies. He does have the advantage of where he works though.
It seems that he can come up with a solution and as he slowly executes it day after day performing the gruesome task he must it seems that he may actually get away with the multiple murders. His respites with Nester take the edge off a bit but there is a real and evident mental toll. Marcos has to deal with the smell as his solution can only happen a bit at a time, but it could work. Perfumes and air fresheners can be purchased, things could be cleaned up. Then of course it can't there is the smell and the pesky Senor Ambrosio (Fernando Sanchez Polack) Carmen's father who arrives looking for his daughter. So Marcos go back to the only solution he knows and it is not the last time he will go this route.
It is a really sad story with the poor man trapped in his own limited decision making. His friend Nester tries to relieve the pressure with nice time shared between two men. It was so interesting to watch Marcos struggle with the knowledge that Nester would like a bit more than just friendship but at the same time not wanting to lose this piece of sanity in what has become a nightmare life. The Writer / Director of this film Eloy de la Iglesia shies away from pushing this angle of the film. He goes as far as having the men frolic in the water of Nester's health club but really never pushes past that into making Marcos decide to take the next step or throw away something he enjoys. I think this is a real flaw in the film, it is like it just gives up on creating conflict and in its place goes back to the bodies in the bedroom as the driving force. Certainly they are the main plot line but there was such an opportunity there that was missed.
In the end the film really pulled its punches and the ending was less than satisfying. It is resolved but not how we in modern movie making would expect. Instead the outcome is like the writer gave up on the story and just decided it needed to end. So disappointing for a film with something to say.
Rating (5.2) 5.0 and up are recommended Rent it but don't go out of your way.

I Saw The Devil (2010) Revenge, Serial Killer

2011-11-10T21:27:00.001-05:00

I Saw The Devil (2010) - Akmareul Boatda (original title) What a story of revenge and the price you can pay for it, or how sometimes the revenge we plan does not turn out the way we thought it would. Director Jee-woon Kim has been involved with several things this writer knows, the segment in "3 Extremes II" called "Memories", the soon to be reviewed "A Tale of Two Sisters" and this very good film. This is at its heart a revenge film with a good dose of horror and action and some unexpected twists. One of the things I liked about the directing was the use of slow motion and silence at times to portray the emotions of the moment, Jee-woon Kim does a fine job creating an unexpectedly harsh and heartfelt story. Of course the skill shown in the directors chair is complemented by a good script by new writer Hoon-jung Park. So lets get into more of the film instead of just blowing the writer and director.
This is the revenge story of Kim Soo-hyeon(Byung-hun Lee) who is happily married to the beautiful Joo-yeon (San-ha Oh). She early in the film is attacked and kidnapped from her car by serial killer Kyung-chul. Played by the incredible actor Min-sik Choi (Lady Vengeance, Oldboy) Kyung-chul is a relentlessly evil bastard with the ego and fortitude to carry this film by himself, but there was no need. Lead Byung-hun Lee as Kim is equally bad ass on the side of vengeance and is a partner equal to the task of making this film a drag out brawl between good and evil. When Joo-yeon's body is found, Kim an intelligence service agent springs into action to get his own form of justice from the perpetrator of the murder. Narrowed to four suspects by police chief Jang (Gook-hwan Jeon), father to Joo-yeon, Kim begins a harsh and violent tracking from one suspect to the next in an effort to find his wife's killer. He is a skilled agent and uses his skills to their violent fullest. When he comes across Kyung-chul's parents and son he knows enough to ask the son where his father lives. From this he soon learns the mans' occupation as a driver for an all girls school. No CORI checks in this town. Since the son knows where his father works it tells us something about that relationship. There is one anyhow and Kyung-chul has separated his need to kill from his family. Still it is the piece of information that Kim needed to track him down. When he arrives at the man's house he finds in locked drawers the remains of women, not body parts but the clothes and accessories. He knows he has found the killer. Discovering the slaughter room in the drain on the floor he find Joo-yeon's wedding ring the match for his own. It is an excellent moment in the film where he gets to grieve and commit himself to catching up to the bastard Kyung-chul.
The other half of the film follows the killer as he continues his reign of terror on the community. We see another abduction and murder. The poor woman talked into taking the ride at night after he tells her the buses have stopped. How quickly he turns on her and smashes her with a pipe. It is not just that he smashes her, he takes his time to find the pipe behind the seat, then shows it to her. He wants his victims to feel the fear before he harms them. It is part of what gets him off, his control of their emotions. When she wakes naked and violated he is preparing the guillotine he will use to cut her body up. We get a fuller picture of this guy, the nudity of the women, because he likes to rape them, the cutting instruments to cut the bodies into small pieces. When when he realizes he has been made he goes from hidden killer to psychopath in the open callously striking at anyone and everyone. As he drives his charges home he takes the last sleeping girl as a prize and goes on the run to another safe house.
Of course with Kim Soo-hyeon on his trail he is no longer safe, so even this standby house is not hidden for long. Interrupted in raping the school girl he sees Kim across the green house. The two square off with Kim weaponless and Kyung with two blades. We are already sitting with knowledge from the earlier scenes that both men are bad asses, but quickly it becomes evident who is the badder ass. Kim kicks the shit out of him, what would be the perfect final battle between the vengeful husband and the man who killed his wife. This though is a movie of twists and the first twist happens here. When Kim gets his revenge he leaves the broken armed Kyung a bloody heap in the ditch he dug to bury his latest victim. When Kyung wakes he is alone with an envelop of cash at his side. WTF?
So the movie proper begins with the realization that this is not over until Kim says it is over. He lets this bastard of a killer free to create even more terror while so he can continue to track and beat the man. It is quite an interesting turn. Can the writer and director make the killer the sympathetic character? Will the continued hunt change the vengeful Kim into the devil he is tracking and punishing? How will it end and will the plan Kim has put in place possibly work to relieve his grief? This reviewers head was spinning at this point in the movie. As regular readers know I would be the vengeful person and hold sympathies there. This film challenges the ability to hold that position and in doing so makes the film all the more compelling.
At this point you think you have this film figured out and for a while you do. There is more Kyung-chul cruelty and rampage through the countryside. Then Kim shows up and beats the living tar out of him again and you think this can not go on forever. Kyung is not the run of the mill psycho though and his abilities are more than just being evil. We learn so much more about the killer. What his motivations are and how his grandiose opinion of himself will dictate his actions. When the next twist comes the audience in Korean theaters must have been blown away. This reviewer was in awe of the shift just sitting at home. The ante continued up until the final scene. That twist turns the tables on Kim in a way I will not mention here. It is to you to go get this film and see for yourselves. When that sequence is done and there is only one movement left. How will our hero get back on top. It is a final twist worth the effort of watching this engrossing if slightly too long thriller. The acting is exception with Min-sik Choi turning in an amazing performance and Byung-hun Lee right behind him is style points. The music works well for most of the film with a few exception where it is over used in the action scenes. Because of all this I am rating this film on the high end, not only do I recommend it but I do so strongly.
Rating (8.5) 5.0 and up are recommended. Go see this movie!

The Heirloom (2005) Horror Ghosts

2011-11-07T10:42:00.006-05:00

The Heirloom (2005) - The little lesson that is shared at the beginning of the film is important for understanding this Taiwanese film. It explains that Hsiao Guei (literally "raising child ghosts") A folk practice prevelent in Chinese societies where by dead fetuses are worshiped in urns and fed the blodd of their master. Child ghosts possess great power to bring their master fortune. Someare so powerful they can even kill, but for such dark arts a price must be paid.
James (Jason Chang) returns to Taiwan when he inherits a very large but run down house. Being an architect he is not interested in selling it and instead plans to move in. His girlfriend Yo (Terri Kwan) is a dancer who is thinking about traveling so there is an immediate tension between the two. This is just a red herring though as she decides to stay and move into the house with him. It is a large house and they spend some time exploring. Upstairs is the family shrine a wall lined with the images of the ancestors of James' family. The early scenes of a group of people hanging in the house without explanation is so we know that this house has some sort of ghosts. We don't know the exact connection to James but we know they were probably his former relatives.
So from the definition that we got in the beginning does this mean that someone had it in for his family and used their Hsiao Guei to get them or are they worshiping their own and the price was drastically high. When our main couple has their friends over, Yi-Chen (Yu-chen Chang) and Ah-Tseng (Tender Huang) things start getting strange. After they spend time in the house at midnight the next day Ah-Tseng mysteriously appears in the house under the bed with no memory of how he got there. The scenes of James finding him there was scary and tense as he follows footprints to his location. The same thing happens with Yi-Chen she mysteriously is suddenly in the house at midnight with no memory of how she got there. Director Leste Chen keeps the tension up by cutting in scenes from the past hangings and flashes of a young boy in a blindfold. First time writer Dorian Li's story is a bit confusing but I think part of this is the editing decisions.
What could possibly happen next? Since Ah-Tseng was the first to feel the effects of the house he is the victim as the house apparently not just happy with stealing his memory and bringing him home now decides to hang him with no rope. This involves the police and the head detective Detective Wu has to suspect James since he was the last person with Ah-Tseng. When Det. Wu later shows the effects of having been to the house, that is he comes awake in the house at midnight with no memory of how he got there, then he gets serious. Cameras are installed so they can try to figure out the mystery. That is not the only thing going on though, Yo and Yi-Chen go to look at old newspapers detailing the past deaths in the house. Reports that the victims tried not to sleep because sleeping they would end up in the house.
Det. Wu does his best not to have a repeat performance the second night but unfortunately his cuffing himself to a radiator did not solve the problem as he intended it to. You have to see the scene to really appreciated it. You are probably wondering what any of this has to do with Hsiao Guei? Well that is one of the problems with this film. It winds its way towards the answers but they are slow to come. While we eventually get the full picture of the Yang family, (James is a member) and the fuller story of what happened in the earlier flashback to the group hanging it takes quite a bit of time to get there.
The urns in the attic are discovered and James and Yo have to deal with the deaths of their friends. The discovery of the crazy family story is convoluted and told through multiple flashback scenes. Then they attempt to end the curse but the final twist in the story leaves the viewer on more of a downer note. Overall the movie is enjoyable, the music is effective but it is really low rent as far as the effects. The story may go on a bit longer than you want and the tenuous connections may frustrate some but as a whole it is not bad. The subtitles on the version I had were quick so I hope you can read fast.
Rating (5.4) 5.0 and up are recommended. So Rent it!

Forbidden World (1982) - Science Fiction Monster

2011-11-04T13:52:00.001-04:00

Forbidden World (1982) - This Roger Corman produced science fiction film is really not all that bad. Mike Colby (Jesse Vint) is a problem solver and oh boy does the crew of the base on planet Xarbia have a problem to be solved. Lead by Dr. Gordon Hauser (Linden Chiles) the crew was developing a genetically altered bacteria as an endless food source, unfortunately Hauser crossed ethical lines and now has a very nasty growing and violent beast living in his incubator. Now Colby generally approaches things with the line, "if it moves and its not one of us, shoot it.". He should have taken care of the problem well before the movie got rolling but instead, even though the creature is in a cocoon and seemingly harmless, he is convince to wait a bit before killing it. This is a creature that killed every single test animal in the lab and moved itself into the incubator to change into something even more nasty, but these nimrods decide to wait to deal with the problem.
So we leave poor Jimmie Swift (Michael Bowen) to clean up the mess in the lab and to keep an eye on the cocoon. Why is it that we leave the janitor to watch the dangerous monster? Why is it that the incubator is just a glass door not really seal-able or air tight? Why does Jimmie stick his head in and look at the thing when it is clear glass and you can easily check it without ever opening the door? It is often a problem with these lower budget films that the characters have to do stupid things in order to move the story along. Jimmie does not let us down in this regard as he looks around and eventually takes the creature on the face like in the movie "The Blob". Then of course since Brian Beale (Raymond Oliver) the security person for the lab is watching and has to find some way to miss the attack on camera, he gets up right at that moment to get some food. Then the camera in the lab gets blood splashed on it and stops working. All too convenient if you ask me.
When Tracy Baxter (Dawn Dunlap) heads down to the lab and finds Jimmie she screams and since this is what she did for most of the film we will call her Screaming Tracy for the rest of this entry. I don't want to go too much more into the plot details because this is a movie even though pretty bad is entertaining and worth a look. Let me say though that there was this one thing that really got my goat. The first time the crew members are bring Colby into the lab they go through this big "to do" about how they are cleaned of all germs by the cool blue light. It is a way of securing the lab. No unwanted things get in and none get out. It is crucial in the conversation about waiting a day to kill thew creature that it can not get out of the secure lab. So imagine my surprise that after Jimmy is attacked the chief medical guy Dr. Cal Timbergen (Fox Harris [Hello J Frank Parnell in Repo Man] ) comes in and immediately removes the body from the room. There is never a discussion that Jimmie may be a carrier of the creature. There is no talk of any kind he just says I have to get him to the medical bay then opens the door and wheels the body out. Everybody else spends a good minute or two looking for the escaped creature and then agree that there is nothing else they can do that day and head off to bed. Yup that is what I said and lucky Mike Colby gets to sleep with the lovely and seductive Dr. Barbara Glaser (June Chadwick). There is some reasonably tasteful love making as well as the escape of the creature from Jimmie's now apparently melting body. So the rest of the story is set up to be an Alien style movie where the people try to find and kill the creature while they are picked off one by one.
Later they realize why the creature is not just killing them all off at once, it wants them alive while it tries to use them as a perfect renewable food source. It is wonderfully noted how ironic this development is. So since they know that it is an intelligent creature Barbara and Screaming Tracy decide it is probably best to go communicate with it. Since it is on the main computer Barbara figures it will be through the computer that they can have words. She asks "Can we co-exist?" It replies through the computer "Please Stand by" and then gives its answer. Screaming Tracy runs off doing what she was born to do. The remaining group figures out how to beat the creature and exact the plan.
Overall I was rather entertained by this simple event driven film by writer Tim Curnen and director Allan Holzman. Yes Tracy was annoying a good deal of the time. Yeah women were portrayed as fixtures and when they did come up with an idea it was a horrible one. Yes this film was about how our buddy and hero Mike Colby saves the day. Of course both women in this film get naked with Colby. Sure a whole lot of really stupid decisions had to be made to make the events of the plot progress. And Yes it is sort of a rip off of Alien but it was entertaining and so much better than the recent reviews on this blog that I am marginally passing this with a Rent it recommendation. The one black actor did not die right away, nor was he the janitor. The camera work and music were solid and not over done. With a million or so dollars in the budget the effect were alright, granted the creature itself was a bit corny, the effects on the melting people were exceptional and hey they had lasers.
Rating (5.0) 5.0 and up are recommended, Go out and rent this passable watch.

Houseboat Horror (1989) - Horror Slasher

2011-10-29T14:55:00.014-04:00

Houseboat Horror (1989) - This Australian artifact from the eighties is a straight up copied from every slasher that came before is a romp in the Outback aboard houseboats. The film starts with some movie crew people driving to a lake so that they and others can meet up for a job filming a rock video. There is some playful dialog and the pick up of a hitchhiker. Her purpose is to be the first victim of the killer after getting the ride. She walks through the woods to her boyfriends camp to find him dead and then for the first time of many we see the killers feet and lower legs. The scene means nothing to the movie since the premise of why the killer is doing what he is doing is not yet known and why the poor camper and his slow running girlfriend are the first to die is a mystery. She runs from the killer who walks after her and amazingly keeps up until he captures and kills her. It really is a remarkable feat. It is like he is on a walking sidewalk while she is running in place. The killing are just to get to the credits and the wonderfully bad music. An opening scene like this in this type of film is to set up that it is a slasher film, but we learn later that the motivation for the slashers killing really has nothing to do with the first kills. It is strictly a trope to set up the film before showing the opening credits.What we get next is a bit of a mess with a whole lot of characters being introduced, or at least shown on screen while we get a bit of the story for why they are there. There is a "rock" video that is going to be shot by this large group so we have all the people in the cast to get this done. The manager and musicians, a couple models to dance in the video, costume and makeup people, hangers on, executive and girlfriend, camera crew, so many in fact you can't really get to know any of them. They all gather up and take four houseboats and several other craft out on the lake to the site they plan to shoot the video. Oh and don't worry you will not get the pleasure of missing the music video. On the way to this though we get the a bit of story about the tragedy of the last video shoot on Lake Infinity. A couple years before a poor kid was burned very badly by a callous movie crew, it was a horrible event. What made it worse was the murder of the movie crew after the accident. Then this film throws in a high musician who for no reason spouts the following "if ??? blada??? was in he would have said exactly what I said. The Theory of Relativity, the theory of forms, the continium concept, Aldus Huxley is The Partridge Family, pan dimensional." Can someone please explain why this is in this movie.I understand why the grumpy guy in the car was reading Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In the late eighties that book was all the rage, I, the Soresport, read it myself. I was hoping for a tie in, in the film. You see the story is about King Arthur and his nights feasting and they are rudely interrupted by the Green Knight, who challenges the King to a contest, Arthur can strike him one blow and in a years time the Knight gets to return the favor. As an honorable servant Gawain volunteers to strike the blow in the Kings place as it would be expected. He does and lops the head off the Green Knight, whose headless body retrieves his head and he says to Gawain to seek him out in one year for the return blow. The story continues as Gawain gets to the house of the night, his morals are challenged repeatedly while he stays at the Green Knights castle and he reasonably stays honorable, but the final evening he is offered a way to live but in taking it it will be known that he has been dishonorable. Fearing for his life he chooses dishonor only to be spared by the Green Knight to live with his shame. This seemed like a great story to build the slasher around but unfortunately writer Ollie Martin and Director Kend al Flanagan were not going to do that.Instead we get the straight up story in which the killer is quickly revealed through close up of his scarred hand to be the burnt person from a couple years before. He hates film crews now and is ready to rip through our cast. The cast is too large for the film so there are plenty of POV shots as the killer stocks crew members. A hatchet to the head here, a stabbing there it is all part of the long drawn out couple days on the lake. Finally when the survivors start running into bodies the pace picks up. Our killer stalks a couple while they search the nearby abandon farm, his farm with his crazy sister in fact, in this is one of the more creative kills of the movie. The killer who has weapons all over the freaking place kills one guy and then since he apparently used that very effective weapon up, takes a horseshoe to stab through the eyes of the next kill. In fact it seemed every time the killer needed a weapon it magically appeared. He find a harpoon gun just laying in the open on the houseboat. Then wanting to kill the guy on a skidoo he finds a pipe laying in the boat and hurls it perfectly through the guy. There is a nice effect where he slices a guys head in two, for 1989 I though it was pretty good. Still the whole exercise was way on the nose and the music really exactly what you would expect from the time period and the slasher genre.There were some things that were amusing, besides the clothes that is. The giant cell phones or as one character called it "The walk about phone thing." I liked the attempt at showing nudity as a trope of this kind of film, but unfortunately like most other things the makers did it really was second rate. Then there is this scene where the killer while looking into a fire flashes back to his incident of burning, later in the final scenes he is lit on fire by the survivors and what do you know, they used the exact same footage. I also learned what is worse than the douche who brings a guitar to a party, a guy who brings his drum. The ending does have a final girl but because the film started with so many characters and none were particularly flush out; there was not a real sense of urgency in seeing her survive. We hardly knew her so when she gets to the final scene who cares if she is the last. Actually she is not the last either, there were a few characters that go off to town on the second night and miss all the killing. When they arrive back they are invited back to the abandoned farm by the killers crazy sister. Just too many people in the end to really make it work.
Rating (3.8) 5.0 and up are recommended.

La Brecha - The Devil's Clock (2006) Horror

2011-10-27T06:46:00.014-04:00

La Brecha - The Devil's Clock (2006) - Following along the lines of the last review Farmhouse is La Brecha, a ultra low budget production from Mexico where a quartet of 20 somethings who get lost on the way to the ocean and end up in a quiet village that is not quite what is seems. This particular picture is so off the map that it currently does not even show up on the greatest collection place for movie information, IMDB. In fact finding out production information for this film was a bit difficult pretty much the DVD cover or if you see it through Netflix (mail) will you have any real information. The beginning of the film shows a family running through a green filtered forest, so it must be night. The little girl of the family keeps falling and eventually the parents leave her behind. A creature grabs her and crushes her head, but if you think you are going to see gore think again, this is such a low budget venture that a quick flash and everything is gone. It is the next day and the father from the group is seen walking in the hot Mexican sun with bloody hands. He attempts to flag a car down but it runs him over. This is the set up for the film, but unfortunately it is not the set up for the film. In fact it has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the movie all it is for is to introduce the idea of a pursuing creature that in the scene you only see.
After this start we meet our couples Joselo (Antonio Aguirre) and Karina (Anna Cepinska), and Mariana (Suzet Villalobos) and Daniel (Victor Hernandez). They are heading off together to go to the ocean for a weekend. They unfortunately get lost and end up tired and irritated with each other, so decide to stop in a small pueblo for the night. To their surprise the place seems totally deserted, except for one strange guy named Nicolas (Alejandro Camacho). There is a cool little effect that is used by director Jose Carlos Gutierrez to give the impression that he is of supernatural origin. He tells them of the legend of the curse town clock. It is always stuck at 12 o'clock but if the time changes it is telling the time when someone will die. It all has to do with the clock maker's suicide but really it is just a plot device to have a story to tell. Really all this movie is, is this really bad premise. There seems to be no character development other than revealing bad behavior of three of the four character with Mariana really not being a bad person.
Writers Jose Carlos Gutierrez and Josue Hermes do a somewhat poor job not thinking through his concept before getting to shooting. I am naming them writers even though information on this film is sketchy so I apologize if I get anything wrong. Sure the characters have their flaws and have done questionable things. Joselo and Daniel are actually going to the beach not just for a vacation but because they have stolen money together and want to be away from the heat of their crime. Daniel and Karina have been having sexual relations since Christmas even though Daniel is with Mariana and Karina is with Joselo. Poor Mariana seems to get the lousy end of the deal as she sees Daniel as the love of her life.
Eventually our character see the clock change times and then each has a turn dying or getting sick or being to tired to get out of bed, it is all not so clear, finally though the last character talks with Nicolas and we learn that this village is not so different than the farmhouse in the film Farmhouse. It is less than satisfying and the whole experience is probably better off avoided. The experience of watching this film of course.
Notes on actors: Alejandro Camacho seems to be a hard working actor in Mexican television and is currently on the television series Para Volver a Amar, of the actors in the film he seem the most skilled and it is probably not surprising the oldest.
Anna Cepinska is probably more famous for being a Miss Venezuela and Miss World before doing a spread she did in the Venezuelan version of Playboy magazine in April 2008 than for anything else. So in this end this is just not a passable film, not enough is done although it is not without value.
Rating (3.1) 5.0 and up are recommended in the Zombiegrrlz system Skip It!

Farmhouse(2008) - Horror Torture

2011-10-24T14:16:00.010-04:00

Farmhouse (2008) - What writer Daniel Coughlin and director George Bessudo are trying to do in this low budget horror flick from the Alliance Group Entertainment group is difficult to pull off. They are trying through flashback to slowly reveal who are main characters are, how they got to this point and then give a big twist to the current story in the film. What is difficult is that the current story of the couple who drive off a country road when the husband Chad (William Lee Scott) falls asleep. Find a farmhouse with a seemingly kind couple and then find themselves in a nightmare fighting for their lives, makes the slow reveals out of place to the current life or death story at the farmhouse. Combine this with needing to hold back certain information for the big twist at the end and you have a choppy story that does not quite work.
The early scenes before getting to the farm are all the background you need to know why Scarlett (Jamie Anne Allman) and her husband Chad are on the road. They have recently lost a child and that Chad is a timid cowardly ass wipe with a gambling problem, actually the gambling is over and there is a paying off the bookie problem. They head out on the road and the writer had a ridiculous need for Scarlett to point out a 20 hour drive is not a good thing is high lighted by Chad falling asleep and the car hitting a phone box (Steven Weber) because they made a point to tell us it was a phone box) and crashing into a ditch.
The two of course have no cell service and have to walk a ways off through the grape vines to a farmhouse in the distance. When Samael (suddenly appears behind the couple only not 10 minutes into the movie I wrote in my notes "Supernatural?". This because at the farmhouse they get to see pictures of a whole bunch of other couples hanging on the wall. It is a give away that the farmers Samael and Lilith are not what they seem. Then there is the fact that his name which he repronouces for the couple as not Samuel but Sam 'A' el is the name of a biblical archangel who in the Jewish tradition is the seducer, accuser and destroyer, there was reason to believe that our writer Coughlin wanted us to figure it out. By then naming the deaf farmhand Alal (Nick Heyman) I think it is sort of Angel name sounding but who knows. Certainly Samael's wife Lilith was named for the cliche evil woman name in so many films. She is played by the beautiful hard working actress Kelly Hu in a wonderfully sinister performance.
In fact I had no real issues with the acting, Jamie Anne Allman is properly cardboard which was appropriate for a character forcing down the hard life experiences of her life. A person fighting to get through a stage in her life that sucks. William Lee Scott had me wanting to punch him in the face through the television, his impotent and pathetic approach to his situation was spot on. Steven Weber with a sinister sparkly behind his eye was just great going between jovial host to psychotic tormentor in a split second.
What really hurt this movie was the structure, at the farm after Chad accidentally(?) sees Samael banging Lil through their ajar door things go from a helping hand to a stranded couple to a robust torture sessions and attempted escape scenes. The tension of the events is well paced but each time things rev up we cut to another flashback that is just boring filler for our two victims and how they got to this point. It is a real mood killer and just ruins what could have been a great fight for survival.
There are three main torture scenes the drowning one which has such a predictable pathetically unoriginal outcome that this reviewer thought about turning the film off and skipping this review. That feeling was also present when Samael used torturing Alal as a way to get Scarlett to come out of hiding. It was very much predictable and too cliche for anyone who regularly watches horror films. The third bit between Scarlett and Lilith was wonderful gruesome in sound and sight.
Everytime there was some good though it was squashed by the damn flashbacks. Not that some of the information in the scenes were not essential for the big twist in the end. The problem is they were slow and informational and that information was enough for the viewer to figure out the twist before it is announced in the film. This is so fucking frustrating we want to be surprised not lead to solve the mystery ourselves to only then have our guess confirmed. Damn you Daniel Coughlin!
Okay calm down there Soresport... Writing a script is difficult, and you couldn't do it better. Give the poor guy credit and don't get too disappointed when it isn't perfect.
No! No! I instead say to Coughlin what Samael says in his toast to our couple (victims) "May the worst day from your past be the best day of your future."
Closing out let me say that the twist about Scarlett I figured out ahead of time. The escape I expected and the big twist at the end, saw it coming! The last scenes seemed straight off the Syfy channel with effect so silly looking that it ruined the ending. I blame director George Bessudo for that oversite or even the productions company. So no this film will not be recommended.
Rating (3.5) 5.0 and up are recommended, In the Zombiegrrlz system Skip It!

Babysitter Wanted (2008) - Horror Satanic

2011-10-23T08:21:00.012-04:00

Babysitter Wanted (2008) - Lets start by saying I thought this film was decent but there were a few things that leave that nagging feeling it could have been better. The pre-credits scene showing the tied up girl with markings on her like you would see on a pig showing the different cuts of meat really blew a lot of what could have been revelation in this film. Instead of letting the audience grow to learn what is to come for characters we get this, then we are suppose to anticipate that fate coming back to the main character. Afraid though it should have been left unsaid and then when we saw it for the first time it would have more impact. That opening scene in which the music was a big driver was disappointing too much mood music and too much reveal all for a tone setting scene that really is not necessary and probably works against the film making everything that happened in that scene have to be explained later in a monologue that then too seems out of place.
The very first scene in the protagonists home we establish that the main character Angie Albright (Sarah Thompson) is a very good girl, she and her mother kneel in front of the home alter praying for her safety as she prepares to head off to school. Community College is such a scary place and she the good Christian girl meets her druggie roommate to set her out of place, to make the character uncomfortable and to establish she is not a girl of means and will have to find some kind of work to make this whole college thing happen. It also gives her a reason to meet her love interest in the film, Rick (Matt Dallas) who scares her by accident while she is on the payphone outside calling home to pretend everything is alright. I guess all that praying and good girl stuff goes out the window when you want to not have your Mom worry so you lie to her. Kids today! The fact that both of these actors are way past their college years is not so strange in Hollywood where often the teens in teen movies are late into their twenties. Here though they are in the early thirties playing 18 and 19 there is something not really right about that. Sarah Thompson I remember as Eve on the television show Angel how she ended up in this role must be a story. Not that she is not young looking but she is like 32 years old.
When she takes a number from the babysitter wanted sign on the school billboard there is a strange scarred guy (Monty Bane)watching her from the distance, we know this because besides seeing him the music gets very menacing queuing us that we should worry for poor Angie. In fact the music by Kurt Oldman is one of the larger problems with this film, it is too overstated, more like you would get on a video game to create mood than on a film where is should be an accompaniment. I got the feeling that Kurt didn't trust the film he was seeing to have the tension and shock it needed so he created a score to compensate for it. Unfortunately it is so over bearing at times, often giving away the action or creating its own moments instead of trusting the film that it was a distraction. It is also a dark movie, meaning the lighting is purposefully set low, it ads to the mood I suppose but make sure you watch this on a large decent quality television to really be able to see what is going on.
Angie is followed by scarred guy for a good deal of time while she heads out to the isolated farm to meet the Stanton Family, Jim Stanton (Bruce Thomas) doing his best Bruce Campbell, its strange I said it out loud and then on researching the actor I see that he played in Army of Darkness as one of the mini Ash characters. He was a fine enough actor but I kept thinking of the Bruce Campbell whenever he was on the screen. Violet Stanton (Kristin Dalton) and son Sam (Kai Caster) who always wears that cute little cowboy outfit and does not say much. They seem like a nice enough family and Angie takes the babysitting job. Thus the setup is done and the film actually starts and we learn that all the religious crap from the beginning actually plays a role in the outcome although a tangential one. Violet shows Angie that little Sam is on a special diet so if he wants a snack it should come from the marked containers. Since we were bludgeoned by the opening scene we can guess what the special diet is can't we? So is the point since we know and Angie doesn't that it should create a negative feeling in us, or anticipation that OOH Boy when she find out she is going to be appalled. No because when she finds out she is watching a young woman being quartered and sliced and diced and that trumps the feeling she may have had about Sam's dietary uniqueness.
The recap on the Netflix envelope gives away the part of the movie plot as the night of baby sitting goes horribly wrong. The scarred guy plays "When a Stranger Calls" and eventually gets into the house. This part of the film Angie does a lot of things right, she has been in contact with her boyfriend and he is on the way. She has been in touch with the police and the chief is coming out to have a look around. She just is too far out there in farm country for them to arrive in time to help with the scarred guy. When Angie gets the drop on him she quickly discovers that her nightmare has just begun. Paraphrasing but that is the idea and what takes place. I don't know what the message of this film is other than hey be careful taking baby sitting jobs they can be at the devils house and then all kinds of bad shit can happen. People aren't who they seem to be and the story ramps up big time with some gruesome violence and a less than satisfying ending. Overall this film sort of works although this viewer would prefer the much better and slow burn "House of the Devil" these kind of opinions though are really about style preferences, this one could be just what you are looking for. There are some plot points in that I am not sharing here, so that anyone who wishes to see this won't have it spoiled by me. It has more action and gore and really if you are a lazy viewer the music will tell you every emotion that is required for each scene, you really won't have to decide for yourself if you are scared. Its that what we all really want?
Rating (4.9) So close! in the Zombiegrrlz system Rent it! but be warned.

The Thing (2011) - Quick Hit

2011-10-15T20:16:00.012-04:00

The Thing (2011) - A Quick hit is really an initial impression here at Soresport Movies. We went as a family to this one at the request of my 19 year old daughter who is on break from college. I was not really planning on seeing this in theaters but now I can say I am glad I did. The film is basically a combination of tip of the hat to the original The Thing from Another World (1951) and the later The Thing (1982) in which it share its name and a good deal of its visual style. The original captures idea (used in this) of a group of researchers in the Arctic ( in this case Antarctic) , who discover a spacecraft in the ice. Encased is a creature that they bring back to their labs to study in a block of ice. They then have to struggle with the creature when it gets free. This part of the story is also used in this latest story. It is a nice ode to the original idea and appreciated by this viewer. The second film starring Kurt Russell and made by John Carpenter builds on the idea with the creature being able to assimilate anyone it comes in contact with. It can hide as anyone and wants very badly to get out of the isolation of the pole and into a warmer more populated place. Carpenters film is an excellent horror Science fiction film with great special effects. The current The Thing steals a good deal from the Carpenter version. Of course a lot has changed since 1982 and the special effects are much more compelling grotesque and beautiful in this new version. Although not a perfect film this one has some good things going for it.
The latest film takes place just prior chronologically from the 1982 movie, in that film a dog comes running across the snow with a helicopter in pursuit. That dog of course carried the creature but what happened at that other outpost. It is the theme of the latest version. The main character Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is brought onto the mission by the prestigious Dr. Sander Halvorson (Urlich Thomsen) who does a fine job selling his importants and he dominant position in their relationship. At first intimidated we get to see Kate change from wary underling to competent badass when things hit the fan. This dynamic of the film seemed well thought out and occured naturally enough within the plot conditions of the film to make it believable. I also liked that they did not give Kate a love interest, or a man who would save the day for her. She took some very harsh conditions and events and executed a gameplan of her own devising and maybe came out a winner in the end.

As for the base she eventually leaves behind, well if you saw the first scene from the 1982 versions you know enough about the outcome there. I know when I saw this with the family my daughter was very excited to see if Kurt Russell would make an appearance at the end. You can go check this entertaining science fiction movie out to get the answer.

Rating (6.6) 5.0 and up are recommended in the Zombiegrrlz system GO and See It!

Emanuelle in Bangkok (1976) - Sleaze Adult

2011-09-26T09:07:00.022-04:00

Emanuelle in Bangkok (1976) - Joe D'Amato has a long trail of adult sleaze, porn and genre films to his credit. The Italian director worked from his first credit (according to IMDB) "Sollazzevoli storie di mogli gaudenti e mariti penitenti - Decameron nº 69 (1972)" until his death in 1999 with his last credit being Amore & Psiche which came out after his death in 2000. He was prolific with 199 credits to his name as a directo. I encountered him first with some really bad horror films but since have seen quite a few of his less wholesome entries. These films really do fit into one of the focuses of this blog, I attempt to cover many of the things I could not see as a teen in the 1970s and there was that time inthe decade when sleaze and adult films were running in mainstream theaters across the country. The Emanuelle series of films were a stolen idea D'Amato exploited throughout the 70s and early eighties. The idea from a series of french films with a similar name were erotic sex adventures, basically he changed Emmanuelle to Emanuelle and created his on stories with different actors but for sure was taking advantage of the success of the originals. Emanuelle in Bangkok is the first in the series. It stars the beautiful Javan actress Laura Gemser as a photo journalist who also is experimenting with free love. Really the entire edifice is to find ways for Gemser to take her clothes off onscreen. In this film she and sometimes boyfriend Roberto (Gabriele Tinti) are talking about attraction in a restaurant He notices how the men look at her and she how the women look at him. Then bang! right to a sex scene between the two, with no time wasted. The sex scenes are the soft core variety with a bit of frontal nudity on Gemser's part. There is rolling around kissing and the implied oral sex, but nothing too shocking. There is a ridiculous sex theme music that plays every time there is a love making scene where the participants are mutually consenting. It is clear from the conversations Emanuelle and Roberto, that he has stronger feeling for her than she for him. She is not quite ready to settle for one man and he is forced to reluctantly agree that they are going to split for a while. D'Amato show a casualness to sex with multiple partners that was prevalent in the time period, although I thought it was a fading idea by 1976.
Emanuelle travels to Thailand to be the guest of Prince Sanit (Ivan Rassimov) with the hope that he can get her in to visit with the king. He is the most miscast person in the film, an obviously very white man playing a Thai prince. They explain this away by saying that the Thai royal family has been so prolific through the years that everyone in the country can claim some kind of connection to the king. When she arrives at the hotel before meeting with him there is the classic difference between sleaze and non sleaze films. Where in a traditional film when a person wants to take a shower after their travel they generally get to the undressing and you see the dress drop to the floor and the lower legs of the actress. In this film Gemser just strips in front of the camera and the scene cuts after showing her nude, it doesn't really matter if she showered or not what was important was the nudity. It also emphasizes her attitude towards nudity, when she sees the house boy drawing her a bath she doesn't wait for the young man to leave but just takes her clothes off without shame.
Now we could continue to rehash the plot in detail but that really is not the point of the film. Instead lets give a quick synopsis and talk about the themes presented as a way to show nudity. At its heart that is what this film is all about. Emanuelle is propositioned by the Prince Sanit after she tried to bribe him. He suggests they get to know each other better instead of bribes but she is not biting. A bit odd that this one guy is not a turn on for her. There is a strange guy in army fatigues watching her as she goes sight seeing.
She has sex with the female masseuse Gee (Koike Mahoco). She has sex with the house boy at the hotel. She meets Roberto and his friend the obnoxious Americans Jimmy (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) and Frances (Ely Galleani) and they go on a montage of Thailand's cultural offerings including kickboxing, cockfighting and a strip club where a dancer does a wax and fire show and another does a ping pong ball routine. Emanuelle excited by the show gives knowing glances not at Roberto but at Frances. All of them go back to Prince Sanit's house and smoke opium have sex changing partners through the drug fogged night. I think and I am no expert that much is being made of Emanuelle's inclination to be attracted to women. She is intimate with both Gee and Frances but she is a multi partner person who is not securing any one relationship in her life. She is free to engage in sex with whomever, as Prince Sanit put it she has a unique ability to experience sex in a pure form.
This is going to come in handy in the next couple days when Sanit disappears and Emanuelle is trapped in the empty house by the strange guy and his buddies. When I say disappeared I mean furniture and everything. There are reasons explained later about the Princes relationship with the king. This does not help Emanuelle though; They surround her and then gang rape her. It is a weird decision by director D'Amato in that the filming is them ripping her clothes off and each climbing on top of her in turn but they never take out their cocks. It is like each is taking a turn dry humping her. The princes words echo in her head and she stops struggling and by doing so seems to enjoy the sex and gain the confidence of the assailants. This is so fucking bizarre I can't really wrap my head around it. Really it is just so easy to release from the horror of a gang dry humping? The scene does not fit with the rest of the film where all the sex is respectful and consensual. I think D'Amato was trying to show Emanuelle as a different kind of free sexual spirit who can accept any form of physical interaction, but I think he fails with this sad display. This is just a start in her troubles though...her passport has been stolen from her room...wait! Here I am again giving the nuts and bolts, not what should be going on. Lets stick to romance and sex here, Emanuelle has sex with the airport security guy to get out of the country and to Roberto in Casa Blanca. She has sex with Roberto and his new girlfriend Janet. She and Janet have sex with a group of Arabs (not shown) that was amazing in its stereotyping of a people. She falls in love with Debbie (Debra Berger), the immature but attractive daughter of the US consul. Then Roberto with Debbie watching from the door but refusing to join. Each time there is the theme music by Nico Fidenco overwhelming the tame visuals. Emanuelle opens from a woman who is into free love but after exploring intimacy with women and men together finds herself in love with Debbie and says goodbye to Roberto, I am sure in 1976 very few people went into this film looking for this journey and for them you can see from the above they got lots of nudity and simulated sex. Poor Roberto has a sad tale, he loves Emanuelle and would like them to be together but also likes having other women involved. He not only loses Emanuelle but also his rebound girl Janet, she is never the same after she and Emanuelle spend the night having sex with the eight arabs, I am not trying to be racists just calling them "the arabs" but seriously that is the presented stereotype. She comes back and breaks off her engagement to Roberto.
Debbie grows up a bit through her relationship with Emanuelle and although they too part, setting up the next film by freeing Emanuelle to go States bound in Emanuelle in America. The secondary track for this film is to show musical sightseeing montages in between the sex and nudity. These scenes are of the cultures and city streets of where ever Emanuelle is, Thailand, the middle east an archeological dig each place is explored with silly over the top music and the actors smiling, looking at things and showing interest in their surroundings.
Rating (4.5) 5.0 and up are recommended in the Zombiegrrlz system Skip it!

Insidious (2010) Horror Ghost

2011-08-30T01:01:00.003-04:00

Insidious (2010) - Director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell bring this creepy not quite what you expected ghost story to the screen with mixed results. Wan the director of Saw (2004) and Dead Silence (2007) knows how to create tension in this kind of film and has some very effective bits. It is a story of a family The Lamberts who move into a house that seems haunted. Like all good haunted house stories they establish the haunting a bit at a time. It is obvious they have just moved in from the unpacked boxes. Then there is the kid, one of two young boys in the family named Dalton (Ty Simpkins) comes down to say he does not like his room. Its tough moving into a new house and the little kid is still unsure. This is the kind of start you would expect, except that pre-credit sequence started with frightening music as the camera flows through the house to the creepy faced ghost bride holding the camera. During the credits also it is very clear through the music that this will attempt to be a hair raiser. Now most haunted house stories start this way with The Amityville Horror standing out in my mind, they start with the location, the house and we spend some time with Renai Lambert (Rose Byrne) as she walks around the place. Side note: Who has a furnace in their attic, why is there a furnace that goes on in the attic? Of course the Amityville horror does not work as a example because it opens with a murder in the house and soon after the family moves in there is a scene where the priest is driven out by flies and the voice saying "Get Out!" This film by no means is so over the top. Although in the Amityville Horror there is the kid coming to the parents and saying she wants to go home even though the family are in the new house. Similarly An American Haunting (2005) starts big with an action packed scene of a teenage girl being chased by unseen forces, a terrifying dream, then the film quiets down to build up the ghost story a bit at a time.
So where have we seen the trope of the haunted house before? Well Recently there was The Others (2001),The Grudge (2004), Paranormal Activity (2007) all do the incremental haunting well. This film will take a different twist on the haunting. After its building of the creepy haunted house motif it shifts gears. A bit too fast and without enough setup. That shift is surprisingly against the norm for a haunted house film and welcomed. The bits leading up to it are great though, the false scare in the attic when Dalton falls from the ladder. Creepy sounds while everyone sleeps, and when Dalton does not wake up in the morning the panic of father Josh (Patrick Wilson) is well done. Dalton is in a coma for unknown reasons and the family brings him home to care for him in the long term. Three months has past and the doctors do not have any answers. We have to assume that nothing strange went on in the house while he was gone. When he gets back though boy the weird starts, voices over the baby monitor, faces behind curtains, horror angles of shooting low and from above. The film does a nice job having the haunting stuff primarily effect and isolate Renai, she sees the majority of the oddities. It is this reviewers wish that the scary would have been more frequent prior to the switch over to solving the problem. This also puts the focus away from Josh who plays a much larger part later.
The film gets us thinking that the problem is that Dalton is haunted and then Josh's Mom (Barbara Hershey) comes into the picture. She is the true believer with friends who believe also. I don't want to give away the twist her which makes it hard to describe the plot. A team of helpers similar to the all too famous Poltigeist (1982) arrive and we move towards the inevitable seance scene. I believe this is where the film starts to come apart, moving away from the established plot we head in a new direction and learn new information about Josh that turns the film on its side. The scares are still great because something has to happen to change the Skeptical Josh into enough of a desparate character that he will participate in the final solution.
The final third of the film really didn't work. It is a dreamscape that Josh must navigate because he also has the ability just like his son to enter the "Further", which is the most ridiculous name for limbo that I have heard. Like Orpheus entering hades for a chance to bring his wife back or like Rose Da Silva running around Silent Hill he has to go find his son.
The scary in the Further is freaky and strange with two kinds of beings, ghost who want to get back into this world and the more sinister demons that want in so they can cause everyone harm. The main demon in this film is a Lipstick demon who is all black in skin tone and smears red lipstick all over his face making him look like a lanky Darth Maul. I have to admit that the film started losing me when the psychic Elise Ranier (Lin Shaye) told us about the Further, then when they reveal the information about Josh I was like "okay, whats next", then when he goes looking for his boy and has to confront Darth Maul every is a bit over the top. "Josh follow my voice, follow my voice honey." Fuck that shit. Did the whole neighborhood see the house shaking? Oh the stupidity of those final scenes. When watching this with my daughter I looked over at the end of the final sequence and said. You know this ain't over something came back with him. That way we can all look forward to the sequel. So although there is a fair amount here that can be considered in a favorable light there is also so much more that is suspect. Although this team are correct in thinking there were many films in the horror genre that approached there plot twist but there are a few. Basket Case (1982) broaches the subject, Awake (2007) sort of touches the edges of it. Flatliners (1990) also in a way. This is certainly the best but I am not sure in the end they sold the premise. At least as not as well as Poltigeist did. A final note, whether it was a product placement or just an actors choice to do something while in a scene, Wilson putting skin cream around his eyes was so lame. Really we are now going to have guys skin care products really? So worried about those crows feet that ya gotta slather on some magic cream? Geeze Dude Man Up we all age.
Rating (5.6) 5.0 and up are recommended in the Zombiegrrlz system I would RENT IT!