Halloween Movie Roundup Pt. 1

I've been slipping in my duties as a Halloween celebrant. I had planned to have mini-marathons of movies every week, and write something every day about horror (films/comics/music/books/games), and yet here it is halfway through the month and I've written less than I had originally hoped (though I am not displeased with my output, truth be told), and I've seen a lot less movies than I had planned. I still watch at least one horror movie a day, but I have had only one day in which I've had one of my desired mini-marathons. Extended hours at work for the season, on top of a bifurcated sleep schedule caused by past-midnight work hours and the need to get my daughter to school in the morning make it so my available times to write about and/or watch movies is a bit smaller than ideal. Add to that the fact that the Fall TV season has just started up, and I find myself falling behind (pun definitely not intended). I mean, I know I should be watching my recently arrived Vincent Price bluray set, but The Flash is just so much fun, especially now that they've introduced Jay Garrick and Earth-2, and are gleefully referencing the nerdiest of Flash mythology.

I've got a piece I've been working on for a few days, which I thought would be a quick and easy movie writeup, but continues to grow at a rate I hadn't anticipated. But in order to keep my blog active and try to keep some consistency, I feel the desire to get something out there today. So I've decided to do a quick roundup of the films I've watched this Halloween season, that haven't yet made it into longer pieces or reviews. Keep in mind I started my season back in mid-September, and then committed wholly to it around the 18th of that month, when Universal started their annual Halloween Horror Nights and I began spending my every work night in the Bates Motel. It seemed appropriate.

Darkness Falls (2003): This movie seems to have fallen from people's memories since it was released barely over a decade ago, despite the fact that it was fairly high profile at the time of it's release, at least for horror films. It opened at #1 in the box office, and more than quadrupled it's budget, and yet I don't know many people who could tell you what it's about, even those that have seen it. And now, just a month after having seen it myself, I'm having trouble remembering it. This film is like the supernatural menace in a Stephen King novel; you begin to lose all memory of it once it's been defeated. The film, if I'm recalling it correctly, concerns an urban legend concerning a kindly old woman who was burned as a witch by a nervous and angry mob who believed her guilty of child murder. She was innocent, of course, and now she appears to any child on the night they lose their last tooth and kill them if they look at her.

This film came out at a time where I was trying to see every horror movie that came out in theatres. Darkness Falls was one I just never felt any desire at all to see, and yet now when I saw it on Netflix I figured a bit of forced nostalgia could be fun. The biggest problem I have with this film is really one of editing. Every time the Tooth Fairy (the moniker given to the vengeful spirit, for obvious reasons) pops up on screen the film goes crazy, with tons of shaky, whip-pan camera movements and rapid fire editing. This makes the moments of the film that should be the scariest come across as goofy and nearly indecipherable, which is a shame, because the design of the Tooth Fairy is pretty cool, actually. Unfortunately you rarely get a chance to admire the design, and it's marred by some unnecessary CGI enhancements.

Cottage Country (2013); Tyler Labine (Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil) and Malin Akerman (Children's Hospital) play a yuppie-ish couple heading out to the country for a romantic getaway at Labine's parent's luxury cottage. The arrival of Labine's bohemian brother, with girlfriend in tow, provides a growing list of frustrations, prompting Labine, in a fit of rage, to murder his brother. The two leads in this film, and the generally lighthearted tone, had me hoping for a nice dark comedy, and to be fair that's pretty much what this film is. Unfortunately, it really only has one joke; that of the two proper, uptight yuppies driven to murder and the complications that arise from trying to hide the crime. There's a good concept here, in the way the couple becomes more honest with each other the more people they kill and the more lies they have to tell everyone else. But as I said, there's no variation in the humor, and no deep exploration of that theme. Things just get more shrill and drenched in flop-sweat as the film progresses, culminating with a finale that, I think, was supposed to put an ironic button on everything, but really just felt like cheap cruelty to the characters.

Waxworks (1924): I'm not sure if this is the first true anthology film, but it's at least a very early example of one. It's also not much of a horror film, though it sometimes gets credited as one. In truth it covers several genres, mostly historical fantasy, and only the final segment could be considered horror. Directed by Paul Leni, whose earlier silent epic The Man Who Laughs is mostly remembered for inspiring the visual look of The Joker, the film concerns an unemployed writer arriving at a wax museum answering an ad calling for someone to write adventures about the wax figures to be used as part of their displays. Each segment casts the writer as a character in a drama concerning the figures, which include Ivan The Terrible, Harun al-Rashid, and Jack the Ripper. The final segment, where the writer falls asleep and dreams he is being pursued by the Jack the Ripper figure, is the only one that can be considered anywhere near horror. The segment is full of multiple exposures which lend the already-distorted sets an even more confusing and disorienting dimension.

Waxwork (1977) & Waxwork II: Lost in Time (1992): I must have had wax figures on the brain, or perhaps amazon prime was acting as an oracle and had somehow divined that I had watched Waxworks earlier. For whatever reason, I chose to revisit this vaguely remembered film from my childhood, about, you guessed it, a wax museum where the exhibits come alive. About 10 minutes in I was regretting my decision, as the characters were all, without fail, obnoxious idiots. Not in a 'I'll enjoy seeing these people die' sort of way, but in a 'I can't believe I'm still watching these people' sort of way. I'll admit my enjoyment grew as the movie went along, and the cast of characters dwindled a bit. I'll also say that I think I enjoyed the second film, where the characters are no longer encountering wax figures but are just slipping through time to visit various horror themed incidents, to the first, though I enjoyed the plot of the first, where the exhibits were portals to alternate worlds, and each victim was a sacrifice to open the gates of hell (or something) more. The second film seemed to just go for broke in being fun and nonsensical. It's not a classic, it's not a great horror comedy, but it has more of a sense of humor and brings up some more inventive scenarios. Also it has a Bruce Campbell cameo, which was great fun.

To be continued...

My Movie Diary - January 2012

One of the things I've tried to do off and on over the years is keep track of the movies I watch. For a short while I tried to write up little one-paragraph reviews of everything I was watching. I blogged for awhile and kept that up for a couple of months, but then I petered out, because after awhile I found that I couldn't really force myself to think of anything to say about some movies that would be interesting or unique. What I've decided to do with the new year, along with my previously stated 'resolutions', is to simply keep track of the titles as I'm watching them, and then at the end of the month, or week, or whenever I feel like it, do a round-up of my viewing habits, along with whatever notes or observations I want to make(a similar round-up concerning films from 2011 will be coming closer to Oscar-time).

You'll see down below a simple list of the movies I watched in February, but before I start I want to go over the grading system I use. The system is pretty simple, but also intentionally vague. These are subjective grades, as I don't care at all about influencing someone's desire to watch a movie based on what score I give it. If you see that I've graded I Saw The Devil fairly highly, it doesn't mean you would enjoy it if you normally enjoy Nicholas Sparks romances. The numbers mean, basically, the following:

5- I loved it. It blew me away. Something I'll definitely be watching multiple times.
4- I really enjoyed it. This may one day be elevated to 5. The movie more or less achieved everything it set out to do.
3- I liked it well enough. I won't be recommending this to most people, but I don't have anything really negative to say.
2- A mild dislike. Almost neutral. I didn't outright dislike the movie but it didn't do anything for me.
1- Awful, not worth my time.

Now, since I generally feel that every movie I watch is 'worth my time', in that I feel it's instructive to see the chaff as well as the wheat if your seriously going to study films. So you'll notice that not many films have 2s and 1s, and actually quite a few have 3s and 4s. Probably more than you personally would rate. As I said earlier; it's subjective.

So here, in the order in which I watched them during the month, are all 29 of the films I saw in January. That number seems shockingly low to me, especially for a month so long and cold, but then I do have two jobs now, and it's getting harder to squeeze a movie in there. Plus, this list excludes television movies or series that I have seen over the last month. The titles in bold are films that I had previously seen.

Our Idiot Brother(2011) [4]
Bigger Than Life(1956) [5]
The Cave(2005) [1]
Quarantine 2(2011) [1]
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark(2011) [2]
Contagion(2011) [4]
Take Shelter(2011) [4]
Grave of the Fireflies(1988) [5]
Apollo 18(2011) [1]
Paradise Lost 2: Revelations(2000) [4]
Buckaroo Banzai(1984) [4]
Dark Star(1974) [4]
I Saw the Devil(2010) [4]
Fear[s] of the Dark(2007) [3]
Dead of Night(1945) [4]
Waking Sleeping Beauty(2009) [3]
The Tempest(2010) [2]
Shotgun Stories(2007) [4]
Grand Illusion(1937) [5]
Orca(1977) [3]
Rio Bravo(1959) [4]
The Thing(2011) [3]
Drive(2011) [5]
Dream House(2011) [2]

That's a pretty good cross-section of the types of movies I watch, while definitely leaning a bit more towards the current stuff than might be normal. That makes sense, though, since the big movies from last year are in the midst of trickling onto DVD. However, in that small list, you see a little bit of everything. Current blockbusters, documentaries, low budget indies, foreign classics, trashy horror films, fifties melodramas, comedies, Asian action films, a Shakespeare adaptation, and at least one animated film.

By far the movie I enjoyed most last month was Drive, which may end up being my favorite film of 2011. Tree of Life was a phenomenal experience, and a spiritual movie that, as an atheist, I found easy to empathize with. But as far as immediate, visceral movie-watching experiences go, nothing beat Drive last month(again, look for a 2011 roundup nearer the end of the month). From the opening monologue from Ryan Gosling(on a cellphone, talking to a client), to the incredibly fluid driving sequences and the throwback soundtrack, Drive struck a chord and sucked me in for it's entire running time.

Apollo 18, Quarantine 2, and The Cave were obviously the worst of what I saw last month, with Apollo 18 being particularly bad. I'm normally a moderate fan of found footage films-I'm not yet sick of the genre and love it when it's done well(Cloverfield!)- but Apollo 18 fails on just about every count. The film is edited to within an inch of it's life, with far too many cuts to maintain any sort of tension within a scene, and they cheat with the whole 'found footage' concept a few times. More than once the characters were in situations where it was established that only one camera existed, and the angle would change. Cameras that were stationary would pan to the side. It was a generally slipshod affair. The Cave and Quarantine 2 were similarly pretty awful, with Quarantine 2 deciding to go the route of Blair Witch 2 by turning a found footage zombie story into a more standard(and not surprisingly, less interesting) narrative. Found footage style horror films mask a lot of the budgetary restraints most horror films have, and without that distraction, the cheapness and shoddiness of Quarantine 2 were all too easy to spot.

Not nearly the worst film, but probably the most disappointing of the month was Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. It wasn't a bad film, and in fact if I had seen this film as a child I might have really dug it, but it wasn't a very scary film. Normally I wouldn't judge a film for not being what I expected, but I will in this case. The film is rated R, and yet there's no language, no nudity, and very little in the way of blood or violence. The MPAA says it's rated R for "pervasive scariness", and Guillermo Del Toro(who was the film's producer) frequently bragged about how terrifying it was. The film as it stands is something I'd feel completely comfortable allowing my 8 year old daughter to watch. Scariness aside, it's also not very unique or engaging, though to no fault of the cast, or the little girl at the center of the film.

The Tempest, Julie Taymor's latest mash-up of cinematic and theatrical styles, finds her returning to the works of William Shakespeare, which bodes well for any fans of her excellent adaptation of Titus Andronicus. Like everything Taymor has ever done, The Tempest is a mix of the incredibly awesome, and the incredibly silly, but it leans a little too much to the incredibly silly. Helen Mirren is as awesome as you'd think in the Prospero role(in the film it's Prospera, since the genders are switched in this role), and some of Taymor's usual eye-popping visual gimmickry is exceptional, but she remains a bit too slavish to Shakespeare's words, and when she can't come up with anything visually exciting to spruce things up the direction gets a little aimless and draggy. I'm not saying Shakespeare's words NEED sprucing up, just that against sight of Ben Wishaw(as Ariel) in Crow makeup, shouting at David Strathairn, Alan Cumming and Chris Cooper, the endless scenes of Russell Brand and Alfred Molina wandering and drinking start to seem pretty weak.

Two of the biggest surprises last month were the films Shotgun Stories and Take Shelter, both from writer/director Jeff Nichols and star Michael Shannon. Of the two, Take Shelter is the more high concept and a little more technically adept in it's story of a husband and father who can't tell if his apocalyptic dreams are visions or the onset of the same mental illness that put his mother in the hospital. But Shotgun Stories, for it's roughness and budgetary restraints, cuts a bit closer to the bone with it's story of a blood feud between two groups of half-brothers following the death of their father. The unifying factor in both films is an attention to details in it's characters lives and homes, and a dedication to treating subject matter that could easily devolve into melodramatic histrionics with level headed, clear eyed simplicity. Both films showcase talents on the rise, both behind and in front of the camera.

My Movie Diary 3-6-11

3-6-11

The Town(2010) A large part of what made Ben Affleck's directorial debut(Gone Baby Gone) such a pleasant surprise was it's low key tone and local Bostonian flavor. The film was set in a very specific place and community and it benefited from taking the time to explore it's corners. The Town, while still a technically adept and enjoyable film, loses that specificity and suffers for it. The film is well done, with fine performances by all(yes, even Affleck), and Affleck shows a natural talent behind the camera, but it's also incredibly straightforward. Another tale about a criminal with a heart of gold attempting one final job before he can go legit with the girl of his dreams. Pop quiz; how do you think that scenario will unfold? You probably won't be surprised.


The Seven Percent Solution(1976) The movie starts out a bit rough, with a seemingly miscast Robert Duvall as Watson. Nicol Williamson's performance as a heroin addicted Sherlock Holmes livens up this opening stretch. In the course of a single scene Williamson will run us through one of Sherlock's patented displays of his powers of observation, mounting gradually from a calm demeanor to frenzied, flop-sweat drenched, spittle spewing mania as the effects of heroin withdrawal become more pronounced. The film is essentially split into two halves, with the first devoted to a fairly serious portrayal of Holmes' attempts to kick his addiction with the aid of Watson and Sigmund Freud(Alan Arkin). The latter half morphs into a more swashbuckling detective story complete with sword fights atop speeding trains. Both halves are great, but Duvall tips the films hand too soon with his overacting, and it isn't until the second half that the movie catches up to him.


Road Games(1981) Stacy Keach plays a truck driver who, in his boredom, speculates on the lives of the random people he sees on the road. Eventually he begins to suspect an ominous van driver is actually a serial killer who's been crisscrossing the country preying on hitchhikers. Soon, the killer notices that he's been noticed, and the cat and mouse game begins. Keach is often hilarious as the truck driver who keeps a running conversation with himself in the tones of a particularly verbose playwright, and Jamie Lee Curtis matches him at every step as a hitchhiker who cheerfully joins in his suspicions. Essentially this film is Rear Window transplanted to the Australian highway system. Jamie Lee Curtis' hitchhiker is even referred to repeatedly as 'Hitch' in a direct nod to the great director.

My Movie Diary 2-26-11 to 3-5-11

2-26-11

Area 51(2009) After Dark horror productions tend to be slick, low budget attempts at blockbuster genre exercises, and as a result their films are often more competent than your average direct to video horror flick. With that competence, though, comes a lack of willingness to do anything truly outrageous and an often overwhelming blandness. SyFy originals tend to be shiny, slapdash affairs that make no effort to appear professional, only to provide with cheesy entertainment. As a result their films are often looser and more energetic and bizarre, but also too knowingly cheesy. Area 51 combines the output of these two companies into a film that refines the best traits of both without overcoming their faults. The plot, about various aliens held at the famed Area 51 staging an escape, holds potential, but it's mainly developed as an excuse to have units of soldiers picked off by faintly Giger-esque aliens. What really shines, however, are the special effects, which are composed of actual alien costumes and props with CGI augmenting some of the action. This rare occurrence(especially for SyFy) made the film no less forgettable, but refreshingly enjoyable.

3-4-11

Catfish(2010) The best way ot see this movie is with little-to-no idea what it's about. I don't think it would be completely unenjoyable if you knew all the details going in, but the film builds to almost unbearable levels of tension at times, and knowing how everything plays out would most likely diminish that. That being said, what Catfish achieves, almost by accident, is something many documentaries are unable to do; the moving revelation of a distinctly human personality, and the realization that it is far more vast and unknowable than we might like to think. A lot of people have accused the filmmakers of staging the events seen on screen. Having read and seen interviews with the filmmakers and read articles about the claims in the film, I believe it to be mostly genuine. I don't discount the idea that the filmmakers may have manipulated the footage, and may not have been as innocent as they appear on screen, but I think the people and emotions on display are true.

3-5-11

Deathrace(2009) One good thing about the possibility of financial collapse is that reality television is about to get real awesome. This is a movie that defies any attempts at actually reviewing it, so let me just say that shit gets blowed up real good. And sometimes that's enough for a lazy weekend afternoon.

My Movie Diary 2-21 to 2-23-11

2-21-11

Night of the Hunter(1955) A truly delightful film, despite the fact that it's actually quite menacing at times. Robert Mitchum plays a false priest who travels the country marrying widows and killing them. While in jail for stealing a car, he meets a man on death row for killing a guard during a bank robbery. Knowing the money was never found, and rightfully suspecting it was hidden somewhere on the man's property, Mitchum begins to romance his widow(Shelly Winters) and menace her two children. The film is at times comic, at times horrific, and features an odd, stilted, dreamlike quality even before the lengthy sequence where the children drift calmly down a river, watched over by nocturnal animals on the shore and followed always by Mitchum. Character actor Charles Laughton's only directorial effort utilizes archetypes and iconography in a more effective manner than most, from the Love and Hate tattoos on Mitchum's fingers to the exaggerated set design and use of shadows. A wonderfully expressionistic film, full of moments that will stick with me.

2-22-11

Machete(2010) Machete has enough gonzo moments for a dozen films, but also feels strangely lifeless. That's surprising for a movie with so much bloody violence and nudity. Robert Rodgriguez mimics the 70's sleaze and exploitation films he clearly loves, but brings none of the energy present in his earlier films to the table. It gets a lot of the details right - the smash cuts, the aggressive zooms, and of course the violence and nudity - and amplifies them to ridiculous heights, but the film lacks the vibrancy and energy of even some of the worst grindhouse films.

2-23-11

Great Expectations(1956) Commonly cited as the best Dickens adaptation, and for all I know it is. The film is a perfect distillation of the novel, keeping most of the main characters while spending only as much time with them as is necessary to keep the plot moving. The story, for those unfamiliar, concerns Pip, a young blacksmith's apprentice who finds himself the beneficiary of a large sum of money and the promise of property. His benefactor wishes to remain anonymous, but it's fairly likely that the mad Miss Havisham, locked away in her mouldering mansion, is behind it. Casting is fantastic, as Joe Gargery, Miss Havisham, Herbert Pocket and Estella are all exactly as you would imagine from reading the book, although I imagined Pip to be a bit more nebbishy than the film made him. Most of the alterations to the plot are merely omissions, as every full length novel contains too many plot points and characters to adequately squeeze into a 2 hour movie(let alone a book as filled to the brim as Great Expectations), although the film's ending swaps out Dickens' original ambiguously bittersweet finale for a more definite happy ending. Director David Lean does a great job crafting a cohesive film out of moments lifted directly from the novel, but ultimately it serves to remind you the book is still there, ready to be read again.

My Movie Diary

2/17/11

Black Orpheus(1959) Adaptation of the Greek tale of Orpheus and Eurydice set during Carnaval in Rio. New to town, Eurydice stays with her cousin, who lives next to Orfeu, a young man engaged to be married. The two begin a romance, set against the constant festivities of Carnaval. The film follows the myth pretty closely, with Eurydice dying at the hands of a costumed man who follows he through most of the film, and Orfeu following Hermes to a religious service that promises to bring Eurydice back. The finale offers it's own take on the Maenads who tear Orpheus apart. The film gets a lot of mileage out of the locale(the wooden shacks in the hills above the city), the constant bossa nova rhythms, and the incredibly likable leads.

The Mummy(1959)The film is an official remake of the original Universal film, although in this film the mummy is an instrument of revenge for a third party, rather than a resurrected man trying to revive his lost love. There are several scenes in The Mummy that are particularly creepy, like the image of Christopher Lee in fully Mummy garb rising slowly from a moonlit bog, but for most of the film it looks like someone wrapped a wetsuit in brown plaster of paris. Hammer stalwart Terrence Fisher does his usual job of keeping things lively, even when we get to see the same flashback three separate times.

2-20-11

Topper(1937) I've always found Cary Grant to be a little... off. I can't quite put it into words, but he never seems quite right in any of the films I've seen him in. Sure, he has charisma, and he seems perfectly likable, but he never seems to relax into any of his roles. It's fortunate, then, that the heavy lifting in this film are prompted by Constance Bennet as his wife. Grant and Bennet play George and Marion Kerby who, following a fatal car crash, try to perform one good deed and get into heaven by enlivening Roland Young's suppressed banker. A perfectly charming film that spawned a slew of sequels and a television series.

The Producers(1968) Subtlety has never been one of Mel Brooks' strong suits, yet this would almost qualify as such when compared to his other films. Sure, Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel flail and shout constantly, but there are no puns to be found, and there's only one notable moment of breaking the fourth wall.

My Movie Diary

2/13/11

Thunder Rock(1942) Michael Redgrave is a lighthouse keeper on Thunder Rock in Lake Wisconsin. A former war correspondent who has become fed up with the apathy and entropy of the outside world, he lives alone and doesn't even leave his post to cash his paychecks. For company he spends his evenings among the ghosts of immigrants who drowned on the lake 100 years earlier, although the movie mentions that these are constructs of his active imagination who have taken on their own life. Through the life stories of the (imaginary) ghosts, he comes to the conclusion that he's given up on life prematurely. The ending should feel sappy and treacly, but feels redemptive after the persistent grimness of the rest of the film. James Mason gets second billing despite appearing only briefly in the beginning of the film.

Husk(2011) Convoluted beyond belief, but let me try to sum it up: a loner, outcast farm boy kills his more popular brother and hides his body as a scarecrow. Now, many years later, his spirit possesses whoever wanders into his cornfield and turns them into other scarecrows. He uses these husks to terrorize future travellers, and the cycle continues. The good news? He can only possess one scarecrow at a time. The story's inner logic holds, I guess, but it's never explained WHY any of this is happening, or WHY the rules are there, or WHY one of the victims keeps having flashbacks to the killer's childhood. This last question is a particularly annoying plot point that was obviously put in place by a writer who couldn't come up with any other way to advance the story, and there is absolutely no payoff to it whatsoever.

The Threepenny Opera(1931) Highly entertaining adaptation of the Bertolt Brecht/Kurt Weill opera. Cuts out some of the songs, but of course keeps Ballad of Mack The Knife(along with other personal favorites Pirate Jenny and The Cannon Song). It's hard to imagine an American version of this highly cynical and bleakly funny tale. None of the characters are redeemable, least of all Mackie Messer, a pedophile, thief, arsonist, murderer, pimp and rapist. Or Peachum, or rules the many homeless beggars of England by extorting from them large fees for the right to beg. The ending of the film(and opera) give these, and other undeserving characters, a ridiculously happy ending while the true poor and unprivileged shuffle back into the shadows.