Halloween challenge no.s 1 & 2

The Last House on the Left (2009)

Well, this was an ignoble way to start off the halloween challenge. I saw that this had both Aaron Paul and Garret Dillahunt in it and thought that, perhaps, it was one of those remakes with good reviews, such as Dawn of the Dead or The Mist. I was wrong. So very, very wrong.

This movie is TERRIBLE. It isn't scary. The entire point would be to ratchet up the tension, or to at least identify with the protagonists, and the direction is so haphazard that neither of those things happen. The basic premise is that a murderous family is on the loose, and they come to spend the night with a couple out in the country, citing car trouble. The couple is unaware, initially, that these are the same people that just raped their daughter and killed their daughter's friend. Anyways, I don't know if the original was any better, but that seems like a premise that you could do a lot with in a horror film. And instead it just goes nowhere. It's all just sort of awful and without purpose. The camera work is shoddy and annoying. And there is an extra scene tacked on at the end that is laugh-out-loud hilariously bad.

DON'T SEE IT. Any episode of Breaking Bad (or Dillahunt's FABULOUS scene with... I think it was Paul Schneider in the Assassination of Jesse James) is tenser. And way, way better.



The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)

Not one of my favorite silent films that I've ever seen. However, it deserves recognition for apparently being the first twist ending in cinema and for the phenomenal art direction.

The plot centers around a carnival barker who displays a somnabulist in the town fair. During the fair, a rash of murders breaks out (a bevy of murders? What is the collective noun for murders? A raven?). Now, I always thought that a somnabulist was just a sleepwalker, but within the confines of this film, this guy can be woken up briefly to play the role of psychic as well. I don't know. Anyways, everyone runs around to try to figure out who the murderer is, one guy suspects the somnabulist, there's a girl (obvs.) and the barker tells the somnabulist to kill her, but he's so captivated by her beauty that the somnabulist simply kidnaps her instead.... it goes on. There are some red herrings and then a twist ending. It's all okay. They best part is that all the sets are painted and constructed at odd angles and with strange curvatures, so that the perspective is always off and a little hallucinatory. Anyways, it's an interesting bit of film history, but there are better silent films to see.


Hopefully the next installment will have actual recommendations...

RIP Cinematical

The death of Cinematical:

AOL vs. Cinematical: the Final(ish) Chapter

AOL's Huffington Overhauls Online Brands Moviefone and Cinematical

Two of Cinematical's editors on what happened

What bums me out about this is that Cinematical was the first movie blog I discovered. I had noticed that the content had gone downhill since it merged with Moviefone and now it is dead. I'm pretty sure all of this happened over... 4 years? Ah internet life cycles.


One more thing on Sucker Punch Huh.


Scream 4 is getting surprisingly good reviews. I also liked this look back at the series, particularly this note; "There’s an interesting subtext behind the Scream movies, because the trilogy almost perfectly maps the creative rise and moral fall of Miramax."


Reactions to The Franchise (Hey! I like watching regular baseball!)


This is early days yet, and could very well change, but I think it is a perfect merger of director and project: Matt Reeves and The Passage.


"I feel like, just anecdotally, a lot of times when you get out, it’s that point of purchase moment at the theater, if you’re with your boyfriend or your husband, and they go, 'well I want to see ‘Transformers’,' and you go, 'O.K.' Ladies gotta say no to their husbands at the movies. They gotta say: 'No, we are watching back-to-back cancer movies. And then this movie about a cat.'" —Tina Fey on how women can gain more economic control of the movie business. [Via]

More movies about cats!

Hey!

Long time no blog.

Life has been a bit crazy in preparing for my jump back to the west coast. But I do have one review I want to write up and then I'm off to HP7a this evening. Hopefully in between all my moving around I'll be able to catch up one some films over the next couple of weeks. I'm awfully behind.

Also - remember this post? Cinematical has an article on Critters over at their site. Goddamn those things scarred me.

It's halloween it's halloween

Speaking of horror films, Shocktillyoudrop has 13 new Halloween classics of the last 20 years. LOVE the top 2.

Halloween Challenge #4 - The Birds

I've never seen The Birds because I honestly couldn't believe that birds could be scary. The whole premise seemed sort of silly. In fact, it always made me think of a Far Side cartoon in which a farmer and his wife are sitting in their house looking scared and saying, "Oh no! The chickens have cut the power!".

They're birds.

But, I get a lot of; "YOU haven't seen THE BIRDS?" So, fine. I watched it.

My overall impressions is that it has not aged well and it is not one of Hitchcock's better films. However, I did like it more than I expected to, and probably because he is such a fine director. I did get a little bored though (it is just not that scary), so here are my notes taken while watching:

- I had no idea this was based on a story by Daphne Du Maurnier
-Ahh... San Francisco
-I spy Hitchcock!
-Tippi Hedren... she talks funny. I'm surprised they didn't do re-takes for some of her lines.
-the lack of a constant soundtrack

This was actually the thing I noticed most in watching the film and I really enjoyed it. There's a lot of silence. There isn't a constant score playing, trying to ramp up your emotions. It actually does a better job of letting the audience tense up on their own than if there were screeching violins in the background.

-Ah, painted backdrops. You look so silly.
-Man, pecked out eyes. Way gorier than what I would have expected for something this old.
-I'm sorry. I find this romance utterly unconvincing.
-Ok. The birds on the playground is pretty creepy.
-The kids running away? Not so much.
-Tippi is actually a pretty strong heroine. Surprisingly.
-Bitchy old ornithologist FTW.
-Crazy Irish drunk FTW.
-The birds looking down on the explosion might be my new favorite camera shot.
-Wrestling with a seagull? Not. Scary.
-but those live ones sure looked painful.
-Oh my god. Stop standing there and help.
-Some of those sound effects are not birds. They sound like lasers.
-Oh my god. The birds cut the power!
-I take it it back about her being a strong heroine. Open the fucking door!
-Wait, WHAT?!? That's the end? Abrupt much? Sheesh.

There you go. The Birds in 60 seconds. 2/5 stars.

Halloween Challenge - #2 Tucker and Dale vs. Evil

Now - THIS one I loved unreservedly. Tucker and Dale vs. Evil is a pretty straight forward horror comedy. It takes the "college kids pursued by murderous hillbilly" tropes and inverts them and it is very funny. Basically, Tucker and Dale are two rednecks who have just bought their vacation cabin in the woods (which one of my seat mates thought looked a lot like the Evil Dead cabin - but don't all spooky woods cabins?). A group of college kids go camping near them, mistakenly believe that Tucker and Dale are trying to kill them and, in trying to fight back, manage to start killing themselves all over the property. In many hilarious ways.

I didn't recognize Tyler Labine, who plays Dale, but Alan Tudyk plays Tucker and they are both really good. The blonde college girl looked wildly familiar to me at first, and for about 10 minutes I kept going, 'wait. Christine Taylor isn't old enough to have a daughter that age!' and having random Hey, Dude flashbacks. But it turns out she was Suri from 30 Rock.

The whole thing is slappy and silly and doesn't drag on for too long with anything resembling an actual plot. I'm not going to link the trailer here, because while it had been months between my seeing the trailer and the film, one of my friends had just seen the trailer and thought it gave away some of the better punchlines. If you get a chance to catch this (other horror festivals? DVD?), I'd say check it out.

That brings me to my last point - I saw Tucker and Dale as a part of TerrorThon'10: 9 Days of Horror at the Somerville. I unfortunately only found out about it midway through the fest, so I couldn't make it to more than one night, even though I would have liked to. Anyways, it seemed like a really cool fest, and if you're in Boston, getting on their mailing list would be a good idea.

4/5 Stars

Halloween Challenge - #1 Let Me In

Well, let me start off by saying that this review is really for those who have previously seen Let the Right One In. If you haven't seen it, your experience of seeing Let Me In will probably be different than mine.

[I'd also like to recommend seeing the Swedish film at some point if you haven't, because it was one of the best films of 2008.]

I went into the film cautiously optimistic, because I had read a number of reviews from people who had also loved the original movie and were trepidatious about a remake, but who ended up really liking the American version in its own right.

The end result for me was that I'm glad I saw it for free. The film definitely had its moments; Matt Reeves set up some really beautiful shots, but I couldn't stop comparing it to the first film. Let the Right One In was so unique and wonderful, that when I saw it, it really seared itself onto my brain. The remake just didn't impress me enough to stand on its own.

I liked the setting (1980s New Mexico) and I really liked most of the actors. Elias Koteas is fabulous and Chloe Moretz and Kodi Smit-McPhee are mostly very good. Richard Jenkins, on the other hand, isn't given much time in which to make an impact and I cannot see Jack's kid from LOST without thinking "Jack's kid from LOST."

My problems with the film were these:
- the CGI for Chloe's character. I'm sorry. It looked hokey and totally pulled me out of the film. It was like a gollum-vampire every time she ran around.
- which brings me to point #2. I think it would have been more effective if there had been less time spent with her in 'vampire mode.' A little girl attacking a grown man in a tunnel and ripping his throat out is scary. The same girl with weird contacts and makeup licking blood off the floor is not. (or a little girl bounding around a tunnel like gollum. Not. Scary.)

What I loved best about the first film was this concept of a young girl vampire. It really dealt with what the consequences of that creature would be. Someone perpetually at that age of burgeoning adulthood, hormonal swings, and tunnel vision focus. How would she survive? What would happen when someone who lived with her grew up and she did not? And finally - what would it be like to meet this little girl who needs blood to survive. The Swedish film emphasized her similarities to a young girl, rather than her vampire traits.

I will say what I loved best about Chloe Moretz's performance was the way she showed Abby's want, or hunger. It reminded me of the description of Claudia in Interview with a Vampire; "A little child she was, but also a fierce killer, now capable of the ruthless pursuit of blood with all a child's demanding." When she craves something, it fills up her whole being and that worked really well.

However, one of my other problems of the film was also with Chloe Moretz. Not for her performance, but for her casting. I think it's because I had seen her as Hit Girl in Kick-Ass, but she just didn't come off as quite fragile enough. There wasn't the jarring disconnect between tiny girl and unstoppable killer.

As for the blossoming relationship between the two, both young actors were quite good, and it mostly worked.

My final problem with the film? The swimming pool scene. There was just not the tension or the shock and awe that the first film had. Oh well.

UPDATE: Cleolinda has a really interesting post up over at her place that has the perspective of someone who hasn't seen the original.

3/5 Stars

Halloween Mix

Disturbia - Rihanna


Bad Things - Jace Everett
Zombie - The Cranberries
Jenny was a Friend of Mine - The Killers
Ghosts - Ladytron
Ghost Riders in the Sky - The Outlaws

Love Me Dead - Ludo


Sally's Song - Fiona Apple
Marilyn, My Bitterness - The Cruxshadows

This is Halloween - Marilyn Manson


Time Warp - Rocky Horror Live


Snow White Queen - Evanescence (Haunted is good, too)
Sympathy for the Devil - Guns & Roses

I Want You - Fiona Apple & Elvis Costello


People are Strange - The Doors
Hotel California - The Eagles

Tear You Apart - She Wants Revenge


You've Got a Killer Scene There Man - Queens of the Stone Age
Hell - Squirrel Nut Zippers
Halloween - AFI (Misfits cover)
The Devil Went Down to Georgia - Charlie Daniels Band (Legend of Wooley Swamp, too)
Little Red Riding Hood - Animals
Twisted Nerve - Bernard Herrmann
Jack the Ripper - The Horrors

Thriller - Michael Jackson


Jack the Ripper - AFI (Morrissey cover)
Werewolf Bar Mitzvah - Tracy Morgan
Werewolves of London - Warren Zevon
Ballad of Mac the Knife - Threepenny Opera (a note on this particular version: Cyndi Lauper was not an alto and this song was not in her range. But by the time the whole cast joins in for the final verse, the "when she woke, he was inside her" gives me chills every time.)
Don't Fear the Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult
Spooky - Classics IV
Bloodletting - Concrete Blonde
Season of the Witch - Donovan
Monster Mash - Bobby "Boris" Pickett
Enter Sandman - Metallica

It's Almost Halloween - Panic at the Disco


Somebody's Watching Me - Rockwell
Psycho Killer - Velvet Revolver (Talking Heads cover)
Kidnap the Sandy Claws - Korn
Curse of Millhaven - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Boris the Spider - The Who
The Cockroach that Ate Cincinnati - Rose & the Arrangement
And, of course;
Toccata and Fugue in D minor - Bach

Night on Bald Mountain - Rimsky Korsakoff

Oh my god.

So - I'm going through Netflix and moving a bunch of horror/thrillers/Hitchcocks and the like to the top of my queue for October. (Speaking of which, stick around for the next month. I'm going to see how many I get through. I've got all sorts lined up - classics, film noir, creature features, black humor, foreign masters, ones of questionable taste with cute boys. Should be fun.)

(Speaking of which, for some reason I grew up convinced that Joe Bob Briggs was in Tremors. I just figured out that is not the case. Who knew?)

Anyways, I start going through the horror suggestions to add a few more things and I come across this. I didn't know till now what the film was, but my father forced me to watch that at 4 or 5 and I cannot begin to describe the nightmares I had for weeks after that. I actually ran away from home for the better part of one day because I was so terrified of the rolly furballs with fangs. Stupid krites.