Posts Tagged ‘Horror’

  • 06 Feb

    Posted by


    Category

    My Love for Film in a Snapshot #11

    3

    I could have selected one of hundreds of different frames from hundreds of different sci-fi and horror films of the last hundred years, but it was during a recent viewing of the original The Fly (from 1958) that this particular bright neon image reminded me of how much I love a great movie laboratory. From Dr. Caligari to Dr. Frankenstein (isn’t that rig that lifts the monster up during the storm the greatest movie prop ever?) to Dr. Jekyll to Doc Brown and onwards, there’s an abundance of incredible machines, gizmos and flashing doohickies in the labs of mad scientists. I particularly like the bright green and blue blinking tubes in The Fly that have no obvious use and look like someone re-purposed the gleaming beer signs from your local pub. I can only imagine the fun that set designers for those old Universal horror films or any of the Hammer horrors must have had in creating the many different labs – a bubbling liquid here, an electrical arc there and tubes everywhere. Another favourite is the duplicating machine in Terence Fisher’s The Four-Sided Triangle (1953) which is not overly removed from The Fly‘s contraption, but this time with its dual chambers lying flat like beds with semi-cylinders encasing the objects undergoing the experimentation and enough switches and knobs to put any room-sized 1950s computer to shame.

    That kind of stuff puts a smile on my face every time.

  • 24 Jan

    Posted by


    Category

    Man Bites Wolf: Trailer for The Grey

    28

    I like me a good survival horror/thriller. I think I may just pay $10 to see Liam Neeson punch nature in the face.

    From this trailer, it appears that director Joe Carnahan has dropped the silly Smokin’ Aces shtick and gone back to that rough and weighty opening chase from Narc. The film has gotten solid reviews from those who care about this kind of genre, that is to say, fans of the David Mamet penned, Lee Tamahori directed The Edge.

    Below is the red-band (bloody and language and all that) trailer for The Grey.


  • 30 Dec

    Posted by


    Category

    Review: We Need to Talk About Kevin

    1

    Instead of issuing birth control pills or contraceptives, one needs only to show Lynne Ramsay’s superb new film to high school classes as a deterrent to early pregnancy. For the eponymous child is a distillation of the collective fears and anxieties of the challenges of new parents: How to balance unconditional love with discipline and a healthy morality? These big questions are the unspoken crux of the relationship between two smart, educated parents that are born with the little boy from hell. The film itself seems to reside in hades, I suppose Tilda Swinton’s headspace after giving birth, and is in equal measure, soaked tomato juice, ink and bodily fluids and bathed in harsh red filters. There hasn’t been this much red in a film in some time and there is enough compulsive scrubbing on display to make Lady MacBeth blush.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 08 Nov

    Posted by


    Category

    Weekend of Trash VI

    0

    After struggling to organise a weekend we were all available to get together, we finally gave in and a cosy three of us met up at Justin’s place to enjoy the 6th (recorded) Weekend of Trash (back story and previous write-ups can be found here – 1, 2, 3 & 4 & 5).

    After the last marathon’s criminal lack of VHS titles and inclusion of far too many ‘classy’ and known titles to be truly called ‘trash’, we went all out this time, with 3 tape titles and only 1 known-ish film (maybe 2, I’m not sure how well known Grand Duel is).

    I’m afraid my time’s a bit restrained at the moment so my write-ups will be a bit brief compared to usual, but I’ll still include trailers and concise thoughts on the merits (and otherwise) of each title.

    Friday Night

    Kindred

    Directors: Stephen Carpenter, Jeffrey Obrow
    Screenplay: Stephen Carpenter, Jeffrey Obrow, John Penney, Earl Ghaffari & Joseph Stefano
    Starring: Rod Steiger, Kim Hunter, David Allen Brooks
    Year: 1987
    Country: USA
    Duration: 91 min

    (2.5/5)

    Kindred is an 80′s creature feature about a scientist, John (David Allen Brooks) whose mother (also a scientist) tells him to burn all of her notes and drops a hint that he might have a brother that he wasn’t aware of. Unfortunately it begins to look as though (and the cover gives this away) John’s brother isn’t quite fully human and might not be full of ‘brotherly love’.

    It’s a very dumb film and it’s ropey script makes for a rocky first half, but it actually picks up later on and became quite a fun watch. The presence of five screenwriters was always a sign towards a clunky uneven story (why do we never go back to the evil scientist’s basement full of crazy mutants!?) but at least one of the writers knows that the film works best when it doesn’t take itself too seriously and throws in a couple of witty lines. The main draw though are the make-up effects. The practical monster and mutation effects aren’t realistic, but they’re pretty damn cool at times, especially when one woman sprouts gills!

    The Trailer:

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 05 Nov

    Posted by


    Category

    A Short Video Summation of an October of Horror

    0

    As a final wrap-up of my October horror viewing spree, here’s a short compilation of scenes from each movie I watched (2 clips from each film not including the bonus snippets at the end):

     

  • 04 Nov

    Posted by


    Category

    Shorts Program: Celluloid Screams

    3

    The short films shown before each feature at Celluloid Screams were particularly strong this year so rather than cram reviews for them at the end of my article like I did last time I thought I’d dedicate a separate post to the 16 mini-movies we were treated to. I’ve tracked a few of them down on YouTube and Vimeo too for your enjoyment.

    Spider

    Director: Nash Edgerton, Australia, 2007, 9 min
    A simple one-gag comedy-short that works surprisingly well due to some accomplished naturalistic direction and performances. A nice touch at the end, although unnecessary, went down well with the audience too.
    (4/5)


    Brutal Relax

    Directors: Adrián Cardona & Rafa Dengrá, Spain, 2011, 15 min
    A ‘recovered’ mentally ill patient is told to rest and enjoy his summer holidays, but some unusual creatures that come from the ocean have other plans. This is silly, extremely gory fun that is a blast to begin with, but started to outstay it’s welcome. Gorehounds will love it though.
    (3/5)

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 02 Nov

    Posted by


    Category

    A Month Of Horror – Chapter 8

    0
    ShiverOfTheVampires7

    .
    Yeah, I’m surprised October’s over too…32 horror films in the month is my final count – a 33% drop from last year’s total. I blame Toronto After Dark for keeping me busy…

    The last four for the month:

     

    The Shiver Of The Vampires (1971 – Jean Rollin)
    It’s quite surprising that it’s taken me so long to get around to seeing one of Jean Rollin’s art-horror films – you’d think this stuff would’ve been right up my alley. And indeed, it most certainly is. For whatever reason, I just never thought to dive into his output until one of his titles pretty much randomly came up in my lengthy list of items to investigate. In this case, the horror derives almost strictly from images – not sound, not story, not character and not slow builds of tension. It’s all about the visuals. The bright colours mixed with neutral tones, the bits of bright blood red dotting the frame, the creepy statues and artifacts littering the castle, the faces of the undead vampires and the surprising places they can be found. The camera plays its own part occasionally as when it spins around inside a circle of all the characters or becomes the POV of the doomed central character. The nominal story has a newlywed couple visiting the bride’s favorite cousins in their castle. Unbeknownst to her, these vampire hunters became the hunted and now must put up with eternity. The main female vampire (who converted the cousins) slowly pulls the bride over to “her side” as the hapless husband can do nothing. Throw in a large portion of nudity, gothic outfits and a psychy soundtrack (a slightly twangy low rent version of Goblin – the great band who did the soundtrack to “Suspiria”, “Deep Red” and other Argento films) and you’ve got yourself a memorable picture.

    ShiverOfTheVampires3
    ShiverOfTheVampires5
    ShiverOfTheVampires6

     

    Two Thousand Maniacs (1964 – Herchell Gordon Lewis)
    As a director, Lewis wasn’t exactly known for his specific style, storytelling ability or his way with actors. I think even he would say that he wasn’t so much a filmmaker as he was a businessman. By pretty much any account, “Two Thousand Maniacs” is a terrible, terrible movie – the acting is atrocious, useless dialogue scenes go on and on and the whole thing looks completely drab. Except for the blood (primarily what Lewis is known for via both this film and “Blood Feast”) which was bright and vivid. The idea was to shock with scenes of dismemberments and other such gore-filled activities and in this movie’s case, they certainly had a structure that leant itself to such requirements. One hundred years after an entire Southern town has been wiped out by the North during the Civil War, it suddenly reappears and their “centennial” celebration is focused on finding some sacrificial Northerners to kill at their festival. It’s a different spin on Brigadoon and as an idea certainly isn’t the worst one for a gorefest. The odd thing is that it isn’t filled with as much chopped up flesh as you would expect (of course, in 1964 it was rather infamous for a few scenes of severed limbs). It’s not that I necessarily wanted or needed to see more gushing blood, but when that’s all your movie has going for it, that’s all you can hope for.

    TwoThousandManiacs2
    TwoThousandManiacs3
    TwoThousandManiacs5

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 31 Oct

    Posted by


    Category

    Toronto After Dark 2011: Father’s Day Review

    0

    Father’s Day is pretty much the perfect exploitation film. It will offend many with its graphic images and content (both bloody and sexual) while it embraces the anything-goes aesthetics of many of the films from the 1970s that range from impressively realistic gore to ridiculous use of stock footage. Its plot begins with a search for a serial killer and from there mutates with a speed and force rarely seen outside the viruses found in bad sci-fi movies. Strippers, priests, male prostitutes, bears, chainsaws, hallucinogens, demons, a visit to Hell and probably even a kitchen sink or two are smashed together, blended until each has been reduced to gooey chunks and then splattered back up on screen with a joyful exuberance. It’s sick, gory, disgustingly gross and very, very funny.

    However, let me be very clear up front: The opening 10 minutes of the film is extremely nasty stuff and enough to thoroughly repulse just about anyone but the purest of gorehounds. A rapist of fathers (it’s explained that he doesn’t like woman, but never stated why he only goes after the Dads) is on the loose and we join him in the middle of a particularly, um, gruesome violation of another human. Having seen the faux-trailer for the film last year (which led the Canadian filmmaking team Astron-6 to make a full version of the film for the folks at Troma), it wasn’t really a surprise – that trailer is full-on Grindhouse at its ickiest – but that first section began to validate my fears that the movie was going to be completely in that same vein. A strange thing happens after a few minutes of this type of gore though – it’s pitched so way over the top that you can’t actually take any of it seriously and it becomes more of a parody than anything else (though a disgustingly Lurid one).

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 30 Oct

    Posted by


    Category

    A Month Of Horror – Chapter 7

    0
    PrivateParts7

    .
    Here’s a sneak peek at the most recent batch of horror films from my month long bender (which will fall far short of last year’s number due to Toronto After Dark switching back to October):

     

    The Deaths Of Ian Stone (2007 – Dario Piana)
    Though I haven’t seen many of the “8 Films To Die For” series (otherwise known as the “After Dark Horrorfest” which shows its independent films over an eight day span in nationwide theatres), I haven’t heard a whole lot of positive response to any of the films even though last year’s fest was the fifth one. However, the concept for The Deaths Of Ian Stone sounded too good to pass up: the titular character dies every night only to wake up in a completely different life. Promising stuff that could go one of any number of directions. Unfortunately it chose one that abandons its premise early on for life sucking ghostly monsters that can take human form. Worse than that though, its main character is just simply unlikeable. Even worse, he’s just boring. As is the set of CGI-heavy effects of people turning into these black death spirit thingies. When he suddenly wakes up in a new life, Ian Stone has no recollection of his previous one so it just changes the situations within which this bland unsympathetic character exists. How exciting is that? Whatever rules the story had are shuffled to the side and it becomes generic in its rush to redeem Stone. If this is representative of the “8 Films to Die For” series, I can see why I haven’t seen overwhelming response to it (though you’ll see shortly, it isn’t completely representative).

    DeathsOfIanStone1
    DeathsOfIanStone2
    DeathsOfIanStone4

     

    The Mask Of Fu Manchu (1932 – Charles Brabin)
    Now here’s an interesting artifact of the early 30s…Filled with great set design, interesting shot selections and a whole lot more torture than you might expect, the film also engages in some of the worst casual racism that side of Breakfast At Tiffany’s. It’s not just the indiscriminate references to “the yellow man” (after all, Fu Manchu throws it right back at them with his hopes to eradicate “the white man”), but the thought that Asians think of nothing else but to rule the world. While the British wish only to find Genghis Khan’s old artifacts to preserve them in a museum (even though they break into his old chambers with nary a thought to its preservation), Fu Manchu and his “hordes” want them so that they can convince the rest of Asia to follow them into world domination. When the Brits discover that this is the plan, they double their efforts to get there first. They do, but Fu Manchu has several devious plans up his sleeve to get them back. Possibly the worst moment of all was the patronizing comment from the wealthy English archaeologist to a Chinese waiter congratulating him for not aspiring to anything more than what he was and avoiding the fields of medicine, science and exploration. Perhaps I was reading the film wrong, but aside from some of the great visuals the story didn’t have much else to hold it together, so I had to focus on something…

    MaskOfFuManchu2
    MaskOfFuManchu3
    MaskOfFuManchu5

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 27 Oct

    Posted by


    Category

    Celluloid Screams 2011

    2

    As plugged here a few weeks ago, Celluloid Screams is a horror film festival based in Sheffield that took place between 21-23rd October this year. With a lovingly selected mixture of horror films of all kinds – old, new, gory, scary or downright disturbing, there was something for everyone. I caught pretty much every minute of the festival in all it’s blood-drenched glory, only skipping a late night showing of Re-Animator because I was knackered and had seen it before not so long ago. Below is a full round up of reviews from the weekend. There were a whole load of quality shorts too, so I’m going to devote a separate post to those a little later.

    Friday Night

    Inbred

    Director: Alex Chandon
    Screenplay: Alex Chandon, Paul Shrimpton
    Starring: Jo Hartley, Seamus O’Neill and James Doherty
    Year: 2011
    Country: UK
    Duration: 95 min

    (3.5/5)

    A locally produced film, celebrating it’s Yorkshire premiere at the festival, Inbred is an ultra-gory horror-comedy that gives a blackly humorous spin on the Deliverance ‘city folk trapped in the wilderness’ formula. A group of misfit teenagers travel to the Yorkshire dales for a team-building holiday with two social-workers, but get treated to a type of ‘Northern Hospitality’ they weren’t expecting. It’s a gleefully offensive, silly, yet occasionally rather nasty film that balances it’s humour, drama and horror effectively to deliver a fast paced and entertaining 95 minutes. It’s also got some very impressive make-up and special effects for such a low budget release. Unfortunately, none of the core elements are quite strong enough to raise the film above the level of ‘decent’. The performances are merely serviceable and the presentation of the ‘locals’ pushes silliness to it’s limits with their joke shop teeth etc. As a whole package it’s fun and worth a watch though, so long as you’ve a taste for it’s humour and gore. It was refreshing to see such a professionally produced and original feature coming from so close to home too.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 26 Oct

    Posted by


    Category

    Toronto After Dark 2011: Absentia Review

    0

    If there was one piece of hype that was circulating during this year’s Toronto After Dark festival, it was that the relatively low-budget horror film Absentia would shake us all, was easily the scariest thing we would see all week, possibly all year and that we should prepare ourselves…And if there was one thing that the crowd (at least those that I talked to afterwards) mostly agreed on after seeing the film was that the hype had improperly set everyone’s expectations. The film didn’t actually scare the pants off anyone or make them jump out of their seats to the rafters as advertised (except for one early scare that was executed brilliantly and made several people actually cry out). However, it did end up being the kind of real horror movie that lets its concepts sit and stew with you and provide fodder for the deep dark corners of your mind to pick up and play with when you aren’t paying attention. This applies not only to the specific horror on screen but to a larger thematic look at the idea of being abandoned. So though there was a great deal of consensus that the film wasn’t as outright scary as expected, there also seemed to be almost as much agreement that it was an excellent dramatic depiction of deeply felt horror.

    The title comes from the decision to call someone dead after they have been “in absentia” for a period of time. Essentially, if after 7 years (in this case) a missing person hasn’t shown up anywhere and it’s just like they dropped off the face of the Earth, then they can be declared legally dead. The film opens as Tricia struggles with just such a decision so she can close the final chapter of her husband’s own disappearance 7 years ago. Her younger sister Callie has come to visit in order to help her with the final “death in absentia” paperwork and some packing before she moves out of the house to start a new life. Considering Tricia is pregnant, she should really be ready to move on, but the final submission of the papers and acceptance of her husband’s death (even if their marriage wasn’t completely successful) is a big step. So big, in fact, that she begins to see a ghostly version of him at almost every turn – his hollowed out eye sockets still fixing on her in an accusatory manner. Are these simple manifestations of her attempts at closure or is his spirit really trying to break through back to her? The answer might lie in a nearby walkway tunnel that seems to be a focal point for several disappearances.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 25 Oct

    Posted by


    Category

    A Month Of Horror – Chapter 6

    9
    Amer1

    .
    I‘ve had my eye on Toronto After Dark the last few days (and the next few as well), so the output has been a bit slower. Some good solid movies in this batch though…

     

    Pin (1988 – Sandor Stern)
    Pin is not your ordinary doll/horror movie. Partially because “he” is a medical mannequin (used as a teaching device) instead of a child’s toy, but also because the film relies much more heavily on the psychological horror aspects of a young boy’s development into an adult than any Chucky style attack. As young kids, Leon and his little sister Ursula are transfixed by Pin when their father uses it as a ventriloquist’s dummy and teaches them certain lessons. Ursula realizes Pin is only a dummy at a young age, but Leon continues to think that Pin is an actual living being and part of their family. As he matures and can’t count on his parent’s support or help in typical growing up matters, he goes to Pin without his father being present (disobeying a strict order) and communicates with him. His father (another dose of Terry O’Quinn – that’s two for the month!) decides to remove Pin from the house, but after a car accident leaves Leon and Ursula as orphaned teens, Pin becomes more and more of an influence to Leon’s life. It’s not filled with jump scares nor will it make you shiver in your seat, but it’s something that aims at the horror of a broken individual. It’s hampered occasionally by some inadequate acting in several roles (though David Hewlett as the older Leon is quite good), but it worked far better than I expected it would.

    Pin4
    Pin5
    Pin6

     

    Amer (2009 – Helene Cattet, Bruno Forzani)
    Gobs of style. Style piled on style over style – with style on the side. Cattet and Forzani’s tribute to the cinematography and atmosphere of Italian giallos mostly dispenses with dialogue and even, to a certain extent story. It’s premise focuses mainly on the sexual awakening of the same woman in three different stages – confusion (child), curiosity (teenager) & desire (adult) – with witches, murder and a variety of other real and surreal occurrences thrown in for good measure. It’s quick cutting, very arty and may drive some people for the Tylenol (or the remote), but I loved it. It creates very specific moods for each of the three stages and though there appears to be very little resolution in what occurs, the trip through it all kept me completely engaged because of the tension of truly not knowing where any of the stories were going and how they would present the next images. The colour (particularly in the opening section) is glorious and pretty much every shot is unconventional. Certainly self-conscious, but still quite the beautiful thing to see – in particular if you like rampant usage of close-ups of people’s eyes. Unnerving at times and a wonderful example of someone who wants to play and experiment in a given style.

    Amer7
    Amer5
    Amer6

    » Read the rest of the entry..

Page 1 of 1412345»10...Last »