The movie of the night is David Cronenberg’s “Crimes of the Future”. Naturally being Cronenberg it’s a weird body horror movie. This is based on a story Cronenberg was working on 20 years earlier, but never got around to making. The movie also shares a name with another Cronenberg film from 1970 having no direct relation to it (Though I suppose they could be considered part of an anthology series, just an odd one with a 52year gap between entries). Since this was Cronenberg’s second feature length movie maybe it’s intended as a return to his roots or maybe he just liked the title. Anyway the film stars Viggo Mortensen and Léa Seydoux with support including Kirsten Stuart.
October Review Challenge – Day 20
The film opens with a young child eating a plastic bin and then being murdered by his mother. Yes, it’s that weird. None of this gets an explanation until later in the movie, instead the scene switches to our protagonist Saul Tenser and his partner Caprice who are a world-renowned performance artist couple. Saul has a condition that causes him to rapidly grow new organs in his body, organs whose function is unclear. Instead of letting them grow he makes their removal part of his performance art but the changes are also causing him to have issues sleeping and eating.
At this point it is important to know a few things about this world. This is set some undefined period of time in the future. Humanity has started to develop strange mutations, which has lead to most people no longer having a sense of pain and being immune to disease and infection. This has lead to surgery going from a dangerous, uncomfortable procedure requiring aesthetic to something you can basically perform on yourself. Indeed it’s become a sexual kink and this is where the performance aspect comes in.
Preserving Humanity.
It also triggered a reaction from the worlds governments (or at least this undefined countries government) to protect the status of humanity and as such it seems it is a crime to deliberately modify your own biology and all new organs must be catalogued and tattooed. Into this we find an underground faction that consider it a mistake to turn against evolution to preserve a fixed idea of what it is to be human.
Saul and Caprice come into it when the father of the child from the start of the film asks them to use the modified autopsy machine which they use for their performance to do an actual autopsy on his son as part of their performance. The father wants to expose how his son was born with these modified organs to prove the future of humanity is embracing the change. The performance and it’s aftermath form the conclusion of the film, so I’ll leave that there.
But What Does It All Mean?
Unsurprisingly the movie is weird, gross and yet sexual since this is Cronenberg’s MO. There seems to be quite dense subtext here and the movie asks questions about what is art, what is beauty and what does it mean to be human? Alongside that there is hints at an environmentalist message, an examination of how far a jaded species will go to find their next high and a look at how we influence the next generation even outside passing on our genes (Manifested by the child inheriting the body modifications of the parent).
The trouble I feel though is none of these questions are that distinct and the answer not that clear. Indeed I’m not totally sure some of them are even meant to be questions. I do feel accepting inevitable change, including at a biological level is key part of this story as this feeds to the movies conclusion, which is based on a revelation that the viewer will have figured out already. I don’t however think it was meant to be a twist though and rather just to show the protagonist finally embracing inevitable change.
Conclusion.
My biggest issue with the movie is it just isn’t very entertaining. There is nothing really to the movie other than the dense layers of subtext. By Cronenberg standards the body horror is mild, the characters are uninteresting the plot sort of goes nowhere. This is all art and message with no entertainment and I’ve never been a fan of movies like that. As a Cronenberg film this is a long way down in the ranking and pales when placed next to a masterpiece like Videodrome. As a movie in general I don’t think many people will find anything here worth turning up for. That said, it’s not a terrible movie so I think a 4.5/10 is a fair verdict.
Tonight’s horror film is Korean animated zombie feature “Seoul Station” from 2016. This is the animated prequel to incredibly good zombie film “Train to Busan” that was released earlier in 2016 and along with it’s sequel “Peninsula” from 2020 forms a sort of trilogy. It’s worth noting, much like George Romero’s Night/Dawn/Day trilogy, though based around the same zombie apocalypse, none of the films have any direct ties to each other. None of the characters carry through and each film works perfectly as a stand alone movie. This series all comes from the creative mind of Sang-ho Yeon, who is also the man behind the Netflix series Hellbound (Which is also worth checking out). This is a director/writer to watch out for in years to come.
October Review Challenge – Day 19
Because this is animated and in Korean I can’t make any useful comment on the actors involved, but should you be familiar with Korean voice actors the key voices are provided by: Shim Eun-kyung, Seung-ryong Ryu, Joon Lee and Jang Hyuk-jin. The key character though is Hye-Sun, a young girl that ran away from home and ended up as a prostitute, having run away from that life too she is now on the verge of homelessness only able to stay away from it by hooking up with an abusive boyfriend Ki-woong, a lowlife that refuses to work and wants Hye-Sun to act as a prostitute again, though with the goal of robbing people instead of sleeping with them (Or so he claims).
While we are getting to know Hye-Sun’s story another one is unfolding involving the homeless people squatting in Seoul Station. A homeless man is found by another badly wounded, looking like he has been bitten by someone. His friend who noticed the man bleeding attempts to get help for him, but he is frustrated at every turn being rejected by authorities and pushed around by other homeless people. Eventually he manages to get some pain killers and an energy drink which he takes to his friend, only to find the man dead. When he reports this to the authorities they investigate, but finding the body gone they assume it is crazy homeless people being crazy homeless people. Eventually the homeless man finds his friend apparently alive, but he is then attacked by him.
Zombie Uprising
These events seem to be happening all over and because of their vulnerability and how their actions are ignored by the authorities the zombie plague spreads quickly amongst the homeless. Hye-Sun ends up caught up in it and in fleeing from zombies she finds herself in the police station. The cops though assume the problem is the homeless have all gone crazy and report the situation as such. Meanwhile Ki-woon is confronted by Suk-gyu, who says he is Hye-Sun’s father and demands to know where she is. They too end up caught up in the outbreak and find themselves driving around the city searching for her.
Eventually Suk-gyu finds herself in a barricaded section of the city where many of the survivors, but those survivors are trapped between the zombies and riot police that have mistaken the outbreak for an insurrection. From here I’m keeping quite since talking about the ending in any capacity would really be a spoiler at this stage. So you’ll have to watch to find out what happens.
View From The Bottom
The characters are perhaps a weakness as none of them are especially likeable. You certainly feel sympathy towards Hye-Sun and towards the homeless people, but that is about it. Hye Sun largely just follows other people and often gets them killed when they try to help her. Indeed there would be several more survivors from that night had she simply died the first time a zombie charged for her. That doesn’t mean she’s a bad character and it is likely intentional but I do like to have at least one character I want to survive when watching this kind of film, just to get me more invested in their fate.
The main purpose of this movie though is to look at how a zombie outbreak would impact the bottom end of the societal hierarchy and through that investigate the plight of the homeless and near-homeless in a city where they are basically treated like they are already the living dead. At one point when Hye Sun is travelling with an older homeless man through the underground subway tunnels she breaks down crying and saying she wants to go home (To her father, that she ran away from). The old man too breaks down saying he too wants to go home, but he doesn’t have one and the pair spend a time crying together. It places a contrast where we feel sympathy for both but we also realise the higher level of despair for the old man that has nowhere to even dream of returning to.
How Does It Fare As A Zombie Film?
I’ve always said zombie films need social commentary and this is one that doubles down on that area, but does it well and with it’s choice of social commentary it finds a neat way to give us tragedy too, another key element of these films. The only area in lacks somewhat is the absurdity, but it isn’t totally absent. At one point Suk-gyu and the old man she is travelling with are desperately trying to lift a gate to a subway tunnel to escape an approaching zombie, only to find as the monster draws near it wasn’t a zombie at all but a crazy homeless woman. That scene does a great job of adding humour, but also tragedy and social commentary all at once. That’s the only lighter moment of the movie I can recall however.
The weakest part of this zombie film is the zombies themselves and that is probably down to it being animation. While the animation makes the zombies significantly less scary (and less gory), the format is not really taken advantage of to show us anything that they couldn’t have done in live action. So it seems a waste to me. Maybe it is just down to personal preference, but for me the story is good enough to warrant making it in live action. It is a classic zombie story with an ending worthy of George Romero. However, when I compare this to Train to Busan it becomes clear just how much is lost by doing it in animation.
Conclusion
Overall this is not the classic that Train to Busan was, nor is it quite as good as Peninsula though that is a better comparison. It suffers as a zombie film from being animated and it lacks a bit character wise. However it score a lot of points for story and the clever social commentary. This is a very strong 6.5/10. I may even end up revising it up a notch before the end of October. Had this been done in live action though I think it could have been a 7 or 7.5.
I’m back to the 80’s horror now and with body snatching space slug film “The Hidden” from 1987. Staring Kyle MacLachlan looking pretty much exactly as he did in Twin Peaks a few years later and acting a bit like he did in the series relaunch more recently. He plays FBI Agent “Lloyd Gallagher” who teams up with cop “Tom Beck”, played by Michael Nouri. The film is also the feature debut of Claudia Christian (Ivanova from Babylon 5). The film is directed by Jack Shoulder (Alone in the Dark, Nightmare on Elm Street 2) and written by Jim Kouf (Stakeout, National Treasure, Rush Hour).
THE HIDDEN, Kyle Maclachlan, Michael Nouri, 1987
October Review Challenge – Day 18
The film kicks off right away with a violent bank robbery and a car chase, with the robber having a whale of a time blasting out rock music while driving recklessly to evade the cops. Eventually he gets gunned down, but is taken to hospital and put in intensive care. At this point FBI agent Lloyd Gallagher turns up at police headquarters looking for the same suspect. However on discovering the suspect dead at the hospital his hunt turns to another patient that had contact with him. Both suspects are unusual because they showed no sign of criminal activity or malicious acts in the past and just seem to have flipped and gone on a rampage. Both sharing a love for sports cars and rock music.
Of course since this is a science fiction horror there is more to it and as I opened up by calling it a “Body snatching space slug film” you can probably guess where this is going. The real antagonist is said space slug and it transfers itself between victims and then uses them to go on it’s sociopathic crime sprees. After wearing out the bodies of the first two it takes control of a stripper, Brenda (Christian) leading to a tense chase with Gallagher and Beck. Gallagher though has a secret of his own and a personal vendetta with the alien. Things become more difficult for our heroes as their target starts to get more ambitious with it’s choice of bodies, leading to a dramatic final showdown.
A Source of Inspiration?
This is an interesting film and a pretty original take on the body snatcher idea. It reminds me a lot of the film “Fallen” (1998) with Denzel Washington, and I can’t help but wonder if they took some influence from The Hidden when writing that. Fallen is the better film, at least as a horror and did a lot more with the idea, but that’s not to say The Hidden is bad. The movie is pretty light in the horror and science fiction aspects and is really an action movie with a horror/sci-fi premise and in that regard it is pretty satisfying. There are a lot of shoot outs and the body thief can take a lot of punishment before at has to flee a body making it a little bit like a Terminator film.
Kyle MacLachlan playing a weird FBI agent before he starred in Twin Peaks is interesting too. There is almost no way this film didn’t play into his casting and long before his “Dougie Jones” days (In the recent Twin Peaks continuation) he showed his talent for playing “not quite there” characters. Thes rest of the cast do an adequate job and I always enjoy seeing Claudia Christian (As well as playing a fan favourite on Babylon 5, she just seems like a cool person. One of the few celebrities I never regretted following on social media).
Assessment
The action scenes are pretty solid and the plot pushes along at a good pace so you are never bored watching. The plot tries to keep itself simple and a lot of that requires suspension of disbelief and not thinking too hard about what the reaction from most people would be to these events (Like when people they’ve known for years suddenly turn into unstoppable killing machines and go on murder sprees for no apparent reason). There are definitely some holes there, but the fast pace stops you dwelling too long on them.
Overall this is a pretty good movie, but it trades exploration of the premise for quick action and by the standard of 80’s action movies it is not especially notable. As a body thief horror though it comes up very short against the similar Fallen (or the first two Body Snatchers films), so it isn’t in the upper reaches of good, but it is well worth checking out some time. This is a strong 6/10.
Tonight’s movie is another low budget Australian film, but this time from 2007. This is directed by Shane Abbess and I’ve seen his movies before so know exactly what to expect. A good idea, good world building, but not much else. For the record “Infini” is probably his best work, but it’s only average. Why do I keep watching his films you may ask? Well, I do really appreciate someone coming up with good ideas, even if they tend to fail in the execution (and let’s be honest, a good part of that is done to budget limitations). I can’t help but feel Abbess is going to pull something great out one day and I want to see it when he does. Anyway, this is a movie about Angels fighting Demons in purgatory and stars Andy Whitfield (a.k.a. Spartacus from the TV series) in the title role.
October Review Challenge – Day 17
Our film begins with a brief explanation of the world in which it is set. This is purgatory, a giant city that is inhabited by the souls of those deemed not evil enough for hell or righteous enough for heaven. Here the inhabitants remain until they earn the chance to move up or down. Unlike on Earth though the forces of good and evil take a direct approach to their recruitment. Seven Angels and seven Fallen Angels fight for control of the city and to lead it’s inhabitants one way or the other. It seems these entities join the fight one at a time and apparently not synchronised. Basically this is WCW War Games but with Angels and Demons. Just like War Games, it seems the “heels” enter first so always get the numerical advantage with the final “face” being the hero that has to clean house.
Gabriel is that hero and our story follows him. The demons (Well fallen angels, but I’m just going to call them demons) have the upper hand and all the Angels have gone into hiding and are generally washed up and run down. Gabriel sets out to find them so that together they can restore the balance, not an easy task as most of them have given up. The strongest previous Angel, Michael has gone completely missing, presumed killed by Samuel, the head Demon. Getting this group together those seems to be exactly what Samuel wants as only when they use their powers can the demons sense where they are and move in for the kill.
City of Angels, City of Devils.
This is a movie with some good ideas and a mind towards style, but a lot of it doesn’t work. The Angels fight using guns, which is a little goofy and seems entirely a style choice. The purgatory city is interesting but the humans don’t have a whole lot of an involvement in the plot, so it’s basically Team X Vs Team Y in a setting that is basically “Dark City” and trying to do it with a bit of Matrix flair. This is definitely a movie that wants to be in the 90’s. I can respect that though, 90’s gothic was cool.
The acting here is not great, with the exception of Andy Whitfield who largely has to hold the film up by himself. Andy made a name for himself after this in the TV series Spartacus but sadly his life and career was cut short by cancer so we’ll never know how far his career could have gone. The rest of the cast is filled with various “Home and Away” Alumni that weren’t quite able to break Hollywood. This lot have varying degrees of talent but some of them, especially most of the villains were just awful.
Lacking Soul.
While the concepts and world building is pretty reasonable, the actual plot and the characters leave a lot to be desired. There really isn’t much to the story and the characters don’t really get to show their depth. All the Angels aside from Gabriel are worn down and depressed, while all the demons are basically psychopaths other than their leader. Gabriel himself despite having a good actor, is not exactly complex. The only character with complexity is “Sammael” (played just about passably by Dwaine Stevenson) but his complexity is built into the fact he is part of a painfully obvious twist.
The plot itself is really an exercise in time wasting. We all know Gabriel will end up fighting Sammael, but first he must get his team together and act that turns out completely pointless because in the end he has to kill all the villains himself anyway. It is a plot that probably would be fine stretched out in a TV series or compacted down in a shorter movie, but this was the wrong length for that plot. The music and the effects meanwhile both scream “low budget”, but are actually both okay. None of it took me out of the moment and for a $200k (Australian dollars) movie from the late 2000’s it’s not bad really.
Conclusion
After my Halloween Ends review I actually don’t mind watching a regular old bad movie. At least the people behind this had their own ideas and had them stand on their own feet. Admittedly they then fell over a little drunk, but I still respect the intention. The world building here is actually pretty good and the basic concept is one I approve of. It’s only really the execution that lets it down. I’m going to be generous and give it a 4.5/10 for the concept (goofy as it is), setting and a few nice visuals. Like all of Shane Abbess’ movies it’s painfully close to good, but not quite there.
This AI generated poster was meant to mock the film but it actually looks pretty good.
Tonight I subjected myself to the recently released “Halloween Ends”…. It was not good. For the record I did not like the first of this “requal” trilogy, I hated the second and so I was never expecting to like this one. Also the word has been it’s not good. Some people even calling it the “Rise of Skywalker” of the series. Which is interesting when you think about it, Rise of Skywalker was a desperate course correction caused by going into a trilogy with no firm plan and giving the second movie to someone different to the first who then went about doing his own thing and ignoring continuity. Then a lead actor died, the director left and JJ Abrams took a pay cheque just to get something out. This movie however is part of a trilogy all entirely by one man: David Gordon Green. All three films were announced at once with the idea that it was all supposedly to a master plan.
The Ballad of Correy the Loser
Halloween Review Challenge – Day 16
The film sees the return of Jamie Lee Curtis and Andi Matichak (As her granddaughter “Allison”), but the real star is Rohan Campbell as new character “Correy”. It was directed and co-written (presumably in crayon) by David Gordon Green. I’m not going to worry about spoilers here because frankly this film doesn’t deserve to remain unspoiled. That said I’m also not going to dig too much into the plot because it’s not worth it either and I suspect this will be close to 2000 words even without that.
The story follows Correy. A guy that a few years ago was involved in an accident where a kid died and who since then has been vilified by the community. On top of this a group of local knuckleheads regularly bully him and beat him up. Despite this he has been developing a relationship with Allison. After they throw him off a bridge and leave him for dead he stumbles into a cave where he finds Michael Myers… for some reason. Why Michael has been in low battery mode in a cave I don’t know. He takes the entire film to shake it off enough to do… anything and even then is a shadow of his former self. Not a great last stand for The Shape.
Protagonist and Antagonist, though not sure which is which.
Bait, Meet Switch / Why is Everything a Mantle Now?
Anyway after the meeting Correy seems to take a part of Michaels evil and goes on a killing spree. That’s right, this is almost a Friday the 13th Part V job, but Michael does get a couple of kills in on the way to the finale. Where as almost the entire point of Michael is he doesn’t have a personal vendetta, he just kills, Correy is specifically seeking out all his enemies to take down and killing them in very personal ways. Instead of the dark curiosity of Michael, there is a very personal hatred and determination to kill in ironic fashions (A bit like Jason Voorheese does sometimes).
Naturally being virtually superhuman now herself for no reason Laurie Strode senses the evil in him and gets in between him and her daughter. This leads to a big confrontation and after 63 year old Laurie deals with Corrie, Michael shows up and… get’s his ass handed to him and thrown into a scrap crusher. Because this has to have a big final, totally ended for sure this time, no escape, it’s really the end, finished, concluded, done, ending…. until the next movie (Which they even admitted was inevitable, though I suppose they may feel they can do Halloween with a new character, they are of course wrong).
I’m done with screencaps, have some storyboard… I mean AI art.
Not A Halloween Film.
First up, this is not a Halloween film. Most of the plot follows this new character, introduced in this movie and it is really his story. The film seems to want to do some kind of torch passing and that may be the dumbest idea they’ve ever had in one of these movies. At this stage Michael Myers is Halloween, you can’t replace Michael. The Halloween films tried to move away from him with the third movie and people rejected it. But that was a genuine attempt at a different kind of horror. Replacing him with another person that does the same job but isn’t Michael will go down like a lead balloon. About as well as replacing Skynet with another AI that does the exact same thing as Skynet (Why do they repeat the worst ideas).
The funny thing is Friday the 13th learned they can’t replace Jason way back when they tried it for part five. Now if you suggest to them replacing Jason the rights owners would probably laugh in your face and the thing is Jason wasn’t even the original killer and wasn’t supernatural until the sixth movie. When they raised him from the dead they realised the franchise would always be about Jason. Michael was created to be a supernatural killer. There was never any reason to retire Michael. He is the bogeyman. Why is it the people making Halloween films have forgotten this?
When a film is so bad you create child drawing AI art instead of find screenshots.
Just Pick One And Stick With It!
The movie seems incapable of deciding if Michael is supernatural or a mere human. If he is a supernatural monster it is frankly impossible to believe a 63 year old Jamie Lee Curtis can get the better of him in a fight. If he’s a human though, given he was older than Laurie Strode, sure I can buy it. But then it never made any sense for him to be human. This was one of my two big problems with the first of this trilogy (the other I’ll get on to later). Rob Zombies first movie actually did a good job of a human version of Michael, at least in the screener version, where he died in the end. That was something you can do in a reboot, because you want a fresh take. You shouldn’t do it in a movie that pretends to be a sequel.
But here’s the thing, by the time the second movie of this trilogy has concluded they determine Michael isn’t just human. It took Laurie Strode two whole movies to reach the conclusion Sam Loomis did 30 seconds into Halloween II. He’s something else, not human and you can’t just stop him with a physical struggle. But then in the third film he seems tired and worn out and loses a melee fight to a 63 year old woman. It is horrendously inconsistent. But then everything in this trilogy is inconsistent.
I
Halloween 4. Jamie Lloyd following in her uncles footsteps in 34 years earlier. Jamie was retconned from existence.
Retconning Just To Repeat.
If there always been a plan to do a trilogy it would make sense to actually have them flow into each other. Halloween Kills at least follow on the same night as the first movie though they feel thematically unrelated with a bunch of new characters introduced in the second. It felt more like Halloween 2 did in relation to the original, that is: unplanned. Halloween Ends though feels like a random sequel where some rogue director has tried to do something new, in this case giving Michael a protegee. Not a good idea, but in a random sequel it wouldn’t be surprising. This however is meant to be the end of a trilogy and even though everyone has admitted the series will still continue one day, the “final” end of Michael Myers. Weird to waste most of the film on a new character.
It occurs to me though, if Halloween Kills is a bad version of Halloween 2, then this is a bad version of Halloween 4 and H20 merged into one. Only instead of Michaels niece being driven by mysterious forces to follow in Michaels footsteps at the end of the movie, some random kid that is bullied and vilified gets randomly taken under Michaels wing because he feels the hate or something like that because Michael is apparently a Sith Lord now. In Halloween 4 what happened with Jamie mirrored what happened with Michael and it had a purpose through their shared bloodline. In this movie though, the character couldn’t be more different to Michael and it seems to miss the point of Michael that they want to give the guy a reason to be evil. Meanwhile the H20 element comes in the form of once again repeating Laurie Strodes vengeance and trying to be the “final”, “definitive” ending for Michael.
John Carpenter kicking the grooves between games of Fallout 76.
The Shortest Section – What Did I like?
The music was good. John Carpenter not only picked up a pay cheque to say the film is good, but also came back to do the soundtrack again. The sad thing is I won’t even buy this soundtrack as I don’t want to be reminded of the movie. To be fair to John he maybe isn’t shilling and does legitimately like these movies, his taste is questionable these days, I mean he called “Fallout 76” a great game…. I dunno. He’s still my favourite director so I won’t bad mouth him any more than that. Sorry John.
Much like the previous films I also like some of the kills, though this time around none of them were Michaels and they were all much more personal so it feels a bit of a cheat, but from a stand alone perspective they were fine. Had this not been a Halloween film perhaps I would praise it.
Sam Loomis, Michael Myers actual nemesis.
Understand Your Own Franchise People!
Honestly I’m tired of people taking over franchises that don’t understand the franchise. This whole thing has been an exercise in hubris. Coming out and retconning Halloween 2 and H20 and continuing the retcon of Halloween 4-6 is a bold movie that says “What we are doing is better than what came before”. But then they went out and basically just made worse versions of those films. Their first movie tried to impersonate the original Halloween, while throwing in the ending of the freshly retconned Halloween 2. Then the second film duplicated the “same night” killing spree of Halloween 2, with the conclusion basically being Laurie coming to the same realisation Loomis did at the start of that movie. Then we have the final part where they merge Halloween 4 and H20 into one horrible mess.
What is the point except as a cash in? There was no creative reason to do all this, it was not for the fans and it muddies up the continuity and makes it even more ridiculous next time Michael returns. This was entirely done as a cash in and as a vanity project for Gordon Green, who must be recognised now as an absolute hack of a director. Like Rian Johnson before him and many others, he wanted to make his own film, not a franchise film he just used the franchise as a shortcut to do it. There was no respect there just a few token Easter eggs and references, which is the usual shallow way these directors pretend to care about the franchise.
Even Michael is confused by all this.
Chose Your Own Misadventure.
The Halloween franchise is a total mess now. Three branching continuities and each new one worse than the last. Halloween 4 is a better Halloween than H20, but H20 is better than Halloween Kills. Halloween 2 is far better than the frustrating named Halloween (2018). Then you get to the clangers and while it’s a tough call I’m going to have to say Resurrection is better than Halloween Ends. Halloween 5 is better than both. At least Resurrection was focused on Myers.
Ultimately the best run of Halloween films, if you are going all the way is the original one. 1-6 and yet the rights holders have gone back and rebooted twice and green lit a Rob Zombie remake (and sequel). It feels like such a waste and only something that damages the franchise long term and that more than anything is I think the greatest loss here. Hopefully Hollywood will get over this “Requel” concept and stop doing it.
Well, being a ghost never stopped him before….
Final Thoughts and Rating
It’s okay to drop a clanger in a horror series. At least it is as long as you don’t do anything that stops you making another sequel and do actively try and undo other films in the franchise while doing it. Horror franchises like Halloween need to accept they will keep going. Retconning and doing “definitive final no escape, he’s definitely dead this time” endings is frankly stupid. Everyone knows Michael will be back at some point. It comes to something when the ending of “Jason X”, the Friday the 13th film with Jason is space is more intelligent than the ending of your Halloween series that you retconned two continuities for (For those that haven’t seen Jason X, the final solution is to launch Jason into space where he crashes down on an alien planet… at a lake).
My great hope for Halloween now is that at some point they do a sequel back in the original continuity. That would do a good job of putting this disaster behind us, expose the foolishness of the supposedly definitive ending and get away from all these crazy timelines. Furthermore I hope they embrace the supernatural aspect of the character. That was what made him different to the other slashers, especially Jason (prior to him being bought back to life in part 6). Anyone can make a random slasher movie, but there is only one bogeyman. Sadly he wasn’t present in this film. This is a stinker. Stand alone, not within the Halloween franchise maybe it is worth a 5/10 but as a franchise film and the end of a trilogy it is a total disaster. 3/10.
Tonight’s movie is the American independent comedy horror “Some Guy Who Kills People” from 2011. This is directed by Jack Perez, whose previous movie was “Mega Shark Vs Giant Octopus”… Well, James Cameron directed “Piranha Part Two: The Spawning”, so we shouldn’t hold that against him. This movie is a lot more grounded. This is penned by comedy writer Ryan A. Levin and stars Kevin Corrigan and Ariel Gade with support from Barry Bostswick, Karen Black, Lucy Davis and Leo Fitzpatrick.
October Review Challenge – Day 15
The story follows Ken Boyd (Corrigan) after his release from a mental institution. He was ut in there because he suicidal and he is a very reclusive introverted character, who spends most of his time drawing. When he was at college he was traumatized by a group of scumbags when they kidnaped him and took turns to subject him to various abuses (the story behind it is revealed late in the movie, so I’m not saying more). Those bullies are now one by one turning up dead and killed in ways that reflect the abuses they inflicted on Ken.
In contrast to these killings, Ken’s life is actually starting to improve. Although painfully introverted and socially awkward he is begins to develop a relationship with his daughter, who only recently found out who he was (Her mother didn’t want her to know, deciding he was crazy). Amy (Gade) is pretty much the perfect daughter, though she has problems in her own life her positive attitude and encouragement to Ken leads to him even going on a date with a girl that seemed interested in him, Stephanie (Davis).
The local Sheriff meanwhile (Bostwick), who dating Ken’s mother (Black) is starting to put things together and closing in on Ken. He’s just not sure if Ken could really do these horrific crimes, though with what he went through, he can certainly see why he would want to.
A Dad Who Connects With His Daughter
Ken is an interesting character. He is quite, reclusive, but does not seem actually evil. He does struggle with being in the outside world and perhaps yearns to be back behind the safe doors of the asylum. Despite that he has genuine affection for Stephanie and especially his daughter. At one point when he realised that Amy has bullies of her own he becomes quite protective of her and seems determined to be a positive influence on her.
Amy meanwhile is the sweetest girl you will probably ever come across in fiction and in some ways that makes her character harder to buy, but it’s so charming it doesn’t really matter. She is just unrelentingly good natured and unlike Ken, very talkative. Her home life though seems to be one of vague neglect (nothing hardcore, but her mother and step father don’t seem particularly engaged with her and there is a clear lack of connection between them). The movie does a good job of showing why Amy and Ken need each other.
Drama, Horror, Comedy.
That’s all the drama elements though, this is meant to be a comedy horror, so how did it fair on those standards? Well, it’s not really a horror to be honest, it just has horror elements. The kills are brutal and the way the bodies are left are creative. But the victims are all scumbags and so there isn’t really a fear factor. As an audience member you want to see them get slaughtered. These events are spaced out and not dwelled on. The movie also has a very predictable swerve, but honestly, didn’t ruin the film and they did a pretty good job of trying to push you away from the swerve… still it was a little too predictable so it’s still a minus.
This isn’t a heavy comedy either. Most of the humour comes from Barry Bostwick as Sheriff Walt Fuller and it’s more goofy than anything but I did find it amusing and since it plays specifically into the characters personality it isn’t too heavy handed, doesn’t disrupt the flow of the film and provides a bit of light relief, usually right after a violent murder. It also works well into the swerve as he turns out to be smarter than you would assume for most of the film.
Assessment
As you can see from the above the movie is more a drama and character study than a horror or comedy, but it’s not totally removed from these things and the way it is put together works quite well. The actors all do admirably, especially 14 year old Ariel Gade, an experienced child actress who actually retired from acting after this movie to focus on her education (Sensible for a child star). If she returns she may have a good career ahead of her.
Overall, I liked this movie. It was better than expected and million miles from the directors previous movie. Despite that, the film didn’t elicit any strong feelings from me. I wasn’t on the edge of my seat. I chuckled a couple of times at the Sheriff but that was it and while I liked Amy, Ken and Sheriff Fuller I the story isn’t one I particularly feel the need to come back to. So while It is definitely a recommended movie, it’s not pushing into the 7-10 territory. This is a strong 6/10.
Tonight’s movie is Australian Zombie film “Wyrmwood”. The movie is directed by Kiah Roache-Turner whose “Nekrotronic” from 2018, I saw a few years ago and was pretty impressed with (Worth checking, it’s like a B-Movie ghostbusters but very Australian). The movie stars Jay Gallagher (Who was also in Nekrotronic), Bianca Bradey and Leon Burchill as is written by Kiah and Tristan Roach-Turner.
October Review Challenge – Day 14
The movie starts after a brief lead in with some survivors telling their stories we go back to day zero of a zombie apocalypse, which appears to be tied to a meteor shower. Mechanic Barry (Gallagher) is woken up by a call from his sister who is basically stuck in her garage and pinned down by zombies. Not knowing what is going on, he hears a sound from downstairs and goes to investigate, finding a zombie in his kitchen that he just about manages to kill. He and his wife and kids head off in the car to reach his sister but part way through his wife and daughter turn zombie and he has to kill them.
Meanwhile his sister Brooke (Bradey), is rescued by some army men, but it turns out to be more of a kidnapping than a rescue. She finds herself in the back of a truck with a mobile lab and a mad scientist experimenting on her by injected zombie blood into her. The end goal is to then kill her and extract some kind of brain fluid. However, Brooke finds she can control the zombies also held in the lab and through that plots her escape.
Barry eventually finds another group of survivors. But they are stranded by a lack of fuel as all petrol has become non-flammable. However they have found that the zombies excrete a gas that is flammable and so they convert their vehicle (after beefing it up to cope with zombie attacks) to run off zombie gas. Heading out most of the survivors end up dead, but eventually Barry and Benny (Burchill) manage to catch up with the truck with his sister. This leads to the grand climax (Which I’m not dropping spoilers for).
What Makes a Good Zombie Film
The Zombie genre is a heavily over saturated one and as such can be hard to find one that stands out. That said, it’s not actually hard to make a zombie movie that stands out you just have to remember the three key ingredients: Tragedy, Dark Humour and Social Commentary. If you have one of these you aren’t going to stand out well, two of these you have a decent zombie movie, but three and you have something great.
I say tragedy instead of horror or gore because the thing that makes Zombie films dark is the inevitable loss of everything. Having to kill loved ones, running for all your worth but knowing that your pursuers will never stop and are everywhere. It is not a genre built for jump scares, gross out horror or situations that cause quick fear. It is a genre built sadness to it and a fatalism.
But that has to be balanced out by humour. Zombies are stupid, they act stupid and at their core they represent human stupidity. It’s important to recognise the insanity of the situation so a bit of humour is needed. That’s not to say it has to be a comedy. Finally and perhaps most importantly is the social commentary. That is what ties it together and what made Romero’s films stand out from the imitators. Even his bad ones nailed the social commentary. The key is the Zombies are us. You can tackle that in many different ways, but it’s what gives the genre a deeper meaning.
Wyrmwood Vs Z-Nation
So where does Wyrmwood lie? Well the social commentary isn’t really there. Instead it goes in the direction of the Z-Nation TV series, embracing the comedy but not at the expense of the despair. Like that TV series it comes up with interesting gimmicks for the zombies, in the case of Wyrmwood in how the zombies have to be used for fuel and how that only works in the day. During the night the zombies use their own “fuel” which allows them to move faster. This is a handy way of allowing both slow and fast zombies in one franchise.
The other way this is similar to Z-Nation is that though an attempt to create a zombie cure, one of the characters find they can control zombies. This is something we see evolve throughout the movie and while not the most original idea, is done quite well and is actually done as one of the more serious aspects, whereas in Z-Nation it was the primary source of comedy a lot of the time.
The loss factor is done well though. Right out the gate our lead has to kill his wife and daughter with a nail gun. He then is determined to kill himself and only brought around by remembering he needs to go rescue his sister. The movie doesn’t forget the tragedy and that is good, but as it moves on it embraces the goofy more and more and it really works for it. It reminds me of the earlier seasons of Z-Nation when it was at it’s peak. This movie has a sequel and apparently a TV series coming so we will see if they can keep up the quality or will it wane like it did with Z-Nation.
Assessment
Towards the end the acting quality drops off a little as other actors than the lead find themselves needed to express intense emotion and don’t really pull it off. But the film does pull off some fun set pieces and a lot of nice visuals. There is a lot of things here done because they are cool, but it’s the kind of film that can get away with that as it doesn’t take itself too seriously. The emergence of the “Final Boss” of the film seemed a little out of nowhere, but I guess they needed a fight to feel a bit more personal and it did achieve that.
The lack of any real social commentary apart from a vague “Greater good Vs individual rights” thing stops this from elevating itself to one of the great zombie films but it is still a lot more fun then you would expect from a random zombie movie from an (At that point) unknown director on a shoestring budget ($160,000… seriously that was the whole production budget).
Conclusion
I have nothing but praise for what they managed to do with the resources they had and between this and Nekrotronic I’m definitely a fan of the director. However, I can’t give more points for being done with little resources, I have to be objective and so this is a strong 6/10. With a bit more time, a bit better actors and a bit more depth this could have been pushing a 7. It’s not there, but it is well worth checking out.
For tonight’s movie I’m going back to the 80’s for a movie I somehow missed back in the day, the Tobe Hooper directed sci-fi vampire movie from 1985 “Life Force”. Based on Colin Wilson’s book “The Space Vampires” and adapted into a screenplay by the great Dan O’Bannon (Writer on “Alien”, “Return of the Living Dead” and “Total Recall” as well as one of last Octobers films “Dead and Buried”). The other name of note behind the screen is Henry Mancini providing the score, not a name I expected to see on an 80’s science fiction horror.
The film stars Steve Rallsback as Col. Tom Carlsen and Peter Firth as Col. Colin Caine, with support from Frank Finlay as Dr. Hans Fallada, Mathilda May as the Space Vampire Girl and has little cameo from Patrick Stewart (Who popped up in a lot of sci-fi and fantasy even before Star Trek). Let’s dig in to the plot summary (Which has some spoilers, but doesn’t blow the ending). Be aware this is a dense plot and I’m compacting it for the summary (So it may sound rushed).
October Review Challenge – Day 13
The movie begins with the Space Shuttle “Curchill” discovering a derelict ship while investigating Hailey’s Comet. On inspection they find the bodies of bat like creatures and three humanoids (including one particularly attractive female), in suspended animation. The crew decide to bring these back to Earth but on the way mission control loses contact with the ship.
A rescue mission discovers the ship has been gutted by fire, the escape pod is missing but the three alien humanoids are intact and so at taken to earth. On Earth the female alien awakens and drains the life force out of a guard before escaping. The other two aliens similarly revive but appear to get blown up by grenades. It seems though every victim of this female vampire would return from the dead two hours later and be compelled to feed on another life form or turn to dust, then in turn any they feed on will also turn. Effectively putting a zombie like element into the film. Col Caine of the S.A.S. is called in to take charge of the situation.
Space Vampires From Space!
Meanwhile the escape pod touches down in Texas with Col. Carsen inside. Carsen is flown to London where he explains what happened to the crew (Short story, it never ends well for people transferring vampires to a new home), but through hypnotism they learn that he has a psychic connection to the female vampire and they utilise this to try and track her down.
It is discovered that these vampires can move into other bodies, meaning all three are still alive and in new bodies. Fortunately though Dr. Fallada has found a way to kill them. This leads us to the final act, where the Vampires ship has moved into an orbit above London and it seems the whole thing is about collecting human souls. Carsen and Caine must stop them before it’s too late.
Quatermass and the Soul Thieves
While watching the movie it was clear to me what Hooper was going for and that was a Quatermass style British sci-fi. Indeed so much so, I had to check if Nigel Kneale was involved somewhere (He wasn’t). If you aren’t familiar with the franchise, it was originally created by Kneale in the 1950’s for the BBC and ran as three separate serials all with a sci-fi/horror theme. Bernard Quatermass was the central character of these.
Sadly most of these are lost or in a bad state due to the BBC not looking after their archived material back in the day. However Hammer Studios remade all three serials as movies between 1955 and 1967 and these are generally what people think of when they talk about Quatermass. The final movie “Quatermass and the Pit” is probably the most famous and it’s a real cracker!
Style and Substance
As it happens I’m not the first person to notice this similarity and it seems in interviews with Hooper, this was exactly what he was going for. Apparently as soon as the deal was done he was determined to make a Hammer style film. That may explain the very British cast and setting and also why the movies conclusion is so similar to that of Quatermass and the Pitt.
As a Quatermass/Kneale fan I appreciate the style and flow of the movie. The plot while perhaps a little over complicated does it’s job and allows for a steady flow of information and increase of dramatic tension. However against this there is the characters and I can’t say I found any of them particularly interesting. Col. Carlsen has no real personality outside his obsession with the Lady Vampire and while Peter Firth attempts his best Quatermass, but the character doesn’t have the strength of personality to really work. It felt like Carsen was the lead in this, but it probably should have been Caine.
Epic Space Opera
The soundtrack is as I expected, rather good. It does however push much more in the direction of epic science fiction than horror. It’s interesting to note that James Horner was originally down to do the score, but was replaced by Mancini who then created a soundtrack very similar to Horner’s work. That’s not to say that it is a rip off, it’s a bit smoother and less aggressive than Horner’s space operas, but it is just very much of that 1980’s epic space adventure feel.
Honestly, if you get a chance just listen to the soundtrack sometime, then you can really appreciate it (I’m listening while writing this review). While it gains points for quality, I’m not convinced it was the best fit for a movie that was really a lot more down to earth than the “Space Vampires” premise may lead you to believe.
Right Film, Wrong Time?
I can’t help but feel though that 1985 was probably not the right time for this kind of a movie. Some of the effects have aged badly (though not a big issue for me) and perhaps would have been better had the film been made in the 90’s, but the audience would probably have been more susceptible to a Quatermass style of film in the 1970’s. I have no doubt the audiences in 1985 did not want this and no doubt it is why the movie flopped, but fortunately over time it has found an audience to appreciate it and become a cult hit.
Conclussion
Overall, I have to say I liked the film, but it’s one I can see not being everyone’s cup of tea and ultimately I won’t be adding this to my physical media collection. I like the style, I love the music and I quite like the plot, but I don’t care about any of the characters so I can’t push this up to a 7/10. I think this just about hits the 6.5 mark.
For todays movie I’m hitting the sequel to one of the movies from last years October challenge. That is A Quiet Place Part II from 2020. Released in the middle of the pandemic this one sort of slipped by without the hype that followed the first, reactions to it were only lukewarm, but the film still holds a decent IMDB score of 7.2. The first film I had issues with but gave it a decent score because of how well it did the tension and the how good the monsters looked.
The sequel reunites Emily Blunt As hardened survivor “Evelyn”, Millicent Simmonds as her deaf daughter “Regan”, Noah Jupe as her son “Noah”, and John Krasinski briefly as their father, but mostly in assuming his role as Director. They are joined by Cillian Murphy as “Emmett” a previously unseen family friend who reluctantly finds himself slotting into Krasinski’s role. Fun fact between Krasinski and Murphy you have the most common fan casting for Reed Richards and Doctor Doom. Don’t hold your breath on that one.
October Review Challenge – Day 12
Anyway, the movie starts off with some flashbacks to remind us of the premise, to give a glimpse of Day 1 of the arrival of the monsters and of course to give Krasinksi a bit of screen time since he’s going to be around anyway (Spoiler for the first movie – He died). We’re then lead into what seems like not especially long after the events of the first film where the family are searching for a new place to live. Noah is injured by a bear trap, but the group stumble across an Emmett at a steel mill who helps them out.
In the mill they discover a signal on the radio which Regan thinks is a sign of survivors and also thinks they can use the radio tower to broadcast the high frequency signal she discovered can incapacitate the monsters so that other survivors can use it (Assuming they have a radio, it’s tuned to that station and they figure out the purpose of the signal). The rest of the group think this is a bad idea so she goes out on her own. Emmett ends up following her where they do indeed discover some other survivors. It’s never that easy though and the monsters naturally show up to ruin everyone’s day.
Plot Armour and Squishy Heads.
The monsters look great. Perhaps better than in the first movie. However the tension of the first movie is diminished a little here. The fact that we already know the monsters have a weakness and also that you can basically just shoot them in the head, lowers the tension somewhat and the fact that they basically have to orchestrate through stupidity ways for the characters to attract the monsters doesn’t help. At one point Regan kills one by pushing a metal bar into it’s head. If a child can kill these creatures in such a way, I don’t really feel like they are at global extinction level for threat status.
This is one of the biggest problems with the film, while the monsters look good they feel less of a threat. Partially because of the things learned in the first, but also because this film seems to have activated plot armour on some of the characters. Especially true of Regan who really, let’s be honest as a deaf child in a world were monsters with great hearing home in on the slightest sound is not going to be a great survivor. This movie even has her go off on her own and while she did almost get killed she survived long enough that Emmett turns up to save her at the last possible moment.
Make Some Noise.
What I did like is that at least one member of the group saw the value in finding a way to broadcast the signal. My biggest criticism of the first film was that it took a complete fluke for anyone fighting these monsters to figure out that creatures that have insanely good hearing may be sensitive to sound. Seemed kind of obvious, but having discovered that had the group not looed to use it on a larger scale I would have been really disappointed.
Unfortunately only Regan seems to see the value in this as Evelyn is too busy protecting her three kids and Emmett has largely just given up. That’s not a flaw as such, given the situation not everyone is going to be thinking of the big picture. I’ve got to say though, if Regan’s plan was just to broadcast the feedback it seems to make a wild assumption that random survivors are going to figure out they can now use radios as weapons.
Dumbass Raiders.
At one point in the movie a group of raider types try and kidnap Regan and it seems unnecessary contrived. For a start the group is much larger than any group of survivors we’ve seen. They seem to have a technique to trick people so they can attack them and that plan seems to entirely rely on the idea that their victims would rather have their possessions taken, their children kidnaped and basically be left for dead instead of risk making a noise and attracting the monsters.
On top of that they seem to rely on the kidnapped children also remaining quite. Something that seems unlikely. Obviously it doesn’t work and they all get themselves killed. Dumbasses. It’s worth noting at this point while this is going on, Evelyn is picking through an abundance of supplies at a local pharmacy, even finding extra oxygen tanks for the contraption she uses to soundproof her baby. This is not a world where everyone is fighting for a few resources.
Plot Contrivances.
As far as I can tell the group exists just to facilitate how a monster got to the island sanctuary and to set up the drama at the end. Which they wouldn’t need to do had they not decided to put the radio tower on an island with a group of survivors that are free from the monsters. The pair are barely there for a moment before things go to hell and they end up in a desperate chase to the radio tower, which makes the entire Island thing pointless. Had they been after a tower on the mainland they wouldn’t need the dumbass raiders.
While all this is going on the story also throws in a tense situation with the rest of the family which is basically entirely set up by Marcus being stupid and ruining the safety of their steel mill hideout. Their entire sub story felt unnecessary and put in just so these characters had something to do. I can’t help but feel Emily Blunt is wasted in this one.
Conclusion
Ultimately I feel like this is a sequel that wasn’t needed and adds nothing to the story. At the end of the first film, they’ve found a way to fight and lost two family members along the way. This film, the family loses nothing and they take the next logical step in using what they learned in the first. It’s not a story that needs telling or really impacts anything. The only person with a character journey in this is Emmett, who was introduced for this film and his story isn’t exactly good since it’s pretty much done just through dialogue. With all that in mind, I can’t really give it higher than 5/10 and that is only for the strength of some of the individual scene involving the monsters. The story is weak and the novelty has well and truly worn off here.
Tonight’s movie is the British Werewolf film “The Beast Must Die” from 1974. Directed by Paul Annett (Who usually sticks to directing for TV, but made a handful of films in his career too). The film stars Calvin Lockhart (Who you may recognise as “King Willie” from Predator 2), as millionaire and obsessed hunter “Tom Newcliffe”. This is an ensemble film though so he is supported by the likes of Peter Cushing, Charles Grey, Michael Gambon, Tom Chadbon, Anton Diffring and Marlene Clark.
October Review Challenge – Day 11
This movie isn’t just a Werewolf movie, it is also a “Strangers in a Room” movie and unfortunately a gimmick movie. The gimmick here is as the narrator tells you at the start that you have to pay close attention to all the clues and figure out who the Werewolf is. This is sort of pointless as you’d be doing that anyway, but this comes up again about twenty minutes before the end when there is a “Werewolf break” for you to debate and decide who the beast is. Honestly the movie could have done without that.
Anyway, the story effectively follows the rich and determined hunter Tom Newcliffe (Lockhart) as he pursues his greatest quarry, a Werewolf. To do this he has drawn together a small group of individuals which he suspect of possibly carrying the curse. He has done this on the eve of a Full Moon, with the plan to draw the beast out and take it down. The story then progresses over three nights of the full moon as Lockhart begins his pursuit, but the Wolf is no fool and the question remains who is hunting who? Meanwhile the guests all start to question if Lockhart is telling the truth and if one of them is the beast. Accusations fly, tempers flair but ultimately the Werewolf will be revealed
Funky Disco Wolf
One thing I think is worth pointing out is the music. While liked it in isolation, it didn’t fit even remotely with the film. Instead it makes the film seem like a spy action/thriller. The music features lots of horn stabs and wah peddle guitar playing, which is very 1970’s but not what you would expect to hear on a Horror film (even in the 70’s). To be fair some elements of the soundtrack such as the bass does work (and similar basslines can be heard in the great Goblin soundtracks of Dario Argento films), but the rest didn’t and while there are moments of more fitting music the tensions is constantly broken by the sexy action hero theme.
The Price of Knowledge
Between the music and the gimmick I can see why this has a low (though not abysmal) rating on IMDB. But if you can look past that there is actually a lot to like about the movie. The plot isn’t without holes, but it is serviceable and this is a good selection of actors, especially of course including horror legend Peter Cushing. Cushing’s character Dr. Christopher Lundgren doesn’t have a lot to do in the movie action wise but has a good portion of dialogue which is his strength anyway.
The films lead Calvin Lockhart plays the obsessed Tom Newcliffe well. The character is not at all concerned at how people see him or if they like him, he has a singular purpose to hunt and kill a Werewolf. Calvin does intense well (as those that remember him in Predator 2 will attest to). He is a little hampered by the outfits they get him to wear (Again very 70’s) but the performance shines through the costumes. The lengths he goes to track and hunt the werewolf allows the film to stand out from the crowd as a Werewolf film. It is an interesting approach, if not the most compelling.
Werewolf Mafia
The setup of “Find the werewolf” combined with the “Strangers in a room” format works well, but given that is basically the setup of the game “Werewolf” otherwise known as Mafia that is no surprise. It is one of the angles of Werewolf movies that while heavily done in the modern day was virtually untouched when this film was made. It’s not a case that these movies and games based on the “Mafia/Werewolf” premise wouldn’t exist without this movie. I would guess most of the creators of those projects never heard about it. It is however probably the first. So it gets points for that.
Conclusion
Ultimately this is much better than you would probably expect and a refreshingly different approach to the genre. It is hampered however by gimmickry and being unable to escape the sheer 70’s-ness of it’s production. Overall though I think I will be generous and give it a 6/10. I can see myself watching this again sometime (Even though a re-watch makes the “Guess the Werewolf” gimmick even more pointless).
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