Flight 7500 teaser shows promise

Something spooky must be juuuust off-screen...

Surprisingly I'm actually looking forward to this film after watching the recently released teaser trailer. It might turn out to be a bunch of bunk, but whoever made the teaser certainly knew what they were doing. Looks like Grudge director Takashi Shimizu's Flight 7500 is set to be released late this coming summer. Ghosts on a Plane! Trailer below:

The (Unnecessary) Thing (2011)

My tagline: It's not necessary. Ever.

Being that The Thing (1982) is my favourite Carpenter film (and is still to this day, in my opinion, the best use of practical effects in a horror film), I shuddered when I heard that it was being remade last year. I suppose it's not in any way surprising given that Hollywood has nearly given up on creating new IP in the horror genre, but I had thought that The Thing might be safe. Foolish me. The bloated and festering cash cow has struck again!

When production began it was announced that this Thing would not be a direct remake, but instead a prequel, intended to both be it's own film and to setup events for Carpenter's original. That immediately posed problems in my mind and I avoided it in theatres, yet now that it's out on video I thought I'd give it a go. Here's my truncated thoughts on the film:

Totally pointless. 

This guy must have seen the dailies...

I suppose I should briefly explain why I find it so pointless. First and foremost, it's very existence nullifies the fantastic intro of Carpenter's original. The slow build of the first half of the '82 version begins in the very first frame of the film. Why is there a dog running across the tundra? Why are crazy Norwegians in a helicopter trying to blow it the hell up? Why is this minimalist synthesized Morricone soundtrack so incredibly awesome? The answers to two of those questions are spoiled by the prequel's very premise, as it tells the story of what happened at the Norwegian camp just prior to the start of the original. Call me crazy (go ahead), but I much prefer the mystery that the '82 version builds on, as before the alien even reveals its presence there's already the interesting issue of mad Scandinavian scientists at hand. Not to mention (spoiler ahead) that the prequel ends with the survival of a main character who plays no role in Carpenter's film yet would presumably still be around the Norwegian camp when the Americans investigate. But what if, you might ask, I've never seen Carpenter's version and have no intention to? Would the 2011 Thing be less offensive? After berating you I would answer no, no it would not.

"Help! I've been photoshopped to a low resolution monster!"

I will say that the 2011 Thing isn't an awful film in its own right. It isn't a hokey supernatural mash-up with teenagers and it doesn't rely on ridiculous plot twists or torture porn to get an audience reaction. It's fairly straightforward, and if you're going to crib material, you can do a lot worse than Carpenter's version. The problem is that it pushes aside much of the paranoia and horror found in the original in lieu of showing the "creature" over and over and over again. And man alive is the CGI bad. As I mentioned, Carpenter's version has some of the most impressive and disturbing practical monster effects I've ever seen. Sure they have their moments of iffiness, but they have a concrete, real presence that the prequel completely loses. If this movie had been made 6 or 7 years ago it would have been passable, but I've seen episodes of TV with more impressive effects. A suggestion: if your creature models are incredibly complex yet you do not have the money to fully realize that complexity, perhaps consider showing them far less frequently. It'll reduce the laughing and head-shaking syndrome your audience appears to have contracted.

So if you're a fan of Carpenter's The Thing, there's very little reason to watch this "prequel". It destroys the mystery, retreads exactly the same ground, and does so with far less finesse. If you are still oddly compelled to watch it, watch the original first and treat the prequel as a mildly interesting aside.

A final thought: testing blood one petri dish at a time to weed out an alien creature? Tense and effective. Checking each character's mouth for fillings instead? Not so much. Healthy teeth, the number one sign someone is a murderous shapeshifter from space.

Godzilla on Criterion Blu Ray... for real!

Wow, can't say I ever thought this would happen, but also can't say I'm at all disappointed. Godzilla/Gojira on Criterion Blu Ray! Here's a link to the details on the Criterion homepage. I'm REALLY hoping Criterion decide to release this cover art as a poster like they did for Hasu, which currently stands as my favourite film in the Criterion collection.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 4K Restoration!

Looks like Disney has finally ponied up the funds to give 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, one of my all time favourite films from their catalogue, a proper restoration! Looking forward a great deal to its eventual release on Blu Ray. I'll fully admit that this is a bit of a strange film and certainly not to everyone's taste, but it will always have a special place for me. Along with Jason & the Argonauts, I'd count this film among the movies that really helped developed my love for movies when I was young. Then again, I'm also a big fan of Disney's The Black Hole so take that for what it's worth (c'mon, release that on Blu Ray Disney, I dare you!).

Here's a bit of info on the restoration process, courtesy of the AMIA (The Association of Moving Image Archivists).

Haunted House Films - Thoughts on The Uninvited (1944)

Original poster for The Uninvited

I've been wanting to see this film for quite some time but I've never come across the DVD, even at specialty shops. It turns out after a bit more research that there is no DVD, at least a legitimate one, in Region 1 (or possibly anywhere). Something to do with it being a Paramount film sold to Universal decades ago. It's really a shame because it means this classic remains unseen or even unknown by a generation of horror fans. Being as it is an appropriate time of year I thought I'd try and visit some classic and contemporary horror films that I've never seen before (there are some, shocking I know!), and The Uninvited was at the top of the list. I did manage to track down a watchable copy (I'm resourceful like that) and put it through its paces last night. If you'd like a synopsis of the film, check IMDB for a ridiculously detailed one (here). I'm just going to share some (mostly) spoiler-free thoughts.

Born in a decade still primarily obsessed with the classic monster film and tales of the occult, Lewis Allen's The Uninvited must have been something of a breath of fresh air for horror fans of the time. From what I understand, The Uninvited (adapted from the novel Uneasy Freehold by Dorothy Macardle) was one of the first Hollywood movies to tackle the haunted house genre with a story featuring actual spirits as opposed to folks in sheets or masks played for comedy or diversion (think all of the baddies on Scooby-Doo). For what can essentially be considered a fledgling effort into the sub-genre, the results are remarkable. Yes, it does suffer from overly... enthusiastic acting from time to time (the character of the sister is the worst offender), and yes, comedic moments and sometimes inappropriate scoring do distract occasionally, but much of that can be attributed to the era, and despite these issues it manages to entertain.

Winward House

In my opinion one of the most, if not the most, important aspects in any haunted house film is the house itself. In the best haunted house films the house becomes a character, not simply providing a space for the action but developing a unique personality of its own or personifying the emotional state of its owner or vistors. The very fact that most of these houses are named and are continually referred to by name suggests this is an important consideration to author, screenwriter and director alike. In The Haunting (1963 original, NOT the 90s remake), Hill House is devious, both playing with and tormenting its vistors while in The Legend of Hell House (1973), the house embodies pure evil, a twisted creation of its equally twisted owner. Windward House from The Uninvited is far less malevolent than either of these, yet it nevertheless takes on human characteristics, a sad and lonely sentinel keeping watch at the edge of the cliffs (an important location for the film's plot). Although much of The Uninvited was shot on a soundstage with either projected or matte backgrounds, the end result is still impressive, creating a spooky and believable atmosphere, creating perhaps one of my favourite set pieces of the entire genre (see below). I may at some point in the future bore you with my thoughts on the importance of spatial geography in relation to the effectiveness of a haunted house story (lucky you), but I'll spare you that for now and simply say that Winward House works.

Before I ramble on too long, I'll quickly say that the supernatural elements work as well. It would seem some of the ghost effects were added at the last minute at the insistance of the producers, who thought the haunting were too subtle. While you might argue that what is left unseen is often more frightening than what is shown (did Ebert say that? Was it someone else?), the effects are used very sparingly, and I'll be damned if they weren't better than so much of what passes for "ghosts" these days. Hollywood, time to look backwards to see what worked rather than forwards to a future rife with awful CGI scares. Equally as important is the sound; the first time I heard the disembodied sobbing I got a little chill up my spine.

So if you can overlook some of the 1940s conventions (quirky dialogue, music, etc.), The Uninvited has a lot to offer fans of the genre. For it's place as forerunner and inspiration to the works that followed (The Haunting, in my opinion, being the best) alone it's a must-watch, but that it's entertaining and atmospheric to boot make it all the more enjoyable and a perfect distraction for a cold and windy October night. Highly recommended (if you can find it, that is).

NOTE: For some excellent screen captures from the film, check out this link to one of my favourite blogs, The Obscure Hollow. The second shot down, the room with the skylights, is what I was referring to above as one of my favourite set pieces from the genre!

Midnight Madness Reviews... eventually.

I had intended to write reviews of the TIFF films I've seen at Midnight Madness the day following each screening, but I've been too preoccupied with other things (work, school and zombie games). I think, therefore, I shall just do a quick summary after the festival is over, highlighting what to see and what to avoid. So far it looks like most of what's been shown has been picked up for distribution. Or I might not. No one reads this stuff anyways.

The Raid

Who'd have thought that an Indonesian film directed by a Welshman would turn out to be one of the greatest pieces of action cinema I've ever seen? Honestly this film has some of the most fluid and kinetic violence ever put on celluloid, at least in my experience. The gunplay is brutal, but the martial arts are better. I think Roddy Piper might have competition for longest brawl.

From what I understand it's one of the only films ever made to feature Indonesian Silat martial arts. I won't even attempt to describe the fighting style, but suffice to say it looks frightening in motion. All I can really say is that if you like action films, do whatever you can to see The Raid.

Midnight Madness Begins!

Thought I'd test out the new iOS Blogger app with a post from the first screening of TIFF Midnight Madness at Ryerson Theatre. First up? The Raid. Like almost every other MM film, I have no idea what this one is about except that some guy in line said it had crazy martial arts. Bring it on.

Review - Atrocious

While I very well could just let the title speak for itself as to the quality of this film, I thought I might take a few sentences to explain why Fernando Barreda Luna's Atrocious is, well, just that.

Ok, perhaps that's being a little harsh, this wasn't the worst horror film I've seen in the last while, but it certainly doesn't have much going for it either. For starters, I must make clear that I have nothing inherently against the "found footage" genre, made famous by The Blair Witch Project. It seems to get a lot of hate from some people, despite the fact that Paranormal Activity and REC were fairly entertaining. Yes, the camera is going to be shaky. Yes, the camera is going to be on at times when no normal person would be recording. Yes, at some point someone will inevitably use the night vision mode to see in the dark. And of course YES, someone is probably going to point the camera at themselves and sob in a very unattractive closeup. But like slasher films have their tropes, so does this genre. Complaining about any of these aspects is like complaining that the killer used a big kitchen knife or that he's wearing a spooky mask.

So why does Atrocious fail? It starts out well enough, introducing a brother and sister that are film fans and like to make short films about urban legends. Not a bad premise, and it explains why they have nice looking cameras that they carry around with them all the time (Note: I think the version I saw was cropped to 4:3, as the promo materials I've seen show 16:9 images). It then tells us that they're visiting a house that has been empty for ten years (and that they used to visit when they were kids - a fact that has NO relevance to the plot apparently), which supposedly has an urban legend attached to the surrounding area. A spooky legend about a girl who helps lost children find their way out of a spooky hedge maze (that just happens to be on the house property). Could be worse, right? Sure it could. The first part of the film actually does a good job building tension. They interview someone about different versions of the legend, they have some creepy night footage of the dog barking at the chained up gate to the maze and they're forbidden from entering the maze by their father. Then, having set things up effectively enough, it's as if the director suddenly realized he had to fill the remaining 30 minutes of the very short 70 minute runtime with, you know, content.

Wow, this is the exact same gesture I was making for the
last third of this film....

And according to Luna, content is 25 uneventful minutes of running through a hedge maze in night vision, screaming and then crying. What potentially could have been a tight, frightening 10 minute sequence quickly (or should I saw slowly) drags out into a boring, and then frustrating, experience. Building anticipation is one thing, but then failing so incredibly to offer ANY sort of payoff is another. I jest not when I say I resorted to fast-forwarding through a good portion of this section, hoping that something scary might make me want to rewind. Nope. Sure, a few things happen in the maze, but they ultimately seem silly rather than terrifying. The action eventually returns to the house where there is one semi-inspired jolt scare followed by more VERY long, boring and decidedly un-frightening shots.  Things then conclude with an out-of-the-blue "superincrediblecrazywowshockingIcan'tbelieveit" twist ending. I know a twist ending is almost to be expected nowadays, but come on, shouldn't it have SOMETHING to do with the rest of the film? The best twists have either a deep connection to the body of the film, or if not, at least are so incredible that they demand respect (Miike, I'm looking at you and Dead or Alive). The ending to Atrocious can be likened to the ending of The Sixth Sense if some random character introduced in the last 10 seconds of that film was actually the ghost instead of Bruce Willis.

Anyways, don't waste your time should this ever get released in North America. It seems to be getting mostly positive reviews on the festival circuit, and I can't understand why. Standards must have become universally lowered while I wasn't paying attention.

Nightmare on Elm Street 3D "Poster"

Nightmare on Elm Street 3D poster by McFarlane Toys

I've been looking for one of these "posters" for YEARS now, but always hesitated to buy one because shipping from the States was nuts. Low and behold I walk into Silver Snail (which is quickly becoming one of my favourite geeky spots in Toronto) and there were a couple of them right at the front for just $12! It's not so big (12 3/4" x 8 1/2"), but it's more of a 3D model than a flat poster, but it's well made and pretty damned awesome if you ask me (with one of my favourite horror tag lines of all time). Now all I have to do is track down the Alien one, which has a light up egg... let the search begin!

Woman in Black - New Teaser Trailer

I posted something about this ages ago, but now there's a better quality teaser out. I have to say I'm a bit puzzled as to why the girl's voiceover has an American accent and not a British one, but I'll just hope that's a trailer-only thing. I'm certain it's still set in England... Interested to see how it compares to the BBC production.

Knights of Badassdom

A busy, busy schedule has kept me away for a while, but I'm back! Thought I'd quickly plug this film, even though I haven't seen it. Geek culture is on the rise and it's nice to see a film that aims to respect it and take the piss out of it at the same. In my opinion, films in the vein of Scary Movie and Meet the Spartans have done nothing but damage the genres they try and spoof. For every clever joke (and those are few and very far between), there are dozens of juvenile sex and body humour jokes that seem below even the lowest common denominator of filmgoer. Studios seem less and less likely to take a chance on something different now that they've successfully conditioned teenaged audiences to flock to "hilarious" crap and generic, recycled garbage.

True, I'm basing my entire opinion of the film on this lone trailer, but it seems like The Knights of Badassdom has some heart to it as well, on top of humour, horror and geek references. Plus the cast is pretty great. Steve Zahn has really impressed me on Treme recently, and Summer Glau is... well... Summer Glau. Plus it has Danny Pudi (Community), Ryan Kwanten (True Blood), Jimmi Simpson (Always Sunny) and the always fantastic Peter Dinklage to round it out.

I'm not a role-playing kinda guy, but I think this film has a lot of potential to be wildly entertaining. I've attached the trailer below. Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt!

Aliens: Colonial Marines

I was certain that this game was cancelled, but it looks like it's back in a big way. I'm hoping this is FINALLY the Aliens game that a developer gets right. Pretty much every other attempt has been a failure, from mild to catastrophic. I think this one might have potential though. Might help generate some interest in Prometheus...

Here's the E3 teaser trailer:

Rammbock Review

I forgot I was planning on writing a quick review for this film. I shall instead write a very, very, very quick review. It is as follows: this was a mildly amusing, mostly uninspired, fairly short German zombie film. Not bad by any means, just nothing special. If you've only got an hour to spare and are in the mood for European zombies, this is the film for you!

That is all.

Rammbock - Berlin Zombie Mayhem

So I watched Rammbock the other night. I'll write up a quick review for it soon, but here's a trailer. It was only 60 minutes, but it was a pretty good 60 minutes. Doesn't hold a candle to La Horde in my opinion, but I suppose it is 100% less ridiculous. Ok, maybe 95% less ridiculous.

BD Horror News - Aliens Spotted On 'Prometheus' Set!

I still have no idea just how Prometheus is connected to the Aliens universe, but it looks like everyone's favourite chest-bursting super bugs will at least have a cameo in Ridley Scott's new sci-fi epic. Most excellent. Link below:

BD Horror News - Aliens Spotted On 'Prometheus' Set!

Nightmare on Elm Street Poster

This is officially one of my favourite movie posters of all time. It went on sale a couple of days ago and I completely forgot about it, so of course it sold out. Here's hoping they do another print run, but it's unlikely.

Return of Pyramid Head

He's back!

One of my favourite video game villains (if you can call him that, he just sort of does his own creepy thing) seems to be making a return in the Silent Hill movie sequels (in 3D of course)!. Actually kind of excited for this, photos floating around the web confirm that at least they've got a good art director. The original Silent Hill film, even with its faults, is probably still the best video game to movie translation I've ever seen. This is being filmed locally in Ontario.

Just a short clip of Pyramid Head, skin ripping and all.

Woman in Black - Hammer Remake

Very excited about this one! The original BBC made-for-TV version from the 80s quickly became a favourite of mine after a friend recommended it. Just the right mix of pacing and spooky atmosphere (including one of the most amusing but effective jump scares I've ever seen). As long as the remake avoids excessive CGI and finds the right balance I think it might be a winner. Think it might actually be a good role for Radcliffe as well. Let's hope it gets NA distribution one day. Teaser below!

Melancholia

Looks like Lars Von Trier is taking a planet-sized stab at the bizarre yet again. Not quite sure what to think of this one yet. Haven't had much desire to watch Antichrist, but I'm sure I'll see it eventually. Although I know it will never happen, every time I see his name mentioned in the press I secretly hope he's doing something a little more Riget-like. Still my favourite TV series of all time (perhaps tied with Season 1 of Twin Peaks...)