tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61326207211366108442024-03-13T13:40:41.555-05:00From Midnight, With LoveThe People's Blog For Great Horror, Genre, and Cult Cinema!The Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09871017982169159144noreply@blogger.comBlogger834125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132620721136610844.post-5589712233421813762017-01-03T17:54:00.001-06:002017-01-03T17:54:14.036-06:00The Mike's Top 11 Films of 2016<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Yeah, I'm surprised to see me writing this too. It's been a while.<br />
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I'm not gonna do one of those all about what's been up with me paragraphs, the simple explanation for my absence is that I wanted to write a book so I tried that and failed for a few reasons and then just kinda didn't want to write anymore. So I didn't. </div>
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But today, I wanted to write a list. So I am. Maybe I'll give writing another go, maybe I won't. Let's all just take it one day at a time.</div>
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Speaking of one day at a time, let's talk about 2016 - one of the weirdest years I can remember in my life. If you're an American, like me, you know how disastrous our political climate was this year, and how we've basically devolved into being unable to be civil with each other. Celebrities died left and right, people complained about either how bad the year was or how bad people who complained about celebrities dying are, and then we rinsed and repeated. It was a really bad year for empathy, and that put a lot of people - including me - into a bit of a funk at times.</div>
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But, as is always the case, the movies were there for us. The movies of 2016 are another thing I heard a lot of complaints about; I'm here to tell you to cut that crap out. There are always good movies being made. Sometimes it's harder to find them, but they're out there.</div>
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Here's the ones I found. No qualifiers, not genre specific, just movies that I loved. Let's do this.</div>
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<u><i><b>Honorable Mention (in alphabetical order):</b></i></u></div>
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<b>10 Cloverfield Lane</b>, <b>Blair Witch</b>, <b>Blood Father</b>, <b>Captain America: Civil War</b>, <b>The Conjuring 2</b>, <b>The Girl on the Train</b>, <b>The Infiltrator</b>, <b>Swiss Army Man</b></div>
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<b><i><u>First Runners-Up (in alphabetical order):</u></i></b></div>
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<b>Everybody Wants Some!!</b>, <b>The Invitation</b>, <b>Keanu</b>, <b>Midnight Special</b>, <b>The Neon Demon</b>, <b>The Nice Guys</b>, <b>The Shallows</b>, <b>Star Trek Beyond</b></div>
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<b><i><u><span style="font-size: large;">The Mike's Top 11 Films of 2016</span></u></i></b><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Yk8U3HtgCUc/WGrqPR61fVI/AAAAAAAANn4/5-E-dzttf7kz6NmARcNOleFPF9vyr5DRwCLcB/s1600/rogue_one_a_star_wars_story_poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b style="text-align: left;"></b></a></div>
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<b>11 - Rogue One: A Star Wars Story </b></div>
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Directed by Gareth Edwards</div>
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This is the Star Wars movie I've been waiting for. It doesn't match the pure spectacle of <b>The Empire Strikes Back</b> or provide the escapist thrills of last year's <b>The Force Awakens</b>, but it's got all the drama I wanted. Led by a wonderfully diverse cast and strong direction by Gareth Edwards, Rogue One gives us a darker set of characters and deeper look at what went into the rebellion we've come to know through its glossier brethren. </div>
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As the final act unrolls, we know the doom that the characters we're following are facing. But there's an uplifting hope that comes from watching them fight back in the face of impossible odds, and the film's emphasis on faith in their cause resonates as much as any other message in the series. One character repeats "I am one with the force, and the force is with me" throughout the movie, and every time we hear it it gets harder to deny the hope that the characters in this story are providing to us through their selfless actions. Rogue One might not be the best Star Wars movie, but right now it's the one that speaks to me and seems to mean something.</div>
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<b>10 - Sing Street</b></div>
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Directed by John Carney</div>
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We jump from an interstellar rebellion in a galaxy far, far away to a rebellion against normalcy by a group of Irish teens in the 1980s. <b>Once</b> writer/director John Carney hit another home run with Sing Street, in which a youngster - inspired by his brother's music library and, of course, a girl - decides to start his own rock band with his classmates. </div>
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If you don't think this sounds like the kind of movie I'd usually write about, you're correct - but it's really difficult to resist this movie's gleeful charms. Featuring a soundtrack that's inspired by bands like Duran Duran, The Clash, and The Cure, Sing Street provides a touching love story and a soundtrack full of criminally catchy tunes that tell the story of young love and finding your voice. You might not believe me when you start watching Sing Street, but I think you're probably going to have a big grin across your face by the time the movie ends.</div>
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<b>9 - Hush</b></div>
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Directed by Mike Flanagan</div>
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One of my long time favorites, Mike Flanagan, brought at least two incredibly effective horror movies to audiences in 2016 (I missed <b>Before I Wake</b>, or maybe it hasn't been released yet, I'm not sure anymore). <b>Ouija: Origin of Evil</b> was a surprisingly effective sequel (to a terrible film) that made it to theaters in October, but it was the Netflix exclusive thriller Hush that really knocked my socks off. </div>
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Keeping it simple is one of the most important things in horror, and Flanagan and his co-writer/star Kate Siegel did just that with this tale. Siegel stars as a mute writer who lives in a secluded home in the woods, and if you're thinking "Hmmm, that sounds like someone who would get targeted by a psycho killer in a horror movie" right now then YOU ARE EXACTLY RIGHT. While that premise doesn't seem too inventive, it's the execution by director and star that really makes Hush work. Siegel gives one of the year's best performances - I actually believed she was deaf in real life - and when the game of cat and mouse between her and her attacker picks up in the final act the film becomes a great battle for survival. It makes its home invasion plot feel fresh, which is an achievement in 2016.</div>
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<b>8 - Don't Think Twice</b></div>
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Directed by Mike Birbiglia</div>
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I know as much about improv comedy as I do about fly fishing, which is to say that I know absolutely nothing about improv comedy except for where it occurs and the fact that people do it. So when a cast of comedians I love brought me to Mike Birbiglia's Don't Think Twice I found myself learning a lot about an art I was completely clueless toward. I also found myself caught up in the film completely; I actually watched it twice in a row when I first saw if because I wanted to take it all in again.</div>
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Don't Think Twice does a great job of managing humorous people in situations that aren't very humorous. This is a tale of jealousy and changing friendships that doesn't give the viewer a lot of easy answers about what they should think about each character's personal dilemmas. It's a complex drama, and this complexity allows talents like Gillian Jacobs and Keegan-Michael Key to show off their range. Birbiglia has shown through his comedy and writing that he has a true gift for finding the silver lining in loss and fear (see <b>Sleepwalk with Me</b>, one of my favorite movies, for another glimpse at this), and Don't Think Twice works on this level really well.</div>
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<b>7 - Shin Godzilla</b></div>
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Directed by Hideaki Anno</div>
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If you know me you know it's no surprise that I loved a Godzilla movie, but I'm personally surprised that this movie is here. Shin Godzilla, which could serve as the starting point for a fourth series of Godzilla films by Toho Studios in Japan, is unlike anything else we've seen featuring Big G. </div>
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Not a remake or reimagining, Shin Godzilla starts completely anew with the monster we've come to know and love over the last sixty years, showing us a first appearance to humanity by the monster that's set against the world's current political climate. On that note, large sections of the film focus on politicians and scientists in conference rooms as they work around the clock to figure out just how to approach the situation we find them in. It's not what you'd expect - those who criticized the 2014 <b>Godzilla</b> film for being "talky" will be maddened by this.</div>
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Shin Godzilla has been met by a love it or hate it response from a lot of viewers. I understand the concerns about this being an entirely different Godzilla - in both appearance and substance - but I think the premise was handled well and there was just enough of the big guy that I couldn't turn away. If Toho keeps making Godzilla movies like this we could be looking at a bright future for the King of the Monsters.</div>
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<b>6 - The Witch</b></div>
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Directed by Robert Eggers</div>
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I watched The Witch at a theater on a dreary February afternoon this year, and I remember two phases of that viewing. I alternated between leaning forward in my chair, grinning as I anticipated where the story might go next and pressing myself back against the seat, bracing myself for whatever the shrill musical score was telling me was about to happen. I was entranced by this old-fashioned horror tale, and I couldn't have been happier about that when I walked out of the theater. </div>
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It's become common for modern horror films to do their work on the viewer by attacking the senses, as shown by the likes of <b>Insidious</b> and <b>The Conjuring</b>, but The Witch provided me with a lot of the same sensations and seemed to put in a lot less effort. This is a deliberate folktale, and I dug its approach, I loved the big reveal in the final act, and I thought the ambiguous ending was perfectly haunting. The Witch is my kind of high-art horror movie.</div>
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<b>5 - Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping</b></div>
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Directed by Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone</div>
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I've probably watched <b>Hot Rod</b> ten times since it came out, and I know you might be walking away from reading this right now because I am definitely biased, but please stay with me. The Lonely Island trio of Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer know what they're doing when it comes to musical parodies - as evidenced by their success as a band on Saturday Night Live and elsewhere - and their approach to the mockumentary here is one of the funniest comedies Hollywood has produced in years.</div>
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Popstar is full of catchy songs (I dare you to not laugh at <i>Finest Girl</i>'s combination of sex and Bin Laden) and great supporting turns (Tim Meadows has never been better), but it's the A-list musical cameos and how seriously everyone approaches the ridiculous pop music scene that really made me smile. I didn't think people like Ringo Starr and Nas (I don't really even know who Nas is!) would make me laugh so much in 2016, which is what makes Popstar such a perfect comedy. </div>
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<b>4 - Hail, Caesar!</b></div>
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Directed by Joel & Ethan Coen</div>
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If you had told me one year ago that this many movies with musical numbers would end up in my favorites list I'd have thought you were nuts. But hey, it's not like that's the most surprising thing about 2016.</div>
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What's not surprising is another great film from the Coen brothers, who won me over with their comedic tale of Hollywood communism in the 1950s. A cast of superstars makes sure the film is full of memorable scenes, but it's young Alden Ehrenreich who steals much of the movie as the young western star that links much of the story together. And at the center of everything is George Clooney, a Hollywood leading man playing a caricature of a Hollywood leading man, whose final scene on the set of a biblical epic is one of the best of the year. Hail, Caesar! isn't the Coens at their most ambitious, but there's a lot of fun to be had with this much talent and a plot that has this much fun poking jabs at one of the more infamous moments in Hollywood history.<br />
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<b>3 - Hell or High Water</b><br />
Directed by David Mackenzie<br />
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Hell or High Water is another refreshingly original film from 2016, a simple crime story in which well written characters are brought to life by incredibly talented actors. It's a subtly political story disguised as a modern day Robin Hood tale, but by not resorting to making one side the villains and the other the heroes it keeps the viewer interested in the fate of everyone involved.<br />
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While the world is caught up in turmoil due to people's inability to see the other side's point of view, Hell or High Water managed to serve as a refreshing counterpoint to our current reality for me. It's nice to see a film take on a human matter without demonizing one side or the other, and the film's final scene is one of the great compromises I've seen in cinema. Mackenzie and writer Taylor Sheridan manage to take an ethical approach to a criminal situation at all turns, which makes Hell or High Water one of the great successes of the year.<br />
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<b>2 - Arrival</b><br />
Directed by Dennis Villeneuve<br />
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Arrival has been one of the most debated films of the year - unlike Hell or High Water, its message is not at all subtle - but I think it's the most important piece of cinema I saw this year.<br />
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It's a simple premise - aliens show up, the military and scientists try to figure out why - but its unique approach to language and communication makes it something completely new to viewers. and the way Villeneuve frames the action is so poetic and deliberate. The first encounter between our main characters and the aliens - from their ascent into the ship to the first contact between man and creature - held me in a trance for its entirety. I could watch that scene on repeat for two hours and be perfectly content.<br />
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Arrival talks too much for some viewers and weaves its way to a controversially one-side conclusion, but I can't say that bothered me one bit. This is a special movie that does things its own way, and it is stuck in a great cinematic experience.<br />
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<b>1 - Green Room</b><br />
Directed by Jeremy Saulnier<br />
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Green Room tops the list as my favorite movie of 2016 and, as much as I loved all of these other films, it wasn't even close. Every time I think about this incredibly tense, unfathomably gory slice of cult cinema...I smile.<br />
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With great performances - led by the fearless Imogen Poots (who also popped up in a funny role in <b>Popstar</b>) and the late Anton Yelchin - and some of the most brutal scenes we've seen in a long time, it would be easy to point out a lot of reasons why Green Room works. For me it all boils down to one simple point though: this is a film about people who run into a bad situation where they're faced with heartless evil, and we experience first hand everything they have to do as they fight to survive. It's hard to watch at times, because things don't go as you expect them to and at any point it's possible the entire film will jump in another direction. Green Room feels so real and so raw, and that makes this bleak backwoods clash so gripping. From the opening scenes to the perfectly hilarious final line, Green Room is a one of a kind film that shouldn't be missed.<br />
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So that's the list. I probably haven't seen that movie you want me to list, but I might want to. Maybe I have seen it and just wasn't sure what to make of it yet. (I'm looking at you, <b>The Lobster</b>!) Feel free to hit up the comments and tell me what you loved, or to tell me off. Either way we'll be talking about movies, so we'll be in a place I want to be.</div>
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Now let's get to 2017. I'm sure the first great movie of the year is sneaking up on us right now and we don't even know it. And I love that feeling.</div>
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The Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09871017982169159144noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132620721136610844.post-58033038721669052932014-04-17T20:43:00.000-05:002014-04-17T21:08:42.299-05:00FMWL Indie Spotlight - The Lashman<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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(2014, Dir. by Cameron McCasland.)<br />
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Review by The Mike.<br />
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One of my most common complaints with "retro" genre films - films like <b>Grindhouse</b> and <b>Machete</b> and dozens of low budget imitators - is that the pace is updated for modern audiences. Of course, there's an audience for fast-paced splatterfests out there, but I'm always appreciative of the filmmakers who pay homage to the past without forgetting that most genre films from the '70s and '80s didn't move at breakneck speeds.<br />
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One example of this is <b>The Lashman</b>, Cameron McCasland's debut slasher throwback in which some friends head off for a weekend at a cabin only to find that the angry spirit of a lash-wielding fella from the 1800s is at work in the woods. It's a simple kind of horror film - five friends, no civilization, a deadly legend come to life - but it's also an authentic reminder of the things we love about this kind of film.<br />
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(Now that I think about it, should I be dropping the s and just calling this a "lasher film"? I do love being accurate, and it would probably be a great poster quote if I said it's "The first great Lasher film!", but that's just too confusing for me. Excuse me if I continue to say "slasher" despite the film's lashing nature.)<br />
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The first thing you'll notice about McCasland's film is probably that it looks like something you'd find on a VHS tape in the 1980s. For the most part, the clothes, cars and settings look like something out of<b> Just Before Dawn</b> or <b>The Burning</b>. The film's sound design is also intentionally low-tech, and younger viewers might not understand that this is how some movies used to sound when they were made on the cheap. It's obviously a zero budget film, but the attention to detail in making the film feel dated is one of the things that made me interested in The Lashman from the opening scenes.<br />
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The characters are not original for a slasher movie - sensitive guy (David Vaughn), nice girl (Stacey Dixon), lustful couple who make immoral decisions (Jeremy Jones & Kaylee Williams), nice girl's brother who doesn't fit in (Shawn C. Phillips)- but the actors all seem to know what their place is in the script and fit it well. Jones is especially effective as the aggressive member of the group who drinks too much and thinks with the wrong head, while Vaughn, Phillips, and Dixon have no problems fitting into the film. Williams' character is probably the most interesting of the bunch because she's written as something of a wild-card who brings sexual tension to the group. The character is a nice addition to the otherwise paint-by-numbers set up, but none of the actors or characters is bound to be the most memorable thing about the film.<br />
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I worry that many people may find The Lashman's pace to be concerning -
after the opening sequence establishes the villain it's a long stretch of time before blood flies again - but the slow build to madness is what won me over about this film. Patience pays off for McCasland, because the focus on these characters, the story of the Lashman, and the building tension in both their relationships and the setting is what makes The Lashman feel more like those early '80s slasher films that many of us love despite their flaws. Have you seen these tricks before? Probably. Do they still make for a great party horror flick? Absolutely.<br />
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Some of the film's charm is lost in the final act, as the showdown between the killer and his victims is brief and builds to an abrupt finale. There might have been some benefit to spreading out the kills a little more in the short film - which runs only 81 minutes with end credits - but the action is still entertaining and the film ends at a natural stopping point - which, of course, leaves the possibility of a sequel.<br />
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The Lashman probably isn't for everyone, but horror lovers who remember the VHS era fondly will surely admire it for what it is. Sure, none of the actors are going to win major awards and the script is simple and it's not the bloodiest thing you'll find and it's just simply not perfect. But I haven't seen a tribute to slasher cinema that feels as genuine as The Lashman does, and that alone should make it worth a viewing.<br />
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The Lashman will premiere this Saturday night at 7:00 pm at the Full Moon Horror Film Festival in Nashville, and if you're interested in keeping up with it you can check out the film's <a href="https://www.facebook.com/lashmanmovie">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/LashmanFilm">Twitter</a> pages to see when it'll be playing in your neck of the woods. Until then, enjoy the trailer below. <br />
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The Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09871017982169159144noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132620721136610844.post-59168068507249049422014-03-25T10:08:00.000-05:002014-03-25T10:08:00.718-05:00Book Review - Joyland<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Review by The Mike.<br />
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I hope that someday, when I get old, I'll be able to look back at my life with the wisdom shown by a Stephen King narrator. King has often been able to tell a story from the viewpoint of a grown man looking back on his tumultuous youth - for us movie fans the easy example is when Richard Dreyfus told the story of <b>Stand By Me</b>, though my favorite might be the lead character from his more recent tale <b>Riding the Bullet </b>- and he does it again in <b>Joyland</b>, a 2013 novel that offers just enough of the supernatural and the homicidal to suck a horror fan like me into this fantastic coming-of-age story.<br />
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At the center of the book, telling his tale from an older and wiser future, is a man named Devin Jones who went by Dev or Jonesy when he was a 21 year old amusement park employee in the summer of 1973. Jonesy, as I'd like to call him, is an altruistic English student, a virgin who spends his summer pining for the girl he lost while listening to The Doors and reading <b>The Lord of the Rings</b> when he's not working, and someone who just seems to bring out the best in the people around him. Maybe that's because he's the one telling us the story - our narrator does point out that everyone makes their past sound a little more exciting than it really was - but when we like the guy so much we're willing to go along with their version of events.<br />
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Jonesy's dramatic tale features plenty of interesting characters - carnies and college kids and a librarian and a sick kid and more - and all of them seem to orbit around his place of employment, the fictional North Carolina amusement park which shares its name with the novel. Joyland isn't a big deal of a place and Jonesy never paints the most glamorous picture of it, but he and King certainly paint it as an environment that would inspire someone to mutter that the place "has character." King is more than willing to pull back some curtains in the entertainment business, providing Jonesy and his co-workers with their own lingo that he dubs "the Talk," but most of the seedy prejudices you might have about carnival workers are absent from this book. King doesn't want us to think of Joyland as a bad place, despite some of the terrible things he creates there.<br />
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Those who know Stephen King's work (at this point in his career, is there anyone who doesn't?) might be surprised at how much of the book (which runs a meager 280ish pages in total) is about the carnival life and our lead's self-discovery during his time away from school. King does everything in his power to make Jonesy seem like a good kid - thanks to his narration from thirty years later things like suicidal tendencies and masturbation are brushed off as dumb kid stuff - but it never seems too forced. It's essential to Joyland that the reader truly likes Jonesy, and after finishing the book I don't see how anyone couldn't. He's a sweet character who is slightly one note, but he's never too simple or cliche.<br />
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This is a Stephen King book, and you're right to expect something sinister, but it's one of his most restrained supernatural tales. There are hints that some characters possess what his other books might call "a shine" and there's a ghost and there's talk about a few brutal (but not so brutal that you wouldn't see them on a prime time network drama) murders inside the story. Joyland left me wanting a little more in these areas - there are lots of explanations of experiences had by others but not enough direct reader-meets-evil moments to keep a more cynical horror fan's attention - but it's also a bit poetic how King manages to tell a story of a killing and a haunting without losing the book's more life-affirming message. <br />
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Joyland worked for me because it's written like so many other great King stories of redemption and growth and hope - themes that often get forgotten when people want to talk about Pennywise the Clown or Randall Flagg or Jack Torrance and his axe - and because it manages to keep a positive twist on death and the macabre. The book is full of death and sadness, but its structure - especially all the asides from the older Jonesy that key us in to some twists down the road - provides plenty of levity that keeps us from
sinking too far into the darker details of the story. It feels like this was all so simple to King - this is one the slightest books I've ever read from him - but I couldn't help being impressed when I realized how invested I was in this character and the events that made his time at Joyland so unforgettable. Joyland isn't an epic of terror like some of his more renowned classics, but it's a reminder that the author can still grab our focus and hold it for as long as he likes.The Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09871017982169159144noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132620721136610844.post-8866802826444514092014-01-09T17:29:00.000-06:002014-01-09T17:32:18.473-06:00The Mike's Top 11 Horror Films of 2013<div style="text-align: center;">
I said it last year and I'll say it again - going to 11 never gets old.</div>
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I realize things have been a little bit slow here of late, and even the Midnight Movie of the Week is on vacation. But I'm not gonna miss my chance for a good year-end wrap up. Moreover, there have been too many horror movies I didn't have the chance to cover in 2013, so this is my way of making up time for all y'all out there who might not know how good 2013 was in the horror 'verse.<br />
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Before we get to the top eleven, some honorable mentions are in order, and some ground rules must be set. The most important of these ground rules is that not all of these films are strictly 2013 releases. Like previous years (here's <a href="http://frommidnight.blogspot.com/2012/12/from-midnight-with-loves-top-11-horror.html">2012</a>, here's <a href="http://frommidnight.blogspot.com/2012/01/from-midnight-with-loves-top-11-genre.html">2011</a>, and here's <a href="http://frommidnight.blogspot.com/2010/12/fmwl-2010-year-that-was-part-two-fmwls.html">2010</a>), I'm considering films that a) were widely released in 2013, b) were provided to me for review in 2013, or c) were never widely released until their home video release in 2013. So, there will be a couple of outliers but I assure you they are damn fine horror films and if you're that broken up about them being here then you're clearly being silly. OK?<br />
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<u><b>Honorable Mention: </b></u><br />
(listed in alphabetical order)<br />
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<b>American Mary</b> - This might be #12 on the list, and it was a hard cut. I dig the Soska sisters' bold approach to filmmaking, and Katherine Isabelle owns the lead role. It's haunting in a gross kind of way. <br />
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<b>Byzantium</b> - I feel like I might be undervaluing this one, which is probably the biggest and most romantic vampire story in ages. Vampires have been a tool for lesser filmmakers of late, but Neil Jordan and company seem like they respect what they're doing here. That made the film stick with me longer than I expected.<br />
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<b>Cockneys vs. Zombies</b> - I feel like I've been fed up with zombies for years, but there's always a movie each year that surprises me. This year that movie was Cockneys vs. Zombies, which sounds like the worst idea but is actually a really funny and really exciting action comedy.<b> </b><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--WoM8oTYpjw/UsyRnzzkg3I/AAAAAAAAMOQ/iOFlpFWFlPE/s1600/darkskies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--WoM8oTYpjw/UsyRnzzkg3I/AAAAAAAAMOQ/iOFlpFWFlPE/s1600/darkskies.jpg" height="200" width="134" /></a><b>The Conjuring </b>- I don't get the love many have for this one, but I sure did have fun in the theater watching it. That counts for something.<b> </b><br />
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<b>Dark Skies</b> - For my money, this is the most underappreaciated horror film of the year. I went to see it just because I wanted to make fun of it (and because I had to see the school counselor when I thought I saw a UFO as a kid), but it ended up keeping me entertained. Well written and intense; it feels more genuine than most jump scare horror films we've seen lately.<br />
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<b>Frankenstein's Army</b> - This one's here mostly because it's just so cool looking. It feels like a low budget twist on a Guillermo Del Toro film, with a nice tie in to World War II and some jolting surprises. Director Richard Raaphorst is one to watch.<br />
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<b>Jug Face </b>- A unique backwoods horror with excellent work from Lauren Ashley Carter in the lead. Possibly the most original horror film I saw this year, and I think it might grow on me as time goes on.<br />
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<b>Manborg - </b>Not sure I saw anything this year that was more ridiculously fun than this.<br />
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<b>V/H/S 2</b> - A huge step up from the first film - which I liked a lot, too - and the much loved third segment in this one is probably as good as most people say it is. The whole thing still feels a little rushed to me, but I love the concept and wouldn't mind more of this series.<br />
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<b>World War Z</b> - It's mostly here because it was so much more exciting than I thought it would be and wasn't a total train wreck. Brad Pitt will do that for your movie.<br />
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(In the interest of full disclosure, here's a few limited release 2013 flicks I really want to see but didn't have a chance to get to before writing this. Maybe you'll see them on the 2014 list.<br />
<b>Berberian Sound Studio, Big Bad Wolves</b>, <b>Contracted, A Field in England, Haunter, Magic Magic</b>, <b>Only Lovers Left Alive, Resolution</b>, <b>We Are What We Are</b>, <b>Willow Creek,</b> <b>Witching & Bitching, WNUF Halloween Special, Would You Rather</b>.)<br />
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Now, list time! <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b>Number 11 - The Lords of Salem</b></u></span><br />
(Directed by Rob Zombie.)<br />
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I'm surprised that I'm listing this here too. Rob Zombie has never been my favorite cup of tea, but I've always respected something about his films, even when he was ruining everything I love about the first two <b>Halloween</b> movies. (Oh, did I bring that up again? My bad. Still bitter.)<br />
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The Lords of Salem has a lot of the same problems Zombie's other films have - it's 100% style-over-substance, for example - but it's also the first time that his wife, Sheri Moon Zombie, has been a capable actress - and she actually carries the whole darn film. There's a lot of beauty in this grimy film, and Zombie manages to create something that bizarre and memorable visually. The ending falls apart, but I still feel like the whole thing works. Well done, Mr. Zombie. You have my attention in a good way for once.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b>Number 10 - Grabbers</b></u></span><br />
(Directed by Jon Wright.)<br />
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Lots and lots of tentacles combine with a great comedic energy in this Irish monster flick, where likeable actors and a smart script reign. Richard Coyle and Ruth Bradley really work well together as the mismatched cops on the monster's trail, and the film ends up feeling like <b>Shaun of the Dead</b> than <b>Tremors</b> - two movies that any horror comedy should strive to replicate.<br />
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(By the way, this would be a heckuva double feature with Cockneys vs. Zombies, which you just read about in the Honorable Mentions section. Why do those UK folks get horror comedy so well when us Americans are making <b>Scary Movie</b>s and <b>A Haunted House</b>s? Poor America.)<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b>Number 9 - Here Comes The Devil</b></u></span><br />
(Directed by Adrian Garcia Bogliano.)<br />
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A Mexican homage to films like Rosemary's Baby, Here Comes The Devil is one of the creepiest horror films I've seen in a long time. The plot balances between human and supernatural horror very well as we learn about the evil at work in this family's life, and great performances by the young co-stars only make the film that much more effective. At the center of everything is a fantastic performance by Laura Caro and one of the best reveals we've seen in a long time. This one left me thinking and feels like a script from the 1970s that's been updated perfectly to modern times.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b>Number 8 - John Dies At The End</b></u></span><br />
(Directed by Don Coscarelli.)<br />
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It's about time that I start talking about Don Coscarelli as one of the greatest horror filmmakers, at least when it comes to being bizarre and unique. The man who created <b>Phantasm</b> and <b>Bubba Ho-Tep</b> did it again with the clinically insane John Dies At The End, a dimension-crossing, drug-induced fever dream with all sorts of entertaining stuff. Like meat monsters. And killer mustaches. See what I mean?<br />
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John Dies At the End (or, J-DATE, as I like to call it) doesn't work as well as Bubba Ho-Tep did in the pathos department - heck, very few horror movies are as emotionally involving as that one - but Chase Williamson and Rob Mayes are perfectly adaptable to the randomness of the film as the leads. J-DATE also features top notch special effects throughout, and it's the rare film that I can truly say never suffers a dull moment.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b>Number 7 - Kiss of the Damned</b></u></span><br />
(Directed by Xan Cassevetes.)<br />
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Style definitely won out over substance in many horror films this year, and Xan Cassavetes - the daughter of legendary director/Rosemary's Baby co-star John Casssavetes - provided one more example of that with Kiss of the Damned. This is another throwback vampire whose sexually charged roots spread into both Hammer Films' heyday and Italian vampire films of the '70s like <b>Daughters of Darkness</b>. <br />
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Shoddy acting aside - there's some language barrier issues at work here, even with English speaking Milo Ventamiglia - Kiss of the Damned is a captivating modern addition to the vampire subgenre, and - alongside the previously mentioned Byzantium - a nice reminder that some filmmakers are still willing to take vampires seriously when Hollywood doesn't.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b>Number 6 - The Last Will And Testament Of Rosalind Leigh</b></u></span><br />
(Directed by Rodrgio Gudino.)<br />
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This is one of the few films this year that made my skin crawl. A son inherits his late mother's home, and soon realizes the religious artifacts around the house are related to some cult stuff and suddenly everything gets creepy. It seems like a standard plot, but the approach to the film by director Rodrigo Gudino really plays up the relationship between mother and son that ended badly.<br />
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Many horror films deal with unfinished family business, but here we get terrifying work from the great Vanessa Redgrave, a whole lot of commentary on religion and Heaven and Hell, and in the end everything just feels so incredibly tense that it's impossible not to be affected by The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b>Number 5 - Maniac</b></u></span><br />
(Directed by Franck Khalfoun.)<br />
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This seemed like a bad remake of a film that didn't need to be remade when it was announced, and the casting of Elijah Wood in the lead didn't inspire much confidence in this horror fan - who is now pleased to admit he was totally wrong. Director Franck Khalfoun nails the sleazy tone of the original film and presents one of the most interesting portrayals of a mentally disturbed serial killer that I've ever seen on screen.<br />
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Khalfoun does a De Palma-esque job by keeping the camera inside the killer's eyes for much of the film, which creates a voyeuristic feeling that had me hooked on this film. Aided by a beautiful cast of potential victims (SIDE NOTE: That redheaded actress Megan Duffy who appears early in the film is literally the cutest thing. I just have to say that.) and a shockingly sinister Frodo, Maniac works. And it works really darn well.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b>Number 4 - Sleep Tight</b></u></span><br />
(Directed by Jaume Balaguero.)<br />
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It's been about 11 months since I watched Sleep Tight, and just the thought of it makes me smile a sinister smile. One half of the duo behind the first two <b>[REC]</b> films provides this marvelous thriller in which a demented doorman (Luis Tosar, giving what is probably my favorite performance in recent memory) pines for a beautiful woman and then begins to do nasty things in the name of love.<br />
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My favorite thing about Sleep Tight is Tosar's performance, as he makes Cesar the doorman into the most Norman Bates-ish horror villain since...well, Norman Bates, probably. I struggled with wanting to root for this guy, even though he was doing awful terrible things to this woman, because Tosar does such a good job of seeming lost in his love. It's probably kind of the same way we dudes always root for John Cusack when he stalks women, and I'm sure some feminists might say I'm evil for admitting what I just said - but the point I'm trying to make is that Sleep Tight is too good at getting the viewer involved and being creepy on a human level. And that's great horror.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b>Number 3 - Stoker</b></u></span><br />
(Directed by Park Chan-Wook.)<br />
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The English language debut of the South Korean director behind the rightfully Vengeance trilogy, Stoker - like Sleep Tight - draws on the influence of Hitchcock and manages to be incredibly unsettling while entering into the characters' home life.<br />
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Mia Wasikowska and Nicole Kidman both shine as the women of the film who are dealing with death, but it's the consistently undervalued Matthew Goode who steals the show as the bizarre uncle at the center of the script (which was written, oddly, by television star Wentworth Miller). Goode is perfectly stilted (it's eerily reminscent of this his turn as Ozymandias is <b>Watchmen</b>, only he's in a rich country home instead of a skyscraper) and his posturing throughout the film makes the character uncomfortable to watch. Park Chan-Wook plays on the same tensions between sex and violence that filled films like <b>Oldboy</b>, and with help from his cast leaves us with the most engrossing horror story of the year.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b>Number 2 - You're Next</b></u></span><br />
(Directed by Adam Wingard.)<br />
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I saw this thing three times while it was in the theater and if it was in the theater right now I would watch it again. (It's not, but it is out on blu-ray next Tuesday and I will be watching it then.) You're Next is kind of the ultimate junction between exploitation horror and slasher horror and torture horror and home invasion horror, and I'm still kind of in awe of it living up to the hype that had built around it over the last few years. Even more so than last year's The Cabin in the Woods - which ran away from the pack as my favorite horror movie of that year - this is a perfect party horror movie to enjoy with a group of blood-loving film fans.<br />
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But aside from just being a gory spectacle, You're Next has some of the more intriguing characters who have been brought to life in years, and several performances that pop off the screen. Sharni Vinson takes the "final girl" role to the next level, while AJ Bowen, Nicholas Tucci, and Joe Swanberg all shine as the competing brothers in this dysfunctional family of victims. And, to top everything off, one of my all-time favorites, Barbara Crampton, gets to scream in fear one more time. There are about 470 reasons this movie makes me smile (Larry Fessenden's in it too, you guys!), and I imagine it'll hold a place in the heart of horror fans for a long, long time.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b>Number 1 - Evil Dead</b></u></span><br />
(Directed by Fede Alvarez.)<br />
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I don't understand why horror fans aren't all in love with this movie like I am. I mean, I do understand - it's called Evil Dead but it's not <b>The Evil Dead</b> and horror fans are more defensive of their territory than a pack of opossums - but most of the criticisms I've seen lobbed at this movie make absolutely no sense in my mind. (P.S. - Even though I think you're taking crazy pills - I still love you, horror fans.)<br />
<br />
Instead of talking about what other people think, I should probably tell y'all why I love Evil Dead so much, shouldn't I? For starters, I should also point out that I love all the other Evil Dead films as much as anyone, and I wouldn't say this one improves on those films in any way. The biggest treat for me as I look at the four films that now inhabit this franchise is that each one has a different tone and feeling for the viewer than any of the rest. While this Evil Dead mimics some of the details of its predecessors and offers more than a few winks and nods at the series, it also makes enough changes along the way to feel unique and different.<br />
<br />
I also love the lead character created for the film. Mia, realized wonderfully by Jane Levy, is not Ash - and she also doesn't need to be Ash for the film to work. Alvarez and co-writer Rodo Sayagues made a brilliant choice by introducing drug addiction to the series and Mia's arc through the story provides for maximum drama as the film unfolds. Some have decreed that this is not a "strong" female character, but this portrayal of a young woman who is dealing with addiction - a portrayal that spotlights the trials of her addiction - allows her to grow while fighting herself and the forces at work in the woods. Maybe she's not Sigourney Weaver in Aliens, but I think this kind of strong female presence is more real and accessible than it would be if the film had just made Mia a regular old-fashioned butt-kicker.<br />
<br />
Most importantly, the film crescendos perfectly to a final confrontation that I think is as good as anything horror has produced in a long time. It's a literal bloodbath that is perhaps the goriest thing that's ever been sent to multiplex screens. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. For my money it might be the most beautiful horror sequence since <b>Suspiria</b>, and I don't feel like I'm being too hyperbolic when I say that.<br />
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Evil Dead has provided to be a divisive entry to the horror canon, and I am trying to understand when people voice their complaints about it. (Although, I generally feel like any complaint people have about this one is also a complaint that could be made about the original The Evil Dead - but that's a different story for a different day.) I think the new Evil Dead is a welcome companion to the original trilogy that I love so dearly. It's one of the most exciting, thrilling, disgusting, and memorable horror films of this generation.<br />
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Have your own favorites that I missed? Love these movies too? Think I'm being ridiculous and bat-shit crazy? The comment section below is open. Here's to another great year of horror in 2014, and I can't wait to make another list and have these conversations again next January. To paraphrase my hero Joe Bob Briggs and his thoughts on the drive-in, 2013 is a great example of why horror will never die.<br />
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(Any excuse to add Joe Bob to a post is an excuse I LOVE.) </div>
The Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09871017982169159144noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132620721136610844.post-4263809730328619202013-12-21T14:39:00.000-06:002013-12-22T14:42:21.372-06:00Midnight Movie of the Week #207 - Santa's Slay<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yKAUPEL3wjQ/UrdM75YLS3I/AAAAAAAAMN0/Bt_1SF20xdo/s1600/slaypresent.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><i>"Why, I'm just trying to spread a little yuletide fear!"</i></div>
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(2005)</div>
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Starring: Bill Goldberg, Douglas Smith, Emilie de Ravin, Robert Culp. </div>
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Directed by David Steiman.</div>
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Rated R for the interior of a nudey bar and all it's sights, some choice language, cartoonish violence that produces blood and a whole lot of grunting and sneering. Also, for Fran Drescher's voice.</div>
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<b><u>Santa's Slay in Six Words:</u></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Goldberg as Evil Santa? Silliness next.</div>
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<u><b>Why You'll Love It:</b></u></div>
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Love is a strong word for Santa's Slay, which is best viewed as a comedy (that's not really that funny) first and a horror movie (that's not really that bloody) second. Cheese is on the menu as WCW and WWF superstar Bill Goldberg stars as Santa, who is actually a demon that lost a bet on a curling match with an angel (Robert Culp, a welcome face in the goofy film) and was thus forced to spend 1000 years spreading joy. As you might guess from the title, that time is up and now the massive Santa is bringing terror to the town of Hell, Michigan. It's as ridiculous as it sounds and the whole thing comes off like one big joke, but if you have friends who love bad movies too and you want to celebrate Christmas then this is a good treat to find in your stocking (and then probably re-gift at a bad movie exchange next year).</div>
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<u><b>The Highlights:</b></u></div>
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<ul>
<li>The opening dinner sequence, in which several cameos occur, should give you a good feel for how ridiculous this movie is going to be. If you can't have a little fun with it, you should probably stop the movie and save some time.</li>
<li>The writer/director Steiman clearly must have graduated from The Arnold Schwarzenegger School of Excessive One-Liners (I swear to you guys that that school is out there somewhere; I believe it) and every kill the massive Goldberg makes happened is assisted by some kind of corny add-on. If you're in a punny mood you'll probably laugh a couple of times.</li>
<li>The weird thunderbuffalo thing that pulls evil Santa's sleigh is pretty darn cool. Yeah, I'm stretching for highlights here. But it's Christmas and I assume you want to see Santa kill things. <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yKAUPEL3wjQ/UrdM75YLS3I/AAAAAAAAMN0/Bt_1SF20xdo/s1600/slaypresent.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yKAUPEL3wjQ/UrdM75YLS3I/AAAAAAAAMN0/Bt_1SF20xdo/s640/slaypresent.jpg" width="640" /></a></li>
</ul>
<u><b>Also Worth Noting: </b></u><br /><ul>
<li> Hollywood heavyweight Brett Ratner was one of the producers behind the
film, and his touch is visible through some of the names who cameo in
the film. The "stars" involved range from the great James Caan and
comedy hero Dave Thomas to less welcome faces like those of Chris
Kattan, Fran Drescher, and Rebecca Gayheart.</li>
<li>Also randomly appearing is Tommy "Tiny" Lister, whose time as Zeus in the WWF (and the all-time classic/masterpiece of modern cinema <b>No Holds Barred</b>) makes him the second former professional wrestler in the film. Sadly, he and Goldberg never get to throw down.</li>
<li>Totally random tangent - In the real world, people are often very sensitive about saying it's "the holiday season" and not just saying Christmas. It's clear to me that horror movies do not share this sentiment. That's probably because there's not money to be found in a Kwaanza based slasher film, or maybe it's because kids love Christmas presents and dreidels are stupid. My point is this - Thanks for remembering Christmas, exploitative filmmakers.</li>
</ul>
<u><b>Santa's Slay is for fans of...</b></u><br />
Analyzing the impact of the decline of WCW on what was once it's biggest star, people who love corny holiday puns mixed with blood, <b>Lost</b> completists who want to see how this is actually a prequel to that show, and people whose standards are a little lower because they're just trying to get through Christmas alive. Which is all of us, right?<br />
<br />
<u><b>If You Like This You Might Also Like...</b></u><br />
<b>Don't Open Till Christmas</b> (1984)<br />
<b>Tales from the Crypt</b> (1972) (Which is really, really good, and I feel bad for listing it here, but it has good killer Santa.)<br />
<b>No Holds Barred </b>(1989) (The <b>Citizen Kane</b> of WWF stars in movies.)<b> </b><br />
<b>See No Evil </b>(2006)<br />
<b>Universal Soldier: The Return</b> (1999)<br />
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The Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09871017982169159144noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132620721136610844.post-30735916111838379362013-12-13T11:10:00.000-06:002013-12-13T11:10:00.937-06:00Here Comes The Devil<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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(2013, Dir. by Adrian Garcia Bogliano.)<br />
<br />
Review by The Mike.<br />
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There's a sequence in the middle of <b>Here Comes The Devil</b> that reminds me of some of the best horror movies ever made. It's one of those perfect moments where a character - in this case, the mother of two young children who fears something terrible has happened to her children - needs more information about what is going on and finds out things are much worse than even she imagined. Up until this point the film does a good job of convincing the viewer that something unnatural is going on with these children, but as the mother finds out more information from her children's nanny, the film hits a <b>Rosemary's Baby</b>-esque high point that is a thing of surreal horror beauty.<br />
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The rest of the film isn't quite as effective as this manic, dreamlike sequence, but Here Comes The Devil fits together as an incredibly inventive horror film for a lot of reasons.<br />
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The most obvious reason for the film's success is writer/director Adrian Garcia Bogliano, who has put together a psychological horror tale that preys on some of humanity's worst traits while it makes us wonder if something inhuman is at work as well. Bogliano also spends a lot of time building a correlation between sexual behavior and evil - which leads to some uncomfortable themes when the children are involved - which makes the film seem rather insidious as it works its way into the viewer's mind.<br />
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The plot, in its simplest form, is about two children who go hiking on an ominous hillside and disappear while their parents are fooling around in the car, and who are simply <i>different</i> when they are found the next morning. Their mother (played by Latina pop star Laura Caro), becomes incredibly concerned about their behavior and doctors and psychiatrists get involved too, but as time goes on she starts to believe something more evil might be going on here - which leads up to that great reveal I already mentioned and the tense final act that follows it.<br />
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Caro makes her film debut here, and gives a rather fantastic performance at the front of the film. I had not previously heard of her musical work, so I was shocked to find out she was not an established actress. She works well off the child actors in the film, who are also pretty new to the trade, while never breaking under the dramatic pressure of playing a mother who's face-to-face with evil. <br />
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The film doesn't hit all the right notes - there are a few twists that seem unnecessary and I felt like a few secrets that were revealed too early - but Here Comes The Devil is a dark and unique horror film and the few quibbles I did have didn't prevent the movie from sticking in my mind well after it ended. There's a bigger horror story that could probably be told based around what we learn in this film - in many ways, it plays like the origin story of what could become a gigantic evil - and Bogliano's family-based horror film definitely can be called one of the most interesting horror films of the year.<br />
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Here Comes The Devil is playing in select theaters as of December 13, and is also available on all those VOD platforms for rent. You can check out the Unrated trailer on YouTube <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsOJPrurjgE">at this link here</a>.The Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09871017982169159144noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132620721136610844.post-76832956903126519762013-12-12T22:26:00.000-06:002013-12-12T22:26:27.226-06:00Midnight Movie of the Week #206 - Dead Ringers<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"I've often thought that there should be beauty contests for the insides of bodies." </i></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-D5SDnMkA_E8/UqpxW4zydUI/AAAAAAAAMMw/3DtbwAGJ_Lc/s1600/deadringerstitle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="350" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-D5SDnMkA_E8/UqpxW4zydUI/AAAAAAAAMMw/3DtbwAGJ_Lc/s640/deadringerstitle.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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(1988)</div>
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Starring: Jeremy Irons, Jeremy Irons, Genevieve Bujold, Heidi von Palleske.</div>
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Directed by David Cronenberg</div>
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Rated R for being a David Cronenberg movie and lots of vagina talk and implied vaginal mutilation.</div>
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<u><b>Dead Ringers in Six Words:</b></u></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Twin gynecologists invent tools, spiral downward.</div>
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<u><b>Why You'll Love It:</b></u></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
By some standards, Dead Ringers might be one of David Cronenberg's least weird films of the '70s and '80s. I mean, it's nearly a drama about two unstable identical twins who lose their way in the rough and tumble world of feminine care. But, it's also a movie directed by David Cronenberg, which means that at some point there's going to be mutations of the body and skin eating and people losing their freaking minds. And when Cronenberg's control of that line between what is real and surreal combines with the lead performance(s) of Jeremy Irons as Eliot and Beverley Mantle, the end result is a surprisingly somber but entirely fascinating drama...with dreams about flesh eating and mutations and lots of pointy instruments. </div>
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<b><u>The Highlights:</u></b></div>
<ul>
<li>Irons is both the first and the second best reason to watch the film, and the range he shows as both brothers is quite impressive. It is at times hard to tell which brother is which, but that's due to Cronenberg's devious plot than and not a flaw of Irons' work.</li>
<li>The most macabre pieces of the film are probably the bizarre instruments that the brothers develop, which are sure to give anyone with lady parts a few shivers.</li>
<li>The relationship the brothers have with their first "mutant" lover, played by Genevieve Bujold, leads to the most Cronenberg moment of the film, a dream sequence that belongs right next to his most bizarre scenes from films like <b>Videodrome</b> and <b>The Brood</b>.</li>
</ul>
<b><u>Also Worth Knowing:</u></b><br />
<ul>
<li>The film was set to be titled <b>Twins</b>, but Cronenberg lost an arm-wrestling contest against Arnold Schwarzenegger (because he couldn't get Jeff Goldblum to arm-wrestle in his place) and the title went to Ivan Reitman for that comedy about Arnold and Devito being brothers.</li>
<li>That last point was not entirely true, as you might have guessed. The film was set to be called Twins, and the title did go to Reitman, but only because Cronenberg had worked with him before and sold him the title. </li>
<li>The film is based, partially, on a real life pair of twins and is a loose adaptation of a non-fiction book, which was also titled <b>Twins</b>.</li>
</ul>
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<b><u>Dead Ringers is for fans of...</u></b><br />
Drug addiction and depression, codependent siblings who share everything, the terrors of surgery, the terrors of the vagina, mutations that don't make any kind of sense (which is what makes them mutations, naturally), and Jeremy Irons not having his <b>Die Hard with a Vengeance</b> accent.<br />
<br />
<b><u>If you like this, you might also like...</u></b><br />
<b>Sisters</b> (1973) <br />
<b>Videodrome</b> (1983)<br />
<b>Raising Cain</b> (1992) <br />
<b>Adaptation.</b> (2002)<br />
<b>American Mary</b> (2013) <br />
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The Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09871017982169159144noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132620721136610844.post-35172226274299354072013-12-05T22:23:00.002-06:002013-12-05T22:23:29.327-06:00Midnight Movie of the Week #205 - Dorm<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"We have a lot in common, you know? No one cares about either of us."</i></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dC0EBAiDgOc/UqFQDhIoTaI/AAAAAAAAML4/WJlHeBRBLKE/s1600/dormtitle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dC0EBAiDgOc/UqFQDhIoTaI/AAAAAAAAML4/WJlHeBRBLKE/s640/dormtitle.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
(2006)</div>
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Starring: Charlie Trairat, Chinatra Sukapatana, Sirachuch Chienthaworn.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Directed by Songyos Sugmakanan.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Not rated. Includes Taiwanese boys in various states of undress (but not fully undressed), said boys swearing, ghost stories, death, and unrequited lust for baton twirlers. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<u><b>Dorm in Six Words:</b></u></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
A ghost story. With friendship too.</div>
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<u><b>Why You'll Love It:</b></u></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I'm not proud of it, but sometimes I get stuck in the mindset that most Asian horror movies (which is a stupid grouping anyway since that's a whole continent) are the same thing about long haired ghosts and jump scares. It's true that there was a type of horror film that became a fad after the success of <b>The Ring</b> and <b>Dark Water</b>, but there were also several horror stories from the far east that offered a touching and human twist on the age old ghost story. One of the most shining examples of this is the Taiwanese chiller <b>Dorm</b> (or, if you're Taiwanese "<b><i>Dek hor</i></b>") in which a teenage boy is sent to a dreary boarding school where his closest friend ends up being the spirit of a boy who died years earlier. With a healthy balance of chills and real world drama, Dorm is a rare treat that offers an original tale while providing some classic chills. The final product is a touching coming of age story, but also a heck of a horror film. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YyvyY2TPtDE/UqFQaukrj7I/AAAAAAAAMMI/FPSEpaZWf70/s1600/dormshot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="354" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YyvyY2TPtDE/UqFQaukrj7I/AAAAAAAAMMI/FPSEpaZWf70/s640/dormshot.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<u><b>The Highlights:</b></u></div>
<ul>
<li>An early film sequence in which several boys try to scare the new kid with stories of ghosts haunting the dorm provides several eerie visions, leading to an unforgettably tense scene where even the dogs are terrified.</li>
<li>Also jaw-droppingly effective is a sequence at an outdoor movie theater, where '80s cult hit <b>Mr. Vampire</b> helps produce a big reveal about the haunting at hand.</li>
<li>While director Songyos Sugmakanan provides striking images throughout the film, he also gets fantastic performances out of the young actors involved. Without their work, the film probably would have lost much of its power.</li>
</ul>
<u><b>Also Worth Knowing:</b></u><br />
<ul>
<li>The film has been released with two different covers at two different times in the good ol' USA, both by the usually excellent Tartan Asia Extreme label. However, both covers sorely misrepresent the film. One features a picture of a boy standing in front of a house (that looks nothing like the titular Dorm) while a long haired ghost hides in the window, while the other makes us assume the boy is possessed by a demon that needs to be exorcised. Rest assured, this poorly marketed film is not what you would expect based on the awful cover art.</li>
</ul>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2Q1nIRHyxwM/UqFQh_KozHI/AAAAAAAAMMQ/Eoa6HfiNQCQ/s1600/dormtheater.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2Q1nIRHyxwM/UqFQh_KozHI/AAAAAAAAMMQ/Eoa6HfiNQCQ/s640/dormtheater.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<u><b>Dorm is for fans of...</b></u><br />
Stephen King-esque stories where kids deal with horror and the fact that they are kids, ghost stories, dorms that don't look anything like what Americans think dorms look like, women with a reputation for being mean who have incredible posture, and kids who can act.<br />
<br />
<u><b>If you like this, you might also like...</b></u><br />
<b>Stand By Me</b> (1986)<br />
<b>Are You Afraid of the Dark?</b> (1991-2000) <br />
<b>Stir of Echoes</b> (1999)<br />
<b>Dark Water</b> (2002)<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
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The Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09871017982169159144noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132620721136610844.post-91564177159168397922013-11-30T11:23:00.000-06:002013-12-01T11:41:21.405-06:00Midnight Movie of the Week #204 - Se7en<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"If we catch John Doe and he turns out to be the devil, I mean if he's
Satan himself, that might live up to our expectations, but he's not the
devil. He's just a man."</i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JBTe0U1vs0M/Upt0QB1NnHI/AAAAAAAAMLY/ZLwishWdYXE/s1600/seventitle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="274" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JBTe0U1vs0M/Upt0QB1NnHI/AAAAAAAAMLY/ZLwishWdYXE/s640/seventitle.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
(1995) </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Starring: Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Directed by David Fincher.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Rated R for some seriously sick stuff, including creepy fat corpse, nearly dead dude with no tongue, knife rape, and Brad Pitt saying the F word a lot.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<u><b>Seven in Six Words:</b></u></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Serial killer makes world seem doomed. </div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TsTHTOZ1rI8/Upt0WwcKlkI/AAAAAAAAMLg/xTvKo8-JM_A/s1600/sevengreed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="274" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TsTHTOZ1rI8/Upt0WwcKlkI/AAAAAAAAMLg/xTvKo8-JM_A/s640/sevengreed.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<u><b>Why You'll Love It:</b></u></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Less than twenty years after its release, Seven (I can only type that number in place of the V so many times before I go crazy) is one of the more well known serial killer films ever made. It spawned a sea of imitators, in both plot and style, but none of them matched the bleak outlook of Fincher's film or its vivid message about society's evils. Most impressive to me is how the director turns an unnamed metropolis (it feels like New York, but the script intentionally avoids labeling it as such) into a kind of purgatory, with Freeman's character often summing up the despair that lives in this place perfectly. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<u><b>The Highlights:</b></u></div>
<ul>
<li>It's probably not too soon to reveal the plot's surprises, but for the sake of anyone who might not have seen it I'll tread lightly. But it's safe to say that the reveal of the killer and the final step in his plan is what gives this film its initial power over the viewer.</li>
<li>After the film's been seen and the surprise has been revealed, the film takes on added meaning upon repeat viewings. References to literature about hell and the deadly sins that provide the killer's gimmick are obvious clues to the filmmaker's intentions, and for me they've seemed to improve with age.</li>
<li>Pitt was dismissed by many as the average "hot" young star around the time of release, but his performance here deserves more praise than it has received. There are moments where he's in tune with his Oscar nominated performance from <b>12 Monkeys</b> during the same year, and his character's chaotic mindset is perfect opposite those who accept the fate that surrounds them in this bleak setting. </li>
</ul>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rbDn_xKZwoM/Upt0pRWZtjI/AAAAAAAAMLo/eJnR6o9jYzQ/s1600/sevencouch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="272" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rbDn_xKZwoM/Upt0pRWZtjI/AAAAAAAAMLo/eJnR6o9jYzQ/s640/sevencouch.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<u><b>Also Worth Knowing:</b></u><br />
<ul>
<li>Pitt only got the part in the film after Denzel Washington turned the role down, saying the film was "dark and evil." He regretted his decision after he saw the film, which may be why he starred in Seven imitator Fallen shortly after.</li>
<li>As noted earlier, the location of the film is intentionally not revealed. Screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker has noted that he was inspired by his time in New York City, but did not want to saddle the film with any specific location that would mute the setting's power.</li>
<li>Dreamers, take note: Walker was relatively unknown at the time of production and had written his script while working at a Tower Records store.</li>
</ul>
<u><b>Seven is for fans of...</b></u><br />
A-list stars doing dark things, serial killer mind games on film, surprise cameos, religious allegories, Morgan Freeman's soothing vocal patterns, and rain.<br />
<br />
<u><b>If You Like This, You Might Also Like...</b></u><br />
<b>Theatre of Blood </b>(1973)<br />
<b>Taxi Driver</b> (1976)<br />
<b>Copycat</b> (1995) <br />
<b>Primal Fear</b> (1996)<br />
<b>Arlington Road</b> (1999)<br />
<b>Mr. Brooks </b>(2007)<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
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The Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09871017982169159144noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132620721136610844.post-59664294513073595272013-11-21T23:15:00.000-06:002013-11-21T23:15:09.983-06:00Midnight Movie of the Week #203 - Grabbers<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"I need a photograph of it for National Geographic. And Facebook." </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iboZNaFZGYY/Uo7n2CFzYZI/AAAAAAAAMKU/3jFndaZajG0/s1600/grabberstitle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iboZNaFZGYY/Uo7n2CFzYZI/AAAAAAAAMKU/3jFndaZajG0/s640/grabberstitle.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
(2012) </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Starring: Richard Coyle, Ruth Bradley, Russell Tovey, Lalor Roddy.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Directed by Jon Wright.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Not Rated. Includes tentacle overload, excessive alcohol consumption, excessive silly behavior due to excessive alcohol consumption, and angry Irish vocal tones with foul language.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<u><b>Grabbers in Six Words:</b></u></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Sea things attack! And also beer.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-puUW2FQjcow/Uo7n8sJAScI/AAAAAAAAMKc/sNa1ig8WV5E/s1600/grabberssample.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="273" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-puUW2FQjcow/Uo7n8sJAScI/AAAAAAAAMKc/sNa1ig8WV5E/s640/grabberssample.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<u><b>Why You'll Love It:</b></u></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Good old fashioned monster comedy turns a small Irish island into the site of an infestation, as giant-squid like invaders plague a seaside town. Two mismatched police officers - one an uptight young female from the city, the other a homemade man with a taste for beer - have to figure out what's going on and how to keep the town safe, while the grabby creatures close in on the shrinking population. Like <b>Tremors</b> did in 1990, Grabbers keeps a light-hearted tone while providing some entertaining monster action - complete with great special effects - and adds a nice comedic twist to the battle against the creatures before the final showdown. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<u><b>The Highlights:</b></u></div>
<ul>
<li>I'm not usually the sappy guy, but the budding relationship between the two police officers - played charmingly by Richard Coyle and Ruth Bradley - is cute and effective. Their differences create some good banter back and forth, but they're perfectly compatible when the film needs them to be.</li>
<li>That said, there's nothing cute about the monsters at hand. When the film gets to the full sized grabbers in the final act there are plenty of slimy and impressive visuals.</li>
<li>Without being too tongue in cheek and/or losing it's originality, the film manages a couple of nice throwbacks to films like <b>Shaun of the Dead</b> and <b>Aliens</b> without seeming too desperate. </li>
</ul>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-k9vpryPhuiM/Uo7oELZ8EcI/AAAAAAAAMKk/ilhJHHcLwV8/s1600/grabberscreature.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="275" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-k9vpryPhuiM/Uo7oELZ8EcI/AAAAAAAAMKk/ilhJHHcLwV8/s640/grabberscreature.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<u><b>Also Worth Knowing:</b></u><br />
<ul>
<li>Needing to make sure the actors knew how to act drunk for some crucial scenes, director Jon Wright took his leads out drinking before filming - and filmed their real world drunkenness. That's method acting at its finest!</li>
</ul>
<u><b>Grabbers is for Fans of...</b></u><br />
Less intense horror movies, deep sea creatures, Irish accents, Irish accents on women who look kind of like Anna Kendrick, beer, and those quaint looking pubs that are all over European movies.<br />
<br />
<u><b>If You Like This, You Might Also Like...</b></u><br />
<b>Piranha</b> (1978) <br />
<b>Night of the Creeps</b> (1986)<br />
<b>Lake Placid</b> (1999) <br />
<b>Trollhunter</b> (2010) <br />
<b>Cockneys vs. Zombies</b> (2012)<br />
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The Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09871017982169159144noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132620721136610844.post-60232594517249109932013-11-14T20:51:00.001-06:002013-11-14T20:51:13.947-06:00Midnight Movie of the Week #202 - Invasion of the Body Snatchers<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"In an hour... you won't want them to. In an hour, you'll be one of us." </i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NTY7geaAvIw/UoWKiOwLAkI/AAAAAAAAMJs/uwtRPzx7tG0/s1600/iotbs78title.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="350" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NTY7geaAvIw/UoWKiOwLAkI/AAAAAAAAMJs/uwtRPzx7tG0/s640/iotbs78title.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i> </i>(1978)</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i> </i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Starring: Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Leonard Nimoy, Virginia Cartwright, Jeff Goldblum.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Directed by Philip Kaufman.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Rated PG for not-quite-nudity, gooey huge fetuses, Veronica Cartwright's tears, rat turds, and lots of screaming.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<u><b>Invasion of the Body Snatchers in Six Words:</b></u></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Pod People seduce '70s San Francisco. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<u><b>Why You'll Love It:</b></u></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I doubt any film has had two better remakes (this one and <a href="http://frommidnight.blogspot.com/2012/12/midnight-movie-of-week-154-body.html">Abel Ferrara's <b>Body Snatcher</b>s</a>) than Don Siegel's <b>Invasion of the Body Snatchers</b>. The original film still packs a punch despite some heavy-handed politics, but Philip Kaufman's 1978 remake stands on its own as a thoughtful and dramatic retelling of the original story. Kaufman's film is dark and serious, with only a few nods to the original's tone (like the cameo by original star Kevin McCarthy). It's a rather intense tale of lost identity that adapts well to its new setting, with a great cast led by Donald Sutherland and Leonard Nimoy offering excellent performances.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ek4n7F2LrjA/UoWKq1A3NjI/AAAAAAAAMJ0/7__QP26KNMQ/s1600/iotbs78cocoongoldblum.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="346" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ek4n7F2LrjA/UoWKq1A3NjI/AAAAAAAAMJ0/7__QP26KNMQ/s640/iotbs78cocoongoldblum.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<u><b>The Highlights:</b></u></div>
<ul>
<li>Any scene featuring a young Jeff Goldblum, who reacts in a perfectly cynical manner to the idea of pod people. He's only a small part of this film, but it's easy to see how he became a star through this performance.</li>
<li>Going along with that point, a mid film scene in which the female leads discuss the possible infestation and its floral roots with a skeptical Goldblum starts to bring the film together as it prepares for a high paced finish.</li>
<li>I've never been entirely fond of the film's final ten or fifteen minutes - I think I want more from the story than this rushed finish - but most will tell you the final scene is one of the most iconic moments in modern sci-fi/horror.</li>
<li>Also there's the human faced dog. Yeah, you gotta see it.</li>
</ul>
<u><b>Also Worth Knowing:</b></u><br />
<ul>
<li>Donald Sutherland was hit by a Volkswagen beetle while performing his own stunts for the film. Who wants to be the guy who hits Donald Sutherland with their car? Not this guy.</li>
<li>As noted earlier, this is the first remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Ferrara's Body Snatchers was released in 1993, and the forgettable <b>The Invasion</b>, starring Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, and a returning Veronica Cartwright, was released in 2007. So we can probably bet on another version by 2019.</li>
</ul>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-V2KLXD6bCEk/UoWKyO5FVkI/AAAAAAAAMJ8/nNY9b4UMauE/s1600/iotbs78duo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="346" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-V2KLXD6bCEk/UoWKyO5FVkI/AAAAAAAAMJ8/nNY9b4UMauE/s640/iotbs78duo.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<u><b>Invasion of the Body Snatchers is for Fans of...</b></u><br />
Spock, curly haired Sutherlands, paranoia, San Francisco based cinema (Has any city had more great movies set in it? I say NO.), cynical sci-fi, and human faced dogs.<br />
<br />
<u><b>If You Like This, You Might Also Like...</b></u><br />
<b>Invasion of the Body Snatchers </b>(1955) (Obviously.)<br />
<b>Village of the Damned</b> (1960) <br />
<b>The Mephisto Waltz</b> (1971)<br />
<b>Magic</b> (1978) <br />
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The Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09871017982169159144noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132620721136610844.post-21655880199360940462013-11-14T19:21:00.001-06:002013-11-14T19:21:18.881-06:00About the future of this little horror/genre movie blog...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dukxWItJFhc/UoV2x-Ja3RI/AAAAAAAAMJc/E2pQX_M7zro/s1600/Future.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="255" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dukxWItJFhc/UoV2x-Ja3RI/AAAAAAAAMJc/E2pQX_M7zro/s320/Future.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
I hate that I'm sitting here writing this, but I've been putting it off for too long. Part of me doesn't even think it's necessary, but on the off chance that people are still interested in what's going on here at FMWL I wanted to be up front about some things with those who have been fantastic toward me and this little site over the last nearly five years.<br />
<br />
If you are a dedicated reader - and if you are, God bless ya - you've probably noticed that the last year or year and a half has been a little slower here at the site. From Midnight, With Love is still my baby, and it's one of the things in life I'm most proud of. Being able to share my love of horror and cult flicks with the void and occasionally get feedback on said love makes me feel like a part of one big crazy happy universe and I get a delicious kick out of that. But, unfortunately, I haven't been able to keep up with it like I want to.<br />
<br />
Now would be a good moment to point out that <b><u>I'm not saying I'm leaving!</u></b> That is not where this conversation is going. So don't freak on me.<br />
<br />
However, I do have to put FMWL on the back burner of my life for a little while. I've already started this process with less posts, refusals of some screeners and press releases I've gotten (and boy, that part bugs me the most. I miss my indie horror community, and I'm sorry I can't be there for them like I used to), and other cutbacks. The real world has slowed me down considerably, and I can't continue to focus on the blog the same way I have in the past.<br />
<br />
But that's not what's pushing me to pump the brakes.<br />
<br />
The truth of the matter is that I've got a pretty big dream right now. I've been working on this site for a long time and I want to try something a little different. I'm not gonna talk about what it is here - I'm afraid of jinxes and I'm afraid I'll make myself look stupid if I fail - but there are three or four people I trust who know about it and are supporting me and I'm realizing that if I want to get this dream done I have to really focus on it. Which means less focus on FMWL, which is sad for now. But, if I get this dream out there I think it will make the kind of people who read sites like this very happy and will make all the people who love horror and want to share their love the way I do very proud. And I want that more than anything right now.<br />
<br />
What does this all mean for you? Two things.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>FMWL will still be here. I'm keeping the Midnight Movie of the Week going, but I'm going to work on a truncated format that will take me less time and hopefully still be interesting. I reserve the right to post reviews and or commentaries from time to time, but I can't promise they'll be frequent.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<ul>
<li>Secondly, I'm thinking about taking on a co-writer or two if anyone's interested. FMWL has a decent readership built in and I get a lot of review proposals and press releases that I'd be happy to share with another genre lover who can write a thing or two. I want to keep promoting great horror and other stuff and the best way to do this is to open the forum up a little bit.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<i><b>If you're interested in joining the FMWL team and getting your own love of horror and genre entertainment out there, you can email me at <a href="mailto:frommidnightwithlove@gmail.com">frommidnightwithlove@gmail.com</a>. There are no expectations from me, other than a) being a stand up person who will review things they accept for review and b) being able to write complete sentences and string thoughts together. So if you always wanted to write about stuff or see independent horror flicks or just have a place to share your thoughts on this stuff, email me and we'll talk. If not, no worries.</b></i><br />
<br />
That's what I know. Like I said, I'm not leaving. I'll still be here as much as I can, you can still find me on all the Facebooks/Twitters/Instagrams I generally haunt, and I'm still gonna be loving genre flicks like a madman. So stay in touch, and I'll do the same, and hopefully someday soon I'll have my dream come true and we'll all have a victorious party.<br />
<br />
Now that that's all said, this week's Midnight Movie of the Week post will be coming soon. Be well, Midnight Warriors.The Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09871017982169159144noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132620721136610844.post-2403924591029164402013-11-09T10:20:00.000-06:002013-11-09T10:20:00.576-06:00Midnight Movie of the Week #201 - Fortress<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Nb6hD4FdGfs/Un3VgXJo1hI/AAAAAAAAMJI/dybjS9FCCF0/s1600/fortresstitle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="306" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Nb6hD4FdGfs/Un3VgXJo1hI/AAAAAAAAMJI/dybjS9FCCF0/s640/fortresstitle.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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The prevailing message of most Australian horror films - or at least most of the ones I've seen - is that you're pretty much screwed if you're not safely in a big city. Many Aussie flicks, like '70s masterpieces <b>Walkabout</b> and <b>Wake in Fright</b> (a rather obscure little gem that y'all should find in its new blu-ray format), <a href="http://frommidnight.blogspot.com/2010/05/midnight-movie-of-week-19-roadgames.html">former Midnight Movie of the Week <b>Roadgames</b></a>, and modern torture flick <b>Wolf Creek</b>, warn us about traveling in less populous areas of that island continent, while others like <a href="http://frommidnight.blogspot.com/2011/06/midnight-movie-of-week-74-dead-calm.html"><b>Dead Calm</b></a> and <b>Rogue</b> focus on watery dangers around the terrain. I'm not sure what it is about Australia that makes people so afraid of traveling around or being in rural areas, but there's definitely something there that they want people to be afraid of.<br />
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A newly found entry into the "dangers of Australia" subgenre is <b>Fortress</b>, in which a teacher (Rachel Ward of the Phil Collins-flavored '80s drama <b>Against All Odds</b>) and her students are abducted from a one-room school house by a group of men in masks who throw them in a cave and ask for a ransom. Naturally, the kids don't like this, but their teacher gets them pumped up and a little bit of a war for survival follows.<br />
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Fortress was originally released on HBO in late 1985, as the network put up half of the budget in exchange for debut rights. But no punches were pulled for the TV broadcast, and the result is a survival thriller that still feels as sleazy and violent as theatrical productions of the era. The film tiptoes around some of the violence due to the cast of young characters, but still offers a few surprisingly vicious moments, like a well placed severed head in the middle of the film.<br />
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More tension comes from the trio of kidnappers, whose appearance in various masks - one a duck, one a cat, and one as Santa Claus (or, to these Aussie kids, Father Christmas) - reminded me of the aggressors in recent horror favorite <b>You're Next</b>. The kidnappers are large men (one of them is played by the well-known Vernon Wells, who co-starred in <b>The Road Warrior</b> and <b>Commando</b>, and also appeared in Stuart Gordon's unrelated 1992 sci-fi film <b>Fortress</b>) who look even bigger next to the young children and their feminine teacher. There's a definite statement about male domination of women and children being made here, and director Arch Nicholson does a good job of building up the difference in size and strength between the kidnappers and their victims.<br />
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But the film gets most interesting when it puts power back in the hands of our teacher and her students, who adapt to their surroundings in attempts to first survive and later fight back. Ward gives a solid performance in the lead, but all of the children around her do a fine job of keeping the film moving. By the time the teacher and her students are ready to take a stand the film has already created a large amount of empathy for the characters, which leads to a final act that wraps the film up in a manner that is both satisfying and chilling. And the end result leaves Fortress as a great piece of survival cinema and one more example of why you appear to be safer if you never go to less populous parts of Australia.<br />
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The Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09871017982169159144noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132620721136610844.post-67225167943666779612013-11-01T00:17:00.000-05:002013-11-01T00:17:46.840-05:00Midnight Movie of the Week #200 - Halloween<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Not gonna go in depth on this one, you all know what <b>Halloween</b> is. I've spent 200 weeks writing these columns now, and as we roll toward the end of the horror family's favorite holiday I just want to say how much I love being able to share my love for horror with you all. When I started this list almost four years ago I was trying to convince myself that I could keep this thing going on a weekly basis, and - despite some real world hurdles and plenty of good old-fashioned lack of motivation, we made it to another Halloween together.<br />
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If you need to know why you should watch Halloween - just like I once did as a teenager who thought horror movies were just fun and stupid and not on par with really great movies in other genres - I'll tell you that I believe nothing about any movie more than I believe that Halloween is a movie about man (or woman, in the case of Jamie Lee Curtis' Laurie Strode) vs. nature, not man (or woman) vs. man. People get it wrong and see this as just another slasher movie, or even worse they get it wrong and think of Michael Myers as an inhuman monster going on motor function and killing for the sake of killing.<br />
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I know that stuff about fate and evil that is peppered into John Carpenter's script feels like fluff, but if you buy into it it really pushes Halloween to a new level of fear. That might sound similar to asking an atheist to believe in the Bible, and I've wasted more time than I'd like to admit over the years trying to convince people of this when they don't want to see Halloween the way I do.<br />
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People come to horror for many reasons. My reason for loving horror, for being moved by horror, and for continuing to seek out horror all the time is because I'm looking for movies that dare me to feel that there is evil in this world that I might have to feel with. And I believe Halloween does this as well as any other movie. I'd compare it's conflict between humanity and the nature of evil to that presented in The Exorcist, which sits next to it as my second favorite horror film. That film approaches evil more directly than John Carpenter does, but both films create the same underlying fear in me.<br />
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In short, Halloween is the movie that made horror a cinematic power in my mind. I'd always loved horror, and there are probably a dozen other movies that I love now that I could have seen when I was young and that could have inspired me to feel the way I do about horror movies. Thanks to fate, Halloween was that movie that hit me and made me believe horror cinema could be great cinema. And I'm still indebted to it. Without it there might never have been one Midnight Movie of the Week, let alone two-hundred. It inspired me, and I hope that anyone out there who might be trying to love horror can find a movie that makes them feel as excited about their pursuit as Halloween makes me feel.<br />
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The Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09871017982169159144noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132620721136610844.post-16340488385936583402013-10-25T09:59:00.000-05:002013-10-25T09:59:00.144-05:00Midnight Movie of the Week #199 - Cemetery Man<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Most horror fans I know are quick to point out how lackluster the genre output of the 1990s was. As with any time and any genre, there were several very good films released during that time span. (<a href="http://frommidnight.blogspot.com/2010/01/mikes-top-10-horror-films-of-1990s.html">A few years back I listed these as my favorites</a>.) But, with fond memories of the 1980s in our minds and several impressive serious horror films hitting audiences in the new millennium, it's easy to see why the '90s are held in such contempt.<br />
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The horror subculture that might have taken the biggest hit in the 1990s was the Italian horror scene, which peaked with Argento, Fulci, and Bava through the '60s and early '80s but produced very few horror hits after the '80s ended. The biggest outlier to this train of thought is certainly Cemetery Man (originally titled <b><i>Dellamorte Dellamore</i></b> in its native tongue), which stands out to me as one of the most interesting horror films of its time and place due to its bizarre tone and chaotic plot.<br />
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British actor Rupert Everett, who would go on to much success starring romantic comedies like <b>My Best Friend's Wedding</b> and doing vocal work for <b>Shrek</b> movies, is at Cemetery Man's center as Francesco Dellamorte, the caretaker of an unholy cemetery where the dead often rise and walk seven days after their demise. Many horror films would present a man in this position as an empowered hero, but Dellamorte just seems kind of annoyed by his predicament, sulking through much of the film and struggling to put much effort into sending the dead back to their graves. Cemetery Man uses his indifferent attitude as a platform to great things and Everett is a perfect fit for the moody and disinterested role.<br />
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There is one thing that inspires Dellamorte to feel passion, and that - of course - is a woman with huge breasts. She's played by Anna Falchi, who might be the most perfectly endowed woman in horror history, and her place in the caretaker's life drives the film toward the darkly comic tone that pushes it to surprising heights as a star-crossed romance and as an existential fantasy. Falchi first appears and captures the caretaker's heart as a widow who is turned on by the dead, and later shows up in two more roles to throw more salt on the wounds of Dellamorte's tortured love life. The sexual encounters between the two leads are presented in ridiculously humorous ways - think of that awkwardly hilarious sex scene from <b>Watchmen</b> and you'll start to get the idea of what the director does here - but the caretaker's obsession with this woman through all of her different incarnations is always presented as a serious and somewhat deadly affliction for him.<br />
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While this sad sack is wondering what he has to do to hold on to the most beautiful <strike>pair of breasts</strike> woman he's ever seen, everything around him is increasingly bizarre and wild. His assistant and closest friend is a large bald man named Gnaghi who can only grunt and who also develops an obsessive love for the young daughter of the mayor after he vomits on her. Everyone around the cemetery seems rather uninterested in the fact that these "returners" continue to come back from the grave so Dellamorte can shoot them in the head, and the personification of Death even shows up to warn the caretaker that he should "stop killing the dead."<br />
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Everything in the film could be played for straight up laughs, and if that didn't work the story could also have been taken to gory extremes for the horror crowd. But director Michele Soavi seems to have an almost Shakespearean approach to the material, and the spirit that he gives Cemetery Man might be the biggest key to establishing the film as one of the most fascinating horror films of its era. A tonal comparison could be made to Peter Jackson's much loved <b>Dead Alive</b>, but the more human and less slapstick approach gives Cemetery Man a more tragic, thought-provoking edge over other splatter films like it.<br />
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Initial viewings of Cemetery Man may puzzle viewers - especially after the abstract ending - but returns to the film have really made me appreciate just how much this quirky horror film has to offer. It pushes the boundaries where many horror films stand pat, and never really suffers from its more abstract and existential choices. It's a movie that you don't want to look away from, and not just because you might see Falchi's God-given gifts at any moment. (Seriously, when she has a shirt on it looks like she's smuggling tetherballs.) The dark comedy, the ill-fated romance, and the zombie splatter all fit together perfectly here, establishing Cemetery man as a one-of-a-kind winner.<br />
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The Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09871017982169159144noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132620721136610844.post-5454364894453876822013-10-22T21:17:00.005-05:002013-10-22T21:17:37.658-05:00FMWL Indie Spotlight - The Studio on Mars, The ABCs of Death 2, Two Cool Horror Filmmakers, and YouI admit it, I skipped <b>The ABCs of Death </b>when it came out. Word of mouth was not good and I just never got around to it. Still, I appreciated the idea of a 26 part horror anthology film and was even more appreciative of the opportunity that the project afforded to independent horror filmmakers, who were given a chance to enter their own submissions and win a spot in the final film.<br />
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Well, <b>The ABCs of Death 2</b> is on the way, and the same opportunity is being given to a new batch of horror filmmakers. Among the competitors for this honor are two good friends of FMWL, BJ Colangelo and Zach Shildwachter, working with the fine crew over at The Studio On Mars. Their entry into the competition, entitled <b>M is for Missionary</b>, is something you other Midnight Warriors out there might want to check out.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">For more from The Studio on Mars, check out <a href="http://studioonmars.blogspot.com/">their website</a> and/or <a href="https://twitter.com/StudioOnMars">their Twitter</a>.</td></tr>
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<a href="http://26th.abcsofdeathpart2.com/entry/m-is-for-missionary-1/">Follow this link right here</a> to go to the contest page for their submission, which you can watch there or watch below. For my money, it's a short and sweet home invasion story with a nice twist on societal expectations and some well-done brutality. Colangelo (who is directing for the first time) and Shildwachter (who once sent FMWL <a href="http://frommidnight.blogspot.com/2013/06/fmwl-indie-spotlight-thrill-kill.html">the grimy little treat <b>Thrill Kill</b></a>) have a good handle on the technical side of the film, teaming with their crew to create a good looking presentation that features top notch visual effects and sound effects that made me cringe a couple of times. As with most good short horror tales, it left me wanting to know more about what's going on here - which to me is the sign that they're doing something right.<br />
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I'm not going to tell you who you should vote for in this contest - I haven't checked out any of the other submissions yet, so I haven't voted yet either - I'm simply saying that I'm proud of these guys for their work and that you should check their entry out because it's a diabolical piece of gory fun.<br />
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You like diabolical and gory things, don't you?</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/77217659" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <a href="http://vimeo.com/77217659"><br />M is for MISSIONARY</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/studioonmars">The Studio on Mars</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</div>
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PS - If you do want to vote for BJC and Zach's fine work, you should go to the main link (<a href="http://26th.abcsofdeathpart2.com/entry/m-is-for-missionary-1/">which is right here again in case you forgot it</a>) and follow the instructions below.</div>
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The Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09871017982169159144noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132620721136610844.post-53398548033028555882013-10-18T09:26:00.000-05:002013-10-18T09:26:00.251-05:00Midnight Movie of the Week #198 - Fright Night<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I'm not entirely sure, but I think <b>Fright Night</b> was the first R-rated horror movie I ever saw. That probably makes me biased, but remembering the experience that 10 year old me had while watching people turn into vampires (and other monsters of the night) makes me think that it might be the perfect introduction to "adult" horror for a younger horror fan. I was old enough (or was I just smart enough?) to know that the things I was seeing were both not real and really cool, and that helped make a big difference in my path toward horror fandom.<br />
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Today, Fright Night still seems like the pinnacle of '80s vampire films thanks to its respect for the past and its secure footing in horror's most excessive decade. William Ragsdale stars as ordinary teenager Charlie Brewster, who likes horror movies, his girlfriend (future <b>Married With Children...</b> co-star Amanda Bearse) and trying to have sex. So when he catches a view of his new neighbor Jerry (Chris Sarandon) with an attractive topless woman, he stares like most ordinary teenagers would. And then he sees fangs, and then Fright Night becomes a glorious vampire story.<br />
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If the set up sounds simple, it's because Fright Night is heavily a horror update of Alfred Hitchcock's <b>Rear Window</b> (my favorite film of all-time, if we're sharing), but it doesn't settle for just being a play on Hitchcock. Writer/Director Tom Holland (who also directed previous Midnight Movies of the Week <a href="http://frommidnight.blogspot.com/2013/07/midnight-movie-of-week-186-childs-play.html"><b>Child's Play</b></a> and <a href="http://frommidnight.blogspot.com/2012/10/midnight-movie-of-week-145-stephen.html"><b>Thinner</b></a>) adds something of a horror-movie-superhero to the proceedings in Peter Vincent, an aging star of Hammer-esque vampire films who now hosts the late night spook show for the local TV station.<br />
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I've long held the belief that the portrayal of Vincent by Roddy McDowell might be the finest performance given by an actor in a horror film. I realize that there's a bit of hyperbole to that statement - not to mention a bit of an insult toward Anthony Perkins and <b>Psycho</b> - but McDowell it has to be said that his performance is more than just a parody of actors like Peter Cushing and Vincent Price who gave him his name. The real treat in McDowell's performance is his emotional range as Vincent, perfectly presenting as both the aged actor who doesn't believe in real world evil and the confused old man who is forced into vampire hunting duty...for real. The moments where McDowell is able to change his presentation in an instant - the scene in which he first meets Charlie, for example - push the performance further toward greatness, and the moments when the great Peter Vincent suddenly seems shocked and saddened by what he sees feel incredibly genuine.<br />
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The film's villains are another highlight, as our lead vampire is surrounded by a lot of bizarre and surprising creatures. Sarandon is the centerpiece of the conflict as the suave but devious Jerry Dandridge, and he seems to always have a smirk on his face that lets us know he's got something evil going on in his mind. The film refuses to rely on him only, and the final battles hold a few great surprises as the minions assisting our lead vampire reveal themselves in different ways. There are some special effects that still look fantastic on display as numerous transformations occur, and the battle that Charlie and Peter have to take part in feels deadly and exciting because they make us wonder where the film could be going next at every turn.<br />
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Though it's not the most serious take on the mythology and suffers from a few post-'80s side effects, Fright Night stands up on multiple viewings as one of my favorite vampire films of all-time. Maybe I'm biased again, thanks to my early connection to this film, but it's one of the most fun and endlessly watchable horror films I've ever seen. With great performances, fantastic monsters, and an A+ premise, Fright Night simply is one of the best horror films ever made.<br />
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<br />The Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09871017982169159144noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132620721136610844.post-81470832911810241692013-10-11T09:31:00.000-05:002013-10-12T10:12:42.568-05:00Midnight Movie of the Week #197 - The Wicker Man<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Antony Shaffer and Robin Hardy's The Wicker Man is one of those films that I just always want to talk about. Of course, it's also one of those movies that it's hard to talk about, because it has to be experienced to be understood. I don't know how to explain what is awesome about The Wicker Man to someone who hasn't seen The Wicker Man, because it's probably impossible for someone to feel the full impact of the film if they know what is going to happen in the film.<br />
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Of course, the biggest rule about The Wicker Man is not to talk about the ending, which helps this one of a kind horror film stand out as one of the biggest shockers - if not the biggest, and I don't say that lightly - of all-time. I will never forget how I felt, physically and mentally, after my first viewing of this film. <b>The Exorcist</b> had that kind of impact on me, <b>Inside</b> recently had a similar impact on me, and <b>The Gate</b> may have had that kind of impact on me when I was a kid....but I don't think any of them made me as uncomfortable as The Wicker Man - a film without gore or monsters - made me feel.<br />
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The film builds its power thanks to a two-headed approach. Firstly, it takes place on a bizarre island where everything looks like reality but seems like something out of a nightmare. The township of Summerisle feels like something you could find anywhere in the United Kingdom at the time of the film, yet the actions of everyone in town makes us feel like we've slipped into something of an alternate universe. The story's stance on religion helps make it seem so weird - as do my own religious beliefs, which make me an easy target for Shaffer's script - but everybody can probably see that a town with this much random singing and dancing and Christopher Lee's wig is kind of off-kilter.<br />
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The bizarre universe the film exists in is intensified by the actors within it, led by <a href="http://frommidnight.blogspot.com/2009/11/in-memoriam-edward-woodward-in-wicker.html">the late Edward Woodward, who gives one of horror's finest performances</a>. His turn as the religious policeman who descends on the town only intensifies how odd everything there is, and it makes the other stars - like the oft-nude temptress Britt Ekland and the deliciously hammy Lee (who seems like he was having a real good time playing Lord Summerisle) - seem that much more perfect in their roles. The disconnect between Woodward's character and this town's beliefs would make for a great piece of drama - but it's even better for what Hardy and Shaffer had up their sleeve here.<br />
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All of this odd behavior in the setting and by the characters doesn't seem like something you'd find in a movie renowned as a great horror film, which is a big part of why the ending means so much to the film's legacy. Most of the film plays more like a fairy tale told by someone on acid than a horror film of the 1970s, and even the final act doesn't offer many traditional scares. But The Wicker Man offers viewers an intoxicatingly weird experience, and when that experience twists into its final reveal it's hard to not feel shaken by the film's power.<br />
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I've seen The Wicker Man probably a dozen times in the last decade, and it still leaves me speechless at times. I've covered it a few times over the years already, and feel like I don't have a lot to say about the movie tonight, but I just felt the need to bring it up one more time and get it on this Midnight Movie of the Week list. (Especially since I once <a href="http://frommidnight.blogspot.com/2011/04/midnight-movie-of-week-66-neil-labutes.html">chose the unintentionally hilarious remake for this list</a>, which means I have to point out that this one's the good one or I might as well quit.) When October rolls around it simply feels like the season of The Wicker Man (as does May, considering the film's plot) and I'd be doing you all a disservice if I didn't point out how important this film is to horror and cult cinema. If you haven't seen it, you owe it to yourself to seek it out. If you've seen it and loved it...well, then I'm willing to bet you want to talk about it to people too. It's one of the most powerful midnight movie experiences that has ever been created.<br />
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The Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09871017982169159144noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132620721136610844.post-77914342064916955082013-10-09T21:25:00.000-05:002013-10-09T21:26:14.421-05:00FMWL Indie Spotlight - The Golem (Full Sound DVD/CD by HobGoblin)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A 93 year old movie is not typically what I cover when it's time to look at independent productions, but the good folks over at <a href="http://www.novemberfire.com/dvd/dvdhorror1.html">November Fire</a> (who last year released the fantastic retrospective <a href="http://frommidnight.blogspot.com/2012/09/fmwl-indie-spotlight-complete-bob.html"><b>The Complete Bob Wilkins Creature Features</b></a>) have provided an interesting twist on classic silent horror with their latest two part project, which aims to bring new eyes to <b>The Golem</b>, one of the titans (no pun intended) of the German Expressionist movement in early horror cinema.<br />
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This new release is a two part project, as director Strephon Taylor and his November Fire associates have provided a new soundtrack for the film, which comes to us in the form of a two disc CD package, and a "full sound" DVD of The Golem, which adds the soundtrack to the film - along with new dialogue and sound effects that make the film - kind of - a talkie. This is the third release of this kind that November Fire has produced - previously adding sound to <a href="http://www.novemberfire.com/dvd/pages/nfrdvd001.html"><b>Nosferatu</b></a> and <b><a href="http://www.novemberfire.com/dvd/pages/nfrdvd005.html">The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari</a> </b>- but it's the first chance I've had to check out one of these updated classics.<br />
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If the idea of adding dialogue via new actors sounds like blasphemy to you, you might not be interested in this release. As a classic film fan, I have to admit that I paused at the idea of adding sound and dialogue to this film and others. The title cards are part of the charm of silent cinema to me, and having them omitted and replaced by voice actors is difficult for me to stomach. Taylor has said that the project is intended to help silent film find a new audience - pointing out that younger viewers and TV stations have picked up these products since they are no longer silent - and I see his point, even if it's not my personal preference. There's an argument about right and wrong that I won't get into here - because I really don't care to be that guy - and I will say that it's an interesting twist to present these silent classics in a new way.<br />
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I guess I should comment on the movie, although people who are interested in it probably already know what they need to know. The Golem tells the story of a rabbi who creates a large clay creature that comes to life to help protect the Jews of ancient Prague from the Roman Empire. The creature, a hulking mass played by co-writer/co-director Paul Wegener, doesn't work out exactly as its creator planned, and the result is a lot of carnage, because that's what happens when a faulty clay goliath is on the loose. I've never really thought The Golem was extremely impressive - especially compared to those other two German classics I mentioned earlier - mostly because The Golem itself hasn't aged very well and the plot is also a bit dated. Nosferatu is timeless, Caligari is always interesting from a visual standpoint, but The Golem starts strong and kind of wears out its welcome before a big finish.<br />
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The film still has some iconic imagery, and November Fire's presentation does an excellent job of keeping the visuals strong. The film is tinted with colors and looks very good, even if it's not fully remastered through any high tech process. With the title cards removed the movie only runs 64 minutes long, which makes it a quick watch and good for those newcomers that the project is targeting. As for the voice acting, it's hit and miss. I'm not sure the tone the actors used was always serious enough, and it might be too over-the-top for some viewers. As someone who treats silent cinema with a bit of reverence - even when the film isn't among my very favorites - I found the sound to be distracting sometimes. I don't expect this to be the case for everyone, but it's another warning I have to put out there for purists.<br />
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On the other hand, the soundtrack that has been added by musical group HobGoblin is definitely the highlight of the package. It's got a definite rock/metal edge to it, but never seems to be abrasive and rarely seems like a distraction from the movie. There's a nice balance between classic horror score and modern rock here - with a little funk too - and I feel comfortable saying that the folks in HobGoblin definitely knew what they were doing here. It's another touch that will certainly appeal to new viewers, and I'd even say that it made The Golem - which I've seen and been a little bored by before - seem more engaging this time around.<br />
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I'm not in love with what this version of The Golem offers on a personal level, but I think that my reservations come more from my own cinematic experiences and the fact that I've never been entirely in love with The Golem either. (I'm interested to check out their versions of Nosferatu and Caligari, which I do love, just to see how their vision compares to my experience with those films.) I wouldn't necessarily recommend this product to people who haven't seen The Golem if they're silent film fans, but I agree with Taylor and company that this is a nice way to catch new viewers who haven't really experienced silent horror due to reservations. If nothing else, I hope that these sound versions of silent classics will open up the minds of new viewers and get them interested in what that era of horror has to offer them. <br />
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You can check out the DVD and CD releases (and the other mentioned products at the November Fire site I linked in the opening, as well as at Amazon (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Golem-Full-Sound-HobGoblin-Horror/dp/B00EADOJTG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381371600&sr=8-1&keywords=the+golem+full+sound">DVD here</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Golem/dp/B00EP6HT68/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1381371633&sr=8-3&keywords=the+golem+soundtrack+hobgoblin">CD here</a>) and other retailers. Check them out, and keep classic horror alive!<br />
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The Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09871017982169159144noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132620721136610844.post-30050354923339558782013-10-05T10:07:00.000-05:002013-10-05T10:07:14.230-05:00Midnight Movie of the Week #196 - Cat People<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Jacques Tourneur's <b>Cat People</b>, perhaps the artistic high point of horror during the 1940s, is one of the most difficult horror films to explain to modern audiences. Part of that's probably because it's mostly a parable about the dangers of the past and a metaphor for repressed sexuality and a bunch of other smart stuff like that, and also probably because we never actually see people who look like cats. This was, after all, just one year after <b>The Wolf Man</b> showed us a man who looked like a wolf - so it would make sense to expect people who look like cats.<br />
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What do we get, if not people who look like cats? We get the fascinating Simone Simon as Irena, a Serbian woman living in New York City who becomes convinced that she's a member of a family who turns into panthers when they're sexually aroused. I suppose that's not really hard to explain, but it's a little bit hard to believe. It's not far off from the gypsy culture of The Wolf Man - which keeps popping up in my mind due to its close proximity to this release - but the differences in style between Cat People producer Val Lewton and the folks behind Universals' monster movies are pretty significant.<br />
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As I've already mentioned, the obvious difference is Lewton and Tourneur's choice to go with an implied monster over an actual monster. It's the right choice for this movie for multiple reasons. For starters, I can't picture one scenario in which you use makeup or prosthetics to make Simone Simon look like a cat and don't end up with an audience that thinks the film is a huge joke. But, more obvious than that, there's an air of mystery added to the film by the choice to keep things ambiguous.<br />
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Much of this is sold by Simon, who portrays Irena as an icy character, but not one who is sufficiently vicious or evil. She's a confused character - moreso when she interacts with the men in her life than usual -who certainly earns our sympathy as she moves through the film. Even as she grows more unstable later in the film - thanks to a juicy (by 1942 standards) love triangle with her husband and one of his co-workers - we still feel a strong sense of pity for the character, because the filmmakers do such a good job of making us feel like she is doomed by her past.<br />
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The film builds to a couple of tense sequences - most notably the swimming pool showdown with her husband's lover, which is probably the best use of a swimming pool in a horror movie's final act prior to <b>C.H.U.D. II</b> - that do a fantastic job of making us feel uneasy without any specific visual of Irena's cat form. Future low-budget horror movies owe a lot to Lewton, as Cat People and his other productions set the standard for building tension with minimal resources. Ironically, all of those scares where cats jump out of dark areas at victims are ancestors of Cat People, where Lewton surprises viewers with the screeching brakes of a bus just when we think we're going to get a cat. <br />
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There are a surprising number of people who don't back Lewton's approach to horror these days - for example, the great John Carpenter has famously chided his films as being full of "nothing" - but I think there's still something fascinating about the balance between drama and horror in his productions. Cat People could probably work as a drama about a confused woman and her romantic struggles, and the addition of this shapeshifting aspect of her persona still only barely makes the film a horror tale at times. But the way the director and producer sell her affliction - and the way they let it take over the film in the final act - set up Cat People as one of the more intriguing horror films of its era, and make it a great piece of counterprogramming to the monster movies of its day.<br />
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The Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09871017982169159144noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132620721136610844.post-25886583874349491362013-10-04T00:27:00.000-05:002013-10-04T00:27:13.803-05:00Bad Milo!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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(2013, Dir. by Jacob Vaughan.)<br />
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Ken Marino has long been one of those comic actors who's always memorable as a supporting character - dating all the way back to <b>Wet Hot American Summer</b> and peaking (at least for me) with <b>Veronica Mars</b> - so when I saw that he was going to headline a horror comedy that got picked up by the good folks over at Magnet Releasing my interest was piqued.<br />
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When I learned that the movie was going to be about a devilish monster who breaks out of Marino's colon and goes on a murderous rampage - well, then I definitely had to see the movie.<br />
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That movie is <b>Bad Milo!</b>, and it's as successful as it is ridiculous. Marino plays a timid businessman who deals with his mother (Mary Kay Place) dating a young Indian man, his father (Stephen Root) abandoning him, and his boss (Patrick Warburton) bossing him around. The result of all his stressors is a polyp on his colon, which sends him to a therapist (Peter Stormare) and some medical procedures. But I've already tipped you off to the secret - that polyp becomes Milo.<br />
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And Milo, the bug eyed, pointy-teethed, square-headed terror that comes into the film is one of the goofiest and most enjoyable new monsters to hit the screen in some time. He looks and sounds like something left over from the 1980s - fans of <b>Basket Case</b> will probably enjoy the film's joke - and he's presented with the same kind of balance between cute and evil that we remember from <b>Gremlins</b>. Of course, Bad Milo! also has a lot more toilet humor than Gremlins, but it spends more time on the monster and his creator (Can we call Marino's character a "creator" the same way we call Dr. Frankenstein a creator? It's a stretch, but I just did.) than it does making jokes that could take the film down the drain.<br />
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Marino is excellent in the lead, playing the straight and scared man for most of the movie, while the supporting cast does a great job of bouncing gags off of him. Stormare is particularly fantastic as the therapist who helps him deal with Milo, playing a rare light-hearted character and creating a lot of laughs with his laid back approach to this rectal monster. Others like Place, Warburton, and Root have smaller pieces of the film but all of them help Marino and his buddy Milo make the wacky plot funny.<br />
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Bad Milo! is an obviously R-rated horror comedy, with lots of blood and a bit of excrement spilled all over the screen and a few kill scenes that are barely shown on screen before we see the over-the-top crime scene that is left behind. It's a nice touch that writer/director Jacob Vaughan manages to show the gory monster side of Milo without taking the film too far from its comedy roots, which means that the film will probably play better for the Comedy Central crowd than the gore-obsessed horror crowd. There's a lot to like in the film for both crowds, thankfully, and anyone who can appreciate a ridiculous monster and some zany horror comedy will certainly have a good time with this tongue-in-cheek film.<br />
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(<b>Bad Milo!</b> is in select theaters starting today and is also available On Demand and via ITunes. If you're like me, you'll dig it.)</div>
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The Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09871017982169159144noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132620721136610844.post-41745003353498903912013-10-03T17:32:00.003-05:002013-10-03T17:32:31.625-05:00Book Review - Doctor Sleep<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Somewhere among my Top 10 favorite movies of all-time (probably later than number 6 but earlier than number 10) sits Frank Capra's slapstick comedy <b>Arsenic and Old Lace</b>. It is a silly film - full of murderers, lunatics, and one seriously confused Cary Grant - but it also contains a line of dialogue that has long stuck in my head as a bold moment of truth. The most murderous member of the film's family, who looks like Boris Karloff, has decided he wants to kill somebody and scolds his assistant (played by Peter Lorre) about what happens when he makes up his mind. Lorre's character, Dr. Einstein, responds with a sigh, saying "<i>Yes, yes, I know. When you make up your mind, you lose your head</i>."<br />
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This sticks with me because I think there's a type of personality that is explained by this statement, and I don't think it's just for murderers with the face of Frankenstein's monster. It's a great way to explain addicts. They're people who get attached to the idea of something - whether it be alcohol, drugs, food, or anything else - and who then find themselves trapped by their own desires as they chase what they are focusing on without regard for anything else.<br />
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What does this have to do with <i><b>Doctor Sleep</b></i>, the sequel to <i><b>The Shining</b></i> that Stephen King has finally offered readers? Well, I think that Doctor Sleep is a book by a person who makes up his mind and loses his head (or at least did, back in his drinking days), a book for people who make up their mind and lose their head (people like me, who avoided vices like alcohol and became junkies for horror stories instead), and - most importantly - a book about people who are dangerous because they can make up their mind and lose their head. <br />
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First and foremost among these people is Dan Torrance, formerly Danny, the child who survived The Overlook Hotel in the 1970s and who grew up to face everything else life had to offer. King presents Dan first as a defeated child - dealing with the ghosts of The Overlook while trying to get help from his mother and the cook who also "shone" - and then as an adult who hit bottom and had to fight his way back to the top. Dan's bottom - an AA term that King will explain, along with many other loving and accurate descriptions of Big Book meetings - is handled marvelously by the author, and this early book segment (which was suggested, according to King's post-novel notes, by his son Owen) really sets the tone for Dan's journey through the book. It's difficult to see this grown version of Dan Torrance - especially as the book covers more than 30 years of his life - and remember the little boy from The Shining (then again, everything about a 36 years later sequel is a little difficult), yet King does a good job of making Dan a new character while reminding us of his first journey into horror just often enough. <br />
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After he bottoms out, we're treated to Dan's search for redemption as he tries to kick his habit and use his gifts in a positive way. This is not an easy task for someone with his afflictions (physical, mental, and supernatural afflictions - if you're counting along at home), but he finds the motivation thanks to some help from his old friend Tony, some new friends in Alcoholics Anonymous, and (most notably) a young girl named Abra.<br />
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Little Abra Stone, much like Danny Torrance when he was a child, has the gift of The Shining. We meet Abra as she is born, and some of the book's best segments relay her developing talents as she grows up. Though she's still developing as a teenager when the book hits its dramatic and horrific high points, King shows us enough to make sure we know from an early age (including a bizarre sequence where King connects the infant Abra to the 9/11 attacks) that she has powers that surpass what we've seen from others in the book. Once we see everything Abra can do we realize that Dan and her are a dangerous combination when they get together. King plays upon this, making it easy for readers to get behind these two characters.<br />
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The antagonists that Dan and Abra must face are a group of nomadic, soul-sucking, vampire types called The True Knot, a somewhat silly concoction of ageless killers that feed on the essence - or "steam" - of children with Shining powers. The idea of The Knot doesn't really work too well, but is strengthened by its leader, a juicy villainess called Rose the Hat - thanks to her trademark top hat, which becomes one of the book's more enduring visuals. All the side members of the Knot are a little underdeveloped (one character gets a great introduction very early in the book and then becomes second fiddle for the rest of the journey, the rest are caricatures of horror sidekicks) but Rose the Hat is an imposing mental presence who is given a lot of depth by the author. King tries to build up Rose as a devilish talent for evil, yet some of the sequences where he shows us the insides of the True Knot camp and Rose's struggles to lead them are interesting because they make these character seem human. She's ruthless and murderous, but she's also confused and frightened of death - just like we are. Rose the Hat is one character from King's universe that I definitely want to see more of, if only because the author does such a good job of showing both her strengths and weaknesses. There's an argument that could be made about her and Dan being more similar than Dan and Abra are, but that's a much bigger discussion for a different day.<br />
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As you can see, there's a lot going on in King's book, and sometimes it felt like he left a storyline behind too easily to tell us something different. For example, I got to a point where I wanted more of Dan's struggles with alcohol and the ghosts of the Overlook, but then King offered descriptions of the Knot and their murderous acts. Or, I got to a point where I wanted to make sense out of Rose the Hat, and just then King dropped a newborn named Abra into the story. It was hard to keep track of where Doctor Sleep was going in the first few chapters, but once King started bringing things together - even tipping his cap to the theory of relativity in a not-so-subtle manner - it became obvious that all of these threads were about to come together.<br />
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Things start to clear up around the half way point of the book, but King still has some nice twists up his sleeve as he moves through the final act. Some of the major plot developments are blatantly obvious, but King finds neat ways to surprise us just when we think things are going the other direction. Characters who seem to be gaining power are abruptly killed off, schemes that are spelled out in one manner suddenly become something else, and even a few visitors from The Overlook Hotel make memorable returns. It all adds up to a wildly entertaining, if not ridiculous, final confrontation that wraps the story up rather quickly. It's a chaotic and unpredictable sequence - King even throws in an old man doing a cartwheel (I presume the kitchen sink was busy) - but it features some great moments that help make the ending work pretty well. The whole conflict is probably best summed up by the use of a character from The Shining in one crucial moment - don't worry, I don't dare spoil this one! - which is an out-of-the-blue idea that shouldn't work but had me pumping my fist and cackling like a madman because it was such a fun move by the author.<br />
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Doctor Sleep isn't a masterpiece by any means - there's too much going on (including a large number of distracting pop culture references, even for King) and very few moments that match the shock value of King's earlier work - but it works because the minds of the lead characters are opened up to us and because each of the main characters has the ability to surprise us. They are each powerful and unstable characters who could "lose their heads" at any time, which makes Doctor Sleep an interesting and unpredictable new addition to King's universe of horror.The Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09871017982169159144noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132620721136610844.post-73319406228509318552013-09-27T09:50:00.000-05:002013-09-27T09:50:00.630-05:00Midnight Movie of the Week #195 - The Shining<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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One of the biggest challenges I face as a guy who writes these kind of things is coming up with something new to say about movies that have been dissected for ages by smarter and wiser folks than I. I get excited when I have the chance to share my love for an obscure and/or less-respected film, because it's easier for me to develop a personal connection with that movie and I feel like I'm accomplishing something when I start to talk about that movie. But, when I start talking about a movie I love that everyone else loves I can sometimes get intimidated. Some movies are so widely loved that it really does feel like there's nothing left to discuss about them.<br />
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One such movie is <b>The Shining</b>, which I've wanted to add to the Midnight Movie of the Week pile for ages yet have always been afraid to write about. And when I sat down with the newly released documentary <b>Room 237</b> this week, I became completely aware of something I'd always assumed to be true - The Shining has been devoured by more intellectuals than any other horror movie ever made.<br />
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The good thing is that Room 237 gave me something of a cheat sheet for thinking about The Shining, though the effect it had on me is not the effect that was intended by many of the contributors to that film. For those who are not familiar with the documentary, Room 237 is explained in subtitle as "Being an inquiry into THE SHINING in 9 parts" and is in actuality filmmaker Rodney Ascher's mash-up of theories about Stanley Kubrick's horror film. That sounds like a boring idea for a movie - until you realize just how entertaining some of the crazy theories about The Shining that are floating around out there are.<br />
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Ascher took a very simple approach to making his film - he went out and found a few well-spoken, intelligent people who had spent too much time analyzing The Shining, and then he let them share their opinions and theories. The results are as wildly entertaining as Kubrick's film itself, because these commentators turn The Shining into everything from a metaphor for the destruction of native American races (which seems slightly plausible) to an admission that Kubrick helped fake the moon landing (which seems bat-stuff crazy). The ideas expressed within Room 237 can seem very ridiculous, which is exactly why the film becomes so engrossing, even when it seems that the "proof" behind most of the theories is "Kubrick was really smart and there's no way he didn't mean something with every detail." (I don't buy in to that mindset, but I like that people have it.)<br />
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While the ideas of the people in Room 237 seem like poppycock, the fact that people actually spent the time thinking about them and have convinced themselves to believe in them is terrifically exciting. As a film nerd I've always believed there's a great value in being able to come up with your own ideas about the movie you're watching, and that any movie that will inspire you to reconsider its reality is a movie worth talking about. And that matters, even if you're wrong about the movie. As a writer, I admit to often pitching my own perceptions of a movie and making assumptions about a film's meaning - that's essentially what film commentary is - and I love the idea that these people are out there obsessing this strongly over a film like The Shining.<br />
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Room 237 does not explain The Shining. I want that to be clear and - judging by the disclaimer at the beginning of the film and twice on the DVD packaging - Ascher wants that to be clear too. But Room 237 does perfectly explain why The Shining is such a memorable film. Kubrick turned Stephen King's novel into a nightmare, and the result is the kind of lucid dream that someone might have after they read the novel. It isn't true to the page and it doesn't always make sense and - just like a great nightmare - it leaves itself open to interpretation. <br />
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I've seen The Shining dozens of times, and I'm still not sure what my interpretation of the film is. Maybe Jack Torrance was just a crazy guy and the final shot was Kubrick's way of messing with the audience. Maybe it was just a parable about being stuck in purgatory and how parents drag their children to Hell with them. Maybe it's just an excuse to axe Scatman Crothers in the gut. I don't know. But, like the people in Room 237, I love thinking about it. I love talking about it. And now, thanks to Room 237, I'm excited to watch it one more time and to re-live that impossible nightmare known as The Shining. <br />
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The Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09871017982169159144noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132620721136610844.post-91169101465385779612013-09-25T21:16:00.000-05:002013-09-25T21:29:32.351-05:00V/H/S 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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(2013, Dir. by Simon Barrett, Jason Eisener, Gareth Huw Evans & Timo Tjahjanto, Gregg Hale & Eduardo Sanchez, Adam Wingard.)<br />
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Few things are more exciting to me than when I see young horror filmmakers advancing their craft, which is a big part of why I had a lot of fun with <b>V/H/S 2</b>. It is unfair to compare this film directly with its predecessor (<a href="http://frommidnight.blogspot.com/2012/12/vhs.html"><b>V/H/S</b></a>, which arrived on home video last year and offered a raw (and slightly immature) new twist on the anthology horror formula) because the filmmakers are different this time around, but it seems blatant to me that the returning producers and directors worked hard to clean up some of the more maligned aspects of the first film.<br />
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Critics of that film - which I enjoyed, despite some uneven moments - will probably be pleased with the extra layer of polish that seems to have been applied to this sequel. It's still definitely an independent and experimental picture - especially in the first and fourth segments of the film - and it still feels like the found footage it is supposed to be in most scenes. At the same time, the film seems to feel a little more mature and cinematic than its predecessor, striking a nice balance between the raw horror of the original and some more artistic horror films of the era.<br />
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The film's increase in quality over the original is most notable in the third segment of the film, which is entitled "Safe Haven" and is directed by Gareth Huw Evans & Timo Tjahjanto. Evans uses a mostly Indonesian cast, as he did in his action masterpiece <b>The Raid: Redemption</b>, to take us inside a "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonestown">Jonestown</a>" inspired cult where things are much more devious than they seem. I don't even want to go in to what occurs in this segment, but I will say that it has more pure shocks and disgusting surprises than 99% of feature length horror films out there. It's a truly nightmarish little epic - it feels like it's longer than the other three main segments of the film combined - that is good enough to make the whole film worth seeing.<br />
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That said, the rest of the film works pretty well too. I might even say that the lowest moments of this film (the wrap-around directed by <b>You're Next</b> and <b>A Horrible Way To Die</b> scribe Simon Barrett and the zombie segment directed by Gregg Hale and <b>The Blair Witch Project</b> co-director Eduardo Sanchez) are better than the least impressive parts of the first <b>V/H/S</b> film. Barrett's wrap-around seems fresher and less hectic than the sequence he and You're Next director Adam Wingard put together for the first film (plus it has a better payoff at the end) while Sanchez and Hale's first person zombie tale feels like a neat little short that could be expounded upon in a different film.<br />
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The two segments that bookend the proceedings both stand out by being manic in their attempts to surprise the viewer. The first, directed by Wingard and written by Barrett, stars Wingard as a man who is fitted with an experimental camera eye that just happens to see ghosts all around him. The tone of this film is probably closest to that of V/H/S (plus Barrett and Wingard both bring back the "random topless women" factor of the first film) and it manages to bridge the gap between the films while providing a few good scares. The film's last segment, by <b>Hobo With A Shotgun</b> director Jason Eisener, is even more hectic and bizarre and the title - "Slumber Party Alien Abduction" - tells you almost everything you need to know about it. This sequence has one of the film's most annoying tricks, when Eisener mounts the camera on top of an in film dog for several scenes, but it's also the most ridiculously fun and carefree piece of cinema in the film.<br />
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As a total film, I really respect the manic energy of V/H/S 2. Each section of the film has a different tone and a different pace, but the flow of the presentation is never interrupted. I thought the first film worked similarly, but had a few bumps in the road that derailed it from being the kind of movie that is perfect for a crowded Halloween party. I think this sequel avoids the same pitfalls and earns a place at that party; it's a crowd pleasing horror anthology that's here just in time for the holiday season.<br />
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The Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09871017982169159144noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132620721136610844.post-38808688810448733152013-09-20T13:17:00.000-05:002013-09-20T13:19:46.520-05:00Midnight Movie of the Week #194 - The Warriors<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Any list of the coolest movies ever made is invalid if it does not mention <b>The Warriors</b>. There are few times when I will say that a movie is unquestionably worthy of praise, that the movie's brilliance is an actual fact, but The Warriors is simply cool. There can be no question, from the pulsating montage that opens the film to the final shot that hangs out behind the end credits, that Walter Hill and company made a gangland epic that is without equal.<br />
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The trick to understanding just how cool The Warriors, however, is realizing that it's more than just a gang movie. A short sighted viewer with strict morals might look at the film as an excuse to show gang violence and a glorification of the lifestyle. It's hard to argue against that to an extent - the fact is that everyone in the movie is a member of a criminal organization (unless they're a cop) - but it's more important to look at the film's reality instead of our reality. In the film's world, where the late night hours in New York City seem to belong only to the gangs, the only thing that matters is survival. And in that reality, it's easy to start seeing that The Warriors has its heart in a much less sinister place.<br />
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If you're unfamiliar with The Warriors - and I'm incredibly sorry if you are - the basic set-up is very simple. All of the "major league" gangs in New York City have agreed to send nine delegates to a meeting in the city where Cyrus, president of the top gang in the city, has something to say. It's supposed to be a peaceful discussion, with Cyrus giving one of the all-time most iconic speeches on film, except that one ornery gang decides they don't like it and shoots Cyrus dead. The ensuing scuffles sees the title gang, a rather vanilla outfit in red leather vests from Coney Island, accused of the murder and having their "warlord" slain, leaving the eight remaining members to try and get home while every gang in the city is ordered to hunt them down by Cyrus' disciples.<br />
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If this idea was pitched today, it's hard to see it being made as a film and not a video game. The set up is almost perfect for that medium; starting with a short intro and a crisis that puts the heroes in peril and then allowing waves of opponents of varying skill and difficulty to challenge them on their way to their goal. It makes perfect sense that The Warriors was adapted for consoles by video game giant Rockstar Games in 2005 (it's actually one of the better film-to-video-game adaptations out there), and looking at the film after seeing that game makes it almost impossible for me to not look at the film as a video game movie that was made in advance. <br />
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With such a simple premise, it's everything else in the film that Hill manages to make so cool. That really begins with Cyrus, the idealistic Jesus figure whose "Can you dig it?" exclamation has become a pop culture mainstay. The actor who plays Cyrus, Roger Hill, is just one of the relatively unknown actors in the film (there are a few recognizable faces, but the biggest star of the film is probably <b>Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? </b>hostess Lynne Thigpen as the mostly unseen disc-jokey who advances the plot a few times), but his one-scene performance perfectly makes us accept the film's conflict. Other performances vary in quality - lead Michael Beck seems to spend most of his time standing very still and looking concerned-but-chill, while seedy David Patrick Kelly is perfectly unhinged as the unhinged little gangster who is responsible for The Warriors' plight - but everyone seems to be adequate for their part in the film.<br />
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By traditional standards The Warriors probably doesn't measure up to most filmmaking standards, and it's easy to see why critics in its time primarily wrote it off as a failure. But the intangibles that make The Warriors such a memorable and enjoyable film have maintained for nearly 35 years, and now we're at the point where the film is certainly one of the most loved cult films out there. Forget the plot, forget the gang affiliation, forget that the lead is there because of his abs - just sit back and experience The Warriors. You'll be glad you did.<br />
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The Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09871017982169159144noreply@blogger.com0