8 Things I Love About... Army of Darkness

If I had it entirely my way, I'd have posted 8 pictures of the guy with the Fu Manchu 'stache. This one's also cool for the kid in the background who's so excited that you'd think he was at a Stryper concert.

The Chainsaw Leap.

"It's a trick. Get an axe."

Attack of the Four-Inch Tall Groovies.

I strongly believe that "I'm blind. I'm blind!" moment that's followed by that wink and that noise is the best thing the great Bruce Campbell has ever done.

The three words from the undeniably great The Day The Earth Stood Still.

That moment when Fu Manchu 'Stache Dude basically saves the day and keeps the movie going.

The S-Mart Ending.  Sorry Sam, I know you didn't want this and I may be a primitive knucklehead for saying this, but "Hail to the King, Baby." did a lot more for this movie's success than that goofy time travel ending would have.

The Summer of Massacre

(2011, Dir. by Joe Castro.)

I'm gonna be up front with you all from the start here.  This is the kind of movie that makes me wonder what the hell is wrong with the horror genre.

Allegedly having the highest body count in film history - the film's advertisements claim that Guinness backs this up - The Summer of Massacre is one of the messiest films I've ever seen.  Unfortunately, I don't use the word messy due to the film's gore, I use the term messy because it's one of the most poorly made films I've ever seen.

Littered with awful CGI gore - think Birdemic meets one of those Arcade shooters from the mid '90s - and at times lacking a plot entirely, this "Joe Castro Experience" was surely designed with the most hardcore of horror fans in mind.  But I simply can not fathom how anyone who - oh, I don't know, has ever seen another movie - would be able to see just how bad The Summer of Massacre is.

Summer of Massacre also claims to be the first ever anthology/slasher film (I'm not enough of a slasher authority to dispute that point, so congrats to the filmmakers for creating a sub-subgenre), which means we're supposed to get five different gory stories.  Like messy, I suppose I should clarify my use of the term "story" here.  For example, the first segment of the film doesn't really seem to have a plot at all.  In it, a naked man wakes up, puts on some shorts, goes running, gets beat down, then runs around enraged killing someone every 12 seconds while a truly terrible pulsating demo-button-on-a-kids-keyboard type musical score hammers home how EXTREME the sequence is.  But the thing is - it's NOT EXTREME AT ALL.  It has no point, it's horribly put together, and the effects are so bad that even the gore hounds will be disappointed.  The sequence ends with the killer saying something that might have been an explanation for what went on, but the sequence - and the actor - are so unintelligible that I don't think it's possible to make sense out of the gibberish that was spoken.

The film's second full segment features the star of the proceedings, '80s scream queen Brinke Stevens, who gives a brief performance as the mother of a deformed invalid whose good-looking sister tries to kill her.  This sequence is a bit more competent than the first, but is still riddled with the same distracting and amateur computer effects and plenty of awful dialogue, punctuated by a random sexual revelation that comes of as immature and silly.

By this point in the film - which makes 97 minutes as tedious as possible - I was pretty far gone from the ability to think of this film as anything but a disaster.  Surprisingly, the final two segments were a bit less off-putting, but still suffered the same problems as the rest of the film, primarily via bad acting, awful effects, and poor direction.  The final twenty minutes amp up the violence again, but I've already told you the problem with that - it's all awful digital crap that would make a Geocities website from 1998 proud.  There are some practical effects too, but they're just as overblown and ridiculous as the CGI gore too.  Oh, and the CGI doesn't stop at the gore - there are times when entire shots have clearly been digitally rendered - which makes the film seem even that much more impotent

I guess I could say that The Summer of Massacre improves as it goes on, but the fact that it goes from "potentially the most inept movie of all-time" to "really terrible and horribly made" is no reason to ever come near watching this film.  It's the kind of movie that makes me wonder if horror fans and filmmakers really are as sick as the media/researchers/stuck-up tools who whine about the genre's existence are on to something.  Is there really an audience for a film that looks and sounds and acts like this?  In the name of horror, in the name of filmmaking, and in the name of good old fashioned common sense - I sure as hell hope not.

Against my best judgment, I'm gonna post the film's official website and a link to the trailer here - since the kind folks at Breaking Glass Pictures were nice enough to send along a screener of this one - but I really can't recommend The Summer of Massacre for any reason to anyone.  This is not the kind of horror movie I want to see, and I don't believe it's the kind of movie you'll want to see either.  I highly doubt I'll see a worse movie in 2012.

The 2011 Midnight Movie of the Week Recap!

With 2011 behind us, FMWL began its third year in existence last Thursday.  That first year was a bit of a wash, but I'm super proud that I've managed to keep up consistently over the past two years.  I owe most of that success to my Midnight Movie of the Week series of posts, which has always kept me driven to stay active and keep up to date with my favorite genre flicks.

The first year of the MMOTW was chronicled in a wrap-up style, and I couldn't resist doing the same thing again today.  Mostly because I want to share my favorite screengrabs of 2011. Seriously, a great screengrab is about my favorite thing in the world.  (Next to grilled cheese and the Packers, of course.)  I'mma fit as many of them as I can into this post!  Starting now!

So come on in and look around, because here are Midnight Movies of the Week #53-#104 one last time!

53. Burning Bright (2010, Horror, Dir. by Carlos Brooks.)

54. The 'Burbs (1989, Comedy, Dir. by Joe Dante.)

55. The Illustrated Man (1969, Horror, Dir. by Jack Smight.)

56. Phantom of the Paradise (1974, Horror/Musical, Dir. by Brian De Palma.)

57. Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958, Sci-Fi, Dir. by Nathan Juran.)

58. Carnival of Souls (1962, Horror, Dir. by Herk Harvey.)

59. Sisters (1973, Horror, Dir. by Brian De Palma.)

60. The Stepford Wives (1975, Horror, Dir. by Bryan Forbes.)

61. Big Trouble in Little China (1986, Sci-Fi, Dir. by John Carpenter.)

62. Danger: Diabolik (1968, Action/Sci-Fi, Dir. by Mario Bava.)

63. Of Unknown Origin (1983, Horror, Dir. by George P. Cosmatos.)

64. Evil Dead II (1987, Horror, Dir. by Sam Raimi.)

65. Westworld (1973, Sci-Fi, Dir. by Michael Crichton.)

66. The Wicker Man (2006, Comedy, Dir. by Neil Labute.)

67. Scream (1996, Horror, Dir. by Wes Craven.)

68. Red Eye (2005, Thriller, Dir. by Wes Craven.)

69. Blow Out (1981, Thriller, Dir. by Brian De Palma.)

70. Abominable (2006, Horror, Dir. by Ryan Schifrin.)

71. I, Madman (1989, Horror, Dir. by Tibor Takacs.)

72. Escape 2000 (1982, Action/Sci-Fi, Dir. by Brian Trenchard-Smith.)

73. Duel (1971, Thriller, Dir. by Steven Spielberg.)

74. Dead Calm (1989, Thriller, Dir. by Phillip Noyce.)

75. Bloody Birthday (1981, Horror, Dir. by Ed Hunt.)

76. Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI (1986, Horror, Dir. by Tom McLoughlin.)

77. The Hidden (1987, Sci-Fi/Action, Dir. by Jack Sholder.)

78. Dawning (2009, Horror, Dir. by Gregg Holtgrewe.)

79. The Fly (1958, Sci-Fi/Horror, Dir. by Kurt Neumann.)

80. Deranged (1974, Horror, Dir. by Jeff Gillen.)

81. Panic in Year Zero! (1962, Sci-Fi, Dir. by Ray Milland.)

82. Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971, Horror, Dir. by John D. Hancock.)

83. The People Under the Stairs (1991, Horror, Dir. by Wes Craven.)

84. The Toxic Avenger (1984, Action/Horror/Comedy, Dir. by Lloyd Kaufman & Michael Herz.)

85. Night of the Living Dead (1968, Horror, Dir. by George A. Romero.)

86. The Sentinel (1977, Horror, Dir. by Michael Winner.)

87. The Hand That Rocks The Cradle (1992, Thriller, Dir. by Curtis Hanson.)

88. Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972, Horror, Dir. by Alan Gibson.)

89. The Last Winter (2006, Horror, Dir. by Larry Fessenden.)

90. Doctor X (1932, Horror, Dir. by Michael Curtiz.)

91. Dark and Stormy Night (2009, Comedy, Dir by Larry Blamire.)

92. Carrie (1976, Horror, Dir. by Brian De Palma.)

93. The Thing From Another World (1951, Horror/Sci-Fi, Dir. by Christian Nyby.)

94. Malevolence (2004, Horror, Dir. by Stevan Mena.)

95. The Exorcist (1973, Horror, Dir. by William Friedkin.)

96. Fathom (1967, Comedy/Action, Dir. by Leslie H. Martinson.)

97. Escape From New York (1981, Sci-Fi/Action, Dir. by John Carpenter.)

98. Son of Godzilla (1967, Sci-Fi, Dir. by Jun Fukuda.)

99. The Fog (1980, Horror, Dir. by John Carpenter.)

100. Bonnie's Kids (1973, Thriller, Dir. by Arthur Marks.)

101. The Centerfold Girls (1974, Horror/Thriller, Dir. by John Peyser.)

102. Soylent Green (1973, Sci-Fi, Dir. by Richard Fleischer.)

103. Die Hard 2 (1990, Action, Dir. by Renny Harlin.)

104. The Gate (1986, Horror, Dir. by Tibor Takacs.)

Here's some random stats/observations. Because stats and observations make Dennis Franz happy.

• Only 29 of the 52 are films I'd first identify as horror films, down from 39 in 2010.  I've always wanted to cover all kinds of genre flicks here, and I think this year has been a better variance of film types.  After horror, we have 11 movies I identify as Sci-Fi, and 6 I'd give the ambiguous thriller label.  There were also a couple films I struggled to fit in a specific genre - stuff like The Toxic Avenger and Bonnie's Kids - but I think that's a testament to how varied movies can be.  And I dig that.
• Three directors - Brian De Palma, John Carpenter, and Wes Craven - directed 10 of this year's 52.  De Palma's 4 topped the year (representing a conscious effort I made to cover him more this year), while Carpenter remains my standby for MMOTW goodness - his three movies this year give him 6 MMOTW picks in two years.  Other folks who now have more than one film on the MMOTW include Tibor Takacs, Richard Fleischer, George A. Romero, Joe Dante, and Mario Bava.
• Actors and actresses who have multiple films on the list are slightly skewed by De Palma, who put Nancy Allen, John Travolta, and William Finley in two MMOTWs this year.  Franz also appeared in two - partially thanks to De Palma and Blow Out.  Ellen Burstyn is in two MMOTWS from '11, from two different ends of the quality spectrum - The Exorcist and The Wicker Man remake.  
• Returning actors in MMOTWs include plenty of my long-time favorites. Christopher Lee adds a 4th MMOTW to his resume this year, as does Caroline Munro.  Jamie Lee Curtis, Kurt Russell, and Tom Atkins add two more, thanks to Carpenter. 
• The battle between the decades produced the same two top eras as 2010 - the 1980s and the 1970s - but the gap closed this year.  The '80s still had the most MMOTW picks with 15, but the '70s was 1 behind at 14.  Next closest decades were the 2000s and 1960s with 7 each.  Through two years, the '80s still tops the MMOTW charts with 32 of 104 picks, followed by 25 from the '70s and 15 from the '60s.

Just like last year, I don't think those stats mean much - besides pointing out my tendencies for loving films of directors and actors and times - but it fascinates me nonetheless.  Now, let's take a look at some more of my favorite screen shots from this year's MMOTW picks! As always, you can click these caps (and any other caps in the post) to make the images really friggin' bigger.

With that, the sun has set on 2011.  The MMOTW's of 2012 are on their way!

Midnight Movie of the Week #105 - The Candy Snatchers

Back by popular demand (from myself, but who's counting) is that blonde bombshell of the sleazy seventies, Tiffany Bolling - who's quickly become a veteran in the Midnight Movie of the Week canon.  This time, I'm taking a look at the 1973 kidnap-xploitation flick (Did I just make that genre up? Maybe.) The Candy Snatchers, which has long been one of Ms. Bolling's films that eluded my eyes.

The film features Bolling and two male conspirators - the smaller and hornier Alan (played by Brad David) and the bigger and dopier Eddy (Vince Martorano) - who snatch up a 16 year old Catholic school girl - named Candy, of course - and set off a chain reaction of violence and mayhem that barrels out of control quickly.  The trio have a kidnapping scheme in place, but we all know that things never really go as planned in this type of situation, don't we?

For starters, the girl's stepfather (played by the creepily Andrew-McCarthy-looking Ben Piazza) is a bit more worried about the money - and a lot more worried about having an affair with a fine young woman - than he is about the fate of Candy or her millionaire mother.  He's always got that distant look in his eyes, and his unwillingness to go along with the trio's treacherous plan is just another splash of gasoline on their criminal fire.

Meanwhile, poor Candy (played by 20 year old Susan Sennett, who would later become the wife of Crosby, Stills & Nash's Graham Nash), gets abused by the men and ignored by Bolling's Jessie, who seems to grow a little jealous of the attention that's paid to Candy by her male companions.  She's buried alive, she's beaten, she's raped (this was the '70s, somebody had to get raped), and she's pretty much tossed around like the plot device she is throughout the film.  Ms. Sennett/Nash quit acting in the mid '70s - allegedly walking out on an audition for TV's Three's Company - because she was tired of doing "racy" material.  So, basically, the character is abused so thoroughly that it made the actress feel abused four years later.

Which brings us to the real star of The Candy Snatchers - the only witness who has any chance of helping Candy - a mute, autistic child named Sean.  Sean is played by Cristophe, the real-life son of director Guerdon Trueblood, and he bumbles through the film in his bib overalls while doing his best to communicate with those around him.  Unfortunately, his parents hate him and abuse him because he can't talk, leading to a couple of late film scenes that had me gasping in fear for the little trooper.  Sean's pretty much the cutest kid hero ever - particularly for such a sleazy film - and I spent much of the movie just wanting to jump through the screen and help the kid out. And maybe give him a high five for being awesome.

With this many volatile characters in one place - the only people we can really root for are a kid who can't communicate and a girl who's bound and gagged for most of the film - the heavy turns that occur throughout the film's journey cover a wide range of exploitation standards. Disagreements between the criminals and cat-and-mouse games between the sleazy stepfather and the sleazier kidnappers are predictable, but still carry dramatic weight thanks to the performances of the actors and the script's ability to make us sympathize with the abused characters.  The antagonists are drawn pretty well too, particularly Martorano's Eddy, a part that was written specifically for the actor because he was a college friend of Trueblood.  His character is seen as sympathetic at times and brutal at others, which keeps things tense when we don't really know what to expect from the character.

This is yet another production by Arthur Marks - who also was behind Bolling films Bonnie's Kids and The Centerfold Girls - and after seeing all three films in which he used her talents it's very clear why Marks kept bringing her back to his films.  Bolling is once again given the chance to play a strong and occasionally fierce character, and her pretty face quickly fades away when we realize just how vicious she can be.  I don't think her role here is as bold as she was in Bonnie's Kids, nor does she reach the primal rage that she released late in The Centerfold Girls, but it is another testament to how strong this Playboy magazine could be without relying on her physical attributes. (Though she does show them off anyway.)

The Candy Snatchers is another vicious little film from the Marks/Bolling machine - I'm glad there's only three of these, because I'm not sure I could keep seeing this kind of dark thriller every week - but it's got a lot of interesting twists and turns thanks to well developed characters and one wonderfully brave little boy.  It's pretty good at what it does, and should be an interesting find for fans of '70s drive-in sleaze.

From Midnight, With Love's Top 11 Genre Films of 2011

A good gimmick never dies, and here at FMWL we will always do our best to go to eleven.  Last year we did it, and in 2011 we certainly had to do it again.  Honestly, I kinda wanted to go past eleven this year - I haven't actually decided what the 11th film on the list is yet.  Why's the decision so hard, you ask?  Well, I think it's because this year has been freakin' FANTASTIC.

Across the board, 2011 has provided a lot of fantastic entertainment for genre fans.  From mainstream sci-fi blockbusters to independent horror shockers, I was slightly surprised by how impressed I was when I started perusing the list of films I've loved this year.  The variance between the films on the list has made sure that the list would be incredibly difficult for me to rank, but I think it also points out the fact that 2011 offered a little bit of something for everyone (unless you like Hollywood produced horror films, because they all pretty much sucked this year).

Enough rambling, let's do this!

Second Runners-Up:
Ashes (Dir. by Elias Matar), Bereavement (Dir. by Stevan Mena), Ghost From The Machine (Dir. by Matt Osterman), The Hagstone Demon (Dir. by Jon Springer), Rubber (Dir. by Quentin Dupieux), The Ward (Dir. by John Carpenter)

First Runners-Up: (You guys! It seriously kills me that I can't fit these movies on the list!)

• Attack The Block (Dir. by Joe Cornish): I'm just not as wild about this one as most folks are.  But I won't deny that it's an enthralling and fun sci-fi flick that's one of the most unique movies in years.
• Drive Angry (Dir. by Patrick Lussier):This one's a guilty pleasure to some, but y'all should know by now that The Mike regrets nothing. There's some serious old-school drive-in stuff goin' on in this one, and I always dig Nic Cage. So sue me.
• A Foundling (Dir. by Carly Lin): Way back at the beginning of the year I was tempted into viewing this "Chinese Cowgirls vs. Aliens" movie, and I certainly don't regret it.  One of the most well-acted films I saw in 2011; it's a truly sweet and original film.
• Grave Encounters (Dir. by The Vicious Brothers): One of the scariest films I experienced in 2011, Grave Encounters balances the found footage formula with some unique twists and an omnipresent sense of dread. The payoff is a little off, but the visceral impact of the film is legit.
• A Horrible Way To Die (Dir. by Adam Wingard): This one has grown on me a lot since my initial viewing, primarily due to the fantastic performances by the actors involved.  It's probably the best dramatic horror film of the year, and a strong statement that star AJ Bowen is here to stay.
• X-Men: First Class (Dir. by Matthew Vaughn): I've never been the biggest X-Fan, but Vaughn's prequel is helped by a fantastic cast - led by Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence - and a fresh 1960s storyline. A great balance of popcorn entertainment and sci-fi smarts.

And now, THE LIST:

Number 11 - Paranormal Activity 3
(Dir. by Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman)

I liked the first PA film a lot, and the second one made me interested in where the story was going.  The third film - helmed by the folks behind last year's docudrama Catfish - takes the story back to the 1980s, and officially got me hooked on wherever this series is going with its demonic tale.  The biggest triumph is probably the wonderful sequences with a camera on an oscillating fan, which is the most effective development in the found footage series' young life.  Who knows where the next Paranormal film will go, but I think the third installment is a nice booster shot for these films.

(Check out The Mike's review of Paranormal Activity 3 HERE.)

Number 10 - The Innkeepers
(Dir. by Ti West)

Ti West's latest film didn't blow my socks off like his previous film did, but it's still an incredibly effective ghost story.  The performances of the cast - including budding star Sara Paxton - do plenty to sell the film's scares, but it's West's ever-patient camera that really draws us into this haunted hotel chiller.  The dose of comedy that's been added to the script feels quite realistic, but I wish the horror side of the film was as fresh.  Still, it's a heck of a spook show.

(Check out The Mike's review of The Innkeepers HERE.)

Number 9 - Trollhunter 
(Dir. by Andre Overdal)

Another found footage flick - we're down to only three of these on the full list this year! - but Trollhunter is more Cloverfield than Blair Witch.  The Norwegian monster mash is certainly the giant monster film of the year, thanks to some fantastic special effects and plenty of great scenes of destruction.  The film's spectacle makes the viewer forget about the handheld film's "true story" pledge at times, but I don't think that takes away from one of the most enjoyable films of the year.

(Check out The Mike's review of Trollhunter HERE.)

Number 8 - Black Death
(Dir. by Christopher Smith)

Like Ti West, Christopher Smith moved to 4-for-4 as a horror director in early 2011 with the release of Black Death.  A tale of religious fervor and witchcraft that's set during the black plague, Smith's latest is a neat historical horror that has fascinated me a few times already.  It's helped greatly by the presence of one of my favorite working actors, Sean Bean, who puts an armor and a sword one more time as the rugged leader of the film's quest.  I don't get why this movie didn't get more publicity than it did, but I'm glad I found it.

(Check out The Mike's review of Black Death HERE.)

Number 7 - I Didn't Come Here To Die
(Dir. by Bradley Scott Sullivan)

The most pleasant surprise of 2011, at least for me, was certainly this yet-to-be-released horror film.  We've seen "group goes into the woods, death follows" a million times before, but I Didn't Come Here To Die manages to do a couple of things that separate it from other films in similar settings.  Most importantly, the film entirely skips the psycho killer/unleashed demons/deadly hillbillies cliches that we've already seen - which means that you really need to see this one, if only to figure out just how someone could make a horror film without those crutches to rely on.  The result is a fantastic horror comedy, complete with plenty of gore and one of the most wonderful scream queens I've seen in a long time. (WHAT? Seriously! That Emmy Robbin is GORGEOUS.)

(Check out The Mike's review of I Didn't Come Here To Die HERE.)

Number 6 - Super 8
(Dir. by J.J. Abrams)

I gotta admit, the fact that Super 8 is only number 6 on this list kinda makes me furious.  A lot of people like to diss this one - and to compare it to Attack the Block - but I just don't get why. This is movie magic, people! Maybe I'm a sucker for Hollywood (SPOILER ALERT: I am.), but Super 8 is the kind of movie I'd dream of making if I ever had the ability to make a movie.  The child actors are fantastic, Coach Eric Taylor is a great lead, the effects are good, and it all looks and sounds like a perfect spectacle.  I LOVE IT AND YOU CAN'T STOP ME FROM LOVING IT.

(There's no review because The Mike was on vacation that week in June. BUT I REGRET NOTHING.)

Number 5 - Hobo With a Shotgun
(Dir. by Jason Eisener)

I didn't want to like this movie. That's probably not fair to say - I really want to like EVERY movie - but the amount of hype around this Hobo was like the biggest big fish tale any fisherman or fisherwoman has ever heard.  But it was all true.  Eisener's film is carried by veteran star Rutger Hauer, but the amount of support around him from the supporting cast and the filmmakers helps the legend come true.  The director seems to put the cherry on top of the production with his fantastic vision of carnage, which manages to use some humane scenes to back up the brutally violent side of the proceedings.

(Check out The Mike's review of Hobo With a Shotgun HERE.)

Number 4 - Tucker & Dale vs. Evil
(Dir. by Eli Craig)

Like I Didn't Come Here To Die, this is the rare horror comedy that brings something fresh to the table and doesn't buy in to the standard horror stunts.  Tyler Labine leads the charge as Dale, providing a loveable hero for the comedic tale that provides gory mayhem and hearty laughs. This is a film that should make all kinds of viewers laugh, and is surely destined for the kind of cult classic status that's usually reserved for winners like Army of Darkness or Shaun of the Dead.

(Check out The Mike's review of Tucker & Dale vs. Evil HERE.)

Number 3 - Absentia
(Dir. by Mike Flanagan)

One of the most intelligent horror films to come around in a long time, Mike Flanagan's chilling Absentia (which is due for a DVD release this April!) boasts some of the most successful scares I've seen in a long time and a wonderfully acted bit of human drama throughout the film.  Stars Courtney Bell and Katie Parker do a lot for the film, and the shift in focus halfway through the film is unexpected, but welcome.  Oh, and did I mention that it scared me a lot?  Because it did.  If you're looking for a horror film for thinking adult audiences, you have got to seek this one out.

(Check out The Mike's review of Absentia HERE.)

Number 2 - Rise of the Planet of the Apes
(Dir. by Rupert Wyatt)

The unexpected big-budget winner of the year is certainly this prequel to the 40+ year-old classic, which offers a fresh origin to the Charlton Heston led sci-fi classic.  James Franco gets top billing this time, but it's the jaw dropping ape effects - with the assistance of Lord of the Rings and King Kong veteran Andy Serkis - and a script that's much too intelligent for summer in Hollywood that allow the film to Rise to the top of the class.  Hollywood didn't hit many home runs with their genre releases this year, but Rise of the Planet of the Apes will stand tall for years to come as a blueprint for making a successful Hollywood reboot.

(Check out The Mike's review of Rise of the Planet of the Apes HERE.)

Number 1 - Stake Land

To tell the truth, I'm not sure if there's anything more than a gut feeling that has pushed me to put Stake Land (Review HERE) ahead of the rest of the pack at the top of this list. (All of these flicks, especially the top 4, could have easily made the jump to this spot on a good day.)  But Jim Mickle's post-apocalyptic vampire film is a strange kind of horror movie comfort food for me, playing off the ideas of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend while providing a beautiful cross-country tale of horror on the open road.  It's full of great performances, interesting twists on vampire lore, and a couple of shocking and intense scenes that could remind any horror fan why they love this genre.  

Stake Land is one of many triumphs to come out of 2011, but right now it's the one that stands out (if only by the smallest of margins) in my mind as my favorite genre film of the year.

The Innkeepers

(2011, Dir. by Ti West.)

The Innkeepers is the fourth film by writer/director Ti West - who's quickly become a cult hero in the horror scene - and I feel like I must start any commentary on the film by stating that this is easily West's most fast-paced film.  That's not to say West's new tale of terror wants to be one of Michael Bay's blockbusters, it's more of a statement to denote that he's starting to move at a pace that most audiences will be comfortable with.  That probably makes The Innkeepers his most accessible film to the masses thus far, but it doesn't mean West's losing his eye for building fantastic tension.

In some ways, The Innkeepers signifies a step forward for West.  One of my favorite things about his last film - The House of the Devil, which I've lauded as my favorite horror film of the last decade - was the relationship he built between the lead character and her best friend during the first half of the film.  The Innkeepers is built around a similarly natural and realistic relationship between two hotel employees, Claire (Sara Paxton) and Luke (Pat Healy), who are charged with observing the final days of business at The Yankee Pedlar, an old school hotel that's alleged to be haunted.  While West's first three films seemed to slip into long sequences without dialogue - a technique that generally served its purpose by drawing us in to the lead characters' fears - The Innkeepers manages to create similar tension while keeping the characters' relationship in the forefront of the film.  This focus on the characters and their interactions has several positive effects on the film.   The relationship between the leads - who share a drive for paranormal research - adds a surprising amount of humor to the film, and yet it also adds to the tension of the film when Claire is on her own and we already know just how frail she is emotionally and physically.

I mean no disrespect to Healy, who gives a very good performance in the film, but Paxton's performance as Claire is something of a revelation.  The 23 year-old actress turned the heads of horror fans when she co-starred in the remake of The Last House on the Left, but her turn in The Innkeepers will certainly go a long way toward establishing her as an actress who can carry a film.  I'm often most impressed when actors/actresses can play a "normal" character (it seems Hollywood sells "normal" in a sugar coated format far too often), and Paxton - who spent much of her early career in sugary teen films - really sells out in the name of the film.  The miniature actress seems to be a natural as the college drop out who struggles with asthma and low aspirations, and she brings the same kind of charm that House of the Devil lead Jocelin Donahue brought to that film.

And it's Paxton's charismatic performance that leads the film's biggest successes, which come when the film's terrors begin to prey on Claire's frailty.  Going into the details of the film's haunting certainly would be a lame move on my part, so I'll simply tell you that I liked the psychological aspect of the film's story more than the supernatural side of it all.  I had a brief argument with myself at the end of the film, because I think a case could be made for differing interpretations of the final scenes.  None of this mental rumination would have occurred if Paxton hadn't portrayed Claire as an impressionable and overzealous young woman, and in my mind the film capitalized on the performance perfectly.

Aside from the terrific lead performance, West's film has plenty of tense moments where the director shows off the same approach he brought to House of the Devil.  We see something, then we don't see something, and then we wait for something to happen, and then we repeat.  It sounds typical and cliche - and I do think of the film's scares will look pretty standard to most horror fans - but West's ability to build tension again powers his film to success. 

I wasn't as crazy about The Innkeepers as I hoped I'd be when the end credits first rolled, but it's stuck with me in the day since my viewing ended.  I might have expected too much from West as he followed up House of the Devil, but The Innkeepers deserves praise on its own.  It's a fun horror film with a surprising dose of comedy that compliments the tense scenes well.  West has a terrific feel for horror, and when you combine that with the fine performances, you've got a real winner.

Midnight Movie of the Week #104 - The Gate

People who grew up in the '80s really love the heck out of the horror movies of the '80s.  It makes a lot of sense, considering people always love what they grew up with, but sometimes I feel like they're a little misguided.  But then again, When I see that crazy fashion and those crazy hairstyles and all those neon colors...well, it's easy to fall for the '80s charms, isn't it?

And when I seriously start thinking about the horror of the '80s and my experience growing up in the genre, I tend to think about The Gate.  I'm not sure how the old Christian ladies that ran our small town library ended up getting ahold of The Monster Squad and The Gate and making them available to children like Mikeself, but those little old ladies deserve a hug for bringing this one into my life. 

The Gate might be the perfect horror movie for children.  In a way, it even kind of follows the Disney formula for kids in peril.  Parents go out of town, kids are left in charge with mischievous friends, trouble arrives quickly.  It's like The Lion King with a bunch of clay monsters.  And no Lions or singing.  OK, there's some singing.  But that's not the point.  The point is that it's a movie about kids facing their fears, which is what Disney does all the damn time.

The Gate isn't about lions or mermaids or any of that boring Disney stuff, thankfully.  It's about a hole in the backyard that has weird geodes (aka those rocks you crack open that look pretty inside) in it and also is a gateway to some kind of hell that's full of little angry monsters and unleashes a lot of other weird stuff too.  That "weird stuff" takes on all kinds of forms throughout the film, and it seems that most of them - aside from the mini goblins - are the kinds of weird stuff that many kids would have nightmares about.

After all, what kid isn't afraid of whatever is living under their bed?  I know I was, and I'm willing to bet you were too.  And that's just part of The Gate's weirdness.  Other scenes that seem to have been designed to destroy a child's ability to sleep at night involve a dead body coming out of a wall, a badly killed dog, and - in true kid manipulation form - parents turning evil.  That last one is still one of the few moments in horror that really gives me the willies; a scene that - thanks to some great sound effects - has stuck in my mind for at least 20 years.

It's a testament to director Tibor Takacs - whose I, Madman is another kinda surreal, kinda creepy, kinda awesome '80s horror movie (that's not for kids) that's been chosen for MMOTW - that The Gate manages to pack so many surprises into 85 minutes.  And it's more impressive that the chills still work on me as full grown adult.  Sure, the film is as dated as any '80s offering, but the effects still meet the story's needs very well. (I must also mention that the film is helped out today by a shockingly good DVD transfer by Lionsgate, which is seriously one of the best looking restorations I've seen on the format.  I had the old bargain full-frame DVD before this one, and the improvements that Lionsgate were able to make are nothing short of amazing. It's one of the best '80s horror DVDs out there.)

I'm sure there are viewers out there who haven't seen The Gate yet and who might struggle with its combination of clay monsters and young Stephen Dorff, who already had brooding and squinting down at a young age.  But I really don't think it's just nostalgia that has me loving The Gate today.  Takacs' film is still a bold and ambitious horror film, with effects scenes - including a fantastic sequence when one of the kids slips into the deadly hole and the final confrontation with a creature from the pit - that would make most horror films jealous.  There's a balance between the scares and the action that keeps the viewer involved in the film, and they should be interested in The Gate's tale of terror even if they're not always scared by it.

And, as I already said, I think The Gate's scares will work best on the kids.  An early PG-13 horror film (once again debunking the myth that all effective horror films HAVE to be rated R), The Gate might be a perfect starting point for the youngster who's interested in scary stories or monsters and ghosts.  It's got just the right mix of scares and action, meaning the kids will not only experience the fear that they desire, but will also witness kids empowering themselves to deal with those fears.  

A lot of horror films aren't right for children, often because most kids want to see the spooky stuff but don't have a plan for how they'll not cry themselves to sleep later.  The Gate, on the other hand, is a movie that supports the brave kids.  Like other empowered kids films - films like '80s classic The Goonies and recent hit Super 8 - The Gate doesn't sell young folks short.  If you're gonna give into your kid's demand for "scary movies", you might as well start with one that reminds them they have power over their fears - and The Gate does that. And if you're a kid at heart who's looking for a fun '80s horror film, then The Gate is for you too.