The Mike's Top 50 Horror Movies Countdown: #36 - Army of Darkness

Previously on the Countdown: Number 50 - Happy Birthday to Me  Number 49 - Prince of Darkness  Number 48 - House on Haunted Hill  Number 47 - The Monster Squad  Number 46 - Hellraiser  Number 45 - The Fog  Number 44 - Creature From the Black Lagoon  Number 43 - Zombie  Number 42 - Tales from the Crypt  Number 41 - Bubba Ho-Tep  Number 40 - Phantom of the Paradise  Number 39 - Dog Soldiers Number 38 - Pontypool  Number 37 - Dark Water

Army of Darkness

(1993, Dir. by Sam Raimi.)

Why It's Here:

Are you freakin' kidding me? Any list of any kind of movies that has to do with me has to include Army of Darkness.  It's pure, unadulterated, awesomeness.  It's pretty much the most fun movie to watch.  Ever.  I don't really have to explain Army of Darkness, at least not to myself.

The Moment That Changes Everything:

When that chainsaw gets tossed into that pit and Bruce Campbell leaps into the sky and everything clicks into place...well, that's when my soul really starts dancing.  Of course, there's about 97 moments in the short film that create the same feeling, but that's the first one that comes to my mind tonight.

It Makes a Great Double Feature With:

Well, there's two films that OBVIOUSLY go so well with this one - but I just might end up talking about them later in this list.  So, if we're gonna pair something else up with Army of Darkness, we're gonna need something funny, exciting, monstrous, and good looking.  Something like....Tremors.  Yeah.

What It Means To Me:

I think I've written about my evolving favoritism in regard to the Evil Dead series before, and how my appreciation of each film differs by the year.  (Yup, I have.) But Army of Darkness has always won me over as the most accessible film of the trilogy, the kind of flick I could put on even with my least horror-friendly friends and still get plenty of smiles and laughs.  It's gotten me through a lot of bad moments, too, and no amount of age and recognition of the film's lesser qualities will ever take that from me.

FMWL Indie Spotlight - It's in the Blood

(2012, Dir. by Scooter Downey.)

Over the past week or two, I've really struggled to make peace with It's in the Blood.  But I want to make one thing quite clear right now - that struggle is not, in any way, a bad thing.  I think.  I'm not really sure, but after two viewings and a large amount of thought, I'm relatively sure that it's not a bad thing.

One of the easiest things to do when you watch a ton of movies is to start comparing them to each other.  The Cabin in the Woods gets compared to Shaun of the Dead because they're both horror comedies, Friday the 13th gets compared to Halloween because they both have masks and knives and what not.  And when you're trying to gauge how effective a film is, your mind goes straight to whatever you can compare it to. It's no different than when you go shopping and compare prices/qualities of other products, really.

So why have I struggled so mightily with It's in the Blood? Because I couldn't think of anything I've ever seen that is quite like it.  Some of the themes and images are familiar, to be sure, but the way in which the whole film comes together is incredibly unique. 

We'll start with the easy stuff.  The film follows a son (played by writer/producer Sean Elliot) who returns to the country home of his father for a bit of wilderness adventure.  As the son and father head out into the woods, they run into things like dead dogs, strange visions, and ominous spirits - the kind of things we've naturally come to expect (and accept) from horror films.  His father is an old-fashioned, gruff, alcohol-swigging sheriff, played by none less than genre icon Lance Henriksen.  We know what we can get from Henriksen, the same powerful presence that was harnessed by films like Aliens and Pumpkinhead, and his performance in this film is up to snuff with the rest of his storied career. 

While the pieces of the film are common, the path that Elliot and co-writer/director Scooter Downey is one-of-a-kind.  The film's official website promotes the story as a "psyche-saga", and even provides a fancy definition of that term.  Now, I read that definition, and I even went and got a degree in psychology from a relatively credible university one time, and I'm STILL relatively confused to what that term means.  But I think I like it.

It's the mindset - or maybe I'm supposed to say psyche - of It's in the Blood that sets it apart from so many other horror films.  Elliot's character has a dramatic personal journey to make throughout the film, and his survival depends on his ability to stand up to his current predicament and the demons of his past.  This sounds like another cliche too, but the manner in which Downey and Elliot present the story is so well done.  There was a little bit of confusion early on, I must admit, but the story becomes much easier to follow as it rolls through different events and times.  You're going to have to think a bit - if that's not your cup of tea, there's a Nightmare on Elm Street sequel somewhere out there for you - but I think that makes the journey through It's in the Blood all the more worthwhile.

I've written a lot about this movie so far, and I feel like I could go on for days.  I haven't mentioned the fantastic special effects, I haven't mentioned the dynamics between Henriksen and Elliot, I haven't mentioned some cool and practical gore.  I haven't mentioned many of my quibbles with the movie either, like some of the monstery scenes near the end or a few changes in tone that don't quite flow evenly.  The trouble is, I'm still not done thinking about It's in the Blood and everything it offers the viewer. I'm not sure I love the movie yet, but I'm dang sure loving my experience with it.

More information about It's in the Blood, which is currently awaiting wide release, can be found at that official website or in a glowing review by FMWL's buddy Cortez over at Planet of Terror.  I think you should look into it, obviously, because I've already watched the movie twice and I'm still looking into it.  If you want a horror movie that asks you to think, It's in the Blood might be the unique horror movie for you.

The Mike's Top 50 Horror Movies Countdown: #37 - Dark Water

Previously on the Countdown: Number 50 - Happy Birthday to Me  Number 49 - Prince of Darkness  Number 48 - House on Haunted Hill  Number 47 - The Monster Squad  Number 46 - Hellraiser  Number 45 - The Fog  Number 44 - Creature From the Black Lagoon  Number 43 - Zombie  Number 42 - Tales from the Crypt  Number 41 - Bubba Ho-Tep  Number 40 - Phantom of the Paradise  Number 39 - Dog Soldiers Number 38 - Pontypool

Dark Water

(2002, Dir. by Hideo Nakata.)

Why It's Here:

The "long-haired Japanese ghost" craze of the early 2000s took over the horror scene in the blink of an eye.  Films that made an impact in the Far East, like Ringu and Ju-On, became American remakes like The Ring and The Grudge before many Americans even knew their predecessors existed.  I gotta admit, I wasn't a big fan of several of these films due to their repetitive nature - sometimes it seems that if you've seen one creepy Asian woman with hair in her face, you've seen them all - but Dark Water (which would also be quickly remade into a Jennifer Connelly thriller) has always stood out to me thanks to a deep story, good acting, and a boatload of creepy images.

The Moment That Changes Everything:

First of all, since when can schools let kids play hide and seek? Is that just a Japan thing? Do I have to move to Japan now so my imaginary kids can play hide and go seek in school? I just may.

Now that that's said, Dark Water takes a game of hide and seek and makes it scary as heck, as the young girl that our story follows sees a ominous approacher from her secret location.  A rain coat and a wet child have never been more effective.

It Makes a Great Double Feature With:

I'm gonna pimp my other favorite Asian horror flick here, Kairo (aka Pulse), which was also horribly remade but stands alone as an incredible effective technohorror film.  It's horror on a much bigger scale - the final scenes are mind blowingly grand - and maybe I'm being racist by pairing it up with another Japanese horror flick (couldn't I have just said some American ghost/child/mother tale like The Others?), but oh well.  If you want the best modern horror that Japan has to offer, I say you go with Dark Water and Kairo.

What It Means To Me:

I was barely 20 when The Ring happened to America, and - thanks to this gosh darn internet thing that opens up possibilities that have no end - learning about the horrors of Japan was my first real foray into horror from other continents.  I saw a lot of decent J-horrors before I finally fell in love with Dark Water, but it inspired me to dig even deeper into horror from new sources and places.  That's kind of a big deal for a horror nerd like me.

The Avengers

(2012, Dir. by Joss Whedon.)

My mission, should I choose to accept it, is to convince you that you should see The Avengers.  It's one of the easiest missions I've ever had, and one of the most difficult missions I've ever accepted.  I'm sure most folks out there see ads for a movie that throws a bunch of super heroes who have won big screen acclaim into a blockbuster-building-blender and think something to the effect of "Well, duh, I'll see that." Those people have my eternal respect.  But there are some other folks out there who look at The Avengers and see a comic book cinema vending machine and think something like "Man, there can't be anything substantial in such a convoluted concept". I dig those folks too - the skeptic always has something good to say, no matter how crazy - but I aim to convince them that they are dead wrong.

I have to admit, I was almost one of them skeptics.  I adore comic book mythology to a fault, and have dug at least 87% of the Marvel adaptations to come down the pipeline in the past decade. (Even Daredevil. I regret nothing.)  But I was really unsure that The Avengers could hold the weight of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Hulk, and friends without falling apart and slipping away from the filmmakers.  Really, the whole project needed its own hero. When cult icon Joss Whedon - the dude behind Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Firefly, and plenty of other nerdy favorites (Like The Cabin in the Woods, which is now my second favorite thing I've seen in theater this year) - took over the project, I should have put my doubts to bed.  But I had to see it to believe it.

Now that I have seen it, it is certain in my mind that Joss Whedon is the true hero of The Avengers.  His script, which is filled to the brim with scenes that are honestly hilarious, is also incredibly faithful to the heroes as they've appeared in the comics and films that led to this point.  I really didn't know how someone could make all these characters fit together in one place - you are mixing Asgardian demi-god with 1940s soldiers and billionaires with fancy toys, after all - and anyone with a passing knowledge of Avengers comics knows that personality clashes are par for the course with Earth's greatest heroes.  Whedon deftly handled each character with this in mind, using the differing personalities to create a lot of humorous interactions that build the characters while keeping the audience engaged in a lighthearted manner.  In a great way, Whedon even manages to turn some jokes, like a modern SHIELD agent's "fanboy" love of Captain America, into dramatic events that advance the plot.  And he does all this comedic styling - I honestly can't remember the last time I've laughed so much in a theater - while keeping the action going and making a 140 minute film fly by the viewer's eyes in a flash.

Whedon's masterful ability to bring a bunch of legendary heroes together in one film wouldn't work if the cast didn't meet or exceed the viewers expectations, and pretty much everyone in the film is on top of their game.  Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth and Scarlett Johansson all reprise the roles they held in Marvel's latest wave of superhero films (Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: the First Avenger), as does Jeremy Renner, who expands his Thor cameo as Clint Barton (Does the film ever actually call him Hawkeye? I don't think it did.) into a pivotal role in the plot here.  Samuel L. Jackson and Clark Gregg return on the SHIELD side, alongside newcomer Cobie Smulders of How I Met Your Mother, on the side of SHIELD, the agency who brings the group of heroes together.  Everyone is right back on track, picking up where they left off in the previous films, which means Downey chews up the scenery, Evans looks heroic, Hemsworth hams it up with a chiseled jaw, and so on.  But none of them are the most impressive returning cast member.

That honor has to go to Tom Hiddleston, who returns as Loki to play villain to not just his half-brother Thor - but to all six Avengers.  It's a gigantic task that worried me as I watched the film coming from a distance.  I wasn't that impressed by Hiddleston's Loki in Thor - the best thing I had to say about him in my Thor review was that he was "serviceable" - but his power-hungry turn as the man who may destroy Earth here is really fantastic.  The London born actor manages to be physically imposing, despite his diminutive stature, and it's pretty easy to buy into him as the God of Mischief (with a Zod complex) from his first appearance in the opening scenes.  He's aided by an alien force - make sure you stay through the end credits for more info, as is common for Marvel films - but the film doesn't feel like it needs anything more than this one well-drawn villain to make us feel like the world needs heroes.

The biggest winner in the film, however, is the hero who's played by a new face to the Marvel universe.  Dr. Bruce Banner and The Hulk - formerly represented by Eric Bana and Edward Norton and a bunch of CGI creations - are now represented by Mark Ruffalo (and some more CGI) and are better than we've ever seen them on the big screen.  Ruffalo plays the scientist Banner with a nerdy charm that's kinda pitiful, but kinda charming, and interacts very well with his peers, particularly in some science lab interactions with Downey's Tony Stark.  Though Ruffalo's banner is sufficiently nerdy - this is the closest anyone's been to recreating the beloved/pathetic Banner character that Bill Bixby portrayed on the famous TV show of the late '70s (I so wanted to hear the lonely man theme with Ruffalo's character) - it's his Hulk form that really steals the film.  Once "the other guy" is released in this universe there is no turning back, and a combination of breathtaking choreography and fantastic special effects make this Hulk the best visualization of the character that's ever been seen.  Though the film's final battle sequence showcases all of these heroes, everything really boils down to Hulk smashing things - and he does so in an incredible manner.  This is his movie, the rest of our heroes are just living in it.  (Also living in it, and making my nerd face smile? Harry Dean Stanton.  You'll see why.)

With very few missteps - I wanted a little more Thor because I didn't feel he was used as well as he was in his own film, that's about the only quibble I had with the film - and so much humor and action and so many general awe-inspiring moments, I can't complain at all about The Avengers.  Heck, I want to see it again right now.  It's the prototype for what a summer blockbuster should be, because it's written for nerds by nerds and is still incredibly accessible to any filmgoer.  Heck, this is more than what summer movies should be....this is what movies should be.  Don't miss it.

Midnight Movie of the Week #122 - The Dead Zone

If you were to ever walk on up to central Iowa and find The Mike's Lair and be like "Hey, The Mike, I was wonderin' who you think the scariest on screen villains ever are", you'd probably hear me mention Greg Stillson.  It's a name that gets little publicity in the horror scene - though there are some smartsy, politically knowledged types who throw the example out whenever important elections come up - but it's one that has chilled me for a long, long time.

 Greg Stillson, who we'll get to in a minute, is just one of the things to love about The Dead Zone.  Whether you prefer books (it's definitely one of my very favorites from Stephen King), TV shows (some give it a bad name, and sometimes it deserved it, but I dig the Anthony Michael Hall led USA Series), or movies (the 1983 adaptation by David Cronenberg that I hope to focus on here) - there's a dose of Dead Zone for just about everyone who loves a bit of telekinesis or "second sight" or whatever you want to call the powers of someone who touches people and sees into their life.

Christopher Walken - only a few years removed from his Oscar win for The Deer Hunter and still looking rather young - stars as Johnny Smith, the ill-fated teacher who enters a coma as a simple young man and wakes up five years later with the power to see.  This power - which allows him to see important/tragic events in peoples' lives - could go a lot of ways (Walken himself famously spoofed the role on an episode of Saturday Night Live), but the film narrows them down to three key points.  These days, you get the feeling a trilogy would be made out of this material - as the TV series showed, there's plenty that could be done with the character - but this film does a more than adequate job of following King's novel and wedging Johnny's story into 103 minutes.

It would be easy for the film - directed by generally abstract filmmaker David Cronenberg - to have gone off on tangents and radically altered King's story.  It worked so well for The Shining, so why not let Cronenberg explode some heads or turn non-vaginal body parts into vaginas?  I have to wonder - did Cronenberg have full control over the movie? Was the studio watching over his shoulder? Or did he really like King's story that much that he didn't want to mess with it?  Whatever the answer is, I'm pretty glad that he - for the most part - stayed true to the novel.  Anyone who watched all six seasons of the TV show - I can't be the only one, can I? - knows that that thing dragged out the most interesting part of the story and never really found closure.

 The most interesting part of the story, as I hinted earlier, is Greg Stillson.  Though Johnny's first encounters with his powers and his time assisting a local sheriff (Tom Skerrit!) with a murder investigation are interesting enough, there are few characters in horror that provoke the same philosophical dilemma that Greg Stillson does.  When we see what Johnny sees - a real world terror the likes of which man has (thankfully) only imagined - Greg Stillson immediately becomes one of the most dangerous men in horror.

Played with a ton of sleaze by Martin Sheen - who seems to partially channeling his future Mass Effect 2 & 3 character and partially mimicking his son Charlie's future crazy eyes - Greg Stillson represents a man who might tear the world apart.  And he's not a dude who might tear the world apart because he's a monster or because he's a physical terror or because he's supernaturally affected. We don't really get a full "why" Greg Stillson might tear the world apart in this movie - the book and show each do more to establish Stillson's mental issues and lust for power/control - but when we see Johnny's vision of Stillson's future there's no questioning that he's more than a bit mad.

With a series of interesting segments (featuring killers, children, politics, and more) and a powerful lead performance by Walken, The Dead Zone is always an interesting story.  It's not the most ambitious story that Cronenberg or King ever put together, but it manages to inspire a lot of thought without diving too far into "crazy about science" territory.  I suppose reading the book would be a bit more rewarding than watching the film - DON'T TELL ANYONE I JUST SAID THAT - but if you're in a pinch for time you'll surely enjoy The Dead Zone as an intelligent and well-made '80s horror film.

Area 407

(2011, Dir. by Dale Fabrigar & Everette Wallin.)

OK, I'm gonna be pretty blunt here. The only thing anyone really cares about when it comes to these found footage films is the ending.  Go out there and find someone who doesn't like Paranormal Activity or The Blair Witch Project or The Last Exorcism, and dollars-to-donuts they'll probably mention the ending.  Last night, when I kickstarted a copy of Area 407, I joked that I was watching another found footage film because I didn't know how this one ended abruptly.  (OK, I was only half joking.)

You guys know I'd never go Mr. Spoilerman on you - I'm not about to throw any kind of plot details at you - but I'm gonna start out this review by talking about the ending.  Not the ending itself, but my reaction to the ending.

Basically, here's what happened: I'm sitting here, watching Area 407, having a good enough time with its standard found footage cliches, when the ending happens.  As soon as the sudden final reveal happened, I screamed out a profane exclamation...and I kind of started doing one of those wimpy "get away from me slap fits" that people do when they're kind of scared but mostly excited.  You know, like when a cute girl gets you in a tickle fight when you're in grade school and you "fight" back in a manner that wouldn't harm a pillowcase.  I'm not proud of my response to this ending, but it was so unexpected and unlikely that I was basically giddy about how silly it was.  I think maybe that should be an insult, but I was honestly kind of thrilled by the utter ridiculousness of this ending.  Like, the fact that this movie dared to go where it went was so welcome to me that I've been randomly laughing about it - and my extremely ridiculous reaction to it - off and on throughout the last 24 hours.

Let's back up a minute, before my silly smirk about this ending overtakes my mind entirely and sends this review into a massive derailment.  The plot! Ah yes, the plot....

Area 407, from directors Dale Fabrigar & Everette Wallin (Why do these movies always need two directors? They already make the actors hold the camera!), follows a few folks with awful bad luck as they're involved in both a plane crash and a good old fashioned night stalking.  Thanks to two vociferous teenage girls, there happens to be a camera on the plane/crash site, which means the night of tension and drama is documented for our viewing pleasure.

To be perfectly honest, there's not a lot of original stuff going on for Area 407.  It's got a few well drawn characters - the angry fella played by Brendan Patrick Conner stands out - and plenty more that are boring and standard.  The fact that the film is controlled, at least in storyline, by two young girls who aren't old enough to drive will certainly grate on some viewers, but I was less annoyed by them than the other dull survivors.  There's adequate amounts of shouting and everyone is covered in blood and shadows and darkness are used as well as they are in other found footage films, but none of it's really unique.

And yet, I found myself having a lot of fun as I soaked up what was going on on screen. The formula has usually worked for me, and I was very receptive to another go with them as Area 407 went on.  It didn't do anything with incredible flair, but it never felt inept either.  I shouted at the screen a little bit, trying to figure out just what the creatures that were chasing the plane crash survivors were, and primarily found myself interested in finding out what would happen next.

Area 407, to me, played like found footage comfort food.  It's got more faults than it probably should, but it gave me the thrills I needed, all the way up to that ridiculously enjoyable - or maybe just ridiculous - ending.  This isn't a best of the year candidate by any means, but I'll gladly watch it again.  If you're not looking for something earth shattering - and if you're prepared for an ending to a horror movie that will showcase things you loved in second grade - you might find yourself enjoying Area 407 like I did.

If you're interested in the film, you can check it out via IFC Midnight On Demand services, and other digital outlets like ITunes & Amazon.  There are worse things you could do.

(PS - Don't look up the trailer, there's spoilers in there!)

The Mike's Top 50 Horror Movies Countdown: #38 - Pontypool

Previously on the Countdown: Number 50 - Happy Birthday to Me  Number 49 - Prince of Darkness  Number 48 - House on Haunted Hill  Number 47 - The Monster Squad  Number 46 - Hellraiser  Number 45 - The Fog  Number 44 - Creature From the Black Lagoon  Number 43 - Zombie  Number 42 - Tales from the Crypt  Number 41 - Bubba Ho-Tep  Number 40 - Phantom of the Paradise Number 39 - Dog Soldiers

Pontypool
(2008, Dir. by Bruce McDonald.)

Why It's Here:

The zombie genre has been pretty much ruined during the last decade, despite fantastic outliers like the Dawn of the Dead remake, The Walking Dead, and (depending on who you debate) 28 Days Later.  The films by Danny Boyle and Zack Snyder that I mentioned above - which propelled both directors to mainstream success and critical acclaim - also led to a slew of boring or inept or even insulting zombie flicks.  Hidden among them is a true treasure, Pontypool, which turns a radio DJ's booth into ground zero for the zombie apocalypse.  Led by dynamite turns by Stephen McHattie and Lisa Houle (a real life husband/wife team), Pontypool provides a thoughtful and unique perspective on horror that is extremely welcome.

The Moment That Changes Everything:

As McHattie's Grant Mazzy often repeats, Laurel-Ann Drummond - a young war veteran who now helps at the studio - is the pride of the small town of Pontypool.  When she becomes directly involved with the infection - and when Mazzy has to recount what he's seeing to his listeners and the viewers, the film really starts to hit home.

It Makes a Great Double Feature With:

Really I just feel like the best thing to go along with Pontypool would be the amazing radio production of War of the Worlds that the great Orson Welles put together back in the day.  I suppose Spielberg's movie would be equally apocalyptic, but the radio connection to Welles' harrowing account of the story was too good to pass up.

What It Means To Me:

Pontypool, like many of my favorite recent horror films, is groundbreaking, original, and interesting.  Those qualities are missing from so many modern horror films, but it's a favorite for more reasons than just its uniqueness.  Pontypool is like a good book, letting us imagine much of the horror as it's told instead of shown, and that opens up a world of possibilities for the horror lovin' mind. 

The Raven

(2012, Dir. by James McTeigue.)

The final known days of Edgar Allan Poe are...reinvented, perhaps is the word?...in The Raven; a modernized twist on the classic author that seems kind of like a cash in on the success of the recent Sherlock Holmes updates.  One part horror tale, another part prime-time murder mystery, The Raven offers John Cusack as the legendary author and more references to Poe's work than you can shake a stick at.

The film opens with a title card explaining how Poe was found ill on a Baltimore park bench in 1849, and states that much of what occurred in his final days is "a mystery."  That's about the only tie to reality, so anyone expecting a Poe biopic should steer elsewhere.  This isn't the first film Poe had been fictionalized and tied in with his work - for example, Jeffrey Combs got to play the tortured artist in a Masters of Horror episode for Stuart Gordon - but The Raven certainly works to cover as much of Poe's work as possible while telling the tale of a copycat killer who fashions his crimes after Poe tales.  Many of Poe's most famous stories are involved, though the story mostly just refers to them and doesn't re-enact many parts of Poe's macabre visions.

The plot is catchy enough, though there's little depth to the script and I would have liked a little more focus on the crimes and a little less of Cusack and the police inspector played by Luke Evans playing Poirot. It's a repetitive game - body, clue, chase, repeat - that is most interesting when the Poe tales that inspired the murder are relayed by the distraught author.  The chase scenes are effective enough - there's a lot of pounding music and some fine camerawork whenever the action picks up - and the film doesn't skimp on the violence (even if it does often settle for computer-generated blood).

The cast do what they can to salvage the simple tale, and are probably the film's biggest asset.  Cusack is fine in the lead, though there are some moments where the snarky angst we've come to expect from his comedic roles shines through and takes the film to a modern place.  Evans is a nice addition, an actor who seems somewhere between Orlando Bloom and Joseph Gordon-Levitt on the "I'm young and have slick hair and maybe I can act" scale, growling plenty of lines that add to the tension when the chase picks up and playing off Cusack well.  The gorgeous Alice Eve (She's Out of My League is still one of the rare romcoms I can dig, so I salute her) shines as the woman Poe desires, as does Brendan Gleeson as her disapproving father.  None of the performances are great, or even very good, but they all fit into the roles that the film requires and no one is out of place.  A misstep in casting could have sunk the film entirely, but these four leads all meet expectations.

Director James McTeigue, who once wowed me with V for Vendetta, takes charge of the production, though the pacing feels a little bit off to me.  I have to wonder if there was some control taken out of his hands before the final cut was approved, because there are times when The Raven just doesn't flow quite like I'd expect it to.  The film all builds up to a final reveal that is frankly a disappointment, though the film's biggest problem might be that there was nothing in the script that could lead to a satisfying ending.  If you have a murder mystery that focuses primarily on four or five characters - and if you are shown that none of them are the killer by the final act - you're setting the viewer up to scoff at what you do reveal.

The Raven is watchable and entertaining enough, but there's really little that stands out about it.  Those with a knowledge of Poe - I hate that I have to type that, because I'm implying that there are poor souls who don't know the writer's dark masterworks - will find some enjoyment in the nods to his life and works, yet that and a serviceable cast are about the only reasons to recommend this movie.  Fans of powerhouse actors in period mysteries - think From Hell or those recent Holmes flicks - could enjoy The Raven in passing. The more I think about the movie, the more I think I might have enjoyed it a tiny bit too. Yet it mostly made me want to read some Poe or watch some of the beloved Poe adaptations that Roger Corman produced in the '60s.  If the best a movie can do is inspire you to find something better, I can't get entirely behind recommending it.

It's a Horror To Know You! (via Kindertrauma.com!)

If you didn't know, the folks over at Kindertrauma are pretty much the bee's knees. With more horror knowledge than at least 37 states and a willingness to dig up the dirt on any trauma that a viewer has stuck in their mind, they have horror covered like a first round cornerback. (I'm watching the NFL Draft, apologies for the mixing of passions!)

So, when they put together a little horror fan questionnaire (which you could go find and take by clicking right about HERE), I jumped at the chance to join the cool horror kids' party.  With no further ado, let's do this.

It's a Horror to Know You! - The Mike; From Midnight, With Love

1. What is the first film that ever scared you?

I can't really remember my first reaction to The Phantom of the Opera, but when I consider that I'm still afraid of the reveal of Lon Chaney's gnarled face, I find it hard to believe that it didn't scare Little The Mike.  One of the first scares I do really remember came from Pumpkinhead.  

Fun The Mike Story: I remember being absolutely terrified of a fella with a huge jack 'o lantern mask at one of those dreaded small town "Haunted Hayride" events when I was 8 or 9 years old (if  you've never gotten in on a small town Haunted Hayride, you're SOOOOO missing out.  They chase you with real chainsaws!), so the title Pumpkinhead alone gave me willies.  So imagine my surprise when the grotesque monster and the dark setting were even worse than that literally pumpkin headed townsperson!  I refused to revisit the film until deep into my teens.

2.What is the last film that scared you?

Much like a gimmicky haunted house, the gimmicky Grave Encounters got under my skin quickly.  Everything in this found footage film seems slightly off and incredibly uneasy and just creepy.  The film's most successful when it stalls and lingers just before creeping us out, and I might have taken a couple of breaks during tense moments the first time through.  Good times.

More recently I was creeped out again by a repeat viewing of Absentia, which creeped the heck out of me last summer and still carries some scares on home video.  It might be the most effective "scary" movie of the last five years.

3. Name three horror movies that you believe are underrated.

In no particular order:

• The Devil Rides Out - This one's been my baby for over a decade now, but I never get tired of singing its praises.  Christopher Lee vs. the occult in the funky late '60s!
• Horror Hotel/The City of the Dead - A little more Christopher Lee. This one came out the same year as Psycho and Peeping Tom and - though it's not as expertly crafted - features some similar twists.  It's atmospheric and creepy, too.
• Rogue - It's either the follow up to Wolf Creek or just-another-giant-reptile-movie to many, but I really think Greg McLean's Rogue is as good as any giant monster movie in a long, long time.  And the effects are Jaws good.  Yeah, I said JAWS.

 4. Name three horror movies that you enjoy against your better judgment.

• Dead Snow - I think I'm supposed to call this nazi zombie flick out for being full of cliches and stupid characters.  But I just can't do it.  It's fun.
• Dr. Giggles -  Parts of this thing are PAINFUL to watch. But man, Larry Drake as a psycho dentist is just plain GOLD.
• The Devil Within Her/I Don't Want To Be Born!/Sharon's Baby - The combination of Joan Collins and Donald Pleasence and Caroline Munro should not be this...bad. But when you have a demon baby and a dwarf sex curse...well, you've got something incredibly watchable.

5. Send us to five places on the Internet!
OK, this one's hard to narrow down. Am I really supposed to pick just five great places to read great stuff?
Fine. Off the top of my head, here's five. If you're not one of them and I love you, I still love you!

• Fascination With Fear - Christine always has something good to say about something good.  She's one of the few still fighting on behalf of old-school Gothic horrors while still appreciating a good bit of gore, and she also rocks.
• Planet of Terror - Cortez the Killer is a straight-up warrior when it comes to breaking down the latest in indie horror.  Always a great read and honest perspective, for better or worse.
• All Things Horror - Mike and Chris are also great champions of indie horror, and I never grow tired of their reviews and rants.  Plus they do everything in their power to bring indie horror to theater screens, and I can't commend that enough.
• Daily Grindhouse - There's about 10 billion things to love about this fast paced haven for all kinds of midnight pleasures.  Lists, interviews, trailers, news, DVD coverage - they have it all, and they know how to use it.
• Atomic Domino - I've just recently found this baby blog, but it reminds me that I need to spend a lot more time on sci-fi here. To the point and effective, Dominique has a great style going for her and I look forward to reading more.

Oh, and of course, I need to mention KINDERTRAUMA! Oh wait, I already did.  But hey, head over and tell them they're awesome anyway, and check out plenty more It's a Horror to Know You posts from horror lovers like you today!

The Wicker Tree

(2010, Dir. by Robin Hardy.)

39 years later - heck, it's been six years since the remake came out! - Robin Hardy's sequel to The Wicker Man is finally seeing the light of day.  Distributors have spent the better part of the last decade (at least) promoting the original film with one critic's quote that called it "The Citizen Kane of horror movies", and for good reason.  But as I look at The Wicker Tree, it's really hard to see that film - which was truly a one of a kind horror/musical/parable - in the background.

Hardy tries very hard to recapture the same balance that he did in The Wicker Man, but Edward Woodward and Britt Ekland are not walking through that door any time soon.  A digitally enhanced Christopher Lee shows up for a 20-second long cameo, but that's about the only thing that connects the film to its predecessor.

The plot is pretty similar to the '73 film, though everything's blown up a little bit to modern standards.  This time we have two young born again American evangelists, a wholesome God-Pop singer and her "cowboy" boyfriend, heading to the Scottish countryside to spread God's word.  It's pretty obvious from day one that the two youngsters are targets of the society, who are now "ruled" by a nuclear power plant owner who compares himself to Mr. Burns from The Simpsons.  (I'm not even joking. Can you imagine a reference to a TV show in the '73 film? Pop culture has infected EVERYTHING.)

Newcomer Brittania Nicol - to date this is all she's done on film - takes the lead as the Christian songstress, and, along with Henry Garrett as Steve the Cowboy (they'll repeat the word cowboy about 7,348 times to make this point clear to you), presents an "aw shucks, look how naive we are" front that is painful for the viewer to endure.  The characters are one note and ridiculous, even when the film haphazardly tries to draw on their past and present "sins", while the people of New Summerisle - from Graham McTavish as the Patriarch to the aptly named Honeysuckle Weeks as the oft-nude poison fruit of temptation - are laughably over the top.  Even the extras overact grandly, and I often found myself laughing at the people on screen simply because they looked so ridiculous as they tried to sell this story.

I don't know if I'd call the original Wicker Man subtle, but its certainly not as blunt as this awkward sequel.  There's little to no suspense - even if I hadn't seen the original film and/or the remake I'd know that these "pure" characters are, for lack of a better word, screwed - and the satirical approach to religions of all types is handled without any semblance of a delicate touch.  Scenes like the one that reveals our pop star's impure past career inspire more unintentional laughs, and the use of a church hymn in two different roles during the second and third acts had me rolling my eyes.  Music was a key part of the original film, but that too drops off here - the use of music within the film is as annoying as anything else The Wicker Tree throws at us.

I can't believe I'm typing this, but the most unfortunate thing about The Wicker Tree is that its mistakes aren't even memorably bad.  Neil LaBute's over-the-top remake of The Wicker Man has at least made an impact and brought attention to the original thanks to an awful script that Nicolas Cage turned into a pop culture phenomenon.  I'm in a minority, but I've championed that film for its unintentional comedy value before, despite the fact that I know it misses the point the original made.  The Wicker Tree misses the point just as badly, but there's no way I would even recommend someone pick up this film if they enjoy such ineptitude. 

By the time The Wicker Tree rolled into its truly ridiculous (and still very over-the-top) final scenes, I was physically upset that I wasted my time on this movie.  It's not the worst thing I've seen, but it's got next to no redeeming qualities - I can't think of an example of one right now - and it's clear that Hardy doesn't have the same vision that he did when he made The Wicker Man.  By bringing the story to modern times and playing off of modern born again stereotypes, The Wicker Tree becomes grating and unwelcome quickly. 

If you're a fan of the original, avoid this one at all costs.  If you're not acquainted with that film, don't start here either.  And if you're a fan of Cage's Wicker Man and its hilariously clumsy ways - you're not going to find them here either.  This might be the rare film that truly has no audience...and that's probably a good thing.

Midnight Movie of the Week #121 - The Machinist

There's nothing quite like a slow-but-sure descent into madness, especially when a talented filmmaker knows exactly what buttons to push.  And when that director is paired with a star who's at the peak of his game, the results can really be something special.

That's what I found this weekend when I (FINALLY) sat down with Brad Anderson's The Machinist.  You know how you sometimes hear that a movie's so great, and then you hear that a movie's so great some more, and then you hear that a movie's so great until you decide "Dang, I don't even want to see that movie right now because people say it's so great"?  Well, I do.  And enough people told me how great The Machinist was that it landed a spot on my backburner while I toiled away watching less cool stuff.

After all, we've seen 'heavyweight actor deteriorates rapidly as the world around him screws with his mind" plenty of times before.  It's a concept that can lead to a cinematic home run (The Shining), an uneven mindtrip (Jacob's Ladder), a cliched borefest (Secret Window) or even something worse.  Luckily for me - and for you, if you haven't seen it yet - The Machinist is a lot closer to home run status than those other films are.

 

Bale stars as factory worker (obviously) Trevor Reznick, who spends his free time drinking coffee, eating pie, and having sex with a prostitute (played in classic "But I have a heart of gold!" fashion by Jennifer Jason Leigh).  The one thing he doesn't do is sleep, claiming it has been a full year since he last slept.  I know that I get pretty loopy when I haven't slept for a good 18 hours or so, so I can't really imagine what a year would be like.

Anderson must have a much better imagination than I do, because his vision of what a year without sleep could lead to is dark and fascinating.  As Trevor begins to wonder about the places and people around him - including an ominous bald dude named Ivan - we can see the man slip further and further into confusion.  Bale deserves nothing but praise for the performance - devoting himself to the role so much that he lost an incredible amount of weight to appear sufficiently worn out - and the range of emotion he shows as Trevor is as good as anything the actor has done in the big budget films that would make up the rest of his career.

You can't really talk about the plot of The Machinist without getting too spoilery - like I said, this kind of film doesn't have the most original concept when you get down to execution - but Anderson keeps it feeling clean and interesting throughout.  A wonderful musical score by Spanish composer Roque Banos is sufficiently Hitchcockian, and there's a definite parallel that can be made between this film and Vertigo at times.  The Machinist is almost voyeuristic as it shows Trevor learning more about Trevor, and seeing the story develop feels perfectly macabre.

The Machinist is as good as advertised because the director and the star knew how to turn a simple story into something that feels like a feature length episode of The Twilight Zone.  If you're up for a late night mind-bender with production values through the roof and dynamic performances, The Machinist should not let you down.

The Mike's Top 50 Horror Movies Countdown: #39 - Dog Soldiers

Previously on the Countdown: Number 50 - Happy Birthday to Me  Number 49 - Prince of Darkness  Number 48 - House on Haunted Hill  Number 47 - The Monster Squad  Number 46 - Hellraiser  Number 45 - The Fog  Number 44 - Creature From the Black Lagoon  Number 43 - Zombie  Number 42 - Tales from the Crypt  Number 41 - Bubba Ho-Tep  Number 40 - Phantom of the Paradise

Dog Soldiers

(2002, Dir. by Neil Marshall.) 

Why It's Here:

When I need a bad-frickin'-a-double-crooked-letter horror movie that's packed with action, gore, and macho dudes doing macho things: I need Dog Soldiers.  It's the Predator of werewolf films, taking a tough as nails platoon of soldiers and dropping them into a dangerous countryside during the wrong part of the lunar cycle.  When the film takes on full-fledged siege picture status as the survivors try to defend a remote farm house - well, that's about the point when I start fistpumping and slapping fives (even if there's no one else around).

The Moment That Changes Everything:

Dog Soldiers pretty much starts on a high note and stays there, but I have to mention the wily side character known simply as "Spoon", who puts up a fight that should make little guys around the globe proud.  As we wade through thick accents and wonderful practical effects, we have to take notice of Spoon's encounters with lycanthropes and smile.

It Makes a Great Double Feature With:

Predator and Aliens do similar things quite well (and might be better movies), but they're sci-fi and this is a horror list.  So how about a dose of 28 Days Later (or its pretty good sequel, 28 Weeks Later) to keep the military and British horror theme going?  Dog Soldiers moves at a much quicker pace than that film, but both are frenetic enough to keep viewers on their toes while they're both thrilled and chilled.

(Alternate Choice: Want a "his and hers" werewolf bonanza? Pick up this one and Ginger Snaps, enjoy a bit of military massacre and a bit of teenage girl coming of age.  With lots of extra hair.  Everyone goes home happy!)

What It Means To Me:

Dog Soldiers has been one of those movies that I try to push on everyone I know since the day it was released on DVD.  Comparing it favorably to the films I just mentioned might sound crazy to some, but I'll gladly jump into the battle alongside Neil Marshall's fabulous debut film any day of any week.  It's one of the most watchable movies I know.

Book Review - The Testament of Judith Barton by Wendy Powers & Robin McLeod

I don't think there's a more hypnotic movie than Vertigo.  Alfred Hitchcock's tale of deception and desire in a surreal San Francisco setting has kept me fascinated for most of my adult life, and would easily rank as one of my three or four favorite films.  So when I got offered the chance to check out a new take on the tale, I dropped my "Hey, I don't know how to read you guys!" defenses and jumped at the opportunity to spend more time in the film's world.

That opportunity presented itself in the form of a new novel, The Testament of Judith Barton, which is told from the perspective of the female character who is the center of attention throughout Hitchcock's film.  Let's not kid ourselves here - Jimmy Stewart is the man, but it was Kim Novak that really drew our stares. So the chance to spend more time with her got me to light up my Kindle, hanker in to my recliner (which has a Vertigo poster right above it), and start turning the pages as fast as I could.

Despite how many times I've seen Vertigo - it was enough times to write a film history term paper on it more than a decade ago, and that number's gone up since - I'm not sure I ever really thought too deeply about Judy Barton, the small town girl from Salina, Kansas who became the key ingredient in the macabre plot. (I suppose talking about Judy Barton herself is kind of a spoiler for the film, but a) her name's kind of in the title, so it's inevitable, and b) if you haven't seen Vertigo in the last 54 years, there's probably no hope for you anyway.)  In my mind, I think I believed that Judy Barton was a lost soul by the time we were introduced to her in Vertigo.  I caught the back story about who she really was and where she really came from, but she was still just a pawn in a rich white guy's plans. (More on that guy later.)

This testament leaves few stones unturned, tracing Ms. Barton back to her hometown and her childhood.  After a brief introduction set in the middle of Vertigo's dangerous plot, the authors' decision to backtrack to her teenage years surprised me, but the first act of the novel quickly won me over by creating a whole new world and a strong sense of hope around a charming young girl.  Interactions between young Judy and her father - a hard working man who taught her a lot about life - and her older sister - an aspiring teenage actress with dreams of Hollywood - felt incredibly fresh and got me to take another look at the woman who I knew from Hitchcock's film. There's a lot of growth in the character as her early years are chronicled, and I really enjoyed what the authors' did to build Judy Barton into a sympathetic small town woman.

The second act moves from Judy's hometown past to San Francisco - and what I would call "the present" in Vertigo's universe - and it's then that the book gives a fresh coat of paint to another key character from the film.  But it's not the guy you'd expect - Jimmy Stewart's "Scottie" Ferguson really gets the short straw here - it's the devilish Gavin Elster.  The man who brings the two leads together is kind of an afterthought in the film, played only briefly by Tom Helmore. (BTW, is there a movie that relies more on its two stars than Vertigo? It's like the '91 Chicago Bulls of movies, except Kim Novak is about 12 zillion times hotter than Scottie Pippen.)  The Testament of Judith Barton, on the other hand, gets plenty of miles out of the Elster character, who I started to picture as a snarky fella in the vein of Laurence Olivier's character from Rebecca.  We know the character is a bad man once we've seen the movie, but this book really reminds us just how sinister the character who set up his wife really could have been.

I have to admit that I got a little disappointed as the book moved through the events that we saw in Vertigo.  I enjoyed the build up and I enjoyed gaining a better understanding of who Judy Barton was and how she got caught up in this awful situation, but re-tracing the steps that led to the film's finale was a slight buzzkill.  There were still some nice reveals inside Judy's mind, and the fact that we're drawn so much closer to her character makes the events that unfold even more heartbreaking than they were on film.  I should commend the book for these steps, and it's only fair that they remained faithful to the film.  Maybe I'm just let down by the final act because I really didn't want Judith Barton's story to end the way I knew it would.

The Testament of Judith Barton is at times a little too cute when it makes sly references to the film - a direct nod to Kim Novak had me struggling to decide between rolling my eyes or snickering at the twist - but there are also times when words that were spoken by Ms. Novak took on an entirely new meaning in my mind.  I'm not going to sit here and say that everyone who loves Vertigo will fall in love with this book, because I know how protective us nerds can be about our classics sometimes.  The book also acknowledges that it varies from the French novel that inspired Hitchcock's film (D'entre les Morts, if you're keeping score at home), but I'm definitely OK with Powers & McLeod's alternate take on Judy Barton's mind.

In fact, this Hitchcock nerd was more than pleased to scroll through The Testament of Judith Barton.  It might not be the most ground breaking novel, but it got me thinking about one of my favorite stories and opened my eyes to new perceptions of something I thought I knew completely.  That's worth a lot in my book, and I found myself unable to put The Testament of Judith Barton down.  I think there's a lot of entertainment to be had from the novel for even those who don't adore every minute of Hitchcock's film, too.

If you want to find out about Judith Barton on your own, feel free to head over to the book's website, which offers the plot synopsis, a sample, and the all important purchase links.  At an incredibly reasonable price ($3.99 at Amazon or Barnes & Noble!), there's no reason fans of Hitchcock or Vertigo shouldn't check this book out and see what they think about her journey from Salina to San Fran.

The Mike's Top 50 Horror Movies Countdown: #40 - Phantom of the Paradise

Previously on the Countdown: Number 50 - Happy Birthday to Me  Number 49 - Prince of Darkness  Number 48 - House on Haunted Hill  Number 47 - The Monster Squad  Number 46 - Hellraiser  Number 45 - The Fog  Number 44 - Creature From the Black Lagoon  Number 43 - Zombie  Number 42 - Tales from the Crypt  Number 41 - Bubba Ho-Tep

Phantom of the Paradise

(1974, Dir. by Brian De Palma.)

 Why It's Here:

Because no list is complete without a little music, right?  Brian De Palma's rockin' take on two classic horror tales - The Phantom of the Opera and Faust, together again for the first time - isn't going to scare many viewers, but it's still got a devilish and macabre kick.  Other De Palma horrors have more horrifying tones - Sisters and Carrie probably should have been on this list, but if I had to pick one DePalma horror that I enjoy the most I'd lean slightly to the Phantom.

The Moment That Changes Everything:

From the moment the Caligari inspired backdrop to the Paradise's stage is shown and "Somebody Super Like You" begins to play, the Phantom's quest for love and revenge hits top speed and never looks back.  Also featuring the talents of Gerrit Graham's ridiculous Beef character, this sequence sets up the film's final thrills perfectly.

It Makes a Great Double Feature With:

I already mentioned the horror films that DePalma made around this, Sisters and Carrie, and it makes far too much sense to me to list them here.  All three films are radically different in story, but they feature early DePalma at his crazy best.  They also all have been Midnight Movie of the Week selections (Here's Sisters, Here's Carrie, and Here's Phantom) - and I'm still kind of debating with myself that they deserve this spot on this list too.

What It Means To Me:

DePalma's work has long been one of my strongest connections to the darkest side of cinema, with his always sinister and often perverse films always providing some dark thrills.  I guess I'm giving Phantom the slight edge over his other films just because it's a bit more rewatchable and because I'm a sucker for "re-imaginings" of famous horror tales.  Phantom of the Paradise always gets my toe tapping and a provides a few big laughs, all while bringing the battle between humanity and Satan to our attention in a unique way.  

Midnight Movie of the Week #120 - Bio-Zombie

Bio-Zombie (or Sun faa sau si, if you prefer Cantonese) follows the adventures of Woody Invincible and Crazy Bee, two young pirates (in the selling fake DVDs sense, not in the "Arrrrgh!" sense) who face off against a slew of zombies in a Hong Kong shopping mall.  Any comparisons between the film and George Romero's masterful Dawn of the Dead - which shares zombies and malls with this film - should probably end right there, but there's still plenty of fun to be ahd with this madcap horror comedy.

Our two young heroes - who are somewhere between Bill & Ted and Lloyd Christmas & Harry Dunne on the intelligence scale - are out for fun, sex, and cash when they unknowingly set loose a biologically enhanced zombie virus (although is it really a zombie if it's a virus? I'll let you decide) in their mall.  This leaves the pair, alongside a few other stragglers, facing off with green skinned fellas after the shops close for the evening. 

These two slacker characters do a lot for the film, primarily establishing how irreverent the script is from the opening scenes.  The beginning sequence seems to set the film up as a Mystery Science Theater 3000 version of itself (and if you watch the DVD with English dubbing you might think you're watching Most Extreme Elimination Challenge) as the duo mock the opening credits, and the tone doesn't get more serious until after a Grindhouse-esque scene in which the biological weapon (which is conveniently disguised as a soft drink) and its effects are revealed.

Even after the creatures are revealed, there's very little fear at work in Bio-Zombie. The low budget film shines in other areas, however, particularly through the effective creature makeup.  It's a very minimal film in that regard - sometimes it looks like they just threw a couple of huge pustules on dudes, other times it looks like they ran faces through cheese graters - and one probably won't mistake this for the work of Tom Savini.  In fact, the biggest problem most viewers will have with Bio-Zombie probably has to do with how amateur it looks.

I'm not sure if it's the budget, the camera, the DVD, or something else - but this movie (released in 1998) looks about 10 years older than it actually is.  If it weren't for these video game style stat cards that show up right before the final battle gets funky, I might have assumed this was a lost Return of the Living Dead sequel.  That's not necessarily a bad thing either, I just want you all to know how odd and kind of bizarre this movie is.  Maybe I don't get it because I'm not Hong Kongian....I don't know.  The point is it's out there.

That all said, the bottom line is that Bio-Zombie is a ridiculously fun little film that should win over some viewers.  The side characters are effective caricatures of horror stereotypes, the leads win us over with their bumbling ways, and there's enough action and playful humor to keep things moving along.  There's absolutely no depth to the film whatsoever - unless I feel like giving some credit to the sly message from the fatalistic final shot - but I'm OK with that.  Bio-Zombie works on a Mallrats-meets-Romero-in-Hong-Kong level, and that's good enough for me.

FMWL Indie Spotlight - Simone/Date Night: Two Short Films by Joops Fragale

Romance and desire take macabre turns in the two short films that will feature in our Indie Spotlight this evening, a pair of short tales from director Joops Fragale. 

First up, let's talk about Simone, the first (chronologically, that is) of the two films Mr. Fragale submitted for our approval.  The approximately 17 minute tale follows a young woman - named Simone, obviously - who wakes up in a strange bed with little memory of the previous night and nothing but a glass of vodka to greet her.  Much of what follows is her quest to piece together the events that led to her current predicament, which slowly reveal a romantic encounter with another young woman...and something more.

Jennifer Ward stars as the title character, and does a good job of appearing completely perplexed through most of the film.  A majority of the film follows her as she reacts to her surroundings with no one else around, but the actress never goes over the top or presents herself poorly.  The rest of the film has her interacting with a young woman played by Erin Nicole Cline - an incredibly cute and pretty darn talented young woman who we'll talk about a little more in a couple of paragraphs.

Simone's twist is what really makes or breaks the film, and I'm still slightly on the fence about it.  I kind of expected the film was going in one of two directions as it first hinted that something wasn't quite right, and the one that made more sense definitely won out.  But I feel like my concerns about the twist have more to do with the execution than the idea, and I'm willing to bet that the limitations of the budget made it near impossible to do more with the final few reveals than Fragale and crew accomplished.

On the other hand, Simone is a well crafted little story that bounces between last night and this morning quite well, and the actresses do what they can - including an incredibly revealing scene between the sheets - to keep the viewers eyes on the screen.  The whole package looks great and is edited with an extremely professional flair, and the end result left me wanting to see more from Fragale and crew.

Which leads us to Date Night, a 15 minute short in which Ms. Cline returns as a young woman who just wants to stay home and read a magazine despite her friends' insistence. 

This young woman - listed only as She in the film's credits - has her evening turned upside down rather quickly when she finds a young man sitting on her couch.  He - that's what they call David Fuit's character in the credits too - is a little awkward and might only speak in movie quotes at times, but it appears he's also quite charming.  Things move pretty quickly after they meet - for better and for worse.

This one night, two character tale might not make complete sense at first - there's a fundamental question to the situation that one would think She would ask immediately and repeatedly until she figured out just how this dude showed up on her couch - but once you're along for the characters' ride it's easy not to look back at the mechanisms of the plot.  Like Simone, there's a sexual interlude in this film too, and once again this seems to be the point where halfway-kinda-normal gets turned on its head.  

There's a lot of dark comedy at work in Date Night, which culminates in a final scene that actually had me laughing at how sly the film was.  The twist isn't unpredictable, but the director again handles everything with incredible skill - the editing stands out once more - and the stars do a fantastic job.  Fuit is uncomfortable in the best way as the appearing man, while Cline pours out the innocent charm with ease.  The end result is a short horror tale that's really fun to watch.

Now that I've talked a bunch about these two fun little films from a talented young director, it would probably be a good time for me to point out that you can get more info on both films over at the website for the production company, 386Films.  Heck, you could even watch Simone or watch Date Night over at that site if you wanted to.  And I think you should want to.