Hot on the heels of ZOMBIE 3, which he co-directed with Lucio Fulci and Bruno Mattei, comes Italian schlockmeister Claudio Fragasso's ZOMBIE 4: AFTER DEATH (Severin Films, 1989), another hot 'n' horrid terror tale of the living versus the undead on a humid tropical island.
This time we're back to basics again, with the zombies being created not by science gone wrong or some natural phenomenon, but by that old bugaboo--voodoo. Here, a voodoo high priest raises an undead army against the interlopers (scientists again) whom he blames for the death of his wife.
In the first scene, he resurrects her as a real lulu of a zombie--really, this freaked-out hag sets the bar so high that no other creature in the movie can touch it.
They're still a motley bunch, though. In fact, these ambulatory corpses--who mostly wear hoods to save on makeup--are so sleazy-looking you'd think they'd started out as lepers before turning into zombies.
As in ZOMBIE 3, they like to gang up on their victims and make very messy work of them as the fake blood gushes from every prosthetic gash. The makeup and gore effects run hot and cold quality-wise, but it's all in good, dumb fun anyway.
It seems as though we've joined the story in progress when the scientists confront the voodoo priest, but just then all the potential protagonists we just got to know a minute ago start getting horrifically offed one at a time.
In comes a whole new cast twenty years later, and they go tromping around in the jungle for about half an hour before someone finds the usual "book of the dead", stupidly reads the forbidden spell within, and starts the whole thing going all over again.
Two groups--three research scientists and some vacationing mercenaries and their lady friends--are barely around long enough for us to get to know them before it's "Ten Little Indians" time.
The survivors of the inital carnage barricade themselves in an abandoned science lab against the advancing horde (this is one of the few Romero-esque touches) with the mercenaries--who have fortuitously stumbled onto a box of M-16s--offering some war-movie action along with the horror as everything heads toward a mindblowing finale.
The real fun comes when members of their own combined group get bitten and start to turn. With all the flesh-eating, supernatural hoo-doo, and blazing gunfire going on, you may enjoy spotting all the references to THE EVIL DEAD, ALIENS, PREDATOR, and various other movies. The opening scene at times even reminded me of one of the freakier Japanese ghost story movies.
Production values are pretty sparse, but as usual with these Italian jungle potboilers, whether they feature zombies, cannibals, or whatever, that's just part of the charm. Claudio Fragasso (TROLL 2) has but two goals here, to entertain us and to gross us out, and with ZOMBIE 4: AFTER DEATH he has done both in splattery style.
Release date: May 29, 2018 Special Features: Bonus Disc: CD Soundtrack (pictured below) Run Zombie Run! – Interview With Director Claudio Fragasso and Screenwriter Rossella Drudi Jeff Stryker in Manila – Interview With Actor Chuck Peyton Blonde vs Zombies – Interview With Actress Candice Daly Behind-The-Scenes Footage Trailer
While one review hails THINGS (1989) as "a movie that defines what 'cult' really is", you'd be quite accurate in saying that this low-budget, straight-to-VHS Canadian gorefest also defines what "100% brain-rotting crap" really is.
There's no denying that this is one of the worst excuses for a movie ever made. It's one of those films whose status as either "so bad it's good" or "totally unwatchable dreck" depends entirely upon the charity of the viewer. That said, though, if you catch it in the right mood--as the film's many fans apparently did--you can have an awful lot of fun watching it.
Shot on Super-8mm by high-school pals Andrew Jordan (co-writer, director) and Barry J. Gillis (co-producer, co-writer, star), THINGS is the story of a man named Doug Drake (Doug Bunston) who seeks medical help when he and his wife Susan are unable to conceive a child. Unfortunately, Dr. Lucas (Jan W. Pachul) turns out to be a giggling, sadistic psycho who takes time out from torturing people in his dungeon of horror (the torture scenes are amateurish-looking but extreme) to impregnate Susan with a monster fetus.
Later, Doug's brother Don (Gillis) and his friend Fred (Bruce Roach) drop by Doug's secluded cabin in the backwoods of Toronto for an exciting evening of drinking beer and watching TV. Suddenly, Susan gives birth to a creature that looks like a cross between a chest-burster from ALIEN and a giant cootie. The thing begins to multiply at an alarming rate until the house is crawling with them, plunging Don, Fred, and Doug into a nightmare of insect insanity and gratuitous gore.
While all of this sounds exciting, it isn't, and the most interesting thing about the film is the bizarre and illogical behavior of its main characters. After Susan's horrific death (during which actress Patricia Sadler is unable to suppress a smile whenever she's on camera), Doug's initial grief quickly gives way to lighthearted prankishness and an overall "who cares" attitude, in addition to a concern that his nice shirt has been ruined by Susan's gushing blood. Don interrupts the somber mood with a gruesome campfire story at the kitchen table, while Fred wonders what kind of cool TV shows are on.
Characters appear and disappear seemingly at random--we don't even know Doug is in the house with Don and Fred until there's a sudden closeup of his butt, after which he disappears again. The total lack of basic storytelling skills forces us to decipher what's going on in almost every scene, even down to figuring out whether we're supposed to find certain drawn-out sequences funny, suspenseful, or scary.
There seem to be several deliberate attempts at comedy throughout the story, but the serious and funny elements are so equally stupid that it's hard to tell. I laughed out loud when the dog got killed, and I don't even know why. Other scenes are equally amusing for unknown reasons, such as the part where Doug and Don are searching the bathroom for bug-monsters and find one perched on the toilet, and then each of them insists on using the bathroom anyway.
Much of the running time is padded with shots of them wandering around the house with their flashlights, trading goofy dialogue and doing things that don't make sense. When they finally go down into the basement to change out some fuses, a sudden bug attack results in Don bludgeoning Doug with a club. More excitement ensues when Fred finds an electric chainsaw and goes commando against the critters while Don wields a power drill as though he were building the world's most insane birdhouse. The film's most hilarious moment ("I'm still alive!") is followed by a surprise visit from none other than the gleefully insane Dr. Lucas, after which things just go totally whacko until the film abruptly ends.
THINGS supposedly cost around $40,000 to make, but I can't imagine it costing any more than forty dollars. A sizable chunk of the budget ($2,500) went to 80s porn goddess Amber Lynn, who consented to appear as a TV news reporter making intermittent appearances throughout the film. Reading her lines cold from a cue card held way off to the side, Amber doesn't come off too good here. This is irrelevant, though, since her presence is mainly an excuse to use sexy pictures of her in the advertising. The film's only nudity comes in the first scene, in which a woman (a real-life hooker who appeared under the condition that her face not be shown) strips naked while wearing a devil mask that makes her resemble a deranged Ed Wood.
The DVD from InterVision is in full-screen with 2.0 sound. Extras include two commentaries, trailers, Barry J. Gillis TV appearances promoting the film, a cast and crew 20th anniversary reunion, a ten-minute behind-the-scenes look at Amber Lynn filming her scenes, and testimonials for the film including comments by Tobe Hooper (TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE) and Jason Eisener (HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN). After the closing credits crawl there's more candid footage of Amber Lynn and some outtakes.
The first commentary, an audio viewing party with the Cinefamily, is fun, but the cast and crew commentary is a wonderfully raucous affair during which Gillis' daughter, Victoria Elizabeth Turnbull (who also appears in the anniversary segment), mercilessly mocks the film while a growing air of inebriation seems to prevail.
With camerawork and editing that seem to have been performed by blind people and dubbing that might've been done from across the street--not to mention some of the most delightfully atrocious acting of all time--you might think that THINGS was made by people who have never seen a movie before. As things grow more bizarre and nonsensical, however, the film begins to look more like something made by aliens who have never seen human beings before.
WRISTCUTTERS (2006) is quirky as hell but doesn't make a big deal about it, and it's this deadpan, matter-of-fact attitude that makes it so irresistible. Wonderful characters, situations, and bits of business just keep emerging from this low-key comedy as it unwinds.
As the story begins, Zia (Patrick Fugit, ALMOST FAMOUS, DEAD BIRDS) is slitting his wrists over a girl named Desiree (Leslie Bibb). The next time we see him he's working in a crappy pizza place called Kamikazee's and sharing a dingy apartment with a foul-tempered Austrian guy. It turns out that people who commit suicide end up in a world just like this one, except it's even worse. Everything's falling apart, most of the people are listless and depressed (no surprise there), and it's physically impossible for anyone to smile. Furthermore, everyone still retains the bodily damage resulting from their chosen methods of suicide.
When Zia discovers that Desiree also "offed" (the local term for killing oneself) shortly after he did, he sets out to find her along with his new friend Eugene (Shea Whigham, FIRST SNOW, LORDS OF DOGTOWN). Eugene's a Russian guy who lives with his family, who all committed suicide at different times. Along the way they pick up a hitchhiker named Mikal (Shannyn Sossamon, A KNIGHT'S TALE), who is searching for the people in charge because she believes she's there by mistake due to an unintentional drug overdose.
For awhile, WRISTCUTTERS is a fun road picture with the three of them traveling through the hot, desolate landscape in Eugene's crummy little car. When they break down, there's a nice scene in a roadside garage where Mark Boone, Jr. (MEMENTO, SE7EN) plays a psychic auto mechanic who diagnoses their trouble by laying hands upon the car. At one point Zia drops something under the passenger seat and finds that there's a black hole under it, which sucks in all the cassette tapes, sunglasses, and other items that he's continuously fumbling to Eugene's irritation.
Later Mikal almost gets arrested for vandalism--she has a tendency to deface signs that she disagrees with, such as scrawling "unless you want to" under a "No Smoking" sign--until Zia talks the cop out of it. In this world, the cops all look like bums, restaurants are rundown shacks with the word "FOOD" crudely painted over the door, and there's junk scattered everywhere. It's an interesting, well-realized environment, and it makes us wonder what the next level of existence must look like to anyone driven to off themselves on this one.
Eventually they encounter a strange man named Kneller (Tom Waits), who presides over a shantytown by the tracks. Kneller takes in all the aimless wanderers who pass by and offers them a chance to live together in relative happiness (Etger Keret's short story upon which the screenplay is based is entitled "Kneller's Happy Campers"). But just as Zia and Mikal begin to settle in and develop romantic feelings for each other, they discover the presence of a nearby cult led by a would-be messiah (Will Arnett) who promises his fervent followers deliverance from their purgatory. And his devoted consort is none other than Zia's ex-girlfriend, Desiree.
In a bold move, director Goran Dukic actually keeps his camera still and allows things to happen in front of it without instructing his cinematographer to hop around like his pants were on fire. Hopefully this revolutionary technique will catch on. The washed-out hues convey the dreary atmosphere of the present while flashbacks of the real world, where we get to see how various characters happened to snuff themselves, are shot in vivid color.
The very likable leads compliment the dry tone of the script by giving restrained, semi-realistic performances and not trying to funny things up too much. Tom Waits is just right as Kneller, proving once again that he's an outstanding character actor. John Hawkes, the liquor store clerk in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN, pops up as one of Kneller's "happy campers", and early on there's a cameo by Jake Busey, an old friend of Zia's who still wants the 200 bucks he owes him even if they're both dead.
It's rare that you see a movie with a premise this odd that doesn't screw it up before it's over. But WRISTCUTTERS stays the course without once getting too cute or trying too hard to bowl us over with how clever it is. It feels almost like Tim Burton's BIG FISH with the fairytale cream filling sucked out of it. And when two of the characters smile at each other right before the fadeout--which, in the context of this story, is a pretty big deal--they had me doing it, too.
(Originally posted 3/27/17. Information about public showings no longer applies.)
DONNIE DARKO (2001) is kind of like an ultra "Twilight Zone" episode by way of "The X-Files" as filtered through the mind of David Lynch and decorated by Tim Burton. With some Robert A. Heinlein, Clive Barker, and John Irving thrown into the mix as well. (The director has called it “The Catcher in the Rye as told by Philip K. Dick.")
And yet it's also its own unique, one-of-a-kind sort of funhouse mirror with all the giddy fear and dark exhilaration of a malfunctioning spook house ride.
Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, ZODIAC) gains our sympathy right away because he's a nice teenaged kid with a nice family, and he'd like to be a normal guy, but he isn't--I mean, really, really isn't--and he can't help it.
His befuddled psychiatrist (Katherine Ross) tells his parents he's schizophrenic. Sometimes he skips his meds. He knows he's "crazy", and that his attempts not to be are probably doomed.
So, occasionally, he just goes with the flow and sets the fires and vandalizes the things that the tall guy in the scary-looking bunny costume and mask tells him to do.
Why? Because the scary bunny, who goes by the name of Frank, is a time traveler, helping Donnie to fulfill his destiny and maintain the space-time continuum by influencing the lives of everyone around him in very fundamental ways before the world ends, which will occur at the end of the month on Halloween night.
The incredible event that sets all of this into motion occurs early in the film, after we've met Donnie and the other Darkos and things have settled down for the night, and suddenly, there's a tremendous crash that shakes the house like an earthquake.
That's the detached jet airplane engine demolishing Donnie's bedroom from above, mere minutes after he's been awakened and summoned safely out of the house by Frank.
For me, this weird and wonderful event is the sort of thing that just makes me fall in love with a movie right off the bat and stay with it every step of the way if it continues to be that wonderful, which DONNIE DARKO does the way a mindbending page-turner of a novel or comic book does.
Mary McDonnell (DANCES WITH WOLVES, INDEPENDENCE DAY, SCREAM 4, "Battlestar Galactica") and Holmes Osborne (THAT THING THAT YOU DO!, BRING IT ON, AFFLICTION) are ideal as Donnie's long-suffering but loving parents Rose and Eddie, and Gyllenhaal's real-life sister Maggie (THE DARK KNIGHT) is his sister Elizabeth. Their younger sister Samantha is played cutely by Daveigh Chase (AMERICAN ROMANCE, SPIRITED AWAY).
Executive producer Drew Barrymore makes a strong impression as Donnie's progressive, perceptive English teacher, Miss Pomeroy, whose methods will be called into question by stiff-assed fellow teacher Miss Farmer (Beth Grant, OPERATION: ENDGAME, SPEED), an emotionally backward harpy whose classes seem to consist solely of videotapes by New Age self-help guru Jim Cunningham (Patrick Swayze, ROADHOUSE, DIRTY DANCING, GHOST).
Other supporting players in this very interesting cast include Noah Wyle, Seth Rogan, James Duval (AMERICAN ROMANCE, THE BLACK WATERS OF ECHO'S POND, INDEPENDENCE DAY), and Patience Cleveland (PSYCHO III) as Roberta Sparrow, aka "Grandma Death", a crazy old recluse who, it turns out, may know a thing or two about time travel herself.
High school life is a daily parade of the usual nerdy friends and scary bullies, as well as a pretty but troubled new student (Jena Malone as "Gretchen") who catches the eye of lonely but attractively enigmatic Donnie.
I tried the lonely but attractively enigmatic thing in high school but it never worked for me. It does, however, work for Donnie as he and Gretchen form a sympatico relationship that will become crucial in the scheme of things as time counts irrevocably down to Frank's mysterious end-of-world deadline.
As Donnie, Jake Gyllenhaal maintains just the right attitude throughout--bemused, puzzled, sad, resentful, fearful, and yet deeply intrigued by what's happening to him, because who knows? It just might be real.
Visually, DONNIE DARKO is an eye-pleasing, idealized evocation of everyday life, sort of an updated Kodachrome version of Capra's small town in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE or the deceptive veneer of normalcy in Lynch's BLUE VELVET, all shot through with a warm nostalgia for the 80s. (Donnie takes Gretchen to see THE EVIL DEAD at the neighborhood bijou, while familiar 80s songs enhance the soundtrack.)
Richard Kelly directs the whole thing with the skill of a craftsman and the sensibility of an artist who likes to turn everyday things inside out and explore the beauty and mystery within, occasionally uncovering the ugly side of things as well.
He also imbues the film with a sense of dark, magical fun that makes the serious aspects and underlying humanity of the story resonate even more.
This is exemplified by the loving but impishly humorous interactions between Donnie's parents, who sometimes act like a couple of kids, and between Donnie and his sisters. It's nice to see a functioning family unit in a movie these days, even though this family does have one huge dysfunction, which is Donnie.
It's been a while since I was this totally caught up in a film and entranced by it until the very last frame. DONNIE DARKO is like a big, juicy Tootsie Pop made of mystery and imagination, and you savor the act of seeing how many licks it takes to get to the chewy cult movie center.
Donnie Darko: English / USA / 113 min (theatrical) / 134 min (Director's Cut) Here's our original coverage of the upcoming re-release:
Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko Returns to Theaters Arrow Films Debuts 4K Restoration of Theatrical & Director's Cuts
Weeklong Runs in Los Angeles, New York and More
"Excitingly original indie vision" - Entertainment Weekly "A mini-masterpiece" - Empire
Los Angeles, CA - Arrow Films has announced the March 31st domestic theatrical debut of the 4K restoration of Richard Kelly's cult hit Donnie Darko. Following a wildly successful re-release in the UK for its fifteenth anniversary, the film will return to theaters in cities across the United States. Fifteen years before "Stranger Things" combined science-fiction, Spielberg-ian touches and 80s nostalgia to much acclaim, Kelly set the template and the benchmark with his debut feature, Donnie Darko. Initially beset with distribution problems, it would slowly find its audience and emerge as arguably the first cult classic of the new millennium. The 4K restoration of Donnie Darko will premiere at the Vista in Los Angeles on March 30th, and officially open in Los Angeles at the Cinefamily and in New York at Metrograph on March 31st.
Described by director Richard Kelly as "The Catcher in the Rye as told by Philip K. Dick", Donnie Darko combines an eye-catching, eclectic cast: pre-stardom Jake (Nightcrawler, Brokeback Mountain, Nocturnal Animals) and Maggie Gyllenhaal ("The Honourable Woman", The Dark Knight), Jena Malone (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Neon Demon), the late heartthrob Patrick Swayze (Dirty Dancing, Ghost), Drew Barrymore (E.T., "Grey Gardens", "Santa Clarita Diet") Oscar nominees Mary McDonnell (Dances With Wolves, Passion Fish, "Battlestar Galactica") and Katharine Ross (The Graduate, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Stepford Wives), and television favorite Noah Wyle ("ER", "Falling Skies") and an evocative soundtrack of 80s classics by Echo and the Bunnymen, Tears for Fears and Duran Duran.
The brand-new 4K restoration was produced by Arrow Films from the original camera negatives and supervised and approved by Kelly and cinematographer Steven Poster. The 4K restoration premiered to a packed audience at the National Film Theatre in London on December 17th, 2016, with an introduction by Richard Kelly. A screening of the Director's Cut followed the next day. The re-release opened nationwide in the UK on December 23rd, eventually grossing £70,000.
Both the theatrical cut and the director's cut are being made available to venues via a partnership with Cartilage Films, and locations will vary.
Donnie Darko will also return for weeklong runs in Denver, Columbus, Cleveland, Dallas, Pittsburgh, Phoenix, Tempe, Tulsa and San Francisco on March 31st, and in El Paso, Portland and Detroit on April 7.
Special screenings include Jacksonville, Austin, Dallas, Honolulu, Lubbock, Baton Rouge, Sioux Falls, Oklahoma City, Tucson, Durham and Stamford throughout March and April. A full list of screenings is available at Cartilage Films.
http://www.cartilagefilms.com/donnie-darko.html?utm_source=Copy+of+Donnie+Darko+Theaters&utm_campaign=Outfest&utm_medium=email
March 31st Theatrical Release:
The Cinefamily
611 N Fairfax Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Metrograph
7 Ludlow St
New York, NY 10002
Donnie is a troubled high school student: in therapy, prone to sleepwalking and in possession of an imaginary friend, a six-foot rabbit named Frank, who tells him the world is going to end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds. During that time he will navigate teenage life, narrowly avoid death in the form of a falling jet engine, follow Frank's maladjusted instructions and try to maintain the space-time continuum.
When a movie is described as "so bad, it's good", often the "it's good" part is solely up to the charity and goodwill of the viewer. If you simply don't like bad movies at all, chances are DRIVE-IN MASSACRE (1976) won't appeal to you at all. But if you qualify as a bonafide junk-film junkie, then this no-budget little effort will likely tickle your fancy in a big way even though, at times, it really does tend to get just a tad dull.
What it mostly does for me is to let me indulge in some good old-fashioned nostalgia and wallow in hazy, golden memories of things like drive-in theaters (natch), renting obscure VHS horrors from the local hole-in-the-wall video store (which is how most people probably first caught this one), and reliving those crazy wonderful early days of slasher flicks before the genre wore itself out through sheer repetition.
Like BLACK CHRISTMAS and THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN (and before HALLOWEEN and FRIDAY THE 13TH), DRIVE-IN MASSACRE was right there on the ground floor of the slasher era, when poor but plucky filmmakers were still making up the rules and flying by the seat of their pants.
Here, of course, most of the film's shortcomings--limited funds, rushed schedule, less than stellar acting and dialogue, crude gore effects--are, in hindsight, what makes it so endearingly fun to watch.
And speaking of gore, there's considerably less here than in the average H.G. Lewis movie, but what there is scores major fun points. My favorite is the guy who leans out his car window to snag a speaker and gets his head cleanly lopped off by a samurai sword.
Most of the kills happen to people sitting in their cars watching the drive-in movie, including a double skewering (later reprised in FRIDAY THE 13TH) and a sword through the throat which elicits a wonderfully expressive reaction from the actress (that's her on the poster).
While semi-competent police detectives Leary (co-scripter John F. Goff as "Jake Barnes") and Koch (Bruce Kimball as "Michael Alden") bumble their way through the murder investigation in seriocomic style, suspects include foul-tempered drive in manager Austin (Robert E. Pearson as "Newton Naushaus") and feeble-minded janitor Germy (Douglas Gudbye)--both of whom happen to have carnival experience working with knives and swords!
(Note: all the cast aliases have something to do with SAG rules.)
There's also a perv named Orville (Norman Sheridan as "Norman Sherlock") who likes to creep around from car to car, peering in at the more amorous couples and--err--"gratifying" himself. While we're busy keeping up with all the potential suspects and red herrings, much screen time is devoted to those couples yakking away (some of the dialogue is amusing) while the guy tries to score.
Not all the action is confined to the drive in, however. In addition to scenes of the two cops grilling people at the station or running down (literally) suspect Orville who flees an interview at his house, there's a lengthy detour in which another likely candidate gets cornered in a warehouse while holding a young girl hostage.
This nutty-looking psycho is none other than familiar character actor "Buck" Flowers (ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, THE FOG), who, it turns out, co-wrote the screeplay along with Goff and director Stu Segall (as "Godfrey Daniels").
Buck's hostage here is his own daughter Verkina Flowers, and the cat-and-mouse sequence that follows her escape, while nominally entertaining, seems most likely intended to pad out the running time.
This is also true of a long interlude in which former carnival geek Germy wanders through a brilliantly-lit carnival at night for several minutes while dialogue from earlier in the film wafts through his mind.
While the scene serves little purpose, it's beautifully photographed (looking particularly good in Blu-ray) and offers yet more nostalgia value, this time for the days when a carnival was just about the most fun place I could imagine being at. Besides a drive-in, of course.
The Blu-ray from Severin Films (which boasts a cool reversible cover) is widescreen with 2.0 English audio and optional English subtitles. Severin comes through again with some cool extras which include an informative director's commentary, a trailer, and recent interviews with star/co-writer John Goff, actor Norm Sheridan, and director Segall. Despite some occasional imperfections (or, in my case, because of them), the picture is a joy to behold.
Many people, of course, will have no idea why this cheap little gore flick would appeal to anyone at all. But if you're one of those to whom the very sight of the cover of DRIVE-IN MASSACRE elicits a giddy tingle of excitement, no explanation is necessary. It's just plain fun, period.
One of the topic titles on the IMDb forum for this movie dismisses it as "FRIGHT NIGHT + MY GIRL." Which, superficially, is a fairly accurate way to describe the Swedish film LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, aka Låt den rätte komma in (2008). It isn't strictly a horror film, although it's filled with horrific elements, nor does it try to be particularly scary even though certain moments are rather chilling. What makes it so affecting is the way it explores a visual and emotional territory that your typical horror flick rarely bothers with.
Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant) is a troubled 12-year-old boy who is terrorized daily by bullies at school and spends most nights in an empty apartment while his mother works. Preoccupied with sensational newspaper stories of murder and mayhem, he fantasizes about slashing his schoolyard tormentors with the knife he carries about. One night, an older man and a little girl move into the apartment next door. As Oskar and Eli (Lina Leandersson) gradually get to know each other during their nightly encounters in the snow-covered courtyard of the building, he's glad to find that she is also lonely and troubled, and their friendship grows. But there's something very mysterious and strange about her.
People in the area start to turn up violently murdered, and we find that Eli's guardian, Håkan (Per Ragnar), is killing them and collecting their blood in large containers. When he's captured by the police, Eli is forced to go on the prowl herself, and as we see her attacking and killing people with little effort, it becomes clear that she is, in fact, a vampire. As Oskar realizes this, his initial reticence is overcome by his feelings for her, and in turn she begins to help him gain the confidence he needs to fight back against his cruel schoolmates. But as their hostility toward him reaches lethal proportions, Eli's secret is discovered and she must flee just when Oskar needs her help the most.
When I started watching what the Washington Examiner calls the "Best. Vampire Movie. Ever" (I wouldn't go quite that far), I had no idea that it was going to be a sensitive, contemplative love story filled with moments of haunting beauty. Oskar is so alone--his parents are divorced so he rarely sees his father, and none of the adults in his life can help him anyway--that we can feel the enormously uplifting effect Eli has on him. And being that Eli is even more alone in the world, the fact that she has a friend her own physical age (we never know how old she really is), who comes to accept her for what she is, gives some meaning to her useless life.
At times we see them merely lying together, holding hands--this simple contact makes each feel more substantial and alive. In a deleted scene, Oskar playfully hisses at her and she hisses back at him, gently mocking the image of the traditional screen vampire. Even the fact that Eli isn't quite what she appears to be ("I'm not a girl," she cryptically tells him at one point) ultimately doesn't matter to Oskar.
In a way, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN is almost like a blood-drenched version of those somber made-for-TV children's films I used to watch when I was growing up, about two lonely misfits who find each other. In those films, the story was about two kids, or a kid and a dog, or a kid and a cat, or a kid and an understanding old person. Here, it's about a human kid and a vampire, but the slow, thoughtful story development and heartfelt empathy for the lead characters are the same. And within this framework, the matter-of-fact way that the shocking horrors are presented makes them all the more unsettling.
Eli's guardian, Håkan (is he her father, or an older version of Oskar?), prepares for his night's work as though he's going to any other routine job, calmly abducting people off the street and hanging them upside-down to drain their blood. His eventual fate is suitably grim, leaving Eli to fend for herself in a series of violent nocturnal attacks. Virginia (Ika Nord), a woman in Oskar's building who survives an encounter with Eli, enters the apartment of a cat-loving friend and is viciously mauled by his enraged felines, then later deals with the problem of her impending vampirism in a spectacular manner.
Tomas Alfredson, who has directed this film with impressive skill and restraint, saves the best for last in the climactic sequence. In a placid and almost silent underwater environment, we suddenly witness several violent killings without actually seeing them, in a shot that's so cleverly conceived that it comes as a delightful surprise. I had to watch it two or three times before I could get over what a visually imaginative piece of storytelling it is. (The behind-the-scenes featurette shows the filming of this shot in detail.) There are other interesting touches throughout the film, such as a glimpse of Eli climbing up the side of a building in the far background, or the pivotal scene in which Oskar, torn between feelings of love and loathing, demands to know what will happen to Eli if she enters his apartment without being invited. I also like the way Alfredson often slowly moves his camera around until something unexpected enters the frame.
The adult actors are all good but it's the juvenile leads who carry the film. As Oskar and Eli, Kåre Hedebrant and Lina Leandersson couldn't be better as each gives a performance that is complex and moving. The film itself has the cold, icy look of a Swedish winter but is warmed by their affection and concern for one another. Every aspect of the production is similarly well-done. I've never read John Ajvide Lindqvist's novel, but his screenplay adaptation is fine. As for the ending, I'm still wondering whether or not it's a happy one (Alfredson contends that it is). It's definitely thought-provoking.
The DVD from Magnolia Home Entertainment is 2.35:1 widescreen with Dolby Digital sound, both of which are good, and the soundtrack comes in the original Swedish or an English dub with subtitles. Bonus features include four deleted scenes, a "making of" featurette, a photo gallery, and a theatrical poster gallery. There are also trailers for this and other features in the Six Shooter Film Series.
Viewers looking for a fast-moving succession of shocks and visceral thrills will likely be disappointed in LET THE RIGHT ONE IN. But most people who can appreciate extremely compelling filmmaking--even those who may have trouble getting past the fact that it's a "vampire" movie--will be glad that they let this one in. The most famous screen vampire, Bela Lugosi's DRACULA, unknowingly gave this worthy successor a fitting recommendation way back in 1931: "Listen to them...children of the night. What music they make."
When Warner Brothers made "The Jazz Singer" in 1927, it was a silent film like the others of its era.
Except that the songs performed by star Al Jolson would be done using their new Vitaphone sound process.
But it wasn't hearing the songs that astounded audiences at the time.
It was the spoken patter ad-libbed by Jolson between the songs.
Later in the film, when Jolson's character entertains his adoring mother...
...his off-the-cuff remarks during the songs charmed and delighted viewers, making them want more.
The first all-spoken film was yet to come. But because of Jolson's chatty ad-libs...
..."The Jazz Singer" is still often regarded as the first "talkie."
I neither own nor claim any rights to this material. Just having some fun with it. Thanks for watching!
Currently re-watching: DRAGNET (1954), the feature-length theatrical version of the classic 1950s TV series in its original incarnation.
It's all the stuff I love about the TV show, but grittier and more hardboiled and violent. (A dark-haired Dub Taylor gets two blasts from a double-barrelled shotgun in the first scene! "They killed him twice," Joe Friday remarks later.) There's a very downbeat, melancholy ending too.
Jack Webb stars as the iconic Sgt. Joe Friday, a dedicated, no-nonsense cop who's still fairly young yet made prematurely sober and even somewhat cynical by his experiences. Ben Alexander is Friday's dependable partner and friend, Frank Smith.
In addition to his beautifully measured performance, I love the way Webb's often innovative direction combines some imaginative touches with extreme economy and a briskly efficient shooting style.
As usual, dialogue delivery is very terse. I wonder if the actors are reading their lines from cue cards and/or teleprompters (did they have those then?) as they did on the TV series, or if the longer schedule gave them time to actually memorize their lines. (I suspect the former.)
Ann Robinson (WAR OF THE WORLDS) plays an undercover police woman and Richard Boone is the captain in charge of the case. The movie also features Virginia Gregg, Dennis Weaver, Vic Perrin (the "Outer Limits" control voice), Olan Soule, James Griffith, and Virginia Christine.
Friday is tougher and more doggedly relentless than ever as he and Frank try to wear down an arrogant, seemingly untouchable suspect (Stacy Harris as "Max Troy") and pin the murder on him and his thug cohorts.
One scene even erupts in a rare fistfight that's full of action and leaves the two detectives bandaged and bloodied.
Friday gets his usual allotment of sharply-delivered cutdowns, telling one punk "Unless you're growing, sit down!" and countering an insult against his mother with "I'll bet your mother had a loud bark."
DRAGNET the movie is as sharply-folded and tightly-wound as the TV series, yet somehow there's just more of everything and it all has an irresistible noirish quality that blends in a very satisfying way with the show's inherent realism.
And as the laconic Joe Friday, lanky in his rumpled suit and observing it all from beneath the wide brim of his fedora, Jack Webb is better than ever.
There's nothing like a show that's both stupid and cool at the same time to bring out the kid in me. That's the feeling I get watching this boxed set of the entire run of JASON OF STAR COMMAND, a live-action sci-fi series from Filmation that ran for two seasons on Saturday mornings starting in 1978. By that time, I had taken to sleeping in on Saturday mornings instead of jumping out of bed to watch TV. But now, through the magic of DVD, I can catch up on what I missed out on the first time around.
Originally just one segment of a 90-minute show called "Tarzan and the Super 7", JASON began as a throwback to the old cliffhanger serials like "Flash Gordon" that used to get the kids flocking back to the theater week after week (with hefty doses of STAR WARS, "Star Trek", "Battlestar Galactica", and "Lost In Space" thrown into the mix as well). And like these old serialized adventures, each eleven-minute chapter has a sensational title such as "Attack of the Dragonship" or "Marooned in Time" and is open-ended, with Jason and his good-guy companions facing certain death at the hands of the evil Dragos (who has dubbed himself "Master of the Cosmos") to keep kids in the late 70s eagerly tuning in from one Saturday morning to the next.
A spin-off of an earlier Filmation production called "Star Academy", and using many of the same sets, models, and costumes, this series centers around the adventures of a secret branch of the Star Academy, located on a city-sized spaceship built on an asteroid, whose job is to protect the galaxy from evildoers like Dragos. Their number-one guy is the brave, adventurous Jason (Craig Littler, who is currently the Gorton's fisherman), described as a "soldier of fortune" even though he isn't one (if he ever made any profit from any of these exploits, they must've been paying him under the table).
He's really Han Solo Lite, right down to an almost identical set of threads and insoucient (though properly sanitized) attitude, and since Han is a soldier of fortune then, by golly, I guess Jason is, too. But he's also a true-blue, straight-arrow good guy type who feels right at home spouting lines like: "You overestimate yourself, Dragos. Never, on all the planets of the galaxy, has evil won out over decency and honesty--and freedom." Tell 'im, Jason!
The female lead in season one is the button-cute Susan O'Hanlon (PRIVATE PARTS, "All My Children") as Captain Nicole Davidoff, Star Command's leading computer expert. She was replaced in season two by Tamara Dobson (CLEOPATRA JONES) as a super-strong alien named Samantha. Charlie Dell (FIGHT CLUB) plays the brilliant but eccentric science officer, Professor E.J. Parsafoot, who shares comedy-relief duties with a couple of cute droids (of course) named Wiki and Peepo.
Season one's "Commander Canarvin" is none other than the redoubtable James "Scotty" Doohan, who then left to do STAR TREK:THE MOTION PICTURE and was replaced in season two by well-known Western actor John Russell (PALE RIDER, THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES) as the stern, blue-skinned Commander Stone. And along the way we see such familiar faces as Julie Newmar, Angelo Rossito, Francine York, and Rosanne Katon in guest roles.
Dragos, the most rotten guy in the universe and sworn enemy of all that is decent, is portrayed by Sid Haig, best known these days as "Captain Spaulding" from Rob Zombie's HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES and THE DEVIL'S REJECTS. He wears a red and black outfit with black platform boots and a cape, and a silver headpiece that makes him look like he just placed dead last in a Borg costume contest. Haig is the Darth Vader of the series, revelling in his various dastardly schemes with eye-rolling delight and frequently letting loose with his trademark maniacal laugh ("MWAAAH- ha-ha-ha-ha-HAAAAAA!!!")
Dragos has the ugliest spaceship in screen history, the dreaded Dragonship, which resembles a mechanical bulldog with a papier-mache' dragon head stuck on it, and his enslaved minions look like a bunch of diseased Wookies with really bad hair. Most of his schemes are along the lines of trying to disable Star Command's defense shields and sending it plunging into a sun or something. MWAAAH- ha-ha-ha-ha-HAAAAAA!!!
The production values would be laughably bad by theatrical standards, but for a Saturday morning kids' series from the 70s they're impressive--cool, even. Much of it consists of STAR WARS-style visual effects done on the cheap, by some of the same technicians, with ingenuity compensating for lack of budget. The model work is good for the most part, and some of the planet sets rival those that Captain Kirk used to wander around in, as do the Star Command interiors. John Beuchler, who went on to make quite a name for himself as a creature-maker as well as a director, populated the series with a multitude of hastily-made but impressive monsters and aliens.
My favorite aspect of the show, however, is the use of stop-motion animated monsters. I love this stuff, from the Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen classics right down to the jerky dinosaurs from BEAST OF HOLLOW MOUNTAIN or TV's "Land of the Lost", and JASON features four or five stop-motion animated creatures with a lot of personality. Which, for me, raises the show's appeal to an even higher level.
With the second season, the show was plucked from the "Tarzan and the Super 7" line-up and given its own half-hour time slot. While the episodes continue to form a loose overall story arc, individual plotlines are wrapped up in just two or three episodes. Dragos gets a brand new Dragonship, and, thank goodness, it's sorta cool and nowhere near as butt-ugly as the first one. He also gets a whole menagerie of beastly Beuchler-built cronies, and they all maniacally laugh their heads off just like Dragos--I think maybe it's catching.
Tamara Dobson fits smoothly into the cast and seems to genuinely enjoy portraying the mysterious Samantha--she and Littler have a good chemistry together--while the fine actor John Russell's no-nonsense demeanor as Commander Stone, who strongly disapproves of Jason's cavalier attitude toward authority, gives the series a welcome and unexpected touch of gravitas. The only drawback is that as Jason and Stone gradually warm up to each other later on, Russell begins to smile more often, which is one of the scariest sights in television history.
The three-disc set includes both seasons of the show and some nice extras. The highlight is a half-hour documentary called "The Adventures of Jason of Star Command", which features interviews with producer Lou Scheimer (sadly, his partner, Norm Prescott, as well as Tamara Dobson, are no longer with us), stars Craig Littler and Sid Haig, John Beuchler, and others involved with the production. It's packed with interesting anecdotes and information about the show. There's also a six-minute special effects demo reel, a photo gallery, episode scripts in PDF format, an episode guide/trivia booklet, and several trailers for other Filmation DVD sets that bring back a lot of Saturday morning memories.
I accidentally found an Easter egg. Put in disc 2 and wait for the menu to appear. Hit "stop", then "play." Some leftover interview footage of guest star John Berwick that wasn't used in the documentary, lasting two or three minutes, should then appear. I tried this with the other two discs but no luck. If you should happen to find any more, let me know.
And last but not least, three of the episodes contain lively commentary tracks with Scheimer, Littler, and Beuchler, among others. But careful, Mom and Dad--at one point, one of them gets so excited about viewing the old series again that he drops the "F" bomb! OOPS!
Scriptwriters include original "Star Trek" vets Samuel A. Peeples ("Where No Man Has Gone Before") and Margaret Armen ("The Paradise Syndrome"). The stories are fast-moving, simple, and often pretty dumb--in a bad-Roddenberry moment, Captain Kidd even pops up in one episode--but they're also a lot of fun, and not nearly as obnoxious as "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" (with the despicable "Twiki") or the original "Battlestar Galactica" tended to be.
Basically a live-action version of the kind of cartoons Filmation is known for (but without the crummy limited animation), JASON OF STAR COMMAND is corny, cheesy pulp sci-fi for kids, pure and simple, but it's done with such a goofy, unabashed earnestness and childlike sense of adventure that I couldn't help enjoying just about every minute of it.
One of the most well-liked, perhaps even loved, titles in the bad-movie pantheon is a low-budget horror/sci-fi thriller from 1959 called THE KILLER SHREWS.
As I myself pointed out in great detail in an earlier review--intended, admittedly, more for Medved-style cuteness than anything else--there's a lot to poke fun at in this modest effort if you've a mind to.
But even as it gets its share of well-deserved ridicule (especially for the giggle-worthy fact that its mutated shrew creatures are actually dogs wearing monster costumes) and is one of the most popular films to have been given the MST3K treatment, one of the main reasons this tense little flick has such staying power is that in addition to being "so bad it's good", it is also, in many ways, just plain good.
For one thing, it's one of the first movies in which a disparate group of people barricade themselves in a house to defend themselves against an outside menace. As has often been pointed out, the similarities between it and George Romero's 1968 horror classic NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD indicate that Romero was influenced by the earlier film.
Which gives rise to an even more intriguing thought--did Alfred Hitchcock see THE KILLER SHREWS before coming up with his own barricaded-house thriller THE BIRDS four years later?
The story is pure straightforward pulp novel stuff, with manly cargo boat captain Thorne Sherman serving as a no-nonsense working class hero. When he and first mate "Rook" Griswold (Judge Henry Dupree) deliver supplies to a group of research scientists on a remote island that's about to be hit by a hurricane, he finds he's walked right into danger in the form of wolf-sized, man-eating killer shrews whose teeth drip instantly-lethal venom.
Heading the research group is Dr. Marlowe Craigis (leading Yiddish theater actor and famed director Sidney Lumet's father, Baruch Lumet), a well-meaning scientist wracked by guilt for having unwittingly unleashed such monsters. Among those threatened by them is his own daughter Ann, played by Ingrid Goude who was Miss Sweden of 1956 and, while not a very skilled actress, at least brings a likable earnestness to her performance.
In the role of Dr. Craigis' cowardly assistant Jerry Farrell is Ken Curtis (THE SEARCHERS, THE ALAMO), who would go on to TV superstardom as Festus Haggen on "Gunsmoke." Curtis has a field day playing Jerry as a weaselly lush driven by ambition and burning with jealousy after Ann starts making goo-goo eyes at Captain Thorne, and we can't wait to see the shrews chow down on this insufferable jerk.
Rounding out the cast are executive producer Gordon McLendon as endearingly nerdy scientist Dr. Radford Baines and Alfredo DeSoto as loyal handyman Mario. McLendon and Curtis also co-produced THE GIANT GILA MONSTER that same year, and both films were directed by Ray Kellogg, who co-directed THE GREEN BERETS along with John Wayne. A special effects man as well as director, Kellogg supplies some really nice-looking matte paintings to the shots of Thorne's boat anchored in the island harbor.
While many low-budget horror flicks of the era are technically inept and heavily padded, THE KILLER SHREWS' lean, suspenseful story moves along briskly once the exposition is out of the way. The shrew attacks themselves are often frightening as the revolting creatures relentlessly chew their way through the soft adobe walls of the house in a frantic search for "food."
It helps that the actors seem so thoroughly convinced that the dogs-in-monster-suits menace is real. James Best, known mainly as Rosco P. Coltrane on "The Dukes of Hazzard", somehow fits his own laconic persona into the part of a macho action hero well enough for us to buy into Thorne Sherman as a guy with the brains and brawn to get these people through this seemingly hopeless ordeal.
Meanwhile, some of the dialogue is laughably off-kilter and seems even more amusing as the cast strains to deliver it with utmost seriousness, often while guzzling martinis like they're going out of style. Yet they're able to make us care about these desperate people during the escalating shrew attacks, up to and during one of the most ludicrous (yet somehow riveting) climactic sequences ever seen in a film of this kind. The fact that it's played absolutely straight--as is the entire movie--makes it both exciting and, yes, perversely hilarious.
The DVD from Film Chest is in 4 x 3 full screen with original mono sound. No subtitles or extras. While I don't see much difference in this "digitally restored" version than the ones I already have, the image is quite good despite the usual specks and scratches.
What makes this release stand out for me is that the opening narration is complete, beginning with the line "Those who hunt by night will tell you that the wildest and most vicious of all animals is the tiny shrew." Usually this narration is joined in the middle of the final sentence with the truncated line "...Alaska, and then invading steadily southward...there were reports of a new species...the giant killer shrew!"
Apparently only the longer audio survives since the footage to accompany it seems to consist of the same brief shot seen before, only greatly slowed down until the bolt of lightning that heralds the main title. But it's nice to finally hear the whole thing.
Even if you've already watched the MST3K version of THE KILLER SHREWS, it deserves to be seen on its own terms. (Unlike much of the total crap that Joel, Mike, and the robots have comically endured over the years.) With repeated viewings, the unintentional comedy remains entertaining as ever while the suspense and chills contained in this nifty little monster movie steadily creep their way up your spine.
Read our original "The Killer Shrews" review HERE DVD street date: November 11
I went into THE PERILS OF GWENDOLINE IN THE LAND OF THE YIK YAK, aka "Gwendoline" (Severin Films, 1984) expecting to see the usual "so bad it's good" cheesefest. What I didn't expect was for it to be "so bad it's epic."
The film starts with a beautiful minute-long tracking shot of a Chinese shipping dock that's so detailed and crowded with costumed extras, so well-choreographed, and so artistically layered that it's worthy of comparison to Ridley Scott's city exteriors in BLADE RUNNER.
This lavishly detailed eye-candy continues throughout the early part of the film, leading to equally impressive exteriors when director Just Jaeckin (EMMANUELLE, THE STORY OF O) takes us outside for some location shots in jungles and deserts which boast magnificent exotic vistas.
(Unfortunately, while these scenes might temporarily make you think you're watching a David Lean movie, they're poorly served by the rinky-dink musical score.)
And then the film finishes with even more opulent interiors, this time rivaling those impregnable bad-guy fortresses from the Bond films with impressive sci-fi/fantasy design and more armies of extras (this time they're gorgeous female soldiers in service to an evil queen), all there to wow us before being destroyed in a fiery display of SPFX pyrotechnics.
The weird part is that all of this technical prowess and visual opulence forms the backdrop of a hokey, derivative action/fantasy tale that would usually be told on a low budget with less than stellar production values.
And being in the midst of all this cinematic finery just seems to make the incredible hokiness of Tawny Kitaen's gorgeous but naive Catholic school runaway searching the Orient for her missing father and Brent Huff's macho, swaggering soldier of fortune who ends up helping her seem somehow even more endearing.
I'm not sure if it's their exaggerated performances or just the strident dubbing, but the characters of Gwendoline and Willard are wonderfully over-the-top as they fully embody all the usual cliches of the plucky damsel in distress and the self-centered cad turned reluctant hero.
As per John Willie's classic bondage comics, Gwendoline ends up bound and gagged several times during the course of the story and rescued by Willard, who goes into action against martial arts masters, hulking thugs, and weird tribal zealots before the two of them, along with Gwendoline's faithful sidekick Beth (the very cute Zabou), make their way to the exotic underground land of Yik Yak where her father disappeared searching for a rare butterfly.
It's like a mash-up of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "The African Queen", with all the naughty sexploitation elements of an old "Cinemax After Dark" flick from the 80s.
This is especially true when our heroes' captivity by the evil Queen (Bernadette Lafont) and her minions turns into a real kink-fest of exotic bondage and weird sexual rites climaxing (!) with Gwendoline herself battling against several warrior women and Willard's virtue hanging in the balance for a change.
I got the same vibe from all of this as I did watching Jim Wynorski's sexy fantasy adventure THE LOST EMPIRE (1983) way back in the VHS days, only with much better production values. I was also reminded a bit of BARBARELLA.
It's as though the makers of some big-budget epic were allowing director Jaeckin to come in on alternate days and use their sets, extras, and facilities to shoot his own low-budget movie.
The Blu-ray from Severin Films is scanned uncut in 4k from the original negative recently discovered in a Paris vault. Severin has outdone themselves with a bonus menu too loaded with goodies to list here (see below for full details) including an alternate U.S. cut and two commentary tracks.
Not as heavily kink-oriented as John Willie's original comics and with a much more lighthearted tone, THE PERILS OF GWENDOLINE IN THE LAND OF THE YIK YAK nevertheless revels in sexuality both frothy and lewd while taking us on a grand adventure that's like an express train through bad movie land with first-class accomodations.
Special Features: Alternate US Release Version: THE PERILS OF GWENDOLINE IN THE LAND OF THE YIK YAK Audio Commentary with Director Just Jaeckin Audio Commentary with Stars Tawny Kitaen and Brent Huff The Butterfly Effect: 2019 Interview with Director Just Jaeckin Bondage Paradise: Interviews with Costume & Concept Designers & Comic Book Artists François Schuiten and Claude Renard The Perils Of Production: Interview with Executive Producer Jean-Claude Fleury Gwendoline’s Travels: Interview with Production Designer Françoise Deleu Blu-Ray Promos with Tawny Kitaen & Brent Huff The Last Temptation Of Just: 2006 Interview with Director Just Jaeckin Dr. Kinsey Interview with John Willie, Creator of SWEET GWENDOLINE Revealing Tawny Kitaen Photospread for French LUI Magazine Trailers Reversible Cover
