Thursday, December 30, 2010

Dead End (2003)

This movie. This dang movie.
This is a film where nothing happens for almost an hour and a half. Its a movie where the last scene undermines the rest of the movie in an unfulfilling way. Its a movie where no one can act and everything everyone says is ridiculous and hilarious. This movie is the quintessential "Hey its the 21st century, lets make a Modern B-Movie!" movie. Its a movie where everything is stilted because of the creative Powers That Be trying to recreate an aesthetic that its almost impossible to emulate today.
Thats why I love it. Its not a good movie by any means, but it tries to hard to be bad that its flailing limbs are entertaining. Ray Wise is legitimately hilarious in it.

Pulse (2001)

Full disclosure: I saw the (2005?) American remake with Kristin Bell way before I saw this movie. I actually enjoyed the remake, unlike literally everyone else who saw it, so I came into this with a little bit of skepticism. If I liked the movie everyone hated, then i should hate the movie everyone liked.
I was completely wrong.  This movie blew me away. Its every bit as compelling and nervewracking and terrifying as any other horror masterwork and has the strong, solidly stated yet still stylistic political statement underlying it that really proves the wheat from the chaff. This movie is one of those golden films I mentioned in the Dark Remains post. This movie is great. It is absolutely nothing like the remake in anyway. Even like thematic elements dont carry over at all. Don't watch the remake.

Tokyo Gore Police (2008)

Gory. Political. Silly. Stupid. Violent. Crazy. Hilarious. Perverse.
Rad.

The Signal (2006)

Okay, so, apparently this movie was made by three different directors each directing one act. It shows re: the first act is just exposition, almost Fight Clubby in its execution, the second is slapstick and legitimately pretty funny in parts, and the third is screaming "Am I David Lynch yet???" at the top of its lungs. None of the three parts ever really feel that disconnected from each other and the film does come together to make a super entertaining, cohesive whole. Its really open ended and incredibly isolated so, like, don't come into this expecting a 28 Days Later style movie I guess. I really feel like I have to give the directors a lot of credit for this, considering how difficult it is to make something really actually funny and also something that really screws with your head and this film manages to do both in satisfactory fashion.

Infection (2005)

A severely understaffed and collapsing hospital is forced to put aside lingering tensions and antagonism to deal with a bizarre corpse brought in under weird circumstances. The corpse disappears and nurses/doctors start going mad and murderous. And then of course there's a twist ending that Really Makes You Think About Things (no it doesnt it doesnt make you think its just dumb.)
A thing i have with foreign films is like, im afraid that I dont have the required amount of cultural context to really Get what the director is going for, but with Infection that problem doesnt really exist. Its disgustingly misogynist and insulting to anyone who has ever seen a horror film, on top of being disgustingly boring. I've seen slasher movies with more substance and less hatred of women than this literal garbage.
The only good thing I can say about it is the lighting was pretty cool in a lot of places and the setting was neat. Its a real shame that you have a film like this, one that feels almost claustrophobic and busy in its tedium, set in a place like a huge near-abandoned hospital. Seems like a waste.

Ichi the Killer (2001)

I don't care if this doesnt count as a horror film. This is my new favorite, non-Clue, movie. Violent, silly, poignant, absurd, surreal, yet grounded in a way that makes it Even More Surreal. Just so brilliant. I struggle to think of something else to say about it. Even with that list of adjectives up there, none of them really describe it. When someone says Black Comedy, they usually are referring to something that generally isn't very dark and isn't very funny. Ichi the Killer satisfies both and then takes it to the next level. Kakihara is fascinating and his power struggles, within and without, are incredibly compelling. in the end, the movie comes down to societal condition as applied to sado-masochism and Ichi the Killer gives you all the pieces inside a hyper-violent, sometimes melancholy, sometimes hilarious, always entertaining shell.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

The Midnight Meat Train (2008)

This was a way cool Americanized Japanese horror film based on a Clive Barker story. Violent in a cool/silly way, bizarre in its development/resolution, and just really a fun time. Vinnie Jones plays the part of silent, sadistic Mahogany in a brutal, almost haunting way and everyone else was at least competent so it has that going for it. The most important part though, was in a scene when Mahogany begins stalking a party on the titular train. He hits Ted Raimi in the back of the head with a meat tenderizer so hard his eyes pop out of his head and bounce off the camera.