Magic is cool. Okay, I don't care if its campy or kitsch or dumb or whatever you want to say. Magic is dang cool. Anything that tries to convince people into thinking its something real or supernatural is the coolest thing to me, especially if its like a con. If there's someone in charge of the trick, illusion, or con game, it becomes absolutely fascinating. Much like professional wrestling, magic tries to supplant our existing reality and rules of physics and replace it with something way better. Something inexplicable. If one person can make this watch disappear, imagine what else they can do.
Lord of Illusions stars Scott Bakula as a hard-boiled private dick in Brooklyn who has had more than a few brushes with the supernatural. After being sent on a case to LA, he stumbles into a world of black magic, sexy babes, and resurrected gods of death. Deep in the Los Angeles magic and illusion scene, he bites off more than he can chew as people die all around him.
The film is dated. Clive Barker, serving as auteur on this film, makes the mistake many filmmakers did, and do, by pursuing computer animation over makeup or puppetry. Maybe it was less jarring in 1995 to see a low-poly skeleton walk around and then suddenly turn into a real skeleton as it comes to rest, but its almost laughable now. The acting is lackluster, Scott Bakula never had the chops to be a leading man and most of the main actors he's up against suffer from B-movie over-acting or woodenness. Famke Jannsen is sublime, as usual, in her role of leading lady, but that almost doesnt need to be said.
The pleasure in this film is found in the grim atmosphere it generates. Much like Hellraiser, Lord of Illusions doesn't reside in a pleasant world interrupted by a monster or a slasher or what have you. The world of Lord of Illusions is dark, corrupted, and just about hopeless. As our villain reminds us, in this film hope and courage aren't the antidote to evil. It stands as such a strong contrast to the film's peers. If you can ignore the poor aging and genre film stigma, there's a real bright gem in Lord of Illusions.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Halloween 2012 Day 6: Pontypool (2009)
Language is a sticky thing. Open to a certain amount of interpretation, it also has very concrete meanings. Attacking and dissolving these meanings is an important aspect of art and rhetoric but we have to remember that, while those things reflect our lives, they are guided by a separate set of rules. Language may evolve and change but in order to communicate effectively we must stand on somethings in the short term.
In Bruce McDonald and Tony Burgess' Pontypool, we're taken to a world where the English language has become hostile. Words are contagious but only the words, not the meaning they contain. In the film, meaning can be conveyed through non-verbal or non-English means. This raises some interesting questions as far as the motives of the virus, or at least whoever released it. If your virus is that advanced that he can transmit itself via a specific, almost theoretical means, why does it attack just the language and not the ideas it conveys? Are the Quebecois separatists the movie mentions mostly in passing, and quickly dismisses, the source? Reading it with that assumption, the film draws a mostly uncomfortable parallel between the Block Quebecois and the Third Reich.
That parallel along with much of its content makes this a distinctly Canadian film. Canada is swiftly becoming a kind of low-budget horror powerhouse. Pontypool makes the most of its small budget by setting it mostly in a radio studio with a cast of few more than four people, plus voices we hear over the phone and through windows and so on. This setting owes quite a bit to Welles' adaptation of the War of the Worlds and manages to take that mantle and do it justice. The scripting is very tight and the acting is definitely up to the task. An interesting movie with an interesting moral, to say the least.
In Bruce McDonald and Tony Burgess' Pontypool, we're taken to a world where the English language has become hostile. Words are contagious but only the words, not the meaning they contain. In the film, meaning can be conveyed through non-verbal or non-English means. This raises some interesting questions as far as the motives of the virus, or at least whoever released it. If your virus is that advanced that he can transmit itself via a specific, almost theoretical means, why does it attack just the language and not the ideas it conveys? Are the Quebecois separatists the movie mentions mostly in passing, and quickly dismisses, the source? Reading it with that assumption, the film draws a mostly uncomfortable parallel between the Block Quebecois and the Third Reich.
That parallel along with much of its content makes this a distinctly Canadian film. Canada is swiftly becoming a kind of low-budget horror powerhouse. Pontypool makes the most of its small budget by setting it mostly in a radio studio with a cast of few more than four people, plus voices we hear over the phone and through windows and so on. This setting owes quite a bit to Welles' adaptation of the War of the Worlds and manages to take that mantle and do it justice. The scripting is very tight and the acting is definitely up to the task. An interesting movie with an interesting moral, to say the least.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Halloween 2012 Day 5: The Descent (2005)
I enjoy the outdoors. I've been hiking a few times in the Tetons, canoed through South Jersey swamps, climbed around Rock Canyon in Utah, etc. The biggest draw with that stuff for me is the remoteness of it all. You're miles away from anyone else and disconnected from the physical and metaphorical ties that bind us to our modern concept of humanity. The Descent is a movie about that disconnect going wrong.
The Descent is one of the most suspenseful and absolutely terrifying experiences before the monsters are even introduced. Sara, having recently lost her husband and daughter in a car crash, is taken spelunking with some of her friends, all experienced-but-casual outdoorswomen. They dive into an unexplored cave system and quickly find themselves in way over their heads against an opponent as fearsome as mother nature. When events head from bad to worse, they discover the cave system isn't as unexplored as they assumed.
The limited lighting and sheer darkness of this film puts across this incredible sense of claustrophobia and the acting and direction are absolutely top notch. It relies fairly heavily on jump scares as the film progresses, so if that puts you off, you might want to avoid it, but they managed to terrify me. The plot is whisper-thin but the atmosphere is so strong it doesn't really matter. The Descent is a scary, violent romp right into the dangers that the dark hide.
EDIT: I'm told that there is another cut of the film that removes a lot of the nuance and character of the film and rewrites the ending to something insipid, so please, by all means, avoid the US Unrated cut of The Descent.
The Descent is one of the most suspenseful and absolutely terrifying experiences before the monsters are even introduced. Sara, having recently lost her husband and daughter in a car crash, is taken spelunking with some of her friends, all experienced-but-casual outdoorswomen. They dive into an unexplored cave system and quickly find themselves in way over their heads against an opponent as fearsome as mother nature. When events head from bad to worse, they discover the cave system isn't as unexplored as they assumed.
The limited lighting and sheer darkness of this film puts across this incredible sense of claustrophobia and the acting and direction are absolutely top notch. It relies fairly heavily on jump scares as the film progresses, so if that puts you off, you might want to avoid it, but they managed to terrify me. The plot is whisper-thin but the atmosphere is so strong it doesn't really matter. The Descent is a scary, violent romp right into the dangers that the dark hide.
EDIT: I'm told that there is another cut of the film that removes a lot of the nuance and character of the film and rewrites the ending to something insipid, so please, by all means, avoid the US Unrated cut of The Descent.
Monday, October 22, 2012
Halloween 2012 Day 4: Lo (2009)
Lo is a simple film.
That's not to say that Lo isn't engrossing, engaging, or ambitious. Lo is a very basic story (boy meets girl, girl gets dragged into hell, boy summons demon to save girl) shot in a very basic manner (a black set with a small stage) using a minimal cast and very basic make up and effects, but it conveys itself with such grandeur and largess you forget how constrained it really is.
While I'm generally not a fan of films that are intentionally funny or intentionally "quirky," Lo is an enjoyable, simple experience that hits a lot of good buttons. A pleasant surprise from a film I was expecting to hate.
That's not to say that Lo isn't engrossing, engaging, or ambitious. Lo is a very basic story (boy meets girl, girl gets dragged into hell, boy summons demon to save girl) shot in a very basic manner (a black set with a small stage) using a minimal cast and very basic make up and effects, but it conveys itself with such grandeur and largess you forget how constrained it really is.
While I'm generally not a fan of films that are intentionally funny or intentionally "quirky," Lo is an enjoyable, simple experience that hits a lot of good buttons. A pleasant surprise from a film I was expecting to hate.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Halloween 2012 Day 3: Grave Encounters (2011)
Things you should/probably already know about me: I'm a sucker for cinema verite, I'm a sucker for abandoned buildings specifically hospitals, I'm a sucker for women with multiple facial piercings. Things you might not know but will now learn: I watched Paranormal State religiously in high school. I watched it every Tuesday in a huge block with American Gladiators, Dog the Bounty Hunter, and Intervention. Grave Encounters is Paranormal State with a payoff.
The film starts with a cast almost exactly identical to Paranormal State, Chip Coffey included. It continues in predictable found-footage style as the crew investigates a closed down asylum, chanting incantations and using "science" while the cameras roll and listening to hip hop and making fun of ghosts while the cameras are off. Things start to quickly spiral out of control when the caretaker locks them in for an eight hour ghosting session. Time begins to pass inexplicably, hallways seem to lead in circles, and crew members begin to disappear. Soon the crew, lead by Ryan Buell stand-in Lance, realize that something supremely messed up is happening.
Cinema verite is used most of the time to hide budget issues, like in the Blair Witch Project. Its easy, and Lovecraftian, to look terrified and let the audience imagine what horrible things are on the other side of the lens. Grave Encounters is not that film. It attacks its set-pieces stronger than many bigger-budget fall horror films and it accomplishes its scares in fine order.
There aren't a ton of issues with this film. The plot is thin and a vehicle for parody and scares, but to expect more isn't really appropriate. The effects are generally well-done but some shots look fairly cheesy and clearly just "one guy wearing a big glove in front of a green screen."
In short, if you don't love cinema verite, haunted asylum films, and Paranormal State, you're probably not going to get a whole lot out of this film. Imagine REC and Session 9 with a PRS gimmick and you've got this film. It's not groundbreaking, its not earthshattering, but its definitely worth a watch.
The film starts with a cast almost exactly identical to Paranormal State, Chip Coffey included. It continues in predictable found-footage style as the crew investigates a closed down asylum, chanting incantations and using "science" while the cameras roll and listening to hip hop and making fun of ghosts while the cameras are off. Things start to quickly spiral out of control when the caretaker locks them in for an eight hour ghosting session. Time begins to pass inexplicably, hallways seem to lead in circles, and crew members begin to disappear. Soon the crew, lead by Ryan Buell stand-in Lance, realize that something supremely messed up is happening.
Cinema verite is used most of the time to hide budget issues, like in the Blair Witch Project. Its easy, and Lovecraftian, to look terrified and let the audience imagine what horrible things are on the other side of the lens. Grave Encounters is not that film. It attacks its set-pieces stronger than many bigger-budget fall horror films and it accomplishes its scares in fine order.
There aren't a ton of issues with this film. The plot is thin and a vehicle for parody and scares, but to expect more isn't really appropriate. The effects are generally well-done but some shots look fairly cheesy and clearly just "one guy wearing a big glove in front of a green screen."
In short, if you don't love cinema verite, haunted asylum films, and Paranormal State, you're probably not going to get a whole lot out of this film. Imagine REC and Session 9 with a PRS gimmick and you've got this film. It's not groundbreaking, its not earthshattering, but its definitely worth a watch.
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Halloween 2012 Day 2: Ghosts of Mars (2001)
Okay, lets get this out of the way first: I definitely appreciate "ideas" over "execution." If you're making me choose between a slap-dash, cheap movie that innovates or is interesting in some way, I'll pick it every time over some highly-polished, gleaming turd. I'm a Troma fan not a Chris Nolan fan.
Even so, the flaws in Ghosts of Mars are impossible to ignore, even though the setting is absolutely fascinating. It's only the 22nd century but Mars is now mostly terraformed and ruled by a homosexual matriarchy. The matriarchy answers to the Earth government though, which is presumably still a patriarchy. Why? How has it remained it place long enough for the idiom "The woman is keeping us down" to become common-place? John Carpenter's Mars is an interesting place.
The monsters are uninspired, the acting is atrocious, the soundtrack is puerile, and the editing makes zero sense. Imagine a scene where a character slowly shuts a door, except it consists of four shots all with Star Wars wipes between them. Of the character shutting the door. That is the Ghosts of Mars experience. Make no bones about it, this is not a good movie. The setting, however, makes it so that its a movie worth seeing and contemplating.
Even so, the flaws in Ghosts of Mars are impossible to ignore, even though the setting is absolutely fascinating. It's only the 22nd century but Mars is now mostly terraformed and ruled by a homosexual matriarchy. The matriarchy answers to the Earth government though, which is presumably still a patriarchy. Why? How has it remained it place long enough for the idiom "The woman is keeping us down" to become common-place? John Carpenter's Mars is an interesting place.
The monsters are uninspired, the acting is atrocious, the soundtrack is puerile, and the editing makes zero sense. Imagine a scene where a character slowly shuts a door, except it consists of four shots all with Star Wars wipes between them. Of the character shutting the door. That is the Ghosts of Mars experience. Make no bones about it, this is not a good movie. The setting, however, makes it so that its a movie worth seeing and contemplating.
Friday, October 19, 2012
Halloween 2012 Day 1: The Innkeepers (2011)
So, Ti West is a certifiable genius.
It takes a real certain mind to make a genuinely scary movie. West's House of the Devil proved he had the writing chops and love of genre to pull it off, and, coupled with his superb directorial ability helped no doubt by House of the Devil's gimmick, created a modern classic. The Innkeepers removes the ability to rely on nostalgia and gimmick while also adding in a certain humor, a recipe for disaster for your average director/writer/editor.
Mr. West is no average auteur.
With The Innkeepers, Ti West manages to make a genuinely funny movie with the characterization and the scares to back it up. The film very much feels like a modernization of mid-20th century genre filmmaking techniques. You don't see the villain in the first act and really you get little more than the vague impression that not everything is as it seems until the third, allowing the film to devote itself to developing the protagonist, Claire. Claire hits all the buttons for a good horror protagonist and Sara Paxton's portrayal of her does her credit.
The film is very, very cool and proves that Ti West can stand on his own merits without the coat of paint that is 80s pastiche. The Innkeepers is a veritable classic.
It takes a real certain mind to make a genuinely scary movie. West's House of the Devil proved he had the writing chops and love of genre to pull it off, and, coupled with his superb directorial ability helped no doubt by House of the Devil's gimmick, created a modern classic. The Innkeepers removes the ability to rely on nostalgia and gimmick while also adding in a certain humor, a recipe for disaster for your average director/writer/editor.
Mr. West is no average auteur.
With The Innkeepers, Ti West manages to make a genuinely funny movie with the characterization and the scares to back it up. The film very much feels like a modernization of mid-20th century genre filmmaking techniques. You don't see the villain in the first act and really you get little more than the vague impression that not everything is as it seems until the third, allowing the film to devote itself to developing the protagonist, Claire. Claire hits all the buttons for a good horror protagonist and Sara Paxton's portrayal of her does her credit.
The film is very, very cool and proves that Ti West can stand on his own merits without the coat of paint that is 80s pastiche. The Innkeepers is a veritable classic.
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