Archive for the ‘Horror’ Category

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

right-one-2

This week’s movie:
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN

F@#k  “Twilight“! ….and their offspring!

You know what I’m talking about.  That sappy, so-called vampire movie that all the tween and young teenage girls are going gaga over.  “Isn’t he just dreamy”, and “Isn’t it cool to be a vampire?”  “I wish I was a vampire – it’s soooooo romantic.” – piece of crap excuse to sell merchandising.

I blame “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer” and the whole Buffy/Angel on-again, off-again romantic subplot.  It spelled doom for the show and film makers should have taken notice.  I blame the “Underworld” series for glorifying vampires as an organized society of bad-ass erotic uber-mench – and who wouldn’t want to be part of that world, especially if Kate Beckinsale is a member.  I blame Lost Boys because, after all, wasn’t it pretty much the same plot?  I blame Interview With the Vampire and all the other Anne Rice Novels for making the vampire life look so cool (lest you think I’m wrong, Interview With the Vampire featured Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and Antonio Banderas).

Movie-wise, vampires really needed a fast kick in the fangs .  The last good creative and interesting vampire film was Francis Ford Coppola’s  Bram Stoker’s Dracula, with Gary Oldman.  It did a lot of interesting little things with subtle visual effects.  HBO’s True Blood isn’t a great vampire story, but it does pose some interesting concepts, plus it is slick and sexy and funny and what else can you ask for in a TV series?

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN may be perhaps the best vampire movie in a long long time.  Many of the RottenTomatoes film critics certainly think so, leading to a score of 98% on the tomatometer.  And they’re not the only ones.  Here are just a few samples from the many reviews:

“THIS IS A VAMPIRE MOVIE LIKE NO OTHER. MESMERIZING.” – Newsweek

“A SPECTACULARLY MOVING AND ELEGANT FILM THAT IS, AT THIS POINT, THE BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR.” – Washington Post

“ONE OF THE YEAR’S VERY BEST MOVIES. A FUNNY, HAUNTING DAZZLER.” – Vogue

“A SPECTRALLY BEAUTIFUL VAMPIRE FILM” – New York Times

“BEST. VAMPIRE MOVIE. EVER.” – Washington Examiner

“IT’S A WINNER! … SEE IT NOW BEFORE A HOLLYWOOD REMAKE RUINS IT.” – Rolling Stone

“…THE BEST OF THE YEAR AND ONE OF THE MOST ORIGINAL AND HAUNTING VAMPIRE FILMS EVER MADE.” – Gwinnett Daily Post

“QUITE EASILY THE MOST COMPELLING NEW ENTRY IN VAMPIRE MYTHOS IN AS LONG AS I CAN REMEMBER.” – Twitch.com

etc……  It seem to be on everybody’s “Best of …” list.  Then why is it that you’ve never heard of it???  The truth is, some of the best, most innovative, most entertaining, most intelligent movies ever made – ever will be made – you’ll never hear about.  Why?  How do you find out about movies?  You might see them advertised on TV.  You might go see a movie at the theater and see previews before the feature film.  You might even call the hot line at your local cineplex and find out what’s playing.  If this is how you do it, then you’ll never find out about the best films.  The local cineplexes are franchises that are owned by large corporations.  They select to be shown only movies that their marketing guys tell them will sell the most tickets.  They base this judgment on where the film was made (Hollywood studio vs Independent studio), big named actors, primary language (foreign language films – nobody wants to see those), and how much money has been spent on TV and magazine advertising – and has absolutely NO bearing on how good the film is.  That’s why movies like Daddy Day Camp (tomatometer score: 1% No, that’s not a typo – that’s ONE percent) made it to the theaters and this week’s film (tomatometer 98%) did not.

….and THAT’S why you need someone like ME to tell you what you’re missing!

The vampire in the film is a young girl named Eli.  She tells her friend Oskar that, like him, she is 12 years old – but unlike him, she has been 12 years old for a very long time.  Eli is probably the most enigmatic and tragic vampires in filmdom.  She is perpetually 12 years old, frozen in time, you might say, in that incredibly painful period of post-childhood, pre-adolescence.  She has been around for a long time and you might think that she would relate better to her adult caretaker, but she’s still basically a kid and so she feels more comfortable with Oskar.  She sees candy and knows she can’t eat it, but she can remember a time when she could.  She’s old but can never grow up.  As fascinating as she is, Eli is not the main character.  The story is told through the point of view of Oskar.  He is lonely.  His parents have split and he lives with his mother, who has little time for him.  His town is cold and bleak as the frozen landscape.  He is bullied by the kids at school.  He takes some of his rage out on inanimate objects and suppresses the rest – until he meets Eli.

I don’t want to give you the impression that this a revenge movie.  He doesn’t enlist his new vampire friend to get back at his tormentors, and he doesn’t sneak his father’s gun into school and start taking his rage out on animate objects.  Instead, he begins caring less about that because the focus of his life is now changed. The one good thing in his life now is his friendship with Eli (and vice versa).  The focus of the whole film, in fact, is the relationship between the two leads and less about killing and the drinking of blood.  Not that there isn’t killing and the drinking of blood – there is – it is a vampire movie, after all.  It’s just that those things are rather matter of fact.

In an ordinary vampire film, the two leads would have a steamy romance, but considering that they’re 12 years old, let’s be thankful that they don’t.  Instead, there is a tender friendship and the promise of possible romance in the years ahead (if they survive that long) – but we know  it can never be because Eli will always be 12 years old.  Besides, who has sex with a vampire?  Really!  They’re all cold and dead and stuff – eewwww!

In an ordinary vampire film, Van Helsing would corner the vampire with a crucifix and the townspeople would drive a stake through her heart, but let’s face it – if it were that easy to kill a vampire, Eli would never have survived the first hundred years or so.  In an ordinary vampire film, Eli would turn into a bat and fly off.  Now this brings up an interesting point.  If you turn ,say your typical 180 lb. vampire into say, a typical 1 lb. bat, what happens to the remaining 179 lbs of vampire that doesn’t fit into the bat?  Makes you think, don’t it?

As of this writing, there are devious plans in the making of an English language Hollywood version of this movie.  Don’t wait for it!  It’ll suck!  It always does!  See the original (It’s in Swedish with subtitles in various languages.  Additionally, there is an English language soundtrack that’s not too bad, if you don’t want to read subtitles) – this is the version that has won such critical acclaim and for good reason.  The remake will be quickly forgotten.

One thing to note.  When the DVD was first released in the US, the distribution company (Magnolia films) messed up the English subtitles (Why they didn’t just use the subtitles from the original DVD, I’ll never know).  These subtitles were “dumbed down” a great deal for American audiences.  long passages were reduced to a few words and some were left out altogether.  In the ensuing furor, Magnolia Films agreed to re-release the DVD with corrected subtitles – however, I have been unable to find any of the “good” ones.  When you go to rent, look for the words “Theatrical Version” after “English Subtitles” on the back of the box.  If not, I suggest selecting the English soundtrack.

Halloween is fast approaching, and in the tradition of the holiday, people like to watch scary movies.  So I’ve delved into my collection and came up with my own suggestions for Halloween viewing.  So put in your DVD orders, make the popcorn, put the lights down low and sit real close together because these have a high squirm factor.

  1. LET THE RIGHT ONE IN – it is, after all, this week’s featured film.
  2. The Changeling – This old fashioned ghost story is still one of the creepiest films ever made.
  3. Paranormal Activity – As of this writing, you’ll have to go to the theater to see this one – but this movie is scaring everybody.
  4. Drag Me To Hell – I resisted seeing this for a long time and wish I hadn’t.  This is a great scary/funny film from Sam Raimi.
  5. Audition - On a creepy scale from 1 to 10, this movie is a 15!  A must-see for Halloween.
  6. Shaun of the Dead – If you have to include a zombie movie, why not a good one (funny too).
  7. Little Otik – Holy crap!  This is creepy.
  8. May - A crazy girl + a creepy doll + knives = Freaky movie that you just know isn’t going to end well.
  9. Army of Darkness: Ash, from the Evil Dead movies, is transported to the 1300’s to fight the army of the dead. It is perhaps the most quoted of all horror movies.
  10. Three Extremes: A collection of three 40 min. stories from three different Asian horror masters. These guys know how to push the right buttons on the creepy meter.

I never understood how Halloween (all souls day) became associated with ghosts and zombies and vampires – but since it does, queue up this week’s movie LET THE RIGHT ONE IN
….and enjoy.

see the trailer.

Posted in Horror, drama, foreign film, independent | No Comments »

BUG

Wednesday, November 14th, 2007

bug2006-1.jpg

This week’s movie:

BUG (2006)

Film makers have some nerve these days.

If you’re going to make a film called “BUG”, you should at least have the decency to make it about a government lab near an isolated rural community. The refuse from a secret experiment infects some cockroaches (movie rule #154: always use cockroaches for maximum “bug” effect), making them both super intelligent and super aggressive (plus they reproduce quickly – so they’re also super ……what? horny). They get out and head for toward town. Here’s where you can take time to introduce the main characters and give a little back-story. Cliff is a stranger in town. He’s just passing through, really – but he has a secret he’s not telling. Trevor, the sheriff, years ago had a relationship with Sally, the woman who owns the diner. Sally’s been widowed for four years now but has a teenage daughter who is dating (sort of) the smart kid at school – even though the football jock keeps hitting on her. Then, of course, there’s Professor Evans who, by coincidence, is an entomologist (he studies bugs). He will eventually find a way to destroy the bugs, but will be horribly killed before he can tell anybody. There’s the mayor who will refuse to contact the authorities or admit that there’s anything wrong. Then there are the Gladwells (Molly and Dan) who run their farm out on RFD 122, but don’t get too attached to them – they’re the first ones to get killed.

When livestock starts to disappear, the sheriff starts to investigate (it’s a slow week). When the Gladwells don’t show up in town for a week, the sheriff and the stranger go out to pay a visit and find only skeletons – and not funny ones, like in The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, just dead ones. Now the town is up in arms. They want the sheriff to find out who killed Molly and Dan ………..and then ate them. Was it the stranger? It must be ………because he’s a stranger!
Soon the bugs are everywhere, killing (and eating) everybody. Just for a change, there’s this one guy that they don’t eat entirely. The bugs bore into the back of his head and eat his entire insides – so that there’s just skin and bones left – and full of thousands of bugs. The bugs move in such a way so that it looks like the man is walking. He “walks” into town and people say, “Hey! Isn’t that old Fred from the garage? Hey Fred! How’s it going?” But Fred can’t talk – the bugs can only make him say, “SSKKKKKRRRRRREEEEEEEEE!” And they’ll say, “Huh, what’s wrong with him?” “Must have a cold. I hear there’s a bug going around.” Oh course, the entire movie is just a premise to build up to this one-liner. Before the end of the movie, Trevor and Sally will hook up again for old time sake – “I’ve never stopped loving you….”, – and the stranger’s secret will be revealed – and everybody at the government lab will get gobbled up by bugs – and the smart kid from high school will figure out how to kill the queen bug, who by this time has grown to be four stories tall and living in the old abandoned mine.

OR

Make it about a scientist who mixes bug DNA with his own in order to cure his cancer. The cancer goes away ………….but ……..slowly – little by little – by imperceptible degrees ……..he turns into a giant cockroach. At first it’s just a nuisance – he eats holes in people’s cereal boxes and such, and scampers like hell when the lights come on – but the situation goes downhill pretty quick. As a side effect, it makes him super intelligent – but also, unfortunately, super aggressive – and, really unfortunately for his victims, super horny. The authorities come to kill him with torches and pitchforks and boric acid and some guns too (they’re not stupid). However, his fiancée pleads for his life and they let him live. However, he can no longer trust himself not to kill anymore so he commits suicide by rigging up a twenty-foot boot on a large piston. After a long dramatic soliloquy, he presses the button that sends the boot crashing down on him with a loud crrrrrrrunnnnchh! The end ……….or is it? Did anybody think about what happened to the cockroach that got a little of his human DNA?

These are the only two logically possible plots for a movie called “Bug”. However, neither of the two films that I know of, with that name resembles anything described above. One, we’ll call BUG (2002) – one of FranksFilms recommended movies – is a dramedy that starts with a small boy stepping on a bug and triggers a cause-and-effect series of events that have nothing to do with bugs (well, there may be a bit about bugs – but not much bugs). If you haven’t seen this movie yet – do it! Now!

Then there is this week’s movie, we’ll refer to it as BUG (2006), which may or may not feature a lot of bugs – I’m not giving anything away (you’ll have to watch it for yourselves) – nevertheless doesn’t resemble either plot, described above, in the least. It does start with a mysterious stranger, which we immediately can tell should be avoided, but for some reason, no one else does. He is troubled – a mysterious troubled stranger, the worst kind – with an equally mysterious past. What is this mysterious past? Will we find out before the end? By the end of the movie, you won’t even remember the question. The movie sets up a little tension right from the beginning. As the film progresses, the tension gathers little tension buddies until you have a tension crowd and then finally a tension mob. Mob behavior isn’t pretty. It kicks butt and takes no prisoners.

Ashley Judd is terrific as a lonely woman who is so grateful to make a connection and fall in love with a “nice” man that she is willing to follow him anywhere – even to crazyville. Things get interesting when his paranoid tendencies start to surface. For Ashley, it’s indeed an Oscar worthy performance, but don’t expect to see any nominations for her – it’s too risky a performance and the Academy doesn’t often reward such risks. I will say this – it is the role of a lifetime, although I’m sure many won’t agree with me. It even features Harry Connick Jr. as the ex-husband, and he doesn’t even sing!

This is what’s known as a polarizing film. I am not referring, by the way, to the 3D IMAX technology, what I mean is that everyone who sees this film either really loves the movie OR really really hates it – no middle ground. About half the people “get it” and the other half don’t. This applies to critics as well – the tomatometer scores around 50% (actually 58%). Interestingly enough, they either love it or hate for exactly the same reasons. The question is, will you love it or hate it. I couldn’t say, what side do you tend to fall in “love or hate” situations? Don’t know? Maybe you need some more info to help you decide.

1. Based on a very successful stage play of the same name. By successful, I mean in Chicago and New York – I’m not quite sure it played anywhere else. It has a stage play feel to it – that is, most of the action takes place in one room (sets are expensive for an off-Broadway production).

2. If you get squeamish at the sight of swarms of creepy bugs – don’t worry. It’s not that kind of movie. That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of other creepy things going on – there are – in spades!

3. People who hate this movie really hate Ashley Judd’s freaky intense over-the-top performance in the main character role as her descent into insanity quickens. People who love this movie really love it – like me.

4. It was directed by William Friedkin and many think this is his best movie since The Exorcist. Of course some people think that’s not saying much. Friedkin won the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes this year. I have absolutely NO idea what that is.

5. It’s different. Normally, it would be a swarm of super aggressive cockroaches that terrorize the main characters. Here, its aphids – too small to see.

6. There’s some nudity and some sex – not with the bugs – with actual people.

7. There is a kind of urgent panic-driven freaky logic that pervades the last third of the movie that, looking back, seems absurd but that made perfect sense at the time.

8. Obsession is dangerous. It’s not the bugs that provide the scares here, that provide the danger – it’s the paranoid obsessions of its main characters.

9. Quite independent of the rest of the film, you will either love or hate the ending. I hated it at first, but the more I thought about it, I realized that when you, for example, head down a road marked “Post Office this way”, don’t be surprised to find a post office down there.

10. It is a frantic and intense psychological thriller that races headlong toward its inevitable ending. Not gory at all, but smart and visceral and terrifying.

It doesn’t feature swarms of cockroaches wearing human skins as disguises, but BUG(2006) is a rarity in today’s horror film landscape – a truly scary intelligent movie ………..with a naked Ashley Judd.

Enjoy.

view trailer

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Posted in Horror, Uncategorized, thriller | 1 Comment »

THREE EXTREMES

Monday, March 27th, 2006


Disturbing Foreign Movie of the week:
THREE EXTREMES

I know my readers, and I’m telling you now, many (if not most) of you will not make it through this movie.

The movie is made up of three short stories (each about 40 min. long), each with a different writer, director and production crew. In fact, they come from three different countries (Hong Kong, Korea, and Japan), and therefore – three different languages.

There is a movement, in asian cinema, to redefine the horror movie genre. The idea being that, in order to scare you, they have to exploit the things that really creep you out – that you’ll be thinking of long after the movie is over. They know that teenagers being hacked up by mutants or zombies, or even ghosts – is NOT scary. It’s disgusting, but not scary. I mean, c’mon! People just laugh at that stuff. I bet that nobody really laughed at AUDITION , the benchmark of this new wave of horror flicks.

There aren’t any zombies here, just ordinary people. Stephen King, at his best, knows what scares people. Ordinary people, maybe even ourselves, are capable of much greater horror than any pissed off ghost. That’s why “Misery” was much creepier than, say, “It” (Good grief! A giant spider? Step on the damn thing and move on!).

The three stories in THREE EXTREMES are examples of this new movement. The first one is the one that I think most people will walk out of. It breaks a lot of taboos that I think most people aren’t ready to see broken. The second places a good man in a dire situation where he must choose between two evils. The third is f***’ing messed up (damn those Japanese).

The usual warnings apply here:

  • This is NOT a date flick!
  • Don’t watch it if you are easily offended
  • Don’t watch it if you get scared easily
  • Don’t watch it if you’ve just eaten chinese dumplings
  • Keep in mind that I listed this under “disturbing” movies, so don’t blame me if you can’t sleep for the next couple weeks.
  • This is NOT a date flick!

Enjoy —- if you dare…..

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Posted in Asian, Horror, foreign film, thriller | 1 Comment »