This is actually a little bit of history right here, one of the very first movies I rented through Netflix- more than 2 years ago. I didn't like it the first time. Well, a re-watch can do amazing things. It's practically a masterpiece and required viewing for horror fans- that's all there is to it. It seems like a jumbled mess of screaming (in hilarious, rather than frightening, closeups), stabbing (got to love the bricking here as well- our midget-sized killer really knows how to swing one of those things), bad acting (though more in the intentional, John Waters, vein), and religion religion religion, but it takes a couple viewings to see how brilliantly it all comes together. For some reason, knowing what is coming before it happens
REALLY makes the set-ups pop! Which before I took for granted because I didn't make any connections to the characters (emotional, comical, or sexual). Nor did I find much amusement in the mother's mission to create harmony between her bitchy daughter and even bitchier sister (what a harpie! This lady's a hag for the record books- move over, Shelley Winters!). If you love 70's horror like I do, a second chance with this one is the most fun you're likely to have all week. I'm telling you: it's a winner (just short of the Mr. Alphonse stuff, I can't say this enough - that shit ain't funny).
Bless you, Netflix! That's all I can say. MGM won't release this, Sugar Hill, or The Town That Dreaded Sundown on DVD, but thanks to Netflix: Watch Instant, we can actually finally see pretty good widescreen transfers of them. Anyway, this one's a relentlessly clever and entertaining good time- fully justifying the cult reputation it has. Don't watch unless you have previous experience with the likes of The Dead Next Door, There's Nothing Out There, or Psychos in Love. I've seen them all and only Nothing can fight Video Dead for the title of the-best non-Troma no-budget horror-comedy parody. Giggles were ripped from my torso throughout (what the hell is up with that maid? I lost it when she just walked in the room). References (half of these are debatable) Phantasm, Evil Dead, Children of the Corn, The Boogeyman, Videodrome, Nightmare on Elm Street, Day of the Dead, and in the movie's only annoying obnoxious moment- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; "I've seen that movie 6 times!!" So have I. Highly inventive, surprising, and intelligent final 20-something minute ending is worth the time of checking this out alone. See it. If you're a Netflix member, that is.
AIP in the 70's is a crapshoot. You have your serious - Stepford Wives, Last House on the Left, Deranged - and your silly - The Thing with Two Heads, Frogs, and Sugar Hill (Larry Cohen combined the two perfectly later on). Sugar Hill is just not my kind of silly. There's little to say; it's PG, no sex or gore, the killings are about half-inventive but the zombies look like bad props left over from a kid's whatever'th grade school play (The Fly: the musical), and the blaxploitation cut and pastings are laughable at best: lame chick-fight, even lamer racial epithets, and goofy closeups of phony kickings and in-our-face bloody knuckled threats. Zara Cully from the Jeffersons has the best line ("Oh, he's a greedy God"), the humans' costumes are okay, and the music score has some jump-worthy moments. Well-shot but not well structured.
Documentaries to me are time-wasters. I watch them, to hear people talking about things, for entertainment. To be inspired rather than informed. But mostly, I wanted to see this because of the Uwe Boll gossip- we get an interview with American Psycho's screenwriter, ultra cool Guinevere Turner (an obviously very talented writer and actress- a killer interview subject no pun intended), about how she was being considered by the people making Bloodrayne and how she kinda got screwed on the deal. Kinda. I was hoping the story would be more pissy but instead, she's very funny and jovial about the entire thing. She turned in one draft (and the documentary is about how screenwriters actually have to sometimes turn in as many as 50 to 100 different drafts- Boll took Turner's 1st draft), she expected them to dislike it, she decided that it was not a good draft anyway, and then she was called by someone working on the film to tell her that Uwe Boll and the actors all changed her work. She then went to a screening and recalls that she was the only one who laughed. I dug it, the people were all very smart and said very interesting things even if I'm not sure anyone could learn much from it.
Since the new millennium is the worst decade (soon, enough, to become the worst 2 decades) in horror history, it's no surprise that this one blew. I liked several of the ideas. But holy hell- the acting sucks. The characters are boring as hell. The dialogue sucks. The music score sucks. And since it's so influenced by Stephen King, you're better off just reading one of his books (this steals from: Children of the Corn, Sometimes They Come Back, Thinner, Christine, Shawshank Redemption, and Stand by Me to name just the ones I found). The CGI (that almost ruined Season 2's excellent Right to Die) is thankfully kept to a minimum, and visually- I liked the meltdowns and all the references to cold in the final scenes. But unless you have more patience than I do, just pass.
To slightly paraphrase Heathers, "Goddamn, will someone tell me why I watch this damn thing?" It's an insufferable disaster. Every time. I learned my lesson before. And yet, every couple of years, it ends up in my DVD player: without the commentary on. It can't just be Brian Patrick Clarke's (by the way, when did he become Ed Begley Jr.'s doppleganger?) tight shorts or his bulging thighs and biceps. All the other guys are wearing the same thing. It sure as hell isn't for the almost witty Brat Pack references (all the characters are named after actors from said 80's films: Ally, Molly, Rob, Demi, Judd, Anthony, Lea, etc). Including the not-so-subtle casting of Emilio Estevez's actual sister, Renee (who later got wise and did Heathers). Bruce Springsteen's sister, Pamela, is the killer (the film announces this, ala- Serial Mom, in the first 5 minutes). And as though the unbelievably bad acting and writing aren't enough, this sequel changes the Angela Baker character. She was the Carrie girl who was picked on and bullied. Now she's the bully. So the revenge plot is gone and all she is now is an uptight, puritanical [fill in blank here]. No more feeling sorry for her. About as campy as Police Academy. How this ever got to be a cult film is beyond me (though it actually belongs in company with the likes of Blood Diner - which of the two is worse, I'm not at liberty to say). Watch Serial Mom instead, you'll thank me!
Also re-watched Critters. I already talked about it here before. Nothing's changed.
Super Aurora wrote:Goliath wrote:
What did you think of the story? Were the actors believable? How did you like the climax?
Story? Who watch Porn for that?
Doesn't story dictate the action?
Oh, and - does it count as a movie? How long was the program? If it's over an hour, regardless of how much of it you watched, I say yes. Under? No. If it's under, call it a TV show.
