The world of exploitation film ripped open and laid raw for you to experience. From 70's grindhouse to current underground, it is all here. So ripe you can practically smell it.
WE'RE GOING TO EAT YOU (1980) D. TSUI HARK MEDIA BLASTERS 1.85 This early entry from Hong Kong wizard boy Tsui Hark is full of energy, kung fu and some splashy gore. But it uses those things to mask that there is very little plot, no scares and tons of goofy comedy in the mix as well. It is as hyperactive as you would expect from this director and equally incoherent. But there is some fun to be had amidst the chaos. Norman Chu (once again as we saw him as the lead in LEWD LIZARD. No, I did not intentionally have a Norman Chu double feature!) plays special Agent 999 who is on a small island looking for a criminal from his past named ROLEX (Melvin Wong). The island is overrun by mask wearing cannibals under order of the new chief of police. They are killing and eating people and giving a little of the left over meat to the mentally handicapped and poor villagers.
While this is a set up for a no holds barred gore fest, the movie instead chooses to be a slapstick comedy with lots of martial arts. The cannibals all fight with a series of people in long, drawn out, intricate Kung Fu sequences that play more like demo reels for another film job. There is also a strange use of real handicapped and deformed people for bit parts, under most circumstances I would be fine with this, but here they are often used a comedic relief such as the giant transvestite that keeps attempting to rape the various men in the story. It just comes off as poor taste.
From the directors and F/X
teams behind the 2008 hit TOKYO GORE POLICE comes this outrageous
gore, monster, comedy that, frankly, I don't even know how to begin
to review. Is it a good movie? No, not really, but it IS a
constantly inventive one. Watching VAMPIRE GIRL VS. FRANKENSTEIN GIRL
you are sure to see things you have NEVER seen before, and a few
things you probably never will want to see again. Every frame of this
movie is jammed packed with color, movement, texture and lots and
lots of spraying gore. If ever there was a movie that was practically
begging you to pay attention it is this one. It is NEVER boring,
every second pops something new for you to lock your eyeballs onto.
But Jesus, at some point it almost becomes sensory overload.
The
movie opens with a crazy, crazy scene of our lead Vampire Girl (Yukie
Kawamura) facing off with a trio of doll faced school girl
monsters. She dispatches them them gorily, stripping their skin off
in long spirals and popping their skulls out, stacking them on the
beach before her boyfriend Jyugon Mizushima (Takumi
Saitô) begins to narrate the tale ahead of how they met. Jyugon
is the only real available boy in school and he is cornered by Keiko
(Eri Otoguro) the
pushy hot girl in class and soon he is her boyfriend. But the new
transfer student Monami sets her eyes on him and gives him a
chocolate candy with her own blood in it. Before he knows it he is craving blood
and wanting to be with Monami the Vampire Girl. What none of them
know is that the hot school nurse and school assistant principal are
doing experiments in the basement. The two girls are out to fight
each other over their new boy toy until he becomes a vampire too and
Mizushima ends up with her head blasted open on the pavement. Soon
she has become the experiment of the school staff and the nurse is
murdering the best students of the school to collect the parts to
recreate her as the best fighting monster possible.
This
write up doesn't even begin to do justice to the complete insanity of
this thing. From the opening scene of over the top of comedic
slaughter to the scene in the classroom where we meet the students
which is the most racist thing I have seen in a movie
since THE ETERNAL JEW. There is a subplot about a group of girls who
have remade themselves a faux Black girls by wearing make up and fake
afros and big cup lips and giant spears and every other
horrible stereotype and racist thing you can think of. I guess I can
reason it out as to be a commentary about people trying to go to
extremes to be people who they are not. But my god it is
terribly extreme and offensive. I guess that is the point.
There
is also another subplot about ritual cutters, a group of teenage
girls who cut themselves to be part of a group. They end up in a
competition of who can cut themselves the most and best, complete with
a trophy. The girls are all anemic and eat cabbage to keep up their
strength.
But the meat of the movie is the battle between
the girls. It becomes a big F/X battle with body parts switching
places, blood becoming solid becoming actual weapons. It really is
the epic battle the directors set out to achieve, even if it is kind
of stupid. With severed arms becoming spinning rotors to make people
fly and things like that. Frankly this movie would probably work a
lot better if you were really really high. I rarely say that since I
am not a stoner, but in this case, well it fits.
I was a big
fan of TOKYO GORE POLICE because with all the insane imagery, way
over the top gore, and bizarre psycho sexual set pieces, there was a
strong political and social subtext tying it all together. With
VAMPIRE GIRL VS FRANKENSTEIN GIRL it is almost like they set out to
make some really weird teen movie and are only lightly touching on
any kind of social context at all. The stuff that makes that other
movie hang together is mostly missing here,and that is a shame.
I'm
not a fan of the new Japanese insane cinema like MACHINE GIRL or
ROBOGEISHA with cute girls with machine guns pupping out of their
assholes and thousands of gallons of blood. That shit is amusing for
about a minute but then the twelve year old in me starts asking for a
context for it and gets severely disappointed. TOKYO GORE POLICE had
the whole package. This movie almost has it, then goes back to the
candy colored insanity. It is never boring for sure, but it is pretty
empty unfortunately.
This overwhelming package of shot on video (except for THE BASEMENT which was shot on super 8!!!) horror and sleaze is a true horrific throw back to a simpler time when cult horror film was not such a pretentious enterprise. When people who picked up a video camera to make a horror film and released it to the market place really had their hearts in it. Not weened on their parents pocket books, film schools and You Tube to make them believe they are going to be the next big cult film sensation and have their cocks sucked by the mainstream. The films in this set are charming in their backyard exuberance and true love of the art-form itself.
The folks at CAMP MOTION PICTURES clearly remember the days of not only releasing this kind of product but watching it too, because why the hell else would you go to the trouble of releasing a five film DVD package that is co-featured inside a big box VHS of the main feature film? This is a nostalgia release for those who grew up haunting the mom and pop video stores renting trash like this. Not LIKE this, but this ACTUAL trash. I remember looking at the actual big box releases of VIDEO VIOLENCE and CANNIBAL CAMP OUT at my local much loved Video store VIDEO CASTLE back in the day. So if for nothing else this release brings back fond memories.
The main film in this set is the super 8mm epic anthology THE BASEMENT, a film that was apparently never finished back in the 80's due to processing errors that only now, with technology catching up, have allowed the movie to be put out in a watchable form. Directed by Timothy O'Rawe, the sick mind behind cult favorite GHOUL SCHOOL, this extremely low budget offering is like a group of friends sitting around a campfire spinning EC Comic style tales. None of them are terribly scary, but the sheer effort involved makes them all kinds of lovable anyway.
The stories are being told by a some creepy demon/death like figure in a basement to a group of friends as they leave a party. Apparently it is a foretelling them of their doom. The first story SWIMMING POOL is about a bitch middle age woman who discovers her swimming pool has a monster in it and how she can manipulate folks over to it for her own gains.
The next one is the closest to the classic EC style called TRICK OR TREAT about how Classic Monsters deal some revenge on a dude who is not giving them the respect they deserve on Halloween night. ZOMBIE MOVIE deals with a low budget movie being shot and the asshole director who is not noticing that the zombies are a little too real for comfort.
And finally the most invovled story in the movie and the one that apparently was the most damaged when shot. HOME SWEET HOME is about a guy who buys a house with haunted past and forgets to check into the murderous past involved.
For a super 8 film especially, the movie is all around pretty ambitious and each story gets progressively more involved and even more intense. The second story with the classic monsters is probably the most fun, but the last story is the most successful as for as being a true horror film goes. Over all it is pretty much right in line with the late 80's direct to tape horror boom and would have been right at home with that product had it made it out as intended the stores. Kudos to Baltimore film maker Chris LaMartina for his fine brand new score for the movie. A lot of time and effort, as well as money, has been spent putting THE BASEMENT back together and it shows.
Next up is CAPTIVES the "lost" film for Gary P. Cohen the director of VIDEO VIOLENCE and his most serious picture. This never got a proper release because it was not really a horror film, and certainly not funny or a parody. Not polished enough to be considered a "real" film, but not scrappy enough to be campy. What you have a finely made, well mounted, underground film that takes itself very seriously. A tightly wound thriller, that is unfortunately shot on video and because of that destined to never be taken seriously in the climate at which it was made.
The film is basically DESPERATE HOURS meets THE CANDYSNATCHERS in whcih a trio of criminals descend on the house of the female of the groups former husband in an attempt to not only rob him, but get revenge on him and his new family. Seems he has started over since she has been in prison all these years. Turns out HE burned their house down killing their son, but SHE took the wrap for him for the years in the pen and now she is out and wants some answers and respect. So she is here with her new psychotic boyfriend and mentally handicapped brother to make it all come together.
Surprisingly violent, even more surprisingly well written, with some really good performances, CAPTIVES is a movie that would have been much better served if Cohen had been able to get more money together and actually shot it on film. Or even went another route and made it as a stage play. As it stands the technical limitations hinder what is at its core a REALLY good movie.
Rounding out the package are the three Camp Motion Pictures that have been released on their own before VIDEO VIOLENCE 1& 2 and CANNIBAL CAMPIOUT which I have reviewed previously when they were originally released. So here is the text of those previous reviews:
CANNIBAL CAMPOUT
D. Jon McBride
This flagship release for the Camp Motion Pictures DVD label seeks to cash in on the nostalgia of the shot on video shoe-string backyard epics of the late 80’s…
(Sounds of crickets chirping as the readers look around in confusion and awe)
Yeah, it surprised me too. But actually a few of those S.O. V. flicks aren’t half bad. You could accuse them of not being half good as well, but what they lack in technical finesse they make up for in heart. And CANNIBAL CAMPOUT is definitely on such movie. Compared to other S.O.V. turds like HELLROLLER or EYEWITNESS MURDER, CANNIBAL CAMPOUT is a downright masterpiece!
CANNIBAL CAMPOUT tells the simple tale of a group of not terribly bright college friends who decide to go camping even though there are rumors of people disappearing in the woods. Naturally they are besieged by a trio of ax wielding maniacs distinguished by one being a talkative sex fiend, one wears a flight mask and motorcycle helmet and is called a retard by his brothers, and the other one, apparently the leader, wears the bib overalls of the family. Surprisingly the kids (led by director Mcbride) are not all that annoying, and badly delivered dialogue aside, are a likable enough bunch that you feel kinda bad when they get offed.
While the movie offers nothing new either in story or style, it does what it sets out to do with an earnest nature and plenty of the red stuff. While the gore is not exactly Savini level, it is plentiful and pretty savage at times including one spot where it is downright offensive (A compliment if there ever was one for this type of film!) The villains are a rough bunch with some vicious dialogue that I swear I’ve heard ripped off in some recent big budget movies including the line “Shut up or I’ll staple yur titties to the roof of the car!”
For being shot with a consumer camcorder in 1988 the flick is surprisingly well shot, with nice coverage of scenes and really nice composition. The editing is also really well done (remember this was before every kid had a computer with editing software). Though the dialogue scenes could be tightened up a bit in places.
Overall, CANNIBAL CAMPOUT wins you over with its youthful charm and grossout factor. The script is lacking, but everyone’s heart is clearly into what they are doing and that goes a really long way. In fact it is refreshing to see a shot on video movie where everyone cared about it enough to spend a YEAR’S worth of weekends shooting it instead of the 48 hours most youthful “filmmakers” of today throw at their productions.
Not exactly groundbreaking but if it is a rainy Saturday afternoon and you need a cheesy gore fix, this should do the trick just fine. DVD includes deleted scenes (trims really) a 40 minute making of / where are they now style documentary, photos and trailers for upcoming CAMP releases including the much loved (by me anyway) VIDEO VIOLENCE series!
VIDEO VIOLENCE 1 &2
D.Gary P. Cohen
This duo of shot on video epics from the 80’s definitely stand well above the norm in their field. In fact it is safe to say that the first one is a minor classic in the arena of S.O.V. productions. Savily written, well-directed and even decently acted, VIDEO VIOLENCE was truly a surprise when it was released.
I must be going soft in the head! This is a shot on video regional quickie that I found myself enjoying quit a lot.
The plot concerns a video store owner who gets dropped a snuff film instead of one of his rental tapes. As he investigates he finds a general reluctance from the town to help and people start dropping like flies, and always in front of a video camera. A definite conspiracy begins to unfold.
The real surprise here is that the twists don’t seem telegraphed, and the lead characters aren’t as stupid as the average horror flick. The snuff angle was very fresh at the time, with only Roberta Findley’s cheesy grindhouse epic SNUFF and Roger Watkins classic LAST HOUSE ON DEAD ST being the only other films to exploit that angle.
The whole production is reasonably well put together, with good editing and sound, which is always a problem with S.O.V. productions. The gore score is reasonably high too. The attack in the deli should delight gorehounds all over with the well-done splatter.
Part 2 is unfortunately a step down in quality in more ways than one. This time the movie centers on the villains from the first movie who now have their own Snuff oriented underground TV show. On the show they torture and kill women in various splatterful ways. As unpleasant as that sounds, the movie plays out in a very tongue and cheek manner, much more so than the serious first movie. Very little here is taken seriously at all, which makes the almost misogynistic tone easier to take.
This episode was also shot on lower end S-VHS equipment so the picture and sound quality are a big step down as well, making this one less appealing to watch on that lever too (which makes it a perfect addition as an extra feature on this DVD!).
Overall this package of THE BASEMENT and the co-features is probably one of the best
bangs for your buck going right now. Five movies, all pretty good as long as you understand what you
are getting,and lets be real if you are buying this package you TOTALLY understand what you are getting. Plus that extra VHS collector's tape of THE BASEMENT and the beautiful big box packaging too. Plus there are a fistful of short films as extras on the first disc that are all really pretty good too including one called DON'T DO DRUGS that throws around the red stuff in a very liberal way. Your really can't go wrong. The whole thing is a VHS festishists wet dream come to life and a must have item for the nostaligic gorehound.
Underground Auteur Eric Stanze and the Wicked Pixel crew are back after
the success of their last film, the very spooky and ambitious DEADWOOD
PARK. This time Stanze is back into the grittier blood soaked territory a
lot of his fans may feel he is comfortable in. But don't let
appearances fool you, RATLINE is in a lot of ways his slickest, and most
challenging work. Stanze is still bending genre conventions at will,
here he does it in a roller-coaster fashion, never letting the audience
get a good foothold long enough to know what hit them. There is enough
story, gore and character in RATLINE for several movies and Stanze keeps
all the balls in the air surprisingly well.
The film begins
with two sisters played by Wicked Pixel regular Emily Haack and Alex Del
Monacco in a jam. They are ripping off some thug at a car repair garage
for a large sum of money and have killed him. After cleaning up they
are on the run. They head to a small town in Illinois to hide out where
an innocent young woman named Penny Webb (Sarah Swafford)
has offered them a boarding room. She is working for her Grandfather in
the city offices helping him relocate the city graveyard since urban
sprawl is setting in and many of the ancient graves belong to be people
long since moved away.
Elsewhere in the city there are what
appears to be a series of occult oriented crimes being committed, people
turning up missing, pets disappearing, and sexual assaults all related
to what appears to be Satanism. We find this out from a series of
newspaper clipping on the walls of the Self styled satanists themselves,
a rag tag group of teenagers including another Wicked Pixel Regular
performer Jessie Seitz as the girl who video tapes their crimes.
***do not read the next two paragraphs if you do not want spoilers to the plot of RATLINE***
The Satanists are killing neighborhood dogs and bathing in the blood in
moonlight sex rituals to try to bring about their lord and master, but
the action is just not good enough. So they set a plan in motion to grab
a person for slaughter. They set a trap to grab a passing motorist and
almost get the two sisters from the beginning but their streets smarts
prevent it. They do however convince a good Samaritan played by Wicked
Pixel regular and producer Jason Christ to stop and help. They quickly
kidnap him and take him to an abandoned warehouse for slaughter. But
things don't go as planned. When he in fact VICIOUSLY turns the tables
and kills every single last one of them in a stand out scene that will
have gorehounds on their feet.
Seems that the Satanists were
just a plot red herring, and that Jason Christ as Frank Logan is the
real villain of the film. As the plot unfolds we discover he is in fact a
supernatural killing machine from World War 2, created from Nazi Occult
experiments, and he has returned to find the other scientists involved.
Seems they have the ritualistic Nazi "Blood Flag" used to create him
and with it he can secure his continuing immortality. Penny's
Grandfather was involved in those experiments and has the flag. So Frank
will stop at nothing to get it. But there may be other connections to
the sisters as well.
What Eric Stanze has done with RATLINE is
take a complex story and weld it to a Saturday afternoon exploitation
style framwork and make both styles work with ease. The film spends the
first third being basically a grindhouse horror movie filled with
splatter and naked people, basically speaking loud and proud to the
horror kids making sure they get their fix. Then the REAL villain of the
piece arrives and knocks everyone's dick in the dirt. That's when the
plot is allowed to get moving and to everyone's credit the movie does
not slow down, it only get's more interesting thanks to a dynamic story
and good acting all around.
Stanze's films always have a lot
of complexity to them, and he usually delivers a lot of information in
one fell swoop. Case in point how ICE FROM THE SUN stops for the main
character to hear all about how the rules of the game to work, or the
lengthy flash back in DEADWOOD PARK (that is a incredible and dynamic
sequence). In RATLINE he finds an almost brilliant way to get a lot of information into the open in one fell swoop by having a character watch a
declassified government film on the Nazi Experiments. The film is one
the filmmakers obviously produced themselves but the replication of the
era is astonishing and it is a fascinating artifact. Once that scene is
over we know exactly what is transpiring.
Though RATLINE is
not all blood and fire. One of the best elements of the movie is that
there is a lot about relationships. There is an eroding relationship
between the sisters because of the crime they have committed. Emily
Haack's character has an emotional issue's dealing with her estranged
Father. Penny has a nice relationship with her protective but
conservative Grandfather and best of all there is a rather touching and
very well handled love story that develops between Emily Haack's
character and Sarah Swafford's. Seems that Swafford's Penny is a Lesbian
but hiding because of the conservative community she lives in and Haack
is a bit older and been through a lot more hard times and they fall for
each other. In the middle of this rough and tumble horror film there is
this amazingly toughing, very soft-hearted love story subplot that
really works. So much that I kind of wish it had gotten more screen time
as both actresses are really good together.
In some
ways this is one of Eric Stanze's best films. It is lean, and free of
fat. While I love all of his work, a lot of horror fans have trouble
connecting to his more esoteric work. This one is much more trimmed
down, and accessible to mainstream fans. While still keeping the things
that make his work great. There are no compromises here, but the story
telling is great, the film-making technique is top of the line and the
actors are all on board.
RATLINE is available on
Amazon.com as a streaming or direct download rental or purchase and as a DVD directly from
Wicked Pixel themselves. The newly released DVD has two commentary tracks one with just Eric Stanze, the other with the lead actors and Eric, an hour long behind the scenes documentary and of course the WPC trailer reel. So if you are a fan of Eric Stanze's other work
or just really solid Indie horror films, you should do yourself a favor
and just check this out. It is yet another winner from the WPC cannon.
ALIEN FROM THE DEEP (1989) D.Antonio Margheriti (Anthony Dawson) One 7 Movies Full Frame 1:33 92 Minutes
This Italian genre mish-mash is basically advertised in the artwork as an ALIENS rip off, but it is actually just barely that, yet in reality is so, so much more. A Johnny come late in the Alien falls to Earth sub-genre by 1989, with by that year what would be primitive special effects, this movie has a whole lot to love. It it had been made even ten years earlier I could imagine it playing drive-in double bills, or urban theater afternoon matinees for quite some time. This is the exact kind of movie I used to sit glued to cable TV mid-day and watch while playing with my toys as a kid. Movies like SPACE RAIDERS, YOR THE HUNTER FROM THE FUTURE (also directed by Margheriti) or Luigi Cozzi’s really shitty, but terribly entertaining HERCULES movies. If I had seen ALIEN FROM THE DEEP at ten years old it would have been on of my favorite movies of that year. But by 1989 I was about to enter college. I was well aware of so bad their good movies and would have loved it for different reasons.
"Maam I resent you saying I dress like Wil Wheaton. You need to put some clothes on before I throw you off my boat!"
Pretty Marina Giulia Cavalli stars as Jane a Greenpeace investigator heading to a remote island in tow with her lovelorn and trusty cameraman Lee (Robert Marius) (who only shoots with a VHS camera!) to look for the shady doings of corporate criminals E-Chem headed by baddy Charles Napier. Turns out these dunderheads have been dumping all their toxic waste into the local, very active volcano! Along the way they meet some local witch doctors and have some various jungle adventures. In fact the whole first half of the movie is an action/adventure movie about this couple trying to get the goods on E-Chem and evading capture. I kept checking the dvd box and wondering if I had been misled about this whole Alien/monster business.
"Goddammit! I used to work for Russ Meyer! I was around titties til Tuesday! How'd I end up on this helicopter with you?!"
Not that it isn’t entertaining and well handled. It all has a sort of ROMANCING THE STONE vibe going on as Jane meets Bob (Daniel Bosch) the local snake wrangle (wink wink!) who helps her out of a jam and into his heart. He gets a glimpse of her in his shirt after a shower and he is sucked into her whole scheme. Even the fact he keeps a pet cobra that roams free in his pad, doesn’t deter her from his wiley ways either. They play house while her friend Lee is being tortured for information by those evil E-Chem bastards!
"He's the "snakecharmer" hardy har har..."
Then finally about the 50 minute mark a meteor falls into the lake by the volcano and a monster crawls out into the water. The E-Chem scientist a kindly old man named Dr. Geoffries (Alan Collins) explains it came from space attracted to the power of the toxic waste and is using it to gain power and grow! See the movie threw you a curve ball! You thought some monster was going to be born out of the volcano or some prehistoric dinosaur or something! Nope! it came from space to stomp their asses! From here it gets right down to it, biting the head off a diver and burrowing into the ground heading towards the factory.
Jane and Bob are heading back to the factory because Lee hid a VHS tape of the toxic dumping there as well, so all is on a collision course for CRAZY! The creature is stopping along the way to pinch people in half with the giant claw or melt their face off with his radioactive touch, or slimy residue. All we see of the big guy for the most part is that big ass lobster claw bursting out of the ground or through walls until the big finale when he stands upright. He looks like a two story bio-mechanical car engine with lobster claws mixed with a transformer toy. Which is to say he looks FUCKING AWESOME.
"Beat this shit Michael Bay!!!"
A couple of other highlights include a character having his leg melted by radioactive goo while he still walks around, Dr. Geoffries running around with a huge retrofitted flame thrower, and best of all Jane having to be “decontaminated” from the monster goo, which means she ends up in a wet T-shirt and underwear for the entire climax of the movie. That’s some good thinking Right there. The effects are of the old school blowing up miniatures variety. Which adds a real charm to the proceedings as well.
For all the shooting and monster chomping and some splatter action, the movie is surprisingly non-offensive. The gore is not really lingered on, and there is no sex or nudity (wet T-shirt not withstanding). Only the occasional F-bombs really land this with the R-rating. Hell if I had kids I’d probably let them watch it. Like I said, if I saw this when I was ten years old I’d have loved this.
"Apparently the monster farts glass."
The DVD is sparse on extras, only a “image gallery” that is images from the actual film, and a grainy ass many generation away copy of the Italian credits sequence. I would have loved some interviews or even just a trailer. This is a full frame presentation but it seems like it may have been shot that way as it never feels like the frame is tight or missing information.
Overall quite and enjoyable pulp sci-fi flick that I feel no shame in recommending to fellow aficionados of this sort of thing.
This highly stylized, pop art short film was written by Spanish underground comic bad boy Miguel Angel Martin. An ultra-black comedy, it takes the worst bad taste idea, snuff films, and tries to find the lighter side of them. Or at least take the piss out of the the nasty urban legend surrounding them by pointing out that the of uber-nerd splatter gore geek that would actually seek one out would be too busy talking about how cool it was to even watch the damn thing.
The movie starts in a garish, day-glow colored room with a nearly nude pregnant woman bound in front of two digital video camera linked to a computer (which has, for some reason, a CGI bug crawling across the keyboard). The men, one in a white button up shirt, the other in a skin tight rubber S+M outfit, and both wearing gas masks that are hot purple, are making a film that clearly is going to climax in her death. The offhandedly discuss the scene at hand. The man in the button up shirt tells the other one:
"First you cut open her big belly and tear the fetus out. Then you fuck her."
To which he replies:
"I'll killer her and tear out the fetus. But I'm not going to fuck her. I wont fuck a pregnant woman. It turns me off."
The other guy reminds him that they have made movies where he has fucked all kinds of animals, kids, and even dead people, but he won't fuck a pregnant woman? But his friend stands firm saying that pregnant women just turn him off, that he can't get hard for them. The conversation goes on to making a film about fucking mothers just like "big" Ed Kemper did while the woman shivers in terror behind them, waiting to die on camera. Finally, the first guy steps up with a pair of hedge clippers like used in the movie THE BURNING and we hear him tearing into her.
We cut to a living room that's equally as pop art designed as the snuff chamber, with purple and bright hot pinks coloring everything. Two twenty-something men are sitting on a pink couch watching a snuff movie with the two previous men in it beating a different woman. One of the guys proclaims it "boring" because it has no flair or grace. His friend reminds him that it's like that because it's a snuff movie and therefore real. But the guy doesn't care, it's missing that cinematic quality that gets him moving. His friend then explains that the movie's an exact re-enactment of the murders of one Gerald Schaefer, a Florida Serial killer who was also a writer, and that the cops used his fictional writings to help convict him. The friends have a good laugh and the more obnoxious of the two asks for the video with the "pregnant women" because that one was "really good".
Outside of the insane pop art sensibility, which is clearly imitating Miguel Angel Martin's very specific artwork and style, this is about as dark of a satire as you can get: looking at perverse subject matter and murder with a jaundiced eye and judging it as pure banality. Murder and snuff are just work, and in turn, just background noise on TV that's ultimately just not interesting enough to even get up off of the couch and change the tape for.
The movie is followed up by a second short that's written, directed, and starring the same team about 12 rules to not getting caught if you are a serial killer. Several of these are easily recognized from HENRY PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER, when Henry is explaining to Otis how not to get caught, but the actual list dates from around that same period of time as several fanzines in the 1980's that were riding that whole Aesthetic terrorism wave. I remember seeing it in at least three zines myself, including SEWER CUNT (only had one issue, but that one issue had enough offensive and rude content to make it all worthwhile), MURDER CAN BE FUN, and FATAL VISION (I'm going by memory on those last two, but I'm almost positive). It also appeared on the San Francisco Public Access show GUTTERVISION (which if ANYONE has tapes of DVD's of get a a hold of me, we have trading to do!). This short is well made enough, but as you can see the content is not exactly groundbreaking, or even shocking, by 2002 when this was made.
I was still in Strongsville, Ohio at the ACM conference on Friday Night, so I watched this low budget gem from Texas. In between news reports on Balloon Boy and his exploits. Turns out his dad was doing it to warn us about the reptilians from the middle Earth! Rock on Balloon family!
SUBURBAN NIGHTMARE (2004) D. John Keeyes Shock -O-Rama/ Pop Cinema HD 16X9
John Keeyes made a nice splash in the horror community with his first feature film AMERICAN NIGHTMARE that starred indie queen DEBBIE ROCHON. They were supposed to work together again from a story she created on this film, but due to an on-set accident she suffered on a different film that seriously injured her hand, she had to step away from acting for a short while, rendering her unable to do this film as well. No doubt this was a great disappointment, considering they had worked so well together previously and she had conceived the project herself. What ends up counting in that situation is the final product, and SUBURBAN NIGHTMARE is actually a winner.
The story deals with a couple whose marriage is completely falling falling apart. Charles (Trent Haaga who wrote the recent indie hit DEADGIRL and has acted in tons of indie horror projects) and Deborah (Brandy Little, who replaced Debbie Rochon) have been together for a number of years - since they were teens in fact - but things are coming apart at the seams. She has severe anger issues and is a recovering alcoholic, but only after a car crash that almost killed their seven year old daughter. He's a condescending ass who has a habit of being passive-aggressive, belittling and cold. She is bi-sexual and clearly leaning more towards being an outright lesbian. He has a wondering eye towards the ladies (though, to be fair, is not a cheater). The only thing they still seem to share in common, and the big thing that bonded them in the first place, is that they are sadistic serial killers.
Don't piss off Deborah, she is a woman that has serious anger issues.
We meet them at this juncture of their lives at the crossroads, heading down the path to destruction. The movie starts with the penultimate argument that couples have where things are clearly not going to get any better. That simple, quiet argument that seems like it's about nothing, but is about everything. In this situation, the argument is about how she went to the store to get groceries. took too long to get back, and forgot the whole reason she went was because they were having guests over for dinner. Of course, these guests were going to end up dead before the night is through, but that's beside the point, the argument is just a catalyst. Then while Deborah is checking on their daughter who is sick and sleeping, Charles kills the couple without her, setting off her anger and jealously. It all just builds from there.
Did I mention the Cassavette's influence? Yeah? that whole 70's indie vibe thing?
Basically the first half of the movie is a Cassavette's style relationship drama that happens to be about killers. There's no gore in the first half of the movie.since the killings are off screen as the movie is focused on the dynamic between the characters. It really doesn't have to be about them being killers at all. The only real element in the first half about that is that Deborah is keeping a hostage in the basement that she abuses when her rage builds up. This woman is her bottom in a twisted side relationship. There is mention of another hostage, but we are told that Charles cooked her and they all ate her during dinner.
What the movie really becomes about is how relationships turn sour. How people can become bored, distracted and envious of each other to the point that it can destroy them and their once very strong bonds they had. We see these two in flashbacks and see how they are very much in love and care about each other, but as the movie goes along we see how details are moved into the light that affect their future. A scene on her birthday, for instance, where they discuss the day and her presents. She goes on about how wonderful everything was, how the presents were great and meant a lot, but how Charles didn't give her the one thing she asked for, the one piece of jewelry that would have said he loved her specifically. And how it wasn't the jewelry that mattered but the fact that he clearly wasn't listening to her. She says she's a selfish bitch for even saying it means so much for her. He allows her to get upset and angry, then opens a drawer and pulls out a small box with a locket in it, engraved to her, asking if this necklace she was talking about? She begins to cry and say she was indeed being a selfish bitch, and he comforts her and says she wasn't, and they embrace and say they love each other. It's a complex scene that shows her emotional fragility, a healthy dose of self-loathing and insecurity, and that she is indeed a little bit selfish. But, on the other hand, it shows that Charles is more than a bit manipulative, a little sadistic and very controlling. On the surface it's a sweet and romantic scene, but it carries the seeds of the damage that are to come for them. Later we see a flashback when she asks Charles if they can bring a woman into their bed because she is curious about having sex with women. She uses the old male ego bugaboo to lure him into agreeing to it, but then quickly makes several rules to the situation that make the whole thing advantageous to pretty much only her. She makes him promise that he will not fuck the other woman, and to promise that he will not find the other woman more attractive than her. When she rolls back over in bed the look on her face is one of worry and insecurity again, betraying that there is a lot more on her mind that simply sex. But Charles actually doesn't jump right away at the idea of a threesome, he actually seems to be a little taken aback by it and only agrees when reassured it's what she wants to do, an interesting turnabout to the standard expectation of what a man would do in that situation.
When your girlfriend mentions a threesome, make sure this is not what she has in mind.
So the first half is pretty much all about character/relationship dynamic. There are the occasional horror situation in there, but for the most part this is what it is, and it works really well. But as the situation progresses it becomes more of a WAR OF THE ROSESstyle game of oneupmanship with serious horror overtones as the relationship disintegrates and they begin to actually try to at first physically hurt one another, and then to try to kill each other. This for me is when the movie jumps the rails a bit, since the strength of the movie had been in the really well developed script and characters up until that point. But once it starts becoming more of a conventional horror movie, it inevitably becomes about plot mechanics to get things moving. A smart movie moves down a few notches to try to deliver the expected genre goods, if you will. As they begin to battle each other situations are set up, just to make situations later possible or make sense. For example, in Deborah's rush to kill Charles the first time, she tapes kitchen knives under the table, even though she is attempting to poison him. When comes home he manages to get her tied up on the table, but leaves enough slack in the ropes that she can reach the knives. The whole thing becomes about convenience - the knives are there so she can get them, not for any other reason. Her ropes are loose, so she can get to the knives, not because his character would do that crappy of a job tying her, because we pretty much have established he is not that sloppy about his work. These kind of details become difficult to overlook.
There are also a few too many unnecessary red herrings in the mix too.(SPOILER AHEAD) At one point the daughter tells Deborah that Charles has been touching her and he hurt her while doing it, thus setting Deborah into a rage that gets her moving enough to confront him, thus propelling the movie into the last part of the second act. But then just as they get into the action, this detail is forgotten as they discuss his perhaps cheating on her and the whole child molesting thing is forgotten until much later, when it's revealed to have never happened. This whole scenario is designed to momentarily make you hate Charles, but is so promptly forgotten that is doesn't matte and ultimately there is not purpose for it at all. The movie would have been better served to have either not had it in there , or to went full ahead and had him done it and dealt with the fall out. In the final act there is a reveal about the daughter that brings some things full circle, though it is not a clearly handled as it should be (though to be fair it is pretty obvious from early on). Then it gets back into the business of them trying to kill each other before a really very moving and depressing climax.
Who is telling the truth? Daddy or his little angel?
What hangs the movie together is the impressive and strong performances of the two leads. This is the kind of chamber piece movie that could work just as well as a play or stage performance. The whole thing is up to the leads to carry off, and if they aren't up to the job than it's sunk. Ive liked Trent Haaga since he debuted in Troma's TERROR FIRMER but he has pretty much done only comedy roles. It's really good to see him bite off something more meaty and serious here and really rock it. His screen writing shows someone very thoughtful, so it's great to see him deliver a performance in that same realm. Brandy Little stepped into a hard situation by replacing Debbie Rochon, who is much adored by her fans and critics alike. So Little was kind of in a position to fail in a lot of ways. Instead she ends up doing the opposite by taking the bull by the horns and turning in an incredible performance that's pretty amazing. Outside of a couple of places where it becomes clear that director Keeyes obviously let her ad lib too much (she relentlessly says the word "fuck" when at a loss for something else to say. A common ad lib mistake that I've allowed to happen on my own sets), she is otherwise a powerhouse. Looking at her IMDB page, I am disappointed to see she hasn't done anything in two years. She is phenomenal. Her and Haaga work really well together, too. Their scene where he has a gun on her, where she has hit the breaking point saying she doesn't love him anymore and he's telling her he'll kill her if she leaves, is amazing. There are huge budgeted movies that win awards that are no where nearly as well acted as this scene.
Ultimately as a critic it isn't fair to criticize a movie on what's not on screen as opposed to what is. But while watching SUBURBAN NIGHTMARE, I couldn't help but to think to myself that in a lot of ways this would have been just as good, if not even better, not being a horror film at all. Just to have let it play out as a twisted domestic drama ala something like John McNaughten's NORMAL LIFE or some Fassbindermovie, where we see them disintegrate until the inevitable end. It could have included the more twisted elements, including the threesome stuff and even the unwilling sex slaves, and just stayed away from the serial killing angle. Then I think been a better film, because it would have not gotten side tracked in genre plot mechanics. But even as it stands, the film is an impressive piece of work, with some super well done direction, great writing, and two lead knock out performances to be reckoned with.
I am not crazy about this trailer as it sells it as more of a sexy black comedy, which it really isn't. There are touches of both, but the movie is darker and weirder than this makes it look.
THE COLLECTOR (2009) D. Marcus Dunstan Fortress Pictures 2.35 This amazingly brutal slasher picture is in a lot of ways a throwback to the horror films of the early 80s in that it is played absolutely straight. No funny business, no one liners, no bullshitting around with the audience to make them feel comfortable and safe. No hedging of the bets so there will be T-shirts and lunch boxes and other crap that the Hot Topic crowd will talk about as they paint their fingernails black while waiting for the next TWILIGHT book and discussing who will play Pinhead in the remake of HELLRAISER. Nope. THE COLLECTOR is the real deal. Is it perfect? Not by a long shot. But it is pretty damn good, and very serious, and these days that counts for a whole lot in my book.
The film is about a young locksmith/thief, played by Josh Stewart, who has cased a country home owned by a rich family. The family are basically decent people, with two daughters, one a young girl, the other a 17 year old sexpot. He has agreed to rob them because his own girlfriend is in hock to a local loan shark, putting his preteen daughter directly in danger and forcing him to come up with the money by midnight to get them out of trouble. When he breaks into the home that night the family is supposed to be out of town, yet he finds that he is not alone in the house: someone else has broken in right before him and wired the entire home with intricate booby traps that do things like cut off fingers if you open windows, or impale you if you go out doors. He then discovers the parents are alive in the basement and have been tortured with the intention of being "kept". The youngest daughter is alive somewhere in the house hiding, and the other daughter is out on a date with her boyfriend. Both are in danger of this rampaging murderous psychopath still in the house.
You have to suspend your disbelief to get into the movie right away with the idea that someone could set up all of these traps in one day, plus we never really know too much of why he would do it, as the movie is not exactly heavy on plot details. But this isn't really a plot piece, it's an adrenaline movie that pumps you up and keeps you scared. With that it works. The killer is creepy as hell with his black S+M mask that looks like the black leather version of Decker fromNIGHTBREED. But unlike many other killers in horror films, he is fast and vicious. Once he zeroes in on someone, he attacks - no slow stalking, no Michael Myer's walking while they run. He jumps in and BOOM: he's on them, slashing, stabbing and tying them up with barbed wire. Juan Fernandez plays the killer and it's an incredibly physical performance. Readers may remember him from several Charles Bronson programers, such as the ultra scummyKINJITEwhere he played a flesh peddler who was the first guy in a train run on a 13 year old girl in one of the most repellent scenes I have ever seen in a movie. He also showed up in severalFerrera films over the years, as well. Now he gets to add another nasty villain to his repertoire.
I'm sure many people will have complaints about the level of violence and torture in the film, especially considering that the writers and director have done the last several SAW films. But I felt that the material here was pretty justified and intense. Never did I feel like I was invited to enjoy the suffering the people on screen were going through (as has sometimes been leveled at the SAW or especially HOSTEL). I felt for these people and their plight, making it all the worse to bear out. Which is the point. I was genuinely afraid and disturbed for the characters on screen.
This is the strength of the movie. The characters, though not given a lot of characterization, are at least recognizable and likable. Especially the lead. It was refreshing to have a hero who was flawed, but still trying to do the right thing. Several times in the movie he makes some cowardly and bad decisions, so he's far from perfect and I liked that. It made me feel for him a lot more than I would some stupid teenager who only wants to get laid or high.
Technically the movie is outstanding with incredible editing, and really sweet cinematography. It does get a little too dark once things get trapped in the house, but overall it is a visually striking film, with really great use of color and moving camera. The soundtrack is terrific too, with intricate and unsettling sound design and tremendous use of discordant industrial music throughout, including Bauhaus' "Bela Lugosi's Dead" in a key moment. My only complaint in that area was the opening credits that were way too much like the movieSE7EN.
I'm making this sound like a little classic, and it really isn't. The plot is thin, and there are holes a plenty. But the good outweighs the bad by a far margin. Just be prepared to get a balls-out, in-your-face movie that doesn't intend to play nice with you. They really don't make them like this much anymore. This is horror without a safety valve and I appreciated that.
