Halloween Horror Challenge Oct 4th: DOG SOLDIERS

DOG SOLDIERS (2002) 
D. NEIL MARSHALL
ARTISAN
1.85


This debut feature film from Neil Marshall put him on the map and made him a major player in the genre. This along with GINGER SNAPS went a long way to make werewolves interesting again. Then TWILIGHT came along and made them goofy as hell but that is a whole other ball game...


The movie explores how a group of soldiers in training run into a family of werewolves in the hills of Scotland. After losing a few of their own they hole up in a small house with a local female who saves them during a fight and it becomes STRAW DOG SOLDIERS for a little while, until some fairly obvious plot twists happen in the last third of the movie. 


The things the film have going for it are great designs on the werewolves themselves, a fantastic sense of action and terririfc frentic pace. Where it falls down is in the logic and script department. Neil Marshall is a terrific visualist and can wring suspence like few others, but as a writer he fails misreably at times, and this is a prime example (see DOOMSDAY for another example of his films which look great, is fun to watch but has a terrible script). Characters are faced with a supernatural situation, they appear to understand, but continue to treat it the same dumb way, never looking at it from a perspective that might save them. Characters in their midst is clearly a werewolf they even are given clues, but they never figure it out until it is too late. TWICE. Logic continually is thrown out in the face of forward moving action, and it ultimately hamstrings what starts out as a good, fun monster film. The first half is very recommended, but by the final third I found myself tunning out because the writing was just not working anymore. 

Marshall has gotten much better as I feel THE DESCENT is one of the best horror films of the last ten years, and CENTURIAN, though not perfect (it has some writing issues as well) is pretty great too. But this has a lot of the birth pains of a debut film. 


Review © Andrew Copp

Halloween Horror Movie Challenge Oct 3rd: PLAGUE TOWN

PLAGUE TOWN (2008)
D. David Gregory
Dark Sky Films/ Severin Films
1.85 - 35mm 

This debut feature film From David Gregory who is most known for his extraordinary work in the DVD world on extras for BLUE UNDERGROUND, and who went on to form his own company with SEVERIN. He also for many years fought the good fight against censorship in the UK with his older label EXPLOITED back in the 90's and he produced several amazing documentaries the British horror scene. So this film is something of major interest for those of us who have followed his career on the side-lines of the industry.

PLAGUE TOWN is an odd beast, a gothic fairy tale cum splatter film with a definite British horror vibe throughout. A film that begins with the family lost in the tough wilderness of such classics like THE HILLS HAVE EYES but becomes something much different as it progresses. A much weirder, more mercurial beast altogether that is hard to compare to much else out there.

The story begins with a wicked scene of a baby being born in a distant cabin and the local Priest pronouncing the unseen child an unholy abomination of the Devil. The Parents of he child wisely decide this is not what they are wanting to hear. Apparently the local church has been doing this around town for some time and the parents decide to take matters into their own hands in a scene of vicious brutality that sets a tone for the film that seems like it will be hard to match. The movie matches it.

Fourteen years later an American family and one European interloper are running around this same bit of countryside taking a vacation. They decide to hike through the ruins in an attempt to find some family time but end up running afoul of the incestuous brood that has come from the family that was allowed to live in the opening scene. Seems that they have for years been trying to have more kids by finding more people to breed with to attempt to cleanse the gene pool with no real results.

The film becomes a nightmare of every fairy tale you can think of in the second half as the mutant inbred children take center stage in the hunting and torment of the cast. The film plays on the rarely used primal fear of deformed children, but it also taps that fairy tale nastiness. Few movies attempt to do it, but even fewer do it well.

The design work in the film is the final element that makes it all work. The make up on the children, and especially the make up on Rosemary the teenage girl who was born in the opening scene are all top notch. Add to it the costumes and set designs that are more subtle than you would expect and it adds up to an amazingly well thought out and designed final film.

Some viewers may find the very European pace and atmosphere to be off putting, and occasionally the unlikable lead characters make it hard to find someone to cheer for, and add to that they now typical nihilistic horror ending and the film is far from perfect. But there is so much interesting, imaginative and breathtaking moments in the film that it cannot be forgotten or ignored.

Review © Andrew Copp

Halloween Horror Challenge: The Rules of Play

This is the third year in a row that I have done my Halloween Horror Movie Challenge. The idea is to cram as many horror movies into the month of October as possible, and to blog on the results here as it goes. But there are a couple of rules I do have for myself to play by.

1) At least ONE horror movie a day, IF possible. Of course we are grown ups and stupid real life can get in the way. BUT that is the CHALLENGE of this whole thing isn't it? So try to squeeze one a day in.

2) They have to be movies I have never seen before. Absolutely new films to my viewing eyeballs. Not movies I have seen as a kid and forgotten, not movies I love to watch over and over again. Fresh stuff. This is also a good way for me to plow through the ridiculous piles of movies I own that need viewing.

3) I must blog about the results as close to immediately as possible. Once again keep it fresh.

4) They have to be HORROR movies. They CAN be hyrbid horror such as horror-comedies or sci-fi/horror or the like. But I can't watch say some gory action film and try to argue it is a horror movie, or some sleazy Drive-in Jess Franco flick and call it a horror movie by association. These have to be horror movies at heart.

5) Comments are encouraged and welcome! This much writing can get tedious after a while, even if the actual watching of the movies is fun. So if there are no comments it can get discouraging, like no one is reading (which I know isn't true!) so please feel free to play along at home and comment. Watch your own films and comment!

I may set up some time later this week to do a LIVE chat via this website and we can watch a movie together. That could be something fun to do. So we cna see how that goes..

Thanks
Andy Copp

HALLOWEEN Horror Challenge Oct 02nd Pt 2: HUMAN EXPERIMENTS

HUMAN EXPERIMENTS (1980) AKA - BEYOND THE GATE

D. Gregory Goodell
VHS (Supposedly Coming on DVD From Code Red - Some day)






Linda Haynes plays a country western singer who ends up running afoul in a small redneck town and gets blamed for a particularly savage multiple murder. Because of this she ends up doing a life sentence in a women's prison slash sanitarium where the warden is doing bazaar behavior modification experiments using the inmates.


After a truly gripping opening ten minutes where Haynes stumbles on the house filled with fresh dead bodies and a teen boy waiting with a shotgun that she is forced to kill in self defense, the movie slows down and changes gears. There is some really unsettling scenes when we first get into the prison establishing how far degenerated several of the clearly experimented on inmates are as well as a humiliating bit of preparation by the guards and nurses. But after that it is really dull going for a looooong stretch of time. Nothing scary happens, and nothing sleazy really happens either for a good half hour, making this neither work as a horror film or a women in prison flick. Not until a prisoner hangs themselves at the 45 minute mark and then Haynes masturbates with her own tears about ten minutes later does the movie hit any kind of peak. After about the hour mark that great low budget bugaboo the crappy performing band makes an appearance, this time no name band called SATAN AND THE LUCIFERS! I also forgot to mention the creepster opening moment when bar owner Aldo Ray tries to get her to make it with him and she refuses and he calls her a cunt. Super classy guy.

A lot does need to be said for Linda Haynes performance though as she is quite good with the limited material going for the slow burn breakdown. Geoffrey Lewis is creepy as shit as the doctor running the joint too, with lots of scenes of his eyes filling the frame as he looks through the metal slats that peek into the doors on the solitary confinement rooms or or as he talks about his entomology hobbies.

Unfortunately the movie feels endlessly padded with lots of scenes of the women eating in the mess hall, or working in the fields, or sleeping. Yes we get it, they are in prison but the movie needs to get on with the storyline , not lingering around waiting for something to happen.


Finally in the last fifteen to twenty minutes the movie takes off and begins to move along and take shape. As Haynes character attempts to escape the prison, the film turns inside out and literally becomes a vivid horror film. She begins to find bodies of other inmates who have been part of the experiments and hallucinate her worst fears. By the end we realize the full extent o the awful things the doctor is doing to his patients and with the full cooperation of the other inmates.

By no means a successful film, but there is a mean streak throughout HUMAN EXPERIMENTS that makes it fascinating, and there is certainly pieces and parts that are undeniably effective. Too bad this is a movie that is not as strong as a whole as it is in parts. If only that midsection could be tightened up this could be a really good movie. The opening is great and the last twenty minutes are solid. But the midsection is very hard to get through.


Review © Andrew Copp

31 Day Horror Challenge: Oct 2nd: GINGER SNAPS

GINGER SNAPS (2000)

D. John Fawcett
Lions Gate
1.85


For reasons that I can't fully explain I have somehow missed this one up until now, so it was about time I pulled it off the shelf and checked it out. This Canadian made teen werewolf movie has a lot of respect in the horror industry in the last decade and I am happy to report that I can se why. Smartly scripted with a lot of strong undercurrent of teenage sexual tension, the film has a lot to say about growing up, sisterly bonds, and finding oneself in the shadow of someone who tends to shine brighter.


For the few uninitiated GINGER SNAPS is about two teenage sisters both of who are obsessed with death and have made a pact to be outcasts. Bridgett, (EmilyPerkins) the younger and more introverted of the two seems to have a more level head on her shoulders, while Ginger (Katherine Isabelle) seems to be more impulsive and manipulative. She is the one who has forced her sister into a suicide pact (more out of boredom than anything) and constantly seems to bemoan the lameness of everything around them. Neither girls have gotten their periods for reasons that are never explained. But Ginger finally does and on the way home from pulling a prank one night theay are attacked by a giant wolf. During the chase the wolf is hit by a van driven by the town drug dealer and killed. But Ginger slowly begins to change; both physically, growing a tail, claws and patches of hair, and emotionally; by becoming sexually agressive, bitchy and violent. It is only a matter of time before things turn violent, and the monster inside of Ginger will find the way out.


The movie is sleekly directly and moves at a great pace, asking you to think about the situations as they are put forth. But does so with some nicely placed humor along the way. The only real problem I had with GINGER SNAPS was that I found the character of Ginger to be fairly unlikable. I should have been connected to her more, but for all her problems and attempts at being an outcast she ultimately ends up being a bitch more often than not. A big part of the plot of course is the journey of her younger sister finding her way out from her more dominant sister, but I found it difficult to like Ginger at many times during the film.

But that is a small complaint in the over all final film which is a stylish, violent, and at the final moments, surprisinly touching, flick. I see why it resonated with the festival audiences, and genre fans when it was released. I'll get around to seeing the sequels at some point though I has heard from many they are not nearly as good.


Review © Andrew Copp

OCTOBER 31 Day Horror Movie Challenge 2011. Day #2 Brain Dead

BRAIN DEAD (2007)
D. Kevin S. Tenney
HD


This roucaus nudity filled, splattery Sci-Fi throwback was a nice evening out after the low budget ridiculousness HORROR OF THE HUMUNGOUS HUNGRY HUNGAN we watched earlier. While this is certainly low budget, BRAIN DEAD is consistantly inventive, fun, and always knows when it is time to deliver the goods, whether that be beautiful naked women, or healthy splashings of gore.


The story isn't terribly knew, a space rock blasts through a redneck fisher-man's head instantly turning him into a zombie (who in turn rips his friend's head open and eat's his brain). Then we spend a solid amount of time meeting a menagerie of characters (mostly female) from a Preacher and his beautiful assistant who he is trying to bed down (who has the best set of boobs I have seen in man a moon)

 to some skinny dipping med students and unforunately a couple of bumbling criminal dudes who are the leads. They all end up holed up in a broken house with the monsters coming after them. Turns out a space parasite is moving from host to host ala NIGHT OF THE CREEPS or THE HIDDEN turning people into monster/zombies attacking them. It is still the NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD model but here made fresh with a lot of inventive directing, very likable characters, and loads of cool special effects. And some of the hottest women I've seen in this type of movie in a long time too.

 Kevin S. Tenney's movies have been hit or miss with me, I like WITCHBOARD a lot, NIGHT OF THE DEMONS is ok, but WITCHTRAP is pretty awful. This is is another hit for me as for as I am concerned. I hope it isn't a number of years before he ends up directing again.


Review © Andrew Copp

OCTOBER 31 Day Horror Movie Challenge 2011. Day #1 HORROR OF THE HUMONGOUS HUNGRY HUNGAN

HORROR OF THE HUNGRY HUMONGOUS HUNGAN (1991)
D. Richard Gardner
TROMA
16mm (??)
This super weird, no budget Troma negative pick up rotgut starts off this year's October 31 day Halloween Horror movie challenge with a bang. Or a wimper actually. The pre-credits sequence has a long bit of narration featuring Jack Palance explaining the title and some voodoo legend bullshit explaining the word Hungan. This leads to a guy and gal in the woods who are chased by the cheapest monster this side of my friend's backyard werewolf movies. The monster doesn't rip out the guy's guts, he just lightly pats them. The gal knocks off his Halloween monster mask head and the cheapskate graveyard of dimestore props goes up in flames. Then...

She wakes up cause it is all a dream. Yawn.

After a pretty decent Pantera rip off song over the credits the real story jump starts with a medical dorm being haunted by a voodoo "Hungan" with a dumass Security gaurd, a giant black Janitor and some weirdo Lab guys doing top secrety experiments. Turns out the yahoos at this place have ressurected the Hungan from the pretitle sequence Frankenstein style in hopes to do their bidding ("We took a federal grant to cure cancer but you used it to create a BEAST!") . Meanwhile the local kids are having a house party with a band called "Cry Wolf" where the camera sits at the back of the room or cuts the the lone black guy in the crowd but never actually focuses on the craptacular band. The Hungan lays on the medical bed for a while, gets injected and rip off John Carpenter music plays.

Finally the Hungan gets re-animated and goes on his rampage about half way through the movie and starts tearing up the preriferal cast. There is some splashing, but not convincing gore, then we cut BACK to the party with Cry Wolf complete with a Pee Wee Herman impersonator!!!

Then we are back to our teens, the bimbo who keeps dreaming  o fhte Hungan and her boyfriend who sounds like he would rather be in bed with any of the male cast members then with her. In her dreams the Hungan murder her again, but we can his voice echo inside his mask.

Before long the gang are in the woods camping, which they have been talking about for the first half of the movie. The hungan has followed them there and is picking them off in long protacted stalking scenes in braod daylight. The Hungan looks like a wrinkled, haggered Rick Astley. Some unseen woman is using voodoo to control the Hungan, but is clearly not making all the guys take off their shirts and hang out together by the tents and talk endlessly about the crappy band. It all climaxes in the Hunky shirtless guy and the Hungan fist fighting in a bought of fisticuffs that rivals the excitement found in the final minutes of THE GUY FROM HARLEM'S kung fu. And in a clear nod to the Oscar worhty films of Hal Needham it all ends with a reel of goofy outtakes and bloopers!

If Rhonda Shear's UP ALL NIGHT was still on the air this would be perfect fodder for the 3:00 am time slot. I am not sure if this means if it is worth watching or not.

Review © Andrew Copp