ANIME: Wicked City (1987), classic demon Anime loaded with succubi, gore and tentacles.
MY CALL: Whether you love Tokyo Shock cinema (e.g., Tokyo Gore Police, Vampire Girl versus Frankenstein Girl), or simply love anime and generally weird shit, you should probably give this classic demon Anime a shot. I thought it was awesome 20 years ago and still think it’s pretty damn cool today! MORE MOVIES LIKE Wicked City: Demon City Shinjuku (1988), Bio Hunter (1995), Vampire Hunter D (1985), Ninja Scroll (1993), Cyber City Oedo 808 (1990 mini-series), and all manner of Tokyo Shock cinema like Tokyo Gore Police (2008) and Vampire Girl versus Frankenstein Girl (2009).
This movie kicks off strong as our hero Taki goes home and gets lucky with a woman who turns out to be a spider demon! Maaaaaybe not so lucky. After sex she transforms, with her arms eerily elongating and her lady parts becoming a menacing toothed maw. I see where Tokyo Gore Police (2008) got the idea. Not to be confused with some pornographic hentai, this very mature Anime does feature abundant nudity and sex scenes…and “sex-like” scenes. It also manages to mix some romantic elements into this otherwise largely perverse movie.
Our human world and the Black World, a parallel dimension, have had a treaty in place for centuries. The denizens of the Black World must use approved channels to come to our world and when they violate these rules, members of the Black Guard keep them in check–Taki is one of them. The Black Guard is a lot like the Men in Black (1997), operating in secret to protect people from the harm and even frightening knowledge of these extra-dimensional beings.
Now that the 1851 treaty is nearing an end, a new treaty must be signed and interdimensional political turmoil ensues as Taki and a Black Guard from the other side (Makie) must team up to protect an important old man from assassination attempts by Black World demon radicals.
All manner of weirdness can be found. Weaponized ribcages, prehensile gut tentacles and a crawling eye-stalked head are all reminiscent of The Thing (1982) and likely pay kind homage to its effects.
(go to the 3:00 minute mark for the head crawling)
There’s also prehensile hair, strangely erotic engulfing and elongating fingernails of death. We find various succubus demons seeking to engulf their victims in various ways, demonic parasites, stone demons, the return of our web-slinging (from her crotch) spider demon, and spiky tentacle demons that regenerate. Clearly, this movie is loaded with awesomeness.
Hmmmmmmm…
Whether you love Tokyo Shock cinema like Tokyo Gore Police (2008) and Vampire Girl versus Frankenstein Girl (2009), or simply love anima and weird shit, you should probably give this classic demon Anime a shot. I thought it was awesome 20 years ago and still think it’s pretty damn cool today!
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John’s Horror Corner: Def By Temptation (1990), an entertaining B-movie about a demonic temptress.
This movie has a ton of different movie posters and release titles.
MY CALL: If you love bad 80s horror and make yourself watch this (the whole movie), I think you’ll appreciate it for its zaniness, gore, campiness and diverse effects. But don’t watch 20 minutes and decide “this sucks” and promptly stop watching. Trust me, it’s worth it. MORE MOVIES LIKE Def By Temptation: Vamp (1986) was a quality flick about a female vampire seductress that was occasionally funny and had decent effects. Another black vampire movie would be Vampire in Brooklyn (1995). Movies that share this level of bad 80s lunacy would be Nightwish (1990), Prince of Darkness (1987), Dreamaniac (1986), Night Angel (1990), Ghosthouse (1986), Manitou (1978) and Deadly Blessing (1981). ALTERNATE TITLE: Vampire in New York and Black Vampires.
This is gory, silly, bad 80s horror fun at its best…as long as you can make it through the first hour. Featuring distractingly horrible editing and abject storytelling, this movie stars and was written/directed by James Bond III, who thankfully never directed anything else. This alone should tell you all you need to know. But, just for funsies, let’s review it anyway…
Back in the 70s-90s horror directors seemed to think that if you add a snake to a scene it makes it creepier. Even if someone is just holding it. Like the Salma Hayek striptease in Dusk ’til Dawn.
This film opens introducing us to a womanizer who earns a brutal fate at the hands of a supernatural seductress (Cynthia Bond). The scenes feature full frontal male nudity as the man runs, screaming for his life. I feel like they were trying to present this to elevate the intensity, vulnerability and desperation; to set a dire tone. It worked..
Ah, yes. The old “blood in the shower” trick.
So this is where Blade got the idea for the blood rave.
But in subsequent scenes, things feel more campy. As if, shortly after this scene, the movie decided to stop taking itself so seriously. Unfortunately, the writing, acting, and pretty much everything else about this film is similarly inconsistent.
I can’t speak for everyone, but it strikes me as simultaneously creepy and sexy to have someone in the room playing the saxophone while I’m having sex.
The nature of our seductress remains a mystery for much of the movie. We don’t know how or why she kills. Just that she does. At one point I thought she was a demon or a succubus or some other manner of infernal temptress. A brief glance of a clawed (and maybe hairy?) hand made me wonder if she was later a werewolf.
Is she a were-warthog?
As the story weakly progresses, we get glimpses of vampirism. But this movie neither follows “the rules” of vampirism nor demons nor does it clearly lay out its own new rules. She has no reflection in the mirror, walks around in daylight, holy water gives her thrashing indigestion and the right Biblical verse will make her head explode. At one point she seems pleased to have afflicted a lecherous victim with a disease and his skin forms perhaps blistering legions–but the scene is so poorly staged that I wasn’t entirely clear if it was meant to be caused by sunlight…or if it would continue until he died regardless. But then why is she not so affected? And what the Hell even happened to that guy? Did he die? We never know!
The special effects, like most 80s and early 90s horror, is heavily biased towards the last third of the movie. Some blood here and there, wounds and skin lesions, and a clawed hand don’t make for a promising first hour. But the last 30 minutes offers someone being “eaten” by an evil TV, our succubus assumes her demon form (multiple different forms), and there are some scenes of spewing gore.
Bride of Pumpkinhead?
The other element that typifies the third act is LUNACY! It’s hard to keep track of precisely what’s going on…is this a dream, an illusion from mind control, a flashback mixing with the present? It sort of turns into a fever dream. For some reason in a single scene we see our protagonist fighting the succubus in New York City, his grandmother (who lives in North Carolina) suddenly appears in New York and his dead father lectures him…again, all in one scene! And no, it wasn’t a dream nor was anything explained. But therein lies the joyous madness of bad 80s horror.
Despite being horribly edited, I enjoyed the flashback sequence with Samuel L Jackson (The Hateful 8, Captain America: The Winter Soldier) as Joel’s minister father and Bill Nunn (Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead) who we meet as a guy with a new lie for every girl he tries to pick up at a bar…like making kung fu movies with Bruce Lee or being a race car driver. But he also turns out to be an important character and even when he’s not trying to pick up hotties, he has by far the best lines! Kadeem Hardison (White Men Can’t Jump, Vampire in Brooklyn) also has his moments…good and bad (but mostly bad). But our writer/director/star simply shits the bed with his character’s attempts to be soulful and inflexive.
If you love bad 80s horror and make yourself watch this (the whole movie), I think you’ll appreciate it for its zaniness, gore, campiness and diverse effects. But don’t watch 20 minutes and decide “this sucks” and promptly stop watching. Trust me, it’s worth it.
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What is the Best Movie of the 21st Century? An In-Depth Look Into Critical and Audience Ratings
What 21st century films do audiences and critics love the most? I started asking myself this question when I was compiling data for my piece about 21st century horror. I loved the results of the horror analysis, and it got me thinking about the entirety of 21st century cinema. Here are some of the questions I had.
- How do the 21st century independent and documentary features fare against the Pixar, Marvel and Christopher Nolan films that are ruling the modern world?
- Which modern blockbusters do critics and audiences love equally?
- How do my favorite 21st century films fare against the rest?
- Why would I willingly collect data on over 1,300 (list here) films?
In case you were wondering here are my favorite 21st century films.
- Bloody Sunday
- Take Shelter
- The Royal Tenenbaums
- The New World
- The Act of Killing/The Look of Silence
- Once
- Hot Fuzz
- Goon
- Man on Wire
- 13 Assassins
My favorite moment of any 21st century film. I play tennis and this scene always makes me laugh
The following post examines which 21st century films have the highest combined audience/critical average. I collected critical/user data from three sources:
- IMDb User Votes – The amount of votes did not matter (1,339 is the minimum on the list). I didn’t want to punish films for not getting wide releases.
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic/Audience Scores – The films needed at least 40 reviews to be considered. That is par for the course when it comes to RT’s ranking system.
- Metacritic Critic Average
I added the four scores (RT critic/audience, IMDb user, Metacritic critic) together and averaged them out. The averaging process isn’t sophisticated, but, it gives a straightforward look at the averaged scores. If you want to see some more in-depth metrics check out the movie poster explosion and horror franchises posts (you will love them). I gave the same weight to critic and user ratings despite there being more users. Critics can push the agenda, so their ratings get equal weight. If data was missing from one of the sites I left the movie out of the list.
Some cool facts about the top 26 before you read (you can see the top 200 here):
- 5 of the films appear in the top 25 of They Shoot Pictures Don’t They’s 21st Century Most Acclaimed Film List.
- 17 of the films appear in IMDb’s Top 250 List.
- 11 of the films appear in the top 25 0f Metacritic’s 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century list.
- 10 of the films appear in Empire Magazine’s 500 Greatest Films of All Time list.
I didn’t want to make people’s heads explode with too much data, so, I included the top 200 critic/audience rated movies of the 21st century in glorious list form. That way you can see if your favorites made the list.
Here are the top 26 audience/critic rated films of the 21st century!
26. Boyhood (2014) – 89.75
25. Ratatouille (2007) – 89.75
24. The Dark Knight (2008) – 89.75
23. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) – 90
22. Inside Job (2010) – 90
21. The Fog of War (2003) – 90
20. We Were Here (2011) – 90
19. The Pianist (2001) – 90.25
18. The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2014) – 90.25
17. Whiplash (2014) – 90.25.
16. No End in Sight (2007) – 90.5
15. The Lives of Others (2006) – 90.5
14. Inside Out (2015) – 90.75
13. Toy Story 3 (2010) – 90.75
12. Wall-E (2008) – 90.75
11. Werckmeister Harmonies (2001) – 90.75
10. 12 Years a Slave (2013) – 91
9. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) – 91
8. Spotlight (2015) – 91
7. The Look of Silence (2015) – 91.25
6. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) – 91.5
5. Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) – 91.5 – The #1 horror (or dark fantasy war thriller with elements of horror) film of the 21st century
4. The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers (2002) – 91.5
3. The Best of Youth (2003) – 91.75
2. A Separation (2011) – 92.25
- Spirited Away (2001) – 93
At first glance Spirited Away at #1 might comes across as a shock. However, here are some facts that will surprise you and prove Spirited Away deserves the number one spot.
- Winner – Best Animated Feature – Academy Awards (2003)
- Winner – Best Animated Feature – Saturn Awards (2003)
- Winner – Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Theatrical Feature – Annie Awards (2003)
- Winner – Golden Berlin Bear – Berlin International Film Festival (2003)
- #29 – IMDb’s Top 250
- #13 – Metacritic’s Best Movies of the 21st Century
- #339 – Empire’s 500 Greatest Movies of All Time
- #6 – A.V. Club’s The Best Films of the ’00’s
- #1 – Indiewire’s 25 Best Animated Films of the 21st Century so far
Comment below and let me know what you think about the list! Also, make sure to check out the top 200! You will love it.
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Hello all. Mark here.
If you’ve been reading MFF for sometime you know that I love overly researched lists. These lists get to the bottom of the most important topics on the planet and explore what happens when critic and audience scores are averaged out. The following post examines which 21st century films have the highest combined audience/critical average. I collected critical/user data from three sources:
- IMDb User Votes – The amount of votes did not matter (1,339 is the minimum on the list). I didn’t want to punish films for not getting wide releases.
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic/Audience Scores – The films needed at least 40 reviews to be considered. That is par for the course when it comes to RT’s ranking system.
- Metacritic Critic Average
I added the four scores (RT critic/audience, IMDb user, Metacritic critic) together and averaged them out. The process isn’t sophisticated, but, it gives a straightforward look at the averaged scores. If you want to see some more in-depth metrics check out the movie poster explosion and horror franchises posts (you will love them). I gave the same weight to critic and user ratings despite there being more users. Critics can push the agenda, so their ratings get equal weight. If data was missing from one of the sites I left the film out of the list.
If you like this list make sure to check out our stellar lists of awesomeness.
- I’ve attached a handy PDF so you can check out the top 25 critic and audience ranked films
- The top 21 horror films of the 21st century
- The highest audience/critic rated horror films of the 21st century
- The best 21st century horror films that don’t appear on “best of” lists
- Movienomics: Explosions and Movie Posters
- What are the Best Horror Franchises, Sequels and Remakes?
Here are the top 201 audience/critic rated films of the 21st century!
201. 3 Idiots (2009) – 85.25
200. Al Weiwei: Never Sorry (2012) – 85.25
199. Beasts of No Nation (2015) – 85.25
198. Blue is the Warmest Color (2013) – 85.25
197. Catch Me if You Can (2002) – 85.25
196. Food, Inc. (2008) – 85.25
195. Fruitvale Station (2013) – 85.25
194. Last Days of Vietnam (2014) – 85.25
193. Little Miss Sunshine (2006) – 85.25
192. Moonrise Kingdom (2012) – 85.25
191. Oslo, August 31st (2011) – 85.25
190. Shaun of the Dead (2004) – 85.25
189. Shrek (2001) – 85.25
188. Timbuktu (2014) – 85.25
187. Volver (2006) – 85.25
186. West of Memphis (2012) – 85.25
185. Call Me Kuchu (2012) – 85.5
184. Deep Water (2006) – 85.5
183. End of the Century (2003) – 85.5
182. Her (2013) – 85.5
181. Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) – 85.5
180. Mea Maxima Culpa (2012) – 85.5
179. Mountain Patrol (2004) – 85.5
178. Phoenix (2015) – 85.5
177. Scratch (2001) – 85.5
176. The Station Agent (2003) – 85.5
175. The Incredibles (2004) – 85.5
174. The Interrupters (2011) – 85.5
173. Vera Drake (2004) – 85.5
172. Zero Dark Thirty (2012) – 85.5
171. Jafar Panahi’s Taxi (2015) – 85.5
170. Winter Sleep (2014) – 85.75
169. Grizzly Man (2005) – 85.75
168. Iron Man (2008) – 85.75
167. Milk (2008) – 85.75
166. Moneyball (2011) – 85.75
165. A Film Unfinished (2010) – 86
164. Casino Royale (2006) – 86
163. Django Unchained (2012) – 86
162. Hotel Rwanda (2004) – 86
161. How to Survive a Plague (2012) – 86
160. How to Train Your Dragon (2010) – 86
159. The Lego Movie (2014) – 86
158. Marwencol (2010) – 86
157. Red Army (2014) – 86
156. Sideways (2004) – 86
155. Sound City (2013) – 86
154. The Class (2008) – 86
153. The Martian (2015) – 86
152. Wadjda (2012) – 86
151. Monsters Inc. (2001) – 86.25
150. American Splendor (2003) – 86.25
149. Creed (2015) – 86.25
148. Infernal Affairs (2002) – 86.25
147. Letters From Iwo Jima (2006) – 86.25
146. Mustang (2015) – 86.25
145. Restrepo (2010) – 86.25
144. Sweet Sixteen (2002) – 86.25
143. The Devil Came on Horseback (2007) – 86.25
142. The Hunt (2012) – 86.25
141. Winged Migration (2001) – 86.25
140. Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001) – 86.25
139. Memories of Murder (2003) – 86.5
138. Amy (2015) – 86.5
137. Bill Cunningham New York (2010) – 86.5
136. Hero (2002) – 86.5
135. Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003) – 86.5
134. Maria Full of Grace (2004) – 86.5
133. Riding Giants (2004) – 86.5
132. Sicario (2015) – 86.5
131. The Secret in Their Eyes (2009) – 86.5
130. The Wrestler (2008) – 86.5
129. This is England (2006) – 86.5
128. Wild Tales (2014) – 86.5
127. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005) – 86.75
126. 49 Up (2005) – 86.75
125. Democrats (2014) – 86.75
124. Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015) – 86.75
123. Incendies (2010) – 86.75
122. Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011) – 86.75
121. Jodorowsky’s Dune (2013) – 86.75
120. Leviathan (2014) – 86.75
119. Searching for Sugar Man (2012) – 86.75
118. Since Otar Left (2003) – 86.75
117. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) – 86.75
116. The Overnighters (2014) – 86.75
115. Wasteland (2010) – 86.75
114. The Tillman Story (2010) – 87
113. 13 Assassins (2010) – 87
112. Amour (2012) – 87
111. Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem (2014) – 87
110. Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001) – 87
109. Lost in Translation (2003) – 87
108. Million Dollar Baby (2004) – 87
107. Slumdog Millionaire (2008) – 87
106. Son of Saul (2015) – 87
105. Star Trek (2009) – 87
104. Taxi to the Dark Side (2007) – 87
103. Touching the Void (2003) – 87
102. A Summer’s Tale (2014) – 87.25
101. Brooklyn (2015) – 87.25
100. Burma VJ (2008) – 87.25
99. Dallas Buyer’s Club (2013) – 87.25
98. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) – 87.25
97. Selma (2014) – 87.25
96. The Beaches of Agnes (2008) – 87.25
95. The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) – 87.25
94. The Crash Reel (2013) – 87.25
93. The Man Without a Past (2002) – 87.25
92. Argo (2012) – 87.5
91. Bloody Sunday (2002) – 87.5
90. Bus 174 (2002) – 87.5
89, Carlos (2010) – 87.5
88. Downfall (2004) – 87.5
87. Ernest & Celestine (2012) – 87.5
86. Last Train Home (2009) – 87.5
85. Let the Right One In (2008) – 87.5
84. No Man’s Land (2001) – 87.5
83. Nostalgia for the Light (2010) – 87.5
82. There Will Be Blood (2007) – 87.5
81. Anvil: The Story of Anvil (2008) – 87.75
80. Gravity (2013) – 87.75
79. In the Shadow of the Moon (2007) – 87.75
78. Moolaade (2004) – 87.75
77. No Country for Old Men (2007) – 87.75
76. River and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working with Time (2001) – 87.75
75. Talk to Her (2002) – 87.75
74. About Elly (2009) – 88
73. Blackfish (2013) – 88
72. City of God (2002) – 88
71. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) – 88
70. Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010) – 88
69. Life Itself (2014) – 88
68. Murderball (2005) – 88
67. Poetry (2010) – 88
66. Senna (2010) – 88
65. The Act of Killing (2012) – 88
64. The Hurt Locker (2008) – 88
63. The Salt of the Earth (2014) – 88
62. Before Midnight (2013) – 88.25
61. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…..and Spring (2003) – 88.25
60.The Artist (2011) – 88.25
59. 60. The Triplets of Belleville (2003) – 88.25
58. Capturing the Friedman’s (2003) – 88.5
57. Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) – 88.5
56. Let the Fire Burn (2013) – 88.5
55. Short Term 12 (2013) – 88.5
54. The Social Network (2010) – 88.5
53. A Prophet (2010) – 88.75
52. Deliver Us From Evil (2006) – 88.75
51. Lagaan (2001) – 88.75
50. Man on Wire (2008) – 88.75.
49. Nobody Knows (2004) – 88.75
48. Once (2007) – 88.75.
47. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007) – 88.75
46. The King’s Speech (2010) – 88.75
45. The Square (2013) – 88.75
44. To Be and To Have (2003) – 88.75
43. Before Sunset (2004) – 89 .
42. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (2003) – 89
41. Finding Nemo (2003) – 89
40. Listen to Me Marlon (2015) – 89
39. Room (2015) – 89
38. The Departed (2006) – 89
37. The Twilight Samurai (2004) – 89
36. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007) – 89.25
35. Promises (2002) – 89.25
34. The Cove (2009) – 89.25
33. Waltz With Bashir (2008) – 89.25
32. Zootopia (2016) – 89.25
31. Dear Zachary (2008) – 89.5
30. Persepolis (2007) – 89.5
29. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) – 89.5
28. The Song of the Sea (2014) – 89.5
27. Up (2009) – 89.5
26. Boyhood (2014) – 89.75
25. Ratatouille – (2007) – 89.75
24. The Dark Knight (2008) – 89.75
23. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) – 90
22. Inside Job (2010) – 90
21. The Fog of War (2003) – 90
20. We Were Here (2011) – 90
19. The Pianist (2001) – 90.25
18. The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2014) – 90.25
17. Whiplash (2014) – 90.25
16. No End in Sight (2007) – 90.5
15. The Lives of Others (2006) – 90.5
14. Inside Out (2015) – 90.75
13. Toy Story 3 (2010) – 90.75
12. Wall-E (2008) – 90.75
11. Werckmeister Harmonies (2001) – 90.75
10. 12 Years a Slave (2013) – 91
9. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) – 91
8. Spotlight (2015) – 91
7. The Look of Silence (2015) – 91.25
6. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) – 91.5
5. Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) – 91.5
4. The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers (2002) – 91.5
3. The Best of Youth (2003) – 91.75
2. A Separation (2011) – 92.25
- Spirited Away (2001) – 93
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TRAILER TALK: Blood Money
Upon solicitation, I recently saw the trailer for a Porthos Films release and felt compelled to share. Take a look…
After a botched art heist in France, a group of friends are left with a body on their hands and the gendarme hot on their trail. They hide the body and make plans to sell the painting and return home. But as they wait for the chance to escape from their secluded holiday home, they soon realise the body has gone missing. Paranoia and fear sets in and the friends begin to turn on each other. Soon it is clear there’s a killer in the house and the group must figure out who is responsible before they all suffer the consequences.
This British film was produced Luke White and Ed White, written by Emmy award winner Rosy Deacon (Shards), and stars Ollie Barbieri (Skins, Anuvahood), Klariza Clayton (Skins, Harry Brown) and Scott Chambers (Chicken, The Hippopotamus), as well as debut performances from Sabrina Hansen and Nicholas Bourne. It was shot in just two weeks on location in Normandy, France.
IMDB – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4594286/
Twitter – https://twitter.com/BloodMoneyUK
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/FollowBloodMoney/
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The MFF Podcast #51: 10 Deadpool Lane
You can download the pod on iTunes or LISTEN TO THE POD ON BLOGTALKRADIO.
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
Go visit the episode that started it all:
The MFF Podcast #50: Kurtchella, the Kurt Russell Special
SUMMARY: This week we discuss and dissect two fantastic movies, 10 Cloverfield Lane and Deadpool. Enjoy our musings of R-rated comic movies, how John Goodman deserves an Oscar for Creepiest Actor, the long and tortured history of the Deadpool movie, and how Mary Elizabeth Winstead was a perfect combination of strong and scared.
We also answer such important questions as…
“How is it that we still haven’t seen Maniac Cop?”
“Did the cast of Deadpool have a little too much fun?”
“What’s the ideal buffness level for an action hero?”
“Would you have ever known this was a Cloverfield sequel”?
“What should the Broken Lizard team do for their next movie?”
LISTEN TO THE POD ON BLOGTALKRADIO,
or head over iTunes so you can download, REVIEW, RATE and SHARE the pod.
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MY CALL: The Purge (2013) was perfection. I like what DeMonaco was “trying” to do with this sequel, but he missed the target this time–which is especially shocking when considering his mastery in capturing the atmosphere of the first. As such, I’d advise you to watch Anarchy if you’re a Frank Grillo fan more than if you’re a Purge fan. This really wasn’t a terrible movie–just not at all a good one. MORE MOVIES LIKE The Purge: Anarchy: Well you’ve got to see the original The Purge (2013). In fact, maybe just watch part 1 twice…in a row…then skip part 2 and go see part 3.
With the Purge eliminating poverty and unemployment (presumably by “deleting” undesirables), the United States is a wonderful place in 2023. A wonderful place because of the inner demons cleansed by 12 murderous hours once a year.
Writer/director James DeMonaco (The Purge, The Purge: Election Year) tries to impress us by re-introducing us to the Purge, its supporters and vocal resistance, practitioners and abstainers. Instead of unleashing the beast by laying siege to Ethan Hawke’s house, we follow some unwilling Purge participants stranded out in the streets on the most dangerous night of the year. They serendipitously end up being led by Frank Grillo (The Grey, Warrior, Mother’s Day, Captain America: The Winter Soldier), who dominates the screen and manages to make this otherwise sorry sequel watchable with his mysterious Purger-with-a-secret. But wait… he “is” out on Purge night so it begs the question…can they trust him?
We see how the lower, middle and upper class purge. Unfortunately, we’re already quite familiar with this world from the stellar performances in the original The Purge (2013) and nothing new is really offered beyond this change in perspective.
That’s not to say that the sociopaths preparing for the Purge, eerily waving at their soon-to-be victims wasn’t unnerving–it just lacked the degree of undiscovered menace that made its predecessor so shiny and new.
It’s like the thrill of discovery in learning the secrets and nuance of The Matrix (1999), followed by the disenchanted reaction of revisiting its inner workings in The Matrix: Reloaded (2003). But this comparison really isn’t fair. The Matrix: Reloaded (2003) is still awesome much as the Silver or Bronze medalist at the Olympics would compare to the Gold-toting original (1999), whereas Anarchy is more like a fat guy with type-II diabetes and a sprained ankle compared to the two-time winner of the Boston Marathon that is The Purge (2013). But let me tell you how I really feel…
Outside of our solid lead cast, the secondary actors provision the screen with stale performances. The social allegory that was once so organically powerful now feels forced and the new commentary intended to add intrigue to the story (and the social/political evolution of The Purge) is delivered in such a manner that it falls flat.
Seeing this makes me want to go back and watch The Purge (2013) again–which I found to be perfection. I like what DeMonaco was “trying” to do with this sequel, but I fear that he missed the target this time–which is especially shocking when considering his mastery in capturing the atmosphere of the first. As such, I’d sooner advise you to watch Anarchy if you’re a Frank Grillo fan than if you’re a Purge fan–however, Purge fans won’t want to miss it as it will clearly bridge us into the third installment’s plot. But with that said, this really wasn’t a terrible movie–just not a good one and definitely doing zero justice to part one. I didn’t hate it. I won’t be buying it either… Not unless it comes at a discount in a triple movie blu-ray pack with The Purge: Election Year.
If you want a second opinion check out Mark’s review: The Purge: Anarchy: When a Bad Movie Happens to a Good Idea.
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Short Film Buzz: Burn (2016)
Upon a kind solicitation, I am writing to share the development status of an upcoming film (@BurnShortFilm).
Director by Judson Vaughan (Pedro and the multi award-winning Soul Breaker) has recently completed filming Burn (2016), a short psychological horror film, in Hertfordshire and north London, UK. Slaughtered Bird Creations and Dragon Egg Media’s debut film collaboration has wrapped and entered post-production.
After several local disappearances prompt a nationwide manhunt, Burn focusses on Peter and Louise – two of many gripped by media-induced fear. When their son, Charlie, is born, the pair must find a way of raising him amid continuing public hysteria and incomprehensible personal tragedy.
Starring Max Cavenham and Emma Kelly, the story is the brainchild of www.TheSlaughteredBird.com co-owner, Chris Barnes (@TheBlueTook) and, in partnership with Vaughan’s Dragon Egg Media label, will become the first project released under production umbrella, Slaughtered Bird Creations (@SlaughteredBird). Incorporating its creators’ love of precise tension-building, Burn’s (2016) approach is both patient and unrelenting, stunningly captured by Joaquim Barreto’s cinematography, and brings classic psychological horror to the forefront of independent British cinema once again.
Keep an eye out for the trailer!
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John’s Horror Corner: Deadtime Stories (1986), a wonderfully campy horror anthology with diverse effects and dark fairy tales.
MY CALL: Excepting the middle story, I really love this horror anthology. I loved it as a kid in the early 90s and I still love it today. It’s an excellent, cheap B-movie with fun short stories of dark fairy tales. The budget is low but the effects are diverse and the music was surprisingly interesting. MORE MOVIES LIKE Deadtime Stories: Hellraiser (1987) and Wolfcop (2014) offer better iterations of the first two short stories herein. Otherwise, try more horror anthology movies.
OTHER HORROR ANTHOLOGIES: Black Sabbath (1963), Tales from the Crypt (1972), The Vault of Horror (1973), The Uncanny (1977), Creepshow (1982), Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), Stephen King’s Cat’s Eye (1985), Creepshow 2 (1987), Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990), Necronomicon: Book of the Dead (1993), Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996), Campfire Tales (1997), 3 Extremes (2004), Trick ‘r Treat (2007), Chillerama (2011), Little Deaths (2011), V/H/S (2012), The Theater Bizarre (2012), The ABCs of Death (2013), V/H/S 2 (2013), The Profane Exhibit (2013), The ABCs of Death 2 (2014), V/H/S Viral (2014) and A Christmas Horror Story (2015).
Also released as Freaky Fairy Tales, this clearly low budget film begins with a playful whimsy as the opening credits are presented as pages in an ancient storybook being turned by progressively more monstrous hands–it’s cute but it relates to nothing else in the movie. The wraparound story is quite simple: an uncle telling his nephew a series of bedtime horror stories to waylay his fears of a monster hiding in his bedroom.
The first story is about a young boy and the witch sisters he serves. They intend to resurrect their long dead sister (another witch). This dark fairy tale is surprisingly loaded with fun special effects. They use illusions to seduce a priest and make his disembodied hand crawl asunder from his arm. They then remove the heart from the corpse of their long dead sister, apply a magical potion to restart its beating, and return it to her chest cavity. What follows is a gross, slimy, stop-motion display as tendrils of nerves and sinew emerge from the heart and envelop the skeleton in a crust of cadaverous filth, from which their sister would then emerge. The effects, however low the budget may be, had me squealing in delight as it reminded me of the Hellraiser (1987) transformation scene.
Later, her disembodied heart would literally attack the servant boy like a facehugger organ-octopus! Which reminded me of the zombified guts in Dead-Alive (1992). I vaguely remember these two grotesque scenes from when I rented this over 20 years ago! It’s delightful!
This trailer has glimpses of both these scenes that I love.
The transformation (in two separate parts of the clip) and the face-attacking organ.
The second tale is a werewolf version of Little Red Riding Hood and, because our story teller is a bit of a dirty uncle, our Riding Hood heroine (Nicole Picard; Ghoulies III) is a bit on the sultry side. This horror short is rather disappointing and revolves around a werewolf (Matt Mitler; Breeders, Basket Case 2) getting his prescription mixed up with grandma’s at the pharmacy. When he stops by her house to retrieve it, he wolfs out and blows her house down. It’s silly, stupid and barely entertaining. But if you enjoyed it at all I’d recommend you follow it up with Wolfcop (2014). Watch out for the goofy closing line “Grandma, what big teeth you have!”
Our third story is about Goldi Lox (Cathryn de Prume) and the three bears. Only here our Goldi is an insane psychic/telekinetic murderer who collects the bodies of her would-be suitors in a murder house and our “bears” are the Baer family, the poppa and baby of which were recently broken out of the “Home for the Hopelessly Insane” by Momma Baer (Melissa Leo; Oblivion, Olympus Has Fallen). This one is just plain zany and mixes the macabre with the trickery of Bewitched.
With each subsequent story, the tone goes from moderately serious, to silly, to slapstick. The writing, editing and acting are consistently horrible (yes, even Melissa Leo) and the campiness also increases later in the movie, culminating in Goldi’s gratuitous nudity-showcasing shower scene.
Excepting the middle story, I really love this horror anthology. I loved it as a kid in the early 90s and I still love it today. It’s an excellent, cheap B-movie with fun short stories of dark fairy tales.
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John’s Horror Corner: Leprechaun: Origins (2014), the story of a carnivorous Irish monster that made me miss Warwick Davis.
MY CALL: Despite some clear efforts, this movie was largely disappointing. Sure, I was entertained…but I’m not sure my entertainment outweighed how annoying it was at times. The best part of this movie is the Irish accents. I don’t recommend this…not even as a fun B-movie. I miss Warwick Davis. MORE MOVIES LIKE Leprechaun: Origins: Want a fun B-movie with a leprechaun? Then go back and watch Leprechaun (1993). It’s bad…but it’s a delight!
Let’s engage in a thought exercise. Imagine victims being hunted by velociraptors in a field of tall grass. Looks pretty cool, doesn’t it? But now, take away all the special effects and great shots. Not as cool, is it? This is essentially how this WWE movie begins…with a weak chase scene. Presumably, this is how the story will end for our protagonists.
Four American 20-somethings backpacking through Ireland stop in a random countryside village pub where they meet a friendly local (Garry Chalk; The Fly II, Freddy vs Jason) who gets them excited to see The Stones of the Gods, ancient stones that have been in place for centuries. Sophie (Stephanie Bennett; Grave Encounters 2), Ben (Andrew Dunbar; SGU), Jeni (Melissa Roxburgh; Sorority Murder) and David (Brendan Fletcher; The Revenant, Ginger Snaps 2-3, Freddy vs Jason) are excited for adventure and accept an invitation to stay the night in the local’s cabin. Just one problem, this quaint Irish has a secret.
It turns out these tourists were simply lured into serving as an offering to a carnivorous leprechaun. Evidently, the townspeople once stole the leprechaun’s gold and in order to appease this creature of Irish myth, they must periodically offer it human sacrifices…basically like King Kong. I think the leprechaun likes earthy seasonings, because it loves dragging its victims. We must see about four completely gratuitous horror drags.
The gore starts out slow, but then builds up a bit in the last 30 minutes. At first we never see things happen (e.g., lacerations and impalements), instead only seeing the gruesome aftermath. But later we get to enjoy an axe to the head and a spinal cord rip. So one can’t say this movie didn’t make an effort.
Similarly, we never seem to see the monstrous leprechauns until the end. Before that we only ever see the beast blurred out of focus, which is really frustrating. Upon finally seeing the leprechaun I wasn’t thrilled. It looks like a demonic chimpanzee burn victim–almost like the miniature demons from The Gate (1987). Maybe that’s why it fears fire and light–a weakness that was entirely under-utilized.
But more importantly, the Irish monster gets plenty of screen time whether you love or hate it’s malformed face. In fact, this monster more closely resembles a chupacabra or one of the albino cave dwellers from The Descent (2005) than a leprechaun.
This may have been intended as a Leprechaun (1993) reboot, but it did no such thing. If they didn’t “tell you” this monster was a leprechaun, you’d never know it. You’d just think it was a naked goblin of sorts.
Despite some aforementioned efforts, this movie was largely disappointing. Sure, I was entertained…but I’m not sure my entertainment outweighed how annoying it was at times. The best part about this movie, other than a hilarious axe-to-the-face scene, is the Irish accents. I don’t recommend this…not even as a fun B-movie. There’s too much else out there.
I miss Warwick Davis.
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