TRAILER TALK: Cherry Tree looks like an amazing witch movie in the trailer, but the film festival reviews are rather unenchanted…
Cherry Tree (Release Date, 1/8/2015; Video on Demand)
I just saw a trailer that had me stoked to this! Making reference to such components as magical resurrection, the sacrifice of an unborn child and a coven of witches, this Irish film has me excited and optimistic. The trailer’s shots and music seized my attention; dismal yet beautiful. Written (Brendan McCarthy) and directed (David Keating) by the minds behind Wake Wood (2010, also an Irish film), we catch glimpses of some sort of webbed Species-esque (1995) cocoon, strange rituals and spellcraft.
On the Blumhouse website I also found all sorts of awesome, somewhat spoiler-ish screen shots complete with rituals, cultists, creepy lairs and monsters (perhaps a demon?). All cool stuff, but I must admit that there is clearly a blatant overuse of giant centipedes in this film. How’s that for a strange criticism? But I’m not complaining…yet.
Unfortunately, despite my child-like excitement, Dread Central had a rather unfavorable criticism to offer:
“Compared to the well balanced, creeping horror of Wake Wood, this is amateur hour in the extreme. If there’s anything positive to be said about it, Cherry Tree does bust out some rather impressive physical effects work on occasion, and the lack of sexualisation of the coven is a nice touch. Battrick carries the film capably and manages not to embarrass herself completely amidst the torrential nonsense. But is that worth suffering the trip down this particular rabbit hole of absurdity? No. No, it isn’t.”
Does it really look so bad? Here’s the TRAILER, see for yourself:
There is some absolute weirdness going on towards the end of that trailer, including some infernal MirrorMask demon lady! Can’t wait to see this, but can’t help to be extremely worried by the available reviews–because yes, so far they’re all negative. All should be warned by the consistently less-than-rave reviews of the film.
Cine-Vue wrote “the issues and problems cripple what could have been a gnarly genre piece…The pace is sluggish even when narrative events hurtle along like a freight-train with the brakes off…The film is nothing but a clumsy constructed yarn with a final scene/shot so cheap and misguided; it sums up Keating’s clunker with aplomb.” Ouch!
Flickering Myth joined the dog pile and warned that “Getting a movie like Cherry Tree right is a very difficult task. Of course you want to take your movie seriously, but when you make a movie about witches and covens, you have to tread very carefully to remain on the right side of entertaining – otherwise you just end up looking a little bit silly. And in the case of Cherry Tree, the movie is just a little too silly…Being that this is a movie based around witches, ancient covens and the rebirth of the Anti-Christ, Cherry Tree is hammier than Porky Pig eating a bacon sarnie. The movie starts off innocently enough, but once the act of sex happens and the pregnancy begins, Cherry Tree devolves into an incredibly silly mess. Each passing moment is wackier than the next to the point where it’s laugh-out-loud funny. But the movie isn’t trying to be funny, it’s trying to be scary – which it fails at miserably.”
In case these reviews haven’t completely scared you away from considering watching this film, here’s the synopsis from IMDB:
Faith’s world is turned upside down after she finds out that her beloved father is dying. When the mysteriously alluring Sissy Young becomes her field hockey coach, Faith finds a compassionate spirit and much-needed mother figure. Little does she know that Sissy is the head of a centuries-old witches’ coven that uses the fruit of an ancient cherry tree in a secret ritual that restores life to the dead and dying. Offering to cure her father in exchange for a child, Sissy strikes a bargain with Faith, who suddenly finds herself pregnant with a baby that’s growing at an alarming rate. But with the clock to the child’s birth ticking down and the true intention of Sissy’s plans for humanity becoming more apparent, Faith and her father must stand together in order to save both their lives.
I am honestly someone who seeks the opinions of others before choosing my viewing options. That’s not to say that I won’t see films which yield poor reviews, but I might de-prioritize them on my watch list. That said, I remain to excited about this trailer and intend to ignore these reviews!!! I’ll admittedly lower my expectations. But make no mistake, I’m seeing this as soon as I can!
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We Write Good Stuff: The Best of 2015
Hello all. Mark here.
We are five years in at Movies, Films and Flix and 2015 was a banner year for us. We loaded up the site with a collection of random posts that blew up across the internet and proved that John Travolta makes very weird cigarette smoking choices. We write about what we love and treasure the mass quantities of nerd energy (Thanks AV Club) that go into each post. In an effort to give a gold star to ourselves I have compiled my favorite 2015 MFF posts to share with the world (and drum up more views).
The following covers my favorite posts of 2015.
- The MFF podcast has arrived!
We are currently 41 episodes in and going strong! Here are five I recommend.
2. Creep and Spring. Talking about new wave horror.
5. The Best 60 Seconds or Less Movie Characters
We hope you listen to and enjoy the pods! If you have any random cinematic questions we will be happy to answer them!
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2. The best 21st century horror films that don’t appear on “best of” lists.
Shock Till You Drop called this list “Mensa approved” and it was a lot of fun to put together. I scoured the internet for 21st century horror films that don’t get enough love and we got 5,300 votes to crown Insidious the winner. Read it! Discover some new horror.
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3. What are the best 21st century horror films?
I collected 250+ 21st century horror films and compiled the audience/critic data from Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb and Metacritic. The following post examines what are the best critical/audience favorite horror films of the 21st century! A big thanks to the AV Club for sharing it!
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4. The internet voted and Cabin in the Woods is the best horror film of the 21st century.
We had over 3,500 votes from passionate horror fans and we found out that people love Cabin in the Woods. The internet exploded (sort of, not really).
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I love handing out random awards. The world is full of arbitrary prizes handed out by a committee that follow the popular trends. Why not honor the random and odd? These lists do! Check out the random awards for 2015 spy films too!
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6. The 25 best performances of this decade (so far).
I have an eclectic taste and this list features an fun grouping of fantastic performances. What performances have you loved?
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7. 1995 Week: A collection of all things 1995.
If you are into anything involving 1995 you will love this collection of posts about Clueless, Goldeneye, and Empire Records. Check out the index.
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8. Horror film bonanza
2014-2015 has been loaded with some fantastic boutique horror films. We here at MFF have written about them a lot.
11 horror hybrids you need to watch.
The best transformations of film. NSFW.
The Best horror films of 2015!
Trailer Talk: Krampus (listen to the pod)
Horror films for every type of person. (listen to the pod)
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9. Almost everything you need to know about horror films
If you ever wondered what are the statistically best horror franchises, sequels and remakes you are in luck! This post was overly researched and I loved putting it together.
10. John Travolta and his villainous smoking
John Travolta has an interesting style of villainous smoking. Check out the evolution of his weird habit.
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11. An oral history of the fake film Squid Lake
I wrote a totally fictional oral history for a film called Squid Lake. Then, I teamed up with the Sharkdropper crew and we recorded the weirdest podcast ever.
12. The rise of the weird lists
Here are some weird lists you might like. We here at MFF embrace the different and these lists are proof!
The Best Cinematic Devils (listen to the pod as well!).
The Best Usage of Staples/Staplers.
The Best Horror Pictures of the Last 15 Years (listen to the pod).
11 trees I don’t want in my front yard (listen to the pod).
The Best loss of an arm or limb.
Five reasons why Home Alone’s Marv and Harry are smarter than you’d think.
The best cinematic rock throwing.
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MFF Special: Advice I Would Give To Cinematic Henchmen
Hello all. Mark here.
The cinematic world is rife with henchman who meet untimely deaths. Their choice of work has sealed their fates and many men and women have fallen prey to the good guys. The following post gives advice to potential henchmen in hopes that they choose their minion jobs wisely.
Here are 10 piece of advice I would give to cinematic henchmen.If you are interested we recorded a podcast about this topic. Give it a listen!
- Don’t be afraid to run away.
There is a moment in Kung Pow: Enter the Fist that I love. Some henchmen are looking for the hero and one of the bad guys does something very smart. He says “You go that way, I’ll go home.”
The bad guy goes home and lives to fight another day. Also, not many people notice this but in the Lord of the Ring’s: The Two Towers battle of Helm’s Deep scene some Uruk-hai run away from the battle. They were the product of an AI simulation called Massive and every creation had their own personality. What did they do? They went home!
2. Don’t wear a cumbersome helmet.
This is what happens when you wear a helmet.
Helmets may look cool but they prevent you from seeing properly. This poor stormtrooper had his vision impaired by the helmet and he walked into a blast door. In Star Wars the stormtroopers couldn’t hit the broad side of an AT-AT.
Also, when you watch Spaceballs you need to wonder if the cumbersome helmets were part of the reason that the henchman said “We ain’t found shit!” They have no peripheral vision which greatly inhibits their search.
3. Never fight on top of a moving vehicle
I love that there are henchman who are willing to fight atop moving vehicles. They are almost always guaranteed to lose but they give it the old college try. For instance, the German soldiers in Raiders of the Lost Ark do a great job but ultimately end up as human road rash.
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Another instance of Henchman meeting a terrible death atop moving vehicles is in The Wolverine. Some very brave Yakuza climb atop a moving train and attempt to battle Wolverine. They are brave but dumb.
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4. If you are a human in a world full of superheroes don’t even apply for the job.
What is the point? You have zero chance stopping The Hulk or Iron Man so don’t even put yourself in a spot where you would have to battle them. A great example of a henchman having no chance is in The Incredibles. A henchman is doing his rounds when he is hit by a perfectly thrown rock. Where did the rock comes from? Mr. Incredible throws the rock from like 200 yards out! Why even attempt to keep a secret lair safe when Superheroes are around?
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5. If a British spy tells you to lie down…. lie down
When a murderous British spy tells you to lay down you should just lay down. There is no point doing anything and your lack of a name tag doesn’t help either. Many henchman could live if they assessed the situation and listened to the good guy.
6. Be attentive
Several henchman in the 2015 spy films met their demise when they failed to be attentive. In Spy, the henchman who is tasked with watching Rose Byrne’s drinks fails and almost gets his boss killed. What happens? He gets shot in the head.
Don’t play candy crush or daydream when watching your bosses drink.
In The Dark Knight Rises a moment of not paying attention cost a man his life. Gary Oldman was captured and the henchman lets him get away when he doesn’t anticipate the dive into the sewer. One little lapse gets him killed without remorse.
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Another example of when being aloof goes wrong is in The Return of the Jedi. Boba Fett is too busy focusing on Luke and he gets embarrassingly killed by Han Solo. You need to know who is around you at all times!
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7. Never volunteer and always stay under the radar.
In the film 300: Rise of an Empire General Kashani makes a big mistake. He volunteers to crush the Spartans.
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What happens when you volunteer? General Kashani ends up meeting an incredibly bloody demise that features him losing his limbs! He was brave but dumb.
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A perfect example of why you should stay under the radar is in Mom and Dad Save the World. In the film two henchman are told to kill themselves when they suggest Jon Lovitz wear mutton chops or a goatee. Don’t put yourself in a situation where this could happen.
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8. Never work at a secret lair/space station and pick your jobs wisely.
Secret lairs and space stations always blow up. Try getting yourself stationed at a remote location or a small star ship. Your chances of survival will be much higher if you simply stay away from the main bad guy locations.
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Once you’ve been stationed somewhere other than a Death Star or secret lair find yourself a relatively safe job. Learn from the orcs from Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. There is a orc that has a terrible job in FOTR and I wondered why he got stuck with the gig. He has to free the Uruk-hai from a gelatinous goo and it gets him killed. Pick your jobs carefully!
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9. Realize that your gun doesn’t shoot straight and adjust accordingly.
When watching Commando, Eraser, Rambo, Missing in Action, Death Wish and many other movies involving lots of gun play you will notice a trend. Bad guys are terrible at killing the heroes. They are supposedly well-trained minions but they can’t hit anything. Thus, I’m assuming their weapons are black market rejects that were bought at cost. So, figure out the intricacies of your weapon and you might be able to kill the good guy. Don’t be like the people in Commando.
10. Realize that your bosses don’t have your best interests in mind
You are playing a small part in a massive plan and your bosses don’t care about you. For instance, in the film Spy a bad guy hides a nuclear weapon then kills everyone who knows where it is. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve worked for the bad guy because you can die at any moment.
Also, in American Ultra the poor hit men were driven mad by their bosses and are used as disposable killers that are eventually killed. One of these killers is Laugher. The poor guy was tortured, locked up and eventually killed. Nobody cared about him.
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The best example of a boss not caring about his minions is The Joker in The Dark Knight. He literally throws his associates at Batman so he can land a few punches. He is also willing to blow up his crew (prison bomb guy) and murder them all after a robbery. Don’t work for The Joker!
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The MFF Podcast #40: Christmas/Krampus Movie Special
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!
We hope you enjoyed our previous episode:
The MFF Podcast #39: The Great Cinematic Character Trade.
SUMMARY: This week the MFF crew discusses Christmas movies including Krampus (2015), Home Alone (1990), National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989) and The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993).
We also answer such important questions as…
“Is Die Hard a Christmas film?”
“Does Clark Griswold perhaps have a mental disorder?”
“What are the absolute WORST Christmas movies?”
“Were the bad guys in Home Alone actually really great thieves?”
“How would the MFF crew direct their own Lifetime Channel Christmas 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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The 2015 Random Awards: Honoring the Fake Mustaches, Groovy Dancing and Subplots About Buying a Television
Hello all. Mark here.
2015 was loaded with many glorious and random cinematic moments. Whether it be Oscar Issac busting a move in Ex-Machina or Julie Walters crushing the dinner table talk in Brooklyn there were many surprises. We here at MFF love randomness and I’ve been trying to bring the world something different with these awards. The random awards celebrate all the things that you might not remember (Kurt Russell drinking Belgian beer in Furious 7). They stem from observations, little moments and things I think are weird (all things Jupiter Ascending). The post was fun putting together and hopefully you enjoy the randomness!
The following post awards all that is random in 2015.
Kylo Ren has defeated helmet hair award
Kylo Ren’s hair is unfazed by that pesky helmet. How does he do it?
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Funniest Drama Award
Bridge of Spies is a very good film. I love how it blends humor with drama and you can tell the Coen brothers were involved.
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Best fur coat award
Ben Mendelsohn is my hero. I feel like the fur coat he wore in Slow West just formed around him one day.
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Domhnall Gleeson is crushing it right now award
Between Brooklyn, Ex-Machina, Star Wars and The Revenant Gleeson is on a tear!
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Best erotic dance performed by a vampire award
What We Do in the Shadows is the best vampire mockumentary ever made. You will love this movie.
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Did Charlize Theron really cut her arm off in Mad Max: Fury Road award
The CGI is incredible in Mad Max. I love how it aided the practical effects.
Sidenote: I know she didn’t cut off her arm…..or did she?
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Thank you for not wasting the Dalmore 62 award
I applaud you Sam Jackson for not wasting the tasty beverage in Kingsman.
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Least safe sea beast enclosure ever award
Why would anybody sit in the front rows at Jurassic World? How much does this thing eat? Why feed it great whites? Can it swim right up to the that beach? Jurassic World is really bad.
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In 120 minutes you fit in eight air battles, one wedding, three rescues, 80 outfit changes, egg selling, Lizard henchmen, TV purchases, three dinners, bureaucracy, bounty hunters, double crosses, imprisonment, space orgies (10 seconds of footage, It took eight hours to film), bee attacks, toilet cleaning, almost space death, roller skating, expository dialogue (X8), wing growth and a whole lot more award.
I love Jupiter Ascending. It may be total gobbledygook but I love it.
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Most uncomfortable moment involving a bath tub award
Creep is a very good movie. The bathtub scene with Mark Duplass with hurt your soul.
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Best usage of fake films in a really good film award
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a very good film. I loved the 42 fake films and the posters are pretty great.
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Best dancing by a brilliant author award
The End of the Tour is a beautiful film. You need to watch it. Jason Segel is incredible as David Foster Wallace.
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The best bear attack that doesn’t happen in The Revenant award
Backcountry will punch you in the gut because you like the bear fodder.
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Best usage of Belgian beer
Kurt Russell is my hero. Furious 7 is #4 on the all-time worldwide box-office list. It is because of Kurt Russell (I have no proof to backup this claim). The guy is so good he knew Dominic would want Corona so he had a six pack waiting on ice.
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My favorite movie of the year award
I have nothing pithy to say about Love & Mercy. It is a fantastic film that is loaded with solid performances and great music. Viva la Pet Sounds!
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Best single line that describes an entire movie award
David Koechner calls his dog a “useless turd” in Krampus. Those words sum up the movie for me.
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I tried to explain your plot the other day and it ended up with two very confused people award
Predestination is a very good film. Just don’t try to break down the plot for your friends.
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Best usage of a possessed teenager kicking off her leg casts (Think Kickboxer) and then walking on broken legs while crunching noises abound with each step.
Insidious 3 and Lin Shaye were very good. I normally dislike horror prequels and was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be glorious (check out the pod for it here). You will love the crunchy leg scene.
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Best standing around in a barren landscape award
If you are going to stand around in the middle of nowhere you better look ridiculously good like the people in Spectre.
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Best reaction to being drugged award
What does Napoleon Solo do when he is drugged in The Man From U.N.C.L.E.? He gets comfy on a couch and awaits unconsciousness.
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Best real mustache award
Kurt Russell is my spirit animal. Hateful Eight uses his mustache skills perfectly.
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Best fake mustache and wig award
Jason Statham was pure gold in Spy. You need to see it.
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Best usage of sassy Irish women award
What I like about Brooklyn is that everybody feels three-dimensional. I would pay to watch the dinner scenes again.
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You do you, James Spader…..award
Even when Spader plays an evil robot in Avengers: Age of Ultron he still tilts his head. Spader keeps it real.
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John Leguizamo is the best and needs to be in more movies award
He has minimal screen time in American Ultra but Leguizamo still manages to steal the show. Put him in more movies!
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Best usage of potatoes award
I’ve never cheered for potatoes more. Their nourishment saved our favorite martian. The Martian is the crowd pleaser of 2015.
Best dancing by a megalomanic billionaire award
Oscar Issac dancing in Ex-Machina is a perfect example of a beautifully random moment.
Movie that I thought would never work, but did award
The Last Witch Hunter built a new world and was incredibly geeky. I love that Vin is trying to bring the world something new. The movie may not totally work but you gotta appreciate something original.
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If you love the Before trilogy and squishy noises you will love this movie award
Spring is like Before Sunrise met Species and spawned a sweet and romantic horror film.
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The Best Villains of 2015: A Collection of Stepmothers, Following Creatures and Paul Giamatti
2015 was a solid year for villainy. I love villains who can take the stock role of “villain” and transform it into something fun and exciting. The modern villain doesn’t need to twist his mustache or laugh maniacally. They need to feel real and most importantly dangerous. The following bad guys made the list because of their ability to be likable while being totally unlikable. Their backstories weren’t explained away via expository dialogue and I love the different types of menace they exhibited.
Here is the list!
Valentine – Kingsman: The Secret Service
The guy wants to destroy the world but he hates the sight of blood. I love it when Sam Jackson plays something other than Sam Jackson because his villains are always great. He adds a realistic menace and humor and I appreciate the idea of a dork turned evil. I loved his explanation of the villainous lisp he used in the film.
Having watched all those Bond films and other genre films of that nature, all the bad guys have something that’s very specific that separates them from other people. Or that makes people dismiss them as a villain as opposed to going, ‘he’s an evil guy’.’ So speech impediments are something that I understand because I stuttered when I was a kid, so people kind of dismiss you and go, ‘You can’t be interesting because you sound funny. So I’m sure Valentine had used that as a motivational tool in a certain kind of way because people had dismissed him.
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The Jerky Creature from It Follows
The reason the It Follows creature made the list is because it is absolutely terrifying. It never stops and has a one-track mind to kill and hunt. It will keep following you until you are dead and even if you pass along the curse it will always be coming for you. The thing is always walking and changing its rules. I have no clue where it came from or where it went. I just know that you never want this thing following you.
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Josef – Creep
What I love about Josef is that he is a modern, unsettling and wily villain. He knows how to key in on insecurities and his normal looking demeanor will undoubtedly be responsible for many deaths. Creep is a fantastic horror film that creates a believable bad guy that will terrorize people for many years. Kudos to Mark Duplass for creating such a three-dimensional bad guy.
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Immortan Joe – Mad Max: Fury Road
I want to know how Immortan Joe came to power. The dude has built quite the world for himself and I love how when things go down he has no problem riding into danger. The guy leads the war party and I love how he calls people “mediocre.” This is a guy who wants to leave a legacy and has genuine love for his children. He may have started his rule with earnest intent but his descent into madness is pretty great.
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Rayna Boyanov – Spy
Rayna might be the biggest jerk on the planet. She is profane, deadly and has more hair than any woman should. Rose Byrne is hilarious and I love her reactions to Melissa McCarthy. I love how a woman who is planning on selling a nuclear bomb can come across as likable. If you haven’t watched Spy do it now. You will love this loud kissing bad guy.
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John Fitzgerald – The Revenant
He is ruthless, deadly and almost impossible to kill. He has seen everything and will do anything to survive. He is the perfect villain because he is so dangerous and smarter than he appears. You take him serious as a threat and Tom Hardy is never not good.
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Stepmother – Cinderella
Cate Blanchett is fabulous in Cinderella. She takes a stock jerky role and somehow makes her human and evil. Anytime Cate Blanchet shows up on screen she oozes menace and insecurity. You know what is going to happen to her but you can’t wait until she gets her comeuppance.
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Laugher – American Ultra
Walton Goggins is my homeboy because he excels at creating likable villains. His character starts off a little rough but I love how he evolves throughout the film. You start feeling bad for the cold-hearted killer because he was basically a pawn in the governments game. They made him insane and you can still see some flashes of humanity in him.
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Dr. Eugene Landy and Jerry Heller – Love & Mercy and Straight Outta Compton.
Paul Giamatti can play a dirtbag like none other. I love that he played two musical villains and is perfect in the roles. He appears nice enough on the surface and I’m pretty certain he can connive his way into any contract. The guy can screw you over without the benefit of physicality and does so with a gusto.
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The Man Who Can’t Breathe – Insidious: Chapter 3
I love the Insidious villains. They are pure evil and have no problem wrecking havoc on nice families. The Man Who Can’t Breathe carries on the villain tradition and you will cover your eyes every time he is on screen. He creeps, peeps and makes a poor girl destroy her leg casts via kicking a bed post. The dude is the worst and he is the stuff of nightmares.
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The Best Horror Films of 2015: A Collection of Creeps, Jerky Demons and Rampaging Bears
If you’ve been reading MFF for sometime you know how much I’ve been praising the horror of 2014-2015. We’ve been lucky to have fantastic horror films that appeal to every type of person. They’ve been a proactive bunch that create new worlds and have adapted old tropes and made them modern. I love how they’ve taken familiar themes (slasher, found footage) and made them unpredictable. The five horror films I’ve picked stand out because they feature something new and exciting. They were critcally beloved and they’ve been building a bigtime following. It is a fun time to be a fan of horror because these films are actually good.
Here are my five favorite horror films of 2015!
- Creep
Creep takes the found footage world into unexpected territory by focusing on believable characters. It creates a modern, unsettling and believable bad guy who is totally refreshing. Mark Duplass is perfect in the role and I love how he manipulates and takes advantage of insecurities. He is the rare bad guy that I want to see more of and I hope a world is built around him. If you are looking for inspiration and want to create something in the film world I totally recommend you watch Creep. It is simple, smart and builds to a brutal conclusion. Let me know what you think when you watch it!
If you are interested check out the podcast we did for Creep and Spring
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2. Spring
Spring plays like Before Sunrise met An American Werewolf in London and spawned something like Species but totally different. It is an earthy film that plays with romance, love, loss and lots of squishy things. The critics have rallied around it (89% RT) and it is part of a recent low-budget horror revival. Spring has proven itself to be a genre lifter that take old ideas and makes them original.
A neat example of where Spring veers from the horror path is in the meet cute. The two characters lock eyes, she is obviously out of his league and when he approaches she immediately invites him back to her apartment (think Species). He is caught off guard and begins to wonder whether she is trying to rob, kill or trick him. He declines the offer and instead tries to set up a coffee date. It is a neat moment that plays against type and sets up a really neat romance.
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3. It Follows
It Follows has a unique style that blends a lurking sense of dread with absolute urgency. It isn’t afraid to mess with the genre while sticking to well-worn tropes. If you combined All the Real Girls with Nightmare on Elm Street and threw in All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, Elephant and The Sixth Sense you would have something sorta resembling the film.
Director David Robert Mitchell (The Myth of the American Sleepover) takes my favorite aspects of horror (urgency, dread, patience) and combines them with a beautifully simple story about the dangers of sex. Mitchell lets the film breath and this allows the rabbit and hare story to unfold organically. The teens sleepless state creates a dreamy atmosphere that is captured nicely by the lingering camera and patient editing. The film moves at a methodically slow pace yet you have a hard time catching your breath. Check out the It Follows podcast!
I love how Mitchell breaks down the opening scene in The New York Time’s Anatomy of a Scene video.
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4. Backcountry
When you watch as many horror movies and thrillers as I do you learn to appreciate when a good one comes around. Backcountry is a fantastic thriller that is crazy tense and actually creates likable characters. It is beautiful to look at and the story revolves around two hikers having a terrible trip. The young couple Jenn (Missy Peregrym) and Alex (Jeff Roop) are likable people and it breaks your heart because you know something will inevitably go wrong. You want this couple to make their way back to safety and not have a Grizzly Man experience. Backcountry is a crazy effective film that fills you with dread and unease. That is the highest compliment you can pay a thriller.
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5. Insidious: Chapter 3
I love the Insidious films and I think they excel at creating truly memorable bad guys. The Man Who Can’t Breathe is a great villain and I guarantee he will make you uneasy. Insidious 3 features my favorite horror moment of the year. A teenage girl (who is actually nice) is in bed because she broke both of her legs. Her legs are wrapped in casts and she is unable to move which makes her perfect prey. The jerky demon takes over her body and she stands up and breaks her leg casts on her wooden bed frame. Then, she walks on her crunchy broken legs and attempts to attack her father and friends. It is a crazy moment and gives the audience a truly memorable moment (listen to me wax poetic about it on the podcast). Also, Elise is awesome and I want more movies featuring her, Tucker and Specs. They are my current dream team of horror.
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John’s Horror Corner: In the Mouth of Madness (1994), not a Lovecraft story, but clearly made for fans of Cthulhu mythos.
MY CALL: One of the finer horror movies of the 90s, this film is an under-recognized masterpiece. I’d recommend this to fans of Stephen King, H. P. Lovecraft, and any movies that feature strong ancient evil-rooted stories and tentacled demons. MOVIES LIKE In the Mouth of Madness: Hard to say. Just in concept, I’d suggest Dagon (2001), The Resurrected (1991), The Shrine (2010) and Bleeders (1997). They all feature isolated locales and deliver us from rational thinking to an unraveled mystery.
If enough people believe in something, does it become a reality? Such is the question John Carpenter (Halloween, They Live, The Thing) horrifically personified with In the Mouth of Madness, which perhaps strikingly alludes to H. P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness. The script wasn’t adapted from any specific piece of Lovecraft’s work, yet you’ll find his influence throughout the movie in the form of perversions of reality and time distortion brought about by an abyssal darkness-touched madness.
Noirish detective scenes introduce us to the savvy insurance investigator John Trent (Sam Neill; Event Horizon), hired to locate the mysteriously missing author (Sutter Cane) of a Stephen King-style book series that has cultivated a cult-like following. Cane’s readers suffer from delusions, memory loss, and riot like zealots during book releases. Trent casually diagnoses this as mass hysteria, yet suffers weird dreams of evil mayhem and murderous mutant people shortly after accepting the case.
Some elaborate puzzle-solving uncovers a hidden message in Cane’s work revealing his location. So, following the clues, Trent travels to the mysterious town of Hobb’s End which has no business existing anywhere except within the pages of Cane’s novels. Almost certain this is an elaborate hoax, Trent becomes increasingly obsessed.
Now well-introduced to the notion of madness, we encounter various symbols of wayward travelers as enigmatic bicyclists, Cerberus-alluding trios of dogs protect the town’s church, and a slimy malleable giant wooden doors leading to another world. Among the townspeople we witness a contorted Exorcist crawler, mutant mongoloid children, people in a painting go from normal to disfigured mutants to tentacle monsters, and an old lady with “tentacle boobs” hacks up her husband…just all sorts of tentacle monsters.
This story begins rooted in a rational reality and gradually unravels into complete madness and small roles by David Warner (Waxwork, The Omen, My Best Friend is a Vampire), John Mahoney (Smallville, Gremlins 2) and Charlton Heston. On the way, we enjoy a fine diversity of great Cthulhu creature effects, loads of strong Cthulhu concepts (even if only loosely applied), and a fine nod to Stephen King.
I was pleased with the acting, special effects, story, sets and character development. This film is an under-recognized masterpiece. I’d recommend this to fans of Stephen King, H. P. Lovecraft, and any movies that feature strong ancient evil-rooted stories and tentacled demons. Enjoy, minions!
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Backcountry: A Fantastic Survival Thriller That is Loaded with Dread, Unease and Wild Action
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When you watch as many horror movies and thrillers as I do you learn to appreciate when a good one comes around. Backcountry is a fantastic thriller that is crazy tense and actually creates likable characters. It is beautiful to look at and the story revolves around two hikers having a terrible trip. The young couple Jenn (Missy Peregrym) and Alex (Jeff Roop) are likable people and it breaks your heart because you know something will inevitably go wrong. You want this couple to make their way back to safety and not have a Grizzly Man experience. Backcountry is a crazy effective film that fills you with dread and unease. That is the highest compliment you can pay a thriller.
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In films like this it is imperative to create likable characters. You need to care about the bear fodder and something needs to be at stake. The premise is terrifying (think Open Water) and it is made even worse because Jenn and Alex feel like real people. I love the build up to the action and the couple actually experience problems that happen to everybody. There is insecurity, cell phone usage and a man that is trying too hard to give his girlfriend a good time. You understand why Alex wants to impress Jenn and his dumb mistakes come from his insecurity and not that he is actually dumb.
When the action breaks out it punches you in the face with its intensity and urgency. It is like The Descent (no monsters here) met Open Water and spawned a crazy bear attack. Director Adam MacDonald had three years to prep and you can tell he was able to whittle it down to a lean 90 minutes that uses its scares well. MacDonald wanted it to appear real and he gets an A+ in carnage. MacDonald was aided greatly by Peregrym because her physicality is believable and you buy it when she climbs, runs and falls.
I love what Mark Harris had to say about Backcountry in his article about the indie horror boom:
Backcountry takes its time, which is always good for a horror movie. It also, for the most part, manages not to succumb to the “Don’t go into the basement, dumb-ass!” syndrome of horror movies whose characters are so stupid they deserve their fates, because Alex’s proclivity for doing the wrong thing emerges gently, as a product of his insecurity, his stubbornness, and his desire to show his girlfriend his idea of a good time. To the extent that he’s a trope, he’s a charmingly self-aware trope.
The last couple years have been loaded with fantastic horror films that feel proactive and not reactive. Between The Guest, Backcountry, It Follows,Spring, The Conjuring, Creep, What We Do in the Shadows, The Babadook, Honeymoon, Housebound, Cheap Thrills and Under the Skin horror fans have been really lucky. What makes them work is they are original ideas that are effective in inflicting scares, thrills and laughs. The themes are familiar yet they’ve found a way to make them their own and embrace the familiar tropes. Backcountry is proof that a familiar idea can be made fresh and exciting.
Backcountry is a fantastic calling card for MacDonald because it proves he has a firm grasp of character, tension and dread. I totally recommend you watch this film and enjoy the carnage.
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American Ultra: The Stoner Who Loved Me
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My initial reaction to American Ultra was disappointment. The film has a weird and occasionally lazy vibe that never gells. It felt like a mashup of cool ideas were thrown at a wall and only a few stuck. However, a few days later I started appreciating the film and the weird journey it took me on. I began to admire the core romance and the idea that nobody (good or bad) wanted to be on this particular mission to kill a deadly spy. It is a stoner spy flick that is full of likable characters, surprising depth and John Leguizamo in some crazy outfits.
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American Ultra tells the story of a stoner couple in West Virginia having a very bad night. Mike (Jesse Eisenberg) works in a convenience shop and smokes away his days until there is a permanent fog in his brain. His girlfriend Phoebe (Kristen Stewart) is equally as stoned but still has to be the responsible one because Mike is a total mess. One fateful night soldiers show up at the store and Mike dispatches them quickly and violently. From there the military comes in and it becomes like a Jason Bourne movie that smoked a lot of weed. I love that the town they live in is called Liman (named after Bourne director Doug Liman) and idea of Jessie Eisenberg as a killing machine battling a smug Topher Grace is very inspired.
What makes American Ultra work are the small moments that add to the uniqueness of the film. Stewart and Eisenberg had solid chemistry in Adventureland and they are even more comfortable here. The two compliment each other well and Phoebe’s reaction to her boyfriends particular set of skills are priceless. There is a particular scene where Mike and Phoebe are fleeing a jail and one of the mercenaries yells “stop.” Mike stops and the mercenary throws a grenade at them. The guy is so stoned he falls for the trick much to the amazement of Phoebe. Mike is a master class killer but the dude is pretty slow.
American Ultra is loaded with actors I like and I enjoyed watching Connie Britton, John Leguizamo, Walton Goggins and Topher Grace trade gun shots and one-liners. At first I thought they were wasting Walton Goggins in his thankless role as “Laugher.” However as the movie unfolds you actually feel for the guy and Goggins is allowed to do what he does best. Goggins excels at making bad guys likable. His bad guys are deadly and terrible but they have a soul and you sorta know where they are coming from.
What I found interesting was writer Max Landis’s twitter response to the box office failing of American Ultra. He was dismayed that it didn’t make much money ($5.5 million opening weekend) while critical duds like Hitman: Agent 47 and Sinister 2 made decent money. It was an earnest outburst but I understand why audiences didn’t flock to watch a violent R-rated stoner spy comedy. American Ultra is bound to be a cult classic and it won’t appeal to the mainstream. It is too laid back and at the same time incredibly violent. It is not what anybody will expect and it took me a while to warm up to it.
If you are into laid back yet crazy violent films you will love American Ultra. Check it out and let me know what you think!
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