MY CALL: Neither gory nor exhilarating, if you don’t like slow-burns then you definitely won’t like this. However, if you’d enjoy a callback to atmospheric 70s-80s horror with a well-developed and endearing victim, then this is for you. MORE MOVIES LIKE House of the Devil: Slow-burns like It Follows (2014), Session 9 (2001) and The Innkeepers (2012).
This film has loads of different movie posters, many of which follow a more dated style.
“During the 1980s over 70% of American adults believed in the existence of abusive Satanic cults… Another 30% rationalized the lack of evidence due to government cover-ups… The following is based on true unexplained events.”
From the opening shot director Ti West (The Sacrament, The Innkeepers, Cabin Fever 2) transports us to what feels like 1980, a time of payphones and public bulletin boards with thumb-tacked want-ads. The score, film quality, wardrobe and even the credits simply ooze “VHS horror.” The film doesn’t just “look” old, it “feels” old. Like it’s been in a dusty box of tapes in a closet for the past 35 years.
As with It Follows (2014), we take our time getting to know and invest in our female lead, Samantha (Jocelin Donahue; Insidious Chapter 2). Her hair and delicate features remind me of a young Margot Kidder (Black Christmas) and, thus, a good victim. She rents a house from an all-too-kind landlord (cameo by Dee Wallace; The Howling, Cujo, Halloween) but desperately needs money to pay her rent.
West gives us a lot of subtle hints, and then some unsubtle ones in the spirit of the more obvious horror of the 80s. When Sam finds a “babysitter wanted” flyer, it’s surrounded by flyers/ads for watching the upcoming lunar eclipse. Later the radio and TV news harbinger the ominous eclipse. Add that to the babysitter trope, a house in the middle of nowhere and her friend (reluctant to leave Sam alone) finding the house and owner creepy and no one in the audience should have missed what’s going to happen.
The house is huge and remote. Its owner (Tom Noonan; Wolfen, RoboCop 2) is weird but polite, speaking of preparation for the eclipse to a suspicious degree. He clearly wants Sam alone in the house, protesting the presence of her friend. When Sam hesitates the old man offers her $200, $300, then $400 to watch over the house for a few hours while he and his wife (Mary Woronov; Warlock, Chopping Mall) are out. Sam’s friend says this is “too good to be true” and she should leave…she’s obviously right!
There’s a lot of exposition but it’s delivered tactfully enough; like a subtle delivery of blatant content, which also holds for the scares and gore, when present (though rare and skewed to the end).
The film moves at a slow pace and it tiptoes the line between slightly boring and provokingly interesting. I don’t mind, though. I’m digging the nostalgic atmosphere and West does a god job of getting us familiar with Samantha and her friend (Greta Gerwig). Several scenes endear them to viewers, my favorite being Sam’s cute scene dancing around the creepy house listening to a Walkman.
The payoff in the end is nothing we haven’t seen before (many times, in fact, in 70s occult horror), but again, I don’t mind. It’s creepy. And even though we saw it coming and very little happens until the very end, I enjoyed this for what it was. Honestly, I enjoyed the buildup in the first 60 minutes more than the payoff at the end. Some may even argue that the final act does the film’s first hour no justice. Despite this perhaps somewhat justified criticism, I felt the film was largely beautifully executed.
West wisely cast aside the CGI, overblown gore for shock value, nudity and over-exposition. He ignores the rules of modern horror success and contemporary tropes to instead resurrect the nigh-forgotten tropes of decades past as he breathes life into that 70s/80s style that never truly benefited from high production value back in its time. In short, West has created a “classic horror” film for a modern audience that has lost its patience with dated films—and I applaud him for it!
There’s actually nothing original at all in this film. However, West’s careful approach restores my faith in an overplayed genre.
Other actors to look for in this film: AJ Bowen (Chillerama, You’re Next, The Sacrament)
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The 2015 Mid-Year Random Awards: Best Nautical Themed Outfit, Belgian Beer and Squishy Noises
Hello all. Mark here.
The random awards are back and they are more random than ever! We here at MFF celebrate the random (check out our podcast) and always look to give the reader something different. Because of our adherence to different I want to celebrate 2015’s dancing, squishy noises, Belgian beer and unsafe sea beast enclosures.
Sit back, relax and enjoy the 2015 mid-year random awards.
Best battle involving war boys, onesie wearing guitar players and elderly female motorcyclists.
Mad Max: Fury Road is amazing. It is the best movie of 2015 so far and I loved the final battle.
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Best Villain who dresses like “a slutty dolphin trainer.”
Spy is the funniest movie of 2015. You kinda need to watch it. Rose Byrne continues her comedy hot streak and Jason Statham is pure gold.
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Jason Statham needs to do more comedy Award
With this bit of dialogue Statham became a comedy legend.
You really think you’re ready for the field? I once used defibrillators on myself. I put shards of glass in my eye. I’ve jumped from a high-rise building using only a raincoat as a parachute and broke both legs upon landing; I still had to pretend I was in a Cirque du Soleil show! I’ve swallowed enough microchips and shit them back out again to make a computer. This arm has been ripped off completely and re-attached with this arm. During the threat of an assassination attempt, I appeared convincingly in front of congress as Barack Obama. I watched the woman I love get tossed from a plane and hit by another plane mid-air. I drove a car off a freeway on top of a train while it was on fire. Not the car, *I* was on fire.
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Best Fur Coat
Ben Mendelsohn in Slow West is my hero. I feel like the fur coat just formed around him one day.
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When searching for treasure in the Black Sea never allow Ben Mendelsohn to board the submarine award
Black Sea is a fun claustrophobic submarine movie that deserves a bigger audience. Kudos to Mendelsohn’s makeshift headband.
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Best erotic dance performed by a vampire
What We Do in the Shadows is the best vampire mockumentary ever made. You will love this movie.
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Best shooting of energy orbs that makes it look like you are a raver full of Red Bull
If Elizabeth Olsen’s character in Avengers: Age of Ultron got mad at a rave it would be lights out for all the poor dancers.
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Best dancing by a megalomaniac billionaire.
Ex-Machina is a fantastic film. Oscar Issac has never not been great.
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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?
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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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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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Best usage of Keegan-Michael Key calling people by the wrong name.
I could listen to Key’s character in Pitch Perfect 2 call Anna Kendrick “Reggie” all day.
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You dared to be optimistic award
Tomorrowland was an optimistic little thing that got written off because it was so optimistic. Please find a life on video.
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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 usage of squishy noises
Spring plays like Before Sunrise met Species and spawned a lot of squishy noises.
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Best DePalma homage involving a woman running around in high heels
It Follows is an original horror film that opens with a stellar cold open that is a calling card and love letter for director David Robert Mitchell.
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Sam Jackson is at his best when he plays a villain award
I love Kingsman. Sam Jackson and his lisp are pure gold. Also, he was amazing in Unbreakable.
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Best Bucket Holding Posture
Lily James is really really ridiculously likable. Cinderella is a fun live action remake that was a total cash grab but didn’t feel like a total cash grab.
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Best hiding of the word “Genisys”
Please don’t see the word “Genisys.” Please don’t see the word “Genisys.”
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I haven’t watched you yet but I hate you with all my soul (not me, the rest of the world) award.
Pretty much everyone on the planet hated Aloha before it came out. It is like John Carter all over again.
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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 nautical themed outfit worn by Benicio Del Toro.
Inherent Vice is a beautifully odd opus.
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MY CALL: This B-movie gets a solid A+. I love the gore and the zany creatures, and after a slow start the movie keeps stacking on the gore and lunacy more and more until the end. MOVIES LIKE Love in the Time of Monsters: Other horror comedies like Smothered (2014), Zombeavers (2014), Piranha 3D (2010), Slither (2006), Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010), Tremors (1990), Club Dread (2004)…and Blood Glacier (2013), although it takes a more serious approach to evil contamination of mother nature.
With all the style and subtlety of a summer camp slasher combined with a strong sense of self-aware satire, Love in the Time of Monsters sweeps horror fans away to a land of laughter. There are no scares to be had here–just gore and giggles. I’ll admit, I came in skeptical (and curious) and it took me a little while to figure out what kind of movie I was watching. Just know this, I love horror comedies and I grew to enjoy this film more and more as it revealed its nature to me.
Marla (Gena Shaw; Insomnium) and Carla (Marissa Skell; Sorority Party Massacre, Slumber Party Massacre) arrive to some tourist trap family vacation destination in the woods with cabins, fishing, hunting and buffet dining. Pretty much ‘Murica!!! The place is staffed by Lou (Kane Hodder; Wishmaster, Hatchet, Smothered) and his bigfoot suit-wearing entertainers.
The story takes root when one such furry entertainer is exposed to some contaminants. Subsequently, the other four fully-suited entertainers (including Kane Hodder) become infected with some sort of virus-thingy-whatever that makes them get slimy, put on their bigfoot masks, and become belligerent jerks that chase all unafflicted humans and eat their human flesh…sometimes…it’s not very consistent. LOL.
Now that we’ve delved into flesh-eating and what I can only describe as “mutant rage zombies” we should address the special effects and the apparently low budget. Whatever afflicts these bigfoot-costumed men is pretty simple to recognize by our now-hunted protagonists. A dash of ooze on the face, a couple of wart clusters on their face or neck and, oh yeah, they’re wearing bigfoot costumes. But this silly premise and low budget seem to be something to celebrate rather than ridicule. I was dazzled with glee when a bigfoot tore off a woman’s head with a dangling spinal cord in tow. It was sloppy and gory and it made me smile. It’s at about this point in the movie that I realized “this movie isn’t stupid, it’s FUN.” This film knows what it is and runs with it much to my pleasure.
Hey, bro. I think you’ve got an STD on your face.
All logic goes out the window in this film. A favorite scene of mine is when a bigfoot “sneaks up on a cop” by bum-rushing him in the middle of an open area and then projectile vomits face-melting acidic bile all over his face. Why can it do that? No clue (well, it’s quasi-explained later). But it’s a gore-slathered mess and I like it. Afterwards we get a Romero-esque rubber gut-ripping display and another guy has his face torn off and eyes popped out. Lots of gore. Pure joy.
What’s more is that this silly script and it’s often lame lines are delivered strikingly well. The acting rightly feels deliberately campy. I roll my eyes and grin at the lines, but the lines are intentionally delivered in such a manner as to bring about that very reaction. Everyone is hitting on everyone else, drug and alcohol placement is blatant, and some girl clumsily runs through the forest in high heels and lingerie. Oh, right, and some murderous afflicted men are killing people in bigfoot costumes. This is just plain silly. This film clearly has no illusions of being taken seriously by viewers. So if you’re taking this movie seriously and thinking “what am I watching and why am I watching it,” you’re doing it wrong!
All the characters have their overblown clichés and the film is stitched together with one farced trope after another. A favorite character of mine was the Sasquatch hunter Chester (Hugo Armstrong; Coherence). He’s weird and played with a straight face but has some of the funniest lines…”A woman on the radio in the gentle forest silence…It’s like diarrhea in a kiddy pool” and “I couldn’t leave you running around in the dark like that, so…I shot you.”
This happens… A lodge entertainer goes full throttle while trying to create a diversion.
There’s a simple brilliance behind the bigfoot costumes. Without them, we’d have slimy warty jerks as antagonists. It would have looked stupid; it would have been stupid. Lord knows I’ve seen enough lousy student films helmed by visionless filmmakers. But with these silly costumes we are given something to laugh at and playfully mock instead of sneer at and hatefully criticize.
Speaking of silly, completely out of nowhere a doctor in a felt Abraham Lincoln beard (Doug Jones; John Dies at the End, Absentia) explains that the cause of the affliction is a combination of medical and pharmaceutical waste and some bacteria giving the men irregular strength and pain tolerance. He explains that they will continue to get stronger, faster and meaner until they die from overcharging their body. How Dr. Lincoln could know this is beyond me. This was just another utterly ridiculous nugget that made this silly movie work in its own way. Oh, and he can make an antidote…because he’s an expert in medicine, toxicology, pharmacology, and pretty much everything else and can conduct ground-breaking science in an hour with whatever is on hand at a vacation lodge in his office.
So far this movie is pretty fun, but there’s room to grow. But just then, in the spirit of Blood Glacier (2013) we encounter a mutant rage zombie moose, mutant rage zombie trout swimming upstream, and a flock of mutant rage zombie geese. Again, these effects are not necessarily good, but they are abundant and easily “good enough” and most importantly they are FUN. The real treat comes at the end…mutant rage zombie squirrels!!! They swarm lodge entertainer Brandi (Heather Rae Young; Chillerama), strip her naked while biting her all over, and make roaring sounds. Then, as if combining “The Cat from Hell” (Tales from the Darkside: The Movie) with Alien (1979), one of them forces itself down her throat and then tears out of her chest between her breasts, ringing the dinner bell for the bigfoot gang to chow down on some bloody, gut-covered boobs.
Because mutant squirrel zombies roar. LOL
Things are really getting out of hand at this point. Then, out of nowhere, the “real” bigfoot shows up (with a moderately more convincing costume than the mutant age zombies) and battles the electrically charged Kane Hodder mutant rage zombie. Then zombie raccoons, a moose and roaring squirrels show up for a final fight battle montage. This is nuts.
This movie is loads of fun and the moment you think you’ve hit the climax of the excitement it gives you more zany, gory madness again and again. Give this fine slapstick horror comedy a chance.
Let the filmmakers (http://www.tbcfilms.com/) know what you thought on Twitter: @UncleSlavko & @gunnforhire
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Hello all. Mark here.
Goon is one of my favorite films. It is infinity rewatchable and loaded with likable characters, bone crunching fights and a really neat romance. The book adaptation flew under the radar in 2011 and I love that it has built up an audience. It is the rare R-rated hockey enforcer comedy that is critically loved (82% RT) and adored by non-hockey fans. We here at MFF have written about it ad nauseam but with the sequel currently in production I had to write another post.
The Boys Are Back in Ice Town!
1. The Hebrew Dolph Lundgren
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I love the character of Doug Glatt. He is an earnest wrecking ball who realizes his limitations and enjoys being the muscle for his team. Sean William Scott’s underrated performance blends kindness, intelligence, naivety, and badass into a three-dimensional ball of muscle. There is no condescension and Jay Baruchel’s and Evan Goldberg’s writing create a likable bruiser who is in no way a bully. He is a nice dude who has no delusions of grandeur and uses his power for good. He is the type of guy who has a wild brawl and says “Good fight. He’s a nice guy.”
When he deserves a beating he takes it, his love for corndogs is unabashed and he has no problem beating up six people at once.
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2. The Relationship
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Everything Alison Pil’s character Eva (It’s like the Bible with a bit more mustard on it) does is pure gold. I love her reactions and annoyance at following for the earnest bruiser. She loves that he can beat up pretty much anybody and no matter how honest she is he still adores her.
Eva: I’m a slut, Doug. I’m horny a lot. I sleep around. That doesn’t bother you?
Doug Glatt: The truth is, I just… I have a really huge crush on you.
I love that Pil’s character is in charge of her life and is accepting of it. I’ve never seen a character like hers and I hope she is back for the sequel.
Watch her reactions in this clip. Fantastic.
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3. Kim Coates the Coach
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If I played hockey and Kim Coates was my coach I would be stoked. After Sons of Anarchy it is hard to remember that Coates is a normal dude who isn’t in to some really weird stuff. Coach Ronnie Hortense commands respect and comes across as a really good dude. He is like a father figure to Doug and isn’t afraid to call him on his shit. If you inserted him into any hockey movie I guarantee he would make that team better.
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4. The Team
They are a ragtag group of alcoholics, Russians and dudes who love Percocet. I dig how they all come from opposing walks of life and are treating this team as a pit stop, last stop or something that pays their med school bills. There is a moment when Doug takes a massive beating to win a game and when the buzzer goes off his team skates out and beats the snot out of the opposing team. They start off as a motley crew and end up as a motley crew that have each other’s backs. You gotta love their introduction as well.
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5. The Diner Scene
Stephen Holden of The New York Times summed up Sean William Scott’s and Leiv Schreiber’s performances perfectly with this quote:
It must be said that Mr. Scott and Mr. Schreiber convey an intelligence that belies their characters’ stupidity, a quality that is really hard to feign.
Leiv Schreiber is perfect as the foil Ross Rhea. He gets his enforcer role and has become a deeply cynical man. You can tell he loves the sport and is actually looking forward to fighting Glatt. Schreiber was perfectly cast because he exudes badass and out does Russell Crowe in the mustache department. He takes a one-note bad guy and adds three-dimensions.
I love the old school meets new school vibe of the diner scene. There is a respect and annoyance to the proceedings. The best part about the diner scene is that it is really well shot, lit and acted. I love this movie.
Kid, you got this thing. The stuff. The sh*t. The f**kin’ grit, you got it, like me. But like me, that’s all you f**kin’ got. And like me, you’re no good to anyone doing anything else. All I’m saying is don’t go trying to be a hockey player. You’ll get your f**kin’ heart ripped out.
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Hello all. Mark here.
The Audible sponsored MFF pod is back! We want to thank everyone for pushing us to the “What’s Hot” section on Itunes and we promise to keep bringing the educated randomness, Kurt Russell facts and slightly answered questions
You can download the pod on Itunes or you can head to the Sharkdropper website to stream the pod!
This week I picked the 15 best action moments since 2000 and we dove into the topic like McConaughey dove into certain death in Reign of Fire.
The dude jumped like 20 feet off of a platform while holding a 45 pound axe. #legit
No stone is left unturned (or spin kicked) as we discuss The Raid, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Hot Fuzz, Gladiator, Bourne Identity, Transporter, The Rundown, The Last Stand and Casino Royale.
Daniel Craig introduced his Bond to the world by running through a wall.
We also slightly answer these questions:
1. Who wins in a fight? Critters or Ghoulies?
2. What if you moved away from Elm Street?
3. How many Final Destinations will it take to get to the Final Destination?
You can download the pod on Itunes or you can head to the Sharkdropper website to stream the pod.
Enjoy. Rate. Share. Review. Share. Thanks!
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You gotta get the details right. Otherwise we’re just making another craptastic movie.
With this sentence Timothy Olyphant’s character sums up the film. Perfect Getaway is fantastic B-movie that looks beautiful and is fully self-aware. It knows what it is and has no problem letting the audience in on the joke. A perfect example of this is an exchange between Milla Jovovich and a passing hiker:
Milla: It’s only three miles to the beach?
Hiker: Yeah. but lots and twists and turns ahead.
Perfect Getaway tells the story of 6 hikers (3 couples) who are trekking through Hawaii. When they are on the Kauai trail they learn about a honeymooning couple that was murdered at the nearby island Oahu. Suspicions arise, blue steel glances are shared and it all leads to a twist ending that you didn’t see coming. Watching the film a second time is especially rewarding because you realize how layered the performances are. You pick up on little nuances and realize A Perfect Getaway sets up all the puzzle pieces on the hike. You also realize that Timothy Olyphant is probably the only person on the planet who can make this hat look cool.
Timothy Olyphant, Kielle Sanchez, Milla Jovovich and Steve Zahn play well off each other and all have moments to shine. Sanchez and Jovovich handle the action well and they make for totally believable action stars. Sanchez especially shines as she carries the brunt of the running, falling, climbing and more running. Olyphant oozes charm and danger as a self-described “American Jedi” who is really hard to kill. A bulked up Steve Zahn ditches the doof persona and gives his best performance since Joy Ride (Random aside. People love Joy Ride…I totally forgot about that).
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Director/Writer David Twohy (Pitch Black, Riddick) uses his locations well and lets the camera linger on the beautiful Hawaiian coast. I remember thinking APG would be a pleasant distraction but I was totally caught off guard by how great it all looks. There are shots that drop your jaw and make you reevaluate your expectations. It goes off the rails at the end and there is a scene with four male hikers that sorta crushes my soul. I’d like to go into more detail but as Roger Ebert stated “Man, am I glad I knew nothing about “A Perfect Getaway” going in.”
Did I mention Chris Hemsworth makes a pre-Thor appearance as a guy named Kale(?).
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I love movies like A Perfect Getaway because they are better than they have any right to be. It is nowhere on the level of Hitchcock but what is? This is a movie that doesn’t insult the viewer, gives us something new and is very rewatchable. It is a B-movie that relishes the genre and lets the Hawaiian coast speak for itself. It is a well-shot and thought out little thing that simply wants to tell an original story.
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Spring: Love in a Time of Squishy Things
I’m living the fantasy of some rich American home wife.
With these words Evan (Lou Taylor Pucci) sums up his Italian vacation. He recently lost his mom and as a way of coping he took off on an impromptu Italian vacation. He found a room at a charming farm run by an eclectic elderly man and has somehow gotten in the good graces of a beautiful and mysterious woman named Louise (Nadia Hilker).
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 despite some shortcomings it is part of a recent low-budget horror revival. Backcountry, It Follows and Spring have proven to be genre lifters that take old ideas and make them original.
A neat example of where Spring veers from the horror path is in the meet cute. The two 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.
I don’t want to spoil anything about the film because it goes down very interesting avenues. I did wonder how an earnest guy like Evan wooed a woman like Louise. Spring veers into the land of the “male dream” and as the finale occurs you are skeptical instead of absorbed. In an interview with Variety co-director Justin Benson talked about his characters and had this to say:
When you watch ‘Jaws,’ if those dudes on the boat aren’t really interesting guys that you actually care about, then that shark doesn’t have as much impact.
The biggest problem is the “jaws” in Spring is Louise. She has a lived in backstory and is wonderfully performed by Nadia Hilker. She is sophisticated, beautiful and really cool. You don’t want her to be “caught” by Evan because his character is a blank slate. Evan is a good dude but is in no way an equal to Louise. If it had been Ethan Hawke in Before mode I could totally see his word trickery working on her.
The point may be moot as you sit and realize how sweet and hopeful Spring is. It may play like a male fantasy but at least it tries to be different. In an interview with the AV Club Benson and co-director Aaron Moorhead had this to say.
It felt like there was something sort of rebellious in the act of creating a new monster. Because for some reason it was something that so few people attempt to do now. Usually, when people want to tell a monster story, it’s a vampire, it’s a werewolf, or it’s an alien. It’s always got to be one of those things. That’s pretty much it, conceptually.
A lot can be ignored when young directors go out on a limb to tell a new story. I dug the walking and talking and the Italian vistas speak for themselves.
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Spring is an ambitious and inventive horror hybrid that is deservedly making waves. I am stoked to see what the directors do next and I hope they can fine tune their talents and make the genre world a better place.
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What to Watch This (or Any) Long Weekend – July 2015
We have another long weekend coming up (well I do, so yay for me!) around the 4th of July…so I thought this might be a fine time to follow up on my April Binge TV watching post (go, check it out now!).
As always, check out the lists and let me know what you think. What are your favorite shows on streaming? Leave you comments and suggestions! I’ll catch ya I the comments section.
- Daredevil (Netflix) – 13 Episodes – It’s dark, it’s bloody and action filled… and it’s Marvel? Yes, so much yes. Marvel’s direct to Netflix TV series is just delightful, from the newest British import superhero to the many layered villain, Vincent D’onofrio’s Wilson Fiske. I could gush for days, just go watch it now before someone (like me) spoils it. Mark reviewed the full series, check it out for full details.
- The Inbetweeners – (Netflix) – 3 Seasons, 18 (25 min) Episodes – Not for the easily offended. A raunchy little British comedy about 4 friends navigating high school in all of its awkward glory. So awkward, so vulgar…they had to make 2 movies to follow it up.
- Strike Back – (Amazon Instant Video) – 2 Seasons, 20 Episodes – A former American soldier and a British agent team up to fight terrorists. Lots of violence and just as much sex. Not for everyone, but you have to appreciate how this show just goes for ‘it’.
- Vikings – (Amazon Instant Video) – 2 Seasons, 19 Episodes – This TV show from the History channel is not watered down for primetime viewing. Pillaging, sorcery, murder, wives with fleeting alliances…watch and be captivated by Ragnar Lothbrok, the legend.
- You’re the Worst – (Amazon Instant Video, not on Prime yet) – 10 episodes –Relationships in their ugliest form, between selfish people, surrounded by uncomfortable comedy. So wrong, but so right. Season 2 will be out this Fall! Ummm… has anyone noticed that I love awkward TV?
Streaming Wish List
All of the previous list with a few additions. We started watching Peaky Blinders, and it is just as amazing as I’d hoped…just haven’t finished yet.
- The Wire – (Amazon Instant Video) – I have started watching this, but I’m only halfway into Season. 1. Interesting story, can’t wait to see what happens next.
- Sense 8 – (Netflix) – Looks weird, right up my TV binging alley.
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – (Netflix) – Let’s face it, with Marvel everywhere, this was inevitable.
- Catastrophe – (Amazon Instant Video) – I’ve heard rave reviews, and I need some more funny TV in my life.
Happy Long Weekend All!
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John’s Horror Corner: Dawn of the Dead (1978), if Romero is an artist, the zombie is his brush
MY CALL: Perhaps my favorite zombie movie of all time, this is gory, often funny, occasionally brutal film features credibly flawed characters that we can get behind and a believable story of a zombie apocalypse. MOVIES LIKE Dawn of the Dead: Try Romero’s other early zombie movies (Night of the Living Dead, Day of the Dead). They’re amazing. Want to see some other films that paved the way for horror as we know it today? Try Poltergeist (1982; discussed at length in our podcast #16), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).
Back in 1978, gore like this wasn’t so common.
In the spirit of our recent podcast, The MFF Podcast #15: The George A. Romero Zombie Special, I must also credit my fellow podcasters John Lasavath and Mark Hofmeyer as co-writers of the content in this review since I am including some of their insights herein…
In 1968 George Romero revolutionized the “movie zombie” concept by delivering the contagious, flesh-eating zombie (in lieu of risen corpses of vengeance via Voodoo). Zombies “eating people” was a notion that had not before been realized on film. Needless to say, in the next 10 years flesh-eating zombies became a celebrated theme in horror. After numerous copycats followed Night of the Living Dead (1968), Romero finally made his highly anticipated sequel. After various delays, eventually Dario Argento flew Romero to Italy, where Romero penned the script. Romero had complete creative freedom and, in exchange, Argento got to make his own cut however he wished—and he did so with none of the humor. I am quite curious to see this cut, but I doubt it would be as entertaining.
In Dawn of the Dead (1978), we find ourselves looking at the world now that the zombie apocalypse is well under way and a fact of life. In equal doses of satire and realism, hunting and gun enthusiasts (i.e., proud rednecks) rally together and form base camps to “hunt” the zombies, draining beer coolers as they heckle each other’s marksmanship over lunch. Very funny, yet very believably delivered with perhaps a somewhat straight face.
We focus on four survivors who find their way to a shopping mall (back when malls were a relatively new thing) in the spirit of consumerism. Shortly after their arrival, they observe waves of zombies being drawn to the mall…as if it was their instinct to go there to find what they need—flesh, in this case. National Guardsmen Peter (Ken Foree; The Lords of Salem, Death Spa) and Roger join Stephen and Francine in realizing that their residence in this mall may last longer than they anticipated.
Romero is more a prophet than filmmaker. Just look at his Nostradamus-like foretelling of society’s degeneration on Black Friday.
This was definitely the most fun movie in Romero’s initial zombie trilogy. There’s a playfulness to it. And why not? A lone zombie poses little threat to an able-bodied, wary person like a National Guardsman. We see Roger and Peter running around the mall having fun, like two bros playfully running football drills, as they collect groceries and equipment. Roger slides down the escalator rails, they taunt and herd zombies where they want them or knock off their zombie hats, they sprint through department stores—all the things we would get yelled at for doing when we were kids.
Stephen can’t shoot, so Roger teaches him the now common knowledge that zombies are killed with headshots; Peter and Roger being chummy.
We get some great zombie kills in this film, my favorite of which being when the helicopter chops off the zombie’s head—the top of it anyway. Just watching the zombies wander the mall offers its own form of entertainment. Romero never gave clear direction to the zombie actors. He wanted them to do whatever they wanted and some of their facial expressions are priceless. That gave us today’s zombies. My favorite zombie had to be the Hare-Krishna.
We see a lot of this Krishna-zombie.
Of course, the tedium of their mall-inhabiting lifestyle wears on our protagonists. There’s a strong sense of irony when we find Peter playing racquetball on the roof as the zombie apocalypse presses on. Eventually they develop a desire to move elsewhere and find other survivors. This is where some tension builds.
Despite being so gorily loaded with rubber guts and torn flesh, this film has a good sense of humor to it until the end, which closes on a dark note when a paramilitary biker gang overtake the mall and all chaos breaks out. This long segment of the movie is a tolling dose of reality and human nature.
Some may criticize the “inconsistency” of Romero’s zombies, sometimes moving fast and sometimes slow. But here’s something to consider: Zombies, like any movie antagonist, are a dangerous as they need to be in any given scene. They’re as fast or dangerous or scary as the scene merits. That’s the difference between reality and filmmaking, life and drama. Whenever a protagonist martial artist character faces a single bad guy, you get one fight that endures exchanging countless blows lasting 5-10 minutes of screen time. However, when that same martial artist encounters 20 bad guys, each bad guy is dispatched with one or two quick, easily delivered techniques.
Now a staple in zombie movies, our protagonists face the fear and reality of seeing one of their own succumb and contract zombiism. This is handled well, with early dashes of pragmatism and ultimate pessimistic reality, denial and inner conflict.
Another curiosity is why a bite (however minor it may be) will cause a victim to die within days and become a zombie, whereas getting zombie blood splattered in Roger’s face (e.g., the truck recon scene) is no worry at all for contracting zombiism—consider what happens to Brendan Gleeson in 28 Days Later. To this end, I say chill out. This was Romero’s second movie and he “invented” the zombie you have come to know and love. The “zombie rules” were still being written right in front of us and, in Romero’s zombiverse, this was the first time it happened. He was just making a movie, people. Blood splatters are exciting and manifest urgency. Don’t overthink it. Romero hadn’t even identified the zombiism definitively as a curse, virus or anything…we just get hints.
Speaking of those hints, a news clip from Night of the Living Dead (1968) suggested the possible cause of zombiism was radioactive contamination from a space probe from Venus crash-landing on Earth. Perhaps there were radioactive bacteria on the probe that were ingested by patient zero, and the reason only a bite will cause zombiism is because the affliction lies in the intestinal bacteriofauna (or gut flora) in the infected zombies. Why might a scratch infect you? Because the zombies sloppily eat with their hands, which are now covered with this alien bacteria. There! Blood splatter controversy solved. LOL.
Another hypothesis of the zombie outbreak origin…
We embark on a rollercoaster of emotion as this gory film was loads of fun and managed to make us wince in the utterly brutal opening scenes, laugh in the middle, and grow tense at the end. The characters expressed various credible human responses to pressure and danger, bravery and cowardice, control and chaos. The story was solid and the dilemmas faced made sense. Night of the Living Dead will remain Romero’s most important film and the most significant zombie film perhaps ever to be made. But I find Dawn of the Dead to be his best film.
Want a second opinion on the film? Try this review from Rivers of Grue.
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Spy: The Funniest Movie Of 2015 (so far)
Rick Ford: You really think you’re ready for the field? I once used defibrillators on myself. I put shards of glass in my eye. I’ve jumped from a high-rise building using only a raincoat as a parachute and broke both legs upon landing; I still had to pretend I was in a Cirque du Soleil show! I’ve swallowed enough microchips and shit them back out again to make a computer. This arm has been ripped off completely and re-attached with arm.
Susan Cooper: I don’t know that that’s possible… I mean medically…
Rick Ford: During the threat of an assassination attempt, I appeared convincingly in front of congress as Barack Obama.
Susan Cooper: In black-face? That’s not appropriate.
Rick Ford: I watched the woman I love get tossed from a plane and hit by another plane mid-air. I drove a car off a freeway on top of a train while it was on fire. Not the car, *I* was on fire.
Susan Cooper: Jesus, you’re intense.
Spy is so funny you will need to watch it several times to catch all the jokes. While you are laughing at one joke another three go by and you end up missing some gems.For instance, I have no clue what happened after this dialogue exchange between Melissa McCarthy and Rose Byrne because I was laughing so hard.
Rayna Boyanov: My father used to bring people like you here.
Susan Cooper: Did he also make you dress like a slutty dolphin trainer?
I’m not sure if that line was improv’d or if they made that dress because somebody wrote that joke.
There are so many funny characters and moments you wonder how director Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, The Heat) was able to pull it all off. In one film Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne, Jason Statham, Allison Janney, Jude Law, Jessica Chaffin, Miranda Hart, Curtis Jackson, Will Yun Lee, Bobby Cannavale, Julian Miller, Peter Sarafinowicz, Michael McDonald and Bjorn Gustafsson all have their moments and practically steal the show.
I love seeing Melissa McCarthy back from the land of Identity Thief and Tammy. Those two films turned her volume up to 11 and ditched all semblance of character. She was loud, lewd, mean and seemingly had no telling her it was a bad idea. She is a very funny person who is at her best when playing capable, smart and foul-mouthed. In Spy she is a badass agent who happens to look like Melissa McCarthy. Her looks get her set up with various cheeky aliases (I look like someone’s homophobic aunt!) but they all fit the mission and are not jokes aimed at her. Much like in Bridesmaids her character has three-dimensions and keeps surprising us at every corner. The clip below is a perfect example of McCarthy’s character and her surprises NSFW
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Spy tells the story of Agent Susan Cooper (McCarthy) going undercover to infiltrate a nuclear arms deal. She gets the job because all of the other agents identities have been compromised and she is the only person that cannot be recognized. After some initial annoyance (Statham wants to use fake face/off machine) she is finally able to break free from the CIA surveillance basement that was loaded with rats, bats and cake with rat poop on it and get some actual field work. The mission takes her all over the world, gets her groped repeatedly and puts her in the insult crossfires of a woman named Rayna Boyanov (Byrne) NSFW
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It is all fodder for funny people to come in and make you laugh. The film shoots around from Paris to Budapest and plays like a spy film on redbull. There are double crosses, triple crosses, lots of death, copious profanity and Jason Statham saying this:
Nothing kills me. I’m immune to 179 different types of poison. I know because I ingested them all at once when I was deep undercover in an underground poison-ingesting crime ring.
I never thought I’d see the day where Jason Statham plays a bumbling dork. In Spy he is angry that McCarthy got the mission so he goes rogue and basically makes more work for her. He is oblivious to the fact that all the bad guys know his face and he keeps showing up at the worst times with the worst wigs and somehow fails his way out of each situation. It is a blast to watch Statham have fun and his back and forth with McCarthy is pure gold.
Rick Ford: You’re going to ruin this mission.
Susan Cooper: No, you’re going to ruin this mission.
Rick Ford: No, you are.
Susan Cooper: No, you’re going to!
Rick Ford: You… times infinity!
The action in Spy is pretty fantastic as well. It keeps the surprises coming and establishes McCarthy as a resourceful badass in the vein of Jason Bourne. Planes are crashed, cars are wrecked and there is a excellently choreographed kitchen fight that is better than it has any right to be. Also, as the action builds so does the humor. No character is safe from a one-liner (your hair broke your fall) and just when they seem to have the day won they accidentally shoot somebody in the face because of allergies.
Spy is another win for Paul Feig and I can’t wait to see what he does next. I’d love to see a Spy sequel if Feig directs again because I want to spend more time with the characters. I could sit for hours watching Jason Statham get tricked by his coworkers while McCarthy is somewhere kicking butt.
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