The MFF Podcast #8: An exploration of 50 Shades of Grey and when saving the day goes wrong
Hello all. Mark here.
Episode 8 of the “new and noteworthy” (thank you Itunes) and Audible sponsored podcast is here!
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In this episode we answer listener questions like “who wins in a fight? The Rock in Walking Tall or The Rock in The Rundown?” While answering the questions our wonderful host Lasavath accidentally comes up with a beautiful poem entitled “The Rock is hot for Sean William Scott.” From there we talk about 50 Shades of Grey and when saving the day goes wrong. It is a spirited discussion that showcases what MFF does best. We appreciate all aspects of cinema and explore the randomness that it has to offer.
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You can download the podcast on Itunes or you can stream it on the Sharkdropper website. If you have an Android phone check out the app called Onecast. It makes listening to pods even easier!
If you get a chance please rate, review and share the podcast! We appreciate your listenership and want to continue to build upon the randomness.
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10 Questions about the Summer Blockbusters
Hello all. Mark here.
The summer season is upon us and I have many questions. It seems no matter how much money or talent is behind the camera there are always plot holes, reshoots and unanswered questions. I continue to watch the big budget summer fare because there is nothing better than experiencing a home run like Fast Five on the big screen. When a director and crew can balance mainstream appeal with lofty ideas it is a thing of magic. Last year Edge of Tomorrow and Interstellar knocked my socks off and proved to be amazing theatrical experiences.
The 2015 summer blockbuster trailers raised a lot of questions. The following post dares to ask the random questions so you don’t have to.
1. Is it just me or does the new Avengers movie have WAY too many characters?
I trust Joss and I think he can juggle the characters. However, it seems like Marvel is throwing up 50 balls and expecting him to keep them all in the air. The original kept it relatively simple with one villain, several heroes and weird flying tremors. The sequel has Ultron, Vision, Scarlett Witch, Quicksilver, Falcon, Rhodey, Baron Strucker Ulysses Claw, Avengers, Nick Fury, Maria Hill, Loki and Heimdall. Good luck!
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2. Who wins? The earthquake or The Rock
I know normal denizens will be wiped off the earth but you have to wonder how The Rock will do. I almost feel bad for the earthquake. The earthquake was being an earthquake and will most likely catch a Rock Bottom for its troubles.
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3. What happens if the Jurassic World dinosaur leaps a little to the right?
I still can’t shake how poorly executed this sea beast enclosure is. What if the dinosaur leaps into the stands? How deep is the tank? Where are the ponchos? Why isn’t The Rock riding it? They will need much more than one shark to feed that thing. They can create dinosaurs from mosquito remains yet risk billions in lawsuits because of potential “Sea beast crushing.”
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4. Will Ant-Man’s small-scale property destruction be the next big thing?
Ant-Man looks like a mess but I love the toy train destruction. Finally, something small gets wiped out. I’m hoping that Rudd and crew are able to pull this film off because I love the idea of something different in the Marvel universe.
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5. How do you become a Fury Road post-apocalyptic guitar player?
I get that music is great for intimidation. However, did this guy try out for the job? Was there a Whiplash or Drumline style tryout period? What song is he playing?
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6. Is it just me or is the new Terminator poster trying to take your attention away from the word Genisys?
The new Terminator films looks like a hot mess. It hasn’t been aided by the title Genisys. I love the cast but it all looks so stock and unnecessary. Also, with the latest poster I feel like they are trying to hide the word “Genisys.”
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7. Is Tom Cruise human?
The answer is “No.” He might be a Highlander. The dude hangs out on the side of a taking off plane and looks totally comfortable. What if a bird hit him? I can’t wait for the next Mission Impossible.
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8. Will Fantastic Four be clobbered before it gets released?
Does the studio hate it? Was Josh Trank in over his head? Why all the reshoots? Can you really mess up a cool story inhabited with fantastic young actors? I loved Chronicle and I hope this film takes off so we don’t get the inevitable reboot.
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How will Pitch Perfect make the change from sleeper hit to expected blockbuster?
It all started as a word of mouth sensation that blew up in theaters and exploded on DVD. How will the sequel hold up under the big time microscope? Will it adhere to the bigger is better sequel tropes? Will Fat Amy be less of a character and more of a force of nature? I really hope the sequel is good because I love the original.
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Will Spy be more Bridesmaid/Get Smart than Tammy/The Heat?
I love Get Smart and Bridesmaids. The Heat and Tammy were soul crushing. I love Melissa McCarthy when she plays a three-dimensional character and not a loud version of herself (AKA Tammy).
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MY CALL: Definitely not for everyone. This film is sweet and funny, but it has its Texas Chainsaw moments, too. It’s a cute little murderous movie. MOVIES LIKE The Voices: Maybe American Psycho (2000), which is much smarter and more serious.
Ryan Reynolds (RIPD, Safe House, Green Lantern) seems to be supportive of indie and experimental films. The Captive and Buried presented him with new challenges, and I suppose The Nines and Finder’s Fee presented some different styles to try to round him out as an actor. His latest non-mainstream endeavor is The Voices, in which he plays the voices of his Scottish-accented cat Mr. Whiskers, his dog Bosco, a weird Bunny Monkey sock puppet, and a dying deer his character hits with a car. It’s like a slasher-Psycho version of Eddie Murphy’s The Nutty Professor.
The cat is menacing; the dog, warm-hearted. Like having a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other, Bosco is everything good in Jerry whereas Mr. Whiskers exudes the evil from the darkest corners of Jerry’s psyche.
If that sounds a bit odd to you, your suspicions are correct. This film is odd. Were it not for my being a Ryan Reynolds fan, I’d probably have spent the first 20 minutes of this movie wondering if renting it was a mistake. That said, the story does find its legs and gains some traction. It doesn’t end up anywhere great, but it certainly turned out to be something interesting. At the very least, it’s a story you have not seen told before (not like this anyway).
Meet Jerry…sitting alone talking to a goldfish bowl in a Chinese restaurant. Story of his life.
Jerry (Ryan Reynolds) is a sweet, likable factory worker with schizophrenia. He tries to fit in and live a normal life, but his actions highlight his eccentricities, alerting everyone around him that something about him is weird. As a product of not taking his medication, he comes home to a friendly talking dog and his cat, who verbally abuses him with a Scottish accent.
Jerry has a crush on Fiona (Gemma Arterton; Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, Byzantium, Clash of the Titans) that turns from something pathetic into something awkward and then develops into something tragic…but the whole time we feel for Jerry. Things gets worse when Lisa (Anna Kendrick; Pitch Perfect) goes out on a date with him. Completely incompetent and thus facilitating his madness is Jerry’s psychiatrist (Jackie Weaver; Haunt, Stoker), who never takes appropriate action regarding Jerry’s treatment and medication. Gemma Arterton, Anna Kendrick and Jackie Weaver all contribute decent performances.
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The most interesting and eye-opening scene by far is when Jerry actually takes his medication and, to his horror, sees his sickly abject home and muted pets as they truly are. The scene brings the story together and solidifies Jerry’s ensuing actions and our forgiveness for those actions.
Yup. That’s Gemma Arterton’s head. And here he is feeding it cereal. Her head keeps him company and asks if she can have a “friend” to keep her company.
This movie is nothing spectacular, but Reynolds does a fantastic job of presenting his murderous character through a sympathetic lens, begging reasonable forgiveness for even his most heinous acts. He’s the killer you feel sorry for…you even want to see him happy even though you know it won’t happen, making this a very endearing psycho-killer film. LOL
Also, I’m not sure if this was just an authored scenario or a sleight of social commentary about our health care system, but it is only because the health care system (especially his psychiatrist) fail Jerry that he causes anyone harm.
The film closes with a weirdly funny musical number at the end featuring Reynoolds and the major cast during the credits. Nice touch to wrap up the mania of this cute little murderous movie. Definitely not for everyone. This film is sweet and funny, but it has its Texas Chainsaw moments.
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Hello all. Mark here.
The summer movie season is upon us and soon we will be inundated with sequels, prequels, reboots, remakes and The Rock battling an earthquake. There will be blockbusters, surprise hits and potentially the first Marvel dud (Ant-man). I’m surprisingly indifferent to a lot of the blockbusters this year. Age of Ultron looks to be more of the same and I still can’t shake how poorly built the sea beast structure is in Jurassic World.
What happens if it dives slightly to the right? Why isn’t The Rock riding it?
I’ve compiled the ten films I am most excited to watch. It is an eclectic list that features great actors (Ben Mendelsohn), directors (Joe Wright) and yellow squishy minions.
Mad Max: Fury Road – May 15– Sometimes in life you need to watch people drive fast and blow up spectacularly. I have a feeling that Fury Road is going to deliver the boom with aplomb. It looks absolutely bonkers, incredibly expensive and full of practical effects. I love the cast of Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult and the guy who plays guitar whilst strapped to the back of a vehicle. How did this guy get the job of post-apocalyptic guitar player?
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Slow West May 15– Who needs The Avengers when you have Ben Mendelsohn in this fur coat? I am all in for a western starring Michael Fassbender, Rory McCann (GOT’s The Hound!) and Mr. Mendelsohn. If you haven’t experienced a Mendelsohn performance you need to watch Killing Them Softly, Animal Kingdom, Starred Up and The Place Beyond the Pines.
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Pitch Perfect 2 – May 15 – I have some reservations about the sequel and I hope it isn’t simply “bigger and fatter.” However, I think it will avoid the sophomore slump and turn every track into gold. I love the cast, I love the music and I can’t wait for more fat Amy. If it can achieve 67% of the originals likability I will love 100% of it.
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San Andreas – May 29 – The Rock fights an earthquake and most likely wins. The Rock is my favorite action star and I can’t wait to watch him rescue his family for 120 minutes. The film looks like 2012 met Volcano and somehow became 100 times better. The Rock makes everything likable and I could watch The Rundown, Fast Five, The Other Guys and Fast Six on a continuous loop. I look at San Andreas the same way I look at Hercules. It may be a bunch of hooey but it works because The Rock is the most “electrifying man in sports entertainment.”
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Entourage – June 5 – I know this film takes place in “white collar bro city” but I can’t resist the crew. I watched every episode and no matter how ridiculous it got I stuck with it. Will Turtle find love? Will E get a new Maserati? Will Drama continue his self destructive ways? I’ve invested this much time in Entourage might as well watch the movie.
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Insidious: Chapter 3 – June 5 – Elise Rainer (Lin Shaye), Tucker and Specs are back for a third film! They are my favorite part of the Insidious series because they put themselves in terrible situations for the better good and provide the comedic relief. I loved the first two films and they were a big part of why they were so successful. They didn’t have to battle the jerky demons but they hunkered down and went to war with them. Who does that nowadays?
Sidenote: I still hate the red demon from Insidious. He hurt my soul. However, Elise, Tucker and Specs never backed down and never surrendered.
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Me and Earl and the Dying Girl – June 12 – The word out of Sundance is that Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is fantastic. I am 100% down to support an independent film during the summer months. The world needs something to break up all the property destruction. This could be the Fault in Our Stars of 2015.
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Minions – July 10 – Banana! I love the minions and I can’t wait for 90 minutes of minion prequel action. I know this goes against my annoyance of prequels but I love the whole idea of 42 B.G. (Before Gru). Also, Villain Con sounds amazing!
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Pan – July 24 Joe Wright (Hanna, Atonement) is awesome. Pan has a great cast comprised of Hugh Jackman, Rooney Mara, Garrett Hedlund and Amanda Seyfried. It looks like a visual delight that will appease the senses and allow Mara to actually have some fun on film. I am hoping for the trademark six minute continuous shot that is Wright’s specialty.
Dope – June 19 – Take me back to the 90s! I was a product of the hammer pants era and I hope Dope plays like Dazed and Confused met Better Luck Tomorrow and spawned House Party. Can’t wait!
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What summer movies do you want to see?
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MY CALL: This minimalist, quietly scary adult fable melds the Billy Goats Gruff with a hauntingly melancholy atmosphere. The budget is low, but the film does not rely on effects as characters and eeriness drive this movie. I was very pleased with it, but it’s not for those looking for something exciting, gory or shocking. It is slow-paced and tense. MOVIES LIKE Absentia: Want other truly creepy films instead of “loud scare” horror? Try It Follows (2015), Session 9 (2001) and Oculus (2014).
I must say, this film surprised me in more ways than one–neat story, good characters, very creepy, nice camera work. I skipped this film for years following its release labeling it “just another straight-to-DVD horror” that I’d “get around to” when I had time. I kept delaying. After all, if you look at the DVD cover art you wouldn’t think there was anything original behind that woman being dragged into the darkness. In the last couple years, however, I’ve been noticing mounting positive reviews of the film. So I finally caved in and decided to give it a shot when I saw it on Netflix.
At its start I feared my original concerns would come true. I recognized none of the actors and I could tell it had a low budget (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing). I just figured this would turn out to be some haunting story brought upon by some past misdeed of the main character, a pregnant woman whose husband has been missing for 7 years. But this was nothing of the sort. The story begins very simply: Callie moves in with her sister Tricia when Tricia is forced to sign papers declaring her husband (who has been missing for 7 years) “dead in absentia.” However, instead of finding closure, Tricia’s inner conflict continues as she is apparently haunted by her husband’s tormented spirit.
The scares and imagery are rattling and the atmosphere is powerfully off-putting. But rather than being “loud” and scary, it’s quiet and eerie—think Session 9 (2001) and you’ll know what I mean. Not so surprising, I guess, after learning this was written and directed by Mike Flanagan, who later went on to helm Oculus (2014; which cameos the actors of this film).
Creepy shots, creepy sounds, none of it loud. Just pure creepiness.
Character-driven and nightmarish, our story advances as Callie begins to link several recent disappearances spanning 100 years (and that of Tricia’s husband) to a nearby tunnel. The film includes scenes with the book “Three Billy Goats Gruff” and serves as an adult version of the fable. That said, this isn’t a monster movie, or a haunting story…yet it feels like both.
Doug Jones makes a cameo.
And like a terrifying fable, we find no solid reason behind the disappearances at the end, only evidence of a cause, making this feel satisfyingly mysterious yet many will feel at least partially annoyed by the lack of explanation. But isn’t that where most horror falls apart? When things are explained, or over-explained, or we try to rationalize a supernatural story with rules…? Maybe it’s for the better that it ends this way. Not all horror is meant to be explained. Sometimes, just sometimes, that’s what makes it scary.
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The Bad Guy and the Cigarette: Analyzing the Villainous Smoking Choices of John Travolta
Bad guys need quirks. They need to love cats (Blofeld – Bond Franchise), do drugs (Norman Stansfield – The Professional), be articulate (Hans Gruber – Die Hard) or smoke cigarettes in an interesting manner (anything featuring John Travolta). I started picking up on John Travolta’s need to smoke cigarettes when playing a bad guy after rewatching Broken Arrow (his smoking is excessive). He has a unique smoking style that ranges from cool to unnecessary. The following post covers five films in which he plays a bad guy and smokes cigarettes in an exaggerated manner.
Sidenote: I’ve left out Chili Palmer from Get Shorty because deep down he was a good dude.
If you want to hear more about Travolta’s smoking, check our podcast dedicated to Travolta and other cinematic randomness.
Pulp Fiction and the Classic Cool Smoking
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Pulp Fiction is a great movie and John Travolta was excellent in Pulp Fiction. In the film, Travolta mixed up his smoking style and it worked perfectly with his hitman character. Whether he used the thumb/pointer style, or reverted to the quirky pointer/middle finger scissor style, it worked. At 3:36 in the video you will see the smoking in all its glory.
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In the “five dollar shake” scene, the smoking is more relaxed. It isn’t stylized, and it’s more about actual ease of smoking. He doesn’t have anyone to impress, so he simply does the thumb/pointer finger style of smoking. I attribute the cool smoking to Tarantino. His films are highly stylized and controlled, and I bet he regulated how and when Travolta lit up. Travolta was simply a conduit for Tarantino’s cool smoking direction.
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Broken Arrow and Inverted Scissor V-Smoking.
Some characters smoke, others allow the cigarettes to smoke them. I’m surprised he didn’t cut his cigarettes in half as he hacked into them with his pointer and middle finger. The smoking says “I am the cool bad guy, and it worked for me in Pulp Fiction. However, I’ve turned it up to 11 and now it seems like an addiction.” The smoking became less of a prop and more of a character trait. I would even say it’s a dangerous addiction because he is always smoking. It must mess with his lungs and hurt his cardio when in the field.
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Smoke break after killing a guy
Post-Boxing smoke. Dude smokes indoors and lectures people while smoke rolls into their eyes. Classic jerk move.
Everybody thinks you are dead but you walk out of desert with a lit cigarette
Face-off and the brazen smoking
If you watch the clip, it looks like he wants to play darts with the cigarette. I’ve dubbed it “brazen smoking” because at the end of the scene he sits down in a chair, cigarette hanging from his lips and says “I am the king.” I like this smoking more than the Broken Arrow smoking, because it actually serves a purpose. Travolta is playing the cool dad, and cool dads offers their daughters cigarettes. Right?
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Swordfish and the inconvenient smoke.
This is where Travolta lost me with his smoking. The best way to describe it is when you take a fist full of popcorn and shovel it into your mouth.
So….he takes the cigarette and points it forward. Then, he sort of face palms himself.
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The Punisher and the pipe
What do you do when you’ve smoked cigarettes in every way possible? You smoke a pipe! Nothing says Tampa crime kingpin like packing a pipe, lighting a pipe, and creating awkward pauses when you puff on the pipe. Tampa is known for its cigars. Why not smoke a cigar? Too much work? He wasn’t feeling it? They take too long to light? The prop guy forgot, and all he had was a pipe?
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There you have it! Five villainous roles punctuated by five different styles of smoking. The world can rest easy.
Check out my other data posts!
- Jet Ski Action Scenes Are the Worst
- How long did it take The Joker to setup the cash pyramid in The Dark Knight?
- Analyzing the Unsuccessful Trap in Predators
- How Far Did the Shark Travel in Jaws: The Revenge?
- How Many Calories Did Shaggy and Scooby Ingest When They Are The Cotton Candy Glob?
- The Dolph Lundgren Front Kick Spectacular
- How Far Did the Creature From It Follows Travel?
- How Many Bullets Missed John Matrix in Commando?
- How Long Did it Take Batman to Setup the Bat Fire on the Bridge in The Dark Knight Rises?
- Kevin Bacon’s College Degrees
- How Fast Does the Great White Swim in Shark Night?
- Zara the Assistant and Jurassic World Had a Bad Day
- A Look at Elektra’s sandbag trainer in Daredevil
- How Far Did Nic Cage Run While Dressed as a Bear In The Wicker Man Remake?
- Breaking Down The Mariner vs. Sea Beast Battle in Waterworld
- How Long Did it Take The Joker to Setup the Weapon Circle in Suicide Squad?
- Michael Myers Hates Blinkers
- How Much Blood Dropped During the Blood Rave in Blade?
- Jason Voorhees Can’t Teleport?
- Michael Myers Loves Laundry
- How Far Did the Merman Travel in The Cabin in the Woods?
- How Far Did Matthew McConaughey Jump in Reign of Fire?
- How Fast can Leatherface Run?
- Deep Blue Sea and Stellan Skarsgard
- How Far Did Michael Myers Drive in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
- How Did the Geologist Get Lost in Prometheus?
- People Love a Bearded Kurt Russell
- A Closer Look at Movies That Feature the Words Great, Good, Best, Perfect and Fantastic
- An In-Depth Look At Movies That Feature Pencils Used as Weapons
- Cinematic Foghat Data
- Explosions and Movie Posters
- The Fast & Furious & Corona
- Nicolas Sparks Movie Posters Are Weird
- How Do You Make the Perfect Kevin Smith Movie?
- Predicting the RT score of Baywatch
- The Cinematic Dumb Data Podcast
- What is the best horror movie franchise?
- How Fast Can the Fisherman Clean a Trunk in I Know What You Did Last Summer?
- It’s Expensive to Feature Characters Being Eaten Alive and Surviving Without a Scratch
- How Long Does it Take Your Favorite Horror Movie Characters to Travel From NYC to San Francisco?
- What was the Guy’s Blood Pressure in Dawn of the Dead?
- Why Were There So Many Lemons in National Treasure?
- How Far Does The Rock Jump in the Skyscraper Poster?
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The MFF Pod #7: The Lost Art of Cinematic Walking…..and Michael Myers Selling Knives.
Hello all. Mark here.
The Audible sponsored MFF podcast is back!
Cinematic walking is a lost art that needs to be rediscovered. We here at MFF and Sharkdropper discuss great cinematic walking (viva la Bill Murray) and cover 70 years of sauntering. No strut is left unnoticed and we pounded the pavement in order to tell bad jokes and provide an in-depth discussion.
We also discuss the winners of the MFF random Oscars. You the wonderful readers voted and we are discussing the beast beards, butt-kickers and hotels. It is a spirited discussion that ponders a John Wick/Grand Budapest Hotel hybrid and revels in the glory of Brendan Gleeson’s beard.
We want to thank our Twitter followers for the wonderful questions and hopefully our answers satiate your questioning of knife salesmanship.
Sit back, relax and learn about cinematic walking.
You can stream the pod at the Sharkdropper website or download the pod on Itunes. If you get a chance please review, share and rate the pod!
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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.
The reason this film works so well is because of Maika Monroe (The Guest). She has an earthy vibe that makes you dread every moment she chooses to sit alone in a park or have her back turned to a door. She isn’t being pursued by an evil creature because she brought it upon herself by being an 80’s teenage horror cliché (only exists to have sex). She trusted the wrong guy and was doomed to be hunted by an always following and often shape shifting ghost. How could she have known that this nice guy needed to pass a curse onto her via intercourse in order to stay alive?
I recently wrote a post about the Best Walking of cinema. Within the post I lamented how filmmakers nowadays rarely let the camera linger. In the fantastic 1949 film The Third Man we get a walk off camera moment that lasted two minutes! The point of the excessive walking was that it made the ending amazing. The hero was waiting by his car so his love interest Anna Schmidt could catch up. Instead of talking to him she looks straight ahead and walks past the camera. The scene built suspense by simply placing a camera in one spot and letting the moment pass by. It Follows adopts this strategy and uses it to dubious means.
A wide-angle lens + an old woman walking = something that is a whole lot scarier than the majority of the crap out there.
The opening scene expertly encapsulates what is to follow. It features a teenager in silk lingerie (Think DePalma) and high heels running from something unseen. her high-heeled footsteps are played up in the sound mix and they combine with the heavy synthesized soundtrack (Think John Carpenter) to build tension. What is most appealing about this scene is that it was filmed in one take. Thus, we know we are getting a hybrid horror blend that has true talent behind the camera.
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Mitchell’s film conjures up a dreamy and desolate suburban world that feels like a trap. The people drive old cars, go to throwback cinemas and only one person has a cell phone. It is a timeless place with rules that don’t 100% apply to the real world. The teenagers act like teenagers and that is a good thing. These are not the kids from Dawson’s Creek dealing with a sexually transported killer ghost. These are real high school/college kids who stay close to home and risk death so they can potentially have sex with a pretty girl. They come up with really weird plans and more often than not they fail. I totally understood why they never traveled far way because they had no money, cars or understanding parents to help them.
It Follows is the rare movie that stands up to the hype. It borrows heavily from other films but in the end it feels like its own thing. Mitchell is a director to watch and I hope he doesn’t cash in and make less effective sequels.
Co-writer John (The Horror Leviathan) wrote about It Follows as well. Check it out!
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Proudly sponsored by the audiobook company Audible, your new MFF podcast episode is here!
We hope you enjoyed our previous episode on The Best Worst Movie Monsters and Horror Villains!
This week the MFF crew discuss the best Cinematic Weightlifting, Sean Bean and the best horror moments of the last 15 years.
We answer such important questions as…
“Can Mark do an impression of Eddie Redmayne doing an impression of Bane?”
“Who can curl more? Ron Burgandy or Jason Voorhees?”
“What was Sean Bean’s best role in which he DIDN’T die?”
“Just how far can horror go and still only be rated PG?”
“Who would win in a fight between The Ring‘s Samara and the Oculus mirror?”
This week’s podcast is based on the following MFF reviews and articles:
Pain and Gain (2013)
15 Images for 15 Years of Horror: Part 1: some of the greatest, goriest, most shocking and most memorably defining moments in horror since 2000
15 Images for 15 Years of Horror: Part 2: The Good, the Bad and the Hilarious
Grabbers
Byzantium (2012)
Deliver Us From Evil by Mark
Deliver Us From Evil (2014) by John
The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014)
Oculus (2014)
The Conjuring (2013)
The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
Final Destination 5 (2011)
Grave Encounters (2011)
Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010)
Drag Me to Hell (2009)
Martyrs (2008)
Hatchet (2006)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
Ginger Snaps (2000)
Sit back, relax and learn about everything you missed.
If you haven’t seen some of these movies, be comforted that we will geekily inform you as to why you should watch them.
You can stream the pod at the Sharkdropper website, listen to us on with your mobile app OneCast, or download the pod on Itunes.
If you get a chance please REVIEW, RATE and SHARE the pod!
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The Descent is the best horror film of the last 10 years. It is an urgent and bloody masterpiece that revolves around six women battling caves, crawlers and the past. I’ve been championing it for ten years and my soul was crushed (not really) when Cabin in the Woods was voted the best horror film of the last ten years by our readers. It belongs in the pantheon of great horror alongside Jaws (my favorite film) and Alien (Listen to our pod about the Alien series) because of the sheer economy and wonderful violence of it all. It is a fully fleshed out horror yarn that rips flesh and allows the characters to whoop some creature butt.
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Director Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers, Game of Thrones, Doomsday) is a maestro of mayhem who keeps his films moving briskly and expertly. He understands urgency and the need to keep moving forward. If you stop you die, and the ladies in The Descent have no choice but to keep moving. He directed a beautifully layered horror film that juggles, claustrophobia, monster mayhem and urgency. If you listen to the commentary you realize that it wasn’t a fluke. It is a carefully crafted movie that was thought out on every level and achieves the “pure cinema” label. This film is so good that notorious horror movie hater Roger Ebert gave it four stars and exulted it virtues.
“The Descent” — what a great title. This British horror-thriller recalls grueling, adrenaline-pumping classics like “Deliverance,” “Jaws,” “Alien” and “Dead Calm.” It’s that good. Finally, a scary movie with teeth, not just blood and entrails — a savage and gripping piece of work that jangles your nerves without leaving your brain hanging. And so, for a change, you emerge feeling energized and exhilarated rather than enervated, or merely queasy. This is the fresh, exciting summer movie I’ve been wanting for months. Or for years, it seems.
The Descent earns its scares because it doesn’t force them. So many horror films don’t earn their scares because they don’t take the time to build suspense, character and an original world. The Descent slowly introduces you to the characters, pushes them to extremes and then takes them to hell. The actresses do a great job of being believable, tough and three-dimensional. The movie passes my horror test because years after I watched it I still remembered the character’s names. Juno (Natalie Mendoza), Sarah (Shauna MacDonald), Beth (Alex Reid), Rebecca (Saskia Mulder), Sam (Myanna Buring) and Holly (Nora-Jane Noone) lack backstories (no big deal) yet still manage to have their own distinct personalities. Juno has always been my favorite because she wasn’t a bad guy but she definitely was a jerk.
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Have you heard of the horror movie “final girl” phrase? In films like Halloween and Texas Chainsaw Massacre there is always one girl left alive. In The Descent I call it the “final woman.” They are badass warriors who much like Ripley in Alien come across as layered humans. It is rare in horror to have fully formed characters. So much of the horror world is made up of archetypes, it is a breath of fresh air when you get three-dimensional human beings battling cave dwelling carnivores. In the making of documentary Marshall calls his layered character approach the “flaky pastry principle. The beauty of The Descent is that after the character introductions and claustrophobic spelunking we are introduced to original horror monsters. Marshall had this to say about his crawlers:
“they had to be something that could get the women, something human, but not quite”. The crawlers were depicted as cavemen who never left the caves and evolved in the dark. The director included mothers and children in the colony of creatures, defining his vision, “It is a colony and I thought that was far more believable than making them the classic monsters. If they had been all male, it would have made no sense, so I wanted to create a more realistic context for them. I wanted to have this very feral, very primal species living underground, but I wanted to make them human. I didn’t want to make them aliens because humans are the scariest things.”
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What makes these creatures scary is that they are acting on instinct. There is no lame back story (I did learn on the commentary they named one Steve) or motives. They are human enough to keep the fights even and this allows the brawls to be barn burners. The stage direction was limited as Marshall told the actor in the creature suit to “go for the neck,” then he told his actress “don’t let it get your neck.” The simplicity kept it believable and raw. These confrontations do not seem rehearsed and they play like a classic predator/prey hunt. The coolest thing that Neil Marshall did was wait to show the actresses the creatures until the initial introduction. The reaction was fear and the phrase “they scared the living daylights out of me” was heard multiple times. These monsters were so well conceived they were ranked #6 between the Wolf Man and the The Thing Alien on Complex’s 50 greatest monsters article. The Descent’s Effects Designer Paul Hyett proclaimed his love for the practical effects of The Thing on the making of documentary. You could see the joy in his eyes as he talked about the gore, exploding prosthetics and gallons of blood. The practical creature effects are timeless because they will not age or become outdated (Think Nosferatu. Always great). I love how each monster had their own personality and a lot of credit is due to the actors who brought the latex to life.
Meet Scar. He is like the jerky “Biff” of the Descent world.
The Descent builds to a beautifully brutal climax that features my favorite shot in all of horror. It is a gangster moment that happens before the two women vs. three creature fight. It is stuff of horror lover dreams and the climax is a mixture of eye-gouging gore, feral fighting and practical lighting. The two women cannot stay still and that adds more drama to the fight. They don’t back down and move forward into oblivion with gusto.
You almost feel bad for the cave-dwellers….especially the one on the right
The Descent is one of my favorite horror films and I like that is has collected a big following. Quality has been rewarded and proves that Neil Marshal’s five P (Preparation prevents piss poor performance) style works. I love that Pinewood studio sets filled in for the North Carolina mountains and the budget was so small that sets had to constantly be reconfigured. It is a film that was made with a small budget and lots of love. It is an innovators dream that took quality to another level. Watch The Descent. Never go spelunking in foreign cave systems. Appreciate the wonderful work of Neil Marshall.
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