The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode 461 – Collateral, Tom Cruise, and Jamie Foxx
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Mark and Phil discuss the 2004 action thriller Collateral. Directed by Michael Mann, and starring Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith and some coyotes, the movie focuses on what happens when a taxi driver is forced to drive a surly assassin around Los Angeles. In this episode, they also talk about car flips, non-running Tom Cruise, and Foxx’s Academy Award nominated performance. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions (we love random questions). We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
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Bones and All (2022) – Review
Quick Thoughts – Grade – B+ – Bones and All is an original experience that can best be described as a love story between two cannibals who go on a roadtrip through rural America. It’s a unique watch and it’s fun seeing director Luca Guadagnino explore the backroads of the United States. As always, Taylor Russell (watch Waves now) and Timothée Chalamet are excellent, and the supporting cast of Mark Rylance, Michael Stuhlbarg and Chloë Sevigny all create memorable characters who may or may not eat the bones of their victims.
Love is never easy in the films of Luca Guadagnino, between A Bigger Splash, Call Me By Your Name, and I Am Love, there’s always a certain amount of violence, lies, and remorse that goes along with romantic entanglements. Things are no different in Bones and All, as it’s about a cannibal named Maren (Taylor Russell) who meets a fellow cannibal named Lee (Timothée Chalamet) during her travels around the United States. The reason they meet on the road is because they’ve had to live on the periphery of society as their need for flesh doesn’t exactly make them great neighbors or coworkers. The cannibals in Bones and All scrape out an existence on the road that finds them stealing from grocery stores and picking up human “familiars” who keep them safe and fed. They behave exactly like humans do, but if they don’t eat flesh they become zombie-esque (it’s implied) monsters which puts the people they love in danger. Also, craving human flesh destroys their humanity as they are forced to either die, or commit to a life of murdering people for food. Basically, life is tough for the cannibals because they were born with a taste for people, and they need to eat.
An interesting wrinkle is that the cannibals can smell each other, which leads to Maren meeting Sully (Mark Rylance), a clearly deranged person-eater who keeps the hair of every person he eats. Sully claims that he can smell people who are dying and that’s how he picks his prey. After having lunch with him (AKA eating an elderly woman), Maren boards a bus to escape the maniac, and this leads her to a grocery store where she meets Lee. The two decide to travel together, and eventually they fall in love as they plan future meals, meet fellow cannibals, and enjoy the vast expanse of America. They work well as a duo, and are able to overcome the fact that cannibals don’t normally do well in groups because when they watch another cannibal eat, it acts like a mirror and they don’t like being reminded that they eat the organs of dead people.
I’d love to share more, but I don’t want to give away anything that could spoil your enjoyment of the film. Just know that it’s a patient movie that occasionally gets very bloody. As expected, Russell and Chalamet are solid and their chemistry is the reason why the movie works so well. They understand the roles, and are able to create likable characters who occasionally lure people into cornfields so they can eat them.
Final thoughts – Bones and All is an original experience that is worth a watch.
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Preman: Silent Fury (2022) – Review
Quick Thoughts – Grade – C+ – Preman: Silent Fury is a fun low-budget Indonesian action film that’s at its best when it focuses on familial relationships and face smashing. Director Randolph Zaini clearly pulls from Wes Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, and The Boondock Saints, and this is when the film loses its way as it unnecessarily leans into stylish dialogue and action that don’t mesh well with the core story.
The best and worst thing about Preman: Silent Fury is that it defies expectations. On the surface, the story is about a deaf Indonesian preman (AKA a member of an Indonesian organized gang, encompassing street level criminals up through crime bosses) named Sandi (Khiva Iskak) fighting for his life as he struggles to protect his kid from a psychotic hitman/barber and a gang of criminals who want him dead. Much of the advertising revolves around Sandi’s usage of a monkey fist/slungshot (a type of knot that’s tied to the end of rope to give it weight), which bashes the skulls of dozens of opponents who attempt to kill Sandi and his son Pandu. Why is he being hunted? As a member of a group of preman, he runs afoul of his bosses when he refuses to kill a local sage Haji (Egy Fedly) who stands in the way of the redevelopment of his town. After a bloody skirmish, Sandi and Pandu go on the run, and find themselves being hunted by an eclectic hitman named Ramon, who runs a highbrow salon when he isn’t cutting people into bloody bits with his ultra-sharp scissors.
As I mentioned earlier, Preman: Silent Fury is at its best when it focuses on the father/son relationship, and when it lets Sandi unleash havoc on Indonesian stuntmen. There’s a fun fight between Sandi and Ramon inside a cramped home that features scissors being used in ways I never thought I’d see. It’s a creative brawl that puts Sandi on the defensive as Ramon’s scissors cut through his rope weapon, and forces him to endure a painful amount of cuts that hurt to watch.
Preman: Silent Fury loses its way when it leans into unexpected and stylish distractions that grind the film to a halt. Whether it’s a conversation straight out of a 1990’s Pulp Fiction-wannabe movie, or a brawl involving Sandi battling people in animal suits, these stylish moments don’t feel organic and instead make you think of other movies. The biggest offending moment is when Ramon goes full Willem Dafe (from The Boondock Saints), and recreates a murder scene in his head. These moments make the film more complicated and take away from an interesting story about a deaf Indonesian gangster hitting people with a deadly weapon.
In the end, director Randolph Zaini has created a unique and interesting action film that features inspired production design, several solid action scenes, and memorable characters. Also, the on-location shoot gives the film an authentic vibe that greatly aids it.
If this sounds interesting, make sure to watch the movie on Hi-Yah!, and then check out all the other fun films that the streaming service offers.
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Audible Featured the Movies, Films and Flix Podcast in Their “These Are the Best Film Podcasts to Listen to in 2022” List!
We have some great news! Audible recently featured us in their These Are the Best Film Podcasts to Listen to in 2022 list (alongside How Did This Get Made?, We Hates Movies, The Empire Film Podcast, You Must Remember This, and The Big Picture). Thank you to everyone who listens to the show and went out of their way to rate, review or subscribe. We have some very fun plans for 2023, and it will be fun to continue growing the show (and dedicating more episodes to Deep Blue Sea and Malignant). Thanks!
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John’s Horror Corner: V/H/S/99 (2022), a pleasantly surprising horror-comedy horror anthology.
MY CALL: The only theme in this anthology is horror comedy, but it does that quite well. I was pleased with the relatively consistent quality of the horror segments and they covered a nice range of themes, from zombies and urban legends to a ridiculously macabre spin on Nickelodeon game shows. Lots of fun to be had here!
MORE HORROR ANTHOLOGIES: Dead of Night (1945), Black Sabbath (1963), Tales from the Crypt (1972), The Vault of Horror (1973), The Uncanny (1977), Screams of a Winter Night (1979), Creepshow (1982), Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), Stephen King’s Cat’s Eye (1985), Deadtime Stories (1986), Creepshow 2 (1987), From a Whisper to a Scream (1987; aka The Offspring), After Midnight (1989), Tales from the Crypt Season 1 (1989), Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990), Grimm Prairie Tales (1990), The Willies (1990), Two Evil Eyes (1990), Necronomicon: Book of the Dead (1993), Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996), Campfire Tales (1997), Dark Tales of Japan (2004), 3 Extremes (2004), Creepshow 3 (2006), Trick ‘r Treat (2007), Chillerama (2011), Little Deaths (2011), V/H/S (2012), The Theater Bizarre (2012), The ABCs of Death (2013), V/H/S 2 (2013), All Hallows’ Eve (2013), The Profane Exhibit (2013), The ABCs of Death 2 (2014), V/H/S Viral (2014), Southbound (2015), Tales of Halloween (2015), A Christmas Horror Story (2015), The ABCs of Death 2.5 (2016), Holidays (2016), Terrified (2017; aka Aterrados, a pseudo-anthology), Oats Studios, Vol. 1 (2017), Ghost Stories (2017), XX (2017), All the Creatures Were Stirring (2018), The Field Guide to Evil (2018), Shudder’s series Creepshow (2019-2021), Scare Package (2019), The Mortuary Collection (2019), Xenophobia (2019) and V/H/S/94 (2021).
After four V/H/S horror anthologies in the last 10 years (2012-2021), a fifth installment has come about to grace anthology fans and this time with a perhaps more playful tone than ever before. In its wraparound story, some kiddishly silly stop motion army figures go to war, which turns out to be much more entertaining than I expected even though the wraparound only strongly linked to one of the anthology segments.
Director Maggie Levin’s opening act is Shredding, about a teen foursome of emo-rock skaters that venture to the underground site where a popular band of four girls were trampled to death by their own fans. They cruelly prank a friend and desecrate the site with a crass reenactment of the trampling death. But they get theirs when the restless zombified spirits of the band peel off their flesh, rip them apart, and then make their own macabre, dead teenager band marionette performance.
There’s a very MTV’s Real World vibe about the documentary-style presentation. It’s a nice throwback complete with VHS snow crackle interference. But, perhaps to protect itself from budgetary limitations on the monster and gore effects, there is a bit too much VHS crackle interfering during the violence. The acting was strong, and clear efforts were made with the gore and monstrous corpse faces, but overall effects-wise this was a somewhat weak segment. Still the macabre humor of the finale marionette visual was quite satisfying, and the horror comedy of this segment was its clear strength, highlight and point.
Director Johannes Roberts (The Other Side of the Door, 47 Meters Down, Strangers: Prey at Night) pledges Suicide Bid, which is when a freshman pledge applies to only one sorority to show her devotion at risk of being admitted to none. Our pledge is taken to the location of an urban legend-like disappearance of a past pledge who was the victim of a cruel prank. As a condition of her acceptance, she must spend the night in a coffin, buried under six feet of earth, just like the girl from the urban legend. What could possibly go wrong? The pledge is, of course, very rattled by this from the very start. And the sorority girls are, well, cruel. They make this experience as scary as possible.
This was excellent. I giggled at the mean girls’ horrible behavior, I reeled for their pledge victim, and things just kept amplifying every few minutes leading to a wonderful screaming finale doused in muddy grave water. Great segment!
Director Flying Lotus (Kuso) presents Ozzy’s Dungeon, which smacks hard of Nickelodeon’s Hidden Temple and Double Dare… if adult stoners were to weird it up. The hokey awkwardness just hurts, and in a funny nostalgic way I wince. Steven Ogg (The Walking Dead, Snowpiercer, He Never Died) does his best Mark Summers as the quippy host and he is a delight!
An unexpected leg break had me cackling, and the revenge story to follow was just as ridiculous as the initial presentation of the show. What transpires is especially uncomfortable. But what you think is the finale, is not! There is an additional level of pure supernatural madness awaiting at the end of this gloriously insane segment. We meet the “Ozzy” at the end of the dungeon and there are wild creature effects and face-melting grossness to be digested.
Tying in from the wraparound story, director Tyler MacIntyre (Tragedy Girls, Patchwork) brings us The Gawkers, which follows a group of high school boys and their perverted voyeur antics assaulting the dignity of their classmates and neighbors. When one of them helps their hot neighbor set up her new webcam, he also installs spyware so they can watch her. Classy. The twist here is that seeing what she turns out to be is a curse all its own.
The teen characters are engagingly amusing little creeps. But this segment might be my least favorite when it comes to CGI, visual effects, creature effects and gore. All of those clock in pretty weak. But the journey of these voyeur teens was an entertaining one. Also, this short features another cool, off-putting and kind of funny limb break.
Directors Vanessa and Joseph Winter (Deadstream) close this anthology strong with To Hell and Back, in which a coven of personable witches plan to summon a minor demon through a willing vessel. Right off the bat, this reminded me of a less silly What We Do in the Shadows (2014) in terms of tone. During the ritual two innocent bystanders are sent to Hell where they encounter fiends and denizens of Hell, and must figure out how to get back home. The atmosphere is deliciously silly, and remains very light and funny even when passing by piles of guts, hungry devils, or a corpse on a spit over a fire. If you saw Deadstream (2022), that’s the tone here.
We have horny peeping Tom teenagers, a sorority pledge week prank gone horribly wrong, oddly violent Nickelodeon nostalgia, a demon summoning ritual, a guided tour of Hell, and a teen prank leading us to such spoils as an urban legend revenge ghost, a classic Greek Gorgon, witches and devils, a variety of mutants and fiends, and some sort of zombie-ish revenants. Although I prefer my anthologies to have more cohesively linked stories (e.g., The Mortuary Collection, Trick ‘r Treat) or richer stories to tell with clever twists, themes or moral spins (e.g., Terrified, Holidays), this anthology still manages to deliver the goods in the form of consistent, fun-spirited horror comedy.
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John’s Horror Corner: The Wretched (2019), a Disturbia-like witch-next-door movie for horror beginners.
MY CALL: This movie is perfect for teens and/or folks who prefer a lighter-handed horror movie (like beginners to the genre). There’s just enough gore, likable characters, and an engaging story. But if you live for gore, dread and tense atmosphere, this will surely be too Horror-LITE for your taste.
Visiting his father Liam (Jamison Jones) at his new house, high schooler Ben (John-Paul Howard; Snatchers) and his dad seem to get along well. They’re neighbors are a young couple with two small kids. They’re all good, grounded characters, written endearingly and acted in kind, which is a strong start for any horror film! One day the neighbor Abbie (Zarah Mahler; Nightmare Cinema) wanders by just the wrong tree inhabited by a witch, and from there our story takes root.
Eventually the witch assumes Abbie’s body and whispers enchantments into her husband’s ear to make him forget his own children’s existence and behave as she pleases. Their young son Dillon (Blane Crockarell) watches Abbie shift from his cool, rocker, deer-gutting mom into a janky ghoul with noisy cracking joints and a frightful disposition. Ben sees firsthand how Dillon fears his mother, and Ben can see why! After Dillon disappears, Ben spies on Abbie and her strangely behaving husband.
Like in The Witches (1990), this witch wears the skin of others to disguise her nature, and like The Guardian (1990) she feeds her child victims to a tree. At times, she functions as readily as a demon, possessing someone and then roaring like some infernal dinosaur. We first find her trying to lure a child to her treehole dwelling, then emerging from the guts of a dead deer like Luke Skywalker in a TaunTaun, and skulking around the house like a gargoyle-poltergeist before claiming Abbie’s body for her own.
Not so much my taste, this feels as much a teen movie as a horror movie. Teen angst, teen crushes, teens drinking at parties, mean teens being jerks to nice teens… and if you’re thinking “there are teen characters in loads of horror movies”, that’s not what I mean and that’s not what this feels like. It doesn’t exactly have a “young adult” feel; something more akin to Disturbia (2007) with a Lifetime Channel horror-drama flavor—but obviously less-so during the horror scenes and this Lifetime aura completely dissipates near the end. This definitely makes for strong PG-13 vibes making for a very soft horror for beginners.
But even horror for beginners needs a few deaths and a bit of gore. We enjoy slick wet sloppy gore during the deer cleaning scene, when the witch emerges from the deer carcass, and when the witch crawls out of a host body from a hole in its stomach. The eventual true form of the witch is gnarly enough, and she leaves some gaping bitten-out feeding holes in a couple small children.
Co-writers and directors Brett and Drew Pierce (Deadheads) produced a very well made, written, directed and acted movie. It was just a bit too Horror-LITE for my taste. But with that said, I enjoyed it just fine. And considering how lighter horror is totally not my thing, I’d say that this particular lighter horror movie was actually pretty impressive.
Witch Movie SIDEBAR: Some excellent witch movies that actually feel like witch movies include Warlock (1989), Warlock 2: The Armageddon (1993), The Witch (2016; podcast discussion), Hagazussa (2017) and The Witches of Eastwick (1987). Beautiful Creatures (2013) and The Woods (2006) may appeal to young adult audiences. But I would sooner direct you to Hocus Pocus (1993), The Witches (1990) and The Craft (1996).
The campy The Kiss (1988), Spellbinder (1988), Necromancer (1988), Necropolis (1987) and Cherry Tree (2015) are entertaining but bad. And speaking of campy, Superstition (1982) and The Haunting of Morella (1990) are allegedly witch movies but don’t feel like it. But even if you want a bad movie, definitely skip Witchcraft (1989) and all sequels.
The dark noir Lord of Illusions (1995) is intriguingly edgy and, while more a “magic movie” than a “witch movie,” it hits a lot of the same dark arcane notes. And, of course, The Blair Witch Project (1999) and Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000) were awesomely stylized in their own unique ways despite never actually showing us a witch—at least, not until Blair Witch (2016). Check out Pumpkinhead (1988) for a great depiction of a witch, though it’s not a “witch movie.” Meanwhile Deadtime Stories (1986) and The Theater Bizarre (2011) feature a pretty cool witch short story, and The Pit and the Pendulum (1991) addresses witch trials.
Witches can come in so many flavors, can’t they? Lords of Salem (2013), Moloch (2022), Suspiria (1977), Suspiria (2018), Inferno (1980) and Mother of Tears (2007) deal with witches’ spirits in the form of dark ritual and possession. Quite the opposite, Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), The Last Witch Hunter (2015; podcast discussion) and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013) offer action and effects-driven popcorn fun—Season of the Witch (2011) attempted this, but failed miserably. But the witch from The Brothers Grimm (2005) was pretty cool.
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode 460: The Batman Forever Soundtrack, Elliot Goldenthal, and Seal
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Mark and Billy Patterson (@billyapatterson on Twitter) talk about their favorite songs from the Batman Forever soundtrack. Released in 1995, the soundtrack featuring Method Man, The Offspring, Brandy, and PJ Harvey, sold more than two million copies and won Seal three Grammys for his song Kiss From a Rose. In this episode, they also talk about Elliot Goldenthal’s score, Jim Carrey’s performance, and whether or not they’d want to recreate Seal’s famous Kiss From a Rose music video. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions (we love random questions). We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
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Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) – Review
Quick Thoughts – Grade – B+
Note – The toughest part about reviewing a Marvel Cinematic Universe film is that I never want to give away any spoilers that will wreck the experience for the viewer. Thus, I’m going to write as much as I can with the synopsis in mind. The synopsis for the sequel reads “The leaders of the kingdom of Wakanda fight to protect their nation from invading forces in the wake of King T’Challa’s death, while a new threat emerges from the hidden undersea nation of Talokan ruled by Namor.”
When Black Panther (2018) ended, King T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) shared the secret of his powerful country with the rest of the world. Rich in vibranium (a super uber metal that came from a meteorite), his technologically superior nation had kept itself a secret from the rest of the world as it didn’t want to get involved with all the violence and mayhem that earthlings were capable of. However, after the assassination of T’Challa’s father T’Chaka (John Kani), and Killmongers (Michael B. Jordan) takeover of Wakanda, T’Challa felt the time was right to introduce his country to the rest of the world. It was a bold move that was meant to help the planet by creating jobs, outreach programs, and homes. But, once the world powers learned about vibranium, they became greedy and put plans in motion to snag some of the sweet space metal. All of this was interrupted by the blip (Thanos making half the universe’s population disappear), but when things started getting back to post-blip normalcy, the hunt for vibranium was back on, and this kicks off the main plot for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever begins with Shuri (letitia Wright) desperately searching for a way to save her brother T’Challa from dying. He kept his sickness a secret from his family, and eventually succumbed to his illness. This leaves a massive power gap as there is no Black Panther successor, which leaves Wakanda without a protector, and no king which leaves the ruling duties up to Ramonda (Angela Bassett), the Queen Mother of Wakanda.. After a long period of mourning, the country needs to find a way to deal with world leaders who are hungry for their technology, while dealing with another threat from Namor (Tenoch Huerta), the rule of Talokan, an underwater nation loaded with vibranium-armed warriors who aren’t happy that their civilization is being threatened by the search for vibranium. Namor tasks Ramond, Shuri, and Okoye (Danai Gurira) with finding, and killing the person responsible for creating the machine that can locate the meteorite metal. The problem is, the creator is a 19-year old Tony-Stark-esque genius named Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), who created the machine as a class assignment and isn’t aware it’s being used to actually locate vibranium. Since, the Wakandans aren’t killers, they decide to not kill Riri and this sets the two powerful nations towards a brutal and water-logged war.
I don’t’ want to spoil anything else, just know that things go off the rails, and this forces Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o), M’Baku (Winston Duke), Everett K. Ross (Martin Freeman) and Ayo (Florence Kasumba) all join the battle to save Wakanda and prevent an aquatic bloodfest.
What I like most about Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is that it takes its time and isn’t afraid to deal with grief, loss, and sadness. The early passing of Chadwick Boseman was wildly tragic, and the fact that director Ryan Coogler was able to create a film that moves the MCU forward while honoring Boseman is an impressive feat. Also, the cinematography by Autumn Durald Arkapaw (Teen Spirit, Loki) finds ways to be intimate despite the film being about two secret nations loaded with ultra-technology about to go to war. The biggest disappointment is that Hanna Beachler’s production design seems augmented with way too much VFX. A lot of the sets seem quickly constructed and lack the personality of the 2018 film which won her an Academy Award.
Final thoughts – I can’t think of a film that has had such high expectations. 2018’s Black Panther was a massive blockbuster that earned over a billion dollars and was nominated for Oscars. With the passing of Chadwick Boseman, the creators had to pivot, refocus, and pull off a movie that honors Boseman, introduces several new key MCU players, and gives the dozen or so characters from the original screen time and character development. In the end, Coogler pulls it off, and I’m excited to see what he does next.
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MY CALL: This… this is what you’ve been waiting and longing for all these years, all these these decades. You scratched an itch with sequel after sequel to ill-construed reimagining from 2000-2018, and now you finally see the reward for your suffering. This glorious reimagining truly has such sights to show you.
MORE Hellraiser MOVIES: There’s a lot of them. Be sure to see Hellraiser (1987) and Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988), of course. Then maybe Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth (1992), or even just skip to Hellraiser IV: Bloodline (1996). Hellraiser V: Inferno (2000), Hellraiser VI: Hellseeker (2002) and Hellraiser VII: Deader (2005) are all more standalone films that are decent but hold no candle to parts I-II or the worthy part IV. Hellraiser VIII: Hellworld (2005) and Hellraiser IX: Revelations (2011) are easily the worst, perhaps slightly bested by Hellraiser (X): Judgment (2018) even if by creativity alone.
After touring a luxurious orgy in the Voight estate, we wander through the mansion to a gallery room serving as a shrine to the icon of the franchise: the Puzzle Box. Our introduction to the Box lacks the mystique of 1987 and instead brings with it the lofty reverence of nearly 40 years of Hellraiser fanfare. With the trigger set, the Box reconfigures itself as a gate to another world forms in empty space where no doorway could possibly exist, through which jettison hooked chains that impale, outstretch and suspend its solver before presumably dragging them to Hell. All the while Voight (Goran Visnjic; The Accursed, Santa Clarita Diet) gazes in humble satisfaction at the relic, awaiting a hopeful audience with the God at the other side of the infernal portal.
If you’ve never seen a Hellraiser film before, you should stop reading now. Discussions of the past films in this essay-like review will double as SPOILERS for this 2022 movie if you are new to the franchise.
The original Hellraiser (1987) was a chamber thriller about an infernal fugitive reconstituting his body one chunk of fleshy sopping viscera at a time from human victims in an almost vampiric manner. We find the same actions amid a far grander, world-building story in Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988). No such thing occurs in this remake. This 2022 film is more about the box itself, the consequences it brings to those who dare dream of the rewards for opening it, and the desires of the “angels” it summons to bestow these rewards. Those who loved 1988’s world-building will find tastes of it in the imagery and story, which otherwise remains grounded in our Earthly realm, only being touched by this nigh-unimaginable influence, more as in 1987.
In this reimagining, Riley (Odessa A’zion; The Inhabitant, Let’s Scare Julia) is an addict who encounters the Box, loses a loved one, and seeks to use the powers of the box to resurrect him. Riley’s curiosity with the Box elicits a knowing and satisfyingly familiar anticipation (among Hellraiser fans) as she manipulates and inquisitively thumbs the cursed artifact into new and different configurations than we saw in our parents’ Hellraiser movies. Her brother, boyfriend and close friends get caught up in her Puzzle Box endeavors which lead them all to the wealthy Voight’s mansion. Little do they understand that the box conjures horridly mutilated, infernal stewards known as Cenobites, which see the puzzle box solver’s wish fulfilled with dark pleasure. Of the Cenobites, only Pinhead and Chatterer will be familiar, with Weeper, Masque, Mother, Gasp and Asphyx offering new and interesting mutilations to titillate your gory sensibilities.
While still obviously the iconic Pinhead (even if not named as such), our lead Cenobite is referred to only as The Priest (Jamie Clayton; Sense8, The L Word: Generation Q, The Neon Demon). With so many casting decisions in film being made out of timely and much needed conscientious diversity and inclusion, casting a transgender woman as the iconic Hell Priest Pinhead was exactly the kind of decision that should have been made in 1987—not that the world was yet ready for that. After all, in Barker’s short story The Hellbound Heart, the Priest’s voice and appearance were described in gender-ambiguous terms.
Clive Barker’s original Hellraiser (1987) was steeped in the sexual “deviancy” of bondage and sadomasochism, with themes of genderless sexuality, dark desires and blood exchange from his own history with homosexuality and HIV. The sexuality and bondage themes have been partially replaced by themes of addiction and grief in this 2022 reboot. And although “pain as pleasure” remains a focal point, we have ditched the Cenobites’ snug black leather wardrobes for additional lengths of taught flesh stretched tightly across their bodies like saltwater taffy. Trust me, you’ll wince when you see close-ups.
Of course, the menace of promised physical torture, flesh flaying, and impalement abounds. The gore is exactly as extensive and frequent as it should be. Very bloody, occasionally very chunky, and often shocking in execution. The Cenobites are exquisite visions of Hellish stewards, with perhaps considerably more elaborate flesh-flaying body modifications than ever we’ve seen. The budget, effects and intellectual innovation exceed that of anything we’ve seen since Hellbound or Bloodline. The hooked chain visuals are every bit as familiar as we yearn for them to be, yet different enough to feel novel from what we’ve seen in the past; creative and inspired, yet still the bloody hooked-chain mess we want.
Taking a hard turn from the original film, instead of “feeding” victims to a person seeking escape from Hell via fleshy reconstitution, Riley instead must feed the Box and the Cenobites victims in order to resurrect her lost loved one. So Riley serves as a combination of the original roles of Kirsty and her wicked stepmother Julia. I was also pleased at how Voight and his home call back strongly to Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988) and Hellraiser IV: Bloodline (1996), which together with Hellraiser (1987) (and specifically excluding Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth (1992)) form my original Hellraiser Trilogy. Moreover this reboot has taken the strengths of these three films, marrying them into a single cohesive vision of sin, sinner and Hellish consequence. I must say, I approve.
Were I to criticize, I’d prefer a single victim’s journey (as in Hellraiser I-II and most sequels) rather than this typical ensemble of twentysomething victims. But as far as victim ensemble tropes go, this played out surprisingly effectively. Even if the secondary characters were not great, they were never empty-lined, throwaway, forgettable roles for death scene fodder. I’d also prefer the markedly more dire tone of 1987. While a truly wonderful reimagining of Barker’s work, the gravity just doesn’t attain quite the same levels of hopelessness nor hold on as strong after the wowing opening Puzzle Box introduction in Voight’s mansion.
Director David Bruckner (V/H/S segment “Amateur Night”, Southbound segment “The Accident”, The Ritual) has pleased me with his past forays into horror, and continues to impress me today. Or… wowed me today! The performance, direction, effects and production value are all fantastic. This is what Hellraiser fans have anticipated for decades. Oh, and the flesh-flaying finale… David Bruckner and his Cenobites truly did have such sights to show us.
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John’s Horror Corner: Alligator II: The Mutation (1991), a failure in the realm of huge animatronic alligator horror and the natural horror subgenre.
MY CALL: It’s just not worth it. Part 1 was great, this is awful—and not the good kind of bad. Just bad. MORE MOVIES LIKE Alligator II: Go watch Alligator (1980) and then Lake Placid (1999) instead. They’re very different kinds of pleasures! But both are a pleasure.
NATURAL HORROR SIDEBAR: Looking for more natural horror? Check out Night of the Lepus (1972), Frogs (1972), Bug (1975), Jaws (1975), Food of the Gods (1976), Grizzly (1976), Squirm (1976), Empire of the Ants (1977), Day of the Animals (1977), Orca (1977), Piranha (1978), Piranha II (1981), Of Unknown Origin (1983), Cujo (1983), Razorback (1984), Monkey Shines (1988), Slugs (1988), Gnaw: Food of the Gods II (1989), Shakma (1990), Arachnophobia (1990), Ticks (1993), Mosquito (1994), The Ghost in the Darkness (1996), Anaconda (1997), Lake Placid (1999), Rogue (2007), Pig Hunt (2008), Chaw (2009), Piranha 3D (2010), The Grey (2011), The Bay (2012), The Shallows (2016), 47 Meters Down (2017), Boar (2017), Crawl (2019) and The Swarm (2020).
Although purely in unflattering laughable terms, it is on the verge of infuriating that this tactlessly PG-13 movie is attached to Alligator (1980) in any way. In the world of giant alligator horror movies of the 70s-80s, Alligator (1980) is the Oscar winner and Alligator II is hardly amusing enough for a Razzy. This is no more a sequel than a line of dialogue blabbing “something like this happened before in New York.”
The alligator attack from the opening scene features a man dropping below the waist-deep water surface and thrashing as we see nothing at all. The camera alternates between guy thrashing in the water, and an underwater alligator mouth (with nothing in its mouth) chomping away at bloody water. I feel like if an episode of Miami Vice from the 80s had an alligator attack it would be just as weakly executed and just as softly presented for its TV audience. Lame. I may enjoy writing about how bad this is, but I’m already regretting my movie choice for today—and if you’ve been a John Horror Corner reader for a while, you know that’s saying a lot!
The gory highlight from the first attack scene was a one-second shot of a severed (clothed and booted) leg floating to the surface. I love me some bad movies. But let’s be clear, this sequel is far from “so bad it’s good.”
Detective David Hodges (Joseph Bologna; Transylvania 6-5000) is on the case and his wife Christine (Dee Wallace; Popcorn, The Howling, The Lords of Salem, Critters, Critters Attack!, The Hills Have Eyes) is the pathologist who informs him that the remains appear to be the product of an alligator attack in a southern California lake. Worried about the possibility of a giant sewer alligator threatening the safety of the public during a festival arranged by the mayor—yeah, this is nothing like Jaws (1975) at all—Hodges races to find this animal. The mayor enlists the help of alligator hunters from Louisiana led by Hawk (Richard Lynch; Scanner Cop, Necronomicon: Book of the Dead, Puppet Master III, Trancers II) and including a familiar face (Kane Hodder; Friday the 13th parts VII-X, Hatchet I-IV) among his goons.
Although any individual actor may be fairly holding their own under the circumstances, the pacing is sluggish and the dialogue is painful. Oh, and the alligator shots are weak—mostly full body shots in the dark at great distance of a guy in a rubber gator suit or an actual alligator, or close up shots of an animatronic tail, flank, or head. Eventually we start actually seeing more of the alligator, but it’s never satisfying. And when it starts attacking people, the attacks are slow and sort of boring. Imagine if you will a pool float slowing moving towards a victim, and once the pool float slowly touches the victim, they scream and flail in the water as if being mauled and ravaged. Yeah, it’s often like that. Even the finale when the alligator ravages a carnival… yeah, even that sucked. The violence sucks, the gore is almost entirely absent, and the alligator attacks are neutered.
One of the better death scenes in this movie can be reduced to a man yelling while treading red water until he just dips below the surface. The lead alligator hunter Hawk gets the most honorable alligator attack scene, complete with death roll while stabbing the crap out of it with a bent rubber knife. That may have been the one horror scene I truly enjoyed for its efforts.
The way they kill the alligator is pretty fun to watch—a rocket launcher blows it into chunks on screen. So sad that the build-up for the scene was a slog. But we need to celebrate the little victories as we find them, like the lower jar of an alligator spiraling through the air with other chunky bodily debris.
Director Jon Hess (Watchers) didn’t hit this one outta’ the park for us, did he? I loved Alligator (1980), yet loathed this sequel. I recommend a hard pass.
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