John’s Horror Corner: Saint Maud (2019), a British religious horror that is more intriguing drama than horror.
MY CALL: Patient, quiet, and rich with human frailty, this A24 film plays out like its peers. The relationships are heavy and intriguing, the horror is limited largely to a powerful climactic revelation, and then it’s over and you feel a deep morose emptiness. MORE MOVIES LIKE Saint Maud: Hmmm… I’m thinking The Blackcoat’s Daughter (2015). For more ‘caretaker horror’ I’d recommend The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014), Relic (2020) or The Skeleton Key (2005).
Recently assuming her in-home nurse and caretaker duties, Maud (Morfydd Clark; Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Crawl) is tasked with caring for the terminally ill Amanda (Jennifer Ehle; John and the Hole). The two couldn’t be more opposite. Praying before dinner alone in her meager studio kitchen, Maud routinely overshares the tedium of her life with God and narrates her daily perspective to Him. A now wheelchair-bound former dancer and choreographer, Amanda is a thoughtfully inquisitive yet critical woman who cares little for whoever may be caught in her chain-smoking, indulgent wake. But perhaps she’s warming to Maud…
The drama of their developing relationship creates more tension and intrigue than any sense of horror or dread, which is more scarce than I expected or hoped. Maud ponders how Amanda ever ended up where she did, in a small simple boring town. Skeptically agnostic, Amanda wonders about Maud’s relationship with God, as Maud comforts her that God sees her and waits for her.
Maud is a curious one, mildly alarming in her piousness and quite certain that she is God’s Chosen to save Amanda’s soul. It’s as if Maud is falling in love with the idea of saving Amanda… perhaps even to obsessive infatuated degree. The imagery occasionally tiptoes the boundary between possession and rapture as Maud engages in self-castigation to reach closer to God, and God reaches back.
As A24 films do, this takes its time but does not fail to deliver abruptly shocking, disturbing imagery. Leave it to an A24 film to make me fear a sex scene. The intense, disturbing, effects scenes were admittedly few… until the rug is briefly ripped out from beneath you with violent and emotional intensity in the end. But brief it is. Too brief, I felt.
Probably among the weaker of A24 films in terms of emotional gut punches (e.g., Midsommar, Hereditary), but still a finely crafted film with solid performances and an adequate contribution to religious horror. Writer and director Rose Glass fared well in her first feature film, and we should welcome her future endeavors.
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast: Brad Pitt Eating, Creating Content, and Data Collection
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Mark and Zanandi (@ZaNandi on Twitter) discuss the 2019 data article that Mark wrote about Brad Pitt’s cinematic eating. In this episode, they talk about why the movies that feature Pitt eating over 200 calories make more money and have higher critical scores. Grab a spoonful of peanut butter and enjoy the episode!
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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John’s Horror Corner: Scanners 2: The New Order (1991), a weaker yet decently serviceable follow-up to Cronenberg’s gory allegory.
MY CALL: A somewhat worthy sequel that succeeds in entertaining and advancing the story just enough… and with enough gooey gory chunky head trauma as well. MORE MOVIES LIKE Scanners 2: Well, there’s Scanners (1981) and the subsequent sequel Scanners III (1991), as well as the Scanner Cop movies (1994-95). Firestarter (1984) might scratch your psychic itch. And although not at all horror, I might also recommend Wilder Napalm (1993).
Following in the footsteps of director and writer David Cronenberg (The Fly, Rabid, Videodrome, The Brood), who made serious statements about modern psychology and metaphysics in his early 80s horror oddity, this sequel’s director Christian Duguay (Scanners 3, Screamers, The Art of War) delivers far less intrigue and compelling content. The advancement of the original story is simply less interesting—but certainly not bad either. Ephemerol-addicted scanner patients have been reduced to fix-seeking junkies at research facilities, and criminal rogue scanners are up to what seems to be the same old mind-controlling shenanigans. The plot doesn’t steer far from its source material.
Suffering from strange migraines, first-year veterinary student David (David Hewlett; The Shape of Water, Cube, Haunter, Splice) protects his girlfriend Alice (Isabelle Mejias) by making convulsing pulsating work of a convenience store stick-up robber by turning his head into a brain-spewing blender. The visual effects are chunky, gory, visceral and extensively satisfying. But caught on security video, David’s scanner secret is out, and he is now to be studied by scanner specialists.
This sequel takes place over 22 years after the events of part 1, and the middle majority of this movie seems to drag on slowly so we really feel those years. It’s not very eventful and the story slowly pours in connections to the past. The revelations of the plot are not uninteresting but also not very compelling since the shocking revelations of part 1 are behind us. The problem seems to be in the execution. Not that this is a bad film at all. Just… a film that struggles to escape its predecessor’s shadow of strong allegory and more compelling characters. Most interesting for me was the discovery of new ways to use scanners’ abilities.
We are introduced to our twitchy and intense antagonist scanner Drak (Raoul Max Trujillo) early in the film. His role and dark intensity build throughout. When he finally faces off against David, the encounter falls short of the gravity brought by Michael Ironside in part 1. Still, the effects are impressively gross as he is reduced to a flesh-sunken husk.
Finale deaths come with the gross, wet, pulsating faces and puffy flesh we’ve come to anticipate cueing the pending cephalic explosion of latex and gobbledygoop. So like part 1, this movie is largely reducible to a couple of impressive effects scenes bookending the film. Overall not bad. Not bad, but not great. I’d say part 1 was far superior.
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John’s Horror Corner: Beyond the Door III (1989; aka Dark Train, Death Train), a zany and gory, false-sequel, ‘not-quite folk’ train horror.
MY CALL: This wasn’t bad! Between solid death scene pacing, general zaniness and a lot of bloody decapitations and the like, this is a good “check your brain at the door” one-and-done horror flick. MORE MOVIES LIKE Beyond the Door III: They’re totally unrelated except in title, but there’s Beyond the Door (1974) and Schock, aka Beyond the Door II (1977). Want more train horror? Consider Terror Train (1980), Midnight Meat Train (2008), Howl (2015) or Train to Busan (2016).
An American student of Serbian blood, Beverly (Mary Kohnert; Star Trek TNG) is off to Yugoslavia for a school trip to observe a rare ancient pagan ritual. I somehow doubt this class trip idea would fly with school boards nowadays. The students are met in Belgrade by their kind Professor/host (Bo Svenson; Deep Space, Curse II: The Bite) who leads them to a remote village inhabited by time-forgotten sullen folk. You might be getting a folk horror vibe here… but that aspect of the film doesn’t develop as you’d expect.
When it becomes apparent that the villagers are trying to kill the students, they flee the woods and jump onto a moving train to escape. Just one thing… the train might be possessed by the spirit of Beverly’s devil-worshipping father, who has plans for his daughter! Not sure how that spirit-possessed train makes sense, but we’ll just have to go with it. The runaway train makes its own itinerary and occasionally travels off track through countryside and swamp alike.
I expected a hopefully entertaining one-and-done B-movie. But truth be told, this movie is trying a lot harder than I expected. For example, the Serbian-speaking mother brings a lot to the table as a minor character, Vesna the village witch is an over-the-top delight, and the ritual scenes are elaborate.
The opening death scene was much better than I’d expect from some movie I’d never heard of originally. The death smacks of the decapitation in The Omen (1976), and much later Final Destination 2 (2003). Subsequent death scenes are also actually pretty cool: decapitation by train and death by engine furnace! Another major highlight was when a student tears the flesh from her face, spewing blood and gore while revealing the grotesque beneath. There really are a lot of beheadings and head trauma in this feisty little flick. I haven’t even managed to mention all the bloody severed head shenanigans encountered on this ride. A guy even has his lower half completely severed in a gloriously gory display while another is completely impaled through his torso. Gosh, this movie is really entertaining, and it isn’t pulling any punches in the death scene department.
Despite its title, this is the third in a title series that has nothing to do with one another ensuing Beyond the Door (1974) and Schock, aka Beyond the Door II (1977). But director Jeff Kwitny (Iced, Illegal Alien) did well here. Against all odds, I very much enjoyed this movie! The special effects and death scenes are delivered with good pacing and execution, the gore is abundant and very entertaining, and this was just zany enough without being mindlessly fun. Highly recommended for fans of obscure 80s horror.
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Cyrano (2021) – Review
Quick Thoughts – Grade A- – Director Joe Wright and writer Erica Schmidt have created a vibrant and lively musical that features an excellent lead performance from Peter Dinklage. The adaptation of Schmidt’s 2018 musical features a wealth of beautiful moments that will linger in your memory.
Fueled by flowing musical numbers and a talented cast, Cyrano is an absolute delight and I’m so happy that I watched it without seeing a trailer or knowing much about it aside from that it’s another adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac, the 1897 play written by Edmond Rostand. I found myself hooked immediately by the score and lyrics created by Aaron Dessner, Bryce Dessner, Matt Berninger and Carin Besser (I’m a big fan of The National), and while there are no absolute belters like the ones featured in West Side Story or In the Heights, the songs and dance choreography create a flowing and lovely mood. Belgian choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui incorporates a healthy dose of ballet into the performances and they create a gentle and sensitive environment that are best featured during the Someone to Say (Reprise) and Your Name performances. The music and dancing blend excellently together as the flowing sensual motions of the dancers mirror that of the performers who express longing, hope or unrequited love with their lyrics. There’s nothing aggressive about these moments (when compared to a Baz Luhrman musical), and instead they create a dreamlike and sensitive world that will come crashing down as the movie progresses.
After Atonement, Pride & Prejudice, Hanna, Pan, and Anna Karenina, Joe Wright is no stranger to films that feature tragedy, music and violence. With Cyrano, Wright has taken the best elements of his prior films, blended them up, and made another solid movie. What’s nice is that he’s dialed down the Pan theatrics (no Nirvana covers here), and not recreated the single soundstage look of Anna Karenina, instead, he’s continued his trend of excellently staged shots that incorporate long takes, many extras, and in the case of Cyrano, an overhead shot of the Maniance Castle that made me say “whoa.”
What makes Cyrano work so well are the performances from Peter Dinklage, Haley Bennett, Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Ben Mendelsohn. After watching the film I was convinced that Dinklage was a lock for an Oscar nomination, as he dominates the screen and owns every song, monologue and sword fight. He clearly fine-tuned his performance during the 2018 run, and under the watchful eye of Wright, has been given a showcase role that he owns. His performance as Cyrano is equal parts boisterous and self-conscious as he can slay with words, but feels inadequate when it comes to being loved by his long-time friend Roxanne (Haley Bennett), who is in love with the traditionally handsome Christian (Kelvin Harrison Jr.). This makes things awkward as he’s asked to watch over Christian who has recently joined his military unit, and he eventually attempts to bring them together by writing letters for Roxanne and claiming they are from the tongue-tied Christian. The results are tragic, but the journey is worth taking because of the magnetic Dinklage.
Wright also made a smart move by bringing in Haley Bennett (who was in the 2018 play) and Kelvin Harrison Jr., who made a name for themselves in solid movies like Waves, Swallow and Luce. In an interesting move, Harrison Jr. based his performance as Christian on Peter Sellers from Being There, and the end result is dripping with earnestness and sincerity. His performance during Someone to Say (Reprise) is a highlight of the movie, as he’s surrounded by a troupe of ballet dancers and framed excellently by cinematographer Seamus McGarvey (who also shot Atonement, Anna Karenina, and Pan for Wright).
The personal highlight for me is the appearance of musician Glen Hansard, who won an Academy Award in 2008 for the song “Falling Slowly” (Once is one of my all-time favorite movies). He pops up during one of the climatic final musical numbers, and words can’t express how happy it made me to see him performing in another mainstream musical.
Final thoughts: I had a wonderful time watching Cyrano, and I can’t wait to listen to the soundtrack on repeat.
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode 411: Garden State, Compulsive Liars, and Silent Velcro
You can download or stream the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker (or wherever you listen to podcasts…..we’re almost everywhere).
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
Mark and Zanandi (@ZaNandi on Twitter) talk about the 2004 cult classic Garden State. Directed by Zach Braff, and starring Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, and a large hole in the ground, the movie focuses on the comedic/dramatic/romantic adventures of a guy named Andrew “Large” Largeman. In this episode, they discuss epic soundtracks, trading cards, and screaming into the abyss. 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!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker.
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You can download or stream the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker (or wherever you listen to podcasts…..we’re almost everywhere).
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
Mark and Norbert discuss the Beverly Hills Cop franchise and examine what made it such a blockbuster success. Directed by Martin Brest, and starring Eddie Murphy, Beverly Hills Cop (1984) was the highest grossing film of 1984 (it beat Ghostbusters, Temple of Doom, Gremlins), and it deservedly propelled Murphy into A-list superstardom because his performance as Axel Foley is perfection. The two sequels never achieved the same success, but they both cleared $100 million worldwide, and many consider Tony Scott’s Beverly Hills Cop II (1987) to be better than the original. In this episode, they talk about bananas, unnecessary car chases, and amusement parks. 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!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker.
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John’s Horror Corner: Panic Beats (1983; aka Latidos de pánico), this Spanish horror movie is mediocre 80s Euro-exploitation horror-LITE.
MY CALL: Really just for those of you seeking a serviceably bad 80s Euro-exploitation. It tries at times, succeeds rarely, and mostly relies on empty nudity to entertain. MORE MOVIES LIKE Panic Beats: This is a tough one… maybe Embodiment of Evil (2008) and its many, much older predecessors dating back to the 60s.
We open with… uuuhhhhhhh, a bloodied naked woman (who spends way too long naked and on screen) running through the woods fleeing a mounted knight (Paul Naschy) who proceeds to butcher her with a spiked flail? Yup. This sure feels like early 80s Euro-exploitation to me.
Then we tastefully cut to present day, when Paul (Paul Naschy; often starring in his own films) must relocate his (shockingly fully-clothed) ill wife (Julia Saly; Night of the Werewolf, Demon Witch Child) to their remote estate in the mountains for her recovery. Mabile (Lola Gaos; Blood Hunt, Furtivos) and her niece (Frances Ondiviela) staff the house and provide us with a history of the foul knight who once lived there, slaughtering his (naked) wife and much of his family before facing trial for murder, witchcraft and drinking the blood of men. Sounds like an interesting guy to me.
Shortly after their arrival to the manor, his wife’s nightmares begin. But after such a wild opening sequence, the movie slows down a lot for the next 40 minutes. Sure there’s a chunky throat gash, gory goop on dining trays, and visions of mutilated zombies. But it’s all very horror-LITE for my taste. Meanwhile, we know that “someone” is trying to drive his wife mad and, with her heart condition, a good scare just may be her end.
The greatest impact this movie had on me was how shocked I was by the amount of bush on screen. Super classy. At one point there were back-to-back scenes featuring different women and, well, all that. And all that bush is foliating the love quadrangle between Paul, his wife, his maid’s daughter, and his mistress (Silvia Miró). It seems that this movie could never decide if it was a horror movie or a sexy thriller, so every 10-20 minutes it switches from one to the other without ever being good at either.
Now I know what you’re thinking. How is it a bad sexy thriller with all this nudity? And the answer is that the nudity is actually rather empty. There are no sex scenes; there’s only we’re “about to have sex” or “almost sexy” scenes. It’s as if the director just wanted to see these actresses naked… a lot… all of them. And the horror side, well, never sticks a landing in the first 80 minutes. But in the last 10, the ax murder was actually quite unexpected and a gory blast of fun. Easily the best scene of the movie—not that we set the bar very high. And the finale includes some exceptional sloppy head trauma gore.
By the end everyone gets killed. I guess it was a sort of entertaining ride. But it’s a ride I never need to go on again. Despite the general averageness of this movie, writer and director Paul Naschy (Night of the Werewolf, The Beast and the Magic Sword, Howl of the Devil) has piqued my interest to try perhaps at least one more of his films… a hazardous decision I very well may regret.
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode 409: Jumping Scenes in Movies, Sprained Ankles, and Nosferatu
You can download or stream the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker (or wherever you listen to podcasts…..we’re almost everywhere).
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
Mark and Nicholas Rehak (@TheRehak on Twitter) discuss their favorite jumping scenes in movies. In this episode, they talk about The Matrix, Fast & Furious 6, Cliffhanger, Reign of Fire, Skyscraper and Goldeneye. 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!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker.
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Quick thoughts – Grade – A- – Meander is a lean and mean horror film that is refreshingly straightforward. I love how it quickly gets to the action, and builds towards a satisfying conclusion.
It’s been well over a month since I watched Meander and I couldn’t stop thinking about it, so I sat down and watched it again and I’m happy to report that it’s even better than I remembered. Normally I dislike the phrase, but it has definitely been living rent-free in my head since the first viewing. There’s something refreshing and admirable about the straightforward world building and dedication to creating an experience that stands alongside movies like Cube or The Descent. The 90-minute experience directed by Mathieu Turi is lean and mean and surprisingly easy to follow as the vast tunnel system in which the film takes place has a certain logic (horrible things happen), and every piece of death puzzle plays an important part.
Meander kicks off with a birds-eye view shot of a car driving through the deep woods towards the middle of nowhere. Soundtracked by the Shawn James song “Through the Valley,” it establishes the isolation and wide open terrain where a massive system of tunnels could be built to allow for the ensuing death and carnage to go unnoticed. This is where we meet Lisa (Gaïa Weiss), who is laying in the middle of the road hoping a careless driver uses her as a speed bump. Before she’s flattened, the car stops and we meet a stranger who may or may not be the killer people are talking about on the car radio. From there, things go dark and the next time we see Lisa she has been changed out of her clothes, and stuffed into a form-fitting Hunger Games-esque outfit meant to streamline her journey through a system of tunnels that are trying to kill her. In a smart filmmaking choice, her journey is lit by a large wristwatch-from-hell that emits a yellow light in the dark tunnels and turns red to let her know when things are about to get deadly. Immediately we’re thinking she’s part of a bored billionaires death game because it would take millions of dollars and loads of discreet contractors who signed non-disclosure agreements and didn’t ask about the acid traps or flame throwers that work on highly technical timers. In a neat almost spoiler-y twist, things soon take a turn towards science-fiction when we’re introduced to a skull-like contraption that might be the most interesting horror visual of 2021 (aside from the chair throw in Malignant) and burnt maniacs who crawl through the tunnels looking to violently bite, claw and throttle anyone unlucky enough to come across them.
To spoil the rest would be a disservice, but it’s worth noting the journey of Lisa, who goes from being suicidal, to becoming an unstoppable and determined force of nature who isn’t about to let some tunnels kill her. In some of my favorite horror films such as Drag me to Hell, Crawl, and The Descent, I love watching characters draw from some hidden reservoirs of strength as they battle demons, cave monsters or hungry alligators who are trying to either send them to hell or eat them. It’s also nice that Lisa isn’t dragged down by too much backstory or drama. We know that her daughter died, and she was laying in the road because it would’ve been her ninth birthday. We also know that Lisa doesn’t really want to die, she was laying in the road because she just wanted to see her daughter again. It may be contradictory, but it makes sense when we see how far she goes to survive. A lot of credit needs to go to Weiss whose physicality and sense of urgency make you cheer for her, and you almost feel the pain when she’s crossing over a devious acid trap that has undoubtedly disintegrated the bones of dozens of past competitors.
Director Mathieu Turi has been open about his love for Cube, and that love is evident in Meander. He wanted to create a fun horror experience and he totally succeeded. I love how streamlined the film is, and I appreciate the visual storytelling that slowly unravels a wild new world. I’m not sure if it will happen, but I’d love to see a sequel, and I hope Weiss and Turi continue getting solid work.
Movies, Films & Flix 