The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea Part 1 (Deep Star Six, 1989)

1989 saw three competing sci-fi/horror films. One stood out above the other two, but we will get to that one later.

First up is Sean Cunningham’s Deep Star Six. Cunningham was known primarily for producing and directing the first Friday the 13th. He is probably more well known for his producer credits.

It is the story of an underwater nuclear test facility. One morning they discover an underwater cavern. it apparently housed a whole underwater ecology of it’s own…and it sets free a large creature that starts working it’s way through the crew. The creature turns out to be a large and ancient crab-like beast. It damages the sea base, forcing the remaining crew to figure out a way to decompress and then take them to the surface. oh, and the creature stands between them and the only remaining way to get to the surface.

While the effects are decent, there is nothing that this film offers in chills or scares. It’s most redeeming quality is that it has a pretty good cast. It is loaded with talented character actors. And Greg Evigan (who seemed like he would be on a big star path before he joined the Tekwar Franchise) is pretty likable as the fish out of water, so to speak. but the film itself is only memorable in that it was competing for audiences against two other films with similar concepts in the same year.

February 22, 2016 0

Confusing Christmastime (Black Christmas, 2006)

This movie is why people hate horror remakes.

Seriously, they tossed out the things that work and add in…uh, a backstory. One of the most unnecessary back stories ever. See, now the sorority house is Billy’s old house, and that is why Billy came back.

Except, now Billy is not alone. Apparently his daughter/sister (don’t ask) is in the house and has been for awhile. Cause somebody is killing the sorority girls while Billy is still locked in the asylum. See, the film does not reveal the sister/daughter until after the killings begin, so it is totally confusing.

The film is just a mess, and truthfully, the cast is not all that memorable in their roles. The characters are far more generic feeling. Bitchy Girl, Drunk Girl, Nice Girl, Weird Girl…the cast feels like it was culled from the WB. Probably cause it was.

There is an added “eyeball torture” aspect and a happier ending. Nothing added to the remake improves upon the original, and everything skipped is that much more noticeable.

December 11, 2015 0

Christmas Darkness (Black Christmas, 1974)

Halloween is often cited as the father of the slasher genre. But three years prior was Bob Clark’s Black Christmas. If you are wondering why the name Bob Clark might sound familiar, there is a reason. For about a decade, for 24 hours every Christmas, TNT aired back to back showings of Clark’s “A Christmas Story”. Yeah, that guy who brought us a beloved holiday classic also gave us another, lesser known (but no less classic) holiday film.

Black Christmas is a little bit different in tone, of course. It is set on Christmas Eve at a sorority house. As the women engage in festivities, their house is plagued by an obscene caller who speaks in guttural cries.

The film is mainly focused on Jess (Olivia Hussey) who is pregnant, and set on having an abortion. Her boyfriend, Peter (Keir Dullea), is dead set against it. There is also a hunt for a young missing girl, and the first girl to die. But nobody is sure if the sorority girls are running off or truly missing.

We the audience, of course, no better. The killer is in the house, but what is his motive? Why this house? It is a mystery that the film never chooses to answer. “Billy” has no origin story. He just shows up and terrorizes the girls. And it is an effective and unnerving choice.

Black Christmas is well acted, with great visuals. Rather than focus on gore, it is focused on mood. And it is powerful. The film’s final shot as the credits begin to roll are chilling. There is no music as the camera pulls away from the house. Just a lone ringing telephone…

December 10, 2015 1

No Santa (Krampus, 2015)

The Krampus is a part of Christmas folklore largely unknown to the U.S., he is not part of our tales of Santa. It is a popular bit of European folklore though. But, as the film states, he is the dark shadow of Santa. Santa rewards goodness, but the Krampus condemns the naughty.

It only makes sense that there would be a Christmas film for the Krampus. Christmas horror stories have been around for quite some time. A Christmas Carol is a Christmas horror story.

Mike Dougherty, most well known as a screenwriter of numerous super-hero films, this is his second feature as Director. His first was the very entertaining Halloween themed Trick R’ Treat. And now he returns to the holiday theme with a Christmas Monster movie.

Young Max is frustrated that his family Christmas is not like it onvce was. There is fighting, cruel put downs and tension. After being humiliated with his letter to Santa, Max is angry and heart broken, tearing up his letter to Santa. He does not realize he has called forth a terrible wish.

The family wakes to discover there was a terrible snowstorm and they are out of power. And that is not the really bad news. what follows is the family discovering they are in for a terrible night.

The Krampus and his minions work to take the family to hell. The thing about Dougherty is he has a skill with letting a horror film have the right amount of dark humor. The monsters are wonderfully whimsical and creepy, which results in some enjoyable laughs. I mean, the giggling evil gingerbread men cookies were crazy enough. The designs are terrific. The Krampus is almost like a melted Santa…his skin hanging loose, like ill fitting cloth.

The use of a frigid winter and snow are well used. It is harsh and unforgiving. The cast (including Toni Collette, Adam Scott and David Koechner) are great. I genuinely found myself wanting this family to succeed, stop the Krampus and get out alive.

Krampus is a fun and enjoyable ride. It won’t be winning any awards, but it was great fun for a horror fan.

December 6, 2015 0

Damn Toxic Waste (Love in the Time of Monsters, 2015)

Let’s be real honest. The movie Love in the Time of Monsters could have been terrible. it has some qualities that could totally ruin it. Especially the effects. the monsters never look that great. The bigfoot monster looks like the original Planet of the Apes (with log luxurious hair). There is a mutant monster moose that looks entirely unfinished.

And yet?

The movie is a lot of fun. The story, while not some grand twist, has a lot of fun. It is the story of two sisters, Carla and Marla who are going to visit her boyfriend who works at a family campground with a Bigfoot theme. Her boyfriend Johnny works as one of the Bigfoots. People go on walks and he shows up in a cheesey costume.

During the Bigfoot Staff Meeting (really), one of the guys goes off to get high. He drops his joint in the lake and falls in trying to retrieve it. His co-Workers hear him screaming, and the run off to find him floating in the water. The guys start telling their superior Lou (Kane Hodder) to report it, but he does not want to get in trouble…a struggle ensues and the fall in the lake.

Here is the thing. The lake is full of a mutating toxin. So the guys mutate into actual monsters that terrorize the camp. The sisters unite the remaining camp employees in an attempt to get rid of the monsters and survive the night.

The film is fun and goofy, which works to it’s advantage. It is fun to see guys known for their work under masks getting to play roles with their own faces. Hodder has fun with his role, but Doug Jones shines as DJ Lincoln. Considering this is one of the earliest works of both the Director Matt Jackson and Writer Michael Skvarla, and it appears to have been made on a budget, the film works with what it has at it’s disposal.

I had a lot of fun watching the film in spite of some of the shortcomings, and it made for a good silly Halloween offering.

November 1, 2015 0

Many Tales To Tell (Tales of Halloween, 2015)

The horror anthology format is one that can yield tremendous success (Trick’r Treat, Creepshow) or terrible results (Creepshow 3, V/H/S 3). It has a somewhat spotty history, but the tradition holds strong. Probably the most ambitious, but not entirely successful were the two ABC’s of Death films, which each contained 26 short films. Tales of Halloween keeps it to ten stories, which is probably the limit for getting a good yield of stories.

The film uses the framing device of a small town where every Halloween the dead walk, ghouls play and monsters eat. Guiding us through the tales is (in a pretty obvious homage to her role in the fog) radio host Adrienne Barbeau (Creepshow, Swamp Thing).

The stories are hit or miss, with an uneven tone, but when they hit? They are terrific fun. Standouts include The Night Billy Raised Hell, the Ransom of Rusty Rex, Bad Seed, and Friday the 31st. What makes all those stories work is their sense of humor. All are having more fun than trying to be scary.

This Means War starts out strong, but ends kind of weakly.

Friday the 31st starts out like a slasher story, complete with an obvious Jason type…but then takes a complete left turn. The Ransom of Rusty Rex tells a tale of ambitious kidnappers who grab a rich man’s (John Landis, director of American Werewolf in London) son while he is trick or treating. Except, the boy is a bit more of a hellion than anticipated.

On the other hand, Sweet Tooth goes more for the traditional monster/urban legend territory…and it ends exactly like you expect it to. The Weak and the Wicked lacks any real life in it’s narrative, and for being a short, fails to do much in it’s premise of revenge.

In the end, I found the film an enjoyable watch, with some good humor, fun cameos and even a few scares. It is not quite Trick’r Treat, but it is some good Halloween fun.

October 31, 2015 0

It’s All Treats (Trick’r Treat, 2007)

You know, usually when a movie sits on a shelf for two years, there is a good reason for it. But in the case of Michael Dougherty’s Trick’r Treat? I cannot see why Warner Brothers took so long. It was ready in 2007, yet Warner Brothers was hesitant to release it.

When I sat down to watch this film, I had built up some high hopes. The trailer looked good and people I respect were singing it’s praises.

It’s easily the best horror anthology since Creepshow. Horror Anthologies are a mixed bag, and filmmakers get them wrong far more than they get them right. All to often they are silly in the wrong ways, lack punch, have a lame host, are to reliant on the host, etc. The framing device can also make or break a film. Creepshow’s comic book framing device is an example of getting it right.

Trick’rTreat’s framing device is the small town Halloween celebration. We are treated to a series of four stories that are loosely connected, as characters wander in and out of other stories. The stories are also unified by the presence of Sam, the creepy childlike trick or treating creature who appears ever so randomly in all but one story, where he plays a larger role.

The cast is stellar, with Anna Paquin playing the young virgin seeking her first partner, Dylan Baker as the creepy Principal and Brian Cox as the guy who hates Halloween. Part of what really works is the film’s dark sense of humor. The film is clearly meant to be fun, not merely a frightfest. It’s gory, but not like Saw, where it is a slow indulgence…the gore serves the film, not the other way around. Oh, and pretty girls.

There have been comparisons to Pulp Fiction, mainly because the film has that whole “jumping around in time” thing going on. But that is really part of the fun, you see glimpses of event or people wandering by, and later you discover just where they were coming from. The way the stories are intertwined is a wonderful bit of storytelling. Director and writer Michael Dougherty tells some great stories, and shows that he understands visual storytelling and makes the most of his visuals. There are so many moments that are just… awesome to see (including two instances of houses immersed in pumpkins). I really feel like I cannot say much without giving away the many great moments. This is a love letter to Halloween, which makes it perfect for me. Halloween is honestly my favoritest holiday. Just let me say, rent Trick’r Treat or better yet? Buy it. I agree with Jeffrey Wells, Warner Brothers has a potential franchise here. I hope Dougherty gives us at least one more.

A side note…Cox wanted the make up people to make him look like John Carpenter-director/writer of Halloween. Dougherty was only all to happy to oblige.

October 31, 2015 0

The Ultimate Halloween

There have been a lot of box sets of film franchises. Often, the series is owned by one studio. This gets tougher for many horror franchises. Child’s Play is owned by MGM, the other films are owned by Universal. Paramount owned the first eight films in the Friday the 13th series, New Line had the later films. Halloween was owned by multiple studios, with the first five films settling in under Anchor Bay and the sixth film on belonging to Dimension Films.

Earlier in 2014, Shout Factory’s horror line Scream Factory announced a pretty big deal. They got Dimension, Universal and Anchor Bay to agree to allow a box set with every single Halloween film. All ten films. And you get the television versions of Halloween and Halloween 2. I watch the television version of Halloween every year. But the real big shocker? The never before released in America Producer’s Cut of Halloween 6: the Curse of Michael Myers. It has been long rumored to be vastly superior to the (admittedly abysmal) theatrical version of the film. I addressed that earlier this week. They also include the unrated versions of both Rob Zombie films.

The packaging is terrific. A nice box houses ten individual cases, black instead of the traditional blue. The cover art is the classic cover art. The box has some really good and atmospheric painted art.

Every disc includes special features related to the individual film. These are made with care and the producers manage to get a lot of the original teams to return and discuss their experiences on the film. If you love to dive into special features (as I do), this is a very rich set. The set includes a bonus disc with new special features (mostly relating to Halloween’s 3-5).

Some of the special features were on previous releases (Considering Anchor Bay has released a 20th Anniversary Set, 25th Anniversary Set and 35th Anniversary set, there was a lot to use). Considering the Halloween:H20 DVD years ago claimed to have special features that were not actually on the disc, it is nice to finally get to see interviews and behind the scenes stuff that was promised. In the end, I think the only thing missing from the deluxe set was the Halloween 25 Years of Terror DVD set. And they include some of the special features from that. Keep in mind, the non-deluxe version of the set does not have the Halloween II Television Version or the Producer’s Cut of Halloween 6.

The picture quality is great, keeping some of the grain, but the blu-ray transfers are never muddy, allowing us to never miss some of those great out of the shadow reveals. This is how a box set should be. I truly wish the Shout Factory had been in on the Friday the 13th and Chucky box sets…because we would more than likely have gotten a pretty sweet deal out of it. The Shout Factory has set a standard here. This is not that surprising, they have spent years making themselves stand out as kind of the Criterion Collection for pop culture.

October 31, 2015 0

The Next Night He Became a Zombie (Halloween 2, 2009)

Rob Zombie returned for the sequel to his fairly successful reboot. My understanding is he had not intended to, but was talked into it. And from the outset, this one is a total mess.

It opens with a bit of text regarding the psychological significance of a white horse. It then gives us a flashback to young Michael and his mother having as loving a moment between a mother and son as you can have at a sanitarium. This right here is continuing a wrong foot. In the original films, Loomis talks about how Michael was quiet and interacted with no one, to the point where everyone grew complacent around him.

The film just jumps ahead fifteen years, to the end of the previous film. In an imitation of the original Halloween 2, there is a hospital sequence, but it is only about 25 minutes long and then Laurie wakes up a year later. Was it a memory? A dream? The film is unclear.

We learn Laurie is in therapy and has rage issues. Loomis, on the other hand is now a psych-babble hack who uses Michael as his money-maker. This is an unpleasant take on the character, which makes him far less sympathetic. He is convinced Michael is dead, even though no body has ever been recovered.

Michael, very much alive, has been hiding out, building up his murderous rage. He is haunted by dreams of his mother, and an avatar of himself as a little boy who speaks to the vision of the mother. There are instances where Michael grunts as he kills that seem out-of-place. A completely silent Michael makes for a better Michael. Michael also spends a lot of time with no mask, which just seems wrong.

Laurie seems to have a sudden psychic connection to Michael that comes out of nowhere. And Laurie has become an entirely unpleasant. In fact, nobody is really likable in the film beyond maybe Sheriff Bracken and Annie. But most everyone else is just hard to like or care about. This is a bad thing for your lead. It is hard for the viewer to invest our time and emotion to care about a character we cannot even really like. And to pretty much have her cast her lots in with Michael (this is the same problem the recent Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequel had) is troublesome.

The resolution of the film is nonsense leaving this a complete (as stated earlier) mess of a movie. It robs Laurie of any actual strength, and ultimately punishes her. It is pretty clear that Laurie Strode was accepting Michael’s ways. Her deviant smile before the cut to black is far to dark to be interpreted as triumph over the evil of Michael Myers.

There are some great shots, as Zombie has a real eye for framing shots, especially when going for a creepy vibe. And there are some solid performances, especially from McDowell, Dourif and Harris. People need to give Dourif more roles like this. He shines in the film. And Zombie (as usual) peppers his film with tons of character actors who clearly had a lot of fun in their roles.

But in the end, the writing and ideas are inconsistent, the characters overwhelmingly unpleasant and a Michael Myers who does not feel at all like Michael Myers.

October 31, 2015 0

The Night He Became a Zombie (Halloween, 2007)

After the failure of Halloween Resurrection, The franchise regrouped and tried to figure out their next step. And they were stumped. So what they decided to do? Reboot the franchise.

Rob Zombie had two films under his belt, and while the response to House of a 1,000 Corpses was tepid, exploitation fans ate up the semi sequel the Devil’s Rejects. The producers decided Zombie could rev new life into the franchise.

The end result is kind of mixed. To begin, the original gave us very little of Michael’s childhood. He puts on a clown mask, kills his sister, his parents come home…BAM! Jump to the present. The film was more focused on Laurie and her friends, with little attention given to Michael’s past. All that we really got was he came from a standard suburban family.

Zombie changed all that. Instead, we were introduced to a little boy from a white trash home. his stripper mom has an abusive boyfriend…his sister Judith is verbally abusive and mom boyfriend leer at her…and so on. He is bullied at school, and little Mikey Myers has issues…he kills animals and gets into fights. And he actually kills before he kills his sister. He actually goes on a killing spree that culminates in his sister’s death. The only person left is his baby sister and mother.

Michael continues to be creepy and violent in the hospital. He grows up to escape, being hunted by his psychiatrist Sam Loomis. We are almost halfway through the film before we meet the teen Laurie Strode and her friends. So, the film tends to be a rush to get to the end, with Michael slashing what seems to be half the town.

The most enjoyable part of the film is the cast. It is a horror and exploitation who’s who. Brad Dourif (Child’s Play), Malcolm McDowell, Danielle Harris (Halloween 4 & 5), Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead) among others play either prominent characters or have cameos.

This is a bloody exploitation take on the franchise, unlike prior attempts. Depending on the version you watch, it can be potentially triggering for a viewer. The theatrical cut has Michael fighting a bunch of guards to escape…in the unrated cut, he escapes when the sleazy asylum employees drag a girl into Michael’s room so they can rape her on his bed (?!). It is a pretty sickening scene that was not needed. And truth be told, I might like the film more if is was just Rob Zombie’s Exploitation Horror Movie. But calling its lead “monster” Michael Myers and having the title of Halloween invites a lot of comparisons.

The biggest is that part of what made Michael Myers scary in the original was his ambiguity. What little we could see was he appeared to come from a middle class family.There appeared to be no abuse. Michael appeared to lack any warning signs. That question made him very frightening. Rob Zombie’s Halloween gives us a view of a textbook case of the “childhood of a serial killer”. Michael has everything working against him. Michael should be haunting and this new back story ruins that. It makes Michael a predictable monster, rather than a foreboding shape.

Michael kills more in the reboot…and we get more profanity. The exploitation approach does make it stand out from the other horror reboots…rather than a glossier reboot, Zombie gives us a grittier one.

The standout for me in Rob Zombie’s Halloween films is probably Brad Dourif’s Sheriff Bracken. He remains a good-hearted heroic type angry with Loomis for what has been unleashed on this town he protects. Dourif does not seem to get a lot of those roles, and he is actually quite good at it.

October 30, 2015 1