Cold Fear (Harbinger Down, 2015)

This film, in part, was a response to the 2011 Thing prequel.In early interviews, (Harbinger Down Director) Alec Gillis had emphasized that it was going to be a mostly practical film. Even the special features show an awful lot of practical work in the behind the scenes. The studio “had a change of heart” and decided the film should favor digital over practical.

There is a place for the tool of digital. But the avoidance of practical hurts film. Alec Gillis, coming from an award winning practical effects background, knows this well.

Harbinger Down was a film made in part to showcase practical effects. It is for lovers of monster movies.

It tells the tale of Sadie, a student studying climate change effects on Beluga Whales who brings her professor and fellow student on her grandfather’s crabbing boat the Harbinger. They discover an old soviet ship in the ice and once on board, horror based mayhem ensues.

Evoking memories of John Carpenter’s the Thing (right at the beginning there is an easter egg for those of us who love the Thing) and the films of the Alien franchise, Gillis clearly set out to make a classic monster movie. Using the familiar elements of people trapped in a remote location facing a scary unknown, Gillis charges forward.

The film has great practical effects driving the action and scares. The monster is lifelike and gruesome. but it is not enough to have cool effects. If the cast cannot hold up their end, a film will fall apart. Luckily, Gillis has a terrific cast. The characters feels defined and are entertaining. Especially likable is Winston James Francis as Big G. Star Lance Henrikson is great in the role of gruff but decent Graff (captain of the ship and Sadie’s grandfather).

The film has moments of humor that allow us to get to know the characters before it all falls apart on them. The cast makes the most of their roles, whether large or small.

Harbinger Down is a solid monster movie, one that pays tribute to the great monster movies of the early 80’s. It deserves a watch by lovers of monster movies and practical visual effects.

October 24, 2015 0

Hardly a Drag (Drag Me to Hell, 2009)

Twenty some years ago Sam Raimi made an impression on the film world with a low budget horror film called the Evil Dead. Now a cult classic, he turned his skills to the big leagues with some varied success in the Spider-Man franchise. For a long time fans have hoped Sam would re-visit his horror roots as more than a producer.

This year he did, and it was well worth the wait. Drag Me To Hell is a full return to form of films like Evil Dead 2:Dead By Dawn and Army of Darkness. It’s filled with jumps and humor.

Drag Me to Hell is the story of Christine, (Alison Lohman) a young loan officer. She has a boyfriend, a psychology professor named Clay (Justin Long), and is trying to get a promotion to assistant manager at her bank. Christine is, however, nice and sweet. While this makes her appealing to her boyfriend, but her sweetness and honesty is hampering her ability to be the aggressive shark her boss (David Paymer) wants. It doesn’t help that her competition, Stu (Reggie Lee) is an unethical and lying jerk.

When a elderly Hungarian woman, Mrs. Ganush, (Lorna Raver) comes in and begs for an her third extension on her mortgage. Due to illness, she has fallen behind in her payments yet again. Christine’s initial instinct is to help this woman who is clearly in need. When she speaks to her boss, he hints that making the tough decision may be needed here, but leaves the decision in her hands. She has the opportunity to be a good Samaritan but instead denies Mrs. Ganush the extension, recommending she move in with her family. The old woman falls to her knees begging for mercy, and she is dragged out by security.

After this, things start looking up, her boss is impressed with her willingness to be tough, and even looks over a plan she has written up and decided he wants to show corporate. But this is a horror movie! Christine is met by the woman after work, and after a literal knock down and drag out fight (Stapler to the forehead!!!) between the two, the old woman puts a curse on on Christine and promises that someday soon, Christine will be the one begging for help.

Then things really go downhill for Christine. She hears voices, gets attacked by unseen demons and has an extreme nosebleed. Christine and her Boyfriend (a true skeptic and non-believer in a spiritual world) visit psychic Rahm Jas (Dileep Rao). He quickly shows himself to be invaluable, helping Christine understand the nature of the curse and how she might avoid the consequences.

As the situation escalates, Christine starts to take more and more extreme measures to avoid her terrible fate. The trouble is, she has three days to do it, once the third day passes, the demon (called a Lamia) will drag her to hell.

The cast does a good job with making it seem believable, considering how over the top things get. Justin Long was surprising effective as the caring boyfriend. Raver plays Mrs. Ganush at first with great sympathy, she is easy to take pity on, yet she becomes intensely scary after she is humiliated by Christine.

Raimi makes terrific use of shadows and sound to produce scares. The film has much cartoonish grossness that becomes so outrageous, it is hard not to laugh. But the thing here is that it’s okay to laugh. You are not laughing because Raimi is failing-he is succeeding. This is a humorous film, as well as a scary morality play. The effects are a blend of natural make up and CGI, which Raimi has worked to master through the Spider-Man films. And it’s very effective here.

The twists at the end of the film make for a classic horror payoff, and I would not want it to end any other way.

Back when the film hit theaters, I remember a feminist writer stating that the film was anti-woman. That it’s moral was that women should not be assertive and should be punished when they are. This is a woeful misread of the film. First and foremost? You could have had a guy in the lead and told the exact same story. The moral is that you should not be cruel just to achieve more for yourself. Christine had a choice, and yes, doing the right thing may have meant she would not get the promotion. But often in life, doing the right thing…the ethical thing can cost you. Just because I want a success does not mean I should achieve it at the expense of hurting someone in need of help. This film is not anti-business woman. Nor is it anti-woman in general. It is “anti-being a dick.” As I said, you could have easily put a man in the role. I suspect the reason the story is about a woman and not a man is…well, I think horror audiences are quicker to be sympathetic to female leads.

One of the wonderful things is that Lohman is so likable that you dread the notion she might fail and hope she is able to remove the curse.

October 24, 2015 0

Swimtime (The Bay, 2012)

So, Barry Levison (director of Rain Man, Good Morning Vietnam) decided it was time to dip horror waters. Interestingly, he opted to go with the found footage format. Found footage is risky, because it can be hard to stand apart. I give Levison a lot of credit for making the choice he did.

The Bay opts for a “science gone wrong” theme that seems relatively uncommon for found footage. It is presented as a compilation of footage collected by a reporter who witnessed the events. This gives Levison a lot a freedom in telling the story. The reporter is able to narrate the film, more in a documentary format.

The story begins with a series of footage regarding the strange phenomenon of the passed several years ( masses of dead fish, dead birds falling from the sky, etc). The film states that while the news covered those stories, it never told this one.

We are introduced to a small town celebrating the 4th of July. There is celebrating, but slowly, people are going to the ER with rashes. In addition, two scientists who were doing research in the bay have washed ashore, mauled by…something.

As the day progresses, more and more people end up in the hospital, citizens complain of intense pain. We discover that mutated isopods are infecting people and eating them from the inside out. There is a terrific moment where the reporter the film is centered on shows us footage taken after people have evacuated the streets. As she is attempting to make a report and then, in the distance hear an inhuman howling. It is effectively creepy.

The format allows exposition, as we get to see hospital footage and sky conversations between the doctor trying to solve the problem and the CFDC, as well as news footage, police cruiser footage and home movies.

I appreciated the filmmaker’s starting with something quite real and gruesome(isopods that eat a fishes tongues and then live in their mouths as a faux tongue) and then tweak it. It beats yet another haunted asylum. I found the film pretty effective and interesting to follow.

While the majority of the film worked, I felt the end kind of fell flat. It just seemed to end, we get some text telling us about the clean up and cover-up, but it seems like to important part of the story, deserving more than a brief bit of text.

Levison does a nice job overall, spicing the story up, knowing when to keep us in the dark and when to illuminate the viewer. In spite of my disappointment with the end, the overall film make for an entertaining watch.

October 23, 2015 0

Carnival Horror (The Funhouse, 1981)

The titles start out quite promising with a montage of rather creepy animatronic puppets. The film then starts out as if Tobe was making a Halloween meets Psycho ripoff. We see the killers point of view as an attractive girl takes a shower. The killer even selects a clown mask (Ala young Michael Myers). It’s clear the killer seems to live in the house with the girl…we get a point of view shot from behind the mask (again! Like in Halloween). There is a struggle and then the girl, Amy, discovers her attacker is her little brother playing a practical joke. Am I just really abnormal in finding this bizarre? Am I really the only one? It seems not uncommon in movies that you have brothers playing jokes that require them to ogle their sister. I know I’ve seen it in other films…are screenwriters all only children?

The girl tells her brother she is not taking him to the carnival that weekend. She then tells her father she is going out with her boyfriend Buzz, and her father tells her not to go to the carnival, as it the same carnival where two girls were found dead the prior year. She promises not to go, but we all know this is a lie…as we do not have a movie without it.. Her boyfriend and their two friends go to the carnival.

The carnival Funhouse features one of the most uninspired carnival barkers ever (Kevin Conway). He delivers everything in a low gravelly tone. But the four friends go inside. Meanwhile? Amy’s little brother sneaks out and makes his way to the carnival. The four hide behind the tents to smoke a joint, because, they need to work towards complete the “Horror Movie Sin List.” Then they visit the fortune teller, whom they offend with their pot induced snickering. Damn drugs.

The kids get the wild idea to stay overnight in the Funhouse. At the Carnival where two dead girls were found the year before. So, the kids call their parents to say they are staying at each others homes overnight. They get on the funhouse ride and slip off once inside. Damn drugs.

Then we get some long and drawn out shots of people leaving the carnival. Amy’s Brother stays behind as while. He’s frightened away as the animatronic dummy at the entrance seems to recognize that he is standing there. Meanwhile, the teens are adding to the Sin List in the funhouse by making out and feeling each other up. Damn teenagers.

They discover that they are above a room, so they watch what plays out…they discover that the fortune teller is a part time sex worker. I am not exaggerating here, she takes money from men to perform sexual acts. She is pretty lousy about it, because she is mean and rude to her john. Unless that is his thing. It might be, as her john cannot speak and wears a Frankenstein mask. He’s unsatisfied with her performance and kills her. Then he hides the body.

Our drug addled sex fiends, er, the kids decide it is time to get out and go home. Not a bad idea, in theory. But it turns it to not be so simple. The exit is chained shut. They are trying to figure out a new way to get free, only to witness the john (who is the carnival geek) being abused by his father…it turns out that the geek is a rather deformed mutant. So, things are getting worse.

Then the killing starts. I mean, after the first killing. Turns out the geek is pretty sneaky, tricking the kids and separating them.

The film makes a good use of color, lighting and sound, the funhouse itself feels old and dilapidated, and is really more fearsome than the monster in that it feels like a rundown deathtrap. Hooper doesn’t have a lot of victims to work with, so it is not some unrelenting spree of death, and he focuses as much on atmosphere and trying to build a real sense of dread. It’s not successful, however as scenes are drawn out a bit to long to the point the final confront has you starting to get bored and want it to be over already.

The film is full of strangeness. For example, there is the old woman who tells the girls that God is watching them. And then there is Amy’s brother walking along the road and some guy pulls up and offers him a ride-then pulls out his shotgun…as the kid runs away? He laughs like a horror film mad scientist. No reason given for that either. And he never shows up again. Damn drugs.

Unlike Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which is unrelenting towards the end and has you wanting the end to come as a release, here the end just needs to come period. It hurts to say this, as I do like much of what the film has to offer. It’s the drawn out ending that kills it for me.

October 23, 2015 1

Scientists Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things (Lazarus Effect, 2015)

If there is one story line that horror authors love to tell it is the one about the dangers of Scientific Hubris. Part of this is that the stories pretty much write themselves.

In the case of the Lazarus Effect, the scientists in question are trying to conquer death. After they succeed in resurrecting a dog, they lose their research to Big Pharma. So they break in to attempt to recreate the success and one of the scientists (Olivia Wilde) is accidentally killed. We can all see where this is going.

Upon being returned to life, her behavior becomes creepier and creepier and then progressively more violent. The turn is quite quick, it happens overnight.

The film is visually interesting, but the philosophical questions are treated in a way that feels pretty pedestrian. There is the scientist who has remnants of her religious upbringing causing her to wonder if what they are doing is very wrong (Wilde) and the scientist who thinks there is no spiritual afterlife, so only sees the potential (Mark Duplass).

The film never really asks big questions, and it never really addresses what it is that Zoe (Wilde) has become, or what her goal or purpose is, other than to be mean and cause mayhem. The Lazarus Effect is an interesting idea that seems lazily executed.

October 22, 2015 0

Look Out In Africa! (Tremors 5: Bloodlines, 2015)

The Director of next year’s Kindergarten Cop 2 (Starring Dolph Lundgren!) brings us the newest installment. Returning Burt Gummer to the front lines, he gets talked into going a South African Wildlife Reserve by his new cameraman Travis (Jamie Kennedy).

Hijinks ensue.

The film opts to not create a new cycle in the life of the graboid, instead we find that the graboids of the continent of Africa are quite different from the northern hemisphere brand the series has focused on so far. They appear bigger, yet sleeker. The “Ass Blasters” have oval mouths that are filled sharp teeth and larger wing/arms.

Gummer and Travis are aided by the vet Dr. Nandi Montabu (Pearl Thusi) and her staff in dealing with the new graboid threat. They run into various complications, both human and graboid.

Overall, I enjoyed this more than I expected to. Gross and Kennedy have a decent connection as two guys rather irritated by each other. The film has many fun homages to classic horror and sci-fi. This is not a great film, by any means. But it was a decent diversion.

October 22, 2015 0

Look Out…Uh…Back In Time! (Tremors 4: the Legend Begins, 2004)

The fourth film (With S.S. Wilson Returning to direct) jumps back to 1889, with the founding of Rejection, Neveda. This is the town that would become Perfection. Michael Gross returns as the ancestor of Burt, Hiram Gummer.

The town is under siege from young graboids, and it falls to Gummer to do something about it. Unlike Burt, Hiram is an upper class guy. He is a bit of a snob, but still a decent person. There is not a major twist here…the graboids are smaller gliding worms that have not yet matured.

The film has it’s moments, but I am unsure that this was a necessary prequel. How is this not part of the town history? How had nobody heard of the graboids? It just ends up raising questions for the franchise. Overall, it is not as enjoyable as previous entries.

October 21, 2015 0

Look Out Above! (Tremors 3: Back to Perfection, 2001)

This film was directed by Brent Maddock, one of the other creators of the original film. And as with the second film? They try for a twist with another type of monster. It is yet another stage in the life of the graboid.

This time around, they make Burt Gummer (Michael Gross) the center of the film. It makes sense, he was a popular character in the franchise. The film also managed to bring Tony Genaro, Ariana Richards (Jurassic Park), Charlotte Stewart and Robert Jayne back to reprise their roles from the first film.

The town of Perfection has been running on the graboid phenomenon, much to Burt’s chagrin. He has no respect for those trying to exploit the Graboids and feels the best thing is to simply kill them. Which is hard, since they are being treated as potential endangered species.

The film relies on some of the tricks from the first two, but they add a new twist, graboid monsters that can fly. It is close in overall quality to the second film. Decent, but not quite reaching the original’s level of entertainment value.

October 21, 2015 0

Look Out Around (Tremors II: Aftershocks, 1996)

The success of the first Tremors on home video led to this direct to video sequel. Writer S.S. Wilson returns to the franchise as director for this sequel. It turns out that the years after the first film have not been kind to Earl (Fred Ward) who blew through his money from Graboid fame, he has parted ways with Val.

A Graboid fan named Grady (Chris Gartin) has a line on a way to make money. He convinces Earl to join him on an expedition to Mexico to catch Graboids causing a problem for an oil refinery. There they meet and are helped by geologist Kate Reilly (Helen Shaver).

Rather than totally repeat the first film by having the characters deal with what they know, the film introduces a twist. The Graboid is only a stage of life…eventually, a graboid will appear to be ill, and then a new creature is introduced. This allows the team to have to learn all new rules in dealing with the threat.

The film also brings back Michael Gross’ Burt Gummer. It is fun to have the character back, though it is missing something as Heather (played by Reba McEntire) was part of what made Burt likeable. He and his wife were two peas in a pod.

Again, the effects work is strong in the film. The twists introduced with the new monsters make for fun and excitement. The movie does not quite live up to the first, but it is still enjoyable.

October 20, 2015 0

Look Out Below (Tremors, 1990)

Kevin Bacon saw a slight slow down right before 1990…his career was not in the crapper, but his draw had lowered a bit. And so he was available for a low budget horror flick. Mind you, it was more a comedy with a sci-fi angle. Had the film gone for being outright scary? This would be a failure.

Instead, Director Ron Underwood (who followed Tremors up with City Slickers) opted to play to the comedic strengths of his cast.

Valentine (Kevin Bacon) and Earl are buddies and handymen in small town of about 20 people call Perfection. In the middle of nowhere Nevada. Both dream of getting out of the small town and becoming rich. If only they had not stopped to check on Edgar, who is hanging on a telephone post. They discover he is dead and leap to a theory of a serial killer.

They are wrong of course. Cause this is a monster movie. Tremors has a decent premise of giant worm-like monsters that burrow under the ground to catch their prey. Val and Earl are not thrilled when they get stuck in Perfection, unable to reach help.

They, along with a visiting Seismologist named Rhonda (Finn Carter) lead the town in an attempt to get past the monsters.

The film did poorly in theaters, but was saved by home video. It is no small wonder, as this is a fun movie. The cast of characters are likable and entertaining, the standouts being Burt and Heather Gummer (Michael Gross and Reba McEntire). They are survivalists who chose Perfection due to it’s isolation. They love their toys. McEntire and Gross are very memorable.

This is a good old fashioned monster movie. It is not to gory, and is not about scares. Yet the effects do not look cheap. The monsters are convincing enough to seem like a real threat to be reckoned with.

October 20, 2015 0