Comic Review: Clown Fatale #1

Review by Comix

I got to admit, when I first saw the title “Clown Fatale” and the tag “sexy female clowns mistaken for contract killers,” I wasn’t completely sold. I was imagining an awful, tit-filled comic stuffed with shitty art, shitty story, and shitty dialogue. Well, at least two of the three. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised. Centered on a group of down-and- out ladies, the quick action and witty banter, mixed with a hefty dose of booze, drugs, and clown make-up, created a pretty decent grindhouse comic. If your fan of hot chicks doing ridiculous stuff, or Machete I suppose, you’re going to dig this new Dark Horse addition. It may not be the most original thing, but it’s a fun read.

Clown Fatale opens up on a big top, fun house in Nowhere, America as four incredibly sexy clowns reflect on their poor life choices. While Chloe-the failed actress, Candy-the ex-hooker, Tina-the abused housewife, and Aya-weird Asian girl, scrub off their grease paint (and unhook some bras), a figure watches them from the distance with an offer of a life time. Enter Wayne Talbot, a pompadoured greaser who offers the girls fifty grand to bump off some ‘local scum.’ Now, you’re asking yourself, why would a man as smart as Talbot offer a bunch of clowns money to kill a person? Frankly, because he’s not that smart. Mistaking them for the real undercover assassins at the carnival, the girls are force to decide what is more important them: a clean conscience, or a life free from the circus? With danger lurking in every corner, the decision is about to be made for them.

Like I said, this is very much a grindhouse comic. It would do well smashed into the back of a comic box, quarter bin for a quarter budget, to be picked up by gum-chewing 12-year olds for a flash of nipple. Now, I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. Like seeing your first nude in I Spit on Your Grave (because there is no such thing as the internet), Clown Fatale has a certain charm to it. Yeah, it’s a bit schlocky and I’m sure there will be plenty of car chases, but it’s nice to see a series that doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s fun to read a work that realizes it’s a comic and goes “fuck it, let’s do something ridiculous!” It also helps that the art is pretty decent and doesn’t give it a cheap-o vibe but instead, reads simply like two creators who actually wanted to do this series instead of being stuck to it, pumping out something stupid until better work comes along.

I’ve actually written about the author, Victor Gischler, when I reviewed Kiss Me Satan, about a rouge angel trying to get back into heaven. I wasn’t really into that one just because it seemed like he was attempting to do something grandiose but dropped short, but this comic really works for him. With his library of comedy crime fiction, it fits right in with his writing style and becomes a pretty decent work. The art by Maurizio Rosenzweig is an improvement over the Kiss Me Satan artist, mostly because on top of a solid grasp of anatomy, he also understands sequential art and dynamic action a lot better (though I wouldn’t go by the cover, I don’t know what’s happening there.) Honestly, it’s just a smoother read. Now, don’t quote me, but I believe that Clown Fatale is Rosenzweig’s American debut. It seems that most of his work had appeared in French publications, so it’s pretty exciting to get this unknown talent state-side.

All in all, Clown Fatale was better than I hoped, but don’t expect to be blown away by it.

 

Review: The Ballad of Skinless Pete (2013)


Review by Ben Bussey

Anyone who sets out to make a microbudget indie horror has some very real obstacles to face. Not only do you have the basic creative challenge of crafting a movie which gives people something a bit new, different, and preferably at least a little bit scary; you also have to do all that with minimal resources. It’s little wonder, then, that so many microbudget horrors never venture beyond the basic kids in a cabin format; many lapse into deliberate self-parody, trying to make a joke of their own creative deficiency. But for an indie horror to attempt something a bit more challenging, both technically and in terms of storytelling; that’s an even greater obstacle, and a noble challenge to face.

The Ballad of Skinless Pete is the sixth feature film to date from director Dustin Mills, and his third in 2013 alone. It’s the first film of his I’ve seen to date, but from a cursory glance at his other credits – with such titles as Easter Casket and Bath Salt Zombies – one gets the impression this is perhaps his most seriously intended work thus far. On a basic level it doesn’t necessarily stray too far from the basic kids in a cabin set-up, given it mostly takes place in a single location with a mere cast of four (two of whom are essentially cameos), and it more than meets its quota of bloodshed and nudity. However, in terms of subject matter it goes to some very different places indeed, touching on some fairly sophisticated ideas, even if it doesn’t necessarily treat them in the most sophisticated manner. The resulting film may not be an unequivocal success, but it’s certainly a striking, unorthodox and entertaining blend of cerebral body horror and midnight movie schlock.

The titular Pete (Brandon Salkill, also co-writer) is a young doctor who clearly doesn’t set his sights low: he’s hellbent on curing cancer. Although he’s kept it to himself, he has a very personal stake in the matter, as he himself is a terminal case. Happily, he thinks he’s found the key in a rare flesh eating parasite. Naturally both he and his collaborator Alice (Erin R. Ryan) are thrilled – unfortunately the guy funding their research won’t float the bill unless they can prove their theory. With little left to lose, Pete proposes playing human guinea pig himself. Ignoring Alice’s objections, he doses himself, and to his delight his cancer promptly vanishes; unfortunately it isn’t too long before the remainder of his flesh goes the same way, and with it his sanity.

It’s a premise that immediately calls to mind Cronenberg, and indeed there is much about The Ballad of Skinless Pete which is particularly evocative of The Fly: the minimal cast, the metamorphosis theme, and the emphasis on a deeply troubled man becoming dangerously obsessed with a failed romance. (There’s also an amusing direct nod to Jeff Goldblum’s performance in there.) However, in many respects the mood here is more reminiscent of vintage Stuart Gordon. While the cast are put through their paces with material that is dramatically challenging and for the most part seriously handled, there is also a heavy absurdist element, and an abundance of what-the-fuck moments that leave you questioning if you really just saw what you saw. The key thing to note is that, while there’s no escaping that this is a really low budget production, a hell of a lot of effort has clearly gone into the make-up FX. There’s some really impressive stuff here, with gallons of goo and some fairly lifelike states of decomposition.

More of a question mark hangs over how well the cast convince as medical professionals. Salkill is on screen the bulk of the time, and his theatrical, melodramatic acting style is sometimes at odds with the script, threatening to undo the more sombre moments. Ultimately, as much as this is a gross-out body horror, it’s also a pretty serious study of rejection and the emotional carnage it brings, and it’s effective in this for the most part; Erin R. Ryan also does great work as the well-meaning friend who can’t help not reciprocating his feelings. But any time things threaten to get too emotionally raw or touchy-feely, there’s always an extended sequence of bizarre creature FX and/or gratuitous full-frontal nudity around the corner. Sure, such scenes are by no means unwelcome in a midnight movie of this kind, but they do result in a slightly uneven tone. I suspect a little more time spent on the script might have helped here, as we also have some awkwardly inserted flashback moments, and an ending that feels a little lacklustre. Stronger writing might have given the WTF moments a bit more whammy, too; for instance, we have a moment involving a carefully concealed weapon which is wonderfully absurd, but isn’t really justified dramatically.

These are minor misgivings, though. All things considered, The Ballad of Skinless Pete does pretty much everything a microbudget horror should. It fulfils the exploitation elements, but it also tackles less commonplace subject matter, and – perhaps most refreshing in these neo/pseudo-grindhouse days – it does it all with a fairly straight face, and evokes the spirit of the good ol’ days without putting on affectations of the 80s; no swampy synth tones or fake scratches here. I will say this, though; Mills is in very real danger of becoming the microbudget JJ Abrams with all that lens flare…

The Ballad of Skinless Pete is available on DVD and Blu-Ray from http://dmp.storenvy.com/

Review: The Monkey’s Paw (2013)

Review by Quin

After doing a little research, I was shocked to find out that before this year there hadn’t ever been a proper full length film adaptation of the classic short story The Monkey’s Paw. There were a couple of filmed productions of the stage play from the 1920’s through the 40’s, but each one only runs about an hour in length and features the usual limitations of a stage play. Since its first publication in England in 1902, W.W. Jacobs short story The Monkey’s Paw has become a staple of horror. Which makes it all the more interesting that Jacobs was known for his comedic stories and wrote no other tales dealing with the macabre. Along with becoming a stage play, there are audio recordings of the short story read by both Christopher Lee and John Lithgow. The story was included in the 1972 anthology film Tales From the Crypt in the segment titled Wish You Were Here. It’s been referenced in everything from The X Files to Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. Bob Clark’s 1972 film Deathdream is based on it. The most famous retelling of the story is probably on the third season of The Simpsons in their annual Treehouse of Horror episodes.

The new 2013 version of The Monkey’s Paw was directed by Brett Simmons. He’s previously only done a film called Husk (it’s about killer scarecrows) which was actually based on his own short film. So, he’s already got a ton of experience turning shorter stories into longer ones. Luckily, he’s figured out it’s best to not stretch these things out too long. At around 90 minutes, this movie moves along really well. The Monkey’s Paw is set in the deep southern United States. As the movie goes along, it becomes more evident that it’s New Orleans- there are swamps and alligators, we see above ground crypts in the cemeteries, there are psychics and there is voodoo.

Moving the original location of the short story from London to Louisiana was a great choice. The local history really makes the premise all the more believable. How the paw made it to the south is up for discussion, but that hardly matters. We do get the back story on the paw and how it has been handed over from one man to the next. Early in the film via flashback comes the warning, “Don’t play with fate. Nothing good will come.” Flash forward to a man being fired – he’s drinking in a bar and pulls out the paw. He tells his buddies about it and asks if one of them wants to try it out. He informs them that whatever they wish for will come true. So one of them wishes that a sports car he saw in the parking lot belonged to him. After laughing it off, he tries to hand the paw back to the man, only to be told that once you start your wishes you have to make all three. He seems relieved to be free of this curse, as the other man’s curse is just beginning.

If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Just like in the original story, each wish comes with a bad result. Something awful happens to the new wisher’s buddy. He winds up undead and goes on a slasher film-esque killing spree. Much of this is played with manic, comedic glee from actor Stephen Lang. He is one of maybe two familiar faces in the film. You might remember him as Col. Miles Quaritch in the 2009 mega hit Avatar. The other guy you’ll recognize is Charles S. Dutton who played Dillon in Alien 3. American audiences may also remember his 90’s sitcom Roc. In The Monkey’s Paw, he plays the sheriff. He’s really good in that role, but I feel like he’s one of those actors who always plays a cop. He also barely gets enough screen time here for his character to matter.

For a low budget film, this one is done really well. The cinematography is great. The New Orleans scenery is a nice backdrop, and the visual style of the film combines dark shadowy images with bright, warmly lit backgrounds. It makes the whole thing great to look at. The only problem I had was the version shown On Demand was full screen. On my wide screen television, this made the actors look squished. As of now, you can only get the film On Demand or from iTunes or Amazon. It also has a limited theatrical release that started October 8th – so that’s likely over. Hopefully when it’s released on DVD it will be widescreen. If you’re reading this, Brett Simmons, please make it so. But overall, this film is absolutely worth watching. If you are unfamiliar with The Monkey’s Paw, it’s a great introduction to the story I call The Gift of the Magi of horror. And if you haven’t seen it already, please take the time to find the Freddie Francis film Tales From the Crypt from 1972 with Ralph Richardson as The Crypt Keeper. It features the absolute best version of The Monkey’s Paw there is ever likely to be.

The Monkey’s Paw is available now from Chiller Films.

Blu-Ray Review: Creepshow (1982)

Review by Stephanie Scaife

Long before the recent influx of portmanteau horror anthologies such as The ABCs of Death and V/H/S there was George A. Romero and Stephen King’s Creepshow, a homage to the E.C. horror comic books of the 1950s. It has long been a fan favourite and remains one of Romero’s biggest financial successes and his only film to ever reach #1 in the US box office. As with any anthology film, Creepshow is a real mixed bag of treats, but having not seen it since I was a kid I was surprised to find how well it has held up over the years, remaining incredibly watchable and very funny indeed, despite lacking in any genuine scares.

The first segment, Father’s Day, is perhaps the weakest of the five, although it is still amusing to see such a young Ed Harris, if nothing else. It centres around the Grantham family and their annual family dinner, the black sheep of the family Bedelia had many years earlier murdered her abusive father and after visiting his grave seems to have inadvertently reanimated his corpse. He’s now back and intent of having cake (is cake even associated with Father’s Day?) as well as wiping out his remaining descendants. It’s a pretty flimsy idea as a whole but there are a few nice effects shots, courtesy of Romero mainstay Tom Savini.

The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill is next and it is also the only segment from the film that I really remembered from when I first saw it years ago. It’s often touted as the worst film of the five due to a rather over the top performance from King himself as Jordy, an unfortunate and dim-witted man who happens upon a meteor that has crash landed into his backyard and decides that the answer to paying off his $200 bank loan is to sell the rock to the local university. Unfortunately the meteor has other plans, namely infecting Jordy with some sort of green fungus that takes over his body, house and presumably the world. Now it’d be fair to say that King isn’t going to be bothering the Academy for any best actor nods anytime soon, but there’s something so sweet and tragic about Jordy and so bizarre about this particularly short and mossy vignette that I think it’s one of the highlights of the film.

The third segment, Something to Tide You Over, stars Leslie Nielsen as Richard Vickers, a wealthy man who takes some fairly elaborate and disturbing revenge on his wife and her lover after he discovers the truth about their affair. Gaylen Ross and Ted Danson star as the fateful lovers who fall foul of Vickers sadistic game whereby he buries them up to the neck in sand where they must await a slow and painful drowning as the tide slowly comes in. I’m only really familiar with Nielsen’s comedic films such as The Naked Gun and Airplane, so it was something of a surprise to see him play a character that is altogether more sinister. Something to Tide You Over is perhaps the most surreal and original of the segments, although it is let down slightly by the ending that is very broad and also sort of similar to that of Father’s Day.

The Crate is the longest of the five segments and is based on a short story already written by King, not something specifically written for the film, which may also explain why it’s perhaps the strongest of the bunch narratively speaking. Hal Holbrook stars as Henry Northup, a university professor and the long suffering husband of Wilma Northup (Adrienne Barbeau), an abusive alcoholic that he longs to be rid of. As luck would have it a mysterious crate is found at the university containing a bizarre yeti like creature that likes nothing more than to chow down on human flesh, Henry soon comes to realise that this creature may be his ticket to a peaceful life and he attempts to lure Wilma into its grasp. Both Holbrook and Barbeau are fantastic, she especially as the vitriolic and perpetually disappointed wife and Savini excels himself once more with the animatronic yeti monster.

The final chapter, They’re Creeping Up on You, certainly lives up to its name. The fantastic E.G. Marshall is Upson Pratt a Howard Hughes alike shut-in that suffers from mysophobia and lives in a hermetically sealed apartment in New York City. His worst fears become a reality when thousands of cockroaches begin to invade his apartment, driving him insane and eventually leading to his rather gruesome demise. By genuinely having the cockroaches on set, it makes your skin crawl in a way that could never happen with CGI or special effects and although it must’ve been an absolute bugger to shoot, it really pays off and it certainly has a major does of the ick factor.

There is also an overarching story that binds the film together as a whole, establishing each part as a chapter within a comic book, these scenes perfectly segue into each of the short films that make up the anthology and the animation in particular looks great, especially on this Blu-ray edition. One of my favourite things about Creepshow, even if it is silly and a bit dated, is that it is so clear in establishing what it aspires to be – a tongue in cheek homage to 1950’s comic books. The portmanteau film is difficult to pull off as it is inconsistent and by its very nature lacking in the time to really establish characters or a sense of narrative, but Creepshow works by using some very simple and effective ideas and by never trying to be anything particularly subversive or clever.

Although the Blu-ray looks good, there are no new special features here that weren’t on the 2007 DVD release. But if you haven’t already got that then this is well worth the investment, particularly for the feature length documentary Just Desserts: The Making of Creepshow, which in many ways is better than the actual film itself, with interviews and amusing anecdotes from all concerned (with the exception of King) it was a joy to watch.

Creepshow is available on Blu-ray now, from Second Sight.

DVD Review: Would You Rather (2013)

Review by Quin

Let me just say right away, this movie has very little in common with the BBC game show hosted by Graham Norton. It does however share its inspiration. They are both based on the popular game most of us have either played at a party or with a group of friends. In this game, a question is asked – beginning with the phrase “Would you rather?” and the person answering must be truthful. Perhaps this calls my honesty in to question, but I always thought it was easy to lie and give the answer that was the least embarrassing. Let’s face it, for someone like me, playing Would You Rather was a lot easier and more comfortable than Truth or Dare? or Seven minutes in Heaven. But I guess those games are taken to varying levels depending on the age group and amount of adult supervision. I could see all of them as the basis for horror films; I had to look this up, but Truth or Dare? is actually a horror film from 1986 that starred an 8 year old A.J. McLean – he went on to become a Backstreet Boy. I’m sure someone will get around to making Seven Minutes in Heaven into a horror film eventually, probably also starring future boy band members.

But enough about imaginary movies, we have a real one to discuss. Iris (played by Brittany Snow) takes care of her brother who has leukemia. She is running out of options when she meets deep pocketed philanthropist Shepard Lambrick (played by the amazing Jeffrey Combs, looking a lot like a younger, scrawnier Burt Reynolds.) He invites her to come to his estate to compete with some others in a game. If she wins, her brother’s cancer treatment will be completely paid for and his name will go to the top of every list and therefore they will have nothing to worry about ever again. Sounds great, right? Well, as the title suggests, the game being played is Would You Rather. But in Lambrick’s version, people are tortured and then they die. Whoever doesn’t die will win.

Inside Lambrick’s home, we meet his servant staff and his son. We also meet those that Iris will be competing against. Lambrick’s right hand man does all of his dirty work – and he looks exactly like Erich von Stroheim in Sunset Boulevard. Jonny Coyne plays him with flashes of humanity between the bursts of brutality. You really get the feeling that he is just doing his job, which makes it that much more disturbing. Among the players of the game are a couple of familiar faces. Longtime character actor John Heard plays a recovering alcoholic who speaks up almost immediately in regard to the unfairness of the rules of Lambrick’s game. Former adult film star Sasha Grey plays Amy. She holds her own in this film, but her acting chops were much better in Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience. Also, there is a scene in Would You Rather where she has to hold her breath for a really long time. If you’ve seen any of her older films, you know she can hold her breath just fine. So a little bit of your belief must be suspended.

Would You Rather is the first feature film directed by David Guy Levy and it was written by Steffen Schlachtenhaufen, who has an extended list of credits working on visual effects. Surprisingly, it’s a pretty darn good start for both of them. The direction is solid throughout and manages to avoid the things that could have pushed this into exploitation or torture porn, while at the same time maintaining a level of tension that is extremely uncomfortable. The writing suffers slightly in the setup. We are introduced to the characters in a way that lets us know what is going to happen at the end. However, the choice to give us more than a couple likeable characters was a breath of fresh air and something that is so often left out of horror. This elevates the level of taste and allows us to get emotionally involved. We even get to see the human side of the bad guys. Don’t get me wrong, it’s clear throughout who you should root for, but the villains aren’t complete monsters. It’s Jeffrey Combs for crying out loud. He does such a good job of playing cheesy and hammy, but here he is way more sinister with an air about him that shows us he really thinks he’s doing a good thing for these people, all while still providing much of the comic relief. Some of which makes you chuckle and the other stuff makes you wince.

The DVD is worth checking out for the thorough and insightful commentary from the director and writer. They do discuss in detail how they wanted to avoid torture porn, instead opting for more Hitchcockian suspense. As well as the reality show dynamic they got going with the assortment of characters who are in the competition. There is also a poster art gallery, which made me wonder why they chose the poster they did for the American release. They clearly had some wonderful designs. A couple of which reminded me of a creepy version of the Gosford Park movie poster. But they went with the photo of SPOILER ALERT: a pivotal part of the climax- albeit an act we never actually see on screen. This is perhaps the studio trying to sell a smart and well made movie to people who just want to see slicin’ up eyeballs. Ah ha ha ho! This movie is so much more than that.

Would You Rather is out now on Region 1 DVD from IFC Midnight.

Celluloid Screams 2013 Review: Chimères (2013)

Review by Ben Bussey

Have we run out of new ways to tackle the vampire? I must say, I’m beginning to wonder. With each successive attempt to breathe new life into that most time-honoured of monsters, it’s seeming more and more that there just isn’t an approach that we can take that doesn’t directly recreate that which came before. It’s a tricky one, because to a large extent the monster must follow the same rules as ever in order to fit in with the tradition; break with convention too radically and you’re asking for trouble. (Fear of crucifixes falling by the wayside is all well and good – but twinkling in the sunlight is obviously pushing it.)

Director/co-writer Olivier Beguin would seem to have approached the vampire with the best intentions. He’s taken the classic lore, treated it with respect, and used it as the backbone for a largely mature look at the trials and tribulations of a long-term romantic relationship. I get the impression Beguin was indeed aiming for something new – but unfortunately he winds up succumbing to cliche in some pretty bad ways, with a narrative that gradually drifts from indie naturalism to glossy melodrama, all the while treated with an utterly straight face which ultimately only serves to make the whole enterprise a bit ridiculous.

Thirtysomething couple Alex (Yannick Rosset) and Livia (Jasna Kohoutova) seem to be living the young professional dream, making a comfortable living doing jobs they love. However, whilst taking a holiday in Livia’s homeland of Romania, they have a bit too much to drink one night, and in his intoxicated distraction Alex unwittingly walks in front of a car. Happily his injuries aren’t especially serious – but a blood transfusion is required. Yup – Romanian blood, I know what you’re thinking. Soon enough Alex is thinking it too, as he finds himself repulsed by garlic, terrified of the sun, and most notably seeing a white-eyed, sharp-toothed, blood-soaked version of himself every time he looks in a mirror. Understandably enough, Livia takes this to be nothing more than paranoia on Alex’s part, but his fears are not dismissed by his mother (a small role from Fulci icon Catriona MacColl). But when trying to talk him around has no effect, Livia decides to take a different approach and play along – but while she may be simply humouring him at first, soon she too has cause to believe.

There is something interesting going on in Chimères, and it works up to a point. In many ways what we have here is quite similar to 2011’s Midnight Son (another modernist vampire movie which somehow didn’t entirely work for me), but the notable difference here – as Beguin emphasised in the post-screening Q&A at Sheffield’s Showroom (the UK premiere) – is that instead of a new young couple, we have marginally older, notably more established partners who already know each other well. As such, Chimères presents a relationship in a state of flux, where circumstances threaten to drive the two apart, and one party finds themselves making changes to accomodate the demands of the other, even as things spiral way out of hand. To a large extent this works, and Kohoutova and Rosset do convince as an established couple struggling through a difficult phase. I daresay it won’t hurt for most viewers that they’re also a very good looking couple who spend a lot of time lounging around scantily clad, and get up to some quite full-on rumpy pumpy.

The problem is, at a certain point Beguin and co-writer Colin Vettier seem to run out of ideas, and what begins as an intimate, mostly apartment-bound, relationship-based story drifts bewilderingly into Buffy/Blade/Underworld territory, with a series of over-the-top monster beat-’em-up scenes. I suppose the earlier scenes emphasising that Livia trains in boxing are meant to largely justify this – but they don’t. I suppose also these OTT street brawls might again be taken as a metaphorical representation of how far people in love will go for their significant other… but I’m not swallowing that either. Proceedings are played so straight overall, with so little humour, that when things shift that far into melodramatic territory – sombre mumblecore traded in for Hollywood action excess, but still played with a straight face – it just comes off silly, and really undermines what came before, particularly given it drags on a bit beyond what might have been its natural conclusion.

Another problem is that little thought seems to have been put into anything beyond Alex and Livia’s relationship. Old-school horror fans may be drawn in by Catriona MacColl’s presence, and the always-reliable actress does what she can with what she’s given, but it’s a pitiful excuse for a part. Beguin also confessed in the Q&A that the role might have easily have been a friend or sibling, but he made it Alex’s mother purely in order to cast MacColl – but it simply isn’t enough to cast an elder genre star without giving them something significant to do. Much the same can be said of the few other supporting characters – and the attempt at creating some villains in the final act is so utterly half-hearted one really does wonder why they even bothered. (Some fans might get a smile out of the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo from Ruggero Deodato, though.)

So, the jury’s still out on whether there is indeed anything new left to be done with vampires – but we can safely say that, try as it may, Chimères falls short of that task. Beyond that, it also falls short of a fully satisfying horror movie experience, and it’s sad to say so, as clearly there was some potential there.

Blu-Ray Review: Halloween (1978) 35th Anniversary Steelbook

Review by Stephanie Scaife

It’s difficult to find something new to say about Halloween, a film that has been so widely seen and written about over the years, but here we are with the 35th Anniversary edition on Blu-ray. This seems rather excessive given the other various versions on both DVD and an earlier Blu-ray, but as we all know the franchise has legions of voracious fans and film studios are never one to miss the opportunity to make a quick buck. This time it’s the turn of Anchor Bay Entertainment, and they’ve done a very good job with the brand new HD transfer, supervised by the original cinematographer Dean Cundey.

Halloween is widely regarded as being one of the best and most noticeably influential horror films ever made, and perhaps with good (and bad) reason too. Following on from the likes of Psycho and Peeping Tom, both of which use the voyeurism of the killer to suitably creepy effect, Halloween took things to a new level and in the process created its very own sub-genre, the slasher film. Without Halloween we would have no Friday the 13th, no A Nightmare on Elm Street and no Scream, and its unexpected popularity ensured that it was one of the highest grossing independent films of the period that it has subsequently been endlessly copied, ripped off and been paid homage to over the years. Genre tropes that we now take for granted; the final girl and the punishment of death for indulging in sex or drugs that have been done so often and so badly that they are more often than not sigh-inducing, eyeroll-worthy aspects of what has become, after the rape-revenge narrative, one of the more derided and oftentimes misogynistic horror sub-genres.

It’s easy to forget its humble beginnings, but Halloween serves as a constant reminder that when done properly, the slasher film can be a wonderful thing indeed. It is also a prime example of the less is more principle, we see Myers in the shadows and at a distance, a constant unsettling presence and threat without being so present and in your face that it lessens the scare factor, a lesson many contemporary horror films could do with paying more attention to.

I’ve seen Halloween many times over the years and it still holds up with age and repeat viewings, thanks in large part to the direction and the way it’s been shot. Dean Cundey was one of the first camera operators to use a Steadicam (or more specifically the Panaglide) and the opening sequence remains as striking today as it did upon first viewing. As we see the murder committed by Michael Myers from his point of view, in a continuous shot (with reportedly only two cuts) that follows him though his house until he stabs his naked sister post-coitus; well, it’s certainly implied that she’s just had sex with her boyfriend, although if that’s the case it’s also the quickest sex scene ever. A fantastic crane shot then reveals the murderer to be a dead-eyed child wearing a clown suit in this fantastic prologue to the film, emphasised by John Carpenter’s now iconic synth score. I won’t go though the plot of the film, as I think we all pretty much know what happens, but I will say that its simplicity adds to what makes it so perfect. It isn’t inundated with convoluted plot points and exposition, and instead what we’re given is a masterclass in filmmaking and some great performances from Jamie Lee Curtis (in her first feature film role) and the always excellent Donald Pleasence.

These days it’s unfortunate that watching Halloween just sort of makes me feel a little sad that Carpenter, a man of many talents has become so inconsistent over the years, In the Mouth of Madness (1994) being the last interesting, if flawed item on his resume. Still, having been responsible for Halloween and The Thing surely counteracts the numerous terrible films he’s made in recent years. I mean, it’s not every day someone comes along that creates a genre as well as one of the best body horrors every made, not to mention the unparalleled beard porn provided by Kurt Russell.

The Blu-ray package is unfortunately rather weak; besides the film looking and sounding fantastic there’s little else of note. I found the disc menu to be slightly confusing to navigate and the bonus features are nothing to write home about. We get a documentary entitled The Night She Came Home, that is essentially 50 minutes of Jamie Lee Curtis signing autographs and bemoaning the appeal of the horror genre, along with a new commentary with Curtis and Carpenter that treads a lot of the same ground covered by their last commentary as well as more Curtis bemoaning the horror genre, along with a few TV spots and trailers. It sadly omits the fantastic documentary Halloween: A Cut above the Rest, which can be found on previous editions. Overall, this is a marginally better investment than the last Blu-ray release of the film, as it certainly looks the best it’s ever looked; but I’m sure that won’t stop us getting a 40th anniversary edition in another five years time…

The 35th anniversary Blu-Ray Steelbook edition of Halloween is on sale now, from Anchor Bay.

Review: The 7th Day (2012)

Review by Tristan Bishop

Night time. A young woman pulls up her car and gets out. She walks to her front door, puts the keys in the lock and walks in. A man appears. He stabs her to death.

“My name is Allen”, a voice-over tells us, “And this is what I do.”

It’s an arresting opening to The 7th Day, a new serial killer film from director Jason Koch. This is Jason’s first feature – but, unlike some other first-time film-makers whose work I have had the misfortune to suffer through recently, Koch obviously has a passion for the darker side of cinema, having served time as a special FX artist on films like V/H/S 2 (2013) and Troma’s Return To Nuke ‘Em High Vol 1 (2013). This passion certainly comes across in The 7th Day, as it feels like ‘one for the fans’ rather than an attempt at jumping on a commercial bandwagon.

Allen, our ‘hero’, washes dishes in a local bar, is the owner of a terribly unkempt beard, and, in his spare time, is a murderer, necrophile and cannibal. The film is almost entirely narrated by Allen as he goes about his business, and we soon realise his monologue is an ‘interview’ he is performing in his mind (occasionally we see the imagined reporter – who looks rather like the zombified Dr Freudstein from Fulci’s House By The Cemetery, shoving a microphone into frame). It soon becomes clear that the interview is Allen’s way of processing and excusing his transgressions, and as reality starts to intrude on Allen’s life, his fantasy world starts to fall apart.

If you hadn’t already twigged, The 7th Day is a pretty grim ride – it starts off almost like a black comedy, as Allen’s ‘interview’ is so self-deluding (especially about his relations with women), and the first few murders are pretty bloodless, but soon the camera is dwelling on the finer details of Allen’s hobby, and it becomes more akin to the films of Jorge Buttgereit, who I would hazard a guess is the main influence here. I was also reminded of the razor-sharp Belgium serial killer film Man Bites Dog (1992), although this does not quite hit the same satirical heights as that masterpiece. Koch’s experience as a special FX and make-up man is very much in evidence here, as convincing gore is ladled on, viscera fills the screen, and the film often looks far better than the (presumably) minuscule budget might have you expect.

Unfortunately there are ways that the budget shows – the performances are fairly unconvincing, and Mark S Sanders as Allen doesn’t really have the magnetism required to carry the entire film. However the script occasionally throws up a thought-provoking line, the cinematography by Stephen Rubac is impressive, and Koch is obviously a talented director (although perhaps he should focus on that and get someone else in to edit his next film).

To sum up, this is not a film for everyone – it’s certainly not much ‘fun’, unless feeling slightly queasy is your idea of a Friday night good time, but it’s gruesome, occasionally philosophical about the nature of murder and the media, and it’s only 75 mins long. Jason Koch is definitely a name to keep an eye on, and with a little more money and the right cast and crew he might just come up with something terrific.

Dire Wit Films aim to release The 7th Day on DVD in February 2014.

DVD Review: Curse of Chucky (2013)

Review by Ben Bussey

There’s something so nice about Curse of Chucky. Sure, it’s a nasty little movie full of duplicitous back-stabbers, some of whom do end up literally getting stabbed, or dying in some other hideous and spectacular fashion – but it still can’t help bringing that warm and fuzzy feeling. It’s the sixth instalment in the Child’s Play series (released within spitting distance of the original film’s twenty-fifth anniversary) – and it isn’t a remake, or lazy cash grab direct-to-DVD movie done purely so a greedy studio can hold onto the rights. Well, okay, it has gone straight to DVD, and I know I’m not alone in saying I’m a little surprised and irritated by that decision, but my point remains: unlike pretty much every other treatment of the great 80s horror franchises that we have seen in the last decade, this is not a cynical movie made for cynical reasons, signed off by some indifferent studio exec to some wannabe hot-shot up-and-coming director with a view to a massive opening weekend and very little concern about anything else. No, this is a film made by people who love the characters and want to explore their storyworld further in an interesting and exciting way. And it’s reassuring to see that the filmmakers do feel this way – as they’re the very people who created Child’s Play in the first place.

Let’s be honest, now… how many of us have quietly cursed John Carpenter under our breath time and again this past decade? The way he’s been perfectly content to take the money and sit back unconcerned as so many of his masterworks were soullessly rehashed? No, the remakes of Halloween, The Fog, Assault on Precinct 13 and The Thing (yes, itself a remake, let’s not start that one again) do not in any way invalidate the brilliance Carpenter’s original movies, and given how much joy the man has brought us we can’t begrudge him wanting to be cosy in his twilight years, but even so – it’s hard not be pained by that sense of complete indifference as Hollywood bean-counters wipe their overpaid asses on his legacy.

As such, it’s also hard not to break out in applause for Don Mancini and David Kirschner. How many offers must these guys have had? How easy would it have been for them to simply sign away the franchise they created, and watch Chucky suffer the same treatment as Jason, Freddy, Pinhead et al? Frankly, once upon a time I might have expected nothing less of them, given how repetitive the Child’s Play movies became with Parts 2 and 3. But no. They held on to their baby. They tried different approaches, some of which worked (see Bride of Chucky), some of which didn’t (see Seed of Chucky). And now they’ve gone back to basics in pretty much the best possible way: rebooting without rebooting, recapturing the spirit of the movie that started it all but not just retracing their steps.

I’m almost surprised they didn’t bring back the Child’s Play title. Calling it Curse of Chucky implies it’ll follow on from the more comedic Bride and Seed, but that really isn’t the case at all; in terms of tone and content this really harks back to the original. Unless I’m very much mistaken, Curse of Chucky was originally conceived as a remake (don’t quote me, but I recall reports to that effect a few years back), and it could very easily have played out as such. One of the strengths of the Child’s Play movies – and one the advantages to them having filled out the series gradually, as opposed to splurging them out on a Friday the 13th/Saw-style assembly line – is that each film largely works on a standalone basis. If you go in knowing nothing more than the fact that it’s about a possessed toy who kills people, that’s absolutely fine. So it is that Curse of Chucky opens as though it could be any movie, with wheelchair-bound twentysomething Nica (Fiona Dourif) suffering quietly through life with her emotionally troubled, apron-string tugging mother (Chantal Quesnelle). Then all of a sudden, a mysterious parcel arrives, with some old doll inside. Neither mother nor daughter thinks much of it – but then only one of them makes it through the night alive.

Next day Nica finds herself with a full house, as her similarly overbearing sister (Danielle Bisutti) shows up, with her husband (Brennan Elliot), daughter (Summer H Howell), and their live-in nanny (Maitland McConnell) in tow, plus a priest (A Martinez) along to do whatever men in his position are supposed to under these circumstances. As is perhaps the norm, what is meant to be a healthy mourning period winds up anything but, with all manner of tensions popping up between all parties – and, wouldn’t you know it, strange things start happening, particularly once little Alice starts getting chummy with Chucky.

I’m torn between two key feelings as regards Curse of Chucky going straight to DVD: on the one hand, I feel it’s a terrible disservice to a movie that deserves more, and which had the potential do okay at the box office; on the other hand, perhaps it’s long since time we cast aside the stigma of straight to DVD releases. After all, the bulk of the best horror movies these days rarely play the big screen outside of festivals, as has of course been the case here (Steph caught it at FrightFest). They don’t all have to wind up like the Lost Boys or From Dusk Till Dawn sequels; there is room for really intelligent filmmaking in this arena. And that’s very much what Don Mancini has delivered here. Curse of Chucky looks great, and is shot in a very interesting way which I daresay highlights what a student of cinema Mancini really is. Indeed, perhaps I was wrong earlier to suggest this film doesn’t carry on in the spirit of Bride and Seed, for in its own way it’s equally self-referential and loaded with nods to other films; but the vital difference here is that, by and large, Mancini isn’t playing it for laughs.

From the moment Chucky enters the picture, lying apparently lifeless in a cardboard box, the dread starts to build; yes, we all know damn well the doll’s going to come to life, but we don’t know when. Until that moment, Chucky is just an object in the background, but one which draws our attention, and the film effectively builds suspense as we wait on tenderhooks for him to make his first move. In the meantime we get to know the characters in this creepy old house, and happily they prove as intriguing as their surroundings, and Mancini captures both cast and setting quite beautifully with a camera that’s smoothly, almost imperceptibly on the move at all times.

Sure, we have smartphones, laptops and webcams all coming into play (and even a snippet midway when, yes, Chucky goes found footage), but all in all there’s something very old fashioned about Curse of Chucky, harking back to the very earliest days of the slasher – Bava’s Bay of Blood, for instance – when the stories were more along the lines of Agatha Christie murder mysteries with particularly gruesome death scenes. As time went on, this format naturally wound up with the Friday the 13th format of a gory kill every ten minutes or so. However, while Mancini doesn’t spare us the gore, he wisely doesn’t neglect to bring in surprises of other kinds, with various red herrings giving way to character developments we might not have anticipated.

It’s all pulled off wonderfully by the cast. Danielle Bisutti does beautifully as everyone’s worst nightmare of a sibling, Brennan Elliot is great as the husband who’s clearly had his fill of taking shit, Summer H Howell is the ideal innocent little girl – and of course, Brad Dourif picks it all up like it was only yesterday. Still, the clear star of the show is Fiona Dourif. Obviously the temptation is there to scream nepotism given who her father is (check the surnnames if you haven’t twigged yet), but there can be no doubt this is an actress of great charisma and gravitas, who I daresay has real scream queen potential. (Room for a little plug – fans of Ms Dourif might want to check out the Kickstarter for one of her next projects, the UK-based short film She.)

Yes, all in all I was very impressed with Curse of Chucky. Now, if only it had had the good sense to end about five minutes earlier… don’t worry, I’m not going to get into spoilers, but the narrative reaches its natural conclusion only for the film to carry on, for the sake of a couple of scenes which serve only to please existing fans of the series without in any way serving this specific story. It’s too bad that Mancini chose to leave things on such a self-indulgent note, given what a refreshingly lean and self contained film Curse of Chucky is for the most part. Still, such a minor offence can be excused given how well done everything else is. I’m half tempted to declare this the best movie in the Child’s Play series yet, but that might be premature – even so, I’d definitely say it’s straight up there in the top three, along with the original and Bride.

(It’s also a shame that the DVD is, in the words of the press release, ‘vanilla’ – but there look to be plenty of decent extras on the Blu-Ray.)

Curse of Chucky is released to Region 2 DVD, Blu-Ray & Ultraviolet on 21st October 2013, from Universal.

Review: Young, High and Dead (2013)

Review by Tristan Bishop

Any publicity is good publicity, so the saying goes, and Young, High and Dead certainly announced itself in an unusual way, catching the attention for all the wrong reasons. A few months back a press release and trailer surfaced, with the director taking great pains to tell us that one of the main characters gets raped in the film. Seriously. It gets mentioned three times in the space of a few sentences, with the director even stating ‘…the trailer, in which I fake rape (the actress in question).’ Troubling, to say the least, and not helped remotely by the accompanying rhetoric about how the director is ‘from the wrong side of the tracks’, and that the film ‘is not what the scene wants or needs, but at least it’s different’. So, just to recap, the director has a massive chip on his shoulder over his background, is worryingly obsessed with the rape of one of the actresses, and freely admits that his film is likely of no interest to the horror crowd. Somebody get this guy a job in marketing!

My colleagues at BAH were, it turns out, rather put off the film by this press release, because they are (by-and-large) sensible types who don’t suffer from some form of cinematic masochism, but yours truly is labouring under the idea that watching all the crap that no-one else will touch with a bargepole is actually performing a useful public service.

Young, High and Dead (not a bad title, it must be said; it certainly fires the imagination) starts with five young people making their way to a camping trip in the woods, fuelled by a toolbox full of drugs. The three guys are varying degrees of dickbag, and the girls are pretty and not given a hell of a lot of characterisation (this is a shame, as one of them is Hannah Tointon, who impressed in the excellent The Children in 2008). So far, so standard. This takes up the first half hour of the film, but is intercut with (thankfully implied) scenes of a man mutilating an imprisoned little girl. The next half hour is taken up entirely with the characters sitting around a campfire, taking enough drugs to make Tony Montana and Cheech Marin blush, and the cracks in their relationships appearing as they get more wasted and paranoid. Of course, in the final third the child-killer appears and mayhem ensues, but, to be honest, I’ll be extremely impressed if you last that long.

I’ll go through the good points of the film first, in the interests of balance. The animated intro is quirky and surprising, and there is a post-credits scene at the end which ties into an earlier situation and made me chuckle. Unfortunately what is sandwiched between these short moments is 90 minutes of utter tedium. The film has a turgid pace, no build-up (in fact the intercutting at the start serves only to confuse, let alone slightly nauseate), detestable characters, and a lo-fi handheld camera style that serves to make it look both cheap, and like a found footage film. Add to this mix some woeful editing during a silly climax and you’re left with something a little way from entertaining.

As for the much-trumpeted (by the director at least) rape scene, well, it is at least thankfully non-explicit, and the director is obviously attempting to make us ‘complicit’ in the act by it being filmed in extreme close-up POV, but it serves no purpose in the story at all, and, with a film this badly-made, any emotional impact is going to be negligible anyway. In fact, the biggest shock in the film is in the opening credits, which tell us that, although Luke Brady is credited as director and writer, there are an additional FOUR people credited as ‘co-director’. I have no idea what a ‘co-director’ is, but having four of the buggers certainly didn’t help matters here.

Young, High and Dead isn’t the worst British horror film ever made (I can’t imagine I’ll ever see something as pointless and appalling as Black Shuck again in my life), but I’d place it very near the bottom of the pile. Still, apparently someone likes it, as the second (much less worrying, although still banging on about ‘being from the gutter’) press release mentions a sequel on the horizon, a proposition which even a bad film-loving masochist like myself would balk at.

Young, High & Dead is available to watch on demand in the UK here. It will be released to VOD in the US at Halloween.

(Note: director Luke Brady has responded to the criticism of his press release.)

 

Comic Review: Hellboy – Midnight Circus

Review by Comix

Over the twenty years that Hellboy has been around, he has faced monsters and demons of all shapes and sizes. From mythical creatures of worship to sprites and fairies, Hellboy has beaten, stomped, and quipped with the best of them. Of course, like any good comic character, all heroes are required have an interesting, if not a bit melancholy, origin, focusing on the protagonist’s early years of innocence and fool-hardiness. Though Midnight Circus is definitely not the first attempt at a little back story for the lovable demon, it is the newest one, so being the horror comic aficionado that I am, I’m very much inclined to cover it and subsequently tell everyone to buy it, buy it, BUY IT NOW! It’s just the perfect little book to squeeze between your collection of Hellboy graphic novels and DVD/Blue Ray combos (don’t lie, you have both.)

Midnight Circus is exactly the story you would imagine when it involves a young, curious Hellboy and a devilish little carnival that arrives precisely at midnight. Growing up is already rough when you’re a weird looking, red skinned kid with a big hand, but it’s even harder when no one wants to play with you because you’re the only weird looking, red skinned kid with a big hand on an entire military base full of adults. One night, tired of being treated his age, a young Hellboy sneaks out with a pilfered cigarette, looking to one up his manhood, when he sees a clown nail up a sign for a traveling circus. Excited, he immediately follows the clown down to the encampment and into a tent where he catches the performer calling down ghostly spirits. Suddenly, Hellboy finds himself in a place a lot stranger than he thought possible and desperately begins looking for a way out.

Needless to say, this new Hellboy addition is amazing. It’s got everything a fan of subtle macabre could want: ghosts, monsters, circus freaks, sexy ladies, and a beautifully done cover by Mignola himself. The new comic still manages to add to the Hellboy mythos without completely monkey-wrenching the whole series. Like mini-Hellboy, it’s also a good spooky story for the kiddies while appealing to adult fanboy in all of us, so if you got a little monster who loves comics, toss them this read.

One thing that’s very interesting about Midnight Circus is its direct connection to Pinocchio. From when Hellboy steals a cigarette to the Jonah-type ghost in the belly of the circus, the entire story plays off the part where Pinocchio runs off to Pleasure Island. The story of Hellboy transitions beautifully into the classic tale, adding that very atmospheric touch that floats throughout the Hellboy comic and twisting the story into one tinged in macabre.

The writer of this new book is, of course, Mike Mignola, who I don’t need to tell you about. That’s the great thing about the Hellboy series; even if Mignola is not illustrating it, he writes every issue himself, a guaranteed sign of quality. The artist, Duncan Fergerado, is a staple in the Hellboy/B.P.R.D. universe, having done work on both series in the past. His art for Midnight Circus is absolutely breathtaking, with two distinct art styles varying between inside the circus, which is more heavily painted, and outside of it with more inks and comic stylization. The book itself is going to be a complete story and coming out as a graphic novel, wrapped in a nice hardcover and everything, with a very reasonable price tag of seventeen dollars. Do yourself a favor and pick it up.

Hellboy: Midnight Circus drops Oct. 23rd everywhere that is awesome, from Dark Horse Comics.