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DVD Review: Red Canyon

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Red Canyon (2008)
Distributor: Chelsea Films
DVD Release Date (UK): 23 May 2011
Directed by: Giovanni Rodriguez
Starring: Christine Lakin, Tim Draxl, Katie Maguire, Norman Reedus
Review by: Keri O’Shea

As a person who watches more than their share of low budget indie horrors, I have developed certain almost Pavlovian responses to clichéd content which crops up so very, very often. On that account, if a film begins by showing me a carful of irritating twentysomethings on their way to stay in a ramshackle dwelling somewhere remote/dangerous then that script, characterisation and plot had better be decent. Well, although Red Canyon eventually manages to weave something quite bleak out of its various elements, it plain doesn’t do enough to distinguish itself from all of those other films where I’m rooting for the demise of everyone on the road trip by twenty minutes in.

Things start abruptly: a guy called Devon (Tim Draxl) and his sister Regina (Christine Lakin) are seen heading into a local cave (for reasons as yet unknown). What we glean is that the cave looks to have some sort of laboratory in it, and whatever ‘party’ was held there has turned up a few dead folk. Hmm. Next thing we know, and it is hard to make out, but a guy in a gas mask attacks Devon…

The brother and sister duo evidently escape though: we then hop forward, according to a subtitle, ‘some years later’ and, with the annoying friends now in tow they’re heading back to where this trauma took place – their old home town – to make a decision on selling or inhabiting their mother’s old house. Before this stage, we run the gamut of overused horror plot devices: car trouble; people commenting on the general isolation of the area; several references to how far they all are from home – although happily I don’t recall that anyone took out their mobile phone and expressed surprise that there was ‘no signal’. Essentially though, everyone shines at establishing themselves as beneath contempt. Regina, or ‘Reggie,’ looks to be the character with whom we’re meant to empathise, but the flashbacks to the attack she suffered are just too brief and unclear to secure attention and her continued practice of hiding behind doors/cars as she listens to her brother and friends describe her as nuts seemed like a jaded plot device. Unperturbed by her plight, though, her friends seem to be participating in the world’s worst tourist video as sweeping long shots of the dramatic countryside vie for position with footage of the group exploring, biking, antagonising local pets and local people with their presence. Around this time we start getting shots of an irate, fist-clenching guy, so it looks as though at least one person would rather they weren’t around.

Regina at this point decides that the best way to deal with her partial memory of a traumatic experience is to head, alone, back to the same cave/drug den which still seems to have scary people lurking within. She’s rescued, but at what cost? One might wonder what the hell she was thinking in the first place, but at least her stupid actions have kicked off the inevitable bloodshed.

Though you have to wait a long time for it, writer/director Giovanni Rodriguez obviously has some ambitions in terms of structure here. Thing is, we also have poorly-delineated characters, inexplicable motivations and gaps in the script. The more-novel-than-expected framing device meant little to me because I never really felt the development of enough tension to keep me interested. You can be lost in a maze, but if you didn’t realise you were entering that maze then you won’t marvel at the amount of wrong turns or the work that went into laying it out, you’ll just want to get the hell out of there. These people just suck: putting aside the issue of a brother taking his traumatised, needy sister back to the place where she had her life ruined, putting aside her running shrieking to that very place once she arrives in town, ignoring the bizarre decision to subtitle one of the (perfectly understandable) townspeople, what we have here are weakly-drawn characters who can’t sustain the story. When that story winds up as an unseemly sort of rape whodunit, then you’ve lost me, and I suspect many others too. Yes, it’s bleak. It also felt like a cynical method of trying to assure shock value, but still failing because – and I know I come back to this often in my reviews – without the most basic elements of engaging writing intact, this is just another spin on a weary, overpopulated subgenre.

Blu-Ray Review: The Bird With The Crystal Plumage

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The Bird With The Crystal Plumage (1970)
Distributor: Arrow
Blu-Ray Release Date: 23 May 2011
Directed by: Dario Argento
Starring: Tom Musante, Suzy Kendall, Enrico Maria Salerno
Review by: Nia Edwards-Behi

Looking back at Dario Argento’s first film in light of his later output is something of a bittersweet experience. Where more recent offerings from the one time maestro of the macabre have been disappointing to say the least, to revisit Bird with the Crystal Plumage is an absolute treat. A ground breaking thriller, Bird would become the blueprint for the wave after wave of gialli that followed. Argento’s animal trilogy is perhaps a little neglected in light of the later, giddy highs of Profondo Rosso and Suspiria, but its influence cannot be underestimated. Starting with Bird, the trilogy would cement the conventions of the distinctly Italian genre, refining what Mario Bava started with the likes of The Girl Who Knew Too Much.

American writer Sam Dalmas (Tony Musante) is witness to a knife attack on a woman in an art gallery. When he is forced to stay in Italy as a witness to the crime and potential suspect, he decides to try to solve the case himself, uncovering murder, intrigue and madness along the way. The opening attack is one of the great giallo set-pieces. As Dalmas is trapped between the locked sliding glass doors that mark the entrance to the gallery, he can do nothing but look on as Monica Ranieri (Eva Renzi) begs for help. What this set piece concisely encapsulates is one of the great themes of the giallo: the incompetence of traditional masculinity. The giallo protagonist is rarely a tough guy, and Argneto’s leading men aptly demonstrate this, his films populated with writers, musicians, painters and generally artistic types who decide to risk life and limb in order to uncover the perpetrators of violent crimes. Of course, it’s usually other people’s lives and limbs that end up maimed along the way. The artist triumphs at the film’s close, but rarely through any act of traditional heroics.

This sense of gender crisis is also effectively heightened by the film’s still-excellent twist. See the film once, twice or a fanatic’s number of times and the revelation of the killer’s identity still packs an impressive punch. Establishing what would also become a giallo and Argento staple, the revelation of the unexpected killer forces a questioning of what we’ve witnessed prior: horrendous acts of violence become all the more twisted in light of climactic revelations. These acts of violence that occur throughout the film still have the power to shock, particularly the infamous knicker-ripping murder. Franco Fraticelli’s editing ensures maximum effectiveness in a collaboration with Argento which would prove masterful time and time again. It’s not only of key murder scenes that this is true, but the lengthy yellow jackets chase sequence is as tense and exhilarating as it is ludicrous thanks in part to Fraticelli’s tight editing.

Another key aspect of what makes Argento’s films so successful, which is evident in Bird, is the wonderful sound-design. Given the key role of sound in the film’s narrative – a vital clue to discovering the killer’s identity comes in the form of a recording of the titular bird’s call – it comes as no surprise that sound and music is such an important factor of Bird’s tense atmosphere. Ennio Morricone’s intrusive but haunting music is memorable, as lurid at times as some of Argento’s bravura camerwork. Argento’s mastery of cinematic spectacle is evident, from the point-of-view shot of a woman as she smokes a cigarette in bed to throwing a camera out of a window to simulate the fall of a man.

Three impressive extras appear on Arrow’s Blu-ray edition of Bird. First, A Crystal Classic: Luigi Cozzi Remembers Dario’s Bloody Bird provides a very detailed account of the conception of Bird, and its significance to Italian cinema. There’s an interesting anecdote about Bertollucci’s involvement in noting The Screaming Mimi as a good novel to adapt, which would provide the uncredited inspiration for Bird. Cozzi also highlights the importance of key collaborators such as Fraticelli. Coinciding with the importance of Bird to the giallo, the interview Sergio Martino: The Genesis of the Giallo is practically a documentary, providing a very thorough consideration of the giallo from Martino, who collaborated with Argento and Bava, as well as directing his own, well-known gialli. Fond recollections of Bava and Fulci are just enjoyable snippets of what’s an informative and entertaining view of the genre, with a wonderful overview of Martino’s own film Torso. Again, it’s great to get the view of someone who worked within the genre, and to hear of its influence from an Italian perspective. For me, it was also nice to hear Martino attribute much of Italy’s international success to its genre cinema and not just their auteurist greats. The great Italian auteurs do get a look in, though, courtesy Argento himself, in The Italian Hitchcock: Dario Argento Remembers Bird with the Crystal Plumage. Despite the moniker used in the title, Argento himself notes “I am nothing like Hitchcock. He was a genius. A maestro.” It sounds modest, but it’s not so much the case as Argento discusses the influence of Antonioni on his own work, as well as his fondness for Fellini, Bergman, German Expressionism and the French New Wave. As always with these Argento interviews, it’s an incredibly self-reflective snippet from the man, but at the same time slightly schizophrenic.

As a fan, I’m always incredibly grateful to Arrow for the insights these interviews provide, as well as the loving transfers of the films. With several more Argento releases on their upcoming slate, this fan knows she’s got a lot to look forward to.

UK DVD Review: The Devil Dared Me To

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The Devil Dared Me To (2007)
Distributor: Entertainment One/FrightFest Features
DVD Release Date: 23rd May 2011
Directed by: Chris Stapp
Starring: Chris Stapp, Matt Heath, Bonnie Soper, Andrew Beattie
Review by: Ben Bussey

Randy Campbell is a young man from the south island of New Zealand. He may be surrounded by green farmland and sheep, but his heart resonates with the roar of engines and the scream of the crowd, for Randy is descended from several generations of New Zealand stuntmen. Indeed, he is one of the few surviving members of his family, having as a two year old witnessed his father killed horribly in a stunt gone wrong, and been subsequently raised by his aunt, who was hideously disfigured in the same accident, and his overprotective uncle. A chance to break free comes with a visit to his hometown from the new big name in New Zealand daredevil stunts, Dick Johansonson (Heath, also co-writer with Stapp). Sneaking out to watch the show, Randy soon meets the future love of his life in Tracy ‘Tragedy’ Jones, and gets the chance to participate in Dick’s big stunt of the night; this too soon results in a few horrible deaths and dismemberments. But it gets young Randy on Dick’s team, and soon enough Randy’s a grown man (in the form of director/co-writer Stapp), and his dreams of daredevil stardom are bigger than ever. But with the spiteful, envious Dick staring over his shoulder, it’s going to be a rough ride to the top.

As a raucous, ribald comedy that shares much common ground with your typical Will Ferrell or Seth Rogen movies – absurdly overconfident protagonists with no sense of their own idiocy – this is a decidedly unexpected choice for the fledgling FrightFest Features to distribute. Certainly, The Devil Dared Me To – or Dick: The Devil Dared Me To, as it has inexplicably been released stateside, with cover art showing Matt Heath but not Chris Stapp (Randy is clearly the lead, so what inspired that decision I have no idea) – is a grisly affair at times, with more than a few people being dismembered and/or burnt to a crisp, cheeks both upper and lower being punctured by broken glass, and a particularly eye-watering cautionary tale about the consequences of a trampoline stunt gone wrong. In spite of all this, no one could ever mistake this film for horror. That said, it did indeed play at FrightFest ’07, and as such it stands testament to the broad scope of the festival (indeed, last year’s event included such decidedly non-horrific fare as Fanboys). This would seem to indicate that FrightFest Features will be taking a similar approach with this venture into the realm of distribution, with a broader agenda than cut-and-dried horror.

What you can really expect from The Devil Dared Me To is an amusing, relatively light-hearted comedy with just enough of a hard edge to keep the bloodthirsty interested. On the one hand it’s much like any comedy that charts the ups and downs of a character’s professional life, from The Jerk to just about any Ferrell film you could mention. Stapp’s Randy is more Navin Johnson than Ron Burgundy/Ricky Bobby, however; dimwitted but for the most part innocent. The part of brash, egotistical buffoon goes to Heath’s aptly-named Dick, who quickly establishes himself as reprehensible and pathetic. As Randy steps out of Dick’s shadow and starts to steal the limelight, the inevitable rivalry escalates in a manner not too dissimilar to that of Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale in The Prestige. Where the film really takes the audience off-guard is how close to the bone it gets; in amidst the madcap laughs there are moments of loss and pain that are played surprisingly straight, and lend quite an emotional weight to what might otherwise have been somewhat light entertainment.

And on top of it all, it’s a New Zealand movie. The nation that gave us Peter Jackson and Black Sheep is always going to have a place in the heart of horror audiences, and The Devil Dared Me To carries much the same vulgar/potentially offensive brand of humour. If you’re at all amused by fathers who swear profusely in front of their children, sexy female amputees (put to film pre-Planet Terror, we might add), and the obviously dire consequences of ridiculous vehicular stunts, then you’ll find plenty to laugh at. And speaking of the stunts, this team have clearly taken a leaf from the book of their Australian neighbours, as they go the Ozsploitation route of doing as much of the stuntwork themselves as possible, with health, safety and insurance given little regard. And it shows. Chris Stapp in particular pulls off a couple of really hair-raising moves, and knowing that it’s really him doing it does get the viewer that bit more invested.

And that’s really the crux of The Devil Dared Me To: it may mock the stunt world, but it clearly acknowledges that stunts are fun, and the more preposterous and unsafe they are the better. Like This Is Spinal Tap before, it’s as much a love letter as a lampoon, and as such it will likely earn the affection of anyone who loves watching things crash and burn.

DVD Review: Shadow

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Shadow (2009)
Distributor: Entertainment One
DVD Release date: 23rd May (UK)
Directed by: Federico Zampaglione
Starring: Jake Muxworthy, Karina Testa, Nuot Arquint
Review by: Stephanie Scaife

Shadow is to be the first film released by FrightFest Features, a new joint venture with FrightFest and Wild Bunch that will be releasing genre material in the UK through distributor Entertainment One. Unsurprisingly, FrightFest was where Shadow first premiered back in 2009. At the time I remembered being decidedly underwhelmed by the film, making it a slightly disappointing choice to launch this new FrightFest venture.  I was interested to revisit it to see if it improved any with multiple viewings but much to my annoyance it was perhaps even worse the second time around.

From first time director Federico Zampaglione, better known in Italy as a musician, Shadow is a bizarre mishmash of various horror genres starting off as a Deliverance style backwoods thriller, switching midway through into a surreal torture horror akin to the likes of Hostel (for a lazy comparison) or the lesser known British horror film Creep from 2005, surmounting in an unforgiveable shock ending taking it down a notch from being mediocre to just plain bad.

David (Jake Muxworthy) is a young soldier newly out of Afghanistan who is on a mountain biking holiday around Europe, he meets up with another young traveller named Angeline (Karina Testa) and they quickly hit it off. However, their newly kindled romance is soon jeopardised by a pair of asshole idiotic hunters who take an instant dislike to young couple, pursuing them through the mountainous woodland in a banal cat and mouse fashion.

This all seems to happen very quickly and inexplicably and is fairly generic, then out of nowhere Shadow takes a major turn and changes into an almost entirely different film. David and the two hunters, having been caught up in various traps, find themselves in a remote but surprisingly well stocked bunker, held prisoner by the incredibly creepy Mortis (Nuot Arquint), one of the strangest looking protagonists that I’ve seen in a long time. He is freakishly tall and skinny, enjoys watching old news footage of genocide and various other atrocities whilst indulging in a bizarre frog licking habit. This second half of the film is the stronger of the two and it has some striking imagery, mostly due to the remarkable presence of Arquint, as well as a few decent gory moments. But overall the whole thing is so inconsistent that it is difficult to be invested in any of the characters or the plot.

So, in the space of about 70 minutes we’re essentially given 2 halves of 2 very different sorts of films, seemingly unrelated in tone and narrative except for the same central characters. Then in the last 5 minutes we’re treated to the mother of all narrative cop-out endings, which may kinda sorta offers an explanation of sorts for the incoherent mess that had come before it, but it doesn’t stop the entire film being an infuriatingly indulgent mess.

The DVD I viewed was a bog standard check-disc so I can’t comment on what wondrous special features may be in store, but it is released in the UK on 23rd May and is currently widely available in the US.

Dead By Dawn Review: Cold Fish

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Cold Fish (2010)
Directed by: Shion Sono
Starring: Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Makoto Ashikawa, Denden, Hikari Kajiwara
Review by: Keri O’Shea

If you’re familiar with the work of Japanese director Shion Sono – the man behind Suicide Circle (with arguably one of the best opening sequences ever committed to horror celluloid) and Hair Extensions – then you’ll know the way he assaults the family unit with a blend of shock horror and bleak black comedy. Cold Fish is no exception to that formula: this is a lengthy, often uncomfortable examination of an everyday guy who, by increments, becomes involved in events beyond his control. The real horror here is that Shion presents his downfall so intricately that you can understand how such a mild-mannered Mr Nobody could become implicated in such a way: a simple debt of honour becomes the albatross around his neck. Soon, he simply can’t extricate himself from an escalating nightmare without bringing down another nightmare on his own head. In short, despite the Shion ultraviolence, Shamoto could be anyone and just to reinforce that, the film opens by telling us that Cold Fish is based on real-life events.

At the beginning of the film, we see that Shamoto (Mitsuru Kukikoshi) just wants an easy life. Thing is, life’s not all that keen to oblige him. All he wants is to do relatively well with his business (selling tropical fish), and he would like the love and respect of his teenage daughter Mitsuko (Hikari Kajiwara) and his young wife, Taeko (Megumi Kagurazaka). Is that too much for a quiet, respectful citizen to ask? We quickly see just how far away he is from what he’d like: Taeko is bored and miserable, whilst his daughter is a brat. Mitsuko is barely able to tolerate the fact that her father remarried, let alone to a much younger woman, so the pleasant domesticity Shamoto would relish is a charade which barely holds together at the best of times.

When Shamoto receives a phonecall to tell him that his daughter has been caught shoplifting, he’s mortified and heads down there with the girl’s stepmother to apologise profusely (something he spends a great deal of time doing). Just at that moment, the family’s saviour rolls up in the form of the rambunctious and characterful Murata (Denden). Murata happens to be the owner of a huge rival tropical fish store. He convinces the security guard to let Mitsuko off and, better still, he offers to give the girl employment and board at his shop: Mitsuko doesn’t need to be asked twice and, again in pursuit of that quiet life, her father agrees.

It all seems positive enough to start with but, in no time at all, Murata has assumed a dominating, harmful influence in Shamoto and Taeko’s lives. First he insists on social calls, and then via a combination of intimidation and emotional blackmail he browbeats the dutiful Shamoto into becoming his business partner. The better Shamoto comes to know Murata – and his unhinged young wife Aiko (Asuka Kurosawa) – the more he learns that Murata is not to be refused anything, least of all not when he witnesses Murata murder the last guy who dared to do so. He’s also now an accessory. Shamoto has by now lost control over all aspects of his life: his daughter, his wife and his personal autonomy, and he gets dragged further and further into Murata’s volatile world.

From the outset, Cold Fish pulls apart any expectations the audience may have about the villain/hero set-up here. Our main character, Shamoto, is a doormat. You can feel for his plight, but it’s as exasperating as it is touching. Meanwhile, Murata is a stone cold psychopath, but an often funny, charismatic and worldly guy too. This is just a taste of where Shion is going with this: he wants to make you think about who you empathise with and there’s a scene towards the close of the film which made the Dead by Dawn festival audience cheer, despite the content of that scene checking pretty much every box for humour-inappropriateness. This is also testament to the pay-off for our characters which, when it comes, is intense, despite this being a protracted film which could easily have lost twenty minutes without any problem. It manages to stay interesting despite being too long, though: the performances carry it along, and there’s even a demented streak of pathos here.

Cold Fish layers on the violence and the sickly-sexual overtones whilst ultimately presenting us with a bizarre battle of wills. It’ll have you thinking and feeling all manner of things during its (extensive) course, but ultimately its pessimism is its major calling card, with Shamoto as the ill-fated Everyman at the centre of events.

Nia’s Round-up of the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival

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Report by Nia Edwards-Behi

The Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival, held yearly over a two-week period, guarantees a showcase of the best up-and-coming genre offerings. Although drawing in massive crowds to an impressive venue, the sense of tradition and convention at the festival is evident – watching a film with the BIFFF regulars is a great experience in and of itself, with noisy but appreciative attention paid to each offering by a dedicated audience. Next year’s festival is the 3oth, and I’ve no doubt that it’s this sense of community that keeps the festival thriving. Here’s a really brief round-up of some of the films that were on offer that haven’t yet been reviewed.

Mirages (Talal Selhami, Morocco/France, 2010)
Excellent feature debut from Talal Selhami, which offers an original setting for what could have been a run-of-the-mill psychological thriller. Strong characterisation and performances ensure that this is a very promising debut, even if the ending is a little drawn out. Gladly, the film also refuses to fall into the trap of looking cheap, with an impressive and judicious use of visual effects never truly betraying the film’s low budget.

Midnight Son (Scott Leberecht, USA, 2011)
Superb horror-romance that’s a successor to the likes of Martin and Near Dark, Midnight Son was one of my favourite films of the festival. Telling the tale of a young man with a rare skin disease that requires he work nights to avoid sunlight, his chance meeting and romance with a woman coincides with his increasingly violent behaviour. A film that sounds run-of-the-mill to summarise, the film is tightly plotted, beautifully written and acted earnestly. I truly cared for the characters, and as such Midnight Son is a much needed breath of fresh air for the vampire film.

Kidnapped (Miguel Angel Vivas, Spain, 2010)
A superb genre offering from Spain, Miguel Angel Vivas’ Kidnapped is a visual tour-de-force, offering what could’ve been an average home invasion tale in 12 continuous shots. Utterly nasty and frighteningly realistic, the film never shies away from the brutality and helplessness that acts of violence bring. A highlight of the film is the excellent performance of Manuela Velles as the terrified but desperately defiant teenage daughter of the family under attack. It’s been a long time since a thriller had me so thrilled, Kidnapped is a film to be experienced.

Red Nights (Julien Carbon & Laurent Courtiaud, Hong Kong/France/Belgium, 2010)
This attractive erotic thriller just about manages to hold attention for its full-running time, helped by charismatic leads, even when they’re at their most histrionic. A convoluted and melodramatic plot about an ancient poison that paralyses its victim while increasing their sensitivity, the film is entirely concerned with the sensual, both in narrative and in construction. Featuring a particularly nasty torture scene and an inventive opening 15-minutes, Red Nights is enjoyable hokum.

Urban Explorer (Andy Fetscher, Germany, 2011)
The interesting setting of this otherwise generic survival horror only stays interesting for about 20 minutes. In the underground tunnels of Berlin a group of continental youths meet up with their guide, for some ‘urban exploring’. Things, naturally, soon start to go horribly wrong, but by the time we get to know the villain a little bit the novelty has worn off and the utter insipidness of the supposed ‘heroine’ the film becomes too distracting to bear. Though enjoyable enough, and fairly commendable for its ending, Urban Explorer is ultimately more memorable for its weaknesses than its strengths.

Ferozz: The Wild Red Riding Hood (Jorge Molina, Cuba/Costa Rica, 2010)
Ferozz is a surprisingly captivating film which re-tells the Red Riding Hood story as an erotic coming-of-age tale. At times reminiscent of the Javi Camino’s excellent Maldito Bastardo!, while at other times reminiscent of the worst sort of amateurism, it’s hard to tell if this surrealist film is good, bad, or just plain taking the piss. Containing scenes you won’t soon forget, Ferozz is without a doubt a film that needs to be seen to be believed.

Bestseller (Jeong-ho Lee, South Korea, 2011)
Excellent thriller which is severely let down by being about 30 minutes too long. Even so, it’s hard not to enjoy the film’s twists, and the strong central performance from Uhm Jung-Hwa as a novelist accused of plagiarism whose behaviour becomes increasingly erratic, keeps the most dragged out of plot turns just about entertaining.

Keepsake (Paul Moore, USA, 2008)
The charmless characters and the repetitive ‘plot’ of this film lead to an incredibly dull experience, complete with non-sensical twist. That it’s taken so long to see the light of day might be indicative, as it cynically attempts to be ‘torture porn’ as a means of pandering to an audience. Keepsake is only worth mentioning as a warning to avoid it.

Editor’s note: in case you missed Nia’s earlier BIFFF coverage, check out her reviews of Stake Land, Tetsuo 3: The Bullet Man, Horny House of Horrors & Helldriver.

Dead By Dawn 2011 Review: Harold’s Going Stiff

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Harold’s Going Stiff (2010)
Directed by: Keith Wright
Starring: Stan Rowe, Sarah Spencer, Andy Pandini, Lee Thompson
Review by: Keri O’Shea

Zombies have been used as a metaphor for a range of things over the years: they’ve represented mindless labour, consumerism, contagion, but never, to my knowledge, has zombieism been used as a metaphor for ageing. In the charming, understated British indie movie Harold’s Going Stiff, that’s just what we get.

The film is framed as a ‘mockumentary’, with the filmmakers examining the emergence of a perplexing new condition affecting British men and, in particular, how this condition affects an elderly man called Harold Gimble. And why? Well, it all started with Harold. A few months ago, he started getting pain and stiffness in his joints that went above and beyond the effects of old age: as he explains, he couldn’t dig his garden anymore, and cutting a piece of cake to go with his nice pot of tea was sheer agony. After many unpleasant medical tests and much deliberation, doctors proclaimed that Harold was suffering from a totally new disease. They named it Onset Rigors Disease – or O.R.D for short – and before long it seemed to be affecting others too. When it affects other men however, they degenerate rapidly until they don’t know their own families and even become violent. These guys seem like, well, zombies, and some concerned members of the community are now meeting this violence with (ham-fisted) vigilantism. Meanwhile Harold is trying to get on with his life, but as he lives alone, things are tough, and although his condition seems stable, it’s not getting any better.

To try and give him back some of his lost mobility, the local health service sends Howard a nurse, Penny (Sarah Spencer). She’s trained in massage techniques which it is hoped will help get Howard moving again.  Penny is a warm, considerate woman who forms a close bond with her patient: she’s also very lonely herself, and Howard becomes as important to her as she does to him. As more sufferers of O.R.D keep appearing, the medical team who diagnosed Howard’s condition have to ask him if he’ll help them with more tests as they search for a cure, and Penny insists on being there to support him.

What unfolds is a humorous, often affecting tale. It’s worth establishing this, though: if you’re hoping for another Shaun of the Dead then this is not it. It has a similar self-deprecating British humour and it’s definitely funny, but otherwise completely different in tone. This isn’t a gory zom-com but a character-driven story which easily manages to flip from moments of laugh-out-loud physical comedy to real pathos, and when I say pathos, I mean that many audience members at the Dead by Dawn festival where I saw the film (including myself, if I’m honest) were moved to tears. Director/writer Keith Wright knows when to change tack, though, and to give the audience something lighter. The group of vigilantes who have made it their mission to attack any aggressive O.R.D sufferers they see give us a real comedy of errors during their earliest scenes, and there’s plenty of humour to be found in the rest of the film too.

The only potential problem I foresee for this film is that it doesn’t sit comfortably in any one genre. It draws on elements of horror, but it’s in no way a straightforward horror. It’s often comedic, but probably sits outside the comedy genre as well. This genre-straddling means that it might struggle to find its audience and that would be a real shame. Also, the beautiful South Yorkshire setting comes with some broad South Yorkshire accents which many people will struggle with!  I’ve lived in Yorkshire for years and I had to pause for thought, so our friends on the other side of the pond may well have problems.

Ultimately, Harold’s Going Stiff plays out the anxiety surrounding ageing in a bittersweet, engaging story, as embodied by professional actors and non-actors who really make you care about their characters. It’s no small thing to craft a film which tugs on the heartstrings as successfully as this one does, and it’s proof that you don’t need a huge budget to make a good indie.

Editor’s note: find out more at http://www.stiffmovie.com/

BIFFF Review: Stake Land

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Stake Land (2010)
Directed by: Jim Mickle
Starring: Danielle Harris, Kelly McGillis, Connor Paolo, Nick Damici
Review by: Nia Edwards-Behi

The world has been ravaged by a disease that transforms people into vicious bloodsuckers. A teenager watches his family slaughtered and is rescued by the mysterious Mister, a tough vampire hunter who takes the boy under his wing. They hear word of New Eden, a haven where no vampires reside. They pick up more members to their rag-tag party as they travel across a broken country to reach New Eden. In doing so, they make enemies of a group of religious extremists, discovering that humans can be monsters too.

Frankly, this should have been a funny film. It’s still darkly comic, in parts, but Stake Land’s potential is not reached due to its tongue not being anywhere near its cheek. As such, the film takes itself far too seriously and severely suffers for it. There are only so many slow-motion shots of people turning and looking meaningfully into the middle-distance that I can handle in a film. The rag-tag-band-of-survivors-search-for-a-haven plot has been done and done again, and Stake Land offers little newness to the formula. The vampires aren’t vampires, but zombies with sharper teeth, which is significantly disappointing. Having said that, there are some enjoyably inventive moments with the zombie-vamps on offer, particularly in a nifty scene which sees the creatures dropped like bombs onto a vamp-free community.

Stake Land isn’t a particularly bad film, by any means. It looks beautiful. The characters aren’t unlikeable, but they’re tired types typical of such an apocalyptic road movie: the distant badass who nonetheless takes in the rookie orphan, and the nice but damaged girl that joins them. The only interesting addition to this cocktail is a nun, which is indicative of the film’s central concern of religious nut-jobbery causing all sorts of the trouble for those who are trying to survive the vampiric apocalypse. Unfortunately, the heavy-handed use of religious imagery gets boring very quickly, so by the fifth shot of a statue of the Virgin Mary, it’s hard not to laugh.

For me, Stake Land is a missed opportunity. It’s too unoriginal to get away with being quite so earnest about everything, a healthy dose of knowing humour is desperately required to make the film as effective as it seems to think it is.

Editor’s note – Nia saw quite a few more films at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival, so keep an eye out for more reviews in the near future.

DVD Review: Fantastic Factory Presents ‘Arachnid’

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Arachnid (2001)
Distributor: Arrow
DVD Release Date (Fantastic Factory Boxset): 18th April 2011
DVD Release Date (Individual): 6th June 2011
Directed by: Jack Sholder
Starring: Chris Potter, Alex Reid, José Sancho, Neus Asensi
Review by: Ben Bussey

Yes, that thing you see in the picture above, and on the DVD cover art to the left, is a giant spider. Having said that, no further synopsis of Arachnid is really required, but what the hell: when a man escapes his village on a remote jungle island riddled with gaping wounds and an aggressive poison in his bloodstream which shortly results in a horrible death, some local medical types (Jose Sancho and Neus Asensi) naturally think “Hey, we should go check this place out!” And so, hiring protection from ex-marine Valentine (Chris Potter) and his motley band of grunts, and transportation from hotshot pilot Mercer (Alex Reid), they head out to explore and discover. Unsurprisingly they find themselves up shit creek without a paddle in no time, as some unknown interference messes up the plane, forcing a crash landing on the beach. With tensions rife among the members of the expedition, they head out into the jungle, unaware of the horror that awaits them… in the form of a great big fuck-off spider from another world, no less.

Yes, I know, to a 2011 audience this reads like the synopsis of a SyFy movie of the week. But think back if you will; there was a time when films of this nature actually did offer sufficient bang for buck, with plot and character development and humour that actually hit the mark, and shot on such a scale that they actually pulled off convincing and compelling creature effects. Think Tremors, Anaconda, Deep Blue Sea. Now, Arachnid isn’t quite so slick and expensive a B-movie as any of those, but it’s certainly a cut above the likes of Sharktopus. And, as part of Arrow’s boxset celebrating Brian Yuzna’s Fantastic Factory, it’s a good indicator of the diversity of the production house’s output.

The key question that kept running through my head during the movie was: this Chris Potter guy is okay and everything, but how the hell did Bruce Campbell let this part get by him?! For crying out loud, it’s an ex-marine named Valentine who leads an expedition through a jungle island to do battle with a giant spider; in other words, it’s got Bruce written all the way through it like a stick of rock. Ah, c’est la vie. Meanwhile, British actress Alex Reid – subsequent star of The Descent who has unfortunately seen her career put back several years due to her having the same name as one of the numerous himbo husbands of tabloid gargoyle Katie Price – looks as though she’s screen-testing for Lara Croft with her pony tail, short-shorts and agreeably low cut vest. All that’s missing are the guns, the shades and the plummy English accent, though her American twang is perfectly passable. As tends to be the case with Fantastic Factory films, the leads (plus Rocqueford Allen as the aptly named Bear) are the only non-Spanish actors in the cast, and all the supporting players (particularly Neus Asensi, who is also considerate enough to sport a low-cut vest) deliver all that is required of them, which naturally isn’t much; this is a creature feature, after all.

And the creature itself? Well, considering this isn’t an especially big budget film, it’s pretty damn good. That low-rent CGI which has marred so many similar films from the mid-90s to the present day (including the aforementioned Anaconda, and moments in Deep Blue Sea) is happily absent, with all the creature FX realised via good old-fashioned practical animatronics. That there is a certain creakiness to these FX in places is all part of the charm, sure to bring a smile to the face of anyone opposed to Hollywood’s infatuation with doing everything digitally (and we can safely count the film’s subsequently retired FX guru Steve Johnson among those numbers, if the impassioned, possibly drunk interview he gives in the extras is anything to go by).

There’s very little to single this out as a Jack Sholder film; any thematic or stylistic links to the likes of Nightmare on Elm Street 2 and The Hidden must have escaped my attention. Indeed, there’s little to single this out as a Yuzna production; it’s nowhere near as lurid, grotesque or deliberately offensive as the bulk of his work. It’s just a simple monster movie, and for what it is you could do a hell of a lot worse.

Arachnid is part of the Fantastic Factory Presents boxset from Arrow, which will be released on the 18th of April along with Beyond Re-Animator (reviewed here), Faust: Love of the Damned (reviewed here), and Romasanta the Werewolf Hunt (to be reviewed soon). It will also be released individually just in time for Damien’s birthday. If your significant other is arachnophobic and you want to make them squirm, track it down. Not that I am in any way frightened of spiders, of course… OHFUCKMEBACKWARDSWHATJUSTWALKEDACROSSTHEWALL?!!!

DVD Review: Fantastic Factory Presents ‘Beyond Re-Animator’

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Beyond Re-Animator (2003)
Distributor: Arrow
DVD Release Date (Fantastic Factory boxset): 18th April 2011
DVD Release Date (Individual): 25th April 2011
Directed by: Brian Yuzna
Starring: Jeffrey Combs, Jason Barry, Elsa Pataky, Simón Andreu
Review by: Ben Bussey

The saying goes that third time’s a charm, but part three has tended to be a precarious one for most of the great horror franchises of the last three decades. It’s usually the installment wherein the movie veers off on a narrative and/or stylistic tangent which either irrevocably alters the course of the series from then on, as with Nightmare on Elm Street and Hellraiser; or it results in a hasty about-face, as with Halloween; or it stops the series dead in its tracks (film-wise at least) as with Army of Darkness and this, the third and to date final Re-Animator movie. Not unlike the third outings of Freddy, Pinhead and Ash, efforts are made here to take Dr Herbert West into marginally more mainstream territory, with a glossier approach than in the first two Re-Animators. But in this instance, the gap between parts 2 and 3 was considerably larger; 13 years, and about 5,000 miles, in fact. For whilst Re-Animator and Bride of Re-Animator were shot in the good ol’ US of A, this third installment was made in Spain through Brian Yuzna’s Fantastic Factory, with Jeffrey Combs, FX guy Screaming Mad George and Yuzna himself as the only key players to make their way overseas. While the result is in many respects a far cry from its predecessors, it’s still an above-average contemporary take on the splatter classics of yesteryear.

This time around, the law has finally caught up with West. He’s spent the thirteen years since we last saw him behind bars, which naturally has somewhat impeded his research into the reversal of death. That changes with the arrival of the new young prison doctor, Howard Philips (groan), played by Jason Barry. The newly qualified Howie hasn’t just wandered into this position; he specifically sought out the prison that houses West, with the covert intention of collaborating with the good doctor. You see, all those years ago, Howie saw his big sister killed by one of West’s re-animated corpses, which naturally left him with significant emotional problems, and nurtured in him an obsession with conquering death. It also appears to have left him with a somewhat incestuous fixation on women that look like his sister, such as the ambitious journalist Laura (Elsa Pataky). Whilst she is visiting the prison to interview Brando (Simón Andreu), the clearly corrupt and sadistic prison warden – really, is there any other kind in the movies? – she and Howie meet, and the mattress mambo soon follows, but it’s apparent that she’s less concerned with him than she is her story. Of course, it’s one of those “careful what you wish for” moments, as soon enough she is indeed onto a big story, and has a sizeable role to play in it herself.

So we’ve got a young, charismatic, well-meaning doctor being lead astray, a power-mad authority figure about to attain a whole different kind of power, and a hot blonde with an aversion to clothes wandering into the lion’s den… yes, it’s fair to say these are all pretty much carbon copies of Bruce Abbot’s Dan, David Gale’s Dr Hill and Barbara Crampton’s Megan from Stuart Gordon’s still unsurpassed original. Yuzna remarks both in the commentary and the solo interview (one of the few extras, making this an uncharacteristically sparse release from Arrow) that he consciously left Bruce Abbot out of the mix for fear of making a film “about two middle-aged doctors” and thus alienating a younger audience, but of course this is probably the chief reason existing Re-Animator fans have to be dissatisfied with this sequel. Though he puts the work in and is given some interesting, challenging material to work with (whilst Dan was commited but pretty straight-cut, Howie might be even more messed up than West), Jason Barry just doesn’t make for an especially compelling romantic lead. Simón Andreu’s warden provides more entertainment value, the extent of his sadism growing more ridiculous as the film goes on, and he’s backed up by an equally colourful supporting cast of Spanish character actors playing a wide variety of cartoonish convicts. But the real revelation is Elsa Pataky; starting out as a rather generic love interest, once the shit hits the fan she turns into something altogether different. Based on this and Return of the Living Dead 3, it’s fair to assume Yuzna has a real thing for aggressive foxy dead chicks.

As for Jeffrey Combs; well, he just is Herbert West, always has been, always will be, and West was never a character with an especially lengthy arc. As constant as the tide, he cares about nothing but his research, and other people are of no significance to him unless they are keeping him from working. The fact that he’s aged a bit is no problem at all, for West was never defined by his youth. As ever, he just stands there unfazed in the midst of the chaos. We might accuse Combs of simply sleepwalking through the film, but we might just as easily kick back and enjoy spending some more quality time with one of the great characters of the 80s.

The cleaner, shinier visual aesthetic (hard to know whether we can attribute that to Spanish production values or simply 21st century production values in general) means that the film lacks the more down’n’dirty charm of its forerunners, even though there’s no shortage of on-screen depravity: amongst other things we have a walking severed torso, exploding stomachs, nipple eating, and a battle between a rat and a penis. But nothing among these is quite so startling nor so indicative of the film’s European origins as Move Your Dead Bones, the song over the end credits whose promo video is sadly absent from the DVD but can be seen below.

All in all Beyond Re-Animator is no classic, but it’s pretty good fun nonetheless, and as good a reason as any to pick up Arrow’s Fantastic Factory boxset, which also includes Faust: Love of the Damned (reviewed here), plus Arachnid and Rosamanta the Werewolf Hunt (to be reviewed soon). Now, if you’ve never seen or heard Move Your Dead Bones before, you might want to pull up a chair…

DVD Review: Blood Cabin (AKA Murder Loves Killers Too)

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Blood Cabin (Murder Loves Killers Too) (2008)
Distributor (UK): 4Digital Media
DVD Release Date (UK): 4th April 2011
Directed by: Drew Barnhardt
Starring: Allen Andrews, Christine Haeberman, Scott Christian, Mary LeGault
Review by: Ben Bussey

Isn’t it always the way; a low budget horror film does shitty business under one title so they release it overseas with a completely different one, usually the most generic title they can come up with. It’s a time honoured trick of unscrupulous distributors, and as such a convention of exploitation, so I suppose I shouldn’t complain. So here, a movie that is known to the Region 1 market as Murder Loves Killers Too (which incidentally was pretty well recieved by Marc on release) is launched on Region 2 as Blood Cabin. Hmm. So we go from a fairly enigmatic title from which we might expect a low budget slasher film with uncharacteristic wit and psychological depth, to a title which suggests just about the most run-of-the-mill formulaic slasher you’ve ever heard of.

So what is this film? Is it an insightful look into the mindset of a slasher villian, exploring the fetishes that drive him to commit murder? Or is it just a film set in a cabin where blood gets spilt? Well, as Grampa Simpson once said: a little from column A, a little from column B.

The premise is, indeed, about as textbook as it gets. Five college kids – three girls, two boys (why, it’s Evil Dead even down to the gender balance) – drive out to a woodland cabin, loaded up with booze and hormones. Among their number we have the obligatory at-it-like-rabbits couple; the ludicrously over-excited girl screaming obsessively about how she wants to PARTY!!!; the too-cool-for-school single guy, naturally hoping to hook up; and the more aloof, introverted girl in tomboyish-yet-still-figure-enchancing skinny vest and jeans (coughFINALGIRLahem). They hit the cabin, crack open the liquor, and show a bit of skin (much obliged Ms LeGault), all the while blissfully unaware of that which we, the audience, have known was coming since before we even pressed play: there’s a homicidal maniac on the premises.

Here’s where things start to break from the norm a tad. The killer here is Big Stevie, played by Allen Andrews, and he’s just about the most ordinary-looking fortysomething you’ve ever laid eyes on. Male-pattern baldness, middle-aged spread, the usual. I guess the intent is to give us a model of slasher that’s a little more grounded in reality; I must confess, I often wonder what people have against good ol’ fashioned silent pyschos in masks these days. But this is the first in a number of less conventional turns taken in the course of a film which is small in scale and, at less than 80 minutes, short in duration.

Any horror film with kids in a cabin invariably invites comparison to The Evil Dead, but it’s particularly apt a reference point here, not because of the gore (which is mild by comparison) but because of the energetic and inventive technique. Drew Barnhardt’s script may hardly break new ground, but he crafts a great many striking sequences, from the bombardment of the early car-based montage to the long take introduction to the cabin. The music is also notably superior to most microbudget horrors, boasting a slew of original compositions ranging from funk to thrash, and a score that goes from Carpenter to Goblin.

In trying to defy expectation, the film may well bite off a little more than it can chew at times, piling on Lynchian weirdness that feels a tad forced. But the simple fact that it is making an effort sets it apart from the vast majority of its DV-shot peers. It’s no great breakthrough piece, but it certainly demonstrates that Drew Barnhardt knows what he’s doing, earning him a spot in the ‘one-to-watch’ files. Oh, and it definitely deserves a considerably more distinctive title than Blood Cabin.