Cloud Atlas more tightly interweaves the six narratives from its source along rising and falling action instead of a relatively flat 1 2 3 4 5 6 5 4 3 2 1, but the protraction of each beat to repeat over matching actions can still make it feel topheavy. The fact that the three directors held the whole production together and the editing flows smoothly is admirable regardless.
–DB
Begotten (1990)
This experimental feature has gained some cult status from reuse of its imagery in Shadow of the Vampire and Marylin Manson videos. Unfortunately it’s one of those ‘films’ that should be seen on film, as the optical-printer post-production effects are based on the emulsion medium itself. Anyway, think a visceral and gory Kenneth Anger: Merhige is a religious relationship to cinema and this is his genesis story.
Shadow of the Vampire (2000)
This movie is one of those loving homages that feels like Merhige wants to own the original as his own child; nevertheless the casting wins it over with Malkovich portraying Murnau as a sacrificial high priest of cinema and Defoe as an antsy, irritated aging vampire both camera shy and obsessed with the lead actress. It’s not a very chilling movie but quietly crazy.
Suspect Zero (2004)
The script obviously was written to ride off of Se7en’s audience, but Merhige can’t help taking the paranormal investigator aspect seriously; playing off of the popular conspiracy theory about psychic CIA operatives, the movie extends it to the FBI. Merhige elevates the script with some interesting headache and psychic input abstract montages but not much saves this generic thriller from itself.
Final Word: Merhige believes cinema replaces literature and has a deep but dark spiritual affiliation with it, which results in interesting imagery and quietly mad narratives but doesn’t give him much room to play in the mainstream and doesn’t always pan out to a novel elevation of the form.
–DB
Uh. Zuwalski gives you .2 seconds to adjust and then it’s direct to the howling fantods as characters claw, yell, cry, and seizure their way through a narrative featuring jealous infidelity, doppelgangers, conspiracy, religious anxiety, petty hatreds, possibly the birth of the antichrist, definitely the end of the world, and a gag-inducing tentacled sex monster. Other than that it’s really, really weird.
–DB
Somewhat typical Euro-trash horror intercuts the roving monster stumbling upon scenes of nudity with one woman’s plan to justify her father’s creation… by suturing her lover’s brain into a hunky new body. The script at the heart of this thing is surprisingly vibrant, meaning if the movie was aiming for some other type of production value we might have had a real, instead of an ironic, cult classic.
–DB
Wait….This has nothing to do with comic books? Why am I writing this?
So, when folks hear the word remake these days, the words “not again” is groaned in reply. It’s true that we’ve had an insane amount of remakes these past few years, and we’ve got more to come. Plus, the majority of these remakes released are based upon some of the biggest horror films ever made. You name it, it’s probably been remade. Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Dracula, Frankenstein, Last House on the Left, Psycho, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the list goes on and on. Now, we have a new horror classic to add to the remake list: Evil Dead.
However, the horror remake list is slightly divided. Some horror remakes are actually not that bad. While others do nothing but give the middle finger to the original film and it’s many fans. I’m looking at you, Halloween! Yes…I’m looking straight at you, fother mucker! So, all that being said, where will Evil Dead end up? Well, based on this trailer, the film might actually end up on the good list! Yes, I actually liked this trailer a lot! I’m surprised as all hell that I liked it, but I did! I mean, It’s got the feel of Evil Dead, and It has the look of Evil Dead. Also, the original film makers (Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and Robert Tapert) are heavily involved in this new movie! So, That makes me very excited!
It reminds me of when I made a crappy short called Specter Quest. Eventually, I made a better version that captured my original vision perfectly! That seems to be the reason Raimi and company, along with director and co-writer of this remake, Fede Alvarez, want to make this version. Well, that’s what Bruce Campbell said when He told me, and a few other press peeps, about the remake during the New York Comic Con. When they made the original, Raimi and Campbell looked to make a scary film. However, It ended up being more comedic and cheesy because of the low budget effects, and “melodramatic dialog delivered by bad actors” as Bruce Campbell said. ha-ha!
Fun fact, by the way, I’d never seen the original Evil Dead film until after I did the press round table for the remake. When I arrived back in Ohio, I immediately drove to Best Buy, purchased the original on Blu-Ray, and loved every second of it. It was such a fun film, but I didn’t really find it funny. It was pretty bloody, and cheesy, but I didn’t really find it all that funny. I mean, how can you find raping trees funny? I guess this world is full of sick sick people.
Anyways, so even though I liked the trailer, there were some stuff that bugged me. First of all, and this might just be me, but I loved the fact the original film didn’t feature crazy bad language. Not a single f-bomb was dropped. A few hells and damns sure, but no ships or trucks at all. This new film has an f-bomb dropped in the trailer! I just hope it’s not over used, like most horror remakes.
Second, the original’s crazy violence was fun because of the low budget effects. With this new version and it’s bigger budget, I fear the violence might come off as torture porn. Bruce Campbell spoke a bit on torture porn at NYCC, and how he felt it was just bad film making. I couldn’t agree with him more. I’ve always been incredibly against torture porn because it is just bad film making. He also said this new film doesn’t feature a single frame of torture porn in it.
Which would imply that the film cares about the story, and the violence is just icing on the cake. So, I hope that is the case with this version of Evil Dead. In the end, I was rather impressed with this trailer, and I am excited to see the final product. I just hope that I’m as impressed with the actual film when it’s released next year. If you haven’t seen the trailer yet, click on the picture above! I should warn you, though…It’s not for the faint of heart!
THURSDAY: “Frankenweenie,” “”The Final Member”
Consumed: A breaded veal testicle for phallocentric documentary, THE FINAL MEMBER, fed to a dog in honor of FRANKENWEENIE.
FRIDAY: Far East/Far Out
Films/Events: “The King of Pigs”, “The Warped Forest”, “Miami Connection”, “Doomsday Book”
Consumed: Strange juice (durian?) during THE WARPED FOREST, inspired by the opiate-like fruit consumed in the film.
Emerging Themes: Rotten fruit.
Standouts: Yim Pi-Sung’s “ A Brave New World”, the first and most entertaining of THE DOOMSDAY BOOK’s three end-of-the-world short films, merges biblical allegory, romantic comedy and media satire with a zombie apocalypse.
Kim Ji-Woon follows up with “The Heavenly Creature,” wherein a service android stationed at a Buddhist temple achieves enlightenment: after all, the elimination of human needs is at the heart of transcendence.
Pair with: BLADE RUNNER
SATURDAY: Fistfights
Films/Events: “Wake in Fright” and the Fantastic Debates
Consumed: Half-price beer, in honor of the thousand pints downed by thirsty Outback laborers throughout WAKE IN FRIGHT.
Emerging Themes: Intellectuals with poor impulse control.
Standouts: Ted Kotcheff’s long-lost 1971 masterpiece, WAKE IN FRIGHT, follows an erudite schoolteacher, played by Gary Bond, who traps himself in the fringes of Bundanyabba, a mining town in the Australian outback.
The title suggests a horror movie, and it is; but only through the viewpoint of Bond’s teacher, who loses himself to impulse and gets literally stripped of his trappings and his educated veneer.
He finds himself cast to the outskirts of town, living in a hovel with a drunken doctor played brilliantly by Donald Pleasance.
This is a man’s movie, filled with gambling, beer, sex, beer, kangaroo fights and beer, beer, beer. It’s both visceral and literate, conjuring the harrowing spirit of Joseph Conrad’s novella, HEART OF DARKNESS.
Championed by Martin Scorsese, it’s also one of only two films to ever screen at the Cannes Film Festival twice.
Pair with: APOCALYPSE NOW
This was chased with an epic beer-fueled debate/fistfight between mumblecore director, Joe Swanberg, and Badass Digest critic, Devin Faraci, who sought to determine whether mumblecore films were ‘catshit’ or not. It was a great debate, filled with verbal and physical jabs. The only thing this kangaroo court lacked was actual kangaroos…
The fun factor of MIAMI CONNECTION, a horribly entertaining 1987 musical martial-arts film directed by Grandmaster Y.K. Kim, cannot be overstated. Listening to its inane songs and dialogue will kill more of your brain cells than an all-night bender.
If you’ve haven’t yet, check out the posted interview with Y.K. Kim for more info. As promised, here’s a link to download Dragon Sound songs “Friends” and “Against the Ninja.” Your e-mail address is required, but it’s worth it:
http://t.opsp.in/a0EX7
Warning! Based on the behavior of the Dragon Sound squad at Fantastic Fest, one should think twice before inviting New Wave-rockin’ Grand Masters of Tae Kwon Do to your party, as they may bring watermelon and make you be the cutting board.
Alamo Drafthouse rolled out the black carpet for the world premiere of Tim Burton’s B&W stop-motion marvel, “Frankenweenie 3-D.” Burton, Winona Ryder and Martin Landau were there, and one theater was reserved for a pack of black-and-white lap dogs and their human companions.
“Frankenweenie” is the story of a boy named Victor and his dead dog, Sparky. The setting is New Holland, a seemingly placid town which boasts the highest rate of recorded lightning strikes in the world. Its citizens and quiet tract houses inspire both fondness and dread.
Yes, Victor’s an outcast, but the kids surrounding him in his Science class are an even freakier bunch. Wait until you meet the Weird Girl and Mr. Whiskers…
The concise screenplay, written with John August, incorporates many Burton hallmarks: suburban outcasts, sad-eyed waifs and homages to classic cult films. It’s also packed with brilliant comic speeches. The science lectures of Mr. Rzykruski (Martin Landau), and the earnest ode to compromise delivered by Victor’s dad — illustrated by Scottsdale, AZ and a plate of Surf & Turf — will live with me for some time.
It’s a return to form for Burton, and it’s a treat to see the film acknowledge Joe Dante’s shared suburban lunacy when events spin out of control. This is one of the most joyously anarchic and heartfelt films of the year.
I imagine that some programmer got a chuckle scheduling the “The Final Member”, a documentary about the Icelandic Phallological Museum, as the follow-up to “Frankenweenie”. After all, both films deal with the dream of a life after death for Men’s Best Friends.
“The Final Member” takes place in Iceland. With a population of about 300,000 people, almost everyone’s related and knows other people’s business. It was surely something of note when Professor Sigurður Hjaratson opened a museum featuring the world’s largest collection of mammalian penises. What began as a joke became a life passion. But with his health deteriorating, the Professor starts to worry he won’t live to see his legacy completed. The last and most difficult specimen he seeks to acquire is ironically abundant: the human penis.
In addition to the many legal and personal requirements that potential donors must meet, there is an added stipulation from Icelandic legend that the donor must reach the “Legal Size” of 5 inches.
Two men answer the call: an elderly Icelandic adventurer who was a renowned womanizer in his day, and an eccentric American named Ed, who so desires to see his member properly mounted that he goes to great lengths researching and developing display cases, preservation methods, etc.,
Matters get more complicated when Tom decides to maintain quality control by cutting off his penis while he’s still alive.
The situation is extraordinarily absurd, but this documentary becomes an unexpectedly moving and thought-provoking piece on men’s fragility, mortality and legacy. It views our strange lives with bafflement and respect and is simply one of the best docs I’ve seen this year.
Heading east from Albuquerque on my annual drive to Austin’s Fantastic Fest, the sky starts to slap on my skin like a wet T-shirt. As night falls, I hunt for a vacant motel room, prowling through parking lots filled with shirtless men, drinking beer and firing up the BBQ. Sweat and fire and meat — it all feels like I’m at the end of the earth, but this is just Texas.
The Fantastic Fest is the USA’s most exciting genre film festival, held at the Alamo Drafthouse. This year’s theme, The End is Nigh, takes its cue from the approaching end of the Mayan calendar.
Over the next couple weeks, check in daily for my take on the World Premieres of Frankenweenie 3D and Red Dawn; documentaries about The Shining, The Exorcist, The Amityville Horror, and the Icelandic Phallological Museum; and more new finds.
I’ll be your Doomsday Prophet, heralding all the films that you shouldn’t miss before global annihilation commences.
Skøl!
Do you like my new logo? This is the official Channel23hahaha Logo! Hopefully, one day, you can see this logo in front of major motion pictures!
HI HI HI every one! It’s your comic loving, smoothing talking, villain fighting, dish washing friend, Richard here! So, as you well know, I mainly post about comic book stuff here on the DCRS website. Sometimes It’s an article reviewing a graphic novel. Other times, I’m just posting the latest episode of COMICS! for you all to view and enjoy. However, today I’ll be posting something a little different. Something that I’d consider more personal then the majority of COMICS! episodes I’ve posted. Also, something relative to the times because Halloween is coming up! What I’m posting is the biggest project I’ve ever worked on. It’s a short film I directed, wrote, edited, and acted in called Specter Quest!
It’s a short story that follows these 4 kids, Max, Johnny, Wes, and Bel, as they make their web show called Specter Quest. On the show, Max and the gang hunt down ghost stories and legends to try and see if they are fact or fiction. The show used to be on ghosts mainly, but now the team tackles anything supernatural. One day, one of the kids notices something…off in his neighborhood. So, he rounds up his crew to make an episode of Specter Quest about it. Little did he know that, doing this would open up a can of worms he’s not prepared to deal with. What he discovers will change life…FOREVERRRRR!
Now, I’m a huge film nut, and my biggest goal is to become a story teller through the film medium. I’ve learned a lot in my 7 years of video experience, and hopefully that shows in this short. It’s not anywhere close to perfect, but I still hope you enjoy it! Also, If your game, I encourage you to post reviews of the short! Whether it’s in the comments, in a video, or even on your blog/websites. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the project! Anyways, that’s about it for me here! To watch my short, as usual, click on the picture above. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to Channel23hahaha For all the latest videos I post! Hopefully another short film will be on my channel soon!
