Bill Pullman, Brendan Gleeson, Oliver Platt and a giant Crocodile! What is there not to love?
Movies
Night #6: Paranormal Activity
The Blair Witch Project has a lot to answer for. Ostensibly that film was the first film of the Internet generation; a time when a film could be made on affordable cameras that anyone could go and buy in their local shop. Though it wasn’t the first film to use the faux-documentary conceit, thanks to the use of cheap videocameras and the Internet, it was the first film to imply that this could happen to anyone.
Night #5: The Loved Ones
OK so that was unexpected.
It’s hard to talk about The Loved Ones because, like Tikashi Mike’s Audition, it’s a film that benefits from not knowing anything about it. Here’s the set up though; Girl ask boy out to the Prom. He says no and laughs it off with his girlfriend. Girl’s father isn’t happy and brings Boy home. Things ensue…
Really that’s all you need to know about this film (And why I need to keep this short. There’s a lot to talk about, but only with someone who’s seen it). You might be tempted to go and watch the trailer now as well. DON’T! Sadly the trailer gives away almost everything that happens from the start to the end and it spoils the many twisted surprises on offer. Do be warned though, the film is graphic, and I guess the dreaded ‘Torture Porn‘ term will come up once or twice in discussion. Personally, if I may digress, I think the term is never really applicable. I think torture has been misused in Movies (Turistas, Captivity) but handing the moniker of ‘porn’ to it implies people watch just for the torture scenes. I don’t think it’s true. People just want to be scared, and currently we’re just riding that wave; Like we did slasher Movies or monster Movies.
Anyway, the performances are pretty good all around with Robin McLeavy as Lola being the standout. I hope this film gets seen by the right people because she’s simply brilliant. Again I’d like to say why but that would be giving too much away. Not the best blog/review I know. But hey, you’ll thank me when you see me.
Up Next: A beastly weekend.
Night #4: The Man Who Haunted Himself
Before he was Bond, Roger Moore starred in this British Curio from 1970. Moore plays Mr Pelham, who manages to crash his Car in the opening moments of the film (Complete with out of place Swinging beats). While in the Hospital he briefly registers 2 heartbeats, and that’s where the fun begins.
Night #3: Sleepy Hollow
If I was a lot younger I would love Sleepy Hollow, and when I was I did. Convolutions aside this is to say that I don’t anymore. It used to be that a Tim Burton movie was cause for Celebration, but at some point either Burton lost his way; or I grew up.
Night #2: Hellraiser
…It wasn’t Manos.
Hellraiser began life as short story titled The Hellbound Heart (Check it out, it’s worth reading) and was later adapted by its Author for the screen. It’s a curious oddity that means more watching it as an Adult than it did when I was a kid.
Night #1: The Stuff
So here we are. It’s the first day of October and like Richard Gere with a Gerbil I thought I’d ease into it. Larry Cohen is probably most well known these days as the writer of Phone Booth. But to genre fans (And fans of film in general) he was also known as the Man who brought us Q: The Winged Serpent (The ‘Q’ of the title stands for Quetzacoatl, which probably gave the marketing department a seizure), Black Ceaser and this little gem.
Serbian Film: Digging Deeper
Some of you may have seen Serbian Film by now, if not then I’m sure most of you reading would’ve heard of it at least. If not I’ll give you the briefest of rundowns. A former pornstar who’s down on his luck (And money) is offered a hefty sum to perform in a porn film, except it’s a film that keeps getting more extreme in nature. What starts with rough sex ends in paedophilia, all of it under the gaze of the film’s sadistic director. The film is uncomfortable, vile, occasionally funny; powerful and countless other adjectives you can think of. That is of course entirely the point of it. The film is designed to shock, that much is true (Least shocking is that the lead looks like American Comic David Spade, a thought that I couldn’t get out of my head the whole time I was watching it).
Film Review: Piranha 3D
Directed by Alexandra Aja (The Hills Have Eyes, Mirrors)
Piranha 3D is the best film about Piranha made in 3D you’re ever likely to see. In fact I’d hazard a guess and say it’s the best film about killer Piranha ever made. This is including Piranha 2 (Where the fish can FLY!). Though I have a lot of love for Joe Dante’s original film, which in itself was a rip-off of Jaws, so much so in fact that the film was nearly buried by Universal studios until Steven Spielberg himself convinced them not to. That film was a sly, winking nod of a film that knew it was capitalising on the, ahem, monster success of Spielbergs film whereas 2010’s version is something different entirely, It’s a slasher film that has the Piranha as the slasher, so rather than being a riff on the ‘science gone mad!’ conceit of most monster movies, Aja’s Piranha 3D revels in the blood, nudity and occasional comedy of the better slasher films. For instance, there’s really no need to have an extended sequence of Kelly Brook and pornstar Riley Steele swim around underwater totally nude, but it very much fits the tone of what Aja was going for. It’s not particulary arousing (Though if I were 15 it would probably be the greatest sequence in the history of Cinema) but it is audacious, and very very funny.
Is This Thing On? 