July 2008 - Horrorphile

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Horrorphile - July 2008

Horror QUIZ #25: Are you sure this is a movie title?

July 31st 2008 06:56

Here's an easy one for you. But the rule here is if it’s a title of a non-horror movie it doesn’t count, only out and out horror movies are in this selection (or not, as the case may be). So if there’s a romantic-comedy that happens to be called Pandora, don’t say “yes” to question 4. And the title has to be its original title, not the name it was given in South Africa. Savvy?

1. Cajo
2. Mephistopheles
3. Jonah
4. Christina
5. Morgana
6. Pandora
7. Patrick
8. Hannibal
9. Scarlet
10. Tamara
11. Cassie
12. Schramm
13. Willard

13 … Scary! You truly are a horrorphilic geek!
9 – 12 … You’re well on your way to being a walking horror video library!
5 – 8 … So many titles, so little time!
1 – 4 … Best you stick to watching sit-coms and soaps

To check your answers left click and scroll over black directly below.
1. no 2. no 3. no 4. no 5. no 6. no 7. yes 8. yes 9. no 10. yes 11. no 12. yes 13. yes

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: quizzes

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THE KILLING FLOOR (gore on the cutting room floor)

July 30th 2008 00:31

It’s time for another diatribe. With many, many horror titles being released straight to DVD these days there is a much touted plus factor the distributors try to lure the potential renter/purchaser with: the unrated tag. But just how accurate, or to be more precise, just how rewarding is it?

In America it is optional to submit your movie to the ratings board, the Motion Picture Association of America, which was created in 1968 after the dismantling of the rigid, tyrannical Hays Production Code. A few more changes happened over the years the most significant being in 1984 with the addition of the PG-13 and in 1990 with the changing of the X rating to NC-17 (the same restriction is in place – no one under 17 admitted – but the “porn” stigma was dampened).

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 was butchered

If you wish to have your movie given the official stamp of approval, whether it be a G, PG, PG-13, R or NC-17, then the MPAA logo and respective serial number has to appear at the very bottom of your end credits list. But there are pros and cons for movies which come with the MPAA rating.

The Friday the 13th series suffered horribly

The good side of the coin means, as long as the movie isn’t rated NC-17 it will have a healthy distribution (providing you have a good distribution company working for you) and cinemas will happily book your movie (providing it doesn’t run for three hours or more). With the exception of just a handful most commercial horror movies in America are rated either R (under 17 have to be accompanied by an adult/guardian) or PG-13. Horror fans will generally turn their nose up at a PG-13 rated movie though.

The MPAA has delivered many slaps in the face for gorehounds

Unfortunately if a movie gets slapped with an NC-17 cinema chains tend to baulk at booking the movie, as it still carries the ominous aura of something too sleazy and lurid for mass audience consumption. Horror fans have been crying out for years for an MPAA rating that reflects the horror genre staple elements and not simply a flesh flick for the dirty mac brigade.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning DVD cover art

Of course if you attempt to distribute your movie without an MPAA rating you may as well kiss your box office receipts goodbye. Virtually no cinema chain will book the movie and newspapers will run advertising for it, which brings me to the unrated DVD phenomena.

Video chains don’t have the same attitude of snobbery, although I heard that the Blockbuster chain in America doesn’t carry NC-17 rated titles. Horror movies can carry – and in many cases proudly display on the cover – the unrated tag. For horror fans this supposedly means that violent content, and to a lesser degree sexual content, has not been cut out in order to receive an R rating.

In Australia the rating system is different. It is compulsory to have a movie rated. Most horror movies are rated either M (general admission but recommended for mature audiences), MA (under 15 must be accompanied by adult/guardian) or R (no one under 18 admitted). There is an X rating too, but this is reserved only for sexually explicit hardcore adult movies and those titles are never shown theatrically, and can only be bought or exchanged in adult sex stores. The hypocrisy is that in recent years there have been several “mainstream” movies which have had actual sex in them, yet have carried an R rating, but that’s another kettle of smelly fish entirely.

More gore for the cutting room floor

In Britain the ratings board slap 12, 15 or 18 restrictions on movies. The UK was responsible for the notorious “video nasties” black list in the mid-80s when dozens of video titles, the majority of which were horror, were deemed reprehensible and were removed from video stores.

So, I’ve rambled enough about the censorship nuts and bolts, what about the guts and glory? If horror movies are managing to enjoy a renaissance of popularity and many are reaping the fans’ approval for their unbridled intensity, what about some of those classic titles that were butchered by the MPAA in the Scarlet Age of Modern Horror? There have been many movies during the 70s and 80s that were censored, but there’s one choice movie that I keep coming back to, one which was ruthlessly slashed in order to receive an R rating in the U.S. A Canadian stalk’n’slash flick by the name of My Blood Valentine (1981).

One of the many shots cut from My Bloody Valentine

Paramount Studios owns the rights to it, and apparently they still have all the excised footage; all those juicy seconds of graphic violence which were cut before the movie was released, yet images found their way into Fangoria magazine. According to imdb.com producer John Dunning claims to have footage of the cut scenes, as well as a complete negative with 8 to 9 minutes of extra footage. He is currently trying to find a way to release a complete uncut DVD, but rights issues with Paramount have so far prevented that. Supposedly Paramount has a rigid policy that they will not release any unrated or movies which were originally rated X for the home market. They see themselves as bastions for wholesome family viewing and will not sully their name to pander to the gorehounds and exploitation freaks.

This royally pisses me off. For more information concerning the blood-smeared campaign for releasing unrated original versions of classic slasher flicks go to the Longer, Gorier and Uncut page at Hysteria Lives here.

Some directors have been successful with releasing movies on the big screen with an X rating or unrated, but they are far and few between. A intriguing example of it going pear-shaped is George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985). Romero released Dawn with a self-imposed X rating and it did very well considering, however when he released Day unrated it bombed at the box office. Go figure.

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: vitriol

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Death Race 2000

July 29th 2008 04:13

High time for a little deadly light relief, so here’s New World Pictures’ grindhouse cult classic, Death Race 2000 (1975), a boob-boomtastic schlockfest with tongue squirming wildly in cheek, produced by the legendary Roger Corman, directed by the late Paul Bartel, and starring David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone.

The racers rearing to put pedal to metal

The year is 2000 and America is now the United Provinces, a fascist police state. The Transcontinental Road Race has been running for twenty years ever since the catastrophic highway pile-up of ’79, which sent the public into a bloodlust for a similar-styled sport. Mr. President (Sandy McCallum) panders to the people with the gladiatorial-styled cross-country road wreck “reality tv” race, where points are scored for mowing down bystanders (10 points for women, 40 for teenagers, 70 for babies and 100 points for the elderly), and crazed fans throw themselves in front of the competitors’ cars which are equipped with anti-personnel weaponry such as bayonets.

The Real Don Steele as Junior Bruce

Junior Bruce (The Real Don Steele) is the televised commentator addressing the nation and ramping up the interest … and heeeeere are the five racers; Frankentein (David Carradine), three-time winner, half man-half-machine after years of horrific accidents, Machine Gun Joe Viterbo (Sylvester Stallone), Calamity Jane (Mary Woronov), Nero the Hero (Martin Kove) and Matilda the Hun (Roberta Collins). Each driver has their own opposite-sex navigator (keep your eye out for a pre-Love Boat Gopher).

David Carradine as Frankenstein

And they’re off!!! Roaring down the race-track to the screams of the crowd and out onto the lonely highways as they make their way across the country to California in a three-part race. But there’ll be tears and blood spilled before bedtime. There’s the Resistance, led by Thomasina Paine (Harriet Medin), whose revolutionary machinations aim to interrupt the race, kill the competition, and make their voice known to Mr. President and the rest of the country.

Sylvester Stallone as Machine Gun Joe

Who will make it over the finish line? And what will be left of them? Will sexy Resistance agent Annie (Simone Griffeth), granddaughter of Thomasina, successfully infiltrate the race and complete her undercover mission? Will Frankenstein reveal his true self and true nature? Will Machine Gun Joe remain playing second fiddle to Frankenstein?

Mary Woronov as Calamity Jane

Simone Griffeth as Annie

Similar in theme to Rollerball (1975), but entirely different in tone, Death Race 2000 is sensational hoot-out-loud fun; part horror, part sci-fi, all satire! Shot very inventively on a low-budget and paced as fast as the cars it’s a 78-odd minute rollicking, cartoon-violent carmageddon extravaganza, not to be taken seriously in the slightest (the bad taste gallows humour of the euthanasia day scene is highly memorable). Peter Fonda turned down the role of Frankenstein saying it was too ridiculous for words; enter David Carradine who was so enthusiastic he said he’d have done it for free.

Death Race 2000 Leslie MacRae and Martin Kove

Nero the Hero (Martin Kove) and his navigator Cleopatra (Leslie MacRae)

Sylvester Stallone, a year out from Rocky, is hilarious as the machine gun-toting Joe, as is cult favourite Paul Bartel regular Mary Woronov as taunting, leggy Jane. But hot props go to Simone Griffeth in her catsuit as Frankenstein’s navigator Annie. Gee, I'm sure rally navigators' contours aren't like that in real life, if you get my burnin’ rubber drift.

The designs of the souped-up race cars are fantastic (none of which were street legal, so producer Corman had to drive them on the real street sequences as the stunt drivers feared being caught by police). You can tell Frankenstein’s modifications disguise a Corvette Stingray, while under other cars’ bodies were a Volkswagen, a Fiat Spider and a Karmann-Ghia. The dynamite-looking yellow “Sterling” wedge that Frankenstein and Annie drive off in after their wedding is a Richard Oaks Nova kit-car which was available during the mid-70s (hot damn, I want one of those!)

Matilda the Hun (Roberta Collins) and Calamity Jane are interviewed by Grace Pander (Joyce Jameson)

Death Race 2000 was referenced in Tarantino’s Death Proof (2007) and is currently being re-made (yeah, that’d be right), directed by high-brow "B-movie" director Paul W.S. Anderson, and stars Jason (not nearly as good an actor as he’d like to think he is) Statham and Ian (slumming it) McShane. The plot has been changed considerably and it appears the only character cross-over is Machine-Gun Joe.

Death Race 2000 David Carradine and Simone Griffeth

While Frankenstein and Annie relax in their room

The remake is playing for serious keeps, so it’s a different game altogether. The original is lurid, wacky and superb guffaw material, like a tripped-out boys-own adventure, but with voluptuous women sporting tom-boy attitude, the perfect weekend fare, so grab a case of beer, big buckets of salty popcorn and a couple of extra large hooters, half a dozen mates, and the biggest screen you can throw the action on … and you’re ready, set, go!

Here's the original trailer:

Here's the euthanasia scene:

And for comparison here's the trailer to the yawn-inducing re-fit:

(Though I have to say driver Case (Natalie Martinez) and Grimm navigator (Sharlene Royer) are suitably dynamite!)

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

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Soylent Green

July 28th 2008 05:16

I’ve not read Harry Harrison’s sf novel Make Room! Make Room! but I plan to. It’s an ecological warning tale essentially about greed and morality and was adapted for the big screen as Soylent Green (1973) starring Charlton Heston. It also happened to be the last movie for Hollywood screen legend Edward G. Robinson, his 101st feature (he died of cancer nine days after shooting wrapped).

Soylent Green is set in New York City, 2022. The population is 40 million and detective Thorn (Charlton Heston) trying to solve the murder of the president of the Soylent company, which provides the processed food rations to the poverty-stricken city. There’s soylent red, soylent yellow, and the highly nutritious and much sought after soylent green (soylent being a supposed combination of soy curd and lentils

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Who's your pick for FINAL GIRL?

July 25th 2008 02:52

The Final Girl is a staple of slasher flicks. She’s the last young woman standing. The girl who’s purity, or more specifically, her spunky chutzpah has managed to keep her at arm’s length from the psychopath’s blade. She’ll no doubt be heavily traumatized, and probably sporting numerous cuts and bruises, but she’s alive, and she may have even kicked some boogeyman butt.

Back in the day before the term Final Girl was coined she was known as a Scream Queen. One of the most famous was Jamie Lee Curtis; boy did she have a set of lungs on her! Ahem! Halloween (1978), The Fog (1980), Terror Train (1980), Prom Night (1980), and Halloween II (1981), cemented her in modern horror’s hall of screaming fame

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: lists

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Primer

July 24th 2008 02:03

In that respect, but also due to Carruth’s uncompromising approach to the narrative and dialogue, which I mentioned earlier, Primer is an extraordinarily convincing and brilliant example of the paradox of traveling back in time …

Am I making sense? I’m not sure myself. Hang on; I’ll check with my duplicate self since they’re a more experienced traveller

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The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

July 23rd 2008 01:45

The Assassination of Jesse James movie poster

I’m stepping a little outside the square for this one, but I’m still compelled to review it for my blog; The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) written for the screen and directed by Andrew Dominik, who last made one of the best Australian features of the past twenty years, Chopper (2000), is a magnificently mounted and deeply moody portrait of two dark figures of American wild west history.

The movie is a narrative of the twilight years of the infamous The James Gang, notorious criminals led by Jesse James (Brad Pitt). When the film opens in 1881 the relationships between the gang members are deteriorating. The stark winter Missouri landscape reflects the turmoil of these hardened men struggling to maintain a semblance of normal life, yet the years of violence and seclusion have taken their toll on their physical and mental health

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Casualties of War

July 22nd 2008 00:20

Vietnam War, 1966. Private Ericksonn (Michael J. Fox) is a “cherry”, signed to Sgt. Merserve (Sean Penn)’s command. Along with Cpl. Clark (Don Harvey), and two other PFC’s; Hatcher (John C. Reilly) and Diaz (John Leguizamo), he becomes part and parcel to Merserve’s rogue war crimes: the abduction, degradation, rape and murder of an innocent Vietnamese village girl Oanh (Thuy Thu Le).

Brian DePalma’s Casualties of War (1989) is based on an article first published in The New Yorker magazine in 1969 detailing a true incident. It’s an appalling account of what soldiers will try and get away with during the chaos of war. It is an isolated incident, but the reality is far more disturbing. The shocking abuse of power is all too prevalent within the military; brutality inflicted by authority happens all the time, but it doesn’t get singled-out very often

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THE ART LAIR - VIII

July 21st 2008 02:26

I’ve had a long hard weekend. I am walking shell of man. I am in dire need of vegetable soup and mineral water. I am incapable of writing an informed and witty movie review. All I can post is something slowly emerging from the Darkness, primordial sludge, like the foul stuff oozing from my ears and clouding my bloodshot vision.

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Horror QUIZ #24: True or False?

July 18th 2008 04:56

1. Dr. Hannibal Lector’s sister’s name was Mischa.
2. The diabolical creatures in Clive Barker’s Hellraiser are known as Demonites

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BEHOLD, THE ZOMBIE TATTOO MAN!

July 16th 2008 23:42

Ladies and gentlemen, for your ghoulish viewing pleasure …

If you think you’re a little too obsessive, let me put things in perspective. Meet Rick aka Zombie Boy. He’s slowly, and no doubt painfully, turning himself into a walking work of undead art. He lives in Canada and he’s spent thousands and thousands of dollars and 24-hours (in total) painstakingly etching his body with tattoos to look like … a rotting corpse.

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: set-pieces

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The Dark Knight

July 16th 2008 03:20

Director Christopher Nolan is fast cementing his position as one of Hollywood’s darkly luminous beacons of hope in a world of crumbling ideas, turgid re-hashes and dire remakes. The story of DC Comics’ Batman has been told a dozen times or more, in various guises; original syndicated comic strip, live action television series, graphic novel, animated television series, and the feature films which were brought to huge success with Tim Burton’s first two installments, Batman and Batman Returns.

Batman Forever and Batman & Robin brought the anti-hero first to his knees, and then threatened to emasculate him completely. Then the Nolan brothers entered from the shadows; Jonathon and Chris Nolan co-writing and Chris directing. Batman Begins was a serious re-boot, and superbly handled in every department; darker, moodier, more realistic, less cartoonish

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GEORGE ROMERO RETROSPECTIVE at the MELBOURNE FILM FESTIVAL

July 15th 2008 01:57

I have never felt more envious of Melbournites than I currently feel. The Melbourne International Film Festival has always featured a bigger, and arguably, superior programme to the Sydney Film Festival. Why? I’m not sure.

This year I’m really feeling the pinch. Apart from many movies, especially documentaries, that weren’t in the Sydney Film Festival, there are still more exclusives, including numerous horror, “nightmare” and exploitation movies that I’d kill to see on the big screen

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: bait

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Cat People (1982)

July 14th 2008 02:02

I have a soft furry spot for this movie, despite its inherent flaws and trappings. It’s a rare beast, a remake that actually takes the thematic brilliance of the svelte original film and takes it to a more explicit and heightened level. Cat People (1982) is essentially a tale of carnal mythology and dangerous desires; it’s about the animal in us all.

One of Jerry Bruckheimer’s early movies as executive producer, and certainly the “high concept” factors are in play, but the movie is very much director Paul Schrader’s vision, utilising ex-special make-up effects designer-cum-writer Alan Ormsby’s provocative screenplay. It’s an under-rated movie, very different from the original, but with enough merits to stand and stalk on its own four feet despite not performing well at the box office when it was first released and despite years of being trashed

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Rambo

July 11th 2008 01:38

I never thought I’d see the day willfully reviewing a fourth movie in the Rambo series, but here you have it, and trust me, it is something to behold. Rambo (2007) is more graphically violent than most horror movies, more unrelentingly brutal and humanly destructive than anything I’ve seen in quite a while. And yet, most disturbingly, the whole experience was like chewing on Satan’s bubblegum.

It’s been twenty years since the bombastic Rambo III, and twenty-six years since a melancholic John J. Rambo, troubled Nam veteran, first strolled into Hope, WA, looking for somewhere to eat and rest his weary head, and was confronted by redneck Sheriff Teasle

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Roadgames

July 10th 2008 01:14

A dust-obscured psycho-thriller that plays cleverly with horror conventions, with a sly nod to Hitchcock, and a healthy dose of black humour, Roadgames (1981), directed by the late Richard Franklin and starring Stacey Keach and Jamie Lee Curtis, was the most expensive Australian production in the early 80s.

Pat Quid (Keach) is an independent truckie with a rig full of pork on his way to Perth. His companion is a dingo called Boswell (real name revealed in the end credits as Killer). Pat’s not your typical truckie (“Just because I drive a truck doesn’t make me a truck driver”), he quotes poetry, plays the banjo and harmonica, and, since he doesn’t pop the usual pills to keep him awake on the long hauls he invents invigorating mind games to pass the time, such as making up backgrounds histories of the funny folk that pass him on the lonely stretches of highway, or having philosophical (one-way) conversations with Boswell

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Vampyros Lesbos

July 9th 2008 01:06

MATURE CONTENT

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The Funhouse

July 8th 2008 00:27

The Funhouse (1981) is a relatively innocuous ride, but it has potential. I can see this being remade with greater measures of oomph! eeek! and boo-yah! There is a lot of scary fun to be had at the carnival, and although director Tobe Hooper claims to really like the movie, he could have made it so much better. All the ingredients are there, but out clunks a mediocre movie.

Four teenagers head to the local fair on a double date; Amy (Elizabeth Burridge) and Buzz (Cooper Huckabee), Liz (Largo Woodruff [what is it with American actor's names?!]) and Richie (Miles Chapin). The two guys look like they’re in their late 20s, but there’s nothing new there

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Eaten Alive

July 7th 2008 02:12

Tobe Hooper’s Eaten Alive (1977) is a strange brew. Desperately trashy, yet undeniably eerie, it lingers in the mind for days after viewing, like the mood of a creepy dream. It was known as Death Trap in the U.K. (and on the notorious video nasties list) and alternately in the U.S. as Horror Hotel.

Judd (Neville Brand) owns the run-down Starlight Hotel on the edge of the Bayou. Running alongside the porch is a murky pool where Judd keeps his pet alligator (although he claims it to be an African croc). Judd is a extremely dodgy, disheveled man with sex-crimes on his mind. All he needs is suitable clientele

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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

July 4th 2008 04:38

‘Tis peculiar the way one’s appreciation for art changes as you get older. Some things you liked immensely when you were younger you can no longer tolerate, while other things you didn’t have time for when you were young, as an older person you now see great merit in.

When director Tobe Hooper brought the buzz back it went down like a ton of bricks. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) polarised audiences and critics, split them down the middle like Leatherface and his trusty chainsaw. Over the years the movie garnered a cult following, partially due to the fact that the movie had been butchered both by the censors, but also by Hooper himself, having to comply to the executive producers who weren’t happy with shooting script, and also that Hooper felt the movie was uneven in its pacing, so certain scenes had to jettisoned

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