August 2009 - Horrorphile

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Horrorphile - August 2009

Horrorphile on STATESIDE SOJOURN

August 31st 2009 00:17

This is a quick Statement to my subscribers and casual readers.

I am on a holiday in America for three weeks from tomorrow, visiting San Francisco and New York City, and thus will not be posting during this sojourn. I trust you can hang out in the Darkness until I return, it’s not that long. It’s a little scary on your own, I know, but never fear for I’ll be back with a rip-roaring vengeance.

From October I will be featuring more Q&A posts with directors (both local and international), I will endeavour to create some more quizzes (it’s been awhile), and it’s about time for another movie poster and art lair exhibition.

Of course there are hundreds of movies still to review, and I will be focusing on the weird, wild and wicked titles, the ones that aren’t on the shelves at your local Blockbuster, but you’ll need to hunt down, as well as all the fresh blood, and, of course, the cult classics. Plenty still to archive.

This Stateside trip has been a very long time coming, much too long in fact. But it’s finally happening and my wife and I are very excited. Frisco and The Big Apple here we come! Woo hoo!

Hey, if anyone knows of any horrifically cool stores, clubs or bars in either city that would tickle my dark fancy; those back-alley joints I’d be less likely to know about, please feel free to send me a message via my blog asap.

Ciao for now!

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Eraserhead

August 27th 2009 23:40

“A dream of dark and troubling things.”

From the tenebrous realm of Lynchland where a squelch and stickiness throbs and flows between the psychological and the physiological, an ephemeral, inner cosmic debris that is Eraserhead (1977) emerged. Its original title was Gardenback. In Serbia it is called Chapter for the Removal, in Italy it is The Mind That Erases, and in France it became known as Labyrinth Man. To David Lynch, its auteur, it is whatever you make of it, for he is not prepared to offer anything more than the quotation above. Let Eraserhead be Eraserhead is Eraserhead was Eraserhead will be …

Jack Nance as Henry Spencer

I first saw this inexplicable study of weirdness late at night on British television with my father when I was barely sixteen (that classically provocative age). It was a small screen in a small room which only exacerbated the movie’s claustrophobic atmosphere. Every so often we would turn to look at each other as if to say, “Huh? Okaaaaay, riiiiiight …”, then turn back to the flickering drone of the film none the wiser. Of course the movie lingered in my mind like a dank mold, but one with curious spores. It became a morbid fascination; the mood and tone, the sounds and imagery, and The Man in the Planet (Jack Fisk); I loved those huge gears, that ominous window, his horribly diseased face, his enigmatic role in the giant stormy scheme of things … and of course, Henry’s baby. That hideous thing gave me the pleasure of nightmares.

Jack Fisk as The Man in the Planet

Laurel Near as The Lady in the Radiator

Henry Spencer (Jack Nance) lives in an industrial wasteland. He seems perpetually depressed, suicidal even. He lusts after The Beautiful Girl Across the Hall (Judith Roberts), who tells him he’s been invited to dinner with Mary X (Charlotte Stewart) and her parents, Mr. X (Allen Joseph) and Mrs. X (Jeanne Bates). This is the woman he had sex with. Or was that in his tortured mind? At dinner Mary’s parents serve up miniature artificial chickens in the midst of awkward conversation. Henry is chastised by Mary’s folks. Back at his own cramped apartment Henry and Mary deliberate over responsibility over their newborn mutant baby that cries incessantly. Henry would prefer to visit the Lady in the Radiator (Laurel Near) rather than feed his ghastly offspring. Mary leaves him, and he dreams of his head being drilled for use on the end of pencils. He sees The Beautiful Girl Across the Hall being intimate with Mr. Roundheels (Jack Walsh). The baby cackles at Henry, seemingly laughing at his utter, abject pathetic existence, and this is the straw that broke the camel’s back …

Henry home again

Henry and Mary's mutant baby

David Lynch made Eraserhead in the same way Peter Jackson made Bad Taste (1986); over a period of four or so years. Like Jackson, Lynch handled many of the instrumental roles (writing/directing/co-produci ng/production design/art direction/editing/original music). It is a wildly existential movie that tackles metaphysics with abstract thought, wrestles sexuality with introversion, wrangling loneliness and despair with the deep-rooted freak of control. There are very few films that capture the elusiveness of oneirodynia with such a distinct and wholly original style; a mise-en-scene that threatens to consume itself, a narrative arc that coils and threshes with ferocity and tranquility in equal measure. Lynch describes Eraserhead as his “most spiritual movie” (I’m sure with a sly smirk). It was after viewing the movie during its initial “midnight movie” circuit that Mel Brooks offered Lynch The Elephant Man (1980) to direct, and George Lucas offered him Return of the Jedi to direct, while Stanley Kubrick and John Waters were two of the movie’s earliest high profile die-hard fans.

Eraserhead has a fascination with orifices; the camera is forever entering and exiting holes, like some kind of descent into a sexual phantasmagoria. Some of these entrances and exits are metaphors, while others are purely narrative tunnels. The menacing monochromatic cinematography, courtesy of original lensman Herb Cardwell and his replacement Frederick Elmes, is brilliant, as is the sound design, courtesy of Alan R. Splet (and Lynch). But not to forget the special effect that is the mutant baby. To this day Lynch refuses to explain how he animated it, although rumours persist that it was an embalmed calf! The infantile creation is a truly astonishing, and utterly disturbing, manifestation of everything alien, yet domestic and familial. With Eraserhead Lynch tapped into the oiliest reserves of his inner phreak and created a magnificent monster … but not to worry, because in Heaven everything will be fine.

Here's the teaser trailer:

Dinnertime:

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Wolfen

August 26th 2009 02:16

The lycanthrope movie when you’re not in the mood for werewolves, Wolfen (1981) is the hairy odd one out in the lycanthrope sub-genre. It deals with shape-changers, but we never see anyone changing. In fact are there actually any werewolves at all in this movie? Perhaps it’s all a figment of potent Native Indian mythology that manifests the spectre of the wolf spirit in order to inject fear in the hearts of capitalist white men!

New York homicide cop Dewey Wilson (Albert Finney) is called in to investigate the vicious murder of a dodgy real estate tycoon, his girlfriend and their chauffeur. They were all torn apart by something alive, but not human. Wilson is assigned with Rebecca Neff (Diane Venora) and they begin to scour the derelict ghost suburb of South Bronx (this is the early 80s remember when this area of New York was low-rent housing, and had become a victim of what was referred to as “white flight”, leaving the suburb like a war zone).

Albert Finney as Dewey Wilson

It soon becomes apparent they are dealing with something very strange and elusive. More deaths of a similar horrific nature only exasperate the situation. Wilson, Neff and local coroner Whittington (Gregory Hines) are having a hard time, but clues seem to point in the direction of a disgruntled bridge worker, Eddie Holt (Edward James Olmos), a Native Indian unhappy with the demolition of his once proud neighbourhood. Is he really able to shape-shift into a supremely intelligent wolf, capable of murdering and escaping capture?

Diane Venora as Rebecca Neff

Based on the novel by Whitley Streiber (who also wrote the novels of The Hunger and Communion), Wolfen was directed by Michael Wadleigh, and it was the only feature he made apart from the legendary movie of Woodstock. Strange choice of movie to make more than a decade after that, but he does bring a potent visual element, chiefly the wolfen-vision (a solarised process that although looks somewhat dated now, still provides a dynamic edge to the movie).

Edward James Olmos as Eddie Holt

The other element that keeps Wolfen looking so intriguing is the South Bronx ruins. These buildings don’t exist anymore; the whole area has been built up; the whole neighbourhood has been gentrified (like much of Brooklyn, especially during the clean-up reign of Mayor Giuliani). The “bombed” ruined buildings and streets, littered with refuse, strewn with graffiti, and peppered with burnt-out cars looks fantastic. Sure, it’s depressing, but there’s a genuine sense of apocalypse, no art director could ever hope to dress a location as well as the real thing.

As a horror movie Wolfen is sluggish and the suspense is uneven. The wolves themselves aren’t seen until the movie’s last quarter, and although imposing, they simply don’t provide the movie with the intense menace the story demands. There are a few fleeting moments of gore; the odd severed hand and head, and a scene in the local morgue that provokes an unpleasant atmosphere. There is a great scene where Wilson pays a visit to Holt way up on the Brooklyn Bridge where Holt is doing repairs. How the hell they got a camera crew up there as well impressed me very much. What a spectacular view!

Wolfen-vision

Any movie set in New York that features the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre now seems entrenched in nostalgia. They now start to look kinda weird, taking on an almost mythical quality themselves; iconic pillars of an embittered, yet desperately proud city. But I digress …

This movie's bark is worse than its bite

Wolfen is more cop movie than werewolf flick, and it spends too much time from the point of view of the “killers” and of Wilson and Neff pondering and procrastinating. The only really intense moments come in the movie’s last ten or so minutes, but even those become frayed and not entirely satisfying. Still, the movie beguiles and features a rather curious scene where Holt, stark naked, runs around along the beach (Brighton?) like a rapid wolf trying to confuse Wilson who is watching and wondering who’s more loony, himself or Holt?

French-Canadian poster

Here's the trailer:

What South Bronx used to look like, as photographed by Robert Ronan circa 1981:

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Escape From New York

August 24th 2009 00:40

After the massive success of Halloween (1978) and the relative success of The Fog (1980) John Carpenter was offered the script of The Philadelphia Experiment, but that project fell through. Carpenter dusted off his screenplay for Escape From New York (1981), written in the mid-70s, and it was given the green light with a budget of $7 million.

In 1988 the crime rate in the United States of America rises 400%. In 1991 the United States Police Force is formed. Manhattan Island has been transformed into a huge maximum security prison, completely walled off with security towers camped around the perimeter. The rules are simple; once you go in, you don’t come out. The action of the movie takes place in 1997: “Now

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RUE MORGUE FESTIVAL OF FEAR - NATIONAL HORROR EXPO August 2009

August 21st 2009 04:18

Rue Morgue Festival of Fear 2009 poster art

Every year around this time I wish I was a Toronto native. Unfortunately I live on the other side of the world, and flying to Canada for three days is simply out of the question. Rue Morgue, the essential horror in art and culture publication hosts a national expo every year called Festival of Fear. For three days – Friday August 28 to Sunday 30th - horrorphiles can indulge in all manner of the weird and grotesque, the sublimely frightening to the exquisitely gruesome.

I’m so envious of what’s going to be projected, exhibited, discussed and displayed; including screenings of Jacques Tourneur’s original Cat People (1942) and I Walked With a Zombie (1943), special screening of Mario Bava’s Black Sunday (1960) with Barbara Steele introducing, Q&As with legendary makeup whiz Tom Savini, guerrilla filmmaker Roger Corman, and splatstick superstar Bruce Campbell, a fact and fiction panel on vampires, a workshop on how to make a short horror film, and not forgetting the official festival party "Dance of the Deadites", and an appearance from wurgin blood lover Udo Kier

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Borderland

August 21st 2009 00:42

The annual American After Dark Horrorfest: 8 Films To Die For is generally a pretty dreadful line-up of movies that should be released straight-to-DVD (if at all!). The original conceit was “the content of these films are considered too graphic, too disturbing, and too shocking for general audiences.” Of course this was simply not true; producers had simply signed away their souls so that their movie can at least be seen on the big screen once or twice. The following year the trailer simply gave a so-called dictionary definition of the horror movie. As if we needed it.

There are usually one, possibly two movies in each programme worth the price of admission. The Abandoned from 2006, Frontier(s), which was actually deemed too extreme even for After Dark (?!?), and Borderland from 2007, and The Broken and Dying Breed from 2008. After Dark Horrorfest 4 is scheduled for January 2010

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EXCLUSIVE Q&A with LET THE RIGHT ONE IN director TOMAS ALFREDSON

August 19th 2009 00:24

Let the Right One In alternate movie poster art

Swedish flick Let the Right One In (2009) is now considered by critics and horror fans (and even non-horror fans) the world over as one of the very best vampire movies ever made. Pretty much an instant cult classic. To coincide with its Australian DVD release I was lucky enough to get a short Q&A with director Tomas Alfredson.

WARNING! CONTAINS MOVIE AND NOVEL SPOILERS!

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Eden Lake

August 17th 2009 07:00

Well, this was a savagely nasty adventure in the English countryside. Eden Lake (2008) is about as far from paradise as you’ll likely to get. If Last House on the Left (1972), Deliverance (1972), Them (2006) and Funny Games (2007) gang-raped Kidulthood (2006) the bastard offspring might be something like this debut feature from James Watkins, which took out Jury Prize at last year’s Sitges International Horror & Fantasy Film Festival and was voted Best Horror at this year’s UK Empire Awards.

Steve (Michael Fassbender) has a planned a weekend’s camping at the forest site which is soon to be developed into a spread of luxury homes known as Eden Lake. He wants to use the occasion to propose to his girlfriend, Jenny (Kelly Reilly). The location is beautiful, except for the group of obnoxious teenagers at the other end of the lakefront. Steve asks them to turn down their music. Insults are exchanged. Steve and Jenny try and ignore the delinquents who respond in appropriately vindictive behaviour

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Horrorphile's 3rd birthday presents MY VERY FAVOURITE NIGHTMARES!

August 14th 2009 01:28

It’s that time of year again! I’m celebrating a third year under the Orble blog umbrella in the Darkness of my Pleasure of Nightmares. Happy Birthday Horrorphile!

In the three years I’ve been hosting and moderating this rather popular blog I’ve waxed lyrical over more than 370 movies (and slated a dozen or so), I’ve indulged in the exhibition of more than twenty movie poster and art galleries, concocted nearly thirty quizzes, and spouted vitriol time and time again about the Hollywood remake/sequel machine. But as my loyal readers will know, I keep it real, and I keep coming back to the classics, or to be more precise, my favourite nightmare movies

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Surveillance

August 13th 2009 00:33

Surveillance (2008) is writer/director Jennifer Lynch’s first movie in fifteen years. She’s the daughter of David Lynch; that’s a big shadow to work under. In fact this is only her second feature. The first was Boxing Helena (1993), which starred the dreadful Julian Sands and his captive, Sherilyn Fenn, a woman whom has lost both her arms and legs. I’ve never seen the movie (like a polar magnet), but from most reports it’s a mess, although there are those who love it; an acquired taste perhaps? Her father’s work is an acquired taste, and Surveillance isn’t easily digestible, so she’s certainly inherited a stubborn artistic sensibility.

FBI Agents Anderson (Julia Ormond) and Hallaway (Bill Pullman) are investigating a nasty homicide off the Sante Fe highway. They arrive at the local police station to find chaos floating in the air like a spectre of doom. Captain Billings (Michael Ironside) seems almost disinterested, two of his officers Degrasso (Gill Gayle) and Wright (Charlie Newmark) have apprehended two surviving witnesses; white trash Bobbi (Pell James) and young Stephanie (Ryan Simpkins), whilst officer Bennet (Kent Harper), nursing abrasions and a badly lacerated hand, whom was at the scene, is a ticking time bomb

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Coraline

August 11th 2009 05:20

I’ve not read the book of the same name by Neil Gaiman, but as an animated movie Coraline (2009) is a treat-and-a-half. Directed and screen-written by Henry Selick who made The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and adapted arguably Roald Dahl’s darkest childrens' book James and the Giant Peach (1996), his adaptation of Gaiman’s dark and twisted fairie-tale is a sheer marvel of production design and stop-motion animation. In fact Selick was the production designer on Coraline, so I take my hat off twice.

11-year-old Coraline Jones and her weary writer parents Mel (Teri Hatcher) and Charlie (John Hodgman) have moved into the strange Pink Palace, which is an old Victorian home. Above her lives the extraordinary acrobat Mr. Bobinsky (Ian McShane), and next to her live the two retired actresses Miss Miriam Forcible (Dawn French) and Miss April Spink (Jennifer Saunders). There’s also Coraline’s slightly weird neighbour, Wybie Lovat (Robert Bailey, Jr.) who lives with his grandmother. Oh, and not forgetting the cute, but mangy black cat (Keith David) who seems to slink in and out of every scene; “Back home cats don’t talk, so how are you able to …?” “I just can

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A SAD STATE of AFFAIRS

August 10th 2009 00:45

The latest Australian issue of Empire magazine has a short article which lists all the Hollywood remakes that are currently in development, pre-production, or production. It’s a scary list indeed, chiefly because the majority of them are horror remakes (science fiction comes a close second). But it’s not just the cheesy dumb ones; many bonafide classics are being given the royal reboot.

With the additional news of Ridley Scott signing on to helm a prequel to Alien it’s a very sad state of affairs. Nothing is sacred, no movie is considered too cool to plunder. The 80s are well and truly being exploited for the Y-generation who is being force-fed soylent cinema green by Tinseltown. You’ll be familiar with some of these titles being remade, while others will leave you shaking your head. Here’s what’s on the menu of high art and deep trash nightmare revisited

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Orphan

August 7th 2009 04:03

When I first saw the trailer to Orphan (2009) for a brief moment I thought it was going to be a Hollywood remake of the excellent Spanish ghost flick The Orphanage. As it turns out The Orphanage is getting remade by Hollywood, but it wasn’t this flick.

From a story by Alex Mace, screen-written by David Johnson, and directed by ex-pat Spaniard Jaume Collet-Serra who made the utterly forgettable remake House of Wax (2005), Orphan tells the tale of husband and wife, John (Peter Sarsgaard) and Kate Coleman (Vera Furmiga), their two children, eight-year-old Daniel (Jimmy Bennett) and four-year-old Max (Aryana Engineer), and their newly adopted daughter Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman). Kate had a stillborn child and hasn’t quite recovered emotionally or psychologically from the experience. Esther is a very bright, but unusual Russian nine-year-old

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District 9

August 6th 2009 01:37

In two words? Bloody awesome. In another three? Instant cult classic. Yup, this debut feature kicks some serious butt. I’ve not been as exhilarated as I was coming out of this movie for a long time. I would argue it’s the best sf movie in years. WALL-E was amazing, and Primer was incredibly impressive, but they operate in such different ways, District 9 (2009) ticks pretty much all my darker science fiction boxes; it’s a hardcore actioner for the sf movie geeks.

Produced by Peter Jackson, directed by Neill Blomkamp, and co-written between Blomkamp and Terri Tatchel, District 9 eats all the competition for breakfast and spits out the bones. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen cost $US200 million, and is a piece of crap (I haven’t even seen it, I don’t want to, and I don’t need to). District 9 cost roughly $NZ30m and looks like it cost $100m. It’s a tour-de-force of “guerrilla filmmaking”; shooting most of the movie like a kind of mockumentary, using unknown actors in a South African shanty-town, and proving once again how spectacular Peter Jackson is at making movies at a fraction of the cost of what Hollywood would spend

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