June 2010 - Horrorphile

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Horrorphile - June 2010

TRAILER MUNCH'N'CRUNCH!!!

June 30th 2010 00:11

It’s time for a little chaos, mayhem, carnage, and all-round insanity: a mass of flesh-tearing zombies, a legion of savage Picts, a couple of psychopaths, and a depraved pervert. It’s trailer crunch time for the horrorphiles! Man, I can’t wait to sink my teeth into these international nightmares, the blood of which has yet to reach the shores down under. Fingers crossed they're as good as the trailers suggest ...

Mutants (France):

The Horde (France):

[REC] 2 (Spain):

ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction (US):

Centurion (UK):

Tony (UK):

Dread (US):

A Serbian Film (Serbia):

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The Horseman

June 29th 2010 04:44

A grimy darkened street, a siren wails in the background, voices call out, a young girl walks nervously along the edge of the brick wall, past graffiti-strewn rollerdoors. She stops behind a large garbage container; she counts out her remaining dollars, tears rolling down her cheeks. She wipes them away and walks off. A van drives down a lonely stretch of road. The young girl is on her mobile making a life-changing call. The van pulls into a rural driveway and pulls up beside a small nondescript home. The young girl is being lead up some stairs in a warehouse, she looks nervous. The driver of the van is at the front door of the home, dressed as pest control. A man answers the door; the pest controller is ushered in and proceeds to beat the living daylights out of the man. He wants the truth: who was responsible for his daughter’s sexual degradation and subsequent death by overdose. His name is Christian and he’s about to descend into hell and take as many of the bastards down along the way …

Peter Marshall as Christian

Young filmmaker Steven Kastrissios has delivered a powerhouse debut feature about as brutal and relentless a revenge flick as I’ve ever seen. The Horseman (2008) takes no prisoners and pulls no punches; it’s a hardboiled journey into the darkness of the soul where vengeance offers little in the way of consolation, only provides distraction from the pain of the loss of one so dear. It’s a low-budget, but technically superb movie. All of the production values are top notch; the making of featurette on the DVD reveals how the production team had employed ingenuity on such a tight budget and schedule using strictly local (Queensland) talent.

Caroline Marohasy as Alice

The Horseman apparently is reference to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse; Christian must therefore be Death. Or perhaps War. He’s certainly gone into battle against those he sees are to be held accountable, but he’s also a determined harbinger of death. His teenage daughter Jessica is dead after having performed in a porn video and taken drugs with the men who performed in it with her. Christian proceeds to murder these men and those that were involved in the video’s distribution in an act of cleansing the world from these ruthless, heartless pornographers.

The Horseman Peter Marshall and Christopher Sommers

Christian beats information out of Pauly (Christopher Sommers)

There’s nothing new in the premise here, we’ve seen it numerous times before, most notably in Get Carter, Death Wish, Hardcore, and The Limey. In all of these movies a man who loses one or more members of his family (usually a wife, lover, or daughter) takes it upon himself to act as judge, jury and executioner. While The Horseman may not be as calculating as Get Carter, or as stylish as The Limey, it’s not as repugnant as Death Wish or as soulless as Hardcore. What it lacks in originality The Horseman makes up in ferocity. Director Kastrissios, who was the screenwriter and editor, as well as the movie’s digital colourist (specifically grading the raw HD material so that it has a more filmic quality), has made a very impressive movie that, despite implausible moments, paces well, sports a decent score and solid performances from the lead actors; chiefly Peter Marshall as Christian, newcomer Caroline Marohasy as Alice, a young runaway hitchhiker whom Christian befriends as his ersatz daughter, and Brad McMurray as Derek, the pornographer head honcho.

Porn merchant Jim (Evert McQueen) squeals like a stuck pig

The movie also features many wince-inducing fight scenes. However, it’s the combination of the movie's ultra-realism and the intensity of the brawling that I have a bone of contention with. In reality it only takes one strong, vicious left hook to smash a man’s jaw; yet middle-aged Christian takes a thorough pounding, time and time again, and even manages to dispatch three strong young men single-handedly. He also employs creative torture methods which seem a trifle elaborate for a man seemingly blinded by fury. However it seems these are part and parcel within the dark poetic licence that drives the revenge flick sub-genre. In fact, so extreme is the level of brutality that a blackly comic tone rears its head, whether intentional or not, and I found myself smirking at the absurdity of Christian's violent plight.

Christian burns his daughter's filth

What does work is how Christian’s initially nasty demeanor is softened in the eyes of the audience when events take a turn for the worse after Alice and Christian are pulled over by one of Queensland’s dodgiest and most dangerous men in blue. Christian’s questionable ethics are no longer viewed in such a harsh light as the more inherently darker evils are presented and unleashed.

Kastrissios will be a name to watch, part of Australia's pounding new wave, as The Horseman kicks some serious ass like a wronged mule in a foul mood. But watch out, it’s not for the fainthearted or the squeamish; the violence, while not especially gory, is definitely of the hardened ultra variety.

Here's the trailer:

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Q&A WITH STEVEN KASTRISSIOS - DIRECTOR OF THE HORSEMAN

June 29th 2010 04:44

The savage and relentless Oz revenge flick that has seared the international film festival circuit is finally about to hit the big screen down under, opening July 8th for a very limited season in Sydney (Chauvel), Brisbane (Tribal Theatre) & Melbourne (Cinema Nova). Make sure you catch The Horseman big and loud!

Horrorphile: The revenge flick has been popular in both the exploitation and mainstream market, what inspired you to make The Horseman?

Steven Kastrissios: Revenge is a broadly fascinating and evocative topic. It can play out in any way from romantic comedies to violent thrillers. I went with the latter after seeing the UK film, Dead Man’s Shoes. It’s very different from The Horseman, but I was inspired to see a somewhat clichéd genre concept being played out in the form of a serious drama. So with our film, I wanted to marry a serious drama with an action thriller take and even a bit of horror thrown in for good measure. It was all designed to really ground the over-the-top elements with some sort of reality.

H: Tell me about the significance of the title.

SK: Book of Revelations 6:8. I figured a cryptic title would go well with the film’s genre.

H: Tell me about the writing process; was the basic arc of the two leads – Christian and Alice – always the same from first draft through to final?

SK: Yes. It took six weeks from idea to first draft and the only things that changed in the subsequent drafts was the ending and a bit of polishing here and there via one afternoon of script work-shopping with some actor friends. Plus the short film we shot from the opening sequence helped guide the tone from Charles Bronson to more Paul Schrader.

H: Did any of the drafts include more of Jessica’s story? Did you end up deleting many scenes from the final cut?

SK: There are a couple deleted scenes with his daughter, Jesse, the main one being a bedroom chat with her and her father Christian. It will be on the DVD. It worked ok, but it slowed things down and the mystery of their relationship actually adds a somewhat interactive layer to the film.

H: Can you describe the significance of Christian’s self mutilation?

SK: From the research I did, it fitted in with the realities of someone cut off from the emotions, which I could easily imagine an average middle-age man would be, in not acknowledging his own grief and therefore it finding its own way of surfacing. Plus I thought it would be interesting to see him doing it, rather then the usual teenage ‘emo’ girl.

H: Describe the significance of the opening sequence which juxtaposes Jessica’s decision process and Christian already in the middle of his revenge quest.

The Horseman Peter Marshall and Caroline Morasey

SK: It was originally cut as separate scenes, but in experimenting with the edit, I found it worked better intercutting them and also helped the pacing.

H: Although your background is in video editing, did you ever consider having someone else edit your feature?

SK: No way. It’s a huge responsibility and time commitment. We didn’t have the money and I simply didn’t know any editors that I would trust, who would work for free. Plus editing is by far the most fun and satisfying part of filmmaking. That said, I plan to bring on another editor to work with me on future films, as you do benefit from another viewpoint and being a writer-director-editor, you’re cutting out all chances of collaboration. But I screened The Horseman to anybody who visited my house and would grill them afterwards about what they liked and didn’t and why. I did about eighteen drafts of the edit, watching the film with a dictaphone and being very picky. So I ended up cutting almost an hour from the original cut for various reasons, mostly to do with pacing and keeping the tone consistent.

H: Including so many elaborate fights throughout the movie was an ambitious endeavour, yet the fight sequences stand out impressively, both in the choreography and in the filming and editing, tell me about Chris Anderson’s involvement.

SK: Chris is a legendary stunt guy who’s worked on everything from Mad Max to Peter Jackson’s King Kong. He had a gap in his schedule and wanted to support young local filmmakers. He was impressed with what we had done in the short film without any stunt people involved. He brought his team and equipment in and was a delight to work with. I was concerned about being steamrolled by an industry veteran like some others would have done, but Chris only intervened when we were having problems. I designed the fights by myself in my backyard like the weirdo-action-nerd I am and then we rehearsed them as a group, ironing out any bits that didn’t work. Chris and his team brought some ideas to the table, usually raising the bar on the stunts we were doing, as I wasn’t sure what was possible on our budget. But I soon learnt that where there’s a will there’s a way – especially with Aussie stunts guys!

H: In one of the making of featurettes you talk about Phil Judd and his involvement in the sound mixing stage, which apparently took a year. Surely this must have been laborious, not to mention costly (despite Judd’s generosity). Tell me about why this took so long and what it added to the movie.

SK: He basically worked on it when he had gaps in his schedule. He did a pass on it before our premiere at MIFF 08, then we recorded a whole new foley track in China and then he did another pass on the mix a few months later.

H: The nature of the movie, especially the evil intent of the villains, and the grey moral cloud over the anti-hero, is very dark and uncompromising. How has the movie been received at the international festivals, and especially America?

SK: We’ve mostly received very positive reviews from the genre crowd. The Americans love it. Our US premiere was at SXSW film festival and we sold it straight away. Harry Knowles held a private screening in his house for the whole Ain’t It Cool News team, which led to very positive reviews from the site.

H: What is your approach to screen violence? Do you believe cinema has any taboos that shouldn’t be broken?

SK: Rules are meant to be broken, but it all comes down to context. Although The Horseman revolves around the mistreatment of women, you never see it, as I wouldn’t want to shoot that sort of content.

H: What are some revenge movies you hold in high esteem? What are your thoughts on the exploitation cinema of the 70s, which The Horseman seems to channel, yet in a distinctly Australian atmosphere?

SK: My favourite revenge films are The Crow, The Limey, Dead Man’s Shoes. There are many, many other films that have revenge elements, but these are my favourite all-out revenge films. I’m not that big into films that you can’t take seriously, which is why I list these films and not others. That said, I do have a major soft spot for Commando. In terms of Aussie exploitation, Mad Max 2 is by far my favourite although it’s an 80’s film and was backed by Warner Bros, so not sure if it fits into that category. It’s unfortunate Aussie cinema never really matched that film in terms of action.

H: What are some of the immediate pros and cons on working with a small crew, on a tight budget, with limited locations, and a short shooting schedule?

SK: You can move really quickly, which actually helped the performances and action. Keeping everyone active and alert keeps it fun too.

H: Tell me about the digital cameras you used and the digital colour grading process you supervised.

SK: We shot on two Panasonic HVX-202 HD cameras, which allowed us to move quickly and let the actors go nuts, knowing they wouldn’t have to do it over and over again. I colour graded the film at home in Final Cut Studio’s Color, which is an amazing program. I then went to 2 Dogs Post in Sydney where I could view my grade on their calibrated monitors to do a kind of tech check and tweak any problem areas.

H: The movie’s gestation period has been long. When did you first start writing the screenplay, and when did you wrap shooting? Will it have an Australian theatrical season, or will it go straight to DVD?

SK: It will have a limited run at Chauvel in Sydney and Tribal in Brisbane starting July 8th. I wrote the script in 2005, we shot it in 2006 and finished the edit, colour grade and rough sound mix in 2007. It’s taken two years to do the festival run around the world, get a sales agent and release it. It came out in USA on June 15th and is also available in UK.

H: Finally, what can we look forward to? What do you have planned for the immediate future?

SK: I’m working on a few things, but it’s up to the gods as to what actually moves forward first. There are a couple creature-features, a post-apocalyptic thriller and many others in development.

Here’s a featurette with lead actor Peter Marshall talking about his career and working on The Horseman:

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HALL OF INFAMY - REMEMBER TO VOTE!!!

June 28th 2010 07:49

Just a wee reminder to vote in the 3rd Annual Horrorphile Hall of Infamy ...

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The Human Centipede (First Sequence)

June 28th 2010 03:16

This movie from Netherlands writer/director Tom Six has one hell of a marketing campaign in full swing. The Human Centipede (2009) has been playing the festival circuit for quite a few months now, and for regions where it’s not playing there’s the trailers to whet your palette. Lucky New Zealanders get to see the movie on the big screen, but it wasn’t included for Australian festival audiences. I’m curious as to whether it will go straight-to-DVD.

I haven’t read any reviews (and there are dozens and dozens), and I had only seen the teaser trailer, and read an interview with the director in a recent issue of Rue Morgue magazine. I was definitely intrigued. I made the quiet assumption that the movie was some kind of boundary-pushing schlock-fest. With a premise such as a mad surgeon experimenting on humans by fusing them end-on-end to create a biologically functioning “centipede”, the movie surely had to be a comedy, albeit black as midnight on a moonless night

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SNIP

June 25th 2010 00:45

I am proud as a hardened horrorphile - and unashamed gorehound – to present to you the astonishing and deeply disturbing 12-minute short film, Snip (2008), written and directed by Julien Zenier, a Spaniard. I first saw Snip at the 3rd Annual A Night of Horror International Film Festival (2009) and was suitably astounded, not to mention visibly shaken. Few movies have made me wince (and almost cover my eyes) due to their convincingly graphic ferocity. I applaud Zenier for his audacity and his talent as a filmmaker, and to Quimera FX for their work on the special effects.

Snip operates as a very dark social commentary that uses extreme self-mutilation as a metaphor for the destructive power of popular culture projected from the distorted, exaggerated, but mostly sanitized medium of television. It also captures the fragility of the human psyche, and the vulnerability of the human body. The horror, the horror

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Jisatsu Sâkuru (Suicide Club)

June 24th 2010 00:52

“The world is a jigsaw puzzle, somewhere there’s a fit for you … If you don’t fit … so long.”

Sion Sono’s infamous social commentary on Japan and the Western world translates directly as Suicide Circle (2001), but was adjusted for the international market to Suicide Club. Suicide Circle fits more succinctly into the plot mechanics of the movie, considering the macabre ring of flesh and the small red and white dots that are strong motifs throughout the movie, although admittedly Suicide Club does have a ring to it (pun intended

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Munemoshune No Musume Tachi (RIN ~ Daughters of Mnemosyne~)

June 23rd 2010 02:20

Anime is a curious beast; it can be soft and cuddly and downright juvenile, but it can also be hard and vicious and downright lascivious. Mnemosyne (2008) – which means the personification of memory in Greek mythology - is a six-part series directed by Shigeru Ueda and written by Hiroshi Ônogi, set in the popular "ero-guro" sub-genre (lurid murder mysteries involving deviant sexuality, moral depravity, and usually a decent measure of deformity and/or mutilation, for example Rampo Noir or Tokyo Gore Police). But there’s a strong undercurrent of Norse mythology at work also, not to mention, the eternal struggle for supreme power between two deities a la Highlander.

Rin Asogi

Streaking this heady, adult tech-noir mélange are the philosophical musings of its central character, Rin Asogi (voiced by Mamiko Noto, or Colleen Clinkenbeard if you decide to watch the American-dub), a statuesque Tokyo private investigator with striking and formidable assets (green hair and huge tits), whose office assistance is a squeaky-voiced teenage-esque girl, Mimi (Rie Kugimiya). But Rin is no ordinary human being. She’s immortal, having been infected by a time spore, one of the fruits of time from the powerful Yggdrasil, the mythic tree of life.

Rin relaxing at home with Yggdrasil on the horizon

Rin and her BFF Mimi

Rin remains the alluring, yet strangely unassuming feminine creature that she is, yet she cannot perish (Mimi is also immortal, but remains behind closed office doors for the most part). But, heavens above, does Rin get dealt to, or what! During the course of the series (a la Aeon Flux), she is repeatedly tortured and dies a thousand deaths (well, quite a few anyway), in spectacularly violent and horrendous ways; pierced, stabbed, shot, chopped, diced, and blown-to-smithereens. Yet despite the superficial discomfort, Rin’s body regenerates, and she lives to fight another villain another day

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White Lightnin'

June 22nd 2010 04:13

"Thars tha Devil a-runnin’ thru mah blood …,” squeals Jesco White (Edward Hogg), the Dancin’ Outlaw, from deep in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia, a dark-hearted country where the whiff of moonshine is almost as strong as the stench of raccoon shit. Young Jesse was a huffer since he was pint-sized high, “high” bein’ the operative word. Sniffin’ turpentine and gasoline fumes to escape the drudgery of growin’ up amongst pig shit and filthy laundry, and the scat'n'scuffle rat-a-tat-tat of his daddy-o, D.Ray (Muse Watson), mountain dancin’ his blues away, Jesse swerved back and forth between reform school and the local mad house.

Edward Hogg as Jesco White

After each release (and before each re-admission) Jesse would be spendin’ every second hour of the day workin’ a stinky sweat buck dancin’ - a frenzied amalgam of tap and folk dancin’ - to the twang of a wild banjo. His papa, the mountain dancin’ master, eventually enforced his son into practicin’ the percussive foot rhythms to keep him outta trouble. But Jesco’s childhood and adult life was plagued with disaster, and fate slapped him hard. He inherited his father’s dancin’ shoes and hauled the steel-soled cloggin’ on the road with his faithful guitarist Vernon (Steve Nicolson).

Jesco's daddy D.Ray (Muse Watson) dancin' up a storm

Owen Campbell as young Jesse

Jesco met Norma Jean, whom he nicknamed Cilla, whilst hitchin’, a hillbilly woman twice Jesse’s age and half his height, with a passion for drinkin’ and shaggin’. But Jesse’s evil thoughts were only ever a hoofbeat away, and jealousy was a green and nasty beast wrigglin' inside. Vengeance for his daddy’s death was gnawin’ away inside a-him, somethin’ the sweet Lord could not taketh away. So Jesco struck like the white lightnin’ that surged through his thin, wiry frame, and he suffered the wrath of the Devil’s intent; martyrdom beckonin' like foul-smellin' ghosts from the darkest forest hideaway

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FRANKENSTEIN (1910) MOVIE and RUMAH DARA TRAILER

June 21st 2010 00:16

It’s dreary day in Sydney, and I’m on my weekend, so nothing better to do than hole up and watch a few movies. I've got a few to catch up on. In the meantime here’s a couple of finds; the earliest version of Frankenstein - made in 1910 - put to film, only twelve minutes long and some startling special effects, considering when it was made.

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WHO SHOULD DIRECT THE HOBBIT?

June 18th 2010 01:18

It’s a pertinent question indeed, since Guillermo Del Toro has pulled out of the equation. It’s dreadfully disappointing that Del Toro will no longer be delivering us the journey There and Back Again, but at least he’s still on board as co-screenwriter and his awesome conceptual design team are still working on it.

Who can blame Del Toro when it became clear due to intense financial wrangling beyond his control that the production of the two movies (Part 1 & 2) would consume six years of his life? He didn’t sign on for that kind of duration, he’s got too many other projects on the boil (including adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft’s The Mountains of Madness, Frankenstein, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) , and the career clock’s a-ticking

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HORRORPHILE HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE 57th SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL

June 16th 2010 07:38

The SFF is over for another year. Sigh. Thirteen glorious days with around 160 films in the programme. I earmarked more than fifty movies. I got to see twenty-eight features and one short. Not too shabby. It helps having your days free and a media pass. My hit/miss ratio was excellent this year; I only saw two movies I could’ve quite happily missed. I reviewed fourteen movies across three websites, with a couple more still to add. It was a close call, but overall my favourite was probably The Temptation of St. Tony and the documentary Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno (which I'll review soon).

I loved "Immortal Seduction – The Vampire Movie" retrospective of cult favourites and classics. A big severed head nod to curator Richard Kuipers for an inspired selection, right up my dark high art/deep trash alley. Although I had seen most of those movies, and have them in my own collection, I had not seen them on the big screen before (with the exception of Nosferatu and The Hunger). It was a real shame the print of one of my favourite vampire movies Daughters of Darkness was in too bad a shape to be played. Richard told me the audience would’ve surely demanded their money back, it was that risky. Apparently it’s the only 35mm print in the world left. C’est la morte

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Dracula A.D. 1972

June 16th 2010 04:55

To be honest I was never too much of a Hammer Horror fan; their productions were all too self-conscious, with layers of Stilton and Spam, although I didn’t mind their first production, Horror of Dracula (1958), where Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing deliver their most convincing performances as the Count and the Professor, respectively. But I must say, watching a lush 35mm print of Dracula A.D.1972 (1972) on the big screen as part of the SFF Immortal Seduction retrospective was a hell of a lot of fun!

Christopher Lee as Count Dracula

As the 60s ended, a modern sensibility was creeping steadily into the production of horror movies, both in the thematic and moral content. Hammer made the decision for its next vampire installment to stage the action in contemporary London, where it was all swingin’, man. Dracula A.D. 1972 sported the working title of Dracula Chases the Mini-Girls (!), all-too camp indeed, however they retained the groovy element with references to drugs, nightclubs, fashion, and hip vernacular.

Peter Cushing as Abraham Van Helsing

Directed by Alan Gibson, whose career was primarily in television crime dramas and televised theatre, with little flair, leaving the bulk of the movie’s charisma resting on the velvet-lined shoulders of Christopher Neame who plays Johnny Alucard (yup, that’s Dracula backwards). Christopher Lee is looking decidedly bored, having now played the Count in at least seven features, but he doesn’t have a hell of a lot of screen time. Peter Cushing returns again for Van Helsing, although he’s Abraham, the descendent of the original Lawrence

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Wai Dor Lei Ah Yut Ho (Dream Home)

June 16th 2010 01:07

Hong Kong writer/director Pang Ho Cheung has taken the gore-bull by the horns and delivered probably the goriest Asian feature since the 80s (if you exclude Takashi Miike’s Imprint). Dream Home (2010) is a no-holds-barred descent into controlled, depraved lunacy. This is one woman’s appalling determination to purchase her dream home, an apartment with an ocean view in uptown Victoria Bay, HK. These days that kind of acquisition can cost several million, and it’s relatively small in size (hmmm, sounds a little like Sydney real estate).

Josie Ho as Cheung Lai Sheung

Cheung Lai Shueng (Josie Ho) knows what she wants. Since a little girl she’s been dead-set on owning a choice apartment. She grew up in cramped conditions with her father and brother and watched as the working class area she lived in became developed into a wealthy neighbourhood. She believes it to be her right to continue to live where she grew up and to rise above the social limitations she was raised in. She was worked hard, even juggling two jobs, to save the money, never spending frivolously despite the temptations.

Cheung meets with her lover (Eason Chan)

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The Hunger

June 15th 2010 07:09

“The bats have left the bell tower … Bela Legosi’s dead!” Indeed, as Bauhaus front man Pete Murphy drapes himself across a cage façade with his iconographic Gothic rock look and swagger during The Hunger (1983)’s opening nightclub sequence and the chic poseur gazes of Catherine Denueve and David Bowie complete with exotic shades and smoldering gitanes, the audience swiftly realise this is no classic vampire tale, but instead a contemporary re-imagining of the oneiric plight of the modern vamp whose bloodlust is tempered by the pressures of urban living and the grind of eternal patience.

The Hunger Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie

Catherine Deneuve as Miriam and David Bowie as John

Director Tony Scott, the younger brother of Ridley, had come from a background in advertising. In fact I believe both brothers still have their fingers in that very successful pie, albeit silent partners. Based on the novel by Whitley Strieber, the screenplay was penned by James Costigan Ivan Davis and Michael Thomas, The Hunger was Scott’s first feature. I saw the movie when it was first released (memorably so as it had an R18 certificate and I was only 14), and wasn’t overly impressed (apart from sneaking into an adult movie). Over the years my impressions of the movie were that it was pretentious, over-produced, and tedious (like much of Scott’s later movies).

Peter Murphy looks out into the dark of the crowd

Watching The Hunger again at the SFF, as the last screening in the Immortal Seduction vampire movie retrospective (it replaced Daughters of Darkness, the print of which was too damaged to screen), for the first time in nearly thirty years I was very pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. In fact, the movie has aged incredibly well, rather fittingly (and ironic), considering the movie’s main themes are longevity, decrepitude, and immortality. I think I’ll purloin a copy for my private collection

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La Maschera del Demonio (Black Sunday)

June 15th 2010 04:18

Mario Bava’s seminal tale of vampirism and witchcraft, La Maschera del Demonio (1960) AKA Black Sunday - not to be confused with the US terrorist thriller of the same name from the late 70s - screened as part of the "Immortal Seduction – The Vampire Movie" mini-program retrospective of cult classics at this year’s Sydney Film Festival. What a treat it was to see this glorious shadowy flicker of a ghoul dancing across the big screen in a 35mm print. Barbara commanded a theatre of blood with her steely gaze playing a dual role of bloodthirsty Middle Ages witch and her innocent 19th Century aristocratic ancestor.

Princess Asa is branded a witch

The restored print which screened was titled The Mask of Satan, and was the original English-language dub (it was always intended for a broad appeal), despite it being an entirely Italian production, and typical of Italo cinema the entire soundtrack was post-synch. Unfortunately Barbara Steele has re-voiced by another unknown actor (as was often the case, it was cheaper to utilise English-speaking voice actors from a local company).

Barbara Steele as Princess Asa

The screenplay was written by Ennio De Concini, Mario Serandrei and Marcello Coscia based on a short story called The Viy by Nikolai Gogol. Director Bava also contributed, but was uncredited. It concerns the vengeance wreaked by the fiendish witch Princess Asa Vadja (Steele) after she and her vampire lover Javutich (Arturo Dominici) are burnt at the cross by Asa’s estranged brother Prince Constantine Vadja (Enrico Olivieri), but not before a wooden mask with inverted spikes is hammered onto the Princess’s face. Ouch

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

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ANIMAL KINGDOM DOUBLE-PASS GIVEAWAYS!

June 15th 2010 02:39

The lovely folk at Madman Entertainment in conjunction with Contagious Communications have allowed me to giveaway five in-season double passes to the brilliant new Australian crime drama Animal Kingdom (2010). The movie is currently enjoying its nationwide theatrical season and overseas where it won the prestigious world cinema award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. It is also receiving very high praise indeed from local film critics, and is one of my favourite Aussie dramas of the past twenty years.

To win one of these double-passes just name your favourite gangster movie and in 25 words or less why you like it so damn much.
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Posted By: Bryn - Category: set-pieces

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The Disappearance of Alice Creed

June 9th 2010 22:56

Now this is what I’m talkin’ ‘bout! A cracking, edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller performed by a trio in essentially one location. Sounds like a play being staged for the camera, but The Disappearance of Alice Creed (2009) is solidly cinematic and at no point feels theatrical or even unnecessarily claustrophobic. All the key elements are top-notch: writing, directing, and acting. This is my favourite movie of the Sydney Film Festival so far, and may well take top honours when it comes to posting my Festival highlights next week.

Danny (Martin Compston) and Vic (Eddie Marsan) are on a mission; we see them steal a van, purchase hardware materials, and a kit-set double bed. In a run-down apartment, in some nondescript high-rise they silently “re-decorate” the interior, turning one room into a makeshift prison cell while they camp out in the adjacent room. Now for the dangerous part; abduction, which goes without a hitch, and soon enough they have their victim, Alice Creed, stripped, spread-eagled and tied and handcuffed to the bed with a gag in her mouth and a sack over her head, but not before taking a few pics to send to her wealthy father for ransom purposes

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Caught Inside AND The Game of Death

June 7th 2010 23:34

Caught Inside

Adam Blailock’s debut feature Caught Inside (2010) is a thriller in the vein of Knife in the Water (1966), Dead Calm (1989), and Donkey Punch (2008). Set on the sea around the Maldives, mostly on a huge gorgeous yacht known as The Hedonist, a tale of macho machinations, of lust and violation, where psychosis is unleashed at the drop of the anchor. Yet another Australian genre production that proves there is definitely talent afloat in these here waters

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Dracula

June 7th 2010 00:11

The first English language adaptation of Bram Stoker’s brilliant novel Dracula, but one that takes significant liberties with the story. Universal’s Dracula was released in 1931, the same year as Frankenstein (which takes huge liberties with Mary Shelley’s novel). It was intended as a big prestige production but after principal photography began the budget was heavily reduced, and thus there are only a handful of big scenes left, such as the Vesta crossing wild heavy seas, and the sets of both Dracula’s castle and the London Abbey.

Bela Legosi as the Count

The movie did huge business and director Tod Browning, who had already made nearly sixty shorts, featurettes and features, was then given the chance to make whatever he liked. He delivered the seminal Freaks (1932) which essentially scuttled his career. Bela Legosi, the Hungarian actor who played Count Dracula, would be immortalised in this role, even though he acted in another sixty or so productions including White Zombie (1932), Island of Lost Souls (1932), The Wolf Man (1941), again as Dracula in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), and not forgetting his final appearance in Ed Wood’s legendary Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959). He faded into mythology thanks to Bauhaus’s masterpiece of underground Gothic rock, Bela Legosi’s Dead. But I digress …

Dracula's wives (Geraldine Dvorak, Cornelia Thaw, Dorothy Tree)

Dracula is more of a mildly atmospheric curio than a substantial horror movie. It lacks any real drama or thrills, and as a vampire movie it’s decidedly anemic. The notorious Hays Production Code, the long arm of censorship that came down hard across the film industry, began a couple of years after this movie was released, but watching the movie it seems as if it was already in practice. You never once see the vampire’s fangs, let alone a vampire’s bite. Every time Dracula goes in for the kill he moves off camera or the scene cuts. Legosi’s eyebrows appear to cut a more deadly swipe over his eye than any lengthy incisors he may possess in his mouth. In fact Legosi is almost upstaged by his magnificent bat-wing brows! And of course that piercing glare, illuminated by tiny carefully positioned spotlights. It’s the evil glare that launched a thousand vampire performances

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Bool-sin-ji-ok (Possessed)

June 3rd 2010 01:08

Hell of the Non-Believers is the literal English translation of this atmospheric and creepy South Korean tale of spiritual dementia, demonic possession, and familial adoration screening in this year’s Sydney Film Festival. Possessed (2009) is the more conventional international title. It portrays a young woman, her mother, her neighbours, and a detective, as they try to solve the mystery of the disappearance of the woman’s young sister. They more layers they unravel the darker the vanishing turns. This is a serpent that feeds on itself.

Shim Eun-gyung as So-jin

Hee-jin (Nam Sang-mi), a college student, confronts her evangelist-Christian mother (Kim Bo-yeon) about the sudden disappearance of her younger sister So-jin (Shim Eun-gyung). The mother insists on praying to the Lord until her daughter’s return, whilst detective Tae-hwan (Ryu Seung-ryong) dismisses the missing girl as a runaway. Much to her increasing dismay Hee-jin uncovers disturbing details about close-by apartment residents and their possible spiritual exploitation of So-jin, encouraged and perpetuated by a witch-like local shaman Kyung-ja (Moon Hee-gyung). The nightmarish situation escalates when the neighbors begin to commit suicide in horrific manner, seemingly guided by the presence of So-jin, and even Hee-jin’s safety is threatened.

Nam Sang-mi as Hee-jin

Possessed is one of the best Asian horror-thrillers in years, and no doubt Hollywood will snatch the remake rights in a jiffy. Despite being dialogue-heavy and with reliance on interior scenes, a profound sense of claustrophobia descends on the movie, and the supernatural noose is steadily tightened. It’s difficult to know just who the most malevolent character at work is; even Hee-jin’s good nature is put under strain in the movie’s last quarter as it appears she hasn’t escaped the clutches of Satan’s possession unscathed. Will she uncover her mother’s dubious intent in time

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The Stepfather (2009)

June 1st 2010 01:27

My experience of watching The Stepfather back in 1987 is still vivid. It's an impressively tense psychological horror movie with a stand-out performance from Terry O’Quinn as the titular character. A cult classic now, and every reason to be.

So of course now there's a re-imagining, or re-boot, or whatever the hell they call it these days. It’s a damn remake, okay? Leave the original alone, it worked a treat, it weren’t broke, it don’t need “fixing”. But hey, Hollywood loves to milk a cash cow ‘til it’s dry. Curiously, and wisely, Terry O’Quinn turned down the offer to make a cameo in the remake. He knows when not to tarnish a cult classic any more than it is being done already

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September 2010

4 Posts

August 2010

18 Posts