Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
There are so many festivals going on right now in pretty much every corner of the freakin’ globe that I don’t know how to keep track of them all. Take this report from Evil Ded from London:
Hi there just got back from day 3 of London's first rate horror/scifi/weird film fest, and a real mixture and the good, bad and darn creepy
First up, there's teen Fatal Attraction flick Swinfan, starring the junkie from Traffic (Erika Christensen) as Glenn Close, the lead from clockstoppers (Jesse Bradford) as Michael Douglas and the bird from Roswell (Shiri Appleby) as Anne Archer. And there lies the first of many problems...for you see as a guy I can understand trading in Anne Archer for Glenn Close for a kinky one night stand. But Erika Christensen instead of Shiri Appleby???? Why have burgers when you can have steak. Ahem, apologies to Mr Newman for the steal there.
Okay so its more realistic to have the less foxy actress take the killer role. Along with the beautiful manner in which the films shot, its the only redeeming feature of the movie.
What's wrong with it? Where's the violence for one? Not on the screen that's for sure. No, we cant have any actual action on screen, no, that will spoil the PG-13 cert. So maybe the director will build up some suspense, seeing as he cant show anything. Oh god no. Everything is seen coming a mile away including the film's only murder (save for some dumb cops). Its like I Know..Last Summer, except that had some decent actors (well Gellar and Phillip anyhow).
Here we have Christensen who proves once and for all that the script makes the performance. She was good as the dragged up loser of Traffic, here she's Glory from Buffy dulled down for the MTV crowd. As scary as a spice girl on riddlin. Bradford is given some background (he used to be a bad ass, but now he's a mommy's boy) and comes across as he's meant to: A fantasy for under 14 girls (the target audience, obviously). Lots of close ups of him towelling down and so forth, Given something better he might be worth keep on eye on.. Appelby plays EXACTLY the same role she does in Roswell (burn in TV hell).
So in conclusion unless you're under 14 go see anything else or Malicious with Molly Ringwald which is the same movie and actually superior if you can believe it.
Next up: Spanish Giallo TUNO NEGRO which is simply a dumb but fun blast. The gorgeous Silke Homillos Klein plays Alex, top of her class freshman who being stalked by a masked killer. Helped by a mixture of oddballs she plays Nancy Drew and tracks down the fiend. There's a plot about evil deeds down centuries ago and how dumb and lazy students can be, but hell its a giallo and the best I've seen for years. Its no Susperia but its above Sleepless and would make a great rental on a winters night.And did I mention Silke is gorgeous?
Third was the most anticipated (at least by me) Hideo "Ring" Nakata's Dark Water. Is it as good as Ring? Unfortunately not, and here's why: There's no sense of evil in this movie. For me a ghost/haunted house movie has too have some evil at its core to frighten. Ring had it, so did the Exorcist, Evil Dead, even The Others. Not here. That said, Nakata manages to get considerable chills anyway from a story basically about damp rot, which proves his skills as a director. This is certainly something you'd want to try before you buy on DVD.
Lastly we had Cronenberg's superb Spider. This is Cronenburg's most complete film, as everything just clicks here. (No, its not as in your face entertaining as The Fly or Videodrome). Fiennes is great as the borderline insane Spider, all bumbling nerves and inverted reflection, and special mention should go to Miranda Richardson who proves yet again what presence she has on screen. This has been the highlight of the festival so far, which has included Frailty, Donnie Darko and One Hour Photo (all great as well).
After that we were treated to the first 20 minutes of Danny Boyle's upcoming zombie feast, 28 Days Later, which was fantastic as well. This is horror done as horror. In the first twenty, our hero awakens alone, finds all of London deserted, discovers that's humanity's fucked, meets some very scary zombies (think Romero's combined with The Terminator) and gets rescued in the nick of time by petrol throwing normals. There's no forty minute Hollywood built up here folks, just straight into London as the city of the undead. Art iminates life.
Anyhow if you use this, call me Evil Ded.
I’m dying to see 28 DAYS LATER. I really do love SHALLOW GRAVE and TRAINSPOTTING, and would love to see Boyle knock one out of the ballpark. Great report overall. Thanks, man.
"Moriarty" out.
