Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
While I was away last week, I missed a lot of stuff, and my e-mail boxes both got overstuffed and shut down after a while. As a result, I’m just now starting to sort it all out, and I’m desperately behind on stuff I want to get posted this week.
For instance, I didn’t get to post the wrap-up to the coverage by Arvo and the continuation of the work LoneWolf has been doing for us at the Brussels Film Fest, so I’m going to pack them both in today with looks at films you’re bound to be interested in:
Hi there,
Final three from me:
'May'
A lot has been already said about this. I'd just like to add that this is a dark, nasty and highly impressive little film held together by a superb central performance from Angela Bettis as May who manages to keep our sympathies even during the bloodbath of the last 1/2 hour and through the magnificent final scene.
'The Uninvited'
Group of amateur ghost-hunters get more than they bargained for when they waken the evil spirit of a little boy in the jungle.
Tediously amateurish film-making from Indonesia with painful perfomances, incredibly clumsy expostion (including a discourse on science and ghosts that has to be heard to be dis-believed) and lots of build up but no pay off. There are some nice atmospheric shots a la Blair Witch in the jungle but overall frankly this is pretty awful.
'Ju-On: The Grudge'
A social worker is sent to investigate an incident in a family home. When she gets there a chain of events involving a terrifying curse spreads out in a chain reaction affecting all those who come in contact with the social worker and the family...
Finally, a worthy successor to the original 'Ring'. This is 90+ minutes of relentless, pure terror. The film is brilliantly structured as a series of set pieces following the fate of each character who is involved in some way with the family. It really doesn't let up at all and builds to a real cresecendo of suspense and terror culminating in a scene half-way in which gives a new meaning to cowering in fear under you blankets in bed. But that just sets the scene for more and more and more...
This is brilliant film-making and I was completely sucked in and exhausted by the tension by the end of it. There are elements of 'Ring' (your safe haven of a home proves no protection against a rampaging evil force – this is taken to an extreme by making the bedroom the site of many of the scariest scenes, deeply frightening images on TV screens, scary phone calls, jolting apparitions, a spooky child, an even creepier long haired woman moving in a very inhuman manner...) but 'Ju-On' outdoes it in keeping up the momentum from start to finish. I could go on and on on how scary I found this but will just flag up some of the scenes that gave me the biggest willies - something leaning over an old woman, the whole segment with the sister of the man who lives in the house (includes a bowel-loosening scene in the public toilet, a nicely done bit in a lift and the aforementioned cowering in the bed bit which is really nighmare-inducing and had the audience, me included, screaming out), the CCTV video footage, the trio of school girls, the 'there's something in my hair' shower scene (a real kicker); as I said I could go on and on. The direction and framing of the action is superb and brilliantly edited for maximum effect and disquiet.
I'd love to see this a 2nd time to work it out since I was too terrified to make all the connections and I did get a bit confused as to who was who (not helped by having similar-looking actors in most of the female roles). If this is being remade in the US it will be a totally pointless exercise since the original cannot be bettered. Why not carefully release this instead (dumb question: because of subtitles!). Easily the best film of the festival and this really is the jackpot if you want real genuine suspense, jumps and horror with no silly jokes, humourous/ironic characters and asides and SFX (a la Beyond Re-animator, Cabin Fever at al). The audience loved it and it was scary enough to keep the smart alecs who shout out during the screenings quiet for a bit for once.
The festival has been a blast. Unfortunately I won't be able to attend the ball on Saturday night but got a taster of it as the audience waiting to see 'Ju-On' were stalked by a bunch of magnificently customed monsters (think Hellraiser-type cenobites) on the prowl and doing their best to to scare us.
Cheers
Arvo
I will say that the writer working on the American adaptation of JU-ON, Stephen Susco, is a good guy with a keen knowledge of horror films, and he seems determined to not just honor the source material, but also to make something that really does stand alone amidst the typical toned-down “horror” films that Hollywood turns out. Give him the benefit of the doubt for now, guys... he’s doing his best to make it something special. And now, here’s Lonewolf with his take on things:
Hi all,
Lonewolf here again with some more fun from Brussels.
Thursday night was the most disappointing of the festival so far, but luckily the gore and fun on Friday more than made up for it.
So Thursday to start with:
Labyrinth by Miroslav Lekic
Montenegro is not really known (well not by me in any case) for it's cinema industry so I was curious to see what they can produce. This one starts promisingly after a prologue set in Belgrade in 1980 featuring the best mustache I have seen for along time. Our hero has been in self imposed exile in Switzerland for 20 years but now returns home. He still feels guilt about the suicide of a friend years ago and when he is told by a medium that it was actually a murder he starts to investigate and gets involved with a sect that has been in existence for a thousand years but hidden from view.
Some nice editing during an opening sequence showing both types of roulette (the casino and the Russian type) and in various scenes skipping backwards and forwards in time. But generally this is just too damn long and slow. There are some nice ideas but it just does not take off. The labyrinth itself seems like a sequence out of a computer game with the hero having to find the answer to various riddles to get out alive.
Really nothing special.
It's all about love - by Thomas Vinterberg
This is the new one by the guy who made Festen and stars Joachim Phoenix and Claire Danes set at a point in the near future. For some reason, this reminds me of Until the End of the World. There are some wonderful little ideas in this but it just does not work.
The world is getting colder, it snows in August in Italy. People are falling down dead in the streets from loneliness (where passers-by just ignore them and step over the bodies) and in Uganda, there seems to be a problem with gravity...
Phoenix arrives in New York to get his divorce papers signed by Danes who is a world class ice skater. But something is wrong and her entourage may not be looking out for her best interests. Meanwhile his brother (basically a cameo by Sean Penn) is leaving him long phone messages about the state of the world from an airplane.
Now, I have nothing against whimsey and am a romantic old so and so but this does not work. Too many ideas that just don't fit together. It is beautifully filmed and Phoenix is pretty good. Penn does quite well for his few minutes on screen. Frustrating one this, because I think there is a magical little film hidden away in there somewhere. It's just not up on the screen.
So, Friday.... The festival is running an all-nighter. I manage to make it through five of the six films being shown, but the last one is Wishmaster 4 so I don't think I missed out...
We start with one of the best film of the fest so far:
Bubba Ho Tep
Bruce Campbell is a god. Give this man an Oscar now. His performance as Elvis is wonderful. This has been written about here previously so I won't go into a lot of detail (plus I am very tired having got home at 0530...) but this film rocks. A great story, with some nice insights into feelings of aging. All round great performances (Ozzie Davis would get my vote for president). Great camera work. And above all this is FUN. See it with the right crowd and you are in for an amazing 90 minutes.
Darkness by Jaume Balaguero
...and the Spanish do it again. A great haunted house story. And Balaguero really knows how to use a camera.
A family has moved from the US to Spain and move into a strange oval house in the country that has not been occupied for 40 years. It seems that when it is dark in there, the darkness is a bit different to normal and contains the ghosts of six children who disappeared 40 years ago.... and dad is starting to act a little strange...
After adapting Ramsey Campbell for his last film, The Nameless (which won the Golden Raven here in 2000), Balaguero has written an original story and assembled a great cast including Anna Paquin, Lena Olin, Iain Glenn and Giancarlo Giannini. And the story is a good one (if a little reminiscent of The Shining at times). The subtle appearances of the ghosts is extremely well handled as are the dream/flash-back sequences full of juddering camera work. And the last 20 minutes are fabulous.
A very good entry to the competition here and I hope this gets seen by a few people as it is worth it.
The producer of The Darkness is also the director of the next film and he takes the stage to a standing ovation. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Brian Yuzna. He brings up the two female stars of Beyond Reanimator with him, which gets even more applause as they are not exactly ugly...
And what a great little film he has made. The opening sequence gets us right into the mood with reanimated corpses missing body parts, death and blood all sprinkled with humour.
Herbert West is in prison but has found a way to continue his experiments and when a new prison doctor arrives, they work together to try and perfect his reagent. Of course all hell breaks loose.
This has is all. Exploding bodies, severed torsos that just keep on coming, a nasty end to a blow job.... And damn is it funny. Yuzna is a master at this sort of thing, it has gore, humour and Jeffrey Combs as West. What more could you ask for? The crowd are loving this one. Luckily I don't think that Elsa Pataky (who plays the love interest (this is a Reanimator movie though so you know how that is going to end...) and was in the audience) understands French as the heckles whenever she appeared on screen where requesting her to do all sorts of things that would maybe make her blush...
Watch this as soon as you get a chance. If you don't you will miss what is probably cinema's only fight between a rat and a severed penis... and a scene like that is priceless.
Three films in and the crowd are loving it. A huge paper fight breaks out during the break between films. Beer is consumed in large quantities in a short space of time. Yuzna does a meet and greet along with Pataky (who is apparently quite well known in Spain for her romantic comedies. This one is going to freak out her fans...!). A couple of snippets of info from that session (there seemed to be more interest in Pataky's dress which was really only a handkerchief wrapped around her...). Yuzna and his Spanish producers have a full slate for the next two years: a Galician werewolf film, a film called Beneath Still Water and what could become a franchise called 'The Nun).... I can't wait. Yuzna thanked the crowd for their reaction and promised to be back soon (he is a regular visitor to the fest, going all the way back to Reanimator in 1985).
That over, all back to the screen so that we can entered the sick mind of Rob Zombie...
House of 1000 Corpses.
This man is not well. While it is not a 'good' film, this is going to be a cult fave for years to come. Basically four kids end up in the company of the most messed up family since Leatherface and co. People die in nasty way, blood flows copiously and the audiance have a great time. I must hand it to Zombie, while the story is nothing too original, the directing is certainly original and fits perfectly with the crazed, feverish tone of the film. He mixes colour, b&w, fake and real news footage, negatives. the lot. And it's one hell of a ride. This is reminiscent of old horror movies from the 50s and 60s in tone but with a lot more gore....
Kudos to Lions Gate for picking up the distribution on this one. To be seen with an insane crowd like I did to have a blast.
03.15 and we have The Princess Blade by Sinsuke Sato. All I can say is that the fight scenes, directed by Donnie Yen (Blade 2) are amazing. Balletic sword fights with some bits at extremely high speed. Awe inspiring. Now if only he had directed the rest of the film, which is extremely dull and slow moving. The heckles from the audience were more entertaining (one week into the fest and there are a couple of standard ones: loud kissing noises during romantic scenes (apart from It's all About Love where it more snores...), whenever somebody on screen opens a door, the entire crowd shout "close the damn door" and of course requests for female characters to remove their clothing). During this one there were lots of shouted comments along the lines of 'just get on with it and have another fight'. And I was one of those shouting. Somebody let Yen direct an entire film on his own, that would be fun. Because apart from his scenes, this was not.
Anyway, that's about it for today. Sorry for the shortness of some of these but I need some rest so that I can take in Cypher and Cabin Fever this evening.
Later all.
Lonewolf.
Thanks, man. Can’t wait for your final batch of reviews, and as always, we appreciate the work you guys do. Sounds like a great fest this year.
"Moriarty" out.
