Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Yes. I would like to see both of these. Particularly CABIN freakin’ FEVER. Now, please.
Hey hey, Hopfrog here wanting to say thanks for posting my attempted review of the Cremaster cycle, and just wanting to weigh in on something a little more approachable, in the form of Oliver Assayas Demonlover, and Eli Roth’s Cabin Fever showing at SIFF.
Demonlover
I have to admit that I was partly lured by Harry’s gush over this film post-SITGES, but mostly it was the idea of watching another film by the director of the stunning Irma Vep on the largest screen we have here in Seattle, that brought me to the line outside the Cinerama. Since Vern did such a good job encapsulating the plot I won’t recap here, I will just give you my impressions. I have not seen a film that fit together so well visually and sonically since Michael Almerayda’s ‘Nadja’ (that ‘Hamlet’ though). The digital look to this film really works with the idea of multiple levels of surveillance, so there really is no jarring media switches, and pushed along by the sparse and beautiful score just comes off as smooth and stylish. I got the impression that this film was supposed to take place in the very near future (ultra-violence seems to be the only channel watched on the many video screens in the film) and like all successful sci-fi the technology and trappings are almost transparent. I could really see Mr. Assayas directing an amazing version of Neuromancer, it would be perfectly low–key and it would just ooze cool.
I loved the deftly handled international cast, and keen viewers will recognize faces from both France (Vidocq), and Japan (Ichi). But Gina Gershon be damned, Connie Neilsen owns this film. She is both passionate and icy, and she switches between both modes with a smoky intensity, and boy when she speaks French she is the hottest thing going.
The only real drawback to the film is not the Anime, but the ‘content’ of the websites the characters are trying to control. My guess they were shooting for something a little more mysterious and creepy (like Videodrome), and they ended up with something more like that recent debacle, (it was called something-.com I think), and it just comes off as trite when compared with the real tensions in the rest of the film.
All and all I loved this film, and as Vern said the ending did meander a bit, but when the film is this gorgeous who cares? The last film I remember Oliver Assayas having get any press in the states was ‘Late august, Early September’, and before that was ‘Irma Vep’, so following this talent may take some digging, but this film further cements his spot in My ‘must-watch’ directors list so see it, if you get the chance.
Cabin Fever
To all the fans out there of this little film let me just say "Pancakes!!!" I have not had this much fun watching a horror film since seeing Troma’s demented Terror Firmer. This film is fun, slappy, gory, and just brilliant. Eli Roth is obviously well studied in his history and conventions of the teen slasher genre and Cabin Fever comes off as a glorious skewing of this type of film. From the great visual homage to the "dolly shot from under the swing" in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, to playing with the idea of the ineffectual male of the group, who’s empowerment here is, shall we say, unrelenting.
I loved the way the film just honestly dealt with all its characters, and as other reviews have said there is not a single ‘throw-away’ character in the whole film. Though Rider Strong is the main attraction of the film James DeBello’s beer-swilling chuckle-head Bert almost stole the show. The audience at the screening I attended was just cracked up by his antics, and it is a nice counterpoint to the amazingly gory remainder of this flick.
Now I consider myself a pretty hardened movie watcher and I have seen brain-boilers from just about every continent, but this one got to me. My friends and I all left this film mildly nauseous, the film is just that bloody, but through every moment you are saying "no, NO, Aww gawd No…"(pretty much audibly from every audience member at my screening), you will just be loving it. The effects work is all top-notch, with the exception of one dodgy shot, and it conveys just how horrible this virus is.
This is really the late night drive-in movie of the summer (even if you do not have one in your town) and it calls to mind a simpler time, when log cabins and summer vacations where far more dangerous to an average teen then their high schools are now. I cant wait to see what Eli Roth does next.
P.S.
I would like to say that MAY starts here in Seattle on Friday the 13th for a limited run, and despite a critical thrashing in one of our hip weeklies, I will be running from 800 Bullets at the Cinerema to the Meridian to see it.
Hopfrog
You’re seeing 800 BALAS and MAY in one night?
Dude, prepare to have your ass blown out. Thanks for the reviews, and enjoy both stupendous pieces of entertainment that you’ve got ahead of you.
"Moriarty" out.
