Well the trailers for RAVENOUS suck baaaaaad, but does the movie? Well, let's take a look. Then there is also that little British film that just FUCKING KICKS ASS ALL OVER THE PLACE calle 'lock,stock and two smoking barrels'. It is not to be missed!!!
Just thought you may want to know a little bit about two films coming out in the months ahead. Just call me Harold Houdini. I'm out here working at Sundance and in between heavy snowfall and heavy workload I managed to see a couple of films you may be interested in.
First, RAVENOUS a movie with a horrid trailer and ad campaign from Fox. Usually they're good marketers, but this film is so bizarre anyone would have a helluva time trying to promote it. I had heard it was based on a true story, but at the screening I went to, with the director, writer, Carlyle, Pearce and Damon Albarn of Blur (he did the soundtrack) in attendance, the audience was told it was fictional. It ain't DELIVERANCE, even though Ms. Bird tried to bring up the comparison. It's a weird sort of disturbing over the top gorefest that Wes Craven or Romero would probably be proud of. While not a great film, done in by a compulsion to be both a deep meditation on evil and a splatterific horror film, it has its moments and would appeal to a hardcore horror audience.
Guy Pearce is a soldier in the Mexican American War who, after winning a medal for bravery, is found out to be a coward instead. His superiors exile him to a fort that serves as a gateway for people travelling out west. It is manned by soldiers who have messed up one too many times. They include Jeffrey Jones as the superior commander, David Arquette as a peyote addict and Jeremy Davies as a God obsessed nut. In a key moment, he pulls a scene similar to his PRIVATE RYAN character.
Pearce is totally distraught and freaked out by his war experience and his cowardice, something not helped by the fact that when he pretended to be dead in battle, he was buried with his platoon and had their blood leaking down his throat. It's a REALLY gory movie.
Robert Carlyle stumbles into the fort one night frostbitten and shellshocked. He recounts the tale of how the settlers he was travelling with were stranded by a snowstorm and how they were forced to eat the flesh of a dead comrade to survive. However, one of the guys was consumed by his desire to eat humans and started killing the survivors and eating them and leaving Carlyle to run off in terror. He begs the soldiers to return to try to save one woman who is still alive. Of course, it turns out to be a trap and Carlyle, who killed all the settlers, starts picking them off one by one.
Pretty cool and tense in parts, wildly campy in others. Carlyle is really over the top and Pearce is distraught for much of the film. Number of cool scenes and a wild ending right out of SCREAM. Don't want to give too much away. If the above sounds interesting to you, check it out.
Harry The PornKing from LOCK STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS
Also saw LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS. This movie is the cinematic embodiment of cool. kind of a cross between the styles of PULP FICTION and TRAINSPOTTING with a killer soundtrack. This movie is best seen knowing as little as possible since the plot twists and turns are what make the film so much fun. Really, really stylish, the film features a bunch of unknowns who are brilliant, and Sting in a small supporting part. The audience I was with went wild for the film. Everyone who cares about truly cool cinema should check it out.
I'll check back with more. THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and the Hughes Brothers AMERICAN PI
