There's something about Mary Woronov
What's the rumpus? Things have been pretty action-packed around these parts. Sassy Frass and I had a blast on our rock n' roll road trip to Ohio. My favorite band is coming back to town, and the men behind one of 2010's finest albums are opening. Most significantly, the living room has been repainted and rearranged. It's still a work-in-progress, but it already looks a hell of a lot better. Next major upgrade, barring unforseen circumstances: a PS3.
You'll notice that I've also added a new playlist, with one song from each of the second twenty new albums I heard during 2010, with personal favorites including Mike Patton, 65daysofstatic, Negură Bunget, Skyforger, Gogol Bordello and Gorillaz. There is less metal this time. Rock that shit, homey. To conclude, here's a quick look at some of the "genre" pictures I've seen lately, which range from awesome to awful:
"Turkey Shoot" (aka "Escape 2000") - A badass 1982 trashfest from Australia that crosses a Men-and-Women in Prison movie with "The Most Dangerous Game" and sets it in the dystopian future of the year 2000. I have wanted to see this gory action flick for a long time, but somehow the fact that Anchor Bay released it on DVD in 2003 escaped me until very recently. It lives up to its reputation. The colorful, plentiful villains compete for scenery-chewing honors, and it's hard to pick a favorite among them. The giant, bald, mustachioed guard? The classy lady with the exploding crossbow bolts? The fey, bearded guy with the hairy mutant circus freak assistant? They all deliver and receive gloriously lurid, non-digital '80s deaths. I've featured the trailer before, but here it is again.
"REC" - I know, I'm late to the dance with this one. This was the Spanish shaky-cam infestation horror sensation of 2007 that was remade the following year as the American film "Quarantine," starring Dexter's sister/wife (who, incidentally, used to go to school with my cousin). "REC" is basically the document left by a two-person TV news team when they and the firefighters they're following for a human interest segment are locked inside an apartment building teeming with infected, bloodthirsty residents. Despite my negative stance on "Blair Witch," I don't necessarily hate the "found footage" horror trend, and this example was much more effective and visceral upon first viewing than Romero's "Diary of the Dead," which I have come to like over time, while being a purer shock experience than the benchmark "Cloverfield."
"Triangle" - The third feature by "Severance" director Christopher Smith from 2009 makes an elaborate attempt at twisting a viewer's mind. A single mother goes on an ill-fated sailing trip with a young hunk and his asshole friends, and she's sucked into a time paradox puzzle when they come across a cruise ship that is, aside from a hooded sniper, completely deserted. I have to admit I didn't always guess where it was heading next, and just when I started to get bored with one scenario, another would present itself. One of the twists even got an out-loud "Wow" out of me. Still, I would have been a lot more impressed with the machinations of "Triangle" had I not already seen "Timecrimes" - do yourself a favor and catch that economical Spanish gem before Tom Cruise shits all over it with his proposed remake.
"The House of the Devil" - This flick got lots of hype for its intentional sylistic resemblance to late '70s/early '80s horror flicks, and it's seriously one of the best modern-day evocations of that era this side of "Grindhouse." It's the archetypal story of a nice college girl who needs money to afford rent and agrees to a suspicious babysitting gig during a lunar eclipse for a weird middle-aged couple (Mary Woronov and the dude who played Cain in "RoboCop 2"!) who turn out to be robe-wearing, blood-spilling Satanists. Director/writer/editor Ti West, who also directed the long-shelved "Cabin Fever" sequel, went out of his way to keep things authentic, from the film grain and camera movements to clothing, hair, decor, telephones with cords and even vintage disposable Coke cups. It's no classic, but it's a lot of fun, and even made me jump twice. Oh, and for some reason, even though it's a 2009 release, I noticed that either MTV or MTV2 was already showing it a few weeks ago.
"À l'intérieur" (aka "Inside") - For years, I've been hoping to finally see a really great flick out of this new wave of feral French horror. "Frontière(s)" was agreeably nasty if overly derivative, and "Haute Tension" was pretty good until the bullshit ending, but this 2007 job is the movie I was waiting for. The simple setup (a very pregnant woman is beseiged in her home by a deranged lady who wants to cut out the baby) belies an extremely well-wrought cat-and-mouse battle coarsened with the grit and grime of no-holds-barred survival horror. Y'all know I can handle the goriest gore, but something happens during this movie that literally almost made me pass out. Like "Audition," I have no idea when I'll feel like watching "À l'intérieur" again, but I cannot deny that it's an amazing film.
"Seizure!" - Another movie I've wanted to see forever, Oliver Stone's 1974 directorial debut stars "Dark Shadows" icon Jonathan Frid as a mopey writer whose vivid nightmares come true when he and his obnoxious weekend guests are beset by an evil trio seemingly born of his imagination. The baddies are a giant muscleman executioner, a vampy "Queen of Evil" played by English sex symbol Martine Beswick and a sadistic dwarf played by Hervé "Tattoo" Villechaize, while the irritating murder fodder includes faded Hollywood squarejaw Troy Donahue and an in-her prime Mary Woronov. Sounds amazing, right? I always thought so, but now that I've dozed through it, I can tell you that only the rarity of the film kept me from popping out the disc 2/3 of the way in. As mentioned, the characters pretty much suck, and it's often hard to tell what's going on thanks to disjointed editing, lousy nighttime photography and pretentious "is it a dream or is it real?" plot contrivances. Overall, it has the feel of a dreary TV movie, and it's not genuinely curious enough to reward the curiosity I'd long harbored.
You'll notice that I've also added a new playlist, with one song from each of the second twenty new albums I heard during 2010, with personal favorites including Mike Patton, 65daysofstatic, Negură Bunget, Skyforger, Gogol Bordello and Gorillaz. There is less metal this time. Rock that shit, homey. To conclude, here's a quick look at some of the "genre" pictures I've seen lately, which range from awesome to awful:
"Turkey Shoot" (aka "Escape 2000") - A badass 1982 trashfest from Australia that crosses a Men-and-Women in Prison movie with "The Most Dangerous Game" and sets it in the dystopian future of the year 2000. I have wanted to see this gory action flick for a long time, but somehow the fact that Anchor Bay released it on DVD in 2003 escaped me until very recently. It lives up to its reputation. The colorful, plentiful villains compete for scenery-chewing honors, and it's hard to pick a favorite among them. The giant, bald, mustachioed guard? The classy lady with the exploding crossbow bolts? The fey, bearded guy with the hairy mutant circus freak assistant? They all deliver and receive gloriously lurid, non-digital '80s deaths. I've featured the trailer before, but here it is again.
"REC" - I know, I'm late to the dance with this one. This was the Spanish shaky-cam infestation horror sensation of 2007 that was remade the following year as the American film "Quarantine," starring Dexter's sister/wife (who, incidentally, used to go to school with my cousin). "REC" is basically the document left by a two-person TV news team when they and the firefighters they're following for a human interest segment are locked inside an apartment building teeming with infected, bloodthirsty residents. Despite my negative stance on "Blair Witch," I don't necessarily hate the "found footage" horror trend, and this example was much more effective and visceral upon first viewing than Romero's "Diary of the Dead," which I have come to like over time, while being a purer shock experience than the benchmark "Cloverfield."
"Triangle" - The third feature by "Severance" director Christopher Smith from 2009 makes an elaborate attempt at twisting a viewer's mind. A single mother goes on an ill-fated sailing trip with a young hunk and his asshole friends, and she's sucked into a time paradox puzzle when they come across a cruise ship that is, aside from a hooded sniper, completely deserted. I have to admit I didn't always guess where it was heading next, and just when I started to get bored with one scenario, another would present itself. One of the twists even got an out-loud "Wow" out of me. Still, I would have been a lot more impressed with the machinations of "Triangle" had I not already seen "Timecrimes" - do yourself a favor and catch that economical Spanish gem before Tom Cruise shits all over it with his proposed remake.
"The House of the Devil" - This flick got lots of hype for its intentional sylistic resemblance to late '70s/early '80s horror flicks, and it's seriously one of the best modern-day evocations of that era this side of "Grindhouse." It's the archetypal story of a nice college girl who needs money to afford rent and agrees to a suspicious babysitting gig during a lunar eclipse for a weird middle-aged couple (Mary Woronov and the dude who played Cain in "RoboCop 2"!) who turn out to be robe-wearing, blood-spilling Satanists. Director/writer/editor Ti West, who also directed the long-shelved "Cabin Fever" sequel, went out of his way to keep things authentic, from the film grain and camera movements to clothing, hair, decor, telephones with cords and even vintage disposable Coke cups. It's no classic, but it's a lot of fun, and even made me jump twice. Oh, and for some reason, even though it's a 2009 release, I noticed that either MTV or MTV2 was already showing it a few weeks ago.
"À l'intérieur" (aka "Inside") - For years, I've been hoping to finally see a really great flick out of this new wave of feral French horror. "Frontière(s)" was agreeably nasty if overly derivative, and "Haute Tension" was pretty good until the bullshit ending, but this 2007 job is the movie I was waiting for. The simple setup (a very pregnant woman is beseiged in her home by a deranged lady who wants to cut out the baby) belies an extremely well-wrought cat-and-mouse battle coarsened with the grit and grime of no-holds-barred survival horror. Y'all know I can handle the goriest gore, but something happens during this movie that literally almost made me pass out. Like "Audition," I have no idea when I'll feel like watching "À l'intérieur" again, but I cannot deny that it's an amazing film.
"Seizure!" - Another movie I've wanted to see forever, Oliver Stone's 1974 directorial debut stars "Dark Shadows" icon Jonathan Frid as a mopey writer whose vivid nightmares come true when he and his obnoxious weekend guests are beset by an evil trio seemingly born of his imagination. The baddies are a giant muscleman executioner, a vampy "Queen of Evil" played by English sex symbol Martine Beswick and a sadistic dwarf played by Hervé "Tattoo" Villechaize, while the irritating murder fodder includes faded Hollywood squarejaw Troy Donahue and an in-her prime Mary Woronov. Sounds amazing, right? I always thought so, but now that I've dozed through it, I can tell you that only the rarity of the film kept me from popping out the disc 2/3 of the way in. As mentioned, the characters pretty much suck, and it's often hard to tell what's going on thanks to disjointed editing, lousy nighttime photography and pretentious "is it a dream or is it real?" plot contrivances. Overall, it has the feel of a dreary TV movie, and it's not genuinely curious enough to reward the curiosity I'd long harbored.
posted by SoulReaper at 10:26 AM
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