This concept of the “vampire orphanage” is a strong foundation with which to build in any number of directions, and Limbo plays with some interesting ideas. However, it also has some jarring comedic aspects (it’s actually being marketed as something of a horror/comedy, which is not really accurate) that feel very out of place and pad the film’s running time unnecessarily. The film touches on some concepts reminiscent of better vampire films in recent history–Let the Right One In is a clear touchstone in the relationship between the child vampire and adult, although the dynamic is reversed here–but doesn’t feel derivative given its singular tone. It certainly helps that the performances are great all around, most notably including several of the vampire kids. Toto Muñoz in particular is very good as Siegfried, a tricky part that requires him to be both a genial kid and more than a little creepy by turns.
The film itself flits back and forth between varying tones in a similar manner. The kids are portrayed mostly as having childlike behaviors, but there are some of them who are clearly adult minds in young bodies. The humorous moments bump up somewhat awkwardly with some of the film’s darker scenes, including the abduction and murder of the vampire kids. The conflict between the children and the men waging war on them climaxes in a bizarrely joyful scene that happens to include gallons of blood. It’s easy to imagine that finale not working in another movie, but it ultimately feels like the only way to end Limbo. It’s a scene that is gruesome, funny, sweet, and playful. The movie is worth watching just for pulling off something like that, although there are plenty of moments throughout that set it apart from its contemporaries and make Limbo well worth seeking out for horror fans.
Chillerama (2011)
Originally published on Film Monthly 28 November 2011
2011 has been a big year for tributes to past eras in film history– from the Giallo-inspired surrealism of Amer to Martin Scorsese’s love letter to Georges Melies, Hugo. It should come as little surprise, then, that the lowbrow horror films that used to reign over the drive-ins of the American Midwest should get their moment in the sun, and what better way to pay homage than in the classic anthology format? Chillerama brings four indie horror directors together for a heartfelt, gross-out tribute to those drive-in films with low, low budgets and even lower standards of taste.
It’s the last night of business for America’s last drive-in. Theater owner Cecil Kaufman (Richard Riehle) decides to go out with a bang, screening four never-before-seen films from their only known existing prints. As the unsuspecting viewers are treated to world-premiere screenings of “Wadzilla,” “I Was a Teenage Werebear,” and “The Diary of Anne Frankenstein,” an outbreak of sex-crazed zombie-ism is being spread through tainted popcorn butter. While he preps the first film, Kaufman gives a surprisingly touching monologue on the loss of movie-going magic as a montage of film threading its way through the projector plays out on the screen. It’s a great moment, and it clearly shows that these guys love movies and definitely feel the loss of the drive-in culture.
Each of the films on Kaufman’s program is a short written and directed by a different filmmaker, mimicking a different style and era of horror and exploitation films. Adam Rifkin’s “Wadzilla” starts off the show with an impressively ludicrous bang. Rifkin himself plays Miles, a young man who finds himself being used as a guinea pig for a new sperm-enhancing drug that causes his sperm to grow to gargantuan proportions. “Wadzilla” looks a lot like Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, less like a 1950s “giant monster” movie than a 1970s parody of one, complete with appropriate film grain and a stop-motion giant sperm monster created by the Chiodo Brothers. Rifkin is hilarious in the lead, but the whole cast is great, especially Ray Wise as Miles’s doctor.
Tim Sullivan’s “I Was a Teenage Werebear” is the weakest of the segments. Ostensibly a takeoff on 1960s beach movies, “Werebear” is the story of Zac Efron lookalike Ricky (Sean Paul Lockhart), who finds himself drawn to leather-jacketed bad-boy Talon (Anton Troy). During a gym class wrestling match, Talon bites Ricky on the ass, turning him into a Werebear, which is exactly what it sounds like. When aroused, they turn into stout, hairy guys wearing a lot of leather. The premise isn’t bad, but the execution is lacking and the songs are mostly forgettable. Perhaps the biggest failing of “Werebear” is its lack of period stylings beyond some costumes– it just doesn’t look or feel anything like the films it is apparently trying to invoke.
Fortunately, after “Werebear” is perhaps the film’s strongest segment, Adam Green’s “The Diary of Anne Frankenstein.” Modeled after poverty row horror films of the 30s and 40s, “Diary” finds Hitler (Joel David Moore) discovering the Frank family in their attic hideout after Anne (Melinda Y. Cohen) finds the notebook of her evil ancestor and her father explains how they had to change their name to “Frank” from “Frankenstein.” Hitler and Eva Braun (Kristina Klebe) use the notebook to create a monster that Hitler names Meshugganah (Kane Hodder). “Diary” is outrageous and hilarious, recalling Mel Brooks in his prime, and Joel David Moore is hysterical as Hitler, his fake German becoming more and more obvious as the film goes on.
The film concludes with Joe Lynch’s “Zom-B-Movie,” which explodes into an all-out zombie orgy of humping undead and brightly colored fluids shooting everywhere. It’s an appropriately inappropriate finale for a film that revels in lowbrow humor and splatter, but like “Werebear” it doesn’t much look like the films it seems to be mimicking. However, for sheer gut-splashing ingenuity, it’s hard to beat, and the first-person camera during one sequence where a character is running through a drive-in full of zombies is pretty awesome.
Chillerama is packed with gross-out jokes, lo-fi special effects, outrageous and offensive humor, and more than its share of dick and poop jokes. It is also, somewhat unbelievably, a genuinely moving tribute to the magic of the drive-in and the ridiculous low-budget fare that kept people driving out to the movies every week to see what could possibly top the last Dusk-to-Dawn show. The film’s tagline promises Chillerama is “The Ultimate Midnight Movie,” and damned if it doesn’t very nearly deliver just that.
Chillers (1987)
Originally published on Film Monthly 10 October 2012
Troma recently teamed with Anchor Bay to reissue their early hit Mother’s Day, and around the same time they released a chunk of their back catalog onto Youtube for free viewing. Fans will be happy to have such immediate access to old favorites, but Troma saved another one of their 80s hits for its own DVD reissue. Daniel Boyd’s horror anthology Chillers was originally released in the late 80s and gathered a cult following, and now finally makes its debut on DVD. Shot on a very low budget over the course of six months, Chillers was a favorite of VHS-era horror fans, and although it often shows its low-budget roots, it’s still a fun little anthology.
Five strangers get off at a remote bus stop only to find they’ve missed their connection by half an hour, and now they have to wait until the next bus arrives to continue their journeys. To pass the time, they end up each describing the nightmares they all had the previous night. First up is a young woman who has a romantic encounter at a public pool that turns sinister. Despite at least one moment of genuine daylight creepiness, the concept of a haunted public pool is not all that scary, although Boyd does his best to make it look as ominous as possible. Most of the stories actually use familiar-looking places, giving the whole film a nice comfortable small-town feel, whether that’s what he was aiming for or not.
The rest of the stories run the gamut from a young man who discovers he can bring back the dead by wishing on their obituary in the newspaper to a lonely woman who develops an unexpected connection to a late night TV news anchor. Anthologies are generally spotty by nature, especially when each section is made by a different filmmaker. Since writer/director Boyd made all of the stories himself, the film has a fairly consistent tone and style. Unfortunately, this also means that the stories tend to blur together a bit, although the final entry about a gore-thirsty god possessin
g a young college student is bloody and colorful enough to really stick out. Boyd shot Chillers on film, and that gives the film a much warmer look than many of its shot-on-video contemporaries. It might not exactly be a lost classic, but Chiller s is certainly fun to revisit as a snapshot of low-budget horror of its time and as one of the best titles of Troma’s heyday.
Chocolate (2008)
Originally published on Film Monthly 10 February 10, 2009
Tony Jaa’s domestic film debut Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior was unquestionably a breath of fresh air in the martial arts action film genre and an instant classic. Not unlike Jackie Chan’s first major US release (Rumble in the Bronx), Ong-Bak gave audiences something they had likely not seen before– or, at best, something of which they had only seen pale derivations. Jaa’s Muay Thai style of fighting was something totally new to audiences used to decades of similar martial arts films, and despite any of the film’s dramatic shortcomings (he beat up all those people for the head of a sacred statue in his village– does anyone remember that?), it remains memorable for its astonishing fight sequences and its weirdly cheerful tone. Prachya Pinkaew, the director of Ong-Bak, went on to make another film with Jaa (The Protector) before taking up another project that sounded very intriguing– Chocolate. Basically Pinkaew has gone back to the drawing board and seemingly taken in a few canny influences, and the result is another instant classic not quite like anything we’ve seen before.
The film opens with a lengthy history leading up to our heroine’s birth: her father Masashi (Hiroshi Abe) falls in love with her mother Zin (Ammara Siripong) after a chance meeting that almost ends up killing them both. As it happens, he’s a yakuza and she’s an enforcer for a ruthless Thai gangster known as No. 8 (Pongpat Wachirabunjong, possibly channeling Takashi Miike). When No. 8 learns of their forbidden love, he warns Zin to never see Masashi again. Masashi reluctantly returns to Japan at Zin’s insistence and she raises their daughter Zen (JeeJa Yanin) alone.
However, Zen is not a normal girl. She is autistic, and requires a lot of special attention. After being attacked by No. 8 and his henchwoman (?) Priscilla (Dechawut Chuntakaro), Zin moves to a new apartment conveniently located next door to a Muay Thai boxing school. Over time, Zen learns boxing from watching the boys at the school as well as watching martial arts films– coincidentally, her favorites seem to be Ong-Bak and The Protector! Her chubby friend Mangmoom (Taphon Phopwandee) realizes a business opportunity when he throws a ball at Zen and she catches it without looking. He begins to take her out and lets people throw things at her for money, which sometimes gets them into trouble.
Their fun doesn’t last long, however, as soon Zin becomes gravely ill with some form of cancer. While desperately trying to figure out a way to pay for her medical bills, Moom stumbles upon a ledger that lists many unsavory types who happen to owe Zin money. Soon enough, Moom and Zen are on their way to collect, and once Zen realizes she can use her fighting skills to help her mom, they’re making waves that bring them back to the attention of No. 8. And no wonder– she tears through crowds of henchmen like Serenity‘s River Tam on steroids.
The first half of the film is fairly slow, with more character development than expected for this type of film. The first real fight scene doesn’t appear until over half an hour has passed, but once the film gets up and running it’s amazing. Zin fights thugs in an ice factory, a candy warehouse, and a meat market, each one offering its own unique dangers and props to use in the beating of ass. The film’s finale, which is basically its entire third act, is an astonishing run through various fighting styles. One of the film’s taglines in Thailand as shown in the trailers on the DVD was “Real fights! Real injuries!” and footage runs under the credits of people getting injured doing different stunts throughout the film. Somewhat uncomfortably, the last stuntman shown seems to have broken his neck, and the last we see of him is everyone waving goodbye to him in the hospital. Yikes.
No doubt because of such dedication to the film, the final product is thrilling. Any fan of martial arts action will not be disappointed by Chocolate ‘s incredible stunts and unique fight choreography. I can’t wait to see what Pinkaew does next, but I hope no stuntmen have to go to the hospital for it. Well… not too many, anyway. It’s hard to argue with results like this!
Choose (2011)
Originally published on Film Monthly 11 August 2011
If you have ever watched a film in which the characters were watching a humorously straight-faced horror movie and wondered what it would be like to see the whole thing, Choose helpfully gives you that option. It’s sort of hard to believe a film like Choose could still exist and even get a decent release through IFC in a post-Saw horror film market, but then perhaps that franchise’s inexplicable popularity is exactly why IFC took a chance on this film. In any case, it’s certainly an exception among IFC’s excellent recent genre fare.
Fiona Wagner (Katheryn Winnick) is a journalism student whose father (Kevin Pollak) is the sheriff in a college town. Fiona’s mother drowned herself in a hotel bath tub three years earlier, and now a series of bizarre attacks in which a hooded man forces people to choose between unpleasant circumstances may be related to Fiona’s past. The choices the villain presents are generally based on EC Comics-style irony: a pianist can choose to lose his fingers or his hearing, etc. While he continues his grisly mission, he draws Fiona into a trap so his grand scheme can be revealed.
If Choose had even a hint of self-awareness, it would play as a parody of post-/sub-Saw horror films. However, it does not, so it basically plays as a parody of itself. The storyline of Choose is utterly straightforward and predictable, and is played out with an earnestness that feels almost alien. As the villain piles on the clues, could his identity really be so obvious? Would a filmmaker really telegraph a twist ending this early by casting a cult character actor in a small but pivotal role? What the hell is Bruce Dern doing in this movie?
First-time director Marcus Graves keeps the action moving at a decent clip, and it all looks slick enough– if a little too colorful for a standard Saw knock-off. There are some violent moments, but hardly more than viewers are used to seeing on network TV shows like CSI. The complete lack of sex and nudity seems to indicate that the filmmakers were banking on something else to hook viewers, although what that hook might be is a mystery. Choose manages to strike a weird tone: too ridiculous to be scary, but not ridiculous enough to work as camp. In the end, it’s just another standard-issue direct-to-disc horror movie that’s technically competent but uninteresting.
Chop (2011)
Originally published on Film Monthly 26 December 2011
Trent Haaga is perhaps best known to hardcore horror fans as the writer of the notorious Deadgirl, one of the most controversial horror films of the past decade. However, before penning disturbing stories about undead sex objects, Haaga paid his dues working at Troma, the legendary independent film company known more for playing undead sex objects for laughs than for anything else. Chop, Haaga’s directorial debut, is a jet-black comedy that harkens back to the gleeful absurdity and gore of Troma, and may be something of a shock for anyone expecting bleak and unsettling like Deadgirl.
Chop ‘s storyline is as simple and unpretentious as its title: Lance Reed (Will Keenan) is stranded by the side of the road and picked up by a stranger (Timothy Muskatell). The Stranger asks Lance a couple of odd questions before Lance is knocked out and wakes up in a room where the Stranger has Lance’s brother tied to a chair. Lance can either kill his brother or the Stranger will unleash a ghoulish assassin on Lance’s wife Emily (Tanisha). Once Lance makes his decision, the Stranger returns Lance to his home with the understanding that he can never tell anyone about the Stranger, or he will make Lance’s life extremely difficult.
Unable to restrain himself, Lance inevitably slips up under the Stranger’s watch and, true to his promise, the Stranger begins to make Lance’s life very unpleasant. Unless Lance can remember what it was he did to the Stranger and s
incerely apologize, Lance’s situation will not improve. As Lance wracks his brain to figure out who the Stranger is, unwelcome guests from Lance’s recent drug addict past are tracked down and brought to him to exact their own revenge. Will Lance figure out who the Stranger is, or will he end up a head on the Stranger’s mantle?
Chop cleverly plays with audience expectations and takes several very nasty twists on its way to its hilariously anticlimactic finale. While Lance starts off as a victim, the more the audience learns about who he really is, the more the Stranger’s revenge makes sense. This constant undermining of appearances is Chop ‘s biggest asset, along with great, funny lead performances by Will Keenan and Timothy Muskatell. Haaga keeps the film moving at a brisk pace, and with a running time of just over 80 minutes Chop is certainly never boring. It is perhaps inevitable that whatever Haaga did to follow up Deadgirl would be something of a disappointment, and in that respect Chop is a bit of a letdown. However, it’s still more than a cut above most other independent horror/comedy efforts, and it is definitely worth a look for horror fans with a taste for the unexpected.
Chromeskull: Laid to Rest 2 (2011)
Originally published on Film Monthly 19 September 2011
Robert Hall’s Laid to Rest was a fun and extremely gory throwback to 80′s-styled slasher films. With a very high body count and some amazing practical effects and makeup, Hall did a great job of updating the slasher genre with pitch black humor and hinting at an intriguing mythology behind the film’s “hero,” Chromeskull. Like any good monster, Chromeskull is back despite seemingly being left in no condition to do so at the end of the first film. Unfortunately, it seems like Hall left the franchise’s sense of humor behind, and its presence is sorely missed.
The Unrepentant Cinephile Page 13
