The experience of watching The Greasy Strangler is roughly akin to being locked in a room with a very enthusiastic 14-year-old theater kid who was just shown an episode of Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, thought it was the funniest thing they had ever seen, and spends about 93 minutes repeatedly retelling to you everything that happened in the episode while the song “Daddy Would You Like Some Sausage?” from Freddy Got Fingered plays on a constant loop. It’s a shameless lift of those references’ sensibilities with no understanding of what made them so interesting and unsettling. Instead, The Greasy Strangler constantly milks the same handful of “jokes” over and over again: some guys have big penises, others have small ones, disco is inherently funny, sometimes people who don’t look like people in Hollywood studio movies are naked and have sex with each other, saying the same thing over and over again will eventually make it funny, etc. If that sounds like something that would appeal to you, have at it. Anyone else would do better to watch one episode of Awesome Show and decide whether or not they want to ever watch anything like that again first.
Bruce Campbell’s Horror Film Festival 2016: Day 4
Originally published on Daily Grindhouse
Short Trip to Hell (Short films)
Day four of the 2016 BCHFF kicked off with a block of horror shorts. There was a wide variety of films, and they were all solid. Joel Ashton McCarthy’s “I Love You So Much It’s Killing Them” is a fun black comedy about a meticulous female serial killer who loses focus when she falls in love with a baseball-obsessed coworker. Izzy Lee’s “Innsmouth” is a dark police procedural and female-centric take on Lovecraft mythology. Chris McInroy’s “Death Metal” and Brian Lonano’s “Gwilliam” were seriously goofy and really bizarre, respectively—in “Death Metal,” a struggling metal guitarist is given a guitar made by Satan and immediately breaks all the rules regarding how to use it with gruesome consequences. “Gwilliam” follows a man just released from prison who finds a very unexpected good time in the alley behind a dive bar. “Madre de Dios” by Gigi Saul Guerero stars Tristan Risk (who also stars in “Innsmouth”) as a woman being used in a dark ritual, and Justin Harding’s “Kookie” shows what happens when a little girl’s desire for cookies overrules her good sense to stay away from the scary new clown cookie jar. Finally, Vivieno Caldinelli’s “Portal to Hell!!!” features the late “Rowdy” Roddy Piper as a building superintendent who happens upon a pair of tenants trying to open the titular portal in his building’s basement.
Following the short film block was a 25th anniversary screening of Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey with director Peter Hewitt and star William Sadler. The two men had not seen each other in many years, and their post-screening Q&A went long as they did some catching up with each other along with answering questions from the audience.
Here Alone (USA, dir. Rod Blackhurst – Chicago premiere)
Ann (Lucy Walters) lives deep in the woods by herself following the collapse of society due to a virus that turns the afflicted into mindless cannibals. She’s carved out a little life for herself defined by routines and rituals. Here Alone follows Ann in the present and follows a parallel story in flashbacks to how she and her husband Jason (Shane West) and infant daughter fled their home and civilization. When she meets a young girl named Olivia (Gina Piersanti) and Olivia’s mother’s boyfriend Chris (Adam David Thompson), Ann gets a glimpse of what a new life might be like if she could forgive herself for her family’s deaths. But the monsters roaming the countryside may not be the most dangerous thing in the world. Here Alone is a meditative, beautifully shot post-apocalyptic film with strong performances by its three leads. However, anyone who suffers from Chronic Apocalypse Fatigue brought on by watching legions of microbudget PA movies may find the film a little too familiar. Despite its high level of technical artistry, this is still a movie about a small group of people fighting “zombies” in a struggle to survive. It’s a particularly well-made version of that story, but at its heart it’s not much different from its peers.
Before the final film screening of the festival, Bruce Campbell came out for the first BCHFF Jury Award. The trophy was apparently still in the works, but the award went to Found Footage 3D and writer/director Steven DeGennaro. Campbell suggested that the festival was in the process of producing an anthology film made up of “the least shitty shorts” submitted to the festival. Maybe that will make its world premiere at next year’s BCHFF?
Siren (USA, dir. Gregg Bishop – Chicago premiere)
Jonah (Chase Williamson) is not really looking forward to the weekend-long bachelor party his brother Mac (Michael Aaron Milligan) has planned for him and their friends Rand (Hayes Mercure) and Elliott (Randy McDowell). Mac, disappointed by the seedy strip club where they end up, runs into a man who suggests the men follow him to an underground club at an isolated mansion where they can really have a wild time. Jonah reluctantly agrees and they drive to the home of Mr. Nyx (Justin Welborn), who offers Jonah an unforgettable experience with a very strange asking price from his friends. When Jonah discovers Lily (Hannah Fierman) is locked in a room at the club, he and Rand free her and flee, kicking off a desperate hunt for the men and Lily, who is hardly the victim she initially seems. Inspired by the short “Amateur Night” from the first V/H/S anthology, Siren brings Hannah Fierman back to reprise her role in a completely standalone story. This is director Gregg Bishop’s first feature since 2008’s Dance of the Dead, and like that film Bishop keeps the action moving at a brisk pace. While this is darker than that previous film, Siren is similarly a fun little creature feature with a great cast.
Director Gregg Bishop, star Chase Williamson, and writers Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski were in attendance for a post-screening Q&A. Among other topics, they talked about the heavy involvement of David Bruckner in the production of the film. Bruckner directed the original “Amateur Night” short and was originally planning to direct this film until he was tapped to work on the new Friday the 13th film (which he has sadly since left). Everyone had great stories about Justin Welborn, a veteran horror actor who also appeared in Beyond the Gates with star Chase Williamson and Dance of the Dead among many other independent genre films. Their Q&A was fun and relaxed, a perfect way to cap off a wild weekend packed with a wide variety of different approaches to the horror genre. It’s honestly going to be tough to top this year’s lineup, but I can’t wait to see them try in 2017!
Fantasia 2016 Part 1: July 15-17
Originally published on Daily Grindhouse 20 July 2016
2016 marks the 20th anniversary of Montreal's Fantasia Film Festival, the largest genre film festival in North America and one of the most prestigious in the world. To celebrate, the festival is going all-out this year with not only its standard gargantuan roster of films from all over the world (somewhere north of 130 features this year!), but also bringing in some very special guests. Guillermo del Toro is receiving the festival's Cheval Noir award, and legendary Japanese director Takashi Miike is being given their Lifetime Achievement Award. Fantasia gets bigger and bigger every year, but even so this year's anniversary program is insanely ambitious. Daily Grindhouse will be covering films screened at the festival throughout its run from July 15th to August 3rd.
July 15:
Creature Designers: The Frankenstein Complex (France, dir. Gilles Penso & Alexandre Poncet)
French filmmakers Gilles Penso and Alexandre Poncet clearly have a love for movie monsters. Their documentary Creature Designers takes an ambitious look at the history of creature design and special effects, with an impressive roster of talking heads including Rick Baker, Alec Gillis, Greg Nicotero, Phil Tippett, and Chris Walas and directors Joe Dante, Guillermo del Toro, Mick Garris, and John Landis. Everyone in front of the camera is vastly knowledgeable about the art and craft of their work, as well as their forerunners. The enthusiasm is infectious, and there is a lot of great behind-the-scenes footage peppered among the interviews. Hardcore horror fans probably won’t learn much that they don’t alre
ady know, but anyone who’s interested in how filmmakers and artists bring fantastic creatures to life in the movies will find plenty to like here.
Three (Hong Kong, dir. Johnnie To)
A powerful criminal is shot in the head during a police operation, and he is brought to a crowded intensive care ward. Just before the operation to remove the bullet from his brain begins, he regains consciousness and refuses medical treatment. The officer in charge of the operation monitors the situation closely, and it soon becomes clear things are not as clear-cut as they seem. Johnnie To’s Three starts off as a tense hospital drama before moving into an intense siege mode, setting up characters and conflicts for payoff in a satisfyingly outrageous finale in which all the film’s coiled tension explodes. Three is a hugely entertaining thriller that should not be missed.
Antibirth (USA, dir. Danny Perez)
Hard-partying Lou (Natasha Lyonne) has a rough night while out at a party with her best friend Sadie (Chloe Sevigny) that she can’t quite remember the next day. Soon after, she begins to exhibit symptoms of an impossibly accelerated pregnancy. Meanwhile, Sadie’s ruthless drug dealer Gabriel (Mark Webber) has acquired something new he wants to sell on the street even though he doesn’t seem to know what it actually is. As Lou’s condition gets progressively worse, she meets a weird hippie named Lorna (Meg Tilly) who seems to know more about the situation than anyone directly involved in it. Antibirth is the latest film from writer/director Danny Perez, perhaps best known for directing the feature-length “visual album” Oddsac for the band Animal Collective. It’s tough to get a handle on what this film is supposed to be until it’s nearly over, when things start to go seriously wrong for his deeply unsympathetic characters. Lyonne is compelling as always, but Lou is ultimately a hollow punchline. There are some flashes of surreal horror that hint at what Perez is really capable of, but the ironic detachment and blatant contempt for his characters make Antibirth feel like a messy collision between Todd Solodnz indulging his worst instincts and juvenile horror shock tactics. Still, there are enough interesting moments here to warrant keeping an eye on what Perez does going forward.
July 16:
Terra Formars (Japan, dir. Takashi Miike)
In the 26th century, a crew of criminals has been hand-selected to take a dangerous mission to Mars: exterminate the cockroaches that were sent there in the 21st century to help terraform the planet and make it hospitable for humanity. Once they arrive, though, they find these aren’t standard-issue bugs—they have evolved into hulking, lightning-fast anthropomorphic monsters that look like a cross between roaches and bodybuilders. The criminals have unknowingly been genetically modified to fight the roaches with insect-based powers of their own, triggered by injecting themselves with a special formula. Based on a popular manga, Terra Formars is the latest import from the legendary Takashi Miike. While it has occasional flashes of Miike’s trademark bizarre sensibilities, for the most part this is a fairly straightforward action/sci-fi film with a roster of barely distinguishable characters. Perhaps as a result of being an adaptation of popular source material, it also feels like the film starts at what would be any other movie’s 30-minute mark. Viewers are tossed in the deep end and expected to catch up. There are plenty of crazy visuals and some impressively weird character designs, but overall Terra Formars is not particularly memorable.
Bed of the Dead (Canada, dir. Jeff Maher)
Harried, alcoholic detective Virgil is called in to investigate a strange situation at a sex club: a burned bed and a pile of bodies. While Virgil studies the scene and tries to figure out what happened, the action of the film splits off into a parallel line leading up to the police being called in. For his birthday, Ren wants to spend the night at the club with his girlfriend Sandy, his best friend Fred and Fred’s burlesque dancer girlfriend Nancy. Ren bribes the front desk clerk into giving them the only available room, which happens to be the one in which the centerpiece is a murderous, cursed bed that uses the darkest secrets of those who touch it to devour their souls. Bed of the Dead plays like a much more coherent take on Death Bed: The Bed That Eats, and that’s not necessarily a compliment. The main characters in the film are all far too obnoxious to care about or sympathize with at all, a depressingly typical problem in horror films. There are some really cool practical effects, but they are sadly few and far between. This is doubly unfortunate since they really are the best part of the movie by far.
July 17:
The Unseen (Canada, dir. Geoff Redknap)
Former hockey player Bob Langmore (Aden Young) lives in a small logging town and works at the local mill. He keeps his head down and hides away from everyone, and it’s been years since he abruptly left his wife Darlene (Camille Sullivan) and their young daughter Eva (Julia Sarah Stone). As Eva approaches her high school graduation, her behavior starts to worry Darlene, who calls Bob to come back and visit Eva before her life runs completely off track. Bob reluctantly agrees, but when his truck is totaled he has no choice but to run an errand for a local drug dealer to get the money to make the trip. The situation is further complicated by the fact that Bob suffers from an inexplicable affliction, the thing that drove him away from his family in the first place, and the symptoms are getting much worse. The Unseen is mostly a low-key blue-collar family drama with horror/sci-fi elements, putting it in a unique position as a genre film. The drama works thanks to the excellent cast, and the film walks a careful line between keeping their relationships and reaction to the more fantastic elements of the story grounded and realistic.
Hunt for the Wilderpeople (New Zealand, dir. Taika Waititi)
Ricky (Julian Dennison) is a troubled kid in New Zealand who’s been bounced around more foster homes than he can remember. When he lands in he remote home of Bella (Rima Te Wiata) and Hec (Sam Neill), it’s his last chance. Bella is unfailingly cheerful and warm, but Hec is standoffish. Just when Ricky seems to be settling in, tragedy strikes and through a series of odd circumstances Ricky and Hec find themselves stuck in the bush. Hec knows how to survive off the grid, but little do they know there’s a search on for them. When they run into some hunters, a misunderstanding turns a search for a missing boy and his foster dad into a nationwide manhunt for a pair of outlaws. At its heart, Hunt for the Wilderpeople is a familiar story of a grizzled old man and a kid who grow to become friends as well as family, but it’s the specifics that make it so thoroughly charming. Sam Neill is great in his role as a prickly old bastard, and Dennison is hilarious as Ricky. It’s just as funny as—if not even funnier than—Waititi’s What We Do in the Shadows (co-directed with Jemaine Clement), which was one of the best horror/comedies in recent memory. Hunt for the Wilderpeople is a poignant, heartwarming, and hysterical buddy comedy. It’s kind of impossible to believe this guy is directing the new Thor movie next, but it’s also really exciting.
Psycho Raman (India. dir. Anurag Kashyap)
Deeply corrupt cop Raghavan (Vicky Kaushal) stumbles upon the body of his drug dealer and kills the man’s neighbor to cover up his involvement. He thinks he’s gotten away with it, but watching from the shadows was Ramanna (Nawazuddin Siddiqui). A relentless, cold-blooded sociopath, Ramanna believes he has found in Raghavan a kindred spirit: a man willing to use his power and the behavior and expectations of others to get whatever he wants. Ramanna starts leaving a trail of bodies in his wake, taunting the police and trying to push Raghavan over the edge. Anurag Kashyap follows his widescreen period crime epic Bombay Velvet with something much more gritty and immediate with Psycho Raman. This puts Kashyap back in the territory of his previous film Ugly, a bleak police procedural about the doomed search for a missing girl. Psycho Raman isn’t quite as depressing as that film, but it’s just as gritty and claustrophobic. Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who gave what would be a career-defining performance in Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur, one-ups himself as one of the most memorable and unsettling “villains” to come along in ages. It’s not fun, but Psycho Raman is a fantastic horror/thriller and another entr
y into Kashyap’s impressive oeuvre.
Fantasia 2016 Part 2: July 18-20
Originally published on Daily Grindhouse
July 18:
The Eyes of My Mother (USA, dir. Nicolas Pesce)
Francisca (Olivia Bond) lives on an isolated farm with her Mother (Diana Agostini), a Portuguese immigrant, and Father (Paul Nazak). Their quiet lives are upended when young drifter Charlie (Will Brill) wanders up to their house. Years later, Francisa (Kika Magalhaes) still lives on the farm, but loneliness has taken its toll on her. The Eyes of My Mother is a quiet, spare film shot in beautiful black & white that will probably read to some viewers as pretentious. But debut feature director Nicolas Pesce uses careful observations and long periods of silence to build toward moments of gut-churning horror. At its most harrowing, the film rivals similar intimate psychological portraits of unstable individuals; while it shares little on the surface, the film feels strongly reminiscent of Lodge Kerrigan’s underseen classic Clean, Shaven (1993). The Eyes of My Mother is a fascinating work of art and an unsettlingly effective horror film.
White Coffin (Argentina, dir. Daniel de la Vega)
Virginia (Julieta Carinali) is driving somewhere in a hurry with her young daughter Rebeca (Fiorela Duranda) in the back seat. When she stops at a remote gas station to get something to eat, Rebeca goes missing, and suddenly Virginia finds herself in the middle of a twisted game that she must win to save her daughter’s life. Written by the García Bogliano brothers (Cold Sweat, Penumbra), White Coffin hits the ground running and barely stops for a breath over the course of its brief running time (70 minutes including credits!). Director Daniel de la Vega keeps things moving at a breathless pace all the way up until the nasty final twist of the knife. This is horror/action as almost literal rollercoaster: It’s kind of a blur once it’s over, but White Coffin is a hell of a ride while it lasts.
The Unrepentant Cinephile Page 114
