V/H/S 2 (2013): The Clamshell from Hell

The original title of V/H/S 2 was the more fitting S-V/H/S, named for the improved tape that quickly upgraded home video quality, but for my money they might as well call this one V/H/S and go back and call the first installment BetaMax. The sequel is an improvement overall in the average of the stories, but in the end, it still doesn't add up to a solid anthology horror film. The highs pitch higher than before, and the segments that work really work. One of the other main improvements was the wraparound segments  actually culminated into something (actually something pretty great) to end the film. It didn't feel like a complete throwaway just there to stitch together film film. Most anthology horror movies don't pull that off to my satisfaction, and with just enough intriguing mythos into the effects of the film's collection of tapes, the writers were smart enough to tease out more backstory while leaving more to show in future installments. From here on out I'm going to give super briefs reviews of the segments. I can't say much because when dealing with these short segments the twists they turn on are generally right at the surface.

The Bigger and Badder Halloween Top 13: #7: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Snakes, bunnies, crocs, teenagers, rats and dinosaurs have made it to The Bigger & Badder Halloween Top 13 in the past six days, but I bet quite a few of you are wondering when I was going to pull out the big guns and talk about a kaiju film. Now, a few of you are wondering what a kaiju film is. Literally translated as “strange beast” for the Japanese, the term refers to any movie that features a monster, hopping vampire, mummy, zombie or other assorted monster, but the word has come to mean something more specific to American audiences. Stateside it is a descriptive used to talk about giant monster movies from Japan, and frequently it is thrown around when discussing Godzilla movies. That’s right, I'm finally including a feature with The King of the Monsters on this list, but he’s not the only one on board. I’m talking about Minilla, Mothra, Rodan, Gorosaurus, Anguirus, Kumonga, Manda, Baragon, Varan, and the big man himself. (Not Clarence Clemmons, but rather Godzilla) In other words the all star giant monster cast of the finale of the Godzilla franchise, Destroy All Monsters!

The Bugg Goes to The Drive-In Horror Show (2009)

There are things that I always tend to lean toward, Drive-Ins, anthology films, and people with whom I have shared Shiner Bocks. So let it be known, that one evening after the events of days at Horrorhound Weekend Indy 11, I did find myself sharing aforementioned beer brand with Micheal Neel, director of the anthology flick, Drive-In Horror Show. During the course of quelling our thirst, Micheal asked if I'd gotten a chance to see his film, and sadly I had not. Now that situation has been amended, and call it preferential treatment if you will, but I owe Mr. Neel another round or two.

Anthologies are a tricky thing. Some, such as Creepshow, Black Sabbath or Trick 'r Treat , go down in the books as horror classics. Then there's flicks like Grim Prairie Tales and Tales from the Hood are better left both forgotten and unexamined. The trouble tackling an anthology film is that each separate piece needs to be strong on its own so the viewer is left with an impression of each story, but there must be both balance and build or the dynamic of the film is skewed well away from point. Thankfully, first time feature director Micheal Neel, whose previous credits include three documentary features, one self produced and directed, knows his stuff and, as an avid horror fan, he must have know the traps to watch out for because he made out like Pitfall Harry swinging over a lake of 8 bit crocs.

Drive-In Horror Show is divided into five segments linked via a post-apocalyptic drive-in where the old horror classics just "won't stay dead." Manning the reels is The Projectionist (Luis Negron) with his sidekick Billy Troll, and you can't hate on segments where you learn important lessons like "the undead are so hard to please". Negron is suitably hammy as a temporary horror host, and I really enjoyed  his interplay with his supporting cast of a lolling zombie, an ax murdered concession stand girl, and a pair of griping skeleton patrons (one of which is voiced by director Micheal Need.)

The first segment Pig goes right for the audience's throat and their endurance for realistic gore. It's rape-revenge in the correct miniature proportions 5 seconds of off-screen raped and twenty of bloody, bloody, bathtub revenge. With only two emotionally charged (and gory) performances to start up the film, Neel and co-writer Greg Ansin took a big chance, and it pays off. Actress Judith Kalora is outstanding, and I would not be at all surprised to hear her name again someday.

Then in The Closet we see what happens when a literal monster in the closet gets sway over an unhappy middle schooler who has it out for his family. Let's just say the results aren't pretty, but they'd sure make Rod Serling smile. While some of the family interactions are stilted, Chis Fidler impresses as young Jamie, and watching the young actor slip from horrified to gleefully excited during his character's predicament is well worth the story's few foibles.

Fall Apart is the first story to feature a sympathetic character as the main focus, philanthropic Dr. Patrick Mazursky. The Doc does all the pro-bono work he can, but after encountering a mysterious sore on a patient, he starts down the road to a killer Frank Cotton cosplay. While I think the story almost gets away from itself, it is saved by its brief running time and ends up being both thought provoking and touching.

The Meat Man stars two young kids with wild imaginations and a BBQ loving dad they suspect might be the titular cannibalistic serial killer. My dad can beat up your dad kind of pales in comparison when one suspects that pops might be pals with Dexter Morgan. I believe this segment was the shortest, and it was a wise decision. While the premise was cute, it was the weakest story overall.

The Watcher takes us on a hike straight into slasher territory. In a third of the Friday the 13th remake's running time, it provides a better example of how to pay homage to the classics, bring the genre into the present, interesting cinematic dynamics, and create  a suspense build which executes into a perfect final climax for the film. The greatest asset this segment holds is the shooting style. Every frame has a point-of-view feeling from beginning to end,and it creates a hell of a mood.

Drive-In Horror Show is not a perfect anthology film, but even among the good ones, I can think of none that would get top honors no matter how much I favor the sub-genre. That being said, Micheal Neel's homage to drive-in horror hits all the bases. Cannibals, monsters, serial killers, revenge killers, and crazy infections (complete with shady government agents) are all staples of they drive-in's heyday. While there's precious few places you can still experience the thrill of the drive-in theater,  Horror Show is a great way to get a little of that at home. It also managed to gross me out, and so I have to give a big shout out to the folks in the special effects department. I'm not usually one to have to turn away from anything, but one portion of Pig made me nauseous. So my hat is off to you (also just in case I need to toss cookies.)

There will surely be critics who would come down harder on this film, and yes there is more I could pick apart. However when it comes to any film, and an indie especially, heart goes a long way. It came through loud and clear that everyone in this film had tons of heart. In fact, I saw a few of them get ripped out. I also saw a first genre feature from a talented new director. Sure, I might have met Micheal Neel, and you might think I'm biased toward Drive-In Horror Show, but my bias lies with things that are good to watch. Earlier I said  that I owed Mr. Neel another drink. I think as more people see his film he's going to have more and more glasses hoisted his way.

Bugg Rating 

Check out all things DRIVE-IN HORROR SHOW here! Including where to get your very own copy! Netflix users please save it to your queue and let's see if we can help Micheal get 'Flix to carry his flick. 

Halloween Top 13: The Remake - #8: Body Snatchers (1993)

Last year when Werner Herzog released his film Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call: New Orleans, it really amused me how bent out of shape Bad Lieutenant director Abel Ferrara got from the idea of his film being remade. Anyone who read anything about Herzog’s film would have found out that the title of the Ferrara’s earlier film was forced on Herzog by a producer who wanted the film to have some name recognition. (Because Werner Herzog's film with Nic Cage was lacking I guess.) That’s not why it amused me though. All I could think about were the scads of remakes of retellings that Able had taken on over his career. His second film Ms.45 is more than a little inspired by Thriller: A Cruel Picture. He would later go on to direct China Girl (1987), a retelling of West Side Story, The King of New York (1990) a  loose take on Robin Hood, and he’s currently prepping a version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with Forrest Whittaker and 50 Cent. The most obvious remake in Ferrara’s career was his big budget version of the classic sci-fi horror tale The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney.

I feel like Ferrara is the type of guy who would argue that other than source material his film had nothing in common with the 1956 or 1978 films. To a degree, he is right. This adaptation, written by genre great Larry Cohen and co-scripted by Stuart “Re-animator” Gordon, does make several sweeping changes to the setting and storyline of the film. The action is moved from the original small town setting to a military base, and the main character becomes Marti Malone (Gabrielle Anwar), a teenage girl accompanying her EPA scientist dad and his new wife. Dad is there to check for contaminates in the environment that may be the cause of mass hysteria on the base. As this is Body Snatcher, I don’t have to tell you that the paranoia is real, and the pod people are slowly taking over the military base.

Abel Ferrara is a filmmaker who never shies away from a political stance, and I am sure it is no accident that his film concerns the armed forces becoming faceless, depersonalized invaders. After all, what could be scarier? If the aliens wanted to get us all, why would they bother to start in a small Kansas town or even in San Francisco (though there is a large military contingent there)? It actually seems somewhat surprising that this came out in 1993. The tone and themes of the film, in light of the recent political climate, seems like it could have been made in the last ten years. Ferrara’s politics might have been the film’s undoing. While Body Snatchers would be nominated for the Palm D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and Roger Ebert, who is notoriously hard on horror films, gave it a glowing review, Warner Brothers chose to dump the film into a very small release before shuffling it off to DVD. There has been lots of speculation into the reason for this move, but I have to think that Warners didn’t expect a glossy, big budget, thematically heavy art film when they decided to remake Body Snatchers.

Politics aside, the real draw for me in Body Snatchers is how absolutely gorgeous the film looks. Ferrara likes his films gritty, and there’s plenty of that here. However, much of the film’s eerie, unsettling visuals could probably be attributed to cinematographer Bojan Bazelli. He had already worked with Ferrara on two previous films, China Girl and King of New York, but he had also had shot the horror film Pumpkinhead and the disturbing thriller Boxing Helena. The result was a film that combined art house impressionistic touches with tried and true horror film methods. One of the watermarks that Body Snatcher films are judged by is how the pods and the pod people look. The first family of effects wizardry, the Bermans, headed up the effects team, and the pods and the cast off human shells are incredibly wonderful to see. I do always have a problem with the pod’s “tendrils” that attach to a person before they are taken. While they are sufficiently gross enough to give me the heebie jeebies, at times it looked like aliens were coming to get you….and they were al dente.

Once again, I find myself this far into the review and I haven’t even talked about the cast yet. While there are a number of great supporting players, Forrest Whitaker and R. Lee Ermey give solid performances, the lead actors stumble causing Body Snatchers fall at eight on this list. Gabrielle Anwar is now known for her beauty, but this was in her awkward teenage years, and as a young actress, she just didn’t deliver on the emotional side of her story. It didn’t help that she was paired with Billy Worth (Dwayne from The Lost Boys) as her romantic interest. Seriously, when she asks him what he does on the base he mumbles, “I’m like chopper pilot.” I don’t know if that’s how the line was written, but he gives a terrible reading and his prowess never rises.  The actor that really made an impression was Meg Tilly as Marti’s step mom. She gives a solid, quiet performance early in the film, but once she gets her pod on, watch out. Tilly has one speech in particular about the futility of escape that always sends shivers down my spine.

The reason that Jack Finney’s Body Snatchers story has been made into a film so many times is easy to see. (Almost as easy as seeing why the 2007 version, did not.)While it is adaptable to many situations and eras, one thing remains constant. The fear that your neighbor, your friends, your co-workers, the mailman,  the green grocer, or even the guy who writes the review you’re reading could somehow not be the people you thought they were is a frightening concept. As human beings, we crave emotional connections, and pod people don’t have time for that kind of thing. They’re like The Borg with gooier centers. While I will always prefer the 1978 remake (Not included because it was previously reviewed.), Able Ferrara does a nice job here taking a stock formula and creating something well defined and specific to his vision. Now if someone could get going on launching a re-make specifically of this film, please let me know, I want to see how apeshit that drives him this time.

Bugg Rating 

Today’s special remake selections come from a man of rarefied tastes, Rupert Pupkin of Rupert Pupkin Speaks. Besides being a cinephile extraordinaire with a talent for digging up obscure gems, Rupert is also a frequent guest on The Gentlemen’s Guide to Midnite Cinema pod cast where he’s done interviews with screenwriter Josh Olson, director Alan Arkush, and film legend Joe Dante among others. On top of all that, he’s a great guy, and I can’t wait to hear what he picked…..

"Ok, here's what I could come up with, these were the ones that stood out besides my much more obvious favorites (Carpenter's THE THING and INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978). 

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2(1981)

Pretty much a straight remaking of the original story of the first F13th film, this one is better in my opinion. In fact, for me, it's easily the best in the series. The burlap-sacked Jason Voorhees is indelibly creepy and unforgettable (if owing a big debt to THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN). Saw this film for the first time in parts as part of a Halloween network broadcast on Fox (if I recall) when I was very young. I remember that even in an edited form it still scared the shit out of me. I was at a friend's house for a birthday party and some kids were watching it. I kept having to leave the room for a bit when I got too scared. I'd come back in, watch for a while, and then have to bail again. The ending was pretty freaky too when Amy Steel has to put on Jason's mom's rotten sweater. My crush on Amy Steel started here for sure.

CAT PEOPLE (1982)
While certainly a flawed film, I have an odd fondness for Paul Schrader's take on Val lepton. A lot of my fondness for it stems from my love for John Heard as an actor. Heard's films CUTTER'S WAY and CHILLY SCENES OF WINTER are two of my all-time favorites. Schrader is a filmmaker I respect as well. BLUE COLLAR is an underrated gem of a film that never gets its proper due. Though it doesn't carry the suspense or atmosphere of the Lewton-produced original, Schrader brings a lot of style to the table. There's enough style there for me to keep me engaged for the whole film. The film will hopefully make an appearance on blu-ray soon as I must say that the HD-DVD copy I have looks pretty spectacular. The all-red opening credits/scene grabs your attention right away. It escapes me until I see his credit on-screen, but it's interesting that this was the second collaboration between Jerry Bruckheimer and Schrader (AMERICAN GIGOLO being their first). That's just very strange to me as I'm certainly not accustomed to Bruckheimer working on films like this one. He would move on to the hugely over-rated yet influential FLASHDANCE after this film and then into his reign as king of the 80s with his co-producer, the late Don Simpson."

Man, oh, man those are some great picks. Friday the 13th  Part 2 is thinking outside the box, and I like where Rupert’s head is at, and Cat People is another one of those films that I wish I hadn’t already covered so it could go on the countdown. Thankfully, I have great folks like Rupert around to pick up my slack. So remember kiddies, there’s only seven more days until Halloween so that means that there’s still seven more terrifying films to (re)make it though!

Halloween Top 13:The Sequel #2- Aliens (1986)

Yesterday, in number 3 on the countdown, I got a chance to talk about the best male hero in the horror genre, Evil Dead II’s Ash. Today I get to talk about another hero, but a very different one. In most horror films, women are portrayed as either bimbos, damsels in distress, or if they’re really lucky, the lone survivor a.k.a the final girl. Very seldom are they shown as more competent than their male counterparts, and even less frequently are they shown as ready, willing, and able to throw down with the big bad. Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979) introduced a different kind of female character with Warrant Officer Ripley played by Sigourney Weaver. Not only was she the hero of the film, she also displayed all the characteristics of the male action hero while still maintaining a sense of femininity. It was a game changing role that you could trace a direct line to female leads in films like Resident Evil or Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It proved that a female character could be portrayed as strong as a man, and not only that, people, male and female, would like and appreciate the character.

By the mid-eighties, Ripley Scott had moved on to other projects, and the prospect of a follow up to Alien looked bleak. James Cameron was about to start directing his first major film, The Terminator, and when the project was delayed because of a scheduling conflict, he went into seclusion and wrote the screenplay that would become Aliens. 20th Century Fox Studio initially balked at the idea of an Alien sequel feeling that the first film had not been profitable enough, but they agreed that if Cameron had a hit with The Terminator then they would let him do Aliens. Well, we all know how that went.

Cameron finished off his script which was more focused on suspense and terror than the bloody, shocking sequences in Scott’s original film. At first, Sigourney Weaver was hesitant to revisit the character, but after meeting with Cameron, she agreed to do the project. The studio was still unsure and wanted a story that did not feature Ripley. Cameron held strong and demanded Weaver on the grounds that when he had signed on based Fox had implied that Weaver would be part of the project. The studio finally relented, but not without a serious round of negotiations with Weaver’s agents. Cameron was going off on his honeymoon, and he told the powers that be that if contracts were not signed by the time he returned, he would drop the project. When he returned, no contract had been signed, and Cameron spread a rumor that he was going to retool the script sans Ripley. Soon both Weaver’s people and 20th Century Fox, not wanting to miss out on the success Cameron had with The Terminator, made a deal which paid Weaver 1 million dollars, over 30 times what she had made for Alien.

The film that Cameron wrote picks up with Ripley still in cryogenic sleep aboard the lifeboat, right where we left her at the end of Alien. It is 57 years later when her ship is found by a group of space salvagers, and she is taken to a space station where she is to be questioned before a panel convened by the cooperation that had sent the crew on the ill fated mission recounted in the first film. They strip her of her rank and sentence her to psychiatric evaluation after scoffing at her story of an attack by an acid blooded, unstoppable Xenomorph. When contact is lost with the planet, LV-426, she is approached by corporate lawyer Carter Burke (Paul Riser) to join a mission to the planet as a consultant. Ripley refuses at first, but she has a change of heart ad agrees to join the mission. When they arrive, they find the planet decimated with the only survivor being a small girl named Newt (Carrie Henn). They discover a massive hive where the Aliens are breeding, and Ripley and the Space Marines are soon under heavy attack from the Xenomorph and trapped on the planet’s surface.

The story spun by Cameron’s script is only of the deepest and most influential pieces in modern cinema. I won’t be getting too far into the meaning of the film as I think many people smarter than me have tackled that subject before, but I do have a few themes I want to touch on. Aliens always seems to me like a film built off dichotomy. The Space Marines, even the female members, are full of macho bravado with a fake sense of bravery while Ripley is calm, compassionate, and truly brave. She exhibits her compassion through her relationship with Newt, and that forms a mother child relationship that holds a mirror up to the Alien queen and her deadly brood. While in the first film the character that serves at the shill for the corporation is the android, this time around the robot is trustworthy while the threat from within comes from one of Ripley’s human compatriots. There are a million things to pick apart in this film, and that’s one of the things that make it such a masterpiece.

The translation of Cameron’s script from the page to the screen had many hands involved in it, and while the creature effects and cinematography are stunning, a lot of the credit has to go to the actors. Weaver is especially effective, and her second outing as Ripley not only shows off growth of the character but also the growth of Weaver as an actress. Every line she delivers is perfectly pitched. Her every facial expression tells the story of what is going on beyond the words she speaks. Weaver has stated that she drew inspiration for the role from warrior women in classical Chinese literature. I can see this reflected throughout the film where compassion, truth, and honesty are shown to be as important facets of her charter as strength, power, and determination. While Weaver has had many great roles over the years, this is the one that will instantly come to mind anytime someone mentions her.

I did not dwell very much on the Space Marines when I synopsized this film, but they play an equally important part in the unfolding of the plot. The standout performance has to come from Bill Paxton as Hudson. I’ve found that Paxton has two performances, over the top and subdued, and usually his over the top performances make me wince. In Aliens, it fits perfectly with his character, and the fact that he’s given the most quotable lines of the film, “That's it man, game over man, game over! “and “Maybe you haven't been keeping up on current events, but we just got our asses kicked, pal!” doesn’t hurt. The other Marines are all given enough time to develop as characters, and by the time any characters are killed, they have risen above cardboard characters to become relatable individuals.

Aliens also provides a couple of other noteworthy supporting roles. First off, Paul Riser was never and probably will never be better than as slimy lawyer Carter Burke. It might help that I’ve always hated Riser so it wasn’t a stretch for me to hate him here. The appearance of Riser also gives Bill Paxton the distinction of having starred with both of the leads from Mad About You in a major motion picture. (Paxton co-starred with Riser in this film and later with Helen Hunt in Twister.) The next performance I have to talk about is Lance Henriksen as the android Bishop. I’ve seen Henriksen in dozens of films, and no matter if he’s the lead or in the supporting cast, the guy can’t help but be creepy. I loved his understated performance, and the knife trick scene is on the shortlist of my favorite movie moments. I would be remiss if I did not mention Carrie Henn’s Newt. Most of the time when you get a child actor on screen, I wince. However, Henn provides a great performance that never gets maudlin or annoying.

The effects in Aliens are not only excellent, they also hold up over time. I was watching the extended producers cut, and I was amazed how current this twenty two year old film looked. The military style of the film does lend itself to a more timeless quality, but I saw nothing in the film that could be improved on by cutting edge computer graphics. Aliens is a film that will look as good in twenty more years and twenty more after that. While it is set in the future, it is a future that seems real, vital, and plausible. I don’t think I even have to mention how great the creature effects were. Headed up by Stan Winston and his crack crew of special effects artists, each of the Aliens looks amazing, and the Queen herself is a triumph in practical effects and puppetry. To bring the Queen to life it took nineteen people working the puppet, and the effect is seamless. Now they would just whip something up in a computer, and in a few years it would look dated and cheesy.

Aliens is a film that works because it was the perfect storm of elements coming together, a director in the prime of his creativity, a cast of interesting and skilled actors, and special effects work that has been rarely matched. The fact that all of this stemmed from a script that Cameron did as lark never knowing if it would reach any stage of production makes the film more amazing. While I love Alien, its sequel is in many ways superior. It takes the base that Ridley Scott built, and builds upon it a deeper, darker, and more rewarding experience. Aliens is a film that always freaks me out, and the next time I get a little heartburn, I’ll be little extra concerned about it.

Bugg Rating

Today’s guest list writer has really outdone himself, and what more could you expect from a guy with a blog called Chuck Norris Ate My Baby. Matt runs a great site that is constantly one of the most entertaining reads out there. I can’t thank him enough for the excellent work he put into his list, and I hope you like it as much as I do. Take it away Matt….

Sequels are a hit or miss, usually a miss as most of the time studio heads are just trying to cash in on the success of a popular horror film by attempting to capture that lightning (BUG!) in a bottle by duplicating what worked in the first film. Rarely does this work, as you will more than likely get a less than stellar film that is just a rushed - rehash of the original movie as seen in films like Teen Wolf Too. For example.

The successful continuation of a horror franchise will always benefit from expanding upon, or bringing something new to what worked in the previous installment(s), whether it be going with a different approach visually, or adding a little more action and/or gore to the mix. I would say that 80% of these films listed below will make most horror fans lists - and there’s a reason for that…they (almost) all brought something new to what worked the first or previous time around, or they went balls out and amped up the action and entertainment.

Since Mista Bugg is doing his thing 13 style, I thought I would follow suite and make a list that consists of 13 sequels too - and without any further ado, here is my 13 favorite horror sequels OF ALL TIME!!

13. Waxwork II: Lost in Time: Taking the fun set pieces of the first Waxwork and bringing it to a completely new level, Lost in Time added time travel into the mix, along with a whole slew of fictional characters and situations to run into. The homage’s are great, and you get some cheap, but still fun Alien inspired aliens, Godzilla, and even a little battle with Zombies in a mall, ala Dawn of the Dead. Oh, and Bruce Campbell has one of the best cameos ever!

12. Blade II: What better way to add something fresh to a movie that was pretty damned good to begin with, than by having Guillermo Del Toro direct? Blade II is slightly better than Blade for me, and that has to do with some crazy and well directed/choreographed action sequences and fight scenes. Blade II also brought some new ideas to the game with the hybrid ultra vampires, while mixing things up by adding a vampire crew to (reluctantly) fight along side the day-walker.

11. Final Destination 2: The groundwork was laid out in Final Destination, and FD2 just took the ball, and ran with it…no need to add to the plot! The Opening car accident is flat out awesome, and one of the more frightening scenes I have seen in a movie…all of the death scenes are a blast and that is all you really needed. Straight payoff.

10. Troll 2: A movie that sweats the definition bad, Troll 2 is epic in its awfulness, and it has pretty much nothing to do with the original film, outside of it being named Troll. Terrible acting, hysterical dialogue, a workout/dance scene, corn on the cob-integrated intercourse, and of course…Goblins. Goblins in a movie named Troll 2…a movie that delivers more entertainment than 80% of movies that have, or will, ever come out.

9. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter: The Final Chapter has always been my favorite of the Friday films and most of that has to do with the Tommy Jarvis character and his collection/obsession with make up and monsters. When I was that age watching this film, I wanted to make those kick ass masks that Tommy made! Clearly, the character was inspired by Tom Savini, whose amazing practical FX and make up on the film are the stuff of legend and another huge reason for loving this 4th Friday film.

8. 28 Weeks Later : One of the best horror sequels of recent years, 28 Weeks Later does a great job of just letting things unfold naturally and fittingly with where the first film left off. One of my favorite aspects of this film is that stylistically, it is very removed from what Danny Boyle did in Days, and the result is a fantastic movie to watch visually as well as narratively. The opening scene when Carlyle is chased from the house is shot so cool and knowing that they used a sort of remote controlled helicopter to achieve the shot is just a brilliant filmmaking tactic.

7. Creepshow 2: “Thanks for the ride, lady!” is all I need to say about Creepshow 2! As with all of the films on the rest of this list of sickness, this sequel is one that came to my conscience in my youngsta days. It was perfect for a budding young horror fan - a killer wooden Indian, teaching jag-off kids to respect their elders and their heritage, a drunk slut picking up unwanted hitchhikers, and a black blob like oil slick that would learn you not to taint the environment…and all the stories were wrapped tightly with a pretty cool animation style tale of terror!

6. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 :Talk about going in a completely different direction from the previous installment, and all with the same director nonetheless - TCM2 is an exercise in pure insanity and outright wackiness. The depravity and mean-spiritedness of the first film is slightly prevalent in Chainsaw 2, but there is a tongue in cheek sense of humor about this film, and it’s antagonists that set it far apart from the original Chainsaw. I remember all to well being a little kid and seeing that poster for Chainsaw 2, where they were riffing on the Breakfast Club and thinking…”I wanna see that!”

5. Hellbound: Hellraiser II : Hellbound almost flows perfectly from the first film with its story of flesh and sadomasochism, while kicking up the grue to a whole new and disturbing level. Where the first film slowly turned into a nightmare, Hellbound feels like a dream throughout - a real bad dream, especially if you are Kirsty. The vision of Hell is unlike anything ever put to film and the setting of a psychiatric-ward is truly scary unto itself. Doctor Channard as the main antagonist was a great addition, and his change into a Cenobite is legendary.

4. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors : The best of the Nightmare sequels and a favorite of many, Dream Warriors is just plain awesome! It bleeds 80’s in everyway, except for the cheese factor, which it has a bit of, but that‘s just more of an 80‘s thing. The first time I saw Dream Warriors was on some pay movie channel that I was watching on the TV in my parent’s bedroom when they were out late one night. Only thing was, we didn’t even have the channel, so I basically just listened to what was going on and made out a couple of things here and there on the television screen. I’ll tell ya, my imagination ran wild with what could have been happening…Dream Warriors truly speaks to a generation of horror fans…my generation.

3. Aliens : The definition of going all out with balls flappin’ - is Aliens. Alien is a classic of cinema, and Aliens was perfect for delivering what every one wanted after the first film…more and more Aliens, a butt load of action. To top it all off, we got the Queen Alien, who may be one of the best horror creations of all time, and one of my personal favorites. Aliens is rock ‘em sock ‘em from start to finish and when it slows down, it is so you can witness some seriously intense situations, such as the face hugger scene with Newt and Ripley for example. “Game over man, GAME OVER!!”

2. Dawn of the Dead : We really are getting down to the nitty gritty now aren’t we? Do I need to even mention NOTLD and how it is one of the top 5 greatest horror films ever made? No, but can I mention that Dawn of the Dead can easily make its way into the top 10 of all time horror films? Well, I just inadvertently did. Dawn is probably the most different from its predecessor than every other sequel listed here, but most of that reasoning is because they were made a decade apart, and in that decade the world changed drastically…so fittingly, Dawn tackled many different, yet relevant themes than the ones in Night. I love everything about Dawn of the Dead - it’s gory, weird and campy, it’s serious but still has a message, and there is even tempera-paint blood and a zombie with an afro!

1. Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn : The first time I watched Dead by Dawn - my best friend lent me a recorded copy after he taped it off HBO. I put it in my VCR, and proceeded to watch…I then proceeded to turn the movie off twice I got so freaked out…seriously! Evil Dead 2 is a remake of Evil Dead with more money and the ability to do more with that money….like Stallone, its over-the-top, funny, and boiling over the brim with blood. Still, funny or not, it is a creepy movie. The scenes when Ash is left to dwell all alone in his haunted surroundings are mega freaky, and the camera work is some of the best in a horror film ever. Of course, there are so many quotable lines from “Groovy, “to “Swallow this!” and what needs to be said about Bruce Campbell that already hasn’t been said? Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn is the perfect horror/comedy mix, and my favorite horror sequel of all time! Hail to the King baby!

Lot’s of great stuff on there, Matt, and a whole lot of films that we’ve seen on the top 13, but tomorrow I’ll be rolling out the Number 1 title. Will it be what you expect? Will it be the best sequel of all time? I certainly think so, and I hope you will as well. So join me back here tomorrow for Halloween and the thrilling conclusion of The Halloween Top 13!

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978): I, Pod

When Jack Finney penned the novel The Body Snatchers in 1955, I highly doubt that he entertained the notions that it would become one of the most repeatedly remade properties in film history. The first version came out only a year after its publication, and then it was remade in 1978, 1993, and 2007. The Body Snatchers story has long been a favorite of mine, and I have seen all four of these films. (Well, in all honesty, I can’t recall if I made it through 2007’s The Invasion starring Nichole Kidman and Daniel Craig.) While I like the fifties version and its red scare storyline and Abel Ferrera’s 1993 version had some draw to it, I always gravitate back to the 1970’s version.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) was directed by Phillip Kaufman, who helmed one of my other favorites 2000’s Quills, and the script by W.D. Richter (author of Big Trouble in Little China and Buckaroo Banzai, two more of my favorites) adhered closely to the original while updating it for both the cultural and film making times. Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland) is a heath inspector for the city of San Francisco. When one of his colleagues, Elizabeth Driscoll (Brook Adams) becomes convinced that her boyfriend has been replaced by someone else, he first tries to get her help from his psychiatrist friend Dr. Kibner (Leonard Nimoy). Yet when the whole city begins to fall apart around him, Matthew begins to suspect that there is something more going on. He, along with his friend Jack Belliac (Jeff Goldblum), soon discover that the threat is not of this Earth, but is there anyone left to believe them?

Where the first version of The Body Snatchers is clearly a metaphor for the threat of a communist takeover, the 1978 version takes its inspiration from the new age doctrines that had become popular in the “Me” decade. The ‘70’s Snatchers is more concerned about the de-humanization of people. Do you know who it is you love, live near, and work with? The Pod People produced by the space spores no longer have a connection to other people. They are emotionless and devoid of independent thought. It is no coincidence that the setting for the film was San Francisco, a city which drew the hippie movement to the Haight-Ashbury and whose freewheeling reputation can be traced back to the era of the Beats with the founding of City Lights Books, publisher of Howl by Alan Ginsburg among other works. One reason I find this version the most compelling has to be that those themes scare the pants off of me. To be stripped of emotion, feeling, and self is a fate nearly worse than death. I suppose you’re a Pod Person by that time and you don’t care, but I would not want to find out.

Carrying these themes through the film, the cast provides a great array of performances that fit perfectly into Phillip Kaufman’s film. Donald Southerland is often hit and miss with me, especially in his early career, but Sutherland and his Harpo Marx hair are near perfect in this film. He gives his Health Inspector character a kind of energy, a wit, and an intelligence that make him everything that the Pod People are not. Brooke Adams acquits herself well as Sutherland’s co-worker and fairly obvious crush, but as the action in the film mounts, she has little to do other than scream. I always love me some Jeff Goldblum, and this film is no exception. His bumbling, stuttery delivery is, as usual, filled with tension and awkwardness, and I loved every scene he was in. Plus how often do you get to see a character who’s a frustrated poet and runs a mud bath along with his wife Nancy (Veronica Cartwright). Ms. Cartwright came to this film with a pedigree from another film featuring an unexplainable attack. She played Rod Taylor’s younger sister in the Hitchcock classic The Birds.

There’s one other cast member I haven’t mentioned yet, Leonard Nimoy. Now I’m sure I don’t have to tell anyone who Nimoy is, so I don’t think I have to explain the irony of him being cast as a shrink who helps people get in touch with their emotions. Nimoy’s performance is very good as well, but his choice of men’s accessories can only be chalked up to ’70’s strangeness. There are a few other well known actors in the film in cameo roles. The best small bit in the film has to be when Kevin McCarthy, the star of the 1956 version, shows up shouting “They’re here!” as a warning to Sutherland’s character. There is also a brief role by Don Siegel, the director of the ’56 version, as a cabbie taking Sutherland and Brook Adams across the city. The fear you see in their eyes is apparently real as Siegel was really driving, and he had lost most of his sight by this time. The last cameo comes from Robert Duvall who is billed as “Priest on Swing”. Not only is the well respected actor’s scene really strange, it is stranger still that Kaufman recalled paying the actor for the short scene with an Eddie Bauer jacket.

The other strength that ’78’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers has going for it is the special effects. From the opening scenes of the spores departing their planet for a long trip across the cosmos, the film is technically stunning. Dell Rheaume (The Amityville Horror, Trancers) and Russel Hessey (The Ice Pirates, Stone Cold) handled the special effects in the film, and from the developing Pod People to the spores and flowers that are the deadly catalyst for the action, they enhance everything Kaufman was trying to do with his film. The effects coupled with the gritty cinematography of Michael Chapman, who employed the same kind of cinéma vérité style in Martin Scorsese’s film Taxi Driver, allow for the fantastical elements of the film to have an impact in reality.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) will likely be remade again many times, and while I normally don’t encourage remakes, I think in this case I could make an exception. The basic story will always be able to become molded into an allegory for whatever the social or political landscape of the time may require, and through the Pod People we can get a long hard look at who we might want to become. The most telling line of the film comes when Sutherland’s character reassures Brooke Adams that they will figure out if her boyfriend had “gotten a social disease, or become Republican”, two things likely very closely related in the pre-Reagan era. So this Halloween season, kick back with a different kind of horror. It’s not a crazy killer, a monster, or demons spewing forth from the mouth of hell, but rather a more unassuming enemy, each other.

Bugg Rating