Murder Party (2007): Art You Glad You Came?

As we get into the Halloween season, there is an extra worry that enters my mind. No, not how much candy to buy, how many times to watch The Paul Lynde Halloween Special, or even which pop culture icon to turn into a pun based costume (The answer is not Let's Go Brandon Lee in which one dresses up like Joe Biden in Crow make-up.). There is often the extra worry of an impending Halloween party, full of acquaintances, strangers, and drunken debauchery which we both anticipate and simultaneously fear.

I've been dragged to so many last minut Pumpkin Day festivities, and you never quite know what you're going to get into. For a couple of years when I was younger, I went to a party hidden deep in the woods, down a long dark, private drive where the ambitious hosts, who were friends of friends,  had spent months hanging fake bodies from the trees and setting up gory displays. By the time I finally arrived at the trailer and bonfire, existential dread had also arrived. Thankfully, it was just a wild party with acquaintances in the woods, and it wasn't some kind of Murder Party.

Bad Milo (2013) Sometimes It Takes Guts.

So today's review is going to get a little personal. It's going to get deep, and by deep I mean that deep down churning feeling when guts twist and distend, when the abdomen cramps and the body heaves into a cold sweat. Everyone has felt it from time to time. Food poisoning and sickness cam often bring such a condition on, but for an unlucky few, allergies or stress can cause such an episode and really put a damper on general existence. I myself have had a lifelong intolerance of the lactose variety. Certainly there are ways to avoid milk, soy or rice alternatives, the Lactaid products, balancing probiotics, but no matter what, let's face it, milk is delicious, and it's in everything. So generally, I just deal with it. I might not eat cereal or milk all the time, but cheese, you've had cheese, right? That's some good stuff.

Over the years this has lead to much consideration of my bowels, and at one point in my life, I faced the inevitability of ulcers if I didn't change my diet and reduce stress. I had been going through intestinal spasming, which is as fun feeling as it is to think about. With changes to my eating habits and less fucks given than ever before, I managed to avoid further complications and drink less milkshakes. (This really ruins things when I go to a There Will Be Blood themed party.) By now, you have to be wondering why you're reading so much about my gastroenterological woes, and there is a good reason. I think it puts be in a special place to talk about today's film, Bad Milo, because like myself, part of the film's protagonist is intolerant, but, instead of a tummy ache, part of his tummy puts the hurt on someone else.

The Wicker Tree (2010) Now Available In Pier 1’s Everywhere

The October horror train keeps on rolling, and it’s come to a stop in belated sequel city. I’m not sure there has been a sequel to any film that had a delay of thirty seven years between the first and second film releases, but I know Robin Hardy has just been way, way too busy to climb back in the director’s chair. After 1973’s The Wicker Man, a classic cult horror film that really delves into a different area of horror than most film, Robin waited thirteen years before directing his next feature The Fantasist. Then he… well, frankly I don’t know what Mr. Hardy has been puttering around doing for the last 23 years, but it had something to do with writing a spiritual sequel to The Wicker Man in the form of a novel, the 2006 release Cowboys for Christ. When I first hear rumor of today’s film, it was in production under the same name as the title, and the brief synopsis involving Texan evangelicals getting mixed up with Scottish pagans was enough to pique my interest. However, when the film arrived under the sequelish name The Wicker Tree, my interest waned. The title, perhaps foisted on him to secure financing (or perhaps of his own decision, I could never find a clear answer) took all the punch out of the film making it look like a wan grab for cash by reusing the ‘Wicker’ name, and after Nic Cage had gotten done with it, that hardly even seems like the best plan. Never the less, I decided to check back into the world previously dominated by Lord Summerisle, who does make an appearance here linking the two films, and see if The Wicker Tree made me want to scream “Oh, Jesus. Oh, God Noooooooo!” or if I’d just rather watch dudes in bear costumes beating up chicks

Female Trouble (1974): Christmas Was Never So Divine

All right, I'll admit right off that talking about John Waters' Female Trouble as a Christmas movie might be a stretch rivaled only by straining fabric of Divine's outfits in this film. However, Christmas does have something to do with kicking off the events of the film, and clearly John Waters has an affinity for the holiday. He wrote an extensive tribute to the holiday in his book Crackpot, has issued a Christmas CD compilation with tracks like "Here Comes Fatty Claus" and "Santa Was a Black Man", and has been known to tour with a one man Christmas show that "puts the X in Xmas". Waters was once even quoted as saying, "If you don't have yourself a merry little Christmas, you might as well kill yourself." I suppose if you don't get what you want for Christmas, then you merely have to run away from home, get raped, become a career criminal / fashion model, and end up in the electric chair. This is John Waters' Christmas after all.

Dawn Davenport (Divine) is a juvenile delinquent, one of the trashy girls at high school with her bouffant hairdo and bad attitude. On Christmas morning, when her parents don't deliver the Cha Cha heels she asked for, Dawn runs away from home and starts hitchhiking. She gets picked up, gets raped, and nine months later her daughter Taffy is born. Making her way in the world, Dawn goes from being a waitress to a go-go dancer before falling into petty crime and prostitution. Dawn marries a hairdresser named Gator (Michael Potter), but their relationship comes unraveled thanks to the interference of teenage Taffy (Mink Stole) and the fact that Gator likes to read magazines while penetrating Dawn with tools. The owners of Gator's salon, The Dashers (David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pierce), invite Dawn into a world of modeling. Crime modeling that is. They believe that "crime equals beauty" and the pair intend to push Dawn further and further down a criminal path. Hooking Dawn on "liquid eyeliner" (read:heroin), the Dashers drive Dawn to new heights of criminality and art.

Female Trouble was Waters' follow-up to Pink Flamingos, and the story contained in Female Trouble doesn't seem that far removed from Flamingo's quest for "The Filthiest Person Alive". Waters again populates his film with the collection of freaks, weirdos, and ne're-do-wells one would expect in his films. While the film clearly belongs to Divine, the supporting cast is magnificent. Mink Stole shines as Dawn's daughter Taffy. With her slapdash make-up and rebellious teen/little girl attitude, Stole provides an excellent counterpoint to Divine's over the top insanity. Edith Massey, a Waters regular best known for her role as Edie the Egg Lady in Flamingos, is all thrashing weirdness as Aunt Ida, Dawn's acid throwing rival who ends up as a one handed prisoner in a giant birdcage. David Lochary, who I wish had appeared in more films before his death in 1977, plays the artistically devious photographer with great aplomb. While all the actors hold their own, only Lochary seems like a real match for Divine.

Now onto the Divine one himself... or herself. I suppose both would be in order here. While Divine spends most of his time in tight dresses and sky high wigs, he also makes a rare appearance in Female Trouble as a man. In fact, he appears as the man who rapes Dawn Davenport. So when Dawn later tells her rapist to "fuck himself", it appears he already had. (Divine would appear onscreen in male clothes only two more times, in Hairspray and his only all male movie role, Trouble in Mind, co-starring Kris Kristofferson.) Dawn Davenport is the kind of character that only Divine could have brought to life. Waters wrote movies that went beyond the scope and scale of good taste, and Divine could bring the larger than life grandeur needed for a character that equates the electric chair with the Academy Award. Their pairing was a perfect one, and while Waters is held up as a paragon of cult film and Indie film in general, I hope that Divine's memory is not diminished to just kitsch. As good as Waters' films were, they were built on the performances and Divine's presence most of all.

The main theme of Female Trouble is the quest for fame and adulation at any cost. Dawn Davenport doesn't have any respect for her parents, her child, the law, or society in general. However, by the end of the film she is deeply concerned with the message she leaves behind for her "fans" as she is electrocuted. This brought to mind much that is rampant in the media today. More often than not, bad behavior only serves to increase celebrity. Take for example Kim Kardashian. While her mother is married to a famous athlete, Kim has made no discernible contribution to society for which she should be awarded celebrity. Oh wait, I forgot. She was in a home made porn and has a big booty. My mistake. I don't mean to pick on Kim, (Okay, maybe I do a bit.) but she makes a good example. While Kim's actions aren't tantamount to gunning down a live audience, they do prove that acting badly gets attention. Even after all these years, Manson still holds a token of celebrity among some people, and Charlie might have been on John's mind during Female Trouble as well. The "crime is beauty" idea came from discussions Waters had when he visited Manson family member "Tex" Watson in jail.

So Christmas, yep, there's nothing like watching Divine cut the hand off The Egg Lady to get yourself in the mood for the festive holiday. Okay, so it wasn't the most Chrissmassy movie around, but who can resist watching Divine throw a fit under her Christmas tree because of Cha Cha heels. I know I can't, and if you can, well your heart needs some Grinch sized growth. In the days leading up to the holiday, I've got some more festive titles lined up, but it was a real holiday treat for me to get to review this John Waters film. Somehow I've managed to get into year four without ever talking about one of the King of Trash's features, and every time I watch one I remember what a great gift they are to cult film lovers. So this season, when everyone else turns their thoughts to Baby Jesus, I encourage everyone to check out Female Trouble, leave the religious trappings behind, and turn your holiday into something Divine.

Bugg Rating

The famous Cha Cha Heels Scene
 

The Deadly Doll/ LBL Thanksgiving Swap Has Been a Baaaaad Boy (Bubby)

It’s been a couple of months since last Emily of the Deadly Doll’s House of Horror Nonsense and I got a chance to do a film swap, but after our recent meet up at Horrorhound Weekend, I really wanted to get back to our film exchange. After swapping around a few ideas, we settled on a Thanksgiving-ish theme, "Movies We Are Thankful For". For my part, I gave her Alice’s Restaurant, Arthur Penn’s 1969 adaptation of Arlo Guthrie’s eighteen and a half minute song featuring hippy Thanksgiving, courtroom hijinx, and a rousing lesson in draft dodging. Click on over to Deadly Doll’s to see why Alice’s makes me thankful, and what Emily thought about it, but first Emily's pick, Bad Boy Bubby, an Australian movie that's perfect for the whole family at the holidays. It has to be family friendly. Well, that is if your family is really into incest or torturing the family cat. I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me give Emily a chance to set up her thankful selection...

"I can't officially argue that Bad Boy Bubby is an appropriate Thanksgiving movie--for starters, it takes place in Australia, where turkey is probably replaced with emu for all I know--but it's certainly a film that I'm THANKFUL for. It's cheating of course, but still: this 1993 independent black comedy is one of those movies that just make me happy to WATCH MOVIES, and thankful that there will always be artists who can take chances onscreen.

So sure, there's incest, animal violence, sexual harassment, and surprisingly grisly murder, but somehow all of these acts work in harmony to create a weirdly sweet coming of age tale not just about a boy growing up, but about a man discovering the world and all of its gifts. Pizza! Cats! Love! Duct Tape! Aren’t we all thankful these things exist? Set it to a bizarro spoken-word-rock score and bam! We’ve got something that celebrates the essence of this fine and tasty holiday far more appropriately than giant balloon animals."

To say that Bad Bob Bubby doesn’t start off as your typical Turkey Day affair is possibly the greatest understatement since the settlers told the Indians that those blankets looked fine to them. The first thirty minutes of the film are some of the most excruciating cinema I’ve ever managed to watch. I would have had an easier time watching Salo, Cannibal Holocaust, and Martyrs on three screens simultaneously.  Thirty five year old Bubby (Nicolas Hope) has never set foot outside the walls of the dingy apartment he calls home. His domineering mother (Claire Benito) beats him, molests him, and threatens him with poison air and a vengeful God. When Bubby’s not having sex with Mom, he delights in torturing cats, squishing roaches, and other assorted grossness. His world is turned upside down when his father returns home, and it’s not too long before Bubby goes on a parental killing spree.

It’s a half hour of some of the most abject darkness I have ever sat through, but somehow director Rolf de Heer almost manages to overcome the film’s setup in the next hour and half. After offing the folks, Bubby goes out into the world. There he discovers music, pizza, cunnilingus, rock and roll, atheism, pain, love, and finally happiness. Over the course of Bubby’s transformation, de Heer used 35 separate cinematographers to capture each of the new experiences, and each one adds a pair of fresh eyes to the proceedings. Through Bubby, who later takes on the persona ‘Pop’, is a difficult character to relate to or fully like, his childlike wonder of the world is an amazing thing to behold. Perhaps the easiest shorthand to describe the film would be to say it is Being There by way of Eraserhead with a healthy dose of black Aussie humor thrown in to boot.

The jillion dollar question though is do I share the same feelings as Emily about this movie? Well, in some ways it does make me thankful. Anyone who watches the first half-hour will be glad for two reasons. First, it didn’t happen to them (presumably), and secondly, they never have to watch it again. While I found Bad Boy interesting and through provoking, I feel like de Heer might have veered too much into the shock factor during the first act. It left a long hole to dig out of, and with Bubby’s actions later in the film still remaining despicable, the redemptive part of the film feels a bit hollow. I do share the sentiment that de Heer made a brave film, and certainly it is not intended for every audience. Had Emily not picked this film for me to watch, I’m not so certain that I would have hung in there past the kitty violence (of which there was more than I ever want to see again), but ultimately I’m glad I did.

That being said, I, for one, am glad I get to get up in the morning on Thanksgiving Day, turn on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and enjoy the crap out of the giant balloons, Broadway dance numbers, and a special appearance by the Rockettes. I can’t imagine part of me would rather be watching a challenging, but exploitative, art film. So on that point, Emily and I diverge. What I am most thankful for today is the Deadly Doll. From our monthly (or semi-monthly) swaps to our face to face meetings, it’s always a pleasure to butt heads (and occasionally agree) with her. I’m always glad to have a friend that will make me try and wrap my brain around cinema like Bad Boy Bubby, and one who will watch Alice’s Restaurant in good humor (though I thought she would check out the song as well). That’s all for this Pilgrim’s progress for today. Check back later in the week as I gobble up a Turkey Day semi-classic.

Bugg Rating

The Deadly Doll's Pick: Popcorn (1991)

Hey everyone. It’s that time for another film swap with my pal Emily from The Deadly Doll’s House of Horror Nonsense. Last month, you might remember that Emily assigned me the Asian cannibal flick, We Are Going To Eat You. This month she picked out 1991’s Popcorn in honor of Jill Schoelen, one of the guests of the upcoming Horrorhound Weekend that both Emily and I will be attending. Now I was familiar with Jill.  She also appeared in one of my favorite remakes, Phantom of the Opera (1989), as Christine opposite Robert England’s Phantom. Now after seeing Popcorn, I have to ask. What is the deal with the beautiful Ms. Schoelen and guys with deformed faces which they try and disguise? It seemed unusual to me that she made these two films back to back, and in fact one of Popcorn’s alternate titles is Phantom of the Cinema. The metaphor doesn’t extend to all her films though unless one of the cast members of D.C. Cab has something they’ve been hiding.

In Popcorn, Jill stars as Maggie, a film student who has been having reoccurring nightmares of a strange man, but she tries to put it out of her mind as she helps her film class get ready for a horror film marathon. After landing the Dreamland Theater, a nearly condemned cinema that once caught fire, as their venue, they assemble a number a movies to show that involve props in the style of William Castle’s theatrical stunts. Getting ready for the show, they come across the film Possessor, a film made by Laynard Gates the leader of a film cult and a man that Maggie begins to believe is her father. When the big night comes and the films start rolling, the bodies start stacking up, but Jill’s suspicion that her auteur patriarch is to blame turns out to be untrue as the killer is someone much closer than she could ever expect.

Originally, Popcorn was intended to be directed by writer/actor/ director Alan Ormsby who is best known for his scripts for Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things, My Bodyguard, and the 1982 remake of Cat People. After only three weeks or principal photography, Ormsby was taken off the job and replaced by actor Mark Herrier, best known as Billy in the Porky’s films, taking on his first directing job. It has been reported that the only thing that remained from Ormsby were the segments of the Castle inspired stunt films. Interestingly, I thought that the first half of the film, which was loaded with long sequences from the faux cult selections, dragged significantly, and the film also tended to cut back to the movie within the movie when I would have preferred more of the killer taking out his vengeance.

For the first hour, little kept me going through this film other then Schoelen who was charming in a way that always reminds me of Jennifer Connelly and the appearance of stalwart character actor Tony Roberts as Maggie’s teacher Mr. Davis. However in the last 40 minutes of film, the film changes pace as the reveal of the real killer entirely changes the dynamic of the film. Unfortunately, I get into the problem that the part of the film I liked has spoilers all over it. So before I get into it a bit, I wanted to give everyone a warning that I was going to tread toward the ending. The killer is revealed to be Maggie’s classmate Toby who was also caught in the fire that Maggie escaped as a child. Now, hidden behind a rubber mask, he’s returned to take his revenge. Tom Villard, who also starred as the baddie gang leader in Parasite, gives an inspired performance in the final act of the film that totally redeems the slow, padded opening of the film. Villard brought to the film an engaging and modern slasher that combined humor with more than enough of the essential creepiness needed to remain a menace. I could have easily watched him in several sequels which sadly did not materialize.

Popcorn is often compared to the other William Castle inspired film Matinee, but the two share little other than an admiration to the King of the Gimmick. Popcorn is a satisfying slasher that starts off a little weak, but the ending pays off so well that it saved the entire picture to me. My early reaction to the film was that it was another low end slasher that come out after the trend had really run its course, but with a simple bait and switch and a couple of good performances from Villard and Schoelen, Popcorn became much more than a hardened kernel. It filled up the bucket with enough clever ideas and entertaining scenes to make for a cinematic delight filled with buttery goodness. I want to thank Emily for recommending this one to me, and I hope you all go over there and check out her site for a review of Motorama, the film I recommended to her for this month.

Bugg Rating 

The Deadly Doll’s Pick: Baxter (1989)

Welcome everyone to another brand new feature here at the Lair. One of my favorite bloggers is Ms. Emily of The Deadly Doll’s House of Horror Nonsense, and she has agreed to swap films with me once a month. This time out I chose for her the 1976 wormy feature Squirm, and in return she chose for me the 1989 French film Baxter. I had heard tell of this movie before, but I didn’t know what to make of it. Often I saw it listed as a horror movie, but I’ve seen discussions of it in art film circles as well. So I didn’t really know what to expect. I knew it was about a dog with a bad disposition, but I wasn’t expecting the French version of Cujo to bound across my screen. So I put my faith in the judgment of Emily and watched the film with no expectations, and Baxter rewarded me by being a complex and wholly original film.

It would be almost impossible to synopsize the film without first saying that a great deal of the action is told from the point of view of a Bull Terrier named Baxter. Born in a kennel, he knows nothing but his longing to be with humans, and that longing takes Baxter on a strange journey though a series of owners. Baxter‘s first owner is a widowed woman who has never owned a dog. She finally warms to the dog, but Baxter is unhappy with her and obsessed with the young couple who live across the street. Feeling like the widow doesn’t treat him respect, he causes the old woman to fall down the stairs to her death. The disgruntled canine then finds himself adopted by the couple that he watched from the window for so long. Baxter feels like he has found happiness, but when the young couple has a child things change too much for Baxter. Soon he meets his final owner, a young boy named Charles (Francois Driancourt) who is obsessed with Hitler’s final days with Eva Braun (including building his own bunker). The budding sociopath and Baxter becomes quite a pair, but eventually they are set at odds where only one of them may survive.

I don’t want anyone to make the mistake and think this is a talking dog movie. The bull terrier never has any conversations with anyone, but instead narrates the film like a demented version of The Incredible Journey. As a dog owner, I’ve often wondered what my dog was thinking, but I’m not so sure I want to know anymore. While Baxter was clearly a troubled mutt, it was easy to see how his worldview could be a product of instinctual desires. The bull terrier breed is feared in Europe due to a number of vicious attacks (similar to the pit bull which is more popular in the U.S.), but I think many American viewers will take one look at Baxter and think “Spuds McKenzie”. Younger readers may not recall Bud Light’s #1 Party Dog, but it was the first thing that sprang to my mind. While I might have thought that “Spuds” might have a drinking problem, I never assumed that he would have a mean streak to him.

When it comes to talking about the acting in the film, it seems a bit strange to discuss. Baxter was voiced by French actor Maxime Laroux who also appeared in the 1990 Jeff Goldblum film Mr. Frost. Laroux gives the dog a voice that contains equal parts menace and innocence that perfectly fits the troubled dog. If we are to understand Baxter, then the voiceover has to hit a certain tone, and it fit perfectly giving the dog an aggressiveness while still illustrating that there is a certain sense that he doesn’t really understand why he acts or feels the way he does. The human actors in the film are not really the main focus of the film, and while the widow and the young couple are both interesting, we get to know very little about them. They are there for Baxter to react to rather than be fully formed characters. The same can’t be said of Charlie, played by Francois Driancourt. The young actor does a great job creating a character that is more frightening than the canine that becomes his companion. At first Charlie seems like a kid with some strange interests, but as the film progresses the cruelty and callousness of the young man becomes clearer. In some ways, the film poses an important question as to which of them, the boy or the dog, was the real vicious beast.

Baxter is not going to be a film that will appeal to everyone. Its mix of horror, black comedy, and art film combines to make a film that kept me attentive throughout. It is a challenging film that makes one reconsider what is going on in the mind of man’s best friend. So I can’t thank Ms. Emily enough for picking this one for me this month, and I encourage everyone to go check out her great review of Squirm. Next month we’ll be back again with another film swap, and I’ll be waiting to see what Emily has in store for me. For now, I think I’m going to watch Milo & Otis and regain my faith in the inner thoughts of dogs.

Bugg Rating