These days, looking an an indie film is a treacherous proposition. While the advent of cheaper technology has leveled the playing field and allowed everyone to grab a camera and make a film if they so desire, it also means that anyone can grab a camera and make a film if they so desire. For that very reason, and because I have sat through some real travesties over the years, I shy away from low budget efforts more often than not. For every one film that might be good, there always seem to be twenty more by Bill Zebub, or worse yet an imitator of his, waiting round the corner with a bag of offensive jokes, some substandard gore, and the vaguest stab at a plot.
However, when the director of today's film, Mike Dobrzelecki, approached me to check out his first directorial effort, Die, Develkok, Die, all those indie film reservations faded away. You see, I've been following Mike for the last two years as he's made this labor of love, and, in the interest of full disclosure, he's been a longtime friend of the LBL going way back. Rest assured loyal Lair-ers, The Bug doesn't just give out good reviews for nothing just because someone is my friend. You've got to have the long green if you want to see my payola price list, and let's face it, indie guys like Mike just don't have it to spare. They need to put it all on the screen, and when that happens, it's the best payoff of all.
A Jughead is Archie's best friend who can't eat enough burgers, and a Jarhead is a nickname for a Marine. However, a Jug Face is something entirely different. The term generally refers to a tale of Appalachian pottery where an ugly face as sculpted into a jug that often contained moonshine or poison. In the instance of today's film, these same kinds of jugs are depicted as omens, and if your mug shows up on one, well, it's not a good thing. I actually got clued in on this movie by an artist friend of mine who specializes in making jug face pottery (and Goatse coffee mugs, best not to dwell on what that looks like), and it is my sincere hope that he never gets captured by a band of backwoods people who want to use him as their seer. Jug Face is at its core a backwoods thriller, but what it has to say about the dangers of blind devotion, well, it's a mixed message, but one I think doesn't get said often enough. So come with me while I explore whether Jugface had a good head on its shoulders or if it’s merely the pits.
Absentia is a film that I started to watch a dozen or more times before finally making the plunge. I don’t know if it was the generic looking art of a screaming woman being dragged away or the legalese sounding title which looked out of place on a horror film, but it just didn't seem like the kind of horror that would appeal to me. However, after hearing about it for a while, and Netflix’s relentless campaign to suggest it to me, I relented and I am glad I did. There seems to be a new wave of horror that combines the bone chilling and the supernatural with a hefty dose of human drama. Stories of longing or loss pervade these films, and while some succeed in the balance (Exit Humanity), others (I’m looking at you The Tall Man.) feel more like a bait and switch than horror fare. While Absentia takes some time to get rolling, it is a film that manifests some genuine emotional moments nestled neatly with the notes of a creepy creature feature.
Last Monday to kick off October, I got an early look at Grave Encounters 2. Well, back then I told you it wasn't the last you would hear about the film this month, and I’m back today with that other part. I was lucky enough to get a few minutes to sit down and ask questions of John Poliquin, the first time director at the helm of Grave Encounters 2. So read on, and find out a few things about the movie, a little bit about John, and what Wall Street could have to do with it all.
T.L. Bugg: You took over directing duties from The Vicious Brothers with Grave Encounters 2. What was your approach to the sequel and did it remain a collaborative effort?
John Poliquin : Yeah, yeah, it definitely was. They were on set every day most days, actually they were on set every day but they were editing in a room. So they were involved from pre-production all the way until delivery. So it was definitely collaborative. My approach was basically I wanted to maintain the style and a lot of the vibe and what worked on the first film but bring my own style to the second film. New but familiar was really what I wanted so it felt fresh but still like a Grave Encounters movie.
Despite what the title of the review says, I will tell you right up front that a 50’s home maker, a movie reviewer, a rock legend, and one of the UK’s top drunks are not the big evil in tonight’s film. Instead, it is a tale of a weekend getaway gone wrong. Which begs the question, why would anyone go for a jaunty out of town trip with their friends ever? I mean have people not seen what happens when you try and have a relaxing weekend? It always ends up with ghosts or killers in masks made of human skin or cannibals running a motel. It’s nothing but bad business I tell you. It’s even badder business when you take your knucklehead friends out on a boat to cruise down a small river. That never ends up well, and for the characters in today’s thoroughly British horror tale, well, on all levels it just doesn’t turn out well. So come with me on this little trip to The Reeds which is surprisingly not a film about killer woodwind instruments.
I think many of us can agree that the zombie is getting a bit played out on movie screens these days. Second only to vampires, these mindless shamblers seem to pop up incessantly both on the big screen and, even more frequently, the direct to video market. So when I was looking for a zombie themed movie to talk about today, I waded through a lot of silly dreck. As if fighting vampires wasn’t enough, a knockoff company has our 16th president going up against the undead in a low budget release, another film features stoners using zombie brains to fertilize pot, and still another pits bloodsuckers against vampires to fight for the fate of mankind (which I don’t see working out either way that battle goes.) Despite the fact that the name of this film gave me a chance to make a Snagglepuss joke in my title, there’s little to nothing funny about the 2011 release Exit Humanity. Instead it is a sobering zombie film which tackles real issues, contains actual moments of suspense, made a period setting seem natural, and, get this, did it all on a low, low budget. While Exit Humanity might sound like all hope is lost, instead the film gave me hope of light at the end of the zombie tunnel.
Hello folks, and welcome to October. Let me tell you, I’m super excited for Halloween this year. It’s my favorite time of year, as I am sure it is for many of the LBL’s readers, and it just so happens that I have an incredible way to kick off the month. What I’m talking about is an early look at Grave Encounters 2. You may recall my review of Grave Encounters which I paired with the classic British spookshow Ghost Watch for an article I cleverly titled Grave Encounters on a Ghost Watch. The first Grave Encounters focused on Lance Preston (Sean Robertson) and his band of Ghost Adventuresque paranormal hunters who stumbled into an abandoned asylum which was filled with actual ghosts. Through the found footage film, we see the team gets picked off as time and space begin to have no meaning in the supernatural vortex in which they have stepped. In other words, it was one of my favorite movie conceits, ghost hunters find more than they were bargaining for.
After all the holiday fare of the last month, I felt like looking at a film that was far removed from seasonal tidings, and I couldn't have got much further removed. Devoid of any kind of joy, including perhaps enjoyment, 2010's Spiderhole definitely will not have sugar plums dancing in your head. It may have visions of Saw tapping about though. By definition, a spider hole either refers to the home of a trapdoor spider or a military foxhole big enough for one, such as the one Saddam Hussein was famously caught inside. I assume that the writers meant to inspire images of the arachnid and not the infamous last stand of the Iraqi dictator. I have to assume they went with the inspired title instead of the more direct Dead Squatters because they didn't want people to think their film was about zombies pooping in the woods. In this case, perhaps the unwanted attention might have been a good thing.
British art school students Molly, Zoe, Luke, and Toby (Emma Griffiths Malin, Amy Noble, Ruben-Henry Biggs, George Maguire) are tired of paying rent and utilities and the like. Instead they decide to find somewhere to squat, essentially take over an unoccupied building and declare residency (a feat which is apparently fairly easy to achieve in England), a practice that has fallen out of favor, but once was rife in the London artistic community. Finding an enormous mansion, the four-some move in, get drunk, have sex, and generally don't do a lot to insure their safety in their new home. In the morning, where there had been only wooden doors before, they find steel doors bolted and welded shut. It doesn't take them long to figure out that someone else is in the house. That someone is a crazed doctor with sketchy motives, but a clear desire to remove legs, hands, eyes, and hearts. As the group gets split up and picked off, the survivors begin to realize there is something in the house even worse than the deranged doc.
There is easily as much tension in Spiderhole as you just experienced reading that synopsis. Which is to say, none. With predictable twists and turns (the group turns on each other, one of them almost gets away only to be caught again, they find their fate emotionally devastating), writer-director Daniel Simpson clearly expresses himself as a fan of horror, but instead of breaking new ground, Simpson treads the same water already crossed in films like the aforementioned Saw and Eli Roth's Hostel. The "scares" are so predictable that I amused myself though a good half of the flick by divining what was going to come next. Most of the time, I was right on the money. Though I didn't predict the film's final, throwaway twist, the rest of the film was paint-by-numbers torture pr0n lite. However, the film itself is artfully shot with more than a few flashes of real movie making skill. Simpson, working with experienced cinematographer Vinit Borrison, clearly made some interesting choices, but they weren't enough to save the preposterously trite plot.
With only the four squatters and the villainous doctor to populate the film, thankfully, the acting was Spiderhole's strong suit. Emma Griffiths Malin, who plays the lead role of hypochondriac Molly, is a good grounding force for the film, but like all the other characters, she seems a tad too whiny and annoying to really latch onto. First time actress Amy Noble, who suffers from the same unlikable character, gives the standout performance as Zoe, and I'll admit that it doesn't hurt a bit that she's quite fetching. Ruben-Henry Biggs is infinitely loathe-able as the wishy-washy Luke, and George Maguire revs up his ego to play the de facto group leader, and house picker, Toby. While I think that every actor did as much as they could with what they were given, the problem is that they were all written as unlikable or annoying. In a film like this, I need to give half a crap about the characters or when they get sent off to meet their fate it means diddly. Spiderhole has a whole lot of diddly (squat?) going on.
Spiderhole is making its way to American shores by way of IFC films, which lately has really expanded its buying power in the horror world. A couple of weeks ago I looked atGrave Encounters, also an IFC Films product, and I liked it very much. Spiderhole actually reads at points like a less entertaining, less imaginative version of that film. While I highly support IFC giving first time and indie directors distribution deals, I do think they should keep a tight eye on quality control. I would not have been at all surprised if I found this playing on SyFy, but if I tuned into the channel that claimed to be "Always on, Slightly off" and saw this flick, I'd feel like that "slightly" might need an adjustment up. Spiderhole really misses the mark, and not just with the tired story line. It violates the cardinal rule of horror films. It has to be scary. Even a jaded ol' Bugg like me knows a real scare when he sees one, but as far as I can tell, all the frights in Spiderhole must have bugged out.
There's basically two movies to talk about if you want to broach Thanksgiving horror. (Unless you count Eli Roth's fake trailers in Grindhouse for Thanksgiving.) There's 1972's Blood Freak, which isn't really about Turkey Day, but it does feature a biker being turned into a killer turkey with an appetite for drug dealers. Then there's the 2009 low budget effort Thankskilling. While I've never got my hands on the former, I've avoided the later for the last two years as, frankly, it sounded stupid. Well, I finally watched it, and I wasn't at all wrong. Thankskilling is stupid, stupid like a fox. With a killer puppet turkey running around spouting one liners and a script that wants to be Troma-like but can't quite manage, Thankskilling may just be the antidote for the family Thanksgiving dinner.
Seeing as this is a poultry based slasher, there's precious little to synopsize. The movie starts off with a pre-title sequence wherein the film's killer turkey makes his first appearance while offing a large breasted pilgrim (Mature porn star Wanda Lust). Cut to present day, and five college students are on their way home for Thanksgiving break. After the nerd tells them the legend of Thankskilling, the Gruesome Gobbler begins to stalk the teens. Their only hope is the vast collection of books about Turkeys that one of their fathers owns, but before they can stop it, the turkey rapes, murders, and bastes a swath of blood wherever he goes.
Making a movie on a shoestring budget is no easy task even in this shot-on-video era. Thankskilling is one of the better looking movies to come out of this movement, and it's plain to see that every penny of the $3000 dollar budget is onscreen. The problem is the chasm from the films they seem to want to make, and the one they did. While the film opens on a naked breast, this is the last bit of sleaze you get in the film, and the violence is watered down to practically nothing as well. Director Jordan Downey clearly wants to follow in the footsteps of Lloyd Kaufman, but a fairly tame tale of a wisecracking turkey isn't going to do the job. The turkey puppet, voiced by Downey, is clearly the best part of the film (and the scene where it shares a cup of coffee with a man in a turkey suit is hilarious visually if nothing else.), and the wisecracks took me right back to the days of my youth before funny Freddy Kruger wasn't infinitely irritating.
Perhaps the greatest strength of Thankskilling is its brevity. Running just barely over an hour, it's an easy watch, and it contains enough decent jokes to make the experience worthwhile. It also might be better if you're slightly sleepy from too much turkey. Someone test that theory out and get back to me on it. Right now Thankskilling is available for Instant Watch on Netflix, and while it is an incredibly flawed movie, I still encourage folks to check it out. After all, there's only so many times you can watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving or Miracle on 34th Street, and no one is ready for A Christmas Story quite yet. So after bottling up all that rage at your family gathering, come home and queue this one up. It may be a turkey about a turkey killing some turkeys, but it's not a bad way to spend a holiday evening.
Before I go, I want to take an opportunity to thank all my readers. No matter if you're celebrating Turkey day or one of my readers from around the world, I thank each and every one of you who make the Lair one of your favorite places for Cult, Horror, and Genre reviews.
One of the reasons I started The Lair (the one and only, accept no substitutions), was to throw the spotlight on some of my favorite films, and over three years ago, I got around to one of my all time favorites, Jeff Waltrowski's Project: Valkyrie. In that film Jim Cranston, a deadbeat who owes money to the mob, finds helpful hero robot Valkyrie while going through boxes of inventions belonging to his grandfather, Professor Jack Cranston. He keeps the robot, but to make some quick cash, sells off a serum that causes the rise of the Fourth Reich. Thankfully, Valkyrie gets Jim into gear and they stop the rise of the mutant Neo-Nazis. Imagine my surprise when six months after my original review, Mr. Waltrowski commented on my post and teased a prequel to Project: Valkyriefeaturing the adventures of Professor Jack Cranston. As I followed the production of It Came from Yesterday, I was very impressed the the scope of production that Jeff was undertaking. He planned to film the entirety of his movie on green screen, a risk that could either really pay off, stumble over itself, or just create infinite comparisons to Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. In the end, It Came From Yesterday captures a mixture of the past, present, and future, with mixed results.
It Came from Yesterday begins with a preamble in which Jack Cranston (Waltrowski) and his older brother James (Nathan Hollabaugh) take on one last menace together, a race of invading bug people. In the end, James succumbs in order to defeat the menace, and Jack is propelled to take up his brother's fight for truth and justice. He forms the Electric Club, and along with his partners Buddy (Noel Ripka) and Penny (Nayli Russo), they defeat the world's menaces. When the bugman menace rears its ugly head again, Professor Jack must overcome the pain of his brother's death if he is to save the world once again.
I purposely kept the synopsis very short because there's precious few people who've gotten a chance to see It Came from Yesterday, and the film is filled with twists and turns (and at least one Easter Egg for Project: Valkyrie fans) that I don't want to spoil. As the film is focused on the past, let me start there. Waltrowski's film, like Star Wars and Indiana Jones, garners its inspiration from the movie serials of the 1930's and 1940's, but unlike those Lucus joints, It Came from Yesterday goes the extra mile patterning everything from themes to dialog off those films. That means that some of the lines sound forced, some of the social ideals are passé, and the situations are silly at best. Which means I loved all of that. Waltrowski clearly knows his source material and has great respect for it. There's also another part of the past showing up on screen as well. While most of the CG works and works well, sometimes so seamlessly that I had trouble seeing where the set decoration began and the CG ended, a few of the vehicle related shots looked like Bob the Builder was about to step on screen. Now these portions couldn't have accounted for more than 45 seconds of screen-time, so I'm kind of nitpicking, but the rest of it was so impressive that it momentarily jarred me out of the film.
Now let me move on to bigger, better, and more present parts of the film. Writer/ director/ artist/ producer /star Jeff Waltrowski impresses not only in his off screen role, but also in the expansion of Professor Jack, a minor player in Project: Valkyrie, into a full blown, heroic character. Noel Ripka also really shines as Buddy, Professor Jack's sweet but dumb sidekick. I rooted for him so hard that I almost wet myself. Nayli Russo's Penny was sadly underused, and I would have loved to see more of her. I could have also used more of Steve Foland's Samm Maxx, Professor Jack's benefactor. For one, he had the 1930's style patter down cold, but also there was something about his character that reminded me of Maxwell Lord from DC comics Justice League. Andrew Blood makes a great impression as Flyboy, and with only a limited amount of screen-time, he carved out a memorable and humorous character. While all of the players' characters were built out of stock archetypes, each brings something fun to the table without performing with a smirk or a wink. It Came from Yesterday is played straight, and by doing so, provides plenty of laughs.
Now onto the future. With the advent of digital cameras, indie filmmakers were free to film pretty much whenever and wherever they wanted. What Waltrowski did was break down the restrictions of location and budget. With CG technology hitting the home computer, there are no longer any restrictions on where and when a director can film because the setting can be placed in later. While I mentioned that a few scenes stumbled, the vast majority were astounding. There is an aerial dogfight scene that rivals anything in Sky Captain, and quite a number that come off with a Watchman-like brilliance. To sit back and imagine the labor or love that went into making It Came from Yesterday is astounding,and to consider that there's no studio or major effects house behind the film, is mind blowing. While it may not have been perfect, it truly shows off the future of film making in which there will be no restrictions beyond the artist's imagination.
It is my genuine hope that It Came From Yesterday is a film that I can recommend for you all to see in the future. Right now, it's looking for distribution after a four week premiere run in Waltrowski's hometown of Pittsburgh, and if I've seen an indie that deserves some company's attention, then it's this one. When it does reach the masses, I really feel like sci-fi fans and lovers of the classic serials will love what Waltrowski has done. While it might have "came from yesterday", it clearly has its eye on tomorrow, and I see great things in Waltrowski's future. (Hopefully some of them will include a return of a certain helpful robot.) Check out the trailer below for a sample of the film, and when I get more word on releases, I'll be the first to let you know.
From 1984 to 1989, Micheal Landon ruled the airwaves as an Angel traveling America's byways to lend a helping hand in Highway to Heaven. That series ran for five years and contained no less than 225 heartwarming moments (plus or minus an 'Awww' or two.) It took only 79 minutes for Hell's Highway to undo all the good that wholesome entertainment provided. Now to be fair with Hell's Highway, I went into it expecting another film entirely. I had it in my mind it was the 1991 film Highway to Hell that I recalled reading about in an ancient Gorezone. So after the opening scenes wherein I realized that this movie was an '02 indie and not Ate De Jong's take on Hermes and Persephone. What I didn't expect was that in such a short running time, with my expectations as low as they could get, and my cynicism toward low budget movies of the last twenty years flaring up, I would actually enjoy my trip down Hell's Highway.
The film kicks off with a group of college aged kids driving across t he country (extensively racing another load of kids to California), but things start to go badly when they ignore the fist rule of any horror movie survivor and pick up a hitchhiker named Lucinda (minor scream queen Phoebe Dollar She seems like a normal girl around their age, but soon enough she's claiming to be the devil and threatening to put a bullet in her uterus. The group manages to push her out of the car, but finds themselves ruthlessly stalked by Lucinda. At every turn she is there, and no amount of dragging her body behind a car or shooting her seems to help. The kids soon start the believe that Lucinda may well be the Devil and they might already one residents of Hell.
Hell's Highway was director Jeff Leroy's fifth film, and I'll have to be honest. While I've laid eyes on a number of his DVD boxes, I've never really caught his name before. From the description, the plot seems predictable and trite, however the film takes a cleaver twist which saves the weak premise. It also gets a shot in the arm from Phoebe Dollar's performance which anticipates Sherri Moon Zombie's performance in House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects. Dollar's psycho turn is menacing and effective drawing from equal parts Edwin Neal's Texas Chainsaw hitchhiker and a gleefully demented Russ Meyer girl. Though she appears in less of the film's total running time than any of the other actors, she's the only one that leaves any impression on me upon reflection.
The effects in Hell's Highway are solid interpretations of classic effects, and the body dragging behind the car is worth the hour and change alone. There's also a dynamite model sequence, pun untended. The greatest strength of Leroy's film might be brevity, shave another couple of minutes and it fir nicely into an anthology series. The director suffered an injury during the filming of Hell's Highway, and naturally it was burns. He had dabbled into the affairs of the horned one below, and suffered the consequences. I guess it proves that if you can stand the heat, you might just cook up a little something in the kitchen. Oh ,also, Ron Jeremy gets his dick cut off. How many horror movies have something to do with the man being somehow separated from his wang? Seriously. A lot.
Bugg Rating
Check out the short doc The Curse of Hell's Highway
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.
When Kevin Kangas, director of the infamous Fear of Clowns, asked me if I’d like to take a look at his soon to be released film Bounty, I breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn’t Fear of Clowns 3 and agreed to scope the picture out. Having seen very little other than a short clip, I didn’t really know what to expect (other than the absence of shirtless clowns) so I pressed play and braced myself for the worst. The surprising part is that I didn’t get it at all. Instead, in the six years since Fear of Clowns (and three since the much improved Fear of Clowns 2), Kevin Kangas has grown as both a writer and director, and his newest film should put his name into the minds of a lot more horror fans.
Bounty is set up like a documentary film. I know you can swing a stick and knock down 10 indie flicks with a similar style, but where Kangas turns the genre on its ear is in the subject matter, bail bondsmen and bounty hunters. Being an avid watcher of the train wreck that is Dog: The Bounty Hunter, I can say with confidence that the style of the film is right on. It’s a little less herky jerky than Cops has a tendency to be, but there’s still a bit of the disorienting camera flailing that we’ve all seen on reality cop series. As with the shows it pays homage to, the film begins with the average in and outs of the bounty hunting biz interspersed with slightly melodramatic monologs from the lead character, Carl “Grunt” Henderson played by Tom Proctor. It sets up its “reality” so well that if I flipped by it on TV unaware of what I was watching, I would assume it was a reality crime show that slipped under my radar. That would be quite a tall order because they are one of the few reality show fixes I allow myself.
After a bit of set up, the real plot is comes in, the search for a bail jumping scientist named Ernie Litwak (Neil Conway). When the bounty hunters track down an apartment that he rented, they don’t find the scientist, but they do find a girl bound and gagged in his bathroom with an array of used needles nearby. They release the girl, but when they do, she takes a bite out of Grunt’s son Kelly (Chris O’Brocki). They let her go on her way assuming that the wackjob Litwak was moving into serial killer territory. When they finally do track him down, it quickly becomes clear that he wasn’t experimenting on the girl; he was trying to cure her. Out on the street, the girl is infecting others with a virus she carries created to make a perfect combat soldier. It causes people to lose all fear, all inhibitions, and all humanity. The infected begin to mass with a single target in mind, Grunt, Litwak, and everyone around them, and it’s up to the Grunt to save the world from certain destruction.
Bounty is unlike any other I’ve watched in quite some time. It manages to take notes from things we’ve seen before, such as found footage films and the infected, and give them a new spin. Now, I’m not going to say Bounty is a perfect film. A couple of performances that don’t quite hit the target, and the middle portion of the film is bogged down with some repetitive scenes. However, once the climax starts building, hang onto your hat. The last third of the film is a manic rush that got my pulse pounding, and as a jaded viewer, that’s a pretty tall order. I thought it would be hard for me to separate the director of Fear of Clowns from his new work, but there was never a moment that Kangas’ earlier film entered my mind. This is one of the better independent films I’ve seen in a while, and it is a real feather in the director’s cap to have come up with such an original concept.
Bounty also features some great acting turns anchored by the lead, Tom Proctor. With his craggy face and fluffy mane of hair that brought to mind a Foghat roadie, he perfectly fit the role of “Grunt” the Bounty Hunter. Actor and stuntman Proctor may be unfamiliar to many folks, but he’s been around for a while with bit parts in films like Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, Fear of Clowns 2, and 2009’s Pandemic. Proctor has the kind of screen charisma that I could only compare to an actor like Tom Atkins, and I sincerely hope that he lands more lead roles in the future. Chris O’ Brocki and Michelle Trout also stand out as respectively Grunt’s son Kelly and his wife Maggie. Though Trout has only a minor role, she has one of the best scenes in the film that surely will be one of the standout moments. As I mentioned earlier, there were a couple of shaky performances. John Rutland, as Grunt’s sidekick Ing, and Neil Conway, as Litwak, both give some less than stellar line readings, but it takes little away from the film.
Working from his own script, Kevin Kangas fashions a film that would be hard pressed to be labeled as derivative, and a good deal of credit also deserves to go to both cinematographer Jarad Noe and editor Harvey Glatman for bringing the reality show look to life. Also, a very impressive atmospheric score really helped to ratchet the tension up a great deal. Even the metal song in the middle of the film, which sadly I forgot to jot down the name of, was both enjoyable and aptly placed. Overall, Bounty shows a director who has grown by leaps and bounds in only six years, and I certainly hope to see more of what he’s capable of in the future. I know it will be a while before Bounty gets a chance to be seen by a widespread audience, but it is a film you want to keep on your radar. When the name Kevin Kangas comes to mind, I will surely recall Fear of Clowns and the good-natured response he had to my review, but I think first my mind will go to Bounty, a film that I just can’t wait for more people to see.
Hello folks. Before I turn it over to the Ladies of the Lair, I want to issue an apology. For some reason I cannot determine Google Friend Connect a.k.a Followers has stopped working with any Internet Explorer under 8.0. I know this is a problem that has cropped up on many sites, but not all. I honestly don’t understand the ins and outs of HTML enough to fix it, so, for now; I’ve had to remove it. I hate it, and it pisses me off. The community if people that read my site are one of the things that keep me motivated, and I enjoyed being able to see all your lovely faces on the site. At any rate, when it gets fixed or I figure it out, it’ll be back. For now, just know that I appreciate all of you. Now on to the Ladies.
Mystery Train (1989) starring Masatoshi Nagase, Youki Kuhoh, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Nicholetta Braschi, Steve Buscemi, and Joe Strummer. Directed by Jim Jarmuch.
Mystery Train is comprised of three stories that take place over the course of the same night in the same part of Memphis. The three journeys may be different, but they all lead to the Arcade Hotel. Manning the front desk is the clerk (Screamin’ Jay Hawkins) and bellhop (Cinique Lee) who are in for one hell of an interesting night. The three tales, a duo of Japanese tourists from Yokohama, an Italian widow who has visions of Elvis, and three locals filled with alcohol and rage trying to pull off a crime, weave together as the Mystery Train rides into the night.
Tid Bits
--Jim Jarmusch is the founder of “The Sons of Lee Marvin”, a semi-secret society for men who either by looks or by status could possibly be the son of Lee Marvin. No girls are allowed for obvious reasons, and other members include Tom Waits, John Lurie, and Richard Boss.
--Bellhop Cinque Lee is the younger brother of filmmaker Spike Lee.
--Screamin’ Jay Hawkins is an R&B singer most well known for his song “I Put a Spell on You”. Mystery Train also features a cameo by singer Rufus Thomas known for the hits “Walkin’ the Dog” and “Do the Funky Chicken”.
First, I would like to confess that I am a rabid Tom Waits fan. He is my favorite musician of all time, and he is how I came to know about Mystery Train in the first place. Waits only appears here as the voice of the late night radio DJ in each of the stories, but I liked the film so much I had to see more Jarmush. This brought me to seeing such great films as Down by Law, Night on Earth, and Stranger than Paradise. I was a happy girl.
Then a few years back the Bugg’s parents gave me a present that I will always cherish. It was a VHS containing two episodes of the series Fishing with John. What is that you ask? Well, it was a fishing show on PBS hosted by John Lurie, the musician who was often tasked with the score for Jarmush’s films including Mystery Train. So why would a girl love a fishing show so much? Well, when the first episode features Jim Jarmush going shark fishing and the second Tom Waits in Jamaica after crashing a car, you quickly find out how great a fishing show could be.
Now back to the task at hand, Mystery Train, Jarmush is not just a guy with a camera and an idea. He is more about the art of film making, and what beautiful art it is. The camera work was perfect and made the stories flow so nicely. From the Japanese tourists debating the merits of Elvis vs. Carl Perkins, to the widow’s close encounter with a spectral king, to the mistakes of the drunken trio, I was hooked. Tying the film together in a neat little bow were Hawkins and Lee at the hotel desk. These two almost steal the show, and their scene with the Japanese plum is just brilliant.
Bottom line, I love Mystery Train. Of the three stories, Far from Yokohama is my favorite, but all of them are wonderful. At no point did I feel there was anything unnecessary or that the film could have been cut for time. As always, this film is a captivating experience from beginning to end. I most definitely recommend this film to anyone. Even if you think this is not your thing, I say try it and you might just find yourself pleasantly surprised.
Train Rating
The face of the small city I live in has changed much in the last 2 decades. It all started innocently enough. One big European company moved in. Then one after another more companies came, and all the sudden we were multicultural city. The boom was super awesome. We got Target and Starbucks and Whole Foods. Fifteen years before you could not make a Martha Stewart recipe as written from what you would find in our grocery stores here, now when I go to the deli counter I have to pick which Gouda I want. There is one thing about it that unsettles me about all the change. My whole city had this newfound respect for culture, but just not their own.
With all the excitement of the new influences, we have failed to remember what the whole world knows. Folk music lead to country and blues, which lead to jazz, which lead to rock and roll, which lead to Elvis. That doesn’t make us the best country, I’m not saying that. What I am saying is it makes us the coolest and the globe knows. Too bad Americans don’t, and Mystery Train makes this point in spades.
The film opens with the young Japanese couple longing to see the birthplace of rock and roll. The streets of Memphis become a character in the film as they explore them. In a couple of shots you can see the shiny skyscrapers from the forgotten downtown. They keep on walking without a clear plan except they must get to Sun Studios and Graceland. The second story is about an Italian woman trying to get home with her dead husband. Having to make arrangements with the airline she gets stuck in Memphis. She gets conned, and almost mugged just trying to survive her layover.
These stories seem to be the two sides of the American coin to me. The first is a pilgrimage. The second is an exile. Both are executed very well on all fronts. It seems to beg the question how are we seen. As the movie winds down to the last story the answer seems to be who's looking and where are they looking from.
The last act is about lost love and murder. It ends by bringing all the stories together with one gunshot, seen and heard by all. It does tie up the loose ends, but I wouldn’t say the point of the three acts is plot. It seems the smaller details grow together like pretty weeds, poetry or a song. We start with Elvis and end with Johnny Cash, with Roy Orbison’s high lonesome tenor in the middle.
The irony of this movie is it’s about lost art, and it may become lost art. It is rather long and subtitled in parts. Some audiences could easily lose patience with it. While it does have comedy, the movie is mostly dramatic in nature. All the action is at the end. That makes it slow, but not from bad story telling, just because it must be. It would be much harder to get the feeling of a forgotten place and time otherwise.
The cast is fantastic so the acting is never an issue. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins does a shockingly good job. In my viewing experience sometimes the best musicians over act, but not here. Also I wanted Tom waits to be a DJ so bad after the credits rolled. Someone at XM, get on that.
While it only has 2 bullets and very little blood, I am all for this movie. I will warn that it is a character and dialog driven film, and just like the early music of the city it is based in, full of love, loss, and angst. It reminds the viewer that when rock and roll started it was about what all music of the people is about, simple human need. As the world gets smaller and global art fuses together, that’s a good thing to remember. Maybe it’s time to put some Carl Perkins on your Ipod.
Train Rating
Plus I found Fishing with John on YouTube so here's part one of the Jarmush episode.
.jpg)
