IT FOLLOWS
My kid recently told me
he wanted to stay five-years-old forever. When I asked him why he replied,
"because I like the number five." Getting old sucks. Growing up sucks
even worse.
For the kids in It
Follows, adolescence is coming to an end. They cling to their youth by
reminiscing about their more dull-witted days. But adulthood, like the
mysterious force that has been haunting them, is inevitable. It is contracted
via sex, the ultimate metaphor for innocence lost. It can be avoided for a time
by having sex with another. Likewise, I have postponed the aging process by
having children. I live vicariously through them.
The themes at work in
the picture are timeless, but its design will appeal to those who grew up on
the neon slickness and gritty atmosphere of the parachute pants and Garbage
Pail Kids era. Its gliding camera and synth-driven score do not diminish the
forcefulness of its ideas nor its nail-biting ambiance. It is an intelligent,
original and most importantly, frightening experience.
- (look at past posts for a longer review of the picture)
SPRING
Spring is a rough and
gritty horror fantasy wrapped around a tale of romance and aimed at a
sophisticated genre audience. Horror fans should take note of filmmakers Justin
Benson and Aaron Moorhead.
One of the reasons the
picture is so successful is that it takes its time developing its characters
before delving into more gruesome territory. The first third of the picture
plays like a painterly humanist pic, more interested in talk than action.
California tough guy Evan is spiraling out of control following the death of
his mother. He escapes to Italy where he embarks on a romance with Euro-hottie
Louise, a woman harboring a deep secret, not to mention a pair of tentacles.
Once the movie moves
into blood-curdling territory things get a whole more interesting. Scenes of
transformational body horror exceed the picture’s minimal budget and add to the
creative combining of genres.
Character, theme and
slimy effects: you’re lucky now a days to get one or the other. Spring delivers
all three.
WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS
The Flight of the Conchords guys celebrate the
pre-Twilight days of vampires in their hilarious new mockumentary, What We Do
In The Shadows. Vladislav, Viago, Deacon and Petyr are members of the legendary
undead that share a flat in New Zealand. They sleep in closets and crawlspaces
during the day and prowl the streets for victims at night. When Nick, the
assclown boyfriend of their human servant Jackie, is turned into a bloodsucker,
their routine is thrown into turmoil.
A charmingly entertaining romp, What We Do In
The Shadows manages to squeeze laugh after laugh from its slight premise. The
most ridiculous lines are the ones you’ll find yourself quoting days later. One
particularly funny moment sees Vlad comparing a sandwich to the blood of a
virgin. “If
you are going to eat a sandwich, you would just enjoy it more if you knew no
one had fucked it.”
What makes What We Do In The Shadows so good is
the sanguinary delight it takes in depicting scenes of gore. We’re not talking
casual droplets of blood, we’re talking gallons of life fluid spraying in
violent jets of garish red across the screen.
The film plays best in an enthusiastic group
setting, but no one can deny the exceedingly good time provided via its
refreshing humor and gross-out visuals.
THE FINAL GIRLS
The 80s was an awesome time to be a kid. The Michael Jackson era
of slap bracelets, boom boxes and trapper keepers also provided some of the
finest slasher films not directed by John Carpenter. Friday the 13th,
The Prowler, The Burning all told cautionary tales of girls showin’
their nudiddies before being punished at the hands of a knife-toting maniac.
The Final Girls is aimed at those with a soft spot for the dead
teenager decade. Not only does it exploit the conservative message of its
forebearers though, it also has something to say about love and loss.
When a fire breaks out at a screening of the slasher film Camp
Bloodbath starring Max’s (Taissa Farmiga) late mother (Malin Akerman), she and
her friends attempt to escape through a hole in the screen. What awaits them on
the other side is not the backdoor but Camp Bloodbath. They must fight
alongside Max’s mother and the other counselors to survive a masked killer.
A stylish and amusing send-up of slasher conventions (vice
precedes slice and dice, character archetypes, flashbacks, voice over, end
credits, sequels), The Final Girls is a must see for those who like their gore
intertwined with humor.
THE GREEN INFERNO
It was recently reported
that McDonalds has a secret menu. Among the items available is the McGangBang:
a hearty, golden-brown bun stuffed with savory beef and chicken and a special
sauce.
Speaking of off-the-menu food items, maven of grue and all-around kinky dude Eli Roth had a new movie this year. The spectacularly gory The Green Inferno follows a dim-witted group of student activists who go to the Amazon in an effort to save the rainforest only to run into a tribe of mondo bizarro cannibals. Ch(sh)ock-full of blood, guts and penises, Inferno is a loving homage to the (mostly Italian) man-eat-man films of the 70s and 80s.
I have a measured respect for Roth. Not only does he cultivate mainstream
horror, he’s oiled the works for extreme horror to exist in
multiplex theaters. But I’m not a huge fan of his oeuvre. He’s clearly in love
with the genre, however, while his previous efforts mime the booze-on-blood
stylings of horror’s perennial best, they often overlook the sociopolitical
undertones that made them so successful. This time out he’s paid tribute to a
genre not particularly known for its social commentary. Okay, so maybe Cannibal
Holocaust has something to say about the fundamental nature of man, but give me
a break. Roth may have wanted to make a point regarding the millennials’
reliance on social media, but that crashes and burns when his cinematic
activists take a nose dive in the jungle. He's a formula guy and here he's nailed the formula. It’s a wildly entertaining feast for
gore-hounds. Limbs are separated from bodies, torsos are disemboweled,
brain-matter is heaved at the screen with aesthetic delight. Oh, and the
cannibals get “the munchies” after accidentally ingesting some top-drawer
marijuana. It's all really quite fun.
WHEN ANIMALS DREAM
A few months ago a number of
researchers reported to The Economist the discovery of some
wolf/coyote/dog hybrid thingy that has begun to pop up in a few of our nation’s
largest cities. Apparently, the fluffy cousins started boning about 200 years
ago as colonists forced them off their land.
Speaking of curious species, Marie
receives the unwelcomed news on the eve of her 16th birthday that
she and her mother are part human, part carnivorous werebeast. As if becoming a
woman didn’t bring about enough problems, now Marie has to deal with a hairy
chest and a town full of unhappy residents.
Subverting horror lore as metaphor for teen angst is nothing new. (Ginger
Snaps was a refreshing treat in 2001.) But When Animals Dream molds the formula
of its predecessors into an intimate and often creepy coming-of-age thriller. While
not quite transcendent, its combination of intelligent writing with alluring
photography make for a welcomed addition to the werewolf genre.
I also kind of liked: THE VISIT, GOODNIGHT MOMMY, POD, CRIMSON PEAK, THE HALLOW, MAGGIE, THE GIFT, CREEP, A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT, THE HARVEST
Films that got some buzz that I did not like: WE ARE STILL HERE, DEATHGASM, KNOCK KNOCK, THE GALLOWS, HELLIONS, STUNG, VISIONS, THE NIGHTMARE, LAST SHIFT, BOUND TO VENGEANCE, DIGGING UP THE MARROW
