Undearly beloved, please rise for an unholy matrimony...
As reported earlier in the week, real-life couple Jenny Jones and Rob
Blackmore joined in unholy matrimony at the ‘UK’s first zombie wedding’ on
Tuesday evening to become the undead wedded Mr and Mrs Blackmore. To celebrate
the release of the second instalment of the DeadIsland franchise, Dead Island Riptide, the game’s publishers Deep Silver launched a
Facebook competition in pursuit for the most fanatic DeadIsland
duo and horror-obsessed enthusiasts to be married in a zombie themed matrimony.
Jenny and Rob were the lucky Liverpudlian winners and the couple took to the
alter in their most monstrous attire and were hitched with their faces
stitched.
Publicity stunts come in all shapes and sizes, but this extravagant ghoulish
lovers affair, which attracted widespread appeal among gamers and horror genre
lovers alike, will be a tough act to follow. Having gained national recognition
and even further widespread coverage in the wake of Liverpool’s
Suarez’ chomping behaviour, over 250 people flocked to One Mayfair for the
uniquely entertaining event. Family and friends from Liverpool crawled down to London for the wedding and a number of press were added to
the deadlist to make up the numbers for a truly monumental Mayfair
apocalypse.
This wasn’t a reimagining of the ceremonial acts in [Rec]3. People didn’t turn up to wish the bride and groom a ‘happy’
orthodox wedding, and the infectious party didn’t start with a dodgy soup. Upon
walking into the tall standing open doors of the impressive historic venue, the
familiar Caribbean beach theme of the DeadIsland
game provided an instant reminder of why this occasion was so highly
anticipated. Deep Silver went all out with Hawaiin-style furnishings, biter-size
beach-style canapés and ‘Riptide’ cocktails to keep the ravenous flesheaters at
bay. The free bar may not have cost a dime at the time, but the consumption of
those deadly concoctions was a costly price to pay the following morning. You
could say that I didn’t leave my zombie act in Soho.
Guests threw themselves into the theme with zombified costumes and you’d
sometimes stumble upon the odd figure in a Hawaiian shirt who resembled the
poor animated holiday-goer that you hit around the head with a wooden plank only
nights before on the Playstation. The venue may not have mirrored the eery
feeling of isolation and helplessness that the game envisages, and you
certainly didn’t feel the need to pick up cautionary shock mod machetes and
nailed baseball bats, but the walking dead were certainly present. With
professional make-up artists turning fresh faces into torn up wrecks worthy of
Romero replicas, a distant call loomed for a scouser version sequel to Cockneys
vs Zombies. Meh, who knows.
The focal part of the evening was, of course, the ceremony. Presenter Sarah
Chapman readied the rowdy crowd and introduced the vicar was dead dressed to
impress. Zombie bride Jenny stole the show and shuffled down the aisle to the
sorrowful music composition played over the new game’s trailer. After some
twisted nuptials by which the couple agreed to love each other “in sickness and
in rotting” and to “grab and to hold” one another, and which was entertainingly
read by Rob in his well practised demonic voice, the night erupted into the
normal trappings of a traditional wedding with a zombie twist. Hoards drooled
over the blood-dripping, brain topped tower cake and the live music from the Mariachi
Mexteca Mexican (who entranced with an appropriate rendition of ‘Monster’) band
crowded the dance floor with the congregating corpses until little before
midnight. The party never suffered from soullessness and the deadly trappings
of well-rehearsed family dances sequences to ‘Thriller’ kept the necrotic
living dead flailing their arms rather than baring their teeth.
Congratulations to the happy couple- til’ death do them part.
Dead Island Riptide is out to buy
today for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows PC.
(Visit www.horrortalk.com for more of my published work, and for horror news, reviews,
comment, reports & competitions)
THE STONE TAPES ***1/2 Instantly granted an outstanding reputation and work of
brilliance since its original broadcast on Christmas night 1972, it’s no
surprise that 101 Films has re-released Nigel Kneale’s critically-acclaimed BBC
television ghost story, The Stone Tapes.
A scientific research team for an electronic technology
company relocate to a renovated Victorian gothic mansion. When computer
programmer Jill (Jane Asher) sees a ghost in a locked-up store room at the back
of the house, the rest of the team also begin to see the apparition and hear
its loud screams. Manager Peter (Michael Bryant) launches an investigation into
the phenomena, believing it to be a supernatural impression of past events
trapped in the room’s stone wall, which he dubs the ‘stone tape’. For Peter,
“it’s a mass of data… waiting for the correct interpretation.” But when the
researchers try to unlock the mysterious recording in an attempt to prove a
scientific breakthrough in the recording medium, they unleash an evil,
malevolent force that has been buried in the house’s dark history for decades.
Kneale’s play is a classic example of fine genre television,
blending conventional fiction storytelling with cross-generic sci-fi, drama and
horror mechanisms. Today, it remains one of Kneale’s most congratulated works
outside his Quatermass movie and
mini-series, serving his fervent interest in the conflict of science and the
supernatural which has influenced further acclaimed literary works and
scientific conjecture. Remaining an exemplary product in the traditional
haunted house genre, it interestingly combines supernatural theory, historical
investigation and a thought-provoking scientific hypothesis in the exploration
of the building’s fabric.
Director Peter Sasdy has certainly created a very looky and
feely film, cruelly attacking the senses with a profusion of colourful effects
against the house’s dim-lit backdrop, coupled with a noisy trip of shrills,
whirring and sirens. If it’s not the chaotic sound of the paranormal activity
in heavy footsteps and strident cries, it’s the whirring of mid-20th
century technology or the ear-piercing screams from one of the crew. It’s
certainly crucial to the busyness and the sinister mood of The Stone Tapes, but it does require you to keep your TV volume
button close to hand.
Though the effects are (as you’d expect) considerably
outdated, rendering a supernatural presence with strobe lighting, coloured
smoke and flickering projections, it rejoices in an abundance of eery silences that
infuses a lasting trepidation.
The acting is very hit and miss with amateur performances
across the cast that are more theatrical than suited for the screen, but they
still manage to deliver a few thrills. Asher personifies the typical helpless
heroine and victim of the ghost who is misunderstood and devalued by her male
colleagues, spending most of her time onscreen screaming, tripping over,
burying her head in her hands and covering her ears in shock. It’s a memorable
performance- though not a great one- that is enhanced by Sasdy’s excessive use
of zooming and panning, providing dramatic close-ups that are now largely
inattentive in horror’s modern cinematography.
It certainly invades the senses both audibly and viscerally. Close your eyes and you may be able to picture yourself on the set of a 1950’s Doctor Who set. Its sound effects are tinny, raucous and hard to bear for ninety minutes - but that’s the point. And thankfully this is enhanced by a clear, vibrant picture that will no doubt keep this masterpiece on people’s screens for years to come.
VERDICT: It ends righteously with gloom, doom and death - and one
loud scream! This is a tape you will be glad to have witnessed, and is well
deserved of scrutiny from a modern perspective.
(Visit www.horrortalk.com for more of my published work, and for horror news, reviews, comment, reports & competitions)
Rob Zombie brings a lot of noise but not much rhythm in this
backward satanic venture, The Lords of Salem.
Heidi Hawthorne (Sheri Moon Zombie) is a dread-headed rock
chick who DJs at her local radio station in small town Salem, Massachusetts.
When she receives a vinyl record by an unknown band called ‘The Lords’ from an
anonymous sender, Heidi and her colleagues Whitey (Jeff Daniel Phillips) and
Herman (Ken Foree) become intrigued with its ominous, aberrant sound. But when
Whitey plays the band’s track on the radio, dubbing them ‘The Lords of Salem’,
Heidi is tormented with flashbacks to her past traumas. The mysterious message
hidden within its repetitive bars tell of a much darker pastime of infamous
witch trials, and unleash a reawakened evil she is forced to confront behind
the door of apartment 5.
Zombie certainly stays true to his practice. The narrative
spurts mere moments of cohesion, and after thirty minutes its logic is
hopelessly lost in an abhorrence of disjointed, nonsensical religious cult
imagery. Any initial stir of classic storytelling is forgotten and instead it
stumbles its way through sacrilegious carnage. It’s all face-less priests and hocus
pocus witches practicing the damning rituals of folklore to avenge their
hunters and seek Satan’s chosen one on their path to rebirth.
It may be shocking to see the righteousness of a newborn
judged by the tasting of its skin soaked in bloody juices, but here it’s
nothing but a random, meaningless sequence to squint at. Lords of Salem throws down a ridiculous rampage of flabby,
six-nippled, wrinkly witches that hide in the corners of the kitchen; neon-lit
symbols of Christ just to fire up the modern rock ‘n’ roll ambience; and a fair
amount of bizarre tumour demons and goat worshipping. “Why a goat?” someone asks.
Other than as a piece of livestock for Moon to ride on, I have no idea.
Even horror’s honorary head witch, Dee Wallace, can’t save
the concept. In fact, the trio of the ancient coven (Wallace, Patricia Quinn,
Judy Geeson) are pretty pathetic and hardly have to lift a finger to get to
Heidi; historian/researcher Francis (Bruce Davidson) goes out with a kitchen
utensil blow to the head and Whitey is told to simply go away. Moon takes the
helm alongside her co-creative partner and husband Zombie, but thankfully she
has little to do other than to succumb to the hypnotising hex- subconsciously
zombying her way through the latter half of the film- and make the most of her
fancy-dress make up effects.
Zombie clearly has a bag of nutty ideas, but they are lost
in translation. Appearing predominantly a product of self-celebration, it
offers not a whole lot more than simply strong doses of disorientation and
bafflement.
Nevertheless, it still offers one off-the-rails psychedelic
trip that is sure to stun even those critical of its premise. It’s intriguing
in its quieter moments and, if nothing else, the dialogue is tremendous
entertainment- even if it is for all the wrong reasons. That alone is enough to
illicit more laugh than scares and you can’t help but wonder how much Zombie is
intentionally toying with us here.
The Lords’ droning track is hypnotising (you’d expect Zombie
of all people to hit the nail on the head with this one) and if anything stays
with you, it’s that… and perhaps the image of an entranced Moon battling for
the grip of the umbilical cord of a giant, blood-soaked newborn. But Zombie
must have been too busy crafting his eccentric sequences to give two thoughts
about assisting these few bars with the rest of a soundtrack.
VERDICT: This is one vinyl you’d keep well away from your stylus. If
there was a glimpse of hope for Zombie after his promising debut House of 1000 Corpses and its successor The Devil’s Reject, surely this has been
too far cemented under his visions’ warped delivery and sloppy storytelling in
his prevailing works.
(Visit www.horrortalk.com for more of my published work, and for horror news, reviews,
comment, reports & competitions)
Steve Stone gets a
Fangoria distribution for his directorial debut supernatural horror, Entity. Not bad for your first stab at
the film industry eh.
A camera crew for reality TV show ‘Darkest Secrets’, who
visit places where unsolved crimes once took place, accompany a psychic to a
remote Siberian forest where thirty-four dead bodies were mysteriously found
ten years prior. Median Ruth (Dervla Kirwan) reaches out to the troubled,
forgotten souls who convey to her the terrible circumstances of their deaths. But the
forest is only the beginning. Hoping to shed some light on the cold case, the
investigative team think they’ve hit gold when they are unexpectedly led to a shadowy,
desolate building by the guiding presence of the spirits. It may be a decent
discovery for TV, but when they receive a sinister warning that they shouldn’t
be there, the crew begin to disappear one by one. This is the story of their
encounter with the entity.
It certainly creates an unnerving atmosphere from the get-go,
as the crew walk cautiously around its dark and lifeless corridors. It uses the
building’s bump-in-the-night elements as characters walk clumsily into
clattering trolleys, and we enter a portal into the soul’s torturous past
through the black and white blurred images that Ruth sees. The cursed, harmful
memories trapped within its walls cause her to physically deteriorate, which
throws a welcome curveball in the narrative and interestingly switches the
pressure to the dishonest crew who each have their own hidden agenda.
But it’s not long before the tension collapses and it
plummets deliriously out of control. It exercises cheap scares from then
onwards and the feeble crew become easy pickings for this supernatural force.
The acting is terrible, and the effects are even more so. The immortal images become
too accessible and borderline silly, divulging in excessive sci-fi noises and a
number of unconvincing monster, alien and ghost-type entities. What starts as a controlled
supernatural spook show loses direction and gambles with three too many notions
that are all disorderly and fragmented from one another. An hour in and it’s all over the place. A
further half an hour on and the film ends midway through the mayhem without a
trace of consistency.
The blatant similarities to Grave Encounters in terms of its plot are all too apparent and, as
well as failing to surpass GE’s spookiness, it doesn’t come close to competing
with its controlled use of night vision camerawork either.
Though found-footage in horror has been as significantly
exhausted since the Paranormal Activity franchise
spurred a fervent obsession with documentary and homemade recordings,
refreshing spin-offs such as Trollhunter,
V/H/S and The Bay are still
(surprisingly) finding ways to expand the creative corners of the trend’s potential.
There’s no doubt another found-footage masterpiece is, or soon will be, loitering
in pre-production, and I’ll be readily awaiting its release. But when an
appeasing gem comes tottering along, so comes another handful of drab,
monotonous garbage to further scratch the record. Thus, the making of a heap
more of shoddy ones is even more imminent and, unfortunately, Stone’s efforts
mark the latest example of this. It may be unjustly to scrutinize Entity within this subgenre, as its
commitment to the handheld camera is merely half-hearted. We are presented with
the past happenings of the building through old CCTV recordings, and see some
of the horrors through the lens of the crew’s equipment. But conventional camerawork
takes precedence more in the latter stages as, well, the camera crew become
less present. The switch is certainly annoying and the documentary principle
that primarily generates interest instantly falls apart.
If you’d paid little attention to the synopsis or picked up
this film as a quick grab-and-go, you may have thought this was a well kept secret
remake of 1982 supernatural horror of (almost) the same name. This may well in
fact be Stone’s ploy for his first work to attract attention. Unfortunately, no
matter what pretention you watch this under, you’re most likely going to be
disappointed either way.
VERDICT: Entity
adopts a promising look-in from the outset, but fails to withhold sense or
scares, thus leading itself astray in a baffling, senseless havoc. Watch the
opening and closing scenes and you’ll be pleasantly scared shit-less, but deceptively hopeful about the
intervening 80 minutes.
Carl Bessai breaks out of his romantic/comedy drama mould and delivers something more choppy, aggressive and exhilirating.
Mel Gibson gets electrocuted and can hear women’s thoughts;
Uncle Fester gets an electrical shock and regains his memory; and a dead dog is
reborn as Frankenweenie after being struck by lightening. These kids? They are
forced to repeatedly relive the same day as the next refuses to dawn.
Meet the ‘repeaters’.
Kyle (Dustin Milligan), Sonia (Amanda Crew) and Michael
(Richard De Klerk) are three twenty-something friends residing in a young
offenders rehab rehabilitation, each struggling to suppress their angst over
their own problems and troubled history. When the delinquents get an electrical
shock during a storm and pass out, they awake the next morning to discover that
they are reliving the preceding day. The only ones in the institution that are
affected, the trio live the same day over and over again. With the event of the
previous day forgotten, their slate is constantly wiped clean and each renewed
day becomes more reckless as their lives spiral into a world of violence and
crime.
Entering familiar Groundhog
Day territory always allows room for a crafty narrative and multiple layers
of complexity. Repeaters doesn’t
capitalize on this opportunity but lets the supernatural reasoning form a loose,
absurd framework. It doesn’t offer any further insights and it’s more
reminiscent with the Freaky Friday ‘good-deed-ends-all’
nature.
Having explored animal impulses in her 2007 TV movie Hybrid, screenwriter Arne Olsen further examines
behavioural instincts in a time capsule where justice is a temporal subsistence
and the wrongdoers cannot be held accountable for their actions for more than a
few hours. What dawns as a frivolous lash-out at society through giddy,
youthful expression and a trivial abuse of power- robbing liquor stores and
firing guns at lined-up coke cans- escalates into something far more menacing.
Michael sees the prospects of the ‘gift’ and takes advantage of it, defying the
group’s limit of petty crime and irrational, nonchalant fun.
De Klerk (who starred in director Carl Bessai’s Cole) embodies the rash, out of control
villain whose energetic adventure and psychopathic impulses are by far the narrative’s
most intense element. Milligan and Crew’s characters don’t have a great deal to
do, helplessly trying to make amends with the friend that has turned on them
and entering into a cringy romance which is neither intriguing nor worth the
screen time. They carry the film along with ease but fail to be as interesting
as their co-star.
A drug issue surfaces in its early stages and initiates an
alluring theme of redemption. But this doesn’t really cultivate and becomes overshadowed
by an emphasis on moral decision making. By juggling lots of ideas that are
never fully seen through, we are left confused and unsure who and what to root
for. Bessai raises too many philosophical questions about morality to tackle
and doesn’t allow room for a deserved perception or exploration.
Nevertheless, Repeaters
is fast-paced and aggressive in its more entertaining moments, and its trashy
violence and string of disordered scenarios is surprisingly enjoyable to watch
for the most part.
VERDICT: Ultimately, however, meddling with time is a risky notion which
Bessai fails to sync into anything remotely sincere and thought-provoking. The
concept is too gimmicky to take seriously, and by the time it reaches its
bloody climax, it’s a tad too late to care whether they triumph in their battle
with time.
(Visit www.horrortalk.com for more of my published work, and for horror news, reviews,
comment, reports & competitions)
Think you’ve got problems with the neighbours? Think again.
First-time film
director Rufus Norris explores a dystopian landscape of a decaying cul-de-sac
in North London suburbia.
‘Skunk’ (Eloise Lawrence) has type-one diabetes. She is
always going to be a little different from the others kids, and her tomboyish
outset makes little effort to blend her in with the school crowd. She runs
around seeking adventures and secret hideouts with her brother, and innocently fantasizes
about her babysitter’s boyfriend and teacher (Cillian Murphy). Above all, she’s
dependent and can certainly hold her own against the neighbourhood bullies that
pick on her for being a bit ‘odd’.
But her life is changed forever as a result of a neighbour’s
lie which spirals a series of troubling events. When neighbour Rick (Roberts
Emms)- a kind-hearted but backward teenager- is vindictively accused of raping
a girl who lives opposite them, the girl’s father Bob Oswald (Rory Kinnear)
outbreaks a violent attack on the boy- an attack which Rick and on-looking
friend Skunk do not understand or comprehend.
The rest of the narrative interweaves Rick’s damaged mentality
as a result of by his confused anger and undeserved guilt, with the
complications of each life that is involved with the incident. Norris
demonstrates the vicious circle of how victims of violence can become violent
themselves and the cause of their own fate - how one unforgivable mistake can trigger
a life threatening situation.
The callousness of the Oswald family is the root of all
evil, and each member takes part in spreading their roots to choke those that
surround them. While Bob disregards help and insults any soul who knocks on his
door, two of his daughters Saskia (Faye Daveney) and Sunrise (Martha Bryant)
beat up those unwilling to hand over their pocket money at school. The trio’s
performance is as sturdy as their character’s punches, and the thuggery couldn’t be more solidly delivered.
Norris really hits home with his gritty depiction of rundown
north London.
For each kid, there is a mother or father that has fled, died or is in jail;
for each loving parent, there are two that simply do not care. It’s an area
where solace comes not from within the home, but in a desolate trailer park
next to a junkyard. Escapism is a luxury that many do not have, and looking cautiously through their window at
the harsh realities outside cannot hide them from what they have to face. But
the setting is concentrated to one corner street- a provisional window view- and Norris avoids portraying
a cynical generalisation of contemporary British society.
Despite the inevitable catastrophes unfolding as events
escalate and mishaps occur when the wrong people cross path, the order and
succinct delivery remains coherent and controlled, and it’s as utterly
heart-rending as it is infuriating.
“Why do only bad things happen?” asks Skunk. You may sit
there watching and wondering the same thing. But Broken
isn’t all dark and decrepit and Norris injects a line of light and happiness
that creeps in underneath the turmoil. The beauty lies in his depiction of the
whims of childhood purity, ignorance, and frolicky fun that dances around the
brutality and unkindness of the world around them. The humorous teasing and playfulness
encountered within Skunk’s unconventional family is endearing and you can’t
help but smile along with the games they play and the moments they
share. The respite encourages you to take pleasure in the film’s happy moments, despite incurring a feeling of guilt whilst doing so.
The father-daughter relationship between Skunk and her
father (Tim Roth) is also an honest distraction from dejection and adds a layer of
conventional emotion, something that isn’t apparent between any of the other
characters. Her father’s visions of her as an older woman open up a dreamlike
dimension that too resounds a feeling of hope and optimism.
Elouise Lawrence glows from the moment she skips onto the
screen and pulls off a mature and gripping performance in her debut appearance.
Lawrence
naturally inherits the tomboyish look with ragged jeans and checked shirts,
embodying a courageous, young character who wears a brave tough-front as well as
sweetly succumbing to her youthful dependence with seamless ease.
The upbeat, poignant scores and instrumentals written by
singer Damon Albarn wonderfully couples the picture and a rendition of Blur’s
‘colour’ will be sure to stay with you hours, if not days, after you leave the
cinema. Every element created by Norris, Albarn and writer Mark O’Rowe work
hand-in-hand to present the contrasting, underlying themes of life’s
inner-beauty and outer-evil explored in Daniel Clay’s stunning debut novel.
VERDICT: A deeply distressing but beautifully moving
coming-of-age drama. A powerful debut from Norris which both enrages and
enchants in its strong, and stronger, moments.
When you hear that Chan-wook Park is directing his first
American film, and that the film is a psychological thriller, you may look up
to the skies and say a little prayer to whoever persuaded him to embark on the
west. You may pen in its release date into your diary. And underline it,
several times. What you certainly wouldn’t do is even let it cross your mind
that, even for a second, it will be anything less than you expect.
It’s been almost four years since Park left his unique stamp
on the vampire genre with his refreshingly romantic vampire horror Thirst, and naturally the title of
Stoker indicates that the director may be returning to the genre where he left
off.
Following the sudden death of her father and best friend
(Dermot Mulroney), India Stoker (Mia Wasikowska) finds herself isolated in the
family house with her unstable mother (Nicole Kidman). When an uncle she never even
knew existed comes knocking and invites himself to stay, India becomes
suspicious of the mysterious stranger’s ulterior motives. Uncle Charlie
(Matthew Goode) has a dark side, and instead of being repelled by him, she
falls victim to his infatuating charm.
The assumption of vampirism is made almost certain when India is seen
scurrying up a tree and her opening monologue reads “just as a flower doesn't
choose its colour, so we don't choose what we are going to be.” But an hour into the
movie, you become aware that the initial reference stands alone. Ah but wait, a
tall, dark, handsome stranger with abnormal tendencies walks in to impart his
teeth-baring habits… nope, just a murderous psycho with an obsession with
strangling people with his belt. Charlie’s motive is largely neglected and we
are never really encouraged to dig into his psychological state of mind, other
than through a flashback to something disturbing he did as a young boy.
So there are no vampires and the dysfunctional family
narrative seems more one-dimensional than you may have imagined. The credits
roll and you think you’ve missed something. You haven’t. The clues are all there
and it thrives on the constant second-guessing of what is going to happen- but
then never does- and the apprehension of a twist that never really takes the
audience by shock.
It’s at this point that you remember the Vengeance Trilogy
creator did not write the screenplay.
Prison Break actor
Wentworth Miller played it rather safe on his writing debut, and his depiction
of the dysfunctional family doesn’t verge groundbreaking either. The
disconnection between mother and daughter is conveyed with not a whole lot more
than a handful of stiff, icy glares on the staircase and an over-stated
mismatch in interests. While Kidman goes shopping, Wasikowska reads.
Wasikowska again transitions child to woman in a matter of
minutes and her oddities are well-balanced against Kidman’s straight
misdemeanour. But it’s the character of uncle Charlie that steals our
attention away from their morbid grieving, and it is Goode’s mysterious obscurity and his ability to stir both India and
Evelyn’s fascination, and ours too, that keeps us intrigued.
Time and time again it is Park’s aesthetic imagery that
hones his deliverance of the symbolism to expose the plot’s metaphoric
meanings. And he doesn’t disappoint here. In a series of intermissant revisits to the image of India and her father aiming shot at a deer, the acqusition of the 'hunter' is toyed with. His stylistic sequences of eloquent
shots create an ambiguous and uncertain ambience, and the tension this arouses is
kept strung tight right through to the climax.
As much as it is a relish to see his artistic style on the
big screen, it is a tool used much less frequently than in his former works and
we can only presume this was down to Park’s worries that it wouldn’t translate
to an American audience. He would probably have been right.
VERDICT: The outcome is by no means spectacular, failing
to triumph the director’s prior horror works, and it misses the depth of
character analysis and an brutally revengeful plot that could have been
delivered with Park’s screenwriting presence. But the suspension holds its own and the
plot is duly engaging, even if it does appear insipidly straight-forward on
reflection.
In 2004, Nicolás López directed his
first feature film Promedio Rojo, a dark teen-comedy that Quentin Tarantino
called “the funniest movie of the year.” Nine years later and having buddied up
with horror auteur Eli Roth, the Chilean director looks to plant his roots in
the horror genre with his first English-language film.
A group of travellers in Chile
are living a partying paradise, spending their nights hopping from one
nightclub to another until sunrise. But when they become caught up in an
earthquake, staying alive and keeping together in a rupture of rioting proves a
testing task and a far cry from how they imagined their blissful vacation to
end.
López’ fondness of the
romantic-comedy genre is apparent in the initial thirty minutes of his latest
feature (which world premiered at Toronto International Film Festival Midnight
Madness.) It’s a peculiarly slow start, and watching a group of typical
twenty-somethings (plus 40 year-old dad, Gringo) popping pills, downing shots
and scoring (or embarrassingly not scoring) with girls is hilarious – but a bit
wearisome. Especially when Selena Gomez pops up to turn down Roth. And especially
when it lasts for forty minutes (nearly half of the movie’s running time). But the
character development is complementary in interacting with the following events
and you’ll be glad to have stuck with it. And hey, it’s a good sell of the
director’s home land.
Roth steps back in front of the
camera in a lead role for the first time since Inglourious Basterds as an
American divorced dad, affectionately-named Gringo. He embraces life as the
awkward guy who acts half his age but dresses like the father he is. Each
character exploits their own qwerky habits and trivial problems, playing off
one another to create a mix of good fun and light-hearted tension. But it’s Nicholas
Martinez as Pollo who steals the stage with his garish humour and dominating
screen presence.
In former film adaptations of the
same title, such as Xiaogang Feng's version of the Great Tangshan earthquake, the premise
lies in the natural disaster - the pre-tsunami earthquake, or ‘aftershock’, in
this instance. But the raving nightclub saturated in partying locals and
tourists is literally churned up within five minutes of on-screen time. Surfacing
from the collapsing building appears to be the easy part and it’s all over
within quarter of an hour of partygoers being impaled by smashed bottles and
speaker stands crushing them to death.
Erupting in chaos and frenzy, the
group’s consequential battle is against a city in ruin and turmoil. As convicts
escape from the local prison roam the streets like free men and locals become
irrational with fear and bear an unfortunate distrust towards foreigners, the
tsunami is almost momentarily forgotten. It’s rape, guns and hasty decisions
that become the threatening reality. Co-written by Roth and López, this is
where influences of the grittiness in cult-classics Hostel and Cabin Fever creep
in.
López has described the film as a
completed jigsaw of several people’s real life horror stories from Chile’s
tsunamis. The final hour depicts these events in a relentless string of
shocking tragedies, forming a rapid pace that never lets off. From chasing down
amputated hands to finding aborted babies dumped in tunnels to watching someone
being burnt alive, you wish more time had been devoted to this unrelenting
rollercoaster ride than watching the group chugging cocktails.
The sequence of characters being
killed off runs through the motions and their brief but touching moments of
emotional despair sets it apart from the generic formula. If the last death
sequence isn’t brutal enough, the ending must be a strong contender for the
sweetest sour ending in the history of horror.
VERDICT: Aftershock suffers in a strained
and slow beginning but is saved by a compelling sequence of unimaginable
horrors in the latter half. Toying with horror, laughter and heartbreak, López’
succeeds in tapping into every emotion to create an above average earthquake
survival flick.
If you want to avoid valentine clichés at all costs, or if you’re after something different from the run-of-the-mill romcoms and are fed up of seeing Cameron Diaz crying on your screen on the same night every February, here is a list of ‘alternative’ film choices to get you clinging on tightly to your loved one. If there’s anything these tell us, it’s that love can hurt.
Natural Born Killers (1994)
Mickey and Malory Knox: one of the most celebrated, yet controversial, couples in the history of cinema. The wild and wacky lovers become partners in crime as they journey a psychopathic serial killing spree across Route 66… just for kicks. If it’s action, adrenalin and outright rowdiness that you want to spice up your valentines, NBK has got it covered. And if anyone asks, Mickey and Malory Knox did it, okay?
GET IT HERE: £4.50 Amazon, LOVEFiLM, Netflix.
My Bloody Valentine (1981)
The clue is in the name. Return to the roots of the slasher genre and celebrate one of the first horror movies to rip the heart out of this hallmark holiday. A folk tale is reborn as the locals of small mining town Valentine Bluffs that celebrate Valentine’s Day are murdered in their numbers by a deranged, masked killer. It’s one thing to dislike the soppy sentiments but another to draw pick axes into people that do.If your date doesn’t want to feel out-dated, try the 2009 remake which brings the gory effects to 3D. “In this town on Valentines day, everybody loses their heart.”
GET IT HERE: £16.61 Amazon, Netflix
Sightseers (2012)
In four words, a rom-com gone wrong. If you’re in for a light-hearted evening but sick of all the formulaic boy-meets-girl scenarios, Sightseers can deliver. Can you remember the first holiday you and your partner went on? Was it a weekend away somewhere quite close to home? Did it involve accidentally kill someone at one of the tourist attractions? Chris and Tina’s romantic holiday in the Highlandstakes a turn for the criminally insane as murderous mischief replaces countryside cliff walks. Perhaps this ninety minutes of raunchy fun is more of a black comedy, but it’s a dark and devilish one all the same. Just don’t follow their example- it may be the last holiday you go on.
GET IT HERE: LOVEFiLM, Netflix
Valentine (2001)
You may not have seen it, but you’ll know the doll-mask that hides the face of the Valentine murderer. Four female friends all receive a vulgar Valentines card before they are hunted down and killed one by one by a boy they used to pick on in school. It doesn’t boast an awful lot more than a conventional slasher formula, but the end twist is worth the wait, and hey… it takes place on, what some would say, valentines ‘slay’.
GET IT HERE: £3 Amazon, Netflix
The Loved Ones (2010)
Boys, remember one thing: never say no to a girl. Because if you do, you may wake up strapped to a chair in her home, playing out her twisted prom fantasies. What Lola wants, Lola gets - and, with his foot bolted to the floor by a nail, there’s nothing Brent can do about it. This perversely playful, demented game is all about blood-stained party hats and teasing torture, making it one of the best date movies of the decade.
GET IT HERE: £4.99 Sainsburys, LOVEFiLM, Netflix
Warm Bodies (2013)
Ditch the DVD’s and hit the big screen for this year’s Valentine venture. Zomboy Nicholas Holt and teenage Teresa Palmer form a relationship after he rescues her from a mass zombie attack. It’s not often that a film falls in the comedy/horror/romance genre, and it’s even rarer to find one that’s executed well. If it’s as touching Steve Levine’s last film 50/50, this could well be the most sweet and sympathetic zombie film of all time.
GET IT HERE: Most UK cinemas
Lovers Lane (1999)
Be careful where you and your partner make out this year- it could become a crime scene if ‘hook’ spots you. A murderer who hooked couples as they kissed in the local lovers lane, bears attacks on the victims’ children 13 years later. A similar plot to its predecessors but rejoices in all the marmite clichés of the genre, and its multiple use of off-screen deaths is perfect for the pillow-in-front-of-eyes faint-hearted.
GET IT HERE: Shop around on e-bay!
The Prowler (or Rosemary’s Killer) (1981)
A true poet will often leave a red rose in the clutches of a woman’s hand after he drives a pitchfork into her and her lover. It’s 30 years after Rosemary was killed and the prowler returns for a second spree. If he wants you he’ll get you. With ground-breaking special effects by Tom Savini, including the famous knife-through-the-head killing sequence, this is a must-see for any time of year.
GET IT HERE: £7 Amazon, try Blockbuster.
Dracula (1992)
If it’s sophistication and true passion that defines your evening, this is a classic that indulges all meanings of infatuation, seduction, lust and lure. We are all familiar with Bram Stoker’s tale, and not many films have been able to visually compete with the powerful juxtaposition of the romance and horror embodied in Gary Oldman’s count Dracula.
GET IT HERE: £4.75 Amazon, Netflix, LOVEFiLM
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
I bet you never thought of this one. If you’re a one of those annoying couples that compete to recite the most quotes during a movie, this is the one for you. It may not be an obvious choice for that special day of the year, but you’ll be rooting for the Pegg/Frost bromance, and they will leave you rolling on the floor (…laughing!) If you’ve simply mastered its brilliance one too many times, try the recent release of horror com, Cockneys vs Zombies.
Will the ‘DON’T TOUCH!’
of horror get manhandled? With the premiere of The Evil Dead remake just around the corner, let’s look at a brief
(ok, not so brief) overview of the reactions to the news and the remaking process in the horror genre today.
Behind the scenes: Alvarez directs all of his gorification
The concept of
remaking horror’s most acclaimed works has increasingly become an arguably irritating
but inevitable process.
Why?
With the film
industry being as profit-ruthless as any other industry, the horror genre is
coercing more and more into the commercial realm for larger scoped, big-budgeted
‘blood money’ concepts. Subsequently, Hollywood
producers and directors who may not share the same level of respect to the
genre’s previous works are being increasingly attached to horror projects.
Though it works both ways. Young, emerging filmmakers who initially idolized
the neo-classics of the genre in their teens- and then who were further
influenced when revisiting its classics- too have dreams of one day paying deference
to the franchise they once dreamt about.
The genre’s hits
of the (predominantly) seventies, eighties and nineties have all been subject –
and mostly victims- to ‘remodellings’, ‘reworks’ or ‘remakes’ (whatever word is
decided to be attached to it.) To name a few obvious examples, The Friday the 13th, The Texas
Chainsaw Massacre, the Halloween’s
marathon franchise, as well as The
Nightmare’s on Elm Street’s, I Spit On Your Grave, The Thing, The Hills Have
Eyes and The Crazies. It’s not a
particularly new ‘craze’ and it certainly isn’t likely to halt anytime soon.
So it was only a
matter of time until we were to see a group of fresh faces walk into a cabin
and summon the (newer) evil entities by reading from the (newer) Book of the
Dead. The Evil Dead remake process was never more than an arm’s length
away, with original director Sam Raimi a prominent industry figure and its star
Bruce Campbell is still… well, alive.
Though people,
and fans in particular, naturally regard remakes of their beloved movies a
sacrilege to the industry today, some have gone on to impress and even be
awarded critical acclaim. Though they are far and few between, and are somewhat
squished beneath the chaos of flops (I certainly wouldn’t call it a mixed bag)
it would bear a sincere lack of judgement and evaluation to ignore those that
have done.
Maniac is one of the most recent remakes with an upcoming release
and is refreshingly good. Sticking to the original storyline and its focus on
the character development of an obsessive serial killer, the latest version
will be, I believe, largely received with respect. Director Franck Kahlfoun
even managed to make Frodo look convincingly bad-ass.
Though the
preceding question when a remake has got a few nods from the fans is always the
same; “it was good but was it better than the original?” The response is almost
always no (though obviously a few exceptions exempt from this ‘rule’).
Instant
reactions of fans to having received the news of The Evil Dead’s remake rather poorly- shocking! Worse things have
happened though, haven’t they? Or perhaps the worst is yet to happen?
The director of Pineapple Express and Your Highness is working on a remake of
Italian horror auteur Dario Argento’s most critically acclaimed work, Suspiria. It’s been over 35 years since
the original marked Argento’s depart from his much-loved Giallo era. Adam
Gordon Green will be expected to ignore the film’s cherished visually stylistic
flair, admitting the remake will “straight-up horror slasher film, so it’s very
different.” With the comedy director not even conferring his Suspiria project
with Argento, don’t expect a very reverential remake.
Anyway, with an official
red band trailer for Fede Alvarez’ remake of Sam Raimi’s 1981 cult classic The Evil Dead released last Halloween
(I’m not sure if that was a more effective scare tactic for the general film
watchers, or for the forty-something-year-old horror fans sweating with nervousness
apprehension), first clips raises eyebrows and allows for a sigh of relief: it
could be worse.
The trailer
certainly doesn’t cop out of showing its gory disposition. Fans can be
reassured that it will be an honest homage if not to the film as a whole then
at least to its reputation for its insanely blood filled, gut wrenching and
stomach-churning nature. It even looks like it will stick to the plot roots and
from this two minutes, even to the exact screen shots. Hmmm.
However, a
disappointing element- which was almost definitely always going to be the case-
lies with the make-up and special effects. The character of Linda (as named in
the original) looks nothing more than a modern-day Regan. What was so great about the 1981
original, and which I’m sure has played a huge factor in its growing success
and ongoing generational interest, was the low-budget detail and its
deliberately outdated intentions; for instance in Raimi attaching a camera to a
shopping trolley and running though the words to create the shaky point-of-view
of the escaping victim. Of course, no-one will expect such raw extremities
these days, but will this authenticity struggle to transfer to a modern pic? Probably
so. Alvarez will have to find new, innovative ways to re-capture its roots.
It’s a risky
business. But what sets this aside from a lot of other remakes is that the
original producers (Robert G. tapert and Raimi himself) are involved. Raimi
reportedly hand picked Alvarez to direct it himself too. Though still taking it
with a pinch of salt, I think this could be an interesting, well-executed
remake. There’s got to be at least a few out there somewhere.
But why not make
a more respectful homage in a similar, but new, project? Cabin In The Woods dabbled with that idea- deliberately starting
to play out the outlined premise of The
Evil Dead- before exploding into obscure, nonsensical ridiculousness. Federico
Zampaglione also proved the method’s worthiness in delivering a love-letter to
70’s Giallo work in this year’s Tulpa,
imitating aesthetic style rather than story. Whether it’s done well or not, it
can be done.
But what may have
been continuingly overshadowing the news of the remake is a rumoured Evil Dead 4, directed by Raimi and starring
Bruce Campbell himself. But that’s another rant for another day…
Behind the scenes: Lou Taylor Pucci fixated on The Book Of The Dead
Alvarez’ The Evil
Dead will premiere at the 20th edition of the South by Southwest
(SFSX) Festival in Austin, Texas this March.
