1001plus

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Ten Days of Terror!: Dead Alive

Film: Dead Alive (Braindead)
Format: DVD from NetFlix on laptop.

Horror comedy is its own thing. While it’s not always the case, many a horror comedy is also filled with gross out material. Much of that may stem from the seminal Dead Alive (also called Braindead. Dead Alive is the bloodiest movie ever made, at least for its time. It’s entirely possible that something has taken over that title, but it would require a staggering amount of stage blood to overcome the amount of blood and body parts on display here.

What makes this more entertaining is that this was done by Peter Jackson, who would go on to do the Lord of the Rings movies with such class. Jackson is obviously capable of creating films that are serious and meant to be taken seriously. But Dead Alive is not that film in any way, shape, or form. This is a complete bloodbath, something that needs to be seen to be believed. This is Evil Dead ramped up to an astonishing degree. We don’t get an arm with a chainsaw attachment here—we literally get…well, I don’t want to say if you haven’t seen it. If you have, you know the balletic bloody ending. If you haven’t, I don’t want to spoil it.

Ten Days of Terror!: Martin

Film: Martin
Format: Internet video on The Nook.

When I think of George Romero, I think of zombies. I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in that. After all, the various Dead movies are where Romero made his name, even if all of them haven’t really lived up to the promise of the first trilogy, and the first two especially. He did other things, though, including Martin in the mid-‘70s. In fact, Martin was produced before Dawn of the Dead, so this comes from a time before Romero was pigeonholed into being the zombie guy.

Martin is interesting for a number of reasons beyond being a non-zombie Romero film. This is his take on the vampire story, and it’s very different from the typical vampire tale. Martin (John Amplas), our title character, is evidently completely human, but believes himself to be a vampire. Martin thinks he is 87 years old despite looking 19. He’s fascinated with blood, and has figured out the best way to get the blood he believes he needs. His method is to knock his victims out with a syringe and then use a razor blade to drain the blood from his victims. While all of this is happening, in Martin’s mind the world is reduced to black-and-white, and the reality of a struggling victim is transformed into a Gothic romance.

Ten Days of Terror!: Green Room

Film: Green Room
Format: DVD from Rockford Public Library on laptop.

I don’t go to the movies that often, but I do pay attention to the movies that are released. After all, a chunk of them are going to show up on my various Oscar lists and the 1001 list every year. Green Room isn’t that sort of movie, of course, but I kept my ears open about it because the buzz on it was very good. So, when I came across it at one of the libraries I frequent, it was a no-brainer to check it out. I’m not about to call Green Room the second coming of horror movies, but I’m pleased to report that it’s a tight thriller that skimps on nothing.

The members of the band the Ain’t Rights wake up one morning in a cornfield, having driven off the road the night before. A pair ride a bike toward the nearest town and siphon off some gas to get back on the road and continue on their way. Eventually they reach their destination and are interviewed by Tad (David W. Thompson) for a local college radio station. He’s also promised them a gig that has fallen through. He lines up another one for them. The upside is that it will pay them $350. The downside is that it’s at a neo-Nazi club in the middle of nowhere in Oregon. Needing the money, the bad accepts the gig.

Ten Days of Terror!: Luther the Geek

Film: Luther the Geek
Format: Internet video on The Nook.

Well, I’ve been taken to some dark places on the Fangoria movie list before, and I’m sure I’ll go to some dark places again. Luther the Geek is the sort of film that makes me feel like I need a shower after watching it. This feels like a step above a snuff film, the sort of movie that feels like there’s some kind of grease on the actual film stock. It’s very much made in the same mode as a film like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I have to say that with it coming from Troma I expected a lot more camp and some nastiness, but I didn’t expect to come out the other side feeling like I’d been covered in oil. That this was filmed within about an hour drive of my house just makes that worse.

Here’s the premise: in the past, Luther Watts (Edward Terry as the adult version) was fascinated by a carnival geek. When he grew up, he became obsessed with killing people and drinking their blood. Naturally he’s tossed into a mental institution, but is eventually paroled despite speaking only in chicken clucks and having fashioned a set of metal dentures for himself. So, when he’s out, he naturally starts killing again.

Ten Days of Terror!: Ginger Snaps

Film: Ginger Snaps
Format: Internet video on laptop.

Some movie monsters come with very specific, unusual tropes. The monsters created by Dr. Frankenstein, for instance, tend to be sympathetic. Vampires tend to be romanticized. The strange trope that goes with werewolves is that the people who become werewolves are typically innocent and undeserving of their terrible fate. We get that from the very first film of the subgenre. What does the gypsy woman say to Larry Talbot? “Even a man who is pure at heart and says his prayers by night/May become a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.” That’s a trope that going to be played for all it’s worth in Ginger Snaps.

We have two sisters who are about a year apart, but are in the same grade in school. These are Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) and Brigitte Fitzgerald (Emily Perkins). The Fitzgerald girls are very much the social outcasts in their high school. They’re also both obsessed with death, and whenever possible will turn school projects toward the macabre. One evening with their parents out, the two decide to kidnap the dog belonging to Trina (Danielle Hampton), their high school rival, they are attacked by…something. As it happens, dogs around the town have been turning up mutilated. And, as it happens, Ginger has just entered menarche (look it up) despite being 16. This means that Ginger gets mauled by whatever it is (c’mon…it’s a werewolf). When the thing gives chase, it’s killed by Sam (Kris Lemche) who hits it with his truck.

Ten Days of Terror!: Pet Sematary

Film: Pet Sematary
Format: DVD from Sycamore Public Library on rockin’ flatscreen.

There was a time in my life when I read a lot of Stephen King. One of my brothers and one of my sisters did as well. I haven’t read close to all of his work and I haven’t read any in some time, but for a few years, Stephen King was probably 50% of my reading material. One of the reasons I stopped reading a lot of King is that he often has problems with his endings. Sometimes he really punks out on the end. When he gets an ending right, though, it’s pretty special. Pet Sematary is one of those times. As a book, Pet Sematary is slow, almost dull for the first several hundred pages. When King finally gets us to where we know he wants to get us, it becomes a freight train. The movie is exactly the same way, almost certainly in part because King wrote the screenplay.

The Creed family, Louis (Dale Midkiff), Rachel (Denise Crosby), daughter Ellie (Blaze Berdahl) and baby Gage (Miko Hughes) have moved from Chicago to rural Maine because Louis has just been hired to work at the University of Maine. Their new house is large and comes with a nice bit of land, but is also on a major, truck-infested highway. Across the highway is Jud Crandall (Fred Gwynne), who warns the family about the highway. He also introduces the family to the pet cemetery down the path beyond their house. According to Jud, many of those pets are in the cemetery thanks to the road.

Friday, October 28, 2016

Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Actor 1957