October 5th

Monster Cereal Week 3: Boo Berry.
Buster Keaton's pork pie hat, Pee-Wee Herman's bow tie, and Peter Lorre's voice.
I could never tell if the ghost was supposed to look sleepy, disinterested, or stoned.

The Worst Witch (1986) directed by Robert Young

My pick for the yearly attempt to watch a Halloween movie with the daughters.  I think I picked well, as it was the first time my eldest actually made it through a whole Halloween movie (the youngest, lacking an attention span, wandered off midway through).  She fled briefly behind the couch when Mildred was having trouble flying -- she's still sensitive -- but recovered when the film didn't kill its main character in a grisly crash.

I'd have been the right age to watch this when it was first released, but I've never heard of it.  Researching for movies to watch with the girls, lots of people spoke fondly of this one, though.  I can see why.  It's a completly innocent Halloween movie set at a school for witches and full of silly adult characters hamming it up.  I especially like Charlotte "Mrs. Garrett" Rae as the scene-chewing evil witch Agatha.  Everyone appears to be having a ball in this show.

But the best thing in the movie -- maybe in any movie ever made? -- was Tim Curry's music video.  Curry plays the "Grand Wizard" (yes, really, that's what they called him) for the witch boarding school who visits on Halloween.  When he arrives, he smoothly segues into a song and dance number about how cool Halloween is, surrounded by cheezy '80s video effects. It. is. awesome.  Watch it now:

If you're feeling at all blue today, I guarantee a smile, at least, from the above.

Watched: DVD from BFS.

Dead Hooker in a Trunk (2009) directed by Jen Soska & Sylvia Soska

After watching the impressive American Mary, I immediately threw the Soska Twins' first movie in my Netflix queue.  It suffers from some typical first film issues, both technical and artistic.  I don't think they did any ADR, so some of the shot-on-location dialogue is hard to hear.  The cameraman has watched too much Battlestar Galactica, and puts far too much movement into his shots to the point of annoyance.  The tone was initially hard to figure out.  The title suggests you're in for some goofiness, but it's really a very black comedy.  I didn't get this until well into the movie when the Junkie had her arm knocked off by a semi truck, then sewn back on with fishing line.  I still had a hard time getting over the Geek twin having her eyeball knocked out, though she did not have the same issue after applying some tape to the damage.

Thanked in the credits are both Robert Rodriguez and Eli Roth, which is a pretty accurate indicator of the style they went for here.  There's Hostel-style torture and dismemberment mixed with Rodriguez-ish hyper-reality and violence mixed with a dark sense of humor.  Unfortunately, the story these things are thrown into isn't quite fully developed.  It ends up being about a serial killer who stalks hookers, but we don't actually find out anything about this until near there end.  There's a twist concerning the killer, but it wasn't exactly a surprise.  Mostly, the movie follows four friends driving around with hooker in their trunk, who get into a series of not particularly related wacky and violent adventures.  Good effort for a first movie filmed with no budget, but not something I'm going to be watching again.  I'm glad to see the Twins went onto greater things after this.

Watched: DVD from MPI.

September 25th

American Mary (2012) directed by Jen Soska & Sylvia Soska

I wish there were more female horror directors.  I forget how refreshing it is to watch a horror film from a non-male perspective.  Mary is a powerful woman, but not because she is forced into defending herself from a stalking slasher killer.  While it is true she is stalked, drugged and raped by an evil man, she captures and tortures the perpetrator almost immediately.  This is not what the film is interested in.  Far more important is Mary's discovery of her inner strength and artistry, and how applying those things changes the way people see and react to her, and how they change how she reacts to other people.

As in the narrative, Mary's power is emphasized nicely using visuals.  My favorite comes early in the movie, when Mary is broke and desperate for money.  She responds to a pseudo-Craig's List ad promising $1000 for private dances and sensual massages at a gentlemen's club.  Normally in a film, we'd expect her interview with the sleazy club owner to be entirely controlled by the sleazy club owner.  The desperate applicant would provide only token resistance before taking off her clothes and begging for a job.  In Mary, the sleazy club owner's view of Mary is presented like this:

This shot has Mary completely towering over the owner, her eyes narrowed in a dismissive, semi-hateful gaze.  Though the owner is coaxing her through an audition, Mary is clearly in control.

If I have any complaints, they are minor and reflect more on my own psychology than anything else.  For a movie about the body mod community, it is surprisingly tame.  The gore effects are fairly minimal and all of the worst things that happen are implied instead of shown.  I think the movie could have pushed things a lot further, which would've really emphasized the horror of the work Mary does and why people are afraid of her.  I dunno.  I'm probably just desensitized by both horror movies and the Internet.

I enjoyed the movie a lot.  It has a lot going on in it to chew on, Katharine Isabelle's performance is excellent, and it is beautiful to behold.  I can't wait to see what the Soska twins do next.

Watched: blu-ray from XLrater.

No One Lives (2012) directed by Ryuhei Kitamura

American Mary was probably about the worst opening act this movie could have.  It put me in exactly the wrong mood for this sort of film.   Whereas Mary had a point of view and something to say, No One Lives's only goal is to create a cool villain.

I'll give it to them: they try really, really hard to make the villain cool.  The nameless man -- called Driver in the credits -- played by Luke Evans is pretty much Arnold Schwarzenegger from Commando as a slasher killer.  Not only will the guy not stop stalking his prey -- killing them using Jason-like tools such as scythes and tree grinders -- he also has an extensive collection of high-tech weaponry that he uses to set up elaborate traps.  He is Super Slasher, an unkillable ninja-Leatherface.  It gets ridiculous.

Ridiculousness is fine -- I like Troma -- but that's not the tone the film is going for.  There's an attempt to grab some Devil's Rejects-style ambiguity, with Driver mostly stalking a family of thieves and murderers.  However, at the same time, he's Stockholm-syndroming a young girl. It's not lighthearted stuff, which makes the super-killer act Driver is pulling feel even more out of place.

Also: longest. horror movie shower scene. ever.

Watched: DVD from Anchor Bay.