The Walking Dead 5.06: "Consumed" (2014) directed by Seith Mann
The adventures of Daryl and Carol in Atlanta. Despite diving into a huge city post-apocalypse, this is a pretty low-key episode that focuses on strengthening Daryl and Carol's friendship as they look for clues in their search for Beth.
In season 1, Atlanta was swarming with zombies. Now people waltz down the empty streets without too much concern. According to Wikipedia, Atlanta has 447,841 people in it. Let's try to make some reasonable assumptions about this. Ignoring the people in the metro area, let's say that Atlanta was like New Orleans during Katrina and 80% of the population managed to evacuate. That leaves about 90,000 people left in town. Judging by what we've seen in this series, I think it's safe to say that at least 80% of those people died and became zombies. That makes for about 72,000 zombies wandering around. Atlanta is 132 square miles in size, so this gives it a zombie population density of 545 zombies per square mile. Yeah, I don't think this is a place you'd want to walk around in...
The Walking Dead 5.07: "Crossed" (2014) directed by Bill Gierhart
One of those calm-before-the-storm episodes, due to the mid-season finale coming up next. Rick and company prepare a plan to rescue Carol and Beth, while Glen and company have fun fishing.
The Walking Dead 5.08: "Coda" (2014) directed by Ernest R. Dickerson
I think the TV-invented character of Daryl has given the showrunners more latitude with Rick. In a prior episode, Noah steals his and Carol's weapons. Facing the death sentence of being weaponless in a zombie-infested city, Daryl irresponsibly stops Carol from shooting Noah. Why? Because Daryl is the fan-favorite who they are ensuring they keep good-and-pure. They want to keep someone that the audience will always root for so that they continue to tune in.
No longer the only lead character of this tale, Rick doesn't need to be likable or identifiable. They can send him down as dark of a path as they need. Which I like. In this one, he kills an escaping police officer in cold blood. To Rick, Beth and Carol are so important that he refuses to let this outsider screw up their rescue. It also shows some of Rick's disgust will the entire world's condition: the poor guy is sick of the constant crises and tragedies. "Shut up," he tiredly tells the officer right before shooting him. He doesn't have the energy anymore to deal with things in a more civilized manner. Interesting.
Also, Beth dies in a stupid manner. Bah.
Friday the 13th: The Series 1.01: "The Inheritance" (1987) directed by William Fruet
Since I'm in the middle of watching the movie series, I thought I'd check out the first episode of the TV show as well. Aired right between Part 6 and Part 7, I was hoping maybe there would be some reference to Crystal Lake in here somewhere. Nope. The only connection to the film series this show has outside of the title is the fact that Frank Mancuso Jr. worked on it.
This wasn't something I watched as a kid, so the only other episode of this show I've seen before was the Cronenberg-directed one. The premise of the show is excellent: two cousins inherit an antique store. Unluckily for them, their deceased uncle had been selling cursed items at the behest of Satan himself. It's now up to the cousins to track down all of these cursed items and locked them in vault below the store where they can't hurt anyone.
That's an idea absolutely ripe for story ideas. Sadly, for this first episode, they went with the tired "killer doll" cliche. It's not even a killer doll good at its job. It takes two tries to kill its owner's step-mother and fails to do more than scratch the face of its owner's babysitter. I'm guessing this is why the network chose to air this episode fourth rather than first... it's just not very strong and has to spend a ton of time setting things up.
Showing posts with label Ernest R. Dickerson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ernest R. Dickerson. Show all posts
14 October 2015
12 October 2015
October 12th
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986) directed by Tom McLoughlin
Silly as the movie can be, Jason himself is always treated as an extreme threat to be taken seriously. That's the key. The second you're allowed to laugh at the villain -- see Freddy's Dead for a particularly egregious example -- you're making a comedy and not a horror movie. Even with the censored kills, Jason remains a fearsome force in this movie.
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| C.J. Graham as Jason 1 Aug 1986 |
Freddy vs. Jason, Part VIII: Jason's Undead
This was one of the movies I chose to watch last Halloween, when I discovered that it's one of my favorites of the series. Which might be a little hard to explain... Like Part 5, this film was clearly gutted by MPAA demands. None of the gore survived the editing room and every kill ends abruptly in a quick cut. It's also bizarrely lacking in nudity... the only entry in the entire series to do so, if I remember correctly. Added to that, the goofiness that began with Part 5's redneck mother and son duo continues in this film. There's a ton of silliness in the movie -- from the dipshit cemetery caretaker to the business executive paintballers to the self-referential jokes ("I've seen enough horror movies to know any weirdo wearing a mask is never friendly."). Despite all of this, the movie works.
I think the primary reason I like this entry is Jason himself. Jason is on quite the tear in this film. The body count is higher than ever before and Jason never seems to take a break from killing. In fact, the movie even inserts completely unnecessary characters (the picnicking couple) just to give Jason more people to kill. And, the man is mean. Mean, mean. He's crushing heads, bending people in half, twisting their heads off, and shoving their faces so hard into metal that we can see the outline of their screams. He's so mean, we almost believe that the camp's young children are in danger when he waltzes into their cabin.
Silly as the movie can be, Jason himself is always treated as an extreme threat to be taken seriously. That's the key. The second you're allowed to laugh at the villain -- see Freddy's Dead for a particularly egregious example -- you're making a comedy and not a horror movie. Even with the censored kills, Jason remains a fearsome force in this movie.
This helps heighten the tension in finale, which has my pick for the best ending of the Friday movies so far. Tommy's plan is to balance precariously in a canoe and get dangerously close to the resurrected monster, throw a chain connected to a rock around his neck, tighten the chain, and throw the rock overboard. Jason is a guy who has been shown to rip a man's arm off without even trying, just to get his machete. I'd rather try to wrestle a hungry bear than attempt such a feat.
And that final image, of Jason serenely floating under the surface of Crystal Lake and then opening his eye, is absolutely perfect. Had this been the "Final Friday," I think that might've been just fine. Jason's long-time nemesis Tommy defeats him in the most appropriate manner possible, yet we all know he's still underwater... waiting...
Favorite Character
Martin (Bob Larkin): the always-drunk cemetery caretaker who looks directly at us at one point and with not a small amount of accusation in his voice says "Some folks sure got a strange idea of entertainment."
Favorite Sin
Requesting super-human sexual endurance from your boyfriend in order to finish listening to a really lone Alice Cooper song.
Favorite Kill
Nikki (Darcy DeMoss), who has her head shoved into the wall of an RV so hard it deforms the metal exterior into the shape of her screaming face.
Jason's Mood
Super-grumpy after a long nap.
The Walking Dead 5.05: "Self Help" (2014) directed by Ernest R. Dickerson
An episode that flashes back to Abraham's backstory as his group slowly makes their way towards D.C. I like Abraham, so I enjoyed seeing more of where he came from before meeting up with Eugene. Abraham is a man who requires a mission in life. When the apocalypse hit, his mission -- like any good father -- was the protect his family. Unfortunately for him, the vision of him beating a -- zombie? bad human? -- to death with a soup can in a grocery store frightened his wife so much that she fled with the kids towards their eventual deaths. Eugene enters his life with his lie of a mission -- to stop the zombie plague altogether -- which stops Abraham from killing himself and gives him something to focus on, I'll be curious to see where the show goes with him now, now that he knows Eugene was lying and there is nothing to be done. In the comics, everything turns out OK, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything for the show.
27 October 2014
October 27th
The Walking Dead 4.10: "Inmates" (2014) directed by Tricia Brock
A catch-up episode with most everyone we didn't see in "After." Daryl and Beth are camping in the woods; Maggie, Sasha, and Bob are wandering around looking for Glenn at Maggie's insistence; and poor Tyreese amusingly has ended up with a pack of little girls to take care of, including a screaming baby Judith. Towards the end, Carol emerges out of nowhere to join Tyreese and the girls. Is that what the otherwise pointless plague plot was all about? So that there would be a little extra drama when these two meet up again?
The Walking Dead 4.11: "Claimed" (2014) directed by Seith Mann
While Michonne and Carl hunt for supplies, Rick is surprised when he hears men entering the house and quickly hides under the bed. What follows is a handful of scenes brimming with tension as we wonder if Rick will be noticed by the men, who are so not-nice that one chokes another into unconsciousness over a bed to sleep in. It's been quite a while since the show had remembered that strangers in this post apocalypse can be just as scary as the walkers (and I'm not talking about ego-maniacs in tanks). Great episode.
Bride of Frankenstein (1935) directed by James Whale
My 4-year-old wanted to watch a movie, so I suggested this one. She'd been unfazed by The Mummy and I thought she might get a kick of of the best monster movie that Universal had to offer. Watching the movie through the eyes of a child is fun.
She had to hide her eyes at the beginning when Frankenstein emerges from the water and kills Maria's poor dad and mom, which is a pretty scary way to start the picture. She was enthralled by Dr. Pretorius' little creations, giggling at the silly king. She wanted to hide her eyes again when Frankenstein encountered the blind man, but I convinced her that the scene was not scary at all. She thought it was great when Frankenstein began to learn to talk. That, more than anything, humanized him for her, I think. At the end, we both enjoyed imitating the Bride's weird head movements to make each other laugh.
The Walking Dead 4.12: "Still" (2014) directed by Julius Ramsay
A character-building episode for Daryl and Beth. They fight, they learn more about each other, they become closer in the end. It's the Walking Dead version of a "Locked in a Room" episode and exists entirely to put more punch into what happens in the next episode.
The Walking Dead 4.13: "Alone" (2014) directed by Ernest R. Dickerson
Daryl and Beth settle into a mysteriously clean and well-stocked funeral home. They irrationally decide this is nothing to worry about and proceed to live there without a care. Somewhere else, Maggie irrationally decides to abandon Sasha and Bob and search for Glenn on her own. Sasha irrationally decides that living alone is a smart idea and abandons Bob, who is trying to catch up with Maggie. This show never fails to disappoint by making its characters -- who've lived in this world for years now -- make dumb choices in order to advance the plot.
A catch-up episode with most everyone we didn't see in "After." Daryl and Beth are camping in the woods; Maggie, Sasha, and Bob are wandering around looking for Glenn at Maggie's insistence; and poor Tyreese amusingly has ended up with a pack of little girls to take care of, including a screaming baby Judith. Towards the end, Carol emerges out of nowhere to join Tyreese and the girls. Is that what the otherwise pointless plague plot was all about? So that there would be a little extra drama when these two meet up again?
The Walking Dead 4.11: "Claimed" (2014) directed by Seith Mann
While Michonne and Carl hunt for supplies, Rick is surprised when he hears men entering the house and quickly hides under the bed. What follows is a handful of scenes brimming with tension as we wonder if Rick will be noticed by the men, who are so not-nice that one chokes another into unconsciousness over a bed to sleep in. It's been quite a while since the show had remembered that strangers in this post apocalypse can be just as scary as the walkers (and I'm not talking about ego-maniacs in tanks). Great episode.
Bride of Frankenstein (1935) directed by James Whale
She had to hide her eyes at the beginning when Frankenstein emerges from the water and kills Maria's poor dad and mom, which is a pretty scary way to start the picture. She was enthralled by Dr. Pretorius' little creations, giggling at the silly king. She wanted to hide her eyes again when Frankenstein encountered the blind man, but I convinced her that the scene was not scary at all. She thought it was great when Frankenstein began to learn to talk. That, more than anything, humanized him for her, I think. At the end, we both enjoyed imitating the Bride's weird head movements to make each other laugh.
The Walking Dead 4.12: "Still" (2014) directed by Julius Ramsay
A character-building episode for Daryl and Beth. They fight, they learn more about each other, they become closer in the end. It's the Walking Dead version of a "Locked in a Room" episode and exists entirely to put more punch into what happens in the next episode.
The Walking Dead 4.13: "Alone" (2014) directed by Ernest R. Dickerson
Daryl and Beth settle into a mysteriously clean and well-stocked funeral home. They irrationally decide this is nothing to worry about and proceed to live there without a care. Somewhere else, Maggie irrationally decides to abandon Sasha and Bob and search for Glenn on her own. Sasha irrationally decides that living alone is a smart idea and abandons Bob, who is trying to catch up with Maggie. This show never fails to disappoint by making its characters -- who've lived in this world for years now -- make dumb choices in order to advance the plot.
22 October 2014
October 22nd
The Walking Dead 4.05: "Internment" (2013) directed by David Boyd
Good. The end of the plague story has come early enough in the season that they can get to doing more interesting things. I'm utterly tired of seeing people coughing inside of the gray walls of the dull prison location. Gotta love how Rick splashes water over his face from a community barrel of water. They all deserve to cough up their lungs for being so stupid.
The Walking Dead 4.06: "Live Bait" (2013) directed by Michael Uppendahl
This was one of the best episodes in quite a while, likely because it was completely divorced from the folks at the prison. Instead, we follow a bearded and depressed Governor, who walks the streets not really caring what happens. He stumbles upon a family living in an apartment who've been holed up there since the SHtF thanks to a handy truck full of food. It was nice to see how other people were dealing with the apocalypse for a change, and to see the Governor as a regular person instead of a villain. I wish the show had hung out here longer.
The Walking Dead 4.07: "Dead Weight" (2013) directed by Jeremy Podeswa
Their father dead and the truck full of food nearly empty, the family leaves the safety of the apartment with the Governor as their new protector. Not having dealt with the horrors of the apocalypse, the family is complete useless out in the real world and they soon run into trouble. Luckily for them, the Governor's old pal Martinez wanders their way and they soon join Martinez's camp. The Governor discovers he just can't deal with not being the leader -- he's super-anal about security -- so, obviously, he begins to murder or threaten the other alpha males in the camp. Boo, old Governor is back.
The Walking Dead 4.08: "Too Far Gone' (2013) directed by Ernest R. Dickerson
And within the space of just 3 episodes, the Governor's return is completed with his death. Kind of a waste. On the plus side, the prison is destroyed, so I'll never have to sit through another episode in that boring place.
The Governor's pseudo-wife, carrying her dead daughter all the way to the prison in her arms to show the Governor what he has wrought... yeah, writers, you reached further than your grasp on that one. There's already a giant war going on, with Herschel getting his head chopped off and all. Lots of emotions already there. Your attempt to push it further just came off as manipulative.
The Craving (2008) directed by Sean Dillon
Wow. Another movie from my $5 Highway to Hell Collection that wasn't half bad. This one, like the horrible first film I watched from the set, is another one of those "filmed with a camcorder by a group of friends" productions that are usually painful to sit through. Surprisingly, The Craving wasn't torture. These folks seem to know what they're doing. Decent editing. Original story. Nice acting. Even an appropriate level of humor added into the horror (everyone whipping out a cellphone at the same time when they discover they're in trouble; calling shotgun for both the car and the guy with a shotgun that pops up; the guy with the broken leg letting out painful yelps as he has sex: lots of chuckles). Nice work, guys!
Their story idea is mostly pretty standard stuff. Five horny teens in a van breakdown in the middle of nowhere and have to deal with the horrors there. Except, the horror they find is fairly unique. It's kind of a demon-beast-man that only comes out at night and likes to eat people if there are no dogs handy. It also stinks very badly and it's odor is actually an addictive drug. It's so addictive, people crave it enough to want to hang out in the middle of nowhere and feed the beast puppies in order to get a whiff. Can't say I've ever seen a movie using this idea before. Love it.
Also, the movie was filmed in Desert Center, CA. The founder of that town was an interesting guy.
Good. The end of the plague story has come early enough in the season that they can get to doing more interesting things. I'm utterly tired of seeing people coughing inside of the gray walls of the dull prison location. Gotta love how Rick splashes water over his face from a community barrel of water. They all deserve to cough up their lungs for being so stupid.
The Walking Dead 4.06: "Live Bait" (2013) directed by Michael Uppendahl
This was one of the best episodes in quite a while, likely because it was completely divorced from the folks at the prison. Instead, we follow a bearded and depressed Governor, who walks the streets not really caring what happens. He stumbles upon a family living in an apartment who've been holed up there since the SHtF thanks to a handy truck full of food. It was nice to see how other people were dealing with the apocalypse for a change, and to see the Governor as a regular person instead of a villain. I wish the show had hung out here longer.
The Walking Dead 4.07: "Dead Weight" (2013) directed by Jeremy Podeswa
Their father dead and the truck full of food nearly empty, the family leaves the safety of the apartment with the Governor as their new protector. Not having dealt with the horrors of the apocalypse, the family is complete useless out in the real world and they soon run into trouble. Luckily for them, the Governor's old pal Martinez wanders their way and they soon join Martinez's camp. The Governor discovers he just can't deal with not being the leader -- he's super-anal about security -- so, obviously, he begins to murder or threaten the other alpha males in the camp. Boo, old Governor is back.
The Walking Dead 4.08: "Too Far Gone' (2013) directed by Ernest R. Dickerson
And within the space of just 3 episodes, the Governor's return is completed with his death. Kind of a waste. On the plus side, the prison is destroyed, so I'll never have to sit through another episode in that boring place.
The Governor's pseudo-wife, carrying her dead daughter all the way to the prison in her arms to show the Governor what he has wrought... yeah, writers, you reached further than your grasp on that one. There's already a giant war going on, with Herschel getting his head chopped off and all. Lots of emotions already there. Your attempt to push it further just came off as manipulative.
The Craving (2008) directed by Sean Dillon
Their story idea is mostly pretty standard stuff. Five horny teens in a van breakdown in the middle of nowhere and have to deal with the horrors there. Except, the horror they find is fairly unique. It's kind of a demon-beast-man that only comes out at night and likes to eat people if there are no dogs handy. It also stinks very badly and it's odor is actually an addictive drug. It's so addictive, people crave it enough to want to hang out in the middle of nowhere and feed the beast puppies in order to get a whiff. Can't say I've ever seen a movie using this idea before. Love it.
Also, the movie was filmed in Desert Center, CA. The founder of that town was an interesting guy.
29 October 2013
October 29th
The Walking Dead 3.15: "This Sorrowful Life" (2013) directed by Greg Nicotero
As I thought, this episode sticks with the prison as they prepare for war. Rick initially wants to send Michonne to the Gov in order to prevent the war and gets Daryl and Merle to help. He changes his mind. Merle still thinks it's a good idea and grabs Michonne on his own. After some sweet-talking by Michonne, Merle also changes his mind and changes his trip into a suicide run at the Gov's gathering on the farm. I liked the trick Merle used: turning up the stereo in a car to attract a herd of zombies, then jumping out and letting the car roll towards the enemy. I had a similar idea for Daryl. He should have some trick arrows -- like Green Arrow! -- with one being an arrow with an iPod, a speaker and super glue on it.
Zombified Merle is stabbed by his own brother at the end of the episode. I was happy and sad to see this character go. I liked that he added a dash of "angry old cuss" into the group, to balance out the relatively happy little family the others in the prison have going. On the other hand, they really defanged Merle's character in this season. In season one, he was a racist asshole who was constantly stirring things up. It was fun to watch the characters get angrier and angrier at the guy as the season went on until they were so pissed that they abandoned him. Season three Merle was toned way, way down and just didn't feel like the same guy.
The Walking Dead 3.16: "Welcome to the Tombs" (2013) directed by Ernest R. Dickerson
Why in the hell would everyone move to the grimy prison instead of taking over the well-stocked, pleasant-looking Woodbury? That's my only thought after a mediocre ending to a mediocre season of a mediocre show. There are these constant dumb decisions the writers have the characters making in this show that make it impossible to love.
What I liked: Carl offing the Woodbury teen trying to surrender. He's growing up in a messed up world and he's going to be a messed up kid. This is the type of worry all parents are going to have in this universe. Andrea dying. Finally, this awful character is gone. I was a little bummed that a giant chunk of the final minutes of the show were occupied by the sad piano melody-backed farewell to her, but, she was a major character, I suppose.
I'm disappointed that they're still in the prison instead of moving on like they have been doing at the end of every other season. From what I'm hearing about season four from friends watching it, it doesn't sound like it's getting any better. Ah well. I still come back to it next October.
The Wicker Man: The Final Cut (1973) directed by Robin Hardy
In celebration of the blu-ray release of this fine film, I had myself a wickerthon. First off, it's a pure joy to finally be able to watch this movie with film-like quality. The extended version found in the Anchor Bay wooden box set was always my preferred cut, but was always painful to watch due to the extended scenes being lifted from a crappy tape copy. No longer. The final cut is, as far as I can tell, the same as the extended cut with just a little of the Howie-on-the-mainland stuff cut from the beginning. I do miss one lost bit, where Howie's colleagues make fun of his sexless engagement (which reinforces the idea that this man is a virgin). But, "Gentle Johnny" and the mating snails are here, so I am overall happy.
It's hard to describe why I like this movie so much. It's a feeling. Howie's investigation of Rowan's disappearance also serves as a perfect vehicle for the audience to see every facet of life on the island. As the film reveals more and more of the otherworldly Summerisle, it's impossible not to fall in love with the place. Everyone is happy. Everyone is in tune with the cycle of nature. The community is tight-knit. No one is repressed or depressed. Were it not for the whole human sacrifice thing, it would be an ideal place to live.
That's the rub, though, isn't it? Maybe one thing the film is saying is that there are always trade-offs in the human pursuit of happiness. The old beliefs practiced on Summerisle make it a paradise... except when the crops fail and the extremely violent parts of the old beliefs surface. Christianity replaced the idea of continual sacrifice with the thought that one, final sacrifice of a demigod would suffice for all time. That animals and people no longer needed to be slaughtered to appease invisible forces is a huge step forward for society. This advancement is not without a cost, as we can see in Howie. He suffers from an unhealthy repression of some of the fun parts of being human and a dourly rigid mode of thinking. I'm honestly not sure which is better.
Watched: blu-ray from StudioCanal
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The Wicker Man (2006) directed by Neil LaBute
Like everyone with an Internet connection, I've laughed at the clip of Nicolas Cage in his bee helmet:
But, I'd never bothered to watch the entire movie. Of all the movies in the world to remake, The Wicker Man is, honestly, the last I would've liked to have seen been attempted. The original is lightening in a bottle. It's the definition of lightening in a bottle. No one will ever make a film like it again. This remake was doomed from the start.
Still, I went into things with an open mind. I was hoping that the rest of the film -- outside of Cage's standard over-the-top performance -- might have something to say. I knew that this movie replaced the pagans with some sort of matriarchal society, so there was a wide open door for good some good social commentary. Some aspects of a woman-dominated society may seem ideal, but in the end they can be just as violent as men. That might be something to explore, right?
Yeah, no. There's nothing here. It seems as though the filmmakers had heard that the original film was considered a horror movie (though I always have trouble with that classification) are ran with that. They immediately lost any goodwill I may have had about 10 minutes into the film when an over-loud phone rings and scares Cage. That cliche? In The Wicker Man? Go to Hell.
Other horror cliches abound: Cage keeps catching glimpses of Rowan out of the corner of his eye and pursues her. Cage repeatedly has dreams that the film tries to pretend are reality. When he awakens, he wakes up in another nightmare and has to wake up a second time. The women on the island exchange obvious knowing glances whenever they mislead Cage. Cage finds the slaughtered body of the airplane pilot (Why?? Won't he be missed? Don't they need supplies flown in?). Cage's cellphone never works. It goes on.
All throughout this mess, the film bizarrely lifts entire paragraphs of dialogue from the original movie. I really don't understand why. Other than the vague structure -- man looks for lost girl on a private island, gets sacrificed by islanders -- nothing is the same in the movie. I'm guessing it's pure creative bankruptcy. Why craft your own dialogue when you can crudely plop some in from the original movie? You can see clear evidence of this during the final scene. When Cage is shown the wicker man for the first time, he screams at the top of his his lungs: "Oh my God!". The same thing happens in the original. The difference: the original wicker man had what was clearly a stack of bonfire logs around its legs and there were islanders with lit torches ready. Howie immediately saw that they meant to burn him to death and that was utterly terrifying. All the Cage sees in the remake is a giant wooden man. No fire. No logs. He should be confused and not terrified. The only reason he freaks out: that dialogue was mindlessly grabbed from the original script.
One aspect of the film fascinated me. I had the idea that, as bad as it is, this was truly a proper American version of the film. The British film is reserved and beautiful and didn't wait for the audience to keep up with it as Howie's investigation revealed more about Rowan and the island. The American version is loud and ugly and dumb. Cage spends most of the movie shouting, punching people, and asking for things be re-explained over and over. It's just the type of movie and hero my country thinks it wants. Way to be a stereotype, Wicker Man remake.
Watched: DVD from WB
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The Wicker Tree (2011) directed by Robin Hardy
I was hoping this spiritual sequel to the original film might take the bad taste of the remake out of my mouth. It did, but just a little. In this film, a couple of Texan evangelical Christians -- one of whom is a singer -- travel to Scotland to spread the word of Jesus and perform. Naturally, they end up in a village populated by pagans who require them as a sacrifice.
The movie just doesn't feel right. I think it was a good choice to use American evangelicals as the sacrificial subjects. They are very much like Howie in the original film and they really do exist in great numbers over here (hard as it may be for Europeans to believe). Making them cowboy-Texans -- complete with a cowboy hat that has a bullet hole in it (?!) -- was pushing things too far, though. They felt more like a stereotype of what Robin Hardy thinks of Americans rather than real characters.
The Scottish village the Americans visit is no Summerisle. We never get a feel for the place as we do in the original. It's simply row housing with a handful of wacky characters living in them. We never really get to see their life or what they're like as a community. All we ever see is them either having sex or having secret conversations about their plans for the Americans.
The movie doesn't look right. You can tell it was shot with digital cameras. The film has a very flat look and the colors are, for the most part, very muted. Some tinkering with color correction could've gone a long way to improve the look of the movie. I will say I was very impressed with some of the scenes they captured that used natural light. I've never seen naturally lit scenes filmed with digital cameras look quite so nice before. In particular, the scene in which Lolly is bathing in a pond is very pretty. We see shafts of sunshine breaking through the clouds to illuminate patches of her naked body. Lovely.
The plot is a rehash of the original. I didn't expect anything else. Even if there were only one of these movies, "pagans sacrificing Christians" is Wicker Man's thing. In this film, rather than failed crops, the pagans require blood to fix their community's infertility problem. The true cause of this issue is pretty lame: the Lord Summerisle equivalent Sir Lachlan runs a nuclear power plant nearby. This would've been a great idea in the 1980s, but nuclear waste fear is sort of passe by now.
There are a lot of bizarre things in the film that don't fit with the Wicker Man universe. At one point, a man is stabbed in the testicles by a broken glass and it's played for laughs. The male American ends up being cannibalized by the villagers (??). The female American easily pushes Sir Lachlan into the titular tree and burns him to death.
In the end, it just doesn't feel right.
Watched: DVD from Anchor Bay
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As I thought, this episode sticks with the prison as they prepare for war. Rick initially wants to send Michonne to the Gov in order to prevent the war and gets Daryl and Merle to help. He changes his mind. Merle still thinks it's a good idea and grabs Michonne on his own. After some sweet-talking by Michonne, Merle also changes his mind and changes his trip into a suicide run at the Gov's gathering on the farm. I liked the trick Merle used: turning up the stereo in a car to attract a herd of zombies, then jumping out and letting the car roll towards the enemy. I had a similar idea for Daryl. He should have some trick arrows -- like Green Arrow! -- with one being an arrow with an iPod, a speaker and super glue on it.
Zombified Merle is stabbed by his own brother at the end of the episode. I was happy and sad to see this character go. I liked that he added a dash of "angry old cuss" into the group, to balance out the relatively happy little family the others in the prison have going. On the other hand, they really defanged Merle's character in this season. In season one, he was a racist asshole who was constantly stirring things up. It was fun to watch the characters get angrier and angrier at the guy as the season went on until they were so pissed that they abandoned him. Season three Merle was toned way, way down and just didn't feel like the same guy.
The Walking Dead 3.16: "Welcome to the Tombs" (2013) directed by Ernest R. Dickerson
Why in the hell would everyone move to the grimy prison instead of taking over the well-stocked, pleasant-looking Woodbury? That's my only thought after a mediocre ending to a mediocre season of a mediocre show. There are these constant dumb decisions the writers have the characters making in this show that make it impossible to love.
What I liked: Carl offing the Woodbury teen trying to surrender. He's growing up in a messed up world and he's going to be a messed up kid. This is the type of worry all parents are going to have in this universe. Andrea dying. Finally, this awful character is gone. I was a little bummed that a giant chunk of the final minutes of the show were occupied by the sad piano melody-backed farewell to her, but, she was a major character, I suppose.
I'm disappointed that they're still in the prison instead of moving on like they have been doing at the end of every other season. From what I'm hearing about season four from friends watching it, it doesn't sound like it's getting any better. Ah well. I still come back to it next October.
The Wicker Man: The Final Cut (1973) directed by Robin Hardy
It's hard to describe why I like this movie so much. It's a feeling. Howie's investigation of Rowan's disappearance also serves as a perfect vehicle for the audience to see every facet of life on the island. As the film reveals more and more of the otherworldly Summerisle, it's impossible not to fall in love with the place. Everyone is happy. Everyone is in tune with the cycle of nature. The community is tight-knit. No one is repressed or depressed. Were it not for the whole human sacrifice thing, it would be an ideal place to live.
That's the rub, though, isn't it? Maybe one thing the film is saying is that there are always trade-offs in the human pursuit of happiness. The old beliefs practiced on Summerisle make it a paradise... except when the crops fail and the extremely violent parts of the old beliefs surface. Christianity replaced the idea of continual sacrifice with the thought that one, final sacrifice of a demigod would suffice for all time. That animals and people no longer needed to be slaughtered to appease invisible forces is a huge step forward for society. This advancement is not without a cost, as we can see in Howie. He suffers from an unhealthy repression of some of the fun parts of being human and a dourly rigid mode of thinking. I'm honestly not sure which is better.
Watched: blu-ray from StudioCanal
.The Wicker Man (2006) directed by Neil LaBute
But, I'd never bothered to watch the entire movie. Of all the movies in the world to remake, The Wicker Man is, honestly, the last I would've liked to have seen been attempted. The original is lightening in a bottle. It's the definition of lightening in a bottle. No one will ever make a film like it again. This remake was doomed from the start.
Still, I went into things with an open mind. I was hoping that the rest of the film -- outside of Cage's standard over-the-top performance -- might have something to say. I knew that this movie replaced the pagans with some sort of matriarchal society, so there was a wide open door for good some good social commentary. Some aspects of a woman-dominated society may seem ideal, but in the end they can be just as violent as men. That might be something to explore, right?
Yeah, no. There's nothing here. It seems as though the filmmakers had heard that the original film was considered a horror movie (though I always have trouble with that classification) are ran with that. They immediately lost any goodwill I may have had about 10 minutes into the film when an over-loud phone rings and scares Cage. That cliche? In The Wicker Man? Go to Hell.
Other horror cliches abound: Cage keeps catching glimpses of Rowan out of the corner of his eye and pursues her. Cage repeatedly has dreams that the film tries to pretend are reality. When he awakens, he wakes up in another nightmare and has to wake up a second time. The women on the island exchange obvious knowing glances whenever they mislead Cage. Cage finds the slaughtered body of the airplane pilot (Why?? Won't he be missed? Don't they need supplies flown in?). Cage's cellphone never works. It goes on.
All throughout this mess, the film bizarrely lifts entire paragraphs of dialogue from the original movie. I really don't understand why. Other than the vague structure -- man looks for lost girl on a private island, gets sacrificed by islanders -- nothing is the same in the movie. I'm guessing it's pure creative bankruptcy. Why craft your own dialogue when you can crudely plop some in from the original movie? You can see clear evidence of this during the final scene. When Cage is shown the wicker man for the first time, he screams at the top of his his lungs: "Oh my God!". The same thing happens in the original. The difference: the original wicker man had what was clearly a stack of bonfire logs around its legs and there were islanders with lit torches ready. Howie immediately saw that they meant to burn him to death and that was utterly terrifying. All the Cage sees in the remake is a giant wooden man. No fire. No logs. He should be confused and not terrified. The only reason he freaks out: that dialogue was mindlessly grabbed from the original script.
One aspect of the film fascinated me. I had the idea that, as bad as it is, this was truly a proper American version of the film. The British film is reserved and beautiful and didn't wait for the audience to keep up with it as Howie's investigation revealed more about Rowan and the island. The American version is loud and ugly and dumb. Cage spends most of the movie shouting, punching people, and asking for things be re-explained over and over. It's just the type of movie and hero my country thinks it wants. Way to be a stereotype, Wicker Man remake.
Watched: DVD from WB
.The Wicker Tree (2011) directed by Robin Hardy
The movie just doesn't feel right. I think it was a good choice to use American evangelicals as the sacrificial subjects. They are very much like Howie in the original film and they really do exist in great numbers over here (hard as it may be for Europeans to believe). Making them cowboy-Texans -- complete with a cowboy hat that has a bullet hole in it (?!) -- was pushing things too far, though. They felt more like a stereotype of what Robin Hardy thinks of Americans rather than real characters.
The Scottish village the Americans visit is no Summerisle. We never get a feel for the place as we do in the original. It's simply row housing with a handful of wacky characters living in them. We never really get to see their life or what they're like as a community. All we ever see is them either having sex or having secret conversations about their plans for the Americans.
The movie doesn't look right. You can tell it was shot with digital cameras. The film has a very flat look and the colors are, for the most part, very muted. Some tinkering with color correction could've gone a long way to improve the look of the movie. I will say I was very impressed with some of the scenes they captured that used natural light. I've never seen naturally lit scenes filmed with digital cameras look quite so nice before. In particular, the scene in which Lolly is bathing in a pond is very pretty. We see shafts of sunshine breaking through the clouds to illuminate patches of her naked body. Lovely.
The plot is a rehash of the original. I didn't expect anything else. Even if there were only one of these movies, "pagans sacrificing Christians" is Wicker Man's thing. In this film, rather than failed crops, the pagans require blood to fix their community's infertility problem. The true cause of this issue is pretty lame: the Lord Summerisle equivalent Sir Lachlan runs a nuclear power plant nearby. This would've been a great idea in the 1980s, but nuclear waste fear is sort of passe by now.
There are a lot of bizarre things in the film that don't fit with the Wicker Man universe. At one point, a man is stabbed in the testicles by a broken glass and it's played for laughs. The male American ends up being cannibalized by the villagers (??). The female American easily pushes Sir Lachlan into the titular tree and burns him to death.
In the end, it just doesn't feel right.
Watched: DVD from Anchor Bay
.29 September 2013
September 29th
The Walking Dead 3.01: "Seed" (2012) directed by Ernest R. Dickerson
I'm still on the Netflix schedule for this show, so I remain a year behind the rest of the world. Works for me. Can't say I care about being spoiled. There's nothing they're ever going to do that will be as remotely shocking as the things that have already gone down in the comic series.
It's a fine start to the season. They finally find the prison and Rick pushes them to dig deeper into the complex before relaxing. There's some stupid character moments -- why venture into the prison before completely exhausting the "rattle the fence, stab the head" trick? -- but I expect those in this show now. Really, it seems like the main reason to continue watching is just for the spectacle of the apocalypse, which, for me, is endlessly fascinating. Also, though I have a feeling the quality will drop way off during the rest of the season, the zombie effects in this episode were superb. Particularly, the limbless/jawless companions to Michone looked awesome.
American Horror Story 1.06: "Piggy Piggy" (2011) directed by Michael Uppendahl
No new prior owner-ghosts visit the house this episode! That alone is a step in the right direction after the drop in quality in the last few eps. I though Taissa Farmiga was excellent in this episode, playing a teen-aged girl who's just found out that ghosts are real, her boyfriend is one of them, and he killed a whole lot of people before dying. She mixes in looks of complete hauntedness, anger, and despair as a reaction to these shocking revelations in an incredibly authentic manner.
What I don't understand: why does Constance think Violet is special? As far as I can tell, everyone in the house can see the ghosts. Violent doesn't appear to be any more sensitive than the security guard who hauled ghost-Hayden away. Are we retconning Violet's importance in the series now?
Tales from the Darkside 1.15: "Answer Me" (1985) directed by Richard Friedman
Finally, after 15 episodes, one that I would actually consider to be from "the darkside." Jean Marsh plays the episode's sole character Joan, who has recently subletted an apartment from a friend. She quickly discovers that the walls are very thin and the neighbor's phone will not stop ringing. There are also occasional bangs on their shared wall, as if something is being slammed against it. Eventually, after a lot of talking to herself (an inevitability in a show with only one character), she musters the courage to go next door and confront the neighbors.
I haven't felt quite this much dread during an older TV show in quite a while. The neighbor's apartment is dimly light and empty. There are dents in the wall from what look like hands. It feels like anything could jump out a Joan. The mood is enhanced when she speaks with a malevolent operator using the offending phone, then further enhanced when she decides to return a second time to the apartment when the ringing continues. There, all of the tension is destroyed in one swift move: the telephone itself attacks in some very badly marionetted moves. Very, very disappointing.
I'm still on the Netflix schedule for this show, so I remain a year behind the rest of the world. Works for me. Can't say I care about being spoiled. There's nothing they're ever going to do that will be as remotely shocking as the things that have already gone down in the comic series.
It's a fine start to the season. They finally find the prison and Rick pushes them to dig deeper into the complex before relaxing. There's some stupid character moments -- why venture into the prison before completely exhausting the "rattle the fence, stab the head" trick? -- but I expect those in this show now. Really, it seems like the main reason to continue watching is just for the spectacle of the apocalypse, which, for me, is endlessly fascinating. Also, though I have a feeling the quality will drop way off during the rest of the season, the zombie effects in this episode were superb. Particularly, the limbless/jawless companions to Michone looked awesome.
American Horror Story 1.06: "Piggy Piggy" (2011) directed by Michael Uppendahl
No new prior owner-ghosts visit the house this episode! That alone is a step in the right direction after the drop in quality in the last few eps. I though Taissa Farmiga was excellent in this episode, playing a teen-aged girl who's just found out that ghosts are real, her boyfriend is one of them, and he killed a whole lot of people before dying. She mixes in looks of complete hauntedness, anger, and despair as a reaction to these shocking revelations in an incredibly authentic manner.
What I don't understand: why does Constance think Violet is special? As far as I can tell, everyone in the house can see the ghosts. Violent doesn't appear to be any more sensitive than the security guard who hauled ghost-Hayden away. Are we retconning Violet's importance in the series now?
Tales from the Darkside 1.15: "Answer Me" (1985) directed by Richard Friedman
Finally, after 15 episodes, one that I would actually consider to be from "the darkside." Jean Marsh plays the episode's sole character Joan, who has recently subletted an apartment from a friend. She quickly discovers that the walls are very thin and the neighbor's phone will not stop ringing. There are also occasional bangs on their shared wall, as if something is being slammed against it. Eventually, after a lot of talking to herself (an inevitability in a show with only one character), she musters the courage to go next door and confront the neighbors.
I haven't felt quite this much dread during an older TV show in quite a while. The neighbor's apartment is dimly light and empty. There are dents in the wall from what look like hands. It feels like anything could jump out a Joan. The mood is enhanced when she speaks with a malevolent operator using the offending phone, then further enhanced when she decides to return a second time to the apartment when the ringing continues. There, all of the tension is destroyed in one swift move: the telephone itself attacks in some very badly marionetted moves. Very, very disappointing.
25 October 2012
October 25th
The Woman in Black (2012) directed by James Watkins
Highly recommended by a couple of guests at the Flint Horror Con, I popped this movie up to the top of my Netflix queue. There's no doubt it's well made. The cinematography is beautiful, filled with natural lighting and misty vistas. The locations are amazing, with Eel Marsh mansion being a creepy old house in the grand tradition. Never having seen a Harry Potter, I wasn't distracted by the casting of Radcliffe and thought he did a great job with his lead role, much of which involves no dialogue and no other people to interact with. The film is often able to create a very cool mood in its silence and darkness. But, in the end, it's a ghost story. Those just don't work for me.
It's starts out promising. When lawyer Kipps decides to spend a night in the mansion to get some work done, he begins to catch glimpses of things that should not be there. A few times, he spies a woman dressed entirely in black far out in the yard. When outside, a hideous face appears in an upstairs window. I like these briefs peaks at the ghost; they're effectively disturbing. Alas, the ghost cannot keep this much distance for the entire movie. Once the film gets up close to the thing -- they are very fond of jump-cutting to the ghost screaming like a banshee -- it loses its power and becomes, for me, like an actor in a haunted house attraction trying to scare people by shouting "boo!"
The ending is quite interesting. The ghost makes Kipps' son jump into the path of an oncoming train. He dives after the kid and they're both run over. We then get a Jacob's Ladder ending in which the man and son walk into the light, happily reunited with their long-dead wife/mother. I've never seen a horror movie in which victims of the killer monster are shown walking happily off into heaven. It's very bizarre. Think of how we can re-spin every Friday the 13th this way: don't worry, Jason is doing everyone a favor by sending those sweet teenagers to heaven early! In fact, this is something I've always wondered about people who believe in a post-death paradise. If that's what you think lies ahead, shouldn't you -- if suicide is a sin -- be seeking the absolute most dangerous jobs possible in order to maybe get a lucky early trip to those pearly gates? Are Alaskan crab boats filled with true believers, perhaps?
Just, it's very strange. The ending makes the child-killing ghost of the film into a hero. She's sending these innocent kids directly to heaven before they're old enough to do something to damn themselves. Plus, she's sacrificing her own stay in paradise by hanging around this ball of dirt to do it. What a nice, nice lady!
Watched: blu-ray from CBS
.
The Walking Dead 2.12: "Better Angels" (2012) directed by Guy Ferland
It had to happen in one of these two final episodes: increasingly out of control Shane is finally killed. I was still hoping that, as in the comics, it would be Carl that pulled the trigger in order to save his dad. It was such a huge moment early in the comics: so damaged by the harsh world he lives in, Carl had no problem blowing away a living person. It casts a pretty grim shadow over the future of this world if this is how children are going to be turning out. Here, they wuss out a little. Or, they prefer to develop Rick's character more than Carl's. Carl still gets to shoot Shane, but only after he's turned into a zombie. It's still significant, as this is the first time TV Carl has had to shoot a zombie, but not quite as horrifying.
The Walking Dead 2.13: "Beside the Dying Fire" (2012) directed by Ernest R. Dickerson
I love the intro to this episode. Why is there a zombie herd suddenly headed towards Hershel's place? Blind, stinking bad luck. The dumb zombies follow any sounds that catch their interest, starting with a helicopter flying over Atlanta and ending with Carl's gunshot at the farm. Along the way, the sheer weight of their numbers topples any obstacle in their path. It's about the best illustration of why these things are so incredibly dangerous en mass as you can get.
As expected, the final episode of the season is pretty exciting. Chaos ensues at the farm as the herd arrives. People are ripped apart. The beloved Winnebago is abandoned. Hershel's barn burns to the ground. People lose each other. The most powerful bit, though, is when Rick's truck begins to run out of gas on the road. They stop and the reality of how grim the situation is begins to set in. They have no gas, no food, it's beginning to get cold out, and they are untold number of zombies walking around unseen in the woods that surround them. The feeling of hopelessness is palpable. Welcome to the real zombie apocalypse, people.
Over the past year, I've seen a lot of complaining online about season 2. I think people are being far too hard on the show. Yes, the search for Sophia went on for too long. I also think they spent too much time at Hershel's farm living comfortably. More of the beginning of the season should've been spent living the hard life on the road. Overall, though, this is still an incredible piece of television. I think it's pretty easily the best horror TV show ever made and I think us horror geeks are pretty lucky enough normal people watch it to keep it going.
It's starts out promising. When lawyer Kipps decides to spend a night in the mansion to get some work done, he begins to catch glimpses of things that should not be there. A few times, he spies a woman dressed entirely in black far out in the yard. When outside, a hideous face appears in an upstairs window. I like these briefs peaks at the ghost; they're effectively disturbing. Alas, the ghost cannot keep this much distance for the entire movie. Once the film gets up close to the thing -- they are very fond of jump-cutting to the ghost screaming like a banshee -- it loses its power and becomes, for me, like an actor in a haunted house attraction trying to scare people by shouting "boo!"
The ending is quite interesting. The ghost makes Kipps' son jump into the path of an oncoming train. He dives after the kid and they're both run over. We then get a Jacob's Ladder ending in which the man and son walk into the light, happily reunited with their long-dead wife/mother. I've never seen a horror movie in which victims of the killer monster are shown walking happily off into heaven. It's very bizarre. Think of how we can re-spin every Friday the 13th this way: don't worry, Jason is doing everyone a favor by sending those sweet teenagers to heaven early! In fact, this is something I've always wondered about people who believe in a post-death paradise. If that's what you think lies ahead, shouldn't you -- if suicide is a sin -- be seeking the absolute most dangerous jobs possible in order to maybe get a lucky early trip to those pearly gates? Are Alaskan crab boats filled with true believers, perhaps?
Just, it's very strange. The ending makes the child-killing ghost of the film into a hero. She's sending these innocent kids directly to heaven before they're old enough to do something to damn themselves. Plus, she's sacrificing her own stay in paradise by hanging around this ball of dirt to do it. What a nice, nice lady!
Watched: blu-ray from CBS
.The Walking Dead 2.12: "Better Angels" (2012) directed by Guy Ferland
It had to happen in one of these two final episodes: increasingly out of control Shane is finally killed. I was still hoping that, as in the comics, it would be Carl that pulled the trigger in order to save his dad. It was such a huge moment early in the comics: so damaged by the harsh world he lives in, Carl had no problem blowing away a living person. It casts a pretty grim shadow over the future of this world if this is how children are going to be turning out. Here, they wuss out a little. Or, they prefer to develop Rick's character more than Carl's. Carl still gets to shoot Shane, but only after he's turned into a zombie. It's still significant, as this is the first time TV Carl has had to shoot a zombie, but not quite as horrifying.
The Walking Dead 2.13: "Beside the Dying Fire" (2012) directed by Ernest R. Dickerson
I love the intro to this episode. Why is there a zombie herd suddenly headed towards Hershel's place? Blind, stinking bad luck. The dumb zombies follow any sounds that catch their interest, starting with a helicopter flying over Atlanta and ending with Carl's gunshot at the farm. Along the way, the sheer weight of their numbers topples any obstacle in their path. It's about the best illustration of why these things are so incredibly dangerous en mass as you can get.
As expected, the final episode of the season is pretty exciting. Chaos ensues at the farm as the herd arrives. People are ripped apart. The beloved Winnebago is abandoned. Hershel's barn burns to the ground. People lose each other. The most powerful bit, though, is when Rick's truck begins to run out of gas on the road. They stop and the reality of how grim the situation is begins to set in. They have no gas, no food, it's beginning to get cold out, and they are untold number of zombies walking around unseen in the woods that surround them. The feeling of hopelessness is palpable. Welcome to the real zombie apocalypse, people.
Over the past year, I've seen a lot of complaining online about season 2. I think people are being far too hard on the show. Yes, the search for Sophia went on for too long. I also think they spent too much time at Hershel's farm living comfortably. More of the beginning of the season should've been spent living the hard life on the road. Overall, though, this is still an incredible piece of television. I think it's pretty easily the best horror TV show ever made and I think us horror geeks are pretty lucky enough normal people watch it to keep it going.
24 October 2012
October 24th
Survival of the Dead (2009) directed by George A. Romero
The roads are clear and the Internet still works. Minor things, but they set the wrong tone. A world in which, a month into a zombie outbreak, you can still watch YouTube on your iPhone just doesn't feel apocalyptic enough. Who's manning all of those server rooms to make this happen while the rest of the world goes to hell? If you're going to go that way -- things are still running, but there's all these annoying zombies making it a little harder than normal -- Romero should've ran with the idea I once read that he had for part 4: the living dead have become little more than a nuisance; just more homeless on the street for people to ignore.
Instead, for this sixth go-round, Romero goes back to the "let's civilize the zombies" idea again. This time, a man -- not unlike Hershel in The Walking Dead -- thinks the zombies are just sick people. He keeps them chained up on his island, where they repeatedly perform a minor task they used to do while alive. His goal is to train one to eat something other than humans in an effort to find a way to coexist with the creatures. Sounds familiar.
I'm not really sure I follow the logic of this train of thought, though. At the end of the movie, the zombies do indeed eat a horse. So what? I eat chickens, but that doesn't mean cows are safe around me. Saying this is a path to making the zombie safe to be around is like saying, "don't worry about the tiger walking around town. I've trained him to eat only cat food."
In the end, I don't think Romero really had anything new to say here. People are violent and will kill each other over stupid things like differences of opinions. Zombies can learn. You may have to turn into a little bit of a bastard to survive zombieland, but there are lines never to cross. We've tackled all of this stuff in previous Living Dead movies.
I do like the final image. If the visual of two zombies shooting empty guns at each other with a gigantic full moon behind them is the last of the Romeroverse, well, that'll be fine.
Watched: blu-ray from Magnolia
.
Sarge (2009)
The Walking Dead 2.10: "18 Miles Out" (2012) directed by Ernest R. Dickerson
How much time is passing? How in the hell is Randall walking around OK after getting his calf muscle torn to shreds on a fence? And, where are they? Rick gives a nice speech about how winter may slow or end the zombie plague. Aren't they in Georgia, having just fled the CDC in Atlanta? Why is Rick talking about snowmobiles? I'm pretty sure they get rare dustings of snow there in winter and nothing more.
I'm also not sure why the show expects us to care much about whether Hershel's other daughter kills herself or not. I don't think the girl has ever had any lines before this episode and her catatonic state from the episodes prior has been the series' lamest storyline. I don't even remember what her name is.
At least Rick and Shane have come to blows, opening the way for Carl to do what he should'a done long ago.
The Walking Dead 2.11: "Judge, Jury, Executioner" (2012) directed by Gregory Nicotero
I love the group's moral quandary in this episode. It's a tough one. If Randall's group really has 30 people in it, I think the implication is that he's from the Governor's group. If that's the case, knowing what the Governor is like from the comics, I think Shane is right: they need to off him for the safety of the group. Easier said than done, though, as Rick finds out. Should they continue to pretend to be civilized? Or is that impossible in the world they now live in? Great, great stuff. This is exactly what this series can be at its best.
Is this the episode that started the complaints I've seen all over the damn Internet about Carl wandering off into the woods without supervision? There's only two more episodes left after this. I suppose if he does it again and gets lost like Sophia, that may be annoying. But, still, his wandering in this episode is completely understandable to me. He's a 10ish-year-old boy and, up to this point, the farm has been perfectly safe. I'd be curious to go explore and watch a zombie, too. I'm more worried that the idiot lost Daryl's gun in the woods.
Wow. Dale, man. He survived a long, long time in the comic series. I wasn't expecting him to be dying a horrifically agonizing death by being ripped open by a zombie and then shot in the head. Poor TV Dale never got to date Andrea or get his leg chopped off. If the series continues to shock me by mixing up the details of which bad things happens to which character, that's just fine. I just hope they have the balls to torture the members of the Grimes family as much as they've been tortured in the comics. Nothing in a comic book has ever gotten to me more than the three major things that happen to the members of that family over the course of the series.
Instead, for this sixth go-round, Romero goes back to the "let's civilize the zombies" idea again. This time, a man -- not unlike Hershel in The Walking Dead -- thinks the zombies are just sick people. He keeps them chained up on his island, where they repeatedly perform a minor task they used to do while alive. His goal is to train one to eat something other than humans in an effort to find a way to coexist with the creatures. Sounds familiar.
I'm not really sure I follow the logic of this train of thought, though. At the end of the movie, the zombies do indeed eat a horse. So what? I eat chickens, but that doesn't mean cows are safe around me. Saying this is a path to making the zombie safe to be around is like saying, "don't worry about the tiger walking around town. I've trained him to eat only cat food."
In the end, I don't think Romero really had anything new to say here. People are violent and will kill each other over stupid things like differences of opinions. Zombies can learn. You may have to turn into a little bit of a bastard to survive zombieland, but there are lines never to cross. We've tackled all of this stuff in previous Living Dead movies.
I do like the final image. If the visual of two zombies shooting empty guns at each other with a gigantic full moon behind them is the last of the Romeroverse, well, that'll be fine.
Watched: blu-ray from Magnolia
.Sarge (2009)
The Walking Dead 2.10: "18 Miles Out" (2012) directed by Ernest R. Dickerson
How much time is passing? How in the hell is Randall walking around OK after getting his calf muscle torn to shreds on a fence? And, where are they? Rick gives a nice speech about how winter may slow or end the zombie plague. Aren't they in Georgia, having just fled the CDC in Atlanta? Why is Rick talking about snowmobiles? I'm pretty sure they get rare dustings of snow there in winter and nothing more.
I'm also not sure why the show expects us to care much about whether Hershel's other daughter kills herself or not. I don't think the girl has ever had any lines before this episode and her catatonic state from the episodes prior has been the series' lamest storyline. I don't even remember what her name is.
At least Rick and Shane have come to blows, opening the way for Carl to do what he should'a done long ago.
The Walking Dead 2.11: "Judge, Jury, Executioner" (2012) directed by Gregory Nicotero
I love the group's moral quandary in this episode. It's a tough one. If Randall's group really has 30 people in it, I think the implication is that he's from the Governor's group. If that's the case, knowing what the Governor is like from the comics, I think Shane is right: they need to off him for the safety of the group. Easier said than done, though, as Rick finds out. Should they continue to pretend to be civilized? Or is that impossible in the world they now live in? Great, great stuff. This is exactly what this series can be at its best.
Is this the episode that started the complaints I've seen all over the damn Internet about Carl wandering off into the woods without supervision? There's only two more episodes left after this. I suppose if he does it again and gets lost like Sophia, that may be annoying. But, still, his wandering in this episode is completely understandable to me. He's a 10ish-year-old boy and, up to this point, the farm has been perfectly safe. I'd be curious to go explore and watch a zombie, too. I'm more worried that the idiot lost Daryl's gun in the woods.
Wow. Dale, man. He survived a long, long time in the comic series. I wasn't expecting him to be dying a horrifically agonizing death by being ripped open by a zombie and then shot in the head. Poor TV Dale never got to date Andrea or get his leg chopped off. If the series continues to shock me by mixing up the details of which bad things happens to which character, that's just fine. I just hope they have the balls to torture the members of the Grimes family as much as they've been tortured in the comics. Nothing in a comic book has ever gotten to me more than the three major things that happen to the members of that family over the course of the series.
15 October 2012
October 15th
Night of the Living Dead (1990) directed by Tom Savini
Though this feels like a step backwards, after Dawn and Day, for the Romero zombie universe, this remake somehow works, anyway. Though the film keeps the same premise -- people stuck in a farmhouse during a zombie uprising -- it changes up enough of the details to make it interesting.
The largest change is completely reversing Barbara's personality. This was a near-necessity. I think the useless, catatonic Barbara from the original would've driven '90s audiences nuts. I also like that she ends up, more or less, the hero of the piece. I think it's implied in the original that, even though he seems to be the hero, Ben is actually not handling the situation very well. The remake makes this very clear, with Barbara's idea to take off running past the slow zombies ending far better than either hiding in a basement or boarding up windows.
The animosity between Ben and Cooper has been amped up quite a bit in this one, so much so that they end up having a full-on gun battle inside the house. I'm not sure how much I like this. The stress of such a situation would be intense, but the movie may be pushing things too far.
Both of these changes make Ben a less noble character, which I think was a smart direction to go. Though he has the most forceful personality of the people stuck in the house, that doesn't necessarily mean he's making the right choices. You can see the doubt in his eyes when Barbara suggests running off, but I think his personality clash with the other alpha male in the house convinces him to double-down on his initial idea of staying in the house. Sometimes your gut instinct is wrong.
Watched: blu-ray from Twilight Time
.
The Walking Dead 2.02: "Bloodletting" (2011) directed by Ernest R. Dickerson
Rick brings the shot Carl to Hershel's farm, where Hershel attempts to save the boy's life. Hey, we're back in the comic book storyline! Awesome: the comic usually knows what it's doing better than the TV screenwriters. Except, I don't remember Carl being in such peril in the comic. This does make for some good drama and makes sense as an addition to the story. We end with Otis and Shane running off to the high school to grab a respirator for Carl's needed surgery, the pair trapped by zombies and Carl running out of time. Not a bad cliffhanger.
The Walking Dead 2.03: "Save the Last One" (2011) directed by Phil Abraham
One of the best episodes of the series so far. Otis and Shane's adventures in the high school, chased by hordes of zombies, are incredibly tense and well-shot. A great, oft-overlooked, detail is their complete exhaustion. How often do you see people in zombie movies who've run from zombies for so long they're about to collapse? It makes the high school scenes feel so much more desperate. I also love the arc the plot gives Shane. Up until the end, I was starting to actually like the guy. He seemed to be so completely wrecked by Carl's accident and losing Otis at the high school. I'd still rather have Tyrese from the comics, but at least Shane's extended life is making things interesting.
The largest change is completely reversing Barbara's personality. This was a near-necessity. I think the useless, catatonic Barbara from the original would've driven '90s audiences nuts. I also like that she ends up, more or less, the hero of the piece. I think it's implied in the original that, even though he seems to be the hero, Ben is actually not handling the situation very well. The remake makes this very clear, with Barbara's idea to take off running past the slow zombies ending far better than either hiding in a basement or boarding up windows.
The animosity between Ben and Cooper has been amped up quite a bit in this one, so much so that they end up having a full-on gun battle inside the house. I'm not sure how much I like this. The stress of such a situation would be intense, but the movie may be pushing things too far.
Both of these changes make Ben a less noble character, which I think was a smart direction to go. Though he has the most forceful personality of the people stuck in the house, that doesn't necessarily mean he's making the right choices. You can see the doubt in his eyes when Barbara suggests running off, but I think his personality clash with the other alpha male in the house convinces him to double-down on his initial idea of staying in the house. Sometimes your gut instinct is wrong.
Watched: blu-ray from Twilight Time
.The Walking Dead 2.02: "Bloodletting" (2011) directed by Ernest R. Dickerson
Rick brings the shot Carl to Hershel's farm, where Hershel attempts to save the boy's life. Hey, we're back in the comic book storyline! Awesome: the comic usually knows what it's doing better than the TV screenwriters. Except, I don't remember Carl being in such peril in the comic. This does make for some good drama and makes sense as an addition to the story. We end with Otis and Shane running off to the high school to grab a respirator for Carl's needed surgery, the pair trapped by zombies and Carl running out of time. Not a bad cliffhanger.
The Walking Dead 2.03: "Save the Last One" (2011) directed by Phil Abraham
One of the best episodes of the series so far. Otis and Shane's adventures in the high school, chased by hordes of zombies, are incredibly tense and well-shot. A great, oft-overlooked, detail is their complete exhaustion. How often do you see people in zombie movies who've run from zombies for so long they're about to collapse? It makes the high school scenes feel so much more desperate. I also love the arc the plot gives Shane. Up until the end, I was starting to actually like the guy. He seemed to be so completely wrecked by Carl's accident and losing Otis at the high school. I'd still rather have Tyrese from the comics, but at least Shane's extended life is making things interesting.
14 October 2012
October 14th
Casper (1995) directed by Brad Silberling
We made it through just 20 minutes of Spooky Buddies yesterday before my oldest freaked out and left the room. A Disney movie starring talking golden retriever puppies and featuring goofball Harland Williams as the bad guy was too much stress for the poor 4-year-old. So, I wasn't expecting to make it very far into this one today, either. Surprisingly, outside of some swearing I wish wasn't there, this one's pretty harmless and the girls got a kick out of it.
As an adult, I thought it was definitely a step above the aforementioned Buddies movie. The Looney Tunes-like ghosts were pretty funny and the cameos kept me entertained. I love Father Guido Sarducci -- what ever happened to him? -- popping up as an exorcist and Dan Aykroyd appearing for 5 seconds as Ray Stanz. Plus, Clint Eastwood, Rodney Dangerfield, Mel Gibson and the Cryptkeeper showing up in a mirror when the ghostly uncles possess Bill Pullman was unexpectedly cool (and weird as hell). Not a bad kids' Halloween movie.
Watched: bootleg (if it were available to stream, I would've rented it. You lose, Universal).
Always my least favorite of the original dead trilogy. Partially, this is because of the setting. The underground shelter built into a mine, especially when compared to a mall, is pretty boring. It's not a place I can relate to. I've been in small farmhouses and malls; I can imagine the challenges of being barricaded in those. Underground facilities: not so much. The story doesn't have too much going for it, either. The film ends with the zombies taking over the facility, the asshole army guys eaten, and some of the good guy civilians escaping. You can more or less predict this all happening after the first time we meet the not-so-nice military guys underground. But: Bub, Dr. Logan and Tom Savini. Two fictional characters and a special effects guy make the movie entertaining for me.
When I think of "zombie," Bub is the face that comes to mind. Sherman Howard does a great job giving Bub personality and manages to make the undead killing machine sympathetic. Also, a lot of his movements look ape-like; I swear I've seen a nature special in which a gorilla plays with a phone in the same way that Bub does. I wonder if he was doing this on purpose? It's a great fit with the idea of trying to civilize / evolve the zombies.
Speaking of, you've gotta love nutty Dr. Logan and his wacky experiments. I don't think it's necessary to explain anything about how the zombies work in these films -- they aren't, or at least shouldn't be, the point of the story -- but I can't deny it's some fun stuff. You've got a zombie with everything in his head gone except for a still-living brain, a zombie with all of his internal organs disconnected who still wants to eat, a severed head that still blinks, and a zombie baby submerged in water. Also, though it's not remotely subtle, I like the fact that the only thing civilizing Bub really accomplished was to give him the ability to kill people with a gun instead of his teeth.
In Day, Savini is at the top of his game when it comes to the gore. Some of stuff at the end, in which the zombies are tearing the army guys to pieces, even had me wincing a little. Dr. Logan's experiments are beautifully accomplished. When the zombie sits up and all of his internal organs spill onto the floor... now that's horror poetry. Even the traditional zombie neck bites are done extremely well, with the zombies somehow looking like they've bitten a chunk out of the actor's neck.
A sometimes fun zombie movie, but not at all in the same class as Night or Dawn.
Watched: blu-ray from Anchor Bay
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The Walking Dead 2.01: "What Lies Ahead" (2011) directed by Ernest R. Dickerson & Gwyneth Horder-Payton
Not having cable, I'm always going to be a year behind with this series as I catch it streaming on Netflix every October. That's fine with me; I'm in no rush. This first episode of season two picks up with the gang on the road after the disaster at the CDC in the final episode of season one. This is more of what I thought the later parts of season one might be like: traveling in the camper and running into trouble on the road. Quests to scientific facilities happened way too early.
Watching this right after Day of the Dead, I was bothered more than usual by the CGI gore in the show. I hate computer-generated blood and guts. It always looks like a cartoon and it's never animated right. I get that it's a huge time- and money-saver, but it still makes this part of the show look worse than a low-budget movie from 1985. On the other hand, I can't fault the zombie make-up jobs the crew is doing. The zombies look great and would not look out of place in a real zombie film. I particularly liked the horribly thin actor they cast as the zombie who terrorizes Andrea in the camper.
I don't think this episode needed to be extra-long -- it kind of dragged a bit -- and parts of the show are too soap opera-y for my taste, but I'm still curious to see where they take things next.
As an adult, I thought it was definitely a step above the aforementioned Buddies movie. The Looney Tunes-like ghosts were pretty funny and the cameos kept me entertained. I love Father Guido Sarducci -- what ever happened to him? -- popping up as an exorcist and Dan Aykroyd appearing for 5 seconds as Ray Stanz. Plus, Clint Eastwood, Rodney Dangerfield, Mel Gibson and the Cryptkeeper showing up in a mirror when the ghostly uncles possess Bill Pullman was unexpectedly cool (and weird as hell). Not a bad kids' Halloween movie.
Watched: bootleg (if it were available to stream, I would've rented it. You lose, Universal).
Day of the Dead (1985) directed by George A. Romero
When I think of "zombie," Bub is the face that comes to mind. Sherman Howard does a great job giving Bub personality and manages to make the undead killing machine sympathetic. Also, a lot of his movements look ape-like; I swear I've seen a nature special in which a gorilla plays with a phone in the same way that Bub does. I wonder if he was doing this on purpose? It's a great fit with the idea of trying to civilize / evolve the zombies.
Speaking of, you've gotta love nutty Dr. Logan and his wacky experiments. I don't think it's necessary to explain anything about how the zombies work in these films -- they aren't, or at least shouldn't be, the point of the story -- but I can't deny it's some fun stuff. You've got a zombie with everything in his head gone except for a still-living brain, a zombie with all of his internal organs disconnected who still wants to eat, a severed head that still blinks, and a zombie baby submerged in water. Also, though it's not remotely subtle, I like the fact that the only thing civilizing Bub really accomplished was to give him the ability to kill people with a gun instead of his teeth.
In Day, Savini is at the top of his game when it comes to the gore. Some of stuff at the end, in which the zombies are tearing the army guys to pieces, even had me wincing a little. Dr. Logan's experiments are beautifully accomplished. When the zombie sits up and all of his internal organs spill onto the floor... now that's horror poetry. Even the traditional zombie neck bites are done extremely well, with the zombies somehow looking like they've bitten a chunk out of the actor's neck.
A sometimes fun zombie movie, but not at all in the same class as Night or Dawn.
Watched: blu-ray from Anchor Bay
.The Walking Dead 2.01: "What Lies Ahead" (2011) directed by Ernest R. Dickerson & Gwyneth Horder-Payton
Not having cable, I'm always going to be a year behind with this series as I catch it streaming on Netflix every October. That's fine with me; I'm in no rush. This first episode of season two picks up with the gang on the road after the disaster at the CDC in the final episode of season one. This is more of what I thought the later parts of season one might be like: traveling in the camper and running into trouble on the road. Quests to scientific facilities happened way too early.
Watching this right after Day of the Dead, I was bothered more than usual by the CGI gore in the show. I hate computer-generated blood and guts. It always looks like a cartoon and it's never animated right. I get that it's a huge time- and money-saver, but it still makes this part of the show look worse than a low-budget movie from 1985. On the other hand, I can't fault the zombie make-up jobs the crew is doing. The zombies look great and would not look out of place in a real zombie film. I particularly liked the horribly thin actor they cast as the zombie who terrorizes Andrea in the camper.
I don't think this episode needed to be extra-long -- it kind of dragged a bit -- and parts of the show are too soap opera-y for my taste, but I'm still curious to see where they take things next.
24 October 2011
October 24th
Hellraiser: Deader (2005) directed by Rick Bota
After reading on Wikipedia that this movie didn't start life as a Hellraiser movie (same as V and VI), things make a little more sense. No wonder the Cenobite stuff feels tacked on in these sequels... it was. Even ignoring the Hellraiser bits, I can't say I really understand what the hell was going on in this movie. There's a cult in Romania who believe their flesh isn't really what they are. To prove this, they kill themselves and their leader, Winter, somehow resurrects them with a deep kiss. For some reason, the cult thinks reporter Amy Klein is "the chosen one" and gets her to come to Romania so that she might join them. Apparently, she has the ability to both solve the box and kill herself for the cult. Why that is special, I'm not sure. There's a vague mention that Winter is fighting with Pinhead over the box (Winter, apparently, being John Merchant's brother from part IV) and having Amy do these things will somehow help, but it's never made very clear what exactly the goal is.
As a former Sliders watcher, I can't say I am a Kari Wuhrer fan due to the stuff that went down behind the scenes on that show. Even so, I have to give her props here. Even though she's stuck in Pinhead, Part 7, she gives the role all of her energy. She's probably the series' best protagonist since Kirsty, I'd have to admit (though, frankly, that ain't saying much). I particularly liked the scene where she wakes up with a giant knife stuck in her back. Her freaking out over the situation -- especially since she's feeling no pain from the wound -- was great, as was her solution for getting the knife out (wedging it in a cabinet door and pulling).
There are some other nice moments in the movie as well. While searching for Winter, Amy walks into a basement hallway that keeps getting narrower and narrower. When she's about stuck, barely able to inch forward in the small space, a hooded man with a knife starts approaching from behind. It's quite an effective and claustrophobic scene. I also thought the Cenobites appearing in a blaze of blue lighting was a nice updating of the cartoony effects seen in the first film.
Despite this stuff, the movie's still a mess. It's barely coherent and we're still doing the "protagonist can't tell what is real anymore" shtick started in V. I'm getting sick of this approach to Hellraiser. (6/10)
The Walking Dead: "Wildfire" (2010) directed by Ernest R. Dickerson
This episode is mainly focused on how the group decides to deal with death. Daryl wants to shoot the bitten Jim before he's even dead. Rick stops him and declares that they aren't killers. Glenn insists that the dead members of the group be buried instead of burned. Carol applies a pickax to her dead, abusive husband's skull with a little too much gusto. Andrea stays with her sister until she awakens as zombie, first apologizing to her and then blowing her brains out. I especially liked the scene with Andrea. They really get up close to the process of a dead body waking up as a zombie, forcing you to really think about it. Watching such a thing happen to a loved one would be horrible. As you struggle to get used to the huge hole in your life their death means to you, you suddenly see them take a couple of ragged breaths and open their eyes. It'd be very tempting to imagine that they're really going to be OK after all. I suspect this is how a lot of the plague spread; being bitten by those you love.
The CDC stopover was not in the comic series, but it really does make sense. It's located in Atlanta, anyway, so might as well stop there just in case. What I don't really understand was everyone's objections to going there with Rick. What was the downside? Do they have anything better to do than go to the one place in the entire world that might have the cure? It seemed like some false tension was generated for the drama.
After reading on Wikipedia that this movie didn't start life as a Hellraiser movie (same as V and VI), things make a little more sense. No wonder the Cenobite stuff feels tacked on in these sequels... it was. Even ignoring the Hellraiser bits, I can't say I really understand what the hell was going on in this movie. There's a cult in Romania who believe their flesh isn't really what they are. To prove this, they kill themselves and their leader, Winter, somehow resurrects them with a deep kiss. For some reason, the cult thinks reporter Amy Klein is "the chosen one" and gets her to come to Romania so that she might join them. Apparently, she has the ability to both solve the box and kill herself for the cult. Why that is special, I'm not sure. There's a vague mention that Winter is fighting with Pinhead over the box (Winter, apparently, being John Merchant's brother from part IV) and having Amy do these things will somehow help, but it's never made very clear what exactly the goal is.
As a former Sliders watcher, I can't say I am a Kari Wuhrer fan due to the stuff that went down behind the scenes on that show. Even so, I have to give her props here. Even though she's stuck in Pinhead, Part 7, she gives the role all of her energy. She's probably the series' best protagonist since Kirsty, I'd have to admit (though, frankly, that ain't saying much). I particularly liked the scene where she wakes up with a giant knife stuck in her back. Her freaking out over the situation -- especially since she's feeling no pain from the wound -- was great, as was her solution for getting the knife out (wedging it in a cabinet door and pulling).
There are some other nice moments in the movie as well. While searching for Winter, Amy walks into a basement hallway that keeps getting narrower and narrower. When she's about stuck, barely able to inch forward in the small space, a hooded man with a knife starts approaching from behind. It's quite an effective and claustrophobic scene. I also thought the Cenobites appearing in a blaze of blue lighting was a nice updating of the cartoony effects seen in the first film.
Despite this stuff, the movie's still a mess. It's barely coherent and we're still doing the "protagonist can't tell what is real anymore" shtick started in V. I'm getting sick of this approach to Hellraiser. (6/10)
The Walking Dead: "Wildfire" (2010) directed by Ernest R. Dickerson
This episode is mainly focused on how the group decides to deal with death. Daryl wants to shoot the bitten Jim before he's even dead. Rick stops him and declares that they aren't killers. Glenn insists that the dead members of the group be buried instead of burned. Carol applies a pickax to her dead, abusive husband's skull with a little too much gusto. Andrea stays with her sister until she awakens as zombie, first apologizing to her and then blowing her brains out. I especially liked the scene with Andrea. They really get up close to the process of a dead body waking up as a zombie, forcing you to really think about it. Watching such a thing happen to a loved one would be horrible. As you struggle to get used to the huge hole in your life their death means to you, you suddenly see them take a couple of ragged breaths and open their eyes. It'd be very tempting to imagine that they're really going to be OK after all. I suspect this is how a lot of the plague spread; being bitten by those you love.
The CDC stopover was not in the comic series, but it really does make sense. It's located in Atlanta, anyway, so might as well stop there just in case. What I don't really understand was everyone's objections to going there with Rick. What was the downside? Do they have anything better to do than go to the one place in the entire world that might have the cure? It seemed like some false tension was generated for the drama.
28 September 2010
September 28th
 |
| A masked invader in my home. |
About as good as Dickerson's Masters of Horror episode, which was not really that great. A giant animal is hit by a car and brought to a vet's office. Naturally, this being a horror show, the giant animal is a werewolf and it bites the doc. He starts forgetting what he does at night, has dirty feet in the morning, yadda-yadda-yadda. It's absolutely no surprise that this was written by John Landis' son, as the episode plays out like a combination of An American Werewolf in London and Teen Wolf. I did enjoy Wendell Pierce as the vet-wolf, though. He handles his transformation from weak boss/father/husband to an animal-powered take-charge guy with the right level of humor.
Cat o' Nine Tails (1971) directed by Dario Argento
A step down from Crystal Plumage, I think. It's hard to tell, though, since the presentations of the two movies were so different. Crystal Plumage I watched on Blue Underground's excellent Blu-ray. Netflix's DVD of Nine Tails appears to be some kind of bootleg. It's pan-and-scanned, missing over twenty minutes of footage and the A/V quality is on par with a VHS tape. I suspect this crappy DVD deadened the impact of the movie for me. It also made it harder to follow, what with 20% of the movie gone. Grrr.
I enjoyed stars James Franciscus and Karl Malden in this film. I got a big kick out of Malden's Mr. Magoo shtick, though, at least in the cut I watched, he's almost not necessary to the story outside of the finale. Storywise, the movie runs with the now-discredited idea that boys born with an extra Y chromosome are more prone to violence. Guess which genetic abnormality the killer in the film has? Poor guy just happened to be working for a lab researching this and just wants to keep his genetic test a secret. Killing people to do so probably doesn't help his cause, but what are you gonna do?
Also: best "killed by a train" shot in movie history. (6/10)
Tales from the Darkside: "Pain Killer" (1984) directed by Armand Mastroianni
I know I'm not very far into season 1, but I'm still disappointed that there has yet not been been serious piece of horror that can match the awesome credit sequence. This one's another deal with the devil story involving a strange doctor and a man with severe back pain. Seems that the man's back pain is psychosomatic, caused by his nagging wife. The doctor arranges for the wife's death, which cures the man's pain, but he wants something in return... Due to Lou Jacobi's affable face and manner, it's a little hard to take the episode seriously. He seems to be sort of OK with whatever happens to him.
The episode was enhanced a little bit by the strange noises coming from the garage behind my TV. I got to do a classic horror movie-style investigation: I got out my flashlight and crept into the dark garage to investigate the strange sounds. Rather than a maniac, though, I fortunately only discovered the masked bandit pictured above. Damned thing pooped in my garage!
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