Monster Mash Movie Marathon Month - Week 4

Ok, folks. Here it is: Another week of film reviews, just for you, and anyone else you tell about them! BE ON THE FRIGGIN' LOOKOUT FOR SPOILERS - I don't care if you haven't seen the movies, I assure you.

Remember, here's how I grade my films:

A = Excellent, a must see

B = Very good, I’d watch it again

C = Worth Seeing

D = Maybe don’t bother

F = Worthless

+ = Superior for this grade

- = Just barely makes it into this grade

Also, as usual, my grade on Facebook might not line up with my posts here. You should assume that, because they've been posted later, these grades are what I'd probably stand by. 

So, we finally come to the main event of this year's MMMMM. After all the hype, I watched five Asian horror movies in a row. I won't get into some crazy analysis of Asian film culture (impossible to do, when 80% of the control group was from a single country), but I would say that there were definitely a few common themes to the films - not the least of which was their willingness to focus on ideas and narratives that would never play in Hollywood. Two of these films, Thirst and Audition, are among the best I watched this year (barring those of next week, but I'm skeptical about any of those making the B+ or better grade).

Let's get to it!

The New York Ripper (Lucio Fulci) - D+

A murderer stalks women in New York City (and one old man). Lt. Williams, a grizzled cop that has seen it all is investigating, and things take a puzzling turn when the killer begins to call him, taunting him with a Donald Duck voice. Victim after victim meets a grizzly end at the killer's blade, including Williams' secret prostitute. Eventually, the suspect is found dead, but the murders continue. But only for about 15 minutes, when the right man is shot through the face. New York can rest easy once more.

A very late entry in the Giallo craze that gripped Italian horror in the 70s, the New York Ripper isn't anything spectacular. Typical to Fulci, the gore is sensationalized (Fulci fans can expect someone's eye to get massacred on camera - the director's well-known calling card). There are some titillating moments, as well as a completely unnecessary scene in which a woman allows a Hispanic man to give her a foot job under a table, so, you know, there's stuff to like. The photography is excellent, featuring helicopter shots, dazzling city scapes and other things you'd expect to see.

But it's just not all that interesting. The police investigation is plodding, even if the Lt. and his psychologist are two of the more watchable characters. You, as the viewer, never quite buy the suspect as the killer, so finding out he's not is somewhat lackluster. If I can be honest with you good people, over all the other Fulci options, I picked this one for the absurdity of the Donald Duck voice. It suffered diminishing returns, as it is used throughout the movie. By the time Foot Job leaves the story, my interest barely could be maintained. Fulci tries a couple things to keep you off balance on the true killer's identity, but there are only so many characters in the cast. You'll figure it out early too.

House (Nobuhiko Obayashi) - C+

After the disastrous news that her father is going to remarry, Angel and six of her friends (Fantasy, Sweetie, Prof, Kung-Fu, Melody and Mac) visit her Auntie's remote mansion in the countryside. They are curiously joined by Snowy, Angel's white, longhaired cat. Upon arrival, Mac goes missing, and soon after Angel hysterically claims Mac's severed head has attacked her. From that point on, one by one, the girls are eaten by Auntie's house. They do manage to organize something of a defense when only a few remain, but it's too little too late. Angel's Auntie is a lonely spirit that devours young women to retain her youth, so that she can wait for her lost love to return from World War II. Ultimately, the girls are no match for the house, and Auntie won't be lonely anymore.

If I had to use one word to describe House, it would be strange. And I think I needed it to be. Written by Chigumi Obayashi, the director’s pre-teen daughter, House has the feel of a child's nightmare. The camera and music are often very soft and pleasant (except when someone is dying), and the characters attempt to maintain a chipper attitude despite the horrors befalling them.

But it's really all over the place. You understand very quickly that this won’t be your usual narrative-driven film, but House will endlessly remind you of this. Countless photography tricks are used throughout the film, and the special effects range from subtle to obscene to silly. It’s almost dizzying. Even the more horrific moments - such as Mac's head flying out of a well, barfing blood and biting Angel's bum, or Melody being eaten by the piano - are injected with levity. Stop motion animation, soft dissolves, a projectile vomiting cat portrait, I could go on and on about what is in the movie. It is surreal, it is campy, and it makes very little sense. It also moves very quickly, not giving you a lot of time to absorb the last ridiculous imagery you witnessed. Surely this is the perfect film to cleanse the pallet for more Asian cinema.

Tetsuo, the Iron Man (Shin’ya Tsukamoto) - C-

A man and a woman hit a man with their car. Immediately following, the man begins to exhibit iron protruding from his skin, after he has vivid nightmares about the person he hit. The man is then attacked by a woman with iron parts that appears hell-bent on killing him. He manages to slay her before she can do him in, but in the process, his iron infection worsens. The man's girlfriend tries to comfort him, but she becomes frightened when even more iron bursts from within. She tries to kill him, but he gets her first with his massive, new drill penis. It turns out the victim of the Man's hit and run lived, and has also been cursed with iron. He returns for revenge and the two battle, though in the end, they decide to join forces and envelop the world in iron.

It's different, that's for sure. Tetsuo does a lot with seemingly very little, providing sinister-looking gore and twisted special effects on a budget. There's not a lot given to the viewer in terms of plot or exposition, though. The nature of the iron curse (if that's really what it is) is never really revealed. Clocking in at just over an hour long, Tetsuo moves very quickly, and transition from plot point to plot point happens at a rapid fire pace. Gaps in the story also seem prevalent (how did the Man get home when the woman monster was chasing him?), and lack of dialogue sometimes makes you feel like you're watching an extremely long music video.

I found the first third of the film - the man being chased by the woman with the Iron claw - to be extremely effective as a piece of low budget horror. The almost silent nature of their struggle is quite gripping, and the effects are menacing to behold. This is dissolved almost immediately however, when we reach the Man being comforted about his metamorphosis by his girlfriend and further still for the last third, in which the two metal characters duke it out. By this point, you feel you've seen way too much iron mutant fighting, and just wish you knew what in the hell was going on. Less and less did it feel like a genre entry, and more like a live action manga. I certainly wasn't disappointed by Tetsuo, but I wish it could have maintained its earlier intensity.

Audition (Takashi Miike) - B+

Having become a widower young, Shigeharu Aoyama is talked into remarrying by his son. A movie producer friend of his coerces him into making a documentary about the process, and selecting his partner ahead of time. But before even meeting any of the applicants, Aoyama falls for Asami Yamazaki. Behind his producer friend's back, he starts seeing her, and when the movie is called off, Aoyama decides to propose. But all is not sunshine and flowers. Asami has a dark, abuse-laden past, and after Aoyama visits her sad little apartment and finds a man in a sack missing parts of his body, he begins to have second thoughts. This results in Asami paralyzing Aoyama with drugs, and starting fierce torture techniques to show him the evil of his ways. All seems lost until Aoyama's son gets home, and saves the day in a very unlikely fashion. Aoyama lives, but his heart is broken.

The hype surrounding Audition is that it is an immensely disturbing film. Certainly the torture scene and reenacted child abuse scenes are intense, but even then, some punches are pulled (Fulci would've considered Miike soft for not showing the needles piercing Aoyama’s eyes). Given the subject matter, things could have been much gorier and more violent. But the terror comes from the film's superb atmosphere. From pretty much the get go, the audience (and Aoyama) are given some pretty dire hints about Asami. Early on she is shown sitting in her bare, dilapidated apartment, staring at her phone, waiting for Aoyama to call. You spend most of the movie waiting for the hell that Asami is sure to bring, and Aoyama’s investigation into her past suitably captures your attention. And by being defeated in the manner she is, you realize Asami is not some inhuman monster, she was just a vengeful soul, taking her misery out on the world that wronged her.

Audition is very enthralling. You're aware early that something very bad is going to happen to Aoyama, and the path to that scene is both creepy and addictive. The camera work is also wonderful, playing with natural angles of sets to create some truly unique shots. At points the narrative did become somewhat disjointed, however, and at points your only clue that you're no longer in current reality will be something like soft blue light, or another similar subtle hint. This can be confusing, especially in the finale, but ultimately, I'd say Audition is worth its oft-received praise. The stylistic elements alone make it a film to remember.

Noroi: the Curse (Koji Shiraishi) - C-

A paranormal investigator named Kobayashi is filming a new documentary surrounding a case in suburban Tokyo. This documentary, we are told, was the last he made, before his house burned down with his wife inside. The documentary was never released, but the audience mysteriously views it. Within the film is both Kobayashi's investigation, which leads him to a rural district in Japan to investigate folklore surrounding a river demon and seemingly unrelated (at first) paranormal phenomena, involving characters who are later directly linked to Kobayashi's story. People have a bad habit of dying either right before or right after Kobayashi interviews them. Kobayashi eventually believes he has put the demon to rest, and his film ends, but we are treated to viewing the events leading to the destruction of his home, proving things weren't quite as finished as he'd led us to believe.

Noroi is found footage, pure and simple. While it presents itself in a format that isn't strictly a single camera, all the usual tropes of this style of horror are evident. Produced six years after the Blair Witch Project, Noroi has more in common with the Last Broadcast, another faux documentary. While most of the goings on in Noroi are fairly effective, the few times we are given a creepy special effect to see, the filmmakers make a point of backtracking to show it to us again (just in case you weren't paying attention, I guess). This felt kind of forced. Perhaps this style of horror movie was too subtle for audiences back then?

Most of the performers don't seem the professional acting sort, which certainly assists in adding authenticity to the proceedings. I would say, however, that the film drags on a little long. So much time is spent early on showing weird events and introducing ancillary characters, that getting to the largely predictable ending is a rough ride. Several of the scenes featuring aluminum hat-clad Mr. Hori feel especially repetitive and unnecessary. Overall, though, Noroi is a polished piece of found footage horror. The scares aren't too heavy handed, even if they back up and show you them again, and the finale pulls out all the stops.

Thirst (Chan-wook Park) - B+

Wanting to do what he can to help, Father Sang-hyeon, a catholic priest, gives himself over to scientific research in an attempt to stop the EV virus. At first, it seems Sang-hyeon will succumb to a slow death like the others, but he miraculously defeats the virus after a near death experience. Almost instantly, priest is regarded as a faith healer, and no matter where he goes, he's hounded by those that want his magic. In one such instance, he is asked to help a leukemia-ridden young man. Arriving at his hospital bed, Sang-hyeon recognizes him as Kang-woo, a friend from childhood. Kang-woo’s condition improves, but Sang-hyeon soon discovers the secret to his own recovery from EV - he was given vampiric blood during a transfusion, turning Sang-hyeon into one himself. Meanwhile, Kang-woo’s family takes the Father in, where a dangerous romance blooms between himself and Kang-woo’s wife, Tae-ju. This romance starts with Sang-hyeon acting as a white knight, and saving Tae-ju from her otherwise terrible life, but once she learns what Sang-hyeon truly is, she begins to manipulate him into wicked deeds, up to and including her husband's murder. Finally, in a passionate confrontation, Sang-hyeon turns Tae-ju into a vampire - a move he soon regrets as she goes on a gluttonous killing spree. Eventually, Sang-hyeon has no choice but to kill them both, and he strands himself and Tae-ju to await death by the sun's first rays of dawn.

Thirst is not a horror movie, rather, it attempts to humanize Sang-hyeon, who strives to be a humane monster. Until he is seduced by Tae-Ju, he never takes a life when feeding. Indeed, his ultimate sacrifice is done out of shame for creating a true thing of evil via undead Tae-ju. In fact, the central theme of Thirst, I'd hazard, is redemption. Sang-hyeon works harder than anyone to do good in the world, even before his fatal transfusion, and after it, he tries even harder. This is a story-driven narrative that doesn't really ever attempt to horrify or scare. Instead, you are given gorgeous shot after gorgeous shot to look at, even when all you're looking at is a stark, white hospital room. Indeed, director Chan-wook Park never stops showing you the beauty of his world and Thirst is truly a feast for the eyes.

If I had one complaint about the film, it would be its pacing. A third of the film could have easily been shaved off, without sacrificing much of the visuals or narrative. But it’s a small complaint. Thirst is a great modern take on the vampire. I'd cast it in the same light as Let the Right One In and Midnight Son. Both are understated vampire stories that deal largely with the relationships of human and vampire, rather than treating it as just another monster movie. This is a trend that actually holds hope for intelligent horror cinema, which is especially significant in the face of crap like Twilight.

Cheerleader Camp (John Quinn) - C-

Allison and her cheer team are off to a summer competition at Camp Huzzah. Things start off in the usual manner - cheerleaders shame mascots, men ogle the cheerleaders, and the favor of the judge must be secured - but when one of the girls turns up dead, things take a dark turn. Before long, no one trusts anybody, and bodies keep stacking up, despite the championship. Even when everything finally feels safe, people still keep dying. Eventually Allison, and her trusty mascot sidekick, Cory, must try and find the real killer before its too late.

Cheerleader Camp is all but transparent as a slasher movie. As soon as the actual killer shows up, its obvious they're the guilty party based on their back story. The film throws a lot of curve balls at you to try and throw you off, but the characters they try to pin it on are too killer-y to be seriously considered. The gore effects are sparse, and really only one gut-slashing scene is worth consideration for quality. A lot of this was to save on costs - if your actor gets killed off camera, a lot cheaper.

The charm from Cheerleader Camp comes from its constant, witty dialogue. Not only are there an astounding number of cheerleader puns, but one character (the marked-for-death-upon-sight Timmy) constantly makes foreshadowing jokes about his eventual fate. Given the rest of the fare present - predictable kills, lack of plot, weird boobies - at least there's something to like. An oddball for sure, Cheerleader Camp is fun, but forgettable.

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We have only a week worth of films left! And more than a few of them are gonna be gross! Somehow, I managed to save Two Thousand Maniacs, Salo AND Human Centipede all for the same week. How on Earth did THAT happen? Added to that are a classic, big budget 50s horror film (Curse of the Demon), a Vincent Price movie (Witchfinder General), and two lesser-known modern entries (Wolf Creek & Honeymoon). While it's nice not to have such a narrow focus for the last week, I wish I had something perhaps a little more iconic to watch for the 31st (so far, based purely on its notoriety, I think Human Centipede is likely to be my selection for Halloween).

See you on the 1st of November, gang!

Monster Mash Movie Marathon Month - Week 3

We're over halfway through now, and I'll be damned if I'm done with it.

The usual: grade can change between here and Facebook, look out for SPOILERS (there's many in this week's digest), and so on.

Here's my grading system again:

A = Excellent, a must see

B = Very good, I’d watch it again

C = Worth Seeing

D = Maybe don’t bother

F = Worthless

+ = Superior for this grade

- = Just barely makes it into this grade

This batch of films included my Christopher Lee festival. It was ok, but even if Lee was an excellent specimen of the 50s and early 60s, my interest in that time period only stretches so far. However, one of these films currently holds the best grade of the year. So that's a little exciting, eh?

Onwards...

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Horror Hotel (aka City of the Damned) (John Llewellyn Moxey) - C-

Back in the bad, old days of New England, Elizabeth Selwyn was burned for being accused of witchcraft. For once, the angry mob got it right. Just before she burns, Satan grants Elizabeth a brief reprieve to curse the town of Whitewood forever. Flash forward to modern day, Nan Barlow is hearing a lecture by Professor Driscoll (CHRISTOPHER LEE). Driscoll is a bit of a witchcraft buff, and Nan approaches him, revealing her desire to study a small New England town with a sinister past. Driscoll recommends - where else? - Whitewood, and from there Nan is lured into a trap that features her as a living sacrifice. When she is gone for two weeks, her older brother Professor Dick Barlow, her sweetheart Maitland, and Patricia, a descendant of the Whitewood's non-witch community, try to find out what's happened to her.

Sounds a bit like Psycho, doesn't it? Just in that a female protagonist gets slain halfway through, and her family and boyfriend have to pick up where she left off (not to mention her murder in a hotel). Released the same year as Hitchcock's classic, there are definitely some similarities between the two thematically. 

However, where Horror Hotel has trouble is that its second half is too similar to its first. With all the reveals out of the way, watching Dick and his crew follow after Nan feels kind of tiring. Luckily, there are plenty of excellent sets, lighting, and ambiance to keep the mood going, it just gets a little dull. Even the finale, in which Maitland obliterates the witch coven with the power of Christ, can't save it from this fate.

Lee as Driscoll is one of the better performances in the film, though his other nefarious co-stars, Valentine Dyall as Jethrow Keane and Patricia Jessel as Elizabeth Selwyn are suitably sinister. Jessel especially steals the show, but she gets far more screen time than Lee or Dyall. The young folks are your typical, hapless college folk though. They're oblivious to every warning sign, and probably deserve to be blood sacrifices.

The Gorgon (Terence Fisher) - C

Its 1910, and man oh man, has it been a bad week for the Heitz family. First older brother Bruno was found hanged in the small community of Vandorf. Then, Professor Jules Heitz, hot on the trail of the local murderer no one wants to seem to help him find, is turned to stone. Finally, Paul, youngest of the Heitz clan, arrives to find a note from his father warning him about the town. Paul attempts to unravel the mystery himself, but is constantly harangued by Dr. Namaroff (played By Hammer Horror's other star, Peter Cushing), owner of the local insane asylum. Both of them have fallen for Namaroff's assistant, Carla. Namaroff is resolute in stopping Paul's investigation, and almost gets away with it until Paul's mentor, Professor Meister (CHRISTOPHER LEE) shows up. Meister is essentially the Chuck Norris of The Gorgon. He arrives on the scene only in the last third of the film, but he immediately knows what's up: Carla is, somehow, the reincarnation of the Greek gorgon Magera. Any who look upon her will surely turn to stone. He tries to stop Paul from absconding with Carla, but Paul is headstrong, and ends up having a final battle with Namaroff in Carla's statuary lair. In the end, both Paul and Namaroff are turned to stone, leaving Meister to behead the monster.

In many ways, The Gorgon is similar to Horror Hotel. They both feature a xenophobic, small town with a dark secret that an outsider has to unravel. In both films, the character you think you're going to watch save the day is slain early, and in both films, the community rails against the solving of its mysteries. What really got me into The Gorgon was watching Christopher Lee play a hero. You almost never see that, as he was a pretty grim-looking (and sounding) fellow. He steals the show the second he turns up in Vandorf, making smart choices and having the foresight many of the Heitz family seems to lack. There's undeniable chemistry between Cushing and Lee, who, at this point, were old hands at doing this kind of film for Hammer (though in this movie, they only share one scene).

The special effects were a bit puzzling, though. On the one hand, the make-up effects used for characters turned to stone are very well done (this was long before computers, or Tom Savini, at a time when Hammer's make up and especially gore effects were held in high regard). On the other hand, the monster - basically a Medusa - is awful to look at, but not in the stone-turning way. The snakes in her hair look especially terrible, which says nothing of the reptilian tone they gave the actress' skin, or the giant, bright green maternity dress they clothed her in. Thankfully, you only get a good look at Magera during the finale, so you're not subjected to that horror for long. And, hey, it’s not every day you'll see a Medusa in a genre film.

A Taste of Fear (Seth Holt) - C+

We open on authorities pulling a woman's body out of the water in Europe. We later learn that this is Maggie, a friend and helper of Penny Appleby. Penny is the only daughter of Father (this is the only name Mr. Appleby is given), who owns a chic estate in the Ivory Coast. The film starts following the wheelchair-bound Penny, who had been summoned by her father to his estate. She is collected at the airport by Robert, her father's chauffeur. Robert seems a sweet sort, and he informs Penny that her father left just before she arrived. At the house, Penny meets Jane, the woman her father married after her mother died, and Dr. Gerard (CHRISTOPHER LEE), a local doctor that has been more and more in Jane's company of late. On her first night, Penny goes into a room she spies a light on in, and comes face to face with her dead father, gazing at her with dead eyes. But when Jane and Robert come to investigate, there's no sign of Father's body anywhere. Penny eventually becomes convinced that Jane and Dr. Gerard have killed her father, and are now conspiring to drive her mad, thereby negating Penny's claim on Father's inheritance. Penny recruits the sympathetic Robert to help her find proof of this crime, and bring the guilty parties to justice. Normally, I'd tell you how it ends here, but there's a few twists at the end of this one (unprecedentedly clever for 1961), and it's the kind of slow burn you need to experience for yourself.

A Taste of Fear is a thriller, for sure. The tension amps up nicely, and there are only a few moments in which you feel the movie stoops to cheap scares (these almost always come on the form of a Point-of-View shot from Penny, as she looks around a room slowly, eventually finding her father's corpse). Even though these scenes are technically as relevant to the plot as the rest of the film, they feel like they set the narrative back a few minutes. At times, Penny can be a bit insufferable, as she's almost inexplicably sharp about the murder of her father, and takes action against Jane and Gerard a lot faster than you'd expect from a wealthy young lady. This is somewhat explained by the ending, though. A Taste of Fear features breathtaking sets and locations. Father's mansion is especially detailed, and the camera does a good job of letting your eyes drink these details in.

But what about my boy, Christopher Lee? Well, once again, while he is the top name in the cast, he takes a back seat to Penny, Jane and Robert. Nowhere in A Taste of Fear does Gerard get menacing or evil, rather, Lee plays him as a concerned doctor, that truly wants to aid in Penny's comfort. Also worth noting, Lee pulls out all the stops by using a French accent for the character (and in the process, no longer has the same dour tone to his voice). He takes a bit more of the spotlight in the finale, but even then, it’s mostly a Penny-Jane-Robert affair. Ultimately, Lee steals the show when he's on camera, but he's not on camera nearly enough.

Troll (John Carl Buelcher) - F

The Potters have just moved into a new apartment building. Little Wendy rolls her ball into the laundry room, and ends up being abducted by a troll, a hairy, diminutive, super strong humanoid (some kind of faerie, we are later told). The Troll has a magic ring that allows him to somehow pose as Wendy, who then proceeds to become the problem child of the century. Mom and Dad are a little too busy goofing off through the movie to realize that their small daughter is throwing their son, Harry Potter Jr, into the the ceiling. While Harry befriends Eunice, a friendly witch that lives on the top floor, Wendy starts visiting each stereotyped character's apartment one by one, zapping the occupants with her magic ring. This turns the apartments into limitless outdoor fantasy worlds that spawn a bunch of little singing creatures (or in one case, makes Julia Louis Dreyfus prance around, 90% nude, shooting bad special effects into the air). Eunice informs Harry of what's really going on: the Troll is her jilted ex-lover that seeks to turn the entire apartment building into a universe for faerie creatures, thereby allowing such beings back into the world. When Eunice fails to stop him, it falls to young Harry to pick up the wizard mantle, and save his family.

Look, I'm giving this an F, but it's pretty absurd and isn't trying very hard. You could watch this and get a few laughs, but here's why you shouldn't, and instead, watch its 'sequel', Troll 2 (which is absolutely worse from pretty much every conceivable angle, and yet, it manages to be probably one of the funniest movies you could ever hope to see because of it):

• Both child actors are awful. Wendy you can kind of excuse, because she's younger, and actually a troll. But Harry Potter Jr is on the screen a lot, and is just horribly awkward. Not one line he delivers sounds natural, or even fits with the hammy adults he interacts with.
• Pretty much squanders Michael Moriarty, who is amazing in bad movies. No one can deliver a cheeseball line as well as this man, and sadly, he is wasted or off screen through most of the picture.
• When it came to special effects, Troll chose quantity over quality. You'll see a lot of weird, little creatures, but they are pretty much models with maybe one or two moving parts. They sing Latin, though.
• Baffling twist ending. Not one you don't see coming either, it just doesn't make any sense. Plus you get no closure on any of the characters but Eunice.
• Hard to tell who this movie was made for. It has all the elements of being a children's movie, but also features the S-word way too many times for 1986 to get away with marketing it to kids, and features a sleazy, misogynist creep that disappoints random women in his apartment. Oh, and its kinda racist against little people.

So, yeah. Not quality cinema, and nowhere near as rewatchably terrible as its completely unrelated follow-up. There are moments that might make you chuckle, but they're few and far between.

 A Return to Salem's Lot (Larry Cohen) - B-

Joe Weber is an anthropologist, and while studying indigenous tribes in South America, he receives a phone call from his ex-wife. It seems their son, Jeremy, has been incredibly difficult lately, and she wants to pass him off to Joe. Though he agrees, Joe is currently between homes, and their only solution is to move to Maine, where Joe's aunt Clara has left him a house. Within one night of their being there, Joe and Jeremy discover their new home in sleepy Salem's Lot is a community of vampires (and their servants, whom the bloodsuckers call drones). The vampires, led by Judge Axel, have lured Joe there to chronicle the history of their race. Joe is hesitant at first, despite everyone in town suddenly being real friendly, so Axel secures his loyalty by starting to turn Jeremy. A bizarre stranger, an old man named Van Buren, and Joe eventually join forces, and attempt to destroy the vampires to save Jeremy's soul.

Now, I've never seen Salem's Lot (a Stephen King property, directed by Tobe Hooper). This film is an unofficial sequel (King's name only appears in the credits once - inspired by characters written by:), so I can't really tell you how it compares to that movie. But, as a standalone effort, A Return to Salem's Lot is actually a very decent vampire adventure flick from the 80s. Likely because of its sequel status, this one doesn't pussyfoot around slowly revealing what the town is, or explaining the back story, or detailing what kills the vampires. It sets out to create a narrative about a problematic father and son, who conquer diversity, and overcome their selfish differences.

The effects are used very sparingly, and mostly at the beginning (within the first 20 minutes, the entire town sets upon a carload of punks that are in the wrong place at the wrong time). While they are not necessarily impressive, Cohen seems to grasp the effectiveness of not allowing the camera to linger on them too long. The last third of the film, where Joe and Van Buren start systematically destroying vampires, coffins and drones, is especially engaging. Both Michael Moriarty, who plays Joe, and Samuel Fuller, who plays Van Buren turn in excellent performances too. Cohen knows just how to blend the comedic timing, and the suspense, making for a very effective picture. Many of you will probably scoff at this one's age and low budget feel, but the narrative is solid, and I was consistently entertained.

Larry Cohen is an often unmentioned director of this genre, but having now seen a good chunk of his filmography, I'm convinced he's one of the better directors of his day. He might not have the most breathtaking style, but he does much more with a lot less than many other filmmakers. If you're looking for something different in a horror movie, try checking out one of his. This is a good one, as is Q (the Winged Serpent), which I watched last year as a part of MMMMM2014. Something a little more goofy, but still rather solid is The Stuff, a cult classic about an alien that disguises itself as a marshmallow dessert, and takes over any human that eats it. All of these films feature Michael Moriarty in a starring role as well, and displays a range from him that many other directors neglect to evoke (like in Troll, for example).

Interview With The Vampire (Neil Jordan) - C+

In 1994, a New Orleans journalist Daniel Malloy sits down with a vampire, who is eager to chronicle his centuries of existence. The vampire, Louis, was turned in the late 1700s by Lestat, a loose-moraled monster that doesn't care much for his new progeny's squeamishness. Louis is soft hearted, and refuses to kill any mortals, opting instead to feed on rats and other vermin to slake his thirst. Not much later, Louis happens upon Claudia, a child that has just lost her mother to plague. Louis feeds on her in a fit of hunger, but when Lestat turns up to gloat, Louis finds he no longer has the stomach for it. Lestat turns Claudia as a companion for Louis, but after 30 years, and realizing she'll never grow up, Claudia turns on Lestat. With Louis' help, the pair first slashes Lestat's throat and dump his body in the swamp. He returns almost immediately to take revenge, but Louis sets him ablaze with an oil lamp. In the chaos of Lestat's destruction, Claudia and Louis escape to Europe, where they hope to meet others of their kind. Eventually arriving in Paris, Louis makes contact with a coven of vampires that run an abstract theatre. The group's leader, Armand, is very accepting of Louis, but he and the other vampires are repulsed by Claudia, who is not only in a child's body (something they don't do in Europe), but also was the ring leader in killing Lestat. And so the Parisian vampires leave Claudia out for the sun, planning to entomb Louis forever in the walls of their lair. Armand rescues him, but it is too late for Claudia. Louis loses all vestiges of his humanity then, and kills all the Parisian vampires, save Armand, who he abandons to his own fate. Louis travels Europe until the modern day, where he encounters Lestat, back in New Orleans. Repulsive now to behold, Lestat has led a life of seclusion and has completely been unable to adapt to modern times (a helicopter shines a flood light into their window, and Lestat loses his shit, thinking the sun has suddenly risen). Louis finishes his story, and Malloy scampers off to publish his article. Lestat intercepts him on the freeway, and, while showing us he's learned to drive, reveals he plans to now turn Malloy.

This movie was a big, big deal in its day, featuring the star power of Brad Pitt (Louis), Christian Slater (Malloy), a child-star Kirsten Dunst (Claudia), Antonio Banderas (Armand) and Tom Cruise (Lestat). While you might imagine some of these actors are miscast, keep in mind that Anne Rice's novel the film is based on was one of the most popular book series around, and many in Hollywood were probably interested. As it stands, though, the cast does an admirable job. Sure, no one has an accent, but pretty much everyone plays their part well. Dunst as Claudia is especially effective, and you feel the years in her character the most. Montages of her growing up with Lestat are some of the warmest (though still suitably dark) in horror. Tom Cruise, who I'm usually not a fan of, is passable as Lestat. I felt he yelled a lot for a character that's supposed to be so detached, but that's hardly a major complaint. Also, have you always wanted to watch Brad Pitt and Antonio Banderas almost kiss, but never could find the movie to do it with? Well, search no further. There are a truckload of homosexual overtones to our vampires, none of which are really addressed (or acted upon - likely too hot button of an issue for Hollywood to touch in 1994), but it's so blatant that it's impossible not to understand this is exactly what was being implied about these characters. That's fine too. Rice's Vampires' desire for blood is their new sexuality.

But where I do take issue is with the pacing of the film, and with the details you are given about your protagonists. At just over two hours long, the first half of the film, featuring Louis and Claudia being turned, and the eventual 'murder' of Lestat is very long, and very repetitive. By comparison, the second half has a lot of action, but not a lot of exposition. Louis' quest for answers just gets violent. It is really surprising, for example, when Louis manages to wipe out the Parisians because we've never seen him in battle before. In fact, Louis never displayed any powers, save for when he reveals himself to Malloy, and it's implied that older vampires are much more capable (which certainly a majority of the Parisian vampires are, compared to Louis). Very little exposition is given on any aspect of the film's details - the sources of Lestat's wealth, the extent of Louis and Claudia's powers, and much about vampiric society is left unexplored. It's all well and good to have a good looking cast and the budget to afford lavish sets and props, but when there's gaps in your exposition, it lowers the stakes, and as a result, the action and drama are less exciting. If you don't tell me how your world works, why should I care? Speaking about things I should care about, let's talk about the movie's score. It is atrocious. The score REALLY misses the tone the film sets out to create, and instead, feels like it should have been in an action/adventure film (one that isn't about vampires). As it is, Interview With the Vampire feels a little flavor of the month to me, likely cashing in on the 90s Vampire craze Anne Rice created (and later destroyed), with little regard for the film surviving with age (featuring the hottest actors of the day, a trendy director of the moment, and MONEY). Bram Stoker's Dracula is better in almost every conceivable way, and still manages to hold up. 

Red State (Kevin Smith) - B+

Three young men, Travis, Jarod and Billy Ray, are on their way to meeting up with a lonely cougar for a night of gangbanging. But soon after their arrival, they're all drugged and taken prisoner by the fanatical Christian Cooper family (think a heavily armed Westboro Baptist Church). After a lengthy sermon by Abin Cooper, the evangelical patriarch of the clan, Jarod & Billy Ray free themselves and attempt to escape. Billy Ray is caught and executed, taking one of the Coopers with him. This buys Jarod enough time to hide. In the confusion, a sheriff's deputy is slain by the Coopers, leading to back up being called in. ATF agents, led by Agent Joseph Keenan, arrive and lay siege to the Cooper compound, resulting in a major shootout between themselves and the Coopers (and, surprise, surprise, Jarod is the first casualty). Cheyenne, the Cooper tasked with protecting the children, frees Travis and attempts to escort him to the agents so that the remaining Coopers can be taken alive. The agents shoot both Travis and Cheyenne dead, however, as they are under strict order to take no prisoners. Just then, loud trumpets echo across the county. The Coopers lay down their weapons, convinced these horns symbolize the arrival of the rapture. The film cuts from this to Keenan being debriefed by his superiors. The horns were not the rapture, merely the Coopers' neighbors fucking with them at exactly the right moment. Keenan managed to take the rest alive. The film closes on Abil in jail, still preaching, but now to an unappreciative audience.

I really liked this one. While many wouldn't consider it a horror film, I'd argue that being abducted by fanatical Christians is a modern day take in the vein of being abducted by cannibals in 1974. It's a modern concept, for a modern audience. The first half plays out this way especially, and lingers far longer on Abil's sermon than most directors would both to give you a heavy earful of fanatical rhetoric and to make the viewer extremely uncomfortable, waiting for violence. The escape attempts of our trio are sufficiently heartbreaking, and each one really gives you hope they'll escape. Michael Parks, playing Abil, steals the entire goddamn show. Abil is exactly the kind of person most of us would never want to be in the clutches of, and the more you learn about him, the worse and worse you feel about his captives' chances of survival.

What Red State does that I've never seen a genre film do before is displace the focus of the film's protagonist not once, but twice. The first third of the film is undoubtedly the story of Travis, who is even warned about the dangerous Cult that lives in the next county. The second third puts you mostly behind Abil Cooper, and while he's not a protagonist, strictly speaking, he dominates the camera, and you do feel as though you're watching his story. The final third, and ultimately the ending, follows Agent Keenan (played by John Goodman). It's worth mentioning that Keenan rails against a violent outcome through the film, arguably in the face of the ATF agents usurping the mantle of villain from the Coopers. This is a tricky device to attempt, and director Kevin Smith manages it with grace. It's also notable that I'd probably rate this as the best Kevin Smith movie I've seen since Dogma. This film represents a huge shift in his direction, as I'm fairly certain this was followed up by another genre film Tusk.

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In the coming week, from Monday to Friday, I'll be watching my Asian Film Mini-Festival (featuring, in probably order: House (1979), Tetsuo, the Iron Man (1989), Audition (1999), Noroi; the Curse (2005) and Thirst (2009). This wasn't intended, but it actually gives a pretty good idea of selections that came out of Asia (well, only Japan, really) by the decade. As for the bookends to this festival, the jury is still out. 

Monster Mash Movie Marathon Month - Week 2

Another week down, and still the movies keep getting screened. 

As usual, if you follow my exploits on Facebook, you might notice a discrepancy regarding the grades. This is because the Facebook grade is graded in a vacuum, and is largely based on initial reaction. By the time I sit down and write these reviews, I might have had a change of heart here and there.

First of all, it's very nice to have watched so many different films by different directors this week. Not that Wes Craven wasn't a decent filmmaker, but three of his films back to back - especially New Nightmare and Scream, which may as well been the same film for all their meta musings - isn't really in keeping with the MMMMM's dog's breakfast of films. 

Remember my grading system?

A = Excellent, a must see

B = Very good, I’d watch it again

C = Worth Seeing

D = Maybe don’t bother

F = Worthless

+ = Superior for this grade

- = Just barely makes it into this grade

 As usual, MY REVIEWS CONTAIN SPOILERS. Not all of them, and not necessarily the biggest of spoilers, but I do not pull punches in terms of content. You've been warned...

Ghosts of Mars (John Carpenter) - D

A small mining colony on Mars has gone silent. A squad of Martian Police officers, including Lieutenant Melanie Ballard, our protagonist, is sent to retrieve ultra-dangerous criminal Desolation Williams (played by eternal badass Ice Cube), who, rumor has it, strung up a bunch of decapitated colonists for everyone to see. Immediately upon arriving at the colony, things are amiss. Hardly any colonists can be found, and those who are aren't talking. When Sergeant Jericho Butler, played by pre-action star Jason Statham, finds the Police commander's head impaled on a spike, and witnesses a crowd of colonists being whipped into a frenzy by what appears to be an actual Martian, the Mars Police lock themselves in the jail, and prepare for a siege. Turns out, Earth colonists unleashed a red mist while digging - Ghosts of the Martian race, we are told - that travel on wind currents, possess Earthlings, and drive them into a rage that can only be sated by slaughtering invaders and destroying buildings.

Ghosts of Mars is a triple genre hybrid, featuring Action, Sci-fi and Horror elements. Friends of mine touted it as a zombie movie, but strictly speaking, that's not true. The self-mutilated Earthlings that are possessed by the ghosts look more like orcs from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings franchise. It is Sci-Fi first, concerning itself with its universe. And explaining small details of how life on Mars came about. Next it is an action movie, more concerned about padding the body count, and playing heavy metal exactly when it needs to. Horror takes a back seat to these other elements, meaning while horrific things certainly happen (oh man, the commander got decapitated!), often this is immediately diffused by violence (30 of them, 2 of us? I like those odds). As sarcastically mentioned, the music is unbelievably heavy metal. While I may not be the biggest fan of that kind of music, it definitely supports an action film more than a horror movie, and when those guitars start wailing, any suspense immediately vanishes, and guns start blazing. Even when characters die, it goes so fast you might miss it. In one scene towards the end, I looked away from the screen for literally 30 seconds, and when I looked back up, three characters had died. One character that had been with us since the start - arguably the most main character besides Ballard, Butler and Desolation - gets her head cut off during the final action scene, and the movie barely lets you register it.

All that said, it’s a well thought out concept (as mentioned, they don't skimp on details of technology), and the possessed colonists are pretty grim to look at. The ghost-cam effect (which shows the Audience who's getting possessed) gets kind of tired before too long (this was clearly a signature camera technique for the film - it is done no less than 10 times). But, really, had this movie focused more on characters, and featured less ball-numbing battle scenes, it might have been far more decent. No one (except maybe Natasha Henstridge, who plays  Lt. Ballard, can be a little difficult to watch act at times) puts in a bad performance in the film. With a different treatment, it might have been better, but for what it is, there are probably better flicks to spend your time on.

The Tenant (Roman Polanski) - B

Mr. Trelkovsky (played by director Polanski) is looking for an apartment, but it's Paris in the 70s, and its not going well. The film opens on Trelkovsky approaching a landlord about a room he heard was available. The previous tenant, as it turns out, committed suicide by throwing herself out the window. Trelkovsky becomes somewhat obsessed with the previous tenant, a girl named Simone. First he visits her in the hospital just before she dies (in the process meeting Shelly, a good friend of Simone's and Trelkovsky's eventual love interest), but then after she dies, Trelkovsky sees her in his building, and then takes to dressing up like her in private. To make matters worse, everyone in his apartment complex seems to be conspiring against him. His neighbors show very quickly that they do not tolerate loud noise or parties, and at one point, Trelkovsky believes one of them attempts to choke him. This leads Tartofsky to the conclusion that the building's residents forced Simone to her end, and he fears soon they will turn on him.

It's a bit of a mind fuck, this one. Trelkovsky is the sole point of view of the audience, and so you're perfectly willing to believe him, despite his paranoia truly getting out of hand. But somewhere along the way, probably in the third act of the film, when he betrays the surprisingly supportive Shelly, you realize that Trelkovsky is in the wrong. His neighbors may be stingy, old fuddyduddies, but there is no conspiracy. Trelkovsky has lost his mind. However, in the final scene, Trelkovsky is lying in a hospital bed and sees himself and Shelly standing over him, just meeting for the first time like they did when he visited Simone on her deathbed, implies that Trelkovsky was Simone all along, living some kind of existential loop like in Groundhog Day, or reliving the horrors of 'her' final days in dying breath.

Either way, the Tenant is a bleak picture. Considered the final part of Polanski's unofficial Apartment trilogy (along with Repulsion and Rosemary's Baby), the Tenant features a dark soundtrack, very moody setting and tone, and doesn't answer anything for its viewers. Much of it is left up for you to interpret. It was definitely a unique, thought-provoking film. While it may not be entirely fair to hold this film up against proper entries into the genre, the nightmare existence of Trelkovsky is deeply troubling and unsettling. Nothing is going to pop out to frighten you, it’s not that kind of horror.

Sinister (Scott Derrickson) - D+

Ellison Oswalt, a down on his luck true crime author, has moved his wife and two children into a new home. What he hasn't told them is that their new home was also the former residence of the victims depicted in his new novel. After a brief brush with local law enforcement, who flat out tell him that they don't want to help him (turns out he smeared the police concerned in his later novels), Oswalt goes up to his attic, and immediately uncovers a bunch of homemade snuff movies on hi 8 film, including the death of the subjects of his new novel. Then a bunch of spooky shit starts happening. There's a demon. He causes children to murder their families. It starts obviously interfering in Oswalt’s life. His family tries to flee the obvious ending that only Oswalt knows is coming, but it's not the kind of demon you can run from. And, in the end, exactly what you knew from the start was going to happen does, and one of Oswalt’s children gets possessed.

I know that's far more sarcastic than I usually am with my synopsis of the film, but that's because I'm kind of pissed off at Sinister. It actually is a pretty effective thriller, with a very strong premise. Watching the films Oswalt finds along with him is suitably uncomfortable (excellent use of found footage style, though the film pulls punches for gore). The trouble is, without any good reason other than it was scripted to happen, all of a sudden, Oswalt hears a noise in his house, walks around in the dark for a bit. A jump scare of some kind will play out, and then it will switch gears back to another morning in the life of Ellison Oswalt. I'm not complaining about the jump scares exactly - modern American horror from major studios thinks that jump scares and torture porn are the only viable modes for horror these days - it's that they break up what was otherwise a very compelling movie. Oswalt's investigation is what we're interested in, not where their demon is going to pop out next. The film itself even ends with the most predictable face in the camera & sudden music sting I've ever seen - and I've seen a lot of them. If you're going to set a tone like Sinister does for 80% of the movie, why not stay the course, and keep building your film on that excellent foundation? Why do you have to cram about six useless scenes in?

I'll bet money was involved.

Despite this backlash, I cannot deny that a lot of Sinister is well done. Everyone turns in a pretty good performance, and the camera is well-handled. This is what saves it from being a total lost cause. The film has a very confusing soundtrack, featuring a lot of odd vocals, that has been edited just right to underline the atmosphere. But, so appalling is the use of overt scares in what is otherwise a subtle film, that I'm left to grade it so lowly. It feels cheap to suddenly drive your film in a more crowd-pleasing direction.

What We Do in the Shadows (Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi) - B

A New Zealand documentary film crew has gained exclusive rights to interview and live with a group of four vampires, who share a flat. Deacon, the youngest vampire at 168 years old, is kind of a slob that has shirked his flat duties for years. Viago, an old world Victorian dandy that moved to New Zealand for love, is the group's neat freak. Then there's Vladislav (aka Vladislav the Poker), who is from Medieval times. He's something of a tragic figure that has been jilted romantically, and as a result is now a shadow of his former self. Finally there's the abominable-looking Petyr, who is supposedly over 8,000 years old, lives in the basement, and is responsible for turning at least Deacon (though I suppose the implication is that he turned all three). Things get even more crowded when, a few months after filming has started, Petyr has turned a new member into their group: the loud-mouthed Nick. Nick himself is kind of a tool, but his best friend Gary is a real swell guy, and the group is glad to have him. The film culminates in the group attending the Unholy Masquerade, a yearly gathering of all of the local supernaturals, and a walk home following that all of the vampires are sure to remember.

What We Do in the Shadows is a marvelous take on mockumentary film making. Though the style persists through the whole film, there are times you can forget entirely that it's not just a narrative. The entire thing is filled with subtle jokes to its audience, often in the form of gags based on vampire mythology. Other supernatural stuff also gets a nod in this film, including werewolves, vampire hunters and zombies. And all of it handled with love and respect. A charming touch for you horror fans is that the four vampires originally living in the flat seem to be a reference to famous vampires through the years (Petyr is Count Orlok from Nosferatu, Vladislav is Dracula [particularly the young Gary Oldman version from Bram Stoker's Dracula], Viago is likely a reference to Anne Rice's An Interview With the Vampire characters, and Deacon escapes me - maybe Twilight?).

The format and brand of humor could lead itself to being very dry, but I found it to be well paced so that the laughs continued to hit throughout the film. There are dark moments as well (one of the camera men doesn't make it...), so our funny bloodsuckers can't be called squeamish. This is another entry into horror parody arena of recent years that I would consider to be a shining example. What We Do in the Shadows is worth a watch, no matter who you are. I know many of us feel burned out on vampires lately, but if someone tells you this one's different, I'd be inclined to agree with them.

The ABCs of Death 2 (Various Directors) - C

Like its predecessor, The ABCs of Death 2 is a 26 Short Film anthology. Each director got assigned a letter of the alphabet, and had to make a short film that featured someone dying due to a topic of their choosing that starts with the letter they were assigned. The shorts fall everywhere from silly, to gruesome, to chilling, to bizarre. Directors from all over the world contributed to this project, many languages are spoken and several different formats are used. Due to the nature of this film, it would take forever to summarize each piece, so I'm just going to proceed with my analysis.

As you may recall, the first film got a B+ rating from me last year. The sequel has only garnered a C. Personally, I found this installment to be a little more all over the place, and was less in a horror vein. This doesn't necessarily net it the drop in grade by itself. Where the first film featured a lot more dialogue, this one had far more entries in which there was no dialogue at all (I'd guess about 1/4 of the content was this way). While this technique certainly breaks down language barriers, and allows for a broader audience consumption, I found myself missing the spoken word. I'm also not sure that the directors were all notable genre people (Julian Barrett, whom I like a great deal, directed B, for example. As far as I know, though, he's never directed anything horror). It feels like they went for more dark humor this time around. This isn't to say there's no gore or unsettling moments to be found, it just felt softer overall. I suppose you could chalk this up to the notion that, having seen the first, the concept is subject to diminishing returns. However, I truly believe that, unlike other anthology franchises, the ABCs of Death series could potentially stay fresh forever, so long as there's new blood to be had. Nevertheless, I was less enthused by this outing.

The ABCs of Death 2 is still a very well done piece, full of talented artists and memorable films. Like the first, this film is not for the faint of heart - there may be more laughs in this one, but the gory ones will still turn your stomach. And, its worth noting that while I preferred the first, the general consensus seems to be that the sequel is the favored of the two.

This time around my favorites were: A, B, I, K, M, O and W.

The Thing From Another World (Christian Nyby and Howard Hawks) - C

At a remote station at the North Pole, a science team, along with some good old boys from the air force, have made the find of a century! Trapped in the ice near the base is a fully preserved UFO. After a failed attempt to unearth the craft with thermite, the group manages to salvage a lone alien life form, itself encased in ice. Once interned on the base, it isn't long before the Thing gets free, and starts killing first dogs, then people in order to amass blood for reproduction (the creature is vegetable based and can only develop seeds in plasma, the scientists discover). Ultimately, after the scientists fail to deter the military from acting against the alien, the brave Earthlings lead the Thing into an electrical trap, and destroy it but good. Captain Patrick Hendry and his boys don’t suffer a single casualty, but Earth was definitely under threat.

Being a fanatical supporter of John Carpenter's 1982 remake, I'd hesitated to watch this one. Remakes tend to be outshone by their predecessors in this modern age of cinema. While The Thing From Another World has a lot in common with its remake, the differences are staggering. In this version, we have a far less threatening creature. Not only does it only manage to kill a mere two humans, being large, strong and impervious to bullets appears to be the extent of its powers. Therefore, there is no major plotline about sussing out who was and who wasn't an alien (something that is at least 2/3s of the Thing 82). In fact, by and large, The Thing From Another World is a pretty standard 1950s science fiction outing. You can't even call it a horror film, really. The only human deaths are off camera, and most of the monster stuff doesn't even occur until the last third of the movie. In fact, much like Ghosts of Mars, this one was more about its science than almost anything else. A lot of time is devoted getting the characters (and therefore the audience) to understand how a vegetative life form works, and how such a thing could be possible. The air force team saves the day with typical, cold-war era America efficiency. Their plans are formulated quickly, and work very well (when some poindexter scientist doesn't get in the way). This adds some boredom into the proceedings, but not enough to spoil the film entirely.

While your military and science personnel are represented, a curious amount of time is spent on the character of Mr. Scott, a balding, bespectacled 'newspaper man' that joins up with Captain Hendry in Alaska, before arriving at the base. Scott is definitely a comic relief character that constantly grumps about his inability to report on alien contact to the world (after the monster is dealt with, Scott finally gets to report to some media bigwigs about what's been going on. The entire speech he gives is dripping with ham). Scott is with the soldiers pretty much every step of the way, determined to try to get a photo of the Thing. The character of Nikki is another interesting one. An assistant to the head of research, she has an ongoing fling with Hendry  that involves some light bondage play. She too tends to add mirth to the otherwise dry monster movie. In fact, the scenes between Captain Hendry, Scott and Nikki could be very silly indeed. In one scene towards the end, I could have sworn the trio fully improvised their dialogue. This all gave The Thing From Another World a sense of humor that I wasn't expecting to find. The whole thing is pretty polished, for 1950s b-movie. This picture is entertaining, witty and not without a certain charm. Still, it is probably too tame for those who crave the darkness of the classic remake.

Life After Beth (Jeff Baena) - C+

Zack's girlfriend Beth has recently died by snakebite. After the funeral, Zack respectfully pays a visit to Beth's parents, and strikes up a friendship with her father, Maury. The couple are very open and warm to Zack, who's own family are somewhat detached and uncaring about his problems. Zack continues to try and befriend Maury, but suddenly cannot get in touch with him. When Zack pays a visit to the house, he discovers Beth has returned and is very much alive. She displays some odd behavior (there's always a test the next day she's worried about, even though it's summer), but Zack is overjoyed to have her back. While Zack and Maury struggle over whether or not they should tell Beth that she's been dead, Zack also notices other members of the community have been reappearing, and when Beth starts exhibiting actual Romero-style zombie behavior, it isn't long before the entire community is beset by the walking dead.

The film is a lot more subtle than I make it out to be. The rise of zombies in the community is not only slow, but also comical. Many of the would-be scares in the film (which, admittedly are few and far between - it's more of an indie romantic comedy than something concerned with scares) are often comedic gags (a favorite of mine is while Zack is trying to find out how to stop the zombies, he has a conversation with a man through a hotel room door. The music and Zack's sudden reaction to someone creeping up on him is a cue that violence is coming, but instead, a zombie woman - naked as the day she was born - asks him if this place used to be a car wash). The film also takes the time to establish the rules of its undead, something you wouldn't expect it to do. It even has a nod to humans being the actual monsters, as evidenced by their violent response to what is otherwise a fairly peaceful zombie infestation.

Some of the performances are quite good (John C Reilly and Molly Shannon are excellent as Beth's parents), and the writing is sharp. Some of the camera work (especially at the start of the film) looks a little amateurish, but, even that doesn't stop Life After Beth from being a worthwhile movie. It isn't quite as laugh out loud as What We Do in the Shadows, but it's definitely quality horror comedy.

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And that's that. This week, I'm starting my Christopher Lee mini-festival (starting with Horror Hotel today, and A Taste of Fear and the Gorgon on Monday and Tuesday). I believe next week will be my week of Asian films, but there's still a lot of fright to come!