SIX DEGREES OF CAST & CREW
- Actor Shiloh Fernandez can be seen in 2008′s “Red”, along with king character actor Richard Riehle. This man can then be seen in the impending “The Movie” (2013), along with Fernandez’ “Evil Dead” co-star Lou Taylor Pucci! Also in “Red” is Olivia Thirlby, who can be found in the 2012 film “Nobody Walks”, along with… “Evil Dead” star Jane Levy!

- Original “The Evil Dead” (1981) actress Ellen Sandweiss returns to provide some voice acting. One of her 1981 co-stars was Theresa Tilly, who can be seen in the impending “Old Days (2013), along with Morena Baccarin, formerly of the 2009-’11 sci-fi series, “V”. Seek ye also in that show Scott Hylands, who can then be found in a Trailer Snitch film I will mention at the onset of the review below!

REVIEW

Finally, I’m reviewing something I’d previously Trailer-Snitch’d! I do plan on reviewing “Beyond the Black Rainbow” (2010) at some point, once I watch the movie again without being utterly stunned by the ending.

To watch Sam Raimi’s original 1981 indie-budget horror flick “The Evil Dead” is at times an exercise in patience. One can only empathize with the filmmakers’ ramshackle, DIY efforts for so long, particularly in regard to special effects and makeup, before having to roll one’s eyes at least once. That being said, a logical progression from that feeling is to wonder what Raimi & Co. had in mind and would/could have pulled off with an appropriate budget.

While only co-produced by Raimi, the 2013 re-imagining of “Evil Dead” by director and co-(re)writer Fede Alvarez is very much an earnest attempt to both realize and reinvent what had been endeavoured over 30 years ago. The core of the story remains true: a group of young adults venture to a dirty old cabin in the woods, and proceed to battle demonic forces. Alvarez offers an immediate improvement, in that his group, already different in characters, have an emotionally strong involved reason for being out there: Mia (Jane Levy) is a struggling drug addict, attempting to kick her habit cold-turkey with her best friends and older brother David (Shiloh Fernandez) as a support base. It doesn’t take long for Mia to begin experiencing withdrawal symptoms, demanding to leave. Meanwhile, the others discover some disturbing remnants of prologued occult rituals in the cabin’s cellar. A book is discovered by too-curious-for-his-own-good Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci), barely-obscured incantations are read, and (pardon the cliché) all hell breaks loose.

There’s an immediate plot device that is sadly only hinted at being utilized: Eric’s unwitting invocation apparently summons demonic spirits from the surrounding woods, which pursue the already-neurotic Mia as she attempts a getaway. With only a 1:30 running time, the film arguably could have taken a bit more time with Mia’s initial possession, drawing things out by making it seem to her friends like she is slipping into withdrawal-based psychosis, or maybe even secretly had more drugs with her, causing hallucinations or mental damage that the others would dismiss as such until it’s too late. But instead the film jumps almost immediately and rather bluntly into the violent proceedings. This is instead perhaps a bold, if not strong, advantage to the film: There’s no beating around the haunted bushes, and very little what-was-that-noise teasing. The demonic forces apparently see no need in wasting time getting down to business, instilling a breathless sense of severity upon characters and audience, and doing a lot of damage within a short period of time.

The damage in question was, from day one of marketing, always meant to be this film’s drawing power. The very first trailer was red-band, and made no bones about showing some extremely gory scenes from the movie, and certainly not all of them. Co-producer Bruce Campbell at press conferences would say, “We know what you need, you need horror with blood flowing down the screen.” And the film succeeds in this regard, copiously. The gore sequences range from uncoloured surface trauma to borderline-unnecessary mass spillage of blood, with ideas alternately standardized or unique but never cliché or inappropriate. The obvious concern becomes a matter of whether or not the film holds any value beyond making, or merely being, a violent mess.

The movie actually succeeds in cleverly justifying the gory proceedings: The demonic actually explicitly tells what at will happen, in general terms of what violent fates can and will beset any given victim. This is an advantage over just having the gorier sequences be random and gratuitous, lest this be a “Saw”-like excuse to be anatomically clever. It also drives the supernatural element of the plot, in that the book’s contents offer more than just a secret password to let some demons into our world. The characters are instead given the procedural tools to salvage themselves as best they can, if at all, and thus the audience feels a stronger sense of where the tale could go. Furthermore, the deep bond between the siblings Mia and David provides keen cause for emotional manipulation inflicted upon the latter.

This relationship is unfortunately at the expense of any deeper connection between the others. It’s clear that the group are longtime friends. But things like the boyfriend-girlfriend relationship between David and Natalie (Elizabeth Blackmore) are briefly mentioned during initial character introductions, and all but dismissed, even in the wake of Natalie’s victimization. The audience may not be completely unsympathetic to what happens to some of the characters, but the reactions on the part of the other characters seem underwhelming, if perhaps lost in a melange of perpetual trauma and fear. Things will (and do) move too fast for any character to emotively dwell upon bonded friendships, much less soliloquize at length. David and Mia’s relationship is the strongest in the group, and is essentially sufficient in this regard. The acting amongst the young cast is decent throughout. Jane Levy is of particular note, showing great range and future potential. The others carry their parts well enough, if anything slipping on harrowed masks of twitchy shock and pain with convincing ease (watch for Elizabeth Blackmore in this regard).

Technically speaking the film is strong and consistent, flowing in and out of scenes fluidly when necessary and utilizing fairly standard loud-noise-BANG jump cuts with little difficulty, and at times little surprise. At worst the movie can be seen as a mix of 00′s era slasher fare mixed with a loving ode to the original “Evil Dead”, mixing contemporary effects and conventions with tricks alluding to Sam Raimi’s signature style (the twisting-through-the-woods camera, the flooded cellar scene towards the end, etc.). The soundtrack is also unique, subtly weaving in and out or appropriately blasting with tense flair, and making ear-catching use of siren-like tones. The film’s sound effects are a strong point as well, giving necessary texture to the already-disgusting visual effects.

No doubt there are many reviews of this film that dismiss it as gory-without-story, a visual feast with no real point other-than. For the most part I disagree with this. There are reasons for what happens in the movie, we care about what happens to the characters, and a decent story is told, albeit with a somewhat vague but somehow decisive ending. The key for fans of the original film is to not hold to any standards or expectations they might have, and to not compare too deeply. One could just do a side-by-side, point-out-all-the-similarities write up, and not examine the new film on its own merits. But what one should do is try to appreciate what is being attempted here, just as one might appreciate what was being attempted in the original, without dismissing either as a mess.

RATING – 3.5 denim jackets out of 5

STINGER – Watch past the credits.

Not pictured: boss hardstock slipcase

At 30 years old, I have never, until yesterday, watched any of films in the original Indiana Jones trilogy in their entirety, and if I have, I have not done so since childhood. I certainly remember seeing the action sequences of “Temple of Doom” many many many many many many many times with my best friend of the time, as he had the films, and to a lesser extent “Last Crusade” as well. I don’t recall ever even trying to watch “Raiders of the Lost Ark” more than a few times. Needless to say, while “Temple” is most certainly a possibility, I feel certain that I’ve never sat through the films from start to finish.

It’s something that’s weighed on my mind for the past few years, perhaps purely out of nostalgia. And being the VHS junkie that I am, a little voice kept whispering, “You keep seeing box sets of the trilogy in thrift stores for super-cheap… why not a marathon?”

And so, with this being a week off from school, I did so, just yesterday.

This will not be a formal film-by-film review, as the films don’t really fit my personal criteria for NARCs material. Just the same, Ronnie Hogan Dio suggested I write something, and so I shall, if only because it’s been a stinky-long time since I’ve contributed anything to this site. Not for lack of want! Just busy! School sap energy! Excuses!

What strikes me the most about the films is the sense of adventure, of globe-hopping, of visiting countries around the world in search for treasure. It definitely infuses the films with a sense of wonder and excitement, beyond the action and spiritual fantasy. And it’s the spiritual fantasy elements and themes that stood out to me the most on this marathonious occasion (albeit with the new episode of “The Walking Dead” inserted between the 2^nd and 3^rd films).

Dr. Indiana Jones is an archaeologist, as in a scientist, and as such seems to carry a scientist’s non-spiritual skepticism with him as he traverses the globe in search of artifacts that more often than not are religious in nature. But what Jones faces in his cinematic trilogy is the spiritual machinations of such artifacts in full effect, apparently giving metaphysical form and proof of their powers. In spite of this, Jones leaves each film not necessarily affected by the supernatural spectacles he’s witnessed, if not survived (“Ark” and “Crusade”), if not been possessed by (“Doom”).

So perhaps there’s a thematic undercurrent in the films that present archaeologists, if only Indiana Jones, as not necessarily globe-trotting adventurers and explorers, but as in search of proof for spiritual legends that they, despite their scientific doubt, otherwise do seek in the back of their hearts. This becomes questionable, though, in that, again, Jones doesn’t make any allusions to personal, spiritual growth.

There’s potential for this in seeing how he handles women: In the first film, he reconnects with an old flame, but doesn’t necessarily reclaim her by the end, and we don’t see her in the sequel. The new woman is primarily a fiery, flirtatious floozy that Jones does smooch at the end, but even she is replaced by another blonde, this time one who beds Jones mid-film after a aggressively passive-aggressive tussle reminiscent of her predecessor from “Doom”, the key differences being that she’s not as air-headed, and ultimately at least half-villainous. Ultimately what was once seen as gentlemanly admirability in Jones in the onset of the trilogy gives way an almost James Bond-ian lothario caricature by the time we reach “Crusade”. Or maybe that’s why they cast Sean Connery as his father.

Speaking of Connery, on a quick side note, it also occurred to me while watching “Crusade” that I hadn’t seen anything with Connery in a long time, and even then not much of anything. As soon as I heard his trademark “It’sh a rashe againsht evil” way of speaking, I had to chuckle a bit, as it’s become so much of an endearing exaggeration of the man’s legend that it becomes shocking to hear how borderline ridiculous (albeit charming) the real thing is!

The deeper themes of storytelling are ultimately lost under the fantastically hypnotic trance found in action-adventure filmmaking at its best. It’s an indescribably, almost spooky it-factor that make films like this the summer blockbusters that they are. They clearly aren’t telling the plot-and-acting-oriented stories that films such as “The Godfather” or “American Beauty”, but they don’t need to. Movies such as the Indiana Jones trilogy have that… again, it’s just an IT-factor, sweeping you up in wit and humor and too-ridiculous-to-be-realistic action sequences that, if done right, you never even think about questioning until after it’s all over.

Some of the films we review here at Cinema NARCs are essentially the opposites, in that the action they throw at you is hardly as spellbinding. A movie like “Ring of Steel” offers swordfighting scenes so ridiculous that by the time you’re done chuckling at the awkward choreography and “martial arts” exchanges of the first fight, you’re groaning at the sight of the rest, wondering when the stinker’s going to end. The irony is that films like “Retroactive” at least make you think more deeply about the complex plot elements of things like, “Will Kylie Travis redeem her time-travelling self?”, at least further than thinking, “Oh I hope Indie whip-grabs his dad’s ankle at the last second before getting dragged under the tank’s treads!”

Which is not to say that I’m ultimately dismissing the Indiana Jones trilogy as mindless action money-making drivel. There’s some wonderful charm to the films; it just gets lost under too many one-liners, too-perfect action, and far-too-abrupt cold-showers with reality (gory deaths and Nazism are used a little to glibly in these rated-PG affairs). At the least I’m left just a little curious as to whether or not “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” is as bad as some purport, a little more than tempted to start being a little more adventurous in my travels, in search of… who knows?

Image via The Star Wars Toy Box

Man… I just watched the new red-band trailer for the Evil Dead remake. I just… fuck me, man. This awkward, stilted wording I’m using here is exactly how I’m feeling right now. The excited-yet-disturbed feeling I got from the first trailer has shifted heavily towards disturbed. Like, borderline nauseous. It’s… fuck. It’s a combination of feelings: the nausea I felt watching “Neighbor”, the depressive fear I felt watching the opening sequence of “28 Days Later” for the first time, and the apprehension I feel towards watching the fierce, merciless inventiveness of Carpenter’s “The Thing”. That is to say, I’m almost feeling apprehensive towards watching “Evil Dead”.

Which is not to say that I won’t watch it at all. I’m just distinctly recalling how horrible the above movies made me feel. “The Thing” is unique in that as many times as I’ve watched it in the past, I have spent the past three years (around Halloween-time) unsuccessfully trying to re-watch it, because I know how fiercely horrific an experience it is. Lord knows I’m feeling that with “Evil Dead”, and I haven’t even seen it once!

Edited by Ron 1:12 PM

I just watched the red-band trailer he’s talking to, and… yeah, it’s disturbing and exciting and sickening and really, really, REALLY brutal.  People seem to forget that the original “Evil Dead” wasn’t a comedy, or even a horror comedy, it was straight-up horror (only made comic by the hairstyles and clothes of the period).  This movie looks like it’s going to be great, and if you don’t believe me, just watch the trailer below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

MOVIE –

DIRECTOR – Peter Jackson

WRITERS – Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson, and Guillermo Del Toro

SIX DEGREES OF CAST & CREW

–Christopher Lee is like living movie history. After all, he’s probably the second most famous Dracula ever after Bela Lugosi, and he’s a staple in both the Tolkien and Star Wars universes, in addition to his work with Hammer. He’s worked with Andy Serkis a lot, but he got to act alongside the actor’s legitimate face when Serkis played William Hare (alongside Simon Pegg) in Burke and Hare. Lee played Old Joseph in that movie.

–One of the footmen in Burke and Hare was Stephen Merchant, who wrote the British version of The Office. The Office‘s breakout star was none other than Martin Freeman. Freeman stars with the awesomely-named Benedict Cumberbatch in the BBC’s Sherlock; Freeman is Bilbo Baggins and Benedict Cumberbatch is the villainous Necromancer. (He also was one of the color police officers in Hot Fuzz, alongside The Hobbit director Peter Jackson who played a thief dressed like Santa, Cate “Galadriel” Blanchett who plays Janine the CSI, and Merchant again.) Freeman also plays Declan in the bizarro survivor group led by Yvonne in Shaun of the Dead. He’s essentially the male Liz to Jessica Stevenson’s female Shaun.

–Andy Serkis also did a voice along with Ian McKellen in Flushed Away, but that’s not as interesting. In a 2008 production of King Lear, Ian McKellen played the eponymous King Lear alongside Sylvester McCoy as The Fool. McKellen plays Gandalf while McCoy plays the eccentric Radagast the Brown. Speaking of eccentric, McCoy made his bones in sci-fi circles by playing the very last Doctor Who of the show’s original run. As the first Doctor Who I watched, he’s officially my Doctor and my favorite Doctor.

REVIEW

Once upon a time, there was an amazing achievement in film making. A young New Zealander took a massive novel that everyone said was not able to be adapted to the screen and somehow, someway adapted it to the screen via massive, long films. That story was about a hobbit named Frodo Baggins. This particular tale is how his story begins with the adventures of his uncle Bilbo.

Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) isn’t particularly adventurous. Hobbits generally aren’t. They love to eat, they love their pleasant little hobbit holes, and they generally don’t get into much trouble, even if a hobbit’s grandfather was the famous Bullroarer Took. However, some of that adventurous blood still runs in Bilbo’s veins, so when Gandalf the Gray (Ian McKellen) shows up and offers to make Bilbo the 14^th member of his company on their journey to reclaim the Lonely Mountain from Smaug the dragon, well… even Bilbo has to relent to that kind of fun offer.

Thus is the beginning of the second cycle of Middle Earth films from Peter Jackson and company. While a prequel to the Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit is not less important to the story. After all, without The Hobbit, there would be no Lord of the Rings. However, The Hobbit was meant for Tolkien’s children, and as such, it’s much, much lighter in tone and more of a friendly adventure than the world-threatening Rings trilogy. That doesn’t make it any worse of a film; if anything, it makes it more of a fun ride than a dramatic slog—though there is some drama to be had, it’s not the focus. The focus is on running, chasing, and swordplay.

This is a stunning technical achievement for Peter Jackson. The effects on the Lord of the Rings trilogy were brilliant and groundbreaking, but Jackson is doing something even more impressive with The Hobbit. He’s not only filming in 3D using 3D cameras, he’s also shooting at 48 frames a second versus the standard 24 frames a second. This is developing technology and only a few theaters are screening in 48 frames. The effect is supposed to make the action smoother and more natural while reducing eye strain. I can’t say that it does any of this stuff, because I didn’t see it in 48 frames, but the action is a fairly seamless blend of practical and CGI effects (though there are dodgy moments, particularly in the beginning). Jackson makes brilliant use of 3D to deepen his camera’s field and expand his field of action, and it looks and plays brilliantly as dwarves and orcs and goblins and elves meet in clashes of steel and stone.

Even more impressively, Jackson’s movie combines the excitement of Spielberg’s Indiana Jones movies with the inventive and impressive scene composition and shot selection of Sam Raimi, both of whom have definitely had an influence on Jackson. Yes, An Unexpected Journey is long at 169 minutes, but so much of it is filled with breathtaking action and a surprisingly funny streak. It’s not the gloom and doom of the LoTR trilogy, but the lighter, punchier fare that inspired those books. The Hobbit, at its heart, is a children’s tale, and this movie plays out like a tale fit for children. Everything moves, and nothing ever seems to drag or linger too long. It’s as if Jackson’s got his energy for Middle Earth back after his break from the franchise.

The infusion of new blood certainly helps. While the major players from the original trilogy are back, starting first and foremost with Ian McKellen’s Gandalf, the real star of this merry band is Martin Freeman as Bilbo. He’s a very charming actor in other work, and he brings a wonderfully repressed, befuddled Englishness to the whole of his role. Bilbo is the clever one. Bilbo is the brave one—when he has to be. Bilbo is the funny one, and he’s surrounded by some pretty funny dwarves, too. The ensemble company is fitting.

Will it be as much of an achievement as Lord of the Rings was when it came out? Well, no; you can’t catch lightning in a bottle twice, and everyone knows Peter Jackson might be the only filmmaker able to pull something off like this. We expect great things from him, and he delivers. That said, The Hobbit is my favorite JRR Tolkien work, and I think the decision to incorporate the appendices and errata to flesh out the story into a trilogy will pay off in the end.

RATING – 5 unexpected severed goblin heads out of 5

TRAILER

Click here to view the embedded video.

OWN IT: Get “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” on DVD and Blu-ray from Amazon.com!

Like most males of my generation, in my teen years I was pretty hype over Sam Raimi’s “Evil Dead” trilogy (“Evil Dead”, “Evil Dead 2″, “Army of Darkness”), starring the much-quotable Bruce Campbell as “Ash”, the everyman perpetually fending off ancient demons.

In a rare move for someone as immature as I am… I grew out of the movies. After the turn of the century, I’d occasionally look back at them, and just not feel the same rush of “This is awesome!” as I had just a few years prior.

That being said, when I did enjoy them, I considered “Evil Dead 2″ to be my favorite, if only because it was the most fun, the most well-done. “Army of Darkness” has its moments, but always felt a little over-produced, not as funny, and just generally lacking something.

Those aside, I considered the original, “Evil Dead”, to be the best of the three, story wise. Or rather, horror wise. It’s the only film in the trilogy that doesn’t opt for campy humor, and supremely-low budget gore effects notwithstanding, succeeds in rather exemplary moments of legit horror. Once the supernatural psychosis takes over, the film carries a tremendous sense of “anything can happen and be extremely disturbing in the process”. And lord knows things get randomly freaky.

In the subsequent 30 years after the release of 1981′s “Evil Dead”, speculation has run rampant as to whether or not Sam Raimi would himself, or allow someone else to, produce a remake of the film, with a far more substantial budget. A hair over three decades later, with Raimi and many original “Deadite” crew in co-productive tow instead of directorial, a new “Evil Dead” is on the way for next year.

And I don’t recall the last time I’ve been both excited and nauseated by a movie trailer.

The onset of the current red-band trailer gives an air of this being “just another haunted house movie” akin to the dozens we’ve seen in recent years. But instead of opting for found-footage and creepy-childrens-morphing-demonic-face mini-scares, 2013′s “Evil Dead” looks to opt for disturbing levels of possession and self-mutilating gore. More importantly, the film looks to keep to the original’s basic plot: Group of college-ish kids show up at a haunted cabin, one of them accidentally unleashes powerful demons, and things get progressively worse for everyone. No apologies, no beating around the bush, just HORROR in the purest and scariest sense of the word. Earlier I alluded to the appeal of remaking “Evil Dead” partially lying in the upping of its effects budget. To say the least, it appears they’ve taken that ball and ran with it… straight into the haunted woods. And I’m not far behind.

Some may lament the absence of a Bruce Campbell-feuled quote-machine of a black-humor hero. But before anybody starts whining over why Zack Galifianakis wasn’t cast as the new “Ash”, they should remember that it was the sequels to “Evil Dead” that went the comedic route. The original film was straight horror, and I couldn’t be more pleased to see that the remake is following suit.

Blood-soaked, demonic suit.

MOVIE

DIRECTOR – Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman

WRITER – Christopher Landon (screenplay), Chad Feehan (story)

SIX DEGREES OF CAST & CREW

–The amazing career of Katie Featherston continues unabated. This is technically her fourth Paranormal Activity appearance, and the Paranormal Activity series is the bulk of her acting resume on the IMDB. Her other major exposure was on the show The River which was produced by Paranormal Activity mastermind Oren Peli. Speaking of steady employment, screenwriter Christopher Landon has been involved in Paranormals 2, 3, and 4, and will be involved in the upcoming Paranormal Activity 5 AND its Latino‑centric variant. Christopher Landon is the son of Michael Landon, which is mind-blowing.

–There’s an interesting connection between Stephen Dunham (who plays Doug the father) and Matt Shively (who plays mop‑headed teen love interest Ben). Both were on the Nickelodeon show True Jackson, VP; Dunham was Chad Brackett (awesome name) and Shively was Ryan Laserbeam (possibly the best name ever). Dunham is also married to Alexondra Lee, who plays Holly (the mother) in PA4. That’s right, a real-life married couple plays a married couple in PA4.

–If you want to talk about a movie punching above its weight class, that would be the Paranormal Activity movies. Despite the disappointment in the fourth version’s opening weekend (only $30 million on a budget of $5 million), the series has raked in massive amounts of money every outing. Thus far, the four Paranormal Activity films have made over $576 million versus a combined filming budget of $8 million. That would explain why they pack the cast with TV actors I don’t recognize.

REVIEW

It has been awhile since Katie Featherston started her multi‑state crime spree. Her boyfriend, Micah, is dead. Her sister Kristi and brother‑in‑law Daniel are also both dead, at Katie’s hand. Hunter, their infant son, is missing, along with his beloved aunt. Both have been on the run since the 2006 events documented in Paranormal Activity and Paranormal Activity 2.

By all accounts, Henderson, Nevada, seems like a nice place. Alex (Kathryn Newton) seems like a nice kid, with a boyfriend named Ben (Matt Shively). Her parents, Doug (Stephen Dunham) and Holly (Alexondra Lee) have a strained marriage, but they’re trying their best to keep it together for their son Wyatt (Aiden Lovekamp). Times are a little tough, but things are good enough until a mysterious woman and her son Robbie (Brady Allen) move in across the street. That’s when activities get a little odd, because Robbie is a very weird kid.

Robbie comes and goes without supervision at all times of the day or night, he helps himself to the backyard swingset, and when Robbie’s mother ends up in the hospital for a few days, Robbie comes to stay with his friend Wyatt. That’s when activities stop being odd and start being paranormal.

One of the most incredible aspects of the entire Paranormal Activity series is the way the various directors have managed to create terror out of nothing. Loud noises, slamming doors, sheets being thrown off, a mousy girl in a tank top standing motionless beside a bed… these things become terrifying in the Paranormal Activity Universe, but the most unlikely aspect of these movies is that they have turned Katie Featherston into a horror icon. When she shows up on screen the first time, all mousy brown hair and tight tee-shirt and sweatpants, people in the theater absolutely flipped out. Every subsequent appearance of Katie was greeted as if she were Michael Myers, whether or not she was doing anything scary. To the viewers of Paranormal Activity, the girl who looks like your friend’s kinda cute sister may as well be Candyman.

Another bonus point for Paranormal Activity is that they refuse to cast anyone you might recognize in their films. Aside from Katie, of course; they get anonymous actors from television shows or, in this case, a couple of child actors who are growing into their teenage years, then stick a camera in front of them all. It works because they’re like more attractive versions of normal people, and there’s no cognitive dissonance when Fred Willard shows up as Katie’s wacky neighbor.

To their credit, the teenagers, Matt Shively and Kathryn Newton as Alex the blonde in peril, are both really good in their roles; to his credit, Christopher Landon writes good teenagers. Alex does a lot of dumb things here, like sleep with her door unlocked, but she also does some very smart things to escape from various bad situations. Changing the game a little is always beneficial, especially on movie four.

Speaking of changing the game, Joost and Schulman also change the franchise’s visual palate thanks to some creative use of infrared filming. Specificially, the clever use of the Xbox Kinect as a de‑facto night vision camera for the living room. That was very clever, and it created some good moments, albeit it not as good as PA3’s fan-camera. Still, it’s a neat gimmick that works well and provokes some legitimate scares, even it it did leave me squinting at the screen.

Still, I like that. I like that the Paranormal Activity series depends on its ability to make audiences pay attention to every little detail of the frame. The slow build of the movie’s general scene construction only heightens the anticipation, and when something happens in the distance or in the foreground, or in a field of green motion‑sensing dots, the reaction it provokes from the audience is absolutely wonderful.

This is a movie best experienced with as big a crowd as you can find.

RATING – 3 Xbox 360’s out of 5

TRAILER

Click here to view the embedded video.

OWN IT – Get ”Paranormal Activity 4″ on Blu-ray and DVD from Amazon.com!

MOVIE

DIRECTOR – Scott Derrickson

WRITER – Scott Derrickson (screenplay), C. Robert Cargill

SIX DEGREES OF CAST & CREW

–One of the degrees of separation between child actors Michael Hall D’Addario and Clare Foley is Paul Giamatti.  D’Addario played young Charles Adams in Giamatti’s John Adams miniseries, and Foley played Abby, the daughter of Giamatti’s Mike Flaherty in Win Win.  Foley was also on Girls as Lola Lavoyt with Lena Dunham, who did the operator’s voice in House of the Devil.

–Authority figures bookend this movie.  One is a sheriff (Fred Thompson) that both warns Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke) to get out of town in the beginning and pulls him over near the end, and the other is Deputy So‑and‑So (James Ransone), who assists Oswalt in gathering inside information about his book idea.  Fred Thompson is a longtime Senator from Tennessee who was ran for the Republican nomination for President in 2004, was one of the lawyers involved in the Watergate hearings, and who is a fixture in the Law and Order Universe.  James Ransone did a few episodes of Law and Order, and he was in Inside Man with Denzel Washington. Washington was the scene‑stealer in Training Day with Ethan Hawke, who stars in this very movie!  Christopher Plummer played Arthur Case in Inside Man; Plummer’s daughter Amanda was in Ken Park with Ransone.

–Speaking of Ethan Hawke, he was in Brooklyn’s Finest with Vincent D’Onofrio.  D’Onofrio was on Law and Order:  Criminal Intent with Fred Thompson.  D’Onofrio was in Sinister as the uncredited Professor Jonas!

REVIEW

With the publication of his true‑crime novel Kentucky Blood, Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke) went from an unknown to an overnight sensation, with awards, media appearances, and all sorts of other good things coming his way.  However, since he broke onto the scene with that novel, he’s written two unsuccessful books, is underwater on his mortgage, and is looking to find lightning in a bottle once again, save his strained family, restore his finances, and possibly win a national book award or two for his troubles.  His desire to find the next big true crime story leads him to a little town where a child has disappeared without a trace while the rest of her family was brutally murdered.

Unfortunately, money is really tight, so Ellison doesn’t have a lot of choices as to where he can move his family.  However, there is a house on the market that’s available for a great price, if you don’t mind living where a bunch of people got hanged and a girl disappeared into thin air.  That’s right, the Oswalt family‑‑Ellison, wife Tracy (Juliet Rylance), son Trevor (Michael Hall D’Addario), and daughter Ashley (Clare Foley)—are homesteading in a house that may or may not be haunted.

The evidence of bad things happening to good people in the home only increases when, during the move‑in, Ellison finds a box full of 8mm home movies in the attic.  Curious, he fires up the handy‑dandy projector and watches the tapes one by one.  Each starts with happy family memories and ends with a brutal slaying of the majority of the family, with one of the children disappearing without a trace shortly afterward.  Just like the murders that brought Ellison to the house to write his story.  Has he stumbled across some sort of serial murderer?  Evidence of some sort of cult?  Or is it something even weirder?

This movie is very well done from a technical standpoint.  Cinematographer Chris Norr and composer Christopher Young have combined to really elevate the film with their efforts.  Norr does some great things with his camera, doesn’t overuse Dutch angle, and really helps frame the scenes to leech every drop of creepiness out of them; the 8mm tapes are especially effective as scare vehicles, with the film’s opening sequence—the murder of the Oswalt home’s previous occupants—being riveting, creepy, and very effective in its simplicity.  As for the score, the repeated use of the phrase resembling reel‑to‑reel tape flapping was very chilling, and the musical selections chosen to undergird the scenes turned what might otherwise be simply uncomfortable into something legitimately disturbing.  Sinister, like Insidious, makes great use of music and ambient sounds.

A great deal of credit goes to director Scott Derrickson, too.  While I’m not too impressed with a lot of his previous films, including the terrible remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still, he does a good job with this flick.  He gets a great performance out of Ethan Hawke (though that can’t be too hard), and he sets up scenes in such a way to keep continuously increasing the tension before the blow‑off scares.  The editing is good, with an emphasis on voyeuristic observation and less on face-rattling camerawork, and the scenes never seem to stick around too long thanks to great pacing.

As for the performances, Ethan Hawke is very good.  He’s rational, but as things get weirder, the cracks start to show.  Juliet Rylance as Tracy isn’t quite up to Ethan Hawke level; she’s a stage actress and she comes across that way onscreen.  She’s not bad, but she just doesn’t have the subtlety that you get from screen acting, particularly in film.  She plays it a bit too broadly, though she does have the funniest lines in the movie and she’s not outright bad.

The real star of the movie is Bughuul, the creepy pale‑faced thing that’s all through the trailers for Sinister.  He’s not seen too often, but when he shows up, he’s very effective.  The mere glimpses of him in stills or pictures is enough to make him frightening, because he’s just so… out of place.  If the test of any horror movie is its villain, then Sinister is going to be very popular on home video in a few months, because Mr. Boogie is a great monster in a very good horror movie.

RATING – 3.5 cans of 5mm film out of 5

TRAILER

Click here to view the embedded video.

STINGER

Click here to view the embedded video.

OWN IT – Get ”Sinister” on Blu-ray and DVD from Amazon.com!

MOVIE

DIRECTOR – Ben Affleck

WRITER – Chris Terrio (screenplay), Joshuah Bearman (article)

SIX DEGREES OF CAST & CREW

–Argo has a strong connection to the television show “Damages.”  Four of the cast of Argo, John Goodman (John Chambers), Tate Donovan (Bob Anders), Chris Messina (Malinov), and the awesomely named Zeljko Ivanek (Robert Pender) have all had major roles on the program.

–The fictional movie Argo is based off the Roger Zelazny book “Lord of Light.”  The man who did the storyboards for Lord of Light, and the man who did the storyboards for the fictional Argo, is Jack Kirby, who any comic book fan will know as the man who invented or co‑invented Captain America, The Fantastic Four, the X‑Men, Thor, The Hulk, Iron Man, Silver Surfer, The Avengers as a team, Black Panther, and pretty much the entire golden age of comic books.  In this film, he’s played by Michael Parks, who played Texas Ranger Earl McGraw in “From Dusk Till Dawn,” “Kill Bill,” and “Grindhouse.”  Meanwhile, the real‑life John Coleman is the special effects genius behind the original “Planet of the Apes” series and the man who created Spock’s pointy ears.  Producer Lester Siegel (as played by Alan Arkin) is fictional.

–Speaking of fictional, the man playing the Minotaur in Chambers’ special effects introduction is Scott Anthony Leet, a former professional football punter for the NFL’s St. Louis Rams and Dallas Cowboys.  The woman behind the makeup as Serksi the Gallactic Witch, aka Nina, is none other than genre legend Adrienne Barbeau, who worked with Clea DuVall (Cora Lijek) on the brilliant “Carnivale.”

REVIEW

On November 4, 1979, armed militants stormed the United States embassy in Tehran,Iran, and took 66 people hostages. Of the originals captured, 13 women and minorities were released after a few weeks, one man was released after suffering complications related to multiple sclerosis, and 52 were held as hostages by the Iranians for a staggering 444 days. However, not all employees of the embassy were captured. Six of the workers, who were in the visa department and had direct access to the street, escaped the terror and beatings into the streets of Iran’s capital. The crew eventually found safety in the embassy of Canada, while all around them Americans were being kidnapped and tortured, bloody reprisals and executions were being carried out, and Iran was in a state of carnage.

Meanwhile, in Washington, Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) is the CIA’s top exfiltration expert. That means he gets people out of hostile countries for a living, creates forged documents, and generally works as a problem solver in an agency with a lot of problems to solve. When his superior Jack O’Donnell (Bryan Cranston) asks him to sit in on a State Department meeting about how best to get the missing six out ofIranwith their heads attached, Mendez comes up with a brilliant idea: the six are part of a Canadian film crew shooting a science fiction movie.

That gives Tony a matter of days to put together a fake movie with the help of some real-life Hollywood friends in the form of special effects and makeup genius John Chambers (John Goodman) and producer Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin). The three have only a few days to put together a movie and somehow create a convincing enough story to get six people out of one of the most dangerous situations imaginable. While history shows that the Canadian caper was successful, the hows are what make Argo such a fascinating, enthralling film.

Argo is based on a true story. Antonio J. Mendez wrote the book The Master of Disguise about his career as a CIA extraction expert, and a section on the 1979 escape that would become Argo was excerpted in a Wired article by Joshuah Bearman. Those things formed the basis of the story scripted by Chris Terrio. Terrio, who has no other major credits, has done a great job bringing the book to the screen, but it’s the skill of Ben Affleck that really brings the truth to life. Other great real-life stories have been adapted into movies that failed, but Affleck and Terrio do not let this story down.

Ben Affleck the director is absolutely brilliant. To call him one of the best directors working seems like too much praise, but given how he’s been working and how good his projects have been behind the camera, I don’t think it’s excessive. As he’s gotten older, he’s gotten better as an actor, but as a director, he’s top-notch. Argo is both funny and suspenseful in turn, with the opening and closing reels of the film offering up teeth-grinding levels of suspense and the Hollywood sections of the film provoking gales of laughter. The interplay between tension in Iran and laughter in Studio City is perfect at building up and breaking tension, without breaking the action.

The comedy was a pleasant surprise; John Goodman and Alan Arkin are brilliant, with Arkin stealing scene after scene as irascible film producer Lester Siegel. The hostages, given their 70′s hair and distracting facial mustaches, don’t get a lot of chances to stand out, but they’re all good, especially Clea DuVall and Christopher Denham as Cora and Mark Lijek, two of the six embassy employees. Bryan Cranston is always good, and Ben Affleck seems to be better when he directs himself than when he’s directed by people not Gus Van Sant. He puts in a great performance, both in front of and behind the camera.

While Argo the fictional project would not have won any awards, Argo the movie about the movie just might. From beginning to end, this is a stellar film. Good performances are buttressed by brilliant editing, stunning cinematography, and a substance that belies the style used in putting the film together. It looks and feels like an authentic 70′s movie—Affleck filmed on normal film stock, chopped the frames in half, and blew up the results to 200 percent to give the film more graininess—and the scenes that he cribbed from “All The President’s Men” and “The Killing of a Chinese Bookie” are supported by the stellar ending race from Iranian authorities that is as suspenseful and well-crafted as any movie chase ever filmed.

RATING – 4.5 awesome 70’s haircuts out of 5

TRAILER

Click here to view the embedded video.

OWN IT – Get ”Argo” on Blu-ray and DVD from Amazon.com!

MOVIE

DIRECTOR – John E. Hudgens

WRITER – Sandy Clark

SIX DEGREES OF CAST & CREW

–One of the horror hosts is Bill “Chilly Billy” Cardille, a Pittsburgh staple and host of the Chiller Theater on WPXI in the 60’s and 70’s.  Chilly Billy was a television reporter in both the original Night of the Living Dead and the 1990 remake.  His daughter, Lori Cardille, had a bigger role as the lead in Day of the Dead.  His granddaughter, Kate Rogal, has played bit parts in both the Jason Statham movie Safe and the Steve Carell/Tina Fey comedy Date Night.

–For three years, Ernie Anderson played Ghoulardi on television in Cleveland, Ohio.  Before he was Ghoulardi, Ernie Anderson hosted a variety show on WJW called Ernie’s Place, and his head writer/frequent guest was a young man by the name of Tim Conway, who he collaborated while working in New York.  That’s right, Tim Conway from The Carol Burnett Show and Dorf videos and all kinds of other comedy stuff.  After Anderson ceased to be Ghoulardi and headed to Hollywood, he became the announcer for The Carol Burnett Show thanks to his Tim Conway connection; Anderson would serve as the official voice for ABC television for decades, providing the introduction for The Love Boat, every ABC News bumper, and even America’s Funniest Home Videos.  Oh yeah, Ernie Anderson’s son is Paul Thomas Anderson, the famous auteur director and writer behind Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch‑Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood, and The Master.  PT Anderson’s production company is named after Ghoulardi.

–Ghoulardi’s web extends past Hollywood.  He inspired a host of other Ohio-based horror hosts, including direct successor The Ghoul (Ron Sweed), who inspired Hoolihan (Bob Wells) and Big Chuck (Chuck Schodowski), which morphed into Big Chuck and Li’l John (John Rinaldi).  The Ghoul in turn inspired Akron host Son of Ghoul (Kevin Scarpino). Ohio is America’s largest native supply of horror hosts, apparently.

–For those too young to remember the glory days of local television, several syndicated favorites also make appearances:  Commander USA, Joel from Mystery Science Theater 3000, Elvira, Joe Bob Briggs, and Mr. Lobo, just to name a few.

REVIEW

In the early days of television, the only way to generate programming for most television stations was to turn to their own devices to create programming.  From broadcasting local sports and professional wrestling to in‑house children’s shows, morning shows, variety programs, etc., local television ruled the day and while the programs were similar wherever you went, they were never the same.  That’s all changed these days, what with network affiliate programming filling prime time and late night hours and the rest of the programming filled with syndicated talk shows.

However, in 1957, Universal Studios would change the way television hours were filed with their Shock Theater block, a package of 52 movies featuring titles both well-known (Dracula, The Wolf Man, all of the classic Universal Monsters) and unknown (Enemy Agent, Chinatown Squad, the awesomely-titled Pillow of Death).  (Screen Gems would follow with 20 more movies in the Son of Shock block in 1958.)

With the purchase of that block, local TV stations suddenly had hundreds of hours of space filled and lucrative commercial space, but you couldn’t just slap up some old movie and call it a night.  Not when everyone else had the same package of films to push as you did.  A network needed to differentiate itself, and the way most networks did that was via a horror host.  The horror host was usually a guy in bad makeup or a woman showing a lot of cleavage; generally they told bad jokes, performed funny skits, or did something to take the scare out of the horror or make the turkeys worth watching.  Hence, the horror host generated pretty much everywhere all at once, and from the 1950’s through the 1980’s, you couldn’t turn on the television on a late Saturday night without running into someone filling space around a (usually) black and white horror flick.

Presented in a format free of narration, director John E. Hudgens basically sets up a camera and lets the guest of honor do all the talking.  I’m sure they were led with questions, but we never get to hear the queries from Sandy Clark’s pen get spoken aloud.  The hosts talk, clips are spliced in when appropriate, and the bridge segments of the program are all provided by the hosts themselves.  When, say, Zacherle digresses into a discussion of Son of Ghoul, Hudgens uses that opportunity to cut to Son of Ghoul talking about whatever they were just discussion with Zacherle.

It’s a clever way to put together a documentary if you want to eschew the narration, and it puts the onus not on the gimmick, but the individual performers and their shared heritage.  It’s great how they build a history of the genre from Vampira at KTLA through the syndication and early cable years of Commander USA, Elvira, and Joe Bob Briggs all the way to modern horror hosts like Mr. Lobo.

Apparently, there is a thriving community of horror hosts on the Internet and still active on local television channels, and that makes me feel good about the future of the genre.  As long as there’s a network with time to fill, old movies, and a willingness to spend upwards of $10 dollars on costumes, makeup, and sets, there’s going to be horror hosts out there.  Even if television support dries away completely—and it never will—there’s always the Internet.  It’s nice to know that there are people out there still keeping the old ways while inspiring a new generation of budding horror nerds.

The documentary isn’t perfect, but it’s really good nonetheless.  They captured interviews with a lot of older horror icons who aren’t long for this world (or who died during production).  The horror host is a part of television history, and it deserves to be recorded.  There’s definitely anOhiobias, but there’s such a strong community of horror hosts and their supporters there it makes it more like an extended family.  I would have loved to hear more from Vampira; alternately, more from Joe Bob Briggs, Elvira, Commander USA, and the other icons of my impressionable youth/teenage years, but I doubt there’s a better horror host documentary out there.

RATING – 4 fright wigs out of 5

TRAILER

Click here to view the embedded video.

OWN IT – Get ”American Scary” on DVD from Amazon.com!

WATCH IT

Click here to view the embedded video.

MOVIE 

DIRECTOR – Ti West

WRITER – Ti West

SIX DEGREES OF CAST & CREW

‑At one point, Samantha (Jocelin Donahue) makes a panicking phone call to 911 only to be berated by the operator for making an unnecessary call.  The voice of that phone operator is Lena Dunham, the 26-year-old wunderkind writer/director/actress known for the film Tiny Furniture and the television series Girls, currently on HBO.  As for Donahue, she was in the 2008 underground worm monster movie The Burrowers with the brilliant Clancy Brown.

‑Speaking of brilliant, the supporting characters in this movie are pretty awesome.  Mr. and Mrs. Ulman are genre legends.  Mr. Ulman is Tom Noonan, who was Cain (the big‑bad in Robocop 2).  He was also Ferguson in The Wolfen, Frankenstein in The Monster Squad (!!!) and Francis Dollarhyde in Manhunter (reprised by Ralph Fiennes in Red Dragon).  Mrs. Ulman is Mary Woronov, who got her start in Andy Warhol’s performance art movies before becoming the designated lady weirdo of the 70’s and early 80’s in such films as Rock and Roll High School (as Miss Togar, who she would repirese in Alan Arkush’s Shake, Rattle and Roll alongside Renee Zellweger and Howie Mandell), Eating Raoul (as Mary Bland), and Calamity Jane in Death Race 2000.  As for the third major (non Greta Gerwig or AJ Bowen) player, it’s Dee Wallace, who you will know as the mother from Cujo, the mom from Critters, Karen in The Howling, Lynne from The Hills Have Eyes, AND the mom from E.T.  She’s played a lot of epic mothers, and is a very nice lady in real life.

‑House of the Devil is a throw-back all the way.  The movie is believed to be set in 1983, judging by the soundtrack’s use of the song “One Thing Leads To Another” by The Fixx.  The movie was shot on 16mm film, which accounts for the 80’s look, and was shot using techniques popularized in the 80’s, such as zooming in on characters rather than using a dolly shot.  The movie was “based on true events” in true 80’s fashion (it was completely made up), ties into the Satanic panic of the era, and even contains a nod to the Patrick Dempsey flick Loverboy.  House of the Dead was also deliberately released on VHS (in a big clamshell case) as a publicity stunt; the last major movie to be released on VHS for the home video market was 2005’s A History of Violence.

REVIEW

Samantha (Jocelin Donahue) is a college student, and like most college students, she’s broke and needs some rent money for the new apartment she’s found.  When Sam finds a flier looking for a babysitter, she takes one look at the money and decided that she’s completely interested.  After the caller initially flakes out, eventually Sam gets the job and gets her roommate Megan (Greta Gerwig) to drive her out to an isolated, big old country house.

That house is the home of the Ulmans (Tom Noonan and Mary Woronov), who are honestly too old to have a child needing babysitting.  As it turns out, their flier was a lie of sorts.  Turns out they didn’t need a babysitter, but someone to watch their ailing mother.  That’s not all that’s weird, either.  Turns out, there are more secrets in this house than simply the elderly woman locked into her upstairs bedroom.

As it turns out, someone’s got plans for Samantha the babysitter.

You have to give all the credit in the world to director Ti West.  From a style standpoint, he absolutely nails the look and feel of an 80’s horror movie.  From the 80’s pop soundtrack (circa 1983 via The Fixx’s “One Thing Leads To Another”) to the shooting techniques, it’s all right.  For instance, rather than dolly shots, they do camera zooms.  Rather than shooting on digital and dirtying it up, they shoot on 16mm film stock.  While there are some minor anachronisms, they’re not the sort of thing someone not from Connecticutwould notice (like modern lights in outdoor shots, etc.).  The important thing is the feel, and it feels perfect.  It reads like it needs to, and that helps the movie work.

The movie’s cast is incredible.  I mentioned the horror and movie legends above, but let’s go through them again.  Dee Wallace, Mary Qoronov, Tom Noonan, and Greta Gerwig.  These are just supporting characters!  To their credit, Jocelin Donahue and AJ Bowen both hold the screen very well.  Donahue, in particular, has to carry the weight of the movie on her skinny blonde shoulders, and she’s able to do so successfully.  When you’re in a movie by yourself for long stretches of time, playing against noises and camera tricks, you have to act extra hard (but not too hard) to hold attention.  She does that very well, and gives a great performance in the process.  She’s a bit of the Jamie Lee Curtis style of Final Girl.

There are some pacing issues in the movie, and it seems to take awhile to get going, but once it kicks in and things get progressively weirder, it starts to work.  The camera movements are slow and confident, with scenes given plenty of time to breathe.  It’s shot in such a way as to emphasize the big emptiness of the house, and that helps increase the film’s feel of voyeurism.  It’s like we’re watching her creep around the house, and that makes it even more chilling.  This is not an ADD generation MTV edit slasher, this is Halloween crossed with Rosemary’s Baby.

It’s hard to judge House of the Devil on its own merits, since it’s such an homage to the 70’s and 80’s.  The script is suitably loose, but is nothing special.  However, as an overall entertainment piece, the movie works.  If you have any love for the 80’s, you’ll probably like this movie, as it’s a dead-on homage to the hits of the VHS era.

RATING – 3 slices of pizza out of 5

TRAILER

Click here to view the embedded video.

OWN IT: Get ”House of the Devil” on Blu‑ray or DVD from Amazon.com!