Horror Marathon Recap 3 - Some Alright Movies Of The Marathon (+ a TV Series)

[philosoraptor42]

As I work my way through the movies I reviewed in the Halloween Candy horror movie marathon counting down to my favourite films of the marathon, we finally have some reasonably good films. Starting with films that were somewhat disappointing, but moving on to films that were pretty good fun. There's still eleven good movies left for the next couple of entries too...

16. Intruders (2011)

Juan Carlos Fresnadillo has an odd pattern of making films which are slightly flawed, but still leaving me wanting to see more. His first film was "Intacto", a rather cool film about people who've worked out how to compete for each other's luck. It's quite an amazing premise and while it doesn't all quite fit together as well as it should, there are some great moments. Then there was "28 Weeks Later" the sequel to Danny Boyle's film which first inspired renewed interest in zombie movies. To my mind, the opening for "28 Weeks Later" is perfect. Even if you hadn't seen "28 Days Later" you'd still know from that first sequence precisely how terrifying the 'rage zombies' really are. However, there are definitely problems with the film.
The sweet: "Intruders" seems to be trying to capture that same kind of magic that Pan's Labyrinth did. By that I mean it tries to capture the magic and the power of stories. The very first scene of the film shows a small boy and his mother telling stories with one another, but then the boy cannot sleep and seems to discover some kind of real life monster making its way into the house via the scaffolding outside the window. He believes he sees it attack his mother. Throughout the film the monster comes to be called "hollowface". This first section is in Spanish. Seemingly unrelated to this, there is an English girl (with Clive Owen playing her father) who discovers an old box hidden in a tree in her grandparents' garden. Inside the box is an unfinished story which she decides to pretend is hers to skip a homework at school. However, the story she found about the monster "hollowface" was unfinished and her teachers want her to finish the story. As she continues the story, it becomes about her and soon she is terrified that hollowface is really going to come and steal her face. The way hollowface is depicted is brilliant. Also the performances are fantastic with Clive Owens (who I think is normally a bit inconsistent) on absolutely top form and a very welcome appearance from Daniel Brühl (the Nazi war hero in "Inglourious Basterds", also starred in "Goodbye Lenin" and "The Edukators"). (I was also surprised to see an appearance by Kerry Fox, who I haven't seen since "Shallow Grave".)
The sour: An ending can make or break a film and unfortunately the ending here is highly contrived. The whole film has been asking us what is real and what is not, so right at the end we finally need that to be resolved. There's nothing exactly wrong with the explanation, but the way the reveal is executed just makes it highly unsatisfying. I'm not going to spoil the ending and who knows, maybe some people won't find the ending such a disappointment, but after a fantastic first half it was a bit annoying to see the film collapse like this.

C-



15. Critters (1986)

On my poll of franchises I should check out this came bottom in the results. However, the boxset was going cheap so I watched them all now anyway.

This turns out to be the only one I've ever seen. I only saw bits of it and I was surprised when I couldn't see Leonardo Di Caprio in it, having thought I was watching Critters 3. It's actually kind of disapppointing to find that this wasn't a low quality sequel but was actually the initial movie in the series.

Plot Synopsis: Furry monsters known as "Crites" who like to eat a lot come to Earth in a prison ship they've hi-jacked. They then reek terror as some rather creepy bounty hunters are sent to stop them.
The Sweet: The bounty hunters are really cool. Actually rather cooler than the Crites (or Critters). They have blank faces which they can shape into any form. One of them quickly picks the form of a (fictional) popular rock star, while the other finds that he keeps changing face, feeling dissatisfied with each one. The bounty hunters are only interested in killing the Gremlins-imitation comedy monsters and are not terribly worried about the level of damage they inflict in the process.

There are some quite cool bits involving the Critters but it's all a bit hit and miss. The way one Critter looks at a toy of E.T. is quite funny though.
The Sour: The acting is rubbish. There is far too much screaming, particularly from Dee Wallace (of "The Howling" and "The Frighteners" fame). The film isn't really funny or exciting enough overall. In spite of how well he's used in later sequels, in this first film the character of Charlie is really irritating. This film shows potential, but never really meets it.

C+


14. Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988)

Plot Synopsis: Evil clow-like aliens come to earth in a flying saucer shaped like a circus tent to cocoon humans in candy floss or attack them with mallets and popcorn guns.
The Sweet: There's a certain level of insane genius involved with this film. Notably the director is mainly known for his effects work, so it's perhaps not surprising that the film is at its best when it comes to the effects. The effects are really really good and there's a lot of imagination that has gone into the way the effects are used.
The Sour: While some of the humour is pretty good, most of the non-effects sections of the film are just filler. The camerawork is fairly bland, the acting is plain, there's no interesting cinematography, there's nothing much in the way of atmosphere. But at the centre of the film nonetheless is this really well thought out concept that really deserves a better director. In fact the exact SAME director is planning to release "Return of the Killer Klowns from Outer Space in 3D" next year. I think it would have been better if he was overseeing the effects work while someone else directed, but there you go. Who knows? Perhaps he's learnt from previous mistakes over the near 20 year gap?

C+


13. Cry Wolf (2005)

I'd thought this was a film recommended by Mark Kermode a while back. During the review for the movie I THOUGHT this was, Kermode was talking about how watching horror films involves masochism. I was expecting something really intense. What's more here I had the "uncut" version of the movie. As it turns out, the film Kermode was talking about was "Wolf Creek", so whoops.

Cry Wolf is a slasher movie which tries to be a bit clever by having the students sort of wishing it upon themselves with the tricks they play on one another (with instant messaging over the internet used quite nicely), but in the end, this film just isn't scary (and I don't say that lightly. I am, no bones about it, a wuss). The film tied together pretty nicely. The presence of Jon Bon Jovi in a fairly prominent role didn't turn out to be too much of a problem. Jared Padalecki (of "Supernatural" fame) was certainly a lot better here than he was in the "Friday the 13th" reboot (though he still didn't exactly blow me away).

In the end the film was quite satisfying, but it didn't do anything special. Going into it expecting to be scared is pretty much a waste of time for the most part, since any fear evoked isn't really built up. The main focus of interest is the character interactions and the plot intrigue, but the plot isn't THAT clever and the characters aren't THAT interesting - though they both are good enough to make it work. Overall this was pretty good. If I judge it as a horror movie, it could have been a lot better. However, I think it may well have been going for 'horror light' and with that in mind it's absolutely fine.

B-


12. Thir13en Ghosts (2001)

Plot Synopsis: The premise is pretty solidly set up in the opening scene. A rich businessman is trying to capture a set of ghosts for an unstated reason. He has a comic relief medium guy who is helping him locate the ghosts he needs, but he also has some tools of his own: such as A TRUCK FULL OF BLOOD (oh yeah!). Anyway, after his death the rich millionaire leaves his bizzarre house and fortune to a set of relatives who have fallen on hard times, but guess what is in the basement?
The Sweet: This is very much a horror comedy and there's also sort of sci-fi elements to it. While the medium guy seems a little too over the top the first time you see it, he really helps to set the tone. Everything would get a little overly serious without his combined cynicism and goofiness. Just his presence is enough to confirm for otherwise oblivious protagonists that something weird is going on. The performances are pretty good, the ghosts are fantastic and the comedy is set up really well.
The Sour: The only thing that is kind of lacking is the plot. There is not really much of a plot here (or at least not a plot which fits together terribly neatly). It feels like there's a few twists for the sake of it towards the end, as if the filmmakers were uncertain how to end the film.

Thirteen Ghosts is a neat little remake of a Bill Castle movie. (If you've seen Joe Dante's "Matinee", John Goodman's character is based on director William Castle. The director used special gimmicks, such as buzzers under the seats, to encourage audiences to go to his films. He was sort of like the James Cameron of the era. :P ) This isn't a fantastic film, but it is wonderful fun and if what you want is just a plain old good time this delivers in spades.

B-


Walking Dead - Season 2 (2011)

I thought it was fair to count this season of "The Walking Dead" as an entry. Finally rented the DVDs and while I didn't think it was as good as the first season, I still thought it was pretty cool. A few 'important issues' and 'big concerns' are repeated by characters over and over until the drama is squeezed out of them, but as a general rule I thought this kept things interesting.