You can tell that October is less than a week away. Like the sudden emergence of hearts and flowers come Valentines, or tinsel and trade ads near Christmas, Halloween’s arrival means just one thing to individuals in the media: time to break out the spooky stuff and give the fright fan what they want. That’s why, among the items of interest posted today as part of SE&L’s weekly DVD picks and passes, there are dozens of alternative choices, discs with titles like Dark Waters, Pet Sematary, as well as a collection of living dead epics including cult classics Burial Ground and Zombie Holocaust. As the pagan’s favorite day on the calendar draws neigh, we will be seeing more and more macabre-oriented product. It’s a boon for the creature feature aficionado – a chore for anyone looking for a cinematic choice based in recognizable reality. Still, there are a few notable non-supernatural offerings out there, including an overlooked love story, a cute kiddy cartoon, and the unnecessary sequel to an unlikely car culture hit. And if those don’t get your entertainment juices flowing, there’s always the final installment in Chan-wook Park’s Vengeance trilogy. For 26 September, the saleable suspects are:
Ah, two dimensional animation. The lost art of pen and ink cartooning. It’s so comforting to see the flat cell technique employed here – versus the absolute onslaught of CG-insanity currently crowding the Cineplex – that one can almost overlook the flaws in this classic kiddie series big screen adaptation…almost. Granted, Will Ferrell’s comedic physicality is more or less lost doing voice-over chores as the celebrated Man in the Yellow Hat, but Drew Barrymore is likeable as his love interest – and then there’s George. With a style reminiscent of the slapstick silliness of the past and none of the cloying pop culture ‘cleverness’ that ruins so much of today’s family fare, the magical little monkey with the impish grin and title inquisitiveness still symbolizes the way in which a child views this big, baffling world. It’s the perfect frame of reference for the pre-tween target audience, who will simply adore this spunky simian.
You couldn’t enter a Multiplex this summer and not be enveloped by this film’s hideously annoying tie-in track – the Teriyaki Boys Asian atrocity “Tokyo Drift”. Oddly enough, the song lasted longer than the film. In and out as quickly as the whole cool car-racing genre unleashed by the original F&F, this meaningless revisit probably killed the floundering franchise. Dealing with the supposedly street savvy ‘sport’ of ‘drifting’ (otherwise known as purposeful fishtailing), the move to Japan merely heightened the unreality of the whole enterprise. Only in the movies can gangs of car junkies ride ramshackle through major metropolitan areas, endangering the lives of millions of innocent commuters and come out with only minor automotive damage. All lazy legal ramifications aside, that maddening multicultural rap will probably be this film’s only lasting legacy.
It’s no surprise that, as part of Asian culture, concepts such as honor, pride and payback are strict social and personal principles. What is shocking is how far some filmmakers will go to stress these timeless and important traditions. After the walloping one-two punch of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) and 2003’s amazing Oldboy, director Chan-wook Park completes his signature series by putting the payback squarely in the hands of the so-called ‘weaker’ sex. Again focusing on the wrongly accused and imprisoned, as well as the sensational stylized set pieces that mark his auteur aesthetic, we witness another spectacle of slaughter in all its Grand Guignol grooviness. Some have been taken aback by Park’s approach to violence, claiming its geek show mentality is really antithetical to the themes he’s addressing. But when it comes to vigilante justice, one demands blood, not moralizing, and Park delivers the deluge in claret-colored spades.
In a Summer full of insufferable projects, many avoided this Western remake of the Korean classic Siworae. It didn’t help matters much that it touted its time-crossed love story as the much anticipated re-teaming of Speed co-stars Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. With the dust now settling on said season of cinematic disappointments, The Lake House seems ready for redemption. After the baffling ballistics of a typical blockbuster effort, this slightly science fictional romance about a magical mailbox, a gorgeous glass structure, and the two lost souls who reside/resided within, was dismissed as slight and sentimental. But there is something coolly cathartic about a good old fashioned weeper, and while many critics seem to shutter at the thought of something emotional, Argentinian director Alejandro Agresti mostly avoids the maudlin. The results are perfect for a late Fall evening cuddled up with someone you love.
The Blair Witch Project got all the kudos – and the box office coin – but this far more effective mockumentary from directors Stefan Avelos and Lance Weiler was there first, and handled the strikingly similar subject matter in a less expletive-filled, Gen-X derivative fashion. Following the story of a cable access program searching for the mythic “Jersey Devil” in the legend-laced Pine Barrens, Avelos and Weiler create a moody murder mystery out of Witch‘s sense of a wilderness unknown, and an evil unleashed. Though many point to the subjective shift at the end as Broadcast‘s only drawback, the truth is that everything that Burkittsville bunkum tried to do, this effectively eerie effort actually accomplished. Witch was just a gimmick. Broadcast is a welcome and more worthwhile addition to the horror movie genre.
Some argue that Wes Craven reinvented the movie macabre when he unleashed Scream, and all its ‘nod and a wink’ irony, on audiences in 1996. In actuality, it was the THIRD time in his career that this formidable filmmaker took on the sloppy standards of the post-modern scary movie and reconfigured its sensibilities. Like Last House on the Left in the ’70s, A Nightmare on Elm Street offered the terror tale sanctuary from all of its ’80s slasher silliness. It’s rare when an artist creates a timeless genre icon, but in Freddy Krueger, Craven gave actor Robert Englund the filmic foundation to shape a truly emblematic creature, one that fit perfectly in with the era’s growing concerns over children and their safety. While this version is a double dip over a previously issued DVD, the amazing amount of extras will convince you to give this title a try. It is one of the best horror films ever made.
There is so much more to her story and significance that trying to decipher the life and times of this pre-pornography pin-up in a single ninety minute movie seems like an impossible task. Yet I Shot Andy Warhol‘s Mary Harron does a bright, breezy job of capturing the time, and the temperament, of its title figure. While Page’s still enigmatic allure is never fully explained – a visual uniqueness that stands out, significantly, alongside the other equally photographed models of the time – Harron is successful in showing how a small town Tennessee girl became an exploitation icon. Employing a carefree attitude toward the entire girlie-que industry, comfortable shooting cheesecake as well as more controversial subject matter stills, Page was a pioneer in redefining the role women would play in the post-War period. As a primer on her part in the subsequent revolutionizing of sex, this bouncy biopic is a winner.
And Now for Something Completely Different
In a weekly addition to Who’s Minding the Store, SE&L will feature an off title disc worth checking out. For 26 September:
It is, perhaps, the most unlikely subject matter for a horror film ever devised. A group of derelict homeless winos, led by an ex-Vietnam War veteran who takes his frequent combat flashbacks out on the surrounding populace in decidedly homicidal ways, begin drinking a new cheap hooch that’s hitting the street. Unfortunately, one of Tenafly Viper’s liquor-laced drawbacks is the unfortunate side effect of personal putrescence. That’s right, one sip and you start to ‘bleed’ out in a multi-colored array of bodily fluids. While a gun-ho cop tries to capture the rogue hobo, the rest of the street trash are turning into polychromatic pudding. A masterpiece made by fright film fans for fright film fans, Trash has long been unavailable on DVD. Last year, Synapse Films promised a new, fully tricked out edition would follow their orignal single disc presentation. They weren’t lying. This is, hands down, one of the best movies of the late ’80s, given a proud post-millennial package that will be hard to top come time for year-end accolades.