I considered waiting a little bit for another review of mine that is dropping later this afternoon, but what the hell -- not being patient guarantees me another post today and given the case of the Murky Mondays my head's currently swimming in that's not a gift I should side-eye. And linking to two reviews in one post is already a bounty, a bouffet -- then you add on half-naked Mason Gooding and -- I feed you people well dammit. That photo is one Mason himself shared from his behind-the-scenes experience making Gregg Araki's I Want Your Sex, which my review of dropped at Pajiba on Friday. Read it right here. Surprising nobody I loved it -- do I wish that one of the many mentioned Grindr hook-ups that Mason's character kept talking about happened on-screen? Duh and durrr. Of course. But then there's a scene where Mason's in short running shorts and a half-shirt and I remember Gregg Araki always feeds us well too.
The other review of mine that dropped over the weekend was another one out of Fantasia Fest -- click here to read my thoughts on the horror doc Black Zombie, which ingeniously speaks about the undead-genre through the lens of Haitian and American race history. It's a terrific doc about The Movies -- as I say in my review it's yet another one that throws all the money I spent on getting a Film Studies degree in college into a big fire-pit; what I probably spent an entire sememster's worth of thousands of dollars on you can now see in a compact and fun little documentary. No I am not bitter, you're bitter. Great movie though! And as I said at the top -- stay tuned, I've got another Fantasia review dropping shortly...
Starting next week we'll be entering the annual "very quiet round these parts" portion of the calendar as I plunge head-first into the fall film fests -- first it's the New York Film Festival, then there's the autumnal edition of NewFest, and then kicking off on October 16th there's the Brooklyn Horror Fest, which I've been covering since year one. This is year ten! By the time Halloween comes I'm always completely blown out but it's worth it every time so I keep it up anyway, despite the years of my life I've no doubt lost to cinematic exhaustion. Anyway today BHFF announced their new line-up and you can see the entire thing right here, but I'm going to zero in on a few titles (five specifically) that I'm most excited about seeing. A few of the movies they're showing I've already seen at earlier fests this year (Tina "daughter of Geroge" Romero's queer zombie flick Queens of the Dead is a hell of a lot of fun) -- in fact one of them I've even reviewed! You can read my thoughts on the brilliantly surreal head-trip Buffet Infinityright here. But let's get to the rest!
5 Brooklyn Horror Tiles to Devour
Dust Bunny -- Obviously! Duh! This kiddy horror flick from Pushing Daisies and Hannibal genius Bryan Fuller screened at TIFF yesterday and they also dropped the trailer (right here) -- it stars Mads Mikkelsen and Sigourney Weaver and I haven't shut up about it for a very long time. And it looks like this will be my first opportunity to see it before it hits theaters on December 5th!
Boorman and the Devil-- This documentary about the making of John Boorman's disastrously-received Exorcistsequel just premiered at Venice last week and got a really good reception. Also the queer horror community being as small as it is we here at MNPP know some people who worked on this (including director David Kitteredge) and we've been hearing about its making for what feels like forever! Put it in my eyeballs!
This is Not a Test-- Although the official page for this (the Opening Night) movie on BHFF's website doesn't mention its queerness, Variety's article on the line-up does-- either way we dug director Adam MacDonald's former feature Pyewacketa lot and we're always on board a high-school-set zombie movie.
Tinsman Road -- A new found-footage horror film from homosexual director Robbie Banfitch, director of the found-footage freak-out The Outwaters. I was slightly mixed on that one (although it has some excellent scares and atmopshere) but we support our people! Meaning "gays" but also "found footage horror movie lovers."
Violence -- Looking forward to this one mainly because it stars Rohan Campbell, who was done dirty by David Gordon Green's Halloween Ends. He was good in a terrible role, and we're giving him a second chance. Does it hurt that he's hot as hell? Of course not. We are but human.
-----------------------------------------
There are a heap more movies worth seeing so make sure you scan the entire line-up at the link, and if you're in NYC between October 16th and 25th then you owe it to yourself to celebrate the Hallow-season with some of these frights! Badges are on sale right now; individual tickets go on sale this Friday at Noon!
This is a lil' update to my post last week about George Romero's 1978 vampire classic Martin, which was part of my Halloween "Needles" series and wherein I told y'all that the film appeared to finally be getting an upgrade -- it turns out it's not just an upgrade, it's a whole damn 'nother thing altogether! Michael Gornick, who worked with Romero in several different capacities over the years, posted the above photo on Facebook two days ago, with this explanation:
"I simply can't say enough about the efforts of KEVIN KRIESS and THE LIVING DEAD MUSEUM in locating the seldom (if ever) seen, black and white, 16mm version of MARTIN. This "Director's Cut" of some three and a half hours in length was always Romero's preferred version. May it soon return safely to the custody of Richard Rubinstein and Braddock Associates for digital revitalization and distribution to the world. Note: This photo depicts Reel #1 of 3. The hand written label is one that I prepared back in 1976. To my knowledge, this is the only existing version of this Romero classic."
Twice as long and in black-and-white, wtf!!! The thing is the 4K upgrade I told you about last week was from Second Sight films and that appears to be a 4K upgrade of the original film -- as seen in the tweet down below the print is in color. So it looks like we're going to be getting extra lots of Martin in the future! Which is an earned righting of the film's history, over-looked and under-loved as it's been in the past. (via, thx Mac)
After seeing that George Romero's 1978 vampire-ish flick Martinwill be getting a 4K remaster this next year from the swell distributor Second Sight in the UK (I imagine it will get some play here too from somebody but if not invest in a region-free player y'all, it's blown the doors off my life) I realized what better needle scene for my "13 Needles of Halloween" series than the opening scene of that movie? If you're unfamiliar the film opens with our titular uhhh "hero" Martin clambering into a strange woman's sleeping compartment on a train, sedating her, sexually assualting her, and then slicing her wrists open with a razor and drinking the blood. I mean -- what better???
It's freakin' creepy stuff and Martin is one of Romero's best, so the fact that the movie streams nowhere and even the crappy DVD of it is out of print and going for sixty to ninety bucks on Amazon is downright shameful -- news of this upgrade is extremely overdue. I don't think I've ever seen a good quality copy of this movie to be honest, and I have a feeling that watching it remastered is going to be one of those times when a movie steps up and wallops you in a wholly fresh way. Great flick -- any fans?
Remember what a strange thrill it was when Bub, the neck-shackled zombie in George Romero's Day of the Dead, who we've watched be tormented by the soldiers and scientists who in true Romero fashion proved to be worse than the undead throngs, figured out how to pick up a gun and cock it? The evolutionary upgrades we witnessed Romero's zombies adapt to from film to film to film were a pleasurable running thread through the great director's output -- each film we wondered where he'd take them next. Then came Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, with its rage virus and fast runners, knocking everything up yet another notch. Where oh where could the zombies go from there?
Say hello toThe Sadness from Taiwan, screening now as part of the Fantasia Fest and which goshdarnit found a way. And then some. And it will maybe make you regret even asking the question! I say that with no small amount of awe -- I was really quite struck dumb by The Sadness, and am not sure how to even write about it. Fantasia slapped a trigger warning on this sucker and it's with plenty good reason -- I don't recommend anybody with a sensitive constitution sit through this gnarly and deeply cruel fiend of a movie. Me, I am not that person, I took this sucker in stride, but man alive (or rather, I suppose, man not alive) did I have to turn away a couple of times.
In a world of cucks and incels, rage babies screaming their most foul and depraved thoughts onto the internet, The Sadness' take feels in retrospect inevitable -- explained via some delightfully tossed-off scientific gobbledegook, the virus at the film's heart, the one that's turning all the good and decent people of Taiwan into slobbering monsters, does something like... well, yadda yadda connect people's impulse drives with their raw ids. And voila before you know it they're like the average Trump voter on nuclear steroids, which is to say racist raping perverts, cussing at and penetrating everything in sight.
Yes, you heard me right -- these zombies rape. Is that a spoiler I shouldn't share? I don't know how you don't warn people of that fact going in, ethically speaking. Anyway science makes these zombies subject to their every every worst urge, total cruelty, totally unleashed -- a pandemic of bloody perversions. Sex and violence swirl in a storm of gore and mayhem, each trauma trying to top the one before -- and by "top" yes I do mean "stick its zombie dick into" -- and yet somehow Canadian-Taiwanese writer-director Rob Jabbaz, and I can't believe I am saying this, actually makes it work?
I've seen a lot of go-for-broke gonzo try-too-hard horror flicks anyway -- hell there's probably a Lloyd Kaufman Joint that had Raping Zombies in it 15 years ago -- but The Sadness, as hard as it pushes its in-your-eye-socket offensiveness, well it just comes down to the fact that is well made, well shot, competently acted (by some really gorgeous leads, I might add), and effectively edited most of all. There are some terrifying sequences (one on a subway train is one of my worst nightmares), even ones without sexual violence.
But the thing is the scenes with the sexual violence actually feel justified by the world we live in, and we should be more angry at the world we live in for that then for this film reflecting where we've come as a culture. In the 1970s Romero was able to use the idea of the zombie to mock our Consumer Culture -- well some forty plus years later our culture is less concerned with our right to bear large-screen television sets, and more concerned with our right to be as free as we want to be at the expense of everyone else being damned. And the sexual anxiety of our times -- even just writing about this movie! -- is off the charts. I think The Sadness tapping into that, even in its over-the-top way, is meaningful and necessary -- it's Horror's job to wade into our muck and throw it in our face, and you'll leave The Sadness one hundred percent mucked up.
Put on a happy face, I wrote up some thoughts on George A Romero's so-called "lost film" The Amusement Parkfor Pajiba, click on over -- discovered recently and remastered the hour-long scare flick is now on Shudder! I shared the (amazing) poster and trailer with you back in February, alongside a video of Romero's widow introducing the film at a screening at MoMA last year, which was the first time I saw it. Now y'all can experience the darkness for yourselves! And it gets real dark. Both the film and my review. Tis the season!
Super news today as the "lost film" of George Romero, 1973's The Amusement Park, is going to premiere on Shudder later this summer! (And how amazing is that poster they came up with?) Romero shot this for the Lutheran Society who wanted to highlight society's disregard for the elderly, but they were so horrified by the horror film Romero that delivered them they never released the footage. Until a couple of years ago, when a print was discovered and got cleaned up to the max -- they screened it at MoMA last January and who was there? I was there! Of course I was there. And down below you can see some video I took of Romero's widow talking about the movie. It's a curious and fascinating little document for sure, and any Romero fan will want to watch it -- you can see the genius-to-be already forming his obsessions.
Once upon a time we told people there was safety in numbers, but the Coronavirus has laid that old chestnut in its final resting place, RIP. Welcome to the Age of Social Distancing. We're now encouraged -- the word "encouraged" feels ridiculously inadequate -- to keep the depth of a grave, six feet, between our bodies and those of strangers at all times. How this will shake out in the long run is anybody's guess, I'm no future theorist, but I do know that the Movies have been telling us about the danger of large crowds for ages and that, as a lifelong misanthrope and wannabe shut-in, is a subject I do find myself particularly versed in. So here, a list of such lessons, to make us feel a little better about our self-isolating this Sunday... next Sunday... the Sundays after that...
10 Movies Scenes That Encourage the Keep Away
.
.
The Birds (1960) -- You're not exactly safe when you're alone (see that attic scene) but every time people gather into groups in Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 animal-attack masterpiece is when those lil' birdies really drop out the stops -- Cathy's birthday party? Check. Everybody shut up together in the diner in town? Check. Hell even five people standing around in a living-room is too much, too many. But it's the one-room school house full of innocent little kiddos where Hitch unleashes his most morbid fury -- close the schools, he cries! Risselty rosselty, or else!
.
.
The Matrix Reloaded (2003) -- Nothing most people would define as "bad" actually happens during this scene from the Wachowski's second Matrix movie -- people dance and have sex and feel oh so sexy, ooh la la -- but I'm not most people, and this scene in this movie always set my phasers to cringe. So much tattered knitwear and embarrassingly sloppy touching. No thank you I say! Keep those fingers to your damn self, Harold Perrineau!
. .
An American Werewolf in Paris (1997) / Blade (1998) -- The admittedly killer opening scene of Blade always gets credit for this conceit, that of mythical beasts (in Blade's case vampires) luring unsuspecting humans into being the surprise main course for an orgy of bloodbathery. But the slightly underrated (if only for how damned cute Tom Everett Scott is in it) American Werewolf sequel actually did it a year earlier with its lycanthrope dance club called Club de la Lune that locks its doors as the moon goes full for its monthly monster feast.
. .
Scream 2 (1997) -- One of my favorite things, as an introvert with isolation tendencies already baked in, about living in a big city is the way you can feel absolutely alone even in the most crowded of places. I once, in the middle of an emotional breakdown I won't get into, took a train ride to Times Square and sat down among the tourists and had my breakdown there, unobserved, and there was real comfort in that disappearing act. That said this same idea has its horrible flip-side, maybe never better observed than in the opening scene of Scream 2, where the masked killer manages to brutally murder Jada Pinkett Smith's character in full view of a swarming whooping-it-up crowd without anybody even noticing until she drops dead in front of the movie screen. . . Blow Out (1981) -- Similar to that above scene from Scream 2, the deeply downer final act of Brian De Palma's 1981 master-class in tension editing sees Nancy Allen's character snatched by the murderous John Lithgow in the middle of the great big Bicentennial festivities in downtown Philadelphia, fireworks exploding around them as he strangles her to death, her would-be hero John Travolta unable to get to her in time because the damned marauding parade people that won't get the hell out of his way. RIP Sally, you queen.
. .
Messiah of Evil(1973) -- Somewhere between a zombie movie, a cannibal flick, and a Body Snatchers sorta film, only doing it with more style and hallucinatory strangeness than most of those much as I love 'em all have conjured, this Willard Huyck & Gloria Katz directed freak-out classic sees some unsuspecting tourists getting more than they ever might have bargained for while visiting the remote seaside "artist's colony" of Point Dume, California. (Dume, Doom -- get it?) Like an episode of Dark Shadows written by Hunter S. Thompson on a real bad trip, we see them set upon one by one by ravenous but surprisingly well-dressed and coiffured ghouls -- the two stand-out scenes involve a supermarket and a movie theater, the latter seen above in all its "who's that suddenly breathing down my neck" glory.
. .
Midsommar (2019) // The Wicker Man (1973) -- Our pal Stacie Ponder of Final Girl calls them "Town with a secret" movies -- the just mentioned Messiah of Evil is definitely one as well -- where a stranger comes to a remote place and unravels its dark mysteries always just a second too late to save themselves. But you add the white-eyed fanaticism of religion to the mix, like this double-feature does -- see also some of those Mrs. Carmody scenes in The Mist -- and you've got a real recipe for craving a safe cloister somewhere far, far, far away. That moment when you look around yourself and see only mad smiles smiling back? I say no thank you.
. .
World War Z (2013) // Train to Busan (2016) -- Zombie movies are the pinnacle of Social Distancing cinema -- they've been warning us about the way crowds can gobble up our guts ever since Barbara got trapped in that farm house, and I could've done a list of only them. But none of them have gone to quite the extent that these two recent entries have in detailing a literal crush of bodies -- monstrous stampedes stretching as far as infinity, even towering up into the sky. Busan's train station scene is particularly notable -- the way the hordes spin and smash and flop through glass and keep coming to swallow us up.
. .
The Host (2006) -- I've always felt more mixed towards Bong Joon-ho's much heralded monster movie than most people but there's no denying the triumph of the fish monster thing's first attack in broad daylight in a heavily populated waterside park in Seoul, South Korea. Tossing out every rule about how much of the monster we're supposed to see until its late-film reveal this scene happens only eleven minutes into the film, immediately showcasing the monster in all its CG glory, and telling us right upfront that there is no safe place to stand.
. .
Society (1989) -- The one that brings them all together -- It's a town with a secret! It's cannibalism, it's hallucinatory, it's a single-minded horde! It's the misbegotten sexiness of The Matrix's rave scene smashed up with the misshapen tangle of bodies in Train To Busan! It's the social critique of Pasolini's Salo as play-acted out by Garbage Pail Kids cards. It's all of those things multiplied by Cronenberg, divided by Lynch, straddling George Romero's throbbing metaphorical member. It's the most insane scene I think I've ever seen in a movie in my entire goddamned life, and somehow it's on YouTube right now. I don't know how, but it is. Brian Yuzna, you absolute nutter, bless.
Russell: Is he dead? David: Well if he is he won't mind waiting.
A happy 10 to this way better than it deserved to be remake of George Romero's original 1973 film from director Breck Eisner -- I should sit down and re-watch the both of them before I make this proclamation officially but I think I actually prefer the remake in this case? I said that in my review at the time and presumably I knew what I was talking about. (Although assuming that is often a stretch.) Maybe I put it to a vote?
Dr. Rausch, Scientist: We must think logically. We must deal with his crisis logically, with calm and unemotional response! We have to remain rational. We have to remain logical.
TV Commentator: Scientists like you always think that way. That's not how people think. We just cannot abandon our moral code to...
Dr. Rausch, Scientist: We've got to! We've got to remain logical. There's no choice. It has to be that. It's that or the end.
The king George A. Romero would be turning 80 today
if he was still with us. We miss you, Uncle George!
Correct me if I'm wrong but I do believe that the reanimated corpse of Nathan Grantham from the "Father's Day" section of the 1982 anthology horror film Creepshow might be the only action figure with a severed head cake as its sidekick? That's just an educated guess but if you want to show me some obscure Superman or G.I. Joe figure that's got one of those too feel free to do just that and I'll retract my assertion. Until then...
... we're gonna go with that being a yes. You can see a previous post on this section of Creepshow, which was written by Stephen King for the film,right here -- it's a classic! Creepshow I mean, not necessarily that post, although that post is fun enough. Also that post was written by me, not by Stephen King, which also might have been unclear? I don't know, I feel funny. Almost like somebody decapitated me and put my head on a platter and then frosted my head and stuck candles in that frosting and then lit those candles and then carried the whole business into the other room where my grubby relatives sat ready for the surprise of their lives. Funny.
Seriously I could just post Creepshow gifs all day though...
Policeman: We found blood in the freezer down in the cellar. Det. Grogan: Christ! Rich people...
Sick stuff always turns out to be rich people.
Have I got any fans here of the 1990 duology (is that the right word?) Two Evil Eyes, which consists of a pair of half-length films based on Edgar Allen Poe stories, one directed by Dario Argento and the other by George Romero? And starring horror legends Tom Atkins and Adrienne Barbeau, among others?
Well if you're a fan this is a heads-up -- Blue Underground has just announced they're putting out a super-duper blu-ray set in October -- three discs stuffed with special features, far from the least of which is a 4K restoration of the film from its original negative. The second disc has a bunch of docs and interviews which I'll list down below, while the third disc is the film's soundtrack by legendary composer Pino Donaggio. What a thrill! Now you canhit the jump for all of the info...
Gravedigger: I'm telling you, you'll end up a dirty old man reading that stuff. A pervert. A peeping tom. I saw this porno flick once. This guy in the audience got so carried away with it, he humped himself to death.
Blonde Gravedigger: Yeah, but what a way to go.
I never noticed how much "Blonde Gravedigger" kind of looks like George Romero before. That was probably accidental -- a lot of people looks like George Romero in 1980 -- but it's also apt, seeing as how Lucio Fulci was ripping Romero off with this flick (and several others he directed). It's actually kind of a shame that Romero didn't just go ahead and name his 2005 zombie movie City of the Living Dead and rip Fulci back off, bigger and with a studio budget, instead of going with Land of the Dead. Anyway wow this is a weird way to wish Fulci a happy birthday isn't it? Happy birthday, Lucio Fulci! You have your charms!
Wilma: Some of these so-called academics make the shark in Jaws look like fuckin' Flipper!
A happy 74th birthday to the legend Adrienne Barbeau today! We really don't celebrate often or vehemently enough her hilarious bitch performance in Creepshow as the true masterpiece of screen bitchery it is, so take a moment today to call somebody an "etiquette crotch" and do just that!
Henry Creedlow: The man had gone to market, to buy a diamond ring. The man who never noticed, that he was not a king. He choose the brightest sparkle, a diamond made of glass. The setting bright and gold, was crafted out of brass. The man spent all his money, the jeweler was a cheat. He told the man that royals, wore diamonds on their feet. The man went proudly walking, inside his shoe the ring. And no one ever told him, that he was not a king.
Have any of you seen George Romero's film Bruiser before? I have never seen it but I was considering going later this month when BAM screens it as part of their forthcoming Romero retrospective, running February 22nd through March 3rd. (They're closing with a screening of Dawn of the Dead in 3D!!!) I've only heard bad things about Bruiser but who knows, sometimes there's a diamond in the rough when it's a film-maker you admire as much as I admire Romero. Uncle George would've turned 79 today -- we miss you, George. Real glad that I got to see him in the flesh before he passed.
Do you feel a tingle? A tingle in your... brainnssssssssss? Uh oh guess that means it's Zombie Season! Lock yourself in the nearest basement... or shopping mall... or secret underground military facility... I could keep going, there have been a lot of zombie movies in the fifty yes fifty count them years since Night of the Living Dead was released on this very day in the year 1968. Speaking of we're celebrating that milestone with today's "Beauty vs Beast" poll over at The Film Experience, which is tossing poor poor Judith O'Dea unto the mindless and hungry horde once more. Poor dear. One of these days they'll stop coming to get you, Judith...
It's Tuesday and you know what that means - yes, that we will See You Next Tuesday, but before then let's go ahead and do what we do each week on this day (as long as we're being productive) and hit up our "Siri Says" series. If you're new here's what is happening - we ask the voice that lives inside of our telephone to give us a number between 1 and 100, and then we pick our 5 favorite movies form the year that corresponds with that number. So today she gave us the number "78" and so today we will pick our favorite movies from The Movies of 1978. And a fun time will be had by all!
I managed to come up with my five favorites from this year pretty easily - they're probably exactly what you think they would be if you've spent more than five minutes here at MNPP - but what surprised me, looking through this year's films, was how many 1978 movies I have heard good things about but never seen. So that portion of our list below is longer than normal, and I guess I have some work to do. Until then, let's see what we have here...
"I too quit smoking (2013) AND find this type of pictures cool. Also, PSA: if you're feeling like you want to start smoking again, just remind yourself "I do not want my body and house to stink like stale horseshit", then go drink one more glass of water to entertain your hands and lips. Congrats, btw."
Posts
