All genres of suspense, terror, and horror will be reviewed by Richard Gary. His address to send preview copies supplied upon request to rbf55@msn.com.
This film has had quite a number of
festival selections, won some awards, and is listed on quite a number of Top 10
lists of the year. I can certainly understand that, as the acting is superb,
the direction well handled, the tension palpable and the story is engaging
through most of it. But for some reason it left me cold.
In the deep backwoods of Tennessee,
there is an ancient creature living in a relatively shallow hole in the ground (called
“the pit”) that has a few inches of water in it that trades good health in
exchange for a sacrifice of its choosing, in a relationship similar to the
Morlocks and Eloi. Whoever’s face appears on a potter’s jug (inspired by the
unnamed being), they must have their throat cut and the blood spills down into
the hole, satisfying the bloodlust until the next jug face.
We meet Amy (Lauren Ashely Carter,
looking younger than her years), who is a teenager in trouble in many ways,
including an affair with someone close to her, a friendship with a much older
man (the potter, played excellently by Sean Bridges with just the right amount
of pathos and innocence), promised to a rotund and boring neighbor nearer to
her age, is pregnant (it says it right on the box, so I’m not giving anything
away) in a society that demands virginity, and now she had found out she’s the
next jug face. To make matters worse, if that’s possible, she’s stolen the jug
before anyone sees it, causing death in her wake.
Because the thing in “the pit wants
what it wants,” the community will do whatever it takes to keep it satisfied,
due to its “taking” others until its chosen wants are met. On top of that,
those who die by its hand that have not been chosen are cursed to wander the
woods for eternity.
This sounds like it could be a hoot,
but it fails in my opinion. Why? For many reasons, not all of which I will tell
because of giving away too much, but here are some thoughts. The tentacle being,
which we only see in extremely quick edits and blurs of motion – to keep the
suspense, I’m sure, but c’mon – is supposed to be a religion of sorts, perhaps
being an analogy of the fanaticism of those who follow Jeebus, in some way.
Well, with the exception of what was written and rewritten and transcribed and
rewritten and transcribed, religion is based solely on faith that something had
happened a long time ago, can happen now, or will happen at a later point. The
being in the hole, however, is now and visceral, its effects immediate and
destruction by its figurative hands a real consequence. This is not religion,
because there is no faith in the unknown. It’s desires are made known and you
damn well better obey.
Due to this, I wonder why this
community is committed to keeping its number small. I mean, the more who live
there, the better the odds of survival. If you live in a community of 20 and
every couple of years someone has to go, well, I don’t like the odds. Why they
don’t all leave is another question. Is it a matter of “my land, my honor”?
Screw that. If there was a creature living on my block that demanded that
someone from the block has to be fed to it, well, I’m not staying in that
neighborhood, never mind the city. It defies logic to me.
Everyone in the area treats every day
like its normal. I’d be shitting bricks wondering if it was me, my partner, or my
kids who were next. In a community that small, I would be heartbroken if anyone was chosen. These people are poor
as dirt, Amy’s father sells moonshine to store owner in town to make any money.
Perhaps I’m reading this wrong. Maybe
it’s not about religion, but politics. I mean, poor people – especially in the
deep south, it seems – tend to vote against their own best interests (i.e., Republican)
so maybe it makes sense they would stay around, even if it means the
possibility of self-harm. That could be why I was so frustrated by the
relationships in the film.
There are some decent gore
applications, including a dismembered hand here, an unconnected intestine
there, and especially some throat slicing, but much of the action is a whirl of
motion and editing that leaves much of the actual attacks as wanting, for me.
Lastly, I found the ending to be
unsatisfying, and an easy out. I’m not going to say what it is, but surely
there could have been a more going against the grain, rather than… well, what
it is.
As a side note, I think it’s cool that the
central character’s parents are played by Larry Fessennden and a frumpy looking
Sean Young, who also played the parents of the central character in the 2005 film,
Headspace (reviewed HERE).
As for the extras, there is an interesting
albeit standard “making of” documentary that lasts for 30 minutes so you get to
hear the origins and meet the cast / crew, the trailer, and a short written and
directed by Kinkle called “Organ Grinder.” That was fun, even in its six-minute
length.
Pay attention to what I say, or listen
to the others, it’s all good. I have no ego in this, as it’s not my film.
Considering that more have liked it than I have, it may be worth your checking it
out. Actually, listen to no one and make your own choices, unlike the people in
this film.
This film has been compared to the
Three Stooges and Abbott & Costello, but it really is a bit closer to the Dumb and Dumber franchise. Not a
judgment call, I’m just sayin’.
Caesar DeNovio (director David
Campfield) and his half-brother Otto (Paul Chomicki) live together in a squalid
apartment, the former wanting to be an actor in the worst way (which he is),
and latter is, well, a slovenly man who always has a 2-day beard stubble (and
not in the Miami Vice kind of way). Between
the two of them, their IQs are probably double digits. Mind you, I grew up in
Bensonhurst, so I’m familiar with the type.
It seems that Caesar has an obsessive
fear of Mr. Coca-Cola….I mean Santa. His grandpa (played by Troma kingpin Lloyd
Kaufman) played some mind games with him when he was just a tyke, and he’s been
terrorized since. Of course, he gets hired to play the man in the red suit.
What to do, what to do… And now there’s a disgruntled Santa (Deron Miller), whose
name is Damien, of course, who is out to kill Santas, and has his sights on
you-know-who. This all involves an evil company named Xmas, so naturally, this
is a [fill in name of this film].
Yes, there are lots of Christmas themed
horror films since the likes of 1946’s It’s
a Wonderful Life (yeah, it’s a horror: a ghost scares a man into believing
he’s never being born, including his young brother drowning), but an evil Santa
with an ax seems to be a key plot turn. Also like Abbott and Costello, this is
part of a series of both features and shorts with the same characters. This
film is the only part of the collection I’ve seen other than the trailers, so I
will stick with this one.
Caesar (David Campfield) and Otto (Paul Chomicki)
This is similar to many two-man buddy
pix over the years, actually. Caesar is thin like Norton, Abbott and Laurel,
and Otto is a large man, like Kramden, Costello and Hardy. Otto is childlike
and dumb, like Norton, Costello and Laurel, and Caesar is a self-imposed leader
who not as smart as he actually thinks he is, like Kramden, Costello and Hardy.
Caesar is fey like Costello, Laurel and one could argue, like Norton. You see,
they’re sort of playing against types, where the small one is the obnoxious
one, and the heavy one is the goof. Saying that, you could also say that Caesar
is similar to Lewis (could almost be his son…or perhaps Eddie Deezen), though
Otto is nowhere like Martin.
The one flaw with this film, or should
I say the characters, is that even though Caesar resembles all these bullies,
the others are still lovable. Caesar is shrill and uncompromising. The others
had a heart under their gruffness, but not as much Caesar. Otto is definitely a
more loveable-yet-unrequited guy, yet he’s so ultra-Oscar Madison in the unkempt
department, that he doesn’t necessarily seem like someone you’d want to hang
with. Hopefully, as time goes on, this will evolve. Even Bugs Bunny was obnoxious
in some of his earlier films (“Ain’t I a stinker?”), before being whitewashed
in the late ‘50s.
One of the joys about this film is the
myriad of cameos that run throughout. I’ve already mentioned Kaufman, and then
there’s Linnea Quigley as an agent to gets to revive an infamous scene in one
of her earliest films, Brinke Stevens reprises a role from an earlier Caesar
and Otto release, Joe Estevez makes a hysterical appearance as himself, sorta, the
amazing Debbie Rochon shows up for a quick comic turn as a clueless emergency
operator, and even Felissa Rose, the main character of 1983’s Sleepaway Camp, has a bewigged and
unrecognizable romp. Oh, and Robert Z’Dar appears (uncredited) during the funny
end credits (stick around for ‘em).
Another reason to watch is the sheer
volume of references to other films in the genre. While I consider myself a
horror maven, I admit that I lean more towards the monster / alien /
supernatural area than the slasher, so I am grateful for director Campfield’s
commentary, where he points many of them out. I recognized all the films he
mentioned, though I haven’t seen many of them since the ‘80s.
This is a comedy of the most base,
child-like, gross, pandering type, but in the context of the film, most of it
works, and I laughed through the film. Some of it is Adam Sandler level, but in
this case it is funny (don’t think I ever even cracked a smile on a Sandler
disaster). There’s a lot of low-budget self-references which are hysterical,
such as the use of incredibly obvious blue-screen, which makes some of the
comments made all the funnier. The blood and violence is cartoonish, making it
somewhat palpable, such as a guy who keeps having his arms cut off and
surgically reattached (similar to a character he played in an earlier film). Then
Caesar is always beating up Otto (to the point of annoyance), surely a
reference (homage?) to the Three Stooges, whose shorts are also a good
indicator of the humor. The female lead, Summer Furguson, looks realistic, like
she could have come from next door, which is always refreshing. Don’t get me
wrong, there are some incredibly beautiful women here¸ too, and even a
requisite topless shot for a second.
An amusingly confusing thing is that
while the film takes place in Bakersfield, California (I’m sure there’s a joke
in that alone, that I am missing), including flashbacks to childhood, many of
the characters have (purposeful) Long Island accents. Another of the many bizarre
choices Campfield makes that gives this a unique edge while borrowing from so
much.
Lots
of cool extras come with the DVD, including all the Caesar and Otto trailers
and some from Wild Eye Releasing, which have been reviewed here. There are also
a Behind the Scenes Featurette, some alternative takes, and a couple of short films:
“Otto’s First Job” and “Pigzilla.” Included as well is an excellent short
called “The Perfect Candidate,” where Joe Estevez (again, playing a version of
himself) is picked by a cabal to run for president (since his brother played
one). Again D’zar shows up, this time credited. It really is quite funny. There
are two commentaries just for this short.
For
the main feature, there are three – count ‘em, three – commentaries. I listened
to the first one with Campfield, but I honestly just did not have time to watch
the other two, one with the producer, and the other with the cast. While I
enjoyed the film, it’s rare that any
film deserves this much of a time commitment. Perhaps at some time I will be
able to get to them.
At
the end of the film, they announce the next one, Caesar and Otto’s Paranormal Halloween (though it's not even listed on IMDB yet). I’m looking forward to it. So,
if you get the chance, check out the Websites listed above because you really don’t
even need to wait until next holiday season to enjoy it. And remember, when you
order it, to keep the X in Xmas.
During 1547, at the Puritan settlement of Knobs Creek (73
years before the first historical Puritan
settlement in 1620) in an undisclosed location (though filmed in the Zaca Lake
area in California), a father grieving for his dead young daughter turns away
from God and makes a pact the devil. The end result is he is turned into a flesh-eating
demon that kills off the whole town.
Flash forward to “now” and we see a group of five
30-year-old college students who are out for a camping expedition, and of
course stumble upon said locale and creature.
Mostly, this is not a great film, honestly, with nearly
no character definition other than one obnoxious dude and a stoner goth-ish gal
(she wears black lipstick). Everyone else is exceedingly vanilla, and the
viewer is not invited to like or care about any of them. This is the biggest
flaw of many of the kids-go-to-woods-kids-get-dead genre.
There is an interesting use of a plot trick that would later
be employed by 2011’s Grave Encounters,
where the territory keeps changing – one minute there’s a lake and then it’s
not there, for example – throwing our annoying group for a loop as they can’t
find their way out of the woods / fields / meadows / leas. They wander around
for literally days with no food, no water, and apparently not much of an
appetite. Heck, they don’t even get dirty, even though after the first night,
they don’t even have a tent and sleep on the ground.
And for most of those days, nothing happens. Well, at
least involving them. There is a topless woman wearing only underwear and
covered in blood walking around in a trance-like state that is never explained,
and a couple of other campers who are lost that find the inevitable and oblivious
bad ending. But mostly it’s wandering and complaining, wandering and complaining.
I was sorely tempted to hit that chapter skip button, but I didn’t. Someone
reward me.
But, and this is a big but, as bad as the center section
is, the first and last 20 minutes is worth watching. The extended “origin” story
is exceedingly well handled (though the acting is wooden, and the men’s
costumes laughable), the creature looks great in these sections (not as much in
the middle), the gore is top notch (again, in the bookends), and the editing
bright and brisk without being too flashy. I would happily watch that sequence
again.
Also, the ending act, where the demon finally decides to
go all Jeepers Creepers on them,
almost looks like it’s from a different film. Even the stock looks different, with
the middle being grainy (possibly video), and the beginning and end looking
digital.
Like the saying “there are known unknowns” (originally said
by the traitor, Rumsfeld), the ending is a bit of a surprise, but not really. You
know something’s coming, and you have an idea what, so that even when you’re
not sure, you are still sure enough to know when
to expect it, if you follow horror films in the last 20 years.
So, if you manage to get your hands on this DVD, don’t
just toss it. Watch the beginning until we meet our modern troupe, and then
skip to the one hour mark and start watching again. Don’t, however, go to the
chapter list, because it will ruin what little surprise there is (really? You
show the ending in the chapter list? Duuuuuude!).
There are no extras. Boy, I’d hate to see the regular
edition to this film if this is the special one.
Directed,
edited and music by Naoki Yoshimoto Tidepoint
Pictures Rain Trail
Pictures Stavros Films 56 minutes,2009 / 2013 www.MVDvisual.com
Literally translated, the title of the film
is to feed off the blood of the living, usually referring to parasites and
certain bats; here, it is merely shortened to “sucking blood.” That works, too.
It is not surprising to me they shortened
the definition, because the film runs just over 56 minutes. It’s on that
borderline that makes it more of a featurette, which works well on the festival
circuit rather than a cineplex. But this will probably never play as a first
liner except at conventions, fests and possibly art theaters.
Sangafanga, as I’ve been calling it, is a
Japanese vampire film that is over-burdened with an art aesthetic that is both
beautiful and cumbersome. Much like films such as Where the Dead Go to Die
(2012, reviewed HERE) or Profane (2012; reviewed HERE), the director, Naoki Yoshimoto, has a more ambitious vision that he wants to put
to digital celluloid, as it were.
Ayumi Kakizawa
Mixing black & white, color, muted
color, and digital film effects, Yoshimoto brings us into a world that is
usually dark, both in tone and vision (or, if you will, figuratively and
literally), as we are introduced to the only four characters. First there is a
young woman played by Ayumi Kakizawa, who is haunted by weird visions, strange
feelings, and general anxiety. Her thin-cut side-burned (hipster?) boyfriend, embodied
by Mutsuko Yoshinaga, reads a text that borrows from the Bram Stoker idea that
a ship with a coffin containing a many-hundred year-old vampire came ashore
onto Japan centuries before, and the heirs of its contents still have the
vampire blood floating around waiting until it is aroused (the film’s term,
i.e., lose your virginity and…). Joining in is an older couple (her parents?),
played by Masaya Adachi, who has the prerequisite Asian long, white
fingernails, and the striking, muscular and bald Ko Murobushi, who looks like
he was imagined from a manga comic (Ko is a leading avant-garde butoh dancer in
his “day” job).
The story is kind of murky for a number of
reasons. First, there is barely any dialog, other than exposition, so most of
the storytelling relies on visuals and sounds. The main reason, however, is its
artistic bent. Mostly filmed in black and white, it is often digitally treated
to look like the Nosferatu period (1922), or scratchy, or with just a hint of
color. Occasionally there may be one object in vibrant color, such as a red
kimono, and more rare, a shot entirely in vivid color, such as a field of
yellow flowers.
Ko Murobushi
Even with the blending of visuals, arty
editing, unusual angles, extraneous close-ups of objects, and all the other
modern methods to make it look older, there is definitely a beauty to the film.
The way characters move, and how they are presented speak as much as the sparse
dialog. Sure, you really do need some patience in this post-MTV/Transformers
world, because this mostly moves at a snail’s pace, while still managing to
fill the senses with unusual imagery.
While there is some blood, and some wicked
looking teeth, I would hardly call this a gory film by any stretch of the
imagination. Most of the shock value comes from the use of sound, be it a
sudden loud noise, a piece of dissonant music, or just silence. Yoshimoto, who
plays the piano on some of this, ties it all together to make it work, even if
it is unconventional.
Speaking of Yoshimoto, there is a 10-minute
or so making of short where the relatively young director talks about how the
film came to be, mixed with some short interviews with Kakizawa and Murobushi.
His solid grasp of English makes it coherent and helps to explain a bit of what
is going on in the film.
The other extra is an additional short film
called Nowhere, which is also around10 minutes. It definitely has a similar auteur
feel to Sangafanga, in which a man stumbles into a deserted factory and screams
a few times, before walking out an meeting someone on the road. Again, there is
no dialog other than the repeated yelling, and we a presented with a switching
of color and B&W. I believe it is about a post-apocalyptic world, but I am
not sure. It did win a prize for digital short at a festival, and that is
hardly surprising.
To recap: the film is esoteric (perhaps not
as much as, say, Dog Star Man (1962, by the way overrated Stan Brakhage) and
intentionally obscure, but it is also a beautiful piece of art with horror as
it heart. I’m leavin’ it all up to yo-oo-oo, as the song says.
Okay, I’m going to admit it. Richard
Griffin is becoming one of my favorite indie horror directors. He has covered many
different sub-genres in his films such as The
Disco Exorcist (2011) and the stunning Exhumed
(2011), and now this one, which is homage to ‘80s slasher movies. Of course,
the comparisons are inevitable with the Scream
franchise, but I’m not going there; I don’t really feel a need to do that
because the Wes Craven film had a budget of about $15 million, and this was
shot for a mere $6,000, and yet accomplishes so much.
But let me back up a bit for a moment
to make a comment on that opening sequence.Did not see the surprise coming; I let out a big laugh and a wow, which
is quite the statement after having seen slashers since Joan Crawford’s Strait-Jacket! (1964). This moment alone
tells you that you are not going to see a standard, run-of-the-mill chop-em-up.
The story is written by Lenny Schwartz
with flair towards both the gruesome and the funny bone. Most of the comedy is
not played for broad laughs, but rather it’s done smartly and on occasion, such
as a running joke with the main character’s mother. My favorite though, and
this was extremely subtle, was the password for getting into a frat party by
saying a password to a redneck (wearing a Stars and Bars toga) at the door,
which is a line from James Brown’s “Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud.”
But the writing is only one of the
pillars that make this a strong and multiple (festival related) award-winning
film. Another is the look of it. The picture is HD and clear, including the
night scenes. The use of RGB colors for the lighting, especially in the night
and forest locales is beautiful, giving it a nice ‘80s Creepshow (1982) feel,
but with a clearer and sharper image, and applied subtly (there’s that word
again) rather than garishly, as most use it.
The next pillar is the acting. Griffin
tends to use many of the same folks in multiple releases, and this seems wise
(though I miss the team of Reed and Nicklin). Many of the cast come from the
New England the-yay-tah crowd, so
they know how to nail a scene quickly and accurately. Yes, there is a bit stage
overplaying here and there, but it seems less as time and films go on. The
three main characters are strong in both writing and presention.
Michael Thurber
Griffin stalwart Michael Thurber is
solid, period. Sure, he was a bit goofy in The
Disco Exorcist, but his Exhumed
performance was a nuanced tour de force. Here, he plays the aggressive, loner,
verbally vulgar police detective Forresster with a deeply buried soft spot.
From what I understand, this slovenly character, who wears a Columbo-type overcoat,
is far from Thurber’s real personality (he wore a tux to the film’s premier,
for example), but his naturalistic acting ability makes the detective come
alive.
Samantha Acampora
His daughter and co-sleuth, Meg, whose
mother had been killed by the demon-masked killers when she was a wee lassie,
is portrayed by the very fetching Samantha Acampora. With those lips and doe
eyes, man, I would have had such a crush on her in college. Luckily, she’s a
naturalistic actor, and takes the kind of female-lead-yet-support role as if
she were part of that personality, which is falling in love with the central
character, Josh.
Jamie Dufault
I know I’ve seen Jamie Dufault,
somewhere, but I cannot remember where. However, here he takes the lead. Though
obviously diminutive (most characters tower over him), he creatively works both
the shy-virgin and passive-aggressive sides of his character with
conviction.Josh is a shy lad with a sad
secret who is starting college (like much of his classmates, he’s obviously
older than the part he’s playing, but that’s pretty endemic in the genre, so
I’ll move on).He is a wide (blue) eyed
youth who leans towards sweater vests (there is some kind a running motif where
many characters wear horizontal striped shirts, including a Freddy Kruger
colored one worn by Meg) and deer-in-headlight reactions. But you know there is
an itch tugging inside him (again, the genre). One thing I found interesting,
and this really has nothing to do with anything per se, but Jamie has a couple
of interesting “tells,” where he will either turn his head or lick his lips as
the excitement level is ramping up, or a key comment is about to be spoken.
There is also an exceedingly large
support cast (all the better for sizable body count), and I need to comment
here. Again from a theater background, they run from the average looking to the
attractive (e.g., Elyssa Baldasssarri and Tonya Free). Plus there are a number
of outstanding basically secondary or even tertiary characters which stand out,
such as Sean Sullivan as a leather jacketed insane thug, and especially Aaron
Peaslee as a tool DJ, Juicy K. Thunder (who, in a throwaway line, mentions his
college radio show called “Morning Mishegas”); check out his dancing in the DJ
booth in the background at a gay strip club (where Forresster frequents for –
er – coffee). You may not notice him at first, but if you do, he’ll steal the
scene. Oh, and there is also a police investigator who looks alarmingly like
(but is not) disgraced ex-Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich.
Griffin has quickly developed into a
decent filmmaker. His shots inside a particular modernistic building are a good
example. He uses the frosted glass stair landings in a way to show movement
that is quite lovely, and the first time we see Josh walking through the
building, the stairs and floors almost look like an MC Escher drawing.
Along with the remarkably large body
count, there is also a fair number of gore scenes (without being “gore porn”)
which are sometimes amusing, but most times well done. The only effect that
gave me pause was a scalping that looks good for the effect itself, but it
almost looks like the knife isn’t really touching either the head or the scalp.
Otherwise, every other effect, from different levels of beheadings with a knife
to more subdued killings (such as using shadows, or in one case, showing
someone at knee level). What is also nice is that these killers are not gender
specific. In other words, it’s not just females that are hacked, but rather
everyone within range, including some guy getting an ax (the weapon of choice
here), well, let’s just say sharp edge up.
The extras include some trailers
(including two of Griffin’s I mentioned here) from Wild Eye Releasing and a
deleted scene. There are also two commentaries. One of them includes a number
of the cast (excluding the two male leads) which occasionally gets overwhelming
trying to tell who talking, though it’s still worth a listen because they do
manage to put out a lot of information. The other track is the director and
writer, which is more interesting, though I suggest listening to both if that
interests you.
It’s nice to see a horror film with
humor that doesn’t rely on Adam Sandler-level toilet jokes, but rather is quite
intelligent, along with some twists and turns that have some originality to
them. And besides Thurber’s perfect nuances, Dufault has a delicious sense of
timing, and can spit out dialog that is clear and emotive/empathetic. There are
lots of surprises here, but one that isn’t is the consistency of Griffin’s
output, as all his films have a shine on ‘em. I look forward to seeing the
projects that came after this, including Dr.
Frankenstein’s Wax Museum of the Hungry Dead and especially Normal.
A lot can be said in a film this short, especially under a skillfull
hand.Director and writer Rowan
Spiers-Floyd accomplishes this goal in just over 11 minutes and three key
actors. True, this is a student film (and an award-winning one at that), but it
shows a masterful eye on many levels.
Self-described as a “dark fairy tale,” the story takes place in the
period of the expansion of the West. We are presented with a mysterious tale of
greed, fear and cowardliness. In a
wilderness fort, two men go a-huntin’ for, well, pelts on a winter’s day. The
setting and effect of the film is enhanced by its locale, Fort Clatsop at the
Lewis and Clark National Historic Park, located in Astoria, Oregon.Seen in mostly medium shots, it has a nearly
claustrophobic feel, even though much of it was filmed outdoors. The lighting and
the mood is key, and Spiers-Floyd uses it to its utmost.Whether you find the story scary or not, it’s
shadowy and strange atmosphere is effective.
Davis, Newman and Eastwood
During their expedition, the two come across an animal carcass. When
Fredrick (Jeffree Newman) asks Rufus (Adam Elliot Davis) if he can keep the
pelt so he can afford to marry Rose (Jennifer Eastwood), the woman Rufus also
desires, well, it doesn’t go well for the requestor.Okay, let me digress here and posit that what
I am stating here is in the description, so I’m not being a “spoiler.”
This is where the film takes a turn for the strange.First Nations/Native American tales tell of
creatures in the woods called a skinwalker
(sometimes identified as a windigo),
who were known for being able to take on other appearances. The creature is
never named in the story, nor even explained, but that doesn’t matter; what is
important is the flow of events that follow.
Spiers-Floyd is certainly helped by his actors, who do not either
under- or overplay their roles despite the dramatic and supernatural
undertones.I also acknowledge and like
the double-entrendre of the title.
The film looks beautiful, with crisp shots thanks to Page Stephenson, and clean editing that seems to
take classic lengths of time rather than the staccato post-MTV method. It gives
you a chance to read and feel the subject’s emotions, without telling you what
you are supposed to get out of it.
I look forward to Spiers-Floyd’s output. If this is a beginning BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) project,
just think what he may be able to do with a budget and the
ability to work on something full-length.
The director, Keith J. Crocker, is well known
around the exploitation film scene. In his younger days, he used to publish the
fanzine Exploitation Journal, and I
still have a couple of copies. He knew his stuff, so it only makes sense for
him to direct a film. You might say it was inevitable.
Despite being shot in the early ‘90s,
he used grainy, past-expiration-date stock Super 8 film to give it that
appropriate ‘70s stock look, which works like a charm. Gathering friends and
family together, he made this movie. On the surface, this is a bit of a
skidmark; however, apparently my opinion on this has changed dramatically. But
let me continue.
Picking up where Roger Corman kinda-sorta left off with his Poe films, this is an – er – adaption of Poe’s Murders in the Rue Morgue, where a
sideshow barker releases an ape named Gorto to enact revenge on those who have
mistreated him. But rather than being attractred by the chimes of a charm
bracelet, this bloody ape is after supposedly exotic banana (or, in some cases,
banana scented soap!), given by said Sideshow Bob, or in this case Lampini (Paul Richici).
This shmendrickthe-not-so-magnificent
is fed up. He’s been cheated by car repair shops, ripped off by a rabbi, and
rejected by his girlfriend (Arlene Hanson, looking like she just stepped out of
The Sopranos). His boiling point
reached, his answer is a guy in a – well, decent gorilla suit for the almost
nil budget.
Shot in parts of Long Island near
Hempstead, the local accent is thick and heavy, making Joe Dellesandro sound cultured. When fellow LohnGylndeh
(Commack) Rosie O’Donnell was still doing stand-up, she once said that no one
would have taken Albert Einstein seriously if he had a New York accent. Well,
these characters are no Einstein, but her point is made valid here. As a
Bensonhurst boy, I can relate.
With one exception, there is no
character here that is likeable, such as: the garage mechanic, (Larry Koster,
who actually worked in the station in his scene) is a racist who hates everyone
and bullies his way through his job (Latinos, American-Americans, Jews, you
name it); the Rabbi tries to sell glass for diamonds – note that this is the
second film I have seen recently where the payas
was connected by a band over the head like rabbit ears – in a painfully
stereotypical anti-Semitic manner with a terribly fake Hassidic accent; and the
bigoted police officer, LoBianco (George Reis – who also plays Gorto most of
the time – wearing incredibly fake costume store facial hair), the lead officer
in charge of investigating the murders. convinced that when people are seeing
an ape, that it’s actually a black guy.
The film borrows from a lot of other
exploitation classics, such as 1968’s Night
of the Living Dead (for example, the black hero’s character is named Duane
Jones), 1969’s Night of the Bloody Apes,
and 1980’s Night of the Demon (thanks
to Horrorpedia for that last lead),
showing that Crocker knows his stuff. He’s sort of like Tarantino without the
filmmaking gene.
The gorilla rampage is a bit silly,
actually, murdering women by slashing with a knife, disemboweling, while naked
in the shower, or doin’ ‘em doggy style (most of those topless who are killed –
i.e., nearly every female – were local strippers). There are a few men ripped apart,
too. The gore is appropriately fake for the style they were going for, so it’s
effective, I guess. And did I mention the ape drives a car (taking it from
Crocker’s real-life then-fiancee) down a busy street without anyone noticing?
Yeah, this is a terrible film, and yet
so earnest. The dialog is dreadful, the acting mostly non-existant, and the
direction apeshit, but it is still amazing to watch in its dreadfulness. I’m
not sure if the nearly first half which is mostly talking and no ape presence
is more interesting for the WTF moments, or the second half that has lots of
ape and more WTF moments.
I was a bit disturbed by the xenophobic
anger by many of the characters and was turned off by that for a while, but
during the lengthy featurette of 2008 interviews with the (male) cast and crew,
and during the commentary, Crocker explains that the point of the nasty characters
is that everyone in the film is miscommunicating and lacks the skill to relate.
This actually makes sense to me, though he could be bullshittin’ about it.
There are plenty of extras thrown in,
such as a commentary by the three main hubs of the film (Crocker, Reis and
Richichi),the aforementioned featurette, a short and moody film by Crocker,
lots of artwork and stills, and a couple of Crocker trailers (including this
one).
Worth watching? That’s a tough one. If you
have the tolerance to sit through the first 15 minutes and it keeps your
interest, well, yeah. But if you’re used to mainstream cinema with no patience
for Outsider status, just keep
walkin’.
Blitzkrieg:
Escape from Stalag 69 – Special SS Edition
The death camp torture sub-genre has
been around since at least the ‘60s, be it taking place in South America, Soviet
Russia, or Nazi Germany. Some examples include SS Experiment Love Camp (1969), The
Big Doll House (1971), The Big Bird
Cage (1972), and Terminal Island
(1973). Even the majors got a bit involved with The Night Porter (1974), and to some extent, Paradise Road (1997). However, the 800 lb. gorilla of this genre is
the Ilsa series (Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS in 1975, Ilsa: Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks in 1976, Ilsa: The Wicked Warden [aka Greta
the Mad Butcher] in 1977, and Ilsa:
The Tigress of Siberia, also in ’77, all starring the lovely and bodacious
Dyanne Thorne as the titular character).
So for his second (and so far last)
full length feature, Keith Crocker bravely tackled this torture porn style. It
was a brave choice, no matter what the outcome. And how did he fare? Well, this
is no Spielberg, but then again, it’s not even early Romero. However, it is far
more advanced than his previous effort of a decade earlier, The Bloody Ape. Thankfully he uses a
better camera and in most cases, a better cast. Oh, and much more attractive
women than the literal Long Island strippers from the last film.
The basic premise of this sub-genre, in
a grossly generalized way, is that the (pick a nationality) in charge inflict
cruelty on prisoners, mostly women but not only, and at some point they revolt
and kill most of their abusers in escaping. Feel free to let me know if I’ve
missed anything there.
We meet Helmut Shultz (Charles Esser) hiding
in Argentina in 1955. After escaping from the Mossad, he goes to a catholic
church and confesses the sins of the past to a priest, played by The Bloody Ape’s lead, Paul Richici, unintentionally
funny due to a thick New York inflection. Actually, Esser’s German accent is
pretty amusing as well, as with most of the cast, to be fair).
In flashbacks we see that he was kommandant
of the titled Stalag, helped by his corpulent sidekick Wolfgang (Steve
Montague, who has appeared in other auteur films such as Bloody Christmas [reviewed
HERE]
and I Spill Your Guts, also filmed on Long Island [reviewed HERE], both in
2012),
and co-run with Helmut’s lustful redheaded sister (in an equally emotionally
immature Ilsa mode), Gordana Jenell, who strangely has a mild Eastern European accent (for the story; in real life, Jenell
was born in Montenegro). Perhaps Crocker was figuring his audience would assume
an accent is an accent? I rib rather than rub in.
Meanwhile, Helmut, an emotional
man-child mad doctor-wannabe, has been doing experiments and has created a hybrid
human/ape man – wait, didn’t the Nazis want to promote a superior race rather
than a lower, base one? – that we never see (except in the deleted clips). For
the time being, his co-ed camp gives lots of reasons for abuse of both genders.
Tatiyana Kot
The main hero of the story is Natasha,
played by the extremely lovely and often full monty’d Tatyana Kot (the actor
was born in Siberia!). She is a Russian freedom fighter who was captured after
shooting Nazis in the woods with a machine gun, while wearing only boots, and
is consequently tortured by those running the camp – and a visiting Japanese
soldier – before leading the required revolt.
During both the worthwhile commentary
and making of documentary/interviews,
Crocker clearly states that this film is not torture porn, but rather he is
trying to make the audience feel the visceral pain of the characters, be it the
rack, bamboo under fingernails, castration (two of them!), and the application
of what looks like a taser. I believe him and admire his conviction, but let’s face
the reality here. The audience that is going to be watching this kind of film
is not the Drop Dead Diva type, or
even Grey’s Anatomy. Rather, they are
out for a body count and not trying to save the whales, as it were. Mind you, I
remember Sam Peckinpah (d. 1984) saying the same
thing about his films, but what do you think of when you watch The Wild Bunch (1969)? Exactly. I am
certainly not denigrating Crocker or his creed in any kind of way, as I truly
feel what he believes, but I also know the demographics.
Another thing Crocker states, which I
admire, is that he actually does manage to use these horrific actions as a platform
to showcase the abuses of both the Nazi and Stalinist eras as a reminder of those
regimes. There are lots of anachronistic moments that one needs to get through,
some of which addressed in the commentary, which I thought was brave, but the
point about the those time periods is presented with just a shade of lecturing,
similarly to the way Romero did about consumerism in Dawn of the Dead (1979).
As with Crocker’s previous release,
this one was filmed on Long Island, in both the counties of Suffolk and the
western Nassau locale of Smithtown. Thanks to the area’s war reenactment groups,
the cast is flushed out with soldiers in real uniforms, and there are lots of authentic
WWII memorabilia floating around (though I wonder about some of the reversed swastikas).
Shooting the film guerilla-style on the grounds of a closed asylum helps give
the right feel of desolation needed for the story.
Again, there are a lot of extras
included here, including commentary with Crocker, Kot, and others, a making of cleverly titled “Nazis Over
Nassau,” the original short that Crocker made that inspired this full-length
release titled “Schindler’s Lust,” stills, outtakes, trailers, and more.
If I had one real complaint about this
film is that it is too long, at over two hours. From what I understand, it is
already significantly cut from its pre-edit stage, but there is definitely more
that could have gone, including the rest of the mostly-excised ape-man subplot,
the whole bit with the mustached, hippie-like guard that wants to send a
complaint to the higher-ups about the abuses, and quite a few Tarantino-eqse
dialogs that went on way too long.
I’ve seen quite a bit of these type
genre films (such as those listed at the beginning), and truthfully, it’s not
one of my favorite styles – I’m more into straight horror than the human monster – but all things
considered, this one is effective and gets the job done with a touch of humor,
empathy and better cast and effects. If you like this stuff, I would happily
offer this up and a choice.
The
trailer from The Bloody Ape was taken down from YouTube; you can
find it HERE.
