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.
Possession films, be
it demons or dolls (or both), are the genre du jour, it seems. Of
course, the pure exorcism films started with the granddaddy of them all,
The Exorcist (1973), which led to a plethora of others such as Beyond
the Door (1974).
Over the past decade,
it has kicked in again, and there are a large number of exorcism-focused films
that have been flocking to theaters and straight to video-on-demand: The
Haunting of This, The Possession of That, and not to mention the mainstream Annabelles
and Insidiouses. The recent culmination for me came with Stephen Biro’s
ultra-violent but smart The Song of Solomon (2018).
That does not mean I’m
moving on; I still like the genre, so when I saw this Hamilton, Ontario
release, I knew I wanted in. The $5000 CAD (about $3700 USD) budget enticed me even
more. Indie really is fun.
Sarah Swerid
There are some
standard tropes here like the priest, Father Abuna (Nick Biskupek) with
possibly a secret that we must wait to find out if that’s true or not…okay,
it’s mentioned on the box and in all the press for the film. But here is a
newish twist: the main subject, Candice (Sarah Swerid) might actually already be
dead, but being brought back in snatches by whatever malevolent force possesses
her body. That’s a nice kink in the cliché.
I have learned from
other exorcism films that priests that fail to release the demon / spirit /
devil / entity from the host wind up in hell. Now, I don’t believe in any of
this stuff in real life, so I just go with the ride.
There are some pretty
good choices made in the picture, such as the bad spirit being able to body
jump to cause more damage and, more importantly, create a higher body count
beyond the four main characters. Wait, I’ve only mentioned the main two,
haven’t I? There is also Candice’s caretakers, her mom Eunice (Afrikaner/
Canadian Deborah Jayne Reilly Smith) and her Uncle Philip (Rich Piatkowski).
There’s lots of other
elements thrown into the story that personally I didn’t see coming, including
infanticide, a (hinted at) heavenly ghost, the use of pepper (yes, the spice)…
and the possibility of a zombie apocalypse? While there are plenty of clichés,
there are also some nice new touches, and I appreciate that. Low budget can definitely
equal necessary new directions.
While some of the
acting is kind of either wooden or over the top, Swerid does a decent job. Lots
of shouting and eyebrow arching acting from the rest of the main cast; this is
pretty typical in films that are shot quickly (for example, the 45 minutes Swerid
is on camera was completed in two days… thanks for the info IMDB). The SFX varies
from some very good wounds to a final demon make-up that is a tad over-done.
But for the budget? Impressive.
Nick Biskupek
The “Behind the Scenes” extra is a brief 3:00 slide show of pictures taken onset, including
cast and crew. Even briefer is the “Strange Events” segment at just over 2:00,
where they try and claim things like “light orbs” on pictures (light refractions
off the lens), or that a cat (Mr. Jinx) went wakka-wakka during an
exorcism sequence. It was very amusing, and I smiled all the way through it. Then
there are some trailers in the extras section.
The first but not least extra is the director’s commentary track, which
he shares with actor/producer Smith, Music director Mike Trebilcock, and Mr.
Jinx. They are very respectful and do not talk over each other (not counting the
cat), which is a major positive in my book. Also, there is lots of talk about particular
scenes that I did not catch that were interesting (such as the possible sexual
orientation of characters), little tidbits like the significance of objects in
the scene, and of course there are lots of production notes. There’s a bit of
self-congratulatory on the work among them, but I can get past that with the other
information. It’s a relatively straightforward commentary, but honestly, that’s
what I like.
As exorcism films go, this one may not be overly scary or bloody, but
the storyline is interesting and kept my interest throughout. In a well-worn
sub-genre, that’s a nice touch of the spirit.
I have oft touted that when a film takes a
group of different tropes or clichés and mixes them all together, something new
and interesting can be sired. But other times, if it doesn’t go deep enough, it
becomes plebeian and ho-hum. That being said, it also depends on what the
tropes are and of what interests they include whether it is on the side of
interesting or blasé.
Take this film for example. You have a military
conspiracy to create a better soldier through chemistry. This is hardly anything
new, going back as far off the top of my head to Captain America. Another here
is women-on-women violence and love/sex, from lesbianism to Mixed Martial Arts.
In bikinis of course. In the real world, there’s the women’s football league
where they play the game in underwear; this is a similar idea and I am willing
to bet influenced this story. Now, MMA is after my time. I used to love boxing
and wrestling (I’m old enough to say I was a huge Bruno Sammartino [d. 2018] and
Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini fan), and I’ve seen a few MMA matches on the telly, but
I’ve kinda grown out of it.
Natasha Hopkins
In the first act of the film (i.e., the
beginning 20 minutes) we meet four friends who are exotic dancers… excuse me, “ladies”
(as one character insists), since we see sensual movements, but no nudity. They
get an invite to a wine tasting, which turns into wine drinking (have the
writers never been to a wine tasting, where you sniff and sip but don’t swallow?),
which turns into a cocaine frenzy, and to no one’s surprise, a drug-fueled
kidnapping by the military.
Y’see, the US military is trying to make
stronger and controllable soldiers, so of course they use barely dressed women
dancers as their sample group. Say what? Under the control of this drug, they
fight other women and, to no surprise, each other, to the death.
Here is a reason why I found this annoying:
there is no antagonist for nearly any of the actual fights. The women are just
punching up each other. If there were an enemy, such as Russians, Chinese,
Koreans, Syrians, whatever, it would be easy to take sides and the fighting
might be fun and give you someone to boo or cheer for; here, it’s just our four
friends and a few random women with no backstory – not that there’s much of
that for anyone other than two of our heroines who are lovers; not inclusive to
either each other or gender, as this fantasy was written by men (same issue I
had with 1997’s Chasing Amy).
The writing is quite basic with no great lines
or witty plot lines; even the double-crosses can be seen coming due to lazy scripting.
The filmmaking tries to be arty but looks more like a Cinemax softcore porn
shoot (told ya I was old) thanks to the lighting and the editing, and the
acting basically consists of anger – even before the drugs are administered –
and growling. Also, all the fighting and the sex scenes are filmed the same way,
with colorful lights and slo-mo. Many shots of the action and the onlookers looks
like it could have been lifted directly out of the hardcore sex film Café Flesh
(1982).
Tamra Dae
All the women have silly names, like Kiss
(star of the film, Natasha Hopkins), Treasure, Kurious, Fortune, Dream and Promise
aka Tia (Aunt?). Yeah, the bad guy/head of the army program is mostly
just called Gibson (Robert Wagner playing a stereotype), but at least he is
given real dialogue, relatively speaking, other than, “No! Please!” and “Grrrrrrrr”
(note that a lion’s growl is added over the sound of the participant’s scream).
With a mild spoiler alert here, to give you an
example of the attitude of the film which is obviously geared towards teen boys
and incels, we are presented a male character who has no trouble or punishment
for abusing these women by making them fight to the death, but it is only until
he is responsible for the death of another male does he get some comeuppance. Ugh.
Lots of extras come with this DVD. The first
up is “The Origin Story: An Homage to ‘Alice in Wonderland’” (13:05): At the
beginning, director King explains how he equates the characters and events comparing
it to “Alice,” and it somewhat makes sense in a very loose way, but then he says,
“The theme of this film is about women’s independence.” What?!?! By
having them literally shackled and forced to fight to the death? Where is this,
Alabama? Anyway, most of the rest of this featurette is about how the film came
about and the envisioning of each character, and is somewhat interesting, even
if its ideology is kind of twisted around.
Robert Wagner
Next, “The Kiss Style: Lights, Make-up and More,”
is just about that, though mostly about make-up, which is understandable
considering each woman wears her own style of war paint
(appropriation? I won’t go there now). At least
this is short (5:48). More interesting considering the nature of the film as it
makes sense, “It’s Fight Night: Choreography in Action,” is a bit longer than
the others (18:36). This is quite satisfying in that way in that the director
and choreographer describe how each fighter is different. Again, no problem
with the fights per se, it’s the motivation behind it that irked me. Then there
is “Confessions of a Director: Director’s Chair Perspective” (8:11). This is
kind of a Making Of, except the whole focus – even the interviews with the crew
– is about the director. Whatever, it comes across as a mass ego piece.
The seven brief Deleted Scenes were right to be
excised. They are mostly under a minute and don’t really add anything to the story.
The Dossier and Stills choicer gives the contact info for the cast and crew,
and 3:05 of stills of the cast and film, over music. We are also given the trailer
and a bunch of other cool Cleopatra coming attractions.
Of course, the centerpiece is the commentaries.
The first one is with the Director King and actor/Producer Wagner. They discuss
each scene in some detail as they turn up and yet manage not to get too deep about
what they meant by the particular shot, and other anecdotes (“That horse barn
was really there, we didn’t build it”). There is a second commentary by King
and the Director of Photography, but I’m just burned out by this and my
interest is on my next review. That tells you something about this film.
I came away from the film feeling annoyed more
than being filled with ennui (it’s certainly not boring) but maybe I’m too old
for its market subject. And I happen to like both a good story and to think –
even with a cheesy film – while the action is going on.
Life is a journey,
even for a horror auteur with a bad case of the puns. This release is a record
of director / writer / musician / actor / etcetera James Balsamo’s passage. Like
most other indie instigator / troublemakers, he started by creating short films
that gained him some skills to create his feature films, many of which are
reviewed on this blog.
And, like many others,
the earlier the films, the more crudely made they are, many apparently in VHS or
early digital format that is blurry and distorted; but that’s okay. Yes, I use the
word auteur often with certain directors, and James Balsamo (JB) fits
the description well. Sure, there are a number of mostly horror and comedy
genres, but there are also police shoot-‘em-ups, commercials (real and fake),
trailers (ditto), and so forth. In fact, there are 32 shorts here, ranging from
about a minute long to about 15 minutes.
Of course, some are more
successful than others, but as I said, you can see the growth from quick set
pieces with distracting jump cuts to scenes that flow much better later on.
This is normal in the process of learning any craft.
Taking them out of
context (i.e., the order they are presented), I will combine comments with
notes I took while watching this 90-minute collection. I’m not going to include
all the shorts in the review for length.
At the beginning, we
are given a number of trailers, such as the “Snake Women of the ssssSS,” a
different and much earlier vision of “I Spill Your Guts” than JB’s 2012 feature
(this one is particularly VHS-type blurry), the animated opening to “Cool as
Hell II: The Quest for God’s Bong” from 2017, “Boonies” (particularly bad jump
cuts here in this very early work), the digitally damaged “I Spill Your Guts 2,”
“Hell for Rent” and the sword and fantasy “Cruller: Donut Defendor” [sic].
It isn’t until just over 17 minutes in that the actual short films start.
Frank Mullen
The first is the
ridiculously titled “Gory Tits,” a somewhat inconsistent nonsense with a witch
with uncomfortable looking contact lenses, a sex ring run by some fake Asians,
and a serial killer (the ever demure Frank Mullen); Genovesa Rossi steals her
scenes, here. I enjoyed the sheer experimentality of “[Classified],” which is in B&W and set in an asylum. JB
sees version of the ape/diver from Robot Monster (1953)-meets-the skull-faced
creature from Killer Waves (2016). It is reminiscent of silent comedies
mixed with the disturbing Un Chien Andalou (1929) and perhaps a bit of Eraserhead
(1977).
The thing about a lot
of these shorts is that with many, there is no beginning or ending, just a
couple of set pieces that may or may not make sense whether in or out of context,
and yet are still enjoyable. For example, there an untitled piece with JB playing
three parts, including a very funny stoner, an Andrew Dice Clay kinda guy called
Wolf, and his wife Debbie (seen from the knees down). Wolf has this interesting
monologue riff set to scat music that sounds like Beat poetry of the early ‘60s.
Of course, Stoner guy sounds like late ‘60s.
There’s also a series
of commercials scattered throughout, such as a short almost Japanese-style mock
ad with Linnea Quigley (if you have to ask who that is, you’re in the wrong
genre), a couple of real come-ons for James Balsamo’s Big Book of Bad Jokes and
James Balsamo’s 100 Bad Joke Book, and a fake set of record collections
for James Balsamo’s Crude Christmas, Vol 1 and 2 with songs like “Oh
Christmas Pee”; JB proudly announces “over 1 copy sold.”
One of the
centerpieces is the serial “Death Cycle,” an ongoing multi-part story which starts
off as kind of a Dirty Harry (JB) vs. a Nazi drug gang, but continuing parts
focus much more on the gang, which is good because that’s where the interesting
characters are. JB would play coppers in latter films of his, so it’s good. Also
sequentialized “Romancing the Stoner,” a number of short clips of JB doing
stand-up comedy in New York clubs.
While “Party Crasher”
is a bit of a WTF about a killer robot badger, there are some pieces
that work really well, such as “It Came from the Microwave” which is a spoof of
the Zuni doll segment of Trilogy of Terror (1975). Two among my faves
were an untitled piece about a woman in emotional pain, and the results from
that (not a comedy), and “PMZ Hollywood,” an animated television segment on a former
child star turned werewolf that’s pretty damn funny.
Over the years, while JB’s
style has grown (even if his humor is still stuck in Middle School), there are
some consistencies that frequently tend to show up, such as, in no particular
order, Nazis, nudity, death metal, pot/stoners, and cameos by actors and musicians.
Now, there’s a couple
of thoughts about this kind of overview of his history, and I’m not sure what
is better: should it all be jumbled up like this, or should we have been
presented with it in chronological order, to keep track of the growth. Y’know
what, it really does not matter. I’m just glad JB released this material. Like
I said, it’s a bit of stuff and nonsense, but it’s definitely enjoyable all the
way through, even with some of the tripping over trying to find his style and
there sometimes not being a beginning, a middle or an end to a particular
short.
With all the growth, JB
still stays JB, and for that I’m grateful.
George
Romero famously said that his …of the
Living Dead franchise was not about zombies, but rather about the culture
into which the zombies were thrust. For example, the focus of his Night of… (1968) was about racism, and Dawn of… (1978) concerned consumerism.
On some scale, Meat… could be looked at
in this perspective.
The locus
of this film is on cannibalism, but the main clique who perpetrates these heinous
acts is also corporate cannibals, eating away at the telecom industry to ingest
it into their own system. Director Silvio delves into Hershell Gordon Lewis (d.
2016) territory to achieve that point.
Crystal Aura
Cindy
(Crystal Aura, aka Crystalann Jones) is a Catholic High School girl in trouble.
She lives in a town named Satan’s Place (filmed in Romero’s back yard,
Pittsburgh, PA), she saw her mom, Janet (Tiffany Apan), killed in front of her
the year before, her boyfriend dumped her for blonde bimbo Amber (Angie Azur), and
she’s in a drunken relationship with her professor dad (Tony Clemente) that
rivals Mackenzie Phillips. The only person who will give her the time of day is
new classmate Christian (Dennis M. Kusluch II, who looks a bit like Tab Hunter);
it is ironically noted in the film of the irony between his name and where he lives.
Cindy is also the focus of a lusty older nun (Kathy Bothem) and a tribe of forest
cannibals reminiscent of The Hills Have
Eyes (1977).
Christian
has to be one of the worst male heroes in cinematic history: he gets physically
beaten by just about everyone in the film, but of course the question is will
he rise to the occasion by the end? I’m not going to give you a head start with
the answer, but it may not be what you expect.
As this
was originally connected to Troma Films, it is hardly surprising that Uncle
Lloyd Kaufman does his specialty, and has a creepy cameo, stealing his scene.
And speaking of screen absorption, the lead villain of the piece (and there are
many bad guys) is head cannibal
honcho, Cassandra (Diana Silvio, who is the co-writer whose name is credited
first, Assistant Director, and married to the Director). She’s a sexy MILF with
cleavage to spare, and has no qualms diving right into her story.
This tale,
as with David and Diana’s films to come such as Fetish Girls Die Laughing (2012) and Babes in Psycholand (2019; both reviewed on this blog site), rely
heavily on the fetish subgenre. Here, we are presented with the likes of tickling,
feet, girl-on-girl fighting, peeing, older men/younger woman, sexual asphyxiation,
cattle prods, and chloroform.
There is a
delicious (pun intended) sense of humour that runs throughout the film, such as
puns and snarky dialogue, but my favorite by far is Sherriff Hogg and his
sister being played by the same actor (Al Torcaso), who seems to relish it.
Perhaps I should add cross-dressing to the list of fetishes above?
One
complaint I can see coming across about this film is that nearly all the
victims are female, with few exceptions. However, being the brainchild of Diana
Silvio, might this be excused? Would she be called a gender traitor by Second
Wave feminists? My answer to that is… whatever.
I get annoyed at releases that are exceedingly misogynistic, but this film is
open to what it actually is, as are the rest of Silvio’s work: it’s a
fetish-fest from beginning to end, and makes no bones about it (this time, pun
unintended), and I respect that.
Diana Silvio on the left
There is
no nudity (though hints of it), implied sex, and lots and lots of gore. The
squishy moments are also what happens to the gore, among other bodily fluids,
which just feeds (there goes that pun again) into the release’s sub-genre.
The tone reminds
me quite a bit of the female gang films of the late 1950s, such as The Violent Years (1954). It’s
definitely a negative feel as the characters are all shady in one way or
another, even the heroine (though Christian is the least so, but he’s “new to
town”).
The thing
about fetish films, even if one is covering a wide swath of obsessions, is that
there tends to be a particular audience that is attracted to the form. None of
my own fetishes are covered here (I’m a proud wuss), but I still enjoyed the
oddness of the film because, well, I like odd films, especially those on minuscule
budgets. I guess one could imply that
was my fetish.
The film reminded me of what is said in the
play Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of
Fleet Street, “The history of the world, my sweet… / is who gets eaten and
who gets to eat.”
Let me start off by acknowledging
that I made a lot of notes watching this, so bear with me. It’s gonna be
coming from both sides of the fence.
Let’s start with some
cool stuff. First of all, it’s rare that the lead actor, Luciana Faulhaber, is
also the director. And the fact that she’s a relatively young Latina is all the
better. This is her first feature and relatively speaking she does a great job.
I definitely had some issues with the first half, but in the long run, well
done.
Filmed in Plowville, Pennsylvania,
the standard prologue sets up the ending, but we don’t really get why for a
long time, which is also quite unusual, and for which I’m grateful. When the
story proper starts, we meet five friends who are on their way for a vacay in what
was once one of their parents’ house, before the whole prologue thing. There
are two relatively new couples and the gay guy. I’m happy to say that they do
not pretend to be teens, but man, they sure do act like they are. They are
supposedly in their early 20s, but physically that is still hard to buy.
My biggest issue with
the first half of the film is that there is no single likeable character for
the longest time. I believe a big rookie (and sometime seasoned) mistake is
thinking the audience will react positively when an annoying character gets
it, but there’s more emotion and connection in killing a likeable person
than the douche; it feels more personal thereby making a better story. For example,
the one guy I thought was sensible ends up being an idiot, too: a female
characters is covered in blood and she just saw a body, and he’s not believing
her (he can see the blood on her clothes and face), telling her to calm down
and ignoring her by not taking it seriously.
Speaking of plot, with
the exception of Nicole (Lindsay Eshelman, who was actually born in
Plowville), whose backstory is loosely shown in the prologue, there is no interest
to explain who these people are, how the know each other (unless I missed it
during the car ride sequence at the opening), or what they do when they aren’t
going to the cabin of someone where people were killed in the prologue. Also,
again with Nicole, why would she go back to that place?
It’s easy to tell
early on that Lorena (Faulhaber) is the man character, and this film is the debut
director’s showcase for herself. If you’re wondering, no, that’s not a
criticism. I see it all the time and it makes total sense to me. Lorena has the
most screen time, close-ups, and widest emotional range. As a director (with Eshelman
as producer), another wise choice is to have the central cast mostly made up of
Latinos and an African American; the token white dude is the biggest douche of
the batch, expressing white privilege left and right.
Another questionable
scene for me is when one of the first couples goes off to some shed to, well,
have sex. It’s great that we get to see some male nudity first before female (yay,
women directors), including a couple of sly peeks at the peck. For me, what was
weird though, was it is in a shed with halved pork meat hanging around the barn;
she touches the pork, but no one in their right mind would do that with unknown
meat, especially pork, which infamously smells bad when left in the open. This
does lead into what I believe is a homage to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
This brings us to two
interesting characters that use and live near said shed, hillbillies Kelley (Jarrod
Robbins) and busty Sherri Baby (Hailey Helsick; named perhaps after Sheri Moon
Zombie?). While they are attention-grabbing, they’re a bit over the top and cliché
with highly violent and sexual overtones.
Okay, here’s a question
that is meant in a non-critical way: when did killers start wearing baby masks?
Was it The Purge (2013)? The Strangers (2008)? Thanks to some red
herrings, the killer’s identity was not as easy a pick as I expected. This was
a really fine direction to go. This was just one of the good choices Faulhaber
makes.
The first half of the
film, as is typical these days espically when they include the road trip as
character introduction, takes a while to get a fire under it. At about the halfway
point when one of our intrepid quintet starts going all Rambo and loading up,
the pace picks up and the rest of the film becomes… better. The pace picks up
and the excitement level rises. If you are not interested in any character per
se but want some action, you can start it here.
The only extras are
the trailer and a literally just-over-a-minute “Making Of” that’s kinda bizarre
and pointless.
All-in-all, it does
look like they had fun making it, which comes across to the audience.
When I was a
mere wisp of a lad in the days before VHS, I was such a horror movie geek that
I bought an 8mm projector and some 200-400’ reels of silent film delights, such
as Nosferatu (1922), and some starring Lon Chaney, Sr. I still have
them, though the projector is long gone. When VHS came about, being that these
same films were in copywrite underdrive, I was able to get them for cheap, but
this time I could see the full movies. I fell in love with the style and the
manner of acting; but I especially loved the lighting and tinting. Since the
digital era, I can only recall one film that used some of these techniques
successfully (Creep Creepersin’s Frankenstein, 2009), which employed it
more for occasional affects. For Garden of Souls, director Milewski
creates a love letter to those kinds of early films, using some modern
techniques to achieve it. Being created in the present, even with the added
scratches, the picture is quite clear (a good thing) and the tint is just
perfect. What’s also a delight is that he doesn’t overdo it while still being
consistent. In the story, a grieving widow (Karen Lynn) makes a pact with an
elderly witchy woman (Betty Roehm Widdoss) to try and raise her deceased
husband (Eric Bower) from the grave. While I was expecting an extended “The
Monkey’s Paw” result, Milewski takes it in another direction. While silent,
there is some excellent period-style music that is used to enhance the visuals.
This is well written, directed and enjoyable from first to last frame.
Milewski
plays mix and match with genres on this one, mashing up three (I will only discuss
two because I don’t want to ruin the ending). An American soldier (Ryan Fargo)
is dropped far behind the enemy lines in Viet Nam (yes, I heard of it), when in
total gonzo Leo Fulci style, he starts being hunted by a mud-plastered zombi
with a scarf! (Karen Lynn), requisite with lots of meal worms on its face. But things
keep shifting from minute to minute on the danger levels. The music is right
out of Goblin style with an annoying synth (just like the Italian cinema of the
‘80s). Will our hero escape the creature’s grasp? Milewski is really good at
keeping a shot long enough to establish what is happening, without quick and
zoomy edits so you can see the action. Adding three mashups rather than two
works for the film. Good framing of the shots, as well.
The Tattooist
Directed by Michael Wong
Michael Wong Productions
1:20 minutes, 2018
vimeo.com/michaelwong
Michael Wong
is an award-winning Malaysian film and commercial director based in Beijing.
His work employs a high level of graphics and editing in his releases (check
out more than just this film, especially “ARC ‘Fantasy Realm’,” available at
the link above), and this works really well for this very short but very
effective film. Full of swirling images, music and editing, there is no dialogue
or context as we are introduced to a tattoo artist who is also a violent serial
killer. In this brief span we see a number of his killings and the action is
brutal and swift. Beautifully done. Now I want to see a full feature of this.
Here is the link to The Tattooist:http://www.vimeo.com/michaelwong/thetattooist/
There have been two really great Renfields in cinema history that led up to this film: Dwight Frye in the original Tod Browning’s Dracula (1930; starring Lugosi), and musician Tom Waits in Francis Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992). In both (and the original novel), he was, indeed, quite mad. Over the years, it seems, the cinematic character has been interchanged with Jonathan Harker, who originally went overseas to see the infamous count in Transylvania about a land sale in England.
This new telling and updating takes place in the mythical American city of Bayou City (though many shots are of the Ginni and Richard Mithoff Trauma Center, which is in Houston), as we find the police looking for a supposed serial killer by the name of “the Butcher,” who apparently likes to remove heads. Of course, I don’t think I’m giving anything away when I say that it’s our pal Renfield, who is chopping the heads off the victims of fellow vampires Mina Harker (Roxy Cook Hixon), and her long hair and mustachioed hipster son Quincy (Tyler Tackett, who also was the film’s creature effects assistant), to keep the prey from becoming vamps themselves. To give you an idea of the Quincy character, when a soon-to-be target asks him how he moved so fast, his response is the humorous, “I’m a vampire, dumbass!”
The titular character here is played with constant energy by the short-but-muscular Phil Nichols, who also wrote the story, the screenplay (with adaptions from the original novel, the ’29 film, and F.W. Murnau's (1922), though there is a shadow nod to Coppola’s, as well), co-produced, and co-designed the special effects and make-up (he is apparently a maven in this field, and was trained by the Dick Smith). He plays Renfield as a loon, with a constant laugh that sounds a bit like Cesar Romero’s Joker from the television Batman (1966), looking like a biker with his bald head and goatee beard. His veneer shifts often from just a bit of a pancake look, to complete white face, to having full vampire-on (again, with nods to Murnau and Coppola). The make-up design for him and Dracula (also well played by John Stevens, with a Malcovitch vibe; this is his only listing in IMDB!) are fun, with big pointy front teeth (again, Murnau). For Mina and Quincy, though, the only make-up seems to be huge, oversized teeth that don’t work as well. Most of the other appliance effects, especially, are fun, though occasionally overdone (i.e., the bug headed ex-cop, the final battle between Renfield and Drac). The visual special effects are WTF, though, and I say this amusedly. Obviously occasionally filmed in front of a blue screen, there is heavy use of computer graphics (rather than CGI), like a cartoon or video game from 10 years ago. Once in a while, it may blank out behind someone, and you can definitely see the wires in one shot as a vampire hovers. While this cartoony effect may be seen as a detriment, I actually enjoyed that part of it! Like the rest of the film, it was a hoot (or as Renfield may say, “hoo-haa-hee-haa-hoo”).Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens
Getting back to the story, Renfield is in possession of Dracula’s skull, which Mina and Quincy want to find to resurrect the villain through a blood ritual. Along with a well-done origin story for Renfield, we get to see some fierce battles between the forces of, well, evil and more evil. Drawn into this action are forensic doctor Bonnie Johnson (Keli Wolfe), and her ex-husband, Cranston (British actor Paul Damon), who is the head detective on the “Butcher” case. Wolfe delivers one of my fave lines in the piece: as Renfield is about to walk out of the autopsy room, after creating havoc, he says to Bonnie, “I’ll see you soon,” to which she whines, “Oh, God, I hope not!” (See the trailer, below.)
As a life-long fan of the horror genre, I noted many tips of the hat to previous Dracula incarnations, especially Browning and Murnau, both of whom are thanked during the end credits. Here are some examples:
The sea captain (I am assuming of the Hesperus) who is killed during the crossing that brings Mina and Quincy to the States is named Max Schreck, after the actor who played the Nosferatu character in Murnau
Of course, at some point, Renfield rises up straight as a plank, as Drac did in Murnau, and then was repeated in a similar honor in Coppola’s retelling.
When Bonnie is taken to Renfield’s lair, which is a cemetery tomb, he repeats the famous Lugosi line, “I bid you welcome. Enter at your own free will.”
In a flashback scene, Dracula comments to Renfield about howling wolves being “the children of the night,” and of their music.
In one of my favorite and possibly most subtle homages, when we first meet Dracula in the flashback, he enters the room exactly like Schreck did in Murnau.
There is also the shadow of Nosferatu clutching Mina’s heart, as well as his grabbing her breast as he sucks her blood (yes, the 1922 version has that).
There are a few other clichés here and there, like Renfield telling Bonnie, “Come with me if you want to live!” though its delivery is projected so that the viewer is not to take it as anything but recognition.
At a cost of an estimated $170 grand, I’m sure most of it went to effects and perhaps a bit to pay for some of the large ensemble. This is cheesy entertainment, but it is so obviously not expected to be anything but. One aspect I like about independent films, especially in the horror genre, is that it is so obvious that they are out to have some fun, as well as having a final project. Well, Willems and Nichols succeeded here. Despite the blood, gore, and gratuitous female nudity, this is certainly above, say, the Troma level, but not rocket science either. Just a fun blast. In fact, this film was the Remi winner at the 2001 World-Fest Houston International Film Festival, and an official section at the 2010 Bram Stoker International Film Festival.
The extras as a bit skimpy, being the films trailer and a few from R-Squared. But, there is a title card at the end of the film proper indicating that there will be a sequel (which would probably explain the flashed scene of Mina Harker full-on kissing Lucy Westerna). Something to definitely look forward to in the future.
I don’t believe it would be any stretch of the imagination to state that this has a really bad film title, right up there with So I Married An Ax Murder and Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed Up Zombies.
Part of the reason for it being so is that it sounds more like a 'tween Afternoon Television Special than the slacker high school black comedy that it is (such as The Faculty). Borrowing heavily from the likes of Fright Night, My Stepmother is an Alien (hey, another great disaster of a film name), and the “Head of the Class” episode of long-gone television anthology series Amazing Stories, the premise is that small-town anti-hero and rebel high school student Rusty resents his new step-dad, Richard, for recently marrying his mom. While she’s away on a business trip, a surfer-type mailman friend of Rusty’s disappears and then reappears later fanged and in thrall to Richard (after the title, I don’t think I’m giving away much on who is the vampire here), and yet retaining his duuude-ness (aka, the comic relief, well played by Casey Myers). Rusty and friends set out to stop Richard from finding a key that will open the door to an army of hungry (and drippy/slimy) vampires. And, of course, it’s Halloween.
Rusty (played by the diminutive Lachen Anajjar, who looks like a cross between a much-younger David Schwimmer and Jason Schwartzman), does well as the go-to-guy who the school’s administration hates (except for one of the school counselors, who happens to be duuude’s bro, bro). He’s kind of too cool (you can tell because he often wears his hoodie up) for his own good or even credibility to the story, but that’s just one of many “suspensions of disbelief” that run through this film. I’ll get to a couple of them here and there, but will try not to give away too much. Being more of a buddy film than anything else, we meet Rusty’s best pal (Brandon Martin), and a kind-of doofusy guy (M.A. Alford) who wants to hang out with the cool kids, and the girl the latter likes (Anita Cordell). Oh, other than the mom (Kate Forristall), she’s just about the only female in the film with any screen time, and she’s in it for like five minutes at the beginning and end. Naw, it’s just the three school buds, the “mentor” janitor, the duuude and his bro (called “Mr. B” by the “cool” guys), and of course the titular vamp.
For an indie film, there are actually some high quality effects throughout, including some CGI zombies, exploding heads, and impalings. Lots of appliance and make-up effects as well, especially with the risen vampires, and oh, those fangs. Most of the teeth look pretty good (especially the duuude’s), but Richard’s are way too big for his face to the point (pun intended) that the Robert Kennedy-look-alike Larry Peterson – who is also the best actor of the bunch – can’t even close his mouth. It’s kind of obvious they had to overdub his voice during these scenes because there is no way he could have said his lines with that monstrosity in his maw. But since he’s the big cheese, the head honcho, the grand high exalted mystic leader, his teeth obviously had to be the biggest.
Director David Matheny seems to be confused a bit when it comes to whether or not this is a horror (albeit comedic) flick or one geared towards 14 year olds. The risen vampires apparently are way too easily dealt with (despite the occasional flight, they move more like the vampire examples of the Romero zombies, or Chaney Jr.’s mummy), and the only ones who really seem hard to get rid of are Richard and the duuude. And while there is the spurt of blood here and there, present is also a Nickelodeon green goo level that is overused. Also, not only are the kids the heroes (okay, they look more like college age), but there is no cursing or even the hint of sex anywhere to be seen.
Extras include the film’s trailer (and others by the film company), a gag reel that is “meh,” and a full-length commentary by the composer of the music for the film, which is totally skipable (other than the first five minutes when even he mocks the title: “With that name, It’s either going to be really good, or really bad, but either way I wanted to be involved”.
And yet…
For what this movie is (and titled), it was definitely a fun ride; it has even won some awards, such as Best Feature at the Black Swamp International Film Festival, the Killington Film Festival, and the Little Apple Film Festival. I whole-heartedly suggest that if you do see it, watch it as a group. This is just the kind of film that it’s fun to talk to the screen, so have some fun with the buds. Or the duuudes. These reviews were originally published HERE.
