LA HERENCIA VALDEMAR II: LA SOMBRA PROHIBIDA

LA HERENCIA VALDEMAR II: LA SOMBRA PROHIBIDA
(THE VALDEMAR LEGACY II: THE FORBIDDEN SHADOW) (2010)
ES
Directed by Jose Luis Aleman

CAST:
Silvia Abascal - Luisa Lorente
Oscar Jaenada - Nicolas Tremel
Daniele Liotti - Lazaro Valdemar

PLOT:
     The conclusion of the Valdemar story as all the players are brought together to finish the Dunwich Ritual that was started but left unfinished.

REVIEW:
     So for all those that stayed with me throughout this month, know I went through a lot of movies, much more than I'm used to writing about in a month. Yet here it is the toward the end  of August and I'm putting up the review for La Herencia Valdemar II which is the movie that made me decide to do all Mythos movies this month due to that Cthulhu is summoned toward the end of the film. While some of the movies I reviewed were movies where the filmmakers based the story around the Mythos, others understood the source material much more than others. While these movies weren't from stories of Lovecraft himself, they just had that something extra that was needed to make you believe they were done as a love letter to the dead writer for giving them and us a wonderful look at a world where things are hidden that should stay hidden but see the light of day, where if you find a copy of the Necronomicon it's best just to leave town as shown multiple times over the month. And where someone wants a person in a cult to raise one of the Elder Gods, including Cthulhu itself, we get to see the mayhem that happens from said summoning. It's from these stories the movies are based upon that give us so much fun as well as groans. So, on with the review!

     What the fuck went wrong? The first movie is a wonderfully tight bit of storytelling that has heart at it's center. This one just left that heart crushed on the floor and forgotten. The story races forward leaving all returning character development in the dust while trying to bring in new characters that show up out of nowhere yet are supposed to be major players in the movie but after only minutes these same important characters are put into a trunk or disappear suddenly only to show up for fractions of a second later. The story also makes you scratch your head with sub-plots that try to bridge the two movies together that makes no sense in the slightest as it seems they scriptwriter wrote himself into a corner and couldn't think of a better way to move the plot along.

     The acting thankfully is decent throughout the movie except for Eusebio Poncela who just seems like he really doesn't want to be there and shows it by being nonchalant  while looking bored out of his mind. He's supposed to be the ringleader of a cult but yet has no charisma whatsoever. Oscar Jaenada does probably the best job out of everyone in the cast with what they were all giving, trying to bring a sense of believability to all the thrown around plots that go nowhere. A good example of this is Jaenada's character Nicolas Tramel's involvement in a attempt to extort money from the company that hired him. Oh, and he is some how connected to the dead fat guy that was in the first movie. The one character I was surprised to see was a character based of H. P. Lovecraft himself, played by Luis Zahera, who is almost a dead ringer for him except for a couple of extra pounds, which was a nice touch in and of itself. Even though the character is in the for only about four minutes, he basically tells what will happen at the end of the movie, fortunately not in great detail though.

     After what was built up in the first film, this movie takes a easy approach and winds up hurting itself trying to put to much information in at the last second. Another complaint that has to be mentioned is how is giant alter over a cliff missed by the property appraisers when it was obviously built at least 10 years ago in the movie and as far as I could tell the 'Estate' isn't thousands of feet above the ocean. One thing this movie does do right though is the final monster, Cthulhu itself. It seems like every bit of money that was allotted for the movie was spent on it as it is just amazing to see in motion, as it is one of the best CG monsters I have seen in a long time. To bad that is the one shining point in this film, well that are the threat of another movie in this series which hopefully will not happen. If you the viewers have to watch the film just skip to about 30 minutes before the end and everything is good from that point on, but still doesn't kill the pain that happens before though. And to reiterate, the best part of this movie was Cthulhu!

BEST DEATH:
     The Valdemar's rapid aging together.

BEST LINE:
     No man can bear gazing upon our Lords without first going insane.

FUN FACTS:
     Oscar Jaenada's character is named Nicolas Tramel. The name is a little variation of Nicholas Flamel (1330-1413), one of the biggest alchemists in entire history.

     The first movie in all Spanish's cinema history made without Spanish government subsidies.

     The movie isn't exactly a sequel, but the rest of the story untold in the previous part, following the tradition of others titles like Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Kill Bill Vol. 2 as well as the Matrix Saga.

     The creature raised during the first invocation is a ghoul (or gul), an evil creature liked-zombie that it was mentioned in a short horror tale from Mythos of Cthulhu, "The Pickman's Model" (1927).

    As a bonus, one more picture of the cool as hell looking Cthulhu!

THE LAST LOVECRAFT: RELIC OF CTHULHU

THE LAST LOVECRAFT: RELIC OF CTHULHU (2010)
US
Directed by Henry Saine

CAST:
Kyle Davis - Jeff
Devin McGinn - Charlie
Barak Hardley - Paul

PLOT:
     Jeff is giving a ancient artifact and told he's last of the Lovecraft family line and that he has to protect the relic at all cost.

REVIEW:
     I must admit something straight out. I love H.P. Lovecraft and his stories. I even love most stories based on his Cthulhu Mythos, also known as the Lovecraft Mythos.  While the Mythos is more of a background setting more than anything else which Lovecraft left open on purpose to let other people play around in, to put it simply, is the coming of the Old Ones by their human followers to help them reclaim Earth and remove humanity from it, though there is more to it than just that. Most movies that are based on the Mythos that I've seen so far are just average to tell the truth but yet interesting due to where the director tries to goes with the story. The reason for that is the Mythos is so wide ranging usually the only thing that connects these movies and stories together is the Old Ones themselves or variances of them. I try to watch as many of these movies as possible, even when I know the movie will be a complete piece of shit. I do this trying to find those rare gems of movies that are amazing and capture the feel of the original stories. Anyway, when I found out that there was another Mythos movie coming out I was filled with hope, but yet trepidation at the same time for what this film might hold as I watched it.

     It's nice to see a movie not take itself seriously sometimes and try not to be more than what it is. This movie knows it's place and doesn't try to go above it. The first time you meet the main characters they're working in an office where they're the misfits of the staff considering one plays with action figures and the other doesn't understand he's being hit on, hard, by a co-worker even if she shot him with a gun. So with that the movie already starts off saying the main characters are not heroes and pretty much clueless. Kyle Davis who plays Jeff , the last descendant of Lovecraft, is the straight man of the whole cast and I must say he does a decent job in the role, even though he really doesn't have any of the truly great lines in the movie, as he's the one member of the group that really doesn't believe the whole experience is truly happening until the halfway point in the film. Devin McGinn on the other hand, who plays Charlie, who also wrote the script, is just fun to watch as you can actually tell he is having enjoying himself through the entire run time of the movie. Not only does he have the best lines of dialogue, but he also the greater portion of one liners. The whole cast can easily be seen enjoying themselves throughout even when speaking lines that would make higher paid actors roll their eyes at the thought of doing it, but they believe in what they're making and in return the movie is better for it.

     The movie does have problems though as some of the lines between Jeff and Charlie gets old and runs for to long. The story on the other hand is basically a played out version of other movies of its kind as the main character is a nobody, finds out he's a descendant of someone famous, goes through trials, then finally becomes a hero. Thankfully with this movie most of the journey has enough comedic bits throughout the whole that it helps rather than hinders while also helping get past the slower parts. Another problem is some of the special and practical effects throughout the film. The deep ones are actually quite well done but lack any movement in the face and you can't tell the difference between any of them unfortunately, but at least the mouth works on them so that helps. As for the Star Spawn, that was the one true thing about the movie I really didn't like at all as it seemed like the makeup effects artist just didn't know what to do so he took slim jims and pasted them on a guys face and spray painted the whole thing red. Then there is the CG. I don't know how many times I've said this but get the coloring corrected with what is on screen as most of the time it's only a shade off and take off the translucent effect and you actually might be amazed at what happens.

     It should be noted if that you don't know anything about Lovecraft and his literary work you will be lost even though the movie does try to explain who is who and what is what and why but it just glances over it and misses a lot of the true points of the stories where these creatures come from. For those that have read these works and know about them, you should be quite amused with what is happening in the film as well as the sight gags as even the t-shirts that some of the characters wear are referencing Mythos creatures. This is a comedy and doesn't try to hide that fact one bit. In fact the movie and the actors relish it, as can be seen by the chemistry on screen and the way they play off each other so well. I should also note that Paul, played by  Barak Hardley, is just a hilarious to watch as the overly geeky inept punching bag for everyone in the movie who just wants to be accepted by Jeff and Charlie, even though he had both his arms broken by Jeff when they were in school and he still thinks the world of them. So if you're looking for a fun semi-light hearted movie for all geeks and nerds (I'm one), this movie is for you.


BEST DEATH:
     Ear to ear cleaning by tentacle.

BEST LINE:
     Every time a foghorn blows, another twisted mer-being get's it's fins.    

FUN FACTS:
     Devin McGinn who plays Charlie also wrote the story for the movie as well as produced and edited.

     The film had it's premiere at the 2010 Slamdance film festival.

     Watch for the ode to Masters Of The Universe's horde creature Leech toward the beginning of the movie.