E TU VIVRAI NEL TERRORE - L'ALDILA

E TU VIVRAI NEL TERRORE - L'ALDILA (THE BEYOND, SEVEN DOORS OF DEATH) (1981)
IT
Directed by Lucio Fulci

CAST:
Catriona MacColl (as Katherine MacColl) - Liza Merril
David Warbeck - Dr. John McCabe
Cinzia Monreale (as Sarah Keller) - Emily

PLOT:
     A young woman inherits an old hotel in Louisiana where after a series of supernatural accidents, she learns that the building was built over one of the entrances to Hell.

 
REVIEW:
     I first heard of this movie when I heard about the list of Video Nasties, a list from the Director of  Public Prosecution (DPP) of England, which is a list of movies that were banned from playing in England that started in 1983. The act that made this possible was the Obscene Publications Act, which defined obscenity as that which may "tend to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it". This definition is of course open to wide interpretation. Due to this 72 films in all appeared on the list. Since then I've been trying to watch all the movies on the list and I'm slowly making headway with it. The Beyond also has the added bonus of being watched due to it's considered a Mythos movies so it was an easy choice to watch and review.

     Let me start out by saying that the acting in this will not win anyone any awards (nor did it when it came out). Some of the acting is so flat it seems as if the actors are reading cue cards half the time. The rest of the time the actors are are either overacting so badly, or actually doing a decent job. While most of the time this would make me completely despise a movie but in The Beyond it just helps the movie. David Warbeck as Dr. John McCabe is the best actor in the film as he seems the most comfortable in delivering his lines as well as acting so damn calm considering what all is happening to him. Katherine MacColl as Liza Merril isn't quite as good as Warbeck but they both stand out from the rest of the cast. The rest of the cast is actually fun to watch as they stare death in the face with a blank face and say nothing. The others in this so overact at the smallest scare that it to is fun to watch at the unbelievable emotions showing, or lack there of.

     Part of the fun with this film is the story but it is also the films weakest point. Some are going to disagree with me on this but there are questions raised during the movie that had no answers. One of them being is why was the Schweick murdered at the beginning of the film? What did he do that caused over fifteen people to come after him with so much hatred? Another problem is when did Emily die at the start of the film because they showed her at the hotel when the towns people went to get Schweick yet that was it. While still on the subject of Emily, how was she able to come back since she mentioned she escaped from her fate. The biggest flaw with the film is Dr McCabe's inability to understand that after shooting multiple zombies in random body parts and them not falling over but head shots puts them down just to go back to body shots is just dumb.  I know that these are nit picky things but these are the things that always got me with this film. That's not to say the entire story is bad though. I loved that the background of the hotel is not told except for it was built on one of the seven door ways to Hell. The supernatural happenings are never fully explained which leaves it up to the viewer to decide for themselves how these are occurring or what set the events in the film off.

     Director Lucio Fulci, even with all the major flaws in the film, still has created something that sticks with you, which is why the film has a cult following. Some of the stand out scenes include the slow death of the hotel caretaker from a nail in the back of the head due to the expectation of the death we the viewer know is coming, just not when. One of my favorites is the spider attack even though you can tell most of them are fake, it is just the freak out factor of it and the slow march of them toward their victim, who sees them coming but can't move or even scream. The shot composition of some scenes are just beautiful in places as some of them are just striking in the visual element and colors used. With all the flaws present, The Beyond is still fun to watch and even listen to with the terrible overdubs. The reason why this film has survived to be a cult classic isn't because of the flaws but because of the mood that is created throughout the film thanks in part to the direction and timing of scenes by Fulci. This is a must watch if you haven't been able to see yet.

BEST DEATH:
     The handgun that becomes a hand-cannon to one poor girls head.

BEST LINE:
     And you will face the sea of darkness, and all therein that may be explored.

FUN FACTS:
     The Book Of Eibon', featured prominently throughout the film, is the creation of American pulp fiction author, poet and fine artist Clark Ashton Smith and is a recurring text associated with the so-called "Cthulhu Mythos" cycle of literature. The book, which deals with various arcane subjects including the resurrection of the dead, demonic magic, parallel dimensions and other black magic subjects is alleged to have been imparted to the infamous necromancer Eibon by the ancient devil-god Tsathoggua in a remote prehistoric epoch.

     During the final scene in the Beyond's abyss, the sand-covered bodies lying on the ground were actually stark naked street derelicts, who were "paid" in alcohol.

     The zombie rampage was done at the insistence of the film's German distributors whose movie market was going through a zombie craze. Fulci agreed to rewrite his film, adding zombies and completely rewriting the film's final act to include a shoot-out between the main characters and a zombie horde at a local hospital. Despite these revisions, the final product is considered by many fans to be one of Fulci's best films and has even been praised for its oneiric incoherence.

     Fulci's original outline for The Beyond was of a non-linear haunted house story with the only solid plot element being that of a woman moving into a hotel built on one of the seven gates of hell (another such gate is depicted in City of the Living Dead). This original story focused on the dead leaving hell and entering the hotel with little outside of the ensuing carnage to link the scenes together.

     The Beyond is the second film in Fulci's unofficial Gates of Hell trilogy along with City Of The Living Dead and The House By The Cemetery.

H.P. LOVECRAFT'S THE SHADOW OUT OF TIME

H.P. LOVECRAFT'S THE SHADOW OUT OF TIME (2012)
SE
Directed by Richard Svenssonand and Daniel Lenneér

CAST:
John Hutch - Narrator
Ake Rosen- Nathaniel Peaslee

PLOT:
      Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee fears he is losing his mind when he unaccountably sees strange vistas of other worlds and of the Yithian library city.

REVIEW:
     While I get short films sent to me from directors, a lot of times I have to actively search for films that I want to review, or to find something that catches my attention. The only problem with this is once I find something sometimes it bites me in the ass and turns out to be terrible, just take the last review I did for example. Yet with short films, they have a limited time to get the story across as fast and concise as possible. So with that in mind what did I make of this short.

      There's something special when a film takes source material and doesn't change to much of it. This is specially true with this short film. There is a simplicity to the film as everything is narrated so nothing is truly lost in giving lines to other actors. The narration by John Hutch is spot on and has just enough helplessness to it that you feel for the lead character Nathaniel Peaslee. As the story goes on Hutch's narration becomes more desperate in just the right places, but never goes completely overboard with it. The actor who portrays Peaslee on screen is Ake Rosen does a fairly decent job of trying to show the emotions of a man who for all intents and purposes lost his mind only to regain it and and to find out that he lost everything. The one thing that bothered me more than anything about Rosen's acting is some of his walking scenes as you can tell it's almost pantomimed and seems out of place. Except  for this Rosen does just fine in his role.

     The two directors, Richard Svenssonand and David Lenneer, actually do a decent job of bringing a more otherworldly tale to film, though it is not without its flaws. While Svenssonand's direction of the live action parts are not bad for the most parts, except for some of the walking scenes as I mentioned earlier. Lenneer animated sequences are the real downfall of this though. The claymation style Yith thankfully have very fluid animation and always in constant motion. The S'gg'ha is designed well also, with a look that sticks out from the rest of the creatures. The rest of Lenneer's work unfortunately doesn't hold up as well with the life and death fight between the Yithians and polypous creatures being the worst of the animated sequences as it seems as if the polypous creatures are in a constant fart attack and the electrical energy weapons of the Yith just seems as if  they didn't truly know what to do with the weapons as well as the entire scene. Even with all the flaws, The Shadow Out Of Time is a decent mythos film that keeps your attention through all the trouble with it, as well as stays true to the source material.

BEST LINE:
     From the short story:
     "Assuming that I was sane and awake, my experience on that night was such as has befallen no man before. It was, moreover, a frightful confirmation of all I had sought to dismiss as myth and dream."

FUN FACTS:
     Richard Svenssonand directed the live action parts of the film.

     Daniel Lenneér directed the animated sequences in the film.

THE UNNAMABLE

THE UNNAMABLE (H.P. LOVECRAFT'S THE UNNAMABLE) (1988)
US
Directed by Jean-Paul Ouellette

CAST:
Charles Klausmeyer - Howard Damon
Mark Kinsey Stephenson - Randolph Carter
Alexandra Durrell - Tanya Heller

PLOT:
     Back in the 1800's a lady gives birth to a monster. The creature brutally slaughters it's family, and gets trapped in a vault. Jump to present day and some college students have heard the story about the Unnamable and want to check out the vault... or at least that's how it's supposed to go.

REVIEW:
     For Lovecraft month (which is what I call the month of August) I try to review films and shorts that center around the Lovecraft Mythos. Some of what I review will be films based on Lovecraft's works, while others will be inspired by the stories of H. P. Lovecraft. With that there are going to be films that stand out and others that I just want to throw across the room or try to just forget I saw. Just because I like Lovecraft's works doesn't mean I'll out and out like the film or short. In fact, I'm more critical of these type of films more than all others.

     Let me start out by saying that Mark Kinsey Stephenson as Randolph Carter was the best part of the film. There's as snarkiness to the character that isn't meant to be mean, and for a change the character doesn't seem mean. This is due to Stephenson who knows how to handle his lines and make them fun instead cruel. The rest of the cast is adequate at best. This is mostly due to it being a younger cast that more than likely didn't understand the source material which the movie was based on.

     The story for the movie starts out with the past as we learn a little bit about Joshua Pitts and his death from his daughter who he has tried to keep locked up to no success. We are then thrown forward over 200 years and told what has just happened. The first of the problems with the film just happened, and I'm thinking of turning it off. But no, I continue on because I started it, and damnit I will finish it. Later on we are introduced to characters and I call who's going to die right away with out a second thought. Within 10 minutes of calling who's going to die I'm proven correct. The rest of the film is for the most part a pain to watch as it quickly degenerates into a frat boy wanting to have sex with the freshmen college girls. And like any movie made in the '80s it follows the sex equals death playbook. The only story part that was truly any fun was the grave yard conversation between Randolph Carter, Howard Damon, and Joel Manton.

     Besides for the script that is at most rather boring, the one other bright spot in the movie was the set itself. It was well built, if not sparsely decorated for no one really having been in the house for long time. The deaths in the film actually aren't bad surprisingly, yet it seemed as if the film makers focused to much of their attention on this part and forgot that story is just as important as the gore in a horror film. But the biggest flaw in the movie is the creature. I have never seen a rubber suit look so terrible in a film that I can remember as you can see it bunch up in most scenes. If they have kept the Unnamble in shadows the movie could have worked a lot better. Another problem is the sound design that was used for most of the movie as there is almost a constant phase issue with the audio which get's annoying after about the first two minutes of the movie. If there is anyway you can avoid this I would say do what you can to save you the hour plus you would lose if you were to watch this as this movie had so much potential yet it dropped the ball almost every chance it got.

BEST DEATH:
     Joshua Withrop's less than sanitary open palm surgery.

BEST LINE:
     It cannot be described!

FUN FACTS:
      As of 2011, the film has still not been officially released on DVD.

     The film was followed by 1993's The Unnamable Returns, also known as The Unnamable II: The Statement of Randolph Carter. 

FRANK DANCOOLO: PARANORMAL DRUG DEALER

FRANK DANCOOLO: PARANORMAL DRUG DEALER (2010)
US
Directed by Andrew Jones

CAST:
Hidekun Hah - Roderick Watanabe
Priscilla McEver - Holly Malone
John Charles Meyer - Frank DanCoolo

PLOT:
     In the annoyingly sparkly future-scape of Neo-Mega-Ultra Tokyo, reporter Holly Malone tracks a murderous urban legend.

REVIEW:
     I've been reviewing a lot more shorts this year than last due to that there is a plethora of films out there. I actually had this review done for about four months, I just decided to wait to post until now considering it fits perfectly into this month's review line up of more mythos inspired films and shorts. One of the differences in this one is that this focus's more on comedy than anything else.

     I'm trying to decide how to put the acting the acting in this. It's not that the acting was atrocious, it's just that it was so over the top that throughout the whole eight minutes of the short I was wondering what happened to subtlety. Priscilla McEver is the perfect example of the overacting in this. Her character Holly Malone is a private investigator and reporter and with that embodies the worst of both that we have seen throughout various films and movies. McEver says every line as if she was from a Dick Tracy cartoon panel. John Charles Meyer as the the title character Frank DanCoolo plays his character like a burned out hippie, which is pretty much what he is in the movie. And then out of nowhere Meyer's character becomes this zen samurai and starts playing hacky sack with his sword.  If you can get past the acting in this from all the characters, trust me it's bad, you start listening to the lines they spew from their mouths and I promise you have more stop in your track lines in the short run time in the film than the most full length features can ever hope to have.

     Now I have to talk about the special effects in this short. Most of it is so terrible and sticks out that you would think that you're watching something a 10 year old made on an old computer from his grandfather's garage. Every scene was filmed on a green screen and it shows as the proportions are off in every shot. Something the director did do right though  is his angles are actually very interesting and looked as if they were from a modern comic and the actions done by the actors match the look of that as well.  The one time the special effects actually work is when DanCoolo injects his own spinal fluid (Oh, did I mention the drug he sells is his spinal fluid!) and allows him to see past the divide between this world and that of the dimension that occupies the same space. The best reason to watch this is the dialogue that flows fast and free from the two main actors though as it is non-stop one liners, with most them being actually really funny. If you want to watch something that has great special effects, this isn't for you. But if you want watch a actually very funny comedy that doesn't take itself seriously you just might be in luck.

BEST DEATH:
     Watanabe's sharp chest intrusion.

BEST LINE:
     What powers?

     The powers of my FUCKING UTERUS! 

FUN FACTS:
     John Charles Meyer's nickname is Floppy.

     Priscilla McEver and John Charles Meyer also star in director Andrew Jones' short Doctor Glamour.

THE MIST

THE MIST (STEPHEN KING'S THE MIST) (2007)
US
Directed by Frank Darabont

CAST:
Thomas Jane - David Drayton
Marcia Gay Harden - Mrs. Carmody
Laurie Holden - Amanda Dunfrey

PLOT:
     A military experiment goes wrong and unleashes creatures upon a small town where a group of people hole up in a supermarket and fight for their lives from the monsters outside, as well as from the inside.

REVIEW:
     Last year I was going to review this but my copy of the film wouldn't play in my DVD player so I decided to wait till this year. With that I was able to get the black and white version of the film which director Frank Darabont wanted to put out but the studios said no to. Well, now that I have the black and white version and the Darabont's true vision of the film how can I not review it this month in honor of H.P. Lovecraft's birthday.

     As a word of warning, there will be spoilers in this review. You have been warned!

     I have to start out by talking about the actors, like that's any surprise, because it will be easier to do the rest of the review after I put my thoughts down about the acting. Thomas Jane for the most part did a great job as famous artist David Drayton. Jane though has the distinction of being the actor that overplayed his role as well, with one scene sticking out the most as the shining example of this. The scene is at the end of the film after he's the only surviving member of his group and as he lets out a scream, it's just off. It just seems like Jane was trying to hard to show despair. Once was forgivable, yet  it happens again at the very end of the film as well and it brings you out of the film. Thankfully this was at the end so it's not as bad as if it happened half way through. The one stand out performance in the film is from Marcia Gay Harden as Mrs. Carmody. If there was ever a villain created in literature or film that you as the viewer truly hate, it is this character. Harden knows just the right way to put her lines or how to phrase a sentence to bring her character to life in ways that is horrendous yet at the same time all too human.

     Albeit The Mist is a monster film, this aspect of it takes a back seat to the drama and dilemmas that happen concerning the characters because of them though. It can be said this is a character study more than anything else and a powerful one at that, one that runs through most of Stephen Kings novels. As in what happens when you put ordinary people in situations that are out of the ordinary. The Mist  does this amazingly as it shows the worst in people and what they are capable of once their set sanity is besieged. What comes as no surprise is that some people will use this to further their own personnel beliefs no matter who it hurts. Yet there will be people who try to keep doing what is right no matter what and how the two factions will always be in conflict. The factions that form around David Drayton and Mrs. Carmody are the perfect examples of this as Mrs. Carmody keeps using religion as a reason for everything that is going on and that everyone should follow the Bible and everything it says to protect them. Even when her zealousness infects others and makes all of her believers that follow her sayings into a cult of Jim Jones or Charles Manson like proportions, including killing in the name of God and using fear to induce terror,  they see nothing wrong with what they are doing. This comes as a shock to those that are more level headed as they are able to see and view the oncoming destruction from this as the group that forms around David Drayton does and their struggle to escape a situation worse than what is happening out in the world.

     Director Frank Darabont does an amazing job creating a film that pulls no punches and doesn't go for the happy go lucky ending most films in the genre go for. He understands that good doesn't always win out, and all to often those that are evil will get the upper hand and keep it. Darabont uses the the setting of the film, a town surrounded by mist to his advantage. An example of this is when the bigger creatures show up they are shrouded in mist which in return has the viewer fill in the missing pieces with their imagination which is always worse than what can be shown on screen as I mentioned before in another review. The creatures that are shown are creepy and disgusting thanks to their design and what it most unsettling about them is that they have eyes that are black pinpoints, which shows that they are behaving as animals do, which is to mate and eat. They are animalistic in the truest sense, brutal, efficient, and have no reasoning capability whatsoever.  The Mist got a lot of hate for the ending of the film, but I for one loved how it ended as it shows that every choice made always has a consequence from the small to the unfortunate. More than anything else the film shows that the thing to be most afraid of is the human animal as everything else compared to it seems lite in its wake. 

BEST DEATH:
     Well, she did want blood for her God!

BEST LINE:
    As a species we're fundamentally insane. Put more than two of us in a room, we pick sides and start dreaming up reasons to kill one another. Why do you think we invented politics and religion?

FUN FACTS:
     In addition to the Gunslinger painting at the beginning of the film, the movie shares another connection with other Stephen King works. The line, "My life for you", spoken by Mrs. Carmody in the film, (although not in the novella), originally appeared in the novel, The Stand, as spoken by Donald Merwin Elbert, (the Trashcan Man), first in his dreams, and then later in person, to Randall Flagg, (the Dark Man or the Walkin' Dude). The line later appeared as dialogue between other villainous characters and subsequent incarnations of Randall Flagg, such as Walter o'Dim in the Dark Tower series novels, and Flagg, in The Eyes of the Dragon.

     Frank Darabont agreed to make the film with Dimension only under the condition that no matter what, they wouldn't change the scripted ending. They agreed.

     Amanda has an empty six-shot revolver and two full speed-loaders in her purse. This means there are twelve rounds of ammunition for the revolver. During the course of the movie, exactly twelve rounds are fired before the revolver is out of ammunition.

     According to Cinefex magazine, there is a favorite scene near the end of the book that was not in the script. In the scene, David Dreyton and the others with him in the vehicle, witness something. Darabont originally had excised this scene from his script. However, several of the people working with the special effects company CafeFX, convinced him to put it back into the film.Which I'm happy Darabont did put it back in.

ALIEN

ALIEN (1979)
US/UK
Directed by Ridley Scott

CAST:
Tom Skerritt - Dallas
Sigourney Weaver - Ripley
Veronica Cartwright - Lambert

PLOT:
     A deep space mining vessel receives a strange beacon signal from a uninhabited planet.

REVIEW:
     This is the first review that is the lead up to Prometheus as I wanted to do something special with the film. So I thought why not do reviews for Alien and Aliens before the review for the prequel. I'll admit that Alien wasn't the first one of these I watched due to when I was about nine years old I was unlucky enough to see a book at a library in Martinsville, Virginia. Now this book, from what I remember of it, reminds me now of the modern day making of books that the bigger films have out right now. Now just to give you a clue as to my film viewing at that moment in time, I was treated to a Conan the Barbarian and The Sword and the Sorcerer double feature in a empty movie theater with my dad and the projectionist when I was eight years old. Which was awesome by the way! Now this book had images from the chestburster scene which freaked me out and scared me from watching the film for about five plus years. I said I was unlucky yet in reality that images staid with me throughout my childhood as I wanted to see what was going on. How is what I saw possible I always thought after seeing those pictures. Now when I think about Alien, well, I'll let the review really tell you what I think below.

     This is a review for the director's cut of the film.

     Thirty three years after it's initial release Alien has lost none of it's impact. In the week leading up to the release of Prometheus I decided to review the main Alien movies to re-acquaint myself with the universe LV-426 inhabits. The production design on Alien still leaves me in awe as you do not see sets that are built like that anymore. Where no level of detail is overlooked. To actually working steampipes, to the bunk area for the crew that each had their own look. Yet the main reason why the sets are so impressive for Alien is due to that the alien could be hiding anywhere in most of the places shown. The reason why I'm going into the set design first is because the Nostromo is and of itself a whole other character in the film. Another design that the film was known for was for the alien itself, as the alien is a nightmare made real and viewable. If only for seconds at a time. It wasn't designed to be shown in a lot of light and be out in the open. The main design property of it was to be hidden and barely be shown.  A lot of the reasoning behind this is that it's a old film psychological trick. The less you show something, except for in quick flashes of it,  in return makes the audience use their imagination more which most of the time is always worse that what can possible be shown. I know I've mentioned that in previous reviews, but it is true and will always be true as the viewer cannot help but to fill in the gaps that are missing.

     The cast in Alien was also well put together, baring one exception and that being Sigourney Weaver's Ripley. I'm not saying she did poorly in the role, it's just that her performance doesn't stack up with the rest of the more veteran cast members who have had more experience in front of the camera. Part of the problem is that some of the emotions she tries to show are the exact opposite of what she is trying to portray for the situations she is in. Yaphet Kotto as Parker sticks out the most as the smart ass engineer who always has something to complain about no matter how trivial it may be. His character also adds what humor there is in the script due to his bad attitude which helps lighten the almost complete somberness of the film. The most level headed of the characters in the movie was Dallas, who was played by Tom Skerritt. After his on screen death it almost seems as if controlled chaos takes over on the ship. One thing that sticks out the most with the actors is that their characters seem to not like each other and they cannot wait to be done with their mission as any real person would be as they are doing a job and just want to be done with it. The reason for this is that no one really liked each other in the cast and crew and that translated onto the screen, which just made the characters seem more real and believable.

     While the film has a deliberate pace, it does drag in spots. It's not always a bad thing for this to happen in films, it's this one slight that is the most detrimental to Alien. I will probably get some disagreement on this but it is true. There are scenes where nothing is happening except shots on the crew milling about and doing there own thing. The good thing about these scenes is that it helps to establish the crew and their personalities as each one is their person. Even Ash who we find out later is an android is shown doing very human things and having quirks about him. It's the little things like this that help establish the world we are invited into for over two hours. While the film didn't really do anything new as it used pre-existing staples from movies, what it did do is use what was around to create it's own place in the film world and create a new film genre.  It also created as whole universe for people to play in as if Alien was a sandbox movie and a launching ground for others to go crazy in. Alien as a film is starting to show it's age but it's that age that makes the film hold up today still. There are no quick cuts, the shots are set and the scenes are let out to play the way they should. As natural as possible. Another interesting thing about the film to me is that it can be put into the Mythos category of films. That is the alien is really of unknown origins and that it  can be seen as having been asleep for a long time and as guardians for something unknown but at the same time something that feels old and is unexplainable. Alien is almost a perfect film and still stands out above almost all films made today.

BEST DEATH:
     Kane's final meal surprise.

BEST LINES:
     Ripley, for God's sake, this is the first time that we've encountered a species like this. It has to go back. All sorts of tests have to be made.
     Ash, are you kidding? This thing bled acid. Who knows what it's gonna do when it's dead?
     I think it's safe to assume it isn't a zombie.

FUN FACTS:
     The blue laser lights that were used in the alien ship's egg chamber were borrowed from the band The Who, who were testing out the lasers for their stage show in the soundstage next door.

     The space jockey prop was 26 feet tall.

     The original cut of the film ran 3 hours and 12 minutes.

     In a preview of the bonus feature menus for the "Alien Legacy" box set posted to USENET, the bio for Dallas had him as being born female and Lambert as being born male, suggesting gender reassignment before the events in the film. Negative fan reaction prompted this to be changed before production of the DVDs.

     The rumor that the cast, except for John Hurt, did not know what would happen during the chestburster scene is partly true. The scene had been explained for them, but they did not know specifics such as real animal innards were being used. For instance, Veronica Cartwright did not expect to be sprayed with blood. This was done to help the actors show true revolt and fear.

ABSENTIA

ABSENTIA (2011)
US
Directed by Mike Flanagan

CAST:
Katie Parker - Callie
Courtney Bell - Tricia
Dave Levine - Det. Mallory

PLOT:
     A woman and her sister begin to link a mysterious tunnel to a series of disappearances, including that of her own husband.

REVIEW:
      I love finding movies and films I've heard about that caught my attention for one reason or another. Most of the films I try to find are the films that usually play at film festivals such as Fantastic Fest, Slamdance or Toronto's After Dark Film Festival. These films for the most part are the movies I will completely go out of my way to find to watch and review. Yes, I do like the big summer blockbuster movies, yet most of the time those films are missing something. While the smaller release films and movies usually pack a greater punch due to the actual filmmakers have direct control over the final product most of the time. Whether that punch be emotional or visceral, these films just have a punch that is missing from more mainstream films, which is what is wrong with most mainstream films. I've noticed that a lot of the more smaller independent films I've watched recently just outclass most other films. That's not to say that they are all gems, in fact it's quite the opposite as in the indy film realm you have a lot more dreck than normal cause any person with a camera thinks they can make a film now. Yet it's finding those small gems that leave you either exhilarated or emotional  drained make it worth wading through all of it worthwhile. 

     The two main actresses in the film carry the whole movie. Courtney Bell who plays the older sister Tricia is just wonderful. Bell has the more emotional of the roles due to the fact that her character is finally coming to terms with her husband has been missing for seven years and she has finally decided to declare him dead by absentia. The emotional toll is impacted even more by the fact that she's pregnant and she's seeing her missing husband as a ghostly apparition coming to haunt her for her choices. Katie Parker, who portrays Callie, does just as well as Bell. Parker's character is a little harder to get into at first but later on gives more warmth as she is more open of a character. Parker and Bell play very well off of each other after a awkward reunion at the start of the movie.  Dave Levine who plays Detective Mallory isn't bad in his role either. Even though his character seems pretty common, it's when the movie starts reaching it's climax is when Mallory starts showing his true emotions. Also look for a cameo by Doug Bradley who always does decent in any role he is giving.

     I have to talk about the story now as well as say that there with be a story spoiler here. So if you don't want anything ruined for you now would be the time to skip to the last paragraph.. Though the film starts out a little bit slow, it's necessary  for the story as you get to know the two sisters who meet back up for the first time in years. You can tell there is some awkwardness between them as I mentioned before as Callie who is a recovering drug addict yet her sister Tricia sees past that. I mentioning this as even though both sisters have problems, they act like sisters around each other.  Even though the first third of the film is somewhat slow moving it's done intentionally to allow the bond of the sisters to set in and show that each one has problems. While Callie is battling addiction, her sister Tricia is battling something much more internal and destructive. The story does pick up and once it does there's a certain creepiness to it. I put it that way due as I watching the film that creepy factor just slowly pervaded into the story without me noticing. I loved how this feeling worked it's way into the overall story as toward the end of the movie it comes to the fore-front at what is actually happening. I'm going to go ahead and say that what I thought was going on and what was happening I was completely wrong about. The story took a very nice turn into the Mythos territory and it just opened the whole film up to something completely different and made the story become larger and more expansive.

     Director Mike Flanagan has created a movie out of a mash up of genres and it works wonderfully all together. Part of this is due to the story, the other part is due to how Flanagan directed the film.   The camera work is steady for the most part and when something is happening on screen there is not ten different angles quickly put together in the Mtv style of directing. Instead the camera focuses on the characters reaction to what is transpiring around them and the true horror is just always out of focus either in the foreground or the background. This works amazingly at the end as the mind takes over and tries to fill in the gaps of what is really there. Yet the one scene this works best in is at the end of the film when Callie is asking for a trade. The trade is agreed upon but not in the way she wanted or who she wanted. I'm not going to give the whole thing away but what happens is a gut punch that I didn't see coming. Even before this the film took on a life of its own, but this scene made the movie into something else. Something more monstrous, and much more horrific. For a movie that was made for not even a fraction of what movies are made for in Hollywood, it does what most of those never come close to being, having a story that doesn't take its audience for granted as well as being suspenseful and scary, and a amazing film in general.

BEST DEATH:
     The return of a slightly rearranged missing family member.

BEST LINE:
     It's sleeping?

FUN FACTS:
     Courtney Bell, who plays Tricia, was five months pregnant during the production of the film.

     Mike Flanagan wrote the first draft of the screenplay in just two sittings.

     Absentia was funded with help by over 300 donors on Kickstarter.

SQUID

SQUID (2012)
Directed by Robert Olsson

CAST:
Chris Ingersoll
Emilio Rossal
Emily Ingersoll

PLOT:
     A man is trying to survive as giant creatures are emerging from the sea.

REVIEW:
     I must admit sometimes I really like watching short films due to the fact they have to cut away all the fat from the script to get the point of the film across. Yes, some are done really poorly while others look like a work of art in motion. I know that most of the time these shorts are a labor of love for the people making them. Then sometimes it's just people who just want to show the world how awful they handle film making.

     I usually use the second paragraphs of my reviews to the actors and acting in the films and movies I watch and the same can be said for this review as well. It's just that this time it's a little harder to talk about the actors and the job they did. I say this due to the fact that the main character played by Chris Ingersoll doesn't speak a line of dialogue throughout the film. Now granted the film is only a little over three minutes in length so it is a little harder to get a read on how the person does. Never the less from what I saw Ingersoll does a decent job as a man trying to survive a very bad situation. His facial expressions are what carries him, and with that he does what he's supposed to do and that's act. Ingersoll's body language really doesn't change throughout the short from that of someone that is scared, beaten and worn down.  The other two actors that are truly shown in the short, Emilio Rossal and Emily Ingersoll, are only visible for a total of about 7 seconds and Rossal has the only speaking line in the short.

      Director Robert Olsson has put together something fun with Squid. It's completely self contained and no hint is giving as to what is happening, yet I didn't really care about the explanations as I was having fun while watching the short. The camera angles Olsson uses gives the short a much larger cinematic feel. From close up of the main actor from above him, to his uses of worm's eye view to show the depth of the Eldritch  horror from the earth's seas. The sound effects and sound design are spot on in the short and nothing is to overpowering. My one problem I did have with Squid is with the special effects. For the most part the special effects were very well done and looked like they fit perfectly with the world we are seeing. Then there are the tentacle effect in some of the shots that just looked unfinished. I would have to say the best way to describe them would be to say it looked like they came out of a SyFy channel original movie. The good part is those shots don't last long and everything goes back to looking correct, yet it's still those shots that took me out of the film as the special effects were so important to a short such as this one. Squid though is a fun quick watch that won't leave you stupid yet makes you wonder what could happen if it could be made into a full length feature.

FUN FACTS:
     Squid was made on a shoestring budget with help from many volunteers.

      Almost every shot in the short has some form of visual effect in it.

     You can watch Squid by following the link here SQUID.

THE WINDOW INTO TIME

THE WINDOW INTO TIME (2011)
US
Directed by Thomas Nicol

CAST:
William Kephart - Dr. Schenker
Stephanie Swearingen - Lana Green
Michael Kilcullen - Dr. Morrison

PLOT:
     Dr. Lawrence Schenker, Man of Science, is contacted by an old classmate with an intriguing problem, setting him on a mission to recreate a substance described in an ancient manuscript with no thought to the possible consequences.

REVIEW:
      Well here I am, back after almost a month off, and I feel refreshed and ready to go with more reviews. This time I contacted director Thomas Nicol about his film after I found out it was playing at film festivals, and since where I live can be considered a black hole for culture unless you like country music, I knew I wasn't going able to see it here He was kind enough to send me link to view the short it in it's entirety. So without further waiting, on to the review.

           I must admit I was relatively surprised by the acting in this all the way through. William Kephart does a good job as Dr. Schenker, a scientist possessed  trying to break a ancient mystery that bridges dimensions while not realizing the consequences though warned about them. Kephart also does a decent job as the one voice that is heard in the short. Michael Kilcullen (love the last name for some reason!), though only on screen for a short amount of time,  does well as Dr. Morrison, a colleague of Dr. Schenker, who at first wants help then tries to warn him off of trying to solve the chemical riddle. Stephanie Swearingen also does well as the spurned assistant Lana Green, who winds up as a conduit to something else after being to close to the  mysterious substance.

     The one draw back I have with this short is the audio. It's nothing to big, but when Dr. Schenker is shown talking into the reel to reel recorder it sounds as if you're hearing the actual recording, and when the flash backs are shown it sounds as if he's in the room talking and not the recorded voice. Other than that small gripe the short was a very fun watch and well put together with some great shots and interesting angles. One of the highlights for me was the stop motion animation when used, as it gave the film a otherworldly feel when it was used. The Window Into Time does a great job of capturing the feel of H.P. Lovecraft stories as the short does end, yet it leaves it up to the viewer to decide what happens. I look forward to seeing what Thomas Nicol does next after watching this, and I'm hoping that he gets a full length feature soon to see what he can do with more time to spend on the story.

BEST DEATH:
     Dr. Morrison's header out of a window of not his choosing.

BEST LINE:
     But its scientific and historic significance alone were enough to take possession of my mind.

FUN FACTS:
     Director Thomas Nicol has his short he co-directed with Becky Griesheimer, the animated Bedtime For Timmy, at Fantastic Fest 2011.