July 29th, 2008
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Mr Bale’s been in the news a bit recently (you’ve probably noticed) and he’s also been making regular appearances on my DVD player this week as a warm up to seeing The Dark Knight at the IMAX cinema in Birmingham this coming Saturday
Equilibrium
This Orwellian tale is a better film that it probably has a right to be. Essentially 1984 done as an action movie, it benefits from a great cast, particularly Christian Bale, and some good action sequences. The Gun Fu idea manages to be both silly and incredibly cool at the same time and is about the films only original idea. To see what Equilibrium would have been like without Bale check out director Kurt Wimmer’s follow-up Ultraviolet.
The Machinist
How far should an actor go in pursuit of authentisity? Christian Bale goes above and beyond the call of duty in Brad Anderson’s film about an insomniac machine operator, to the point where you start to worry about his health. Bale, all skin and bones, gives a typically intense performance in this surreal story that avoids categorisation, being part drama, part thriller, part horror. It’s an excellent film that feels like something David Cronenberg might have dreamed up, which is high praise indeed.
July 2nd, 2008
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Sometimes they’re cute and cuddly, like ET (or Jeff Bridges), but not all aliens are nice as this weeks viewing shows…
The Thing from Another World
There is much to enjoy in The Thing from Another World and then there’s James Arness’”Super Carrot”. The character interplay sparkles, although I could have done without having a woman stationed at the Arctic base (does a horror movie of this type really need a love interest?), and the isolated setting adds greatly to the sense of unease but then they show us too much of the monster and it all falls apart. It’s not fair to blame Big Jim, you could have put anyone in the veggiesuit and it would have looked silly. Important rule of horror moviemaking – if you have a crap monster don’t show it anymore than you have to.
Body Snatchers
I don’t know the background to this adaptation of Jack Finney’s novel of alien invasion but there’s certainly an unlikely combination of talent involved. Genre veteran Larry Cohen gets a credit for screen story while ‘Master of Horror’ Stuart Gordon is one of the scriptwriters and Abel Ferrara handles directorial duties. It seems an odd choice for Ferrara, a director who’s not exactly known for mainstream horror, more so as it followed his most famous film, Bad Lieutenant. He does a good job though and certainly creates more tension than the latest big budget take on the story, last years Invasion. If there’s a complaint it’s that it fails to make the most of its cast in particular Forest Whitaker and R. Lee Ermey, but Meg Tilly’s very good in her alien-stepmom role. The military base setting makes sense - surely alien invaders would target military installations? - and adds to the central characters feelings of isolation. Not the best (or even second best) version, but certainly a worth a look on a classic story.
June 20th, 2008
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Ian W |
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Dipa: “Oh my GOD” is the only reaction I can think of right now. I have been ever so proud of having a strong stomach when it comes to gore but this one has changed everything! I don’t think I have EVER seen anything quite like this. I was warned that it was violent and not a film for the weak hearted and I can assure you that a warning is necessary where this film is concerned. What an end to horror day- total madness.
Ian: I first saw this at the Frighfest Allnighter and was stunned by how violet and unrelenting it was. This second viewing, where I’m slightly more awake than I was then, is even more stunning. Yes it’s violent and there isn’t a whole lot to the story but it’s also extremely well made. There’s style in abundance on display here. I’ve seen the future of horror and it’s French. Off to bed now, although after that I’m not sure I’ll sleep!
June 20th, 2008
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Ian: More thriller than outright horror this still has a lot of horror elements, not least Anthony Hopkins theatrical take on Hannibal Lector. There’s always been a “who’s the best Lector” debate, Hopkins or Brian Cox, but I love them both. Cox may be the more believable but Hopkins gives us an almost mythic bogeyman, always in control. Jodie Foster is every bit Hopkins equal but for me the unsung hero of Silence of the Lambs is Scott Glenn, who underplays Crawford to perfection. One of the best thrillers of the ‘80s.
Dipa: Absolute masterpiece. I haven’t seen this film since I was much younger and therefore couldn’t really remember it very well. Having seen the sequels more recently, I must say that The Silence of the Lambs is by far the best. It was extremely engaging all the way through (which helped me stay awake without the aid of caffeine!) and generally captured all the best aspects of a thriller as well as a horror film. Foster and Hopkins’ performances are mesmerizing and made it the classic that it is today.
June 20th, 2008
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Ian W |
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Dipa: This is another film that Ian has introduced me to which I have strangely enjoyed. I found it both disturbing and amusing at the same time which was a nice contrast. The symbolic and metaphorical value of the film was bizarre and yet creatively presented. I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like it before (and may not again!)
Ian: I love Frank Henenlotter’s films and Brain Damage is the best of them. So long as you have a unique and vivid imagination budget doesn’t need to be a constraint and Henenlotter is nothing if not unique. It offers the cheap gore thrills of your standard horror flick but instead of a mindless killer we get an analogy for drug addiction. I’m looking forward to his new film, Bad Biology, sixteen years is too long without a new Henenlotter film!
June 20th, 2008
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Ian: I Love a good anthology and in the ‘70s Amicus produced some corkers. From Beyond the Grave has some clever little tales and a cast of famous faces all linked by a typically impeccable performance from Peter Cushing. Some are creepy (David Warner’s haunted mirror), others more humorous (Margaret Leighton’s elemental battling medium) and one manages a bit of both (the Pleasence double act of father and daughter). They don’t make them like this anymore, mores the pity.
Dipa: This has been my favourite of the day so far. It had the perfect blend of creepiness and humour as Ian suggested in his comment. I felt that Margaret Leighton’s performance was top notch, she was eccentric and amusing to watch. Although Peter Cushing wasn’t a name I was familiar with his face certainly was and thanks to Ian’s filmic knowledge I’ve now discovered he was in a film I loved as a child, Horror Express (until now I didn’t know what the title of the film was but Ian recognised it from my description).
June 20th, 2008
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Ian: Two different sorts of funny, one intentional the other not. Lepus features a bunch of Hollywood stars past their prime taking on giant killer rabbits. It’s funny in parts but the joke wears thin and while there’s a surprising amount of gore for its time, it never manages to be remotely scary. Its biggest problem is that rabbits are just too darn cute, even giant killer ones. Hell Hamsters is a silly UK/Australian production about demonic hamsters. It revels in its low budget, using the extremely crap hamsters to get extra laughs. It also references numerous horror classics, not least of which is The Exorcist. A fun 15 minutes.
Dipa: I found Night of the Lepus a tad bit disappointing because I was expecting it to be more of a laugh out loud horror comedy and it seemed like a film that would generally be appreciated by a much younger audience. I agree with Ian that the joke gets worn out very quickly making the rest of the film rather dull. As a hamster owner, I must say that I will never look at my hamsters, Hamsterdam and Piglet, in the same way again! I thought it was 15 minutes of pure genius and would definitely recommend it.
Ian: I should just add that my brother, Andrew, has been bigging up Night of the Lepus since we were kids and he got to see it as part of the BBC’s horror double bills when, for some reason, I didn’t. It’s not the classic he made it out to be, that’s for sure!
June 20th, 2008
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Dipa: I had first seen this film when I was just four years old and it used to scare the crap out me but today, the same effect can be achieved from a spider running across the arm of a sofa (which actually happened while we were watching this film). Watching it again after many years, I find that it’s more funny than scary although it retained some moments of horror towards the end. In places it seemed that there were too many subplots that didn’t essentially connect to the main storyline. However, it was a joy to watch it again and it brought back childhood memories and nightmares!
Ian: I’ve always thought of Bollywood as the McDonalds of the movie world, not just because they’re films are produced really quickly but also because of the songs. The songs are like fries, and, as everyone knows, fries go with everything. When Purana Mandir focused on being a horror film it didn’t do a bad job, but it also wants to be a martial arts flick (with India’s answer to Bruce Lee, or at least he thinks he’s India’s answer to Bruce Lee), a comedy and a love story. It over eggs the pudding a bit but at least the songs gave us time to put the pizzas in the oven. And the spider was by far the scariest thing that happened while we were watching this!
June 20th, 2008
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Ian: One of the characters in The Wolf Man describes Larry Talbot as tragic and that was probably the understatement of 1941. Lon Chaney Jr., along with Karloff’s Monster, taught me how to sympathise with the monster when I was a kid and Chaney’s Larry is still the saddest character I’ve ever seen in a horror film. I just hope next year’s remake can recapture some of the old Universal magic. It’s certainly well cast, I can’t think of anyone other than Benicio Del Toro who could come close to Big Lon’s doom laden performance and Anthony Hopkins should make a perfect stand-in for Claude Rains.
Dipa: Well, considering that this was my first time at watching this horror classic, I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. Having been made 43 years before I was even born, it has elements of horror that still resonate in an age dominated by big budget special effects.
June 20th, 2008
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Ian W |
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As promised a few weeks ago, today is Horror Day on Mine Was Taller and, from around 12 Noon I, along with my friend Dipa, will be watching a selection of scary movies and blogging about them as we go.
The running order should be something like this –
12pm – The Wolf Man (1941)
1:45pm – Purana Mandir (1984)
4pm – Night of the Lepus (1972) followed by the short film Night of the Hell Hamsters (2006)
6pm – From Beyond the Grave (1973)
7:45pm – Brain Damage (1988)
9:30pm – Silence of the Lambs (1991)
12am – Inside (2007)
