The cast and crew of Zombie Diaries

All good things must come to an end and FrightFest is no exception. The last day was a mixed bag that gave us one of the best films of the festival and also the most disappointing.

Arriving too late to join in the mass zombie walk I found Leicester Square overrun with zombies, including junior members of the walking dead (see pic left). Fighting my way through the flesh hungry hoard I made my way to my seat for the day’s first film, Zombie Diaries.

Making allowances for the films obvious micro budget, this was a nice blend of Night of the Living Dead and The Blair Witch Project. The acting was variable and elements of the films structure could have been better (the final scene with the army weakened the ending) but this showed promise and an abundance of enthusiasm from all concerned.

During the Q&A that followed the directors were asked the budget of the film. Michael Bartlett rather than name the figure responded with “What was the budget? It almost cost me my marriage. It almost cost me my home.” Co-director Kevin Gates added two girlfriends to the tally. Clearly these guys were passionate about their film.

Talking to Bartlett after the screening he asked me about The Signal and All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, two films he’d wanted to see. Horror it seems wasn’t just a genre he picked because it could be done cheaply but something he had a real interest in.

KM 31 retold the oft filmed The Crying Woman legend for a modern audience. Competently made and visually pleasing this nevertheless failed to capture me or, if the attendees for the director’s interview after the screening are any indication, many of the audience. It was a case of seen it all before as Rigoberto Casteneda blended traditional ghost story elements with some very Asian style shocks.

Not yet having seen Hatchet the showing of Spiral was my first introduction to Adam Green and his films. This was a dark, leftfield love story about one of life’s misfits. A little like Love Object without the inflatable woman or, as Green put it, as if “Hitchcock pulled Woody Allen over and fucked him in the ass.” A slow pace, no gore and yet the audience was captivated. The performance were spot-on from co-director Joel David Moore playing the socially inept Mason to Amber Tamblyn as the kind of girl every nerd dreams about and Zachary Levi as Berkeley, Mason’s only friend.

Adam Green’s reception showed he’s a FrightFest favourite and he knows how to work a crowd. All the other festival guests were accompanied by one of the organisers (usually Alan Jones) but Green was alone onstage. He answered a few audience questions before regaling us with his Twisted Sister story. I could attempt to retell it here but I’m not going too. The story will be on the Hatchet DVD, so go out and buy that, even if the film is crap (something I doubt very much after seeing Spiral) the story is worth the cost alone. I didn’t just like Green’s film but also the man himself, finding him open and honest, rare things in the movie biz.

Before the next big film we got treated to the In the Wall short, described by its director, Mike Williamson, as Edgar Allen Poe meets EC Comics and he was true to his word. This was Poe’s The Black Cat with an EC punchline, brilliantly scored by Clint Mansell with a first rate performance from Chris McKenna, it had the polish of a feature film. Best short film of the festival by a country mile.

Next was the day’s big disappointment that further showed Russia to be the weak link of the festival after the poor The Sword Bearer on Friday. Day Watch was one of the films I’d looked forward to most at the start of the festival but it was overlong, downright silly in parts and committed the Hollywood sin of throwing lots of explosions at the screen to try and mask the films inadequacies.

Alan Jones had been bigging The Orphanage up since day one and with Guillermo Del Toro’s name on it this was potentially the film of the weekend. Getting its first screening outside of Cannes this was another ghost story but this one showed how it should be done.

There are obvious Del Toro influences but this isn’t Pan’s Labyrinth 2, although it does make a nice companion piece to that film. Juan Antonio Bayona involves us with the characters just a Del Toro did with this years Oscar nominated foreign film but the fantasy elements of that film are replaced with a traditional ghost story. One member of the audience would later remark that it had similarities to Poltergeist and that’s true but the atmosphere is much more intense.

The films real ace though is Belen Rueda as Laura . It was revealed by the director after the film that she had shared a similar experience to the character she plays in the film and she must have used that in her performance. At one point she lets out a cry of such tortured anguish that even now, twenty-four hours later it reverberates in my head and has the power to move me to tears. To say too much about this film would spoil it but it delivers more shocks than any other film in the festival (it made the FrightFest crowd jump and that’s no mean feat) and yet shocks aren’t what it’s about. It plays with your emotions not just your fears and that’s what stays with you long after the movie has finished.

I stayed for the Q&Q session after the film. I shouldn’t have, I needed to get to Golders Green in order to catch the coach back to Leicester but it just seemed rude to get up and walk out after seeing such a powerful film. Luckily my coach was ten minutes late or I’d have been stranded in London overnight.

So now safely home what are my fondest memories of the festival? Well two films stand out from the crowd – WAZ and The Orphanage – and two people – Uwe Boll and Adam Green.

The big question is would I do it again next year? And the answer is a definite yes. I’ll be armed with my trusty cushion and if I get lucky maybe I’ll get one of the prized Premier seats.

Big thanks to Alan Jones, not just for being one of the festivals organisers but also for signing my copy of his Profundo Argento book. I’ve been reading Alan’s articles and reviews since Starburst first came out in 1977 (I was twelve). That was one of the factors that nurtured my fascination with the dark side of cinema and ultimately led to me going to FrightFest.

The photographs used are by Andrew Woolstencroft, my brother who put up with me using his flat as a hotel and also provided a taxi service when I got stranded at Purley (the sort of place where zombies can be seen walking the earth in the wee hours).

Chris Beaumont on the pleasures of nunsploitation and Satanico Pandemonium.

Iloz Zoc takes a look at the Japanese classic The H-Man with its radioactive jelly-men.

Daniel Woolstencroft pays tribute to the late Bob Clark and the classic Deathdream.

And me? I look back at the first and best screen version of John Wyndam’s The Midwich Cuckoos – Village of the Damned staring the incomparable George Sanders.

Cinema Macabre is published on the last Friday of the month.

BC Magazine will also be featuring similar articles to commemorate the births of Laurence Olivier (May 20) and John Wayne (May 26) over the next couple of weeks.

Race With The Devil (1975)

Peter Fonda and Warren Oates join forces again for this tale of the holiday from hell. The pair first worked together on the elegiac western The Hired Hand and enjoyed the experience so much they jumped at the chance to make this film, about two married couples whose journey to Colorado in an RV is interrupted by a group of backwoods Satan worshippers after the holidaymakers witness a human sacrifice.

The two stars’ real life friendship allows them to bring a natural camaraderie to their characters and they’re aided by a pair of seasoned TV actresses as their wives. Loretta Swit gets some R&R from playing “Hot Lips” in M*A*S*H as Warren’s better half, while Lara Parker, of supernatural soap Dark Shadows fame, shines as Fonda’s onscreen spouse. Also making a welcome appearance is Peckinpah regular R.G. Armstrong as a local sheriff who may know a little more than he lets on.

Master low budget director Jack Starrett makes sure everything moves at a cracking pace yet still leaves room for some Invasion of the Body Snatchers-style paranoia as Lara Parker becomes convinced that everyone they encounter is a member of the cult. Add to that some expertly crafted scares (most notably the rattlesnake scene) and an action-packed final twenty minutes that has the beleaguered campers fending off attacks from all sides while trying to stay on the road and you’ve got the perfect action/horror movie.

If you want to read the rest of Cinema Macabre Issue 1 you’ll find it here.

IMDb has this to say about the plot -

“…is set in the future, when the desert country of Turagistan is torn by a riot after a private corporation, owned by the former US president, has taken over the whole state. John Cusack plays the role of a hit man, who suppresses his emotions by gobbling down on hot sauce and is hired by the corporation’s head to kill the CEO of their competitors. Everything changes when the ruthless killer finds himself head-over-heels in love with a sexy reporter.”

This sounds more than a little stupid (a spicy sauce guzzling assassin!) but at least one thing seems certain – Cusack is playing a hit man just as he did in Grosse Pointe Blank.

And there’s more -

Cusack wrote the script for Grosse Pointe Blank something he’s only done with two other films - High Fidelity and War, Inc. Two out of three films about hit men or should that be a hit man? IMDb lists no character name for Cusack in the film.

John’s sister Joan appeared in Grosse Pointe Blank as his secretary. She’s back in War, Inc but again there is no character name listed.

The film is also known by the working title Brand Hauser: Stuff Happens which is frankly too awful to be real.

Not convinced? Check out this pic of Cusack with co-star Hillary Duff -

Looks a lot like Martin Q. Blank to me but then again, maybe John just thinks all hit men wear black suits.

I’m probably way off base with all this but I hope I’m not. Apart from the fact I’d enjoy seeing Martin Q. Blank again, it’s a much cooler name than Brand Hauser. All will be revealed when the film is released later this year.

I wasn’t completely without hope though. Martin Campbell was the man calling the shots behind the camera and he’d got Mr Brosnan off to a great start with Goldeneye. At the very least the film promised some good action scenes…

It’s clear right from the start that this isn’t a Bond film, at least not the kind of Bond film we’ve grown used to over the last 40 odd years. Filmed in black and white, the pre credits sequence shows how Bond got his 00 rating. He’s a cold emotionless killer and he’s not afraid to get his hands bloody to get the job done. We’ve seen James kill before but never like this.

Post credits we head to Madagascar where Bond is keeping a terrorist bomber under surveillance. Tipped off to the fact he’s being watched the bomber, Mollaka makes a run for it and as he’s played by Sebastien Foucan one of the leading lights in the sport/art of Parkour, he’s going to take some catching.

This chase sequence is not only the films finest moment but one of the best action sequences ever seen in a Bond film. No match for Sebastien Foucan’s fluid freerunning Craig’s Bond uses his wits and brute force to keep up. Parkour’s been featured in films before most notably in the recent French action movie District B13 but this ups the anti to a whole new level.

Following the explosive conclusion to the sequence M makes an appearance in the now familiar form of Judi Dench. Great though she is in the part I think it was a mistake to keep her as she provides a link to the past when it would have been better to have a clean break. Still it doesn’t spoil the film and she does have some great lines.

After the breakneck pace of the opening the film slows down in order to allow for some plot and it’s a plot that encompasses the currently trendy subject of terrorism. Bond must foil not only a bomber but also the man behind the money, Le Chiffre.

The next big set piece takes place at Miami airport as Bond attempts to avert disaster and while not as original as the chase sequence it still packs in plenty of bang for your buck.

It’s only when the film arrives at the Casino Royale of the title that things start to go a little wrong. The introduction of Eva Green as Vesper Lynd, the treasury official who inevitably becomes involved with Bond serves to not just soften the character but weaken him as well. He’s far more interesting as the “blunt instrument” referred to by M than the man besotted with the beautiful Lynd. Still this is a requirement of the plot so one can’t complain too much.

Far worse is the high stakes game of Texas hold ‘em where Bond attempts to bankrupt Le Chiffre. Campbell does a good job of wringing some tension from the confrontation but it’s all but ruined by Giancarlo Giannini as Mathis, the local MI6 agent tasked with aiding 007. Giannini is a great actor who I have a lot of respect for but here he’s playing Austin Powers Basil Exposition with an Italian accent. How the dialogue he comes out with during the card game made it to finished script, let alone the film, is anyone’s guess. One can only assume these pages were missing from the version worked on by Paul Haggis, award winning writer of Million Dollar Baby and Crash.

From there the films moves to a fairly predictable conclusion that comes as a let down after the earlier set pieces. Only the torture scene recaptures the greatness of the first hour and reinforces the fact that this is nothing like any Bond film we’ve seen before.

It may be a very good movie but it outstays its welcome by a good twenty minutes, both the card game and the romance could have done with some trimming. A tighter script wouldn’t have gone amiss either. But my biggest complaint is the lack of a henchman, a physical opponent for Craig to match Le Chiffre’s mental one. Still the pluses out weigh the minuses.

The cast are all great. Eva Green makes a compelling Bond girl and will soon be seen opposite Daniel Craig again in His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass. Mads Mikkelsen makes an unpleasant villain, though one who fails to live up to his full potential.

But this is Craig’s film. Some reviewers are calling him the best Bond ever and while I wouldn’t go that far, I would put him in the top three (Connery and Brosnan being the other two in case you were wondering) and that’s high praise particularly from someone who was expecting another George Lazenby. His Bond is a cold eyed killer a man who’s not only good at his job but enjoys it as well. He may loose that edge a little during the romantic scenes but by the memorable final shot he’s back to being a real mean bastard. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

No doubt attracted by the popularity of the comic, production company No Equal Entertainment has made a deal with Marvel Studios to produce an ongoing series. As the ink is still wet on the agreement, no cast or production personnel have been decided yet.

Moon Knight is a hero in a similar vein to DC Comics’ Batman; he spends the night hours looking for evildoers and bringing them to justice. His secret identity is Marc Spector, an ex-mercenary forever changed by an encounter with the Egyptian god Konshu. Unlike Batman there is often a supernatural nature to his foes.

Television seems an ideal home for comic heroes, with the ongoing storylines more easily translated to a weekly TV format than a two hour motion picture. If this venture is successful it could lead to more of Marvel’s less well known heroes making the transition.

Hopefully the TV show will keep the dark and macabre atmosphere that has been a constant throughout the characters existence, never more so than in the current incarnation.

A new superhero is introduced on the Guiding Light episode airing November 1, 2006. This new costumed vigilante, along with other characters from the soap, made their first comic appearance in Civil War: Choosing Sides and will appear as a backup story in a further twelve titles.

This isn’t the first time the show has had a Marvel connection. A few months back, the series’ costume designer Shawn Dudley created the X-Men‘s Storm’s wedding dress for an issue of the monthly comic, Black Panther.

While there has always been a soap opera nature to many comics, one has to question the logic of associating some of Marvel’s most famous creations (Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, and Wolverine all interact with the residents of Springfield in the comic) with probably the lowest form of American TV drama.

With Spider-Man and Wolverine already having made several highly successful movie appearances and Iron Man coming sometime next year, can this venture really reach a potential audience who would otherwise be unaware of them? Is Marvel trying to attract the housewives of America to comics? And will comic readers really be interested in the goings on of the little community of Springfield? I personally have my doubts.

Perhaps given the location of the show is Springfield, a guest appearance by the Simpsons might have been more fitting.

Over the past year or so Cruise has come under fire from the media, for several reasons, most notably acting like a fool while professing his love for Katie Holmes on Oprah and being out spoken about the use of certain prescription drugs. This, Paramount have claimed, has affected his pulling power at the box office and caused them some embarrassment as well. While if can’t really be disputed that Cruise hasn’t done his public image a lot of good, just how much has if affected his star pulling power? Not a lot in my opinion. Lets remember we’re talking about Hollywood here, I don’t think a few red faces is going to put a major movie studio off, only money will do that. And in the embarrassment stakes Cruise definitely takes second place to Mel Gibson.

If you look at Paramount’s most successful films since the year 2001 that didn’t star Tom Cruise, you see an interesting pattern -

2001 Lara Croft: Tomb Raider No15
2002 The Sum Of All Fears No24
2003 How to Loose a Guy in 10 Days No29
2004 Lemony Snicket’s No18
2005 The Longest Yard No12

Paramount haven’t had a top ten box office hit without Tom since 2000 when What Women Want came in at No4 (and the top film that year? Mission Impossible II.) What makes Paramount’s case even funnier is that War of the Worlds a film they pointed to as having its box office takings affected by Cruise) had a worldwide gross of almost $600m, making it Paramount’s biggest hit (based on money taken) since 1997 and Titanic. Even the ‘failure’ Mission Impossible III will almost certainly finish the year in the ten biggest earners.

It seems Paramount needed Cruise far more than Cruise needed them. A major studio needs to score a top 10 hit and without Cruise Paramount have failed to do that.

So what what’s the answer to that question in the title? Probably neither, but then it is Hollywood after all so you can hardly expect honesty. What it probably comes down to is that they couldn’t agree on a new deal and now both want to claim it was their decision. It’s like when you break up with a girlfriend – would you rather be the dumped or the dumper?

I can’t see this affecting Cruise’s career very much; although he may do a smaller film next (possibly the remake of The Eye.) Paramount on the other hand need to find themselves a major star and a vehicle for him that will be a box office smash if they want to continue to be taken seriously as a major studio.

First out of the gate was Mission Impossible III, and with a sub $50 million opening this was widely condemned as a major disappointment. But how do things look now its theatrical business is more or less complete? Surprisingly good I think. While it only managed $133m in the US, its takings for the rest of the world are almost double that ($247m) giving it a worldwide gross of almost $381m. With a budget of £150m (small compared to some of the summers other big films) that’s not a bad return at all and I think at some point we’ll see Mission Impossible IV.

Poseidon opened next and must rank as the major flop of the summer. Budgeted at $160m Wolfgang Petersen’s remake only managed $60m in America and, while it did better overseas ($114m) is still a big disappointment. After Troy and now this I wouldn’t expect to see Petersen given this kind of money to play with again any time soon, so don’t hold your breath for his adaptation of the Ender’s Game SF novel.

Up to bat next was The Da Vinci Code, a film that got mostly poor reviews but coming from a bestselling novel should have had a built in audience. It did very nicely in the States (216m) but absolutely amazing everywhere else ($527m) and further cements Ron Howard as one of the most successful and versatile directors working in Hollywood at the moment. His next project should be a remake of East of Eden. The success of this will probably have the knock-on effect of studios looking for other bestselling novels to adapt. They have a core audience almost guaranteed and they are much cheaper to produce than the usual explosive summer action fare.

X-Men: The Last Stand surprised everyone by coming off the blocks like an Olympic sprinter. There were major doubts about this film, most of them stemming from Brett Ratner replacing Bryan Singer in the director’s chair and it received mixed reviews, but it had a monster opening ($103m.) Sadly, the film proved to have more in common with a sprinter than just its start and didn’t have the legs for distance running. Still it managed a respectable $233m in the US, but it did better at home than in the rest of the world ($207m). With a budget of $210m it’s made a nice profit and we can no doubt expect to see the spin-off Wolverine film fairly soon.

Cars was the new Pixar film and, as they’ve yet to have a flop, a lot was expected of this. It did well, taking $236m at home and, so far, $111m elsewhere (with more to come) although not quite as well as The Incredibles. Pixar it seems is the only studio that can do no wrong and got a nice return for there relatively small investment (a mere $120m). With the guaranteed hit Toy Story 3 next there’s no stopping them.

Warner’s have had a bad summer, first Poseidon sank with out trace and then Superman Returns failed to fly as high as expected. The film Bryan Singer left the X-Men to make has only taken $190 in America and has already dropped out of the weekly top ten. Its foreign business isn’t outstanding either, just $132m (although there are a few countries it hasn’t opened in yet.) So while Singer may be talking up a sequel don’t expect to see it in the near future, and I’d be surprised if he’s attached if it does get made. Makes you wonder if he regrets abandoning the X-Men.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest has been the US box office champ of the summer with $380m already taken and still doing decent business (11m last weekend.) It’s not done quite so well on foreign turf (302m) but it’s still making money there too. Having exceeded the previous film and with the third a sure fire hit next year it seems fair to say Gore Verbinski can pick any project he wants. The film has also turned Johnny Depp into a major box office draw. It’ll be interesting to see how his career progresses now; I hope we won’t see him playing it safe and that he’ll continue to make the quirky movies he’s always done. His involvement with a big budget version of I Am Legend with Will Smith has me worried though.

Michael Mann’s reworking of his old TV show Miami Vice doesn’t seem to have set the box office alight. Only $45m after its second weekend and its already dropped to number four in the weekly top ten. It’s too early to say how it will fare abroad but it will have to do extremely well to make a profit. Will this relative failure affect Mann’s forthcoming projects? I don’t think so; Miami Vice’s budget was a comparatively small $135m and Mann’s been around so long now he’s weathered flops before and come back. I’d expect him to make something a little smaller for his next film though so probably not his long talked about WWII film, The Few with Tom Cruise.

US Box Office Totals

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest $379,709,000
Cars $237,498,000
X-Men: The Last Stand $233,524,650
The Da Vinci Code $216,385,837
Superman Returns $190,223,000
Mission: Impossible III $133,501,348
Poseidon $60,618,199
Miami Vice $45,740,000

Worldwide Box Office Totals

The Da Vinci Code $744.2m
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest $681.6m
X-Men: The Last Stand $440.6m
Mission: Impossible III $380.9m
Cars $349.2m
Superman Returns $321.8m
Poseidon $175.1m
Miami Vice $46.8m

Worldwide Box Office less Production Budget

The Da Vinci Code $619m
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest $457
X-Men: The Last Stand $231
Mission: Impossible III $231
Cars $229
Superman Returns $61m
Poseidon $15
Miami Vice -$88m

The production budget is only the cost of making the film and doesn’t include various other expenses that a film incurs, most notably advertising. Warner’s probably spent over £60m pushing Superman Returns so it’s doubtful the film is in the black yet. It does give some idea of how well a film has done though.