Stranger Danger!

I'm afraid I'll have to forego the VHS format today, as I really wanted to do a Halloween title. I'm also breaking tradition in that I'm talking about a recent release, but it is at least set in the seventies. That film is Warren Skeels' 2023 film The Man in the White Van.

Bright young Annie (Madison Wolfe) tries to navigate high school, her overbearing mother, entitled sister and also the feeling she is being stalked by a mysterious man in an old white van.

I have been waiting a long time to watch this movie. For some reason, I was never able to find it anywhere and frankly forgot about it until my friend Serena was gracious enough to let me know it was actually on YouTube. You know, even though I use it daily, I continue to underestimate YT's reach as a resource for lesser known horror titles.

The Man in the White Van is a solid piece of work. I think it would make a great double bill with the similarly-themed Woman of the Hour (also from '23), as both are inspired by true stories from the 1970s, have narratives that span several years & victims and center on strong female protagonists. This film really creates a good mix of coming-of-age tale, retro slasher and clinical true crime story. 

The title is very telling in that is what we often only see the vehicle of our assailant. It stalks its victims waiting for the right time to pounce and is just as menacing as the glimpses we do get of the killer. His infactuation with Annie, plays out very much like the middle of John Carpenter's Halloween. She can sense someone is watching her, but is dismissed by her peers when she speaks of it.

The cast of The Man in the White Van is strong, headed by Madison Wolfe who is no stranger to crime stories having played Woody Harrelson's daughter in True Detective. She plays the role well, demure, yet struggling to get out from under her restrictions. I also thought Annie's strained relationship with her sister Margaret (Brec Bassinger) felt true. Her parents are played by veterans Ali Larter and Sean Astin, who also served as producers. I have to tip my hat to Astin who often manages to hook up with beautiful women - let's not forget his time as Winona Ryder's beau in Stranger Things. It gives hope to the rest of us ;)

Madison Wolfe as Annie in The Man in the White Van.

I consume a lot of content that takes place in the seventies (whether literal or manufactured) and this is one of the more authentic ones I've seen in a while. It really nails how isolating the lack of modern technology can be, namely cell phones. It made me think about how many lives have been saved due to mobile phones, or even just call waiting.

Get off the phone, Margaret!!

The climax of this movie, seeing the resilient sisters battling the killer to survive in the absense of their parents and the police was quite intense. I was expecting this movie to devolve into your average slasher tropes, but it didn't. You never really get a good look at the killer, which I assumed was going to lead to a big reveal that he was the town priest or a school teacher, but no, just some crazy dude that walks away Myers style - it does take place during Halloween after all. There was also a throwaway sequence during one of the flashbacks where it seemed like there may be more than one, Sawyer family style, but that too was left hanging. 

Then it occured to me. The Man in the White Van isn't a slasher, it's emulating real life where killers aren't caught and there aren't enough telephone poles in the world for all the missing person flyers. This was a solid film and it sucks it didn't get a better release - at least outside of the US. I could've watched it properly instead of squinting through a 480p rip on YT. Anyway, I bid you all a Happy Halloween, and most importantly, stay safe kiddies!

Short of the Week #26: Autopilot

This week's short is Dario Ortega's Autopilot based off the Reddit /nosleep short story of the same name.

I posted this short today because tragically, in a case of life imitating art, this story recently became a reality for one Montreal family. I remember getting chills the first time I watched this short a few years ago because it was so incredibly plausible. People are often slaves to their routines and any subversion can have catastrophic results.

Where Indeed.

This week's VHS is Bruce Malmuth's 1986 effort Where Are the Children?

A mother (Jill Clayburgh) desperately tries to find her two children after they are abducted for their backyard.

I dug this one out as it seemed appropriate given recent headlines. I had no idea what to expect from this title – that it was written by Jack Sholder (of The Hidden fame) was what initially sold me – but I was pleasantly surprised by it. Based on a novel by prolific novelist Mary Higgins Clark (her first bestseller in fact), I found this story to be very engaging. Under Malmuth's direction, who over the course of his career worked with such action stars as Stallone, Dolph and Seagal, Where Are the Children? remained inherently watchable.

I really appreciated the pace of this film, as it fully embodied the expediency of the pulp it was derived from. The denizens of the Cape Cod town (which including perhaps the sassiest paperboy ever put to film) were swiftly established and the villain's plan was set in motion almost immediately. Where Are the Children? featured so many familiar faces to me, including Clifton James (who will to me always be Sheriff Pepper from Roger Moore era James Bond), Frederick Forrest & Bernard Hughes. The latter was killing me because his voice was so familiar, but I couldn't place him. Imdb bailed me out by telling me he was Grandpa in The Lost Boys.

Jill Clayburgh in Where Are the Children?

Now, the action was somewhat clumsy and the two child actors were a tad uneven, but I thought the storytelling was pretty sound. And it gets pretty fucking dark toward the end. It got me thinking about child murders and I have to wonder how any of my generation – the ones who roamed free from summer sunrise to sunset – survived childhood. Considering how much time I spent exploring the forests near my home, it amazes me that I never ended up on a milk carton. Were there less perverts back then, or did you just never hear about them?

The kids are NOT all right.

Anyhoo, Where Are the Children? is worth a watch if you are into pulp thrillers and the work of Clark. I obviously haven't read the book, but I wouldn't be the least surprised if this was a fairly accurate representation of it. I wager parents will hug their kids a little tighter post-viewing though.

Blurring The Line.

Next up on the Blood in the Snow docket was Rob Grant's documentary Fake Blood.

An attempt to make a documentary about whether cinematic violence inspires the same in real-life pulls two filmmakers (Grant & Mike Kovac) into some very dark places.

Fake Blood was a very clever documentary. It was not only a piece about violence in film, but also the nature of filmmaking itself in that often you set out to make one thing and it, seemingly on its own, morphs into something else entirely. This was a perfect example of people chasing a story and falling down a rabbit hole into imminent danger. I found it very difficult to discern – without any context – how much of this documentary was fact, and what was fiction. I mean, I know it must have been, as there are three credited writers on the project, but it was so well crafted.

As storytellers, Grant and Kovac do a commendable job of setting the stage, using a weird fan video they received about the correct way to dismember a body (in response to seeing it done in Grant's previous film Mon Ami) as a jumping off point for their exploration into their responsibility as filmmakers when dealing with violent material. This was all very natural with nothing showy about it.

Later on in the film when they encountered a, let's say shady, individual, the ensuing dramatizations were consistent with every true crime show you've ever watched. Just when I had been sucked in by them, Grant, in a stroke of genius, pulled back the curtain to remind you that you were watching a recreation of a recreation. My brain was constantly trying to access how much of this was real and that's the mark of a good film.

Director Rob Grant with John Doe.

Fake Blood was definitely the most realistic doc I've seen in on this topic since J.T. Petty's 2006 faux-snuff doc S&Man. Unfortunately with Grant's film, I didn't get the luxury of having Petty point out his on-screen antagonist in the front-row after the screening. Until someone tells me definitively and I can breathe the sigh of “well of course that wasn't real”, this doc will be clanking around in my head for sometime.

Here There Be Tigers.

As I stated yesterday, the programming at this year's IFFF was terrific, running the gamut of modern genre cinema. I took in some solid films last week, but Mexican director Issa López's newest effort, Tigers Are Not Afraid was the standout title.

When her mother goes missing in Mexico City, Estrella (Paola Lara) falls in with a bunch of street kids headed by Shine (Juan Ramón López) and soon find themselves on the run from the local drug cartel.

I hadn't even heard of this film before I opened up the IFFF programme and it took me completely by surprise. López's film reminded me a lot of Guillermo del Toro's ouevre (namely The Devil's Backbone & Pan's Labyrinth) in that it effortlessly combined elements of drama, crime, horror and fantasy. I was not expecting a film to pull me in emotionally as much as The Shape of Water did recently, but Tigers Are Not Afraid came pretty damn close.

I have to say that after subsequently watching the trailer, it doesn't do the film justice. It plays up the supernatural angle, when that doesn't really factor in until well into the film. Leading up to that, I felt I was watching something more akin to 2002's City of God. However, it was the whimsical flourishes, like the animated graffiti and references to fairy tales that really lulled me into a false sense of security.

Tigers Are Not Afraid was layered and almost poetic in its exhibition of the ugliness (and beauty) of life on the streets of Mexico City. López was already an accomplished writer and fairly well known in her native country, but her previous work has been fairly conventional so I'm hoping that the tremendous versatility shown here will launch her career even further.

I cannot, however, heap all the praise onto López because the entire cast of child actors were phenomenal. Considering the subject matter, it was quite remarkable López was able to find two leads in Paola Lara & Juan Ramón López that were able to so naturally pull off such demanding roles.

Paola Lara & Juan Ramón López in Tigers Are Not Afraid.

Tigers Are Not Afraid is a wonderful achievement and should be sought out immediately. This was exactly the kind of genre filmmaking that will make even the most jaded remember why they watch films in the first place. I really can't overstate how well all the bits & pieces meshed together. López has already enjoyed a long and prosperous career in the film industry, but I think she's poised to explode if she's got a few more like this in her.

Trailer Tuesdays: Henry

With the passing of actor Tommy Towles last week at the age of 71, it seems appropriate to post a trailer in tribute to his career. Though he had several significant genre roles, including Harry Cooper in Tom Savini's remake of Night of the Living Dead and George Wydell in Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses, his most striking performance was most likely Otis in John McNaughton's Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.

A Town Held Hostage

With Shout Factory's recent Blu-ray release of 1976's The Town That Dreaded Sundown, it seemed like as good a time as any to fill in this little gap in my repertoire.

In 1946, a hooded assailant terrorized the community of Texarkana, Arkansas, killing five people. He was never caught.

I guess I should begin by saying that I previously did not know this film was based on actual events. I find it strange that this “Phantom Killer” is not more widely known, considering he not only evaded capture, but his crimes predate even Ed Gein's, who is widely considered to be the first “modern” serial killer. Even more disconcerting is that The Phantom's modus operandi shared similarities to both The Zodiac Killer and Son of Sam, which makes me wonder if there isn't some sort of secret serial killer handbook out there somewhere.

The reason I emphasize the true crime aspect is I feel it caused the filmmakers some confusion about what kind of film they wanted to make. The Town That Dreaded Sundown is a weird hybrid of a crime film and straight-up documentary. A scene would open with a narrator announcing the date and names of the victims,  but then play out with standard storytelling methods. It was a little bewildering, but no more than the uneven tone. I wonder if the inclusion of the keystone cops comic relief was director Charles B. Pierce's attempt to emulate Wes Craven's Last House On The Left, released a few years earlier. Unfortunately, it was even more out of place here, as The Town That Dreaded Sundown reaches Dukes of Hazzard levels of goofiness.

Director Charles B. Pierce as Rosco Patrolman Benson.

That said, there were moments where the film seemed ahead of its time, as the actual murder set pieces were very well executed. I was especially surprised by how much the style - and I wager a lot of the credit needs to go to cinematographer James W. Roberson for this - resembled that of the American slasher genre, considering it had yet to be invented – or at least popularized. I can only imagine how alarming it must have been to see Dawn Wells (Mary Ann from TV's Gilligan's Island) get shot in the face (twice!) back in '76. Though the shock factor may be dulled now, that whole sequence still plays as well as it ever did.

The other thing I feel I have to mention is the batshit crazy “trombone scene”. While I was watching it unfold, I was thinking “this actually happened? It must have because no one could ever make this shit up.”

Well, it didn't happen. And they made it up. So, were they trying to be funny? If so, I must have been sick the day they covered that kind of black comedy in school. For me, it is just one more odd decision made by the filmmakers. However, it is one of the few things the film is remembered for, so hey, I guess he's a genius.

All in all, The Town That Dreaded Sundown has its moments, but I'd say its uneven tone and structure is probably what kept it from becoming as iconic as some of its American contemporaries like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the aforementioned Last House On The Left.