AVP-R

There were only two things I really knew about Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem going in. The red band trailer, which was pretty badass and that Reiko Aylesworth was the female lead. Say what you will about her being a poor man’s Ripley, but I like her and was sad to see her part from her role as Michelle Dessler on TV’s 24.

As the movie started, I was glad to see Steven Pasquale (Garrity from TV’s Rescue Me) – whom I was just recently wondering about why I’d never seen him anywhere else – was in it, as well. Now I had two people to cheer for. Good stuff. I was already ahead of the game.

AVP-R is better than the original, I’d say. It’s simpler and there is more to like in it. After a fairly standard first act of character setup, the back and forth narrative comes together in a string of pretty good battle set pieces. Thankfully, this time around the action is actually well shot. It’s true that there are some sequences that are too dark for their own good, but at least the camera doesn’t seem like an epileptic is holding it.

And it wasn’t too effects heavy either. Now, obviously there are numerous shots that were done with CG, but there were also an equal amount of practical effects, which I really appreciated. The makers of I Am Legend could have learned a few things from The Brothers Strause. You also get to see some of the Predator’s home world, which was something new. I imagine – as the final scene would seem to imply – this is where the series will go if there is a third movie.

AVP-R doesn’t deliver the full potential of its red band trailer, but there’s enough cool stuff here to make it worth the ride. Seeing Michelle and Garrity kick some alien ass was also highly entertaining.

Best & Worst Horror of 2007

The end of the year is a time for reflection and with it brings a sea of ‘Best of’ lists. Who am I to break from convention? Here, in no particular order, are my thoughts on the best and worst of the genre this year.

El Orfanato (The Orphanage)
Spain, Dir: Juan Antonio Bayona

I was pleased to have caught this at the Toronto film festival this year. The atmosphere built in this film is extremely effective. Bayona should be proud of his first turn behind the camera because he does some really creative stuff, crafting some great jump scares. Now, because Guillermo del Toro produced this you can make easy comparisons to his 2001 film The Devil’s Backbone, but The Orphanage focuses more on the adults (namely the mother figure) rather than the children. It’s a bit slow, but the film spikes enough to have you on edge during those long stretches.

[REC]
Spain, Dir: Jaume Balaguero, Paco Plaza

I had heard good things about this film and I wasn’t disappointed. It is all shot Blair Witch style with a handheld camera and even though there is a lot of shaky cam technique, it is still very well executed. The filmmakers are always careful to show you what you need to see. There are so many great shots in this movie. I’ve heard people harping on the performances, saying they are over-the-top. I don’t know. They seemed pretty natural to me. How else would you react in a situation like that? It’s a really fun, yet visceral experience that unfortunately the majority of people won’t get to see because the American remake (with Jennifer Carpenter and Jay Hernandez) is already underway for release in 2008.

Ils (Them)
France, Dir: David Moreau, Xavier Palud

This is another title that got almost no theatrical release here and that’s a shame because it’s one of my current favourites. Like High Tension and The Descent before it, this was a film that I absolutely MADE people watch. It’s a perfect example of smart, simple and tight filmmaking. Ils is an outstanding little French home invasion thriller with excellent sound design – think High Tension without the gore and audience splitting ending.

30 Days Of Night
USA, Dir: David Slade

Considering Ghost House Pictures shoddy record (The Boogeyman, The Messengers), I was almost shocked with how well this turned out. They totally captured the visual style of the graphic novel, which was of paramount importance to me. Despite some annoying shaky-cam which I think may have been due to the director just not being comfortable shooting action (his debut was the phenomenal Hard Candy which was really just two people in a house), I think Days was an overall success. I also give mad props to Raimi & Co for going for the R and playing the subject material completely straight.

Faet (Alone)
Thailand, Dir: Banjong Pisanthanakun, Parkpoom Wongpoom

Alone was by and large the best film I saw at this year’s Toronto After Dark Film Festival. The directors somehow managed to improve on their remarkable debut Shutter. I’d totally rank this up there with the best Asian horror has to offer. It is not only scary as hell, but also has a clear and well-paced narrative – something missing from at lot of its peers. There has been a surge of good Thai films lately. Monthon Arayangkoon’s The Victim is one I’ve heard good things about and am still trying to track down.

Honourable Mentions:

George A. Romero's Diary Of The Dead.
Romero’s newest zombie opus is tons of fun. This would have made my top five if it hadn’t been trumped by REC, which has not only the same sub genre, but also narrative format.

A l'interieur (Inside)
Another French home invasion thriller (sensing a trend here?) that would have surely been at the top of my list if it weren’t for that MADDENING last ten minutes.

Both Mulberry Street and P2 were a lot better than I was expecting them to be, but the biggest surprise was probably Stuart Gordon’s new film Stuck. He deserves praise for being able to effortlessly stretch the scant material to feature length. It’s tight, bloody and the two leads (Stephen Rea and Mena Suvari) are totally believable.

As for the worst, that’s a tougher one. Generally, if I think I’m going to hate a movie, I tend just not to see it. I did catch some stinkers though. Rise: Blood Hunter was pretty bad. So was Skinwalkers. But the dishonour of worst horror movie of 2007 goes to Captivity. It was predictable, repulsive and just plain empty. I still have no idea how Elisha Cuthbert got mixed up in this dreck. This movie was so bad; I actually swore off the medium that weekend and caught up on my reading. Captivity made the Saw films looks like Citizen Kane by comparison. I could go on, but I think you get the point.

So, that’s it for the 2007 wrap-up. Here’s to a blood soaked 2008!

Well, the weather outside is frightful...

Well, that time is upon us folks. Since the first cover box art edition of The Horror Section is on Christmas Eve, it didn’t take me long to decide on a theme. Pardon the sloppiness, I had to grab the pics from several different places. It was a lot harder to find some of them than I thought it would be. I still haven’t been able to find the appropriate one for Black Christmas, so the one below will have to suffice for now. I’m entertaining the thought of taking a camera to some of my favourite places in Toronto to see if they’ll let me get captures of the real thing. To be honest though, I don’t even remember if any of them still carry VHS, but that’s a job for the New Year. Behold Christmas, Horror Section style!

We actually only had parts 2 & 4 at the store for some reason, but the completist in me wanted to put up the other ones too.





So, there you have it. Have a very bloody merry Christmas everyone!

I Am Legend review

I Am Legend is the story of Robert Neville (Will Smith), the last man in New York, after a genetic virus has wiped out the entire population. Neville and his dog, Sam forage for supplies by day and lock down the house at night because though he is the last human, he is not alone in the city.

I guess I should start off by saying that I'm not a fan of Will Smith. It's weird to say that because that statement is not based on anything tangible. I never "got" Fresh Prince and certainly avoided his music career, but I avoid that whole music genre as a rule. I don't have anything against him, I just don't see his movies. They are either ones that I have no interest in like (Hitch, Pursuit of Happiness) or ones I won't see for a larger reason (Bad Boys 1&2). However, there are titles that I would see (Ali, I Robot), but curiously, just haven't. I think the last (and may be only) movie I saw him in was Independence Day and you can't make a judgment based on that piece of fluff. Being a big fan of the book on which I Am Legend is based though, there was no getting around this. I have to give Smith props because he was really good in this. I mean, REALLY good. He carries this movie on his back effortlessly and even got me a little choked up at one point. That's no easy feat, let me tell you.

The first act of this movie has some really cool stuff. The opening is well executed and I'm still not sure how they did the sequence where Will Smith is speeding through the empty streets of New York in a Ford GTO. The camerawork is first rate. Director Francis Lawrence cleverly uses other means than just dialogue to convey information. A watch alarm, a magazine cover on a fridge door, stuff like that. This little easter egg, tearing up the Interweb this week, gave me a chuckle too.

I Am Legend is also an extremely quiet film. You really get the sense that Smith is the last person left in a once bustling city. I was very interested to see how they adapted the second half of the book and was not surprised at all that they went in a different direction. I didn't really have a problem with the route they went, except that it seemed to end too quickly.

Which brings me to the only major problem I had with I Am Legend. There was an inordinate use of CGI, especially with the films antagonists. I think some of it could have been done practically and it would have enchanced the scares tenfold. They reminded me of the Mummy, except those effects look pretty shoddy now by today's standards. A lot of potential scares (beyond the usual jumper variety) were lost because of this.

Overall, I Am Legend is a good film, but not a great one. It's elevated by Will Smith's performance, but brought down by the overuse of visual effects.

Silver City Oakville. Worth its weight in, well... silver.

This weekend I was very excited to try out the new "super" theatre that opened up in my area. It is absolutely miraculous how fast they threw this thing up. At the beginning of the year, I remember reading in the local paper that they were planning on building this and here it is already! I apologize for the image quality of the pictures, I took them with my shitty cell phone camera.

A flyer came in the mail earlier this week, regalling me with its many features. A bowling alley and pool tables, a video store and a licensed lounge upstairs.

What really caught my eye though, were the VIP theatres. I was intrigued and sought to find out more. SC Oakville has three VIP theatres. For the increased ticket price of $16.95, you get the following perks;

-No one under 19 is permitted (worth the extra five bucks right there!).
-Assigned seating which you pick when you buy your tickets (via computer touch screen).

-Larger, comfier reclining leather seats.
-At your seat refreshments service (yes, it's what it sounds like. You buy food, they bring it to you).

-No commercials at showtime (it's funny, I didn't even notice that until later, when I saw it on the website. So awesome!).

THIS WAY TO CINEMATIC HEAVEN.

THE FUTURE, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.

The licensed lounge is right outside the entrance to the VIP theatres. At this time, you are not allowed to bring alcohol in there because of an Ontario bylaw (which reminds me, I have a letter to write), but they are apparently working to change that.

Saturday afternoon, me and a buddy checked out I Am Legend (review to come) in one of these VIP theatres. I have to say that I can see myself spending a lot of time here in the future. I'm not kidding when I say it's close to me. In the summer, I will literally be able to walk there. How great is that? I can't help but think that there was some higher power involved in making something so perfectly tailored to me, plop down right in my neck of the woods. There were only eight people at my showing, but granted it was one thirty in the afternoon. I really hope that the increased price isn't too much of a sticking point for people and that this experimental venture (at least here in Ontario) is a success because it is truly a superior way to watch movies.

For more info, check out http://www.cineplex.com/silvercityoakville/default.aspx

Petey Jackson never looked so good...

Why can't all cover art look like THIS?!!!

Choose Your Own DVD Adventure Part Two

I spent a few hours with the Return to House on Haunted Hill DVD on the weekend and I must say that it was quite a fun experience. The movie itself is pretty standard, but the novelty of the navigational cinema thing really elevates its likeability.

There are seven points in the movie where you are asked to make a choice and going back over it I found three variant endings – one of which is the cinematic version of ‘your adventure ends here’ – but there may very well be more. I couldn’t however, despite much effort on my part, find a scenario where Cerina Vincent takes her top off. Curious. It usually happens so easily. This new way of watching movies is a cool feature that I hope to see more of in the future.

As for the movie itself, it’s fairly average. The visual style that I liked so much in the original seemed watered down in this one. Also, they were a little too liberal with the CG. Now, I know that the climax effects of the 1999 remake have always been a point of reference for all those haters out there, but in Return they just seemed overused. The director (Victor Garcia) has an SFX background, so I guess he made the call on that one. I just would have liked to see more practical effects. Jeffrey Combs is underutilized, as well. I thought they could have delved more into his story, but he ended up just being what the Pinhead character has been boiled down to in most of the Hellraiser sequels. He makes an appearance here and there, says a few lines and that’s pretty much it. I mean, great actors like Combs can pull off that stuff in their sleep, no doubt, but it left me wanting more is all.

Return is definitely worth checking out for the novelty at least. If you happen to have a next-gen player (it was also released on HD-DVD), get a couple of likeminded friends together, have a few drinks and enjoy the ride – any which way you want to take it.