All Abooaard!

A movie I had been waiting to see for some time was Midnight Meat Train. Directed by Ryuhei Kitamura (Versus) and adapted from the Clive Barker story, it features Vinnie Jones as a hulking transit-going serial killer. I think those three things alone should be enough to pique any genre fan’s interest.

Photographer Leon (Bradley Cooper) stumbles upon the trail of a killer (Vinnie Jones) who likes to dispatch late-night train goers.

The best part of Midnight Meat Train is that Kitamura is behind the camera. His fresh camerawork throughout certainly makes for some great moments. I really dug the look of the film too. It gets very action-y toward the end, but I guess that shouldn’t be surprising, considering his kinetic nature. Vinnie Jones is as menacing as ever, playing someone who you wouldn’t want to cross paths with any time of day, let alone after midnight. Leslie Bibb (Iron Man) and Roger Bart (Hostel II) are some other familiar faces in the cast and Ted Raimi shows up in an eye-popping cameo.

The movie delivers in the gore department for the most part, though I would have liked less CGI. I’m not sure why Kitamura decided to go this route. He can’t use money as an excuse because Versus – his signature film – was made on a shoestring and boasted tons of practical effects work. That’s not to say the visual effects in Meat Train are bad, it’s just that as time goes by I’m finding myself getting more and more distracted by bits done with zeros and ones.

I have not read the Clive Barker story that this movie is based on, but it seems to me that they may have just taken the nugget of the idea and padded it with a lot of run-of-the-mill filler. I know that this is an accepted trope of horror, but one day I hope we will be beyond the point where we see the protagonist sifting through old newspaper clippings for the sake of exposition. To all you screenwriters out there, it can be done in other ways. Take Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer for example. I know we’re talking apples and oranges here, but bear with me for a moment. In Brooks, the back story is revealed to the title character via old man Howard – played by David Fox – whose delivery is so comically brilliant that the scenes between the two of them are some of the best in the entire movie.

I was feeling the story in the first half as Leon was hanging out in the ghetto trying the ‘capture the city’ with his camera, but that seemed to be all but abandoned by the last act. That may have been why the ending wasn’t satisfying to me. There weren’t really any surprises (save one) and when the inevitable explanation comes for all that has transpired, I was sort of left going ‘oh… okaaay.’

Midnight Meat Train is a worthwhile watch, but it didn’t really pack the punch that I was hoping for.

Things Are About To Get Nuts!

I've got a big weekend coming up. It all starts with a screening of Midnight Meat Train tomorrow night and flows into the three-day-extravaganza of The Festival Of Fear. Every year, there is a parade of genre celebrities and what better way to call attention to them than a FOF '08 themed Coverbox Wednesday!

The Guest of Honour this year is none other than Wes Craven, the mastermind who gave us A Nightmare On Elm Street, the exploitation pillar The Last House On The Left and The Scream series. For more Coverbox Craven, click here.

Director Tobe Hooper is also in attendance, hosting a special screening of one of my all-time faves (and likely one of yours) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

I'm TOTALLY stoked about seeing perennial girl next door Kristy Swanson.

The ubiquitous John Saxon returns to Canada!

Brad Dourif, horror veteran and voice of Chucky is in the house!

I had to use Galaxy Of Terror for Sid Haig because I couldn't find the appropriate cover for Spiderbaby unfortunately.

Though most people know her as Jigsaw's protégé, Shawnee Smith was already well versed in horror by the time Saw rolled around.

Prolific Scream Queen Linnea Quigley is here in the flesh, as well. She is the last of the 1991 Weekend Of Horrors attendees (H.G. Lewis, Kane Hodder & Tom Savini were the others) that have come back to The Big Smoke for FOF. Anyone else notice the similarity between the last two covers? Not that I'm complaining, mind you.

So, as you can see... Craz-eee-ness! Check back throughout the weekend for updates on my adventures at Toronto's Nerd Prom.

The Rest Of The Fest

The 33rd Toronto International Film Festival is inching ever closer and the rest of festival's several hundred titles were revealed today. While the bulk of the genre goodies are in the Midnight Madness programme (announced a few weeks ago), there are a few that trickle into other areas. Here are some that I am keeping my eye on.

A Sauna that can cleanse you of your sins? What a lucrative business model! Seriously though, I have been hearing buzz about this Finnish thriller for a while now, so it is definitely on my short list. Check out the trailer below, courtesy of Twitch.com.



Vinyan is the new film from Fabrice Du Welz, who gave us Calvaire (The Ordeal) a few years back. I don't really have an affinity for Calvaire that some others do, but there is no question that it was beautifully shot. Vinyan is a thriller about parents desperately trying to find their missing child.

Canadian icon Bruce McDonald takes on the zombie genre with Pontypool. This movie also has the distinction of being the first Canuck feature to use the new fangled Red One HD camera. Pontypool focuses on a radio host who just happens to be broadcasting when a zombie-like virus hits his small town.

Acolytes is a movie I neglected to mention during my earlier Midnight Madness post. The premise of this Aussie offering is delicious. Three high school students blackmail a serial killer into taking care of a bully who tormented them when they were younger.

These are just four of the fabulous titles that Toronto is rolling out this year. For the full list, check out the TIFF website here. I am giddy, GIDDY I tell you, with anticipation folks.

Ooooo Treats!

A friend of mine just got back from a trip to Japan and brought me back a little something. Machine Girl Merch!

Thanks Darryl! Best. Present. EVAR.

Mirror, Mirror

Yesterday, I peeled off from work early to catch Mirrors, the new movie from Alexandre Aja (The Hills Have Eyes remake). Going in, I had heard that the movie wasn’t screened for critics, which was a bad sign, but there are exceptions to every rule (The Ruins) so I kept an open mind. It looks like the media blackout may have worked in their favour because when I was buying my ticket for the four-fourty show, I noticed that, much to my surprise, that the next two shows – the five-twenty (!) and seven o’ clock – were sold out. I have NEVER seen that for a horror title that early in the day. Whatever they did to get people in the seats, it worked; at least for the first weekend anyway and let’s face it, that is what’s important to the bean counters these days.

A down-and-out ex-cop (Kiefer Sutherland) gets a job as a night watchman at an old burned-out department store. When he starts seeing things in the mirror-covered interior, he starts to doubt his sanity. Then he receives a package from the dead man he replaced that suggests there really is something deadly about the MIRRORS.

I’m sad to report that Mirrors is pretty average fare. It is clear after the first act that it is, in fact, a Korean remake, though I didn’t know that beforehand. I think the studio was wise to not make this apparent during their ad campaign because the whole Asian horror thing has played itself out over here. Aren’t we at the point where, after recent duds like One Missed Call and Shutter, we roll our eyes when we hear that the latest thriller is a hastily slapped together repackaging of something from the Far East? There are some good bits, (Aja does a good job of keeping the mirror gimmick fresh) but mainly it is a baseline story stretched around a few cool set pieces, the basic Asian horror formula. In addition to its Asian underpinnings, there was also a lot of Bill Malone’s House On Haunted Hill in this movie too. I don’t think anybody would have batted an eyelid if Mirrors had been a Dark Castle release.

The story, as I said, was a little wobbly. It follows the standard structure used in The Ring and many others, but character motivation is a big problem early on. I don’t care how badly you need this job guy, if on your second shift the place makes you hallucinate that, say, oh I don’t know, YOU ARE ON FIRE, it’s time to maybe call it a day and put in an application at McDonalds. As for the acting, Kiefer is Kiefer. It’s just very hard for me to see him as anything other than Jack Bauer these days, especially when he utters lines like “Don’t make me threaten you” and the ever-popular “DAMMIT!” I had to chuckle at every one of these bits, which was probably not the intended reaction they were going for.

"Chloe?"

Considering this is Alex Aja (the guy responsible for the lusciously crimson High Tension) with KNB EFX at his disposal, I would have thought there would be more gore in this. Sure, there are two or three wonderfully bloody bits in the film, but that’s about it. This is disappointing because that was the only thing I was counting on Mirrors to deliver on. There was also a bit too much CG going on. I know KNB has been utilizing digital effects to augment their work for some time now, but it was nowhere near as fluent here, as it was in The Hills Have Eyes, KNB’s previous collaboration with Aja. Lastly, a big critique I have is the end action sequence. It wasn’t shot very well. There was a lot of shaky cam in darkness, which was very disheartening. There was likely some good KNB stuff on display during this scene and it would have been nice to actually see it.

At the end of the day, Mirrors is watchable stuff. I’d rather watch a good director slumming, than something from some nobody that has no business being behind a camera.

Two More...

The horror anthology show Fear Itself continues to soldier on over at NBC, so here are two more reviews. Episode seven was directed by Mary Harron (American Psycho) and entitled “Community”.

A young couple (Brendan Routh & Shiri Appleby) move into an exclusive gated community only to find that the residents engage in some bizarre practices in order to maintain their quality of living.

Community is a weird affair that tends to throw reality out the window. Relaying the message of ‘always read the fine print’, it takes a fairly standard premise and launches it into the absurd. Consequently, it is fairly lame and by-the numbers. I’ve seen this setup before in things like the Stepford Wives, The Twilight Zone and The X-Files and the only thing that is different here is the conclusion. I was hoping Mary Harron could add something to combat the overall banality of the material, but sadly I found her presence was hardly felt. I almost didn’t recognize Brendan Routh, who seems to have not flown off into obscurity and is still working. His bland performance certainly won’t win him any meetings with casting directors though.

Just another day in the neighbourhood.

Granted, I have to grade this episode on a curve because the power went out at my place (causing me to lose a few minutes toward the end), so I’m little cloudy about certain character motivations. To be honest though, the story wasn’t compelling enough to make me want look it up online – it certainly was not like the time I almost chucked my DVR across the room when it cut off the last fifteen minutes of Carpenter’s Cigarette Burns, the best Masters Of Horror episode EVAR!

So, another miss. If the pattern continues, the next episode should be good, right? Right?!

Next up, is “Skin and Bones” by Larry Fessenden (The Last Winter).

Rancher Grady (Doug Jones) arrives back at his farm emaciated and frostbitten after being lost in the mountains for almost two weeks. His family soon notices that all is not right and is soon in a fight for their lives against something Grady brought back with him.

This piece is all about Doug Jones. He is one creepy fucker in this. You may not recognize him without all the prosthetics and computer accompaniment, but the impossibly thin Jones has been in dozens of films. He not only played The Silver Surfer in The Fantastic Four sequel, but also Abe Sapien in both Hellboy films and the dastardly Faun in Guillermo Del Toro’s masterpiece Pan’s Labyrinth. Skin and Bones is an apt title for this episode, as Jones is just THAT. I swear, at some points, I could see his internal organs. Even more crazy is that frame of his isn’t just for one role (ala Christian Bale in The Machinist), he’s like this ALL the time!

Someone please get this guy a sandwich!

Skin and Bones starts strong, but tragically overstays its welcome. The climax drags and then ends abruptly, which is a shame because there was something good going on here for a bit. Alas, that seems to be the late motif of Larry Fessenden. His last film The Last Winter I found really engaging until the end where it toppled like a house of cards and I hear the same can be said about his 2001 film Wendigo, as well. And, just what IS up with Fessenden and the Wendigo? Why is he so obsessed with that legend?

Skin and Bones is decidedly better than Harron’s previous episode, but still not as consistent as of some of the earlier Fear Itself offerings. It is definitely worth checking out though, just to see a rare glimpse of Doug Jones stripped down to his freakishly bare essentials.

12 Things I Love About The Evil Dead

I usually don’t do ‘list’ articles because God knows there is an overabundance of them on the Internets, but screw it. Vagrancy Films screened a print of The Evil Dead last Wednesday and I dropped everything and made sure I was there. Not only because it had been a few years since I had seen it projected, but it also gave me a chance to hook up with a bud I hadn’t seen in a long time (good to hang with you again Schwartzy!). The Evil Dead has always been one of my staple films and every time I watch it, it reminds me what I love about horror and the art of low budget filmmaking itself. I had a fantastic time at the screening and it filled me with great joy to see that – even twenty-five years after its release and its excessive DVD availability – The Evil Dead can still fill a theatre. So, please join me as I reminisce about some of the many things I love about this quintessential cult classic.

Young filmmakers Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell and Rob Tapert wanted to make a feature, but before they could shoot a frame, they needed money. They made a thirty-minute short called Within The Woods on a shoestring and began showing it to possible investors. This included dentists, people in real estate and local merchants; anybody thought to have money. With a grainy, low quality Super 8 print they managed to finagle ninety-grand out of people’s pockets. Within The Woods is not without its charms, but anyone who has seen it must assume that it was mainly the super enthusiastic sweet talking skills of the trio that led to those purse strings’s loosening.

Obviously, The Evil Dead is nothing without THE MAN, Bruce Campbell. Every time I watch it and there is that first close-up of Bruce in the car I am always struck by how young he looks. The now gigantic horror icon was barely twenty-one when he shot The Evil Dead! Having been friends with Sam, Rob and their crew (who I like to collectively refer to as The Renaissance Boys), he appeared in most of their earlier Super 8 films. This was mainly because, as Raimi has said, “Bruce was the good looking one.” This made Bruce the logical choice to don the blue and brown and become the reluctant demon killer Ash. Bruce as Ash would endure unending punishment at the hands of Sam, who could seemingly talk him into doing pretty much anything for a shot.

The first of MANY knocks!

Over the course of the shoot, Bruce would be abused, pummelled and covered and covered AND covered in blood. And through all that, he was always up to the challenge. It was that physical side of him, as well as his sidesplitting demeanor, that really made Bruce a star of the genre.

If there were another star of The Evil Dead, it would be the camera. Sam Raimi is world renowned for his distinct style of filmmaking and the roots of this can be seen all over his first feature. Sam has said that he always equated filmmakers with magicians, with camera shots being their tricks. "Do they know how I am doing this trick? If not, then I am succeeding." The Evil Dead is a testament to ingenuity and sheer will because, make no mistake, this is what was holding this picture together at certain stages of the shoot. Raimi had a vision of what he wanted for The Evil Dead (then known as The Book Of The Dead) and because funds were incredibly limited, he had to continually invent ways to achieve that vision. This included constructing rigs that have become synonymous with the name Raimi, the most well known of these being The Shaky-Cam. Nowadays, Shaky-Cam is part of film canon and refers to the style used in movies like the last two Bourne entries and Cloverfield, but back in the day, this was a term that Raimi pioneered. The Shaky-Cam was constructed due of their lack of a Steadicam and used for all those sequences where you see the point-of-view of the demon force travelling at great speeds. The camera was fastened to a two-by-four, with one person on each end of it. This enabled them tons of freedom for camera movement. Other innovative practices included,

The Sam-O-Cam – For the first shot in the swamp, Raimi taped the camera to his hand and sat in an inflatable raft that was pushed along by two wading crewmembers.
The Ellie-Vator – So named for actress Ellen Sandweiss. This was an X-shaped rig fastened to her back to levitate her off the floor during Cheryl's possession scene.
The Ram-O-Cam – This was utilized when the camera bashes through windows. The camera is again on a two-by-four with a device out front to break the glass just before the camera goes through it.
The Vas-O-Cam – Invented by crewmember Tim Philo, it is the shoestring equivalent of a dolly track. The camera on a two-by-four, slides along another plank greased up with Vaseline. This was used in the long take scene where Ash carries Linda’s body outside.

The one-of-a-kind location in rural Tennessee plays a major part in the feel of The Evil Dead. The dishevelled cabin took weeks to clean out and get into shape. The crew also had to deal with mud slicked roads and the constant curiosity of the locals. The cabin has since burned down, but it will forever live on in the film.

A few scenes in the movie take place in the cabin’s cellar, but the place they filmed in had no basement, so they had to construct one. The cellar you see in the cabin is only a four-foot deep trench. All the cellar footage was shot in a farmhouse in Michigan, many months later. This is movie magic at its best, people!

Looking down into Michigan.

Looking up into Tennessee.

The ‘Classic’ 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88. It has appeared in every single of Raimi’s films (except The Quick And The Dead for obvious reasons) and has become sort of a running gag among Raimi fans.

The Peek-a-boo sequences are a great touch. At first, this exchange between Ash and Linda seems like a cheesy romantic interlude (which it is), but Raimi later revisits it while Ash is burying his then dead girlfriend.

Scotty the asshole. This guy, played by Hal Delrich (a pseudonym to avoid union woes), has all the great lines in the movie. The exchange between Scotty and Ash about his ex-girlfriend’s looks cracks me up every time.

Yes, they went THERE. Probably the most infamous part of The Evil Dead is the tree rape. This is what likely dubbed it a ‘video nasty’ and made it so elusive on home video in many parts of the world for so many years. It was a decision made by Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert while watching dailies and was shot in so many little pieces, that they just didn’t realize how much it was going to affect audiences. In an interview for The Incredibly Strange Film Show, Sam relates (clip below) that he regrets he went that far with it.

I have to give it up for Tom Sullivan’s amazing production design. This is the man who created the Book Of The Dead and matching ceremonial dagger. He also worked with Bart Pierce on the stop motion animation meltdown sequences of the movie’s climax.

Over the course of a few films, there was a playful exchange between Sam Raimi and fellow horror filmmaker Wes Craven. Raimi observed a torn poster of Jaws in Craven’s 1977 film The Hills Have Eyes and then decided to do the same thing in Evil Dead.

Craven then responded to this by having his main character Nancy watching The Evil Dead on TV during his 1984 masterpiece A Nightmare On Elm Street. Not to be outdone, Nightmare’s poster and Freddy glove appear in the 1987 Evil Dead sequel. Like the ubiquitous appearances of his classic Oldsmobile, it is this playfulness that exists within Raimi that makes him such an enjoyable filmmaker to watch.

The Evil Dead has even spawned a musical. The first show was Aug 14, 2003 (the night of the East Coast blackout) in Toronto and continued with runs in Montreal, New York and most recently California and Seoul, Korea. No matter how unlikely that may sound, I have seen it a few times now and it is every bit as awesome and enjoyable as the movie that inspired it.

I could go on, but you get the idea. I ADORE The Evil Dead. It most deservedly holds a place in The Fearsome Fifteen. Sam Raimi and company endured one of the most gruelling shoots on record to give us – to quote Stephen King’s famous tagline – “a ferociously original horror film”. In a forest outside Knoxville, Tennessee in the fall of 1979, a small crew of green filmmakers stretched a minimal budget and persevered through impossible odds. Their success maybe only due to the simple fact that no one told them they couldn’t do it. You boys are an inspiration to us all.