The 31 Days of Halloween: Week 3 Mini-Reviews (Part One)

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31 Days of Halloween, Beneath, Berberian Sound Studio, Cam2Cam, cinema, Dark Skies, film reviews, films, Halloween, horror, horror films, mini-reviews, Movies, October, Pontypool, The Dark Crystal, The Fog, The Lazarus Effect, The Pyramid, The Snowtown Murders, The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death, What We Do in the Shadows

With Halloween almost upon us, I find myself falling further and further behind in my quest to document everything that I’ve watched during the month of October. In an effort to help the process along a little, I’ve decided to split my Week 3 Mini-Reviews into two separate parts. This first post will deal with all of the films watched from Monday to Thursday of that week. I’ll post the second half (Friday-Sunday) as soon as I’m able. If you’re having trouble picking some suitable Halloween viewing, let any or all of these serve as some humble suggestions.

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Monday, 10/12

The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death — Austere, leisurely-paced and more interested in building an oppressive atmosphere than in shocking jaded audiences with mindless gore, Hammer Films sequel to their surprise Daniel Radcliffe-starring hit is a decidedly old-fashioned film. For a time, the film works marvelously: the isolated manor house is a distinctly creepy, well-utilized location, surrounded by marshes and darkly gleaming water on all sides and possessed of plenty of those “locked doors that you shouldn’t unlock.”

Well before the finale, however, the film begins to flounder and spin its wheels, doling out loud jump scares and creepy background figures like any number of lesser films, while dooming its cast to do precious little besides wandering down one increasingly dark corridor after another. It all winds up at a resolution that’s both overly complex and too slight, losing whatever made the film unique in the first place. To add insult to injury, the film is often way too dark, rendering many of the visuals and scares rather moot. I appreciate a dark, creepy atmosphere as much as the next horror hound but come on: when you find yourself staring at an inky black screen, watching vague movements and trying desperately to figure out what’s happening, well…that’s not atmosphere…that’s frustration, pardner.

Pontypool — An absolutely essential modern classic and one of the most unique zombie films to ever grace the silver screen, Bruce McDonald’s Pontypool (adapted for the screen by the book’s author, Tony Burgess) is one film that I like to return to as often as possible. Featuring a phenomenal, career-making turn from the amazing Stephen McHattie as a big-city shock jock demoted to the boonies of a tiny, sleepy, Canadian town, Pontypool takes everything we know about zombie films and burns the rulebook. The concept is mindblowing (the “virus” is spread through the English language and can only be fought by “misunderstanding” commonly used words), the performances are exceptional and the claustrophobic atmosphere (the majority of the film takes place in the church basement where the radio station is located) digs its hooks in and never lets go. Above and beyond all else, however, is the one and only Stephen McHattie, giving the kind of performance that makes you want to replay each of his scenes after they’ve finished. This is, without a doubt, one of my all-time favorite films and deserves much more acclaim than it normally receives, similar to Antonia Bird’s equally-perfect Ravenous.

The Fog — Although not quite as well-known as classic Carpenter films like Halloween, The Thing and Escape From New York, this under-stated follow-up to Halloween is actually one of his best, most frightening films. The set-up (vengeful leper sailors return from their watery grave to exact revenge on the coastal town that murdered them a hundred years before) is the stuff of campfire tales and there’s an impenetrable air of suffocating dread that covers the entire film like the titular fog that rolls through town. This features a pretty nifty cast (mother and daughter Janet Leigh and Jamie Lee Curtis appear, along with the always amazing Adrienne Barbeau (Carpenter’s wife at the time), John Houseman, Hal Holbrook and Tom Atkins) and there’s no denying that the ghostly sailors (who are prone to be quite stabby) are pretty damn creepy. The opening sequence, where things subtly go wrong in the town between the hours of midnight and one, is one of the very best horror openings ever. Needless to say, avoid the remake at all costs.

Tuesday, 10/13

Dark Skies — Despite some particularly head-slapping “Why did they do that moments?,” Dark Skies is a pretty decent alien invasion flick with lots of creepy atmosphere and a handful of tense setpieces. The acting is pretty good, although JK Simmons handily steals the film when he pops up as a preternaturally serene and almost Zen-like alien abduction expert. A calm Simmons? That might be the most out of this world thing of all!

Cam2Cam — This is actually two films in one, which I rather suspected but later confirmed. The first film, which I took to be an extraordinarily long opening setpiece, is a tense, sleazy little bit of stalk ‘n slash that managed to be gripping, if thoroughly unpleasant. The second film, which comprises the rest of the movie, is a complete slog, a tedious, obvious, repetitive and, at times, quite stupid piece of product which manages to fail on pretty much every level. Favorite “Huh?” moment? The lead character walking through the crowded streets of Bangkok, covered in blood and holding an ax. No one even blinks an eye because, you know, foreign places are super scary already. Or something like that.

Wednesday, 10/14

The Snowtown Murders — Similar to Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, this unflinching, gritty and rather repellant film takes a look at the devastation wrought by one of Australia’s most notorious serial killers, John Bunting. While the story is filtered through young Jamie, it’s Daniel Henshall’s Bunting who really guides us through this tale of misplaced loyalty, brutal vigilantism and pure, unadulterated evil. Absolutely nothing about this film is fun, in the slightest way, but that doesn’t stop it from being one of the most powerful, unforgettable films I’ve ever seen. Like Salo, this is a movie you don’t watch twice.

The Lazarus Effect — I went into this expecting nothing more than typical, modern multiplex horror fare: conventional storytelling, an overabundance of CGI, loud jump scares at perfectly-timed intervals and a complete dearth of anything truly interesting. What I ended up getting, to my complete surprise, was an intelligent sci-fi-oriented horror film with a great cast (Olivia Wilde, Mark Duplass (one of my favorite modern actors), Donald Glover, Ray Wise and American Horror Story’s Evan Peters), some genuine creepy moments and a thought-provoking premise. If the final half hour ends up devolving into my preconceived notions, it doesn’t really diminish what came before. For multiplex fare, this is pretty darn good. Who would have thought that the director of Jiro Dreams of Sushi would have a horror film in him?

Berberian Sound Studio — In many ways, Berberian Sound Studio is the furthest thing possible from a horror film. After all, there’s nary a monster, insane killer or mutating virus to be found anywhere. Don’t let the outside covering fool you, however: patient viewers will soon realize that BSS exists within the same rarified company as Polansky’s Repulsion or Jacobsson’s Evil Ed in that it doesn’t portray outside horrors so much as the much more terrifying horrors of a fractured mind. Although this tale of a mild-mannered American sound editor who somehow gets involved with a sleazy Italian horror film (which seems to be a rip-off of Argento’s classic Suspiria) is often more droll than horrifying, it ably portrays the slippery slope that leads from “normal life” into the twilit land of utter, howling insanity. For my money, one of the most brilliant films of the past decade.

The Pyramid — Sometimes, a film’s concept is so good that it helps to smooth over some otherwise choppy waters. Take Gregory Levasseur’s The Pyramid, for example. As someone with a lifelong love of archaeology and all things Egyptian, a horror film about a group of scientists uncovering and exploring a previously buried pyramid would seem to be a dream come true. For this reason, I was willing to put up with some thoroughly unpleasant characters/actors, a found-footage angle that always seemed like an after-thought and weird elements like the jackal/rat/cat things that are constantly jumping out of the shadows. For a time, I was able to keep the blinders up but the whole thing collapses into so much crap by the final third that I was forced to face a pretty obvious truth: The Pyramid is about as worthless as a handful of sand.

What We Do in the Shadows — There’s not much to say about this film beyond the obvious: I absolutely loved it and consider it to be an easy frontrunner for horror film of the year, if not one of the overall best films of the year, regardless of genre. Equal parts hilarious, heartfelt and horrifying, this look into the “real lives” of a group of New Zealand roommates, who also happen to be vampires, is an absolute blast from the first frame to the last. Although it plows the same basic land as the hilarious Belgian film Vampires (2010), What We Do in the Shadows is absolutely its own beast and a simply wonderful one, at that. I foretell that this will be regarded with the same respect that genre fans give to staples like Let the Right One In within the next decade.

Thursday, 10/15

Beneath — I absolutely adore genre stalwart Larry Fessenden, so I was unbelievably excited to watch Beneath: after all, Fessenden, a monstrous fish and a group of teens trapped on a boat sounds like the key ingredients for another classic along the lines of Wendigo or The Last Winter. Unfortunately, what I got was actually the first Fessenden flick that has not only disappointed me but that I’ve actively disliked. What went wrong? Well, the concept is great, the fish looks fantastic (great to see old school effects work) and the location is perfect. The problem ends up being that every single character is a complete and total piece of shit. When you have a film filled with hateful characters, well, let’s just say that it makes it a little hard to be invested. By the ten minute mark, I pretty much wished that the fish would eat every last one of ’em. I don’t normally approve of remakes but I kinda wish someone would take this concept and do it right.

The Dark Crystal — This was a childhood favorite of mine, along with films like Labyrinth, The Last Starfighter and the animated Hobbit. As often happens, however, the films of our youth don’t always hold up to the unforgiving light of adulthood (see my current hatred of Clerks, which used to be a youthful staple). In this case, however, I’m happy to report that this particular boyhood love remains as potent and effective today as it did in the past. The puppetry is out-of-this-world (would you expect anything less from Jim Henson?), there’s a genuine sense of menace and threat that you don’t normally get in kids’ films and the whole thing is visually spectacular. The basic story (an uncertain adolescent must undertake a dangerous quest in order to save the land he loves) is almost as old as the written word but The Dark Crystal manages to fold the cliche into an utterly absorbing, captivating new form. This is the kind of kids’ movie that they just don’t make anymore for a very good reason: they can’t.

10/30/14: Down in a Hole

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31 Days of Halloween, Ben Ketai, Beneath, Brent Briscoe, cave-in, Chris Valenziano, cinema, coal mining, David Shackelford, environmental impact, Eric Etebari, film reviews, films, horror, inspired by true events, Jeff Fahey, Joey Kern, Kelly Noonan, Kurt Caceres, Mark L. Young, miners, Movies, multiple writers, mysterious cave, Patrick Doody, possession, trapped underground

It’s hard to go wrong when you have a location that’s as fundamentally creepy as a deep, dark mine with a tragic past, which makes Ben Ketai’s Beneath (2013) all that more disappointing. Despite an incredibly solid backstory and a great location, the film ultimately sinks thanks to some generic characterization and truly confusing plot elements. There’s the notion that a much better film is trapped in here, fighting to get out…a film that, alas, never quite manages to see the light of day.

We begin with a now de rigueur bit where we’re thrown into the chaos of the present only to travel back, via flashback, to what got us to that point of no return. In this case, we begin the film proper with Sam (Kelly Noonan), an environmental lawyer, going to see her coal miner father, George (an unrecognizable Jeff Fahey), at his “office.” George is retiring after spending over thirty years below the ground and Sam decides to join her father and his mates on his last day in the mine, partially as a show of solidarity but mostly to prove she isn’t “soft.”

The miners are the sort of mixed bunch that’s pretty standard for this sort of exercise, highlighted by Randy (Joey Kern), who seems to be an old flame of Sam’s, Masek (Erik Etebari), Mundy (Brent Briscoe), Torres (Curt Caceres), Van Horn (David Shackelford) and Grubbs (Mark L. Young).  While they’re down in the depths of the mine, two members of the crew end up breaking through into a previously unknown chamber, which has the effect of triggering a cave-in. After the dust and rubble clear, the group is left with no choice but to retreat to the safe confines of the emergency room, a sterile, white beacon of hope in the darkness.

As is always the case, however, it’s not as simple as just sitting put and waiting for help to arrive. For one thing, the crew members who initially caused the cave-in are still missing, presumed lost in the disaster. The group can hear strange noises in the darkness, however, some of which sound suspiciously like human screams. They go out to explore, leaving Sam and one of the injured crew members behind: she ends up joining them (of course) and the group splits up to explore the area, looking for any sign of the missing miners or, at best, some sign of a way out. When they end up breaking through into a formerly closed-off area of the mine, however, an area that was the sight of a bygone mining disaster that stranded nineteen miners below the surface, George and his crew will come to know the full meaning of terror. For something lurks in the darkness with them…something that may not be entirely human but is most certainly entirely malevolent.

Let’s get the good stuff out of the way right off the bat: Beneath has a truly killer location and the mining angle is not only fascinating but well-realized and truly creepy. The emergency room is a great visual, especially when juxtaposed with the absolute darkness of the surroundings and there’s a genuine sense of isolation and claustrophobia that permeates nearly every shot. The ensemble cast is interesting, even if the characters are all as lightly sketched as possible, and Noonan does a fine job as Sam: there’s nothing about her character that stands out (aside from her rather noteworthy ability to leave an injured comrade behind when necessary) but she makes a more than capable hero. Fahey, despite being the marquee name on the bill, turns in a largely anonymous performance as George: it actually took me quite a while to realize that was him and there was nothing about the performance that really stood out in my mind: it was workmanlike, no better or worse.

The biggest issue with Beneath ends up being the sheer familiarity of the proceedings: everything plays out in such a predictable fashion, particularly the completely played-out “twist” ending, that the film always feels too familiar. There’s very little individual identity, aside from the setting: this pretty much boils down to just another “possessed people” story, complete with every inherent cliché of that subgenre. Beneath does nothing new with the formula whatsoever and actually manages to muddy up the proceedings with an unnecessarily confusing second half that sees more red herrings and double-crosses than a spy novel. All of the promise of the initial idea (a formerly sealed-up mine) is completely lost in yet another film where actors with “scary faces” turn on their peers, lather, rinse, repeat. Perhaps this formula might still possess some ability to scare if this weren’t, roughly, the billionth time this trope had been trotted out. By this point, it’s so tired that it snores.

I really wanted to love Beneath, mostly because that location and mythology about the lost miners is so wonderful and evocative. Ultimately, however, the film that played in my head was much more interesting than the one that played on the screen: there was a mountain of potential here but too little of it actually made its way from visualization to reality. I still think there’s a really scary, supernatural film to be made about miners trapped in a cave-in: Beneath isn’t that film but it could have been, which is kind of a shame.