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The Damned Thing – Review

reviewed by hallo
directed by Tobe Hooper, 2006
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Don’t mess with Texas.  Especially the oil in Texas which is apparently sick and tired of being taken for granted and used by ungrateful humans.  The Damned Thing is the first episode in the second season of Showtime’s Masters of Horror and is directed by one of the all time horror greats, Tobe Hopper.  It is roughly based on the short story of the same title by Ambrose Bierce.

In 1981, a young Kevin Reddle watches as his loving father suddenly flips out and shoots down his mom in cold blood and then turns to kill Kevin.  Running and hiding in the field outside, Kevin watches as his father is brutally killed by an unseen force.  Twenty-four years later, Kevin is the sheriff in the same town of Cloverdale and similar kinds of phenomenon begin happening; the town folk begin suffering extreme bouts of anger, turning on one another for no real reason.  Kevin recognizes what is happening, but remains silent about the potential chaos that will ensue.  Sure enough, his estranged wife turns on their son and would have killed him if Kevin had not intervened.  But unfortunately, Kevin is not immune from the force and is overwhelmed himself, eventually turning on his wife and son.  At the end of the film, the ground opens up and a huge “oil monster” swallows up Kevin.  His wife and kid escape in the car, only to run out of gas about a mile down the road.  They are attacked by the monster and the film ends.

Apart from a dizzying experience with the camera in the opening shot of the film, Tobe Hooper’s classic touch is all over this movie and it delivers a pleasurable viewing experience.  The opening scene is somewhat shocking, especially if you have not read the plot or spoilers of the movie.  There are not many true “scares” throughout the 60 minute production, but this movie is based on a message that is more concerned with a moral tale than it is visceral scares.  Essentially, that message is that human beings do not have the right attitude with mother nature and that we take for granted, perhaps even abuse, that which is so valuable to us.  Thankfully, Hooper does not go overboard on the political message that could have turned this film into another Al Gore special.  In fact, if not for the short story to help us along, fans might be scratching their heads as to why a big monster made of oil is wreaking havoc on a simple little Texas town.

Ted Raimi wonderfully portrays the town’s strange Catholic priest and Sean Patrick Flanery does an excellent job with the character of Kevin Reddle, demonstrating a man who still deeply loves his family but is forever lost in the shadow of his 1981 experience.  One of the more disturbing scenes of the film is when a man becomes outraged while hammering a nail into a piece of wood and begins hammering himself in the face until he bleeds to death.  That is “a tough way to commit suicide” remarks Sheriff Reddle, acknowledging his own refusal to publically announce what is really happening.

This is yet another a satisfactory effort from the Masters of Horror folks and Tobe Hooper.  Not great, but worth the time.

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The Mummy – Review

reviewed by hallo
directed by Terence Fisher, 1959
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Legendary horror director Terence Fisher cemented his status as horror icon with the release of the 1958 masterpiece Horror of Dracula.  The movie set box-office records in the UK and the US, only to be broken one year later by the release of The Mummy.  Yes, Hammer Horror was establishing itself early on as a force to be reckoned with, arguably remaking Universal’s most prized horror gems into even better stories and adaptations.

The Mummy is about a team of archaeologists in the 1890’s who discover the tomb of the Egyptian princess Ananka.  There is much celebration over the once-in-a-lifetime find except when Ananka’s high priest returns from the dead to destroy those who desecrated her tomb.  They can’t say they weren’t warned – just before the team opened the tomb, a messenger of doom (who reminded me of Kazim from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), who still worships the God Karnak, declared that all who desecrated Anaka’s place of slumber would be destroyed.  It is this mysterious Egyptian who eventually summons the power of Kharis, the high priest, and bids him the task of hunting down and killing the archaeologists.

Peter Cushing stars at John Banning, one of the three desecrators, and Christopher Lee portrays the high priest/mummy.  Although The Mummy lacks the charm, elegance, and beauty of Horror of Dracula, there is still much to be appreciated in the film.  Lee presents a sympathetic monster who is more concerned with his true love Ananka than he is on the destruction of the desacrators.  When Banning’s wife appears on the scene and looks strikingly similar to the Princess Ananka, the intentions and loyalties of the mummy dramatically change.  In this way, The Mummy reminds the viewing audience that the heart for a woman can soften even the most determined acts of revenge.

In a neat piece of trivia, The Mummy was one of those films where the principle artwork and posters were released before the movie had even finished production.  Many times, the artwork was not in parallel with the imagery of the film.  So, when Christopher Lee saw the movie poster with a big hole gaping in the mummy’s chest, he was determined to make sure that happened.   So, at the end of the movie, we see the mummy getting elephant guns blasted through him.

This is just simply a classic that must be viewed by every horror fan.  Don’t go into it expecting Brendan Fraiser.  It is way better than that.

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The Thing – Review

reviewed by hallo
directed by John Carpenter, 1982
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Arguably never in the history of cinema has a film been so universally hated upon its release at the box office only to be near universally loved upon its home video release; that is the story of John Carpenter’s 1982 The Thing.  The movie is based very loosely on the 1951 Howard Hawks film The Thing from Another World, which was in turn based on the novella “Who Goes There” by John W. Campbell Jr.  It is an apocalyptic story concerning an assimilating extraterrestrial parasite that wreaks havoc on an Antarctic research station and, like  other “virus” related movies, ultimately asks the question, “what would happen if this creature reached civilization?”  One researcher at the Antarctic station, Dr. Blair (portrayed brilliantly by Wilford Brimley), discovers the answer to that fateful question which leads him to the brink of insanity.  Thus, the movie once again leads us into that wonderful world of horror where the humans are as much of a threat as the creature.

After discovering the charred remains of a Norwegian research facility, some of the American researches stumble across a frozen creature that seems to have partially human features.  They decide to bring the creature back to the American base for research, and when the thawing out process begins, so does the carnage.  Soon, the team realizes that this creature can perfectly assimilate any living organism it touches.  The hunt is on both for the creature itself and to discover who among the team has already been infected.  This is done by a simple blood test that yields one of the most suspenseful and pulse-pounding scenes of the film.  The movie concludes with a rather pessimistic ending, leaving the viewer to wonder if the “thing” has truly been destroyed.

Apart from Halloween, The Thing is John Carpenter’s best film to date.  The movie features an all male cast with Kurt Russell playing the lead character R.J. MacReady, a character that seemed to perfectly fit the personality of Russell.  The near claustrophobic nature of the Antarctic research facility is the ideal backdrop for the horror of the “thing” and the score provided by Ennio Morricone adds the perfect ambiance for the frozen, snowed over terrain (incidentally, this is one of the few films Carpenter did not score himself, although the music sounds exactly like something Carpenter would have written).  But it is the creature effects provided by Rob Bottin that sets the film apart as truly special.  For something as elaborate as these creature scenes, and there are many of them, one would typically think that a 1982 film would dramatically show its age.  Not so.  The effects stand up to today’s standards even in the realm of a 21st century digital universe, the only possible exception being the Blair creature at the very end of the film that was created using stop-motion animation.

What is most interesting about The Thing is the nature of assimilation.  Since the creature perfectly mimics those who it is in contact with, the team must discern between normal, human emotions and “weird” actions that could point to infection.  As they discover, the difference between the human and the infected is not always easy to determine.  What ensues, then, is an increasing level of distrust among the group which ultimately leads to the great universal downfall of all civilizations:  an interest only in self.  With those sub-themes firmly in place, combined with brilliant creature effects and a beautiful shot film, The Thing is a movie for the ages.

Its legacy continues to grow.  In 2007, Universal Studio’s Halloween event called Halloween Horror Nights featured a haunted house called “The Thing:  Assimilation” (unfortunately it was not very good).  Video games have been created based of Carpenter’s film.  A comic book series was adapted and it has been released that a 2011 prequel is in the works.  The special edition DVD is one of the very best out there, the audio commentary by John Carpenter and Kurt Russell is simply priceless.

The Thing by John Carpenter probably goes on my top ten horror list of all time.  I unreservedly recommend it.

Click Here to purchase The Thing.

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An American Werewolf in London – Review

reviewed by Skot
directed by John Landis, 1981
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I really want to love the werewolf horror movie sub-genre.  I love wolves.  I even investigated getting a wolf for a pet one time.  Shape-shifters, that is, human beings who can physically change into animals, are a part of folklore traditions the world over.  Hey, the notion of human beings who transform into animals is very cool.  And of all the animals, wolves are among the coolest.  Which animal would you like to become, a platypus?  The trouble is that while I like the idea of werewolf movies, I have not seen many that I truly like.  So often, either the effects are cheesy or the plot is weak.  There are certain werewolf films that horror movie fans tend to like which leave me unmoved.  There are great vampire flicks, great ghost story flicks, great zombie flicks, great slasher flicks, great monster flicks and great exorcism flicks.  But I am still waiting to find a really great werewolf picture.  An American Werewolf in London does not quite fit that bill, though I do like the movie quite a lot.  From what I’ve seen, it’s as good as they get.  It’s a fun ride, and yet falls short in an important way.

The werewolf myth is powerful.  What is the core of human nature?  What makes us civilized beings?  Are we really just animals at heart, underneath the clothes.  Some of the films that do try to take these philosophical questions seriously happen to be dull or overly predictable.  Others, such as American Werewolf in London, do not fail to entertain but cannot manage to scrape the narrative very far beneath the surface.

Two young American men, David and Jack, are backpacking through Europe, traipsing across the north of England before heading to Italy.  One of the best scenes is at the beginning when, on a damp cold night, the Americans stumble upon ‘The Slaughtered Lamb’ public house.  Clearly unwelcome, they are sent on their way with dire warnings such as, “Keep to the road,” “Stay off the moors,” and “Beware the moon.”  Paying no attention to the warnings, David and Jack soon find themselves lost under a full moon being terrorized by an unseen howling beast.  Jack is killed by the monster.  David is injured but is rescued and taken to a hospital in London.

As David recovers, he enters a romance with English nurse, Alex, played by Jenny Agutter.  At the same time, an investigation is started to find the truth about his friend’s death and other mysterious slayings.  David’s deceased friend, Jack, makes a couple of post-mortem appearances to him in order to warn him that he will transform into a werewolf at the next full moon and the only way to prevent himself from slaughtering many innocent people is to take his own life.  Apparently, part of the werewolf’s curse is that all whose lives he takes are doomed to wander the earth as the undead, lost souls, until the werewolf is killed.  Jack pleads with David to prevent further suffering and free those already affected by doing himself in.

David remains unconvinced, until it is too late.  Then to prevent himself from harming Alex, he unsuccessfully attempts to get himself arrested. The high point comes when he transforms and brings havoc upon the public in Piccadilly Circus in London.  His nurse/lover Alex goes to find him.  The police and medical establishment are after him.  Finally, David in wolf form, gets chased and trapped in an alley.

**SPOILER BEGINS**

Some reviewers have expressed dissatisfaction with the abrupt ending.  It does conclude sort of unexpectedly.  David is killed; you see Alex weep for a few seconds, and then BOOM, it’s the credits.  Director John Landis chose to end the movie right at the moment of climax, without allowing time for the repercussions to unfold.  The more I think about it, the less the suddenness of the ending bothers me.  Jack has been trying for the bulk of the movie to convince David to end his own life.  David considered it a few times; tried to say goodbye to his family; even put a Swiss Army Knife to his wrist at one point.  When David is trapped in an alley and Alex appeals to him, there is a moment when the eyes of the werewolf may recognize her.  But then it lunges to attack and is pumped full of bullets by the police.  And BOOM, it’s over.  Maybe some viewers see this as nihilistic.  We’re often trained to think by the cinema that the love of a good woman can rehabilitate a wayward man.  But here the bestial nature seems to win out.  That’s not how I read the picture, however.  I do think wolf-man David has at least a spark of recognition when Alex says his name.  His lurch to attack her is not the triumph of animal ferocity.  It is David doing the most civilized thing he can.  He gives his life, suicide by cop, to save the life of the one he loves.  He cannot be changed or fixed or improved.  A werewolf cannot be domesticated.  He can only kill or be killed.  To protect Alex, to end the cycle of violence, and perhaps to liberate the lost souls he has imprisoned by earlier attacks, he forces the police to put him down.

**SPOILER ENDS**

The transformation effects were exceptionally good for their time and actually hold up rather well.  For my money, they still beat the CGI wizardry you get today.  It’s not scary, but it is disturbing.

Director John Landis understands that horror and comedy are not antithetical.  In fact, they often work well together.  It takes a clever storyteller to find the right balance between horror and humor.  Too much either direction can fail.  An American Werewolf in London is a premium example of horrible ideas presented with just enough tongue-in-cheek to keep the audience from tuning out, either by revulsion or boredom.  Hand-in-hand with the light touch is the movie’s soundtrack.  It features three versions of Blue Moon, Moon Dance by Van Morrison and Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

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Jenifer (Masters of Horror) – Review

reviewed by Hallo
directed by Dario Argento, 2005
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Jenifer is one of the two short films directed by the “Italian Hitchcock” Dario Argento for the Showtime television horror series “Masters of Horror.”  I have reviewed his other film, Pelts, here.  Between these two offering by Argento for Showtime, Jenifer is clearly the stronger film and provides a great experience on multiple levels.

The story is about a married cop, Frank Spivey (Stephen Webber), who is taking a break with his partner during their beat to eat some Chinese food in their car.  After exiting the vehicle to use the bathroom, Spivey notices a crazed-eyed man dragging a bound and helpless blonde down to a deserted area by some water.  Just as the man is about to decapitate the lady with an ax, Spivey shoots him.  The last words uttered by the dying man to Spivey were simply, “Jenifer.”  When Spivey turns his attention to the battered girl, he is shocked to notice her face extremely deformed and disgusting.  Instead of trying to describe her deformity, I have simply provided a picture of her below.  After getting over the initial disgust, Spivey carries the lady back to his car and to the police station.

For whatever reason, Spivey is unable to get Jenifer off his mind.  His wife and son suddenly become uninteresting to him and his mind is occupied with the images of this girl who is beautiful in all ways other than her deformed face.  After learning that they sent the girl to a mental institution because she was “retarded”, Spivey shows up and checks her out.  The only place he can take her is home.  Jenifer is unable to speak, but shows her appreciation to Spivey by licking his hand, a gesture that weirds out the cop, but intrigues him at the same time.  From there, things get crazy.  After Spivey’s wife demands that Jenifer be taken somewhere, he unsuccessfully attempts to find a home for her.  Discouraged by his lack of success, he pulls the car over and stops to think.  Jenifer takes advantage of the pause and makes her move on Spivey, an advance that he is willing to accept.  The two become intimate in the vehicle.  From this point, Spivey is hopelessly lost in Jenifer’s trance.  Soon, the girl starts doing very strange things, like eating the cat and even killing a local child and using her organs for dinner.  Although this disgusts Spivey, he cannot bring himself to desert Jenifer.

Finally, Spivey takes Jenifer to an isolated cabin in the woods where he hopes she can’t hurt anyone.  His has lost his position on the force and takes a minimum wage paying job cleaning up a gas station.  When Jenifer lures the gas station son into the woods and kills him, Spivey snaps.  He binds Jenifer and drags her by the hands into the woods.  Just as he is about to kill her, a deer hunter shoots Spivey.  His last words to the deer hunter are, “Jenifer.”  The movie ends with Jenifer rubbing the hand of her new hero.

By far the best part of the movie was the incredible nod given to the original classic Frankenstein when Jenifer kills the local child.  The kid is playing in a puddle of water and Jenifer is shown watching her with great interest from behind.  It was a beautiful scene.  The movie is downright creepy and even scary in parts as Jenifer’s presence provides an ongoing sense of uneasiness, never knowing exactly what she is going to do or what her motives are.  She never turns on Spivey, even up to the very end, but instead ruins every part of his life and things he cares for the most.  In this way, Jenifer represents a multitude of desires, different for each one of us, that can consume us and drive us away from the things we love the most.  This is particular interesting to me as a pastor since it tells the ongoing struggle as portrayed in the Bible for all people – Romans 7 says, “the evil I do not want to do, this I keep on doing.”  Spivey is aware that this relationship is destroying everything he loves, but he is unwilling to break away from it.  As is typically the case, Stephen Webber provides a strong performance and the film looked wonderful.

The film, of course, is not without its faults.  The most blantant being predictability.  I am not a very good “figure the movie out” person, in part because  I don’t try to figure movies out, I just enjoy them.  But I had this one pegged from 10 minutes into the film.  Although the specific actions of Jenifer were intriguing and unpredictable to a degree, the overarching plot and ending were obvious.

Coming in at 53 minutes, Jenifer is certainly worth the time to watch.  It is nice to see Argento continue to provide some quality material and the movie speaks to an inner demon living is us all.  Sin.

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Wolfman – Review

reviewed by Skot
directed by Joe Johnston, 2010
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“It is said there is no sin in killing a beast, only in killing a man.  But where does one begin and the other end?”

This is the question presented by the 2010 remake of The Wolfman, starring Anthony Hopkins, Benicio Del Torro and Emily Blunt.  It is asked near the beginning as well as at the end of the film.  It is a question that permeates many horror films, the werewolf sub-genre most especially.  It permeates them implicitly, if not explicitly as in this case.

Horror is one of the most relevant and important genres of film and literature for our times.  Horror and fantasy and science fiction, all forms of speculative writing, permit artists and scholars to consider subject matter that fits readily into no other format.  Each age wrestles with its own philosophical questions and ethical dilemmas.  Rational discourse is not the only, perhaps not even the best, way to address some perplexing issues.  Here is where the arts and the faculty of the human imagination can be of use.  One age-old question that has never been more relevant than today has to do with human nature.  How shall we define what it means to be a human being and what is our relationship to other people, to the natural world, and to God?

Understanding the nature of man is a prevalent undertaking in the horror genre.  What is the essence of humanity and how do we differ from the animals?  Likewise, what is the definition of a monster?  What do human beings look like beneath the surface?  We present ourselves as civilized beings, rational, and self-controlled.  But is that an accurate depiction of what we are like or just a clever facade?

Christian theology considers human nature to be corrupt.  It is not evil in essence, but it has fallen and been thoroughly tainted.  This fallen nature manifests itself in the evil acts we commit.  Ideas of tabula rasa and progressive improvement do not apply to the wolfman.  Jesus warned us against being whitewashed sepulchers, structures that are clean and bright externally but which only house decay.

The plot of this version of Wolfman is unoriginal.  It is set in Victorian England.  The 1941 original was in Wales.  Dangers are always found in the marginal places, on the frontiers.  England or Wales, a terrible creature is marauding the countryside devouring whomever it finds.  Gypsies are somehow involved.  There is a family curse.  A man changes into a wolf and back again.  The monster can only be stopped with silver bullets.

Lawrence Talbot is a man at war with his inner-being.  He finds himself cursed.  Like St. Paul, he continually does things he does not want to do (Cf. Romans 7).  The Freudian interpretation would see the chief character’s inner-wolf as the man’s repressed sexual frustration, his desire for his deceased brother’s fiancee and his adversarial relationship with his father.  Other interpreters will see the classic struggle between the two natures of the the Christian, the Old Adam and the New Man.

Unquestionably, the Wolfman is evil.  The beast inside must be killed.  It cannot be reformed or rehabilitated.  If it is not destroyed, it will destroy.

Robert Louise Stevenson also mined this ore with his novel, “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”  The same man exhibited two personalities.  One of them civilized and self-controlled.  The other barbaric and dangerous.  Freud would perhaps call these the super-ego and the id.  Which personality was the truest representation of the one man?  In the end, they could not be separated.  Hyde had to be destroyed.
The Wolfman (2010) demonstrates once again the philosophical and theological importance of this much maligned genre of fiction as a metaphorical narrative.  Some things are best said in metaphors.

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