30 of 31 Horror Films I've Never Seen 2016: Devil Fetus (1983)

Some films are just so completely insane that they're brilliant.  Trashy? Yes.  Crude? Yes.  Outright offensive? Probably, but in all the best ways possible.  Films like this defy every concept of logic we can think of.  Characters make some of the worst decisions, but the consequences are often hilarious if not totally brutal.  Films like Hausu and Evil Dead or The Visitor all fit this criteria.  Weird, wacky, and bloody.  Heung-Chun Lau's Devil Fetus completely earns the right to be called brilliantly insane.

Set in Hong Kong, a woman buys a strange (and phalic) vase from a market auction and unwittingly releases a demon which possesses and kills her.  Sensing the demonic presence in her body, a priest binds the spirit to her name stone with a warning not to touch it for 12 years.  Of course just shy of 12 years later, the demon is released and possesses the woman's nephew, going on a murderous rampage among the family.

Where do I even begin?  This movie is so crazy that when I watched it in a full theater at The 11th Annual Aero Theatre Horrorthon the entire room was in an uproar.  People laughed and gasped and audibly responded to the insane amounts of gore that we presented on the screen.  The subtitles, many of which seemed really poorly translated, added to the insanity in such hilarious ways that regardless of how much the content didn't make sense, it created a whole extra level of enjoyment.  And it pulls every trick in the book to create it's strange world of visual insanity.

Be warned, this is not by any means a "good" film, but it is easily one of the most insanely enjoyable Horror films I've ever seen.  It was so much fun, I couldn't believe that I hadn't seen it before.  The entire time I kept thinking, that it was like someone took the plot of The Exorcist and then genetically altered it's DNA to bind it with Hausu and through it straight into a Hong Kong incubator, unleashing it upon the world before any of the kinks were worked out.  And it completely worked!  This is one of those movies that I will now likely unleash upon unsuspecting friends (probably after a couple of beers) just to watch their faces twist and contort with chaotic confusion.  That' just how worth it this film is to watch.  Unless, of course, you don't like to ever have any fun.

29 of 31 Horror Films I've Never Seen 2016: The Gift (2000)

When I was in High School and I started binging on Horror films I was given a copy of The Evil Dead.  Needless to say, that crazy film hooked me for life.  I've watched almost all of Sam Raimi's films since and have a lifelong obsession with Bruce Campbell thanks to it.  Among his post Army of Darkness films are a number of intrigues entries (as well as a few duds) but whatever you say about Raimi you can't say he doesn't have a certain way about his films that makes them uniquely his.  Even when he's treading more studio friendly ground there are unmistakable Raimi moments.  Whether it's that yellow '73 Oldsmobile, a shot of a full moon on a foggy night, or strangely slapstick humor in otherwise frightening situations, a Sam Raimi film is a Sam Raimi film.  That's what makes the Billy Bob Thornton/Tom Epperson penned The Gift so interesting.

Cate Blanchette stars as Annie, a single mother with a unique gift of extrasensory perception in a small southern town called Brixton.  She spends her days offering card readings to locals in exchange for donations of food and supplies.  After a woman goes missing, the investigators turn to Annie and her gift as a last result to try and find her.

While the plot synopsis of the film is relatively simple, what makes the gift so intriguing is the sense of Southern Gothic mixed with Raimi's stylistic elements.  A good deal of the script is spent getting to know the characters who, as people in small towns  are, have a good deal of dark secrets under their well meaning mannerisms.  Complex issues of abuse and mental disturbance abound on the periphery but all of the sub plots combine toward the conclusion making for a truly complete story.  Giovanni Ribisi shines particularly as Buddy, the local mechanic who suffers from serious mental trauma surrounding his father.

One can really feel the small town aesthetic attributable to both Raimi and Thornton's youth.  I would almost be so bold as to call it a spiritual sibling to Thornton's Sling Blade if in setting alone.  Regardless of the large star ridden ensemble cast there is a truthfulness to the characters that reads marvelously.  I found myself stunned by how much I enjoyed actors that I normally don't think much of, like Keanu Reeves and Katie Holmes.  Reeves as a truly despicable wife abusing redneck was fascinating to watch and the amount of animosity that he instills is perfect to the character.  All in all, it fits well thematically as a follow up to A Simple Plan (which starred Thornton), in it's exploration of the darkness inherent in all people.  Not as outrageous as his earlier works, but still a worthy film to the Raimi oeuvre.

23 of 31 Horror Films I've Never Seen 2016: Another (2014)

There is nothing more frustrating than when a film's tone becomes muddy and inconsistent.  Ultimately it alienates all tastes in the audience because it is impossible to make up one's mind when the film dashes interesting moments with amateurish and poorly written dialogue scenes.  Such is the fate of  Jason Bognacki's Another (aka Mark of the Witch).

Following her birthday, Jordyn (Paulie Redding), begins to have bizarre hallucinations and experiences extreme losses in time and memory ultimately leading her to the conclusion that she may be marked by the Devil.

What can I say about this film without being overly negative?  It has a number of interesting sequences remnicients of fever dreams, but ultimately it cops out on these moments with poorly written dialogue to move the plot forward.  Throw in a number of actors (especially the lead) who were likely chosen more based on their looks than their ability to act and you have a grade A mess on your hands.  It's like Bognacki just couldn't decide if he was making an arthouse horror film or a straightforward demonic possession exploitation film.  Scenes that are intended to be seductive or erotic are flat and lifeless.  To much of the post production feels rushed and unpolished.  Sure, the score has some interesting use of classics mixed with tripped out sensory attacking pieces, but that doesn't mean a damn when the whole scene is marred by completely uninteresting dialogue.

I wish I could say this didn't happen so often in horror films, but the truth is it happens all the time.  How the scripts get produced is beyond me.  The upsetting thing for me about the film is that the beginning had my attention almost immediately and then when it had me craving more it dashed that hope by a drastic and inexplicable tonal shift.  These shifts happen all over the finished product of the film and the conclusion is an annoying twist that felt completely unnecessary.  Where the film completely fails in dialogue it attempts to make up for with high concept cinematography, but this unfortunately gives it far too much of a disjointed feeling.  Give it a look if you've got the time, if anything to see what it's like when a filmmaker can't seem to decide what kind of movie they're making.

Nouvelle Fairy Tales

Catherine Breillat has been dubbed, in the past, as "The Bad Girl of Contemporary French Cinema" and while her recent take on the fairy tale of The Sleeping Beauty is not particularly shocking or risqué, it is still an entertaining exercise in the style of New Wave.

Originally a made for TV film, it was later released in a limited theatrical run and some festival play.  Telling the tale of the girl who is cursed from birth to fall into a 100 year sleep at age 16, Breillat's version takes great liberty in it's lore, while simultaneously telling a story about preservation and love.  The central character is Anastasia (played for the majority of the film by newcomer Carla Besnainou,) a rambunctious princess who loves reading the dictionary and listening to the ticking of clocks and imagines herself as a knight.  From birth she is cursed by a witch (for no real specific reason I might add) to die at age 16.  Three other witches intervene and use their powers so that she will instead fall into a sleep for 100 years at age 6 and wake up aged 16, but while she sleeps she live in a fantastic dreamscape.

In the dreamscape, she meets Peter, whom she almost instant falls in love with but who is stolen from her by the Ice Queen.  What follows is her search for Peter and the many strange and interesting character's she meets along the way.  All while learning the different ways that people grow mentally and emotionally.

Breillat favors long takes, frank dialogue, and honest emotional output from her actors, never afraid to expose the beautiful and ugly things that people do to each other.  Thematically, the film is about growing up in a fantasy world and the joys and dangers that come with that.  When Anastasia does finally wake up, it's in a world much different from dreamscape, where things are not quite what they seem.  It poses a question, can love transcend time?

Since it was designed as a TV film, the budget constraints were considerable.  However, because of the minimalist new wave style the film still retains a very entertaining quality about it.  Not for the people who love special effects, explosions, and other visceral types of things, but for those who enjoy a more cerebral experience.  I found myself specifically drawn to Breillat after watching a documentary called Great Directors (which, incidentally, you can watch on Netflix Streaming.)  She's a survivor.  Her early career in the late 70s was almost destroyed by critics who found her work to be offensive.  She doesn't pull her punches and has a naturalistic approach to sexuality.  That scares people sometimes, but I absolutely love it.

As I said before, not for the average movie-goer, but the film kept my attention and it's only 1hr 27min so what's to lose?  If you've ever met someone and felt yourself thinking "This guy needs to read a bloody book once in a while." The Sleeping Beauty will not disappoint you.  It's available on Netflix Instant along with 4 other works from 2002-onward.  Check it out!