10 of 31 Horror Films I've Never Seen 2016: Bound to Vengeance (2015)

Exploitation films are somewhat of a conundrum for me.  On one hand, I adore them for their daring visual techniques, bold storytelling, and usually killer soundtracks.  On the other hand, I abhor their obvious exploitative treatment of "the other," which is a way of saying "just about anything that isn't white, hetero-normative, and male."  Usually I just try to ignore the obvious, since I am watching an exploitation film after all, and occasionally I get surprised by those little needles hiding in the haystack.  I'm constantly fascinated by the new generation of exploitation films which focus more on the tertiary things like sex, violence and gore, but have started becoming more inclusive (though they still have a long way to go) of "the other."  J.M. Cravioto's Bound to Vengeance falls somewhere in the transitory stage of almost brilliant and doesn't quite hit the mark I hoped it would.

When Eve (Tina Ivlev), a kidnapped girl, frees herself from bondage and discovers that she's part of a much bigger kidnapping sex slavery ring.  Arming herself a gun, a home-made choker pole (like animal control officers use to catch stray dogs), and a number of pictures of bound women with names, she takes control of her captor (Richard Tyson) and forces him to take her to each of the girls in the picture, in the hopes of liberating them.  Things do not quite go as she hopes and the plot, indeed, thickens.

This film falls into the "rape/revenge" category of exploitation films, but unlike most of it's genre it does not go into graphic detail of the rape, choosing to imply it with flashback cutting, and sticks to the revenge.  Bondage, as a theme, is present everywhere, from the title, to how the women are found, to a more metaphysical emotional bondage that Eve has with her captor.  She can't escape him until she has met out her vengeance because he has the addresses that she needs in order to do so.  I would say that her character is probably one of the most nuanced women in the genre, except for the fact that she is still beholden to the male fantasy of the "badass woman who takes revenge into her own hands."  In that, while the offer a few moments of humanity, she is mostly portrayed as a revenge driven killing machine bordering on psychotically obsessed.

Considering that it was shot on, likely, a low budget, it has a very consistent look, feel, and style to it.  It also boasts a great score by Simon Boswell, but the film fails out quite in dialogue.  Nevermind that it has a few plot holes (why does no one ever call the police when they hear gunshots?), all exploitation films have those, but Ivlev's performance is consistently hampered by unbelievable dialogue situations.  While Tyson's sociopathic predatory performance is yields well, it's just damn hard to buy into Eve falling for a number of the little traps he sets her up for.  To put it bluntly, if we refer to this film by the three act structure, upon which most films are based, the second act falters in a number of places.  The first and third act, luckily, make up for that, but still, this film is clearly only going to be accepted by a niche audience that knows what they're getting into and perhaps that's the ultimate downfall of the film.  It tries to be the best of both exploitative and art worlds when the filmmakers probably should have picked one or the other and went with it.

"No Speeches. You point the gun? You shoot the gun.": Blue Ruin

Revenge has always been a constant in the fictional world.  Be it in poetry or prose, theater or film, revenge seems to go back as far as humankind first began as harry apelike beasts evolving too fast for their own good.  There's a whole gamete of revenge films, but the type that seems to stick out are those with a sort of Shakespearean blood feud attached.  Throw in a bit of Greek tragic irony and a Jean-Pierre Melville style of deadpan lead acting, and you've got one hell of a film in Blue Ruin.

The premise is simple.  A young man, Dwight, learns that his parent's killer is about to be released from prison and goes after him in revenge.  Through a series of tense and suspenseful moments we learn that not only is there some seriously messed up southern style retribution coming, but that the nature of the killings are not so clear cut.  The story then becomes about family vs family, son killing son because of the transgressions of the fathers.

Through meditative cinematography and a consistent following of the primary character, the film manages to suck you into Dwight's incredibly conflicted state of mind.  His need to kill his father's killer regardless of his foresight that it can't end there is what makes it so deliciously tragic.  Pitched as a quasi Cohen Brothers style film, Blue Ruin utilizes the revenge story to analyze the bond of blood and bounds of reason.  When it comes to blood, reason tends to get thrown out the window, culminating in a deadly stand off of truly brutal proportions.

The film is remarkably well made and utilizes a cast of nearly complete unknowns and character actors, which forces us to look simply at the characters and story without the distractions that come with A-List casting.  Macon Blair's portrayal of the troubled lead is such a quiet intensity that you can practically see the fuse burning.  His pain reaches beyond the screen so viscerally that it's hard not to sympathize with Dwight's plight, but his conflict is a hugely internal one that he manages to externalize incredibly well.

You can catch this film on most streaming sources, or buy a blu ray.  Top notch indie film making!

The Serpent and the Spider

If you know me, you know that I'm an avid fan of asian cinema, particularly the cinema of Japan.  I go to great lengths to find films that are otherwise impossible to find in America, simply because I like the Director's work.  This is achieved through websites like Yes Asia and various other means, such as bootlegs and torrents.

One Director, whose work I come back to somewhat frequently, is Kiyoshi Kurosawa (no relation to master film maker Akira Kurosawa).  Most of his films which have received release in America fall into the supernatural, horror, and thriller genres, but some of his lesser known films were genre pieces.  Like many director's cutting their teeth in the late 80s and early 90s, Kurosawa made his fair share of Direct to Video/TV Movie features.  Films like the Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself series, or Door 3 are examples of this.

When he moved to Horror/Thriller, with Cure, the story about a bizarre link in a series of killings, he was on the cusp of leaving "product films," but at the challenge of a producer friend of his he made two more, in the space of 1 and 1/2 weeks.  Not an easy feat, let me tell you.

Those films are The Serpents Path and Eyes of the Spider.

Both films are revenge stories and both films involve a character named Nijima (played by Sho Aikawa), and yet completely different in pace and tone.  The Serpents Path, for example, plays like a traditional revenge/detective procedural with a few interesting twists along the way.  Nijima is a math teacher who helps a low-level yakuza track down a group of people who were all involved in the rape and murder of said yakuza's 8 year old daughter.  We are drawn in because we do not understand until later why Nijima is helping this man.  He has an enigmatic quality about him.  Why would a man who teaches math at a cram school to students young and old (one of which is an 8 year old prodigy) risk his life and his career to help a low-level thug?  Is it out of empathy or does he have an ulterior motive?  Does he NEED to have a motive?  These questions kept me hooked, regardless of my small laptop screen and awful speakers.

On the other hand, Eyes of the Spider, is completely different.  It misleads the viewer into thinking it is going to be another standard revenge procedural when instead the revenge aspect of the story is resolved within the first 10 minutes of the film.

The core premise is the same, with a few important differences.  This time, Nijima, who is NOT a math teacher, but some kind of salaryman, is the father of the victim.  An average man, he goes to the extreme and finds his daughter's killer himself after 6 years of searching.  After satisfying his revenge, his life becomes devoid of meaning and he drifts through each day until a chance meeting with an old high school friend has him leave his salaryman life and enter that of a low-level yakuza gang.  The film has a much more philosophical tone and Nijima has to deal with issues like the validity of life and the effect of his actions on his own soul.  What is right and what is wrong when the whole world seems to be absolutely insane?  And what about consequences?

The world, as we know it, always finds a way to give consequences to our actions.  It is no different in films than it is in life.  Spider does an excellent job of showing the consequences to all the characters actions, whether they are physical or metaphysical in nature.

Despite these glaring differences, their are also structural similarities that needn't go unlooked.  Each film starts with the revenge plot, each film has a bloody climax, and each film has an open ending that begs certain questions from the viewer.

Unfortunately, these films still do not have domestic release, but if you're internet savvy, you can find a way to see them.  Definitely worth the watch.

Note: I am in no way, shape, or form, condoning piracy to the readers of this review.  As such, I will not be held responsible for the individual actions that any person who reads this review makes.