06 of 31 Horror Films I've Never Seen 2016: The Lazarus Effect (2015)

Some films are just mean.  The kind where no one is redeemed, where no real lesson was learned, and where the force of evil, or violent destruction, wins in the end.  There are plenty of them in the canon of Horror and they appear to be making a come back in more recent years.  David Gelb's The Lazarus Effect falls into this category.

The build up is key to the carnage that follows.  The story follows a team of scientists who have spent 3 years working on a serum they have dubbed 'The Lazarus Serum' on a private grant.  Their initial goal of the serum is to bridge inactive brain function during crises to help aid resuscitation, essentially, giving people a better fighting chance of survival, but over the years the experiment evolved into a resurrection agent.  Frankenstein meets the Pharmaceutical age.  The characters are introduced with all of their quirks, but the story centers on Zoe (Olivia Wilde) and Frank (Mark Duplass) the creators of the serum.  When their experiment is ripped out of their hands via corporate espionage by a Big Pharmaceutical company they race against the clock to duplicate their experiment but a malfunction electrocutes Zoe and a grief stricken Frank tries the serum (against advisement from his team) on her.  You can probably see where this is going.

While the plot is mostly predictable, as most films tend to be these days, it is delivered in a most engaging way.  There is a subtext of spirituality and science; how they clash, compete, and cohere.  Questions of moral responsibility, emotional instability, loyalty, and distrust are constant when Zoe is brought back from death via the serum, but there's not much time to dwell, because the drug's negative side effects quickly cause a highly sped up and advanced evolution to occur in Zoe's brain and the entire team suffers the consequence.

And oh do they suffer in a most brutal fashion.  Like most horror films there is a moment where it seems that the innocent will overcome the obstacle, but like most things in reality, this moment is fleeting.  Otherwise the film could not live up to the descriptor of "mean spirited."

Well meaning scientists don't quite stand a chance against a now telepathic resurrected woman who believes that she was sent to Hell during the hour she spent lying dead on the floor.

The cinematography and editing makes use of all the best tricks in the book with creative lighting gags, subliminal imagery and sound, and dynamic camera movement.  You're never quite sure where Zoe is going to pop up until she does it.  Add in some lovely supporting actors in Donald Glover, Sarah Bolger, and Evan Peters, a delightfully sinister cameo by veteran character actor Ray Wise, and you have a pretty entertaining film that is not afraid to rip your heart out and squeeze.

 

02 of 31 Horror Films I've Never Seen 2016: Dark Skies (2013)

One of the greatest things about genre film making is crossing the threshold from genre to genre. Science Fiction and Horror have frequently been mashed together with a varying degree of results so when I come across one that I truly enjoy it's a big moment.  Dark Skies, a Blumhouse production from 2013 is a truly worthy entry into the Alien Abduction world of Sci-Fi/Horror.

Centering on the Barretts, a middle class family in the suburbs of, presumably, the North West, Dark Skies examines a family under pressure made worse by frequently inexpiable events effecting the entire family.  What makes the film unique, in an otherwise very over played genre, is it's reinvention of genre tropes.  Instead of simply focusing on lost time and electronic glitches, the film plays with hallucinatory visions, catatonia, and twacked out animal behavior.

But what REALLY makes the story interesting is how they treat the nuclear family dynamic.  Not once does it feel like this is just a bunch of actors pretending to be a family.  There are real concerns going on in the background.  Social obligations and monetary concerns dominate the up-heaving world of the Barretts.   It's not until halfway through the movie that they finally dismiss all of their prior concerns to become believers in what's happening to them.  Kerri Russell and Josh Hamilton, as the mother and father leads are quite convincing as the reality of their world frays apart and the primary concern is that of any mother and father; protect the family.

The two child actors Dakota Goyo and new comer Kadan Rocket are both well placed in their roles of older and younger brother, respectively, bringing to life all the pains of growing up while set upon by an extreme and, pardon the pun, otherworldly situation.  Throw in a reserved cameo from J.K. Simmons (his hat is fantastic) and mix it together with convincing effects and increasingly moody lighting and you've got the atmosphere of a great film.

While it did suffer a few times from expository dialogue and a couple of questionable graphic effects, ultimately the films atmosphere never suffered once in it's consistency and the story, while probably not the newest, was certainly engaging and fun to watch.

 

Science Fiction Slashers and Hippy Psychotropics

Is it possible to start out as a freaky in your head acid trip, amp up into science fiction land, and then shift further into the slasher genre without becoming so completely convoluted that you lose your audience within five minutes?  Apparently it is, or at least, that's what I marveled at.  Director Panos Cosmatos' first feature film, Beyond The Black Rainbow seems to achieve this miracle.

The film starts with a kind of psychedelic infomercial about the Arboria Institute, a futuristic psychiatric care facility which fuses modern technology, psychology, and pharmacology with a sprinkle of New Age Hippy TLC.  Of course, this is not what really goes on in Arboria.  For that matter, I'm not really sure EXACTLY what happens in Arboria, but I can say that the relationship between patient Elena and Dr. Barry Nyle (the focus of the story) is anything but healing.

Nyle is crafting Elena into something.  What that something is, is not fully explained, but plenty is left up to the imagination.  All Elena craves is to see her father, the ailing Dr. Arboria, but Nyle keeps her from him, tormenting her in order to harness a unique power from her.

Visually, the film is incredible.  A plethora of beautifully contrasting color tones and blending cuts create a very unsettling feeling; natural, given the context of the story.  It is very clear that the Dr. is not all he appears to be and that the patient is more than she appears to be, and the visuals continually heighten this feeling.  Swirling cuts fade and cross-fade, blending with freeze frames and heady imagery to put us into the characters rather than merely observe them.

Somewhere along the way, the genre bends as Elena attempts to flee from her white room of constant torment and we journey with her from a mad fluorescent prison into the lush real world of plants and fresh air.

Everyone I've talked to who has seen this film has had something unique that struck them about it, whether they enjoyed the film or not.  Suffice to say, it's a multiple viewing type of film, and you will probably still NEVER quite understand exactly where it came from.  What I can tell you is this:  Panos Cosmatos was never allowed to watch horror movies as a young child.  Instead, he would look at the VHS cases and imagine what the films were about, which were dark and twisted.  When he finally DID start watching these films his mind was completely blown.

The film just completed a week long run at Cinefamily in Los Angeles.  If you can find it anywhere, do not hesitate to check it out.

A Beautiful Film About The End of the World

Recently, Video on Demand, or V.O.D. if you prefer, has been slowly creeping into more and more homes and changing the distribution model for film releasing.  I mean, let's face it, now you can build a Home Theater for relatively cheap, so why leave the comfort of your living room to go to an overpriced Theater where you'll be surrounded by people eating food, texting on their cell phones, talking, and generally disrupting the film viewing experience?

I have my own reasons for why I prefer the Theater, but the number one reason I don't go as often as I would like is the ticket price.  For those of you living in towns with ticket prices under 9 dollars for general admission, I can only say, "Don't Move To LA."

But back to the point.  You may have seen on various news sites and most certainly on YouTube, that Lars von Trier does not know how to express himself, or how to make a joke.  The filmmaker, whose list of credits are undeniably short but brilliant, was banned from Cannes over some comments he made comparing himself to a Nazi during a Q/A for his recent film Melancholia.  It was announced that the film would be released to V.O.D. in October preceding his American theatrical release in November.

If Anti-Christ was inspired by Andrei Tarkovsky's The Mirror, I think it's safe to say that Melancholia is inspired by The Sacrifice.  The film is about a previously undiscovered planet that, for lack of a better word, has been hiding behind the sun during a massive orbit, and it's orbit is taking it dangerously close to Earth.

The film starts with a 10 minute montage of metaphorical and foreshadowing footage shot entirely with the Phantom HD camera, a camera with shoots the most intense slow motion you've ever seen.  We're talking about 4000fps, which when brought into a 24fps timeline (the typical frames per second at which films are shot), allows you to watch a single drop of water explode into millions of bits on a surface.  All this, to excerpts from Wagner's Tristan and Isolde.

This film itself is very operatic, drawing heavily from the Wagner score.  We follow the grief cycles experienced in differing times of two sister, Justine, played magnificently by Kirsten Dunst, and Claire, played with reserved terror by Charlotte Gainsbourg.  A list of name actors are introduced as friends and family in the first half, only to dwindle out as we are left with our core unit of Justine, Claire, Claire's husband John (Kiefer Sutherland) and their son Leo (first and only current credit for Cameron Spurr).

The approaching Planet looms over the family, bringing out all sorts of tensions between the three adults ending in a climax that, while foreshadowed in the beginning, plays out with beauty and grace that can only be described as magnificent.

Though not a shocker like Anti-Christ, Melancholia is gorgeously shot and contains standout performances by a host of veteran and incoming talents.  I am curious to see what von Trier will do next now that he has famously stated he will no longer speak to the press.  Like many other events going on, Melancholia is set for Limited US Theatrical Release this Friday 11/11/11, an ominous date with apocalyptic entailment.  Fitting, no?

Official HD Trailer.