25 of 31 Horror Films I've Never Seen: Spring (2014)

I love films with open endings.  I like philosophical exploration, emotional clarity, and above all things I love when a film is unafraid to explore honesty.  There are so many different ways to do it; metaphorically, allegorically, scientifically, and spiritually.  So what do you call a film that explores the metaphysics of love via a monster movie format?  All of the above I suppose and that's what makes Aaron Moorehead and Justin Benson's Spring an immensely great film.

After his mother succumbs to cancer, Evan's (Lou Taylor Pucci) life is completely upended by tragedy and circumstance causing him to flee the United States.  With no idea where to go he books a flight to Italy where fate pushes him towards Louise (Nadia Hilker) an incredible woman harboring a dark secret.

Every review you will ever read likes to draw comparison's to Richard Linklater, particularly Before Sunrise and due to many of the creature transformation effects present (and the seaside setting) to the horror of H.P. Lovecraft.  It's an apt comparison, at least stylistically, but there is something so completely honest about Spring that I think it's almost unfair.  That is not to say that Linklater's films don't contain honesty, but he does have a certain pretension to philosophical meandering that is nowhere near as present in Moorehead and Benson's work.  The immediate intimacy between the two leads is electric and their dialogue is so refreshingly honest, witty, blunt, charming, and mature.  So much of dialogue in films is made up of arguments that lead nowhere.  Evan and Louise communicate so fully throughout the film that it almost makes it read even more as a fantasy, if only because the audience isn't used to it.

This film was a breakout success following their first film Resolution which gained some notoriety at the Tribecca Film Festival in 2012, another film in which they use the Horror genre as a springboard (pun intended) to discuss other more real life issues and fears.  Spring, outside of being an incredible mash up of genre, is also an exquisitely shot film where the camera itself takes on the presence of an invisible character.  Settling on strange animal and plant activity happening the foreground which starts of barely noticeable and slowly becomes a focal metaphor to the rest of the narrative, the camera never feels intrusive or uninviting, but instead a welcoming power.  It is also so refreshing to see a film that isn't afraid to inhale deeply personal emotions and exhale a monstrous creature that feasts on living prey.  A fantastic second feature from a team of incredible filmmakers who are absolutely worth following.

24 of 31 Horror Films I've Never Seen 2016: German Angst (2015)

It’s not very often that I watch anthology/omnibus films.  For the most part, I prefer to watch feature length films over shorts, but over time I’ve been coming around to format.  To preface, an anthology film is a feature length film comprised of multiple short films by different directors following a common theme.  Horror happens to yield quite well to the result and there have been a number of anthology films released in the last few years.  V/H/S and ABC’s of Death both have taken the format to franchise territory and when Asian Horror was booming during the mid-2000s we had gems like The Three Extremes 1 & 2.  Released last year, however, the triplet of stories that make up German Angst are in a class of their own.

From Director’s Jörg Buttgereit (NEKRomantik, Der Todesking, Schramm), Michal Kosakowski (Zero Killed), and Andreas Marschall (Tears of Kali, Masks) join forces to bring three films about love, sex, and death in Berlin.  To give away much more than that would honestly ruin the experience.

First of all, these films fall into the category of extreme horror.  Shock value is high and taboos don’t really exist.  Buttgereit is the more well-known of the three due to his incredibly grotesque shock films from the late 80s and into the 90s, but Kosakowski and Marschall are unafraid to show just how far they push the limits with their segments.  There is a lot of bloodshed in this anthology and it is almost always squirm inducing.  However, the mood and thematic tone of the films are incredibly poetic, recalling the romantic lyricism of the Silent Expressionist films in the 20s.  Updated for the modern age of course, but anyone with an interest in silent film history will be able to feel it when watching German Angst.

Of the three segments I’m honestly torn.  They’re all so unique and yet they meld so well together.  I think perhaps I found myself squirming more during the animal brutality in Kosakowski’s Make A Wish segment which has a lot of references to Nazi atrocities past and present.  Buttgereit’s Final Girl at first makes one think that he’s toning himself down from his past, but believe me he still manages to push a few nausea buttons.  Marschall’s Alraune is probably the most tension inducing and supernatural of the three and boasts some incredible creature effects.  Each film leads into the next perfectly giving the feeling of the beginning of a day and ending in the dead of night.  There really is something for every type of horror fan in this film, but it is not for the faint of heart or the easily nauseated.

 

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.

22 of 31 Horror Films I've Never Seen 2016: A Field In England (2013)

Hallucinations are probably some of my favorite plot devices in Horror films.  The boundaries don't exist when making a hallucination sequence because hallucinations, in of themselves, are boundless.  They're completely tailored to one's individual fears and anxieties as well as their perceptions.  They're visual, aural, and tactile and when done right they leaver the viewer incredibly confused!  Ben Wheatley's A Field In England may be one of the greatest hallucinatory films of the last decade, at the very least, and definitely boasts the 5.1 sound design I've heard on a film in as much time.

Set during Oliver Cromwell's parliamentary civil war in England the story follows a group of men deserting a battlefield.  The band together to find an ale house and after a meal which included quite a bit of hallucinatory mushrooms along the way uncover an alchemist who takes control of them and forces them to help him find a hidden treasure buried someone in the field.

This movie is a trip.  Literally.  Amy Jump's incredible script is period correct (which is pretty awesome), the characters are all so fully realized that the connectivity between them is really beautiful, and the sound mix, as I stated before, is almost ungodly.  The incredible grounded realism combined with hallucinatory sequencing travels around the circle of the 5.1 environment.  The only downside to that fact is that I can't really imagine it having the same effect in a stereo environment which does alienate some viewers for home release.  However, that doesn't take away from the visual field which is grimy and incredibly grounded.  It could be anywhere and it could be nowhere which heightens the incredibly uneasy mood and tone of the film.

I also love that it was shot in Black and White.  The binary coarseness of it heightens the overall tone in all the best ways possible to accentuate the performances.  And what performances they were.  Michael Smiley, who I know best as Tyres in Spaced, is a truly wicked villain.  He's a malicious egoist who is so completely self assured that when his "victims" retake control of the situation his downfall is beautifully brutal.  All of the elements combining in this film are symbiotic toward the overall vision, which is what most films truly aim for (but don't always succeed at) in the long run.  While this film certainly skirts the fine line of what is Horror and what is not, it's occult influence is incredibly clear and it's unconventional narrative is brilliant.

 

21 of 31 Horror Films I've Never Seen 2016: Firestarter 2: Rekindled (2002)

Sometimes you watch a movie that your gut immediately tells you is going to be bad.  From the promotional artwork, to the plot synopsis, to the cast list, to the fact that it's a sequel to a film that definitively should not have a sequel.  When I finally got a copy Firestarter it happened to come in a set with a tv miniseries sequel directed by Robert Iscove called Firestarter 2: Rekindled.  I knew from the start it was going to be pretty bad, but sometimes you just can't help yourself.

Set roughly 10 to 15 years after the events of the original film, Firestarter 2 finds Charlie McGee (Marguerite Moreau) under an assumed name going to a college in Colorado.  Many of the key moments of Stephen King's novel are retold in flashbacks juxtaposed to the current events in which she is being sought out by Vincent Sforza (Danny Nucci) a naive office worker who believes he is finding survivors from the original drug test that created Charlie's powers in the first place to compensate them for damages.  Of course it's all an elaborate trap that leads Charlie back against her original foe, (previously assumed dead) John Rainbird (Malcolm McDowell), and a new group of psychic powered children he is grooming.

I'm going to be short and sweet about this:  For a TV movie, it's okay, but otherwise it's pure dreck as I pretty much knew it would be from the start.  Marguerite Moreau is interesting as an actress and Malcolm McDowell is always fun to watch, but their characters are such boring cliche's that it's easy to be distracted.  It has a larger budget than most TV films had at the time but that doesn't save it from it's many glaring faults.  Flat lighting, annoyingly relentless score (seriously there is not one moment without cheap and utterly bad music), and a relatively boring script.

The real reason I watched it was for Dennis Hopper's cameo and I liked the idea of the concept.  Why wouldn't I want to revisit a character of one of my favorite sci-fi horror films?  The concept isn't all that uninteresting, but all the things worth exploring are pretty much ignored in favor of pulpy (i.e. boring) cliches.  So ultimately it's another case of another film that can only be made enjoyable with inebriation, which I suppose means it has it's moments, but they're too far in between to really make a difference or save the end result.

20 of 31 Horror Films I've Never Seen: Deep Sleep (2013)

I've reviewed a number of Neo-Giallo films last year and I'm constantly looking for more.  I just can't help myself, I love the genre.  The films are so full of provocations so unabashedly exploitative in nature.  Everything is fair game in a Giallo. Sex, death, car chases, you name it.  They can be serious, they can be silly, they can be somewhere in the middle.  They can border and blur the lines of horror and crime stories.  They're fetishistic and they have some of the most awesome soundtracks and scores known to cinema.  Since around 2012 they've been making a come back as fans of the genre are starting to make their own films, taking the low budget aesthetics and applying them in great homage.  Luciano Onetti's Deep Sleep takes homage one step further, fully justifying it's status as a Neo-Giallo.

After a killer with a traumatized childhood murders a Brazilian prostitute someone slips an envelope under their door with pictures of the murder and a phone number written down.  The killer calls the number and is informed by the voice on the other line that they are going to kill them.  In a refreshing twist, the killer becomes the hunted and must try to figure out who the mysterious voice on the telephone is before it's too late, but what takes place is full of twists and turns as nothing is quite as it appears.

Onetti (who wrote, shot, edited, and scored the film) certainly seems to have a knack for the disturbing and the deranged.  past and present converge between constant first person perspective to get the audience in the mind of his incredibly deranged killer.  Hallucinogenic hardly begins to describe the kaleidoscopic childhood memory sequence and the music and sound design only heighten this property.  There are a lot of interesting visual cues.  The two gloved killers are denoted by white latex gloves for one and black leather gloves for the other.  Plenty of nods to Dario Argento's Deep Red, Sergio Martino's Case of the Scorpions Tail (particularly the colorfully tripped out trailer) and other works of the genre are represented through roughshod film grain and color timing to match the seedy quality of fading prints.

The problem with the film is it's constant POV which dominates the 66 minute runtime.  While Onetti peppers it with other creepy close up shots of clocks, photographs, other actors (usually victims and hands) he relies far to heavily upon the POV creating an overly claustrophobic look.  While this is effective at times, on the whole, it cheapens the narrative.  Still it's an intriguing story with little dialogue and an incredible score that sounds like it could have been actually recorded in the 70s.  A great look at what can be done with no budget, but probably only of interest to serious fans of the genre.

19 of 31 Horror Films I've Never Seen 2016: The Relic (1997)

Humans are obsessed with monsters.  We use the word to describe anything that causes us to fear, including other humans, and to describe anything that seems beyond empathy.  We also use it to describe any type of predator creature that could kill us.  We're naturally terrified of the idea that we are not above decimation by something bigger and meaner that doesn't give a single care to our well being in the world.  We create monsters for a variety of reasons, some even spiritual, but the end game seems to always come back to fear.  How else do you describe Peter Hyams' The Relic.

An anthropologist is documenting a Brazilian tribal ritual.  The shaman gives him tea which he drinks and he suffers a particularly violent reaction.  Later that evening he rushes to a cargo ship begging the captain to remove a crate that he was sending to the Chicago Natural History Museum, but he is denied.  He sneaks aboard the boat to find his crates, but discovers that they've accidentally been left on the dock and he is now out to sea with the ship.  Six weeks later, the ship is found floating, it's entire crew killed and brought to the Chicago Harbor where superstitious Lt. Vincent D'Agosta (Tom Sizemore) is investigating it.  Another week later, crates from Brazil full of strange leaves show up and the night that Evolutionary Biologist Dr. Margo Green (Penelope Ann Miller) is studying them, a guard is murdered at the Chicago Natural History Museum in a similar fashion as the crew on the boat.  A huge gala is approaching and all signs are pointing to something other than a simple criminal mind.

Where do I begin with this film?  While the subtext has many interesting ideas floating around it's nothing more than a basic creature feature.  Rather than focusing on the mythos behind the creature's creation and the implications of that mythos the audience is taken into a serious of under lit situations where people are grabbed by a wheezing off camera monster who viciously decapitates them and eats part of their brain.  For a bunch of supposedly intelligent scientists everyone in the film makes increasingly stupid decisions (aside from D'Agosta) that usually end up with them getting killed brutally.  The first have focuses primarily on tension and suspense but as soon as the creature shows it's face it's an all out action movie of people running away from a truly terrifying looking beast designed by Stan Winston.

This film came out at the same time as Mimic and I recall the trailers on TV being pretty similar looking.  Though The Relic got a much bigger budget Mimic is ultimately a far more unsettling film with a much more terrifying premise.  Both films falter in the second half, Relic with it's sudden shift in genre and Mimic with it's anticlimactic "happy ending."  The thing is that even while Tom Sizemore pulled off a great subdued performance as an edgy superstitious detective, none of the characters really draw sympathy from the audience.  They're caricatures at best and the only one I found myself caring about was a wheelchair bound Dr. Frock (James Whitmore) who has about as little screen time as Dr. Cuthbert (Linda Hunt).  At the end of the day, it's a monster movie that takes itself a little too seriously and doesn't really offer anything more than the typical jump scares and creature kills.  But I suppose with a couple of friends, a case of beer, and all the lights off it can make for a sort of entertaining watch.