Saturday, October 31, 2015
Bone Tomahawk (2015)
Director: S. Craig Zahler
Notable Cast: Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, Richard Jenkins, Lili Simmons, Sid Haig
Sometimes (more often than not) the best way to experience a film, especially when you have a good, gut feeling about it, is to go in with little to no knowledge of the film whatsoever. If you see or read about something that makes you say "I think I really wanna see this", then look no further, and seek it out, unless you are the type who can't really do that or don't want to, then buy all means, spoil the ride. That said, this is exactly the way I've experienced the biggest cinematic surprise of 2015 for me, Bone Tomahawk.
Friday, October 30, 2015
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)
Director: Joe Chapelle
Notable Cast: Donald Pleasence, Paul Rudd, Marianne Hagan, Devin Gardner, J.C. Brandy, Mitchell Ryan
AKA: Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers, Halloween 6, and Halloween 666: The Origin of Michael Myers (teaser trailer)
AKA: Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers, Halloween 6, and Halloween 666: The Origin of Michael Myers (teaser trailer)
As my Halloween
marathon continues this year, it’s come to my attention that my reviews of the
various sequels to this franchise do not always align with the viewpoints of
its dedicated fan base. The various dozens of messages, emails, and comments
about my reviews of the Halloween
films have certainly solidified the fact that this franchise has some die-hard
fans that are willing to fight and die for the various entries. Unfortunately,
when it comes to the sixth entry of the series, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, I don’t know if there is any
kind of dedicated fan base that can justify just how odd this film is. The resulting film has been edited into two very different cuts of the film, both of which
will be talked about here and neither of which are very good thanks to a
horrible production.
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Golden Cane Warrior, The (2015)
Director: Ifa Isfansya
Notable Cast: Christine Hakim, Eva Celia Latjuba, Nicholas Saputra, Reza Rahadian, Tara Basro
With the international success of Gareth Evans’ The Raid and its subsequent sequel, it
would only seem fitting that there would be a bit of a boom in the Indonesian
film market – if not just in the Indonesian martial arts film market. A film
like The Golden Cane Warrior would
normally go overlooked in the grand spectrum of international film releasing
(particularly here in the US), but with this new global eye on the area it’s
not all that surprising that The Golden
Cane Warrior would get a slightly larger than normal release. Fortunately, the
wuxia inspired film is fairly deserving of this kind of attention as a very ambitious
martial arts drama. Blending the likes of classic Shaw Brothers wuxia with a melodramatic
and artistic touch akin to Zhang Yimou films, The Golden Cane Warrior is a fun
and modern slice of traditional martial arts film history rolled into one... and
I enjoyed the hell out of it.
Sunday, October 25, 2015
Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (1972)
Director: Sergio Martino
Notable Cast: Edwige Fenech, Anita Strindberg, Luigi Pistilli, Ivan Rassimov, Franco Nebbia, Riccardo Salvino, Angela La Vorgna, Enrica Conaccorti, Daniela Giordano, Ermelinda De Felice
*Part of a duel pack called Black Cats available from Arrow Video*
Giallo is far from my favorite genre overall and it’s
usually one that I rarely review here at Blood Brothers, but when Arrow Video’s
latest release of Sergio Martino’s Your
Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (which will be known as Your Vice from this point on for the
sake of hand fatigue) landed on my doorstep it was hard not to get a bit
excited. Your Vice contains some of the work of many of the iconic names of
giallo cinema to it and yet, I had only heard of mixed things about the loose
adaption of Edgar Allan Poe’s Black Cat
story. In the end, Your Vice is the mixed bag that many fans claimed it to be,
but it’s hardly the film that some called disappointing. Particularly when the
third act comes out so strongly that it delivers a purpose to the rather plodding first
two-thirds that viewers may not see coming.
Black Cat, The (1981)
Director: Lucio Fulci
Notable Cast: Patrick
Magee, Mimsy Farmer, David Warbeck, Al Cliver, Dagmar Lassander, Bruno
Corazzari, Geoffrey Copleston, Daniela Doria
*Part of a duel pack called Black Cats available from Arrow Video*
By 1981, Lucio Fulci was riding high on a streak of hits
like Zombi and City of the Living Dead– Italian films full of gore, horrors, and
his iconic stylish visuals. In the middle of what many might call his golden
era of filmmaking, Fulci did end up making The
Black Cat, a film inspired by the story of Edgar Allen Poe and one that would
go on to be something of an overlooked gem of atmosphere and odd narrative for
many fans. Truthfully The Black Cat
is hardly as good as Zombi or The Beyond that would come right
afterwards, but that doesn’t mean the film isn’t without some awesome material that
is finally getting the proper release that Fulci fans have been asking for from
Arrow Video.
Saturday, October 24, 2015
Bloody Knuckles (2015)
Director: Matt O.
Notable Cast: Adam Boys, Gabrielle Giraud, Kasey Ryne Mazak, Ken Tsui, Dwayne Bryshun
While it might seem unusual to the average person, I was
pretty excited to watch Bloody Knuckles.
The concept of a severed hand taking revenge for its lost body, mixed with
offensive elements and plenty of gore, sparked an interest in me. Perhaps it’s
my odd love for the massively overlooked horror comedy Idle Hands or the odd blend of horror, comedy, offensiveness, and
revenge flick that Bloody Knuckles
promised, but I was pretty stoked to be throwing in the Blu Ray when it arrived
on my doorstep. It just might be these expectations of cult horror comedy gold
that left me a bit underwhelmed overall by the film. It certainly has its
moments and for the casual horror fan it might find some of it as offensive,
but Bloody Knuckles didn’t quite
execute the outrageous promises that it seemed to have potential for. Fun,
sure, but not nearly as effective with the mix as one would hope.
Friday, October 23, 2015
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)
Director: Dominique Othenin-Girard
Notable Cast: Danielle Harris, Donald Pleasence, Ellie Cornell, Beau Starr, Wendy Kaplan, Tamara Glynn, Jeffrey Landman, Jonathan Chapin, Matthew Walker
Notable Cast: Danielle Harris, Donald Pleasence, Ellie Cornell, Beau Starr, Wendy Kaplan, Tamara Glynn, Jeffrey Landman, Jonathan Chapin, Matthew Walker
After the producers successfully resurrected Michael Myers
for his return in Halloween 4, a film that still has an odd cult following
today, it didn’t take them long to scramble up another sequel to capitalize on
the re-surging success of the series…and the speedy turnaround shows with
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers. There still seems to be somewhat of
a cult audience that follows this entry, which seems to be beyond my
understanding, because outside of a few moments it’s hard to recommend this entry
to anyone but the slasher addicted horror fan. Especially when the film takes
some random turns that really don’t benefit the whole and baffles the audience.
Monday, October 19, 2015
Northern Limit Line (2015)
Director: Kim Hak-soon
Notable Cast: Kim
Mu-yeol, Jin Goo, Lee Hyun-woo, Lee Wan, Kim Ji-hoon, Jang Joon-hak,
JooHee-joong, Lee Min-ho
Many of the early reviews for Northern Limit Line spouted off rhetoric about the film being too
propaganda-ish with its patriotic South Korean themes. Truthfully though, the
film is not even nearly as bad as 80% of the war films that get made in the
United States. In fact, Northern Limit
Line is quite the serviceable military drama…to a fault. Often enough, it
actually plays things relatively safe as it caters to its mainstream audience
instead of really digging into its material. Still, this Korean piece of
dramatic action has enough heart and enough action to keep the audience hooked throughout
its two hour run time even if the film quickly dissolves from memory after the
credits roll.
Sunday, October 18, 2015
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)
Notable Cast: Danielle
Harris, Ellie Cornell, Donald Pleasance, Tom Tucker, Beau Starr
After Halloween III
pissed everyone off with its lack of Michael Myers, it seemed like an easy fix
to bring Michael Myers back for the fourth one and call it Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers just so all of the fans
would know that he was coming back. So the producers and director slapped
together a story about Michael Myers escaping while being transported to
another psychiatric hospital and heading back to Haddonfield to kill his niece…since
Jamie Lee Curtis didn’t sign back on. The results are a rather uninspired
slasher flick that hits a lot of the tropes, despite the best efforts from a
visual standpoint and an intriguing spin on the concept. While Halloween 4 remains a fun movie in its
silliness, it’s truthfully not very good and not very memorable.
Thursday, October 15, 2015
Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
Director: Tommy Lee Wallace
Notable Cast: Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin, Dan O'Herlihy, Michael Currie
Notable Cast: Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin, Dan O'Herlihy, Michael Currie
Of all of the Halloween
sequels in all of the land, Halloween
III: Season of the Witch has the strangest and most devout cult following
of them all. The film itself was fairly controversial, if not for just the fact
that it is a Michael Myers-less entry, and it has created a massive divide of
people that fall into the ‘love’ or the ‘hate’ columns. The people who love it
will defend it with all of their logistical might and those who hate it will
simply refuse to acknowledge its existence as a film... let alone part of an
iconic slasher franchise. For this reviewer, Halloween III remains a fun 80s flick, working in some nice silly
concepts and some oddly serious performances, but it’s not nearly the classic
that some say it is. In the end, it falls right in the middle of the two
extreme opinions of the film.
Sunday, October 11, 2015
Raid, The (1991)
Directors: Tsui Hark, Ching Siu-Tung
Notable Cast: Dean Shek, Jacky Cheung, Tony Leung Kai Fai, Corey Yuen, Goyce Godenzi, Paul Chun, Lau Chi Ming, Fennie Yuen
Tsui Hark’s career as a director has been a scattered one. His focus on style over substance can leave a lot of memorable moments, but when it comes to films that last the test of time…he’s not the most effective of directors. However, his latest film The Taking of Tiger Mountain was something of a throwback to the days when he had an understanding between the balance of spectacle and narrative. I bring up this film because its distributor Well Go USA is releasing one of his “classic” films from 1991 called The Raid…and the comparisons between the two films are striking. The Raid is a historically set action adventure flick with enough humor, heart, and outrageous elements to entertain most any Hong Kong cinema fan. It’s hardly a perfect film in trying to balance all of these elements, but The Raid is a strong reminder of a time when Tsui Hark could still entertain without irritating.
Tsui Hark’s career as a director has been a scattered one. His focus on style over substance can leave a lot of memorable moments, but when it comes to films that last the test of time…he’s not the most effective of directors. However, his latest film The Taking of Tiger Mountain was something of a throwback to the days when he had an understanding between the balance of spectacle and narrative. I bring up this film because its distributor Well Go USA is releasing one of his “classic” films from 1991 called The Raid…and the comparisons between the two films are striking. The Raid is a historically set action adventure flick with enough humor, heart, and outrageous elements to entertain most any Hong Kong cinema fan. It’s hardly a perfect film in trying to balance all of these elements, but The Raid is a strong reminder of a time when Tsui Hark could still entertain without irritating.
Friday, October 9, 2015
Bound to Vengeance (2015)
Director: José Manuel Cravioto
Notable Cast: Tina Ivlev, Richard Tyson, Bianca Malinowski
Sometimes all it takes is a great poster to get the audience
you want hooked. This was the case for Bound
to Vengeance with me. While having a release through IFC Midnight AND Scream Factory certainly helps,
it wasn’t until I saw the cover/poster next to this opening paragraph that I
decided to partake in the film. It’s fortunate that I did because Bound to Vengeance is a brutal and
impressively executed modern grindhouse feature worthy of the time for most
cult film fans. It’s a slick, sick, and simplistic ride into the social underbelly
of sex trafficking powered by a handful of powerhouse performances and guided
by the impeccable visuals of director José Manuel Cravioto. Bound to Vengeance is bound to pack a whollup on most viewers and
it’s vicious at doing so.
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
House (1977)
Director: Nobuhiko Ôbayashi
Notable Cast: Kimiko Ikegami, Ai Matsubara, Eriko Tanaka, Miki Jinbo, Mieko Sato, Masayo Miyako, Kumiko Oba, Yoko Minamida, Haruko Wanibuchi
When it comes to films that inspire insanity, one has to
look no further than Japan. At times it’s mostly outrageous entertainment vomit
on screen, as in the case of most of the splatter films, but occasionally there
is an inspired artistry to their genre bending and odd approaches like the
anti-musical musical The Happiness of the
Katakuris that I reviewed earlier this year. This sort of motivated and
thoughtful lunacy is where the 1977 film House
lies. An often awkward intermingling of comedy, horror, and fantasy, House – also known as Hausu, is a film that deserves a massive
“WTF” from its audience, but it’s also very obvious that this was the intent of
the film. Thus, it accomplishes what it sets out to do in spades. Gloriously, might I add.
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Avenging Fist, The (2001)
Director: Andrew Lau
Notable Cast: Wang Lee Hom, Yuen Biao, Sammo Hung, Stephen Fung, Gigi Leung, Kristy Yang, Cecilia Yip
Notable Cast: Wang Lee Hom, Yuen Biao, Sammo Hung, Stephen Fung, Gigi Leung, Kristy Yang, Cecilia Yip
The Avenging Fist
is one of those movies that is far more fascinating in its failures then it
ever is in its successes. Not that there is a whole lot to praise about this
film, but throughout the film I found myself hooked on just what other bat shit
insane thing it would throw at me. Considering the talent in front and behind
the camera the film is something of a massive train wreck. While the film never
seems to find a footing on any of its one thousand genre elements or various
themes, it does crash and in burn in such a spectacular fashion that it’s
almost praise worthy in its disastrous ways. A film that owns as a discussion
piece for Hong Kong cinema fanatics more than anything. So The Avenging Fist has that going for it.
Halloween II (1981)
Notable Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Charles Cyphers, Lance Guest, Pamela Susan Shoop, Hunter Von Leer, Tawny Moyer
“You don’t know what death is.”
How do you even try to follow up the original Halloween? You know they were going to
try with the significant success that the atmospheric slasher had with its
audiences, but without John Carpenter in the directorial chair you know it’s
not going to quite match. By the time 1981 rolled around though and Halloween II saw its release, the slasher
craze that was ignited by the popularity of the first film was booming
very quickly. Just the year prior, Friday
the 13th decimated the sinners and camp counselors of Crystal
Lake with more violence and more gimmicks, so it only seemed natural that Halloween II would actually attempt to
up the ante. The results are a bit more mixed than one could hope for, but in
the grand scheme of things it’s actually still a pretty effective slasher with
enough solid elements to make it a fun and scary romp. No matter how many
rumors and issues arose behind the scenes of the film.
Monday, October 5, 2015
Contracted: Phase II (2015)
Director: Josh Forbes
Notable Cast: Matt Mercer, Marianna Palka, Morgan Peter Brown, Anna Lore, Laurel Vail, Peter Cilella
There seemed to be a decent amount of fanfare for the first Contracted film when it dropped.
However, I wasn’t nearly as keen about it as some folks and ended up giving it
a fairly luke warm review in the end. It had some solid effects and some great
atmosphere, but when the audience doesn’t care about the characters or some of
the silly plot progressions it’s hard to really enjoy a body horror flick like
that. Contracted was popular enough that
it did end up with a green lit sequel, the somewhat awesomely titled Contracted: Phase II. Unfortunately, the
film is not nearly as strong as even the first film as it lacks a lot of the
execution needed to pull off its progressive plotting. Forewarning, this review
is going to be a bit spoiler-ish to the events of the first film. Keep that in
mind as you continue.
Sunday, October 4, 2015
Children of the Night (2015)
Director: Ivan Noel
Notable Cast: Sabrina Ramos, Ana Maria Giunta, Lauro Veron, Toto Munoz
AKA: Limbo
Vampire films are a dime a dozen. They have always been a
consistent force in the horror genre, but in the last decade or so they have
been the subject of a lot of different genres from teeny romances with Twilight to comedies like What We Do in the Shadows. Children of the Night, a low budget
Argentinian film getting a US release through Artsploitation films this year,
is a whole lot of genres blended into one film. The low budget hinders a lot of
how the experience of this film works, but Children
of the Night is a remarkably quirky and refreshing spin on the classic
vampire genre. One that will certainly find its cult audience.
Saturday, October 3, 2015
Halloween (1978)
Director: John Carpenter
Notable Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Charles Cyphers, Nancy Kyes, PJ Soles, Kyle Richards, Brian Andrews, John Michael Graham, Sandy Johnson
The hardest aspect of going back to review a classic such as
Halloween is that most things and
elements have been explored in writings previously. Most people have seen it
and if they haven’t, they’ve heard of it. It makes writing a review at this
point something of a difficult task and one that more or less seems like beating
a dead horse. However, this Halloween I have dedicated myself to reviewing this
entire franchise and that means starting where it all started…with the 1978
slasher classic Halloween. While the
film is not perfect (is it blasphemous to say that?) it is however a film
steeped in strong and very simplistic aspects that raise it above the low
budget slasher it is. This is why Halloween
is iconic.
Goodnight Mommy (2015)
Directors: Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala
Notable Cast: Elias Schwarz, Lukas Schwarz, Susanne Wuest
The idea behind a really great trailer is to build hype and
often times a great trailer can make even the worst films seem incredible. This
is why I went into Goodnight Mommy
with a bit of reservation. The trailer was phenomenal. Almost too good. Good
enough where I felt it might be covering up something. In a way, it was.
However, it wasn’t covering up a bad film. Goodnight
Mommy is actually quite the effective little horror film that could. What
the great trailer was covering up was that Goodnight
Mommy wasn’t nearly as scary as it was utterly unnerving as a horror film.
Thursday, October 1, 2015
Eaten Alive (1976)
Director: Tobe Hooper
Notable Cast: Neville Brand, Mel Ferrer, Carolyn Jones, Marilyn Burns, William Finley, Stuart Whitman, Roberta Collins, Kyle Richards, Robert Englund, Crystin Sinclaire, Janus Blyth
As a fan of early Tobe Hooper material, I’m somewhat ashamed
to admit that I had never taken the dive into his killer bayou flick Eaten Alive. The film has a diehard cult
following and it seemed interesting enough from the clips I had seen, but I
never really got around to actually watching the film. With Arrow Video’s
latest (and dare I say greatest) home release of the film though, it was high
time to partake in the flick. Eaten Alive
might not be as groundbreaking as Hooper’s tour de force The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and it might not be as outrageously
psychedelic and hilarious as The Texas
Chainsaw Massacre 2, but the film sits nicely as a strange combination of
the two with its fairly off kilter narrative and interesting knack for the oddball
style. It’s easy to see why this is a cult favorite with these elements and it
gave me a left hook that I was not expecting.
Ugly (2013)
Notable Cast: Rahul Bhat, Ronit Roy, Tejaswini Kolhapure, Vineet Kumar Singh, Surveen Chawla, Siddhant Kapoor, Sandesh Jadhav, Anshikaa Shrivastava
My first Anurag Kashyap film...
My first Indian film...
What a great entry point too. Before we kick this thing off, I want to get out of the way that I have tried to delve into the Bollywood world before, in fact, many a time, but I've always quickly packed up and went elsewhere. I've only still slightly kept interest in Indian cinema by way of two directors in specific, Anurag Kashyap, and one of the greatest, Satyajit Ray. Of course, my preference in regions of filmmaking do not form any preconceived bias. I didn't go in expecting to dislike Ugly, and I walked away pleased, disturbed, but pleased nonetheless.
This film, like other great films, will be one I won't to shed too much light on towards the plot nor piece specific details. That being said, here's a one line plot description: Guy's daughter is abducted, thus causing everyone to go crazy in the search for her. That's essentially it, but of course, there is much more to it than that.
My biggest compliment and biggest nitpick of it all, is the execution. It's wonderfully shot and edited, save a few beats here and there that tripped up the flow, but some of the Foley work sounded like generic stock sound effects, which took me out of a film that kept me immersed quite regularly. Also, some of the reactions the actors displayed (mainly awkward pauses) made an eyebrow raise here and there, but again, minute nagging towards an overall great mystery / thriller.
Written By Josh Parmer
Timber, The (2015)
Director: Anthony O'Brien
If you would like a copy of The Timber, it drops on home video from our friends at Well Go USA on October 6th. Ordering links are provided below if you desire to be snowbound.
Notable Cast: Josh Peck, James Ransone, Elisa Lawoski, Mark Craven, David Bailie
There are two kinds of modern westerns. There are the artsy and
atmospheric ones like Red Hill and
then there are straight to home video entertainers like Dead in Tombstone. I loved both of the above mentioned films for
various reasons, but that seems to be ends of the spectrum for modern westerns.
The Timber is one of those films that
tries to pull off a little of both and lands right in the middle of that
spectrum – perhaps leaning towards the artsy and atmospheric side a bit. While
the film certainly has its faults, it also happens to be a pleasantly surprising
and very quick watch. A watch that has its charms despite some major issues
along the way.
It’s the late 1800s in Alaska and two brothers (Peck,
Ransone) are setting off to settle a score and collect a bounty. The bounty
just so happens to be their father, but they are desperate for the money to save
their home from foreclosure by a ruthless banker. So they set on their task ill
equipped but determined to accomplish the feat…no matter what dangers lie ahead
or what dangers they leave behind for their family.
That's all we need: horses and guns. |
The core of The Timber
is simplistic and layered with a ton of intriguing themes, moments, and
characters. Multiple times during the film, it had me hooked with its somewhat
simplistically majestic weight. The two brothers, the tough one hardened by the
world played by Ransone and the softer, family man unprepared for what the
journey may ask of him that’s portrayed ably by Peck, are an intriguing pair
and when they are shown in the element they spark a fun chemistry. Unfortunately
due to the film’s remarkably short run time of 80 minutes, they are not given a
lot of time to really build their characters and interactions as much as one
would hope. This is a problem with a lot of the various plots and characters. A
secondary plot, one that has the young wife and mother of the younger brother
fending off the bank’s hooligans with the help of his mother and a kindly sheriff,
is horribly under written and not given nearly enough time to develop the fear
and tension of their situation. Even most of the various characters that cross
paths with the brothers on their trek feel as though they just need a bit more
time on screen to develop their motives and how it affects the leads. There is
a lot of layers to pick apart, but The
Timber could have been a film studied in film school with about 40 minutes
added to thicken the plot and characters.
The true shining gem of The
Timber is the landscape and how it’s utilized though. The brothers are placed
in the horrible wintry hell of the wilderness of Alaska in the film and
director O’Brien has a winning knack of being able to capture the massive and
claustrophobic landscape in all of its harsh glory. Just seeing these men have
to walk through waist deep snow or navigate rocky mountain sides made me tired.
The cinematography is Hollywood quality in the film and it really shines as one
of the layers to the narrative that works better than it should have. The suffocating
snowscapes are their own character and it’s stunningly well realized.
It does have to be mentioned that occasionally The Timber will lean from the
atmospheric and low key artistic narrative into some genre territory. In
particular, there is a sequence where the elder brother must use the help of a
tongue-less mountain man to find his brother who has been abducted by a
cannibal living in a cave. Truthfully, O’Brien and company shoot this sequence
with the utmost respect and don’t necessarily cater to its exploitative nature,
but it’s kind of an odd scene when the rest of the film is generally written and
shot in a very realistic tone. This happens a handful of times and it does toy
a bit with the expectations of the viewer. It’s fun, truthfully, but not necessarily
the most cohesive pieces in the film.
The snow. It covers EVERTHING! |
The Timber is a
film that has all of the foundations to be one of the best modern westerns
released in the last ten years. Unfortunately, it tends to miss out on really
selling its characters, their situations, and the plot progressions by being
too subtle and too short in its narrative. It’s still quite enjoyable in many
ways with some fun performances, stunning cinematography, and a bitter tone to
the film that cuts through the viewer like a knife. In the end though, it just
doesn’t grab some of the great things about the film and run with them leaving
moments to wander about the woods…looking for their own way home.
Written By Matt Reifschneider
If you would like a copy of The Timber, it drops on home video from our friends at Well Go USA on October 6th. Ordering links are provided below if you desire to be snowbound.
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