Anna Lynne McCord

Okay, so last night was Halloween night. Okay, so I thought it would be a shame to let the season pass without seeing a good horror flick. Okay, so how could I know that what I and a friend were about to see would make me want to renounce my views about over-the-top gore and make me wish I had seen Saw V instead?

In fact, you need not even go as far as that. I believe I would even have rather seen the High School Musical movie that is now out rather than have had to sit through what is surely the most phenomenal upheaval of every tired cliché from every suspense horror film involving teenagers, their high schools and what happens if you can get Satan to make a name-only cameo in the hellish mix.

The film starts out with a flashback to 1997. We see the standard set-up scene of an attractive teenage girl alone in a wilderness area. We find her following notes that are spaced-apart on a line of twine beckoning her to go further. (Which - smart girl that she is - she does). She is led to an abandoned house where her boyfriend, fun-loving prankster that he is, scares the living daylights out of her and after the anti-climax, both proceed with the obligatory make-out scene. They are (of course) interrupted by the girl's psychotic-looking father (again, standard fare) who makes her get into his truck and speeds of down the dirt road where we are introduced to the film's sub-plot of bad decisions made by parents long-ago and nefarious dark forces at work and about to culminate on the girl's eighteenth birthday. After a botched attempt to kill both himself and his daughter by swerving into on-coming traffic (all the while literally thumping on the Bible and asking for forgiveness), they skid to a halt, look at each other, and end-up getting creamed by a semi any way. With his dying strength, the father takes a piece of broken glass and kills the daughter. (By this time, the dread I was already beginning to feel had nothing whatsoever to do with whatever “scary” thing might be coming next).

Open to the present day and we find our heroine, Molly Hartley, (Haley Bennet) in the midst of a nightmare and waking up violently. (And at this point, the film has already met about three-quarters of the recommended horror-movie clichés to get itself categorized as unimaginative garbage). One thing you need to know about this girl is that she has a nosebleed every other scene. In fact, without her nosebleeds, this would be one horror film that would be almost entirely bloodless. We find (much to our non-surprise) that she is someone who (after nearly being killed by her own mother - and is now locked-up in an asylum) is embarking on a new life, new school and a new relationship with her guilt-driven, doting father. (And these are the only areas where the adjective “new” can legitimately be applied). On her first day of school, she is at once button-holed by the same quartet of likely suspects; the nerdish, Bible-thumping girl (more about this later), the hot guy, the hot guy's rabid ex-girlfriend, and the class rebel wild-girl who wants to free our heroine from all of her frumpish inhibitions.

As if this miasma of everything-you've-seen-before-to-the-nth-degree weren't enough, the writer of this celluloid drive-heave even includes a school psychologist who turns out in the end to be (you guessed it) one of the baddies. She is about as subtle a factor in this whole thing as Damien's nanny in The Omen was. From this point, Molly is set on a course to find out her true destiny which she does by way of hearing voices, hallucinations of her whacko, institutionalized mother, dizzy spells and of course, by continuing to bleed all over the place from her nose. (All necessary pieces of the puzzle, you understand).

We finally get to the bottom what is going on with this girl when her mother, freshly escaped from the asylum, finds her daughter alone in her house and once again, attempts to kill her. Only this time, we get the entire explanation from her as to why she is embarked on a course to off her own daughter. It seems that eighteen years ago when her daughter was born (and after several miscarriages), there were some complications, and her brand new baby daughter was about to die. As quickly as you can say “Beelzebub,” a mysterious woman (who turns out, of course, to be the school psychologist) appears on the scene and offers them the classic deal; they get eighteen years with your daughter, and the devil gets her after that. They agree. From here all of the blanks are filled in and one finds that one can pretty much predict the outcome of the film as if one were directing it him or herself. (In the end, she agrees to join the devil's side - as if we are surprised).

However, what I am writing here is every bit as much as a commentary on the condition of this genre of film as it is a review of the film itself. (And if I have dissuaded even one person from going to see this hound or even renting the DVD - which should be out the day after tomorrow! - then I feel I have done my duty!). Earlier, I made a reference to one of the characters in this film who was the “nerdish, Bible-thumping girl.”

And also to the father in the opening scenes who is “literally thumping a bible and asking for forgiveness” before he kills his daughter.

Hollywood has (has had for quite a while, in fact) a large degree of schizophrenia going on in the area of how to depict both Christians and the Bible in its films. Nowhere is this schizophrenia more evident than in the area of the supernatural/horror thriller. The reason for the schizophrenia basically boils down to this: In order to make a film of this type, you usually have to borrow heavily from the Bible in general, and Christianity in particular as source materials if you want an effective background for your archetypal battle between good and evil. You really cannot have Satan show-up in a film (or even being present, yet unseen) and somehow divorce him from all of the theological underpinnings which go to make him, and his attributes, believable.

This has always been the basic rule of thumb since the inception of the horror movie genre. Even if Satan is not actually present in a film like “Frankenstein,” the whole concept of “playing God” (and it's attending ramifications) is. And in any horror film where Satan is not present, he usually leaves his hoof-print. In every Dracula film from the original with Bela Lugosi, to sixties and the seventies with Christopher Lee, to all of the later efforts, the Satanic element is either heavily present, or else tacitly implied.

Yes, Hollywood (particularly the segment which makes the horror films) has a big, schizophrenic problem alright. You see, it doesn't take one who can put together legos, let alone a rocket scientist, to tell that Hollywood doesn't like Christians very much. In fact, it would be a pretty safe bet to say that Hollywood thoroughly despises Christians. One can therefore see the problem with making this type of film from the point of view of a screenwriter who is a bit of a Christianophobe; he has to give both the Bible and Christianity just enough credibility to make his story work, or else he doesn't have a story. He can no more put God and Satan in a story framework without both these as a context than he can put pirates on a prairie and make the whole thing believable.

Therefore, Hollywood has been pillaging the Bible for years with greater gusto than those whom they claim are pillaging rainforests. They don't like Christians or the Bible, yet they simply cannot dispense with either one of them. The only way to make vampires immune to the Cross is to make them some kind of hideous genetic mutations such as in Blade or Underground. In so doing, they have gone and divorced the entire of idea of “vampires” from its long-held (and cherished, by horror fans) legacy of being undead, supernatural (and plenty scary) beings.

Sooo, screenwriters have to make some kind of a compromise and strike a balance between their own dubious sense of aesthetics and a practical approach that won't kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. (Even if in their esteem, it is a rather homely goose). Therefore they decide that while they will go on raping the Bible (and the Book of the Revelation in particular) for ideas, they will also continue, at every opportunity, to depict the Christians in their films as vile, psychotic, cringing, buffoonish and downright villainous. (At one point in the film, the girl who is the Bible-thumping nerd attempts to kill the heroine by drowning her in a baptismal font - in order to “save her soul”). They therefore get what they want; they cull from the Bible (and any attendant literature - Paradise Lost gets a mortifying mention in this film) all they need in the form of apocalyptic symbology or supernatural personae and yet still have good ole' Wally and Wanda Christian on the side to poke fun at.

However, I do not write this simply because I am a Christian (and I am). I write this also as a former horror movie buff. (Add to that present fantasy and sci-fi movie buff). I say “former” because the genre that once produced some to the most genuinely (and legitimately) scary movies when I was growing up, has long since lost it's way in a quirky quagmire of the cheaply visceral (blood and body parts everywhere) and the boringly predictable (hordes of teenagers getting slaughtered every year or else darkly-woven conspiracies affecting those who come of age with Satan as persona-non-gratis in some for or another). Gone are the true chills that only the likes of Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney (Sr. and Jr.), Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing could produce in me. There is a ten-year old in this forty-six year old frame who feels much betrayed. Those days are never coming back and it would be foolhardy of me to sit around pretending that they someday might. I will simply cut my losses by a third and say goodbye (with perhaps a hesitant visit every now and again) to the horror genre. In the realm of the fantastic, there is only science fiction and fantasy really left. (And they have been showing signs of decay for some time now as well).

However, at any rate, this review of mine will probably be somewhat of a maverick anyway. I believe that if Hollywood keeps pumping out bilge like this last installment, it will find not Christians who are the ones lobbing fire-bombs of criticism at it. It will instead wake-up to discover that it has been besieged on all sides by the very ones it was seeking to entertain; horror fans themselves who have now become tired of grafted-on devils and human innards pasted everywhere. Such is the fate of those who pander the same recycled formulae year after bloody year.

1. 2001 Maniacs: If you like Saw-like deaths and gore, 2001 Maniacs is a good choice. This movie focuses on a group of college students who go out on Spring Break, but get detoured to an odd town where deaths start to take place in the most cruel and unusual manner. This is not the town to go to if you're searching for southern comfort.
2. Carnival of Souls (Original--1962): This movie combines psychological horror with suspense. The movie follows a young woman who emerges from a car accident only to find things don't appear to follow reality. She is mysteriously drawn to “The Man” who is representative of the devil. The young woman, who is an organist, represents a much more sinister plot than what is presented on screen.
3. Battle Royale: Battle Royale is a Japanese film where a high school class is captured by the Japanese government. The only way to be set free of the abduction is to battle to the death and the last one standing gains freedom. The film not only provides a good deal of gore, but the meaning behind the film brings out issues of morality and greed. Could you kill your best friend? Is there a such thing as loyalty? Is society individualistic?
4. Deathwatch: A group of British soldiers fight their way through enemy lines only to get lost. They come across a trench where they set up camp only to tart hallucinating and doing things they ought not to. Something evil lurks in the trench itself, but the lone German soldiers who knows what lurks in the trench is killed the British soldiers are left to their own devices to figure out who or what it is and find a way to kill it. The gore level is quite low, but it is very suspenseful.
5. Cube: This movie was done on a very low budget but it delivers on more than one level. It is based inside a large cube where its origins are unknown. The people left in the cube are left to find a way out, if there is one, and no one trusts the other. Those who enter into an incorrect cube or room, they're fate is either sealed or a clue is left as to where to go next. The conclusion of the film is mind boggling and left to interpretation.

The set design on “The Devil's Rejects” accurately depicts a gritty, 1970s Southern “white-trash” ambience conducive to Rob Zombie's vision. “The Devil's Rejects” is an homage to films from that time period such as “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “The Last House on the Left” in the way it was stylized. For example, in one of the early establishing shots the camera cranes up, revealing the Firefly house and the surrounding farm. The entire property is littered with garbage, including broken-down cars, barrels, and battered furniture among other things, and there are various trinkets hanging from the main gate consisting of glass bottles, hubcaps, and even dead animals. The house itself is very ominous; it is completely dilapidated and appears unfit to be lived in by any human being. Attention is paid to every minute detail on each set in order to achieve a realistic feel of the era.

The gritty Southern atmosphere of “The Devil's Rejects” is reinforced by the aesthetic of the costume design. Costume designer Yasmine Abraham dressed the cast in a wide variety of clothing which fit their characters to a T. Sherriff Wydel, played by William Forsythe, was outfitted in a cliché beige police uniform topped off with aviator sunglasses and a cowboy hat. One of the main villains Otis B. Driftwood was clad in a white cutoff t-shirt completely covered in stains, along with tattered and sullied canvas pants. Even the pimp Charlie Altamont, who is played by Ken Foree, was given a subtle Western flair with earth-toned clothing. These costume design of these characters, along with the rest of the cast, was fitting to the stereotypical Southern fashion of the 1970s.

The makeup department on “The Devil's Rejects” is essential to this film in that it provided the actual dirt and grime that makes the characters appear completely unkempt. The realism of the makeup was also important. For instance, in order to make his character's hair look convincing, actor Bill Moseley had to shave his head and have the greasy blonde wig applied directly to his scalp using spirit gum by instruction of Rob Zombie himself. Otis's hair was extremely long but noticeably balding; details such as this show the commitment to the visual cohesiveness of the film

The cinematography of “The Devil's Rejects” is original to the horror genre in that it is shot in a very intrusive manner; the idea is to make the viewers feel as though they are watching live action footage. It's almost as though you are watching an episode of "Cops". There is a whole lot of ENG going on here. And if you pay close attention to the action sequences you'll notice that you never see the same shot twice between cuts. This gives the impression that what we're seeing is live. To get the right look out of his crew Rob Zombie did a few things. He hired Phil Parmet who's a longtime documentary cinematography and had him shoot the entire movie handheld on Super 16 cameras, which was followed by a digital blow-up to 35mm. This decision really emphasizes the other departments take on Zombie's vision. It reinforces the disheveled unkempt look of the picture.

All of this tied in with the script makes for a great film. The dialogue is a kind of black comedy which has become synonymous with the post-'Scream' American horror film. Overall it was a great film.

If you like King's novels, you will like this film. It is one of those movies that make you want to go out and buy the book. Then again though that is typical Stephen King fashion. "If it doesn't grip you in fear and keep you guessing, it hasn't done it's job" sources have quoted Stephen as saying.

I am 21 years old, I first read Stephen King's work when I was young. (Being grounded to my room had it's good points, I read voraciously.) It not only made me an avid Stephen King fan, but inspired me to try my hand at expanding my own writings.

Children Of The Corn made me want to pick up a video camera. I thought "I'd love to make my own films." Needless to say I think if you are an aspiring film maker Stephen King's work is great inspiration.

I Know What You Did Last Summer stars Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jennifer Love Hewitt It was made in 1997 and surprisingly enough became a blockbuster mega-hit. I think the fact that it was given so much hype that it didn't live up to is why I hated it, but again everybody is entitled to their own opinions.

It was followed by the sequel "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" which followed it's predecessor in becoming a blockbuster success. It was later followed by a second sequel which didn't do so well. The second sequel was called "I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer"

It was based on a novel by Lois Duncan which came out in 1978. The book however had several note-worthy differences, I say you should check them both out and see the differences for yourselves. As you may well have guessed, there are too many to list them all in this review.

Suffice it to say, the film bears very little resemblance at all to the book it was supposed to have been derived from. I hated the film, but hey if you like teen horror and slasher flicks, then this is definitely your kind of movie.

He desperately wants something to do as he is not one of those people who can just sit all day. Grace Kelly plays his girlfriend who wants him to settle down and do fashion photography. He does not want to do that as he is a professional photographer, former air force officer, who travels the world for photos and wants to keep doing that.

As he is cooped up in his apartment he notices one of the neighbors has apparently done something to his wife; he believes he has murdered her. He tries to convince his police detective friend of that, but has not real proof. He and his girlfriend proceed to try and get proof, following him, going to his apartment while he is not there and calling him.

In the end this gets the neighbor played by Raymond Burr to come after Stewart in his apartment and tries to kill him to shut him up. He manages to have the police arrive in time but ends up have his other leg broken in the process. I have watched this movie quite a few times, and I would watch it over and over again. I believe this really is Hitchcock's best film.

1. The Ring- If you're into subtitles go for the original Japanese version, “Ringu”; or watch the American remake starring Naomi Watts, or if you're really into it, watch both. The Japanese version goes into more depth in terms of story, but the American version offers more explanation, so it is easier to understand what's happening. Either way this story about a reporter tracing the origins of a mysterious videotape after learning that all viewers die seven days after seeing it, turns into a race against time with some truly chilling images. Before you die, see The Ring.
2. The Sixth Sense- Okay, so most of us have seen it, but if you haven't, please do so right now. If no one's given away the ending, you're even luckier. Even if you've seen this film about a psychiatrist (Bruce Willis) treating a little boy who believes he see ghosts, it's worth a second viewing so that you can truly appreciate the way that director/screenwriter M. Night Shamaylan turns the screws of suspense, tighter and tighter until the story reaches it perfect, shocking conclusion. The brilliance here is all in the screenplay.
3. The Others- Even before creepy stuff starts happening this movie is creepy. It opens upon a woman (Nicole Kidman) trying to take care of her two children, while waiting for her husband to return from World War II. Oh wait, did I forget to mention that they live in a big, creepy, English mansion, the children are deathly allergic to sunlight, and all the servants have mysteriously left one morning with no notice? And that just the beginning of this good old-fashioned chiller, that makes use of disorienting fog, perpetual darkness, and above all, a heightened sense of anticipation.
4. Poltergeist- The special effects are somewhat dated, but this movie is just so much fun that you hardly care. It has all the good scary movie staples: a haunted house, a creepy little girl, and lots of supernatural happenings. The Free lings are a relatively normal suburban middle-class family, until odd events start happening around their daughter, Carol Ann. When Carol Ann disappears, and her voice can only be heard through the television set, the Free lings call in a team of ghost hunters to get her back. The movie has some great scenes (my favorite is the long hallway), some great lines (they're heeere), a few jolts, and a sense of humor.
5. Psycho- The original and still the greatest, no one did it like Hitchcock did. Avoid Gus Van Sant's remake (or copy) at all costs and see this 1960 masterpiece. Sure, everyone knows about the shower scene by now, but there are still numerous other reasons to watch (or re watch) this movie. My personal favorite is our first glimpse of Norman Bates' mother. Also take pleasure from the creepy house on a hill, and the screeching violin music. No matter how many times you've seen it, a return to the Bates' Motel is always fun.

]]> Tue, 17 Apr 2007 05:01:20 PST http://www.cinemaroll.com/Adventure/Poseidon.29658 This film had a lot to live up to after the success of the classic original of the 1970's starring Gene Hackman.

It does not disappoint with fantastic computer graphics and a brilliant cast that leaves it easy to watch and full of suspense.

It is New Year's Eve and just as the celebrations are in full swing a great rogue wave upturns the Poseidon cruise ship. A small group of people including stars like Kurt Russell and Richard Dreyfuss decide to find a way out by moving up to the bottom of the ship. On the way they have to cross a lift shaft, climb up a ventilator and swim through water filled corridors. All this is done while the sea level is continually rising within the ship.

The suspense is fantastic and the interplay between characters keeps you interested.

The climax is where Kurt Russell has to swim underwater to switch off the propellers and drowns in the process, to save the rest of the survivors. A highly recommended film.

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