movie night

Movie Night [Day of the Dead]: Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Dr. K2 Comments

The Day of the Dead (or Dia de los Muertos) is a traditional Latin American holiday on which, every November 1st, the lives of deceased loved ones are celebrated with food, drink, parties, and a great deal of masquerade involving the calacas and calaveras (skeletons and skulls). For me, this seems like the perfect excuse to look back on the long-running and ever-changing zombie genre that was largely popularised by director George A. Romero, which I devoted a great deal of my PhD thesis towards and which has often been used as a parallel to various aspects of society and culture.  

Released: 1 October 1968
Director: George A. Romero
Distributor: Continental Distributing
Budget: $114,000 to 125,000
Stars: Duane Jones, Judith O’Dea, Karl Hardman, Marilyn Eastman, and Kyra Schon

The Plot:
When the recently deceased suddenly return to life, traumatised Barbra (O’Dea) takes shelter in a farmhouse alongside pragmatic Ben (Jones) and antagonistic Harry Cooper (Hardman). With tensions rising and the walking dead closing in, the group struggles to survive, co-exist, and make sense of this strange phenomenon.

The Background:
Ever since the 1930s, zombies have appeared in movies in one form or another, either as mindless slaves, voracious cannibals, or in their most famous form: the shambling undead. After growing bored with directing television commercials, George A. Romero and his friends, John Russo and Russell Steiner, decided to capitalise on growing trends for more bizarre content and produce a horror movie. Initially conceived of as a horror comedy about adolescent aliens, it was Russo who decided the creatures being flesh-eating reanimated corpses, which Romero infused with heavy inspiration from the macabre revolutionary themes of I Am Legend (Matheson, 1954) and its first screen adaptation, The Last Man on Earth (Salkow and Ragona, 1964). Although the role of Ben was written as a Caucasian, Duane Jones impressed Romero in his audition and the script was revised based on his input; his casting and portrayal inspired numerous racial readings and made the film surprisingly progressive for the time. The low-budget impacted the options available to the filmmakers; chocolate syrup, entrails from butcher shops, and simple make-up effects brought the gore and ghouls to gruesome life and, while simplistic by today’s standards, proved shocking and outrageous at the time. Despite the controversy it caused, Night of the Living Dead was a massive hit with its box office gross of over $30 million; although critics dismissed it at the time, Night of the Living Dead has since been regarded as a horror classic, one of the best of its era, and it was preserved in the National Film Registry in 1999. The film was not only followed by subsequent sequels (both official and unofficial) and (thanks to an agreement between Romero and Russo) a similarly-named adjacent series) that expanded and refined the zombie concept, but heavily influenced the portrayal of zombies for decades. Remade in 1990 to recoup some profit after legal issues saw the original become public domain, Night of the Living Dead is also the most remade film in history.

The Review:
When I decided to spend a year of my PhD discussing the original Resident Evil movies (Various, 2002 to 2016), I found myself deeply entrenched in the rich and lengthy lore of zombie cinema, tracking their origins as voodoo slaves in White Zombie (Halperin, 1932), their vampire-like depiction in I Am Legend and the first of its many adaptations, The Last Man on Earth, and, of course, charting the history of Romero’s genre-defining depiction of the living dead. I found that zombies are one of the most enduring horror creatures not just in cinema, but in mainstream media; they’ve been as persistent as they appear in movies, changing from shambling ghouls to rage-filled savages, and continue to be popular inclusions in horror media thanks to how versatile they are. Honestly, though, this kind of research and in-depth exposure to zombie cinema kind of ruined my appreciation for zombie movies; many are low-budget, derivative affairs or simply repeat the same lessons established by Romero decades ago, meaning it can be hard to find quality zombie movies. Although well renowned as the grandfather of this sub-genre of horror, Romero’s first effort in bringing zombies to un-life is fraught with issues, ranging from the obvious low budget and stilted performances to inconsistences in the portrayal and behaviour of the titular living dead as these aspects wouldn’t be refined until the far more visually and philosophically interesting (but, blasphemously, still quite tedious, in my opinion) sequel. I also feel compelled to specify here that I’m looking at the black and white original rather than the many different re-releases or the bastardised colour version, simply to give my thoughts on Romero’s original vision as depicted so controversially decades ago.

Unlike Ben, who takes charge as a resourceful leader, Barbra is little more than a traumatised mouse.

We open with Barbra and her brother, Johnny (Russell Streiner), reaching the end of a regular 200-mile round trip to place a wreath on their father’s grave at the behest of their mother. Johnny, exasperated at regularly having to waste his days commemorating a man he barely even remembers, just wants to get back home and stop throwing away good money for sentiment. While Barbra is happy to make the trip and thinks fondly of her father, Johnny has no time for lingering and amuses himself by teasing Barbra since she’s still scared by cemeteries. Indeed, Barbra’s previous resolve in chastising Johnny’s attitude falters when he starts bullying her, but they’re both horrified when a strange, shambling man (Bill Hinzman) suddenly attacks them. Although Johnny bravely (if awkwardly) tries to fight the man off, he ends up bashed into a gravestone, leaving Barbra fleeing in terror. After…somehow…crashing her car, Barbra is forced to take refuge in a nearby farmhouse; though she arms herself with a knife, she’s unable to call for help due to mysterious interference on the line but, luckily, Ben shows up and immediately takes charge. If you’re hoping for a strong, capable female lead then you’re out of luck, Barbra is so crippled by fear that’s practically catatonic, sleepwalking through the rest of the film and completely giving into despair while Ben is forthright and bravely tackles the ghouls with a tyre iron. Although he’s just as scared as her, his thoughts are on practical matters such as food, lights, and arming himself with a rifle; Barbra’s distressed state aggravates him, but he keeps his cool and puts her to work helping to secure the house against further attacks to await rescue. Eloquent, intelligent, and charismatic, Ben hides his fear and confusion behind productive tasks and narrating his observations and the horrors he’s seen aloud, something he’s forced to do since Barbra too shocked to be much conversation. When Barbra descends into hysteria, so desperate to save Johnny that she almost runs out into further danger, Ben’s forced to physically subdue her to keep her calm, allowing him to finish fortifying the house and glean insight into the crisis from a radio broadcast.

Tensions rise between the survivors, who are faced with a clash of ego and the undead.

Considering it takes Ben some time (presumably a couple of hours) to finish fortifying the house, it comes as a surprise to both them and the audience when other survivors emerge from the cellar. Naturally, Ben is incensed to learn that Harry, his wife and daughter, Helen (Eastman) and Karen (Schon), and lovers Tom (Keith Wayne) and Judy (Judith Ridley), chose to hide rather than investigate the screaming and commotion. Ben’s natural instinct is to help people, no matter the danger, whereas Harry reasoned it wasn’t worth risking their lives and their safety helping others. Having witnessed the strength and tenacity of the ghouls, Harry is adamant that they’re all safer in the cellar, regardless of the fortifications, and both make valid arguments since the cellar allows them to better fend off attacks, but the house gives them a fighting chance and more escape routes. Tom does his best to play peacekeeper, but Harry stubbornly refuses to listen to reason, primarily due to fear, his shame at feeling said fear, and a deep-seated need to protect his family. Although the ghouls briefly breaking through the windows seems to prove Harry’s point, he’s aggrieved when Ben refuses to share any of the upstairs food or resources; it seems Harry wants it both ways, but Ben firmly draws a line and delivers a stern ultimatum: “You can be the boss down there. I’m boss up here”, enraging the overprotective and stubborn father. Taking his chances upstairs, Tom has the anxious and caring Judy join them while Harry barricades himself and his family downstairs out of a pig-headed fixation on being “right”. Weary of his bullish ways, Helen echoes Ben’s remarks about Harry’s shortsightedness, which cuts them and their sick daughter off from information and potential rescue. Like Tom, she emphasises co-operation and compromise, allowing them to trade places with Judy to learn more about the crisis, though he continues to rile Ben up with his antagonistic and cynical attitude. Helen is encouraged by news of rescue centres nearby and Ben devises a plan to hold off the ghouls with flaming torches so they can refuel his truck and get medical help for Karen, but the plan goes horribly awry, resulting in Tom and Judy’s fiery deaths, and Ben unloads his rage onto Harry when he refuses to let him back into the house, leading to the two tussling for the rifle.

Night established and popularised many of the characteristics of zombie media.

In their first appearance, Romero’s living dead are noticeably different to what we’d see in his sequels and subsequent zombie media. The first thing to note, of course, is that the living dead are never referred to as “zombies”; this term would be as fastidiously avoided and mocked as Romero’s opinions on running zombie variants, meaning the living dead have more in common with Matheson’s interpretation of vampires than the brain-devouring zombie of mainstream imagination. Consequently, the living dead are referred to as anything but zombies; described as “ghouls”, “things”, “them”, and “assassins”, the living dead are also noticeably less gruesome than in later movies, potentially because the zombie outbreak is so recent and the undead so freshly turned. Similarly, Romero avoids explaining the sudden return of the living dead; a news report speculates radiation from an exploding space probe, but divine will is also implied (Johnny mocks Barbra’s prayer and admits to no longer attending church, and is the first to die). The zombie outbreak is treated as a sudden and confusing attack, almost like an epidemic; at first, characters ignore or mock the signs but they’re soon relying on radio broadcasts for scant information and how to combat the voracious ghouls. Night of the Living Dead establishes the basic rules of the undead: for whatever reason, the recently-deceased return in a near-mindless state, driven only by the need to consume human flesh. Rather than infecting people, their bites simply expedite the deaths of their victims; because of radiation from the Venus prove, anyone who dies will then reanimate with a taste for murder and cannibalism. Though slow and shambling and driven back by fire, the ghouls are incredibly persistent and dangerous in large groups; they can only be permanently put down with a blow to the head, destroying their brain, or removing the head entirely, and people are encouraged to forgo proper funeral procedures and immolate the corpses as soon as possible. Unlike most iterations of zombies, however, the ghouls are decidedly less monstrous here; many are more like entranced slaves or crazed maniacs, meaning they can use tools or rocks where brute strength fails and young Karen even uses a trowel to stab her mother to death rather than going for the jugular as you might expect.

The Nitty-Gritty:
There’s a certain classic charm to revisiting the old black and white horrors of yesteryear; everything has a distinctly old-timey and almost gothic atmosphere, which is only extenuated by the greyscale visuals. Yes, it does make some of the night-time action difficult to make out and it’s not for everyone, but I always appreciate this era of cinema as it evokes feelings of nostalgia and appreciation for these filmmakers, who did the best they could on a limited budget and with the technology of the time and, in many cases, pioneered filmmaking effects that we still see in cinema to this day. Even in this first tentative outing for the living dead, Romero positions the ghouls as social commentary; their mindless, savage, almost primal nature explicitly reflects the dichotomy between the survivors, particularly Ben and Harry, who constantly butt heads. There’s a startling message related to this through the simple depiction of the ghouls co-existing and even working together, despite being incapable of communication, to problem solve and better devour their prey; in contrast, the survivors are equally unable to communicate due to fear, tension, and ego and absolutely incapable of working together for these same reasons. It’s these emotional responses that see other survivors uniting against their monstrous foes as a paranoid, trigger-happy mob that’s as inhuman as the ghouls they target, creating a thematic parallel that begs the question who the real monsters are, us or “them”? Naturally, you can read into this even further thanks to Ben being a Black man; though the most level-headed and practical, he’s met with suspicion (even from Barbra, initially) and hostility, which opens itself up to racial prejudice due to his skin colour and Harry’s overly aggressive demeanour, and the ghouls are also framed as being this unknowable threat not unlike  foreign invader that “normal” folk struggle to understand and fight back against with extreme prejudice.

Despite surviving the horrifying night, Ben is callously shot dead as humanity blindly fights back.

Although Johnny’s death is disappointingly lame and bloodless, the suddenness and brutality of is where the true horror lies; still, Night of the Living Dead contains a fair amount of gore, including a partially mangled (presumably eaten) corpse in the farmhouse, some rudimentary decomposition effects, a surprising amount of flaming bodes, and sickening scenes of ghouls feasting on Tom and Judy’s entrails and chargrilled flesh. Still, Night of the Living Dead focuses more on tension and both internal and external threats. Although Harry covers their exit with Molotov cocktails, he takes advantage of the situation to claim dominion over the entire house. Unsurprisingly, given they’ve been measuring dicks the entire time, Ben fights him for control of the only gun, resulting in Harry being fatally shot due to his hubris. Having succumbed to her injuries, Karen reanimates and feasts on her father’s body before stabbing her mother to death. As she and the other ghouls close in, Barbra finally snaps out of her stupor, only to be dragged into the writhing masses by Johnny, and this irony is quickly followed by Ben, the sole survivor, being forced to take refuge in the cellar when his barricades fail. After putting down the reanimated Harry (which seems as much out of spite as it for survival) and Helen, Ben waits it out and survives the night; since the ghouls go down pretty easily when you have the right weapons, the danger seems to be mostly contained by the authorities and gun-toting locals, who pick the living dead off with ease. When they come to dispatch the ghouls near the farmhouse, Ben emerges from the cellar, attracted to the gunfire, but his caution proves his undoing; since he’s skulking around in the darkness, he’s mistaken for a ghoul and promptly executed on the spot. As the credits play, his body (and those of all the characters, ghouls and human alike) is dispassionately dumped onto a bonfire and burned in one of the bleakest endings in all of horror cinema.

The Summary:
There’s a reason Night of the Living Dead is considered a horror classic and the forefather of zombie media. A low-budget affair that made the most of its resources, the film is a bleak mediation on humanity; simple ideas such as co-operating, coming together in a crisis, and working together to overcome an aggressive foe are present and resonate even to this day, where we’re more likely to turn against each other than set aside our differences. Although not as explicit as in his later movies, the ghouls are clearly utilised as an allegory for these matters, and various others; the fear and inevitability of death, the danger of the unknown, the savage nature of man are all valid readings of Night of the Living Dead.  It’s also incredibly progressive in terms of Black representation; Ben is a keen, intelligent, and proactive survivor haunted by what he’s seen but determined to help others and make a fighting stand until rescue comes. While he can be as abrasive as Harry, his stubborn demeanour comes from a place of logic and reason and he’s constantly trying to increase their chances of survival, only to be met with pig-headed resistance. Harry might be an asshole, but you can see where he’s coming from; he’s scared and wants to protect his family, even if it means sacrificing others. Sadly, Helen (and women in general) don’t fare quite as well; portrayed as meek and generally useless, women just kind of get in the way or are oppressed and bossed about rather than contributing anything meaningful, though this does allow discussions about gender equality and machismo. Night of the Living Dead also established many of the “rules” for zombie cinema; although its ghouls aren’t as monstrous as later zombies and are more like entranced slaves, there’s a mystery and a danger to them when they gather in large numbers against vulnerable victims. However, it’s true that the film hasn’t aged very well; the performances and some themes are questionable, and there have been better zombie movies made since (by Romero himself, no less) that both overshadow this one and expose its flaws, though it remains recommended viewing for any fans of the genre, for sure,

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

Do you consider Night of the Living Dead a classic of the genre? Were you surprised to see a Black man take such a proactive role? What did you think to the tension and rivalry between Ben and Harry? How did you interpret the ghouls and what did you think to their characterisation here? What do you think caused the zombie outbreak and how do you think you would react in such a scenario? What is your favourite zombie film and what do you think of the genre in general? How are you celebrating the Day of the Dead today? Whatever your thoughts on Night of the Living Dead, and zombie films in general, feel free to leave a comment below or leave your thoughts on my social media, and check out my other zombie content across the site.

Movie Night [Halloween]: Halloween III: Season of the Witch

Dr. K4 Comments

Starting life as the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts, Halloween is largely associated not just with ghosts, ghouls, and confectionery but also a long-running series of horror movies. Beginning with John Carpenter’s Halloween (Carpenter, 1978), the franchise is largely credited with birthing the “slasher” sub-genre of horror films and has endured numerous remakes and reboots and is one of the most influential films in all of horror.

Released: 22 October 1982
Director: Tommy Lee Wallace
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Budget: $2.5 million
Stars: Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin, Brad Schacter, Dick Warlock, and Dan O’Herlihy

The Plot:
Doctor Dan Challis (Atkins) and Ellie Grimbridge (Nelkin), the daughter of a murder victim, uncover a terrible plot by small-town mask maker Conal Cochran (O’Herlihy) to mass murder of children on Halloween using an ancient Celtic ritual and a triggering device contained in a television commercial.

The Background:
Despite critics largely dismissing it at the time, John Carpenter’s Halloween’s box office gross of over $63 million against a paltry $300,000 to 325,000 budget made it one of the most successful independent films ever made. The film not only popularised the clichés of the slasher genre, but is also now regarded as one of the most influential movies of its genre, all of which meant that a sequel was all-but-inevitable. Writer/director John Carpenter wasn’t enthusiastic about this, or his final script, but (despite the usual critical mauling), Halloween II (Rosenthal, 1981) was a box office success, so the studio pushed for a third entry. Carpenter and his producer partner Debra Hill only agreed to deliver another film if it went in a different direction, one that didn’t focus on the iconic Michael Myers/The Shape (Various). They, and director Tommy Lee Wallace, instead wanted to create a horror anthology movie series, with yearly films focusing on different aspects of the season and this one drawing inspiration from the sci-fi classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Siegel, 1956). The film’s creepy Halloween masks were created by special effects guru Don Post out of latex and the cast was comprised of character actors and former Carpenter collaborators (though veteran actor Dan O’Herlihy later admitted that he didn’t think much to the film), and Wallace later stated that he enjoyed the entire experience and was disheartened by the film’s negative response. Indeed, Halloween III: Season of the Witch brought in just $14 million at the box office and was met with largely negative reviews; critics disliked the execution, the nonsensical plot, and the ludicrous antagonists, with Michael’s absence being particularly noted for many. Although some regard the film as an under-rated horror classic, Carpenter’s experiment didn’t pay off and the decision was made to bring Michael back some six years later, and he’s been the star of the franchise ever since.

The Review:
This one’s a tough one for me. Unlike, say, the Friday the 13th series (Various, 1980 to present), which potentially could’ve lived on (at least for a film or two) with other killers donning the iconic hockey mask of Jason Voorhees (Various), I’m not entirely certain if Halloween was meant to involve anyone or anything other than Michael Myers. I think maybe if the second film hadn’t been a direct sequel then this anthology format might’ve had more legs, but it feels weird to do two Myers-centric movies and then suddenly veer into anthology territory. Honestly, more than anything I’m surprised it got made at all; the idea of producing a horror sequel without its main villain and with no ties to the previous movies seems unusual today but even more so back in the eighties, when horror franchises were churning out yearly films featuring their popular slasher villains. Although Myers was very clearly and definitively killed off in Halloween II, it took the bare minimum of handwaving to explain his return in subsequent films, and I’m genuinely baffled that the producers didn’t simply accelerate that logic for a Carpenter-less third movie and produce this film as a separate endeavour, but clearly it was an attempt to cash-in on Halloween’s success and placate John Carpenter, because why wouldn’t you want him around? The film begins in October, some eight days before Halloween, and finds shop owner Harry Grimbridge (Al Berry) pursued by mysterious, stoic men in suits. Exhausted, hurt, and clutching one of Silver Shamrock’s coveted Halloween masks, he’s barely able to escape and is taken to a hospital, where he’s placed under the care of Dr. Challis.

Dr. Challis and Ellie investigate the mysterious Silver Shamrock company and stumble upon a mad plot!

As if being consumed by a demanding and stressful job wasn’t bad enough, Dan’s relationship with his ex-wife, Linda (Nancy Kyes), is further strained by him being a borderline alcoholic. His attempts to be a good and doting father are admirable, but he’s constantly one step behind; he brings his kids, Bella (Michelle Walker) and Willie (Joshua Miller), Halloween masks but they already have two of the Silver Shamrock ones and he’s constantly being called back to work. Dan’s attempts to treat Harry are made more difficult by his ranting, which nobody notices is triggered by the Silver Shamrock commercials, and the arrival of one of the men in black, who cracks his skull through the eye sockets! For a doctor, Dan sure does enjoy extracurricular activities; while his flirtations towards Nurse Agnes (Maidie Norman) seem to all be in good fun and appreciated, it’s still inappropriate behaviour in the workplace and he seems very friendly with the assistant coroner, Teddy (Wendy Wessberg), which leads me to believe that his marriage broke down due to him being unfaithful. Indeed, after Harry is murdered and his killer immolates himself, all it takes is one look at Harry’s daughter, Ellie (Nelkin), and Dan abandons his patients and responsibilities and travels to the Silver Shamrock factory in Santa Mira, California to investigate further. Ellie is absolutely heartbroken and incensed at her father’s random and vicious murder; after spotting Dan at the funeral, Ellie tracks him down to find out more and he reluctantly reveals that Harry was paranoid that he was going to be killed. She takes him to her father’s store and shares her research into her father’s records, which points them towards Santa Mira, and Dan’s so moved by her plight that he passes up seeing his kids (much to Linda’s fury) to join her. She’s surprisingly happy to share a bed with him without much coercing (it must be the moustache because he looks old enough to be her father!…unless that’s what she’s into…) and to masquerade as potential customers to get a tour of Cochran’s factory, which is like something out of Roald Dahl. While she has a fair amount of spunk and is determined to get to the bottom of her father’s death, there’s not much to Ellie; she’s certainly not shy about her sexuality but, despite claiming to be “older than she looks”, she’s still prone to emotional outbursts and is thus easily captured by Cochran’s men, disappearing for a big chunk of the film and returning simply to be a pretty hostage for our surprisingly gung-ho male protagonist to rescue.

Despite his friendly persona, Cochran employs killer androids and plans to murder countless children!

Silver Shamrock made its fortune manufacturing toys; with Halloween fast approaching, they’ve embarked on an aggressive and aggravating marketing campaign for their special Halloween masks, which all the kids are dying to get their hands on. The company is headed by Irish entrepreneur Cochran, whose factory and business brings prosperity to Santa Mira; played with an alluring glee by expert villain Dan O’Herlihy, Cochran is a magnetic and generous old man who takes great pride in his work, his attention to detail, and the prosperity he’s brought to Santa Mira. Although he brought in his own workers from overseas and much of the town is made up of his fellow Irishmen, hardly anything happens in town without his say-so or involvement and he’s extremely eager to please his customers and investors with accolades and generosity. However, while he appears a friendly and courteous old man, Cochran hides a dark secret within his factory walls and, thanks to O’Herlihy’s presence, is constantly shrouded in a sinister cloud. Many of his workforce are mute, relentless android assassins who carry out his every whim without question; garbed in suits and pursuing their targets relentlessly, they are superhumanly strong, capable of gouging out eyes, ripping off heads, and enduring a great deal of punishment. In many ways, their silent implacability conjures memories of Michael Myers (fitting since the head android was played by the Shape himself, Dick Warlock), but even these unsettling minions are just a fraction of Cochran’s true intent. It turns out that his masks contain a special microchip that gruesomely kills whoever is wearing them and causes writhing snakes and bugs to burst from their heads!  This is all part of his insidious plot to evoke an ancient pagan ritual from his native Celtic lands of sacrificing children during the time of Samhain, a plot that requires a chunk of Stonehenge which he was somehow able to steal and transport to the United States without being detected!

The Nitty-Gritty:
You can tell that Halloween III is going for something completely different right away; gone is the haunting, atmospheric “Halloween” theme and unsettling pumpkin in the credits, replaced by an ominous synth theme courtesy of John Carpenter and Alan Howarth, basic credit text, and a decidedly eighties computer-generated credit sequence that merges the themes of Halloween and technology (specifically evoking the pixelated aesthetic of television and computer screens). The film also goes out of its way to make it clear that its events aren’t set in the same continuity as the previous films since a trailer for Halloween plays on a television at one point. However, while the score is fitting for what basically amounts to a techno/horror piece and evokes memories of John Carpenter’s The Thing (Carpenter, 1982) and The Terminator (Cameron, 1984), your days will be tormented forever more by the incessant Silver Shamrock jingle, which cheerily counts down the days until Halloween to the tune of “London Bridge is Falling Down”. The intention is pretty obvious, to capture kids’ attention with dancing images, a memorable song, and encourage them to buy the masks and it’s pretty evocative of the aggressive and shameless marketing campaigns of toys and videogames over the years, but the subtext is quite clever as well: it can’t be a coincidence or just a financial decision that “London Bridge is Falling Down” is used as the base tune since Cochran’s ultimate plan is the cause widespread death and destruction, after all.

Some gory scenes and bizarre events help make the film a little more memorable, as weird as they are.

If there’s one thing Halloween III has going for it, it’s a somewhat decent sense of atmosphere; when Dan and Ellie roll into Santa Mira, they’re met with suspicion and intrigue by the townsfolk since. For the most part, the film is a bit of a murder-mystery tale, with Dan and Ellie posing as a couple and trying to find out more about the company and investigating the strange town with its many surveillance cameras and even a curfew (which doesn’t stop Dan going out at night to an open liquor store, making you wonder why there’s a curfew in the first place…), and Dan proves to be quite the sleuth. Of course, his habitual lying and infidelity goes a long way to helping with his subterfuge; Linda is so fed up of his constant excuses and lies that she offers little support or compassion when he’s rattled by the deaths at the hospital and he gets so into his little charade with Ellie that it’s not long (barely a day) before they’re getting it on in their motel room. While they suspect that there’s more going on behind Silver Shamrock’s walls, they could never have guessed the truth but we get to see it in gory detail as one of Cochran’s androids trips the head off a hobo (Jon Terry) for daring to disparage the company’s name. Disgruntled buyer Marge Guttman (Garn Stephens) also indirectly feels Cochran’s wrath after she fiddles around with a mask and gets a mouthful of laser due to a “misfire” that leaves her a mutilated husk for creepy-crawlies to wriggle out of! After Ellie is kidnapped by Cochran’s androids, Dan is fights one off, punching right through its stomach and rendering it immobile, but the realisation that Cochran utilises life-like machines leaves him shellshocked and he’s easily apprehended by the toymaker. Instead of killing the nosy doctor, Cochran decides it’s far better to take him into the hidden laboratory beneath his toy factory and to explain his master plan in minute detail (well, except for explaining how the fuck he got that chunk of Stonehenge there, which he simply laughs off).

Although Dr. Challis destroys Cochran’s operation, it’s left ambiguous whether he stopped his evil scheme…

Fascinated and enamoured by the power of even a fragment of the ancient rock, Cochran delights in showing off exactly what his masks can do by forcing Dan to watch as his best seller and his family (Ralph Strait, Jadeen Barbor, and Brad Schacter) are subjected to the final Silver Shamrock commercial, which sucks the life out of the boy and sees him torn apart by bugs and snakes, which then attack his family. As kids all over the country eagerly await the “big giveaway” at nine, and Teddy is murdered via a drill to the head by one of Cochran’s androids (a scene that might’ve worked better if it had come earlier in the film before we knew for sure that they were androids…), Cochran straps Dan to a chair, fits him with a mask, and explains his motives: not only does he think it’s a lark, but he’s disgusted that people have forgotten Halloween’s roots and relishes bringing back the old ways of ritual sacrifice. With little more than an hour and ten minutes to go, Dan cuts himself free without much effort and escapes using a conveniently oversized ventilation shaft. His caricature of John McClane (Bruce Willis) continues as he sneaks across the factory roof and through the warehouse to rescue Ellie (…her door wasn’t even locked…) and he even reaches the control panel, figures out its controls, and activates the Silver Shamrock commercial without being spotted! He then dumps a load of the microchips over Cochran’s androids and equipment, shorting them both out and sending everything haywire, earning him a little appreciative applause from Cochran before he’s zapped by the rock. Fleeing from the horrendously rendered factory explosion, Dan races to interrupt the commercial, only to be attacked by Ellie, who turns out to be a robot duplicate (or…maybe she was a robot all along? Who even knows at this point!) Luckily, he avoids having his head ripped off and beheads her with a tyre iron, but we’ll never know if he succeeded in shutting off all the deadly commercials since the film dramatically cuts to the credits right as he’s desperately screaming at the television network to cut the feed…

The Summary:
I think everyone can agree that Halloween III: Season of the Witch is a bit of an anomaly; not only does it not include or even have anything to do with Michael Myers or the previous two films, it doesn’t even have anything to do with a witch beyond a brief reference to the pagan rituals of Samhain. I’d wager that this film is known for two things: not including the franchise’s masked killer and its surprisingly bleak ending, and only one of those points actually works in its favour. An altogether bizarre film from start to finish that awkwardly blends together technology and the supernatural, I think Halloween III was maybe trying a little too hard to be something different. Cochran’s plot might’ve been easy to swallow if it had fallen into one side or the other but having these lifelike android assassins existing alongside a magical piece of Stonehenge that he was…somehow…able to turn into killer microchips that spawn insects from Halloween masks and leave countless children dead is all very hodgepodge and none of it really feels like it fits together. It’s like the film was two scripts that got jumbled up and, while I applaud the attempt to try something different, the bleak ending, and the dark, sinister undertones (it’s rare that even horror films kill kids, after all), the final execution is quite sloppy. Tom Atkins does a decent job but he’s not much of a leading man; the visual of this middle-aged, womanising alcoholic being our unlikely protagonist doesn’t inspire much confidence, though I did enjoy his investigation into Silver Shamrock and his wife constantly admonishing him for being a lying, selfish asshole. Dan O’Herlihy’s captivating, menacing screen presence and some deliciously gory death scenes help this film limp along towards its memorably grim ending but, overall, you can easily skip this one in favour of any other horror film and have a far better time. I do believe that there was some potential in a Halloween anthology series, but the third film wasn’t the time to do that and this concept certainly wasn’t capable of matching its predecessors; I’d also wager that if this film didn’t have “Halloween” in its title then no one would have ever seen it and it’d be lost to the mists of time, which really tells you everything you need to know about this misfire of a movie.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

Are you a fan of Halloween III : Season of the Witch? What did you think to the attempt to take the series in a new direction with an unrelated story? How clued up are you on Samhain and the pagan origins of the season? Did you enjoy the mystery element of the film and the gory kills? What did you think to Cochran’s plan and his execution? Were you a fan of the sudden, potentially bleak ending and do you think Dan was able to interrupt the broadcast? How are you celebrating Halloween this year? Whatever your thoughts on Halloween, and the Halloween franchise, drop a comment below, or leave a comment on my social media, and have a spook-tacular Halloween!

Movie Night: The Crow: City of Angels

Dr. K7 Comments

Released: 30 August 1996
Director: Tim Pope
Distributor: Miramax Films
Budget: $13 million (estimated)
Stars: Vincent Pérez, Mia Kirshner, Richard Brooks, Thuy Trang, Iggy Pop, Thomas Jane, and Eric Acosta

The Plot:
Mechanic Ashe Corven (Pérez) and his young son, Danny (Acosta), are brutally murdered by zealot Judah Earl (Brooks) and his thugs. After being resurrected by a mysterious and supernatural crow, Ashe is guided by the aloof Sarah Mohr (Kirshner) and assumes the guise of a tragic clown to avenge his loss using his newfound superhuman abilities.

The Background:
Beginning as a comic book published by Caliber Comics in 1989, The Crow was the brainchild of James O’Barr. The main character, named simply “Eric”, was modelled after prominent rock musicians and brutally slayed those who killed him and his fiancée as a reaction to the pain and loss O’Barr felt after losing his own fiancée. The Crow became an underground success and, since dark comic book narratives were becoming popular in Hollywood, transitioned into a critically and commercially successful film adaptation despite the accidentally on-set death of star Brandon Lee. While The Crow (Proyas, 1994) is regarded by many as a cult hit, the same accolades can’t be said about its sequel, which came as a direct response to the financial success of the first film. Initially, director Tim Pope and writer David S. Goyer planned to take the sequel in a different direction to avoid copying or emulating the original movie. They pitched having Sarah become a female Crow (a concept later explored in the comic books) or setting the story in the 19th century before ultimately settling on another tale of urban vengeance. It was the producers, however, who most directly engineered the film to be more of a carbon copy of the first, dramatically cutting down Pope’s original 160-minute cut into a jumbled mess of muddy visuals and confusing plot points. Despite the popularity of the first film, The Crow: City of Angels failed to recapture the magic of its predecessor; it barely grossed over $25 million at the box office and has been met with scathing criticism for its awful execution, lacklustre lead actor, and woeful narrative and pacing. Despite this, Miramax continued producing Crow movies and spin-offs, and some have even argued that The Crow: City of Angels is an under-rated entry in the franchise. Spoiler alert: I am not one of them but, as The Crow is one of my favourite movies and tonight is “Devil’s Night”, I figured this would be a good opportunity to look back on this shambles of a film and see how it holds up.

The Review:
I’ve been a huge fan of The Crow ever since I was a kid and randomly stumbled upon it on one of our many VHS tapes; it took me a little while to be equally impressed with the bleak and harrowing comic book, but the film had a huge impact on me at a time when I was really getting into dark and gritty comic book comics, stories, and anti-heroes. While the story didn’t really lend itself to a sequel since everything was wrapped up nicely in the film and it seemed very self-contained, the concept leaves plenty of wriggle room for other avatars to be resurrected and seek justice (or revenge, depending on your perspective) for the wrongs they suffered in death. It’s not as if it should really be all that difficult, either; there was plenty of material in James O’Barr’s comic that hadn’t been used in the first film, or was left on the cutting room floor, that could’ve been worked into a new movie, or a reboot. In this regard, I’m okay with new actors taking on the iconic role as the Crow’s very nature allows legacy characters, and I can understand the studio wanting to try and emulate the look, feel, and narrative of the first film, and there’s even some interesting new wrinkles in the lore and concept of The Crow: City of Angels, but the final product and overall execution is lacking in almost every regard beyond the soundtrack and the general moodiness of the film. The first and biggest problem is the lead himself; while I had the faintest idea of who Brandon Lee was prior to The Crow thanks to a vague familiarity (at the time) with the legendary Bruce Lee, I have no idea who Vincent Pérez is and, frankly, still don’t. I have no idea why he, of all people, was cast in such an iconic role; it’d be hard for any actor to fill Lee’s shoes, especially after the tragedy he suffered during filming, but Pérez is incapable of matching Lee’s tortured, charismatic performance and comes across as a pale imitation in his attempts to channel the same mixture of grief, anger, and morose conviction of his predecessor.

Reborn from a violent death, Ashe embarks on a mission of vengeance with a manic theatricality.

Ashe is quite a different character to Eric Draven; rather than being a loved-up rockstar, he’s a mechanic and a single father living in Los Angeles, here rendered as a bleak, gritty, crime-infested hellhole swamped with drugs and rampant violence thanks to the fanatical Judah Earl. Though there are few places free from Judah’s influence; Ashe lived a simple, quiet life near the pier with his beloved son, Danny, but the two were brutally tortured and executed by Judah’s maniacal followers, primarily Kali (Trang) and “Curve” (Pop), after accidentally witnessing them murdering another drug dealer. Some time later (in the first film it was a year; here, we don’t really know, but it can’t be that long as Ashe’s garage/home is largely untouched since his death), the mysterious and semi-supernatural crow brings Ashe back from his watery grave to seek vengeance but, whereas the crow guided Eric and assisted in his similar quest, Ashe is primarily aided by Sarah Mohr (Kirshner), who is all grown up from the last film and working as a melancholic tattoo artist. While Eric rose in a state of confusion, he became committed to his cause after the crow helped him relive his traumatic death; Ashe similarly reawakens confused and disorientated, but is overwhelmed by his situation, as related by Sarah, and reacts with denial and hostility before reluctantly accepting that he’s now an undead spirit of vengeance after being bombarded with memories. Sarah uses Danny’s paints to make Ashe into an imitation of her former friend (even his make-up is a poor facsimile of Eric’s, however, with the white barely visible in the film’s poor lighting and the black only going around his lips rather than covering them) and he throws on a bad-ass trench coat, hops on an equally bad-ass motorcycle, and heads into the misty and filth-ridden streets to track down his killers. Thanks to the crow, Ashe is led to “Spider Monkey” (Vincent Castellanos), where he showcases his dramatic flair, performing sleight of hand and card tricks while toying with his prey, while also exhibiting just how corny and bad Pérez’s acting and line delivery is. This becomes a common theme, with his weird screaming, cackling countenance, odd appropriation of the “One for sorrow” nursery rhyme to now include crows, and desperate attempts to appear menacing only serving to make him appear unhinged. Whereas Eric somewhat revelled in the virtual invincibility and superhuman abilities afforded to him, Ashe wallows in the constant cycle of pain and healing his body goes through when he’s hurt (which, to be fair, is somewhat similar to the comic book Eric) and fluctuates between being violently, maniacally unbalanced when facing his killers, and miserable and brooding when with Sarah or contemplating his newfound afterlife.

Though seeking revenge for his son’s death, this new Crow is tempted to stay behind with Sarah.

While this is reminiscent of his predecessor, Ashe comes off as far gloomier and sullener than Eric, and it’s not like he makes up for it with any decent fight scenes. The few he does have are brief, poorly shot, and completely one-sided in his favour until the end, and we’re even denied decent shoot outs this time around as Ashe largely forgoes firearms (except for when hunting Curve), though he does evoke the crow imagery by stuffing a paper crow into “Nemo’s” (Thomas Jane) mouth, forming Kali’s blood into a crow upon her death, and leaving Curve surrounded by a crow outline of petals. Naturally, Ashe isn’t just out to avenge his death, but is primarily driven to avenge the brutal murder of his son; this causes him the most pain, as Danny was just an innocent, wide-eyed kid (a stupid one, but an innocent one nonetheless) and reliving his murder causes grief and rage to wrack Ashe’s body and, in many ways, makes his plight far worse than Eric’s but this tragedy really belongs in a better movie (or in the hands of a better actor). He goes out of his way to retrieve Danny’s corpse and give him a proper burial and is even visited by Danny’s spirt when he starts to lose his way. This wrinkle is added because, for whatever reason, Ashe develops a strong attraction to Sarah; surprising, as the two have very little chemistry and, while she seems fascinated to see another reborn by the crow and is sympathetic to him, I never got any romantic feelings from her. A snappy, somewhat feisty goth girl who partially narrates the film and has a familial bond with her boss, Noah (Ian Dury), Sarah’s influence over Ashe becomes so strong that he considers staying behind with her. This is juxtaposed by the Day of the Dead festival that’s being celebrated in the city, and through a conversation with a priest (Reynaldo Duran), who tells Ashe that wandering souls can get lost, believing themselves to be alive, and need guidance to achieve eternal rest. Honestly, the idea of a Crow wandering the Earth with no memory of how or why they got there is a fascinating one, and one I believe was strongly emphasised in the original cut of the film, where Ashe decides to stay behind rather than join his son, and Sarah, in death.

Some terrible performances stunt whatever menace Judah and his followers are meant to have.

Of course, this plot is barely notable in the finished film and is used more as motivation to keep Ashe fighting and help him overcome the loss of his powers, courtesy of Judah Earl. I hate to keep making comparisons, but Judah Earl is no Top Dollar (Michael Wincott); he exudes a decent menace and is a reprehensible and zealous figure in his own right, but Richard Brooks’ performance is all over the place as well, ranging from stoic and gravelly to over the top theatre as he proudly proclaims: “I’m your shadow, Ashe! […] I’ve tasted the blood of the crow and taken your power!” Like Top Dollar, Judah Earl is surrounded by a gaggle of cackling, shit-kicking underlings, none of which have any of the personality (however one-note and despicable) of Top Dollar’s and most of whom are constantly out of their minds on Judah’s tainted crack to be little ore than a knock-off combination of Skank (Angel David) and Funboy (Michael Massee). The most notable exceptions, beyond Nemo’s eccentricities, are Kali and Curve. Kali is a sadistic bitch who takes great pleasure in mocking and killing Danny; she also exhibits some martial arts prowess, giving Ashe his first real physical competition, and is one of three characters who I actually enjoyed seeing offed due to her aggravating nature. The other was Curve, played with manic abandon by rock icon Iggy Pop; I’m no fan of Iggy Pop’s music, or his acting, however, and Curve comes across as completely off his rocker, constantly raging about a tattoo Sarah gave him and assaulting the senses with his weird line delivery and atrocious acting (his “Do you think I’m afrai-i-id?” spiel is probably the worst performance I’ve ever seen). While Top Dollar seemed to have his hands in everything and was more about anarchy, Judah’s deal is drugs; he swamps the city with the stuff and has little concern over how badly his merchandise affects people. Once a product of the streets, Judah has taken to spending his time in his penthouse surrounded by the macabre and supernatural, and conveniently has a blind seer on hand Sybil (Tracey Ellis) to fill him (and us) in on the nature of the crow and how harming or killing it can hurt Ashe and render him mortal. Judah Earl takes this one step further, however, and drinks the crow’s blood to become “The Shadow”, a dark version of Ashe who gains all of his supernatural abilities for their final climatic showdown in the streets.

The Nitty-Gritty:
It’s so interesting and weird to think about the Crow franchise; the premise is incredibly simple and shouldn’t really be that hard to make a gritty, gothic, somewhat low budget film that’s a mixture of action, horror, and romance. It turns out, however, that The Crow was lightning in a bottle; not only did everything about its presentation work exceptionally well, but its reputation was bolstered by Brandon Lee’s tragic death, which has elevated the film above whatever shortcomings it might have to make it a monument to a young actor cut down in his prime. In that regard, you could argue that it didn’t make sense to follow it up, especially so soon after, but to do so with this knock-off, poor quality effort is a real insult to both Lee and O’Barr and comes across as a poor man’s attempt to recapture the magic. While the soundtrack is still pretty strong thanks to Graeme Revell’s haunting score (even if it is basically the same as last time) and some notable names, like White Zombie and Deftones, contributing to the film, the quality of acting takes a dramatic nosedive. Rather than a strong assortment of character actors and charismatic performers, The Crow: City of Angels features a bunch of one-dimensional, underdeveloped scumbags or aggravating performances from people who never should’ve been cast in the first place or actors who had yet to really hit their stride in their art.

Whatever visual appeal this film may have is lost beneath a muddy filter and poor special effects.

Easily the worst aspect of The Crow: City of Angels, though, is the presentation; this was legitimately the first film I’ve ever watched where I’ve criticised the direction and cinematography, and the look and feel of this film is a far cry from the harsh, rugged streets seen in the first film, which was almost a noir thriller in its aesthetic. The sequel swamps every scene in this grimy, mustard-yellow glare; mist and smoke covers everything, making the city appear to be either a poorly-constructed miniature or obscuring sets and real-world locations, and everything looks cheap and rushed, as though the filmmakers were trying to cover their inadequacies with this ugly, choking fog. Honestly, it looks like a homemade movie filmed on a soundstage or in a back garden, it’s that bad and, while the city occasionally seems like one of the worst places you can ever imagine, with its seedy underworld, sex clubs, and bars and such, everything just seems more fake and staged compared to the first movie, and this carries through to the action scenes. Sure, Ashe looks awesome cutting through the fog on his motorcycle, but he gets none of the rooftop-running action of Eric and doesn’t really acquit himself well in fight scenes. More often than not, Ashe simply slaps around and scuffles with his victim rather than threatening them with Poe or mutilating his body to intimidate his opponents, and the only physical challenge he’s presented with comes from Kali, whom he easily dashes out a window thanks to his invulnerability. Otherwise, Ashe’s mission of vengeance is an absolute mess of murky visuals, jerky camera moments, and awful acting; Pérez desperately tries to come off as intimidating when confronting Spider-Monkey but it’s a poor effort made worse by some dodgy CGI effects, and seeing him mock Nemo with a pouting countenance is more disturbing than menacing. Even Ashe’s big fight scene with Kali is ultimately disappointing, being a plodding affair with slow, awkward movements, erratic editing, and some weird contorted body language from Pérez, and his rundown of Curve ends up being a pitiable chase and confrontation thanks to such memorable lines as “Fuck you, bird dick!” and the down-right ugly visual presentation of the film.

Although rendered powerless and unable to save Sarah, Ashe is…somehow…able to destroy Judah Earl.

Fittingly, Ashe’s greatest physical challenge comes in the film’s conclusion; desiring to take the Crow’s power for his own, Judah Earl takes Sarah hostage and, after capturing the crow with a ridiculous amount of ease, has her witness a bizarre ritual where he kills the bird, inflicting Ashe with stigmata for a very on the nose Christ allusion and causing him to plummet from Judah’s high-rise dwelling and be rendered vulnerable. This fulfils Judah’s life-long fascination with death; his stoic demeanour and callous nature isn’t just to try and paint him as a malicious threat, but is because he’s completely numb to the concept of death since he has already experienced, and survived it, before. Having “liked what he saw” in his brief time in Hell, the only pleasure Judah has been able to take since is in the suffering of others, and the power of the crow allows him to indulge this to the fullest extent…however, while much of this is inferred and implied throughout the film, it really only becomes explicit when you know that, apparently, the original script went into greater detail about Judah’s near-death experience as a child. Regardless, thus empowered, Judah (or “The Shadow”, or whatever-the-fuck he’s supposed to be) easily manhandles Ashe, who’s completely helpless against Judah’s superior strength. The cruel zealot takes a sadistic pleasure in stringing Ashe up and lashing him before a raucous crowd but, when he goes to finish him off, Sarah intervenes and takes a knife to the stomach (without him even trying), dying in Ashe’s arms. Spurred on by Danny, who eagerly awaits his return, and enraged at Sarah’s death, Ashe skewers Judah on a piece of scaffold and…somehow…calls up a murder of (presumably) supernatural crows to tear the cruel kingpin into a mess of dodgy CGI. Again, quite how Ashe does this considering he has no powers at this point isn’t explained, nor is it really made clear exactly what the hell’s happening; it’s just another of the many drawbacks to huge chunks of the story being excised from the film, and this is only further reinforced in the rushed and vague ending, which suggests Ashe actually did stay behind rather than what the film is actually going for (which is that he rode off into the fog to be with Danny and, most likely, Sarah).

The Summary:
What happened to Brandon Lee on the set of The Crow was a tragedy. What happened to James O’Barr as a hopeful teenager was a tragedy. The Crow: City of Angels is a tragedy. The whole film is just an ugly, distorted, incoherent mess from start to finish; oh sure, there’s flashes of a somewhat decent sequel here, but everything that’s good about it is based on what worked in the first film and is a mere copy (a shadow, if you will) of it. Rather than taking the formula of its predecessor and expanding upon it, offering more action and bloodshed and more visually interesting fights and kills, The Crow: City of Angels ends up looking like a direct-to-video rush job that completely squanders not only its own premise, but everything that the first movie did so well. The idea of a father returning to enact revenge on those that killed his son is palpable, as is the concept of a crow avatar falling in love with a living female and resisting returning to the grave; hell, even the idea of a sadistic thug stealing the powers of the crow has some merit, but the execution of all of these ideas is ruined by muddy visuals, piss-poor performances, and an absolutely butchered narrative pacing. There’s some cool visuals of the Crow on his motorcycle and dramatically stalking and toying his prey or brooding in the dark, but Vincent Pérez is absolutely terrible here; he does the more melancholic aspects quite well, but his madcap buffoonery, grating accent, and stilted line delivery leave him a charisma-less void, especially compared to his predecessor. Iggy Pop desperately tries to hog every scene but he’s in way over his head here, and I doubt a better script or direction could’ve helped his tone-deaf performance, and Richard Brooks fails to exude any type of menace, even when he’s trying his hardest, thanks to his random descents into mania. Overall, it’s baffling to me that the studio managed to butcher a sequel to The Crow so badly; when its aping the first film, there’s some appeal here, but no one in their right mind would ever choose to watch this over the first movie and it does nothing but leech off of The Crow’s cult appeal in the laziest and most insulting ways possible, leaving us with a patchwork imitation of its predecessor that deserves nothing but scorn and derision.

My Rating:

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Terrible

Am I being too harsh on The Crow: City of Angels? Do you think the film had any chance of living up to the popularity and reputation of its predecessor? What did you think to Vincent Pérez’s performance and Ashe as the new Crow? Did you buy his romance with Sarah, or enjoy his flair for the theatrical? What did you think to Judah Earl and his crew? Did you enjoy the murky, foggy presentation of the film or was it also a struggle to endure? Which of The Crow’s sequels was your favourite, if any, and would you like to see the character return in some form or another in the future? How are you celebrating Devil’s Night tonight? Whatever you think about The Crow: City of Angels, join the discussion below or leave a comment on my social media.

Movie Night: The Cabin in the Woods

Dr. K1 Comment

Released: 13 April 2012
Director: Drew Goddard
Distributor: Lionsgate
Budget: $30 million
Stars: Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, and Bradley Whitford

The Plot:
Five college students retreat to a remote forest cabin for a well-deserved break and find themselves stalked by a family of backwoods zombies. However, all is not as it seems as the group find themselves manipulated by technicians in an underground facility who are attempting to appease ancient, slumber deities with human sacrifices.

The Background:
The Cabin in the Woods was the result of an intense two-day writing session between noted filmmaker Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard, who had previously worked together on Whedon’s television projects. The film came from Whedon’s desire to revitalise the horror genre with a love letter to all of horror’s most enduring clichés. While much of the movie was shot in Vancouver, the film necessitated a great deal of designs and hands to bring to life the many and varied monsters and special effects for the film’s finale; these were handled by AFX Studios, who had nearly a thousand people turning in hundreds of creature designs for the film’s climax. When the initial studio suffered financial difficulties, the film was delayed until Lionsgate stepped in to save it, and it eventually released to positive reviews and came to be regarded as an instant cult classic despite barely clearing $66 million at the box office.

The Review:
If there’s one overused cliché in horror, it’s got to be the “cabin in the woods” formula of a bunch of twenty-somethings teenagers heading out into some desolate woods in the middle of nowhere to stay in a rotting cabin and be terrorised by zombies or ghosts. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of the Evil Dead franchise (Various, 1981 to present) and the concept has birthed some great horror films, but I always found the cliché to be really odd. Maybe it’s a “me” thing; I grew up in a village here in the UK and prefer my holidays or breaks to be somewhere hot, like the beach, or to at least be near to a city or civilisation. Buggering off to a shitty cabin with no real mod-cons seems like one of the worst getaways I can imagine, so I always find it odd how characters in these films are so gung-ho about going there. It must be a “thing” when you live in a massive city like those in the US; you just wanna reconnect with nature and get drunk without the cops kicking your door in. All this is to say that, on paper, The Cabin in the Woods sets itself up as being little more than a continuation of this tried-and-tested cliché; indeed, that ends up being the entire point and our main characters are even forced to assume traditional stock horror roles like “The Virgin” and “The Athlete” thanks to the machinations of those controlling the horrors in and around the cabin.

The Facility staff are desensitised to the violence and moral implications of their job.

Of course, this is all part of a carefully constructed scenario orchestrated by the mysterious “Facility” located on the grounds near the cabin. All throughout the film, the story cuts to technicians Gary Sitterson (Jenkins) and Steve Hadley (Whitford), two long-term employees of the Facility who have been manipulating youngsters and sacrificing them to appease the slumbering, malevolent  “Ancient Ones” so often that they’ve become completely desensitised to the lives that are frequently lost in their bizarre ritual. This is true of all employees of the Facility, save for newcomer Daniel Truman (Brian J. White), a security officer who is not only stunned by how routinely the technicians go about manipulating and killing their victims but disgusted to find they place bets on the monsters the kids unwittingly conjure to pursue them and who dies first, though technician Wendy Lin (Amy Acker) explains it’s their way of “letting off steam” to cope with the horror of their everyday lives. Presumably a government-sanctioned operation, the Facility is just one of many all over the world; the US branch has the second-best track record of success, while the Japanese is the most efficient at appeasing the Ancient Ones, though it’s suggested on numerous occasions that the rituals often fail and come down the US and Japanese branches, hinting that this isn’t exactly a fool proof or even competent system. This is only further reinforced by numerous barely noticed and easily ignored missteps throughout the film; the likes of Sitterson and Hadley have become so complacent and numbed to the routine of it all that they don’t treat serious flags like a failure to communicate changes or electrical glitches or the ineffectiveness of their drugs as an issue until its too late. Indeed, the Facility noticeably shakes numerous times to indicate the Ancient Ones’ displeasure but this is mistaken as them being satisfied by the kills, with Sitterson and Hadley and the others often prematurely celebrating the sacrifice of their victims without confirming an actual kill since they’re more concerned with perving on the girls, making fun of their “Harbinger”, Mordecai (Tim de Zarn), and hastily celebrating their victory with tequila.

Our heroes are forced into roles that don’t fit them thanks to the Facility’s influence.

Our group of unsuspecting victims are four college friends, with Dana Polk (Connolly) being our main protagonist and ultimate “Final Girl”. Although she’s pigeon-holed by the Facility as “The Virgin”, Dana’s actually more suited to the “Whore” role that they force upon her friend, Jules Louden (Hutchison), since Dana just got out of an illicit affair with a college professor, walks around in her undies, and is more than willing to partake of alcohol and pot. Jules, a pre-medical student who has recently unwittingly dyed her hair blonde using the Facility’s products to make her more promiscuous, is the girlfriend of sociology major Curt Vaughan (Hemsworth), a well-read and responsible young man who also happens to be on the college football team, so he’s designed “The Athlete” by the Facility despite his friend, Holden McCrea (Williams), being more suitable since he’s much more about the game. A newcomer to the group, Holden is manipulated into taking on more scholarly attributes to fit the Facility’s tropes but is there in the hopes that he and Dana will connect so she can move on. While there’s an obvious attraction (both can’t resist the temptation to make use of the two-way mirror between their rooms) and they become closer as the film (and the horrors) progress, Dana is still dealing with the abrupt end of her affair and there’s a third wheel in their would-be romance. Namely, Marty Mikalski (Kranz), a pot-head and conspiracy theorist who spouts observational philosophy that sounds ridiculous but actually makes him the first to notice that something isn’t quite right at the cabin. He’s probably the most amusing and memorable of the group since he’s not just baked out of his mind; he stands up for Jules when gas attendant Mordecai insults her and questions Facility-influenced decisions that split the group up or having them poking around with things they should leave well alone.

Of all the monsters, the victims unwittingly summon a family of undead rednecks.

Thanks to the Facility’s influence, our protagonists are easily re-routed from their intended destination by the organisation’s agents, such as Mordecai (who takes his job as the local doomsayer a little too seriously), and unable to escape thanks to both a rockfall sealing the only exit and a massive, semi-translucent electrical barrier trapping them in the area. The cabin (and, indeed, the entire grounds) is full of surveillance devices that allow the Facility to monitor their every move and manipulate them more effectively; pheromones, drugs, and other intoxicating influences subtly alter their personalities into their intended roles, increase their libido, and hinder their rational thinking (with Marty proving somewhat immune to this thanks to his special batch of pot). This pushes them to investigate the cabin basement, which is a treasure trove of bizarre objects and cursed memorabilia, each of which is tied to a specific monster held in an elaborate series of holding cells within the Facility. Where these monsters came from or how they were ensnared by the Facility is left intentionally vague (they’re said to be remnants of the “Old World” and the things that inspired our nightmares), but they’re evoked through such staples as medallions, musical boxes, obscure puzzles, and mirrors. However, it’s the diary of Anna Patience Buckner (Jodelle Ferland) that wins out; when Dana reads the diary aloud (encouraged by all except Marty), the zombified Patience and her family (Mathew (Dan Payne) and Father Buckner (Dan Shea)) rise from the grounds and attack the protagonists with trowels and hatchets. With a 100% clearance rate, the Buckners also represent the Facility’s last hope at appeasing the Ancient Ones when all their sister facilities meet with failure, even the much-lauded Japanese site.

The Nitty-Gritty:
The Cabin in the Woods is an extremely clever and interesting spin on the horror genre; laced with metatextual context and humour, the film is as much a commentary on the genre as it is a subversion and love letter to the tropes associated with it. Sitterson and Hadley stress that, while they may rig the “game”, the victims ultimately choose their own destiny: they could ignore Mordecai’s warnings, but they continue on; they don’t have to go down to the cellar, but are compelled to do so; and they have no idea that they’ll be conjuring a monster until it’s too late because free will is all part of the “system”. Similarly, the Ancient Ones are cleverly positioned as an allegory for film audiences and horror fans, who constantly want more of the same and expect clichés like drunken, horny teens swimming in the lake or getting it on in misty woods in the dead of night. Thanks to the Facility, Curt starts acting like a jock alpha male, Holden starts wearing nerdy glasses, and Jules becomes a promiscuous slut; Marty’s warnings go unheeded since he’s off his nut and they all end up to out of it to properly defend themselves, much to the delight of the Facility staff, who watch with gaping mouths as the group first becomes hornier and then suffers at the hands of the Buckners, though this redneck zombie torture family proves to be far less effectual than they would like.

The Facility’s monsters go on a blood-soaked rampage after being let loose!

As undead killers, the Buckners are unrelenting, zombie-like monsters; armed when jagged, rusty saws and hatchets, they attack Curt and Jules, beheading the latter and offering the first humble blood sacrifice to the Ancient Ones. The true intentions of the cabin and the Facility are hinted throughout from the early going; not only is imagery of ritualistic killings prevalent in the opening credits, but the cabin itself is filled with macabre pictures and stuffed animals representing hunting and sacrifice. There’s a lot to spot on the monitors in the Facility as other subjects are met with failure around the world, with the most prominent being the Japanese school girls imprison an onryō (Naomi Dane) in a frog, but the true extent of the monsters on show is delivered in spectacularly bloody fashion during the finale after Dana hits a convenient big red button that unleashes all the monsters so they can run rampant throughout the Facility. There’s so much to see here that you’ll probably spot something new on each watch: there’s giant snakes and bats and other insects, reptiles and animals; a killer clown (Terry Notary), a stoic hell monster with buzz saws imbedded in its face (Greg Zach), a family of masked psychopaths, rabid dogs, vampires, witches, werewolves, mutants, eldritch abominations, and even a unicorn! Many of these are based on popular horror movie monsters and all of them are extremely aggressive and tear the Facility’s staff apart without mercy. While all the staff bet on which monsters they want to see appear, Hadley is obsessed with having a merman (Richard Cetrone) take the win, only to suffer an extremely ironic and violent death when a merman waddles over and devours him, spewing his blood from the blow-hole like vent on its back!

With the rituals having all failed, the Ancient Ones rise to destroy the world.

This mass purging of the monsters comes after Dana and Marty avoid the Buckners, despite appearing to die on more than one occasion, thus unintentionally convincing the Facility that they’ve succeeded. After repeated failed escape attempts result in the spectacularly abrupt and explosive death of Curt (who arrogantly tries to jump a ravine on his motorcycle and collides with the forcefield as a result) and Holden is skewered through the throat, Dana and Morty stumble upon the Facility and realise they’ve been manipulate the entire time. Although they take their revenge by unleashing the monsters, they’re ultimately confronted by the Director (Sigourney Weaver), who explains the whole purpose behind the ritual sacrifice and demands that Dana kill Marty to spare the world the apocalypse the Ancient Ones’ awakening would bring. It’s easily one of the best gags in the film that the victory over the monsters is actually a bad thing as it brings humanity one step closer to oblivion so, while you’re rooting for these characters to survive (as per the “system”), it’s actually better if they fail so that the Ancient Ones will be appeased. Ultimately, while Dana seems to contemplate compliance, she is injured by a werewolf (Richard Cetrone) before she can go through with it; after the Director is killed by Patience, the two friends reconcile and decide that humanity isn’t worth saving after all. At the start of the film, Marty haphazardly shares his belief that society deserves to crumble in order to escape the control, pressure, and influence of outside sources; this is revisited in the end, when he and Dana are the last ones left alive and have no way of stopping the inevitable apocalypse, so they simply share a joint and watch as it happens.

The Summary:
At first glance, The Cabin in the Woods is every cursed cabin, zombie horror film you’ve ever seen; the characters fall into their intended roles simply enough and it’s not long before the drinks are flowing, tongue spit is being exchanged, and blood is splattering everywhere as the kids are whittled down and attacked in classic slasher fashion. However, it’s actually one of the cleverest subversions and deconstructions of the genre I’ve ever seen; similar to parody movies and self-aware, meta-heavy horror films like the Scream franchise (Various, 1996 to present), the film offers wry commentary on the clichés of horror, the expectations of those watching, and suggests that all horror is purposely manufactured to appease the masses (which, of course, it is). Featuring some fun performances and some really impressive practical effects, The Cabin in the Woods is bolstered by the sharp dialogue and gags and the absolute bloodbath that features in the darkly bleak ending. It’s easily one of the most unique and entertaining twists on the genre I’ve ever seen; I love the idea that our darkest imaginations and fictional nightmares are born from these eldritch horrors and how it expands upon the concept of rooting for the killer so prevalent slasher films so there’s a mixture of relief and resentment towards Dana and Marty for surviving. Above all else, the film is worth a watch for the blood-soaked finale and the absolutely pitch-black final shot, which offers the briefest glimpse of the Ancient Ones and the end of all humanity. Fans of horror will be well placated with all the allusions, references, and gore on offer here but I think this one’s worth a watch from even casual horror fans, and especially sceptics, for the way it analyses and subverts the genre.  

My Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Great Stuff

Are you a fan of The Cabin in the Woods? Which of the main characters was your favourite and what did you think to the staff at the Facility? Which of the monsters would you have put your money on? Did you enjoy seeing the monsters let loose at the end? Which was your favourite and what did you think to the Buckners? Did you enjoy the self-aware horror and commentary in the film? Would you like to see some kind of follow-up exploring what happened after the Ancient Ones rose? You can leave your thoughts on The Cabin in the Woods in the comments below or comment on my social media, and be sure to check back for more horror content!

Movie Night: Man-Thing

Dr. K1 Comment

Released: 30 April 2005
Director: Brett Leonard
Distributor: Sci-Fi Pictures
Budget: $5 million
Stars: Matthew Le Nevez, Rachael Taylor, Jack Thompson, Steve Bastoni, and Conan Stevens

The Plot:
New Sheriff Kyle Williams (Le Nevez) arrives in the sleepy town of Bywater, only to find the area subjected to a series of gruesome murders. As he investigates, Kyle uncovers a plot to pollute and desecrate the sacred swamp waters, and the presence of a horrific swamp creature (Stevens) looking to enact revenge!

The Background:
Due to the implementation of the Comics Code Authority (CCA) in 1954 following widespread public concern, comic book publishers like Marvel had to dance around nonsensical rules to avoid corrupting vulnerable child readers from such horrors as violence, supernatural threat, and sexual content. Consequently, publisher Martin Goodman cancelled the none-CCA-approved Savage Tales after just one issue, though it released long enough to introduce Doctor Theodore “Ted” Sallis/Man-Thing. A creation of writers Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, and artist Gray Morrow (and entirely different from DC Comics’ Alec Holland/Swamp Thing), Man-Thing has had a not insignificant impact in Marvel since his debut but, it’s fair to say, is one of their more obscure monstrous characters so it was a little surprising to see him included in Marvel’s deal with Artisan Entertainment to produce at least fifteen adaptations of Marvel properties. Development of a Man-Thing movie can thus be traced back to 2000, where the project flip-flopped between a straight-to-video and a cinematic release before the then-recent success of superhero movies like Blade (Norrington, 1998), X-Men (Singer, 2000), and Spider-Man (Raimi, 2002) made a theatrical release more financially viable. Filming took place entirely in Sydney, Australia, which producer Avi Arad later blamed for the film’s failures as Marvel Studios were unable to properly micromanage and supervise the production to ensure a higher standard of quality. A low-budget production meant that the titular creature’s screen time was often rushed, causing the impressive practical effects and suit to become mired in sub-par CGI and, while the film had a very limited theatrical release, it eventually saw the light of day on the Sci-Fi Channel and home video. Consequently, Man-Thing made a paltry $1.1 million gross and was torn apart by scathing reviews that attacked everything but the special effects. Largely forgotten these days, the Man-Thing rights eventually reverted back to Marvel Studios and, after a few subtle allusions to the character, the Man-Thing officially joined the MCU in the Werewolf by Night special (Giacchino, 2022).

The Review:
If I’m being completely honest, I barely had any knowledge of the Man-Thing prior to this movie; I think he cropped up in an issue of Howard the Duck or a Hulk comic I once read as a kid, but it could’ve just as easily been someone like Taboo or Joseph Timms/The Glob. I was slightly more familiar with his DC Comics counterpart, Swamp Thing, thanks to watching (and being unimpressed by) Wes Craven’s 1982 movie and hazy memories of his short-lived cartoon from the nineties but, suffice it to say, I was not some die-hard Man-Thing fan, and in the years since I first picked up this movie the most I’ve really experienced of the character is this movie and his debut story. Still, back when this film came out, I was intrigued by the footage I’d seen; being a big fan of monster and horror films and gory practical effects, I was well on board for experiencing a different kind of comic book movie at a time when the genre was properly moving into a “safe zone” of family-friendly action spectacle. All of this means that I had relatively low expectations, couldn’t really get worked up about any changes made to the source material, and was mildly satisfied upon my first viewing and, even now, I often chuck Man-Thing on if I’m in the mood for a gore-fest that’s not something more mainstream.

Kyle Williams is new in town and beset by local issues and a string of grisly murders.

That’s not to say that Man-Thing is very impressive, by any means; it has a definite made-for-television presentation in the camera work and the quality of the actors, with the cast made up of mostly Australian television and bit-part players, which is fine for this kind of B-movie but keeps it from living up to the standards (however low they may be) for similar films released around this time, like Doom (Bartkowiak, 2005) and Hatchet (Green, 2006), which were both B-movie horrors that were bolstered by a bigger budget, bigger stars, or from being throwbacks to the slasher genre of old. Nowhere is this more evident than in our lead character; a kind of Ben Browder knock-off, Matthew Le Nevez does what he can, but his fish-out-of-water character is nothing we haven’t seen a million times. Looking for a fresh start and a chance to prove himself in a position of authority, the new sheriff is flustered to find his hideously departed predecessor has left him only one deputy, Eric Fraser (Alex O’Loughlin), and that the town is torn between preserving the sacred swamplands of Dark Water and welcoming the profits brought in by industrialist Frederick Schist (Thompson). Still, while Fraser is amicable enough towards Kyle, there’s a degree of distrust and scepticism levelled towards him not just because he’s new in town but also because of his youth and perceived lack of experience, especially considering the many missing people and gruesome deaths in the small town. Though he’s very much a by-the-book sheriff, Kyle’s also quite fair and humble; he doesn’t want to ruffle any feathers and is eager to ensure total co-operation with his department, but is equally sympathetic towards schoolteacher Teri Elizabeth Richards’ (Taylor) attempts to oppose the desecration and pollution brought by Schist’s operation. The feisty and moralistic Teri immediately clashes with Kyle, kicking him to the dirt and winning herself a stay in the cells for her disruptive actions; however, Kyle admires her fighting spirit and soon turns to her for assistance with the swamp and the legends that permeate it. Naturally, as the two most attractive characters in the film, a mutual attraction sparks up between the two as they’re both captivated by their shared sense of moral justice and desire to do what’s right, and they find a common cause to rally against once the extent of Schist’s violent nature becomes apparent.

Local industrialist Schist has no problem killing or rolling over those who threaten his operation.

Kyle’s most pressing concern, however, isn’t local politics or superstition, but the number of violent deaths that have recently occurred in Bywater and around the Dark Water swamp. Initially, the most obvious suspect (at least, according to Schist) is Mestizo extremist Rene LaRoque (Bastoni), who has been sabotaging Schist’s facilities. Schist resents the backlash from locals and the Seminole community of Bywater since he legally appropriated all of his land from Ted Sallis, the Seminole shaman and chieftain, who then disappeared after stealing the money for himself. However, in truth, LaRoque helped broker the deal to improve things for the tribe, while Sallis was vehemently opposed to it and, in an effort to make up for his greed, LaRoque has been disrupting Schist’s operations ever since. Schist is a force to be reckoned with, however; firmly seeing himself as nothing more than an industrialist, Schist is protected by his wealth and influence and the fact that all the paperwork says he hasn’t broken any American laws. With no time for mysticism or mumbo-jumbo, Schist is concerned only with profit and expanding his empire but, while Kyle is smart enough to initially be respectful and amicable to Schist, it’s pretty clear that he’s a shady character not just through his boisterous and somewhat condescending nature but also in the startling similarity between his company logo and the Nazi swastika. Since he’s a prominent entrepreneur and wealthy businessman, Schist holds a lot of sway in Bywater; he can influence the hiring and firing of sheriffs, encourages Kyle to play the game and pursue LaRoque, and even orders people to be arrested for disturbing his building and oil digging. Naturally, he’s also an extremely ruthless and shady character; bolstered by his son, Jake (Pat Thompson), and local thugs Wayne (John Batchelor) and Rodney Thibadeaux (Ian Bliss), Schist has no problem ordering LaRoque’s death, aggressively leaning on those who get in his way, or getting his own hands dirty since he killed Sallis and photographer Mike Ploog (Robert Mammone) when they threatened his empire.

Ted Sallis is transforming into a monstrous creature that slaughters anyone who threatens its swamp.

At first, all evidence points to LaRoque being behind the sabotage and even the strange events in town, no matter how bizarre they may be; despite Teri’s insistence that LaRoque is innocent of murder, Kyle has no choice but the venture into the swamp to find him to get to the bottom of what’s going on. Of course, Schist’s operation has a far bigger threat, one that’s caused the murky swamps of Bywater to become a hazardous land and violently takes lives, such as Fraser’s, with an inhuman brutality. The region, which is seeped in mysticism and dark supernatural power, is regarded by Native Americans like Peter Horn (Rawiri Paratene) to be the “Nexus of All Realities”, a place where a malevolent spirit dwells that brutally attacks any trespassers, especially those who taint its lands. This is the force that transforms Sallis after his murder at Schist’s hands; while the locals have long believed in a swamp guardian, it’s only after Sallis’s corpse is buried in the Dark Water that this actually comes to life in the form of a hulking swamp creature the obsessive and eccentric Ploog haphazardly dubs the “Man-Thing, man!” While many scoff at such local superstitions, they still actively avoid the swamp because of how dangerous it can be, but Horn knows full well the extent of the dark magic that dwells within it. Horn explains that the angered creature seeks blood to atone for the blood spilled on its sacred land, and has determined that everyone will die, though this is a bit misleading as the creature seems satisfied once Schist’s pump is destroyed in the finale (raising the question why the Man-Thing didn’t just destroy the pump itself, especially considering it was formed right in front of it!) Although the creature shows no real signs of intelligence or humanity, appearing more a force of nature (or supernatural wrath) than anything, it’s driven to slaughter those who venture into its waters, especially any that try to desecrate its swamp. It does this through increasingly brutal means, such as tearing its victims apart, causing roots and foliage to burst from their bodies, or pumping him full of Schist’s polluting oil. Those who know fear have no chance of burning at this Man-Thing’s touch as its whipping tentacles and huge, claw-like hands are far more likely to leave its prey little more than bloody, swamp-covered remains. Even people like Plooq and LaRoque, who routinely visit and live in the swamp, and Sallis’s friends and fellow Seminole aren’t safe from the Man-Thing’s rage; the monstrous being rids its swamp of all interlopers and violatiors, friend or foe and, to make matters worse, is functionally immortal and impervious to harm, even to ancient rituals and sacrifices designed to appease its wrath.

The Nitty-Gritty:
While Man-Thing might be a decidedly low-budget (and low-brow) affair, I have to give it props for going all-in with its genre and its premise. It’s fascinating re-watching these licensed properties from before the Marvel Cinematic Universe found a winning formula in family-friendly productions that only touch upon horror or violent elements, and Man-Thing is far more a throwback to the violent, carefree slashers and monster movies of the eighties than anything else. This is evident right from the beginning thanks to a raucous sex scene out on a canoe in the wilds of the swamp that leaves busty Sarah (Imogen Bailey) a screaming, bloody mess and the frequent, barking use of curse words and dark, sticky blood effects. As you might expect, the swamp is very much a big part of Man-Thing; a dark, murky, overgrown mess of withered trees, vines, gloopy muck, and full of alligators and bugs, the swamp is unsightly and hazardous place. While Teri regards it with a great deal of affection, Horn is filled with a respect for its dark power, and Schist just wants to plunder its natural resources, Kyle is completely out of his depth when he ventures into those dark and muddy waters and the film does a decent job of presenting it as a very ominous and mysterious place. Personally, however, I have no love for swamp settings; they’re invariably murky and suffer from low lighting and green filters, all of which is true here, but you can’t really make Man-Thing without a swamp and, considering the time the film takes in building up to the Man-Thing’s first full appearance, the swamp makes for a visually unsettling compromise.

The impressive Man-Thing monster takes its brutal revenge.

Still, if there’s one thing Man-Thing has going for it, it’s the impressive and ambitious special effects. The Man-Thing itself is introduced slowly, building tension and anticipation towards its big reveal, which comes about an hour into the film’s runtime when it stalks and slaughters the Thibadeaux’s before ripping Fraser apart like an insect. Before that, we get an idea of how the creature came into being in flashbacks that resemble the grisly horror of Hellraiser (Barker, 1987) and we see the gruesome aftermath of its unique methods of killing, with Fraser left sickened by the awesome brutality (though both Kyle and coroner Val Mayerick (Brett Leonard) are surprisingly nonplussed by the mangled corpses, which have long been chalked up the alligator attacks). The creature itself is an incredibly impressive combination of a practical suit enhanced by CGI, which is the perfect blend when creating a movie monster, and it’s pretty clear that a big chunk of the budget (if not all of it) went to bringing Marvel’s monstrous swamp-man to life. A hulking beast dripping with vile vines and oozing menace, the Man-Thing easily manhandles and rips apart even the likes of Pete Horn after he tries to sacrifice himself to quell its rage, glaring at its prey with burning eyes and pursuing Kyle and Teri relentlessly for trespassing in its swamp. Determined to track down and kill LaRoque, who seeks to destroy his drilling tower in the Dark Water, Schist ventures into the swamp only to find Kyle and Teri being chased by the Man-Thing in their own attempts to get to LaRoque. Although Schist confesses to killing Sallis and wounds both LaRoque and Kyle, he ultimately meets his grisly end when the Man-Thing impales him with vine-like tentacles and pumps Schist’s own oil back into his body for a fitting and gory demise. Devoid of all humanity and fixated only on eliminating intruders, the Man-Thing turns on Kyle and Teri, forcing LaRoque to sacrifice himself by blowing up the drilling tower, taking himself and the Man-Thing with it. The blast doesn’t actually destroy the beast, however; it simply absorbs the flames and then, after seeing that Schist’s destructive influence has been driven from the Dark Water, it is reclaimed by the swampland to slumber once more until needed, allowing the injured and stunned Kyle and Teri to gingerly make their way back to what passes for civilisation in those parts.

The Summary:
For many, Man-Thing will be little more than a low-budget, made-for-television B-level monster movie that pales in comparison to other films in its genre, especially those it owes much of its horror and imagery to. For fans of the titular character, many may also be put off by how different the film is from the source material, which casts the Man-Thing as an uncompromising force of vengeful nature rather than a more sentient and complex character like I assume it is in the comics. For me, though, as a fan of gory monster movies of this type, there’s a lot to like about Man-Thing; the atmosphere, the sense of dread and horror building throughout the film thanks to the near constant darkness and the disgusting murkiness of the swamp really give the film a foreboding ambiance. Of course, the main selling point is the Man-Thing itself; kept in shadow and blending in with the trees and vines of the gloomy swamp, the creature is an extraordinary and terrifying mixture of CGI and practical effects and impresses every time its on screen, which isn’t often, and always makes an impact. Unfortunately, the acting and overall presentation is very cheap and befitting of its made-for-television status; you don’t really watch a film like this for the performances or any kind of nuance beyond one-dimensional villains, gratuitous sex and violence, and somewhat capable lead characters, and Man-Thing definitely doesn’t try to deliver anything beyond these clichés. Overall, I do feel it’s an under-rated and often forgotten Marvel film that can be fun at times, but I can see why this didn’t really make much of an impact, though I am interested in seeing how the MCU utilises the Man-Thing going forward.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

Have you ever seen Man-Thing? Were you a fan of the film or did it leave you disappointed? What did you think to Schist and his plot to besmirch the sacred land, and the lead characters and their performances? Were you impressed by the Man-Thing’s special effects and brutal kills? If you’re a fan of the source material, what did you think to this adaptation? Whatever your thoughts on Man-Thing, leave them below and go check out my other horror content!

Movie Night [Back to the Future Day]: Back to the Future Part II

Dr. K7 Comments

In this sci-fi classic, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) travels to October 21, 2015, which is known as “Back to the Future Day” to celebrate the franchise and science.

Released: 22 November 1989
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Budget: $40 million
Stars: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Thomas F. Wilson, Lea Thompson, and Elisabeth Shue

The Plot:
Moments after undoing a mistake he made in the past, high school student Marty McFly is whisked away to the futuristic 2015 in a time-travelling DeLorean built by his eccentric scientist friend Doctor Emmett “Doc” Brown (Lloyd). However, while in the future, Marty inadvertently creates an alternate, dystopian version on 1985 and must return to 1955 to set the timeline straight.

The Background:
Back to the Future began life as a passion project for long-time collaborators Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis, who were looking to bounce back after a few critical and commercial failures. And bounce back they did! After refining their script and securing their first choice for the lead, the duo not only made the sleek and futuristic DeLorean one of the most iconic vehicles in film history but also produced a massive commercial and critical success that is now recognised as one of the greatest science-fiction films ever made. Although Zemeckis never planned to make a sequel, a follow-up was all-but-inevitable given the first film’s success, which initially led to scripting problems as the director felt hampered by his decision to have Marty’s girlfriend, Jennifer Parker (now played by Elizabeth Shue), in the DeLorean with him and Doc. After settling on the basic plot, Zemeckis and Gale were then flabbergasted when star Crispin Glover demanded a pay rise to participate in the sequel, which directly led to his role being recast and greatly reduced. To save money on production costs and take full advantage of Fox’s extended break from Family Ties (1982 to 1989), the filmmakers made the then-usual decision to film Part II and Part III (Zemeckis, 1990) back-to-back, which put Zemeckis under a great deal of strain.

Though a box office success, Back to the Future wasn’t made with a sequel in mind.

In designing the look and technology of the then-far-off future of 2015, the duo chose to have some fun with the concept rather than produce another dystopian future, and many of their technological and sociological predictions for the future eerily came to be true. Industrial Light & Magic were behind the film’s groundbreaking practical and visual effects, which included digital compositing and motion control cameras to splice characters into events from the first film and even into the same scene, a purposely-bad holographic shark, all the slick futuristic conveniences, and refining the time travel effects. Although it fell a little short of its predecessor’s $388.8 million box office, Back to the Future Part II made just over $332 million and was widely praised for its humourous take on the future, time travel mechanics, and for its entertaining escapism. The film’s darker aspects, sidelining of Jennifer, and some make-up effects were criticised but, in the years since, Back to the Future Part II has rightly taken its place as both a cult hit and one of the best sequels ever made. Naturally, the third entry followed six months later and became the sixth-highest-grossing film of 1990, but Back to the Future Part II also lived on in the short-lived cartoon series, comic books, and videogames that followed and reused much of the technology and elements pioneered in this movie.

The Review:
I’ve long held the belief that Back to the Future Part II is not only superior to its predecessor, but also the best film in the entire trilogy; as much as I enjoyed Back to the Future, and as pivotal as it was to my childhood, Back to the Future Part II held so much more appeal to me as a kid. It had flying cars! Hoverboards! All kinds of nifty, visually interesting futuristic gadgets and technology, and that immediately made it far more appealing that the first, which was stuck replicating the 1950s and thus not as imaginative for a wide-eyed sci-fi fan such as myself. Not only that, but the film explored alternative timelines, offering an easily accessible explanation of this concept and delving into a darker version of the town and characters we’ve followed over the course of the films. Finally, it revisited the events of the first film from a new perspective, splicing current-day Marty into scenes from the past in a way that was mind-blowing at the time, and featured one hell of a cliff-hanger ending that had me salivating for more back when we first taped the movie off the TV. It’s one of those rare sequels that’s everything appealing about its predecessor, but more; everything that worked is expanded upon, the stakes are higher, the characters given more nuance, and all the visuals and action are improved by the noticeably bigger budget, resulting in what is legitimately one of my favourite science-fiction films of all time.

Marty’s a little more seasoned now, but a flash of selfishness creates a dystopian alternate timeline.

The movie begins with a complete recreation of Back to the Future’s finale; Marty has returned to 1985 from his hijinks in 1955 to find his life and family changed for the better and is just about to take his big, shiny new truck for a spin with his girlfriend, Jennifer Parker (Shue), when Doc literally bursts into the scene and whisks them away to 2015 to solve some drama with their future kids. Having already experienced time travel in the first film, Marty is no stranger to the DeLorean’s capabilities but even he is shocked to find that the plutonium reactor that powers the Flux Capacitor has been replaced by “Mister Fusion”, a waste processing system, and that the car can fly thanks to the future tech enhancements. Marty’s first priority, however, is Jennifer’s safety; giddy at the prospect of seeing their future life together, which she fully believes will be perfect and happy, Jennifer naturally has many questions and Doc is forced to render her unconscious to avoid her learning too much about the future. Though trusting in his eccentric friend, Marty struggles to wrap his head around their mission since Doc is reluctant to reveal too much information to him, but takes the place of his future son, Marty Junior (Fox), to keep him being arrested after being set-up by the bullish Griff Tannen (Wilson). Despite a few hiccups along the way, Marty is successful, and therefore has the time to explore the futuristic Hill Valley; he purchases a copy of the Gray’s Sports Almanac with the intention of profiting from the sports statistics contained within and is admonished by Doc for his behaviour. Remorseful for betraying Doc’s quest for scientific curiosity and knowledge, Marty is left devastated when the almanac falls into the hands of the elderly Biff Tannen (Wilson) and, after his own trip though time, results in a nightmarish alternate timeline (1985b) where his beloved father, George (Jeffrey Weissman), is dead, his mother, Lorraine (Thompson), is married to Biff, and Doc has been labelled clinically insane.

Though aware of how fragile the timeline is, Doc can’t help but interfere to sort out Marty’s future life.

Thanks to us following the present version of Doc throughout the film rather than his younger 1955 counterpart, Doc is also somewhat expanded upon; still an enthusiastic and energetic mad scientist with a passion for discovery and scientific curiosity, Doc is nevertheless driven to intervene in his young friend’s future after seeing how Marty Jnr’s mistake destroys their already fractured family. Intimately aware of the dangers of messing with causality, Doc plans to intervene in the least destructive way possible and to both keep the future vague and stress how interfering with the timeline can lead to temporal paradoxes that could unravel the very fabric of reality. While Doc built the time machine with the express purpose of exploring the depths of human knowledge and evolution and as a means to answer the universal question of “Why?”, Future-Biff’s perversion of the DeLorean (and the timeline) leads Doc to conclude that time travel is far too dangerous and resolves to dismantle the time machine to never again risk the safety of reality. Unfortunately this revelation comes when the timeline has already been horribly altered; aghast to find that his 1985b counterpart has been committed and his laboratory has been ransacked, Doc fervently tries to convince Marty that the only way to fix 1985 is to travel to the past when the timeline was skewed, since travelling to the future would only show them the inevitable conclusion of 1985b. While back in 1955, Doc provides advice and support to Marty via a walkie-talkie but is unable to directly assist since Marty’s forced to infiltrate the Enchantment Under the Sea dance at the high school, but he proves a dab hand and swooping in with the DeLorean for a last-minute save and excels at emphasising, overemphasising, and reemphasising the importance of their mission to retrieve the almanac from Biff.

Thanks to perverting the timeline, Biff manages to make himself a wealthy, tyrannical kingpin.

Although Marty’s adventures in the past left Biff a meek and humble car cleaner, Hill Valley’s most notorious bully remains a thorn in his side throughout his film. Future-Biff might be half-crippled by arthritis, but he remains a lecherous, cantankerous antagonist who routinely mocks Future-Marty’s failings and weasels out of anything resembling hard work. Having witnessed the DeLorean flying away at the start of the film, Future-Biff is intrigued when he overhears Marty and Doc’s conversation about the almanac and follows them to steal the time machine while they’re dealing with Jennifer. Travelling back to 1955, Future-Biff takes Marty’s plan to profit from sports events and perverts it, handing the almanac to his sceptical younger self and thereby altering the future, transforming Hill Valley into a dangerous, crime-infested hell hole where Biff reigns supreme as a tyrannical tycoon. Having amassed a fortune and a reputation as the “Luckiest Man of Earth” thanks to the almanac, the Donald Trump-like Biff sets up a toxic waste reclamation business, polluting the town, and builds a luxurious casino/hotel, corrupting politicians and the police department so he can do anything, even murder George McFly, without repercussions. Having forced Lorraine to marry him, Biff traps her in an abusive relationship where he makes her augment her body, slaps her about, and threatens to cut off and condemn her children to jail if she doesn’t do as he says. Narrowly escaping Biff’s wrath, Marty does everything he can to get the almanac out of 1955-Biff’s hands but the bigger, far stronger, and far more vicious bully is easily able to overpower the spritely McFly at every turn, and is even wily enough to take his future self’s warnings to heart and keep the almanac on him and at all times, and violently fights to keep Marty from getting it, even going so far as to attempt to kill the teenager during the film’s. climatic car case.

The Nitty-Gritty:
Back to the Future’s creators have mentioned more than once that they regretted having Jennifer along for the ride, and it’s pretty clear that they didn’t really know what to do with her, which is a bit of a shame. She could have acted as an audience surrogate for those who haven’t seen the first film but, while she spends big chunks of the film unconscious so Marty and Doc can have their futuristic adventure, she’s still quite important to the plot. After being discovered by some cops, they mistake her for her future self and take her to the McFly family home in 2015, where she’s stunned to see her future kids and dismayed to learn of Marty’s future troubles. This, however, is mainly for our benefit; Doc is aware of Marty’s future, but Marty doesn’t learn anything about it until mid-way through the next movie, meaning that Jennifer is mainly there to provide us a glimpse of just how depressing Marty’s current future is. Lorraine is similarly side-lined in the film; a central aspect of the first move, she’s turned from a rebellious teen and jaded mother to the victim of a cruel and controlling husband. Once again finding comfort in booze, Lorraine’s alternative self only has brief flashes of defiance; Biff’s physical and financial intimidation constantly keep her submissive, to the point where she defends him since he provides security for her children, and Marty cannot condone seeing her so mistreated and subservient. While I can fully understand the argument that the women get the short end of the stick, Lorraine did have a huge role in the first movie and the plot here is more concerned with following Marty and Doc’s desperate attempts to set the timeline right, which by its very definition means that we don’t need to spend extended periods of time with 1955-Lorraine and we’re told not to worry about Jennifer’s fate since their actions should ensure her safety, though I feel they both still serve an important role in motivating Marty to undo the damage he caused to the timeline.

Marty’s short temper costs him dearly, both in his current quest and in his possible future.

Marty’s character is greatly expanded upon here; before, he was a good-natured kid who was desperate to be a rock star and, while the same is true here, he’s also given a trigger point: whenever anyone accuses him of being “chicken”, he sees red and instantly rises to the challenge to prove he’s not a coward. This causes him to go off-script when impersonating his son, leading to a fist fight and a hoverboard chase across Hill Valley, and Jennifer is later distraught to learn that his future self ended up breaking his hand trying to prove himself to Douglas J. Needles (Flea) and consequently ended in a dead-end job and up a shell of his former self. Although he has two kids and is married to the love of his life, Future-Marty is a haggard man who’s lost his youthful zest; their house is a shambles and full of malfunctioning future tech and his kids aren’t particularly ambitious, and all because rising to the bait cost him his greatest passion (music) and caused a “chain reaction” that fundamentally altered his character. This trigger is also what screws up his elaborate and desperate attempts to retrieve the almanac from Biff in 1955; no matter how many times he tries to walk away, Marty is constantly compelled to confront anyone who accuses him of cowardice, no matter what’s at stake. This stems from his complicated relationship with George; as established in the last film, George was a career milksop who never stood up for himself and Marty was adamant to be the exact opposite, and that continues through to his character here, which makes sense since he hasn’t had a chance to acclimatise to the new life he made for himself after the last movie. Marty is thus understandably devastated to learn that his father was murdered in 1985b and his heartbreak is only exacerbated at seeing his mother reduced to a submissive tramp under the abusive thumb of the tyrannical Biff. Fiercely protective of his mother, Marty doesn’t hesitate to launch himself at Biff or to confront him directly over how he acquired the almanac in the first place, which gives him the hope and the lead he needs to undo the nightmarish alternate timeline he unwittingly created.

While 2015 isn’t quite the utopia it seems, it’s nothing compared to the hellscape of 1985b.

Although it probably seems quaint now, Back to the Future Part II offers a refreshing perspective on future society; rather than depicting 2015 Hill Valley as a dystopia, it’s actually pretty close to a utopia. The streets are clean, the air is clear, and people are serviced by many creature comforts and futuristic conveniences: there’s the flying cars, obviously, the automatons and holographic servers at fuel stations and diners, special glasses that easily allow one to view multiple television channels at once, pizzas that expand in the microwave to feed a family of six, video calls, and financial transactions and home entry is easily handled by a thumbprint. Of course, we see much of this in everyday life now, making Back to the Future Part II’s version of the future both startling similar and disappointingly separate from the modern world, but it’s not all sunshine and rainbows in the future. While the weather can be predicted down to the second, the skyways are hazardous and overpopulated with flying traffic and the once-affluent Hilldale is now a rundown place of squalor for “tramps, hobos, and zip-heads”. For those who enjoy a good dystopian tale, Back to the Future Part II has you covered; 1985b is a nightmarish town where crime, murder, and fear run rampant thanks to Biff’s reign of terror. Sirens wail, the chalk outlines of the dead line the filthy streets, the few decent people in town are forced to bolt their doors and defend themselves against Biff’s cronies and other undesirables, and the town is so overrun by bikers and punks that it’s barely recognisable. It’s thus a relief to return to the pristine world of 1955; in following Biff throughout the day, Marty sees new sides to his tormentor, indicating that his abhorrent behaviour is a result of his grandmother’s overbearing and abusive influence, while also getting to witness his father’s dramatic character moment (which he missed as he was locked in a car boot at the time). Though tempted to stand back and observe his big performance from the first film and witness his young parents express their love from his new perspective, Marty remains focused on retrieving the almanac; however, this is easier said than done as he has to go to elaborate means to avoid being spotted, but he proves to be nothing but adaptable in fulfilling this objective.

In addition to some brilliant visual effects, Back to the Part II ends with one of cinema’s best cliff-hangers.

This is accomplished through a fantastic use of cinematic techniques; Back to the Future Part II definitely upped the ante in terms of visual and practical effects, with the DeLorean regularly flying, hovering, and landing and the depiction of future technology like the holographic shark, the various hoverboards, and Marty’s snazzy future clothes but where it really impresses is the complex camera techniques to allow multiple characters, all played by the same actor, to seamlessly appear in the same scene. While some of these shots are more obvious than others, such as Future-Biff meeting 1955-Biff and Doc running across his 1955 counterpart thanks to a convenient obstruction separating the two composited shots, it’s still amazing to see Michael J. Fox portray his older self, his son, and his daughter around the dinner table in one unbroken shot. Similar methods are used to splice Present-Marty into footage old and new from 1955; he clambers on a gantry over the stage where his younger self is playing “Johnny B. Goode”, observes the dance (and, later, the final goodbye between Marty, George (Crispin Glover), and Lorraine), and takes out Biff’s cronies just as young Marty finishes his set. The film is certainly ambitious with its special effects and goes all-in with the hoverboard and flying car concept, first in the big chase across 2015 Hill Valley and in the finale, where Marty desperately tries to snag the almanac from Biff. Although he receives a few good punches to the face and is almost left a bloody smear on a tunnel wall, Marty ultimately succeeds and once again sends Biff ploughing into a manure truck. As Doc circles overhead, unable to land due to the lightning storm, Marty is elated to find that burning the almanac has changed the future for the better, but his joy is short-lived as the DeLorean is suddenly struck by lightning, apparently vaporising Doc. Thankfully, a letter immediately arrives from a mysterious Western Union employee (Joe Flaherty) that assure Marty (and the audience) that Doc is alive and well in the Old West, having been transported back to 1885 thanks to the screwy time circuits and the lightning bolt. Marty thus races to recruit the 1955 Doc in helping him rescue his friend and return to 1985, but the shock of seeing his young friend suddenly return after just sending him back to the future causes the younger Doc to faint, ending the film with one of cinema’s greatest cliff-hangers.

The Summary:
As I mentioned, I absolutely love Back to the Future Part II; for me, it’s better than the original in every way, and it remains my favourite entry in the trilogy for its fun depiction of future society and the bleakness of its dystopian second half. The original is a classic in its own right, and hugely influential, and definitely laid the groundwork for bigger and better things, but I can’t help but find it far more pedestrian compared to its far grander sequel. And it’s not even just that Back to the Future Part II throws all these impressive practical effects and complex camera techniques at you; it expands upon Marty’s character, giving him an edge and a quick temper that make him more than just a wide-eyed kid trying to undo a fantastical mistake. The exploration of Marty’s future is a fascinating look at how young dreams can be crushed by bad decisions and the inevitability of time and the toll it takes on even the most enthusiastic and determined individuals, to say nothing of the horrendous hellscape that Hill Valley becomes due to Marty’s brief flirtation with selfishness. 1985b showcases how dangerous and disruptive time travel can be and it’s only by revisiting the last film that the protagonists can get things back on track. These moments make for some of the most entertaining and visually engaging scenes not just in this film, but the entire trilogy; as much as I love exploring the conveniences and advances of the future, watching a slightly older, slightly more experienced Marty desperately trying to retrieve the almanac while avoiding being spotted and overcoming every obstacle makes for some tense and exciting scenes that outdo anything seen in the first movie. In the end, Back to the Future Part II takes everything that worked in the first film and expands on it wonderfully; the themes, messages, and even the events of that movie are both elaborated on and tackled from a unique new perspective. The sheer visual spectacle alone makes it the clear favourite for me, but throw in a desperate race to undo a disastrous alternative timeline, some of the trilogy’s most impressive and ambitious effects sequences, and a tense climax and you’re left with one of the most enjoyable sci-fi romps ever put to screen.   

My Rating:

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Fantastic

Are you a fan of Back to the Future Part II? How do you rate it compared to the other two films and which of the trilogy is your favourite? What did you think to the film’s depiction of the future and the advances made to the DeLorean? Did you enjoy the plot regarding the alternative 1985 and the way the movie revisited the events of the first film? If you had a time machine, what year would you travel to and why, and would you use it for financial gain? How are you celebrating Back to the Future Day today? Whatever you think about Back to the Future Part II, feel free to share your thoughts below.

Movie Night: Ghost Rider: Extended Cut

Dr. K2 Comments

Released: 12 June 2007
Originally Released: 16 February 2007
Director: Mark Steven Johnson
Distributor: New Line Cinema
Budget: $110 million
Stars: Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Wes Bentley, Donal Logue, Sam Elliott, and Peter Fonda

The Plot:
Motorcycle stunt rider Johnny Blaze (Cage) finds his past literally haunting him when the fiendish Mephistopheles (Fonda) calls upon a blood debt from Blaze’s youth. Transformed into the demonic Ghost Rider in the presence of evil, Blaze must hunt down Blackheart (Bentley), a rogue demon who seeks to acquire power to rival that of Mephistopheles!

The Background:
Created by Gary Friedrich, Roy Thomas, and Mike Ploog, Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider made his Marvel Comics debut in the pages of Marvel Spotlight #5 in 1972. He graduated to his own self-titled comic about a year later and was at the forefront of many supernatural adventures in one form or another. In addition to cameo appearances in various Marvel videogames, Ghost Rider has popped up in other avenues outside of the comics; he cameod in Marvel’s nineties cartoons and an incarnation of the character later featured in a semi-prominent role in the fourth season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2016 to 2017). However, development of a live-action adaptation of the Spirit of Vengeance can be traced back to 1992, when Marvel tried to shop the idea around Hollywood. In 1997, Gale Anne Hurd and Jonathan Hensleigh were attached to the project but things really took off in late-2000, when writer David S. Goyer, director Steven Norrington, and stars Jon Voigt and Johnny Depp were all associated or involved with the film in some capacity. By May 2002, Columbia Pictures had purchased the rights; all previous associates dropped out of the project and Shane Salerno was brought in to rewrite Goyer’s script, but eventual director Mark Steven Johnson did his own script soon after being hired to helm the film. Life-time superhero fan and nineties action star Nicolas Cage won the title role and chose to portray the character not as a hard-drinking bad-ass but more as someone desperately trying to come to terms with the curse hanging over his soul. The character’s visual effects were the work of Kevin Mack and Sony Pictures Imageworks, who painstakingly animated Ghost Rider’s flames on a shot-by-shot basis, with one of their most difficult and time-consuming sequences being the first horrific transformation and the digital transformation of the iconic “Hell Cycle”. With its final worldwide gross falling just shy of $230 million, Ghost Rider didn’t exactly set the world on fire (pun intended) and this was reflected in the reviews; critics were left disappointed by the film’s focus on humour rather than horror, with the dialogue and Cage’s performance drawing the most criticism, though the special effects were praised and some have since re-evaluated it as an under-rated comic book film. Despite being labelled as one of the worst films of the decade, Ghost Rider not only received this extended edition on home media but was actually followed by a sequel…of sorts…in 2011, that was a critical and commercial failure which, coupled with Cage’s disappointment with the role and franchise and the rights being reacquired by Marvel in 2013, dashed any plans for a third entry.

The Review:
Ghost Rider is another of those Marvel superheroes I’m not all that familiar with; unlike others like this, I can’t even say that I’ve been able to get a sense of the character and his incarnations and adventures as Marvel haven’t yet released one of their Marvel Platinum definitive collections for him and a lot of his classic collections are a bit overpriced for my tastes. I’ve always been drawn to the character, though, since he’s visually very striking and his powers and background really speak to me as a long-time fan of Al Simmons/Spawn, but the most I’ve experienced of him are his debut story and the Spirits of Vengeance: Rise of the Midnight Sons trade paperback (Cooper, et al, 2016), his appearances in Marvel cartoons and TV shows, and a few sporadic appearances in videogames. I’d love to read more of him, but I definitely wasn’t as clued up on the character as I usually am when I first went to see Ghost Rider. Hell, I wasn’t even (and still am not, really) a big fan of Nicolas Cage; I’d seen him in The Rock (Bay, 1996), Con Air (West, 1997), and Face/Off (Woo, 1997) but he never really clicked for me as an actor or personality because he always came across as being more than a little nuts. Thus, I originally went into Ghost Rider with quite low expectations; I was expecting an action-packed romp full of special effects and bonkers visuals and fights and that’s basically what the film delivers, though even I was hoping it’d lean a bit closer towards the dark connotations of the character and Ghost Rider’s more horror-themed elements.

Johnny’s deal with the Devil costs him his soul and his happiness that no amount of fame can assuage.

The film is immediately handicapped by an opening narration. I’ve talked about this a few times but this really is a cliché that’s hard to get right in cinema; it makes sense to want to clue the audience in early on to what’s going on and give some lore and context to the world being presented, but it ends up becoming redundant as Carter Slade/The Caretaker (Elliot) repeats it to Johnny later in the film so it’s just another example of narration for narration’s sake. Anyway, when we first meet Johnny Blaze, he’s just a kid (Matt Long) working as a carny stunt cyclist alongside his father, Barton (Brett Cullen). Although he enjoys the thrill of entertaining the masses with increasingly dangerous and ludicrous jumps (to the chagrin of his father, who chastises him for being a show off), Johnny is frustrated with the lifestyle and playing second fiddle to his father and is determined to leave it all behind and run away with his girlfriend, Roxanne Simpson (Raquel Alessi). When he spots a convenient letter detailing the seriousness of Barton’s cancer, however, Johnny hesitates; his concern and desperation for his father’s welfare are all the leverage Mephistopheles needs to convince Johnny into signing away his immortal soul to keep Barton from succumbing to his illness. Johnny’s elation at seeing his father rejuvenated is soon dashed when the slightest twitch from Mephistopheles causes Barton to die in a motorcycle stunt, leaving young Johnny wracked with guilt, devastated at losing the only family he has, and burdened by the debt he now owes to the conniving Devil, who promises to one day collect on his contract. Having lost everything and fearing for Roxanne’s safety, Johnny opts to abandon her and hit the road, eventually growing up into Nicolas Cage. The now-adult Johnny Blaze has become a media sensation; famous for his privacy and death-defying stunts, we catch up with him in the middle of a cross-country tour with his entourage, which includes best friend and impresario Mack (Logue). However, despite his best attempts to overcome his fear, Johnny is haunted by his past, which is annoyingly drummed home to us through constant flashbacks to events we just witnessed, as though we’d forget what happen less than a minute ago. Constantly questioning whether he’s actually as good as everyone says or whether it’s Mephistopheles’ influence keeping him successful and healthy, Johnny just about gives Mack an ulcer due to his insistence on pushing his stunts to the absolute limit to maintain his reputation as “Mister Invincible”

Johnny is cursed to transform into a flaming skeletal demon at night and in the presence of evil.

Though he forgoes alcohol and drugs, preferring to swig down cocktail glasses of jelly beans and sooth his anxiety with the Carpenters (amongst other weird traits), Johnny is a tortured soul who is forever trying to outrun the literal Devil. When he happens to cross paths with the grown-up Roxanne, he sees it as a sign that his days of living in fear are over; reinvigorated with a newfound zest for life, he regresses to a child in his attempts to impress and woo her and, despite being burned by him in the past and her better nature, the budding reporter agrees to give him a chance. However, right as he’s about to begin his new life, Johnny is approached by Mephistopheles once more; rather than claiming Johnny’s soul, Mephistopheles orders him to track down and kill his son, Blackheart, and imbues him with the power of the Ghost Rider to fulfil this mission with the promise of releasing him from his vow once the deed is done. Although Johnny has no interest in doing the Devil’s bidding, he’s horrifically transformed into a monstrous being, a leather-clad demon with a flaming skull for a head and a semi-sentient blazing motorcycle for transport. In a change of pace from most superhero movies, Johnny actually confesses to his curse and newfound duality to Roxanne but, naturally, she doesn’t believe him and he just comes across as a madman thanks to his awkward personality quirks and madcap nature. Ghost Rider is a tricky character, in many ways; a supernatural creature with near-unlimited power, it’s hard to put him in situations where he would be vulnerable, so the film lumbers him with the caveat that he can only appear at night and in “the presence of evil”. Even then, and when faced with other supernatural foes, the Ghost Rider is a formidable creature; practically impervious to pain and injury, his wounds heal abnormally fast, he exhibits superhuman strength and dexterity, and he can supernaturally ignite and extended his chain and conjure hellfire at will. His most powerful weapon is his “Penance Stare”, which forces a victim to relive all the pain and evil they’ve done and, presumably, be consumed by it. What’s not made immediately clear in the film, however, is whether or not the Ghost Rider is a separate entity from Johnny or if Johnny retains his personality when transformed. It seems like he does, and Johnny can fully recall everything he did while transformed, but other times the Ghost Rider talks and acts very differently, but there’s no mention of Zarathos in the film and the Ghost Rider doesn’t say much, so it’s a bit unclear as to what’s going on there. Even more ludicrous, however, is the part when Johnny just takes control of the “possessing spirit” after reading a single passage in one of his occult books and stating he wants control, which both skips over any kind of hardship he might have to face and undermines even the slightest but of duality between him and the Ghost Rider.

Neither Blackheart or his minions ever come across as a serious, monstrous threat.

Johnny (and the audience) are given some context through the Caretaker, a wizened and gruff old man whom Johnny stumbles upon after his first transformation. It’s the Caretaker who narrates the film and delivers the bulk of its exposition regarding Mephistopheles, Blackheart, the Ghost Rider, and the Contract of San Venganza, a binding note of a thousand damned souls which Mephistopheles covets and Blackheart seeks to acquire in order to gain the power necessary to overthrow his father. Mephistopheles is a bit of a contradiction as well; he can assume a human guise, affects the weather and environment around him simply by walking, can bargain for people’s souls, and grant unimaginable power to a human host…but is somehow rendered “powerless” to actively oppose Blackheart. Conversely, Blackheart has no such limitations; he can come and go as he pleases, lower the temperature through his sheer presence alone, drain the life and flesh from humans with a touch, and even enter hallowed ground without any consequences, to say nothing of being immune to his father’s influence while on Earth. Blackheart enlists the help of the Hidden, three Fallen Angels with elemental powers: Abigor (Mathew Wilkinson), Gressil (Laurence Breuls), and Wallow (Daniel Frederiksen), however we learn very little about them (or even Blackheart, for that matter, beyond his childish resentment towards his father and lust for power and conquest) and they mainly exist to give Ghost Rider someone to fight against. Indeed, despite Abigor being able to become practically intangible, Gressil transforming to earth and stone, and even Wallow having the advantage during an underwater skirmish with the titular Spirit of Vengeance, all three are dispatched by the Ghost Rider with relative ease (Johnny even offs Gressil mere moments after his first transformation, showing no hesitation or trouble with his newfound powers). Despite being fully aware of his father’s favouritism to the Ghost Rider, and showing a flicker of fear at the demon’s power, Blackheart is so arrogant that he expresses suprise when the Ghost Rider survives his futile attempts to kill him and bests his minions…even though he knows what the Ghost Rider is capable of so he should’ve known better. Blackheart puts up a bit more of a fight, but this is mainly because their final showdown happens at the onset of sunrise, thus dispelling the Ghost Rider curse, and because Blackheart “[has] no soul to burn”. Those who are familiar with the comic book versions of Blackheart and Mephistopheles will be left disappointed by their decidedly undemonic appearances; though both show signs of their true, monstrous nature and Blackheart eventually transforms into a dark-skinned demon referring to itself as “Legion”, neither appear as demonic forces, which is great for maintaining the actors’ likenesses and performances but not so good for matching the visually impressive Ghost Rider against similarly interesting enemies and leaves Blackheart resembling more of a try-hard emo than a menacing threat.

The Nitty-Gritty:
This extended version of the film adds a paltry nine minutes to the runtime, which mostly translates into further fleshing out Johnny’s youth and his relationship with his father but is most notable in an altered meeting between Mephistopheles and Blackheart, which changes the location and placement of the scene but basically serves the same purpose as in the theatrical cut. Even with these extra scenes, Ghost Rider doesn’t really seem to know what it wants to be; in its drive to avoid being too dark and scary, it veers way too much towards awkward comedy and bizarre inclusions. While many of these are exemplified by Cage’s weird take on the character, they’re not exclusive to him: Roxanne bizarrely takes a Magic 8 Ball to her date, but Eve Mendes fails to really impress as an interesting or forthright character and is mainly here to look hot, chew Johnny out, and be a hostage for him to rescue. To make things worse, the always-aggravating Rebel Wilson hams up her cameo like she’s the film’s comic relief (a role Mack fills wonderfully), and Blackheart’s minions are robbed of any sense of menace by their over the top performances and line delivery. Wes Bentley is equally guilty of this, with every line being delivered with a spitting, deliberate campness that completely destroys any allure and threat his character might (and should) have. However, it’s Nicolas Cage who absolutely tips Ghost Rider over the edge with his truly bonkers ideas and performance: I’ll admit, it’s refreshing to not see another alcohol-dependent, tortured character but Johnny’s reliance on sweets, pop music, and daft clips just make him seem like an absolute goofball…and he doesn’t need any help in that department! From his drawly Southern twang, his childish antics with Roxanne and the way he greets the paparazzi, to his over the top screams of anguish and joy when first transforming into the Ghost Ruder, it’s hard to really get a sense of who Johnny is since he just seems like a cartoon character on acid or hyped up on sugar, bouncing from mood to mood, dramatically pointing at people and growling “You!”, and chastising Mack for “steppin’ on Karen” or trying to talk him out of jumping over a field of helicopters. All I can say is thank God for Peter Fonda, Sam Elliot, and the underutilised David Roberts (whose Captain Jack Dolan is more of a nuisance than anything and the film arguably would’ve benefitted from replacing the police pursuit of the Ghost Rider with more development of Blackheart and his cronies); these three carry the film, playing the straight men in a glorified comedy and adding a gravitas to even the most ridiculous lines and concepts.

While the film struggles with its identity, at least the Ghost Rider’s special effects look great.

Thankfully, the film is also bolstered by its impressive special effects; although many of these suffer from a lack of polish (Blackheart’s arrival, for example, where he appears out of flaming rain and randomly screams at the camera for no reason, his minions, and the finale haven’t benefitted from age), it’s clear that all of the time, money, and energy was spent on making the Ghost Rider himself look absolutely top notch and bad-ass. Although there’s been some debate over whether Cage’s abs were real or not, Ghost Rider is easily one of the most visually impressive comic book characters on the page and on the screen; garbed in a spiked leather jacket, wielding a flaming chain, and having a flaming skull for a head, seeing him rocket down roads, leaving a trail of fire and devastation in his wake, is quite the spectacle and the flame effects still hold up pretty well. Probably as a consequence of how difficult the character was to conceive and animate, the Ghost Rider doesn’t talk much, and his action sequences tend to be very blunt; it’s all about ending things quickly, with as much visual and dramatic impact as possible, rather than having overly choreographed fight scenes or dragging things out. This works in context as the Ghost Rider certainly has the power to shrug off knives, blows, and even a truck to the face, to say nothing of leaving Gressil a charred mess of stones with a single lash of his whip. Easily one of the best parts of the film comes when Johnny is locked in a cell full of criminals, where he manhandles the lowlifes and reclaims his bike to race through the city streets in a blazing inferno while Dolan frantically tries to chase him down. This results in cool shots like Ghost Rider idling on top of the Southbank Pedestrian Footbridge, emerging from water completely ablaze, and racing up the side of a building to reel in a police chopper using his chain. This is also where he fights with Abigor; despite the fact that the Wind Elemental can become nigh-on intangible, even this creature is no match for the Ghost Rider, who easily immolates the Fallen Angel by whipping up a flaming tornado. The movie then makes a big show of revealing that the Caretaker was Carter Slade, the Ghost Rider who kept the Contract of San Venganza, and then completely squanders it by simply having him wander off to his death after accompanying Johnny to the ghost town rather than heroically die in battle with Blackheart, which kind of makes the entire reveal pointless beyond a cool shot of the two riding through the desert to a cover of “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky: A Cowboy Legend”.

Johnny bests Blackheart and then keeps the Ghost Rider power since that’s something he can do, apparently…

For all his immense power and his lofty dreams of domination, Blackheart ends up being little more than a petulant child; he’s dangerous, for sure, and even Mephistopheles fears his ambition, but he’s really only seen as a threat to humans. Although he increases Johnny’s personal stake in the plot (as if saving the world from untold eons of darkness wasn’t motivation enough) by killing Mack, Blackheart loses a lot of credibility by taking Roxanne hostage to bargain for the contract. This is especially egregious considering Carter hid the contract in the handle of his spade, so Blackheart had the means to acquire it all along and just…didn’t…because he wanted to toy with his prey rather than be a little more thorough. The movie tries to escalate things in the finale by forcing Johnny to retreat to the shadows to summon his powers, but it just ends up seeming like the filmmakers ran out of money and couldn’t render Ghost Rider in his full glory for the final showdown. Blackheart doesn’t fare much better, either; after absorbing San Venganza’s damned souls, he gains a moderately more monstrous appearance but is actually less of a threat as he’s now filled up with a thousand souls for the Penance Stare to run through, leaving him a useless, catatonic lump of wasted potential for Mephistopheles to take back to Hell and punish for being a naughty boy. Despite the fact that all Mephistopheles has done is lie, it’s surprising when the Devil actually makes good on his promise of releasing Johnny from his curse but, rather than finally be free and live the life he’s always wanted with Roxanne, Johnny inexplicably vows to wield the Devil’s power as the Spirit of Vengeance. While this is treated like some big dramatic character moment and Johnny finally embracing his destiny, it’s another of the film’s many head-scratching moments: Mephistopheles can bestow the Ghost Rider power against a person’s will but can’t remove it against their will? It’s almost as if the film’s implying that the Ghost Rider is more powerful than the Devil himself (and, in actual fact, he is since Mephistopheles couldn’t touch Blackheart on Earth!) Of course, the real reason for this nonsensical ending is to set-up a sequel, but I’d argue we could’ve still gotten that while also offering something a little bleaker. Like, have Mephistopheles betray Johnny and say he’s still bound by his contract, but Johnny could still vow to put his powers to good use and to oppose Mephistopheles wherever possible. Instead, it just seems like Mephistopheles is all bark and no bite as he just throws a temper tantrum (clearly where Blackheart gets it from…) and promptly disappears to allow his greatest and most powerful creation to wander the Earth outside of his control.

The Summary:
I think the biggest issue with Ghost Rider, even for someone like me who barely knows anything about the character, is that it’s just a bit of a disappointment from start to finish. It seems like the filmmakers thought the concept alone and Nicolas Cage’s star appeal would be enough for the film to compete against other blockbuster superhero franchises and didn’t really believe in the source material or the essence of the character’s horror roots. While I’m an advocate that 12/15-rated movies are more than suitable for most superhero properties, Ghost Rider definitely feels like it would’ve benefitted from being a smaller, more gritty horror vehicle rather than this bog-standard, over the top production. Considering the film is clearly pulling from classic horror movies like American Werewolf in London (Landis, 1981) and the Universal Horror movies, it’s a shame that it veers so far into the comedic and the absurd; everything from the acting, the soundtrack, and the overall corny nature of much of the movie constantly holds Ghost Rider back from being a more memorable picture, regardless of how good the titular character looks in the film. And he does look good, but the issue is the confusion regarding whether there’s any duality between him and Johnny, how ridiculously overpowered he is, and the vaguely defined powers of Mephistopheles and Blackheart. I can’t help but feel a smaller production, one more focused on Johnny Blaze struggling to cope with his monstrous curse, demonic alter ego, and his past mistakes while the Devil pulls his strings would’ve made for a darker, more unique horror piece but, instead, the film doubles down on its star power and visual effects rather than trying to give the Ghost Rider a tangible threat or tighten up the script. It’s definitely not the worst film I’ve ever seen, and has some fun and amusing and cool moments, but it’s far more akin to the disaster that was Spawn (Dippé, 1997) rather than a cross between The Crow (Proyas, 1994) and Constantine (Lawrence, 2005) or even something along the lines of Hellboy (del Toro, 2004), all far better movies that came out prior to this and which I feel are far more suitable to the tone of the Ghost Rider comics.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

Did you enjoy Ghost Rider? If you’re a fan of the comics, how do you think it worked as an adaptation and what would you have changed? What did you think to Nicolas Cage’s performance in the film and the changes made to Johnny Blaze’s character? Were you a fan of the special effects, and what did you think to the villains and their minions? Can you explain why Mephistopheles has such inconsistent powers when on Earth? What are some of your favourite Ghost Rider stories and moments? Whatever your thoughts on Ghost Rider, share them below and be sure to check out my other horror-themed Marvel content!

Movie Night: Saw X

Dr. K1 Comment

Released: 29 September 2023
Director: Kevin Greutert
Distributor: Lionsgate
Budget: $13 million 
Cast: Tobin Bell, Synnøve Macody Lund, Shawnee Smith, Renata Vaca, Octavio Hinojosa, Paulette Hernández, and Steven Brand 

The Plot: 
With only two months left to live thanks to a malignant brain tumour, John Kramer (Bell) desperately searches for a cure to prolong his work as the infamous Jigsaw. When Cecilia Pederson (Lund) offers an unsanctioned operation that claims to save his life, John puts his unique brand of justice into motion after learning he’s been scammed by an elaborate hoax. 

The Background:
In 2004, Australian writer/director duo Leigh Whannell and James Wan brought us Saw, a low-budget horror affair inspired by the unexpected success of The Blair Witch Project (Myrick and Sánchez, 1999). The film’s iconic death traps helped popularise the “torture porn” sub-genre and stir up some controversy but its $103.9 million box office made it the most profitable horror film since Scream (Craven, 1996). This success naturally led to sequels, and soon a dense and popular horror franchise was born; however, while the box office of the Saw series remained strong, critical reaction soon became mixed as the concept was dragged out over numerous sequels and tie-in merchandise. Although Saw 3D: The Final Chapter (Greutert, 2010) was intended to be the final film in the series, Lionsgate twice tried to revive the franchise over the next decade or so, with mixed results. After Spiral: From the Book of Saw (Bousman, 2021) became the lowest-grossing film in the series and was blasted by negative reviews, Lionsgate decided to revive previous ideas for this tenth instalment. The film’s placement in the convoluted Saw timeline allowed star Tobin Bell to return and he was excited to be more heavily involved in the plot and production this time around, and he was joined by some returning cast and crew. Director Kevin Greutert was adamant about returning to Saw’s roots, including employing practical effects for the traps and death scenes, and ultimately decided against digitally de-aging the returning actors to retain their performances. As of this writing, Saw X has grossed over $60 million worldwide, making it the second-least-profitable of the franchise, though the critical reaction was largely positive; while the traps and gore were noticeablypraised, it was Bell’s performance that won the most acclaim amidst criticisms of the film’s plot and other characterisations.

The Review: 
I’ve always been a big fan of the Saw franchise; it’s a big claim to fame of mine to say that I saw every film in the series at the cinema (with the exception of Spiral; thanks, Covid!) and I’ve always taken a perverse pleasure in the unique blend of horror used in the series. There’s a dirty, gritty, frantic appeal to Saw, one that relies heavily on explicit and elaborate traps, but the franchise is just as appealing thanks to its alluring and contradictory main antagonist, John Kramer. Saw has never been a linear franchise; all the films have played with the timeline to come up with ways to flesh out John’s character even after his untimely death, but Saw X may be the most unique in that it takes place in a grey area between Saw, Saw II (Bousman, 2005), and Saw III (ibid 2006).  This means that John is still alive, though gaunt and noticeably wizened from his inoperable brain tumour, which has numbered his days dramatically. John’s despair at his impending demise isn’t just because he’s not ready to die yet; it’s also because he has established himself as “Jigsaw”, a sadistic (and yet unnervingly fair) punisher of those who do not appreciate their lives. John is distraught at the idea of dying before he’s had a chance to “help” others with his work and finds little comfort in the pragmatic advice of his doctor (David Alfano) or the cancer support group he begrudgingly attends. 

Desperate to prolong his life and his work, John turns to a groundbreaking miracle cure.

However, when a member of this group, Henry Kessler (Michael Beach), makes a miraculous recovery, John learns about Cecilia Pederson, daughter of world-renowned surgeon Doctor Finn Pederson (Donagh Gordon), and her off-the-grid clinic that claims to have developed a radical new procedure and drug concoction which has a 90% success rate in cancer patients. Despite being portrayed as one of the most intelligent and Machiavellian horror villains of all time, desperation sees John cling to this unbelievable hope, and he makes the trip out to Mexico to meet with Cecilia. He’s abducted and brought to an isolated villa where he’s introduced to Cecilia and her team: brain surgeon Doctor Cortez (Joshua Okamoto), anaesthesiologist Mateo (Hinojosa), nurse Valentina (Hernández), and two of Cecilla’s former patients, the kindly Gabriela (Vaca) and grateful Parker Sears (Brand). John is welcomed into the villa, which is also home to a former chemical plant that has been adapted into a makeshift operating theatre. In keeping with his intellectual superiority, John asks many questions and is both reassured and overwhelmed by Cecilia’s kindness, knowledge, and success rate. Since being diagnosed with brain cancer, John has made it his life’s work to teach others to appreciate their lives, putting them through horrendous physical and mental tests as Jigsaw to give them a chance at redemption and to show them the value of their comparative health and happiness. It’s all he’s lived for and has consumed him, costing him both friends and family, but Cecilia offers him a true opportunity to regain his life and to set aside this crusade, and John is completely taken in by her words and soon undergoing brain surgery to remove the tumour from his head. 

Betrayed by his would-be-saviours, John enacts a gruesome revenge.

When he awakens, John is elated to learn that the operation was a success. He’s grateful beyond words to Cecilia and feels immediately reinvigorated by a new appreciation for life. Although he was transported to the villa in secret and Cecilia’s entire operation was performed under the radar to avoid reprisals from “big pharma”, John uses his astute intelligence to find the villa in a bid to express his gratitude and say goodbye to the friends he made there. Unfortunately, he finds the villa deserted and that the entire operation was a scam; they simply lured him in with false promises, drugged him, and pretended to perform surgery using an educational video to help sell the illusion. Previously depicted as a polite, learned, and grateful man who was desperate to regain his life, John’s demeanour immediately snaps upon learning he was scammed; he allows himself one brief emotional outburst before placing a called to his apprentice, Detective Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor), to help him track down those responsible for duping him was false hope, making a fool of him, and stealing $250,000 of his money. Given his frail disposition, he’s aided by his other apprentice, former drug addict Amanda Young (Smith), who delights in playing an integral role in abducting and tormenting Cecilia and her team. Although Amanda clearly looks fifteen years older than she should, it’s mostly covered by some make-up effects and the film spends a surprising amount of time fleshing out her relationship with John; she’s distraught by his impending death and angered at the scam, wishing to simply kill those responsible and begrudgingly allowing John to subject them to his tests due to his twisted moral code. She also shows an unexpected glimmer of humanity and hesitation since she feels a kinship to Gabriela, who was simply duped into Cecilia’s plot due to her addiction to drugs. However, John keeps Amanda focused on the task at hand and uses the entire situation as a learning opportunity for all involved; Amanda needs to learn to be dispassionate about the job she’s been primed to take on after his death and Cecilia and her team need to learn that their actions have consequences. 

The Nitty-Gritty: 
One of the things I love about the Saw franchise is the complexity and hypocrisy of John Kramer. Jigsaw has always claimed (as he does in this film) that he’s not a murder; that he presents his subjects with a choice (“live or die”) and they are the ones who mutilate themselves or lose their lives by failing to follow his rules or lacking he will to live. For the longest time, Jigsaw’s campaign seemed methodical but ultimately impartial; his victims were people he observed and deemed unworthy of their fortune, so he put them to the test. Over time, though, this motivation has been skewed; Jigsaw has targeted doctors, lawyers, and police officers who have wronged or pushed too hard into investigating him and many of his victims have been those responsible for his greatest tragedies, be it the loss of his unborn son, not covering his medical bills, or diagnosing his condition in the first place. Saw X continues this hypocritical vendetta; John projects an emotional detachment to the “game” he subjects Cecilia and the others to, but has brief flares of emotion because of his personal attachment to the game and it’s obvious that the only reason they’re being targeted is because they wronged him. Saw X shows that John is always on the lookout for new subjects; he suspects everyone and not only sketches ideas for new traps but also envisions how those traps will work, showing a hyper awareness of his surroundings. It’s no wonder, then, that he’s so enraged by Cecilia’s deception and shows no mercy to her or any of her team, no matter how much they beg, and simply coldly advises them to “play [the] game” to show how much they’re willing to sacrifice to atone for their sins and continue living. 

While a couple of traps are suitably horrific, many are disappointing or overly complex.

This is a major aspect of Saw X; after ten films in the franchise, it’s important for a new Saw movie to give us something new, and Saw X decides to do that by firmly casting John as the aggrieved protagonist. Previously, there was always a twisted logic behind Jigsaw; you could usually understand where he was coming from and even sympathise with him, no matter how twisted his games were, but Saw X explicitly asks you to root for him by casting him as a victim and presenting a character (Cecilia) who’s even more obnoxious and malicious since she lacks even his skewed moral code. This means that the traps presented have a different level of catharsis; usually, we’re supposed to root for his victims to survive, but this time you want to see them suffer and fail for taking advantage of so many desperate people. Unfortunately, I wasn’t too blown away by Saw X’s traps; I was hoping for the film to return to the more grounded traps for the first two films, but these are again pretty elaborate and complex considering how close to death John is. Things start off well with John subjecting a thieving orderly (Isan Beomhyun Lee) to a vacuum trap that sucks out his eyes if he doesn’t break his fingers, but this turns out to simply be a fantasy of John’s. When he tracks down Dr. Cortez (actually Diego, his taxi driver), he forces him to slice chunks out of his arm to remove two explosives, a gruesome task that Diego surprisingly survives. Valentina is forced to severe her leg and drain bone marrow to keep her head from being sliced off, which is extremely gory and harrowing and results in failure, while Gabriela is suspended by chains and must smash her wrist and ankle to avoid being roasted by radiation. Mateo is subjected to the most elaborate and bonkers scenario; he’s strapped to a chair and forced to cut into his brain to avoid being roasted by a heated mask, something he obviously struggles to do as he’s just a vet rather than a trained doctor. 

The film primarily focuses on reframing John as a sympathetic and even heroic character,

I think what bugged me the most about these traps isn’t just how lacklustre a lot of them were, but also that John’s vengeance was flawed, as Amanda points out. Cecilia was the mastermind behind the whole operation and the others waste no time in selling her out, but to John they’re all as culpable as each other. However, I do think the traps would’ve worked better if Cecilia had been forced to take part in them. Perhaps she could’ve been strung up by chains like a puppet and forced to slice off Valentia’s leg; she also would’ve been better suited to perform Mateo’s makeshift brain surgery, and Gabriela’s trap could’ve been reworked so Cecilia could’ve taken part in it. Think Jeff Denlon (Angus Macfadyen) in Saw III; his test was to save others from a gruesome fate, and I definitely think this would’ve been a better fit here. Instead, there’s a lot of unnecessary waiting around; I like that John is front and centre for this game, directly interacting with his subjects and overseeing it from a control room, but there’s a huge gap between Valentina’s death and Mateo’s trap. This is, of course, all part of John’s plan but I think his larger plot would’ve succeeded without there being so much waiting around. At first, it seems there’s the hope of salvation for John’s victims and the possibility of a new recruit for John when Parker comes by angrily looking to confront Cecilia for scamming him. Subdued by Amanda, Parker briefly acts as a witness to John’s sadistic game and seems conflicted; like John, he wants to see Cecilia and the others punished for their misdeeds, but his vengeance extended simply to getting his money back and yelling at the con artists, not witnessing their brutal dismemberment. His presence is particularly unnerving to Amanda, to whom the entire ordeal is an additional test of her will; unfortunately, a lot of this tension is exhausted since we know Amanda’s fate, but it’s interesting seeing her as a flawed but devoted follower of John’s. 

Despire seemingly being outsmarted, John finds a way to triumph through sheer force of will.

Parker is so horrified by what he’s witnessing that he disobeys John’s rules, retrieves his gun, and interrupts the game; nonplussed by Parker’s threats, John calmly agrees to free Cecilia and barely flinches when Parker is revealed to have been in on it all (largely because Diego spilled the beans on the whole operation earlier). It’s here where Saw X takes a weird turn; freed from her shackles, Cecilia forces John and Amanda to lock themselves in and delights in lording her superiority over the legendary “Jig-fucking-saw”. Rather that force John and Amanda to endure her test, Cecilia takes young Carlos (Jorge Briseño) hostage when he wanders past and forces him to join John in a particularly dreadful trap. John and Carlos are held down on a seesaw like platform by chains and waterboarded with blood; the only way to survive is for one of them to pull on a lever, subjecting the other to the torture. Although John begs Carlos not to pull the lever and is prepared to endure the torture himself, Carlos shows incredible resolve and takes his fair share of the punishment. This whole trap casts John in an extremely different light; earlier, he showed kindness to Carlos and he’s clearly conflicted and disturbed at an innocent child (and “unexpected” victim) being caught up in his plot. Indeed, the film paints John in a heroic light as he’s willing to sacrifice himself to spare the boy, though both are ultimately spared when Cecilia and Parker retrieve their cash and set off another trap. This disables the waterboard trap, allowing John, Amanda, and Carlos to escape, and sets off a corrosive gas in the control room. Cecilia and Parker are forced to fight for the death to reach a ventilation hole only big enough for one of them, a fight the cruel Cecilia wins by stabbing Parker, though her fate is left ambiguous as John, Amanda, and Carlos simply leave her there.   

The Summary: 
Even I, as a big Saw fan, must admit that the franchise quickly became quite derivative; even now, I struggle to remember which film is which and I can see how a lot of the entries are very similar and stretched the premise way too far. In hindsight, I think the producers made a mistake killing Jigsaw in Saw III; they could’ve left him alive for a couple more films and done a bit more with him, since he’s one of the most compelling aspects of the franchise. In Saw X, John is front and centre, but this lands in such a weird way; here’s a morally reprehensible guy, a villain for all intents and purposes, and we’re asked to sympathise and root for him. In this context, he’s justified in seeking retribution (even if he denies this is his obvious motive), but it’s an interesting way to present him. In many ways, I would’ve liked to see this format used for previous Saw movies; take John and have him use his skills in interesting ways against people who wrong him, kinda like when arrogant mobsters unknowingly incite the wrath of the likes of John Wick (Keanu Reeves). As a character study of John, Saw X sheds a little more light and humanity on him, but again it’s not really anything we didn’t learn from the myriad of flashbacks across the other films. Normally, a Saw movie compensates for its paper-thin plot with gore and traps; however, while Saw X has plenty of gore, the traps are just as ludicrous as ever, which is a shame as I would’ve liked to see a grittier, more realistic bent to the traps given John’s more personal vendetta here. Ultimately, Saw X is like a love letter to the series; it puts the focus squarely on Jigsaw, giving him one last swansong, and contains some fun cameos and fan service here and there, but it was lacking something for me to really rate it much higher. It’s interesting seeing John be scammed like this, but I really don’t think he would’ve been; even at his most desperate, he was always ten steps ahead of everyone, so the premise was flawed for me from the start and the execution of the game failed to impress, despite how interesting John’s characterisation is throughout. 

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

What did you think to Saw X? Did you buy the John would be so easily fooled by Cecilia’s scam? What did you think to the traps and the execution of John’s game? Were you surprised that Amanda has such a big role in the film? Did you see the twists coming in the finale? Where would you rank Saw X against the other films in the franchise and do you think you would survive one of Jigsaw’s games? Whatever you think about Saw X, and Saw in general, leave a comment below.  

Movie Night [Friday the 13th]: Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter

Dr. K6 Comments

Long considered to be an unlucky day due to superstitions involving the number thirteen and religious connotations, Friday the 13th is perhaps equally as well-known as being the title of a long-running series of slasher movies. As a result, this is clearly the best opportunity to take a look at the Friday the 13th (Various, 1980 to 2009) horror series and to commemorate this unlucky and dreaded date.

Released: 13 April 1984
Director: Joseph Zito
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Budget: $2.6 million
Stars: Kimberly Beck, Corey Feldman, Joan Freeman, Crispin Glover, E. Erich Anderson, Barbara Howard, and Ted White

The Plot:
Immediately after Friday the 13th Part 3 (Miner, 1982), masked maniac Jason Voorhees (White) escapes from a morgue and returns to Crystal Lake to continue his killing spree. His victims include a fresh batch of teenage vacationers, secretive hiker Rob Dier (Anderson), and locals Tracy Jarvis (Freeman), Trish (Beck), and young son Tommy (Feldman), who must make a desperate last stand against the deformed murderer.

The Background:
Hot on the heels of John Carpenter’s Halloween (Carpenter, 1978), which essentially gave birth to the “slasher” genre of horror cinema, Friday the 13th (Cunningham, 1980) became an unexpected box office success. Despite producer/director Sean S. Cunningham distancing himself from the franchise and continued negative reviews, both Friday the 13th Part 2 (Miner, 1981) and Friday the 13th Part 3 were financial successes. However, Paramount executives began to be embarrassed by their association with the shlock franchise and, after their initial plans to end the series with the third film fell through, actively planned to close the book on Jason for good with this fourth film. Director Joseph Zito came onboard after receiving compensation for both writing and directing duties, but secretly worked with writer Barney Cohen on the script, which featured not just two survivors instead of the traditional one but also a child protagonist and a relatable family unit at the heart of the horror. Special effects maestro Tom Savini returned to work on the film’s make-up and practical effects, giving him the chance to not only redesign Jason once more but also kill the character off in gruesomely spectacular fashion. Up-and-coming child actor Corey Feldman won the role of Tommy Jarvis, and his character’s love of special effects was a homage to Savini, but Jason actor and stuntman Ted White reportedly didn’t get along with his young, bratty co-star during filming. Though the actor rarely talks about his involvement and only took the job for a pay cheque, the film also gained notoriety for actor Crispin Glover’s absolutely bonkers dance routine and for a lost alternative ending that was only recently partially restored. With a final box office gross of $33 million, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter made less than the third film but more than the second, and still significantly more than its $2.6 million budget, making it a commercial success. The film was equally lambasted by scathing reviews that branded it a by-the-numbers retread of its predecessors that focused on gore and sex more than telling a coherent story, but many consider it to be one of the best (if not the best) entries in the entire franchise. Tommy Jarvis went on to be regarded as Jason’s archenemy and became a recurring character in the films that followed as, surprise surprise, this “Final Chapter” was nothing of the sort and a fifth film came out just one year later.

The Review:
As many Friday the 13th fans will be aware, these classic slashers are generally divided into a couple of categories: there’s the classic human Jason era (which spans the first four films), the zombie era (which covers the rest of the series), and then sub-categories like the aborted attempt to continue the series without Jason and the remake (and probably even the New Line Cinema movies since they were so bizarre). Although I was aware of Jason as a horror icon, my introduction to him was actually Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (McLoughlin, 1986) so I have a preference for zombie Jason, an unstoppable supernatural force of nature, and this meant that I ended up working my way backwards through the previous films to see how he got to that point. After being disappointed by the first film, surprisingly entertained by the second, and somewhat bored by the third, I have to say that I (like many) consider Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter one of the best in the franchise, and clearly the best of the human Jason films until the remake. Like the last two movies, The Final Chapter opens with flashbacks to the previous films to remind audiences about Jason’s origins, his mother’s rampage, and some of the best kills so far and, crucially, that Jason has survived extreme wounds and trauma. Once we’re all caught up, the film picks up immediately after the end of Friday the 13th Part III; although we don’t get much indication of the fate of Chris Higgins (Dana Kimmell), Jason’s body is bagged up and taken to the morgue after he took an axe to the face, which strongly indicates that Chris hallucinated being attacked by Pamela Voorhees’ decomposing corpse (Marilyn Poucher) since Jason’s body was still in the barn. The details of Jason’s rampage are thus primarily related using footage of Paul Holt’s (John Furey) campfire story rather than the likes of perverted coroner Axel Burns (Bruce Mahler) and his antics are certainly not common knowledge to our newest crop of horny twenty-somethings teenagers (despite Part III’s events making it to the local news).

A fresh batch of horny teens arrives at Crystal Lake, with Ted and Jimmy being the stand outs.

While our new bunch of victims may not be the most interesting group, they’re certainly more likeable than those in Part III and are made up of just enough personalities to not be completely paper thin, disposable meat bags. What we have here are two sets of couples – Paul Guthrie (Alan Hayes) and Samantha Lane (Judie Aronson), Doug Bell (Peter Barton) and Sara Parkington (Barbara Howard) – and friends Ted Cooper/Teddy Bear (Lawrence Monoson) and Jimmy Mortimer (Glover). Sara stands out somewhat from the others (and her counterparts) in that she’s a shy and awkward virgin; despite being in a relationship with Doug, she’s unsure of herself and nervous about having sex, which is in stark contrast to Sam, who is a fully self-confident lover. However, there’s no animosity between them; they have a heartfelt discussion about the matter, and what it means to have a sexual reputation, and Sam is constantly encouraging Sara to be more carefree. Doug doesn’t make much of an impression beyond being a pretty patient and caring kinda guy; he doesn’t pressure Sara into sex or cheat on her, and is probably the most unremarkable as a result. Not that Paul fares much better; despite being with Sam, he’s easily swayed once twins Tina and Terri Moore (Camilla and Carey More) are absorbed into the group. He completely misses that Tina’s flirting with him, upsetting Sam and causing her to take an impromptu skinny dip in the lake and end up butchered as a result, and he’s fittingly impaled through the groin with a harpoon after he finally realises that he’s neglected his lover. Of the group, it’s Ted and Jimmy who make the most immediate impression; Jimmy has just been dumped and is feeling both lovelorn and horny, while Ted is an overconfident jokester who believes his wit and smart mouth are irresistible to girls. Ted riles his friend up by branding him a “dead fuck” and tries every trick in his playbook to get into the pants of both Tina and Terri, only to be rebuked at every opportunity and end up cackling at old timey pornography while high off his nut. It’s Jimmy who ends up coming out more successful in his endeavours; after Paul realises he’s been a dick and ditches her, Tina turns her attentions to Jimmy (despite his outrageous dance moves) and his sexual prowess is finally vindicated, much to his delight, though his joy is short-lived as he is killed by Jason soon after, leaving him a literal dead fuck.

The local Jarvis family is targeted by Jason’s wrath, leaving Trish and young Tommy to fend him off.

This gaggle of colourful characters are only half the story, however, for they rent a cabin that neighbours the home of the Jarvis family, a loving family unit consisting of doting mother Tracy, tomboyish daughter Trish, and mischievous Tommy. From a throwaway piece of dialogue between Tracy and Trish, we can infer that the family recently went through a divorce or, at the very least, a trial separation as their patriarch is nowhere to be seen and relations between him and Tracy are frosty, at best. Thankfully, there’s no tension, resentment, or bickering between these three; Tracy chastises Tommy for playing Zaxxon (SEGA, 1983) too loud and for needing a haircut, but it’s nothing overbearing or controlling. She compliments his mask-making skills, encourages Trish to visit her father to keep their relationship alive, and, if anything, the three are a bit too sickly sweet with their healthy affections for each other. While Tracy and Trish regularly jog together and Tracy is happy (if a little perturbed) for her daughter to socialise with others her age, Tommy is the stand out of the family. Not only is he the quintessential eighties kid (he loves videogames, horror movies, and has a passion for mask and model making that exceeds his youth), Tommy’s also a budding mechanic, regularly being called upon by Trish to fix her unreliable car, and (like many young boys) is transfixed by the rampant female nudity and sexual activity right on his doorstep, much to his mother and sister’s chagrin. While a cheeky smart aleck who’s a little too smart for his own good at times, Tommy is basically a good kid who cares for his mother and sister, and is left scared out his mind when the bodies start piling up next-door and cinema’s most famous hockey-masked killer comes literally crashing into their house. While Trish risks her life trying to lure Jason away to protect her kid brother, Tommy makes the bold decision to use Jason’s past against him, quickly shaving and cutting his hair so that he resembles the hulking murderer as a small boy and then finally ending the fiend’s life with repeated maniacal swings of his trademark machete.

Jason is stronger and madder than ever, easily overpowering and cutting down even his most driven victims.

Indeed, while Jason is more powerful than ever before and none of the main group of teens has any hope of fending him off, he actually comes up against not one but two relatively formidable foes here. We see an interesting new side to Jason’s actions in this film; The Final Chapter opens with cops and coroners cleaning up his crime scene and, when his supposedly dead body is being wheeled to the morgue, we see grieving families to really hammer home that these characters we so often see as disposable actually have lives and families, which is best exemplified in Rob, a nomad with a working knowledge of Jason’s past, his mother, and his killing spree thanks not only to researching the killer but also because he’s the brother of Sandra (Marta Kober) from Friday the 13th Part 2. Although he comes across as quite shady at first, both Tommy and Trish take a shine to the hunky stranger; Tommy jumps at the chance to show off his monster masks and Trish is horrified to learn that so much bloodshed haunts her hometown. Rob’s mission to track down and kill Jason and avenge his sister is an admirable one but, though he comes physically and intellectually armed, he’s ultimately no match for the killer and is bludgeoned to death in overly comical fashion when surprised by Jason in the basement. While Trish very much fits the mould of a “Final Girl”, having largely avoided Jason’s rampage, stumbling upon the bloodied corpses he’s left in his wake, and being the last “man” standing by the finale, it’s actually Tommy who steps up as an unexpected hero in the end. Jason really isn’t messing around this time; at this point, he’s been on a rampage for about three days and it’s clear that he’s getting more and more pissed off at all the horny teens stomping around his grounds. Whenever he spots one, he goes for them without hesitation, stalking from the shadows and striking with a noticeable brutality; he’s much more apt to use his superhuman strength to crush and manhandle his victims this time around, and his body language screams unbridled rage. He explodes through the Jarvis’s window, crushes skulls, and skewers kids all over the place, but is also smart enough to both take advantage of the darkness and rain to surprise his prey and cut off their phone lines, making for an exceptionally driven and ferocious version of the famous killer.

The Nitty-Gritty:
Thankfully, unlike Part III, which opted for a weird disco track in place of the classic Friday the 13th theme, Harry Manfredini refocuses on the iconic musical beats and the “ki-ki-ki-ma-ma-ma” so synonymous with the series, but bolsters it with a faster, more action-packed tone that delivers probably the best Friday the 13th score so far as it has the right mixture of dread and adrenaline to keep you engaged with the tension or bloody action onscreen. While every Friday the 13th is full of sex and violence, The Final Chapter offers some different takes on the former: Axel is a horny coroner more interested in perving over girls both dead and alive than he is about showing any kind of compassion, and his fixation on the female form makes him an easy victim once Jason awakens; Sam is nervous about her first time but nonetheless excited to actually have the moment happen; Jimmy is fixated on his sexual performance and as desperate to get laid as Teddy but benefits from Tina being a bit of a slut and happy to settle for him after being rejected by Paul. There’s a bit of a parallel here between Tina and Sam; earlier, Sara alluded to Sam having a reputation, but she was perfectly happy being exclusive to Paul, whereas Tina unashamedly throws herself at Paul and only settles for Jimmy after Paul turns her down, and even then she puts Paul’s baseball cap on Jimmy’s head and has sex with him in Paul’s bedroom (though she seems legitimately into him after they have sex). This brazen sexuality indirectly leads to both Paul and Sam’s death, and both Jimmy and Tina are targeted by Jason soon after, but even a loved-up couple like Doug and Sara (and Terri, who doesn’t engage in any sexual activity) also pay the price for even being associated with such debauchery.

The Final Chapter has some sudden and brutal kills that shine even with the mandatory cuts.

The Final Chapter is bolstered by some of the best-looking kills in the series thanks to special effects wizard Tom Savini, who had really honed his craft since the first film. While much of the gore and violence was disappointingly cut to secure a marketable rating, we’re still left with some brutal kills that really reinforce Jason’s newfound rage and cruelty. Axel may not get his head twisted around by Jason’s bare hands, but a hacksaw to the throat is a pretty horrific way to go and Jason is far more interesting with a surgical scalpel than his Halloween counterpart. Previously, Jason slaughtered anyone who ventured onto his territory, but he initially has to make his way back to Crystal Lake and thus makes short work of a frustrated hitchhiker (Bonnie Hellman) by stabbing her through the next with a spear; there’s no finesse to Jason in this movie, he’s all about blunt, brutal, efficient kills and has really mastered taking his victims by surprise. While out on the lake, frustrated that Paul didn’t immediately follow her and at risk of hypothermia, Sam is caught completely unawares when Jason pops out of the water and pays homage to his mother by skewering her through the belly with a spear. After freaking out upon discovering her body, Paul desperately swims to shore only to get impaled through the groin by Jason’s spear gun and, in a perfect example of just how powerful Jason is now, he’s lifted clear off the ground for the killer to fire the spear for the coup de grâce. Easily the lamest kill is Tracy’s, which isn’t even shown as the film opts for a jump cut instead; even Terri and Tina fare slightly better than this and they’re simply framed by a flash of lightning and a brief shot hitting the house and thrown from a window, respectively. Two of the film’s most memorable kills are Rob’s exaggerated bludgeoning after finally coming face-to-face with his sister’s killer and Jimmy’s fruitless search for a corkscrew, which sees him impaled though the hand by said tool and then whacked in the face with a meat clever in a death somewhat reminiscent of my favourite kill from Part 2. Teddy ultimately ends up stabbed in the back of the head through a projection screen, which is a pretty sudden and simple kills, while Doug gets his head crushed against the bathroom tiles and Sara takes a wicked axe right to the chest!

Tommy puts an end to Jason’s massacre, and his life, but is left traumatised by the experience.

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, by accident or design, adheres very closely to the formula of its predecessors while also turning it on its head a bit. The addition of a normal, everyday family alone mixes things up and offers a contrast (and a refreshing break) from all the usual slasher depravity we know and love, and having a character like Rob, someone who knows all about Jason and is fixated on ending him once and for all, had a lot of potential. Sadly, Rob doesn’t live up to this, ending up as another red herring, but we’d actually see Tommy later fulfil a similar role when he returned in Jason Lives. When Trish is reduced to a panic-stricken, screaming, rainswept mess for the finale, tripping over bodies and running for her life, it seems as though we’re in store for pretty much the same climax we’d seen three times before but The Final Chapter takes a leaf out of Part 2’s playbook by having a character manipulate Jason using his past to render him temporarily stunned. Being stabbed in the neck, having a television smashed over his head, and taking a machete to the hand Jason can shrug off without much more than an annoyed growl but whip on his mother’s jumper or shave your head to evoke his childhood and the hulking brute is left perplexed. This leaves him wide open for Trish’s counterattack, but rather than repeat the beheading sequence of the first film, Trish succeeds only in knocking off Jason’s mask and exposing his ugly mug once more. For a moment, it almost seems as though Trish is going to break the trend and end up being killed by Jason, but Tommy surprisingly takes up the bloody machete and drives it right into Jason’s head! The impact of this wily little kid suddenly ramming a blade into one of cinema’s most notorious killers is shocking enough, but the way Jason’ falls to his knees and then lands face-first on the floor, driving the machete right through his skull, his eye twitching sickeningly as his head is split open, makes for one of the most gruesome kills in the entire series! In a testament to Jason’s relentlessness, even this isn’t immediately fatal and, when Tommy spots the killer’s claw-like hand twitching, he goes to town on Jason, screaming “Die! Die! Die!!” over and over as the film fades to white (a common trope often used to indicate death in the series and which usually accompanied the brutal murder of Jason’s other victims). There’s no question here that Jason is dead, hacked to bloody chunks by his own weapon, and the ending is about as definitive as you can get for the hockey-masked-killer, but The Final Chapter can’t resist giving us a last minute stinger as Tommy hugs his sister and shoots a look at the camera which suggests that he’s been fundamentally traumatised by the events he witnessed and his surprisingly brutal bloodthirstiness. As much as I enjoy Tommy as a recurring heroic figure, I often find myself wondering what would’ve happened to the franchise if he had become the new killer and taken up Jason’s mask and machete, but sadly we’ll never really know as Jason’s marketability was just too strong to replace him.  

The Summary:
It’s not always easy being a Friday the 13th fan. Have you ever sat down and watched all the films back-to-back? It can be exhausting, especially with the first five films as they’re all so similar and very rarely deviated from the pacing and standard set by the first film. Sure, the kids were different, the kills got better (or were more cut), and some wrinkles were added here and there to expand upon (and contradict) Jason’s backstory, but it’s easy to see how formulaic the franchise was even back then. Still, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter is a breath of fresh air that’s as enjoyable as the second film; thanks to not being burdened by a pointless 3D gimmick like Part III, the film can focus on giving us some fun and interesting (if, naturally, a little one-dimensional) group of new victims and delivering on the promise of sex and gore that these films offer. The movie mixes up the formula with both the vengeful Rob and the Jarvis family, two elements which add a little extra spice to the plot and showcase the devastating consequences of Jason’s killing spree. This is easily my favourite version of human Jason before the remake came along; brutal and unrelenting, he’s more of a force of nature than ever, pouncing upon his victims and ending them with a merciless rage that becomes palpable by the finale, where he’s just tossing bodies through windows, ripping bloodied corpses from walls, and crashing through windows to get at the Jarvis’s. Having Jason meet such a definitive end not by the hands of Rob or a Final Girl, but by a child (one who impersonates Jason, no less) was a brilliantly unexpected twist and, even now, it’s clear that the filmmakers wanted this to be the final end to the killer’s massacre and I still wonder where the franchise would be if they’d actually followed through with that. Some fun, if outrageous, performances by the likes of Crispin Glover and Lawrence Monoson help make the kids more than just disposable victims, but by this point audiences we here for two things: Jason and the kills, and The Final Chapter has both well covered thanks to the work of Tom Savini. Overall, this is easily my favourite of the human Jason era of the franchise; it’s as cliché and formulaic as its predecessors at times, but mixes things up just enough to be far more engaging and I’ll never get tired of seeing that machete sink through Jason’s skull over and over!

My Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Great Stuff

What did you think to Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter? How do you feel it holds up against its predecessors and its many sequels? Which of the new characters was your favourite and why, and were you a fan of Tommy? Would you have liked to see more from Rob? Which of the kills was your favourite, and were you shocked to see Jason killed off here? Would you have liked to see Tommy take over as the new killer? Which of the Friday the 13th movies is your favourite? Do you consider Friday the 13th to be unlucky? Are you watching a Friday the 13th movie today? Whatever your thoughts on Friday the 13th (the movie, franchise, and day), go ahead and leave them down below and be sure to check in again for more horror content in the near future!

Movie Night: Blade (1998)

Dr. K10 Comments

Released: 21 August 1998
Director: Stephen Norrington
Distributor: New Line Cinema
Budget: $45 million
Stars: Wesley Snipes, Stephen Dorff, N‘Bushe Wright, Donal Logue, Kris Kristofferson, and Udo Kier

The Plot:
Blade (Snipes), a half-human, half-vampire dhampir born with all of the strengths of a vampire but none of their weaknesses (save the thirst for human blood), hunts vampires alongside his grouchy mentor and father-figure, Abraham Whistler (Kristofferson). Their mission is upended when Blade helps haematologist Doctor Karen Jenson (Wright) after she is bitten, and when sadistic upstart vampire Deacon Frost (Dorff) sets in motion a plot to usurp his elders and evoke the mythical “Blood God”.

The Background:
Eric Brooks/Blade began life as an extremely obscure, culturally problematic vampire hunter in the pages of The Tomb of Dracula, courtesy of Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan, after Marvel Comics were were finally allowed to publish stories involving vampires and other supernatural creatures. Development of a Blade movie can be traced back to 1992, when New World Pictures bought the rights to the character and rapper LL Cool J was initially attached to the role. Obviously, this never came to fruition and the rights eventually ended up with New Line Cinema, where the property caught the attention of writer David S. Goyer. After battling against the studio’s wishes to make a spoof film, and change Blade’s race, Goyer won out with his gritter, bloody, realistic reimagining of the character. Goyer’s revised ideas for Blade were reflected in his guest appearances on the nineties Spider-Man animated series where he was also a dhampir and accompanied by Whistler (Malcolm McDowell/Oliver Muirhead). Although actors Denzel Washington and Laurence Fishburne were considered for the role, Goyer pushed for Snipes, who had previously been attached to star in an unproduced Black Panther movie. Norrington’s first 140-minute cut was heavily trashed by test audiences, necessitating not just heavy reshoots but also an entirely new ending, but the final movie went on to be a huge success; it grossed over $131 million at the box office and was highly praised for its slick visual style, seedy depiction of vampire society, and unapologetic violence and gore. Though there were some reservations with the disparate genres at work in the film, the results spoke for themselves; not only was the comic book Blade altered to match his live-action counterpart, but Blade spawned two sequels of varying quality and an unfortunately short-lived TV show. Blade was also one of the first movies to really kick-start the surge in popularity for superhero properties in cinema, so it was only fitting when Marvel Studios reacquired the rights to bring the character back to the big screen with a reboot.

The Review:
Before Blade, I (like many) had never heard of Marvel’s most famous vampire hunter. Hell, I wasn’t even that familiar with Wesley Snipes, having seen him in Demolition Man (Brambilla, 1993) and very little else since my action movie dance card was firmly filled up with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s body of work. Still, like The Matrix (The Wachowski Brothers, 1999) and Armageddon (Bay, 1998), Blade was a  constant presence at sleepovers and birthdays, and probably the last good vampire film I watched until 30 Days of Night (Slade, 2007)). It didn’t help that the genre became oversaturated with lame-ass, love drunk teenage vampires and Blade and Matrix rip-offs like the God-awful Underworld franchise (Various, 2003 to 2017). Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of the dark, gory, gritty, leather-and-guns aesthetic that these films popularised at the time, but crafting a good vampire film in this day and age seems like a lost art as filmmakers lean a little too heavily towards the camp and an excess of CGI. But still, Blade was (largely) immune to all of that, and barely even had the stigma of being a comic book movie (the film doesn’t even have the classic Marvel logo in the opening) since no-one really knew who he was; I’d seen him in Spider-Man and even I hardly remembered him, so in many ways this was the perfect “back door pilot” for the superhero movies we were about to see explode onto cinema screens. Unfortunately, we wouldn’t see R-rated superhero films take centre stage during this movement, but I still maintain that not every superhero property even needs to be full of gore and cuss words; but those who do deserve it, like Blade, should definitely veer more towards that and would do well to take a few notes from this classic horror/action film.

With all a vampire’s strengths but none of their weaknesses, Blade wages a relentless crusade.

Blade is the story of…well…Blade…a stoic and highly skilled vampire hunter who was born Eric Brooks. When his mother, Vanessa (Sanaa Lathan), was bitten by a vampire (later revealed to have been the big bad, Deacon Frost) while pregnant, Eric was born a “dhampir” (though the film prefers the term “Daywalker”), a human being with all the strengths of a vampire (heightened senses, superhuman strength, agility, and durability, and skin-piercing fangs) but with none of their weaknesses to sunlight or ultraviolet radiation (which burns and eventually explodes on contact), garlic, or silver. For all his fantastic abilities, though, Blade still ages like a normal human and is still hampered by perhaps the vampire’s most crippling affliction: “The Thirst” for human blood. While other vampires freely indulge their bloodlust, luring in unsuspecting prey and literally raving at underground bloodbaths, Blade relies upon a special serum, derived by his half-crippled mentor, Whistler, to keep the Thirst at bay. Blade takes this serum at least once a day and this is the first time (and one of the rare times) that we see him in an kind of vulnerable state; strapped to a chair, grasping Whistler’s hand for support, his body is wracked by seizures as the serum courses through his veins, leaving his hunger satiated and his body trembling. Aside from this, Blade is an absolute machine when out in the field; stone-faced and exuding menace and confidence, he thinks nothing of walking into a club filled to the brim with horny, blood-hungry vampires and even little of storming a hospital or Frost’s penthouse in the pursuit of his targets. Harbouring a deep-rooted hatred towards vampires since they killed his mother and cursed him with a life of violence and pain, Blade is relentless in his quest to kill every vampire that crosses his path, disrupt and destroy their entrenched hierarchy, and track down and kill Frost, which has earned him a reputation amongst the vampire community as a feared and formidable figure, the aforementioned Daywalker, who is effectively their bogeyman. However, Blade is deeply ashamed by himself; disgusted at his inhuman thirst for blood and sickened at what Frost did to his mother, he seeks solace in the only thing he knows: killing the monsters responsible for his existence to gain just a small sliver of his humanity back with each victory.

Grouchy hard-ass Whistler has devoted his life to training Blade and killing vampires.

Although Blade is somewhat cold and dismissive towards Whistler, who is a crotchety and jaded old man with a prominent limp and a tendency to smoke around flammable liquids, there’s a mutual respect and admiration between the two. When Blade was a boy, Whistler stumbled upon him on the streets and nearly killed him before realising what he was and has been teaching him everything he knows ever since. Whistler has even less love for vampires than the titular hunter; years ago, his wife and children were killed after taking in a drifter, who turned out to be a vampire, and he was forced to watch as they were tortured before his eyes. Quite how he survived this encounter isn’t elaborated, but he’s made it his mission to take them out one by one. Despite their contentious relationship, where Whistler is often admonishing Blade for his actions, there’s a father/son bond between the two; it’s obvious that they care about each other, and Whistler is clearly disturbed at the serum’s increasing ineffectiveness and concerned for Blade’s welfare out in the field. Unfortunately, age, injuries, and cancer have taken their toll on Whistler and he’s no longer able to be an active combatant, something you can tell is a source of great frustration for him. Despite this, he’s still a valuable ally and resource for Blade; his vast knowledge of vampire society and their inner workings allows Blade to pursue Deacon Frost, and Whistler furnishes Blade with all his weapons and his supped-up muscle car, and even makes a dramatic and amusing last-minute save later in the film (his “Catch you fucker’s at a bad time?!” and “Somebody get me a Goddamn wheelchair!” lines are some of the best in the film). For all his piss and vinegar, Whistler has a large heart; he truly cares for Blade and sympathises with Karen’s plight, and his whole mission is motivated by a desire to protect others from the vampire’s bloodlusts. However, while he has an indomitable fighting spirit, his best efforts to protect Karen and fend off Frost are for naught, leaving him beaten, bloodied, and bitten. Blade is left shell-shocked and refuses to finish off his father figure; it’s all he can do to clean Whistler’s wounds and, seeing his protégé’s struggle, Whistler demands that he walk away so he can finish the job himself, and Blade begrudgingly obeys, resuming his grim façade and fuelled by an even greater need to extract revenge on Frost.

Violently thrust into Blade’s world, haematologist Karen works to find a cure for vampirism.

When we first meet her, Karen is just an average overworked and underpaid haematologist trying to get through a nightshift while dismissing the advances of her colleague and former flame, Doctor Curtis Webb (Tim Guinee). She’s violently introduced to Blade’s gruesome world, however, when the charred corpse of Frost’s underling, Quinn (Logue), springs to life and violently attacks both her and Curtis. Although it’s admittedly a bit weird that Blade went to all the trouble of setting Quinn alight to send a message to Frost and then immediately came back to “finish [him] off”, thereby endangering innocents by letting Quinn live, it does mean that he crosses paths with the injured and infected Karen. In a rare moment of emotion, Blade sees a resemblance between Karen and his mother and chooses to take her to his lair rather than finish her off or leave her to turn. Karen thus becomes the audience surrogate; it’s through her interactions with Whistler and Blade that we learn about Blade’s origin, the rules of these vampires, and the lore behind the movie. At first, she’s naturally terrified; not only has she just been attacked by a ravenous, burned up corpse but this hulking motherfucker just threw her out a window and effectively kidnapped her, and her fear only worsens when she’s told that she has a high chance of becoming a vampire even after the treatment they give her. Determined to avoid this fate, and fascinated by their operation, Karen experiments with ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), discovering that it not only has explosive results when mixed with vampire blood but could also hold the key to curing vampirism. Though this wouldn’t have any affect on Blade since he was born with his abilities, she’s confident that she can cure him with enough time but, ultimately, he requests that she synthesise a more effective serum for him. Since she was attacked, Karen becomes “marked” and thus remains at risk of vampire attacks; this comes to a head when she’s taken hostage by Frost, meaning she willingly allows Blade to drink her blood in order to restore his strength for the finale, but any romantic subplot between them is continually (and refreshingly) downplayed due to Blade’s intense focus on his never-ending mission (although the scene where he drinks her blood seems purposefully shot to evoke an intense love scene).

Upstart sadistic Frost wants nothing more than to rule over the humans and usurp his antiquated elders.

As different as Blade is from his comic book counterpart, Frost is equally a departure from the silver-haired, middle-aged man seen in the comics. Indeed, the movie version of Frost has more in common with David Powers (Kiefer Sutherland) from The Lost Boys (Schumacher, 1987), both aesthetically and in terms of his motivation. Frost is seen by his more composed elders as a disruptive and chaotic individual, one who regards vampires as the dominant species and humans as mere food and whosr antics draw unnecessary attention to their kind not just from Blade, the scourge of vampire society, but also from the humans they so tentatively live alongside. Frost’s mindset is an intriguing one; since he was “merely turned” into a vampire, and was thus once human, his hatred and resentment towards humanity seems to stem from an untampered, sadistic lust for power, bloodshed, and a superiority complex afforded by his superhuman abilities. Seeing the vampire high council as relics of a bygone era, Frost wants nothing more than to run free and rampant, unrestricted by antiquated rules and treaties, and has even found a way to operate in the sunlight using sun block (a ludicrous solution, but it makes for an intimidating confrontation between him and Blade and one of the first popular instances of “bullet time” in cinema). Frost is a twisted, arrogant punk who surrounds himself with a gaggle of likeminded cronies, all of whom revel in indulging their thirst for blood and anarchy, and this extends even as far as to threaten a young girl just to hold Blade at bay and to take the head of the vampire council, Gitano Dragonetti (Kier), rip his fangs out with pliers, and leave him to be annihilated by the rising sun. Despite his disrespect and frustration with the old ways, Frost devotes a great deal of his time, energy, and resources to translating the secret of the “Blood God”, La Magra, from the Book of Erebus (the “Vampire Bible”), discovering that sacrificing twelve “Pure Bloods” will summon the eldritch force and infuse him with its power. A cruel-hearted and vicious individual, Frost takes great pleasure in beating Whistler half to death and delights in torturing Blade not just with the knowledge that his mother is still alive (and a vampire now entirely loyal to Frost) but also by draining his blood to fuel his transformation into the Blood God. Imbued with a virtual immortality, Frost’s ambition more than exceeds his grasp, allowing him to effectively usurp his elders and ascend to a level of existence that threatens to spell the end of days for both humans and any vampires that don’t pledge undying fealty to him.

The Nitty-Gritty:
If there’s a downside to Blade, it’s that it suffers from the annoying trend of having its antagonists sit around in suits and in elaborate boardrooms and office buildings, lording their power and control over the city. However, this actually plays into Frost’s character; unlike the vampire high council and the likes of Gitano Dragonetti, Frost shuns the corporate ways of their society and prefers to indulge his whims, and this dispute leads to a great deal of antagonism between his upstart group and their elders. Indeed, vampire society in Blade is depicted as being firmly entrenched within what we recognise as the real world; they’ve infiltrated every level of society, from politics to law enforcement and real estate, and enjoy the wealth and privileges such influence brings, allowing them to carefully select their victims and modulate their base desires so as not to draw attention to themselves. In contrast to these Pure Bloods, Frost and his cronies are seen as petulant children; admonished for encouraging gatherings of similarly turned vampires and threatening the “treaty” they have with the human politicians (indicating an awareness of vampire society at a higher governmental level, but it’s ignored and/or tolerated to keep from sparking an all-out war that would cost humans their lives and vampires their lofty position). If you’ve ever watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997 to 2003), you’ll be immediately familiar with vampire society in Blade: there’s the older Pure Bloods at the top of the food chain, those they’ve turned and inducted into their cabal (like Frost), but there are also more monstrous variants in their ranks. The morbidly obese Pearl (Eric Edwards), who’s been feeding on children while helping translate the Vampire Bible, is just one such example, but Curtis later pops up as a horrific zombie-like creature as a common by-product of being bitten. On the other side of the coin, the vampires frequently employ “Familiars”, regular humans like Krieger (Kevin Patrick Walls), a police officer who carries Frost’s tattoo and hopes to one day be turned for assisting his master.

Blade excels in its action-packed fight scenes, gritty presentation, and unapologetic gore.

One of the things I absolutely love about Blade is, like The Crow (Proyas, 1994) and The Matrix before it, the film has a heavy reliance upon bad-ass leather trench coats and kung-fu. Garbed head to toe in black and sporting a nifty armour vest, Blade cuts quite the intimidating figure; our introduction to him, standing bone dry amidst a literal bloodbath, couldn’t be more striking and watching him dismantle vampires left and right with ease and skill is always a joy thanks to Snipes’ slick movements and some incredibly well-shot and well-choreographed fight scenes. The action is easy to follow, even when in low or strobe lighting, and Blade oozes confidence and charisma every time he’s on screen even though the character is largely stoic and no-nonsense. Having said that, though, Blade’s grim demeanour does crack on more than one occasion; he gives himself a little fist pump after nailing Quinn to a wall, shares some banter with Whistler, expresses concern over Karen and appreciation towards his allies, but perhaps his most amusing attribute is that he often delivers cool, snappy one-liners (his outburst of “Motherfuckah, are you outta your damn mind?” when the cops shoot at him never fails to amuse and his “Some motherfuckahs are always tryin’ t’ice skate uphill” is exactly the right level of awesome and ridiculous). Blade is so proficient at killing vampires because his superhuman abilities are bolstered by some awesome weapons, courtesy of Whistler; he carries a variety of silver stakes to instantly turn vampires to charred ash, wields a modified MAC-11 for rapid fire like he’s fuckin’ Alex Murphy/RoboCop, blows vampire heads clean off with his shotgun and, of course, carries a titanium, silver-tinted sword that easily allows him to not only sever limbs and reduce even roomfuls of armed vampires to dust but also contains a security feature that means no one but him can hold it without losing a hand! Whistler even furnishes Karen with a compound of “vampire mace” to fend off any unwanted attention, and has put together quite the sexy muscle car for Blade to bomb around the city streets in.

Unfortunately, the film’s effects and finale are bogged down by some ugly CGI blood.

I mentioned Buffy the Vampire Slayer earlier and the comparison is more fitting that you might think; while the vampires don’t sport monstrous make-up like in the show and appear much sexier with their glistening fangs and gothic attire, they die in very much the same way. After being stabbed or sliced with silver, or exposed to sunlight, vampires quickly and violently burn to ash and cinders, an effect that is visually interesting if a little dated. For the most part, Blade does a great job of keeping everything nice and practical; Snipes excels in his fight scenes and shoot-outs, which are all nice and varied and have a great balance of fast-paced, hard-hitting action, explosions, and blood, and the sets are equally diverse, ranging from high-tech archives, the juxtaposition between Frost’s elaborate penthouse and Blade’s rundown lair in the industrial district, and the ancient stone of the Temple of Eternal Night. On the other hand, Pearl is little more than a disgusting mass of rubbery flesh, Frost’s Mac is strangely able to render a complete 3D recreation of the temple simply from translating the Vampire Bible, and, of course, there’s the final confrontation between Blade and Frost himself. After being restored by Karen’s blood (and receiving a power boost as a result) and cutting through Frost’s underlings, and even killing his mother (ultimately an underutilised plot point, I feel, that could’ve easily been dropped), Blade battles the empowered Frost one last time. This one is actually a challenge for Blade; not only is Frost able to match him blow for blow and sword swing for sword swing, but he’s functionally immortal thanks to the Blood God. Despite Frost’s henchwoman, Mercury (Arly Jover), killing one of the twelve Pure Bloods, the ceremony goes off without a hitch, imbuing Frost with the powers of the God (although it’s possible that Mercury’s actions caused him to be more of a demigod than a literal whirlwind of blood). When Blade does cut through Frost’s abdomen for a killing blow, the upstart vampire easily reconnects himself using probably the worst CGI blood effect you’ll ever see. Luckily, these poor blood effects are fleeting and don’t overpower the finale like in the first disastrous test footage, but they do rear their ugly head when Blade bests Frost by injecting him with his entire supply of EDTA, causing him to violently explode in an ugly, bloated mess. Although Frost is dead, this was merely a battle in an ongoing and never-ending war and the film ends with Blade more willing than ever to see his cause through to the conclusion (even ending up hunting vampires in Russia) rather than accept the vague promise of a cure.

The Summary:
It’s actually a little surprising to me how well Blade holds up today; the film has a slick, science-fiction edge to it that permeated subsequent comic book movies like the X-Men films (Various, 2000 to 2020) but it had something to it, a dark, gritty edge, that even now films in the same genre tend to either downplay or ignore. Although it’s undeniably comic book-y in its premise and execution, Blade eschews many of the clichés we’ve come to see from the genre; rather than being a by-the-numbers origin story or feature form-fitting costumes, Blade is primarily a horror/action film and, in this regard, it exceeds tremendously. Full of fast, exciting fight scenes, frenetic chase sequences, and action-packed shoot-outs, Blade is even a cut above other films in the action genre and may very well be the perfect marriage of all these disparate elements. Edgy, gory, and unapologetically aimed at a more mature audience, the film takes everything that worked in The Crow and expands upon it with its gothic, gruesome premise and proceeds the “wire-fu” craze popularised by The Matrix. I’ve never been a massive fan of Wesley Snipes; he’s undeniably cool and certainly has some skills, but it’s a little difficult for me to reconcile his personal life with his movies, which haven’t always been able to compete with his peers, but Blade was a great showcase of his physical abilities and easily his most iconic character for me since it allows him to be stoic, deeply emotional, and snarky in addition to tossing fools around like they were nothing. The depiction of vampire society as being a conflict of interests between the antiquated old guard and Frost’s arrogant upstarts echoed The Lost Boys and nicely challenged the cliché of all-powerful, corporate antagonists, and was a significant influence on the genre going forward. While some of the effects haven’t aged too well and the plot point of Blade’s mother still being alive didn’t really land for me, neither of these things really detract from how enjoyable Blade is. Although I actually prefer the more violent and action-packed sequel, there’s a definite appeal to how raw and uncompromising the original is, especially in its depiction of more horrific and gory moments, and it’s a great piece of dark, gritty vampire fiction for fans of the genre.

My Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Great Stuff

Are you fan of Blade? What did you think to it when it first came out and how do you think it holds up today? Were you a fan of the comic book character prior to this film and, if so, what did you think to the changes made to his powers and origin? What did you think to the performances, specifically Wesley Snipes and Stephen Dorff, and were you moved by Whistler’s death? Did you enjoy the film’s gore and action sequences, and what are your thoughts on the CGI used in the finale? Which vampire movie or story is your favourite, and which of the Blade films or comics do you enjoy? Whatever your thoughts on Blade, feel free to share them below.