Grace: Horror’s State of the Union is One of Hope and Change

Horror is sickly, it has a bad case of the sequels and remakes, probably not fatal but it does need to start taking better care of itself. To hear people on the internet describe this you would think the old girl is dead. Considering this weekend’s Film Festival double feature of Pontypool and Grace along with last year’s sublimely excellent Let the Right One In, I have to ask: What movies are these guys watching?

The good stuff is out there, there may not be commercials for it in between American Idol re-runs, but it’s out there all the same. Hollywood’s recent remake and sequel fetish really has no bearing on the “hardcore horror fan”; does anyone think we were the intended audience of the PG-13 Prom Night? No, most horror fans don’t fit into the 13-19 year old demographic the studios are going for with these films.

Writer/Director Paul Solet’s Grace is a movie for us-- and it is spectacular.

A movie about a woman who carries her dead baby to term with horrific results, Grace is a body horror film like no other. To talk about the plot anymore would spoil it. The narrative is lean but the shocks and disturbing images are plentiful.

Solet builds tension slowly, letting our own thoughts about what “might happen” run wild for much of the film, before trumping whatever we could have thought-up in the climactic moments.

Solet was present at the screening and said it best when he said: “I’m such a fan of the genre that it’s getting harder and harder to ‘get to me’, so I just tried to make something that would affect me.”

As one of the best horror films in years I hope Grace finds its audience whenever it gets a release. I urge all readers to put it high on their “Must see list.”

Telling Not Showing: The Baffling Effectiveness of Pontypool

It's three in the morning. I just got back from the first screening I had time to attend at this year's Independent Film Festival Boston. Let me tell you, I had no idea what to expect from Pontypool, and no matter how I try to describe it, you wont either.

The gist: it's kinda a take on the zombie/survival genre, but that classification really doesn't do the film justice.

The story concerns has-been shock-jockey Grant Mazzy (Stephen McHattie) and his small crew as they try to decode the mysterious events going on outside their radio station in a small Canadian town.

The film may have its flaws, but it is most definitely original.

I guess I'm a terrible film studies major and writer in general because I really have no clear cut opinion about this film.

First the good: Stephen Mchattie turns in a serious slam-dunk performance, you read that right, a serious, no joke, honest to Betsy good performance in a horror film (and despite the producers at the screening spewing the old " it's a psychological thriller" line, Pontypool is 100% horror). Mchattie's Grant commands a silky voice behind the mic, but we get the feeling long before the horror arrives that this is a troubled dude.

As any book on writing will tell you "rule number one" is: "Show don't tell." Pontypool sticks a big finger up at that rule by having almost the entirety of the "action" take place off-screen and described it through radio call-ins. It sounds like a bad decision, but writer Tony Burgess, director Bruce MacDonald and Mchattie really make it work. The scenes where Grant moderates listener call-ins are far and away the best in the film.

Now let's talk about scares: Pontypool has them by the bunch. They aren't the disposable kind that make you flinch or jump, but the solid gold kind that follow you on your walk home from the theater.

One more unconventional thing Pontypool does right: comedy. Pontypool is by no means a horror/comedy. There is humor throughout and it never seems out of place. A tricky balancing act, but one wholly appreciated.

While we're drawing a line between good and bad we should just draw a line right down the middle of the film, in the first half is the good (so good!) and the second half is the....let's say "problematic", because I really don't want to denigrate what I feel overall is a very fine film.

The aforementioned problems are caused by a tonal shift towards the end that drags the film a lot closer to avant-garde than it had been previously. This is by no means a bad thing in itself but it complicates any classification we thought we might be able to put on the film. I'll be honest there are probably at least ten minutes of this movie that I down right didn't care for, but when there is cottage cheese in your Easter basket it dosen't make the chocolate any less sweet.

Well, see it for yourself. As I've said before; I dont run reviews, I just try to put up journal entires for my own entertainment. If I had to bottom line it: Pontypool is most defintely worth your ten dollars, if you go in with an open mind.

It opens May 29th in select cities and debuts on VOD through IFC the same day.

BRRRRRRUUUUUUUCCCCCCEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!

Warning: No Horror Here. Just praise for the MIGHTY E-STREET BAND!

Bruce Springsteen is one of the few certifiable geniuses left working. It's not opinion, it's fact.
Add to him Max Weinberg, "Little" Steven Van Zandt, Clarence "The Big Man" Clemens, and the rest of the E Street band and you have yourself a supergroup.

As part of 2009's "Working On a Dream Tour" The Boss was recently in town at the Boston Garden for two nights of hard rocking.

Starting the show with two tracks off of Darkness On The Edge of Town, one of my Favorite albums ever, "Badlands", "Candy's Room". The band then moved to what for me was the moment of the night when they played a song off the new CD, "Outlaw Pete." The song allowed Springsteen to flaunt his love for classic westerns as he sung, played guitar , and pantomimed the entire story(complete with cowboy hat) of bloodshed and failed redemption.

The show ran about 3 hours in what could only be described as a feat of superhuman endurance by all band members.

Among the night's surprise highlights were an impromptu rendition of The Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated" and a visit from Boston's own The Dropkick Murphys.

If all you know is his earlier work you really owe it to yourself to check out some of his newer stuff. I recommend either Devils & Dust or Working On a Dream, but they're all great.

Well...that's that. No real substance here, just had to say my piece.

The Video (still) Dead: Movies From the VHS Boom That Lack DVD Releases

Yeah, I know. You can Label this one under "preaching to the choir" but here goes:


Nostalgia.

Nostalgia can be a good and a bad thing. It can serve to heighten some of our fondest memories. But one must be wary: when we try to regain some of that magic we may find that said "sugar coating" was actually gilding a turd. Not so with the movies on this list (well, at least I hope not) these are all great films that for some reason or another don't have proper releases (in this country at least).

For this entry I'm going to recommend a few movies you CAN'T buy, even if you wanted to. Some are held up by rights issues and some are simply rotting in the vaults but all of them are worth your time. Willard (1971)
You may be one of the few that caught the "better than it had any right to be" remake a few years ago, but nothing beats the original. Lonely outcast Willard (Bruce Davidson) befriends a colony of rats and uses them to get revenge on those who have wronged him, i.e. his boss (Ernest Borgnine!). This movie is an interesting blend of pathos and straight up horror bolstered by some strong performances, making it a not to be missed entry in the niche subgenre of "tearjerker killer rat movies."
Ben (1972)
The only other inhabitant of that subgenre being the sequel: Ben, also sadly unavalible. This one has Ben, the leader of Willard's rats, befriending a lonely child with a heard condition. But it gets weirder--the film's theme song is sung by a young Michael Jackson...betcha didn't know "Ben" was about a rat.
The Stepfather (1987)
Long before anyone cared what was in the hatch... Lost's Terry O' Quinn was slicing and dicing as the stepfather from Hell in, the aptly titled, The Stepfather. Unlike Willard and Ben this movie occasionally plays on cable and has a region 2 DVD release, but for everyone who does not have a contact in the UK there really should be a release. There is a remake to this movie in the works so hopefully that will help get this fine little slasher into our hands, but there's no guarantee (look at Ben and Willard).



The Video Dead (1987)
A straight-to-video shocker from the 80s in the "made on the cheap" vein of The Dead Pit (given a release just recently by the good folks at Code Red). The Video Dead is the only movie on the list that even I would have a hard time classifying as "good", but it's fun nonetheless. Featuring questionable acting and some laughable overdub the film is made watchable by some great DIY gore effects, a fun premise (a haunted TV that spits out zombies) and genuinely cool zombies. In a time where everyone and his brother has a zombie movie on store shelves surely there is room at our local Best Buys for a DVD of The Video Dead?


Wow. This is kind of a downer right? Not only that but the list goes on (Phantasm II lacks a release even though we have the other 3?!?!?!) So I'll end this entry on an up-note:

Had I written this a few weeks ago I would have certainly included Fred Dekker's 1986 classic horror/comedy Night of the Creeps. For years only available as crappy bootlegs the movie will finally be given a DVD release this October. So rejoice. Hallelujah! There's hope for all the movies on this list. Until then enjoy this Tom-Atkins-eriffic trailer:

I'm sure you all have movies you want to see again. What are they?

The Black Label Society and My Heavy Metal Awakening

Ah, the Power of Metal.

The me of a few years ago would probably never say anything like that. But over the past half a decade or so I have plunged headlong into a wayward romance with Rock & Roll's most rambunctious daughter: Heavy Metal.

I started by just dipping my toe in the pool: a little early Black Sabbath, then a bit of some solo Ozzy, then a dash of Rob Zombie (based mostly on my love of his second film The Devil's Rejects, one of the finest horror films in years), and before I knew it I was practicing my imaginary stage dives while blasting Iron Maiden's "Number of the Beast" and crooning some Dio-age Sabbath in the shower (IF YOU LISTEN TO FOOLS:THE MOB RULES!).

When the new House of Blues opened in Boston I was dieing to see a show. The only thing on the schedule that looked good was Tom Jones (don't laugh, I've seen him twice: the man rocks) and I wasn't going to be able to go. Something else on the schedule caught my eye though: The Black Label Bash featuring The Black Label Society. I was intrigued, I went down to Nuggets (my local used record store) and bought some albums (1919 Eternal and Shot To Hell) and the rest as they say is history.

The show was fantastic. There were multiple warm up acts but I sadly only caught Sevendust (who I liked enough to take another trip down to Nuggets).

Zakk Wylde's onstage presence is (to use a well-worn cliche) electric. The man beats his chest, drinks, swears, unleashes 10 minute long guitar solos and then plays the piano (!). I've seen Wylde onstage once before (playing guitar for Ozzy) but never got a sense of his all around ability until this night.

There came a point in the show where me and a friend (two pasty skinny white kids sticking out like sore thumbs) saw a grown man tackled to the ground unexpectedly, probably ensuring hefty chiropractor bills for the rest of his life. I'm sure we both felt bad on the inside, but there was nothing to be done. We just looked at each other, threw up the horns, and started banging our heads.

The moral of the story: try new things and look out for flying metal heads.


So what do you think, faithful readers (all three of you)? Want to see more articles on music (I got a killer idea for a Drive-By Truckers album by album analysis and review). Want to see more movie stuff? Drop a comment, I'd appreciate it as it helps me see if (to quote "The Boss") there's anybody alive out there.

I Love the Dead: A Visit to the Mütter Museum

Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania the Mütter Museum takes the “classiness” of a science museum and fuses it with exhibits that would look right at home behind the curtain of a sideshow. The museums collection is comprised of medical oddities and arcane surgical equipment (birthing forceps anyone?). Although it takes up only three large rooms the walls are packed with thousands of specimens. Some are skeletal remains, some are in formaldehyde, and some are dried and dyed, but all are intriguing and many are profoundly disturbing.

Among the many highlights are dried ovarian cysts the size of beach balls, intricately detailed wax sculptures of various diseases and growths, a ceramic cast of Chang and Eng the famous conjoined twins, a myriad of what carnies would call “pickled punks”—deformed dead babies preserved in formaldehyde, hundreds of skulls (many rotted and pocked from syphilis and one with a bullet stuck in its forehead), and, the piece de resistance, a 9 foot long enlarged colon…dried and preserved for your “educational benefit.”

The brochures and literature tout the museum as “disturbingly informative” and stress that even though the original intent of collecting these pieces was for physicians to get acquainted with different afflictions the present day mission of the museum is to “raise questions about life, death, and conceptions of beauty.” I think you’ll agree that’s not as much as a draw as: “We’ve got a two headed baby skeleton!”

There are informational placards accompanying each specimen so a visitor can choose to learn as much or as little as they want. This makes the museum perfect for both Cannibal Corpse roadies and medical students alike.

So if you find yourself in Philadelphia and you have a strong constitution there is no better place to kill an afternoon than in the hallowed halls of the Mütter Museum.

The Road to Mediocrity is Paved with Good Intentions: Dreamworks Animation Studios in Review

Quick what’s your favorite computer animated movie? In all likelihood your answer came from Pixar.

When studios try to make these kinds of films Pixar’s shadow is inescapable. Dreamwork’s animated output ranges from “A- for effort” (Shrek and Kung Fu Panda) to nearly unwatchable (I’m looking at you Madagascar!) but their entire oeuvre all caries the stigma of “well that was OK but it was no Toy Story….or The Incredibles….or Wall-E, etc.”

The studio’s latest offering is Monsters Vs. Aliens, a 3D riff on the monster movies of yesteryear . There are nods to Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, The Fly, Godzilla vs. Mothra, and The Creature from the Black Lagoon. It has the great voice cast that seems to come standard with this type of picture (Stephen Colbert as the President: inspired if a bit underutilized). It also has animation that rivals anything being put out by their competitors, but Monsters vs. Aliens is still missing that secret Pixar ingredient: heart. It may sound odd but I was genuinely looking forward to this movie. It has a great premise but it seems wasted on a by the numbers family comedy. No doubt kids will love it, but the best part about Pixar’s films is that their parents do too.

Detractors aside, the film is by far my favorite of the Dreamworks efforts, but that really isn’t saying much. It has some laughs and some solid action, it’s a good time waster especially if you’re a young’n, but lacks all of the artistic punch of a Pixar film.

Monsters Vs. Aliens is a step in the right direction, but with Pixar poised to release its first 3D offering it’s looking less and less likely that the Disney-backed colossus can ever be bested.