Raimi Re-emerges: Drag Me to Hell

Well, Sam Raimi is at it again. It's been close to twenty years since his last foray into "The Evil Dead Territory" with Army of Darkness, but one of the masters of the oddball horror film is at it again. Raimi last dabbled in the genre with The Gift (2000) but while a great film, it was played entirely straight and lacked the director’s signature mix of genuine chills mixed with broad sight gags. After a decade long vacation into blockbuster land to tank up on some mega-cash (Raimi directed the Spiderman trilogy) the man is back in action crafting a fun little spookshow as only he knows how.

Leading up to its release a lot has been made of Drag Me to Hell, both good and bad. First there was backlash when it was announced the film would carry a PG-13 rating (the bane of the horror community, it would seem). It also carried the stigma of its star dropping out early in production (the film was to originally star Hard Candy and Juno's Ellen Page). Once the film was screened at this year's Sundance film fest that bad buzz did a complete 180 and the film was hailed by some early reviewers as a bon-a-fide horror classic.

What's the truth? Is it a classic? Probably not. Is it a ton-of-fun throwback to Raimi's early career? Yes.

A synopsis would be counter-productive, all you need to know is this: Evil Gypsy. Can I get an Amen? Raimi is no hack. He blends innovative, "highbrow" camera work with decidedly lowbrow material to form something pleasantly different.

The film's comedic high jinks show that Raimi will always be a much greater admirer of Moe, Larry, and Curly than Freddy, Michael and Jason. This alone should be enough to make Evil Dead fans giddy, but it will probably come as news to the general public this weekend when they attend the film expecting a "scary" movie. The film's marketing has downplayed the film's lighter tone to the point of full-out false advertising.

For me, this disingenuous marketing on Universal's part is awesome. I can just imagine the teeny-boppers surprise when they sit down and are lulled in by the film's fairly serious first 15 minutes and are then sucker-punched by gross-out gag after gag. For example, there is one particular scene toward the end that gained riotous laughter from me, as a teen girl behind me said "Oh you gotta be kidding me, that was stupid." Instead of turning around and telling her it was supposed to be, I just enjoyed Raimi's wink to his audience and let the pot call the kettle black.

The problem with the film is one of length and pacing. If the film had maybe spent 10 minutes less on developing character's that Raimi himself obviously has no love for, the film would run along at a nice brisk clip. As is, the film is "clumpy"-- missing opportunities for escalated absurdity while lingering on its protagonist’s pouting (for those who have seen the film: I find this especially true in the "meet the parents" scene, which could have been priceless).

This is a minor qualm because by the time the film arrives at its inevitable (but still nicely reminiscent of EC comics) conclusion, the audience has shared more laughs and shocks than any PG-13 horror film has ever provided.

Such Art His Art Concealed: New fiction up on LuridLit.com

Someone's got a new piece of fiction up on Lurid Lit. That someone is me.

A big thanks to Chris who was very (read:probably overly) gracious in his introduction of me. The site is great so be sure to bookmark it/follow it when you're done reading my story and leaving a comment.

I hope you'll indulge the fancy-pants reference, but the name of the story comes from a translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses. It is a line in the myth of Pygmalion and every edition of the text I find seems to have it translated differently. I like that one though.

Go read it! Now!


As for site updates, I have some great stuff to write up (Gord Rollo's The Jigsaw Man and an analysis of the NEW French New Wave among others) and will get to it soon.

Gross-out Laughs and Chills: Benjamin’s Parasite by Jeff Strand

Genre books that are laugh-out-loud funny are few and far between.

Well, horror lit to tickle your funny bone has found a new champion with the arrival of Jeff Strand’s new book from Delirium. Benjamin’s Parasite tells the story of a high school English teacher who becomes the unwilling carrier of a top secret experiment: a giant intestinal parasite that spurs-on uncontrollable fits of gluttony, horniness and violence. Oh, and it is slowly transforming its host into a mound of weeping sores.

Aided by an impulsive female bounty hunter, Benjamin must escape bumbling mobsters, bumbling mad scientists, and even bumbling Deliverance-esque hillbillies while racing to have the parasite removed before it kills him.

"Intestinal parasite" and "weeping sores" don’t sound particularly funny, but believe me the novel is. Absurdity is the word of the day where Strand is concerned. He lay’s the funny on thick in the dialogue and makes the action set-pieces big, big, big. The closest parallel to the novel would have to be on the screen (the early work of Peter Jackson, Sam Raimi, maybe even a dash of later-day Troma), not the written word.

It’s hard to imagine this kind of splat-shtick working on the page, but Strand pulls it off beautifully. One of the keys to the book’s success is its steady escalation into absurdist territory. To provide example, but trying not to ruin anything: the final act of the book involves a parachute escape (PARACHUTES!).

A lesser writer really would have struggled with such an oddball premise, but after the first chapter it becomes apparent that Stoker nominee Strand is the real deal. If one could level any criticism at the book there are jokes that go on for maybe a tiny bit too long. Full disclosure: this could be attributed to my own squeamishness about losing teeth (Benjamin has his knocked out, I wont say how, but boy did it seem like it went on forever).

I can’t recommend this book enough. You should pick it up.
I will be definitely keeping my eye out for more Strand, his novel Pressure comes out from Leisure Books this June….I already have mine pre-ordered.

The Set That Will Tear Your Soul Apart: The Hellraiser 3 Disc “Puzzle Box”

Originally released in 1987 writer/director Clive Barker’s Hellraiser introduced the world to Pinhead and the rest of the Cenobites. Disregarding the memorabilia blitz and constant sequel-ization the film inspired there is actually a pretty great movie here. Anchor Bay has just released the first two films in a three disc boxed set shaped like the puzzle box featured in the film.

Barker is a true renaissance man. Most notable for his fiction (a great starting point would be either his anthology The Books of Blood or his novella collection Cabal) Not satisfied with revolutionizing the way the literary world looks at horror, Barker also paints (a sample of his work appears bellow, and some is available in a few gorgeous hardback collections) and directs films. He may not carry the name recognition that Stephen King does, but a quick look at both writer’s directorial debuts (not to slag King, who I love, but compare Hellraiser to Maximum Overdrive- the move where a man is killed by a Coke machine) it is easy to see who is the more versatile artist.

There are strong performances and some incredibly haunting images framed by Barker, but undeniably the star of Hellraiser is its visual effects. The film was made on a minuscule budget in a time before CGI and the makeup, puppets, stop-motion animation, and reverse photography still stand up to close scrutiny over 20 years later, AND in high definition to boot. Compare this to the recent Star Wars prequels whose FX already look drab and overly-fake a few years down the line.

The set comes with the Blu-ray edition of the first film, a duplicate DVD and Hellraiser II: Hellbound. The first film comes with a commentary track by Barker and star Ashley Lawrence, which was recorded several years ago but is still an entertaining listen. There is also several shorter (15-30 min) featurettes that run the gamut from superfluous to very informative. All of the material with Barker is older, and that is a real bummer. He claims in one of the features that it will be the last time he talks about the film, which in some way I understand, but it also robs the audience of the witty, gravely voiced and media-cynical Barker that can be found on the Midnight Meat Train DVD (the film is adapted from one of my favorite Barker short stories and it’s pretty good, but the commentary and features are worth the price of admission on their own).

If you have previous editions of the disc and do not have a Blu-ray player, the box might not be worth the upgrade, but if you can play it I would highly recommend the Blu-ray. The transfer is great and the makeup and cinematography really benefit from the extra detail. The set is modestly priced and looks great on a shelf, the only gripe I have is with how the discs are stored, it doesn’t look like they can get loose, but they are only held in place by wedging the edges into hard plastic slats. There has to be a better way.

Hollywood has been threatening a remake of this movie for years, so I implore you to check out the original before the inevitable happens. You will be glad you did.

Blitzkrieg Blog: Catching up with The Burrowers, The Strangers and Star Trek

I've watched a bunch of movies in the last few days, all the while reading books like a madman (my summer vacation is gonna end up being a week long, I'm trying to induce a media OD before then). I'll try to get to the books at a later date, each with their own entry. Here are the films:


J.T. Petty's The Burrowers is best described as The Searchers meets Pitch Black. It's a creature feature/Western that deserves an A for effort but, sadly, gets a B+ for execution.

The film is slowly plotted and has a passable script, but the real draw here is the strong cast (stocked with veteran character actors Clancy Brown, Doug Hutchison and William Mapother) and great creature effects. The FX are a mix of practical makeup and CGI and look fantastic.
The word here is production value, considering this bypassed theatrical play (a real shame as it is head and shoulders above 90% of the crap forced on audiences) I was shocked by the film's lush visuals and top notch period costuming.

Despite its pacing shortcomings The Burrowers is good, dark, bloody fun. Ignore the lackluster box-art (Lionsgate seems bound and determined to torpedo all their straight to video releases with ugly art that make the films look like SciFi Channel original productions) and either pick this up or rent it.

On the DVD side of things The Burrowers could have had a bit more in the way of features. There are only two short (about 5 minutes each) EPKs included, which while cool, are not enough. The director made a prequel film for FearNet and it is a crying shame that those are not included with this release.


File this one under: "I missed the boat bigtime." I recently caught up with The Strangers on cable and it is easily one of the best horror films released last year. An entry in the home invasion subgenre the film is one of the most technically proficent scare machines in recent memory. Writer/director Bryan Bertino uses camera placement and the audience's own knowledge of the genre to tear their nerves apart. I don't jump easy, but this film got me.

It does have around 10 minutes or so where the act begins to run thin (I'm thinking here of the old eye-roller: "there's an old radio in the shed...if I could just get to it") but the film's brisk runtime and strong performances keep it from over staying its welcome.

Having watched and rewatched Micheal Haneke's inditement of the horror genre Funny Games (in both its native Austrian and American incarnations). I was ready to rip my hair out rather than go to The Strangers when it was in theaters, but now I'm sorry I didn't.

Light on gore, but bleaker than any mainstream horror film released last year: The Strangers will have you peering through the shades and turning on the porch light for at least a week.



As for theatrical releases this week I saw Star Trek. I did not have very high hopes for this as the trailer makes it out to be some sort of bastardized-MTV-version of Star Trek. That is NOT the case.

This movie is the real deal. A big-budget summer blockbuster that doesn't suck. The script wasn't Shakespeare and it did get a little "wink wink remember that character/episode/line?" at times, but there is really nothing to complain about with a film this good (especially one budgeted at $200 million).

J.J. Abrams has brought an anemic franchise back from the dead ("reboots" are always a tricky proposition) and I for one am praying for a sequel. Long live the new Trek!

Terror Circus: The Trashiest Show on Earth

Just got through with Media Blasters and Code Red's new DVD of Terror Circus (1974). Also known as Barn of the Naked Dead, Nightmare Circus and Caged Women, Terror Circus is an interesting mishmash of drive-in trash and surprisingly competent filmmaking.

The plot concerns three female entertainers who breakdown on their way to Las Vegas. They are abducted by Andre, a Norman Bates-esque psycho with aspirations to run the "greatest trained animal show of all time"....with his animals being the girls.The girls are chained up with the rest of his menagre and must withstand Andre's insane training regimen if they want to escape. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, aside from the women, cougars and boa constrictors Andre also keeps his nuclear-accident-deformed-monster father locked in a toolshed(?!?!?!?!).

The whole thing is a lot more downbeat than it sounds. Heavy on misogyny (there is a laughable attempt at the beginning to add a dash of feminism to the mix by having one of the girls say "He wants to own us. Like all men.") Terror Circus is best when not taken too seriously. Paradoxically the film has rather low levels of sex and gore (on the special features it is revealed that there was originally more gore, but it's sadly been lost).

On the plus side is Andrew Prine(Simon, King of the Witches), a veteran T.V. and character actor who gives a really solid performance as Andre. Director Alan Rudolph elevates the whole affair by supplying some certifiably striking images and creepy sequences.

The transfer for the DVD is spectacular. The producers of this disc should really be commended for their efforts. They give a B-movie A-list treatment here: detail is high, grain is minimal and colors are vibrant. There is also a commentary by the FX guys and a half hour featurette put together with both on-camera and audio interviews. Sadly neither Prine nor Rudolph show up on the featurette(can you believe they don't want to be associated with this classy production?), but those that do have nothing but good things to say about them.

The whole film seems a bit padded and disjointed, but I would say it's worth a look if you are a serious trash-cinephile.



EXTRA BONUS ENTRY:

You can now read my story "Have a Little Faith" on Flashes in the Dark. Head over there to take a look and be sure to leave something in the comments section (love it or hate it: I want to know).


In related horror fiction news you should also check out Necrography. They just came out with their first issue and it's well worth your money. Click the banner:

It Snikt Snikt Stinks: Three Alternatives to X-men Origins: Wolverine

It’s finals, I have papers to write and studying to do. I don’t have time to waste my breath on the new Wolverine movie. The theater I saw it in was packed, and they all seemed to like it, so my apologies if my headline offends you. There were a few things I did like about the film, but overall I think my headline is enough of an indicator where I fall "thumbs up/thumbs down"-wise. So here are three things that feature everyone’s favorite “Canuck with a stabbing addiction” that don’t blow:

1. Jason Aaron’s Wolverine: This one is technically more than one thing. Jason Aaron, writer of Scalped (hands down the best comic out now) has taken multiple stabs (ZING!) at the character. Aaron’s way with tough guy dialogue and hardboiled violence coupled with his certifiable genius plotting makes him the perfect candidate to write for Marvel’s biggest badass.

The best thing to come out of the new movie is Marvel’s push to promote the character, giving Aaron his own ongoing series entitled Wolverine: Weapon X. It’s only one issue in but it’s already bloody good fun.

If you don’t read comics and just want to grab a trade paperback the best of his stories is Get Mystique. One of the single bloodiest Wolvie stories ever told.

*As a Bonus for people who suffered through the new movie Get Mystique holds the “actual” (and satisfying) answer to the question: “What happens when you shoot him in the brain?”

2. Hulk vs Wolverine: Not the miniseries by Lost writer David Lindelof (but that’s good too) Hulk vs. Wolverine is a 45 minute straight-to-DVD animated movie. Possibly the first straight-to-video tie-in to be leagues BETTER than the movie it’s promoting. This short movie is Wolverine the way he should be: a violent, angry, morally questionable character. The animation is slick and the voice acting is top-notch.

The smackdowns of Hulk verses Wolverine are great, but the real star of this show is Deadpool. Deadpool appears briefly in the new movie as a severely altered version of the comic book character. He is played by Ryan Reynolds and just when it appears that the “Merc with a mouth” might save this movie, he disappears for an hour, then comes back and doesn’t talk. The Deadpool in the animated film is exactly the way fans want to see him, a hyperactive, schizoid with an itchy trigger finger.

The movie is available on DVD alongside Hulk vs. Thor.

3. Logan by Brain K. Vaughn: If you went to the new movie looking to see Logan in some WWII action, you left sorely disappointed (In all likelihood this happened anyway). Y: The Last Man and Ex Machina writer Brian K. Vaughn has you covered though. A story that flashes between the present day and 1940s Japan, Logan is a bloody and tragic story. It has plenty of moments for fans to revel in the “cool factor” of it all, but also brings some much needed pathos to the character. Here we see a lovelorn Logan far better than we do in the soap-opera-twist-filled mess that is the film. Logan features drop-dead gorgeous artwork by Eduardo Risso.

There you go: three viable alternatives to ease the pain.

Apologies to the horror fan's finding the site through The Haunt... I'll have some new horror stuff for you next post, promise.