Taste of Cinema - Movie Reviews and Classic Movie Lists

10 Great 1980s Horror Movies You May Have Never Seen

Mon, 19 Oct 2020 14:13:38 GMT

Like a lot of kids, growing up in the 1980s with my kid brother, we spent a great deal of time watching wonderfully inappropriate horror films, mostly on pay TV, late night cable or with parental permission, renting them from the local video store. Peeking through fingers, knowing we shouldn’t be seeing what we were seeing but unable and often unwilling to turn away as our hearts jackhammered our spines, thrilled at the scary spectacle unraveling before us; sneering monsters with crimson claws and drooling fangs, certain to inspire nightmares and night lights.

These late nights would lead to a lifelong fascination with genre films, and so, with a whiff of nostalgia in the air and a devilish grin, recounted here are ten of the best overlooked fright films the 1980s have to offer, and, despite some lazy tropes, overkill of slasher franchises, and uneasy exploitation misfires, the horror film had a heyday of artistic and commercial successes that has been unrivaled since. Enjoy!

10. The Gate (1987)

This surprisingly effective slice of horror-lite, targeted at a young audience who could easily identify with the film’s twelve-year-old protagonist, Glenn (Stephen Dorff, in his feature film debut), is a creepy, funny, and refreshingly unjaded dark adventure. An American-Canadian co-production from director Tibor Takács and writer Michael Nankin, both of whom share an appreciation of Ray Harryhausen-style stop-motion, The Gate introduces us to Glenn, left in the care of his boy-obsessed 16-year-old sister Alexandra (Christa Denton), as their folks leave town for the weekend.

And while his big sis would much rather throw a party than pay her annoying little brother much attention, Glenn and his bff Terry (Louis Tripp), both heavy-metal enthusiasts, soon summon some dark shit from a hole left by a fallen tree in the backyard. A gateway to hell or just overly elaborate liner notes from their favorite aggressive LP, “The Dark Book”, played backwards, of course, just maybe? The Gate is first-rate horror-adjacent fare, and a perfect intro for moppets who are curious about monsters (it was certainly a “gateway” for me, to many more adult-framed fright flicks). A gem.

9. Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)

The boundary pushing body horror on shrill display in this cyberpunk fright flick is a large part of what made this low budget effort from cult-film director Shinya Tsukamoto a hit with the midnight movie crowd.

Shin’ya Tsukamoto is the metal fetishist gone mad –– perhaps due to the writhing maggots that pour from his wounds where metal melds to his disgusting skin –– who’s mowed down on the highway by Salaryman (Tomorrow Taguchi) and his girlfriend (Kei Fujiwara). These reckless lovers then dispose of his body by dumping it into a ravine. Little did they suspect this would provoke a decidedly nasty curse that transforms the flesh into iron in as many painful and vomitous ways as possible. Ain’t karma a bitch?

This strange, sometimes boring, sometimes fascinating, frequently gory, often funny, and always fucked up film would go on to father two just as transgressive sequels; Body Hammer (1992) and The Bullet Man (2009) while cinching Tsukamoto as an international provocateur of unconventional cult cinema. It’s also fair to say that this is a film for extreme fans but, that said, admirers of David Cronenberg (particularly 1983’s Videodrome) and David Lynch (shades of 1977’s Eraserhead) will dig and devour some of the surreal strangeness as well.

8. The Hidden (1987)

A precursor to his Special Agent Dale Cooper persona, Kyle MacLachlan stars as FBI agent Lloyd Gallagher in hot pursuit of an exotic car loving, nihilistic, and parasitic alien creature that moves from host to host leaving bullet-riddled bodies and swathes of destruction in its wake.

Director Jack Sholder, perhaps best known for 1985’s A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, is a fleet-footed filmmaker in this screaming, satisfying, and inflamed genre film, the perfect distillation of over-the-top action, alien sci-fi and messy horror.

Buttressed by a punk rock appreciation –– the Los Angeles locations add to this artful effect –– a driving, thumping rock score, and frequent exotic sports car chase scenes, and high fashion gun battles certainly influenced by Michael Mann’s then ubiquitous Miami Vice. The Hidden is an adrenalized actioner that seemed to materialize out of the ether, one that even Roger Ebert, sometimes too harsh on genre films, had to enthusiastically award a thumbs up, saying, “I don’t know what I was expecting, but certainly not this original and efficient thriller.”

7. Dead & Buried (1981)

Director Gary Sherman, who would go on to such memorable 80s films as Wanted: Dead or Alive (1986) and Poltergeist III (1988) managed to find a winning cult combo of EC Comics-style of dark horror fantasy with the exploitative aplomb of Herk Harvey’s 1962 indie horror Carnival of Souls, and the results are a somewhat unsung 80s slasher staple, Dead & Buried.

Buttressed by a decent cast (including Melody Anderson, Barry Corbin, James Farentino, and a pre-Freddy Krueger Robert Englund), excellent practical gore effects from Stan Winston, and a screenplay tweaked by the likes of writing team Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett of Alien fame.

Dead & Buried takes place in the picturesque coastal town of Potter’s Bluff, Rhode Island. A tourist trap that promises good fishing and the kind of eerie, in-your-face locals who just might brutally murder out-of-towners, only to have said out-of-towners resurface as model citizens. That the town-folk seem readily versed in voodoo, particularly the reanimation of the recently deceased, well that’s just par for the course. And Potters Bluff’s sheriff (Farentino) has had enough of this odd behaviour. If he has to shake down all the eccentric chuckleheads in his community to get at the heart of this building mystery, including the suspicious coroner-mortician, William G. Dobbs (Jack Albertson), well so be it.

Some small towns have big secrets, and sometimes they’re best left buried and undisturbed.

6. The Hitcher (1986)

As sadistic as it is deeply disturbing, Robert Harmon’s incredibly violent road thriller doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel. In fact, it’s largely a retelling of Steven Spielberg’s Duel with a bigger body count and more splatter, with the added advantage of Rutger Hauer as our unstoppable boogeyman, and the likes of a post-Ponyboy C. Thomas Howell and a budding Jennifer Jason Leigh as the bad guy’s quarry. If all the blood spray and viscera leaves a bad taste, it’s intentional.

Jim (Howell) is a youngster in need of a lucky break. Agreeing to deliver a car from Chicago to San Diego as a side hustle, Jim makes his first mistake when he stops for hitchhiker John Ryder (Hauer), a rough-around-the-edges sort who raises about a dozen red flags before he’s even sat in the shotgun seat. Ryder’s murderous intent is soon revealed but before Jim can jettison the killer in his midst a whole lot of nasty shit goes down.

The Hitcher is the type of movie where the killer is literally unstoppable, where the hero seems jinxed with making every bad decision, where the police are as useless as a dewclaw on a kitty cat, and where a righteous babe like Nash (Leigh) is destined for the most grisly death of all.

The Hitcher is a white-knuckle detour through a hell of filling stations, roadside diners, and future crime scene hotel rooms. The chase is on, and the finish line might well end in mutual annihilation of the innocent and guilty alike.

The 10 Most Underrated Neo-Noir Films of The 2000s

Mon, 19 Oct 2020 14:13:03 GMT

We can’t stop loving film noirs, because we can’t get enough of psychological crime thriller dramas with a distinctive tone and style. Neo-noir is a revival of the genre of film noir; the term itself was popularized in 1955 by French critics Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton. Neo-noir is basically an updated version of those darkly twisted, witty crime films with a stylish tone. Neo-noirs are still getting made and while some of them receive major acclaim, some others go unnoticed. We’re going to take a look at some of the underrated neo-noirs of the early 21st century.

10. Merci pour le chocolat (2000)

When you talk about great actress-director collaborations in the history of cinema, you should always bring up Isabelle Huppert and Claude Chabrol. What they created together was absolute magic. This was one of their last collaborations but also one of their best and most underrated. A subtle, almost chamber play-like staged psychological thriller about small secrets that lead to major disasters because everyone tries not to show what they think.

Chabrol uses excellent staging and amazing suspense elements to make us fully engaged with the film, and Huppert once again inhabits the character with a psychologically playful, enigmatic and intriguing performance that we never get to know what she thinks or does. She remains a mystery that keeps fascinating us. In her unconditional pursuit of happiness, she can no longer distinguish between good and bad. This is not a film about the conclusion or the ending – this is a Chabrol film. There are no actual blood or acts of violence that we see. Everything seems so civil but at the same time, you feel the chills. An ambiguous masterpiece worth seeing.

9. The Way of the Gun (2000)

Another stylish and intelligent film noir on the list with a complex plot and unsympathetic but at the same fascinating characters, “The Way of the Gun” is one of those films that you know will not make you feel good after seeing it, but you just keep going along for the ride.

After winning an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for “The Usual Suspects,” Christopher McQuarrie made an impressive directorial debut with this raw and relentless crime film debut. He’ll later turn into a good action filmmaker thanks to his collaborations with Tom Cruise, but here he brings up something entirely different. Notably, he shows his talent for dialogue, and how he manages to write both funny and intelligent dialogues. He doesn’t go for easy narratives or safe choices, and definitely enjoys surprising his audience with twists and turns. And it’s rare enough to be underlined that the excellent tense action scenes always carry some kind of meaning for the emotional journey of the characters. Assembling a great cast (especially a scene-stealing James Caan) also helps.

8. The Merry Gentleman (2008)

Michael Keaton was not totally gone before he made his legendary comeback in “Birdman.” He was still making movies, even scoring Golden Globe and SAG nominations for his work on television; he directed a movie and the result was very good. This modest movie is mostly a neo-noir character piece, but it has elements of the old-school romance dramas that are shown during Christmastime, which says a lot about how much Keaton seemingly loves the old-school, classic filmmaking.

The cinematography is striking and sets the tone early in the beginning. Then we get to meet our characters: a mysterious hitman who goes through emotional problems, a woman fleeing her abusive husband, and a police detective looking for love. Keaton doesn’t even say his first line until about 15 minutes after appearing on screen. This stellar morality tale is a modest beauty and an absolute underrated gem. Unfortunately, it failed at the box office and still doesn’t get much talk, but “The Merry Gentleman” is for those who love classical filmmaking.

7. Dark Blue (2002)

In the early ‘90s, right after Rodney King events, police officer Bobby Keough (Scott Speedman) is trained by older police officer Eldon Perry (Kurt Russell). Perry’s investigative methods are rude. A shootout involving Keough and Perry is being investigated. The police chiefs come to the conclusion that the criminal was properly shot; only Arthur Holland has doubts about the procedure, but with no evidence.

The is based on a story treatment from author James Ellroy, a writer famous for intensely violent crime novels like “L.A. Confidential,” which was later made into a successful film. “Dark Blue” is not on that level but is still a great effort with a very charismatic and complex performance from Russell. One can say it’s one of his best roles and worth watching just to see him shine. But that’s not all: it’s a fascinating, kind of bizarre noir may feel a little cold to some viewers but to neo-noir fans, it’s a film with a lot of historical relevance and interesting morality play that they’ll enjoy watching. That slow-burn approach also works well for the movie.

6. Hollywoodland (2006)

Ben Affleck’s acting career has been a rather divisive, but “Hollywoodland” is one of his best performances and now with the news that he’s going to direct the remake of “Chinatown,” one might wonder if he’d cast himself in the movie because something about him fits the noirish atmosphere incredibly well. Of course, we don’t know what kind of approach he’ll take for the film but it’s fashionable to shoot the “behind-the-scenes” of the movies with similar style.

“Hollywoodland” is that kind of neo-noir with a Hollywood setting. Louis Simo, a fictional detective, investigates the historically real death of actor George Reeves, who was successful in the 1950s through the television series “Adventures of Superman,” in which he played the title role. The scenes of the investigation are shown alternately with flashbacks that trace the life of Reeves. For films like this, the tone is important and they found the right one here; the film captures the myths, mysteries, dreams, and hopes of the era well and it has such an elegant look with a sense of nostalgia and attention to detail. Affleck won a Volpi Cup for his performance and was nominated for a Golden Globe, but the movie failed to make a splash at the box office.

The 10 Smartest Horror Movie Villains

Fri, 16 Oct 2020 14:20:00 GMT

A good film cannot happen without a good hero. That much is clear to everyone. The fact that one cannot happen without a good villain as well seems to have been forgotten by many filmmakers throughout the decades and we have been left with a bunch of cardboard cutouts instead of real bad guys of flesh and blood, that we can actively recognize as real people.

Fortunately, however, the unsung heroes of cinema constantly went against the norms in order to create motion pictures that could be properly enjoyed, with actual human beings with their motives, needs and wishes on both sides of the story. We got baddies with a soft side, psychopaths with moral codes, serial killers with loving families.

We also got our fair share of criminal masterminds, villains that you can’t help but admire for their intellect, if not actively root for them. Here is a list of mostly human antagonists of motion pictures that rank among the smartest characters in cinema. Some half-human and alien admissions are also present:

10. Pinhead – Hellraiser (1987)

It should be noted, before we move on, that this charming villain portrayed by Doug Bradley, now almost universally known by the name of Pinhead, was simply dubbed the lead Cenobite in the first installment of the Hellraiser franchise. We shall still refer to him by the more well known name.

What once was a man of flesh and blood, now is a paranormal being dubbed the Cenobite, under the command of this weird looking fellow. He doesn’t speak a lot, like some villains do, detailing his plans and actions, but the wordless torture he brings upon the souls unfortunate enough to cross his path speaks enough of both his capabilities as a villain and a man of intelligence.

Some would perhaps claim that his large success rate has more to do with a bunch of other wordly abilites he has, but it is pretty evident from the earliest moments that there is also quite a bit of thinking involved in the little sadistic hell of Pinhead’s.

9. Norman Bates – Psycho (1960)

It would be downright absurd to try and explain influence of Alfred Hithcock’s wondrous mind on the way we view cinema today. Famously dubbed master of suspense, he reformed the genres of thriller and horror, paving the way for many talented filmmakers that would come in the future.

He truly had a knack for a good villain, from the earliest days of his career back in Britain, through his golden years in Hollywood, all the way to the inglorious finish of his career in the seventies.

Psycho remains his best known work to date. Rightfully so, many would claim, but a good portion would also disagree, citing North by Northwest and Vertigo as superior works of the master.

Whatever you hold to be his true masterpiece, it is undeniable that Psycho brought us one of the greatest villains on the silver screen: Norman Bates. Portrayed by the great Anthony Perkins in what proved to be the role of his career, this young man with mommy issues and a plethora of other, related and unrelated mental problems, remains wonderfully cunning throughout the film despite the fact that he is also emotion driven a lot of the time.

8. John Doe – Se7en (1995)

With a stellar cast consisting of Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Spacey, and an intriguing plot building on the themes of religion and justice, Se7en was an instant success, and is still widely considered one of the greatest achievements in the not so long, albeit marvellous opus of David Fincher.

Similarly to one villain that we’ll focus on more later on in this article, the bad guy Spacey portrayed occupies only a fraction of the film’s screen time, and is still unidentified by the investigators by the time the end credits roll, yet he leaves the strongest impression on the audience due to his calm demeanor, cruel mischiefs and the plan that he is so commited to carrying out.

The secret of his success lies in both the fantastic writing and the flawless acting. Unlike some of the other entries here, the greatness of John Doe is almost equally made up of these two parts and even a slight mishap in casting or writing would result in a villain not as great and not as smart.

7. Patrick Bateman – American Psycho (2000)

Brett Easton Elis’s novel shocked the hell out of the American public when it was released in 1991, but was also widely praised. Nine years later, the movie adaptation, though quite liberal in its use of source material and shocking in a completely different right than the novel it builds upon, did the same: once again, the moralists stood in horror as Patrick Bateman slashed hookers and killed kittens while critics focused on the subtext and analyzed the hidden meanings of a seemingly larger message film was trying to get across.

While undeniably unlikable to a significant degree, and oftentimes emotion driven, one cannot deny that Bateman is an intelligent fellow, if sometimes in matters not directly concerning the ordeal of events in the picture.

6. Dr. Heiter – Human Centipede (2009)

Human Centipede hit the world of horror like a shockwave when it appeared, about a decade ago. Just when we gave up on the idea that something truly shocking would ever again appear in cinema, Tom Six gave us his directorial debut.

Truth be told, it wasn’t a film of exceptional artistic merit: it is often cliched, mostly unrealistic, sometimes naive, but always horrifiyingly disgusting. The mere concept of three human beings being sewn together in a centipede like conjuction is enough to evoke disgust in some people, so it’s suffice to say how deeply the depiction of the aforementioned process affects the viewer.

One of the brighter parts of the film, besides the shock and gore factor, was the late Dieter Laser’s stunning performance as a lunatic surgeon fullfilling his demented fantasies.

Cold and emotionless, yet stunningly smart, one can’t help but admire him for his capabilities, if not revere him for his goals. In all honesty, he would probably turn out to be a fairly unremarkable character was it not for stellar Mr. Laser.

10 Great Animated Movies You May Have Never Seen

Fri, 16 Oct 2020 14:19:11 GMT

Animated films are often thought to be aimed at a younger audience and in particular children are seen as the main consumers of the genre. Whilst a massive part of the market and genre does create and produce films that are family friendly, there are also many animated films which cater to a much older audience. Not only that, but the preconception of an animated film being bright, colourful and light-hearted are turned completely on their head in these films which are often much darker – not only in tone but also visually.

The animation genre is comprised of many incredible films. Some of these films will be very well known by audiences, however there are a number of other animations which whilst less familiar, are still just as worthy of attention from audiences.

1. Waking Life (2001)

Waking Life follows a young man who is in a persistent dream like state as he observes and participates in a number of philosophical discussions with different individuals. These discussions address a myriad of interesting and intriguing issues, including free will, our relationships with others and the meaning of life.

Waking Life is an experimental film which was written and directed by Richard Linklater. The film was shot with live actors and then entirely rotoscoped using a team of artists who used computers to draw stylised lines and colours over each frame of the film. Linklater would later use rotoscoping again for his 2006 film A Scanner Darkly.

Imagine that you are at a party full of people from all different walks of life. At this party, people approach you one by one and pull you aside where they then share with you philosophical thoughts and ideas about everything from what it means to dream to what it means to be human. As these people talk to you, the room is forever changing, pulsating and shifting. Your eye is not only drawn to the person to whom you are talking to but also to the environment around you. All these things add up to what it is like to view Waking Life, a film that the audience experiences as well as watches.

2. Song of the Sea (2014)

Song of the Sea follows brother and sister Ben and Saoirse when they are sent to live with their grandma in the city after their mother’s disappearance. When they resolve to return to their old home by the sea, Ben soon begins to realise that the folktales that his mother used to tell them are not just stories and that his sister Saoirse is even more immersed into this mystical world than he could have ever imagined.

Song of the Sea was directed by Tomm Moore and written by Will Collins. The film used hand drawn animation and took around five years to complete. Song of the Sea had a limited release but received critical acclaim and was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 87th Academy Awards.

One of the best elements of Song of the Sea is that throughout the film, the audience feels as though they are swept along in the adventure and mystery with Ben and Saoirse. This feeling of being immersed in the events is also exacerbated by the beautiful and breath-taking animation. Song of the Sea crafts a story that resonates with the audience because we all know what it is like to have family and even more than that, what it is like to sometimes have mixed feelings towards that family. The family dynamic is something that feels very relatable and the added intrigue of the folktale elements make the film even more appealing.

3. Tekkonkinkreet (2006)

Orphaned street kids Black and White are inherently different. Whilst Black is more streetwise and tough, White is much more childish and innocent. They both live in Treasure Town and consider the city as their own. When entrepreneurs arrive in the city with the intention of tearing down the city to replace it with an amusement park, Black and White decide to try and stop them, whilst also dealing with the yakuza who are attempting to take over Treasure Town.

Tekkonkinkreet was adapted from the manga series of the same name and all three manga issues were adapted into this feature length version. The film was directed by Michael Arias and was praised as a must-see film for fans of anime.

Tekkonkinkreet does feel that it might be quite a divisive film, but that is only because the animation is very unique and original – traditionalists may just find it too distinctive. That being said, for fans of anime in all its forms, this film is definitely one to add to the watchlist. Tekkonkinkreet world builds in a fascinating way and the use of inventive camera angles and awesome swooping shots makes it even more eye catching for the audience.

4. Mind Game (2004)

Mind Game follows twenty-year-old Nishi who dreams of becoming a comic book artist. Nishi has a crush on his childhood girlfriend and fantasises about declaring his love for her. But when an encounter between Nishi and the yakuza goes horribly wrong, Nishi finds himself in a strange sort of limbo.

Mind Game was adapted from the manga of the same name and directed by Masaaki Yuasa in his directorial debut. Upon its release, Mind Game won several accolades and is now considered a cult favourite.

If you want to watch a film that truly explores and pushes the boundaries of animation, then Mind Game is an absolute must see. Mind Game is a film that is highly experimental in nature and again feels like a film that audiences not only watch but experience. Mind Game is a strange and surreal film and it is hard to put into words the abstract and insane content, just go and watch this film.

5. It’s Such A Beautiful Day (2012)

It’s Such A Beautiful Day is divided into three chapters and follows a stick man named Bill who is struggling with the symptoms of an unknown neurological illness. The film follows him as he struggles with his failing memory and attempts to put his shattered psyche back together.

It’s Such A Beautiful Day was written, produced and directed by Don Hertzfeldt, who also stars in it. The three chapters of the film were originally released separately as shorts before being compiled into a feature. The film had a limited theatrical release before being released on to streaming services. It’s Such A Beautiful Day received wide critical acclaim and is considered by some to be the best animated film of all time.

It is hard to imagine anyone coming away from this film and it not having a profound effect on them. It’s Such A Beautiful Day depicts mental illness in such a resonate way, that even if you have no experience or familiarity with such an illness, somehow you find yourself empathising and relating. All the quirks of what it means to be human, all the awkward interactions and thoughts that we may have – they are all here in this film and Hertzfeldt’s unique and simple animation brings it all to life wonderfully.

The 10 Best Horror Movies of 2020 (So Far)

Wed, 14 Oct 2020 15:18:01 GMT

It’s not the end of 2020 yet, but as any genre fan can attest, we’ve already seen a wealth of outstanding horror films this year. The following list of 10 titles rates and ranks what have so far been Taste of Cinema’s favorites, but it’s worth pointing out that the months ahead will unleash several anticipated fright films (Aneesh Chagnaty’s Run, Michael Chaves’s The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, Scott Cooper’s Antlers, Nia DaCosta’s Candyman, Rose Glass’s Saint Maud, and James Wan’s Malignant, amongst them) that are sure to be added to our year end horror roundup later on.

A few shoutouts also deserve going out to some excellent genre films that didn’t make this list but are still mentioned in the “Honorable Mention” section just below the following top 10, all of which are worth a watch for horror junkies.

And now, without further ado, here are the films, and be sure to join the conversation in the comments section below (be nice!). Enjoy.

10. The Invisible Man

Writer-director Leigh Whannel follows up 2018’s ultra-violent sci-fi sleeper Upgrade with a revisionist take on the H.G. Wells 1897 classic, “The Invisible Man”. Straight up, several aspects of this new iteration of the Invisible Man are flimsy and entirely predictable. The villain, who we both literally and figuratively see very little of isn’t that scary at all, and that’s gotta be why Elisabeth Moss is here; to overcompensate the plot’s many holes, and there are far too many convenient design flaws (and not just in the silly top secret invisible suit) before we even get to the ridiculously unstoppable evildoer trope, his neglected yet well-fed dog and eye-rolling/face-palming cheat in the third act.

But let’s face it, Whannel has a lot of ruthless fun as Cecilia (Moss) tries to convince the world at large that her abusive piece of human garbage ex (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) is after her beyond the grave because, you know, he staged his suicide so he can zip around in his invisible underoos.

Moss pulls you in, makes you care, makes you mad at the hand she’s been dealt, and definitely makes you marvel at many startling setpieces (or at least the one jailbreak scene that really is the movie’s topper) and, despite the smoke and mirrors, makes you curious if an Invisible Woman sequel might be in the cards because, hey, Cecilia deserves a better turn, and after two hours of this, so do we. But despite the snarkiness here, this damsel in distress detour is familiar fun, and for a mainstream movie, Whannel proves his mettle.

9. The Lodge

This American-British horror film from writers-directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala had genre fans pumping their fists in anticipation thanks to their previously well-played full-on psychological freakout from 2014, Goodnight Mommy. And if you’re a fan of deep dark terror of the slow-burning variety, The Lodge does not disappoint.

Catalyzed by grief and the ghost of suicide, this twisted tale focuses on two siblings, Aidan (Jaeden Martell) and Mia (Lia McHugh) who are still reeling from the loss of their mother when their father (Richard Armitage) too swiftly pulls them into a new relationship with his new bride-to-be, Grace (Riley Keough, excellent).

Brace yourself for an unsettling stay in the titular abode as Grace and her stepchildren have it out in the most macabre of ways as the biggest and baddest disturbances and reveals are saved for the brutal and bitter end.

8. The Mortuary Collection

Writer-director Ryan Spindell’s latest creation, The Mortuary Collection, is that too rare a genre treat: a horror anthology that is consistently creepy, creative and most importantly for this kind of movie, it’s also a shit ton of fun.

In fact, in all these sordid little tales, framed around a young woman, Sam (Caitlin Custer) being interviewed for a position at a local mortician’s office that evolves into a series of scary stories being shared with pep and panic, and there ain’t a stinker in the bunch. The tales, each displaying layered and lush production design, gruesome practical effects, and suitably ironic and ruthless narrative twists, are as memorable as they are macabre.

Bonus points for the scenery-chewin’ Clancy Brown, who easily gives the Cryptkeeper a run for his menacing monster-hosting money. For fright fans, The Mortuary Collection will easily stand shoulder-to-shoulder with similar omnibus terror tales like Creepshow (1982) and Trick ‘r Treat (2007), and like those genre mainstays, this one comes highly recommended.

7. Color Out of Space

If you want to see Nic Cage go full freak frenzy, Richard Stanley’s Color Out of Space delivers the goods. If you’re coming around the other side of things as an H.P. Lovecraft fan (and I must interject to say that his 1927 short story that inspired this film is the most terrifying thing he ever wrote) you won’t find this to be the most faithful of adaptations. But you will find that Stanley taps the weird fiction vein and cosmic terror nerve better than most who’ve approached Lovecraft’s work, and you probably won’t mind the liberties taken with the material.

Nathan (Cage) and Theresa Gardner (Joely Richardson) are a happily married couple in rural America with three kids and a farm where they raise alpacas and grow juicy tomatoes. Their ridiculously precious domestic bubble is about to burst most brutally when a glowing meteorite lands on their front lawn. Their bliss blooms to a kaleidoscopic nightmare in no time flat as space madness consumes the family in viciously personalized ways (even the alpacas aren’t spared the cosmic lash), and of course Cage goes Force 10 shitstorm.

It’s nice to see Stanley confidently calling action again after a lengthy absence (his output was famously stymied after the Island of Dr. Moreau fiasco in 1996, with his scant work since then being inconsistent and substandard), but given Cage’s Nic Cage-iness, one wonders if he took much direction at all. His reactions, or rather, his overreactions, never seem to match the matters at hand. But space mania will do that to you so here he gets a solid pass.

6. Zombi Child

Provocative French filmmaker Bertrand Bonello (Nocturama) resurrects the dead, or rather the undead, for this slow-burning but deeply rewarding exploration of colonialism, slavery, and voodoo mythology, with a little teen angst added for extra zip.

A much more literate horror film than most, Bonello, ever the iconoclast, here channels Jacques Tourner, weaving an intricate, naturalistic tale that also pays tribute to such diverse genre benchmarks as Victor Halperin’s White Zombie and Wes Craven’s The Serpent and the Rainbow.

Bouncing around from Haiti in 1962 to Paris in the present day, Zombi Child’s main thrust is with Melissa (Wislanda Louimat), a Haitian teenager at a prestigious all-girls boarding school who harbors a family secret that her new clique of friends are keen to unriddle.

Carefully combining an outsider perspective of awesome beauty and the corporeal existence of voodoo, Zombi Child not only permeates the present, but the past as well.

10 Great Monster Movies You May Have Never Seen

Wed, 14 Oct 2020 15:16:58 GMT

Monsters have haunted the nightmares of mankind for centuries, first through myths and folklore and later through literature and eventually film. In the early years of film, it already was a popular genre to explore. German expressionist films like The Golem and Nosferatu are some of the earliest examples of feature length monster movies. These German expressionist movies later inspired the classic Universal monster movies like Dracula and Frankenstein which spawned a countless number of sequels, but also inspired new monsters like The Mummy. After this era of Universal classics Japan took over the monster genre with their Kaiju (translates in ‘strange beast’) films; Gojira in particular.

Besides these two eras in monster movie history, probably the other most notable moments in its history are the spawn of the zombie and of course: The spawn of the blockbuster with Jaws. Since Spielberg’s masterpiece there have been countless of popular monster franchises that took over the world just like their monster antagonists.

This list will discuss a number of great monster movies that are often being left out of the discussion, but before we do that it’s important to define some restrictions of what is and what is not a monster. Monsters are often described as beings without a moral compass, so in this case you could call Halloween’s Michael Myers a monster, but for this list we’re not looking at the human monster, we’re looking at creature features here. We’ll restrict our monsters to the otherworldly, the mutated, the supernatural, the animalistic… We’re looking at the monsters similar to the ones from the German Expressionist period and the Universal classics. In these films it’s the collective humans against the monster(s)!

One last thing to mention, since there are so many options with these creatures; this list restricts itself to horror movies, while the monster genre does not. (Think A Monster Calls for example…) Now without further ado, here are 10 great monster movies no one talks about.

1. Dog Soldiers (2002)

In Dog Soldiers a British military squad is on a training mission in the Scotland Highlands. Despite hearing questionable stories about the area, they continue their mission until they find the remains of a Special Ops Squad that had been on a mission in the same era. Just as they hear the terrifying howls of their opponents for the first time, they meet a zoologist who is familiar with the creatures that now hunt them. Their training is over at this moment, since they must escape the Highlands whilst fighting for their lives.

Neil Marshall is probably most well-known for directing the terrific monster movie ‘The Descent’ and his arguably less terrific rendition of Hellboy. His directorial debut ‘Dog Soldiers’ however, is one that’s often disregarded. Quite a shame, because with a small budget Marshall managed to create one of the best werewolf films of the century. Despite having a small budget, the crew manages to find lots of practical solutions for making everything look as realistic as possible. Nowadays monsters often rely heavily on CGI, but Dog Soldiers proves there is another option by creating some terrifying-looking Werewolves.

2. Them! (1954)

The atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki of 1945 and the fear people had for its aftereffects spawned the first Godzilla movie in 1954. Similar the Nuclear testing in New Mexico and the fear it came with it spawned ‘Them!’ nine years later in 1954. In the US Them wasn’t the first response of the film industry though. The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, which was an atomic monster movie from a year earlier, inspired lots of them to come, including that first Godzilla movie. While Them isn’t the first atomic monster movie, it is regarded as the first big bug movie. It might be the film responsible for many giant spiders in film and with that many nightmares thanks to Arachnophobia.

Them itself isn’t about spiders though, so no worries: Ants can be scary as well. In the New Mexico desert, officer Peterson and his partner find a child wandering around in shock. When investigating they come across strange footprints and soon discover there are giant ants attacking the locals. Peterson teams up with FBI agent Graham and Doctor Medford to put an end to these attacks. They end up destroying a colony of ants of which Medford explains that the atomic testing of 1945 had caused mutating ants into these giant creatures. However, the victory is shortly celebrated when they discover two queen ants have flown away to LA, where they will start a new colony if they aren’t in time to stop them.

3. Brain Damage (1988)

Brian is your regular, average dude from New York. He has a healthy relationship with his girlfriend Barbara as well as a good connection with his brother Mike. His quiet life changes when a leech-like parasite called Elmer convinces him into a symbiotic relationship. Elmer latches onto Brian’s neck to inject a highly addictive fluid into his brains. In return for an occasional shot of this fluid, Brian must seek out victims for Elmer so he can feed off their brains. As his addiction grows, Brian ends up drifting away from his girlfriend and his brother, whom worry about his mental state.

With Brain Damage, Frankenhooker, and Basket Case, Frank Hennenlotter has established himself an exploitation master. His comedic approach to the horror genre makes his every film a refreshing watch. Brain Damage includes lots of these characteristic comedic moments. The relationship between Brian and Elmer causes lots of peculiar moments, which according to some interpretations of the thematic dive into metaphors for both heroin addiction and discovering ones sexual preference. Which interpretations are to be taken for granted is hard to say, but either way it’s a very entertaining watch!

4. Tumbbad (2018)

The Hindi-language film Tumbbad is the first list entry that dives into the mythological. Not your average creature feature, but nonetheless an entry with such an eerie atmosphere and such a terrifying monster that it couldn’t be left off!

The film begins with Vinayak Rao (Sohum Shah) telling his son the story about Hastar, the greedy son of Pandurang, goddess of prosperity. He explains Hastar was exiled and erased from all history by Pandurang after he stole her unlimited wealth and attempted to steal her unlimited food. Hastar was cursed to be forever hungry and now sleeps for eternity in his mother’s womb: Earth. As a kid Vinayak lived in Tumbbad, were his mother served a lord and his great grandmother (somewhat of a monster herself). From her, Vinayak learns the location of Hastar and his treasure of unlimited gold. Having grown up Vinayak occasionally visits Hastar to steal gold coins from this unlimited treasure.

With his directorial debut Rahi Anil Barve creates a very impressive world, unlike any other in Hindi cinema. The visual aspects from design of the monsters, to use of colors all work perfectly together to make this such a stunning piece to look at, while also creating the most haunting mood. Tumbbad is a very unique entry into the monster-horror genre and hopefully the start of a great new trend.

5. The Monolith Monsters (1957)

Another gem from the 50s! Definitely more of an oddball this time, maybe even the one that turns the most heads since its reception is mixed. We’ve also could have gotten with director John Sherwood’s other creature feature in ‘The Creature Walks Among Us’, but people do talk about ‘The Creature From the Black Lagoon’ so that was not an option. Also, since directors like John Carpenter and Edgar Wright approve of The Monolith Monsters, it sure has to mean something.

The movie starts off as a mysterious science-fiction film as an odd meteor crashes near San Angelo and shards of it are spread around the area. When a storm exposes the shards to water it becomes clear that this is not a normal rock. The little rocks grow bigger and bigger until they’re the size of skyscrapers (an impressive sight to behold) and until they topple and shatter into a thousand pieces which start growing themselves, repeating the process. Any poor person in the way is crushed or turned into a statue. The town of San Angelo has to safe not only themselves, but the world from what could be the end.

10 Great Movies That Change Genres Halfway Through

Tue, 13 Oct 2020 14:39:30 GMT

One of the great pleasures of watching a movie for the first time is being surprised by it. There are few movies, however, that can claim to be truly surprising, to take the viewer on a journey they couldn’t have anticipated when first arriving at the theater (or pressing play at home).

When it does happen, those surprises usually come from unexpected plot turns and twists, but an even rarer event is a genre shift halfway through, when the filmmakers rearrange our perceptions not only of the story, but of the very nature of the movie itself.

It’s a difficult trick to pull off, which is why it doesn’t happen very often. If a skilled director can pull it off, though, it makes for a unique and unforgettable experience, and this list has gathered some of the very best examples of that.

10. Sunshine (2007)

The catch-22 with a genre flip is that, if the filmmaker does their job well, the turn will be unexpected enough to surprise an audience – but that also means risking alienating the people who were enjoying a certain kind of film and suddenly find themselves watching something else entirely.

One of the most notorious examples of this dichotomy is “Sunshine,” Danny Boyle’s space-bound sci-fi that becomes basically a serial killer/slasher horror movie in its third act. To this day there’s still a debate around it: some believe the tonal twist is unearned and ruins the film, while others argue that the reveal is what makes it interesting and distinctive at all.

It’s understandable why “Sunshine” causes more controversy than other pictures that go for similar reversal of expectations: the genre shift here is not gradual but sudden, almost to the point of causing whiplash. That, however, is very purposeful on the part of Boyle and Alex Garland (who wrote the film) and so, whatever one might think of the end result, the filmmakers achieved exactly what they set out to do – and how many directors and writers can claim that?

9. Side Effects (2013)

Sold at the time as Steven Soderbergh’s last movie before his retirement, “Side Effects” may have proven to be just another film preceding a brief “break” (during which, Soderbergh being who he is, directed every episode of “The Knick”), but had it been his actual final cinematic statement, the filmmaker would’ve gone out with a bang worthy of his impressive career.

One of modern cinema’s greatest chameleons, Soderbergh, in his astounding productivity, has circled almost every single genre in the book, always with a thirst for experimentation, be it in editing (“The Limey”), cinematography (“The Good German,” “Kafka”) or both (the “Ocean’s” trilogy is an excellent example of a franchise with an evolving sense of style film to film). With this movie, the director, alongside his habitual screenwriter Scott Z. Burns, crafted one of his most ingenious storytelling tricks as the narrative slowly reveals its true nature, progressing from a drama about the toll of mental illness into a psychopathic thriller.

It’s a turn that, in the wrong hands, could’ve felt cheap, but Soderbergh’s methodical construction makes it one the cleverest and most entertaining genre experiments of the last decade.

8. The Guest (2014)

“The Guest,” Adam Wingard’s wonderfully stylish homage to ‘80s American genre cinema, juggles so many different styles that it’s difficult to point out exactly when the movie shifts definitively: is it when David, the mysterious protagonist, kills a man while buying a gun, suddenly turning the movie into a thriller? Or is it a few scenes later when his former government operatives track him down and the film morphs into an action extravaganza? Or is it even during the finale, basically a stalker horror movie, complete even with a Halloween haunted house setting?

The answer is all of the above, since “The Guest” has enough turns to be worth an entire catalog of ‘80s B-movie titles. The movie is not often thought of as an example of a genre switch due to the fact that Wingard, a competent stylist, weaves it all together through a cohesive tone and aesthetic – each new change in genre feels natural and in keeping with the overall atmosphere.

But if someone was to watch this without knowing anything about it, they would undoubtedly be surprised by seeing what initially seems like a “back from the war” kind of drama evolve into a bonkers genre offering.

7. Bone Tomahawk (2015)

Just another one of those western cannibal horror movies we’re always getting.

Director S. Craig Zahler is somewhat of a thorn on the side of many cinephiles, since he’s involved with a number of questionable and reactionary elements in the movie business, a worldview in which he seemingly partakes (despite claims to the contrary) and that comes through in his subsequent movies (even though the conservative posturing often seems more provocation than genuine belief). However, regardless of how much his thematic predilections bother critics, they cannot ignore his work or write him off as a hack, since Zahler is a genuinely gifted and unique filmmaker.

With “Bone Tomahawk,” his debut, he arrived with a fully formed style: the hyper-masculine tone; the patient, deliberate pacing; the pulpy but literary quality of his writing; the absurdly brutal and visceral bursts of violence; all of which that have now become his auteurist trademarks were already in full fledged effect in this western turned horror. Since it’s Zahler, of course this turn is as slow burn as it gets, but when it comes it’s genuinely shocking to see the film shift from an excellent but pretty traditional western to an extremely gory and graphic horror movie about cannibals. What’s more impressive, however, is how competent the movie is at both its halves, melancholic and horrifying in equal measure.

6. One Cut of the Dead (2019)

One of the best reviewed movies of 2019, even making it into several “Best of the Year” lists, “One Cut of the Dead” is still very underseen, an unforgivable crime considering this is one of the funniest, most original, clever and ultimately heartwarming odes to the challenges and joys of filmmaking in a long, long time.

But none would guess that from the movie’s first half, which plays like the crummiest, lowest budgeted zombie movie ever made; the crudeness of it all is so in-your-face that even some fans of the film admit getting through this initial part can be an arduous task. Eventually, it becomes clear it was all purposeful, of course – the second half shows the story of how that movie was made, from the pre-production to the hilariously complicated shoot. In retrospect, the apparent amateurishness of the beginning can be appreciated as an ingeniously crafted part of the movie within a movie conceit; both plausible within the context of the story and also entertaining by itself in its own twisted way – once you know the con the movie is playing on you.

The 15 Best Movies of VIFF 2020

Tue, 13 Oct 2020 05:04:19 GMT

Now that the sun has set on the sensational 39th annual Vancouver International Film Festival (which ran from September 24th – October 7th, 2020), Taste of Cinema offers up our favorites from what was another exciting, and very impressive festival and being charged with the task of picking our 15 favorites was no easy affair.

The films on this list show a wide-ranging assortment including auteur-driven films, populist fare, arthouse, genre films, and some truly stunning documentaries as well.

And now the festival roundup and until next year VIFF, we’ll catch you in the queue!

15. Another Round

It’s great to see Thomas Vinterberg and Mads Mikkelsen in cahoots once again and they should definitely be doing so more often. And while Another Round doesn’t quite deliver the provocation of their last collaboration The Hunt (2012), this one still holds several bright, dazzling, and drunkenly funny moments.

Also nice to see is Vinterberg regular Thomas Bo Larsen as gym teacher Tommy, and for my money it was his character’s aging and arthritic doggo named Laban that warmed my cockles the most.

A fiercely funny and perilously sad picture, Another Round surprisingly doesn’t say or stammer anything that’s new, even though the slyly genius premise of a group of teachers challenging each other to stay half in the bag for an extended stretch to solve their life’s woes should be more revelatory then it is. And coming from Vinterberg, one who is so regularly associated with making provocations, I found that to be the film’s most sobering conceit. Still recommending this one rather enthusiastically but it could have been a far sight better.

14. Caught in the Net

This flawlessly executed and bravely realized documentary examining the revolting world of online sexual abuse is simultaneously engrossing and execrable.

13. Siberia

The prolific and provocative filmmaker Abel Ferrara (Bad Lieutenant) cnce again reteams with his current mainstay and ready muse Willem Dafoe in Siberia, a surreal digression that feels like a subarctic delineation of James Joyce’s “Finnegans Wake” and is also perhaps just as polarizing.

As Ferrara’s allegorical and byzantine-like film unfolds, it becomes the kind of deep dive where it’s very easy to lose track of all the narrative threads and that may well be part of it’s elaborate duplicity. Dafoe’s many doppelgängers, brushes with sorcerers, lactating women and naked dwarves all depose such fascinations.

Is it pretentious? Absolutely. Is that a problem? For some, maybe, but not for this writer. Admittedly I could seldom make sense of what was happening on screen much of the time, but I didn’t let that dampen the enjoyment I felt splashing around in these strangely surreal waters with the consistently wonderful Dafoe and the odd assortment of dreamlike no-goodniks, alluring sirens and dangerous visions that suck him and us into the sly abyss. It’s a dark deathtrip and some kind of vivid and sequential coup d’etat.

12. Into the Storm

Beautifully shot and truly touching, this Peruvian surfing documentary from Adam Brown was filmed over 5 years and coincidentally it made me ugly cry about 5 times.

11. Last and First Men

Perhaps best known for his incredibly moving minimalist score for Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival (2016), amongst others, Icelandic composer and filmmaker Jóhan Jóhannsson’s Last and First Men, released posthumously, makes for one haunting, honey of a post-apocalyptic parting gift.

Beautiful black-and-white imagery, filmed in stunning 16mm by cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grøvlen (Victoria), combined with fittingly chilly narration from Tilda Swinton, evoke the final gasps of a lost utopia in an entirely immersive and cerebral essay film. It’s a somber yet intricate sci-fi spectacle that lands somewhere between Chris Marker’s La Jetée (1962) and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) — in fact, Arthur C. Clarke read Stapleton’s novel at a very impressionable age, inspiring not only his short story “The Sentinel” but the monoliths therein that would become the most iconic imagery in Kubrick’s adaptation and overall oeuvre.

This is a dreamy and dazzling final statement on ephemerality and extinction from a remarkable polymath artist we were only just getting to know. Highly recommended.

10. Beans

Director Tracey Deer, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Meredith Vuchnich, presents a poignant, powerful, and very Canadian tale of recent history in Bean. What could have been, in lesser hands, a preachy history lesson is instead a deeply felt and firsthand tale set during the 78-day Oka crisis from 1990.

Deer delivers more than a moving, maddening and personal story, but one rife with evocation and feeling while also showcasing the incredible talents of its young star, Kiawentiio as Tekehentahkhwa, a young Mohawk girl coming-of-age amidst agonizing social oppression and upheaval.

Perhaps the most important Canadian film of the last 10 years or so, Beans is a beautiful and distressing portrait of racism, injustice and family.

9. Twilight’s Kiss

Proving again and again throughout Twilight’s Kiss to be a melacholic poet of the highest order, writer-director Ray Yeung (Front Cover) presents a stirring queer romance between two seniors; a taxi driver named Pak (Tai Bo) and recently divorced Hoi (Ben Yuen). An aching tale of acceptance and experience, this is a fascinating film flush with delicate observational beauty and charm. Recommended.

10 Movie Masterpieces For An Introduction To Slow Cinema

Sat, 10 Oct 2020 13:13:28 GMT

Let’s face it – slow cinema can be a tough genre to introduce ourselves to, and even harder if you don’t know where to start. Diving in the deep end can be rather painful – definitely don’t start with the likes of Melancholia (Diaz, 2008) or Satantango (Tarr, 1994) unless you’ve prepared yourself for a slow, albeit riveting, day.

In the name of playing a part in continuing to popularise the genre that seemed to really explode throughout the 2010s with the newfound worldwide recognition for the likes of Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Lav Diaz, as well as those who had been working on slow cinema for decades already (look to James Benning or the absolutely beautiful short films of Peter B. Hutton), here is a list of ten films that aren’t too demanding to ease you in to the genre a little more gracefully. It has been placed into an order based on how easy of a watch it is, but of course that also largely comes down to personal preference. No further ado – here goes:

1. Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt, 2013)

Kelly Reichardt has spent almost her entire career working within the parameters of slow cinema, so any one of her films could have logically gone here. Old Joy isn’t difficult to get into as it is only 75 minutes in length, Wendy and Lucy is hypnotic thanks to the excellent central performance from Michelle Williams, etc. but Night Moves is a little different as it is a slow cinema thriller, something found quite rarely as the style tends to be at odds with the genre. Not in this case, though, as Reichardt manages to bring everything to life in a frightening way, dwelling on the set up before making the main event of the film really quite short.

Reichardt takes advantage of her slow cinema knowledge in Night Moves to make it truly uncomfortable in its realism, those long takes becoming eerie as the audience becomes antsy waiting for the next thrill to give them a sure kick. Jesse Eisenberg gives one of his best performances, and is supported by a brilliant cast in general, but the shining star in this case is Reichardt’s handling of the screenplay and the cinematography (the cinematographer for the film was Christopher Blauvelt, known for work with Reichardt, Van Sant, Sofia Coppola, etc.) that manages to be both voyeuristic/observational and intensely discomforting. The editing is excellently sharp, too, leaving each shot to hang for just long enough to the point that you wonder if something may happen, only for it to cut almost every single time.

2. Gerry (Gus Van Sant, 2002)

The most generally recognised of the slow cinema style albums that Van Sant did was certainly his version of Elephant that became controversial in 2003 due to its portrayal of the climactic event that won’t be spoiled as well as its unique style, however, Gerry may be the better film to watch for those daring to dip their toes into the engulfing sea that is slow cinema as a style or genre. Starring Matt Damon and Casey Affleck both as the titular Gerrys, who find themselves lost in a desert after straying from the pathway they were supposed to follow in the name of adventure.

Van Sant’s distant and quietly observational camera watches helplessly as the two try desperately to figure out how to get back to their car or the pathway, climbing mountains for vantage points only to find that all of their energy is being wasted. The level of helplessness very quickly becomes overwhelming, and Van Sant’s approach to this thrilling issue being as laid back as it is in terms of form makes for a contrast that makes the film so much more interesting than if any other style had been used. The consistent use of huge, never-ending static shots of empty deserts is simultaneously stunningly beautiful and absolutely petrifying, and the two charismatic leading performances help to ease the audience in to the slow and unique style.

3. Beau Travail (Claire Denis, 1999)

Claire Denis only recently became far more popular thanks to the release of her first English language film through A24’s High Life in 2018, however her career has been full of incredible work since she started in the 1980s. Beau Travail stands out slightly above the rest, though, and focuses on Denis Lavant (maybe most known for starring in Carax’s Holy Motors – also a phenomenal film!) as Galoup, recalling his time as a military officer until the arrival of a new recruit called Sentain starts to disturb his otherwise very scheduled and maintained life.

With a focus on bodies and movement that is as gorgeous as either have ever been, Beau Travail is one of the most visually striking and memorable films ever made, one that using its beautiful landscapes and characters to juxtapose the harsher emotional realities that Galoup is becoming adjusted to in the present. With one of the greatest final scenes ever put to film, the film ties itself together in a way that few others can, and is surely one of the best films ever made. An absolute must watch.

4. L’Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960)

Antonioni may not be the most known for slow cinema, but he definitely toyed with the pacing of his films enough to warrant some looking into on the topic. L’Avventura is one of his most interesting films, too, marking a certain shift within his focuses from neo-realism over to the more poetic style that he would follow up until Blow-Up some years later. Although Red Desert is arguably a better film, there’s no denying the distinct power that L’Avventura has – an eerie mystery that leaves the viewer hanging in purgatory for what feels like forever.

It’s a phenomenal film, one with a fantastic score and even better cinematography (maybe some of the best of all time!) helped even further by Antonioni’s assured direction and the performances (especially that of Monica Vitti!), and one that deserves a lot of credit for inspiring many of the traits that slow cinema would come to embody further down the timeline of cinema.

5. La Cienaga (Lucrecia Martel, 2001)

Much like Claire Denis, Lucrecia Martel recently became more well known for her film Zama, released in 2017, but her earlier work is stunning in its own right. La Cienaga may still be her finest film, a slow moving dark comedy that follows a group of people on holiday and tears apart class relations within Argentina (something Martel would focus on again in her next film, The Headless Woman, which is also fantastic) whilst making it all look ridiculously easy.

It feels much like a perfectly balanced and measured out film for practically the entire runtime, a film that glides along as opposed to being pulled, one that is so rhythmic with its cutting that it feels… alive, almost. Martel is a masterful filmmaker, and it seems that she invested in slow cinema as a movement just before it took off, giving the directors who would soon enter a piece of work to draw from for their own inspiration. It’s near perfect!

The 10 Best Chow Yun Fat Movies

Sat, 10 Oct 2020 13:12:49 GMT

Chow Yun Fat is the coolest action star of all time because he’s the sweetest. Or maybe it’s because he’s the sweetest he’s the coolest.

On May 18, 1955, Chow Yun Fat was born on Lamma Island, Hong Kong. His mother was a cleaner and vegetable farmer, his father an oil tanker. Living in a small community without electricity, he spent his days as a diligent farmer and street vendor with his mother. After dropping out of high school to work odd jobs as a bellboy, taxi driver, postman and camera salesman, his life changed after responding to a newspaper advertisement for TVB, the Hong Kong Television Station, for an actor training program of three years. Fresh out of graduation, he secured roles in television soap operas like “Conflict” and “The Bund,” becoming a national heart throb. His first feature film roles had him dubbed box office poison, but after his role as the gangster Mark in John Woo’s “A Better Tomorrow,” Fat became an international action superstar, and has been ever since.

Most popular for his roles in the heroic bloodshed genre (characterized by violent, stylized action, gunplay and melodramatic themes of brotherhood, friendship, loyalty and redemption), especially his collaborations with director John Woo, Chow Yun Fat shone as Woo’s honorable alter ego in musical inspired action scenes, because with his confident swagger Fat offered an emotional vulnerability that touched the hearts of many. When scenes found his characters crying he improvised incidents from his life into dialogue, injecting his true self into the role much to Woo’s delight.

Besides being an actor, Chow Yun Fat also specializes in being a great guy! He’s so down to earth he takes public transportation, frequents local food vendors, wears discount clothing, hikes and jogs in the park, goes on movie dates with his wife, does charity, cleans up HK streets, takes selfies with any fans he bumps into, and lives simply with his wife Jasmine Tan on only 100 dollars a month. After his death his million dollar fortune will be donated entirely to charity. Affectionately dubbed Brother Gor, Chow Yun Fat is Hong Kong’s favorite person! Here are 10 essential Brother Gor classics.

10. All About Ah-Long (1989)

“All About Ah-Long” starts off with a cute sequence of our leading man Ah-Long (Chow Yun Fat) rushing his farty little son to school as he heads off to work. An opening so adorable the audience is fooled into thinking this movie’s going to be a nice, feel good romp- but beware! What follows is something much darker; a harrowing melodrama in what could be described as “Kramer vs. Kramer” meets “The Wild Angels.”

Directed by Johnnie To, “All About Ah-Long’s” melodrama brutally assaults the emotion. When we meet Ah-Long’s ex girlfriend, Sylvia Poon, we delve into Ah-Long’s scumbag past as an unfaithful, abusive boyfriend, who was left with a clean slate when raising their child Porky. Sylvia’s become a successful head of a casting organization, offering her son a better life rife with opportunity. Ah-Long’s poor life has little to offer in material goods, but lots in heart, while Sylvia’s capitalist Hong Kong feels artificial and exhausting to Porky, a boy of the streets. To cope, Ah-Long sets his sights on an old hobby: motorcycling, the only saving grace to his crippling inadequacy. You’ll be unsure what to feel at the end of this dramatic commentary on class in HK and East versus West.

9. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

A coming of age story about kung-fu prodigy Yu Jiaolong (Zhang Ziyi), we watch as she steals a legendary sword originally wielded by famed swordsman Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun Fat). When she’s cornered by the equally famed Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh), enemies from the past surface, kicking this sprawling wuxia epic into motion. But there’s a problem: Li Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien are falling out of love with kung fu, falling in love with each other. These two heroes just want to settle down for a peaceful life of love.

“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” doesn’t have Chow Yun Fat as the lead, but he still gives a smashing performance. The audience soars, witnessing breathtaking fight scenes clashing with the elegant will they won’t they dynamic between Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh. Catch Chow Yun Fat dancing in the trees.

8. The Story of Woo Viet (1981)

Vietnamese refugee Woo Viet flees Saigon, traveling through Thailand and Hong Kong, where he meets and a newfound lover (Cora Miao). When circumstances force the couple into a Thai refugee camp, many fellow refugees begin vanishing.

One of Chow Yun Fat’s first major onscreen performances, “The Story of Woo Viet” was later marketed as “God of Killers” in the West to draw in the action crowd, but this Ann Hui masterpiece is the polar opposite. Juxtaposing the tragic stories of Vietnam refugees with themes of Hong Kong’s political uncertainty, this brutal character study and political drama leaves an empty feeling when finished.

7. Love in a Fallen City (1984)

Adapted by Eileen Chang from her classic Chinese novel, “Love in a Fallen City” is Ann Hui’s romantic blockbuster set in Hong Kong on the eve of Japanese invasion. Fan Liu Yuan (Chow Yun Fat) is a rich playboy pining after Pai Liu So (Cora Miao), a divorcee. The two are opposites: Fan Liu Yuan is a life of the party businessman and a lover of western fashion. Pai Liu So is an introvert in love with Chinese Opera.

“Love in a Fallen City’s” touching performances and masterful direction work harmoniously, crafting one of the finest love stories of the Hong Kong New Wave.

6. Hard Boiled (1992)

After losing his partner in a brutal tea house shootout, police inspector and saxophone hobbyist “Tequila” Yuen (Chow Yun Fat) teams up with origami enthusiast and undercover cop Alan (Tony Leung) to bring an end to the psychopathic triad leader Johnny’s (Anthony Wong) reign.

Since most of John Woo’s popular films prior glamorized gangster life into exhilarating romances (perhaps unintentionally spiking triad membership in the 80s) he made it up by glorifying police life. “Hard Boiled” is Hong Kong’s enormous action extravaganza, where John Woo and his crew get to go absolutely crazy. It’s not only one of the greatest Hong Kong, Chow Yun Fat, or heroic bloodshed films of all time, it’s one of the greatest action spectacle films to ever exist. Stuntmen perform exhilarating motorcycle fights in an all time cinematic high! The sequence where Chow Yun Fat wields two pistols while sliding down a flight of stairs is legendary, and the movie’s biggest action set piece of an exploding hospital nearly incinerated Fat to death. After cursing John Woo out, he quickly asked, “Did it look okay?”

Chow Yun Fat is excellent as a tough, lovable, baby saving cop, and young Tony Leung is perfect as an undercover suffering from a violent identity crisis. Both Fat and Leung play off each other in humorous and intimate moments, sharing the pain of the police life. Leung’s traumatized by playing a character 24/7, having to kill cops and gangsters, unsure which is which. Tequila and Alan live like cops, but will they die like men? To sort out their personal problems, the hard boiled justice serving pair hit the pub and ask advice from the bartender: John Woo.

Besides our main leads, Anthony Wong’s maniacal insanity as Johnny holds a remarkable screen presence as a trigger happy animal. He plays the best dirtbag in the heroic bloodshed genre, a spoiled brat with unlimited access to a military the size of a small nation. But “Mad Dog” (Phillip Kwok), a member of Johnny’s gang, serves as “Hard Boiled’s” most intimidating baddie as a one eyed, motorcycle riding, machine gun extraordinaire, dressed in fire and shadow- a character resulting from on set improvisation, creating for Tequila a formidable foe.

The 12 Best David Lynch Short Films

Sat, 10 Oct 2020 02:57:33 GMT

“Ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you’ve got to go deeper. Down deep, the fish are more powerful and more pure.They’re huge and abstract. And they’re very beautiful.” – David Lynch

Red curtains. Telephone calls. Electrical hums. As a cinephile, you know the drill. He’s the great pop surrealist director of the postmodern age, but many forget that he’s not just a filmmaker. David Lynch is a multimedia artist whose projects are as elusive and spellbinding as his feature films, his artworks ranging from the ambiguously beautiful to the ridiculously pretentious.

Whatever side of his spectrum you find yourself on, one thing is certain: his projects will always be highly entertaining, and most important of all, Lynchian. Which is why once you get started on the Lynch pill, the addiction’s impossible to stop- there’s so much Lynch to swim in. With the new YouTube channel, “DAVID LYNCH THEATER” releasing his short films and experiments every week, let’s recommend to you the best of what’s perceived as his side-projects. So if you’re ever in a pinch and can only take a cinch, treat yourself to an inch of Lynch!

Here are the best Lynch shorts that are worth your time. If you’re a hard-core Lynch fan you might’ve seen these already. But if not, it doesn’t hurt to dive deeper into this dreamy director’s big, purple ocean to catch his smaller fish.

1. Lady Blue Shanghai (2010)

A gorgeous woman (Marion Cotillard) enters her hotel room. Someone’s been inside- the stereo’s turned on, and when she stops the music, a Dior bag shines a smokey ray of light as it pops into existence. Something is wrong. We watch as she reminisces of a dreamy Shanghai lover she romanced once upon a time.

“Lady Blue Shanghai” is a wonderful Lynch tidbit. This Dior advertisement comes off as a captivating concoction of “Inland Empire,” “Twin Peaks: The Return” and the “DIORMAG.” Stylish, hip, but also classy and old fashioned. The nightmarish surrealist flashes of Lynch’s most famous works are missing here, but that’s not a bad thing- the cold film noir and the swooning melodrama is amped up to a beautiful max.

“Lady Blue Shanghai” has the flourishes of a student film and the brushstrokes of a master artist. The Shanghai scenery is wondrous to behold, especially through Lynch’s blurred, hyper shaky camera, giving the city a mysterious, expressionist feel. The Dior bag is a surrealist artifact from the “Convenience Store’s” lower dimensions, animated in the style we would see more of in “Twin Peaks: The Return.” And did I mention there’s a blue rose?

2. The Grandmother (1970)

Out of seeds in the ground grows a man and woman. Barking like animals, they sniff each other’s butts, and poof, out of the earth pops a boy, their son. The boy tries as hard as he can, but sadly, when night falls, he keeps on wetting the bed, leaving a bright, yellow stain to show for it. Furious, his father beats his son up, rubbing the boy’s face in the stinky urine. With his parents mean and abusive all the time, the sad son grows a grandmother in his room, and she gives him the love he needs.

This is technically Lynch’s first “movie” movie, or at least a work that’s close to feature length. Bushnell Keeler, Lynch’s painting mentor, suggested Lynch submit his previous short film, “The Alphabet” to the American Film Institute, and the AFI liked it so much they gave Lynch a grant to make more stuff. An essential stepping stone to “Eraserhead,” “The Grandmother” is Lynch leveling up to his final form. Here the strange, Lynchian sound design bursts to life, as this was his first collaboration with a young man who would become legendary sound design master Alan Splet. Splet and Lynch spent 63 days crafting sounds for the film, and these odd droning shrieks populating this grainy, granny centric piece creates most of its horror.

“The Grandmother” is David Lynch’s marriage of painting and film. And besides “Eraserhead” and the first third of “Lost Highway,” “The Grandmother” might be his scariest.

3. The Alphabet (1968)

“The Alphabet,” a haunting mix of animation and live action, tracks a nightmarish girl who has alphabet dreams of an abstract creature made of shapes and letters. One of Lynch’s earliest shorts, it plays out like a melting pot of Francis Bacon and films of the surrealist movement.

4. Dumbland (2002)

Frank Booth meets Homer Simpson. While technically not a short but an animated series, “Dumbland” only clocks in at 33 minutes, so it’s still going on this list.

A series crudely drawn, animated, and voice acted by David Lynch, and set in a “Blue Velvet” suburbia, “Dumbland” follows a fat meatball of white trash, Randy, as he abuses his cute son, traumatized wife, and everything else around him. These eight episodes are, sadly, a pretty accurate representation of American culture. But don’t get too down in the dumps about that though, “Dumbland” is hilarious- it’s funny ‘cause it’s true. It revels in its absolute nihilism- the scenes of Randy beating up his family and surroundings are so over the top, it’s hysterical. This is David Lynch’s most lowbrow outing, full of potty jokes, crude animation, and silly voice acting. A masterpiece! Watch out for Randy farting all over his next door neighbor, the one-armed duck fricker!

5. Hotel Room: Blackout (1993)

“Hotel Room” is an anthology series showing the ongoings of a hotel, its unaging staff, and its visitors lodging in room 603. Many of the “Twin Peaks” behind the scenes crew would also work on this one, but it wasn’t a big hit, so only three episodes were produced. The first two were alright, but the third shines the brightest. There isn’t much surrealism in this one- it’s rambly and dialogue driven, feeling like an old fashioned stage play.

Written by Barry Gifford (“Wild at Heart” and “Lost Highway” writer), “Hotel Room’s” final episode “Blackout” is set in 1936 and tells the story of a cute, Midwestern couple staying at the hotel during a New York City blackout. As their conversation unravels, the husband, Danny (played wonderfully by Crispin Glover) becomes more worrisome about his wife, Diane (played terrifically by Alicia Witt) who is suffering from an unknown illness brought about by trauma. The focus on the strong performances and the couple’s relationship defines “Blackout,” creating some moments of great suspense, unease, and beauty, finally showing out with an ending as sweet as apple pie.

The show’s opening narration (narrated by David Lynch) is the coolest thing ever: “For a millennium, the space for the hotel room existed, undefined. Mankind captured it, and gave it shape and passed through. And sometimes when passing through, they found themselves brushing up against the secret names of truth.”

6. Premonitions Following An Evil Deed (1995)

Policemen discover a dead body laying in a field, a woman waits in her home, and eerie men with blurry, bulbous heads operate a factory buzzing with electricity as a girl is trapped in a water tank. The camera flutters, opening and closing.

“Premonitions Following an Evil Deed” is a one minute short made as a tribute to the 100th year anniversary of the Lumiere camera in a challenge 40 directors participated in. The film had to mimic the early filming conditions of cinema, so the shorts had to follow three rules: a single sequence, 52 second shot; no synced up sound, and having a total of only three takes. “Premonitions’” sets were right next to each other, so the effect of a camera shutter opening and closing creates the illusion of separate, disjointed shots, while in reality “Premonitions” was shot all in one take.

When the other Lumiere tributes chose to pay nostalgic homage to early cinema’s infant films, Lynch executed a distinct vision with one foot in the past and the other in the present.

“Is It FuTuRe… oR iS It PaSt?” Sorry, I couldn’t resist- that was a reference I had to make.

10 Great Movies About The Loss of Innocence

Sat, 10 Oct 2020 02:57:10 GMT

The innocents, by not conceiving evil, have the capacity to marvel at the world as a mirror of the purity of their spirit. They have no judgments or pre-established concepts so they experience life through their instincts. This is why innocence is often related to childhood.

But once the evils of society are known in a rational and conscious way, innocents will have to involuntarily abandon their state of grace to face the misfortune of a corrupted world.

1. Pretty Baby (1978, Louis Malle)

A girl who must abruptly lose her childhood as she grows up among adults is a recurring theme in Louis Malle’s films.

Violet (Brooke Shields) is born and raised in a brothel in New Orleans having no idea about the outside world. She can’t read or write; she only has to moan when she loses her virginity. Violet is waiting for that day, to become a prostitute like her mother and the others.

It will be a mysterious and demure photographer who will show Violet that men don’t just think about sex and will be the only one who treats her as the child she is. But since the world is sordidly evil, he hides in his obsession with photography, a repressed sexual desire.

It’s interesting how Malle never feeds any obvious moral judgment by letting us contemplate the perversion without fuss. As the plot is seen from Violet’s point of view and she accepts this decadent world without suffering, it becomes a tragicomedy where pedophilia is treated in a light way.

The film is a cross between two real life stories; Violet’s plot was inspired by Al Rose’s “Storyville, New Orleans,” and the photographer’s was based on E.J. Bellocq’s life.

2. Midori, The Camellia Girl (1992, Hiroshi Harada)

This controversial animation is the only adaptation of a manga written by Suehiro Maruo because nobody has dared to deal with his grotesque nightmares: tongues tasting eyes, crooked bodies, and insects devouring the entrails.

Midori is a young girl who, after being left alone in the world and plunged into poverty, finds her salvation in a stranger. He will invite her to join a travelling circus of freaks where she will lose not only her innocence but also the right to be treated humanely.

Midori’s terrible life, due to its strong amoral content, has been relegated to a minority audience becoming a jewel of the underground cinema. After finding no production company interested in financing this brutal plot, the director devoted himself to drawing frame by frame for five years. Finally the film was censored by the authorities with six minutes of footage that has never been broadcast.

The animation has an amateur style where the fluidity of the movements is scarce. But this technical poverty becomes its charm as it helps to make the atmosphere even gloomier. The surrealist and baroque scenarios make it a visual delight.

In the style of Sade and Ero-guro, “Midori” is a descent into hell full of deformity, contortion, hallucinations, mistreatment and rape.

3. Ms. 45, Angel of Vengeance (1981, Abel Ferrara)

After suffering two rapes, Thana, a mute girl, will take a 45-caliber gun and learn to speak through the shots, killing any man she intercepts. It doesn’t matter whether or not they deserve to be killed because Thana’s revenge is not intended to bring justice; it’s just a consequence of the mental breakdown caused by the trauma.

Zoe Tamerlis’ performance of a mute woman is impeccable. From her gaze she manages to embody the metamorphosis of a character that goes from being innocent and angelic to a cold and implacable femme fatale.

Joe Delia’s dazzling soundtrack compensates for the mute heroine with a saxophone that screams and a post-punk style that adheres very well to the aesthetics of New York in the ‘80s.

Ferrara’s revenge thriller makes visible the misogynist horrors of the time, and today more than ever do they make sense to us.

4. Mondo (1995, Tony Gatlif)

Tony Gatlif has always been interested in outsiders and this case isn’t the exception.

Mondo is a child who comes from another place and wanders through the streets of Nice looking for someone to adopt him. His life is quite pleasant because of the splendor of nature and the kindness of people. Mondo manages to feed on pomegranates he takes from the trees and finds his bed on the beach. Despite being alone, he will find company in a fisherman, an old woman, and a beggar who will teach him about life.

After an unexpected event, Mondo will disappear and with him, love and hope. The bread will be burnt and the seas polluted because Mondo wasn’t just a child; he was the stray dogs, the nameless boats, the oranges brought by the sea, the hot bread, the beggars, and the songs from the balcony. Mondo was the innocence.

Adapted from Jean-Marie Le Clezio’s book and with a cast found in the street, the film is very organic but offers the most surreal scenarios capable of thrilling anyone.

5. Mouchette (1967, Robert Bresson)

Mouchette is a girl who lives in an oppressive rural environment, where her home is as overwhelming as the entire village. She is the weirdo and everyone deposits their hatred on her. But Mouchette is never conceived as a martyr because she reacts with savagery. Every time Mouchette feels rejected, she throws handfuls of mud or sings off-key in the school choir to ruin the neatness of a world that seems to be okay but she knows is corrupted by the dynamics of power.

When she finds acceptance in Arsene, the hunter, we will finally understand that Mouchette, as the partridge and the hare, has fallen into the trap by becoming the predator’s prey.

Bresson’s reality is deeply enigmatic and each image contains a mystery. He only gives us clues to achieve a general understanding of the film, but those clues are so imprecise that can be read in many ways.

This film is like when we experience an immediate situation in our life: there is no understanding of it until a moment later, when we can reflect and this will be when the film is over.

10 Film Masterpieces That Need To Be Rediscovered

Mon, 05 Oct 2020 14:36:12 GMT

The non-American and, especially, non-Hollywood cinema, is neglected on a global scale by film goers who are used to seeing the same old tropes recycled to absurdity. Almost every year since the dawn of cinema, a handful of great flicks came out around the world that no one paid attention to that much. Some enjoyed their five minutes of fame and fortune in the Western film circles, but were swiftly discarded afterwards, and some didn’t even make it that far.

Here is a list of a few chiefly world cinema features, of European, Asian and African cinema, that can rightfully be dubbed masterpieces:

10. Red Sorghum (1988) – dir. Yimou Zhang

Yimou Zhang is one of the most acclaimed Chinese filmmakers of the Fifth Generation. This great film, based on a Mo Yan novel of almost the same name, marked his debut on the silver screen in the role of the director. He previously dabbled in cinema as a cinematographer in multiple lesser-known motion pictures. Despite his relative inexperience in the role he took, Red Sorghum proved to be a great success, garnering quite a bit of attention worldwide, besides the more or less expected success of the picture in the homeland.

Told from the perspective of the protagonist’s grandchild, something that would become a trademark of sort for Zhang in the future, the film encites a mood in the viewer that no other movie to date has managed to replicate, in a style that resembles a fever dream more than anything else.

9. Monsieur Ibrahim (2003) – dir. Francois Dupeyron

In what proved to be one of the greatest farewell roles of all time, Omar Sharif took the role of Ibrahim Deneji, a grocery store owner of Turkish origin. While it wasn’t his last acting gig of all time, it is most likely the last noteworthy one. His co star, a young Jewish boy by the name of Moses Schmit, was played Pierre Boulanger and while the young man’s performance doesn’t quite match up to the Egyptian master, it was still quite a satisfying experience.

What one might rightfully fear before seeing this motion picture is that it might be too focused on the minority characters that occupy most of the film, giving space only to the ethnic parts of their personalities and neglecting everything else which is oftentimes the case when an unexperienced, non-minority director tries to make a picture about the lives of the down trodden.

That is not the case here. While the religious and ethnic identities of Monsieur Ibrahim and Momo are prominently featured throughout the film, there’s just enough space in there for pure, unfiltered love and compassion, as well as struggles that anyone, regardless of origin, can relate to.

8. Betty Blue (1986) – dir. Jean-Jacques Beineix

This film proved to be the most noteworthy aspect in the careers of pretty much everyone who took part in it, from Beatrice Dalle and Jean Hugues Anglade who played the leading roles, to Jean Jacques Beineix who directed and wrote the feature, and yet it still isn’t as acclaimed as it should be.

The titular character is a strange, yet surprisingly charming woman that embarks in a relationship with an older man named Zorg, who happens to be a writer. She holds his writing in very high regard, but her erratic behavior becomes more and more of a problem for him as the affair moves on.

Betty’s problematic decisions lead to an unexpected climax and a semi-happy ending, considering the circumstances and the personalities of the protagonists.

7. Xala (1975) – dir. Ousmane Sembene

African cinema is so unknown to the casual film goer of Europe and North America that most couldn’t name a single African motion picture even if their life depended on it. A few will recall the 1980s South African hit called The Gods Must Be Crazy, and a few of the better informed ones might mention a few Egyptian flicks here and there. But generally, almost any great film made on this continent can rightfully be considered a hidden gem.

Directed and written by Ousmane Sembene, a Senegalese master who is often called the father of African film, Xala pokes fun at the corrupt politicians of his country, through a story of a crooked public official who is struggling with erectile dysfunction, without an apparent cause or an explanation.

It was widely praised, in the continent and abroad, during its release, and even made it to a few lists of the greatest African films, as well as the greatest world cinema achievements, but it also faced some criticism, for portraying its characters in an allegedly stereotypic fashion, without depth or development.

6. The Spirit of the Beehive (1973) – dir. Victor Erice

Victor Erice only ever made two feature length films, both of which he also wrote. The Spirit of the Beehive was his first one and, according to most, the best one. Set at the beginning of the 1940s, the final stage of the bloody Spanish Civil War that resulted in Franco’s fascists gaining power, the film focuses on themes of child trauma, compassion, as well as the effects cinema can leave on the young mind. With its childhood protagonists and the civil war set up, it proved to be a major (and obvious) influence on some of the most famous works of the Mexican great Guillermo Del Toro, such as El espinazo del diablo and El laberinto del fauno.

The fact that this great picture managed to pass the censors in Francoist Spain is mind-boggling, considering its heavy and easily visible crticism of the then still ruling regime, but we are so glad that it did. What a shame it would be for a film of this caliber to get lost to authoritarian censorship.

10 Great Hong Kong Action Movies You May Have Never Seen

Mon, 05 Oct 2020 14:35:28 GMT

Action movies have long been the dominating genre of mainstream, populist filmmaking and the driving force of the box office. In spite of (or perhaps because of) that, they’re often dismissed as lesser cinematic offerings, not worthy of serious thought or consideration.

It’s not entirely without reason that so many think this, since a significant number of more well-known modern action movies, especially American ones, are subpar (if not downright terrible). But then, to write off the genre completely is to be ignorant of its history, of the many brilliant filmmakers who made it their chief mode of expression and of the movie industries around the world that thrived in very specific interpretations of the genre.

Of those, none has a bigger love for action than Hong Kong, which, in many different ways throughout the years, has been the true home of quality, auteur-driven action filmmaking for decades, going from kung fu films in the ‘60s and ‘70s to heroic bloodshed in the ‘80s and 90s, all the way to the new wave deconstructions of those forms.

This list covers movies from all of these different kinds of action; films that are as stylistically different among each other as can be, but all equally compelling, exciting and, yes, artful.

10. Bullet in the Head (1990)

By far the most internationally well known of all Hong Kong action directors, John Woo, after basically single-handedly popularizing the heroic bloodshed genre with his breakthrough film “A Better Tomorrow,” went on to become the benchmark of his country’s movie industry, enjoying worldwide acclaim for his unique approach to action filmmaking in pictures like “The Killer” and “Hard Boiled.” In the period between the mid-80s to the late ‘90s, there was perhaps no other genre director in the world who could match Woo for style and kinetic energy, and it was at that time he made all his major works. Of those, “Bullet in the Head” is today the least remembered and well known with a larger public.

Seeing the movie, it’s easy to understand why: it’s more uneven than Woo’s most famous movies, but it’s also his darkest and most cynical film. If his popular pictures are about enemies learning to become brothers, this one is the opposite: a story about friends growing apart due to greed and the horror of war. It centers on three lifelong friends who, after a fight that goes awry, must flee Hong Kong to Saigon during the Vietnam War. There, they enter the criminal underworld and get involved in a sequence of events that completely shatters their bond with one another.

“Bullet in the Head,” though considerably more tragic than any other Woo film and mostly bereft of his usual heroic characters, still features all of the director’s trademarks that make his work so memorable, from the melodramatic tone to, of course, the gun-fu heavy set pieces, which are some of the biggest of Woo’s entire career. A few of them, like the Vietnam POW camp shootout, stretched almost to the point of exhaustion.

9. Full Alert (1997)

Ringo Lam’s career languished considerably after the ‘90s, which perhaps explains his general obscurity today, but Hong Kong cinema aficionados know him well; there was a time when he was up there with Woo and others as one of the foremost action directors in the world, churning out one great movie after another. Unlike other action auteurs, however, Lam always had a more malleable style that adapted to the material – he could be gleefully over the top in one picture but serious and realistic in the next.

“Full Alert” is him at his most grounded; a gritty, no-fuss thriller that marked the end of an era both for the director and, some critics argue, for a whole era of Hong Kong cinema as well. The plot is standard potboiler stuff: when police officer Pao arrests a man for murder, he stumbles upon a plan to rob a jockey club and starts to track down to rest of the team to stop them. Once the prisoner escapes, however, a cat-and-mouse game begins between cop and criminal – with deadly results.

“Full Alert” is one the purest procedurals in all of Hong Kong cinema history; there’s not a second wasted in its tight 98 minutes runtime, from the opening scenes where the main plot is immediately set in motion to its carefully constructed climax. Lam orchestrates the many set pieces with razor-sharp focus, all the while maintaining a prevalent atmosphere of doom about the character’s inability to escape their own fates. It culminates in one of the most disturbing endings to any action movie ever.

8. Long Arm of the Law (1984)

John Woo may have sedimented the heroic bloodshed genre, but he wasn’t the actual person who created it; his “A Better Tomorrow” was simply the culmination of a larger trend going on in Hong Kong cinema all throughout the ‘80s. One of the first (and best) examples of the genre is “Long Arm of the Law.”

But, though it’s in many ways a precursor to what is now understood to be classic elements of heroic bloodshed, the movie is also distinctly darker, grittier, and more realistic than others of its kind. It centers on a gang of mainlander criminals who go over the border of Hong Kong in hopes of a quick heist – only for everything to go wrong when the place is robbed before they can get to it. The crew decides to lay low before trying again and in the meantime, in order to make money, agree to kill a cop for a local mobster.

The only solo directorial effort by long-time producer Johnny Mak (aside from this he only co-directed a movie with Johnnie To and Patrick Leung), “Long Arm of the Law” is a far cry from the stylization of Woo, To and even Lam; this movie is brutally unsparing in its ugliness, both in the depiction of its characters (portrayed as ruthless thieves, murderers and, in one case, even rapists with no discernable code of honor) and in the action scenes, which are more raw than the bullet ballets that are famous in the genre.

The breathless and despairing climax of the movie, in which the protagonists are pursued on a maze-like street by the police, is a Hong Kong hall of fame action scene.

7. Time and Tide (2000)

Tsui Hark is not as famous and celebrated in the West as some other Hong Kong directors, but there is perhaps no other action filmmaker more influential and powerful in the industry than him. Having been, as a producer, personally responsible for many of the major successful genre pictures in the country since the ‘80s (he produced, for example, Woo’s “A Better Tomorrow,” which was a watershed film) Hark was at the forefront of the cultural and stylistic changes in action movies throughout the decades, which is one of the many reasons he’s still as relevant today as he was in his youth.

He mostly works in the wuxia genre (more on that later), but one of his most notable pictures ever is “Time and Tide,” a decidedly modern distillation of decades of Hong Kong action filmmaking into a mad, almost abstract movie that skews narrative conventions in favor of pure sensorial storytelling and visual experimentation.

Hark’s work is notable for its notorious disregard for logic or typical structures, but even by his standards this movie is something else in that regard: the real plot and protagonist are basically not revealed until halfway through, by which point the film turns from a modest, character-based story into a gigantic blockbuster, jumping from one major set piece to another almost non-stop.

And it’s in those scenes, in the back half of the movie, where the director makes up for the general chunkiness and incoherence of the storytelling. Hark’s talent for individualizing action scenes has never been put to better use; each sequence has its own distinct feel, rhythm, and visual identity, and particularly the extended apartment complex shootout close to the end is one of the greatest moments of his career.

6. A Hero Never Dies (1998)

By the late ‘90s, heroic bloodshed movies had become a staple not only of the Hong Kong action industry, but of Hollywood as well, since many American filmmakers had been inspired by the genre – and some filmmakers who originated it, like John Woo, were now working in America themselves. Johnnie To’s “A Hero Never Dies,” then, exists in a different realm than most other pictures of its kind: it works simultaneously as a response to a decade’s worth of those movies in its almost parodical exaggeration of the style, but also as a sincere example of the genre.

The film follows two hitmen from different Triad factions at war, who are each betrayed by their respective bosses and become irreversibly damaged in the process. Years later, they are reunited with a chance to take revenge against the men who wronged them.

To is one of the greatest working directors in the world, let alone Hong Kong, with a very definite and distinct style. And though he had been working for many years, this movie was truly the beginning of his career as an auteur, the first time he really put his stamp on something; and it was, not coincidentally, the first movie he directed for his production company Milkyway. His shootouts are indebted, of course, to many who came before him (particularly Woo), but the way To stages and shoots the action scenes is uniquely his own; the elegance of the camera moves and sophistication of the framing are things that elude the vast majority of action filmmakers.

“A Hero Never Dies” is not as refined and rich in subtext as many of To’s later movies, but it’s one of the most fun, probably the most straight up no-fluff genre movie of his career; a self-aware send up of heroic bloodshed but also a bonafide thrilling action movie in it’s own right; a tonal dichotomy best represented by the indelible image, in the climax, of a man in a wheelchair holding pistols in both his hands, killing bad guys while rolling through loads of broken glass — hilarious but also genuinely badass.

Special Actors – VIFF 2020 Review

Mon, 05 Oct 2020 12:48:53 GMT

Meet Kazuto (Kazuto Osawa), an aspiring actor. There’s just one problem: confrontation makes him weak. So weak, in fact, he tends to faint and recovers only to severe embarrassment. This sets him apart from his childhood hero and career inspiration, Rescueman, a ridiculous caricature of superhero fame who appears throughout this cartoonish comedy.

After Kazuto loses his job as an inefficient security guard, he serendipitously runs into his brother Hiroki (Hiroki Kawano), who introduces him to a new acting concept: Special Actors. This is a company that employs actors to pull off everyday acts to make others’ dreams come true. Need someone to cry at a funeral? Laugh at a bad movie? Get beaten up by your boyfriend for show? Call Special Actors.

After a hodgepodge of cheesy but charming scenarios that further illustrate the line of work Kazuto is to take part in, Special Actors is called upon to help a young woman Miyu (Yumi Ogawa) whose sister has come under the influence of a cult. Her family’s inn is at stake as the cult is quickly sinking its claws into it as a home base. In order to save the inn and her sister, Miyu employs the troupe to infiltrate the cult and expose its lies.

It’s easy to tell those involved in the making of Special Actors did so with a sense of camaraderie and loyalty to director Shinichiro Ueda’s brand. That being said, not all players are created equal. The film’s slapstick comedy falls short more often than not due to a limited performance by the lead, and the plot’s attempt at twists and turns is more tired than exciting.

Those looking for light-hearted comedy may be impressed with it’s hijinks, goofy music and dialogue. As a follow-up to One Cut of the Dead, Ueda’s surprise cult-favorite of 2019, Special Actors unfortunately disappoints but is not without heart.

Taste of Cinema Rating: 2.5 stars (out of 5)

Author Bio: Becky Belzile is a freelance writer living in Vancouver, Canada. She has contributed to film writing for Bright Wall/Dark Room, Bloody Disgusting, and Audiences Everywhere. When she’s not cooking, she’s devouring horror movies or napping competitively.

Siberia – VIFF 2020 Review

Mon, 05 Oct 2020 12:48:00 GMT

Proving once again beyond any shadow of a doubt that he’s one of modern cinema’s most unpredictable, prolific and provocative of filmmakers, and perhaps one who’s also touched with an otherworldly grace, Abel Ferrara (Ms .45, Bad Lieutenant, Tommas) busies himself exorcising some strange cinematic demons while unleashing his own inner force in his new film, Siberia. Once more reteaming with his current mainstay and ready muse Willem Dafoe, this surreal digression feels like a subarctic delineation of James Joyce’s “Finnegans Wake” and is also perhaps just as polarizing.

Siberia finds our somewhat quixotic protagonist Clint (Dafoe) dutifully posted at an unruly bar in the titular Russian province. It’s the kind of place where demanding and rather volatile customers suddenly transform into snarling bears, spilling beer and carelessly carousing in a rather dangerous manner. As the denizens of Clint’s establishment pay him tribute it quickly becomes clear that we, the viewer, are privy to someplace far more celestial and hypnagogic than your typical tavern or gin joint.

As Ferrara’s allegorical and byzantine-like film unfolds, one he co-wrote with five time collaborator Christ Zois (New Rose Hotel, Welcome to New York), it becomes the kind of deep dive where it’s very easy to lose track of all the narrative threads and digressions, and that may well be part of Siberia’s elaborate duplicity. Clint’s many doppelgängers, brushes with sorcerers, lactating women and naked dwarves all depose such fascinations.

Is it pretentious? Absolutely. Is that a problem? For some, maybe, but not for this writer. Siberia is so in succession lovely and startling to look at (thanks in large part to the studious lensing of DP Stefano Falivene), as well as being often quite comical, frequently baffling, and with meanings so heavily obfuscated, it becomes an engaging and fascinating fantasy/nightmare that is also almost the quintessential festival film. VIFF audiences are certain to be divided directly down the middle, and I’ll bet Ferrara wouldn’t want it any other way.

Admittedly I could seldom make sense of what was happening on screen a large part of the time, but I didn’t let that dampen the enjoyment I felt splashing around in these strangely surreal waters with the consistently wonderful Dafoe and the odd assortment of dreamlike no-goodniks, alluring sirens and dangerous visions that suck him and us into the sly abyss. It’s a dark deathtrip, maybe, and some kind of vivid and sequential coup d’etat.

Taste of Cinema Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Author Bio: Shane Scott-Travis is a film critic, screenwriter, comic book author/illustrator and cineaste. Currently residing in Vancouver, Canada, Shane can often be found at the cinema, the dog park, or off in a corner someplace, paraphrasing Groucho Marx. Follow Shane on Twitter @ShaneScottravis.

10 Great 1990s Movies You’ve Probably Never Seen

Fri, 02 Oct 2020 15:16:55 GMT

The 1990s was a strange time of change for cinema. Independent films rose to become a major player amongst the American box office with wider releases and better promotion from studios. The Horror genre went through another change as the Kevin Williamson scripted/Wes Craven directed Scream ushered in the “in-joke” style of scare films. Romantic Comedy became more popular it had ever been. Flashy filmmakers such as Michael Bay and Simon West blasted their films onto the screen achieving box office gold. Terence Malick returned to filmmaking after 20 years. Most significantly, Quentin Tarantino made his mark with his pop culture style of filmmaking that would see tons of imitators and change the feel of the decade’s Crime films.

While the 90s spawned many popular box office hits and produced many stars that continue to thrive today, some of the most interesting 90s-made films flew under the radar, never making the splash they should have. Some became cult hits once they hit the Home Video markets but many remain under-seen and woefully underappreciated. Here is a list of 10 treasures of 90s cinema that audiences may not be familiar with but need to discover.

10. The Spanish Prisoner (1997)

David Mamet was no stranger to critical praise for the films he wrote and directed. His debut feature as a filmmaker, 1987’s House of Games, was a critical darling that is considered one of the great Thrillers of its decade. Mamet’s love of con men, magicians, gambling, and sleight-of-hand trickery became a perfect storm of cinema in his debut, making a solid profit on a small budget.

Mamet returned to the art of the con with 1997’s The Spanish Prisoner, a film about a corporate inventor (Campbell Scott) who is duped by a slick swindler (an extremely good Steve Martin) to sell his invention and betray his bosses.

The film has fun playing with its audience as we are never sure who is conning who. Every character and every move they make cannot be trusted. Mamet rightfully does not delve deeply into character, as he does not allow us to become intimately involved with his cast. Who is real? Who is playing who? Mamet’s expert screenplay and game cast (that includes Ben Gazzara, Ricky Jay, and Ed O’Neil) make for a smartly written and exciting shell game.

9. The Crossing Guard (1995)

Sean Penn’s second film as a director is a powerful character study of loss and forgiveness. Jack Nicholson stars as Freddy Gale, a jeweler who is counting down the days until the man who killed his daughter in a drunk driving accident is released from prison. Make no mistake, this is no Thriller.

What writer/director Penn created is a deadly serious film where fates are redefined. David Morse is John Booth, the man who has lost years of his life due to his prison term from killing Nicholson’s little girl while driving drunk. Angelica Huston is Nicholson’s ex-wife and their scenes together are devastating. Huston is grieving too but Nicholson’s character cannot acknowledge it due to his tunnel-vision regarding Booth’s release from jail.

Jack Nicholson does thunderously soulful work as Gale and many critics consider it one of the actor’s finest performances. The film itself is primal and provocative and an important work amongst Sean Penn’s filmography.

8. The Addiction (1995)

Abel Ferrara was on a creative tear in the early and mid-90s. His 1990 crime film King of New York became an instant critical hit and went on to be one of the most respected gangster films in all of cinema. 1992’s Bad Lieutenant was a controversial hit with critics and Art House audiences with Harvey Keitel giving what is widely considered to be his career-best performance. After a bad experience with the studio on his 1993 film Body Snatchers (an undervalued gem in its own right), Ferrera unleashed his unique vampire allegory, The Addiction.

An excellent Lili Taylor stars as an NYU Philosophy student who is obsessed with evil. Annabella Sciorra is the vampire who bites her, sending Taylor into a world of bloody addiction. Ferrara uses his Horror tale as an allegory for drug addiction, something the filmmaker was going through at the time.

The film is infused with a dark humor and is presented in black and white to make the gruesomeness of the visuals hit harder. One of the director’s finest works with one Hell of a finale, this is a film that is ripe for rediscovery.

7. Homicide (1991)

David Mamet makes brutal vulgarity into an Art form. His writing is frank and hits hard, pulling no punches. The same can be said about 1991’s Homicide, Mamet’s third film as director. Joe Mantegna is a Chicago cop on a murder investigation who becomes involved with a secret Zionist group, putting him in closer touch with his Jewish heritage.

The film is a mixture of character study and police procedural that speaks on racism, bigotry, loyalty, and personal integrity. Some found it heavy-handed and the studio dumped it with a minuscule release, but most critics praised its deep-reaching screenplay. Mantegna and co-star William H. Macy do fantastic work, as they navigate the rhythms of Mamet’s dialogue with ease and help to bring home the power of the screenplay. An utterly unique Crime film that is one of David Mamet’s best.

6. Girls Town (1996)

Three High School girls are affected by the suicide of their friend in this extremely well-acted, hip-hop tinged, love letter to friendship and the struggles of young females in a male dominated world.

Lili Taylor is extraordinary as Patti, as a young single mom from a working-class family with attitude to spare. Along with Anna Grace as Emma and Bruklin Harris as Angela, Lili Taylor leads this trio of women in a push back against the predatory males who have invaded their lives. Jim McKay’s debut film has a truth that permeates through its core thanks to the screenplay (by McKay and his main cast) and the expert performances. Girls Town is a film that refuses to strike a false note.

The 10 Best Road Trip Thriller Movies

Fri, 02 Oct 2020 15:16:19 GMT

There is a natural tension to the open road, with its isolation broken only by a complete stranger piloting their own ton or two of steel, glass and rubber where only suckers heed the speed limits. Most of the world might be carved up by roads, but that doesn’t mean that civilization grew up alongside them. It’s still a frontier, with plenty unknown on either side of the asphalt. Here are ten terrific pictures about why that cancelled road trip might be a blessing in disguise.

1. The Hitcher (1986)

When The Hitcher was first released, it proved a modest commercial success, largely ignored or reviled by critics. It grew in stature as HBO played it incessantly, and now it routinely shows up on the lists like this one. The premise couldn’t be more basic, as a young man (C. Thomas Howell) drives cross country to deliver a car from Chicago to San Diego and on one dark and stormy night, picks up a hitchhiker (Rutger Hauer). The script operates like those great seventy-minute B-movies of the thirties and forties, wasting no time with back stories or set-ups. Howell picks up Hauer in the opening moments and minutes later, Hauer calmly explains he’s going to kill this good Samaritan.

The script manages to keep its foot on the gas for the rest of the movie, finding clever ways to leap to where other movies like this might end, and pressing on to more unexpected, and depraved terrain. Jennifer Jason Leigh does her best to elevate her roadside waitress into someone more interesting and nearly pulls this off. But this is Hauer’s movie, and rarely has an actor seemed to delight as much in playing an apex predator. The movie wisely subscribes to the Michael Myers school of character development for its antagonist, understanding that childhood trauma and rationales only make monsters in such movies less intimidating.

Howell makes for a fine everyman here, though stumbles when the movie needs him to process his trauma is more disturbing ways. Richard Harmon directs this with competence and care, benefiting from an era where he got to blow up real cars, so the chases and crashes have a weight missing from contemporary movies that aren’t Fury Road. It’s a satisfying little thriller, but its screenwriter Eric Red would go on to produce far more intriguing genre experiments, writing both Near Dark and Blue Steel for Kathryn Bigelow. And unfortunately, Hauer would never get the chance to bare his teeth like this again.

2. Joyride (2002)

Before JJ Abrams became the anointed remixer of juggernaut franchises, he co-wrote this nifty B movie with Clay Tarver about a trio of young folks who play a nasty prank on a truck driver using an old CB radio. It earned some respectable reviews and its money back, but like a few others on this list, its reputation only grew over time.

Here Paul Walker offers to drive his college crush (Leelee Sobieski) home, with his clownish pal (Steve Zahn) along for the ride. By this movie, Zahn perfected his persona as a destructive, if well-meaning, moron. Zahn’s prank fuels the story and builds organically, never lurching into outright cruelty, but hurtful enough that the wrong person would take it very, very personally, which a truck driver with the CB handle of Rusty Nail (sumptuously voiced by Ted Levine) most certainly does. The twists are small but satisfying, refusing to take the big plot swings that made JJ’s company Bad Robot so famous for intriguing premises, jaw-dropping second acts, and deeply flawed endings.

The movie’s secret weapon is oddly enough the director, who quietly built his name on a string of accomplished neo-noirs in the nineties like Red Rock West and The Last Seduction. John Dahl balances the tone well, keeping this a high-grade thriller with nasty streak, as opposed to a more overt horror play, that might strip the plot down to a grocery list of kills. Rusty Nail and this trio are well-matched the whole way through, with an ending that can still produce shivers after repeat viewings. It’s exactly the type of thriller that people shrug off as simple, when in fact it’s a high-wire walk few pull off.

3. Breakdown (1997)

The generic title didn’t do this movie any favors, but it still became a small bore hit on its release, reminding everyone why its lead, Kurt Russell, has been a star for decades. The movie opens with Russell in a near collision with a truck driver, followed by a brief argument at a gas station, only to find his car breaking down in the middle of nowhere. He lets his wife hitch a ride with another trucker to get help, and naturally, she disappears into thin air. What follows is hardly groundbreaking, but the tension swells with rock solid story logic that too few of these movies ever bother to employ.

This was the directorial debut for Jonathan Mostow, who has the reliable chops that would have made him the second coming of Don Siegel or Robert Aldrich given enough time cranking out movies like this. Hardly a revelatory stylist, Mostow knows what he has in Russell and his script, and isn’t afraid to let those things shine here. But he shows a gift for sharing narrative information visually and letting the audience add two and two for themselves, as at one point, he unveils the time and scope of the conspiracy at work in a single image.

Still, this movie relies on Russell to deliver the goods, and he does, as he’s a delight to watch get frustrated, lose his cool, regain it, all with his average Joe aplomb. Few actors can play exasperated without ever falling into self-pity as Russel does so naturally. He’s just doing the best he can and looking for a break that is long overdue. This is stellar middlebrow entertainment, of the kind that shouldn’t make that an insult.

4. Detour (1946)

Long heralded as one of great no-budget noirs of the 1940s, Detour is a miracle for more than its financial constraints. Its director Edward G. Ulmer managed to stitch together his movies with used sets, hungry actors and a few, very few, well-placed lights. In this one, a down on his luck piano player (Tom Neal) hitches a ride with a bookie (Edmund MacDonald) to California to meet up with his girlfriend in Hollywood. Along the way the bookie ends up dying in an accident no one would believe happened. Too nervous to trust the police, Neal assumes the bookie’s identity and if his luck wasn’t already circling the drain, it’s flushed away upon picking up the one hitchhiker (Ann Savage) that knows that bookie.

Savage swiftly blackmails Neal, assuming exactly the kind of foul play the cops would. She’s not a garish femme fatale though, looking to gobble him up whole. She’s a fragile, broken soul that believes the only way to get what she needs is to harass, cajole and snatch it from the world around her. And Neal, desperate to put the detour behind him tries to escape her any way he can.

Now an established classic, Detour has the strange luxury of looking better now than it did in 1945. A recent 4K restoration has turned its glaring whites into a hypnotic glow, and its blacks into velvet shadows. Its longevity can’t be credited only to its place as an early noir, but rather, what kind of noir it is. Yes, the genre is built around bad, mostly criminal decisions, but the best have an aura of inevitability. It’s not simply a matter of falling for the wrong girl or aiming for the quick fix, but of trying to do the best with bad circumstances only to sink even deeper into trouble. Neal didn’t want anything but to reunite with the love of his life and yet, the open road had other plans.

5. The Vanishing (1988)

Stanley Kubrick once called this French-Dutch thriller the scariest movie he’d ever seen, and reached out to its director George Sluizer, to discuss how he edited it. This makes sense given that the suspense is built on the need to know, which had to resonate with Kubrick, a man who clearly had a ravenous curiosity.

It begins with a haunting rehearsal of the crime to come, as a pair of lovers, played by Gene Bervoets and Johanna ter Steege are separated when their car breaks down, only to be swiftly reunited. But then at a crowded rest stop, she goes to the bathroom and never returns. Bervoets waits and waits, but there is simply no sign of her, though some workers saw her with another man, implying that she might have simply left her boyfriend behind. This is a movie, so that’s clearly not the case, and soon The Vanishing splits its POV, following the killer (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu) as he plots the kidnapping, and Bervoets as he devotes his life to finding out what happened.

As it turns out, Donnadieu is a sweet family man and chemistry professor whose sociopathic tendencies are bundled up as tight as those in a 19th century Russian novel, intellectualized until it’s a bloodless act within an indifferent universe, until it’s not. As Bervoets unravels from his grief, Donnadieu only grows in calm and power, sending him post cards inviting him to meet, only to stand him up over and over again. Truly great horror filmmakers require an expansive understanding of the human condition to avoid relying on crude sadism and genre clichés alone. And here, the shocking finale arrives when the lead can’t resist the urge to know, and credibly becomes a willing ally in the killer’s larger design.

The 15 Best Cult Slasher Movies

Thu, 01 Oct 2020 14:47:07 GMT

As one of the more controversial categories of the horror genre, the idea of the slasher movie made its way into existence many years ago and has made its presence known ever since. While Freddy, Jason, and Michael have become famous figures not only in the slasher genre but in pop culture, it is important to look back on some of the slasher films that have fallen into cult status. The films that allowed iconic slashers and slasher rules to find success among a wide number of audiences.

Here is a list of 15 great cult slasher films:

1. Sleepaway Camp (1983)

While Sleepaway Camp may not be many movie-goers’ first choice for the “killer in the camp” film, it does provide a few new and interesting tricks to shake up the slasher movie formula. The film opens with a bang as it depicts a family death due to a tragic boating accident. After the incident, the survivor of the event, Angela (Felissa Rose), is now living with her bizarre aunt (Desiree Gould) and heading to Camp Arawak with her cousin Ricky (Jonathan Tiersten). Unfortunately, Angela and Ricky soon realize they picked the wrong time to go to summer camp as a series of murders start to take place.

This low-budget thriller is a quick watch that works greatly due to its understanding of itself. Sleepaway Camp does not overstay its welcome and knows perfectly that it is an hour and a half build up to a legendary ending. This is not to say the beginning or middle of the film is not entertaining. Rose’s blank stare and uneasy attitude towards the other kids at camp are creepy and it does make viewers want to know more about Angela. There is also a relatable yet strange awkwardness to the campers. They truly are kids. They cuss like kids, talk like kids, and even insult each other like kids (for better and worse). Lastly, there are some memorable kills. One murder involves a curling iron that creates an image in audiences’ heads so graphic they will never want to revisit it.

However, all these points do not remotely prepare spectators for the conclusion of Sleepaway Camp. The ending is not predictable or improbable. Instead, it is a complete surprise with placed clues throughout the film that makes the final moments shockingly possible. No more can be said about a conclusion that may lack artistry but leaves its audience with a reveal that will be ingrained in viewers’ minds for years to come.

Sleepaway Camp is not a film without faults, but it makes up for them with brashness and the boldness of its final moments.

2. The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)

Part crime drama, part slasher movie, The Town That Dreaded Sundown heavily embraces the true story elements of its tale to produce some effective scares. The plot of the film is simple but nonetheless spine-chilling. The movie follows the events of the Texarkana Moonlight Murders committed by the unidentified Phantom Killer.

Between the narration by Vern Stierman and the movie claiming, “the incredible story you are about to see is true, where it happened and how it happened; only the names have been changed”, it is clear the movie employs exploitation tactics to generate terror. While exploitation may not be the most intellectual or sophisticated way to create horror, that does not mean it cannot be wildly helpful in the slasher genre. The slasher genre is all about violence and bad taste. At times, any film can go too far, but The Town that Dreaded Sundown is not that dangerous.

The true-crime element is the catalyst that makes this movie a straightforward but worthwhile watch. Along with the narration, the lack of a musical score and stingers make the killings scarier to witness. The heavy breaths and disturbing noises of the killer are also clear and distinct thanks to the lack of music. Therefore, all spectators are left with at times is a masked maniac willing to do gruesome things to innocent human beings.

Whether a horror fanatic, a true-crime junkie, or both, The Town That Dreaded Sundown is a film worth a viewing.

3. The Burning (1981)

Appearing to be another 80’s slasher film in a collection of many, The Burning sets itself a part by cleverly playing with slasher tropes. In the movie, a group of teenage boys pull a prank on the camp’s caretaker, Cropsy (Lou David). The joke goes too far and Cropsy catches fire while being left for dead. Cropsy does not die, but he is instead seriously burned and disfigured. With hate and vengeance for the campers who disfigured him, Cropsy decides to inflict his murderous rage on a new troupe of summer-camp teens.

The Burning does not criticize the slasher genre. Rather, The Burning puts slight twists on the slasher blueprint. For example, the point of view shot from the killer has been seen countless times, but The Burning alters this action just slightly by clouding the camera to show the killer’s altered eyesight due to his scorched skin. Regarding the teens, many of them are likable and have fleshed-out personalities. As a result, terror increases as viewers realize there is no obvious dead meat in the bunch. Anyone is fair game for Cropsy. There is also an extremely interesting role reversal. Instead of a final girl running away from the crazy killer, the film provides a final boy who may have been killed off in other slasher movies of the time.

In addition to the play on classic stereotypes, it must be mentioned that Tom Savini’s effects are genius. From an intimate moment turned bloody to a raft massacre, garden sheers have never been so terrifying and the days before heavy CGI use have never been more missed. The practical effects are works of art and pure expertise.

The Burning is truly an early classic of the slasher genre.

4. The Stepfather (1987)

Taking the slasher out of the woods and bringing him to the suburbs, The Stepfather takes the phrase “family drama” to an increasing deadly level. Jerry Blake (Terry O’Quinn) is a family-oriented man who falls in love with a widow named Susan (Shelley Hack). Her daughter, Stephanie (Jill Schoelen) is not pleased about this coupling and begins to worry that there is something off about Jerry

The Stepfather rightfully makes this list because of the brilliant performance of O’Quinn. He steals every scene he is in from beginning to end. O’Quinn does not need a mask to make him menacing. He does not need monstrous features, a unique weapon of choice, or a detailed backstory. Through his facial expressions and his calm manner, O’Quinn is able to have bursts of energy where the even-tempered facade is dropped to reveal his sanity cracking. These spurts of anger and madness are all viewers need to fear Jerry and imagine the worst as the film proceeds.

The Stepfather is a must-watch movie that portrays the diversity of what a slasher can be.

5. Black Christmas (1974)

Through a multitude of remakes and reboots, none will ever match the impact of the original Black Christmas. The movie depicts a group of sorority sisters, including the main protagonist named Jess (Olivia Hussey), start to receive abusive and threatening phone calls. Soon, one of the girls, Claire (Lynne Griffin), goes missing from the sorority house, and another local girl is murdered. These killings make the girls realize they are not as safe as they presumed.

Films such as Halloween and When a Stranger Calls are given credit for being some of the first slasher movies that started the genre, but it is extremely important to include Black Christmas. The distinct qualities of the slasher genre can be consistently found throughout the film. The murderer, the calls, the mystery, the point of view perspective, and other choices highly praised in well-known slasher films occurred first in this 1974 gem.

The main aspects that stand out in Black Christmas are the phone calls. Besides moments of dialogue, a looming dread caused by silence is apparent. It is only broken up by the voice of the killer or Christmas jingles that feel more distressing than merry. The lunatic’s voice is piercing, shrill, and everchanging. There is a such a variety of tones used and frantic words spoken that it becomes absolutely chilling and only allows for a dark glimpse into the erratic nature of the killer’s troubling thoughts.

It is difficult to pinpoint the exact date or precise film that created the popular slasher genre, but Black Christmas is an excellent place to start.

6. Candyman (1992)

Based on a short story by the horror icon, Clive Baker, Candyman shows what occurs when the boogeyman from an urban legend is more than just folklore. The film follows a graduate student, Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen), as she researches superstitions in a poor housing project on Chicago’s Near North Side. Eventually, Helen discovers the tale of the Candyman (Tony Todd), an urban legend that some believe is responsible for a recent murder. After a mysterious man fitting the Candyman’s description begins to stalk Helen, she discovers the Candyman is all too real.

While Candyman may sacrifice some of its nuance with gore, the movie is not void of thought-provoking concepts. The slasher qualities of the movie are combined with real, strong ideas on urban society and has a clear desire to use horror to address valid social issues. Todd’s Candyman is also given a background that tells a story of racial biasness and bigotry leading to death and the creation of the Candyman’s existence.

The last point that must be mentioned is Todd’s performance as the prominent villain. The Candyman is a slasher, but shockingly alluring even with a hook for a hand and a love of bees. He is confident and articulate. There is a sophisticated and terrifying gravitas that Todd brings to the character.

Candyman powerfully uses the cinematic language of horror to provide scares and relevant social commentary.

7. Prom Night (1980)

Prom Night is not the scariest movie presented on the list nor it is the most original, but its sincere love of 1980’s cheese makes this movie an amusing viewing. This slasher movie sees a killer out for revenge due to the death of a young girl who died thanks to the relentless bullying of her classmates. Now in high school, the former bullies start dying one by one, and the dead girl’s sister, Kim Hammond (Jamie Lee Curtis), may not be safe either.

Subtlety and finesse are not words one uses to describe Prom Night. One of the scariest scenes in the film is the 3 minutes of Curtis disco dancing with questionable choreographed moves. This may seem like an insult, but in fact, it is a compliment towards this movie. The dated celebration of disco music and youth culture cannot help but put a smile on viewers’ faces. There is no sense of cynicism in its glorification of clichés or in the naivety of its seriousness. The haunting secret and the traumatic childhood event are just some of the tropes horror fans have learned to love and can see in this film. Prom Night also takes itself seriously no matter what the situation is. Whether it be the “impromptu” disco dance-off or the lineup of obvious murder suspects, the severity applied to the premise is amazing.

Prom Night inspires a wonderful combination of horror and accidental humor.

Father – VIFF 2020 Review

Thu, 01 Oct 2020 14:46:24 GMT

Father is director Srdan Golubović’s Serbian drama opens memorably with a scene that’s very unsettling to witness. A mother with her two children in tow, arrives at the former workplace of her husband Nikola (Goran Bogdan). Unable even to afford food to feed them, she comes demanding to be paid the long overdue money owed for Nikola’s last weeks of work, or else she will pour a bottle of gasoline on herself and her children and set them all on fire.

Fortunately the flames are quickly extinguished and the children unharmed. She is taken to the hospital, the children are taken into care by the state and someone is sent to find their father where he is doing low paid menial day work. State authorities tell him that he can get his children back only if he can upgrade their home to certain standards. Sadly, after struggling to meet these demands, he finds out that the corrupt official in charge of their case refuses to return them to him. From here the film becomes a road movie as Nikola, penniless, sets out on foot for a 200 mile trek to Belgrade, to hand his appeal in person, to the Minister in charge of the National Ministry of Social Services.

This is a bleak and heartbreaking tale of the struggles of the poorest in society to meet even the simplest and most basic of necessities, the lack of help available to them from their government and the corrupt and greedy officials looking to profit from their misfortune. Although it is a very grim story, there are also some light and endearing moments during Nikola’s journey. The film features a powerful, quiet, understated, award worthy performance from Goran Bogdan as Nikola, who just continues to slowly and steadily move forward, one step at a time, doing everything in his limited power to provide for his children. His love and devotion are a constant; the glue that holds the film together. Although in more limited appearances in the film, the children too are a delight.

With Father, Golubović recalls the social realism in UK cinema that we’ve come to love from the likes of Mike Leigh and Ken Loach. This is the same kind of sensitive look at the plight of the working class, and Golubović is to be praised for this solid, tasteful and poignant work. It’s definitely a movie to be included in your VIFF 2020 viewing, but remember to have a tissue handy.

Taste of Cinema Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)

Author Bio: David “old grumpy guy” House, now grumpily but happily retired, devotes his time to his loves of cinema, literature and music. His tastes include many different genres, from documentaries, horror, sci-fi and foreign films. David is a member of the screening committees of several film festivals, including VIFF, DOXA, Spark Animation and New West Film Fest.