Goddamn Brownies

Pontypool - 2008 - Dir: Bruce McDonald
Location: The Comfort of My House

I heard about this film quite some time ago and then heard some info on Rue Morgue Radio (Rue Morgue's weekly podcast) since it was filming nearby. Since then I had almost completely forgotten about it, until the DVD recently landed in my lap. The story involves a former radio shock jock, Grant Mazzy (Stephen McHattie), busted back to the minors, which means an AM station broadcasting out of a church basement in the small town of Pontypool, Ontario, Canada. While they are doing the morning show something happens outside and masses of people start going crazy all over town killing each other and muttering strange things to themselves. The only info the radio crew of three get is what comes from callers, like their own traffic reporter.

The film unfolds, save for a couple brief moments, entirely inside the basement studio area. As everything begins to unfold in the outside world you are forced to use your imagination to piece it all together from what they say in the studio and from the choppy cellphone audio. It reminds me a lot of Orson Welles' infamous radio broadcast of War of the Worlds. At times they even think they are being pranked, but it is very much real. Also keeping the film confined within this basement adds a very claustrophobic atmosphere. It's not that the studio is small but being stuck there you can feel how the characters sense the walls are closing in on them.

My only real complaint is that the last act gets a little too convenient, but it's not enough to ruin this great film or sully McHattie's amazing performance as Mazzy. The DVD also includes the radio version. At just under an hour this aired on the CBC in Canada and eventually BBC radio as well and only concerns what happens over the air and through studio microphones. It would have been nice if the studio would have included this as an MP3 file to pull off with the aide of a DVD drive, but alas I'll have to do it myself so I can listen to this in the car.

I'm so glad I watched this and you should too. Turn the lights off and pick up the DVD here. The source novel, also written by Tony Burgess, just came back into stock, place your order for it right here.


Night of the Lepus - 1972 - Dir: William F. Claxton
Location: The Comfort of My House

This is a movie I had heard about for quite some time, but never managed to actually watch until the other night. Why did I wait so long? It's giant killer rabbits after all! The film deals with an area in Arizona plagued with hundreds of rabbits causing problems with a man's crops. He wants to eradicate them but doesn't want to use poison if at all possible so he does what anyone would do, calls in a zoologist to find a better way. Dr. Bennett experiments on some of the rabbits with hormones in order to slow their reproductive process but ends up making them grow in size and develop a taste for blood - animal or human.

One of the things that doesn't make a whole lot of sense is the size of the killer bunnies. Dialog refers to them as wolf-sized but while watching they look more like the size of a bus at times. This could be due to scale problems with the models. Instead of creating a bunch of fake giant animals they just made miniature sets and let normal rabbits loose and film them in slow-motion for added effect. It's hilarious to see herds of galloping rabbits terrorizing a whole town. Almost as funny as the fact that the one and only Janet Leigh plays Dr. Bennett's wife. HA!

Scares are not really the issue here but there are plenty of laughs. I can't believe standing up in front of a full drive-in audience during the feature and broadcasting through a bullhorn that killer rabbits are on the way isn't followed by raucous laughter. Instead everyone complies with rolling up their windows and leaving. Just one example of the cinematic gold you will witness if you give it a watch. And you should!

The DVD is currently out-of-print but you can probably still find it in some stores or used copies right here.


Dark Star - 1974 - Dir: John Carpenter
Location: The Comfort of My House
Carpenter Catalog Project

I have a short term goal to watch all of John Carpenter's films. I have seen many, but I have also not seen many of them. I want to see them all before going to Texas Frightmare Weekend in a few months where I will meet, and hopefully interview, the man. Where is a better place to start than the beginning. This was the first feature Carpenter ever made and it's a sci-fi comedy about a crew who have spent the last twenty years mundanely traveling through space and blowing up unstable planets. The film shows the boring side of space travel we don't always see in movies and tries to pair it with some pretty funny situations.

All I can really say about this film is I'm glad this isn't as good as it gets. There are plenty of people out there who love this movie, or so I hear, but I am not one of them. There are a few funny moments, especially the dialog between one of the astronauts and a talking bomb, but it wasn't really enough to keep my interest. To be fair, I was pretty tired when I watched this so maybe I should try again when I'm more awake, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. The script was co-written by Carpenter and the recently late Dan O'Bannon (who also plays Sgt. Pinback) and evidently he took the idea of the alien in this film, which is a painted beach ball with clawed feet, and turned it into the horror/sci-fi epic Alien.

I would really only recommend this film to die hard sci-fi, O'Bannon or Carpenter fans. The DVD release is not the best transfer and is unfortunately non-anamorphic, but at least it's only $10. Pick it up right here.

The House of the Devil - 2009 - Dir: Ti West
Location: The Comfort of My House - VHS!

I went to see Ti West's first feature, The Roost, at a theater back in 2005. I didn't really enjoy it, but I also don't remember much about it now. After seeing his newest entry I'll definitely be revisiting it, as well as seeing his direct-to-DVD sequel Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever (due out February 16th). In this throwback to 80s horror a college girl answers a babysitter wanted ad and soon finds out this is not your normal babysitting gig. On the night of a full lunar eclipse Samantha heads out to a large house in a rural area to learn there is no child but an elderly woman, not to mention plans for some Satanic ritual goodness.

This is an 80s horror flick in every way. While set in the great decade, you are not beaten over the head with 80s references or zany fashion but everything is fairly subdued. The film is rather slow, but watch it in the dark and you will be rewarded. West shies away from cheesy jump scares in favor of heavy atmosphere and a slow build of tension. This is the kind of horror which sticks with you and when the last act arrives it is all the more effective. Casting is great with the couple in need of a sitter played by genre veterans Tom Noonan (Robocop 2, Manhunter, The Monster Squad) and Mary Woronov (Chopping Mall, Night of the Comet, Death Race 2000). There is even a cameo in the first scene by the one and only Dee Wallace from such epic greatness as E.T., The Howling and Cujo.

I know it's only January, but this already has my vote for home release gimmick of the year. Sure there will be tons of special editions in 2010 but no other film will come out and try to further capture that 80s charm than getting an old school big-box VHS release! And if they do, we'll all know they copied this. Everything on this box, from the faux "New Release" sticker to the caution warning on the back, takes me back to wandering the aisles of my local mom-n-pop video shop. There is even a Gorgon Video label, and intro. 80s horror nerdgasm! I also like that for this VHS they did the retro thing where it's in widescreen for the opening credits and then switches to full frame. It has been years since I've watched a film that did this and I was giddy the entire time.

I will definitely be buying this on DVD, or Blu, when it comes out on February 2nd. You can pick it up on Amazon in either Blu-Ray, standard DVD, or the awesome DVD/VHS combo pack!


Pandorum - 2009 - Dir: Christian Alvart
Location: The Comfort of My House - Blu

Missed it in theaters because of poor reviews. Decided I would check it out at the dollar theater and that didn't happen either. Finally saw it at home on Blu and wish I would have gone to the dollar theater because I liked it. Just didn't like it enough for full price. The idea is great, with a couple of crew members waking up on a spaceship without any memory of what is going on and no one around to tell them. They piece together that this ship was carrying 60,000 humans to a new planet to colonize, but something went wrong. From there Corporal Bower (Ben Foster) and Lt. Payton (Dennis Quaid) separate and Bower tries to make his way to the nuclear reactor power source so they can get power everywhere, but he finds they are not alone. There are inhuman looking creatures on the ship trying to kill him fast and furiously.

My big problem with the story is the way they split the tension between two "evils." There are the creatures but there is also the movie's namesake, pandorum is a type of psychotic breakdown due to deep space travel where the victim violently attacks those around him. The latter sounds so much more interesting than all of the quick cut, shaky cam jump scare moments with the creatures. At least the make-up FX look cool.

Aside from that I still had fun watching this. Foster has yet to disappoint me and there are some really interesting twists and turns with the story. Since the film takes place sometime after the year 2193 there is some great technology shown. My favorite is in the very beginning, a razor that has no blade but sort of incinerates the hair off Bower's face with a bright light. Yeah, I have a beard but it's still pretty damn cool.

Pandorum isn't near as good as films like Alien but really, what is? Worth the watch for some great performances and a decent horror/sci-fi excursion. Grab the Blu-Ray here, or the DVD here.

The 400 Blows - 1959 - Dir: François Truffaut
Location: The Comfort of My House - Criterion Blu-Ray

Here is one of those movies I saw the cover art for on the Criterion DVD release for so long I just had to see it eventually. I had no real idea what it was about, save for the brief description read on the box, or why I should see it other than it was Truffaut's first film, one of the beginnings of the French New Wave cinematic movement and Criterion gave it a release. This is usually a strong indicator. Doesn't mean I will love every Criterion release I see, but they are there for a reason. Well, except maybe for Armageddon or Chasing Amy. Why they hell were they given the time of day with this company?

I was pleasantly surprised by everything this film has to offer and really glad I finally took the time to watch it with the new Blu-Ray release. I think the original French title suites the film much better that what we Americans are given. Les qautre cents coups is a form of a French idiom meaning "to raise hell," and that is exactly what our main character does. Antoine is not the best brightest student but he also deals with mostly unresponsive and oblivious parents. It's not that he gets away with everything they are just oblivious to what he, or any child for that matter, needs. Based much on Truffaut's actual childhood we see the young man running away and turning to petty crimes and theft to get by. Eventually he is caught when trying to right some wrongs on his part and that's when things really turn grim for Antoine.

This film has a lot to say about a child's view of life and what he would do left to his own devices. I could go on at length talking about the significance of certain scenes but that would do a disservice to any of you who have yet to see this milestone film. Don't worry about it being all too serious there are plenty of light hearted moments to induce laughter. Many of these revolve around Antoine in school and his mischievous classmates, like a great scene involving all the boys running through the streets with a coach and they each peel off from the group unbeknown to the whistle blowing adult at the head of the crew.

While I haven't seen anything else by Truffaut he shows great promise here and I hear it only gets better. Not to mention that the exploits of Antoine are revisited by Truffaut over the next twenty years in a short and three more features, and Jean-Pierre Léaud plays him every time. I will definitely be checking these films out in the future.

I highly recommend film lovers check out The 400 Blows. Not only is it a milestone but a wonderful story as well. Pick up the Criterion Blu-Ray here, or the DVD here. You can also get the Criterion set with all of the films about Antoine here.


This is America, Part II - 1977 - Dir: Romano Vanderbes
Location: The Comfort of My House

Alright here's another one you probably won't be able to find very easily and it's a shame because it's awesome! This is an American mondo film full of 70s underground insanity. For those who don't know, mondo films are basically exploitation documentaries. They mostly started with the Italian film Mondo Cane (1962) and they show weird and, sometimes, unimaginable practices around the world with the intention to shock. Many of the early films in the Italian mondo series relied heavily on depicting the torturing and death of animals. Some like the Shocking Asia series (which I finally have all of and will soon be re-watching the first couple and finally seeing the others) show you a side of the continent you've never seen.

Luckily, this American made series does not have the harsh death but it focuses more on zany things and sex. After I watched the first in the series of three I was blown away by all the awesome contained. While the second film is not as good as its predecessor it still packs plenty of laughs and jaw-dropping moments. There are pet hotels, nude car washes, male strippers, fatty chasers, disco clubs with Jell-O bathing, S&M gear manufacturers and an electrocution. Each one of these is just as ridiculous as it sounds, but you just cannot stop watching. One of my favorite parts is a bunch of women eating at an erotic bakery. I couldn't stop laughing.

All of this is narrated with the very serious sounding voice of Norman Rose. You may not know him by name but he was a famous voice-over guy who is probably best known for many of the Jaun Valdez coffee commercials. The words he reads and the voice in which they are read only add to the hilarity.

Can't wait to watch the third in the series, made years later in 1990.

Daybreakers - 2009 – Dir: Michael Spierig & Peter Spierig
Location: Regal Galaxy 10

I know most everyone out there, horror fans or not, are sick to death of vampires. They are all over the place. While they are not my favorite horrific creature I do like them so I’m sad to see so many teenage girls going goo-goo over these sparkly daytime walking vampires who just whine like emos. Whatever happened to vampires who sink their teeth into the jugular and kill people? The Spierig Brothers decided to try and answer that with their newest film.

In Daybreakers we are now in the year 2019. The world is overrun with vampires and only about five percent of the human population remains in hiding. Military are sent out in search of humans because their blood is becoming increasingly rare. When they are captured they are brought to an evil corporation run by Sam Neil where they farm the blood from them like milk from cows. Ethan Hawke is a hematologist working for said company trying to come up with a substitute, because lack of blood turns the vampires into a sort of primal bat-like state and they will kill anything.

That’s about all of the plot I want to give away without any kind of spoilers. I really wanted to love this movie. I was one of the few people to love the brothers’ last, and only other, film Undead and with all they accomplished on practically no budget I figured they would do great things here. At times they did, but I rolled my eyes about dozen too many times. There are so many plot holes and just common sense problems that it makes no sense. For all the intelligence the vamps show not one person mentioned breeding the humans? That is the easiest solution to their problem and they already have them captured. All they have to do is build some test tube babies and plant them in some women and then they could grow their own blood. Either that or call the Japanese guys who created the bottled True Blood, heh.

I’m not a big fan of Hawke and he did not convert me here. Willem Defoe is a great actor and he was just completely wasted here, mainly by really lame dialog. I understand if he was supposed to be a sort of comic relief but they have him spewing cheesy one-liners every few minutes. It gets old real fast. A review I heard sad they should have put Defoe in the Sam Neil role and I completely agree.

I do love the vampire run world. Quick glimpses at school zone signs in effect from 2am -3am is great as is the daytime driving mode on cars. If they would have spent more time on seeing this world in everyday running I would have been much more interested. Some of the FX were great and they don’t skimp on the gore or violence which I was happy to see. It’s just not enough. Unfortunately, though I loved certain ideas, it was an overall “meh” for me. Wait for DVD.


Count Dracula - 1970 - Dir: Jess Franco
Location: The Comfort of My House

I wanted to find something to bridge the gap between the two theatrical films of the day. Just finished a vampire flick and was going to a blaxploitation throwback, the obvious choice is Blacula but, alas, I don't have that one (this will be remedied). Then I thought I could either watch some blaxploitation or a vampire film. While trying to decide it hit me to watch a vampire movie from the 70s. This would qualify since Black Dynamite is made in the vein for 70s cinema. On my "to watch" shelf was this Jess Franco gem from 1970 and it was the only one I could find. I could swear I had Dracula A.D. 1972, but I guess I was wrong.

This film takes the usual Bram Stoker tale and the plot does not really waver from that line. The good things about this version are those involved. Christopher Lee as the Count is always a pleasure and Herbert Lom (Clouseau's boss Chief Dreyfus in The Pink Panther films) makes a wonderful Van Helsing. But stealing the show in the role of Renfield is Klaus Kinski, who would go on to play the titular role in Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre nine years later. Overall the film does have some problems but it with its level of faithfulness to the source material, great acting and one of the creepiest taxidermied animal sequences I would recommend it to fans of the Count. Those who know of Franco should note this has no sex and nudity, so don't expect it just because it has his named attached. PIck up Dark Sky Film's DVD release here.


Black Dynamite - 2009 – Dir: Scott Sanders
Location: Inwood Theater – Midnight Madness

Hell yes! This is a film I’ve heard about for quite some time and was happy to see we were getting a midnight theatrical screening a few weeks before the DVD release. The plot is easy enough Black Dynamite’s younger brother is murdered and now he must get to the bottom of the smack dealers to clean up the streets. All of this is done in the vein of 70s Blaxploitation films and done very well. Just watch the red band trailer here (I tried to embed but for some reason it wasn't working).

Like I should even need to say anything else after you have seen that. This was absolutely amazing! People think it is really easy to create an intentionally cheesy flick, but it’s much harder than it looks. I’ve watched a ton of recent films which try their hand at this type of thing and fail miserably. Luckily for us, this movie gets it right in every respect. At times I completely forgot I was watching a recently made film. The look, feel and sounds are straight out of the 70s low budget fare we genre film geeks love. The theater was packed and everyone was laughing hysterically throughout the entire film.

Michael Jai White plays Black Dynamite and he is a bad mother. But he’s not the only great actor in the film, and by great I mean awful on purpose. There are some great supporting roles played by Tommy Davidson, Arsenio Hall, Miguel Núñez (Return of the Living Dead), Brian McKnight and many others. White also wrote the screenplay along with Sanders and Byron Minns who plays Bullhorn, BD’s always rhyming friend (no doubt an homage to Rudy Ray Moore).

Even the look of the film is perfect. They don’t really go overboard with film grain or distortion but when you look at it you wouldn’t guess it was filmed in present day. I hope when I get the DVD they have a lot of info on making this film.

Out of the three films I saw on this day (the other two being posted above this) Black Dynamite is definitely my favorite. The movie by itself is greatness but the fun shared with the rest of the crowd and seeing it on the big screen add to my newfound infatuation. Even the last fifteen minutes that go into a whole new direction of insanity are great. I would say more, but you really need to experience it for yourself to truly appreciate and understand. There is plenty of nudity, action, jive talkin’ and kung-fu to satiate everyone. Pre-order, release date February 16th, the Blu-Ray here, or the DVD here, you dig?

Time to broaden your cinematic horizons again with a film that has been out-of-print for quite a long while. It came out during the teen film craze of the 80s to fuse teens, comedy and horror all together. It is much closer to Teen Wolf than Return of the Living Dead but that does not mean it is not great. AT least it's not Twilight. If you have not seen this in a long time, never watched, never heard of it or just would like to hear what I have to say - read on for my comments.

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In the eighties there was a rush of the teen sex comedy. Plenty of randy teenagers trying to lose their virginity at any cost could never run out of plots, especially when they began to mix genres. The young virginal boy is seduced by vampire and slowly turns into a member of the undead family. No, I'm not talking about Jim Carrey in Once Bitten. Though the plot does have some similarity to that of 1988's My Best Friend is a Vampire.

While delivering groceries one day Jeremy (Robert Sean Leonard) meets a curious woman who seems to want him rather badly. When he goes back he is bitten in the act of making love after being interrupted by who he thinks is the woman's husband. Actually it is Professor Leopold McCarthy (David Warner) and his bumbling sidekick Grimsdyke (Paul Wilson) - vampire hunters. Over the next couple of days strange things happen like his lust for protein, more specifically blood, and he seems to be followed everywhere. Soon it becomes apparent that he is indeed a vampire. While he tries to woo the girl he has a crush on, Darla (Cheryl Pollak), he has to deal with his newfound immortality and try not to catch a stake through the heart from McCarthy.

What you have to love about movies from the eighties is the complete lack of reasoning. Not to say this still does not occur in film today, it just seemed a bit more prevalent in comedies twenty years ago. When Jeremy does not see his reflection in the mirror he does not freak out like one would think, instead he says, aloud, that the mirror must be broken. What kind of reasoning is this? A few minutes later in the flick he meets Darla's parents (Kathy Bates plays her mom) before their date the dad takes a couple of Polariods of the happy couple. After they leave he sees that only his daughter is in the picture and thinks the camera must be broken. Nevermind that where Jeremy was standing you can see everything behind him crystal clear, sometimes when cameras break they just see through certain people.

However, the aforementioned illogical thinking does not take away from this film. This comedic look at becoming a teenage vampire is not to be taken too seriously. While the script is not perfect it has just the right amount of horror and comedy elements to make it something fans of both genres can enjoy. Comedy fans will not be turned off by gore or scares, but the normal vampiric conventions will surely satiate horror fans. It has probably been quite a while since anyone has seen this, save for late night cable, since it has been out-of-print for some time. The performances are decent by the majority, though some smaller characters could use some work. Veteran actor Rene Auberjonois has a part as a sort of vampire trainer to Jeremy. Auberjonois, along with Warner round elevate the cast, while Paul Wilson's (who played the barfly Paul on Cheers) over-the-top cheesy performance drops the films credibility a few points. All in all it evens out to your everyday eighties flick.

After seeing this on video, and a few years ago on cable I have been wanting a copy and luckily Lionsgate has made this a reality. MBFIAV is part of The Lost Collection they have recently started to release. A series of never released movies in most every genre that are light on pretty much everything. The only bonus feature here is a trivia track, they did not even include a trailer. When was the last time you bought a DVD that did not have the trailer? I thought it was a standard issue kind of thing. The biggest complaint about this release, and most of the others in Lionsgate's new series, has to be the bonehead decision to make this the full screen presentation. That's right, not even the option of the widescreen. At least the prices are low, around ten bucks, and the fans will probably want this in their collection. The Lost Collection is a great thing I just hope on the next wave of releases, if there are any, they give us more extras and a better transfer.

I'm not sure how many of you who read my blog share my taste in movies. I know a number of you are into horror, but some of the weirder offerings may be lost to some of you. This is why I have decided to periodically post a review of sorts on some, possibly, little know film or just something I think you should see. We'll start it all off with a little Italian 70s sexploitation.

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I'll start off by saying this is not a movie for everyone. I know the title, Malabimba - The Malicious Whore sounds innocent enough, but this is no kid's movie. Italian director Andrea Bianchi (credited here as Andrew White) is no stranger to the sleazy sexploitation genre, or to having completely awesome titles for his film, having already directed the 1975 giallo Strip Nude for Your Killer. With Malabimba Bianchi manages to take a borrowed plot, sex it up and make it oddly entertaining and even watchable.

A young girl known as Bimba is possessed after a séance is conducted within the castle in which she lives. This turns the normal happy sixteen year old into a sex hungry beast. She lives here with her recently widowed father, some assorted relatives and a nun caretaker. They are all shocked by the strange things the young girl is doing, and people end up dying. Aunt Nais cannot keep her hands of Bimba's father as she witnesses while spying on their trysts. Doctors cannot find anything wrong with the girl and things just get worse, so the nun agrees to take over caring for the girl.

That is the basic plot, though it is hard to express the trashiness in words. I guess you could just say it is The Exorcist with a ton of full frontal nudity, that is probably more accurate. The connections between the two films are very clear. Bimba even disrupts a party, though instead of urinating on the rug she reveals her naked body to the room full of people. There have been quite a few rip-offs of The Exorcist, sleaze or otherwise, but this one manages to keep a relatively good group of actors and production value.

Let's be honest. If you want to know anything at all about this film it is not the plot. I'll get right to the sleaze. There are extended scenes of sexual gratification of all types. If they were to be removed from the movie the 85 minute running time would probably drop to just over an hour. Even though there is a hardcore XXX version of the flick, where all of the sex scenes go to full penetration, this is sleazy enough and does not go too far off the scale. That is not to say some of the scenes are a little ridiculous. There is a scene where Bimba, a very attractive young actress named Katell Laennec in her only role, pleasures herself with a teddy bear and stabs a phallic candle in its crotch for all to see. Bimba also kills a bedridden relative while giving him some oral pleasure, a very interesting scene. All of you nun fans will not be disappointed when Bimba and her nun (played by Mariangela Giordano, who also is in a very similar film a few years later called La Bimba di Satana) have some "fun" together in which the demon is transferred. This is much like what happens with Regan and Father Karras, if they were lesbians of course.

This disc from Severin Films includes a theatrical trailer, some deleted scenes (which can be included back into the film) that look to be ripped from a VHS somwhere and a sixteen minute look back at the film with Giordano and cinematographer Franco Villa. This film holds up rather well as a sleazy demonic possession film and fans of Jess Franco or Joe D'Amato will not be disappointed.