A Fortnight of Terror: All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
I thought I would throw a couple of live tweet reviews in this Fortnight of Terror to mix things up a bit. After The IPC suggested it would be “greatness” if I did a live tweet review of All The Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006), I thought that was a pretty good place to start. Here is how it turned out. Share your thoughts on the film in the comments section below.
Over this fortnight, you have the chance to win an as yet unconfirmed (but definitely choice) prize courtesy of Madman Entertainment, so be sure to get liking and commenting to go into the draw.
Like what you read? Then please like Not Now I’m Drinking a Beer and Watching a Movie on facebook here and follow me on twitter @beer_movie.
A Fortnight of Terror: Sixty Second Slashers
I recently stumbled across the Sixty Second Slashers Youtube account and have been having some fun checking out their work. So I thought I would share the love with you guys, thought some of you might get a kick out of it.
Many (but by no means all) great short films are just a single idea executed really well. Sixty Second Slashers takes that notion as far as it will go by delivering, you guessed it, slasher films that take place in a single minute. It is a great concept, to strip away all the artifice and just get these genre flicks right back to their core. I am not really sure who the folks behind the series of films are, but they really know their stuff cause the production values are pretty spot on.
Occasionally it does not entirely work. That is to be expected when you pin all your hopes on a single idea. When that one idea is not as sharp as it could be the film obviously suffers. There is a comedic slant to most of the films, which occasionally hits but definitely misses on occasions. But more often than not, these guys pull their concept off pretty well and there is some fun to be had watching these.
Enough of my rambling, here are my top three Sixty Second Slashers (there are currently 11 of these up on their Youtube account as well as a longer, The ABCs of Death 2 entry). Let me know what you think of these in the comments section below.
#3: Final Girl – This one actually manages to pack a fair bit of story into a very short package.
#2: Broken Fantasy – There is a cool tone to this one. It is light, but doesn’t feel the need to go OTT with the comedy.
#1: Back to the Post-Apocalypse – My favourite of the lot, and a good illustration of the power of a single good idea – in this case, a skype slasher.
Over this fortnight, you have the chance to win an as yet unconfirmed (but definitely choice) prize courtesy of Madman Entertainment, so be sure to get liking and commenting to go into the draw. Check out all the details here.
Like what you read? Then please like Not Now I’m Drinking a Beer and Watching a Movie on facebook here and follow me on twitter @beer_movie.
A Fortnight of Terror Guest Post: James Wan… Boo!
The first guest post for this week comes from Jon Fisher, a very good friend of mine. Here he turns his focus onto the fantastic young Australian horror director James Wan.
Horror has always enjoyed a love/hate relationship with movie audiences. Because of their cost-effectiveness and inbuilt audience (hardcore fans and teenagers), in any given year there’s guaranteed to be a dozen or more horror titles. Most of them are made on autopilot, with plots and characters cobbled together from any number of clichés. Some are more memorable, tapping into humans’ natural trepidation with things that fall into the Uncanny Valley – events or beings that confuse our brain as to whether or not danger is present or not. The most enjoyable and interesting horror films try to present the supernatural as living exclusively in the Uncanny Valley. Inanimate objects that appear to move of their own accord, malevolent demons that come from somewhere… else, with dubious motivations; bumps in the night, in short, spook the hell out of us.
In the era before movies (and certainly before the era of modern Western hyper-rationality), ghost stories were widely believed, and even specific locations avoided by communities because of the supernatural mischief-makers supposedly lurking within. (I once stayed in a country town in which seemingly all of the town’s 3,000-strong population would change their route to avoid walking past an old mansion in which they swear any entrant would receive what they called a ‘ghost-massage’).
Rationality, of course, ruins the fun. Every time any thinking person hears a so-called ‘expert’ in a horror movie babble on about the occult as if there was a body of empirical evidence to back up what they’re saying, the illusion is busted. Think of the ghost hunter in Paranormal Activity (2007), who floats in and out of the haunted house with the air of a prize-winning economist. The challenge of making a really good horror movie is to present material that is, innately, completely irrational, and yet still manage to convince audiences that it’s creepy.
The films of James Wan are informed by all of this – a deep familiarity with the Uncanny Valley, an appreciation for the schlock and inherent silliness of the horror genre, as well as an understanding that such subject material, if treated the right way, can engage audiences as well as creep them out. And that is, truly, what Wan’s films try to do – give us the creeps. It’s regrettable that his breakthrough hit Saw (2004) is seen as the film that ushered in the filthy torture-porn renaissance of the middle of last decade, because Saw relied far more on manipulation of the human psyche than on explicit torture.
After a dodgy middle period (including Dead Silence (2007) which bordered on self-parody), James Wan has been active again over the last two years, with Insidious (2011) and The Conjuring (2013) arriving in relatively quick succession. The films act as sort of companion pieces to each other. Both are about a young family moving into a classic haunted house, full of high-ceilinged bedrooms, secret passageways, ominous basements and an endless supply of nooks and crannies. Both movies linger ever-so-slightly on the ‘technical’ gibberish that surrounds ghost whispering and paranormal investigation (the sombre lectures given by Ed and Lorraine Warren in The Conjurer, the humorous squirting machine methodically employed by Leigh Whanell’s character in Insidious). The Conjuring even discloses to us, in the pre-credits, that it is ‘based on the true story’, although it’s not clear if it means that in a Coen Brothers Fargo sense or a Texas Chainsaw Massacre sense.
I’m not aware of whether James Wan believes in ghosts or if he just believes in ghost movies. Regardless, he approaches the material with a plethora of enthusiasm and verve. His manipulation of the Uncanny Valley is first-rate – the weird prologue of The Conjuring about a possessed doll; a game of ‘hide-and-clap’ in which a poltergeist decides to mess with the homeowner.
Occasionally Wan’s work is amusingly derivative (i.e. the toothless crone waiting on top of a dresser), other times it is outstandingly stylish – the final shot of The Conjuring, for instance, is tense, suspenseful, and beautifully timed. Much of the set-up of Insidious is artfully crafted. Sometimes, though, Wan almost ratchets the tension up too high; so high that the scene can’t be resolved satisfactorily. Take, for instance, the slow-burning scene in The Conjuring in which a child wakes up his sibling, insisting that something is standing next to the door. The scene builds and builds beautifully, but how does it end? With nothing more than the slam of a door.
Which highlights another issue with Wan’s films; the repetition. Maybe there just isn’t enough meat on the bones of his screenplays to warrant a two-hour feature. Wan injects both Insidious and The Conjurer with at least the semblance of an emotional arc, but usually the relationships between the characters are suggested rather than explored. We understand the sentiment in The Conjurer when Ed tells Lorraine he can’t let her join him in an exorcism because of the danger posed, but only in an abstract sense. Ditto the pain that Josh Lambert feels in Insidious about his family’s crumbling dynamics, so much so to the point he returns late at night just to avoid them.
In the midst of all that, there are sequences in Insidious and The Conjuring that work on their own terms so well. Are such moments worth the price of admission? Do our expectations of how much movies can achieve emotionally automatically lower simply because they belong to the genre of horror?
Viewers probably know if they are likely to enjoy a James Wan movie. Those who won’t find anything to enjoy in his work are probably the sort of person who hates any sort of horror film. But for those that are willing to suspend some disbelief, to give the material a chance and who have a relatively firm constitution, movies like Insidious and The Conjuring are a breath of fresh air compared to the dreck of horror movies normally shoved down the general public’s collective throat. All else aside, it is fair to state that if you are a squeamish person, James Wan makes movies that are likely to make you squeam.
Jon formerly wrote The Film Brief website and hosted a podcast of the same name (with me as his co-host). You can now find Jon’s latest work at Wide Angle Iris, a site he runs with the talented Rollie Schott. Be sure to check out their stuff over at that site.
Also don’t forget that over this fortnight, you have the chance to win an as yet unconfirmed (but definitely choice) prize courtesy of Madman Entertainment, so be sure to get liking and commenting to go into the draw. Check out all the details here.
A Fortnight of Terror: The ABCs of Death
Anthology films are a strange beast. They allow for short sharp bursts of inspiration, but are also at the mercy of their weakest parts.
As far as ideas for anthology films go, the one for The ABCs of Death (2012) is pretty exceptional. 26 different directors were each given a letter of the alphabet and a $5,000 budget (so when you think of it, this is an exceptionally cheap feature length film that I suspect has made its budget back many times over). They were then given the artistic freedom to come up with a form of death starting with their assigned letter.
The end result is perhaps unsurprisingly, patchy. I thought with this review, I would institute a highly innovative and new patented rating system for each short of Awesome, Decent and Rubbish. After the short individual reviews, I will give some thoughts on how I feel the film functions as a whole. Here we go.
- A is for Apocalypse (Nacho Vigalondo) – A relatively funny little experience with unfortunately terrible special effects. A silly final twist that falls flat is unfortunately the first of quite a few. Decent
- B is for Bigfoot (Adrian Garcia Bogliano) – Cool old school conceit of telling a child a scary story to make them go to sleep (for the purposes of having a youthful root rather than getting them to sleep on Christmas Eve though). Story is really wordy and the ending of this one is not just stupid, it fails to connect the film to the title. Rubbish
- C is for Cycle (Ernesto Diaz Espinoza) – One of the more experimental films in form is also one of the better ones. None of the other 25 build tension as well as this one. Plus any film with a mysterious portal is more than fine with me. Awesome
- D is for Dogfight (Marcel Sarmiento) – This takes place in a nicely shot (all slow-mo) underground fighting ring. This is a personal thing, but I really don’t like films that present animals in this way and I thought it was a bit nasty. A nice little twist ending doesn’t hide the fact there is no ability to fashion a story here. Rubbish
- E is for Exterminate (Angela Bettis) – An interesting look at the passage of time is wasted by an annoyingly CGI spider and poor acting all round. Rubbish
- F is for Fart (Noboru Iguchi) – Surprisingly this is actually even more crass and immature than the title suggests. A sprinkling of lesbian desire is thrown in to add to the feeling that a 14 year old boy made this. Disgusting. Rubbish
- G is for Gravity (Andrew Traucki) – The Aussie Traucki gets things back on track with one of the artier shorts. Shot from a cool first person point of view and making use of some beautiful beach scenery more than cancels out an oblique ending. Awesome
- H is for Hydro-Electric Diffusion (Thomas Malling) – It is hard to hate something this absurdist. It is also hard to make something this absurdist truly work and connect. A gentleman’s club for dogs. Featuring a cat… and Nazis. This shit is both whack and whimsical. Decent
- I is for Ingrown (Jorge Michel Grau) – No absurdist fun here, this is dark, troubling and atmospheric. Whilst it is hard to watch it is also really nicely put together and thought provoking (the latter attribute is something quite lacking in these shorts, even amongst the ones I enjoyed). Awesome
- J is for Jidai-geki (Samurai Movie) (Yûdai Yamaguchi) – This is really quite funny and does not go all out stupid on the comedy like some of the others. The very cool effects don’t hurt either. Decent
- K is for Klutz (Anders Morgenthaler) – Oh excellent, some constipation and shit to go along with the earlier farting. An annoying cartoon with poor animation. Rubbish
- L is for Libido (Timo Tjahjanto) – And this is where the film as a whole really lost me. I generally am not offended by films, but I found this short to be offensive. It wasn’t just enough that I had real issues with the way it approaches notions of beauty and desire. The use of paedophilia here makes it one of the most confronting things I have seen on film. When you shock, you need to be incisive in some way or you are just being manipulative and tasteless. That is what this one is, and I just wanted it to be over. Rubbish
- M is for Miscarriage (Ti West) – My above comment about being incisive rings true for this as well. Miscarriage is such a sensitive topic for so many people and I don’t think this is respectful of that. At this point, the reliance on body style horror was really getting tiresome. Rubbish
- N is for Nuptials (Banjong Pisanthanakun) – Starting with a super sweet proposal, this one is actually pretty funny and manages to embrace sex in a humorous way. I’m not sure it’s a horror film though. Decent
- O is for Orgasm (Bruno Forzani & Héléne Cattet) – So beautifully shot it could be the Terrence Malick entry. O is also for obscure as shit though. Decent
- P is for Pressure (Simon Rumley) – This has a really gritty, ‘street’ feel to it. A prostitute looking to provide for her family. This is another really confronting one, but at least here there is a semblance of commentary. And the way that the film represents the title is the best of the lot. Decent
- Q is for Quack (Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett) – This is a really quite hilarious and meta entry into the anthology. Analyses the process that goes into making one of these segments. Very clever and incisive. My favourite of them all. Awesome
- R is for Removed (Srdjan Spasojevic) – This is a really graphic entry that is one of many to tap into the whole notion of spectatorship. Combining gross body horror with allusions to film and managing to look really great for the budget, it is just a little let down by the rubbish effects shot that concludes the film. Decent
- S is for Speed (Jake West) – Woah the acting in this is terrible. However this actually ends up having one of the most powerful stories of the lot, delivered through a really well crafted narrative. Decent
- T is for Toilet (Lee Hardcastle) – Not sure you can go wrong with a claymation short about a killer toilet. The animation looks great and it is awesomely graphic. The only thing it really has going for it is the animation. But that one thing is really fantastic. Awesome
This one has also been posted on Youtube by the director so check it out here:
- U is for Unearthed (Ben Wheatley) – This is another that uses a first person shooting style to great effect. The style really adds to the action and sense of mystery, whilst also probably helping to keep the budget down. Decent
- V is for Vagitus (The Cry of a Newborn Baby) (Kaare Andrews) – Very high concept (for the budget at least) sci-fi entry. A bummer then that the story is just severely lacking for what they were aiming for. Rubbish
- W is for WTF! (Jon Schnepp) – Another self-reflexive one sees different W ideas being tossed around. To be reflexive like that without being pretentious is tough to do, but this manages it. Does get a little too all over the shop though. Decent
- X is for XXL (Xavier Gens) – With its very visceral scenes of overeating this is another challenging one. The main performance is very good. And the bloody and brutal approach does not stop the film having some pertinent things to say about body image. Decent
- Y is for Youngbuck (Jason Eisener) – A Klaus Kinski rip-off in something looking like a music video. But a really fucked up and crap one from the 80s. Rubbish
- Z is for Zetsumetsu (Yoshihiro Nishimura) – More of this notion of the spectator on voyeur. But this one is overwhelmed buy being nonsensical and graphic. Boobs, dildos and lesbian pashing to appeal to the teens. Rubbish
Overall I think it is fair to label The ABCs of Death as a pretty big disappointment. Whilst the early entries were definitely lacking on occasions, there was actually enough wit, originality and fun in the ideas to win me over. However after the nastiness of L is for Libido and to a lesser extent M is for Miscarriage, the film lost a lot of goodwill with me. There is a lot to like here. If you are able to find the films individually, then I would really recommend that you seek out the films I rated as Awesome or even Decent. Save yourself the trouble on the others though which are really quite poor and at times offensive. Which is a shame, because even for all its faults there is a lot to applaud here. Not the least of which is a relatively global list of directors, locations and cultures captured, which is a really pleasant surprise and helps to add some texture to the film as a whole. Hopefully The ABCs of Death 2, which is due next year, can improve some of the quality control issues this film has.
Verdict: Schooner of Carlton Draught
Over this fortnight, you have the chance to win an as yet unconfirmed (but definitely choice) prize courtesy of Madman Entertainment, so be sure to get liking and commenting to go into the draw.
Like what you read? Then please like Not Now I’m Drinking a Beer and Watching a Movie on facebook here and follow me on twitter @beer_movie.
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