Scorsese Scary Movies...

God- I haven't seen half of these.  Adding to the Netflix right now:
The Uninvited
The Entity
Dead of Night
Night of the Demon

Watching The Innocents tonight.  Review to come soon.  Check out Marty's picks at:
 http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-10-28/martin-scorseses-top-11-horror-films-of-all-time/
Yes, I love Val Lewton too.

Wolf Creek

Wolf Creek, the Australian horror film that was released in 2005, is as brutal and disturbing as you may have heard.  No, I am not going all Roger Ebert on this -- I thought it was brilliant and scary.  After seeing a series of "fun" horror films (you know what I am talking about) and documentaries I was ready for a hard and dirty pic.  I got what I wished for with Wolf Creek.

"Based" on true events (the Backpacker murders from the 1990s and the murder of Peter Falconio in 2001), Wolf Creek, on the surface, is a typical slasher film.  Three backpackers get lost and are soon being hunted by a maniac killer.  The difference here is the setting, the Australian outback, the victims, three likable people that I wanted to see live, and the killer, who doesn't let his sense of humor overshadow the fact that he is a menacing, scary son of a bitch.  Director Greg Mclean gives us a slow build, allowing the audience time to get to know the backpackers.  Two Brits, Kristy and Liz, hook up with Australian stud Ben.  They decide to travel together to Wolf Creek, the site of a meteorite impact.  Returning from the site they find that their car won't start.  As they prepare to spend the night hunkered down, a man approaches with a tow truck.  He offers to help the trio fix their car, but first he must tow it back to his ranch.  As you can imagine, bad things happen.

Really bad things, like spines being severed and fingers cut off.  The backpacker that we are led to believe will be the "Final Girl" does the typical "investigating" to establish the fact that the kindly tow truck driver has done this sort of thing before.  Before you can say "They are Fucked" the blood starts to flow.  This film is more brutal than gory, if that makes any kind of sense.  We like the victims, and we "think" we like the tow truck driver as well, even though we know all along he is up to no good.  He is funny and has some great one liners.  But when the killing starts it is almost like he turns on us, the audience.  His is sadistic and relentless.  It is not funny at all.

The ending is quite interesting. There is one survivor, and what happens to the survivor directly relates to the Falconio case.  Also, the exact fate of one of the victims is not clear, although it can't be good.  It is set up for a sequel, but I really hope there isn't one.  As much as I enjoyed (?) this film, I really don't want to spend anymore time with this particular bad guy.  He is too real and scary, just like this film.  Highly recommended.

NYC: Jekyll and Hyde Club

I didn't have a whole lot of free time while I was in New York, but I did make time to visit the Jekyll and Hyde Club.  They seriously need an outpost in San Francisco.

If they had skee ball it would be just perfect.

Coming Soon: Wolf Creek

Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy

If you have an afternoon to kill, and I mean a whole afternoon because this thing felt like it was 7 hours long, you could do worse than watching Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy.  This 4 (!) hour long documentary was put together by the same guys that did His Name was Jason, the Friday the 13th documentary that actually had me re-watching all the original films.  Never Sleep Again will have you busting out your old VHS tapes as well.  The filmmakers painstakingly revisit every film in the Elm Street series, including Freddy vs. Jason.  They wisely ignore the craptastic recent remake.

Narrated and produced by the original Nancy, Heather Langenkamp, Never Sleep Again was a trip down memory lane, not only for those involved in making the films, but for myself as well.  Freddy films were a staple at the slumber parties of my youth, with The Dream Warriors being a particular favorite.  I was too young to realize that A Nightmare on Elm Street Part II: Freddy's Revenge was as gay as a Liza Minnelli concert.  The screenwriter of this particular gem did, and although the rest of the participants claim to have had no idea about the subtext, it is glaringly obvious when you watch it!  This was perhaps my favorite revelation of the documentary. 

Thanks to this documentary I have an excuse to buy this collection!  Now I need to go back to bed.  I am still jet-lagged from my trip to New York, but soon I will be posting pics from the Jekyll and Hyde Club in NYC.  It's like Chuck E. Cheese for horror fanatics.

ZAM on Hiatus

I am headed to the Big City this week!  For work.  A full week of "Team Building" exercises and "Coaching Tips."  That is truly a week of horror.  Will return with an insightful review of Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy.  I was hoping to get it done before I left, but I am still watching the damn thing.  It's like 6 hours long!

May

True confession: I have been putting off seeing May for a couple of years.  I have heard so much about the film and there is so much hype surrounding it, that I was worried that it would be a disappointment, much like Grace and Ginger Snaps. See, I had heard about those films quite frequently as well, and they were highly recommended to me. I don't know if they were recommended because I am woman and a horror addict, but it was almost expected that I would like them.  I didn't.  I could barely sit through Grace and I only have vague memories of Ginger Snaps.  I just knew I never wanted to see them, or in the case of Ginger Snaps, any of their sequels again. Grace was just too serious and self-important for me, and I think Ginger Snaps was just trying too hard.

I thought May would be the same way.  I was wrong (what I don't know could fill a stadium, I freely admit that).  May is all at once a sensitive, serious portrayal of one woman's alienation/descent into madness AND a dark, creepy horror film.  It works primarily because of Angela Bettis.  Her performance as May deserves a "Horror Academy Award."  May was a lonely child with a lazy eye.  Her mother, convinced that she would never have friends, gave her a doll encased in glass.  This doll became her best friend and a symbol of her growing madness.  As an adult May works as a veterinary assistant.  She is odd and awkward, but strangely beautiful.  She attracts the attention of two people.  Adam, a local mechanic played by Jeremy Sisto, and Polly, the ditsy lesbian receptionist at the veterinary clinic.  May finally has "friends".  Or at least real human connections. The film is told from May's perspective, and when these two "friends" reject her, we feel her pain.  Taking her Mother's advice, "If you can't find a friend, make one", May embarks on a project that would make Dr. Frankenstein proud.

Maybe I loved May so much because I could relate to her.  Not that I have a lazy eye or an obsession with people's body parts, but because everyone has felt rejected or awkward at some point in their lives.  Angela Bettis brings this pain so fully to life onscreen I couldn't help but be moved.  I cried at the end.  I can't remember the last time I cried during a horror film (I cried a bit during the Nightmare on Elm Street remake, but that was because it was so awful and I had paid $8 to see it).

So no, I have nothing against horror films told from a woman's point of view, or films with a feminist perspective.  They just have to be good.  Like May. 

P.S: May follows the growing trend in horror films to feature "cat trauma."  The Orange Menace, who finally agreed to watch another horror film with me, was not amused.  His parting "meow" sounded much like "Fuck this shit."