Review--Unwelcome (Jon Wright, 2022)

 

After a brutal home invasion, Jamie (Douglas Booth) and Maya (Hannah John-Kamen) move to Ireland

As I'm working on a book on Folk Horror television right now, I'm always eager to watch anything that might be categorized as Folk Horror.  Jon Wright's Unwelcome (2022) is a demented little film that I really enjoyed, as it combines home invasion, folk horror, and creature feature into a fun package.  Yes, I'm "spoiling" the film a bit by highlighting the home invasion in my caption, but this break-in provides the motivation for Maya (the always fabulous Hannah John-Kamen) and Jamie (Douglas Booth) to move into his Aunt Maeve's place in rural Ireland.  A helpful neighbor, Neve (Niamh Cusack) impresses on the couple that Maeve practiced "the old ways," and that she left a blood offering for the Redcaps nightly, in order to satisfy their hunger.  When Maya takes this information in, she finds it quaint and rather silly; she's a Londoner, so she has no clue what Irish folklore--and stories of the far darrig--might entail.  Of course, all this "discussion" gets viewers primed for the Redcaps, and inevitably, Maya forgets to put out an offering, so....

 The Whelans at work--Eion (Kristian Narn) and Aisling Whelan (Jamie-Lee O'Donnell) cause trouble

Since Maya and Jamie have a huge hole in their roof, amongst other home repair issues, they hire a local Irish family, The Whelans, to do the repairs.  Led by "Daddy" Whelan (Colm Meaney), this bunch are stereotypically scary country folk who harass the new homeowners at every turn.  This rough bunch come across as shockingly similar to the home invaders that attacked the couple at the film's beginning, and the locals are not fans either.  The Whelans bring the necessary conflict to make the heavily pregnant Maya even more terrified in her new home.  Thus far, the supernatural elements seem less threatening than the Whelans.

Maya lets her curiosity lead her into the land of the fae, behind an ancient wooden door.  Here she finds a mystical forest, and an underground series of tunnels.  She also happens to encounter Eion Whelan (Kristian Narn), an abused son of Daddy, who takes a liking to Maya and her kindness. As soon as spectators think that Maya and Eion are bonding, he takes things too far and Mays screams for help.  Suddenly and brutally, Eion is pulled off of her, and she tears out of there, running in terror back to her home.

              Maya's curiosity compels her to explore what lies behind the old cottage door

Once Jamie returns home, he finds Maya terrified, recounting the story of what happened in the forest beyond the door.  Jamie doesn't believe her, and goes off to the pub, thinking she has "baby brain."  While he's away, she has a visitor.

                                        A Redcap visits Maya while Jamie's away

The film takes a rather drastic tonal shift once we see the Redcaps for the first time, as they are rather hilarious in a Jim Henson kind of way, rather than a terrifying way...until they bring Maya a gift--Eion's head in a plastic bag.  That's around the time when the film goes bananas, and pretty much stays that way until the very end, with gallons of bloodshed, a surprise birth, a trip down to the Redcaps cave, and the anointing of a new leader for the Redcaps to worship and revere.  Makes you want to move to rural  Ireland immediately. NOT.

                                                      Blood rains down on Maya

While Unwelcome hits many familiar notes, it's the Redcaps that keep you glued to Maya and Jamie's struggle.  The film is equal parts menacing and goofy, making for a relatively light-hearted, fun watch in the end.  It's not particular frightening, but horror doesn't always have to be, especially when a film deliberately injects comedy into its veins.  Definitely worth a watch.  Unwelcome is streaming on Shudder right now.

Fantasia 2017--Game of Death--Sebastien Landry and Laurence "Baz" Morais (2017)

Teens end up playing the wrong game in Sebastien Landry and Laurence "Baz" Morais's insanely fun Game of Death (2017)

I've seen a lot of films so far at the 2017 Fantasia Film Festival, so I can be excused for getting my circuits crossed and going to the wrong film once, right?  Right?  While my plan was to see the Russian alien invasion flick Attraction (2016) at 1pm, I ended up (realizing too late to run across the street) attending Sebastien Landry and Laurence "Baz" Morais's nutso teen horror film Game of Death (2017) completely by accident.  To be frank, after watching the trailer, I had absolutely no interest in this film, and I thought it was going to be pretty dumb.  While the premise is ridiculous, it was so much FUN, that I have absolutely no regrets.  In fact, it has renewed my faith in horror comedies, which had solidified into granite after the previous night's abysmal Better Watch Out (2016), which I will not review for the sake of kindness.

The annoying Kenny is dispatched with truly awesome gore effects

The film opens w/ Beth snapchatting, instagramming, or whatever the f*** teenagers do in order to snarkily snipe at each other through social media, and her sarcastic quip about screwing her brother sets the tone: these kids are all annoying and relatively unlikeable, and I'm already eager for some of them to die.  They all gather together for a house/pool party on a nice sunny day, drinking and getting high, and what have you--parents who knows where.  I honestly cannot tell how old any of them are, but almost anyone under the age of 25 seems impossibly young.  They all think they are smarter than anyone, and are all dumb as stumps.  Therefore, they decide to play some electronically-assisted retro board game called Game of Death, just because.  As the trailer makes clear, the games rules are that they have to kill a set number of people (24) or they will all die.  Just to make sure they take things seriously, the game starts killing off the kids, claiming "one down" and laughing maniacally after each death.  Two of them die before the rest of the kids get a clue, and then homicidal impulses start to fly.  Oh, and the kills. The Kills!  Whether game induced or teen-perpetrated, the kills are just some of the most gory, ridiculous, and outright startling deaths I've seen in a while.  Granted, I tend to shy away from gore, but in Game of Death, you've got to revel in it.  Several times I turned to Alice, who was sitting beside me, and just said "wow."  Wow.

While Tyler and Ashley have reservations, brother and sister Tom and Beth enjoy the game a bit too much

Game of Death wears the descriptor "gratuitous" like a badge of honor.  Is there sex?  Of course!  A cross-cut scene of a woman experiencing oral sex while another woman gives an unnecessary-to-the-plot lapdance gets us started.  An incestuous make-out scene goes on way, way too long, and ends in a romantic shot of the "lovers" silhouetted in front of a setting sun.  The film features one of the most gorgeous and surprising animated sequences, stylizing the gore as a couple of characters go full-stop-massacre on a care home.

Some players, like Mary-ann, never quite accept that what is happening is real

From the first 10 minutes onward, everyone, and I mean everyone, is covered in blood (as a nice touch, Baz, one of the co-directors, introduced the film covered in the red stuff).  Just to be clear though, no dogs or little children were harmed during this film--which is a nice caveat; although, I did feel a loss at the murder of the lovely Marilyn, whose singing really added a nice touch to the overall tone.  Oh, and you find out a surprising amount about manatees over the course of the film.

In sum, a film that I would normally not give the slightest glance became one of my favorites of the 2017 Fantasia Film Festival, and I do recommend it if you are up for something gaggingly gory and over the top.  An IMDB reviewer claimed that the concept was great and the execution poor.  I would switch it up and say that the concept is beyond dumb (shades of reading the Necromicon in The Evil Dead--stupid kids), but the execution is witty, inventive, and that animation scene is a real standout.  Be sure to check it out if you are in the mood for some gory surprises.

Fantasia 2017--Bitch--Marianna Paralka (2017)

Writer/Director/Star Marianna Palka goes rabid in Bitch (2017)

As anyone who reads this blog knows, I am all in when it comes to women directors, and I'll try to see anything directed by women within reason.  Therefore, I was pretty damn thrilled to see the screening of Marianna Palka's Bitch at the 2017 Fantasia Film Festival, coming off some hot buzz from Sundance.  I've been sitting on my review for a couple of days, mostly because I'm a bit ambivalent about it.  I applaud Palka for making an original, frequently hilarious, sometimes touching film that shines a light on the dazzling performance skills of her ex beau, Jason Ritter.  If you are not familiar with Ritter, please see Embers, a fantastic film from last year's festival (also directed by a woman), in which he shows his more dramatic chops.  He's largely a comedic actor, who you've probably seen on either Drunk History or Another Period.  Jason Ritter rocks, and he rocks hard in Bitch.

Bill Hart (Jason Ritter) spectacularly loses his sh** in Bitch

So you are probably wondering, why the ambivalence?  I highly recommend you see Bitch, for its definitely worth your time and money, but I was a little disappointed by the tonal shift the film takes in the latter third of the narrative.  Surprisingly, IMDB's summary kind of spells it out: "The provocative tale of a woman (Marianna Palka) who snaps under crushing life pressures and assumes the psyche of a vicious dog. Her philandering, absentee husband (Jason Ritter) is forced to become reacquainted with his four children and sister-in-law (Jaime King) as they attempt to keep the family together during this bizarre crisis."

Expectations are set up here.  To some extent, the film is about a woman who, under the pressures of life placed on women, snaps and "assumes the psyche of a vicious dog"--ergo the bitch of the title.  This reaction is based on an actual case in Scotland, and in these troubled times, it's a wonder that this kind of situation doesn't happen more often.

I would snap too if these were my kids

The scenes where Palka, as Jane, "becomes a dog," angrily barking, attacking her family, smeared with her own feces, and baring her teeth, are pretty "horror movie" scary.  Many times a handheld camera assumes her dog POV and you are left rather shaken by her transformation.  Understandably, every one in the family freaks out, including her 4 out-of-control kids and her sh***y husband.  Should they commit her to an asylum or accept this change as the "new normal?"  Bill wants the latter, while Jane's family (her sister and parents) insist that she needs help he cannot give her.

Cautiously visiting Jane/Mom in the basement

Let me be clear here.  You would snap too with this home environment.  The kids are ungrateful brats that scream at each other and burden Jane with everything, and Bill is the most useless human being alive.  Seriously, Jason Ritter's Bill is a borderline cartoon villain, he's so beyond terrible.  He goes to his job everyday (at which he is terrible), cheats with a woman at work, and does not do anything to help Jane AT ALL.  He comically doesn't know how to drive their mini-van, doesn't know which schools the kids go too, and sometimes forgets their names (or that they are even in the car).  Bill's hysterical meltdowns as things go from bad to worse are comic genius, and because of Ritter's skills, you really love to hate him.

Bill is forced to become a better Dad (and husband)

Here's where the film goes awry for me.  Once Jane becomes a dog, and can no longer communicate with others, Bill has to "step it up"--and he does.  He becomes close with his kids, patient with his in-laws, loving to Jane (despite the fact that she still wants to bite him).  Bill goes from being relatively horrible, to a peachy gem, in the course of about 6 months.  Sure he hits bottom (loses his job, is forced to sell his house), and these circumstances are wildly unusual (my wife is a dog), but what starts out being a film about women, and culture, and the pains one must endure, becomes a film about the redemption of another straight white guy, who ultimately wins back the love of his wife by performing the minimum requirements for being a decent father--go figure.

Bitch is inventive, unique, with a soundtrack that runs counterpoint to much of the darkness that infuses the film.  In the first half of the film, the combination of darkness with humor is pitch perfect and truly special.  Once the film slips into sentimental family drama mode, though, I just felt a massive wave of disappointment.  I was not alone in the audience, as other members at Fantasia revealed during the Q & A that they truly wished for a different outcome.  Yet other people absolutely loved it, and thought it hit all the right notes. So, you decide.  See Bitch as soon as it's available, support women filmmakers, and see Jason Ritter's tour de force performance.  He's utterly spectacular here.

Fantasia 2016--The Love Witch--Anna Biller (2016)

Elaine (Samantha Robinson) is addicted to love in Anna Biller's The Love Witch (2016)

It's certainly a testament to Anna Biller's incredible talent in constructing The Love Witch's rich set design and wonky period detail that until Trish (Laura Waddell) whips out a cell phone toward the end of the film, I had no real clue as to what time period in which the film is set. The opening reveals the lovely Elaine (Samantha Robinson) driving in a shiny red vintage car (with matching dress and luggage), and her voiceover only tells of her zeal to start a new life after a tale of heartbreak and emotional breakdown.  Flashes from the past show that Elaine's participation in a coven ritual has empowered her to start afresh, on a quest to experience love at its fullest.  The Love Witch is the story of that journey, and in a more significant way, the consequences that women must suffer in succumbing to the fairy tale myths about gender roles and love that are fed to them by society.

Elaine dines at the Victorian tea room with style

Period anachronisms are what give The Love Witch so much of its charm, as the film pays homage to great 70s occult films such as Girl Slaves of Morgana Le Fay (1971), Baba Yaga (1973), Hammer films such as Countess Dracula (1971) or even some Jess Franco oddity starring Soledad Miranda--although I think The Love Witch does not tap into its queer potential.  Biller's film is rather exclusively focused on hetero fantasies and nightmares (I couldn't help wishing that Trish and Elaine would end up together).  Trish takes Elaine to an incredible Victorian tea room bathed in peaches and pinks, with a golden-tressed lass strumming a harp. A seedy burlesque club hints at Blacula by way of Blue Velvet.

Elaine and Trish hang out at Elaine's witch pad

Elaine making some witch items for a local new age shop

Elaine's apartment, borrowed from her fellow witch Barbara, is filled with kitschy tarot card paintings, a cauldron, and what looks like a well-equipped laboratory spewing smoke in day-glo colors.  Here Elaine makes her love potions that she tries out on several unsuspecting men--to ill effect.  In fact, a moviegoer sitting behind me kept saying every time a man interacted with Elaine--"Uh-oh, he's dead.  He's so dead."  Poor Elaine, she isn't trying to kill anyone.  She just wants LOVE!  Another nice thing about this film--no women were physically harmed in this flick.  A rare thing, even for a horror comedy.

Elaine's bewitching gaze

Much of The Love Witch is so delightfully hyperbolic, that laughter frequently echoed through the theater.  Elaine's sensual stare, enhanced by her witch powers, is so provocative, that it stops men dead in their tracks, zapping them like deer in headlights.  There's something pleasantly off-kilter about a film emphasizing the power of a female gaze.  While the film highlights Elaine's laser interest in being the object of a presumably male gaze, she tends to frequently be oblivious to her effect on others, which speaks to some confusions that the film employs.  Is the film playing to a "male gaze" or critiquing it?

Still, many scenes just add to the overall zany tone.  One of the true standout scenes is a horseback riding date that Elaine has with Sergeant Griff Meadows, a chiseled Bruce Campbell type (without the great chin).  As they are riding through a wooded area, they hear music, and literally stumble upon a performance and feast put on by the Renaissance and Medieval Players.  They sing "Love is a Magical Thing" and it's all rainbows and unicorns (literally).  The costumes, accompanied by the music, are just too, too good!

Griff (Gian Keys) gazes into Elaine's mesmerizing eyes at their faux handfasting feast

The couple are game for a quick costume change and then a handfasting, which Elaine revels in while Griff seems to amusingly tolerate.  Biller is making fun of every fairytale cliche she can find, while also jabbing playfully at the faux witchiness of Renaissance and Medieval fairs.  The soundtrack of this film is truly, truly inspired, and Biller has her hand in every great detail.  When the harpist sings "So tra-la-la and so La-de-da" with such heartfelt sincerity, I was hard pressed not to sing along.

Elaine is every (straight) man's fantasy, but is clueless about her own desires

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, all this lightness is tempered by a rather dark heart.  At the film's beginning, Trish rightly calls out Elaine for some of her truly backwards beliefs, exclaiming "It's like you've been brainwashed by the patriarchy!" Both Elaine and her coven friends espouse the idea that women gain their power through their sexual wiles, but this power is limited only to a certain kind of glamorous, and largely unfulfilling seduction.  Elaine's head is so filled with notions of fairy-tale romance and an obsessive, overpowering love, that she gains little satisfaction from the elaborate steps she takes to secure the desires of the men around her.  In fact, she is so "brainwashed" that an entire scene shows her getting off to a chorus of emotional and verbal abuse spewing from the mouths of countless men, her father seemingly included.

Star (Elle Evans) and Moon (Fair Micaela Griffin) dancing very poorly at the burlesque club

The Love Witch had a few confusing missteps that muddy its message a bit.  The film does no favors for witches, suggesting (albeit hyperbolically) that these goddess worshipers are just perpetuating a rigid gender binary, and that they are only interested in fulfilling narrow narcissistic desires in a quest to bend the world to their will.  Instead of empowering the impressionable Elaine, her coven pals only seem to lead her toward her inevitable doom.  While the film seems to criticize the limited range of power that a woman's (hetero) sexuality elicits, scenes highlighting Elaine's wide variety of scrumptious lingerie are notable and numerous.  Further, the film is almost entirely narrated through Elaine's voiceover (yes, she's pretty unreliable as narrators go), but toward the end of the film, the narration suddenly switches to Griff.  Griff's thoughts emphasize that he's a complete cad, but I felt that this shift in narrative authority dis-empowers Elaine in some unfortunate ways.

Elaine rides off into the sunset with her fake prince and fake unicorn

When Elaine realizes that Griff is not her fated true love, she shatters, forever slipping into the fairytale world where she ultimately gets her prince (and her unicorn).  Alas, that world is both unreasonable and impossible for women fueled by such ridiculous fantasies, and the only recourse for Elaine is madness.  Anna Biller's The Love Witch is funny and entertaining, but ultimately supplies a sobering message to hopeless hetero romantics bent on getting their man.

Tales of Halloween--anthology film put together by Axelle Carolyn (2015)

Demented pumpkins are just a small sinister part of Tales of Halloween (2015)

While I love Halloween (Samhain), I enjoy its symbolism and rituals more than actually celebrating the holiday the way most Americans do: doling out candy, crafting kitschy spooks, dressing in sexy cat costumes.  Sometimes the holiday seems geared specifically for kids or adults suffering from severe arrested development.  Like everything else, Halloween has become over-commercialized.  I feel similarly about horror comedies in relation to horror films.  Horror comedies seem to be tailor-made for 14 year boys, or guys that are still psychologically that age.  A really good horror comedy like Gerard Johnstone's Housebound (2014) even has to resort to toilet humor.  Sigh.  So you can imagine that Tales of Halloween, the anthology film produced and co-directed by Axelle Carolyn (Soulmate) would not be my favorite film screened at Fantasia this year.  Nevertheless, the screening was quite fun, and the crowd was really, really into it.  In fact, the film had its World Premiere at Fantasia, and some of the directors in attendance had not even seen the complete film--so that was damn exciting. 

The film has some really great moments, on which I'll primarily focus.  First off, the horror microcosm in this L.A. suburb is divine.  The film makes clear that each and every event is going on in the same town on the same night, with characters intermingled throughout the different shorts and keeping to a consistent timeline.  The town in which the film's events take place makes perfect sense, even amidst all the craziness. Adrienne Barbeau's DJ character (an homage, among so many, to The Fog) holds everything together as she narrates over the shorts.  There's some gore, some spookiness, but primarily a lot of humor--and frequently that humor is both sly and smart.  All of the films are riddled with horror cameos from actors and directors alike (Lin Shaye, Barbara Crampton, Barry Bostwick, John Landis, Stuart Gordon, Mick Garris, Adam Green, and all the segment directors make notable appearances).

Axelle Carolyn's Grim Grinning Ghost was the most accomplished and atmospheric film of the bunch

One of the scariest pieces is Axelle Carolyn's Grim Grinning Ghost, which not only highlights smart, attractive female characters, but also is by far the most sophisticated and atmospheric of the shorts.  Carolyn places her main character in believable peril.  Lucy McKee's Ding Dong is a pretty sly mashup of Hansel and Gretel meets a melodrama about a sexy witch desperate to have a child, and the negative thoughts and desires that Halloween, a night rife with little kids, provokes. Adam Gierasch's Trick starts off with me thinking one thing (these kids are EVIL), and ends on another thought entirely (maybe these two couples deserved it).  While Mike Mendez's Friday the 31st is utterly over-the-top with too many cliches for my taste, his use of stop-motion animation to craft the most adorable alien elevates this short to a whole other level.  Both cute and ICK.  Finally, Neil Marshall's Bad Seed ties the whole universe together, and is a wonderful homage to Halloween 3, a tragically underrated film.

Tales of Halloween effectively captures the night's hijinks w/ teenage boy glee and mayhem

The rest of the shorts, well...as I said before, teenage boys, and those teenage boys trapped in the body of an adult, are going to LOVE this film.  The other shorts have enough gore (Sweet Tooth, Friday the 31st, Trick), teenage girls in very short skirts (Sweet Tooth, The Night Billy Raised Hell, Friday the 31st) and a heady mixture of teen and pre-teen boys as protagonists (Sweet Tooth, The Night Billy Raised Hell, The Weak and the Wicked).  The film has something to offer for every kind of horror fan.

During the Q & A after the film, Carolyn explained that the project really came about because they all hang out at each other's houses in L.A. and watch horror together (and often share holidays, like Thanksgiving).  My first thought was "I want to hang out with these people," and then my next was "where are all the women directors?"  Axelle Carolyn definitely is "one of the boys," but I wish she had wrangled more women to direct, because maybe then the film wouldn't be so testosterone heavy, and her husband, Neil Marshall, wouldn't make such bone-headed comments as "she's the best looking director here."  Really?  Who says that about male directors?  Isn't Darren Lynn Bousman pretty enough for you?? I'm pretty sure this film is going to be a hit, and I hope that Carolyn continues to make atmospheric films.  Another feature from her would be awesome.

Therapy for a Vampire--David Ruhm (2014)

Freud (Karl Fischer) analyzes Count Geza von Kosznom (Tobias Moretti) in David Ruhm's Therapy for a Vampire (2014)

Okay, it's official.  I just do not like horror comedies.  So many of them are just plain sexist, and women are often the brunt of the joke.  This film is not that offensive, but it's not that memorable either.  David Ruhm's Therapy for a Vampire is an amusing little film that brings out the occasional chuckle, but it's really just a trifle.  A little bite-sized concoction that is momentarily delicious, but then rather forgettable and not very satisfying.  White chocolate instead of some 80% dark chocolate (Fair Trade) from Madagascar.  Okay, I clearly need some chocolate in order to write this review...

The best thing about this film is Freud, who happens to be hanging around a vastly underpopulated Vienna in the 1930s.  I'm not going to go into the fact that real Freud is way older than this character by this point, etc., etc.  It's Freud (Karl Fischer), and he's just some schmoe instead of a world famous psychoanalyst, and he just happens to be a therapist to Count Geza von Kosznom (Tobias Moretti).  The Count is bored and sick of immortality, mostly because he hates his wife, the lovely Countess Elsa (Jeannette Hain) and all he can think of is killing her.  Elsa's not too happy either.  She can sense that the Count is not really interested in her, and over hundreds of years has become more and more insecure because she cannot see herself in any mirrors (of course), and thinks she's not beautiful enough for the Count.  By the way, she's completely, utterly gorgeous, and I wanted to own all her fabulous costumes.  To turn this elegant woman into an insecure nag is just unjust.

The Count is also pining away for his one true love, Nadila, a woman he lost in the past (a villagers-with-torches tragic scenario).  Coincidentally (or not), she happens to look just like the girlfriend of Viktor (Dominic Oley), a struggling artist hired by Freud to illustrate Freud's dreams.  Every woman that Viktor happens to paint or draw looks like Lucy (Cornelia Ivancan), but an idealized version of her--a blond, elegant, sensual sophisticate rather than her smart, spunky brunette self.  Lucy, following up on the "women are insecure" theme in this film, transforms herself into the slinky blonde of Viktor's dreams, and catches the eye of the Count, who now sees his reincarnated lost love.

Countess Elsa (Jeannette Hain) gets Victor (Dominic Oley) to paint her portrait

The Count decides to take care of two problems at once.  In order to steal Lucy away from Viktor, he convinces his wife that the painter has a special technique that will be able to capture her beauty on canvas.  While Elsa is busy with Viktor, the Count tries to seduce Lucy.  Hijinks ensue.

Countess Elsa attacking Lucy for stealing her man.  Eye roll and yawn.

So, in this film we have two women who struggle to gain the attention of the men in their lives, are obsessed about their appearance (because of said men), and the men see them as nagging wives or girlfriends who they actively manipulate and/or successfully get to change.  Nice.  And so hilarious!!

As I said before, the interactions with Freud were the only moments that I found really rather funny, and that's because of all the sly asides to Freud's writings (Totem and Taboo, The Wolfman, The Interpretation of Dreams).  Likewise, the Count's "Renfield" character, Ignaz (Anatole Taubman) steals quite a few scenes away from the key players as he bumbles around and messes thing up.  I was pretty disappointed by this film, but I should have known better.  After all, Sigmund Freud referred to femininity as the "dark continent"; it looks like this film is pretty clueless about women as well.

Nicholas Grimshaw (Jason Flemyng) confronts a curse from the past in Kevin McTurk's The Mill at Calder's End (2015)

In fine Fantasia form, the short screened before Therapy, Kevin McTurk's The Mill at Calder's End (2015) is a really fantastic and beautifully-made puppet film.  Created through a successful Kickstarter campaign, this powerful little short follows Nicholas Grimshaw (Jason Flemyng) as he tries to end a curse that has plagued every male Grimshaw, and may come for his newborn son as well.

The Inimitable Barbara Steele voices the Apparition at the Mill--looks just like her!

The puppets are incredible and really lend to the Uncanny and unsettling atmosphere that permeates this film.  The lighting and soundtrack truly enhance the film's tangible dread, and the puppets' emotional realism is conveyed through sophisticated expressionistic lighting. In a casting coup, the apparition that haunts all these male Grimshaws (and other men that fall into her "web") is played by Barbara Steele, looking like she just made a side trip out of Mario Bava's Black Sunday (1960).  McTurk has made a really cool making of documentary in case you're interested, and hopefully the film will be widely available once it rakes in the awards on the festival circuit.  It's a truly unique and wonderful film.

Predestination--The Spierig Brothers (2014)

Ethan Hawke is pretty intense as the grizzled protagonist in Predestination (2014)

The Spierig brothers make tremendously fun and wickedly smart films--ones that appeal to smart viewers who like to think when they go to the movies (and perhaps keep thinking afterward).  I'll never forget going to see Undead (2003) on a whim, even though it received a blisteringly terrible review from Entertainment Weekly's Owen Glieberman (who just didn't get it).  It's a zombie film with a female hero, an alien film, and just plain awesome (and hilarious).  In fact, it's one of the only horror comedies I've ever really liked.  Many years later, they made Daybreakers (2009), also starring Ethan Hawke.  The film created a detailed world where vampires were part of the fabric of society, outnumbering humans and struggling to feed when there is little to no human blood to be found.  These filmmakers are really strong at world-building and creating a visually rich tapestry of images, and Predestination continues there pretty stunning track record (three for three)!  The film is based on a Robert A. Heinlein story "All You Zombies" from 1958.

Trying to stop the Fizzle bomber

The film opens with an explosion that disfigures the main character, who wakes up in the hospital after reconstructive surgery and his voice has altered.  Hmmmm.  Turns out he (Hawke) is a time-traveler who works for a covert government agency that stops horrific crimes before they happen.  He's been tracking the "Fizzle bomber," who allegedly will blow up 10 city blocks in 1975.  So he goes back to the 70s on his final mission to try to stop the guy.  His deep cover is as a bartender at a dive bar in New York City.

One night at work he meets a unique, but rather grumpy person, who comes into the bar and wagers that he has the best, most compelling story to tell (for a full bottle of booze).  This stranger (Sarah Snook) proceeds to tell a twisting, tragic story that plays with gender--turns out that he is a former "she," born a hermaphrodite, who struggled with his gender identity, fell in love with a mystery man who knocked her up, mothered a child who was subsequently stolen from her, and now writes True Confession stories, and walks through this world, as a man (with the requisite sex organs).  Some of the film's strongest moments come from the detailed construction of this sci-fi world during these 60s flashbacks, where women are trained to service men in outer space as a part of the "Space Corps."

women training for their trip into space as "space corps"

Hawke's character, upon hearing his tale of woe, tells him that he can deliver the man who caused all of these rather tragic events, and takes him back to meet his earlier self (as a woman), in 1963.  Things get messier from there, because Hawke's character is actually actively recruiting the storyteller to become a time travel agent for this secret government agency, run by an enigmatic Noah Taylor.

There's more to "space corps" than meets the eye

I'll stop here because any additional description of the film will give too much away.  Suffice to say that one of the most annoying things about a time-travel film is the time paradox, and how that paradox is explained. From The Terminator series, to Looper, to Lost, to the awesome Sci-fi show Continuum, the time paradox tends to really muck things up, and skew any sensible logic to the film.  Now imagine if one raised the paradox to the NTH degree, and you have the clever, and rather sick, Predestination.  These filmmakers are committed to mind fu**ing the audience with this one.

Okay, so I hated Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010), and I figure that opinion might make me decidedly unpopular.  That film just seemed like it was trying too hard to be smart, and made some viewers feel clever when the film wasn't remotely clever at all.  While Predestination is smarter than Nolan's pop mind fu**, I figured out part of the big twist within the film's first 10 minutes, and the rest of it not long after.  That discovery does not really hurt the film, though.  It's still a tremendously fun ride, that kept me thinking, albeit a little queasy, during the closing credits and beyond.  I would definitely check it out, and the rest of the Spierig Brothers work, while you're at it.

Suburban Gothic--Richard Bates Jr. (2014)

Raymond (Matthew Gray Gubler) has the best scream

So, Horror Comedies.  Why aren't they funny?  I guess because poop jokes, boob jokes, semen jokes, casually racist and homophobic jokes, and jokes about unconscious girls getting fingered (allegedly) really do nothing for me.  Nothing.  Juvenile, immature humor--kind of like a guy fu**ing a pie.  Hilarious.  Not.  If you like that kind of humor, you will love this film.

First, I'll focus on the positive.  No doubt, Richard Bates's horror comedy Suburban Gothic had some amusing moments.  A few.  Ray Wise is pretty amazing in all things, even if he plays the biggest a**hole ever (something he explained in a bit more detail in the Q & A).  Raymond's adventures with Becka (Kat Dennings) are also pretty appealing, but the chemistry between them is uber-forced.  A standing joke throughout the film (not so funny), is that because of Raymond's sensitive nature, proper use of the English language, and very eccentric fashion sense, he must be gay.  Despite wacking off to some Latina Internet booty, he still has an ambiguous sexual vibe--which I kind of liked.  So a romance between Raymond and Becka just doesn't work.  Let's just let them be friends.

 

Raymond and Becka don't have to be a couple

One of the hands down, best things about the film is its production design.  The costumes, sets, and mise-en-scene are really brilliant.  Every outfit that Raymond wore topped the last.  His use of a good cravat is epic.

 

Raymond rocking a denim shorts jumpsuit and ascot

Raymond's outstanding purple scarf

The film has just enough weirdness to keep you wondering what will happen next, and feels pretty PG-13 (especially suited for the male 13-15 crowd).  The flashes of clever visual language and originality are brief, as are the cameos from people like Jen and Sylvia Soska (as two mourners at a funeral) and the much seen John Waters cameo.  He fits perfectly into Bates Jr.'s odd world.

John Waters fits right in

And while John Waters's own films, especially Pink Flamingos and A Dirty Shame, have their own bodily fluid-littered universe, at least his earlier work was pretty damn gender subversive.  Unfortunately, Suburban Gothic is saddled with a bunch of lazy cliches--fey (formerly overweight) sensitive boy, tough slutty goth chic, macho racist Dad, Mom stuck in the 50s, redneck belligerent thug, crazy psychic lady...even the ghosts are super-typical, as the house is haunted by a father and daughter who must have everything set to rights in order to move on.  And the very last image/action.  Really?  Forced, forced, forced.

Still, the true winners of the evening are the really awesome folks at the Fantasia Film Festival--the people running the show and the incredible audience.  No matter how I felt about the film, I was swept up in the auditorium-rocking excitement and fervor of the whole thing.  Richard Bates Jr. was PREMIERING his film at Fantasia, and I was so excited for him.  His mom (and Gubler's mom) were in the theatre with friends and family, and it was an EVENT!  I was proud of the director and his crew, and I didn't really like the film.  But man, his heart was all in.  I wanted to like it.  People went nuts when Ray Wise was onstage--as did I.  The crowd was rowdy, happy, and Fantasia knows how to have a really good time.  I had seen the other films in the two smaller theaters, and this place was packed with a roaring, delighted crowd.  I wouldn't recommend Suburban Gothic, but I would highly recommend Fantasia Film Festival.  Here's hoping Bates Jr.'s next film rocks!