Unseen Terror 2018: Day 6

Kate Miller isn't content with her life of utter monotony, and she has been particularly frustrated with her sex life as of late. After she fails to seduce her shrink, she eventually crosses paths with a mysterious individual, of whom she sleeps with that very same day. When she awakens, she leaves his apartment, but has to turn around when she realizes that she has left her wedding ring back in his flat. As soon as the elevator doors open, she is violently attacked by a woman dressed in black, and her corpse, along with a glimpse of this assailant, is discovered by Liz, a high price prostitute. Taken in for police custody, not only is Liz the lone witness to what may have occurred, but also a potential suspect. Worse yet, Kate's murderer is still on the loose, and may be setting their eyes on her now!



If you were to talk to me whenever I decide to venture out into the real world, you'll occasionally hear me wax poetic over the works of American filmmaker Brian De Palma. The man has directed some of the most celebrated pieces of cinema over the past forty years, including Carrie, Scarface, and The Untouchables. He's often compared to esteemed legends such as Alfred Hitchcock, though with an added sexual and occasionally shockingly violent edge to the pictures of his own. Despite all of that, I realize that I have never sat down to watch a good chunk of his filmography. I figured that it would be better late than never, and after much debating, settled with one of his "breakout" pieces: 1980's shocker known as Dressed to Kill.


Garnering much attention during the time of its release (and even being forced to trim thirty seconds in order to avoid the dreaded "X" rating), it's not hard to see why this could create a bit of controversy. Palma's script doesn't exactly paint the New York City found within Dressed to Kill as a very optimistic one. It's quite dour, with glimmers of hope found mostly throughout its first thirty or forty minutes. It's very likely that De Palma's earlier motion pictures seem to be equally inspired by not just Hitchcock, but the Italian "Giallo" pieces that were all the rage during this time period. The handling of the violent sequences are shot in such a threatening manner, though they obviously aren't nearly as visually vibrant as something found in say, Suspiria. But the camera work in Dressed to Kill might be its best attribute. There is one lengthy sequence which involves Kate (Angie Dickinson of Rio Bravo fame) and a stranger seemingly pursuing one another inside of an art museum, and the entire thing is devoid of any dialogue (save for some occasional grunts), letting the camera and the accompanying score by longtime De Palma collaborator Pino Donaggio, who delivers eerie, yet savagely beautiful compositions, do nearly all of the work.


It should be mentioned that obviously what makes most of Dressed to Kill's suspenseful moments work is a very strong cast. Our leads work in fields that can often cause depression: Michael Caine is a hardened psychiatrist, Angie Dickinson is a bored housewife, and Nancy Allen is a call girl.  There are exceptional performances all around, and it made me realize that I had never seen Allen in much outside of Carrie and Robocop, which left me feeling as though her performance surprised me the most. I'm a little upset that she, along with Caine and De Palma were apparently nominated at the Razzie Awards for their jobs in front of and behind the camera, but I've read that Allen also received a Golden Globe nod, so that's soothes the pain a bit. They help make a story, though not the most extravagant on paper, feel all the more interesting than your average "whodunit" picture.


Alas, here's where I have to be a bit of a debbie downer: while Dressed does contain some rather clever elements and twists, I'm certain that it could trigger a good chunk of modern day cinephiles, and some themes and commentary would absolutely not fly in today's world. There's a depiction of African American males at a Subway station that's fairly cliched, and the movie's primary twist and its subsequent explanation/analysis afterwards could truly ruffle some feathers. Personally, outside of some exchanges between Allen and supporting actor Keith Gordon towards the end, I didn't find it to be too bothersome. But OOF, those final ten minutes sure do feel like a slap in the face, and instead of ending on a more ominous note, it goes for the kind cheap finale that always drives me nuts. Still, considering everything else that leads up to that eyerolling moment, this is only a small black mark on an otherwise fine production.


I'm not entirely sure about whether Dressed to Kill even qualifies as a horror movie, because it bears a closer resemblance to an erotic thriller/mystery hybrid more than anything else. Still, as I have stated in the past, the genres are more closely affiliated with one another than the average joe would care to admit, and both desire the same reaction: to shock, frighten, and occasionally disturb you. Regardless of whatever you wish to file it under, it's a damn fine film and one of the very best that I've seen from the director. You can currently pick up a rather fine looking DVD or Blu-Ray from Criterion, and it's also available to stream on Amazon Prime.



Tomorrow, the VHSPS folks are back a second round, and it seems as though they're bringing a couple of familiar faces with them into the fire!

Unseen Terror 2015: Day 28

With her career as a writer having gone down the drain, and being reduced to living in a dilapidated-looking house, Eva Khatchadourian reminisces about a more complicated time in her life. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn of the woman's reasons for life having declined so quickly. Many years ago, Eva and her husband Franklin welcomed their firstborn son Kevin into this world. As they raise him throughout the years, Eva starts to notice very unusual things about the young man: he shows apathy towards any of his mother's attempts at bonding, and more notably, begins to display signs of hostility towards others and his laterborn sister Celia. As time continues to pass by, Kevin's behavior becomes gradually worse, and not even his own family can prepare themselves for what is to come.

Perhaps one Dr. Samuel Loomis had this figured out from the beginning:

Folks, I think that it might be time to shut down this year's marathon. Without trying to hype up We Need To Talk About Kevin too much, I don't see how any other film that I have selected for viewing will come close to rivaling director Lynne Ramsay's adaptation of the controversial work of fiction that bears the same name. Also, I'm well aware that this technically qualifies as a 2011 feature, but save for one, singular theatrical release, those of us who live stateside didn't get a chance to catch the entire product until May of 2012. Thus, it shall serve as that year's entry. Deal with it.

The question about whether We Need To Talk About Kevin should be categorized as horror is something that will spark much debate among those who show any interest in it in the first place. Personally, I view this is as a piece of psychological terror lead by outstanding performances from its cast, each of whom understands their figure perfectly and is capable of fleshing them out more than most flicks that fall into the very hit-or-miss "troubled kid" genre. Then again, it also deals with far more interesting concepts that keep it from falling into that pit with no way out, such as the ideas of nurture v. nature (The Omen and Rosemary's Baby are a little more upfront about these type of things). We see that Kevin's own mother Eva, played by the amazing Tilda Swinton (Burn After Reading, The Chronicles Of Narnia), is far from a perfect person herself, showing random tiny bursts of displeasure at the boy's own problems which are inevitable when you are young. And yet, there are far more numerous moments of cruelty committed by her son over the years that make the audience question as to how many of his actions are truly inherent. 

It's a scientific fact that the aforementioned Swinton is rarely bad in anything that she signs on to, and it is very easy to see why she nominated for a Golden Globe that she arguably should have won (because how many god damn awards does Meryl Streep need?). The titular child is portrayed by three different players: one while he is an infant, one while he is in his preteen phase, and finally while he is stuck in the oh-so-fun high school years. I can't say anything about the former since all the baby does is cry repeatedly, but the other two cast members are powerfully creepy. Having discovered that Ezra Miller (The Perks Of Being A Wallflower), who plays Kevin at his oldest, will be donning the costume of Barry Allen/The Flash in the upcoming Batman V. Superman: Dawn Of Justice does give me a very small amount of hope that the film won't be an inflated mess, even if I think he would make for a better villain than a superhero. John C. Reilly also has a supporting role as seemingly the opposite of Swinton's Eva; a man who just seems far too content or blissfully ignorant to notice the signs that something could be quite amiss with his offspring. Truth be told, there isn't a bad acting job whatsoever in We Need To Talk About Kevin, even from the extras in the background whose whole motif seemed to consist of "act shocked and/or heartbroken." From what I understand, Ramsay decided to take up this particular project after multiple attempts at helming/filming The Lovely Bones didn't quite work out, but after having seen her pull such good performances from this group of talented people, I hope that she is allowed to head more productions that weren't her first choice to begin with.

Some motion pictures, no matter the classification, have the potential to genuinely bother or haunt you. Be it through actions of the characters, actors and actresses fully immersing themselves in their roles so well that you forget who they are when the cameras stop rolling, or just due to a great soundtrack (composed by Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead), symbolism, and cinematography, these are the films that we will be discussing for great length after they have wrapped. Even after all of the praise above, I'm STILL not sure if We Need To Talk About Kevin should be defined as a pure horror movie, but it's one of the few flicks that I've watched this month that nearly left me emotionally crushed and disturbed. If you're looking for honest-to-god discomfort with your scary movies, or a character study that can remind you of works of the past such as Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer, then I strongly urge that you seek this out as soon as you're done reading the last of these typed sentences. The Cannes Film Festival standout can currently be viewed for free on Amazon Prime, and is readily available for purchase on DVD and Blu-Ray.

Tomorrow, WWE Studios make a return to Unseen Terror. But while their attempt at rebooting a lousy franchise failed miserably, perhaps one of their own original concepts could work better...

A Million Ways To Die In The West (2014) Review

Sheep farmer Albert Stark detests living in the mostly barren frontier of Old Stump, Arizona. In addition to nearly everything around you having the capability to end your life within seconds, he has also been dumped by his girlfriend Louise, most likely due to his recent withdrawal from a duel, which many, including her, perceive as an act of cowardice. Soon, Stark draws the ire of notorious gunfighter Clinch Leatherwood, and through unexpected and initially unrevealed sources, he will find the courage and skills needed in order to face this infamous outlaw, lest he be thought of as a meager quitter for the rest of his life.


I just don't know what to make of Seth MacFarlane these days. I initially thought the man was a genius (or at the very least, a very underrated writer and voiceover performer) who came across as rather intelligent and knowledgable, if not a bit smug. I was surprised by his humility and legitimate happiness over hearing of the revival of his animated (then) cult television program Family Guy, and was just as ecstatic as him when I heard of its resurrection. Hell, I even enjoyed his first writing and directing foray into live-action filmmaking with 2012's Ted. And yet, the man has been disappointing me immensely for the past decade or so in ways that you can't imagine. The aforementioned Family Guy has arguably been out of gas for its past few seasons (a now infamous lambasting from South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone didn't help matters either), his other cartoon projects have been notoriously hit or miss, and the recently cancelled Seth Green vehicle Dads could go down as one of the absolute worst shows I've seen in my twenty eight years of existence. All of that hoopla aside, a large part of me was secretly interested in checking out MacFarlane's parody of the old western genre, the cleverly titled A Million Ways To Die In The West.


Regrettably, I think AMWTDITW (I am far too lazy to type this title multiple times, so you'll have to deal with this acronym) suffers from the same problem with the creator's more recent ventures, and that's just lazy, run-it-up-the-flagpole-style writing. And while I could normally nitpick and point out several large, glaring problems with films that I'm not too fond of or am immensely disappointed by, this really is the only major drawback, although it is a large one in the case of a comedy-based writer like MacFarlane. Nobody is phoning their performances in, and in fact, it seems that most of the cast are having a ball with one another (Charlize Theron and Sarah Silverman shine brightest). When a large chunk of your material, however, just isn't particularly strong, there is only so much that you can salvage in order to make it memorable for the general audiences who have paid to have good, boisterous laughs, and usually en masse. The mostly serious third act also does a near 180 for the film, and though it eventually leads to a relatively fun sequence involving psychedelic drug use with Native Americans, it feels klutzy in terms of transitioning and you can hear a pin drop in the theater in the build up to it.


AMWTDITW's heavy reliance on feces, urine, and fart jokes tends to wear thin after about the third time you're exposed to it. One wonders if perhaps they just couldn't come up with anything more clever in time (or were afraid of using the now-maligned "flashback" gag from Family Guy) and just figured that the average moviegoer can always find humor in anything coming out of the two holes below your belt. It's the type of lazy jokes that you expect from someone as lowbrow or idiotic as Marlon Wayans or Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer, not the same man who was asked to host the Academy Awards one year ago. On the plus side, what isn't lowbrow is a pretty darn entertaining musical number led by Neil Patrick Harris (who seems to revel in playing a villain) and Stephen Foster that serves as an homage to the art of certain facial hair, and about how glorious it is. There are also a copious amount of cameos from who I can assume are some of MacFarlane's best friends from the liberal world of Hollywood, including one in the aforementioned drug sequence that gave me the biggest laugh overall. Sadly, a lot of the film's best gags were run into the ground by the overexposure of television spots and trailers for the picture, and most gags or antics elicit mere chuckles instead of guffaws.


You know what? After much debate, and even perusing through my own writing, Seth MacFarlane might be a genius after all. The man somehow managed to convince studio executives to make what essentially amounts to an uneven, two hour long episode of Family Guy with a forty million dollar budget. There is absolutely no reason that this couldn't have been of one of Seth's television shows. And before you say "he could have used this as an excuse to work with this famous actor or actress," I have to ask: why couldn't they have been recruited to do voiceover work instead? You're technically still in the same area or studio as them, and while you may not be able to do anything as memorable as physically kiss Charlize Theron or stick a flower up Liam Neeson's rectum (don't ask), you can still have the credentials on your resume if it is something sought after that much. At the end of the day, A Million Ways To Die In The West just makes you want to pat Seth MacFarlane on the back and say "well, you still have your other works. Better luck next time. Now it's time to go watch Blazing Saddles or Lust In The Dust and forget this whole thing ever happened."