TRASH IN MY EYE Reviews: Horror

Showing posts with label Horror. Show all posts

Saturday, January 18, 2025

Review: Very Scary "WOLF MAN" is Gleefully Gruesome

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 4 of 2025 (No. 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

Wolf Man (2025)

Running time: 103 minutes (1 hour, 43 minutes)

MPA – R for bloody violent content, grisly images and some language

DIRECTOR: Leigh Whannell

WRITERS: Leigh Whannell and Corbett Tuck

PRODUCERS: Jason Blue and Ryan Gosling

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Stefan Duscio

EDITOR: Andy Canny

COMPOSER: Benjamin Wallfisch

HORROR/THRILLER

Starring: Julia Garner, Christopher Abbott, Matilda Firth, Sam Jaeger, Benedict Hardie, Zac Chandler, and Ben Prendergast

SUMMARY OF THE REVIEW:

Wolf Man is a scary, scary movie – a real scary movie that delivers the thrills, the chills, and some gruesome, gory moments.

It is one of the best werewolf movies in recent memory, without ever using the term “werewolf” in the movie, but it is the real deal in bark-at-the-moon, horror movie craziness.

Wolf Man is a 2025 American horror film from director Leigh Whannell. The film follows a father, a mother, and their daughter in their struggle to fend off a murderous creature, even as the father begins to rapidly transform into something monstrous.

Wolf Man opens in 1995 in the remote mountains of Oregon. A hiker has disappeared, and people in the isolated local community speculate that he may have fallen victim to a virus called “Hills Fever,” linked to the region's wildlife. However, the Indigenous people of the area call this ailment, “the Face of the Wolf.” During a deer hunt, survivalist Grady Lovell (Sam Jaeger), and his son, Blake (Zac Chandler), spot a mysterious creature lurking in the forest. They have a terrifying encounter with it.

Thirty years later, Blake Lovell (Christopher Abbot) lives in the big city with his wife, Charlotte Lovell (Julia Garner), and their daughter, Ginger (Matilda Firth). One day, Blake finally receives documents indicating that his long-missing father has been declared dead. Blake convinces Charlotte that they should travel to Grady's remote home and take possession of his belongings.

The trip starts off well enough for Blake, Charlotte, and Ginger, but an accident leads them into an encounter with a fast-moving and mysterious creature (Ben Prendergast), which scratches Blake's arm. The three are able to escape the attack and arrive at Grady's home, where they barricade themselves. Although the creature lurks outside, the house, which had long been fortified by the paranoid Grady, offers some security. However, the scratch on Blake's arm has turned bloody and infected, and now, he is changing... into something.

Once upon a time, Universal Pictures wanted to build a “shared universe” (like the Marvel Cinematic Universe) around the portion of its film library known under the brand name, “Universal Monsters,” by rebooting select films from that brand. The shared universe was known named “Dark Universe,” and the film that launched it was the heavily-criticized, box office disappointment, The Mummy (2017), and I am talking about the one with Tom Cruise.

After that disappointment, Universal decided to move away from a shared universe concept, but kept the idea of rebooting its Universal Monsters films. The new direction was launched with writer-director Leigh Whannell's 2020 hit horror film, The Invisible Man, a reboot of the 1933 film, The Invisible Man. Now, Whannell is back in the Universal reboot game with Wolf Man, which is apparently a re-imagining of Universal Picture's 1941, classic horror film, The Wolf Man.

If you are wondering, dear readers, if Leigh Whannell's new Wolf Man is scary, it is scary as f*ck. It is a true scary movie. It is a scary-ass movie. Now, I think that Whannell and his co-writer Corbett Tuck offer shallow characters and melodramatic interpersonal character tropes, but they fashion a wild, hairy-ass horror movie that is not ashamed of being a gruesome, gross, and gory werewolf movie that leaks bodily fluids all over the place. By the way, the terms, “werewolf” and “wolf man,” are never used in this film as far as I can tell.

Whannell's collaborators are on their “A” game with this film. Hair and make-up and visual effects slow grind Blake's grisly transformation and throw us a nasty curve ball on consumption. It seems as if Benjamin Wallfisch is trying to use his film music to make me choke on my own fear, and the film editing is a constant fear machine.

The cast is quite good at selling us that all of this is real. The characters might by shallow, but the actors go deep into their craft, deep enough to make me feel as if I was there waiting to be slashed and gored by a... “mysterious creature.”

I didn't see Whannell's The Invisible Man, but Wolf Man makes me want to see all his films. Whannell may be best known for creating the 2004 film, Saw, with director James Wan, that launched a two-decade old franchise. However, I'd like him to return to the macabre world he has created with this new film. Wolf Man is not perfect, but it is a perfectly scary movie. Some of you might need a barf bag or some “Depends” undergarments in order to make it through the grim terror that is Wolf Man.

7 of 10

A-

★★★½ out of 4 stars

Saturday, January 18, 2025

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Thursday, January 16, 2025

Review: John Carpenter's "VAMPIRES" is Still Fun (Happy B'day, John Carpenter)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 36 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

John Carpenter’s Vampires (1998)

Running time: 108 minutes (1 hour, 48 minutes)

MPAA – R for strong violence, and gore, language, and sexuality

DIRECTOR: John Carpenter

WRITER: Don Jakoby (based upon the novel by John Steakley)

PRODUCER: Sandy King

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Gary B. Kibbe (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Edward A. Warschilka

COMPOSER: John Carpenter

HORROR/FANTASY and ACTION/THRILLER

Starring: James Woods, Daniel Baldwin, Sheryl Lee, Thomas Ian Griffith, Maximilian Schell, and Tim Guinee

Vampires (also known as John Carpenter's Vampires) is a 1998 American action, neo-Western, and vampire horror film from director John Carpenter. It was adapted from the 1990 horror novel, Vampire$, by author John Steakley. Vampires the movie focuses on an caustic vampire slayer who must track down the vampire master that ambushed and destroyed his team of slayers before the creature can find a relic that will allow it to walk in sunlight.

John Carpenter's Vampires introduces Jack Crow (James Woods), a vampire hunter for the Catholic Church. He leads his "Team Crow," a band of roughnecks and mercenary types who hunt and kill vampires. They destroy a nest of goons (vampires) in rural New Mexico, but Valek (Thomas Ian Griffith), a 600-year old master vampire, ambushes and massacres Team Crow during their victory celebration at a small motel.

Only Crow and his assistant, Montoya (Daniel Baldwin), survive, but Crow ignores the Vatican’s demands that he reform his team. Crow, Montoya, and Father Adam Guiteau (Tim Guinee), a young priest, with tagalong Katrina (Sheryl Lee), a survivor of Valek’s attack, pursue the master vampire through the high deserts that ends in a confrontation to stop Valek from becoming unbeatable.

John Carpenter’s Vampires is a fun action horror flick that rises above being straight-to-video material in large measure because of James Woods hilarious and over-the-top performance as Jack Crow. Crow curses like a pack of sailors, and won’t even spare holy men his vulgar tirades. He beats priests and asks them inappropriate questions about their anatomies and lusts. Woods’ performance is the one thing that entertains even detractors of Vampires.

The film is gory and action-packed, but a little light on genuine scares. It has the charming qualities that make Carpenter’s film fun and unique – pulp storytelling, weird science, and the strange blend of real myth, lore, and culture spun from his fertile imagination. While the characters here, other than Crow, don’t match up to some of Carpenter’s memorable creations from his earlier films, they’re adequate. Vampires is a fun spin on the American pop culture version of vampires, and worth a viewing.

7 of 10

B+

★★★½ out of 4 stars

March 19, 2005

EDITED: Sunday, January 5, 2025

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Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Review: "PRINCE OF DARKNESS" Still Scares the Green Liquid Outta Me (Celebrating John Carpenter)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 9 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness (1987)

Running time: 102 minutes (1 hour, 42 minutes)

MPAA – R

DIRECTOR: John Carpenter

WRITER: Martin Quatermass (John Carpenter)

PRODUCER: Larry J. Franco

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Gary B. Kippe

EDITOR: Steve Mikovich

COMPOSERS: John Carpenter and Alan Howarth

HORROR/SCI-FI

Starring: Donald Pleasence, Jameson Parker, Victor Wong, Lisa Blount, Dennis Dun, Susan Blanchard, Anne Marie Howard, Ann Yen, Dirk Blocker, Jessie Lawrence Ferguson, Peter Jason, Robert Grasmere, Thom Bray, and Alice Cooper

Prince of Darkness is a 1987 American supernatural horror film from writer-director John Carpenter. The film focuses on a Catholic priest, quantum physics university professor, and his graduate students as they investigate an ancient cylinder full of swirling liquid, which may be the embodiment of the “Prince of Darkness.”

Prince of Darkness introduces Father Loomis (Donald Pleasence), a high-ranking priest. He has come across a long-hidden secret, one kept even from the Vatican. A priestly order, “The Brotherhood of Sleep,” has possessed a canister that apparently contains the liquefied remains of the “Prince of Darkness.” When the last of the order dies, Loomis seeks out a prestigious professor of physics, Prof. Howard Birack (Victor Wong), to help him understand the discoveries he’s made at the Brotherhood’s church.

Birack enlists the aid of a group of fellow scientists and students to study ancient texts and to learn the truth about the thing that may hold the “Prince of Darkness.” However, whatever the liquid is, it is awakening, and it is beginning to possess some members of the investigation team, turning them into killer zombies. Worse still, Father Loomis, Birack, and the students discover that the Prince of Darkness intends to bring his even more evil father back from the dark side to our world.

Prince of Darkness is one of my favorite John Carpenter films. It is the second installment in what Carpenter calls his “Apocalypse Trilogy,” which began with his 1982 film, The Thing (1982), and concluded with his 1994 film, In the Mouth of Madness (1994). Prince of Darkness is quite scary and suspenseful, and Carpenter’s screenplay is filled with many wonderful and eccentric ideas about the nature of time, existence, and religion. Perhaps, the most frightening thing about the film is its atmosphere of the unknown. A lot of the ideas and philosophy within the film are half-explained or unexplained, but there’s just enough to make you curious and feel that your safety and that of the film’s characters are on the line if someone doesn’t solve the riddles behind the dark conspiracy. This is also one of the better examples of Carpenter’s ability to create a narrative flow that maintains a sense of dread or a sense of impending horror from start to finish.

The actors confine their performances to doing what’s necessary to serve a horror film, so there is some stiffness to the acting, as well as some occasionally unnecessary histrionics. Still, they are integral in making this one of the better end-of-world movies. Prince of Darkness also fits in well with that sub-genre in horror in which a small band of humans stand alone against forces bent on destroying or conquering the world – the last line of defense for a humanity that doesn’t know about the secret war to save it. Prince of Darkness, in that sense, works and is a truly underrated and excellent film, especially for fans who love a good mixture of horror and science fiction.

8 of 10

★★★★ out of 4 stars

EDITED: Wednesday, January 15, 2025

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Monday, December 30, 2024

Review: Original "BLACK CHRISTMAS" is Still a Gift (In Memory of Olivia Hussey, 1951-2024)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 62 of 2024 (No. 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Black Christmas (1974)

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Canada

Running time: 98 minutes

MPAA – R

PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: Bob Clark

WRITER: Roy Moore

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Reg Morris (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Stan Cole

COMPOSER: Carl Zittrer

HORROR

Starring: Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, John Saxon, Marian Waldman, Andrea Martin, James Edmond, Douglas McGrath, Art Hindle, Lynne Griffin, Michael Rapport, Martha Gibson, Leslie Carlson, and Dave Clement

Black Christmas is a 1974 Canadian slasher horror film from director Bob Clark and writer Roy Moore. One of the earliest films belonging to the horror sub-genre known as the “slasher” film, Black Christmas is the first in a series that includes two remakes. Set during a university Christmas break, Black Christmas focuses on a group of sorority girls who are being stalked and killed by a stranger in their house.

Black Christmas opens on the campus of an unknown university located in a Canadian town named “Bedford.” Located on 6 Belmont Street is the Pi Kappa Sigma sorority house where a Christmas party is being held. An unseen man climbs the exterior of the house and enters it through the attic.

During the party, the house phone rings and sorority sister Jess Bradford (Olivia Hussey) answers it only to discover that it is an obscene phone call. It is also from a person who has called before, a caller the sorority sisters have nicknamed “the Moaner.” Jess and the other sisters listen as the caller rants and screams in a series of strange voices that range from male and female and from adult to small child. The name “Billy” comes up a lot during this and subsequent calls from the Moaner. The calls end the same; he abruptly threatens to kill the Pi Kappa Sigma sisters and hangs up.

Soon after the first call, the stranger who broke into the house begins killing the sorority sisters one by one, with no one in the house aware that a killing spree has begun. Jess seems to be the focal point of the calls, and the police, led by Lt. Ken Fuller (John Saxon), believe that the caller is someone close Jess. But the killer is closer than anyone seems to realize.

As I write this review, Sunday evening, December 29, 2024, it is two days (Friday, December 27, 2024) after the passing of actress Olivia Hussey (1951 to 2024). Hussey may be best known for her breakthrough film role as “Juliet” in director Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 film, Romeo and Juliet. However, many movie fans remember Hussey specifically for her starring role in Black Christmas.

Directed by Bob Clark (1939-2007), Black Christmas is a seminal film in the “slasher” sub-genre of horror films. It is apparently a direct inspiration for John Carpenter's 1978 film, Halloween, which kicks off what some consider the “Golden Age” of slash films (1978-1984). The film has been remade twice, Black Christmas (2006) and Black Christmas (2019). Strangely, Clark's other best known films are probably the raunchy, high school sex comedy, Porkys (1981) and the beloved Christmas perennial, A Christmas Story (1983).

Many have already written about the legacy of Black Christmas and about the individual performances and achievements that make up the film. For instance, I want to shout out Carl Zittrer's pitch-perfect, psycho-perfect film score, and Margot Kidder's (1948-2018) scene-stealing turn as Barbara “Barb” Coard.

For this review, however, I would like to talk about Olivia Hussey. There is a natural quality to her acting in general and to her performance here that makes this film seem more earthy than contrived and fantastic. Jess' struggles, both with the the Moaner's phone calls and with her increasingly frantic boyfriend, Peter Smythe (Keir Dullea), come together to enrich the character drama. Black Christmas is not just a film about a killer stalking girls, but it is also a tale that revolves around Jess and her external and internal struggles.

Here, Hussey is both vulnerable and endangered and calm and stalwart. Watching Hussey in this film, it becomes obvious that her performance as Jess Bradford is the template for the common horror character or trope known as the “final girl,” which is the last girl or woman who survives to fight the killer in a horror film. In Jess' final struggle, which takes her from the top of the sorority house to its very bottom, Hussey carries the film to victory. Hussey's Jess seems so genuine and real that I found it difficult to focus on Black Christmas' nonsensical and inconsistent elements.

I was sad to hear of Hussey's passing. I find her performance in Black Christmas to be unforgettable, and I think she makes the film unforgettable. I watch Black Christmas whenever I get a chance because I love watching Hussey in it. She makes me root for her Jess every step of the way. As important as Clark's direction, Moore's writing, and the other actors' performances are, Hussey is “the Star of Bethlehem” in Black Christmas.

8 of 10

★★★★ out of 4 stars

Monday, December 30, 2024

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Review: 2006 "BLACK CHRISTMAS" was Not as Good as its Trailer Suggested

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 259 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Black Christmas (2006)

Running time: 84 minutes (1 hour, 24 minutes)

MPAA – R for strong horror violence and gore, sexuality, nudity, and language

DIRECTOR: Glen Morgan

WRITER: Glen Morgan (based upon the 1974 screenplay by Roy Moore)

PRODUCERS: Marty Adelstein, Marc Butan, Steve Hoban, Scott Nemes, Dawn Parouse, Victor Solnicki, Glen Morgan, and James Wong

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Robert McLachlan

EDITOR: Chris G. Willingham

COMPOSER: Shirley Walker

HORROR

Starring: Katie Cassidy, Michelle Trachtenberg, Oliver Hudson, Macy Elizabeth Winstead, Lacey Chabert, Kristen Cloke, Andrea Martin, Crystal Lowe, Karin Konoval, Robert Mann, and Kathleen Kole

Black Christmas is a 2006 slasher horror film from writer-director Glen Morgan. It is a remake of director Bob Clark and writer Roy Moore's 1974 Canadian horror film, Black Christmas. A joint U.S. and Canadian production, it is the third film in the Black Christmas film series. Black Christmas 2006 focuses on an escaped maniac who returns to his childhood home, which is now a sorority house, and begins murdering the sorority sisters one by one on Christmas Eve.

Black Christmas opens at Clement University in New Hampshire. The sisters of Delta Kappa Alpha are stuck in their sorority house for Christmas Eve. The sisters and their sorority mother find themselves receiving harassing and threatening phone calls. The caller may a mysterious man named Billy (Robert Mann), a maniac who long ago lived in that very house. Fifteen years earlier, on Christmas day, Billy killed his deranged parents before being institutionalized. The sisters really don’t have clue, but someone is also stalking and killing them one by one.

Black Christmas is a remake of the 1974 film, Black Christmas, that was directed by Bob Clark of Porkys and A Christmas Story fame. [Clark is one of the people credited as an executive producer on this remake.] The new Black Christmas is truly a terrible movie, and only because it actually has some really creepy atmospheric moments is it not an absolute disaster. There are times when Black Christmas made me wonder if it were a farce – perhaps a horror movie played absolutely straight, but meant to be an outrageous comedy. That might be giving the filmmakers too much credit, or maybe not. This is strange flick, and it’s hard to get a bead on it, other than to get the idea that Black Christmas is more annoying than scary.

Black Christmas is gruesome enough to capture the interest of horror fans that want gore, and this has blood thrown about by the buckets. There are so many deaths by sharp objects that it’s a wonder the MPAA didn’t rate this “NC-17.” Writer/director Glen Morgan clearly went retro for this, as it seems like one of those grisly and macabre slasher horror flicks that came out after John Carpenter’s 1978 movie, Halloween. In fact, much of Black Christmas seems like a pastiche or sorry homage to 1980’s horror films. It reminded me of Happy Birthday to Me, The People Under the Stairs, and any horror movie where inbreeding and incest come into play.

The murders are ghastly, and even the sex scenes in this movie are mean-spirited and common. The actresses who play the sorority sisters have beautiful bodies, but they play characters that are so bitchy that it makes their faces look hard and mean. Not one of the characters is sympathetic, so caring about their demises other than as a ritual of horror movies just doesn’t happen. The methods of their horrific murders are also as obvious as the script’s sequence of events. That there is more than one killer is, like so much in Black Christmas, painfully obvious, and the killers are about as crummy as stepping in dog feces with really good shoes.

2 of 10

★ out of 4 stars

Saturday, December 30, 2006

EDITED: Saturday, December 28, 2024

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Friday, December 27, 2024

Review: "NOSFERATU" 2024: You'll Either Be Impressed or Roll Your Eyes

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 61 of 2024 (No. 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Nosferatu (2024)

Running time: 133 minutes (2 hours, 13 minutes)

MPA – R for bloody violent content, graphic nudity and some sexual content

DIRECTOR: Robert Eggers

WRITER: Robert Eggers (inspired by the film, Nosferatu, and the novel by Bram Stoker)

PRODUCERS: Chris Columbus, Eleanor Columbus, Robert Eggers, John Graham, and Jeff Robinov

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jarin Blaschke (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Louise Ford

COMPOSER: Robin Carolan

HORROR/THRILLER

Starring: Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, Bill Skarsgard, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Willem Dafoe, Emma Corrin, Ralph Ineson, and Simon McBurney

SUMMARY OF THE REVIEW:

Nosferatu is entertaining – in places, but quite a bit of it is also over-the-top and overdone. Honestly, I'd be reluctant to recommend it to people who don't go to movie theaters too often because they could find better films upon which to spend their infrequent cinema visits

Nepo-baby thespian, Lily-Rose Depp, gives an excellent performance, emphasizing facial expressions and physical feats, but Bill Skarsgard as the Nosferatu, manages only to create a vampire that is as boring as he is scary and ugly

Also, if you remember Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 film, Bram Stoker's Dracula, you will find this film shockingly similar to it

Nosferatu is a 2024 American vampire horror film from writer-director Robert Eggers It is a remake of the 1922 German silent film, Nosferatu. Like that German film, the modern Nosferatu also takes inspiration from the 1897 novel Dracula, written by author Bram Stoker. The new Nosferatu focuses on a young woman and the terrifying vampire that is infatuated with her.

Nosferatu introduces Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp). Since she was a child, Ellen has had a connection to the spiritual and mystical realms. When she was a girl, she called out to a spirit, and that caused her to have a vision of a disfigured and corpse-like creature attack her. This in turns leads to Ellen having a violent seizure.

In 1838, Ellie is now an adult and is newly wed to a husband, the young estate agent, Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult). The couple is living in Wisborg, Germany where Thomas works for “Knock & Associates.” His employer, Herr Knock (Simon McBurney), offers Thomas a generous commission, but to get it, Thomas must embark on a six-day journey to the small country of Transylvania.

There, Thomas will meet the mysterious Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgard), who wants to buy property in Wisborg, which he plans to make his new home. However, there is a conspiracy behind this business venture between Knock and Orlok, and Ellen, who is once again besieged by dark, monster-filled dreams, is the prize. Now, Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz (Willem Defoe), a controversial scientist and expert on the occult and mysticism, may be the only one who can figure out what everyone else seems to ignore. And that is the fact that Orlok is a monstrous vampire – a Nosferatu!

First, some history: director F.W. Murnau's 1922 German silent film, Nosferatu, was an unauthorized film adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula (1897). Stoker's heirs sued and the film was ordered destroyed, but several prints survived this purge. So the modern Nosferatu is both a remake of the 1922 film and an adaptation of Stoker's novel. I also find quite a bit of this new Nosferatu to be a literally and spiritually rehash of director Francis Ford Coppola's visionary, Oscar-winning film, Bram Stokers Dracula (1992).

Moving on: Lily-Rose Depp delivers a stunning performance as Ellen, one that is both emotionally charged and also physically impressive, thanks to the scenes in which she portrays having blood-curdling seizures, apparently without the help of computer-generated imagery. Depp makes by far the best out of director Robert Eggers' screenplay, which I find to be shallow and also imaginative only in the superficial way that directors borrow from other directors' films in a bid to seem clever before their sycophants and devotees.

That is exemplified by Bill Skarsgard's Count Orlok. He is both frightening and tedious. Skarsgard is buried under a mound of makeup and likely computer-rendering that makes him look like a homeless and destitute version of the infamous Russian mystic and political Svengali, Grigori Rasputin. The new Count Orlok is a scary mountain of monster-man, but he has no personality, And girl, he grunts his garbled dialogue real good. Ultimately, Skarsgard turn as Count Orlok is no better than one of actor Robert Englund's latter turns as “Freddy Krueger” in one of the many sequels to A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).

Eggers really does not give the rest of his characters great dramatic material. Nicholas Hoult's Thomas Hutter is an embarrassing crybaby, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson's Friedrich Harding is a stubborn moron. Willem Defoe's Von Franz is smart and stupid in alternating waves that suggest that suggests he was created by some AI algorithm. Emma Corrin's Anna Harding (Friedrich's wife) seems very smart and capable, so the male writer's screenplay kills her off way too early.

Yeah, I have a lot of complaints about this new Nosferatu, mainly because it is one of those maddening films that has many brilliant elements that are beset by many tedious, hilarious, and ridiculous elements. This is not “style over substance,” but it is style strangling the shit out of substance. I heartily recommend Nosferatu to fans of vampire films and to adventurous movie lovers, but I would be reluctant to recommend it to people who are not as into movies as I am. Something like Nosferatu would make them roll their eyes.

6 of 10

★★★ out of 4 stars

Friday, December 27, 2024

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Friday, December 13, 2024

Review: "FRIDAY THE 13TH: The Final Chapter" Now Seems Quaint

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 56 of 2024 (No. 2000) by Leroy Douresseaux

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)

Running time: 91 minutes (1 hour, 31 minutes)

MPAA – R

DIRECTOR: Joseph Zito

WRITERS: Barney Cohen; from a story by Bruce Hidemi Sakow (based on characters created by Victor Miller and Ron Kurz & Martin Kitrosser and Carol Watson)

PRODUCER: Frank Mancuso, Jr.

CINEMATOGRAPHER: João Fernandez (D.o.P.)

EDITORS: Joel Goodman with Daniel Loewenthal

COMPOSER: Harry Manfredini

HORROR

Starring: Erich Anderson, Judie Aronson, Peter Barton, Kimberly Beck, Corey Feldman, Joan Freeman, Crispin Glover, Lawrence Monoson, Alan Hayes, Barbara Howard, Camilla More, Carey More, Bruce Mahler, Lisa Freeman, Bonnie Hellman and Frankie Hill with Ted White

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter is a 1984 slasher horror film directed by Joseph Zito. It is a direct sequel to the 1982 film, Friday the 13th Part III, and is the fourth movie in the Friday the 13th movie franchise. The Final Chapter finds Jason Voorhees revived after being declared dead and then, returning to Crystal Lake where he stalks a group of friends renting a nearby house.

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter opens in the aftermath of the massacre at “Higgins Haven,” the old home near Crystal Lake (as seen in Friday the 13th Part III). The police clean up the scene, picking up the bodies of ten victims. They were all killed by Jason Voorhees (Ted White), the killer of Crystal Lake. This time, however, Jason has also been pronounced dead, and his body is picked up and sent to the Wessex County Medical Center Morgue (apparently somewhere in southern New Jersey). Somehow, Jason spontaneously revives and kills a morgue attendant and a nurse on his way out the door and back to Crystal Lake.

Meanwhile, a group of six teenage friends: Paul (Alan Hayes), Sam (Judie Aronson), Doug (Peter Barton), Sara (Barbara Howard), Ted (Lawrence Monoson), and Jimmy (Crispin Glover), have arrived at the house in the countryside near Crystal Lake that they are renting. Right across from that house is another home where Mrs. Jarvis (Joan Freeman) lives with her two children: her teen teenage daughter, Trish Jarvis (Kimberly Beck) and her twelve-year-old son, Tommy (Corey Feldman), along with their dog, Gordon. The visiting group of teens also meets and befriends a pair of twin sisters, Tina (Camilla More) and Terri (Carey More).

Later, Trish and Tommy meet Rob Dier (Erich Anderson), a strapping young man who claims that he is visiting the area to hunt bear, but who is really hunting Jason for killing his sister, Sandra Dier. What they don't know is that Jason is already hunting them all.

[NOTE: Rob's sister, Sandra, and her boyfriend, Jeff, were killed together by Jason in Friday the 13th Part II.]

The first few minutes of Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter are a sequence of highlights from the first three films: Friday the 13th (1980), Friday the 13th Part II (1981), and Friday the 13th Part III. The third film was originally going to be the end of the series, just as this fourth film was going to conclude the series, so the beginning of this fourth film summarizes for the audience what has been going on at and around Crystal Lake. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter was the first film in the series that I saw, and is one of only two in the series that I have actually watched in a movie theater (the other being 1989's Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan).

So forty years later, what do I think of Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter? I remember that I kinda liked it the first time I saw it, although I was shocked by the number of people Jason killed – thirteen by my count, although fourteen is possible. Originally, I was surprised by how fast the narrative had Jason dispatching his victims, and forty years later, I still think that.

Like the third film, I think The Final Chapter actually presents several good characters. In fact, the six teens, the Jarvis family members, and Rob Dier all have personalities and potential that would make for decent character drama or melodrama, as it may be. In the end, however, they are merely meat for this franchise's beast, Jason Voorhees. Also, I think Corey Feldman's Tommy is the only character that really gets a chance at a showcase of character and emotion.

In the final analysis, The Final Chapter is better than most of the films in the series that followed it, but it isn't as good or as classic as the films that preceded. If you want to know which is my favorite, dear readers, it is the second film, although I think the original is still the series' best film. Still, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter is a nice way to make a tetralogy out of a trilogy.

5 of 10

B-

★★½ out of 4 stars

Thursday, December 12, 2024

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Monday, November 4, 2024

Review: Entertaining "MaXXXine" is No Pearl

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 47 of 2024 (No. 1991) by Leroy Douresseaux

MaXXXine (2024)

Running time: 103 minutes (1 hour, 43 minutes)

MPA – R for strong violence, gore, sexual content, graphic nudity, language and drug use

WRITER/DIRECTOR: Ti West

PRODUCERS: Mia Goth, Jacob Jaffke, Harrison Kreiss, Kevin Turen, and Ti West

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Eliot Rockett (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Ti West

COMPOSERS: Tyler Bates

HORROR

Starring: Mia Goth, Elizabeth Debicki, Kevin Bacon, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavole, Moses Sumney, Chloe Farnworth, Lily Collins, Halsey, Ned Vaughn, Simon Prast, and Giancarlo Esposito

MaXXXine is a 2024 horror drama from writer-director Ti West. The film is the third entry in the X film series and is a direct sequel to X (2022). MaXXXine focuses on an adult film star and aspiring mainstream actress who finally gets her big break, while a mysterious killer leaves a trail of bodies that threatens to reveal her troubled past.

MaXXXine is set in Los Angeles in the year 1985. The city is in the middle of the hysteria concering “the Night Stalker” murders, but 32-year-old, porno actress, Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) really doesn't have time to pay attention. She is making an attempt to transition from pornographic films and into mainstream movies. Her big break comes via an audition for the horror movie sequel, “The Puritan II.” Because she impresses the film's director, Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki), Maxine lands the role of the film's villain, “Veronica.”

However, the horrifying events that occurred on a farm estate in rural Texas six years earlier (as seen in X) threaten to expose Maxine's troubled past. People connected to her are starting to be brutally murdered, and two homicide detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department, Williams (Michelle Monaghan) and Torres (Bobby Cannavale), are tailing her. Then, there is the sleazy private detective, John Labat (Kevin Bacon), who pops up – often with threats. Can Maxine protect her big break, and what is she willing to do to protect it?

In the 2022 film, X, Mia Goth played both the potential victim, Maxine Mink, and also Pearl, one half of the elderly homicidal couple. In X's prequel, Pearl (2022), Goth reprises the role of Pearl, as the films delves into the title character's early life and hardships. Now, Goth is Maxine again in X's direct sequel, MaXXXine.

In Pearl, the film focuses on a young woman who is mentally troubled and socially outcast and who lashes out in violence after one too many betrayals. In MaXXXine, I found myself waiting to see Maxine Mink lash out to protect what she has and is about to half. There are those moments in MaXXXine, such as Maxine's brutal take down of a stalker. Otherwise, MaXXXine seems like an attempt to tame Maxine Mink of her potential for ultra-violence.

The film's plot and narrative progress are uneven, and the narrative seems like an audiovisual and conceptual pastiche of events and culture related to L.A., circa 1985. For instance, from 1984 to 1985, serial killer Richard Ramirez terrorized the Greater Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay Area regions, assaulting, humiliating, and killing some of his victims, and he became known as the “Night Stalker.” Ti West's screenplay offers tantalizing references to the killings, but the “Night Stalker” is merely a red herring in the film's narrative.

That pretty much summarizes the film. There are tantalizing characters, subplots, and settings (many of them seeming sinister even in the middle of the day), but MaXXXine never really lets loose. The Triple-X in the title suggests that the film is triple-strong or at least among the nastiest things around, but MaXXXine is more hard-R than X. Even the references to Satanic murders and rituals end up like weak tea.

That's a shame because the movie starts off forcefully, and there are a lot of good ideas. But … for a movie partially set in the world of adult entertainment, including pornographic films, peep shows, and coke-fueled sex parties, MaXXXine self-censors. Not much is really exposed, and there is a bloody last act that is at once impressive and then, lame. That's a shame, but MaXXXine really doesn't take it to the max... but man, it really could have.

6 of 10

★★★ out of 4 stars

Monday, November 4, 2024

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Sunday, November 3, 2024

Review: M. Night Shyamalan's "TRAP" Delights in Being Devilish

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 46 of 2024 (No. 1990) by Leroy Douresseaux

Trap (2024)

Running time: 105 minutes (1 hour, 45 minutes)

MPA – PG-13 for some violent content and brief strong language

WRITER/DIRECTOR: M. Night Shyamalan

PRODUCERS: Marc Bienstock, Ashwin Rajan, and M. Night Shyamalan

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Noemi Preiswerk

COMPOSER: Herdis Stefansdottir

THRILLER/HORROR

Starring: Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Night Shyamalan, Alison Pill, Hayley Mills, Jonathan Langdon, Mark Bacolcol, Marnie McPhail, Scott Mescudi, Russell “Russ” Vitale, Lochlan Miller, Steve Boyle, David D'Lancy Wilson, and M. Night Shyamalan

Trap is a 2024 psychological thriller and horror film from writer-director M. Night Shyamalan. The film focuses on a father who takes his teen daughter to a special pop concert and then realizes that he and his child have entered a dark and sinister trap.

Trap opens in Philadelphia. There, we meet firefighter Cooper Abbott (Josh Hartnett) . He is taking his teenage daughter, Riley (Ariel Donoghue), to a special afternoon concert performance by pop star Lady Raven (Saleka Night Shyamalan). Once inside the concert venue, Cooper notices an unusually high police presence on all levels of the building. Doing his own investigating, Cooper soon discovers that he and his daughter are at the center of a dark and sinister event. Who is “the Butcher” and why does law enforcement insist that he is one of the 3000 men attending the concert?

Despite the disaster that was M. Night Shyamalan's 2023 thriller, Knock at the Cabin, I immediately wanted to see Trap as soon as I heard about it sometime last year. I was sure the friend I dragged along with me to see Knock at the Cabin back in early February 2023 would also join me for Trap. Unfortunately, Trap did play at either of the two local theaters, so I just watched it on the “Max” streaming service.

By now, many people know all about Trap's twists and turns, and it is a very twisty, very strange, very weird, and very crazy movie. Still, I'm not doing the spoiler thing, but you, dear readers, would need detailed spoilers to keep up with all of this film's twists and contortions. It's as if writer-director M. Night Shyamalan drew straws to decide the fate of Trap's various subplots and plot twists. The result is a thriller zesty with the unexpected.

Speak of Mr. M: he makes his usual appearance as an actor in his own films, but his daughter, Saleka Night Shyamalan, an actual pop singer and recording artist, has a big role in Trap as the pop star, “Lady Raven.” Saleka's second studio album, Lady Raven, acts as the soundtrack album for Trap. Nepotism aside, Saleka's songs add a haunting layer to Herdis Stefansdottir's film score for Trap, and, believe me, Saleka is quite game when it comes to acting.

The film's primary wackiness comes from Josh Hartnett's performance as Cooper Abbott. Hartnett mixes paranoia with subtly when he is not being hilariously over the top and disturbingly calm. I can't say that other actors would not have been better at playing Cooper than Hartnett, but at least, Hartnett has his own method of bat-shit craziness.

Trap is disarmingly entertaining. I actually always thought that it would be a good and enjoyable film, but I'm shocked that I like it as much as I do. I can't believe that I consider its many nonsensical story elements to be quite endearing and even alluring, at times. The scenes that take place at the concert are excellent, but the film doesn't lose its cockamamie mojo when it moves the action to other venues. I am giving Trap a high rating because I can't think of a reason not to do so. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't think that it is a hugely entertaining and attractively offbeat thriller film. I'm trapped in a closet... with Trap.

8 of 10

★★★★ out of 4 stars

Sunday, November 3, 2024

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Thursday, October 31, 2024

Review: "HALLOWEEN ENDS" Because It Ran Out of Gas

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 45 of 2024 (No. 1989) by Leroy Douresseaux

Halloween Ends (2022)

Running time: 111 minutes (1 hour, 51 minutes)

MPA – R for bloody horror violence and gore, language throughout and some sexual references

DIRECTOR: David Gordon Green

WRITERS: David Gordon Green & Danny McBride and Paul Brad Logan and Chris Bernier (based on the characters created by John Carpenter and Debra Hill)

PRODUCERS: Malek Akkad, Bill Block, and Jason Blum

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Michael Simmonds (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Tim Alverson

COMPOSERS: Cody Carpenter, John Carpenter, and Daniel Davies

HORROR/THRILLER

Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Andi Matichak, James Jude Courtney, Rohan Campbell, Will Patton, Jesse C. Boyd, Michael Barbieri, Destiny Moné, Joey Harris, Marteen, Joanne Barron, Rick Moose, Michele Dawson, Keraun Harris,Kyle Richards, Michael O'Leary, Jaxon Goldenberg, Candice Rose,Jack William Marshall, and Omar Dorsey

Halloween Ends is a 2022 slasher-horror film from director David Gordon Green. It is the thirteenth installment in the Halloween film franchise. It is also the third film in a trilogy of sequels to the original 1978 Halloween, the first of that trilogy being 2018's Halloween. Halloween Ends finds Laurie Strode wondering if the troubled young man that her granddaughter is dating carries the evil she saw in her decades long nemesis, Michael Myers.

Halloween Ends opens in Haddonfield, Illinois on Halloween night, 2019. Twenty-one-year-old Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell) is babysitting a bratty 11-year-old boy. The night ends tragically, and Corey becomes a pariah in Haddonfield.

Three years later, it is 2022. Haddonfield is still reeling from the aftermath of the killing spree launched by the notorious Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney) in 2018 (as seen in 2018's Halloween and 2021's Halloween Kills). Michael has vanished, and his main victim, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), is writing a memoir and living with her granddaughter, Allyson Nelson (Andi Matichak). Corey is working at his stepfather, Roger's (Rick Moose) salvage yard.

A bullying incident brings Corey into contact with Laurie, so Corey meets Allyson, who is immediately taken with him. It seems as if the pariah Corey and the traumatized Allyson have found the perfect mate in each another. However, Corey has a strange and unexpected encounter that might lead to the creation of a new serial killer.

One could argue that Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) is a soft reboot of the first two films in the franchise – Halloween (1978) and Halloween II (1981). Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) was a reboot of the franchise in that it ignored franchise entries four through six. Rob Zombie's 2007 film, Halloween, was an ever harder reboot. Halloween 2018 was not so much a reboot as it was a true sequel to the original story. Halloween Kills (2021) was basically an attempt to insert a course correction of Halloween II that would sit between the original Halloween and 2018 Halloween, while kicking 1981's Halloween II partially to the curb.

Halloween Ends is spiritually related to Rob Zombie's 2007 film, at least a little. Zombie's film asks the question what creates a monster like Michael Myers. Halloween Ends depicts how a town's toxic legacy and history and its shitty townsfolk can come together to create the kind of monster and inhuman killer that will stalk the town's streets and kill the townsfolk.

Halloween Ends flirts with brilliance, but director David Gordon Green and his co-writers turn the second half of the film into a tedious display of ultra-violence. The film has a lot to say about scapegoating, pariahs, grief, trauma, post-traumatic stress, victim-blaming, and mercilessness, to name a few. In the end, however, Halloween Ends has to be a Halloween movie and bodies need to be dismembered, smashed, crushed, shot, and violently penetrated.

I really enjoyed this movie for a time; then, I was ready for it to... end. The performances are good, but no one performance really stands out to me, although (sexy) Will Patton as Deputy Frank Hawkins certainly tries, as he usually does in all his film and television performances. Whatever future this franchise has, it is time to move on to something really new. Halloween Ends is a good, but not great way to end the murder spree that began with the original film.

6 of 10

★★★ out of 4 stars

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

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Wednesday, October 30, 2024

Review: "HALLOWEEN III: Season of the Witch" is More Strange Than Good

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 155 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)

Running time: 98 minutes (1 hour, 38 minutes)

MPAA – R

DIRECTOR: Tommy Lee Wallace

WRITER: Tommy Lee Wallace

PRODUCERS: John Carpenter and Debra Hill

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Dean Cundey (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Millie Moore

COMPOSERS: John Carpenter and Alan Howarth

HORROR/SCI-FI/FANTASY

Starring: Tom Atkins, Stacy Nelkin, Dan O’Herlihy, Michael Currie, Ralph Strait, Jadeen Barbor, and Brad Schacter

Halloween III: Season of the Witch is a 1982 American horror and science fiction-fantasy film from director Tommy Lee Wallace. It is the third installment in the Halloween film series and the only one not to feature the franchise's star antagonist, Michael Myers. British science fiction author, Nigel Kneale, and series co-creator, John Carpenter, joined director Tommy Lee Wallace in contributing to the writing of this film. Season of the Witch focuses on a doctor who uncovers a plot use children and a particular brand of Halloween masks to resurrect an ancient ritual.

When her father is murdered in his hospital bed, Ellie Grimbridge (Stacy Nelkin) begins to suspect the involvement of a powerful novelty company with whom her father, Harry (Al Berry), had a relationship. She convinces an over-stressed physician Dr. Daniel “Dan” Challis (Tom Atkins) to accompany her to the headquarters of the company, Silver Shamrock, where they meet the company’s creepy owner Conal Cochran (Dan O’Herlihy).

Silver Shamrock’s big sales push occurs at Halloween, and everywhere the two go, they encounter omnipresent television ads for the company’s three Halloween masks. As Halloween gets closer, the world around Dan and Ellie becomes more perilous and stranger, and they delve deeper into Silver Shamrock’s evil plans for the holiday.

After wrapping up the story he began in the 1978 film, Halloween, in the sequel, Halloween II (1981), John Carpenter had different plans. He intended Halloween III: Season of the Witch to be the first in an annual series of Halloween movies that each told a different Halloween related story. Each film would, of course, have the “Halloween” brand name, but this film failed at the box office and killed that plan. Directed by Tommy Lee Wallace, the film editor of the original Halloween and for Carpenter's 1980 film, The Fog, Season of the Witch is average horror film with the potential to be something really great. It is gross-filled genre fare having equal doses of horror, mystery, and science fiction.

It is difficult to point out concretely just where it all went wrong. The mystery element is great, while the science fiction element is far fetched and more fantasy than science. The sci-fi/fantasy element fails because of a lack of proper execution and because the magical elements are flat and unconvincing. The horrific aspects are strong, and the dénouement is bracing and unsettling. Somewhere along the line, however, it all falls apart, and the movie can leave the viewer as unsatisfied as it will leave him curious about what happens in the story after the movie fades to black.

Still, I’d watch it again. There’s something in it, warts and all, that intrigues me, and I wish the filmmakers had taken the time to get whatever it is right.

4 of 10

★★ out of 4 stars

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Sunday, October 6, 2024

Review: Max's "'SALEM'S LOT" 2024 is Scary a Lot

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 44 of 2024 (No. 1988) by Leroy Douresseaux

'Salem's Lot (2024)

Running time: 113 minutes (1 hour, 53 minutes)

MPA – R for bloody violence and language

DIRECTOR: Gary Dauberman

WRITER: Gary Dauberman (based on the novel by Stephen King)

PRODUCERS: Michael Clear, Roy Lee, James Wan, and Mark Wolper

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Michael Burgess (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Luke Ciarrocchi

COMPOSERS: Nathan Barr and Lisbeth Scott

HORROR

Starring: Lewis Pullman, Makenzie Leigh, Jordan Preston Carter, Alfre Woodard, Bill Camp, John Benjamin Hickey, Nicholas Crovetti, Spencer Great Clark, Pilou Asbaek, and Alexander Ward

SUMMARY OF THE REVIEW:

-- Although it lacks big names stars, “'Salem's Lot” 2024 has big scares, as writer-director Gary Dauberman spins a number of some blood-curdling and bone-chilling scenes that are beautifully shot by cinematographer Michael Burgess

-- The movie does lack the character depth of early television versions, it is fairly faithful in some ways to its source material, Stephen King's 1975 novel of the same name

-- I highly recommend the new “'Salem's Lot” to fans of vampire horror films

'Salem's Lot is a 2024 American vampire horror film from writer-director Gary Dauberman. The film is based on the 1975 novel, 'Salem's Lot, from author Stephen King. 'Salem's Lot the movie focuses on an author who returns to his childhood home in search of inspiration for his next novel and discovers that the town is being taken over by vampires.

'Salem's Lot introduces author Ben Mears (Lewis Pullman). He has returned to his childhood home of Jerusalem's Lot, also known as “'Salem's Lot” or “The Lot,” seeking inspiration for his next novel. He meets and begins a relationship with Susan Norton (Makenzie Leigh), a young woman studying to get her real estate license. Their relationship sets tongues a-wagging in the small town.

Also new to the town is the antiques business, “Barlow and Straker Fine Furnishings.” So far, only Richard Straker (Pilou Asbaek) has arrived, but Straker promises that his partner, Kurt Barlow (Alexander Ward), will soon arrive. The problem is that Barlow is a vampire, and before long, he is preying on the Lot, and this town of 1710 starts to find that its living population is shrinking. Now, a teacher, Matthew Burke (Bill Camp); a boy who is a horror fan, Mark Petrie (Jordan Preston Carter); a local physician, Dr. Cody (Alfre Woodard); and a broken down alcoholic priest, Father Callahan (John Benjamin Hickey), join Ben and Susan to form a rag tag team of heroes determined to stop Barlow. As their circle grows smaller, however, can they really take on a town full of vampires?

'Salems's Lot” was author Stephen King's second published novel (following his publishing debut, 1974's Carrie), and it is apparently his favorite of his works. The popular novel was first adapted as a two-part television miniseries that was originally broadcast by CBS in November 1979 (although I remember its length and release date differently). It was again adapted as a two-part television miniseries, broadcast by the TNT cable network in June 2004. I enjoyed both versions, but prefer the 1979 which turned out to be a influence on such vampire films as Fright Night (1985) and The Lost Boys (1987).

I watched the new 'Salem's Lot film to the end of its credits, and the copyright date is listed as the year 2022. Yes, this new 'Salem's Lot has had at least two years of changing theatrical release dates. Outside of a film festival premiere, 'Salem's Lot the movie finally found a home on the streaming service Max (formerly HBO Max). Is 'Salem's Lot good enough to have received a full theatrical release? The answer is yes, but good movies aren't always box office hits. Besides Warner Bros., the movie studio behind 'Salem's Lot, very likely had no idea that the recent sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, would be such a blockbuster hit. It is a crap-shoot, and, in the case of 'Salem's Lot, is now a moot point.

'Salem's Lot's main problem may be that it has no big name actors starring in it, although the lead, Lewis Pullman as Ben Mears, had a supporting role in the 2022 mega-hit, Top Gun: Maverick. Pullman plays Ben Mears as cool-headed and steady-handed, which is an interesting take. And the rest of the cast of 'Salem's Lot is equally good. Alfre Woodard is always a top notch performer whose unique film presence and acting personality always gives a movie some “oomph.” Jordan Preston Carter is a surprising and scene-stealing little hero as Mark Petrie. John Benjamin Hickey and Bill Camp give strong character performances in their respective roles.

Still, I must reiterate that 'Salem's Lot 2024 is a really entertaining and thoroughly scary vampire horror movie. Sure, it lacks the emotional and character drama depth of the early adaptations of King's novel. I also take issue with the fact that even after the heroes learn what they need to fight vampires, they are often caught without them or trapped with too few of them.

However, Michael Burgess' lovely cinematography and Nathan Barr and Lisbeth Scott's eerie film music power-up writer-director Gary Dauberman's most bone-chilling moments and blood-curdling scenes. I don't want to fill this review with spoilers, but what would a 'Salem's Lot” TV or film be without a vampire boy at the window?...

Who knows how 'Salem's Lot would have performed in a crowded Halloween season theatrical release schedule? Still, both summer movie nights and October fright fests have a new visitor, a horror movie hungry to get to you, dear readers. And as always, 'Salem's Lot is thirsty for your blood.

7 of 10

B+

★★★½ out of 4 stars

Sunday, October 5, 2024

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Tuesday, October 1, 2024

Review: "TOMIE" is Weird as Sh*t - Happy Halloween

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 153 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Tomie (1998)

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Japan

Running time: 95 minutes

Not rated

DIRECTOR: Ataru Oikawa

WRITER: Ataru Oikawa (based upon the manga by Junji Ito)

PRODUCERS: Yasuhiko Azuma, Youichiro Onishi, and Shun Shimizu

CINEMATOGRAPHERS Akira Sakoh and Kazuhiro Suzuki

EDITOR: Ryûji Miyajima

COMPOSERS: Hiroshi Futami and Toshihiro Kimura

HORROR/THRILLER

Starring: Miho Kanno, Mami Nakamura, Yoriko Douguchi, Tomorowo Taguchi, Kouta Kusano, and Kenji Mizuhashi

Tomie is a 1998 Japanese horror film from director Ataru Oikawa. It is the first entry in the Tomie film series, which totals eleven films as of 2011. It is also based on the manga (Japanese comics), Tomie, which was published from 1987 to 2000 and was created by Junji Ito. Tomie the movie focuses on a traumatized young woman who is haunted by the name, “Tomie.”

Tsukiko Izumisawa (Mami Nakamura) is seeing a psychiatrist, Dr. Hosono (Yoriko Douguchi), about her problem sleeping at night. She also has repressed memories of some trauma in her past. Detective Harada (Tomorowo Taguchi) believes it has something to do with the murder of her friend, Tomie (Miho). Trouble is that going back a century’s worth of records, Harada finds Tomie as the name of several victims of horribly violent crimes. Is this Tomie the same one involved with Tsukiko? And what about that guy with a severed human head in a plastic grocery bag?

Tomie was the first in a series of popular Japanese horror movies starring the mysterious Tomie and her machinations, and the film is based upon the Junji Ito comic (manga) of the same title. Tomie isn’t as intense as that most popular Japanese horror film, Ringu, but it’s fairly suspenseful in its own right. Actually, Tomie is more a suspense film than a horror or a thriller. Director/screenwriter Ataru Oikawa drenches his film in shadows and the atmosphere bleeds creepiness and weirdness. It’s an atmosphere that can have the viewer always hanging on for what’s going to happen next. What makes the film as effective as it ever gets is Oikawa’s use of a real world setting. He shot the film as it if were just a pedestrian TV drama. That banality coupled with the pulp madness that surrounds the Tomie character and the eventual revelation of what she is makes the film turn out to be something much better than it seemed a third of the way through its running time.

Tomie is not for every body, but Tomie is perfect for the horror flick fan on the prowl for something real different. The film also has a frankly bizarre musical score.

6 of 10

★★★ out of 4 stars

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Sunday, September 29, 2024

Review: Adult Swim's "UZUMAKI" Miniseries: Episode 1 is Crazy, Scary and Cool

TV IN MY EYE No. 1 by Leroy Douresseaux

“Uzumaki” Episode 1 (2024)

Running time: 24 minutes; TV-MA

DIRECTOR: Hiroshi Nagahama

WRITER: Aki Iazmi (based upon the manga by Junji Ito)

PRODUCERS: Jason DeMarco (executive producer) and Maki Terashima-Furuta

COMPOSER: Colin Stetson

ANIMATION/HORROR

Starring: (English dub voices) Abby Trott, Robbie Daymond, Cristina Valenzuela, Aaron LaPlante, Mona Marshall, Doug Stone, and Max Mittelman

"Uzumaki" is a four-episode, animated, horror television miniseries from director Hiroshi Nagahama. The series is a joint production between Cartoon Network's “Adult Swim” programming block and Production I.G USA, the American division of the Japanese animation studio, Production I.G. The first episode of Uzumaki made its debut on Adult Swim Saturday, September 28, 2024 and became available to stream on the Max service Sunday, September 29, 2024. There is both an English-language and Japanese-language version of this miniseries, and this review is based on the English version.

"Uzumaki" is an adaptation of the manga (Japanese comics), Uzumaki, originally published from 1998 to 1999 and created by Junji Ito. Uzumaki the anime is set in the coastal Japanese village where a high school couple confronts the spiral pattern that seems to be haunting the village.

"Uzumaki" Episode 1 opens in Kurouzu, a small Japanese coastal village where we meet Kirie Goshima (Abby Trott), a high school girl who is traveling to Kurouzu Station. There, she plans to meet her boyfriend, Shuichi Saito (Robbie Daymond). Upon his arrival, Shuichi seems withdrawn, and his moodiness apparently involves his father. It seems that Mr. Saito (Aaron LaPlante) has become obsessed with the whorled pattern known as the “spiral” (uzumaki).

Initially, Kirie laughs off Shuichi's concerns, but she eventually personally experiences Mr. Saito's weirdness. Soon, she is noticing strange and horrifying things herself. The most horrifying may involve her friend, the very popular teen girl, Azami Kurotani (Cristina Valenzuela).

Junji Ito's Uzumaki manga runs well over 600 pages, so the creators of its anime adaptation have streamlined the story in order to fit a narrative that won't be even one hundred minutes long. That doesn't bother me all that much as long as they capture the existential sense of dread and cosmic horror that is Uzumaki.

Uzumaki's animation is in black and white, not color, and the character and production design mimic Ito's drawing and graphic design style as closely as they can. In fact, the anime filmmakers' fidelity to Ito's aesthetic adds another layer of uncanny to this already uncanny series. So I can overlook, the fact that – judging by Episode 1 – this series does not adopt the hauntingly patient, measured, drawn-out pace of Ito's manga.

Much of the body horror that this anime depicts is as disturbing as that found in live-action body horror films. Combine that with persistently eerie sound design and it makes this one of the most chilling, scary, and troubling animated series every broadcast on American cable television.

The English voice performances are, quite frankly, superb – from the leads to the supporting players. They make it seem as if all the freaky things they are seeing are real, even surreal, but never fake and contrived. I won't spoil "Uzumaki" Episode 1 for those who have not yet seen it, but it ends with some body horror that had me pressed against the back of my couch.

8 of 10

★★★★ out of 4 stars

Sunday, September 29, 2024

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Friday, September 6, 2024

Review: "BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE" is Morbidly Wonderful and Wonderfully Morbid

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 42 of 2024 (No. 1986) by Leroy Douresseaux

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)

Running time: 104 minutes (1 hour, 44 minutes)

MPA – PG-13 for violent content, macabre and bloody images, strong language, some suggestive material and brief drug use.

DIRECTOR: Tim Burton

WRITERS: Alfred Gough & Miles Millar; from a story by Alfred Gough & Miles Millar and Seth Grahame-Smith (based on characters created by Michael McDowell and Larry Wilson)

PRODUCERS: Tim Burton, Dede Gardner, Tommy Harper, Jeremy Kleiner, and Marc Toberoff

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Haris Zambarloukos (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Jay Prychidny

COMPOSER: Danny Elfman

COMEDY/FANTASY/HORROR

Starring: Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Jenna Ortega, Justin Theroux, Willem Dafoe, Monica Bellucci, Arthur Conti, Nick Kellington, Santiago Cabrera, Burn Gorman, Sami Slimane, Amy Nuttall, and Danny DeVito

SUMMARY OF THE REVIEW:

“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is that rare sequel that is as weird and as wonderful as its weird and wonderful predecessor

Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Catherine O’Hara are so good at reprising their original roles that it is hard to believe that it has been 36 years since they first played them

“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is director Tim Burton's most crowd-pleasing film since 1999's “Sleepy Hollow”

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a 2024 American dark fantasy and comic-horror film from director Tim Burton. It is a direct sequel to Burton's 1988 film, Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice finds three generations gathering after a family tragedy only to discover that the latest generation's actions have lead to a new encounter with the Afterlife and also has drawn the attentions of a certain bio-exorcist.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice opens over three decades after the events depicted in Beetlejuice. Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) is now a “psychic mediator” who hosts a supernaturally themed talk show, “Ghost House,” produced by her current boyfriend, Rory (Justin Theroux). Lydia is estranged from her daughter, Astrid Deetz (Jenna Ortega), who is resentful that Lydia had a falling out with Astrid's father, Richard (Santiago Cabrera), who died during an expedition to the Amazon.

Lydia is stressed of late because she has been seeing visions of Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton), the “bio-exorcist” from the Afterlife who tried to force her to marry him over thirty years ago. Meanwhile, in the Afterlife, Betelgeuse (pronounced “Beetlejuice”) is having his own relationship problems as he has learned that his former wife, Delores (Monica Bellucci), a soul-sucking witch, has been revived and is hunting him in order to avenge the wrong she believes he did to her.

Back in the world of the living, Lydia's stepmother, Delia Deetz (Catherine O'Hara), informs her that her husband, Lydia's father, Charles Deetz, has died. Lydia, Astrid, and Delia return to Winter River (the setting of the original film) for Charles' funeral. The three women suddenly find their worlds turned upside down when the Afterlife intrudes and Betelgeuse plots to turn this series of unfortunate events in his favor.

Because of the decades long wait for this sequel, I wondered about the quality of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. After seeing it, I am pleased and happy to say that I enjoyed it as much as I have any film I've seen this year (2024). I saw Beetlejuice Beetlejuice during a Thursday night preview showing, and there were several children present. The children were restless and acted up a bit, especially early on. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is not a children's film, or it is, at least, not as child-friendly as the first film. Beetlejuice had a darkly humorous and macabre sensibility that was similar to the work of the late Charles Addams (1912-1988), the cartoonist for The New Yorker magazine who was best known for his recurring characters that became known as “The Addams Family.”

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a darker film with a morbid rather than a macabre sensibility. The specter of death – especially sudden, violent, accidental death – hangs over this film. Yet it all seems like ghoulish fun and games, thanks in part to director Tim Burton's creative cohorts. The costume design, production design, film editing, cinematography, lighting, visual effects (practical and CGI), and musical score (by frequent Burton collaborator, Danny Elfman), recall the creative and intense inventiveness of the original film They make Beetlejuice Beetlejuice more grand theater than “Grand Guignol.” Still, I don't think elementary school age children, in general, will really enjoy this new film.

I'd call Beetlejuice Beetlejuice perfect except I do take exception with the film's writing. Although the overall plot is very interesting, the screenplay has some extraneous threads and inessential characters. I won't mention them just in case they end up being spoilers.

I will say that Tim Burton is fortunate to have the trio of Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Catherine O’Hara carrying the load for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. When I first saw Beetlejuice, I didn’t care for Michael Keaton’s performance as Betelgeuse. I thought his manic energy seemed forced and phony and that the late Robin Williams, who was really coming into his own as a movie star at the time, would have been a better choice. Sixteen years later (2004), I watched Beetlejuice again, and that time I thought Keaton was perfect. Go figure! How wrong I was. With Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Keaton proves that no one can be the “ghostest with the mostest” like him.

As Lydia Deetz, Winona Ryder truly evolves the character in interesting and genuinely human ways. Ryder could easily pull off a third film if one were to be made in the next decade (hopefully earlier). Given chance, Catherine O'Hara always proves that she is a giant among comedic actors, and does so again. What she offered in the original film, she offers in comedic droves here.

I had a thoroughly great time at the movies last night, and even the restless kids could not ruin the very funny “Soul Train” references. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is that rare sequel that matches the original film in many ways and surpasses it in others. As a movie fan, I feel blessed to have it.

8 of 10

★★★★ out of 4 stars

Friday, September 6, 2024

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