Retro Review - Trick 'r Treat

My always reliable source when it comes to the ''new horror flick that just came out'' is my roommate, who works in a videostore, so that's cool. I get most of my movies free and we get to keep them usually.

Sadly, during the holidays, I've picked up the cursed can't sleep before 3am habit and from midnight to 3 I usually pop in a movie. I've been slacking up on my cinema in the last year...been busy playing too many games as there's too many of them that comes out. Curse them all!

But I'm getting back into it and it feels refreshing, since the only thing I was watching were tv series and to be honest, as good as tv series can be, nothing beats watching a flick that requires only about 2 hours of your time. Like tonight, I've treated (Oh God! PUN!) myself to Michael Dougherty's Trick 'r Treat and I liked it more than I hated it.

First of, major points when you don't keep saying Jack 'O Lantern in your script and then actually put one in it. Second points are the werewolves in prosthetics, I don't know about you but me, I find werewolves more realistic when they're made of rubber rather than pixels. Finally, there's a universal rule out there that says ; ''if Brian Cox is in a movie, there's 95% chance that it's good''

The story isn't all that linear since it's one of those ''branching'' movie but you get the idea quickly enough. Which I found original, there's not much horror out there that touch the subject of halloween, it's usually just a context but this movie actually touch the myths surrounding the holiday.

I'm not sure why the comic book style was integrated into the movie but it adds a little...naive look to it. A Trade Paper Back of the adaptation was released by Wildstorm comics back in October even though it was originally supposed to be a 4 issues series.

If you read the Wiki page they say that a sequel is in the work but from my point of view, the movie should stay a one time thing.

Gotta say though, the character of Sam (image) sure is catchy,

he looks like a creepy version of Sackboy.

In the year 2000

Oh yeah, 4 months and some change and I haven't abandoned the idea of this blog. Yep, probably this new year thing that makes me wanna write up now but hey, we're all victims to the current time we live in.

There's a lot of shizznit that happened in the past 4 months and a lot of horror flicks that came out also. Some were surprisingly good, some were bad and some were overhyped yet, still managed to live up to it.

I'm gonna try to keep up now that I'm back in the mood and also, I'm gonna talk more diversified mediums. Flicks, Comics, Books and heck, even the news cause horror needs to be out there and we need to share what's scares us and what entertain us.

Cheers

Retro Review - Repo, The Genetic Opera

I have the wrong view of certain products sometimes and it turns out I miss on good things often as a result.

Repo came out in the heart of Saw's height, not that it's finished mind you, and at that moment I was more or less interested about it because it was advertised as a gimmick that didn't stick with me. Today, on a insanely warm sunday, I decided it was movie day so I went in my roommate collection (which is astounding by the way) and was looking for something I haven't seen yet. Something also that didn't need my full attention as I knew that I would wander off in the process. Repo, turns out was a great choice.

I'm mostly surprised by the movie, like I said my expectations were kinda low, since I thought it was a gimmick à la Hostel but Giles (Anthony Head) is a great actor and personnaly I think, a great stage actor so it was a plus. The DVD is stylish I gotta say, the menu is campy and comic book-y and this always is a plus in my book. I knew it was a musical, unlike many that went to see it in theaters and that never really bothered me, so this wasn't a factor. The problem with the musical part is that not all the actors are good at singing and not all the lines are written to be sung.

I personally thought that sometimes, it sounded off but then again I'm no musical expert. What surprised me though is the actors and actresses that appeared in the movie. Alexa Vega is a good young actress and showing that she can do other styles of role is nice to see. Paul Sorvino is a little typecast here but you know, he's good at these kind of role (plus his ''singing'' isn't so bad) and Paris Hilton was great. I mean, with this flick, she re-invented the meaning of loosing face in public. The biggest surprise was Sarah Brightman, a reputed singer and a good one at that involved in a horror movie is always nice to see.

I think that it's one of the factor that bothered me about the singing, a contrast of Sarah Brightman singing and then the other scene you get the Grave Robber, the difference is astounding. It's obvious I know but I thought it took charms aways from the movie.

There was an emmy nominated episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer a couple of years ago, it was called ''Once more with feeling''. Joss Whedon had said at the time that it was one of the reason he continued the serie after the 5th season. It was a musical and a good one where unconventional lyrics meshed well with the narrative of the show and...well, sounded good. Repo reminds me a lot of that episode (Anthony Stewart being in both kinda helps too) and I think that the creators were hugely influenced by that episode. There's other influence obviously, like The Rocky Horror but the modern look and feel is more inclined with Once more with feeling.

All in all, it's a unique film, there's nothing (I know about anyway) out there that ressemble this so it's worth viewing and even owning for that matter. It's a great flick to put into the background when you feel like watching something... but not really.

Bugmaker

There's a dude (as his profile says: I'm male and taken) out there called Bugmaker and as the name implies, he make bug like creatures. He's a gifted sculpter as you can see from his Flickr account.

Also, he seems to have a penchant for C'thulhu, which we don't really mind here at MiM. There's no mention on his account that you can order any of his creations though, it's a shame really 'cause I'd really like to get my hands on a few. I mean, who doesn't want a Cephalopod creature in a jar?

Enjoy!

Resident Evil

RE has been a focus for the evolution of horror into games. Back in 1996, when the first one came out on the Playstation, the mind of gamers were blown away by the quality and the ambience it brought to a medium that was never really ‘’horror-friendly’’.

Off course, it’s not the first horror themed game but it’s one of the first that really put you into it and scared the crap outta you. It was a true homage to western cinema, with references to George A. Romero’s zombie trilogy (Night/Dawn/Day of the dead), House of haunted hill and even Psycho. Sadly though, it also spawned movies based on the games, as the first was written and directed by Paul W. Anderson, which turned out an ok flick but not as good as it could’ve been, the only really good thing about it was the soundtrack composed by Marilyn Manson. Sequels (Apocalypse and Extinction) were released after that, both still written by Anderson but this time directed by his Second Unit Director, Alexander Witt and Russell Mulcahy respectively.

Mediocre at best as you can imagine but it doesn’t seem to stop the franchise, as the 4^th installment is in the pipes as they say. The rumors go as the return of Paul Anderson’s behind the camera and with a tentative title; Afterlife. Yep, the guy who made Mortal Kombat the movie is the man trusted with this huge franchise. So it kills me to see it go that way when Mr. Romero was first attached to write and direct the first on to begin with. As a matter of fact he did write a script but the producers refused it because it was too gory. Which is hilarious considering it’s about walking decomposing dead people eating the flesh of the living. Anyway, if you never had the chance to read the script Romero wrote for the movie, I strongly urge you to read it.

Very different, yet familiar with the game; the characters are there with slight changes as Chris is a Native American and Barry being an Afro American. The hunters are there along with Wesker’s Tyrant, heck if I remember right; even the Rocket Launcher is used to kill it at the end. It has cheesy dialogues but I seriously think it’s a direct homage to the now infamous voice acting from the first game.

Pinhead Reborn

I was up late last night. You see, my mind wanders. And in order to stop it from wandering, I usually grab myself some chocolate-mint ice cream and pop in an oldie but goodie into the DVD player. About an hour later, Uncle Frank is trying to get into Kirsty's pants. Needless to say, I was curious to read up on possible updates for the upcoming remake (better than another sequel... I suppose.) And while my buddy Frank, one half of the always insightful 7e Antiquaire, had shown me the first pics of the "new" Pinhead maybe a year back, I came upon this clip on YouTube. This updated look was created by effects artist - Gary J. Tunicliffe - a man who's been working on the series since the third installment, Hellraiser: Hell on Earth. The dude figured he'd take a stab at re-creating the look, and while it will not be used in the upcoming remake, it's still darn pretty. Uh, if two inch gashes and 9 inch nails are your thing, that is.

As far as the remake is concerned, it looks like the film itself remains trapped in Hell. Last anyone's heard, Pascal Laugier (director of the exquisite laceration of a film, Martyrs) had left the project and the film remains without a writer/director. It's a shame when you think about the amount of people who are passionate about the story, about the characters, and who want to remain faithful to the original concept of Clive Barker's masterpiece. Oh well...

In the meantime, here's a quick showing of Tunicliffe's "redesigning of an icon."

Coming to a theater near you

There's a butthole lot of horror flicks coming out next month and, off course, in October. It's hard to follow everyone of them and I thought that I'd post some links to trailers of the ones that interest me.

Mmmmmm MEATTY!

First there's Pandorum in September, I'm pretty hyped about this movie. I'm not sure why yet but I like the setting and I'm a huge Sci-Fi nerd so when Horror is mixed in, I'm happy.

Also in September is 9, an animated movie from Sean Acker. It's been full on advertised with the name of Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted, Day/Nightwatch) which I have no clue why since both don't do animation but I guess it's a selling point... Like Quentin did with a couple of movies.

Number 3 on my list, Zombieland. It's a comical zombie flick à la Shaun of the Dead where Woody Harrelson and others live in a world of zombies and they started a competition ''zombie kill of the week''. You can't go wrong with that.

More seriously there's the second Halloween, the sequel of the remake. (Nice site though)

I like the first one very much and the second outing looks as promising. I'm a fan of rob, what can I say, the guy has style.

Lastly, theater wise anyway, there's Carriers. I say this movie looks about 5 years too late, since the scare of bacterial attacks where all the talks but sometimes, movies like that tend to really surprise. They got Neo-Kirk and Piper Perabo but the trailer seem to reveal a little too much, still, worth a look.

Then, there's the DVDs.

Alien Trespass; Wow! I mean, it's not Lost Skeleton of Cadavra but it's damn close and we all love the campy so buy it, it's coming out next week.

And just as a personal favorite, Supernatural Season 4. Do yourself a favor, don't watch the trailer if you haven't seen the 3rd season. I like Supernatural in general since it's basically the only tv show out there that tackles all kinds of horror themes. Last season was all about mutilation and Hellraiser, kudos for a show on the CW.

That's pretty much it, I'm missing a whole lot probably but as for now, that's what I'm looking for.

Oh, and for the road, mega deal of the week - The Master of Fear