Barking At The Vacuum Cleaner - Evil Dead (2013), Age Appropriate Horror, and Orphan Black

Evil Dead (2013)

     I desperately wanted to dislike director Fede Alvarez's Evil Dead (2013) just so I could title a post "Evil Dead Is An Evil Dud".  Alas, my first viewing of it a few days ago won't allow for that.  Since producers Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell have both expressed interest in having Campbell's Ash from the original trilogy be involved in future iterations of Alvarez's vision, I'm not really sure if the new Evil Dead should be considered a traditional remake.  For the purposes of this discussion, though, I'm going to say it is a remake, and it's one of a very small handful of remakes that isn't an abject failure.

     I actually appreciated the less overtly comedic tone, the practical make-up FX, and the different - but not too different - take on the original movie's narrative.  If I had one minor quibble, it's only that I would've like to have seen a few more truly suspenseful and horrific moments scattered throughout the movie's run time.  Alvarez delivered the gorey goods, but actual scares were few and far between.  Still, Evil Dead was a pleasant surprise.  Recommended.

     On a related note, fans should check out Raimi's remake of his own Army Of Darkness (1992).  It's called Oz The Great And Powerful (2013).  Seriously, Sam, the cribbing from your own work was pretty blatant.  It's one of the better implementations of 3D that I've seen, though, so you get a pass.  If you really want to remake or sequelize Army Of Darkness, just do it.

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     I've posted recently about both my earliest exposure to genre movies as well as my uncertainty about what is and is not appropriate viewing for youngsters, and the topic came up again recently when I was asked to recommend some good scary movies for a couple of nascent horror fans, ages 10 and 14.  The only stipulations were that the recommendations not be exceedingly gorey and that they steer clear of any overt sexual content. Thinking children of this age probably wouldn't take well to the slower pace of older horror movies, I recommended Attack The Block (2011).  I've not recommended anything else thus far because I don't trust my own "appropriate for children" filter, and even here, it occurred to me after the fact that although there's no sex and not that much gore, there is a good bit of recreational drug use.  Hear me out, though.

The at risk youths of Attack The Block (2011)

     One of the things I most enjoyed about Attack The Block was the fact that the teenage hoodlums at the center of the movie's action - particularly gang leader Moses - actually had honest to God character arcs.  These kids start the movie mugging someone, and by the end of the movie they're acting in commendably heroic fashion.  They look out for one another, they become more altruistic in their actions, and I actually cared about them before the shit stopped hitting the fan.  That kind of depth in characterization is a rare commodity these days.  In addition to being a highly entertaining monster movie, Attack The Block shows some seriously at risk youths rising above their circumstance.  I'll even cop to misting up a bit at the movie's conclusion, which I'll refrain from spoiling here.  So how about it?  Is this a good movie to recommend to a youngster developing an interest in genre movies, or did I screw the cinematic pooch?  Does anyone else have some likely candidates - new or old - that they'd make a case for?

     One final note concerning Attack The Block:  see it if you haven't already.  I've been surprised by how many radars it's flown under.  In addition to well delineated characters, it boasts one of my favorite creature designs of the last decade or so.  I purposely refrained from showing a pic, but suffice to say, it's a highly effective design that's absolutely brilliant in its simplicity.

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Tatiana Maslany as the lead(s) in the BBC series Orphan Black

     Finally, I've been completely sucked in by the first season of the BBC series Orphan Black.  It's a Canadian science fiction television series that aired on BBC America starring Tatiana Maslany - who played Ghost in Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed (2004) - who discovers she's one of several clones, all of whom seem to be marked for death.  Maslany plays all of the clones herself, and she does a fine job of convincingly pulling off all of the different characters.  She's often playing scenes with two or three versions of herself at a time, and she does so well enough that you won't feel as though you're watching The Patty Duke Show.  Pour yourself an Ovaltine if you got that reference. . .




Posted by Brandon Early

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