Movies At Dog Farm Trailer Park, Volume II - May 14, 2013

     I was pleasantly surprised by Mama (2013).  I'm not sure why it was so harshly received.  It's rare that I'm able to watch a movie knowing almost nothing about it beforehand.  In this case I knew only that Guillermo Del Toro's name was attached (Executive Producer) and that it had something to do with feral children.  Though secondary plot threads are clumsily integrated, I was otherwise enchanted.
   
     Does enchanted seem an odd word to use to describe a horror movie?  Well, I believe many of the harsher reviews stemmed from the fact that the reviewers didn't seem to understand that this was a fairy tale.  I'm not sure how people who get paid to review movies for a living failed to catch that.  It seemed pretty obvious to me.  Mama has a strong emotional core.  It benefits greatly from the viewer's investment in the characters.  Many scenes - including the conclusion of the movie that a number of  reviewers deemed overwrought - are, in fact, downright touching.

     There was a lot of carping about the CGI in Mama, too.  Once again, if a viewer recognizes and accepts that Mama is a fairy tale, those complaints are unfounded.  Did Mama always look photo realistic?  Well, no, she didn't, but she was a fantasy character, so the complaints about the CGI are moot. 

     Don't worry, though.  Mama packs in the scares, too.  Adrienne watched it with me, and she caught me several times with a big, goofy grin on my face because I was so tickled by how technically well constructed many of the scares were.  Director Andres Muschietti makes effective use of shot composition and carefully timed reveals of pertinent details to get the most from his shocks.  If only more directors understood the mechanics of good cinematic terror.  Critics be damned, Mama is one of the most satisfying genre movies I've seen this year.




     . . . and then there was The Lords Of Salem (2012).

     I understand why Rob Zombie is a perennial whipping boy on genre websites, but I think at least some of the scorn regularly heaped on him is undeserved.  Yeah, he's got a tin ear for dialog.  In fact, the biggest favor Zombie could do for himself is finally deign to direct someone else's screenplay.  Still, he's got a distinctive aesthetic and a damn good eye for memorable shot composition.  At the very least, I always look forward to seeing what he's going to do next.  Admittedly, I look forward to what he's going to do next in the hopes that it will finally deliver on the promise shown in House Of 1000 Corpses (2003).

     The Lords Of Salem still doesn't quite deliver, but Zombie is getting better.  He's reigned in the superfluous cameos by genre vets.  At least some of the cameos this go round wound up on the cutting room floor.  He attempts - and occasionally achieves - a tone of creeping dread markedly different from his previous efforts.  And he does achieve several of those memorable visuals.  Some are memorable for the wrong reasons, but still . . . The last fifteen minutes or so of The Lords Of Salem is one of the most memorable examples of WTF cinema I've seen in a long while.  You take the good, you take the bad.  I hope Zombie doesn't abandon genre movies altogether - as he claimed in recent interviews that he intends to - because I truly still believe he has a brilliant genre movie in him.  . . . and no, The Devil's Rejects (2005)  wasn't that movie.




     Sightseers (2012) delivers pitch black humor, random acts of violence, and two versions of "Tainted Love". 'Nuf said. See it.

   
     Apologies to Bob for the non-Creature Feature post, but this had already been brewing for a while.  I've been finding marginally more time to watch movies lately than to write about them, so this was a bit of "catch up".


Posted by Brandon Early

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Movies At Dog Farm Trailer Park: Volume 1, December 2012

     This is just a quick round-up of recently viewed movies, as well as a handful of titles I'm looking forward to.  Click on any title for a link to the pertinent trailer.  Click thumbnails to enlarge pics.

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     I watched Silent Night (2012) this week - a very loose remake of Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) -  and I really wasn't quite sure what to make of it.  It was more visually ambitious than I expected.  In fact, it was often quite stylish.  Care was taken.

     Unfortunately, I believe it was let down by a script that could have used another pass.  Mostly just a shrug for me.  Here's to hoping that I'll finally find my perennial Christmas horror movie when I watch Rare Exports (2010) on Christmas Day.

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     Though I've seen a handful of exceptionally good genre movies recently - Some Guy Who Kills People (2011), Excision (2012), The Bay (2012) - I haven't really been looking forward to any upcoming releases. Well, that all changed today.

     The first official trailer for Guillermo del Toro's upcoming massive monsters versus massive robots epic Pacific Rim (2013) hit the Internet on December 12th, and I somehow didn't bumble across it until today.  Oh.  My.  God.  July can't get here soon enough.  I was bummed when del Toro's adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness fell apart, but it looks like he's still getting his Cthulhu on with these gigantic horrors from the depths of the Pacific.

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     I'm also super excited about American Mary (2012).  Starring Katherine Isabelle (the Ginger Snaps trilogy), this Canadian production wowed audiences at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival.  It premieres theatrically in the U.K. on 1/11/13 with a U.K. disc release following on 1/21/13.  Hopefully, this means we can expect a North American release soon thereafter.  I'm going to do my damnedest to procure a copy of this as soon as possible, and I'll be sure to report back.

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     Haters are gonna hate, but I've been convinced ever since the release of House of 1000 Corpses (2003) that director Rob Zombie has at least one more brilliant movie in him.  I think The Lords of Salem (2012) might be that movie.  It releases 4/26/13.

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     Finally, I read today that director Andreas Marschall's giallo homage Masks (2011) has been procured by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment for imminent North American distribution.  I'd never even heard of this one before today, but the trailer makes it look like it could be the best giallo that Dario Argento never directed. 

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Posted by Brandon Early

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