I make massive attempts to not be a gatekeeper when it comes to horror. I am almost definitively a live and let live guy. Manos The Hand of Fate is the best horror film ever? Ok, sure thing pal. There’s nothing scarier than an Annabelle film? No worries, junior.
There is a caveat and that is Italian horror: you don’t like it, I doubt your horror cred, sorry, that’s just the way it is. Is it because I’m an arsehole? Maybe. Is it generational? Definitely.
For those who don’t know, let this Gen X dinosaur explain who Lucio Fulci was. Lucio Fulci was an Italian movie director who made his first film, a comedy, in 1959 and was in the middle of making the movie The Wax Mask in 1997 when he tragically passed away, a film eventually finished by Sergio Stivaletti.
Fulci is best know for his horror and giallo films of the 70s and 80s. Such films as the thrillers Lizard in a Woman’s Skin and Don’t Torture a Duckling, the slasher New York Ripper and what most horror films of a particular generation know him for, three unrelated in story but tonally equivalent City of the Living Dead, The Beyond and this one, The House By The Cemetery.
MacColl and Frezza
The House by the Cemetery tells of Dr Norman Boyle (Paolo Malco), his wife Lucy (Catriona MacColl, though listed in the credits as ‘Katherine’) and son, Bob (Giovanni Frezza) are moving to a strange house in New Whittby, Massachusetts so Norman can continue the work of his ex-colleague Dr. Peterson, a man who murdered his partner and then himself.
Strangely, Bob has been having strange visions of a girl named Mae Freudstein (Sylvia Collatina) who has been consistently warning him away from going to the house, something a child obviously has no control over.
Pieroni is up to no good, or is she? It’s not really explained…
Odd things keep happening though as Norman is recognised by several locals even though he claims to have never been there before, and the basement of the house is locked and boarded up… well, it was until babysitter Ann (Anita Pieroni) inexplicably removes the boards one night, but what is down there?
What is going on in the house? What do Bob’s visions have to do with it all? Is there someone else living in the house, or maybe someTHING is dwelling in the basement…
Honestly, I can’t tell you what the hell is going on in this film. There is so much stuff that’s unexplained like characters looking knowingly at each other like co-conspirators, but there time travel involved, are these ghosts… so many questions, so few answers.
Headcheese
I feel like Fulci was trying to make Norman some kind of enigmatic character like Jack from The Shining. All of the recognition from the locals is quite obvious and yet it is not even slightly explored. I kept expecting the film to end with a photo of the house from the 1800s with him standing out the front. It’s never exploited outside of the strange side-eyes and ‘have you been here before?’
There is a lot of fun gore though, and the dubbing of some characters, particularly Bob, is so laughable that it makes the movie even more fun to watch, and between those two things, all that confusion with the script washes away and it just become dumb entertainment.
Whilst this certainly isn’t top level Fulci, it IS infinitely rewatchable: I don’t know why, but it is! Yet another thing I don’t understand about this film!
The menu screen for the bluray
Disc: There’s 4 interviews and a featurette on this disc.
Back to the Cellar is an interview with Giovanni Frezza aka Bob.
Cemetery Woman is a decent interview with Catriona MacColl. Lots of memories of Fulci here.
Finishing the Final Fulci is an interview with Sergio Stivaletti and him taking over the directorial role of Fulci’s final film, The Wax Mask, after he passed away.
Freudstein’s Follies is an interview with Gianetto De Rossi, the special effects man for the film.
Ladies of Horror is a look at various Italian horror movie stars.
These are all High Riding Productions shorts which are all directed by Calum Waddell whom usually works for Arrow Video with these shorts so I am assuming they have been purchased by Cinema Cult for this disc.
All interesting but of varying lengths. There is probably a really good solid singular feature about Fulci in here somewhere, but these shorts have some great anecdotes in them.
Film: 6/10
Extras: 8/10
Rewatchability: 10/10
The real estate agent realises the housing crisis is worse than she thought!
This Australian Bluray was purchased from JB Hifi.
Film: Horror movie ‘franchises’ are made or broken on how charismatic or how visually striking their antagonist is.
The Freddys, the Jasons, the Michaels, the Ghostfaces all rely on those two points. The victims, the ‘final girl’, the story are all secondary to how appealing the bad guy superstar is! The caveat to that is recasting some don’t always work… sorry, Jackie Earle Haley, but I think you know it’s true.
Terrifier, with its new superstar antagonist, Art the Clown, came out of the blocks racing at full tilt. Suckling on the teat of coulrophibia and doubling down on it with a creepy mime costume, and acting choices, Art slipped it to a space in cinema where the old franchises, except for Scream, were missing in action, and perhaps too old to be revitalised effectively anyway.
Maybe Art is the first of a new generation, and we’ll start to see some REALLY screwed up stuff.
Not all clowns are funny, especially this work of Art
Terrifier, along with its two sequels (to date) were written and directed by Damien Leone, who created Art the Clown (he’s more of a mime but you get what I mean) for his earlier film, All Hallows Eve, an anthology film from 2013.
Terrifier tells of party girls Tara (Jenna Kanell) and Dawn (Catherine Corcoran)… are these Buffy references…who by sheer bad luck meet Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) at a pizzeria they stop at on their way home from a Halloween party.
Tara (Kanell) calls for help
Art creeps them out by, well, just being a creepy guy in a clown costume, and is quickly kicked out after he defecates all over the walls of the restaurants bathroom, only to return after the young women leave to execute the two workers.
Tara and Dawn return to their car only to find a tyre slashed and call Tara’s sister, Victoria (Samantha Scaffidi) to come and pick them up as the spare was already in use.
Unfortunately for them, Art catches up with them before Victoria’s arrival, and then the gory night of terror REALLY begins.
Art is up at the crack of Dawn
I’m gonna start with the gore as it really is in your face and all looks practical. Leone a-pears to have come from a make up and special effects background and it’s generally good when those people end up directing as they can see how an effect can be done practically and not resort to substandard CGI. The only effects work I don’t really like was the make up on the nonsensical prologue that ties in with the ending.
On make up, Art the Clown is a terrifying looking thing. The actor is tall and lanky and knows how to manipulate his body so he looks like a combination of a preying mantis and Dhalsim from Street Fighter. His smile is an awful thing to behold also. Doug Jones would be impressed with his physical performance and his lanky, tendrilous body is a sight to behold.
The acting of the four females leads is pretty good, with Canell and Scaffidi being the highlights. The male characters just seem to act by seeing how loud they can yell at each other. Sure I get the script calls for that but at points it was borderline Kitchen Nightmares.
The locations are occasionally laughable as well. The morgue in the basement with what looks like Kaboodle kitchen cabinetry is laughable.
As for the script, well there isn’t really much story here: prologue, killer kills, kills again, and again, and then again, ending. As horror fans we shouldn’t expect more than that, especially from a smaller budgeted film, but the lack of depth was apparent. To Leone’s credit, he certainly is a horror fan judging by the tributes to other horror films thrown in here and there but this was gory over story every inch of the way, and if that’s want you want, something that doesn’t challenge you and just shows cool kills, you will probably dig this, but for me, I just needed a little more of a tale told.
I’m constantly criticising Hollywood for its lack of originality with its incessant need for remakes and sequels and stuff based on comics or books, and whilst I don’t think this is the cure, it’s a great start.
The Umbrella Bluray menu screen
Extras: There is a decent amount of extras on this disc:
‘All Hallow’s Eve’ the Anthology Prequel Film: it’s a great joy when a director’s earlier film is an added extra, it’s even better when that film features the same character from the feature you just watched and even better when it’s a full length film and not just a ten minute short. Winning all round!
Behind the Scenes featurette is a badly films pile of behind the scenes footage but at least they show the final film of some of the bits so you know what part of the film it came from.
Interview with Jenna Kanell sees ‘Tara’ talk about her experiences with the film and her history with Leone.
Deleted scenes shows two scenes that would have made little difference to the film at all.
Dread Central presents Terrifier San Diego Crowd Response is what you would expect: a bunch of people who loved the film… of course they did, why would you showcase the people who hated it. A bit onanistic as these things usually are.
Art the Clown Time Lapse Makeup – it does NOT look like a fun application, but it was fun to see the transformation: I wish there had been a talk through of what was being done.
Finally, trailers for Terrifier and All Hallows Eve.
Film: 5/10
Extras: 9/10
Rewatchability: 8/10
Guess who isn’t coming back for the sequel!
This Umbrella Bluray release was purchased from JB Hifi
We all though it was silly throw away trailer thrown into the middle of the two features in the Rodriguez/ Tarantino two-for-one film Grindhouse from 2007, but in actual fact, Thanksgiving has been a simmering and festering idea hidden within the brain of Eli Roth and his friend from school, Jeff Rendell like a tasty walnut stuffing since they were kids.
Today, I am giving thanks to the fact that in 2023 it became a full feature, with the scenes from the trailer intact albeit refilmed with the new cast.
A year after a horrifying Black Friday sales that went horribly wrong that saw a local championship baseball hopeful, Bobby (Jalen Thomas Brooks) having his pitching arm injured and the store manager’s wife, Amanda (Gina Gershon) brutally killed by shoppers rioting to get the best deals, a killer emerges.
Whilst the owner of the shop, Thomas Wright (Rick Hoffman), got of scott-free due to the security cameras conveniently not working, a killer dressed as a pilgrim has decided to take out those who committed crimes on that night and didn’t pay, and via social media, is tagging his potential victims at a dinner table being set for a thanksgiving dinner that slowly is being filled with their victims.
This of course puts a group of young friends who were there that night on edge, mainly because they were already in the store due to one of them, Jessica (Nell Verlaque), being the daughter of the store owner, and this incensed the crowd out the front who saw them inside.
Local sheriff, Eric Newton (Patrick Dempsey) is on the case with his new deputy, but as the body count rises, so too does the suspect list… who is the pilgrim serial killer?
I’ve always been a fan of Eli Roth. I liked Cabin Fever and Hostel, even though I’m not one of those ‘horror bros’ that his fans are accused of being… well, I don’t think I am… and for me, this trailer was the best one of the Grindhouse ones.
The story of this film is as ridiculous as the 80s slashers it emulates, and there’s a couple of nice tidbits of homages that show some respect to the history of horror that Roth love throwing into his films.
The violence and gore is surprising as one would expect in a Roth film also, but occasionally its quite shocking and as much as I hate to admit it, it occasionally has a sense of fun and silliness which takes the edge of just how extreme it is.
The look of the serial killers outfit is iconic as well. Sure its a traditional pilgrim look but it has a stark look on it face that makes it terrifying. Also, the film takes the idea of a mass market Halloween mask, like Michael Myers for example, and puts it on everyone in the town so the killer can hide in plain site, and what is even better, during a thanksgiving parade scene, it completely turns that idea on its head which I can’t describe here without a massive spoiler.
The reveal at the end is fun and upon a second viewing, like a decent giallo even, it does show you on several occasions who is the killer with blatant hints, which is great.
The film also doesn’t not ignore the fact that mobile phones exist, and even plays on the gross trans of influencers and the dumb stuff done for clout and likes.
All in all i really enjoyed this film. The gore effects were silly and effective, the story was surprisingly engaging, some of the stars were surprising (Patrick Dempsey… really?!?) and it all made for an all over fun watch.
Disc: There is a great bunch of extras on this disc.
The first one is Behind the Screams, which is the usual blah blah blah self love masturbatory short where the cast and crew can rub each other’s rhubarbs. This is no different; its just a few brief comments from the gang that worked on the film squeezed together in a 4 minute MTV collection of sound bytes.
Gobble Gobble Gore Galore looks at special effects artist Adrian Morot’s work on the film… his sickeningly realistic work on the film!! It’s just another short piece but i like special effects so i like it.
Outtakes are what it says on the box. As usual, I am sure they are far more funny to the cast and crew in them rather than us.
There is a Commentary with Eli Roth and Jeff Rendell which is almost wholesome in the affection that these two lifelong friends have not just for the horror genre but also for each other. It is as much a commentary on their lives as it is on the film.
Deleted, extended and alternate scenes has about 35 minutes worth of footage that the film didnt need, and I probably didn’t need to watch.
Massachusetts Movies: Eli and Jeff’s Early Films can be watched with or without commentary by Roth and Rendell, and is some films they made at school which don’t have much for we, the viewer, in them, but there certainly are some fond memories with the commentary.
I think most people had an imaginary friend when they were children. I know I had one, though apparently mine was a different experience to most. I had my imaginary friend from the ages of 13 to 16, and instead of being an elf or a teddy bear, mine was a 27 year old blonde Bulgarian single mother of two with a voracious sexual appetite.
… but enough about me and teenage fantastical and onto the fantasies of writer and director of Imaginary, Jeff Wadlow, the director who also gave us the perfectly average but forgettable Truth or Dare from 2018 and a slasher from 2005 called cry_wolf, mostly forgotten except for the fact it starred Jon Bon Jovi as an educator.
It also had my then-horror movie crush Lindy Booth.
DeWanda Wise as Jessica
Imaginary starts with children’s author Jessica Barnes (DeWanda Wise) having a nightmare about a giant spider perusing her through a house, ironically in a scene similar to a children’s book she has written called Molly Millipede and the Blue Door.
She awakes with her partner, Max (Tom Payne) and they make the decision to move a few days early back to her childhood house, with his two daughters, Taylor (Taegan Burns) and Alice (Pyper Braun), the house now vacated after her father was admitted to an aged care facility.
Chauncey
Max’s life has had some tragedy as well as his former partner has been removed from society for some mental issues, including hurting the younger daughter.
Of course, being a new parent to the girls, Jessica has trouble connecting with teenage Taylor, who also won’t let her break down the walls with the her little sister, try though she might.
Soon after moving in, Alice and Jessica engage in a game of hide and seek, during which, Alice finds a teddy bear abandoned in a hidden room in the basement, which she quickly adopts.
Jess’s Dad, Ben (Samuel Salary)
Alice and the bear, who according to Alice calls himself ‘Chauncey’, become fast friends, as any child with a plush toy would, but very soon Chauncey gives Alice a list of things to do, a list of very specific things that have to be done… but why? What are these tasks in aid of… and why are some of them destructive, even self-destructive?
Unfortunately Imaginary is a great name for this film, as its entertainment value, its acting quality, its character’s likability… all imaginary. I love a film that has an imaginary friend cause some kind of terror to the family, even though each of these films has the same stuff in it like childhood trauma, a blended family, a new house, a young child who feels disenfranchised for what ever reason, and this film just sat down with a checklist and marked them off, one by one.
I will credit it with it taking the murderous demon/ ghost/ imaginary friend, and tweaking it a little to make the payoff somewhat different, though it does feel like it’s riffing a little on Steven King’s It, but because the rest of it is so mediocre, the payoff doesn’t feel like a reward, and instead feels just like a relief that it’s all over.
The menu to the DVD
Disc: Nothing
Film: 2/10
Extras: N/A
Re-Watchability: 0/10
Now THAT’s a spider.
This review was done with the Australian release DVD purchased from JB Hifi
Does anyone remember ‘Mad-Libs’? Mad-Libs was a game where you were given a paragraph or two that had almost all the nouns and verbs and adjectives taken out of it and you asked another person for ‘any noun’ and ‘any verb’ et cetera, without them seeing the paragraph, and when you read it back, much hilarity would ensue.
More because it was that the player would use nouns like ‘dick’ and ‘bum’ and verbs like ‘farting’ rather than anything else, but a lot of fun could be had with the game.
Now, I’ve got one for you:
(Characters name) is living the quiet live having retired from their occupation as an assassin for the underground group (group name). Unfortunately, when their friend, (friend’s name) is killed by the actions of (young relative) of the boss of (group name), they come out of retirement for revenge. When the boss decides to protect his (young relative) by employing the assistance of (military group) they are told that (characters name) is unstoppable and everyone is subsequently killed.
Jason Statham as Adam Clay: The Beekeeper
So many action films run on that formula, and it’s a formula that works when you consider John Wick and its three sequels success, and it is well and truly still alive here in The Beekeeper.
The Beekeeper is directed by David Ayer, who gave us what I think is one of the better super hero (well, villain) movies ever made, Suicide Squad and was written by Kurt Wimmer, who wrote Equlibrium and Law Abiding Citizen, but the creativity of those films is not present here.
When Adam Clay’s (Jason Statham) only friend commits suicide after being scammed out of all the money in the charity she works for by an online scammer, Clay decides to execute everyone involved.
What is so special about Clay though? Clay is a retired ‘Beekeeper’, an extreme black ops operative who has a set of skills that are over and above most normal soldiers.
Josh Hutcherson as Derek Danforth
After destroying the first call centre, Clay discovers they are run by Derek Danforth (Josh Hutcherson) whose employee, Wallace Westwyld (Jeremy Irons) finds out he has a Beekeeper after him, he calls in political favours to try and save his life… but those attempts to subdue fail… and Clay continues his way up the pecking order…
Whilst all this is happening though, he is pursued by the FBI, specifically Agent Wiley (Bobby Naderi) and Agent Parker (Emmy Raver-Lampman), the latter who has a personal stake in the whole affair as the woman who committed suicide in the first place is her mother.
Emmy Raver-Lampman as Agent Parker
Riffing John Wick in plot and action, as I inferred by the Mad-Lib, The Beekeeper doesn’t really seem to have its own identity, and most people could be shown any seen from this and identify it as any of the mass of Jason Statham as Jason Statham action films out there.
Hutcherson is as annoying as he always is in every film he is in, but thankfully the lack of acting by him and Statham is countered by Raver-Lampman and Naderi, and of course the ever vaudevillian villain Irons, still playing Scar from the Lion King at every opportunity.
Whilst formulaic to the nth degree, thats not to say the film is completely not enjoyable. It has a few moments of violence that are surprising, some characters that are SO ridiculous are can’t figure out if they are rejects from Bullet Train or The Machine, seriously, you wait until you see Clay’s replacement Beekeeper, or the South African mercenary, which makes them so unusual in something that takes itself so seriously, and there are at least a few plot twists that make for fun variations on the theme.
One thing I really didn’t like was making the scammers look like they were doing glorious work. All the scammers were attractive young people and their bosses were across between Taika Waititi in Free Guy and Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort from The Wolf of Wall Street, but when you see some of these call centres in video footage for real, they look anything but! I was confused by the need to make these guys look like they were glamorous, even though their characters were awful from a personality point of view.
I must add though that the hamfisted ‘bee’ references are as stupid as they sound.
Not liking this film is a difficult thing to do as the objection to it comes from its lack of originality, but if I don’t like one film because of that, I have to dislike MOST action films, or horror films for that matter. I think there is some good action sequences in here, but the lack of story and what appears to be a disinterested lead make it a chore.
The Beekeeper menu screen
Disc: No extras at all.
Adam Clay’s replacement; Kelly Krane (Sophia Feliciano)
In the early 2000s, an amazing TV series was produced called Masters of Horror, created by Mick Garris, where famous horror directors like Dario Argento, Don Coscarelli, Stuart Gordon, John Carpenter and others got to create short one hour horror movies, and Takashi Miike was one of the directors asked to participate.
Notoriety follows director Miike like a haunted shadow of a tortured ballerina whose sole purpose is to cut out his tongue and slice off his nipples. This, his ‘banned’ episode of Masters of Horror, sits well amongst his work. Like most of his movies, the story simmers, and is broughtslowly to a boil. With images of beautiful pain and exquisite suffering that stays with you for a time after the movie has finished.
Christopher (Billy Drago)
Based on a novel Bokke Kyote, by Shimaku Iwai (who also had a small role in the film), the screenplay for this film was written by Daisuke Tengan, who has worked with Miike before when he adapted the novel Audition by Ryu Murakami into the wonderful film of the same name.
Imprint tells the haunting tale from the 1800s of American journalist, Christopher (Billy Drago), who travels to an island in Japan in search of the prostitute, Komomo (Michie) who he had abandoned years earlier, promising to return for her. Finding himself unable to locate Komomo, he takes residence in a bordello, where he hires the services of a deformed hooker (Youki Kudoh), but instead of taking her for carnal pleasures, he asks her to tell him a story, and so, she recounts to him the fate of his beloved Komomo, and so begins a story of rape, torture and degradation…
Youki Kudoh as the story teller
Beautifully shot, Imprint at times is like watching a traditional Japanese painting come to life. The flame haired whores with their blackened teeth take on the appearance of oni or evil spirits, who live on islands and take much delight in the torture of others. Miike’s ability to take the obtusely sickening and turn it into an image of beauty is a gift that few directors have, but he has in spades.
Wow! Now THIS is torture porn!
The only real problem I found with this episode of Masters of Horror was Billy Drago’s performance, but I do not think that was his responsibility. Obviously, this film was to be part of an American television series, and the performances were to be executed in English, but as much trouble as some of the Japanese cast members had in performing in English; it seemed that the normally wonderful Drago was being misdirected, and appeared to be overacting. I imagine that this was due to miscommunication from the language barrier between Miike and Drago.
Everything Miike did right with the nightmare of Audition, he has done again here with Imprint. Both brutal and beautiful, Imprint is an experience not to be missed. The extras on this DVD make it a pretty easy sell as well.
The menu screen to the Australian DVD
Disc: There are 6 extras on this disc.
Imprint: I Am The Director of Love and Freedom Takashi Miike is a comprehensive interview with Miike, not just about this film, but about j-horror and its continuing influence in western cinema.
Imprint: Imperfect Beauty is one of the better spfx documentaries I have seen in a while.
Imprint: Imprinting is basically a ‘making of’ but an extraordinarily good one. This doco features interviews with many of the cast and crew including Nadia Vanessa, the dialogue coach who taught most of the actors how to play their parts phonetically, and is incredibly thorough and interesting.
There is a brief but fairly comprehensive biography of director Takashi Miike.
Commentary is by Chris D from American Cinematheque and Wyatt Doyle of NewTexture.com. While these two really had naught to do with this film, the talk-through is informative, and their discussion about the total influence of western to Asian and Asian to western cinema is enlightening and provides some independent insights into the production and decisions made about this film.
DVD-ROM – screensaver and script (Unreviewed as I have no longer have a PC with a disc drive in it)
I first saw Audtion many years ago on a terrible DVD released in Australia that was too dark and muddy and even in such an awful format, it effected me. This Bluray release has none of that and it is an even better watch, as you would expect.
Director Takahashi Miike (Ichi the Killer) has created such a mind blowing psycho-sexual piece of cinema that to stick it in a box marked ‘psychological thriller’ or ‘horror’ is to take away its impact. When first released in Japan in 1999 as Odishon, it was played in such a poor array of dead-end theatres that it whimpered out and looked like it was going to disappear without a trace. Luckily, in 2000, Audition was then picked up for film festivals in both Vancouver and then Rotterdam, where it won both the FIPRESCI prize and the KNF award, and in the following year at Fantsporto in Portugal, it won the International Fantasy Film Award – Special Mention award and was nominated for International Fantasy Film Award.
Based on a story by Ryu Murakami, Audition is the tale of a man, Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi), who, after the death of his wife, finds it hard to meet a new woman. Inspired by comments made by his son, Shigehiko (Tetsu Sawaki), as to how loneliness is making him prematurely age, he embarks on a mission to meet women. Using his position as a video producer he starts a series of auditions for a fictional project.
Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi)
After looking over many women, he finally meets Asami (Eihi Shiina), whose exquisite delicateness intrigues Aoyama, and her quiet demeanour intrigues him, even though she is close in age to his son.
Asami and Aoyama slowly develop a friendship which blossoms into something more intimate, but after they make love for the first, Asami disappears and Aoyama starts an investigation to find her, but what he finds is that she may not have been telling him the entire truth…
The seemingly delicate Asami (Eihi Shiina)
All through this movie there is such a feeling of claustrophobia and discomfort that unlike many films gets right under your skin, as do most of Miike other films. The juxtaposition of moments of quiet beauty and subtle relationship building, combined with some of the shock moments (that I won’t reveal here) are truly amazing. The real trick here is that there are moments of intimacy that are filmed more like claustrophobia than closeness, and that adds to the unsettled nature of this new relationship between the main leads.
… maybe NOT so delicate…
Although Miike doesn’t make horror films per say, he is however a reluctant genre film director who has had horror cult status thrust upon him, which is why films like this, and his others like Visitors Q and his comic adaptation Ichi the Killer are such fascinating watches.
This story works so effectively as it doesn’t adhere to stereotypes, as one would expect from a film that didn’t get punched out of the Hollywood thriller cookie cutter. This film reminds me of the first time I read American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis, the combination of subtle day-to-day suddenly flipped on its head. This is a movie that will stick with you for a long time after you watch it.
The menu screen to the Arrow Video Blu-ray
Disc: An absolute treasure trove of extras on this disc. I must also point out that the film can be watched with an introduction by Miike.
First, we have two commentaries, The first by director Takashi Miike and screenwriter Diasuke Tengan, and a second by Tom Mes. The first is in Japanese so it is subtitled and is enthusiastic and interesting. The second is performed by Mes, a writer who has written books about Miike’s career. It is interesting but less so that the aforementioned one. It is in English.
There is a series of interview with cast and crew: Takashi Miike, Ryo Ishibashi, Eisis Shiina, Renji Ishibashi and Ren Osugi. These interviews are each quite long and not like the ones you would get from American films with a few sound bytes of actors and directors massaging each other’s egos. These are fascinating insights into the film and each individuals history.
Damaged Romance; An Appreciation by Tony Ry looks both at Miike’s career and specifically the making of this film, and even the history of Japanese genre films.
There are two trailers for the film, one Japanese and the other the international one.
The cover to Arrow’s Ring Bluray, taken from The Ring Collection
RING (1998)
This is where you start with J-horror, right? This was the one that got us all involved in the late 90s. Ring is the parent that introduced us too all the Japanese horror we ended up craving: The Grudge, Dark Water, Pulse… not to mention directors like Takashi Miike, Hideo Nakata and their contemporaries.
Personally, I think a lot of the increased mainstream love of anime came from that time, as horror fans became more involved in the culture of various Asian countries, it leeched into the regular nerds and normal people via some good and some not so good remakes, and that trickled all the way through pop culture. I pretty much went think the popularity of Junji Ito relates directly to it.
That’s just my observation of the time.
(NB: I’m well aware that there were anime and manga fans before this time, heck I was one of them as I grew up loving Japanese cartoons, which is what they were called before the word ‘anime’ came to western culture properly, but my observations say the world seems to be more into it since 2000. Post COVID and lockdown even more so!
Asakawa (Nanako Matsishima)
Anyway, enough about my musings. Ring is based on the novel by Kôji Suzuki, with a screenplay by Hiroshi Takahashi. The film was directed by Hideo Nakata, who didn’t not want to be a horror film director, but basically became the spark that turned the west predominantly into j-horror fans.
Ring tells of journalist Reiko Asakawa (Nanako Matsushima), who has started a quite aggressive investigation into the urban myth of a VHS video tape that kills you 7 days after you first watch it, and warns you with a phone call where just the words ‘7days’ are whispered to you. This investigation is so urgent as it has just killed her niece, Tomoko (Yûko Takeuchi).
Asakawa eventually finds the tape, watches it and reveals that the myth may be true, and now she has 7 days to find a ‘cure’ to this spiritual virus that lies within the cassette. She shows he ex-husband the tape and the two of them research the footage on the tape in an attempt to find a cure… this attempt becomes more frantic when her young son also watches the tape.
Asakawa’s son, Yôichi (Rikiya Ôtaka)
There research finds a connection to a psychic woman who died many years earlier, and the mystery of her daughter, Sadako (Rei Ino’o)…
There is no doubt that Hideo Nakata has created an almost perfect horror film with this movie. It is weirdly over-dramatic with its acting at times, and borders into pantomime but it somehow all sits correctly. When it came out it was such an extraordinarily different thing, seeing as how the 80s was all about the creation of franchises, a mistake cinema is repeating now with the desperation to find the next Marvel or Star Wars series, and the 90s was predominantly a pop culture wasteland, especially with horror seeing as how self-referential stories became the norm after the popularity of the Scream franchise.
The tape!!
Basically I love this film. After being so disappointed how how awful horror had become in the 90s, this was like a breath of fresh air.
The story itself being a strange take on ‘hauntings’ and ‘curses’ was great, and probably due to the fact that Japan doesn’t have its creepies and crawlies based in Christianity like we still do in the west, judging by the popularity of the Conjuring universe. This added with, at the time, my lack of exposure to Japanese culture in general other than Robotech and Akira, just the different lifestyle, cities et cetera made it a visual feast. I actually name this film as being the thing that made me interested in watching Japanese architecture YouTube channels, especially the ‘tiny apartments’ ones.
I cant recommend this film enough. If you haven’t seen this Japanese ‘Ring’ but have seen the Gore Verbinski remake starring Naomi Watts, still give this a go as it is still a fantastic watch with a few differences in the story.
The menu screen to Arrow Video’s Ring
Disc: This Arrow video disc was available singularly, but also as a part of the Ring Trilogy box set which featured Ring, Ring 2 and Ring 0.
This disc has a bunch of cool extras on it though.
There is an Audio Commentary by David Kalat, author of J-Horror, The Definitive Guide to The Ring, The Grudge and Beyond. His is an enthusiastic commentary which reveals him to be very ‘in’ with the whole J-horror sub genre of horror, even though he has a disclaimer that he doesn’t speak Japanese so some of his pronunciations may be inaccurate.
The Ring Legacy looks at the entire scope of the Ring series, from the source material, to films, to video games and to the western remakes. A real fascinating inside into the entire scope of the series.
A Vicious Circle sees author and critic Kat Ellinger explore director Hideo Nakata’s career and the Rings influence on western horror.
Circumnavigating Ring is a video essay by Alexandra Heller-Nicolas, who here explores the evolution of the series.
Sadako’s Video is an opportunity for us, the film fan, to see the SADAKO video in its complete form… don’t forget to copy it and give it to someone else.
Three ring trailers including 2 for the Ring and Spiral double bill (which have far too groovy a soundtrack considering the subject matter), and a UK Trailer.
There’s also a useless image gallery.
The image everyone knows: Sadako revealed!!
This review was done with a copy of the Bluray of Ring taken from Arrow Video’s Ring Collection. Their was purchase from Arrow’s website
I find that sometimes the best way to watch a film is on the odd occasion when you have been lucky enough to avoid all media based around it. In this day and age that is a difficult thing to do, but I managed it with this film. This film, Immaculate, is knew nothing about: i didn’t see a trailer, no comments on my social media… it just slipped me by.
All I knew about it was that it starred current ‘it’s girl (not a female Pennywise but instead the latest movie star social media crush) Sydney Sweeney, and honestly, the only thing I really even knew about HER was that she was one of the stars of the Sony turd-that-sunk-to-the-bottom Marvel film, Madame Web.
This film was really driven by Sweeney. She first auditioned for the film in 2014, but the film was never made but the story by Andrew Lobel really resonated with her. Later, she pursued the script, took on the producer’s hat and was the driving force behind getting the film made, employing the directorial talents of Michael Mohan, who previously directed her in The Voyeurs and Everything Sucks!
Sister Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney)
Immaculate tells of young nun, Sister Cecelia (Sweeney) whose parish in Detroit closed down and she made the decision to travel to Italy and take on a role of assisting older nuns transition to Heaven in a convent/ hospice.
The usual jealousies that can happen when an interloper comes into a new environment, but those jealousies escalate when after a few weeks, Sister Cecelia, is discovered to have had an immaculate conception.
The church is dubious at first but eventually excited by the prospect of their environment being the place that the rebirth of Jesus himself may take place. None are more excited than Father Tedeschi (Alvaro Morte), a former biologist now member of the clergy, who seems to be resisting taking Sister Cecelia to a proper hospital, instead keeping the pregnancy amongst only those within the convent, including the in-house doctor, Dr. Gallo (Giampiera Judica).
The leaders of the convent.
As the pregnancy continues, the members of the order become more and more strange in the attitude towards her, and secretive… are they involved in this immaculate conception, and who are the clergy in red masks that she keeps seeing…
There’s no doubt that Sweeney’s passion for the project wasn’t unfounded. It is a very clever story steeped in religious iconography but not so deep that someone with only a surface level understanding of Catholicism or Christianity would be lost.
Tarantino may NOT appreciate the foot stuff in this flick
The tale has three very distinct acts which coincide with the idea of the trimesters of pregnancy and each trimester reveals more of the mystery and steadily the situation becomes worse and worse for the main character and more and more exciting for us the viewer.
This film was a pleasant surprise in a world of sequels, remakes and attempts at making ‘universes’ and franchises. I would even say that not seeing anything about the film beforehand was a blessing in disguise.
The menu screen of the Australian release of Immaculate
Disc: There is a series of interviews on this disc: actor/ producer Sweeney, director Mohan, and actors Morte and Giulia Heathfield Di Renzi, who played Sister Isabel, one of the sisters jealous of Cecelia’s choice as the mother of the rebirth of Jesus Christ. These make for a quite interesting collection of information in regards to the film. Well worth watching even though the way it’s presented is with text questions followed by the videoed answers.
Convent or not: skin care should always be a priority
This Blu-ray was reviewed with a copy of the film purchased from JB Hifi in Australia.
The cover to the Australian Bluray Steelbook of Kong Skull Island
KONG: SKULL ISLAND (2017)
I never like to think of any movie I enjoy as a ‘Guilty Pleasure’. I figure if you feel embarrassed about something you love, you probably don’t actually love it but enjoy it for nostalgic or other reasons… but today I watched Kong Skull Island.
KSI is the second part of the ‘Monsterverse’ series of films… you know, because EVERYTHING has to be a ‘universe’ these days… which is also known as the ‘Legendary Series’ that started with 2014’s kinda-boring Godzilla, that starred Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen.
This film was written by a handful of screenwriters: Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler), Max Borenstein (Hypnotic, with Robert Rodiguez), Derek Connolly (who, honestly, seems to be consistently a ‘team-player’ writer) and John Gatins (Flight) and it is obvious insomuch as there is a bunch of different stories a happening simultaneously, and whilst I appreciate that most movies are like that, this was very much very different stories in a similar situation.
The film was directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts, director of Successful Alcoholics and The Kings of Summer, did a great job with this film as he clearly saw that monster movies aren’t just about the monsters, but also the human stories that exist within them; something many horror movies forget… and superhero movies, and sci-fi movies… basically any ‘pop culture’ films.
Its not always about selling toys, Hollywood!
When you consider that the first film of King Kong was created in 1933, and influenced so many sequels, remakes and themes, it isn’t a surprise that films based on the character aren’t still being made. What is surprising though is that this was made so soon after Peter Jackson’s 2005 hit film which is far more a character piece rather than a monster movie like this one. Kong appears very early in this film and there is no hesitation in telling the viewer just exactly who is the star of this film.
Kong: Skull Island starts in 1973, with the Vietnam war almost officially over and Bill Randa (John Goodman) is in charge of an expedition to travel to a previously unexplored island that has remained hidden behind a serious weather anomaly.
Hiddleston and Larson
Coming with his team are members of Landsat, a computer mapping organisation, with the intention of dropping seismic bombs on the island to get an idea of the landmass, assumed to be hollow. The transportation is provided by a platoon of Vietnam soldiers, under the command of Colonel Preston Packard (Samuel L. Jackson) in their choppers, now dormant with Americas withdrawal from the Vietnam war. Finally, a former SAS James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston) and a press photographer, Mason Weaver (Brie Larson) round out the motley crew.
After traversing a quite heinous storm to get to the island, the teams set up their equipment, and start dropping the seismic devices from the choppers but they find that there is resistance to the bombs being dropped in a giant ape called Kong.
The Big Monkey himself
Kong attacks the helicopters, separating the teams. Packard and his becomes obsessed with destroying Kong as he so viciously attacked them, but the other team, including Conrad and Weaver, meet a tribe of natives and Marlow (John C. Reilly), a WW2 pilot who became lost on the island during that war, and who knows, after his years on the island, that Kong has an important role in nature… keeping the horrifying Skullcrawlers at bay…
Will Kings defenders get to Packard in time to stop his attempts at killing Kong, or is mankind doomed…
Samuel L. Jackson in angry soldier mode
I have to start with the cast of this film when discussing it. Its a combination of Marvel second fiddles (Dr. Doom, Loki, Captain Marvel and Nick Fury aka Toby Kebbell, Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson and Samuel L. Jackson respectively) mixed with character actors and ‘I know that persons face, whats their name again’ actors like John Goodman, John C Reilly, Thomas Middleditch and Shea Whigham. I LOVE this cast as I was so shocked BY their performances. Hiddleston as the military expert takes the heroic spot like it should always have been his. Jackson plays to type as the shell-shocked army colonial still fighting a war that America lost but its a different style of performance, almost Apocalypse Now-ish in its obsession. Brie Larson, who I liked in Scott Pilgrim but detested as Captain Marvel is warm as the photographer, and surprisingly likeable. Toby Kebbell was great as a ‘doomed’ soldier (sorry) stuck by himself on Skull Island trying to get home to his family, when you consider I have only seen him in the awful 2015 Fantastic Four and as an ape in the more recent Planet of the Apes flicks, anything would have been different!
John C. Reilly was a lot of fun in his role too as the displaced World War 2 soldier as well, playing crazy but not irredeemably psychotic like some of these sorts of roles can end up.
Kong himself was beautifully designed as nature intended and ape to look but he has a fantastic presence here, and always look great in his animation expect where there is water as some of the water scenes look rough. Most of the other creatures look great except for the ‘bad’ creatures, the so-called Skullcrawlers, are supposed to be horrific and whilst there presence and intention is, they look stupid with a human looking upper body attached to a snake tail and heads that look like horse’s skulls. Surely they could have come up with a better design that this. It looks like it was designed by a bunch of suits talking about things that scare them.
Speaking of looks the entire look of the overall film is fantastic. It has a stunning visual palette that’s half (the aforementioned) Apocalypse Now mixed with a Wild West feature. There is some amazing shots of Kong with the sun at his back and they make for exciting visuals due to their used of bright yellow and red. On the flips side, the lush green environments of Vietnam are apparent and beautiful.
Like I mentioned earlier, there’s no shying away from the monsters in this film either. Kong is seen in the first few minutes and then as soon as the expedition hits the island is monster-a-go-go, with all the beast clearly on display, none of that slow reveal rubbish here: money shot up front!
The story is a great deal of fun too. It takes its silly premise just seriously enough that you actually get involved in it without it seeming like parody, but not so serious that it loses its sense of enjoyment.
I honestly didn’t think I’d like this film as i found the predecessor of the series, 2014’s Godzilla, to be plodding and uninteresting except for when the King of Monsters himself lumbered across the screen. This, however, was truly a blockbuster of the highest order. Like a Fast and the Furious film, there was always something happening and at no point did I look at my phone or watch as I was completely enthralled and entertained.
Guilty pleasure indeed, but with zero guilt, so I guess that means this is just a pleasure.
The menu screen to the Australian Release on bluray
Disc:
A whole bunch of bananas on this disc!
Creating a King, which is broken down into two parts, Realising an Icon and Summoning a God. Honestly I don’t know why these are two features as they could have been cut together nicely into one 25 minute feature. Together they look at the themes of mans intrusion into the primative world, much like Cannibal Holocaust did, and his destruction of it, combined with the cinematic history of the monster that is Kong, but transforming the character into a god-like character. Lots of amazing design paintings and special effects explanations for those who love HOW movies are made.
On Location: Vietnam is almost a travelogue of how lush and beautiful some parts of Vietnam are. I have gone from no interest in travelling there to a GREAT DEAL of interest!! Hiddleston does say its more beautiful than the other locations of Hawaii and Australia so screw that guy.
Tome Hiddleston: The Intrepid Traveller follows Hiddleston’s journeys across the world as the feature was filmed and the interesting things he found about each location.
Through the Lens: Brief Larson’s Photography is a selection of photos and footage of Larson taking said photos. I think its pretty cool that Larson was actually taking these pics that her character was taking.
Monarch Files 2.0 (Companion Archive) is a fictional file of Monarch’s exploration of Skull Island. It is a delightful addition to the mythos.
Commentary is performed by Vogt-Roberts, and is an enthusiastic and informative commentary. Its always nice to watch a film with a commentary by someone who is so influenced and informed by film, comics, manga and video games.
Deleted Scenes are, as usual, unnecessary additions that the film benefits from their absence, though Hiddleston’s and Jackson’s character’s first meeting was deliciously uncomfortable.
Digital Retribution 