The Bay

Well, I can see why The Bay might have missed the mark with a few folks at the box office. It's not 28 Days Later-like as the trailer kinda leans towards. It's more of an eco-horror film about the "what ifs" involved in pollution in a local area. And, I loved it.

Firstly, Barry Levinson Directed it. Barry "The Natural, Good Morning Vietnam, Rain Man, and more" Levinson. The man is fan-frucking-tastic!

The film is a found footage film, but it's done properly. They've used various video sources, but they do it in such a way where the framing isn't perfect and the aspect ratio of the visual changes based on the device. As someone who is constantly rolling his eyes as perfectly framed found footage, this aspect helped to keep me firmly locked in the reality the film was trying to present to the audience.


Which brings me to another aspect of this film that I loved - the story. Barry Levinson and Michael Wallach (with just The Bay under his belt currently) present a scenario that I found to be believable and frucking frightening. Thought a series of political, economic and tragic events, a bay in Maryland - Levinson's birth place - is polluted and some of the small creatures that live in it's waters are not so small anymore. They have also managed to get into the town's drinking and use water...which can't be a good thing. The body horror in this film had me squirming. It's not "slasher fear", it's grotesque and nasty business that was made very real.

I really enjoyed this film. The pace and flow of it was grand. We're introduced to characters enjoying 4th of July festivities who we are told are going to be dead by the evening and it brings a rather dark tone to the whole of the film. And, an intense feeling of dread. We know things are going to get very bad very quickly and we are not given a chance to warn anyone - it's already over. And, the fact that there are very few recognizable faces in the film makes things more believable as well. Kristen "Cabin in the Woods" Connolly actually wrecked this for me. When I saw her, I thought, "Oh...it's her," and it took me out of the film a bit.

This is far from an action film. It's not a zombie film, infected film or anything of the sort, either. It's a monster film if anything. Very tiny, nasty little monsters.

Like a slow burn, plot based gross out with a very real feel to it? You'll love The Bay.


METACRITIC gives it 65 out of 100. I'd go 80 easy.

You're Next

The trailer for You're Next is up and it's looking pretty dern grand.

Now, I'm not thrilled with the home invasion theme of the film, the players are some heavy hitters in the genre. I'm a huge fan of Director Adam Wingard (Pop Skull, V/H/S , ABCs Of Death) and writer Simon Barrett (V/H/S - writer / actor, ABCs Of Death, V/H/S2) and can see them knocking it out of the park again.

Odd point - IMDB has You're Next dated 2011. I looked it up and it was due to it being shown at the Toronto International Film Festival. And, here we are years later with it hitting screens. LIONSGATE picked up the film in 2011 and it had a 2012 released planned, but that didn't happen.

I'm really hoping that this genre crew does what it usually does and provides something that takes this specific, home invasion idea to a new level and presents some more interesting content than something like The Strangers managed to do. (Not a bad film, just predictable.)

So...do you think Wingard, Barrett, AJ Bowen, Ti West, Kate Lyn Sheil et al can win our hearts as the try to stop them with You're Next? :)

Retake on Remakes

A while back in 2011, I wrote something that bashed remakes.

(( http://horrorsho.blogspot.com/2011/09/horror-remakes.html ))

The general take-away on it was that many remakes just don't do as well as the originals when you look at reviews and the like. Since that article was written, I've been knee deep in life. Work issues, my little girl going into the "Terrible Twos", a new baby, a daughter going into Stanford and the loss of my Father and all the fallout from that. It's amazing how one's views can change when real issues come on hot and heavy! :)

So...remakes. Whatever. It's fallout from a system that doesn't work in the artist's favor, honestly. Writers write new things, but many studios want a guaranteed return on their investments. Hell, I want that, why wouldn't they? So, they go with things that worked before over unproven ground.

Ti West pointed out in the Innkeepers Extras that there is a ratio that is industry wide.

more studio money = more studio involvement - creative control over the project + more cash

less studio money = less studio involvement + more creative control - less cash

So, it's great having the cash when you're making your movie, but you're going to be facing less creative control more often than not. And studios will remake or sequel out a franchise if it's made money in the past.

I've recently taken a look at some remakes and I've really tried to remove my old "TO HELL WITH THEM!" filter and I have to say it's not as bad as all that. The thing that drove me to do this was hearing some of the ranting from the other side. People bashing remakes to the point where they seem like they may be worse than murdering someone and eating them. :) "HOW DARE THEY TOUCH THAT SACRED FILM!" I've taken the tack of just not caring as much - there are so many more important things in the world to care about, really.

On that note, I re-watched  Rob Zombie's Halloween and I enjoyed it. It added some little side-note story items, had some nice "re-envisioning" of the classic Carpenter version and had that Rob Zombie look that you either love or love to hate on. All in all, I watched it and liked it. I'd watch it again for sure.

I've also started re-watching some other remakes like THE BLOB and writing about them as well. I'm sure they have SOMETHING to offer in the mix. I'm also sure that there's crap mixed in there as well (SEE: The Fog remake disaster), but that's a numbers game.

One of my favorite examples of right and wrong remakes can be found withing the LIVING DEAD series. The NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD remake was great and brought some grand things to the table - like the fact that the zombies were so slow you could really just walk around them if you had a little room. Fantastic. I love the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake, too. As a matter of fact, it got to me enough to were I actually had a little nightmare experience. A first in LONG while when it comes to horror and horror movies. I just don't scare anymore. hehehe  But, then you hit the rotten stench of the DAY OF THE DEAD remake and....ouch....it puts me back in the mindset of,  "Hmph, maybe they really shouldn't remake movies. That was horrid."

And...my gawd...the EVIL DEAD remake looks great to me and I'm so excited to see it, but the first thing I thought when I heard about it originally was "HOW DARE THEY TRY to remake that CLASSIC!!!" Well, that all ended when I saw the first, shake cam trailer view from Comicon. The second trailer has gotten me even more excited. So much so that I've cleared the decks and gotten flight ok from the Mrs. to go see it opening weekend! :)


How do you feel about remakes?

Are you sick of the moaning about remakes or are you a true believer that nothing should be remade?

More on remakes:

Night of the Demons VS - 
http://horrorsho.blogspot.com/2011/02/versus-night-of-demons.html

April Fools Day Remake Disaster - 
http://horrorsho.blogspot.com/2010/05/april-fools-day-remake.html



~M~

The Easter Bunny Hates You

He hates you, you know.

Special Dawn of the Dead Star in Walking Dead

Are you among the select few on the Horror Geek Tip that caught the DAWN OF THE DEAD call out in THE WALKING DEAD on Sunday night? I was thrilled when I saw this fellow shamble into frame. ( I'm 24 hours behind due to watching via iTunes )

I like to think that Greg Nicotero topped off his Directing on WALKING DEAD with slipping this gent into the mix.

I pointed at the screen and said, "LOOK! Dawn of the Dead zombie! From the airport scene!" 

My wife stared at me. :::blink blink blink::::

Fun stuff! Nice work!

Alice, Sweet Alice

The film is a mystery in a style that kinda reminds me of Argento. Very giallo / who-done-it, we see a murder happen, but we're not 100% sure who did the deed. We just know whoever did it...is seriously disturbed. GREAT FUN! :)

Alice, Sweet Alice is a great little film. Director Alfred Sole only made four films, but he's still producing today. (Castle TV series) It stars Linda Miller and a bunch of other "hey, it's that guy!" types, but the big go to for Alice is a super young Brooke Shields, though she's not around a long time. :::grin:::





This film is full of disturbing imagery and characters. The film's mask is damn creepy in and of itself. The famous Alice, Sweet Alice mask even makes a little appearance in V/H/S.  :)

If you're looking for some good mystery, 70s horror and interesting visuals, you should check this out or re-visit this film at once! 

 

Dolls of Despair

Dolls of Despair ( http://dollsofdespair.blogspot.com ) bills itself as "Horror news, PR and reviews from a gals point of view." 

Their Facebook bio reads:
"Dolls coming together to talk about all things horror. It could be a movie, a book, a song or a story that's happening in the world right now. We want our say! Feel free to contact Splatter Flick Chick to share with us your independent project. The Dolls desire great partnerships on all things independent and dark."

I'm loving the blog. It's a super clean, Blogspot situation packed with horror news. They have a series of regular updates and seem to have a great mix of mainstream horror news and super independent horror news that makes the site a lot of fun to look over.

They also have a simple review system worked out - LOVE IT, LIKE IT or LEAVE IT. This makes me happy. Like DREAD CENTRAL's knife system, this breakdown makes things rather easy.

The site's main runner is "Splatter Flick Chick" and the interactions that I've had with her so far have been fantastic. No nonsense, horror related content and conversations with an independent bent.  

"I want to emphasize my dedication to independent...ANYTHING. Hollywood is so tired! I embrace those of you who don't have huge budgets, famous actors, signed contracts, etc."
 




A fantastic mantra for sure.


While the site has TONS of great content for me, there is a target audience that DOLLS has that I find to be another interesting thing to separate them from the horde.  Women who like horror.



" I want to cater to our female readers and Dolls Radio listeners as well (since the horror industry has always had a reputation for gratuitous sex scenes and lots of T&A) by featuring more hot, unique and interesting men in horror. There are so many fellas to feature so please check back often for new hot men in horror, their photos, bios and interviews, written live radio and video interviews."



Kudos! My Twitter Travels have shown me that there are many female horror fans out there. It's grand to see someone with a focus on that demographic. It's a differentiator that is rather huge. If you look at the scene and what is typical for it, it has a lot of "women in peril", women in little outfits and "Final Girls" who rise up to defeat the evils that are hunting them down. DOLLS is looking at the genre males and presenting articles on them and, while neither male or female actor articles are for me unless we're talking nostalgia from the 80s, it's great that this is here.

Splatter Flick Chick has an interesting crew with her as well. Delightfully Demented - A horror artist, Myth Alice, Big Top Terror, Shana Rae Sleaze and Sweet Charlotte.



There is a podcast radio component, too.


DOLLS OF DESPAIR RADIO - http://fearcast.net/fcn-radio-dolls-of-despair/

It's a great radio show. They have a free flow style that I like and MANY MANY interviews with directors, actors and actresses. The nature of it makes me happy. It's like being in the room with a bunch of folks that love to talk about horror - sitting around and shooting the shite.

While the audio isn't 100%, it is a fun, community based venture that allows people to call in and talk about horror items. I love this feature. It takes things away from the somewhat passive nature of podcasting - sitting back and listening - and gets people in the game more. I have not heard a lot of the podcasts yet, but I'm planning on working through their catalog and calling in at some point in the near future.


These items are a must visit for horror enthusiasts. Check them out!