THIS MODERN NIGHTMARE

MULBERRY STREET & SYDNEY POLLACK

Since I've got the AfterDark Horrorfest movies on DVD, I figured it was time to actually start watching them. So I started out with FRONTIER(S) , which was supposed to be part of the fest (it's even got the AfterDark Horrorfest logo on the box), but didn't make the cut because it was supposedly "too extreme" (I reviewed this earlier, and dug it). Today I watched MULBERRY STREET.

MULBERRY STREET is kind of a variation on the whole zombie thing. But instead of being dead people who rise to eat the living, there is an outbreak of rat attacks on people, and when they get bitten they turn into animalistic rat people - kind of like rabid crazies with bad teeth. Some, but not all of them, even grow rat noses and ears. The outbreak leads to Manhattan getting quarantined.

This movie could have been just another lame horror movie, but it's well directed (by Jim Mickle) and the acting is above-average. The lead actor, Nick Demici as Clutch, a former boxer and war veteran, looks an awful lot like a young Charles Bronson and has a kind of tense charisma. Definitely an improvement from the usual pretty boy heroes. Clutch's daughter, Casey (Kim Blair) is a vet as well, just having returned from Iraq. Her face even has the scars to prove it (although she's still very pretty - she reminded me a bit of Evangeline Lilly from LOST). Casey is trying to get home to her father, but the city's run amok with these rat people, so it's a difficult journey. Meanwhile, Clutch and his neighbors are trying to stay alive.

Just about everyone in this movie turns in a really good acting job, including the two old guys who live upstairs. The movie does have a few parts that are kind of predictable, and when Clutch puts on some fingerless gloves and goes out onto the streets to find his neighbor Kay (Bo Corre) who he has feelings for, it's kind of absurd that he refuses to bring a weapon with him. He just relies on his fists, being an ex-boxer and all. Since these rat creatures don't know how to box, but know how to bite, this seemed pretty dopey. And even though the city is under attack by infected people, you never see any cops or national guard types around. And the hazmat guys don't show up til the very end.

Despite these qualms, though, the movie is pretty decent and definitely worth renting. I hope to see Demici in more stuff. I kind of miss old Charles Bronson and would like to see someone with a similar vibe get more movie roles.

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Also, oscar-winning director Sydney Pollack died today. He'd been directing movies since the 60s, and while I didn't like everything he did, there were a few stand-outs, including THIS PROPERTY IS CONDEMNED (1966) based on a play by Tennessee Williams, THE SWIMMER (1968) starring Burt Lancaster and based on a story by John Cheever, the Oscar-winning dance marathon movie THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY? (1969) , the mountain man movie JEREMIAH JOHNSON (1972) and the classic THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR (1975).

Some of his most famous movies are the ones I didn't care for, like the sappy tearjerker THE WAY WE WERE (1973) with Robert Redford and Barbra Striesand, the yawn-inducing OUT OF AFRICA (1985) and the greatly overrated TOOTSIE (1982), the movie where Dustin Hoffman dresses up as a woman to get a role in a soap opera. I remember seeing TOOTSIE at the movies when it first came out, and finding it annoying as hell (except for an early role by Bill Murray as Hoffman's roomate), and a lame ripoff of SOME LIKE IT HOT in some ways. But this turned out to be one of Pollack's biggest hits.

While I wasn't always a fan of the kinds of movies he made, Pollack was a talented guy with a long career, and he made a lot of different kinds of movies. He was also an occasional actor in movies and on TV (chances are you've seen him, even if you didn't know who he was). My favorite role of his was in Stanley Kubrick's EYES WIDE SHUT in a role originally intended for Harvey Keitel.

He died of cancer at age 73.

INSIDE and FRONTIER(S)

Well, I finally saw these two flicks that I mentioned in my previous post.

INSIDE is one of the best movies I've seen in years. It's about Sarah (Alysson Paradis) a pregnant woman who's just about to give birth. She spends Christmas Eve alone, waiting to go to the hospital the next day (if she hasn't gone into labor by then, they're gonna give her a C-Section). She's also a recent widow (her husband died in a car crash that she survived). A mysterious woman in black (Beatrice Dalle) starts tormenting her - banging on the door, looking in her windows, so she calls the cops. When the cops show up (and various relatives and friends who come to check on her), they get butchered by the crazy lady, who wants the baby for herself. But Sarah is not going to give up with a fight! A powerful, very violent, and bloody film that totally engaged me. With a haunting ending that will stay with you. This is one of the times where a movie totally lived up to the hype. I loved it.

FRONTIER(S) was originally supposed to be a part of the second annual AFTERDARK HORRORFEST, but didn't make the cut because it couldn't get an R rating. It got a very brief theatrical release recently (nowhere near me) and went to DVD a week later. It takes place in a France full of riots and police in full body gear. A group of thieves have just made a heist (we're not sure what it was, but there's a big bag of money). They flee the city for the outskirts of France on their way to Holland. But when they make a stop at an inn, everything falls apart. They've stumbled onto a nest of cannibalistic Nazis! Led by the aging Father, who shows up in full Gestapo fear, demanding they keep the one lone woman in the gang, Yasmine (Karina Testa) alive for breeding purposes. While the plot seemed a little too familiar (people stumble upon a housefull of cannibals - a plot we've seen since the origina Texas Chainsaw Massacre up through maybe hundreds of knockoffs), director Xavier Gens keeps everything very atmospheric and tense. And the pregnant Yasmine (yes, another fiesty pregnant heroine) proves herself to be quite the scrapper. This one too, has pretty vicious violence and gore. And a wince-inducing scene where poor Yasmine has to pull herself through a puddle of pig shit to escape.

I thought INSIDE was way superior, but FRONTIER(S) is worth checking out as well. They're both out now on DVD. But please note that both of these movies have lots of violence and gore, so they're not for the squeamish (just in case there is anyone who reads my blog who is actually squeamish. LOL)

So it's Memorial Day weekend. Three days off. This is the first time I've had a holiday at work since New Year's. What am I gonna do? I'm going to try to get a ton of writing done this weekend, on the new novel and maybe a few short stories. I hope I'm half as productive as I want to be.

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I also wanted to post a shout-out to writer Brian Keene, who recently announced that he's officially writing a miniseries for Marvel Comics based on the obscure character DEVIL SLAYER. I guess he appeared in DEFENDERS comics in the 70s, but I barely remember him. I'm sure Keene will do a great job with it.

One thing Brian and I share is a love of comics, especially in the 1970s when we were growing up, and, as long as I've known him, I know he's wanted to write for Marvel. Nice to see he finally made that dream come true.

Go to Brian's website (click his name above) to see the preliminary sketches for the new series.

WILL ELDER AND FRENCH GORE

Comic book legend Will Elder died this week. He used to be one of the guys who drew EC Comics back in the 1950s, and he was part of the original gang (along with Harvey Kurtzman and William Gaines) who created Mad Magazine back then, too, when it was a comic book and hadn't become a magazine yet. The guy was a legend. The first time I ever came across his stuff as a kid was when I got an issue of MAD that had one of those "free comic books" inside, that reprinted a bunch of the old stuff. Stuff like Elder's parody of THE SHADOW. Insane shit.

Sounds like Elder was just as insane in his real life. In the obituary I read, it says that "Among the pranks that earned the young Mr. Elder renown: putting clothes on cattle carcasses from a meat-processing factory, placing them at railroad crossings, and screaming to horrified passersby that his friend "Moshe" had been killed." What a nut!

He was a helluva artist though. And his stuff is funny as hell. He was 86 and died of Parkinson's disease.

***

Also I just picked up the new issue of RUE MORGUE magazine, and it features a big article on the new "trend" of French gore movies, like INSIDE by Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury and FRONTIER(S) by Xavier Gens. Sounds like a breath of fresh air to me, after way too many J-Horror ghost stories with those ladies with the long hair.

NEW ARGENTO ARTICLE ON FEARZONE

I've got a new article online about Dario Argento's mythology of "The Three Mothers." This is a storyline that started back in his masterpiece SUSPIRIA (1977), up through INFERNO (1980), and which now, 28 years later, is finally come to a conclusion in his upcoming MOTHER OF TEARS (due in theaters this June 4th).

If you're an Argento fan, or if you just plan to catch MOTHER OF TEARS, this article will bring you up to speed on what's happened so far, so you know what this mythology is all about.

If you wanna check out the article, just here.

PLAYING CATCH-UP ON MOVIES AND MUSIC

It's been awhile since I posted anything for the blog. I know a lot of people post every day, but if I don't have much to say, I usually wait. Believe me, I don't have enough interesting things to say every day.

I've seen a few movies since the last blog. Here are some brief reviews:

FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER

I avoided this one in theaters because I'm a big comic book fan, and a major Silver Surfer fan. I thought the first FANTASTIC FOUR movie was kind of stupid, and really wasn't really interested in seeing how they would ruin the Silver Surfer as well. But I finally caught the movie on HBO, and I've got to admit, it wasn't as bad I was expecting. This time around, the Fantastic Four didn't seem quite as annoying as the first film. Reed Richards and Sue Storm (Ioan Gruffudd and Jessica Alba) are still one-dimensional and I couldn't care less about their wedding. Johnny Storm (Chris Evans) is still an egomaniacal, but kind of boring, Human Torch. But I never really cared about those three characters in the comics, either. Although, when handled well, the Invisible Woman can be an interesting character (I'm still waiting for the movie where she leaves Reed for Namor, the Sub-Mariner, as she did for a spell in the comics).

The only reason I ever liked the Fantastic Four comics was because The Thing kicked ass. Ben Grimm, in all his orange-rock glory, was the main attraction. Here he's played by Michael Chiklis again, who is so damn amazing as Vic Mackey on the FX show THE SHIELD. But in the FF movies, Chiklis is kind of all dressed up with no place to go. The spotlight isn't on him enough, and The Thing is never given enough to do, except the verbal sparring he does with the Torch, which gets tired in the movies in ways it never did in the comics.

And we get the return of Julian McMahon (Dr. Troy from NIP/TUCK) as Dr. Doom. I never really understood what Doom's powers were. Aside from the metal suit that made him a kind of Iron Man wannabe, his powers seem to be a mix of science and magic. But I've always dug the character, and he has a few good scenes here, even if it is totally implausible that the military would trust him with a project to stop the destruction of Earth (when it's so clear Doom would like that honor for himself).

But back to the Silver Surfer, the real plot motivation of this film. Here, as in the comics, he's a herald to Galactus, a planet-eating entity who drains all of the energy out of worlds and leaves them as dry husks. In the comics, Galactus is a giant guy in a funny helmet. Here, he's a giant planet-devouring cloud. While it makes sense from a filmmaking standpoint, and I know the big guy with the helmet would have looked stupid, I still was disappointed they didn't show Galactus the way we know him from the comics.

The Surfer is basically good. He only seeks out worlds for Galactus to devour because that was a deal he made to save his own world. So the Surfer checks out Earth and prepares it for his master's arrival. The Fantastic Four try to find out what his mission is all about and stop him, and Dr. Doom just wants to use the Surfer's amazing powers for his own ends.

Here, the Silver Surfer is mostly a CGI creation using Doug Jones (the faun from PAN'S LABYRINTH) as its human model and with the voice of Lawrence Fishburne. It doesn't really work. Instead of being fluid and dynamic, the Surfer looks pretty stiff and his voice is overly dramatic. He almost seems like a robot in some scenes. He just isn't as cool as he is in the comics. Which is a letdown.

But the movie on the whole is just a mediocre retelling of the Silver Surfer's first appearance on Earth. It's not awful (as I expected it to be), but it's not amazing either. It's just barely adequate. So there's no reason to get excited. And I'm glad to have waited to see it on cable instead of spending the cash for a theater ticket.

AN AMERICAN CRIME

Some people might know that I'm a big fan of the writer Jack Ketchum and his book THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, one of the most disturbing novels ever written, which was recently made into a film. What you may not know is that THE GIRL NEXT DOOR was based on a real crime that happened in the 1960s (Ketchum's book changed it to the 1950s), where young Sylvia Likens and her sister Jennifer were put into the care of Gertrude Baniszewski in rural Indiana. Gertrude was pretty much a stranger to Sylvia's parents – but they were working the carny circuit and couldn't take care of all their kids while on the road – and I guess they had no reason to think she was a violent psychopath. But she was. And Sylvia was progressively tortured and abused, at the hands of Gertrude, her kids, and other neighborhood kids, for months before she died. The torture was pretty heinous.

While I think the movie version of THE GIRL NEXT DOOR is a better film, I think AN AMERICAN CRIME is also very effective at showing us the skin-crawling horrors of this particular true crime. When the film was first shown at the Sundance Film Festival, it was pretty much panned by the critics, and I was led to believe it was a bad movie. It's not. If anything, I think the critics were reacting to the truly disturbing subject matter, rather than the quality of the movie itself, which is a shame. Because of its poor reception, the film didn't get a theatrical release but has gone straight to cable (in this case, Showtime).

This time around the despicable Gertrude is portrayed by the talented indie film staple Catherine Keener (you might have seen her as Harper Lee in the film CAPOTE, or as Steve Carrell's girlfriend in 40-YEAR OLD VIRGIN), and the doomed Sylvia is played by the rising star Ellen Page (from HARD CANDY and, of course, JUNO). Both turn in strong performances here, and the subject matter is still powerful enough to get to you.

I guess this movie would bother a lot of people, and would especially strike a nerve for any parents who have to leave their kids with people they don't know very well. And I have to admit, I felt kind of bummed out after seeing this movie (much as I felt after I first read Ketchum's book). But this is the perfect example of how truth can be much worse than fiction (both this movie and the Ketchum version, as gut-wrenching as they are, still leave out some facts that add to the horror). It's also an example of how horror films can be effective in exposing the dark side of the human animal.

My only qualm is that Gertrude's daughter Paula (Ari Graynor) whose lying led to the start of Sylvia's abuse, becomes a bit sympathetic toward the end, when in real life she was supposedly one of the worst of Sylvia's tormentors. Rewriting history to make a despicable person sympathetic, for the sake of a story, bugs me. But all in all, this version of the story is powerfully told and worth seeing, if you can take it.

MISTER LONELY

You might know Harmony Korine as the kids who wrote the screenplay to Larry Clarks' uber-controverisal film KIDS in 1995 After that movie, he directed a couple of films of his own – GUMMO and JULIEN DONKEY-BOY – both of which are very low-budget, strange films, that I liked. Then he didn't make another film for almost ten years. It's nice to have him back, and his new one MISTER LONELY is just as odd and interesting as his previous films.

In MISTER LONELY we are introduced to Michael (Diego Luna) who is a Michael Jackson impersonator, dancing on the streets of Paris for change. He meets a Marilyn Monroe impersonator (Samantha Morton) and takes a liking to her. She asks him to come back with her to a commune in the mountains where all the people are like them. He feels alone in this country where he can't even speak French, and agrees to go with her. In the commune, everyone is an impersonator. From a guy who dresses and acts like Charlie Chaplin, to a Madonna impersonator, a red-jacketed James Dean, and even the Three Stooges. A man dressed like Abe Lincoln swears constantly. It's a surreal little place, and we grow to care about this oddball characters. This story goes back and forth with a second storyline featuring German director Werner Herzog as a priest in South America who flies a plane over poor areas and throws down food to them. He's helped by a group of nuns. One day, a nun falls out of the plane and instead of falling to her death, she flies and lands safely. The other nuns in her group find that they can do the same. Herzog proclaims it "a miracle."

The two storylines are equally strange, and both are interesting. I don't think this is the best movie Korine has made, but it's a pleasant enough diversion from mainstream cinema.

HAIL THE DEATH CAB

On the music front, I recently got the new album NARROW STAIRS from the band Death Cab for Cutie, and I can't praise it enough. If you're a fan of this band, then you really should get a copy as soon as possible. Sure, they've got kind of a dumb name, but the music is excellent. I've been a fan of their's for awhile now, and I think this might be their best album yet. I'm totally hooked on their first single for the album, "I Will Possess Your Heart" (the title sounds like a Coffin Joe movie!). The song is eight minutes long, half of which is just instrumental preamble, but it's easily the most haunting and catchy song I've heard in a long time.

Well, that's all for now. Just wanted to catch up on what I've seen (and heard) lately.

Currently reading: THE SCREAM by John Skipp & Craig Spector
Currently listening to: NARROW STAIRS by Death Cab for Cutie

Several New England Horror Writers (NEHW) authors (myself included) will be signing their books on Saturday, May 10, 2008 at 2:00 pm at PANDEMONIUM BOOKS & GAMES at 4 Pleasant St., Cambridge, MA 02139.

Appearing are:
Inanna Arthen (Mortal Touch)
Scott Goudsward (Trailer Trash, Shadows Over New England)
Nate Kenyon (Bloodstone)
Alisa M. Libby (The Blood Confession)
L.L.Soares (Best of Horrorfind 2, Right House on the Left)
Morven Westfield (Darksome Thirst , The Old Power Returns)
Jennifer Yarter-Polmatier (The Madness Within)

Come on down and say hello!

PANDEMONIUM is the Boston area's premier source of science fiction, fantasy, and supernatural. Founded in 1989, Pandemonium has been a Cambridge institution for almost two decades. For more information, visit their web site .