Horror Film Fest: The Fog

Well, the week-long Halloween Horror Film Fest has proven to be a heavier lift than I expected. Who knew that I would get tired and want to sleep? Damn, a few years ago I would have watched these movies in one sitting! Now, midnight rolls around and I can hardly keep my eyes open. In my defense, I did have to wait for the baseball game to finish, so it was a late start. A sweep by the Red Sox would be a big favor to my film fest. The good news is, I’ve seen each of the movies in my Horror Film fest many many times, and so I remain qualified to review them now, and today’s offering is The Fog.

Now anybody who likes scary movies has to be a fan of John Carpenter films, just has to. Halloween was the beginning of a string of great flicks, including his re-make of The Thing and today’s pick, The Fog. This is a VERY cool ghost story, with a plot that really moves the story (rather than gets in the way as with our earlier pick Sleepy Hollow).

So, there’s this little sea-side town, see, and they’re getting ready to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the town’s founding. And just around then the local priest (Hal Holbrooke) discovers the diary of his ancestor priest (how does that happen?) which describes how the town’s founding began with the betrayal and murder of a group of wealthy lepers who were seeking to establish a colony nearby. Eight lepers were killed when their ship was mis-led onto the rocks in a heavy fog. And now, 100 years later, the dead leper sailors are looking for some payback. Got it?

The Fog doesn’t miss an opportunity to go for the easy jump scare, often as a setup for the real thing. And that’s OK, because it’s just what you’re watching this sort of movie for. Jamie Lee Curtis demonstrates that she’s good at running scared, and Adrienne Barbeau shows she can climb on top of a light house in a storm dispite how top-heavy she is. And in the end, Hal Holbrooke gets the answer to his final question in fine style. All-around, a great flick, two thumbs WAY up!

further reading: Leprosy (Hansen’s disease) from Wikipedia

Horror Film Fest: Se7en

It’s Monday night in the week long Halloween Horror Film Fest, and tonight’s scary movie is Se7en. The film stars Morgan Freeman as an experienced homicide detective who is about to retire, and Brad Pitt as his young replacement. Their jobs are to overlap for seven days, during which Freeman will show Pitt the rope. Kevin Spacey plays the psycho who will make it a disturbing seven days, and Gwyneth Paltrow as Pitt’s wife.

The shocking truth is, I fell asleep about halfway through. I just can’t stay up as late as I used too. But hey, I’ve seen the movie before so I can review it anyway.

So what does this scary killer do? He is making examples of people he finds guilty of breaking one of the seven deadly sins, and always in a manner suited to the sin. Victim by victim, a new grusome death illustrates another sin; gluttony, greed, sloth, lust, pride, envy, and finally in a real twist, wrath.

Unlike your typical psycho-killer horror movie, where the killer is endowed with some sort of super-natural power that keeps them coming back (Michael Myers, Jason, Freddy, etc…), the scenario in Se7en is even scarier, because it’s more believable. Like Dr. Lecter and Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs, or Kathy Bates in Misery, this killer is so scary because he’s so human. A seriously screwed in the head human, and not a supernatural monster. When this movie is over, you have to deal with the fact that people this messed up really exist in the world.

If you’re watching the DVD, be sure to check out the special features, especially the storyboards of an alternate ending that I think might have been even better than the excellent one in the movie. Regardless, this is a first-rate suspense movie and Casey gives it two thumbs, WAY up.

further reading: The Seven Deadly Sins on Wikipedia

Horror Film Fest: Sleepy Hollow

The first movie of our Halloween Film Festival is Sleepy Hollow, directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci. I’ve always enjoyed Tim Burton’s movies. He has a real flair for the creepy and so ‘Sleepy Hollow’ was a good pick for kicking off this Halloween week film fest.

From the start you know this movie’s going to be cool, with a constant grey and foreboding atmosphere and some quick gruesome deaths. Really a great start. Unlike the clumsy schoolteacher from the Disney version of this tale, Johnny Depp’s Ichabod Crane is a New York City homicide detective who gets himself in trouble at work with his insistence that science can help solve crimes. He’s kind of a colonial-era forebearer to William Patterson’s character Gil Grissom on C.S.I.

So Icahabod the skeptical detective is sent to the boonies to investigate a spate of recent beheadings. Much darkness, blood and special effects laden mayhem ensues, and it is good. Two items muddy the story; Ichabod’s flashbacks that slowly reveal some black magic in his own past, and the way too complicated ‘it would have all worked if not for you meddling kids’ ending.

But there’s enough blood and gore to overcome these story faults. And in a role that didn’t require any time wasted on learning lines, Christopher Walken makes a very scary horseman.

On the Casey movie rating scale, I give it one thumb up. Not WAY up, just up.

further reading: Sleepy Hollow from Wikipedia

The Halloween Horror Film Festival

Sure, like most folks I’m pre-occupied by the coming election. But Halloween is just a week away as well, and as you can see by my pumpkin carving that I’ve got the spirit. To get still further into the mood, I’ve decided I’ll watch a different horror movie every night during the week leading up to Halloween, and offer my review here. After all, my review category is pretty thin. Stay tuned.

Fahrenheit 9/11 – I Dare You To See It

It’s probably no surprise to those who know me that I was eager to see Michael Moore’s film, Fahrenheit 9/11. My wife and I were among those in the full house of the first showing on opening day at our local theater. I expected to enjoy the movie, and I did. Anyone who’s seen one of Moore’s previous documentaries, regardless of whether you’re supportive or hostile to the points he makes, has to admit he’s a skillful filmmaker who is viciously funny.

What I was not prepared for was how viscerally moving the movie was. There are certainly plenty of laughs, just about all at President Bush’s expense. But there are also many parts that are difficult to watch, particularly the graphic scenes of wounded and dead Iraqis and Americans in Iraq, recovering soldiers in the U.S., and grieving families who wish their family member had only been wounded.

And for what? Weapons of mass destruction? An immenent threat to the United States? Any connection to Al-Queda or 9/11? A warm welcome from liberated Iraqis suffering under despotic rule? What? The justifications just don’t hold any water. George Bush, our court-appointed President, used the tradgedy of 9/11 to carry out his own agenda of an unjustified war against Iraq. It’s that simple. And they impeached Clinton for lying about sex.

So can a movie make a difference? My own feeling is that anyone who saw Fahrenheit 9/11 would be very hard pressed to challenge the facts it presents. We’ve seen them all before, strung out over the last three years, from the complicities of Bush’s ‘win’ in Florida, the obliviousness to terrorist threats pre- 9/11, and the trampling of civil liberties post. But when pulled together and viewed in a grander context, you are reminded, embarressed, and angered. Hopefully angered to action.

If the movie can make a convincing argument against the re-election of George Bush, the challenge lies in bringing the audience to the movie, and I can imagine three general types of individuals who might be in the audience; the choir, the undecided/uninvolved, and the Bush believers.

‘Preaching to the choir’, is a well known idiom meaning ‘Trying to make believers out of people who already believe’. It’s an expression of futility. In this instance, I’m in the choir, so is this movie wasted on me? No. Because the choir must be motivated. This choir needs to be reminded, be informed, and be angered to action.

How about the undecided/uninvolved? It’s frankly beyond me how any American who is paying attention can be undecided about the current state and direction of our national affairs. The uninvolved baffle me further, but to our great national shame, way too many voters in America just don’t bother to vote. Can these individuals be brought to the theater for Fahrenheit 9/11? At least they won’t necessarily be hostile to such a film in advance, and certainly could not fail to have been moved to some greater degree of attention following.

And the Bush believers, can they gain anything from Fahrenheit 9/11? I imagine that some will attend in order to learn its contents and attempt to debunk them. But I imagine pre-conceptions of this film as nothing but a Hollywood smear of President Bush is more than enough to keep the majority of Bush believers watching anything but this.

So dare them to view it. Challenge a Bush believer to watch this movie and continue to defend this President afterwards. Buy their ticket, and pay for a meal afterwards to talk about it. Offer a trade, and give two hours of your attention to watching whatever they want you to watch… even if you must spend it ‘Clockwork Orange’-style with your eyelids held open watching still continuing coverage of grass growing on Reagan’s grave.

Whichever audience you are in, you should see this movie. You owe it to yourself, and to our country, to look at the facts and reach your own conclusions. Failing that, we deserve whatever President the court appoints.

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