Finally a ‘Red Band’ trailer that justifies the name!
I am a huge Danny Boyle fan. Even when his films don’t quite strike the right tone, such as “A Life Less Ordinary,” “Sunshine,” and I would argue, “The Beach,” they’re still worth watching. His “Trainspotting” is perhaps the best film that I have ever seen about drug usage because it accepts a basic tenet: Namely that people primarily use drugs because they feel good. That’s not to say that they result in successful outcomes, or that it even makes sense to do them.
That being said, it’s sometimes hard to argue with feeling good.
“Trance” seems to involve an art heist, hypnosis, and some imagery straight out of David Cronenberg‘s ‘body horror‘ days.
Good stuff.
Excuse me for a moment.
That’s better. Now that I found a little release, I can ask the question I find myself asking way more often that I would like lately, which is: Why in (insert perferred deity here) name are they remaking David Cronenberg’s “Videodrome?” Cronenberg himself attempted, not nearly as successfully, to revisit similar topics with “eXistenZ.”
Are they going to somehow make it more creepy? More subversive? Are they going to replace the television with the Internet, and call it innovative, despite “Pulse” beating them to the punch? Are they going to make it PG-13, because there’s no way that if it’s even half the film that the original is that it should be rated no less than a hard R.
I am not optimistic. Not at all.
Sometimes it’s difficult to be a horror fan because, to paraphrase Rodney Dangerfield: “We don’t get no respect.”
I don’t know what what other conclusion to reach when studios are turning out drivel like “Hellraiser: Revelations.”
We want nuance. We want character development. We want pathos. And sure, we want some gore and violence accompanying that nuance and character development, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t want substantial, weighty movies (at least sometimes).
And there are directors out there that know what we want, and take us seriously. A few personal favorites are Stuart Gordon, Ernest Dickerson, George Romero, David Cronenberg, and Frank Darabont.
And while it’s too early to tell if Ole Bornedal will join such august company, at least his latest film, “The Posession,” looks like it at least has the potential to generate a few scares.
Even if it doesn’t, at least it has Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who’s a great character actor and isn’t afraid to tackle genre (which is why it surprises me that “The Resident” was barely watchable despite Morgan AND Christopher Lee in the mix).
I have been re-reading H.P. Lovecraft’s “At The Mountains Of Madness,” and–as much as I hate to say it–I am somewhat glad that the powers-that-be at Universal pulled the plug (Sure, for all the wrong reasons, but whatever).
Don’t take that to mean that Guillermo Del Toro couldn’t have made an engrossing and terrifying film; I think the man could make a horrifying movie based upon the content of a telephone book.
My problem lies not with Del Toro’s abilities, than the material itself.
A lot of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos revolved around the concept that we shouldn’t be ignorantly venturing into the vast unknown, because if we have no idea what terrors, in our naiveté, lie in wait for us.
This unknown is exemplified in beings like Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth, among others, who once held dominion over this world, and wait patiently to reclaim that which was once theirs. We measure time by the clocks of our relatively short lives, while for Lovecraft’s creations, millennia are barely the blink of an eye, or the beating of a heart from one frenzied moment to the next.
And that which can eternal lie can afford to be patient.
Many horror films, be they of the ‘Saw’ or “Friday the 13th” variety, are a lot of things, but scary isn’t one of them. This is often because their stock and trade is shock, and violence is the means to that end.
They’re not particularly scary because fear involves mood and atmosphere, things that takes patience and time to build, things that can be squandered by one bad decision on the part of the director. This is not to say that there’s anything wrong with a bit of mindless violence every once in a while, but sometimes you want something a little more challenging with your gratuitous bloodletting.
If David Cronenberg were a furniture aficionado that happened to specialize in chairs, he would probably own this one.
Brian’s ‘John Dies At The End’ Review
“Here’s to all the kisses I snatched, and vice versa.”
—Fred Chu
Think about it for a moment, you’ll get it.
One of Marvel Studios’ Phase Two projects is a feature film version of Doctor Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts. I still think that Ioan Gruffudd should play Strange, though who should direct? On the strength of “John Dies At The End” (never mind his rather bizarre filmography) it should be Don Coscarelli.
The reason being is that the movie takes some really odd subject matter, and not only makes it approachable, but fun. When I heard that this film was coming out a few years ago, I picked up the book by David Wong, so that I would go into the movie with some idea of what’s going on.
I enjoyed the read, but beneath the weird chocolately coating lies a somewhat conventional center.
What Coscarelli did was bring the most interesting, stranger parts of the novel to the screen, while de-emphasizing the conventional elements. What’s left is a movie that plays like David Cronenberg’s “Naked Lunch,” with its reliance on mainly practical special effects, while unlike that aforementioned film actually makes sense.
What “John Dies At The End” also reminded me of the Hardy Boys. On acid.
And apropos of Doctor Strange, wouldn’t Clancy Brown be an awesome Baron Mordo?
I am also resisting the temptation to reveal more about the movie–Trust me. My restraint has been admirable–but the actors that play John and David Wong, Rob Mayes and Chase Williamson, are a great bit of casting.
I referred to Clancy Brown earlier, though he rounds out a remarkable cast that includes genre veterans like Angus Scrimm, Glynn Turman, Doug Jones and Paul Giamatti (who also executive produced).
Though all is not rosy because “John Dies At The End” deserves a nationwide release, as opposed to the limited one that it actually got. I live in Washington, DC, and unlike Michael (thanks for reminding me that it was available online) over at Durmoose Movie Musings, I didn’t have the benefit of seeing this awesome movie in a theater.
Pity, that.
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