I'm Not There

All of you are very pretty, I love you.  The final screening for this year's festival takes us back to a time of endangered teenagers,  sloppy gore and nudity: the 80's .  The Slumber Party Massacre really lives up to its name and the expectations it suggests.  Spoilers ahead. The first half of the movie tries to find that sweet spot of comedic horror while the second half is more of a survival game.  It's interesting that a woman wrote the script and another woman directed this movie, pretty rare even today.  There are a couple of gratuitous and unnecessary nudity shots in the beginning to probably draw in teenage boys and perverts.  There's a shower scene in the girls locker room where the camera very slowly tilts down to a girl's butt, for no reason, the shower scene didn't need to be as long as it was but... you know.  I wonder how the writer and director felt about having such a blatantly exploitative scene in the movie, (I...

Keep us Asleep Keep us Selfish Keep us Sedated Continuing with the John Carpenter train, They Live is a film whose themes resonate as much today as they did in 1988.  Be woke.  Nearly everything being talked about   we are still dealing with today, except maybe police brutality, oh wait.  The theme of the film is keeping the population dumb and sedated while the powerful (ie rich) live off their labor.  The powerful in this case happen to be aliens from another planet which makes this film "horror" and thus, more palatable to the masses.This is also reflected in the title of the movie which is expanded in an early scene (They Live, We Sleep). The people in the movie tend to zone out watching television, allowing all the subliminal messages to influence their decisions and lifestyle.  Imagine what the film makers would think now that we have increased the number of screens we are exposed and addicted to (phones, computers, tablets, watches etc). Pol...

Trust Me The new  Halloween  movie stands out because it provided me with  the best movie viewing experience out of all the other movies in the franchise.  The only thing better than the Dolby Surround sound, the Blue Moon and reclinable seats, was the company.  As a result, I am unable to write a objective response to the film, at least until I re-watch it.  Instead, let's talk about something scarier than Michael Myers stalking victims; interpersonal relationships. The scary part comes primarily from the uncertainty of the other person's intentions and purposes.  Obviously if a person's last relationship was trash or ended badly, this fear is understandable.  It seems that learning to trust again, specifically in dating is the biggest obstacle both sexes face.  It' seems almost tragic that the most basic and essential concept is the most difficult to regain.  Add to that, the fear of what others are going to think when they find ...

I feel like a new toothbrush.  Even in the 50's, Universal still followed the same formula of ending their monster pictures with a sad death interrupted by the glaring high note Universal theme.   This Island Earth  is a film which I had heard about but never knew what it was about.  Seeing as how this year's festival hasn't explored sci fi alien elements much, this was a fine film to choose.  As mentioned, Universal seems to re use their monster formula over and over up until this film which is considered by many, the very last original Universal monster film,  Sure there were Creature sequels but I said original, didn't you read that?  As such, the formula of the tri tone music introducing the monster is there as well as the monster itself not really being good or bad. In this case, they were created as slaves and then attacked, the monster is just fighting back in the limited screen time it has.  It first appears within the las...

Was that the Boogeyman? After watching the original Halloween, I came to the conclusion that the movie would have been way shorter if the characters had cellphones.  It will be interesting to see how they deal with this in the new Halloween which I am watching tomorrow.  Will Michael know how to use a cell phone?  How will this affect his stalking tactics?  On a side note, I noticed that most of the kids went trick or treating while the sun was still out.  I don't know if that is supposed to be an East Coast thing but in all my years of trick or treating, I have NEVER seen kids go out for candy while the sun is still out.  I have only seen this in movies like E.T. and Freaks and Geeks; that's it.  Every time I would see these scenes it would catch me off guard and I would question why the kids were out so early, it seems really boring.  In Halloween, the kids are already out as Laurie and her friends are walking home from school.  This...

Braiiins... The Return of the Living Dead  is a movie I had heard about a lot that spun off a couple sequels but I had never actually seen.  It is considered one of the most popular cult classics and is representative of 80's horror.  After watching the complete film, I can see why it is beloved by many and I can only speculate,  superior to its sequels. The acting is over the top, the story is far fetched and the effects are sub par.  The detail in the props is great as seen above but the practical effects themselves are not.  This is not a negative as all the aforementioned things make this movie a fun "popcorn" movie that would have been great to see on a date back on 1985.  Also, there's gratuitous nudity that really did not need to be there but just was, classic 80's. The movie addresses the concept of why the undead eat brains and also acknowledges the existence of Night of the Living Dead and   by acknowledging I mean they referen...

(Horn honk) Terrifier  had me terrified because I really hate clowns, I hate that I had to watch it, alone but this is the job.  Cinematically, it is a good horror movie, a throwback to the slasher film.  Visually, the clown's makeup is fantastic, reminiscent of the Gentlemen from Buffy The Vampire Slayer. The special effects were also great  and overall a pretty good story.  The character of Art the Clown has very creepy mannerisms in this movie, things that made me smile because they were done right.  His stupid smile, the fact that he doesn't speak and when he rides around in a little bicycle. He is a believable maniac clown which makes the kills that much better.  I was thinking that this film would kind of go downhill after the first half but thankfully it did not and I have to respect Damien Leone. I mentioned this is a throwback film and the fact that they used mainly practical effects combined with the grainy look of the film accomplish ...

Do it! Finish it. Bad Moon is a movie about how sibling relationships influence family dynamics.  It's a movie about a boy's undying love for his dog, his only friend.   Also, it is a werewolf movie from the late 90's that hardly anyone remembers. It is so 90's that the kid in the movie is played by Dennis the Menace.  Mason Gamble will forever be Dennis the Menace, regardless of how much he thinks he's changed and how much facial hair he tries to grow.  Maybe on his tombstone it will say " Hey Mr. Wilsoooon."  That was unnecessarily dark and I will now continue discussing this movie. The story is about a single mother (Janet) and her kid (Bret) who get a visit from the Janet's brother (Ted)who  moves his Airstream trailer into the woman's beautiful isolated house, bought by her fancy lawyer money.   However,  Ted is carrying a secret,because when he was in the jungle in an Asian country, he got bit by a werewolf whom he even...

You... are Paimon. I had heard several people praise Hereditary when it was released earlier in the year and I knew I had to screen it for this years IFFF.  We live in a society where a horror film is released every couple of weeks but sadly, most of them are not received that well by both critics and the public. I glanced at a review for this film that compared it to The Exorcist which in the horror world is high praise.  Personally, I saw The Exorcist for the first time about three years ago and thought it was very slow and boring, even if I was an audience member in the 70's I would have been bored.  Still, that comparison means something to a lot of people and I gave this film a shot and it turns out it is way better than The Exorcist. Even while watching this, I was thinking, ney, hoping that this film would make me feel like everyone else seems to feel about The Exorcist.  I prefer my horror filled with monsters and slashers, the supernatural has alway...