I watched a couple of films–neither great, neither bad–which grub in the troughs of contemporary horror scenarios but with some more high-falutin’ goals in mind. I could probably write an essay that excoriated the directors for not taking their slumming seriously enough; the films don’t really succeed as horror, and the pretensions swell up and occasionally burst the seams of the well-knit genre conventions. But I’ll assume they were serious fans of the genre conventions, and simply suffered from grand ambitions–in trying to make seriously scary and yet seriously serious flicks, both ends of that equation kind of suffer. We get middling melodramas, admittedly well-shot and showing promise.
Sebastian Cordero’s Cronicas, a film shot in Ecuador and with a bigshot Latin-American production pedigree, stars John Leguizamo in the Kirk Douglas role as an amoral tabloid reporter, milking a series of child rape/killings (and I like that the killing of kids wasn’t enough–let’s make sure we talk about raping ’em before the torture and mass burial), imagining himself the hero, blah blah blah. Let’s say he’s not Kirk Douglas–he underplays the role and is pretty effective at dodging the painfully obvious choices–but he’s not Kolchak, either, alas. The villain has a weird grin on his face, but he comes off more like a Hare Krishna than Hannibal L, though the latter is clearly a progenitor. The film’s best sequence is its opening, where the villain tidies up after a killing, drives into town and mistakenly runs into a boy crossing the street–whereupon he’s almost lynched by a crowd. There’s a real vitality and anxiety to that scene, as we don’t know what’s going to happen, as the film slips off the maps of serial killer territory…. but then it subsequently sneaks back into the familiar. I blame the moral of the movie–so intent on scolding the reporter, it sidesteps selling the amoral pleasures of the child-in-peril crazy-evil-genius potboiler.
Il-gon Song’s Spider Forest is playing Memento-like games with memory and identity. I won’t give things away, but I don’t think I really could–the memory twists are almost wholly expect-able, despite some very fine editing and a keen eye for skewing the syntax of the plot. Again, though, I think the serious business of “grief” and “identity” and “memory” overtaxed the imagination, and the film is underwhelming in impact. It gets mood right, but misses the mark on visceral jolts and jangles. This lack of oomph undercuts the serious stuff, too; we’re never that uncomfortable, and so its examination of grief and memory ends up being far safer (and more predictable) than it could have been.
Over the last couple weeks, the few films I’ve seen have all been mediocre at best. Constantine is fine fun in the ways Arnab previously noted, so I didn’t bother to repeat; Takashi Miike’s One Missed Call is strangely restrained for that director, so its retread of J-horror tropes (spooky black-haired female ghosts with bad posture) is… well, probably more fun if you don’t know the genre.
Sigh. I wish they’d been better. And I wish someone would release Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole, which I’ve never seen. And if I’m looking to be bothered or scared or uncomfortable, I suppose I’d better bump Ichi the Killer up the queue.
In the queue now: Battlestar Galactica (which I’ll never ever get–it’s been weeks); Devil’s Rejects; Happy Endings; The Beat that My Heart Skipped; O.C. and Stiggs (which I am getting simply as an Altman completist). Any odd recommendations out there?
Mike, I have a copy of ACE IN THE HOLE on DVD.
How’d you get that dvd, John? Ebay?
Si.
I too am looking forward to The Beat My Heart Skipped. I will also encourage folks to check out the French flick Kings and Queen which struck me, upon first viewing, as nothing short of remarkable–I’ll have to see it again to make sure (out the 22nd I think). Happy Endings wasn’t what I hoped it would be, living up to the critics’ ambivalent response (so drop it down a few notches in your queue). Also saw The Edukators but I suspect it to be a film everyone will have felt they have already seen before. Has anyone seen the German film Head On??
I’m getting Happy E mostly for Kris, even though I do really want to see Gyllenhaal’s performance.
I’ll check on Kings and Q. Maybe I’ll move up some of my weirder stuff, too: Martin and Orloff; Newsfront.
I managed to see Saw II this past weekend Mike, and would have to say that while it wasn’t completely lacking, it was mediocre at best. Predictable. Easy. The scares were where they should of been, enough to justify my money spent. But outside the theater nothing lingered. I’m sure someone’s used this example before, but horror should cling to you like a bad nightmare you had when you were six. It needs to stay with and eat at your soul like an acid. There’s nothing new that grips me like a nightmare. All I’ve been watching is someone parade their demented daydreams across the screen.
Anyway, formulaic horror films must be profitable, or the studios would move on. That would be the hope, anyway.
i think most of these new horror films are cheap to make, and so don’t need to make a whole lot of money to generate a tidy enough profit to keep them going. and the gory ones seem to have a built-in audience. why the crazy kids go out to see saw etc. and stay away from superior fare like session 9, i don’t know.
Who’s this Joshua H and why doesn’t he know it’s “should’ve”?
Saw II cost $4 million. Talk about a Lions Gate payday.
The great thing about internet posting is I never have to correct anything. As long as its coherent, its correct.
Student of Jeff and Mike’s living in okinawa. And teaching English.
next up for joshua h: its/it’s
their/there, or maybe capital letters . . . arnab! I thought you were all about the fragmentation of authoritative constructs yet spelling seams too bee vary importunt
At least Joshua isn’t putting in smiley faces like that Howell character. Or is it smily?
By the by, Nikki dated Mike O’Malley? Holy crap! I mean, I fucked him, but I’d never date him.
Actually, I’m trying to remember–is he the redhead guy who had the little beard, like one of the Lone Gunmen from “X Files”?
And Josh–I doubt I’ll watch Saw II. I thought the first was only middling. I will second A.C.’s affirmation of Session 9, though. I thought of another horror flick I saw the last couple weeks: an Australian sort-of time-bendy sort-of slasher thing called Last Things. It’ll win no awards, but it was confidently disruptive of time and narrative syntax, and had a dark, precise sense of humor. Quite enjoyable.
jeff, you misunderstand me. i am all for authoritative constructs. i just have a keyboard without a shift key.
mike, wasn’t the redhead guy with a beard royce grubic? ah, the writing center memories.
Frisoli, what did that O’Malley clone (whose name escapes me…Steve something?) used to say to you in the hallway? He’d say it during (shudder) portfolio evaluation.
i’m going to vote for taking the jokes about old ghosts from ‘sc off the blog. as you all know, i was raised to be nice and this is getting a little nasty. let’s stick to making fun of ourselves. plus i might need to get a job from steve byars or michael o’malley or royce grubic someday.
I’m pleased that both my professors came to my defense.
I went to Saw II because I was starved for a movie, not necessarily because I wanted to see it. The last film I’d seen in a movie theater had been The Fantastic Four, and I just wanted to hear my own language. My other choices were Elizabethtown and Brothers Grimm. In retrospect I should have chosen Terry’s little nut show, and if I had another day I would have seen Goblet, but so it goes, can’t have it all, dem’s da breaks, ect.
It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a good movie in a theater though.