RANTS & RAVINGS ABOUT HORROR – “HOW MONSTER FILMS DEFINED MY LIFE”

RANTS & RAVINGS ABOUT HORROR – “HOW MONSTER FILMS DEFINED MY LIFE”

Early this year during the 2017 Something Wicked Film Festival (www.somethingwickedfilmfestival.com), Festival Panel Moderator Jim Adams created a panel discussion that would forever define the future of panel discussions for the event (especially since I’m the Festival Director and I just hired him to be the Official Festival Panel Moderator.  One of Mr. Adams’ first duties were to come up with some original ideas for new panel discussions and thus “How Monster Films Defined My Life” was born. 

Now I know part of the reason why Mr. Adams decided on this topic for a panel discussion is because he has the podcast “Monster Attacks!” where he has spoken at length about his love for monster films.  For many people, monster films from the Universal horrors of Dracula and The Wolfman to Hammer Studios’ Frankenstein and The Mummy were defining characters of fear from childhood.  For more modern audiences there is Leatherface and that dream demon Freddy not to mention the likes of Ghostface Killer and The Jigsaw Killer.  No matter which decade, audiences have their own nightmare monster that haunts them or fascinates them to no end.

I was one of the film-makers on this panel discussion and one of the films that defined my childhood was the Joe Dante film Gremlins (1984).  I saw this in the theater in ’84 at the early age of 8 and it left an undeniable impression on me.  The monsters were both cute and cuddly and dangerous and fun at the same time.  It was like watching a bunch of unruly children at play able to do whatever they wanted.  It also had an amazing soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith (who became my all-time favorite music composer).  The film was dark and horrifying as well as funny and entertaining.  It had the perfect mixture of comedy and horror and part of that is due to the very dark photography of the film and the fluid cinematography.  It truly became one of my all-time favorite films for which my love for other monsters would grow.

 

I didn’t grow up with the black & white Universal monsters nor had I seen many of the bloody Hammer Studio films until I became a big horror fan in my teenage and college years.  The next monster I gravitated to was that of the Good-Guy doll Chucky.  When I saw Child’s Play (1988) I had never seen anything like it before.  A serial killer uses Voodoo to possess a doll and to continue his killing spree.  Even though this film played straight into horror (unlike the more comedic sequels) it still was quite fun and entertaining.  By ’88 when this film was released and I was eleven years old I had already become a horror fan but nothing had defined my true love of the genre just yet until this film.  I got the poster for the film from the nearby Video Store (how I miss these establishments) and I placed it lovingly on my bedroom wall (where it was later joined by posters of the second and third films).  It was the first poster I ever put on my wall but it would not be the last.

I followed the continuing exploits of Chucky to cinema with Child’s Play 2 (1990) and Child’s Play 3 (1991) which I had to beg my Father to take me to since I was too young for the R-Rated horror.  At this point I did come to realize how much I loved horror films but more importantly – monster films.

At this point you could say I went looking for monsters as I learned to love all monsters big or small.

It wasn’t until Clive Barker’s Nightbreed (1990) that I wished I was one of the amazing monsters that populated our magnificent world.  Barker crafted a story where the monsters were the good guys while man was the bad guy.  This film defined the idea of what a monster could truly become.  The monsters in Barker’s film were deformed and misunderstood as well as dangerous and fascinating.

It was after this that I became a true and everlasting monster fan.  From the films featuring Godzilla and his rogue’s gallery to the Cenobites of the world of Hellraiser I loved monsters both other-worldly and those more human.  My favorites were monsters not easily described or defined like those in Christine (1983), The Thing (1982), Puppet Master (1994), Critters (1986), and especially Killer Clowns From Outer Space (1988), to name but a small few.

I most certainly enjoyed the exploits of Michael Myers and Leatherface (and family) and even those Freddy films but it was with these non-human monsters that I enjoyed more and would later define my love and appreciation of horror.  For me, monsters aren’t defined as either good nor evil but in most films, they are simply just trying to survive and do what comes naturally.  This is the defining trait of King Kong and Godzilla as well as many other timeless monster films.

Serial killers and mass murders are interesting but monsters are something from the imagination where anything that can be dreamed can become a reality.  Therefore, they’ve had such a profound effect on me as not only a film maker but a storyteller and a film lover.  If nothing else, I implore others to seek out monster movies not just for pure entertainment and enjoyment but to understand oneself and the world in which we live (and the one created for the monsters to live in).  It’s never too late to enjoy a good monster film.

To view the entire “How Monster Movies Defined My Life” panel discussion go here - https://vimeo.com/238990857

Book Review: THE GORE SCORE by Chas. Balun

Writer Chas. Balun (who passed before his time) made a career of telling people what he thought of films and most importantly of the horror kind.  He was unforgiving and uncompromising in his views which is why he was looked upon in the horror community in such high esteem.   His book The GORE Score (Revised & Updated Edition) is more of his colorful thoughts and critiques of both mainstream films as well as indie films.

Balun doesn’t waste time with scholarly and critical analysis so if that’s what you’re looking for then look somewhere else because here you’ll only find his personal opinions on many films you’ve seen and some that maybe you haven’t yet.  Published in ’87, Balun was ahead of his time by critiquing many films that were not on most horror fans radar like Blood Beach (1981), Dead And Buried (1981), Jungle Holocaust (), Motel Hell (1980) and Razorback (1984), to name just a few.  Readers will mostly love to hear his thoughts on cult films such as Monster Dog () in which he writes, “Title tells all.  Alice Cooper.  Fuck it.” Or when he praises such indie films as The Evil Dead (1983) when he writes, “Outrageously graphic roller coaster ride through horror heaven has just about every effect you’d ever want to see.”  Reading Balun’s opinion of horror films is akin to our own reaction to many of these films.

Balun praises films like C.H.U.D. (1984) with 3 out of 4 skulls (his rating instead of stars) whereas the cult classic Crawlspace (1986) gets a dog (the worst rating in the book).  He also doesn’t go easy on established directors like John Carpenter whose Christine (1984) gets only 2 skulls, Wes Craven’s Deadly Friend (1986) gets a dog as does the directors The Hills Have Eyes II (1983).  He praises Tobe Hooper’s The Funhouse (1981) with 3 skulls, Joe Dante’s Gremlins (1984) with 4 skulls, and Abel Ferrara’s Ms. 45 (1980) with 4 skulls.

If you are a horror fan than reading Balun’s The GORE Score is a great treat but don’t take my word for it.  Go out and get your own copy as well as one of his other books.

Movie Review: THE RIG (2010)

I guess an oil rig is just as good as any place to set a horror film which is the location of The Rig (2010) which stars William Forsythe as Jim Fleming, the chief operator of an off shore oil rig caught in the middle of a tropical storm that accidentally awakens and disturbs an aquatic monster that craves human flesh.  Now it’s only a matter of time before the rig becomes overrun by the monster all the while Fleming must try to save his daughter Carey (Serah D’Laine) and the rest of his crew.

Like most other monster films of its kind The Rig has a very simple CGI creature (for the most part) that stays off screen for most of the running time of the film until it is overused too much in the third act when all hell breaks loose.  Being a low budget film (approximately $3 million) the CGI is unconvincing and renders the monster shamelessly inadequate but the film is entertaining in a low budget way and has some laughs (which is only natural in horror films where the CGI is unconvincing).

Some people like to knock these low budget CGI heavy films because of their unconvincing CGI and bare bones story and plot (and sometimes even bad acting) but there is a case to be made for these types of films which is that it gives horror fans a constant supply of entertaining films with some of the genre’s most prolific character actors in different types of roles.  Forsythe has played many of villains in his diverse career with very few chances to be the good guy but in the film he plays the leader of a group of hard working laborers and an over protective father.  These films also allow young actors and crew to hone their talents and technical skill so that when they get the opportunity to work on bigger films they will be prepared.  I see these low budget films as this generation’s version of the Roger Corman produced films of yesteryears where many got their  start before moving on to bigger and better films (some of the people who first got their start on Corman films include Jack Nicholson, Jonathan Demme, Joe Dante, and many, many more).

A low budget monster movie doesn’t have to be the latest King Kong (1933) or Gojira (1954) but if it can at least entertain and provide a decent story then I can sometimes overlook the bad CGI.  The Rig may not have the most convincing CGI but it is at times entertaining and at least has a lot of gore and a little nudity (always a good thing for low budget horror films).