MONTH OF INTERNATIONAL FILMS

February 2021 is a special month for my viewing this year as I’ve labeled it my Month of International Films.  Each month this year I’m giving a theme in the hopes that I will (finally) catch up with a lot of the films that have been on my “watch list” for quite some time.  In January, I watched a lot of 2020 films that I had missed and now we are on to the Month of International Films.

 

I’m a huge lover of foreign films but sometimes you have to be in the mood to read subtitles (my preferred way to watch a foreign film).  This being said, my viewing spanned all genres and all parts of the world as I love to explore the many different cultures through their art and film.

 

ACTION.

I should first mention that I finally got around to viewing the cult favorite Female Prisoner Scorpion films (the original series) with Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (1972), Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701’s Grudge Song (1973), Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable (1973), and Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse (1972).  This is quite a film series of the ‘70s with its nudity and violence glorified to the 100 power.  These were actually very stylized productions that had some amazing cinematography .  There are many more films that have expanded the franchise but these are the core films (maybe one day I’ll get around to those other films).   I also watched a couple Jackie Chan films this month that had been sitting on my shelf for years – 1911 (2011) and Railroad Tigers (2016), of which both were quite good and very different from one another.  Chan is a very versatile actor and producer and hopefully I will get around to the other films of his that I’ve yet to get around to.  He is still an amazing actor that I try to view as many of his films as I can.

DRAMA.

Moving on to drams, of which Chan’s 1911 fits better, I ended up viewing several dramas on the streaming service that I believe were marked as Horror.  The films Blue My Mind (2017) and Zombi Child (2020) are both very much dramas with motifs and themes from the horror genre but if you go in thinking they are horror films then you will be completely disappointed.  These two films are amazing at creating character and drama within stories not typical of the genre.  Some audience members may never take a look at them believing they are horror while horror fans may be disappointed because they are horror at all.  They both occupy a unique middle bridge and successful tell their respective stories with no compromises due to genre.

 

Another drama film I’d like to mention is Pete Walker’s Home Before Midnight (1979), one of the director’s non-horror films that has to deal with a musician who gets involved with an underage woman and controversy surrounds.  Not what I was expecting (since I was expecting a horror film) but a film whose themes still resonate and are current even today forty years later.

 

THEATRICAL & FANTASY.

I only saw one international film at the Box Office this month and it also happens to be the only fantasy film as well – A Writer’s Odyssey (2021).  This was an amazing film with a huge story whose themes and influences encompass many different genres.  Some critics have said that the film is too complicated but I loved the complex story and the many different elements that will make repeated viewing richer.  It is by far one of my favorite films of 2021!

ANIMATION.

I did manage to get a couple animated films through into the mix!  First up is Ne Zha (2019) the hugely successful animated film that presents audiences with everything missing from a Disney animated film.  I don’t know why it took me so long to get around to this film as it was one at the top of my “watch list” but I’m glad I had the chance to watch it this month instead of waiting around any longer.  I loved this film and will watch it again because of how different it is from other films being produced by American animation studios.  The same can be said of the cryptic and mind bending The Wolf House (2020), which is unlike anything out there right now.  It’s style of storytelling reminds me of Triplets of Belleville while the animation style is pure experimental filmmaker yet it has a charm all its own like something David Lynch would create.  This is a film in which repeat viewings will be needed (and maybe even a few shots of alcohol).

 

HORROR.

As can be expected, the horror genre made up the largest segment of films I got around to!  I spent most of the month buried on Shudder catching up with tons of films that I hadn’t seen yet.  The first selection of films being Italian Giallo genre but also includes films inspired by these films as well.  Some of them were – Black Belly of the Tarantula (1971), The Case of the Bloody Iris (1972), The Fifth Cord (1975), The Corruption of Chris Miller (1975), Short Night of Glass Dolls (1971), The Strange Vice of Ms. Wardh (1971), and What Have You Done to Solange? (1972). Once I started I just couldn’t stop until I had finished them all.  I’m a huge fan of the Giallo film by way of Dario Argento and Mario Bava so finally getting around to seeing some of these cult classics was great (thank you Shudder!).  Now, unfortunately, they were all as great as an Argento or Bava film but they were entertaining even when the plots were completely ludicrous.

 

The rest of my horror viewing list was all over the map with the original and modern remake of The Queen of Black Magic (1981, 2020) followed by the sequel May the Devil Take You Too (2020), which I didn’t even know was a sequel until I already was watching it (I’ll eventually get around to watching the original).

 

Other films include The Canal (2014), Demon (2015), and Noroi: The Curse (2005).  I didn’t care for The Canal at all while the Demon was an interesting take on a possession film.  Noroi is the film that was recommended to me but I just didn’t really care for it at all.

 

 

I also watched some more recent films like 32 Malasana Street (2020), Belzebuth (2019), DeadTectives (2019), Hunted (2020), and The Platform (2019).  A lot of these made their debuts at film festivals before being picked up by Shudder and other streaming services.   I especially enjoyed Hunted and The Platform!

 

This makes up all the films for my Month of International Film which allowed me to reach my goal of at least thirty films!    I hope that you seek out some of the films mentioned here as there were some gems but if none of them interest you then maybe of March Month of Action Films (!) will have something for you!

Film Review: PAURA: LUCIO FULCI REMEMBERED VOLUME 1 (2008)

Directed by Mike Baronas Paura: Lucio Fulci Remembered Volume 1 (2008) is an amazing collection of interviews from cast and crew that have worked with the director Lucio Fulci.  The interviews encompass a wide variety of people whom both had a great working relationship with the eccentric director as well as those who found it difficult.  If you’re a fan of Fulci’s films then you’ll learn a lot from watching this film.

For those of you not in the know, Fulci is one of the most influential Italian horror film directors in the same vein as Mario Bava, Dario Argento, Ruggero Deodato, Joe D’Amato, Jesus Franco, and Umberto Lenzi, to name but a few.  Horror fans will easily recognize some of Fulci’s most famous films like Zombie (1979), The Beyond (1981), House By the Cemetery (1981), City of the Living Dead (1980), and Don’t Torture a Duckling (1972), to name a few.  His films have helped redefine the zombie genre in the same way that George A. Romero’s films have.  His films may not be for everyone as they are sometimes had excessive gore and sometimes too cryptic but they were never boring and always entertaining.  He graced every genre from Edgar Allan Poe adaption The Black Cat (1981), the crime-action film Contraband (1980), literary classic - White Fang (1973), comedy – The Eroticist (1972), and western – The Four of the Apocalypse (1975), just to name a few. 

In this film, people from all these films and more are given the opportunity to express their thoughts about Fulci.  Fulci died in 1996 so this is a remarkable way in which people have been able to honor the late director and his legacy.  The film is not really designed to be enjoyed by the casual viewer or someone not associated with Fulci’s films; it will be better appreciated by fans of Fulci who have seen his films (or at least know of them).

2015 YEAR END REVIEW: “Reading Books”

It’s 2016 and it’s time to look at all my accomplishments over the course of the last year in order to see where I stand and how I can improve for the New Year.  At the beginning of 2015 a friend of mine published online all the books she read (or re-read) during 2014 and boy was it a massive list.  Her list put me to shame so much that I knew I had to change.  I’m a writer and I’m not even reading enough books.  How can I be a good writer if I’m not also reading, so as part of my 2015 New Year’s Resolutions I told myself I would keep a list of all the books I completed throughout the year.  I say completed because I have the habit of reading 3-5 books at the same time and never finishing them in a timely manner.  I had a discussion with my friend who informed me that even though I didn’t read as much as she did, I did watch more films than she did.

This got me to thinking.  Maybe I should also do a list for that (so I could at least have bragging rights in that area).  Now that 2015 is over I have a completed list of books that I’ve completed (as well as films and I ended up adding graphic novels and Legit, or theatre shows as well).  What ended up on my list is surprising but not in the way that I expected.

Growing up I read a lot of fiction from Stephen King, Clive Barker, Dean Koonz, and the literary classics from Mark Twain, Edger Allen Poe, and so on.  As I’ve gotten older my tastes have changed so much that of the sixteen books that I read last year only two are fiction – David Wong’s “Joe Dies at the End” and Clive Barker’s “Tortured Souls: The Legend of Primordium” (which is probably more of a novella that was offered on my Nook).  The rest were all non-fiction.

And the non-fiction books I read were not an eclectic offering either, they were all film related.  With the exception of Jeet Heer’s “In Love With Art: Francois Mouly’s Adventures in Comics With Art Spiegelman,” all the non-fiction books I read in 2015 were film related.  I read two books on acclaimed director David Cronenberg (Scott Colbert’s “Celluloid Flesh: The Films of David Cronenberg” and Mark Browning’s “David Cronenberg: Author or Film-Maker?”), several books by Luigi Cozzi on masters of Italian cinema (“Four Flies on Grey Velvet [Making of the Film]” and “Mario Bava – Master of Horror” and “Dario Argento and The Making of ‘Deep Red’, his collaboration with Federico Patrizi and Antonio Tentori), David J. Skal’s “The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror”, and Paul Wells’ “The Horror Genre: From Beelzebub to Blair Witch”.  Books I read based on actual films include the ones listed above and John Griffin’s “Trick ‘R Treat: Tales of Mayhem, Mystery & Mischief” and Carl Macek’s “Heavy Metal: The Movie” and the Stephen Jones compilation “Clive Barker’s A-Z of Horror: Official Companion to the Critically Acclaimed BBC Television Series” not to mention Peter D. Fleming’s “The George Miller/Romero Connection: Was Mad Max a Survivor of the Zombie Holocaust”.  These all happened to be related to the horror genre in some way (which came as a complete surprise to me).

The only books I read that weren’t associated with the horror genre were Gary Gerani’s “Top 100 Fantasy Movies” and Simon Braund’s “The Greatest Movies You’ll Never See: Unseen Masterpieces by the World’s Greatest Directors”.

It seems that having made this list I read too many books on the horror genre and not enough fiction books.  The great thing about having made this is that I now have evidence and a record in which is do better for 2016.  Reading one book a month should be something everyone can do and I just barely got to it with my sixteen for the whole year.  I can definitely do better this year, so I’ve decided that I need to read at least one non-fiction and one fiction book a month (so I should at least end up with twenty-four by the end of the year).  I also vow that at least six of those non-fiction books will have nothing to do with the film industry.  I have a lot of different interests so I need to expand my horizons a bit and become well-rounded.

I implore anyone who wants to set themselves a goal for becoming a well-rounded reader to try what I’m doing and keep a list of the books that you complete over the course of the whole year.  Add books to your list that you want to read that you’ve just never gotten around to and check them off as you finish them.  By the end of the year you’ll have accomplished something you probably never thought that you could.  Reading should be fun and exciting just like watching a movie and it’s something we should all do more often.

*****

In future segments I will discuss the graphic novels I’ve read, films I’ve seen, and Legit theatre productions so be on the lookout for those and feel free to send me suggestions of books I might like.  2016 is just starting and I have a lot of catching up to do.

"Rants & Ravings About Horror" - Week 16: “Giving a Little Love to the Anthology Film”

Week 16: “Giving a Little Love to the Anthology Film”

Like many horror fans we all have a love-hate relationship with the anthology film.  Films which are made up of shorter films which are sometimes interconnected but for the most part are unrelated and can stand on their own.  Since I generally like the genre I wanted to take a few moments to speak about them especially since they’ve come back in style with the popularity of the V/H/S and ABCs of Death franchises.

A lot of the times anthology films are a showcase for several directors to tackle short material as is the case with Tales From the Darkside: The Movie (1990), Two Evil Eyes (1991), Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) and more recently V/H/S 2 (2013).  I love the idea of letting directors of all walks of life contribute to a disturbing vision of horror.  Three…Extremes (2004) had three directors from all over the world contribute or the massive undertaking of The ABCs of Death (2013) which is probably the largest collaboration of directors from all over the world assembled with 26 in all.  It was not always like this though.

Anthology films were originally a way for established directors to be able to tell multiple stories like George A. Romero’s collaboration with Stephen King in Creepshow (1982).  The name Stephen King is also associated with the anthology Cat’s Eye (1985) and Creepshow 2 (1987) and even Quicksilver Highway (1997), which included a short story from Clive Barker.  Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath (1963) is a gothic classic that showcases some of the director’s best work as is Freddie Francis’ Tales from the Crypt (1972) and Roy Ward Baker’s Vault of Horror (1973).

Many times you just can’t beat a good anthology film that just wants to have fun like Grindhouse (2007),  Nightmares (1983)and 4bia (2008).  I love a great fun anthology which is why I’m a huge fan on Dan Curtis’ Trilogy of Terror (1975) and its sequel Trilogy of Terror II (1996) which were both made for TV films but transcended its meager TV trappings.  The same can be said for John Carpenter’s Body Bags (1993) and Terror Tract (2000).  These may not have been given the luxury of being able to go to the extremes (a hindrance of broadcast cable standards) but they make up for it with strong storytelling and great performances.

Sequels also play a hand with anthology films.  It’s a rare occurrence when an anthology gets a sequel but it does happen.  Creepshow 3 (2006) is an in name only infamous sequel to the popular King-Romero collaborations but there is also 3 Extremes II (2002), ABCs of Death 2 (2014), and V/H/S: Viral (2014) in addition to the ones previously mentioned.

For the independent filmmakers there are the two George A. Romero presents Deadtime Stories films (part 1 in 2009 and part 2 in 2011) in addition to Hi-8 (Horror Independent 8) (2013), in addition to a plethora more.  I love the spirit of the independent film maker and there are a lot of short film collections out there that help get the word out on rising talents (so be on the lookout for them).

I have a lot of guilty pleasure anthology films that not only include Grindhouse and V/H/S 2 but also Tales from the Hood (1995), Torture Garden (1967), Grim Prairie Tales (1990) and The Offspring (1987).  There are also those films I think are classics like Dead of Night (1945), Kwaidan (1964) and most recently the surprise hit Trick ‘r Treat (2008).

Anthology horror films are not an easy thing to succeed at.  There are more unsuccessful films then there are successful ones and unfortunately there are more that succeed on a small level  (meaning that maybe one out of all the other stories are any good) than on the whole.  We should not forget the contributions that this genre has in the horror genre and that without it we may not have had those few amazing displays of genius.  I’ve mentioned a lot of different films and hopefully there are a few that will have you searching them out.