RANTS & RAVINGS ABOUT HORROR – “2015 – A Year in Review…in Hell”

I would have loved to have said that 2015 was a great year for the horror genre, but sadly it was far from it.  2015 was a bad year for traditional horror films unless you were producer Jason Blum and the production costs for your films were so low that you couldn’t help but turn a profit.  Last year was a great year for non-horror, horror films which are all those films that have horror elements but would rather be action-horror (Jurassic World), animated-horror (Hotel Transylvania 2) or YA-horror (Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials) or comedy-horror (Goosebumps).  Remakes were shit and found footage films no one cared for (unless, oddly enough, your name is Shyamalan) and no one wanted to see sequels.  Here’s a play-by-play of how I saw 2015 in the world of horror. 

Jurassic World was the #1 grossing (action-)horror film with over $652.3 million domestically!  Some people loved the film but I thought it was mostly a rehash of the first two films done worse by two actors that had no on screen chemistry and the tired plot thread of putting stupid kids in danger (the plot of all the previous films).  Chris Pratt wasn’t given enough room to breathe like he did in Guardians of the Galaxy and the dinosaurs (which looked excellent in 3D) were the only reason the film wasn’t complete shit.  They should have stopped as The Lost World: Jurassic Park but now we are assured more braindead sequels to come.

 

Next up is Hotel Transylvania 2 (with $167.8 million domestically), which unfortunately I’ve not had the pleasure of seeing just yet.  I loved the first film and thought it was quite inventive but I didn’t hear much good about this film so I just skipped it.  That’s all that managed to gross over $100 million at the Box Office in 2015 which is a sad indicator of things yet to come over the course of the rest of the year.

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (with $81.7 million) was one of the few stand-outs of the year in my opinion as it took the adventure aspects of the original film and amped up the horror elements with its zombie-like carnage of terror.  I really enjoyed the first film and loved what they did with the sequel and hope that subsequent films are just as inventive with their horror elements.  Goosebumps ($79.3 million) did decent business but wasn’t a huge breakout film.  I must be one of the few people who have never read the books nor seen the original television series so I didn’t bother watching this film that looked like Jumanji with Jack Black.  

We finally get down to our first real horror film which is The Visit ($65.2 million) which was M. Night Shyamalan’s return to great form as he not only managed to craft a suspenseful found footage film but also made audiences believe that he wasn’t done yet as a capable film-maker.  I for one enjoy most all of his films but audiences have been left with a bad taste after several of his prior films.  Also, because he produced the film himself with his own money with a budget of only $5 million, this became one of the big success stories of the year.  It also happened to be one hell pretty damn good film as well.

Insidious: Chapter 3 ($52.2 million) and the remake of Poltergeist ($47. 4 million) were big disappoints for different reasons.  Insidious had a lot to live up to because of the success of the previous two films but since most of the cast were not returning and director James Wan jumped ship to go do the Furious 7 film, new director Leigh Whannell was going to have a lot to do in order to make audiences come back; unfortunately, only the die-hard fans showed up.  The film was still financially successful but a disappointment nevertheless.  Like most horror film remakes, there was no reason for Poltergeist other than it was a beloved film that hadn’t been given the remake treatment yet.  This film arrived D.O.A. despite the star power of Sam Rockwell and Rosemarie DeWitt.  I enjoyed Insidious but hated Poltergeist.

Next down on the list is the better than expected The Gift ($43.8 million) which is a character based thriller that had many twists and turns throughout.  With only a $5 million budget this did excellent business and played well with audiences throughout its run.  This is one of my favorites of the year.  A different kind of gift was on display with the holiday film Krampus ($42.5 million) which got mixed reviews from audiences expecting another Trick ‘R Treat from director Michael Dougherty.  This film didn’t make any waves and was unfortunately quickly forgetten despite the fact that I enjoyed it quite a bit.

The suspense thriller The Boy Next Door ($35.4 million) did really good business for a film whose production budget was a meager $4 million but so did producer Jason Blum’s other film Unfriended ($32.5 million) except the former is not as well remembered as the later.  Unfriended had a budget under $1 million and had one of the best profit gains of the year of any film.  I thought The Boy Next Door was effective yet highly forgettable and enjoyed the hell out of Unfriended when I saw it on the big screen in front of packed audience.

The most beautiful horror film of the year award goes to Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak ($31.1 million) but it’s gothic romance over horror vibe turned away many audiences.  Because of the budget of the film and the fact that this was built up to be one of the biggest horror films of the year, instead it became one of its biggest disappointments.  This is still one of my favorite films of the year that I believe time will shed a new light on for audiences.

Blum returned again with sequel Sinister 2 ($27.7 million) but this was a huge disappointment compared to the previous film and the hefty production budget of $10 million (high for a Blumhouse Production) means that this franchise is probably dead.  Another disappointment was the projected franchise starter The Last Witch Hunter ($27.4 million) which was one of the biggest box office duds of the year with a production budget of $90 million.  This was supposed to be a franchise starter and not a franchise killer.  I missed both of these last two films as I didn’t really care for the original Sinister film and Vin Diesel has starred in more crap films than good ones (i.e. Babylon A.D. and XXX) so I had no interest in his latest debacle (and neither did anyone else).

Another unneeded sequel arrives with The Women in Black 2: Angel of Death ($26.5 million).  Although an interesting concept the film should have been a stand-alone film rather than be forced to work within the confines of the original Woman in Black film.  Not a terrible film, but not a very memorable one either.  The same can be said for The Lazarus Effect ($25.8 million) which had a great cast and interesting concept that is blundered by being a CGI heavy slasher film in the third act.  Not a film worth seeking out as it borrows so much from the film Flatliners that it’s just better to go back and watch that film instead.

I might be a little biased since I come from the theatre world but I really enjoyed the low budget film The Gallows ($22.8 million) which was criticized not only for being a found footage film but also being predictable and unoriginal.  Unfortunately, it’s hard to be original with a found footage film as the market has been flooded with them but setting the film in the world of live theatre is why I liked it so much.  On a budget of only $100,000 this film was another huge financial success despite audience apathy.    This film was also produced by Blum as was Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension ($18.3 million) which is the lowest grossing film of the franchise.  Advertised as the final film, it was presented in 3D but was only given a moderate release because it was released simultaneously on VOD which is still highly controversial to most theater chains, so it didn’t get as wide a release as previous films in the franchise and kind of died quickly.  I loved seeing the film in 3D but it lacked the punch of previous films in the franchise which were suspenseful because of what audiences didn’t see rather than what they did.

Another high profile (action-)horror film to arrive D.O.A. was Seventh Son ($17.2 million) which had a $95 million price tag and nothing to show for it.  It wasn’t all that interesting of a film and was quickly ignored and forgotten.  

One of the most well received indie horror films It Follows ($14.7 million) almost didn’t get a theatrical release but when it did it found its audience.  The under $2 million production was a breath of fresh air from all the Hollywood horror films that just weren’t cutting it.  Like The Babadook a year before it, It Follows was the horror film that no horror fan should miss.  I loved the originality of the film and even though I didn’t think it was as good as The Babadook it was definitely one of the highlights of 2015.  The Green Inferno ($7.2 million) sat on a shelf for several years before finally finding release and unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to see it as yet. 

Victor Frankenstein ($5.8 million) was another high profile box office dud that found no love from audiences.  I rather liked the adventure-horror film that was more The Mummy (1999) and less Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994).  It was fun and exciting and had a great cast that really got the film that they were trying to make.  Not for the traditionalist, this version of the Frankenstein story owes more to Peter Cushing’s Victor Frankenstein from the Hammer franchise than from the book.

There are tons more films that were released last year but since I didn’t see any of them (yet) I can’t comment on them.  Instead, I’ll just list some of them with their domestic gross and keep in mind that many of these films received limited theatrical release at the same time as a VOD release.

*Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse ($3.7 million)

*What We Do in the Shadows ($3.5 million)

*The Vatican Tapes ($1.8 million)

*Goodnight Mommy ($1.2 million)

*Dark Places ($208,588)

*Maggie ($187,112)

*Cop Car ($132,552)

*Turbo Kid ($67,132)

*Dark Star: H.R. Giger’s World ($61, 044)

*Spring ($49,970)

*Knock, Knock ($36,336)

*The Nightmare ($28,281)

*Zombeavers ($14, 947)

*The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence) ($14, 562)

*The Hallow ($8,967)

*Hayride 2 ($2,571)

*L.A. Slasher ($2,421)

*REC 4: Apocalypse ($837)

Film Review: THE CASE OF THE WHITECHAPEL VAMPIRE (2002)

The Sir Arthur Conan Doyle character of Sherlock Holmes being in the public domain has allowed a wide range of film makers craft their own stories of the iconic character and to say any one version is a more realized version misses the point of having multiple different versions out there to choose from (there are three currently on the air on television and in film alone).  The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire (2002) features character actor Matt Frewer with the honor of putting on the iconic Holmes’s hat in a case that may involve the existence of the supernatural in the form of vampires. 

Holmes and his most trusted companion Dr. Watson (Kenneth Welsh) are called in to investigate the murder of a monk and by the two puncture marks on the neck it is believed that a vampire is responsible.  With more murders piling up fast Holmes and Watson must discover who the murderer is and for what reason before Holmes finds himself being framed as the culprit.

It’s hard to imagine Frewer as Holmes probably because he’s so miscast even for this made for TV film.  He displays none of the charisma of say Peter Cushing, Ronald Howard, Michael Caine, or Robert Downy, Jr. coming off very flat especially against Welsh as Watson, who is more interesting.  Luckily Welsh makes up for Frewer’s shortcomings and it doesn’t distract from the film too much.   In regular Holmes fashion there has to be a logical explanation for the vampire-style killings and he must find out what that is.

I will say that writer/director Rodney Gibbons does give the film a traditional Sherlock Holmes mystery look and feel which is unexpected considering that it is a TV movie.  It does look better than expected and is quite an entertaining mystery.  This is not something I can say for all other Holmes adaptations out there.  This being said this Holmes mystery is an easily digestible treat that won’t leave an aftertaste.

TOP 66 ZOMBIE FILMS OF ALL TIME (Part 2)

PART 2: No.# 66-61

One of the biggest reasons I wanted to conduct my own list of Top 66 Zombie films is the fact that the article in SFX Magazine Special Zombies kept putting films that they didn’t even like at the bottom of the list.  This is a huge travesty as there have been hundreds of zombie films produced and not one zombie film on that UK magazine’s list they should have been ashamed of.  On my list I am not ashamed of any of them.  I’ve seen a whole lot of bad zombie films (ZOMBIE LAKE and FLESH EATER come immediately to mind) but despite the questionable quality of some of the films on my list (and I’m sure you dear zombie lovers won’t agree with all my choices nor their placement on my list) they are all entertaining and films that I would gladly include in my video collection.

66. JUNK (2000)

This zombie splatter fest is by no means a great film but it is one of the most entertaining Japanese zombie films I’ve ever seen.  The Japanese have a long standing tradition of producing some of the most outrageous fantasy and horror films which is why they’ve crossed over to other countries so easily despite the fact that they are many times subtitled (older films were dubbed and even some of these are still quite entertaining).  Jewel thieves run afoul when they enter a warehouse infested with zombies.  That’s the gist of it.  If played straight this would indeed have been an inept film but director Atsushi Muroga crafts one hell of a manic zombie film on override.  With a meager budget (that probably is only a tenth of the catering budget for a film like ZOMBIELAND) this film may be exactly like what its title says but there is way too much fun to be overlooked by any true zombie fan.

65. SHOCK WAVES (1977)

I’m going to admit it here for the very first time but I didn’t see this film for the first time until earlier this year.  It’s one of those Nazi-zombie films that had been on my list for years but I just never got around or the chance to see.  Thanks to Netflix I was finally able to see the film.  Although nowhere near all entertaining as DEAD SNOW, this is the second best Nazi-zombie film ever made.  This film gets added points for having Peter Cushing as an SS Commander.   Brooke Adams anchors this film which could have ended up like the infamous ZOMBIE LAKE (a zombie film that I hope you’ve managed to avoid thus far).  Although a little slow at times the film excels because of its uncompromising atmosphere of dread and the location (which is a huge plus).

64. PSYCHOMANIA (1973)

Whoever said dying wasn’t any fun hasn’t seen this film PSYCHOMANIA about a gang of bikers who commit suicide in order to live forever.  By far one of the most unusual films on the list but also one of the most entertaining as the film revels in the joy and advantages of life after death.  Recently I got to view a remastered version of the film (as opposed to the bargain bin version that’s been available for years) and the film looks and sounds better than I’ve ever seen (so go out and get this version and throw away those old “Good Times” videos).  This may not be the best example of a traditional zombie film but it is one of the best variations and one that should not be missed.

63. RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD PART 3 (1993)

I have to admit that I actually enjoy this film more than the original and the only reason why it doesn’t rank higher is that the original was a huge ground breaking film for the genre as it opened the possibilities of the genre and what it could be instead of relying completely on the mythos created by George A. Romero and his films.  With this film we get a love story with some complications.  It retains the rock ‘n roll aesthetics of the original film but adds another dimension with the love story.  It also was one of Melinda Clarke’s first major roles (after a role in the daytime soap DAYS OF OUR LIVES) and what a role it was.  As the doomed Julie she oozes sexuality despite the fact that she becomes a zombie with an addiction to pain.  Director Brian Yuzna who had a hand with BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR (1990), THE DENTIST (1996) and BENEATH STILL WATERS (2005), to name a few, crafted a zombie film that was both entertaining and had enough gore and horror to satisfy the most jaded zombie fan.

62. ZOMBIELAND (2009)

Anyone who has read any of my previous articles will know that I am not a fan of this film.  I may not be a fan but I will admit 100% that it has one of the best opening 20 minutes of any zombie film.  It also has an amazing cast that do an excellent job with the material.  By beef with the film has always been that it loses its way halfway in and never recovers.  The moment when the characters get to their final destination and then sit around Bill Murray’s house before ultimately ending up at the amusement park at night goes against character and everything that the film set up in the first half.  Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) are depicted as extremely smart and clever women who out think the men at every point in the film until they go against everything established in the beginning and go to the amusement park at night and alone completely oblivious of the fact that they are in the midst of a zombie apocalypse.  This is just lazy screenwriting in order for the film to have a big ending.  Until this third act of the film, ZOMBIELAND is an excellent zombie comedy.

61. George A. Romero’s DIARY OF THE DEAD (2007)

Of all the Romero zombie films this one ranks the lowest on the list (despite the fact that most of them are on the list).  The only reason why this film ranks so low is that it does lay the themes and social commentary on thick which is not how Romero has done this in the past.  Despite this Romero was taking a huge chance with a smaller film (and smaller budget) and a relative cast of unknowns and going back to the beginning of his zombie nightmare to tell a new story.  It also suffers because it was done in the style of “real” and/or “found” footage and it seemed as though it was jumping on the popular trend made prevalent through such films as BEHIND THE MASK: THE RISE OF LESLIE VERNON (2006), THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999), and CLOVERFIELD (2008), to name a few.  This is still a strong piece of zombie cinema which is light years better than most films thus far produced.

There is the bottom six films on the list.  If you’ve not seen them then I hope my little musings will now give you a reason to give them a try.  Feel free to comment and give me your opinions about some of these films that I’ve mentioned.