Film Review: WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS (2014)

In general, I don’t particularly care for vampire films.  There are so few that actually have something to say and they’re filled with clichés and things that you’ve seen time and time again and even if the Twilight franchise has watered down their image there are just as many 30 Days of Night films that try to go in the complete opposite way.  Vampire comedies, in my opinion, fit even below the lowest of my expectations which is why it has taken me so long to get around to What We Do In The Shadows (2014).  I had zero interest in this film but due to the overwhelming great critical response to the film I decided to give it a chance and boy am I glad I did. 

The film follows three vampire flat mates – Vladislav, Viago, and Deacon (Jermaine Clement, Taika Waititi, and Jonny Brugh, respectfully) whose lives are turned upside down when they decide to allow a film crew to film their lives as they prepare for the vampire party of the century.  The three vampires are trapped in their own time from when they were turned.  Living in the modern era has left them lost in time, but salvation comes in the form of a newly turned vampire who is up with the modern era but needs a little help with being a good vampire.  

The film crew is given full access to everything and get to see and experience the day to day lives of vampires including their drinking habits, their animosity towards werewolves, and how they deal with vampire hunters.  For a film like this it covers a lot of ground while still being very character driven and funny at the same time.

What makes the film so successful is that the comedy is all character based and not bad jokes sprinkled throughout.  This film could have become a complete parody of itself but writer/directors Clement and Waititi do a great job grounding the film in the zany world of vampires.  Having the style of the film as a documentary goes a long way in allowing the audience to take the film seriously even though it is a comedy.  

I ended up enjoying this film immensely as the story was easy to follow yet presented an almost “traditional” vampire story in a non-traditional way.  It had me entertained from beginning to end and even had some impressive visual FX to go with the story.  This film is one I highly recommend for both comedy and horror fans.

Film Review: HELL BABY (2013)

A long time has passed since Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon’s influential police spoof-comedy Reno 911! ended its run in 2009.  It hasn’t been long enough for the two to come up with any new ideas as can be seen in their latest film Hell Baby (2013) which is part spoof-comedy and part genuine gross-out horror-comedy that doesn’t mix either well.  Garant and Lennon both write and direct this film.

Jack and Vanessa (Rob Corddry and Leslie Bibb, respectfully) are an expecting couple who move in a predominantly African American neighborhood in the haunted house that everyone crosses the street to avoid except for, of course, their neighbor F’resnel  (Keegan-Michael Key) who more or less lives in the crawl spaces of the house.  It’s not even one night before Jack and Vanessa start to experience strange things in the house and Vanessa finds herself possessed and ready to give birth to a baby from Hell.  When Jack and Vanessa need help they contact Father Sebastian and Father Padrigo (Garant and Lennon, respectfully) who come in to try to save Vanessa and her unborn child before it is too late.

Corddry plays it straight whereas everyone else knows they’re in a spoof film as everything that can go wrong does…to Corddry that is.  This could actually have been a very funny movie in a Tom Hanks in The Money Pit kind of way if not for the extreme over reliance on gore FX and gross out humor that is repetitive and goes on for too long.  Both gross out humor and gore can be used to great effect (such as in Stand by Me and American Pie or Shaun of the Dead) but in this film it is over used to the point of being excessive and no longer funny which probably wouldn’t have been too bad but all the jokes fall flat or are just bad.  Whereas I loved this type of humor in the thirty minute episodes of Reno 911! it is ineffective here.

The always funny Key is wasted in this film as he has humorous “bits” are nothing on the same level as his own show Key & Peele.  One good thing about the film is the high production values and the art direction which are better than anything Garant and Thomas had on the Reno 911 show or even the movie version.  It’s just a shame that it was all wasted on this film.  The two seem like they want to do a straight up comedy-horror film but it ends up crashing under the weight of being a spoof film and fails completely in both.

2013: FIRST QUARTER BOX OFFICE SMACK DOWN!

As usual with the first quarter of the year the Box Office sees a healthy amount of genre releases that tend to disappear just before summer Hollywood Block Buster time.  This year has had a couple of Box Office champs with the success of Mama and the Paranormal Activity spoof A Haunted House as well as the rom-zom-com Warm Bodies.  Early opening weekend success for Texas Chainsaw 3D did not translate to a complete success story nor did it bold well for Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (although this film has done very well in the International market).  Despite the fact that Dark Skies and The Last Exorcism Part II underperformed they too had a little success if you take into account their meager production costs ($3.5 and $5 million, respectfully  ).  On the limited release front (where many of the films had a VOD release before a limited theatrical release) there was the success of John Dies at the End, Room 237, The Monk, and The ABC’s of Death.  There are also a couple of titles that defy explanation which includes Midget Zombie Takeover (with a production budget of only $2,000!) and Eddie the Sleepwalking Cannibal.  Surprisingly horror hasn’t disappeared yet from the Box Office as the success of the remake of Evil Dead and the re-release of Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park 3D so maybe there’s more of the summer horizon than we think.  Below is a list of the Box Office performance of this year’s film (figures gathered from Box Office Mojo – www.boxofficemojo.com).

1. MAMA - $71.6 MILLION

2. WARM BODIES - $65.7 MILLION

3. HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS - $55.5 MILLION

4. A HAUNTED HOUSE - $40.04 MILLION

5. EVIL DEAD - *$35.2 MILLION

6. TEXAS CHAINSAW 3D - $34.3 MILLION

7. JURASSIC PARK 3D - *$25.5 MILLION

8. DARK SKIES - $17.2 MILLION

9. THE LAST EXORCISM PART II - *$15.2 MILLION

10. STOKER - *$1.7 MILLION

11. JOHN DIES AT THE END - $141,951

12. ROOM 237 - *$113,032

13. THE ABC’S OF DEATH - $21,832

14. THE SORCERER & THE WHITE SNAKE - $18,759

15. THE MONK - *$13,472

16. MIDGET ZOMBIE TAKEOVER - $6,251

17. EDDIE THE SLEEPWALKING CANNIBAL - $1,294

18. STORAGE 24 - $72

Web Series Reviews: The Lumber Baron of Jasper County – Web Series Season One

The following is not horror related but is from one of Georgia's most respected indie horror film makers - Dave R. Watkins - who decided to show his more comedic side.

Not being the type of person to sit down and watch a web series I was only interested in this newest web series “The Lumber Baron of Jasper County” because it was produced in Georgia and starred several known actors in the Georgia indie film community.  The first season of the series (eight regular episodes with a Halloween Special) is now on Blip (www.blip.tv) at http://blip.tv/lumberbaron.  The series is created by Dave R. Watkins and Michael D. Friedman and concerns the misadventures of The Lumber Baron (Watkins) and Ashley (Candace Mabry) when The Lumber Baron hires his fallen from Wall Street cousin Mike (Grant Garlinghouse) to help modernize the lumber business.  Mike’s changes don’t always go so well especially when it comes to Pete (Friedman), the yard manager, and the colorful customers that visit the business on a day to day basis.  Also making things more interesting is the fact that “The Lumber Baron” is a split personality of real owner of the lumber yard Dave.  The “Lumber Baron” was originally a character Dave used to promote the lumber yard and business but now it seems that the Baron has taken over Dave completely.

Most of the first season of episodes is written by Watkins but co-writers Friedman and Nathan Hill contribute greatly to the series’ overall off-beat nature.  One of the show’s greatest strengths is the relationships between characters.  As Dave fights through his personality conflicts with “The Lumber Baron” he misses out on the fact that Ashley has fallen in love with him.  Ashley is all heart except to Mike, the person she believes came in and stole her promotion so she is constantly undermining his authority and Mike has his own problems just trying to fit in at the lumber yard with all the colorful characters that he didn’t have to deal with when he was in New York working on Wall Street.  And just why did Mike leave Wall Street to begin with?  These questions and many more add a level of realism to the characters that could have easily fallen into caricature if handled in the wrong way but Watkins and his writers and especially the actors manage to always ground the series by the personal issues that each of the core characters have to deal with. 

Each episode comes in at just under ten minutes so they are a breeze to watch in just one seating.  Knowing this, Watkins and company created a companion web series to run along the main one called “Ask the Baron”, which is an open forum for customers and fans of the Lumber Baron to go online and ask him questions about lumber.  This is made even more entertaining by the fact that The Lumber Baron and Ashley are doing this behind Mike’s back.  These smaller webisodes allow fans of the series to get a glimpse at the people who shop at the lumber yard.

The web series (both of them) are quite entertaining and despite some occasional lighting issues (especially in outdoor scenes) the series is an extremely competent endeavor that demonstrates that Georgia indie filmmakers have more to offer than just more horror films and web series (which there is no end of).  Also of note is the original music by Markleford Friedman which gives the series a very surreal ambiance that elevates the tone and mood of the series.

Dave R. Watkins is best known for his starring roles in indie feature films Jack O’Lantern (2004) and Stragglers (2004), which he also wrote and directed, and for producing another series “Witch Hunters Extraordinaire” (2002) as well as countless other short films.  Candace Mabry is no stranger to web series as she had a role in “The Rising Sun” (2009) and “Let Us In” (2011).  She is best known for her roles in Return of the Jackalope (2006) and Undocumented Executive (2011) but has starred in numerous short films.  Grant Garlinghouse is a regular of Watkins’ films having starred in “Witch Hunters Extraordinaire”, Return of the Jackalope, and the short "Dead Vengeance" (2009).