Tenebre (1982)

Being Film #12 in Hail Horror 4. This review is part of Kevin J. Olsen's Italian Horror Blog-a-thon at Hugo Stiglitz Makes a Movie.

Although he's made several in the years since, TENEBRAE (or TENEBRE) marks the last of Dario Argento's run of truly great giallo films, arguably starting with his debut THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE in 1970. Filled with Argento's common themes of sexual confusion, identity and vision, lushly and luridly photographed, and boasting a stellar soundtrack by 3/4 of the members of Goblin, who scored Argento's last two films (DEEP RED and SUSPIRIA) as well as George A. Romero's classic DAWN OF THE DEAD, TENEBRAE is a grisly but stylish film, serving as a great introduction to all of Argento's strengths as a filmmaker.

Peter Neal is a murder/mystery writer on his way to Rome to promote his latest book Tenebrae. Within two hours of his arrival a young woman, caught shoplifting his novel earlier, is found savagely murdered in her apartment, her body slashed and pages from the novel shoved in her mouth. It's a shocking scene, brightly lit and pulsing with the prog-rock theme by Goblin. Only the killer's hands are seen, a calling card of Argento's films:

Seems like the film at this point is going to be pretty cut and dried - the author, under suspicion of murder has to clear his own name by finding the serial killer using his books as a template. Ah, but you see, this is a Dario Argento film, and soon after the authorities (in another great quirk, Argento's investigators are a man and woman beautiful and suave, who bicker like they've seen one too many Tracy and Hepburn films) question Peter and have a brief chase when he receives a threatening call from the suspected killer, we get treated to a crazy sequence that begins with crazed screaming, shadows on a wall, and another Argento calling card: an extreme close-up of an object, this time a series of pills and a glass of water, followed by a scene seemingly cut from a different movie altogether.

A young woman teases a bunch of young, sexually inexperienced boys boys at the beach. The music is dreamlike, and the fact that everyone's in white tells you something's amiss. This is classic Argento, playing with youth and sexuality in a way the emphasizes confusion and ambiguity. We see the woman, watch her eyes hungry as she pulls her shirt down and tempts the boys, but we never see the boy's faces - they're either shot from behind or cut off at the neck. The dream quality is shattered when one of the boys slaps the woman in the face, and pays for his crime when he is held down as she savagely kicks him and then forces him to eat her shiny candy-apple red heel:

Back in the present the violence begins to erupt again: After a series of beautifully long tracking shots the killer strikes again, murdering a young journalist and her lesbian lover. Mysterious letters are appearing under Peter's door, which may or may not be connected to the murders. As Peter and his assistant Anne (Argento regular Daria Nicolodi) deal with the killer, he's also dealing with the press, all whom have varying negative views on Neal's work. Argento uses these moments to pose questions on the nature of deviancy what we identify as "normal" - for a film that takes a wicked glee in its murder set-pieces, there's a lot of subtexts running through TENEBRAE.

In the end, though, it isn't the themes and subtexts that keep TENEBRAE so fresh over 25 years alter - it's the sheer style and inventiveness on display. There are some beautiful shots, as when one young victim being chased my a mad dog wanders by a pool, her reflection captured in the water. Or the slow, pulsing tracking shots, whether it's following a victim or giving us the killer's POV. Or the extreme close-ups: one of a razor cracking a lightbulb, another of the same razor being run under running water, the blood slowly washing from it. Or even the composition of an empty room, a light bulb, and an open door:

The action ramps up as discoveries are made, even as more and more people wind up dead, including Peter's agent played wonderfully by John Saxon, who has a wacky scene early in the film concerning his love for his new hat. Argento keeps the pace tense, and although there are a few clues to give away what's actually happening, TENEBRAE manages to keep you guessing with enough twists and turns to make this a great thriller as well as a straight-up horror. The color red is used time and again, in the heels of the dream woman, the wrapping of a mysterious package sent to Peter's ex-wife, in Rome for reasons of her own. Vision plays a huge role in the film: eyes are constantly being filmed close up, the killer takes pictures of his victims, and an important clue is obscured by the trauma one man suffers after witnessing one of the brutal murders (this one an axe to the head).

When we get to the end almost everyone is dead, the meaning of the dream images comes clear, and nothing is what we thought it was going to be. While not my favorite of his giallo films (that would go to DEEP RED), TENEBRAE is an excellent companion piece to that film, and a great modern thriller.

All in a day's work for Mr. Dario Argento.

Mr. Frost (1990)

Being Film #11 in Hail Horror 4. Thanks to Jason (formerly of Your Theory is Crazy) for the recommendation.

Back when I was a broke post-college graduate living in downtown Albany, I engaged in a film education event with my friend Jason, said "event" being nothing more than introducing films the other hadn't seen but that, in our infinite 20-something year old wisdom, deemed excellent. For the life of me I can't recall what film I might have recommended (probably something old...Jason, if you're reading this and remember I'd love to know), but I distinctly recall the two films Jason recommended to me: RAPA NUI, the Easter Island romantic adventure, and MR. FROST, a film whose concept seemed right up my alley but which, alas, was no longer in print. We watched RAPA NUI (decent) and never got to MR. FROST.

Fast-forward 12-13 years, and thanks to the power of Netflix's Watch Now, my fervent dreams of finally seeing MR. FROST were about to come true.

Jeff Goldblum plays the title character, a quirky gentleman living on some palatial estate (the movie, a joint France/UK production, never establishes a location; at times it looks like France, England, and inexplicably in one scene Brooklyn) when he's visited by Detective Detweiler (played by Alan Bates), there to question him about a story - two car thieves broke into his house only to run away when they discover a dead body in the vehicle. Far from protesting, Mr. Frost divulges that not only was there a body in the car, but he was just in the process of burying it next to over a dozen other victims when the detective started up the driveway. Off to the nut house Mr. Frost willingly goes, where he refuses to speak for two years.

Cut to the present, and he's shipped to a new hospital where he meets Doctor Day, the sexy (in a 1990 kinda way) female psychiatrist played by Kathy Baker. It's only to Day that Mr. Frost will speak, and he confides to her that he is, in fact, the Devil - Old Scratch himself. Seems the Devil pines for the days where the battle between Good and Evil was a little more clear-cut before the advent of science and psychology, and he's here now to prove that the rational beliefs of the modern world can't override the ancient aethetic of Pure, 100% Grade-A Evil, and he'll prove it - by forcing her to murder him.

On paper it sounds really cool - a great tug-of-war on the nature of Good vs. Evil, Science vs. Faith...something like a metaphysical David Mamet film. In fact, how cool would this have played out if written/directed by Mamet, and starring his HOUSE OF GAMES alums Joe Mantegna and Lindsay Crouse? Alas, despite my enjoyment of all things Goldblum, MR. FROST plays a lot like a Lifetime Movie of the Week. There are a few creepy moments: Frost holds a weird power over portions of the hospital's inhabitants, including members of the staff, and they follow him with a wordless devotion that's genuinely unsettling. There's also a quick dream sequence where Goldblum does a bait-and-switch that's a lot of fun.

But all too often we get really bad lighting (in some places the film's so dark you can't make heads or tails of what's going on), bad transitions, and a few unintentionally funny scenes. Alan Bates is kind of wasted as the disgraced detective looking to end Frost's terror, and I can't help but think of Kathy Baker as a television actress, even when she's delightful in films like EDWARD SCISSORHANDS. In the end I think this is a case of something my 18-year old self would have loved just for the subject matter, but the 36-year old has found this subject matter handled much better elsewhere by now.

NOTE: I'm serious about the Goldblum thing: immediately after this film he did VIBES with Peter Falk and Cyndi Lauper, EARTH GIRLS ARE EASY with future wife (at the time) Genna Davis, and the sublime THE TALL GUY - all films I have no problem saying I enjoyed. And does anyone remember that weird cop show RAINES he did a year or so ago? Man I liked that...

2ND NOTE: Weird coincidence? I was searching through the old Interwebs, and it turns out Starz is using Mister Frost in their Instant Viewing advertising. Check it out:

Grace (2009)

Being Film #10 in Hail Horror 4

Being a parent means dealing with dozens of different things a day. It's confusing, ecstatic, maddening - sometimes all at once. All in the name of that tiny little life you're now responsible for. GRACE, a disturbing little horror film from Paul Solet preys on those feelings - I cringed with the weighted memories of my son at that age during some of the more graphics moments - but the film takes that feeling of being a parent further - it tries to say something about feminism, veganism, and alternative lifestyles, all while telling a gruesome story about the lengths a mother will go to for her baby. But while multi-taking and being able to handle a dozen things at once is a necessity for any parent, in a film - especially a horror film, it can be more than a bit distracting.

Madeline is a modern, liberal woman, finally pregnant with her first child. The beginning of the movie is filled with flashes of butchered cows cut next to her pouring soy milk. She and her husband Michael and looking into having their child's birth done naturally, with a mid-wife. All this goes against the wishes of her slightly off-kilter mother-in-law Vivian, would like nothing better than to have Madeline in the care of her own doctor. Both worlds collide when after a car accident that leaves both Michael and the unborn baby dead. Madeline decides to carry the baby to term anyway, and after a traumatic birth the baby girl indeed appears stillborn until she miraculously revives in Madeline's arms. "Grace," Madeline names her.

It's soon apparent things aren't normal with Grace. She has an odd odor, and attracts flies like rotted meat. It's gets worse than that, though. Grace begins to get weak and displays bloody rashes along her body. She won't eat anything - except the blood of her mother.

And there you go. Madeline tries everything, including the blood from packaged steaks and other, more brutal alternatives, but Grace wants her mommy. Literally.

The problem is that Grace the baby knows exactly what she wants, but GRACE the film is a little less sure of itself. It wants to say things about alternative medicine, about veganism and animal cruelty, and the bonds between parents and their children, but the way it goes about doing all these things is haphazard and clumsy, often a blaring news piece on television or a quick comment made in conversation. And when the focus is on the characters, they often feel like quirky sketches instead of real people with bonds to one another. If GRACE is effective at all, it comes from the small monstrous moments between Madeline and Grace. Solet, expanding his short film of the same name, reaches into the "Dead Baby" taboo bag and dumps its contents throughout the movie. Breast feeding scenes are particularly squeamish...

It all ends pretty much as you'd expect it to - there's a fairly predictable "twist" ending and a fair amount of violence, although it's somewhat surprising in where it comes from. GRACE feels very much like an expanded short film, padded out with a lot of half-baked ideas that don't come full circle. Somewhere in all of this is a joke about comparing the film to thin, watery skim milk as opposed to rich, robust and healthy breast milk. But I'm too tired beat by this film to look for it. Check it out if the concept interests you. Otherwise, I'd skip GRACE.

Phantasm II (1988)

Being Film #9 in Hail Horror 4

It almost took a decade, but somehow the planets aligned, money was found, and Don Coscarelli brought the twisted horror of the Tall Man back for PHANTASM II. In large part thanks to the financial successes of 80s horror franchises like FRIDAY THE 13TH and NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET Universal decided to foot the bill, betting on the iconography of Angus Scrimm's Tall Man and his nefarious metal spheres to cash in at the box office.

So PHANTASM sports a larger budget, meaning we get to see some spiffy effects, like what's finally underneath the hoods of the menacing dwarfs (turns out, some great animatronic demon faces) and some pretty spectacular explosions. All the key players from the first one (reviewed here) come back, with the exception of Jodi (who died) and Mike, who perhaps at the studio's urging is now played by James LeGros, who's not bad at all, but still feels a little off, especially when paired against Reggie Bannister, who's back and better than ever as Reggie, the ex-ice cream truck driver turned ass-kicking, flannel wearing sidekick.

If the above sounds a little more like an action picture than a horror movie, that's kind of how I felt about PHANTASM II. It's not a bad sequel by any stretch of the imagination, but it definitely plays up the ass-kicking and downplays the horror a bit. The movie picks up immediately where the first one ends - with the Tall Man breaking through the closet door and grabbing Mike. Reggie runs upstairs to save him, and is confronted by a horde of the evil imps. Reggie blows up the house, and Mike spends the next decade in a mental institution. When he's released, he finds Reggie and together they begin the long journey to revenge, intent on tracking down and ending the Tall Man's evil plans, which seem to consist of raiding the cemeteries of town along the Northwest, turning the bodies into more evil dwarfs which are then shipped back to the Tall Man's home planet, or something like that.

Really, the whole PHANTASM series gets points for being so completely out there in terms of story that at times you don't know what the heck you're watching. You have action, horror, science fiction, comedy...if I had to make a comparison it would be to Sam Raimi's EVIL DEAD series (Raimi and Coscarelli know each other, having come up around the same time), specifically ARMY OF DARKNESS. Reggie is essentially the Ash character, even going to far as to engage in a wicked chainsaw battle with one of the Tall Man's minions. That's not the only homage to Raimi - there's a scene where Mike and Liz, a young woman sharing a telepathic link and prophetic dreams of the Tall Man with Mike, are chased by a new golden sphere that can break through doors, and basically mimics the door smashing scene in EVIL DEAD 2. On the more comical side, take a look at a another scene where one of the Tall Man's minions is bagging a well-known set of ashes:

All nice, sly touches in an engaging film, but the real fun comes from watching Angus Scrimm own the screen whenever he's on. There's always been something about the Tall Man that frightened me as a kid - Scrimm's features and imposing height bring to mind Boris Karloff in some of his more sadistic roles like in BEDLAM or THE BODY SNATCHER. You don't know anything about him - his history, his motives...only that he seems to know what's inside your head. There's a great moment in PHANTASM II where he confronts a drunk priest hiding in the mortuary. The priest is making the sign of the cross as he passes row upon row of interred caskets when he turns to see the Tall Man:

"They don't need your prayers," he says, right before he hangs the priest by the rosary he wears around his neck. The spheres are back as well, and this being the 80s, they're imbued with some new attachments like circular saws, blowtorches and, yes, laser beams. All of which pale when compared to one nasty little bugger that manages to burrow inside one poor clod, traveling up his torso and coming out (partially) through his mouth.

All in all a fun time, not too serious and retaining all the wackiness you'd come to expect from Coscarelli. It's amazing that PHANTASM lasted through four films with the same creative team, a rarity for a horror franchise, and I think that makes for a really fun time. Don't go in looking for real scares - PHANTASM II is more of a sit down with friends and laugh and high-five each other during all the cool parts.

Of which there are many.

Martyrs (2008)

Being Film #8 in Hail Horror 4

NOTE: MARTYRS is a film that works best if you go in completely fresh. So I'm going to keep things as brief and spoiler-free as possible. The best thing to do is just stop reading this review, check out the film, and come back, provided you have the stomach for it. The movie, that is...I'm sure my review is safe.

When it comes to horror films, there are those that make you scream and laugh at the same time, and when you leave the theater you have a smile on your face. It may have grossed you out, but it was all in good fun. There are plenty of good, scary films like that, and that's perfectly okay. But there's another type of horror film, one that creeps under your skin and festers, never really going away, making you scratch and tear at your skin because it's just so unsettling.

MARTYRS is a lot like that. It deals with some pretty disturbing subject matter, a brilliant jewel of a film that constantly keeps you off balance, working as an outright horrific story, a crazed thriller, and a meditation on guilt, vengeance, and enlightenment. It's also one of the most brutal films I've ever seen, making each act of violence so gut-churning the last thing you're going to want to do is laugh.

The movie opens with a young girl, Lucie, escaping from an abandoned building where she's been chained, starved, and judging from her appearance, physically abused as well. Director Pascal Laugier immediately puts you right in the face of the unpleasantness, giving MARTYRS a very gritty but professional realism, never shying away from Lucie's abject fear as she runs half naked through the deserted industrial section where she was being held.

Once found she's cared for in an orphanage where, despite everyone's best efforts, she can't quite adjust after her horrible experience, the details of which are not revealed. She does make friends with Anna, a sweet girl who shortly becomes her inseparable twin. Through Anna we begin to see that the lingering effects of Lucie's imprisonment might be far worse than anyone thought. Something seems to be stalking her, something that has a purpose...

From there MARTYRS jumps head 15 years, and MARTYRS really begins, as we see what's become of Lucie and Anna. It's hard to say much more than that. The movie deals with Lucie's guilt and anger over what happened to her, and Anna's eventual discovery of what exactly did happen, and why. Where the film ultimately goes is a complete 180 from where you think it'll go, and it's a ton of credit to Laugier, who not only directed but wrote the film, and refuses to take any shortcuts in the story. When he kills someone in this film it is horrible, even when it seems entirely justified based on the mechanics of the story. There's no cheering as someone gets their comeuppance, Laugier wants you see the terrible impact of death, which in turn affects the latter part of the story where things begin to get truly weird.

Everything in MARTYRS has a purpose, and Laugier pays as much attention to the development of Lucie and Anna as he does to the set pieces and gore. Although, that's a pretty easy thing to do when you have some amazing actresses in the roles, and Mylène Jampanoï as Lucie and Morjana Alaoui as Anna are both revelations in the film. They carry the film on their shoulders, and I'd be hard pressed to think of a film, horror or otherwise, that asks for more from its actresses.

To continue talking about MARTYRS would be to risk giving too much away, and this is a film that works best going in without knowing too much of what you're getting into. Not for the squeamish, I'll just end by saying that this is an excellent film, well-crafted, well-acted, and terrifying to boot. Not content to leave when the credits roll, MARTYRS lingers under your skin for a long time, and is without a doubt one of the scariest and best horror films I've seen in a long time.