Film Phreak

[filmphreak]

Snowflake

In the tonal vein of Guy Ritchie or Quentin Tarantino, Germany’s SNOWFLAKE brings an ensemble of insanity to the viewer. It channels multiple plotlines in a hyper-stylish what-the-fuck of filmmaking. It does a little reality bending, too, going meta with the first oddball story it introduces.

Opening with a Tarantino-esque argument in an eatery about the quality of its kabobs, it veers briskly into a stacked reality that would make Marc Forster or Peter Weir proud.The pair steals a car and discovers a screenplay that features them and their exploits exactly, right down to exact quotes of their kabob argument.

They track down the amateur writer who wrote the screenplay and a truly harrowing bit of dental torture (eat your heart out, Marathon Man) brings them no closure or explanation. The scene lends a nice touch DARK comedy. (Both the meta and the dark comedy themes are extended later with hired killers who offer extra services like snappy one-liners when the target is taken out.)

Things START to get trippy when, upon flipping further through the screenplay, they discover the conversation they are having at that very moment - as well as words and events yet to come. Which freaks them out.

As do the guys in the pig and chicken masks.

Another plot, less absurdist - for truly the subplot about criminals and screenplay is every bit of that - revolves around a young woman hellbent on revenge. Its dovetailing with the tale of the omniscient script makes for a striking textural blend. It also brings a grimmer horror-exploitation angle that finds its way under the skin, where it cohabits with that dental torture sequence.

A third subplot bends the genres involved here to the breaking point. It introduces a superhero/vigilante to the mix. Don’t think in terms of a big Hollywood CGI spectacle. But, a superhero nonetheless.

Along with winding all these ideas around each other, the film also folds back on itself, revisiting points in time but from different angles or with new information provided. It very effectively channels the classic Tarantino mode of storytelling. (I realize Tarantino doesn’t have a monopoly on this, but SNOWFLAKE has a comparable verve.)

[Summoning his best infomercial announcer voice, the reviewer says:] If this isn’t enough of a collage, there’s still more! We’ll also throw in a robot character!

He looks human so don’t get your hopes up for something shiny and metallic. But still. A robot.

And then there’s Snowflake herself. There’s a scene of her singing on-stage in an angel’s outfit while violence unfolds in the audience (I wanna say, but don’t quote me, her introductory sequence) ... well, let’s just say it’s packing some striking audio-visual expression.

And I haven’t even mentioned the other characters and details in orbit around this already complex nucleus of a story. There’s a lot going on here. The diversity doesn’t stop - clearly - with the array of characters. Both crime and horror violence share screen time with the film’s sense of humor, the blood and chuckles frequently overlapping, These things coexist with some action movie elements. The eclectic ensemble of plots and people and textures is an embarrassment of riches.

SNOWFLAKE knows how to navigate around its maze of meta mind-fuckery. It ably keeps the viewer on its toes and in suspense rather than confused and befuddled. It takes advantage of its layer-on-layer-on-layer approach, enhancing the story, its subtexts and the character dynamics with the increased potential for interactions inherent in the film’s mondo-dimensional structure.

And I still haven’t shined a light all the way to the bottom of the rabbit hole.

[filmphreak]

Christmas Blood

Killer Santa’s been done to death. I run the risk of hypocrisy by saying so. (I’m a long-time slasher and horror fan and such genre territory is infamous for its redundancy.) Still, I don’t think I’m wrong.

And don’t blame by fanboyish love for 1980′s Christmas Evil, which I reckon as the greatest Christmas horror movie, and not just the greatest psycho Santa horror movie. There are, in fact, non Santa related Xmas fright flicks.

The issues with Norway’s CHRISTMAS BLOOD are multiple. Even a tired subgenre like Axe-Wielding Kris Kringle could have been executed with a tad more vivacity than this. I can’t say this doesn’t appear to be a passion project - it’s clearly more than crass derivation, even if it is still derivation. I think it’s homage that never got off the ground. The theme based on an 80s slasher subset and the strokes of electronic music are strong indicators of the fandom at work here.

The problem is the passion fails to adequately fuel the film, whose tepidness stands in strong juxtaposition to the apparent cinephilic love of the director.

CHRISTMAS BLOOD is part police procedural, part body count horror - not an uncommon combination. Look at the giallo and a fair chunk of 80s American horror. But this film is engaging neither as a cop-chases-killer movie nor as a scare affair.

The police plot is interesting ... but not too interesting. A little curious, but not engrossing. The doomed youngsters and their drama leave me cold, even by the two-dimensional character development common to most slasher films. (Observation, not critique.) The killer Kringle has nothing to set him apart from the others of his ilk spotting the horror timeline from the 80s onward.

The set-up takes far too long, with CHRISTMAS BLOOD leaning too heavily on the police procedural portion for far too long before the horror element goes into full gear. As noted, the solve-a-crime section just isn’t stout enough to be a load-bearing plot structure even though it’s given that responsibility. By the time a little adrenaline kicks in, viewer interest in the proceedings has set sail and heading for the horizon.

There was some potential here, but it wasn’t met by the execution.

[filmphreak]

Luciferina

LUCIFERINA, for a big chunk of its running time, is problematic, though far from meritless. The first half of the nearly two-hour film is setup. By the time we reach a freakish cult ritual that happily ups the ante a tad, too much running time has been expended with too little happening.

Admittedly,an ensemble of troubled characters allow for a couple layers of human interactions. A nun finds herself embroiled - with her junkie sister and her motley entourage - in a spiritual quest fueled by ayahuasca, a potent hallucinogen. Sis is angry. Angrier is her boyfriend (a second threat on top of the diabolical danger). The girls’ father is bedridden. Lurid secrets lurk.

These coalesce in the aforementioned psychosexual Satanic ritual. The unconventional nuns running this shit show embrace the vaguely cross-shaped image of a woman’s reproductive organs. A bleeding and pregnant woman is prominent on the altar. Murky pasts intersect and here begin to coalesce malevolently.

LUCIFERINA’s stylishness is countered by an arid flatness at times, which informs the first half of the film more so than the second. Post-ritual, the atmosphere strengthens and the mood is allowed to push more to the fore. This tonal shift, along with the surfacing of some red unpleasantness, helps dispel a bit of the dryness that pervades the movie’s overly long build-up.

One could argue for a structural dependence on the relative thinness of atmosphere of the earlier on compared to increased intensity of the latter portion of LUCIFERINA. That aridity makes for a contrast to the headier material that follows, whose horrific contents are a mostly effective push-back against the lukewarm lead-up.

And the imagery, both in the ritual and beyond, runs a gamut from gruesome to simply startling. LUCIFERINA takes some advantage of its occultic reproductive theme to forge some of these images and actions onscreen.

Still, while there are a couple of elements here I like that are, perhaps, tinged with a smidgeon of originality, most of what’s happening here has happened better elsewhere. My review is neither recommendation nor condemnation.

LUCIFERINA doesn’t add any depth to the demonic possession/evil cult arena and does little to extend the cinematic kingdom of Satan - other than adding plus-one to the number of titles in this subgenre. But neither does it burden horror with yet another paint-by-numbers pea soup spitter.

The film isn’t without its flavor. Most of it’s just on the back end, the flavor up-front being a bit more bland. In fact, the denouement is a bout of eye-popping erotica that seems the perfect, er, climax to the movie. It’s both horrific and beautiful.

This is one of those movies that stretches you along a spectrum that at one point has you dismissing the proceedings as ho-hum, yet reaching the end strangely satisfied. Color this reviewer ambivalent - ya know, like average if one foot is in ice, one in fire.

Not perfectly ambivalent, though. The needle isn’t riding midpoint. It at least leans toward like and away from dislike.

(Good thing since this is the first in a trilogy: the Saga of the Trinity of the Virgins, if I’m translating my Spanish properly. Did I mention this is Argentinian? The following two films are to be called Immaculada and Gotica.)

[filmphreak]

Trauma

This torture porn/revenge film is a Chilean commentary on political violence - and also a brutal horror film, as the first half of this sentence might suggest. This may be my first foray into cinema from Chile, and it’s a grueling one at times. An opening sequence has a young man forced to fuck his mother. And that’s just the start of that scene - the cruel bastards making him do this find a way to make that already heinous act even more despicable and revolting. This is one of several hard to watch sequences in a film punctuated by rape and nasty violence. The plot - four women out a vacation get accosted by a couple of unhinged sadists - is nothing new, on the surface. A bit I Spit On Your Grave-ish, really, when you throw in the revenge part that fills the final third of the film. But it’s not a generic  exploitation rehash. It’s fairly smart and the production values are solid. It works pretty well as a grim bit of artfully executed mind-fuckery. As I said, I found some of it hard to watch, and I’m a pretty jaded viewer. Paradoxically, however, as viscerally effective as it was, and as informed by style and a touch of substance as it was, I still experienced a failure to be engaged. The film worked, yet it didn’t. I can’t highlight any particular flaw. It’s good at what it does, and isn’t just some dumb slab of screen violence. It chilled me, sure, but it also left me cold. Caveat: I feel certain other viewers will connect better with the film. Art is subjective, but some reactions to art are more subjective than others. In the end, I didn’t walk away satisfied. Yet I can’t not recommend it.

[filmphreak]

Molly

The first thing that jumped out at me from this post-apoc thriller from Artsploitation is the color palette. Visually, it’s a stunning piece of work. Not the first thing I’d expect to praise about an indie film. It’s a good start, especially given that I’m typically a bit leery of post-apoc fare.

Molly is the titular bow-and-arrow wielding badass. In classic post-apoc style, there is an evil king tyrant type who runs a gladiatorial arena. In equally post-apoc style, our protagonist ends up fighting in the damn thing.

The next strong component I noticed was the strong performance by Julia Batelaan, who plays Molly. She provides a solid anchor around which the film hang exist. I can also commend the technical execution of the film. Where things get shaky is with the story, which starts out unengaging. Not a total yawnfest, but something less than gripping.

For fairness’ sake, I am not the cosmos’ biggest post-apoc fan. Roaming “across the violent post-apocalyptic landscape” (from the synopsis) is not my favorite cinematic plot pastime. So you should weigh the worth of my words with that in mind. I shall try to maintain some objectivity, a thing I usually do. If anything, you can accuse me of generally being too nice.

Still, better than too harsh, I suppose,, especially in today’s too-snarky critics’ environment and among the film snobbery that seems perennial in this region of journalism. But lest I digress further into self-reflection ...

For all that Molly is well-crafted and looks damn good for a low-budget affair (in terms of FX, fight choreography, set and costuming, not just cinematography), it also wanders as much as its heroine before it gets to the really good stuff. The really good stuff would be Molly’s final confrontation with the arena-running slaver bad guy and his militia of minions.

I say “really good stuff” because it isn’t as though Molly is lacking in good stuff before the climactic third reel. There are some noteworthy fight sequences, for example. But obviously it’s all leading up to the aforementioned conflict in the movie’s denouement.

To the film’s credit, it does reach for, and partly achieve, some gravitas, particularly in the form of a relationship that develops between Molly and a young girl she encounters in the wasteland. The movie also breeds some mystery in the form of flashbacks that inspire a bit of curiosity as to just what kind of experiments Molly has been subjected to prior to her current wanderings.

Complaints aside, I still have to rank this above average for its subgenre. This is not a category of film that tends to fare well, in my experience. If anything, post-apoc movies tend to generate an excess of suck. I’ll let the 80s (a decade of exploitation of which I’m generally particularly fond) speak for itself. But I think I can safely say that some fans of this type of material will find it above average.

An interesting tweak this film has going for it is that Molly has superpowers. No doubt related to the experimentation alluded to in flashback. It features more and more prominently as the story progresses. A lot of her fighting is nice-and-simple arrow-in-your-face, blade-swinging and hand-to-hand badassery. But her extra-human abilities to come to the surface in times of crisis and help her out in her one-against-many butt-kicking, particularly toward the end.

Molly is a decent film, excellently constructed. And it has the virtue of being not entirely predictable. Some of the finale’s suspense lies in wondering how things are going to pan out. One suspects that Molly is going to make it through this ordeal, but how is another question. What exactly will she have to endure, what guantlets will she have to run? How things play out remains the question.

Speaking of the cinematography, there is a beautifully shot sequence during the lengthy fight sequence in Molly’s last third. She is forced to fight mutants/zombies/whatever while hanging upside down. The camera hangs upside down with her during this niftily staged bout. (I told you the fights were well choreographed.)

I’m going to leave here with a mild recommendation for Molly. I’m going to qualify it by commending the film specifically to fans of post-apoc and certain of the sci-fi community - and maybe to those who at least aren’t non-fans of the whole after apocalypse thing. And, actually, if you like fight movies, then this might be your cup of Earl Grey.

[filmphreak]

PERFECT OBEDIENCE

PERFECT OBEDIENCE, a DVD and Blu-Ray release from Artsploitation Films, is a quiet but compelling drama about the Catholic Church and sex abuse. This is a based-on-a-true-story movie about a priest and one of his charges in the 60s

The film is frank without being lurid and focuses more on the assertion of authority and the use of theology bent to nefarious means to manipulate young seminarians into such relationships with those older than them. PERFECT OBEDIENCE explores the psycho-sexual dynamics of these sordid relationships and demonstrates how something positive like faith can be exploited to nurture such unhealthy obedience.

It will be up to the viewer to decide if the film is intended as a wholesale rebuke of the Roman church as a whole or simply an unflinching, if tastefully executed, look into the world of priestly abuse of Catholic youngsters. The film isn’t preachy but actually takes something of a detached look at the events. The one onscreen sex scene between a priest and boy isn’t really onscreen. It cuts to black and the dialogue says it all.

Tastefully done, yes, but none the less disturbing for it.

PERFECT OBEDIENCE is an engaging movie. It’s quietude is part of its power, along with its lack of an exploitative nature. Plenty of “artsploitation” type pics – and I don’t refer just to films from this label -  have been done in far more lurid and aggressive style. But with this topic, a more delicate example of rape/molestation (not to deny the delicacy of the topic in any context), a certain restraint is almost obligatory.

PERFECT OBEDIENCE finds exactly the right tone to be a brutally honest film while exercising the requisite restraint.

[filmphreak]

German Angst

Artsploitation Films has given this anthology of German horror (including a segment by Jorg Buttgereit of Nekromantik fame) a proper Blu-ray release. The thing is, I find this film a bit underwhelming. It has moments of power, to be sure. It also boasts a few gruesome violent set pieces. It’s artfully done, and intelligent, as well. But overall, the film lacks impact. In places, it hits hard, but the film as a whole didn’t quite connect. The stories involve a young woman who loves her guinea pig and also takes great joy in mutilating a man. It creates quite an interesting dichotomy. The second story, and the strongest, is that of a deaf-mute couple that gets harassed by a gang of thugs. A bit of heirloom magic pertaining to soul switching turns the scenario on its ears. A nice bit of Nazi flashback adds to the texture. The final tale is that of a man whose obsession with a sexy stranger leads him to a bizarre underground club where membership seems cheap, but brings way more than bargained for. GERMAN ANGST isn’t a bad flick by any means, but despite its potency throughout, it never quite comes together. That said, I feel other fans of arthouse, foreign and extreme horror may have a better reaction.

[filmphreak]

A Taste of Phobia

I dig the idea of this anthology film. A passle of segments, each addressing a different phobia: Fear of virgins, fear of blood, fear of germs, fear of mazes, fear of the dark, fear of hair, fear of sleep, fear of feces, fear of cooking, fear of dreams, fear of stars ,and a few more.

Some of these stories are dreadfully serious while others have a bit of tongue in cheek. They are all dark and most of them are disturbing to a greater or lesser degree. It functions well as a horror film, certainly.

As with most anthology movies, some segments work better than others .Here, I think some of these do a better job expressing the phobia than others; some are more on-target than others. It is interesting to see the more direct approach taken in portion of these tales, versus the more oblique approaches favored by others.

Only a couple are kind of “meh” and most come with a bit of clobber, though a few punch harder than the others, obviously. There are some of these segments that are quite hard to watch in spots; they get you right in the gut. Others are conceptually engaging but less visceral.

My favorite is probably the one about fear of hair (a really good one). It comes first in the film but don’t let you think that means it’s all downhill from there. Besides, that’s just my favorite. Other standouts are the fear of feces (silly but gross), the fear of cooking (more funny than scary but darkly so), the fear of germs, the fear of dreams, and the fear of sleep.

A solid anthology, quite discomfiting, as it should be.

[filmphreak]

SCHLOCK!!!!

Fans of John Landis can exult at Turbine Media Group’s release of the director’s early classic, SCHLOCK! Landis’ fondness for parody comes through loud and clear in this limited edition steelbook Blu-Ray/DVD release.

SCHLOCK tells the strange tale of a series of banana related deaths that are tied to a hitherto undiscovered primate species. That species is the titular character who runs amok throughout the film, aping a bunch of Landis’ cherished cinematic loves and influences, including a ridiculous sequence ripping at 2001: A Space Odyssey.

This is one of the filmmaker’s campier efforts, a trait still on exhibit in films like KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE and AMAZON WOMEN ON THE MOON. His style is more rough around the edges here than it would become later in more subtly funny efforts like AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON. Not that his sense of silliness ever left him (witness BLUES BROTHERS, though that one does boast Landis in rather more polished form).

Nonetheless, SCHLOCK is a clever film and far from being a weak early foray. I found it immediately rewatchable, and perhaps even more entertaining on repeat viewings. Without employing the vignette format for which he would be known in KENTUCKY and AMAZON, he still manages to accomplish a similar feat through all the misadventures of SCHLOCK.

Highly recommended for Landis fans!

[filmphreak]

CRAWLERS

Micro-budget filmmaker Michael Legge (and one of my faves) has returned with another of his wacky comedy-horror pieces. Well, CRAWLERS is actually more sci-fi/comedy. But you get the picture.

Or, if you’ve never seen a Legge film, maybe you don’t.

The enthusiasm inherent in his pictures is contagious. There is too much fun in any of his movies not to walk away with a smile on your face.

The smile-inducing narrative in this case involves a couple who starts noticing weird noises and voices and such in their house. But rather than it being a case of haunting spooks, it’s a case of criminals.

Criminals from the future. They’ve come through a portal from a disastrous future and take up residence with the unfortunate couple.

But while the hubby and wife may be unfortunate, the viewer is anything but. With wackiness from glitchy translation chips to generally trying to be good guests in a considerably foreign (to them) culture, there’s lots of goofball fun on tap.

Plus there is that nifty sci-fi plot.

[filmphreak]

Soultangler

Gonzo. Surrealist. An oddity among oddities. 80s DTV horror was pretty insane much of the time, anyway. This one goes screaming off down its own tangent.

SOULTANGLER incorporates a number of influences. At core is a bizarre mad scientist tale about a man whose research into such things as the pineal gland, etc., is convinced he can tap into the human soul with his technology. But rather than Descartes’ beloved pineal gland, this guy is going for the uber-scientific view that the eyes are the window to the soul.

(They are, but that’s beyond science.)

The problem is that only one soul can occupy a body at one time. Chaos ensues.

The narrative is a bit squirrely and not always easy to follow, though the commentary helps. There is also a director’s cut minus the padding footage the distributors demanded to bring the film up to feature length.

The film works fairly well as an exercise in surrealist horror. Style abounds.

But the real payoff here is the remarkably good FX. Tons of gore and stuff to keep the fan of 80s DTV psychosis happy as a pig in poo.

SOULTANGLER is, I’d say, one of the less known among the already esoteric DTV cinema, but it deserves more viewership. An original entry into the vid era horror canon.

www.musicvideodistributors.com

[filmphreak]

Amazon.com: Jess Franco: The World's Most Dangerous Filmmaker (9781944520601): Kristofer Todd Upjohn: Books

[filmphreak]

Video Dungeon

Kim Newman, arguably best known for the Anno Dracula series of novels, also deserves kudos for contributions to film criticism. As a film reviewer myself, I can certainly appreciate Newman’s work in this area.

This isn’t a comprehensive War and Peace-size tome like something Leonard Maltin would put out. This is a more niche work on niche movies. A lot of the films here are lesser known, though plenty qualify as more than unknown.

I love the fact that Newman’s choices pluck from both way back (even into the silent era) and the very recent. The movies covered by the author are also drawn from near and far. Thoughts are shared about films from America, Italy, Pakistan, etc.

It’s a diverse culling of titles for sure. Aficionados will find a few obscure favorites and a plethora of titles, some unseen, many outright unheard of. Which flicks fall under which categories will of course vary with the subjective tastes of each viewer.

The collection is wickedly eclectic and proudly parades a whole bunch of movies that AREN’T the usual suspects for a volume like this. KIM NEWMAN’S VIDEO DUNGEON compiles all the author’s DUNGEON reviews into one exceedingly welcome and original omnibus.

Those who get a giggly, warm-fuzzy fresh joy at adding a new and interesting film criticism book to their shelves can prepare to feel that again.

[filmphreak]

Jess Franco: The World's Most Dangerous Filmmaker [Kristofer Todd Upjohn] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Jess Franco was a director, cinematographer, writer, composer, editor, producer and actor in more than 150 fiercely independent films he made from 1959 to 2013. Born in Madrid

[filmphreak]

Adam & Eve Vs. the Cannibals

So I’m watching ADAM & EVE MEET THE CANNIBALS.

Yep. I’m watching a movie called that. By whichever name you’re calling it (this is a retitling - the original name had no cannibals in it). I like the CANNIBALS title best – obviously. I’m an Italian cannibal movie aficionado, so that makes my preference even stronger. But since I’m only partway through the movie, I cannot attest to the titular accuracy of what is clearly a re-monikering by a distributor for whatever market he was trying to reach. I’m guessing an American distributor redubbed it to make it more sellable to exploitation crowds.

Turns out, though, even though nothing remotely cannibal-y has occurred, it’s a pretty fascinating movie. And a pretty movie.

There is a depiction of Creation during the opening titles. Lots of lava and geological upheaval, plus some nice but probably not overly expensive color FX. It’s a groovy sequence. Following that,  in the fresh, new world, something bursts from the dirt. A membranous cocoon out of which Adam tears himself.

Lonely, he goes on to sculpt the figure of a woman out of beach sand. But the rain comes to wash it away as soon as he’s done. In his despair, he fails to notice that the sand is being rained away from actual flesh. Adam is no longer alone.

And they explore each other and their new life and environment. They watch other animals reproduce (obviously built-in stock nature footage, but it works).

Then there is the serpent. I never realized before this movie how awesome Satan (as per the post-Judaic, Christian re-ordering of the primitive Eden mythos, but that is another chapter in another book entirely) sounds speaking in Italian. With a snake as avatar. Sweet!

Adam keeps trying to keep her from snacking on the forbidden fruit but eventually temptation overtakes and she succumbs. He joins her. Then they REALLY begin to explore each other.

But nature turns on them. A horrible wind blows through. Interestingly, so far God is represented here through manifestation as Nature. I can dig it. Happy God equals serene paradise, a hospitable enviro. Pissed-off God equals storms, volcanos (destructive rather than creative now), even boulders. (This leads to a great Indiana Jones-like scene. The FX are simple but a blast to watch.

Still no gutmunchers, but I’m hooked regardless. I suppose now that they’re booted from Eden and worrying about clothes and such, maybe now their luck will sour and cannibals will pick a fight. Who knows? But I’m on board for the ride.

Now they’re wandering in the desert, an environmental cue for the absence of God. And now the couple is bickering. The honeymoon is over.

NOTE: The loincloth in no way detracts from a strangely blond Eve’s sexiness.

Now, left-turn blinker. The couple discovers that nature is an antagonist to them now (i.e. they are suffering the consequences of God’s displeasure). God’s displeasure here takes the form of a stop-motion animated pterodactyl-ish thing.

At this point, I don’t care if cannibals ever come into the story. Because this movie just gets better and better.

NOTE: The togetherness in facing conflict re-bonds Eve. The archetypal imagery of the Judaic Eden myth is present here, and I even find some progressions of thought from the source. Interesting.

Oh, man. Cavemen. 2001: A Space Odyssey this is not. But exciting it is. Let’s see where this goes. One must wonder if these are the titular cannibals.

Sooooo …  yeah. When you see the tribe of trogs back at their home in the side of a mountain or something, the whole cannibal movie parallels click. This isn’t exactly that, but there this movie (also Italian, fyi) and those cannibal flicks do share a lot of the same touchstones. Even if they are sometimes recontextualized.

And the way they start pawing at the blond Eve strikes a huge cannibal movie chord with me. Think Mountain of the Cannibal God, with Ursula Undress. I mean Andress.

This is just a really groovy primordial lost-in-the-jungle flick. Less violence and more archetypology. Go ask Joseph Campbell.

Anyway. Eventually the war of the sexes re-emerges as a stronger theme. Adam and Eve separate.

Did I mention this is an extremely beautiful movie? Adam may be alone now and left to jacking off and talking to himself, but he gives the film a chance to wander with him through some spectacular scenery. The whole movie has been a thing of beauty so far, and it doesn’t slack off now. Eve goes wandering through some foresty enviros of her own.

This leads her to more primitives. (Like she and Adam have been around for SO long yet.) Not trog, this time, actually more like the spaghetti cannibal movie cannibals, though I don’t know yet if they eat people. I’m starting to suspect not, as I think this title is completely gratuitous, yet oddly not 100% off base. The cavemen weren’t gutmunchers. I’ll have to see if these tribesfolk are or not.

Well, turns out there is a quite a bit of munching – but it all appears to be fruit and vegetables. Unless I missed something vital. Is this a commentary on the Old Testament’s pre-Noahite veggies-only diet as prescribed by Yahweh?

As soon as I say that, I think the captive Eve is being offered an animal to eat …. Oh, yeah, that’s an animal. Still, though, cannibalism this isn’t

And I still have to wonder if this isn’t a deluge-less analogy to the transition of vegetarianism to omnivorism in Genesis.

Uh-oh. Eve is learning to use her female allure, being all sexy and flirty for her tribesman guard. Damn freshy sexually awakened females (in our world, that’s teenage girls), wielding the weapon of their sexuality when they don’t even grok the immense power of those nuclear capabilities.

Still, she’s not without her just motives here. I mean, if somehow I was abducted by a primitive tribe fascinated by my fat (and sexy) ass, I’d flap my balls around if I thought that gave me a chance to manipulate my captors.

Oh, shit, and the cavemen meet the non-trog tribesman. I think some cannibalism just happened, like the cavemen ambushed a non-trog and had a quick pre-battle snack.

What a crazy, wonderful movie.

Yep, the cavemen combine warring with lunching. I mean, eating bits of your enemy is also deadly. Or a freshly killed foe won’t argue if you take a bite. So, yeah.

This actually excels expectations for viewers going in expecting another B-grade gutmuncher. Don’t get me wrong, my love for Italian cannibal flicks is broad and extends beyond the greats .But ADAM & EVE VS THE CANNIBALS solders part of the classic sketti gutmuncher into a wildly different yet markedly analogous piece of cinema. This movie benefits both from its freshness and its familiarity.

The movie is an artistic accomplishment, for sure. And I’m sure it pulled in lots of “exploitation” audiences. All around success? I’d happily grant this simultaneous arthouse/grindhouse status. (It isn’t as if the two didn’t overlap plenty.)

This one’s more of an onion than most Italian gutmunchers. And you never know what’s down in the next layer. I mean, now we’ve got a scenario where the cavemen have captured the non-trogs who captured Blondie Eve.

And, inevitably, Adam shows up pissed and stabbing semi-folks, brandishing his oh so phallic weapon (spear) around. And then we’re on the move, on the river, afloat in a bid for escape and freedom.

Now, I assume you recall that nature is not working synergistically with Adam and Eve, right? Well, let me just say this: Bear. OK, guy in a bear costume, but the scene manages to work anyway. And also to provide one of the scenes neater, if not overly bloody, scenes of violence. In your face, bear. Literally.

Segue. Now the film introduces the concept of pugnacious male rivalry for feminine affections. You could really study this one in a film class. Or psychology class. Awesomeness. They even work in a note of the female civilizing and taming effect on the male.

And then ADAM AND EVE VS THE CANNIBALS features what must be Creation’s first break-up! Or, maybe, just one of its first turn-downs. Still, it’s like high school before high school, right? Sniff!

(You could argue this is a really weird love story.)

Of course, it’s a lot of things. And the remarkable combination works wonders almost as great as Creation itself. (OK, maybe that was a tad hyperbolic. But I think my superpower is hyperbole.)

Awww, love scene. And that anachronistically vocal soft pop is back! Odd upon odd. Nothing if not a singular film.

NOTE: It occurs to me there is remarkably little nudity or violence compared to what you’d expect from such a film. Not that this movie has that big a category, Such A Film. I speak broadly.

NOTE: Adam and Eve stumble onto stock footage of bit cats eating a gazelle or whatever. They gasp. The music sounds oddly like Cannibal Holocaust’s score here. Only a watcher of these movies would notice that, but a watcher of these movies would notice that. A little tingle.

Now there’s snow and she’s in a more robe-y thing but she’s still sexy. Nice high leg slit (note).

I THINK ADAM JUST TOLD EVE “FUCK YOU”!

(*Rewind*)

Nope. Crap, he didn’t. He said “I told you.” As in, “I told you so.” The movie has resurfaced is war of the sexes theme, in a context of Eve feeling like Adam is treating her like a secondary citizen, lacking independence. There is a subtext of his questioning of her creative ability, which points to the patriarchal suppression of the divine feminine. The feminine creative power (womb) was an factor in primitive worship of the goddess. In this scene, Adam is using his creative skill to forge a weapon. She is making a little sculpture of an animal. Adam sees himself as useful and her as needing protection. (Of course, this also alludes to the male war tendency versus the female peace tendency.)

This argument of pragmatism – useful spear versus “useless” cub carving – points to the age-old conflict of what we can call War Vs Art. War can mean here – not necessarily just violent conflict between nations -  any endeavor based on severe pragmatism. The stereotype of the father who sees no practical value in a child’s desire to act rather than, say, join the family business or become a lawyer.  Those who who see creativity for creativity’s sake as without worth since it cannot turn a screw or fire a bullet or only rarely make money (Stephen King versus the world’s unpublished dishwashers who write in their sleep hours and hope – same dynamic as the struggling actor).

I won’t belabor it further. But, like I said, lots of onion layers here. A much better movie than maybe we had a right to expect?

The movie builds toward a tragic mood. Adam and Eve, lost and alone (but for each other, which shouldn’t be forgotten), nigh unto dying on a mountaintop blanketed in snow. Adam is ready to give up. But Eve encourages him. The ultimate transcendence of interdependence is reached. The film and its ideas achieve fruition. Adam and Eve are yin-yang. Only through their tribulations do they gain strength, insight and the ability to prevail.

Wow, an amazing scene of rumbling, cracking ice (more well-placed stock footage – I LOVE creative, mix-and-match filmmaking, sort of blending in found object art with traditional filmmaking). God is farthest from them. His wrath isn’t rage … but absence. The bleak world is breaking apart around them. But, of course, the desert of the soul provides the aridity for new spiritual growth.

Finaly, though, “wrath” recedes and a hospitable world is again alive around them. Life is peaceful. Their relationship with the divine is restored, as well as their relationship with each other. (There is so much subtext here – this film narrative is pregnant with meta like a babies-toting dog mom with a swingin’ ass tummy has puppies inside. I could say so much but it belongs in another essay, which perhaps I’ll get to one day.)

Also noteworthy is the reference to Earth’s cyclical nature, Persephone’s dying and rebirth, the seasons swirl, oroborous. Into this creative cycle is brought the focus point of Eve’s pregnancy. This is the final nearing climax of the film. The movie culminates at the altar of the creative sacred feminine. (NOTE: Again the music has a touch of Cannibal Holocaust melody, but more hopeful in tone.)

ADAM AND EVE VS THE CANNIBALS, neato title aside, is a gorgeous film, substantial. It offers not only grindhouse entertainment but also a heady delve into living mythology and archetypal truth. This movie is a gem and deserves more appreciation, but the nature of its uniqueness would fend off many a mainstream viewer.

I can at least ask you, dear reader (because what kind of egomaniac am I to assume more than one reader?), to go check this movie out. Please. Sincerely.

[filmphreak]

MUST-SEE abstract horror

THE INTERIOR, from director Trevor Juras, is a gripping, provocative film whose key to understanding is locked in the title. It might be an abstract film, but there is plenty of coherence, subtextually.

The story, on the surface, about a man driven to wits end by the workaday office life of a bad boss, unsatisfying work, underappreciation and all the other real-life horrors about which any poor office schmuck (used to be one of those) would gladly enlighten you. He decides to chunk the comforts provided by even his low-end but first-world life and head for the woods. A brief respite between awful office job and flight into the woods is highlighted by a brief foray into manual labor. This is initially a pressure reliever, but ultimately, modern life and other people prove more than the protagonist wants to deal with in any context.

So he flees what he considers to be his problems. He high-tails it into the unpopulated (or so he thinks) world of towering trees and the scuttling whispers of close-but-unseen wildlife. Solitude. But, then, of course, weird shit starts to happen.

Bizarre manifestations of strangers in the woods make his would-be escape from the “civilized” world into the opposite - a leap from the frying pan of known quantity horrors of daily, “normal” life, and into the fire of unknown nightmare figures in the supposedly peopleless forest.

The strange invaders of his peace appear in surreal attacks. A bloody wanderer or a crowd of what looks like a bunch of frat boys. Part of the surreal qualities come from the weird appearance of city things in a beyond-rural environment. Like frat-boy looking guys assaulting the central character’s tent while dressed in very not-hiking apparel. Or vehicular lights.

Not that these are, in essence, surreal things, even in the woods. But the context makes their unexpected presence that much more alarming. In fact, the whole film is structurally built on a story arc that leads from very modern, in-town settings to the deepest depths away from anything urban. The juxtaposition of normal, modern life - including a shot of the protagonist at his doctor’s office while a banging hip-hop track plays on the soundtrack - is a core theme here.

But while, on surface, this is about a man going into the great outdoors, it’s really about somebody taking an interior journey. I told you the key was in the name. The askew events in the woods are the chaos of his unsettled mind. You can’t run away from yourself. The day-to-day life was only a surface, symptomatic expression of inner turmoil.

Stuck alone, truly alone, you’re still not alone.

You always have yourself.

And that is the terror of THE INTERIOR.

[filmphreak]

Edgedancer

This happens between the second and recently published third book in the STORMLIGHT ARCHIVES by Brandon Sanderson. This series has already, in only two volumes, established itself as one of today’s...