Samhain Project 5: The Surfer

Disclaimer:  Have been a Nicolas Cage Wonk for 43 years.  Bias should be accepted. 

The Surfer got a 5 minute standing ovation at Cannes.

In The Surfer, Nic plays a gent (the title role) taking his son on a quick surf on a break in Luna Bay, Australia, where he grew up.  The plan is to float in the water and gaze off into the distance at his childhood home, which he now repurchased for the good of the family. 

That's rudely interrupted in a gruff fashion by some beach thugs led by the recently deceased Julian McMahon (shame, hell of an actor), and Cage and son are ridden off the beach for not being locals. After Nic's kid is deposited safely at home, the surfer spends the rest of the film getting deeper and deeper involved and obsessed with these thugs, who prove to be a cult on the beach.  The whole film takes place in a car park and the Luna Bay sandscape.  As the surfer’s anger and need to get this beach situation straightened out, it grows conspiratorial.

   

Who here in Luna Bay isn't working to destroy The Surfer's life, as he begins to degrade along with all aspects of his life due to the actions of these alpha-male cult members?  These freaks have real jobs and relationships away from the bay, but become cro-magnon thugs corrupting all those around them once back on the beach.   Their desire to get back to the aggressive nature of "real man" functioning is their only goal.  They'd be incels, if they didn't have women in their lives. 

You, as well as The Surfer begin to question the reality of it all, as this cult begins to pick The Surfer's life apart. 

There are shades of Eden Lake, mixed with Wake in Fright, as Lorcan Finnegan's masterful shooting creates a shock-bright background to the very dark happenings.  Much like 1982's The Prey, long-lasting shots of the local wildlife bring beauty and a tad of humor into the events. 

Similar to Cage's Pig, The Surfer avoids going the easy route by becoming a revenge-fueled action thriller and instead becomes about a man's journey.  In Pig, Cage was in total control as he searched for his prize pig, not by leaving his woodsy surroundings and tearing apart the city like James Brolin in Night of the Juggler, but by using his connections, his intellect, and inner peace, cultivated from years of isolation.  In the Surfer, you join a man, on screen for almost the entire film; this is a Cage tour de force. He's stripped of all he thought he was, connects with his past, and has to face some dark decisions, before another outside force pushes decision making into its final phase. 

Not an outright horror film, this is more about what makes mankind tick, and how close to the edge we are at all times with our dependence on technology, and thinking that monetary quality of life has all the answers.  Is this beach cult right in getting back to "the animal" in all of us?   Or can you hang onto your humanity in the face of monsters trying to reduce you to your lizard brain?  

Does it matter?  

Samhain Project 5: Millenium: The Curse of Frank Black

Millenium is amongst the most underrated television series of the 90's.  A Cris Carter concoction that is a quasi-spin off of his X Files, its an FBI procedural with more than a healthy dose of creepy supernatural undercurrent. 

Many episodes operate as FBI procedurals with the lead character, Frank Black, (Lance Henriksen, in a role he was born to play) despite his broken past, investigating dark and murderous situations.  His "gift" is the ability to see what the killer sees, which help his case solve rate reach astronomical proportions.  Frank is recruited by a shady organization that uses ex-law enforcement operatives to reach their goals.  They are called the Millennium group, and their purpose is not to bring about the apocalypse as the Millennium approaches, but as Frank puts it, "Conrol it". 

However, Millennium had a knack for tossing in the occasional off-beat episode laced with humor that would be a light lift from the grim proceedings it otherwise espoused.  Included in this was the classic Jose Chungs's Doomsday Defense, among others. (Charles Nelson Reilly saw awards nominations for his brilliance in that episode). 

There's one episode that fits in the middle of the creeps and the chuckles, and that's the Halloween episode of the second season, The Curse of Frank Black.  It's a smooth-running and tension building affair as Frank goes about Halloween with his daughter and other pleasant fatherhood operations, mixed in with flashbacks to his youth in the 40's where he runs across a neighbor on Halloween night, (played with panache by Dean Winters, who now regales us with chilling chuckles in insurance commercials as the embodiment of bad luck, Mayhem. Winters is a hell of a character.  Find out why: here) who explains Samhain, (even if he pronounces it wrong) and its dark interludes.  His visage appears later in the present day, giving Frank positive advice, some of which he will obey. 

Some of which he will not.

Frank tumbles through the episode, dealing with his failed Bobby Darin CDs (who wouldn't see that as a negative omen.  Damn it, if I expect to hear If I Was a Carpenter, I want to hear it!) the repeated occurrences of numbers that have sinister meanings, demonic apparitions, ghost story telling teenage twats in the basement of his home, (Who he dispatches Sam Loomis style. I almost expected him to say "Lonnie, get your ass away from there!") and sundry situations that may or may not be real. 

Regarded in this day and age as amongst the best and most thought-provoking of series-based Halloween Television, The Curse of Frank Black would be a wonderful trick for those that have never seen the show, and a hell of a fucking treat for regular viewers, guys like me. Rack this one up with the Great Pumpkin, folks, because it's a laid-back and chilling hoot, perfect for the season. 

Samhain Project 5 : Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight

Back in the late 80's HBO slapped us upside the head with the anthology series Tales From the Crypt, and it was really a popular and celebrated affair.  So much so, that in the mid 90's they decided to take it to the big screen with a pair of films, beginning with Demon Knight. Is it a great film, or even scary?  No, but it definitely takes from its source well, with solid acting, great production design and juicy practical effects. 

Demon Knight is a strange story involving seven keys required by some hellion, that when brought together, will return the universe to its original black nothingness.  This whole thing reminded me of that 80's metal band Helloween and their weird album The Keeper of the Seven Keys.  

Thankfully, Helloween was not involved in the film.  What we have is the fact there is only one key remaining out of the hands of our villain, played by Billy Zane.  Our hero, played by ridiculously underrated actor William Sadler, is holding onto this key, which contains the blood of Christ. 

Yeah.  Read that again. 

What makes Demon Knight work is our two leads.  Billy Zane, despite being an ancient being of supreme evil, is absolutely hilarious and full of wackadoo non-sequitirs.  Try this one on for size:  "You ho-dunk, po-dunk, well, then-there, MOTHERFUCKERS!"

Genius.

Sadler's character is the supreme foil, as he plays it as straight as Robert Redford or Clint Eastwood ever did, which creates a fantastic cinematic dichotomy that really brings this film to life. These two guys really make this thing work and sell the shit out of it. 

What Sadler's goal consists of is holding onto this key, and protecting the sad-sack characters around him from Zane and his minions from some kind of gelatinous hell.  A great supporting cast is here, including a young Jada Pinkett, Thomas Haden Church, John Shuck, CCH Pounder, Brenda Bakke, and the voice of fuckin' Roger Rabbit himself, Charles Fleischer. 

Fleischer was also the famous recurring street hood/jacket dealer Carvelli, with his partner Murray in Welcome Back Kotter.  I used to watch the re-runs as an Elementary School Lad, hoping for Carvelli's appearances. Dude was flat out hilarious. 

And Dick Miller.  The Great One.  In a scene where Billy Zane's Satanic Shitface uses the Miller character's alcoholism against him to try to claim his soul is made absolutely heartbreaking.   An amazing moment performed by the cinema legend that the legendary Joe Dante gave a second leg of a career to, and thank God for that.  You've all seen him.  It's Murray Futterman from Gremlins!

Demon Knight is a lot of fun.  It swings the same stick as its parent series, and works well for it.  A great choice for Halloween. 

Samhain Project 5: Pumpkinhead

Aidan and I were huge fans of the Misfits album Famous Monsters, even if it was about 5 years after it was released.  There are many great punk/metal tunes on this record regardless of what Danzig devotees will say.  It's a fact that I'm no real fan of either Glenn Danzig or Michale Graves' personalities, so I've no skin in this game.  One of the album's more memorable tunes is Pumpkinhead, inspired by the Stan Winston film of the same name, with lyrics pulled straight from the legendary poem that was the spark for the film itself.   

Aidan and I would frequent an exchange, Vanguard Video, a nostalgia store that specialized in used DVDs, for sale and rental.  This was back in the mid oughts, and sitting on one of the shelves was the disc  pictured up top.  Being that myself and Aidan (who still shops there, it's still standing.) were also fans of the star of the film, legendary actor Lance Henriksen, we picked up the disc without thinking.  And we never regretted it. 

It became a favorite of both of ours, and it was a movie we pulled out every September and usually watched at least once throughout Spooky Season.  Pumpkinhead, for Aidan and I, felt every bit as much like Halloween as candy corn, creepy masks, the fall bite in the air, scarecrows and corn mazes. 

Pumpkinhead was unique unto itself, a fairy-tale styled legend of loss, retribution, witchery and demons.  It's directed by Stan Winston, special effects wizard that we lost way too soon who was responsible for masterful effects like those in Jurassic Park, The Terminator films, and Edward Scissorhands, among many others. 

This may be the only film Winston directed (leaving the bulk of the effects work to his proteges, Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr.) but you wouldn't know it.  There are some beautiful shots, excellent pacing, and reasonable acting, besides that of Henriksen whose brilliant performance can be both frightening and heartbreaking in this film.  Much like George Clooney and Michael Caine, he possesses the ability to show dramatic emotional shifts using only his eyes.  If you think that's easy, stand in front of a mirror and give that shit a shot. 

It may be telling a simple story, adorned with top flight monster effects and really good production design, but it has long since become a Halloween staple.  A low budget, monster-kid flight of fancy, I highly recommend Pumpkinhead to any and all looking for a movie that grabs you at the outset and keeps you locked in until the end. 

Oh, and watch out for frequent John Carpenter collaborator Buck Flowers, who plays a wizened hillbilly.  One who seems like king of the rednecks at the outset, but shows of all involved in Pumpkinhead's tornado of violence, he was the one that knew what was up. 

Check out Pumpkinhead. You'll see in short order how its become a cult classic and Halloween rite of passage. 

Samhain Project 5: Werewolves

Frank Grillo is not suffering from a shortage of work these days.  This is mostly a good thing.  Steven C. Miller's low budget Werewolves, which saw a limited theatrical run,  is an example of the good side of that fact.  This is the second werewolf movie I've written about in a short time period, and if you have complaints, you'll have to take it up with grievance department of the Samhain Project.  But they're busy this time of year.  Keep that in mind. 

This is actually a sci-fi sorta werewolf movie however.  Some sort of lunar issue has developed, so that whenever there's a supermoon, all exposed to the moonlight become werewolves.  Now the world has some other global shit to worry about.  This species just can't win.

In what could have been a positive light, can you think of anything else that's uniting us?  Well, actually, the gun-nut neighbor to Grillo's character, who lives with his widowed sister-in-law and her daughter, is a major problem in and out of human form, so I guess that we remain divided.  But I digress. 

Doomsday prepping on a Purge-style scale takes place as the supermoon approaches, and Grillo is a CDC pandemic expert who looks like the Punisher, so much like Jimmy in Mi Familia, he's "got shit to do".  The shared home is a fortress, priority one.  His other priority, under the supervision of Lou Diamond Phillips, Grillo and crew are working on an answer to this freakish biological-lunar problem. 

There is some nice character development as Grillo's character and sister-in-law are still united in grief over his firefighter brother, her husband, who died during the first supermoon event.  She has an adorable daughter she has to protect, while her brother-in-law is off saving the world, and Ifenesh Hadera makes a hell of an action mom when it comes down to the blows being exchanged. 

I am definitely not a big spoiler guy, but you didn't expect the lab work to come off without a hitch, did ya?  Katrina Law makes a good foil to Grillo who has to help ol' Frank battle across a werewolf infested city to get home to his unconventional family.  It's a solid pairing, well illustrated, as the whole low budget affair actually is, in its short run time. 

There's just a little bit of non-irritating CGI used during the transformation sequences, but otherwise the creature work is accomplished by monster wunderkinds Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr.  These dudes have won awards and did yeoman's work here. 

Werewolves has some excellent creepy shots, keeps the intensity rolling, and for its limited scope, gives you a lot of bang for its buck. 

Samhain Project 5: Rust Creek

Rust Creek is a backwoods survival thriller, but not one that truly fits in the horror movie category like Wrong Turn or even Deliverance. What it is is very intense and well acted for a low budget affair from IFC Midnight.

A lot of terrible shit goes down, brought on by the male gaze perpetrated by your basic white redneck shitheads. Unnecessary evil.  Our heroine, Sawyer, heads from her college confines to attend a job interview in Washington, D.C. over the Thanksgiving week and ends up sidetracked by a less than helpful GPS in the fall Kentucky forested netherworld.  Once lost, (of course) she's accosted by a pair of dipshits who should be named Bubba and Cletus, and whose intentions are less than gentlemanly.  

Sawyer is an unassuming hardass, and a convincing one thanks to a grounded performance from Hermione Corfield. Blessed with martial arts skills, she separates herself from these goons, and heads off into the forest, but not before being wounded.  The local police are well, the local police.  And hence, corruption rears its ugly head. 

While Sawyer may have black belt defense ability, she's not a survivalist, and Kentucky in November is not friendly.  The elements are not able to get to her before salvation and protection come from an unexpected place, and a heck of a quiet and haunted performance from Jay Paulson.  An unexpected and believable partnership develops, and along the way you learn more than you want to know about meth.

Written and directed by females, two gifted ones in Jen McGowan and Julie Lipson, respectively, Rust Creek is a tight, intense and fast moving little thriller that deserves a lot more credit than the streaming burial it seems to have received.  It's highly recommended, and available from AMC+ and Tubi

 

Samhain Project: Late Phases

Nick Damici is one of my favorite people involved in film. He frequently partners up with Jim Mickle to make some wonderful films including the incredible Joe Lansdale based piece, Cold in July among others. He also worked with Mickle to produce the top-flight Hap & Leonard, the series for Sundance. 

He’s fairly well known for his role as Mister in Stakeland and its follow up. But in Late Phases: Night of the Lone Wolf,  he stretches in a role that is absolutely fucking hard to believe. He plays a 70+ year old war veteran who has a strained relationship with his son played by an equally effective and heartbreaking Ethan Embry. 

Damici’s character moves into a different old folks home, one that seems to have a problem with local murders every 30 days or so. He is not stupid and decides that his final battle is going to be against the obvious; The Full Moon Killer.  Late Phases is extremely underrated and overlooked, and in a way that kind of pisses me off.

It’s that fucking good, folks.  Kudos to the Spanish director of the nightmarish Here Comes the Devil, Adrian Garcia Bogliano.  I think his film ranks up there with Joe Dante's The Howling, and An American Werewolf in London as top-tier werewolf films.  I dig my lycanthrope cinema and Late Phases is a good one, kids.

Fantastic performances, scary practical effects, and dry twisted humor make this a Halloween must. Particularly for those who dig their monster movies with a little fur and a lot of teeth. The bites aren’t just bloody, they go for the heart, as folks who have unfinished business in their relationships can really relate.

Plus you got Tom Noonan and Larry Fessenden and Dana Ashbrook, he of Return of the Living Dead Part II and Twin Peaks.  I'd like to thank Rue Morgue's John W. Bowen, penman of the It Came From Bowen's Basement segment of the George Romero issue from last year, for reminding me of the gloriousness of this film.