Last Will: SAMHAIN PROJECT SEASON 6: WARNING SIGN

SEASON 6

Well, it's that time of year again!

The Samhain Project has returned. My musings, reviews, rumblings, and belching about all things Autumnal and Spookyish. And I'm all pumpkin-spiced about it. Let's get to it!

28 Days Later scared the bargoovians out of a lot of people when Danny Boyle unleashed it upon the woild. Until recently, I thought that the concept of "the rage virus" was birthed there.

I was wrong.

Frani and I refreshed the memory banks on a little movie from 1985 that I watched with my Mom when we lived in Waco, TX. That's about all I remembered about it, other than thinking it was solid enough. Being that I'm a pretty big fan of Sam Waterston, he of The Glass Menagerie fame, Waterston went on to play Hang 'em High Jack McCoy on Law & Order, as well as genius roles on Grace & Frankie & The Newsroom, so I jumped back in on this little curio.

It seems an agricultural business working on GMOs (and apparently some other shady shit) enjoys a test tube spill and before you know it, despite the best efforts of Kathleen Quinlan, all hell has broken loose. People get bubbly and violent and start attacking folks in hordes. Of course, sheriff Sam Waterston and government ace Yaphet Kotto show up and do some stuff. Waterston pulls his weight nicely, playing his lead less as an action stud than a really worried husband. He displays some nifty moments of apprehension and stumbling effort that you might not have seen had Chuck Norris or Sylvester Stallone been here in the role.

Unlike 28 Days Later, the madness stays contained in a building, yet it works for the most part for this flick. It doesn't feature a ton of gore, but the attacks are nonetheless very violent and there is no doubting the bad intent of our infected dudes here. Craig Safan contributes a pretty cool synth score that is actually a little bit more effective than Hal Barwood's direction. It's a bit vanilla, but he gets pretty good performances from a solid cast, particulary Quinlan. She's definitely the female in distress. Unlike a lot of female characters in films of this time period, (outside the slasher movie Final Girls), she's as tough as she is human.

Nice supporters here, but Frank Darabont fave Jeffrey DeMunn steals the show despite some really difficult-to-believe scientific maneuvering that gets leaned upon in the final act.

Sadly, overall, Warning Sign is not as scary or atmospheric as Boyle's movie, but definitely worth spending some Halloween time with.

And for reals, George Romero actually gave us the debut of the rage virus, (as he did with the modern zombie in Night of the Living Dead) in his early 70s classic, The Crazies. A film Aidan and I saw the remake of on its opening weekend, one of the best of the early 2000's horror remakes. It stars Justified and Deadwood's Timothy Olyphant, whose performance is tip-top.

I'd watch Olyphant in a documentary about toilet brushes, to be honest.