Samhain Project #12: Overlord

      

     There's no question of the existence of the horrors of war.  I've had anecdotes shared with me by many veterans over the years, but is war horror a movie genre?   One could argue with the existence of movies as far back as 1919's  J'accuse,  and more recent fare like Deathwatch, Below, and others, that it is, and today's entry just adds to that theory.       

     Operation Overlord was the dropping of allied soldiers behind enemy lines on the eve of D-Day.  This movie takes that to the next level, mixing in elements that are steeped in theories that Hitler was up to some no good schiesse beyond just what we're aware of. 

     Jovan Adepo (Emmy nominee for TV's Watchmen and The Leftovers) and Wyatt Russell (Lodge 49,  Blaze, and a hilarious exasperated turn on Black Mirror) are two of a handful of unlucky souls that drop into a french village to knock out a communications-jamming tower before the beaches of Normandy get stormed. What they find is an attempt to put meat behind the phrase "a thousand year reich requires thousand year soldiers".

     Julius Avery directs a great cast of fresh faces, who do well with the material, a pretty fresh concept.  In the past, we have seen Peter Cushing doing some nazi zombie shenanigans in 1977's Shock Waves, and Richard Raaphorst attempted the ultimate nazi zombie movie about 12 years ago with the never completed Worst Case Scenario, (he did make Frankenstein's Army) and there's also Tommy Wikola's Dead Snow. There's a bit more here than all that. More than just undead Fuhrer Flunkies. The entitled hatred of the nazi regime is put fully into the frame, lest ye forget. There's a great snappy, and at times,  funny script by Billy Ray, and the special effects work is gruesome and well done. 

     The idea of war and horror don't seem to get merged together much, despite the fact that, in all actuality, they're married to one another.  This movie plays it straight, and outside of the smartass dialogue isn't going for chuckles.  Recommended.

     

     

Samhain Project #11: "The Lodge"

      

     “Movies don't scare me. Real life scares me”.  - John Carpenter

     The Lodge is vaguely reminiscent of Hereditary in the sense that a family is ripped apart by an unspeakable tragedy that the audience doesn't see coming and is left with the aftermath.  In this film, it has nothing to do with the paranormal, however.  Although it's not spelled out for you immediately.   If anything, this is a horror film about consequences of actions, religion, and anger.

     One of my favorite young actors is Jaeden Martell (Midnight Special (one of my recent favorite films), both IT films, Apple's Defending Jacob) and he is absolutely heartbreaking here, along with the girl who plays his younger sister, Lia McHugh.  Their stepmother is channeled by Riley Keough who many will know from Mad Max: Fury Road, It Comes at Night, and the unexplainable Hold the Dark, and she carries the film straight into the bowels of hell.   Veteran screen presences Richard Armitage and Alicia Silverstone are here in small doses as the kids' parents.

     Make no mistake, this is dark, disturbing, and challenging horror that some mettle is required for.  I'm not saying it's Salo or Cannibal Holocaust, it is not that kind of horror.  This is the kind of genre film that seeps in, soaks, and stays.  It doesn't like you at all.  Elements of The Shining and The Thing (a movie the kids watch with their stepmom) are definitely present here, as The titular lodge is snow bound on the east coast, and the 3 principals are stuck with each other, but this movie wants you to know that evil spirits and aliens aren't necessary for a horror film.  

They need not apply here.   Bravo to all involved, including writer/directors Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz, who get painful, sordid performances out of everyone.  There must be a hurt manual with a chapter on the creep factor they used for research.   This isn't for everyone.  It's a slow burn, but there will be times you want to step on the fuse.

Samhain Project #10 : Black Christmas (1974)

      

       Long before Halloween launched seasonal horror, there was Bob Clark's Black Christmas.  Believe it or not, Bob Clark is the mind behind holiday family great, A Christmas Story and 60's teenagers on hormone overdrive flick, Porky's.   I will say this for Black Christmas.

      It's effective as hell. 

     So, you got a group of college girls in their sorority house prepping for the holidays. This doesn't go where you think it will.  There's no naughty naked hijinks in this one.  You have actresses who will go on to great future successes (Olivia Hussey, Andrea Martin, Margot Kidder) playing frightened gals receiving disturbing (and I mean disturbing) phone calls.  The reaction shots are effective.  The phone calls lead to much worse.  Murderous behavior kicks in.  Poor Ms. Hussey has a musician boyfriend with major issues, and you have a house mother with a drinking problem and a lack of understanding of her job.

     At least John Saxon is there to try to save the day.  It's 1974, so, of course he is. 

     Despite Christmas in the title, this works as a creepy, disturbing little venture into the horror genre and Halloween collection, that pending comparisons otherwise, it's not a true slasher film. Gore is at a minimum, and performances are solid to very good for the genre we're in here.    

     So, um, Happy Holidays, I guess.  Hey! It's Art Hindle and Keir Dullea!!! 

Samhain Project #9 "The Raven"

 

          This is actually a compelling film.  Grisly though it may be, it's not going to scare many.  It's 1849 Baltimore and someone is murdering people using the macabre methods from local legend, but destitute writer Edgar Allan Poe (John Cusack).  Poe is given great condescending dialogue that you like, not because of the put down involved, but the cleverness.  Turns out he's in love with a local ingenue whose father hates his guts (another flawless Brendan Gleeson performance), and having just returned from France, Poe finds his fortunes already shitty, and they're about to get worse. 

      When the local inspector general (played in a solid turn here by Luke Evans) turns to Poe because the murders are linked to his writings,  (Pit and the Pendulum to Cask of Amontillado) the plot then goes from comic romantic melodrama to serial killer thriller.  Cusack's take on Poe is pretty solid, though I'm sure he wasn't like the portrayal in real life.  Who can know?  The direction from James McTiegue (V for Vendetta) is fluid, he gets good performances from all involved,  and this period piece looks great. 

     The flick fits the Halloween mode because (Like Stonehearst Asylum), it's steeped in Edgar Allan Poe, quite possibly the originator of the organized horror story, and works as a crime thriller for those who don't do straight terror.  In this sense, it is vaguely reminiscent of the Hughes Brothers From Hell.

Take a look at it, as I feel it's underrated.  It didn't get much heat upon release, and was a critical and box office failure, evidenced that much like Stonehearst, I found it at Dollar Tree. 

Samhain Project #8 : Alone

     

  Alone is a remake of a Swedish film written and directed by Mattias Olsson, (here the scriptwork is still handled by him) about a woman wonderfully played by an actress I've not had the pleasure of seeing before named Jules Willcox, who is packing up a U-Haul and taking off from something.  On the way, she encounters a pyschopath who plays mind games before abducting her.  The film takes a great tension building path getting you to the crux of our heroine's distress.  It's pretty hard to guess the direction this will take initially, and the obvious clear stress Willcox is under before her antagonist goes to work is nicely, and delicately handled.  She's an impressive performer.

     Willcox' character is smarter than your average bear. She's not in any mood for these types of male on female violence shenanigans. I'll let you savor the ingenuity of her character, her guts, toughness, and smarts.   Our nutjob antagonist is played by Marc Menchaca, who many will recognize as one of Ruth's stupid, confused uncles on the Netflix stunner Ozark.  He's terrific on Ozark, and that role is nothing like the individual he plays here. There's a sociopathic emptiness behind his eyes, which belong to a face that carries with it the utter definition of benign.  But isn't that what they say about all serial killers and victimizers?

     Alone is directed by John Hyams.  Some would consider him a journeyman director in a sense, but a closer look reveals great success in the direct-to-dvd action arena, and is given credit for breathing new life into the Universal Soldier franchise, to the point where they've gotten critical praise and were regarded among the straight to home video best of their year.   Hyams is a second generation filmmaker, whose father I've written about before here.    Peter Hyams never really made any huge box office smashes, but his films were successful enough to warrant 40 years of regular work on high budget fare like Capricorn One, Outland, Running Scared, The Relic, etc.  His son is also a very good filmmaker himself, and after doing mostly action, he shows a flare for suspense and tension that bodes well for future films.

      This is a good Halloween choice, as tension, scares and suspense are here in great quantity.  It is a distant cousin to Don Coscarelli's short film Incident On and Off a Mountain Road, starring Ethan Embry, and based on Joe Lansdale's short story.  That one goes more for straight horror, and I also highly recommend it. 

     Check out Alone, but maybe don't watch it that way.

      

      

Samhain Project #7 : "Infections"

 

     Eli Roth probably isn't a good film director.  I have yet to see a film of his I've regarded as high quality.  Also, anyone that's read his musings should be aware that his love for horror films often goes deep into the arena of the little bit too far.  His obsession with Cannibal Holocaust, To Be Twenty (with its original ending) and others of their ilk is what I'm talking about.  I myself don't like to tread those waters. Call me a lightweight. Whatever.  I have my reasons; mostly that I don't find actually filmed animal murders, or sexual assault to be entertaining on any level.

     However, as a student of film, and the horror genre in general, there are few that could be considered his peer.  He knows his shits.  His little AMC series, History of Horror is now into its third season, and there has to be a reason for that.  I love how his talking heads range in diversity from Joe Dante to Joe Hill.  Films I don't expect mentioning are often featured.   Its a good series, and I often find myself wanting the episode to go on longer. 

    The most recent installment is about infections. From diseases, to parasites, to hysteria.   In the era of Covid, this is a pretty topical episode. The films discussed at length are Steven Soderbergh's terrifying Contagion, (which is fucking prophetic on more than one level) David Cronenberg's seminal Shivers, Richard Stanley's masterful Color out of Space, among others.  How in the hell Barry Levinson's The Bay got left out is a serious question that needs addressing, however.  All in all though, Roth and his brothers in the macabre do a nice job explaining why movies dealing with viruses or infections work more often than not, and do more than just gross people out.  

     It's because in actuality, the subject matter could literally potentially happen. And you're not just watching the film in this case, you're required to deal with it.

Samhain Project #6 : Stonehearst Asylum

 

     This was a blu ray I found at The Dollar Tree.  Odd.  With its cast, production values, Edgar Allan Poe source material,  and director, Brad Anderson (Session 9), I thought that it had the pedigree to be a gothic creep-inducer.  The players here are Jim Sturgess, Kate Beckinsale, Ben Kingsley, David Thewlis, and if that isn't enough, toss in a sprinkling of two of my faves, Brendan Gleeson and THE Michael Caine (Remember The Hand?). 

     It kinda suffers from The VVitch syndrome; great performances, terrific scenery and aura, but it's not scary.  It's like a Merchant-Ivory gothic horror melodrama, and that ain't a bad thing necessarily, but it was marketed as a horror film, man.  When you see what Brad Anderson did with the infamous Danvers Asylum in Session 9, I couldn't wait to see where this went. (sigh)  I can't not recommend it, because it's got its heart in the right place, and everyone is giving it a hundred percent, but I was disappointed in the end result; which, really and truly is not the film's fault.   Not at all.

     It's like blaming My Sharona or More Than a Feeling because the damn radio stations couldn't stop playing them.

     The plot is this: a doctor visits an insane asylum as the eve of 1899 comes to an end. He's to receive clinical training as an alienist, or asylum doctor.  (Where did that term go, and thank god it went).  All is not as it seems, as our hero, (Mr. Sturgess) finds that the lunatics are literally running the asylum, but was it being run properly before this patient-led coup took place?  Again, a film in my October movie exploration that offers more questions than answers in the long run, and honestly, there probably aren't any right ones. 

     Worth a watch?  Sure.  In November.