Diary Of A Movie Watchin' Madman, Vol. II, Part 1 - Bride Of The Madman

     Like almost everyone, I make a special effort to watch even more genre movies than usual during the month of October.  Last year, this post chronicling my Pre'Ween viewing schedule was a standalone at the end of the month.  This year, however, my notes on all the movies I was watching started to get out of hand.  Here, then, is the first part of the Pre'Ween 2014 Diary Of A Movie Watchin' Madman.  The second part drops at the end of the month.  Speak up in the Comments below.  Since most of these are newer movies, I'm anxious to compare notes.

(10/1) Septic Man (2013)  - Tony Burgess wrote Pontypool (2008), one of the best genre movies of the last decade.  He also wrote the recently released Septic Man, the tale of a sewage worker transformed into something hideous by toxic sewage.  You can imagine how excited I was to find it streaming on Vudu for only ninety-nine cents on the very first day of Pre'Ween.  After watching, I think I know why it was on sale.

     Although it held my attention throughout, Septic Man is a hard movie to watch.  Viewers are treated to the graphic rendering of a projectile vomit/projectile diarrhea twofer in the movie's first few minutes, and then it never really gets any less gross after that.  I know.  What did I expect?  It's all right there in the title.  I could have been okay with the crudity, though, if only there had been anything going on beneath the shitty surface.

     Though ponderous and oozing with portent, the shit in Septic Man is never really as deep as director Jesse Thomas Cook obviously wants us to believe it is. To be fair, he does make solid use of Nate Kreiswirth's pulsing, synthesized score to convince the viewer something is happening even when it's not.  Still, the vague narrative and willfully obtuse storytelling of Septic Man ultimately sinks it even if you can stomach the nastiness. This was a less than auspicious start to my Pre'Ween viewing.  (First Watch)

(10/4) Invasion Of The Bee Girls (1973) - I have no recollection of watching this.  I did, but my attention wandered almost immediately.  A movie about women killing men by fucking them to death should've been more compelling.  Invasion Of The Bee Girls was chock full of naked women, bizarre dialog, and bad acting, but those elements just didn't jell into the silly soft-core camp fest I was anticipating.  (First Watch)

  
(10/6) Horror Hospital (1973) - Michael Gough owns it as the evil Dr. Storm, a wheelchair bound nut job who uses his "Hairy Holidays" health farm to lure wayward hippies to the country to be lobotomized.  The mad doctor has also made a pretty nifty modification to his Rolls Royce.  Did I mention his dwarf manservant Frederick?  It's all here, folks, and it's all just as loopy as it sounds.

     Though I'll cop to being a tiny bit disappointed by Horror Hospital (its reputation led me to believe it would be a little more over the top than it actually was) I can't say I didn't enjoy it.  How could I not be tickled by Frederick the dwarf methodically stacking unconscious bodies on top of one another to reach a lock at the top of a door?   (First Watch)


(10/8) Sledge (2014) - Unfortunately, this low budget slasher from writer/director/star Kristian Hansen pushed my Pre'Ween movie binge back a few steps.  Hansen attempts to be meta by having us watching someone else watch the movie Sledge on a television program called Assly's True American Horror, but the conceit leads to little more than an obvious final scare.

     You see, the movie-within-a-television-show-within-a-movie entitled Sledge stars a killer named Adam Lynch, who believes himself to be the star of a movie/video game.  His victims are just ducks in a shooting gallery as far as he's concerned.  Of course, his victims in the movie feel differently.  There's potential here, but the tone swings wildly from the humorous (Lynch's stream of consciousness patter as he takes out his victims) to the oddly sober (a laboriously structured love triangle that strains to build viewer empathy for Lynch's victims, though it seems clear from the tone elsewhere that Sledge is only spoofing the sub-genre it emulates).

     In fairness to the filmmakers, I feel obliged to note that reviews of Sledge from around the internet are mostly positive.  I wasn't wowed by Sledge, but a lot of other horror fans were.  Since the production was obviously crafted from limited resources - and makes decent use of said resources - I don't want to be less than charitable in my own assessment.  I can at least acknowledge that I saw potential here, and there are worse ways to blow a few bucks of your streaming budget than supporting an earnest attempt by fledgling filmmakers to do something a little different with a limited budget.  Sledge didn't do much for me, but you may love it.  (First Watch)       
                                                            

(10/10) Banshee Chapter (2013) - Here at last is my first pleasant surprise this Pre'Ween.  Banshee Chapter had been lurking in my Netflix queue for a long while, but I kept jumping over it because I assumed a narrative revolving around the CIA's nightmarish Project MKUltra would be overwhelmingly depressing and bleak.  It turns out Banshee Chapter plays more like a previously un-produced episode of The X-Files, with plots and conspiracies woven together to create a more traditionally creepy horror flick than I expected.

    Even better, the always amazing Ted "Buffalo Bill" Levine steals the show as writer Thomas Blackburn, a thinly veiled riff on gonzo counter cultural icon Hunter S. Thompson.  Levine seems to be channeling the late Thompson, and his performance elevates Banshee Chapter from decent to noteworthy.  This was the most fun I've had with a horror flick in a long while.  First time director Blair Erickson mines the dark corners of the frame for all the spooky atmosphere possible, and he wields those vast expanses of inky blackness throughout the movie like a weapon.  There are plenty of well-earned jump scares to keep the viewer on edge, and Erickson scares more by virtue of what he doesn't show than what he does.

     It's worth noting, too, that Banshee Chapter borrows many of its creepy narrative conceits from H.P. Lovecraft's "From Beyond", a connection I wasn't aware of prior to viewing.  That being the case, Banshee Chapter stands as one of the better adaptations of Lovecraft that I've seen, as well.  Recommended.  (First Watch)

(10/11) Horns (2013) - Last but not least in my first wave of Pre'Ween viewing is director Alexandre Aja's pleasingly odd horror fantasy Horns, an adaptation of Joe Hill's novel of the same name.  Star Daniel Radcliffe works hard to put a little distance between himself and Harry Potter, and he largely succeeds.  Aja evolves a bit, too, tackling a story dependent upon both tragedy and humor to maintain its unique tone.  It's a tough balancing act, and Aja pulls it off admirably.

     Since this is a new release, I'm going to refrain from delving too deeply into the details and say only that I had high expectations, being both a fan of the source novel and of director Alexandre Aja's previous work.  I was not disappointed.  Horns is funny, dark, touching, and wholly unique.  While it probably should not be your first choice if you're looking for a traditionally scary horror movie this season, I'm certain most genre fans will find a lot to like about it when in a more reflective frame of mind.  Fittingly, Horns is a movie to curl up with just as you would a good book on a chilly autumn afternoon.  Recommended.  (First Watch)                  

                                                 

The Dog Farm's Pre'Ween 2014 Video On Demand Wishlist - Why Is It So Hard To Find A VOD Release Schedule?

      I'm an audio/video snob when I watch movies at home.  Given that I never see most of the movies I watch in a proper theater, I do my damnedest to insure that I'm seeing as good a presentation as possible.  I have a reasonably nice home theater set-up, so the bigger issue is usually poor picture and sound from the source.  That being the case, I don't watch many movies that I actually give a damn about seeing via streaming services.

     That is, I didn't until I recently treated myself to a new renderer.  At last the picture and sound quality - though still not as good as a pristine Blu-ray - is usually pretty solid.  I've been burning through loads of movies on Netflix recently, and when it came time to make my stack of movies for Pre'Ween this year I decided I'd try something new.  Rather than going the traditional route of spending way too much money on discs this October, I've chosen instead to watch most of this year's new releases via video-on-demand.  Now that so many genre movies see release on VOD before disc (and in many cases either prior to or concurrent with their theatrical runs), it seemed a good plan.

     What I didn't count on was just how difficult it would be to find release dates for upcoming VOD premieres.  While it's possible to find release dates piecemeal on a title-by-title basis, almost no one curates a complete release calendar.  The best I came across for genre movies was at The Horror Club, which the site's administrators do an admirable job of keeping updated.

     Since they're already doing a fine job of it, what follows is simply a truncated version of their release calendar encompassing only the upcoming releases I'm jonesin' to see.  Each entry offers a release date and key info, and you can click the movie's title to check out the trailer.  Please remember, what follows is only a list of movies that captured my attention.  I've not seen any of these movies yet, so don't mistake a title's inclusion as an endorsement.  I suspect many of these titles, as well as my thoughts about them after I actually watch, will turn up in this year's edition of Diary Of A Movie Watchin' Madman near the end of October.

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Motivational Growth (2013)
Available 9/30
Director: Don Thacker
Stars: Jeffrey Combs, Adrian DiGiovanni, Danielle Doetsch

     A depressed, reclusive thirty-something finds himself taking advice from a growth in his bathroom after a failed suicide attempt.  Is the growth helping the troubled man, or does it actually have less than altruistic motives?

     I can find almost no substantial information about Motivational Growth online save for a handful of early reviews that I'm determined to avoid until after I've seen it for myself.  All I do know is that horror icon Jeffrey Combs voices a sentient bathroom fungus in this dark and disturbing festival darling.  Honestly, though, that's all I need to know.  Shut up and take my money already.

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Open Windows (2014) 
Available 10/2
Director: Nacho Vigalondo
Stars: Sasha Grey, Elijah Wood, Neil Maskell

      An actress refuses to have dinner with a fan who wins a date with her in a contest. The shunned fan is persuaded by a man posing as the star's campaign manager to begin keeping tabs on her from his computer.

     Nacho Vigalondo, director of the segment entitled Parallel Monsters in the upcoming V/H/S: Viral (see below), tackles his own full-length feature starring porn star Sasha Grey and budding horror icon Elijah Wood.  The hook here is that the story unfolds in real time, with the titular open windows referring to the open windows on a computer screen.  Early reviews have been harsh, but I'm intrigued by the concept as well as the casting.  

     And yes, I am familiar with Ms. Grey's other work.  Attention must be paid to any actress who goes from a starring role in Anal Artists (2012) to a starring role in an Oscar nominated director's mainstream horror movie in just two short years.

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Housebound (2014)
Available 10/17
Director: Gerard Johnstone
Stars: Morgana O'Reilly, Rima Ti Wiata, Glen-Paul Waru

     A young woman is forced to return to the house she grew up in when the court places her on home detention.  Does she have an overactive imagination, or is the house actually possessed by a hostile spirit who's less than happy about the new living arrangement?

     Housebound earned universal praise when it premiered at the SXSW festival in March, and it went on to claim the audience award at the Dead By Dawn festival in April.  New Zealanders have displayed a knack for comedic horror in the past, so let's hope Kiwi director/writer Gerard Johnstone's first feature film lives up to the hype.

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See No Evil 2 (2014)
Available 10/17
Director: Jen Soska, Sylvia Soska
Stars: Glenn Jacobs, Danielle Harris, Katharine Isabelle

     A group of friends pays a late-night visit to the city morgue to surprise a morgue employee on her birthday.  The one-eyed corpse of a brutal psychopath unexpectedly rises from the slab and resumes his savage rampage using hooks, surgical knives, and power saws. 

     The first See No Evil (2006) could elicit only a shrug from me, and it seemed like it must have been a franchise non-starter given how long it took for talk of a sequel to materialize.  Then came the announcement that Jen and Sylvia Soska, hot off the success of the fantastic American Mary (2012), had signed on to direct See No Evil 2.  Suddenly I'm interested again.  

     Have the Soska sisters just taken the paycheck, or will they succeed in injecting some new life into the tale of Jacob Goodnight's ongoing killing spree?  The presence of genre stalwarts Danielle Harris and Katherine Isabelle in the cast seems encouraging.  The Soskas will either be credited with reviving what appeared to be a moribund horror franchise solely on the strength of their own prowess as filmmakers, or they'll ruin their well-deserved genre cred with one high profile flame-out.  No pressure, ladies. 

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V/H/S: Viral (2014)
Available 10/23
Director: Justin Benson, Gregg Bishop, Todd Lincoln, Aaron Moorhead, Marcel Sarmiento, Nacho Vigalondo
Stars: Lots of people - it's an anthology, man.

     This third entry in the successful series of horror anthologies follows fame-obsessed teens who unwittingly become stars of the next internet sensation.

     Is there still gas in the V/H/S tank?  New directorial talent for each successive entry keeps things fresh, but anthologies are notoriously hit-or-miss.  So far though the good has outweighed the bad, so the franchise earns at least one more look.  Never mind the fact that video cassettes don't go viral.

     This year's iteration offers segments featuring the story of a deranged illusionist who obtains a magical object of great power, a homemade machine that opens a door to a parallel world, teenage skaters that unwillingly become targets of a Mexican death cult ritual, and a sinister, shadowy organization that's tracking a serial killer.  That final segment, entitled Gorgeous Vortex and directed by Todd Lincoln, was not included in the movie's early screenings, and so it remains to be seen whether or not it will be included in the V/H/S: Viral VOD release. 

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[REC] 4: Apocalypse (2014)
Available: 10/31?
Director: Jaume Balaguero
Stars: Manuela Velasco, Ismael Fritschi, Maria Alfonsa Rosso

     A television reporter is rescued from the quarantined building featured in the franchise's first two entries and is taken to an oil tanker for examination.  The soldiers manning the tanker are unaware that she carries the seed of the mysterious demonic virus within her.

     Will [REC] 4: Apocalypse be available on VOD this Halloween?  Truth is, I don't really know.  The Horror Club says yes, but I've been unable to confirm that elsewhere.  The movie releases theatrically on October 31st in Spain, so...maybe?  I suppose the bigger question is whether or not we should even care after the hugely disappointing [REC] 3: Genesis.  It's a testament to just how good the first two entries are that they engendered enough goodwill to insure that I do.  

     Director Jaume Balaguero returns, as does the narrative thread that follows Manuela Velasco's traumatized television reporter Angela Vidal.  That's promising.  The found footage angle that made [REC] and [REC] 2 so viscerally compelling is still absent, though, so who knows?  Reviews from the premiere at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival are encouraging, so I still maintain hope that this is a satisfying conclusion to the now somewhat tarnished franchise.  If [REC] 4 does, indeed, show up on VOD this Halloween, I'm there.

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     A handful of other titles caught my eye, as well:  The Houses October Built (2013) - available 10/10, The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014) - available 10/16, Life After Beth (10/21) - available 10/21, and Horns (2013).  The Alexandre Aja directed Horns is listed as being available on VOD either 10/3 or 10/31 depending upon the source.

     EDIT 9/30 - It appears as though the VOD release date for Motivational Growth has been pushed back to 10/21, and  [REC] 4 has been removed entirely from the VOD release schedule at The Horror Club.