Like Water For Chocolate (1992)

Mexican novelist Laura Esquivel’s 1989 book was filmed by her then-husband Alfonso Arau (probably better known to readers of this site as the actor who played El Guapo in John Landis’ 1986 comedy THREE AMIGOS) in 1992, and it’s just received a new dual DVD and Blu-ray release courtesy of Arrow Films.

We are in Mexico at the turn of the twentieth century. On a ranch near the US border lives Tita, youngest of the three daughters of Elena, and destined by tradition to spend her days looking after her mother until the old lady dies. Into her life comes Pedro, who wishes to marry her. Unable to do so because of the looking-after-mother-rule, he marries firstborn daughter Rosaura instead, so that at least he can be near the woman he loves. 

Years pass, and Tita’s love of cooking, combined with a supernatural ability to infuse her food with her emotions, causes her to have an effect on the community around her. This also includes her mother and her two sisters, one of whom runs off to become a revolutionary, while Rosaula ends up overweight and excessively burpy, eventually dying of flatulence (an art house first?). As numerous elements seem to contrive to stop them will Tita and Pedro, doomed lovers if ever there were, finally end up together? And if so, at what cost?

In case you’re wondering (I certainly was by the end), the title LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE refers to the boiling water used to make hot chocolate, and in its native Spanish refers to someone hot-headed, either with anger or passion. It’s the latter emotion with which Arau’s film (and Esquivel’s novel) concerns itself. The film looks beautiful, and is a fine example of the literary genre known as ‘magic realism’ brought to the screen. In fact the movie feels like an adult fairy tale, taking place in a land where magic is possible but never overly intrusive, and with a distinct tone of the quirky fable about it (the movie is told in flashback by a girl balancing an onion on her head). 

        Arrow’s Blu-ray of LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE is a lovely transfer that does full justice to the film’s colour palette of golds and browns, beautiful sunsets and warm vistas. The only extra is a commentary track, recorded in 2013 and featuring director Arau and stars Lumi Cavazos (Tita) and Narco Leonardi (Pedro). It’s in Spanish but there are subtitles.

Arrow Films released LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE on dual format Region 2 DVD and Region B Blu-ray on 2nd March 2015

The Sorcerers (1967)

"Classic 1960s British science fiction horror from writer

 John Burke and director Michael Reeves"

In between the low budget Italian Barbara Steele-starrer THE SHE BEAST and the magnificent classic of British cinema that is WITCHFINDER GENERAL, director Michael Reeves made THE SORCERERS. It's one of the very few movies that successfully managed to bridge the gap between a kind of cinema that already felt long gone (Universal, Boris Karloff, mad scientist movies) and the new, lively British cinema movement of blood-soaked Hammer horrors and kitchen sink dramas. THE SORCERERS has just had a deserved re-release on Blu-ray and DVD by Odeon in a gorgeously restored print that’s worth a look by long-time aficionados as well as those new to it.

One of my favourite stills from Denis Gifford's Pictorial History of Horror Movies

Professor Marcus Monserrat (Boris Karloff), medical hypnotist fallen on hard times, offers treatments for phobias and anxiety from the tiny threadbare flat he shares with his wife Estelle (Catherine Lacey) . But Monserrat has also been working on an as-yet untested project, one which he intends to use to allow the elderly and the infirm to experience a different kind of life by sharing the sensations of young subjects. Encountering bored Mike (Ian Ogilvy) in a Wimpy bar, Monserrat takes him home and tries out the device, which is a success. Unfortunately, Estelle quickly realises she can control Mike’s actions better than her husband, and uses Mike to experience the thrill of robbery and murder. As she, and therefore Mike, both become more uncontrollable, it is up to the frail and good-natured professor to try and stop her before the situation becomes even worse.

A scene created by the miracle of setting a car on fire and then running away before the police turn up

THE SORCERERS has enough originality in its script, along with sufficient social commentary (the young and inexperienced being exploited by the old and impotent) to make it an unassuming little gem of a British horror picture. Key performances are all excellent, with Karloff giving us a subtle, nuanced and sympathetic character, and award-winning (for this) Lacey going well over the top as the villain of the piece. Composer Paul Ferris went on to do WITCHFINDER GENERAL as well as THE CREEPING FLESH and his music is nicely broken down and seedy to emphasise the surroundings. The car chase at the end is still impressive, and the knowledge that the final shots were performed under far from legal circumstances just adds an extra frisson to the feel of the movie.

Before Sheila Keith there was Catherine Lacey - another good reason to be scared of old ladies

Odeon Entertainment have done THE SORCERERS proud, giving us a transfer that’s a considerable improvement on the old Metrodome DVD. Most of the extras from the disc have been ported over, including the entry on Michael Reeves in the Eurotika TV series entitled ‘Blood Beast’, as well as a trailer and image gallery. There's also an early Michael Reeves short film 'Intrusions' which is black and white, silent, and runs for about ten minutes. There's no feature commentary but the short has one by Benjamin Halligan and Michael Armstrong. Of by far the greatest value in the extras, though, is a talking head piece by Johnny Mains, friend and associate of the late John Burke, whose original idea, and script, THE SORCERERS was. Johnny gives us background on the writing and production of the film that I’ve not come across anywhere else, and his account of the scuppering of Burke’s head screenwriter credit (he only gets ‘original idea’ on the film) is a detailed and heartfelt tribute to a writer he obviously admires greatly. 

        THE SORCERERS is a great British film, now finally given the presentation and the extras it deserves. Another cracker from Odeon. 

Odeon Entertainment have released Michael Reeves' THE SORCERERS on Region B Blu-ray and Region 2 DVD and it's out now

Silicon Valley (2014)

Mike Judge, the man responsible for animated TV hits Beavis and Butthead and KING OF THE HILL turns to live action for his latest comedy TV series, inspired by his own experiences working in the place of the same name in SILICON VALLEY, the first series (or season for our American readers) of which is due to be released soon on Blu-ray and DVD by Warners. 

Set in the high-powered, high financial stakes, high geekery world of software engineering, the eight episodes presented here introduce us to a group of typical twenty-something computer nerds hoping to make it big in a world where a lack of social life, absence of interpersonal relationships, and an unhealthy and excessive interest in all things to do with the internet are viewed as a positive advantage. 

Thankfully a working knowledge of modern programming jargon is not necessary to allow you to enjoy the show, which plays on the tried and true format of a bunch of weirdos forced to live together who get themselves into trouble each week through their basic cluelessness and inability to cope with everyday problems ‘normal’ people wouldn’t even consider a challenge. 

When Richard Hendriks (Thomas Middleditch)  invents Pied Piper, a new way of compressing files that could spell huge profits for whoever owns the concept the race is on to buy his idea. Deciding to go with eccentric and peculiar Peter Gregory (Christopher Evan Welch, who comes across as an American David Mitchell) it soon becomes obvious that neither Richard nor his housemates have the slightest idea how to go about formulating a business plan, much less implement it. 

This basic plot is merely the springboard to sequences of inspired comedy daftness. Magic mushroom trips, toga parties and satanism all add up to a series which is often hilarious and never less than charming. All the characters are endearing and are well enough drawn that SILICON VALLEY certainly has the mileage potential of something like THE BIG BANG THEORY. 

As with all these kinds of shows, it takes a little while to get to know the principal characters which, along with geeky Richard include entrepreneur Erlich (T J Miller) who owns the house they all live in; Satanist Bertram Guilfoyle (Martin Starr);  Big Head (Josh Brener) who gets thrown out of the group and snatched up by rival company Hooli, only for them to discover he’s useless; and Dinesh Chugtai (Kumail Nanjani, who gave a hilarious turn as ‘the stepfather’ in BAD MILO). To dilute all this male geekery we have Amanda Crews (FINAL DESTINATION 3 & HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT) as Monica, Peter Gregory’s PA.

Warners’ Blu-ray set offers all eight episodes over two discs, with commentaries for every episode, a making of featurette and episode previews. 

Very much expanding on some of the themes Judge began to explore in his 1999 comedy OFFICE SPACE, SILICON VALLEY is well worth checking out if you’re looking for a new loser-weirdo-outsider-type comedy show to watch. And yes, a second season is on the way. 

Warners are releasing SILICON VALLEY on Region B Blu-ray and Region 2 DVD in a two disc set on 23rd March 2015

A Haunting at Silver Falls (2013)

"Reminiscent of classic UK kids' TV of the 1970s"

The ghosts of twin murdered teens help a girl solve a small town murder mystery in A HAUNTING AT SILVER FALLS, which has just been released in the UK by 101 Films.

When teenager Jordan’s father dies she has to move from Los Angeles to stay with her uncle and aunt the tiny country town of Silver Falls. One evening at an outdoor party, she declines the usual drugs and beer to go for a wander in the woods on her own. In an American film of this type this would usually label her as maniac fodder but instead, in a movie that’s rather better than expected she finds a ring that is impossible to remove once placed on her finger. It also causes her to have visions of two RINGU-type ghost girls. Apparently they were murdered by their father who is currently on death row. As her own personal haunting worsens, Jordan discovers who actually killed them and finds herself under the same threat.

In a market glutted by ropey movies shot with hand held cameras and looking as if they’re the first efforts of individuals with no visual style at all (and often a serious tremor) A HAUNTING AT SILVER FALLS is actually quite a pleasant surprise - a slow burn YA horror movie with sympathetic characters and a fine sense of small town grimness. Director Brett Donowho demonstrates his lack of hackness in several well put-together shots and for once here is someone who actually knows how to use those blue and grey filters to make a country lane look threatening.

A HAUNTING AT SILVER FALLS isn’t a full-on horror picture. In fact I’d be tempted to recommend it most to those who yearn for the old days of 1970s children’s TV series like SHADOWS or THE CHANGES, where intelligent teens solve a mystery despite the hindrance of the adults around them. It’s far from perfect, but it’s certainly an effective time waster if you’re in the mood for something sedately paced and atmospheric.

        101 Films’ DVD is strictly bare bones, with just a menu and chapter breaks. 

101 Films released A HAUNTING AT SILVER FALLS on Region 2 DVD on 23rd February 2015

Night of the Big Heat (1967)

Britain’s Planet Film Productions strikes again with this 1967 follow-up to ISLAND OF TERROR. In fact the movie was known in the US under the rather better title of ISLAND OF THE BURNING DAMNED. Either way it’s a film that doesn’t quite measure up to its predecessor but is still a lot of good old fashioned British fun. 

Once again it's time to sit in the pub and worry about aliens trying to steal our beer

The remote island of Fara is undergoing a tropical heatwave in November. Brusque Christopher Lee is trying to find out why in his hotel room packed with laboratory equipment. He’s staying at the local pub run by author Patrick Allen and his (real-life) wife Sarah Lawson. What she doesn’t know is that they moved to the island because Patrick was suffering an acute case of writer’s block due to having it off with Jane Merrow on the side. Bad girl Jane has followed him to the island and the unusual weather allows her plenty of opportunity to try and entice him back by wearing nothing but a bikini or a blouse that is probably far wetter than it needs to be.

Patrick Allen confronts his writer's block

As with ISLAND OF TERROR, disposable locals are being bumped off by Something Horrible. First to go is dear old Sydney Bromley. Others soon follow, their bodies found burned to a crisp. But what’s doing the burning? We don’t get to see until right at the end, which is probably just as well as the monsters are a bit of an anti-climax, especially if you’ve seen ISLAND OF TERROR and are expecting something of at least the minimal technical achievement of the silicates. Instead we get something resembling a blancmange crossed with a plastic bag. Whereas the monsters in ISLAND OF TERROR were created by man’s misexperimentation, these creatures are from another planet and are hoping to use earth for their own devices. However, they figure without rain, which means they really haven’t planned their takeover at all if they’ve come to Britain, although I suppose the really stupid aliens ended up in Wales.

The aliens still don't quite understand how to play hide and seek

NIGHT OF THE BIG HEAT is fun, but it’s nowhere near as good as its predecessor. The science fiction elements (from a novel by John Lymington) often take a backseat to Patrick Allen getting to grips with a moist Jane Merrow. Admittedly she’s rather appealing in her heated up state, but one soon starts wishing the monsters would turn up. Peter Cushing is along for the ride (and only about three scenes) as the local doctor, but he exhibits none of the enthusiasm for his role that we saw in ISLAND OF TERROR. Many of the same personnel are carried over from that film, including director Terence Fisher and composer Malcolm Lockyer, but sadly this time the magic is rather missing.

Christopher Lee reacts to the news that after this he's starring in DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE

Odeon’s transfer of NIGHT OF THE BIG HEAT is not as good as ISLAND OF TERROR, but it’s perfectly passable for a film of this vintage. Where the package really wins is in the extras, which include a commentary track by Marcus Hearn, star Sir Christopher Lee and screenwriters Pip and Jane Baker. It’s the best kind of commentary, being pleasantly chatty and at the same time informative and I can highly recommend it. We also get a 19 minute featurette on Sir Christopher’s career and an image gallery. NIGHT OF THE BIG HEAT is more a Saturday afternoon time waster than a classic of the genre, but this is a very decent package for this minor footnote in British genre history. 

Odeon Entertainment have released NIGHT OF THE BIG HEAT on Region B Blu-ray and Region 2 DVD and it's out now

Island of Terror (1966)

"Absolutely smashing 1960s BritMonster SF fun."

Director Terence Fisher, creator of many a fine Hammer horror, took a break from gothics in the mid-1960s to make a few low budget British science fiction movies for other companies. The black and white THE EARTH DIES SCREAMING (1964) which he made for Robert Lippert, is really only of interest to completists, but the two colour features he made for Planet Productions are both well made monster adventure pictures. ISLAND OF TERROR, the better of the two, came first (NIGHT OF THE BIG HEAT followed in 1967) and it has finally had a decent UK Blu-ray and DVD release courtesy of Odeon Entertainment.

One of the many movies of the 1960s that made the little me want to be a scientist

All is not well on the remote Petrie’s island, the landscape of which bears a striking resemblance to Buckinghamshire’s Black Park. Bodies are turning up entirely bereft of bones and local Dr Eddie Byrne, determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, calls in bone pathology experts Peter Cushing and Edward Judd. 

See a torch meet a squishy hand!

Together with pretty Carole Gray (from Don Sharp’s 1965 CURSE OF THE FLY) they discover that at a research establishment on the island, an experiment to cure cancer has gone horribly wrong and instead created silicon-based blob monsters with wobbly tentacles that can suck all the calcium phosphate out of you. They’re also reproducing at an alarming rate (we get to see one do it in a welter of what looks like spaghetti) and if something isn’t done quickly the island will soon be overrun. 

It's in the trees! It's…oh hang no it's not anymore, sorry. 

Co-produced by an uncredited Richard Gordon, and double-billed in the US with his THE PROJECTED MAN, the movie originally called The Night the Silicates Came was retitled in favour of something more attention-grabbing. Now nearly fifty years old, ISLAND OF TERROR still holds up pretty well as an example of the ‘British scientists sitting in the local pub drinking Guinness and pondering the monster problem while locals are horribly killed’ subgenre.

You won't solve this sitting in the pub drinking coffee, chaps

The climax is very well put together, as the silicate monsters besiege the survivors in the local town hall, break in and begin to kill them all off. In fact, if John Carpenter had been making movies in the 1960s, ISLAND OF TERROR is just how one of them might have turned out. The silicates themselves look rather ropey now, inspiring affection rather than terror, but the whole thing moves along at such a pace and the performances are all pitched just right, that the film is a lot of undemanding fun.

…and the little me still wanted to be a scientist despite scenes like this

ISLAND OF TERROR has been available in the UK in a number of formats over the years, none of them hanging around on shop shelves for very long. Odeon’s transfer is undoubtedly the finest, with the Eastmancolor tones looking as rich as they are probably ever going to. The film is uncut as well, with a previously excised scene of Peter Cushing’s hand being amputated reinstated to provide a bit of gore. Extras are  limited to a trailer and an image library but to be honest it’s great to have this little British classic available again, and in such fine shape. Well done Odeon. 

ISLAND OF TERROR is available now on Region B Blu-ray and Region 2 DVD from Odeon Entertainment

Glasgow Frightfest 2015

This weekend just gone it’s been time once again for Lady P and me to travel north of the border in search of new terrors. I don’t usually do a writeup of Glasgow Frightfest but this time there was enough worth mentioning to fill a few column inches and hopefully provide a bit of entertainment along the way. Regular features of the Glasgow festival were present and correct, including the ghastly ticket booking system renowned for making grown men and women cry, and crushingly narrow seating in the actual cinema designed to fill you with nostalgia for the 3mm of leg room you enjoyed on your EasyJet flight up, but as usual we cheerfully ignored these for the usual benefits of watching eleven films in a packed auditorium with like-minded horror fans. 

But what of the programme, I hear you ask? I did have hopes that as a certain film has made a major splash at the box office we’d be seeing multiple horror rip offs of FIFTY SHADES OF GREY. But Jess Franco is dead and Peter Strickland probably never intended to rise to *that* kind of challenge with DUKE OF BURGUNDY, and the splashing we encountered repeatedly in different movies over the weekend was of an entirely different and considerably more body functional kind. Oh yes, more than ReTitleFest, or PracticallyNo NudityFest, this year’s Glasgow Frightfest programme had a rather unhealthy obsession with urine, culminating in a film that featured not just bottles and bottles of it but a tank filled with gallons of the stuff. But I’m getting ahead of myself. The programme included a couple of shorts, including the Aickmanesque THE STOMACH about a medium who harbours the souls of the recently deceased in his gastrointestinal tract and becomes involved with seedy mobsters as a result, and a look at Paul SEASONING HOUSE Hyett’s new British movie HOWL, aka Werewolves on a Train, which looks as if it could be excellent. 

And now... the films:

STONEHEARST ASYLUM

        Isn't that a terrible poster? The Thursday night film to get the festival started, this was billed as ELIZA GRAVES but had undergone a last minute retitling, presumably when someone must have pointed out that Brad Anderson’s latest, based on ‘a story by Edgar Allan Poe’ - don’t tell us which then, oh useless credits - wasn’t actually about the character played by Kate Beckinsale with her usual vapidity at all. The Poe tale they don’t seem to be keen to reveal the title of is ‘The System of Dr Tarr and Professor Feather’. Jim Sturgess arrives at a remote mental hospital to discover the inmates have taken over the asylum, led by Ben Kingsley doing his best Donald Pleasance. Despite a great cast that also includes Michael Caine and Sinead Cusack, a great location and some superb production design STONEHEARST ASYLUM is gothic melodrama at its most drab and uninspired, a TV movie that suggests SESSION 9 was a fluke and that Brad Anderson is now incapable of directing anything with an ounce of suspense or atmosphere. Uneven in tone throughout, this is a film that doesn’t know what it wants to be and whatever it ends up as, it certainly isn’t horror. Boooo!

THE ATTICUS INSTITUTE

        Semi found-footage ‘shockumentary’ that uses 8mm film, photographs and tapes to tell the story of Dr Henry West’s researches into paranormal phenomena. Not bad up to a point, that point being where the demon thing turns up and they have to get a priest in. Worth it for the gas mask exorcism sequence that goes horribly wrong but not much else.

THE HOARDER

        I think I was the only one in the audience who liked this one even a little bit. Coming on like a cross between an EC comics story and something from the Pan Book of Horror, Mischa Barton goes poking into the affairs (and the storage facility) of her fiance only to unleash what appears to be a flesh-eating monster from one of the lower levels. What’s actually going on turns out to be far dafter than that. I smiled at the ending even if no-one else did.

WYRMWOOD

        One of the best of the festival. An Australian zombie movie with its own rules, excellent pacing, superb characters and an original take on a well-worn theme that kept your attention. It says MAD MAX on the poster but I was reminded more of early Peter Jackson gore comedies like BAD TASTE and BRAIN DEAD.

88

        Fans of Katharine Isabelle smoking, weeing and pouring milk all over herself will be the main audience for this trying-a-bit-too-hardboiled noir. Katharine’s in a fugue state after witnessing something terrible, but what is it? And why does she need to roll around on bed covers in her bra so much? Christopher Lloyd and Michael Ironside both pop up in this one which will also appeal to those who enjoy over-ripe Tarantinoesque dialogue

THE ASYLUM

        When you attend the European premiere of an American film that’s already undergone two title changes you know you’re not onto a winner. Step forward EXETER aka BACKMASK aka THE ASYLUM. Marcus Nispel’s exorcism in an asylum whodunnit priest twist teen movie is hilariously dreadful and quite appalling entertaining. Thank you Glasgow Frightfest audience for helping me laugh my way through this piece of rubbish to the very end.

CLOWN

        Estate agent Dad puts on old clown costume that turns out to the skin of an ancient demon for his son’s birthday party. Said demon eats children. Horror ensues. CLOWN isn’t bad at all, although it could have benefitted from being a bit lighter in tone and a lot lighter in photography

BLOOD AND BLACK LACE

        Mario Bava shows everyone how to make a film properly. Full writeup when I review Arrow's forthcoming Blu-ray restoration, of which this was the world premiere.

THE TREATMENT

        Belgian version of a British crime novel, this was by turns extremely grim and utterly ridiculous. I’m a big fan of the latter but the unrelentingly horrible crimes, the dismal settings and the maladjusted characters were all too much for me. And has everything been shot through one of those dark blue-grey filters or does Belgium just look like that?

REC 4: APOCALYPSE

        REC 4 - REC ON A BOAT is probably a more appropriate title as there isn’t an apocalypse in sight. Part 4s of movie franchises are never very good, and Spanish horror sequels set on boats aren’t that good either, are they Amando THE GHOST GALLEON de Ossorio? Taking ages to get going (I think after 45 minutes nothing much had happened) and eschewing camcorder footage for more traditional cinemascope storytelling techniques, I think all the fans of this series are going to be disappointed with this one, in which very little happens that’s new or original.  My favourite RECs are Parts 1 & 3. Some prefer parts 1 & 2. No-one is going to have part 4 as one of their favourites.

THERE ARE MONSTERS

        Shaky wobbly found footage cam gives way to some frightening stuff in the only movie of the festival to properly scare me. Everyone in the world is gradually being replaced by monsters who eat you ‘from the inside out’ in this riff on BODY SNATCHERS. Terrific use of technology to provide some unbearably suspenseful scenes means Glasgow Frightfest ended on a high. This was a world premiere as the film is still awaiting a distribution deal, but I can't believe it will stay on the shelf for long.