David Tennant gives us a fine villainous performance in this new crime thriller directed by Dean Devlin. It's getting a UK cinema release from Signature Entertainment, with its premiere at London Frightfest later this week.
Sean Falco (Robert Sheehan) runs a restaurant valet service in Portland Oregon with his chum Derek (Carlito Olivero) but the moment the car keys are in their hands, off they go to their customer's residence to indulge in a bit of petty larceny.
Things take a turn for the harrowing when Sean ends up with the car of Cale Erendreich (David Tennant) who has a lovely big house, posh furniture, and a lady chained up in his office. Sean tries to free her but unfortunately for him Cale finishes his dinner early and wants his car back. Sean contacts the police but when they go to Cale's house the girl has vanished.
Cale, however, is one of those completely bonkers villains and once he has locked his victim up in another cage in the country, he decides to make life a living hell for Sean. Can Sean free the girl, prove to the police that he isn't just a petty thief, and put an end to bad old Cale's girl-torturing, killing and burying ways?
The last thing Dean Devlin directed was 2017's GEOSTORM, which many hoped would be the last thing he would direct, ever. However, in a change of tack from making ludicrous disaster movies (he also produced INDEPENDENCE DAY and the 1998 GODZILLA remake nobody likes to talk about), here he is having a go at the Hitchcockian thriller.
We have a hero no-one believes, a villain everyone believes, and race against time to save both someone's life and the day in general. The big problem is that our hero character is a bloke who breaks into people's houses and steals stuff. It takes considerable skill to get your audience on the side of a character like that and BAD SAMARITAN doesn't quite possess it.
Likewise the raison d'etre for Tennant's character acting the way he does is a bit daft. Like giallo denouement daft. Now, regular readers of this site will know I love a bit of daftness but again, BAD SAMARITAN doesn't quite have the courage to pull off its central concept with any style.
All of which made me grateful for David Tennant. Like Vincent Price or Patrick Stewart, he is capable of making the otherwise mediocre watchable and he does so here, offering us a seething manic loony of a villainous performance that's worth the price of admission. If you need a reason to see BAD SAMARITAN he is definitely it.
BAD SAMARITAN is getting its UK cinema premiere at London Frightfest on Thursday 23rd August 2018 with selected countrywide distribution after that.
I don't get to say that much these days but this really is. The poster claims GHOST STORIES is 'the best British horror in years' which isn't actually that difficult an achievement, but it does prove that even The Sun can get things right occasionally. Anyway, the movie version of Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman's popular stage play is now getting a digital download, DVD and Blu-ray release from Lionsgate so you don't have to take my (or The Sun's) word for it. But if you're still undecided, read on.
Philip Goodman (Andy Nyman) is a professor who specialises in defrauding stage psychics. We already know he is haunted by some occurrence in his childhood from the grainily shot opening title sequence, but it's only when he's approached by his own personal hero in the world of psychic detection that he finds his world starting to unravel.
Goodman is tasked with investigating three cases of the supernatural, which lead us into three vignettes. While GHOST STORIES has been described by some as an anthology (like the old Amicus films) it's unfair to label it as such, as the segments aren't so much stories as fragments that contribute to an overall whole. Therefore, don't expect twist endings, neat conclusions, or anything especially finite about each of these stories.
Do, however, expect everything to be tied very neatly together at the end, so much so that GHOST STORIES actually works better on a second viewing because then you're primed as to what to look out for.
I still missed things, though, but everything is very helpfully pointed out on the excellent commentary track from writers and directors Dyson and Nyman. As well as that, they list their influences (which are often scene specific). I've said elsewhere that the British author's work that GHOST STORIES most feels like is Ramsey Campbell and sure enough he is among those mentioned, along with Robert Aickman, M R James and the good old Pan Book of Horror Stories to which there's a visual tribute that also needed pointing out to me by the commentary.
I was also delighted to learn that the two of them were big fans of the Israeli movie BIG BAD WOLVES, and that there's at least one scene in the film that's in homage. It's also how they ended up getting WOLVES' composer Frank Ilfman to do the terrific, operatic music score.
Other extras include a making of featurette and five minutes of seeing the score being recorded. These two items are all you get on the DVD. The commentary is exclusive to the Blu-ray, as are two other featurettes: The Brain Sees What It Wants to See and The Rorschach Test.
So is GHOST STORIES the 'best British horror in years'? It's certainly on a par with 2015's THE BORDERLANDS. Mind you, THE BORDERLANDS didn't have a gag about Tigon brand cat food. Definitely recommended.
Jeremy Dyson & Andy Nyman's GHOST STORIES is out from Lionsgate on digital download on Monday 20th August with the DVD &Blu-ray release the week after
Many years ago I used to write a column entitled The Bloodstained Balcony, so named because I always used to buy a ticket to sit up on the balcony at the old Coliseum Cinema in Abergavenny when I was little. There's so much happening in the world of weird cinema at the moment I thought the best way to cover some of it would be in the form of a regular online summary / column / magazine type thing instead of just formal reviews. So here's the first, with the title adjusted accordingly. Will there be a second? That'll be up to me (and the world of horror and the weird and etc etc etc). But never mind that - here's what I've been watching over the last week or so:
On the Big Screen
The Meg
Oh dear oh dear. I so wanted this to be good, and it wasn't. Then I so wanted this to be bad, and it wasn't that either. Because, I am sorry to report, THE MEG is just bland. As in Stephen Sommers directing an episode of NCIS bland. In some films I can see the acting, in some I can see the directing. In THE MEG all I could see were the committee meetings between the film's Chinese and American co-financiers and the screenwriters. One of them probably went a bit like this:
Money People: There must be no inter-racial kissing. No gory violence. No swearing.
Writers: (Crossing out a lot of Jason Statham's dialogue) Er...ok.
Money People. Right, now, we've got a fat guy - can we make him quirky yet capable? And that girl with the tattoos, we need to make her quirky but capable too. And make sure the cast is multi ethnic to cover all the demographics, but they all need to be quirky and capable. Oh, and witty as well, especially in the face of seeing their friends all dead. They absolutely should not be mortified at seeing someone they've worked with for some time dead and chewed up by the monster shark. Including the little girl. She should act more maturely than any of them. Because kids like that are fun and appealing. We think.
Writers: Er, actually we're not up to writing different kinds of quirky dialogue for that many different characters.
Money People: So make them all the same! No-one will notice. Oh, and by the way, have you found out what side the liver is on in a human yet?
Writers: Er...no. But we promise we will.
Well it turns out they didn't, and the poor old glamorous submarine pilot gets a screwdriver in her left loin that according to the script, narrowly misses an organ that normally resides on the other side of the body.
Speechless
What else? Well there's Jason Statham, of course, who is set up at the beginning of the picture to be some kind of Captain Ahab character. You hope instead of a Great White Whale he's going to keep ranting about 'That Fuckin' Massive Fuck Off Shark' but it quickly turns out that THE MEG is all far too family friendly for that. And that's the biggest problem with it. It should be PIRANHA 3D with a shark but instead it...isn't.
But what do I know? THE MEG did terrific business on its opening weekend. However, if you're looking for something that isn't the cinematic equivalent of a bowl of rice with nothing else added then beware.
So what else is on at UK cinemas at the moment? Oh, there's this of course:
Unfriended: Dark Web
Did we need another of these? Well, UNFRIENDED and FRIEND REQUEST were actually both pretty good supernatural revenge horrors that made good use of modern social media. DARK WEB uses the same setup as the original UNFRIENDED (the cinema screen is a computer screen) but turns out ultimately to be far less ambitious and far less believable. Going the old torture porn route but without the gore, which would at least have given this one a bit of a punch, you don't need to worry too much about catching up with this one unless you're a completist. Too much of the ending can be guessed by the end of the first act. Also, our cinema did us the extra dirty of screening this 1.85:1 aspect ratio movie in 2.35:1 (thanks Showcase!). Reimbursements occurred at the end. Okay, onto the first of the regular features. The title may not be permanent but right now it's time for:
Compost Corner
In which I revisit (or recycle for the purposes of a truly terrible joke that's a tip of the hat to TISWAS) some old classic movies. Sometimes I'm going to need quotation marks around the word classic but this time I don't. Because today I'm asking:
THE HOWLING - Which steelbook to buy?
I love steelbooks & I've been steadily collecting them for movies I have particular affection for. So when I learned that Shout Factory was bringing out a steelbook of their Region A Blu-ray of Joe Dante's THE HOWLING I was sorely tempted. Here's what it looks like:
But I already had the standard issue Scream Factory disc. What I didn't own, though, was the Region B Studio Canal release, apparently taken from a different scan. I thought it unlikely there was a steelbook of the UK version but goodness me I was wrong! Here it is:
So which is the one to own if you're thinking of forking out? Well, the UK Blu-Ray actually looks a little better in terms of transfer than than the US. Colours are fuller, more vivid and the film looks more vibrant on the whole. As for the extras, here's what you get with each disc:
Shout Factory Region A
Audio Commentary With Director Joe Dante And Actors Dee Wallace, Christopher Stone and Robert Picardo
Audio Commentary with Author Gary Brandner
Howlings Eternal with Producer Steven A. Lane
Cut to Shreds with Editor Mark Goldblatt
Interview with Co-writer Terence Winkless
Horror’s Hallowed Grounds: A Look at the Film’s Locations
Making Of A Monster Movie: Inside The Howling Documentary
Interview with Stop-Motion Animator David Allen
Unleashing the Beast: The Making Of The Howling Multi-part Documentary
Deleted Scenes
Outtakes
Photo Gallery
Theatrical Trailers
Studio Canal Region B
Howlings Eternal with Producer Steven A. Lane
Cut to Shreds with Editor Mark Goldblatt
Interview with Co-writer Terence Winkless
Horror’s Hallowed Grounds: A Look at the Film’s Locations
Interview with Stop-Motion Animator David Allen
Audio Commentary with Author Gary Brandner
So there you go - far more extras on the US region A release (no surprise there) but a slightly better transfer and, I think, a nicer-looking steelbook for the UK release.
Ok, that's enough of the good stuff. It's time to visit:
The Shit Shed
How could I possibly write a column / magazine type thing without profiling some complete rubbish? This time it's this, which is on sale in HMV at the moment and (probably) isn't worth your time. But then again, depending on your tastes, maybe it is... This week the film squatting in the Shit Shed is:
The Institute
"Franco, the second of his name"
After Jess, that is. Here's a load of pervy old nonsense co-directed by James Franco, he of last year's rather splendid THE DISASTER ARTIST. Here, though, he seems to be trying to make his own terrible film.
Or is he...?
It starts off like this...
THE INSTITUTE is purportedly 'based on real events'. Which it isn't. What it is is a film that exploits a situation that actually took place (a hospital for the treatment of women suffering from 'psychiatric conditions' actually being a front for human trafficking) and uses it as an excuse for a bit of good old fashioned murder and mayhem spiced up with nudity.
..but then goes all like this!
Not that you would expect it from the first thirty minutes or so. Perhaps Mr Franco (James) grew up in a household where his mum watched the opening half an hour of a film to 'make sure it was suitable' before going to bed. It certainly seems as if he has made a film for that particular situation because after that we get topless ladies strung up, bare bottoms flogged, and all manner of perverse behaviour culminating in a climax of utter daftness 'inspired' by Edgar Allan Poe. Jess Franco would be proud, especially at how little sense any of this makes. Everyone else will be scratching their heads. Except Franco (Jess) fans, of course. I still can't quite decide if I liked it or not, but at least now I know that Victorian ladies were in the habit of shaving off their body hair.
Ok that's almost it for this time, except that Mrs Probert has concocted this little delicacy, borne of repeated exposure to a certain advert at the cinema plus a love of Amando De Ossorio's Blind Dead films. Would you trust these guys with your money? Or your horse? Until the next time...
"A Surprising & Satisfying New Take on Joan Lindsay's Book"
Mind you, when I say that please bear in mind that I love stuff that has lovely gothic production design, over the top gorgeous brightly coloured costumes, and a healthy sense that some of the people involved with this have seen Narciso Ibanez Serrador's 1969 girls' school horror LA RESIDENCIA (THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED.
On Valentine's Day in 1900 a group of schoolgirls from the remote Appleyard College take a trip to local landmark Hanging Rock. Whilst there, three of the girls and one of their teachers disappear. As days turn into weeks, the town becomes rife with theories as to what might have happened to them. Central to some of these is the school's mysterious headmistress, Miss Appleyard herself (if that's even her real name).
PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK is a superb Peter Weir film from 1975. It's dreamy, mystical, and wit a delightfully inconclusive storyline. The performances are all spot on and Gheorghe Zamfir's pan pipes may be the best use of that instrument in a film (Bruce Smeaton's piano in this is a personal favourite as well).
PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK 2018 sticks with the period and the Joan Lindsay source novel and downplays the dreamy weirdness in favour of examining the mystery. The series is six hour-long (ish) episodes and much of what was in the film is covered in the first two, allowing a lot more time to be spent going into various characters' backgrounds as well as including some that the movie omitted.
But is it any good? Well I have to say I quite enjoyed it, even if the running time did result in a couple of episodes where the plot isn't really being pushed forward. Natalie Dormer is an intriguing choice to play the headmistress and she acquits herself well in a seeming never-ending variety of almost steampunk-style costumes. There's a decent sense of the gothic and the ending is...you'll have to discover that for yourself.
There's a fair bit of wobbly camerawork at the beginning, and every now and then one gets the impression the production is being filmed by someone of diminutive stature who has one leg shorter than the other, but that actually settles down during the important bits so don't switch off after episode one.
Acorn Media's dual disc set comes with a 23 minute making of and lots of interviews with cast and crew. This version of PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK isn't going to replace the Weir version but it does actually provide a pleasant 6 hours of Australian gothic,.
PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK is out from Acorn Media on DVD on Monday 20th August 2018
Peter Medak's 1980 haunted house thriller gets a whistles and bells release on Blu-ray courtesy of Second Sight.
After his wife (Jean Marsh) and daughter are killed in a car accident, composer John Russell (George C Scott) takes a job lecturing in music at a Seattle university. The rest of his time he spends at the isolated, gloomy house in the middle of nowhere that he's decided to rent to get some composition work done.
Unfortunately, composer's block is the least of his problems as he finds himself dealing with loud banging noises at 6am. He finds a walled up staircase behind some shelves. The staircase leads to a room containing a lot of dust (some nice production design here), and a music box (a nice theme by Howard 'Walking in the Air' Blake). Oh, and an old rusty wheelchair obviously intended for someone small...
As much a mystery movie as a supernatural thriller, THE CHANGELING doesn't belong with top tier haunted house pictures like THE HAUNTING (1963), LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE (1973) or THE OTHERS (2001) but it's still worth watching if you're a ghost story aficionado. Some scenes were also undoubtedly an influence on movies that followed including Fulci's HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY(1981), James Wan's INSIDIOUS (2010) and RINGU (book and film and US remake).
The location is superb and DP John Coquillon (WITCHFINDER GENERAL) ensures everything feels drenched in foreboding and gloom. Scott is perhaps too sturdy a leading man to really evoke the vulnerability and instability of someone like Russell, but director Medak uses a variety of interesting camera angles to build and maintain a sense of unease.
Second Sight's Blu-ray is a new 4K scan and restoration and comes packed with extras, including a commentary track with director Medak, producer Joel Michaels and Severin Films' David Gregory moderating. The House on Cheesman Park is a featurette about the true story that inspired the film, and music arranger Ken Wannberg gives us his memories of working on Rick Wilkins' score for the picture and about his long-time collaboration with composer John Williams.
There's also an interview with art director Reuben Freed and an appreciation by Mick Garris, as well as trailers and TV spots. You also get a poster and a 40 page booklet and last, but by no means least, the original soundtrack CD. Sadly a copy was not provided for review so I can't tell you how it compares to the old Percepto release from 2001 but it's a score definitely worth having in your soundtrack library.
Peter Medak's THE CHANGELING is out in a limited edition
Blu-ray package from Second Sight on Monday 20th August 2018
