The ’70s must have been a rough time to be
a travel agent. Just as JAWS had millions hurriedly kiboshing their beach
vacations and MIDNIGHT EXPRESS had people rethinking tours to exotic locales,
the brutal and affecting DELIVERANCE would for years elicit the same hesitation
about jaunting into the wilderness.
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THE GREY was a modest theatrical hit, despite a protractedly
bleak tone and a plot that can reasonably be summarized as “men hopelessly
fight nature.” It’s an odd beast, a movie (just out on DVD and Blu-ray from
Universal) that struggles to explore the human condition between
exciting-but-implausible action sequences; it’s not horror, but contains
genuine scares, mostly due to a predatory wolf pack with a habit of leaping
into frame unexpectedly.
For director Darren Lynn Bousman, the long-delayed MOTHER’S
DAY was a conscious effort to step away from the torture horror of his SAW
sequels into more character-based territory. But the new(ish) movie does have
one thing in common with SAW II; like that follow-up, this one had its origins
in a previously unrelated project.
The American poet Howard Nemerov had his own take on the
age-old saying “Write what you know”; he said, “Write what you know. That
should leave you with a lot of free time.” After viewing HELLACIOUS ACRES: THE
CASE OF JOHN GLASS, I’m inclined to think that writer/director Pat Tremblay
took Nemerov’s advice to heart.
A frustrated and frustrating flick, DOUBLE EXPOSURE (now on
DVD from Scorpion Releasing) is one of those odd jackalopes that awkwardly
attempts to hop back and forth between a psychological horror film and character-study
drama, with clearly more of an interest in the latter.
From reported postproduction hell comes FROM THE INSIDE, the
“lost masterpiece” (according to the cover of Yellow Ape Productions’ DVD) by
indie filmmaker Jim Haggerty—and though describing it as a masterpiece might be
a bit of a stretch, the movie’s pretty enjoyable as far as trashy thrillers go.
It’s hard enough just being an awkward outcast teenager, but
Paul has to contend with a lot more than zits and prom dates. The apocalypse is
coming, the dead are walking the earth and somehow he is slated to save all of
humanity.
Elite Entertainment’s new Blu-ray release of the low-budget
1983 alien splatterfest THE DEADLY SPAWN should be cause for celebration.
Please note, I said “should be”…