RIP KEN RUSSELL
British director Ken Russell, whose artistically challenging, flamboyant films included Tommy, The Devils, Women in Love and Gothic, passed away at the age of 84. The Los Angeles Times obit appears here.
THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN, PART 1
Directed by Bill Condon.
With: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Ashley Greene, Peter Facinelli, Sarah Clarke, Gil Birmingham, Billy Burke, Jackson Rathbone, Elisabeth Reaser, Kellan Lutz, Nikki Reed, Anna Kendrick, Michael Welch, Mackenzie Foy. (Summit Entertainment; Wyck Godfrey, Karen Rosenfelt, Stephenie Meyer)
Call it All That Hell Allows, because despite vampires, werewolves and demon babies, Breaking Dawn is really a youth-oriented version of what — in the 1940s and ’50s — used to be called “women’s pictures.” There were a lot of great women’s pictures, and some pretty great directors (Preminger, Sirk, Hitchcock, Wilder, etc.) tried their hands at the genre. What those directors had in common was an eye for detail, because, the theory went, these films were not realistic dramas, but passionate romantic fantasies for their primarily female audiences, and fantasies have to look just right.
THE LOVED ONES (2009)
Directed by Stuart Byrne.
With: Xavier Samuel, Robin McLeavy, Victoria Thaine, Jessica McNamee, Richard Wilson, John Brumpton. (Ambience; Australia; Mark Lazarus, Michael Boughen).
Now this is a horror movie, and I don’t know how it escaped my attention for so long, but The Loved Ones is gripping, skillful and scary, recalling not only the similarly intense Australian horror Wolf Creek, but a particularly warped Oz gender-twist on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Well-cast, intelligently written and ferocious as hell, The Loved Ones earns an immediate nomination to the AWCM Horror Hall of Fame.
HUMAN CENTIPEDE (FULL SEQUENCE) (2011)
Directed by Tom Six.
With: Laurence R. Harvey, Ashlynn Yennie, Maddie Black, Kandace Caine, Dominic Borelli, Lucas Hansen, Vivien Bridson, Bill Hutchens. (Six Entertainment; Tom Six, Ilona Six)
I don’t know whether it’s because I watch splatter movies in vivid color all year long, but on Halloween I like to settle down with some nice black & white horror. Whether it’s The Thing from Another World or Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, black & white horror always puts me in the Halloween spirit. This year’s treat, however, is so vile that it’s been banned in Britain and cut to ribbons for its few theatrical showings in the U.S. Because this Halloween, it’s time for Human Centipede (Full Sequence).
Update: Cry Baby Lane to air on Halloween
Lost films don’t stay lost for long these days, and Cry Baby Lane, which I reviewed back in August, will be airing on TeenNick as part of their “90s Are All That” series. Check local listings.
HATCHET II (2010)
Directed by Adam Green.
With: Danielle Harris, Tony Todd, Kane Hodder, Parry Shen, Tom Holland, R.A. Mihailoff, AJ Bowen, Alexis Peters, Ed Ackerman, David Foy, John Carl Buechler, Lloyd Kaufman. (Dark Sky Films; Ariescope Pictures)
If the first Hatchet was a fun, silly throwback to 1980s slasher-horror films, Hatchet II is a more thoughtful revival of the elements which made those films frightening in the first place. Not that it’s a thinkpiece. It’s a brutal, savage backwoods gorefest with some of the most blood-soaked, viscera-laden murders in many a moon. It’s also a hell of a lot of fun, and — in its showdown between horror icons Tony Todd and Kane Hodder — answers all those pesky “What if Candyman fought Jason” questions once and for all.
R.I.P. DAVID HESS
David Hess, musician and actor, passed away Oct. 8th at age 69 of a heart attack at his home in Tiburon, CA. AWCM readers will know him best for his roles as Krug Stillo in the classic Last House on the Left (Wes Craven; 1972), as Alex in House on the Edge of the Park (Ruggero Deodato; 1980), and as Ferret in Swamp Thing (Craven; 1982).
AENIGMA (1987)
Directed by Lucio Fulci.
With: Jared Martin, Lara Naszinski, Ulli Reinthaler, Sophie D’Aulan, Jennifer Naud, Riccardo Acerbi, Kathi Wise, Mijlijana Zirojevic, Dragan Ejelogrlic, Lijlijana Blagojevic, Franciska Spahic, Dusica Zegarac, Zorica Lesic, Zoran Lesic, Rade Colovic.(A.M. Trading Int’l/Sutjeska Film/Walter Bigari; Ettore Spagnuolo, Boro Banjack; Italy/Yugoslavia)
This supernatural thriller from cult director Lucio Fulci (Zombie; The Beyond) is set at St. Mary’s College, a Boston girls’ school where a young woman named Cathy is tricked in a drive-in theater prank by her schoolmates. Panicked, she runs in front of a car and ends up in a coma at the local hospital. By sheer willpower, Cathy avoids death and takes possession of the beautiful Eva Gordon (Lara Naszinski), a new arrival at the school who is recovering from a nervous breakdown. Using Eva’s fragile mind as her vessel, the comatose girl enacts lethal revenge on those whom she blames for her condition.
