Path of Kahn
Let’s talk about women!
I am not a woman and my one-on-one experiences with them tend to be…limited, but please don’t write me off as a “tiny ignorant man”. I try to understand women and widen my simplistic male perspective, yet I do have some already formed opinions on them.
Don’t worry your pretty little X-chromosomes though, I promise I’ll be on my best behaviour. I’m not going to objectify the ladies, marginalise the girls, or dismiss the misses. We all know the struggles that women have had to face in the past, the same struggles that many still have to face in certain parts of the world. It’s not something to be taken lightly – and is strange when considering that, biologically, women reign supreme. Not only are they the vessels of life, but all human foetuses are conceived as female and only develop male characteristics at a certain hormonal stage in development. Women could say that men are just testosterone enhanced versions of themselves. On the other hand, men can just turn around and ask women…
I admit that got a little heavy right around the part where nipples were mentioned. Vestigial organs are also no laughing matter, but that’s a whole other discussion. What I really want to talk about…starts with the late, great, Christopher Hitchens.
See, Hitchens once wrote an article called “Why Women Aren’t Funny” and followed it up with the brilliantly titled “Why Women Still Aren’t Funny”. Now, I agreed with much of what Hitchens wrote and said because, frankly, he was ridiculously smart. Genetically, there are arguable reasons why women tend to be less funny than men. I know it sounds insanely sexist, but it has to do with animal courtship.
That being said, I disagree with the blanket statement that “women aren’t funny”. While men may be more comedically exhibitionistic, there are several examples of funny women out there. I could start listing people like Tina Fey, Whoopi Goldberg, and Ellen DeGeneres, but instead I want to go straight to my trump card…
Don’t let the picture and font mislead you, we’re not having to go back to the early 1900’s to find an example of a funny woman. Madeline Kahn was at the height of her career during the 70’s and 80’s, and she wasn’t just a funny woman…she was the funniest!
Madeline is quite probably my favourite female comedic actress of all time. Why? I’m not quite sure, maybe it’s the mix of her irresistible beauty and ability to laugh at herself that does it…or maybe it’s her talent for telling funny “dad-jokes”. Take this skit she had with George Burns for example:
Madeline Kahn: “I hope my girlfriend Rover’s watching this…
George Burns: “You have a girlfriend and her name is Rover?”
Madeline Kahn: “Yes.”
George Burns: “How did she happen to get that name?”
Madeline Kahn: “My mother gave it to her.”
George Burns: “Your mother?”
Madeline Kahn: “Yes. When she moved in next door my mother said ‘why don’t you call her over?’…so I did.”
Ok, maybe it’s funnier when you hear it…and hear it from Madeline Kahn. Not only was Madeline a comedian and an actress, she was a singer too…
…but I don’t care about that, I know her best from the movies she was in.
There’s a type of humour which largely died somewhere towards the end of the 80’s and has only resurfaced occasionally since then. This genre is hard to define…or name…but Madelyn Kahn was one of the poster-children for it. In honor of that, let’s call it ‘Kahnedy’. Some other examples of Kahnedy include Airplane I and II, the Police Academy films, The Naked Gun films, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, and Three Amigos. Oh, and several of Madeline Kahn’s movies of course.
Mel Brooks is the godfather of Kahnedy and Young Frankenstein (or Fronk-en-steen, as the character insists on being called) is his funniest film. Many would say The Producers….but no, no it’s not.
Madeline plays Elizabeth, Dr. ‘Fronkensteen’s bride-to-be. She is hopelessly in love and cannot bare to be too far away from him…or too close.
Unfortunately Madeline isn’t in this film all that much. Still, while Gene Wilder and Marty Feldman soak up the majority of available screen time, she does make the most of her slice.
I’m willing to admit that I don’t like Blazing Saddles as much as Young Frankenstein, but Blazing Saddles certainly isn’t colourless. In fact it’s the first bit of proper colour on this page, so let’s give it its due.
This film is a loving parody tribute to the Sergio Leone movies of the 50’s and 60’s. Everything, from the aspect ratio to the film stock, is hand picked to invoke the old spaghetti westerns.
Madeline Kahn tends to be remembered mostly for her role in this movie, probably because it’s an example of her voluptuous side. I don’t think it’s the most hilarious thing she’s ever done, but it is a fun little bit of kinkiness. She plays Lili Von Shtupp, a saucy minx who’s promiscuousness is even engraved into her name. The only problem is…she’s so tired of it…
Some of you are now thinking “didn’t he say she was a singer aswell?”. Don’t worry, she’s meant to sing out of key – that’s the point. One can only assume that she “shtupped” her way into fame, a career strategy that has grated her spirits over the years. What will happen when she’s introduced to the first black sheriff of the west? Will it rekindle her flame of lust and excitement? Maybe you’ll have to watch Blazing Saddles if you want to find out…
I could go on endlessly about Clue and how stupidly funny it is…so I will! For those who don’t know and are wondering…yes it’s based on the board game. How good can a board game based movie be, right? Well, turns out it can be great!
The plot of the movie is the plot of the game: Six guests are invited to a strange house and must cooperate with the staff to solve a murder mystery.
I’ll recommend the whole film some other time, for now I want to mention the cast. It’s one of the best casts ever! Christopher Lloyd, Martin Mull, Michael McKean, Eileen Brennan, Tim Curry…and Madeline fucking Kahn of course!
In this one Madeline plays Mrs. White, an ironically named two-timed widow being blackmailed along with all the other house guests. As with the rest of them, she is hiding a lot of secrets. Get in her way, and who knows what may happen to you. You may become her nemesis, and end up being the very flames…flames…on the side of her face…breathing, breath…heathing breaths…
Oh whatever, just watch this clip…
If you ever have a look at the original script for Clue, you’ll find that it reads twice as long as the runtime of the final film. Why the disparity? Well, as you can see, the actors have all ramped up the speed of their dialogue. This not only helps to shorten the overall length, but also increases the joke-to-minute ratio by quite a factor. That single clip is 1 minute 15 seconds long and contains at least 8 jokes., that’s 1 joke every 9.375 seconds…
Ok…I’m getting pointlessly nerdy and mathematical about it, sorry. It’s just an unbelievably enjoyable movie, which Madeline Kahn finally has a solid part in.
Speaking of jokes-per-minute, here is one of the ultimate examples of that.
“What’s up, Doc?” is one of those great comedies about misunderstandings upon misunderstandings upon misunderstandings.
“The accidental mix up of four identical plaid overnight bags leads to a series of increasingly wild and wacky situations.”
– IMDB
“Wild and wacky? Oh goodness gracious, that sounds splendid!”. Yeah, that description is corny as hell, but the film simply does…not…fail. I love movies like this, with hundreds of characters all running into each other like billiard balls; there’s a musicologist rock collector, an opportunist stalker, a mafia henchman, a whistleblower, a government operative, a corrupt hotel receptionist, an exuberantly rich celebrity dame, and an arrogant competitive writer all caught up in one epic confusion. Oh, there’s also one more role…
…Eunice Burns, the fiance of Howard Bannister, who is of course played by…Madeline Kahn. Eunice is an overly controlling prude who finds herself unable to compete with a scheming free spirited young woman, played by Barbara Streisand, who seemingly makes it her mission to split them up and steal Howard for herself. In terms of the central romance that brews over the course of the movie, Eunice is the closest thing to the film’s villain. In actuality she’s a victim, but because Madeline Kahn plays her as an utterly overbearing nuisance…you just end up laughing when she’s steered straight into oncoming disaster.
Don’t worry, it’s a comedy, so she doesn’t get her legs broken by the mafia or anything. Still, if that clip intrigued you, then you should watch the whole movie. The last movement of “What’s up, Doc?” has one of the longest and most hilarious car chases you’ll ever see. Actually, I shouldn’t call it a car chase, it’s more of an everything chase.
Alright, alright, alright, enough about “What’s up, Doc?”. I said that Kahnedy was rare these days, but there’s one thing that’s certainly much rarer – and that’s Madeline Kahn herself.
Madeline died in 1999, right before the new millennium, just months after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer. This picture of her with Kermit the Frog really underscores how I feel when talking about her legacy; smitten, humbled…and green.
There’s nothing we can do to bring Madeline back, but we can agree to discourage nonsensical bullshit like “women aren’t funny!”. It’s not only incorrect, it’s outright stupid. Sorry Hitchens, you got this one and the Iraq war totally wrong.
Let’s try to restore the spirit of Madeline and the spirit of Kahnedy by elevating the new generation of female comedy actresses. Maybe if we really focus on inspiring women and allowing them to be as funny as we all know they can be, we can reincarnate Madeline Kahn in some sense. In fact, I’d argue that it’s already happened…
Funny, beautiful, smart, and hardworking…women like these embody everything admirable that Madeline Kahn had to offer. Let’s face it, if women ran the world our sense of humour about ourselves and each other would be drastically improved.
Girls, ladies, women, go out there and revel in some Kahnedy. Don’t let a single jealous little boy tell you that your humour isn’t ‘good enough’ or that your female comic senses are somehow not as sharp as its male equivalents. Instead, take your queues from the goddesses that machete’d through the jungle ahead of you without a single look back. Joke like clowns, giggle like drunkards, live like Madeline. Improve life by enjoying it, pointing at it, spouting a line, and laughing hysterically.
Madeline Kahn
September 29, 1942 – December 3, 1999
– Rant Over!
Hallow-seen
….aaaand we’re back.
So how was everyone’s halloween party?
Wow, that crazy, huh? I went to one, which was more small and intimate than large and bombastic, but fun none the less.
But of course, everyone who is like me (there are some people out there like me, I can feel it in my soul) will know that the friendly gatherings are secondary. As a great philosopher once said; “parties come and go but movie marathons are where it’s at!”. That philosopher was me – and my pools of wisdom, much like chaps, are bottomless.
All self-praising aside, I had a great night with my carefully selected horror trinity. I promised I wouldn’t talk about horror films for a month after this was all over, and I won’t. However, I did also promise you that I’d review these movies after I saw them. Aarrgh, I promised myself into a corner!
But I have the give the people what they want, so here are three very quick reviews of the movies I watched.
Up first was…
As I’ve said, this was rumoured to be a return to classic gothic Hammer horror. Well, I can now confirm that it was. Good for Hammer, they need a little ‘return-to-form’!
“A young lawyer travels to a remote village where he discovers the vengeful ghost of a scorned woman is terrorising the locals.”
– IMDB
So, did I enjoy it? Overall, yes. It certainly wasn’t flawless, but the traditional nature of it was undeniably likeable. In keeping with that, the production design was clearly the best part. The creepy mansion really is creepy. Best of all, however, is the scenery. I don’t know who did the location scouting for this movie, but…oh wait, I can look it up…
Now obviously the director really chooses the locations, with the producers weighing in heavily on the final decisions, but location scouts are the ones who go out and find them all. So, Vinnie Jassal and David Seaton (whoever you are), I congratulate you. Also, I just noticed that Charlotte Wilde was the animal wrangler in charge of “Birds and Abimals”. I should say, the abimals were impressive too.
Seriously though, a great location will drastically increase a movies horror potential. Much of The Woman in Black takes place in front of traditional bleak english countryside. That’s nothing new, but on the way to the house Radliffe passes some outlandish marshland backdrops which appear to stretch on endlessly into the horizon. These shots really help to establish just how alone he is when he chooses to spend the night there. You don’t need anyone to tell you that his screams won’t be heard for miles, you can see it.
Disappointingly though, the fright moments didn’t work for me. Nothing quite managed to make me jump out of my seat, but there were definitely some gripping sequences. The bit where Radcliffe sees a dead child rise from his grave and approach the house, followed by knocking on the front door, gives me chills just as I describe it to you.
Was Radcliffe the right choice? Well, I would have preferred if there had been some acknowledging reference or in-joke about the fact that he looks so young, but there wasn’t. Instead, the filmmakers just shuffled on with a “critics be damned” attitude. Alright, mostly it didn’t bother me, but I did not buy that Radcliffe’s character is meant to have a son. Sorry, I can’t accept that, he still looks like a child himself.
Scary? No. Chilling? Yes. Believable? …it’s a ghost movie!
It was a heavy one, so I shifted gears.
After the ghost movie, it was time for a monster movie…
…definately my favourite of the three. I absolutely loved this one! Comparing it to Re-Animator, it falls a bit short, but it’s still so much fun!
“Scientists create a resonator to stimulate the pineal gland (sixth sense), and open up a door to a parallel (and hostile) universe.”
– IMDB
Leave your intellect at the door, this movie is outrageous! It’s like a carnival of gore and sex. Don’t be a prude, admit that you think it sounds fun!
The alternate dimension that the characters tap into can be seen as a metaphor for the world of sensuality that we usually distance ourselves from. All the things that are seen as “distasteful”, are embodied by the stimulation of the pineal gland; food, sex, meat, horror…and leather.
If there’s anything I understand…it’s a fetish for leather.
Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun! That’s my quote for the poster. No, it wasn’t scary, it’s not meant to be. I know that fear is the staple of Halloween, but so is sugar. Well, this movie is a bathtub of sugar. As such, I bathed in it gleefully. Uncomfortable imagery, I know, but it’s the truth. You should really watch it! If you do, I promise I’ll stop saying “pineal gland”.
Speaking of uncomfortable imagery, this movie is full of that! Loads of genitalia-like tentacles and pulsing veiny orbs, how lovely! It’s like they got H. R. Geiger drunk and gave him a pencil.
If you want to drop everything smart, focused, and rational…go beyond! You won’t regret it…until it starts burrowing into your eye socket!
Stuart Gordon, you’re a genius. Let us all agree to forget our inhibitions…just for a moment…have some fucking fun!
But, we can’t have too much of a sexy thing. From Beyond is more comedy than horror, so we must digress…back into the ghostly world of spookishness.
Here was one I was eagerly anticipating, the third act of my self-assembled annual ‘shriekathon’…
…and I’m sad to say that it was also the most disappointing one.
No no, don’t freak out. I didn’t hate it. It just wasn’t scary…at all. The Woman in Black wasn’t that scary, but it at least had some creep-factor.
“During the final days at the Yankee Pedlar Inn, two employees determined to reveal the hotel’s haunted past begin to experience disturbing events as old guests check in for a stay.”
– IMDB
This movie has endless amounts of buildup, but no satisfactory payoff. You spend so much of the movie waiting for a ghost to show up and when it finally does…
Ok, it’s not quite that disappointing, but it’s pretty lame. Also, it’s very brief – taking place almost entirely in the last 5 minutes of the film. Not a great way to structure a horror movie, I have to say.
So is there anything that I did like about this movie? Yes…all of the rest of it!
The majority of this film actually plays like a Kevin Smith flick. It reminded me hugely of Clerks. The two main characters are in charge of running an Inn, meaning that they have to live and work in this building where almost nothing ever happens. Perhaps it’s the fact that I’ve had some experience with minimum-wage-minimum-effort routine administrative jobs, but I loved this portrayal of it. It’s so accurate! Being payed to sit at a desk just in case something should happen really does rot your brain and cause you to partake in exuberent behavior to pass the time. Large portions of the film question whether or not the ghostly experiences are just a result of the boredom and paranoia built up inside their minds. I won’t spoil whether or not it actually is, don’t worry, and will instead switch topics to a new discovery that my heart has made…
I remember seeing Sara Paxton in Shark Night 3D and…actually I don’t remember. It was a terrible film and she played a ditzy little useless blonde pretty-girl part that swam past my attention with a mere graze. But in this film…I completely fell in love with her!
I didn’t so much fall in love with her, as I did with her character. In this movie she plays Claire; a tomboyish shorthaired makeup-free geeky girl. No joke…that’s just my type. Her natural beauty shines through all that, of course, but the most possessing thing about her is that she’s a total screw-up.
Everything she does she fails at, and it’s lovely to watch. Forget the ghosts, the scares, the stories…I just want to watch Claire be Claire. I honestly sat with my head in my hands throughout most of it – wishing that she was a real person. If she was I’d marry her on the spot. The fact that she becomes neurotically fixated on the idea of discover ghosts in the hotel only serves to make her more charming. She, along with her relationship to the other characters in the movie, ends up making this a surprisingly funny character study. You end up just wanting to sit and talk to these people all night long, and that makes it worthwhile. Still, the scares aren’t there, ergo; not successful as a horror film.
All of this is not to say, however, that I was at all disappointed by my choices. I had a blast! No, they weren’t the most terrifying cinematic experiences imaginable, but I’m happy with this years results none the less. It was better than last year’s, which I won’t even go into, and all the planning was definitely worth it. I hope everyone else had a good time and got hold of a scary video at some point. So that’s it, until next time!
– Rant Over
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
It’s here!!! Halloween night! Or, as I’ve named my own little tradition…
Is everybody ready? Here we go!
I debated back and forth for some time about which movies to include, the first one I picked was The Woman in Black.
Old fashioned gothic haunted Victorian mansion stuff, that’s right up my ‘abbey’. Daniel Radcliffe? Suuure, why not? I hope he makes the best of it.
What am I expecting to see? I’m guessing there will be smokey mist, dark apparitions, flashbacks, howling wind, and faint cries for help. Maybe the movie will surprise me, I hope it does. I know little to nothing about the stage play and original movie which it’s based on, so my main question is; who is the woman in black?
Radcliffe appears, in the trailer, to be alone through most of this movie. That promises good things. British horror filmmakers are some of the best…so bring it on!!!
Next I couldn’t decide if I really wanted to include Ti West’s The Innkeepers on the list.
West has had some major failures in the past, with Cabin Fever 2 being his lowest point. Still, his undeniable shining star, The House of the Devil, gives me hope. The look of this one does make me clench my teeth a little. Old=naked-people ghosts freely haunting an abandoned motel? Hey, I’m a pretty liberal guy…live and let live.
In the end I decided that it was too tempting to give up. That’s right, I’m biting into the apple. The snake spoke to me and I liked what I heard.
My definitive second choice, however, was always going to be Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator follow up From Beyond.
All the creepy ghosts and jumping frights will not doubt get a little heavy. I figure that I need a little fun splatter magic to loosed me up. It’s candy, it’s slime, it’s floss. I think it’s important to structure a movie marathon like this so that you don’t get overwhelmed with the same strict genre-takes one after another. From Beyond is clearly my number 2 pick and needs to hold that position…for the sake of maximum enjoyment!
So there we go, I’ve picked my movies for this year. Here they are:
My final Hallowthreen! they’re locked in. As I’m writing this, a steaming hot pizza is on the way from a nearby deliverer. I’ve stocked up on enough sugar to give me type 2 diabetes, and I…am…excited! It’s all been building up to this and now it’s arrived! Yay! I hope you have as much fun tonight as I intend to have! I’ll just end this one by repeating…
…to all and to all a spooky night!
Ne Plus Ultra
October’s ending, and every post this month has been centred around horror films. Every…single…one! I’m actually rather proud of myself, to be honest, but I can understand that there are many of you out there who may not care much for horror films at all. Even those who do probably passed their limit a week ago, so I’ll make you all a promise…
…since it’s been an entire month of it up until now, I promise you that after tonight I will not mention horror movies again until December! That’s one month free of horror! My gift to you, the easily scared, for putting up with it so far. It’s my pledge, my fasting…my abstinence. Did that just move us into an inappropriate place? Sorry about that. Anyways, you might call it a “NO!-Vember”…get it? No horror in November…”NO!-Vember!”. Either I’m not funny or you guys are having a bad day….
…don’t worry, we can talk about it later.
For now, we’re still chugga-chugga-choo-chooing our way down the tracks towards the end of this month, so I’m sticking to scary movies yet again on this one. I was thinking about which one to recommend, when suddenly I realised…that this is Cinema-Rant‘s 50th blogpost!
Maybe I’m the only one celebrating that fact, but a party for one is always a hit with the guest – so, whatever! I started this blog by recommending my favourite film of all time, Jurassic Park, on March 15th 2012. That means it’s been up for 7 months and 16 days. Therefore, a total of 50 posts in 230 days, constituting one blog post every 4.6 days. Let it not be said that I’m a quitter!
So how do I mark this historic, crucial, nigh paramount event? What about sharing with you my favourite horror movie of all time? Ooo, the film that scared me more than any other film ever ever ever? Why, yes yes yes, but first we need to discuss how it came to be. We need to discuss Hellraiser.
I’ve mentioned Hellraiser once before, in passing, but I’ve never really explained the loving relationship I have to it. Hellraiser is not my favourite horror film ever, but it’s very close and is the main inspiration for my actual favourite.
None of my family or friends get this movie, most haven’t seen it, and those who have certainly don’t like it. It’s loud, operatic, ultra-gothic, and hyper-violent. Those things are all true, but it is also true that it is a work of art. This movie is actually about something intrinsic. It’s not a torture porn film, it’s not a slasher, and it’s not even a traditional horror; it’s all three of them and yet none of them! Hellraiser exists as a unique story, told across dimensions in a way that almost no other tale ever has been. It shows you indescribable things, things you can’t “un-see”.
The plot is a little hard to convey properly, but…
“An unfaithful wife encounters the zombie of her dead lover, Frank Cotton, who is being chased by demons after he escaped from their sado-masochistic Hell.”
– IMDB
I know, I know, I know, I know! I know that’s a very polarising premise. Some of you may be intrigued, but others will instantly be dissuaded. I beg of you; stay, give it a chance! It’s beautiful. I mean it, it’s a beautiful film!
“What’s beautiful about a cheesy 80’s gorefest?” you’re thinking. Oh, where to begin?
Hellraiser orbits around a general theme of pleasure and pain. In some ways you might say that encapsulates life itself. Life is about the pendulum swinging back and forth between these two extremes. Pain isn’t truly excruciating until you’ve experienced the full nature of rich luxurious pleasures, and pleasure isn’t really appreciable if you haven’t crawled through the searing acid of intense nerve-corroding pain. Frank Cotton is a man who wishes to experience the ne-plus-ultra of both. In doing so he purchases a mysterious puzzle box called the Lament Configuration. Once he discovers how to open it, it pulls him into a world more beautiful, and yet more horrifying, than anything he could have imagined; “pain and pleasure – indivisible”.
As you watch Hellraiser, you will notice several recurring images of Catholicism. This is, in part, because Clive Barker was raised catholic and clearly finds it to be a subject of fascination and inspiration. I agree with him, catholic teachings and practises are strange and interesting when you really have a look at them. If you’re a catholic, then this film is actually one which you should embrace. It has many of the themes which catholics love and espouse; salvation through pain, admiration of a tortured soul, temptation, guilt, and the duality between a cosmic good and evil. Take a look at the iconic images of Jesus. Jesus supposedly lived for 33 years, was born in a manger, healed the sick, walked on water, preached to the poor, and turned water into wine. That leaves his followers with a “smörgåsbord” of icons to choose from in order to honour his impact on their lives, but what do they choose…?
That’s the image of a man being tortured to death, in case that wasn’t clear. I have to say something to everyone who wears these: before you get on your high horse and start labelling movies like Hellraiser as grotesque and glorifying violence, just take a moment and reflect on what a christian cross actually is; an execution device! Imagine wearing a little electric chair or guillotine around your neck. Do you think “morally superior” religious snobs would question the integrity of your soul for that? Undeniably they would.
Now, I’m not trying to incite a catholic-bashing movement. I’m just trying to get people to reflect on the true morbidity of the practises and organisations they are tied to. Oh wait, I’m not the only one doing that, Hellraiser does that! The catholic church, in particular, is obsessed with the idea of redemption through pain; the concept that in order to reach true nirvana you have to undergo actual physical torture and starve yourself of earthly pleasures. It’s kinda twisted, but that’s the reality. Movies like Passion of the Christ show us that the real admiration many catholics have for Jesus comes from the torturous way he died. It’s my opinion that catholic teachings are inherently masochistic, and that’s fine – people can believe and worship whatever they like…they should just be honest about it and stop judging others.
Some have entertained the notion that the Lament Configuration represents television and media in general. A “box” which allows us to escape into an alternate reality, able to play around with pain and pleasure that doesn’t normally exist around us in our boring little reality. I think those thing are all there if you look for them.
Hellraiser is a great choice for Halloween, which is hours away! Still, I’ve only gone on about it at such length because: 10 years later there was a movie made which paid unlimited tribute to it. This movie ended up being my actual favourite horror movie of all time, and still is.
Event Horizon is what happens when you take Hellraiser into space…and into the future.
“A rescue crew investigates a spaceship that disappeared into a black hole and has now returned…with someone or something new on-board.”
– IMDB
This movie is basically a haunted house film with a science fiction setting. It was directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, not to be confused with Paul Thomas Anderson or Wes Anderson. Paul W. S. Anderson has a failing reputation these days after he went on to make a lot of critically unsuccessful video game and comic book adaptations. His first Hollywood film, Mortal Kombat, was actually a pretty good film, but he followed that up with Resident Evil and AVP:Alien Versus Predator. I actually didn’t mind those films, I liked Resident Evil and AVP was fine as far as I was concerned – but I don’t think most hardcore fans agree. Still, his masterpiece will always be Event Horizon. It proves that he has an undeniable talent for atmospheric filmmaking. What a tremendous piece of work! There is a whole generation of people, which I happen to be part of, that saw this movie at an early age and had many sleepless nights since. I remember being relentlessly tormented by this movie after I saw it, in the way that only the most supreme horror films can accomplish. As I said, it’s also a wonderful homage to Clive Barker’s original masterpiece of hellish imagination. If you have your doubts, here are a handful of shot comparisons that will help prove it to you:
Unfortunately Event Horizon slipped away into mild cult status during the end of the 90’s when bigger films like Titanic were capturing the public’s eye. I never got to see this movie at a cinema, but it still managed to reach in and seize my organs. I swear my heart skipped several beats when I first saw it.
It has a great cast, absolutely gorgeous lighting, and impeccable production design. The ship itself has a large cathedral look, making it a character in itself.
The story structure actually resembles The Shining more than anything. The ship has a possessing effect on the mind of its inhabitants, turning them into demented souls that much resemble Jack Nicholson’s character shift in that film.
Everything that I’ve ever loved about horror films is embodied in this one single masterpiece. It’s outragiously good, perfectly written, finely directed, and just…plain…scary as hell. I’m struggling to think of how many more different ways I can tell you that it’s…
If you haven’t seen it yet, I envy you sooo much. Go on skipping down the street to the nearest movie shop and purchase a copy, or you can download it. I don’t really care as long as just one more person sees it, then I will have done my job.
While you’re at it, see if you can find Hellraiser. It’s an absolute classic that’s needs to be dusted off and popped into the player periodically. Experience the pleasure, endure the pain, love the movies. They make a superb double bill for tonights Hallowthreen. Get your popcorn on! Yay!
– Aaaaand we’re here….
Cinema Rant 