A Rundown of the 13 (+1) Best Horror Movies I've Seen in the Past Year

[2 of 13]

EXCISION

(January 2012)

Writer/director Richard Bates, Jr. expands on his 2008 short film, Excision, transforming the original 18-minute short into an 81-minute study of disturbed youth and the dreams of the perfect family just gone horribly wrong, as 90210’s AnnaLynne McCord takes the role of Pauline, a high school student with aspirations of becoming a surgeon.

Now, while normally, a teen-ager with ambition who knows exactly what they want out of life is a good thing, it’s so not a good thing where Pauline is concerned.

With a stellar supporting cast--Roger Bart, Traci Lords, Marlee Matlin, Malcolm McDowell, Ray Wise, and John Waters as Reverend William (!)--Excision, just like Pauline, knows exactly what it wants, and knows how to get there; the basic beats of the short are taken and transformed into pivotal scenes in the feature, while time is taken to further explore the narrative’s key filial relationships.

Infused with the black humour of Heathers, and compounded by gore and disturbing sexual imagery, Excision is the kind of film that lays out its cards and isn’t shy to tell you where it is it’s going to end up.

Still, filled with that sick sense of foreboding, you’re hoping it doesn’t go where you may imagine it will, because that way will only end in tears.

But of course, it does, and even though you may have anticipated it, the climax still packs a gut-wrenching wallop that’s both horrifying and tragic.

(Excision OS courtesy of bloody-disgusting.com; DVD cover art courtesy of shocktillyoudrop.com.)

¡Qué horror! 2013

Candidate # 1

EXCISION

(January 2012)

Writer/director Richard Bates, Jr. expands on his 2008 short film, Excision, transforming the original 18-minute short into an 81-minute study of disturbed youth and the dreams of the perfect family just gone horribly wrong, as 90210’s AnnaLynne McCord takes the role of Pauline, a high school student with aspirations of becoming a surgeon.

Now, while normally, a teen-ager with ambition who knows exactly what they want out of life is a good thing, it’s so not a good thing where Pauline is concerned.

With a stellar supporting cast--Roger Bart, Traci Lords, Marlee Matlin, Malcolm McDowell, Ray Wise, and John Waters as Reverend William (!)--Excision, just like Pauline, knows exactly what it wants, and knows how to get there; the basic beats of the short are taken and transformed into pivotal scenes in the feature, while time is taken to further explore the narrative’s key filial relationships.

Infused with the black humour of Heathers, and compounded by gore and disturbing sexual imagery, Excision is the kind of film that lays out its cards and isn’t shy to tell you where it is it’s going to end up.

Still, filled with that sick sense of foreboding, you’re hoping it doesn’t go where you may imagine it will, because that way will only end in tears.

But of course, it does, and even though you may have anticipated it, the climax still packs a gut-wrenching wallop that’s both horrifying and tragic.

(Excision OS courtesy of bloody-disgusting.com; DVD cover art courtesy of shocktillyoudrop.com.)

THE AGGRESSION SCALE

(Review)

(ag·gres·sion scale): noun: “A psychological test measuring the frequency of overt aggressive behaviors that may result in physical or psychological injury to others.”

So I waffled a bit on this since a significant portion of this film’s DNA is decidedly “thriller,” and it seemed odd to put this one up there on the ¡Qué Horror! candidate list (even with the horrific, violent bits), so here we are, outside of all of that.

Steven C. Miller’s The Aggression Scale is an interesting spin on the home invasion film, as a search for some missing money puts two young step-siblings in jeopardy.

Think Home Alone-style hijinx--where the baddies are put through the wringer by an underaged hooligan--but played with a deadly straight face; have Twin Peaks alumni Ray Wise and Dana Ashbrook, and Derek Mears (the “new” Jason Voorhees) along for the ride, as their bad guy a$$es are run ragged by The Thompsons’ Ryan Hartwig and John Dies at the End’s Fabianne Therese, and you’ll have a fair idea of what’s in store for you in The Aggression Scale.

If you ever wondered what Home Alone would have looked like if it had been made for an adult audience, well, here you go…

(The Aggression Scale DVD cover art courtesy of twitchfilm.com.)

ONE MISSED CALL
(Review)

Eric Vallete’s English-language remake of Takashi Miike’s Chakushin Ari (which was itself Miwako Daira’s adaptation of the novel by Yasushi Akimoto) was originally scheduled for an August 24 2007 US release.
That soon changed to a January 4 2008 release. Now, a release date change of this sort is more often than not a bad sign. Coupled with its ultimate release falling in the early—or as defined in the Hollywood dictionary, “dead”—months of the year (another bad sign), where studios have perennially tossed their less than desirable product, a stigma began to taint One Missed Call even before it opened.
Still, I hoped for the best, and bolstered by that creepy-a$$ one-sheet, gave it a fair look-see.

With a handful of variations here and there, the set-up is pretty much that of Miike’s Chakushin Ari: Beth Raymond (Shannyn Sossamon) bears witness to a number of her friends falling prey to prophetic cell phone calls—signaled by an eerie ringtone—that serve as harbingers of their doom, before she gets her own call, and must solve the mystery lest she end up facing her own apparently impending death.
What Vallete and One Missed Call screenwriter Andrew Klavan so clearly fail to capture though is the air of dread and tense anticipation evident in Miike’s take. Nowhere is this sad—and ultimately fatal—shortcoming so painfully evident as in One Missed Call’s redux of a bravura setpiece from Chakushin Ari, which involves a victim’s death on live TV.
Here, we have American Miracles, run by Ted Summers (genre powerhouse Ray Wise), who has exorcist Ray Purvis (Jason Beghe, who incidentally recently walked away from Scientology in a big stink) attempt to eradicate the cell phone curse.
With its Christian iconography, non-existent suspense, and fairly ludicrous “body of Christ compels you to leave this cell phone” blather, this sequence turns out to be the most disappointing in the entire film.
When you’ve got Ray Wise and this is all you have him do, it’s a waste of everyone’s time.

There are attempts to introduce elements not present in Miike’s version though, particularly in having the intended victims begin seeing disturbing presences all around them (which is where the one-sheet image comes in), but this really isn’t anything new in a horror film; as I recall, this was also done in The Exorcism of Emily Rose.
In One Missed Call, these moments happen so often that they quickly feel like desperate attempts to continually scare the audience, when all they really do is get pretty boring, pretty quickly.
And while the “abuse as a cycle” theme is still here, it sadly also feels muted somehow, certainly less potent than in Miike’s Chakushin Ari.

Admittedly, the idea behind One Missed Call’s climax—which avoids that ludicrously monstrous cheat in Chakushin Ari’s final moments and that ambiguous last shot—makes more sense than the Japanese version’s.
Tragically, it isn’t executed very well, and plays out as horribly anti-climactic, with one of those annoying “Yes, we can have a sequel if we so choose” last shots, that I’d rather take Miike’s ending, flaws and all, than this mess.
And yes, Miike had some questionable funhouse scares in the hospital sequence, but none as laughably ridiculous as One Missed Call’s baby with a cell phone bit. (Of course, if I were to see that in real life, in the burnt-out shell of an abandoned hospital, I probably wouldn’t be laughing. On the screen though, it’s a golden MST3K moment…)
Oh, and why the vengeful ghost bothered with Luna—when the poor cat clearly didn’t have a cell phone—was just a bad decision to try and get a cheap scare. Is it worth it though when you could end up pissing PETA off?
And yes, Dave Stewart wrote and performed One Missed Call’s ringtone, and I love Stewart, and his work with Annie Lennox, as well as the Spiritual Cowboys, but I must say, Chakushin Ari’s ringtone is still far more disturbing… (Incidentally, Stewart is the founding member of Nokia’s recently established Artist Advisory Council. Presumably, he will do more in this illustrious position than compose murderous ringtones...)

In the end, as much as I thought Miike aimed ambitiously high with Chakushin Ari and didn’t quite hit the mark, Valette’s One Missed Call just kind of lies there, listless and droning, like an unanswered cell phone on mute, its battery winding down, just begging you to shut it off.

Parting shot: A review of Chakushin Ari can be found in the Archive.

(One Missed Call OS courtesy of impawards.com [design by Art Machine, A Trailer Park Company]; images courtesy of bloody-disgusting.com.)

IN THE INTERESTS OF ALL THINGS RECYCLABLE (4)
CHAKUSHIN ARI
(ONE MISSED CALL)

With Hollywood’s take on Chakushin Ari having gotten its US release on January 4, I decided to resurrect this one for the World Wide Web. Enjoy.

Looking back…

Chakushin Ari (One Missed Call) is one of the latest films from the insanely prolific Japanese director Takashi Miike, and is the first of his films I’ve seen that is set squarely in the Asian supernatural horror genre.
The film revolves around Yumi Nakamura (Kou Shibasaki, from Norio Tsuruta’s Kakashi and Kinji Fukasaku’s Battle Royale), whose friend Yoko, dies after receiving a call on her cell phone, a call that was apparently made from the very same phone: what sounds like Yoko’s own voice, speaking a few innocent words, then screaming. The call is dated two days in the future. Two days after receiving the call, Yoko dies, after uttering the same words on the mysterious call.
In the vein of films like Hideo Nakata’s Ringu and Takashi Shimizu‘s Ju-on, a sinister chain of deaths begins, all presaged by the receiving of a phone call, as the future victim speaks his or her last words, the impending date of death conveniently displayed on the cell.

Exploring the theme of the co-opting of modern technology by ancient, supernatural forces for their own malevolent ends (as was done in Ringu/The Ring, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Kairo, and of course, its English-language remake, Jim Sonzero‘s Pulse), Chakushin Ari also delves into the idea of abuse as a cycle—a chain that must be broken, lest it revolve endlessly, its touch reaching out to others far removed from the initial victim, connected only through chance and circumstance.
And unlike Ringu, where the breaking of the chain was required simply because it would save a character’s life, in Chakushin Ari, not only would that prevent someone’s death, but there is also a broader context for which the breaking of the cycle is necessary. In that respect, there is a thematic cohesiveness in Chakushin Ari that is absent in Ringu.

As far as the mechanics of the “curse” goes, whereas in Ringu, anyone who happened to watch Sadako’s videotape would fall prey to her rage, in Chakushin Ari, anyone who is part of the cellular network is a potential victim, and these days, that’s practically everybody.
And shutting off your phone, disconnecting yourself from the network, canceling your cellular subscription, destroying and throwing your phone away, isn’t enough. Your phone will turn itself on, your SIM will reactivate, your phone will find its way back to you, intact and operational, and you’ll still wind up very dead.
Which is, on the one hand, proof of the power that supernatural force has, but on the other hand, is kind of a cheat.
And speaking of cheats, there’s one big fat one towards the film’s end that stretches the envelope of the audience’s suspension of disbelief to near-breaking point. It’s one of a couple of unfortunate lapses in what could potentially have been a much more substantial film than Ringu, given what Miike was apparently aiming for.

Another flaw is a subplot concerning a television show that manages to broadcast to viewers across Japan, a pivotal set piece in the film’s supernatural goings-on. Given all the build-up towards that particular sequence, as well as the bravura execution of it by Miike, with nice editing touches and masterful pacing, one would think this would lead someplace.
Instead, as soon as the sequence is over, the TV show subplot suddenly ends, truncated, as if in one of Miike’s more ultraviolent moments. We don’t see how this event, broadcast live, affects the general public. No reactions at all to indicate the impact this has on the citizenry.
If we had, I think it would have reinforced the notion of how an evil can permeate society with its malignant influence, a notion already inherent in the idea of a curse being passed on through the cellular network. Sadly, we don’t see that; following that sequence, we immediately return to the very personal tale of Yumi and her struggle with the evil that is calling out through her cell phone.

And, having mentioned Miike’s penchant for ultraviolence, it can be said that Chakushin Ari comes nowhere near the gore and splatter quotient of Koroshiya Ichi (Ichi the Killer). Nor is it as bizarre as Bizita Q (Visitor Q). Nor as disturbing as Odishon (Audition).
It is, in fact, one of the most accessible and mainstream films I’ve seen from Miike, alongside his moving adaptation of Shugoro Yamamoto’s Sabu.
Which is not to say it’s completely “safe.” Chakushin Ari has its fair share of creepy moments, and, despite its occasional lapses, is an effective work that can enter the annals of the on-going renaissance in Japanese horror (sparked by the global success of Nakata’s Ringu) with devilish ease. It’s certainly a far more effective chiller than Masato Harada’s Inugami, or Tsuruta’s Kakashi.

And, as with Nakata’s Honogurai Mizu No Soko Kara (Dark Water), Chakushin Ari also attempts to be something more than just another horror movie. Though where Nakata succeeds, Miike falls just a little bit short.
Chakushin Ari shares another thing with Honogurai Mizu No Soko Kara: the study of the mother-daughter dynamic, though the one displayed in Honogurai Mizu No Soko Kara is decidedly healthier and far more positive than those depicted in Chakushin Ari.
Of course, if oeuvres are anything to go by, Miike’s worldview is significantly more warped than Nakata’s, so this really isn’t a surprise.

Another possible weak spot in Chakushin Ari is its curiously ambiguous ending, which is open to interpretation and debate.
Even the plot twist towards the film’s end—taking a page from Dario Argento’s Sotto Gli Occhi Dell’assassino (Tenebrae), tweaking it, and giving it a supernatural spin—may not be such a twist, as you may see it coming, or at the very least, consider it as a possibility before the big reveal.

Ultimately, Chakushin Ari is a film to watch, if you’re into the Asian horror film scene, or just want a good scare.
Though as far as J-Horror goes, as much as Miike makes a good impression, Nakata’s still got the spectral crown firmly on his head.

Since then…

Miike has gone on to direct a gazillion more films since Chakushin Ari, some (like Zebraman and Yokai Daisenso—The Great Yokai War) more mainstream than others (his rambling, metaphysical samurai movie, Izo).
He also contributed “Box” to pan-Asian horror anthology Saam Gaang Yi (Three… Extremes) and the too-disturbing-for-American-cable “Imprint” to Masters of Horror’s first season. And then there was some good old fashioned Ultraman Max thrown in for good measure, as well as that great cameo in Eli Roth’s Hostel.
Notable in his 2007 output are Kurozu Zero (Crows: Episode Zero) and Sukiyaki Western Django.

Chakushin Ari was also followed up by two sequels, Chakushin Ari 2 and Chakushin Ari Final, neither of which had Miike in the director’s chair; 2 was directed by Renpei Tsukamoto, while Final was helmed by Manabu Asou.
Neither sequel was quite as good as Chakushin Ari.
Also, in 2005, the same year Chakushin Ari 2 hit theatres, a television series of Chakushin Ari invaded Japanese homes, all 10 episodes of which are available on DVD. Haven’t seen those though, so I honestly don’t know if the show was any good.

Looking forward…

Armed with that freaky-a$$ one-sheet, One Missed Call is helmed by French director Eric Valette, and stars Ed Burns, Shannyn Sossamon (last seen in Catacombs, review in Archive), and genre fixture Ray Wise.
I hope they retain that truly disturbing ring tone from the original…

(Chakushin Ari DVD cover art courtesy of amazon.com [Double Disc Edition] and amazon.co.uk [2007 UK edition].)

(The “Looking back…” section above is a slightly altered version of a previously published review entitled “Missed Opportunity.”)

SUPERMAN: DOOMSDAY
(Review)

Marvel’s gotten the jump on DC as far as straight-to-DVD animated features are concerned, inundating comic geeks with lackluster fare such as the Ultimate Avengers flicks and Iron Man.
DC finally got in on the act though, with the okay but not really stellar effort, Superman: Brainiac Attacks. They’ve followed that one up with the decidedly more adult Superman: Doomsday.

The Good:
The gimmicky fat of the original comic book story—particularly the quartet of Super-replacements who pop out of the woodwork once the Last Son of Krypton bites the big one—is wisely trimmed off, paring the tale down to its essentials, and allowing the storytellers to more deeply explore the effect Superman’s apparent death has on Metropolis and those closest to him.
We see how Jimmy, Perry, and of course, Lois, deal with their grief as their beloved champion and friend dies while protecting humanity from the evil forces of destruction, personified by the killing machine known as “Doomsday.”
Here, Doomsday is a merciless juggernaut, bane of innocent deer and doggies called “Biscuit” alike. Oh, and Men of Steel as well.
A tough baddie is key where Superman is concerned, and it’s fortunate that the Doomsday sequence is particularly effective, the action and suspense dealt out with skill and style as the two combatants rumble throughout Metropolis.

And though I do miss Tim Daly as Clark/Superman, genre mainstay Adam Baldwin (seen on The X-Files, Angel, Firefly, and presently, Chuck; Baldwin also voiced Green Lantern Hal Jordan for the Justice League animated series) does a commendable job, edging out early George Newbern (who voices Supes on Justice League) with his vocal performance.
Acing their characters as well are Twin Peaks’ and Reaper’s Ray Wise (as Perry White) and Lost’s and Pushing Daisies’ Swoosie Kurtz (as Martha Kent).
Jimmy’s subplot is also interesting, though perhaps could have benefited with slightly more screen time. (Jimmy is voiced by Adam Wylie, Zack on Picket Fences, and the voice of Brainiac 5 on Legion of Super-Heroes; Entourage fans may remember him as Jay on “One Day In The Valley.”)

Finally, there are also nice tips of the proverbial hat to the Fleischer animated Superman shorts from the 40’s and the Legion of Super-Heroes comic book, as well as a playful swipe at the aborted Superman Lives script written by Kevin Smith, with Smith making a brief, amusing cameo.

The Bad:
I definitely miss Dana Delany as Lois, as Anne (Ally McBeal; Men In Trees) Heche’s interpretation seems strangely insubstantial.
But, as disappointed as I am with Lois, James Marsters (another genre mainstay, having spent considerable time on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off, Angel, as well as kicking around Smallville more recently) does a sad-a$$ job as Luthor. (Clancy Brown did such a dead-on, bang-up job as Lex, I still “hear” that resonant voice whenever I read a comic with Luthor in it.)

There’s also the gross underutilization of Cree Summer—who did work on Batman Beyond, but is more (in)famously known for her turn as Foxxy Love on the audaciously hilarious Drawn Together—and John DiMaggio—Brother Blood on Teen Titans, and brilliant and unforgettable as Bender on Futurama. Summer and DiMaggio appear in Doomsday as Mercy and the Toyman, respectively, both characters getting rather limited—and truncated—screen times.
I mean, when you’ve got Foxxy Love and Bender in one movie, you sure as heck ought to use them.
The reimagining of the Toyman here as a sort of Goth loser also doesn’t really hold a candle to the creepfest that is his incarnation on the Superman and Justice League animated series.

The Ugly:
And I thought Supes looking inordinately tired in the first season of Justice League was bad…
Here, the strangely chiseled cheekbones of the Man of Steel make him look rather… odd. It’s a curious design choice that somewhat compromises the hero’s look. Fortunately, the animation’s good, so that sort of makes up for Kal’s ugly mug.

And the Downright Strange:
There is a curious homoerotic vibe that Luthor exudes in Doomsday. How else should one take it when Lex, in the opening VO, uses the word “beautiful” to describe his nemesis?
Then, in a later sequence, after Supes’ “death” at the hands of Doomsday, a bare-chested Luthor apparently traps the Man of Steel in a room equipped with red sunlight generators and wails on the beleaguered hero with a pair of kryptonite gloves, all the while screaming things like “Why did you leave me?! Why?” and, disturbingly enough, “Who’s your Daddy?”
Now, the homoeroticism in this antagonistic relationship has long bubbled beneath the comic books’ four-colour surface, but its presence here just feels very off-key.

It should also be noted that Superman: Doomsday is rated PG-13: there’s action aplenty, extras and supporting characters and animals meet untimely demises, and, when we enter the story, we discover that Superman and Lois Lane have been, well, Superfriends for the past six months; the kind of Superfriends who snuggle and spend the night at each others’ places…
Having said all that, this is the most mature and adult I’ve seen DC animated stuff get, and for the most part, it’s a commendable effort, though it may not exactly be for the kiddie brigade.

Ultimately, I may have a number of issues with DC’s sophomore stab at the direct-to-DVD world, but it’s clearly the best effort to date, taking us to places we’d never reached before in past animated DC works. It also leaves the limp Marvel efforts eating a whole lotta dust.

(Superman: Doomsday DVD cover art courtesy of amazon.com.)

TV WATCH 2007 (2)
REAPER Pilot

Sam Oliver (Bret Harrison; Grounded For Life and The Loop) is having his 21st birthday, and it’s turning out to be a strange one. Dogs are chasing him, he’s suddenly become telekinetic, and the Devil (genre icon Ray Wise) tried to carjack him.
Well, no, not really. The Devil couldn’t care less about Sam’s ride.
Actually, the Devil shows up in Sam’s life to tell him that even before he was born, his parents sold the soul of their firstborn to the Devil to save Sam’s father’s life. And Sam, being the Olivers’ firstborn, is now indentured to the Devil as the Prince of Darkness’ bounty hunter, whose task on the earthly realm is to hunt down and capture escapees from Hell.
Not bad for a 21st birthday gift.

The biggest draw for me to check out Reaper was to see whether Kevin Smith (who directed the Pilot) had managed to put together something that I might actually enjoy. (The last Smith film that agreed with me was Dogma, which was quite awhile back.)
And on that score, Reaper passes muster. Undoubtedly helped by the writing team of Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas (who’ve written for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Ed), Smith pulls this one off, his triumph being more notable considering this is also an effects-heavy piece, which isn’t normally Smith’s style.

He also manages his cast well, getting some good performances from Harrison and Tyler Labine (who was excellent in the sadly cancelled Invasion) as Bert “Sock” Wysocki, Sam’s partner-in-crime. And Wise clearly appears to be having a lot of fun as Old Scratch.
What’s interesting to note though is that Nikki Reed (who originally played Andi, Sam’s co-worker and erstwhile love interest at The Work Bench) is being replaced with Missy Peregrym (Candice from Heroes). I’m not entirely certain what the reason for the change is, and considering that Reed (who may be remembered by The O.C. viewers as Sadie Campbell) wasn’t horrible in the role, strikes me as a strange casting decision.

Whatever the case though, Reaper is a fun romp, and if it can avoid the pitfalls of becoming an episodic “demonic escapee of the week” show, it may lead to some interesting places.
I also hope the show can explore how something that may appear negative (working for the Man is one thing; working for the Devil… well…) can have positive effects. In the Pilot, they successfully argue how Sam is actually doing a good thing ‘cause he’s putting bad guys away, but down the road, I’d like to see Sam transform from the slacker he is to a motivated individual who sees his calling as far more important than himself.
Now whether they can do that and still keep things funny, I don’t know, but I think it would be good if they tried. Otherwise, the show will reek too much of sitcom.

(Images courtesy of about.com and nymag.com.)