Adam J. Whitlatch's Blog, page 6

Phantasm - 24/31 Days of Halloween

When you think of iconic horror villains, what names come to mind? Michael Myers? Freddie Krueger? Jason Voorhees? Leatherface? For many, there's another name that comes to mind, and it's so fitting and menacing in its simplicity... of course, I'm talking about the interplanetary fiend known as The Tall Man. I came into the franchise launched by today's film in entirely the wrong way. My best friend in high school rented one of the sequels--two or three, I forget--and we were completely baffled by the bonkers story, and I wrote the series off as absolutely batshit and didn't bother with the rest. A few years back, however, I decided to revisit the series with fresh, mature eyes and binged the first four installments in a single day. Honestly, streaming video-on-demand is one of humanity's greatest accomplishments, and you can fight me all you want if you have the balls. Speaking of balls, let's get right into today's movie, 1979's Phantasm. As the film opens, we see two lovers having sex in Morningseide Cemetery. The man, Tommy, is fatally stabbed by his lover, who is actually the supernatural Tall Man (played by Angus Scrimm) in disguise. Days later, at Tommy's funeral, Mike watches the service from the trees, but he stays afterward to witness the mortician, the Tall Man, lift Tommy's casket singlehandedly and place it back in the hearse. Haunted by what he saw, Mike decides to investigate Morningside, despite his brother Jody's insistence that it's all in his head. While searching the mortuary, Mike is attacked by a murderous flying orb that kills one of the Tall Man's minions before Mike is chased away by the Tall Man himself and several small, hooded figures. Mike severs the Tall Man's fingers and brings one to Jody as proof. Unable to deny the still-twitching finger soaked in yellow blood, Jody agrees to help Mike get to the bottom of the mystery and find out what happened to Tommy's body. Enlisting the the help of their friend Reggie, the local ice cream man, the brothers set out to get answers and to bring an end to the Tall Man's sinister operation. Phantasm is an odd movie from beginning to end, seeming to blend classic gothic horror with zombies and even science fiction. Unfortunately, any answers Mike and the gang get in their quest only open things up for more questions. We know the Tall Man is shrinking corpses to make zombie dwarves, and Mike surmises they're slaves created to withstand the harsh conditions of the Tall Man's home planet... but... why? How do they serve him there? What's the purpose? And what's the deal with those weird, silver balls that zoom around the mortuary drilling holes in people's skulls? Some (not all) of these questions are answered in the sequels, but even that's problematic. The film's ending (and the subsequent film's endings) plays with the audience, implying everything we just witnessed was a dream. But was it? Is it just another illusion crafted by the Tall Man? My head hurts. One thing I have to touch on briefly is this weird scene involving an elderly fortune teller and her mouthpiece granddaughter who assure Mike that his fears about Jody abandoning him are unfounded. The scene just really doesn't add anything to the story that we couldn't already glean from the brothers' interactions. Plus there's an odd sequence in which Mike is ordered to stick his hand inside a black box that causes severe pain while the granddaughter all but plagiarizes the Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear. I know this movie at times feels a bit like an Alejandro Jodorowsky acid trip, but the Dune reference is a little on the nose, don't you think? Let's talk about the visuals. One thing I love about Phantasm is it's simplistic style. From the yawning halls of Morningside to the Tall Man's white-walled gate room, to the crimson-skied wasteland the Tall Man calls home, this movie isn't cluttered. There's a lot of hard, stark contrast. I particularly love the gate room. Its utilitarian nature perfectly complements the Tall Man. This isn't a flashy villain. He has a mission, and nothing's going to stand in his way. Aside from providing obligatory T&A, I'm not sure why the Tall Man resorts to shapeshifting and seduction to lure in male victims. Oh well... I guess even murderous alien grave robbers need to get their kicks somehow. There's a damn good chance that Phantasm, along with its four sequels, will leave you scratching your head, but at least the movie gives us a promise of mystery instead of feeling unfinished and disjointed like, oh... I don't know... Neon Maniacs! Regardless of its confusing twists and turns, it's worth a watch and gorgeous to look at. Plus the car, man! The car!!!

Slither - 23/31 Days of Halloween

Every once in a while, a movie comes along that just makes you feel gross, makes you feel like you desperately need a long shower in the most scalding, steaming water your pipes can possibly manage. These kinds of movies aren't typically my thing; I prefer scares over being grossed out, but sometimes the concept works, especially when paired with a healthy dose of humor. Today's movie has been sitting on my shelves for at least a year, a forgotten pre-viewed video store DVD purchased at a going-out-of-business sale. Since a good chunk of my reviews have been pretty much "safe" flicks from the 70s and 80s, most in genres I'm pretty comfortable with, I decided to step out of my comfort zone a little bit today. Or... maybe a lot. Grab your barf bags, folks, it's time to take a look at 2006's Slither. As the film opens, we see an asteroid hurtling through space toward Earth. We are then introduced to a schoolteacher named Starla Grant and her jealous husband Grant. Yes, you read that right. His name is Grant Grant. After Starla turns Grant down for sex, Grant goes drinking and leaves the bar with a younger woman named Brenda. While walking in the woods, Grant and Brenda discover a strange, fleshy object that injects Grant with a parasite. The alien parasite takes over Grant's mind, giving him an insatiable craving for raw meat. Thinking Grant to be dead, Brenda is shocked when he arrives at her home and infects her. When Grant's behavior becomes too bizarre to ignore, Starla investigates the basement and finds her husband's bloody nest. Grant attacks Starla, his body mutated and mishapen, but she's rescued by police chief Bill Pardy (played by Nathan Fillion), who's investigating Brenda's disappearance. When the mutated Grant leaves a trail of eviscerated animals in his wake, Bill leads a posse to capture him. The search leads the police to a secluded barn, and that's where things really start to get weird. Like I said, I don't typically go for the gross-out body horror featured in Slither, but writer and director James Gunn is no slouch, and he manages to seamlessly blend "It came from outer space" drive-in creature features with zombies and gross-out body horror. The alien-Grant hive mind is a fun concept, although a little played out at this point. We already saw it in another one of this year's movies, The Puppet Masters (check out my review here). To be fair, Slither pulls it off well, so I can forgive Gunn for being a little derivative. The cast works well together, and Nathan Fillion's trademark comedic delivery will leave Firefly fans crying for more... which is kinda what they're good at. Let's just be honest. Overall, Slither is a fun creature feature with memorable characters, great effects, and just enough humor to keep the audience engaged. I certainly don't recommend watching it on a full stomach, particularly if you have a high-protein diet. If you're one of those "dinner and a movie" types, however, might I recommend giving the red meat a rest and having a nice salad instead?

Neon Maniacs - 22/31 Days of Halloween

I must be a masochist or something, because for some reason, I just keep coming back to today's movie. To be fair, I have a reason. It's the first horror movie I ever remember seeing. No joke. For years, I had vague memories of watching a movie with my older brother that involved melting monsters in a shower and squirt guns at a school dance. I had to have been five or maybe even six at the oldest, but because of my young age, my memories of the movie were few and fragmented. After two decades of telling my friends about this flick but never finding another soul who remembered it (including my brother), I was beginning to believe it was all some childhood fever dream. That is until an acquaintance and I sat drinking and discussing bad movies in 2008. His knowledge of B-movies was extensive, so I took a stab in the dark and told him what I could remember. His eyes lit up and said, "I know that movie!" He happened to have recently acquired it on DVD, so he and I sat down and took a trip down memory lane with 1986's Neon Maniacs. The movie opens beneath the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco where a fisherman stumbles across a strange stack of cards inside a cow skull. The cards feature artwork depicting grotesque, misshapen creatures. Before the man can look through the entire stack, he's murdered with an axe by one of the monsters from the cards. The monsters then shamble into a park where a group of teenagers are playing football and making out. One by one, the monsters murder the teenagers until only one girl, Natalie, remains alive. As a storm brews overhead, the monsters retreat, and Natalie is rescued by the police. The police don't believe Natalie, and they're unable to find any evidence to back up her story aside from some mysterious goo at the scene. Only a lovestruck delivery boy named Steven and a horror movie buff named Paula believe her. When Natalie is reluctant to open up to Paula, the young horror fiend decides to do some snooping of her own and discovers the creatures' lair at the Golden Gate Bridge, along with their only weakness... water. After viewing the movie in its entirety, it's easy to understand why I questioned my sanity for so long... because it's fucking insane! From beginning to end, Neon Maniacs is a disjointed mess. From the unexplained trading cards in the opening sequence, to the out-of-place make-out scene between two of the protagonists in the middle of the final chase, this movie just leaves you scratching your head for ninety minutes. I felt sorry for poor Paula, who is by far the most interesting character in the entire movie, when she got abandoned during the film's climax. But hey... booty, er... DUTY calls, am I right? Probably the strangest thing about this movie is the cops, though. They try to act all tough and hard-boiled, but they're all a bunch of clowns. Their siege on the Maniacs' lair will have you rolling with laughter when they break out their arsenal, I promise. Now no 80s cheese fest would be complete without a musical number or two, and Neon Maniacs delivers in the final act when Steven and his band kick off a high school battle of the bands with a song that's way catchier than it has any right to me. Let's talk about the Neon Maniacs themselves. Who the hell are these guys? The movie never explains it, nor do we ever get a clue about the title. Perhaps it has something to do with that samurai's skin tone? According to Wikipedia, an alternate title for this movie is Evil Dead Warriors, which would probably be a bit more fitting, but I wonder if they changed it to avoid confusion with Sam Raimi's Evil Dead (see my review). The titular Maniacs are a strange collection of walking, stalking stereotypes like an undead, murderous version of the Village People. On one hand, it makes sense that such an eclectic group would come with a set of trading cards... but why do the cards even exist!? Who made them? I feel cheated that we never got an answer. Probably the oddest thing about the Maniacs is their lair beneath the Golden Gate Bridge, so close to their one weakness. To hell with logic, we have a movie to make! With so many criticisms you're probably thinking I'm going to tell you to steer as clear of this movie as humanly possible, but... no. Don't get me wrong, Neon Maniacs is a bad, baaaaaaaaaad movie from beginning to end. It's cheesy, dumb, and nonsensical, but dammit... it's fucking fun! Maybe I have a soft spot for it because of the personal mystery surrounding it for me, or maybe it just embodies everything I love about bad 80s monster flicks. I don't know. If you like movies that don't take themselves too seriously, give this one a watch. It's good for a laugh if nothing else.

The Devil's Rejects - 21/31 Days of Halloween

After yesterday's movie, House of 1000 Corpses, left a bitter taste of "What the actual fuck did I just watch?" in my mouth, I decided to pass on Zombie's follow up. In the wake of Sid Haig's recent passing, I decided to revisit the movie, and my opinion of it has certainly softened, but I still wouldn't place it anywhere near my top ten. After finishing the first movie, Tubi recommended the second one, so I figured why the hell not? Let's see what all the fuss is about! Besides, I'd be lying through my teeth if I said Haig's twisted portrayal of Captain Spaulding didn't leave me hungry for more than just hot, spicy fried chicken! I was also naturally curious about Rob Zombie's growth as a filmmaker, since I loved his 2007 remake of Halloween. So let's take a look at the movie that bridged that gap in Rob Zombie's resume, 2005's The Devil's Rejects. Seven months after the horrific events of House of 1000 Corpses, the Firefly receive a rude awakening as police surround their farmhouse. The family arm themselves and fire on the police. Rufus is killed, and Mother Firefly is taken into custody, while Tiny (who witnessed the police approaching) is missing. Baby and Otis escape through a hidden tunnel in the basement, and Baby contacts Captain Spaulding to warn him about the raid. Spaulding instructs her to meet him at a pre-chosen motel. The leader of the raid is Sheriff Wydell, brother of one of the cops murdered in the previous film. Wydell becomes obsessed with capturing the fugitives, but he finds Mother Firefly less than cooperative. While waiting for Spaulding to arrive, Baby and Otis take a band hostage in their motel room and torture and terrorize them. Once Spaulding arrives, the Rejects drive away in the band's van, leaving a scene of carnage for Wydell to find later. When an old movie reference gives Wydell the lead he needs to track down his prey, he hires a pair of bounty hunters to hunt them down for him. Meanwhile, the Rejects take refuge with a pimp named Charlie, thinking they'll be safe, but the carnage has only just begun for the Devil's Rejects. Many of the things I griped about in my review of House of 1000 Corpses are missing here. Where the previous film had a surreal, music video-like quality that often has the viewer questioning what's real and what isn't, The Devil's Rejects has a more traditional narrative approach to its storytelling. Whether this was at the studio's request or Zombie's own idea, I don't know. It even abandons the Rob Zombie-driven soundtrack of its predecessor in favor of songs handpicked to represent the time period, which is fitting considering this is essentially a road trip movie. While the movie tones down the surreal visuals, it doesn't tone down the brutality or the blood. The movie plays games with your emotions, juggling your loyalty between the Rejects and the spiraling Sheriff Wydell. While any rational person should want justice for the Firefly Family's countless victims, It's easy to forget at times that these characters are despicable murderers who deserve no pity, especially when Wydell goes to work on them with a staple gun. The Devil's Rejects proves that Rob Zombie doesn't have to resort to gimmicks to tell a compelling story. The movie is equal parts crime thriller and brutal horror, and the two genres blend together beautifully. While I find this film to be superior in almost every way, I'd recommend watching them back to back, just so long as you don't find Bill Moseley's dramatic change in appearance between the movies too jarring. Turn down the lights and pass the fried chicken!

House of 1,000 Corpses - 20/31 Days of Halloween

I have to apologize for the delay on this review, folks. I spent most of Sunday driving home from ValleyCon. Ten hours is a hell of a stretch in a cramped minivan with two cranky kids, and of course it left me with no time to watch a movie. So today, I'm playing catch up. Ever since his proposed Crow sequel The Crow: 2037 was canceled in 1997 (which really bummed me the hell out, considering it was actually a really neat, less-formulaic take on the concept), Rob Zombie fans were eagerly anticipating the rocker's leap from music to film, and six years later, we finally got to see what Zombie had up his sleeve, but instead of a gothic tale of vengeance, we got a strange tribute to gritty 1970s horror cinema. Would Zombie's vision appeal to moviegoers? Let's find out, shall we? Grab yourself a bucket of fried chicken and strap in for the murder ride that is 2003's House of 1000 Corpses. As the movie opens, we witness a failed robbery attempt at a macabre roadside tourist trap run by a clown named Captain Spaulding (played by the late, great Sid Haig). Just as Spaulding is finishing up mopping up the would-be robbers' blood, four young travelers arrive to check out his "murder ride," in which Spaulding regales them with dioramas and tales of various serial killers, including a local killer known as Doctor Satan. At the travelers' insistence, Spaulding draws them a map to the very tree where Doctor Satan was hanged. On the way to the tree, they pick up a woman named Baby hitchhiking in the rain. When an unseen gunman shoots out their tire, Baby takes them to her home to wait out the storm while her brother fixes their car. When they arrive, the travelers are immediately creeped out by the Firefly family's strange and even menacing antics. After a tense confrontation with Baby, the travelers try to leave, only to be ambushed on their way out by Baby's brothers Otis. What follows is a bloodbath the likes of which we've come to expect from Rob Zombie films. While viewing House of 1000 Corpses, it's hard to forget who's pulling the strings, because the entire movie plays out like an extended Rob Zombie music video, and the soundtrack only helps reinforce that feeling. While the movie tries to replicate the look and feel of earlier, similar (way too similar) tales like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes, it often employs visual gags and techniques associated with music videos. Zombie also takes every opportunity to remind us how hot his wife is. We know, Rob. No need to keep rubbing it in. Just when you think the movie can't get any stranger, it jumps the shark on a rocket-powered jet ski, and the obligatory "final girl" descends into Doctor Satan's lair and comes face to face with the mad doctor himself in a sequence that looks as if it were ripped straight from Zombie's stage show. I think it's worth mentioning that Doctor Satan is never seen or even alluded to in 2005's The Devil's Rejects, but we'll get to that soon. I promise. So is House of 1000 Corpses worth watching? Well, that all depends on your taste in movies. Do you like a straight-forward viewing experience, or do you prefer your horror with a hit of LSD? House of 1000 Corpses isn't a bad film necessarily, but I wouldn't call it good, either. It's unsurprising that Zombie spent three years trying to nail down a studio to release the film after completing it in 2000. My advice? Smoke a few joints and listen to Rob Zombie's Past, Present, & Future compilation instead.

Scream - 19/31 Days of Halloween

By the mid-1990s, the slasher genre had burned itself out. Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees were both dead and burning in Hell. Michael Myers' latest screen appearance was a failure with both critics and audiences. It seemed that slasher movies had gotten the axe. But then, in 1996, Wes Craven returned to the genre with a film that would take movie audiences by storm and breathe new life into it and kick off a new generation of masked killers and even resurrect a few dead or dying franchises as audiences clamored for more. The movie didn't take itself too seriously, parodying the genre and making clever tongue-in-cheek references that horror fans ate up. This approach worked, and despite the dark comedy, Craven's new film managed to be smart and scary. Let's take a look at the film that sparked the question, "What's your favorite scary movie?" Of course, I'm talking about 1996's Scream. The movie opens with a teenager named Casey Becker getting ready for an evening of scary movies and popcorn with her boyfriend, Steve. A strange man calls Casey repeatedly, and at first she plays along with his flirtations, but the mystery caller soon turns violent, revealing he has captured Steve and offers to spare his life if Casey can successfully answer a series of horror movie trivia questions. Casey fails the killer's test, and both she and Steve are murdered. The next day at school, Sidney Prescott learns of the murders, and past trauma comes flooding back as a TV reporter named Gale Weathers brings up the murder of Sidney's mother a year earlier, questioning whether Sidney may have identified the wrong man, leaving the real killer to roam free to kill again. That night, the killer calls and attacks Sidney at her home, but when her boyfriend Billy Loomis shows up at the exact moment that the killer disappears, Sidney suspects him, and he's arrested. While Billy sits in jail pending an investigation into his cell phone records, the killer calls to taunt Sidney while she's staying with her friend Tatum, clearing Billy. After Sidney is attacked at school, classes are suspended, and a city-wide curfew is put into effect. Tatum's boyfriend Stu decides to celebrate by throwing a party at his farmhouse. Sidney attends the party and tries to forget her worries, but when people start dying at the party, everyone becomes a suspect. Scream is packed with horror references, particularly slasher flicks. Characters quote the classics, like Psycho, recite the various established rules of surviving a horror movie, are named after classic horror icons, and Wes Craven even appears as his most famous creation "Fred" in a brief cameo. Jamie Kennedy's Randy constantly reminds the characters about the "rules," often making suspicious statements as his obsession with slasher movies makes him a likely suspect, which he even admits at one point. While Kennedy's annoying both onscreen and off, everybody knows a person just like him, so the character keeps the parody grounded. That said, my favorite part will always be when he gets smashed in the face with a phone. During a period when the media was taking a very close look at film, music, and video games as a source of violence, Scream asks some very serious questions. Are Xennials/Millennials too desensitized to violence? And what is the cause? Does art imitate life, or does life imitate art? Personally I believe it's the former, but the commentary offered in Scream continues to be relevant to this day as politicians and the media continue to point the finger at violent art forms for the cause of gun violence. The movie launched quite a few acting careers. Similar new slashers like I Know What You Did Last Summer popped up but didn't have the same longevity. Scream has gone on to spawn three sequels and a television series on MTV. The franchise's killer, often referred to as "Ghost Face," recently joined the roster of killers in the popular survival video game Dead By Daylight, and I hate that cheap son of a bitch so much! Needless to say, twenty-three years later, Wes Craven's tongue-in-cheek parody is still going strong without overstaying its welcome. Scream is one of my all-time favorite horror films, ranking up there with the Halloween and Friday the 13th franchises. While I utterly despise the third installment, I consider the other three films to be solid. The first three films are on Netflix, along with the television series, so check 'em out... just leave out the "chill" part. If you have sex, you die. Them's the rules. Right, Randy? R-Randy? Uh oh.

The Puppet Masters - 18/31 Days of Halloween

I love the works of Robert A. Heinlein, known all over the world as "the Dean of Science Fiction." Hell, my love for Heinlein is probably the only thing I have in common with my father, aside from my hairline, that is. While its true that Heinlein's writing became increasingly controversial and... well... weird... in his later years, his earlier works from around 1947 - 1966 are some of the finest works in speculative fiction, in my opinion. You'll remember yesterday I reviewed the 1978 film adaptation of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, based on a Jack Finney novel many consider to be derivative of Heinlein's work. Just how derivative? Well, since I haven't read Finney's novel, I cannot make an informed judgment. I can, however, compare one film adaptation to another, so today we're going to take a look at 1994's The Puppet Masters, based upon the 1951 Robert A. Heinlein novel of the same name. The film opens in a rural farm community in southeast Iowa where a strange light is seen landing in the woods outside town. Three young boys rush to investigate, and when a man arrives from town to investigate as well, they attack him, knocking him unconscious. The next day, Sam, who works for an off-shoot of the CIA, arrives in Iowa to meet Jarvis, Mary (a NASA scientist, and his father Andrew (played by Invasion of the Body Snatchers star Donald Sutherland). The team investigates a phony flying saucer built by the three boys, and Mary notices everyone around the fake UFO is acting strangely. When the team meets with the director of a local news station, the man attacks them, and Sam is forced to kill the man in self defense. They witness a strange, slug-like creature emerging from beneath the man's back, and Sam traps it in a briefcase. The team escapes from the station and returns to their base to examine the creature. Back at the lab, Sam notices Jarvis acting suspicious, and realizes that the man is under control of one of the alien parasites. After a lengthy pursuit through the building, the alien jumps from host to host until it takes control of Sam. Riding Sam and controlling him like a puppet, the alien retrieves a cache of dormant slugs from Jarvis' apartment and attempts to take control of the President of the United States, but the plan is foiled and Sam is taken into custody. With the knowledge gained during Sam's time under alien control, Andrew and his agency coordinate with the Iowa National Guard to contain the invasion, but the slugs overpower them. The Puppet Masters now have an army, and if they aren't stopped soon, within a matter of weeks, they'll seize control of the entire world. Let me start off by saying I love the fact that the invasion begins in what is obviously northern Van Buren County (based on the map shown in the movie), which is where I'm from. It's nice to see VBC getting repped in the movies, even if they did use a fictional town with a comically large population. Donald Sutherland is great as always, but he really excels in his role as the Heinlein archetype of the wise, grumpy old man we see so often. I have to wonder if his casting was some tongue-in-cheek nod to his role in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The alien slugs are well-made and convincing, not to mention sufficiently creepy. The alien hive in Des Moines, however... not so much. While overall I'm more forgiving of this movie than mty father, that's one thing we can agree on. The hive just looks hokey, and its only made worse by the fact that the parking garage its set up in looks like a bomb went off. I mean, why? For a species that is roughly 60% brain, they can't be too smart if they decide to set up their fragile colony hive in a crumbling structure. But really, it's a minor gripe. The rest of the film is pretty solid. The Puppet Masters is a good movie, and I think critics have been unfair to it. I'm not sure I'd rank it above Invasion of the Body Snatchers, though. The movie does omit a lot of material from the book, particularly the expanded edition published in 1990. It's been long enough that I think the story is due for and worthy of a remake. In order to do it justice, however, I'd like to see it done as a series much in the style of Netflix's Altered Carbon. While many of Heinlein's works are considered problematic by today's standards, I think many of his early and middle works would make great big- and small-screen properties. If you like suspenseful paranoia stories in the same vein as Body Snatchers or John Carpenter's The Thing, give this one a watch, or even better, give the novel a read. I highly recommend both.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) - 17/31 Days of Halloween

Have you ever woken up one morning and thought someone you know or love is acting strange? Do you ever get the impression they've been replaced by some kind of alien pod person? I'm pretty sure we've all experienced this at one point or another. Now imagine if it wasn't just your paranoia... would anyone believe you? Today's film is based upon Jack Finney's 1955 novel The Body Snatchers, which has been adapted for film a staggering four times, in 1956, 1978, 1993, and 2007. Some have said the story is derivative of Robert A. Heinlein's earlier novel, The Puppet Masters, which was published four years before Finney's novel. We'll be taking a look at the second film adaptation today, so put on a pot of coffee and stay awake, because you won't want to miss a minute of 1978's Invasion of the Body Snatchers. As the opening credits roll, we follow strange alien spores as the travel through space, carried on the solar winds toward Earth, where they quickly sprout into pods crowned with pink blossoms. Elizabeth (played by Brooke Adams) encounters one of the pods on her way to work at the Heath Department and brings it home. The next morning, her boyfriend Geoffrey begins acting strangely. Elizabeth's boss, Matthew (played by Donald Sutherland), shrugs off Elizabeth's concerns and recommends she speak to his friend Dr. David Kibner, a noted psychiatrist. After witnessing a bizarre accident on the way to the book signing, Matthew unsuccessfully tries to file a police report while his friend Jack Bellicec pesters him. Elizabeth meets Dr. Kibner (played by Leonard Nimoy), who also shrugs off her concerns and tells her to go home and get some sleep. Kibner then confides to Matthew that Elizabeth's story isn't unique, and he likens it to some kind of delusional flu that passes in a day or two. After the signing, Jack returns to the bath house owned by him and his wife, Nancy. While Jack relaxes in a sauna, Nancy discovers a body in one of the massage booths. They summon Matthew to examine the body, which seems to be developing into a carbon copy of Jack right before their eyes. Matthew goes to check on Elizabeth while the Billicecs summon Kibner. The body in the bath house disappears before Kibner can see it, but Matthew finds another in Elizabeth's house... one that looks exactly like her! Matthew, Elizabeth, and the Billicecs decide to stick together, realizing they can't trust anyone else, because they might already be an alien pod person. But as exhaustion sets in, it becomes harder to resist the invaders. As far as I can recall, this is the only film adaptation of The Body Snatchers that I've seen, and I'd be amazed if any of the others can top it. The movie features some really top notch special effects for the time period. The scene where several pods grow and take form in Matthew's back yard is fantastic, both for its visual effects and the tension it builds. Invasion of the Body Snatchers features an impressive all-star cast, including Leonard Nimoy (Star Trek), Jeff Goldblum (Jurassic Park), Veronica Cartwright (Alien), and Donald Sutherland, who would later go on to star in the film adaptation of Heinlein's The Puppet Masters. Huh... typecasting... or just a funny coincidence? I'll leave the speculation on that one to you. Either way, the cast is a veritable Who's Who of science fiction, and there isn't a flat performance in the bunch. Overall, Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a classic science fiction and horror masterpiece. Unsettling special effects, building suspense, and a veteran cast of actors all come together in a delicious recipe of terror completely free of rat turds, I promise.

Se7en - 16/31 Days of Halloween

Every generation has that movie that leaves a lasting impact on it. That one movie that teens talk about in hushed whispers at school, even years after its release. You don't even have to see it, because you've already experienced it vicariously through your peers. The best parts have been spoiled for you in the lunch line. Today we're going to take a look at the movie that left its bloody stain on my generation. I never actually watched this movie in its entirety, mostly because my peers' constant jabbering about it turned me off. I tend to shun things that are popular at first, annoyed by the attention they receive. Sometimes I regret that little personality quirk, and this is one of those times. Before today, I'd only seen bits and pieces on cable and pieced the basic plot together from schoolyard gossip. Today we're going to talk about the 1995 thriller Se7en. Detective Somerset (Morgan Freeman) is one week from retirement when he's partnered with a young, hot-tempered detective named Mills (Brad Pitt). The detectives are assigned to a strange homicide case in which the the victim, a morbidly obese recluse, is bound and force-fed spaghetti until his stomach bursts. Unable to stand each other, Mills is reassigned and the next day he begins investigating another murder, where a lawyer was forced to cut a pound of flesh from his own body. The word "GREED" is scrawled on the floor in the man's blood. When clues lead Somerset to the word "GLUTTONY" scrawled on the wall in grease behind the dead fat man's fridge, he realizes that he and Mills are hunting for the same killer. Mills and Somerset join forces again, and as they investigate a third crime scene where a man has been strapped to a bed for a year and the word "SLOTH" written on the wall, Somerset is convinced they are looking for someone obsessed with the seven deadly sins: Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Pride, Lust, Envy, and Wrath. Each crime scene is more brutal and cruel than the last, and while Mills is confident that the killer will eventually make a mistake, Somerset isn't quite so sure, because it's becoming increasingly obvious their quarry is toying with them. On one hand, I'm disappointed that I didn't give this film a chance when it first hit home video, because it's damn good. On the other hand, I'm glad I waited, because my focus on biblical and mythological literature in college allowed me to appreciate the references to Dante's Divine Comedy, and Milton's Paradise Lost even more. I laughed empathetically when Mills tossed a copy of Dante's Inferno away in frustration. I'll admit, the epic poem is a little bit of a slog. I've also extensively researched serial killers over the years, both for my work and simple morbid fascination, and that made Kevin Spacey's John Doe all the more interesting. Knowing now what a creep Spacey is in real life, its not hard to see how he conjured up his performance. I'm also glad to finally know the answer to the burning question "What's in the box?" which I won't spoil here for those who've never seen the movie. The finale is tense, and as the final puzzle pieces begin to fall into place, your heart sinks and you can't help but feel for the protagonists. Not all endings are happy, and I applaud the writer for not taking the easy way out and giving us a fairy tale ending. While the film isn't as scary as I was led to believe by my peers, it is certainly a suspenseful crime thriller worthy of its accolades. I'm glad that after the well-documented difficulties director David Fincher suffered during the production of Alien 3 that he was allowed to stretch his wings on this film and show us his genius. Do yourself a favor and give this one a watch. Just... don't do it on spaghetti night. Trust me.

Jaws - 15/31 Days of Halloween

I've always found sharks fascinating as well as terrifying. When I was a kid, I loved going to the aquarium at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha to see the Blacktip and Hammerhead sharks. The Hammerheads were by far my favorite. To this day, Mako sharks still terrify me, and I can't even look at a picture of one without shuddering. But again, they're fascinating, and I always have a hard time tearing my gaze away when I see a shark. I'll admit being a midwesterner who's only ever seen the ocean once makes being afraid of them a little silly, but perhaps I have Hollywood to thank for that a little bit. In 1974, Peter Benchley published a bestselling novel about a killer shark terrorizing a beach resort community. Before the book was even published, Universal bought the film rights, and a young Steven Spielberg was brought in to give cinematic life to Benchley's novel. Let's suit up and dive right into 1975's Jaws. The film opens with a beach bonfire party. A young man and woman slip away to go skinny dipping a short distance away. While the man collapses drunkenly and passes out on the beach, the woman swims out alone. Something beneath the water attacks her and drags her under. Oblivious to her screams, the man sleeps through the attack. The next morning, the girl is reported missing, but the police soon find her, or at least what's left of her. Police Chief Brody orders the beach closed, but he is overruled by the mayor, who fears the negative publicity would ruin the local economy by scaring off tourists. When a second victim is attacked in broad daylight, not even the mayor can deny the truth. There's a killer shark loose in their waters. When a reward is offered for the shark's death, fishermen and and amateur bounty hunters swarm the town and its waters. A Tiger shark is captured, but a shark specialist named Hooper concludes that this is not the killer shark they're looking for. His concerns fall on deaf ears, and the beach is reopened for the Fourth of July. After a third attack, Chief Brody contacts a local fisherman and shark hunter named Quint to track and kill the beast. Brody and Hooper accompany Quint, who laughs at Hooper's high-tech gadgets and over-preparedness, but none of them are truly prepared for what lurks in those bloody waters off Amity Island. Through a combination of brilliant casting and directing, Jaws is an undeniable masterpiece of suspense and terror, being the highest-grossing film ever at the time of its release. The cast, rather than the shark itself, is what makes this film shine, however. One of the best scenes ever committed to film is the scene where Quint and Hooper drunkenly compare scars, which ends in a chilling monologue by Quint, who delivers an eye-witness account of the demise of the USS Indianapolis which never fails to make my skin crawl. Due to mechanical issues, Spielberg made the wise decision to show the shark on screen as little as possible and rely instead upon the mere suggestion of its presence. John William's minimalist score accomplishes this goal beautifully. This works to the film's advantage, because many of the scenes where we do see the shark are are comically bad, particularly the shots of the shark leaping out of the water and onto the boat. Considering the technology available in 1975, however, it was a noble effort, and audiences at the time certainly didn't seem to mind. Despite these limitations, Spielberg pulled off what many considered to be impossible. Even the producers who bought the rights to the story have admitted if they'd read the book twice they would have abandoned Jaws as an impossible task. But thankfully, they didn't. I don't need to tell you that Jaws is a classic. That goes without saying. If you've never seen it before, do yourself a favor and correct that now.