Try just a little harder, please?

Try Just A Little Harder, Please Guys?
(HT rants a bit)

I had been toying with the idea of doing a series of reviews on animal attack movies. I've been talking about shark and crocodile movies a lot with some friends online lately, which got me thinking about this idea. So I gathered a few films that I thought may be interesting to watch and write about. I knew full well going into it that some of them would not be good, and knew that some of them would annoy me, but I thought I'd give them a shot anyway. Well... I watched several of them, and kept finding that I unable to cull enough from them to be able to write a review that would have amounted to more than a paragraph or two at most. And even then, most of those reviews would have come down to “I would almost rather stare into my cat's litter box for two hours than watch this thing again.” So instead of a big series of animal attack movie reviews (although I'm sure I'll be covering a few of them here and there), you guys get to read a rant.

Wild animal attack movies are one of my lifelong favorite genres. At the same time, it seems that ninety-five percent or more of these films suck. What's worse is that it's also one of the film genres that is hard hit by the technological achievements in film that allows us to have really bad computer generated effects. Anyone who talks films with me finds out soon enough that I really despise bad CGI. It can break a film for me as faster than anything I can think of. And a lot of cheaply made animal attack movies have gotten to the point that they don't even bother to include a real animal at any point in the film anymore. Just to clear the air, I'm not opposed to CGI if it's done well.

Syfy is particularly notorious for this. And as much as I love a good Jaws knock-off, the ones Syfy has been making are absolutely insufferable. I've seen better CGI in a video game than in some of these films. I recently sat through Malibu Shark Attack and Shark Swarm. Both of whom did not feature a single real shark as near as I could tell. Hell, Malibu Shark Attack even claimed a species of shark was extinct that wasn't. Guess what? Goblin sharks are not extinct, nor are they even known to attack people. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goblin_shark So not only are they being lazy as film makers by not even bothering to dig up some stock footage of a real shark and sticking in some poorly done CGI that they probably used some poor intern hoping for a college credit to create, but they are giving out straight up misinformation besides. Yes, I am aware that this happens in other genres as well, shows like CSI give unrealistic expectations to the public of what police officers are actually capable of in the way of crime solving all the time.

Don't even get me started on snakes in movies. How many times over the years have I seen a so called poisonous snake depicted in film and have it only be a Columbian Boa, a California Banded Kingsnake, or a Ball Python? (Nerdy Film/Reptile Enthusiast Note: It's call venomous, venom is injected. There is no such thing as a “poisonous” snake.) Is it that hard to track down a non-venomous snake that isn't in 75% of pet shops in the world? I don't complain when they use a milk snake and tell me it's a coral snake, at least they tried. I've ranted on this topic before in my review of Chaw, but it still annoys me. This happens all the time in current films, and it's nothing new, but I always applaud when they at least give an effort. If you look at the original April Fool's Day there is a scene in the woods where a snake strikes at someone and it's a Cook's Tree Boa. Why don't they use those more often? At least it's an unusual looking snake. I realize that I might know a little bit more about snakes than the average viewer, simply because they interest me and I've been around them most of my life, but anyone who's ever been in a pet shop for more than fifteen minutes has seen a few Columbian Boas. All I'm really asking for is a little effort. Really. That's all.

I realize that these things shouldn't be taken seriously and that they are most likely made tongue-in-cheek hoping to appeal to the fans of the so-bad-it's-good types of films. But sometimes bad is just bad. End of story.

Survive Style 5+

Survive Style 5+ (2004)
120 Minutes. Gen Sekiguchi, Director.

A movie where love means never having to kill your wife more than five or six times...




I thought for the first real review I've done in a while, I'd cover one of my favorite films that remains horribly unseen in the US. It's going to be really hard for me not to oversell this one, I'll warn whomever reads this one now. Everyone has films that are their personal favorites, and if I were to rank my top films of the last decade, this one would be in the top ten. I am probably alone in that, partially because few have had the opportunity to watch it from what I can tell, and partially because of that abstract thing that makes a film resonate with some people more than others. One thing is for certain though, I can't think of any movie quite like it.

What is your function?

Survive Style 5+ is kind of an anthology consisting of five stories that manically overlap and interweave with each other. It was the feature film debut of Gen Sekiguchi, who's only other work listed on IMDB is two short films. If the information I've found is correct, he primarily makes his living by directing television commercials. The film seems to never slow down from start to finish, seldom giving you enough time to take in the incredible set design as you fly from one scene to the next. It's sheer unpredictability keeps you from guessing what's going on, and it's probably best to just strap in and enjoy it.

The cast is solid and made up of talent such as Tadanobu Asano (one of my favorite actors, perhaps best known for his role as Kakihara in Ichi The Killer), British actor Vinnie Jones, Hiroshi Abe, Ittoku Kishibe, Jai West (who recently starred in Love Exposure), model/actress Reika Hashimoto, as well as a cameo from the great Sonny Chiba, among others. They all play well off of each other in the film and I can't imagine that they didn't have a great time making it, particularly Asano and Hashimoto, who play a married couple.

The film opens with my favorite story, where a man who's just killed his wife discovers that she isn't dead after all. Aman, played by Tadanobu Asano, gives a brief monologue on killing, and how we wouldn't understand his wanting his wife dead. After burying his wife (Reika Hashimoto) in the woods, he returns to his utterly amazing and somewhat impractical home only to find her waiting there patiently for him to return. She serves him a huge feast, seeming to consist of every bit of food in the house, and waits for him to finish eating before she proceeds to attack him, kicking off (literally) a cycle of almost cartoonish battles between them that will repeat throughout the film. He kills her again, comes home and again she's waiting for him, and the battles continue.


A foreign hit man, played by Vinnie Jones, is brought in by special request for an extravagant, very public job by the man who subcontracted him and acts as his translator. Jones plays well into his stereotype, sneering at everyone he meets, growling the question “What is your function?” at them. He flies off on a rage anytime he doesn't receive a satisfactory answer to this question, which allows for some great moments on airplanes and saunas, while his translator does his best to keep up with the ranting and obscenity that Jones spouts off.


Other stories involves a group of teenagers who burglarize peoples homes for entertainment, one of whom is filled with unrequited love for another gang member, a family who's father is hypnotized into believing he's a bird, much to the horror of his wife and family, and finally, a commercial executive who's constantly thinking up bizarre and quirky television commercials which she explains into a decorated micro-cassette recorder.

You are killing me with the smell of armpits.


This last story thread, involving Yoko the commercial executive, is my least favorite but I can't imagine the film without it being included. Every time that Yoko, played by Kyôko Koizumi, thinks of a commercial, we get to see the commercial play out in the film that she's visualized. Her commercial ideas don't exactly please her clients, nor do they impress her lover, a hypnotist. I found her character to be the least likable person in the film, even while her lover is clearly the most despicable character present, and am still unsure why exactly I feel that way.


The visuals in this film are amazing. Pure eye candy. Vibrant colors cover almost every frame of the film, much of which was done in post production, although you can't tell to look at it. The set designs are lavish and insanely detailed, from the home Aman shares with his wife, down to such small touches as the interior of the gang's car and Yoko's tape recorder. The character costumes are as outlandish and over the top as their personalities, with the beautiful Reika Hashimoto having some of the most stunning outfits of all.


The soundtrack also plays an integral part of Survive Style 5, and is as outlandish as you might expect. The majority of it provided by James Shimoji, but it also contains well known songs such as The First Noel and The William Tell Overture. Scenes that are accented with music are both appropriate and sometimes as over the top as the scenes themselves, which only adds to the roller coaster effect of the film.


While the film at first appears to be rocketing viewers through it with gleeful abandon and childlike innocence, it's actually got quite a bit of heart in the end. It covers many themes such as love and loss, resentment and acceptance, denial and regret, among others. The characters in the film must find ways to continue to survive in the lives that they are placed in, and deal with what that survival means. By the end of the film almost everyone is changed in some way.


You can see the trailer for Survive Style 5+ here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEH7nDkiPEk

I urge anyone who reads this blog to give this film a chance. It is one of the most fun times I've had watching a movie in a long time. If you live in the USA, it's sadly unavailable in Region 1. If you have a region free DVD player, however, it can be had quite inexpensively from Amazon.co.uk, where if memory serves I paid less than 4GBP for my copy.

* Special thanks to Andrea (@forestaken on twitter) for assisting with this review and encouraging me to get over the writer's block I've been fighting with. =)


Comments are always welcome!

What I've been watching lately...

I realize it's been a long time since I posted anything. I've had writer's block something fierce. In the meantime, just to give you an idea of what I've been up to, this is a list of the films I've watched in 2010, as part of my New Year's Resolution to watch all the films I've bought (some were gifts, promotional materials from work, or whatever) but never watched. I started out with 465 films in my to-watch pile. As of February 2nd, I've added 9 more. This basically means that as of this posting, I've watched 107 films from a total of 474 that I need to watch, leaving me with 367 still to watch this year, plus whatever I buy to add to that. (Which probably won't be very many as it stands right now because I lose my job next month.)

January:

1. The Betrayed
2. Boy In The Striped Pajamas
3. Howling V/Howling VI
4. 5 Dolls for an August Moon
5. Each Dawn I Die (1939) ^
6. The Believer
7. His Name Was Jason
8. Pathogen
9. The Public Enemy (1931)
10. Cop Killers
11. Hell In The Pacific ^
12. Public Enemies * ^
13. The Night Porter
14. Shottas
15. Dog Bite Dog ^
16. Wendell Baker Story
17. Blindness ^
18. The Kid Stays In The Picture
19. White Heat (1949)
20. Isle of the Dead
21. Brain Damage
22. Mark of the Devil
23. TranSiberian
24. The Fair Haired Child
25. The Great Silence ^
26. Do You Like Hitchcock?
27. Wild Country
28. Two Thousand Maniacs
29. Invisible Target
30. Death Proof
31. What Doesn't Kill You
32. Hell High
33. The Girl From Monday
34. Long Weekend (original)
35. Fracture
36. Teeth
37. Dream Cruise
38. Opera
39. Freaks
40. Woyzeck ^
41. Inferno
42. Screwfly Solution
43. The Squid And The Whale
44. H
45. I Walked With A Zombie
46. The Body Snatcher
47. Rockaway
48. House of the Damned
49. Story of a Prostitute
50. Blood From The Mummy's Tomb
51. The Lookout
52. Snow Angels
53. Tower of Evil
54. Return of the Vampire
55. Sound of Thunder
56. Quarantine
57. Let's Scare Jessica To Death
58. Babel
59. Reservation Road
60. The Nest
61. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
62. Bedlam
63. Bullet Ballet ^
64. Bats:Human Harvest
65. Effects
66. Derailed
67. The Secret (not the psuedo-doc, this has Duchovny in it)
68. Female Prisoner #701:Scorpion
69. Last King of Scotland
70. Wonderland (Winterbottom film, not the John Holmes one)
71. The Bank Job
72. Undertow ^
73. Death Sentence
74. Deliver Us From Evil ^
75. Night of the Creeps


February:

76. The Great Raid
77. Cat People (1943)
78. Tightrope
79. Curse of the Cat People (1944)
80. The Hand
81. This Boy's Life
82. Darjeeling Limited
83. Picture Snatcher (1933)
84. Apt Pupil
85. Ice Harvest
86. Brothers Grimm
87. Deadly Spawn
88. Sublime
89. The Tattooist
90. Sunshine Cleaning
91. Petrified Forest
92. Painted Veil
93. I Confess
94. Big Nothing *
95. Beautiful Country
96. Eye of God ^
97. Horrors Of Dracula
98. Already Dead
99. Grizzly
100. Half Nelson
101. Little Caesar
102. Rendition
103. Rise Blood Hunter
104. Mesrine: Killer Instinct * ^
105. Mesrine: Public Enemy Number 1 * ^
106. Sin
107. Play Misty For Me

* = Film I bought since January 1st, 2010.
^ = Film that I consider a favorite of what I've seen so far in 2010.
(believe it or not, some of these I've watched special features on and/or commentary tracks too.)

You can see how others involved in this New Year's Resolution are doing at http:/tinyurl.com/towatchpile.

More reviews are coming, I just have to get myself motivated again. Hopefully, you'll find this at least vaguely interesting in the meantime.

An Interview With Jenny Spain

An Interview With Jenny Spain, of Deadgirl

Deadgirl tells the story of two bored and unpopular teenagers, JT and Rickie, who skip school one day and pass the time by going to check out an abandoned mental hospital. They eventually find a naked dead girl, bound and wrapped in plastic, in a corner room of a dark corridor of the basement, only they discover she's not exactly dead. What happens from there is the real meat of the film, as JT and Rickie's relationship is tested by this discovery and their differing opinions on what to do about it.

When I first sat down to watch Deadgirl, I didn't expect to like the film. Despite zombies being one of my favorite horror genre staples, the enormous amount of bad zombie films out there has made me a bit skittish about getting my hopes up for a good one. What I got this time was a surprisingly refreshing and original take on the zombie genre. This film, like Pontypool, proves that there is still fresh territory to explore within the zombie film concept. While I freely admit that it's not a film that everyone will love, I do recommend that you guys check it out.

The dead girl in the film is played by model and actress Jenny Spain. She gives what I thought was a brave performance, spending most of the film nude and bound to a gurney. Not to mention being made up in a less than flattering light with everything from simply looking unwashed and neglected to beaten and bruised. She never speaks a word in the film, yet you often wonder what her character is thinking about the things that are going on around her.

I had the opportunity recently to interview Jenny Spain via e-mail. She was very friendly and enthused about the idea even though this blog is fairly new and I'm a very inexperienced interviewer. I am very pleased with how the interview turned out and I hope you guys enjoy it!

Heavenztrash: If I understand correctly, you started out in modeling and then got involved in acting. Had you always wanted to be an actress or is it something you discovered about yourself through your career?

Jenny Spain: Ever since I was a little girl I have always wanted to be both. I took theater and modeling when I was young. I always loved modeling because its acting and expression. You can be anything and as a model I learned expression. When I took theater I did a lot of children's plays such as Peter Rabbit. Growing up I was always exposed to entertainment. My friends did movies and worked for MTV. So I had the exposure also being behind a camera.

HT: How did you come to find out about the script for DEADGIRL and become involved with the film?

JS: A good friend of mine contacted me about DEADGIRL and put me in contact with Gadi & Marcel. I did a home audition since at the time I was was living in Michigan. I sent the video and everybody LOVED it.

HT: How did you feel about the material initially, especially given what your character has to go through? What, if any, reservations did you have about it?

JS: I read the script and instantly fell in love with it. Growing up watching horror films this was completely different and emotionally dark. I knew my role as deadgirl and knew it would be difficult. I really had to emotionally and mentally prepare myself for it.

HT: Did you have to audition for the part? If so, how was the audition conducted?

JS: I did a home audition using a video camera. Before my audition I just happened to have been watching Shawn Of The Dead so it was a hoop going from watching records being thrown at some dead chick's head to a very emotional/animalistic deadgirl.

HT: What was the hardest part of the film making experience for you? Was there ever a time that you were having second thoughts about the project?

JS: DEADGIRL is a very dark and emotional film. Knowing I would be nude and majority of my scenes included a lot of physical and emotional activity, it was very difficult. It was important for me to build a bond and comfort zone with my co stars. I knew they felt uncomfortable and I reassured them that its alright, your not doing anything wrong. We are making something special. JT (Noah Segan) was very intimidating. Women like to feel comfort and have reassurance and I knew our characters were going to be a battle. We understood each other, worked together and made it happen.

HT: Did you enjoy making a film with such heavy subject matter? Do you think that you would do it again?

JS: Honestly I did enjoy making DEADGIRL because it was such an intense movie to make and it brought everyone involved close together. We knew how extreme and how far we were going and it really became a family affair.

HT: You've asked the fans on twitter what their favorite parts of the film were, or what parts scared them the most... what was your favorite part of the film?

JS: My favorite part was were they discover the girl, its such a mystery and so much death and beauty that lies beneath. Her discovery is probably the most intense because it makes you question life itself.

HT: Have you experienced any negative reactions from family or friends about the film since it's release? You said in an interview several months ago that you watched it with your father, I can't imagine that was very comfortable.

JS: Yes, I have had some negativity from family. I did an interview with the New York Post about taking my dad and my brother to see DEADGIRL. My mom still wont see DEADGIRL because she knows the content of the film, but she is still proud. I took dad and my brother to one of our premiers at the AFI Film Festival. I didn't tell them much about the film. I was hoping we would have separate seating but we all had to sit together. My dad was a little uncomfortable so I went and got a BIG bucket of popcorn. My dad and brother shared it and by the end of the movie the bucket was CLEAN! I reassured my dad that I had a stunt double. ;) My brother who serves in the U.S Army said "Thats my kind of movie" my dad said " Cool Jen". He is short on words but he has been a huge investor in me and my career. My dad loves the movie!

HT: Have you kept in contact with any of the other actors involved in DEADGIRL? If so, how are they enjoying the film's reception?

JS: Yes! I do keep in contact with everyone. We all became very close both Gadi and Marcel as well as spfx artist Jim Ojala. We have all developed a special bond. Especially working with Jim who did my spfx make-up. I was nervous at first, shortly we became the best of friends we goofed a lot and got into mischief. All the hours in make-up, not to mention I mooned ALOT of people! ha. Stuff they don't mention on behind the scenes. We made it fun. Not very many films go this far emotionally, mentally and physically. DEADGIRL had an impact on many of us and brought us all close together. That's rare.

HT: Are there any actors or directors that you would really love to work with in the future? Who would they be and what is it about their work that you enjoy?

JS: There are lots of actors I would love to work with. Everyone is different and has a particular style. I'm an observer, actors or not, everyone has some kind of talent to learn from. I think its important to be observant and open minded. It helps with with creativity.

HT: What can you tell us about your upcoming film Trust and your character in it? So far I've only read that it's being compared to Saw and Big Brother on some levels. (There seems to be a certain level of interest in tying reality TV in with horror I've noticed. The best effort so far being the UK zombie miniseries, Dead Set, in my opinion.)

JS: I play Elaine Tanner who is a lead character in TRUST. Can't tell you too much about my character because that would just give it away :) Both Directors Kerry Finlayson(UK) and Dominka Pyke (Poland) have won awards for previous international films. TRUST is about 12 reality TV stars at their last chance of fame and a huge wad of cash and would do anything to win. Everyone is put through tests, whether it's life or death, and nobody knows. Some turn up missing, dead, it's a battle between lovers and friends. Lots of sex, blood, its good. It's about who you can TRUST.

HT: You've mentioned a couple of non-horror film projects that you may have coming up, can you elaborate on those at all?

JS: I have multiple projects in the works. I have been offered many leading parts two are Sci-Fi, the others are drama/thriller. Unfortunately, I can't say the names just yet. They are all leading roles with some big names. So keep a look out! :)

HT: Is horror your favorite genre? Do you plan to work within the horror genre more in the future, or is it a stepping stone into acting for you?

JS: I grew up watching horror. My dad introduced it to me as a kid. Growing up watching horror films taught me to be fearless. There are many lessons to learn in the horror genre. Those who are not use to seeing death and blood, etc, who watch Lifetime and soaps all the time... if someone was in a real life situation and had to act quickly, who would be the first to freak out? It's common sense. So you wont see me on Lifetime. Ha! I love horror, but I'm the type of girl who loves to expand herself.

HT: From what I've seen you post on twitter, you seem to be a huge film fan like myself and those who will read this. You may even watch more movies than I do, and that's saying something! What are some of your favorite films?

JS: My ultimate favorite film is Bram Stoker's Dracula. I could watch it over and over again. It's so sexy, dark and lustful. I am not a fan of love comedies. Majority of those who watch love comedies can not divide reality and fantasy. It's a whole different world. I'm a fan of a good flick that keeps me on my toes, not something that would make me depressed, veg on ice cream, and cry over. That's just lame.

HT: Is there anything that you'd like to talk about that hasn't been mentioned in the previous interviews you've done about DEADGIRL or about yourself?

JS: I would just really like to thank you for this interview and all those who have seen DEADGIRL. We worked really hard for this and waited so long for everyone to experience it. Our DVD commentaries/behind the scenes doesn't compare to what we actually went through to make this film but it's as close as we could get. So please check out DEADGIRL you'll either love it or hate it. Thank You!

I'd like to give a HUGE Thank You to Jenny for taking the time to do this interview. I hope she'll keep us informed of her future projects and maybe grant us another interview later on down the line. You can follow Jenny Spain on twitter, where she can be found as @jennyspain. I hope you guys enjoyed it and check out DEADGIRL!

As always, Comments are welcome!

Chaw (2009)

Chaw (2009) 121 Minutes. Jeong-won Shin, Director.


Chaw is a South Korean horror/dark comedy film about a man-eating boar terrorizing the small Korean village of Sammaeri. According to IMDB, it's only the second film from director Jeong-won Shin. I was unfamiliar with all of the cast except Yu-mi Jeong, whom I'd seen previously in A Bittersweet Life. What drew me to watch the film was the concept. Killer boar terrorizes village. Yep, I'm sold. I'm a sucker for that kind of thing. I love old school monster movies. Unless Syfy makes it.

The film credits open with some rather disturbing and realistic looking footage of hunters trapping and killing animals in a series of quick flashes. I don't know if the footage is real or not, it certainly looks like it is. Once that bit of unpleasantness is out of the way (I'm not a fan of real animal violence AT ALL) the film starts with a man going to take a leak at the edge of a hill before tripping and falling face first into a dug open grave. He climbs out of the hole, clearly disturbed by this turn of events and is promptly attacked and drug away by the boar, who we don't see at this point. A classic beginning to a film that is essentially a Jaws knock-off. I mean that in a good way. I love Jaws, and I tend to enjoy Jaws knock-offs. And this one doesn't take itself too seriously.


From that point, we meet the typical cast of characters. The village chief, the retired hunter, the detective sent to investigate the killings, the new cop in town, and the big game hunter brought in to solve the problem. We are also treated to some strange villagers like an apparently insane woman who insists on being called “mother” and laughs maniacally at everyone, and an odd street urchin looking child who may or may not be her son. These characters have good development and interact well with each other.


One of the things that works in this movie, strangely enough, is it's humor. I'm kind of a hard sell for horror comedy. For years I resented Return of the Living Dead for making zombies funny. (Don't worry, I got over it. But, for the record, I like my zombies to be slow, hungry, mindless hordes.) But in this case the comedy and horror elements actually compliment each other pretty well. For some reason Tremors comes to mind, not in story, but in how the horror and comedy work within the story. Some of the humor in the film appears unintentional. For example, in one scene, a group of hunters comes to the village to help track down the boar. These hunters are supposed to be from Finland, yet speak English with VERY American accents. There is some physical humor in it as well. People are always falling down in this movie. Come to think of it, boars are always falling down in this movie too.


Visually the film is nice to look at. The forest is very pretty and I like the set design. There are a few action scenes where I didn't care for the filming style that the director chose to use, but that's a personal preference. The special effects in it are pretty solid, all things considered. The gore and blood effects are pretty typical of what I've seen out from Korean cinema. The boar sometimes looks a bit odd and not very menacing, but when they are showing it running through the forest and so on, the effects are good. It's usually the close up face and mouth shots where it looks computer generated. Bear in mind that I'm particularly picky about my CGI and am a big fan of practical effects, so I am probably making more of this than I should.

Interestingly, about 70% of Chaw was filmed in California near San Francisco, despite being a Korean production. Much of the film takes place in rural areas and it was much easier to secure permission to film in the California woods than it was to film in Korea. Many of the computer generated effects were also done here in the United States. From what I've been able to find out online, the effects crew spent two years developing the boar in the film.


Snakes feature prominently in two scenes of the film, in one instance it was a computer generated one that looked rather weak. I think they would have us believe it was a Mamushi Viper that you were seeing although it looked more like a variety of rat snake to me. The other one, which was presented in the story as being a venomous snake looked like it may be a Cooks Tree Boa or something in the smaller tree boa family. I realize this probably doesn't matter to anybody but me. I have been around reptiles most of my life, and find it really annoying when a film tries to show me one snake and tell me it's another one. At least the film makers in this case used a less common snake for their “deadly snake” than a lot of films do. I've lost count of the number of films where some deadly snake that kills you in seconds is portrayed by a corn snake or boa constrictor. Even the cover of Anaconda 3 (which I've never seen and have no desire to) has a bunch of ball pythons on the cover and the main snake being featured is a Burmese Python with something looking like a computer generated rat head tacked onto it. Completely ridiculous, but I digress...


This film can't help but draw comparisons to Jaws, as I mentioned above, and the Australian film Razorback, which it's particularly reminiscent of in the final act. I've also heard of an American film called Pig Hunt, which I've not seen, and have heard this compared to as well. From what I can tell, they are very different films though, and the only real comparison to be found in it is that both involve killer pigs.


Chaw is a very fun film and I highly recommend that you guys give it a watch if you get a chance. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. So many really bad monster movies come out, it's always a good thing when one like this comes along, in my opinion.

As always, comments are welcome!

(I finally got a chance to write a new review! Thanks for the patience everyone!)

Animal Factory (2000)

Animal Factory (2000) 94 Minutes. Steve Buscemi, Director.

Animal Factory tells the story of Ron Decker, played by Edward Furlong, a young felon sent to prison for two years after being convicted for dealing in large quantities of marijuana, and his relationship with Earl Copen, a long term convict, played by Willem DaFoe. Decker is clearly in over his head, being sent to a prison full of hardened criminals, while he is inexperienced and naive. He falls in with Earl Copen after a short while and is taken in by Copen and his friends, and struggles to adapt to prison life.

Edward Furlong gives a good performance as Ron Decker. He comes of as inexperienced and uncertain of how to best interact with the other inmates. Furlong looks androgynous in the context of the other inmates, carries himself kind of shyly, and frankly, looks like the kind of guy who would wind up being a rape victim within the first few weeks of incarceration. As the film progresses, his character changes, becoming darker, and more acclimated to prison and prison culture.


Willem DaFoe is excellent as Earl Copen. DaFoe portrays Copen as haggard and wise, a jaded prisoner in a way that seems more genuine than say Morgan Freeman's turn as Red in Shawshank Redemption. (This is not meant as a slight against Shawshank Redemption, which I am also a fan of). There is a tired look in his eyes sometimes, and a calculating reptilian expression at others. The performance is sometimes very subtle, and at other times, animated. Copen has been incarcerated for so long that he knows how to exploit the place to suit his needs. DaFoe performance changes showing Copen's adaptation to what the situation needs to achieve his goal. He takes Decker under his wing and shows him the ropes, so to speak. He helps Decker find a better job in the prison, and helps him make the best of his situation, while Decker worries what he wants in return.

The film also stars Danny Trejo, whom Bunker befriended in Folsom Prison. Many other familiar character actors turn up in the film as well, such as John Heard (C.H.U.D., Chumscrubber), Mark Boone Junior (Memento, Seven), Chris Bauer (The Wire, 8mm), Tom Arnold (Rosanne, Freddy's Dead), Seymour Cassel (Convoy, Rushmore), and Mickey Rourke (Angel Heart, The Wrestler).


Mickey Rourke turns in a particularly noteworthy performance as a trans gender convict, who is Decker's first roommate. He gives a great monologue at one point in the film about how he was born the wrong sex. In the DVD's special features, there is a really amusing interview with Rourke where he talks about the lengths he went to in order to get into character for the movie, including flying across country wearing a bra and outfit similar to what he wears in the film. In the film's commentary, Danny Trejo points out that Rourke also wrote some of his own dialog for the film.


The film touches on other interesting aspects of prison life, such as race relations. There's a scene in the film where the African American convicts are staging a demonstration for better working conditions and one of the characters tells Decker that he'd join them except that they are all black, that he'd be shut out by some of his white friends if he did. In another instance, a white inmate is attacked by a black one who is mentally unstable, and tension ensues despite it not being a race related issue. It also touches on things like how the convicts perform certain actions and make decisions based on how that action will appear to other convicts. As Copen says at one point in the film, “All a convict has is his name, remember that.”


The film has a great atmosphere to it. The set design is excellent. The prison looks run down and aging, and provides opportunities for great visual moments. The place looks so beat up and old that you can almost smell the old building musty odor of the place. There is very little scored music in the film, with most of the sounds present being ambient noises such as footsteps, doors closing, alarms sounding and the like. The majority of the music is heard when a convict is playing a song on a guitar and the others are listening to it.


This was the second feature film by long time actor Steve Buscemi, who also directed Trees Lounge, and later went on to direct many TV series episodes such as Oz, The Sopranos, and Nurse Jackie. It was based on a book written by Edward Bunker, an ex-convict who passed away in 2005 at the age of 71, and also wrote the screenplay. Bunker, who wrote several books and films including the Dustin Hoffman vehicle, Straight Time, served time for bank robbery, drug dealing, extortion, armed robbery, and forgery. (This is according to Wikipedia which admittedly is not always the most reliable source of information, but I've read interviews with Bunker where he talks about several of these crimes.) He started out with juvenile detention centers while a minor, and in 1951, at age 17 he became the youngest inmate at San Quentin Prison. Bunker was in (and occasionally out) of prison for various offenses until 1975. Discovering that he was earning a living from writing and acting, he put his criminal days behind him. Edward Bunker appears in Animal Factory in a brief cameo, which is what most of his film performances amounted to, including his role as Mr. Blue in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs.


What sets Animal Factory apart from the majority of prison films I have seen is that it feels very realistic. People going into this film expecting the typical prison film will be a bit disappointed. While films like Shawshank Redemption and American Me feel appropriately bleak and gritty, this film has an authenticity about it that struck me as fascinating. The interactions between the convicts feels very real. Even the way that they walk and the conversations that they have with each other feel somehow more authentic than I've seen in other prison films.

I've never spent time in prison, and I've only knowingly been acquainted with a few people who have over the years, so I can't speak as an expert on the prison experience. But the few times I have spoken with ex-convicts and literature I've read, such as Jack Henry Abbott's In The Belly Of The Beast, have lead me to believe that prison life is better exemplified by Animal Factory than by Shawshank Redemption or Oz. If anyone who reads this has served time and feels compelled to comment on this, I'd be very interested to hear what you have to say.


The commentary track on the DVD by Edward Bunker and Danny Trejo is really interesting. They both talk about the different people that they know that they served time with and how many of the characters in the film are based on those people. It's filled with anecdotes about prison life on everything from the boredom of prison and comments on prison food to explaining how some of the different scams that convicts pull on each other work. They point out many of the extras in the film were ex-convicts that they served time with, telling their stories. Bunker talks about working to get the film made, how it took five years to get made, and some of the aspects of filming the movie in a prison with actual inmates.


I really love this movie, and have always felt like it's been overlooked. I highly recommend it to fans of prison dramas. I love the performances in it, I think the set design is great, and that it's got great atmosphere. I really hope that people who haven't seen it check it out.

As always, comments are welcome!

Calvaire (2004)

Calvaire (2004) 88 Minutes. Fabrice du Welz, Director.


Calvaire tells the story of singer Marc Stevens, a traveling performer at retirement communities and Christmas parties, who has car trouble one night while traveling through the wilderness of southern Belgium on his way to perform at a holiday gala. When his van breaks down in the rainy evening, he encounters a strange young man looking for his dog who agrees to lead him to Bartel's Inn for the night. Paul Bartel, a lonely innkeeper, at first seems very friendly and eager to have Stevens as a guest, but things become more troubling as Stevens tries to get his van fixed and move on to his next gig. Marc finds himself in an increasingly disturbing position as his situation becomes more and more out of hand between dealing with Bartel's strange behavior and the even stranger population of the nearby village, whom Bartel clearly fears.


This is the first feature film by Belgian writer/director Fabrice du Welz, who would later write and direct Vinyan, a harrowing descent into madness film about a couple seeking their lost child in the jungles of Thailand. Calvaire stars Laurent Lucas as protagonist Marc Stevens, who's other film work I am unfamiliar with, but does a decent job in the film's lead role. Jackie Berroyer gives us an excellent and strangely moving performance as Paul Bartel, the innkeeper. Also starring the great Phillipe Nahon, best known to me from his roles in Brotherhood of the Wolf, I Stand Alone, and as the psychotic madman in High Tension, as the leader of the villagers. The last member of the cast that I felt was particularly noteworthy was Brigitte Lahaie, star of many 70s and 80's French exploitation and horror films (even the occasional hardcore film), who has a minor role in the film as Mademoiselle Vicky, one of the nurses at the retirement home.


Even though this film is presented to us as a horror film with a sprinkling of what may be darkly comic moments, I find it to be primarily a very bleak drama about loneliness. Almost every character in the film feels desperately lonely and isolated, and it's clearly had profound effects on them. The innkeeper is the most clear example of this, as he reveals early on that his wife, Gloria, has left him some time ago. We learn early on that Bartel was a comedian before becoming an innkeeper and that he quit doing comedy when Gloria left, as she broke his heart. His longing for companionship is clear from the beginning, and in Stevens, he sees a kinship as they were both performers. But the loneliness is clear in seemingly everyone that Marc encounters from Mademoiselle Vicky at the beginning to Boris, the strange man looking for his missing dog, Bella. The struggle to escape the sadness and loneliness that many of the characters appear to feel is what seems to be the primary motivation for their extreme actions.


The film, while having a simple premise and rather linear plot as a survival/escape from wilderness madmen movie, has interesting little things about it. While typically a film will give the viewer a good idea of what the main protagonist's motivations are and an idea of what kind of person he is, this film does not. He is intentionally left vague to us, he is almost like a vessel to be used as a focal point for the other things that happen in the film. We know very little about him. On the other hand, we are given a much more clear idea about the history and motivations of Bartel. Often, at least while as long as it is left up to him, Stevens seems to be disinterested in the lives of those around him, and interacts with them only in as much as is required of him.

Another perhaps interesting side note is that we see very few women in the film. Once Marc finishes packing up his van and leaves the retirement home that he performs at in the beginning, the film never shows us another female character. The village seems to not have a female population. It's as if they have all vanished. The only indicator that this is not the case is in a tiny scene Bartel passes a group of identically dressed children in the woods. The viewer is left to come up with their own conclusions about why this is, and what it means.



One of the interesting directorial choices I noticed in this film is that there is almost no music in it. The majority of the sound in the entire film is made up of ambient sounds and times when characters are speaking. This only adds to the sense of isolation, in a way, by not using the music to add tension to the environment. The one time that music is present in the film, it is because a character is playing a piano in what might be the strangest dance sequence I have ever seen. Truly creepy and unsettling. The director also tends not to show very much on screen violence, the majority of it happens off camera. This may be due to budget constraints, or may simply be a directorial decision. It's a fine choice, as the material is strong enough to still feel disturbing and have a sense of dread building without using visual effects to achieve it. There is a lot of violence in the movie, we just tend to see it's effects afterward, similar to the famous ear sequence in Reservoir Dogs.

Also of note, I was excited to see that viewers are once again treated to the excellent camera work of Benoit Debie. Benoit Debie is one of my favorite cinematographers working today. He has impressed me very much with the handful of films he's worked on that I've seen. (Irreversible, Calvaire, and Vinyan.) As much as Vinyan seems to get divided reactions from the few people I've spoken to that have seen it, everyone at least seems to appreciate the camera work in it. I may review it here one day, as I found myself deeply affected by the film and consider myself among it's fans. I am looking forward to seeing his work in Gaspar Noe's Enter The Void.


Fabrice du Welz pays homage to many films and filmmakers with his first effort, and speaks openly about it in the interview portion of the DVD from Palm. The name of the innkeeper, Paul Bartel, is surely a reference to the director of the same name who helmed efforts such as Private Parts and Eating Raoul. There are shots in the film that reminded me of Straw Dogs, particularly during a siege segment of the film that is amazing to behold visually. I found myself also reminded a little of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Psycho, and of course, Deliverance. But the film feels neither regurgitated nor like he's ripping off those films. He's clearly shown a distinct vision and style in Calvaire, he's taken those elements and refashioned them in his own way. If anything, he's showing the audience that he is as much a fan of those earlier works as we are. As he himself puts it in one interview, “With [Calvaire], I feel like a young painter who is surrounded by many great masters. And very simply, he paints his first piece, his first important piece. So, obviously, he references his great masters. But he tries to do it with his own personality. That is what I tried to do.” I, personally, feel like he succeeds.


I recommend this disturbing little film to any of you out there who like dark, unsettling movies about madness and survival in extreme situations. There is a very low body count to it, so those looking to see bodies littered about the screen, this one isn't for you. I think it's a great movie and was one of my favorite films of 2004. In America, it's distributed by Palm Pictures and can be found easily enough to rent on Netflix, or can be bought from Amazon and other retailers. It is in French with English subtitles, and the DVD includes a very nice “Making of...,” theatrical trailer, and previews for other Palm films. As far as I am aware, no dubbed version exists, which suits me fine.


That said, I chose to review this film, because it seems like not a lot of people have seen it here in America. I really enjoy it, and I hope that some people who might stumble onto this blog who haven't seen it will give it a chance. I really look forward to seeing what Fabrice du Welz does next.

As always, comments are welcome! =)