1/2 (out of 4)

Talk about shivers... look at that carpeting!

I had a disturbing dream last night. In the dream I found myself making love to a strange man, only I’m having trouble because he’s old and dying and smells bad and I find him repulsive. But then he tells me that even old flesh is erotic, that disease is the love of two creatures for one another, that even dying is an act of eroticism, that everything is sexual and that even to exist is sexual. And I believe him and we make love beautifully.

- Nurse Forsythe (Lynn Lowry)

David Cronenberg always had a thing for body horror, something very apparent when watching his first film from 1975 called Shivers (AKA They Came From Within AKA The Parasite Murders). Taking its cue from George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, it transplants the zombie menace firmly into the swinging 70s, adding disturbing sexual subtext and fear of infection (STDs). (There’s also a little bit of Romero’s The Crazies in there and maybe a touch of Invasion of the Body Snatchers). Like Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, which would arrive 3 years later, Shivers takes the cold high tech setting of modern living and dirties it up with the lower functions of humanity – sex, blood, puke, and parasites. Good luck getting the housekeeper to come back.

The beginning of Shivers features a nicely produced commercial for Starliner Tower Apartments, a modern yuppie condo situated on an island twelve minutes away from downtown Montreal. Fully equipped with modern electrical appliances, cable TV, a golf course, restaurant, and an on-premises medical clinic, Starliner’s studio apartments look very attractive for the working couple, except for a little problem. It seems that a resident scientist has been breeding parasites that have gotten out of hand. And while a new couple is looking over the floor plans, crazy Doctor Hobbes (Fred Doederlein) in apartment 1511 kills his 19 year old student/fling Annabelle (Cathy Graham), pours acid into her open belly, then takes himself out with a scalpel. Ah, so there’s a seedy underside behind the illusion of a perfect condo lifestyle – I knew it! Resident Dr. Roger St. Luc (Paul Hampton) soon becomes aware that Hobbes had bizarre ideas about the future of humanity, that man was an over-rational animal who had “lost touch with its body and its instincts.” So he created a parasitic slug-type creature that was part aphrodisiac, part venereal disease, which would turn the world into “one beautiful, mindless orgy.” Wow.

We're sure the wonderful Canadian health care system can handle this.

It turns out that our resident mad scientist was too late to stop his twisted creation, which can be transmitted mouth-to-mouth or other ways, as Barbara Steele’s spinster character discovers while taking a bath (that bathtub scene, showing a phallic-looking slug making its way toward Steels’s nether regions is a classic that seems to have inspired scenes in A Nightmare on Elm Street and Slither). Annabelle had quite a few discreet visitors, including the adulterous Nick Tudor, who seems to have made good friends with his abdominal parasite, even though it makes him throw up its offspring every so often. His poor wife Janine (Susan Petrie) is a blubbering mess as she bears witness to her husband’s silent treatment and worsening condition, while Dr. St. Luc and his nurse girlfriend (a sexy Lynn Lowry) soon find that the entire building has been infected. It climaxes in a swimming pool that seems the right setting for the birth of a new philosophy (or new human evolutionary stage – or is that Devolution?) It’s something that you’ll see in much of Cronenberg’s work afterwards.

Whoa.... uh, I'll wait for the next one.

Shivers is a zero-budget, unpolished work of semi-exploitation, with mediocre acting and some amateur camerawork, but even with Cronenberg still obviously in his learning phase you can tell that there are rich themes being explored here, and that Shivers reveals a director with great potential. There are times when the film seems too clinical, which doesn’t work as well for a movie that wants to explore the removal of everyday inhibitions and the embrace of the lizard brain. There’s also some miscasting in the lead man Paul Hampton, who responds to every event with a kind of slumberous detachment. I would also make the case that, while Shivers is shocking in parts (the infected exhibit behaviors ranging from incest to a scene of two girls on leashes) it isn’t quite shocking enough (although that may be because today, homosexuality and promiscuity just don’t offend). There is nudity but not as much as you would expect considering the subject matter, save for one scene where the sexy Lynn Lowry undresses in front of her doctor/boyfriend (who is more interested in the slugs than her, the dope).

Lynn Lowry makes some rude joke about liking seafood.

Shivers has a few nice bits of nastiness – a slug attaches itself to the face of a poor woman doing laundry (who later attacks a man, telling him “I’m hungry for love”); Tudor bloodies up his whole apartment with blood, slugs, and the dead body of Hobbes’ colleague; slugs pop in and out of mouths (something you’ll see later in Night of the Creeps, Slither, and The Hidden). The oral fixation is everywhere in Shivers – notice that some characters (like Joe Silver’s) are always eating; plus there’s something interesting about the connection being made here between sex and disease (Lowry gives an fascinating monologue – see above). I have read some interpretations of Shivers (with its attempted rapes and violent attacks) to be a Canadian fear of “Americanization” (the sex and violence of the U.S. becoming a corrupting influence). It’s an interesting theory that may hold water. I also liked the setting of the lone apartment building on an island, making it seem like a petri dish for a biological experiment (it was actually shot on Nuns’ Island). Despite being a little sloppy in delivery, Shivers is a worthy first effort from Cronenberg, an influential “sex-zombie” film.

- Bill Gordon

The Shivers DVD, if you don’t mind paying the extra money (since it’s out of print), features liner notes by Robert Foster and has an interview with Cronenberg himself who describes the learning process of directing his first film as well as the horrified reaction from the Canadian press. As critic Robert Fulford wrote at the time: “If using public money to produce films like Shivers is the only way English Canada can have a film industry, then perhaps English Canada should not have a film industry.” (The film was partly funded by the Canadian Film Development Corporation). He also tells a somewhat disturbing story about how he had to slap Susan Petrie around before each scene so she could cry properly (at her request).

Anybody who wants to read further about Cronenberg and Shivers should try canuxploitation.com and KinoKultura.

Lynn Lowry

Paul Soter is one of the members of the Broken Lizard comedy troupe, which you have seen in Super Troopers and Club Dread. Dark Circles is his second effort as director after the 2007 comedy Watching the Detectives. Of the film, Soter has said “Hopefully this will serve as some kind of cinematic equivalent of birth control.” The CEO of After Dark films, Courtney Solomon, said that this first entry in the After Dark Originals 2 series was “the perfect film to set the tone for our ‘newest brand of fear’.”

Dark Circles Synopsis

When new parents Alex and Penny retreat from the city and move into a place outside town, the stress and massive sleep-deprivation caused by their infant has both of them seeing things in the house that may or may not exist. Persistent sightings of a strange woman has each of them wondering if they are suffering from hallucinations, or if their new home holds a dark, supernatural presence. As their fragile grasp on reality spirals into delirium, Alex and Penny find themselves nearly helpless to deal with the horrific truth of what is really going in this house.

Dark Circles will get a theatrical release in 2012. The rest of the After Dark Originals 2 series has yet to be announced, but fans have been promised psycho killers, demons, aliens, and a killer leprechaun (whether that is Warwick Davis is unknown).

Watch this space for more info on After Dark Originals 2 as it comes in!

(out of 4)

The local strawberry jam is really tasty.

“Boys, my advice to you if you’re making a horror picture is to keep the blood running down the screen.” – Andy Grainger, Owner of Butterfield Theaters

Sam Raimi took Mr. Grainer’s advice to heart – his feature film debut The Evil Dead really does show a scene where blood literally runs down the camera lens. In another sequence (that may have inspired a scene in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter), a battered Bruce Campbell stumbles around the cellar in front of a movie screen while blood pours down in front of the projector. It’s a wonderful image, and it’s backed by an old upbeat jazz record playing on an abandoned phonograph, encompassing everything awesome about The Evil Dead – unrestrained mayhem with more than a touch of the absurd. It’s gore as slapstick – no surprise that Raimi credits a large amount of people at the end as “fake shemps,” in reference to Shemp Howard of The Three Stooges. The level of Raimi’s love for the stooges wouldn’t really be understood until Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness, but here you can see its beginnings.

A remake of sorts of Raimi’s 1978 Super 8 short Within the Woods, The Evil Dead is what they call the ultimate spam-in-a-cabin flick. Two couples from Michigan – Ash (Bruce Campbell) and Linda (Betsy Baker), Scott (Richard DeManincor) and Shelly (Theresa Tilly), along with Ash’s sister Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss), spend the weekend in the woods at a rundown cabin, and discover in the basement something called the Naturan Demanto, also known as the Sumerian Book of the Dead (referred to in later movies as Necronomicon Ex-Mortis), a manuscript bound in human flesh and written in blood. A tape recorder is found nearby, and of course they’re going to play it. Once the audio transcription of the book’s passages is spoken, the “deadites” rise to life, coming out of the woods to possess the living. The only way to defeat those who have been possessed by these demons, unfortunately, is through decapitation and other kinds of bodily dismemberment.

Alright, jeez, I'll get you a sandwich...

When I was a kid, I remember my mom reading the plot off the back of the old VHS at the store and refusing to let me rent it. I think she made the right choice; when I first viewed The Evil Dead, I was truly scared and disturbed by what I had seen. Most people go around quoting Campbell’s Ash character from the later films (“Groovy”) and remember them as being more like goofy comedies, but the first film in the trilogy is intense and mostly no-nonsense (and Ash is hardly pro-active – in fact, a coward most of the time). Some comedy is there, but it’s not overt (I do have to chuckle at Ash’s tendency to be pinned to the floor by falling bookshelves). The rest of the movie is a gorefest, with chopped off limbs, spewing all sorts of fluids; a girl is raped by trees in the woods; another’s head is lopped off, then her headless body spews fountains of gore onto her unfortunate boyfriend while at the same time it’s trying to hump him. Over the top? Certainly, but that’s partly what makes The Evil Dead so special – a feeling that all bets are off and anything goes. Raimi wants to raise the bar when it comes to shocking the audience; in a way, he lets us know by a sly reference to Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Wes Craven’s Hills Have Eyes (Craven would later return the favor by having Nancy watch Evil Dead on television in A Nightmare on Elm Street). There’s something meta, also, in the way Cheryl exclaims “I know the car won’t start. It’s not gonna let us leave!” right before the famous 1973 Delta 88 roars to life.

When Raimi isn’t grossing us out, he’s impressing on another level with his inventive direction, giving us glorious camera movements, crazy angles, creative use of sound effects, and tight editing assisted by a then-unknown Joel Coen. After watching it numerous times, the movie’s ability to surprise and horrify wanes, but I’m still left with complete awe at how this low-budget, drive-in 16mm classic was put together so professionally and with such creativity by guys barely out of their teens. It really is a kind of miracle, and a testament to the joys of film-making itself. When viewed with the knowledge of how it was made, by whom, and the arduous process involved in bringing it to screens, The Evil Dead ceases to be just a “movie” and becomes an “experience,” almost a religious one. Its influence on horror cinema is endless.

This is why Ash was moved to Housewares.

Finding the “perfect” copy of The Evil Dead is a tough proposition, recently made much easier by the relase of the Blu-ray by Anchor Bay. This is by far the best choice if you are just looking for the movie itself. The high definition transfers of both the original full frame (1.33:1) and widescreen (1.85:1) are the best this movie has ever looked. The next best choice, if you do not own a Blu-ray player, is to get the Elite Entertainment DVD, which still has a very impressive transfer. If it’s extras you are looking for, you can’t go wrong with the Anchor Bay Ultimate Edition, which is a three disc set. The first disc has the full frame, the second has the widescreen, and the final disc is a real gem – there are many entertaining and informative featurettes involving all the cast members. If you like Tom Sullivan’s effects work, you might want to pick up the Book of the Dead edition which comes in a package made up to look like the Necronomicon, complete with drawings on the inside.

Most editions share certain commentary tracks and special features. There are two main commentary tracks – one from Sam Raimi and executive producer Robert Tapert, the other from Bruce Campbell. Both commentaries are informative, but Campbell’s is extemely entertaining and the best by far. (The Elite and Anchor Bay Ultimate DVDs contain both these tracks). The new Blu Ray does not have these commentaries; instead, it has a brand new commentary track featuring all three guys together, and it’s pretty good, but it’s very technical and mostly covers their film-making process/experience without referencing anything that might be going on in the film proper. Again, if you’re a huge fan of the movie, stick with the Anchor Bay Blu Ray, the Elite DVD, or the 3-disc Ultimate Edition. Finally, I should warn you that the widescreen versions of the film are a bit inferior, since they required cutting off the top and bottom of the image, matting it, and zooming. The result is that information is lost and you are placed too close to the action. (The Evil Dead is shot in 16mm full frame, which is the best way to watch it).

- Bill Gordon

More detailed info on the different versions.

Damn you, Raimi, and these painful contact lenses!

Supplement: Ladies of the Evil Dead and Bruce Campbell (Ultimate Edition)

This was a very slim year when it came to horror movies. Most of the popular films of 2011 turned out to be science fiction, fantasy, or straight up animation. And they all had lots of action – Harry Potter, Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean. Wizards, robots, and super heroes ruled the day. As for the horror genre, the most successful flicks were, as to be expected, sequels in very lucrative franchises. The Paranormal Activity and Final Destination sequels did well, and the long-awaited fourth entry in the Scream series did not disappoint, box-office-wise. None of them really broke new ground, but helping things out was a sprinkling of indie and foreign successes which suggest that lower-budget horror still has life in it. Thankfully, filmmakers like Joe Cornish, Eli Craig, Jason Eisener, and André Øvredal made room for themselves when Hollywood had a creative vacuum. Their entries in our list of the top 10 horror movies of 2011 prove that good horror doesn’t require lots of money to implement.

The Top 10 Horror Movies of 2011

10. Trollhunter

Cool low budget monster movie done up in the same found-footage style as REC – group of Norweigan college students chase down a supposed bear poacher only to discover that he’s a secret troll hunter working for the government, whose job it is to make sure the giant trolls don’t leave their mountainous territory. Effects are very clever, and Otto Jespersen as the weary troll hunter Hans is great.

9. Hobo with a Shotgun

Jason Eisener’s Hobo with a Shotgun is as close to true grindhouse as you’ll get in 2011. It’s full of gore, extreme violence (against a schoolbus full of kids, even!), and has Rutger Hauer in one of his best roles in years. Pretty awesome to watch visually, too. A worthy exploitation film, equal parts horrific and funny. Reviewed here.

8. Paranormal Activity 3

A prequel most of the time, Paranormal Activity 3 goes back to the 80s and shows forever tormented sisters Katie and Kristi as children and their introduction to a certain imaginary friend, which turns out to be terrifyingly real. It’s all caught on VHS, found-footage like the previous two entries. PA3 does tie in to the previous films and was another box office success, although many fans expressed anger that scenes from the trailer (like the girls playing Bloody Mary) never made it into the theatrical release.

7. Final Destination 5

The Final Destination movies just don’t stop. It would appear that there are infinitely many ways for death to “come calling”. FD5 includes a bridge collapse, deaths in a gym and massage parlor, and a rather gross laser eye surgery accident. There is also a tie-in to the first film, and Tony Todd is back. This was much better received by audiences than the last installment.

6. Scream 4

Wes Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson are back with the fourth installment of the popular Scream series, arriving some 11 years after Scream 3. It beats Phantasm II in length of time between sequels (9 years) but the king still remains Psycho II (22 years). Fans generally liked Scream 4 and preferred it to the third movie, still conisidered the weakest in the series. Returning characters are Sidney (Neve Campbell), Dewey (David Arquette) and Gale (Courteney Cox).

Keep Reading: Entries 1 – 5

Ridley Scott’s Prometheus is his first sci-fi/horror outing since Alien in 1979.

In an interview, Michael Fassbender confirmed that Prometheus takes place in the Alien universe, although Ridley Scott still denies this, saying straight out in a recent interview that the famous alien xenomorph will not be making an appearance.

Our guess is that the movie will focus on the Space Jockey.

Prometheus arrives in theaters on June 8, 2012.

Older Prometheus News

Deadline reports that the long awaited Ridley Scott Alien Prequel is no longer an Alien Prequel. It’s now a completely new film called Prometheus.

20th Century Fox has announced that Prometheus will be released on March 9th, 2012. Already signed to star in the movie is Swedish actress Noomi Rapace (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo). It’s a good possibility that either Angelina Jolie or Charlize Theron will be cast as another lead female character.

Noomi Rapace

Says Ridley Scott about the project:

“While Alien was indeed the jumping off point for this project, out of the creative process evolved a new, grand mythology and universe in which this original story takes place. The keen fan will recognize strands of Alien’s DNA, so to speak, but the ideas tackled in this film are unique, large and provocative.”

Damon Lindelof is working together with Scott on the new script. Lindelof wrote many episodes of Lost, and has worked on the screenplay for Cowboys and Aliens and the upcoming Star Trek sequel.

Persons knowledgeable in Greek mythology will recognize Prometheus as the Titan who created man from clay and stole fire from Zeus to give to mortals. As punishment, he was bound to a rock while an eagle feasted on his liver daily. There’s also the possible Frankenstein connection from Mary Shelley’s novel. Too early to tell how this relates to Scott’s film, but it will be the first sci-fi movie he’s directed since Blade Runner.

Update – Jan 24, 2011

The new international poster for Prometheus has arrived (click image for bigger version):

Good movie poster art sticks with you. And nobody can deny the importance of a good poster from a marketing standpoint – the point of posters (and trailers) is to get your butt in the seat. When I was a kid, I was drawn to certain cover art in the video stores – usually to movies my parents wouldn’t let me see, like The Evil Dead or I Spit on Your Grave. Posters can be clever, or deliberately provocative, and they can even stand alone as pieces of art. Here are the top 20 horror movie posters that I think possess at least one of these qualities.

Click the thumbnails for a larger version

20. Shock Waves (1977)

I remember Shock Waves being deadly dull. Maybe I was just disappointed, because the poster was so damn cool. Who doesn’t like underwater zombies? Of course, I haven’t seen it in years; perhaps I should give it another go.

19. Phase IV (1974)

As a kid I found this poster rather unsettling. The image of a lone ant emerging from the palm of your hand… that’s just wince inducing to me. Imagine my surprise years later when I actually watched the film and found it to be an intelligent piece of science fiction. (read my review here)

18. Alice, Sweet Alice (1976)

I have yet to see this pic from the late 70s starring Brooke Shields (also known as Communion). But the image of a kitchen knife in the back of a baby doll is just – messed up. Somebody had a screwed up childhood, methinks.

17. Creepshow (1982)

The cover art for this homage to E.C. horror comics is well done and also has an old-school quality to it. It’s a simple idea – but also effective.

16. Blood Beach (1980)

The poster for Blood Beach is brilliant, as is the tagline which spoofs Jaws 2: “Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water – you can’t get to it.” Folks, the people who came up with this marketing gimmick deserve medals. I heard the movie sucks hard, but still want to see it. Probably because of the poster.

Keep Reading: Entries 11 – 15
Entries 6 – 10
Entries 1 – 5

(out of 4)

Come to Mommy

Here’s a clever take on the vampire genre: the town of Barrow, Alaska, the most northern town in North America, suffers 30 days without sunlight each year. Sounds like a perfect winter retreat for vampires, doesn’t it? That’s the premise of 30 Days of Night, which is based on the graphic novel of the same name, written by Steve Niles. The movie, directed by David Slade (Hard Candy), stars Josh Hartnett (Halloween H20, Black Hawk Down) as the small town sheriff who, together with his estranged wife (Melissa George), lead a small group of survivors of a vampire attack. The game for our protagonists, cut off from the outside world, is to survive for 30 days until the sun returns – an idea so simple for a vampire picture I wonder why nobody tried it before. The film plays loose with facts, of course – the real town of Barrow goes for 65 days without sun, with periods of twilight, but hey, who can survive 65 days of a vampire siege?

The film starts out ominously, with an unseen character destroying cell phones, killing dogs, and sabotaging the local tour guide’s helicopter. A little slow, our sheriff hasn’t figured out that when somebody is trying to kill your communications, security, and transport out, it means batten down the hatches. Soon a threatening stranger (well played by Ben Foster) turns up and starts his new job as resident doomsayer, taunting Sheriff Eben’s family from the confines of his jail cell. Before you know it, the cell phone tower guy has his head stuffed on a pike and bloodthirsty vamps massacre most of the town (there’s a sequence shot from above of the carnage that is rather fabulous, reminding me of the beginning of Zach Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead).

The movie’s strong point is atmosphere. There are breathtaking snow covered vistas occasionally punctuated with blood red. While certain action sequences shake a bit, they aren’t too distracting. Cutting his teeth on music videos, director Slade has a good eye for scene composition. The vampires themselves are a piece of work – nasty, brutal, and evil looking. They are single-minded and uncomplicated – there’s nothing “cool” about them (unlike in the Blade films), and they speak in a guttural, simple language. They have not been humanized; their facial features are warped and slanted to good effect (it makes sense that Slade did a music video for Aphex Twin, since the vampires’ appearance reminds me of the “evil” Richard D. James look from Come to Daddy). There’s something a bit nihilistic about the flick too, reflected in the vampire philosophy. The lead vamp (Danny Huston) taunts a victim (“God? No God.”) and talks of life being only hunger and pain.

Sorry, I was just thinking of this hilarious vampire joke.

The movie isn’t without flaws. Its main problem is with pacing; when things should be ramping up, the movie chooses to meander. Shortening it by a half hour would have made it tighter and more focused, with a greater sense of urgency. I will admit to being a bit forgiving in this area, as I admired that 30 Days of Night treats the monster menace with more seriousness than its genre counterparts. Over the last few years we have been bombarded with vampire films having an attitude of camp (From Dusk Till Dawn), comic book (Blade), or teenage romance (Twilight). I might call this film a more realistic version of the second half of From Dusk Till Dawn – the life-and-death concerns of Night of the Living Dead without Tom Savini’s crotch gun gimmick. Not that there isn’t room for all different takes, of course. Speaking of Twilight, it seems that Slade has been hired to direct Eclipse (AKA Twilight 3) for a 2010 release. It will be interesting to see how he handles the material.

- Bill Gordon

Pepsi, Cheese Doodles, Kristen Stewart, and Robert Pattinson - Hell of a Combo