Month: Oct 2023

Hocus Pocus, 1993 – ★★★★½

Ahh ‘Hocus Pocus’ A movie that evaded me for the longest time (i’d seen clips and chunks of it here and there over the years, but it wasnt until the late 2010’s that I actually conciously sat down and watched the whole thing tail to snout) and, it’s probably not going to be the most original review in the world to say that I genuinely and sincerely enjoy it.

The plot, a coven of witches who commit atrocities in the 17th century, are hung, but by the power of a curse, are ressurected in 1993, just in time for Halloween COULD have the potential to be played out as a rather grizzly horror tale, however the decisions been made instead to basically play it as a mash up of a YA horror flick, with a healthy dose of ‘The Three Stooges’ and a liberal scoop of campy good fun.

And thats basically this whole thing across the board, it’s a Disney/Buena Vista movie (not that that guarentees quality…But it means it’s more likely to be a hit than a miss broadly speaking) So I didnt go into this expecting anything abysmal, and I wasnt honestly dissapointed.

The scripts lively, acidic and very humourous mixing several different comedy styles to create a solid blend thats fun for all the family, it doesnt feel overly long, it’s well paced has a wickedly fun tone and ends in a satisfying way.

The characters are all multi layered, decently written and enaging with enough complexity to keep audiences interested but not so much that younger audience members minds would wander. The dialogues a little bit iffy in places, but im putting that more down to the time it was written than anything else, and when the dialogue DOES hit, it knocks it out of the park.

The direction and cine are just…wonderful, especially for a movie like this which could have easily been relegated a ‘cheap and cheerful’ attitude. It excels in showing 90s suburbia as a rich and colourful visual delight and theres enough special effects and solid sequence structuring here to keep people avidly watching.

The cast are superb with our three Sanderson sisters easily being some of the best Disney written characters ever committed to script, though it does have the unfortunate side effect that, because they’re SO well written, it does make the rest of the cast feel a little sub-par as a result. Non of them are bad by any stretch…they’re just not as good.

Theres also a couple of wobbly moment on dialogue delivery, i’d say its a pretty even split though between the dialogue being a bit rough in places, and the actors not quite nailing the right tone for delivery. it’s missing heart at times.

The scorings perfect…Look. ‘Hocus Pocus’ may not be for everyone, but it’s solid plotting and pacing, enaging cast work and razor direction and cine really make it stand out from the other Disney YA offerings of the time. A perfect family film, theres humour to suit almost all tastes here, and when its not trading on comedy, theres a rock solid foundation for a decently told leading plot running right under the surface of this thing.

I barely go a year without catching it at some point, and every time I always forget just how fun it really is.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/hocus-pocus/

by tytdreviews

Pet Sematary, 1989 – ★★★½

One picked by the missus for a pre Halloween movie night, it was my first time catching ‘Pet Sematary’ tonight and, while overall I quite enjoyed it. It is a film that isn’t without its problems.

While the plot itself is engaging, and I can imagine the novelisation of this is quite thrilling, it’s translation to film isn’t the smoothest in the world.

Clocking in at just shy of an hour and 45 minutes, it keeps a good pace primarily on its charismatic and engaging characters, but the plot itself does seem to run thin at several points throughout, with lots of repetition, padding and Jud saying the word ‘road’ to a frankly illegal level.

The tone is bleak with a slight dark comedy edge, which is fine, but there’s WAY too many continuity errors in this thing, or just…plot points that don’t entirely make logical or physical sense. With the ending in particular being a big problem for me as all rationale went out the window and the thing just became overly silly.

I also had some issues with the effects in this film…they’re kind of lame…a bit of white face paint and some ketchup is about as interesting as the general effects get, and even the bigger ‘showstoppers moments really haven’t aged as well as you’d think.

The direction and cine however are astounding, really rock solid, easily one of the nicer shot horror films of the back end of the 80s, with a genuine sense of suspense and thrill running through this thing. It’s stylish, well coloured and looks great!

Add to this the performances, which are also really rock solid and are genuinely the one thing that properly carries this movie through even the most questionable moments. They’re animate, charismatic use their set space well and really work with the props too.

All in all? While I really got on with the vibe this film was putting out (and I’m sure I’ll watch it again) the wobbly effects, combined with a lacklustre ending and plenty of padding kind of holds this back from really achieving its fullest potential. I’m sure many have strong nostalgia for this one, but as a first timer…while I can see the appeal, its flaws are quite pronounced.

Recommended if you’ve seen ‘the classics’ but not one worth rushing to in my opinion.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/pet-sematary/

by tytdreviews

Sledgehammer, 1983 – ★★★★

Widely considered to be the first ‘entirely E2E process ran SOV movie’ 1983’s ‘Sledgehammer’ is, for some, an endurance test to see how long an audience member will be willing to sit through wide shots of a house or a stairwell that serve no purpose, but are called back on repeatedly across the 85(ish) minute runtime.

Its kind of a novel idea really; director David A Prior had an apartment that was free for a couple of months, he’d heard about domestic home video camera technology and decided he could probably make some money out of shooting a horror movie on the DL for cheap at the vacant apartment.

It’s not a particularly complex plotline, a group of friends decide to rent out a cabin in a woodland area for a couple of nights to have a big old party, each of the group is bringing a bit of a backstory with them, that slowly gets eeked out of them across the runtime. Little do the gang know, but several years prior; a couple were blugeoned to death and the couples child vanished without a trace.

Now many years on, a mysterious ghostly man in a mask stalks the cabin with a sledgehammer, ready to pick off anyone who gets in his way.

I personally have some quite good memories with this film, It first came my way during a particularly good summer via ‘The Last Drive in with Joe Bob Briggs’ and While there is a LOT of things I cant defend this film for, from a purely biased and self interested standpoint, I always enjoy watching this movie, its got a very strange woozy atmosphere to it that makes it feel like a living dream for most of the runtime. That does however include the drawbacks as much as the benefits.

The scripts plot is fiiiiiine, a little on the basic side, but hey; killer ghost stalks some folks in a cabin for 80 minutes doesnt have to be hamlet, and if the ‘Friday the 13th’ movies can get away with doing similar for *at least* 8 of there 12 movies, I can hardly complain here.

The script pacing is pretty decent, it does feel like theres a few acts that have been hacked out of this thing in the first act that would have better set up our main characters, because this film kind of drops them onto us, doesnt really do much to bed them in; and the history of the killer is kind of left to the opening 10 minutes of the movie or so and not much else. As far as the plot on paper goes, it’s a zippy little page turner with plenty of suspence, but the translation from script to screen is disasterous to say the least.

what should be tension building atmospheric shots just hang…hang for an eternity, way past the point of any natural kind of cut, making the whole thing feel INCREDIBLY awkward for most of the runtime. Its a clear issue of whoever cut this thing not knowing what the hell they were doing, but the end results totally mangle the script pacing and render the film with an almost alien quality for lack of a better descriptive.

It really feels like aliens made this film, edited it and then handed it back to us for distribution, almost every aspect of the production just feels…odd.

The tone of the film jumps between a hardcore slasher flick and the a kind of ‘horror comedy’ that some characters in a proper movie may have running on a TV in the background. Non of the characters dialogue feels like anything normal humans would say, and the delivery the actors give is stunted, strange and pretty otherworldly.

The shots all have this ‘vasaline on the lens’ quality that makes everything feel overly soft and hazy, which is compounded by the VHS presentation to the point that it almost feels like this is being viewed from another dimension.

The edits are hard, blunt and innacurate, it throws the pacing and can be frankly painful to see as someone who’s worked in editing. So lord knows what people who havent cut something together would make of this.

There is a fairly decent use of coloured lighting in this, with some very styalized moments of blue and red. But the majority of the film sits in this strange beige and cream monstrocity, that just wouldnt be seen in any other production that wasnt being shot in the early 80s, on the cheap, in an apartment that was being stripped down.

The cast come across as largely all likeable, but theres no directional guidence seemingly to help them figure out what they’re supposed to be doing, as such their energy seems to come out in bursts at THE strangest moments with no rhyme or reason, and with it comes some frantic flailing and organized chaos. If they’re not randomly going insane, they’re being incredibly irritating, but in a way that I personally find fascinating. Like…they say script writing and story telling is marketing experiences. if this is what David A Priors experience of talking to people is, may god have mercy on his soul.

but the killer blow this film has has GOT to be its score, the recent ‘Intervision’ release of this suggests turning the bass and volume up on your equipment for the best results, and they are NOT kidding, with a bass line that’ll rattle the earth core, this thing is synth heavy drone sound for nearly the full runtime, and through a decent pair of Anker headphones, when that bass dropped, I basically saw through time. its nuts. Very effective ,very unique and very fitting for this film. It really helps pull all the awkward, hamfisted weirdness together into a package that I really am quite smitten with.

Despite the issues raised above, ‘Sledgehammer’ to me? is EXACTLY what I want when I check out SOV cinema that isnt trying to compete with studio flicks. Its fuzzy, incoherent, unsettling, strange and crafted with the subtlety of a dump truck. If you were trying to convince someone that SOV cinema was able to rival bigger budgeted productions, you would NOT be showing them ‘Sledgehammer’ but if you are quite well versed in SOV as a genre, this things a christmas gift. You’ll laugh, you’ll wince, you’ll wonder what the hell is going on. and it’ll be all over before you’re even able to settle your feelings on it.

And I love it for that.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/sledgehammer/

by tytdreviews

The Monster Club, 1981 – ★★★★

For me? ‘The Monster Club’ is the cinematic equivilent of a comfy blanket and a delcious hot drink. A gentle offering from Amacus productions in association with the UK broadcasting company ‘ITV’, ‘The Monster Club’ is a 3 part anthology series that, while pretty low on scares, is the perfect accompanyment to any halloween party.

The plot? A famous horror author (John Carradine) helps a passing vampire (Vincent Price) out with a late night snack, and in exchange said vampire offers to repay the author with a trip to the most exclusive ‘Monster Club’ a hidden venue that houses all the spooky creatures your could possibly imagine. When they arrive at the club they’re treated as honoured guests, and in a private booth Price regails the author with three tales of terror, including the story of a young woman who attempts to rob a ‘hideous’ (not really) loner who turns out to be more than she bargained for.

A young boy who gets caught up with an army of vampire hunters (led by Donald Pleasence) who’re on the hunt for his father. And the story of a film producer who takes a wrong turn into a terrifying netherworld filled with ghoulish cannibals! All broken up with some top shelf beats from the finest bands 1981 had to offer!

‘The Monster Club’ to me is somewhat imperfect, but I find that to be part of it’s charm, The script feels very much like a ‘Made for TV movie’ production (partially because it kind of was) but every flaw I find in this film, just presents itself as kind of charming. While the film seemingly has no intention of being family oriented, theres no blood, guts or gore on display here, theres a couple of moments of unsettling imagery, but other than a stripper scene (which itself is played for comedic effect and doesnt actually feature any nudity) this could quite easily have been a kids movie, if not a young adults feature.

The monsters all look SUPER fake, quite literally just people in halloween masks, or folks with their faces painted white and plastic dracula fangs, but its all part of the charm, it comes across to me as a kind of ‘old world’ horror aesthetic, a genre thats really kind of missing in the moder horror ecosystem. It’s a dorky little movie, but its so sincere in what it wants to do that I genuinely cant help but champion it as a fun and enjoyable work.

The script itself is a rip roarer, just over 90 minutes long and it really doesnt feel it. the weirdest (and biggest) problem this film has is simply that I feel it maybe could have gone a *bit* harder on the horror elements and that some of the translation from script to screen seems to not quite have gone to plan.

The first story is the one that suffers the most to me, the story of a young woman who takes a job cleaning the manor house of a ‘Shadmock’ (a beast that can cause awful things to happen if it whistles) the issue? both Price as the narrator AND the woman in the film state that ‘Shadmocks’ are hideous beasts, utterly disgusting to look at and frankly terrifying. When we meet our Shadmock however, he’s basically just a guy in white facepaint with slightly thicker eyebrows than normal. if anything he’s kind of handsome.

It totally defangs the story because, why build up that this creatures utterly hideous, only to then reveal him to be basically just a guy with a touch of anemia? While that story does end on a bit of a high, the flaw in presentation undercuts it unfortunately.

The second story is much more lighthearted, Donald Pleasence plays a pretty mean vampire hunter here, but while this is one of the few moments blood on screen is shown. it is essentially just a 20 minute runaround leading to a punchline that is just a little bit dumb. I really enjoy the vibe of it and just how cheeky and tongue in cheek it can be. But I think your milage may vary depending on how willing you are to sit through a lot of padding for some half decent performances and a relatively weak punchline.

For the hardcore horror fanatics, its the final story that’ll likely be the redeemer for this film, straight out of what feels like an 80s italian horror movie of the ilk of ‘Fulci’, this is a very atmospheric piece, thats low on gore and blood, but SO high on atmosphere, tension and the creepy factor that It always never fails to win me over. With a genuinely decent set of twists and turns, had this story been a feature length production i’d have been quite delighted, but as a short it works wonderfully.

The dialogue across the board is delightful, everyone seems to be having fun with the production, the direction and cine does have a vague heir of the ‘TV movie’ about it in places…But then there are moments that seem to surpass even some of the blockbuster studio heavy hitters of the year.

Its a heavily stylized production that bathes in that wonderful early 80s sense of kitsch horror and halloween. Which when married up to the UK sensibilities of the crew, locations and storytelling makes a totally unique and very enjoyable campy viewing experience.

Add to that some wonderfully animate and engaging performances, the killer soundtrack featuring tracks from UB40 and BA Robertson and its absolute adoration for rock solid lighting setups and vivid colour usage, and while I feel ‘The Monster Club’ wont be for everyone. I absolutely adore it. I try and catch it at least once a year if I can, and if your into your horror anthologies or the campier entries in Vincent Prices filmography as I am, im sure you’ll have an absolute blast with this one! MONSTERS RULE! OK!?

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-monster-club/

by tytdreviews