When a franchise hits the ‘In Space!’ part of its existence, I tend to run to the hills, or at the very least make some notes for my next youtube review. Its usually a sign that a franchise has exhausted its creative outputs and hit the ’emergency panic’ button because…well…who DOESNT wanna see a predominantly earth based hero or villain get thrust THEMSELVES into the unknowing dark void of space! Who KNOWS what crazy hi-jynx they could get up to?! Its usually the death rattle.

‘Hellraiser: Bloodline’ is essentially this franchises death rattle. After ‘Hellraiser III’ took the high concept, complex world of the cenobites and their interdimensional quest for pleasure through ultimate pain. and reduced it to a low budget, pinhead-centric ‘Nightmare on Elm Steet’ knock off. I didnt have high hopes for ‘Chapter 4’. In fact, I didnt like ‘Hellraiser III’ so much that I actually put off watching ‘Bloodline’ for the better part of a decade, figuring that, if that was the direction the series was going in, it was probably better to cut my losses and just stick with the first two, than venture any further.

But sometimes, fortune favours the brave. and while ‘Hellraiser: Bloodline’ is FAR from a return to form for the series, I have to admit that I really quite enjoy it.

The premise is simple enough, we open the the far off future of 2150, on a space station as a member of the ‘Merchant’ family is controlling a robot to open the Lament configuration. He successfully opens the puzzlebox. Pinhead and a new set of cenobites appear, but before any kind of showdown can occur, space marines barge into the space station and Arrest ‘Merchant the younger’.

While in custody, the marines question Merchant about why ‘the man who built this space station would cut all communication and access to it and threaten to destroy it?’ At which point it’s revealed that the Merchant family have a long and entangled history with the puzzle box and the cenobites, dating back to 18th century France, and a distant relative of Merchant, who was in fact the creator of the first puzzlebox.

From here, the film essentially takes on an anthology pathway, showing three tales from the Merchant bloodline, starting with ‘Philip Merchant’ the creator of the box, as he battles with a demon from hell called Angelique who may or may not have manifested the box for demonic purposes. Before flashing forward to 6 years after the events of ‘Hellraiser III’ and 1996 where ‘John Merchant’ is the architect who helped construct the ‘Lament tower’ featured as the big twist ending in ‘Hellraiser III’ with Angelique back on the hunt to reclaim the puzzle box. and finally finishing the present day of 2150 with ‘Paul Merchant’ finally trying to put an end to this stain on the bloodline, once and for all.

Im going to be honest up front here, this is a stupid, silly and daft little movie. It is FAR removed from the deadly serious tones of the first 2 Hellraiser movies. But I feel like it does a lot right, that the last film got VERY wrong.

For a starters, this film shifts the tone back away from just, gore for the sake of gore and a slasher mentality, back to a more ‘otherworldly’ quality. there are moments in this film that arnt really fully explained or clarified that reintroduce a little bit of mystery back into the series which is nice. Angelique as a character is a bit of a mixed bag concept. On the one hand, its interesting to learn that their are beings in the Leviathan realm heald in higher regard than the Cenobites…However, at the same time introducing a monarch-esq framework into the series grounds the Cenobites as beings even further and kind of takes a bit more magic away from the series.

They show significantly less of Pinhead, and when he does appear he isnt doing much of the heavy lifting on the gore front. He gets some really nice dialogue here and its nice to see them shift him back to being a more mysterious being (with significantly better make up this time to boot!) without just…not featuring him at all in the movie.

Calling this film what it is, it feels like a ‘closer’ to the series. Clive Barker was back on board as an executive producer (I believe for the final time), and the tone and vibe the film gives off throughout is basically ‘we’re done, this is tying things off.’ indeed, the anthology nature of this basically burns any bridges of future sequels as (mild spoilers here) the film implies that after 1996’s encounter, the puzzle box drifts from place to place, but that no Cenobites are lost and no new victims are collected until 2150. The Puzzlebox basically just waited till 2150, at which point (again, mild spoilers) its destoryed. Which means one of two things, either the series ends with this film (as I assume many people would prefer) or this film…the one Clive Barker worked on…DOESNT count as canon and instead all the films that come after this one DO count.

in either case, for me? this is a perfect jumping off point. With this film, we learn everything we didnt already know about the Cenobites, they get to do some fun last film killings, we get a thorough history of the puzzle box that helps begin and end the timelines for events, and the ending of the film is about as strong a closure as you can get.

I enjoyed the short stories within this film, all of them feel pretty strong, though not quite as strong as the original elements, theres a nice consistency tonally amongst all the stories. The Merchants as characters are all a little bit on the flat side, it maybe would have been nice to see a little bit more character varience rather than them just increasingly modernising the same personality type. But Angelique as a character nicely counter balances it as a seductive and sadistic demon/cenobite…thingie…I dont think the film really clarifies what shes supposed to be.

Technically the film looks sound, with some solid effects work for 1996, I enjoyed the direction for the most part, though I think the middle story does take a bit of a hit, just in the sense of I dont think the set work is as good as the set spaces for the other two films. That being said, the Cenobites look fantastic, they bring back that wonderful cool blue lighting and some decent experimental chiascuro to help really bring things to life, the candle lit sequences in the first story are delightfully handled and there does seem to be an attempt to reignight some experimental cine, with decent compositional choices that genuinely gave Pinhead as a character a bit of menace.

Performances are, for the most part as sharp as always, there are a few wobbly deliveries here and there, but nothing too gratuitous, and we see a VERY welcome return to orchestral and grand soundtracking, after the last films dalliance with rock music.

‘Hellraiser: Bloodline’ is a fantastic jumping off point for the series, if you want to recoup your losses after ‘Hellraiser III’ I feel like this one leaves the franchise in an ‘iffy’ but positive place. Its far from perfect, and very VERY dumb. particularly with the ending. But its not dumb in an annoying way, its dumb in a kind of endearing way. It feels like the people involved really understood the core concepts of the series. They just maybe didnt have the budget or comprehension to fully get it over the line, and the result is a film thats a bit silly, wearing the skin of a higher concept movie.

I enjoy this one because it is what it is, it isnt trying to convince you its better than it is. and I think if you didnt enjoy Hellraiser III, you should probably give this one a go. I’d definitely say its worth catching, and this one will definitely be going into rotation more often. Underrated.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/hellraiser-bloodline/

Working through the ’31 horror films in 31 days’ Halloween challenge this year, we arrive at another selection from the Missus, and a film that I previously hadnt seen. ‘The Little Vampire’ was particularly prominant in the UK, with heavy advertisement on the terrestrial channels and a LOT of kids VHS releases from around this time running teasers and full trailers for it ahead of the main feature. It passed me by, but at the time It did pique my curiosity. Mainly for being able to see Richard E. Grant simultaineously playing a lead vampire, the ‘Shalka’ Doctor AND Withnail, all in the space of one movie!

The plot follows a young boy named Tony who’s family have moved from the US to Scotland as Tonys Dad has got a gig refurbishing a Scottish Lords land into a commerical golf course. But since landing at their new home, Tony has become obsessed with Vampires. At night he dreams of a hoard of vampires weilding a mysterious amulet drawing power from a comet thats been granted mysterious powers by the moonlight.

Tony isnt entirely sure what any of this means, but he has bigger fish to fry, his parents are constantly busy with his Lordship, and the Lords kids bully Tony at school mercilessly. But one night, while playing dress up as a vampire…an ACTUAL vampire who’s being hunted by a modern day ‘Slayer’ crashes into Tonys room, thinking he’s found a fellow kin member…only to realise he’s revealed himself to a human.

But Tony is thrilled! he’s wanted to meet a vampire ever since the visions started, and after the pair introduce themselves, our Vampire reveals his name is ‘Rudolph’ and that he’s in desperate need of some cows blood to recover from the incident.

Tony obliges, and explains that he is one of the final members of a regional hoard of Vampires. He says that Vampirism has changed a lot in the 300+ years since his coven was in its prime. They largely hide from humans now, and only consume Animal blood to sustain themselves as it helps to fight the stereotype that vampires are human killers. Despite most of them not having drunk human blood in over 3 centuries…the myth still persists to this day.

Tony and Rudolph form a strong friendship, eventually leading Rudolph to take Tony to his families crypt, where an unexpected meeting happens. Rudolphs family are terrified of Tony and quite firmly ask him to leave. But when Rudolphs father touches Tony, the pair share a flashback, bringing about a preivously unseen vision of one of their ancestors holding the mysterious amulet, which has been missing now for 300 years. This vision strongly implies that the amulet is still out there and fairly local. And so Tony, Rudolph and the rest of the family must work together to try and figure out just what exactly happened to the family amulet, While also avoiding the ‘Slayer’ who’s been given full clearence by the Lordship to take the vampires out by any means necessary, and who is ALSO looking for the amulet, as he has a device which, when the amulet is placed into it, will allow him to permanently eradicate all vampires from existence!

And im going to be honest here, I had a fine enough time with this movie, is it a lifechanging work that warrents an annual revisit? No. I think, unless you have a bedded in nostalgia for this film, it’ll probably be one sparsly revisited. But I would watch this one again happily and found it a pretty passively entertaining time.

The scripts a little slow to get going, with it being a film aimed at younger children they spend a MASSIVE amount of time explaining and re-explaining basic plot points to try and make sure everyones on board with the story, the plot itself is very simplified. It isnt trying to overcomplicate things. but the film really doesnt hit its stride or start using the momentum its building up until just after the half way point…and thats kind of a fundamental problem if you happen to be a kids film. Because, I dont know a kid that would willing sit through 45 minutes of passive plot and world building, peppered with some (at the time) kind of alright visual effects pieces. to be rewarded with an actually kind of solid 45 minute second half. Most would have waddled off to go and play with an electrical socket or to play under the cupboard mixing ammonia and bleach before the 20 minute mark…and im being generous there.

Luckily, I am not a child and I do have patience, and I found the back half of this film to be a gentle but fun little romp, the pacing really picks up, it finally finds its feet as a horror adventure film with some light comedy elements. and it ends about as strongly as these films can. It struggles for a bit to find its feet tonally, but when it does it locks in and really delivers on that.

I think structurally the film does sag a bit in the middle, a common problem with kids movies like this, the first and third acts run a little shorter to accomodate additional lore and info dumping in the middle, but its pretty clear they padded the runtime in multiple places to hit that 90 minute sweet spot for TV and home video releases. The padding here isnt bad, its just kind of unremarkable. Not something I can rib, but not anything to praise really.

The characters are all VERY oversimplified. which, for the most part works in the films favour, by not giving the supporting characters more of a backstory, it enables the film to bring more backstory to the vampires, which is really why any kid is actually watching this, it means characters like the Slayer and the Lord are SUPER one dimensional. But again, that works in the films favour, because they can milk that for humour.

I do wish Tony had maybe had a bit more of a complex character if im honest. It starts off somewhat strong making Tony a victim of bullying, but they push that a little far with a scene in his school where he’s being mocked by his teacher for wanting to talk about vampires…to the point he gets sent out of class, which I felt was quite unbelievable…and then as soon as Tony meets his vampire friends, he largely seems to exist to just…do the bits the vampires cant do for plot reasons, while also bullying the kids who bullied him initially…which isnt the best message to be teaching kids…but hey, whatever. Oh! and the dialogues also a but ropey in places…some lines are a bit awkward and some feel like they were trying to push the overexplanation a bit too far.

Other than that though, we have a pretty solid film technically. The direction and cine are both incredibly fresh feeling, they relish the opportunity to film on location with green lush rolling hills and gorgeous colour and framing work, the lighting is open to experimentation and looks complex and engaging. the cine is well composed, with some nice experimentaiton and what made me laugh was some shots were ‘half inched’ from some of the 80s horror classics. I spotted at least a couple of shots ‘liberated’ from ‘The People under the stairs’ which I thought was a fun touch.

The sequences are very well composed, if I had to gripe, some of the set work, particularly the graveyard scenes that were set built, look cheap…VERY cheap…like, late night horror host on a shoestring budget cheap. and that pulled me out of the action because, while again, they were at least kind of well lit, they overdid it with the smoke machine and some of the graves are visually vaccume form and styrafoam.

I would usually discuss performances, but as a courtesty to an largely all kid cast. I’ll skip my usual analytics, other than to say some of the kid actors are really pretty solid, and give great turns…others?…VERY much not the case. prepare for a long ride with some cast members who just CANNOT get a line out convincingly…I’ll say no more.

It makes it all the more unfortunate given how good the visusals are for this film, that it appears they skimped on the soundtrack as well…we have a cheap and cheerful farty midi synth score for the most part, its actually quite distracting because it sounds so cheap and unpleasent when compared to how rich the camera work and direction is…the only way I could compare it really is; imagine if ‘Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back’ had been scored by Richard Band. Its THAT disorienting…

All in all, do I think ‘The Little Vampire’ would still win over kids of today? No. I think this could be modernised into something kids would love. But this adaptation? is very much a product of its time. As someone who lived through that time however, I can appreciate what it was trying to do, and i’d say I enjoyed more than I disliked. It wont be in regular rotation, but I could see myself revisiting this one again sometime when I want a quick and easy watch. Not one I could recommend, but if your big on 00’s nostalgia, you may wanna hit this one up.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-little-vampire/

One of Al Lewis’s final big screen performances, ‘My Grandpa is a Vampire’, also known as ‘Moonlight’ is a big screen adaptation of a 5 part radio play and a US/New Zealand Co production…and thats…basically everything you need to know about the movie. Thanks for reading my review…

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…Oh, you want more? well…there isnt really anything else to say. The plot follow two of the most 90s kids you’ll ever meet in your life, one from New Zealand and the other from the US because…sure why not…as they travel around New Americazealand with their magic vampiric grandpa…at first the kids arnt 100% convinced he IS a vampire, but when he LITERALLY returns from the dead and explains that the vitality of the kids is all he needs to stay living and that he IS in fact a living breathing vampire…they go on a KERRAZY adventure to give the old man some new blood, while being hunted by one of the kids aunt and step-uncle who think he’s an abomination and should be destroyed.

This is the kind of movie that plays second fiddle to ‘Mac & Me’…let that set in for a moment. The script is PAINFULLY dull and is playing on kids movie architypes from well over a decade prior to this being made, the pacing is glacial, the humour is mostly completely flat, and when it isnt flat it borders the VERY innapropriate for a film predominantly involving kids.

The dialogues rubbish, the tones all over the place, trying to be funny, poingiant and thought provoking all at once. Al Lewis is LITERALLY the best thing in this movie, and he’s pretty past his ‘sell by’ at this point. Put it this way, if he wasnt in the movie, this thing would probably be a whole star lower. he isnt great, but I clung to that man through this movie like a survivor of the titanic.

The direction and cine were both a bit generic in places, but at least they bothered to experiment with coloured lighting and a few special effects shots land with a deafening thud that made me just laugh out of sheer embarrisment for all involved. Still; I’ll give it some credit, the lens caps off and someone clearly had a vision for how this thing was to look and feel. its oddly specific in that way, which is endearing.

The performances though…eesh. its a rough watch. When a ‘past his prime’ Al Lewis is the life raft in terms of acting quality in this film, you know your in for a rough time. NOONE sounds believable, moments of sadness are utterly bereft of feeling, the dialogue feels awkward and like a compromise between the NZ and US production offices. the weird combination of the two elements results in a film that feels like its two car transport trucks smashed into each other, and neither party knows their insurance details…and its raining.

Even the soundtracks painful. farting synthesizers trying their DAMNDEST to make the whole thing feel KOOKY and WILD! its horrifying…

This has got to be prime Rifftrax fodder if ever i’ve seen it, the fact they havent covered it means only one of two things…either they have too much respect for Al Lewis, or it would feel like they were punching down. I cant honestly say which one is more likely.

I wont go as far as to say it was a waste of 90 minutes, because there are some weird and funny moments VERY conservatively peppered throughout this movie, and technically, its on the level. Just…dont screen this thing near an open flame…Eesh.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/my-grandpa-is-a-vampire/

Oh how the mighty fall, and only 2 sequels into the ‘Hellraiser’ franchise we find our first solid bump in the road with ‘Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth’ a film that seemingly REALLY wanted to be a ‘Nightmare on Elm Steet’ movie, but only had the rights to Pinhead…So they made do. Apathy is the flavour of the day in this entry, as the budget comes tumbling down and Cliver Barker agreed to a nice payday to slap a ‘Presents’ credit in his name on the opening of the film, we shed pretty much any of the etheral interdimensional strangeness of the first two films in place of a fairly generic supernatural slasher film thats all gore and no substance.

The plot picks up an unknown period of time after the events of ‘Hellbound’…it’s to be assumed that its around the same amount of time as it took between sequels…so around 3-4 years. and a rancid little upstart named JP is tipped off that a hip cool and EXTREME piece of art is hanging out at one of his hip gallery spots, and that he should go and grab it as soon as possible. It turns out that this ‘unique’ piece is in fact the totem from the end of ‘Hellbound’ set in some kind of ceramic or metal, in hibernation. JP buys it to make the latest feature of his grunge inspired nightclub ‘The Boiler Room’.

JP is a bad egg all round, a womanizer, mysoginist and murderer, he runs the club like his own personal playground. and from here things are going to get twisted.

We’re then introduced to Joey, Joey is an upcoming newslady DESPERATE to get the anchorwoman spot on primetime, but forced to do the ‘local’ stories that dont matter and noone cares about. Shes reporting on a story at their local hospital when a man is rushed into the operating theater covered in chains and screaming. When the surgeons get the OR up and running the chains go taught, fly into the air and electricute everyone in the theater, before blowing up the guy.

Joey has NO idea what she just saw, but the guys friend Terri arrives just as the carnage settles down and, without a place to stay, Joey offers her a place to sleep for the night. While getting friendly, Terri reveals that her friend was screwing around with some random statue in ‘The Boiler Room’ when a chunk of it fell off, and next thing she knew he was covered in chains and bleeding all over the place. Terri roots through her bag and produces the puzzle box, still sealed.

Meanwhile back at the Boiler room, JP has just pulled a woman off the floor of his nightclub for some ‘private’ time, and on completion, he basically tells her to sod off, she gets upset AND somehow the art installations been moved into JPs bedroom, Pinhead wakes up and promptly devours the woman gaining strength off her. Pinhead manages to convince JP to bring him more souls to help him get stronger and JP agrees.

Meanwhile Joey and Terri begin to look deeper into the origins of the Totem, the puzzle box and its history, using her connections, Joey even manages to pull some interviews from Kirsty under the observation of Dr. Channard…and she figures out that, whatever that box and Totem are…they’re evil and need to be gotten rid of…leading Joey on an adventure through time and space to stop Pinhead from being awoken, and plan to send him back to hell before he brings Hell to Earth.

What can I say, its a significant step down in almost every measure. There are TWO rules when it comes to films like ‘Hellraiser’ that you need to abide in order to keep the sequels interesting and engaging:

1 – The more you share about the Cenobites, their history and how they function/live, the more interesting they are in the moment, and the less interesting they are forever more.

and 2 – The more you make the Cenobites talk, the less mysterious they are, and the more annoying they are.

The first Hellraiser had Cenobites for all of 8 minutes, they said MAYBE a paragraphs worth of lines all together, we had no idea where they came from, who they were or why they did what they did. In many ways, they actually UNDERsold on the promise. but certainly piqued curiosity.

Hellbound expanded on the Cenobites massively, introducing a whole other dimension they hail from, the concept of gods and demi gods, and while they talked more in that movie, they still kept the dialogue fairly brief and they didnt bother to overexplain anything. The first film garnered a ‘What they HELL are they?!’ response, the second film very much gave a ‘OH CRAP! THEY’RE BACK!’ response.

This film? Pinhead will NOT SHUT UP. They basically overtly tell you his entire history and how to kill him in this movie across the runtime, and anytime he’s on screen he will NOT STOP monologuing. its absurd. most of his lines sound like rejected Freddy Kruger lines. and they’ve tried to pivot the character (who, for the most part is flying solo here) into a more manipulative and callous figure, whereas previously he was malevolent, cold, quiet and waiting for the right moment to strike. I dont come to ‘Hellraiser’ films for stuff like this, and as soon as he started blathering on to JP, trying to convince him to join forces with him, I kind of knew we wernt dealing with the same calibre of the previous films.

The script itself feels like a rejected low budget 80s slasher with supernatural elements got fished out of the reject pile and had Pinhead inserted into it. The pacing is slow and plodding right up until the final 30 minutes when the production CLEARLY realised they’d only spent about $100 on the film, and so they crammed the remaining budget into stunts and explosions for the remainder of the runtime with mixed to poor results.

The tones all off in this one, we’ve shifted from two films that felt mysterious, etheral and somewhat sophisticated…to lowest common denominator sleaze and gore. It really does feel like the people behind this film watched the first two, and all they really took away from it was the sex scenes with Julia and the gore scenes…So they decided to make a movie about that. Its playing much more tongue in cheek than the last two films and MUCH more blunt and literal. Theres no metaphores here, no deeper subtext. The Cenobites here have gone from Interdimensional demonic beings who link the chain between pleasure and pain, tormenting the sick people who search them out for all eternity for the pleasure of their gods. To BDSM leather artists with a bloodplay fetish. Its sanded off any deeper meaning leaving…just a kind of boring time honestly.

The actual plot itself is kind of dull too, I think there could have been an interesting grain to the plot of Joey using her journalism skills and the privilages that brings with it to uncover the puzzle box, Pinhead and the other world…kind of in an ‘Outsider lets themselves in for more than they bargained for’ way…But instead the Boiler room plotting and JP take center stage for most of the first two acts, and past the opening act, Joeys journalism skills go out the window as she just becomes a woman wandering into situations where shes given a hint on how to stop Pinhead, and then wandering out of that situation directly into ANOTHER situation and ANOTHER hint. In fact, from around the halfway point right up till about 5 minutes off the end of the film, thats all that really happens. Just Joey wandering about occasionally being fed hints. The film loses interest in its own characters by the end.

The pacing starts off a little slow, and ramps up a good steam till around the opening of the 2nd act when it starts to slow a bit and then from that point up to the end it just becomes more and more labourious till the actual finale feels less like a planned ending, and more like a set piece for trailer and promo fodder. making huge swathes of the film feel glacial. I STILL to this day think this films an hour and 45 minutes long every time I put it in…its just over an hour and a half with SUPER long end credits…

Non of the characters are particularly interesting. Joey is probably the best, and shes a solid enough lead character…but not as good as Kirsty, she spends a lot of the film being given information, rather than finding it for herself…and shes a JOURNALIST. the rest of the cast are just…not really all that great and not fun to be around. Terri is kind of fine, but I didnt really enjoy the fact she spends most of the time on camera tyring to make excuses to leave. JP is insufferable and not particularly great fun to hang around with for extended periods of time, as this film seems ADAMANT to want to do, I’ve already gone into detail about the character change for Pinhead. and the rest of the supporting characters are either SUPER dull or have one charictaristic that gets exploited till they’re gone.

Theres one scene in this whole film i’d save if I could, and its as blunt and rediculous as this movie is, but I found it funny. And thats a scene near the end of the movie when Pinhead enters a Church looking for Joey who’s sought sanctuary from a priest. The father grabs a crucifix to do the ol’ ‘Exorcist’ routine, but Pinhead melts it in his hands causing serious burns and then, with his hands welded together, he forces the priest to take communion using his own demonic flesh and blood. THAT. was VERY on the nose, but I laughed.

The direction and cine are probably the strongest element of this film, they have moments across the runtime, just little flickers here and there of creative expression, good composition or an attempt at double meaning and visual subtext…but for the most part? this feels like low budget, direct to video fodder…and the assumption is, given that both Hellraiser 1 and 2 thrived on home video, that was kind of what they were aiming for. Like; its not actively BAD…but the cheapness of the whole production really shines through with the little things, like all the nice colour grading and moody lighting getting taken away, Pinheads makeup looks significantly cheaper, the other Cenobites that appear look less intricate and cheaper looking, shots are clearly framed for 4:3 to accomodate TV broadcasts. Its a film that has MOMENTS…but its not a pretty film inherently.

Performance wise, its a bit of a mixed bag. Doug Bradley as always is fun, but the script really doesnt serve him well here. He tries his best…in lesser hands this would have been MUCH worse. Terry Farrell as Joey is fine enough leading lady material, but again, the script isnt really her friend and while she puts her ALL into trying to bring the character to life, it really just left me wishing she’d got to work with material of the same quality as the first two films. Kevin Bernhardt is wonderfully sleazy and unpleasent as JP. But this film falls into the trap of spending TOO much time with a deeply unlikable character, you want to spend enough time with them to make the audience happy when they die…But not SO much time with them they feel like they’re trapped in a lift with a fart. He’s REALLY good at being evil…to the point that he overstays his welcome. which is a testimony to his performance…but a problem in equal measure.

And the soundtrack? its a rehash of the last 2 films, but now the producers have discovered rock, grunge and metal…so we get occasional snatches of that gorgeous orchestral hellraiser score intercut with Ozzy, Motorhead and bands of that ilk. I like those bands, I think theyre great. But putting rock and grungy metal into a horror film is THE most generic thing you can do…and I just…REALLY got tired of it pretty quick…

‘Hellraiser III’ feels like the rights to a great series got put into the hands of someone whos only ever made low budget slasher movies before, and because of that, it feels like they didnt really know what to do with it…so they tried to cram a great IP into a one size fits all mold with mixed to poor results. I dont enjoy watching this entry, It has a handful of moments that I enjoy, but otherwise its just kind of dull and cheap looking. Definitely one to avoid, and if your new to the series. Start with the first two and give this one a swerve.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/hellraiser-iii-hell-on-earth/

A first time watch, and a nostalgic revisit for the missus, its been 20 years since ‘Corpse Bride’ released and gained quite a fan following, at the time this film came out my affection for Tim Burton as a film maker was somewhat on the wane. As a director I think his best years to date run from ‘Frankenweinie’ in 1984 right the way through to probably Sleepy Hollow or his attempted reboot of ‘Planet of the Apes’. but by the early 2000’s it felt like a director just going through the motions. ‘Charlie and the chocolate factory’ to me had a few sparkles in it, but there was a creaking sense of self plagerism creeping into his work and style…and when ‘Corpse Bride’ hit the scene, I offhandedly wrote it off as his attempt to essentially recreate ‘A Nightmare Before Christmas’ so that he could finally have something approximating it to put his own name on given the controversy around his involvement in that film and Henry Selick.

Watching it now, I dont think I was really that far off the mark, but thats not to say that there wasnt fun to be had with this.

Clocking in at a breezy hour and 17 minutes, the plot follows Victor, a nervous ‘groom to be’ in an arranged marriage to Victoria. Victors parents want the marriage to elevate them into aristocricy by proxy, and Victorias parents want the marriage because, while they retain their titles, the last of their wealth is tied up into assets, and should the wedding not go ahead as planned, it could lead to a mass sell off to pay their debts rendering them homeless and penniless to boot.

Neither Victor or Victoria have met prior to this arrangement, and the first time they do meet is mere minutes before the wedding rehersal…and they really hit it off! Unfortunatley Victor is VERY nervous and clumsy and is unable to properly complete the wedding ceremony without messing things up.

So the night before the wedding, while out in a walk in the woods, Victor practices and eventually manages to complete the ceremony, using what he thinks is an old tree branch to mimic his bride to be’s hand. Unfortunately, it turns out that this is no tree branch, its the skeletal and fossilized arm of Emily. A jilted bride who was murdered under mysterious circumstances. Victors vows has briefly ressurected her, and she assumes Victor is her Groom to be, so; she accepts his vows and the pair are wed.

But that leaves a problem, as Victoria is still to be married, and a member of the local village witnesses Victor on a bridge with a young lady, creating a rumour that he’s eloped and jilted Victoria. Enter ‘Lord Barkis’ a seemingly wealthy aristocrat, who’s heard of Victoria and her wealthy family, who begins to worm his way in with Victorias parents, eventually convincing them that HE may be a suitable replacement for Victor. Meanwhile; Victor tries to strike a balance of explaining to Emily that they cannot be wed, while also trying to keep her on side as shes really quite suffered enough.

With this being a studio stop motion production with a very distinct director at the healm, I wasnt too worried about the technical skills of this production. Its quite derivitive of ‘Nightmare before Christmas’ and in my opinion, while its technically aiming to be more impressive than it, ‘Nightmare’ for my money delivers a much more complex and intricate time. But across the board on a technical level, this is a really decently handled, if not *slightly* stale production. the colours all pop, selective use of desaturation is nice, the actual direction and animation compositions are delightful and engaging…

The cast is star studded and equally superb, It was delightful to hear Christopher Lee in a latter day role still brining a fantastic range to proceedings, and Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Richard E. Grant, Albert Finney and Michael Gaugh all delight with animated and vibrant performances that are largely engaging, with maybe just a hint of dryness creeping in in places.

The score itself is pretty decent, with Danny Elfman bringing more of his thing to this, though I will say some of the songs arnt quite as notable or memorable as his previous offerings up to this point, and some of the musical numbers do go on for a fair bit longer than I would have liked.

But really; its the script thats probably this films biggest problem, its a film that takes a good while to really get properly going, with the aforementioned musical numbers acting as a heavy barrier between the narrative and some kind of audience pay off. There are multiple moments in this film where the plot will JUST start to flare up, and then we’re met with a 3-5 minute uninspiring musical number that grinds everything back to a halt till they’re done.

The film sags a little in the back end of the first act and opening of the 2nd, and while the humour is good for the most part, there are moments that feel a bit lax on quality control. and theres a fair bit of idling for time in the back half of this to get it up to a releasable ‘feature’ runtime.

The pacing and act strucuturing is pretty nippy, but those padded moments dotted throughout, with the musical numbers, really do stop this from being the best that it could possibly be.

Tonally; it feels like it wants to try and capture the emotional resonance of ‘Nightmare’ and as a result comes across whiffing of ‘We have Nightmare before Christmas at home.’ Again, its not an inherently bad thing. and I did enjoy some of the jokes across this films runtime. But…yeah, it feels a little phoned in.

Ultimately; ‘Corpse Bride’ to me? isnt an essential watch, but it IS a film that I would be more than happy to sit through again. For a latter day Tim Burton offering, its probably the last film i’ve seen him make that actually held up. and i’d say if you did enjoy his 90s work, this one may be worth a spin.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/corpse-bride/

One that peaked my interest after hearing several people talk about the Gold Ninja Video release, I decided to pick up Freaky Farley based on the cover and a brief trailer, and to save it for a Halloween viewing. Well; its Halloween season, so I dug it out expecting somewhat campy horror shenanigans and…its not quite that…But it does still have some stuff going for it!

The plot follows ‘Freaky Farley’ a Vouyeristic 25 year old teenager with a troubled past. When Farley was a kid, his mother left the family to head up to a log cabin in the woods that they owned, to help set it up for the annual family vacation, only for her to never return. Farleys father, devestated at the loss of his wife, became cold to Farley, setting an unreasonable ‘hole digging’ punishment for even the most minor infractions, and setting him daily tests on a radio show he hosts.

Farley isnt allowed to pursue his dreams of becoming a park ranger, nor is he allowed to even attend college. His Dad is adamant that HE will find Farley a job, and that Farley will accept it graciously and do it till the day he dies…Something Farley isnt exactly thrilled about.

Through the course of the film we follow Farley as he travels around his local town meeting strange locals and befriending some of the residents, till a chance encounter with a homeless man who talks of the ‘Trogs’ in the woods that kill and eat people, sends Farley down a rabbit hole that will lead to murder, investigation and a plan that’ll unite the city!

Now. Up front, Is ‘Freaky Farley’ a halloween movie? No. No I dont think it really is. I would personally say it was more of a Autumnal/Fall movie. Theres a background visual theme around pumpkins and Jack-o-lanterns turn up a handful of times across the runtime. But noone acknowledges its Halloween, it doesnt play into the plot, and any ‘Horror’ elements are reserved really to the back third of the movie. Its probably on me for not deciding to more heavily investigate this films plot. But I thought I was diving into a film about an isolationist peeping tom who winds up befriending someone, and the pair end up getting into spooky seasonal shenanigans. It really isnt that.

What this IS, is a fairly slow paced ‘realism’ script thats uplifted by surreal line deliveries, studded with the occasional more whimsical moment and a final act that goes briefly into a world of fantasy.

For the bulk of the film, its quite remeniscent structurally to ‘Silent Night Deadly Night 2’ with Farley recounting the events that led him up to being put under psychiatric observation. Farley even comments in the film that he’s had a dozen or so doctors before the current one (which is literally a line said by Ricky in SNDN2) before essentially going a little bit ‘Troll 2’ in the final 15 minutes. And thats fine enough as a structure. But it brings with it some problems of its own.

Probably the biggest issue being that I think the film struggles really to define what it wants to be, does it want to be a campy take on the slowburn slasher genre?, does it want to be a fairly straight drama with a surreal twist at the end? or does it want to avoid the actual horror elements altogether and go more metaphorical? Its hard to say really. But it can be frustrating in trying to understand the films motives.

Thats not to say this is an unpleasent film to sit through, the pace may be a bit on the slow side, but theres plenty of fun moments here, and pretty much any scene that Matt Farley is in (Our own ‘Freaky’ Farley) is a definite highlight here, he plays the character with a sluggish physicality, but an almost pee-wee(ish) whimsy. With line deliveries astounding on occasion, its a bizarre contrast that is quite pleasent.

Unfortunately though, probably the biggest thing that hinders this production is the 2nd act. See; the film starts off fine enough, and ends in a surreal space thats maybe a little underwhelming, but it still pretty solid…But that 2nd act? is a crawl. Its the age old tale of: ‘We have to hit feature runtime, and there needs to be time before ‘Setup A’ can be resolved for it to make sense narratively…So we basically just need to make up a load of scenes of Farley running around the woods and neighbourhoods, tubing on a river, or conversations that repeat the same points over and over to artificially extend the runtime.

And like a sandbag on a hot air balloon, thats the thing that really pulls this thing down. By the end of the opening act, I felt like it had been a bit sluggish, but it had at least set up the characters, their motivations and a mystery to solve across the films runtime. But that second act just DRAGS…SO bad. till we get to the third act and the handful of crumbs we’ve been given get rolled back into everything we heard in the first act to take us into the finale. It made it INCREDIBLY difficult to get back into the 3rd act and by the time I was back on board, it was basically over. Which was a real shame.

The characters too arnt exactly the best developed in the world. This is the kind of movie where its a bit more acceptable to have blunted characters, because thats part of the narrative. But even so, we dont really get much in the way of complexity or arcs or…anything really Farley starts the film as a strange peeping tom, and by the end of it, not a whole lot has changed, and he’s basically expected to save the town and then return to his asylum. This combined with the dialogue choices which are stilted and ultra basic, often overcomplicating the dialogue rather than simplifying it to keep it as basic as possible. works in the world the film makers are intending to make, while coming across as awkward and flat more broadly…with mixed end results.

The direction is a bit rough around the edges. I believe this was the crews first time shooting on super 16mm film, and there were noted technical problems across the production period that prevented the best possible outcomes. With that in mind, this isnt half bad. Theres definitely a clear vision present here, and; as mentioned, with this being an autumnal movie, they do manage to capture the crisp orange, yellows and reds of Autumn here.

Direction of the cast is a bit flat however, cast members generally just sort of…stand around vaguely in frame, they dont really move naturalistically. Generally speaking if say, 3 cast members are hanging around in a kitchen, one may be doing dishes, one may be eating some cereal and another may have just walked in, and the conversation would take place while these activities were going on. Not in this movie! instead that same scnee would just be 3 people sat at a table with maybe a newspaper or bowl of cereal being in the shot…and they’ll just be talking at each other for the full scene, uninterrupted. Which is a bit odd to sit through honestly.

Cine isnt too sharp either, shots are wobbly, focal points are sometimes a bit off, and compositional choices range from genuinely brilliant, through to me not fully understanding what im supposed to be looking at within the frame. The sequences are cut together about as well as the footage will allow, but I really feel some more B-roll would have just pulled this one up a little more.

Performance wise, Matt Farley as ‘Freaky Farley’ is definitely the high water mark. Eccentric, manic at times and frantic. If you watch this movie for no other reason, Matts performance is the one. Especially the work he does with Kevin McGee who plays Farleys father in this film. he’s blunt, moralistic and demanding, and the two character play off each other really nicely. giving some mild ‘Carrie’ vibes to proceedings as tensions rise.

All in all? I dont really think ‘Freaky Farley’ is ‘Must see’ cinema. its a fine enough surrealist drama. and it definitely fits in nicely with an autumn schedule. But I feel like the marketing on this one oversold the ‘horror’ element a little bit, which threw me on hitting play and it took a LONG time to get back into the right headspace after that. I think on a rewatch, in the right headspace, I’ll probably like this one more. But as it stands, I just kind of came away from it thinking it was a film ‘of good moments’ but not inherently a ‘good film’ .

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/freaky-farley/

A year after ‘Hellraiser’ carved its way onto screens, 1988 would see the all but inevitable sequel ‘Hellbound: Hellraiser 2’ a film that essentially boosts and amplifies everything I enjoyed about the first film, while largely trimming the fat on everything I didnt.

The plot pretty much picks up around 12-24 hours after the events of the first ‘Hellraiser’ and Kirsty and her boyfriend have been sent to a Mental health hospital after being picked up by the cops who found the grizzly remains of the events of the first film. Both Kirsty and her partner gave matching statements claiming that Kirsties stepmother had been bringing unknowing men to the house, for her recently revived lover Frank to consume in order to regain his humanity…and that Demons from another dimension (henceforth called ‘Cenobites’…despite the first film never really calling them that…just a note…) attacked the house looking to reclaim Frank and to take Kirsty with them. Killing Julia and Frank in the process.

The cops let her boyfriend go, and thus he exits the franchise permanently, but they decide to keep a hold of Kirsty for further questioning and psychiatric assessment (double standards much) at which point she’s released into the care of Doctors Channard and Macrae. Both Doctors hear Kirsty out and decide she needs further assesment and observation. Something Kirsty heavily protests.

Its around this time, we’re also soft introduced to ‘Tiffany’ a mute girl who LOVES to solves puzzles…Im sure she wont be involved in the rest of this movie AT ALL…

Anyway…its quite quickly revealed that Channard knows more than he’s letting on, and after doing some shady backroom dealings with an informant in the local police department, he’s able to secure the bloodied mattress that Julia died on in the last movie…this conversation however is overheard by Dr. Macrae, who decides to monitor Channard, eventually breaking into his house where the REAL truth becomes apparent.

Channard is FULLY aware of what Kirsty is on about, and has, for years, been studying the history of the Cenobites and the god ‘Leviathan’ with the hopes of discovering both the puzzle box, and the secret pleasures and lores it contains. Channing at this point also reveals that there are in fact MULTIPLE puzzle boxes, and; on recieving the mattress, he begins a ritual, sacrificing one of his own mentally ill patients to ressurect Julia who, much like Frank, requires flesh in order to regrow her body fully. Something Channard obliges in the hopes that Julia can act as a guide to the ‘hellworld’, the labarynthian dimension that the cenobites occupy.

Macrae reports this back to Kirsty, and the pair go to investigate further…Only to realise that Channard has already fully restored Julia and has brought Tiffany to the house in order to open the gates of hell fully, for an observational meeting with the Cenobites, and a terrifying exploration of the Labarynth, hoping for a chance to encounter the god Leviathan itself. Leading to Tiffany and Kirsty teaming up to attempt to close the gates, and fend off the Cenobites once more…

And, honestly; there isnt too much to say on this one. It does what all good sequels should do and esssentially takes the base of the original and expands, builds and enhances on it in almost every way. The subtle shift from a more horror/fantasy to a horror/etheral fairy tale vibe really works in this films favour, allowing it to pivot and flex more into the story it wants to tell than the first film was able to, and allowing it more scope to flesh out the Cenobites, there world and why they do what they do WITHOUT compromising the mystery. By the end of this film, you’ll feel as if you know SO much more about the Cenobites as beings, while still feeling like we’ve only really glanced a snapshot of what they REALLY are.

Obviously, the biggest and most notable enhancement between this film and the last is a seemingly HUGE cash injection into the sequel. a move that gives and takes in equal measure as it enables the film to tell a much grander story with much more striking visuals…at the cost of making the flashback footage to the first film (which this film does multiple times out of necessity) feel rickety and cheap by comparison. It also allows for additional footage to be shot, and for reshoots of scenes from the first film which land to mixed effect. When its done well, it looks amazing, when its done badly (as with one of the flashbacks to Julias wedding near the beginning) it looks laughably awful because the cast are all noticably older trying to play SIGNIFICANTLY younger versions of the characters.

The script, for me feels quite a bit tighter than the first film, bedding itself more firmly into more traditional horror settings allows for a more focussed vision which I feel is a lot more easily paletable to audiences. One of the big things I struggled with in the first film was long periods of inactivity, time where we were either having to experience repetative scenes of Julia bringing men to the house, or of the supporting cast just kind of…existing. Until we could get to another kill scene, or for the Cenobites to turn up, or for just…SOMETHING to progress the plot.

Here? its pretty much wall to wall action from start to finish, having established some base rules in the first film, it doesnt take NEARLY as long for this film to kick in with giving folks what they came to see. The cenobites are much more front and center here (they got around 8-10 minutes in the last film…Here, they’re pretty much on and off present for the bulk of the runtime). the gore is amped up even further, with moments so intense and uncomfortable that even I shy away and winced at times. and the enhanced budget allows the script to go much grander than the previous film, expanding beyond a primary house location and some ‘on location’ sequences, this film takes us to other dimensions, and multiple set spaces across the runtime.

The pacing is rock solid, with a clean 3 act structure that keeps the momentum going right up to the end, leading to a satisfying ‘jumping off’ point for audiences that finish off the story in…about as reasonable a way as it could have at this time.

The choice as well to implement a more ‘fairy tale’ oriented narrative into proceedings I think lends itself pretty well to this film. theres a definite heir of Grimms fairytales to this film, with the labarynth and more adventure based elements lending themselves nicely to the visceral gore and horror tropes.

The characters all are pretty solidly fleshed out, with our returning characters getting a nice boost in terms of further development, and the new characters, even the ones who are only on screen briefly, getting decent back stories and development pieces.

Of course, these ‘enhancements’ do come at a bit of a cost. Obviously, with the film exploring the Cenobites realm, its almost inevitable that the history of these beings would be explored a little bit more, and. A recurring issue that will plague most of the Hellraiser movies as we go on is a problem paradox, wherein, the more we learn about the Cenobites, the less interesting as beings and villains they become…But at the same time, NOT giving us any other information about them in a movie leaves audiences feeling like they’re just watching ‘more of the same’. Its a major Catch 22…

Here? I feel they get the balance about right, introducing more of a ‘lore’ and presence to the ‘Cenobites’ than they had in the first film, without telling us how Pinhead likes his eggs doing. But at the same time, I can absolutely appreciate that, even the information shared here, could be too much for some viewers, who may ultimately feel like these characters are now less interesting.

I also feel that, at times, while the fairytale tropes are welcome, they do overextend a little bit. Sometimes the film gets a little TOO heavy handed on the metaphores and symbolism, and at times it drags some of the narrative choices a little too close to a more mainstream generic horror/slasher vibe (again, something the sequels will REALLY struggle with) There are moments in this film that wouldnt have felt out of place in a ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ or ‘Halloween’ entry…and thats kind of a problem given these beings are supposed to be distinctly different from their slasher contemporaries.

Adding to that, that also; the script does seem to have a bit of trouble keeping track of exactly how much time has passed between the first film and this one. With Julia acting as if it’s been years if not DECADES, since she’s had wine and a cigarette…but in real terms her ressurection should have only happened a couple of days after her death. Kirst also gets some dialogue choices later on in the film that implies its been many days (7+), if not weeks since she entered the hospital. But on screen evidence would suggest its been only a few days (3-5) at most.

All these small elements, along side at least a couple of moments where the scenes ran for just a little bit longer than i’d have liked, ultimately keep me from truely and completely loving this film. Its a fine FINE movie, but the intensity of the script alongside the above tropes make it a film that I can only really watch infrequently.

As for the technical side of things? its pretty faultless. The direction is a HUGE upgrade on the first film, with a cool blue lighting aesthetic throughout and a slight redesign to the Cenobites. Tony Randel delivers an extreme and terrifying vision here that takes the concepts of the first film and more heavily applies a styalistic coat of paint to it. The film oozes unease and menace from start to finish and his work with the cast to craft the perfect line deliveries and physicalities here absolutely nails the brief for me. When I think of Hellraiser, I think of Hellbound.

Same goes for the cine, shots are masterfully crafted, cleanly planned, fantastic lighting work with some solid chiascurio and its an absolute playground of experimentation. Plenty of B-roll, and a rock solid edit bring together some cutting edge work that I sincerely may have made this the nicest looking horror film of 1988. Barring ONE small problem.

The practical effects. Now, for the most part, the practical effects here look amazing for the time, they’re gory, graphic and hyperrealistic. But theres about a handful of moments, largely relegated to the back half of the film, where the practical effects have aged TERRIBLY, and ESPECIALLY in 4k. Shots of twitching severed limbs look like they were crafted out of playdough, severed heads look overly sculpted and hollow, and one Cenobite in particular (which I wont spoil here) glides around the set spaces looking absolutely rediculous in their prosthetics. When this film hits, it hits HARD. but when it misses, it makes some low budget movies look above competent.

Performance wise, we have a packed cast, Doug Bradley builds and really hones in on Pinhead as a character here, and while his speaking appearences here are brief. It feels like he’s already more fully nailed the character than his first appearence. Ashley Laurence and Clare Higgins as Kirsty and Julia also get to build on their characters a bit more, though I do feel the process of ‘Flanderisation’ has set in a bit here, with these two characters being fully fleshed out and developed people in the first film. But here? Julias essentially just playing a villain. Any aspect of her regretting her decisions or having any kind of character depth have been greatly sanded down. And Kirsty, who was supposed to be just an ordinary 20 something girl, here gets a much more action packed makeover. a couple of hours before this film begins, she was a terrified girl fleeing demons from another dimension that she’d collectively met twice. When this film opens, shes a no nonsense hardcore badass who knows the Cenobites by name and is seemingly an authority figure on them…which is a bit odd.

Kenneth Cranham as Dr. Channard is a delightfully malevolent presence throughout the film, and is really kind of the glue that holds the film together, he’s so clearly and irredeemably evil from pretty much his first scene on screen, that watching him fall down the Cenobite rabbit hole is a delightful experience. and while there are plenty of ‘Well; What did you THINK was gonna happen?!?’ moments for his character, the film doesnt sign post these too heavily and as a result, it makes those moments all the more enjoyable.

Tying this all together, the soundtrack is also used quite powerfully, while I do miss the moments from the first film where silence in and of itself was used to tremendous effect. I cant deny that this films score is rock solid and grows out of the first films orchestral work. Its really quite superb and really makes the film what it is.

Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 is a superb horror film that I believe actually surpasses the original, the enhanced budget really allows the film to breath easy and it takes that cash and runs with it, delivering a genuinely unsettling work that, while I cant watch all that often, I appreciate tremendously. The film itself is fairly self contained, so you can watch this one pretty much standalone if you like. and I’d honestly recommend checking this one out, whether you’ve seen the first film or not. Its very likely the peak of this franchise, and if you only get the chance to check one of them out, this one, in my opinion, would be the one.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/hellbound-hellraiser-ii/

The Halloween viewings continue and today it was my partners day to pick a movie, She chose 2009’s ‘Coreline’. A film i’d been aware of for a number of years, but just hadnt really gotten around to. The plot involves our titular ‘Coreline’ and her family as they move from Michigan to a backwater boarding house complex. Corelines feeling a bit down as things seem to be going increasingly from bad to worse. Shes had to leave all of her friends behind, her new home is shambolic and falling apart, the neighbours range from eccentric to border creepy, and her parents are increasingly becoming distant and short with her. Her only outlet in all of this is the one local kid to her ‘Wybie’ whos labelled a stalker almost immediately, and a stray cat.

Things are looking pretty boring and grey for Coreline, that is until she finds a small door in the living room of her new home thats locked. and one night, while drifting off to sleep, she’s led to the door by some strange mice who reveal a portal to another world, a colourful, fun and vibrant land featuring mirror opposites of her current friends, family and situations. Her ‘Other’ parents are loving, caring, fun and listen to her, her one stalker friend has been silenced and everyone else wants nothing more than to spend eternity with Coreline.

As the real world becomes increasingly hostile and unpleasent, she finds herself retreating to this surreal ‘other’ world more frequently, until eventually, her ‘other’ parents ask her if she’d like to stay forever. Coreline seriously considers it, until she finds out the cost of staying there forever. The loss of her eyes, to be replaced with buttons. And on refusing that. her ‘other’ parents real motives slowly begin to become apparent. As Coreline must fight to save herself, her family and learn the true meaning of love.

And what we have here, in my opinion is a very technically impressive film, with an intricate and layered plot dealing with themes of toxic relationships, neglect and ‘coming of age’…But at the same time, one that I wasnt entirely won over by.

To me? the film reminded me a bit of ‘Paperhouse’, both films deal with similar themes, tones, In many ways the plot is eerily similar. and I think that was the biggest thing that threw me about this film, is it all felt very much like something i’d seen before. That coupled with some slightly slower than hoped for pacing issues here and there and an overeliance on visual spectical, left me at times feeling a bit hollow towards the film. I dont think anything it really tries to do is bad inherently, it just all feels a little bit superficial to me at times…

The script itself is quite well written, the dialogue is nice and naturalistic, theres a great level of dark humour tonally underpinning this film that contrasts with some genuinely bleak and unsettling horror imagery, that made me pause for thought, especially given this was supposed to be a kids movie…and older kids movie I grant you…but a kids movie non the less. The horror, combined with the slightly more mature subtext themes creates an unsettling vibe to the whole film, a sort of ‘forced smile’ of a movie if you will.

The act structuring is a little wonky in my opinion, the first act is kind of slowburn, which is understandble as you need the time to warm up your audience to the surreal worldbuilding thats taking place. But at the same time, once its finished with the world building, the second act kind of just…gives way to not a whole lot, we meander in the middle slowly being breadcrumbed ideas, concepts and plot elements for the 3rd act. Which is *technically* the right thing to do, but it doesnt really DO much of anything in that 2nd act other than drop these hints every 4-5 minutes or so, with big gulfs of Coreline just wandering around woodland areas and the boarding house, reiterating older plot points.

This became problematic for me, to the point that, by the start of the 3rd act, it almost felt like I was watching a ‘Lets play’ of a point and click adventure game from the late 90s. It really feels in places like im watching video game footage for how simplistic they planned out the plotting of the act structuring. And that vibe carries into the 3rd act, but at least, mercifully brings with it a bit of action, some meat on the bone, and a finale that felt earned and winds the production down in a meaningful, if not slightly underwhelming way.

As for the art direction and cine? its explosively creative, relishing the opportunity to push the stop motion animation to the limits of the time. Brimming with creative ideas, its colourful, bright and jam packed with constantly moving backgrounds and multiple layers of depth of movement. I would argue this is beyond impressive for 2009, and it is. But for me? it almost works against the film at times, by ramming SO MUCH stuff into the frame thats colourful or movie, it creates a bit of an issue in trying to focus on what im ACTUALLY supposed to be looking at. A good example being in the opening of the film when Coreline is walking in the woods, they have a tracking shot where they frame her through a hole in the trees walking down a dirt road, but the leaves on the trees are blowing around and theres movement in the background too, meaning it took me a good couple of seconds to adjust my eyes to actually FIND Coreline in the image.

Throw in some (im assuming) unintentional frame rate judder on some of the more complex animation pieces, and again, I cannot stress enough just how over the top and incredible the animation work is here. But subtlety isnt this films strongest point, and I found some of their offerings more distracting than beneficial.

That being said, when the shots arnt overcrowded, compositional choices are delightful, the sequence building is rock solid. and the creative touches in the sequence building, and in particular how the production handles transitions was pretty incredible. I was quite the fan!

Performance wise, again its pretty faultless. I think for my money the best performers here have to be Teri Hatcher and John Hodgeman as Coralines parents. they really get a lot of duel role work here and Hatcher in particular gives a frankly terrifying performance in places REALLY bringing the sinsiter elements of the production to life. I thought she was fantastic. I also have to give some credit to French and Saunders as ‘Spink and Forcible’ two elderly thesbians with an eccentric streak. They’re essentially playing to their strength as a former double act here, but its nice to see them performing back together as, by this time, apart from very rare appearences, the two hadnt performed together in years.

Dakota Fanning as Coraline herself is just kind of…flat to me. I dont think its a bad turn, but I just feel like it comes across as a bit generic…which as a supporting cast member would have been fine. But given shes the MAIN character, kind of left me sighing a bit as we slowly tumbled through this movie with her. She emotes fine enough, she gets the lines out. I just wish thered been a bit of ‘oompf’ in the performance, because as it stands, she made Coraline just sound a bit cringey at times.

All of this however, is tied together by a wonderful score, with probably the highlights being a song or two penned by ‘THey Might be Giants’ which was always going to win me over ultimately.

I guess…as the credits rolled on this one, my train of thought was ‘well, that was kind of visually impressive, im glad i’ve seen it, I probably dont need to see this one again for a while.’ Its definitely a fine enough movie, and I can easily see why its a favourite of 2000’s alternative kids and a darling to the critics. But to me? while I was impressed visually, I wish it had just been a bit shorter and tighter. Definitely worth checking out in spite of its flaws. I think its one that, if your in the right mindset, it could become a new firm favourite.

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

A franchise that I have a rather complex relationship with, the ‘Hellraiser’ series, isnt my immediate ‘go to’ for a Horror movie fix. Its a bit too decedent and rich narratively and visually to scratch that itch in the same way your Freddys, Jasons or Michaels of the world can. No…this is a series that I only really tend to dip into when im looking for a very particular form of supernatural, intense horror, and as such, while I dont personally dislike the franchise, I find its a series I can only really take in short bursts every few years…Which is why, in my infinite wisdom, I’ve decided to watch all 11 of these over Halloween…starting with the original; 1987’s ‘Hellraiser’.

Loosely adapted from Clive Barkers ‘The Hellbound Heart’ the film is essentially treated as a bit of a ‘moment in history’ introducing audiences to the strange and unusual demons that inhabit an even MORE unusual magic puzzle box that promises the offer of ultimate pleasure…through the most anguish inducing of pains. We’re early in the game here, so no mentions of ‘Lament Configurations’ or ‘Cenobites’ here…its all very ethereal, and a lot of the narrative twists, we’re essentially just asked to roll with it.

So; in the opening we’re introduced to ‘Frank’, Frank’s just purchased the puzzlebox from a mysterious man in a cafe and, after taking it back to his dead mothers home and playing around with it for a bit, the box opens releasing interdimensional super beings of pain and pleasure, who promptly gut him with hooks, explode his body and drag him into the box into a place far worse than Hell…and its here that the main plot begins!

As Frank has a brother, ‘Larry’ who in turn has a wife and daughter Julia and Kirsty respectively. they’ve just upped sticks and moved (presumably) to the UK (its…its weird, theres more Americans in this film set in Britain than English people…again, just…roll with it) to start a new life in Larrys Mothers house, she passed away a few months ago, and other than a bit of damp and some light renovation work, Larry sees the house as a place for him and Julia to have a fresh start, while also trying to coax Kirsty to join them.

Kirsty however, isnt so keen on Julia, and has decided to get a place of her own, rather than having to put up with constant cold looks and being talked down to…so far so kitchen sink. But Julia has a secret, and that secret is about to be revealed very soon, when Larry, while helping the movers shift a matress upstairs, cuts his hand very badly and ends up bleeding all over one of the upper floors. While Julia rushes him to the hospital, its revealed that the room Larry bled in was the same room that Frank was ‘captured’ in, and the blood of his Brother manages to pull an almost entirely skeletal, and VERY gooey Frank back from the clutches of agony, and into a rather drafty upper floor room.

Later that night, Julia decides to leave their housewarming early to go to bed, and; on investigating a noise, she finds Frank in the upper floors, who demands help from her. At which point it’s revealed that shortly before Julias wedding to Larry, Frank stopped by the house and caught Julia alone. and after some…SMOLDERING moments, the pair entered into a steamy and VERY aggressive romp. In turn trapping Julia, as Frank threatened to spill the beans to Larry if she didnt remain loyal to him…Which wasnt exactly difficult, because Julia clearly fell HARD for Frank and essentially makes it clear that shes ended up trapped in a relationship with someone she doesnt really love.

Franks ask is simple, he wants Julia to go out, coax some random horny man back to the house with the promise of sex, and then when they get back, to knock him out with a hammer and let Frank ‘feast’ on the body to regrow his body back to a fully skinned form. Julia is reluctant…but Franks just…TOO alluring to resist…And eventually she gives in.

But Kirsty spots that Julias increasingly becoming distant, and one day she decides to randomly stop by the house, catching Julia and a bloody and muscle laiden Frank midway through the act of disposing of one of Julias ‘hunts’. Terrified and DEEPLY creeped out, Kirsty flees the house, taking the puzzle box with her, much to Franks terror. and after some messing around with it, Kirsty herself accidentally summons these ‘beings’ who demand her, but will settle if she can bring Frank back to them. Leading to a violent showdown.

And with this one? I feel like a lot of my thoughts on it simply boil down to personal opinion. Up front, i’ll say that the direction, cine, performances and scoring are all pretty faultless, Doug Bradley is only briefly here as ‘Pinhead’ but he essentially cements his legacy in the 8 or so minutes he’s on screen here. giving a chilling and wonderfully abstract performance that I really enjoyed. Clare Higgins as Julia is delightfully deranged, getting to work a very wide emotional range jumping from terrified, to enthralled, to disgusted, and eventually she seems to grow to love the bloodlust that comes with getting herself that bit closer to having Frank back.

Sean Chapman and Oliver Smith both play Frank here, and again a brillaint if not UTTERLY seedy performance that genuinely made my skin crawl multiple times across the runtime. and thats not to mention. Ashley Laurence, who’s simply fantastic also as Kirsty here.

No, the vast majority of my issue with this film comes with the scripting, and even then I cant fault it technically or thematically, its really more a matter of personal preference. I think the pacing is maybe just a little bit too slow boil, I feel like the scenes of Julia trying to trap men gets a little repetative and could have been shortened. I feel like, given the cenobites are front and center on ALL the promotional materials. they really dont appear all that much in the movie, they dont really get a whole lot to do, and there are absolute GULFS between them appearing and dissapearing. Im not saying that they should have been wall to wall or anything like that…But the films goal is to create mystery around these interdimensional torture beings…and I think, if anything they give us too little to really work with for me to wonder or care what they do and why.

These slower periods give way to long sections of characters not really doing all that much. and when combined with a particularly visceral gory streak that again lacks the proper context to really tie it all together. I just find it all a bit flat. Given how grand and gothic the films portrayed to be, i’ve seen this now at least 6 times, and I dont recall a single instance where I havent been bored or distracted by something else by the mid way point, and while it definitely does pick up again for the finale. theres still a lot of meandering to get there.

Add to that that, other than the ‘iconic’ lines featured in this film…the dialogue on the whole is a bit dry and uninteresting. The film tends to tell more than show, and when it does show, it shows in a disjointed way that makes it kind of hard to really get a judge of what exactly is happening.

This films been regularly sited as a great work of ‘queer cinema’ and i’ve read the reasonings for that, and while I can appreacite that angle, I just really dont see that myself here. I do see a film thats very heavily bedded into themes of processing trauma, toxic relationships and dealing with the horrors of twisting safety into nightmares. In some regards its a quality it shares with ‘Fire walk with me’. But to me? I see this film as having more homoerotic or gay coding in it than queer personally.

While the core characters are interesting, the supporting cast a bit overly dry and not particularly memorable, I always forget that Kirsty has a love interest in this film for all the actual impact he has to the plot.

Add to that a very abrupt ending, which I wont spoil here, but is kind of underwhelming considering we’re fighting interdimensional demigods capable of phasing between worlds and unleashing the worst pains and horrors known to man. Its basically a ‘magic button’ ending that just left me feeling cold, and an attempt at the very end to turn this into a semi-cyclical narrative fell flat for me.

Ultimatley; I can absolutely see and appreciate the craft that went into this movie. ‘Hellraiser’ is a very impressive film honestly, its just not really my tone or style, it has its moments which I totally get (hence the rating i’ve given) but it isnt my favourite entry in the franchise, and its not one I revisit all that often. If I were to take the objective technical ability out of my considerations for this movie, it’d probably be a 3 out fo 5…But It goes without saying really that you should probably catch this film once. But for my money, the sequel offers a much more well rounded and engaging experience.

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

Well; it’s Halloween once again, which can only mean one thing. Its another run of (at least) ’31 Movies in 31 Days’ and kicking things off I thought i’d go for a lighthearted play on ‘the classics’ AND revisit a Mel Brooks film that I havent seen in at least 3 or 4 years. 1974’s ‘Young Frankenstein’ Made around the time that Brooks was really hitting his stride with features like ‘The Producers’ and ‘Blazing Saddles’, ‘Young Frankenstein’ is a homage and parody of the Universal ‘Frankenstein’ movies. Made with absolute affection and heart.

The plot introduces us to the grandson of Victor Frankenstein, Frederick Frankenstein (pronounced Fronkensteen) A well respected biological scientist in his field currently training the next generation of doctors who just cant help but ask about his families troubling past with reanimation. Freddy dismisses them and his family as a bunch of lunatics. But when an aged friend of Freddys Great Grandfather appears at the campus, clutching with him the last will and testamony of the Baron. Freddy must travel to Transylvania, and engage head on with his families work, once and for all.

I dont honestly have a whole lot to say critically about ‘Young Frankenstein’ its a work that has more than held up against the tides of time. and frankly is pretty masterful in its execution.

Probably the most notable aspect of this production is the dedication to both the accuracy and subversion of that accuracy of the first 3 ‘Frankenstein’ films. we have faithful recreations of the eastern european villages featured in those Universal classics, we have the ACTUAL lab equipment from both ‘Frankenstein’ and ‘Bride of Frankenstein’ littering the new lab. the direction mimics transitions and stylistic choices of those early Universal monster movies to a tee, and in some cases they literally 1:1 redo scenes from those first two movies, but subvert them for comedic effect in a way that only Brooks can do (see: the hermit scene from Bride of Frankenstein getting a comedic makeover here)

The script is, to me, pretty hilarious, stacked jokes from start to finish running the full range of comedy. from Slapstick to sight gags, plays on words, to double entendres, parodies, innunendo…Its all here. the tone is a perfect balance of trying to play to those darker, more bleak moments of the original films, while contrasting them with absolutely daffy comedy, creating a multi tonal film that is genuinely indering at times and sincere in its efforts. Its not here to slam the original films, more to playfully appreciat their smaller, finer details.

The act structuring is solid, and again, very in line with the original Unioversal movies…I think my only criticism, and this is pretty much the only one I have for the whole movie, is that the pacing is a little lumbering at times. It feels in places that Brooks had a few too many ideas, and as such, the quality for what got into the film, and what was cut out seemed a little more lax here than with his other films.

The quality of the humour is consistently high, but some of the gags require a bit of setup, and that adds extra time onto the run that I feel slows things down a bit too much for me. There’s usually a point somewhere around the hour mark on this where I realise theres still a LOT more to go, and I start to wonder just HOW LONG this film ACTUALLY is. Its one of those films where, to me, they could have lost 5-10 minutes and really got this thing over the line. Deciding what to cut though…THAT is the tricky metric that I havent fully firmed up on.

Otherwise, this is a solid work, and the affection for the series is clear throughout, with the cast of Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman and Terri Garr as Freddy, I-gor and Inga are superb, hitting every single cue with absolute relish and clearly having an absolutely terrific time in doing so. I honestly cant imagine this film being half as engaging or enjoyable without them.

Thats not to forget Peter Boyle as ‘The Creature’ who is just a masterclass on physical comedy, making every 4th wall break an absolutely laugh riot. He’s perfectly cast here…Nor should we forget the supporting cast, who are equally daffy and fun. They bring with them a kind of palpable energy that shows that everyone involved knew the exact tone to hit to maximise the humour of the production.

Throw in an exquisite score from John Morris, who perfectly captures that ‘Universal’ vibe of 30s and 40s Horror seamlessly, giving the film one final Jolt to make it extra special!

I have a real soft spot for ‘Young Frankenstein’ and while it may not be my all time favourite Mel Brooks film. Its absolutley up there as a classic, and PERFECT lighthearted Halloween viewing for those who want to kick the season off with a laugh, over a scream!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/young-frankenstein/1/