Saturday, April 11, 2009

15 Reasons Not To Leave Your House: Part One

I bypassed the ratings for these films as they are more general recommendations than full reviews. I'm sure I will return to some of them at a later date for a more in-depth analysis. Enjoy!

Dagon (2001)

Director: Stuart Gordon
Writers: H. P. Lovecraft (short stories “Dagon” & “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”), Dennis Paoli (screenplay)
Actors: Ezra Godden, Raquel Merono, Francisco Rabal

Dagon is a lesser known title brought to us by Re-Animator director Stuart Gordon. Young couple Paul (Godden) and Barbara (Merono) find themselves stranded in a small coastal town in Spain after a boating accident and it doesn’t take long for them to realize that all is not right, in fact it is very wrong. This is a fun, gothic, creepy, sometimes gory film and one of my favorite Gordon flicks.

To be clear, I think Dagon is lesser known for a reason, a lot of people just aren't into it. Had I rated it, I probably would have given it 2 1/2 black sheep but for some reason I really enjoy it and some of the gore effects are pretty cool (and I'm not talking about some of the CGI effects that I do NOT like in the movie). I think it's one of those movies that either grabs you or it doesn't, but it is worth the risk if you end up really liking it. I just really enjoy Stuart Gordon in general and this Lovecraft adaptation is probably the closest anyone has ever done.

Saam gang yi/3 Extremes (2004)

Directors: Fruit Chan, Chan-wook Park, Takashi Miike
Writers: Lilian Lee, Chan-wook Park, Haruko Fukushima, Bun Saikou
Actors: Bai Ling, Byung-hun Lee, Hye-jeong Kang, Kyoko Hasegawa, Atsuro Watabe

This collection of three short horror films from three different Asian directors is a must-see. They are all excellent but my personal favorites are the second and third entries, Cut and Box. Cut is directed by Chan-Wook Park (Oldboy) and is everything you could hope for from this Korean director. Takashi Miike is my favorite Japanese director and he does not disappoint with Box, a haunting and beautiful art film with a sweetly dark plot. Dumpling is pretty disturbing but good if you can handle the premise.

An American Werewolf in London (1981)



Director: John Landis
Writer: John Landis
Actors: David Naughton, Griffin Dunne, Jenny Agutter

I love this movie! The average movie goer had a tough time with American Werewolf when it was first released as they weren’t used to such a mixture of horror and comedy. John Landis of Coming to America and Trading Places fame really hit this one out of the ballpark in my opinion. Two college buddies are backpacking through Europe when they are attacked by a werewolf, changing their lives forever. The Howling has long had the reputation for revolutionizing movie effects but it was released in the same year as American Werewolf and both films credit effects giant Rick Baker but Baker actually left The Howling to work on American Werewolf, leaving the bulk of The Howling effects to Rob Bottin. I’ve always thought the effects in American Werewolf were far superior and the initial transformation scene is fantastic, music, visuals and all.

Hell House (2001)






Director: George Ratliff

Hell House is a documentary that features an annual haunted house hosted by Trinity Church in Cedar Hill, Texas. The house is extravagantly designed and includes live horror scenes being acted out by church members, covering themes such as abortion, homosexuality, AIDS, drug use, and adultery. Visitors are shown the many ways they might find themselves going to hell and are given a chance to find salvation in Jesus upon completion of the tour. The film is surprisingly unbiased in how it portrays the church and its followers, leaving it up to the viewer to make any judgments.

Dead & Buried (1981)



Director: Gary Sherman
Writers: Jeff Millar, Dan O’Bannon
Actors: James Farentino, Jack Albertson, Robert Englund

Dan Gillis (Farentino) is sheriff of Potter’s Bluff, a small, quiet coastal town where everyone knows their neighbor and life is simple… or is it? Sheriff Gillis finds himself dealing with an unusual number of deaths and Dobbs, the local undertaker, is obsessed with restoring the dead to their living form. Dead & Buried is a fantastic movie by the director of Vice Squad that has remained on the fringe despite the fact that it is rad! The master, Stan Winston, creates some amazingly realistic makeup effects that are seldom achieved even now, more than 25 years later. Note, however, that there are a couple of sequences that stand out as being far below Winston’s usual standard. This is because the studio that ended up distributing the film wanted more gore and as a result, scenes were added using a different effects artist… bad idea. Otherwise, great movie!

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