Emily is a recovering cancer survivor of three years. To celebrate completing her treatments, her best friend Nina plans a weekend getaway at a remote country house with four of their closest friends.
Yep. It is party time—complete with drugs and booze, and . . .
. . . And it goes from bad to worse pretty quickly for the sextet—as it normally does for (unsympathetic) spoiled, life-is-a-perpetual-party city kids who “vacation” out in those parts where they don’t belong in the first place—especially when a biker gang shows up. And you act like shites at the local roadside diner. And smart mouth the local law enforcement. And the owners of your cabin rental don’t like you. And your friend stole a briefcase of blow for the occasion—and the gangster-owner wants it back. Oh, and there’s a serial killer, aka The Faceless Man, on the loose. And the cabin is haunted (maybe) and ties into the murderous nom de plume (who may be bogus). Oh, (there’s a lot of “ohs” in this movie) and Emily’s having treatment withdrawals and puking bile—accompanied by hallucinations of a spindly-fingered creature leaving blood-scrawled messages on mirrors. And the hallucinations and who-done-it murders-and-kidnappings of the others follow in quick succession.
Do the devil-may-care city kids deserve to have the collective Devil after them: the townsfolk, the bikers, the gangsters, their own drug-induced mind-fucks, and the serial killer? Yeah, even Emily the cancer survivor. This is a film where (because of great writing and acting) you end up identifying with the villain-antagonists (but the “good” city kids are their own worst antagonists).
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You wouldn’t expect a film that markets itself as a horror film—with a protagonist that’s a cancer survivor—to run the gauntlet from slasher to comedy, fork off into a crime drama, and veer into the new-giallo supernatural. But, thick Down Under accents aside: it all works in a Tarantino-pulpy meets a (lighter touch) Shawn of the Dead-kind of way where the detailed set design reminds of Kubrick’s The Shining meets the color palate of a Dario Argento giallo. And keep your eyes open for the Tarantino “diner scene” and “interrogation scene” from Reservoir Dogs, along with the “basement bondage scene” from Pulp Fiction, and your ears open for the Carpenteresque scoring.
In the acting department (the entire cast is good) the two standout performances (among the affable, oddball-arced characters) (for me) come from actor Daniel Reader as the local redneck thug Barry the C*** (he’s so cool-feared, he has his own logo-coffee mug) and Roger Ward (yes, Fifi from Mad Max) as the gangster King Dougie. (Reader is relatively new the screen; he’s amassed twenty-plus credits in ten year across shorts and support roles in Aussie features; but I’d like to see him cross the pond and find work in larger, better-distributed American films.) All in all, The Faceless Man is an effectively-directed and expertly-shot feature film writing and directing debut by James Di Martino. We look forward to seeing more of his work in the streamingverse. And you’ll read those reviews first, on B&S About Movies.
This is the third, great film from Down Under we’ve watched since these COVID times; the others are the U.S. reboot of the neo-giallo Sororal, under its domestic title of Dark Sister, and the quality, fun horror romp Two Heads Creek. Both, along with The Faceless Man, are worth-the-coin-and-time streamers.
The Faceless Man was released as a DVD, PPV and VOD from Chapter 5 Studios and Freedom Cinema on August 28. Look for it on all digital platforms.
Disclaimer: We were provided a screener by the film’s P.R firm. That has no bearing on our review.
About the Author: You can learn more about the writings of R.D Francis on Facebook.He also writes for B&S About Moviesand publishes on Medium.
The Spierig Brothers directed Winchester, a movie I really didn’t enjoy and now here they are to make the eighth film in a series that I really don’t enjoy. Man, I apologize for sounding so negative right off the bat. I’ve just watched every Saw movie in 24 hours amidst a global pandemic and the growing fascism of the country I love, so you’ll have to excuse me.
This movie takes place ten years after the death of John Kramer. It was written by Josh Stolberg (Piranha 3D, Sorority Row) and Peter Goldfinger, who had been trying to get their new version of Saw made for years.
This made $103 million on a $10 million investment, so obviously there was a desire for fans to get to see a new installment. It will lead to another sequel, Spiral, which will have Chris Rock and Samuel Jackson in it, which is way more star power than these movies have had for some time. A tenth film in the series is also on the way.
I do have to say for as much as I don’t really enjoy these movies, I do love that they do a blood drive with the release of each film. That’s a pretty cool thing and they’ve made some nice keepsakes for fans of this series, like posters with Tobin Bell’s blood.
I did it! I made it through every Saw film — for now — and I still have all my limbs and my head is still attached! Wait! What’s that puppet doing? Who are these pig people? OH NO! THEY’RE MAKING ME WATCH THEM AGAIN!
This movie is also known as Saw: The Final Chapter and we should all be so lucky.
This time, a man falsely reveals that he is a Jigsaw survivor, making him a celebrity before he really gets to be part of the game. While that’s happening, Detective Mark Hoffman — the new Jigsaw — is hunting down Jill Tuck, the wife of the original Jigsaw.
This movie starts with two men forced to saw one another to save the life of the woman they’re both sleeping with. Of course, given the human nature exploited by Jigsaw, they end up slicing her in half to survive.
Jill Tuck (Betsey Russell), the wife of John Kramer, the first Jigsaw, has turned to the FBI to save her as the new Jigsaw, Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) comes after her. He dispatches an entire office full of agents just to get near her, killing her with the original Reverse Bear Trap.
There’s also the aforementioned celebrity, a self-help flimflam man named Bobby Dagen (Sean Patrick Flanery) whose need for fame ends up destroying his wife (and his nipples).
There’s a pretty cool twist that brings the story of Saw full circle at the end, however. The pig mask comes back, as does an actor that hadn’t appeared in any of the movies since the first one. Actually, the other two people with him are the two survivors from the start of the movie, but while this movie is at least ten years old, I’m going to not reveal the spoiler.
Yes, somehow I am on my sixth Saw movie in the same day. Seriously, people, I’ve made it through all The Howling films, The Twilight Saga and numerous Jess Franco movies, but nothing has tested my resolve quite like these movies.
Kevin Greutert made his debut directing this and would also made the next film, Saw 3D — yes, I understand that that would be the seventh film and not the third, but when you have more sequels in front of the name of your name than most studios release in a year, you don’t care about things like that.
Greutert will not be returning for Saw IX in 2020, the first time in the series that he’s not had any involvement in since the franchise began in 2004.
Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) has become Jigsaw and unlike his mentor, he has no compassion toward his victims. I mean, Jigsaw also cut off the feet and heads of his victims, but come on, he kind of loved them, right?
Of course, he has one more test for Hoffman, which ends up locking his head in a reverse bear trap, thanks to his wife Jill Tuck (Betsey Russell). Of course he escapes. How would we have Saw Whatever Number afterward? I fully realize Tobin Bell’s character died movies ago and he keeps showing up as well.
They gave this movie $11 million in budget and it turned out $68.2 million worldwide. It’s the same model studios have always used with genre films. They’re movies that they don’t like to talk about, but they provide the fuel that allows them to make the movies that they want the world to really know about.
That said, of all of these movies, I liked this one, as it puts Jigsaw against people who prey on their fellow humans, taking out a predatory insurance company. Where can they go after this? Well, we have two movies left this week — and of course, another Saw coming later this year — so we’ll find out.
Sony sold the rights to the Urban Legend franchise and a fourth installment was planned, which would be this very film. Originally called Urban Legends: Goldfield Murders, the DVD sales of Urban Legends: Bloody Mary, Sony bought back the rights. That left this movie to be released as Ghosts of Goldfield.
Julie and her friends (which include Kellan Lutz, Emmett Cullen to those who enjoy Twilight) have set up their ghost chasing equipment in a hotel in the former mining town of Goldfield.
Supposedly, George Wingfield, the real-life owner of the hotel in that real-life town once had a relationship with a woman named Elisabeth Walker, who some claim was a prostitute and others a maid. When she became pregnant, he paid her to stay quiet but soon decided to get rid of her and her child. He chained her to a radiator and kept her fed until she died during childbirth, then threw the baby down a mine shaft. Visitors to the hotel report hearing her voice and the wails of her child.
Julie has a necklace that is a family heirloom which connects her to this tragedy. There’s also a bartender — hello, Roddy Piper — who for some reason is still alive decades later.
This film is, charitably, a mess. It would feel right at home in today’s shot for streaming found footage world of junk horror. Ed Winfield, its director, has one other credit: Oakland Raideretts Swimsuit Calendar Behind the Camera.
However, I am a completist, which means I had to watch it for you. My dream is that this keeps you from having to endure this poor entry in the franchise.
Editor’s Note: Due to their plot, costume, and SFX common denominator recycling, we are reviewing five films in this exploration of Alfonzo Brescia’s “Star Wars” films: Cosmos: War the the Planets, Battle of the Stars, War of the Robots, Star Odyssey, and Beast in Space—so, yes: it’s a five-in-one review. And we toss in a little backstory on Brescia as a bonus!
It all began with the 1964 sand n’ sandal flicks The Revolt of the Pretorians and The Magnificent Gladiator, along with an array of Poliziotteschi flicks. In between was an X-rated romp with 1969’s The Labyrinth of Sex and 1974’s seen-to-be-believed Super Stooges vs the Wonder Women. And it all pretty much ended when Uncle Al decided to take on George Lucas. We never saw him again on U.S. screens—big or small.
Be warned, young warrior: Uncle Al’s space romps make Glen “larceny” Larson’s Battlestar Galactica look like the Lucasian epic it wanted to be (and was not). Space: 1999 isn’t so dorky to you now, is it, space cowboy? Oh, but Uncle Al’s flicks are oh, so much more fun than the plastic-verse Star Wars dropping that is Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.
So, have you ever met two guys debating the content of Alfonso Brescia’s “Star Wars” rips? Welcome to mine and Sam’s world: a bizarro-universe where he mixes colorful, alcohol concoctions based on movies and we destroy our livers debating superfluous movie facts, much to the chagrin of poor Becca. Not even a Bill Van Ryn smack-on-the-side-of-the-head cures our Bresciamania.
Sam is of the critics who believe Uncle Al’s “Pasta Wars” is comprised of only four films: Cosmos: War of the Planets (aka Year Zero War in Space), Battle of the Stars, (aka Battle in Interstellar Space), War of the Robots (aka Reactor), and finally, Star Odyssey (aka Seven Gold Men in Space, Space Odyssey, Metallica and Captive Planet).
I’m on the side that there was actually five films in the series, which completed with 1980’s La Bestia nello Spazio, aka Beast in Space in English venacular, aka “Star Wars V,” aka “Porn Wars,” because, well . . . it’s a porn movie.
Four!
Five!
Four!
Five! Arrrgh! Let’s break ’em down! But first, this 2012 trailer remix for the best known of Uncle Al’s “Pasta Wars” flicks: Star Odyssey.
Many sci-fi connoisseurs believe Brescia’s “Star Wars” debut isn’t so much a rip-off of Star Wars: they opine it’s a homage to another Italian space epic, one that was produced amid all of those Antonio Margheriti-spaghetti space operas: Mario’s Bava’s Terrore nello Spazio, aka Terror in Space (known in American theatres as Planet of the Vampires; then in its U.S. TV syndication as Demon Planet).
On this point, Sam and I concure: Look at the costuming and alien-possession subplots of Bava’s and Brescia’s films for comparison. Adding to the celluloid confusion: Cosmos had similarly-influenced—if not the very same-recycled—costumes and sets as Margheriti’s films. In addition: Cosmos was also distributed as War of the Planets—which was the title of the 1966 second film of Margheriti’s Gamma One series.
Amid Cosmos’ self-recycled stock footage and shot-through-sheets-of-sepia-paper-and-cheese-cloth special effects, Cosmos also ineptly-lifted whole scenes from 2001: A Space Odyssey (an astronaut completes an upside-down communication device repair-in-space) and Barbarella (sex via touching a “blue orb of light” between beds). The “plot” for those who fell asleep: Our heroes journey to a planet where a green-skinned race is subjugated by an evil computer . . . and the Earth’s Italian “Hal 9000,” “The Wiz,” is possessed by the evil alien computer. . . .
Is this plotline picked up in the next movie? Nope. But all the sets, props, and costumes sure do redux.
Believe it or not, with everyone tricked into believing they were seeing another “Star Wars,” Cosmos: War of the Planets turned a profit in theatres (while I didn’t catch it at the local duplex, my coin was taken by Lou Cozzi’s Starcrash, Michael A. De Gaetano ’74-to ’80 reissue of UFO: Target Earth, Pietro Francisci’s ’66-to-’77 opus, Star Pilot, and George B. Lewis’s, aka Aldo Lado’s The Humanoid). Everyone in the U.S., pretty much, watched Cosmos on TV, as it aired forever during the ’80s on Friday and Saturday night and Saturday afternoon UHF-TV.
You can watch one of the many uploads on You Tube.
Movie 2:Battle of the Stars (1978)
. . . And Uncle Al returned with his “Empire Strikes Back” in the form of Battaglie negli spazi stellar (aka Battle in Interstellar Space), but it was given a new U.S. title because it sounds suspiciously like “Battlestar Galactica.” And since that was Glen Larson’s cheap-jack Lucas rip, that makes this a Star Wars rip twice removed.
You never heard of it because Uncle Al’s “Star Wars II” suffered from poor theatrical distribution and a weak reissue via home video and TV syndication. Then, with all the alternate titling that plagues European films as they’re distributed to the international markets, spacesploitation buffs believed the almost-impossible-to-find Battle of the Stars was Cosmos—with a new title. It’s not helping when the main cast of familiar Italian actors Gianno Garko, Malisa Longo, Antonio Sabato, Yanti Somer, and John Richardson—with most of their supporting cast—appear in subsequent films as different characters (well, they’re the same, but with different names), adding to the continuity confusion.
Regardless, it’s not the same film.
Battle of the Stars is an entirely new film that cannibalizes Cosmos for stock footage—and all the costumes and sets return. As is the case with most “sequels” (Alien vs. Aliens and Mad Max vs. The Road Warrior being the exceptions to the rule), Battle is a just remake/reimage of Cosmos—with a little script tweak: Instead of Earthlings traveling to the planet-home of the evil computer, this time: the rogue planet (or was it an asteroid; don’t care) without-an-orbit-and-pissed-off-sentient-being running it comes to Earth (from the orbit of Ganymed, Jupiter’s moon) which . . . was the plot of Margheriti’s Battle of the Planets from his “Gamma One” series. Hey, er, uh . . . what happened to the ship with its computer, “The Wiz,” possessed by the alien computer in Cosmos? Is that cleared up in Part III? Nope, that plotline is done and gone. . .. .
Look, as someone who has seen Cosmos: War of the Planets a few times: there is no “sport fishing on Earth” scene and there’s no androgynous, platinum blonde 12-year-old alien decked out in a silver chain mail spacesuit helping the Earthlings with an ersatz Marksman-H training remote Jedi-ball. But there is in Battle of the Stars.
So, yeah, it’s the same effect shots, same sets, same actors, even the same situations (that 2001-inspired space station repair and that sentient alien computer set, for example, again) . . . but it’s a different film. It’s not up for debate: it’s two different films, space ace.
Notice the Gerry Anderson’s S.I.D sentient satellite from his TV series UFO, in the upper-right cornerof the one-sheet.
The snack bar is open . . .
Intermission with Jason of Star Command, Space Academy, and Ark II!
Yes, Jason of Star Command, Space Academy, and Ark II from CBS-TV are the far superior productions . . . and all of Uncle Al’s one-piece spandex suits and pull-over headpieces were back for a third sequel . . . with a society of gold-painted skin people pinch-hitting for the green folks from Cosmos.
Why?
On this point Sam and I agree: There’s no “artistic” meaning behind it. Uncle Al simply ran out of the five-gallon buckets of green grease paint and he found some gold paint in the stock room. Ah, but all of the stock SFX footage, costumes, and sets—and whole scenes lifted from the previous two films—are back.
The “plot,” such as it is: Gold Aryan robots with Dutch-boy haircuts are on the brink of extinction. And the solution is to kidnap a couple of Earth scientists to save their planet. So a crack team of space marines (see Aliens; which wasn’t made yet!) are sent in for a rescue.
What makes “Pasta Wars III” so utterly confusing: All of the same actors from the last two films come back—as different characters. So, it’s a “sequel” . . . then it’s not. Will the fourth film tie up the loose end regarding the possessed Wiz from part one. . . .
You can watch this one of the many uploads of War of the Robots on You Tube.
So . . . George Lucas was still in production with the second Star Wars movie, The Empire Strikes Back (1980)—and Brescia is already on his 4th sequel with 1979’s “The Gold Ayran Dutch Boy Robots” (as I like to call it) . . . but they really were back in Sette Uomini d’oro nello Spazi, aka Seven Gold Men in Space which, if you’re able to keep up with the alternate-titling of Italian films, became Star Odyssey for English-speaking audiences.
And you thought Roger Corman was the king of set, prop, and wardrobe recycling? Uncle Al’s recycling makes Glen Larson’s cheap n’ shameless footage, prop, and costume recycling from the Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers franchise-axis seem inspired.
The plot: In the year 2312 the Earth is referred to by evil aliens as “Sol 3.” “Darth Vader” is some guy in a (quite impressive) lizard skin mask (but it’s topped with a Farrah Fawcett-’70s feathered hair cut) that “buys” Earth in some inter-galactic auction to cultivate Earthlings as slaves to sell on the open market. And his army is the gold Dutch Boy robots . . . but didn’t we save them in War of the Robots? Welcome to the Brescia-verse. . . .
“Han Solo” is some guy in a shiny-silver Porsche racing jacket and a funky, disco-inspired spider web tee-shirt contracted for a The Magnificent Seven-inspired recruitment of a rescue team of rogues . . . thus ripping off Roger Corman’s Battle Beyond the Stars (and Corman ripped himself in the later productions of Space Raiders, Forbidden World, and Dead Space; yes, sets from Galaxy of Terror are in the mix amid all of those films, as well; he even lent them out to Fred Olin Ray for Star Slammer). Part of the “seven” are Uncle Al’s R2D2 and C3PO: a bickering male-female robot couple (the female has eyelashes and red lips) dealing with “sexual dysfunction” and “relationship issues.” And there’s a scrawny n’ skinny Han Solo-replicant acrobat who backflips and summersaults into battles—and makes a living fighting in boxing rings with Rock ’em Sock ’em Robots (know your ’70s toys). And what’s up with the “Luke Skywalker” of this space opera: Lt. Oliver ‘Hollywood’ Carrera? What’s with the obviously drawn-on mustache? Why is he hunching his back and arching his shoulders? Is it a parody of some Italian comedy actor we Americans don’t know about?
As result of Star Odyssey never playing in U.S. theatres or airing on U.S. UHF-TV in-syndication (at least not to mine and Sam’s recollections), the only way we watched this fourth “Pasta Wars” sequel was on numerous public domain DVD multi-packs. And regardless of the distributor, the “cut” of the film is always the same: somewhere along the way, the scissors were taken to the film and there’s several scenes out of sequence. Remember in Space Mutiny, when Lt. Lemont is dramatically killed off in a scene . . . and she shows up just fine in the very next scene? It’s like that, only it happens several times in Star Odyssey.
I keep promising myself that I’ll rip Star Odyssey and do a proper “fan cut” and put it back into its proper sequence in homage to Uncle Al. . . . Don’t hold you breath waiting for that You Tube upload.
You can watch Star Odyssey in all its continuity-screwed glory on You Tube.
Movie 5: Beast in Space (1980)
And now for the movie that’s come dangerously close to destroying a friendship. Alfonso Brescia’s oeuvre has that effect on people . . . well, just me and ‘ol Sam.
Anyway . . . remember the infamous, 1972 X-rated Flash Gordon porn-flick, Flesh Gordon (itself sequeled with Flesh Gordon Meets the Cosmic Cheerleaders)? Did you ever wonder if Reece and Ripley (and we know they did, off-script and off camera) “got it on” in Aliens? Ever ponder if Han threw Leia across the Dejarik Chess Table and undid her cinnabons?
Well, welcome to Porn Wars.
There’s George Lucas, killing the box office with The Empire Strikes Back, and Brescia responds with his “Star Wars V”: 1980’s La Bestia nello Spazio, aka Beast in Space. The interesting twist to this “sequel” is that it not only occurs in the same Brescia Pasta-verse (courtesy of footage, costumes, props, sets, and actors recycling) continued from Star Odyssey, it’s also a “sequel” to Walerian Borowcyk’s infamously popular, 1975 French erotic-horror/exploitation movie, La Bête, aka The Beast. The “connection” between both films: erotica-exploitation actress Sirpa Lane sports a pair of Brescia-space tights and headpiece.
So how did they come up with the title Beast in Space, you ask? As result of her erotic/exotic films—especially The Beast—Sirpa Lane was a major star (and marketed as the “next Brigitte Bardot”) in Europe and christened with the affectionate stage name by the Euro-press: “The Beast.” (We also reviewed her work Joe D’Amato’s Papaya: Love Goddess of the Cannibals, if you’re interested.)
Issued in “PG,” “R” and “X”-rated formats, the “plot” concerns the Earth’s search of the cosmos for a rare element: Antallum, the key ingredient for bomb construction to basically kill off everyone in the universe. But wait . . . Earth already possessed that wonder-metal to accomplish space travel in the first film . . . so is this a prequel?
Eh, that’s plot piffle in the Brescia-verse.
The real story: The crew is “horny,” with chauvinistic men and slutty women astronauts seducing each other on their way to the planet Lorigon to plunder the planet of its Antallum honey hole. Well, the planet’s sentient super-computer (not again!) isn’t having any of that nonsense. That’s his Antallum. So “Hal 9000” sidetracks the Earthlings . . . by inciting them to indulge in their deepest, darkest sexual desires. Oh, did we mention the gold Aryan Dutch Boy robots are back as well? And the well-hung minotaur from Lane’s sexual dreams is real and lives on Lorigon?
The English language upload is gone. All we have is this Spanish-language upload on You Tube for you to sample.
DVD Copies of Beast in Space
The fine folks at Severin (thanks, again for the Delirium pull-quote) discovered an obscure hardcore cut of the film: it adds a few minutes of unsimulated, aka real, grinding (from bodies doubles) and a nice and long (sorry) five minutes with The Beast’s monstrous penis—and his “climax.” That footage is said to have been shot after the fact and spliced-in; that cut was distributed throughout Europe.
As result of that discovery: Severin has two DVD versions in the market: An Unrated Version at 92 minutes and a XXX version at 91 minutes (the one with the body doubles footage). The footage variations are those hardcore shots of Onaf (Robert Hundar; 1977’s La bella e la bestia) raping Sondra (Sirpa Lane) and his penis in action, along with a sex scene between Capt. Larry Madison (Vassili Karis of 1979’s Giallo in Venice) and Sondra. The Unrated Version comes from the original film lab negative utilized for the Region 1 (North and Central America) DVD release by Severin, which they acquired from a Rome, Italy, bankruptcy auction. The XXX version was discovered in the basement of a condemned Bologna, Italy, porn theater.
Both Severin versions come with Bonus Features: The Unrated Version comes with a vignette from actor Venantino Venantini (Juan Cardoso in the film) who speaks at length about his career, working on Black Emmanuel (we’ve since reviewed Emmanuel IV because of its Cannon connection) and with Brescia. The XXX Version, again, offers the newer hardcore footage-inserts—along with a trailer.
While both versions are out-of-print and no longer available at Severin Films, used and aftermarket copies are available on Amazon and eBay; but emptor the caveats, ye buyer. You can get the technical rundown on the releases at DVDTalk. And if you’re a Brescia completists, like moi, you’ll get both for the collection.
So be it Star Odyssey or Beast in Space—or four or five films—Uncle Al’s “Pasta Wars” was over. After turning out his “Star Wars” films in a short four years, Brescia turned over the keys to the Millennium Falcon. But let’s cut Uncle Al a break: he was saddled with the cheapest budgets and pressure-shoot schedules that no filmmaker should endure in their careers.
Brescia continued to make non-science fiction films for the remainder of his career—14 more films for the next 15 years. At the time of his retirement in 1995, Brescia completed a career total of 51 films.
Most of Brescia’s post-1980 work was primarily restricted to Italy-only distribution. His career took a financially-positive turn in the late ‘80s with the worldwide-distributed Iron Warrior (1987; the third in the hugely successful, Ator Italian rip-off series of Conan the Barbarian) and Miami Cops (1989; violent Miami Vice-inspired buddy-cop flick starring Richard Roundtree). Sadly, even with the success of Iron Warrior and Miami Cops, Brescia was unable to secure distribution for his self-financed final film, the 1995 action-comedy, Club Vacanze.
Alfonso Brescia, the king of the Star Wars-inspired spaghetti-space opera died, ironically, in 2001.
And that’s the story behind tonight’s “Drive-In Friday” salute to Uncle Al.
Oh, yes! There are so many more post-Star Wars films to partake, young warrior.
While Battle of the Stars and Beast In Space — to our knowledge — haven’t made a Mill Creek appearance, you can easily find Cosmos: War of the Planets (“Sci-Fi Classics”), War of the Robots (“Chilling Classics”), and Star Odyssey (“Nightmare Worlds”) on a variety of Mill Creek sets, these one in particular (clickable images for the full list of films).
About the Author: You can learn more about the writings of R.D Francis on Facebook. He also writes for B&S Movies.
Get ready for a drunk driving PSA that lasts 84 minutes, as Cassie (Melissa Sagemiller) gets in an accident that kills her boyfriend Sean (Casey Affleck) after a night of clubbing in a potentially haunted bar and a misunderstanding with her ex-boyfriend Matt (Wes Bentley). Oh yeah, Eliza Dushku is in this as well.
It all ends up being a dream in which the evil Deathmask, a scarred up dancer and a girl named Raven try to keep her from coming back to the world of the living. Luke Wilson also is in this as a priest who tries to help.
Writer and director Stephen Carpenter was also behind the movies The Dorm That Dripped Blood, The Kindred, The Power and the TV series Grimm. I’d watch the first one of those before this, which Affleck has mentioned as one of the worst films he’s been in. Or watch Sole Survivor instead, which is the same idea done much better.
In the wake of Scream and Final Destination, I can see why this movie was made. The fact that I found myself compelled to watch it — I blame the gimmick-filled DVD — is an issue that I’ll have to deal with, hopefully with the help of dancing ghosts, a booming soundtrack with the Deftones on it and a kindly clergyman.
David Heckl was the production designer and second unit director for the second, third and fourth movies in the Saw series before coming on to direct this version from a script by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan. This time, Detective Mark Hoffman makes a journey to become the apprentice of the Jigsaw Killer.
I watched every Saw film in just a day, so the fact that they flash back and tell the different sides of the story can be a bit confusing, particularly when people who die in one film suddenly show up alive. I am certain that there are fans of this series who can explain every nuance, but to me, they are all excuses to feature elaborate death traps that are, like the Final Destination films, the real stars of the movies.
For example, Danny Glover’s Detective Tapp character shows up, despite dying in the first film (this was never really explained, other than the first Saw video game).
This was the first Saw movie not to open in first place at the box office, but would be far from the last movie in the series. Did I keep going and make it through six, seven and the film Jigsaw? Of course I did. My resolve is made of the same metals as these traps.
This is the last Saw film that Darren Lynn Bousman would direct. Where would they go after killing everyone off in the last one? This time, Jigsaw’s tapes have survived past his death as he tries to teach another lesson.
You should never do what I have done. That is, watch all eight Saw movies in one day.
This is the first Saw film written by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, who would also write the next three sequels. They never knew that there was a “Saw Bible” with rules they should have followed. The producers still liked their work, however.
Officer Daniel Rigg being put through a series of tests, as Jigsaw believes that he needs to let go of his obsession with trying to save people. Along the way, we run into people from the other films, like a returning Donnie Wahlberg as Detective Eric Matthews, Angus Macfadyen as Jeff, Shawnee Smith as Amanda and Bahar Soomekh as Lynn Denlon.
Yes, nearly all of them have been killed before, but this is a side story, I guess, so that we can keep the Saw story going. Obviously, there are those obsessed with these films and their minutiae and who am I to say that they can’t enjoy these films? To me, they all look, feel, sound and play out exactly to the same to the point that I can’t remember which is which.
This one does introduce Jigsaw’s ex-wife Jill Tuck (Betsy Russell), who lost their child when an addict hit her with a door, which drove him insane and ruined their marriage. You can also get to see him taken apart on a coroner’s table, so maybe don’t eat popcorn during this.
Steven Quale was the second unit director of Titanic and Avatar before getting to make his own movies. He jumped in to the Final Destination franchise, which had by now pretty much done it all when it came to brutally wiping teenagers out of existance. He was joined by Eric Heisserer, who wrote the remakes of A Nightmare On Elm Streetand The Thing, as well as Lights Out, Arrival and Bird Box.
They did what had never been done. They made a prequel instead of another story.
Sam Lawton is anout the cross the North Bay Bridge when he sees the bridge collapsing and only his ex-girlfriend Milly Harper surviving. So he keeps everyone off the bridge, which soon collapses. In case you haven’t seen any of these films before, Death will make them all wish they had just become ex-people then.
Luckily, Tony Todd is back as Bludworth. He takes a more involved role this time, telling the survivors that if they wish to live, they should kill someone who was never meant to die on the bridge.
Only Molly and Sam survive and they go to Paris together. Of course, they board Flight 180 and…we’re right back to the first movie.
Another major part of these films are the references to horror personalities. The fith film references William Friedkin, Tobe Hooper and William Castle.
Well, that was five movies from one franchise in a few days. We did it! We made it! Oh no, the computer is glowing! Instead of seeing my death coming, I’m just going to take whatever comes next. I’ve learned so much from these movies. Good bye, readers!
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