Author Archives: bandsaboutmovies

TUBI ORIGINAL: Carnifex (2022)

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When two conservationists — Grace (Sisi Stringer) and Ben (Harry Greenwood) — and a filmmaker named Bailey (Alexandra Park) travel deep into the Australian outback to track and record the animals displaced by the unprecedented bushfires of 2019 — climate change is real — they soon learn that they aren’t the hunters. They are the hunted.

Directed by Sean Lahiff (this is his first full-length film; he also works as an editor) and written by Shanti Gudgeon (the Wolf Creek TV series), Carnifex is about the unseen predator and brand new species that exists in the new world that has been created by the inferno that consumed Australia’s outback.

The Carnifex itself ends up being something like the Drop Bear, an Australian cryptid that is the size of a leopard or a large dog. Drop Bears supposedly hunt by ambushing from above and wait for hours to make a surprise kill. Supposedly, if you have a fork in your hair or vegemite or toothbrush behind your ears, they will leave you alone.

It looks way too cute when you finally see it. Is it a death koala? But anyways — the more it stays to the shadows, the better this movie is. I can say that for most monster movies, you know?

You can watch this on Tubi.

APRIL MOVIE THON 2: New Mutants (2020)

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April 29: Drop A Bomb — Please share your favorite critical and financial flop with us!

The thirteenth and final X-Men movie before Disney took over the franchise, New Mutants feels like an orphan, a movie that had no chance and that kept coming up against a corporate buyout, COVID-19, three years of off and on production and reshoots.

For what it’s worth, Disney claimed they never saw any box office in this movie, a film that TheFaulty In Our Stars director Josh Boone and writer Knate Lee called “Stephen King meets John Hughes-style horror.” To be fair, Boone was a big fan of the original comics, remixing his own comic book using panels from the Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz era of New Mutants as a proof of concept for what a film trilogy could be. He even sent a copy to Sienkiewicz, who said that the director had it figured out and wasn’t just ripping off his work.

Boone also saw the film’s Demon Bear villain as one he had real emotional ties to, as he was Evangelical Southern Baptist parents: “…they believed in the rapture; they believed the devil was real; they believed in demons.” Another influence that made me laugh was A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors,  because if anything, that movie completely rips off the feel of the New Mutants comics, which came out four years before Craven’s movie.

The New Mutants who show up are Danielle Moonstar / Mirage, who is played by Blu Hunt and the film’s lead; Anya Taylor-Joy is Illyana Rasputin / Magik, the daughter of X-Man Colossus, yet the comic connections are downplayed; Maisie Williams  (Arya Stark from Game of Thrones) is Rahne Sinclair / Wolfsbane; Henry Zaga is Roberto da Costa / Sunspot and Charlie Heaton (Jonathan Byers from Stranger Things) is Sam Guthrie / Cannonball. They’re guided by Dr. Cecilia Reyes (Alice Braga) yet trapped in a facility that they believe is provided by Professor X. The truth is much more sinister. Literally, as she’s working for the Essex Corporation, which is probably X-Men villain Mr. Sinister.

It feels like this movie had no chance, but I really liked it. I mean, Lockheed the dragon shows up, Magik’s Soulsword looks great and the horror story works. I wish the sequels — Warlock would be played by Sascha Baron Cohen and the Inferno storyline would be the third movie — had been made, but as Disney took over the property, no one seemed interested in the success of this movie.

What’s On Arrow Player In May

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May 1: Take a dive deep into the films of a master with Molto Argento. A killer collection of murderous masterpieces, Molto Argento is a season of slick and stylish films from maestro Dario Argento. Featuring all of his very best films, including the absolutely untouchable first two films in his Three Mothers trilogy, and all of his standalone classics like Tenebrae, Deep Red and Phenomena, as well as team-ups with Lamberto Bava and George A. Romero; Molto Argento is a collection full of terrifying, nerves-splitting set pieces, brain-boggling whodunits, unforgettable lighting, astonishing camera moves and soundtracks that will take your roof off.

May 5: Psychotronic is a collection of far-out films all listed in Michael Weldon’s cult guide to the wildest movies ever made, and the film guide that Quentin Tarantino swears by, The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film. Described by Weldon as “(films) traditionally ignored or ridiculed by mainstream critics at the time of their release: horror, exploitation, action, science fiction, and movies that used to play in drive-ins or inner city grindhouses”, this is where you will find all our wildest, coolest stuff, such as Something Weird, The Crazies and The Baby.

There are also more Paul Joyce documentaries, including Mantrap: Straw Dogs: The Final Cut and Motion and Emotion: The Films of Wim Wenders, as well as two 60s films, Big Time Gambling Boss and A Woman Kills.

May 8: Hand of Death

May 12: Season: The Gore The Merrier has some of Arrow’s most artery-opening, guts-spilling films, such as Microwave Massacre, Island of Death and Inferno of Torture.

May 19: Masters of Horror offers nine directors whose game-changing work in the genre earned them that title (and a spot directing an episode of the legendary 2005 television show of the same name). Featuring cult classics from the likes of Dario Argento, George A. Romero, Lucio Fulci, Takashi Miike, Don Coscarelli, Stuart Gordon, John Landis, Lucky McKee and John McNaughton, these Masters unite for a collection showcasing their most absolutely must-see films, including Audition, Don’t Torture a Duckling and Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.

Plus Mansion of the Living Dead and House on the Edge of the Park.

May 22: Adam Cesare Selects: Adam Cesare is the Bram Stoker Award-Winning author of the young adult slasher novel Clown in a Cornfield and its sequels Clown in a Cornfield 2: Frendo Lives and the upcoming Clown in a Cornfield 3. Movies include The Stylist, The Crazies and Dark August.

May 26: Ghostly Goings-On is filled with haunting supernatural tales that will give you goosebumps and send shivers up your spine. There’s not a bedsheet with eye holes cut in it in sight, just ethereal apparitions and pulse-pounding phantoms dead set on ensuring you don’t get a wink of sleep tonight. Movies like Scared Stiff, 8-bit Ghost Hop and Lady Morgan’s Vengeance are part of this series.

Head over to ARROW to start watching now. Subscriptions are available for $6.99 monthly or $49.99 yearly. ARROW is available in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland on the following Apps/devices: Roku (all Roku sticks, boxes, devices, etc), Apple TV & iOS devices, Samsung TVs, Android TV and mobile devices, Fire TV (all Amazon Fire TV Sticks, boxes, etc), and on all web browsers at https://www.arrow-player.com.

2023 Calgary Underground Film Festival: Bad City (2022)

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joseph Perry writes for the film websites Gruesome Magazine, The Scariest Things, Horror Fuel and Diabolique Magazine; for the film magazines Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope and Drive-In Asylum; and for the pop culture websites When It Was Cool and Uphill Both Ways. He is also one of the hosts of When It Was Cool’s exclusive Uphill Both Ways podcast and can occasionally be heard as a cohost on Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast.

Practically Shakesperean in its sizable cast of characters and many subplots and twists, director Kensuke Sonomura’s Bad City is an absolute blast. Hitoshi Ozawa toplines as Torada, a detective who was set up by powerfully placed people with yakuza ties to be the suspect in the murder of a Korean gangster boss’s son. He is released temporarily to head up a secret, off-the-books trio of detectives from the Violent Crimes Unit to go after Gojo (Lily Franky), a criminal with political aspirations.

There’s intrigue galore between the cops, the yakuza, and the Korean gangsters, too much to list here and that would be spoiling things, anyway. Go in cold, knowing that you will be treated to some of the more realistic looking fight scenes in recent memory. They are choreographed, of course, but in such a manner that some fights have a real-life, somewhat deliberately sloppy look to them as opposed to looking like a well-rehearsed dance routine. And you shouldn’t get too attached to any of the protagonists.

Bad City boasts an engaging story, captivating performances, crackerjack direction, and all sorts of action, including fisticuffs, martial arts, knife fights, and gunplay. Aficionados of Asian crime cinema should consider this one required viewing.

Bad City screens as part of Calgary Underground Film Festival, which takes place in Calgary, Canada from April 20–30.

 

APRIL MOVIE THON 2 and ARROW VIDEO 4K RELEASE: Blackhat (2015)

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April 29: Drop A Bomb — Please share your favorite critical and financial flop with us!

Blackhat made $19.7 million at the box office against a budget of $70 million, which makes it a bomb, but does how many people came to see a movie on initial release mean it’s a bad movie? Nope.

When a nuclear plant in Hong Kong goes into meltdown and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange gets hacked, it turns out that Captain Chen Dawai (Leehom Wang) of the People’s Liberation Army cyberwarfare unit designed the code behind both systems. He asks that his college roommate, Nicholas Hathaway (Chris Hemsworth), be let out of prison to stop the hacker before they further destabilize several companies and governments. This includes a plan to sabotage a large dam and destroy several major tin mines in Malaysia, with the hacker buying into different futures that will profit from these attacks.

What emerges is a mix between art film and Hollywood action; what’s strange is that no person who spends hours typing on a computer — trust me, I know — looks as good as Hemsworth. But you know, only Michael Mann could direct a scene about hacking a PDF into obtaining a password and making it look that sexy and vibrant. That takes an artistic skill that so few directors lack.

Viola Davis, who plays FBI Special Agent Carol Barrett, and Holt McCallany, who is Deputy United States Marshal Jessup, are both really good in this, but they’re both always the best parts of any film they appear in.

I kind of like how by the end of this movie, it’s basically Hathaway and Dawai’s sister Chen Lien (Tang Wei) against the hackers and the world, having only each other to depend on.

The Arrow Video 4K UHD release of Blackhat has both the US and international versions of the film, well as new audio commentary by critics Bryan Reesman and Max Evry, interviews with cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh and production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas, behind the scenes features, an image gallery, a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Doug John Miller and an illustrated collector’€™s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Andrew Graves. You can get it from MVD. There’s also a blu ray version.

SALEM HORROR FEST: Guys at Parties Like It (2023)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This movie plays at Salem Horror Fest tomorrow night!

Directed by Colton David Coate (who also wrote the film) and Micah Coate, Guys at Parties Like It is all about what happens when a virgin — no members of this frat can be virgins or they get hazed — takes a wasted sorority girl upstairs only to discover that getting laid won’t be as easy — or bloodless — as he thinks.

Mary (Monica Garcia Bradley) is our heroine. Sure, she’s in a sorority, but she thinks she’s above it and just using her years there to advance her career. And she’s all about flirting, having a drink and even getting the boys hot under the collar. But when she gets behind closed doors, she’s still able to say no, which is her right, and not anything that these boys want to hear.

Brad (Anthony Notarile) is one of them. He’s the virgin who is getting into the frat because of his big brother Tony (Pablo Sandstrom), a guy who’ll do anything to get his friend ahead. Even spike the drink that Mary asks for, all so Brad doesn’t need to get that hazing.

There are others who play into this psychodrama: Sorority queen Trixie (Jacqueline O’Kelly), who is still smarting that Mary leaking a video of them making out; Kyle (Haulston Mann), the closeted frat boy who is having a secret affair with the frat’s only gay member Connor (Yuhua Hamasaki); Mart’s roommate Mags (Paige Sciarrino) who is stuck being the sober one. Trixie’s BFF Monica (Vianca Peguero) and the way too enthusiastic frat brother Rick (Jackson Trent).

Not all of them will survive the night.

My friend told me that she’s seen so many movies that have a moment where a triumphant woman walks away from a house or building on fire; beaten down but triumphant. She really needs to make a Letterboxd list for those movies — The Menu and Ready or Not are two to get her started — and she can add this as well.

Guys At Parties Like It is terrifying because there’s no saying that it didn’t happen last weekend. Or that it won’t happen this weekend. The moment when the cop gets so happy seeing the old frat house says it all: these men are protected, no matter what, unless something horrible happens to them.

Luckily, it does.

SALEM HORROR FEST: Fright Night (1985)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This movie was watched as part of Salem Horror Fest. You can still get a weekend pass for weekend two. Single tickets are also available. Here’s the program of what’s playing.

Fright Night was the first modern horror film I ever watched. I remember painting in my parent’s kitchen and my father telling me not to be afraid and just watch it with him. It’s a great start — combining the Hammer films that I loved that didn’t scare me with new school special effects and metacommentary.

The very first film in the series, this one really speaks to me as I was part of the last generation to grow up with horror movie hosts on UHF channels. Sure, there’s Svengoolie today and some internet shows, but it’s not the same. Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall) is one such host, a washed-up actor who was in a few great movies decades ago and now goes from town to town, playing the same old 1960’s Z list horror films, saying the same lines. 

The defining moment for him is that Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale, Mannequin 2: Mannequin on the Move) believes in all his bull. And when Jerry Dandrige (the untrustable Chris Sarandon) moves in next door and shows all the signs of being a vampire, Charley finds he needs Peter Vincent more than ever before.

Plus, you get a pre-Married with Children Amanda Bearse as Charley’s love interest and a pre-976-EVIL Stephen Geoffreys as Charley’s best friend/worst nemesis Evil Ed. And I just love Billy Cole (Jonathan Stark, House II) as Jerry’s thrall.

This is a movie made for those who love horror movies. After all, Peter Vincent is named after horror icons Peter Cushing and Vincent Price. Creator Tom Holland wrote the part for Price, but the acting great had stopped appearing in horror movies at this time in his career. As they made the film — and the sequel together — Holland and McDowall became life-long friends, with McDowall introducing the young director to Price, who was flattered that the part was written to honor him and thought that Fright Night “was wonderful and he thought Roddy did a wonderful job.”

He’s right — this is a movie that taps into the mind and heart of horror fans, as so many of us have wondered, “What if the monster — and the monster hunter — was real?” The lighthearted yet dangerous tone of the film is letter perfect. That scene in the nightclub, where Jerry takes on the security guard? As good as it gets.

Also of note: I’m glad the original ending wasn’t used. It was to close with Charley and Amy making out with Peter Vincent coming on the TV to host Fright Night, saying “Tonight’s creepy crawler is Dracula Strikes Again. Obviously about vampires. You know what vampires look like, don’t you? They look like this!” Then, he would transform, look into the camera and say, “Hello, Charley.”

After the unexpected critical and financial success of this film, a sequel was inevitable. Holland and Sarandon were both making the first Child’s Play, so they couldn’t commit to the film, although the actor did visit the set. Stephen Geoffrey’s didn’t like the script, opting to star in 976-EVIL. Ultimately only Ragsdale and McDowall would return.

2023 Calgary Underground Film Festival: Influencer (2022)

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It’s easy to hate influencers. It’s simple to say social media has ruined everything. And yet, to look into oneself and the world and realize that these things just magnify how bad things are and therefore, it’s easy to blame the shiny and pretty people, because no society functions without a scapegoat.

Kurtis David Harder directed Spiral and this is worlds better than that film. Along with co-writer Tesh Gutti, he tells the story of Madison (Emily Tennant), a social influencer in Thailand who meets up with CW (Cassandra Naud), a woman with a huge birthmark on her face and creeping darkness in her soul. She brings Madison into her world, at first showing her how it’s more real than her reality to taking photos of every meal and every outfit. As Madison lies about how much she’s experiencing and pines for the end of her relationship to Ryan (Rory J. Saper), the man who got her into influencing in the first place, she’s kidnapped to CW’s special place on the island, a space that is as gorgeous as it is potentially deadly.

So yes, by all means, hate on influencers, but do not miss this film, which just plain works.

This movie is part of the Calgary Underground Film Festival, which for twenty years has been dedicated to elevating Calgary’s cultural landscape with the best in international independent cinema. Recently, CUFF was named one of the Best Horror Festivals in the World, 2022 by Dread Central, and one of the World’s 50 Best Genre Festivals and one of 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee in 2021 by MovieMaker Magazine. CUFF continues to attract audiences with its programming of films that engage audiences and defy convention.

It’s running from now until April 30 and you can see the entire schedule here.

2023 Calgary Underground Film Festival: Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game (2023)

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Based on the true story of Roger Sharpe, a man with an incredible mustache who overturned New York City’s 35 year-old ban on pinball machines, Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game is an astounding achievement. I’m interested in a movie about pinball but I bet not too many would be. A knowledge or even caring about the game in unnecessary. This film has a universal message and a true heart inside it.

Roger (Dennis Boutsikaris in the interview segments and Mike Faist in the main plot) has no idea what the wants to do or be. He just feels good when he plays pinball. Yet when a raid destroys the machines in the only place that has them in 1970s New York City — an adult book store — he is informed that the game he loves so much is illegal.

Along the way, he gets a purpose — making pinball legal, writing books on it, even designing his own games — but also finds something even more important: another chance at love with Ellen (Crystal Reed, Abby Arcane from the Swamp Thing series and Sofia Falcone from Gotham), a single mother with a young son named Seth (Christopher Convery). They’ve both been divorced and are unsure about their romantic lives; the way the movie brings them together and shows how essential their love is feels like something missing from so many films. I felt utterly charmed for both of them and wished I knew them beyond the time I spent with them in this film.

That said, if you love pinball, the scenes of Roger in Chicago meeting with the different companies and creators of pinball — names like Williams, Stern and Gottleib, if they mean anything to you, will make you very happy — and deep cut explanations of how the game is played will please you.

My favorite moment is when Roger decides to share pinball with Ellen for the first time and takes her into the adult book store where he’s on a first name basis with the guy behind the counter. She thinks he’s confessing a fetish. Yet he’s innocent and so excited to share the most important thing in his life with the most important person in his life. When she enjoys the game, he enjoys her more. It’s a very real moment in a movie filled with them.

Consider this a recommendation.

This movie is part of the Calgary Underground Film Festival, which for twenty years has been dedicated to elevating Calgary’s cultural landscape with the best in international independent cinema. Recently, CUFF was named one of the Best Horror Festivals in the World, 2022 by Dread Central, and one of the World’s 50 Best Genre Festivals and one of 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee in 2021 by MovieMaker Magazine. CUFF continues to attract audiences with its programming of films that engage audiences and defy convention.

It’s running from now until April 30 and you can see the entire schedule here.

APRIL MOVIE THON 2: Morgan Stewart’s Coming Home (1987)

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April 28: Alan Smithee — IMDB has 115 movies credited to the Alan Smithee pseudonym, which was created by the Directors Guild of America for use when a director doesn’t want their name on a movie.

This movie’s Alan Smithee is the combination of Terry Windsor, who had only directed Party Party when this was made, and his replacement Paul Aaron, who was unhappy with the final movie. Arron also wrote The Octagon and directed A Force of One, which doesn’t prepare one for comedy.

Morgan Stewart (Jon Cryer) is the son of Republican Senator Tom Stewart (Nicholas Pryor) and has spent most of his childhood at a boarding school while his mother Nancy (Lynn Redgrave) manages the family life, all with a plan of increasing the elder Stewart’s chance to be President. Yet when the Senatorial race gets hard, the idea of a son looks good in the media, so Morgan comes back home.

Morgan is really into horror movies, wearing a shirt for The Undead and putting posters for House of Wax, Dial M for Murder, The Mole People and Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Curse of Frankenstein, Attack of the Puppet People, Psycho and Tales of Terror up in his room. I mean, he even has a Zombie poster, a Day of the Dead shirt and goes to the mall to meet George Romero. We never see George’s face, he seems too small and he doesn’t have on a giant fishing vest, so I think it’s not him.

Seeing how Tom’s campaign manager is played by Paul Gleason, you know that something bad is going to happen. It’s pretty rote, but I mean, what did you expect?

But Morgan seems pretty cool. He has a Tobe Hooper-signed chainsaw, right? I was kind of hoping he’d use it on his mother after she takes down and tosses all his amazing posters. But man, even in today’s world where women go to horror conventions — I’m married to a lovely one! — the fact that Morgan meets Emily (Viveka Davis) while waiting to get The Zombies That Ate Pittsburgh: The Films of George A. Romero signed seems a bit like a science fiction film.