The Serpent And The Rainbow (Craven, 1988)

"Don't bury me...I'm not dead!"

In my experience (namely through personal conversations, message boards, and reading criticism), amongst those enamored with horror cinema there seem to be two prevailing opinions regarding Wes Craven. He is either a modern master of the genre, or an overrated hack and mediocre craftsman who has managed a couple of good films. Although I must admit to not having seen all of Craven's films, if my own opinion of the man falls somewhere in between those two admittedly extreme positions (albeit tending more towards the former), then his 1988 film The Serpent and the Rainbow certainly reinforces my sentiment.

Craven once again returns to the territory of dreams, a theme quite central to his best work to date (A Nightmare On Elm Street), this time situating his story in Haiti's strife-torn voodoo landscape. Adapted from Wade Davis's eponymous novel (reputedly a true story), the film tells of an American anthropologist (played by Bill Pullman) sent to Haiti by a pharmaceutical company to investigate the existence of a drug that has the ability to bring people back from the dead, to create "zombies."

The Serpent and the Rainbow is a resolutely mature horror film, a slower, story oriented exercise that succeeds precisely because of Craven's refusal to rely on cheap scare tactics. Instead, the horror is derived from Haiti itself. Craven wrings a palpable atmosphere of escalating dread from the foreignness of the Haitian culture and locale. The brilliance of this understated work is that the natural aspects of the story (the brutality of the secret police) are as horrifying, if not more so, than the fantastical, supernatural aspects. This certainly stands as one of Craven's stronger films, a mature work that does not, for the most part, pander to more simplistic horror tastes. It is all the more unfortunate then that the films climactic scenes lapse into cliché, but on the strength of everything that comes before, this can be forgiven.

Film: B/B+
Scare Factor: B+

View Date: 10/1
Shocktober Horror Film Count: #1

The 1st Annual Shocktober Horrorfest!!!

Hello again! First off, I have to apologize for my incredibly long and unannounced absence from Direct Cinema. My last post was over one month ago on August 23 (wow, has it really been that long?!) and I sincerely apologize once again for leaving you all out in the cold so to speak. I have had quite a full plate apart from running this blog, and my other duties have kept me away from posting regularly. But fear not (bad pun I know, though quite intended), beginning today I am resuming my post at Direct Cinema, which means the return of regular, daily (and hopefully even more frequently than that) posting. And to kick things off, for the entire month of October, I, like many of my online colleagues, will be doing a Horrorthon. The title I have bestowed upon my marathon is the Shocktober Horrorfest. The concept is a simple one. Every day, from today until Halloween, I will watch and subsequently review a new horror film. These reviews will range anywhere from short capsule reviews to longer, in-depth studies, depending on how the film strikes me. I'll also be putting up a Horrorfest sidebar with easy access to every review in the series. I have been doing an annual October horror marathon for three years now (this will be the third) but this marks the first time I have ever blogged about it. It is my hope that those of you who read my blog will discover hidden gems, rediscover and revisit old classics, and if you don't already, come to appreciate horror films.

Now, just a few more words about myself before we begin. I have been a horror fanatic since the day I started watching film. It seems to run in my blood. My father enjoys the genre tremendously, whereas my mom abhors the genre, so I guess I know whose genes I inherited. There is something about horror, beyond its visceral, primal appeal, that separates it from every other genre. It is such a limitless genre. A genre with an intrinsically limitless potential to tell so many different stories, the potential to carry so many layers of subtextual, metaphorical and allegorical meaning. Yet, horror can also succeed without any of those things, with just a simple, uncomplicated heaping of blood and nudity. Horror is truly an onion, with so many different layers, and I invite you to come along with me as I attempt to peel away at it. So be sure to check in frequently for your daily dose of horror, and most importantly... Enjoy!

PS. Please feel free to comment on my reviews and get a discussion going. Also I will be taking any suggestions, so if you have a horror film you'd like to see reviewed, send it my way!

Shocktober Horrorfest '07
10/1:
The Serpent and the Rainbow
10/2:
The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane
Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural
10/3:
Freaks
10/4:
Poltergeist
10/5:
Carrie
10/7:
Tourist Trap
10/9:
Lady in White
10/10:
The Other
10/15:
Friday the 13th
10/17:
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage
10/18:
April Fool's Day
Alice, Sweet Alice
10/19:
Night of the Living Dead
10/20:
Creep
10/21:
The Descent

Pitt's Jesse James Gets A Full Trailer In HD

A new, high-definition trailer for Andrew Dominik's gloriously titled western The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford recently went up at Moviefone.com and it is a real thing of beauty. The film stars Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck in the titular roles, and some who have seen the film in its myriad early forms have touted this film as a real breakthrough for Affleck, considering his performance Oscar worthy.


More interesting though, are the reports of the post-production difficulties Warner Brothers has had with Dominik's film, which was first slated for a winter 2006 release, pushed back to an early 2007 release, and pushed back once more to it's current winter 2007 release. The initial cut reportedly ran over three hours long, with Dominik attempting a more languidly paced, visually poetic, Terrence Malick styled western. Since then, the film has gone through various permutations, with some preview screening cuts running around two hours long. According to the official website of the 64th Venice Film Festival, where the film is slated to play in competition, the final run time is 155 minutes. Hopefully Dominik and Warner Brothers were able to find a happy medium between the extreme variations in runtime that have been reported. The film opens in limited release on September 21.

Miike Goes Sci-Fi With "God's Puzzle"

Variety Asia is reporting that the prolific Takashi Miike will make God's Puzzle (Kamisama No Puzzle) his next project. The film, based on a bestselling novel by Shinji Kimoto, centers on twin brothers, one an industrious student, the other an aimless drifter, who join forces with a beautiful, brilliant dropout and attempt "to unlock the secrets of the universe and build one of their own." The project is described as a sci-fi romantic comedy. Though Miike will undoubtedly bring his unique touch to the film, I'm still hoping that he eventually tries his hand at pure science fiction. Filming on God's Puzzle is set to start on August 22 in Tokyo with a summer 2008 release planned.

Hot Fuzz (Wright, 2007)

The decision of director Edgar Wright and star/co-writer Simon Pegg to save the most prominent and overt instances of parody for the hilarious climax of Hot Fuzz is revealing of their intentions for the film, and is also the key to understanding the film’s success as a comedy. Of course, Hot Fuzz is a witty, often times laugh out loud funny, comedic primer on action cinema, densely peppered throughout with references to everything from (most blatantly) modern American action films, to Italian Poliziotteschi, to Hong Kong action films. However, it is more than this. The real pleasure of the film, the reason it succeeds in a manner above and beyond films of this ilk, is that the hilarity stems from a true knowledge and appreciation of the action film, but it doesn’t depend on it. Wright and Pegg play with their references intelligently, weaving them seamlessly into a coherent, freestanding narrative, utilizing them not to carry the film, but rather to enrich it. Thus, Hot Fuzz succeeds in its own right and never degenerates into a patchwork assemblage of parody and homage.

Rescue Dawn (Herzog, 2006)

Many have called Rescue Dawn Werner Herzog's attempt at making a Hollywood film, and though it hems closer to the conventional Hollywood formula than any previous Herzog film, that statement is tinged by a bitter sense of reductivism. Herzog isn't simply aping Hollywood techniques, but rather slyly subverting them. The established three-act story arc is thrown out in favor of a more stream of events structure, and though they may be employed more sparingly, the Herzogian touches are still present, namely in the rhapsodic opening scene and the film's second half, which touches upon the theme of man versus nature, a theme Herzog knows all too well. This is an exceptional film, one of the best of the summer, and possibly even the year. Once again, Christian Bale is spectacular as Dieter Dengler, showcasing maybe his finest performance yet and Steve Zahn's performance is a revelation, especially considering his past body of work.

Michelangelo Antonioni, 1912-2007

Not yet another day, and already another lion of the cinema has left us. The news is almost too sad to bear. Italian auteur Michelangelo Antonioni, one of the true cinematic artists, died Monday at his home in Rome according to various Italian news media outlets. This news hits me particularly hard, as Antonioni is a filmmaker whose work, whose visual style, has influenced my own creative process and aesthetic taste immeasurably. There are many who consider the films of Antonioni cold, vague exercises. Pure examples of art house pretension. I strongly disagree. Of course, his films are works of true beauty. Blow-Up, L'Avventura, L'Eclisse, The Passenger, each of these I would rank as amongst the most hauntingly beautiful, meticulously composed films ever made, and also amongst my personal favorite films of all time.

Yet Antonioni, for all who would condemn him as a simple aesthete, truly understood, more so than any other filmmaker, human alienation. It courses, like a haunted, disembodied soul, through his films. I will write no more, as I am truly at a loss for words. I need some more time to come to terms with this. In the meantime, if you have never seen an Antonioni film, what better time than now to introduce yourself to one of the most pure artist of the film form. Antonioni, you will be deeply missed.

Obituary @ New York Times
An Analysis of Antonioni's Career (Senses Of Cinema)
Critical Analysis of Selected Film Works (Strictly Film School)