Well holy fuck. When I first heard about FURY ROAD I'm pretty sure I went through all 5 stages of grief from denial through to depression and finally - after seeing this latest trailer - I've reached acceptance. George Miller is back with a new chapter to the MAD MAX saga, and it looks fucking amazing. Cars, explosions, exploding cars, more cars, guns, cars with guns, and even more cars. And Tom hardy & Charlize Theron right in the middle of it all. So pull up a seat, grab a spare pair of pants and prepare yourself for 2 and a half minutes of awesome.
Synopsis: "An apocalyptic story set in the furthest reaches of our planet, in a stark desert landscape where humanity is broken, and most everyone is crazed fighting for the necessities of life. Within this world exist two rebels on the run who just might be able to restore order. There's Max, a man of action and a man of few words, who seeks peace of mind following the loss of his wife and child in the aftermath of the chaos. And Furiosa, a woman of action and a woman who believes her path to survival may be achieved if she can make it across the desert back to her childhood homeland" FURY ROAD is scheduled for a May 15, 2015 release.
If you haven't yet seen Jonathan Glazer's UNDER THE SKIN then you might want to get on to that. Like right now. It's pretty fucking rad and Scarlett Johansson is incredible as a sexy alien traipsing around the Scottish countryside seducing unsuspecting men. Visually the movie is stunning and it has a beautiful dreamlike feel and the accompanying soundtrack is perfectly fitting and (for me at least) was one of the most standout elements of the film. Milan Records released the soundtrack on vinyl and before the movie was even over I was online bragging myself a copy.
Mica Levi (of Micachu and the Shapes) has composed the score which is just as alien and mesmerising as the movie itself. The record runs through eleven tracks of wavering synth, harsh strings and slow percussion which compliment the imagery of the movie but even on their own create a hypnotic and highly listenable experience. 'Creation' kicks off the album with a rumbling swarm of tremolo which grows to a roar and then recedes as 'Lipstick To Void' enters with a low hollow base punctuated by shrieking strings and a slow, rhythmic almost heartbeat-like percussion.
The strings and percussion are often repeated across the tracks but manipulated by changing the pitch, slowing the tempo or overlaying other sounds. In the context of the film these sounds act as a kind of leitmotif, always associated with Johansson's character and changing as she herself changes, but even without the visual accompaniment they still give the record a sense of change or progression. And finally the alien soundscape culminates in the 7+ minute track 'Alien Loop' with its undulating strings and synth fading out to leave you (if you're anything like me) ready to flip that record and start it all over again.
Directed by: Jeremiah Buckhalt Written by: Chad Coup, Ian H. Davis Starring: Danielle Lilley, Brandon Kyle Peters, Christopher de Padua, Emily Cutting, Gabrielle Ann Henry
"DIE IN SILENCE"
Let's see what we've got here... Isolated house in the country? Check. No cell phone signal? Check. Masked killer? Check. Group of painfully stereotyped friends? Double check.
Yep you guessed it, it's a slasher flick. Slashers have long been a staple of the horror genre and although the 'golden age' is long gone, a solidly put-together modern slasher can still be an enjoyable experience. LAID TO REST, THE ORPHAN KILLER and the HATCHET series are all fine examples of good slashers made in the last decade. The question here is; does BLOOD WIDOW deserve to be added to that list?
Laurie (Lilley) and Hugh (Peters) are a young couple who have just purchased a holiday home away from the hustle and bustle of the big city (in other words; the middle of fucking nowhere). Sure it's a bit of a fixer-upper but it's nice and quiet and the closest house is the run-down place next door which happens to be abandoned. Or is it? (hint: of course it fucking isn't!) To celebrate the purchasing of their new house Hugh decides to invite all of his friends around for a party, but first his friends decide to go explore the 'abandoned' place next door. After all, nothing can go wrong. Right? So they go in, fuck the place up a little and then leave to get ready because it's party time! Unfortunately for them they've disturbed the 'abandoned' structure's resident, and she doesn't appreciate her neighbors and their loud music. But rather than calling in a noise complaint to the cops, she's going to take care of them in her own brutal way.
In case you hadn't already guessed it BLOOD WIDOW is a slasher which follows the tried and true formula which slashers have been doing for decades. But that's part of its charm. It doesn't try to be anything more than what it is, and for a low budget indie effort it does a pretty solid job and has pretty much everything you could expect to see. But as we all know there are only really two things audiences care about when it comes to slasher films; the villain and the gore.The writing can be horrible, the acting can be almost non-existent, the pacing can be all over the place, but as long as the killer and the effects look good all can be forgiven.
Fortunately in the case of BLOOD WIDOW the killer looks great and so does the gore. That's a double bonus right there. I can't stand it when all a slasher can offer in the effects department is some off-camera stabbing and a few blood sprays on the wall, but here we get a smorgasbord of pain. There's decapitations, broken bones, guts tumbling out and even a flogging. There's even some skin, because as we all know the best slashers are the ones with a little good ol' fashioned nudity.
It would be easy to sit here and criticize the cliched plot, the (heavily) stereotyped characters and the villain's paper-thin back-story, but you know what? None of that really bothers me at all. And do you know why? Because it's a fucking slasher. And it does what it's supposed to do and that's good enough for me.
Directed by: Bryon Blakey Written by: Bryon Blakey Starring: Heather Hall, Cindy Means, Elaine Jenkins, David J. Lee, Megan Dehart, Kristin Mothersbaugh
"IT'S HER TIME OF THE MONTH!"
Full Moon Streaming are currently offering a free 1 week trial if you're interested. That's right, one full week of as many movies as you can watch. For free. And there's plenty to choose from, from the expected Full Moon collection (as much PUPPET MASTER, KILLJOY and TRANCERS as you could ever hope for) to a whole slew of grindhouse and exploitation classics (ALIEN CONTAMINATION, INSEMINOID, VIOLENT CITY and THE LAST MAN ON EARTH among others) and even some newer flicks from Wizard Studios, including this gem which instantly caught my eye. I have to admit I don't usually go out of my way to check many movies this side of the new millennium but with the title, artwork and trailer I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to watch PMS COP. Plus it was free so even if it did end up sucking I wouldn't be losing anything apart from a bit of my not-so-precious time.
The good news is that it didn't suck. Quite the opposite in fact. PMS COP is about Mary (Hall), a cop with a bit of an anger issue who has been on the night shift with her partner James for a few years. After responding to a call of a home intrusion Mary and James chase after a clown who has broken into a woman's house and raped her. After the clown knocks down James and attacks Mary, she decides that this rapist scum needs a good beating. Unfortunately the ass-kicking is caught on camera and Mary's superiors are none too happy. Mary goes to therapy for her anger problems and her therapist refers her to an experimental program which will apparently 'cure' her PMS which is causing her aggression. Unfortunately the experiment involves medication in conjunction with an implanted chip which was in a\its former life a failed military experiment. And we all know how experimental military technology turns out in these type of movies...
Long story short the experiment goes wrong (bet you didn't see that coming!) and Mary's aggression increases. Now PMS COP is on the loose and when her medical handlers try to reign her in she decides that she doesn't want to cooperate. Add in some super-strength mutation and you have an hour and a half of brutal (but strangely sexy) revenge fuelled mayhem. Officer Mary is on the beat, and watch out bad guys because it IS her time of the month.
There's nothing really new here, in case you were wondering. Science-gone-wrong, military technology, profit-hungry, unethical corporation, it's all pretty heavily explored territory. But you know what? That doesn't matter one fucking bit because it's never been done quite like this before. And for a purported budget of around $30,000 (according to IMDb) the filmmakers have done a pretty impressive job of stretching that out. The effects and gore are nicely done, it has a nice soundtrack, the pacing of the film is pretty even. The acting is a bit hit or miss but for a low budget indie effort it's actually above what I normally expect, and the titular character herself is impressively played by both Heather Hall (as pre-experiment Mary) and Cindy Means (as the PMS COP). But most of all it's entertaining and elicits the kind of feeling that I used to get from old exploitation flicks from back in the day. If I have one real criticism it's that I would have liked to have seen the mayhem spread city-wide rather than mostly in one building, but that's hardly a complaint at all. Highly recommended if you're looking for a fun modern take on classic exploitation.
Directed by: Eric Weston Written by: Joseph Garofalo, Eric Weston Starring: Clint Howard, Don Stark, R.G. Armstrong, Joe Cortese, Claude Earl Jones, Lynn Hancock
"DATA INCOMPLETE... HUMAN BLOOD REQUIRED. THUSE SPAKE THE COMPUTER"
Home computers were really starting to capture people's imagination in the 80s and as usual the film industry found ways to capitalize on their popularity. As a result we got movies like WAR GAMES, WEIRD SCIENCE and of course TRON. Basically anything was possible when it came to computers and so we had movies where people could hack into NORAD from the comfort of their own homes, people who could use a pc to construct the 'perfect woman' and even computers with their own intelligence. But do you know what all of these movies were missing? A big ol' dose of the occult. Thankfully EVILSPEAK managed to remedy this situation, combining ancient satanic cults with primitive DOS-based graphics. What more could you ask for?
Stanley Coopersmith (Howard) is West Andover Military Academy's least popular cadet. A typical day for Stanley involves being bullied by his fellow cadets - lead by Bubba (Stark) - and punished by the instructors for any kind of misstep from being late for class to losing the academy soccer match. Everybody hates Stanley (the coach even suggests to Bubba that Coopersmith might meet with an unfortunate 'accident' so that he can't play on the team). As a result he always finds himself punished with extra duties (like cleaning out the hog pens - although why a military academy keeps potentially dangerous boars is a mystery) and it's one of these punishments which leads him to the cellar below the academy's chapel. While tidying the cellar under the watchful (and usually drunk) eye of Sarge (Armstrong) Stanley finds a hidden room filled with ancient books and other occult objects including a human fetus in a jar.
One particular book Stanley takes an interest in was written by Esteban, a satanic cult leader exiled from Spain in the 16th Century. After translating the book (and suffering yet more abuse from his fellow cadets) Coopersmith discovers that with a computer he can perform a black mass which will summon the soul of Esteban and rain down vengeance on his foes. And in what can best be described as a gender-reversal of CARRIE, Stanley the loser finally gets back at all who bullied him, and in some spectacularly gruesome ways I might add. In fact the final showdown is particularly reminiscent of CARRIE with Stanley's tormentors trapped inside the chapel surrounded by flames and a whole lot of blood.
EVILSPEAK has just about everything you could hope for in an 80s horror flick. Ancient satanic cults, decapitations, demonic boars disembowling a naked Lynn Hancock in the shower, TEMPLE OF DOOM-style open heart surgery, computerized black mass blood sacrifices and much more. The film might drag on a little for the first hour but the final half hour or so is so totally worth the wait. Locked in the chapel Stanley's bullies are subjected to the outcast as he channels the angry soul of Esteban, wielding a big fucking sword and dealing out some bloody fucking vengeance. 1981 was a fantastic year for horror movies but unfortunately a lot of people overlook this gem in favor of classics like MY BLOODY VALENTINE, THE PROWLER and HALLOWEEN II. All are great movies and EVILSPEAK deserves a place on the shelf right beside them.
In late 2012 I was fortunate enough to receive a screener for an independent horror film called GUT, which turned out to be rather a nifty movie indeed (you can read the review here). One element of the film which stood out was the score, which was pretty minimalist and in my review I used words such as 'harsh' and 'jarring' - but in a good way of course. It was the perfect accompaniment to the disturbing imagery that was on offer. The man behind that particular soundtrack is a musician who goes by the name of Chvad SB and for the last fortnight I've been giving his new album a thorough listening to.
CRICKETS WERE THE COMPASS is an instrumental album comprised of six tracks and running for just shy of an hour. In the release which came with the CD it's described as 'a testament of loss' and despite the fact that the music is unaccompanied by lyrics the inner sleeve of the case has the track listing with each song followed by a line or two of abstract dialogue. By themselves the words don't make a whole lot of sense but when read all together and in order they make up something almost like a brief story or a poem. And this is where the 'testament of loss' quote starts to become more clear. There's something desolate about the album from the cover depicting a lone dog in some kind of post-apocalyptic wasteland to the track names which include 'It Haunts Her' and 'The Dust Cloud Permeates'. And (at least in my opinion) the music contained on the disc seems to continue the trend.
The album kicks off with 'It Haunts Her' - 7 minutes of undulating drone punctuated by discordant strings which ends in what I can only describe as the musical equivalent of a death rattle.
'A Hair Before Sundown' follows with some really squelchy sounding modulation and sparse percussion which fades away to make way for 'The Dust Cloud Permeates' - the longest track coming in at over 14 minutes. It may be a tad too long for most people but for me it was probably the centerpiece of the album. It's very layered and varies from harsh to melodic and then back again, it's the kind of track that you can keep listening to and each time you'll find something that you hadn't noticed before.
Rather than continuing to describe each track I'm going to stop right here. Let's face it, if you like what you've read so far then you'll enjoy the remaining tracks as well. Don't like what you've read so far? Then this album isn't for you, but just to make sure you should probably scroll down a little and listen to the album opener anyway.
Excuse my pessimism for a moment but I have to be honest - whenever somebody asks me to review their new CD I kind of expect to receive a recording from some kid's pop-punk garage band, or some generic metal. It's not often I actually end up being sent something that fits my musical interests so well. It's happened in the past with CAPA's SHALLOW TOWERS and it's happened once again with this album. Lately I've been listening to a lot of YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA, CABARET VOLTAIRE and EINSTĂRZENDE NEUBAUTEN and so in a way CRICKETS WERE THE COMPASS kind of fit in there comfortably for me. It's not an easy CD to recommend unless you listen to a lot of ambient / drone or old school industrial type stuff. It's also not an easy album to describe, but somehow I'm going to try anyway. Imagine for a second that Jean Michel Jarre got drunk on Absinthe and ended up writing the soundtrack to ERASERHEAD, because that's the only way I can describe this right now. It's a long, drifting sonic soundscape which can be as stark and aggressive as it can be soothing and melodic.
If movie soundtracks, experimental , ambient and/or minimalist music is your thing then do yourself a favor and check out CHVAD SB's CRICKETS WERE THE COMPASS. Listen to the track below and if you really like it you can head over to Siber Records and buy the album.
Sigh... I suppose we're just going to have to keep waiting for a full length WEREWOLF WOMEN OF THE SS to materialize in the future (I'm not giving up hope yet dammit!). In the meantime however Rob Zombie has released a teaser for his upcoming project 3I. It doesn't reveal much more than a creepy clown face which (to me at least) brings to mind a couple of ideas, both being pure speculation of course. Does it have anything to do with Captain Spaulding? Or maybe John Wayne Gacy? But then again maybe it's just there to throw us all off. As I said, pure speculation. So check out the teaser below and speculate away! And stay tuned for any further details.
