2000's American Horror Part Seventeen

THE CELL

(2000)

Dir - Tarsem Singh
Overall: GOOD

 

The full-length debut from music video director Tarsem Singh and screenwriter Mark Protosevich, The Cell takes a visually ambitious, surreal route in its FBI procedural framework.  Literally diving into the mind of a schizophrenic killer through virtual reality neuroscience, thankfully a great deal of the film takes place in the fantastically designed bizzaro world which is inspired by various, evocative artworks.  The production is top-notch in this regard and Singh makes ideal use out of the hefty budget with something that both Alejandro Jodorowsky and Salvador Dali would probably be proud of.  As far as the actual story goes, it does not hold up to the exceptional, tripped-out sequences of course, but it serves its purpose in a more conventional sense.  Vincent D'Onofrio is not the most unique of cinema's deranged psycho killers, but his performance is still plenty captivating and A-listers Jennifer Lopez and Vince Vaughan are likewise sufficient in less showy roles.  Gorgeous and disturbing to look at in equal measures, everything else holds together well enough to recommend it.

THE CALL OF CTHULHU

(2005)

Dir - Andrew Leman

Overall: MEH

 

A charming labor of love if not an altogether flawless endeavor, The Call of Cthulhu is the first cinematic adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's most famous literary work done as a throwback silent film by the Historical Society that bares the author's name.  Cheaply and independently financed, there is great attention to detail in the presentation which calls upon German Expressionism most noticeably, featuring atmospheric cinematography, exaggerated performances, costumes, and makeup of the era.  It also utilizes various, more modern filmmaking techniques that break the retro spell throughout.  In this regard, the movie never quite feels like an authentic work from the 1920s as it is missing that hand-cranked camera aesthetic and relies on certain editing techniques and shots that were nowhere to be found in such a period.  Tossing such minor criticisms aside though, the often presumed "unfilmable" story indeed does not quite work within such a framework as Lovecraft's specific blend of unexplainable madness is limited by the production values.  The musical score is certainly a highlight though as is the admirable agenda here, so it is easily worth taking a look at for curiosity's sake if anything else.

ZOMBIELAND

(2009)

Dir - Ruben Fleischer

Overall: GOOD

Taking a page directly out of the Shaun of the Dead playbook with rapid speed flesh-eaters directly out of 28 Days Later, Zombieland surprisingly squeezes a little bit of worthwhile life from the problematically over-saturated sub-genre.  The first feature from music video director Ruben Fleischer with a spec script by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, it quickly makes a point to poke fun at stereotypes associated with such movies as Jesse Eisenberg's ever expanding list of "rules" for surviving the zombie apocalypse covers the usual dos and especially dont's that we usually see.  Once Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin join the proceedings, there is just enough character development to make everyone likeable as the actual plot introduces no conventional "villains", just a series of amusing set pieces with a conventional, be-it self-mocking "coming of age" slant.  The R rating is appreciated more for the occasional profanity than the gore, plus quirky details like Harrelson's aggressive search for Twinkies, Eisenberg's fear of everything, and of course Bill Murray's cameo are pretty irresistibly charming.