1930s Boris Karloff Part Four

CHARLIE CHAN AT THE OPERA

(1936)

Dir - H. Bruce Humberstone

Overall: MEH

 

The thirteenth Charlie Chan film to star Warner Oland in the lead and the only one to feature Boris Karloff, Charlie Chan at the Opera is quite typical of the series.  Chan is primarily portrayed as a yellowface Sherlock Holmes, noticing and then deciphering clues quicker than any of his causation colleges.  Meanwhile the actual Asian actors are delegated to minor roles, including Keye Luke as Chan's "number one son".  Chan may be the most charming and brilliant character on screen, spouting wise, faux-Chinese slogans at every opportunity, but Oland does play him with a stereotypical, stilted-English accent.  Also, various characters call him Chop Suey or make morphine addict and "all Asians look alike" quips at regular intervals.  While plenty of this is certainly eyebrow raising today, the movie itself is primarily harmless in its intent and has a lighthearted charm despite its ignorance.  It is mostly a treat for Karloff fans as he plays a deranged former opera star and even gets to mime such singing in a few scenes, which is quite a hoot.

 

NIGHT KEY

(1937)

Dir - Lloyd Corrigan

Overall: MEH

The last movie in which Universal billed Boris Karloff solely by his last name, Night Key features him as an elderly, nearly blind inventor whose plans to get back at his corrupt rival backfire with organized crime hi-jinks.  Though the title gadget works on some kind of faux-scientific logic, throwing the sci-fi tag on it let alone a horror one is completely misleading.  Karloff basically uses the contraption to short circuit security alarms without any malicious intent.  It is only once an unexcitable crime boss and his gang get a hold of it and kidnap Karloff's daughter that the movie raises the stakes in a typical, mildly exciting crime story capacity.  The cast does respectable work and director Lloyd Corrigan keeps the sixty-eight minute run time rather agreeable.  This would easily be a forgettable film altogether though if not for Karloff's involvement, merely serving as a contract-filler for the working actor who does his usual, respectable best with the material.  If anything, it showcases him in a largely benevolent light, representing one of the "farthest from a villain" roles that he would ever take on.

 

SON OF FRANKENSTEIN

(1939)

Dir - Rowland V. Lee

Overall: GOOD

The first Universal horror film to go into production following a several year break after the financially less successful Dracula's Daughter, Son of Frankenstein also stands as the final time that Boris Karloff appeared on screen as the monster.  While the fifty-two year old Karloff does his best under an uncomfortable wardrobe, Willis Cooper's screenplay leaves him very little to do in comparisons with the previous two films.  Thankfully, Béla Lugosi steps in as a saving grace, playing the crippled, fiendish Ygor.  Easily one of hist finest performances, Lugosi essentially steals the movie, contorting his body and using his naturally stilted English to ideal effect as the seemingly dim-witted, accused grave-robber out for revenge.  Rowland V. Lee's direction cannot compare to that of James Whale's as the pacing can afford to be a bit snappier at times.  Still, the set design is as German Expressionism-inspired as ever, particularly in the Frankenstein's stark, shadowy, and unusually styled castle.  Most of the heavy lifting falls on the shoulders of Basil Rathbone in the title role and Lionel Atwill as the wooden-armed Inspector Krogh, both of whom do solid work, (even if Rathbone's character comes off as arguably the worst liar in the history of cinema).  While it is overall a step down from the earlier, much beloved and influential entries in the series, this is still very much a success.

1930s Boris Karloff Part Three

BEHIND THE MASK

(1932)
Dir - John Francis Dillon
Overall: MEH

Released three months after Frankenstein began making him a household name, Behind the Mask was a run-of-the-mill, Pre-Code crime film where Boris Karloff had a minor role.  Joined once again by Edward Van Sloan who gets a much meatier part as a crooked doctor running a complex drug-smuggling operation, Karloff plays a low-life with only a handful of scenes.  His fate is even left open-ended as the bulk of the film revolves around Jack Holt uncovering the unwholesome doings-a-transpiring as a federal spy.  John Francis Dillon's direction is pretty flat and the film is mostly forgettable. That said, the script by Joe Swerling has some gruesome details to it, at least on paper.  Anyone who gets too close to Van Sloan's diabolical operation finds themselves murdered under an operating table and then their coffin is filled with drugs which are dug back up at a later date.  Unnecessarily convoluted yes, but this does provide the movie with a solid, somewhat disturbing ending, be it one that still ends up as triumphant for the good guys.

THE INVISIBLE RAY

(1936)

Dir - Lambert Killyer

Overall: GOOD

Rushed into production by Universal after a proposed Bluebeard project between Boris Karloff and Béla Lugosi fell through, the resulting The Invisible Ray surprisingly is a solid mad scientist romp.  Initial director Stuart Walker was replaced by Lambert Killyer near the last minute, as the former had been unhappy with John Colton's script.  Lugosi received second billing as the more rational and brilliant scientist Dr. Felix Benet, while Karloff got the juicier, increasingly insane Dr. Janos Ruhk role.  Thankfully, both horror icons get a handful of scenes together, plus each actor treats the borderline silly material respectfully.  It has the usual, pseudo-science premise where radiation causes Karloff to glow, kill anyone he touches, and lose his mind to jealous, revenge-seeking villainy in the process.  This provides for some nifty, be it dated visuals and other ridiculousness like a dead man's eyes holding the image of the last thing he saw, (meaning Karloff coming in for the kill), and a the ray of the title being able to both cure blindness and blow up a bolder.  Fun stuff though.

 

THE MAN WHO CHANGED HIS MIND

(1936)

Dir - Robert Stevenson

Overall: GOOD

The first in Boris Karloff's unrelated "Man Who..." series of films and one that utilizes an effective pun as a title, The Man Who Changed His Mind, (The Man Who Lived Again), was one of two British productions that he made in 1936.  Though he of course became immortalized as the Frankenstein monster, it was really in playing brilliant/doomed scientists that Karloff made his bread and butter throughout his long career.  Here, he is yet another one whose wild experiments are laughed off by his colleagues, making him bitter and mad in the process.  Karloff's Dr. Lawrence does not hold much of the audience's sympathy for long, though this is hardly a problem as he turns in a villainous performance with his usual unwavering class.  Plus, he redeems himself in the end anyway.  British bombshell Anna Lee, (who would later inspire a song from Dream Theater of all people), also shows up as virtually the only woman with any dialog.  The story is the usual implausible scientific gobbledy gook nonsense, but at only sixty-six minutes in length, director Robert Stevenson trims any would-be fat out of the proceedings, making this a fun and harmlessly macabre bit of silliness.

1930s American Horror Part Six

DRACULA

(1931)

Dir - George Melford

Overall: GOOD

 

For a brief time, Universal chose to shoot back-to-back versions of their own films for Spanish-speaking audiences.  Done with the same working script from Garrett Fort and on the same exact sets as Tod Browning's iconic, English version, George Melford's Dracula provides some improvements over its counterpart while simultaneously being less effective in other areas.  The pluses are mainly due to the supporting cast who inject a higherenergy over the more restrained performances in Browning's version.  That said, Carlos Villarías, though adequate, is no Béla Lugosi.  Comparing his portrayal to that of the man who has owned the Count Dracula role for nearly a century now is admittingly unfair though.  Dwight Fright was likewise scene-stealing of course, yet Pablo Álvarez Rubio here as Renfield is just as feverishly demented.  Melford creates a solid atmosphere and stages a few moments with some flash, plus the dialog expands upon Fort's screenplay, (which was adapted by Baltasar Fernández Cué), fleshing more of the plot out in the process.  The extra twenty-nine minute running time feels its length though as the pacing becomes too comatose at regular intervals.  Still, this is a solid experiment and for Universal horror completists, it is essential.

 

FREAKS

(1932)

Dir - Tod Browning

Overall: GOOD

 

Probably the boldest and most controversial Pre-Code film from a major production studio, Tod Browning's seminal Freaks, (The Monster Story, Forbidden Love, Nature's Mistakes), remains bizarre still today.  Based in part on the short story "Spurs" from Tod Robbins, it was significantly cut and modified before release as test audiences reacted unfavorably to Browning's initial and now lost ninety-three minute version.  Though the finished film runs just over an hour, it still provides plenty of shocks almost a century later.  This hinges in part due to the audacity of its very existence.  By casting real life circus performers and non-actors with physical deformities, (all of whom deliver odd, almost unintelligible performances that further enhance the noncommercial strangeness), viewers were allowed a glimpse into a world seldom seen.  Yet Browning, (who had worked in a traveling circus before, made The Unknown with Lon Chaney in such a setting, and cast the dwarf Harry Earles in his previous film The Unholy Three), had a natural sympathy for his title charters which comes off on the screen.  Showing them engage in everyday activities while looking out for themselves humanizes them more than the "normal" characters who end up doing the most despicable and unprovoked things.  Lest we forget the ending which is one of the most memorable and wacky from any early talkie.

DOUBLE DOOR
(1934)
Dir - Charles Vidor
Overall: MEH

This screen adaptation of Elizabeth A. McFadden's Broadway play of the same name is melodramatic in spades, spearheaded by a vile performance from stage thespian Mary Morris, making her lone film appearance here.  Double Door is laughable in some respects, namely how ridiculously unreasonable the behavior is from Morris' odious spinster who does everything in her power to manipulate and thwart her half-brother's marriage to a charming young woman who just wants everyone to get along.  Why all parties involved are so afraid of her let alone have put up with her for this long is a frustrating logical pill to swallow since Morris cranks up the bitterness to such levels that her villainous portrayal is more uncomfortable than fun.  Both her and Anne Revere reprise their roles from the Broadway version, with the later as well as Evelyn Venable laying on the bellowing schmaltz so heavy that they sound as if they are going to burst into uncontrollable tears with every line delivery.  Things take an inevitably sinister turn in the finale, but at least Morris gets her comeuppance and everyone else seems to have broken off from her stranglehold at long last.  Stuffy and unintentionally silly, it is sadly too dated to hold up.

1930s Foreign Horror Part Two

UNHEIMLICHE GESCHICHTEN
(1932)
Dir - Richard Oswald
Overall: MEH

Of interest to German film scholars for featuring Paul Wegener's first speaking role, Unheimliche Geschichten, (Uncanny Stories, The Living Dead), is the second such movie directed by Richard Oswald to bare said title.  The first was from 1919 and starred Conrad Veidt, which also utilized a less comedic framework and was comprised of five different stories instead of the mere three seen here.  Oswald's directorial output was quite prolific though he was never seen as a maverick filmmaker for his time period.  That said, his work here is highly expressionistic, with off-kilter camera angles, shadow-drenched lighting, and some elaborate sets thrown into the mix.  While the movie is impressive to look at during regular intervals, the pacing is a bit sluggish and the humorous tone is neither consistent or convincing.  For his part, Wegener makes a fun villain though and the structure is unique for an anthology film as it also manages to follow a singular narrative while fusing its different source material stories together.

 

EL FANTASMA DEL CONVENTO

(1934)

Dir - Fernando de Fuentes

Overall: GOOD

 

A notable, supernatural horror offering from Mexican filmmaker Fernando de Fuentes, El fantasma del convento, (The Ghost of the Convent, The Phantom of the Convent), is straight-forward yet still largely successful at what it attempts.  Fuentes had co-written La Lorona from three years prior, which was historically important yet unremarkable.  Switching the concept from Mexican folklore to one revolving around a mysterious monastery and the out-of-time monks who dwell there, the movie makes splendid use out of its location which was filmed in Tepotzotlán.  Wonderfully atmospheric with subdued performances all around, the most possible mileage is gotten out of the imposing, dimly-lit, cobweb-ridden, labyrinth-like setting.  A couple of convincing, mummified corpses make their way into the proceedings as well.  Though the story is clever enough in its simplicity, it does not quite have enough juice to remain as engaging as it should.  The small cast of characters spend the entire movie discussing how strange everything is and a large expository dump midway through does very little to break up the monotony afterwards.  Still, it is as fine a foreign export from the period as there gets and thankfully one that has survived all these decades later.

SONG AT MIDNIGHT
(1937)
Dir - Ma-Xu Weibang
Overall: MEH

In many ways a traditionally Western-style horror film with the added ingredient of practically comical levels of the kind of melodrama that is inherent in Asian cinema, Song at Midnight, (Yèbàn gēshēng, Midnight Song, Singing at Midnight), also serves as the first Chinese horror movie and one of if not the first proper horror musical ever made.  A purposely political film that was tailor made to skirt past Kuomintang censorship, it was a considerably popular work for its time as it was released only a few months before the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War.  Melding such left-wing, revolutionist leanings with what is essentially a remake of The Phantom of the Opera is a curious and interesting move, particularly for the time period.  Decades later though, the movie shows its age due to its sluggish pacing and exasperatingly over the top dramatics. There is some horror window dressing like a closed down theater which looks like it belongs in Tod Browning's Dracula and a final showdown involving an angry mob right out of James Whale's Frankenstein, but the story itself feels enormously padded and the nearly two-hour running time is quite unforgiving.  It would be remade a number of times yet for historical significance, (dated flaws and all), this is certainly the most noteworthy interpretation.

1930s Foreign Horror Part One

VAMPYR

(1932)

Dir - Carl Theodor Dreyer

Overall: GREAT

 

One of the most lauded of early, post-silent horror as well as one of several defining works from Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer, Vampyr, (Vampyr – Der Traum des Allan Gray), is singularly exceptional.  It is in part a hold-over from the silent era as Dreyer had intended it to be wordless.  Yet in order to compete properly with the advent of talkies, he reluctantly included sparse dialog, shooting three different versions for French, German, and English speaking audiences.  At the same time though, the film still utilizes intertitles heavily and to further bypass the need for dialog, it is very deliberately paced.  Also by shooting through an actual gauze to create a haze-like atmosphere, the ethereal quality is even more apparent.  By being so purposely understated then, it is far from heart-racing, yet Dreyer and cinematographer Rudolph Maté keep the camera movements engaging while expressive shadows and superimpositions allow for the foreboding tone to remain unchecked.  Though a narrative is certainly present and it lifts leisurely from two Sheridan Le Fanu stories, the film is primarily a surreal, macabre mood piece.  For those whose patience and admiration for such things is intact, this is a rewarding undertaking that is well-deserving of its reputation.

LA LLORONA
(1933)
Dir - Ramón Peón
Overall: MEH

Regarded as the first Mexican horror film, La Llorona, (The Crying Woman), is noteworthy for its historical importance and nothing else.  Serving as an origin story of sorts for the titular supernatural character, it dedicates a large chunk of its meager running time to period piece flashbacks, yet neither that or the main, present day story present anything remotely interesting.  This is mostly due to the approach though.  There are some minor thematic attempts at creating a spooky atmosphere with ghostly howling and close-ups of hands, but stagnant shots of characters standing around and talking is the primary focus.  The film drags heavily before it even gets going, indulging straight away in a children's birthday party that lasts only a few minutes yet feels several hours long.  Such laborious pacing is persistent throughout and regrettably, Peón puts as much charisma behind the lens as his merely competent cast does in front of it.  There is a mystery present yet it barely shows itself, only emerging by the final act.  By that point, the back and forth narrative and unremarkable visual presentation leaves very little if anything to be engaged with.

FÄHRMANN MARIA

(1936)

Dir - Frank Wisbar

Overall: MEH

Made during the National Socialist regime in Germany before the outbreak of World War II, Fährmann Maria, (Ferryman Maria), is only a quasi-horror film even by the most generous of standards.  It is actually a simple, highly unremarkable love story with some mild propagandist leniencies thrown in for good measure.  Future Fireside Theatre creator Frank Wisbar showcases some rather humdrum skills behind the lens here, even going as far as to lumber the pace along with a scene in which dialog is exchanged inside of a building where the camera forgets to follow the characters inside.  While a mysterious figure who seems to be a stand-in for Death does appear and one or two haunting images find their way into the proceedings, the incessant, stock musical score and comatose plot wield very little in the way of engaging atmosphere or interest.  Wisbar remade the film in America nine years later as a more genre-pleasing affair, under the much more pizazz-worthy title Strangler of the Swamp no less.  The original version here sadly does not even offer up the amount of excitement that a run-of-the-mill B-movie would produce though.

The Beatles: Get Back

THE BEATLES: GET BACK

(2021)

Dir - Peter Jackson

Overall: GREAT

Since at least 1964, The Beatles have perpetually remained the most lauded and famous rock group in the world.  Now more than fifty-two years after it was shot, footage has been presented that largely changes several of the most widely held notions concerning their eventual breakup.  The resulting The Beatles: Get Back is therefor a monumental document in the history of pop music in general, let alone in The Beatles' cherished legacy.

While this may be an accurate assessment of the film, it is also a broad one.  For Beatles fans both casual and obsessive, Get Back is essential.  This is partly due to its extensive running time of nearly eight hours which represents the only footage of the band writing, rehearsing, and ultimately performing and recording their material, mostly from conception to finish.  This is the most penetrating firsthand look that has ever existed into both their work ethic and personalities.  Such a deep dive is insightful by nature and since it is from a group with no rivals in cultural importance and influence, only those with little to no interest in music at all would fail to find merit in what is presented here.

John Lennon's face for the (wrong) people who do not like The Beatles.

Similar to everything in The Beatles' history, the Get Back project has a fascinating backdrop.  The footage was of course initially shot for what became director Michael Lindsay-Hogg's 1970 documentary Let It Be.  Said movie came to pass only after an initial television special conceived of by Paul McCartney fell through, partly because the writing sessions for the album were not ideally productive.  The Beatles shacked up in Twickenham Studios just after the new year in 1969 with a deadline looming for the end of the month to get roughly fourteen new songs in the can before Ringo Starr began shooting The Magic Christian in the same film studio.  The location proved uncomfortably cold and foreign, with previous tensions intensifying that had began to surface during the making of The Beatles, (The White Album), several months earlier.  These came to the forefront with George Harrison temporarily leaving the group mid-session.  A few days then went by with a failed band meeting between the four taking place, as well as further discussions as to how to proceed with the project, which even included a, (perhaps?), jestful idea by John Lennon to bring Eric Clapton in as a replacement.  Things eventually came back together once it was agreed to abandon the television special idea and relocate to their newly set-up studio in the basement of their Apple headquarters at Savile Row.  Here, a more positive vibe took over, Billy Preston joined the band as a session keyboard player, and they eventually settled on a rooftop concert to end what was now being planned as their third theatrically released movie.

This is all common knowledge for Beatles and rock music aficionados, and much of it was divulged in the Let It Be film.  Said movie did not see that theatrical release until after the band's break-up though, at which point both the members and the public were various levels bitter and frustrated with certain aspects of their demise.  There is a reason then that it is the only Beatles movie to still be out of print, surviving solely on the bootleg front since the 1980s.  With such a massive amount of footage condensed then to a mere eighty-minute running time and emerging when it did, critics and fans alike largely saw it as a quasi-depressing document showcasing the breakup of the biggest band to ever exist.  Both surviving and passed-on members never thought too highly of the Let It Be movie considering the bad vibes that it unfortunately represented.  This all makes Peter Jackson's reworking of the material all the more uplifting in comparison.

The infamous "I'll play whatever you want me to play" argument was left in to fill the aforementioned "bad vibes" quota.

Jackson plus his creative/editing team behind the 2018 World Word War I documentary They Shall Not Grow Old gained access to the sixty hours of video and one-hundred and fifty hours of audio materiel initially produced by Lindsay-Hogg, which had been sitting in the Beatles Apple Corps vaults ever since.  Painstakingly restoring, reconstructing, and editing the project took the better part of four years.  The end game of such an endeavor was initially planned to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the sessions, which was green-lit by McCartney, Starr, Olivia Harrison, and Yoko Ono.  "Thankfully" this little thing called the COVID-19 pandemic happened though, and Jackson and co took the opportunity to elaborate on the final two-hour theatrical cut, ultimately resulting in the three part mini-series that Disney picked up for distribution.

There are more details surrounding the massive undertaking of the project if one wants to investigate further, but the main takeaway is how The Beatles: Get Back rewrites the long-believed narrative of such an era.  Most prominent is the overall amount of merriment on display.  While the group was certainly faced with a number of conundrums to work through at the time, and they seem burnt out at regular intervals, they conduct themselves with the utmost level of professionalism and joy.  Whether this is a coping mechanism in some respects is a mute point since at the end of the day, each member's willingness to get the job done and make the best of their chemistry together ultimately shines through and is also ultimately what matters most.

Pictured: professionalism.

Many of the group's problems at the time are the result of their manager and ringleader Brian Epstein having died at the end of 1967's summer.  This footnote left the band aimless, which allowed them to indulge in costly creative and business ventures.  Meanwhile, McCartney's naturally enthusiastic, well-meaning though ego-driven demeanor put him in the de facto-leader position as Lennon let his power slip due to his elevated drug use that led to what he described as the "death" of his ego.  At the same time, Harrison's increasing creative confidence, newfound spirituality, and practical financial sense began to jive poorly with the comparative dominance and flippant tenancies shared by Lennon and McCartney.  Ringo of course stayed the consummate professional, showing up on time and before anyone, remaining largely quiet, and patiently sitting behind his drum kit ready to do his job at each and every instance that such a thing was required.

Though these are well-known details within The Beatles' dynamics, they are also still important in understanding the group's inevitable split.  The individual eccentricities and personalities of the band members undoubtedly contributed to their exceptional material.  Yet for many, many decades now it has been falsely surmised that such clashing of opinions and characteristics made for mostly miserable working conditions during the making of Get Back.  Wonderfully, this has proven to be false.  It is simply an exhilarating experience seeing John and Paul run through versions of "Two of Us" while either singing in foreign accents or jokingly clenching their teeth, watching George lovingly show enthusiasm and give assistance to Ringo's brand new song in progress "Octopus's Garden", seeing John take out a joint and then put it back in his pocket while making a silly face after remembering that the cameras are on him, and watching Ring notify Paul that he farted halfway through a serious business conversation and thought that it would be better to tell him than to say nothing.

A (gassy) class act that Ringo.

The Beatles are consistently in a goofy mood yes, but since we also know that this was one of their more uncomfortable periods as a group, the fact that they spend such large chunks of time blowing off steam in a silly manor showcases their overall positive character that much more.  There are many times where they seem politely annoyed that they cannot agree on certain things or come up with any universally acceptable solutions to their problems.  Yet they believe in the music, believe in their ability to deliver when their backs are up against the wall, and generally seem to enjoy being together.  All elements of tension surrounding a cacophony of wives and girlfriends, technicians, friends, associates, engineers, filmmakers, and crew members being present while everyone is asking them where they are going to play live or what they want for lunch are bypassed by such jovial attitudes that win out each and every time.

At one point early on, Paul jokes that in fifty years everyone is going to say that The Beatles broke up because Yoko sat on an amp.  While this results in unanimous laughter from both those around him and probably anyone viewing the film, it is also cryptically telling of how self aware he and the group was even then about their own impending legend.  A paramount goal of Jackson's approach here was to unearth any revelatory information that he could find, and numerous conversations are heard that exemplify this.  Paul and John have a chat with hidden microphones in a flower pot where they both honestly admit their own perceptions of each other's egos and how it has effected their current situation as well as George's unhappiness.  Yoko and Linda McCartney are seen having cordial conversations with each other, and Linda's daughter Heather appears one day where everyone in the band seems to enjoy her childish tomfoolery.  George Martin, Glyn Johns, Billy Preston, and Mal Evans are show smiling and in lovely spirits throughout almost the entire production.  George Harrison explains to John and Yoko for the first time that he has enough songs ready to fit his quota for the next ten years of Beatles albums and that he would love to just record them all on his own so that he can focus more productively on the group, a proclamation that both John and Yoko agree is a wonderful idea.

George of course would soon unleash all of those songs under the working title of Attack of the Garden Gnomes.

 

These are but a handful of moments and details that accomplish two paramount things.  As discussed previously, they certainly debunk the fable of the band being overrun by egos and negativity, resulting in an uncomfortably strained relationship between them.  Perhaps even more importantly though is that it presents them as logical and compassionate human beings.  The Beatles: Get Back is extraordinary in that it showcases extraordinary people achieving extraordinary things, but it does so while grounding John, Paul, George, and Ringo to a mortal plane of existence.  For artists that have easily been perceived as mythical figures for more than half a century now, spending over eight uninterrupted hours with them as they work out the kinks of their situation with unwavering respect and love for each other is something to cherish.

Along with the similarly expansive and sprawling Anthology series which presents a more complete picture of the band's entire existence together as opposed to just a twenty-one day period, (all in their own words no less), Get Back easily stands as the greatest documentary on the Beatles that presumably will ever be made.  It is an overwhelmingly viewing experience and as ideal of a footnote to the band's most misunderstood era as could have been hoped for.  So, so many aspects of the group's history have been painstakingly documented and explored that for something this conclusive and outstanding to emerge after we have all assumed that there was nothing more to tell and nothing more to learn, well, here we are folks and indeed the story has only gotten more inspiring.

The audition has most certainly been passed.

2021 Horror Part Four

CANDYMAN

Dir - Nia DaCosta

Overall: MEH

 

Following up a beloved film almost thirty years after the fact, (regardless of whether or not it is in the horror genre or has inspired numerous sequels of its own), is certainly trendy with a barrage of nostalgia-pandering releases in recent times.  It is also, generally, doomed to fail in some capacity.  On that note, though screenwriter/producer Jordan Peele and director Nia DaCosta's Candyman collaboration is ultimately uneven, it is also far better than it easily could have been.  The elements that work here are largely credited to DaCosta.  A deliberate avoidance of tired-out horror tropes is consistently maintained.  There are no jump scares and especially considering that the plot relies heavily on seeing things in the mirror, countless opportunities would have called for such debilitating, hack methods in the hands of a lesser filmmaker.  The musical score by Robert A.A. Lowe is also excellent and animated puppet sequences by Chicago-based theater company Manual Cinema further enhance the movie's stylized aesthetics.  The problem comes in the form of the script itself which is almost disastrously messy.  As is the case with Peele's directorial efforts, the humor is awkwardly placed and often clashes with the rest of the tone.  Expository dialog sequences also come off as forced and there are many of them.  Things dip too liberally into schlock terrain at times, particularly by the third act which feels noticeably rushed.  It is unfortunate that all of these detriments ultimately undermine the movie's sincere, racially-driven themes revolving around gentrification and the like, but at least it is visually compelling and a solid testament to DaCosta's talents.

 

THE 8TH NIGHT

Dir - Kim Tae-hyoung

Overall: MEH

 

Bombastic and overtly schlock-fueled, Kim Tae-hyoung's The 8th Night, (Je8ileui Bam), does manage to provide some fun along its bumpy road.  The fairytale, "end of days" premise would fit snugly at home in any occult-tinged, mystical anime and the plot practically bombards you with a slew of supernatural rules that are difficult if still amusing to keep up with.  Stylistically, Tae-hyoung propels the film along at an alarming pace, often nearing the point of feeling as if it is playing out in fast-forward.  The script is persistently dumping expository dialog, flashbacks, and both visual and audible call-backs with a sweeping musical score that barely lets up.  All of this gives it a ham-fisted, over-the-top feel that at the very least is anything but boring.  For a movie that is essentially nothing more than silly, demon-battling nonsense, it contains a rather excellent, dramatically-wrenching performance from Lee Sung-min as a disgraced former monk.  While the film ultimately moves way too fast and presents itself way too goofy to take any of its emotionally-driven baggage very seriously, it is all ambitious enough to still be admirable.

 

WEREWOLVES WITHIN

Dir - Josh Ruben

Overall: WOOF

Josh Ruben and screenwriter Mishna Wolff's adaptation of the Werewolves Within video game is an obnoxious movie that collapses under its forced quirkiness.  A general rule of comedy is that any crop of weirdos should be balanced by characters that act in a more agreeable fashion.  The Marx Brothers and Ace Ventura only work when everyone around them behaves either nonchalantly towards their buffoonery or represent some sort of reasonable voice for the audience to feel grounded with.  The first act of Werewolves Within introduces us to an ensemble of annoying, rural townsfolk who all have to have some sort of neurotic or goofy attribute to them, and then the plot ultimately pits their eccentricities off of each other.  While this could somewhat be justified narratively, it does make for an exhausting viewing experience where every frame of the film seems to be trying way, way too hard to be wacky and clever.  Worse yet, the gags and twists become either increasingly predictable or just nonsensical due to the underwritten nature of the script.  Throw in a handful of hackneyed jump scares, loud and moist sound effects, and virtually no actual werewolf moments until the very end, and the movie officially drops the ball as clever horror send-up.