Sayonara Cinema

Chaos Campus: Sorority Girls vs. Zombies - Preview Issue #1
If you ever wondered what a Double-D sporting Buffy would look like as a zombie slayer, this would be it.

Scorn #1
Sorrow. Vengeance. Anger. Loneliness. Rage. These are the emotions that have plagued the life of Michael, a vigilante who’s lost everything in his quest for revenge.

The Evil Inside #1
This premiere issue sets the stage for a six-issue miniseries of horror-influenced “gotcha!” short stories.

Spectrum #2
Peter Simeti returns with his one-man created comic, picking up the story of Glass and The Sponsor, as one tries to protect life and one tries to destroy it.

The Chair #2
Picking up right where issue one left off, the tale of an innocent man on death row who’s fast learning the meaning of Hell on Earth continues.

RENAISSANCE (2006) It is the year 2054. Mega-corporation Avalon, whose primary products promise “youth and beauty”, has permeated themselves into most aspects of modern life. When one of their star researchers, Ilona, is kidnapped, Karas is put on the case to find her. His rough and gruff means of data extraction and detective skills are both a contrast to the beauty that the city of Paris wants to show, and a mirror reflection the city’s underbelly. As Karas interviews those that are associated with Ilona, and the hidden truths that her very worried older sister Bislane finally reveal to Karas, he comes to the suspicion that Avalon may in fact be behind Ilona’s kidnapping, or even one of her closest friends. He also becomes acutely aware of just what Ilona was researching, and what it could mean for civilization’s future.

From debut director Christian Volckman, who spent seven years bringing his creation to the screen using rotoscoping animation (the process in which live actors and actions is animated; think the recent A SCANNER DARKLY or A-Ha’s classic “Take On Me” music video), comes this highly-stylized black and white sci-fi noir. Taking many of its visual cues and technology inspirations from the reigning champion of sci-fi nor, BLADE RUNNER, as well as inspiration from Frank Miller’s high-contrast artwork in his Sin City graphic novels, Volckman has set out to create an animated feature film for adults with a love of near future envisioning and speculation.

Volckman and his animation designers have set out to imagine what will happen to the visual appearance of Paris over the next fifty years. The result is a lovingly rendered vision of a sleek, clean, and beautiful cityscape, with walkways and entire rooms made completely of glass, giving the city and open and welcoming atmosphere, while still retaining a sense of history, as the Eiffel Tower is still a center piece of the city . Technology gets a huge bump in this vision of the future as well, as computers, cars, police equipment, and medical instruments get a very realistic advancement from today. We can see the technology that they are using as a distant descendant of what is in use in our modern world. Surveillance and video recording also gets a massive future imagining here. Taking cues from the already Big Brother-esque camera installations all over many major around the world, in Volckman’s future Paris, cameras and microphones are everywhere, with huge control rooms overseeing all of the information being taken in.

This is one of the truest examples of a “black and white” film, in that there is absolutely no grey scale in use to bring the vision of the future to life. White rain falls against a black sky, characters disappear within the inky abyss of shadows, pure white light cuts through otherwise pitch black dance clubs in throbbing blasts. Extraordinary attention is given to the human characters, and though the expressions were originally made by a real person, you forget on multiple occasions that you are watching an animated version of those emotions. The artistic talent that is backing up Volckman’s world here is breathtaking, and at many times the movie almost does appear to still retain its live action origins. Backing up the visualization is an equally impressive audio accompaniment.

The soundtrack assists most of the scenes quite well, enhancing the mood and atmosphere. The blips of the technology, as well as the ambient background hum of the city, provide a layered dull hive buzzing of a very real and living city. Also along for the ride in the English language dub of the film are several prominent names. Daniel Craig provides the lead voice of Karas. Jonathan Pryce and Ian Holm are also on hand in smaller supporting roles. And unlike some celebrity-voiced films that have been seeping into the theatres recently, these actors take a cue from real voice actors, and create characters with their voices. Their names are there for a bit of publicity, but if you didn’t know it was them, you wouldn’t be able to guess who was speaking.

The story narrative itself takes a backseat to the visual flair rocketing across the screen, and at many times Karas’ investigations seems to exist solely to bring the viewer into the multi-layered social spectrum of this future Paris. There has been a lot of time and effort put into creating a very realistic and operating city, and Volckman intends to show it off. His “camera” swoops and sways through the city as it follows Karas, pulling off otherwise impossible angles, zooms, and crane shots, and bleeding through solid objects in continuous motion. An exhilarating car chase, which zips through most of the city over the course of a few minutes, is a highlight of the movie. The story is nothing groundbreaking, with many aspects of the classic detective motif merely updated and adapted to reflect the future world, but it is at least engaging, and seems quite plausible given the future setting, and has just enough mystery and subtle clues that will have any armchair sleuth trying to keep up or figure out the riddle.

Once again, an animator has taken a bold step is bringing down the concrete wall that separates animation as a genre (read “kids entertainment”) and as a medium to tell a story. And here it is used perfectly as a medium to tell the story and bring a future Paris to life. Japan has long known the full range and potential that animation holds as a medium to bring compelling and entertaining cinema to the screen. And with recent works such as RENNAISSANCE and the ever advancing CGI getting closer and closer to photo realistic rendering, that wall is slowly chipping away both here in America and Europe. There will be a day, sooner than later, where these films will be seen not in festivals, art houses, and home theatres but in a multiplex. And that will be a day worth going to the movies.

PEEPING TOM (1960) Mark Lewis is a shy young man, who is always hiding behind either a camera at the movie studio he works at, or behind his small handheld camera wherever he goes walking. Recently, Mark has taken a further step in his voyeurism, as he leads women into a false sense of safety, and then films them as he murders them. Within Mark’s huge home, in which lets out many or the rooms to his tenants, he has an impressive array of camera equipment, film developing stations, and projection equipment. He spends his free time watching his own movies, that is, until he meets one of his tenants, a young and beautiful girl named Helen. Helen’s outgoing personality works as an opposite tangent to Mark, and the two start spending time together. Mark attempts as best he can to talk with her, though his introverted tendencies often thwart his attempts to show what he is thinking. The only way he can “talk” with Helen is to show her his films. Helen soon starts to learn just how Mark has come to be the way he is, while Mark starts to fear that he may be unable to hold back from showing Helen the true face of fear and terror.

Director Michael Powell, working from a script by playwright Leo Marks in his screenplay debut, takes a shocking and frightfully realistic view of a murderer in this character study that gives a depth to the history of the killer Mark, and how he has over years and years organically turned into a monster hiding behind a seemingly innocent face and soft-talking voice. The result is an unsettling dissection of the make-up of a killer, and much like the same year’s PSYCHO, unknowingly set the ground rules of serial-killer suspense and horror, with its for-the-time raw and shocking murder sequences, the blending of sex and violence, and tense atmospheric buildup.

Marks’ script takes a deep look into the psychological creation of Mark Lewis, with his obsession with voyeuristic filming and examination of fright in his victims stemming back to his father’s work as a child psychologist, who used Mark as his constant subject and filmed him growing up. This is turn forced the audience to examine the often debated “nature versus nurture” aspects of humanity’s villains, murderers, and hate-filled supremacists. Without Mark’s father’s interference and objective observation of his life, Mark would most likely have turned out to be a well adjusted adult. Bringing Mark believably to the screen was a vital part to making the film work. The part fell on the shoulders of German actor Carl Boehm. Boehm’s naturally boyish looks, sympathetic eyes, and soft voice with just a hint of an accent created a harmless looking individual. He projects a deep and powerful performance that resonates still today in performances by those in roles where the murder is compelled or drawn against their will to kill, rather than having a desire to willingly kill.

Powell incorporates voyeurism onto the screen in a quite compelling way as he draws the audience into Mark’s world. In the opening sequence, in which we are introduced to Mark and his first victim, we see most of the scene through the viewfinder of Mark’s camera, as identified by a framing cross that cuts the entire screen into four quadrants. This shot is repeated multiple times throughout the film, whenever Mark is using his camera. Arguably, these are the most important shots of the film, as we are in a way seeing through Mark’s eyes and what he believes to be the most important things worth remembering. Through these shots, we become active participants in Mark’s obsession. However, when these shots are being played back on Mark’s projector, with either Mark watching them, or showing them to others, Powell focuses his camera on the character rather than the projector screen. This plays especially important when Helen is subjected to Mark’s horrific film collection. We watch her recoil in terror, but we do not know what she is watching, thus we become voyeurs to Helen’s frightful emotions.

Halfway through the film, a police investigation subplot is introduced as Mark’s victims are found and a correlation between the murders is discovered. Mark becomes intrigued with the police investigators, and films them unaware as they do interviews on the film set that Mark is working on. Mark fully believes that they will catch them, and Mark seems to want to be captured, even offering up evidence to the investigators without them realizing it. When Mark becomes a suspect, he is tailed and thus becomes the subject of voyeurism himself. It is a role reversal that works exceedingly well. Leo Marks’ script gives the investigators some decent screen time, and their detail oriented attempt to solve the mystery would help to pave the way to the police murder mysteries later that decade.

Powell’s final product is a visceral piece that was destroyed by critics, and generally hated by audiences not quite ready for such a personal introduction and relationship with a killer. The film essentially destroyed Powell’s thirty-plus year film career. PEEPING TOM was well ahead of its time, and can be looked back upon now a groundbreaking entry into the modern horror thriller. The recent documentary GOING TO PIECES even gave the film a proper nod as a precursor to the slasher. Before getting approval by the BFCC, many of the film’s more grotesque shots were cut out and forever lost. The Criterion Collection has released the most complete version available, including a brief nude shot that was redone with the actress clothed for the American theatrical release. But whether it is the stigma of the title, or that the film is just too “British”, PEEPING TOM has still yet to gain its proper place in the lexicon of classic cinema.

Today I claim a small victory for myself as I am now officially a writer for one of my favorite sites, Gorezone.net! Gorezone is a great one stop shop to get all sorts of daily horror news tidbits, with proper source notation for further information.

SODOM THE KILLER (2004) Three hundred years ago, Sodomu fell from the grace of God when he mistakenly kills two innocent girls after his bride-to-be dies on their wedding night. Sodomu’s descendant Sodom becomes cursed by Sodomu’s sins on his wedding night, becoming blind in the process and developing a insane bloodlust. He sets out to bring chaos and anarchy to Japan, as he brings about economic turmoil with his henchmen, and then focuses his energy on the citizens themselves, when he uses a scientist’s experiments to take over the nervous system with an injection. Meanwhile, obsessed cop Therese, whose ancestor is none other than one of Sodomu’s victims, is on Sodom’s trail and will stop at nothing to end his murderous reign.

Hiroshi Takahashi, best known to horror audiences for his screenplays for the three Japanese RINGU films, makes his directorial debut with this ludicrously low-budget film whose shoe-string effects are only matched by the over-the-top acting. In an attempt to break out of his horror label, Hiroshi Takahashi eschews any sort of genre label with this picture as he wildly mixes horror, low-brow comedy, parody, and a V-Cinema ethos into a horribly strange yet oddly tasty stew. [Read The Full Review At Gorezone]

SEX AND FURY (1973)  It is the turn of the twentieth century. Legendary gambler and master thief Ocho (Reiko Ike) has been wandering and hunting for the unknown killers of her detective father for twenty years now. When a request by a dying card dealer brings her back to Tokyo, she finds herself partnering with Shinosuke, a leftist anarchist who has been fighting against a powerful right wing group with yakuza origins. As Ocho watched her father die as a child, he gave her a clue to the identities of the killer - a deer, a boar, and a butterfly. When Shinosuke reveals that one of the political leaders, a lecherous man with a fetish for virgins, has a deer tattooed on his back, Ocho is certain that this is one of the men she is searching for. But these yakuza politicians have several cards up their sleeve. One of which is several British agents, including the beautiful Christina (Christina Lindberg of THRILLER: A CRUEL PICTURE) who secretly has ties to Shinosuke.  The other is a much more personal connection to Ocho than she could realize!

Click on Reiko Ike below to read the full review on Movies At Midnight!

Has there been a void in your life since 12/31/1995? If so, then you need to pay particular attention to my newest review at Geeks Of Doom. This may be the best comic I’ve read since reviewing for them…

Webcomics. You know ‘em, you love ‘em, you read ‘em when you should be working on some menial spreadsheet in your cubicle. Most out there are worth browsing through a few of the strips, maybe getting a chuckle or two, and moving on without bothering to bookmark. However, there are a few out there worth bookmarking, following, bugging your friends to read, and cursing the gods that the creators don’t publish on a daily rather than a weekly basis. One of these is a new comic that has been slowly growing since the beginning of this year, Boxcar Astronaut.
Boxcar Astronaut is a weekly, four-panel black and white strip that follows the backyard adventures of Ben, a young sprout who is never without his trusty space helmet. Along for the fun is his trusty dog Diogee, his best friend Devin, and recent acquisition Robot, a real robot from outer space that has become stranded on Earth. [Read The Rest Of The Review]

Cujou.com is a new online magazine where I’ll sporadically be reviewing more artsy and indie-natured films. Stay tuned for my look at FLOURISH and A SCANNER DARKLY. For now my debut exclusive review and a few reposts are currently available.

LUSTRE (2005) After forty years of being a loan shark and collecting gambling debts, Hugo (Victor Argo) has become a worn out shell of human. He spends his days wondering the streets of New York, lamenting about the old days, and how the city is losing its defining characteristics and wondering where all the “real” New Yorkers disappeared to. When he is not collecting, he spends his free time sitting at the bedside of his comatose daughter, a victim of a drug overdose.

When Hugo begins to hear voices in the sky, he at first chalks it up to exhaustion. But when he begins to see things as well - a businessman carrying a cross, the Virgin Mary in his spilled coffee - he fears that he is going insane…

[Read The Rest Of The Review]

Looking for some cool independent comics to discover while figuring out which movie to watch next? Check out these recent reviews from those ne’er-do-wells Geeks Of Doom!

Spectrum #1
Pulling from a huge assortment of comic book influences and reality-grounded sci-fi riffs, Spectrum creates a blend that will draw in both superhero fans and enthusiasts of character-based revenge tales.

Xombie: Reanimated #3
It is the year 2052. Humanity has been reduced to a small huddling mass hiding in enclaves with machines that disguise their scent. One of these survivors is Zoe, a girl once thought lost who returns to her camp with a most unlikely protector — a sentient zombie named Dirge.

The Chair #1
An innocent man on death row is about to learn the true meaning of Hell on Earth in this intriguing first issue.

Henry and Butcher #1
Sets up what should turn out to be a hard-boiled mystery, with plenty of face-pounding and arm-breaking violence.

Abigail & Rox One-Shot
This fairy tale story has a great blend of original and familiar characters that appeal to people of all ages.

DELINQUENT GIRL BOSS:
WORTHLESS TO CONFESS (1971)

When Rika is finally released from reform school, she tracks down Midori’s home to visit the girl she shared a room with. She learns that Midori and her father are on the outs, and Midori’s father offers Rika a room and a job. Rika gladly accepts, as she has nowhere else to go in Shinjuku. Rika soon learns that Midori’s boyfriend is using his control over her to pay off his gambling debts using her father’s money. Rika also discovers the rest of her “street sisters” are trying to scrape by with whatever jobs they can find - and in Shinjuku that means working in hostess bars as paid dates for male clients. The local yakuza are also after the garage that Rika now works in, and when they turn to treachery that can no longer be tolerated, Rika and her gang once again reunite for a midnight strike of vengeance!

In the late sixties and early seventies, Japan’s main production studios began pushing the limits of acceptable cinema and filled the screens with tales of the yakuza, period samurai films, and what became known as “pinky violence”, an exploitative blend of softcore sex and sensational violence which often employed girl gangs and women in prison as the main protagonist. These film often featured a dizzy array of lowbrow comedy, gratuitous nudity, over-the-top bloodshed, morals, and redemptions, cutting back and forth in an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink style that would pogo from one extreme to the other. The soundtracks frequently featured hyper-jazzy pop songs with opening and closing soulful ballads that would reflect on the themes of the movie. These were usually sang by the main actor or actress of the movie.

Now, WORTHLESS TO CONFESS, the fourth and final film in the DELINQUENT GIRL BOSS series (don’t worry, they’re by sequels by theme and for marketing, and do not need to be seen in order) is one of the more lighthearted in the pinky violence sub-genre. It is an good stepping stone to reach some of the more mean spirited and extreme films in the genre and get a taste for the themes that are prevalent throughout many of the movies. The film is slightly comic book-esque in its style, and many of the scenes are played for their comedic nature. The main themes deal with trying to find a home and being accepted, and the heartbreaking reality that whenever something good happens or happiness is found, something much worse is going to happen. The screen is filled with the archetypes that are often found in these films - from the main girl gangs that find unity in their orphan status to dimwits for comedy relief, reformed yakuza who are the most dangerous of all to sly and cowardly bosses who trick others to do the dirty work

What WORTHLESS TO CONFESS lacks that many others pinky violence films have an abundance of is action scenes. Instead, the first seventy-five minutes are filled with a multitude of subplots and exposition scenes that hurtle the film to its violent crescendo of a finale. The finale here is worth the admission alone, and while the lead up is worth paying attention to, it is the ending that will stay in your mind. Here, Rika and her four gang members dress in matching orange red dusters and walk side by side through the neon filled alleyways to the yakuza club, with a Japanese-influence western instrumental playing beneath. It is a incredible build-up that leads you to believe that the yakuza don’t stand a chance. Once the battle begins, in which everyone fights with swords on the main dance floor of the club amidst a florescent colored decour, anything goes. Director Kazuhiko Yamaguchi unleashes himself from the film’s earlier restraint as he lets the blood spray, the camera go frantic, and a quick yet highly-imaginative shot of the boss’s demise which is worthy of Seijun Suzuki.

For a taste of cinema that has not quite found the grasp it should have on fans of seventies crime action and exploitation, WORTHLESS TO CONFESS is an appetizer before the main course. While it does have a few “uncomfortable” moments that are par for course in the genre, the film never stoops to depraved gratuitousness found in many of the others. Recently a host of pinky violence flicks have found their way to domestic DVD releases making this previously hard to access genre much easier to find. Why not take a chance

The following additional titles should be within easy rental or purchasing grasp, and are the “main course” with the full-blown exploitation for those that enjoy the likes of I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and THRILLER: A CRUEL PICTURE, or the period revenge film LADY SNOWBLOOD:

Girl Boss Guerilla
Terrifying Girls’ High School: Lynch Law Classroom
Criminal Woman: Killing Melody
Sex and Fury (Christina Lindberg, of THRILLER, has vicious co-starring role)
Female Yakuza Tale (sequel to Sex and Fury)
Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41

GINGER SNAPS (2000) Sisters and best friends Brigitte and Ginger Fitzgerald are inseparable teens who share everything together, and never far from each others side. When the two decide to kidnap a fellow student’s dog for attacking Brigitte, Ginger is attacked by a snarling monster in the woods. Was it just a big dog, or was it the small town’s fabled beast, who kills and eats dogs? The next day, Ginger’s graphic wounds from the attack begin to rapidly heal, and Ginger starts to feel an primal change within her. She also finally gets her period, three years later than she should have. While Ginger’s changing attitudes begin to drive the two sisters apart, Brigitte begins to suspect that Ginger was attacked by a werewolf. Ginger’s physical changes, from thick coarse hair and a small tail protruding from her back, solidify her fears. She turns to the local drug dealer and horticulturist for advise on a possible cure. Ginger’s changes appear to be from a biological virus, and if it is a disease, then there must be a cure. The only question is whether an antidote can be found before Ginger completely snaps.

Horror, and to a slightly lesser degree sci-fi, has always had the benefit to its writers to mean something else, or to be seen as an allegory to a more serious or dangerous topic to discuss. The classic monsters of early horror cinema hid frail human emotions. Communist undertones were rampant in the 1950’s, under the guise of cheap b-horror schlock. The sub-genre “body horror” was perfected by David Cronenberg and Shinya Tsukamoto to talk about contagious disease and the natural human breakdown. Sometimes these topics can be overlooked, or not even noticed, by those that are just looking to be entertained or get a cheap scare. Sometimes they are seen Sometimes however, the “real” topic of the film is so obvious that it almost becomes silly to hide it within horror. Such is the tragic story about Ginger, written by Karen Walton and directed by John Fawcett.

Werewolves have always had the distinction of being a cover to talk about involuntary physical and mental changes or to serve as a juxtaposition to a spreading disease via blood. From THE WOLFMAN to AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, the main protagonists become lycanthropes against their will, and must deal with their permanent curse. Such is the case in GINGER SNAPS, were Ginger’s affliction is merely a red herring for puberty and all the unbalanced hormones that come with it. For Ginger, the slowly gestating lycanthrope virus is just the same as her newfound primal desires for boys and her period - she can not control her desires, and is willing to do anything to make it stop. Karen Walton’s script, which is laden with the terrors of womanhood, gives a feminine injected boost to a genre that seems to be aimed at 18-34 year old males. For the men in this film, their horror comes from their inability to dominate and control a woman either through verbal putdowns or archaic parenting, in the face of her female ferocity.

This is not to say that the film skimps on the actual werewolf story. It is quite the opposite in fact. Walton’s biological take on the subject is well thought out, and it takes the entire film for Ginger to finally succumb to the virus. In between, make-up and creature effects designer Paul Jones (who previously worked with effects on NIGHT BREED and the HELLRAISER series) slowly transforms actress Katharine Isabelle into an animalistic version of herself. The changes are very subtle, and his dedication to physical make up and latex, play integrally into the believability of Ginger’s transformation. And when Ginger finally makes the full transformation, it is a violent and painful turn, recalling the transformation in AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON. The final creature, which again is a physical effect brought to life by an actor and animatronics, is a unique creature. And thanks to Jones’ build up earlier on, one can easily make the connection, especially in the eyes of the creature, that this was once Ginger.

Under Fawcett’s direction, the film gets a standard horror atmosphere as he brings his characters through dimly lit woods and drenching school hallways and the sisters’ room with shadows, though there is nothing mind blowing in his approach to his suspense set-ups. During the attack sequences, the camera keeps with the characters witnessing the attack, or are hiding during the attack, rather than showing what is actually happening. Fawcett gives just enough of a glimpse to let the viewer fill in what is happening. Though this may have been done due to the budget constraints, Fawcett makes it work. What he doesn’t skimp on is the aftermath, showing multiple half eaten dogs and the invariable dark-laced humor that follows during clean up, or Ginger’s shredded victim when she has to protect her secret.

Upon its release in the US in early 2001, it was completely ignored as a theatrical release (IMDB states it was shown on *one* screen) and then unceremoniously dumped on DVD in 2003 in a full-screen only version. Fortunately for those with a little hunting power, in Canada (the Canadian government funded this film as part of their film program) there is an incredible DVD release. It is a shame too, because this film deserves a much wider audience than it has received. Two decent sequels rounded out the Ginger “trilogy” in 2004.