Review: "Trick 'r Treat" (Finally)

This delightful little chap in the poster is Sam, aka Peeping Tommy. Sam is the most important of the many threads running through Michael Dougherty's long-delayed and much anticipated Trick 'r Treat. I say most important because ultimately Sam is both figuratively and literally the Spirit of Halloween, teaching horrible lessons to the non-believers, as much as any spirit that tormented Scrooge. Happily, none of the four interwoven stories in Trick 'r Treat end on a happy note (this is a horror movie, after all).

Never released theatrically in the U.S., the 2007 festival fave was finally released on DVD two weeks ago, and I am ashamed to be just now getting to review it. And I am also happy to admit that it was worth the wait. Dougherty's script is clever; ironic; surprising; hilarious and original, all while being quite gory; gruesome; creepy. and completly fun. The cast of familiar faces - Dylan Baker (Spider-Man; Fido); Anna Paquin ("True Blood"); Tamoh Penniket ("Dollhouse"); Bryan Cox (the original Hannibal Lecter) - are uniformly excellent (even the youngest of cast members). Baker is particularly good as a particularly bad elementary school principal; as are Paquin as a sweet young thing on the prowl and Cox as a nasty old man who painfully learns why it's best to be generous with the sugar on Halloween. All four tales take place on the same Halloween night in a small Ohio town obsessed with the traditions of the holiday.

The creepiest of the four stories involves a group of kids collecting jack-o-lanterns (purportedly as part of a "UNICEF scavenger hunt") and an urban legend about a school bus full of "special children" which led to an unfortunate incident. The young actors in this segment are just terrific and creepiness of the "special kids" in their exceptionally weird Halloween costumes is off the charts. And of course, there's 10 year-old Quinn Lord as Sam/Tommy. An essentially silent role, Sam is Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, Jack Skellington, and the 'Zuni fetish Warrior' from "Trilogy of Terror" all rolled into one creepy little hydrocephalic creature. And while much of the work is done by stunt people and CGI, Lord's physicality in what couldn't have been a very comfortable or easy-to-wear costume is surprisingly effective and spooky. The SFX are kept to a minimum, but the ones employed are quite good (and include a particularly interesting version of the werewolf transformation). The jokes are truly funny and the surprises are mostly really surprising. The movie looks gorgeous, thanks to Cinematographer Glen MacPherson, Production Designer Mark Freeborn and Costume Designer Trish Keating. Every penny of the film's budget is one the screen and Dougherty's love of 70's Horror Comics is evident. Trick 'r Treat deserved a wide-release, big-screen run and it's a damned shame it didn't get one.

Fun, smart, original and great-looking, Trick 'r Treat is truly a Horror fan's treat. Let's hope Dougherty gets to make a sequel, because i can't wait to see what he has in store for us, next.
**** (Four out of Four Stars).

And of course, the evening was topped off by seeing Sam Raimi's brilliant Drag Me to Hell for the first time since I saw it on teh big screen and I enjoyed every single moment of it again, and this time really got to take note of Raimi's use of seamless transition from scene-to-scene. The movie never drags, never bores. The shocks are still shocking, the gross-outs are still disgusting and the shocks are still shocking (which may be thanks to the passing of five months since my first viewing) and the movie is every bit as fun and effective as it was the first time I saw it. If you haven't seen it (and once I again I shame for not having done so), do yourself a favor and see both of these movies before (or better yet, on) next Saturday!

And on a completely bizarre and unrelated note, a childhood hero of mine has passed and I'd just like to say "Thanks for the laughs, Soupy. There's more laughter in Heaven, tonight."



More terrors, anon.
Prospero

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DVD Review: "Deadgirl" & "Grace"

I know I promised a review of Trick 'r Treat, and I promise that it is coming. I just didn't expect every retailer in my area to be out of it already. That's what I get for not pre-ordering. Live and learn.

Anyway, to make up for it, I'm reviewing two movies that generated a lot of festival buzz this year and are now both available on DVD.

First up, last year's Deadgirl, a twisted little indie film about two high school buddies, J.T. (Noah Segan) and Rickie (Shiloh Fernandez). J.T. is the cigarette smoking Rebel Without a Cause type while Rickie is the introspective boy with an Emo haircut, still pining for the love of his first kiss, JoAnn (Candice Accola). While skipping school, the two break into the conveniently close-by abandoned insane asylum for some beer drinking and wanton vandalism. While exploring the tunnels which run between buildings, they come across a girl bound and chained to table and covered in plastic. Horrified, sensitive Rickie wants to cut her loose and take her to the hospital, but J.T. snaps for some reason and insists they "keep her" for themselves as a sex slave. To make things worse, J.T. discovers that she isn't quite as alive as they thought she was. Naming her Deadgirl, J.T. starts to invite a few other outcasts to play and of course, invites a whole sh*tstorm of trouble along with them. When JoAnn's football jock boyfriend is tricked into getting his penis bitten by Deadgirl (a long story), J.T. also realizes that the increasingly-decaying Deadgirl can produce more of her kind and thus can be replaced with a fresher, hotter girl.

I wanted to like this movie a lot more than I did, though I certainly liked it more than the friends with whom I watched it. The performances by the mostly young, unknown cast were mostly fine (if a bit rough around some edges). The movie could have either been 15 minutes shorter, or gotten to the goods a lot sooner, allowing for more mayhem in the third act. Writer Trent Haaga has a long list of acting credits for a whole bunch of horror movies no-one's ever heard of, and while his premise is interesting, it attempts to address too many issues and leaves too many unanswered questions. Deadgirl doesn't know if it wants to be a story about sexual awakening; sexual perversion; teen-angst; necrophilia; dis-associative personality disorders or zombies. It didn't matter to me that we never discover who put Deadgirl in that room, because we know why. What bothered me most, was that we only discover the final fate of a few characters, which perhaps was the filmmakers' way of leaving room for a sequel, but a very unsatisfying way of ending a film. ** (Two Out of Four Stars)

We took a break, had a smoke by the fire and another drink, and settled in to watch our second movie, Grace. The feature debut of director Paul Solet, Grace stars Jordan Ladd (Cabin Fever) as Madeline, a woman who wants nothing more than to be a mother. Several weeks before she is due, Madeline and her husband are in a car accident and both Madeline's husband and unborn daughter are killed. For reasons only known to herself, Madeline decides to carry the baby to term and when her former lover/midwife Patricia ("4400" and "Supernatural" alumnus Samantha Ferris) delivers the baby, she hands it over to its mother, who somehow wills the baby to life. Grace is, by all appearances, a beautiful baby girl. But we know there's something very wrong here. Grace won't drink milk. Grace drinks... can you all say it with me?... blood. And not just any blood, mind you. Sore from nursing a vampire/zombie baby, vegetarian Madeline buys a whole sh*tload of red meat, draining the blood from each package into Grace's bottle. Grace (naturally) promptly projectile vomits the beef blood all over her frustrated and soon-to-be-anemic mother. No, only human blood will do.

Add an over-bearing mother-in-law who is a Criminal Court Judge, an OBGYN in said Judge's pocket, rampant lesbian jealousy and some rather disturbing images, and you have another smart little film that was either 15 minutes too long or needed to get on with it sooner. Ladd is terrific as the obsessed mother, willing to go to any and every length to ensure her child's well-being. And Gabrielle Rose ("Eureka," Jennifer's Body) gives an extraordinary performance as a grieving mother determined to go to any lengths to ensure her grandchild's well-being.

Echoing the Larry Cohen classic It's Alive (we'll talk about that movie again, I'm sure), Grace addresses the stereotypical fears of the new mother, adding a rather grim (and often disgusting) twist. Grace smells. Grace bleeds when bathed. Grace attracts flies. Grace draws blood when she nurses. How many more signs does a mother need? And how far is a mother willing to go to keep her child alive? As I am sure every mother reading this (are there any?) would tell you, pretty f*cking far. I just wished they would have gotten there sooner. A touch more mayhem and little less introspection would have made Grace a lot more interesting. **1/2 (Two and a Half Out of Four Stars)

More terrors (and a Trick 'r Treat review -- I promise), anon.
Prospero

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The Gayest Thing(s) You'll See This Week

Don't ask me what Mitt Romney has to do with it (other than Mormon homophobia, I suppose), I just thought it an amusing image -- but that has nothing to do with this post, which is about celebrating all things gay. And by all things, I mean silly gay boys doing silly things on camera and posting them on YouTube.



For me, the trend really started with Shane Mercado and his racy bedroom version of Beyonce's Single Ladies., which I talked about in my very first "Gayest Thing" post, way back when. It's a great song that I never tire of hearing or of seeing new versions and parodies.



Next, was this fellow's bath towel-clad version of Kelly Clarkson's I Do Not Hook Up. Classic and very funny, especially as he continually needs to adjust the towel.



Then, a few weeks ago, (via) I saw this fan-made vid for Miley Cyrus' "Party in the FIP," by several scantily-clad silly gay boys on Fire Island:

I guess they're sort of cute. They sure look like they were having fun. the song itself is sort bland, though. Everything one might expect from Billy Ray's girl (and as you know, Billy Ray sported the most magnificent mullet in all of redneck history).

Then a friend sent me a video by a group of silly gay boys in Asbury Park, NJ (which is quickly becoming the Fire Island/Provincetown/New Hope of New Jersey. Here is the gay version of Ms Hot Mess Whitney Huston's Million Dollar Bill:

Okay. There were some cute silly gay boys in that video, too. And s lightly better song. I hate most of today's pop music, so what do I know? Further proof of my looming obsolescence, I suppose.

Then today, (also via) comes news of group from South Central L.A., gayin' up the slums. Here is Spice Boys 5 performing Stop:

Oh, dear. Grim and not adorable at all. What's wrong with the silly gay boys in da hood? Still, pretty gay, eh?

And to end on a not-so-gay note, a movie I have waited nearly two years to see is finally being released on DVD; dircetor Michael Dougherty's horror anthology Trick 'r Treat. Those have seen it, rave about it (and I hate them). Anyway, Yahoo Movies has the newest trailer here. I can't wait!

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