1. It made me think
about this brave new HD world we live in where directors, ones who don’t
guarantee huge box office, can get their films in an actual movie theater for
people to see. This was shot and cut and shipped digitally to the Atlanta
Midtown Art Cinema for what will be a week long run, just long enough for the
real freaks and die hards to come see it. That for me blows my mind. I am a
believer that you never really have seen a film until you see it in a theater. Hats
off to Magnet for putting this out, if only so people like me would go see it.
2. Paul Giovanni. I could watch Giovanni do this type of
stuff for ever. The only time I was thrown off the Giovanni train was his
“furrowed brow” performance of some evil English King in some Netflix medieval
movie (exhaustively researched sentence). Other than that one movie, P-Gi runs
the circus for me. First time I’ve been this devoted to an actor since Turturro
and Buscemi hit the scene back in the 90s. And he is a total Coscarelli fanboy,
producing this movie and being one of the rebel rousers for Bubba Nosferatu
where he would play Colonel Tom Parker. Man I want to see that. If he did a
movie with my favorite actress, Emily Mortimer, that would be on an internal
loop in my house.
3. I have to say something about the digital stuff again. I
am all about it, especially the colors maaaan, the colors. They are so vivid
and gorgeous, I love’m. Other than that, we are dealing with something that is
too perfect looking. I see so much detail in the frame; it can be rough to know
what I’m supposed to look at. It’s too much info. I wish they could scale it
back some. I get thrown by being able to see each individual pit on a
cinderblock wall and every pour in an actor’s nose, not to mention them
sweating through the makeup. This feels less like painting and more like
pornography.
4. Wow! Coscarelli! Other directors take note. Cronenberg
may be awesome and making movies for critics and grownups these days, but I am
much more interested with what D-Cos has become. He is still pushing boundaries,
still making interesting movies in our beloved genre, and doing it with an eye
and certainty that these low budget movies rarely can afford. It was looking
rough around the times of Phantasm 4, a cheap movie that was padded out with
unused footage from the original. What an awesome bounce he is experiencing,
starting with Bubba HoTep. With that movie, we have a precedence for our aging hero
directors. Fans will follow them into unknown territory just so long as they
retain their voice and keep their eyes intact. His movies now remind me of the
Alive Pictures that Carpenter and Craven did in the late 80s, early 90s. Those
were movies that had lower budgets, more directorial control. With Bubba and JDAE,
Coscarelli has taken that model to the next level.
5. This felt very Phantasm to me. It dealt with alternate dimension
invaders and followed dream logic. The two leads make some homemade weapons and
there are evil doubles and what not. It was D-Cos mixing his Phantasm troupes
into a new narrative and just making something new and cool. This had an energy
and drive that was lacking in Bubba for me. This is the kind of movie I want
from this dude. Double this movie up with Phantasm 2, and then invite me over
and feed me.
6. A lot of credit has to go to the book. The author David
Wong is getting a lot of praise from internet circles and if you do a Google
search for “best new horror novels”,
John Dies at the End is on all the lists that come up. His articles on
Cracked.com are hysterical and so I’ll be grabbing the book soon. Didn’t read
it before because it’s too much pressure on a movie to try to live up to your
perception of the book. And movies always have a train to catch so they never
spend enough time on the stuff I like, so whatever. The Shining, love that
movie. Psycho, love that movie. But after reading the books I can’t help but
feel the movies are weird little alternate dimensional visions of the story. I
know Stephen King went back to “do the book”, but come on. The Wings guy? Are
you serious? So now that I sound like one of those “not as good as the book”
douches let’s move on.
7. Either you think women with missing limbs are hot or you
don’t. I’m not going to make the argument here that you can’t have a truly beautiful
house without a hole in the wall. That’s just an uphill fight, and you can’t
make someone agree on that no matter what your logic is. All I’m saying is that
when I see Fabianne Therese again in a movie, I’m going to be a little disappointed
that she has all her limbs. Don’t look at me like that.
8. This movie has a really fun Ghostbusters seen through
slacker vision vibe to it. The leads are a likable due that sort of shrug their
way through the movie. I like the style. It is like the show Raising Hope where
everyone has the “hey, we’re just acting here” attitude. We all know it’s just
a movie/show/performance, and no one is trying to convince you otherwise.
9. So what are you going to do with these digital effects.
Well, there is a lot of practical in here as well. So for the die hards you can
latch on to that. The digital stuff here is pretty pretty Photoshop, not convincing
at all (except for those flies, don’t watch the trailer, it gives away all the
great effects and paints a bigger movie than it really is). It’s the concepts
behind the effects that are strong enough that you can go with it. Think of
this movie as an underground comic come to life and you’ll be fine. Sure the
art may be primitive but the ideas are fresh.
10. At no point in this movie did I say, “oh I bet this is
going to happen”. Never. The movie follows a train of thought for a bit and it
seemed to psychically know when I was getting board because it would toss
something at me that would make me laugh or go “ah-ha-clever” or through the
plot into a totally different direction. So unpredictable, low budget, idea
driven, horror, comedy, sci-fi, movie with Paul Giovanni. What do we have to do
to entertain you people? Gawd!
SHOW STOPPER! How did
this movie know I hated gnats? Thanks for that!
SHOW STOPPER 2!! Glynn Turnman as “Detective” and everything
he says is gold. Again, don’t watch the trailer until after the movie.
SHOW STOPPER 3!!! The old mall location. Fantastic.
PAIRS WELL WITH: Phantasm 2, but I said that already.
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