Something Wicked (Awesome) This Way Comes...

Halloween is less than three weeks away and my happy tradition is rolling right along. For those of you who might not have read my blog entry from October 6, 2008, I'm currently watching and discussing one film per day in the spirit of my favorite holiday. Of course this means the movies I'm talking about here are mainly horror which may not be your bag, but fear not! Come November I will be branching out and bringing you all kinds of delightful treats from every genre and corner of the world, so be sure to come back for another look.

And now, let the fun commence!

Day 7:
Hell Night (1981)
Director: Tom DeSimone
Writer: Randy Feldman
Actors: Linda Blair, Vincent Van Patten, Peter Barton

After the huge success of John Carpenter's Halloween in 1978 (a film I will most assuredly be bringing up later this month), the next decade spewed forth an avalanche of teen slasher flicks that followed a general formula, with varying degrees of originality. Some were clever and stood out, but there was also a lot of garbage to wade through in order to find good stuff. What's changed? Hell Night is a film that is often overlooked or relegated to the trash heap. I'm not entirely sure why this happens because I've always been a fan of this movie. It's fun, it's great on atmosphere, and it has Linda Blair!

The credits open on one of those ridiculous fraternity parties where everyone seems to be having the time of their lives while drinking copious amounts of alcohol and dancing in the street (ah, the good old days). My favorite part of this sequence is the guy sitting on a car, spastically blowing on his tuba like he's never been so stoked to be alive. Does the school band really go to parties with their instruments? Apparently so. As the credits end, we learn it is pledge night, otherwise referred to as Hell Night, and the four pledges have quite a night in store for them. The whole party drunkenly forms a motorcade down to the abandoned Garth Manor where Peter the president of the fraternity informs Marti, Jeff, Seth, and Denise that they will be spending the next six hours alone. Of course it wouldn't be any good without a scary legend to contend with. Peter shares his rehearsed tale of the Garths who gave birth to four deformed children, forcing the family to live in exile from the outside world. When the father could no longer take it, he butchered three of his children and his wife before hanging himself, all in front of his youngest son, Andrew. Andrew was supposedly never found and continues to lurk on the grounds of Garth Manor. The four pledges are locked inside the giant gates and left behind with no electricity or phones. Of course the house has been rigged with all kinds of scare devices to keep the group on their toes and they soon discover that it's going to be a long night. Things get really interesting when we realize that Andrew isn't just a story and he begins the task of killing the students one by one, starting with the jokesters outside.

I'll be the first to say that Hell Night has its flaws, the first being its pacing. There are times when the rhythm is a bit off and momentum is broken by an unnecessarily drawn out scene. The film could easily lose a good 15 minutes to really tighten it up and keep the viewer engaged; a movie like this is almost always better off when it stays under 90 minutes. It also gets a little old watching Marti (Blair) shriek and cower behind Jeff whenever anything remotely scary happens. Sure, I would be doing the same thing were I in their shoes, but you can't tell me that he wouldn't be shitting his pants too once he realizes what's going on. On the other hand, this happens in plenty of other movies and it's really just a set up for Marti to redeem herself later. But do women always need to be terrorized and scarred for life in order to grow some balls? Luckily, Linda Blair makes everything alright and maybe that's why I like this movie so much. She just comes across as so genuinely sweet, and smart too. Both she and Jamie Lee Curtis have a way about them that makes you love them and trust that they're going to figure a way out of whatever mess they're in. Director Tom DeSimone is another interesting element in Hell Night. Prior to this movie, he had quite an extensive career directing gay adult movies and in 1977 he directed Chatterbox, a bizarre campy flick about a woman who discovers her vagina can talk and has a mind of its own, causing all sorts of hijinx to ensue. Despite this background, Hell Night is relatively tame in the sex department; we know some of the characters are indulging but there's no gratuitous nudity just for sake of titillating the audience (pun intended), and the real steamy stuff happens off-screen. What it all boils down to is if you down for some mindless fun and a post-Exorcist Linda Blair, check this one out!

Day 8:
Dopperugenga/Doppelganger (2003)
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa (not to be confused with Akira Kurosawa)
Writers: Ken Furusawa, Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Actors: Koji Yakusho, Hiromi Nagasaku, Yusuke Santamaria

Have you ever seen two different trailers for the same movie and they seem to have completely different plots? I understand that studios and distributors are going to do what they can to get people to buy tickets or DVDs but I think there is a certain danger when you go too off-track in an attempt to draw in an audience. The Japanese movie Doppelganger is a case in point. If you look at the DVD cover art for the U.S. release, it refers to the film as "the most frightening", a claim that is so misleading, I'm sure it has disappointed plenty. The one reviewer on Amazon.com says he was expecting a Japanese horror film but was very upset when he realized he wasn't getting what he bargained for and now anyone who comes across his review might think twice about making a purchase based on his one-star assessment. Does Doppelganger fail to deliver in the fright department? I say no because it's not meant to be frightening, disturbing, yes but not frightening. It can't even be considered a horror movie, really. The question is, what kind of movie is it?

Michio (Yakusho) is a researcher/inventor for a company that specializes in medical equipment and he is working on a "virtual body", a chair on wheels with arms that move in response to the occupant's brain waves. He is married to his job but Michio is obviously stuck in a rut and has become unpleasant to say the least. One day he sees his doppelganger, or his twin, and from that point on is unable to shake him. His double turns out to be an uninhibited, mischievous and dangerous version of himself. Michio resists his double's "attempts" to get his life back on track, but as he sees things going his way, he gets on board with his twin's questionable methods. Everything spins quickly out of control and Michio must contend with the possibility that his doppelganger's murderous tendencies may have been a part of him all along.

Doppelganger is at times a thriller while at others it plays like a comedy, an action-adventure, or a drama. There aren’t any scares but the premise is certainly disturbing. And is that really what it sounds like when you are hit on the head with a hammer? The special effects that allow actor Koji Yakusho to play both Michio and his double are top-notch. A combination of green screens and CGI effects are used to create the illusion not only that there are two distinct individuals but also that they actually interact with each other on the same physical plane. Yakusho supplements this by deftly showcasing each character’s unique personality. Director Kurosawa also employs some clever and stylized cinematography tricks to really draw the viewer into the world of Michio and his double in a way that almost dares you to just try and find a technical error. Look for a scene where the doppelganger slaps and shakes a drunken Michio awake, neat and incredibly effective.

As I alluded to earlier, Doppelganger is difficult to categorize so in order to appreciate the film, I think it is best to go into it with as few expectations as possible. At times it is tough to speculate where the story is going and this can be a negative point for some viewers. Questions are left unanswered and there is no easy resolution in the ending. Is the doppelganger real? Which man is the true Michio in the end? Is there a message to be found about societal repression and the breaking free of the individual? Is the doppelganger a necessary evil who serves as a catalyst to liberation? Or is this just one man’s descent into madness? Is any of it real? I don’t know, but it is certainly thought provoking. Give it a watch and let me know what you think.

Day 9:
Westworld (1973)
Director: Michael Crichton
Writer: Michael Crichton
Actors: Yul Brynner, Richard Benjamin, James Brolin

Ahh, Westworld. What a wonderful, wonderful movie. And the main character may very well be James Brolin’s hair, it is that magnificent. But in all seriousness, the film Westworld continues to be a great piece of cinema more than 30 years later, despite its place on the fringes of mainstream pop culture.

If you could afford it, would you pay $1000 a day to stay in a Western resort town where you would be able to pretend to live in the Wild West, drinking whiskey, engaging in shootouts, and doing a little business with the oldest profession in the world? Come on, who wouldn’t?! This is the basic premise of Westworld where in a futuristic time, guests can pay to stay in one of three artificial resorts: Romanworld, Medievalworld, or Westworld. The fun part is that all of the world’s inhabitants are robots who are almost impossible to tell apart from the human guests if not for the strange bumps on their hands, but they bleed and “die”, adding to the authenticity of the experience. Peter (Benjamin) and John (Brolin) are friends who have come to Westworld to let go and get away from it all. It is John’s second time and Peter is hesitant but soon embraces his new Western identity. Everything is going well when the robots appear to malfunction and are no longer behaving according to their programming. The resort’s crew is unable to intervene and guests from all three worlds meet their demise in quick succession.

Yul Brynner plays The Gunslinger, a rough and tumble robot cowboy who’s role in Westworld is to be the bad guy that guests can beat in a shootout for a substantial ego boost. Brynner is chilling in this part with his shaved head and his square jaw. Well into his 50s at the release of this film, Brynner looks like he is made of steel and could most likely crush your skull with one hand. His exotic look and stiff mannerisms completely sell him as one robot cowboy you would not want to mess with. And when his eyes turn silver (apparently an indication that this machine has gone bad), he is beyond creepy. In the end, he is a man on a mission to kill and nothing will get in his way. For me, Brynner really rose to the challenge with this character. James Cameron must have had The Gunslinger in mind when he directed Robert Patrick as the T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Brynner displays that same relentless drive for destruction that seems impossible to escape. But he brings some depth to the character, pay close attention when The Gunslinger is tracking Peter and gets confused by the heat from the torches; Brynner’s facial expressions speak volumes.

This is an extremely fun movie to watch. The scenes in the Western town echo Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch with slow motion fight scenes and bright red bullet holes. Peter and John act out scenes that they’ve only ever seen in the movies and it plays like an homage to old Hollywood westerns. James Brolin is very playful as John and looks comfortable with a chomped cigar and a six shooter. There are small flaws, such as the likelihood that a resort like this would ever actually exist, the safety issues alone are difficult to ignore. Also, parts of the film are fairly dated such as hair styles and the hokey computers that make up main control. But the same could be said for the original Star Wars movies and who doesn’t love them? On the other hand, the robot effects still stand up fairly well to today’s standards since it’s relatively easy to make believable robots when you just have humans play them.

Westworld is one of Michael Crichton’s earlier cinematic ventures and it’s an excellent precursor to the theme park concept behind Jurassic Park. As I’m writing this review, a remake is rumored to be in the works although a director has yet to be chosen. I’m generally firmly against remakes because I just feel like it’s an excuse for Hollywood studios to not bother coming up with original ideas. Also, Westworld in particular is still an excellent, vibrant film with an outstanding performance by Brynner that begs the question, how can you top that? I have serious reservations but I’ll try to hold back judgment until I see the final product. Remakes can occasionally work if care is taken to look at the material from a fresh angle and to give the story a new perspective that lends it current relevancy. We’ll see. In the meantime, if you haven’t seen Westworld, what are you waiting for?!

Hmm,it seems that my reviews keep getting longer and longer. I may need to scale back a bit if I'm ever going to make it through this month! Later, skaters!