I am back with a new review, and this time it's the gory yet beautiful and stylish film that has been anticipated for almost two years. That's right!! I am reviewing The Wolfman!!
I must say that when I first heard about this film, I was nervous. I did not know if the filmmakers could reach the pleasing style that the original 1941 The Wolfman achieved. However, seeing this film opened my eyes completely. The whole 2 hours that I sat watching this film, I felt that audiences have been missing out on true Gothic style horror films. The style and dark atmosphere was depressing but gorgeous simultaneously. Not to mention that the musical score by the amazing Danny Elfman made me feel like I was in the Tim Burton world. Every death scene made me remember the dark yet beautiful deaths in Sleepy Hollow almost 11 years ago and especially Sweeney Todd back in 2007.
The acting by Oscar actor Benicio del Toro was perfect. The whole time I really felt pity for his character, Lawrence Talbot. Furthermore, along with the lovely Emily Blunt's character, Gwen, I felt as if this film was a dark rendition of Beauty and the Beast. Hugo Weaving also presented an interesting depiction of Constable Aberline who has come to the foreboding Blackmoor estate to find the cause of such vicious killings, while he also seems to be the person you like least. However, the absolute best actor in this film was Sir Anthony Hopkins who delivered another Hannibal Lector meets Van Helsing style with his macabre acting genius. Hopkins as Sir John Talbot delivers an enigmatic view of a character with some twisted senses of humor. I felt like I was watching a sequel to Bram Stoker's Dracula from 1992 at times. Speaking of humor, the film does have a few good comic relief moments.
I must say that this film had very good character development. The way we learn their back story almost makes it like a dark detective story with Poe like story telling and ambiguous mental visions like dream sequences and flashbacks. The makeup and costume designs were also very beautiful and realistic. Furthermore, besides this film's beauty it is also very bloody, and surprisingly I found myself looking away at some of the deaths. Be warned!!! This film may not cover you in blood literally, but your vision may become reddened for quite some time!!! Lol (only joking) One thing I did like about the deaths were that they looked like actual animal attack victims. This film definitely puts the gore in gorgeous if you know what I mean. One of the deaths actually made me laugh!!
Anyways, on to the CGI. I was worried when I heard about the CG effects because sometimes they take away from the film making it less believable. However, I was pleased to see that the CG in this film was quite impressive. The actual transformation scenes actually had me cringing multiple times at the continuous sounds of popping bones and snapping ligaments and stretching skin. There wasn't much CG, however, in every CG sequence it most definitely worked.
Another point that I feel that I must make nice and sparkling clear!!!! THIS IS NOT A SLASHER, CUT 'EM UP, GRINDHOUSE, RAUNCHY, GUT YOU LIKE A FISH HORROR FILM LIKE THE OVER PLAYED SAW FRANCHISE THAT SERIOUSLY NEEDS TO END!!!!! This is a respectable Gothic style horror film that needs to be appreciated for what it is. It uses symbolism throughout and even has some hidden commentary on society reflecting on such things as the torture conducted on individuals by terrorists or even the CIA with interrogations. It is a Gothic piece that stays in a dark, depressing, symbolic, and romantic atmosphere. It drives me nuts that people do not look for that in a film anymore, and because it doesn't show sex, drugs, and some psychopath hacking up idiotic teenagers people feel like they can go and give it a negative review.
A little piece of advice: IF YOU ARE GONNA REVIEW ALL FILMS BASED ON THAT IDEA YOU SHOULDN'T BE REVIEWING FILMS AT ALL!!!! The Wolfman is a monster movie; however, it is main focus that makes it a horror film is its violence and dark foreboding atmosphere. It also has terrific casting and acting as well as the perfect amount of death and carnage for any horror lover. There are some satisfying jump sequences along with a brutal as well as tragic storyline. I hope that everyone who reads this review will see this film with what I have said in mind!! Please show this film the respect it deserves unlike some people.
Monday, May 3, 2010
The Wolfman Review by Corbin Bond
Rob Zombie's Halloween and Halloween 2 Review By Corbin Bond
I figured I would review my favorite two films to start things off. As many of you know, I am a huge horror fan, and unlike Siskel and Ebert who usually bash a majority of horror films they see, I tend to watch them and appreciate them more. I find the horror genre to be a much underappreciated franchise because some people do not seem to appreciate the true in depth meanings inside the film itself. First of all, horror is not meant to always make you jump out of your seat every five or ten minutes. It is also a very useful conductor for criticisms aimed toward society and especially emphases on the mind and how dark one’s mind can be. I tend to look at horror films not as scream fests, but as disturbing views on society and some of the people in it. Two perfect examples are Rob Zombie’s Halloween (2007) and Halloween II (2009). Both films have been slammed with negative criticism because many believe that it is nothing like the original or that it doesn’t give the iconic serial killer Michael Myers justice.
The first thing that came to my mind when I saw these reviews was: Are these people out of their minds? True the original Halloween is a classic and I am a huge junkie on the Halloween franchise; however, Rob’s remakes were never meant to be like the original two films. One of the main points he makes in his DVD commentary is that he wanted Michael Myers to not be supernatural. He wanted to make him a real human being with extreme psychotic capabilities. This makes Michael Myers actually terrifying again because after the original sequel to John Carpenter’s Halloween, Michael was no longer scary because he didn’t have any realistic qualities. Then, in August of 2007, Rob Zombie, the creator of House of 1000 Corpses and the enormously popular The Devil’s Rejects, released what would be the first part of a two part film that would ultimately be, in my opinion, the best Halloween film since the original Halloween 2 by far.
For those of you who already know the story and those of you who don’t, Halloween is a masterpiece of tragedy, suspense, and disturbing psychological events. Its main story focuses on psychopath, Michael Myers, in his hunt for Laurie Strode, his long lost sister. Rob’s 2007 remake, unlike the original, reveals Michael’s childhood in more light. We come to find out what he goes through both at home and at school with bullies and unloving families. We can also see how this affects him in how he kills small animals as an early warning sign for much greater problems. Ultimately, we come to see that madness explode as he kills a cruel school bully for ridiculing his mother, the only person who ever loved and appreciated him. Finally we come to the night where everything went horribly wrong, Halloween. We see Michael completely lose every rudimentary sense of right and wrong and life and death as he kills his cruel and uncaring stepfather as well as his older sister, Judith and her boyfriend who never cared for him at all. The only ones spared were his mother and baby sister, who would later be adopted after Michael’s mother committed suicide.
This opening presents us with a brutal view on how Michael’s insanity grew and went to terrifying proportions as he went through difficulties in his life. Without the ability to cope with these problems he could only spiral down farther until finally losing himself and going after his baby sister, who has now been adopted, named Laurie Strode. This terrifying stalking by Michael and his brutal murders to come as well would continue until the climatic confrontation between Laurie and Michael leading the first film’s sudden conclusion in which Laurie goes into complete shock after believing she had killed Michael by supposedly shooting him in the head.
When I first saw this film at the beginning of my senior year, I was surprised at how psychologically disturbing it was from beginning to end. It was especially disturbing for me, in how Michael as a child erupted into such a killing spree. However, this in turn shows how horror emphasizes the disturbing qualities in society. This film shows that inside all of us, there exists a darker side and though some learn to control others let it go out of control until it turns them into something ugly. Michael developed into a madman with the cunning and tameness of a wolf. Furthermore, unlike in the original, he is not the boogeyman, he has no supernatural gifts. He is a huge insane man who cannot be stopped until he has his sister again or he is completely mutilated himself.
Then, there is the character of Laurie, who starts off as someone we all could have met in high school. She appears to be an average and happy teenage girl who has quite a happy life. However, once Michael became introduced to the picture Laurie’s life began to darken. Scout Taylor Compton, who plays Laurie, does an excellent job in portraying her as a light and happy teenager whose world ends up turning into a roller coaster ride of unexpected losses and hardships leading up to the finale of the first film where she can only scream in shock after all of the haunting, macabre, and tragic events that occurred to her.
Now, we come to the second and final chapter of Rob’s remake with Halloween II, which was released in August of 2009. With this sequel Rob does an even more amazing job at depicting the psychological after effects of the events from the first film. The film starts with a psychological definition of a phenomenon known as “The White Horse.” Many failed to read this definition and were ultimately confused about it leading to negative reviews. It tells that “The White Horse” symbolizes violent rage and fury, and we can definitely see that in how this Halloween film is definitely the most brutal and disturbing Halloween film to date. Furthermore, we can also see more of Michael’s devotion to his mother in the opening as Michael’s mother tells him, after giving him a white horse statue, to think of mommy whenever he thinks of the horse. Suddenly we hear the gunshot and scream from the end of the first film followed by the haunting sound of church bells as Laurie walks the streets of Haddonfield blood drenched, soaking wet from the rain, and in a state of shock.
After seeing disturbing images of Laurie in the hospital, we find that Michael is actually still alive because the bullet apparently went to the side of the head, missing all vital points. However, it left Michael a bloody mess, as we can see his torn up mask covered in blood. After escaping the coroner’s van following a collision into a cow, Michael decapitates the last remaining coroner with a shard of metal from the debris. Following that first death scene, we see Michael’s mother all in white, like a ghost, holding the reins to a huge white horse.
Throughout the film, we see these visions of Michael’s mother and young Michael from the vicious killer’s point of view. Now, many have claimed this to be a copy of Friday the 13th in how Michael hears his mother like Jason does. However, this is in fact completely different, because Michael is seeing the mother in his mind, not his actual mother. He is thinking of mommy when he thinks of the white horse as a means of justifying his actions. The White Horse symbolizes his violent rage while his mental mother justifies that for him. Jason’s mother was simply a complete psychopathic ghost. In Michael’s case, this is all in his mind and not supernatural.
One quality that truly makes this film unique to all of the other Halloween films is how the characters are portrayed and develop. First of all, we see the character of Doctor Loomis, who has now done a complete 180 and changed from a concerned and sympathetic man to a money/fame hungry individual following his near death experience at Michael’s hands. He is now obsessed with telling the true story of what happened 2 years ago during the first film in his new book. Furthermore, he is unsympathetic to any of the serious repercussions to follow his book’s release. However, the most important character of interest has to be Laurie. After the events 2 years ago, she has completely collapsed into a very troubled and disturbed young woman in need of therapy and psychiatric medication. In the meantime, her relationship with her only surviving friend, Annie, has completely shattered as they both are constantly at each other’s throats throughout the film until Annie’s tragic and violent death near the film’s conclusion. Moreover, Laurie suffers from incredibly disturbing nightmares that tear her up mentally and emotionally as she continuously falls into madness following her brother’s footsteps.
These dream sequences are also very effective in making this film unique in how bizarre and disturbing they are in their addition to the film’s overall brutal atmosphere. Two of these nightmares, in particular, were very effective in adding to the films horror. The first involves Michael telling his mental mother that he has found Laurie (aka. Boo or Angel Myers). Young Michael leads his mother through a graveyard of black crosses all in black and white to what appears to be a mad tea party setting with snow steadily falling as three deformed pumpkin-headed creatures wine and dine while Laurie lays on the table sleeping. Suddenly, dead hands burst from the table grabbing and clawing at Laurie as she screams for dear life. The other dream/vision/attack occurs while Laurie is awake, as she constantly screams at Annie, telling her to die leading to her screaming in a glass coffin. Many of these attacks occur throughout the film even when Laurie is eating dinner showing how truly disturbed Laurie has become.
All of these horrific events lead up to the ultimate conclusion of the film as Laurie confronts her brother and mother. Michael abducts her and brings her to an abandoned shack where she is held captive until Dr. Loomis finally snaps back to his senses and comes to the rescue only to be finished off by Michael which ultimately leads to Michael’s death by firing squad as the police mutilate him with a barrage of bullets. Finally, we see Laurie who has completely collapsed into her own madness as she walks past her dead brother’s corpse and grabs the knife as a passing of the torch and prepares to attack Loomis more. However, Laurie ultimately meets a very tragic end presenting us with finality as Laurie is shot by a trigger happy cop and killed. Our last scene reveals Laurie’s last thoughts as she sees The White Horse and her mother coming towards her down a white hallway and she acknowledges her with a twisted smile to the tune of Love Hurts.
Overall, Rob Zombie’s Halloween films together present us with a realistic and tragic view at the world of Michael Myers. It is disturbing and brutal, but in the end it simply supports Norman Bates’ claim that “We all go a little mad sometimes.” These two films combined create one of the most original, brutal, and the best Halloween film by far as it completely shows how no matter what you do “family is forever.”
The first thing that came to my mind when I saw these reviews was: Are these people out of their minds? True the original Halloween is a classic and I am a huge junkie on the Halloween franchise; however, Rob’s remakes were never meant to be like the original two films. One of the main points he makes in his DVD commentary is that he wanted Michael Myers to not be supernatural. He wanted to make him a real human being with extreme psychotic capabilities. This makes Michael Myers actually terrifying again because after the original sequel to John Carpenter’s Halloween, Michael was no longer scary because he didn’t have any realistic qualities. Then, in August of 2007, Rob Zombie, the creator of House of 1000 Corpses and the enormously popular The Devil’s Rejects, released what would be the first part of a two part film that would ultimately be, in my opinion, the best Halloween film since the original Halloween 2 by far.
For those of you who already know the story and those of you who don’t, Halloween is a masterpiece of tragedy, suspense, and disturbing psychological events. Its main story focuses on psychopath, Michael Myers, in his hunt for Laurie Strode, his long lost sister. Rob’s 2007 remake, unlike the original, reveals Michael’s childhood in more light. We come to find out what he goes through both at home and at school with bullies and unloving families. We can also see how this affects him in how he kills small animals as an early warning sign for much greater problems. Ultimately, we come to see that madness explode as he kills a cruel school bully for ridiculing his mother, the only person who ever loved and appreciated him. Finally we come to the night where everything went horribly wrong, Halloween. We see Michael completely lose every rudimentary sense of right and wrong and life and death as he kills his cruel and uncaring stepfather as well as his older sister, Judith and her boyfriend who never cared for him at all. The only ones spared were his mother and baby sister, who would later be adopted after Michael’s mother committed suicide.
This opening presents us with a brutal view on how Michael’s insanity grew and went to terrifying proportions as he went through difficulties in his life. Without the ability to cope with these problems he could only spiral down farther until finally losing himself and going after his baby sister, who has now been adopted, named Laurie Strode. This terrifying stalking by Michael and his brutal murders to come as well would continue until the climatic confrontation between Laurie and Michael leading the first film’s sudden conclusion in which Laurie goes into complete shock after believing she had killed Michael by supposedly shooting him in the head.
When I first saw this film at the beginning of my senior year, I was surprised at how psychologically disturbing it was from beginning to end. It was especially disturbing for me, in how Michael as a child erupted into such a killing spree. However, this in turn shows how horror emphasizes the disturbing qualities in society. This film shows that inside all of us, there exists a darker side and though some learn to control others let it go out of control until it turns them into something ugly. Michael developed into a madman with the cunning and tameness of a wolf. Furthermore, unlike in the original, he is not the boogeyman, he has no supernatural gifts. He is a huge insane man who cannot be stopped until he has his sister again or he is completely mutilated himself.
Then, there is the character of Laurie, who starts off as someone we all could have met in high school. She appears to be an average and happy teenage girl who has quite a happy life. However, once Michael became introduced to the picture Laurie’s life began to darken. Scout Taylor Compton, who plays Laurie, does an excellent job in portraying her as a light and happy teenager whose world ends up turning into a roller coaster ride of unexpected losses and hardships leading up to the finale of the first film where she can only scream in shock after all of the haunting, macabre, and tragic events that occurred to her.
Now, we come to the second and final chapter of Rob’s remake with Halloween II, which was released in August of 2009. With this sequel Rob does an even more amazing job at depicting the psychological after effects of the events from the first film. The film starts with a psychological definition of a phenomenon known as “The White Horse.” Many failed to read this definition and were ultimately confused about it leading to negative reviews. It tells that “The White Horse” symbolizes violent rage and fury, and we can definitely see that in how this Halloween film is definitely the most brutal and disturbing Halloween film to date. Furthermore, we can also see more of Michael’s devotion to his mother in the opening as Michael’s mother tells him, after giving him a white horse statue, to think of mommy whenever he thinks of the horse. Suddenly we hear the gunshot and scream from the end of the first film followed by the haunting sound of church bells as Laurie walks the streets of Haddonfield blood drenched, soaking wet from the rain, and in a state of shock.
After seeing disturbing images of Laurie in the hospital, we find that Michael is actually still alive because the bullet apparently went to the side of the head, missing all vital points. However, it left Michael a bloody mess, as we can see his torn up mask covered in blood. After escaping the coroner’s van following a collision into a cow, Michael decapitates the last remaining coroner with a shard of metal from the debris. Following that first death scene, we see Michael’s mother all in white, like a ghost, holding the reins to a huge white horse.
Throughout the film, we see these visions of Michael’s mother and young Michael from the vicious killer’s point of view. Now, many have claimed this to be a copy of Friday the 13th in how Michael hears his mother like Jason does. However, this is in fact completely different, because Michael is seeing the mother in his mind, not his actual mother. He is thinking of mommy when he thinks of the white horse as a means of justifying his actions. The White Horse symbolizes his violent rage while his mental mother justifies that for him. Jason’s mother was simply a complete psychopathic ghost. In Michael’s case, this is all in his mind and not supernatural.
One quality that truly makes this film unique to all of the other Halloween films is how the characters are portrayed and develop. First of all, we see the character of Doctor Loomis, who has now done a complete 180 and changed from a concerned and sympathetic man to a money/fame hungry individual following his near death experience at Michael’s hands. He is now obsessed with telling the true story of what happened 2 years ago during the first film in his new book. Furthermore, he is unsympathetic to any of the serious repercussions to follow his book’s release. However, the most important character of interest has to be Laurie. After the events 2 years ago, she has completely collapsed into a very troubled and disturbed young woman in need of therapy and psychiatric medication. In the meantime, her relationship with her only surviving friend, Annie, has completely shattered as they both are constantly at each other’s throats throughout the film until Annie’s tragic and violent death near the film’s conclusion. Moreover, Laurie suffers from incredibly disturbing nightmares that tear her up mentally and emotionally as she continuously falls into madness following her brother’s footsteps.
These dream sequences are also very effective in making this film unique in how bizarre and disturbing they are in their addition to the film’s overall brutal atmosphere. Two of these nightmares, in particular, were very effective in adding to the films horror. The first involves Michael telling his mental mother that he has found Laurie (aka. Boo or Angel Myers). Young Michael leads his mother through a graveyard of black crosses all in black and white to what appears to be a mad tea party setting with snow steadily falling as three deformed pumpkin-headed creatures wine and dine while Laurie lays on the table sleeping. Suddenly, dead hands burst from the table grabbing and clawing at Laurie as she screams for dear life. The other dream/vision/attack occurs while Laurie is awake, as she constantly screams at Annie, telling her to die leading to her screaming in a glass coffin. Many of these attacks occur throughout the film even when Laurie is eating dinner showing how truly disturbed Laurie has become.
All of these horrific events lead up to the ultimate conclusion of the film as Laurie confronts her brother and mother. Michael abducts her and brings her to an abandoned shack where she is held captive until Dr. Loomis finally snaps back to his senses and comes to the rescue only to be finished off by Michael which ultimately leads to Michael’s death by firing squad as the police mutilate him with a barrage of bullets. Finally, we see Laurie who has completely collapsed into her own madness as she walks past her dead brother’s corpse and grabs the knife as a passing of the torch and prepares to attack Loomis more. However, Laurie ultimately meets a very tragic end presenting us with finality as Laurie is shot by a trigger happy cop and killed. Our last scene reveals Laurie’s last thoughts as she sees The White Horse and her mother coming towards her down a white hallway and she acknowledges her with a twisted smile to the tune of Love Hurts.
Overall, Rob Zombie’s Halloween films together present us with a realistic and tragic view at the world of Michael Myers. It is disturbing and brutal, but in the end it simply supports Norman Bates’ claim that “We all go a little mad sometimes.” These two films combined create one of the most original, brutal, and the best Halloween film by far as it completely shows how no matter what you do “family is forever.”
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Wilderness Review by Samantha Mauney
Wilderness is the story of a group of young British prisoners sent to a remote island for rehabilitation after tradgedy strikes in their cell back at the prison. However, when they get to the island, which is supposed to be uninhabited save for them, they find that they are far from being alone. First elated to find a small camp of girls also visiting the island, their delight quickly turns to terror as someone starts to pick the young teens (and their chaperones) off one by one.
If you like all and out gore-nography, I think that this is just might be the movie for you. Think Cujo meets Last House on the Left. Very bloody, yet understandable and tasteful at the same time. Definitely not for the squeemish, though.
The film is wonderfully shot in a sort of grey/overcast color, which is probably natural to where it was shot, but nonetheless adds a great and subtle visual tone. Refreshingly, suspense is gained very organically, not through camera tricks or obnoxious music.
This film also does an excellent job of tying up plot holes, which is not something that I can say for the majority of horror films released in the past five years. By the end of the movie, there are virtually no questions left in your mind. The motive of the killer is clear and understandable, as are the actions of all of the characters (some of which are more developed than others). This is due in part by the simple storyline, which, at best, is very clean, and at worst too predictable.
On the other hand, I think that the movie does a decent job keeping you guessing about the personality and general morality of the characters. Almost everyone in this film is a convicted criminal (or doing something that they probably shouldn't be), but in the end the human side of most of the characters is clearly revealed.
What didn't I like about this movie? The same thing that I don't like about most horror movies (SPOILER):
The black guy dies first.
The movie was made in 2006, so it's not as if I can tell you to see it in theatres. However, I would highly advise renting it if you can. In fact, Netflix members can watch the film instantly online.
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