Hell House

 

Title: Hell House

Director: George Ratliff

Released: 2001

 

Plot: Documentary following the youth group of the Cedar Hill Trinity Church based in Cedar Hill, Texas who on Halloween put on a “Hell House” in their attempt to save the souls of the local residents who attend the event.

 

Review: It constantly surprises me how the Christian community view the issue of censorship where often the more radical members will call for the banning or censoring of anything that they see not fitting within their belief structure and has previously lead to things such Mary Whitehouse spearheading the campaigning which lead to the “Video Nasties Act”. However bizarrely such concerns over censorship don’t seemingly apply when it in somehow links to their own belief as highlighted by various groups calling for the rating of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” to be lowered so their kids could see it, despite it containing some truly brutal and horrific scenes which seemingly they had no qualms about exposing their kids to.

 

Another prime example of this is the group at the centre of this documentary, whose “Hell House” see’s them putting on performances depicting scenes of high school shootings, abortion and AIDS to name but a few of the controversial topics which the group are happy to cover as part of their drive to increase attendance at church services by seemingly terrorising the local population with the prospect of going to hell.

 

One of more surprising aspect of the documentary is that director George Ratliff does not set out to belittle or make fun of his subject, the way that so many films focusing on the more radical Christian groups have previously done in the past. Instead Ratliff is happy to just play the observer and provide a platform for them to explain their reasons for putting on such a grotesque spectacle especially one which seemingly views no topic as being too controversial to be featured as highlighted by one of the group questioning the inclusion of high school shootings so soon after Columbine only for another to insist that it only makes it only the more relevant for their cause. It should be noted though that despite the occasional extreme opinion cast by the group they are largely painted as being full of good intention as well as truly believing that what they are doing is the Lord’s work.

 

Following the process in its entirety we join the group in their planning stages, before heading into the auditions for cast members who will be acting out the various grim scenes with there seemingly being no shortage of fresh faced congregation members eager to play the role of the girl raver whose date raped or the guy dying of AIDS. From here its on to the building of the “Hell House” which they build from the ground up constructing a whole house to stage their production which is honestly nothing short of impressive much like the size of the crowd that they manage to attract most drawn in by the prospect of a shocking or controversial spectacle than perhaps the intended religious aspect.

 

The real trick of the “Hell House” though after they have finished traumatising each group with their graphic performances is to offer the group at chance at salvation from their sin by joining members of their church for prayer and bible study. As to be expected some of the performances spark less than favourable reactions from some of the people attending who come away feeling that someone is dammed instantly for being gay or that the message is more mixed than the organisers would believe it to be. However instead of the expected big showdown and shouting match between the two groups we expect it to be, we instead get a surprisingly calm discussion as one of the organisers states that

 

“damnation is ultimately a matter of a personal decision whether or not to accept God, regardless of the misfortunes of one’s circumstances.”

 

A reminder that this group are far from the radical Christian groups we have come to expect from the protest held by the Westborough Baptist Church documentaries like this and in particular “Jesus Camp” which the initial reaction is to draw comparison to but outside of the performances being graphic and certainly questionable in taste the church seemingly have no agenda outside of spreading their message and ultimately recruiting more parishioners to their church.

 

A fascinating documentary which manages to be insightful about its subject without feeling the need for vilification, while providing a Halloween viewing alternative from the usual horror fare 

The American Scream

Title: The American Scream

Director: Michael Stephenson
Released: 2012
Starring: Matthew Brodeur, Victor Bariteau, Manny Souza, Lori Souza, Richard Brodeur, Tina Bariteau

Plot: Director Michael Stephenson who previously brought us “Best Worst Movie” about the making of cult favourite “Troll 2”. Now he looks at three families in Fairhaven, Massachusetts who every Halloween transform their backyards into extravagant hunted attractions.

Review: This year when Halloween when was fast approaching some of my more excitable neighbours already had their decorations out ready in anticipation of most peoples second favourite Holiday, while my neighbour across the road from me has already got a Jack-O-Lantern out, which looking at its current decomposed state 2 days before the big night left me really hoping that they were planning on putting out a fresh one by the time Halloween rolled around. Still all of these pale in comparison to the “Home Haunter’s” featured in this documentary which Lindsay over at the amazing "French Toast Sunday" brought to my attention.
 

While the documentary might be about the three families, the real focus is more on the husbands who also to the ones most keen on spearheading the construction of their individual attractions, starting with Victor Bariteau who works at a financial company, replacing servers while desperately trying to support his family especially as he currently finds himself with the constant risk of being made unemployed. Next we have the father and son team of Rick and Matt Brodeur, a pair of part time clowns whose basement supplies them with the majority of their haunted house props. Finally we have Many Souza, who frequently helps Victor with his props and sculptures, when he’s not working on his own haunted house.

All three subjects in focus have their own approach to their work with Victor being the most serious, as he openly expresses how stressed the lead up makes him, while equally happy to admit to suffering from a short temper as he gets closer to his deadline. This however is not so much his personality, but rather a genuine love for what he does and the constant search for perfection and to top what he achieved the previous year, as he listens constantly to podcasts in his car, while even attending expo’s dedicated to the helping these home haunters improve and hone their skills, as seen with the footage taken from one seminar Victor attends, were the speaker is shown stressing the importance of planning scares and their build up. Manny on the other hand while dedicated and certainly competitive as he likes to keep track of all the other home haunters in the local area is perhaps less detail focused than Victor who favours the quantity of props and sculptures over quality, believing that the people who come through his haunted house care more about the scare than the details which have gone into them. Finally Rick and Matt’s efforts could be considered the most amateurish out of the three, while their overcrowded basement resembles a jumble sale, yet to them is a treasure trove of lights, costumes, signs and other props which they have amassed over the year. Needless to say they represent the vision most people have when they think of people constructing their own haunted houses, yet despite this they don’t seem deterred that their efforts might be over shadowed by the setups of Victor and Manny, while at the same time they still appear to have little trouble attracting an equal size crowd of thrill seekers.

Needless to say the families in focus of their light hearted documentary, really love Halloween or more precisely the men of these households who spearhead the yearly efforts to pull out bigger and better shocks for the delight of the local neighbour, with their efforts and hard work not being for profit with seemingly any money they make being given to charity, but out of pure love for the joy of scaring the hell out their neighbours. What is most interesting about them though is the fact that these are not professionals who work in the special effects industry, but rather average guys who have taught themselves how to make their attractions, slowly building on what they learn with each passing year. Still despite the men being at the center of the documentaries focus it also takes time to look at their families and friends, many who work behind the scenes with costuming and make up, while really coming into their own on Halloween night as especially true with Victors house were it seems that he has a small movie production happening just from looking at the sheer amount of people involved. What is really touching though is how far they are willing to go to help them realise their vision, something no truer than with Victor’s wife who despite the long hours which Victor puts into what is essentially his hobby, she still stands by him and his vision even if you do get the feeling that she isn’t as into the whole event as much as he is, though it is certainly a love shared by his 10 year old daughter who can be seem mutilating her Barbies for inclusion in her father’s haunted house, while even relishing the celebrity status she has in her school for being Victor’s daughter.

While this documentary is a lot of fun it does however run alittle too long leaving you no doubt feeling that it would have been perfect it had been cut down to an hour, especially with the focus being soley on the three families and no voice over the end result can seem alittle tedious in places, especially when some of the footage is not overly remarkable or insightful. No doubt this extra length could have best been used for perhaps interviews with speakers at the seminar or perhaps one big name name from the special effects industry given their own opinion on the home haunter trend.
True this is far from a perfect documentary especially with its length and footage selection, it is still at times a touching documentary about a group of people who not only love Halloween, but genuinely get a real kick out what they do.

Blogger Spotlight: Whatcha Gonna Queue

"The Internet has given everybody in America a voice. For some reason, everybody decides to use that voice to bitch about movies." - Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back

No quote could really be any more true, especially when you consider the sheer amount of movie blogs there are out there and even more so with Youtube only making it all the easier for folks, with a video camera handy to broadcast their thoughts and opinions. Still the vast majority of these video blogs, proving to be sketchy at best, with either poor scripting or horrible attempts at humour or in the worst cases both (Yes I'm looking at you "Film Brain") with a large amount for some reason trying to transfer the volatile and profanity driven style of "The Angry Video Game Nerd" to films and while there are undoubtedly some talented video blogger's out there with the likes of "The Cinema Snob" and "The Spoony Experiment" both being prime examples of this.

Still having come back from vacation and working my way through the various offers of Viagra and free money in my inbox, I had received a message about the "Whatcha Gonna Queue: Halloween Special" from Alex Rabinowitz, who is one half of the "Whatcha Gonna Queue?" team along with his partner in crime Jim Rohner, as they aim to highlight essential DVD's worth adding to your no doubt already extensive Netflix lists.

The show is a good mixture of critique and fun humour, with no stupid characters or stopping to read their IMDB notes, which have in the past been a major problem I've had with the majority of youtube based review shows and thankfully neither of these have shown up in any of the four episodes they have released already, with their current Halloween special also looking at one of my favourite less known horror films "Session 9" (2001). Still while most of their picks might be obvious to the more frenzied film junkies amongst you, they have still managed to uncover a few little known picks, which I had to add to my own watch list such as "Afterschool" (2008) and "Time Crimes" (2007) and for these moments it makes the show certainly worth giving a look.

Still decide for yourselves now as here for your viewing enjoyment is the "Whatcha Gonna Queue: Halloween Special". Please feel free to let me know your thoughts.

Thorpe Park "Fright Night" 2010 Review

It’s once again that most wonderful time of the year, Halloween and while Christmas and Easter might be equally groovy, there is something about Halloween which just rings out good times, which could largely down to the fact that it’s also one of the few holidays were we’re not being made to feel guilty about something. Halloween is also doubly special for myself seeing how it is also my wedding anniversary, the first of which is now quickly approaching. So wanting to do something special to celebrate this (if alittle early) special date my gorgeous wife Lily, we headed up with my brother in law Robert and his lady Phoebe to Thorpe Park, whom were once again holding their “Fright night” event, were for a limited time the park plays host to six horror themed mazes and usually dresses the park up with various cool looking horror props, which sadly were absent this year, which seemed an even more confusing move, especially seeing how the ticket prices have once again gone up and despite the fact the park now looked the same as always, I was still keen to see for myself what their mazes had to offer.

The park boasts six mazes in total, each with its own unique theme and all featuring a mixture of static props and live actors in full horror make up, aiming to scare the hell out of the guests walking through the mazes, using a combination of sudden shocks (jumping out suddenly etc) and general performance pieces.

To go through each of the mazes you are first put into a group of six people, were you then have to keep your hands on the person in fronts shoulders / waist forming a sober conga line as you follow each other through the maze, but not before being given the lowdown on what to expect, where they are especially keen to stress that you don’t attack the actors, who like strippers cannot be touched by you, which honestly makes sense as you don’t really want your actors being punched out by some panicked guest and in a way this only adds to the tension, seeing how this human chain leaves you feeling more than alittle vulnerable and only adds to the tension once your inside the maze.

So allow me to now give you the general low down on each of these mazes, so beware as the review will contain some spoilers.

The Curse

Set in a haunted ship, this was the first of the main mazes we went through and made a great introduction to the fun ahead, especially as this was the lightest of the mazes in terms of horror, relying more on the actors jumping out on the guests and had some nice touches such as the bodies floating in bubbling water. Still unlike the other mazes it resists the urge to give a final big scare, while some people felt made it anticlimactic, personally I felt it didn’t need it.

Hellgate

This was one of my favourites and has the advantage of having a building to be housed in all year round, which also enables it to not only have some great perminant design work, but also some interesting set pieces such the rotating tunnel, which might be an oldie but it’s also a goodie, much like the arms shooting out from holes in the scenery. The haunted house theme works well, with the horror slowly building as you work your way through, combining some interesting ideas, though it really doesn’t string them together as well as “Se7en”. The actors put on a good show, with an interesting mix of characters, including a spitting image of Riff Raff from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” (1975). Again no big ending but a fun ride throughout, especially with nothing too threatening for the more nervous park guests.

Se7en

My favourite of the mazes, with the theme being surprisingly enough “the seven deadly sins” all contained in an apartment block from hell. Still despite the more obvious of themes, it still manages to not feel too tied down to the more traditional ideas for each of the sins, especially judging by some of the characters, with one of my favourites being the woman who gets so annoyed by the screams coming from the room next door, she threw her TV diner on the floor, before walking over slowly to harass the group, while other moments proved slightly more questionable like the girl dressed like a ninja jumping on the bed.

The gluttony room proved extremely nauseating thanks largely, to the rotton milk smell, which truly hits you when you walk in the room, thanks to the use of the plastic strip curtains which only keep the stench in the room, creating a real wall of putrid smells to hit you when you enter the room.

The design work is amazing, with the actors truly getting into the role, with a large emphasis on making the guests feel more uncomfortable than sudden shocks. Still with the actors staying in their rooms, it does mean that unlike other mazes you’re unlikely to encounter a particular character again, once you have gone through the room. Still the girl in a masquerade mask did a good job improvising when the group got held up and restrained from calling our particular leader something derogatory, which I no doubt would have and instead concentrated on one particular member of our group, taking full advantage of the rules which allowed her to touch the guests, while they couldn’t touch her.

The big finale has you in a room with dense smoke, which really prevented you from seeing much atoll, which after having so many people jumping out in the other mazes, really has your mind playing tricks on you, when you stumble into this final room.

Asylum

This maze has for a long time been the pride of Thorpe Park’s Fright Nights and certainly had the longest queue, no doubt thanks to it’s reputation while no doubt also aided greatly by the crowd of screaming people running out.
Set in an asylum (funny that), were it’s clear that the shit really has hit the fan, pretty much from the moment you see the nurse strung up with a plastic bag over her face. Once inside it’s heavy with smoke and constant strobe, while you’re bombarded with white noise, only furthering adding to the disorientation and I’m sure that if I wasn’t epileptic when I went in, I’m almost sure that I was after this maze. Still the strobe lights really helped the actors to pull off some creepy vanishing acts, while I also got harassed by one of the inmates, who was pretty insistent that I “kiss the baby!!”
The big finale though is what make this one special as you get to meet the crazed surgeon welding a chainsaw, who first runs past the group before turning around and chasing you out and despite knowing that it’s not a real chainsaw it still didn’t stop the burly guys ahead of me running out like a bunch of sissy girls.

Saw: Alive

This maze is slightly different to the other seeing how it’s open all year round and was brought in to tie in with the Saw rollercoaster, which I can safely say I have no interest of ever going on. The maze has some really impressive set design which really makes you feel like you’re in the movie, including the trademark clocks, several of the more memorable traps, as well as a room all to similar to Jigsaws control centre, while at the start of the maze your group photo is taken with the Jigsaw puppet on his tricycle which was a really neat touch.

What lets this maze down, was the actors who on this occasion seemed more bored than anything resembling enthusiasm for shocking the guests, which really made me feel sorry for the first girl we encountered and who was really busting a gut, with her crazy act which was unnerving, especially to have her screaming right in your face while clapping manically. Meanwhile the few other actors pretty much consisted of some bored guy slamming a chain to make a few loud bangs and some half hearted jumping out on the group. Phoebe who had been through the maze before, also pin pointed their lack lustre performances (excluding the aforementioned crazy girl), stating that her first time through the maze had been better, thanks to the actors really going out of their way to provide the shocks. Still for the fans of the series it’s a suitable tribute, but rests far too heavily on the actors working it, to provide the shocks.

Dead End Terror Zone

Although I didn’t get to see this maze, thanks to it never seeming to be open on the day we were at the park, it would seem from other reports that I wasn’t missing much, with the maze being more of a graveyard for parts from old attractions and featuring too few actors to make it effective.

Fright Night runs till October 31st and makes for a fun night out, even if this year does feel to be overly lacking, thanks to the non existent Halloween theming around the park, which this year was sorely missed and for a park of Thorpe’s stature as well as Ticket price, it really only adds to the fact that this year they kind of dropped the ball, with the event being only really saved thanks to four of the six horror mazes, with these failings on such basic things, certainly will make me wonder if the ticket price will be worth it, especially if it turns out to be another year like this one, were effort clearly felt to be lacking in places.