Chillerama

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Chillerama

Director: Adam Green, Joe Lynch, Adam Rifkin, Tim Sullivan
Released: 2011
Starring: Adam Rifkin, Sarah Mutch, Owen Benjamin, Ray Wise, Eric Roberts, Miles Dougal, Lin Shaye, Sean Paul Lockhart, Anton Troy, Gabby West, Adam Robitel, Ron Jeremy, Tim Sullivan, Thomas C. Colby-Dog, Joel David Moore, Kristina Klebe, Kane Hodder, Jim Ward, Richard Riehle, Corey Jones, Kaili Thorne, Brendan McCreary, Ward Roberts

Plot: It’s the closing night of the last drive-in theatre in America and owner Cecil B. Kaufman has decided to go out with a bang by holding a marathon of cinematic trash for his faithful cinephile patrons. Unknown to them though is the fact that one of the staff has contracted a zombie virus through some ill-advised necrophilia, ensuring this is going to be nothing short of a memorable closing night.

Review: While many may have hailed Eli Roth as the saviour of the horror genre, a title which he has sadly failed to live up to, especially considering how he is more concerned with taking on producing duties these days than sitting in the directors chair, as only further highlighted by the gap between “Hostel 2” and the forthcoming “The Green Inferno”. Infact if anyone could be branded as a saviour for the genre, I would personally venture that it would have to be Adam Green, whom since unleashing “Hatchet” has only feverishly continued to add to the genre, as he followed it up with not only a sequel to this debut, but also the critically acclaimed “Frozen” which showed that he was more than another splatter director.More surprisingly though he has also givin us the horror version of “The Big Bang Theory” with “Holliston” which he also stars in with fellow horror director and best friend Joe Lynch, who unsurprisingly is also on hand to direct a segment here.

Now the unholy twosome join forces with Adam Rifkin and Tim Sullivan to create this horror comedy anthology, an idea originally devised by Rifkin and Sullivan as a weekly show for MTV, only for it to fall through due to the increased popularity in reality shows. Now recruiting Green and Lynch to their cause it finally makes it to the screen in movie form and I was eager to see how it stood up alongside the classic Anthologies which came before it like “Tales From The Darkside” and “Creepshow”, aswell as the knowing nods to B-movie culture much like we saw with the criminally separated “Grindhouse” whose double feature format failed to make it out of the States as it was released internationally as two separate films.

Comprised of four films with each director getting their own chance to craft their own vision, as they give us here

• Wadzilla (directed by Adam Rifkin) – A monster sized man eating sperm goes on a rampage through New York.

• I Was a Teenage Werebear (directed by Tim Sullivan) – The sole musical entry in the film, set in 1962 were Ricky (Lockheart) a closet gay discovers a mysterious gang, who also happen to turn into leather daddy werebears when aroused.

• The Diary of Anne Frankenstein (directed by Adam Green) – The secret attempt by Hitler (Moore) to create the perfect killing machine to help turn the tide of the war, while in turn giving the world his Jewish Frankenstein Meshugannah (Hodder) 

• Zom-B-Movie (directed by Joe Lynch) – The main meat of the film, which is intercut with the other films, as sex crazed zombies invade the drive through while ensuring the film end with a suitably splatter soaked finale

As you can see it is a real mixed bag on offer here in terms of style and ideas, yet all keep within the general theme the film shows….one that it would seem drenched in bodily fluids and gore, served up with a heavy dose of warped humour, which is not a bad thing and certainly gives the bad taste aficionados plenty to enjoy. The downside though is that like “Four Rooms” the level of talent on offer here is varying to say the least, resulting in a film which is frequently uneven in places as the standard shifts from piece to piece with Green and Lynch easily having the stronger segments, with their experience of working in the genre really coming into play, with Lynch’s “Zom-B-Movie” throwing out cheeky nods to the zombie genre left, right and centre while seemingly also attempting to top the splatter finale of Peter Jackson’s legendry “Braindead” while at the same giving it a sex comedy style twist which has to be seen to be believed. Meanwhile Green’s twist on Frankenstein is so over the top that despite the high potential to cause offence by poking fun at what could essentially be volatile subject matter, is quickly put to rest by the ever increasing levels of randomness, which has a real Mel Brooks feel to it as the film self acknowledges its own stupidity, even having cast step outside of the sets and actors suddenly being replaced by questionable looking dummies.

Sadly were the film hits a major bump is with “I Was A Teenage Werebear” which attempts to give us “Grease” via the way of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”, which is a dangerous idea to begin with when you consider that even Richard O’Brian couldn’t create a sequel to beat his creation, so it is essentially destinted to fail from the start as any number of tepid stage versions trying to capture the magic of the film have only further proven. The main problem here is not so much with the plot, which embraces carefree gay love, aswell as the confusion for a young man still forced to live in the closet, all great themes to see being used and obviously ideas close to the heart of the segments director seeing how Sullivan himself is openly gay (and rather keen to drop this fact in for any promotional material for the film). What lets this segment down is instead the weak collection of forgettable songs being warbled by the cast. None of these song I have to confess would have me rushing to buy the soundtrack, which has been optimistically released alongside the film, while Sullivan has also hinted at a full length stage version, something else that I’m not exactly on tender hooks to see, especially as this segment is only just bearable, thanks to some over the top and frequently original splatter.

One thing which stuck with me about this film though is the continuous obsession with bodily fluids, as the film seems to take any opportunity to ensure that all feature in some form or another with “Wadzilla” with its giant sperm and tidal wave cum shots ensuring that it comes off like a more light hearted version of the body shocker “Bad Biology”. Still the bad taste aficionados amongst you will no doubt appreciate the sheer effort which has been put into this film to ensure that they are all covered for your viewing pleasure, which includes a scatological themed “Deathication”. Thankfully its not a theme which overshadows the whole film, but one which certainly crops up enough to be noticeable.

While the segments might vary greatly in quality and style, the strength of “The Diary of Anne Frankenstein” and “Zom-B-Movie” prove to be more than enough to cover for the weaker parts of the film. At the same time while watching this I couldn’t help but feel that I was missing the audience element which no doubt has made this such a popular film on the horror festival circuit and as such I would recommend watching this with a group of like-minded friends to get the full effect intended.

Water Lilies

A late contribution to the Queer Film Blogathon hosted by Garbo Laughs.

Title: Water Lilies

Director: Céline Sciamma

Released: 2007

Staring: Pauline Acquart, Louise Blachère, Adele Haenel, Warren Jacquin

Plot: Three young girls on a synchronised swimming team, are forced to deal with awakening sexuality and the pressure of virginity.

Review: It has been said that the earliest years of our lives, especially our teenage years are amongst the hardest and it’s this entry point into adulthood which Director Sciamma has chosen as her point of interest for her debut film.

The three young female leads at the centre of this film are each wildly different from the other with the main focus falling onto Marie (Acquart) who is both quiet and almost expressionless throughout, while also harbouring a secret love for the beautiful head of the swim team Floraine (Haenel) whom is almost Marie’s opposite as she projects an air of confidence, while fuelling rumours of her sexual experience in order to maintain her popularity. Marie’s sole support in this situation comes from her friend Anne (Blachère), who despite being the heavier girl on the team, doesn’t seemingly allow it to affect her while also being prone to impulsive behaviour, while obsessing over François (Jacquin) a member of the boys water volleyball team.

For most of the film, we follow Marie whose obsession with Floraine leads to an unusual friendship of sorts with Floraine relying on Marie for favors, which more often than not take the form of an alibi for Floraine's various liaisons with assorted guys, yet as she later reveals to Marie, these are purely non sexual meet ups due to her fear of bleeding via penetration and that her she only fuels her own sluttish reputation solely to maintain her position as the most wanted girl at school. Still despite being entrusted with such a powerful secret, Marie maintains a questionable level of obedience to Floraine’s various whims, which often see her sitting around car parks or outside clubs waiting for Floraine, but never once feeling the urge to revel Floraine’s secret to anyone, even though Floraine never seemingly shows the slightest sign of wanting to return Marie’s feelings for her.

As a result of Marie’s friendship with Floraine, her relationship with Anne soon begins to flounder, as Marie finds herself becoming increasingly frustrated with her impulsive friend, even though she is the sole person in which she is able to confide about her feelings for Floraine. Still despite her young age, there is never any questioning of these feelings, while Marie never identifies herself as being either straight or gay, with Sciamma focusing more on these blossoming feelings than trying to attach any form of label to her characters. Still sex on a whole is never portrayed as anything resembling enjoyable or sensual, but more a political tool to announce status amongst your peers, while Anne is left repulsed after loosing her virginity in a casual lay with Floraine’s boyfriend, who has long since grown bored of being regularly rejected and seeks out Anna for instant gratification, not that she particularly seems to mind, especially when she can use it as a power play against Floraine’s control over Marie. Meanwhile despite her quest to be with Floraine seemingly being on the path that Marie wants with Sciamma teasing out their relationship with a number of almost moments, Marie is ultimately reduced to becoming the tool of Floraine’s deflowering, in a loveless event which ultimately pushes them further apart than bringing them closer together.

Shot from solely the girls’ perspective with no focus being given to subplots outside the three girls, the film is also almost devoid of any adult characters, with the few who do appear often being authority figures such as the coach of the swim team who chastises girls for not shaving under their arms or the pervert male coaches. Still Sciamma shoots the film with a thoughtful pace and despite running to a brisk 85 minutes it still feels a lot longer because of this, especially as Sciamma waits until the final quarter to unleash a flood of emotions upon the audience, who have been able to stick with the teasingly drawn out relationships between the main characters, while keeping the cinematography simple throughout as she chooses instead to focus on her characters, rather than aiming for any kind of visual flair and instead shoots the film with an indie rawness. Infact the sole flashy shot we do get is a prolonged underwater shot of the girls performing their routine, no doubt believing the drama of the story should be enough to hold the audiences attention without having to resort to fancy camera tricks to keep their attention.

While a spot on in capturing the essence of teen angst, the film admittedly is not going to be for everyone, especially with the girl being portrayed as almost miniature adults, rather than the usual smart assed and talkative creations popular with American cinema or the expletive heavy and over sexed teens, currently being overused as the template in British cinema. Still even with such a thoughtful style it still remains a highly watchable film.