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midnightgraffiti@aol.com
Here's our
favorite on the tube these days: Pontypool. A
strange little Canadian flick with a cast of, well, under ten,
but with rock-solid performances and a wonderfully diverting
take on a zombie-like plague terrorizing the citizens of the
small community. What's special is the nature of
the horror: words have somehow become viral, causing those
who hear "infected"
words to slowly become first fixated, then zombfied before
beginning to gnaw on the neighbors. Trapped in a radio station,
an older DJ and his young producer paint
us a picture of the horror going on outside the basement studio
until it suddenly breaks in, leaving the two
trapped in a booth and unable to speak out of fear they may infect
each other and become dinner. Amazingly low budget, creepy and
absolutely riveting, you can't miss this one!
PROM
NIGHT: You're
kidding, right? Is there any point in spending valuable vapor-space
on this? You'd think studios groping
around for remake ideas could come up with something better
then Prom Night, which was low-budget trash in the first
place. Have they truly run out of ideas, as we've been fearing,
or is this simply the last dribbles of the last wave of the
Saw Boom?
We'll explain:
after
the unexpected success of Saw (
the original) there was a lemming-like scrabble in development
offices all over Hollywood looking for low budget scripts,
a herd of buyers skulking around film festivals, scads of
indie horror getting financing -- horror underwent a dot com
boom it hadn't experienced since the 80s. Like the horrendous
tech-dump in the 2000s, every niche in horror, every development
stream, every agent's desk is piled high with Saw clones, slowly
creeping their way off development slates and into the recycle
bins where most of them belong.
HOW
IT WORKS: But
look, horror fans, it's time you knew how things really work
out here in scream land. No one is in the business of innovating--
for all the talk of wanting to find something fresh and original,
no one actually wants to be the first to try something different.
Development execs are much happier when they can see someone
else try then fail They like it even better when they can see
someone try, then succeed., i.e., Saw. Then,
THEY know how to do it--how much to spend, who to cast, how
to release and where. Though, of course, history demonstrates
that there is no formula for success: we need go no further
than to ask you to cast your mind back to the comparative merits
of Blair Witch One and Two ; 28 Days
Later and 28 Weeks later; Ju-On:The
Grudge (pre-translation) and The
Grudge (Hollywood
version). The originals are not groundbreaking ideas, as those
of you who read no doubt know; but they are fresh, enthusiastic,
creative approaches to the hoary old genre of ghost stories.
They're GREAT ghost stories. just like Dog Soldiers was a great,
different look at werewolves.
Filmmaking
is a business, not an art form. Even so, there are a few artists
out there: The
Pang Brothers,
(Gin Gwan-The Eye) Richard Kelley, the Cohen Brothers (
though we pretty much hated No Country for Old Men) Danny
Boyle (28 Days Later) Timur Bekmambetov ( Nightwatch)
even the guys who are doing silly horror ( Michael Spierig's Undead an Australian
zombie romp that is truly one of the funniest, weirdest of horror
movies in the last decade ,
Shaun of the Dead) --these are stunning achievements
compared to reheated crap like Prom Night. It doesn't cost any
more money to make something good -- it just takes bollocks,
craft, and lots of luck.
GET
WELL, STAY FIT: to
Roger Avery, who had a car scare, and Dave McKean, who had
a health scare recently in Los Angeles.
OUR
MASH NOTE TO DAVE McKEAN & NEIL GAIMAN: Mirrormask
is playing on cable so you can catch it now, if you haven't
yet seen it. Below, our note to Dave and Neil:
You
should be very proud, not just for imagining such a world
and the characters in it, but for sustaining it in a way
that was visually stunning and intellectually challenging
at every turn. As in any work of art, there are flaws,
perhaps a misstep or two, but those flaws are like seeing
a bit of spinach on the teeth of a beautiful woman.
We
loved the infinite attention to the theme: what masks we
wear, why, the thousand subtle ways the idea was underscored;
that and the darker metaphors of love and loss and separation.
The scene with the giants was absolutely wrenching: darkness
entangling a partner, ripping the bond holding
them together, giants falling
to earth.
We
loved the casting, the credit sequence; all the
delicious bits of irony and the fantastic; the sphinxes
and the ridiculous riddles; the Bobs; the librarian; the
Really Useful Book, mystic Mrs. Bagwell…well, pretty
much everything.
As
the movie progressed, permeating nearly every scene was
the constant sense of isolation, oppressive despite the
lighter moments. The only beings who tenderly touched were
the giants: every other scene reinforced loss and
loneliness, physical and emotional distance; Helena from
her own world, she from her mother; the dark queen from
her own rebellious daughter; the worlds of dark and light
isolated from one another and every creature solitary behind
a mask disguising every feeling and thought. Even Valentine,
the most accessible of all the characters, was hiding what
was in his heart.
The
sense of detachment some viewers felt was probably the
result of doing your job too well. The movie is about
detachment ( and overcoming it. ) As we are all detached,
all wearing masks, how very uncomfortable to have it pointed
out so vividly. Well done!
FROM
1-08 THE MIST: hmmmm.
We're still stuck in the fog over this. One of the first
scripts for The Mist was written shortly after publication
by Dennis Etchison over 25 years ago, and really captured
the spirit of the novella. Well, the world has changed a
lot in the last 25 years, but somehow the screenplay didn't,
even in t he capable hands of Frank Darabont. There is such
a thing as being too true to the original. When Stephen King
wrote The Mist, the world of horror was still rather
ghettoized-- just starting to break out with literary hits
like Rosemary's
Baby and
the
Exorcist. But it was Stephen King who really turned
that hoary old genre on its ear, modernizing it and single
handedly started an explosive period of growth, and legions
of fans.
Though
the readers seemed to have wandered off somewhere, the filmmakers
have been innovating, finding
new ways to surprise and involve the viewer. Think
of 28
days later, Silence of the Lambs, Saw,
Memento,
Seven, Pi, even Sean
of the Dead . You
really can't go back again, much as you'd like to, or as much
as you love the early works of SK. There is a core story in The
Mist that has the same universal themes as Lord of the
Flies,
but you would have to imagine how the story would be different
if it had been written last month instead of 27 years ago
to make it relevant to today's audiences. The curse of horror
is that it is almost always "present day", as is the
audience.
The Mist feels like a period piece in some ways, as
if nearly 3 decades of filmmaking hadn't happened. You can't
make an eighties movie and expect anyone to come and watch it
in 2008. And we're not even going to talk about that freakin'
ending. See for yourself. This is a fad we hope will disappear.
NO
COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN: Speaking
of sun goes nova endings -- Knock it off, unless you're going
to play fair. We love the Cohen brothers and Cormac McCarthy,
but the craft of McCarthy's writing is in his maintaining a
careful distance from the characters. It's very difficult in
film to keep us at a distance and still involved, but completely
unacceptable to use all the conventions of film grammar to
get us involved, then slap us in the face with a dead fish.
You know what I mean. It's a gyp.
GAIMAN
2.0 We
loved both Mirror Mask and Stardust, though
can't help but observe the marketing department wasn't quite
sure what to do with Stardust or who was going to be buying
tickets. The few that did go over opening weekend loved what
they saw, but even word of mouth was not quite enough to
save the receipts. Gaiman's Beowolf experienced
some of the same box office woes, though did a quite a bit
better opening weekend. We guess that The 300 has opened
a niche for his-lit storytelling and this story certainly
has all the epic pedigree, being the first of its kind. There
were some interesting visual approaches, though there was
a strange falsity about Winstone's CGI body that was mezmerizing
(in a bad way.) We liked the imaginative telling of the story,
but god gosh, the nude fight scene was too much like Austin
Powers for comfort. Sure, it was accurate to the epic poem
the story was based on, but silly in the execution. People
were too intent on seeing if they got a peek at Ray Winstone's
CGI bollocks to give a shit about the outcome of the battle.
Of course it is important to be faithful to the original
of such an important piece of literature--but come on. Were
the producers afraid that all the millions of Beowolf lovers
would be outraged at having this awsome battle conducted
with clothes? (We're kidding of course. Hold up your hand
if you've actually READ Beowolf. Please write if you have
and tell us how betrayed you would have felt if Beowolf had
been wearing a loin cloth.)If
this is the kind of thing people discuss when leaving
the screening, you have a problem.
6-04
WHAT WERE THEY THINKING, DEPT. Part I Though
there are many fun popcorn movies to look forward to this
summer (see sidebar), we're not sure about Catwoman,
judging from the trailers. Honestly. That S&M outfit
on Hale Berry may be a comic geek's wet dream, but if she
was skulking around our neighborhood in that outfit, we
wouldn't be able to stop laughing. Do those little leather
straps deflect bullets? Can she run in high heels? Does
she get hat hair when she takes off her mask? Is
her bare midriff suppossed to inspire fear or is lust her secret
weapon? Don't
worry about her catching cold, though. We're betting there's
a long black leather coat in her closet somewhere, the one article
of clothing derigueur for summer movies.(see Hellboy, below,)
TROUBLE
IN PARADISE? What's
up with Indiana Jones IV? Soon after a recent announcement
that Frank Darabont had turned in a script that pleased principals
Harrison Ford and Director Steven Spielberg, apparently co-producer
George Lucas played the spoiler and the project has settled back
into limbo. (Read: back for a rewrite. ) We're not the first to
observe that Lucas, bless his heart, is not necessarily the greatest
storyteller outside of his Star Wars milieu. Spielberg and Darabont
have proven their versatility and depth as storytellers. Can they
both be wrong? Delaying the fourth installment can only accomplish
one thing --a slow death for the project.
BLADE
THREE? COULD WE HAVE JUST ONE SANDMAN INSTEAD?
Blade
III 's David Goyer intends to move forward with writer Neil
Gaiman's Murder Mysteries as his next project. First published
in the Midnight Graffiti anthology (Warner Books), Murder Mysteries
was sold to Miramax with Alessandro Camon attached as producer
and Goyer as writer/director. Though the property was optioned
nearly four years ago, the production has been stalled due to
Goyer's committments to the Blade franchise and writing chores
on Batman Begins, slated for 2005. We admire his
taste in Gaiman's material, and hope for the best as he leaves
his comic book roots behind for this ambitious and demanding project.
In
other Gaiman news, Neil is being courted by most major studios
and is currently being tapped for projects with a number of A-list
directors and screenwriters, including Terry Gilliam and Robert
Zemekis. Properties including Chivalry, Death and the High
Cost of Living, Good Omens, and Neverwhere are in various
states of development. It's a crime that these exceptional and
imaginative works are in the hands of timid and apparently moribund
executives. C'mon folks--surely there's room on the slate (somewhere
between the Olsen twins and the Wayan Brothers) for something
worth watching? If you're a fan (and we are, unabashedly) visit
neilgaiman.com to
get the latest.
SPAWN
OF SPAWN
Film
Roman, the folks who bring you The Simpsons every week,
have cut a deal with Spawn creator Todd McFarlane. No word yet
on the nature of the deal. McFarlane came to fame as the writer
who revived a stale Spiderman back in the late eighties and revitalized
the fandom of the now mega- franchise. Todd spun himself off into
a mini-enterprise with toys and comics, principally Spawn.
The best-selling comic was adapted as both an animated series
and feature film. McFarlane recently lost a lawsuit with MG alumni
Neil Gaiman over the rights to Miracle Man (exhaustively covered
elsewhere on the web by Comics Weekly and others), though we hope
both parties had the best of motives for their vituperative head-butting.
For you sports fans, McFarlane was the party who paid close to
$3 million for home run hitter Mark McGwire's 70th homer. Incidentally,
McFarlane Toys is the 5th largest action figure manufacturer in
the US, producing Spawn and KISS action figures along with figures
based on characters such as Ozzy Osbourne, Austin Powers, The
Crow, Species II, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th,
Halloween, Chucky, Psycho and Pumpkinhead. So--what kind of childhood
would that imply?
WHAT
WERE THEY THINKING, DEPT. Part II: HELL,BOY
As
long as we're on this comic jag, we learned that director Guillermo
Del Toro (Mimic, Blade 2) had a fight on his hands with
the promotional poster for Hellboy, released this spring.
Mike Mignola's creation has long been a cult favorite in comicland
and the film had an impressive opening weekend. No doubt Hellboy
will make back the nut and then some for Sony Pictures (Hellboy
2 is already in the works). Guillermo wanted an illustration
for the poster image, not a photo composite, sensing that a) a
painting would make a great transition from the source material
(comic) to film, and b) it would distinguish his film from the
derivative posters used for most modern releases.
Guillermo
went to the best artist in the industry (Drew Struzan, about whom
you will be learning much this fall) and commissioned him for
the poster. How could Sony object? Guillermo knew that Drew, who
created posters for every mega-hit on the planet (Star Wars,
Raiders of the Lost Ark, Bladerunner, E.T., Harry Potter--the
list is endless and mind-boggling) would be the ideal interpreter
for the elements of the film. Del Toro trusted that Struzan would
interpret the gun-wielding half demon in a creative, compelling
way. Del Toro naturally feared what studio marketers typically
do with such subject matter: morph his unique character into some
gun-toting, black raincoat-wearing, steroid-popping, triple-X
type he-man who happened to have the remnant of horns on his head.
Del
Toro had to put a frickin' headlock on Sony's marketing department
to let the poster happen and even then, they only printed and
distributed the minumum number to keep the director happy. At
Guillermo's insistence, the commissioned poster ran the week of
the opening. The film opened at number one. However, the second
week of release, Sony published their own version of the poster
ad featuring star Ron Perlman as -- you guessed it -- a gun toting
heavy in a black raincoat, a huge firearm at his side, with the
barest suggestion of a bump on his head. (See below.) The film
dropped 68% the second week -- way more than the usual drop for
a number one film.
ART by
DREW STRUZAN ART
by SOME GUY
Think
about it. Sony buys this property from Mignola, gets him to collaborate
on the screenplay, hires Del Toro -- an expert in the genre --
to polish it and direct it. Sony does everything in their power
at conventions and through the media to seduce and solicit the
approbation of the jillions of Hellboy's fans, then--in a stunning
master stroke of anti-promotion--they deliberately DISGUISE the
character in the poster ads so the casual viewer won't suspect
any of Hellboy's unique qualities. The image is so homogenized
that it could be a poster for , well... anything with a big guy
and a gun. Look at that thing on the right--is that, like, an
ad for Underworld, or Van Helsing or The Punisher or the latest
Vin Diesel movie? Flipping through the paper, what's different
about Hellboy, the movie, you should part with twenty bucks? It
does remind us that the Matrix is on TV and we can stay
home and watch it for free. Way to go Sony!
Do
yourself a favor--take a good look at the Drew Struzan poster,
and the rest of his vast porfolio, at drewstruzan.com .
MORE
NEWS SOON!
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BOX OFFICE
We're
just waiting to see how hard ECLIPSE is going to stomp
on the box office before adding our "Twlight"
tributes. Yes, we're big fans-- no matter how some
of our favorite authors dis the series.
MORE
APOCALYPSE, please. Seaking of
plagues.
This genre is our personal favorite. If we keep electing
pinheads to Congress, we're all going to be able
to see what it's REALLY like living in a wasteland, surrounded
by plague-ridden zombies.
Wait.
That's our house.
Other
favorites: Who
can forget Independence Day or Deep
Impact? The
Day the Earth Stood Still,
or The Day After?
Then there's great end-of-the-world fiction: Stephen King's The
Stand, Niven and Pournelle's Lucifer's Hammer, and
the recent best-seller, Year of Wonders, by Geraldine
Brooks. We'll even watch Volcano or Outbreak in
a pinch, though the latter is a psychotic mess of a film. 28
Days Later
is our current favorite.
4-08:
28
Days later is still our favorite, though I Am Legend ( both
versions) should be included. In honor of Chuck Heston, recently
departed, we should include Soylent
Green as well.
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