Author: Mat Brewster

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The Friday Night Horror Movie: Bloody Hell (2020)

bloody hell poster

After accidentally killing a woman while trying to thwart a bank robbery, Rex (Ben O’Toole) is sentenced to eight years in prison. Upon release, he decides to go to Finland to escape the media circus (the trial made him famous) and start a new life.

At the airport, he is noticed by a strange couple who keep staring at him and talking about him in Finish. In Finland, just arriving at the airport, he takes a cab. The driver puts releases some gas into the back cabin knocking Rex out. He awakes to find himself tied up in the basement of the strange couple’s house, with one of his legs cut off.

To tell much more of the plot would be to spoil much of the film’s fun. And it is a fun film, despite all the horror, dismemberment, killing, and gore. Rex talks to himself and this is displayed by having him literally talk to himself, as in the actor plays a more sarcastic version of Rex which we literally see as two people. That allows for a lot of humorous back and forth, which works better than it should.

The family consists of a mother and father, and twin sons who are all murderous psychopaths. But there is also Alia (Meg Foster) who understands how screwed up her family is but has not been able to escape. Naturally, she becomes a love interest of sorts.

For the most part, the film deftly mixes its thriller/horror moments with some pretty funny comedy and a surprising amount of whimsy. When Alia first talks to Rex and realizes he might be her salvation we whip into a fantasy sequence with her dancing with Rex in a beautiful field while romantic music plays. That sequence will get a hilarious replay towards the end of the film with some imaginative changes.

It doesn’t always work. The back and forth between Rex and his imagination can be a little grating at times. The family drifts a little too far into cartoonishness, especially at the end. But I found it quite enjoyable. Horror comedy is difficult to pull off and Bloody Hell does it better than most.

Boom Town (1940)

boom town movie

While looking for something to watch I stumbled upon this movie. A western starring Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Claudette Colbert, and Hedy Lamarr, I thought, why have I never heard of this before? The answer, of course, is that it isn’t that good. Great movies become beloved, and bad ones are notorious, but average ones are easily forgotten.

Gable and Tracy play Big John McMasters and Square John Sand respectively, two oil wildcatters. The film starts out strong enough with both of them down on their luck, out of work, and out of money. Square John has spent his last dime on some Oklahoma land he’s just sure is full of oil, but he’s got no cash to buy the drilling equipment. Big John says he has cash and they team up together. Turns out he doesn’t really have any money but he cons the equipment from Luther Aldrich (Frank Morgan). Oil flows and the two of them are rich.

Square John has a girl, Betsy (Claudette Colbert) back home he’s been courting since he was a young buck, but he’s yet to talk her into marriage. She shows up without warning and meets Big John without either knowing who the other is. She pretty quickly figures out he’s Square John’s partner, but she finds it fun to toy with him without him knowing who she is. They talk and flirt, and fall in love. In the morning she fesses up, but admits she never really loved Square John, at least not in that way, and came all the way out to let him down gently.

Square John, for his part, takes all of this on the chin. Betsy and Big John get married and things go well. Until they don’t. She finds him in the arms of another woman, starts to leave him, but ultimately forgives him. Something Square John cannot do.

He breaks up their partnership and the rest of the film finds one of them up and the other one down, financially speaking. When one is down he wants nothing to do with the other, and vice versa.

It is here that the film falls apart for me. It goes on for far too long having one of them strike it rich and then lose everything and then the tides turn. Betsy is stuck in the middle. Hedy Lamarr eventually shows up as a woman who uses her skills and charms to basically be a corporate spy, giving Big John the scoop on what is going down in New York, and giving him the upper hand. She uses those same charms to woo him, creating yet another rift in the relationship.

I love me some Hedy Lamarr but by the time she really gets going, I was ready for the film to end. It has some really oddball things to say about love and marriage and the story just falls apart about midway through.

That’s too bad, too, because it has a great cast and that first half has a lot of promise.

The filmmaking is actually pretty great. The actors are all very good and the photography is very picturesque. There is one brilliant scene in which an oil well catches fire. The blaze is tremendous and a score of workers risk their lives to put it out It really is quite something to see.

The Shout (1978)

the shout movie poster

I had planned to make this film last week’s Friday Night Horror movie, but about halfway through I stopped it to do some family things, and when I tried to pick it back up, my Internet was acting wonky and I couldn’t get it to play (it is currently on the Criterion Channel). But since it has been on my mind, I figure I’ll talk about it now.

A cricket game is being played at a mental institution. Patients and employees play alike, and a few outsiders are brought in as well. One such outsider, Robert (Tim Curry) takes score inside a covered wagon. A strange man (Alan Bates) joins him. This man begins to tell a story and the film follows.

In a small, seaside village live Anthony and Rachel Fielding (John Hurt and Susanna York). He’s an experimental composer who also plays organ for the local church. After services, one Sunday a stranger, Crossley (Alan Bates) begins talking to Anthony. Crossley has some odd ideas about theology and Anthony pushes him away stating that he has to go home. Instead, he meets with his mistress for a tryst.

When he does arrive home he is met at the door by Crossley, who slyly mentions how long it took Anthony to get to his home. Crossley then invites himself for dinner. He says that he spent fifteen years living in the Australian outback with the Aboriginal people where he learned their magic. He professes to know a shout that will kill anyone within listening distance.

At first, the Fieldings are put off by him, but then he seems to hold power over them. Rachel is seduced by him and Anthony does whatever he says. The film is somewhat vague on whether or not he does have supernatural power. It seems to be real, but it could also be a hallucination.

The entire film could be a hallucination, come to think of it. We periodically cut back to that cricket game. Crossley is there telling the story, at least I think it is Crossley. It is someone played by Alan Bates but I don’t believe he ever gives his name. Anthony is there, too, playing cricket. But again, is that Anthony, a different character played by John Hurt?

Are these two characters at the cricket match patients? Has the storyteller been telling the truth, or is he just making up a story? Is the cricket player actually Anthony? Is he now a patient at the hospital? Or do we see that person as Anthony inside the story because the storyteller just happens to be watching him play cricket?

The film doesn’t let us know any of the answers. It is enigmatic and strange. British films in the 1960s-1970s were often enigmatic and strange. They often dealt with the supernatural and relied more on mood and eeriness and plot. So it is with The Shout. Don’t expect the film to tell you anything and you might find yourself enjoying it.

The Mr. Wong Collection is the Pick of the Week

mr wong collection

I’ve started writing my Pick of the Week article for Cinema Sentries again. That’s where I look at the new Blu-ray releases and talk about the ones I find interesting. I’m actually rotating the writing duties with someone else – I write it one week then he writes it the next, etc. But I thought it would be fun to go ahead and write my picks out here on my off weeks. The plan is to link over to Cinema Sentries when I write the article there, but I keep forgetting.

In the 1930s there were a number of film series in which white actors played Asian detectives. Warner Oland as Charlie Chan is probably the most famous but Boris Karloff starred as Mr. Wong for a series of five films and Kino Lorber has just released a boxed set of them.

While it is easy to dismiss these films as straight-up racist (and certainly they are not beyond that criticism) these films were actually a step forward for Asian representation in American films. I dip into that a little in my review, but you can find a lot more on the subject with a little digging.

The Chan films aren’t by any means great cinema, but they are charming in their own way. I’m a huge fan of these odd little nooks of cinema history and that’s why the Mr. Wong Collection is my Pick of the week.

Also, out this week that looks interesting:

Avatar: The Way of the Water (2022): When the original Avatar came out I somehow missed seeing it on the big screen. At the time we were living in a small town and it was a bit of a drive to the nearest movie theater. We did drive out one weekend to see it but the 3D showing was sold out and I didn’t want to see it in 2D. At the time I figured we’d catch it another day and that just didn’t happen.

I did borrow my father’s Blu-ray at some point and watched the film, but I found it rather disappointing. It didn’t help that he didn’t have his TV set up correctly and the frame rate was a bit wonky. Had I seen it on the big screen I may have been blown away, but as it is, I’ve not given it much thought since my initial viewing.

All of that is to say that when this sequel came out I wasn’t all that excited about it. Once again I had planned to see it on an IMAX screen but for one reason or another, we just didn’t make it. Now it is out on Blu-ray and I’ll probably give it a watch at some point, but I’m in no hurry.

That being said, it was a huge hit and I’m sure lots of folks are interested in watching it at home. It comes in a variety of packages from a variety of stores so do your research before purchasing.

The Covenant (2023): Jake Gyllenhaal stars in this Guy Ritchie war film about an American soldier who is aided by his local guide when he gets injured in Afghanistan.

The Bridges at Tokyo-Ri (1954): William Holden, Grace Kelly, Fredric March, and Mickey Rooney star in this Korean War film about a group of jet pilots.

Skinamarink (2022): Two children wake up in the middle of the night to find their father is missing, and all the windows and doors in their home have vanished.

The Servant (1963): Criterion is releasing this drama about a manservant who is so efficient the lines between servant and master get crossed.

The Game Trilogy (The Most Dangerous Game / The Killing Game / The Execution Game): This has been called the Japanese John Wick (though it was made a few decades before Keanu Reevers would make those films). Yusaku Matsuda stars as a cold-as-ice hitman and I’m already sold.

Medicine For Melancholy (2008): Barry Jenkins directed this drama about the tentative relationship between two people navigating the conundrum of being minorities in an increasingly gentrifying city.

Whisper of the Heart (2022): A live-action, sort-of-sequel to the beloved Studio Ghibli animated film.

Red River (1948): My beloved Criterion Collection brings this classic Howard Hawks western starring John Wayne and Montgomery Clift to Blu-ray with their usual aplomb.

The Friday Night Horror Movies: 12 Feet Deep (2017)

12 feet down poster

Two estranged sisters, Bree (Nora-Jane Noone) and Jonna (Alexandra Park) go swimming at an indoor public pool. Before the official closing time the crotchety pool manager (Tobin Bell) yes to everyone to leave. They are closing for the holiday weekend and he wants to have an early start on it.

As they are leaving Bree realizes she’s lost her engagement ring. Jonna finds it at the bottom of the pool, stuck in a grate at the bottom of the pool. They both dive in to retrieve it. At the same time, the manager engages the pool cover and locks it up. The girls are stuck inside the pool for the long weekend.

That’s a pretty interesting premise for a film. The trouble is there is only so much tension you can ring out of two girls in a pool. The cover keeps them trapped but there is plenty of air and while a few days stuck there would be difficult it likely isn’t deadly. So it has to find new or different things to keep the viewer interested.

The film initially tries to do that by upping the emotional conflict between the two girls. Jonna is a drug addict, three months clean, who has just returned from rehab. Bree has a burn scar on her arm from a childhood trauma that slowly gets revealed as the film goes on.

But that really isn’t enough to keep an audience interested, especially when you want to bill your film as a thriller/horror. It also isn’t that well done. The writing for these scenes just isn’t strong enough.

The film seems to understand this, having the girls at one point joke that all they need to make it a perfect night would be for sharks to enter the pool. Honestly, I think I would have preferred some sharks.

Eventually, we learn that Bree is diabetic and she needs an insulin shot or she’s going to go into a coma. That creates a little tension, but it still isn’t enough.

Enter Clara (Diane Farr) an ex-con who was working for the pool, but just before the girls got trapped we were treated to a scene where she was caught stealing from the lost and found and got fired for it. She sees the situation as something that could be advantageous for her.

She steals Bree’s phone and what little cash she had in her purse. Then demands the PIN for her bank card. Then this, then that. She’s just awful and becomes the film’s Big Bad.

But the film keeps going back to the sisters talking. Bearing their souls. Getting down to the bottom of their dark past. Then when that gets boring Clara will come back to do something terrible.

The movie isn’t bad enough to be outright awful. It is adequately directed – Matt Eskandari gets good use out of the pool’s geography and the two leads are good enough for the material. But it also isn’t very good. It is a film that is trying just a little too hard to be deep and emotional but it never quite connects in that fashion. Then it undercuts itself by having Clara do something completely over-the-top or allowing Bree to slip into unconsciousness.

It also isn’t very scary or horrific. It is labeled as horror which is why I watched it and why I’m writing this piece, but it just barely skates into that territory.

Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982)

dead men don't wear plaid poster

I first learned of Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid inside a little video rental store. The VHS had a cool cover with Steve Martin on the front aiming a gun at the audience, a plaid outline behind him. This would be the late-ish 1980s and Steve Martin was a huge star. I was a young teen and loved Martin in movies like Three Amigos (1986), Roxanne (1987), and The Man With Two Brains (1983). I immediately picked the VHS up and talked my mother into renting it.

We took it home and I popped it in the VCR and pressed play. I was immediately disappointed. It was in black and white. I hated black-and-white movies. Or I thought I did. I’d never actually seen one. But black and white movies were old and old was bad. At least that’s what I thought back then anyhow.

I watched for maybe ten minutes then turned it off in disgust.

Many years later, when I learned that there are, in fact, many really great movies in black and white, I decided to give it another spin. I was definitely a classic movie fan by then, but just a beginner. I knew actors like Humphrey Bogart and Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, and Vincent Price. I’d seen a few film noirs but was by no means an expert.

The film is a homage to the classic film noirs of the 1940s. Through trick editing, it intercuts the new story with clips from 19 classic films. It does this surprisingly well.

Steve Martin plays Rigby Reardon a private investigator who is hired by Juliett Forest (Rachel Ward) to investigate the murder of her father. During the investigation, he comes across a large crowd of interesting characters, which is where the classic films come in.

Sometimes Reardon will call someone on the telephone and it will be Humphrey Bogart from The Big Sleep (or some other classic film star in a classic movie) who will answer. The dialog is cut as if Reardon is talking to Phillip Marlowe. Other times he’ll meet up with someone and it will be Veronica Lake in The Glass Key (or some other classic film star in a classic movie). In these instances, the film will sometimes use an extra dressed like the classic film actor, shot from behind, so that they can interact with Reardon in a more realistic way. It is all done cleverly and that makes it a really fun watch.

The great Edith Head (in her last film) did the costumes and she did an amazing job matching everything up. Ditto the lighting and staging and everything.

The film was co-written (with Steve Martin) by Carl Reiner, and it was directed by him as well. Reiner is a vaudevillian at heart and this is very much in Martin’s very silly stage (long before he started writing for the New Yorker and Broadway). I have to admit I’m not a big fan of that style of comedy. It is too jokey for me.

It is also a bit cringe. There is an ongoing joke where Reardon feels Juliet Forest’s up, caressing her breasts because they were knocked out of place during a scuffle. Or another time Reardon gives Juliet a kiss when she has passed out. There are quite a few dumb gags like that that play very differently now.

I am now a very big fan of classic movies and film noir in particular. I’ve seen more than half the films included inside this movie and so all of that stuff was really quite delightful. It is very well done; clearly, the filmmakers are very big fans of classic movies.

Unsourced Dylan Shows

As I’m working my way through my unsorted shows I’m coming across a bunch of Dylan shows that have no source information. They are mostly from the early to mid-2000s and have labels like “cdr 706.”

I cannot for the life of me remember where these came from. I don’t know if I downloaded them from some random site or if someone sent them to me.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Did you send them to me? If so do you have any source information for them? Are you ok with me posting them?

Sometimes when folks send me shows they will give me info on what they are sending me or they will request I not post them publicly for one reason or another. But I’m dumb and I tend to download things, then let them sit on the hard drive for ages. Then I forget where they came from. So before I do anything with these I wanted to see if I could figure out where they came from.

I did a search in my e-mail account but searching for things like “Bob Dylan” gets me the phone book. Anyway, if you did send these to me could you leave a comment or drop me an e-mail. Thanks.