The Unrepentant Cinephile

by Jason Coffman

  The Dwarves Must Be Crazy (Thailand, dir. Bhin Banloerit)

  While out hunting for food, several members of a village of dwarves eat glowing green bugs. They taste great, but unfortunately they turn whoever eats them into ass-eating floating heads with dangling guts. A group of men from the village strike off to find a wise old hermit to ask for his help while everyone else hides out at a local monastery, but the shit-obsessed ghosts might not be the worst thing lurking out in the jungle. The Dwarves Must Be Crazy is an aggressively zany horror comedy, with cartoon sound effects accompanying every gesture and facial expression. The slide whistle is employed more here than it has been in maybe all of world cinema in the last five years. It’s charming and fun for a while, but at 92 minutes it eventually becomes exhausting.

  Terry Teo (New Zealand, dir. Gerard Johnstone)

  Cat burglar and high school student Terry Teo (Kahn West) aspires to join the coolest and most successful gang in the city, but when his estranged father is killed Terry finds himself reluctantly on the right side of the law. Well, mostly. Gerard Johnstone’s Housebound is one of my favorite horror movies of the last half-decade, and his follow-up here is quite unexpected. Instead of a feature, Terry Teo is four episodes of a six-episode TV series directed by Johnstone based on a 1980s children’s adventure show. Johnstone updates the story for modern day, and the results are charming, and very lighthearted despite dealing with murder and other criminal undertakings. It’s a little weird that only four of the six episodes screened at the fest, since snipping the opening and ending credits from each one probably would have gotten all six in right around two hours. It’s not quite as inventively manic as Housebound, but it’s a breezy good time.

  Jungle Trap (USA, dir. James Bryan)

  Dr. Chris Carpenter (Renee Harmon) is charged with leading a research group into the deep jungles of South America to retrieve a priceless artifact from a native tribe forced into extinction by international development. She led a previous expedition to the same place and lost a member, so she’s already reluctant to return. To make matters worse, she has to take along her estranged husband and his new young girlfriend. When they arrive they find a mysterious hotel in the middle of the jungle, and learn the native tribe may not be as dead as they thought. Cult filmmaker James Bryan shot Jungle Trap on video back in 1990, but it was never completed until the folks from Bleeding Skull met Bryan and found the materials for the movie stored in his barn. They ran a successful Kickstarter to raise funds to complete the movie, finished editing it and composed an all-new score, and this Fantastic Fest screening was the film’s world premiere. It’s a ton of fun for fans of SOV horror (and Bryan and Renee Harmon, of course), and the new score is absolutely dead-on perfect. Hats off to Bleeding Skull for exhuming movies like this for future generations to scratch their heads over!

  Buster’s Mal Heart (USA, dir. Sarah Adina Smith)

  Jonah (Rami Malek) works the overnight shift at a remote hotel and lives with his wife Marty (Kate Lyn Sheil) and their young daughter at Marty’s parents’ home. They’re trying to save money to move out, but the overnight shift is taking a physical and emotional toll on Jonah. When a stranger (DJ Qualls) shows up at the hotel claiming to have knowledge of a vast conspiracy, Jonah’s world starts to change for the worse. Meanwhile, a haggard man known as “Buster” (also Malek) who believes an apocalyptic event is imminent roams the mountains breaking into seasonal cottages to survive while the police hunt for him. Buster’s Mal Heart is driven by excellent performances from Rami Malek and DJ Qualls, who absolutely walks off with every scene he’s in. He has an unsettling confidence and a weird charisma, and he gives the film--which is already intentionally structured to be disorienting--a shot of unpredictable energy. There are some great images and ideas here, and moments of easy, genuine humor that rises from the characters and situations. The journey is the point here, which is good since the ending is a little underwhelming considering all that came before it, but Buster’s Mal Heart is a solid second feature from writer/director Sarah Adina Smith (following 2014’s The Midnight Swim) and will no doubt garner a huge following once it reaches a wider audience.

  Phantasm: Remastered (1979, USA, dir. Don Coscarelli)

  If you’ve been reading Daily Grindhouse recently, you might have noticed that there are more than a few rabid Phantasm fans who write for the site. I’ve seen the film well over a dozen times, at least four of those on the big screen (and once at a drive-in!), but the chance to see it remastered in 4K on the big screen with a packed house full of genre fanatics and some of the folks who worked in front of and behind the camera on the film was too great an opportunity to pass up. This screening was also the big event for the first Arthouse Theater Day, and the intro and post-screening Q&A was simulcast from the Alamo to over 100 theaters across the country screening the film at the same time. As expected, the remaster looks fantastic, but the truly astonishing thing about it is the new sound mix. And sure enough, seeing it on the big screen with an appreciative crowd was an amazing experience. Writer/director Don Coscarelli was in attendance along with Michael Baldwin, Reggie Bannister, Bill Thornbury, and Kathy Lester. Tim League led a fun Q&A, and Thornbury and Lester performed the song “Sittin’ Here at Midnight.” It was a fitting tribute to a film that has taken its place in horror film history and is a hugely important movie to many horror fans.

  Headshot (Indonesia, dir. Kimo Stamboel)

  The same day criminal mastermind Lee (Sunny Pang) escapes from prison, an unidentified man (Iko Uwais) washes up on a nearby shore and is hospitalized in a coma. Two months later, the man wakes up with amnesia and his doctor Ailin (Chelsea Islan) gives him the name Ishmael. Soon thereafter, Lee sends his army of killers to bring Ishmael to him. Iko Uwais is probably best known as the star of The Raid and its sequel (not counting his cameo in The Force Awakens, anyway), and Headshot is appropriately badass during its impressive fight sequences. There’s an interesting mix of martial arts styles, frequently complemented by all manner of firearms, and and whenever people are beating the hell out of each other it’s a blast. Everything in between is less compelling, drawing heavily on tropes John Woo perfected in his Hong Kong action films. It’s always a treat to watch these folks at work kicking ass, but at a full two hours Headshot could have used some additional streamlining to focus more on those strengths.

  Fantastic Fest 2016: Day 4

  Originally published on Daily Grindhouse

  Salt and Fire (Mexico, dir. Werner Herzog)

  Laura Sommerfeld (Veronica Ferres) is a research scientist sent to South America to investigate the Diablo Blanco, a massive salt flat created as a result of a manmade environmental catastrophe. When she arrives with her colleagues (Gael Garcia Bernal and Volker Michalowski), they are kidnapped and taken to a remote stronghold owned by industrialist Matt Riley (Michael Shannon). Riley has plans for Laura, but they’re nothing quite like she imagines, and before she leaves the Diablo Blanco an even more dangerous threat looms over her and all of humanity. Werner Herzog’s latest fiction feature is a strange bird, starting off as something like a corporate/ecological thriller and veering into unexpected directions. It’s much funnier than its subject matter would suggest, with absurd character touches and some oddly touching moments that are similarly bizarre. It’s gorgeously shot and unpredictable, and while it’s hard to say where it might fall in Herzog’s imposing filmography it’s definitely worth a watch--especially on the big screen.

  Fraud (dir. Dean Fleischer-Camp)

  Imagine if someone had access to all of your family’s home videos, hours and hours of special occasions and mundane moments alike. Now imagine this person edited those videos together in such a way to make it appear that your family committed insurance fraud. Fraud is the ultimate found footage horror movie, but in a way that no one could have expected. Director/editor Dean Fleischer-Camp found a family’s Youtube videos and expertly assembled Fraud from hundreds of clips, fashioning a fiction narrative from real home vid
eos. And it’s definitely a narrative, although Fleischer-Camp’s approach (and presumably his intent) is closer to experimental cinema. In a world where people post their entire lives online, it’s entirely possible that someone else can take that life and mold it into something much different.

  Playground (Poland, dir. Bartosz M. Kowalski)

  Gabrysia is a middle school student who has planned to meet up with one of her classmates in an abandoned building on the last day of school to tell him that she has fallen in love with him. But the boy and his friend who tags along aren’t interested in romance, or in treating anyone else like a human being. Playground is a brutal study of characters who have nothing but their own interests and relieving their own boredom at the front of their mind. They viciously taunt and bully other kids, and the final segment of the film follows the boys as they perpetrate a nauseating act of horrific violence with terrifying indifference. It’s technically impressive but exceptionally difficult to watch, and in that Playground is reminiscent of artist provocateurs like Michael Haneke.

  Dearest Sister (Lao People’s Democratic Republic, dir. Mattie Do)

  Nok (Amphaiphun Phommapunya) is a young woman sent from her tiny village in Laos to help take care of her cousin Ana (Vilouna Phetmany). Ana is losing her sight, and her husband Jakob (Tambet Tuisk) is in the midst of dealing with a business crisis that sends him off on extended trips abroad. As Ana’s vision goes, a mysterious sixth sense takes its place. Nok stumbles on Ana’s secret and uses it for her own gain, but it seems forces both supernatural and very human are conspiring against her. Mattie Do’s second feature is a simmering horror story married to a household drama, paced completely unlike a traditional Western horror movie. There are supernatural elements, but the focus is mostly on how Nok reacts to her new life in the big city and the choices she makes that define her. Dearest Sister is a fascinating take on the genre and a look at life from a place in the world where films in general--not just horror films--are extremely rare.

  Fashionista (USA, dir. Simon Rumley)

  Married couple April (Amanda Fuller) and Eric (Ethan Embry) run a vintage clothes store in Austin that their whole lives revolve around. They’re still reeling from a failed business partnership that they sunk years into when April starts to suspect Eric is having an affair with their employee Sherry (Alexandria DeBerry). After kicking Eric out of their shared apartment April meets the rich and mysterious Randall (Eric Balfour), a man whose obsession with clothes may rival her own. Fashionista hangs on a spectacular performance by Amanda Fuller, who gave a similarly impressive performance in director Simon Rumley’s Red, White, & Blue. Rumley has a special talent for portraying pathological behaviors in an unsettlingly immediate way, and here he applies that to April’s erotic obsession with clothing. Fashionista covers a wide range of emotional territory: it’s sexy, funny, heartbreaking, and terrifying by turns. As dark as it gets, though, this is ultimately Rumley’s most optimistic and humane film by a wide margin.

  Phantasm: Ravager (USA, dir. David Hartman)

  Reggie (Reggie Bannister) roams the desert in search of Mike (A. Michael Baldwin) after they were separated at the end of Phantasm IV: Oblivion. He finds Dawn (Dawn Cody) stranded by the side of the road and drives her home, but the Tall Man and the silver spheres are not far behind. Suddenly Reggie wakes up in an assisted care home where Mike visits him. Then he appears to be in the future after the Tall Man has taken over the Earth, as it seems his consciousness is somehow bouncing between dimensions and timelines. Ravager moves the focus squarely onto Reggie for what is billed as the final entry into the series, and it’s a smart move. Bannister steps up to the plate and gives a great, affecting performance. And for longtime fans of the series, seeing Bannister and Baldwin on screen again with Bill Thornbury (“Jody”) and the final appearance of Angus Scrimm as the Tall Man is an undeniable thrill. All that said, Ravager was produced independently and shot piecemeal, and the resulting final product shows the seams. If it looks like a Phantasm fan film, that’s because it basically is one that just happens to have been made by the actual creative team behind the previous entries in the series. Anyone not already attached to this world and its characters will probably want to give this entry a pass, and even some fans may be put off by its defiantly lo-fi production values.

  Another Wolfcop (Canada, dir. Lowell Dean)

  Lycanthropic sheriff’s deputy Lou Garou (Leo Fafard) has found himself a home base in which to lock himself when he turns into a werewolf, but lately he’s been going out on patrol as Wolfcop anyway. Sheriff Tina (Amy Matysio) is annoyed by his behavior, but a supernatural threat looms that could spell the end of humanity. A race of reptilian shapeshifters has found a way to reproduce by using humans as incubators, and it’s up to Tina, Wolfcop, Willie Higgins (Jonathan Cherry) and Willie’s sister Kat (Sara Miller) to stop them. Another Wolfcop is a major improvement over the first film, which inexplicably is a feature-length origin story for a character whose name tells you everything you need to know about him. With all that heavy lifting out of the way, writer/director Lowell Dean is free to jump straight into the distinctly Canadian alcohol-fueled monster hijinks that the first film promised but only intermittently delivered. This is fast, fun, and out of control, with multiple werewolves, a geriatric robot killer, puppet monsters, and gallons of blood. This is a damn near perfect midnight party movie.

  Fantastic Fest 2016: Day 5

  Originally published on Daily Grindhouse

  Rats (USA, dir. Morgan Spurlock)

  Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock has made a film “adaptation” of Robert Sullivan’s 2004 nonfiction book Rats: Observations on the History & Habitat of the City’s Most Unwanted Inhabitants. While the book focuses on New York City, Spurlock’s film widens the scope and looks at how rats survive and how people deal with them in various places around the globe. Made for Discovery Channel, Rats is an interesting documentary with some great interviews and peeks into the lives of people whose existence and livelihood are tied to these creatures. From New York exterminators to the suppliers who catch rats to sell as meat for restaurants, the film covers plenty of ground and has more than enough gruesome details on the lives and deaths of rodents and the results of their attacks to qualify it as a kind of horror movie. It’s fast and informative, but ultimately fairly lightweight. In other words, not much different from a standard Discovery Channel documentary.

  Belief: The Possession of Janet Moses (New Zealand, dir. David Stubbs)

  In 2007, young single mother Janet Moses died during a Māori ritual roughly akin to an exorcism performed by her family. This was the culmination of a week of bizarre events that had led some of the family to believe she was under the influence of some malignant spirit. Belief combines interviews with people who were involved in the case with dramatizations of those events and the investigation that followed Janet’s death. There are moments in the dramatizations that uncomfortably skirt the edges of horror/exploitation, but this is still a compelling and deeply sad story that touches on questions of faith and the relationships between government, religion, and family.

  The Age of Shadows (South Korea, dir. Jee-woon Kim)

  Following the botched capture and subsequent suicide of one of the leaders of the Korean resistance during the Japanese occupation of the country, Korean police officer and translator Lee Jung-Chool (Kang-ho Song) is tasked by his superiors to work with a Japanese officer to bring in Kim Woo-Jin (Yoo Gong). Woo-Jin is a high-ranking member of the resistance, and once Jung-Chool starts working on him his allegiances begin to shift. The Age of Shadows is a dense, stylish period piece spy thriller from Kim Jee-Woon, his first film back in Korea after directing The Last Stand (starring Arnold Schwarzenegger) in the States. While there are brief moments of humor, the oddball personality of his best work is mostly absent. That’s not to say there is no fun to be had in this film, but it’s much more somber than expected. It’s a tense, intelligent thriller with a slate of excellent performances and some
jaw-dropping production and costume design.

  Bad Black (Uganda, dir. Nabwana I.G.G.)

  Bad Black (Nalwanga Gloria) runs a team of criminals in the slums of Kampala. She schemes to bring down the rich man Hirigi (Bisaso Dauda) and steals dog tags belonging to American Doctor Ssali (Alan Hofmanis). Ssali’s kindergarten-aged assistant Wesley Snipes trains him to become a badass to get his dog tags back. But what is the real story behind Bad Black? Why is she so intent on bringing down Hirigi? And how many people is Dr. Ssali willing to kill to get his dog tags back? Bad Black is the latest import from Ugandan production company Ramon Film Productions, the same people who made Who Killed Captain Alex? a few years ago. Alan Hofmanis moved from New York to Uganda to help with the production and distribution of the movies, and has been enlisted as “America’s best action star.” Ramon Film Productions is an example of a hyperlocal cinema, made by (and basically for) the people who live in one particular neighborhood of their home city of Kampala. That area is called Wakaliga, and they have named their industry “Wakaliwood” in its honor. Shot on cheap digital video and using an impressive array of handmade props, Bad Black would be hugely fun even if it wasn’t for the appearance of VJ (“Video Joker”) Emmie providing a running commentary on the action: for example, when Ssali guns down a couple of guards, Emmie shouts “Worst doctor ever!” This kind of thing is best seen with an audience, and seeing this kind of labor of love with a game crowd at Fantastic Fest was an amazing experience.