Stuff

Well, tomorrow is my last day in my old job. As of next week I'll be taking up my new role although I don't yet know what continent I'll be living in. I have a feeling that the tax issue is not going to get sorted by Wednesday, so I'll be here a little longer. I have a furnished apartment ready as of Saturday in the rue Stevin, which is right near where I live now. The landlord popped by, said there was no need to do an 'etat des lieux' as I'd been here over five years and he is going to completely renovate the place, so that is one less thing to worry about.

Had a very nice three hour lunch with some of the people I like the most at work. They gave me a lovely card with wolves on it and a book token for Waterstones, I can see that getting used very quickly!

I'll be working from home in the morning as I need to wait for the 'petits riens' to come and pick up my bedroom furniture. They were supposed to do that on Wednesday but they didn't have a large enough van... I called today to see if they could give me an approximate time but was told "between 8 and 12" which is nice and precise...

Right, bed time I think.

Howl

By the way, you should read this again. I'd forgotten how good it was: Alan Ginsberg - Howl.

Films

I still have a few films to talk about and I have the draft posts prepared. I hope to get them up in the next few days when I have a break from packing all of my stuff into boxes.

Politics and film - Homecoming and V for Vendetta

I don't know if it has always been the case and I've only just become aware of it, or if there are just more political films than before out there. We've had Munich, which was superb and probably Speilberg's best work yet; there was Goodnight and Good Luck which is also a very important film; there is Syriana which I really want to see at some point.

And then there are political genre films. Romero has always been the master of this with his Dead films: Night could be about the horrors of Vietnam and the death of the 60's and the birth of civil rights; Dawn which is about mindless consumerism; Day (which is my personal favourite) which talks about knowledge versus power and is very nihilistic and pessimistic about human nature; and finally Land which is about class struggle. In case you hadn't guessed, I'm a huge fan of his work.

In the last couple of days I've seen two new and rather special political genre films that don't treat their audiences as stupid and I feel have important things to say about the world we live in and what our responsibilities as citizens should be.

When discussing the Masters of Horror series, John Landis apparently said "Given this opportunity to make a one hour film with no censorship and complete control of the material I made something silly and fun. Joe Dante went and made something important"

Joe Dante made the wonderful Gremlins films both of which showed off his subversive and silly sense of humour. He uses this talent to devastating effect in Homecoming, his entry into the Masters of Horror series. Set in the US under a republican government (who's president is never named) involved in a war in Iraq and suffering large loss of life in the unpopular conflict. The main protagonists are a presidential spin doctor and a conservative author who bears a striking resemblance to one of the most hateful people on the planet, Ann Coulter. Why that woman is even listened to by people makes my blood boil but that's probably for another time. In the episode, the administration is heading towards an election when the bodies of the soldiers killed in the war start to come back to life. It soon becomes apparent that they are coming back because they have something to say and they want to say it in the best way we have to say our piece in a democracy, by voting. Of course they are not voting for the person who sent them to die under false pretenses.

This is not a subtle piece but it is a cry of frustration from the heart and manages to be superbly entertaining at the same time. Issues of war, respect for those that die in war, using death for political gain, religion, they all get touched on. The humour is pitch black but on the nose. One of my favourite scenes is just after the dead first start coming back, a religious leader in on television saying how it is god blessing America and her brave soldiers. When it becomes apparent that they are voting democrat, he is seen again on the same show saying that it Satan punishing America.

This is highly recommended and got given a special mention by the Jury at the festival for it's important message.

The second film I saw over the weekend that I was really impressed with was V for Vendetta. Now, I love the comic but had been hopeful that the film would be OK and would not ruin the story too much. Well they didn't. It's not a perfect film but it's still very entertaining and important. The best line is easily "People should not be afraid of their governments, government should be afraid of the people". People much better qualified than me have written about the film, here is one of the best reviews. For a US studio to release a film that says what this one does, that shows how a 'terrorist' is born and how the definition of that word depends on how you look at things. To say that sometimes a violent action must take place, that a symbolic building must be destroyed. And for that film to be number one in the US on it's first weekend.... I don't know how it's doing on it's second week as people realise that it is not an action film but a lesson in civic responsibility.



I think I may want to talk about this subject some more at some point, but I need to think it over and see what I can come up with.

Argh

Pfffffft. So, I get a call at about 4.30 this afternoon, it seems that there may be some strange taxation issue with India and that it's best I don't go there until it's sorted. Not changed my ticket or anything yet as it will hopefully be sorted out in the next couple of days. If not I'll be in Brussels for a bit longer but will not have an apartment or indeed any furniture. So I may need to stay in an apart-hotel thing. Hopefully not though and I'll still be leaving on the 5 April. I also go stuck at work and missed another film, one that I really wanted to see too, The Roost. Still, I'm meeting Tobe Hooper tomorrow and there's no way I'm missing that.

Tired

Yes, I have a backlog posting reviews of all the films I've seen this week, I will do shortly, right now I need some sleep though.

BIFFF - Blood Deep, Subject Two and The Uncertain Guest

Day four here in Brussels started of promisingly with some of the cast of ‘Blood Deep’ taking to the stage one of whom was wearing what is really too small a piece of cloth to be accurately described as a dress. Of course this met with the approval of the assembled horror geeks, I just wish the same could be said of the film.

Blood Deep is a terrible film and not even in a good way. The ‘plot’ and I use the word in the loosest possible sense is some nonsense about a group of childhood friends getting back together years after somebody or other has died and of course one of them is a killer. The story would make no sense at all even if you were interested enough to try and follow it. There is no sense of characterisation so the friends are all just these ciphers that you know nothing about and frankly don’t really want to anyway. None of this is helped by some horrendous dialogue and very, very bad acting by just about everybody on the cast. There were moments where it looked like an episode of a cheap soap opera on the big screen thanks to the combination of the above and some very uninspired direction. You would like to think that the saving grace of a slasher film would be the kills but most of these take place of screen and there is not even a small moment of even accidental tension in the entire film. Luckily the audience can be fairly vocal so that during a waste of time such as this, at least the comments from the other people suffering through are fairly amusing.

So, a truly terrible film that is not even worth going straight to DVD. Did I mention that it was awful?

Next up was ‘Subject Two’ a small film from the US set in the mountains around Aspen. While the film may be small, it’s basically a two hander and apparently there were nine people involved in the filming including cast and crew, the ideas are larger than that. The director, Philip Chidel, is quite open about the fact that he was inspired by Frankenstein but his film is not just a modern retelling of the story. The story starts with a medical student agreeing to meet an online correspondent who says that he needs an assistant to help with his research. The mysterious doctor lives in the middle of the woods out in the mountains and avoids all contact with the outside world. It would be a shame to spoil what happens next as this is well made little tale that raises questions about medical ethics and how far should we go to keep people alive.

The script is a little talky at times and the film could probably do with a little tightening up but in general it’s a very good effort. Chidel makes the most of the stunning scenery and the sense of isolation and his script raises some interesting questions without ever being preachy. He is also helped by two fine performances by his main actors, had they been anything less that great the whole thing would have collapsed. However Dean Stapleton as the Doctor (who seems a little Nicholsonesque at times) and Christian Olivier as his assistant are more than up to the task.

An interesting little film that is worth checking out if you like something a little psychological.

Finally there was the Spanish film, The Uncertain Guest by Guillem Morales. Another psychological thriller, this has an interesting premise and is generally well executed.

Felix is a somewhat uptight architect whose girlfriend Vera has recently left him, leaving him alone in the huge house he designed.One night a stranger rings the doorbell and asks to use the phone. Felix leaves him to make the call but when he come back to check up on his guest, he has disappeared. Felix starts to hear more and more noises in the house at night, leading him to believe that the stranger is sharing the house with him in secret. To tell you anymore would be to spoil some of the lovely little twists and turns in Morales’ script which starts of as a fairly creepy paranoid thriller then changes and becomes somewhat lighter with moments of almost French farce. I had a slight problem with the ending as the change in tone is somewhat abrupt but in general this is a good little film.

Morales has obviously been watching his Hitchcock and there are couple of truly great steadycam shots. He is good at building atmosphere and the film has some excellent sound design which adds to the general air of paranoia. As with the previous film he is helped by some excellent actors including Andoni Gracia as Felix. He is almost every single scene of the film and is required to go through quite an emotional transformation which he does very well.

So a mixed bag for the fourth day but the good still outweighs the bad so far.

BIFFF - Zombie Honeymoon and Running Scared

First up was Zombie Honeymoon by Dave Gebroe. Gebroe was there to introduce his film and came across as quite a likeable guy. When handed the microphone to make his opening remarks the audience started their usual chant for a song, and he obliged with a fairly decent rendition of the Love Boat theme. He then explained a little about the genesis of his film which was basically his way of coping after his brother-in-law died in a surfing accident. A lot of the film is directly inspired by that tragedy such as the fact the main character share the names of his sister and brother in law, the beach were the accident happened is one of the locations. It is obviously a very personal film and he somehow manages to mix a low budget character piece about death and coping with it's aftermath with, well, a zombie movie.

A young couple has just got married and head down to the beach for a month. They have their dream of heading to Portugal and are young and in love. One day after surfing, they are lying on the beach when a decomposing zombie shambles out of the surf in a very Fulciesque moment, attacks Danny, vomits black blood into his mouth and then expires. Danny passes out and is rushed to the hospital by his frantic wife Denise. There his heart stops beating and he is pronounced dead but he sits up ten minutes later as if nothing had happened.

What happens next is a portrait of a young couple seeing their lives fall apart around them, normally this would be due to a disease of the week type thing but in this case it's because the husband is actually decomposing and needs to eat human flesh. It's an odd film and an interesting choice of style to put together. While it doesn't always work, Gebroe has a good eye for shots and framing and has managed to make something quite special out of his premise. Some scenes are maybe a little too slow and some of the acting is a bit wooden (the best friends of our couple are examples of this), however Tracy Coogan who plays Denise does a very good job as the woman watching her life literally disintegrate around her, she does add some real emotion to proceedings.

While the film plays very straight, it is not unaware of the absurdity of the situation and there are some good laughs in there too.

So, if you feel like watching a fairly slow character piece with zombies and some nice old style gore (I may go on about the love story aspect but this film is also nice and bloody when it has to be) then you could do worse than check this out.

Then there was the second film of the evening with the surprise of seeing Paul Walker in a good movie.

Running scared is insane, over the top, makes virtually no sense and is a huge amount of fun. The film starts with a drug deal gone wring that ends in a nice bloody gunfight. This scene gives a good idea of what is to come with its quick cuts, slow motion, rewinding of the action to focus on different details and above all blood. Lots and lots of blood. Paul Walker’s Joey makes it out alive and is given a silver gun to dispose of as it has been used to kill a cop. He hides the gun in the cellar where it is stolen by the next door neighbour's kid who uses it to shoot his abusive, John Wayne worshipping step father before running off into the night, still holding the gun. Walker then has to find the gun while avoiding the Mafia, the Russian mob and the police. There then follows a night of extreme violence, just the way we like it.

By its very nature the story is episodic but the director, Wayne Kramer, keeps it running so fast that you don’t really have much of a chance to think about how silly some of the plot twists are. Kramer does a good job here, some of the scenes are hyper kinetic using all sorts of different techniques (I particularly liked the film melting during a brief character flashback) and yet when he needs to he pulls back such as in the surreal scene with the perfect couple who live in a strange clinical apartment. And happen to be pedophile serial killers. Yes, it’s that sort of film.

Kramer’s screenplay throws everything in bar the kitchen sink and he knows how to keep people interested and how to surprise them. The above mentioned scene with the seemingly perfect couple is truly chilling and is not at all overplayed. It’s a brief glimpse of true evil in the middle of all the petty (and pretty) chaos. There is also a fairy tale like quality in a story which encompasses evil step-fathers, getting lost in the woods, lots of big bad wolves and a little bit of the gingerbread house.

Somehow all of this works. I’m sure that some people are going to have a problem with the ending but frankly who cares, Kramer certainly doesn’t seem to. His film is a big finger to safe thrillers as it’s proud of its own amorality and has not qualms about putting kids in the middle of extremely violent gunfights and having ten year olds swear like troopers. It’s refreshing to see this sort of thing these days. Most of the characters are sleazebags including Walker, who really is a surprise here as he actually acts as opposed to being the pretty block of wood that he has always been prior to this. I hope that this is not a one off and that he build on the good work that he does here. The rest of the cast are also good and the kids are not too annoying which is always a bonus.

So, if you fancy some over the top violence and being solidly entertained for two hours, this is a good way to do it. I can’t wait to see what Kramer does next.

Ain't it cool news

Hurrah, I got a review published: http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=22693

and indeed a second one already.

BIFFF - The Descent and Evil Aliens

Ah, now that was better.


I'd seen The Descent on DVD when it came out on DVD in the UK a couple of months ago and loved it. When I saw that it was playing at the festival I thought it would be good to see how it plays in the dark with an audience, especially one as good as the Brussels lunatics. And it really does work, Neil Marshal has produced a tense, brutal film that will become a high water mark for modern horror.

The film follows a group of six women who get together for a weekend of caving as an attempt to get back the group dynamic that existed before a tragic accident that affected Sarah and her family. Marshall sets up the characters nicely in their pre-adventure interactions and he is well served by a good cast. They head off into the caves and of course, something goes wrong and they get trapped. The first hour of the film is tense and very claustrophobic as the women go deeper and deeper into the caves trying to find a way out. The tension is very well handled and there are little clues as to what will come later scattered around. There is also an indication that Marshall is not afraid of the red stuff during a excruciatingly painful broken leg sequence that had the entire audience screaming 'noooooooooooooooooo' and averting their eyes.

So, we are now well into the film and it been a cracking adventure story with some interesting characters and a mounting sense of panic that maybe they will not make it out.

Then all hell breaks loose.

There are several genuine jump scares in the space of several minutes as the other inhabitants of the caves are revealed and they are not happy creatures. The film then gets brutal. Both in the physical and emotional sense as our heroines are separated, attacked and do their best to stay alive. After a fabulously well done little twist you realise that Marshal is not going to hold back and that everybody is at risk and that anything can happen and probably will.

There is a lot to be said for Marshall's direction, he make wonderful use of the whole frame, filling it with darkness and just a little corner of light where the action is taking place, his use of shadows and different lighting sources. A few nice little nods to other films such as Alien, Psycho and Carrie, but done in an nice subtle way. His writing should not be passed over though, as opposed to An American Haunting for example, he has created actual characters that you start to care about so when incredibly nasty things start to happen to them, it hurts on several levels. And to make matters worse for the audience, the women don't really make any wrong decisions, they do exactly what you probably would do in the same situation. This makes it a lot more realistic as it's so much easier to identify with somebody when you agree with their actions. To see that making the right choice is probably not going to help you anyway just makes it even more distressing.

Then there is the ending. This seems to have divided people, personally I love it and the audience seemed to agree if the applause that started as the final shot came on screen was anything to go by. Marshall confirmed in the Q&A afterwards that the final shot that featured in the UK release and on the UK DVD will not appear in the US version. He said that it was just so that he could see how it works with the film ending 2 minutes earlier but I can't help but think that there was maybe some studio involvement in that decision as the cut would give it a more traditional end as opposed to the rather lovely one that it has here. During his talk, Marshall also said that it has not yet been submitted to the censors in the US, so finger crossed that when you do get it, the brutality is intact.

This is one of the best horror films I have seen for a long long time and it seemed that the audience agreed as they were extremely vocal in their appreciation. Marshall took away a prize for Dog Soldiers here back in 2001 and I'm not sure what else there is this year that could stop him doing the same with The Descent.


I skipped the next film because a) I wanted to see the Q&A with Neil Marshal and Saskia Mulder (Saskia Mulder is a lovely person by the way) and b) it was Bloodrayne by Uwe Boll. I refuse to pay money to see that man's films as it only encourages him to make more of them.

The midnight showing was Evil Aliens by Jake West and it's great 'midnight after a few drinks' fodder. Made on a tiny budget, West is obviously inspired by 'Bad Taste', 'Evil Dead', 'Braindead', etc. While his film never reaches the heights of splatstick attained by those classics, it is still a lot of fun as long as you don't set your expectations too high.

The film is set on a small island off the Welsh coast where a girl is sleeping with a visiting tourist in the middle of a ring of standing stones called 'The Devil's Teeth' when they are suddenly abducted by the titular aliens, one extreme anal probing later and her beau is dead and she's back on earth, pregnant with an alien love-child. Cue the arrival of Michelle Fox and her ridiculously low-cut tops as the presenter of a cable television show about the paranormal to do a piece on the abduction. She brings along a motley crew of actors, a true UFO geek and a cameraman and sound man duo (the soundman's t-shirt, when revealed, go a good laugh from the crowd.). Along with the heavily pregnant girl and her inbred brothers (who only speak in Welsh, subtitled luckily) they then have to fight off an alien invasion.

West was asked why he set his film on a farm and he replied that it's because there are so many sharp implements available. That there are and they are pretty much all used at some point during this humorous gorefest including a nice piece with a combine harvester (and of course the music over the top of that sequence is exactly what a UK audience would expect it to be). The red stuff flows all over the place in this as arms are ripped off, heads torn off and a crowd-pleasing moment involving a very large wooden post going through somebody. Lengthwise. What plot there is is not really important as all this film is about is trying to get more and more over the top as it goes on.

So, while not perfect, it's still fun to see with some like-minded friends and a couple of beers.

BIFFF - An American Haunting

So, opening night of the film festival today. Got there at about 19.30 and there were already loads of people and it filled up quickly. As every year, there was a theatre group to entertain people while waiting, this year it was dancers on stilts dressed up as insects. Trust me, it wasn't as bad as it sounds.

Again, as they do every year, the opening film was a little more commercial than the rest of the program. This year they opened with An American Haunting by Courtney Solomon who was there to present the film along with the lead actress Rachel Hurd-Wood. I will refrain from commenting about the lovely Miss Hurd-Wood as I've just found out she's only just turned 16 and such thoughts could get me into trouble. Let's say she's going to grow up to be a stunning woman.

The film also stars Donald Sutherland and Sissy Spacek and is about the early 19th century Bell Witch haunting in rural Tennessee. Sutherland plays John Bell who lives with his wife and family on a farm and when the story begins he is found in breach of church law for having lent money to a local woman at an extortionate interest rate. The woman then curses John and his daughter Betsy, played by Hurd-Wood. Shortly afterwards Betsy starts to get attacked at night by an invisible entity and the attacks continue to get more and more ferocious.

It's been a while since there was a good American ghost/haunted house story and unfortunately this is not going to change things. It's not a bad film but it's also not great and nothing can be worse than being mediocre. Sutherland is always good value but like everybody else in the film he does not have much to work with. Spacek suffers the worst as all she really does is look worried in the background. Hurd-Wood is very pretty and all that but doesn't give much soul to her part as the daughter tormented by the entity. The attacks themselves and some of the other spooky goings on are quite well played, a sequence where the entity tracks down Betsy as her family try to get her away from the house is a particular stand out.

The end is not bad, although I wish directors would credit their audiences with at least a little bit of intelligence. There's one flashback which explains why things have been happening and it's quite well handled and fits in with one of the most popular and plausible theories regarding poltergeist activity, but then Solomon goes and gives us a second flash-back just in case we didn't get it the first time. There's also a short modern day frame around the start and the end of the film that doesn't serve much purpose apart from set up a rather lame 'twist' that you can see coming a mile off.

Hmm, that makes it all sound very negative but as I said it's not a bad film, just not very good either. I think there is a good stoty to be told about the Bell Witch but it's going to have to be one that has a bit morte character development and more of a sense of place than this.

Tomorrow should be better as things get properly underway with the fabulous The Descent followed by a Q&A with the director Neil Marshall and Saskia Mulder one of the actresses from the film. I can't wait to see it on a big screen with an audience as it really is excellent. That will then be followed by a midnight showing of Evil Aliens which should be fun.

So, until then, goodnight.

Huzza!

India stuff

*sigh* So, somebody based in New York in my current business unit has decided to ask why I can't stay here for another six weeks to ensure that my replacement get trained. If you consider the fact that they have known about this since August last year, it's a bit late to start saying things like that. Even if I did stay in Brussels, I'd have no place to stay so they'd have to put me up in a hotel here and pay for my meals. I'd say it would be a big waste of time and would not exactly motivate me to keep doing my best.

Still, hopefully nothing will come of it. As a worst case scenario I've said that I can still respond to mail and be available for questions when I'm in India. We'll see what happens, in any case I'm carrying on as if the end of the month is still my last day. Got my flight confirmed, I'm on the Lufthansa flight on the 5 April! The hotel is also booked for two weeks so we are looking good.

Last weekend

Went down to Luxembourg for the weekend to see Doug and had a really good time. Took the train down after work on Friday and was surprised to see the amount of snow that had fallen south of the Ardennes. Doug met me at the station and we went down to Bob's for a bite to eat. Sat at table 12 which was the old high table that we always used to sit at, I don't want to think about the number of hours I've spent sitting there! Saw Andy of course who seemed to be doing well, still a grumpy old so and so of course. Steve Preston wandered in with Alex, another guy who was at the European School, a few years ahead of me. We all had a few drinks and talked crap which was nice. Turned out that Alex, Doug and I had all been out with the same girl (not at the same time, one after the other), Luxembourg really is a small place! Doug and I then stayed up chatting until about 3.30 back at his place.

Saturday was very laid back during the day, lots of listening to music and a bit of geeking out on the PC. Chatted briefly with Doug's girlfriend who lives in the States, she seems lovely. The Mike Stevens came round and it was really good to see him, his wife and two kids were in the UK for a week so he was making the most of a free weekend. Went out for a meal in a really nice tapas place with a whole bunch of people where a lot of wine was consumed. A quick trip to the Tube (which used to be my fave haunt, the Playground. Then down to the Pygmalion for a last couple of drinks. Bumped into Simon Gibbons and yet another of his very young and pretty girlfriends. Chatted away in a corner as the place filled up then went back and I started to doze off on the couch. Mike then kept me awake by telling shit stories (not bad stories, stories about shitting in vases and that sort of thing), we were giggling like little kids for quite a while.

All in all a really good weekend. I promised myself that I'd use instant messaging a lot more to keep in touch with people. So far I've at least started using Trillian and added some people to my contacts. Now I just need to make sure that I use it!

Oh, a small piece of news.

Almost forgot, I just need the vice-chairman's approval for the cost and then I can book my flight to Bangalore. Looks like I'll be leaving on or around the 5 April.

Wow.

I can't believe that I'm doing this. (I apologise in advance for the number of times I'm probably going to say that over the next few weeks.)

Off to Luxembourg tomorrow to see friends and maybe have a drink or two. Have a good weekend internet people

The West Wing

Ok, so I just watched the last few episodes of the first series of The West Wing. I am now going to have to buy this.

Amazon.co.uk: The West Wing - Seasons 1 To 6 - The Bartlet Years: DVD

Damn it's good.

Yes, there may be some lines of dialogue that can seem a little cheesy but it's set in the White House and is about US politics, it's to be expected. Plus Aaron Sorkin's writing is so go that you get caught up in it and don't really notice. Especially when his fabulous dialogue is being spoken but a great cast.

Right, I need to stop raving about it. And I can only order the box set on Saturday that way it'll come on to next months credit card bill...

Snow

HPIM0870
Originally uploaded by Lonewolf_.

It snowed last night and this was the view from my kitchen window this morning.

Pretty.