Quick Reviews: Dreams in the Witch House (Masters of Horror)

You know that old expression 'One Stuart Gordon Film deserves another?'  Of course you do!

To be honest with you, I've had this one for a while, but never saw it.  No good reason.  It is even on the same Disc as Cigarette Burns!

Oh well, doing it now!

In this Tale, a young man goes to a cheap Building to live in while he works on his Grad School Thesis.  The subject: Dimensional Planes.

It isn't long before he starts to notice some weird things.  There are the rats, the freaky neighbors and the fact that the corner of his room appears to be the same shape as 3 Dimensional Planes intersecting to form a Portal.

In spite of that, he makes friends with the lady next door and her young baby.  Will this Miskatonic University Student manage to get some on the side?

Unfortunately, his titular Dreams are a bit freaky.  They include a Witch that goes from Hot to No F#$%ing Way in seconds and this Rat with a face on it.

It appears that someone or something has plans for our hero as they keep visiting him, which always come from that corner and accompanied by some purple light.

When he finds out what they are (which I won't SPOIL), he makes this face (as you would too).

Will he fall to darkness or escape into the light?  I won't say.

As a bonus, here's the OG Version of the Necronomicon.  Is that in Fiction or Non-Fiction?  The End.

Easily one of the better Lovecraft adaptations.  The Story is great, giving you quiet moments and shocking moments.  It is a bit bloody, but...well, it is Lovecraft.  Alot of his stuff is about madness and despair (as this one is too), but there's no making these things PG as far as blood goes.  You don't get a whole lot of gore, so it has a bigger meaning when it appears.  The Acting is quite good too, making you feel for all those involved.  Gordon re-uses his lead from Dagon, which was a good choice.  You really see his ups and downs- especially downs!- and understand how he feels about what is happening.  He ends up in a terrible situation and goes from denial to acceptance.  What the Film does especially well is use their effects wisely, making the low-budget nature of it (and all Masters of Horror 'Films') not noticeable. The make-up work is as great as you'd expect from Greg Nicotero and his people.  All in all, this is a dark and moody Tale that is quite good.  It even gives you a splash of Nudity...although I won't.

A dark and eerie tale for sure.  For me, it just shows again how to do Lovecraft right (and on the cheap)!

Quick Reviews: The Black Cat (Masters of Horror)

It only makes sense to feature more of these that I actually own, right?  Yeah, thought so.

In this Episode, Stuart Gordon veers away from Lovecraft to instead give us Poe, although his favorite Actor is still here.

Jeffrey Combs is playing Poe (better than John Cusack) and he's just trying to make a buck.  Why?

Well, his world-famous love Lenore is sick and he needs to write more successfully to keep her well.

What Poe needs is a brand new tale of Terror to rival his works like 'The Raven.'  His Poetry- while well-respected now- is just not making him money.  Can he come up with one?

I wouldn't SPOIL this one too much.  I mean, look at how Poe reacts when I even say the word 'SPOILER' here...

I will say that his drinking habit/addiction does not do him any favors here.

Oh and that this happens.  No other SPOILERS.  Honest.  The End.

A Cult Favorite of mine.  While all the other Master of Horror Episodes I own are in bundles, this one is solo.  It is that good.  Gordon and company do a great job of immersing you in the Time Period without overdoing it.  You feel for Poe living in this time where his genius is not appreciated properly.  You feel for him just trying to make a living to save his love.  The Story is great, playing off of Poe's real-life and his Stories.  The real winner here is Jeffrey Combs, who completely disappears into the role.  You *believe* that he is Poe.  He plays him for all of his strengths (passion, intelligence) and weaknesses (drinking, desperation).  Knowing History, you know that this can't end all too happy.  Even so, you really root for him to make it through this.  Much like Poe's actual life, the bleakness of his existence is balanced out by Lenore.  She is a light, however dwindling, in this rough world.  You see why Poe does what he does to keep her alive.  As things go awry, you feel for both of them.  Can it all be worked out?  You sure hope so.  Seeing Stuart Gordon do Poe makes me want to see him do more of it and I'm not sure that he has.  If anyone in Hollywood reads this, let the man do some more Poe!  Hell, bring Jeffrey Combs on board again and I'm really sold.  If you haven't seen this MoH Episode yet, do it already!  Here's real Poe to send you off...

While it is not the most complex of the Masters of Horror Tales, it is still one of my favorites.  If you ever read this Mr. Combs, you were DAMN good here.

Stuart'S Good One: Stuck (2007)

How have I gone this long without reviewing this one?  I've owned this movie for quite awhile (having bought it during the original Blockbuster Closing Bonanza) and yet...I didn't review it.  Weird.  After getting a surprisingly-quick reply from Director Stuart Gordon on Twitter, I realized my error.  Let's fix that?  Stuck is based loosely on a real story that happened in Texas.  In the story, a 'career woman' hits and kills a homeless man, but decides to go on with her life.  In real life, she's currently in Jail (with possible Parole in 2027).  The case inspired an Episode of both C.S.I. and Law & Order, as well two films (counting this one).  It also inspired a sub-plot on Drawn Together- my favorite Cartoon Show of recent memory.  Gordon's film changes things up quite a bit, but touches upon the key moments.  Mena Suvari does a good job of playing a real character that you understand and can relate to before shit goes down.  The same goes for Stephen Rea, who plays the guy who's life has gone to hell before shit goes down.  You want to know if this film- which some people are not clear on whether or not it is a Comedy or not- is worth your attention.  To find out, read on...

Suvari is a low-paid Nurse in an Assisted-Living Facility.  Life is all about scraping by in her shitty (sometimes literally) job that she just doesn't like it.  Getting plastered at a 'Dive Bar' is her solace.

Rea is a man who has shit go down really, really fast.  He loses his job.  He loses his Apartment.  He is forced out on the Street with all of his possessions.

That's when things really go wrong.

That fateful night, Rea is crossing the Street when Suvari crashes into him.  He is grievously-wounded and, more importantly, gets stuck.

Ha ha ha- title line.

He's alive, shockingly, and begs for her to help him.  She...decides to think about it and, by that, I mean...

...she goes and has sex with her boyfriend.  No, she didn't tell him.

'Yeah, don't worry- I'm fine.  It's just a series of major, life-threatening flesh wounds."

Suvari faces some serious trouble due to the major accident that has left a man dying in her garage.  That trouble:  showing up late to work!

Oh and she just casually asks her boyfriend to kill the guy.

Who lives?  Who dies?  I won't SPOIL that, save for showing you the 'Corman Ending' (just burning the set when you're done with it).  The End.

There are worse ways to get Stuck than this!  Wow- I can see why they didn't stick that Tagline on the DVD Box!  All joking aside, this is a really-underrated gem.  It is a Dark Comedy with a heart.  Gordon could have easily made Suvari's character a blank slate that does something wrong.  Instead, she's a real person who makes one really big mistake and it just grows exponentially from there.  She doesn't set out to kill a guy, but, by the end, that's her goal.  Likewise, Rea's character makes you feel for his declining life and then hope that he can survive his long ordeal.  I'm not as in love with the Boyfriend character, but he's not nearly as much of a character.  The whole thing is not always the film that you think that it is going to be.  If you're still on the fence, I can tell you that Jeffrey Combs is in it (although I won't say how or when).  As a bonus, this 2007 film stands as a reminder of a better brick-and-mortar Video Store-based time...

Next up, I cover a film that is just bound to disappoint.  Wrestlers, Zombies and Aliens- oh my!  Stay tuned...

G. Gordon, Stuart: Fortress

All locked up and nowhere to go.  Today's film is Fortress, a long-forgotten Sci-Fi film.  How can it be so forgotten though?  It's got Christopher Lambert- he was in one respectable Highlander film!  It's got Jeffrey Combs- he was in two good Re-Animator films!  It's got Vernon Wells- he was in The Drawn Together Movie- The Movie!  It's' got Kurtwood Smith- he did blow in Robocop!  It's by Stuart Gordon- he wrote Space Truckers!  Hell, even the Supporting Cast is made up of people who aren't big names, but were in a lot of great movies.  People like Lincoln Kilpatrick (The Omega Man), Clifton Collins Jr (most recently Pacific Rim) and Tom Towles (The Devil's Rejects) are here to fill out the ranks.  So what's the deal?  I don't know.  Regardless, I got it for $2.99, so I might as well Review it.  In the Dystopian future of...four years from now, you can only have one kid.  If you have a second, it belongs to an evil Corporation.  When you don't go along with the plan, you end up in the Fortress.  Just a side note: HBO used to *constantly* tease me by saying that they were going to play it, only to play a 1985 film of the same name.  Screw you.  So, yeah, the movie.  To find out whether it was worth my $2.99, read on...

Lambert and his wife try to flee the United States.  Traffic sure is rough the night before The Purge, huh?

Lambert gets caught- as their first child died in labor, they had to flee to deliver another- and sent to the Fortress.  I hope some TV Star isn't running the place.

Aw crap- it's Kurtwood Smith.  You can tell that this movie was made in 1992, since he isn't completely bald yet.

DNA is a bitch, huh?

Lambert and Collins Jr end up in a cell with...Jeffrey Combs?  Well, it is a Stuart Gordon film.  He wasn't the Warden like I guessed, but oh well.

Lambert gets in a conflict with 187 (Vernon Wells, as opposed to Snoop Dogg).  After the fight, The Warden shows him who's in charge by just blowing a chunk out of Wells.

It's a neat visual, but how can you not be sure that your stomach is missing?  I'm just saying...

As it turns out, The Warden is some kind of synthetic man, which is apparently what the Corporation does with the babies.  He has developed a man-bot crush on Lambert's wife- who is also in the Fortress-, which gives her a chance to help Lambert escape.

He'd better hurry up with that whole 'breaking out' thing as Smith is about to take his baby out to make some more...whatever the hell he is.

The living members of the crew make it to a Barn to deliver the baby.  However, the film is not content with that Climax, so it needs one more involving a robot-controlled truck.

We get a fake-out for a super-dark ending, but that just leads to all being well.

That is, of course, until Fortress 2: Re-Entry.  More on that in the future.  The End.

It actually holds up quite well.  I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it's a lot better.  Films like this really tend to live or die by the gimmick.  If you don't buy the setting, it falls apart completely.  This one works, however, as they really lay the 'you can't get out' schtick on really thick.  The place is so rough that they even monitor your dreams and punish you if you have happy ones.  That is one harsh place!  The film really works due to everyone involved doing such a good job.  Everyone plays their part to perfection, whether it's Combs' nerdy guy or Wells' super-mean bully.  They even add little nice touches to the characters like Wells fearing his imminent demise and Combs' dark back-story.  The film does its best to hide its budgetary limitations, giving you some nice robot explosions- complete with goo- and they do spring for one exploding barn.  It's more than a film I have coming up does, so bear that in mind.  If you love Lambert or Stuart Gordon, give this one a look.  If you're as lucky as I am, you'll easily get your $3 worth from it.  Take us away, familiar Jeffrey Combs character...

Next up, we take a quick break from Fortress films to discuss a recent bit of Foreign silliness.  It looks and sounds like an Asylum film, but comes from...China.  Stay tuned...

Loathe-craft?: Dagon

For once, the ghost of H.P. Lovecraft is happy.  Lovecraft has always held a devout following among some people ever since he started writing creepy works.  Full disclosure: my Dad is one of them.  Ever since his death, it seems like people have been trying to make a buck by adapting his works to film.  Seriously, IMDB lists 122 Films with Lovecraft listed as anything from 'Inspiration' to 'Based on the Works Of!'  Some of the movies have been good- The Last Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu- and some of them have been very, very bad- Cthulhu (2007).  The best person to keep Lovecraft's legacy intact, however, has always been Stuart Gordon.  The man is most famous for Re-Animator (based partly on Lovecraft's work), but also did From Beyond, a film that's gotten a bigger audience in the last few years, and Castle Freak (which I own).  As a curious aside, Gordon is from Illinois, which is also my Dad's home state.  Anyhow, he also made this 2001 film, which apparently was long in the works.  Some reports list Gordon as trying to get the film made as long ago as 1985!  The film is a loose adaptation of a Lovecraft tale of a Village that decides to worship a Great Old One to survive.  Would you want to visit that town?  Well, if you're in this movie, you don't really have a choice.  To find out how this film works when others have failed, read on...

Our hero has weird visions/dreams about this Mermaid lady and a mysterious city.  I'm sure this won't come up later.

Our hero is joined by his girlfriend and their two friends.  When the weather turns very bad, the pair go to a nearby island for help.  As for their friends, let's just say that fish can bit really hard!

The pair look for help, but don't find that the natives are exactly trustworthy.

Oh and Lovecraft fans will recognize our hero's sweater as being for Miskatonic University.  Nice.

I think that these people have been either worshipping Dagon or living under power lines.

Thanks to a seemingly-crazy man, our hero finds out the story of the Village.  Much like a certain Village in Wicker Man, the fish (or crops) stopped showing up (or growing) and they turned a little crazy to get things back to normal.

I kind of think that this guy was just waiting for a Cult to take over.  He seems like the type.

Our hero searches the Village to try and find his friends.  The people just want to be friends.

Friends eat each other's faces, right?

Something tells me that whatever this Cult has in mind, it's not going to end well.  Considering a guy got his face cut off in the last scene, let's just call it a hunch.

 I don't know what that weird CG thing is, but I don't think it is here to bake a cake.  You aren't, are you, Dagon?

To be honest with you, I don't want to SPOIL any of the film's Third Act Twists.  They're telegraphed a bit, but still well-done.  If you want to know what happens, watch the film.  The End.

It's nice to see one of these rare times that I don't have much to complain about.  Dagon is not a perfect film, but it does alot right.  It's biggest strength is its atmosphere.  It's not long before our hero is left alone in the Village.  He has no friends.  He has a huge group of people that want him dead.  What the film does well is to make you feel like he does.  When he's hiding and barricading himself in, you really feel like you are too.  Lovecraft tales are known for creating a sense of dread and desperation.  In that regard, the film works.  I also have to give props to pretty much all of the Actors.  Some of them- like our lead and the one Human left- stand out more, while others- like the best friends- do well in more simplistic roles.  The film's biggest weak point is the CGI used in the finale.  That said, it's on-screen for less than a minute and still doesn't look terrible.  What I will say as a nice counter-point is that the film is called Dagon and Dagon actually appears.  After 2007's Cthulhu, I'll take whatever I can get!  Hell, the Flash-rendered version from The Last Lovecraft is still better than nothing!  Like a lot of Gordon's films, the movie doesn't get nearly enough acclaim or credit.  Well, I'll give it that, at least.  The worst thing I can find is that amusingly-mistimed Screen Cap I took...

Up next, a two-part look at some B&W British Horror Gems.  This is one Village that won't disappoint you!  Stay tuned...