House of the Devil Review

In the spirit of Halloween, I thought it would be fitting to review a horror film.  I could review Paranormal Activity 3, like everyone else in the world would be doing if they had to talk about one horror film right now, but I’d rather wind the clocks back to 2009 for a while and discuss a film that looks like the clocks were wound back to the 1980’s in production…House of the Devil.  Currently streaming on Netflix, I suggest you check this film out before it’s gone from the instant route, because as far as modern horror films go, it’s absolutely sublime. 

             Written, directed and even edited by Ti West, House of the Devil is a “grindhouse” type throwback ordeal.  But never once does this film try to be over the top or in it for the exploitation factor.  It’s a carefully paced, terse narrative and it’s one hell of a slow burn.  In most genres of film this is hard to appreciate.  It’s also hard to appreciate horror “with a punchline.”  Thankfully this film has none of that.  It drives along slowly, almost in real time, grinding on the nerves of the viewer and making you as uncomfortable as the main character.  There’s a fabulous sense of isolation throughout that we can all relate to having spent nights home alone and investigating the closets and under the bed at the slightest trace of noise. 

            Jocelin Donahue plays a college girl typical of the 80’s  (right down to the Walkman) named Samantha whose just gotten her first apartment.  She’s trying to pick up jobs on the side to pay for her costly new rent (300 a month respectively) and she calls a flier put up for a babysitting job.  Her friend, played by Greta Gerwig, accompanies her to a creepy old house to accept the position.  Upon arrival they’re greeted by an extremely awkward and antsy man named Mr. Ulman played by Tom Noonan.  Eventually Samantha is left alone in the house with an …unusual and undemanding baby sitting job and the tension starts to build. 

            Unlike horror movies which deliver a scare a minute with some kind of hulking monster jumping out from behind a corner, the fear here builds in silence until eventually it’s palpable.  You’ll be able to hear your own heart beat at the end of it.  Watch this alone, preferably in the dark with all background noises silent.  It’s the kind of movie where you want to put yourself in the same element as the main character to feel the full effect. 

            Something has to be said about the genius way in which the tropes of 80’s films are brought to the screen again here.  Like I mentioned before, this is faithful homage film, but it also manages to do things that haven’t been done before.  The shots are well constructed and exceedingly well lit.  A slight film grain only enhances the picture quality in this case and I’m sure the film looks gorgeous on blu ray.  A lot of natural light is relied on and the shadows often lie to the viewer as well as betray the main character.  It’s excellent work, especially for such a low budget. 

            House of the Devil represents everything I thought was dead and gone in the horror genre.  Innovation, acting and a unique style all come through in spades here and if you’re a horror fan or cinemaphile you won’t be disappointed.  I imagine the standard rage-fueled uncultured teenager looking for a movie heavy on the cheap scares would be better off taking his date to Paranormal Activity, Final Destination or the latest in the Saw series, but I respect that this one tries to go for a demographic of horror fans who know the score and remember the good old days.  

MR moves to New York! (Setstrolling should open a branch!)

My friend over in New York got some photos from the set of The Dark Knight Rises (Magnus Rex).  While these aren't my photos, anyone interested in continued coverage of the film should check back for more updates. I've decided to see it through.

John Carter Set Sign

Pixar's first live action film John Carter is set to come out in 2012. Unfamiliar with the books, I didn't know what Barsoom was, but it's apparently the fictional realm where the film takes place. Here's a BARSOOM set sign for John Carter.

My review of A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas

            Trying to do an honest review of A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas is difficult, because I feel like they’re dropped any and all pretense of trying to make a ‘good’ film and went straight for the exploitation of 3D and-weed humor.  That doesn’t necessarily make it bad though, and I’m pleased to say I laughed quite a bit at this film.  I was wondering throughout how far over the top they were willing to go, and the question was answered for me about three-quarters of the way through when Santa Claus fell out of the sky.  This is a movie that doesn’t even take itself seriously as a comedy.  I wouldn’t have expected any more from a movie that begins with 3D pot smoke being blown into your face by Kal Penn and Patton Oswalt as a mall santa.

            The movie opens with best friends Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) having separated, now living independent lives for the past few years and no longer on speaking terms.  Kumar is still irresponsible and smoking weed at every opportunity while Harold, now married, is struggling to impress his intimidating father-in-law (Danny Trejo) who is visiting for Christmas.  A giant blunt arrives in the mail for Harold at Kumar’s apartment which inadvertently brings the two back together.  All of this “plot” feels like a thinly veiled excuse to get to the high-times and chase scenes—one of which is in trippy claymation.  This would have impressed me if Community hadn’t already done it better last year.

 

            It’s interesting that they decided to go for 3D in this film thinking that would give them the edge over other Christmas comedies.  The “mockery” of 3D has been done before in full genital-swinging glory in Jackass 3D and I feel like this movie adds nothing new to that formula except splashing the audience in digital cocaine.   There’s a scene toward the beginning where Harold is telling his secretary how 3D is getting to be a tired concept.  Just like I found problems with the meta humor in Scream 4, I don’t find it funny when a movie calls attention to its own shortcomings.  It’s like you’re showing the audience that you’re partaking in a cliché, but you don’t care that you’re doing it.  This kind of thing is better saved for television. 

            Where the movie really shines is in the mandatory scene with renowned Broadway actor Neil Patrick Harris. He appeared in the previous Harold and Kumar films incidentally as well, though I feel like he’s even funnier in this one since the release of the previous films he’s grown in fame and celebrity status. Though he’s gay in real life, Patrick Harris, who plays himself in the film, turns out to be a perverted womanizer who uses the “gay trick” as a front for caressing women in his Broadway dressing room.  This was easily the funniest scene of the film and an example of meta humor working well. 

            I laughed at a lot of this movie, which I guess is the best way to truly judge a comedy, rather than on the level of a truly good and cohesive work of cinema.  There have been some comedies that do both though, like recent Apatow vehicles. I think my biggest problem here is that A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas brings nothing new to the table.  Then again, I don’t think it ever tried to.  The most innovative thing to come out of the movie is Wafflebot, the Christmas toy of the year in the fictional Harold and Kumar-verse.  Wafflebot is a stout, fiercely loyal and outspoken waffle-cooking robot and fills the sidekick role in the film.  It feels very Harold and Kumar, as does the whole movie.  At least we can’t say it’s not as good as the previous films.  The legacy of the stoner trilogy remains in intact and you can’t help but feel the Christmas spirit as Wafflebot reminds us “pancakes are f-ing gay.” 

Halloween Horror Nights...behind the scenes event coverage

As a one-time visitor to Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights, I couldn't help but think at the time about the process and how much fun it would have been to have worked there and have been a part of the scare-experience. This year I ended up working at a booth at Halloween Horror Nights for NBC promoting an upcoming show.  It was an eye opening experience into the whole process and what goes on backstage for sure.  While my pictures of this even were few and far between (since it was dark and I didn't want to raise eyebrows on the backlot), I can provide now as detailed an account as possible working there for a weekend.

From Universal City Walk, there's a semi-secret entrance for employees into the back areas of the theme park.  My name was a list which permitted me access into this section for all three days.  It's something of a miniature city back there, with walk ways, the back of sets and of course no one roaming about except park personnel.  The best thing about it was the "monsters" (guys in costumes who are paid to frighten people) were sitting around chilling, talking and rehearsing behind the scenes as they got ready.  While I didn't interact with too many of them, it was fun seeing them out of character.

While I had planned on video taping my walk through of the backlot, I was joined by a curious employee right as I was about to hit record who asked me all about my company and what it did.  I got the distinct feeling all three nights that people "didn't believe me" when I said I had proper security clearance.  The NBC badges got a bit worn out eventually from how many times I had to flash them at other people working in the park.  For those who think that theme parks are dangerous places...I now know for a fact they are safe as can be.  Security is extremely tight at any place like this and if there's a hair out of line, they'll be on it with 4 fat guys wielding flash lights quicker than you can say "John Carpenter's The Thing."

Setting up our booth every night took 2 hours.  This was a laborious process, made even more laborious by the anal-retentive micro management of park staffers who didn't allow us to carry more than one metal pole or tent spike at a time in fear that we'd behead wayward civilians.  When the set up was through, I had free roam of the park, and I was able to circumvent all of the lines with a flash of my NBC badge.  This meant that I ended up visiting all the "scare zones" (haunted house walk throughs) except 2. Allow me to describe them in great detail as you read on with rapt interest.

But first take a gander at our Grimm NBC Booth.

La Llorona 
I don't know why they went with a title for this one that nobody can pronounce and that no one's heard of but maybe as someone contributing to the "white" demographic statistic I'm considered out of the loop here.  Basically the premise of this (from what I could gather from context and signs that I didn't read) is some woman eats babies or something. This was actually one of the better haunted houses.  You start walking past a pond with dead bodies floating and make your way through rooms of carnage.  By far the most lasting image from this house (and from ANY of the houses for that matter) was a giant rubber monster witch head eating a child with dated animatronics.  I actually said aloud while walking through the event "damn that's cool."  Something about that giant child-chomper resonated with me.

Alice Cooper 
I didn't realize before I worked here that 1. Alice Cooper was in fact, not a woman despite his name and 2. that anyone gave a shit about his music anymore.  I thought that it was just some band or crazy woman with some kind of dying following like Gwar or something that everyone just shakes their head at nowadays, but apparently people still dig the Coop.  This also ended up being a great haunted house. Particularly because there was nothing particularly Alice Cooper about it. If there was, I didn't pick up on it.  It's funny they chose visuals like piles of human meat and people being sawed in half to interpret angry music.  People who make those types of mental associations are usually worried about in the public school system. Anyway this was one of the best houses. Worth checking out if you go. I'd still have preferred an Anderson Cooper house of horrors...with real wind gusts over 70 mph.

Rob Zombie 
Another horror-inspired musician with a haunted house. Geez you'd think they were giving them out to EVERYBODY these days.  Next thing you know Slipknot will have a haunted house. Anyway, this one was special because it was "3D."  3D is actually laymans terms for "we'll color everything in with blue and red lines."  Nothing was particularly 3D or shocking about it. Kudos to them though for actually having recognizable characters from the films such as Captain Spaulding, Otis and Dr. Satan. House of 1000 Corpses and Devil's Reject fans will be pleased.

Scream Tram 
Actually the first one I went on.  This is a mess. You get on a tram car which is a "backlot tour" which bombards you with movie trailers for Scream and The Thing and then takes you to an outdoor trail lined with unscary people in bad costumes.  It just felt thrown together, and less than the quality you'd be accustomed to from the rest of the haunted houses.  It seemed like something you might encounter on a hayride for a pumpkin patch with a ten dollar admission...not a universal horror nights production.

Hostel 
Apparently Eli Roth himself gave his blessing to this haunted house and enjoyed it.  What can I say?  This was probably my favorite non-ride attraction looking back.  I liked the hot girl imitating the foreign accent in the beginning, I liked the movie accurate costumes and the squirting blood. I haven't even seen Hostel but I think this Haunted House exhibit had all of its "ducks in a row."

Jurassic Park 
So I'm not sure how the ride is different from how it normally is during the day, but it's the Jurassic Park ride....and there's raptors.  That has to count for something?  This is a water ride, so unless you want to be rudely snorted water on by animatronic dinosaurs, you should skip it.  It never goes particularly fast or gets scary, but toward the end there is something of a drop.

The Mummy
By far my favorite thing at the park that was open during horror nights. I rode it 3 times. I'm convinced NOTHING was changed about it from the day time regular rides, but it's a roller coaster in the dark.  The only other one of those I can think of is Space Mountain at Disney.  I'm not sure which of these rides is longer (even though I've rode Space Mountain a disgusting, indulgent amount of times on my disney trips) but this one was fun for a movie themed gimmick.  I don't care about the motif, the mummy or Brendan Fraser, but this was a fast moving, real roller coaster that kept me interested.

Well there you have it, my experience at Halloween Horror Nights. I'm borderline delirious and I'll edit this with pictures in it soon, but it was a fun weekend.  I wish I had only gone one or two nights, instead of 3 because by the third I was totally desensitized to rubber scream masks, but overall it was a good time.  If you like getting drunk and having people jump out at you behind hanging fake corpses in movie themed haunted houses...you've probably been there already.

Setstrolling on the Universal Lot

Yeah I've been on the Universal backlot all weekend. Why? I've been working at Halloween Horror Nights. It's fun getting that sort of clearance and seeing the inner workings of such a large establishment.  You'd be surprised how despite having a badge your presence still gets called into question at a million points of entry.  At one point, a particularly ugly and dumpy short woman wearing a ridiculous themed outfit tried to have me removed from the park.  I think it's kind of funny when people try to get off on a modicum of authority.  You're not there as a creative or anyone with some kind of talent, you're there because you're a low-level employee. I'm grateful for the access I have and I don't pretend to be anything above a peon when I'm there either.

One final video cut together from MR

My final compilation of clips from Magnus Rex which I was able to shoot on my camera. Big Thanks to my youtube subscribers and my video hits (over 50,000 now!)

14 days and a helluva ride. Here's to what's next.  Good luck New York!