Wednesday
Sep212011
They're Coming To Get You, Pedro
Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 3:28PM 
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JA from MNPP here, wondering who else is ready for Fall? I was just in the drug-store and they've got all the Halloween candy out - mmm Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins! - and besides making me momentarily panic over not having figured out a costume yet (any suggestions?) it's got me more than ready for the Scary Movie Season. I know the horror genre's not Nat's usual cuppa but tis the season, ya know? I figured we could take a look at the horror movies coming out over the next few weeks, liven the spirits if you will, mwah ah ah.
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September 30th Dream House - The movie that introduced future marrieds Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz, this is Jim Sheridan's remake of a recent Hong Kong chiller about a family moving into a haunted house (has that story ever been told before) that has all kinds of secrets in its hair. The original is supposedly well worth seeking out (I haven't seen it yet), but if you've seen this here remake's trailer don't you feel as if they gave all of the game away?.
Tucker and Dale vs. Evil - This horror-comedy has been playing On Demand for several weeks already but it gets a limited release in theaters this week. It does for redneck horror (think Deliverance or The Hills Have Eyes) what Shaun of the Dead did for zombies, or at least tries to. Alan Tudyk, always welcome, and Tyler Labine star as a pair of hillbillies with heart who get mistaken for slash-crazed psychopaths by a bunch of dumb college kids, with gory results. It's fun, stupid stuff.
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October 14th The Skin I Live In - This is one Nat's actually covered here already, although with trepidation - Pedro Almodovar forced his hand! Just how horror-y the film is we're not quite sure yet (those of you in countries where it's already been released please share in the comments) but the story it's based on is apparently fairly horrifying, with the insane plastic surgeon kidnapper angle.
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The Thing - This is one of those "Is it a prequel or is it a remake?" line-blurrers that're so popular these days - since it's focusing in on the group of doomed scientists that kick off John Carpenter's classic 1982 film it is technically a prequel, but the trailer for the film is laid out in such a way to make it seem an exact copy, only with shoddy CG effects instead of the best practical horror special effects ever put on film in the earlier version. No, not the Howard Hawks one, the other one. This here updated version has got a good cast - Joel Edgerton and Mary Elizabeth Winstead leading a pack of Swedes - and the director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. was thisclose to being given the Alien prequel/sequel/whatever thing that Ridley Scott's currently making before Ridley grabbed the reins of it himself..
Texas Killing Fields - Had enough Jessica Chastain yet? This thriller hopes not, since it stars her and her Debt co-star Sam Worthington as detectives on the trail of a serial killer who apparently decide to use Chloe Moretz as bait. Not being a fan of Moretz's there are a lot of ways I could take this from here, but I'm just gonna move right along...
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October 21st Paranormal Activity 3 - If the second film in this series didn't kill any goodwill you might have had for it (hell I know plenty of people whose goodwill was killed by the first film), then here be more of the same, only this time vintage! We swoop back to the golden age of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and crack cocaine, 1988, to see what horrors happened to the little girls who grew up to be eventual screaming sisters Katie and Kristi. This time directed by the dudes who made the divisive whatumentary Catfish!
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And then there's what I like to call the Goodtime Indie Cult Power-Pack (I've never called it that before) - Martha Marcy May Marlene and Kevin Smith's Red State, which are both out in limited release on this day, and both apparently have to do with cults, and I imagine they amount to very different beasts in the end. MMMM's been getting festival buzz for awhile now, with special attention paid to other-Olsen Elizabeth as a girl who escapes from the sinister influence of the always fascinating John Hawkes. Red State got some buzz when Kevin Smith made a spectacle of it at Sundance and then toured it around the country for a couple of months, but reactions have been mainly negative - it's been playing On Demand with little fanfare for weeks. I say the edge goes to Martha in this battle..
I have to say, save the artier fare of Almodovar and Martha Marcy May Marlene, there's not a whole lot psyching me up for All Hallows in this lot. Where's the good ol' fashioned thrills and chills? There's not even a horror movie opening on Halloween weekend, for goodness (badness?) sake. I guess I'll just end up cooped up at home watching Christopher Lee chase bosomy virgins around, again. Well there are worse fates!
Reader Comments (12)
You intimidated by a 14-year-old?
I'm intimidated by the judgmental side-eyes one gets for wishing ill upon 14 year olds. So I'll just shut up! Chloe Moretz can be free, free like the wind! I won't keep her down with my backpack full of loathing.
I didn't find Martha Marcy May Marlene scary - it's chilly, yes, but not scary. I've seen it and I don't do horror ;-) I really hope latest Almodovar opus is not very scary either - I'm soooo looking forward to it!
Yeah even without having seen it myself I figured it's a bit of a stretch calling MMMM horror proper, but it's def. dealing with horrific elements enough that I wouldn't call it a total cheat. Plus I just wanna see it and this list needed some movies I just wanna see, ya know? ;)
Just don't expect any jumps and frights is The Skin I Live In, but it's quite disturbing anyway! It may not be Pedro's best film, but I enjoyed it a lot!
Really bummed The Skin I Live In is not looking like a sure thing. I am a big Almodovar fan, but Broken Embraces was such a let down. I'll see this one, but just not that excited.
The 2nd part of my comment is lecherous. I want to lick Daniel Craig.
I love Broken Embraces. That should've been Penelope's 3rd nomination instead of Nine.
I saw the Dream House trailer because I surely won't see the film, but I wanted a peek at some Rachel and Daniel sparkage... I gave so much away! And yet I found myself a bit intrigued. Still won't see it though, I am too easily scared ;)
Having seen 'The skin I live in', which btw I liked quite a lot despite its mixed reviews (at least in Spain), I can say that, although something horrible happens to one of the characters, I do not think it's a horror movie AT ALL. I'd say a fair mix of drama/noire/thriller, in the best Almodovarian genre-mixing style.
There is zero gore/violence shown in The Skin In Live In. I'm easily scared and I was fine watching this one by myself at a midnight screening! However, it is tense and twisty - I was definitely on the edge of my seat throughout. I'm a casual Almodovar fan and whilst I enjoyed the film as a stylish ride, I found it slightly lacking in substance - given how many provocative issues it raises, I wanted it to go a little deeper, but it plays out fairly straightforwardly as a revenge-fantasy thriller. I heard it dismissed by one critic as "arthouse torture porn"! I wouldn't go that far, as it's by no means a gratuitous film, but ultimately the narrative isn't quite multi-dimensional enough to be completely satisfying and there aren't as many opportunities to emotionally invest in the characters to achieve the emotional pay-off I associate with Almodovar's best work (Talk To Her, All About My Mother).
- Sally
I feel the truly interesting movie begins just when La piel que habito ends.
Dream House is SO bad... If it weren't for Jim Sheridan, Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz, it would easily have been a late night made-for-TV movie. (And don't get me started on Naomi Watts, who seemed to forget her lines. How else would you explain her no response to everything someone tells her?)
Almodovar's The Skin I Live In is Horror in the Frankenstein sense of the genre. I love Pedro and enjoyed most of the movie, but it isn't one of his best and it won't win him another Oscar (he's got two, you know).