Review Category: Movie

Hatched from the crazed minds of Martin Sonntag and Kim Sønderholm (who also co-wrote and star in the short), Harvest is about a doctor known only as John, who also works as an organ harvester for a wealthy client. His latest assignment is harvesting a kidney from a victim with a particularly rare blood type, but unfortunately for John, the assignment goes wrong and he ends up ruining the kidney. As a result, his unforgiving client gives him 16 hours to solve the problem or else he would have to offer up his own kidney as punishment, as he too shares the same rare blood type. Scrambling for a solution, John quickly meets up with the mysterious Nadja in order to murder her and gain her kidney. Of course, nothing goes according to plan.

Harvest is a sick, twisted, and bloody affair, and having an intro delivered by none other than Troma guru Lloyd Kaufman tells you immediately what you are letting yourself in for. The story itself plays out like a simple urban legend with a crazy twist at the end that descends into dark satire. Despite how insanely OTT the short is with its setup and gory effects, everything is played completely serious, and that almost straightforward tone runs through the whole film.

Kim Sønderholm gives a grizzled, yet stoic performance as the enigmatic doctor, whose emotionless exterior makes him impenetrable and hard to understand. In contrast, Siff Anderson brings the most energy to the film, and her performance is sly and sultry, yet mysterious and deadly. She almost has an air of Katharine Isabelle in her performance, which is definitely a good thing and bodes big things for her future.

The practical special effects are a mixed bag, ranging from absolutely insane levels of splatter-gore to body parts being dismembered, mutilated and shredded on screen in pretty graphic results. It’s almost exploitative in its approach to dismemberment in order to give that shock factor and also to have its horror cake and eat it. At times the practical effects work, yet occasionally the skin and blood effects look really fake or just barely effective.

Now this can surely divide the core audience, making them decide whether to go with it or not. Personally, some of the effects could’ve been better and it could’ve benefited with a bit more character development in order to get a handle on the main character himself. But in the end, it’s still a fun short little morality nightmare that gets more right than wrong, its maniacal heart is in the right place, Sontag and Sønderholm make a good team, and the two leads give solid performances. Flawed, but admirably flawed.

HØSTEN (HARVEST) / CERT: N/A / DIRECTOR: MARTIN SONNTAG, KIM SØNDERHOLM / SCREENPLAY: MARTIN SONNTAG, KIM SØNDERHOLM, BASTIAN BRINCH PEDERSEN / STARRING: SIFF ANDERSON, KIM SØNDERHOLM, SLAVKO LABOVIC, JULIE KUNZ, MARTIN SONNTAG / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Expected Rating: 5 out of 10

Actual Rating:
 

When Roger Corman’s A Bucket of Blood hit the screens in the ‘60s, it explored that almost Faustian dilemma: how far would you go to succeed in art? While the lead character in Michael Medaglia’s debut feature doesn’t actually sell his soul to the Devil, it’s not far from it at times.

Hermann Haig (McGrath) is a struggling (read: delusional) artist who’s convinced his mobiles (yes, those things you hang from the ceiling that usually only entertain young babies) are works that are gallery-worthy. The local dealers don’t think so, and after his latest disaster, he goes to visit his uncle, who had become rich by selling his work.

When Hermann rents his uncle’s former studio apartment for two weeks, he discovers the secret of his success and uses it for his own means. The room comes with a unique feature: a hole in the wall from which a series of notes appear. Then out comes a squishy ball, which he’s compelled to use on his art piece. Once it’s seen, his luck changes; the head of the gallery signs him up, and he is suddenly recognised in a new light. When he goes back to the studio, a sexy female voice comes from the hole. It tells him what he should do, and under her guidance, Hermann’s dreams come true. As would be expected, however, this comes with a price.

Deep Dark is a brutally skewed look at the art world and the vacuous types that occupy it. Be it those who hope to become successful, or the critics and dealers whose opinion can make or break a career. The horror element doesn’t take away from what is a biting satire on the art world; its fickleness and the manipulation of talent, or lack of it. Rivalry, jealousy and sexual urges all play a part in Hermann’s rise, and ultimately lead to the downfall of several characters.

The surreal, horrific elements certainly won’t be to everyone’s taste, but the result is satisfying and provides the viewer with that age-old moral dilemma – can we live with ourselves after ‘cheating’ for success in our work? Like many, Hermann begins to believe the hype surrounding his overnight good fortune, and soon realises he needs the collaboration with The Hole to continue for the sake of his art.

The black, comedic characters wouldn’t be out of place in a Lynch film, and the film boasts a visceral feel not unlike something from a Cronenberg picture. There’s a prevalence of the thought that art eats you up inside and consumes you. Deep Dark is a thoroughly engaging cautionary tale, which despite the unnatural elements, is remarkably relatable.

DEEP DARK / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: MICHAEL MEDAGLIA / STARRING: SEAN MCGRATH, DENISE POIRIER, MONICA GRAVES / RELEASE DATE: TBC

Expected Rating: 5 out of 10
Actual Rating:

Anyone following film development news at the moment can’t help but notice a trend for remaking, rebooting and recreating popular and obscure works from the 1980s, driven by children of the decade gaining prominence in the entertainment industry and riding a wave of nostalgia. Raising a homicidal, rampaging arcade machine’s robotic middle finger to this is Kung Fury.

While mimicking the retro cheese of VHS trash is still a popular filmmaking style (seen most notably and effectively in the likes of Planet Terror, Manborg and Iron Sky), Kung Fury elevates it to a whole new level. And then blows it up. To say that the film is over the top is like saying that standing in the path of a supernova will give you mild sunburn.

Filmed like it’s a VHS recording – even including a few tracking glitches (ask your parents) – it has heads disappearing in fountains of blood, it has gigantic explosions lighting up the night in apocalyptic balls of fire, it has hyperkinetic fight sequences that not only defy probability but also the currently accepted laws of physics, and all to the pounding beats of a synth-pop soundtrack. Barely sixty seconds go by without something utterly demented occurring, to the point that after ten minutes you’ll have exhausted your vocabulary of superlatives and be unable to even verbalise a reaction. Several encounters are so ridiculous that to mention them would spoil the surprise, but suffice to say that meeting a couple of Viking babes wearing sexy leather two-pieces and wielding automatic weaponry is amongst the least absurd of occurrences. The film so exudes and amplifies the spirit of ‘80s DTV that you feel it wouldn’t be complete without a home release on Betamax and LaserDisc.

The story, if it even matters, follows the eponymous cop as he battles crime on the mean streets of Miami. The Chosen One of an ancient prophecy, his power is coveted by Adolf Hitler (who has renamed himself Kung Führer), so he must travel back in time to defeat the Nazi warrior. The fact that star David Sandberg (who also wrote and directed the film) appears to be taking it all very seriously only adds to the hilarity, and his looking like Johnny Depp having stepped straight off the set of 21 Jump Street and growling in a gravel baritone like Dirty Harry makes him a perfect fit for the scenario. The dialogue is peppered with comically bad puns, with “You gonna need that spine? It’s holding your back” being about as sophisticated as it gets, along with some inappropriately inspired lines such as “I’ve got the mayor up my ass like a fag on Viagra.”

That’s it: the ‘80s are officially over. Everyone can give up trying to imitate them, because absolutely nothing will ever even come close to touching these stratospheric heights of unadulterated lunacy.

KUNG FURY / CERT: N/A / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: DAVID SANDBERG / STARRING: DAVID SANDBERG, JORMA TACCONE, LEOPOLD NILSSON, ELENI YOUNG, HELENE AHLSON, ANDREAS CAHLING, ERIK HORNQVIST / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
 

At least when an earthquake really hits Hollywood hard, they may think twice about making movies like San Andreas for a while. Even before the ground starts to shake, and long before a tsunami hits towards the end of the film, Dwayne Johnson and all involved have sunk deep into an ocean of clichés, scattered through every scene like floating debris.

San Andreas is a disaster movie with a capital D. The actor formerly known as The Rock plays Ray, a helicopter rescue pilot who basically decides to take a day off and have some family time on what should be the busiest day of his life. After saving a young girl hanging off a cliff in the opening scene, Ray commandeers a helicopter as a so-called swarm of seismic activity hits the San Andreas Fault. We’re all kept up to date on exactly what is happening by Paul Giamatti’s Caltech earthquake prediction (and exposition) expert, while Ray uses the resources of the LA fire and rescue department to singlehandedly save only his family. While San Francisco is devastated by quakes and thousands need his help, Ray makes it his personal mission to ignore his duties and rescue the wife who is on the brink of divorcing him and the daughter who dared to catch a ride to college with her new step-father.

San Andreas is so riddled with cracks, the clichés literally pour off the screen. Its seen-it-all-before story with the divorced husband/dad winning his family back from a wealthy usurping step-dad figure is straight out of a hundred other films from Taken to Die Hard. San Andreas barely bothers to even set them up as characters, assuming you’ve seen the likes of The Day After Tomorrow and simply trying to ramp up the destruction. Every time that Carla Gugino as Ray’s wife tries to inject a bit of human drama by dredging up the family’s tragic backstory, you may just find yourself quaking with tremors of giggles.

But you’re probably not particularly after a great deal of depth with a film like San Andreas, so instead just buckle up and enjoy the ride as buildings tumble, tsunamis smash, and the earth is literally torn to pieces. If it’s spectacle you’re after, San Andreas unsurprisingly has plenty. The Rock may not get to show off his biceps by lifting buildings off babies but he does get to fly helicopters, a plane and then ride a boat straight into an approaching tsunami. It’s epic levels of silliness but quite immersive on the odd occasion it really gets inside the carnage with the characters. The shots of the earth rippling under cities are fairly stunning but there isn’t nearly enough time spent on the effects of all this on the general population. Well, when The Rock has his precious family to save, who cares about anyone else?

If only the characters were worth spending some empathetic energy on. Continuing his run of aggravatingly sexist characters, Dwayne Johnson doesn’t get to shout anything quite as depressing as “woman, I am the cavalry” in San Andreas, but he is still surrounded by weak women in San Andreas. His daughter Blake gets a little to do, thanks to the fact she listened and learned a lot from her dear old heroic dad, but she still needs rescuing far too frequently. And as for Ray’s soon-to-be-ex-wife, don’t even think about looking for anything even remotely interesting. She is a doe-eyed and useless non-entity, only there to try and drag some emotion from the muscled lead and look up to him in awe.

In terms of Hollywood blockbuster disaster porn, San Andreas sits somewhere comfortably above the mind-numbing 2012, but at the same time manages to make The Day After Tomorrow look like a masterpiece. It’s turn-your-brain-off-at-the-door fun in places, but unintentionally hilarious in many of its best/worst moments. While Brad Peyton does a good job of directing most of the plentiful set pieces, he is hampered by a screenplay that even manages to make Paul Giamatti look like an amateur.

If you really want to have a good time, give San Andreas a miss and dig out a copy of the Grand Theft Auto game that shares its name instead.

SAN ANDREAS / CERT: 12A / DIRECTOR: BRAD PEYTON / SCREENPLAY: CARLTON CUSE / STARRING: DWAYNE JOHNSON, CARLA GUGINO, ALEXANDRA DADDARIO, PAUL GIAMATTI, IOAN GRUFFUDD / RELEASE DATE: MAY 29TH

Expected Rating: 6 out of 10

Actual Rating:
  

ELECTRIC BOOGALOO: THE WILD, UNTOLD STORY OF CANNON FILMS 

For anyone who came of cinematic age during the heady days of cheesy 1980s film, Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films – the new documentary by Australian writer/director Mark Hartley – will be like a nostalgic blast of fresh air in today’s world of PC-obsessed blockbusters. 

With help from a galaxy of stars – ranking everywhere on the scale from A to Z – Electric Boogaloo charts the career ups and downs of filmmakers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, who changed the face of modern cinema as we now know it. The Israeli cousins, who clearly made films because of their straightforward love for the medium, had one aim: to provide audiences with entertainment pure and simple, as opposed to many of today’s movie hotshots who often appear to have ulterior motives behind their productions.

Cannon Films, the ailing production company which Golan and Globus bought in 1979 and proceeded to rejuvenate during the following decade, were never known for a particularly high-end product – they had been responsible for such dubious dramas as 1971’s Maid in Sweden and 1976’s Northville Cemetery Massacre. However, under the guidance of Golan and Globus – who were as much showmen as they were professional filmmakers – the company began to do something which it hadn’t been doing before, namely make money. Launching the careers of many high profile Hollywood stars – without the help of Cannon Films the world would probably not have become aware of Dolph Lundgren and Chuck Norris – the company was also responsible for such cult films as 1985’s sci-fi, vampire epic Lifeforce as well as milestones in the fantastic film genre like 1987’s Masters of the Universe. In Electric Boogaloo, an endless stream of iconic names, including actors Mimi Rogers, Bo Derek, Elliott Gould and Martine Beswick along with director Tobe Hooper, queue up to reminisce in both glowing and not such flattering terms about their memories of working with the company.

The cinema-going public are however, on the whole, a fickle bunch, and the days when everything these celluloid magicians touched seemed, for a while anyway, to turn to box office (if not critical) gold, were numbered. Audiences began to lose interest in films whose production values appeared unable to keep up with the times. As the youngsters who had grown up with Cannon’s films began to become more sophisticated, they also became increasingly turned off by the company’s dodgy effects and slapstick gore and violence. Eventually, by the early 1990s, Cannon had folded, whilst Golan and Globus themselves had gone their separate ways, each pursuing other avenues in both film and television production.

The fact that Golan and Globus refused to take part in Electric Boogaloo – they were co-operating at the time of its production with a rival documentary on their careers – may be interpreted in one of two ways. Either their lack of involvement could portray the film as a scandalous piece of muck raking on two men whose only crime was to bring pleasure to countless millions of movie goers, whilst providing some of the most iconic and enduring, though not necessarily erudite, moments in cinema history. Equally, the absence of any input from two such strong characters – who would most likely have believed that they should have had some degree of control over the direction of the finished film – could be seen as playing in Hartley’s favour; if a documentary has no participation from its subjects it allows a filmmaker the possibility of taking a middle-of-the-road, and hopefully unbiased, approach to the story around which their project revolves, resulting in a more rounded and honest final product. Whether Hartley achieves this with Electric Boogaloo may be open to conjecture. There’s no denying, however, that, like Cannon’s films themselves, the end product is a wonderful, if perhaps slightly trashy, piece of fun.

INFO: CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: MARK HARTLEY / SCREENPLAY: MARK HARTLEY / STARRING: MENAHEM GOLAN (ARCHIVE FOOTAGE), YORAM GLOBUS (ARCHIVE FOOTAGE), SAM FIRSTENBERG, DAVID PAULSEN, SYBIL DANNING / RELEASE DATE: JUNE 5TH 

Expected Rating: 7 out of 10

Actual Rating:
 

PITY

The scene is simple – a man, narrating over the images of him sitting in a car outside the home of the woman who has clearly wronged him. He’s bitter, agitated and clearly has a plan.

Within the space of only a few minutes, Pata manages to conjure all the feelings most of us will understand from relationships that have gone sour. Hopefully, not everyone will have had the extreme reaction ‘Anonymous’ has in Pity, but no doubt some will have – and some will have been on the receiving end. As such, the impact is sublime.

With the help of some fantastic editing, an oppressive sound design and some acting from Martin – the only character we see. The woman is left to the imagination, save for the odd through-the-window shot and glimpse of a photo. We don’t know what she’s meant to have done, other than finish the relationship. Clearly in the seven days they’ve been apart they guy’s life has fallen apart – but it’s always very apparent that he’s always been a few sandwiches short of a picnic all the time.

It’s the very simple premise and the confident, uncompromising way it’s depicted that shows the skill and talent from all involved. The stern monologue that accompanies the man’s descent into mental oblivion is precisely written, and delivered with a chilling calmness; something which often conflicts with the frustrated, violent images.

The short is now available online to view, and we recommend you do so at the earliest opportunity – you won’t be disappointed. The bottom line for the movie is something that everyone will relate to – love hurts.

INFO: CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: JOHN PATA / STARRING: JAKE MARTIN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

TOMORROWLAND

Imagine a world where the brightest, most brilliant minds of our time could invent and create freely, separate from petty bureaucracy, rules and laws and the ambitions of petty businessmen and politicians? That place is Tomorrowland.

It’s a nice, if naive, concept that forms the backbone of Brad Bird’s latest film. With a plot allegedly inspired by a banker’s box full of retro Disney memorabilia labelled “1952” and a mystery shrouded production, all that’s been shown so far are clips of a mysterious “Tomorrowland” pin that shows visions of a retro sci-fi future to the girl who finds it, Casey (Britt Robertson), and an extended scene of Casey meeting up with paranoid inventor Frank Walker (George Clooney) and the two of them being pursued by weird humanoid robots.

So what’s it all about? Needless to say the central mystery won’t be spoiled here, but the film starts by introducing Clooney’s Walker as a young inventor who has a run in with a girl from “The Future” and “Tomorrowland” itself but then shifts gears to the present day, introducing Casey’s attempts to resist the sense of powerlessness heaped upon her by her teachers, who teach climate change and oil scarcity, but don’t seem interested in empowering their students to start thinking about how to address these issues and her sabotage of the planned demolition of the NASA launch pad near her house, where her father used to work. After getting caught and spending time in jail, that distinctive “T” pin falls into her lap, providing her with fantastic visions of a world where people travel via jetpacks, flying cars fill the air, robots build beautiful buildings in the blink of an eye, and off-world travel is real and in a manageable timescale. There is no question that they are visions, as Casey remains firmly rooted in the here and now during their appearance, often to comedic effect, banging her head on objects in the real world that are invisible to her in “Tomorrowland”. Before long she heads off to find out more about the pin and the place it purports to be from, running in to a cute yet familiar little girl, some evil robots and eventually Frank, before trying to break back into the world of Tomorrowland itself.

With all the hype and mystery around the film, marketing it was always going to be difficult and something that seems to have gotten lost in the mix is that this is mostly a kids action movie along the lines of ‘80s movies like Explorers or The Goonies. The big reveal when it comes is a little bit of a let-down and is followed by a slightly disappointing climax.

Casey, however, is a great mix of confidence, street smarts and scientific know how that will hopefully inspire a generation of young girls (and boys) that STEM subjects (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) are cool, interesting and worth their time, but unfortunately there’s not an awful lot for adults apart from watching Clooney playing his hand at a more comedic role and squaring up verbally to stuffed shirt Hugh Laurie near the film’s climax.

Once Laurie does turn up the film takes a surprising, dark, pessimistic turn, with a pretty scary ecological message lamenting the loss of that gleaming, sci-fi future from the ‘50s and ‘60s for the pessimistic attitude that pervades culture these days. The eventual reveal of what Tomorrowland is now, as opposed to what is was, is also somewhat of a letdown. Thankfully a glimmer of optimism does return but it’s a surprisingly bold move for a film that’s mostly been a roller coaster so far.

Kids and teens should have a riot with the goofy robots, a neat small role by Key and Peele’s Keegan-Michael Key and the fun action but adults expecting more will probably be slightly disappointed. Bring a young relative and revel in their wonder.

INFO: TOMORROWLAND / CERT: 12A / DIRECTOR: BRAD BIRD / SCREENPLAY: DAMON LINDELOF, BRAD BIRD, JEFF JENSEN / STARRING: BRITT ROBERTSON, GEORGE CLOONEY, KATHRYN HAHN, HUGH LAURIE / RELEASE DATE: MAY 22ND

Expected Rating: 9 out of 10

Actual Rating:
 

FOUND IN TIME

Everything means something in Arthur Vincie’s fictional version of New York. Those little things you may forget, lose or nonchalantly ignore may turn out to be the very thing you needed all along.

Chris (MacLeod Andrews) is a psychic, one of a small group who in this world are born with gifts beyond those of the “normal” people. He grew up as a collector, someone who hoards the seemingly insignificant items he comes across daily. Now, with the relevant licence, he is a vendor, passing on these trinkets to those who have lost something, whether that be a button or something altogether more bizarre. With his friend RJ (Derek Morgan), who does a nifty line in coffee with a meaning, they occupy a street corner, selling their wares and avoiding the unwanted attentions of the psychic police. Chris’ relatively settled if medicated life now begins to grow increasingly complicated as his trust in those closest to him is tested and he begins to have visions of a murder he apparently is yet to commit.

Found in Time is a complex jigsaw puzzle where the pieces are never quite in the right place at the right moment. Different timelines and eventualities are played out, with you never being absolutely certain what is reality and what is one of Chris’ visions. These multiple narratives flirt with each other but never quite connect in the way they should, and the result becomes just too confusing to be wholly enjoyable. It also feels like the more thought you put into the film, the more unsatisfactory the outcome will be, with redemption also appearing to be one step away.

The performances are good on the whole, with Andrews worthy of note in his character’s befuddlement, but some lines come across very forced as if they have been included by way of exposition, bluntly dropped into the dialogue to aid the viewer. RJ, however, serves simply to add either justification or counterpoint to whatever Chris is feeling at any given time and is less a real character and more an attempt at a flesh and bone conscience.

Visually Found in Time is certainly stylish and polished, but the direction and editing are a little too erratic to aid the story and ultimately just add to the problem. Perseverance will reward the hardiest of viewer with plenty of conspiratorial intrigue and hidden motives aplenty, but as the twists and turns are revealed everything just feels flat.

There is a complex and fascinating story at the heart of Arthur Vincie’s film, but the myriad of strands it tries to weave together are more likely to leave you baffled rather than satisfied at the conclusion.

INFO: FOUND IN TIME / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: ARTHUR VINCIE / STARRING: MACLEOD ANDREWS, MINA VESPER GOKAL, KELLY SULLIVAN, DEREK MORGAN / RELEASE DATE: TBC
 

FIRE CITY: THE INTERPRETER OF SIGNS

Sometimes a film comes along that is very difficult to categorise, breaking or bridging standard genre conventions resulting in a production that is both original yet familiar. Fire City: The Interpreter of Signs is one such film.

Set in a moodily atmospheric version of New York, the film follows Atum Vine (Tobias Jelinek), a seedy drug dealer whose clients all reside within the same run-down apartment block. The difference is that Vine and all those who depend on him are demons, feeding on the misery of the humans they co-exist with. To each other the demons appear as they are – some lizard-like, others more akin to a mutated warthog – but to the unsuspecting humans they appear as just that: human. This uncomfortable balance is thrown into chaos when the titular interpreter Cornelia (Danielle Chuchran), a blue-skinned banshee with questionable motives, sees trouble in the near future as the human “suppliers” suddenly all cheer up and stop providing essential unhappiness. It falls on Vine to figure out what to do and ultimately how to restore the status quo.

There are two elements that elevate what is at times a slightly plodding and routine noirish thriller above the majority of similarly themed films. The first is the practical effects. Director Tom Woodruff Jr. has a hugely successful career in this field behind him, having worked on many films from the Alien series to Predator via the hugely underrated Tremors. He was also part of the team that won an Oscar for work on Death Becomes Her, so you would expect the demon design in Fire City to impress. And impress it does. There is a sense of realism to the characters, a feeling that creeps over you that these demons could be your neighbours, hiding their true selves behind a human façade. There is never the slightest hint that these are not real “people” existing in the shadows and feeding quietly on their miserable human counterparts.

The second thing is the cast. From Jelinek’s moody, mysterious depiction of the increasingly moralistic Vine to Keely Aloña as the human Sara, there is never a misstep, with each actor delivering a performance to match their character’s complex and often secretive motives.

There are one or two issues, sadly. As mentioned above, the plot does meander at times, and there is the suspicion that some scenes are stretched or included just to fill out the running time. On more than one occasion the lip-syncing doesn’t quite match with the more heavily made-up cast members, and while not too distracting it does draw you out of the film a little. These are minor complaints though and don’t impact too much on the film’s moody and well-constructed atmosphere.

Fire City: The Interpreter of Signs will not be for everyone, as the slow pace may begin to grate in the final act, but as a spectacle of what can be done visually on a small, Kickstarter-funded budget, it is verging on essential viewing. For anyone with a passing interest in the art of practical effects it is a must see. For this and the performances, a great deal of credit must go to Woodruff Jr. who has clearly demonstrated a talent for being behind the camera as well as creating some of the most memorable images ever seen on it.

INFO: FIRE CITY: THE INTERPRETER OF SIGNS / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: TOM WOODRUFF JR. / SCREENPLAY: MICHAEL HAYES, BRIAN LUBOCKI / STARRING: TOBIAS JELINEK, KEELY ALONA, HARRY SHUM JR., DANIELLE CHUCHRAN, KRISTIN MINTER, MAY-MARGARET HUMES / RELEASE DATE: TBC
 

FREAKS (1932)

The horror movie has been with us for a long time now. We might think we know the evolution of the genre pretty well. Once it was all vampires and Frankenstein until the psychotic-slasher became the industry standard. Now it’s zombies, zombies and the occasional zombie (*sigh*). But maybe things could have been different. You see, shortly after Tod Browning invented the horror-talkie with Dracula (1931), he decided to visit the genre again. But back then no-one really knew what would make a good subject for scares and what Browning came up would prove to be an evolutionary dead-end; a stunted branch on the phylogenetic tree of horror: Freaks.

The past is a foreign country, and in the ‘30s the “freak show” was still a regular part of a circus where ordinary punters would pay good money to see people who were physically unusual; people who in a lot of cases we’d just describe as having a disability today. As the whole point was to “horrify”, it’s not altogether surprising that Browning thought that this was a way forward for the fledgling genre. He even cast real sideshow performers. So as well as an array of characters with missing limbs (or even only half a body) we also have a trio of microcephaly sufferers, a pair of Siamese twins, apparent hermaphrodites and assorted human skeletons. As it happens, contemporary audiences weren’t just horrified; they also thought the whole thing rather exploitative and stayed away in droves. Freaks would remain unique.

But what do we make of it today? Well we’re hopefully a bit more accepting of disability so the first thing you have to say is that the film, for the most part, isn’t in any way horrifying. The plot involves Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova), a “normal” circus performer pretending to show affection for Hans (Harry Earles), the wealthy midget who owns the circus, in order to get her hands on his cash. A large proportion of the movie is simply an unusually cast soap opera. In fact, for a while it’s a teensy bit boring. But before you write in about the use of the word “midget”, it’s important to stress that we’re using that to distinguish the normally proportioned Earles-siblings from the movie’s actual dwarf (Angelo Rossitto, who you might remember a lot older in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome). In fact, visually it’s hard to distinguish the Earles from children even though they’re adults. All of which makes Hans’ “romantic” scenes with Cleopatra a bit on the uncomfortable side. Because all these years later, Freaks may not be horrifying, but by golly it is an unsettling experience.

As far as being exploitative is concerned, it must be noted that Browning portrays these “freaks” as highly sympathetic and likable characters with a strong sense of community. That is, until the genuinely horrifying climax when the drunken Cleopatra shows what she really thinks of them and gives the game away. The sight of these authentically misshapen shadowy figures emerging from a thunderstorm really is something from a bad dream. It seems wrong but it’s real; nightmarish stuff. And as for their revenge? Let’s just say that Cleopatra’s fate has lost none of its power to shock.

Freaks is getting a cinema re-release on June 12th and it’s a unique part of cinema history that you really ought to see. Worth the admission to see the Human Torso (Prince Randian) lighting up his own cigarettes alone.

INFO: FREAKS (1932) / CERT: 15 / DIRCTOR: TOD BROWNING / SCREENPLAY: TOD ROBBINS / STARRING: WALLACE FORD, LEILLA KYAMS, OLGA BACLANOVA, HARRY EARLES, DAISY EARLES, JOHNNY ECK, ROSCOE ATES, DAISY AND VIOLET HILTON, SCHLITZIE, PRINCE RANDIAN, KOO KOO, PIP & ZIP, PETER ROBINSON, ANGELO ROSSITTO / RELEASE DATE: JUNE 12TH