My head's gonna explode from all the awesomeness!!!

Howdy folks!

Back again with more More MORE. Almost the entirety of July, to be exact. Wasn’t able to watch as much as usual, but then, that gave me time to write more than usual. As for the horror flicks getting short shrift, ABCs of Death is more curiosity than film, Pacific Rim gets more and more sour the further away I get, and Beneath is from a filmmaker I love too much to properly skewer. Pretty much everything else gets the gala treatment – hope you dig the bounty.

As always, feel free to leave your two cents worth – we’ll make sure you get some change back.

Enjoy!


HORROR:

ABCs of Death, The (2012) (1st viewing) d. Various (Various)

26 short flicks
26 genre directors
All OVER the map

Beneath (2013) (1st viewing) d. Fessenden, Larry (USA)

Giant fish monster
Strands tiresome kids on lake
But...the shore’s right THERE

Blood for Irina (2012) (1st viewing) d. Alexander, Chris (Canada)

Fango ed directs
Moody vampire flick sans words
Pure but divisive

**CLICK HERE FOR FULL REVIEW**

Conjuring, The (2013) (1st viewing) d. Wan, James (USA)

Family buys spook house
In come the ghost chasers
Seen it all before

**CLICK HERE FOR FULL REVIEW**

Game of Werewolves (2011) (4th viewing) d. Moreno, Juan Martinez (Spain)

Festival awards
But zero distribution
Where’s the Lobos love?

**CLICK HERE FOR FULL REVIEW**

Gappa: the Triphibian Monster (1967) (2nd viewing) d. Noguchi, Haruyasu (Japan)

Tycoon steals baby
Mom and Dad ain’t having it
Dig that groovy theme

Hands of the Ripper (1971) (3rd viewing) d. Sasdy, Peter (UK)

Jack’s back in the flesh
Disturbed daughter picks up blade
Beware flashing lights

**CLICK HERE FOR FULL REVIEW**

Men in Suits (2012) (1st viewing) d. Woodward, Frank M. (USA)

Long overdue doc
Meet yer creature feature stars
Screw you, CGI

**CLICK HERE FOR FULL REVIEW**

Pacific Rim (2013) (1st viewing) d. del Toro, Guillermo (USA)

Monsters vs. ‘bots
More “wah-wah” and “huh” than wow
Clichés out wazoo

R.I.P.D. (2013) (1st viewing) d. Schwentke, Robert (USA)

Dead cops catch dead crooks
Better known as Men in Black
Jeff does True Grit...again

Q: The Winged Serpent (1982) (3rd viewing) d. Cohen, Larry (USA)

Large lizard in town
Moriarty’s off his nut
Sunbathers beware

**CLICK HERE FOR FULL REVIEW**

We Are What We Are (2013) (1st viewing) d. Mickle, Jim (USA)

Family keeps close
Skeletons in closet, elsewhere
Sweet melancholy

**CLICK HERE FOR FULL REVIEW**

I LOVE TRASH:

Street Trash (1987) (2nd viewing) d. Muro, James (USA)
Meltdown Memoirs, The (2006) (1st viewing) d. Frumkes, Roy (USA)


Tenafly tonic
Ooze, booze, crime, grime, sleaze, cheese, please
Plus feature length doc

**CLICK HERE FOR FULL REVIEW**




CIVILIAN:

Call, The (2013) (1st viewing) d. Anderson, Brad (USA)

911 call gone bad
Tracking kidnapped gal on cell
Ending panders hard

Code of Silence (1985) (4th viewing) d. Davis, Andrew (USA)

Chuck cleans up Chi-town
Beats up chumps, outs dirty cops
With his robot pal

Heat, The (2013) (1st viewing) d. Feig, Paul (USA)

Missy and Sandy
Mismatched wacky cartoon cops
Fun for all but me


2013 Totals to date: 188 films, 171 1st time views, 103 horror, 58 cinema

We Are What We Are (2013) d. Mickle, Jim (USA)

There’s a deep dark secret at the center of writer/director Mickle’s latest feature, his third following the acclaimed Mulberry St. and Stake Land. The irony is that this mystery, which enjoys its big reveal about an hour into the film, is a large part of the high concept pitch and is likely to be known to anyone who settles in to watch, especially if they are in any way familiar with Jorge Michel Grau’s original Mexican shocker. Because Mickle and co-writer Nick Damici have taken such pains to carefully unwrap this plot element, I will endeavor to do the same. But regardless of whether viewers know where the winding road leads, the experience is not diminished; this is powerful, assured filmmaking that overcomes the clunkiness of its predecessor and stands as the fiercely independent artist’s most fully realized effort to date. And – barring an excessively silly climax (thrown in to appease the gorehounds) – it’s also probably one of the finest remakes of the past two decades.

Those who read my review of Grau’s 2010 film (beware: mild spoilers) might remember I was quite taken with the overall concept but found the meandering final result littered with loose ends and missed opportunities. When I heard that Mickle would be helming the remake, it seemed the rare occasion where an English language do-over could actually be an improvement as opposed to a desecration or an easy cash grab. This We Are What We Are is not going to make anyone rich – it’s just not cut from crowd-pleaser cloth. There are no cheap thrills or ear-splitting boo-scares to be found; instead, it is a deeply atmospheric and melancholy character study that begins and ends with skin-soaking rainstorms, loss, poverty, failed human connections, and death.

Mickle and Damici (who also plays the local sheriff) have done a complete gender switch; where Grau’s troubled clan consisted of a recent widow and her brood of two boys and a girl, we are now presented with the Parker family who lose their matriarch in the opening scene, setting in motion the events that follow. Bill Sage (star of several Hal Hartley films in the mid-90s and a reliable but undervalued character actor ever since) is Frank Parker, a reclusive and sickly hermit living in a trailer park in the Catskills with his two lovely daughters Iris (Ambyr Childers) and Rose (Julia Garner) and young son Rory (Jack Gore). As the Parkers mourn, we soon learn that there is more than mere grief behind their sorrow – an important link in the chain has been broken; family roles are up for grabs and everyone must do their part in order to survive. But the rising floodwaters are digging up secrets of their own, one that affects the community at large and aging Doc Barrow (Michael Parks) in particular. Blood is thicker than water, but bones carry more weight than both.

It’s a shame that We Are What We Are seems destined to be an art-house sleeper – in crafting a nearly perfect mood piece (again, excepting the goofy “horror” ending), Mickle has once again delayed his discovery by the studio players as this generation’s finest genre director. All the actors, especially Parks and Kelly McGillis (who both have emerged as peerless character players over the past decade), effortlessly inhabit their roles with unshowy grace. The deliberate pace and melancholy tone are not going to be for everyone, but they feel inexorably right for a story so earthy and timeless. (The scene of Parks paging through books in search of answers in this Google-driven world exemplifies the low-tech, low-key vibe Mickle and his able cohorts have cultivated.) Jeff Grace, Darren Morris and Phil Mossman craft an achingly beautiful and evocative musical score, perfectly complementing Ryan Samuel’s elegiac, color-leached cinematography. In short, it’s a superb collaboration of artists deserving of a wider audience, one likely doomed to the fringe by its purity of vision.

--Aaron Christensen, HorrorHound Magazine