Child’s Play (1988): Of all the supernatural slasher
franchises, I’ve always been particularly fond of the Child’s Play films, even
once they discovered self-referantialism for themselves. Tom Holland’s first one
primarily convinces through its unassuming qualities: there aren’t terribly many
genre films of this era that seem to care so little for keeping the body count
up for its own sake and instead go for more classic thriller and suspense
methods in their goal of getting to the audience. Okay, Alex Vincent is as
horrible as child actors go, but if that’s your film’s biggest problem, you are
doing rather well.
Beyond Dream’s Door (1989): One might call Jay Woelfel’s
film a more dream-like sibling of the Nightmare on Elm Street series
whose outré qualities are decidedly enhanced by the awkwardness of some of the
acting and the low budget of the production. It’s certainly coming from a
related dream demon spirit to Craven’s film and what followed, though it goes
much farther in the way dream and reality mix, adds a bit of Cosmicism to the
mix and delights me to no end, even though its special effects are dubious, and
its gore is so squishy as to be absurd. Absolutely a film that should deserve a
longer piece and only does not get it from me because it is really better seen
than talked about.
(Flight) 7500 (2014): The last decade or so of director
Takashi Shimizu’s career has been a qualitative rollercoaster bound to
confuse even the more patient viewer. This disaster/horror movie outing with the
most obvious twist ending in the world (yes, it’s exactly the one you think it
is right now, so spoilers, sweeties) is Shimizu at his lowest point, with the
appearance of one of the man’s beloved stuffed rabbit toys as up as the high
points of this one go. Otherwise there’s only wasted acting talent rather good
at not showing any (hello, Amy Smart, Scout Taylor-Compton, Leslie Bibb, Ryan
Kwanten et al), a script by Craig Rosenberg that’s as clichéd, badly paced and
emotionally flat as they come, and direction so bland and characterless I’m not
completely sure Shimizu hasn’t been replaced by DIRECT-O-BOT-1000 for this
one.
Thursday, November 17, 2016
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