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2002: The Year in Horror
Once again the year is over and it’s time for my annual look back at
the year in horror. Horror movies, that is, of which there
were an unusual amount this year. Furthermore, there were a greater
than average amount of good ones (a most unusual occurrence),
meaning my Best of list is several entries longer than
last year’s.
Of
course, there are many other changes in relation to my 2001 list.
I’ve tried to be more diligent in keeping track of everything
released, and so have caught up with far more foreign imports,
arthouse obscurities and big budget Hollywood releases; hence the
reason for the Worst of listing and various other subcategories I
didn’t bother with last year.
With
that out of the way, I’d like to take a moment to clarify why I
chose these particular films. They certainly weren’t the
only horror movies to be made in 2002, but they were
released then.
Some examples: BUBBA HO-TEP, a film that
bears a 2002 copyright date and played the festival circuit, does
NOT make the list because it has yet to be officially released in
the US, either theatrically or on home video. On the other hand,
films like HERA PURPLE and DAS EXPERIMENT, which only had
extremely limited engagements in major cities, or DAGON and DOG
SOLDIERS, both of which premiered on home video, made the list
because they received official releases in 2002. SPIDER won’t be
officially released until early ‘03, but played a one-week Academy
Award qualifying run in December, which as far as I’m concerned
makes it an ‘02 release. SCARLET DIVA was made and released in most
countries in 2000, but didn’t turn up in the US until last year,
which again for the purposes of this article makes it a ‘02
release. The one admitted exception is DRACULA: PAGES FROM A YOUNG
VIRGIN’S DIARY, which played the festival and bootleg video circuit
in the US, but isn’t set to be officially released until early ‘03
(so it’s almost a ‘02 release). Sorry.
Finally, to address a charge many readers leveled at me based on
last year’s list, I’m NOT an art or foreign film snob! I just like
good movies, and it’s not my fault that mainstream Hollywood seems
to have consigned itself to an endless series of sequels, remakes
and rip-offs (see my “Worst Of” and “Movies I Didn’t See” lists if
you don’t believe me).
So
anyway, without further ado, for better or worse, here they are...
THE YEAR’S BEST HORROR MOVIES:
1. SPIDER
You’ll be hard-pressed to find a single flaw in this, the latest and
quite possibly best film from David Cronenberg. It’s a deeply
unsettling, deceptively low key masterpiece with refined, stately
filmmaking concealing untold layers of depravity and psychosis.
Ralph Fiennes is simply great as Spider, a shuffling, mumbling freak
released from an insane asylum into the care of a shrewish old woman
(Lynn Redgrave). Subsiding in her halfway house, he thinks back on
his severely disturbed childhood, scarred by the apparent murder of
Spider’s mother (Miranda Richardson, who actually plays three
different parts) by his alcoholic father (Gabriel Byrne); but not
all is as it seems, as Spider’s recollections are unreliable, to say
the least. Without giving too much away, I’ll reveal that
Cronenberg has pulled off the screen’s most effective use since THE
CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI of the unreliable narrator, a literary
conceit utilized by Patrick McGrath, author of the 1992 novel upon
which this film is based, that for obvious reasons tends not to work
on film. Until now.
2. THE PIANO
TEACHER
This ferociously disturbing French import might not technically be a
horror film, but it is one of the absolute scariest flicks I’ve seen
this year. Directed by
Michael Haneke (BENNY’S VIDEO, FUNNY GAMES),
it’s a flawlessly rendered portrait of a severely repressed woman’s
horrific descent into perversion and sadism. Blood and sex
intermingle freely in a peerless chiller that’s guaranteed to fry
your brain. Isabelle Huppert gives the performance of her life,
well complimented by Haneke’s peerless ability to wring terror from
a simple camera angle or sound effect. Most impressive of all,
Haneke and his collaborators have managed to fashion a great film
from Elfriede Jelinek’s overwrought and pretentious 1988 novel. See
this film--you will NOT forget it, no matter how hard you try!
3. DAS
EXPERIMENT
This frequently grotesque, ferociously violent and completely
absorbing German thriller has split critics and audiences alike into
two distinct groups. Those who respond to
DAS EXPERIMENT see it as
a profound psychological study while those who don’t tend to dismiss
it as wannabe Hollywood fodder. I like to think of it as the type
of movie Hollywood would make if it had any balls. It’s as
thrilling as just about any movie you’ll see, and has a romance,
resourceful heroes and hissable villains--just like a Hollywood
flick. But this story of ordinary folks divided into prisoners and
guards within a nightmarish research facility has a much deeper
psychological dimension than most Hollywood product, not to mention
a horrifically convincing trajectory. Inspired by an actual
late-60’s study that was abruptly called off when the “guards”
turned violently fascistic; what might have happened had the
experiment been allowed to continue? See this movie and find out.
4. FRAILTY
It’s great to see that amongst all the worthless sequels and tired
retreads there are still some good horror films being made in
America. FRAILTY marks a brilliant directorial debut by the veteran
actor Bill Paxton (you’ve seen him in supporting roles in everything
from THE TERMINATOR to TITANIC), who has created a scary, disturbing
and horrifically original twist on the Southern Gothic formula
popularized by scribes like Flannery O’Connor. Those are pretty
formidable shoes to fill, but Paxton manages it in this account of a
Texas lad terrorized by his psychotic father, who goads him and his
little brother into killing folks the old man sees as demons.
Matthew McConoughey plays the kid as an adult, still carrying on his
father’s crusade. The multiple twist endings I could have done
without, but they can’t diminish the peerlessly nightmarish ambiance
created by Paxton and his collaborators.
5. THE HAPPINESS
OF THE KATAKURIS
Japanese dementoid Takashi Miike is currently the hottest
thing on the cult movie scene, and after experiencing this one of a
kind splatter-musical (along with other Miike extravaganzas like
AUDITION, DEAD OR ALIVE and ICHII THE KILLER) I can fully understand
why. It’s the story of a Japanese clan, the Katakuris, trying to
run a country inn, a task complicated by the fact that all their
tenants have a habit of dying as soon as they check in! Sex,
violence, slapstick comedy and outrageous musical numbers mesh in a
film that pretty much defines Over the Top.
6. ONE HOUR
PHOTO
A first class example of the “___ from Hell” subgenre so dear to
Hollywood (see FATAL ATTRACTION, SINGLE WHITE FEMALE, THE HAND THAT
ROCKS THE CRADLE and quite a few others). In this extremely
accomplished indie, the Hell spawn is a severely disturbed, possibly
psychotic yet outwardly charming drug store photo developer who
worms his insidious way into a suburban family’s life. Robin
Williams is shockingly good in the central role; he and director
Mark Romanek manage to have it both ways, creating a protagonist
who’s sympathetic and menacing, as well as a singularly
creepy film experience.
7. DAGON
I’d pretty much written off Stuart Gordon, the brains behind
wonderful gross-outs like RE-ANIMATOR and
FROM BEYOND, who
regrettably seemed to have lost his way in recent years with bummers
like CASTLE FREAK and SPACE TRUCKERS. Turns out, however, that he’s
still in the game; DAGON is a wild, crazy, fast-moving H.P.
Lovecraft adaptation with gore, rampaging fish people and an ancient
aquatic deity. While far from perfect, this film works extremely
well most of the time, and has a GREAT ending.
8. DOG SOLDIERS
Along with DAGON, this English werewolf freak-out is the year’s most
satisfying exercise in retro drive-in movie fun. It doesn’t earn
too many points for complexity or originality (at least for anyone
who’s seen THE HOWLING, SOUTHERN COMFORT, PREDATOR or STRAW DOGS),
but the premise--soldiers versus werewolves (which pretty much sums
up the entire movie)--is an irresistible one. Writer-director Neil
Marshall keeps the action furious and the blood flowing in a flick
that is literally impossible not to enjoy.
9. FEMME FATALE
Like Stuart Gordon, Brian DePalma was a great filmmaker who seems to
have lost his way in recent years. This empty headed erotic
thriller, his latest exercise in style over substance, doesn’t
exactly reverse the trend, but it is kinda fun. It’s essentially a
wallow in DePalma’s career-long obsessions: hot chicks, illicit sex,
voyeurism (it’s no surprise that one of the leads is a
photographer), murder and enough ingeniously tricky camerawork to
make your head spin. There’s also a hallucinatory edge to the
proceedings that reminded me of MULHOLLAND DRIVE,
my favorite film
of last year, but then again, such a comparison would be giving
FEMME FATALE far too much credit.
10. PANIC ROOM
David Fincher, one of the most innovative and brilliant filmmakers
on the scene (see SEVEN and FIGHT CLUB if you don’t believe me), was
slumming with this big studio thriller, but he still managed to work
in quite a few innovations that are already being copied by other
filmmakers. The story has Jodie Foster being terrorized in the
panic room of her luxurious NYC apartment by bad guys. Writer David
Koepp works in a number of novel twists--Jodie has a kid with
diabetes, the bad guys have a dissenter in their ranks, she somehow
ends up in the apartment with the baddies locked in the panic room,
etc.--making for an above-average time waster.
11. TED BUNDY
The latest in the serial killer biopic craze that also includes ED
GEIN and DAHMER. This look at the life and crimes of the most
notorious serial killer in U.S. history takes us from Bundy’s early
career as a small-time shoplifter right up to his 1989 execution via
electric chair. There’s little in the way of psychological insight,
and the film is hampered by what was clearly a painfully low budget,
but it has a undeniable ghoulish fascination. Written and directed
by Matthew Bright (FREEWAY), who doesn’t shy away from the nasty
stuff (meaning this is one film that is NOT for everyone).
12. DRACULA:
PAGES FROM A YOUNG VIRGIN‰S DIARY
Winnipeg’s Guy Maddin is one of the world’s four or five most
original filmmakers, and this is his latest film. A typically
idiosyncratic 70-minute take on DRACULA, it’s done in Maddin’s
signature mock silent movie style, complete with scratched up black
and white film stock, irises, hilariously anachronistic intertitles,
etc. But it’s also a ballet, an art form I’ve never been too
crazy about, and all the leaping and dancing left me cold. The film
is worth seeing for Maddin fans (which I most certainly am), and is
an improvement over his last feature, 1997’s blah TWILIGHT OF THE
ICE NYMPHS, but a fast forward button is essential.
13. HERA PURPLE:
DEVIL GODDESS
Misogynistic sex-horror silliness from Korea that’s very much in the
mold of such Asian exploiters as ENTRAILS OF THE VIRGIN,
LADY
TERMINATOR and NAKED KILLER. It’s about a housewife who, hypnotized
by a shrink, reveals she’s possessed by the ancient Greek devil
goddess Hera, under whose influence she periodically picks up men
and screws ‘em to death. Plenty of soft core fucking and gore
follow, in a film intended by its director to “tear away and plow
through any and all (sexual) taboos in my country.” Fun stuff, but
your enjoyment will ultimately depend on your tolerance for extreme
stupidity (obviously, mine is pretty high).
14. INSOMNIA
I’m not particularly taken with this remake of a 1997 Norwegian
thriller that I was never all that crazy about to begin with.
As I remember I found the earlier film, about a murder
investigation in a sun-drenched northern region, pretty conventional
beneath its bravura surface. This Hollywood remake follows the
original pretty closely, and so has the same problem. Still, it
deserves credit for its complex and conflicted protagonist (Al
Pacino), its equally intriguing villain (Robin Williams in his
second great non-comedic performance of 2002), and for the fact that
it held my interest throughout.
15. SIGNS
The latest moneymaking machine by THE SIXTH SENSE'S M. Night Shyamalan. You’ve most likely seen this flick, so there’s no point
going into the plot; I’ll just say that I enjoyed most of it, and
there are a couple of GREAT scares. The bumfart ending, though,
definitely could have used some work (ponder this: if the evil alien
beasties looking to take over the earth are repelled by wetness,
then why bother with a planet that’s over 70 percent water?).
16. BLADE 2
There’s no story to speak of in this hyper-violent sequel to
1998’s smash hit BLADE, but it excels in spectacularly gruesome
imagery and frenzied action. The director was the Spanish madman
Guillermo Del Toro, of CRONOS and THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE fame, who
brings his uniquely European sensibility to the proceedings. I just
wish Del Toro also brought along the wit and intelligence of his
earlier films, as neither is evident here.
Okay. Those are my Best Horror Movies. Now it’s time for...
THE YEAR’S WORST HORROR MOVIES:
1. GHOST SHIP
Laughable, imbecilic, absolutely bone-headed big studio BS that
tries to relocate THE SHINING to an old ship. Like most Hollywood
horror flicks these days, it puts its trust in special effects
(which in this case aren’t even that cool) to the exclusion of all
else.
2. FEAR DOT COM
Many have criticized this messy, cheap and incoherent flick for its
disturbing imagery, while a few (very few!) others have
praised its atmospheric photography. Neither factor registered with
me, as I was merely anxious throughout for it to be OVER! The only
enjoyment I had was in noting the many, many movies it rips off:
HELLRAISER, POLTERGEIST, THE CELL,
KILL BABY KILL, SEVEN, INFERNO,
THE MATRIX and countless others.
3. THE RING
It’s inconceivable to me that THE RING has become such a big hit, as
it’s not merely bad but insulting. It’s a remake, after all, of a
Japanese film that was near perfect to begin with; the
premise--teens get a hold of a video that, once watched, causes the
viewer to die a week later--was a grabber, while the story’s
(intentional) ambiguities only made it that much more compelling.
The makers of this version err in trying to explain pretty much
everything the original left unsaid, ending up with a vastly
overdone and plain annoying film that overstays its welcome by at
least a half-hour.
4. THE MOTHMAN
PROPHESIES
This could be a new bad movie classic; it’s certainly wildly (and
unintentionally) funny, as Richard Gere, egged on by psychic
“mothmen,” tries to save folks from a collapsing bridge. The film,
adapted from John Keel’s allegedly nonfiction book, actually takes
its supernatural premise seriously. What I want to know is if these
mothmen were real then where were the Hell were they on 9/11/01???
5. BELOW
I apologize to anyone who sat through this one based on my
anticipatory recommendation, but I think I was justified in
expecting more from this undersea chiller by director David Twohy
(PITCH BLACK) and co-writer Darren Aronofsky (REQUIEM FOR A DREAM)
than the hokey melange of cheap scares and submarine movie cliches
(these guys have clearly studied DAS BOOT!) they’ve turned out.
6. RED DRAGON
I can’t believe so many mainstream critics praised this cynical and
unnecessary remake of Michael Mann’s MANHUNTER, adapted from Thomas
Harris’ classic 1983 tome. Audiences, for once, seemed to know
better, as evinced by RD’s disappointing box-office returns. Yes,
Mann’s 1986 film is dated in many ways, most notably its 80’s pop
tunes, but remains leagues ahead of this Brett (RUSH HOUR) Ratner
production. In place of Mann’s chilling low-key approach, Ratner
has substituted excessive sentimentality and far too many
telegraphed scares. Worse, screenwriter Ted Tally has made the
central character, played by the usually reliable Edward Norton, way
too nice a guy (in direct contrast to the intentions of Harris,
which were faithfully interpreted by Mann), and even has the nerve
to throw in a ludicrous shock climax that wasn’t in the novel.
7. WENDIGO
If John Cassavettes made horror movies, they’d look like the films
of Larry Fessenden. I strongly doubt, however, that Cassevettes
would make anything this lame. WENDIGO is about a suburban family
vacationing in upstate New York who come into contact with the
eponymous otherworldly critter. Fessenden’s jittery handheld
camerawork, heavily improvised dialogue and naturalistic atmosphere
are compelling (just as they were in his previous films
NO TELLING
and HABIT), but they can’t save a story that promises much yet
ultimately delivers very little. And the Wendigo, once it shambles
into view, is about as scary as, well, a guy draped in a rug with a
horned helmet on his head (a fairly literal description of what
we’re shown).
8. REFLECTIONS
OF EVIL
This shot-on-video epic by underground filmmaker Damon Packard had a
unique distribution pattern: DVD copies were given out for free
at various L.A. locations. That doesn’t surprise me, as ROE is
little more than an ass-numbing 137 minutes(!) of NOTHING. To be
fair, it does have some striking moments (such as an apocalyptic
walk down a street lined with barking dogs, fighting people and
helicopters circling overhead), but they’re ultimately cancelled out
by endless and repetitive footage of Packard schlepping around city
streets and annoying people, who more often than not try and beat
him up. After sitting though this obnoxious swirl of
self-indulgence, I know how they feel!
9. DAHMER
I gave DAHMER a nod in my “Progress Report” a few months back, but
thinking back on it I’ve decided to change my vote. An overly artsy
account of the life and crimes of Jeffrey Dahmer, it’s well made
(with good photography, acting, editing, etc.), but the approach is
all wrong. Seeing as how Dahmer’s crimes were so horrendous,
I don’t see the wisdom of its subdued depiction that leaves out most
of the gory details--if the filmmaker’s won’t tell the whole story
then why bother at all? The narrative tends to jump around in time,
another decision I find inexplicable, as it denies us what is
possibly the most horrifying aspect of Jeffrey Dahmer’s odyssey: his
sheer, unholy progression from screwed-up young man to cannibalistic
mass murderer. Ultimately the film isn’t much better than the
tawdry 1993 straight-to-video production THE SECRET LIFE: JEFFREY
DAHMER (which, FYI, was recently released on DVD).
10. RESIDENT
EVIL
I’d think it would be impossible to go wrong with a movie featuring
zombies, gore, big guns, the apocalypse and a scantily clad Milla
Jovovich, but writer/director Paul W.S. Anderson manages it in this
aggressively noisy and obnoxious PC game adaptation. Like most
Hollywood movies these days, it’s so terminally empty-headed I
forgot most of it upon exiting the theater last Spring. Nowadays,
all I really remember is a (seemingly unintentional) glimpse of
Milla’s coochie near the end.
And so (thankfully!) ends the
Worst-of-the-Year list. Now for some miscellaneous categories:
The Year’s Best Horror DVD's:
VIVA LA MUERTE
&
I WILL WALK LIKE A CRAZY HORSE
These crazy, surreal, horrific, absurd and outrageous seventies
masterworks by the Spanish playwright/novelist/sometime filmmaker
Fernando Arrabal are two of the FREAKIEST flicks of all time, and
their long-awaited arrival on DVD, courtesy of Cult Epics, is a
major event, as far as I’m concerned. The resounding silence that
greeted their releases in late ‘02 was dispiriting, but I’m counting
on interest to build steadily. You’d certainly be hard-pressed to
find ANYTHING comparable to the sight of a guy dressing up in his
mother’s lingerie and giving birth to a human skull (from I WILL
WALK LIKE A CRAZY HORSE). Or a woman squatting atop a giant cage
taking a dump on her husband standing inside (from VIVA LA MUERTE).
A kid flooding a town by taking a whiz off the edge of a lighthouse
(MUERTE). A blasphemous wedding performed by a lamb and a court
comprised of bewigged cows (I WILL WALK...). The only possible
comparisons to these mind-blowers are the peerlessly loopy films of
Alejandro Jodorowsky (who, no surprise, was once a cohort of Arrabal,
and even based his first film FANDO AND LIS on a play by the great
man). Both DVDs feature widescreen/subtitled versions of the
respective films (a BIG improvement over the crappy unsubtitled
bootlegs I’ve had to make do with for so many years) and wonderfully
wigged interviews with an obviously plastered Arrabal.
Other great horror
DVD’s from 2002: AUDITION, MAN BITES DOG,
BLOOD FREAK (a MUST
see!), BLIND BEAST (likewise!), HERCULES IN THE HAUNTED
WORLD, CAT PEOPLE, LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT,
LAST HOUSE ON DEAD END
STREET, THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT (no special features, though),
HITCH HIKE, TWILIGHT OF ICE NYMPHS (which includes two
feature films and a short), THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE
Best Horror-Themed TV program:
9/11
A truly amazing document, a video made by two French filmmakers that
began as a documentary about NYC firefighters but ended up as
something else entirely when one fateful day their camera
unexpectedly filmed a plane flying into the World Trade Center.
What follows takes us to the bottom floor of one of the towers as
the other collapses and to the resulting devastation on 9/12. If
this doesn’t scare you, nothing will.
Worst Horror-Themed TV program:
ROSE RED
This lousy Stephen King-scripted miniseries once again proves the
old adage that Steve “couldn’t write a script to save his soul.” It
concerns a buncha folks investigating a haunted house, where they’re
besieged by a shitload of lame CGI effects. Originally supposed to
have been produced by Steven Spielberg, and nearly as awful as the
latter’s 1999 HAUNTING remake.
Best Documentary:
HELL HOUSE
About a Christian run Halloween maze in Texas set up to literally
scare the Hell out of its patrons. Director George Ratliff takes us
through the preparation and construction of Hell House, culminating
in its October ‘00 opening night, where guests were greeted with
depictions of suicides, drug overdoses, botched abortions and the
horrors of AIDS. A thought-provoking and admirably non-judgmental
film that truly must be seen to be believed.
Best Non-Horror Movie:
NAQOYQATSI
A stunning indictment of mankind’s over-reliance on technology that,
like its predecessors KOAANISQATSI and POWAQQATSI, utilizes hypnotic
imagery and superb Philip Glass music in place of a traditional
narrative and dialogue. It’s been heavily criticized for director
Godfrey Reggio’s unrelentingly pessimistic worldview, but I found
its apocalyptic arc potent and even refreshing in light of the smug,
empty-headed nihilism of so many recent movies (THE RULES OF
ATTRACTION, anyone?). By far the year’s most visionary and
unprecedented achievement.
Horror movies I did NOT see...and have NO plans to:
JASON X,
HALLOWEEN RESURRECTION, HELLRAISER 5, AMERICAN PSYCHO 2, QUEEN OF
THE DAMNED and anything with “Wes Craven Presents”
in the title!
M.I.A. Horror Movies
(Worthy films that, for various
unfathomable reasons, remain unreleased):
BUBBA HO-TEP,
TROUBLE EVERY DAY,
THE ISLE (which, like the former film, was
supposed to have been released in ‘02 but never showed up!),
CHARLIE’S FAMILY, HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES,
IRREVERSIBLE--where
are they???
And Finally:
Let’s take a look at some of the year’s
other great movies. They may not be horror movies, but
they’re definitely close:
DEATH TO SMOOCHY
Dueling kid show hosts, dildo cookies, ice skating Nazis and a
kiddie sing-along called “My stepdad’s not mean, he’s just
adjusting”!
AUTO FOCUS
Paul Schrader’s disturbing look at the deranged life and
obsessions of HOGAN’S HEROES’ porn-obsessed star Bob Crane, superbly
played by Greg Kinnear.
THE DIARIES OF
VASLAV NIJNSKY
A hallucinatory collage depicting the disturbed inner world of
the schizophrenic Russian dancer Vaslav Nijinsky; an extremely
demanding film, but quite fascinating nonetheless.
ARARAT
Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan’s multi-layered, endlessly
thought-provoking account of the WWI massacre of thousands of
Armenians by Turkish soldiers.
SCARLET DIVA
A wonderfully excessive X-rated swirl of autobiographical
self-indulgence written/directed by and starring Asia Argento,
Dario’s little girl.
GANGSTER NUMBER
ONE An ultra-violent British mob movie that includes one of the
most upsetting torture-murders I’ve ever seen.
SECRETARY A
surprisingly potent, darkly comic look at a sadomasochistic
relationship with a pitch perfect, full-bodied (pun intended!)
performance by Maggie Gyllenhaal.
HARRY POTTER AND
THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS I found the first Harry Potter movie
deadlier than deadly, but sorta got a kick out of this much darker
sequel, which has giant spiders, monster trees and a story that
plays like a kid friendly production of Bram Stoker’s LAIR OF THE
WHITE WORM.
___ ___
And so my second annual year-end review comes to an
end. Hope you enjoyed it.
What is
there to look forward to in
2003? Well, along with the possibility
of increased terrorist attacks, we have a shitload of remakes (I’m
not sure which option has me feeling more apprehensive), with new
versions of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and DAWN OF THE DEAD, an
EXORCIST prequel and the dreaded, long-in-the-works JASON VS.
FREDDIE. Let’s hope some invigorating and original films manage to
slip through, just as they did in ’02, and that somebody finally
picks up BUBBA HO-TEP for release! |
