We watch several movies a week. Every Friday, we'll talk a little about some of the movies we watched that we felt were Worth Mentioning.
Full Moon, action, comedy, and Shyamalan thrills.
QUADRANT (2024)
If you look at the IMDb page for Full Moon founder Charles Band, it says that he already has over 410 producing credits to his name – but there are stray credits on that list that Band himself doesn’t count, because as far as he’s concerned, project #400 in his career was his recently released movie Quadrant, which he also directed from a screenplay by Full Moon regular C. Courtney Joyner. This was based on an idea that first came up in the 1980s, but Band had been holding off on making it for a while, until deciding to make Quadrant the first in a slate of ten films that he’ll be releasing under the Pulp Noir label. Pulp Noir is intended to focus on “edgier, weirder, darker horror and dark fantasy films,” which will be released in both color and black and white versions. Both versions of Quadrant are now available to watch on the Full Moon Features streaming service and Prime Video, and the color version has also made it to Blu-ray, DVD, and VHS. I have watched both versions, and one thing I found to be very cool about the black and white version is the fact that, while the color was drained out of everything else, most of the blood was still red.
The film stars Shannon Helene Barnes as Erin, a young woman who has been haunted by an image she saw of a Jack the Ripper victim ever since she saw it in a book when she was a child. Then she hears about the titular Quadrant, a virtual reality device that was developed by scientists Harry (Rickard Claeson) and Meg (Emma Reinagel). The idea is that Quadrant will allow patients to face their phobias and nightmares in the virtual reality world and gain the strength to defeat them. Erin decides to give it a try as a way to dig into her obsession with Jack the Ripper – but she’s not facing a fear. Instead, she’s hoping to gain insight into why Jack did what he did, even though Quadrant can only interpret what’s going on in the mind of the person wearing the VR helmet. Still, this virtual reality world is the closest she’ll ever get to being in the same room with Jack the Ripper, so she dives into sessions enthusiastically, getting a thrill from “visiting” the crime scenes.
Knowing what Erin is up to, Meg wants her dropped from the program, but Harry lets her keep accessing Quadrant, feeling that it will be able to cure her of her obsession. But that’s not how it goes. First, Erin kills a non-existent character within the virtual world. Then she starts committing murder in the real world while her mind somehow remains connected to Quadrant even when she’s not wearing the helmet. She can even project herself into the Quadrant sessions of fellow lab rat Robert (Christian Carrigan), who is using the program for its intended purpose... and is easy to lure into her craziness.
Although Charles Band has built his career on sci-fi and horror, he has always let it be known that he is not a slasher fan. Chances are that if someone gets slashed in one of his movies, it’s a puppet, doll, or some other kind of small creature doing the slashing. The first couple of Puppet Master movies could be categorized as slashers, but the movies moved away from that as the sequels and prequels went on. So even though Erin becomes a female Jack the Ripper, it’s no surprise that Band doesn’t focus on the killings. There’s some bloody stabbing, but this isn’t a hi-tech take on Friday the 13th... which I would have loved to see, but I knew not to expect that from Band, even under the Pulp Noir label.
It’s not a slasher, but Quadrant is an interesting serial killer story with a unique technological edge to it. The idea of the Quadrant helmet and the VR world is somewhat reminiscent of the ‘90s Full Moon movie Arcade, but more simple than what was seen in Arcade, accomplished on a much smaller budget. This aspect actually seemed to work somewhat better in the black and white version, especially when it comes to the Victorian England that Erin walks around in.
What really makes Quadrant work are the performances delivered by the actors. Everyone in this movie did good work in their roles, with Barnes doing great work as her intensely off-kilter character. This was her first role in a feature film, and I look forward to seeing what she’s going to do from here.
The movie also earns extra points through the fact that it was shot in the Cleveland, Ohio area – not far from my own home turf. It’s always nice to see glimpses of my home state, especially in this sort of low budget horror movie that I love to watch.
EYES WITHOUT A FACE (1960)
The 1960 French horror film Eyes Without a Face seems like it should be referenced more often as a classic of the genre... but even though it’s popular enough that there have been movies that copied ideas from it and Billy Idol even released a song inspired by its title, it’s not a movie I hear about often. It should get more press – but if you were to ask director Georges Franju, he would tell you it’s not a horror movie anyway. He felt it had “a quieter mood” than a horror movie, that it was too “internal” to be considered horror. But a horror movie it is, and a strong one.
Based on a novel by Jean Redon, the movie (which is also known as Les Yeux sans visage) is about a young woman named Christiane Génessier (Édith Scob), who spends her days hidden away in her father’s mansion, a mask covering her features. Beneath the mask, her face has been mangled and torn away – thus the title of the movie; her eyes peer out through her mask, but she doesn’t have a face beneath it. Christiane’s lost her face in a car accident where her father, Pierre Brasseur as Doctor Génessier, was driving. Since he was responsible for her disfigurement, he has taken it upon himself to fix her condition... which he sets out to do by abducting young women and removing their faces to graft them onto Christiane’s face. Problem is, her body keeps rejecting the new skin, so her dad has to keep getting more victims and trying the grafts all over again. He is aided in this endeavor by his assistant Louise (Alida Valli), who had a ravaged face that was successfully fixed by Génessier through a lesser procedure.
Eyes Without a Face is, as Franju said, quite low-key for much of its 90 minutes, but it also manages to be very creepy at times, despite the use of some oddly jaunty music. And even though the filmmakers were told to hold back on the gore so they could avoid trouble with the censors, there’s also a lengthy, surprisingly gross moment where we watch Génessier and Louise cut off the face of one of their victims. I’m not sure how that slipped through.
Redon worked on the screenplay adaptation with Claude Sautet and Pierre Gascar, as well as the writing duo of Boileau-Narcejac, who were best known for writing novels that were turned into the likes of Les Diaboliques, Vertigo, and Body Parts. If you’re looking to spend 90 minutes immersed in black and white French weirdness, the film that came out of this adaptation is absolutely worth checking out.
DON'T MESS WITH GRANDMA (2024)
Nine years ago, writer/director Jason Krawczyk brought the world the horror comedy He Never Died, which introduced viewers to a badass immortal character named Jack (played by Henry Rollins), who had been around for thousands of years. This character had franchise potential that Krawczyk and Rollins were well aware of; they were planning to continue his story through a feature sequel and an eight episode mini-series. But for some reason, they were never able to get a follow-up off the ground, and Krawczyk’s sequel script ended up being rewritten into a film called She Never Died, which focused on a different character and wasn’t directed by Krawczyk. According to online trivia, the action comedy thriller Don’t Mess with Grandma (which Krawczyk wrote and directed under his preferred title of Sunset Superman) is a project that grew out of the filmmaker’s frustration over the He Never Died franchise not gaining traction. To deal with that heartbreak, he decided to make a movie that would allow him and other viewers to watch Michael Jai White punch as many people as possible in 80 minutes. And while the finished film doesn’t actually feature a huge number of people getting punched, we do get to watch White throw plenty of punches and toss people around.
White’s character is Jasper, or J.T., a guy who spends his days dealing with the elderly as part of his job at Trusted Trays, a meal delivery service. Then he spends his evenings dealing with the most frustrating elderly person in his life: his own grandmother, Granna (Jackie Richardson). This movie catches up with J.T. on a particularly annoying evening when he has stopped by to have dinner with Granna, fix a sink for her, and try to convince her to move from the home she shared with her late husband to an assisted living residence called Shady Acres... a difficult subject to broach. But the most annoying thing about this evening is the fact that Granna’s house has become the target of a group of mask-wearing, blade and gun-wielding thieves who have arrived to carry out a home invasion.
These hapless thieves (one of whom happens to be played by Billy Zane, sporting a horrendous mustache) quickly come to suspect that J.T. has a military background as he repeatedly thwarts their attempts to invade and ransack the house – but while this “Terminator dude” knocks the home invaders around with ease, getting some assistance from Granna’s dog, the movie retains a lighthearted tone throughout. This is an action comedy with a fun sense of humor, and J.T. is so confident in his ability to handle the threat that he does his best not to hurt any of the thieves. He doesn’t want to put them down, he just wants to keep them out of the house... and strives to keep their presence a secret from Granna. So every bit of physical violence that occurs happens without Granna witnessing it.
Details on J.T.’s history are revealed as the story goes on, giving an explanation for why he’s so adept at handling home invaders, and we also learn more information about the thieves and why they have shown up to rob Granna’s house. So fear not, questions are answered – and J.T. gets the necessary info on the robbers when he manages to capture one of them and bring him in to maybe play the card game Rummy with him and his Granna. Which was a nice touch on Krawczyk’s part, as I used to play Rummy with my own grandma, and since that scenario made its way into this movie, I assume many others have as well.
Krawczyk was reportedly drawing inspiration from the tone of Big Trouble in Little China when he was making this movie, and while this movie is more down-to-earth and yet goofier than that John Carpenter classic, it does provide a whole lot of entertainment and laughs. The interactions between the bumbling thieves are quite amusing, and White does great work in the lead role, making J.T. a very likeable, fun guy to watch. Apparently White wasn’t even aware of Krawczyk’s Big Trouble in Little China inspiration for the bulk of production, but was drawing inspiration from that movie himself when coming up with his approach to his character, aiming to make J.T. someone who could have fit into Carpenter’s movie. He may not be Jack Burton, but he is as capable in a fight as Wang, and has an iconic moment toward the end (a moment that inspires the song “Sunset Superman” to kick in on the soundtrack) that could boost him onto lists of the great action heroes for many viewers.
Krawczyk may not be fond of the title Don’t Mess with Grandma, but if all goes well this is a title we’ll be hearing action and comedy fans mention frequently in the future, because this movie is a blast to watch and deserves to be referenced and recommended. Michael Jai White has starred in a lot of action movies over the years, and this is one of his best, with J.T. being one of the best characters he has ever played.
Don’t Mess with Grandma had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest and will soon be making its way to the Tubi streaming service.
The Don't Mess with Grandma review originally appeared on JoBlo.com
TRAP (2024)
The latest thriller from writer/director M. Night Shyamalan, Trap stars Josh Hartnett as firefighter Cooper Adams, who has taken his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to an arena concert to see her favorite musical artist, the hugely popular pop singer Lady Raven (played by Shyamalan’s daughter Saleka). While taking in the sights, Cooper notices there is an extremely heavy police presence at the venue... and is soon able to find out that this concert is being used as a trap. The authorities have gotten word that a serial killer known as The Butcher will be in attendance, and they plan to filter through the thousands of men in the arena until they find their man.
Sure, this seems like a ridiculous set-up. Shyamalan drew inspiration from a sting operation called Operation Flagship that went down in the ‘80s, but that was much different from what he wrote here – that just involved wanted fugitives being invited to a convention center under the false pretenses of having won tickets to a football game, only for the 166 people who greeted them to be revealed to be law enforcement officers. That sting resulted in 101 arrests. A bit different from authorities checking thousands of people to find one man... But even though there are ridiculous elements to Trap, including a lack of security around Lady Raven and within the venue itself (a stage rises up in the aisle between two rows of audience members without any security people around to make sure no one falls or jumps into the stage space), if you can let questions of logic slide, it turns out to be an interesting, entertaining thriller.
This sting operation is bad news for Cooper, but he happens to be The Butcher in his free time, so he spends the entire concert trying to figure out how he can elude the police and escape from the venue – all without revealing to his daughter that he’s a criminal who wants to avoid the police. We know from early on that Cooper is a homicidal scumbag, but he’s our lead character, so we follow him through every step of his attempt to get out of this situation.
I was under the impression that the concert would take up the entire 105 minute running time, but the fact is that Cooper is only inside that “trap” for just over half the movie. There’s a whole lot more left to happen after the concert is over – and more twists and turns for the movie to take. The whole time, Cooper is very determined to hold on to his freedom and proves to be quite slippery. Every time it seems like he’s screwed, he finds a crafty and clever way to save himself. And keep the movie going.
Trap has gotten mixed reviews, but I felt it was one of Shyamalan’s best movies. Just as long as you don’t question the logic.
No comments:
Post a Comment