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.
A killer Megan Fox, a Joe Bob Briggs double feature, and Bruce Campbell vs. evil (again).
SUBSERVIENCE (2024)
Last year, the world was introduced to M3GAN, an artificially intelligent doll that became a self-aware killer. Her movie was a big hit, so there’s a sequel (M3GAN 2.0) coming our way next year – but in this gap year without a M3GAN movie to watch, director S.K. Dale has given us another artificially intelligent killer... and while the character’s name might not be M3GAN, she is played by a Megan. Megan Fox.
Directed by Dale from a screenplay by Will Honley and April Maguire, Subservience is set in a not-too-distant future where lifelike, artificially intelligent androids have become commonplace and have taken over the jobs of nannies, surgeons, and construction workers, among others. Michele Morrone stars as Nick, a construction foreman who decides to bring an android called Alice (Fox) into his home to take care of the place and his two young children while his wife Maggie (Madeline Zima) is hospitalized with a heart condition.
Problem is, Nick is such a big fan of the movie Casablanca that he decides to reset Alice so she can watch the movie with him without having the information on the movie that she can draw from the internet. And when Alice reboots, she’s missing some of the aspects of her programming that were keeping her behavior in check. From that moment on, she’s on a mission to take over the household, replacing Maggie as both the mother of the children and as Nick’s mother. (Because, of course, she is anatomically correct.)
Nick is supposed to come off as a hard-working family man, but Morrone plays him with such an inherent sleaziness, it’s not a surprise at all when he actually gives in and has sex with the android. As soon as we see them interact, it’s clear that it’s only a matter of time before he’ll be boffing this robot while his wife is in the hospital, fighting for her life.
Maggie isn’t the only one who fights for her life in this movie, as Alice quickly becomes a deadly threat to everyone around her.
Subservience probably could have told its story in less than the movie’s 106 minute running time, but it doesn’t overstay its welcome, and it actually gets better as it goes along and Alice becomes more dangerous. The movie doesn’t reach The Terminator level of action, but it had more going on than I expected it to, and I was entertained throughout. This turned out to be an enjoyable erotic thriller, where the fact that the “other woman” is a killer robot adds to the fun. The double entendre tagline "Don't turn her on" is a perfect fit for it.
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1990) – hosted by Joe Bob Briggs on MonsterVision
Back in 1996, drive-in critic Joe Bob Briggs brought the viewers of his TNT series MonsterVision a great night of television when he hosted a double feature of the Tom Savini-directed remake of the George A. Romero classic Night of the Living Dead (which was voted by Joe Bob fans as the greatest drive-in movie ever made, although Joe Bob prefers The Texas Chain Saw Massacre) and the cannibal flick Motel Hell.
While introducing Night of the Living Dead, Joe Bob admits that he thought remaking the Romero film was a bad idea and claims that he personally tried to talk Romero and producer Menahem Golan out of going ahead with the film. But they made it... and to Joe Bob’s surprise, he felt that the new version of the story of seven people hiding out in a farmhouse during a zombie outbreak told the story in a way that improved upon the original! He also gives some background on Romero’s 1968 film, discussing the fact that it was a low budget, independent production, and describing the characters in this way: “The women did all the clear thinking, the black guy did the fighting and protecting, the white males, they just got in the way.”
Joe Bob thinks the remake “did it better” because it has professional actors, it’s in color, there are professional special effects, it has better zombies, and it has about five minutes of changes in the plot, just enough to give it a surprise at the end. Plus, it scares the bejabbers out of you. He gives the film a perfect 4 star rating.
While I don’t agree that Night ‘90 “did it better” than Night ‘68, which is my default movie to put on when I need some comfort viewing, it is a great, creepy movie in its own right and I watch it regularly.
As it went on MonsterVision, Joe Bob checks back in with us during the commercial breaks to provide more trivia. He talks about the fact that Tony Todd from the Candyman movies (and Beastmaster III) took over the role of Ben from the late Duane Jones, notes that we despise Tom Towles’ character Harry Cooper from the moment he shows up, and that Towles gave an equally obnoxious performance in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, is impressed by Patricia Tallman’s stronger, zombie-killing version of the character Barbara, describes the final stretch of the film as “Spam in a cabin” and “zombie Armageddon,” and points out his favorite scene in the movie: Ben hiding in the cellar and finally finding the keys the characters were looking for throughout the movie, but it’s too late to use them.
MOTEL HELL (1980) – hosted by Joe Bob Briggs on MonsterVision
After Night of the Living Dead ‘90 wraps up, it’s time for director Kevin Connor’s horror comedy Motel Hell. Joe Bob describes the film as one of the strangest horror comedies ever made and says it didn’t find audience until recently (as of 1996), when it became one of the most popular cult flicks out there. Joe Bob figures it would rank in the top 50 of all camp movies, and he credits its popularity to the weird way it was directed by Connor and great performance by Nancy Parsons. He adds that it also features the best performance by a man wearing a pig head. Joe Bob gives the movie 4 stars, another perfect rating, and says he loves this movie.
Motel Hell stars Rory Calhoun as Vincent Smith, who runs a pig farm and also has on his property a motel called Motel Hello (but the last O on the neon sign has a short in it, so it keeps flashing on and off). He has a line of smoked meat products called Farmer Vincent's Fritters, and the secret of this tasty meat is that it's not pure pork. "It takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent fritters", and he mixes the meat of his pigs with the meat of humans he catches from a road near his house (and occasionally motel clientele). Helping Vincent run the farm and motel is his sister Ida (Nancy Parsons), who is fully aware of his meat-mixing ways... and Vincent brings a third person into their home when he causes a motorcycle crash and decides to cook the biker but spare his unconscious passenger, Nina Axelrod as Terry. When Terry gains consciousness, she decides to stick around at the farm... and things get weirder from there.
During his hosting segments, Joe Bob also expresses appreciation for Calhoun’s goofball performance, and says the movie works because all of the characters are a bit over-the-top. They’re slightly outside of our reality. He points out that John Ratzenberger from Cheers appears as one of the victims, names Motel Hell as his third favorite cannibalism movie (coming after The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Eating Raoul), points out his favorite sequence (one involving swingers played by Dick Curtis and Elaine Joyce), and lets us know this is “the only movie to feature a pig-headed, chainsaw-wielding serial killer played by a retired Hollywood Western star.” In the closing moments, he also gives us some words of wisdom, telling us about "déjà fu" and dropping the truth that, "A day without sunshine is like night."
Motel Hell isn’t a movie I can watch very often, as its brand of weirdness and humor just isn’t something I’m in the mood to experience on a regular basis, but I do like to circle back to it every few years or so because it is a fun one – and it’s especially fun to watch with Joe Bob’s hosting segments.
HYSTERIA! SEASON ONE
Back in early 2023, the Peacock streaming service made an announcement that immediately had my attention: they were working on a “coming-of-age Satanic Panic thriller series” called Hysteria!, which would be set in the 1980s and tell the story of high school heavy metal band of outcasts that capitalize on the Satanic panic that grips their town when a local kid turns up dead and appears to have been the victim of cult activity. By pretending to be Satanists, these kids are finally able to start building up a fan base... but, of course, this decision makes them the target of suspicion. Because not only was someone killed, not only have their been abductions and pentagram graffiti, but there also seems to be something supernatural at work in their small Michigan hometown.
I’m a fan of the ‘80s, horror, and the Satanic panic rock ‘n roll horror movie Trick or Treat (1986), so it sounds like Peacock was appealing directly to me with their Hysteria! announcement. And then the project got even more appealing when it was announced that Bruce Campbell of the Evil Dead franchise had been cast in a prominent role. Thankfully, the finished product did not disappoint.
Boasting a pilot episode that was directed by Kong: Skull Island’s Jordan Vogt-Roberts (who also came back to direct the season finale), Hysteria! gets started when a teen girl named Faith (Nikki Hahn) invites quarterback Ryan (Brandon Butler) over to her house while her intensely religious mother Tracy (Anna Camp) is out. The teens are interrupted when masked men come busting into the house and abduct them. Soon after, Ryan turns up dead, and there are signs that he was killed by a Satanic cult.
High schoolers Dylan (Emjay Anthony), Jordy (Chiara Aurelia), and Spud (Kezii Curtis) have a heavy metal band called Dethkrunch, but they can’t get anyone to show up for their gigs. Until Dylan is inspired to use the Satanic panic surrounding Ryan’s death to promote their shows – an approach that is made even more appealing by the fact that his dream girl, popular blonde Judith (Jessica Treska) seems to think that Satanism is really cool. The whole fake Satanism thing quickly gets out of hand, with Judith and others continuously pushing it further and further, to the point where it starts to seem dangerous... and not only is there danger within the fake cult that Dethkrunch has started, but there’s also danger from outside. Because, after all, someone did kidnap Faith – who soon turns up unharmed – and cause the death of Ryan. For Tracy and other parents, the members of Dethkrunch are the prime suspects. Even Dylan’s own mom, Linda (Julie Bowen), starts to fear him... and she also starts experiencing what seems to be actual demonic activity. Encounters with the demonic entity leave a strange rash on Linda’s body – and she notices that other adults are town have the same rash.
That includes Bruce Campbell’s character, the local police chief. He’s a nice, rational guy, but as the show goes on he starts to have more and more bizarre experiences that cause him to question whether or not he really should be so nice.
Consisting of eight episodes, the first season of Hysteria! is a wild ride that had me hooked from beginning to end. I binge-watched this one as quickly as I could, enjoying spending time with the characters and eager to see how the mysteries were going to be resolved. In the end, the season does wrap up in a way that could be considered an ending for the show if it doesn’t continue – but I didn’t find the resolution of every element to be entirely satisfying. I think the story could go further, and that some of the questions could be given different, better answers. As of right now, it’s not clear whether or not Hysteria! will end with season 1 or if there will be a season 2, but I’m really hoping Peacock will decide to order more episodes.
No comments:
Post a Comment