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.
DAREDEVIL: SEASON ONE (2015)
Kevin Smith made me a fan of the Daredevil character. I was always a Marvel kid growing up, so I had seen Daredevil here and there in comic books over the years, but I never paid much attention to him. He didn't interest me all that much. But then Kevin wrote a run of Daredevil comics in 1998, and since I'm such a huge fan of his, I had to read this Daredevil story. And while reading his issues of the comic, I began to see the appeal of the character. I became a fan. I continued collecting Daredevil even after Kevin moved on from the title. Daredevil became one of my favorites. It came to a point where I would say the two Marvel characters I would most want to make a movie about were Ghost Rider and Daredevil. Oddly enough, Ghost Rider and Daredevil movies ended up being made by the same writer/director, Mark Steven Johnson, in the early 2000s. Those movies didn't go over that well, although I enjoyed both (while seeing room for improvement). Twelve years after the Daredevil movie, the property was rebooted with a series on Netflix that was part of a shared universe with other shows: Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist, building up to the crossover show The Defenders. (With The Punisher joining the mix along the way.) Just like the Marvel Cinematic Universe got started with several movies that introduced heroes on their own, building up to the crossover team-up The Avengers.
There was some uncertainty over the years whether or not the shows Netflix made about Marvel characters count as part of the MCU canon. At first, it seemed that they did. Then we heard that they didn't. But Marvel Studios has finally pulled the Netflix shows into the MCU and confirmed that they are canon. Since I'm always talking about how much I love Marvel, it might seem strange that I have never written about any of the Netflix shows on here before. I was holding off because I was debating on how to approach them: review each episode, like I did for the 1970s Spider-Man series, or write about them in Worth Mentioning articles, the same way I write about the Disney+ Marvel shows. I have decided to take the latter approach, since they tell one story over the course of a season instead of having standalone episodes like the Spider-Man show did. Another reason it took me a while to get to the Netflix shows is because, honestly, I found them more difficult to get into than the shows that have been released through Disney+. These Netflix shows are longer and slower, with more episodes to a season (usually 13). So there were times when I found them to be a struggle to get through, even when I liked the characters. Including the Daredevil show.
I was hyped to watch this series. On the day it premiered, I went to Netflix and started streaming the first episode, ready to binge my way through the series... but that first episode did not move at a pace that I found to be binge-able. I had to take a break. It took me a while to get around to watching the whole first season. Years, in fact. And it took me more time, and more viewings, to really get into the way the show was presented. To accept that it’s achingly slow and quiet and just go along with that. Someone who worked on the Marvel / Netflix shows has admitted that it was a Netflix mandate to make dialogue scenes as long as possible to fill out episodes and allow for longer gaps between action sequences, and that is very obvious when watching them. These shows are overflowing with overly long conversations and packed with filler. But there is still some great stuff to be found in them. Especially in the Daredevil series.
Daredevil season 1 can be difficult to sit through at times due to the pacing issues, but it’s actually an incredibly faithful adaptation of the comic books. A fan who “has read almost every Daredevil comic ever printed” and calls themselves Silver Nemesis did a breakdown of the comic influences in every episode of the first season, and it’s a mind-blowing list. You can check it out at, ironically, Batman-Online.com.
Charlie Cox has been tightly embraced by the fan community for his performance as the title character, but he’s another element of the show that I had to warm up to. I just wasn’t sure he was the best choice to bring the character to life – but he ended up doing a great job. He plays Matt Murdock, who was blinded as a child when he caught a chemical spray in the eyes. He was raised by a single father, a boxer who was murdered by the mob for winning a match he was supposed to throw. Then Matt was sent to the Saint Agnes Orphanage, where a man called Stick (Scott Glenn) was brought in to mentor him because he had a good reputation for his work with blind children, being blind himself. Stick also happened to be a martial arts master and part of an organization called the Chaste, which was formed to oppose an evil organization of martial arts masters called the Hand. Stick was able to help Matt gain control over his enhanced remaining senses, then ditched the kid when he formed an emotional bond with him. But Stick comes back into Matt’s life during the season.
In the comics, we’re shown that Matt’s enhanced remaining senses give him a sort of “radar sense.” In a way, he can still sort of see the world around him. I thought the 2003 movie had the perfect visual representation of that radar sense, matching what is shown in the comics. But the Netflix series shies away from any radar sense action. We know Matt can hear, feel, and smell things really well, but the show is too grounded and low-key to show us the radar sense.
Matt has made his way through law school and is now opening a law practice with his friend Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) - a practice that is somewhat hindered by the fact that Matt will only defend clients who are truly innocent. He can tell if they’re telling the truth about their innocence by listening to their breathing and heartbeat. This is how a woman named Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) comes into Matt and Foggy’s lives. She uncovered a money laundering scheme while working for a construction company and is now being framed for murder by the people behind the scheme. Matt is not only able to clear her name, he also gives the information on the scheme to a reporter named Ben Urich (Vondie Curtis-Hall) at the New York Bulletin newspaper – and Matt and Foggy hire Karen to be their secretary. As the season goes on, Matt, Karen, and Ben will continue to dig up information on the criminals behind that money laundering scheme, eventually becoming aware of a businessman named Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio), who is building himself up as a criminal Kingpin. His goal is to revitalize the Hell’s Kitchen area of New York, the area Matt is based out of, but he has a shady way of going about doing this, forming alliances with criminal organizations, destroying the organizations that won’t work with him, blackmailing people, setting off bombs, murdering people who wrong him or who stand in his way, etc. The Kingpin’s methods don’t sit well with Matt... who also happens to be the “man in a black mask,” a vigilante who has been taking down criminals around the city.
Yes, season 1 of Daredevil is a thirteen episode origin story that makes us wait a long time to see Matt fight crime in anything other than a simple black outfit with a black mask. He doesn’t fully become Daredevil, proper costume and all, until almost the end of the season. It’s a long ride, and I don’t really like the “drag it out” approach to telling origin stories. On the bright side, you’re left knowing that you’ll get to see Daredevil in all his glory in any follow-up seasons. Even when he’s fighting multiple people, the show makes sure to be clear about the fact that he’s a regular guy (albeit one with heightened senses) who gets winded and takes a beating. He gets beaten so much, one of the people he interacts with regularly is a nurse named Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson), who has to patch him up.
The plot of Daredevil season 1 can get a bit convoluted and the abundance of slow moments and chit-chat can get frustrating, but the season tells an interesting story overall, with all of the actors delivering great performances. I find Deborah Ann Woll’s Karen Page to be especially endearing (she has rightfully been described as the heart of the series), and D’Onofrio and the writers even bring unexpected depth to the Kingpin character. He could have been presented as just A Bad Dude, but the show takes a psychological approach to explaining who he is and why he does what he does, and also shows that, while he is a cold-blooded killer and extremely powerful, he also has vulnerabilities. This becomes very clear when he gets romantically involved with art curator Vanessa Marianna (Ayelet Zurer).
Daredevil season 1 was not what I was expecting it to be. I was looking for something that would feel like every episode was an issue of a comic book run, and that is definitely not this show. But the show is an admirable adaptation of the source material and a strong showcase for the cast members, with some nice action along the way.
DEMON WIND (1990) - Hosted by Joe Bob Briggs on The Last Drive-in
For the fifth week of his Shudder series The Last Drive-in, legendary drive-in critic and movie host Joe Bob Briggs brought viewers a devilish, demonic double feature, starting off with a movie I had never seen before: Demon Wind. I clearly remember seeing the VHS for this one on video store shelves throughout my childhood, but I never actually got around to renting it – and now that I’ve seen it, thirty-plus years later, I’m glad I didn’t subject myself to Demon Wind any earlier.
But before we get to the movie, this episode of The Last Drive-in gets started with a shot of Joe Bob sitting outside of a drive-in, joking about preacher Jesse Duplantis and the $54 million jet he gets around in. I suspect that most viewers tuning in for this show would have to Google the name Jesse Duplantis just to figure out who Joe Bob is talking about (as I did), but he has always had an interest in evangelists and televangelists – in fact, he used to have a segment (under his real name, John Bloom) called God Stuff on The Daily Show where he would talk about that sort of thing.
Following the title sequence, we join Joe Bob outside of his trailer home so he can start introducing Demon Wind, “the only haunted house time travel vomit-spewing demon zombie apocalypse multi-generational Satan worship martial arts film,” which is about a dimwit getting into trouble with nine of his closest, sheep-like friends. Joe Bob says the movie has too much plot getting in the way of the story, but after a series of meetings with Shudder it was decided that human knowledge would be advanced by exploring this film. It was “a painful decision,” but they will be showing Demon Wind. Using the term “a painful decision” then sends Joe Bob off a lengthy rant about that term and the painful decisions often made by corporate types, musicians, and actors, which come after some “soul-searching.” The saying is the adult version of a parent saying, “This is gonna hurt me more than it hurts you.”
Our host does eventually circle back to the movie, which he gives 3 stars (out of 4) for the sheer audacity of the special effects... But he has a problem with the title, since it just makes you think of farts.
The feature directorial debut of Charles Philip Moore, who pitched the idea to the producers while he was working as a crew member on the underwhelming 1987 slasher Twisted Nightmare, Demon Wind tells the story of a young man named Cory (Eric Larson), who is compelled to seek out the burnt remains of a cabin that used to belong to his grandparents after his long-absent father commits suicide. Accompanied by his girlfriend and several friends, Cory discovers that the remains of the cabin basically serve as a gateway to Hell, as they unleash demonic forces that are tied to a Satanic cult that operated in the area long ago. It’s a knock-off of The Evil Dead, but not a good one. This is the sort of movie you can only watch when you’re in the mood to mock some incompetent storytelling and atrocious dialogue. (There’s even a comedic commentary on the film that was recorded by the Red Letter Media guys and included in a video game called High on Life.) If you’re not in the right mood, it can be quite painful to sit through.
To help viewers hold on to their sanity, Joe Bob breaks in with hosting segments where he points out that there are many things in this film that he had never seen before (usually with good reason); struggles to keep the characters straight, as there are too many of them and they’re mostly interchangeable; points out their odd behavior (like when they fail to react to the strange death of a friend), mocks the mullets, and tries to decipher the story, which involves four generations of plot. He also provides the information that the film was shot on film “short ends” and the sound was cut on a Commodore computer. He digs into the careers of some of the cast members, including Eric Larson, who has only worked on TV, shorts, and in theatre since this film; Francine Lapensée, who played “the hottie” in several movies; Bobby Johnston, who appeared in erotic thrillers and worked as a model; Stephen Quadros, who was the drummer in a band called SNOW and has hosted a lot of martial arts events; B-movie regular Richard Gabai; Sherry Leigh / Sherry Bendorf, who went on to work in stunts and, before Demon Wind, played the final girl in one of my favorite slashers, 1987’s Slaughterhouse; Tiffany Millions, a wrestler turned porn star turned bounty hunter who appears as a topless demon; and Lou Diamond Phillips, who volunteered to play a demon zombie in the movie (under the name Louis Gem Phips) because his wife was working on the film as a second second assistant director. He points out that Moore went on to direct three more movies: the 1992 film Dance with Death (which was a remake of the 1987 film Stripped to Kill), the 1992 Don “The Dragon” Wilson action film Blackbelt, and the 1994 action film Angel of Destruction, which was a remake of Blackbelt with “The Dragon” swapped out for a female lead. Joe Bob even tells the story of Charlie Spradling being cast as the lead in Angel of Destruction, but then she refused to do a nude fight scene, so her character was killed off and Maria Ford was brought in to play her vengeful sister – because Ford has no problem doing a nude fight scene.
Once we have Demon Wind behind us, Darcy the Mail Girl brings Joe Bob a letter from a fan who hopes to have him sign her arm so she can get his signature tattooed. Then, Joe Bob wraps everything up with a joke so we can move on to the next film.
THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL (2009) - Hosted by Joe Bob Briggs on The Last Drive-in
And here we have another example of the Last Drive-in programming pattern that I just don’t understand. It doesn’t make sense to me when they choose to start with a wild B-movie and then follow that up with a slower, more prestigious movie. The night is supposed to get crazier as it goes on, not more refined. And yet, The Last Drive-in showed Deathgasm and followed it with The Changeling in a previous airing, when that double feature should have been the other way around, and they followed Demon Wind with The House of the Devil, but it should have been the other way around. They would continue to get stuff backwards like this many times over the years. It’s tradition at this point.
Anyway, writer/director Ti West’s The House of the Devil is a slowly paced movie that doesn’t have very much going on for the majority of its running time, and yet it’s somewhat fascinating to watch thanks to a 1980s setting and the captivating screen presence of Jocelin Donahue as college student Samantha Hughes, who answers a “babysitter wanted” ad and discovers that she’s actually being asked to hang out in a house in the country and Mr. and Mrs. Ulman (Tom Noonan and Mary Woronov) are out because Mrs. Ulman has an elderly mother who can’t be left alone, even though Samantha is never introduced to this elderly woman and never even sees her. As you can tell from the title, it’s not a good idea for her to be hanging out in that house, and it’s Samantha’s best friend Megan (Greta Gerwig) who is the first to find out there’s something bad happening here when she crosses paths with the Ulmans’ son Victor (A.J. Bowen). It’s a good movie, Joe Bob gives it three and a half stars, but it shouldn’t have been the second film in a nighttime double feature.
Joe Bob leads into his introduction of the film by saying that he’s glad to have the devil back in movies at a time when even the Pope has made comments that seemed to imply that he was questioning the existence of Hell and the devil. He goes on to dig into the definition of Hell, the lake of fire description, and different interpretations of this place that no one wants to spend their afterlife in.
During the hosting segments, Joe Bob debates whether or not this should be considered an homage to ‘80s horror (because it’s better than most ‘80s horror homage movies), digs into the Satanic Panic wave of that decade, which West cites as a source of inspiration for the film, the band The Fixx (since there’s a standout sequence set to the music of The Fixx), notes anything that might bring to mind The Shining (West’s favorite horror film), compares the film to the movies of the mumblecore movement, confirms early on that genre icon Dee Wallace only appears in that opening scene, reveals that the movie was a box office failure despite only having a budget of $900,000, talks about filming locations, and discusses the careers of Ti West, Greta Gerwig, Tom Noonan, Mary Woronov, A.J. Bowen, and “scream queen” Jocelin Donahue, although he’s more interested in the fact that she majored in sociology when she went to college. He admits that this is a “love it or hate it” movie because some viewers will be disappointed that “nothing happens,” but he disagrees with the idea that there’s nothing happening in it. He enjoys the build-up, the anticipation, the delayed gratification.
But really, it’s not an eventful movie. Even when we reach the “exciting conclusion,” I’m left feeling that there could have been more to it. I can understand why some viewers may be let down by the film, but I can’t resist the charms of its ‘80s throwbacks, its soundtrack, and its cast. For his part, Joe Bob is thoroughly impressed with how the situation blows up in the final moments, he only takes issue with a couple elements of the ending – one of them being that, if this were a true ‘80s homage, there would have been nudity in there. Joe Bob considers this to be one of the best horror movies of the last twenty years and hopes it will find a larger audience. He also hopes that Ti West will have his breakthrough film... which he would, years after this double feature aired, with his X, Pearl, and MaXXXine trilogy.
After the film, Darcy the Mail Girl enters the trailer home set in Samantha Hughes cosplay to deliver a letter from a viewer who is hoping Joe Bob will be showing The Howling 7, or The Howling: New Moon Rising, on The Last Drive-in, as Joe Bob is known for having an appreciation for that terrible movie. Joe Bob says he has been “trying like hell to book it,” but for some reason he couldn’t get it to happen yet... and, years later, it still hasn’t happened.
The double feature airing comes to an end with the telling of another joke, this one about a handjob restaurant.
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