Corrective Measures, on Tubi

In comic books, when super-villains break out of prison, superheroes just catch them and stick them back in again. They finally built a better mousetrap, San Tiburon, a facility in an undisclosed location, fully loaded with super-power nullifiers. However, the big dangerous supervillains still have their natural strength and in the case of “The Lobe,” his advanced intelligence. A new inmate finds himself caught in the crossfire of an ongoing power-struggle in Sean Patrick O’Reilly’s Corrective Measures, based on Grant Chastain’s graphic novel, which starts streaming this Friday on Tubi.

According to the derivative backstory, San Tiburon is operated by a company very much like Vogt in The Boys. They may or may not have been responsible for the string of natural disasters that also somehow caused the development of diverse superpowers in select individuals. By law, anyone convicted of a crime who is known to have powers must be incarcerated in San Tiburon. Unfortunately, that includes Diego Diaz, a mere empath. Basically, he is a super-Bill Clinton, who feels your pain, acutely.

San Tiburon should be a potentially fatal experience for him, but he catches a break when he stops the super-vigilante Payback from murdering the Lobe in the infirmary. Basically, the Lobe is a Professor X-like supervillain, who amassed a fortune through telepathic mind-control. The inmates revere him, so they cut Diaz some slack. However, Warden Devlin, make that Overseer Devlin, intends to extort the Lobe’s fortune from him, before his impending retirement, using threats of lobotomies and the like. Somehow, Diaz might figure in the Lobe’s counter-plans.

It is kind of awkward to review Bruce Willis film after the recent announcement of his diagnosis. Although many of his VOD films have been tarred with a broad brush, Willis has actually been pretty good in some of them, like American Siege and Acts of Violence. In this case, let’s just say he is miscast as the Lobe, a role that really requires the sort of sneering scenery-chewing John Malkovich could have brought to the table.

Love and Monsters, on DVD

It turns out classic Toho monster movies did not go far enough. It wasn’t just some stray turtle getting radiated into a mutant monster. It happens to every cold-blooded creature. The worst of it for luckless loser Joel Dawson is that it happens just as he was getting somewhere with his pretty girlfriend. Giant mutants now rule the surface of the Earth, but he is still determined to find her in Michael Matthews’ Love and Monsters, which releases today on DVD.

Much to Dawson’s regret, he was separated from his girlfriend Aimee in the confusion of the apocalypse and both lost their parents during the ensuing carnage. After seven long years underground, Dawson (like the Creek) has finally made radio contact with her in a shelter 85 miles away. He cares about all his shelter-mates, but since he is the only one not paired romantically, he figures it is worth risking the perilous journey to reunite with her. However, he is considered the Don Knotts of his shelter, so nobody gives him much chance.

Fortunately, he soon encounters Clyde Dutton, a crusty old survivalist played by Walking Dead’s Michael Rooker, so you know he must have a knack for staying alive. Dutton has been caring for a young girl named Minnow (not unlike Newt in Aliens), who does not think much of Dawson’s chances, but she is rather taken with Boy, the stray dog that started following him.

If you are guessing Boy (played by Hero and Dodge) steals the show than you would be correct. Together they give quite an endearing canine performance. The monster design also hits the right tone. There is plenty of gross slithering and secreting business, but they never look too realistic or too fake.

Frankly, Dylan O’Brien’s constant neurotic narration eventually gets exhausting (seriously, sometimes he needs to just shut-up and concentrate on his surroundings). Still, he plays well opposite crusty Rooker, snarky little Ariana Greenblatt (as Minnow), and Jessica Henwick, who shows some impressive action cred as Aimee. Of course, Hero and Dodge (the stunt dog) totally upstage him, but what could he expect.

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Celebrates its 30th

In its day, it was so controversial, even its poster was banned. It provided the impetus for the supposedly respectable NC-17 rating, along with Almodóvar’s Tie Me Up!  Tie Me Down and Greenaway’s The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, but it was eventually released without an MPAA rating. The time is definitely ripe for a cultural reappraisal on what arguably represents its thirtieth anniversary, depending whether you count its 1986 festival premiere or the long deferred 1990 theatrical release. Freshly restored yet as gritty and grubby as ever, John McNaughton’s Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (trailer here) returns to the big screen this Friday in New York.

Henry is intentionally and transparently modeled on the inflated confessions of real life serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, but not necessarily on the cold hard facts of his case. McNaughton’s Henry is staggeringly prolific, yet he remains off law enforcement’s radar because he always switches up his methods of killing and he constantly stays on the move. Uncharacteristically, Henry will stay a spell in Chicago with his former cellmate Otis. As luck would have it, Otis’s recently separated sister Becky also moves back in around the same time. She immediately takes a shine to the polite Henry, presumably because her brother and husband are such pond scum.

As Otis’s resentments and failures pile up, Henry takes him under his wing, teaching his protégé a sure fire way to blow off steam. Yet, much to his surprise, Henry also develops something like fondness for Becky. Of course, that won’t stop him from taking more victims.

When it first hit the public consciousness, Henry was largely considered the most violent movie ever. However, time has passed and the culture has evolved. Subsequently, the Saw and Hostel franchises have been released into the world, along with the films of Rob Zombie and the outré shocker of all time, A Serbian Film. Frankly, through our contemporary eyes, Henry looks almost restrained.

It still has the power to shock, but arguably the scenes that depict the aftermath rather than the actual violence per se, are far more disturbing. Early in the film, McNaughton shows us a series of Henry’s crime scenes, with his victims looking carefully and cruelly posed. Likewise, the ending is still a kick in the teeth, because it so dashes any hopes we might have for human nature.

Michael Rooker gives a bravura, career-defining performance as Henry. He is so potently nerve-jangling, precisely because of his restraint. Granted, his Henry obviously has intimacy issues, but he is surprisingly sociable. When he is on the prowl, his ruthlessness is icily chilling. However, he also develops some highly ambiguous chemistry with Tracy Arnold’s Becky. Together, they keep viewers completely off-balance and way outside their comfort zones.

Without Henry, fans probably wouldn’t have the Walking Dead’s Merle Dixon, at least not as they came to know him through Rooker. In terms of color palate and imagery, it looks like it could be a Herschell Gordon Lewis grindhouse flick, but it is a much more challenging examination of sadism and sociopathy. Bracing but never exploitative in the strictest sense, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is a film all cult cinema connoisseurs should be familiar with. Recommended for mature cineastes, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer screens this Friday and Saturday (10/21, 10/22) in New York, around midnight at the Landmark Sunshine.