Memo to the National Film Registry: Plan 9 from Outer Space

Public nominations for this year’s additions to the Library of Congress’s NationalFilm Registry close tomorrow, so anyone who wishes to second my nomination of Plan 9 from Outer Space should do so today. Here is my open letter to the National Film Preservation Board, making the case for Ed Wood’s affectionately notorious film:

Not every film on the National Film Registry is great, but they are all culturally significant. Surely, Ed Wood’s cult classic Plan 9 from Outer Space qualifies as the latter. Yes, it has been widely derided as “the worst film of all time,” but that itself is some kind of distinction. Yet, movie fans keep watching it.

Arguably, no other film has played a greater role shaping the “so bad its good” aesthetic than Plan 9. Its ruckus late night screenings deserve a great deal of credit for the “midnight movie” tradition as we now know it. Plan 9 has burrowed into our cultural consciousness and reshaped our genre archetypes with the now iconic appearances of Bela Lugosi (in his final screen role), Tor Johnson, “Vampira,” and “The Amazing Criswell.” As a result, there are prominent references to Plan 9 scattered throughout the last fifty years of pop culture, including call-outs on Seinfeld and The X-Files.

Logically, the making of Plan 9 is the centerpiece of Ed Wood, which is arguably Tim Burton’s best live action feature to date. In fact, Burton’s film is significant in its own right, thanks to Martin Landau’s Academy Award-winning portrayal of Lugosi, but it probably would not exist without Plan 9.

Over the years, Plan 9 has inspired stage musicals, comic books, video games, and a reconceived remake that is actually not half-bad (John Johnson’s Plan 9). For movie lovers, it has transcended Wood’s conspicuous limitations as a filmmaker to become a beloved work of Atomic-Age Americana. That is why preservation of Plan 9 from Outer Space fits so well with the National Film Registry’s mission and methodology. Plus, its induction would be a publicity boon for the Registry (seriously, those stories would just write themselves, wouldn’t they?). That is why Ed Wood’s Plan 9 from Outer Space should be included in the Registry’s Class of 2019.

American Dreamer: Tip Your Driver, So We Can Avoid All This

According to media analysis, a manageable one-dollar tip will greatly increase the profitability of most rides for Uber drives. Unfortunately, Cam has not been getting much in the way of tips, but that is hardly surprising, given his lack of charm. Technically, he works for the fictional “Hail,” but same difference. Anger and desperation will drive him to make some crazy rash decisions in Derrick Borte’s American Dreamer, which opens today in New York.

Cam was once respectable, but that was before he was down-sized out of his IT job and kicked to the curb by his ex-wife. He now lives hand-to-mouth as a ride-share driver and hardly ever sees his son. Life is humiliating especially when he is chauffeuring around Mazz, a regular client who sees the value in Cam’s nondescript, unimpressive wheels for his drug-dealing business.

He pays well, but Mazz clearly enjoys lording his power and money over Cam. Eventually, the driver reaches his breaking point. Fed up with all the sleights life offers him, Cam plans a spectacularly ill-advised caper. Somehow, it goes even worse than we expect. That leaves him in a super-awkward position the next time Mazz summons him.

Honestly, Dreamer is a veritable one-film festival of stunningly bad decision-making and general counter-productivity. Watching this film leads to one face-palm after another. Granted, Cam is most likely wrestling with clinical depression, but it is still hard to believe any mortal man can be so self-defeating and reckless. Yet, when it comes to going off half-cocked, Mazz is nearly as bad.

This could all still have the makings of a perversely entertaining one-darned-thing-after-another noir, were it not for a shocking development that comes along at the midway point and completely sucks the air out of the film. It is just impossible for anything following it to come across as remotely fun.

Nevertheless, Robbie Jones deserves all kinds of credit for his absolutely riveting performance as Mazz. There is something about him that is almost demonic. Jim Gaffigan convincingly slow burns against type as the sad sack Cam, vividly expressing all his pain and humiliation. Yet, Jones still owns the show.

Although the excesses and questionable motivations frequently pull us out of the film, Borte certainly keeps the tension uncomfortably high. It is dark and moody—and ultimately soulless. Regrettably, by over-indulging in heavy-handed social commentary, the film winds up sacrificing credibility. Not recommended, American Dreamer opens today (9/13) in New York, at Cinema Village.

Justin Chon’s Ms. Purple

Kasie looks fashionable in any clothes, even including traditional purple Korean garb. Unfortunately, abandonment issues have not worn so well on her. It is painfully obvious her mother’s desertion has made it acutely difficult for her to let go of her ailing father, but a potential reconciliation with her semi-estranged brother could help in Justin Chon’s Ms. Purple, which opens today in New York.

Sadly, Kasie’s essentially comatose father has no real quality of life left, but she still dutifully nurses him. To pay his medical bills, she works as a doumi hostess in a hedonistic Koreatown karaoke, where she is often forced to accept sex-work side gigs. When the visiting nurse abruptly quits, Kasie is forced to reach out to her brother Carey for help. Much to her surprise, he agrees.

As we see from flashbacks, Kasie was always her father’s favorite, which made their mother’s abandonment even more difficult for him. Yet, Carey tries to do right by his dying father. However, he will be even more concerned about the demeaning treatment Kasie receives, both at work and from her playboy lover, Tony.

Ms. Purple is certainly not a slam-bang kind of film. Far from plotty, it is a quiet, moody character study, with a vibe and sensibility not so very different from vintage Hou Hsiao-hsien (Millennium Mambo being a particularly apt comparison). Hou is quite the name to invoke, but Chon’s assured hand warrants the guarded comparison. However, Chon’s film has a much harder edge, especially when it comes to depicting the harsh realities of sex-related work.

Like Hou had Shu Qi in Mambo, Chon has the advantage of a luminously expressive star turn from his lead, Tiffany Chu, who is utterly arresting and absolutely devastating. The quietly understated sibling rapport she and Teddy Lee forge together is also eerily potent. From time to time, Octavio Pizano provides some relief from the melancholy atmosphere with his memorably idiosyncratic portrayal of his name-sake Octavio, a smitten former co-worker, who would probably be good for Kasie.

Ms. Purple is smaller in scale than Chon’s electric directorial debut, Gook, but it is still a worthy follow-up. The themes are more universal this time around, but Chon and co-screenwriter Chris Dinh (Crush the Skull) squarely center them in the Korean American first- and second-generation experiences. In a departure from the black-and-white of Gook, cinematography Atne Cheng dramatically saturates the colors, but in ways that complement the lonely, after-hours ambiance. Highly recommended for those who can handle some raw, straight-no-chaser sibling drama, Ms. Purple opens today (9/13) in New York, at the Quad.

MOTELX ’19: Jairo’s Revenge

Jairo Pinilla Tellez is a B-movie director, who has won the equivalent of Colombia’s Oscar for life achievement. That makes him sound like the Colombian Roger Corman, but Pinilla has been far less prolific. However, it wasn’t his fault. For years, Pinilla was essentially blackballed by the Colombian government’s film financing authority (FOCINE). That makes the production of a new Pinilla film quite an event. Simon Hernandez tries to capture the maestro at work in the documentary Jairo’s Revenge, which screens tomorrow as part of this year’s MOTELX, the Lisbon International Horror Film Festival.

Granted, Pinilla’s early films are somewhat rough around the edges, but they were big box office hits. Arguably, Pinilla was Colombia’s most successful native film director. Alas, he made a career-derailing mistake when he picked a fight with FOCINE. Not only did Pinilla find himself unable to work for years. He was also financially ruined and lost the rights to his own films.

Eventually, FOCINE was shut down and the Colombian cultural establishment started to recognize Pinilla as a trail-blazer. To complete his comeback, Pinilla sets out to make a new feature—his first in 3D and presumably his last, given his advancing years. Unfortunately, the genre auteur appears to be his worst enemy.

Initially, the behind-the-scenes drama Hernandez captures will not strike most viewers as being particularly earth-shaking. We get some entertainingly bonkers clips from his lurid filmography, but most of us would prefer a greatest hits package of wild film excerpts and off-the-wall anecdotes, in the tradition of Not Quite Hollywood or Corman’s World. Yet, things start to perk up dramatically after the first half hour, when Pinilla finds it impossible to keep a lead actress attached to the project, mostly because they are frustrated with him. Suddenly, Pinilla is arguing with everyone, especially Hernandez.

Pinilla’s production definitely runs way, way off the rails, which might sadden horror fans on an intellectual level, but there is no denying its entertainment value for voyeuristic gawking. Viewers will root for Pinilla, but we probably wouldn’t want to work with him.

After watching Jairo’s Revenge, the audience will have a greater appreciation for Pinilla’s grubby, underdog films. His career also tellingly illustrates the perils to free expression when the state plays a significant role funding arts and culture. Recommended for fans of idiosyncratic auteurist cult cinema, Jairo’s Revenge screens tomorrow (9/13), during MOTELX '19.

Two Sentence Horror Stories: Little Monsters

Kids are more likely to survive horror movies, because they are more apt to believe in monsters and therefore take the necessary survival precautions. Three young residents of a blighted urban housing project are a perfect case in point. They know a shape-shifting demon is preying on children, because they see it with their own eyes in Little Monsters, the latest episode of Two Sentence Horror Stories, directed by Tayarisha Poe, which premieres tonight on the CW.

After her mother’s death, May and her widowed father move into the project, where the sheer volume of missing children flyers posted is distressingly suspicious. Khalil and Marcus quickly clue her in. They claim a demonic shape-shifter with a black tongue and talon-like nails regularly abducts local children, for its culinary pleasure. She is willing to believe, because she has already seen it herself.

Ordinarily, Khalil and Marcus just focus on survival, since all the adults around them lack the imagination and intuition to give credence to their claims. However, when one of the three is taken, the other two launch a rescue mission.

Horror fans could consider Little Monsters to be a strictly serious 2019 updating on The Monster Squad concept, completely drained of camp and nostalgia. The young trio is quite telegenic, but there is nothing precious, immature or cutesy about their work on-screen. In fact, their fear feels very real. Melinda Mo is especially impressive portraying May, a little girl who is still processing her grief while facing an uncanny peril. She is pretty devastating, but she also develops some plucky chemistry with Mikelle Wright-Matos, as Khalil.

Honestly, Little Monsters would possibly rank as the best episode of the entire season, were it not for some dubious special effects. In retrospect, the climax probably could and should have been tweaked a bit, without taking anything away from what creator-screenwriter Vera Miao was getting at.

Regardless, horror fans will appreciate the creepiness of the monster and the resourcefulness of the three monster-fighters. Yet, there is depth to this episode non-genre fans should also respect. Highly recommended, Little Monsters airs tonight (9/12) on the CW, as part of the current season of Two Sentence Horror Stories.

Freaks: Back to the Dystopian Near-Future

It should be reassuring to know the ice creams trucks are still working in the dystopian future. Then again, when was an ice cream man good news in genre cinema? Rather inconveniently, ice cream represents the freedom of outside life to a seven-year-old girl rebelling against the rigid control of her over-protective father. It also tastes delicious. Unfortunately, he has good reason to be concerned for her safety in Zach Lipovsky & Adam B. Stein’s Freaks, which opens this Friday in New York.

This Freaks is very different from Tod Browning’s Freaks. For one thing, they look just like everyone else—but they’re not. At first, it is not exactly clear what is going on in this not-so-very-near-future world. Chloe’s dad acts like the world outside is an apocalyptic wasteland and the news reports of massive terrorist attacks seem to support that impression. However, when Chloe disobediently ventures outside her boarded-up house, her neighborhood looks very much like our here-and-now.

We also soon discover Chloe has some pretty serious powers. Her father insists she is a perfectly normal little girl, but the weird, looks-like-he-should-be-on-a-special-offenders-registry Mr. Snowcone (whose ice cream truck always appears at opportune moments) encourages her to develop her gifts. Sadly, the more her father tries to contain her, the more she resents it, becoming dangerously emotional.

To their credit, Lipovsky & Stein pull off some masterful misdirection in the first act that really keeps us guessing, but the film’s underlying conflict is really nothing new. Frankly, after decades of X-Men comic books and movies, it would be far more interesting to visit a genre world where the super-powered “others” secretly living among us really represent a deliberate and malicious threat to society that must be rooted out. That would also better reflect the perils we face in this day and age, considering the number of foreign agents believed to be operating on our soil as sleeper cells (at least that is what the opening of the sadly canceled The Enemy Within told us).

Young Lexy Kolker is a bit like Drew Barrymore in Firestarter, but scarier and more erratic. Regardless, Emile Hirsch provides the film’s true emotional center as the father who is absolutely desperate to save his daughter. On the other hand, Bruce Dern is way too creepy and sleazy looking for the character of Mr. Snowcone. Seriously, if you saw him loitering around a playground, you would call the cops. Speaking of the law, Grace Park provides a steady and authoritative presence as the moderate sounding Agent Ray, helping to further muddy viewers’ assumptions.

Lipovsky & Stein crank up the tension and the suspense quite adroitly. They succeed in pulling us in and keeping us on pins-and-needles, even though it is rather disappointing how familiar the story turns out to be. Of course, if originality were easy, everyone would do it. Recommended for the tight, tense execution rather than the stale dystopian elements, Freaks opens this Friday (9/13) in Brooklyn, at the Regal Sheepshead Bay.

Haunt: This Isn’t Disney’s Haunted Mansion

Anyone working at a haunted house attraction must be a sadistic sicko. That is clearly what horror movies are telling us these days. Initially, the Houses October Built duology was the lone voice wailing in the darkness, but it was soon joined by Blood Fest and Hell Fest. Yet another extreme haunted house turns out to be more extreme than advertised in Scott Beck & Bryan Woods’ Haunt, which opens Friday in Los Angeles.

Harper is the nice girl, who makes excuses for her abusive boyfriend and lacks sufficient money (and fun) for a decent Halloween costume. She really ought to be with a nice guy like Nathan, a college baseball player with a spectacularly obnoxious buddy named Evan. Along with her bestie Bailey and two other prime victims, they decide to visit an extreme haunt for no good reason (aside from a Yelp review claiming all proceeds go to the Red Cross).

Of course, things get horrifically violent awfully quickly. Frankly, it is hard to believe a group of millennials would agree to surrender their smart phones at the door, because what is the point of facing extreme horrors, if you can’t take the selfies to prove it? Regardless, many of them will not live to regret that mistake.

Let’s not mince words. Initially, Haunt is largely derivative and the violence is often legitimately disturbing. However, you have to give Beck & Woods (best known for co-writing The Quiet Place with Krasinski) credit for a surprisingly strong ending that is massively cathartic. Most of the film is pretty standard stuff, but when they deviate from the established horror formula, it is always for the better.

Most viewers will want to kill the abrasive Evan themselves, but at least he stands out. The rest are a bland lot, with almost no personality to speak of. It is totally the material. Arguably, Will Brittain manages to be okay as Nathan, but he was terrific as the titular Neanderthal in Tim Disney’s William. As for the rest, you could sit next to one of them on the subway home from the theater and not recognize them.

Still, when you have seen as many horror movies as we, you have to appreciate the small favors. If Beck & Woods had embraced the themes of empowerment more, they really might have gotten someplace. We don’t hate it, but there is a good chance a lot of “casual” horror fans will. Haunt just isn’t worthy of a recommendation, but we’re curious to see what the filmmakers do next, for what that’s worth. For now, Haunt opens Friday (9/13) in LA, at the Arena CineLounge.

Undone: Prime Video Gets Rotoscoped

Rotoscoping must be the official animation style of Texas. After Richard Linklater used the technique of layering animation over live-action film cells for his Austin-set Walking Life, the team behind Bojack Horseman have employed it to tell a tale of [certain] depression, [likely] madness, and [possible] time travel in San Antonio. The result is Undone, the Amazon Empire’s first animated series for adults, which premieres this Friday.

Alma Winograd-Diaz’s family must have sky-high auto insurance rates. Roughly twenty years after her father Jacob Winograd perished in a car crash, Winograd-Diaz has a doozy of her own wreck. She wakes suffering from mild short-term amnesia, unaware she broke up with her loyal boyfriend Sam not long before. Determined to “be there for her,” Sam opts not to fill her in on this little detail.

Eventually, Sam’s white lie is bound to catch up with him, but it will take several twenty-some-minute episodes. In the short-term, Alma is quite distracted by her father, who has been appearing too her through some kind of astral woo-woo, pressuring her to help him solve his murder. Winograd is convinced he and his research assistant (whom he was absolutely not having an affair with) were bumped off because of his research into time travel. Having bobbed and weaved between life and death, Winograd-Diaz’s consciousness might be ready to embrace the non-linearity of time—or maybe she is losing her grasp on reality, like her schizophrenic grandmother.

You have to admire the ambition of creators Raphael Bob-Waksberg & Kate Purdy, who dive whole-heartedly into some heavy thematic material. Unfortunately, most of their character development work focused on Winograd-Diaz, a whiny, self-centered, self-defeating, self-loathing millennial, while most of the other characters are largely stock characters we can auto-fill on our own: bossy mother, princess-like younger sister, tolerant boss, doormat boyfriend. The notable exception is dear old dad, who is an intriguing cypher that slowly but surely takes on fuller dimensions.

Only the first five episodes (out of eight) have been supplied to reviewers, but thus far, the series errs on the side of family drama. Honestly, the only aspect of the Winograd-Diaz’s family most viewers will care about is the suspected murder of her father. It is too bad, because there is a lot of cool Inception kind of stuff going on. It potentially represents an intelligent return to the mind-over-matter school of time travel movies that goes back at least as far as Somewhere in Time, but has far richer theoretical underpinnings this time around.

Given the rotoscope technique, we really can talk about full performances from the Undone cast, not just voice-over work. Although he is deceptively reserved, there is something about the scoped-over Bob Odenkirk as Winograd that holds viewers’ attention and imagination rapt. It is also worth noting emerging indie genre superstar Sheila Vand (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night) portrays his student-assistant, but most of her featured work presumably comes in episodes six to eight. As Winograd-Diaz, Rosa Salazar makes us want to bang our heads against a park bench, but that means she nails the character.

Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound is still probably the greatest head-shrinking thriller of all time, thanks to the imagery he and Salvador Dali crafted. At its best, Undone presents psycho-razzle dazzle at a similar level. The problem is all the patience-sapping melodrama. Recommended for the expressionistic visuals to Prime members, who have already paid for it, Undone premieres this Friday (9/13) on Amazon.

Schimberg’s Chained for Life

By definition, exploitation films tend to be exploitative. This is especially of the horror variety, where there is a notorious tradition of yes, exploiting so-called deformity or pronounced physical differences for shock and fear. Tod Browning’s Freaks is the most hotly debated example, but the case of Rondo Hatton (best known for playing “The Creeper”) is probably more on-point. That is the sort of film-within-the-film a rather Herzogian director is shooting, but the wider film that encompasses it is rather thoughtful and responsible. Viewers will have to take a long hard look at themselves as they gaze on the unconventional cast of Aaron Schimberg’s Chained for Life, which opens tomorrow in New York.

Mabel will be playing Freda, a blind German lass, who falls in love with a fellow patient at a mildly mad doctor’s private sanitorium, but she spurns him when she regains her sight. The rejected lover will be played by Rosenthal, an occasional actor living with neurofibromatosis. Everyone thinks it is cool to take a photo with Rosenthal, but it is really the worst kind of patronizing, ego-stoking behavior. Mabel is the exception. She quite likes Rosenthal, perhaps even romantically, or maybe just as a method exercise.

The title is presumably a reference to the notorious 1952 exploitation movie Chained for Life, starring conjoined twins, Daisy and Violet Hilton (there are indeed conjoined twins in this Chained too). However, it is the references to Freaks that will really jump out at cult movie fans. “Herr Director” is making a movie of that ilk, but Schimberg did not. Nor did he merely serve up a lecture tisk-tisking us for our prurient gawking. Instead, gives us an unusually intriguing and strangely moving relationship, brought to life by the two terrific co-leads. It is hard to say whether Mabel and Rosenthal truly share a romance, but it is something.

Sadly, it would probably strike Hollywood as opportunism if the distributor launched an awards campaign for Adam Pearson, but his performance as Rosenthal is worthy of such attention. It is truly a charismatic and humane turn that never resorts to cheap sentimentality. Likewise, Jess Weixler is both mysterious and vulnerable as Mabel. It is also a bit mind-blowing to see Charlie Korsmo ham it up as Herr Director, his first screen appearance in twenty years. Fans might suspect this is a bit of an in-joke, since he is best known for playing “The Kid” in Beatty’s Dick Tracy, which featured plenty of the grotesque villains that the comic strip was famous for.

Schimberg garnered a fair amount of notice for his ultra-indie debut, Go Down Death, but the film itself didn’t land. However, he has clearly honed his skills over the intervening years. Chained is a remarkable auteurist work, that effortless segues from objective reality to the film-in-production to fantasies, stories, dreams, and reveries. Although he keeps viewers off-balancing and guessing, it is clear every disorienting step is intentional, carefully crafted, and weirdly effective. It is not a horror movie, but it offers a challenging perspective on the horror genre. Highly recommended, Chained for Life opens tomorrow (inexplicably on 9/11) in New York, at the IFC Center.

Another Day of Life, from GKIDS

In 1981, Ryszard Kapuscinski was fired for supporting Solidarity, but back in 1975, as a journalist in good standing from a Soviet satellite state, he was granted rock star access by the Marxist MPLA during the Angolan Civil War. He duly took their side, as is clearly depicted in Raul de la Fuente & Damian Nenow’s Another Day of Life, which opens this Friday in New York.

Unfortunately, Kapuscinski is no longer with us. If he were, he might have a few choice words to say about Rafael Marques de Morais and Mariano Bras, two journalists who successful defended themselves against criminal defamation charges after they dared to report on the attorney general’s corruption. Sadly, none of Kapuscinski’s surviving comrades who are seen during the film’s live action talking head sequences have anything to say about the lack of press freedoms during the MPLA’s uninterrupted single-party rule that they and Kapuscinski helped bring about. At least, Kapuscinski is seen struggling with the fundamental issue of how reporters change events just through their very presence.

Nevertheless, it is still pretty compelling to watch the stumble-faced Kapuscinski venture towards the southern front, in hopes of scoring an interview with Farrusco, a legendary Portuguese paratrooper who crossed over to the MPLA side. To get past the initial checkpoints, he enlists the help of Artur, a native Angolan journalist, but for the journey through the southern war zone, he convinces the MPLA to assign him Carlotta, the star soldier of MPLA’s propaganda campaign, as his escort (by promising her commander fawning press coverage).

You have to wonder if de la Fuente, Nenow, and their three co-screenwriters recognize the irony of the climax, involving Kapuscinski deliberate decision to exclude mention of the Cuban military’s armed intervention in the country, to prevent the American military from moving to counter them. It is indeed absolutely fair to ask about the implications of Kapuscinski’s decisions—in fact, it is conspicuously absent. Clearly something is profoundly amiss with the management of a nation with considerable diamond and petroleum reserves, but its per capita GDP is estimated below $4,000 US.

Frankly, it is surprising how biased Another Day is in favor of the oppressive MPLA, especially since it was co-helmed by Nenow, whose memorable short Paths of Hate depicts the dehumanization of war in a way that eschews ideology. Still, it certainly portrays Kapuscinski as a complex and conflicted character, rather than a standard-bearing revolutionary.

The animation of Another Day is quite similar in style to that of Paths of Hate. Both are quite stylish visually, so it is too bad GKIDS isn’t screening the 85-minute feature with the short, as they have sometimes done in the past. Regardless, the feature’s biases are so distractingly obvious and so many glaring questions are left dangling in the air (like what happened over the next forty-four years?), it greatly detracts from Kapuscinski’s character study. Not recommended, Another Day of Life opens this Friday (9/13) in New York, at the IFC Center.

Burbank ’19: The Nine Billion Names of God (short)

This could be a case of Schumpeterian destruction on a cosmic scale. What would have taken a Tibetan Buddhist monastery fifteen thousand years to complete, can now be handled in one hundred days using the latest in super computing technology—circa 1957. Forget the Chinese invasion of 1950 and the occupation that continues to this day, because we are probably dealing with an alternate history throughout Dominique Filhol’s The Nine Billion Names of God, a short film adaptation of the Arthur C. Clarke short story, which screens tonight during the 2019 Burbank International Film Festival.

For the last three centuries, the Monks of Sera Mey have labored to compile all the possible names of God, by calculating every possible permutation of the letters in the alphabet. However, Lama Dilgo hopes to jump-start their mission by hiring the services of an IBM-like mainframe computer and two technicians to service it. Since the monastery has good credit (again, the Chinese invasion never seemed to happen in this world), Dr. Warner is happy to oblige. However, those two technicians do not like the answers when they start to ask: “then what?”

Nine Billion Names features some remarkably accomplished names in its credits, starting with Clarke, but also including cellist Gautier Capuçon performing Mark Yaeger’s original score. It sounds classy and looks absolutely amazing thanks to grandness of Athys de Galzain’s cinematography, which takes full advantage of the Tibetan vistas. (Actually, they are the Alps doubling for the Himalayas). This is a first-class period production that combines elements of Mad Men in the first half and Kundun in the second.

Yves Yan is terrific radiating spiritual insight and maturity as Lama Dilgo. Paul Bandey also helps keep the first act snappy as the deal-making Wagner. Still, ideas matter more than plot or characters in this film. In fact, the former becomes rather ambiguous. Filhol’s use of mandala quite strikingly represents the film’s spiritual themes. Yet, Names rather awkwardly casts the Tibetan monks in the light of a death cult, at least to some extent.

Admittedly, there are indeed some problematic implications that may be inferred from the film, but it is still unusually meditative and ambitious, especially by the standards of genre shorts. On a technical level, it is an impressively crafted and carefully polished work of cinema. In a weird way, it feels compatible with Clarke’s cinematic masterpiece, 2001, because both films take on cosmic dimensions as they unfold. Definitely worth checking out, The Nine Billion Names of God screens tonight (9/7) as part of the short film block Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror 6, at this year’s Burbank International Film Festival.

Satanic Panic: Sacrifice in Suburbia

It is a term often used to dismissively to discredit the 1980s and its preoccupation with supposedly apocryphal satanic crimes. However, the victims of Chicago’s “Ripper Crew,” Richard Ramirez, the Matamoros cult-cartel might argue there were legitimate reasons to panic, if they could. Of course, horror movies exploited those fears, because that is what horror movies are supposed to do. Frankly, it is enjoyably nostalgic to return to the mills of satanic horror, even when it has an unsubtle layer of class warfare smothered on top of it. Baphomet is coming, so look busy when Chelsea Stardust’s Satanic Panic opens today in theaters.

Samantha Craft has had a hard time of life, but things are about to get worse. On her first day of work delivering pizzas, Craft makes a run to the tony, McMansion side of town, where the creepy guy at the door stiffs her on the tip. Needing gas money for her return trip, she ventures inside to plead her cause, but finds herself in the middle of a coven preparing a sinister ritual. They immediately peg her as a virgin, which puts her in a world of hurt.

As the cult-leader Danica Ross’s cynical husband explains, they are both slated for sacrificial roles, but hers will be far worse, due to her status. She is not inclined to give much credence to the vaping Samuel, but she is still sufficiently motivated to make an escape attempt. Inconveniently, the entire well-heeled neighborhood is part of the cult, but at least she saves the snarky Ross daughter from a gruesome death. Judi Ross had been groomed to serve as the virgin sacrifice, but when she discovered her mother’s true intentions, she took preventative measures, so to speak.

So, there is a reason the rich get richer and Church Lady knew it all along. The class envy would really get tired quickly were it not for the ultra-ironic attitude, very much in the Scream tradition. Without question, Ruby Modine is the film’s MVP scoring the biggest laughs and super-charging the energy level as Judi Ross. Honestly, she is so good, she completely upstages Hayley Griffith as the shy and neurotic Craft, somewhat unbalancing the film.

Rebecca Romijn whole-heartedly chews the scenery as Danica Ross, but Modine still outshines her. Arden Myrin also gets impressively unhinged as Gypsy Neumieir, Ross’s bitter rival within the cult, whereas Jerry O’Connell shrewdly dials it down as the profoundly jaundiced Samuel Ross.

So, there is not a lot of subtlety here, but the more ruckus and caustic the humor gets, the better it works. Screenwriter Grady Hendrix (whom we know from NYAFF), who co-wrote the story with Ted Geoghegan (whom everybody knows and likes, as the director of We are Still Here and the publicity guru for Fantasia) set out to be provocative and class-conscious, but they really do a good job satirizing the self-help movement’s nutty self-actualizing double-talk. Recommended for horror fans in the mood for some profane humor, Satanic Panic opens today (9/6) in New York, at the IFC Center.

Into the Dark: Pure

If there is one ironclad rule of horror movies, it would have to be camps will always be the setting for massacres. It doesn’t matter if it is a chastity camp. The Rules are the rules. In fact, those hypocritical fundamentalists preaching against promiscuity are likely to get it harder than your garden variety randy teenager. Such will indeed be the case during Hannah Macpherson’s Pure, the latest installment of Blumhouse’s Into the Dark, which premieres today on Hulu.

Even though she is in her late teens, this is Shay’s first visit to virginity camp. That is because she only recently joined the family. She was the love child Kyle never knew he had, until her mother died. That doesn’t sound very virtuous, but Macpherson and co-writers Paul Davis and Paul Fischer unsubtly suggest guys get a pass on these kind of things from their fellow fundies.

Regardless, the novelty of having of father still has not worn off for Shay, whereas her new half-sister Jo is recklessly rebellious. The virginity camp veteran is also obsessed with the mythical figure of Lilith, who figures prominently in one of Pastor’s Seth’s notorious opening day sermons. According to the apocryphal tales, Lilith was Adam’s first wife, who was damned to Hell for her faithlessness, but later returned to marry Frasier Crane. Seeing her as a figure of empowerment, Jo sets out to raise Lilith in an occult ceremony, which is most likely quite successful judging from Shay’s subsequent visions. With the Christian patriarchy acting uglier and uglier, a reckoning is sure to come.

Ironically, the makers of Pure unambiguously suggest Evangelical Christians are sex-obsessed, two-faced, emotionally abusive, and prone to violence, yet Team Pure would also be the first to accuse fundamentalists of demonizing anyone who does not share their values. Seriously folks, can’t we all just get along?

Frankly, Pure is even less subtle than Ready or Not and Satanic Panic (opening today in theaters), but it lacks even a fraction of those films’ wit. It is a shame Pure goes so polemical, because Jahkara Smith portrays Shay as a highly sympathetic and complex horror movie protag, while McKaly Miller (from Ma) makes Jo quite an entertaining hot mess.

Maybe not so surprisingly, Pure openly invites viewers to side with a demon over a group of fathers, who unforgivably believe premarital sex would be the wrong life decision for their daughters. Of course, it was the intolerant patriarchy that labeled Lilith a demon in the first place. It is all so kneejerk, it gets rather boring—and that really is a sin. Not recommended, Pure starts streaming today (9/6) on Hulu.

Shudder: The Wrath

Context is everything, isn’t it? Having a swastika-shaped burn-scar is a little creepy in Fourteenth Century Korea, but the symbolic implications are radically different from what they would be in today’s world. In fact, it has a talismanic effect for young common-born Ok-bun. She will need it when she faces dangers from her new family and a wickedly angry ghost in Yoo Young-sun’s The Wrath, which premieres today, exclusively on Shudder.

Lady Shin’s family has been so badly cursed, it might not be around much longer. The ghost has already murdered two of her stepsons, leaving only the entitled Lee Myung-gyu to carry on the family line. The idea was to use poor Ok-bun in a decoy scheme with the ghost and then dispose of her. However, Myung-gyu had other ideas that do not work out so well. Yet, Ok-bun still does good service for the family by getting pregnant immediately.

Obviously, this leads to considerable jealousy amongst the barren first two wives. Nevertheless, Lady Shin cannot afford to cavalierly throwaway a male heir. Ok-bun is also fiercely protective of her unborn baby. As the ghost’s bloodshed escalates, a conscientious exorcist is called in, who will do his best to aid Ok-bun, but she will be mostly on her own.

A fair amount of blood gets splattered in The Wrath and there are a handful of legit torture scenes, but it is more about mood, atmospheric settings, and foreboding. It is sort of like a vintage Hammer Horror film set during the early Joseon Era. As such, it is a good deal of fun, despite all the distressing positions Ok-bun finds herself in. Technically, The Wrath is a remake of Lee Hyeok-su’s 1986 K-horror movie, Cry of a Woman, but for those who have not seen the original, it definitely feels like its own malevolently melodramatic thing.

Indeed, malevolent melodrama is what Seo Young-hee is all about, gleefully chewing the scenery as Lady Shin. She is enormously entertaining to watch being dastardly. Park Min-ji similarly goes for broke as the deranged ghost. Son Na-eun is their polar opposite as the innocent and vulnerable naïf, Ok-bun, but she takes the character on a credible journey—not exactly to empowerment but to a more forceful personality. Although Lee Tae-ri is problematically milquetoast as the exorcist, Kim Tae-han adds some rugged soulful integrity as a Buddhist monk, who is essentially fired from his role as the family’s spiritual advisor (for being too spiritual).

The Wrath even borrows from Jane Eyre, but when it does, it gives it a 180-degree spin. Yoo throws dozens of gothic and K-horror conventions into the cauldron to simmer, but since he clearly respects the genres, they all work together rather well. Affectionately recommended for fans of lurid historical horror, The Wrath is now streaming exclusively on Shudder.

Two Sentence Horror Stories: Only Child

It is probably impossible to make straight-up voodoo horror films, like The Believers or The Serpent and the Rainbow these days, because of increased sensitivity concerns (Santeria is a religion, after all). However, it seems it can still be used to ward off evil spirits. Unfortunately, a Haitian grandmother might not be strong enough to expel the evil from her spoiled-rotten grandson in Only Child, the latest episode of Two Sentence Horror Stories, which premieres tonight on the CW.

Desi has just moved in with her grown son, his wife, and their little boy Rex. Granted, everyone will need time to adjust to the situation, but Rex still seems a little off. He definitely has boundary issues and he clearly expects to have his own way in all things. This could be partly attributable to his parents’ self-esteem-over-discipline approach to child-rearing. They earnestly tell Desi they try not to use the “no” word with him. Yet, there is still an element of hostility in his behavior that his parents refuse to see.

Of course, Desi can recognize bad spirits when she is in the presence of one, but Rex’s parents are way too modern for that kind of mumbo jumbo. That generational and cultural divide will put Desi in a rather perilous position. Yes, there is definitely talk of the “evil eye” in Only Child, but it still scrupulously maintains its cultural sensitivities. That is all well and good, but the important thing is the creepy tone director Nikyatu Jusu achieves.

As Rex, Jaiden Smith is one heck of a sinister bad seed-demon spawn. This kid would truly be a play date from Hell. Likewise, Sharon Hope portrays Desi as quite a credible and identifiable figure reacting incredulously to her son’s Summerhill-style parenting and with horror to Rex’s escalating aggression.

Screenwriter Leon Hendrix uses the horror genre to effectively satirize the discipline-free style of parenting, but that also provides a believable context for Rex’s evil blossoming. At some point, somebody should have said “no” to this kid, but nobody did. Arguably, this is definitely one of the best written instalments of the current season of Two Sentence Horror Stories. Highly recommended for horror fans, Only Child premieres tonight (9/5), on the CW.

Power of Grayskull: The History of He-Man

These toys can kick Woody and Buzz Lightyear’s butts without working up a sweat. Yet, they also have a much more sophisticated backstory. You could even call it a progressive franchise, since both seasons of its animated series were directed by women. Children of the 1980s can look forward to a heap of nostalgia while everyone else will get a masterclass in toy marketing from Randall Lobb & Robert McCallum’s Power of Grayskull: The Definitive History of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, which is now available on VOD platforms.

Mattel passed on the chance to do licensed Star Wars action figures—and deeply regretted it later. Hoping to develop a property that could rival the legendary franchise, Mattel started designing Conan the Barbarian figures until it became clear the movie would be R-rated (generally a no-no when it comes to children’s toys). Instead, they built an original barbarian themed line around the “just-for-fun” sketches of an in-house designer. That property became known as Masters of the Universe. He-Man was the unambiguous hero and Skeletor was unrepentant villain.

Of course, it caught on in a big way. The toy line exploded and the Filmation cartoon (one of the first produced for expressly for weekday afternoon syndication) took it to a higher level. It is probably one of the few franchises that were licensed by both Marvel and DC Comics. Eventually, He-Man’s sister She-Ra would get her own spin-off, co-created by J. Michael Sttraczynski. And then there was the 1987 movie starring Dolph Lundgren and Frank Langella, both of whom are quite happy to talk about it on-camera. It wasn’t exactly a hit, but it remains fondly remembered by a lot of people, including its principal stars.

Unfortunately, Mattel basically killed the golden egg-laying goose through over distribution, over-saturation, and veering too far off-brand. This might be frustrating for fans to revisit, but it is fascinating stuff. Frankly, the Masters of the Universe franchise would make an instructive MBA case-study. Lobb & Marshall get the full story from at least half a dozen former Mattel executives, numerous designers, and most of the creative team at Filmation.

Lobb & Marshall deserve a great deal of credit for never dumbing down the film. In all honesty, Power of Grayskull is more about business and media studies than it is about fandom. Still, if you are a fan, you will want to know this stuff. Conversely, those who never watched MOTA in any format, will also likely become curious enough to dip into it a little bit, probably starting with the Gary Goddard’s live action film, because who doesn’t dig Dolph Lundgren? Highly recommended for anyone intrigued by the rich history of 1980s pop culture, Power of Grayskull is now available on VOD platforms.

Night Hunter: Superman & Gandhi vs. a Serial Killer

Michael Cooper is a lot like the retired judge in Hardcastle & McCormick, but without the red sports car. His methods for curing recidivism are also a lot more permanent. Unfortunately, he will be forced to work with the regular cops when the young woman he uses as bait is kidnapped by a serial killer in David Raymond’s Night Hunter, which opens this Friday in New York.

Much like Hardcastle, Cooper is a former judge, but personal tragedy drove him to wage vigilante tactics against online predators. His sarcastic ward Lara is only too willing to help him, but the latest creep they try to ensnare turns out to be even more prepared than they are. As a result, the panicked Cooper is forced to request help from local Minnesota police force. Fortunately, Det. Aaron Marshall quickly grasps the gravity of the situation and has the wherewithal to find and rescue Lara, along with another surviving victim.

However, the capture of Simon Stulls does not close the case. Frankly, the twitchy headcase does not seem to be functioning at a sufficiently high level to plan and execute his crimes. The out-of-town profiler (with whom Marshall has some awkward history) is convinced Stulls has more capable multiple personalities buried within him, but there are soon all too tragic reasons to suspect he had an outside accomplice.

Night Hunter features an impressive cast of name-actors, including Henry Cavill, Sir Ben Kingsley, Nathan Fillon, and Stanley Tucci, all playing cops or vigilantes. Obviously, the bad guy or bad guys must be pretty sinister, since they can elude the combined forces of Superman, Gandhi, Castle, and the host of the Hunger Games. In fact, Brendan Fletcher is extraordinarily creepy, even downright unsettling, as the psychotic Stulls. It is a terrific serial killer performance, especially in light of later plot twists.

Cavill is also quite good as Marshall, especially during scenes with Emma Tremblay, who is a real standout as the daughter who constantly tries to draw him out and keep him grounded. Tucci plays Commissioner Harper like a typical Stanley Tucci character, but that is always fun to watch. Kingsley humanizes Cooper, while developing some intriguing surrogate father-daughter chemistry with Eliana Jones, as Lara. On the other hand, neither Alexandra Daddario or her profiler character really bring anything interesting to the table.

In all honesty, Night Hunter is an over-achieving serial killer thriller that deserves more attention than its less-than-blockbuster release will probably garner. Raymond steadily builds the tension, while cinematographer Michael Barrett (who also lensed the uber-glossy Takers) gives it all a sinister sheen. It is a little over-stuffed with characters (don’t blink when Fillon is on-screen), but it succeeds quite nicely as a work of dark suspense. Recommended for fans of psycho-killer thrillers, Night Hunter opens this Friday (9/6) in New York, at the Cinema Village.

Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel

Baseball is America’s pastime—especially here in New York. Israel is one of America’s closest allies—and an island of liberal democracy in a sea of despotic intolerance. When the two came together in 2017, the result was a rousing underdog story. Cinderella proudly wore the Star of David on her jersey when Team Israel made their surprising run in the last World Baseball Classic, which Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller & Jeremy Newberger document in Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel, which opens this Friday in New York.

The World Baseball Classic is very much like a FIFA World Cup for baseball, including its greater popularity in Latin American countries than here in the United States. Big contract Major Leaguers are discouraged from playing, so most of the Americans who agree to play are veterans looking to make a comeback. However, that presented an opportunity for Team Israel. According to the International Baseball Federation’s “Heritage” rules, any player who could qualify for citizenship in a country is allowed to play for their national team. In the case of Israel, that meant any player with a Jewish mother or grandparents was eligible for Team Israel.

Prior to 2017, Team Israel was ranked 41^st in the World, but their diligent general manager and scouts managed to recruit established MLB players, including Josh Zeid, Jason Maquis, Ryan Lavarnway, Cody Decker, Ty Kelly, and Ike Davis. Indeed, there is a strong connection between Team Israel and the New York Mets, with Kelly and Davis being former Metropolitans and team owner Fred Wilpon serving as a producer of the documentary.

With little fanfare or expectations, Team Israel arrived in Seoul for the first round of WBC competition. Not to be spoilery, but they pretty much shocked the world. If not exactly an all-star Team, Team Israel could definitely be described as an all-hustle team. They also had a much more unified team spirit, thanks to the time they spent together in Israel. They also had a greater perspective on the game, having helped dedicate an Israeli baseball field to a young athlete who was the victim of anti-Israeli terrorism. Plus, everyone dug their mascot: “The Mensch on the Bench.”

Kramer, Miller, Newberger, and their even dozen cinematographers captured every step of Team Israel’s journey, from recruitment, through training camp, the initial qualifier in Brooklyn, up to second round play in Tokyo. Frankly, they do not miss anything of importance from the 2017 season. Along the way, the team notched several upset victories, over some countries well known for their baseball traditions. Seriously, if you did not follow the WBC, you will be impressed. They did not always win, but when they did, it was pretty sweet.

As a work of cinema, Heading Home is straight forward and completely unpretentious, but it tells a terrific sports story. Clearly, Kramer & Company had the benefit of carte-blanche access to the team, but they were really fortunate to have so many insightful players willing to talk on camera. Many team-members obviously gained a deeper appreciation of the State of Israel after their time there (which sadly did include a terrorist act while they were in-country), so hopefully some viewers will too. Highly recommended for baseball fans and viewers of sports programming like HBO’s Real Sports and ESPN’s 30 for 30, Heading Home opens this Friday (9/6) in New York, at the Quad—with the Mensch on the Bench attending select screenings.

Fantoche ’19: Shishigari (short)

Nature is dangerous and mysterious, but that makes the wild outdoors the perfect setting for coming of age rituals. Amid snowy forests and steep mountains, callow youths will either grow up quickly or die trying. There is also an element of karma in play for the nameless protagonist of director-screenwriter-animator Kiyotaka Oshiyama’s short film Shishigari, the first production of Oshiyama’s new animation house, Studio Durian, which screens during the 2019 Fantoche International Animation Festival, following its world premiere at this year’s Fantasia.

The somewhat under-sized but resourceful lad bears a striking resemblance to the young hero of Isao Takahata’s Horus, Prince of the Sun. In fact, both films rather freely traffic in Nordic-Slavic-Pagan imagery. In this case, the youthful hunter is just a common lad, but in his world, survival is an extraordinary achievement.

Over the course of the 17-minute film, we come to suspect somewhat fantastical thing are afoot, but in most cases, Oshiyama maintains an ambiguous uncertainty. Regardless, the perils the young hunter faces are very much of our world and totally lethal—as in avalanches and big-horned rams (or something similar).

Oshiyama is already well-known for his work as an animator on Studio Ghibli and Studio I.G films, but he really announces his independence with a bang here. Visually, Shishigari is striking in a primal, archetypal stones-and-skins kind of way. There is a lot action, but the narrative is driven by a higher spirituality.

It is easy to envision how Shishigari could be expanded into a feature-length film. At its current running time, the short film would also pair up nicely with features like Horus, Princess Mononoke, or Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, if programmers are allowed to mix and match from the two animation studios. Regardless, anime fans will absolutely want to see it, because it should be the start of something big for Studio Durain. More importantly, it happens to be a really cool film. Very highly recommended, Shishigari screens this Wednesday (9/4) and next Sunday (9/8), as part of this year’s Fantoche, in the land of neutrality.