The Grudge

Time can change our perception of movies. When The Grudge first came out, Roger Ebert said of the opening “I'm not sure how this scene fits into the rest of the movie, but then I'm not sure how most of the scenes fit into the movie.” Now, in the year 2015, with the benefit of Wikipedia I can easily figure out how the various scenes fit into the narrative...I simply don't care.

To summarize: A Japanese man named Takeo (Takashi Matsuyama) killed his wife Kayako (Takako Fuji) and son Toshio (Yuya Ozeki), because he read his wife's diary and realized she was having an affair with an American professor (Bill Pullman). After this, their spirits killed him, and the three of them haunt their home and attack anyone who comes inside.

I haven't seen the original Japanese film this is based on, but I'm torn on the decision to set this film in Japan. Rather than setting it in America, the creators apparently decided it would be easier to justify the use of English by having a bizarrely disproportionate number of Americans involved in the story. Not only was the Professor an American, but the next residents of the apartment were an American couple and the husband's aging mother (William Mapother, Clea Duvall, and Grace Zabriskie).

Even more bizarrely, after the couple are killed, the mother, apparently suffering from Alzheimer's, remains in Japan for some reason, being cared for by caretakers who come to see her daily. When her regular caretaker (Yoko Maki) is killed by the spirits, an American Exchange Student named Karen (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is sent in her place. Even if the woman had no family back in the US, I strongly suspect that the Japanese government would send her to a nursing home in the States rather than pay for her care.

That's three independent trips to Japan by Americans who all end up as part of this story, to say nothing of Karen's boyfriend (Jason Behr). For the love of God if you're that determined to have Americans in .your film, just set the film in the US of A. I don't see anything difficult to culturally translate about “people who are murdered violently become violent ghosts.”

Putting that aside, however, I've tried hard to put my finger on why most of the scares don't work. My best guess is that it's a combination of factors. Most of the scares are fairly generic, and the movie is far too willing to show the ghosts. The build-up to the horror isn't especially tense, either.

All of these problems can be easily seen in the portrayal of Toshio: he seems to just exist around the house, and periodically say hello to someone, who typically doesn't even realize he's a ghost...oh, and he occasionally meows in the voice of his dead cat, who his father also killed. How are we supposed to be afraid of something treated with so little awe or reverence. Granted, most of the attacking is done by Kayako and Takeo, but having a ghost so open about his own existence cheapens the concept.

More significantly, though, the scares passed too quickly. The ghosts show up, then they attack...next scene. I found myself mentally comparing the film to The Woman in Black, a film that had a truly dazzling extended ghost attack (if you've seen the movie, you know exactly what I'm talking about). There were a number of sequences here that could have been frightening, if they'd been given proper time.

A perfect example of this is the famous shower scene. Karen is showering, and we see a hand start to emerge from the back of her head. She feels it, and...that's it. She's scared, but we're still anticipating. We're hungry for more, and we're not being fed.

The movie ends with Karen burning the house, and the implication that she inadvertently freed the evil. I intend to review the sequel (the first one, at least) next. I certainly hope it's an improvement over this entry.

There are worse films out there? Sure. But, honestly, this movie kind of made me wish I was watching them. I'd rather see amusing trash than this overly slow bore-fest.

Wednesday Review: Independence Day Resurgence

I decided to review this movie because the scenario of an Alien Invasion does fall, broadly speaking, under “horror.” Indeed, the original Independence Day had some truly intense scenes. That said, however, this film never really gives us that intensity, instead acting more as a pure action film.

As for the quality of the film, however, I’d say it’s probably worth a rental. In understanding what Roland Emmerich was doing I thought of two things. Firstly, Moviebob’sreview of the original film, where he explains how it acted as a call for Global Unity. Secondly, I thought of Francis Ford Coppola’s comments that The Godfather: Part 3 should be seen as the coda of The Godfather series, rather than it’s conclusion. Both of these are important in understanding what Emmerich created with this film.

The thing I noticed most about this movie was just how standard much of the plot was. Most of the creativity seemed to go into showing us Roland Emmerich’s idealized world, in which humanity had united and become a stronger people as a result. Notably, where the original film shows humans overcoming petty differences to unite, in Resurgence all the tactical mistakes the humans make are made for the best possible reasons, with everyone determined to protect their world at all cost.

This makes me suspect that Emmerich’s goal was simply to give Independence Day a coda. He wanted to show us the world that the first film called for, and threw in another alien invasion, because how else could he get us to see it? We’re not going to sit through a mockumentary on 20 years post-Independence Day (...okay, I probably would, but most people wouldn’t).

The single most interesting character in this movie is an African “warlord” who has spent ten years fighting a war against surviving aliens. Firstly, I find him fascinating as a parallel to President Whitmore. While his territory is apparently not recognized internationally as a country, the film shows him being treated with roughly the respect afforded a World Leader, and like Whitmore in the first film he acts as a leader who takes a direct hand in the fighting, not seeing himself as above the battles.

More significantly, though, it’s mentioned that this “warlord” replaced his more brutal father...and as far as we can see he’s just as focused on the good of humanity as anyone else. I think that ties into the theme of the “better world.” Twenty years later the last remnants of the bad world have died away, and in the new world the closest thing that even exists to a barbarian is a somewhat gruff and grumpy man with a heart of gold.

And yes, there’s a sequel hook. I don’t think there will be a sequel based on the box office, but if there is I expect it will be another coda. They seem to be setting us up to show us even more unity and an even better world. I’ll probably see it, though, if it happens.

So, as I said at the beginning of this review, I like this movie enough to recommend renting it. If you have fond memories of the original, this will likely be a nice trip down memory lane. But, it isn’t creative enough with it’s alien invasion, nor does it try to be. So, I can’t in good conscience tell anyone to see it in theatres...also, yeah, not horror...

100 Scariest Movie Moments: #29 The Serpent and the Rainbow

I think it took me several viewings to really get The Serpent and the Rainbow. However, it’s a creepy movie. As far as I can tell, it’s the source of the “powder that makes you appear dead for several days” cliché, although I believe this may only be that powder’s primary use in horror. It generally seems to pop up in dramas and mysteries in which the plot dictates that a character be dead, then not be dead.

The film is very loosely based on a true story, because the reality was far less interesting. There was an anthropologist who claimed that such a powder actually existed. Today, there’s an ongoing controversy over whether or not he committed fraud. The alternative seems to be that there is such a powder, but it has such an unbelievably low success rate that no one’s ever been able to reproduce it under laboratory conditions, and the actual cases of zombies are rare anomalies that happen just often enough to make people believe.

That said, this movie delves into the nature of reality and belief. Dr. Dennis Alan (Bill Pullman), our main character, goes to Haiti, hoping to discover the secret of zombies because of the potential uses as an anesthetic for surgery. The movie is technically a period piece, set against the downfall of Bebe Doc’s government, but the setting is only ten years before the film was made.

Dr. Allan finds a knowledgeable practitioner named Louis Mozart (Brent Jennings). Mozart’s an interesting character, as he’s willing to help Dr. Allan purely for his own benefit. Initially, he wants money for the powder, but eventually gives it to Dr Allan simply because he believes it could make him famous. Louis is a wise-cracker, who we're led to like, but far from heroic.

On the other hand however, a priest and official under Bebe Doc by the name of Peytraud (Zakes Mokae) is determined both to drive out the foreigner and to protect the secrets of Voodoo. This is not because of his piety, but simply because he sees the power of the religion as something to keep enemies of the regime in line; so he threatens to steal the soul of Dr. Allan.

The eventual fall-out walks a line between the magical and the mundane. Dr. Allan has many horrifying experiences that may be supernatural, or may simply be the result of chemically induced hallucinations. Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter, because both possibilities are terrifying beyond belief. Eventually, this culminates in Dr. Allan being buried alive and dug up to face Peytraud in a vulnerable state.

Bill Pullman gives an excellent performance. I’ve heard some accusations of racism directed against this movie, but given that every main character other than Pullman’s is black, it seems to make perfect sense that the villains are black. Furthermore, Voodoo is portrayed as a Religion that has been corrupted by the leaders of Haiti, not simply as evil magic.

The final few minutes of the movie arguably go a bit too far with their imagery and actually begin to come across as silly. On the other hand, I suppose a man who’d just been poisoned and buried alive might see some silly things. Whether he’s been attacked with magic physically, attacked with magic psychologically or just dosed with chemicals is left for the viewer to decide. Hell, any event that happens after Bebe Doc fleeing Haiti (which, at minimum, we know actually did happen) is pretty much up for grabs.

I wish more movies like this existed, mixing physical terror with the psychological. There is no monster to jump out and say “boo.” There is only human evil in whatever form you believe it manifests, harnessing whatever powers it can. This movie is great.