toronto after dark 2007

Murder Party is the story of a very boring, mundane man named Alexander who finds an invitation to a ‘murder party’ on the street on Halloween. After going home and being defeated by his cat, Sir Lancelot, he bakes a loaf with the pumpkin kids have already smashed on his stoop, makes a knight costume out of cardboard and duct tape and goes to the ‘party’. Only, when he gets there he discovers that the ‘party’ the invite spoke about is to torture and kill him. Enter a group of artists all vying for a very large grant and literally willing to kill someone — and each other — for it.

The movie itself was created by a group of people who have worked together for a very long time (and their product shows their level of comfort with one another) who call themselves The Lab of Madness. Indeed. This movie is madness, but madness of the very best kind. The movie is quite clearly an independent. It was made on a budget of less than $500,000 and it doesn’t show. Frankly, I think this should be the new bar for indies. Small. Character driven. Engaging. Twists and turns where you don’t see them coming. A man in a cardboard costume. It’s important to note that this movie has already received much higher accolades than I could ever bestow. It won Best Narrative Feature (Audience Award) at Sundance, Best Feature Film (Festival Award) at Vail, and it was an Official Selection at SXSW.

There has been a run on tongue-in-cheek in the movies lately when it comes to self deprecation. While the average viewer may not be able to relate to what it’s like to be a starving artist and to be groveling for the money to just keep doing what you love, almost everyone can relate to the caricature of the greedy pretentious artist. And that’s what this movies gives us; a series of caricatures used in some very inventive ways. At it’s most basic, the one of them who kills poor Alex in the best way gets the grant. In the midst of the morbid planning and in-fighting, there is a ’round table’ after the characters have all injected themselves with ‘truth serum’ (a sodium pentathol like drug) that is oddly reminiscent of a John Hughes movie from the 80′s. It has that ‘soul laid bare’ feel about that gives you the idea that these are real people who are just trying to get ahead. Except for that guy with the unnamed handheld video game. He’s a little off. But the point is that, for just a moment, these people are a little less crazy, a little less odd, and a little less homicidal. They’re a little too much like you and me. It’s fleeting, but it’s those human moments in this movie that make it so likable. Then there’s crazy kills. Great, gross, make-you-cringe kills that you’ll really, really never forget.

Murder Party will be touring the US with Blood Car (review here). Catch them together if you can, because both of these movies were immensely enjoyable and are certain to be horror classics. But more than that, they’re independent and that should be supported and celebrated. So go see them. Buy the DVDs. You won’t regret it.

Starring the extremely creepy Crispin Glover as a pair of homicidal twins, this movie has a small collection of the most annoying humans ever — a group of teenagers — going out into the wilderness to go camping and do what all teenagers want to do: have sex with each other and do drugs.

The movie isn’t completely clear at any point about what actually made the twins (Stanley and, of course, Simon) turn into complete and utter freaks, but it touches on the fact that one of them had a penchant for hurting things less capable of thought than himself (Stanley) and one of them was pretty simple, borderline mentally challenged (Simon). Presently the two of them run a very brokendown gas station just on the outside of, um, somewhere. There are ghosts and corpses and other characters who only appear for the sole purpose of being killed in the most extremely inventive ways. And none of it is really ever explained and, honestly, that’s part of this movie’s charm. The plot tosses itself from place to place, from kill to kill, with a reckless abandon for whether or not the audience can even keep up. It’s spectacular, really.

I must say that there were the most wonderful things done with those kills, too. Pick axes, lighters, and so many more things I can’t say without ruining it for you because you are, of course, going to run to your local video store and find this movie. Obviously.

Lastly, I must say that as you can tell I immensely enjoyed this movie, but when I came out, however, I was revolted to discover that as Crispin Glover gets older (and farther away from George McFly) he’s actually becoming kind of… sexy. I mean when he’s busily running around and killing people I was actually mildly attracted to him. I’m not sure if it was the zeal with which he took really, really stupid people’s lives or if it was simply because he’s just a sexy beast, but I’ll let you decide. You tell me. Sexy or no? But first you have to go see this movie because, independent or not, it’s certainly a welcome change from the obscenity that is Torture Porn.

In particular, this movie is from Thailand and stars one of the more famous Thai actresses Masha Wattanapanich as the main characters. It was written and directed by Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wangpoom, who were responsible for a movie called Shutter a couple of years ago that is generally considered to be a horror classic; one of the scariest movies ever made. Unfortunately, I have not seen it, but I did enjoy this one a great deal.

The movie has a very simple premise: there is one remaining Siamese twin and the twin that passed on is not only haunting the living twin, she seems to want her dead as well. At first you’re led to believe it’s for one reason, then you’re shown it’s for another reason and I’ll tell you, you won’t see it coming. Remember The Sixth Sense? Remember how at the very end you smacked your head because you couldn’t believe you didn’t know? Well that’s what this is, except with a creepy dead like from The Ring. The first scare of the movie was so big that most of the theatre cried out, but the guy next to me actually jumped out of his seat and when he landed, he stomped on my toe. Stomped.on.my.toe. I’m telling you, this movie is hardcore.

I think my only criticism is that there seemed to be little variety in the events of the movie. The main character, Pim, would shut off the lights, go to bed and then there would be a giant scare. She would hear something upstairs, she would go upstairs — in the dark — and then there would be a giant scare. Then during the times in between, she would visit her ailing mother in the hospital and visit a psychiatrist, because she was clearly crazy. Then back into the dark again. Basically, she needed to stop turning off the lights. It wasn’t bad, it was just repetitive, but the repetitiveness served to add to the feeling that the characters couldn’t escape.

Once the twist comes to light, the scare kind of shifts and you’re not sure if you should be afraid of a possible ghost, or if the ghost was really a figment and now you should be afraid of a person. It was a little confusing for the viewer, and it didn’t diminish the overall creepiness, but it was a little distracting. All in all, it’s a solid movie and a very, very creepy one. You’re likely to wonder if there’s going to be something looking at you when you open your eyes at night for at least a couple of weeks. I suggest sleeping with the light on. That’s what I did.

“A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder; fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won; the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”

The story of the hero’s journey is told over and over again and Campbell dedicated his entire life to the study of why this story, and stories like it, have such a visceral effect on mankind. There have been many movies to use this formula as their platform, but few have done it as well as writer/director Nikolai Lebedev in his most recent release, Wolfhound (Volkodav iz roda Serykh Psov — its Russian title). Bearing a striking resemblance, on the surface at least, to Conan: The Barbarian, it begins in an idyllic little village where a young boy is watching his father, the town’s blacksmith, create a sword. Along comes his pregnant mother to show her unending devotion to her husband and son. A few moments later the boy’s father is killed for precisely that sword and he watches as his mother dies at the hands of a man with a wolf tattoo on his hand. Immediately the boy is jerked away from everything he knows to a slave camp, and Wolfhound is born. We meet back up with Wolfhound again many years later when he is a man systematically seeking revenge for his family’s murder. He has become a great fighter and a good man. As he travels in search of the man with the tattoo he becomes embroiled in the struggle of a princess and her family, eventually agreeing to be her bodyguard. This is treacherous, however, because the princess’s blood is what is needed to open a gate and let out ultimate evil. There is a good deal of magic involved, he of course falls for the girl (who also falls hopelessly for him) and then in the third act there’s a giant stone owl and God literally comes out of the machine. It really is a spectacular movie.

All of the talent in this movie is wonderful and because I didn’t know any of them from any previous work it only added to this movie’s ability to capture me. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that the most compelling character in this movie is actually a sidekick. It’s not what you think. It’s not a plucky foreign guy with a funny accent who gets kicked around a lot, but proves useful in the end. It’s a bat. A bat named Ragged Wing. And he’s the best thing ever. Not only is it completely new on the landscape of film, but it was adorable AND hilarious. It was never used for pluck and it never hit a wrong note. They never used its being hurt to manipulate you. It was like a Disney sidekick, without the Disney. And if you can’t imagine that then it’s all the more reason to RUN and see this movie where ever you can.

In all honesty what makes this movie great is the lack of the Hollywood studio system. It seems that the studios are so wrapped up in what might sell and which star they can vehicle with which project, that they haven’t stopped to think about what might actually connect with an audience. I really can’t remember the last time I connected with a movie in this way. It doesn’t go the way you expect and when you think that you might know what comes next, it takes a different turn. The good guy is, actually, a very good guy and you identify with his struggle, even if you’ve never been a slave who had to fight himself free. Frankly, I was very disappointed to know that — as far as I can see — the only reason this movie couldn’t have gala-ed at TIFF is that it’s Russian. Which in case no one else has noticed, is where the truly great stories are coming from these days. It was not long ago that I was captured in both Night Watch and Day Watch. Russia has a great deal of opportunity when it comes to making movies. There is a wealth of talent; there are no end of spaces to shoot in; and there is no specific motive to make a movie other than to actually tell a story. I think Russia is the one to watch. Quite frankly, it’s only because of festivals like Toronto After Dark that movies like this can even be seen. Joseph Campbell would be pleased.