V/H/S/2: Found Footage Never Looked This Good

Back in 1999, Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick's The Blair Witch Project used a cutting edge online marketing campaign to successfully dupe many viewers into believing they were watching actual footage of three young people's supernatural experience in the Maryland woods. The manner in which the movie was filmed supported this conclusion: shaky handheld camerawork and a documentary-style narrative all contributed to a very real atmospheric horror film that went on to gross almost $250 million. Given that the film was purportedly shot on a budget of about $25,000, The Blair Witch Project popularized a style of filmmaking that although not entirely new (Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust pioneered the style almost 20 years earlier), promised to turn record profits for filmmakers and production companies.

Fast-forward to the present day. The found footage style of filmmaking is everywhere now, most common to the horror genre, but directors of science fiction and a couple other genres have also used the style to great effect. Films like the Paranormal Activity franchise, Cloverfield, and Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza's REC series have seen enormous popularity, high critical acclaim, and have performed remarkably well at the box office. But with the popularity of found footage has come a fervent backlash amongst many genre fans who don't find the style effective, are put off by the often shaky and intentionally amateurish filming style, or have begun to feel the concept is overdone. Personally, I've sat dozens of friends down to watch The Blair Witch Project, turned the lights off for atmosphere, and insisted on absolute silence to try and make them see what I find so deeply unsettling about the film. Over time, I've come to accept that found footage just isn't for everybody. Some people don't have the patience for the slow burn. They like their horrror overtly terrifying, fast-paced, and splattered with gore. For those people, Bloody Disgusting and The Collective have teamed up to bring to the screen eleven of the best short horror films showcasing the found footage style, in anthology films V/H/S and V/H/S/2.

V/H/S/2 hit VOD June 6th of this year, saw a limited theatrical release on the U.S. last month, and is set for release on Blu Ray, DVD, and of course VHS September 24th. Though this second installment features a new group of directors, I found a lot of similarities between the stories in both, and a great continuity between both films' narrative frameworks.

Similar to the first film, V/H/S/2 begins with a pair of private investigators who are searching for a missing student, and stumble across a collection of VHS tapes that chronicle many different horrific occurrences. First comes Adam Wingard's contribution, Phase I Clinical Trials, starring the director himself as a rather unremarkable Los Angeles man who lost an eye in a bad car accident. Lucky for him, a local doctor has set him up with a false eye that will communicate visual stimuli not just to his own brain, but to a video feed that scientists may watch to get a sense of the implant's functioning. But when the patient gets home from the doctor's office, he starts to notice strange things almost immediately. The artificial eye has endowed him with a second sight he doesn't want, and it soon becomes clear that he is not alone in his own house. What I found most effective about this short was the use of distorted artifacts on the screen which appeared whenever an entity was present in the patient's line of sight. I was reminded of Glenn McQuaid's segment for the first V/H/S film, Tuesday the 17th, in which a murderous figure in the woods is continuously obscured on screen by video tracking errors.

Next comes Eduardo Sanchez and Gregg Hale's A Ride In The Park. I found this segment to be the most light-hearted and funny out of the entire film, featuring three bicyclists in a state park who are attacked by zombies and join the mob to march on a child's birthday party nearby. Shot from the head-mounted camera of one of the zombified bikers, viewers are treated to the first-person perspective of a zombie lurching through the woods, devouring intestines, and getting bashed in the skull by frightened victims. It's obvious that the team had a lot of fun filming this one, and a comedic undertone runs throughout as, for instance, our zombie hero attempts to eat a victim's wallet, then tosses it aside with a 'blech' of disgust.

The fourth segment, Gareth Huw Evans and Timo Tjahjanto's Safe Haven, was in my opinion the strongest of the entire film, and possibly the best out of both V/H/S anthologies. A documentary film crew is invited to film inside the compound of an Indonesian cult in which the leader, known as 'Father,' cleanses the impurities of his flock through sinister and questionably legal treatment of young girls. But the darkness in Father's compound runs even deeper than the film crew imagines, and soon the three young men and one woman are trapped in a ritual nightmare there's no escaping. The short is brutally violent, depicting the Jonestown-esque mass-suicide of the cult, as well as some really horrific supernatural happenings that I would hate to spoil for anybody. The acting is superb, especially on the part of Epy Kusnandar as the magnetic and ultimately psychotic Father. And viewers get a few glimpses of some really fun creature design toward the end of the segment that would not be out of place on a Black Sabbath album cover.

The conclusive segment of V/H/S/2 come courtesy of Jason Eisenberg, the man behind 2011 exploitation comedy Hobo With A Shotgun. Titled Slumber Party Alien Abduction, viewers know exactly what they're getting into, and Eisener delivers. The short begins as the raucous account of a teenage boy and girl whose friends come over for a party whilst the parents are out of town. But the sexscapades and back-and-forth pranking turn dark when the arrival of terrifying creatures from the sky interrupts their shenanigans. Filmed from the perspective of the family dog, who has a camera strapped to his back, the story dissolves into chaos as one by one the teenagers are taken up by the thin, grey men. Creature design is excellent, showing us just enough glimpses of the creatures to create terror, and sympathy for the naive and innocent kids strikes an emotional chord throughout.

Even if you think found footage isn't for you, the producers of the V/H/S films have done a spectacular job gathering some of the greatest minds of independent horror today, and these anthologies have something for everyone. Look for the DVD-Blu Ray-VHS three-pack this September.

We're Not Using the Zed Word: Edgar Wright's Blood & Ice Cream Trilogy Comes to an End

Monday evening saw the Bay Area premiere of The World's End, the final installment of what has been dubbed the Blood & Ice Cream (or Cornetto) Trilogy, by British director Edgar Wright and starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Beginning with the cult favorite zombie comedy (zom-com?) Shaun of the Dead in 2004, the team grew a strong following in the U.S. despite low theatrical earnings, and followed up with the equally under-appreciated spoof action film Hot Fuzz in 2007. The trilogy will come to a close when The World's End hits U.S. theatres August 23rd.

Tracie Chang's glorious poster designed just for Monday's event

Thanks to San Francicso institution MiDNiTES FOR MANiACS, now in its twelfth year, I was fortunate enough to attend a triple-feature screening of the trilogy in its entirety Monday, at the AMC Metreon. Watching the three films one after the other not only gave us lucky 200 audience members a chance to revisit everything we found brilliant about Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz the first (and second, and third) time around, but it also underscored some of the thematic elements holding the trilogy together, and what I have come to see as Wright's overarching 'message.' Read on for my own attempt at a scholarly examination of the films, and a mini-review in which I will attempt to amp you up for the release of The World's End without spoiling the big, secret twist! Here goes nothing...

A romantic comedy. With zombies.

Every time I sit down to yet another viewing of Shaun of the Dead, I fall in love all over again in the first five minutes of the film. First, you're treated to a deliciously clever opening credit sequence, in which the masses of people on the streets of London go about their morning routines, effectively zombified by boredom and banality. Shortly thereafter comes a beautiful long shot that follows our hero all the way from his front door, down the block, to the corner market in one extended pan. The quick, frenetic camerawork throughout the film keeps you on your toes as things go from mundane to insane, and Shaun and his friends go head (or, rather, cricket bat) to head with the walking dead. 

"I've got things I wanna do with my life!"

Shaun of the Dead was conceived, filmed, and released when Wright, Pegg, and Frost were all in their late twenties to early thirties. Not only is it remarkable that a team of such relatively young filmmakers were able to create something so original with such lasting appeal, but the themes of the script really represent their particular stage of life at the time. Shaun, stuck in a thankless sales job amongst gum-smacking teenagers, is at a crossroads where he must decide who he wants to be, in a larger sense, and his girlfriend Liz is there gently, then not-so-gently, urging him on. Only when the undead threaten the lives of his loved ones does Shaun find that the ability to step up and become a hero was always within him, and not only saves but also wins back the girl of his dreams.

When the heat is on, you gotta call the fuzz.

Hot Fuzz brings Pegg and Frost back together on screen in yet another vignette of the life cycle of the average man. In this second installment, Pegg plays star police officer Nicholas Angel, who has a stellar arrest record, commendations coming out of his ears, and is set up for a nice promotion. He has put years of tireless effort into establishing himself in a career, and when he is transferred to a small, sleepy village in the countryside, he begins to see that he is missing the other aspects of a full and happy life. With the help of his bumbling partner, played by Frost, he works to uncover the truth behind a series of murders disguised as accidents, and in uncovering a vast Neighborhood Watch conspiracy, he finds it in himself to let go a little and toss the hard-and-fast rule of law aside in the name of what is right.

"My discounts are... criminal."

It wouldn't be right to discuss Hot Fuzz without a nod to some of the spectacular supporting performances by some really big British names. Jim Broadbent gets plenty of screen time as the benevolent but ultimately twisted Chief Inspector of the Sandford police, and as he loses his grip on sanity in the film's final scenes, he really steals the show. Timothy Dalton menaces from his first scenes as the sinister owner of the local supermarché. And early in the film, Bill Nighy, Martin Freeman, and Steve Coogan all flit across the screen in a brief comedic turn as Angel's superiors.

Good food. Fine ales. Total annihilation. 

So having paid brilliantly clever homage to the horror genre, and then to the action-cop films of the eighties and nineties, what ground is left to be covered? Some readers will be thrilled to learn that Wright's latest, and the conclusion of the trilogy, runs in the vein of science fiction, playing on the clichés and tenets of alien classics like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. But The World's End is more than that - it's a film from the perspective of a writing team entering middle age, and beginning to look back on the accomplishments, mistakes, and missed opportunities of youth. Pegg's character, the antihero of our story, is the Gary King, once the ringleader and Casanova of his pack of school chums. In the present day, he is a train wreck - he is unmarried, childless, by all evidence jobless, and struggling with substance abuse. In an attempt to reclaim the glory of the day he graduated from school, Gary reunites his four old friends (played by Nick Frost, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan, and Paddy Considine) and convinces them to grudgingly join him in completing a twelve-pub crawl through their hometown. But things aren't as they used to be in the town of Newton Haven, and the five soon find themselves not just fighting to reclaim their youth, but fighting for the future of the entire human race.

In the last film of this epic trilogy, Pegg and Frost both give truly spectacular performances, both in and outside of their respective comedic wheelhouses. There is a poignant sadness to Pegg's portrayal of the wayward Gary King as he puts on a brave front for his old friends, that reminded me strikingly of Richard E. Grant's performance in Bruce Robinson's 1987 cult classic Withnail & I. (Of course, it could just be both characters' trademark trench coats.) And Frost is deadly serious as Gary's former best friend Andy, a complex relationship that is illuminated as the film moves forward. In the post-screening audience Q+A, Pegg described himself as a teen:

"I was a goth, I watched a lot of Sisters of Mercy videos. That was my thing when I was sixteen to eighteen. I wanted Gary to be like I was when I was sixteen, only trapped in amber."

When asked about some of the more trivial connections between the three films, Wright shed some light on his inspiration for The World's End, as well as the overall them of the Cornetto Trilogy.

"Growing up in a small town, you start to imagine what's going on between closed doors. I think it made me more of a daydreamer. I can remember saying to my friends, 'every time I come back it feels like Bodysnatchers,' and there's a film in that!"

In my own view, which you may of course take with the proverbial grain of salt, all three films touch on some sort of "zombie" collectivism. In Shaun of the Dead, the outbreak is literal, and our heroes struggle to retain their individuality rather than succumb to the zombie virus. In Hot Fuzz, the danger is in a collective pursuing an ideology that has been twisted, perhaps a small-scale allegory for some of the political strife of the last several centuries. Sgt. Nicholas Angel must stand up for goodness when the easier choice might be to do nothing and let evil rule. And in The World's End, fucked up Gary King makes one last stand for the uniqueness of every human that makes our race beautiful, and resists joining the collective Network of dull perfection.

Wright elaborated on this homogenizing of human life:

"When we made Hot Fuzz, which was shot in my hometown, when Nicholas Angel is riding down the high street on a horse, I had to digitally erase a Starbucks. It's like the high street virus has spread everywhere, and everything's the same."

The World's End will make you laugh, cheer, and maybe even cry, and if you're anything like me, some of the themes will resonate with you long after you've left the theatre. Again, the film hits U.S. theatres August 23rd, and it's going to be a hell of a lot more bang for your buck than a certain Seth Rogen film of a similar title... Trust me. 

Lili Taylor Goes Full-On Linda Blair in The Conjuring

Hey there, welcome to Notes From Room 237! Glad you could make it! Have a seat right over here, don't mind the brains all over the wall.

You've stumbled across the inaugural blog entry by me, a lifelong horror geek gal, looking to add my two cents to the global conversation about gore, guts, ghosts, and other ghastly things. I'll be reviewing films, new and old, breaking down industry news, railing against the use of CGI in creature films, and hopefully getting down to the funny bone once in a while.

So without further ado, today's rant is brought to you by James Wan's latest: The Conjuring, starring Lili Taylor, Ron Livingston, Vera Farmiga, and Patrick Wilson. I was lucky enough to snag the last pair of passes to an advance screening Wednesday night and I have to say, this one is worth the ever-increasing price of admission.

I have to give credit to the Warner Brothers reps for making an effort to set the mood before the screening started. On the way in to the theater, they gave each audience member a little 'Demon Protection Kit' to take in, which included a glow-in-the-dark rosary (great for kitsch value alone) and a small plastic bottle of 'Holy Water.' (My immediate reaction was to shake some of the contents of the bottle into my mouth and taste it. Is that sacrilege?) Naturally some of the younger members of the audience immediately starting flinging the water around, so a rep got hold of a microphone and made a quick little speech about how it was cool if not everyone was a believer, but if we didn't want the holy water, to please return it after the film so that it could be donated back to the Church. Which got me thinking, are there novelty companies running kind of a disrespectful racket selling regular ol' water in holy water bottles? Or do they get a priest to mass-bless some water and actually sell it in cheap plastic bottle form? Anyway, I digress.

Warner Brothers also got some real-life paranormal researchers to come out and speak to the audience, but at 12:20 a.m. after waiting in the theater lobby for 3 hours, we were getting pretty squirmy, so that was that. Incidentally, if you're in the Bay Area, check out Alameda Paranormal Researchers, based out of the haunted USS Hornet aircraft carrier, they seem legit and like they do fun work.

The Conjuring, in case you live in a remote cave and haven't caught a single trailer, tells the story of a happy, carefree, bell-bottom wearing seventies family that moves into a foreclosed house, and the evil that terrorizes them from that point on. But this is not your standard haunted-house flick, despite what you saw in the trailers. No, it's going to get a lot worse for the Perron family than a few slamming doors and weird reflections in mirrors, and fast.

Enter Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga), the husband-wife demonologist team of Amityville notoriety. In a bizarre turn for anyone keeping up with A&E's Bates Motel, Farmiga plays the sweet-natured, loving, and fragile wife to the ever-hunky Wilson. The two have just given a Demonology lecture at the University of It-Isn't-Relevant-To-The-Plot when Carolyn Perron (Taylor) approaches them for help with the spooks that are keeping her five daughters up at night.

But of course, it isn't spirits that haunt the Perrons. The movie adeptly shifts gears from haunted house to demon possession, one of my personal favorite sub-genres. And Lili Taylor gives an incredible performance as her mind and body are racked by something so malicious, it makes The Exorcist's Pazuzu look like Yogi Bear. Oh yes, Taylor goes FULL ON Linda Blair, thrashing around to the point of physical harm, foaming at the mouth, and licking her lips lasciviously as the demon seeks to destroy her family and the Warrens with them.

While The Conjuring owes a lot to films that have come before it, James Wan brings his own distinctive style to the based-on-true-life material. With a return to the long, panning handheld camera shots that made Insidious so tensely engaging, Wan follows the horror visited upon the Perrons at just the right pace. But for those who felt Insidious was a little slow-moving, he's really stepped things up with The Conjuring. There's a scare a minute, and evil around every corner.

The Conjuring is in theatres next weekend, and I'm going to urge you to shell out the twelve bucks to see this one on the big screen. I'll even go out on a limb and suggest that James Wan may be the hero that modern horror has been waiting for, delivering chills to the moviegoing masses in a big way, minus the cheeseball goofiness that has characterized the best known titles of the last couple decades.

Before there was Amityville, there was Harrisville. And it was more sinister than you could possibly imagine.