Turbo Kid

Turbo Kid

Turbo Kid is like no other film I've seen all year. It's a throwback to 1980's post apocalyptic action films but it also feels very fresh and vibrant. It follows a young man who lives in the Wasteland and one day finds a suit that gives him superhero like powers (kind of). Now known as Turbo Kid, he sets off to save his new found friend, Apple, and fight a tyrannical maniac.

Turbo Kid is very self aware and knows exactly what it's doing. It walks a fine line and pays homage to the 1980's in a brilliant way that never feels forced or cheesy or too obvious. And yet, it does all of those things. That may sound nonsensical but the secret to this films success is the excellent cast that it has assembled. It's the main focus of my review because if even one character were played differently I don't think the film would have worked as well as it did.

The 1980's was a big decade. Everything was big: the hair, the music, the movies, the money. And Turbo Kid is full of big performances within a big concept. Everything compliments everything here, right down to the big pulse pounding synth score that rides smoothly under the colorful images on the screen.

The casting here is key. Michael Ironside as the main villain is a brilliant choice because the man just exudes that big evil crime boss feel. His natural bad guy glare works overtime here and puts a visual to his bad guy personality. One look at him and you know he's bad news, and all of this with only one eye as the other is covered with a patch. Munro Chambers is perfect as Turbo Kid, he has a slightly boyish face and knows how to utilize it to enhance his lingering innocence as he reads of superheroes in comic books with youthful enthusiasm. He also knows how to express reaction to the dark side of life in the Wasteland and by the end of the movie there is an obvious change in Turbo Kid and Chambers already seems more grown up. Finally we have Laurence Leboeuf as Apple. It didn't take long for her over the top exuberance and constant big smile to win me over. She is exceedingly expressive, energetic and charming and has the most stunning eyes I've ever seen on film. Even Edwin Wright as evil, silent henchman Skeletron makes the best of his character. Besides glaring out of his Quiet Riot like mask, he is very twitchy and quick with his movements and that adds immensely to his madman image.

Perhaps the smartest move the film makes is to keep Turbo Kid himself, surrounded by this big world with big characters, small. He is not a big character with a big personality, he simply has a big destiny. In that way he reminds me of Luke Skywalker.

What makes Turbo Kid ultimately work is it's heart, superb cast, and attention to minor details. The classic 1980's Viewfinder that they look through with wonder, the big plastic spokes on the wheels of Turbo Kids BMX, the Nintendo like sound effects that accompany every bleep and bloop of technology and blast from Turbo Kids glove are very charming and intoxicating. It creates not only a world for these characters but an atmosphere to go with it, an atmosphere that many viewers find nostalgic and comforting yet just far enough away from that it feels like a distant and unrecognizable existence.

This movie believes in what it's doing and what it's going for, and that makes it easy for an audience to get swept up in it and feel the same way. Turbo Kid felt more like an experience than a movie, more like witnessing the lives of these people than watching a story, and to me that's as good as movies get.

The Nightmare

The Nightmare

The Nightmare is the new documentary from Rodney Ascher, the director of Room 237 which delved into Kubrick's The Shining. Much like Room 237, The Nightmare is a documentary that focuses on the human perception of reality as opposed to a factual or scientifically based approach. The subject matter here is sleep paralysis, a topic that is more frightening than your average horror film setup because it is a real condition.
The Nightmare has a pretty simplistic approach to what it wants to say: it films 4 subjects telling of their sleep paralysis condition and reenacts their stories as they tell it. The scenes play out like a Hollywood horror movie as the people explain what happens during sleep paralysis in voice over. The scenes are played up for maximum effect and are executed superbly to create an extremely creepy atmosphere. The people tell of shadow men in their rooms at night, seemingly alien visitors, and demons whispering into their ears. All of this as they lay awake paralyzed and helpless, just waiting for the episode to end. These reenactment scenes are very scary and make great use of sound and music. The music is very eerie and full of tension and the sound is created to stay with you, especially the voices of some of these unwanted nightly visitors. There were a number of times I felt the hair on my arms stand up, that's how effective and chilling these stories are portrayed, with one moment in particular that made me literally jump!
An interesting choice that I thought worked well was that as the movie jumped back and forth from the 4 people and their experiences it separated each segment with a quote from the upcoming segment that wasn't said yet. It gives the viewer a kind of precursor as to what will be addressed or discussed and works as a link among the people and gives the film a nice sense of unity.
The interviews themselves are dimly lit with the camera set back a little ways so the viewer sees the subject lit up and a lot of the darker room in which they sit. As they tell the terror of their sleep paralysis, it is almost as if we expect to see long and lanky shadow men come out of the dark areas that stretch across the room behind them. It's a nice touch that plays on the confusion and terror of sleep paralysis itself by blending awakeness with sleep, reality with dreams, and lightness with the dark.
The Nightmare is a new breed of documentary. It relies on story to tell it's truth. The Nightmare never gives us any scientific research on sleep paralysis or any potential physiological explanation as to why this condition occurs. And perhaps it doesn't need to. The condition is very real and extremely scary to the people that suffer from it and no explanation will comfort them. The viewer is given lore and legends from around the globe that span all time depicting the terror of sleep paralysis and maybe that's comfort enough to the victims of it, knowing they are not alone in their suffering. Then again, they all suffer alone when sleep paralysis hits, and that is absolutely terrifying. Watch this movie and be warned: some of this might seem familiar to some viewers and you'll probably go to sleep a little nervous.

Spring

Spring
  

Spring is the latest feature from collaborators Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, both working as directors here. It's about a young man named Evan (Lou Taylor Pucci) who takes a sudden trip to Italy to get away from his suddenly deteriorating life. While there Evan begins a passionate, whirlwind romance with a young woman named Louise (Nadia Hilker) who has an ancient, dark secret.

Spring is a movie that has a most unusual mash-up to set up it's story: it's Richard Linklater meets David Cronenberg, Before Sunrise meets The Fly. And it works beautifully. We get plenty of Evan and Louise walking through the streets of Italy getting to know each other and having conversations about their pasts and beliefs. It's a movie that takes it's time, you spend as much time getting to know these characters as they spend getting to know each other. And that's the charm of the film, you LIKE these people and their relationship with each other.

But all is not what it seems. From early on we hear music that warns of something coming, something beneath the surface. A soft and yearning piano plays as a deep swell rises underneath the spaced out and lonely notes taking them over and warning of danger. It's simple and effective music that prepares the viewer for the scattered scenes of Louise fighting back what she really is: a 2,000 year old monster of sorts who takes injections to maintain her human form when she starts to break out into her monster self. The scenes where we see Louise as the monster are well shot and frightening, the camera almost seems dizzy filming her as she moves in frantic stutters and devours animals to satisfy her craving for flesh. All the while Even grows more suspicious that something isn't quite right.

Throughout the movie there are plenty of shots of nature and bugs and insects, lots of worldly sounds and animalistic noises mixed in with the sound of people and human commerce. Much like the relationship between Evan and Louise, there is a joining of human nature and mother nature interspersed throughout the film. It shows these two habitats can live and coexist together in one world. It's a smart and effective nod to the different species in the world and a nice compliment to the two main characters and their story.

Perhaps the most successful outcome of this movie is that it makes you believe in love and therefor you believe in the film itself, you completely buy in and root for it's characters. The biggest contributor to this is the performance of Lou Taylor Pucci. The success of the film rests mainly on his shoulders; if we don't believe in him, we wont believe in the love we see on screen. Pucci nails everything the role demanded, he gives a fully realized and sensitive performance. He's so comfortable as this character, so natural and effortless that I felt the pain and feeling of loss that Evan was experiencing. Pucci is a very promising and talented young actor.

Spring is a beautiful story with horror at it's heart. It asks the question, “how powerful is love?” and runs with the question and the answer. Thanks to the two leads, Lou Taylor Pucci and Nadia Hilker, and a thoughtful script, the film never falls into schmaltzy or overly sappy Nicholas Sparks territory. It plays it straight and thinks through it's story. It's a different kind of love story and a different kind of horror story and it's very well done.

Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead

Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead

Wyrmwood is the advertised Mad Max meets Dawn of the Dead mash-up from writers Kiah and Tristan Roache-Turner, with Kiah also directing. The story is about a virus that ushers in the zombie apocalypse. Amidst the chaos of roaming packs of flesh eating zombies in the Australian Outback, a mechanic named Barry (Jay Gallagher) is looking for his sister Brooke (Bianca Bradey) who was kidnapped and experimented on by a deranged mad scientist like doctor.

The opening scene is bloody and tone setting and shows a rag tag group dressed in random and worn out and beat up sports gear like helmets, shoulder pads, and hockey masks. The group comes out fighting zombies looking like Slipknot on a battlefield.

As the story is set up and the virus descends upon the living, we see a number of people turn into zombies. One in particular will leave it's imagery in my mind for a long time. The photo shoot sugar skull zombie is fantastic and terrifying, a maniacal bloodthirsty thrashing rag doll of fury and color and is one of the most memorable zombies I have ever seen.

When it comes to the zombies, the sound is very effective and haunting. This isn't the clogged up, blood rattled dry wheez breathing of The Walking Dead, it's an all out siren scream that sounds like a drowning horse being ravaged by a pack of animals. It's disturbing and unnerving and freaking awesome.

The lab where Brooke is held hostage is portrayed like a house of horrors come to life. We see grisly and gut covered computers and keyboards, human experiments and zombies restrained to the blood soaked walls angrily wiggling and fighting to be free. all overseen by a disco dancing deranged doctor.

Jay Gallagher shows shades of Bruce Campbell from The Evil Dead movies in his performance sometimes and it meshes greatly with the vibe of the movie. One scene in particular has his face sprayed and covered in blood and I couldn't help but think of Ash fighting the Deadites. There's even a scene when Gallagher loads up a gun and says, “fuck yeah,” that is seemingly his version of Campbells “groovy”. Don't misread here though, it's an overall serious portrayal of a grief stricken man who lost his family to the virus and he does a great job here.

I haven't even gotten to Bianca Bradey yet. While she spends the majority of the movie held hostage in the house of horrors lab, she makes the most of her screen time. Even tied up in the lab her stare alone is enough to knock you out and her icy cool delivery of lines like, “you want a zombie? I'll get you a zombie,” turned me into an instant fan. She is a powerful screen presence and has one hell of a commanding aura about her. Her role here reminded me of another great performance I saw recently, Nicole Alonso in Crawl or Die.

Wyrmwood reportedly took 4 years to make, being filmed on weekends and around everybody's work schedules. It sounds like a draining and daunting task to take on. But the end result is a damn awesome movie that is one of the best zombie movies to be seen in years. I loved Wyrmwood, I loved every minute of it. This movie is a horror fans dream. It's the kind of movie you want to make with your friends: a brilliant love letter to horror that also stands strong as it's own story. Wyrmwood also manages to add a new twist to the zombie mythology that worked beautifully in the world of the film.

Do yourself a favor and watch this immediately, and then watch it again with all your friends. The movie is loud and gritty, colorful, fast, and a bloody good time. Movies like this is why horror fans are horror fans.

Cut!

Cut!

Cut! poses a pretty simple yet interesting concept: a couple of aspiring filmmakers plan on scaring people in real life and filming it to turn into a horror movie with genuinely fearful performances. But what if the scaring goes too far? What if someone really gets hurt? What if someone gets killed? Does that all then just become part of the movie?
These are the questions that are raised throughout Cut! as we see the two main characters get deeper and deeper into their desperate situation. Lane (David Banks) and Travis (David Rountree, also writing and directing here) are two wannabe filmmakers who find themselves working for a production company that is soon to close it's doors due to bankruptcy. In one rather fun scene, we see the two at first seem desperate to get Gabrielle Stone (playing herself) to star in one of their upcoming movies and when she says no, Lane (an ex convict with a chip on his shoulder) begins to tell her off in a way that all but guarantees no future contracts with the rising indie film actress. It's a scene that shows where these two are in their career and in life: they are out of options and have nothing left to lose.
When the idea arises to set up and film real people in life threatening situations, the two men turn to prostitutes. They bring a girl to a dark and secluded room and say they'll be right back. Instead, a large homeless man who has been paid off by Lane and Travis enters the room and proceeds to pretend to kill the girl so that her terrified reactions can be filmed and spliced into a movie. But the homeless man really kills her and so begins the descent of the two men into a dark and twisted scenario that has them taking the lives of their "actresses".
Some interesting inner struggle takes place throughout the film as well as struggle between the two men; Lane is all in on the experiment and Travis has serious concerns but he never seems to fully commit to them and instead goes along with the plan for the most part. Fame and ultimately a sense of purpose are what's at the center of Travis and Lane's actions. They are so consumed by their dream of being filmmakers and distraught by the closing of their failed production company and careers so far that they they have lost touch with what film is in the first place: an imaginative platform to create and tell a story. Instead, they are so stuck in the emptiness of their reality that the only story they can create is by stealing moments from other peoples real lives. And, in the end, their actual lives as well.
There are a few pretty decent and bloody and intense scenes here and there (one involves a bathtub and a saw) but I was left feeling underwhelmed by the movie. The trailer for the film promised a brutal and bloody experience, but about half way through the movie itself I was feeling disappointed that that wasn't going to be the case and I started to lose interest.
Cut! definitely had me thinking about fame and how far some people will go to achieve it, and kudos to the filmmakers for that. But I never felt very invested in this movie as the story focused a bit too much on the characters and left me longing for that bloody movie that was promised in the jarring trailer. Don't get me wrong, I love character driven stories, I just feel as though the script and the acting ability of the two leads weren't up to the task of creating sympathetic characters in such a twisted situation. Also, the filmmakers couldn't help themselves and threw in a ridiculous twist at the end that couldn't possibly have surprised a single viewer. Overall, Cut! seems to squander it's interesting premise with a weak script and suffers from somewhat unconvincing performances. It isn't a bad movie, but it isn't a very good one either.