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April 18, 2009 By idawson Leave a Comment

2000 Maniacs

2000maniacs

I was intending to write about this movie and describing it as one of the worst films I have ever seen. Some time has passed since I first wrote the review I was hoping to transcribe today. However as a week has passed my feelings about this film have softened – especially when I did a little more digging into the origins and backstory of the film.

These facts stand out: the film was shot in 15 days; the movie is loosely based off of the musical Brigadoon; the extras included the townspeople; and the director is none other than Herschell Gordon Lewis, who in horror circles is a godfather (of sorts) of “splatter” films – a subgenre of horror.

I was not armed with this information however when I was doing my requisite flipping through the television listings for Turner Classic Movies and stumbled upon this description:

2000 Maniacs (1 star)(1964) The Southern mayor (Jeffrey Allen) and citizens of a Civil War ghost town greet tourists.

I was naturally intrigued by this description and decided to record it (it was on at an obscure time).

Yes the movie is bad but in an unconventional way. Normally with a movie that I find totally unbearable to sit through I will simply turn the channel, stop the DVD player – anything that will remove me from the train wreck I am witnessing on screen. To this film’s credit, I did not want to turn away from what I was witnessing. The plot synopsis tells the audience all we would ever want to know about where the movie is taking us. And trust me as you are watching movie you have a good sense of where everything is going and how it is we arrive there. But still I watched with fascination.

The acting was what one could expect from a standard issue B-movie. The cinematography, editing, etc. were also from the low budget school of filmmaking.

One thing I found extremely impressive was the actual quality of print. The movie easily looked like it could have been made in the 1970’s or 1980’s. In fact there are some films that have “more cultural/historical significance” that are not in as good of shape as this film.

While it may not go down in history as a cinematic masterwork, 2000 Maniacs goes to show that you do not have to be Citizen Kane to keep your audience engaged.

For more background information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Maniacs

March 17, 2009 By idawson Leave a Comment

Top 10 worst Irish accents on film

In the spirit of Saint Patrick’s Day ….

http://www.irishcentral.com/ent/Top-10-Worst-Irish-Accents-on-Film-2800.html

Julia Roberts and Sean Connery may have won Academy Awards, but that does not mean that they can pull off a believable Irish accent on screen. See who else made the list of worst movie attempts at an Irish accent, including two more Oscar winners.

By Conn Corrigan, IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

October 30, 2008 By idawson 3 Comments

Fright Fest – my “tales of terror.”

This past Monday night as I prepared myself to watch a replay of the new HBO series True Blood, I was watching the preceding program, Shadow of the Vampire from the year 2000. It was my first time viewing this film about a fictionalization surrounding the filming of 1922’s Nosferatu. Overall is made for great viewing but it got me thinking, “In my mind, what qualifies a movie as ‘scary’ or even ‘terrifying’?” After some thought I concluded that this definition for me is very broad. That is why I use scary and terrifying interchangeably as you will find throughout the passage.

To me, the goal in creating a good it is not merely about the shock-value – although that can go a long way when executed properly. What is truly scary or terrifying to me are films which upon their first (and hopefully subsequent) viewings to a “mind mess” with me. In other words, to truly feel terrified or scared, I want to leave the cinematic experience playing with various scenarios of what I have just experienced in my head, almost to a troubling degree. My television equivalent of what is most terrifying is what the very best of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone had to offer.

In previous entries I have stated my love of (all) things Alfred Hitchcock. For the purposes of this blog entry I will exclude these titles – although I must admit when I think of scary and terrifying I do not immediately think of Hitchcock for some reason. I do find them suspenseful and full of dramatic tension but around this time of year I do no feel a special need to place his titles in a heavier DVD rotation.

So as we near All Hallow’s Eve this Friday here is a list of what MAY be playing in my queue. This is not an all-inclusive list I am sure. A couple that are not on the list but in my collection is The Orphanage ( il Orfanato) and Hard Candy – we’ll see if they have what it takes to make my list!

Meshes on the Afternoon (1943) – a Maya Deren short which has produced a couple of nightmares in my lifetime
Dead of Night (1945) – I really hope that this film gets a proper digital transfer to DVD – this is one for the collection, a real keeper.
Brazil (1983)
Jacob’s Ladder (1990)
The Shining (1980) – sterility and coldness literally sends shivers up my spine; Kubrick was very effective at capturing that.
The Others (2001) – Who cares if you were able to figure out the plot twist before the big reveal? My unsettledness had a lot to do with the other-worldly atmosphere.
Heavenly Creatures (1994) – a terrific pre-LOTR adaptation by Peter Jackson.
The Third Man (1949) – part of what makes the visualization and imagery disturbing in this film has to do with its connection to the aforementioned “Heavenly Creatures.”