CineNiche

We were not expecting much from David Morlet's Home Sweet Home.   Due to Alexandra Aja's transition to western filmmaking and the overall tonal shift that has occurred in his films since working in Hollywood, we had it ingrained in our minds that the same fate would befall any other director of the French Extremeties.  Morlet's Mutants  is a suspenseful semi-zombie ride.  He uses his skill here to reinvent the home invasion film. Whether it's Ils, The Strangers, Straw Dogs, Funny Games, or even The Purge  all home invasion films begin with getting to know the family.  Most horror dictates that the audience should learn about its victims and gain a connection prior to their destruction.  It is believed that our caring of them and their lives before the disaster will make the impact of their situation even more dire. This is true, nearly all the greatest horror films follow this formula.  No one would feel for Reagon had they not seen her as a...

CineNiche: Stoker Graphic Design It is good to know that Chan-Wook Park's deviant style was not watered down for American audiences.  J.S.A., Old Boy, Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance, Lady Vengeance, and Thirst are films that deal with revenge, incest, and obsession.  They are filled with complex characters whose motives whether extreme or subtle are always understood through the course of the narrative. In Stoker we are given the privilege of seeing excellent performances from Nicole Kidman, Mia Wasikowska, and Matthew Goode.  The story unfolds slowly which provides a great pay off in the end. After the death of Richard Stoker, the patriarch, his brother Charles moves in with the family.  From the very beginning we sense something is off with uncle Charley.  He comforts the non-too-grief-stricken Evelyn while trying to get close to his niece.  When people who know of his past enter the picture, they mysteriously go missing soon after.  India is ver...

CANNIBAL FILMS Cannibal films are a subgenre of the Italian Exploitation films made during the 70's – 80's. Origins: An extension of  Mondo Films  and  Rainforest Adventure Films Mondo Films  were a precursor to the  Faces Of Death  series. They promised exotic locales, gore, and cruelty – not to mention “real death.” Mondo in Italian translates to “world” Rainforest Adventure films   were as their category suggests, action films dealing with heroes in peril in the jungle.  The Naked Prey  (1966) and  The Man From Deep River  AKA  Sacrifice!  (1972) A list of Mondo titles: Mondo Cane (1962), Mondo Bizarro, Mondo Daytona, Mondo Mod, Mondo Infame, Mondo Hollywood, Mondo Trasho, Mondo Weirdo, Mondo Keyhole, Mondo Brutale (German title for Last House On The Left ), Mondo Sex, Mondo Sexualis, Mondo Elvis, Mondo Lugosi, Mondo Teeno, Mondo Rocco (Queer sub-culture documentary), Mondo ...

Here is another example of semi-independent cinema.  The Purge was made for 3 million and grossed more than 30 million in its opening weekend which hopefully allows more original concepts through the studio doors. Since the collapse of our economy the film industry has made it a point to only fund remakes, sequels, and adaptations.  They only put up funds on guarantees.  During the last ten years there have been films based on original concepts, but they have been created independently then purchased by studios and in some cases serialized after-the-fact.  Saw is an example of this, the original was funded by the Saturn Award received by its makers, then done to death by Lion's Gate.  Now this was done in the 80's with Michael, Freddy, Chucky, Jason, and Pinhead.  They were icons created by the economic turmoil suffered then.  So, as anything tried and true, the cycle is back.  Instead of creating new icons (except Jigsaw) all of the 80's mani...

In screenwriting you are told to show, not tell; whereas in horror cinema the “rules” dictate you tell about the threat and restrict the audience's access to seeing the threat. The Battery succeeds at both. Even though the film debuted at the Telluride Horror Show last October, its recent VOD release correlates well with the upcoming World War Z debacle. In World War Z we will witness millions of dollars at waste in an attempt to find the balance between character and imminent doom, which The Battery does perfectly with a minuscule budget of $6,000. It is a film that instantly reminds you of Night Of The Living Dead , because at every moment you feel it was a labor of love. Like Night we have a story that focuses more on humanity than it does the zombie threat. The nihilism of Night is modernized in The Battery for the millennial generation as an overall sense of apathy in the face of hopelessness. There is no heavy-handed social commentary, nor are there ...

CineNiche Graphic Design Purchase poster at Zazzle Brian De Palma's Carrie represents a first in menstruation horror.  This packed phrasing simply means Carrie shows the fears of adolescence through the eyes of a sheltered girl on the verge of womanhood.  The opening sequence features Carrie's first period and through extreme repression at home Carrie has no idea what is happening to her.  All the other girls laugh and throw tampons and pads at her.  In her state of frenzy Carrie has smeared her blood everywhere.  Miss Collins, her gym teacher, comforts her while secretly wanting to laugh as well.  In the principle's office she describes the situation to him and when he sees the blood on Miss Collins he recoils.  Carrie's anger and frustration manifests itself through telekinesis. One could argue that her ability develops out of repression. Without a healthy outlet for her feelings or knowledge of her body, everything bottle...

Poster from Alamo Drafthouse Reviews and essays abound for Drew Goddard & Joss Whedon's Cabin In The Woods . Some compare Cabin to Scream while others are convinced that Cabin exceeds Scream as a post-modern text. We belong to the latter camp. If you haven't seen Cabin then you shouldn't be looking at reviews so long after the the film's release. In 1996 Wes Craven along with a brilliantly written script by Kevin Williamson breathed new life into the slasher film. They took all of the archetypical constructs of the slasher sub-genre and directly exposed them to the audiences while staying within the confines of the genre. This was not new, parodies had done this in the past, but Scream kept a straight face and managed to produce fear. Spoof and parody of horror has been around since the days of Abbot & Costello, but more direct to our discussion is the 1982 classic Student Bodies . Made in the midst of the early 80's slasher boom, Stu...

Welcome to our first list.  2011 was a great year for horror, maybe not mainstream horror but the independent and foreign markets made up for it.  We saw for the most part an uprising of the absurd.  Films that may not be strictly canonized as horror filled the gaps simply because they had no set genre. Our list features no remakes, but interestingly enough two sequels, a parody, and a slew of homage films.  While other lists include Attack The Block, and The Dead  our writers were slacking on that front.  Stay tuned, we may have to amend our list.  Without further digression here is the CineNiche top 11 of 2011. 11.) Paranormal Activity 3 The Catfish guys were tapped to make a follow up film for the Paranormal franchise and came up with another prequel.  This marks the only trilogy to ever work backwards.  The scares are made more intense by the total lack of newer technology.  The story, even with a...

Red State does not feel like a Kevin Smith film at all.  Since leaving and reuniting and leaving his View Askew universe Smith has not been able to find his own voice.   Zach & Miri Make A Porno  felt as though it rode on the coat tails of the Judd Apatow empire and here in Red State  Smith seems to have made a Tarantino Cohen Brothers film.  While Smith has always infused a bit of politics within his films, here he does so in ample amounts. To give away the plot would spoil the uneven thrills that populate the film, but to say the film digs at the Westboro church is an understatement.  Tarantino veteran, Michael Parks, gives us long winded but perfectly acted monologues about the fire and brimstone God who hates homosexuals and seeks the fear of his wrath.   Red State  feels more like a political novel rather than a film.  Each character we believe to be the main protagonist works only to lead us to the next chapter.  T...

Normally we here at CineNiche have standards, but on this particular day we were roped into this one.  Jennifer Westfeldt wrote, directed, and stared in this slightly amusing rom-com that offers you and hour and a half of fulfilled expectations. The moment Friends With Kids  starts you already know the end, and as usual the perfectly acceptable retort to this type of film is that it is all about the journey.  The only trouble with stock answers is that they normally come attached to sub par films. The journey Friends With Kids  offers is the very American institution of monogamy.  From the offset we have two best friends who sleep around in an attempt to find, "the one," this is not their fault because popular culture dictates that soulmates exist so we cannot foul them for their search.  What comes next is the fundamental flaw of having a child - not that child rearing is a flaw but the instilled notion that it is what one ...

Larry Cohen is not known for style, nor gruesome effects, or even good horror.  Most of his films can be easily overlooked and have been.  He's not likely to acquire a lifetime achievement award or any accolades for horror.  He has made a better name for himself in the last decade as a screenwriter of a few mainstream hits such as Phone Booth and Cellular, and while these films make him more money than anything he directed they don't have the power of his horror fare.  His directed films speak volumes about society.  Comparisons can be drawn between Cohen and Romero in this regard, but Cohen is often a bit more subtle. Cohen began his filmmaking career interestingly enough working within the blacksploitation sub-genre.  His first feature film was Bone made in 1972, then Black Caesar  in 1973.  As all the films within the sub-genre they featured a dominate black male figure.   Bone  is a thug who breaks into a white couple's...

David Fincher's eccentric film resume gives him the upper hand in this needless remake.  The tone of the film is in perfect balance with last years Social Network.  In the future people will discuss the pre Social Network era of Fincher and the post as if one film divided his work.  There is a sense of authorship in Alien 3, The Game, Seven, Fight Club, Panic Room, Zodiac, and Curious Case Of Benjamin Button.  Each of his films relied heavily on inventive cinematography, whether it was amazingly orchestrated movements of the camera or his ability to light his scenes in a way to aide in character development.  There is a contrast on the celluloid that cannot easily be explained - a mysterious secret ingredient that allows for an immediate identification that the film is indeed a Fincher creation. The Social Network is Fincher's transitory film within his oeuvre.  The cinematography and lighting are the same, while less extravagant. ...

David Cronenberg's take on the 1958 classic The Fly is remarkable.  In the original we simply have a science gone awry parable, whereas the remake offers us a god complex and a philosophy on decomposition as only Cronenberg can. Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) is a reclusive scientist who has been working on the theory and practice of teleportation for six years and the moment his dreams come true, a nightmare is created. Veronica Quaife (Geena Davis) is a reporter that chats up Brundle at a science convention.  She finds him charming and decides to go home with him.  Once they arrive at Brundle's loft/lab/home their fates are sealed.  To impress her, he teleports her stocking across the room.  This is the beginning of the end for Brundle. He pushes his experiments further and faster to continue to impress Veronica.  When he is finally able to teleport a Baboon without it turning inside out Brundle understands it is only a matter of time before his ...