This Week In Film (5/17/2021 - 5/23/2021)

May 17, 2021 - May 23, 2021

Hello readers. We held out as long as we could. Chicago weather went from sweaters to tank tops in less than a week. We thought we were doing the right thing. Our little weather station said it was 84 degrees inside the house. We can suffer. It's cool to suffer. Then we secretly did some reconnaissance by asking co-workers and close friends about their AC situation. Every one of them agreed they turned it on the moment it hit the mid-seventies. If all your friends are turning on the AC, you should to, right? The final straw was when we went to see Candyman at the Music Box. We finally got to see our closest friends and share a movie with them for the first time since the pandemic started. It was glorious. We had empanadas, booze, M&M's, a little pot, some fountain coke, and enjoyed a night out. When they told us they've been sleeping at a nice cold 68 degrees, Katie and I shared a look as to say, "We are so turning it on when we get home." Because of our unspoken decision, we even chose to use the Divvy bikes to bike the 4 miles home. I've been sleeping comfortably ever since. No regrets. What, not all of these intros can be gems. But that's not what I came here to tell you about...

This Week In Film where I create a weekly rundown of the random sh*t I watch. There’s a HIGH / LOW at the end of this entry, so if words aren't really your thing, you can scroll quickly, look at pictures, and skip to my favorite viewings of the week.

Lets begin...

OVERVIEW: 

 

*****

 DON'T PANIC (1988)

dir: Rubén Galindo Jr.

Patrons at the Music Box Chicago were privy to a once in a lifetime experience this past weekend. No, I'm not talking about the incredible garden screening of Candyman (1992). I'm talking about the weird late 1980's supernatural slasher film from Mexico with atrocious white actors and even worse English dubbing known as Don't Panic. In the simplest terms, panic! I'm sure, if this isn't the first write up you've seen on this film, then you've read that the film burrows heavily from 80's tropes especially Nightmare On Elm Street (1984) and Halloween (1978). These claims are boldfaced lies. The possessed slasher villain may attempt sh*tty Freddy Kruger facial make-ups and deliver lines that repeat the word 'B*tch' over and over. Or, perhaps, they are referring to a stalk and chase in a hospital a'la Halloween and Visiting Hours (1982). Or, a knife that tries to replicate a Kandarian Dagger, like the one found by Professor Raymond Knowby in Castle Kandar. Some of the film's marketing tried to cash in on these references: Move over Jason, Michael, and Freddy, Virgil is here!

The dialogue is as awful as one would assume. If you didn't know who Virgil was, the surprise is spoiled immediately, "Virgil is the devil." He is summoned via an Ouija board, but we don't actually know that. A lot of the exposition is delivered too late in the film to care. The kills are mainly off-screen. But there is a blade through a throat that's fun, but overall the endeavor is lackadaisical at best.

There is a moment I'd like to share. It occurs in the final act when our hero - who by the way, wears is pajamas through most of the film - shows up at his new girlfriend's house with visions of saving her from the killer. But, let's look at the scene from the perspective of the parents. Mom and pop are wealthy, live in a nice home, drive fancy cars, and host elaborate dinner parties. This kid, who they don't know, shows up shouting about a possessed killer. When he's finally calm enough to sit down at the dinner table, his eyes change color, he stands back up, pulls a handgun, and starts firing randomly shooting up the place. It is a terrifying moment for everyone, except our hero shooter. The girlfriend is screaming for him to stop. The father is asking what is wrong with the boy while cowering under the table. And the lunatic teen grabs their daughter and flees the house. This is the moment that will stick with you as the rest of the film quickly fades from memory. Don't Panic makes you ask the tough questions, such as: if I'm watching something this bad, why am I not watching Cruel Jaws (1995) again?

MANIAC COP (1988)

dir: William Lustig

Hey everybody have you heard the news? Joe Bob's Last Drive-In Show S03E06 is a double feature of Maniac Cop goodness. For Maniac Cop, Joe Bob invited the one, and only Bruce Campbell to talk about the battle of the chins. But when it comes to chins, my money is always on Bruce Campbell. All hail to the chin, baby! I'm hoping, that the curated experience of showcasing the beauty of Maniac Cop will help to ensconce the film in cult fandom forever. The film is a love child of Larry Cohen and William Lustig that was borne out of a 30 second conversation between the two and went on to become a trilogy.

The Maniac Cop films have a way of killing its heroes that makes anyone susceptible. Here we follow the beloved Tom Atkins as he cops around, chewing up every moment, and leaving another great performance on screen. While he doesn't have the one-liner panache of Detective Cameron from Night Of The Creeps (1986), Atkins' Frank McCrae does get to fire off a few beauties: "Look at the size of those hematomas!" and "Whole city's goin' to hell. You can't take a pee anywhere anymore." But, just when you think this is a Tom Atkins film, here comes that fresh-faced kid from those Evil Dead movies. Soon, Atkins flies out of a window and we are left with Bruce until the end.

There's a scene, after the news of a Maniac Cop goes public, where a woman with car trouble has a policeman approach. The cop knocks on the window. The panicked woman grabs her handgun and shoots the cop in the head. This moment will knock you on your *ss. It is followed by TV reports of citizens who cannot trust the police. There's an interview with a black man in particular that plays very differently today than it would have to crowds in 1988. We know this is a Cohen moment. Larry Cohen was an ally from the day he started working in film. While the Blacksploitation film movement is frowned upon for its exploitation of black stereotypes, it was also the first sub-genre that employed actors of color in empowering roles. Larry Cohen began his directing career with Bone (1972), Black Caesar (1973), and Hell Up In Harlem (1973). One of the things I love most about cult cinema is it's ability to be read differently with each viewing, because true cult films tend to defy the era in which they were made.

MANIAC COP 2 (1990)

dir: William Lustig

Hey everybody have you heard the news? Joe Bob's Last Drive-In Show S03E06 is a double feature of Maniac Cop goodness. For Maniac Cop 2, Joe Bob invited the film's director to talk about one of the greatest sequels ever made. William Lustig blew my mind. My favorite Jackie Chan film is Police Story (1985). Lustig recounted his idea for his incredible car chase in the film by saying that he was inspired by the opening of Police Story. I immediately thought of Jackie hanging from the bus, because in the chase scene in Maniac Cop 2 a woman is handcuffed to the steering wheel. I was wrong. Lustig said, he always thought when the police handcuffed the woman to the car in Police Story, that there would be a moment when her car was pushed down the hill. Since that never happened, Lustig decided to create that for himself. And it is an incredible segment of action. We see the car fly into the air and land with the stunt-person attached to the side of the car. We see the stunt-person's feet sliding on the pavement always inches from being chewed up by the rear tires. It, like Police Story, is a sight to behold.

When Maniac Cop 2 begins we get a memorable scene in a bodega. A shady guy enters the store, steals some cupcakes, and approaches the counter with a sawed-off shotgun. It's a robbery scene. But when the clerk admits he cannot open the safe, the robber decides to stay with the clerk until the morning when the owner comes in. The robber wants to waste time with scratcher tickets. When one of the tickets is a winner for $5,000.00, Matt Cordell - the maniac cop - appears. The clerk feels safe and $5k richer, but Cordell shoots the clerk and returns the gun to the robber. The pathetic robber attempts to flee, but is pumped full of lead by New York's finest. From here, Cordell continues to make terrible decisions in an effort to kill the prisoners who killed him.

Before Cordell befriends a serial rapist/killer in an effort to gain access to Sing-Sing, he kills off the cast of first Maniac Cop. We replace Bruce Campbell with Robert Davi, almost the same way Campbell replaced Atkins. But at least Atkins fell from the fourth story and had a hero's death. Campbell's throat is pierced with Cordell's nightstick dagger. It's a quick death, leaving viewers bewildered. Lustig also replaces Laurene Landon with Claudia Christian, but at least Laurene gets to battle Cordell with a chainsaw. This replacement of the main cast is also what puts Maniac Cop 2 in a class of its own. The action sequences, the kills, the questionable ethics, prisoners on fire, and The Thing From Another World (1951) ending make this film a masterclass in top-notch exploitation.

 

CANDYMAN (1992)

dir: Bernard Rose

"The glorious thing about horror is that this is the only genre where you can kill the entire cast." - Bernard Rose

From Clive Barker's Books of Blood short story, "The Forbidden," about Helen, a college student, doing her thesis on graffiti found at the Spector Street Estates in the slums of Liverpool. Helen is entranced by the message "Sweets to the Sweet" found tagged everywhere. She finds out firsthand that the messages are more than street punk art. As she begins digging, she finds an urban legend, unsolved murders, and something hunting her. Found both in Clive Barker's short story and Bernard Rose's film, the Candyman requests of Helen, "Be my victim." To willingly give into a supernatural immortality via victimhood. The Candyman of Barker's "The Forbidden," was a white jaundiced-looking fellow. But, when Bernard Rose decided to transform the story to film he did so after a series of happenstances.

During promotion of Chicago Joe and the Showgirl (1990) or Paperhouse (1988), Bernard Rose was in Chicago for a film festival and decided to base his new film in the states, specifically Chicago, and even more specifically Cabrini Green. Rose was informed of the high murder rate and terrible living conditions that were forced upon Chicago's low-income black population. As the stories from Cabrini Green sounded bleaker than anything written about Spector Street from the short story, Candyman transformed from a white urban legend to a black urban legend. The exteriors, halls, and stairwell scenes in Candyman were filmed in the Cabrini Green housing projects. The producers made a deal with the ruling gang members at the time to put them in the film as extras to ensure the cast and crew's safety during production. Rose along with Tony Todd developed the backstory for Candyman that wasn't present in the short story. This provided Helen and Candyman a deeper connection in ancestral trauma and birthed an origin soaked in honey and slavery.

A series of murders had been committed in Chicago in a similar way to those depicted in the film. Watching Helen discover the easy access to her apartment via the medicine cabinet, immediately made us think of the TikTok series by Samantha Hartsoe who discovered a hidden apartment behind her bathroom mirror. This is not a new story. Bernard Rose also utilized the 1987 killing of Ruthie Mae McCoy who was shot dead by intruders who broke into her apartment by entering through her bathroom mirror.

Ruthie was someone known for having a mental disorder, and when she called 911 to report someone was coming through the medicine cabinet of her Abbott Homes apartment, she was thought crazy. Even when police responded, there was no answer at her door, so they left. It was two days until Ruthie's body was found with four gunshots in a pool of blood. The story only broke because of the black owned Defender newspaper. When the police failed to enter McCoy's apartment to ensure the 911 caller was safe, there was no investigation into the police department's actions. But when Nancy Clay, a white woman living in the loop, called police, they did not respond. After she died in an apartment fire, a city-wide investigation was done in her name. 

Candyman’s mythos serves a similar purpose to the belief in Freddy Kruger. If you remember the misaligned sequel Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991), the theory that teens give power to Freddy through knowledge of him is explicitly stated. From the first Nightmare, this is floating around. The parents of Springwood attempt to suppress all memory of their vigilante justices; until their deeds are passed to their children subconsciously. Freddy can only exist if people believe in him. Candyman is similar. He exists through the fear of handed-down stories. When grad. student Helen Lyle and her co-author Bernadette Walsh attempt to defraud the myth of him, Candyman must appear to correct this ignorance. There is a specific moment, when the child (Jake), repeats, "Candyman's not real." That sets in motion a series of events to re-ignite the belief in his legend. Which, if we want to dive into this rabbit hole, there's a lot to unpack. For a white woman to come in and discredit a story about a black man tortured by slave owners for falling in love, sounds a lot like the whitewashing of history itself.

This marked my rediscovery of this film. I've always liked Candyman, but after this screening of it, I'm in love with this film. From the haunting and transformative score by Philip Glass, the crisp cinematography by The Man Who Fell To Earth D.P. Anthony B. Richmond, the authentic 1990's glimpse at the now gentrified Cabrini Green, Tony Todd's baratone symphony of words, to Virginia Madson's stripping at the police station there is nothing but perfection at play. Thank you Music Box Chicago for your Garden series for Members. If you live in Chicago, enjoy cinema, and don't have a Music Box membership, you need one.

ARMY OF THE DEAD (2021)

dir: Zack Snyder

"You son of a bitch, I'm in." - Morty

What a year for Zack Snyder, right? From a 4.5 hour Justice League to a 2.5 hour zombie heist film, audiences can't get enough Snyderverse. While I'll never understand the hate spewed at Godzilla Vs. Kong just to request more DC Snyder, I've enjoyed the hours spent with his films this year. It's strange to think about the best part of Army of the Dead almost not existing. Thankfully Chris D'Elia was canceled, to make room for the enormous talent of Tig Notaro. Tig's first minute on-screen is worth not only the extra millions it took to digitally erase D'Elia and insert Notaro, but worth the entire budget of the film.

Zack and his wife Deborah (who is always his producer) said it was a no-brainer decision to oust the scandal-plagued Chris D'Elia. He has been accused by multiple women of sexually harassment, including underage girls. He has even posted a video online admitting he has a problem. As of March 2021 he is now facing a child-porn lawsuit involving him soliciting more than 100 sexually explicit photos and videos from a 17 year old woman. Netflix helped to put up the money to delete his despicable visage from their kick-*ss zombie action film.

Sure it runs a little long with exposition and drips with too much heart at times, but we get to put a team together to go into a zombie-infested Las Vegas and steal $200 million from a vault that cannot be cracked. I liked how most of the crew barely made it out of Vegas when the outbreak occurred. There's something about that experience that has lingered. They would rather be faced with immediate life or death decisions than let another meandering moment of safety drain them slowly until they die. Adrenaline junkies. Addicted to instincts. The same can be said about their alpha zombie counterparts. The alpha zombies are a new breed. They're stronger. They think. They form a society in which they rule over the now decimated Vegas strip.

There's a few fun nods to Trumpism throughout the film. The first we see is in a CNN news segment called "Quarantine: Truth or Scare" featuring former Chair of the Democratic National Committee debating refugees with former White House Press Secretary and human toilet Sean Spicer. Another occurs as a direct 45 moment in the decision to nuke the city of sin. A newscaster says that the president thinks nuclear weapons are “really cool" and “the ultimate fireworks show.” The president goes on to suggest that since the bombing is going to happen around the fourth of July, that the whole thing is “actually kinda patriotic if you think about it.” Are these moments needed? No, but they do counterbalance the father-daughter drama or the dating drama between Scott (Dave Bautista) and Maria (Ana de la Reguera).

Besides Tig's amazing performance and hilarious one-liners, there's the other star of this film, Dieter (Matthias Schweighöfer). He is the everyperson. He asks all the right questions like can you kill a zombie with a large rock and strike it upon the head? Dieter is there to crack the Götterdämmerung. He describes it as based on Richard Wagner's cycle of four music dramas titled The Ring. Götterdämmerung translates to Twilight of the Gods, a world-altering destruction marked by extreme chaos and violence. Dieter has no formal zombie-killing training but befriends hard-*ss Vanderohe (Omari Hardwick) and hilarity ensues. These two throw off major Mirror Man (T.J. Cross) and The Sphinx (Vinnie Jones) vibes from Gone In 60 Seconds (2000). 

As with most reviews of Army of the Dead, I'll agree, it is weird enough to work. I had nothing but fun from frame one. My expectations were moderate and were exceeded at every moment.

SAINT MAUD (2019)

dir: Rose Glass

Saint Maud is another home run for A24's horror slate. Rose Glass' feature film debut takes us on a journey of faith, palliative care, and mental illness. This slow burn ratchets the tension at every turn and forces you to second guess your own perception. Morfydd Clark presents Maud, a nurse whose murky backstory is never explained but her devotion to God and care for the dying inform every decision she makes. Maud experiences God as an orgasmic tingle that renders her useless in several scenes. She can understand the Lord's intentions through the chill in her spine. These moments contort Clark's body and her ability to sustain believably through these movements say everything about her. Clark will soon grace the world in the Amazon Studios $465 million dollar Lord of the Rings series. But, before that epic-ness, she's already proved how fantastic she is in this character driven horror feast. It's difficult to write about Saint Maud, not only because the nature of the film is basically a mystery, but because having just seen it, it feels as though a digestive period is needed. Immediately, when the screen crashes to black and the title flashes in white lettering, you know the journey for Maud is over. But, in this moment, you realize your journey to piece everything back together has just begun. Glass never goes for the easy scare. The scares are each deeper than you'd expect. Since we're in the A24 wheelhouse, think about when Peter (Alex Wolff) slams his head into his desk in Hereditary (2018), and your close. There's also an uneasy dread that feels like an accomplice to each scene. Also, I think we are led to believe that God is a cockroach being acted by a cockroach named Nancy. In summation, Saint Maud depicts God as intuition, orgasmic twitch, non-existent, swirling clouds, or via the voice of a cockroach. You have decisions to make dear viewers.

****

HIGH: The Last Drive-In gave us a Maniac Cop double feature that cannot be beat with William Lustig and Bruce Campbell as guests. Army of the Dead did not disappoint. Saint Maud is going to stick with me for a while. So, the winner goes to Candyman. There's a moment when some films finally click. This week was that week for me.

HIGH: CANDYMAN

LOW: Easy, no further explanation required. 

LOW: DON'T PANIC

 

TV CORNER: