My weekly movie reviews. You can also read these on letterboxd.

 

Mad God (2022)

Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

Mad God is certainly the visual spectacle that everyone claims it to be. Like Mad Max: Fury Road, it feels like stepping inside the mind of a mad man. And for the first half, I was completely enthralled in its madness. The lack of a traditional narrative didn’t bother me one bit as the stop motion assassin descends further and further into the hellish world Tippett has created.

And then he does something very odd. He chooses to introduce real human actors into the purely stop motion world he’s created, the most prominent of those played by cult film director Alex Cox. Personal bias aside, his part in the movie really threw the experience off for me. It felt totally out of sync with the rest of Tippett’s vision. Why not create this section with animation as well?And it wasn’t just the live action that bothered me, the tone was inconsistent with the rest of the piece. Watching Alex shuffle around with his very poorly done fake finger nails and little grunting sounds spoiled the immersive experience.

Thankfully Tippett gets back to his rhythm but by the end, even his amazing nightmarish creations feel a little tedious. Don’t get me wrong, this is a stunning piece of work but it misses the mark of a masterwork.

Watched on Shudder

 

In the Mouth of Madness (1994)

Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars

It had been two decades since I last saw this Carpenter film and after hearing over and over again that it’s one of his under-sung masterpieces, it felt like time to give it a second look. And after doing so, I remain in the minority, still believing this to be lower tier Carpenter.

The first half hour is pretty terrific with an arrogant Sam Neill casting his doubt on disappearance of Stephen King-like author Sutter Cane and plenty of weird signs that things are about to get very bad. However, even in this first section, there are warning signs of the disjointed mess that’s about to follow. I guess it’s a pet peeve of mine but I hate the dream-within-dream trick in movies. I can’t think of a time it really worked with me other than The Burbs which makes fun of the concept. It’s an amateur trick and one that sadly Carpenter uses over and over in this film…

After some legitimate scary visuals on the characters’ road trip to Hobb’s End, the movie quickly descends into a series of bizarre occurrences that add up to nothing. Carpenter has no narrative discipline here. He’s just throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks and in some cases the movie plays like a collection of his greatest hits, only they were better in the originals (especially some SFX that are far too similar to The Thing). As the movie spirals further and further away from reality, I was reminded of why all the other Carpenter films work so well. From They Live to Escape From New York, the plots might be fantastical but the stories felt real. In my opinion, In the Mouth of Madness was the beginning of Carpenter losing his touch, to be continued by the pretty bad Village of the Damned, the disappointing Escape from L.A. and Ghosts of Mars, and the near unwatchable The Ward. Vampires is his only late career gem and regardless of how preposterous it is, the film manages to maintain its own reality. That’s why it works and this one doesn’t.

Watched on Shudder.

 

The Changeling (1980)

Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

This is definitely one of the best haunted house films I’ve seen, second only to Robert Wise’s The Haunting in my book. In many ways, it employs the same techniques as that masterpiece, namely the use of sound and a less-is-more approach. These were the great days of horror when filmmakers didn’t show everything and much was left to the imagination. The film made me genuinely anxious and perhaps even scared at times.

What makes The Changeling even more effective is the mystery at the center of its plot. Unlike most ghost stories of the modern era, it actually has a good story centered around George C. Scott’s investigation into his supernatural experiences. He’s an unusual detective, a composer with a family tragedy (an element modern writer/directors would have exploited). Roger Ebert complained that he was too rational throughout these proceedings but I think that’s what makes the movie refreshing.

This film has been on my list for a long while and I’m glad I finally got around to what I now consider one of the best horror films of all time.

Watched on Shudder

 

Cursed Films: Seasons 1 and 2 (2020-22)

Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars

It’s hard not to enjoy this series that gives an inside look at problems on some iconic movie productions. However, the biggest issue might be the “Cursed” title. It’s a stretch to call a majority of the films highlighted in both season one or two cursed. The more appropriate name for the show would have been “Troubled Films”, a title that would also allow more latitude for future seasons, but of course that’s not as catchy. Season Two also stretches the episodes an additional 10-15 minutes which I think was a mistake. That being said, there’s still a lot of fun information here. My favorite episodes were about Stalker and Serpent and the Rainbow.

Watched on Shudder