Cinephemera

After last week’s explosion of movies, this week was a lot lighter. I imagine next week will be as well since Netflix just added a ton of Discovery Channel shows to Watch Instantly. Any free time I might have had will now be occupied by an endless stream of Mythbusters, Extreme Engineering, Survivorman, Future Weapons and Deadliest Catch. God, I love Netflix.

Atonement
Rating: Worthy

When new movies come out, I strive to know as little about them as possible so that I can watch them with a blank slate. Sometimes this works and oftentimes not. With Atonement, all I knew was that it won an oscar or two, it looked like a sweeping romance movie and there was supposedly a twist. All of this is true but I wasn’t expecting such a devastating story to go along with it. For being over two hours long, it moved swiftly so that I never got bored and for a romance movie, that’s quite a feat. The last 1o minutes felt rather rushed and almost detached from the rest of the movie.

This movie definitely fits the descriptor of “sweeping” and is well worth a watch. Guys, watch this one with your woman, you can show her your sensitive side and still enjoy the movie. Win-win.

Sukiyaki Western Django
Rating: Worthy

Sometimes the Worthy/Unworthy rating system can give me a lot of grief. There are just some movies that I know aren’t that good but still got some enjoyment out of. Such is the case with Takashi Miike’s Sukiyaki Western Django. This is a bizarre western set in Japan and the story borrows heavily from Akira Kurasawa’s Yojimbo and Sergio Corbucci’s Django and other spaghetti westerns. It’s a fun, but ultimately shallow movie. I never cared about the characters involved and there wasn’t much going on storywise.

In an odd move, Miike has all his actors speak English which some do well but others… well I ended up wishing it had subtitles. The movie is fun and stylish to look at and most of the actors seemed to be having fun playing their over the top characters. This isn’t a particularily deep movie but I think that was Miike’s intent. Have fun paying homage to the Spaghetti westerns of old.

What did you think of this week’s movies?

So I renewed my Netflix subscription this week and went kind of crazy with the “watch instantly” feature. There’s 11 movies this week and 7 of them were from this magical Netflix feature. A good mix of docs, drama, animation and horror this week.

Mad Hot Ballroom
Rating: Worthy

After this documentary was over I wanted to go learn how to dance. I didn’t end up doing that but I wanted to. A large amount of this doc’s charm and heart comes from letting the children talk for themselves without much adult intervention apart from their dance teachers and a few parents. It’s a rare documentary that makes you want to cheer at the end but this is exactly that kind of doc.

The Birth of a Nation
Rating: Worthy

Yeah, it’s obviously racist but it’s also a pretty epic story that anyone interested in film history or in epics should give a watch. Just make sure you watch it during the daytime or you may fall asleep before it’s halfway done.

Fall from Grace
Rating: Unworthy

A documentary about Westboro Baptist Church. It doesn’t really say anything new about them or dig that deeply into the family. I at least appreciated that the doc was clear in pointing out that this particular church did not represent the Christian mindset.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge
Rating: Unworthy

This sequel, like most sequels, kinda sucks. The elements of imagination and terror are severely lacking from Freddy’s second outing. This coupled with a few laughable scenes that are supposed to be scary really kill this movie’s chances. There’s almost nothing more stupid than a family being terrorized by a parakeet for a few minutes before it spontaneously explodes. Hitchcock has already got the market cornered on bird terror.

Spaceballs
Rating: Worthy

I can’t believe I waited so long to see Mel Brooks’ spoof of Star Wars. This is the kind of movie that those “movie movie” guys only wish they could make. There are a few misses but the amount of comedic hits and laugh out loud moments more than make up for them.

Revolver
Rating: Worthy

If you go into this movie expecting Lock, Stock or Snatch, you’ll be severely disappointed. If you go in expecting a philosophically minded gangster film, then you’re on the right track. It’s one of those movies that you might not understand on first viewing and if a film gets me to think about it and question it for longer than 5 minutes, then it’s worth watching in my book. You might not agree with the Ritchie’s philosophy but at least he’s doing something different and challenging. Props to him.

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Rating: Unworthy

This movie was a lot sillier than I was expecting. Unfortunately for the makers of this film, silly does not always make funny. There were certainly some funny moments but unlike Spaceballs, the misses outweigh the hits. I usually like Reilly but those have mostly been his more dramatic roles.

Snuff: A Documentary About Killing on Camera
Rating: Unworthy

As the title divulges, this is a doc about the existence or non-existence of snuff films. It appears that the director took the lazy route and didn’t really research his topic at all. The talking heads consist of two video store owners, a guy who had something to do with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a retired policewoman and an anonymous “cinephile”. Not exactly the people I would go to for insight into this sordid topic. Apart from this, the documentary is utterly boring and devoid of life. It kind of just limps around the topic but never goes anywhere or offers any real compelling information or insights.

Coraline
Rating: Worthy

From criminally under appreciated director of The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach comes his magnum opus of claymation, Coraline. There were times on occasion during the movie when I would suddenly remember that I was watching a claymation movie. After being assulted by computer animated movies these last several years, it is a breath of fresh air to see something so fantastical coming from something physical. There were obviously some moments where they used computer tech but it blended in so well that I never noticed. Speaking of blending in, the 3D effect in this film were perfect. It was never gimicky or drew attention to itself but only helped to enhance the experience and to put you further into the movie. Like visual effects, I think that the best 3D effects are the ones you don’t notice.

Lars and the Real Girl
Rating: Worthy

There’s so many ways that this film could have turned out bad. There are obvious jokes to be made from a situation like this and in different hands, I’m sure that this is what would have happened. Fortunately, it happened to be these folks. Rather than looking down on or making fun of the protagonist, we feel sympathy for him. The movie never stoops to the expected raunchy material and instead infuses the film with a caring and compassionate heart. It uses the situation not for laughs but as a way to examine human relationships and how we ought to care for each other. I loved it both for what it was and for what it refused to be: a cheap joke.

Meet the Robinsons
Rating: Unworthy

Disney’s answer to Pixar. In this case, they should have just stayed silent. The film was way too random and silly for my tastes and that’s saying quite a bit. The humor and style just never really gelled with me. Their use of time travel also struck me as being silly but then I was raised on the Back to the Future theory of time travel. I do have some problems with the way BTTF uses it but for the most part I think it’s a good theory. There were also some elements of the story that I thought were outright cheats. All that said, there were elements I liked and they all involved The Bowler Hat Guy. I loved his character a lot and his animation. That was about it though. I’d almost recommend the movie for him alone but he just wasn’t in it enough.

What did you think of this week’s movies?

Nanook of the North
Rating: Worthy

One of the first documentaries ever made, it still manages to be interesting despite having no sound apart from the accompanying music. If you can’t stand not hearing people speak in movies, then this ain’t for you. Anyone who’s interested in seeing how Eskimos survive the wilds of the North, look no further.

The Kite Runner
Rating: Worthy

For the most part, an emotionally involving story with some surprising story developments. It ultimately is kind of a downer but it’s nice to have a story from another viewpoint.

Voyage to the Moon
Rating: Worthy

Amazingly innovative with amazing visual effects for the 1920s. Some of the things they do here put anything I could do to shame. I dare you to not be impressed by this silent short.

The Great Train Robbery
Rating: Worthy

Along with Voyage to the Moon this is one of the first narrative films to come from early cinematic history. If you have any interest in film at all, this is not to be missed. Of course, it’s mostly cheesy but there are some moments that will knock your socks off.

Transporter 3
Rating: Unworthy

Ok. I know that action movies are supposed to be exciting and push the limits of awesome action sequences but when did we start letting them be so silly? I’m not expecting complete realism here but would it be too much to ask for the filmmakers to at least follow the laws of physics? There’s nothing here that you couldn’t see done better in superior action films.

My Bloody Valentine 3D
Rating: Unworthy

The only thing this movie really has going for it is the 3-D. Without the added dimension, it would just be another half-descent horror remake. There’s nothing noteworthy about this horror flick. It follows all the conventions without any innovation and has the obligatory horror movie twist ending which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. It also has one of the lamest excuses for having a woman run around naked that I’ve seen in a long time.

What do you think of this week’s movies? Worthy or unworthy?

DeliveranceRating: WorthyThat’s it. I’m never going out into the woods again. Screw nature. This movie does for rural forest what Jaws did for beaches and what Psycho before it did for showers. At least that’s how it was for me. There’s just too many animals that can eat you, bugs that suck your blood, weather that will either give you heatstroke or freeze your digits off, and now hillbillies that will anally rape you. So thank you, Deliverance, for giving me just one more reason to stay inside, remain pasty white and get fat off hamburgers and ramen. Oh yeah. If you do have to go into the woods, make sure you bring Burt Reynolds along with you.The Third ManRating: WorthyI’m beginning to think that Orson Welles had a clause in every one of his contracts saying that he must be given the best character introduction in the movie in which he was appearing. While Orson Welles is not the main character, and really doesn’t have that much screen time, he is certainly the most memorable part of the movie. His commanding persona steals every scene he’s in (what precious few there are). The use of tilted horizon on what felt like nearly every shot was a bit distracting but noir enthusiasts will have much to like in this great mystery story.

So this is the second week in a row that my roundup has been late. I think it’s the long weekends that I’ve had lately that have been throwing me off. Next week will be on time as scheduled even if I’m dead. That’s just how dedicated I am.

Hamlet 2
Rating: Unworthy

This was a weird viewing experience. Me and my roommate watched it together and more than several times we looked at each other with a look that said, “Am I supposed to be laughing at this?” I knew that there were funnies happening on screen but the laughter just wasn’t coming. In a way, it reminded me quite a bit of the first time I watched Napoleon Dynamite. I didn’t like it at all. The quirky humor didn’t latch onto my funny bone right away and it wasn’t until the second viewing that I was able to laugh at it. I don’t know if that’s the case with this quirky movie but somehow I doubt it. I got a few mild chuckles out of this but a few chuckles are not worth sitting through this.

The Pacifier
Rating: Unworthy

I didn’t expect much from this Disney flick and that’s exactly what I got. Really, what else can you expect from Disney these days? This is nothing more than the usual this and that. It goes through all the motions that we’ve seen a couple dozen times before. Nothing to see here people, move along. On a related note, I really, really, really don’t understand why kids in these kind of movies are always such jackasses to whatever authority figure is in their lives. It’s always like, “SHUT UP! YOU’RE NOT MY DAD! WAH!” or “YOU SUCK! STAY OUT OF MY LIFE!” or “YOU’RE RUINING MY LIFE!” It seems like every single movie that deals with kids has to have one or more of these lines in it at some point. For reals you dumb kids, just shut up already.You’re ruining my life!

 There Will Be Blood
Rating: Worthy

Let me get a few things out of the way here. First of all, this is a stunning technical achievement. The directing, cinematography and music are all fantastic. The acting is superb, blah blah blah. I think Paul Dano is vastly overlooked being in Daniel Day Lewis’ shadow but I found both of their performances to be amazing. Bottom line, this is a fantastically made movie.

All that said, I didn’t really like the movie that much. In the end, nobody grew, nobody changed, nothing really happened to any of these characters. Daniel Plainview is a greedy bastard at the beginning of the movie and at the end, he’s still a greedy bastard. Eli Sunday is a egotistical faith healer at the beginning of the movie and at the end, he’s still an egotistical faith healer. The only thing that changes is Plainview gets richer. Nobody is sympathetic or even likeable. There’s no reason to care about what happens to anybody. Now despite these words of critique I still think that this is a must see movie for its artistic prowess. I only wish the story had been more interesting or payed off somehow.

Bullitt
Rating: Worthy

What makes nearly every 60s action movie so cool? Pretty much everything that Bullitt has. A cool and smoothly dressed detective, sweet cars, high speed chases in sweet cars, bullets, blood, intrigue, hot ladies, and did I mention high speed car chases? In sweet cars? Yep, this detective thriller has everything you’d ever want. Honestly, what else do you need?

Bloodrayne
Rating: Unworthy

After two good vampire movies last week, it was inevitable that I would see a bad one. This also has the distinction of being my first Uwe Boll movie. As a connoisseur of bad movies, this has been a long time coming. Not that I’ve been consciously avoiding his movies, just never gotten around to one.

I never knew that anyone could make such bad fight choreography but now I know that it is entirely possible to completely bore your audience during an action sequence. How on earth did they convince Michael Madsen to be in this? Then again, he was recently seen in the not-quite-as-bad-but-still-pretty-bad movie, House. Has he too gone the way of Sam Jackson and will appear in any movie you stick under his nose? In any case, his appearance is the least confounding aspect of this film. About halfway through the movie there is a sex scene that literally occurs without story or character context. It just happens without any kind of pretext and the only reason this scene is there is so that the two characters can somehow feel “connected” and make the audience sad when one of them dies. Before this sex scene, they’d maybe said two or three sentences to each other. Why bother with character development when they can just have sex? That gets people involved in the characters right?

NO!

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Rating: Worthy

David Fincher is another one of my directors and Benjamin Button is a departure from his usual work which is rather kinetic and stylish. One could almost see his previous feature Zodiac as being a stepping stone toward this film. This is not to downplay Zodiac because I love it dearly but both of these movies are rather slow and have long running times. Normally this would entail the movie would be boring but somehow he manages to keep it interesting. Despite the fact that Benjamin Button is 20 minutes shy of 3 hours in length, I never felt the length.

The cinematography is absolutely stunning and special effects are fantastic. Brad Pitt gives one of his most subdued performances to the point where I never really thought about him as being Brad Pitt. The makeup they put on him is incredible. Each stage of his life looks completely believable and it’s amazing how young they were able to make him look toward the end. It was almost like having pretty boy Brad back before I respected him as an actual actor.

The Wrestler
Rating: Worthy

A David Fincher movie and a Darren Aronofsky movie in the same week? It doesn’t get much better than that. Aronofsky’s previous film, The Fountain is one of my favorite movies ever and The Wrestler is another great film to add to his resume. This is not a happy film but like any great movie, it’s sparked some great debate among friends. All of the performances in this feel so authentic that you’d swear Mickey Rourke was an actual wrestler surrounded by other actual people. On all technical levels, it is just as stunning as Rourke’s performance.

Beyond that, any movie that can make me respect professional wrestling is doing its job.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Rating: Worthy

Leave it to Francis Ford Coppola to bring an old cinema style to the story of Dracula. This is Gothic romance at its finest. It feels almost as if this were made in another era apart from certain actors like Anthony Hopkins and Keanu Reeves. I don’t want to beat a dead horse here but I just could not help but laugh at Keanu’s British accent. On the opposite side of the spectrum, you have Gary Oldman who gets completely lost in his character and it’s remarkable to see.

There isn’t a frame of CGI in the picture and knowing this fact beforehand made the effects all the more impressive. It also made me realize how much I take for granted because CGI these days is so simple. Coppola took the time to actually figure out how to make some of these things work and the effect is truly breathtaking. There are so many surreal images that you’d imediately think that it was done using CG trickery when in fact, it was all done in camera, on film. This, coupled with its grandiose vision and Gothic style make this a worthy film.

The Spirit
Rating: Unworthy

Frank Miller is a great visual artist. He paints pretty pictures and makes good artwork. Frank Miller is not a good director. At all! The Spirit has a lot of visual dazzlement and pizazz but it is a terrible, terrible movie. The actors in this movie are awful. They are either cardboard or (in Sam Jackson’s case) devour the scene. Frank Miller also has no sense of comedic timing or even any idea of how to actually tell a joke. There were moments where I knew I should have been laughing but every attempted joke just fell flat. All of the goon clones (I forget what they’re called in the movie) are incredibly annoying from the first moment they appear onscreen. The plot makes no sense so I won’t even bother repeating it here.

I’m really surprised this movie got away with a PG-13 rating. The opening of the movie has two characters brutally beating the crap out of each other for about 5 minutes, a character’s hand gets blown off, people are decapitated, a character commits seppuku and people are shot multiple times. I suppose this is because everything is rather cartoony but I still found it to be rather grusome at times.

Slumdog Millionaire
Rating: Worthy

Who would have thought that a movie that starts with torture could be such a feel good crowd pleaser? What amazes me most about Danny Boyle is that you can’t pin him down to a specific genre or type of movie and each one is a great film. Boyle is not one to settle for what sells or to be hemmed in by a reputation for certain kinds of films.

The structure of the movie is unique and adds so much to the story. The movie is practically bursting with life even in the slums and the story is a thing of beauty. I can find no fault in this movie. It hits every note perfectly and the emotions are all earned. I don’t know how they did it but the kid actors they found were truly phenomenal. At the end of this, I was grinning like an idiot and wanted to see it again as soon as it was over. This has been a good year for true love first with WALL-E and now Slumdog Millionaire.

Let The Right One In
Rating: Worthy

This is the second vampire movie I saw this week and both treat their subject vastly different. While sharing some of the same plot elements of the recently popular film and book series Twilight, the two films could not be more different. This is a quiet and calculating horror film the likes of which have not been seen since Kubrick’s The Shining. The horror elements do not often come into play but when they do, it’s terrifying. Here is a movie that treats their vampires without a shred of camp or Gothic romance. In this way, it’s one of the most “realistic” portrayls of vampires ever brought to screen. They do not become hideous beasts or have retractable fangs. They are so realistically portrayed that you’d almost think they might actually be living among us. Again, the child actors in this project a deepness and sense of wisdom that you don’t often get to experience in actors this young.

Disaster Movie
Rating: The Most Unworthy

That’s it! There is nothing and I mean absolutely nothing that can top this movie in pure, ultimate suck. Did I just call this turd a movie? That’s my bad. Do not let the title fool you! This is not a movie! This is not even parody! This is literally a string of unconnected and completely disjointed references to other movies. The “jokes” were so non-contextual that I started to keep a tally of just how many times references were pulled out of absolutely nowhere. I counted at least 50 instances. There are literally at least 50 instances where a character or “celebrity” will appear without any reason for it at all! Not only that, but when a character or celebrity does appear, another person will literally point and say, “It’s Jessica Simpson!” or “It’s Amy Winehouse!” or “Hey look, it’s Batman!”. I counted at least a dozen times where this happens. I also started counting instances where the main characters stand and stare as a joke happens. I made it to a dozen and just couldn’t bring myself to care after that.

The two female characters you see in the picture above are the two most annoying people in the history of the entire known and unknown world. I prayed to God at so many points that he would just reach through the TV and strike them down. 30 minutes through and I was near suicidal. It was only my trusty notepad that saved me from smothering myself with my own pillow. You will notice I was forced to create a whole new rating category for this atrocity. It is near indescribable just how bad this movie is. (Crap! I referred to it as a movie again) This is as best as I can describe it: This is what Satan plays on repeat in the lowest circle of Hell. This garbage heap was made for the sole purpose of torturing the worst of the worst souls in Hell.

If I seem calm it’s because this cinematic kanker sore literally ripped my soul clean out of me. I have no energy left in me to be angry. Just severely depressive. I think I can muster some for my final thought on this movie pile of rotting crap though.

GO TO HELL FRIEDBERG AND SELTZER!

Man, that felt good.

So here we are. Another roundup. Didn’t see much this week. I really really have to see Benjamin Button soon. Hopefully this week. I also still need to see Slumdog Millionaire and The Wrestler. If only people would pay me to see movies.

House of 1000 Corpses
Rating: Unworthy

I remember seeing the trailer for this movie when it first came out and it scared the crap out of me. It looked absolutely creepy. I imagine that I might have liked this better had I not seen several other horror classics which this movie emulates perfectly. The only thing new this movie brings to the table is a modern sensibility toward gore. This movie is about 80% Texas Chainsaw Massacre. What made TCM so effective was that you never directly see the gore involved so it’s left to the imagination. The other thing that made TCM a better movie was that it doesn’t spend 90% of the movie grounded in reality only to throw in a ridiculously stupid supernatural element at the end. Essentially, this is a conglomeration of other horror movies.

You’ve also got to be an idiot to think that Sid Haig’s character isn’t in league with the family. I knew the second that the one survivor got into his car at the end that she ain’t safe. The survivor also must have been a complete imbicile to not see the guy who’s been tormenting her the entire movie laying down IN THE BACKSEAT OF THE FREAKING CONVERTIBLE. Rob Zombie is clearly in love with this psychotic family that he’s created. At several points during the movie, he interrupts the story and lets members of the family rant about… stuff. He also uses random solarization effects and split screen at odd points during the movie.

The only redeeming factor? Being surprised to see Rainn Wilson in this. Oh, I guess I just ruined the surprise. Oh well. Best not see it now.

Pineapple Express
Rating: Worthy

So I’m not the biggest fan of the myriad of Apatow produced comedies. For some reason they all seem like they do the same business and don’t differentiate from each other all that much. This movie though, felt different thanks mostly to director David Gordon Green and star James Franco. Franco is nearly unrecognizable in his role as the lovable drug dealer to Seth Rogen’s character. This isn’t your typical stoner comedy either. It’s also a buddy film and an action film. Generally when the two mix, the action portions are rather light and used mostly for a punchline. In this though, the action is actually quite good and while jokes are made, they are actually very funny and fit with the action. It isn’t a particularily raunchy movie either. There are still moments of raunch comedy but for the most part, really great stuff. The chemistry between the two leads is better than in most romantic comedies which now that I think about it, is kind of disturbing.

Carrie
Rating: Worthy

I’ve complained about the current state of horror movies in at least one blog post here and numerous other times to certain friends. I’m sure that these people are already completely sick of my complaining and will punch me in the face if I bring it up again. Give it a few more posts and I’m sure you too will want to punch me in the face. I beg your indulgence for just a moment because this movie is the reason why I hate our current horror films. They used to be so good!

While it’s not straight-up horror until near the end, the film is extremely tense and even tragic. This isn’t some horrible monster stalking people, it’s about the horrible monsters that we can be to others. That’s about as philosophical as I’m going to get. The tragedy of this movie is that a sweet, innocent girl is constantly terrorized not only by her peers but her religious nut of a mother too. For the better part of the movie, you know that the kids are going to do something horrible to Carrie and this makes waiting for that moment to happen practically unbearable. There’s nothing you can do but watch their manipulation take place and know that it will all end in tragedy.

Even more than The Shining, this is the best adaptation of a Stephen King horror work. The best adaptation of any Stephen King story belongs to The Shawshank Redemption.

Greetings old and new readers. For the uninitiated, the  “Week End Movie Roundup” is a weekly feature where I review the various movies that I have seen over the week. These will be posted on every Monday. Rather than dealing with the mostly subjective 1-5 star rating system, I decided to take the more simple approach. Movies are rated as either “worthy” or “unworthy”. Clear, easy to understand rating system. Enough gabbing though. On to the reviews!

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The Fall
Rating: Worthy

I knew little coming into this film (a preferable position for me to be in) so I had no idea what I was in for. It begins very slowly and it never really picks up the pace all that much. While the pace is rather slow, the story gets more interesting and it becomes fascinating to watch the two leads interact with one another. As their friendship grew, I cared less and less that the movie seems to be taking its sweet time getting from one place to the next. It is fascinating how genuine both of these actors feel together. Despite (or maybe because) the lead actress being only 6 or 7 years old, she is incredibly believable and I never felt that she was “acting”. This is to say nothing of the spectacular visuals that are crammed into this film.Maybe crammed is too harsh a word. Littered? Nah, too eco-antagonistic. Whatever, the movie’s full of them. I cannot possibly do justice in describing the incredible style that is on display here so I’ll say only that you must experience them for yourself. I will say only that there are things on display here that you have never seen before and will probably not see again anytime soon. I know that some view this as pretentious but I see it as a great example of film as art.

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Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Rating: Worthy

It seems like most critics just can’t sit back and enjoy movies unless they are, a) artsy, b) depressing, or c) 3 hours long. This is of course a blatant generalization on my part but I do think that it’s true that most critics can’t seem to just have fun anymore. Speed Racer, one of my favorite films of the year (look for that list in January), received only 36% on Rotten Tomatoes. God forbid that a critic actually recommend a movie that wants only to entertain you for an hour and a half. Mr. & Mrs. Smith is one of those movies.

This movie knows what you want to see. Explosions, action, chemistry (sorry, nerds. not that kind), and more explosions. And explosions ye shall receive. The movie expects nothing of you so you shouldn’t expect so much from it. Pitt and Jolie have good chemistry together and it’s fun to watch them dance around each other with their secrets. Brad Pitt especially appears to be having fun and come on, he’s playing the husband of one of cinema’s more attractive ladies. What guy wouldn’t be loving that? Overall, a good action flick with a little bit of romance sprinkled on top.

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Carnival of Souls
Rating: Worthy

There are a number of things that American cinema does not do well. It can’t (for the most part) make good sequels, it can’t stop catering to the lowest common denominator, and it just can’t stop remaking every single, somewhat popular, foreign film. It also does not do psychological horror very well. The American idea of horror is having some dude in a mask chase teenagers around with a knife. Oh the terror. This type of horror has been done well (see: Nightmare on Elm Street) but for the most part, “same old, same old.”

Every so often though, we get a movie like Carnival of Souls. Unlike most American horror films, this is in the “psychological horror” vein. There aren’t crazy guys with machetes running around chasing screaming, half-naked teenagers and subsequently killing them in a variety of fantastical ways, and there are no demons jumping out of the darkness with the obligatory “jump scare” musical cue which consists of every instrument in the orchestra playing at once for one second. What this movie does have is some incredibly creepy sequences and a feeling of dread for almost the entirety of the film.

While the ending should be no big surprise (I’d figured it out within the first 10 minutes) it is still fantastically developed and never feels like a cheat. There are hints of this all over the place but it really doesn’t matter whether you know it or not. The whole thing really felt like an expanded version of a Twilight Zone episode. As it was wrapping up, I was expecting to hear Rod Serling’s distinctive narration giving a word of wisdom and warning.

“…when you pass by that carnival make sure you steer clear or you too may find yourself trapped on the Ferris Wheel of the afterlife… in the Twilight Zone.”