Troma's "Poultrygeist" Reviewed At Movieforum

My review of the Toronto After Dark Film Festival's Toronto-premiere of Lloyd Kaufman's "Poultrygeist: Night Of The Chicken Dead" is up at Movieforum. It's the usual Troma insanity, but this time with a lot more wit and panache than usual, plus, it's a musical! Check out my thoughts here.

Carpenter Talks Horror At EW

It's Halloween, so what better time to interview the man synonymous with the season? Entertainment Weekly offers a brief but surprising interview with veteran filmmaker John Carpenter here.

Hey Doris Lessing...

Shut up (why? Read this). Take yer Nobel Prize and go away (and I didn't like "The Summer Before The Dark" either!).

Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2007: "An Audience Of One"

My latest TAD review: "An Audience Of One", a jaw-dropping documentary about a Pentecostal priest who--on orders from The Almighty--decides to make a big-budget, science-fiction version of the story of Joseph...with no money. Check it out here:

http://movieforumblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/toronto-after-dark-film-festival-2007_22.html

TAD 2007: "In The Name Of The King: A Dungeon Siege Tale"

Dr. Uwe Boll, quite possibly the world's most hated director right now, debuted his latest video game adaptation at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival last night, and it's actually not bad! Read my review of the Tolkein-lite "In The Name Of The King: A Dungeon Siege Tale" here.

Toronto After Dark 2007: "Mulberry Street"

My review of Jim Mickle's "Mulberry Street", which debuted at last night's Toronto After Dark Film Festival, is now posted at my MovieForum site. I thought it was one of the most powerful horror debuts I've seen in years, and believe-you-me, I've seen waaaay too much of this stuff. This no-budget, New York-set shocker packs a more immediate, dramatic punch than most, and is well worth checking out if you have the stomach for an outbreak of a rat-spread zombie virus.

Check out my review here.

Close-Up Blog-A-Thon: "Planet Of The Apes"

In honour of The House Next Door's Close-Up Blog-A-Thon, here's the close-up that shook my world at a very young age: the first appearance of a gorilla on horseback in Franklin J. Schaffner's original Planet Of The Apes (1968).

Up until this moment we're well-primed for something major: after listening to Charlton Heston's space age misanthrope George Taylor dismiss the human race to this flight recorder, badger his surviving fellow astronauts as they navigate a curiously habitable alien world, and make friendly with what Ash would call some "primitive screw heads" (excluding the stunning Nova, of course), a strange, forboding noise from the brush initiates mass panic. Suddenly, a relaxing skinny dip gives way to swishing blades, then mighty horses, then marching figures, which bring gun fire, hunting nets and then--

This guy!

Even though the premise is right there in the damned title, the simian soldier's entrance is still a stunner of a moment, rivaling even this film's notorious ending, IMHO. After literal dozens of viewings I still get that frisson of horror and enchantment when that a-rooooogah! horn blares from amidst Jerry Goldsmith's nerve-wracking percussion and the camera zooms in on this first reveal of John Chamber's astonishingly expressive makeup illusions--ushering in a too-brief wave of adult science fiction, fantasy, and horror cinema (along with Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, Roger Vadim's Barbarella, and George A. Romero's Night Of The Living Dead that same year) and securing my hopeless geekdom for life.

Close-Up Blog-A-Thon: #3

The chilling final close-up of Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho--or is it Mrs. Bates from now on...?

Close-Up Blog-A-Thon: #2

Who can forget the unforgettable introduction of Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell) in Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange"?

It's the "Close Up Blog-A-Thon": #1

The House Next Door--simply one of the best hubs of opinion and criticism for current and classic film and television--is hosting "The Eyes Have It: Close-up Blog-A-Thon", which will run from Oct. 12-21.

THND's Matt Soller Seitz was inspired by Norma Desmond's lament, "We had faces then" from Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard:

"Entranced as I am by Ms. Desmond's fervor, I must respectfully disagree: yes, they had faces then, but we have faces now. And some of them are extraordinary. Therefore, I'm calling for a Close-Up Blog-a-thon to run Oct. 12-21. Your piece could be as simple as a series of frame grabs with captions, or a short analysis of a single close-up in a particular movie or television episode, past or current. Or it could be an essay about a certain performer's mastery of (or failure to master) the close-up. Or it could fixate on a director or cinematographer who is especially adept at pushing in to capture emotion."

Regrettably, I'm too busy to free up any time to write any form of a coherent, impassioned piece on my favorite screen closeup--the day job, the night course, and the upcoming Toronto After Dark Film Festival occupy whatever time I don't spend sleeping these days--so instead, I'll post a few of my favorites until the closing date. If you want to get involved, check out Seitz's details here.

Here's my first entry: Ben (Duane Jones) appears out of the darkness and chaos to save Barbara (Judith O'Dea) in George A. Romero's original 1968 classic Night Of The Living Dead.

Harlan Ellison vs. "Jesse James"

Some stuff you just can't make up, even if you've written an Oscar-nominated screenplay for David Cronenberg.

Screenwriter Josh Olson, who adapted John Wagner's graphic novel A History Of Violence into the acclaimed 2005 film version, spins an amazing yarn for LA Weekly: at first glance, yet another warning fable about the perils of Internet relationships. But this one's a true L.A. noir, which manages to involve science-fiction icon Harlan Ellison, Hurricane Katrina, and schlock-rocker Dan Fogelberg, of all people.

What's most amazing is that it's true--although when you're done reading, Olson's tale of woe will have you questioning the term. Check out his amazing account here.

(thanks to David Hudson's Green Cine Daily)

Ebert Reveals Himself As True "Pinhead" To Clive Barker...

Video games have been around for about three-and-a-half decades now (if you count The Magnavox Odyssey, which became commercially available in 1972), long enough to become more or less defined solely as an insidious social menace—right up there (or is it down?) with comic books and Elvis’ shaking hips.

But while fanatics like Jack Thompson (and Hilary Clinton, who really should know better and save her energy to save her desperate party) are campaigning to make sure no American child shall drive the virtual streets of Liberty City without a seatbelt, or plasma-blast a Covenant soldier without feeling remorse for their own intolerance of other cultures, and our soccer fields, hockey arenas, and baseball diamonds are reportedly barren as kids take up their Wii sticks in their trans-fat encrusted fingers (well, everywhere but Toronto, where there are reportedly still waiting lists to get into amateur sports leagues), yet another attack is raging, this one from the PBS tote bag circuit: can video games be considered art?

The only rational answer is “yes”, of course, because anything created by an artist or team of artists can be defined as such (ask Dali and his limp clocks, ask Herriman and his Krazy Kat, ask Duchamp and his monogrammed urinal). Behold the production design of “Gears Of War” (Goya meets Giger), marvel at the nuanced, multi-narrative threads of “GTA: San Andreas” that seem random but build to a satisfying conclusion. “God Of War 2” is a kick-ass way to learn some remarkably dense Greek mythology while slugging it out in some of the most painterly and immersive simulated environments ever realized. But what we’re really talking “High Ahhht” here. To which I will quote Al Pacino in Carlito’s Way: “Here come da pain!”

Amazingly, the most heated debate over the subject is currently raging between author/artist/filmmaker Clive Barker (yes, the Hellraiser guy), and critic Roger “Thumbs Up” Ebert of all people. The supremely-talented Barker (I admit it, I’ve been a fan since 1985’s ‘The Damnation Game” and have had the pleasure of meeting him in person several times) has been developing some interactive game properties of his own creation ("Jericho" is due for the Xbox 360 and PS3 later this month), and took exception to Ebert’s published remarks that video games aren’t-and-never-will-be “art”.

And just what qualifies Ebert to evaluate the aesthetic credibility of the results of all those little ones and zeroes? By his own admission: absolutely nothing.

For a man who expounds the joys of a medium that was once (and in some circles, still is) considered a lesser art form, he’s extremely short-sighted. When Barker accused Ebert’s woefully uniformed view as “prejudiced”, Ebert wore it like a badge of pride:

The word “prejudiced” often translates as “disagrees with me.” I might suggest that gamers have a prejudiced view of their medium, and particularly what it can be. Games may not be Shakespeare quite yet, but I have the prejudice that they never will be, and some gamers are prejudiced that they will.

I never considered anyone who argues in favour of the merits of expanding one’s tolerances (which Barker is trying to do) as prejudiced, but I’ll remember that, Rog, when you suggest I waste any more hours of my life on the dated, New Wave stunts of Jean-Luc Godard, whose validity as an artist today is purely due to the nostalgic longings of people who never got over their first screening of The Conformist (which was a Bertolluci film, of course). When Barker praises the range of experiences and the potential for interactivity that (so far) only the videogame can provide--

We should be stretching the imaginations of our players and ourselves. Let’s invent a world where the player gets to go through every emotional journey available. That is art. Offering that to people is art.

--Ebert grips his vintage leather-bound Dickens volumes and sniffs:

If you can go through “every emotional journey available,” doesn’t that devalue each and every one of them? Art seeks to lead you to an inevitable conclusion, not a smorgasbord of choices. If next time, I have Romeo and Juliet go through the story naked and standing on their hands, would that be way cool, or what?

Ah, so Ebert hath decreed that Art should lead the viewer/reader/listener to only a single conclusion. Hmm—I’m pretty sure that once upon a time, it was firmly held by the intelligentsia of the time that art could never be anything but representational, and concerned only with religious iconography. But what do I know? He even closes with a tiresome Pauline Kael quote, which you can read here, because I can’t be bothered recounting it. It was parodied, once, on SCTV, during the Dr. Tongue remake of Midnight Cowboy.

Barker shot back (perhaps a bit inelegantly) calling Ebert “a pompous, arrogant old man” (I think Clive was too kind). But one has to admire his progressive vision and glee in partaking in a genuinely unique and innovative creative enterprise, something Ebert would know little about.

I think Ebert is one of the better film reviewers working today—he seems to enjoy a greater variety of movies than most of his insulated brethren and they don’t hand out Pulitzer Prizes for nothing—but this is the same man who once dismissed Night Of The Living Dead (to his credit, he later recanted) and did much damage to the reputation of the already-maligned horror genre when he and the late Gene Siskel turned their weekly series (PBS, of course) in early 1980s in a hysterical (and one-sided) anti-slasher rally (going so far as to urge moviegoers to boycott Paramount releases because they distributed the Friday The 13th series).

I don’t really care if sticks-in-the-mud like Ebert dig video games or not (admittedly, I’m only a casual player, but I would definitely define the best of them as art, just as I would with painting, film, music, theatre), but I’m just more than a little tired of these cranky aging Boomers who worship at the altar of Altman and who think that artistic progress stopped when the clock struck midnight on January 1st, 1980.

Ebert would do well to keep on partying like it’s 1974 and leave the rest of us--obsessive, yes, juvenile, perhaps—alone to partake in the invention of a bonafide new art form, which is likely only in its birthing stages. He should remember people once saw The Jazz Singer as just a “talkie”—a passing fad. I’d like to think we ain’t heard, or seen, or experienced, nothin’ yet.

©2007 Robert J. Lewis

"Deadwood" Dismantled

It looks like we can forget about those Deadwood movies--according to recent reports, The Gem and The Bella Union are coming down.

The complex and unromanticized Western serial was cancelled by HBO due to low ratings and creator David Milch's desire to pursue another series: the metaphysical surfer ensemble John From Cincinatti. But we were assured Deadwood would to return in the form of two feature length films (to air on HBO) that would wrap it all up.

This past June, while promoting Live Free Or Die Hard, Timothy (Seth Bullock) Olyphant told Coming Soon: "don't hold your breath...the fact that show existed at all for as long as it did (three seasons, all available on DVD) was a miracle of sorts."

And last week Ian (Al Sweargen) McShane told Cinematical: ""I just got a call on Friday from ... a dear friend of mine, who told me that they're packing up the ranch. They're dismantling the ranch and taking the stuff out. That ship is gonna sail. Bonsoir, Deadwood."

Today, the site follows up with responses from other cast members: Jim (Ellsworth) echoed McShane's news, and W. Earl (Dan Dority) Brown confirmed that HBO's lease for the sets is up, but he wants back his "hat, knife, and gunbelt."

With John From Cincinatti having gotten the pink slip from HBO, I'd hoped Milch would return to the Black Hills at least one more time to wrap up the Hearst plot and give fans a proper ending as planned.

But to paraphrase Al Swearengen: Announcing your plans is a good way to hear God--or clueless network executives--laugh...

Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2007: Lineup Announced

The second annual Toronto After Dark Film Festival returns to The Bloor Cinema just in time for the festival of Samhain, offering an amazing 50 new horror and fantasy films--seven of them Canadian premieres--over 7 fun n' fear-filled nights.

Adam Lopez and his team (of which I am now a latecoming member) have toiled through the nights, dawns, and days of the dead to bring you the following lineup:

Scheduled Features:

Friday, October 19:

Mulberry Street (Premiere Gala)

Saturday, October 20:

Aachi & Ssipak
In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
Blood Car (Canadian Premiere)

Sunday, October 21:

Audience of One (Canadian Premiere)
Automaton Transfusion
Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead

Monday, October 22:

The Rebel (Canadian Premiere)
The Tripper

Tuesday, October 23:

Wolfhound
Alone (Canadian Premiere)

Wednesday, October 24:

Simon Says (Canadian Premiere)
Nightmare Detective

Thursday, October 25:

Murder Party (Closing Night Gala)

Short Films:

TAD offers three programmes showcasing the finest in short-form horror from Canada and around the world:

Cutting Edge Horror (Sat, Oct. 20, 1.45pm)

The best new horror shorts from around the world. Highlights include It Came From The West, a puppet zombie western!

Cutting Edge Fantasy (Sun, Oct. 21, 1.30pm)

The best new international sci-fi and fantasy shorts from around the world.

Cutting Edge Canada (screening before features throughout the fest)

Outstanding new Canadian horror and fantasy shorts, with several of the filmmakers in attendance.

(The complete lineup of titles will be announced shortly).

Zombie Walk!?

And of course, don't forget the second annual Official Toronto Zombie Walk! Last year's "Million Maimed March" was attended by over 500 fans in full zombie regalia. This year, the event lasts even longer with the afternoon walk, a break for food and drink (or to track down human prey), and an evening of two premiere zombie films (here's a fan's Flicker portfolio of last year's walk).

So while you're at it, why not buy tickets and passes here, where the complete TAD 2007 schedule is now online.

I've heard great things about the opening night film Mulberry Street, which (along with the upcoming The Signal) could mark the emergence of a new era of brave and distinctive horror voices the likes we haven't seen since the advent of Carpenter, Cronenberg, Hooper, and Romero (if not, well, what the hell--it's probably pretty entertaining...).

Keep checking this site throughout the event for daily news and reviews.

Der Kingster is 60!

Stephen King--bestselling author, journalist, screenwriter, actor, one-time director, philanthropist and all-around cool guy is 60 today. Check out his latest column for Entertainment Weekly here, where he talks about his sojourn to the Australian Outback and lived an entire month without access to popular culture...

Brett Somers Gone To The Big 'Blank' In The Sky...

Brett Somers, a regular on "Match Game" during its classic 1973-1979 run and frequent verbal sparing partner of the late, great Charles Nelson Reilly, passed away yesterday at her home in Westport, Connecticut at the age of 83.

She was born Audrey Johnston in New Brunswick, and grew up in Portland, Maine. At age 17 she settled in Greenwich Village and changed her named to "Brett" after the lead female character in Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises." Somers was her mother's maiden name.

She was married for a time to actor Jack Klugman, who was responsible for getting her onto the game show. Klugman suggested she be brought on when he appeared during the show's first broadcasts and she soon became a regular part of the panel.

I'm not the biggest fan of panel game shows but I try not to miss Match Game reruns on The Game Show Network--I've always enjoyed Gene Rayburn's exasperated, insulting tone towards the (dim) contestants and the antics of the classic panel--lead by Somers and Nelson Reilly (who died this past May), of course--especially during the "afternoon" tapings when the witty tongues would be well-lubricated with alcohol.

Here's her obit from CNN.

Alex Ross Does "Heroes"

Here's a look at Alex Ross' cover art for the upcoming "Heroes" hardcover from DC Comics, which will collect all of the online comics that were published concurrently with last season's episodes (still available here on the official site), as well as some new stuff. The inevitable Absolute Edition is being planned, too, I'm sure. Jim Lee is reportedly contributing an alternate cover, or somesuchthing (not like he's working terribly hard on Frank Miller's "All-Star Batman And Robin", or anything...).

And we are assured by the show's producers that even though prophetic artist Isaac is dead, Tim Sale's art will still be featured this coming season.

I just hope that Global HD actually plays "Heroes" in true high-def this year, considering the money I'm forking out for these digital channels...

Rogers Cable: Converting Viewers To Bit Torrent Is Job One...

So I'm enjoying tonight's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" an hour later than its original broadcast and suddenly, it's like I'm watching"The Sopranos" conclusion without the Journey song. Larry utters a line, then there's the PVR menu asking me if I want to save or delete.

What gives? This hasn't happened in a while--if Rogers sets up the schedule, why can't their hardware chase the programming block? I had this problem with Heroes on HD Global this past season and had to set up a manual event as a workaround, but what a pain in the *ss for something for which I'm paying good money for convenience and reliability.

(I called Rogers but the somnabulistic drone I got on the other end couldn't answer my question...)

You didn't hear it from me folks, but there's a thing called BitTorrent from which you can not only get all of your HBO shows complete and the HD format (unlike Rogers, which isn't broadcasting "Curb" in HD after all but is still charging subscribers for it) but their also 100% free.

Listen up, Canadian cable barons. It's not that people don't want to pay for entertainment--it's just that we expect quality and consistency for our hard-earned cash. Spread it around.

Happy Birthday, Werner Herzog!

The unclassifiable German filmmaker (who resides in LA) turns 65 today--but may he entertain no plans of retiring! In addition to being one of our greatest living filmmakers in both the fiction and non-fiction realms, Herzog gets my vote as the ultimate bad ass:

During a BBC interview to promote his acclaimed documentary "Grizzly Man”, a loud pop was heard and Herzog calmly observed "someone is shooting at us". That someone was a crazed fan with a sniper rifle, who struck the filmmaker in the leg. Herzog dismissed the bullet as "insignificant" and with his wound festering, finished the interview.

One month earlier, he rescued Joaquin Phoenix from a car crash in Laurel Canyon...

So for all you non-cineastes reading this, let me put it another way: "Chuck Norris" lives because Werner Herzog lets him…

I'll be catching his new documentary "Encounters At The Edge Of The World" at this year's TIFF---review to come.

Woo-Hoo! It's The First Lineup Of The Film Fest!

Oh, what a wonderful way to spend the last day of a long weekend: baking in the sun for several hours to pick up whatever TIFF tickets you were awarded if you didn't get completely screwed by Friday's lottery draw.

While I attend the event as a member of the media, I always get a few tickets to public screenings so I can see some movies with friends and my Significant Other.And truth is, I don't mind it at all (the lining up part--the lottery is the subject of another posting...)--we got to chat with fellow enthusiastic film buffs about our previous TIFF experiences, our favourite titles of the year so far (although I always get the feeling that I'm the only cinema freak in GTA who goes to Hollywood blockbusters and enjoys them....), books we've read, the things we hate the most about the Fest (the lottery, 'natch), and of course, what we're looking forward to the most at this year's extravaganza (seems everyone's game for The Coens' No Country For Old Men and Brian DePalma's Redacted).

Because we were lucky to get all of our choices (nothing less than a modern miracle, considering we were box 48 of 75, with the lottery starting with box 66!), we didn't have to move to the second, considerably more disgruntled line to hurriedly select alternate screening choices. With so many fewer screens downtown, the seats are sure to fill up quickly. So best of luck to those poor devotees still in line--remember, folks, they're only movies, and most will come out to theatres or at least DVD anyway...

Individual tickets--those remaining, anyway--will go on sale Wednesday, Sept. 5 at the Manulife Centre Box Office (Bay and Bloor) and online at the official site at 7 am (remember, VISA is the only card accepted by the festival).

Complete details and schedules here.