Welcome to 5 Favorites. Each week, I will put together a list of my 5 favorites (films, performances, whatever strikes my fancy) along with commentary on a given topic each week, usually in relation to a specific film releasing that week.
Originally a part of Miramax Films, selected to release its genre titles, Dimension Films was one of the few shingles that Bob and Harvey Weinstein took with them when they were bought out and started The Weinstein Company. It was later purchased and absorbed by Lantern Entertainment, which is the production label behind this week’s release of the Scream reboot. It makes the selection of this week’s 5 Favorites topic fitting since it was Dimension that released the original Scream films.
Scream (1996)
When I was growing up in the 1980s, I was a frequent watcher of movies, especially horror films. My biggest time sink was in the horror section of our local video store. It was there that I built my appreciation for slasher films, consuming the best and worst of 1970s and 1980s slashers. My favorite of the lot was the Nightmare on Elm Street series, directed by Wes Craven. When he decided to refresh the genre with this 1996 masterwork, it was a cause to celebrate.
Having done something similar with his 1994 New Nightmare film, the horror legend effectively created the concept of meta horror. In this case, the film is about a group of teenagers who have grown up on the kinds of movies Craven and his colleagues made in the 1980s, and who use that awareness of the tropes of the genre to help them navigate a horrific series of grizzly murders on their own. What Craven did was something spectacular and even for those who aren’t huge fans of the genre, there’s grudging appreciation for what Craven created with this film that started a whole new approach to genre filmmaking.
No original review available.
The Others (2001)
Supernatural horror is nothing new. It’s been a subgenre for decades and there have been countless examples of successful navigation of the subgenre, its sub-subgenre of haunted house horror, and its companion subgenre of religious horror. Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Amenabar wrote and directed this successful blend of styles with Nicole Kidman in the lead role as a young mother who has two photosensitive children who must keep the shades drawn in all parts of their old family house. Lit by hurricane lamps and gaslights, the family must contend with a mysterious apparition that opens doors that she has knowingly locked and draws curtains in once-darkened sections of the house.
Amenabar’s film is an atmospheric tale that unfolds in thrilling fashion as the events transpiring are slowly expressed or foreshadowed until the explosive conclusion wherein the full mystery is unveiled. Kidman is tremendous in the role, delivering one of her two greatest performances to release in 2001 (the other being Moulin Rouge), with Fionnula Flanagan providing wonderful support. Not since Jack Clayton’s The Innocents has this genre had such a brilliant and compelling entry and not since Deborah Kerr has someone so effortlessly conveyed dread and horror as effectively as Kidman.
No original review available.
Bad Santa (2003)
For many, Christmas films should be light and jovial. A Christmas Story or Home Alone offer up modern examples while Holiday Inn and White Christmas evoke the Hollywood of the past. Jovial is not what Bad Santa is. It’s risque, ribald, and raucous. If you want a film that takes our perceptions of holiday classics and upends convention, subverting what many would deem appropriate holiday viewing, then Bad Santa is the film for you.
Billy Bob Thornton stars as a conman Santa who, with his partner (Tony Cox), works to rob department stores at which they work during the holiday season. Director Terry Zwigoff guides these reprehensible criminals through a job gone wrong with the arrival of a kid (Brett Kelly) who helps turn their plans upside down. The hilarious script by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa is brilliantly acted by Thornton and Cox who don’t let the zany concept drift into ludicrousness, keeping the heist thriller at the heart of the film with a bit of caustic holiday spirit thrown in at appropriate measure. It’s a great time, but is far from your traditional holiday family film.
The Brothers Grimm (2005)
Terry Gilliam is one of those directors whose films veer so far off the traditional path that whether they are insanely inspired or unnecessarily loopy depends on your frame of mind. While he’s certainly taken his intriguing concepts and turned them into biting science fiction masterpieces (Brazil) or glittering failures (The Adventures of Baron Munchausen), you absolutely cannot say that he doesn’t have an eye for rich and resplendent details.
One of his more absorbing films of the 2000s, The Brothers Grimm follows a pair of conmen who fake fairy-tale curses in order to bilk small medieval villages out of their hard-earned money. When the pair stumble into a legitimate curse, they must take all of their faux expertise and employ it to try and save the village from a bleak fate without letting on that they are frauds. Gilliam’s film is inspired in its creativity and features some dazzling sets and costumes, but it’s not quite up to the level of Brazil in terms of quality. That said, stars Heath Ledger and Matt Damon add credibility and depth to the picture and turn what could have been an abject failure into an entertaining adventure.
No original review available.
Halloween (2007)
Prior to the recent successful revival of the Halloween franchise, Rob Zombie took the classic 1978 horror feature and rebooted it with a more violent and gory rendition. The end result is a film that diverts from creator John Carpenter’s idea that horror should be suggestive and not voyeuristic and turns that on its head for a film that puts all of its gruesome and bloody murders on screen, horrifying viewers not expecting something so blissfully obvious.
For Carpenter fans, the film is a bit of a let down. It deviates too much from his original concept, but that’s true of a handful of the sequels that came out in its wake. Yet, what Zombie does with the material is tremendous. Not since the visceral thrills of 80s slasher films did the genre feel so alive and overflowing with such vicious glee. The film isn’t just about how savage it can get while remaining true to the genre, but there’s a compelling narrative flowing through the film that gives a much more rational and believable reason behind Michael Myers’ brutal slayings. And as much as Donald Pleasance anchors the original film and some of its sequels, Malcolm McDowell does a terrific job taking on the guise of psychiatrist Samuel Loomis who must stop Michael before his body count reaches the stratosphere.
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