tafka-SG8 Reviews

The Last Party (1993)

A solid & entertaining documentary

[9/10 · 29 January 2003]

Quite simply, I felt that this was a solid & entertaining documentary & a worthy time capsule of a compelling historical moment. I gave this as a present to a friend of mine that is an almost rabid political animal & he loved it.

It is also deeply personal, and offers insight into the life of a Hollywood star that has since been a tabloid fixture. Downey Jr. is quite candid in fact about the history of his drug abuse.

I wouldn't go out of my way, but if you have the opportunity, check this one out.

Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000)

PLEASANTLY MALODOROUS

[7/10 · 22 January 2003]

How does one set out to produce a sequel to probably the biggest mainstream Hollywood gatecrasher in history? For Artisan, the answer is that you don't. Not really.

Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, while attempting to extend the Blair Witch mythology, maneuvering it into the treacherous franchise waters, is instead an excursion into the hysteria surrounding the first film.

FRANCHISE THIS!

The Blair Witch Project made silver screen history by parlaying what was, by Hollywood standards, a no budget production, into a phenomenon. But when this inevitable sequel was pushed through production, a much more polished but just as murky film was the result.

For BW2, Joe Berlinger -- best known for the documentary, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (and Paradise Lost 2) -- was brought on board, subsequently seizing an actual budget and creating a piece that, while reveling in a self-awareness of the first film and its mystique, does its best to subject another group of woods-bound youngsters and viewers to psychological and other forms of terror.

The first fifteen minutes or so of the film is probably the best, with opening scenes that are comprised of television footage discussing the Blair Witch Project, which include an appearance by none other than Roger Ebert. That leads directly into some documentary-style interviews with residents of the town of Burkittsville, Maryland regarding the impact the film had on their lives, and includes a cameo by Berlinger.

Soon, we meet the latest witch aficionados as they venture into the abyss of the Black Hills -- on the inaugural run of the Blair Witch Hunt -- setting up camp at the Rustin Parr ruins and mocking the first film, including Heather Donahue's much-imitated hysterics, but that's not all. Erica, the twenty-something witch, comments: `The Blair Witch Project. Ok. Two guys and a girl sleeping in the same tent, night after night, and no sex? It makes no sense (sic).'

INTO THE WOODS. AGAIN.

Beyond that, here's a brief synopsis of the film: the five characters -- a Wiccan, a goth, two Blair Witch researchers and a mentally-ill tour guide -- go into the woods with a battery of cameras, lose several hours of their lives, and spend the remainder of the film holed up in a Civil War-era factory that's been turned into a dwelling, reviewing footage they'd shot in an attempt to piece things together.

As this is going on, it's discovered that another tour group has been ritualistically murdered at Coffin Rock -- probably during the blackout. Action is quickly traded for claustrophobia, and a more psychological and conceptual horror flick emerges, one with little (intentional) humor.

Much criticism has been leveled against the performances turned in by a group of relative unknowns, although each of the actors and actresses probably has a brief moment or so as a better angel of the film, and Kim Director is solid in her portrayal of the cynical goth character.

What distinguishes this project, however, is its meditation on mass hysteria and popular delusion -- or at least its effort to do so.

The film plays with `reality,' sorting through layers not only of memory, but also media -- and the possibility of the existence of supernatural elements -- as the group pores over the various video tapes they've brought back, grappling with the latest Coffin Rock murders and whether or not the killer or killers is in their midst.

Jeff, the abovementioned tour guide character, who also sells Blair Witch memorabilia on the Internet, delivers a significant line in the film, explaining that while film lies, video doesn't. Is the truth out there?

BW2 GO

For discerning home video enthusiasts, one valuable aspect of DVD commentaries is the occasional insight into the intrusiveness of studio overseers. In the case of BW2, it's revealed that Berlinger was forced to intercut shaky-cam gore scenes throughout, something that was, in my opinion, the worst element of the film.

Another noteworthy DVD disclosure involves the fact that a striking shot over the November woods of Maryland, originally written with Sinatra's `Witchcraft' in mind, ended up being scored by Marilyn Manson's `Disposable Teens.' Two things probably account for the decision: the target demographic most likely wouldn't recognize or like the song, leaving them doubtful to buy the soundtrack; Marilyn Manson was called in to supervise the music, excluding of course the original score.

I actually purchased BW1 on video for some strange reason (charmed, I'm sure), but ended up quickly selling it on eBay after finding myself unable to suffer through it a second time. BW2, however, resides in my permanent collection.

A technological aspect of the DVD worth mentioning is the fact that the other side of the disk is a CD featuring the entire original score and a few of the soundtrack's more pop-related offerings.

PLEASANTLY MALODOROUS.

BW2 has been called many things, including a wretched waste of celluloid (not to mention videotape) and an unforgivable festival of clichés.

What it comes down to is this: BW2 is a movie that I hate to admit I loved. Although some performance and execution flaws might outweigh any uniqueness in the eyes of most viewers, for what it attempts to do -- in taking on the task of making a sequel that shouldn't have been made, defying many expectations along the way -- I give this box office flop a B--.

In case you missed BW2, or don't you feel you have the stomach for it, not to worry: Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, the creative team behind the first Blair Witch, are reportedly working on BW3: the attack of the prequels.

Forbidden Zone (1980)

The quintessential cult film

[10/10 · 21 January 2003]

Once a cult film has been dubbed quintessential, something that I have already done with Richard Elfman's opus Forbidden Zone, what else is there to say?

For a movie that features lap-puking, a dancing frog in a tuxedo, twin boys with one thinking that he's a girl and the other convinced he's a chicken, sexual interludes between a physically tiny Herve Villechaize and a towering Susan Tyrell, an excursion into the sixth dimension scored by the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo -- the earlier incarnation of the musical outfit Oingo Boingo -- along with a catalog of other squalid entries, there should be quite a lot to say.

Released in 1980, Forbidden Zone was directed by Richard Elfman (Shrunken Heads & Modern Vampires), founder of the Mystic Knights and a one-time boxer who has been more prolific in stage work than film endeavor. Nonetheless, F.Z. has earned Elfman -- along with, of course, his younger brother Danny, who leads the Cab Calloway-fueled musical charge -- a permanent place in the cult film hall of fame (if there isn't such a thing, there most certainly should be).

The film opens at a vacant house in Venice, California where a local pimp, slumlord and heroin dealer stumbles upon a portal to the F.Z. in the basement and promptly, after retrieving his stash, sells the house to the Hercules', a freaky family we soon meet: Ma and Pa; Grampa; Flash; and Frenchy (aptly named for her intentionally ridiculous French accent, a character hilariously portrayed by the director's wife, Marie Pascal-Elfman).

The curious Frenchy, after being warned, ventures into the basement and falls through an intestinal labrynth only to be deposited (through an enormous pair of butt cheeks) into, you guessed it, ("Hot damned!") the sixth dimension. She is quickly captured by the F.Z.'s King and Queen (Villechaize and Tyrell), and Grampa joins Flash in a rescue operation into the F.Z., humping everything and everyone in the place (soon followed by Pa and then Squeezit, the chicken boy, whose sister/brother has also been captured). Meanwhile, the King becomes taken with Frenchy, and when the ex-queen is rescued from imprisoned exile, mayhem ensues.

That's about all of the film's engaging and sordid tale I'll give away, but viewers will also encounter such sites as: a human, dangling chandelier; a bizarre and uproarious classroom shootout; resident freaks of the zone running around in Mickey Mouse ears; rampant and absurd, fully-clothed sex scenes; boxers belching along with the musical score (a Rhumba); and much more.

With a combination of black & white animation and b&w film footage shot against cheesy painted sets -- not to mention the hysterical musical numbers -- the viewer becomes quickly pulled into what has the feel and spirit of a 1930s cartoon, one that has been injected with an overdose of just plain perversity, not to mention insanity and a quality of being unafraid to offend anyone.

A highlight for this reviewer was the appearance by the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, led by Danny Elfman as a fantastic Satan, performing a twisted Minnie the Moocher-inspired song (Hi-de-hi-de-hi-di-hi! Ho-de-ho-de-ho-de-ho!) while decapitating Squeezit and turning the topless princess of the sixth dimension into an arm-flapping, chicken-like slave.

The film winds up its long and savagely strange, careening path, with an absurd musical number involving all the characters. It should be noted that the actors and actresses in this film, instead of laboring under some delusion that this is a mainstream, real budget production, not only seem to understand the project's limited resources, their final performances give every appearance of having rejoiced in the wonderful cheesiness of it all (thank you, Mark).

The F.Z. is probably not for "the "squeamish, prudish and sane," however, as the Austin Chronicle stated, more aptly and succinctly than I.

Is this the quintessential cult film? The list of movies vying for that particularly title is probably an endless one. But since the term "cult film" is rather subjective -- although a valiant attempt has been made @ this site to explain it -- I'd have to say "yes." Although biased by almost nostalgic feelings for the deranged flick, Forbidden Zone just seems to have it all.

The bottom line is that great music, combined with surreal situations, a deeply mad storyline and splendidly grotesque characters, make this classic a must-see for anyone in possession of an active and intact sense of humor and the ability to appreciate the profoundly absurd. I give Forbidden Zone a solid A+.

Although the VHS version of the F.Z. has long been out-of-print, those interested can still obtain their own (signed) copy at richardelfman.com and, reportedly, a DVD release is in the works.