Little Monsters
Yeah, I know, yet another zombie movie, and one that sticks fairly closely to the standard zombie "rules", but this one is still a great barrel of laughs. This one has a lot of genuine heart to it, learning the right things from romzomcoms like Shaun of the Dead and Braindead. The director Abe Forsythe said in the interview before this film that he grew up with British comedy, citing in particular Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall (Gods bless him!), and this definitely has the feel at moments of what if The Comic Strip Presents... did a zombie movie. I can easily see Rik in the main role played by Alexander England, who gets some fantastic gags to work with, and Ade in the role Josh Gad plays; just look at the their expressions in this preview clip, and tell me I'm wrong. It's definitely its own film though, and the MVP is Lupita Nyong'o (who between this and Us is having quite a good year for horror roles) as Miss Caroline. Abe Forsythe also said that this film is a tribute to teachers, and it shows perfectly, as Miss Caroline is adamant about keeping the children under her care perfectly safe through this situation, which leads to fantastically funny, touching, thrilling, and badass moments. This has quite a few gross out moments (and not just in terms of gore...), but it's in no way cynical, it has a genuine warmth to a lot of the story. Highly recommend this one when it comes out, if only to see one of the best horror sequences involving a glove puppet you're ever likely to see.
Little Monsters will be getting a limited UK cinema release from the 15th of November.
The Lighthouse
This was the Gala screening of the festival's "Cult" strand, so yeah, got to go on the red carpet for this one, be impressed! I remember seeing the film that first put director Robert Eggers on the map, The VVitch, at the 2015 LFF, so it's good for him to be making a comeback to the festival in a major way. The film he's bought though is definitely an idiosyncratic piece of work, like The VVitch a retro styled mindf*** of a thing, with both a late 19th century setting, and black & white 4:3 photography. This time it's mostly a two hander between Robert Pattinson (who incidentally I'll be seeing more of this month when it's time for me to watch Twilight for my challenge), and Willem Defoe (who was at the screening with Robert Eggers), aided by think New England accents, archaic dialogue, and magnificent facial hair. It's definitely a much more "loose" narrative than The VVitch, with an even more hallucinogenic approach, a lot of uncertainty about what's real, and a surprising number of fart jokes. Yes, there is a lot of rather ribald talk of bodily functions in here, a lot more laughs than last film which definitely took a lot of the audience I was in by surprise. It's one that's not going to be for everyone, I did notice a couple of walkouts in my screening (which given how much the tickets were is quite a statement), but if you can take a decidedly off-kilter approach, it has quite a lot of imagery you are not going to forget in a hurry. Let me put it like this; if you can wrap your head about Willem Defoe playing what looks like Captain Birdseye with mange who's implied to have maybe gotten up to some Shape of Water shenanigans, you might get something out of this.
The Lighthouse will be released in UK cinemas on the 31st of January.
The Masque of the Red Death
OK, this one is a re-release, being shown for a new restoration, but it's my blog, it's Spoopy Season, and it counts towards my October Challenge, so I'll talk about it anyway. This is actually a fully uncut version of Roger Corman's masterpiece of his Poe Cycle, as the US prints cut down a lot on the sex and satanic angles, and the UK prints cut down on some of the more violent scenes. A fresh scan does help the use of colour (photographed by Nicholas Roeg) really pop, which is by far one of the strengths of this one. It always astonishes me watching it how opulent it feels, knowing what a master of low budgets Corman was. Now this hasn't aged perfectly (that is clearly not a little person dancer, that's a twelve year old in make up and an overdubbed voice!), but it's still a well loved and remembered piece. I wonder if this tale of the debauchery, hypocrisy, and cruelty of the upper classes getting a re-release now is meant to be reflective of anything happening these days? If it's not intentional, it's still remarkable how much the main points of the story still stand. If you've never seen it before, definitely give it a go; maybe wait until this version gets released,
This 4K Restoration of Masque of the Red Death is still awaiting distribution.
Next time I do one of these, the Falcon gets to do something he missed out on in Endgame, a cult film-maker maker has a triumphant return, and it's time for a stylish Whodunnit...
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