I Spit On Your Grave: Unrated (Remake)

In 1978 director Meir Zarchi brought the world the original "I Spit On Your Grave a.k.a Day of the Woman", and the world banned it in five countries from even being released. This movie is an expression of the most diseased and perverted darker human natures", wrote Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun Times. "I walked out of the theater quickly, feeling unclean, ashamed and depressed." When I saw the first trailer for the remake my first thought was "I can't believe they are remaking this movie...and why?"

I Spit On Your Grave has a very straight forward plot, author Jennifer Hills rents a secluded cabin to write her new novel. Shortly after arriving a group of the surrounding towns degenerates inflict brutal torture and rape on her and leave her for dead. Fortunately for us she is not dead and returns to unleash revenge on the men one by one. At the time of its release it raised a great deal of outrage from churches, potential viewers, critics and feminist. I would say the times have changes significantly considering I saw this after a college professor suggested I do so to get inspiration for my senior thesis. It was hard to watch for a few reasons, the brutal nature of the plot of course but also because its an older low budget film so it is slow paced and as a twenty something of the bloody torture horror generation this almost doesnt compare to what we see now. Its the kind of movie you have to think about when you watch it, put yourself in the time period it was made in order to understand why this film is such a big deal.

Friends are still outraged and turned off when I talk about exploitation films because they only see the violence against women aspect but fail to see the female heroin side of the story as well. A huge point of most of these kinds of movies is the female empowerment that results from these horrifying acts. Tell me that at the end of Tarantino's "Death Proof" you did not feel some sort of "YEAH!" for these girls that just kicked the piss out of a guy who previously killed three defenseless women? I Spit On Your Grave and other films like this are doing the same thing but in a more hardcore sort of way. As far as the remake goes, it was a bit more unnerving than the original for me probably because its set in my time and there was a bit more realness that could be applied to it. The rape scenes are very hard to watch and at a certain point I started feeling like maybe this is going a little long, but I think thats what the director wanted, and to say her revenge was satisfying to watch is an understatement. It was pretty awesome, each one tying into what they had inflicted on her. I Spit On Your Grave is not for everyone, especially the faint of heart but worth seeing if you can appreciate exploitation films and want to see an updated but pretty true to the original versions of a classic.

I spit On Your Grave
Released 2010
Directed By Steven R. Monroe

Human Centipede (First Sequence)

First off, I did not think this concept was that awful. Maybe I've seen too many weird and outlandish movies at this point but this was not shocking to me really at all. Every time this movie came up in conversation it was always prefaced with "Oh my God have you heard about Human Centipede?!" or ended with "Eww thats so disgusting and fucked up". Newsflash guys, thats the point. This film was not made to be mainstream, it was not made to make you scared of bumps in the night, it was made for you to say "whoa that was fucked up!" at the end. The acting is not amazing and nor is the dialogue yet again, not the point. It got people talking and generated its own buzz without doing anything, hell it was only showing at our tiny IFC in the west village with few showings, but most of my friends (most of which are not into movies like I am) heard about it at the least.


Human Centipede is a Dutch horror film that takes place in Germany where three tourists are kidnapped by a psychotic Dr.Heiter who has devised a plan to create a new "pet", which consists of sewing three humans together "mouth to rectum" and redirecting their digestive tracks to work as one, thus dubbing it the human centipede. Does it sound a little gross? Sure ok yeah by traditional squeamish standards. Did I personally find it that disgusting and horrifying? No, not really. Maybe it is because this concept is somewhat so outlandish that it's hard putting myself in these characters shoes or on their hand and knees to be more accurate. I think in most horror movies we imagine ourselves in the positions of the characters or at least are seeing situations we know could potentially effect us, for me this just isn't one of them and trust me I am well aware of the insane people there are in this world that are fully capable of making this plot a reality. The surgical scenes and dreaded "someone is going to have to go to the bathroom eventually" scene weren't that graphic to me and I feel that other human torture movies like Hostel or I Spit On Your Grave cause more of an uncomfortable feeling than this movie did. It's all really about shock value and one of those things you feel you just have to see to see and if you're interested there is a sequel coming titled "Human Centipede (Full Sequence) aka "The Human Millipede".

Human Centipede
Released 2010
Directed by Tom Six

Paranormal Acitivty 2

I just returned from a much needed week long vacation in LA where on my first night I went to check out Paranormal Activity 2 at the Arclight theater in Hollywood (which was an awesome theater but I will get to in later post). PA1 was a horror flick that was high on my wishlist of movies that in my opinion needed to come to New York so I would be able to see it, word had been floating around for a good amount of time (possibly a year or so) that this movie was great but was only doing limited showings in tours around the country. Eventually it became popular enough that they film website put up a "Demand It" program giving movie goers the opportunity to vote for it to come to their city. I finally saw PA at a 1am showing in times square (it was only showing after midnight in this godforsaken location) on the first night sleeping in my new apartment. Mostly I loved it, the acting was not the best thing on the planet but it was entertaining, suspenseful and definitely had me looking over my shoulder all night once I made it to bed. The most successful thing about this series is that it stays with you in the way a scary movie should, every now and then I think about it and still get a little nervous thinking about what could maybe be happening around me while I am asleep.


Once the trailer appeared for the sequel I was skeptical. They made a hit once and it was everything I wanted it to be, but a sequel could sink very quickly and to my surprise it didnt. I may have enjoyed Paranormal Activity 2 more than the first, I was glad to see more characters involved and that the scares made their way out of just the bedroom and hallways and into more areas of the house. It took less time for things to start happening as well luckily so there wasnt as much time to lose interest. My favorite sorts of scary movies are ones where not much is seen; for example, M.Night's "Signs" is one of my top suspense films, the imagination is far scarier than anything you see or hear. Unfortunately his reveal at the end puts a damper on things but if you stop before the last 10 minutes you can save yourself. PA doesnt use music the way Signs does but it does use sound or the lack thereof to create tension before all hell breaks loose.

Im still not sure how I feel about the ending and I dont know how I'll feel if a third is made either, there are still a few unanswered questions which leaves room for another film. Knowing me I will see it but the stakes are high for failure if they continue, then again I was proven wrong on the sequel...

Paranormal Activity 2
Released 2010
Directed By Tod Williams

A Nightmare on Elm Street (Remake)

I'll pretty much see any horror movie that comes out. I was really drawn into a few scenes depicted in the initial trailer for A Nightmare on Elm Street that look very much like fine art photographs reminiscent of Gregory Crewdson, such as the suburban bedroom filled with snow. The film is a remake of the 1984 classic originally written and directed by Wes Craven, it stays fairly true to the original story. As someone who is from the more gruesome torture and blood driven generation of horror films, I was never a huge fan of the original. Freddy Kreuger was always a little too cheesy in demeanor for me personally, more like that creepy guy on the corner with bad inappropriate jokes than a nightmare haunting murderer. However I can appreciate what he has brought to the genre as a whole.

A Nightmare on Elm Street is based finger knife wielding Fred Kreuger, a former school grounds keeper and accused child molester who was brutally burned alive in an abandoned building by his victims parents. Years later he begins to haunt dreams of teenager who fight for their lives to stay awake once they realize if you die in your dreams you die for real.

As dark as it is, as well as taboo subject matter, I like the Kreuger story. It is reminiscent of old exploitation films that push the boundaries of what could be acceptable subject matter. I did enjoy Jackie Earle Haley's (Shutter Island, Watchmen, Little Children) portrayal of Kreuger, he made the character much darker and less of a jokester than the original making the movie all around a bit scarier and uneasy. The acting was not terrible as long as one goes into it without pretentious expectations and wants to be creeped out and entertained I'd say its worth a watch on a fall night with friends.

A Nightmare on Elm Street
Released 2009
Directed by Samuel Bayer

"You almost knocked over your alcohol with your knife"-Zombieland

Zombieland was in one word, AWESOME. It had everything, action, a decent love story, comedy, great cinematography. The reviews had been really good, basically saying that it was a sleeper from this year and I agree, I think people should really give it a chance even if it isnt their "typical type" of movie they would be into.

The story takes place in a post apocalyptic sort of world where the zombie virus is running rampant (a mad cow mutation of some kind) and causing humans to be outnumbered. We dont learn character names, they are only referred to by their city they are traveling to in order to find any surviving friends or family. Columbus is your typical uptight, nerdy, Michael Cera sort of character who is forced to man up to protect himself in his new found violent world. No longer hiding himself from living life by playing video games in the comfort of his dorm, he sets out to find his family in Ohio. He has a list of rules which he follows to keep himself alive; for example Rule #2 The Double Tap, which is genius because I think at some point we have all watched a horror movie where we wonder why the hell did the character not shoot the "villain" more than once to make sure theyre dead?!

Eventually he meets self proclaimed badass Tallahassee who has lost a loved one and merely searching for a new place to call home and kicking zombie ass and taking names along the way. He also teams up with Wichita and her sister Little Rock who are headed to an amusement park in California that is rumored to be zombie free. Along the way they grow closer, get into danger, find joys in the little things left of human life and blow a ton of zombies apart the whole way.

Sauna

I had wanted to see Sauna a while back and since it is Finnish it took a little for it to show up on DVD. To be completely honest. I didnt get it. I really dont know what happened in this movie but I wish I did. As a photographer, the cinematography is awesome in every way, the colors and vividness of it all reminds me of "Defiance" and "The Village".Sauna takes place in 1595 at the end of the Russian/Swedish war, two Swedish brothers are traveling and plotting the new country borders on a map. The oldest brother has endured this 25 year war and its brutality, the youngest has not and is studying to be a geography professor when he returns. At some point they lock away a young girl and leave her to die, as they get further away from her and happen upon a small undocumented town, the youngest brother is haunted by this girl. In the town they find a big concrete "Sauna", where it is said one can "Wash Your Sins". According to the official site (www.washyoursins.com) the movie is about "sins and repentance".

It is marketed as a horror movie, and some scenes are a bit scary/startling as well as tension filled. Unfortunately there is a lot lost in translation between the Finnish and English subtitles I believe, because when things start getting underway in the film things just stop making sense to me all together. Overall, the movie was beautifully shot and the scary things look awesome and are creepy but there might as well have been no subtitles because I cant even figure out the last half of the movie. Would have made a great photo exhibit of still images though.

"This is huge, this one night changes everything for me" - The House of the Devil

I finished my work day early on this afternoon and had 4hrs to kill. I had been hearing great stuff about The House of the Devil and decided to go check it out.

It was awesome. It is your classic 80's "C" list sort of horror movie but done way better than films from the actual time period. An Official Tribeca film festival selection of 2009, the movie is shot to look as if it were actually made during the rise of the horror genre, the director ran a huge risk of being campy/cheesy in the worst way possible. But it seems like director Ti West knew exactly what he wanted to do and was able to execute it perfectly, I cant imagine it being shot in any other way or taking place in any other time.

The story revolves around a college sophomore, played by Jocelin Donahue, pressed for cash for a new apartment to escape her messy roommate. She miraculously finds a babysitting job posted on campus with only a few days to come up with her first months rent. To her friends reluctance she heads out to the house only to find out that there is no baby and she will in fact be watching and elderly woman. At this point she is offered more money than she needs and knows that she has to take this job despite being misled. Sit around, watch tv, order pizza and wait till midnight. Simple enough. After tons of suspense, bumps in the night start to get to her and things start to really get rolling.

The suspense in the film is well played, there was only a minute or two where I started to get a little antsy but overall I was on edge waiting to jump and I definitely did. I have been a fan of grindhouse/exploitation/C List movies for the last few years and it was awesome seeing a new one that was done right.

Eli Roth Produces "Cotton"

Eli Roth is currently producing a new film coming up called "Cotton". So far its drawing comparisons to Cloverfield, Paranormal Activity and the Blair Witch Project in terms of shooting style. The movie revolves around a priest that has turned away from the church and decides to team up with a documentary crew to film his last exorcism. According to Roth, "In short, Cotton is the scariest script ive read in years". I hope your right Bear Jew...but by the looks of the first released image, he could be onto something.