THE SACRAMENT (2014)

THE SACRAMENT (2014)

Label: Magnet Relesing
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 99 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 with Optional English, Spanish Subtitles 
Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.78:1) 
Director: Ti West 
Cast: AJ Bowen, Joe Swanberg, Kentucky Audley, Amy Seimetz, Gene Jones

Director Ti West has made quite a name for himself since coming onto the indie--horror scene with The Roost (2005) and the one-two punch of The House of the Devil (2009) and The Inn Keepers (2009). I'm a fan of his style and the meticulously composed shots with a deliberate build-up. I even love the maligned Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever (2009) which West disowned when producers re cut the film with additional footage, even with it's problems it's a fun, gooey comedy with a lot of icky moments. 

Afterward Ti West kept busy with contributions to the anthology films V/H/S (2012) and The ABCs of Death (2012) both of which I strongly disliked, particularly the V/H/S entry which I felt was the worst of the bunch. Coming into The Sacrament (2014) I didn't have a lot of expectations one way or the other. I try not to get too excited or down on a film prior to watching it, even if I feel the filmmakers previous few outings were duds. The proof is always in the pudding. 

The Sacrament is a modern retelling of the final days of the Jonestown cult and the mass suicide that occurred there in 1978. Framed as a documentary shot by two VICE Media correspondents Sam and Jake (AJ Bowed, Joe Swanberg) who learn through photographer friend  Peter (Kentucky Audler) of a hippie-styled commune located outside of the United States. The photographers formerly drug-addicted sister Caroline (Amy Siemetz) now resides in what sounds like a Utopian paradise in the jungle and she wants him to come visit. 

The brother is concerned for the sisters safety and the VICE guys see it as a great story opportunity and set off to the undisclosed location. They arrive at the rural location known as Eden's Parish, a self-sustaining commune. After a threatening encounter with armed gunmen the trio meet-up with Caroline and things start to smooth out. The place seems pretty alright and the two hundred or so followers seem well adjusted and happy to be there, most having escaped lives of poverty and drug addiction in the U.S.. They seem quite happy to be there and follow a man that everyone calls Father (Gene Jones).

The film plays out documentary style with time stamps and location titles as the crew document the cult and interview a few of the followers of the beloved Father. Perhaps the strongest element of the film is that we get a peek inside the cult and a taste of the mentality as the followers reveal why they chose to drop out of society and what drew them to Father. 

The crew are granted permission to interview Father that night at an assembly and we see the overwhelming love and support  for him from the many followers. Gene Jones is pretty superb as the charismatic cult leader. A slow drawn out speaker he oozes charm and love, which makes it hard to interview him, he's one of those guys that can turn your question around on you twice and never once actually reveal anything. 

After the assembly things start to turn a bit dark for it seems the newcomers have created a movement of descent among his followers and Father is none too pleased. Anyone with even a cursory knowledge of the events and Jonestown know the direction the film turns afterward. The story held absolutely no surprises  for me which is a disappointment - this is pretty much a straight-up fictionalized account of the Jonestown cult's final days and doesn't stray from it.

That's not to say that the performances are not effective - the dynamic of the cult followers and the charismatic leader are very good, creepily so. The VICE crew keep us rooted in the story as they are a stand-in for the viewer playing both skeptic and cautious believer. To their credit they didn't make any decisions that made me yell at the screen in anger which is a plus, all too often these found footage type films are filled with dim witted decisions. The most harrowing scene for me was that of Peter and his demented sister at the end of the film, he is powerless to stop what's transpiring around him, it's a very affecting scene. Throughout the film you  can tell she's just a bit off - she's sort of the second in command at the parish - and as the utopia unravels so does she with tragic consequences. 

The camerawork is pretty decent and does feel like an authentic documentary, as is often the case the camera catches a bit too much to be based in reality but the filmmakers are making a film here and Ti West is someone with a deliberate style of cinematography and I can imagine it might have been hard to relinquish control of the camera for this as cinema verite seem at odds with West's deliberate composition, to that end does not feel like a Ti West film but the writing certainly does.  

I enjoyed it but I didn't love it just for the fact that I knew what would happen because it'd so adherent to the source material meant that there were very few surprises. I appreciated the performances and there's some decent tension being built-up but this has zero re watch factor for me. I thought Timo Tjahjanto and Gareth Edward's "Safe Haven" segment from V/H/S/2 was a more interesting and original take on cult story. Not awful but definitely my least favorite of Ti West's feature films. 

The disc from Magnet Releasing looks and sounds great - shot on the Canon C300 digital camera is looks like a a nive HD documentary with a decent surround mix. There's a director's commentary a four featurettes documenting the making-of the film. 

DVD Review: THE ABCs OF DEATH (2013)

THE ABCs OF DEATH (2013)

Label: Magnolia Home Entertainment
Region Code: 1 NTSC
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 130 Minutes
Audio: 5.1 Dolby Digital
Video: 16:9 Widescreen (1.78:1)
Directors: Bruno Forzani, Helene Cattet, Kaare Andrews, Angela Bettis, Adrian Bogliano, Jason Eisner, Ernesto Diaz Espinoza, Xavier Gens Noboru Iguchi, Thomas Malling, Jorge Michel Grau, Anders Morgenthaler, Yoshihiro Nishimura, Jbanjong Pisanthanakun, Simon Rumley, Marcel Sarmiento, Jon Schnepp, Srdjan Spasojevic, Timo Tjahjanto, Andrew Traucki, Nacho Vigalondo, Jake West, Ti West, Ben Wheatley, Adam Wingard, Yudai Yamaguchi
Tagline: 26 Directors, 26 Ways to Die 

Synopsis: AN ALPHABETICAL ARSENAL OF DESTRUCTION. This explosive film is comprised of 26 individual “chapters” on the topic of death, each helmed by a different director assigned to a specific letter of the alphabet. Provocative, funny and shocking, this anthology is the definitive vision of modern horror diversity. Get ready to learn your ABCs!

Gotta love the anthology format, there's a long tradition of it in horror cinema and this is a pretty unique concept hatched by Drafthouse Films Tim League and New Zealand based producer Any Timpson. we get 26 directors each taking on a letter of the alphabet pushing us towards the idea of death in some cinematic fashion. Like most anthologies there's a few stinkers in the bunch and given that there are 26 entries I would say that the ratio of awesome to stinkers in the bunch is pretty fucking low. Yeah, it's a bit of a disappointment overall but there's some blood-soaked entries worth sifting through the chaff to discover. So, without spoiling too much lets have a brief look at each of the entries with a letter grade for each, seems only appropriate for the ABCs OF DEATH...

A appropriately enough  stands for "Apocalypse" from director Nacho Vigalondo

who brought us the fantastic Spanish labguage time travelling thriller TIMECRIMES (2007) and it's my favorite of the bunch. In it a rather unhappy wife vents her frustration on her long suffering husband before the end prematurely and finally comes, this is a great start. A+ 

B is another neat one, this time a Spanish language chiller from director Adrian Garcia Bogliana (PENUMBRA) involving two horny teenagers and a not-very-sleepy young lady who interrupts their amorous nighttime pursuits  They relay a gruesome bedtime tale about a child-murdering abominable snowman who eats the hearts of children whom don't fall asleep at an appropriate hour. C

C is for "Cycle" and Spanish cinema is thriving with ABC's, director Ernesto Diaz Espinoza's (MANDRILL) temporal mystery-thriller should definitely appeal to fans of Nacho Vigalondo's TIMECRIMES (2007), need to check out more of Espinoza's filmography after enjoying this vignette. B

D is for "Dogfight" from Marcel Sarmiento the director of DEAD GIRL (2008) and this one churned my guts just based on the loathsome subject matter alone, the cruelty of dog fighting, but fear not this one does not glamorize nor condone the inhumane "sport", it's brutal there's a nice twist at the end which redeems this sweaty and violent entry. So far, we're just a few segments in and the score is four for four and I am completely into the ABCs of DEATH. A


E is for "Exterminate" comes to us from longtime Lucky McKee collaborator Angela Bettis (MAY). You recall her weird thriller ROMAN from a few years back which had her directing Mckee. This entry pertains to a man with a persistent arachnid infestation whom suffers from skin irritations and a constant ringing in his ears, not one of the more memorable entries in my opinion but it definitely got under my skin so to speak. E

F is for "Fart" from the director of THE MACHINE GIRL (2008) Noboru Iguchi and is the start of several Asian entries that are just beyond words, this one is a fart-fueled lesbian fantasy and the first to feel completely out of place here, not a fan of this flatulent fantasy. F

G is for "Gravity" from Andrew Traucki is seen from the POV of someone surfing who seems to have given up on life, another sub-standard entry that just fails to coalesce into anything worth watching, starting to get worried. F

H is for "Hydro-Electric Diffusion" from NORWEGIAN NINJA (2009) director Thomas Malling, a Nazi-exploitation of furry fandom-ism, a weird fantasy-nightmare that plays out like a dirty minded WWII-era Loony Toons propaganda film featuring a humanoid dog-headed pilot and a stripper-fox. Very strange but quite entertaining. B

I is for "Ingrown" from Mexican filmmaker Jorge Michael Grau and it's a painful one as a woman bound and gagged in bathtub is poisoned by a man with a syringe with a caustic compound, it's not terrible but the limitations of the format I think hurt this one a bit. C

J is for "Jidai-geki" (Samurai Move) from Yuda Yamaguchi (MEATBALL MACHINE) is a short one involving ritual suicide beheading, not much of a point to this one but it's bloody. D

K is for Klutz from Scandinavian filmmaker Anders Morgenthalleris the first animated short, the entire short is about a turd that's hard to shit out and even harder to flush with deadly consequences, at times it reminded me of the "Wadzilla" segment from CHILLERAMA. C

L is for "Libido" from Timo Tjahjanto (V/H/S/2) and let me just say, oh those fucked-up kinky Asians!  A bizarre and deadly contest of masturbation and self-restraint, this one is just weird and demented. C

M is for "Miscarriage" which comes from indie-darling Ti West (INNKEPPERS), I do enjoy all of West's feature films but this like his mediocre short on V/H/S is a misfire, this short is DOA. F

N is for"Nuptials" from SHUTTER (2004) director Banjong Pisanthanakum and is a fun bit of comedy as a man proposes to his girlfriend just as his pet parrot repeats quotations the young man has uttered to his mistress which leads to trouble, a fun entry. C

O is for "Orgasm" from the French film making duo of Bruno Forzani and Helene Cattet who directed AMER (2009) which I have yet to see. It's a stylized and sensual entry more suited to an erotic exploration like DESTRICTED (2010) but it's really out of place here, a sensual and titillating provocation, this is the ABCs OF DEATH not the ABCs OF EROTICISM. E

P is for "Pressure" from Simon Rumley of RED, WHITE AND BLUE and it's a crush-fetish video vignette, a desperate woman resorts to making crush videos with a cute kitty, that's it. E

Q is for "Quack" which comes from V/H/S alumnus Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett.  At first this vignette annoyed the shit outta me, a very hip and ironic entry as the filmmakers struggle to come with an idea for the letter "Q" finally arriving at the idea f shooting a snuff film with a duck, at the end I was won over, fun stuff. C

R is for "Removed" from A SERBIAN FILM director Srdjan Spasojevic is not for the squeamish, not surprising considering if you've seen A SERBIAN FILM, in it a man has his skin surgically removed, creating a fleshy 35mm strip of celluloid which is fed into a camera, this is a gory entry and becomes quite blood-soaked and pretty gross, too. C

S is for "Speed" from Jake West, the director of EVIL ALIENS, two amped-up women on the run from a hooded figure in a high stakes game of cat and mouse. What we get here are two smoking hot women, a menacing Death figure, a sweet muscle car, a kick ass flame thrower and a rather depressing anti-drug story and probably the best entry since the letter "D" for "Dogfight" and  bit of an upswing after a fairly pedestrian mid section. B

T is for "Toilet" from Lee Hardcastle who created a series of shorts called "Done in 60 Seconds. With Clay", your favorite horror films in 60 seconds done with claymation, be sure to check 'em out! This claymation entry features a young boy who fears using the toilet which confounds his parents, the boys nightmares feature a toothsome and acid-blooded shitter, in reality what he should fear is something  more mundane, a loose screw. B

U is for "Unearthed" from KILL LISTS' Ben Wheatley and continues the latter third streak awesomeness for the anthology after a weak midsection, a POV of someone afflicted with either vampyrism, lycanthropy or possession (not sure which) pursued by an angry mob, it has some decent gore and great energy to it, good stuff. A-

V is for "Vagitus" from Kaare Andrews who is an artist/writer for Marvel Comics in addition to directing the 2010 thriller ALTITUDE which was a bit generic, this however is a sci-fi dystopian actioner, in the future the government strictly controls fertility, a military branch aided by armed-robots enforces the law of the land with deadly force, we're thrust into a bloody battle with procreating "rebels" whom have para-psychic abilities. This was a high energy entry with some great sci-fi futuristic visuals, at the end I was hungering for a feature length film, that's a good sign. A

W is for "WTF!" from director Jon Schnepp who comes from fromAdult Swims  METOCALYPSE and VENTURE BROS. so it night not be a surprise that this segment  is an acid-tinged psychotic mind melter, an apocalyptic mind-numbing mix of live action and animation, a film within a film and completely unhinged. Not sure WTF! was happening but I feared I might slip into convulsions so much crazy shit was happening, it was obnoxious and absurd but not great. C

X is for "XXL"from Frenchman Xavier Gens of FRONTIER(S) features a heavy-set woman going about her day as she is ridiculed for her weight and subjected to advertisements geared towards thin women, she arrives home and binges on greasy slop, forces herself to vomit and jumps in the shower where she carves herself into the ideal woman. This is another one not for the squeamish as she slices of rolls of fat, be warned, there's lots of self mutilation, a sad trip indeed. B

Y is for "Youngbuck" from HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN's Jason Eisner, it begins with an older man teaching a young boy how to hunt deer, he's a creepy guy. It turns out he's a janitor at a school and after the boys basketball team finishes up practice he creepily licks the sweat from the benches the boys were sitting on. There's some implication of molestation going on here, not exactly sure but the boy attacks the old man with the decapitated deer's head, piercing the elderly sweat-licker's eyes with it's antlers. Loved the 80's synth score on this one. A

Z is for "Zetsummetsu" (Extinction) from TOKYO GORE POLICE's Yoshihiro Nishimura continues a streak of bizarre Asian entries with the ABCs ending it with a maggot ingested orgasm of Japanese Nazi kink with the bonus of a vaginal potato canon, loads of nudity and references to Dr. Strangelove, weird and gross, sorta fun.  C

Special Features:

- A: A, B, C, D, F, H, I, J, P, R, T, V, W, Z - An offering of Behind the Scenes, Making ofs and Deleted Scenes

- B: AXS TV: A look at 'The ABCs of Death'

- C: Filmmaker Commentary (Over 30 Filmmakers)

- D: Do You Know Your ABCs Trailer

Verdict: Hmm, wanted to enjoy this unique alphabetical anthology from start to finish but going in I just knew it would be a bit too much of everything  there's too much input, too many directors, it's overwhelming and uncohesive.  It turns out I was right, this is all over the map and it's about a 60/40 split with the turds winning out over the righteous. I give this a weak recommend if only because there's some actual  good stuff here but you're gonna have to whack away at the weeds for awhile to get to 'em. There's a little bit of everything here, something to offend, a few gross outs, and even a few stand-outs, just be prepared to skip around a bit.  2.5 Outta 5 

 

BLU-RAY REVIEW: MONSTERS (2010)

MONSTERS (2010)

Special Edition + Digital Copy [Blu-ray]

LABEL: Magnolia Pictures
REGION CODE: Region 1
RATING: R
DURATION: 94 Min.
DIRECTOR: Gareth Edwards
CAST: Kaulder Scoot McNairy, Sam Whitney Able
TAGLINE: After Six Years. They're No Longer Aliens. They're Residents.

PLOT: Six years ago NASA discovered the possibility of alien life within our solar system. A probe was launched to collect samples, but crashed upon re-entry over Central America. Soon after, new life forms began to appear there and half of Mexico was quarantined as an INFECTED ZONE.Today, the American and Mexican military still struggle to contain "the creatures"... Our story begins when a US journalist agrees to escort a shaken American tourist through the infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the US border

FILM: It seems NASA and their exploration of space have completely fucked over the people of Earth by carelessly collecting samples of a alien life from Jupiter's moon Europa which promptly burns up in the atmosphere upon re-entry and spreads an alien organism over the northern Mexican territories and six days later Lovecraftian neon-octopi sprout forth. It's been six years and the creatures have taken over pretty much all of northern Mexico and both borders are heavily fortified and guarded by the Mexican and United States Armed Forces.  Down Mexico way Andrew (Scoot McNairy) is a freelance photojournalist out to make a name for himself by documenting the infected zone but he's been reluctantly assigned to guide the boss's injured daughter Samantha (Whitney Able) out of the increasingly dangerous area. His assignment is to get Samantha to a ship leaving for the United States in two days time. Hopping a train they arrive at the coastal city there and buy a ticket for the ferry.  All is going according to plan and the two make a night on the town but their drunken shenanigan cause her to miss the boat the next morning, which just happened to be the last transport before the navy quarantined the area. With few options left they resort to hiring a band of  gun-toting smugglers who will guide them through the infected zone to the US border. The adventure is frought with danger and takes them up a river and through other exotic Mexican jungle locations. Adding to the sense of realism to the film Edwards has populated the landscape with some rather nifty scenes of war-torn destruction that adds an element of urgency to the film.

I think anyone going into MONSTERS (2010) hoping for a GODZILLA type giant creatures on the attack film might be sorely disappointed though this is actually a bit like a mumblecore version CLOVERFIELD (2008). The film is focused on our two young human characters as their relationship goes from tenuous partnership through the infected zone to something more meaningful - that's right, at it's heart Monsters is indeed a love story. This may turn off  some viewers as it's a pretty subtle evolution and not overly dynamic either. For a film titled Monsters this is a quiet and very human-centric film. I knew going in this would be more a road film than a creature feature but I couldn't help want for more action, more intensity mostly due to the fact that I found the creatures to be so intriguing. The creatures are there but more in the background and not explored enough in my opinion. Monsters is less a post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller than it is a meandering travelogue through Mexico peppered with well-acted subtle human drama, some striking visuals and the occasional creature encounter.

DVD: MONSTERS comes to Blu-ray in a great looking 16:9 enhanced 2:35:1aspect ratio. The film is gorgeous in eye-popping 1080p with a DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround. Though the film is not overly bombastic the surrounds are well utilized and give a real sense of depth to the proceedings particularly in the jungles settings as you find yourself surrounded by the sounds of nature and the eerie alien trilling sound. Not only is there a wealth of bonus content but a digital copy of the film as well.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

- Audio Commentary with Gareth Edwards, Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able

- Deleted and Extended Scenes (20:07)
- Behind the Scenes of Monsters (1:09:15)

- Monsters: The Edit (21:31)
- Visual Effects (34:56)

- Interview with Gareth Edwards (44:16)

- Interview with Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able (28:04)

- New York Comic Con Discussion with Gareth Edwards (5:02)
- HDNet: A Look at Monsters (4:40) .

- Trailers: Ong Bak 3, All Good Things, Night Catches Us, Vanishing on 7th Street, Rubber

VERDICT: Like DISTRICT 9 I found MONSTERS is an interesting take on the alien invasion genre, it's almost entirely character driven and despite it's moniker delivers precious few creatures encounters but when they do show on screen up it's thrilling stuff. I give this a recommend with the caveat that you should be aware that this is not a thrills-a-minute alien apocalypse tale this is something more subtle and rooted in the human struggle following an alien infestation. Up next for director Gareth Edwards is a new GODZILLA film, natch.  ***1/2 (3.5 out of 5 stars)