Anyway, I decided to go to the opening night film, The Collection, against my better judgement. The trailer looked pretty blah. It was a sequel to a film that was only pretty decent. Based on the trailer, it just looked to slick for its own good. I went hoping to have my expectation dashed. I did like the original, though it wasn't great. The film was written and directed by the original's writer/director, Marcus Dunstan (Feast), so that was a plus. Also, it had a good word of mouth from Fantastic fest. So I gave it a shot.
I was pleasantly….. disappointed. It was exactly as the trailer painted it out to be. Over produced, over lit, over done so much that it erased any horror, scares, or jumps that it could have had. You know those moments where something jumps out and goes boo and the soundtrack explodes to like 100 decibels. Even those moments were not effective because they happened at exactly the point you expected them to happen. The film had absolutely no sense of pacing.
The director summed it up in the Q&A pretty well. He said that it was influenced by Dario Argento's Inferno, in fact the hotel in the film where the characters are trapped is called Hotel Argento. He said it was like inferno but with more lights and more action. Yup, that's kinda accurate. I might say that it is inferno with no sense of pacing, or inferno without the sense of the nightmare flow and logic, or inferno without the sense of style. I could keep going, but I won't. Yes, like the director said, it is over lit. Every scene looks lit up like a Hollywood film which doesn't help the horror. I wanted to like it. Marcus, the director, was bountifully energetic, full of positivity and obviously working in a genre he loves. He sat in front of me during the screening. His hands clasped in front of him. When the audience reacted by cheering, he too cheered. He was like a kid. I just wish that translated to the big screen. The first Collector film was better than I expected and I like the Feast movies that he wrote. So I think he has talent. It just didn't translate onto the screen for this one.
The film starts off with these young sexy girls going to a club in a back alley with a secret password. Our killer has plans. He wants to kill everyone in the dance club. It's a massacre a'la the 13 Ghosts remake with a combine engine dropping from the ceiling and mowing everyone down. Meanwhile the main character from the last movie, Arkin manages to escape from the clutches of the killer during this massacre. The Collector always takes one trophy from his adventures, so he snatches up Elena whom we met at the start of the movie. The rest is Arkin assisting some private investigation team to help find Elena. They track The Collector to the Hotel Argento. Once inside, this is where the rest of the movie takes place. Lots of traps and over the top action. Just no real sense of scares or pacing.
After a disappointing opening night film, I made my way to the Cinefamily to check out there Halloween Blacklight poster exhibit. I think I got a contact high from just walking into the place. The auditorium was filled with fog presumedly from a fog machine. The projector beam cast patterns of light through the haze. It was dark. About 50 people sat upright in their seats staring at the screen like attentive prairie dogs. There were disembodied heads projected onto the screen - Flashes of blurring light - The faces tearing apart and blending back together. A droning from the walls. Why was everyone so silent. I swear they were sitting up so straight and stiff that it just seemed unnatural. I felt like I had walked off the streets into a hazy dream. Was I sleeping or awake.
I made my way upstairs to the backlight exhibit. Again, the room was filled with smoke. It was a small space of about 12' x 20'. A table in the middle with munchie treats. Everyone's teeth glowed purple. Shoe laces shined. Anything white pulsed with the purplish glow of the blacklight. Wearwolves with sickles, glowing red eyes, cats staring, psychedelic green collages. All was for sale. So this is the upstairs at the cinefamily. I browsed through all the posters, but had to move on for food.
I went to Canter's Deli to tank up on some coffee so I would have enough gas to get through the midnight Video Nasty, Xtro. Had the usual - Matzah ball soup. Drank 2 cups of coffee. Checked the phone to see that the St. Louis Cardinals had come back to beat the Cincinnati Reds. So I was in a bit of a sour mood.
The crowd was packed for Xtro. The event sold out. Good thing I reserved my tickets in advanced. This is one of the films I have most been looking forward to seeing in the Video Nasties series. It's one of those films that I may or may not have seen as a kid. I remember images from the film, so I think I saw it, but then after watching it this time I'm not so sure. I mean, I would remember the midget clown killer wouldn't I. That's pretty freaking unforgettable.
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| She's expecting any time now. |
This is truly a Holy-Fucking-Shit film. A film you watch and just can't believe what you are seeing. Hadrian, the head programmer's theory was that at one point it may have been a somewhat straight forward coherent story. Then at some point they brought in a bunch of stoner writers who just came up with some bizarre shit so you get this movie that just goes off into some odd directions. I don't want to spoil anything, so see it for yourself. I absolutely drank it up and when I got to the bottom of the cup I wanted more. Its pretty unforgettable. It's basically an alien abduction film. Child's father is abducted. The father returns years later, but is it the child's father…. The rest is just pure insanity. You must see this film if you ever get the opportunity.
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