CORRUPTING THE MIND & ASSAULTING THE SENSES
Halloween Weekend at the Cinemuerte Film Festival
By Kryshan Randel, WriterCat
WARNING: THIS ARTICLE IS NOT FOR THE KITTIES
There are no shortage of film festivals and fast film contests in this town, and no shortage of producers that put on these events to inspire Vancouver's independent filmmakers and film lovers, get their names and businesses known, etc. There is only one person I know, however, that supports and admires a particular brand of filmmaking so much that she puts on a film festival every year knowing that she will lose hundreds, if not thousands of dollars doing it. One woman that programs obscure to completely unknown films according to one main criterion: that she likes it. One woman who buys many of her own prizes, flies in special guests from around the world on her own dime, and organizes everything herself, without a co-producer or assistant, and only a handful of loyal volunteers to help her. That woman is Kier-La Janisse, and the festival is the Cinemuerte Film Festival, devoted exclusively to showcasing horror and fantasy films that range from works to art, to films banned around the world, to solid genre cinema. In my humble opinion, Cinemuerte is the greatest film festival in Vancouver (with the exception of the Vancouver International Film Festival). When it comes to bringing out my inner movie geek, nothing else comes close.
I am a fan of all kinds of films, from animated kid's flicks to art house fare to finely crafted Hollywood fluff, but nothing excites me more than a great horror and/or fantasy film. My favorite films have plenty of CREATIVE GENIUS in them, which is a term I invented in film school to best describe the ingredients of the kind of films I like to watch, and make. The acronym stands for Courageous, Realistic (consistent with the reality the film creates for itself), Emotional, Ambitious, Truthful, Immediate, Vital, Enlightening, Genre-warping/Genre-less, Engrossing, Never-forced, Independent, Uncompromising Storytelling / inner logic. Horror / fantasy fits all that criteria best, not slasher horror and Hollywood fantasy stuff, instead, psychological horror such as Heavenly Creatures, Blue Velvet, The Young Poisoners Handbook, Requiem For A Dream, Clean Shaven, Come And See and Taxi Driver; and one-of-a-kind fantasy such as Donnie Darko, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, The City Of Lost Children and Brazil.
Kier-La knows the horror / fantasy genres inside and out, and since she began Cinemuerte in 1999 (when I was just old enough to legally see this stuff), the festival has introduced me to dozens of extremely well made (often with an emphasis on the extreme) one-of-a-kind films, including Wisconsin Death Trip, Punishment Park, Uzumaki, Dagon, Nekojiro-so, Don't Look Now, Pretty Poison, The Day Of The Beast, Tattoo, Zero Day and the legendary Cannibal Holocaust (banned in over fifty countries). Her festival is also terrific because of her tireless devotion to making the event as, well, eventful as possible for its attendees, including fantastic prizes, special guests, short films, old movie trailers and many many surprises, which this year included an intestine-eating contest, a costume contest, turn-off-your cellphone-or-we'll-slaughter-you ads from George Romero (director, Night Of The Living Dead) and R. Lee Ermey (drill instructor, Full Metal Jacket), and several awesome after-parties. This year's event was even more impressive because she introduced a 48-hour horror filmmaking challenge, and an all-night exploitation marathon. She also organized the entire thing from Texas, where she has been working for the last year as a programmer for the Alamo Drafthouse.
So come with me on a guided tour of Halloween weekend (Oct 29-31), during which I immersed myself in 22 short films, 9 features, dozens of exploitation trailers and three parties. A conventional list of movie reviews will not suffice here, as the films were only a small part of the experience. Reviews are out of five stars.
DAY ONE: FRIDAY
Technically, the day started at midnight, which is when I arrived at The Templeton for The Toolbox Murders after-party. I was there to meet Edwin Neal, the hitchhiker from the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The making of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of the most fascinating behind-the-scenes tales ever, as the film's highly disturbing DVD commentary or the documentary A Family Portrait will confirm. Ed confirmed that all the legends were true and more, and when I found out that he was a Vietnam veteran, the topic switched fairly quickly to war, politics and the then-upcoming election. Ed is a smart and volatile guy – fascinating to talk to.
That evening was the best fast film screening I've ever attended, and I've seen over a dozen screenings for my own event The 24 Hour Film Contest, and three years of Reelfast 48 Hour marathon screenings since they introduced them. The stakes in this town have been raised (pardon the pun); the quality of the films was very high, especially considering that they were all written, shot and edited in 48 hours the weekend before. Highlights of the Bloodshots 48 Hour Film Challenge (****) included Kaare Andrews' zombie epic Dead Inside (suspenseful story and some creepy shocks), Alec and Niall Macneill Richardson's haunted house movie Horrorscope (great special effects and memorable characters), Cliff Prowse and Derek Lee's rape revenge flick No Backing Out (gorgeously photographed, uncompromising content and very intense), and Ashley Fester's creepy kids drama Kaufman's Kids, with Babz Chula (unsettling all the way through – my favorite of all the films). The short I directed, the backwoods-horror-with-a-chainsaw psychological horror film Victim, got a good response – the best comment was that it was "too realistic".
No Backing Out won the Critic's Choice Award, Audience Choice Award and Best Death Scene (in which a rapist gets a shower pole shoved from one orifice to another). Horrorscope won second place for the Critic's Choice. Both teams, along with the winners of other prizes including Most Subversive Use Of Genre, participated in a road rally / scavenger hunt across Vancouver with Edwin Neil (see next paragraph). Robert Rodriguez viewed both films, along with the top two winners from the Austin 48 Hour contest, to determine one winner that would receive a pass to the American Film Market, 50 DVDs of their feature film, poster design from the designer for The White Stripes, and more. An Austin film won. Of course, Kier-La paid for most, if not all of these rewards out of her own pocket.
Back to the scavenger hunt road rally. The co-producer of Victim, Tammy Bannister, got to join the search for miscellaneous items across Vancouver with Edwin Neal of Chainsaw when one of their group members couldn't make it. Here is her brief report: "The road rally was fun and well thought out by Kier-La (How did she find the time?), but did not hold the attention of the very tired and restless filmmakers involved, who in our car were more interested in listening to Ed speak about... anything, rather than find our next clue. Ed provided a great comic backdrop and passed a rule at the beginning of the event that 'no social line be uncrossed!', which gave the young filmmakers a good push toward debauchery. He also told many great anecdotes involving 'Mini Me' Vern Troyer, Robin Williams, and Britney Spears." Wish I had been there.
I missed the next two films that evening, Gusher No Binds Me and The Witch Who Came From The Sea (which I heard were great) so I could host the Bloodshots after party at DV8, and celebrate Vancouver indie filmmaking with my team, the winners, and anyone else who showed up. It was a great night; everyone was tremendously inspired with the films they had made the weekend before, and the all other films they had seen in their horror splendor that night. When Ashley Fester, Alec and Niall, Cliff and Derek, Kaare Andrews, Al Silverman (and Dylan Akio Smith and Cam Labine and Gary Hawes and I know I'm leaving many more talented names out) start making features…watch out. Vancouver will NEVER be the same. You have been warned.
DAY 2: SATURDAY
I began the day with a non-Cinemuerte scary movie double feature. First up was Saw (**), a horror film described as Se7en from the point of view of the victims. The movie was a shallow Hollywood gimmick flick for the most part, with bad acting, a poor script and noisy music video visuals. The film did have a few creepy moments – the jaw trap scene, an evil doll, and an intense (although illogical) ending – but it was still massively overrated given the advance buzz I had heard about it. Next up was The Grudge (**), a Hollywood remake of a Japanese horror film. Again, some creepy visuals, but no originality, no story and forgettable characters. Bring on Cinemuerte!
The exploitation all-nighter didn't technically start until midnight, but I saw the film before it, Satan's Little Helper, to add to the marathon viewing experience. Preceding it was a costume contest judged by audience clapping, and hosted by the director of the film, Jeff Lieberman, who got Helper made due to a fan he met at Cinemuerte several years ago investing in it. About a dozen people wore costumes for the contest, and it was obvious who the winner would be before anyone left our seats. The dude dressed as the kiltsman from Cremaster 3 (with a foot-long tube sticking out of his mouth) got a personally recorded answering machine message from Bruce Campbell (star of the Evil Dead trilogy), a great reward for a full day of makeup and costuming.
Then Satan's Little Helper (***) began. The story revolved around a boy who plays a Satan video game spotting a serial killer wearing a Devil mask, who he thinks is the character from the video game. The young boy helps the boogeyman kill more children, elderly ladies, and everyone in between, thinking that it's all part of a real-life version of the game. This soon-to-be cult discovery was marvelously inventive, fresh and unpredictable from beginning to end, playfully offending everyone and everything, with a TV-movie look and a cheesy bad-Canadian-film style score being its main weaknesses.
The exploitation all-nighter kicked off with Rojo Sangre, or Blood Red (***), a sad tale of revenge written and starring Paul Naschy. The heavily autobiographical film is about an out of work actor who loses his mind, sells his soul to Satan and goes on a killing spree as the villains he has portrayed throughout his career. His main targets are the spoiled young directors and talentless actors of the new Spanish cinema, who consider his days as the Marlon Brando of Spanish cinema over, when they even recognize him. Watching the film, one gets the sense that Naschy is putting his daydreams and revenge fantasies onscreen in all their raw power. Fortunately, he also knows how to tell a story, and director Christian Molina knows how to adapt it to the screen. The film's only main weakness is that Molina overloads the film with as much style as Bram Stoker's Dracula – fancy wipes, point-of-view-of-a-bullet shots, wild coloring schemes, etc. Nice-looking imagery, but often unnecessary. Still, this is Molina's first film, and at the Q & A (unfortunately interrupted by drunken costumed club goers), he confirmed that he wanted to keep his style original, borrow from nobody, and remain as faithful as possible to the writer's vision. I look forward to his future films, and of course, Paul Naschy's, who is stunning in the lead role.
Poor Pretty Eddie, AKA Black Vengeance AKA Redneck County Rape AKA Heartbreak Hotel, (**1/2) sets the record for the number of times during a film that I thought, "that's just wrong!" Here is a film so tasteless, and at times so awful, that it goes beyond simple self-parody into utterly unique funny/scary surrealism (and was it ever trying to be serious or not?). Imagine if Fellini, John Boorman, Ed Wood and Jerry Zucker got drunk and made a backwoods horror rape revenge film together, and you might begin to imagine the atrocities on display here. Shelley Winters as a former beauty surrounded by fawning, possibly inbred, rednecks, including an third-rate Elvis impersonator and Slim Pickens? That's just wrong! The rape scene of a visitor to the inn they live at, intercut with two copulating dogs, with a jolly country music song blaring? That's just wrong! Scenes when the backwoods horror rape revenge film turns into a backwoods horror rape revenge film musical?! That's just wrong! Then there's the ending, during which a wedding turns into a slow motion Peckinpah film, including everyone talking in slow motion, and a gun shooting directly at the screen. This film makes Deliverance look like summer camp.
One Missed Call (**1/2) is the latest from Takashi Miike, the once-great Japanese cult film director whose habit of making about eight films a year is resulting in more and more poor, too-rushed films. His latest film, Izo, was the worst film I saw at The Vancouver International Film Festival, but I haven't lost all hope for him after seeing this, his take on the Spooky-Long-Haired-Ghosts Japanese horror genre. Like the recent Grudge re-make, the film is virtually plotless, with forgettable characters. However, the ghosts are often creatively creepy (e.g. contorting themselves and others, issuing "pretzel deaths"), and there is one set piece that is original and exciting; a live, on-air exorcism that airs during the moment a character is supposed to die. Still, if you want to see the genre at its best, raised to the level of art form, see Pulse. Makes this stuff look like child's play.
Lady Terminator (***) is a bad, bad movie – but one of those bad films that's so bad, it's great with the right audience – and I was certainly with the right audience. This 1988 Indonesian ripoff of The Terminator makes Poor Pretty Eddie look like a work of art – it's indescribably awful all the way through. What makes it fascinating is the way it steals lines, shots and entire scenes from The Terminator, and adds characters and situations beyond the wildest imaginations of many movie parodies. These include ready-to-party middle-aged Indonesian men throughout the film, awful actors saying awful dialogue in an attempt to be American action heroes (the mullet-headed clod Snake shouts out lines like "if it bleeds it dies"), and zero restraint as Lady Terminator kills men with laser beams from her eyes, rounds of ammunition, eels from her private parts and her second life as a decomposed zombie. This film is as much a parody of bad American action movies as Team America is, although it isn't trying to be a parody – in its own warped way, it's trying to imitate their success. Which, sometimes, makes it even funnier.
Shorts that night (and morning) included Unwelcome (***), a wonderfully clever student film about confronting ghosts instead of being scared by them; Experiment 17 (**1/2), a slow but realistic short about a snuff film delivered to a horror fan who doesn't to see want the real thing; and One Hot Rotting Zombie Love Song (***1/2), a hilarious zom-com about zombies that really want to be singers and stand-up comedians. The real in-between highlights, however, were the vintage exploitation trailers, the best of which was Stunt Rock, in which the Spinal-Tap-style band Sorcery (wizards meet headbangers) is intercut with people jumping off cliffs, blowing things up and other death defying footage. 100% concentrated exploitation, before the days of Jackass: The Movie.
All these films have received an extra half star more than I would normally give them, simply because watching them in the context of an all-night marathon, with an enthusiastic, costumed and exploitation-movie-loving audience, made the experience far more communal, engaging and fun! I'm beginning to understand where Quentin Tarantino gets his best ideas from.
DAY 3: SUNDAY
The last day of the festival began with the 1973 TV movie Frankenstein: The True Story (**1/2) in its most uncut version. Clocking in at just over three hours, the film is far too long and dated as a whole, but many individual scenes, performances and images are as good as it gets from any Frankenstein film. The best parts are the scenes featuring a very young Jane Seymour as the second "monster", which are excellent. Overall, the characters are multi-layered, the dialogue is literate, the production design is extraordinary for its time, and the cast is a marvel – but watching this non-stop is like watching a whole TV series in one go, the good episodes not always flowing with the mediocre ones.
The Manson Family (****1/2) was the closing film of the festival, and my five years worth of expectations could not have been any higher. This very independent film about the followers of Charles Manson was sixteen years in the making (half in production and half in post-production), largely because director Jim Van Bebber would not compromise a single frame, continually running out of money until he got it done (Blue Underground finally put in the finishing funds last year, after various workprints were shown at various film festivals for nearly a decade). Was it worth the wait? Did it meet expectations? Oh yes, and then some. The Manson Family is the most accurate and definitive film on the subject, and one of the most uncompromising and terrifying films ever made. The film is determined to show every detail of the family's transformation from flower children to baby-killers, without censorship, from the sex-drugs-and-rock-n'-roll to the orgies, the race wars and the stab wounds. Thankfully, it is also determined to tell as good a story as possible, and provides valuable insight into the dark side of flaky idealism, and deluded hippies always looking for the next thrill. Are there weaknesses? Absolutely. Several of the actors deliver mediocre to awful performances, the exploitation movie dialogue and visual tricks are sometimes distracting, and the film's inclusion of modern day Manson worshippers is often unnecessary. But independent cinema is often about telling stories no one else would dare tell, and getting as close to the truth as possible. In this regard, the film succeeds in spades.
The horrifying Satanic short film preceding it, For Love Of Mother Only (*****), was the best film I saw at the festival, and the most realistic and disturbing tale of demonic possession ever put on film, and yes, that includes The Exorcist. This was due in large part to fearlessly committed performances, brilliant sound design and the perfect ending.The closing night after-party was short after this downer of a double bill.
Kier-La is back in Texas now, after having lost yet another chunk of cash producing yet another terrific event. Thank you Kier-La for another wonderful festival of uncompromising cinema, amazing guests, exploitation madness and one of the best fast film contests ever held in this city.
Looking forward to next year!
For more information on Kier-La and Cinemuerte, go to www.cinemuerte.com, or Ashley Fester's website www.breedproductions.com , which includes a trailer of Celluloid Horror, a feature length documentary Fester directed about the festival. Watch a CBC news report on last year's event at http://zed.cbc.ca/go.ZeD?CONTENT_ID=53728&page=content. For more information about the Bloodshots 48 Hour Film Challenge, go to www.bloodshots.org.
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