Crimson Screens visits a "Hostel", hangs out with the "Vice Squad" and podcasts galore!
Crimson Screens visits a "Hostel", hangs out with the "Vice Squad" and podcasts galore!
Hostel is one of the new breed of horror movies which are seemingly inpspired by the works of Takashi Miike and other over the top Japanese film makers. That is not a bad thing. Those movies usually deal with wild storylines and deal out completely over the top amounts of action, blood and gore. Hostel does the same. Unfortunately, Hostel fails where a lot of those films succeed.
You see, to have a movie where really bad things happen to the characters, for the movie to have any emotion effect on the viewer, we have to care about the characters. In Deliverance, really bad things happened to good people, and we cared because the characters were well drawn and we got to know them before the bad things happened. The same can be said for movies like Halloween and Dawn Of The Dead. Even non horror movies, such as Saving Private Ryan, let us know the characters before the bad things happened. Hostel completely fails to do this.
The first 45 minutes show a group of boys treking across Europe in search of sex, drugs and parties. They find them, oh yes they do. Did you see where i said, "the first 45 minutes"? Good. Because it baffles me to as how I watched these guys for half the movie and I did not care about them at all. Actually, the first half of the movie seems like one of those 80's teen sex comedies that we all love. And them the movie quickly turns into a hideous display of death. The characters are lured to a 'Hostel' where they are promised wild sex and similar joys, but unfortunately for them, it is a cover for a business who has people coming from all over, and paying to experience what it is like to kill someone. The movie picks up pace for a while, but once the survivors escape, it turns into a prolonged and boring cat and mouse chase. It seems to me like after the survivors made is out of the Hostel, he didn't know how to tie this movie up and end it.
This was directed by Eli Roth, who also directed the entertaining Cabin Fever. He is a horror fan and that is quite ovbious. And from what I have read, he is a good dude, and I am one hundred percent sure that he has a genuine horror classic in hime somewhere, waiting to be made. But this is just not it. Sorry dude.
As for the gore factor, it has been a long time since the mainstream screens were splashed with grue of this calibre. The victims just don't die quickly, the suffer long screaming deaths and we see all of it. Characters are sliced and diced with knives, guns chainsaws and even a train! It is all pretty graphic and its not often we see shit like this in regular theatres. But, by and far, the most unsettling thing I have seen in the theatre in years is the part with the woman and her dangling eyeball. Yikes! I've always feared eyeball violence and that part was just tough to watch. I won't say that about much either. Anyways, a average movie with great gore that could have been better, had we cared about the characters.
Vice Squad was always one of those movies that you could read about everywhere, about how great it was, but it was hard to find, seeing as it was out of print on video for years. Luckily, I found a copy of it and ever since it's been one of my favorites. It is about a crazed pimp who spends the duration of the movie, which takes place in one night, chasing after a hooker who ratted him out for killing another hooker. This movie would have been crap but it is moved up to great status by the performance of Wings Hauser as the crazed pimp, Ramrod. He becomes completely obsessed with getting the girl who ratted him out. He screams, he yells, he takes on rooms full of police and escapes and he beats people with a wire hanger. All of this is convincingly partrayed by Wings Hauser, who starred in many 80's action and horror titles. Had the role of Ramrod been given to a less capable actor, the movie would have failed. The other actors aren't shabby either, especially the ones who play the various hookers, as their descriptions and reactions to Ramrod only help to show how feared he is.
This movie has long been hailed as one of the lost early exploitation classics, which it is, and now thanks to DVD, it can be seen by everyone.
This is such a great movie, with many memorable lines and scenes. I think action movies these days should take lessons from movies like this. It doesn't have to be 90 minutes of explosions and multi million dollars of effects. Just get a good storyline, some characters we care about and some action, nothing absurb, and then you got a hit. True story.
Recently, I got an iPod, mainly to consolidate my enormous CD collection. I knew nothing about the added stuff for them. Well, just the other day I was reading about them and I read about podcasts, which are basically self made segments, kind of like a talk show, which anyone can make and post on the internet. The best part is that they are free. After some investigation, I found a lot of them for topics that I like. One of which is horror movies. So far, the best three, which come in weekly installments, are Mondo Movie, The Horror Podcast and The Infected Sound. Mondo Movie and The Horror Podcast are out of the UK and are quite informative and fun to listen to. It took a while to get used to their british accents, but all is good now. The Infected Sound is a similar show, but it is out of the US. It takes a lot less serious tone though, which is ok. lots of juvenile humor and laughs. I'll keep listening.
Ok, that is all I have for today. There will be more tomorrow, with a guest review.
E
Hostel is one of the new breed of horror movies which are seemingly inpspired by the works of Takashi Miike and other over the top Japanese film makers. That is not a bad thing. Those movies usually deal with wild storylines and deal out completely over the top amounts of action, blood and gore. Hostel does the same. Unfortunately, Hostel fails where a lot of those films succeed.
You see, to have a movie where really bad things happen to the characters, for the movie to have any emotion effect on the viewer, we have to care about the characters. In Deliverance, really bad things happened to good people, and we cared because the characters were well drawn and we got to know them before the bad things happened. The same can be said for movies like Halloween and Dawn Of The Dead. Even non horror movies, such as Saving Private Ryan, let us know the characters before the bad things happened. Hostel completely fails to do this.
The first 45 minutes show a group of boys treking across Europe in search of sex, drugs and parties. They find them, oh yes they do. Did you see where i said, "the first 45 minutes"? Good. Because it baffles me to as how I watched these guys for half the movie and I did not care about them at all. Actually, the first half of the movie seems like one of those 80's teen sex comedies that we all love. And them the movie quickly turns into a hideous display of death. The characters are lured to a 'Hostel' where they are promised wild sex and similar joys, but unfortunately for them, it is a cover for a business who has people coming from all over, and paying to experience what it is like to kill someone. The movie picks up pace for a while, but once the survivors escape, it turns into a prolonged and boring cat and mouse chase. It seems to me like after the survivors made is out of the Hostel, he didn't know how to tie this movie up and end it.
This was directed by Eli Roth, who also directed the entertaining Cabin Fever. He is a horror fan and that is quite ovbious. And from what I have read, he is a good dude, and I am one hundred percent sure that he has a genuine horror classic in hime somewhere, waiting to be made. But this is just not it. Sorry dude.
As for the gore factor, it has been a long time since the mainstream screens were splashed with grue of this calibre. The victims just don't die quickly, the suffer long screaming deaths and we see all of it. Characters are sliced and diced with knives, guns chainsaws and even a train! It is all pretty graphic and its not often we see shit like this in regular theatres. But, by and far, the most unsettling thing I have seen in the theatre in years is the part with the woman and her dangling eyeball. Yikes! I've always feared eyeball violence and that part was just tough to watch. I won't say that about much either. Anyways, a average movie with great gore that could have been better, had we cared about the characters.
Vice Squad was always one of those movies that you could read about everywhere, about how great it was, but it was hard to find, seeing as it was out of print on video for years. Luckily, I found a copy of it and ever since it's been one of my favorites. It is about a crazed pimp who spends the duration of the movie, which takes place in one night, chasing after a hooker who ratted him out for killing another hooker. This movie would have been crap but it is moved up to great status by the performance of Wings Hauser as the crazed pimp, Ramrod. He becomes completely obsessed with getting the girl who ratted him out. He screams, he yells, he takes on rooms full of police and escapes and he beats people with a wire hanger. All of this is convincingly partrayed by Wings Hauser, who starred in many 80's action and horror titles. Had the role of Ramrod been given to a less capable actor, the movie would have failed. The other actors aren't shabby either, especially the ones who play the various hookers, as their descriptions and reactions to Ramrod only help to show how feared he is.
This movie has long been hailed as one of the lost early exploitation classics, which it is, and now thanks to DVD, it can be seen by everyone.
This is such a great movie, with many memorable lines and scenes. I think action movies these days should take lessons from movies like this. It doesn't have to be 90 minutes of explosions and multi million dollars of effects. Just get a good storyline, some characters we care about and some action, nothing absurb, and then you got a hit. True story.
Recently, I got an iPod, mainly to consolidate my enormous CD collection. I knew nothing about the added stuff for them. Well, just the other day I was reading about them and I read about podcasts, which are basically self made segments, kind of like a talk show, which anyone can make and post on the internet. The best part is that they are free. After some investigation, I found a lot of them for topics that I like. One of which is horror movies. So far, the best three, which come in weekly installments, are Mondo Movie, The Horror Podcast and The Infected Sound. Mondo Movie and The Horror Podcast are out of the UK and are quite informative and fun to listen to. It took a while to get used to their british accents, but all is good now. The Infected Sound is a similar show, but it is out of the US. It takes a lot less serious tone though, which is ok. lots of juvenile humor and laughs. I'll keep listening.
Ok, that is all I have for today. There will be more tomorrow, with a guest review.
E
posted by Crimson Screens at 2:15 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home