Museo del horror

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Sawney : Flesh of Man

Sawney : Flesh of Man

(aka; Lord of Darkness)

Directed by: Ricky Wood

Horror, 90min

UK, 2012

500 years ago a cannibalistic clan roamed the Scottish highlands. Dwelling deep underground they where said to have slain and eaten over 1000 victims until they where all rounded up and put to death, all but one...

Ricky Wood Jnr. opens his first feature film with ye Olde based on true story gimmick before cutting to 1990 and a cold winter Highlands, where a first of two initial attacks establish that there’s still some monstrosity roaming the hills. The first is an off screen birth of what we can understand to be a monster baby and then the poor bloke who was driven all that distance from the city out into the back end of nowhere has his head blown off. Cut to cheesy metal ban at Halloween party… Charlotte walks out on her druggy boyfriend and walks home all alone in the wee hours of the morning… a black cab arrives… get’s in, it rocks, she screams – cut to funeral.

Two somewhat unclear initial attacks to establish the “antagonists of the film” may be confusing, but all makes sense as the film splatters itself into the last act in about an hour’s time. It also creates a rather curious line of questions of who the real antagonist of the piece is…

Bring on regional crime journo Hamish MacDonald [Samuel Feeney] who’s written and gone to print with a piece on the macabre murder, mutilation and ritualistic arrangement of Charlottes body when it was found by the police a few days after her death… Police inspector Bill Munro [Gavin Mitchel] grows sick of MacDonald’s slanderous articles published in The Scottish Chronicle approaches MacDonald with some grim facts that nobody but the police knew and Hamish is sent off on a wild chance to expose a secret that has been hidden in the highlands for decades. Hamish search takes him into the belly of the beast where he comes face to face with Sawney [David Hayman], the offspring of the legendary cannibal family!

Just as so many other genre flicks get their kicks from vague connection to authenticity so does Sawney : Flesh of Man. Although in this case the backstory is as far back as the 15th century and the stories of clan leader Alexander Sawney Bean, a legendary character who, with his almost fifty men and women large clan, roamed the area of Ballantrae for almost a quarter of a century, robbing, murdering and eating their unfortunate victims. It’s told that they killed over a thousand people and that even King James IV took part in the 400 people manhunt that took place to track the clan down before bringing them to justice. Heavy shit and a great source for a horror film!

Sawney : Flesh of Man uses something of a classic investigation plot to tell its tale, although it kind of backfires as we already know who and what is responsible for the violent deeds… or at least so we think. There are some effective surprise twists hidden along the way that manage to make the last act pick up and make this a pretty neat horror thriller

On the down side, a really silly fight scene where two of the mutant monsters act out a series of choreographed martial arts moves totally punctured any kind of atmosphere that the film had built up to this point.

At the end of the day, David Hayman’s grand performance as the sinister Sawney Bean is what leaves the best impression; dark, quirky, disturbing and fun. Think Texas Chainsaw Massacre, think The Hills have Eyes, think snoopy investigator on random TV show and you have Sawney : Flesh of Man, a badass thriller with a bloodlust that goes way off the scale. With its impressive,  highly graphic effects and loads of sickening gore that will offend sensitive viewers, Sawney : Flesh of Man is most certainly Blood and Guts in the Scottish Highlands! 

Maniac

Maniac

Directed by:  Franck Khalfoun

Horror, 2012

France/USA, 93 min

Of all the films to remake why pick one of the dirtiest, sleaziest, vilest mothers of violent films of all time? Why step into the realm of the majestic Joe Spinell, and even try to remake a gritty classic that stands firm on it’s own exploitative values? I’d go as far as claiming that Bill Lustig’s original Maniac is an institution! So why remake a masterpiece?

Sound familiar? Sound like the same discussions we have every time one of our favorite “olden Goldie’s” is rehashed, pimped and dolled up for a new generation? Well to be honest, I find that a lot of remakes do look absolutely fabulous, they spark and jump and shake and kick some ass. Yes they do, and I like quite a lot of the remade stuff. Not in the same way that I love the original sources, but some remakes are visually worth the effort.

Maniac tells the sad tale of reclusive Frank [Elijah Wood], a lone guy who is happiest spending his time alone in his workshop renovating antique mannequins. But Frank also hides a complicated dark side, at night he stalks the streets of New York, murdering young women and taking trophy scalps to the person he talks to back in his small workshop flat. One day a young photographer, Anna [Nora Arnezeder], steps into his workshop and becomes spellbound by the mannequins he has on display. Frank’s world is about to change, but is it for the better?

I think we can all agree that the remakes look fantastic and certainly do rock, but what they miss, in their perfected and polished exterior, is the naïveté of the originals. You can’t remake, reboot or reclaim the naïveté of the originals. There’s magic in those originals that we believe in, because of the flaws, the errors, the raw and rough camera work, the not perfect but effective special effects – you know what I mean, back then stuff looked over the top fantastic, now it’s all about looking far to real for comfort - the dubious acting, a magic that occurs when stuff just comes together. You can’t recreate that magic, that naïveté, it just isn’t possible when one looks at a capsule of caught time, and attempt to mimic it, because there’s to much intention put into the imitation. It lacks the magic and the naïveté that fell into place in the original. Hence remakes which never make the same impact.

But still, a lot of remakes do get the job done, despite their refined surface, forced backstory to create empathy for the “monster”, and high-end technical achievements. And sometimes they propel newcomers back into the back catalogue. It’s like new formula drinks; tastes familiar but doesn’t have the same kick it had when you sipped it the first time around

So back to the initial question, how the hell does one remake the Spinell/Lustig epic sleazebag Maniac? The way Aja and Khalfoun have decided to take this is by continuously show the movie from Frank’s point of view. It’s a more visual expedition into the mind of a Maniac, in a completely new way. (Or not, as this is also the gimmick of William Powell’s Peeping Tom made back in 1960) Although it does work, it only takes a short while to get used to it, and then the audience undoubtedly will be inside Frank’s head.

Let’s talk about Elijah Wood. We all pulled a face when they heard Wood was to portray the character made iconic by Joe Spinell. How could cuddly cute, squeaky clean Wood take on the part of an all-time fave maniac? You know when Robin Williams played that sinister dude in OneHourPhoto and he really crepeed you out because you where used to seeing him be a funny guy and the shock of seeing him being malicious and sadistic totally packed a powerpunch to the balls. Well that’s similar to the odd feeling that Wood brings to the part – there’s something off kilter, and Wood manages to make it work.

Although the main question posed here is - does it work? Well the answer has to be both yes and no. Khalfoun and Aja (along with writing team Grégory Levasseur – who has written the majority of Aja’s films with him - and C.A. Rosenberg) don’t really bring much new with their remake. On the other hand would we have wanted something completely different? Steve Miner’s Day of the Dead comes to mind, a good enough fun traditional zombie flick, but has fuck all to do with the movie that shares a name with it… which was provocative to a lot of fans, if it’s not Day of the Dead, don’t call it Day of the Dead. This is not the case with Maniac, it’ still primarily Spinell and Lustig’s Maniac with the traditional “Aja addition” placing his own unique moment into a familiar setting and film, hence creating Maniac revamped in a 2012 dressing. But that’s about it. I know the story, I know the beats, I know the key scenes, and I know how the movie is going to climax, and no real surprises are in store for me. BUT; if you are a newcomer to Maniac, this is one sick, slick movie that will disturb you, freak you out and shake you up.

What is new then? Well apart from the POV camerawork, which works really effectively, especially in some of the violence towards the camera scenes, the only real new addition is the contemporary and obligatory genesis story. We are taken back into Frank’s childhood and show us what formed him, what set him on his quest to reconstruct his mother. Like the original, there’s a pretty weak love story that circles around Anna – the photographer, and Frank. But where the original was so much more cold and plain observant, this one tries to generate empathy for Frank. It’s done both through the childhood trauma years, and through the way he believes he has a shot at Anna only to be completely crushed when her boyfriend is revealed. The POV shot helps to lure us as an audience in to this corner, and works as a tool to generate emotion for the Frank character.

I’m still not convinced that we need backstory and emotions built so solidly in favor of “monsters”, but it is a smart way to go when the movie actually is about the Antagonist! I think that’s why all the effort is put on empathizing monsters; it’s some kind of ironic twenty-first century hipster positioning. The classic Antagonist has become the Protagonist; kids today are raised on therapy, parental pampering and a complete lack of demands placed on them. They don’t have to think for themselves, they crave explanations. Where a generation of old-school graduates where raised on unpredictability, stone cold antagonists, and the mystery of not knowing, new times demand new approaches, that’s why all of our favorite monsters, maniacs and beasts these days are all presented with character explanatory backstory hence loosing all their mystic power over the audience.

Maniac relies on its exploration of the Frank character, and the moments of grotesque malevolence. This is where the film delivers, as effects are tremendously realistic and whatever fantastic gore the original held, it's all exchanged for brutal nihilism this time around. The last act truly lets it rip, and as just mentioned, there are some really impressive effects and things do get rough indeed. 

Technically the movie looks great: Maxime Alexandre’s cinematography is dark and moody as most of the films he’s shot for Aja previously, but just like most remakes, it looks to damned good. Editor magnifique, Baxter, has provided yet another tight and ferociously edited movie. Never letting scenes or takes run to long, but to the point and out as soon as what’s delivered. I really like the soundtrack by “ROB” which definitely has a neo-French sound to it, and isn’t to far from the Double Dragon soundtracks  Francois Gaillard’s neo-Gialli have been so effectively using.

To sum it up: Aja and Khalfoun’s Maniac is a decent take on a classic slasher, using some semi-new tricks to somewhat success. Special effects are top notch, and an emotional roller-coaster is to be found if one wants it. At the current point in time Maniac isn’t a unique movie any more, there’s more than one nihilistic serial killer film out there, and stuff that definitely pushes the envelope further, although this time around it does have an effective empathizing approach to the subject matter. But Aja and Khalfoun’s Maniac looks fantastic, has an awesome soundtrack and get's the job done. If nothing else, this remake will drive a new audience down the path of history, and make them seek out Bill Lustig’s extraordinary shocker from 1980, at least then, they won’t be missing out on one of genre cinemas best head shot moments.

Deranged

Deranged

Aka. Deranged: Confessions of a Necrophile

Directed by: Jeff Gillen & Alan Ormsby

USA, 1974

Horror, 80min

The power of a title is a strong one, and an ever so important one too. Tell meplot, seduce me, and capture my imagination…  Deranged: Confessions of a Necrophile… it don’t get much better that that does it.  I'd stick it really close to Nude for Satan on the cool as heck movie title scale. It is a mighty powerful and potent title if there ever was one… Now, I’ve seen this movie before, several times, and we even aired it at the TV station I used to work at back in the mid nineties, but I’ve never found a release that felt worth the while. It was released as part of MGMs Midnight Movies double features but that was supposed to be cut, so I never picked it up… so when I stumbled over the German unrated DVD release in Bottrop Germany during the Weekend of Horrors last weekend, I did a little happy dance, as this is a find.

Two movies, both made in the same year, building off the same legend, using the same “based on true story” gimmick, and at times even sharing remarkably similar scenes, Deranged, is more or less the perfect counterpart to Tobe Hooper’s epic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Although only one of them would go down in the books as most terrifying movie of all time…

When Ezra Cobb’s [Roberts Blossom] beloved Mother, [Cosette Lee] passes away his world comes tumbling down upon him. Loneliness and isolation get the better of him and he decides that mother, who he still talks too, would be better off back at home instead of buried in a hole in the ground. So he pops of down the cemetery and digs up old Mrs Cobb. Seen as her flesh droops from the decaying corpse, he needs new flesh to keep mother as perky as she used to be, and new flesh means bad news for the ladies of Wisconsin.

Deranged is a great little mood piece. Perhaps not to high on physically exhausting violence, but damned high on creepy atmosphere. During the first ten, fifteen minutes the film almost comes off as a cheesy little oddity, but then you become drawn in and snared up in the weirdness and aura that Gillen & Ormsby whip up with pretty small means. Now these guys where no strangers to atmospherically laden creepers; Gillen worked as assistant director on producer, Bob Clark’s, Dead of Night, which Ormsby wrote and won an award for Best Screenplay at Sitges in 1975. Ormsby previously collaborated with Clark on Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things. Clark would had already produced and direct a pretty neat string of moody genre pieces culminating with the early slasher Black Christmas, which he directed at the same time the other two where directing Deranged.

I love how Deranged and Texas Chain Saw Massacre live in parallel worlds. Both feeding off the same pyscho killer legend of Ed Gein. But where TCM is a violent assault on all senses, Deranged is more of a tight moody drama that takes it’s audience into the mind of the insane Cobb. The scenes where poor barmaid Mary [Micki Moore] follows Cobb home only to discover his menagerie of corpses in various stages of decay, not forgetting his female body suit, is every bit as disturbing as TCM. Just as the dinner party in Texas Chain Saw Massacre, the dinner party in Deranged should have become an iconic moment in it’s own right. Roberts Blossom (who only passed away last year) gives an outstanding performance, and definitely a performance that challenges any of the attempts to shine insight into the mind of the maniacs in the Texas Chainsaw franchise… (The later ones aka, reboot’s, that is)

Friends of Cobb try to engage him in a social life, The Kootz family try to hook him up with dates, and suggest several women whom Cobb should consider taking out… it’s a cheap, but pretty tame way to create some kind of empathetic recognition or understanding with Cobb, who rejects the offers as he’s still very much under the power of his dead, but still possessive mother. Although Deranged is not without it’s seedy moments, there is a couple of them, such as when Maureen Selby [Marian Waldman] tries to lure the simple minded Ezra into having sex with her after a staged séance or Mary being tied up and tittyfiddled by Cobb, Deranged does well after almost forty years of trashy, exploitation competition.

There’s a hilarious gimmick which kind of breaks all storytelling rules,  when the newspaper columnist Tom Sims [Leslie Carlson] acting as a narrator, stepps in every now and again to fill us in on exposition that we need to follow the narrative. Fascinatingly it works, proves that rules are meant to be broken, and it gives the filmmakers an opportunity to tell us how Ezra is feeling deep inside, something that otherwise would have been impossible…

As the film chugs into it’s climax, the final scene recreates the haunting image of Bernice Worden’s decapitated and gutted corpse which police officers found hanging in the barn as they raided Ed Gein’s farm back in 1957. It certainly brings the movie close to the real deal, and delivers a fascinating portrayal of insanity. But what I like the most about this little beauty is perhaps the way it sticks to it’s guns and proves that there isn’t really a lot needed to set a great mood. Compared to Texas Chain Saw I’d even say that the eyeball gouging, head top chopping, brain eating, and gutting of Sally [Pat Orr], is more graphic than anything Tobe Hooper showed us. Texas is a masterpiece of Hithcockian editing where we are tricked into seeing things that never really where there. The psychological strain of forceful imagery is much more effective than anything that could have been put on screen, but Deranged sports some early Tom Savini effects, and already then he knew how to gross out an audience whist keeping it terrifyingly close to reality.

So, the happy dance back in Bottrop was well deserved. This German 30th Anniversary Edition, is a beautiful one. The print is almost pristine, the audio nice and crisp, and for a rare change, the original American soundtrack and English subtitles are optional. The few inserted scenes, the ones removed from US prints to create an R-Rated version, are intact here, although taken from an obvious lesser quality source. But never the less, it’s the otherwise deleted eyeball gouging, skull sawing and brain eating that is missing from all other prints.

At the end of the day, Deranged does good with the small means it has, and at the end of the day, it’s an effectively creepy piece that easily should stand next to your Texas Chain Saw Massacre films.