X Game

X Game

Original Title: X gêmu

Directed by: Yôhei Fukuda

Japan, 2010

Horror/Thriller, 119 min

Distributed by: Danger After Dark

Japanese genre is currently associated by the wild, bizarre and way over the top slapstick horror films that have been released these last few years. A genre that splashed it’s way onto the scene relieving the J-Horror films, which at the time had started to run on routine and over familiar shocks. I’m pleased to see that not everyone is tapping in into the wacky craziness and that some dare to step beyond hype and back to classic themes of fear, survival and horror. 

A seemingly bored guy sits at front a classroom… A box is shoved in front of him and we realize that he has a large fresh scar cross on one side of his face… The students all sit still in their seats, as he pulls a note from the box placed in front of him. He reads, and panicking starts begging “Mariko” for forgiveness. Stumbling over one of his pupils, it’s revealed that they are all mannequins. The lights start shutting off, and the man screams into the darkness. Cue opening credits and an almost Goblinish techno hybrid soundtrack.

Following the credits we are introduced to Hidekai [Hirofumi Araki], a young student trying to get by working extra as a waiter at a bar. Through a series of flashbacks we learn that he once was a student of Mr Morina, the teacher that we saw in the opening sequence and that Hidekai met Morino only a few weeks earlier when Hidekai and friends had a school reunion at the bar he works at.

At Morino’s funeral, Hidekai talks to friends about the strange circumstance surrounding Morino’s death. He certainly didn’t seem depressed at the reunion, where he showed them pictures of his new beautiful wife, and had a drink to many… Hidekai’s curiosity gets the better of him and he has an urge to investigate the strange suicide, possibly driven by guilt, as he was the last one to see Morino alive.

A strange videotape is delivered to Hidekai, which he with his girlfriend Rikako [Ayaka Kikuchi] sit down to watch. As the static rolls by and the tape locks into place, Hidekai hopes it’s porn, but instead they see a “Snuff” like scene where a man is branded, only the branding is off camera, so Hidekai sighs, says that it’s a waste of time. There’s also something of a laugh at the J-Horror genre, when they spot a mysterious woman lurking in the shadows of the shoot, reflected in a mirror.

Seeing the strange figure in the mirror, Hidekai realizes that when he saw Morino wander into the night of Tokyo, he also saw a female figure lurking in the shadows. This more or less pushes him into the situation where he has to solve this strange suicide. But just as they are about to piece huge parts of the mystery together, the movie takes a sudden twist and goes into survival horror territory in the vain of stuff like Saw, as the lead characters, bullies and the bullied, find themselves locked in the classroom we saw Mr Morino in during the opening scene. Images burst onto a TV screen welcoming the youths to the X games! The horror can begin.

X Game uses something of an Investigation Plot, almost Giallo-ish actually, as Hidekai takes on the role of amateur sleuth. This also rings true of the schooldays/childhood traumas of the bullied character “Mariko” accompanied by a music box soundtrack very typical of that genre. I’d even go as far as saying that the last act reveal is something of a mix of old J-Horror and Gialli traits too, as identities are revealed and characters turn out to be other than we had suspected.

Empathy is created for the band of friends through flashbacks telling how they tried to stop bullying and ending up taking odd girl out, Mariko’s bullying instead. But it’s also through the same flashbacks that truths about their time at school surfaces and gives some effective rushes of insight that help read the narrative. Hidekai’s capture and presence in the X game obviously raises curiosity, and this is where the second part of the movie’s narrative moves forth: why is Hidekai there, for what reasons, and what can he do to stay alive. The rules of X game are simple and stern, participate and take the pain or face the penalty.  Tasks must be performed within a time limit or else they are taken into the back room and punished, by branding! The symbol X returns through out the film; painted with blood on walls, chalked on school blackboards, in one instance axed into the cupboard Hidekai is hiding in, and also through the sizzling branding iron and the bloody scars it leaves on the unfortunate contenders flesh.

The sadistic games enforced on victims, become even more sinister when we come to the awareness that the list of games are all games the bullies used to play on their bullied class mates back in the day. Although this time around the games are more violent versions of that game, performed with grotesque rusty objects and a horribly annoying 16bit animated vignette played on the TV screen in the old classroom.

X Game is a decent return to shock and suspense and a good break from the schlocky gore comedies that have dominated the Japanese scene these last couple of years. Influences of Manga, video games and various genres of film are apparent, and Fukuda blends them well. As the movie comes to it’s climax, Fukuda takes it through a third sharp twist and establishes an intriguing conspiracy thread that expands the motifs and organization way beyond an angry schoolgirl with a vengeance fetish. It also set’s things up for a sequel, and X Game 2 was completed earlier this year with some returning cast.

Fukuda is his own cinematographer, and he also shot Kôji Shiraishi’s Gurotesku, a movie that I highly recommend and place high on my favourite contemporary Japanese films – Especially since I totally ripped the BBFC’s motivation for banning the film in the UK apart some time back.

Just to clear up some confusion, X Game is not the same movie as Satsujin Douga Site (Death Tube). There seems to be a general confusion about this on line, but they are two completely different films. 

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.

Night of the Bloody Apes

Night of the Bloody Apes

Original title: La horripilante bestia humana

Directed by: Rene Cardona

Mexico, 1969

Horror/Lucadora, 83min.

If there ever were a cure for the blues, it would have to be cheap Mexican exploitation flicks. With origins stretching back as far as the thirties when the set’s of Tod Browning’s Dracula where used at night time to shoot a Spanish language version of the same production for the Latino market, and the booming in the mid fifties during a time of Political uncertainty. Crises within the Mexican film industry led to the production of loads of low-budget films at minimal costs, which required filmmakers to be more creative than they had needed be before.

It’s from those times of low budget, cheap production, and exploitation tricks that screenwriters and directors like Ramón Obón, Rafael Baledón, brothers Alfredo and Abel Salazar, René Cardona, Chano Urueta, Miguel M. Delgado, Alfredo B. Crevenna and the great Fernando Méndez came to their full exploitative potential. Méndez stunning El Vampiro (The Vampire) 1957 became something of a surprise smash hit generating a huge demand for native genre fare. Although El Vampiro didn’t reach English-speaking soil until the late sixties when K. Gordon Murray took it under his production and dubbed it into an English language version – like a multitude of Mexican films he Americanized under the same time period.  Despite this, it’s told that Christopher Lee states that the Méndez El Vampiro was seen by the forces at Hammer studios and left an important impression on them, which also highly influenced the genesis of the glossy gothic style of Hammer horrors that exploded upon the world with the 1958 classic Horror of Dracula.

Back to the Mexico, Gothic horrors and Mexican folklore themed films soon gave way to another favoured pastime, Wrestling. Televised Luchador matches where suddenly deemed vulgar and banned by the government as to “protect underage viewers”. A great move, as they simply moved into the cinemas and showcased their exploits there instead – hence many Luchador Movies being bookended with lead characters wrestling bouts. After a few films of fighting each other, the Gothic horror and Mexican folk lore seeped back in and Luchador greats such as Santo, Blue Demon and Mil Mascaras started taking on Aztec mummies, Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolfmen and even a couple of encounters with Martian invaders.

Within this niche also came the Luchadora, the Female Wrestler. A sexier, cooler sub-niche, where legend Loretta Velázquez and her character “Gloria Venus” was the undefeated queen of Mexican exploitation cinema. And if there was a king of the genre it was undoubtedly writer, actor, director René Cardona! Personally responsible for a good half dozen or more Luchadoras films, Cardona probably did more for the Mexican female action hero than any other director with his successful string of Luchadoras films, including the initial Las luchadoras vs. el médecino asesino (Doctor of Doom) 1962, cult favourite La Mujer Muriciélago (Bat Woman), 1967 and La horripilante bestia human (Night of the Bloody Apes) 1969, which even ended up on the infamous British Video Nasties list of prosecuted titles.

Seemingly two parallel stories set the stage for this sinister gem of Mexican exploitation cinema. One path follows Lieutenant Arturo Martinez [Armando Silvestre] and his Luchadora girlfriend Lucy Ossorio [Norma Lazareno who also starred in Cardona’s splendid Superviventes de los Andes (Survive) 1976 with legend Hugo Stiglitz], and her story of nursing a bad conscious after tossing her opponent Elena Gomez [Noelia Noel] out of the wrestling ring and putting her in hospital in a serious condition. If nothing else, it brings some neat girl fight scenes to the movie and Lazareno sports a spiffy red cat/devil outfit with mask and all. The other path follows renown, but heavily frustrated Professor Krallman [José Elías Moreno, who starred as The Ogre in Roberto Rodriguez Caperucita y Pulgacito contra los monstros (Tom Thumb and Little Red Riding Hood) 1962] as he conducts depraved experiments on primates in a desperate attempt to cure his son’s deadly disease.

Transplanting the heart of a gorilla he and his henchman have stolen from a zoo – showcased through wonderful gorilla suits and authentic gory surgery footage, which most likely is the only reason the movie ended up on the Video Nasties list, Professor Krallman and assistant Goyo [Carlos Lòpez Moctezuma] operate on his son Julio [Agustin Martinez Solares] but despite the ape heart transplant being a success, Julio soon transforms into a grotesquely apelike beast, another hideous monster makeup face job for the former professional wrestler Gerardo Zepeda! Breaking out of the Professors secret basement laboratory, which for some reason has a penthouse window, the beast escapes into the night, stalks his prey and strikes in bloody sexual frenzy!

Called to the scene of the brutal murder, Lt. Arturo finds himself facing one of the most bizarre cases of his career. This is where the two paths come into one main narrative. Arturo is on the case and is racing against time to stop the beast man form committing further crimes! Things get worse when Professor Krallman – who incidentally performed the life saving brain surgery on Elena after Lucy chucked her out of the ring during the opening fight - kidnaps the still lethargic Elena from hospital with the intention of removing the gorilla heart and putting hers into the body of the beast as to save him from the transmutation which turns him into the manic ape beast. Cue more real gory stock footage, and Oh do I love scenes of medical mumbo jumbo blurted out to give the illusion of being authentic, and Night of the Bloody Apes delivers it en masse.

I love how the Cardona’s, yes both Father and son René Cardona Jr., (who went on to enjoy a great career as a exploitation filmmaker himself) as they co-wrote the script to this one, create such delightful empathy for both sides of the piece whilst they set this one up. Basically it’s a remake of  Cardona's earlier film Doctor of Doom, which also starring Armando Silvestre and Gerardo Zepeda in similar roles they hold in Night of the Bloody Apes.

Even though it's wasted, empathy for Lazareno's Lucy Ossorio is created as she's a fighter, but a fighter with a heart, who has terrible remorse when putting her opponent in hospital. She struggles with the following fights as the guilt is heavy to carry, and Silvestre does his best to console her and keep her fighting spirits up. Unfortunately it really leads to nothing, but acts more as a semi sub plot to weave in Silvestre and Moreno's characters.

Krallman is a delightful character, a cocktail of doing wrong for the cause of good.  He’s a saver of lives – as the brain surgeon of Elena, but also a mad professor, a constant evil in Mexican horror cinema – who conducts vile tests in his secret home laboratory, taking innocent lives for scientific experiments. But the complexity of his deeds and their reason is an exciting one. We can judge him for the crimes he commits, but we can also respect the reasons why he committed them… It’s a classic case of doing wrong for good, or dimension, as I’d say in storytelling terms. Interestingly enough even the beast has some basic emotions beyond hate and lust. It shows empathy for its creator/father when Krallman falls and bashes himself unconscious. He even picks him up and gently places him on his bed! Awww, the Monster man loves his dad!

Being made in the midst of the degeneration of Mexican exploitation cinemas Golden age, it’s pretty fair to say that the movie more or less runs on routine. Although plenty of cheap effects, throat ripping, decapitating and a surprising amount of nudity as the Beast rapes and mutilates his way through the night, not to mention the immense amount of times Lt. Martinez calls Lucy, only to catch her standing or leaving the shower! She must easily be the most squeaky clean Luchadora ever; keep this movie a splendid late entry into the genre and sub niche. Where the previous Luchadora films had focused on the female characters, Night of the Bloody Apes focuses more on the Professor and his qualms with playing god – there’s a Prometheus story in there if there ever was one, and the movies climax definitely nods it’s head at Whale’s infamous censored moment from Frankenstein 1931 - instead of the Wrestling which acts more as a lure to pull audiences in, and before you know it Lazareno’s Lucy Ossorio is reduced to nothing more but eye candy and has no real part of the movies climactic last act.

Finally released in the most intact shape to date on DVD, complete with stock footage, and either the original Spanish language or the pretty fun “word for word like” English dub, René Cardona’s La horripilante bestia humana, is back from the land of the censors in all it’s glory thanks to UK’s Nucleus Films.