I describe True Fiction Pictures as sort of Christian. The production company is not explicitly Christian, but they have Christian themes. They swear a lot and have jokes that are based in edgy things, but there is a moral lesson in these comedies. In fact, they quote the bible at the end of the film.
This film depicts a motivation speaker who makes a hard left turn, accuses one of the attendees of being a Hellbound sinner, and the sinner vows to repent. It was funny and kind of scary, trust me.
I put this in the Christian film camp. If you think about it, – it had bad language and adult humor that might be a great vehicle to get a lot of people to watch a Christian film and learn a lesson who would never seek out a Christian film. I do not claim to fully understand this production company, but the film had humor, a clear Christian message, and I was thoroughly entertained.
This video was controversial when it was first released with some people wondering if the video would promote violence with its story of a Marilyn Monroe look-alike being photographed while a killer tossed around a knife and newspaper headlines announced that a movie star had been murdered. Controversy sells and the video was put in heavy rotation on MTV, helping Photograph to reach number one on the charts and to stay there for several weeks.
Director David Mallet is one of those directors who has done videos for just about everyone, from AC/DC to Olivia Newton-John to Peter Gabriel.
It’s almost time for Halloween! This upcoming week, we will be wrapping up another Horrorthon and celebrating another holiday. I hope everyone has enjoyed October so far. I am proud of the TSL Crew and the great work they’ve done this year!
After 25 years of being married to a man who seems like a good provider with a stable (albeit sometimes dull) personality, Darcy Anderson (Joan Allen) comes across evidence in their garage that leads her to suspect that her husband (Anthony LaPaglia) might be the serial killer known as Beadie. When he comes home from a business trip, he admits that he is indeed Beadie and suggests that maybe it would be best for everyone if she just moved on from it. He promises not to kill anyone else and she promises not to go to the police. She has something else in mind.
A Good Marriage benefits from an interesting premise, but it suffers from a dull presentation. I think the film’s director was trying to drive home the idea of the Andersons just seeming like an everyday couple by taking a non-flashy approach to the story, but the end result is pretty boring, and Joan Allen and Anthony LaPaglia aren’t convincing as a long-time married couple even before the husband’s hobbies are revealed. Stephen King wrote the screenplay, adapting his own novella, but King’s dialogue can sometimes sound stiff when people have to actually recite it out loud. After the fourth or tenth awkward, middle class conversation, I was on the verge of begging for something interesting to actually happen. The movie could have jettisoned all of the stuff about the husband’s childhood friend without losing much.
Back when she was still doing movie, Joan Allen cornered the market on frustrated housewife roles and maybe that’s why she only seemed to be going through the motions here. Anthony LaPaglia also seems bored with his character and never make us believe anyone would ignore years of compulsive homicide to stay with him. Only Stephen Lang really makes an impression, playing a detective who feels like a convenient case of dues ex machina. This movie could have used some Langoliers.
It’s Sunday and it’s October and that means that it’s time for another edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse trailers! For today, we have six trailers from the early 70s. This was the era when horror started to truly get …. well, horrific!
The Bird With The Crystal Plumage (1970)
First off, we have the blood and scream-filled trailer for Dario Argento’s The Bird With The Crystal Plumage. This Italian thriller made quite a splash when it was released in America. Indeed, for many Americans, this was their first exposure to the giallo genre. This would go on to become Argento’s first (and, so far, only) film to be nominated for a Golden Globe. (Read my review here!)
2. House of Dark Shadows (1970)
Speaking of blood and screaming, 1970 also saw the release of House of Dark Shadows. Personally, I think this is one of the best vampire films ever. The trailer is heavy on atmosphere.
3. The Devils (1971)
In 1971, British director Ken Russell scandalized audiences with The Devils, a film so shocking that it was thought it would never be seen in its full form. However, times change….
4. Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972)
Italy was not the only country sending horror films over to the United States. From Spain came the Tombs of the Blind Dead.
5. The Last House on the Left (1972)
Speaking of controversy, Wes Craven made his directorial debut with the infamous The Last House OnTheLeft. The trailer featured one of the greatest and most-repeated horror tag lines of all time.
6. Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)
Finally, even as horror cinema changed and became more extreme, Hammer Studios continued to tell the long and twisted story of Count Dracula. They brought him into the present age and dropped him in the middle of hippie-infested London. No matter how much the rest of the world changed, Dracula remained Dracula.
If you’ve ever spent any time on the political side of X, formerly known as Twitter, you know that it can be an ugly and hateful place. Writers Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof have certainly spent some time in that part of Twitter, because they’ve created a story that understands its absurdity and then uses that silliness as the basis for a bloody and funny action thriller. THE HUNT was quite controversial when it was released back in 2020, so I decided to finally check it out for myself.
The story begins with a group of strangers waking up in the middle of nowhere, confused, gagged, and wondering how in the hell they ended up that way. The field they’re in has a large crate that contains a sharply dressed pig, as well as a variety of guns and knives. Once they’ve helped themselves to the weapons, all hell breaks loose, with several of them being immediately killed in brutal ways. We soon learn that they’re being hunted by a group of wealthy elites who are sick and tired of dealing with these conspiracy-spreading, climate-denying deplorables and have decided to do something about them. One thing they didn’t account for was the amazing fighting and survival skills of Crystal May Creasey, played by Betty Gilpin. Before long, Crystal has turned the tables and the hunters have become the hunted.
I’m just going to say it right off, Gilpin is incredible as Crystal. I had not really seen her before, but I’m definitely going to be on the lookout for some of her other work. She plays Crystal with a confident coolness, which makes her reactions to the madness around her that much more effective. Hilary Swank, who plays the leader of the elites, knows her way around a fight scene, and their showdown delivers big time. Think of the fight between Uma Thurman and Vivica A. Fox in KILL BILL, and you’ll get an idea of their fight’s intensity, but this one lasts longer. The cast is sprinkled with some well-known actors like Amy Madigan, Justin Hartley, Macon Blair and Emma Roberts. I’ll just say that this isn’t the kind of film where you want to get too attached to the characters and leave it at that!
Did I mention earlier that THE HUNT is graphically violent? We know we’re in for a bloody ride when a guy’s eyeball is ripped from its socket in the second scene. The film will go on to present a wide array of impalings, blown up bodies, close-range shotgun blasts, long-distance rifle splatters, and many other creative deaths. While the violence is shown in graphic detail, it’s also played with an exaggerated sense of humor that made it easier for me to watch. It’s also presented in a way that matches the tone of the story.
What really sets this movie apart for me, though, is its political satire. I spent quite a bit of time on Twitter during Donald Trump’s first term, and this movie does an outstanding job of painting both sides in the broadest of strokes that are instantly recognizable for those in the know. The deplorables consist of a variety of conspiracy theorists, gun rights absolutists, big game hunters, and rednecks. The conspiracy theorists get it the worst, with something ridiculous to say for every occasion, even though a couple of times they’re revealed to be right! On the other hand, the elites have a hard time carrying on a conversation because they’re always correcting each other’s word usage, and they’re constantly lecturing everyone around them. And for a group of people who are never wrong, the elites make a crucial factual error that threatens to upend their entire plan. I’ll leave all of those details for you to discover, but I like that director Craig Zobel and his writers take aim at the absurdity of the entire online political spectrum, with no one getting a free pass. For me, that’s a big part of what makes THE HUNT so much fun. Beneath all the blood and guts is a recognizable version of the silly social media politics that I watched play out online just a few years ago.
I think those who understand the toxicity of American politics in the time of Donald Trump will get the most out of this film, but I still think it can work as entertainment for those who don’t. The action is energetic, the violence is outrageous, and it has a wonderfully twisted sense of humor. And it has Betty Gilpin, who plays one of the toughest, most badass female characters I’ve seen in a movie in a long time. Hell, she was worth the watch for me!
