We finally have the first trailer in the upcoming horror remake Carrie starring Chloe Grace Moretz and directed by Boys Don’t Cry filmmaker Kimberly Peirce.
When news came out that the classic Brian De Palma film adaptation of the Stephen King novel was being remade there wasn’t much of a positive reaction to the news. The usual grumbling about another horror remake being put into production and how Hollywood was running out of ideas was heard throughout the blog land. Then more details surface of who would play the title role which was made famous in the original film by Sissy Spacek. When it was announced that Chlie Grace Moretz would take on the Carrie role then grumbling subsided somewhat.
While there will always be detractors of the film even while it’s still in production the word coming out that the film will not be a straight out remake of the film but more of a faithful adaptation of the novel has made me cautiously optimistic. The fact that the last horror remake Moretz was involved in turned out quite well (Let Me In) is another reason to hope. Plus, Peirce as the director should help put the focus of the film’s narrative on where King originally intended it to be and that’s the social divide between the popular kids in the dangerous world of high school who end up bullying the weaker outcasts.
The teaser trailer gives a hint at how the film looks to follow the novel more than the De Palma film by showing the town in flames and not just the school. Carrie is set for a March 15, 2013 release date.
Tamara was a good entertaining horror/teenage angst movie in the same vein as De Palma’s Carrie and pretty much most of the teenage revenge/slasher flicks of the late 70’s and early 80’s. Such horror films involved the high school jocks and popular cliques getting their comeuppance by way of the nerdy student who has had enough. This time around the nerd in question is one Tamara whose shy, bookish and frumpy nature makes her an easy mark for every other kid in school.
Newcomer and extremely hot Jenna Dewan plays the title role and she does a very good job pulling off the dual personality role the film requires from her. The first half of the film has Dewan as very believable as the mousy and nerdy student whose low self-esteem adds to keeping her ostracized from the rest of the student population. It doesn’t help that she begins to misread one of her teacher’s (played by Matthew Marsden) attempts to help her as some sort of loving attention she so craves. There’s a small bit of a bright side to her daily existence in the form Chloe (played by Katie Stuart), she of the popular girl with a heart-of-gold role. Tamara’s life soon turns for the worst as her attempts to show her love for her helpful teacher gets rebuffed and her published article about drug-use in athletics puts her in the crosshairs of a couple of jocks with much to lose.
Typical of such teenage revenge horror films, the cruel jocks and popular kids concoct a plan to humiliate and embarrass Tamara, but just like those past films their plans backfire and the target of their plans gets killed during the the prank. The filmmaker really don’t add something new to this tried and tested formula. Instead of calling for the authorities to report the accidental death of their schoolmate, the kids decide, through the bullying by the alpha-male in the group, to bury Tamra instead and forget anything ever happened. This plan probably would’ve worked if Tamara wasn’t dabbling in witchcraft as ostracized teenagers are wont to do. Tamara’s spell prior to the prank to spellbind her teacher backfires as its activated by the spilling of her blood and to the surprise of the students who did her harm she returns alive, healthy and completely different the start of the new school week.
To say that Tamara returns utterly different in more ways than one would be an understatement. Ms. Dewan does a vampy, sometimes campy, job portraying the new and improved Tamara. Dewan goes from nerdy, plain-jane Tamara to ultra-sexy, barely there skirt wearing teen seductress whose touch does more than seduce those she has targeted for revenge. Jenna Dewan as the reborn Tamara steams up the screen with her overt sexuality and she practically saves the film from just being an ok, by-the-numbers horror film. Tamara was Ms. Dewan’s film from beginning to end and she does a very good job of keeping the story interesting even if it meant just being on the screen.
This film doesn’t break new ground in the realm of teen horror. In fact, it’s a mish-mash of alot of past teen horror flicks of the past that one could see the many influences in its story. Tamara was part Carrie, Black Christmas, The Craft and, more recently, Diablo Cody’s Jennifer’s Body. The direction was adequate at best and that’s really all one could hope for in a genre film like Tamara. What makes this film entertaining and worth watching was the joy of discovering the new scream queen talent in Jenna Dewan. Tamara might not be a great horror film, but Ms. Dewan sure more than tries to make it more than it’s B-movie pedigree.
Since it’s the holiday season, I’m going to do a bonus-sized, two-part edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation Film Trailers this week. So, assuming that I’m not upset by who wins the Amazing Race and that Julia Stiles survives tonight’s episode of Dexter, I’ll put together and post part two sometime later tonight. And if I am upset, expect to see it sometime Monday.
Anyway, here’s the first part of our special, pre-holiday edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation Trailers. Just a quick note, three of these films are apparently not available on DVD or even on VHS! To be honest, I imagine their trailers are probably a lot more fun than the actual movie.
1) Wicked Wicked
What is Anomorphic Duovision? Well, I did some research last night and I’ll explain it all after the trailer.
Duovision, it turns out, is a fancy way of saying, “Split screen.” Like you remember in 24 whenever Keifer Sutherland would start purring in that sexy voice of his, “Dammit! CHLOE!” and Chloe would go, “Get off my ass, Bauer!” Well, more often than not, that was shown in Anomoprhic Duovision. Brian DePalma also used it in Carrie when Sissy Spacek sets the prom on fire. In other words, none of that would have been possible if not for Wicked Wicked. Apparently, in Wicked Wicked, one half of the screen featured Tiffany Bolling singing and the detective guy investigating and the other half featured the killer doing his thing.
I give this trailer mad props for resisting the temptation to be all like, “And she makes house calls…”
3) Zaat
Believe it or not, this is not, as I originally assumed, a parody trailer. I did actual research (yes, believe it or not, I do try to verify these things) and I discovered that this was a real movie from 1972 and apparently, it made a lot of money playing the drive-in circuit (a.k.a. the grindhouses of the South).
4) Angel, Angel, Down We Go
From 1969 — His name is Bogart Peter Stuyvesant and he’s hot!
This little “shocker” from 1970 was directed by Andy Milligan, who was infamous for making movies that were so bad that they often ended up being effective despite themselves.
I’ve never actually seen this film but I’ve certainly heard about it. It has a reputation for being one of the worst horror films but I have to admit, I think the trailer has an oddly dream-like power. A Night To Dismember was the last film to be directed by Doris Wishman, who — when she first started making early “nudie” flicks (the best known of which was the Nude on the Moon) in the 50s — was one of the first women to ever actually direct a theatrically released film. After her husband died, Doris’s films changed from being rather innocent and campy stories about dorky guys trying to discreetly ogle nude women to being dark and puritanical tales of the sexually active being punished. A Night To Dismember was her final film and its troubled production has become legendary. I found it on DVD once and nearly bought it but, at the last minute, put it down and bought a copy of Larry Cohen’s God Told Me To instead. The next week, when I went back to buy A Night To Dismember, I discovered that the store had been shut down and permanently closed the day after I made my last purchase. That’s just freaking typical, isn’t it?
Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, it’s time for another installment of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Exploitation and Grindhouse Trailers. Today, all 6 of our trailers come from the 70s. That’s actually kind of a coincidence but it’s as close to a theme as I could find so let’s go with it.
Let’s start things off on a positive, empowering note with the trailer for Superchick. This appears to be an only-in-the-70s type film. For one thing, the narrator says “stewardess” instead of “flight attendant.” What a pig. (Just kidding…I think stewardess has kind of a nice retro sound to it, to be honest…)
“Are you kidding? I’m no maiden. I’ve been a cheerleader for three years…” Would I find this trailer as amusing if my older sister hadn’t been a cheerleader at the same time that I was going through my whole goth ballerina phase? Probably. I haven’t seen the actual film but, for whatever reason, I suspect it doesn’t quite live up to the trailer.
Ingrid Pitt, who died on the 23rd on the month, helped to bring Hammer films fully into the 20th Century with this film and the Vampire Lovers. Here she plays the infamous Elisabeth Bathory.
This is not a trailer to watch if you’re in a paranoid state-of-mind. This is a pretty bad movie but it does feature one of the best “psycho” performances of all time from the late character actor, Nicholas Worth.
I have mixed feelings about including this one because it’s a TV spot as opposed to an actual theatrical trailer. But I’m including it anyway because it is the epitome of everything I love about 70s exploitation. The film is actually an English film that was entitled Scream and Die! which, in all honesty, sounds like a pretty good title to me. However, by the time it was released in the States, Wes Craven’s Last House On The Left was making a lot of money and every horror film was retitled with a House-themed title. Also, the “it’s only a movie…” chant is lifted directly from the advertising campaign for Last House On The Left.
Finally, let’s end with Ruby. This is yet another one where I haven’t seen the actual movie but from the trailer, it appears to be a proud part of the grindhouse tradition in that it not only rips off Carrie but The Exorcist as well.
BONUS TRAILER:
Yes, I’m including a bonus trailer! Why? Because I love you, that’s why.
This is for Michael Almereyda’s haunting and odd vampire film, Nadja. Nadja was released in 1994 but it features Peter Fonda so it might as well be from the 70s.
And, since I have to end everything on an even number (it’s a long story), here’s another bonus trailer just so we end up with 8 trailers instead of 7. This is another unconventional, New York vampire tale — Vampire’s Kiss. This is also known as the movie where Nicolas Cage actually ate a live cockroach while being filmed. (Personally, I think of it as being the precursor to Mary Harron’s American Psycho.)
I first came across Evilspeak a few months ago when I was browsing through the selection of used DVDs at the Movie Trading Company in Plano, Texas. Why did I feel so compelled to buy this movie that I had previously never heard of? Of course, a lot of it was due to the fact that Evilspeak was a horror movie. I have to admit that the vagueness of the title intrigued me. I’ve long been planning on writing the ultimate slasher film and giving it the similarly vague title of Deathurge. It also helped that the Evilspeak DVD was released by Anchor Bay and that it only cost $1.99.
A few nights ago, I sat down and watched Evilspeak for the first time. It turned out to be, in many ways, typical of the horror films that were released in the early 80s. (Evilspeak came out in 1981.) However, thanks to a strong lead performance from Clint Howard and a few surprisingly dark touches on the part of director Eric Weston, Evilspeak turns out to be an oddly compelling little horror film.
Evilspeak opens with a lengthy prologue in which we see a Satanist named Esteban beheaded, along with several of his followers, by the Spanish Inquisition. Jump forward several hundred years to a soccer game being played by teams representing two separate military academies. The players are all typical jocks except for one pudgy, awkward fellow named Stanley Coopersmith (played by a very young Clint Howard). Coopersmith manages to lose the game for his team. The team’s angry response establishes that 1) this is not the 1st game that Coopersmith has lost and 2) all of his teammates are apparently psychotic. His fellow players complain to their coach about Coopersmith’s lack of ability. The coach replies that school policy requires that Coopersmith be allowed to play but if Coopersmith were to suffer some sort of injury (hint, hint) then they wouldn’t have to worry about school policy. Seriously, has anything good ever come from soccer?
In many ways, Stanley Coopersmith might seem typical of the horror movie pariahs who always seem to end up asking Satan to kill their peers. However, there are a few things that set Stanley apart.
First of all, he has one of the best last names in film history. Coopersmith. Just say it five times straight and see if it doesn’t get stuck in your head. I’ve known plenty of Coopers and more than a few Smiths but I’ve never known a Coopersmith. At first, I thought that maybe Stanley had one of those really cool hyphenated names and I was instantly jealous. I’ve always wished my mom had done that when she got married so I could introduce myself as “Lisa Marie Marchi-Bowman.” Of course, it’s probably for the best that she didn’t because if she had, I would have become obsessed with finding a mate with a hyphenated last name of his own just to see how long I could eventually make my last name. But I digress. Even though the film clearly establishes that there is not hyphen in Coopersmith, it’s still a great name. When Stanley’s classmates insist on calling him “Cooperdick,” it just makes them all the more loathsome because not only are the insulting Stanley but they’re failing to recognize the beauty of a good name.
The other thing that sets Stanley apart from other movie outcasts is that he actually looks like an outcast. He’s not a teen idol wearing a bad wig and prop glasses. This is largely because Stanley Coopersmith is played by Clint Howard (as opposed to Ron Howard). Pudgy with visible acne and a somewhat whiny voice, Clint Howard transforms Stanley Coopersmith into every kid that you ever felt sorry for but never dared to befriend. Watching the movie, you feel sorry for Stanley but you never quite like him. You’re on his side because every other character in the movie appears to be subhuman.
The film follows Stanley as he is continually attacked and humiliated by basically everyone else in the entire movie. Now, as someone who did time at more than one Catholic school, I have personally experienced the fact that private schools really are a world of their own. That said, however, Evilspeak’s military academy appears to be less a school and more some sort of elaborate and sadistic sociological experiment. Seriously, is there anyone at this school who isn’t obsessed with tormenting Stanley? (Actually, Stanley does have one friend but he’s kinda useless.)
Of course, one of the school’s problems might be that it has apparently been built on land that was once owned by — you guessed it — Esteban! As the film opens, Coopersmith has found himself assigned to clean up the school’s chapel as part of a “punishment detail.” While doing this, Coopersmith happens to stumble upon Esteban’s tomb and, in that tomb, he finds a lot of candles, what appears to be a fetus in a jar, and a black book that happens to have a Satanic symbol on the cover. Intrigued, Coopersmith steals the book despite the fact that it’s written in Latin.
Luckily, this school has a computer! Admittedly, Evilspeak came out four years before I was born so perhaps I’m not capable of understanding what the world was like in the early 80s. Still, I’m always amazed to see the awe that computers were apparently regarded with back then. Apparently, at the time, a personal computer was the ultimate elite status symbol. All one needed to rule the world apparently was one bulky computer. Fortunately, Coopersmith doesn’t want to rule the world. He just wants to read his book. He does this by typing the latin phrases into the computer and magically getting an English translation in response. Thanks to his magic computer, Coopersmith discovers that the book was written by Esteban and that Esteban worshipped Satan.
Coopersmith, of course, is amazed to discover this but we, the viewers are not. After all, we’ve already sat through the entire prologue. Unfortunately, it takes Coopersmith almost the entire movie to catch up to where we are from the beginning. Fortunately, Clint Howard gives a good enough performance to keep the movie vaguely interesting even when it starts to drag.
Fortunately, after Coopersmith gets his translation, the action starts to pick up a bit. For one thing, the book is stolen by the headmaster’s secretary (who, in an amusingly odd moment, smiles to herself as she listens to the headmaster paddling Coopersmith in his office). For another thing, Coopersmith decides to get back at his enemies by conducting a black mass. He does this by turning on his computer (which has now somehow been moved down to the tomb) and asking what he needs for a black mass. Naturally enough, the computer tells him because it’s a computer and it knows everything.
But before Coopersmith can perform his black mass, he still has to be humiliated a few hundred more times by his classmates. He also has to deal with a drunk janitor (played by R.G. Armstrong). On top of that, he adopts a puppy. Unfortunately, since Coopersmith is the school outcast, that also means that the puppy is fair game too. After one night of heavy drinking, Coopersmith’s classmates (led by a kid named Bubba, so you know he’s evil) find his hideaway in the tomb and, for reasons that don’t quite make sense, they sacrifice his puppy.
(At this point, I was wondering if maybe it would turn out that the military academy was actually an insane asylum. I mean, seriously — on which level of Hell is this place located?)
Meanwhile, you remember that sadistic secretary that stole Coopersmith’s book? Well, for whatever reason, she is obsessed with trying to pry that Satanic symbol off the cover. Unfortunately, since she’s the only prominent female in an early 80s horror movie, this can only mean that she’s destined to meet a bloody end while taking a shower. Which, in this movie’s best known scene, is exactly what happens. However, she doesn’t meet her end at the hands of a knife-wielding psycho. Instead, she’s attacked and ripped to pieces by a bunch of rampaging pigs. And yes, the whole thing is faintly ludicrous and yes, the low-budget gore effects are undeniably crude, but it’s still an undeniably effective sequence. Perhaps its due to the fact that pigs, in general, are filthy. Don’t even get me started on pigs. However, it must also be admitted that, though his direction is often time uninspired, Eric Weston shows an undeniable talent for capturing chaos. I am not ashamed to admit that I had pig-related nightmares after seeing this movie.
Following the death of the secretary, the book mysteriously reappears in Esteban’s tomb. Coopersmith finds it the next morning along with the corpse of his puppy. Obviously, this is all it takes for Coopersmith (with the help of his computer) to carry out his black mass and to finally take his revenge.
Of course, the whole point of a Nerd-With-Powers movie is the finale where that nerd takes vengeance on his tormentors. If this scene is pulled off with even the slightest amount of panache, it can make up for almost everything that’s come before it. The prom inferno from Carrie pretty much set the standard by which all others are judged. Personally, it’s hard for me to think of any movie that could improve on the final house party massacre in The Rage: Carrie 2. After all, how can you top a blinded Rachel Blanchard accidentally shooting the oldest Home Improvement kid in the balls with a spear gun?
Evilspeak doesn’t quite reach those heights in its finale but it’s still pretty effective. If nothing else, the sight of Clint Howard wielding a sword while flying above his tormentors is a lot more effective than you might think. Over the next few minutes, spikes are drilled into foreheads, heads are chopped off, hearts are ripped out of chests, and those pigs show up again. The gore effects here are undeniably crude but oddly effective. This sequence (along with the previous pig shower attack) actually inspired a few nightmares the night after I saw Evilspeak.
In the end, Evilspeak is an odd little movie. While the plot should be familiar to anyone who has ever seen a horror film, there’s a real nastiness at the core of Evilspeak that distinguishes it from other genre offerings that came out during the same period. At times, Evilspeak almost feels like an Italian film which is probably why I found it to be so oddly compelling.
The Evilspeak DVD features a commentary track featuring both Clint Howard and the film’s director. I always feel some trepidation before listening to a commentary track. Too often, the track turns out to just be some jerk explaining how he financed the film for two hours while commenting not at all on the action on-screen. (For the most part, if a commentary track features any anecdote that begins with, “We had the same lawyer…” you know you’re in trouble.) However, the Evilspeak track is surprisingly enjoyable. Clint Howard comes across as a surprisingly likable, levelheaded guy and its interesting to contrast his odd wholesomeness with the action onscreen.
In the end, Evilspeak may be a piece of junk but it’s an enjoyable piece of junk.
Through the Shattered Lens 