Mini-Movie Review - Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)

This…..is not a good movie. But it’s a really fun movie that every horror fan should watch at least once. So should every fan of Bruce Campbell. The story itself is from a short story by the incomparable Joe R. Lansdale.

Here’s the gist, and it’s a doozy: Campbell plays none other than Elvis. Yep, the man himself. Only it’s Elvis pretending to be an Elvis impersonator. See, Elvis got tired of the regular grind of celebrity and fame. So, he traded places with the best Elvis impersonator out there. You’ll have to watch the movie to get the entire hilarious story. Including how he wound up in the Shady Rest Retirement Home.

Elvis is aided, or maybe encouraged, by his best buddy at the home, Jack, aka Jack Kennedy. The President has been the victim of some sort of government conspiracy that has gone so far as to dye his skin black and stick him in a retirement home. Other than the craziness of his claims, Jack is very cultured, well read, and intelligent.

And then, there’s the mummy, who wants to feed on the souls of the residents so he can gain his full powers back and rejoin the land of the living. There are a few other equally wonderful characters as well, but it comes down to Elvis and Jack to figure out what’s happening and put a stop to it.

Seriously, this is a wonderfully funny movie. Watching Campbell clomping around with the aid of a walker while fighting a mummy is something that needs to be seen to be fully appreciated. The acting is spot on. The movie was, I think, done on film, so it has an almost grainy quality to it that suits the dingy setting of the nursing home. And you can tell that everyone was having fun during the filming.

Gaming wise, this would be good for any fun horror setting. Or you could take out the humor – leave that for your players – and just keep the setting. Having a mummy lurking around draining patients of their energy and souls would lead to a very dark adventure. Call of Cthulhu comes to mind, because I run it so much, but I think there are some Bloat Games that would lend themselves to this treatment as well. And with a few more tweaks you could even take it to a fantasy setting. Although you might want to rethink the mummy and use something more appropriate for your setting. Heck, this could be a truly horrific Vaesen setting, now that I think about it. Because, honestly, the setting would be great for several different types of scenarios and adventures.

If you’d like to see what other movies I’ve got on my schedule this month, check out my post here. And if you’d like to play along, check out Pun’s blog, Halls of the Nephilim, for his daily theme suggestions.  

 

Mini-Movie Review - Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (2010)

 

Tonight was supposed to be “The Lost Boys”, which had been streaming on Pluto. Apparently that ended at the beginning of the month. *sigh* What to do? While poking around for another movie to watch in its place, “Tucker and Dale vs. Evil” popped up in the feed. This movie had been mentioned to me so many times in the last few days. On the surface, it is very much not my kind of movie. But we gave it a shot and I am so glad.

On top of not really liking tons of blood and gore being tossed about just for the sake of doing so, especially while trying to pretend to be oh-so-serious, I also don’t enjoy watching long held stereotypes about groups of people being trotted out for the sake of a plot line. Ah, but this is where “Tucker and Dale” is so different. It’s a parody of college-kids-running-around-in-the-woods-being-picked-off movie tropes. And boy does it turn the genre on its bigoted little head.

The movie is funny, ridiculous, bloody, and absolutely wonderful. I’m not going to give away too much, but the basic premise is a group of college kids heading to the Appalachian hills of West Virginia for a school break. On the way, they stop at one of the scariest looking gas stations I’ve ever seen – and I live a stone’s throw from West Virginia – where they encounter a couple of good ol’ buddy hillbillies – Tucker and Dale. They’re on their way to Tucker’s new vacation home, where they’re going to have a working weekend fixing the place up.

The vacation home is a little better than a ramshackle shack, by the way, which only adds to the humor. A couple of outdoorsy, unmarried, country guys like Tucker and Dale might well think it’s the best thing ever. But I digress a little. It turns out that our college kids are camping nearby, possibly on Tucker’s property. The movie is never entirely clear on that, but it’s not important overall.

One of the college contingents, who turns out to be a farm girl, gets rescued by the well-meaning duo after a fall into the pond where her friends are swimming. And it the action goes quickly to over the top as her friends decide she’s been kidnapped and are determined to rescue her from the vile, murderous hillbillies. The kids then proceed to run all over the place during the course of the movie and inevitably start dying in all kinds of gruesome ways.

It really is great fun, even with a high body count. There’s a fun little twist at the end, other than the realization that our hillbillies aren’t quite as dumb as everyone wants to think they are. That’s apparently early on. They might be a little clueless to the overall scheme of what’s happening, but they’re also danged smart in their own way. 

HIGH recommended. This movie is now on my favorites list and will definitely be rewatched over time. West Virginia is all too often the butt of cultural stereotypes, but not this time. And it was a delight to watch. I’d be surprised if there weren’t sociology papers written on this movie. It certainly lends itself to academic study.

I’m honestly not sure what the gaming connection here could be. Bloat Games has a string of Survive This! Settings where it might fit. I feel like the tone is there, but I’m not familiar with Eric’s games enough to say for sure. (Sorry, Eric. I’ll work on that!)

If you want to run a scary, yet humorous Call of Cthulhu game, this might work. I mean, any desolate woods anywhere would work – the setting of West Virginia only helped with the hillbilly characters, but if you take the game back in time to the Classic era of the 1920s, you could work in any isolated country setting even in New England. Goodness knows Lovecraft wrote that stereotype often enough with stories set in Massachusetts, Vermont, or Connecticut.

Check out the rest of my choices in this post. And if you want to make your own list and play along, you can find Pun’s theme suggestions here in The Halls of Nephilim.

Mini Movie Review - Tales of Terror (1962)

 Friday night’s selection called for some classic fun, in the form of an Anthology-themed entry called Tales of Terror. From 1962, it stars Vincent Price (that voice!) in three short works inspired by the short stories of Edgar Allen Poe. Apparently, the director, Roger Corman, made a series of such movies. And with a screenplay written by Richard Matheson (The Hunger anyone?) it was bound to be good.

The movie unfolds like a series of short plays, which would normally drive me nuts in a movie even this old. However, it totally works for this movie. Each one had very few sets and sparse casts. The middle one, The Black Cat, easily had the biggest cast, thanks to a scene with of a wine merchants convention.

So, let’s take a slightly closer look, shall we? The first movie, “Morella”, tells the tale of a daughter come home to the family estate, which is much in disrepair. Lenora has essentially never seen her father. He sent her away when she was just a baby, days old, after her mother died, accusing the baby of having killed her. Father and daughter actually start to reconcile, when Morella decides to have her revenge.

There wasn’t much to this one and it actually bored me just a little bit, but I love how expressive Price’s eyes can be. However, the danged thing is so short that it left me with several questions and few answers. Nevertheless, it was still better than Devil from Thursday night.

And so, we continued on to short story number two. This was a combination of Poe’s “The Black Cat” and the very chilling “Cask of Amontillado”. Peter Lorre took the starring role in this one, although Price still has a key role. And my goodness how talented Mr. Lorre is! Even if you only watch one short in this anthology, it is worth the time to track down and watch this middle one! Lorre and Price and amazing actors on their own, but when you put them together you have magic.

The final movie is “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” once again starring Vincent Price and based on a short story of the same name. It’s not one of his short stories that I’m familiar with, but I need to look it up now. M. Valdemar is dying of some sort of brain issue. This is a Poe story that I’m not at all familiar with, but that I also now want to dig up and read. No less than Sherlock Holmes himself (Basil Rathbone) plays a mesmerist helping a wealthy patient deal with the increasing pain from his impending death (Vincent Price). Mr. Valdemar has promised Mr. Carmichael that he can hypnotize him as he lies dying to discover if the moment of death can be prolonged via mesmerism.

Valdemar dies while in such a state, but his soul doesn’t leave his dead body and he remains trapped until Carmichael sees fit to release him. And Carmichael has his own plans. It’s a very neat concept that plays out with a sense of dread and horror – how long will the agonized Valdemar lie there before getting his final peace? And what will it take for Carmichael to finally relent and release his subject?

All in all, these were fun. I thought The Black Cat did drag a little in the middle, but not too much. And it might be my first Roger Corman film. I’m trying to remember. Regardless, I recommend this little anthology film for when you’re in the mood for something truly old school, but maybe not so old school that it predates color films! No gore, really, but lots left to the imagination.

As for a gaming connection, “Morella” could easily be adapted to a variety of game systems, but I see it best in a fantasy setting, such as Pathfinder or that other d20 fantasy system everyone is crazy about. Make it a curse of some sort, or perhaps Morella could be a lich. There are several possibilities.

“The Black Cat” is a bit harder if you’re intent on rescuing the victims. I’d suggest sticking to more of the “Cask of Amontillado” and having the investigators look into the winetasters disappearance. Add in some mythos elements and you’ve got a winner on your hands.

“The Facts in The Case of M. Valdemar” could be used similarly. Have him disappear. It may be known that he was near death, but there’s been no mention of him actually dying. Have your players investigate what is really going on. Toss in mesmerism as well as some Mythos activity of some sort – Yithians maybe? – and give them a good scare!

We’re almost at the end of the first week! Tomorrow’s selection, “Lost Boys” turned out to no longer be available on Pluto, dang it. You’ll have to continue checking out my blog posts to see what we watched instead. (Fortunately, I can get “The Lost Boys” from the local library, so all is not lost. It’ll just be postponed a wee bit.)

Check out the rest of my challenge choices here. And if you’d like to play along yourself, you can find Pun’s daily theme suggestions on his blog, Halls of the Niphilim. 

Mini Movie Review - Devil (2010)

Thanks to everyone who reads along and bears with me while I dust off both my writing and reviewing skills. It's been a few years since my brain would let me put words together into a string of written sentences. Lack of oxygenated blood and the mental messiness of menopause really had me messed up for awhile, but the menopause symptoms toned way down after a couple of years and a quadruple heart bypass earlier this year helped with the oxygenated blood issue. It's nice to get me life back!

 This will be one of the shortest reviews yet, because I only made it 1/2 an hour before turning it off. Seriously. Some folks maybe will like it? I'm not one of them, and I can tell you why. But first, why did I pick this movie that none of us have probably heard of? Well, the day's theme was "With a Twist" and I know M. Night Shyamalan is known for his twist endings. And he's not only involved as a produce, but also created the story. So, I at least expected decent. Maybe I shouldn't have. I mean, the talk about his movies since The Sixth Sense. 

First thing that was wrong? The opening credits. Very stylized shots of the camera moving through an upside-down cityscape. All it had me asking was why. The story is about 5 people trapped in an elevator and one of them is the devil in disguise. So, they've already started to lose me. I thought it might be redeemed with the next few bits, but no.

Second thing that was wrong? The score. Do not start with tension building music when there's just ordinary stuff happening. And yes, i n this kind of move, a dead body on top of a van is just ordinary stuff happening. Now, if you'd shown the action leading up to the body coming through a high level window from the skyscraper office building....maybe. (And aren't those windows shatter-proof? How much forse would you need to get a body out one of them?) So, we have a rampant case of music not fitting the scenes.

Third thing wrong with the movie? Voice over exposition during the credits. Actually, I didn't mind this. It was a nice device to get us up to speed with the mythology behind the story. Except that it was continuing a third of the way into the movie. And I'm still not sure which character was doing the voice over. But seriously, if you need to still be giving me info on top of what I'm seeing by that point in the movie, you've lost. Seriously, show, don't tell si a mantra for storytelling for a reason.

And finally, the fourth and last reason I stopped e the movie? The folks in the elevator were too much a caricature of real characters. And I felt no sympathy for any of them really. At best I didn't feel anything about them either way and at worst I wanted to drop them down the elevator shaft myself. There were some characters outside the elevator who were decently done, but they weren't the focus. 

So, seriously, skip this movie. I couldn't even make myself sit through it for the sake of finishing my challenge movie for the night. I kept hoping it would get better, but instead it just got worse. It was so bad, you'll notice I didn't even post a handy IMDb link for you. And no, it's not a so bad, it's good kinda bad. It's just bad.

Given that it's the fifth movie in the challenge and the first I really haven't liked is a pretty good record. 

Check out the rest of my challenge choices at this post. And if you want to play along as well, you can find Pun's daily themes on his blog, Halls of Nephilim. And if you watch, or have watched, any of my reviewed movies, please leave me a comment in below.

Mini Movie Review - Let the Right One In (2008)

 

Wednesday was Foreign Language Day, and for me it was another no-brainer. I’ve been wanting to watch this one but have never taken the time to just sit down and watch it. I tend to put off movies I know I want to watch in the original language with the subtitles on. Some folks watch everything with subtitles on. I find them a distraction. However, this is the second of two movies I’ll watch this way during the month. The first was Train to Busan and the last will be Brotherhood of the Wolf. (Please, whatever you do, do not watch Brotherhood of the Wolf with the English dub! Trust me.) And then there was this one, Let the Right One In.

Anyway, I’ve been looking forward to this and am so glad Pun’s movie challenge gave me the kick I needed to finally watch it. It’s dark, atmospheric, and absolutely beautiful to watch. What is it with gorgeous cinematography in Nordic noir? There isn’t a lot of dialog, either, which is something else I notice in some the films of some countries, especially films with hoped for international distribution. I appreciate their taking it a little easy on us stubborn Americans.

As for the horror, Oskar is a boy who befriends the new girl next door, only she’s not a girl. I think it’s wonderful about Oskar that he doesn’t care that she’s odd or different. He doesn’t even flinch when finding out she’s not human. And yet, it’s also worrying that he doesn’t care. He figures out that she’s a vampire, and it doesn’t bother him in the least that she kills people to live. I think there’s some of the horror, right there. This kid likes reading about violent death and doesn’t flinch much when actually confronted with it either.

But maybe the true horror is the actions of his bullies. And they start out mean and only get meaner, until the vicious, bloody ending. It’s exciting, and we cheer, when Oskar finally stands up for himself, but that action triggers the finale. And it’s all horrific when you really contemplate it. The only actual hero of the story is Ginia, who knows something bad is happening to her and wants to stop it before it’s too late.

Anyway, it’s a beautiful, captivating movie. And I still recommend you take the time to watch it if you like vampires, or coming of age movies. It’s also a deeply moving story of friendship and how true friends have one another’s backs, because Oskar and Emi do just that.

From a gaming perspective, this could be a great idea builder for one of the roleplay heavy rpg out there. I'm just not sure which one to suggest. Any ideas? Share 'em below please.

Check out the rest of my challenges here. And if you want to play along as well, you can find Pun’s daily themes on his blog, Halls of the Nephilim.

Mini Movie Review - Jaws (1975)

 

The third night of our movie challenge was to watch a horror movie where nature strikes back. There are several movies that fall into this, but Jaws was the obvious choice for us. I mean, we did get to go to the beach again this summer, Rowan loves sharks, and I have a bit of a fondness for the odd creatures as well.

Jaws is considered one of, if not THE, first summer blockbusters out there, and Spielberg has malfunctioning animatronics to thank for it. We only see the shark towards the very end of the movie, while the first half is all about setting up the big showdown between man and shark. And that first serious look at the monster shark doesn’t fail to impress, leading to the classic movie line, “We’re gonna need a bigger boat.) And in the meantime we get plenty of blood and body bits.

This movie also showcases some social commentary, what with the mayor wanting to keep the beaches open at any cost, including the loss of human life. He even points out that during the July 4^th festivities his children were also on the beach. And this was after he bullied a friend to get in water, along with his wife and grandkids.

As already stated, most of the second half is simply the fishing trip to try and catch the shark. Just three men on a boat – the sheriff, the shark expert, and the crazy fisherman who owns the boat. I’ll let you figure out who, if anyone, makes it out alive. I will say that the tension building in the second half of this movie is a master class. And this was one of Spielberg’s first movies!

Not sure how I’d play this one up in a gaming sense. Maybe a small scenario for Call of Cthulhu? OR, it could be fun to move it to a fantasy setting, maybe, for Pathfinder or that other D20 game that’s popular. Could be fun. If you do, make sure that shark is a souped up version of the Monster Manual or Bestiary and that it has plenty of hit points or armor.

Seriously, this was a fun re-watch from when I was in high school. I’d forgotten how much humor it had. Unless you have a shark phobia, give it a watch.

 Check out the rest of my challenge suggestions here. And if you want to play along as well, check out Pun's themes on his blog, Halls of the Nephilim. . 

Mini Movie Review - Train to Busan (2016)

While I have time, let’s work in a quick review of Last Train to Busan (2016). This one made a lot of “Best Of” lists and it’s easy to see why – it’s well executed, the cinematography is wonderful, the acting solid, and the premise is simple at heart – Seok-woo’s daughter, Soo-an, just wants to see her mom for her birthday. All he needs to do is take the time from work, ride on the train to Busan to meet up with his ex, and come back to work.

But, of course, that would be a really boring movie. So let’s add some viral outbreak that quickly infects folks making them want to immediately infect anyone around them who isn’t already. That way you quickly get hordes of infected chasing non-infected, and it really does make for some effective and tense moments in the movie. I liked it.

I also like the social commentary of the movie, regarding who was maybe worth saving and what lengths some people would go to in order to increase their odds of survival. Or at least it let them feel that way. South Korea has a very polite cultural norm. And yet it would be easy to see the movie set in so many other places. The more different we are, the more we are the same, eh?

The ending of the movie is truly guy-wrenching. Heck, the last half is gut-wrenching and nail biting as we cheer on our male heroes who are trying to make their way through the rail cars to their female loved ones. And they don’t just bash their way though, either. There is some seriously observation, cunning, and quick thinking that happens in this movie. And I truly was in tears by the end. Sacrifices are made. The stocky businessman I cheered over finally getting his due at the hands of a horde of infected only to tear up when the director and writers managed to humanize him before his final death. Train to Busan belongs on all of those “Best of” lists for a very good reason.

That said, I could still totally nit-pick this movie to death. There are so many little things from continuity issues to just logic ones. But I made the decision while watching it, not to do that, and I’m still not going to do that here. It was really that good, in spite of any issues I might have found. (I mean really, what virus has an infection rate of less than 3 seconds. It’s not sustainable, at the very least.) I thought the amount of blood and core was about right – it added to, rather than distracted from, the movie. And the earlier actors playing the roles of the infected did an amazing job with the necessary body work. Those early scenes of the infection taking hold were especially physical.

How can it apply to a gaming setting? Well, Rowan, my eldest, thinks it would be a decently adapted idea for The Walking Dead. They’re probably right. And I think it would make a great Humans vs. Zombies game, which is already a live-play game of horror survival.

Anyway, check it out. It’s a fun, yet heart-wrenching, couple of hours that you won’t regret. 

 Check out the rest of my challenge suggestions here. And if you want to play along as well, check out Pun's themes on his blog, Halls of the Nephilim. .