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I have been thinking about how to approach this for over a week now.  It is very difficult to say the things that need to be said about one of my heroes when they are this negative.  I have seen some very harsh reviewers sugarcoat their reviews out of respect for Argento, but I cannot be so kind.  I also have to give and advance spoiler warning.  I am going to be giving away the end of the movie as well as key developments within in the movie. Unfortunately, I have to do this to illustrate the horror of Mother of Tears, and why I almost left the screening room in tears myself.

The movie starts off with the discovery of an ancient urn/case that is sent to a museum where it is discovered by two interns,Sarah (Asia Argento) and Giselle (Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni).  While Sarah is away for a moment Giselle opens this horrific box.  The box unlocks the return of the Mother of Tears, and all hell breaks loose... well at least the first murder.  I have to say this is a very gory scene.  It was excessive and brutal, which I liked, but Sarah comes back to see the grizzly scene taking place and a monkey begins to chase her. Yep, a monkey.  She finally escapes the monkey chase and goes to the police.  They don't seem to believe here logical story of demons and monkey chases so they dismiss her story and let her go.  Ahhhh, I thought I could do it, but I just can't.  I cannot give a serious review of this movie that parodies itself.  I will just say what is wrong with the movie.

The witches that were supposed to be menacing were very laughable. They were running around trying to spook passers by as though the were on a rampage. When I say they were laughable I mean that literally, the screening audience was laughing. I was excited to see Daria Nicolodi return to an Argento film, but she returns as a horribly animated ghost.  I mean horribly animated. I could do better with iMovie.  This ghost is Sarah's/Asia's mother telling her she has to learn to use her special magical powers to fight the Mother of Tears.  When she goes to the man she is supposed to see to learn how to use her powers he simply shows her a page in a book.  That is it.  No real education... just look at this page.  With her new knowledge she goes to a catacomb that is the haven for these wacky witches.  She is accompanied be a cop who ends up believing her story, but the cop is killed and somehow make a mysterious return unharmed.  Who am I to question?  While in the middle of some eerie ceremony (that will probably cause ultimate world destruction), Asia takes a pole and removes the cloak from the mother of tears in what would be a Benny Hill skit if it would have been given the appropriate music.  This cloak, which was apparently the mother's only true link to her magical powers, came off to reveal... Boobies!  The theater was rolling in laughter at this point. Moments later, though, Sarah and the cop escape to to the surface only to start laughing themselves.  We were all laughing... audience and actors alike.  Then came the best part of the movie, the end credits.  The end song was made by Claudio Simonetti with vocals from Dani Filth from Cradle of Filth.  The song was very enjoyable, which I wish I could say about the rest of the soundtrack.  You could hear aspects of Goblin through the entire film (scored by Simonetti), but it never really exploded like the Suspiria soundtrack.

I really hate to speak this way of my favorite director.  It really pains me.  I didn't like Sleepless much, and I really hated the Card Player.  This movie I found detestable.  I am not even nitpicking the gratuitous nudity and violence toward his daughter that other critics have exploited.  It was just a bad movie that ends up laughing in the audiences face at the end.  In fact I suggest viewing it (if you must) as a comedy... that way you might not be let down so bad.

I was lucky enough to catch a screening of The Redsin Tower at the Horrorhound weekend.  I have only seen one other Toetag film to date (August Underground), but this film makes me want to check the rest of them out. 

The Redsin Tower is the story of a girl, Kim, who has just dumped her boyfriend of many years, Mitch.  Being on the rebound, though still questionably regretting the breakup, she decides to go to "the party of the year" with her friend Becky.  Mitch, not being very happy with the breakup and going quite insane, takes it upon himself to tell the police about the drug use and underage drinking that this legendary party will consist of through a random phone call.  His goal is achieved, and the party is crashed before the girls get an opportunity to attend.  At a pre-party of sorts the girls had been gathering with other friends in anticipation of the event, but when they find out the party is off they have to find someplace else to party.  While at this pre-party gathering Kim runs into Steve, who she has had a crush on for some time, but has been unable to do anything about due to her ex.  Upon discussion they finally decide to go to the Redsin Tower, a local secluded, and possibly haunted attraction. 

The group, which has now grown to 6 (Steve and his friend Carl along with a stoner couple, Emily and Phil), has a run in with Mitch which leads to an embarrassing ass kicking that makes Mitch even further unstable.  While the incident leaves Kim a little troubled they continue on their way to the tower.

Once at the tower, it's origins are revealed through a gory possession scene that sets the tone of gore for the rest of the movie.  There are a series of murders and possessions afterwards that lead up to an unbelievable crescendo of gore.  I cannot in good conscience give away who kills who (or what kills who) because this movie is enjoyable, and I wouldn't want to ruin it for any readers. 

I walked away from this movie very satisfied.  I was expecting a film that lacked content, and was nothing but an excuse for gratuitous gore and nudity.  I was surprised to find myself interested in the characters and storyline early into the movie.  While the story behind the Tower itself was far reaching and a bit over dramatic it didn't hurt the flow of the film badly at all.  Then there's the gore... Absolutely amazing.  There were scenes in the movie that really made me wonder how they did it. The sheer brutality and visible contact in some of the scenes were haunting.  Even if I had not liked the movie I would have been thoroughly impressed with the gore and special effects.  It was really nice, as well, to run into the Director, Fred Vogel, after the screening to shake his hand and tell him how much I enjoyed his film.  It may have been all the starvation and sleep deprivation from the trip, but I though The Redsin Tower was an amazing movie and I can only hope that other horror films can follow in the same direction.

We finally arrived at the convention.  We were weak from hunger and sleep deprivation.   Walking through the entry way to the convention was an overwhelming sensation.  A giant room dedicated to horror... it was like my dreams had come true.  We had entered about an hour after the doors had opened, so there were still a lot of empty booths, and several guests who hadn't arrived.  We had really been in a hurry because on the website for the convention it had listed a screening for Mother of Tears at 5 pm and we had entered at 4 pm.  Once we found a list of events at the convention we found that the screening had been moved to the next day.  That was a huge relief because we would get an opportunity to get a bite to eat before it was too late.

We did a preliminary walk around the floor to examine what was there. There were horror toys, posters, props and movies as far as the eye could see.  There were people dressed up as zombies and other horrible, wonderful things. I was immediately able to achieve one of my goals by purchasing a couple of issues of HorrorHound that I had missed while on store racks. One of which I was able to get signed by Pinhead/Doug Bradley...

A lot of people complained that Mr. Bradley was rude and not very receptive, but I found him to be very nice and polite.  He told us that he was going to be in Clive Barker's film for the Books of Blood.  It was amazing to be in the presence of a horror icon.

Prior to meeting Doug Bradley we came across several tables put together for the Dawn of the Dead cast.  I thought more of the cast and crew would attend considering the screening that was going to be held the following night.  I was still happy, though, to meet the members that I did.

The first person I met from Dawn of the Dead was David Early (pictured above on the far left).  He was a very nice man.  Tammy and I were able to tell him that we really enjoyed his work. We both thought he did a wonderful job of helping to establish a tone early in Dawn of the Dead.  Next we met Mike Christopher a.k.a. the Krishna Zombie (pictured far right).  He was a really wonderful guy.  We were able to get to his booth and talk to him early in the convention before it became very crowded.  We were able to tell him that we enjoyed his part in the movie, as well. He told us that the print we chose to have signed was his favorite, and that he picked that one out himself while his agent had picked the others.  We agreed that it was the best of his selection, and moved on to the rest of the convention. We ran into Tom Savini later in the convention, but he was kind of short with us.  It was still nice to get to meet him.
Prior to meeting Savini we stopped at Bill Moseley's table.  He was probably the friendliest guy we came across at the whole convention.  He was happy to take the time to talk to us, and was happy to pose for a picture with Tammy.
 

After the first round of purchases and signings, and Tammy almost being accidentally run down by John Landis, we decided it was time to end our hunger and check out Monroville Mall.  We stopped by the mall to buy tickets for the screening the following night.  The place that was selling tickets in the mall was probably the most amazing toy store I had ever been to.  It was called Time and Space Toys, and they had a wonderfully diverse selection of toys and comics from all time periods.  Their items were also reasonably priced.  After a very brief tour of the mall we got a little bit of food, went back to our room, and got some rest for the next long day ahead.

Dawn of the Dead is my favorite movie. It has been for over 15 years. Monroeville Mall, where it was shot, has always been my main pilgrimage destination. This weekend I was able to fulfill my dream by going to the HorrorHound weekend in Monroeville. Not only that, but I got to see the film screened AT the mall. There was an incident, and they were unable to turn out the lights, but the experience was was still really cool. I got to meet some really cool people, and had a lot of fun.

I plan to make several more posts detailing some of the events and items acquired. While the trip there and back was taxing, it was well worth it for all the new lovely experiences.

Or, was. Or, might still be. Or, I don't know. Don't mention it. Very confusing.

 

Anyway, on this day, in the great state of New Jersey, the hyper-masculine, miniscule bibliophile known as Glenn Danzig was born... born to wear mesh shirts and violently hump air. Thank Cthulhu.

 

With less fanfare than last year's lack of fanfare, we salute Mr. Danzig and wish him 53 more years of howling with the wolves and humping with the hoes.

  

 

 

 

From 2007's The Lost Tracks of Danzig, the acoustic version of "Come to Silver", a song originally written for Johnny Cash, is a hell of a lot better than the one that appears on 1996's Blackacidevil. It's not about alchemy, in case that you wondered. Simple and melancholy, it reminds me of a typical, late-19th century novel chronicling the rise and bitter demise of some poor schmuck -- all in less than 4 minutes.

 

 

 

Miss Anzalone, If You're Nasty, Cristina

Hostel: Part II: Official Site | IMDB | Rotten Tomatoes | Wikipedia

This past Sunday night, Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News and the Alamo Drafthouse managed, at last minute, to put together a sneak preview screening of Eli Roth's Hostel: Part II. This was a special event, indeed. Eli announced to the everyone, this was the third screening of the movie in America and we were the first American audience he was watching it with. This totally made up for Eli missing out on SXSW 2007. The pre-show began with Eli getting his pain on. It was a mad house, I tell you. Then we got the see (again for me) Eli's director's cut version of his Grindhouse trailer, Thanksgiving.

What can I say about Hostel: Part II without spoiling too much. It starts off a short time after the first movie. There are both old and new characters. The male nudity towards the beginning of the movie is made up for by a later scene involving a nude Heather Matarazzo. We get to see the process of how people are bid on by members of "club". Those damn kids are back. I very much liked the way the two male American characters balanced off each other. There were many great horror movie moments. Oh the cuts you'll get to see. What you'll see behind the closed doors are different from the first movie. There's a scene in the third act that will make Hardy Candy look like a Walt Disney film. That's enough, go see it.

It's hard for me to say if Part II is better than the first movie. It's more like, Eli managed to expand upon the first movie. He told us during the post Q&A, he really does not want to turn Hostel into a trilogy. He was naming off all the bad third movies any film geek could understand, from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome to the recent Spider-Man 3. Afterward, we moved out into the lobby where Eli was signing free posters for everyone. When there was a ony a handful of us left, Eli was still eager to talk. By the time I walked out the door, it was past 3AM and my day was full.

All in all, everyone had a great time.

Here's my photo set

Did anybody else catch Scanners on IFC last night? I had not seen it since I was ten or so and I forgot what amazing cheesy horror goodness it was! I did not remember that much about the movie itself, but remembered trying to use my mind powers by making funny faces as a kid. The explosions and small bits of gore were great and the veiny firey ending was awesome! In case you have not seen it in a while or just don't mind a spoiler here is the famous head pop scene...

As you might not know I'm kinda phobic of werewolves. Movies about werewolves are the only ones that really scare me. Anyways... I still watch those movies^^
The fact that there will be a remake for "The Wolfman" does exist for quiet a long time. And now the first pictures of the actual werewolf were published. One of the pics i a bit older, 'cause I totally forgot to upload it.
I watched the original verison of "The Wolfman" and I really liked the movie. I can look forward to have that feeling in the cinema like knowing what actually will happen ...hahah :-P Cuz people read Harry Potter books and have that feeling or people play Final Fantasy VII and watch Advent Children and they all have that nostalgic feeling then, ..I hope I will have that kind of feeling,too besides of being scared to death :-§

The pictures are off the Rick Baker interview. He does the special makeup effects for all big movies, especially famous werewolf-movies. Here are a few ones: Norbit, X-Men, Cursed, The Ring, Hellboy, Planet Of The Apes, Men In Black, The Frighteners, Wolf, Gremlins, The Howling, Michael Jackson's Thriller, An American Werewolf in London, ...
Here's the link for the full 2-paged interview: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20185191,00.html
LOL that "EW" stands for ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY ewww haha

(March 27) - A 57-year-old man will serve 20 years in prison for molestation charges after pleading guilty in a Virginia court for his attempts to solicit 13-year-old boys over the Internet.

James Foley, known as The Water Street Butcher (named for the location where his first three victims were found), was a cop. He would “arrest” prostitutes, then torture, murder, sodomize and mutilate their corpses. All of his victims had been cut from mouth to ear, were missing sections of skin, and were left naked and mutilated in or near the Hudson River in upstate NY. Apparently, Foley shot videos of everything he did, from stalking to disposing of bodies. These tapes have become known as The Poughkeepsie Tapes, after the town they were found in, Poughkeepsie, NY. These tapes are considered by many to be the most horrifically graphic collection of videos ever assembled. Kill count: 12+ (source)