Going back to squirmy parts of the horrorsphere. After watching Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals I finished the evening with Slither, one of the better recent alien invasion/horror flicks. Shit goes down when a meteorite touches down in a town that is ultimately a backwoods microcosm, because there's an aggressive, sentient virus-slash-alien on board that only exists to invade, take over (creepily), destroy (disgustingly), and move on. Things happen on a local scale but with possibly widespread ramifications, borrowing ideas from classics like Night of the Living Dead and The Blob. Frankly, it's one if the most ruthless and hard to avoid body-snatching devices since Alien, with one of the most disgusting gestational periods ever. It will give you the urge to step on as many creepy-crawlies as you can see, but it will not do anything to alleviate any pre-established squeamishness.
(Trying the blogger vid here instead, but this may be gone before you know it.)
It manages a whole bevy of new ways to gross us out, with a great building of ingenuity in the devices, there are new "Oh HELL No!" moments around every corner, along with pretty convincing makeup and CGI. Storywise, writer/director James Gunn has tried to inject some heart between Elizabeth Banks' character and her husband, but it's set up that she basically loathes him, he's abusive even before he gets the alien inside him, so the latter stuff comes off as fake. Plus, she's obviously going to end up with Nathan Fillon (assuming they survive). Yeah, I'm overthinking this aspect, I guess. Overall, it's gross, fun, smarmy, even Men in Black-ish absent the glossy toys and forced banter.
___
Later in the week I checked out The Host (Gweomul), the South Korean monster movie sensation. I highly urge people to check this one out. It's a Godzilla tadpole acting like an addict hopped up on Heisenberg meth. The thing comes right out in the daylight in the first 20 minutes, there is nothing to hide. So yeah, I'm clipping it here. Pay special attention to the shot starting at 0:01.30, especially the camera movement.
That is just spectacular choreography and a seamless blend of the real-life and CGI. The creature is noticeably computer-generated, but excellently rendered in great detail and quite a sight to behold. And it has some tricks up its, er, sleeves(?) that surprise us as the show goes on. Yeah, we've come long way from giant, lumbering Gojira to an elephant-sized, lightning-quick, amphibious polliwog with razor sharp fangs and an untrammeled, grasperous monkey tail.
In action-based movies developing character is always difficult and unnatural when you have to develop specific scenes to just to develop character instead of letting it flow organically with the story, and The Host struggles a bit through a long, limp middle section that is only saved by the wonderful scene in the rain (you'll know when you see it) which is the arguably the best scene of the movie -- even better than the scene in the sun clipped above.
It has humorous excursions that are a bit jarring because of slapstick juxtaposed with what one would expect to be a very somber tone, but playing them into satirical moments against political and environmental issues that work for the most part. Also of note, the architecture of the bridges and sewers around the Han River make for beautiful cinematography, reminding me of Antonioni's obsession with structural edifices, but there is movement here, by the camera, the characters, and the flowing river below, that heightens the composition. It all ends in a grand, atmospheric, dramatic final showdown that is on the verge of being balletic. Worth a serious look.
No comments:
Post a Comment