2004 in review
Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2004 9:08 pm
The horror year of 2004 offered plenty of range--there were times when I was ready to give up on the whole thing, and there were times when I was utterly floored. The 70's revival of 2003 slowed down incredibly--just two remakes this year, but we reached back considerably farther in an attempt to reinvoke plenty of the original classic monsters. And especially frustrating was the realization that a considerable percentage of eligible titles could lay legitimate claim to "non-horror" status! So, as always, I call them as I see them. Agree--disagree--it's all fine by me, and you won't get an argument. Here, then, is my annual rundown.
THE GOOD:
Make all the "Dude, where's my Punk'd 70's Demi Moore Show" jokes you like--Ashton Kutcher did a fine job in THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT. We've all seen people screw up the present by trying to fix the past plenty of times in the movies, but this surprisingly harsh outing really drove home the desperate feeling of truly needing to make things right (hey, if child pornography, baby blasting and dog-torching don't make you cringe, what will?), and the cast really carried things along.
HELLBOY was the latest outing of perhaps my favorite modern genre director, Guillermo del Toro. Honestly, it had neither the punch of BLADE II or the emotional impact of THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE, but it was a very enjoyable demonic comic book outing that still managed to touch on del Toro's established themes (especially father/child relationships seen through supernatural lenses).
HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN doesn't belong here? Not even with the boggarts, the dementors and an honest-to-goodness werewolf in a tale of dark evil slowly gathering strength? It's still the best film yet in the series--Gary Oldman was a tremendous addition to the cast... and I have no idea how they're going to do the next two books while keeping the family audience at the same time. You want a horror show? It's coming...
So... DAWN or SHAUN? The remake we'd all been dreading the most turned out to be very slick and entertaining (not to mention gory), even though it was one of those PLANET OF THE APES deals that tries not to be a remake while including so many insider references that you can't help but invoke the original. Not a remake, but very much a dedicated tribute, was SHAUN OF THE DEAD, which pleased Romero's fans by mixing the frequently-seen combination of gore and humor with that rare third ingredient... intelligence.
None of our local theatres had the guts to book THE MANSON FAMILY, but Jim Van Bebber himself brought it to town as part of our local cancer charity/independent film festival. Needless to say, the film "stripped the paint off our walls" in unflinching style in this ultimate deglamorization. I suppose you could make the case that this isn't a "horror movie," but, unfortunately, you can't make the case that it's not real.
THE MACHINIST deserved the critical accolades it received: both for Brad Armstrong's direction and Christian Bale's performance as a haunted skeleton of a man. The supernatural, again, fails to get involved, but the imagery leading up to the revelation is as disturbing as it gets. The secret is easily guessable--but the conclusion is supremely satisfying, nonetheless.
The year wouldn't be complete without at least one "I stand alone" entry. I was virtually alone in your company--but I had support from the critics in this case--when I stuck up for OPEN WATER. Even if the stranded couple wasn't the easiest pair in the world to get along with, the feeling of "being there" and being forced to imagine oneself in such a hopeless--not to mention excruciatingly extended--predicament hit a home run with me.
But I just might be the only one out there willing to make a case for EXORCIST: THE BEGINNING (and I really, really want to see the Paul Schrader version). Acknowledged: the CGI effects were rushed and crappy. Acknowledged: the climax was a watered-down rehash of the original. And yet I thought that the film (in this incarnation, anyway) was quite well acted; that it had impressive visuals (not the CGI stuff, but the "buried temple" set and similar elements) and some genuinely shocking moments; and that it had a story worth telling. And continuity has never been a theme in this series, so don't bother reminding me that it doesn't really "match." There are now at least two versions of three out of the four films, and we all know that they screwed mercilessly with the third one (my favorite sequel), too. As an EXORCIST film, it's not even second best. As a religiously-themed horror film, it beats the holy hell out of LOST SOULS, STIGMATA and END OF DAYS.
Now here's the real question: what should I name the best horror film of the year? One of the very best films I saw all year was an Italian import called I'M NOT SCARED. As we watch the filter of a young boy's imagination slowly give way to unpleasant reality all too close to home, we're reminded of such classics as THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE, THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE and del Toro's THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE--it's right up there with those, but it really can't be considered a horror film.
JU-ON was certainly the most frightening thing I was lucky enough to catch on the big screen this year, and I'm certainly glad I didn't catch it on video ahead of time. Of course, it wasn't actually made this year, and thanks to my daughter, I did catch the follow-up on disc. Again, not bad at all, but I'm fairly familiar with the material now.
Okay, so I'M NOT SCARED is the best peripheral title of the year. And JU-ON was the scariest American theatrical release of the year. But when it comes to the best theatrical horror film of 2004, I'm handing it to SAW. This is no pseudo-horror procedural like TAKING LIVES or half of the recent movies of Morgan Freeman (not counting SE7EN, of course). Sure, SAW owes a debt to the latter and then some. But it works--it played me for a fool when I thought I was miles ahead of it, the setpieces, true to the title, cut to the bone--and there's that mocking puppet from DEEP RED! The giallo lives once more, and while I can't say I'm greatly looking forward to the sequel, this one had me stumbling out of the theatre and reeling. Not easy to do--so the cup is yours.
THE MIDDLE GROUND:
Since I'd just seen JU-ON on the big screen, no remake--not even one by the same director--could ever hope to recapture the original feeling. Still, I certainly didn't think that THE GRUDGE belonged on Roger-Dodger's Ten Worst list--it obviously knew how to play the material for the target American audience, for better or for worse.
Also on the aforementioned list was RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE. And of course, it's a largely mindless kitchen-sink sequel that gets more ridiculous the more you think about it. But we all know that there are FAR worse video-game-derived horror films out there (and good Lord, I have to see ALONE IN THE DARK within a month, too!). There's plenty of energy, it's never boring, and there are even a couple of good ideas thrown into this mixture--most impressive of all is a cliffhanger ending that actually left me wanting to know what happened next!
And who was expecting anything more than they got from ANACONDAS: THE HUNT FOR THE BLOOD ORCHID? Well, we could have had a little less (okay, one hell of a LOT less) of a certain wide-eyed "homeboy" who did his best to irritate the hell out of the viewer for nearly the entire running time. But if you bought a ticket to watch giant computerized snakes chomping on people, the goods were essentially delivered.
CLUB DREAD tried so hard to duplicate the slasher cliches (not to mention the gore) of the 1980s that it often forgot that it was supposed to be funny. But Bill Paxton as a poor man's Jimmy Buffet and a spectacular... er... performance... by Jordan Ladd were there to keep your eyes open, at least.
SECRET WINDOW sprang from one of Stephen King's less-inspired works, but Johnny Depp and John Turturro made the predictable tale of a tormented author watchable at worst and more entertaining than the novella itself at best.
At least Frank Oz knew that a remake of THE STEPFORD WIVES in this day and age would only work as a comedy. The would-be-horror elements fell flat, and the conclusion was an utter disaster. But perfect casting resulted in a frequently hilarious reworking--again, I defy anyone to watch Bette Midler's contribution to the Christmas-craft-circle conversation without laughing out loud.
And speaking of remakes that really aren't? What can one say about VAN HELSING that hasn't already been said? I wanted to love this movie, and when I saw the black-and-white prologue, I actually dared to hope. And then... chaos and overkill took over. I still ended up liking it a bit more than THE MUMMY RETURNS, but not as much as THE MUMMY (and no, I'll never apologize for liking that one). However, my children both loved VAN HELSING, and it did not spoil their appetites for the Universal Classics, so I still suggest that no lasting harm has been done.
Just under the gate at the end of the year was another "classic" revival of sorts in the form of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. Of course, when you're doing the Andrew Lloyd Webber version, you simply can't duplicate the effect of the live show, try as you might--and neither a needless flashback nor a gratuitous sword fight can help. Still, the film itself is visually stunning throughout and the casting choices were essentially spot-on. This could have been a little better--but not much.
As for DARKNESS? It doesn't even belong here--it's two years old and it was hacked down to a PG-13 when it needed to be an "R." I will go so far as to say that the uncut version might very well have landed high on my list--there seemed to be plenty of potential in this creepy, atmospheric Spanish ghost story. Again--I'll let you know when I actually see it.
THE WORST:
GODSEND had a great idea involving the cloning of a lost child--but the true consequences of such an action were passed over in favor of a "twist." It tried to be everything (except a comedy, I guess) at once and it wound up pleasing nobody. I was about to say it had the worst ending of the year, but it's nothing compared to...
THE FORGOTTEN. Another lost child, but this time everyone's denying that he existed in the first place. It's a terrific idea that would have played best without the supernatural, but eventually it becomes THE X-FILES at its very worst. Ending? WHAT ending?
Oh, the SURPRISE ending! The moment we've all been waiting for from M. Night Shyamalan! Hey, I truly enjoyed his three previous films, but THE VILLAGE bored me to tears from beginning to end. Yeah, I had the ending figured out, but I also guessed THE SIXTH SENSE in ten minutes and it didn't affect my appreciation of that film in the least. Sure, maybe THE VILLAGE is an allegory about the state of the U.S. today. But it's a boring allegory.
ALIEN VS. PREDATOR doesn't even count as an ALIEN film (you couldn't possibly match the continuity--and you think EXORCIST: THE BEGINNING had problems?), and I don't care if it's a PREDATOR film. Much as I loved EVENT HORIZON, Paul Andersen did a better job writing RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE than he did putting this video game together.
There's a faction that believes that SEED OF CHUCKY was an underrated gem--a masterpiece of clever humor and gore. But Ronny Yu had already shown us what you could REALLY do with a Chucky movie if you wanted to. I had to admit that I couldn't take my eyes off of this train wreck, however. Sorta like CATWOMAN, dontcha know.
But the crowning insult of the year? The very idea that BLADE: TRINITY was actually part of the same series that gave us BLADE II. You can't blame Wesley Snipes from shying away from publicizing this considering how it turned out--can you imagine what it must be like to have Ryan Reynolds trying to upstage you with his wisecracks at every turn? Oh, yeah--they tried to bring Dracula into the picture, too. Not everyone agreed, but I thought the results made Richard Roxburgh's take in VAN HELSING worth looking at again. I didn't expect anything special from AvP or SEED OF CHUCKY, but this was a kick in the teeth and the year's very worst "horror" film.
And just to clean house, a few quick mentions. I really enjoyed two Stephen King television projects this year--namely, KINGDOM HOSPITAL (a very underrated--and original--take on Lars von Trier's THE KINGDOM which plays so much better on DVD than it did on ABC), and a solid, surprising miniseries remake of SALEM'S LOT. Hallmark's FRANKENSTEIN wasn't bad at all, but it simply didn't add anything to the familiar story--it just played it by the numbers. Far more surprising was a low-budget take on DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE which showed up on Alpha Video's new independent film line--be sure and check it out if you can. And I've said it before and I'll say it again... never mind ANACONDAS. The best guilty pleasure of the year for me was BOA VS PYTHON.
Decent family fantasy in LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS. A none-too-impressive attempt to turn Vin Diesel's PITCH BLACK character into a mega-budget franchise icon in THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK (what's even worse is that the director's cut gives him a backstory that puts him forward as a Christ figure of sorts?!). And a surprising amount of nostalgic fun in SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW (the marching robots were terrific, but I sure wasn't expecting a visit to King Kong's island!). As mentioned, CATWOMAN was a train wreck. THE PUNISHER wasn't bad for a near-remake of MAD MAX. But THE INCREDIBLES scooped any "real" comic book adventure this year.
Parting thought: why is it that none of the four best "jump" moments of the year were contained in any of the year's best horror films? For the record, they occurred in TAKING LIVES, RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE, THE FORGOTTEN and LEMONY SNICKET.
What say you?
Remo D.
THE GOOD:
Make all the "Dude, where's my Punk'd 70's Demi Moore Show" jokes you like--Ashton Kutcher did a fine job in THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT. We've all seen people screw up the present by trying to fix the past plenty of times in the movies, but this surprisingly harsh outing really drove home the desperate feeling of truly needing to make things right (hey, if child pornography, baby blasting and dog-torching don't make you cringe, what will?), and the cast really carried things along.
HELLBOY was the latest outing of perhaps my favorite modern genre director, Guillermo del Toro. Honestly, it had neither the punch of BLADE II or the emotional impact of THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE, but it was a very enjoyable demonic comic book outing that still managed to touch on del Toro's established themes (especially father/child relationships seen through supernatural lenses).
HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN doesn't belong here? Not even with the boggarts, the dementors and an honest-to-goodness werewolf in a tale of dark evil slowly gathering strength? It's still the best film yet in the series--Gary Oldman was a tremendous addition to the cast... and I have no idea how they're going to do the next two books while keeping the family audience at the same time. You want a horror show? It's coming...
So... DAWN or SHAUN? The remake we'd all been dreading the most turned out to be very slick and entertaining (not to mention gory), even though it was one of those PLANET OF THE APES deals that tries not to be a remake while including so many insider references that you can't help but invoke the original. Not a remake, but very much a dedicated tribute, was SHAUN OF THE DEAD, which pleased Romero's fans by mixing the frequently-seen combination of gore and humor with that rare third ingredient... intelligence.
None of our local theatres had the guts to book THE MANSON FAMILY, but Jim Van Bebber himself brought it to town as part of our local cancer charity/independent film festival. Needless to say, the film "stripped the paint off our walls" in unflinching style in this ultimate deglamorization. I suppose you could make the case that this isn't a "horror movie," but, unfortunately, you can't make the case that it's not real.
THE MACHINIST deserved the critical accolades it received: both for Brad Armstrong's direction and Christian Bale's performance as a haunted skeleton of a man. The supernatural, again, fails to get involved, but the imagery leading up to the revelation is as disturbing as it gets. The secret is easily guessable--but the conclusion is supremely satisfying, nonetheless.
The year wouldn't be complete without at least one "I stand alone" entry. I was virtually alone in your company--but I had support from the critics in this case--when I stuck up for OPEN WATER. Even if the stranded couple wasn't the easiest pair in the world to get along with, the feeling of "being there" and being forced to imagine oneself in such a hopeless--not to mention excruciatingly extended--predicament hit a home run with me.
But I just might be the only one out there willing to make a case for EXORCIST: THE BEGINNING (and I really, really want to see the Paul Schrader version). Acknowledged: the CGI effects were rushed and crappy. Acknowledged: the climax was a watered-down rehash of the original. And yet I thought that the film (in this incarnation, anyway) was quite well acted; that it had impressive visuals (not the CGI stuff, but the "buried temple" set and similar elements) and some genuinely shocking moments; and that it had a story worth telling. And continuity has never been a theme in this series, so don't bother reminding me that it doesn't really "match." There are now at least two versions of three out of the four films, and we all know that they screwed mercilessly with the third one (my favorite sequel), too. As an EXORCIST film, it's not even second best. As a religiously-themed horror film, it beats the holy hell out of LOST SOULS, STIGMATA and END OF DAYS.
Now here's the real question: what should I name the best horror film of the year? One of the very best films I saw all year was an Italian import called I'M NOT SCARED. As we watch the filter of a young boy's imagination slowly give way to unpleasant reality all too close to home, we're reminded of such classics as THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE, THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE and del Toro's THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE--it's right up there with those, but it really can't be considered a horror film.
JU-ON was certainly the most frightening thing I was lucky enough to catch on the big screen this year, and I'm certainly glad I didn't catch it on video ahead of time. Of course, it wasn't actually made this year, and thanks to my daughter, I did catch the follow-up on disc. Again, not bad at all, but I'm fairly familiar with the material now.
Okay, so I'M NOT SCARED is the best peripheral title of the year. And JU-ON was the scariest American theatrical release of the year. But when it comes to the best theatrical horror film of 2004, I'm handing it to SAW. This is no pseudo-horror procedural like TAKING LIVES or half of the recent movies of Morgan Freeman (not counting SE7EN, of course). Sure, SAW owes a debt to the latter and then some. But it works--it played me for a fool when I thought I was miles ahead of it, the setpieces, true to the title, cut to the bone--and there's that mocking puppet from DEEP RED! The giallo lives once more, and while I can't say I'm greatly looking forward to the sequel, this one had me stumbling out of the theatre and reeling. Not easy to do--so the cup is yours.
THE MIDDLE GROUND:
Since I'd just seen JU-ON on the big screen, no remake--not even one by the same director--could ever hope to recapture the original feeling. Still, I certainly didn't think that THE GRUDGE belonged on Roger-Dodger's Ten Worst list--it obviously knew how to play the material for the target American audience, for better or for worse.
Also on the aforementioned list was RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE. And of course, it's a largely mindless kitchen-sink sequel that gets more ridiculous the more you think about it. But we all know that there are FAR worse video-game-derived horror films out there (and good Lord, I have to see ALONE IN THE DARK within a month, too!). There's plenty of energy, it's never boring, and there are even a couple of good ideas thrown into this mixture--most impressive of all is a cliffhanger ending that actually left me wanting to know what happened next!
And who was expecting anything more than they got from ANACONDAS: THE HUNT FOR THE BLOOD ORCHID? Well, we could have had a little less (okay, one hell of a LOT less) of a certain wide-eyed "homeboy" who did his best to irritate the hell out of the viewer for nearly the entire running time. But if you bought a ticket to watch giant computerized snakes chomping on people, the goods were essentially delivered.
CLUB DREAD tried so hard to duplicate the slasher cliches (not to mention the gore) of the 1980s that it often forgot that it was supposed to be funny. But Bill Paxton as a poor man's Jimmy Buffet and a spectacular... er... performance... by Jordan Ladd were there to keep your eyes open, at least.
SECRET WINDOW sprang from one of Stephen King's less-inspired works, but Johnny Depp and John Turturro made the predictable tale of a tormented author watchable at worst and more entertaining than the novella itself at best.
At least Frank Oz knew that a remake of THE STEPFORD WIVES in this day and age would only work as a comedy. The would-be-horror elements fell flat, and the conclusion was an utter disaster. But perfect casting resulted in a frequently hilarious reworking--again, I defy anyone to watch Bette Midler's contribution to the Christmas-craft-circle conversation without laughing out loud.
And speaking of remakes that really aren't? What can one say about VAN HELSING that hasn't already been said? I wanted to love this movie, and when I saw the black-and-white prologue, I actually dared to hope. And then... chaos and overkill took over. I still ended up liking it a bit more than THE MUMMY RETURNS, but not as much as THE MUMMY (and no, I'll never apologize for liking that one). However, my children both loved VAN HELSING, and it did not spoil their appetites for the Universal Classics, so I still suggest that no lasting harm has been done.
Just under the gate at the end of the year was another "classic" revival of sorts in the form of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. Of course, when you're doing the Andrew Lloyd Webber version, you simply can't duplicate the effect of the live show, try as you might--and neither a needless flashback nor a gratuitous sword fight can help. Still, the film itself is visually stunning throughout and the casting choices were essentially spot-on. This could have been a little better--but not much.
As for DARKNESS? It doesn't even belong here--it's two years old and it was hacked down to a PG-13 when it needed to be an "R." I will go so far as to say that the uncut version might very well have landed high on my list--there seemed to be plenty of potential in this creepy, atmospheric Spanish ghost story. Again--I'll let you know when I actually see it.
THE WORST:
GODSEND had a great idea involving the cloning of a lost child--but the true consequences of such an action were passed over in favor of a "twist." It tried to be everything (except a comedy, I guess) at once and it wound up pleasing nobody. I was about to say it had the worst ending of the year, but it's nothing compared to...
THE FORGOTTEN. Another lost child, but this time everyone's denying that he existed in the first place. It's a terrific idea that would have played best without the supernatural, but eventually it becomes THE X-FILES at its very worst. Ending? WHAT ending?
Oh, the SURPRISE ending! The moment we've all been waiting for from M. Night Shyamalan! Hey, I truly enjoyed his three previous films, but THE VILLAGE bored me to tears from beginning to end. Yeah, I had the ending figured out, but I also guessed THE SIXTH SENSE in ten minutes and it didn't affect my appreciation of that film in the least. Sure, maybe THE VILLAGE is an allegory about the state of the U.S. today. But it's a boring allegory.
ALIEN VS. PREDATOR doesn't even count as an ALIEN film (you couldn't possibly match the continuity--and you think EXORCIST: THE BEGINNING had problems?), and I don't care if it's a PREDATOR film. Much as I loved EVENT HORIZON, Paul Andersen did a better job writing RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE than he did putting this video game together.
There's a faction that believes that SEED OF CHUCKY was an underrated gem--a masterpiece of clever humor and gore. But Ronny Yu had already shown us what you could REALLY do with a Chucky movie if you wanted to. I had to admit that I couldn't take my eyes off of this train wreck, however. Sorta like CATWOMAN, dontcha know.
But the crowning insult of the year? The very idea that BLADE: TRINITY was actually part of the same series that gave us BLADE II. You can't blame Wesley Snipes from shying away from publicizing this considering how it turned out--can you imagine what it must be like to have Ryan Reynolds trying to upstage you with his wisecracks at every turn? Oh, yeah--they tried to bring Dracula into the picture, too. Not everyone agreed, but I thought the results made Richard Roxburgh's take in VAN HELSING worth looking at again. I didn't expect anything special from AvP or SEED OF CHUCKY, but this was a kick in the teeth and the year's very worst "horror" film.
And just to clean house, a few quick mentions. I really enjoyed two Stephen King television projects this year--namely, KINGDOM HOSPITAL (a very underrated--and original--take on Lars von Trier's THE KINGDOM which plays so much better on DVD than it did on ABC), and a solid, surprising miniseries remake of SALEM'S LOT. Hallmark's FRANKENSTEIN wasn't bad at all, but it simply didn't add anything to the familiar story--it just played it by the numbers. Far more surprising was a low-budget take on DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE which showed up on Alpha Video's new independent film line--be sure and check it out if you can. And I've said it before and I'll say it again... never mind ANACONDAS. The best guilty pleasure of the year for me was BOA VS PYTHON.
Decent family fantasy in LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS. A none-too-impressive attempt to turn Vin Diesel's PITCH BLACK character into a mega-budget franchise icon in THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK (what's even worse is that the director's cut gives him a backstory that puts him forward as a Christ figure of sorts?!). And a surprising amount of nostalgic fun in SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW (the marching robots were terrific, but I sure wasn't expecting a visit to King Kong's island!). As mentioned, CATWOMAN was a train wreck. THE PUNISHER wasn't bad for a near-remake of MAD MAX. But THE INCREDIBLES scooped any "real" comic book adventure this year.
Parting thought: why is it that none of the four best "jump" moments of the year were contained in any of the year's best horror films? For the record, they occurred in TAKING LIVES, RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE, THE FORGOTTEN and LEMONY SNICKET.
What say you?
Remo D.