In the interest of getting “hard” copies of my work under one roof, I plan to spend the next few weeks posting the entire archive of my film journalism here on ScullyVision. With due respect to the many publications I’ve written for, the internet remains quite temporary, and I’d hate to see any of my work disappear for digital reasons. As such, this gargantuan project must begin! I don’t want to do it. I hate doing it. But it needs to be done. Please note that my opinions, like everyone’s, have changed a LOT since I started, so many of these reviews will only represent a snapshot in time. Objectivity has absolutely no place in film criticism, at least not how I do it.
Originally posted on Cinema76.
In response to the many challenges impacting the film community amid the Covid-19 pandemic and the concerns of safety and security that presently come with physical exhibition and festivals, a collective online initiative is being launched by organizers of a number of American genre festivals for the upcoming fall season to offer a singular experience for U.S. audiences. Together the Boston Underground Film Festival (MA), Brooklyn Horror Film Festival (NY), North Bend Film Festival (WA), The Overlook Film Festival (LA), and Popcorn Frights Film Festival (FL) have joined forces under the banner of NIGHTSTREAM to present a dynamic and accessible virtual festival in October 2020.
Def By Temptation (dir. James Bond III, 1990)
When a bloodthirsty succubus uses a local hangout to seduce and kill New York’s horniest, it’s up to a young minister and an up-and-coming actor to stop her reign of terror. There’s nothing subtle about this movie, which employs Giallo-esque lighting, massive amounts of fog, and loud, showy performances to bring home the chills. Yeah, it’s all pretty bonkers to look at, but for the most part, it’s really effective, and not in a “so bad it’s good” kind of way. The chills come only partially from the imagery, which frequently upends a soft core sex scene with gruesome practical effects.
The real fear is sourced in character. Bond’s script works hard to make us care about our heroes (and to make us feel disdain toward a few of the more aggressive victims), and the performances really drive it home. Scenes between childhood friends Joel and K (Bond and Kadeem Hardison, respectively) have a very familial energy. It’s clear that the two young men care about one another, and even though the film often pumps the brakes just so we can spend some time with the duo as they jabber for a few minutes, it’s always a welcome aside from the action. Their rapport is wholesome, genuine, and often quite funny.
Featured as part of Nightstream’s retrospective programming, Def By Temptation is a throwback to the early days of black horror, featuring cinematography by Juice director, Ernest R. Dickerson, as well as a small role from the one and only Samuel L. Jackson.
Survival Skills (dir. Quinn Armstrong, 2020)
What starts as a training video for police officers on their first day soon becomes something much stranger when the officer at its center, Jim Williams, starts to behave beyond the confines of the framing device, much to the chagrin of The Narrator, played with irritated aplomb by Stacy Keach. There are plenty of tips, tricks, and rules of engagement that any effective officer of the law must abide by in order to complete their job successfully, and The Narrator wants to make sure that we, the recruits, have a firm grasp on such things before hitting the streets. Really, an officer can never be sure what to expect from any day, so they must be prepared for everything. When Jim gets called to a domestic disturbance, The Narrator notes that even though this is the toughest sort of call, there’s no harm in diving right in for educational purposes.
It all seems like a pretty routine call, but after the scene calms down, Jim can’t shake the notion that he could have done – could still do – so much more to help poor Mrs Jenning. So that’s exactly what he does, The Narrator’s needs be damned.
There’s a lot of fun to be had with a film that is purposefully at odds with its subject, and Armstrong has no issue swinging for the fences when it comes to dark material. A few segments go so dark for so long that the film effectively becomes a drama…only to snap back into absurdism. Sometimes it works, but other times you get a bit of tonal whiplash. Survival Skills is a mostly successful experiment that must’ve made for a hell of a pitch meeting, but I can’t help but think it would’ve been served better as a short film.
Bloody Hell (dir. Alister Grierson, 2020)
The title of this film is very fitting given that it both represents the physical state of the plot, as well as our hero’s perturbed reaction to it all. Ben O’ Toole plays Rex, a man who, after a brave and violent attempt to quell a bank robbery, finds himself sentenced to nearly a decade in prison. Upon release he decides to start a new life in Finland, far from the prying eyes of the American tabloid press. And while it does keep him away from the cameras, it doesn’t keep him out of danger. When he arrives in Finland, he is immediately kidnapped by a mysterious family with malevolent intentions. If Rex is going to survive the night, he’ll need his wits, a bit of luck, and a suitable replacement for his recently amputated leg.
Rex’s internal monologue is portrayed as a dialogue with a bizarro version of himself that only he can see. He regularly converses with his darker half as he navigates his horrifying predicament, and their back and forth provides much of the film’s humor. This device plays like a novelty at first, but it soon becomes a method of storytelling structure, where bizarro Rex is used to teach us more about the protagonist than he’d ever want us to know unbidden.
A sort of mashup of Saw, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Youth In Revolt, this little piece of Aussie thrills (that never sets foot in Australia) is pure genre bliss. I loved everything about it.
