Phil Tippet’s animated love child has been a highly anticipated and much talked about project for years. Tippet is a man whose career is absolutely historic. He’s a two-time Oscar winner, and Ray Harryhausen disciple who’s been the special effects wizard behind films like Star Wars, Robocop, Jurassic Park, and Starship Troopers, respectively. And that’s just a fraction of his massive iconic career. So it is fascinating to see something so unique, bizarre, and yet absolutely engrossing as “Mad God” come from the man.
Author Archives: Felix Vasquez
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021) [4K UHD/Blu-Ray/Digital]
“The Conjuring” cinematic universe/series has been a horror ride of varying degrees. It’s had its great highs and its depressing lows (Ahem—“Annabelle”), and in spite of delivering two genuine horror classics, the mainline movie series can’t quite escape the dreaded curse of the third film. While “The Devil Made Me Do It” is not at all a bad movie per se, it’s not high in scares or tension as the first two films. The first two movies relied on mounting tension and absolute terror, while “The Devil Made Me Do It” feels a lot more like if they took the series and tried to turn it in to a crime procedural.
Viva (2007)
Will screen on August 27th at the Los Feliz 3 theater in Los Angeles, California as part of the American Cinematheque’s new ETHERIA screening series. More information about the screening can be found on the American Cinematheque’s official website.
Your mileage with “Viva” may vary depending on how much you’re willing to play along with the film’s very subtle satire. About twenty minutes in to the movie is when I finally caught on to the gag, as “Viva” is as much a satire of sixties sexual dynamics as it is a tribute to the aesthetic of the sixties and seventies. “Viva” is a film in the tradition of Andy Warhol, and Russ Meyer, and exploitation gems like “Maid in Sweden” and “Score” where people open up (literally and figuratively) to sex and sexual exploration.
Yakuza Princess (2020) [Fantasia Film Festival 2021]
Many times whenever a movie is adapted from a graphic novel, the movie should have a good jumping in point where you can easily follow along. The problem with “Yakuza Princess” is that it feels like you almost have to read the original graphic novel to understand almost anything going on here. “Yakuza Princess” isn’t a bad movie per se. It’s a beautifully filmed adaptation with excellent visuals by Vicente Amorim, it’s just that you will probably have a tough time following along with the mythology and motivations behind the characters if you never read the original material.
The Last Thing Mary Saw (2021) [Fantasia Film Festival 2021]
Writer/director Edoardo Vitaletti’s debut feature, The Last Thing Mary Saw is a horror drama that promises to be one of the most polarizing films of the year. It’s a return to the rising resurgence of folk horror much in the vein of “The Witch” and “Midsommar” but explores the more relevant ideas about religious oppression, sexual oppression, and the perils of the love between two young girls, which becomes increasingly dangerous over the course of the narrative.
How “Jason Lives” Became My Favorite “Friday the 13th”
As a kid horror movies were forbidden. But they were forbidden in the way that staying up late was forbidden. Sure, it was a no no, but our parents always looked the other way if we caught a sneak peek at one of the stronger horror shockers. Plus, growing up with a mother with an insatiable appetite for all things horror, it’s pretty tough to re-enforce a ban when she’s showing up every other day with VHS copies of “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Sleepaway Camp.” For some reason though, growing up, my mom always discouraged my watching “Jason Lives.” I could never quite figure out why, though.
Brain Freeze (2020) [Fantasia Film Festival 2021]
Director Julien Knafo’s zombie horror comedy is a movie that teeters back and forth between what it’s trying to say and what it’s trying to appeal to. It identifies itself as a horror comedy and injects a lot of silliness involving zombie carnage, body horror, and even some poor animals, but mid-way it stops being funny and tries to convey some kind of social commentary. What the commentary is, exactly, is beyond me, but it never improves on the overlong, tedious exploits.