I think at the end of the day the reason people will dislike “Ghoul” are for the reasons I really liked it. “Ghoul” isn’t so much a horror movie about an actual ghoul, but about the horrors of growing up in and around dysfunction. For many this film will be especially off putting since the whole notion of an actual ghoul is put in to the basic back burner in exchange for character focus and exposition galore. I for one am a sucker for coming of age tales, and “Ghoul” is an especially powerful one that focuses on three young boys in the middle of the eighties and their attempts to uncover a horrific secret their local forest is hiding.
Tag Archives: Adaptation
Frankenhooker (1990) [Blu-Ray]
I liken “Frankenhooker” very much to the classic “Re-Animator.” That is if “Re-Animator” were conceived by a mentally deranged chimpanzee. Even as a dark horror comedy “Frankenhooker” is a film that has to be taken with a grain of salt. It’s so monumentally moronic and ridiculous that I couldn’t believe what I was seeing most of the time. Of course going in to a film named “Frankenhooker” you’re not going to get high art, but Frank Henenlotter takes viewer expectations and drags it in to the mud with a shit eating grin. “Frankenhooker” is yet another take on “Frankenstein” with a bit of a Lovecraft twist that really is never as creative as it thinks it is.
Red (2012)
There aren’t nearly enough animated independent films out there. And when there are, there aren’t nearly enough willing to experiment with the medium. “Red” is a fantastic short and sweet ditty that takes the Red Riding Hood fairy tale and adds another twist on the lore. Sure, we’ve seen the mythos of Red Riding Hood twisted and turned on its head providing allegories and symbolism for everything under the sun, but “Red” does something different.
The Crow (1994) [Blu-Ray]
It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost twenty years since the release of Brandon Lee’s final film, but here we were with a brand new release of his landmark film “The Crow.” In a long overdue treatment it deserves more than most titles out on the Blu-Ray format as we speak “The Crow” hasn’t shown wrinkles at all. “The Crow” is a film that garners a soundtrack with some of the most notable rockers of the nineties, along with some rather of the decade colloquialisms, and still manages to feel completely and utterly timeless. That’s because the world Alex Proyas shapes in his 1994 masterpiece is void of shape and time.
Humans vs. Zombies (2011)
“Humans vs. Zombies” is at the end of the day a fan film for the hardcore fans of the hit live action role playing game and really no one else. I don’t chastise it for being a product solely for them, in fact I’m glad they have something to cling to when not engaging in the game. But that’s not to say “Humans vs. Zombies” isn’t for general movie audiences either. A meta-movie in many ways, “Humans vs. Zombies” is a fun and action packed zombie movie that packs a wallop of survival horror and really nothing else. Based on the hit LARPing game played around the world, this is a movie based on the premise of the game that brings it to the forefront of the apocalypse.
Green Lantern: Extended Cut (2011) [Blu-ray]
It’s a shame when a movie has such potential to be greater than the whole of its sum and fails to live up to it in the end. That’s the case with “Green Lantern,” a movie with great promise to be one hell of a space epic with fantastical elements and a killer weapon, and yet… when all is said and done, “Green Lantern” is just a rank mess, a blunder of script faults and horrible exposition that jumps from scene to scene and only manages to pick up once our hero Hal becomes the Green Lantern. And then when he becomes the Green Lantern it’s all the movie is about. He becomes the Green Lantern and…? Nothing else. “Green Lantern” has the promise to be so much more than it puts on the screen, but what it makes up for in action set pieces it lacks in severely uninteresting characters.
Tangled (2010)
“Tangled” may not be from Pixar, but I’m of the opinion that it deserves as much love as a Pixar film from Disney does. Because as a film that hasn’t been animated from the famous sub-company, it’s surely a breathtaking absolutely imaginative fairy tale that conquers the Rapunzel and adds its own post-modern twist. Though I was initially horrified that this would be a simple “Shrek” clone, “Tangled” is very much in touch with Disney’s sensibilities. It’s more a fairy tale than a comedy and really plays on fate and destiny like traditional Disney tales than trying to hurl self aware comedy at us every single second the film plays. “Tangled” takes a rather boring story and adds a twist to it by offering up more in depth characters and plays on coincidence teaming together two lovelorn selfish individuals and giving them a reason to care for someone else outside of their own needs. That’s what “Tangled” is essentially about: two people who find something to care for beyond themselves and the tangled mess that occurs when they decide to compromise and help one another.