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March 23, 2020

Olivia (1983)

Movie Review by Greg Goodsell

Directed by Ulli Lommel

Five-year-old Olivia lives with her prostitute mom (Bibbe Hansen) in a rathole apartment near London Bridge. She later views her mother’s brutal murder at the hands of a john through a keyhole while refusing help. Olivia (Suzanna Love, Mrs. Ulli Lommel) grows up to be a young housewife, routinely abused by her mechanic husband (Jeff Winchester). Still residing in the shadows of the bridge, she is drawn to the prostitutes who regularly congregate there. On a whim, she dresses up as a hooker and lures a customer back to his mannequin-strewn apartment (similar to Joe Spinell’s digs in Maniac, 1981) and kills him. In the meantime, architect Mike Grant (Robert walker, Jr.) works with local authorities to relocate part of London Bridge to Lake Havsu, Arizona as part of a planned community and tourist attraction. While scouting locations, Mike becomes entranced with Olivia’s prostitute persona, and the two begin an affair. Olivia’s husband catches wind of the affair and angrily confront Olivia and Mike at the bridge, and is thrown into the Thames and is presumed drowned. Overcome by emotion, Olivia runs tearfully away …
 
Until four years later, when Mike, after successfully transporting the bridge to Arizona, takes note of a young real estate agent (love in her natural brown locks). Confronting her, Olivia confesses her masquerade and begins sporting her stringy blonde locks and slinky clothes in order to please Mike. Things are going just swell, but as usual a menacing figure from her violent past returns.

Director Lommel began as an actor in Werner Fassbinder’s films, his directorial debut being the exceptional serial killer film Tenderness of the Wolves in 1973. He would migrate to the United States and make the striking The Boogey Man in 1981. Olivia, also known variously as Prozzie and Double Jeopardy is generally considered his last great film before he descended into execrable shot-on-video horrors before his death in 2017 at the age of 72.

As can be expected, Olivia takes Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958) and mashes together bits of other thrillers popular of that era. What is remarkable is that it seems to have indirectly influenced the works of later films by other directors … Olivia’s hooker drag seems to have inspired Kathleen Turner’s China Blue character in Ken Russell’s Crimes of Passion (1985). Working with less than peanuts, Lommel here expertly mixes up an atmosphere of dread, lust and eroticism and makes his budgetary limitations work for him. Using no less than five cinematographers, Olivia looks great, contrasting dreary London exteriors with the desert beauty of Arizona. The film’s finest feature is Joel Goldsmith’s music score, mixing in ominous synth soundscapes with delightful piano concertos. This cries out for a separate music release! While Vinegar Syndrome has done a stellar job with its restoration (including a knockout limited slipcover edition) by its own admission, parts of the audio was sourced from VHS sources, leading to some muffled moments and dropout.

Extras on the DVD/Blu-Ray release include “Becoming Olivia,” a fascinating interview with Lommel’s former muse and ex-wife, who offers tidbit on the director’s traumatic childhood and how it informed his work. Another interview, “Taking on Many Roles,” with screenwriter John P. Marsh explains the creative processes used by both him and Lommel and how he was called upon to be an art director later on in the project. “A Chance Meeting” features cinematographer Jon Kranhouse and how he had to wring lighting miracles out of thin air. “Learning from Ulli,” a chat with the film’s editor Terrell Tannen sums up the fact from the previous interviewees that one worked with Lommel for the fun and the experience, and not for the money and details one of the director’s ethically challenged, “creative financing” techniques.

The packed DVD and Blu-Ray combo also includes Super-8 behind the scenes footage and the film’s theatrical trailer under the Double Jeopardy title. Fans of the unusual and marginal should make Olivia an essential purchase.

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March 4, 2020

Inhumanwich (2016) Movie a Review


About 98% of the time I watch modern, indie horror films, I’m disappointed. The kind of disappointment your mother feels whenever you leave the house in your cut off sweats, the raggedy-ass Iron Maiden t-shirt from high school, and that damned baseball cap you got free for being the millionth customer at the local Choke and Puke.

So what about the other 2%? That, my friends, is an ever-widening circle that’s filling with pleasant surprises and genuine delight at the few indie horror movies I’ve enjoyed. I’m actually  starting to compile a list of these films, as I think they will deserve a future shout out.

And this film, ridiculously titled but so apropos, has made that 2% list.

Inhumanwich tells us the story of Joe Neuman, astronaut extraordinaire, flying in a rocket that employs the latest in artificial gravity technology. When it’s functioning, he can engage in all sorts of activities normally impossible in zero-gravity space, including eating his favorite sandwich, a Sloppy Joe. Unfortunately, this new tech is powered with radioactive materials and, as you might guess, something goes wrong.

After the rocket is pummeled by meteors, the artificial gravity device ruptures, and radioactive material leaks into the cockpit. In the resulting tumult, Joe falls on top of his Sloppy Joe, right smack dab in the middle of a puddle of Danger Fluid, as the capsule crashes to earth. Joe mutates into a giant blob of meat that devours everything and everyone it his path.

It’s up to the crack scientists and analysts back at the space shop to figure out what the hell happened, and how to stop Joe’s ravenous rampage!


This is one of those films where you can tell the people making it are just having the time of their lives. I don’t think anyone planned to make a movie that was groundbreaking, thought-provoking, life changing, or explored any deep thoughts of human nature. This was 100% pure entertainment. (think Blown, with CHC’s very own Kevin Moyers, Jeff Dolniak, and David Hayes)

It’s shot in black and white, so it has a nice throw-back feel to the monster movies of the fifties and sixties. The dialogue is super corny, which also adds to the vintage feel. The jokes themselves don’t just poke at the Velveeta cheese humor, but goes so far as to make that chili cheese dip from the commercials, and everyone swims in it with great gusto. In fact, I had to pause the movie TWICE because I was laughing so hard.


The sound, editing, and cinematography are of a much higher quality than I expected. So often the sound effects are louder than the dialogue; editing is sloppy; and many film makers don’t know what cinematography is, let alone know how to execute it. This film was well made from start to finish.

Now, does that mean it has no flaws? What, are you new here or something?

Most of the acting is pretty bad. The top three characters – Ed Farley (Matt Laumann), Dr. Chang (Michael Peake), and Floyd (Jack Burrows) – were the best of the bunch. Lisa Neuman (Kayla Clark) wasn’t too bad, and she actually stole a scene where she never spoke, but kneed an overzealous soldier in the nuts. Most everyone else was over-acting, just there as a favor to the filmmakers, or so awkward he kept half smiling at every line of dialogue or looked into the camera. coughcoughMattSpahrcoughcough. But in indie horror, I don’t really expect Gary Oldman levels of talent, you know?

The CGI is, obviously, terrible. But even in low-budget, I’ve seen better. I can only speculate they did that on purpose. Gods know the technology of the classic monster movies is rather crap, so it could be a nod to that. Or it was the best they could afford and has nothing whatsoever to do with nostalgia or paying homage to the bygone era of film.

I don’t want to end on a negative, so I’ll share with you one of my favorite jokes from the movie (I’d spoil the climactic ending if I shared my second favorite):

Lisa finally arrives at the space institute after hearing about Joe’s accident:
“I got here as fast as I could.” “Well, maybe you should try harder next time.”

Maybe that doesn’t sound super hilarious delivered so dryly on paper, but trust me, within the context of the film, it’s HIGH-larious.


3.5 hatches (out of 5)



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March 1, 2020

A Binge too Far #9: 30 Days of Night duo (2007 – 2010)

Josh Hartnett as Eben Oleson in a frame from 30 Days of Night (2007)
In the 9th installment of A Binge too Far I am offering you some brief thoughts on the 30 Days of Night duo (2007 – 2010) which I criminally neglected seeing until now.

Reviews:

30 Days of Night (2007) poster
30 Days of Night (2007)

Set in a small town in Alaska where each year the sun doesn’t rise for 30 days once every year, director David Slade’s film is focusing on the struggle the town’s habitants face when they are attacked by uninvited strangers that look like vampires and slaughter everything that’s alive in order to drink blood.

Based upon the same-titled comic book, this is featuring monstrous and animalistic vampires that offer brutal scenes of excellently-done gore. More importantly though its atmosphere is echoing that of Fargo (1996) and not just because the snow setting.

30 Days of Night: Dark Days (2010)

Stella Oleson (Kiele Sanchez) lost her husband in the events of the first film, and after spending a year travelling the world making a fool of herself preaching about the existence of vampires, she returns to the same small town in Alaska in order to fight the leader of the vampires Lilith (the ever-gorgeous Mia Kishner).

Slow, tedious, and boring, director Ben Ketai’s film cannot be salvaged by the occasional interesting set-piece. Its practical effects may be great, but its CGI are awful. Maybe its most memorable aspect is the great soundtrack by Andres Boulton.

Afterword:


Back in 2007, the spin-off series 30 Days of Night: Dust to Dust, consisting of 6 episodes, and 30 Days of Night: Blood Trails, consisting of 7 episodes, also saw the light of the day (although it was obviously dark days), on FEARnet, but I haven’t seen those, nor am I planning to.

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