Truckers vs Butchers

This week's VHS is Rainer Erler's 1979 teleplay Spare Parts.

Young newlyweds Monica & Mike (Jutta Speidel & Herbert Hermmann) run afoul of an organ thief ring while on honeymoon in New Mexico.

I had zero expectations for this one, but it actually ended up being pretty solid. Despite being a TV movie, it bore the quality I've come to expect from projects birthed in the seventies. It had a deliberate, yet engaging pace and was populated with naturalistic actors talented enough to perform no matter how outlandish the subject matter. This was a German production shot in the United States with an original title was even simpler than Spare Parts.

I think what really surprised me about this movie was that it constantly went against where I thought it was going to go. The biggest example of this was the character of Bill (Wolf Roth), the trucker that Monica encounters after her hubby gets snatched by dudes posing as paramedics. My first instinct was to think this guy must have an angle because no one is that nice. He almost immediately went all-in on helping her fight this growing conspiracy. This guy seriously needs some sort of Good Samaritanship medal or something. Look at this restraint!

After that oh-so-awkward exchange above, with the help of his network of hauler buddies, they basically take down the fake ambulance. Fifty minutes in and done, easy peasy. And even when Mike & Monica follow the trail and find the person running the show from a hospital in Roswell – I have to admit I was a little disappointed when it wasn't aliens behind the curtain – it was not the hand-rubbing mad scientist you would expect. Quite the opposite in fact. This all led up to a chase sequence with dual ambulances jockeying on an inexplicably empty highway.

I really liked the lead actress in this film. Speidel was (and still is) quite prolific in her native Germany. In this movie, she had a Marilyn Burns-like quality, except instead of being chased around with a chainsaw for half the picture, she would've been more likely to eventually turn around and smack Leatherface in the face with a tire iron.

Jutta Speidel as Monica in Spare Parts.

While director Erler's intent was likely a less flashy version of Michael Crichton's Coma, Spare Parts exists on its own merits and even managed to surprise me once or twice.

Eighties Overload.

With my fellow Laser Blasters discovering – much to the adulation of the Web – the secret ending of Mac and Me last week, I decided to dig into my VHS collection and pull out the like-minded kids(?) movie Making Contact from 1985.

After the death of his father, Joey (Joshua Morrell) gains telekinetic powers just as his house is besieged by supernatural forces. Will his abilities be enough to save him and his mother?

This movie is fucking bonkers. That’s really the only way I can put it. It's a good pairing with Mac and Me because it shares equal levels of ridiculousness (coincidentally I also watched 1991’s Motorama this week for the bizarro trifecta) with no regard for reality whatsoever.

So where do I start with this one... An early film from Roland Emmerich, I wager he was a fan of the work of Henry Thomas (E.T., The Quest, Cloak & Dagger et al) and decided to do his own take. So with his Thomas clone Morrell in tow, Emmerich made something that definitely showed the seeds of the blockbusters he'd be making just ten years later. I mean, looking at the monsters in the maze sequence, it's not a surprise that he eventually did a Hollywood Godzilla movie.

Joshua Murrell as Joey in Making Contact.

Making Contact busts at the seams with the decade it was filmed in. Beyond the bombastic score by Paul Gilreath (at least in my version, I can't believe the German cut is twenty minutes longer) and the reckless child endangerment that was a staple of the era, every frame is crammed with eighties ephemera. If Mac and Me had McDonalds, Making Contact heavily leans on Star Wars, having presumably dodged copyright infringement by being a largely German production. I mean Darth Vader shows up for fuck’s sakes!

This movie just kept piling it on, from the kid’s powers (for which nobody seemed to react appropriately I might add) to his sentient robot Charlie and the possessed dummy that just showed up in the second act. In between, it was all about playful emulation as I saw elements of E.T., Poltergeist, Time Bandits and even 2001. It was also chock full of visual and practical effects that filled me with nostalgic glee.

Making Contact is one of those movies where the events and human behaviour depicted were so off-kilter – like when the mother treats a burned hand by putting it not under a tap but in a goldfish bowl then adds ice with the fish STILL IN IT – you wonder whether it was actually made by aliens who had been studying our culture from afar. This was a fun watch where I spent most of the running time slack-jawed in a mix of wonder and bewilderment.

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Hello all. I hope you are enjoying your Thanksgiving Day weekend (for those us in Canada anyway). This weekend represents the calm before the storm, as my October gets into high gear next week. In the meantime, here are some trailers for things I am very much looking forward to in the coming weeks/months.

The Return of the Creep.

Recently, the trailer for Mark Duplass' follow-up to his found footage gem Creep has come online.

I'm all over this. I loved the understated tension created in the first film. It affected me so much that I actually dressed as Peach Fuzz for Halloween a few years ago. Creep 2 releases on VOD October 24th.

Oh I Like It!

It was a good day when Severin announced they were released (for the first time on DVD) the whacked-out Canuxploitation opus Beyond The Seventh Door. I mean, look at this bonkers trailer.

The amount of time it took me to pre-order this movie after seeing that was infinitesimal and just another reason to look forward to October 31st. You too can order it here.

Netflix Dark.

Coming in December to the Big N is Dark, a German produced sci-fi mystery series.

Described as a cross between Stranger Things and Les Revenants, I was unable to attend the sneak they had at TIFF last month so I am elated that this is getting released here so soon. Dark releases globally on December 1st.

Hells Yeah!

Moving now to across the pond, I checked out Cold Hell, the new thriller from German director Stefan Ruzowitzky.

A Muslim taxi driver named Özge (Violetta Schurawlow) becomes the target of a serial killer after she witnesses him disposing of his latest victim.

I loved this film. Thrillers are a dime-a-dozen, but it is rare where all of its components come together as well as they did here. Cold Hell was the perhaps the closest thing to a giallo I've seen in quite some time. It has several elements, including the mysterious serial killer, a protagonist that is unwittingly brought into the investigation and the cat-and-mouse game that ensues.

This time however, the formula was cleverly subverted by flipping the gender roles. Usually, the female is a companion to the main character that helps to a certain degree, but often ends up needing to be rescued (Daria Nicolodi in some of Dario Argento's films for instance). In Cold Hell, Özge was the main character who was not only strong, but also took no shit and never let herself be a victim. It's also important for me to point out that her strength felt well established and organic. It wasn't an empty plot device, her actions were spurred on by years of being trodden on by the world.

Which brings me to Schurawlow, who was just fantastic. I could see the weight of the rage she carried around inside her quiet demeanor. It was almost as if she had been waiting for someone to come along she could unleash all her anger onto. I never once thought Özge couldn't do all of the kick-ass stuff Schurawlow did in this film. On top of that though, there were a lot of other moments like altercations with her estranged family and the socio-political hurdles of xenophobia that really added to her character. Ruzowitzky made a perfect casting choice here I can only hope that Schurawlow's career skyrockets like Franke Potente's did after he put her in his 2000 flick, Anatomy.

Violetta Schurawlow as Özge in Cold Hell.

Cold Hell was a well paced thriller, but it also had its share of really kinetic action sequences. Özge was a trained Thai boxer and I really liked the true-to-life nature of the fight sequences. They were not the highly choreographed bouts we see from Hollywood and the Far East, but realistic get-them-down-and-hit-them-in-the-face-as-many-times-as-possible affairs. It was extremely visceral and I was super pumped after the credits rolled.

Cold Hell will likely be my favourite film at the festival this year. It was a very well executed thriller anchored by a complex and spirited female lead. We need more thrillers (and lead characters) like this one.

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Good morning everyone! It's crazy to think I'm three-quarters of the way to three hundred of these things, but the numbers don't lie. Here's what I've got for you this week.

The Bad Man.

I've spoken here many times about the 2013 movie Found. Now director Scott Schirmer has a new nightmare in the works, a sadistic abduction horror called The Bad Man. His Indiana-based filmmaking collective already has many pieces in place, but are also looking for your help to bring this devilish little piece to life.

Schirmer has a knack for pushing boundaries, so I bet there is more to this project than meets the eye. If The Bad Man looks like something you'd be interested in seeing, you can contribute by visiting the Kickstarter page here.

Dead Love.

Here's a thing of grotesque beauty, it's the Arrow cover art for their upcoming Blu-ray release of Jörg Buttgereit’s 1991 flick Nekromantik 2.

This run, releasing November 2nd, is limited to 3000 and has a slew of extras, including a commentary track, new interviews and a making of doc. The release also includes the soundtrack with a one-hundred page booklet. For more info, check out Arrow's site here.

Crazy Love.

A trailer came through my inbox this week for Canadian director Jon Knautz's newest effort, Goddess Of Love.

Being impressed by his debut Jack Brooks, and his under-appreciated gem of a follow-up The Shrine, I am very interested to see where he is at now. Goddess will premiere at London's FrightFest later this month and then at the prestigious genre festival Sitges in October.

Felidae

I watched a German animated film called Felidae last weekend, and boy has it been on my mind ever since.

Francis, an inquisitive house cat, moves into a new neighbourhood with his owner and immediately learns of a rash of local cat murders. Despite the danger, he goes about trying to solve the crimes.

If The Secret of NIMH, The Plague Dogs and a giallo had a three-way, I believe the result would be something approaching that of this movie. Based on the 1989 novel of the same name – the Latin term for the feline family – Felidae is certainly NOT for kids. I had to wonder to myself while watching this just how many German children were traumatized by this film that features all manner of grim death including decapitation, evisceration and electrocution. For those who gravitate toward stuff with more of an edge than the sugar coated stylings of Walt Disney, Felidae is among the cream of the crop.

I never thought I would see another animated film that would be as disturbing as the aforementioned Plague Dogs, but here it is. My mouth fell open on a few occasions because it had been so long since I’d seen subject matter – really shocking and disturbing stuff – presented in this manner. It was truly disarming.

Right there with you, Francis.

I loved the animation style of this film, as it reminded me a lot of my favourite visionary, Don Bluth. This applies to not only the personalities and mannerisms of the characters (Francis, Blaubart & Felicitas especially), but also the fantastic action set pieces. Coming in at under eighty minutes, the pacing was also very good. Felidae builds a world, separate from the one we know as humans, yet still functions alongside it. There was a lot of exposition put forth over this time, and I was surprised at how intricate a mystery was contained in this initially innocuous cartoon.

Francis & Felicitas during happier times.

I’d love to own this movie (especially on Blu-ray) but sadly the only English release of this movie is dubbed. There is a decent subtitled version on YouTube though, which I have embedded below.

To be honest, I was a little floored by this movie. Felidae stands wonderfully alongside classic subversive animated films like Wizards, Heavy Metal and Fritz the Cat, featuring images you won’t soon forget.