We’re closing in on the halfway point with Week 3 of Hooptober, and it was a doozy of interesting films. really only one clunker, and I say that knowing full well that Christopher Smith’s Creep isn’t a bad film, just one that feel reply rote. But on the other side of things we get two really great debuts: Mulberry Street is the first film and collaboration from Jim Mickle and Nick Damici, and if you only know them from later great genre films like Stakeland and We Are What We Are you’re in for a treat to see their talent in a more raw form. Plus: were-rats! There’s also Jakob’s Wife from Travis Stevens, featuring a powerful performance by Scream Queen Barbara Crampton and a fresh take on vampires that does NOT skimp on the blood. Finally we hit the way-back machine for some much needed fun with Vincent Price and House on Haunted Hill before journeying back to the present to see the much anticipated and frankly excellent re-launch of Candyman by Nia DaCosta, co-written and produced by some new guy named Jordan Peele.
It’s been a helluva week, folks, so I’m taking a breather putting on some vinyl to get back to fighting strength. In the meantime scan the summaries, check out the full reviews over on Cinema Dual, and I’ll see you in seven days…
Clutch is an old boxer living in a run-down apartment building on Mulberry with your usual assortment of odd characters. The neighborhood is being bought up by a weird corporation promising big changes. Is it a coincidence that the art start acting funny and biting people? And those people turn into hyper violent were-rats? Clutch fights to save his building while as the same time his daughter, newly coming home after recovering from something as a solider, fights her way back to him. You’d think were-rats would be funny. You’d be wrong.
(full review here)
Kate is a modern affluent woman who has a line on where George Clooney is partying and plans to sleep with him. No kidding – that’s the setup. She makes her way to Charing Cross Station where she is locked in after falling asleep waiting for a train. Things go from bad to worse: not only are there disgusting homeless people there who offend her sensibilities, but there’s a messed up, malformed “creep” roaming the Underground just waiting to carve up and eat whoever gets lost in the tunnels…
(full review here)
Anne and her husband Pastor Jakob Fedder seem to have the ideal, holy life. And if Jakob seems just a bit too controlling of Anne, well…that’s just how marriage works, right? When Anne is attacked by something in the town she begins get strange cravings, but she also starts to see how much her life has been subsumed by her husband. Poor Jakob: he not only has to contend with vampires, but he’s beginning to see that he may have been losing his wife well before she was bitten.
(full review here)
Five strangers are invited to a party at the titular house, the offer extended by eccentric millionaire Frederick Loren. The party turns out to be more of a game: simply manage to stay the entire night, and walk away with $10,000. Each of the partygoers has a reason for needing the cash, but things aren’t so simple when lights start to flicker and eerie apparitions appear. Is the house haunted, as spooked owner Watson Pritchard claims? Or is something more nefarious at hand? Maybe even…MURDER?!
(full review here)
Anthony McCoy is a new artist living with his curator girlfriend Brianna in the now gentrified Cabrini Green. He’s looking for inspiration for his next work, and hearing the old stories (beautifully twisted into a new perspective) of the killings perpetrated in the 90s back when Cabrini Green was still the Chicago projects draws him to look further. Soon he realizes he’s much closer to those stories than he ever imagined, as his growing obsession mirrors the now revived horrors being visited upon members of the community profiting off the erasure of the community who have always lived in fear, whether its of a hook-handed vengeful spirit or the sudden fury of a police siren. Can Anythony and Brianna stop what’s happening? Do they want to?
(full review here)
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Next week we start getting into mixed bag territory. I won’t kid you folks…I’m not looking forward to this year’s Tobe Hooper entry, but we’ll see what happens. We do get one of my favorite Godzilla movies, though, and maybe a few other surprises that will make it all feel better.
Until then, keep it Blood Red.
-Chris
Nine Circles 