Hellraiser (2022)

Title: Hellraiser 
Director: David Bruckner
Released: 2022
Starring: Odessa A’zion, Drew Starkey, Brandon Flynn, Goran Visnjic, Selina Lo, Kit Clarke, Adam Faison, Aoife Hinds, Jaime Clayton

Plot: Recovering addict Riley (A’zion) stumbles across the puzzle box not realising that it holds the key to unlocking the door between realms and summoning the Cenobites

Review: Hellraiser as a franchise has always shown a surprising longevity even after they reached what could be considered a fitting conclusion with Hellraiser: Bloodlines only to stumble into an era of films starting with Hellraiser: Inferno were the scripts felt less about expanding the mythology but instead about working Pinhead and his Cenobite brethren into scripts that the studio had lying around. Now with this latest offering the series gets a much needed reboot but still retaining many familiar ideas from the first two films while also tweaking others. 

The idea to reboot the series though can be traced back to 2006 were Clive Barker announced on his website that he was working on a new script while Dimension were still churning out new entries including the controversial Hellraiser: Revelations which was really only made so that the studio could hold onto the rights of the film which caused Doug Bradley who had long served as the iconic Pinhead to leave the franchise. It would be the reboot of Halloween in 2018 though which would set the wheels fully in motion for the series to get it’s own reboot with David Bruckner directing and essentially starting the project fresh by co-writing the film with Luke Piotrowski and David Goyer.

Bruckner is certainly an interesting choice to direct the film especially with his previous films leading more toward psychological horror having previously directed The Ritual than the splatter the series has become renown for here is certainly manages to recapture the feeling of the Hellraiser world while bringing more than a few new ideas to the table most notably by giving us a female Pinhead now known as “The Priest” who is accompanied by her own Cenobite followers which include a new version of the classic Chatterer (Always my favourite) while the puzzle box now is no longer a key to open the door to the hell dimension but rather a vessel for offering sacrifices in order to receive a reward. Thankfully none of these changes feel especially jarring but then when you consider what the fans have had to endure with the previous five offerings it’s kind of refreshing to have some actual good ideas brought to the series. 

Opening with Goran Visnjic’s hedonistic millionaire Roland Voight using the box to further his own obsession with harnessing the power of the box, the film skips forward six years to introduce recovering addict Riley who lives with her brother Matt, his boyfriend Colin and her roommate Nora. At the same time she is also involved with Trevor, a fellow recovering addict who is also responsible for bringing the box into her life after he encourages her to join him in breaking into an abandoned warehouse where they find the box. Of course as always is the case with these movies she has no clue what the box does and in fiddling with it manages to mark herself for collection by the Cenobites and in turn her friends as well.

The film which follows ends up feeling kind of like an ultra violent Scooby Doo episode as the friends attempt to find a way to break the curse of the box, while their numbers are slowly whittled down by the Cenobites with the group eventually finding their way back to Voight’s mansion which itself enclosed inside a giant cage makes for a great finale especially when the planning Voight put into its design are revealed like him. 

The cast are all good in their roles though A’zion really shines as Riley who is fun to follow on her quest even if her friends are more forgettable and disposable. Elsewhere Jaime Clayton effortlessly slips into the Pinhead / Priest role even if her character lacks the booming and deliciously evil voice of Doug Bradley she still makes the role her own though this version does certainly feel more chatty than previous incarnations of the character in the same way that the new Cenobites at time felt clumsy than all powerful demons. Goran Visnjic equally continues makes me question why he has never become more of a star especially when he carries himself with such effortless charisma and is perfectly cast in the role of Voight.

A promising return to form for the series with this reboot regaining the focus of the series while also setting up a new world to expand upon which hopefully we’ll see with future instalments but for not at least the future looks bright (and bloody) for the franchise.

Contamination

Title: Contamination
Director: Luigi Cozzi
Released: 1980
Starring: Ian McCulloch, Louise Marleau, Marino Mase, Siegfried Raunch, Gisela Hahn

Plot: When a container ship drifts into New York with the crew seemingly missing and carrying a cargo of mysterious green eggs which explode when exposed to heat killing anyone unfortunate enough to be near them. 

Review: In an alternative world I could very much see this film as a Bond plot and sure there might be those purists who might scoff at such an idea but let’s not forget that this is a franchise which has already seen Bond go into space, battle voodoo priests and let’s not forget that invisible car! So a plot featuring exploding eggs which unleash a killer virus which causes its victims to explode in gruesome ways is not too out of reach of being a Spectre plot surely. 

Directed by Luigi Cozzi a regular collaborator of Dario Argento who prior to this film had directed the Star Wars cash in Starcrash with this film originally envisioned by the producers as resembling Alien something that Cozzi lamented in an interview with Cinefantastique 

“What can I do? In Italy, when you bring a script to a producer, the first question he asks is not ‘What is your film like?’ but ‘What film is your film like?’ That’s the way it is in Italy. We can only make Zombie II, never Zombi I.”

But with Alien 2 on Earth already having been released the producers instead took the title from an untitled Lucio Fulci film Contamination: Atomic Project which had been based on The China Syndrome. Further funding would also come from Columbian drug dealers who were apparently very pleased with the film when it made them money on their investment. 

The film while for the most part doesn’t represent Alien outside of a flashback from Ian McCulloch’s shell shocked astronaut Commander Ian Hubbard who discovered the mysterious eggs during a mission to Mars which apparently also has ice caves with monster-faced opening. This flashback sequence is actually an impressive piece of miniature work that only loses its magic when a bright light makes the miniature work more obvious than it looked in the shadows.

With the government leaping into action to find the source of these killer eggs being smuggled into the country it’s kind of a ragtag team they put together with Hubbard being joined by the Military scientist Colonel Stella Holmes (Marleau) who is all about direct action calling in the flamethrowers soon as they find a cache of killer eggs. Rounding out the group is Marino Mase as a sarcastic NY cop who first discovers the egg and for some reason is brought along for the ride though most of the time he’s there to provide humorous quips and hit on Col. Holmes rather than bringing any real skillset to the group. 

While the film certainly starts off strong it does hit a slight lull in the middle before turning into a Bond lite finale for the finale when the trio investigate a plantation which soon proves to be a cover for the hatchery and a giant cyclops alien. Cozzi had planned to film the alien using animation or stop motion only for the producers to force him to use animatronics which failed to work but like so many of the shortcomings of the film created by budget limitations or things not working the way they should Cozzi does a great job of patching over these issues and certainly with this cyclops which while perhaps not intimidating as the producers might have hoped is still a largely effective creation. 

When it comes to the virus effects the film delivers right from the start as we get bodies (and one rat) exploding internally while shot almost voyeuristically in slow motion with the camera lingering on their bloody remains. This would be enough to land the film on the video nasties list before like the majority of the list being released uncut and while the effects might seem obvious now with bulky costumes hiding the mechanisms which spray the gore their gusto that these effects are done with brought me the same gorehound joy as the now legendary exploding head in scanners.

Sure the film has its flaws be it from budget issues or producer demands but Cozzi for the most part makes it work with only a sagging middle to detract from the fun gory effects which provide the thrills to a standard alien invasion plot.

The Seventh Curse

Title: The Seventh Curse
Director: Nam Lai Choi 
Released: 1986
Starring: Chow Yun Fat, Chin Siu-ho, Dick Wei, Maggie Cheung, Sibelle Hu, Elvis Tsui, Ken Boyle, Ni Kuang, Chui Sau-Lai

Plot: After he rescued a beautiful young girl from being sacrificed by her tribe in Thailand adventurer and cop Dr. Yuen finds himself suffering a blood curse which threatens to kill him unless he can find a cure. 

Review: Another dose of Kung fu weird from Nam Lai Choi the director of Erotic Ghost Story, The Cat and of course Ricki-O: The Story of Ricky the live action manga so over the top and comedically violent it earned a CAT III rating for its violence alone. He would also give Takashi Miike an early credit who served as his assistant director on Peacock King before he retired to become a food critic as highlighted in the Eli Roth documentary Fin. Here though he once again throws as many cool / nutty things at the screen as he can with Chin Su-ho playing a doctor suffering a blood curse as he rescues a beautiful girl from being sacrificed by her tribe in Thailand.

Based on the Dr. Yuen series of books by Ni Kwang who also shows up in the film as himself while also serving as the narrator. Chow Yun Fat meanwhile is also on hand to bring another of Ni’s characters to life as he plays Wisely who not only shows up as a supporting character in the Dr. Yuen books but also 160 of his own stories which have been adapted into films and series like The Legend of the Wesley and Nam Lai Choi’s The Cat. However despite the fact that he gets top billing Chow Yun Fat is hardly in the film only showing up to show off his pipe smoking skills and to send Dr. Yuen on his quest before turning up seemingly out of nowhere for welding finale a rocket launcher.

The character of Dr. Yuen much Nam Lai Choi’s style of film making really hits alot of bases as not only is he a doctor and an adventurer who is introduced flirting with a group of Miss Asia constants but he’s also a cop with some very impressive martial arts skills; Somthing we get to see demonstrated at the start of the film as he infiltrates a group of terrorists as a doctor to provide a distraction with a flashbang to allow the SWAT team to enter the building only for reporter and soon to be constant thorn in his side Tsui-Hung (Cheung) to throw the whole plan into chaos when she sneaks onto the operation and leaving Dr. Yuen to kick a whole bunch of terrorist ass himself inside knocking the leader out of the window so he hangs by his feet a scene which also appears to have been shot without a safety cable…gotta love Hong Kong health and safety. 

However when he starts suffering the effects of his blood curse which causes his veins to rise and spectacularly burst he is forced to head back to Thailand were one year earlier while trying to find a cure for AID’s he saved a tribal girl Betsy (Sau-Lai) from being sacrificed by an evil sorcerer (Tsui) also has the ability to throw a killer fetus at his enemies which appear from his side bringing back memories of Evil Dead Trap and the classic X Files episode Humbug. 

As I mentioned already Nam Lai Choi’s style of directing generally consists of throwing interesting ideas at the screen and certainly this also the case here which also is what makes this film so much fun as not only do you get some great martial arts action, but also John Woo style heroic gunplay, a kung fu skeleton which morphs into an Alien knock off when it consumes blood not to mention tribal girl Betsy who seems to constantly be in some state of undress. Throw in some over the top gore which includes one of Dr. Yuens party being consumed by man eating worms all while the tone of the film never for one second tries to take itself seriously and inturn only adds to the fun. 

Unquestionably I really had a blast with this one and if your fan of Big Trouble In Little China which this would certainly make a great double feature alongside and sure the plot might be pulpy, but the fun action set pieces and jaw dropping randomness making it an entertaining and certainly memorable watch.

The Sadness

Title: The Sadness
Director: Rob Jabbaz
Released: 2021
Starring: Regina Lee, Berant Zhu, Tzu-Chiang Wang, Ralf Chiu, Wei-Hua Lan, Ying-Ru Chen

Plot: The city of Taipei erupts into chaos when a mutated strain of the Alvin Virus causes people to embrace their darkest impulses.

Review: Another example of a western film maker heading to the east to get their films made following the example of Gareth Evans who made the Raid movies in Indonesia but this is of course no new thing seeing how Roger Corman was making films in the Philippines back in the 70’s and here director Rob Jabbaz drawing inspiration from the Garth Ennis comic book Crossed and funded by his producers cam girl business and cryptocurrency makes full effect of the Taiwan cityscape and mountainous surrounding countryside for the setting of his ultra violent outbreak movie. 

Set against the backdrop of an outbreak of the “Alvin” virus a situation which echoes our own outbreak memories with the medical experts and government officials at loggerheads over how to handle the outbreak while the general public believe its made up only for the virus to suddenly mutate into something much worse. The film follows Jim (Berant Zhu) and Kat (Regina Lee), a young couple trying to reunite as the world around them succumbs to the mutated and highly contagious version of the virus which turns the infected into homicidal sadists. 

Sold on it’s ultra-violence and gore the film certainly more than delivers which of course will be of much delight for the splatter fans and more so with Jabbaz utilising practical effects for 99% of the film which is certainly a refreshing change especially with CGI blood so present in modern horror and needless to say practical effects more than adds to the scenes of chaos as the virus tightens its hold on the city. Needless to say this is not a film for the squeamish as once the first attacks happen things quickly spiral out of control fast with the sufferers of the virus being free to carry out their darkest impulses as they engage in violent and sadistic acts for which Jabbaz really doesn’t hold back while the fact that the infected are still able to communicate only adds a more eerie edge than just being the mindless horde that zombies are. 

What helps the film stand out from being another film like The Human Centipede or low rent shock trash like Hanger or Slaughtered Vomit Dolls (Yes it is an actual film) is that Jabbaz takes the time to develop the individual journeys of Kat and Jim across the city even if thier personal story is alittle thin rather than focusing on how to get to the next gory set piece. At the same time we get to see how the city is being affected by the virus from frenzied and bloody mobs on the street to a government official who issues his threats of violence over the city tannoy. We also get characters such as the businessman (Tzu-Chiang Wang) who sits next to Kat on the subway lamenting about how sad that no one talks to each other anymore instead looking at their phones who we get to see take on a polar shift in personality once he contracts the virus turning into an axe wielding maniac with unsavoury plans for Kat who he stalks across the city. 

It’s unclear if Jabbaz was aiming for a deeper meaning as to what the outbreak represents as he peppers the film with hints of ideas such as the businessman remarking as Kat bludgeons him with a fire extinguisher that she is not unlike them while as the number of uninfected civilians plummet we see the infected finding a chaotic peace amongst themselves bringing to mind the finale of Shivers. No real confirmation is given as to how true this is while the finale which introduces a ethically questionable virologist only further questions who the real monsters are in this world, especially the lengths he is willing to go to find the cure.

Unquestionably a film which delivers on it’s promise of being one of the goriest movies ever made while at the same time providing that you can have a film which gives you splatter and an engaging plot. Sure it’s extreme moment will limit it’s audience but to the stronger stomached viewer its certainly a grotesque delight for zombie / outbreak fans.

The ABCs of Death

Title: The ABCs of Death

Directors: Xavier Gens, Angela Bettis, Jake West, Noboru Iguchi, Andrew Traucki, Anders Morgenthaler, Yoshihiro Nishimura, Banjong Pisanthanakun, Marcel Sarmiento, Ti West, Adam Wingard, Adrian Garcia Bogliano, Yudai Yamaguchi, Nacho Vigalondo, Ernesto Diaz Espinoza, Helene Cattet, Bruno Forzani, Simon Rumley, Ben Wheatley, Kaare Andrews,  Jason Eisener, Thomas Cappenlen Malling, Jon Schnepp, Timo Tjahjanto, Jorge Michel Grau, Srdan Spasojevic, Lee Hardcastle

Released: 2012

Plot: 26 directors each take a letter of the alphabet and given complete creative freedom create a short film about death

Review: Anthology films are always something of a double edged sword as not only is the time for exploring an idea more limited but on the flipside if an idea is not working for the viewer it’s not a long wait till you get another. Of course when it comes to this film there is something to admire about the ambition of bringing together twenty six directors of widely different styles and seeing what the idea of death inspired…..the end result though is decidedly mixed. 

Ranging from fun and interesting to plain tedious while others pure WTF? the film with 26 shorts is certainly a slog to get through especially when a good portion of the films don’t work be it due to the limitations of the letter assigned to them or their vision / talent.

Removing any pre-conception perceptions of the director, each short waits till its conclusion to reveal the title and who directed it. Some of the directors even use the title as the punchline for their shorts while for the Japanese directors their native tongue provides a handy work around such as J is for Jidai-geki  or Z is for Zetsumetsu

So let’s start with the good things about this collection which sadly is shortest list to compile but there are shorts here which really shine like Adam Wingard taking the meta approach with Q is for Quack as his struggles to deal with the letter proves to be a refreshing comedic experience amongst the gore and shock while Ben Wheatly brings a first person perspective to his vampire short which is a breezy but memorable affair. Banjong Pisanthanakun’s N is for Nuptials shows a more playful side to the directors work and arguably one of the few shorts which could have been released on its own. Jason Eisener meanwhile brings his Troma-esq splatter to Y is For Youngbuck set solely to the music of Australian synthwave group Power Glove. The fact that some of these directors are still able to create memorable and effective shorts while heaping on the splatter and shock is really only more of a credit to their abilities especially when splatter is so frequently seen as a crutch for horror directors unable to create suspense.

However for the brief moments your impressed by one of the shorts there is a long list of disappointing and misfire shorts such as Ti West who I expected to be one of the better shorts only for his film to feel much like Andrew Traucki’s first person shot G is for Gravity like it was thrown together on a deadline. Lee Hardcastle might have won the competition to have his short featured as the T entry but the claymation splatter did little for me personally and coming so late in the anthology to be faced with more throwaway splatter did little to warm it to me. 

When it comes to the WTF? Entries I’m not sure I should be suprised that japanese directors really ran with the creative freedom given to them to create some truly bizarre entries here with Tokyo Gore Police director Yoshihiro Nishimura giving his take on Dr. Strangelove in a tale of sushi, nudity and battling penises. While Yudai Yamaguchi has a samurai executioner battling a series of strange hallucinations while I really want to know what inspired the fart obsessed offering from Noboru Iguchi which considering that he’s the same director responsible for the likes of Robogeisha and The Machine Girl it’s an entry surprisingly lacking in his trademark splatter. Timo Tjahjanto though really goes for the most shocking entry with L is for Libido in which two unwilling participants try and avoid a spike through the head by masturbating to ever more shocking and grotesque scenes happening in front of them which while strangely fascinating in places managed to also remind me that I still have the ability to be shocked by things and this of course is excusing the shot of the girl masterbating with her own foot.

The one short you will no doubt remember coming away from this film is Thomas Cappelen Malling’s H is for Hydro-Electric Diffusion which sees an alternative vision of WW2 involving humanoid animals and burlesque shot in a parody style of the patriotic films of the etra only with a furry twist. 

A great concept but one that has a heavily flawed execution as the creative freedom often leads to grotesque and tiresome sequences as often as it produces something memorable. As such it’s worth a curiosity watch should you stumble across it on a streaming service but certainly not worth adding to your collection or wasting your rental money as you’re more than likely just going to skip to the few scattered highlights contained within this mismash of styles and ideas.

Virus

Title: Virus
Director: John Bruno
Released: 1999
Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Sutherland, William Baldwin, Cliff Curtis, Marshall Bell, Joanna Pacula, Sherman Augustus

Plot: While attempting to outrun a typhoon a tugboat crew stumble across a seemingly abandoned Russian research vessel unaware that it’s been taken over by an alien entity.

Review: Released during what I consider to be the best movie year ever (1999) this is another movie based on a Dark Horse comics property which has over the years been home to the likes of Tank Girl, Hellboy and Sin City not to mention producing the comic book lines for Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Aliens and Predator. Virus was originally released in 1993 as a 4 issue miniseries written by Chuck Pfarrer who sold the story to Dark Horse believing that the special effects were not available to make it as a movie. 

Another film in the long standing tradition of a crew in this case the crew of a tugboat stumbling into a location only to find themselves falling foul of whatever eliminated the original inhabitants the films plot is very much by the numbers which isn’t to say it’s a bad thing especially as the research vessel is a great location with it’s dark corridors and machines shops a constant hive of machine activity as the crew quickly find themselves being hunted by the alien entity which has taken over the ship’s computer system with sole survivor Nadia (Pacula) on hand to quickly bring everyone up to speed. 

Directed by legendary special effects supervisor John Bruno who credits include Poltergeist 1 + 2, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, The Abyss and Batman Begins with this remaining his sole film which he has directed and at the same time possibly one of the best people they could have found to direct the film especially considering how much of the film uses practical robot effects with the entity using the ships resources to craft robot servants as well as creating its own bio-mechanical creations out of the crew. Unquestionably these effects still look great and while the more intense action shots use CGI which compared to a lot of the CGI of the era let alone in more recent years still has a charm to it and doesn’t detract from the film. 

The crew are a colourful bunch while surprisingly quick to adapt to their situation as in they accept what is happening onboard the ship with little question and quickly set about forming a plan to defeat their alien foe while Sherman Augustus’s crewman is amusing to see how quickly he goes from being the light hearted comic of the group to full blown postal while Donald Sutherland wears his self preserving villainy on his sleeve from the get go as he constantly backs his own interests over his crew. Jamie Lee Curtis no stranger to playing the kickass heroine here is in full Ripley mode despite being randomly reduced to more of a damsel in distress when the film needs for William Baldwin’s Steve to show his selfless hero credentials during the finale, while leaving me wondering if they couldn’t have found a better way to use his character than falling back on familiar character tropes. 

While Jamie Lee Curtis has certainly made alot of films with over 80 credits at the time of writing and no plans of slowing down it’s still unclear what it is about this movie which saw her not only campaign to get director John Bruno fired and replaced with Halloween H20 director Steve Miner but also referring to the film as being a “piece of shit” and “The worst movie ever made” which is an opinion it seems most critics at the time agreed with her on. However Despite Curtis having her strong opinions about the film it remains a film that I still don’t get the hate for