Night of the Living Dead - 1968

Yep, I'm talking about the original, the big king granddaddy of all zombie movies, Night of the Living Dead, released in 1968. I love this movie so much. It's ridiculous how much I love this movie.

The plot goes like this. A young woman and her brother travel to visit their father's grave. While they're in the cemetery, a staggering man attacks them, killing the brother in a struggle while gnawing on him a bit. The young woman escapes to a farm house, where she is soon joined by a fellow who secures the house to keep the zombies out. The zombies want to eat the living people, you see. It's just what zombies do. According to the radio and TV reports, recently dead corpses are being reanimated, although no one is sure why. Soon, two other couples emerge from the farm house basement, and things pretty much go downhill from there.

Not to toot the "cheap movies that went on to make scads of money" horn too much, but they made this movie for $114,000.00, and it pretty much spawned every single zombie movie that has been filmed since. It also introduced the splatter film genre, which spawned Michael Myers, Freddy, Jason and their thousands of cousins. It changed film history, and how great is that? Yay, George Romero.

It's grim, it's gory, it's spooky, and, the first time you see the ending, you're going to say, "Oh, no, really?"

It's also one of the most subversive, nihilistic movies I have ever seen. Every time I watch it, I'm shocked, and I've seen it many many times. Not only are people eating other people, children are killing parents, and society in general is just going to hell in a handbasket. The nuclear family is a disaster, and the group dynamics of the people barricaded inside the house are almost scarier than the flesh-eating zombies. The government is either covering up or clueless about the cause. Everything is falling apart, and no one knows why. You can't even bury your dead relative or friend. Instead, you have to take out their brains so they stop killing and eating others. Rough stuff.

A lot has been written about how this movie was filmed in the chaos of 1968, during the Vietnam War, when American society was in great upheaval. Also, the fact that the hero was an African American was almost unheard of at the time. Romero claims that he didn't intend for any of those subtexts when he made the film. His main idea was this: "What if the dead stopped playing dead? And how would people respond or fail to respond to this?" Most of the work he did before Night consisted of documentaries and industrial training films, and that eye adds a realistic feel to this movie that makes it all the more effective.

Classic, brilliant, grungy, and great zombie apocalypse fun. It will fill you with wonderful dread. I'm not a big fan of the sequels or the remakes. Dawn of the Dead in the mall is fun, but then the rest seem to get watered down from there. Night of the Living Dead outshines them all.

Can you imagine what the first few audiences in 1968 must have made of this? Goodness.

A big five out of five WUBs for Night of the Living Dead.

They're coming to get you, Barbara. . .

Ottercat Friday

Happy, shiny ottercats, with ottercat toys.  What more do you need?

Searching for Sugar Man

Searching for Sugar Man is a 2012 documentary film directed by Malik Bendjelloul.




Synopsis: Sixto Rodriguez was a protest/folk/activist singer in the early 1970s. He released two albums that didn’t sell well in the U.S., gave up on a music career and continued living in Detroit as an unknown, working construction and looking after his family. However, his music became wildly popular in South Africa, where his albums went platinum and his songs served as inspiration during Apartheid. Little was known about the singer/songwriter known only Rodriguez, and he was rumored to have died, either by drug overdose or suicide.

Two South African fans, Stephen “Sugar” Segerman and Craig Strydom, decide to find out more about their mysterious musical hero. Surprise! Rodriguez is alive and well and still living a quiet, working class life in Detroit. Segerman and Strydom bring him and his family to South Africa, where he performs several concerts in front of huge, adoring crowds. He then returns to his nondescript Detroit life.



Review: I have a confession. I watched this movie last night, and, for some reason, I thought it was a faux documentary, a mockumentary. Why? I’m a ginormous goober, and I don’t like to read about movies before I watch them. I thought it was a pretty dang good fictional film. Then, after watching it, I hit the internet and found out it was an actual documentary. In fact, it won a ton of awards, including the Oscar for Best Documentary 2012. Surprise!

This is a beautiful film. An amazing story. Rodriguez is a fascinating character, and his music, and the story of the effect it had on people far way, will resonate with anyone who watches it. See it. It will surprise and delight you.

Especially now that you know it’s a true story. Unlike your trusty reviewer here. Sigh.



Random little known fact: Parts of the documentary were filmed on an iPhone using and app, 8mm Vintage Camera.



WUB rating: Five out of five WUBs. As a fictional story, I would have given it four WUBs. Again, surprise!



Sugar man, you’re the answer that makes my questions disappear. . .



See you in my Netflix queue!

Ottercat Friday

This is Wyatt, brother of Levon, aka WyOh from Ohio, SugarFace, and Why!
He's keeping an eye on you.

Rope

Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller Rope was released in 1948, starring John Dall, Farley Granger and Jimmy Stewart.




Plot synopsis: Brandon (Dall) and Phillip (Granger) are two young intellectual elitists who live together in a posh New York apartment. They plan a dinner party, but there’s a twist. There’s always a twist, right? Even way back in 1948! They have strangled their friend David to death, and hidden his body in a large chest in the living room. You know what else? Everyone they are inviting to their party knows dead David—including his fiancée, his best friend, his parents, and Rupert Cadell (Stewart), their prep school schoolmaster.

They’ve invited Cadell because his talks on Nietzsche’s Superman and other philosophies partly inspired their crime. Phillip, and especially Brandon, believe that they are brilliant enough to commit the perfect murder, and that lesser people, like David, really don’t deserve to live anyway.

Brandon cleverly chooses to serve dinner off the old chest--yes, the one with the body inside. This is classic Hitchcock—we know the crime, we know who committed the crime, and we wait for someone on screen to figure it out.

So, the housekeeper (wonderfully played by Edith Evanson) sets dinner up on the coffin chest, and the guests arrive. My favorite guest is David’s Aunt, Mrs. Atwater (Constance Collier), a batty old lady with a thrilling voice. Everyone wonders where David is. Phillip plays the piano and gets drunk. There is talk of wringing chickens’ necks, the usefulness of homicide, and antique books. Pretty much like every dinner party you’ve ever been to, isn’t it?

But Rupert Cadell senses that something is wrong in this Manhattan apartment with the beautiful view. As the worry about David’s whereabouts builds, the guests decide to leave, including David’s father with a stack of books knotted together with the same rope used to strangle his son.

Nice touch, eh?

Rupert ends up with the wrong hat, and that wrong hat has the initials D.K. inside, for David Kentley, the missing murdered fellow. So, he returns to the apartment to find out what has happened to David. Brandon gets cocky, Phillip is sloshed, and Rupert ends up lifting the lid on the chest. He is deeply disturbed that he partly inspired such a horrible act, and shoots Brandon’s gun into the air. We hear the sound of sirens as the movie closes.



Review: This movie was originally a stage play, and Hitchcock wanted to keep the stage play feeling, so he shot the film in ten long takes, some as long as ten minutes, and the entire film was shot on a single set. Everything on set was on rollers, so the actors could move without cutting the scene. Also, the backdrop behind the set was huge, and you can watch the clouds change, the sun set and the lights come on as the story progresses.

The film also has an obvious homosexual subtext that sometimes bursts right out of the subtext. There are hints of the Leopold and Loeb case, and the film was banned in some theaters.

I love the movie. I love most of Hitchcock’s movies. They’re smart, they’re beautifully shot, and they’re works of art. However (you knew there would be a however, didn’t you?), Jimmy Stewart was painfully miscast in the role of Rupert. Hitchcock uses Stewart best as the All American Everyman thrown into a dangerous situation. Stewart is not always lovable in Rear Window, but he is still the hero. In Rope, there really is no hero, and Stewart seems uncomfortable as the dark previous schoolmaster.

The script is bitingly funny, it’s a technical masterpiece, especially for the time, and I have a serious thing for Farley Granger.



Random little known fact: The beautiful Montgomery Clift was the original choice to play Brandon.



WUB rating: I’m going to go five out of five WUBs, despite my issue with Jimmy Stewart being miscast. Why? It’s a really cool little movie.



Cat and mouse. Cat and mouse.



See you in my Netflix queue!

Pontypool

Pontypool, the 2009 Canadian psychological horror film, was directed by Bruce McDonald, and adapted by Tony Burgess from his novel, Pontypool Changes Everything.




Synopsis: Grant Mazzy (Stephen McHattie) is a radio disc jockey. He used to be a big time shock jock in a large market, but got fired and ended up in the small town of Pontypool, Ontario, on a local radio station. On his way to work the early show, in a driving snow storm, Mazzy is on the phone with his agent, when he stops at a red light. A woman without a coat knocks on his car window. As he speaks to her, she repeats back everything he says, then disappears into the darkness.

The rest of the movie takes place in the claustrophobic radio station. Mazzy gets on the air with his Mazzy in the Morning show, with the help of station manager Sydney Briar (Lisa Houle) and production assistant Laurel-Ann Drummond (Georgina Reilly). Sydney is not a fan of Mazzy’s leftover shock jock antics, and they spar a bit. Mazzy believes that making listeners angry is the best way to build an audience. Syd wants him to do school closings.

A story comes in from traffic guy Ken Loney. A violent horde of people is attacking the offices of Dr. Mendez. The attackers all keep repeating the same phrases. Loney gets cut off while reporting, and Syd and Laurel-Ann try to confirm his story. A group of repeating attack people? Is Loney part of an elaborate joke?

Maybe not! Loney calls in to the station again, and says he has hidden in a grain silo on the outskirts of town, while he watches a group of people attacking a couple in a car. A local kid runs to attack Loney, becoming terribly injured in the process. The kid keeps mumbling something. Loney wants to know what he’s saying. Mazzy thinks that is not a great idea. As Loney leans over to hear, the station’s transmission is interrupted. A French recording says people should stay indoors and not speak English, especially terms of endearment.

What now?

Loney calls back in, with the injured kid speaking. “Mommy,” he says in a baby voice. Grant flips out a bit, decides he has had enough, and goes to the front door to see what’s going on. Bad idea. A group of people can be heard repeating Sydney’s words, and running to attack the station. Laurel-Ann bars the door.

Mazzy gets back on the air, running obituaries of all the people who have died in Pontypool that day, lots of them, dead and killing one another. What is going on in this small snowy town?

Laurel-Ann begins having issues, repeating the word “missing” in different contexts in a confused way. “Mr. Mazzy is missing. Missing Mr. Mazzy.” Then, she echoes the sound of the whistling tea kettle, disturbing Sydney. A man crawls in through the station window. Guess what? It’s none other than Dr. Mendez, whose office was attacked.

Mendez, Syd and Mazzy lock themselves in the soundproof radio booth, and Laurel-Ann goes from bad to worse, slamming herself against the booth windows, getting bloodied up in the process. She may also be chewing off her own lips. Whoa.

Mendez explains on air that a virus has infected the English language somehow, causing certain words to infect certain people. Laurel-Ann is infected and hunting others to infect. Loney calls in again to report on the mayhem in town, and also falls ill, repeating the word “sample.”

Things pretty much go to hell from there. Laurel-Ann implodes, the mumbling infected language zombies try to get into the station, temporarily distracted by a looped recording, and Syd and Mazzy speak French.

Mendez crawls through the window back into the snow, yelling so the language zombies will follow him. Sydney is infected, caught on the word “kill,” until Mazzy is able to cure her. He then returns to the booth to attempt to cure anyone still listening, with Sydney assisting. A bullhorn voice from outside tells him to stop broadcasting, and then begins counting down from ten. At the end of the countdown, Syd and Mazzy kiss, and we assume the building is razed.

A series of radio broadcasters talk over the credits, hinting that the virus has spread beyond Pontypool. After the credits, there is a black and white scene of Mazzy and Sydney, where they discuss, in cryptic terms, escaping, while the scene saturates with color. It kind of looks like they’re in Asia. What does it mean? I honestly don’t know.



Review: Pontypool is brilliant. Confusing, unclear and brilliant. It may be my second favorite zombie movie ever, after Night of the Living Dead, the granddaddy of all zombie movies. Why? you may ask. Because language carries the disease. Language. Shut up or die. I love that idea. People are infected by hearing language. It’s no accident that Mazzy was a shock jock. How many times has someone read some sensational crap online and believed every word? How many times has misinformation been reported as news, and people completely believe it because “the news is always right and true”? How much information that has been spun and spun and spun again do we hear and read and see every single day? And it has to be true, right? I read it online, heard it on a news station, read it in a magazine.

Language is the infection. Brilliant.

The movie was made for 1.5 million dollars, and it looks like it. But that works in its favor, with the claustrophobic movie set and the limited cast adding to the tension. The viewer is stuck along with these people on a tiny, grimy ship that is going down fast. Also, McHattie does a fantastic job as Mazzy.

I first saw this movie around Halloween of last year, and have watched it countless times since. I can also heartily recommend the book, Pontypool Changes Everything. There has been talk of prequels and sequels and remakes. I hope to see more.

Not your average zombie movie. Smart. Funny. Weird. And I have no idea what the add on scene at the very end means.



WUB rating: Four and a half out of five WUBS. I can’t quite give it five, because there are so many unresolved loose ends.



Kill is kiss.



See you in my Netflix queue!

Ottercat Friday

You may be wondering about my rating system, WUBs.  Here is Levon, also known as Wubby, or The Wub.  See why five WUBs is the best rating ever?
WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB!