Rabid (1977)
CANADA --- horror

Dir: David Cronenberg

We all know the dangers of modern medical science. One week some research study suggests something's bad for you, the next week it's good. The fact of the matter is, as the old adage goes, nothing is in exact science, this certainly goes for the practicing medicine. In this early directorial effort and companion piece to his debut film "Shivers", master of horror, David Cronenberg dives into his common theme of body horror once again. A young couple (played by the late Marilyn Chambers and Frank Moore) get into a terrible accident while on a country motorcycle ride in rural Montreal.

Rose and Hart sustain pretty bad injuries, but Rose gets the worst of it when the bike lands on top of her. They are rushed to the hospital, where the doctors must attempt a radical emergency surgery on Rose. The process basically involves taking skin tissue from one healthy part of her body and grafting it to her burnt and damaged skin. Being a new process, one can expect side effects, and this one is the crux of the film. As Rose begins to develop a hunger for human blood in which she sucks through a mutated growth of a stinger under her armpit which penetrates its victims even through clothes and with a simple hug. She in turn leaves the victims in an almost zombie-like state, in which they also begin craving blood. Soon enough, Rose is on a feeding frenzy and unlike "Shivers" where just an isolated apartment building is contaminated, the entire city of Montreal is on alert, and the military gets involved when the province of Quebec is threatened.

This is, of course, essentially the closest we may get to a Cronenberg vampire film. It is also a commentary on sexual disease, something Cronenberg seems to have been a prophet of. Here we get a couple of soon to be trademarks for the director with motorcycles (Fast Company), sex (explored in nearly every film), medical science (again in nearly every film), and of course body horror. Exploitative in nature, Rabid was to originally star Sissy Spacek of "Carrie" fame, but producer Ivan Reitman suggested porn star Marilyn Chambers who would make this her only starring role in a somewhat mainstream film. She was one of the first to do so until Traci Lords years later. Watching this film years later, you see the start of two careers, one of which sky-rocketed the other not so much.

Marilyn Chambers RIP (April 22, 1952 - April 12, 2009)

Kaze no tani no Naushika (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind) (1984)

JAPAN --- science fiction/animation

Dir: Hayao Miyazaki

An early Miyazaki directorial effort, he explores issues of paficism and an environmentalist stance that he would return to in some form or another throughout his career. This one being birthed from a serialized manga in a magazine run by producer/Studio Ghibli founder Toshio Suzuki . Kaze no tani no Naushika (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind) originally found its way to North American shores through distribution by New World Pictures under the title Warriors of the Wind; a severely cut version of the film.

In an indetermined future land, the earth is slowly succumbing to a fungal virus spreading across the world called the Sea of Decay. Nausicaä is a brazen young princess of the Valley of the Wind. She possesses the uncanny ability to communicate with all creatures of the land, including the gigantic insects that roam the earth. Some of these creatures are infected by the Sea of Decay.

With the assistance of a sage drifter called Lord Yupa, the peaceful seaside village of the Valley of the Wind must protect an ancient giant warrior embryo which was obtained by a flying ship which crash landed. Nausicaä must defend her land from a warring faction of Tolmekians who murdered her father and take her village hostage. They abduct her and force her to help resurrect the giant warrior to destroy the Sea of Decay and everything in it. Nausicaä reluctantly goes along until she can formulate a plot to stop the Tolmekian queen Kushana, to save the giant Ohmus from utter extermination.

A sort of sci-fi precursor or companion piece to fantasy Mononoke-hime (Princess Monokoe), Kaze no tani no Naushika (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind), Miyazaki seems incapable of making anything less than a masterpiece. As anime goes, the western world became enamored by Japan's no-holds-barred, provocative style of adult storytelling that wasn't specifically designed for children. Miyazaki has come along and actually showed us we can still talk to children without talking down to them. Kaze no tani no Naushika (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind), is another testament of Miyazaki's terrific style, with a blend of Jean "Moebius" Giraud style designs through a Frank Herbert storytelling scope, this is one early effort that's not to be dismissed or missed.

Le Ballon Rouge (The Red Balloon) (1956)
FRANCE --- fantasy

Dir: Albert Lamorisse

I first saw this film like many people my age did, in school. My viewing was caused by either a snow day or rainy day during recess in Elementary school, and the staff stuffed all of us kids in an auditorium to watch Tom & Jerry, Looney Tunes, Woody Woodpecker, and Pink Panther cartoons. Somewhere in the mix, they showed the Albert Lamorisse short film Le Ballon Rouge (The Red Balloon) and till this day I have never forgot it. It has stayed with me.

The virtually silent film that runs about a half hour is simply about a boy’s journey around his neighborhood in Paris, France. In tow he has a sentient helium-filled bright red balloon that he carries on a string. Everyone he meets is enchanted by the boy and his balloon. Most of the adults react with a smile, but some adults seem like their hearts are too hardened and try to get rid of the balloon and separate the boy from it. However, at the end of the day, the boy prevails with his balloon by his side like a pet.

He takes his floating friend everywhere he goes seemingly bringing wonder and curiosity to everyone he encounters. The only antagonists in this film appear to be a mass of neighborhood school boys who persistently try to capture the red balloon for themselves. Their intent does not seem to be as affectionate as its owner. In a climax that feels every bit like The Lord of the Flies, the boys do get the balloon and puncture it with rocks and slingshots, virtually destroying the little boys' friend. Until, that is, all of the balloons in the city congregate to find the boy, and lift him up over the city.

Again, I bring up the film motif of the Alien Visitor that can be most visible in films like Steven Speilberg's E.T. The Extraterrestrial and John Carpenter's Starman. A lonely boy from a seemingly single-parent home makes an alien friend, shows him the world, and is antagonized and destroyed by authorities or those who simply do not understand. Yes, the finale of the film, is most certainly allegorical of a Christ-like resurrection. The film also feels like your a voyeur watching a personal home movie, or bordering on documentary style. Beautiful simplistic cinematography shines throughout. It stands to reason why the film has had a lasting impression with children and adults who connect with the child at heart.

Låt Den Rätte Komma In (Let the Right One In) (2008)

SWEDEN --- horror

Dir: Tomas Alfredson

From the land that gave us Ingmar Bergman, ginger snaps, and ABBA (Two out of three ain't bad) comes this fairly minimalist vampire love story. Låt Den Rätte Komma In (Let the Right One In) tells the tale of a twelve-year-old boy named Oskar living a lonely and bullied life in a Swedish suburb. He lives alone with his mother and has a kind of morbid fascination with death, in which he collects newspaper clippings and articles about crimes.

One dark snowy night, Oskar espies a cab drop off a man and a young girl to his apartment complex. Boy sees girl. That night, Oskar imagines vengeance against his bullies outside in the cold snow-bathed playground, and but being watched by his new neighbor, an anemic looking young girl, who outright wants no friendship with him. We are then shown the man named Hakan, who seemingly parents the girl, preparing for some kind of work, little do we realize it's to murder a man in cold blood. Unfortunately, the man haphazardly fumbles up the murder of which it appears he was attempting to drain the victim of his blood by hanging him upside in the woods over a canister. He flees from the scene of the crime when a dog being walked by two girls, finds him. This is cause for concern for his anemic young girl, who scolds him of his terrible mistake, leaving her to have to handle things the old fashion way. She feeds on a bar patron on his way home that same night, leaving Hakan on clean-up duty in which he dumps the body in a reservoir of sorts.

The following night, boy meets vampire girl, Eli, as he introduces her to the Rubik’s cube. In the meantime, Oskar’s bullies get more lethal in their reindeer games, and the police is on the alert for a killer. The townsfolk are all suspicious as one of them was an actual witness to one of the murders of the late bar patron. Oskar in the meantime must deal with his bullies, and the loneliness he feels at home and between his divorced parents, as we are shown his father is in a separate town altogether; also that he may have a bit of a substance abuse problem. This draws Oskar ever closer to his enigmatic new crush Eli, whom he eventually learns is indeed a vampire, and yet that does not change his love for her. She even advises him to fight his bullies back. Eli’s Renfield, Hakan, makes one last attempt to find her food, and this time fearing his identity is known and will lead authorities to Eli, he brings a jar of acid just in case.

Hakan fails again, and Eli severs their relationship forever. Meanwhile, having taken Eli’s advice about fighting back against his bullies, Oskar enjoys his comeuppance and wants to cement his relationship with Eli as going steady. Eli does so and falls him, but must feed one more time on one of the female bar patrons, who is accidentally turned from Eli’s failure to finish the job. The female bar patron destroys herself, and her inquisitive husband goes after Eli during the day with her only defense in Oskar. She returns the favor by destroying his nemesis and they like all fairy tales, they live happily ever after.

In my opinion, Låt Den Rätte Komma In (Let the Right One In) is just that, a great and twisted variation on the fairy tale. It is based on a Swedish horror novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist. Inferences can be made about Sweden’s neutrality and the cold war of the 1980’s, in which this story is set. Vampirism in this tale could be seen as the aforementioned Red Menace as opposed to Oskar’s bullies, who in turn could be seen as the Western world. I only make these comparisons based on the newspaper clippings of terrorist acts, and the fact that Eli comes off as a manifestation of Oskar (representing Sweden) somewhat pacifist nature to his bullies and neutrality between his parents. The film also has a simplistic color scheme and quiet starkness that attracts attention to it's attention to detail. Red on white i.e., if I'm not mistaken, one beautiful shot has blood drops on a snow-covered branch. Oskar's seems to be surrounded by the color blue consistently throughout the film, until he falls for Eli in which he borrows a red shirt from his estranged dad. Her color of choice seems to go from grey to red.

This is one of my favorite films from '08, because I think there's something to be said of a prepubscent love, in its true innocent form. True romance is an adventure, and it isn't always going to end the way you think. Twelve is an age before all the adult issues can really creep into decisions of what you base love on. In a sense this is a slight variation of the alien visitor motif in films such as "E.T. : The Extraterrestrial" and "The Day the Earth Stood Still", except of course, it has a vampire girl, but if you watch those films again you'll get what I mean. I can't recommend this film more highly, watch it before the American remake you will not be disappointed.

Paprika (2006)

JAPAN --- science fiction/animation

Dir: Satoshi Kon

Acclaimed Anime director dives into another psychological tale, this one a science fiction tale based on a novel from Japanese author Yasutaka Tsutsui. The film is based in the near future where a team of research psychologists/therapists are using an experimental device called the "DC Mini" that records dreams and allows the psychologists to enter patients dreams. One psychologist who has almost mastered this is Dr. Atsuko Chiba and her alter-ego "Paprika". She has been counseling Detective Toshimi Konakawa who has repressed memories that emerge in recurring enigmatic nightmares, in which "Paprika" assists in helping him come to conclusions of what they may mean, by actually showing him a replay of his exact dream.

However, being a device that has yet be approved by the government, the team find that one of their colleagues may be trapped in the device. They hold a meeting once they discover that three of the DC Mini prototypes has been stolen. Also, it seems that a contagious phenomenon has occured when one of the head scientists, Dr. Shima, on the project becomes susceptible to the someone else's dreams, causing him to leap from a building. He survives and realizes that a "dream parade" appeared in his dream, and is happening in reality. Thus opening an ethical discussion of whether or not the "DC Mini" should even be allowed to be used, when it could be misused in the wrong hands. The problem truly comes to ahead when they discover that the dreams are capable of entering the real world, and the wrong people really are in control of it.

This is an intriguing science fiction film. The idea of lucid dreaming (dreams in which you can learn to control) has been around for a very long time. Adding the element of a machine that can show the recorded dreams and play them back to you is great idea, albeit a bit scary notion on the same token. In fact I believe their are some real life companies hard at work on the idea. A new form of entertainment? Perhaps a little too personal at this point.

Wa Pei (Painted Skin) (2008)
HONG KONG/CHINA --- horror

Dir: Gordon Chan

Well, to celebrate Chinese New Year, I thought I'd review a recent viewing of a Chinese film. Now before Japan was making the dark-haired woman ghost stories and spooky films involving technology, Asia in general always had animal spirit tales. Apparently the tradition goes back to the silent film era. The tale of this particular film, Wa Pei derives from a classic 18th century Chinese novel by Pu Songling, titled "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio".


Wa Pei (Painted Skin) is one of these films at it's best. The story involves an army general named Wang Sheng who rescues a beautiful young woman from a bandit campsite. They have no idea that Xiao Wei (played by Xun Zhou) is in actuality a demonic Fox Spirit posing as a human. In Chinese belief, they are always believed to take form of a beautiful human. Once Wang Sheng takes her under his care, his wife Pei Rong (played by Wei Zhao) soon suspects something amiss about the beguiling young woman, and follows her own inquiries such as consorting the help of a taoist priest, who mysteriously ends up dead the following day. All of her subjects and soldiers have taking a liking to Xiao Wei, which leads Pei Rong to be convinced she is what she believes.

It isn't until prodigal ex-general Pang Yong (played by Donnie Yen) falls on his Brother's doorstep, that help arrives. Once awake he's off once again, but stops at an eatery where he runs into a tomboy who ups him on food and drink and so joins him for a meal. The plot thickens as a mysterious assassin, who in actuality is an assistant demon Lizard Spirit, working with Xiao Wei, has been ripping out the hearts of people around town. Pei Rong meets secretly with Pang Yong, desperately seeking his help in finding out if Xiao Wei is indeed a demon in disguise. He commits to her plan, and assist the help of the young stranger, Xia-Bing (played by newcomer Betty Sun) he's just been eating with.

Xia-Bing reveals herself to be of perfect assistance, as she's from a long line of Demon Busters, and has a history with this particular demon and the tools to destroy her. The following is more dramatic than anything, as the film reveals its love triangle tendencies. Xiao Wei wishes to become Wang Sheng's concubine, and begs of Pei Rong for this to happen. In the meantime, Pang Yong and Xia-Bing try to track down the Lizard Spirit and find proof of Xiao Wei's true demoniac nature.

For me, Wa Pei (Painted Skin), harkens back to such 90's fare as "The Bride with White Hair", "Green Snake", and the classic "A Chinese Ghost Story". Director Gordon Chan (of Fist of Legend fame), blends action, romance, and horror perfectly in this film. It's important to note that this story has been brought to screen before by director King Hu in 1993 and starred Joey Wong and action master Sammo Hung. I have to admit, the one thing I quite like about this one is the score, which at times sounds like "Nightmare on Elm Street" and then like Ennio Morricone's "Once Upon A Time in The West". This is going to be a classic for any Chinese horror movie fan.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

UK /USA --- science fiction

Dir: Stanley Kubrick

This is one of the seminal films of science fiction upon which all sci-fi films we have now are based upon or at the very least been highly influenced by. It began with Metropolis (1927), then (in my opinion) came The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951), Star Wars (1977), then Blade Runner (1982), and most recent The Matrix (1999). The 60's brought 2001: A Space Odyssey. Already a decade that started out with swinging campiness, then toward the end was replete with darker desolate times, yet some films concentrated on the survival of hope.

Stanley Kubrick's film begins with the "Dawn of Man", a very Darwin-esque inspired theory of early ape-like man on earth. They live in somewhat harmony with creatures that look like tapirs as they attempt to compete for food and water with these lower form of beasts. Help is soon to come, in the form of a mysterious black monolith that may or may not represent god, or some form of alien intelligence. One thing for certain, the monolith has a clear affect on the minds of early man, as they soon enact Darwin's theory of survival of the fittest; Man - 1 Tapir - 0.

Fast forward to 2001, as Dr. Heywood Floyd is traveling Pan Am to a space shuttle for a covert conference about a mysterious unearthed object on the moon. Here we get the closest glimpses of the changes of mankind, without actually going to earth. We get the future as imagined through the eye of the 60's. Much like Star Trek, they could not foretell certain things like dyes with new colors in clothing and furniture. Also, they could not foretell Pan Am would go out of business or that we would have portable cellphones, however we have yet to master the videophone as of yet.

Dr. Floyd's conference on the secrecy of the object on the moon, is soon revealed to be the very same object that helped "push" the minds of early man. What it is never even nearly explained or hypothesized. We soon fast forwarded 18 months later, on board the Discovery One for the "Jupiter Mission" with astronauts David Bowman, Frank Poole, and the sentient computer intelligence HAL 9000 with three more astronauts in hibernation. They are to also find out what the monolith's message means. It can be believed that HAL 9000 is "pushed" to sabotage the mission, as it "malfunctions", it disconnects the lifesupport for the three hibernating astronauts, strands Frank Poole in the vastness of space, and locks out David Bowman from returning onboard the ship. Bowman, finds a way to break into the ship and dismantles the HAL 9000, even as it pleads for him to not do so. Im my belief, it shows that even the higher form of artificial intelligence could be controlled by whatever the monolith is.

The final sequence, "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite" involves David Bowman as he attempts to enter the stargate, and displays Douglas Trumbull's excellent and revolutionary special effects. This sequence is one of the reasons the film has gone above and beyond excellent in craft. Bowman finally ends up in a victorian yet modern room where he sees versions of himself at different stages of life, ultimately on his death bed and being confronted with the monolith, in which it is assumed he achieves the next and true form of life as the "Starchild"; a fetus-like being encapsuled in a floating transparent bubble.

In my opinion, 2001: A Space Odyssey cannot truly be reviewed, it is just to be seen and to make one make their own assumptions. Kubrick and sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke, based the film on his short story "The Sentinel" in which the middle part of the film takes place. I also believe this show cannot truly be appreciated on television or even in a theater as we're used to, but on a giant 70mm screen. 2001 has since come and gone, and the innovations in this film, have somewhat been surpassed, but the optimism of the film has not fallen on blind eyes.