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31 Days of Horror – Day Fifteen – Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021)
We’re not Nine Inch Nails and this isn’t a Downward Spiral, it’s the sequel to the hit Saw series!
Today we’re covering…
Spiral: From the Book of Saw!
Movie Details:
- Release Date: 2021
- “Run”time: 1 hour and 33 minutes
- Where to watch it: Streaming
- Directed by: Darren Lynn Bousman
- Written by: Josh Stolberg, Pete Goldfinger, and Chris Rock
- Starring:
- Chris Rock
- Samuel L. Jackson
- Max Minghella
- Marisol Nichols
Synopsis: Jigsaw is back… or is he (or her or them) back and why are they killing cops?
Open Stab Wounds (out of 10): 8
Review: The first Saw came out in 2004, introducing audiences to the “villain” Jigsaw that would drive sequel after contrived sequel. The first few of these films were fun, though admittedly, I wasn’t a fan of its introduction of “torture porn” to the cultural lexicon for years. Eventually continuing in films like Hostel; films with reasons to watch people killed in increasingly more grotesque and cruel ways. It’s easy to forget that the Saw films are as much about the mystery of who is currently acting as a disciple of Jigsaw as it is about the murders.
That aspect, the mystery piece, is why I eventually distanced myself from the films. The mysteries, and therefore the plot, became exercises in logic stretching. Specific victims had to be in specific places at specific times, otherwise the logic of the traps would NEVER have worked. Or, if the wrong person showed up at a trap that was meant for another, Jigsaw’s iconic “Would you like to play a game?” might punish someone that didn’t deserve it. Everything was based on coincidence and circumstance. The writers also had far fewer logical justifications for using flashbacks of the original Jigsaw (Tobin Bell). After 10 years, it was insane to explain how he could foresee all of it (well after his death).
With having pointed out why I was happy Saw went away, I was still interested when it was announced that Chris Rock would be starring in and partially writing a new Saw film. This brings us to Spiral: From the Book of Saw. With Rock’s inclusion, I felt it could turn out to be something different. However, I might have read some spoilers or reviews that suggested it wasn’t worth my time, so I completely missed it in theaters. When the movie made it to streaming, I always skipped past it….
Kevin and I had a conversation about whether we were going to watch THIS Spiral or a Spiral that is specifically on Shudder. I went back and forth on my decision but ultimately decided to check this movie out.
Overall? Minus some overacting by Rock and Marisol Nichols (Angie), I felt Spiral was a decent way of bringing back the concept of Saw and taking it a step further.
Rock plays Detective Zeke Banks, a good, honest cop who did the right thing and is constantly punished by his co-police. When a fellow detective is murdered by a Jigsaw copycat, he, and his rookie partner William (Max Minghella) attempt to find the culprit. This leads them down the path of why Jigsaw is targeting more police, and what Zeke’s role in all of it is.
Part of these films is trying to find out who the killer is as early as possible. I paused the film at the start and asked my wife who she thought it was. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; it became less of a contrived twist late in the movie and more of an active mystery of why we thought it was this person. The evidence to justify the case against that person and whether we were right (good news: we were both right).
There was only one “wtf” moment I had while watching. One of the victims found themselves alone with Jigsaw and instead of shooting, they shot at a steel door…
Other than that, from a logic standpoint, the film mostly held together. There were inevitable inclusions of Tobin Bell flashbacks, but what I appreciated was that the Jigsaw copycat took some of the original philosophical points of punishing an individual and applied it systemically. I think that’s a great way to take the original conceit and push it in a new direction. We may not get another Saw sequel or reboot for a few years, but I put this one on par with the first two.
KEVIN’S THOUGHTS: He watched the other movie we talked about but decided not to watch but then he forgot that we were watching the Saw movie and not Spiral on Shudder… anyway, here are his thoughts on Spiral from the book of Shudder.
Wow! I really enjoyed this movie. The shots, the music, and the acting all together keeps you with a sense of unease throughout. You can tell right away who the antagonists are, but by the end the film has you questioning what is and isn’t real. Lochlyn Munro has always been a great choice as the creepy neighbor and he doesn’t disappoint here. While the ending is a bit sad, the hope that is left leaves with a chance to build a way out of the spiral.
Thanks for reading and watching along with us! Be sure to keep up with all 31 days of our Halloween Horror Film coverage!
Oh, and make sure to follow Brandon on Twitter @BarnyardCruz and Kevin @Solucid!
31 Days of Horror – Day Fourteen – Revenge (2017)
It’s like the middle of the month is trying to get revenge on us for trying to celebrate an awesome month of horror!
Today we’re covering…
Revenge!
Movie Details:
- Release Date: 2017
- “Run”time: 1 hour 48 minutes
- Where to watch it: Streaming
- Directed by: Coralie Fargeat
- Written by: Coralie Fargeat
- Starring:
- Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz
- Kevin Janssens
- Vincent Colombe
Synopsis: A young girl is taken advantage of and left for dead in the desert. She turns the tables to get her…. Revenge.
Open Stab Wounds (out of 10): 4
Review: Vengeance movies are a guilty pleasure of mine. Many of them are not very good, oftentimes they have scenes that just stick with you, and it always makes me smile, seeing a scumbag get what they deserve. Going into them, you know something abhorrent is going to happen to our protagonist and those scenes are a bit difficult to watch. What comes after though is almost always absolute carnage. Today, we watched Revenge.
We open on Richard (Kevin Janssens) and Jen (Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz) riding in a helicopter to a house out in the middle of the desert. Initially it seems as though they are on a couples getaway, but Richard’s friends Stan (Vincent Colombe) and Dimitri (Guillaume Bouchède) show up the next morning for the real reason they are there, the boy’s annual hunting trip. The four party that night and it is established that Jen will be leaving the next day so the boys can go on their hunt. Things don’t quite get there.
The next morning, Jen wakes up in an empty bed and walks out to see Stan sitting at a table with breakfast, while Dimitri is milking a hangover in the pool; Richard went into town to get their hunting permits. This isolation for Jen leads to the most difficult scene to watch, when Stan forces himself on her and Dimitri turns a blind eye to it. (Note: This scene is done in a very visceral way that, to me, didn’t fit the tone of the rest of the movie.) Richard arrives back at the house and that is where things turn again.
Instead of supporting her, he basically tries to bribe her into leaving (not surprising, since it’s already been established Jen is his mistress). Richard smacks her when she tries to get him to call the police and Jen ends up running from the house. The three men run out in pursuit and Jen ends up cornered on the edge of a cliff. Richard tricks Jen into thinking he’s called the helicopter pilot and then shoves her to her death… or so the three men think.
I’m not going to detail the entire plot. If you’ve seen revenge movies, you can guess the rest. Jen didn’t die from the fall. When they show up later to dispose of the body, she evades them. She is suddenly filled with pure badassery and proceeds to get her Revenge™.
This movie felt like a sixteen year old kid watched I Spit on Your Grave, then proceeded to go “What if this happened in the desert with a really hot girl?” Of course his buddies were there to chime in and say “What if that guy got killed like this?!?!” While watching, there are an abundance of moment that will make you say “No fucking way!”, but not in an excited way. It’s in the absurdity of plausibility being thrown out the window and being replaced with “because it’s a movie” logic.
The scene where she was assaulted felt so out of place, compared to how the rest of it was done. It was such a real and painful scene to watch, but surrounded by absurdity with the rest of the film. Perhaps that is part of the commentary or perhaps it was just a shit movie.
The music was nothing special, but not bad. The gore and practical effects were actually really well done, even with how absurd some of those moments were. The acting wasn’t that bad and I’m curious how Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz is going to do as Red Sonja; she’s certainly got the badass part down. The final scene was absolutely ridiculous and went on a bit longer than it should have (round and round they go…). Overall, I think this movie had some ok ideas, nothing original, but there was far too much over the top absurdity for me to call it good.
I’d had Revenge on my watchlist for a while now. It should’ve stayed there. My rating is higher than it probably should be and that is just because I liked Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz and the gore was on point. Save yourself the pain and go watch something else.
Oh… one more thing! “Mexican Beer” would have been backwards! (just cut to the cave scene if you want to know what I’m talking about)
BRANDON’S THOUGHTS:
Revenge flicks are not guilty pleasures of mine. I think they’re unnecessarily cruel and overly exploitative for the women involved. I think there were points in this flick that it kind of commented on the “male gaze” and I could appreciate that. But there were many “wait, what the heck? Nope” moments that I had a hard time getting past. Also, I felt like they misused the peyote, haha.
I give it 4 out of 10
Thanks for reading and watching along with us! Be sure to keep up with all 31 days of our Halloween Horror Film coverage!
Oh, and make sure to follow Brandon on Twitter @BarnyardCruz and Kevin @Solucid!
31 Days of Horror – Day Thirteen – Suspiria (2018)
It’s not every two days that we get to watch more witch movies, but yet, it’s time for more Suspiria!
Suspiria!
Movie Details:
- Release Date: 2018
- “Run”time: 2 hours and 32 minutes
- Where to watch it: Streaming
- Directed by: Luca Guadagnino
- Written by: David Kajganich
- Starring:
- Tilda Swinton
- Dakota Johnson
- Chloe Grace Moretz
Synopsis: Life’s a witch when you come to this dance studio!
Open Stab Wounds (out of 10): 8
Review: Here we go! It’s our second primary remake on our list this month. I think Kevin and I both left The Crazies with a common agreement that the remake was better. For Suspiria, I’m not sure how he’ll feel.
With any remake, there are going to be licenses taken to change things up to the core story and characters. This holds true with Suspiria. Though it still takes place in a dance studio run by witches, the story similarities, for the most part end there. We still have a woman named Susie who joins the studio (Dakota Johnson). There are still witchy things that happen. But the story is much more complex than all that.
Where Dario Argento is great with colors and the inclusion of Goblin, Luca Guadagnino focuses more on composition of shots. Every scene with dancing is heavily choreographed and the camera sways, twists, and turns to match the movements of the dancers on screen. One dance scene, early on, is gruesome, cruel, and enthralling. It was mesmerizing in a way that I didn’t have in Argento’s version.
Meanwhile, I really enjoyed the editing of nightmare/dream segments. Their juxtaposition of reality and hyper-reality are very Lynchian. The Kuleshov effect is used in full force here and, in my opinion, to great effect.
Thematically, I loved Susie’s character backdrop of a highly religious family, having to repress her sexuality and giving her arc an interesting and logical (for witches) conclusion. Susie explores freedom of expression vs. tradition through dance; it directly mirrors her journey to become who she was meant to be.
The cast is primarily composed of women, and though there are a few male actors, I greatly admire the choice to utilize a cast of talented individuals. This includes Tilda Swinton, who plays multiple characters, including an old man and an old woman. I will note that the old man makeup is sometimes distracting, but I still respect the artistic choice.
Finally, Thom Yorke composed the score for the film. Between him and Jonny Greenwood, they’ve got some impressive scores under their belts (I love There Will Be Blood). Yorke’s disembodied electronic composition sets the right tone, I think, for the vision Luca pushed for here.
Last thing I’ll say: Art is subjective. Whether it’s dance, music, or paint on a canvas; our preferences do not preclude our ability to respect the contributions of any particular piece of art. So to answer the question of which of these films do I like more?
The original Suspiria was massively influential, but although this version may not define a genre, as a piece of art, I truly believe it stands on its own. As art, my preference gravitates toward the remake.
Thanks for reading and watching along with us! Be sure to keep up with all 31 days of our Halloween Horror Film coverage!
Oh, and make sure to follow Brandon on Twitter @BarnyardCruz and Kevin @Solucid!
31 Days of Horror – Day Twelve – Suspiria (1977)
We’re onto another original before we hit up another remake; in this case we’re talking Suspiria!
Suspiria!
Movie Details:
- Release Date: 1977
- “Run”time: 1 hour 32 minutes
- Where to watch it: Streaming
- Directed by: Dario Argento
- Written by: Dario Argento and Dario Nicolodi
- Starring:
- Jessica Harper
- Stefania Casini
- Flavio Bucci
Synopsis: A young American arrives at a prestigious German dance academy, where everything is not what it seems.
Open Stab Wounds (out of 10): 7
Review: The 1970’s gave us some of the most iconic horror films. Not only did it give us some instant classics, but so much horror who’s influence we can still see to this day. Slashers such as Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, sci-fi horror like Alien and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and supernatural horror including The Omen, The Exorcist, and Carrie. During this time we saw the peak of the Giallo, a genre from Italy that could be compared to American Grindhouse cinema. From that movement we got one of the most notable writer/directors by the name of Dario Argento and he gave us Suspira, often cited as his masterpiece.
The film opens on Suzy (Jessica Harper), an American ballet dancer arriving in Germany to attend Tanz Akademie, a prestigious German dance school. Arriving at the academy in the middle of the pouring rain, Suzy is met by a female student rushing out the front door, with fear in her eyes. Suzy rings the intercom to try to get in, but somebody on the other end tells her that they do not know who she is and turns her away.
As Suzy is leaving the academy in the taxi, she notices the student still running through the woods and we cut to the student’s perspective. Pat (Eva Axén), the student who was running in fear, ends up at her friend’s apartment, barely able to speak or convey why she is so scared. Asking her friend for some privacy, she attempts to dry off in the bathroom, but something is keeping her on edge; almost as if she is being watched. It turns out that is true and while looking out the window something reaches in and grabs her. Pat is attacked and pulled to the roof, where she is dropped to her death through a stained glass window with a cable around her neck.
These opening scenes set the stage that something is not right at the academy. Suzy comes back the next morning where she is introduced to her Lead Instructor, Miss Tanner (Alida Valli), and the Deputy Headmistress, Madam Blanc (Joan Bennett). Madam Blanc is in the middle of speaking with local inspectors about Pat’s death the night before and Suzy confirms part of the inspectors questioning about the time Pat was seen leaving.
Throughout Suzy’s stay at the academy she becomes more and more suspicious that something is not right. Incidents and clues keep piling up, along with a few more bodies. Eventually all the pieces come together and Suzy is able to uncover the true secret of the school and has to fight her way to safety or damnation.
Although this film is 45 years old, I’m still going to maintain my spoiler free reviews. I enjoyed the film very much, for what it is, but personally I don’t rate it as high as a lot of the horror community does. There are a lot of holes in the plot that just made me think “how did she know about him,” or “what did he do to screw up?” We can infer things here and there, but some of these questions were just too glaring for me in the end.
Argento’s use of color is one of my favorite parts of this movie. Bright reds, blues, and greens are used to put emphasis on feelings and situations and it is done in a beautiful way. The soundtrack, mostly provided by Italian prog-rock band Goblin, was an outstanding accompaniment to all the suspenseful moments. There is a mix between stunning and questionable cinematography, but the stunning shots definitely stand out over the not so good.
It’s been close to two decades since the last time I watched this and my feelings have not changed much. I can see the beauty and influence that the film has had, but I still don’t think it is THAT good. Maybe it is because I’ve heard so many people over the years praise it as though it is one of the best ever made. Either way, I still think it has a place on the list of horror classics, just maybe not that close to the top. I look forward to watching the 2021 remake tomorrow.
BRANDON’S THOUGHTS: Argento’s use of color is what sets him apart. His films are iconic. This film always puts me to sleep… because it relaxes me. It’s a good movie and one I’m glad to compare to the remake tomorrow!
Open Stab Wounds (out of 10): 7
Thanks for reading and watching along with us! Be sure to keep up with all 31 days of our Halloween Horror Film coverage!
Oh, and make sure to follow Brandon on Twitter @BarnyardCruz and Kevin @Solucid!