World War II set horror/thriller finds Air Force officer Maude Garrett (Chloë Grace Moretz) joining the crew of a B-17 bomber to deliver a case filled with highly sensitive documents to the Pacific. Maude must not only deal with a highly misogynistic crew that forces her to travel in a gun turret, but with Japanese fighter planes and a vicious gremlin, as well. However, Maude has secrets of her own that come to light as the crew is attacked from without and within.
Ridiculous flick is directed by Roseanne Liang from her script with Max Landis, and they have concocted a mess of parts from other movies and TV shows. Biggest takes are from the Legendary Twilight Zone episode Nightmare at 20,000 Feet and the Heavy Metal segment B-17. As the crew members berate and talk to her in a degrading sexual manner, Maude warns of a creature on the wing, which gets her mocked even more. Of course, there is indeed a little monster on the plane and it starts to tear it apart. This would have been fine enough for any other movie, but Liang and Landis have Maude also being a fraud and what she’s actually keeping in that case is laughably ludicrous, as is the reason why. Add to that, we are bludgeoned with the feminist messages about how women was treated and viewed back then, messages that are lost anyway in the levels of sheer ridiculousness the movie attains. You should see how Maude gets back in the craft after falling out during a battle. Even in a popcorn movie it is face-palm inducing and this silly mess sees itself as a movie with a message. Yikes. Too dumb for it’s own sake, or that of any of the good intensions it might have had, but at least Moretz gives it her all. She’d be a good action heroine in a better movie. It is only a merciful 83 minutes long, so, it had that going in it’s favor.
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Film is a remake…of sorts…of Dario Argento’s classic 1977 horror of the same name. It uses the very basic plot framework of a coven of witches in a German dance academy, along with a few character names, but otherwise is it’s own thing. This re-imagining takes place in 1977 West Berlin during the Lufthansa Flight 181 hostage crisis. A former Mennonite from Ohio, Susie Bannion (Dakatoa Johnson) comes to study dance at the Markos Dance Academy. There is, as with Argento’s version, something very sinister going on at the academy and headmistress Madame Blanc (Tilda Swinton) may have plans for the pretty new student.
Remake is directed by Luca Guadagnino from a script by David Kajganich based on the original screenplay by Argento and Daria Nicolodi and does involve Argento’s “Three Mothers”. It’s an intriguing film to be sure and is far more art house than grind house. It is also, however, a bit of a meandering film at 150 minutes long. It takes an hour longer to tell the story and that wouldn’t be a bad thing, if that story was expanded, gave the characters more depth, or added emotional resonance…and there is the film’s major problem. Despite adding a lot of details to Argento’s simple tale, such as Susie’s Mennonite past, the hostage crisis occurring at the same time, or the sub-plot of a German Doctor (also Swinton, billed as Lutz Ebersdorf) who lost his wife during the war, none of it really adds anything to the story or enhances the characters. It simply just makes the movie longer, but not especially richer. There is some feminist and social commentary, but it’s not enough to really resonate or make this any more relevant than it’s predecessor. What the remake does have in it’s favor, is that there are a lot of disturbing and unsettling moments and the movie can get quite grotesque, especially in the last act when all hell breaks loose, quite literally. We are treated to some creepy dream sequences and some squirm inducing moments, such as when dancer Olga (Elena Fokina) learns the hard way that leaving the academy is not so easy. The sequences in the witches’ lair behind the academy walls are also quite effective and the film can be very atmospheric when it wants to be…though in contrast, some of the earlier moments are a bit bland to be honest. It takes a while to get going and that’s when the atmosphere starts to kick in. With all the subtext and subplots, Guadagnino does avoid outright pretension and that helps keep the film from imploding from taking itself too seriously, which some may feel it does. The cinematography is quite the opposite of Argento’s vibrantly colored set pieces, with the colors here being muted and the set and costume design far more grounded till things start to delve into the supernatural in the last act.
The cast is another plus. Johnson is good as Susie. She is a bit more mysterious than Argento’s heroine and the actress again shows she is fine with daring roles. Thankfully here she is given more to work with than those awful Shades of Grey movies. Tilda Swinton is mesmerizing both as Madame Blanc and in a very impressive performance as Dr. Josef Klemperer. Unfortunately, Klemperer’s character and subplot could have been removed completely and not done harm to the story, though it would have robbed us of seeing Swinton in a very unconventional part. In support we have a solid performance by Chloe Grace Moretz as a student that alerts Dr. Klemperer to the shady goings on at the academy and a likable Mia Goth as Sara, a student who befriends Susie. The rest of the cast are fine and do efficient work as minor supporting and background characters.
This remake does enough of it’s own thing to not fall under the unnecessary banner. There are some gruesome and grotesque moments and some disturbing and unsetting scenes that effectively chill. The cast do very good work, especially Swinton and the flick can be atmospheric at times. What keeps this from really being something special is that there are a lot of details added to what was a simple story and they don’t really enhance that story or add any depth or resonance. The film can be bland at times, when not focusing on the supernatural elements and some of the detailed subplots simply make the film longer and not necessarily better. Intriguing and worth watching once, but not something one feels the need to revisit again like Argento’s film. Keep an eye out for original star Jessica Harper in a cameo and stay through the credits for one last bit of spookiness.
-MonsterZero NJ
Rated 3 broken bones…you’ll know the scene when you see it. OUCH!
During the early 1900s in a rural Pennsylvania mine, a group of children used as workers are killed when a dynamite charge is used unsafely while they’re inside. Now in modern day, pretty widow Karen (Lori Heuring) and her two daughters, young Emma, (Chloe Grace Moretz) and teen Sarah, (Scout Taylor-Compton) move into a recently inherited property in the area. Soon supernatural occurrences begin to happen and Karen finds out that the vengeful children still inhabit the woods at night sating their hunger for revenge by devouring anyone foolish enough to be out there after dark. Worse yet, her family may be tied to these ghouls in a much deeper way then just living in their domain.
Director J.S. Cardone gives the film a continual atmosphere of dread and keeps a story, that might have gotten silly, appropriately creepy. Cinematographer Emil Topuzov gives the film a nice visual style and makes good use of the dark Bulgarian woods (which stand in for rural Pennsylvania) and the setting of the old house our characters occupy. The cast does well, too with Heuring giving depth to the strong-willed mother trying to start a new life for her girls and now faced with an unnatural horror. As the daughters, the young, future ‘Hit Girl’ Moretz is good as Emma, whom one of the dead children is drawn to, and Taylor-Compton plays the rebellious teen very well. They are joined by genre vets Geoffrey Lewis as the local handyman and Ben Cross as a hermit with ties to the flesh eating specters.
The film’s not perfect, the pace is a bit slow, though, I feel that is deliberate, and some of the plot elements are a bit cliche’ for this type of flick…ominous warnings from the local eccentric, local teens ignoring the legends and going in the woods at night…but one can forgive some of the flaws and familiarities as the film provides enough chills and there is some decent gore too. Overall, a spooky little horror flick that never tries to be more then what it is. Definitely worth a look for a movie night horror fest.
MonsterZero NJ's Movie Madhouse 