Hostel: part deux

Where to start. I've been thinking about this movie since I saw it yesterday, trying to put it in perspective... how good is it? How bad is it? The answer is important to me as I had hopes that Eli Roth would be the future of horror.

With Hostel 1 Roth stole a bunch of kills from recent Asian horror films. Pretty amusing I thought. Unfortunately in Hostel 2, the movie's biggest kill is a rip off as well. Eli Roth, you already did the stealling thing, it's not so funny this time. Like in Hostel 1 where Roth pays off Takashi Miike by giving him a cameo in the film, this time Italian director Ruggero Deodato shows up.

At the same time, I'm told Roth has been hyping the ending of this film as a huge shock. "“There's one scene in this film that's gonna change horror history. Even the guys from [effects company] KNB looked away as we shot it, and those guys live and breathe that shit! It's special, I'm really proud!" Well, are you changing horror history or admitting it was already done by Deodato by putting him in your movie? Sounds like you are saying one thing to the mainstream press and one thing to the fans in the know.

I can say without a doubt that Hostel: Part II is not as good as Cabin Fever or Hostel.

There is some good stuff in there. Sadly, less stupid dialogue, though that is a plus for some. Many think Roth can't write dialogue, but I certainly enjoy the ridiculous chatter in his first two movies.

Roth does throw in a cool twist similar to his switching of the main characters in Hostel. I expected the main characters to switch here, but he did something else.

Unfortunately the opening scenes here are awful and scenes from Hostel 1 are shown in flashback - lame. The movie picks up with the introduction of new female main characters who are drawing a male model in an art school overseas - Italy I guess. Full frontal male nudity is shown. Retaliation for the criticisms Roth received due to all the naked girls strutting about in Hostel 1? I was amused.

Hostel 2's final scene (not the one I discussed above - but the very last kill that ends the movie) is implausible and somewhat of a let down. I wish I could say that this part was funny as it is clearly meant to be, but it's without a doubt inferior to a similar scene in the first Hostel. A nice attempt, but I'm pretty sure it is falling flat with most viewers.

At times this movie is a lot of fun. The villains steal the show. I actually am interested in the evil organization behind the killings in this series, whereas in the Saw movies I could give a shit about Jigsaw and his elaborate plans.

Hostel 2, highly enjoyable 75% of the time, but certainly a step backwards for Roth - who at this point may or may not be headed for greatness. I avoided the press about this movie prior to seeing it, but it would appear from what I've read on message boards that Roth was a little too outspoken about the film. People have been pretty polarized about this director for a while now, with a number of fans hating his guts. Perhaps he should stay off of the TV for a while, give those guys a little less ammunition.

...

So I finished my 16mm film two weeks ago and the marks the end of my frequent trips to Costa Mesa and back to Hollywood. Thank God.

Here our some sites I recommend...

"Quit Changing the box/cover art!!!" at Exploited Filth. I could not agree more.

La Secte Du Vice - lobby cards for Rats - Notte di terrore or um... The Riffs III Die Ratten Von Manhattan... guess that's the German title.

The Horror Blog where I have participated in recent round table discussions.

Got out to the movies, New Beverly Cinema on Monday for Kurosawa's Yojimbo and Sanjuro. Amazing.

the internet critics all agree, but I don't!

Not so much speaking about my fellow bloggers, but definitely about the big internet movie sites, I am odds with you all about the three big critical smashes of the year that you just have to love to be smart and cutting edge and a proper dick sucker.

Pan's Labyrinth - moves everyone, not me. What a pile of bullshit. Bad use of Hellraiser moster and Harry Potter stuff. Did you know fascism was bad?

The 300 - Did you know fascism was good? Just kidding, I don't buy that argument, cause this movie cuts from speech to speech... and what does it mean? Whatever you want it too, they didn't say anything.

28 Weeks Later - fake ugly Scarlett Johansson for you fanboy molesters - she is underage.

I'm not quitting blogging. I've been busy with my 16mm movie as I've said before.

QT in person at Death Rage, Cry of a Prostitute, Italian crime double bill

Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse film festival is coming to an with a couple of Bruce Lee movies today and tomorrow. Last night I believe he presented Death Proof and Cry of a Prostitute in person as it was advertised on the internet that he would attend. I can only image that there was a crowd, unlike the night before when I attended the same 2 movies, not expecting Tarantino to be there, but happy to see him show up unannounced.

Man it has been a hell of a run with all of these killer movies playing and I'm bummed now that the Grindhouse Film Festival will be running only once a month as before. I believe two movies from Rolling Thunder director John Flynn are scheduled for the future as he died recently, in fact he died since attending a screening at the Grindhouse Film Festival just last month.

American-turned Italian star Barbara Bouchet was the guest of honor at Friday and Saturday's Italian crime double bill. She is a fan of many of her movies, a good number of them being b-movies and Italian sex-comedies. The Q+A focus completely on her, with no questions aimed at Tarantino about his Grindhouse film. Still, Tarantino probably talked more than Bouchet, going of on various tangents about Italian directors and Italian horror. It was rather fascinating really and completely hilarious. Tarantino's buddies Joe Dante and Eli Roth were also in attendance.

As I mentioned, Bouchet is proud of her career in films that garner little respect from anyone other than Quentin Tarantino and fans of foreign b-movies like me. None the less, Cry of a Prostitute is a film she could not recall, perhaps in part because of the title being different in America, but all perhaps largely in part due to the role, that one might one to forget utilizing a selective memory.

Bouchet's first scene features her taking a milk bath in a barn, rubbing milk all over her breasts and thighs while the camera lingers on the dripping milk for an extended period of time. She also gives head to a banana for at the dinner table, not eating any of it. Bouchet is also beaten with a belt, which drives her to suicide, but what really takes the cake though, is the scene where she has sex in the kitchen while her naked body in shoved into the bloody open carcass of a pig hanging from the rafters. I kid you not.

ok check it out... TV_Obscura

Despite homework assignments, my bullshit 16mm short, and lots of parties, I still got out to QT's Grindhouse Film Festival in time to catch the last 25 minutes of Grave of the Vampire and then the entirety of the rare treat Jailbait Babysitter, of which nothing was written about on the internet at all - I did extensive searches. Both John Hayes movies are ripe with directing problems (Grave I've seen before) yet each have their moments, especially Babysitter, the tale of a virgin on the run, trying to fit into an adult world as a wannabe escort. It's more outrageous than the synopsis sounds, believe me, in fact you might need to take a shower after watching the old and hairy meet the under age and innocent in a 70's bedroom.

I just got some rabbit ears for my TV and I do get some LA channels now, a whole bunch of them in fact. On that subject check out the yahoo group TV_Obscura that discusses 70's television including all those made-for-TV horror movies that have cult followings today.

Fight for Your Life (1977) and The Muthers (1976) playing now

These movies are playing one more day at the New Beverly Cinema as part of the two month Grindhouse Festival. The Muthers is a blaxploitation film made in the Philippines involving the sex slave trade - yeah it crosses genres. Director Cirio H. Santiago has brought us dozens of jungle films and woman in prison films, as well as the occasional horror movies such as the hilarious Vampire Hookers and the awful Black Lagoon-style Demon of Paradise. The Muthers certainly has its moments, but I think I'd be pretty bored watching this at home on tape where no one is yelling at the screen. Too many campy machine gun shoot outs.

Fight for Your Life is a must see. I've never heard so many racial slurs in a single movie, well not since Coonskin a few weeks ago. Here is a revenge film for ya. The final showdown is not to be missed. I think the writing and story are terrific - victims. Definitely a film about race that intends to give you food for though, that is if you can get past the shocks.

more grindhouse films from the past to be released on DVD

Not there are not already lots of goodies on the market, but not everything is in print, not at all.

Note: I am not endorsing this company, just reporting the releases as news - and saying: send me shit! You guys might have noticed I lost interest in writing up some new direct-to-DVD shit and even turned down having some DVDs sent to me. Well that may be have been crazy - I was going through hard times, but what I really want to get my hands on are classics, so companies, take note.

link: Deimos to Kick Off Grindhouse DVD Line

Have not heard of the first batch of movies, except for the Paul Naschy films, which are killer. He's going to be at the Los Angeles Fangoria convention and may be the only guest I want to see - besides some of the usual suspects whom I love and respect, but have seen several times.

Saw the Grindhouse feature film and I liked it, though Death Proof has me scratching my head. Never seen Vanishing Point. Maybe it's got those strange wide shots Tarantino used. I rather liked those shots, but for the most part I have no idea where Tarantino was coming from or what movies he was borrowing his style from.

I really enjoyed how Don't parodied the British/Euro/gothic horror (specifically some American video nasties, banned in the UK, like Don't Go in the House with it's similar trailer) I love so much - I've never seen that stuff spoofed before.

tonight - The Girl from Starship Venus and The Legend of the Wolf Woman

Sex and violence at the New Beverly Cinema for QT's Grindhouse Film Festival.

the douche report - enjoy it:

In my telecommunications class a guy says he does not think they should "be allowed" to release HD or Blu-ray DVDs because he has a hundred regular DVDs and does not want to replace them. He is a dumb fuck for several reasons.

A) Who said you had to replace your current DVDs? If there being a superior version of a title on the market of a DVD makes you feel inadequate, then perhaps your real problem is that you are inadequate in the member department - really.

B) A hundred DVDs? So what? That's not so many, plus I bet his collection is 70% the same as any given set of hundred DVD's every other douche in the class has sitting on their shelves. Go fuck yourself.

C) DVDs ain't shit. They look like shit on a big screen. They ain't magic. Got this quote at Popcorn and Sticky Floors...

"Video (think DVD) killed the spirit and showmanship that movies was all about and turned the mob-mentality of a theatrical screened movie into a solitary, consumer experience that plays into the arrested-development "collector" mentality of these nerds who just want to "own" everything that came out in a certain genre and sit there like lumps and fast forward through everything. But they don't own the movies, they just own the bad, shitty little xerox copy."

- Jack Stevenson

Add to that what I said before. The douche is not even a collector of anything rare or special. Look, there are legit concerns about the new formats and their value for the consumer - especially since niether one been established as the dominant format yet, but this guy is just on the wrong track with his bullshit.

Bob Clark and son killed by drunk driver

I'm sure some of you have heard about this already, director Bob Clark and his 22 yr-old son, Ariel Hanrath-Clark, were killed by a drunk driver in a head on collision, Wednesday night.

I previously wrote a long recap on Clark's last visit to the Hollywood Grindhouse Film Festival (now in the public eye thanks to Quentin Tarantino), where I raved about A Christmas Story, the original Black Christmas, and Clark's general enthusiasm and good nature. I believe he had also showed up for the December Grindhouse the previous year and was expected to continue doing so as part of a Christmas tradition.

Clark's movies, besides A Christmas Story and Black Christmas include Porky's, Porky's II: The Next Day, and the zombie films Deathdream and Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things. Clark's more recent films were not popular with critics or fans, Baby Geniuses and Baby Geniuses 2, but the man had more exciting projects up his sleeve.

I can't write an eloquent obituary, so this will have to suffice, but belive me I am upset and angry.

In breaking news, Clark's killer has been deported.

QT's Grindhouse Festival still in full effect - Hollywood, CA

The festival is still going and I've gone to most of the shows. I really should re-cap everything since some of these movies are really rare, but we shall see. Someone said that Jason Lee was at the Blood Splattered Bride, Slaughter Hotel, Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary triple bill yesterday, but I did not see him.

Some people at these screenings have never seen these kinds of movies before. If I was a fly on the wall, and I AM a fly on the wall when I go to the films alone, I hear all kinds of dumb shit. But before you take me to be some jaded jerk, realize I'm not as bad as all that, see I despise those that think that just because they watch so many of these movies, that they live in these movies. No, you are not a serial killer, you are a movie nerd. You can laugh at death on the screen, but in real life you would piss yourself.

sceneholocaust.com will be shut down on April 5th by the way.

I've been out to QT's Grindhouse Festival a bunch

I'm taking down the site sceneholocaust.com since I don't really see the need to pay for it anymore. I was using it for video hosting. Here, blogging will continue as normal.

Went out to Quentin Tarantino's 2 month Grindhouse Festival for 4 shows in the last 2 weeks. I guess I ought to get into detail about these screenings when I find the time. Of course it's been a blast.

I've got a few movies on the back burner that I wanna trash, some people to ridicule, and more views on inbreeding and why it is -surprise- disgusting. I'd really like to post more, but I'm stressed out about my 16mm film final.

check it out... DVDschlock.com

http://www.dvdschlock.com

tons of screenings- exploitation / Herzog / Jodorosky / Suspiria

First read about Jenna Bush "comparing" herself to Anne Frank - the article is funny on several levels. I don't think she really compared herself to Anne Frank, but she definitely mentions Anne Frank - so it's half true, right?

now the local news:

As you might know, Quentin Tarantino is programing two months of $7 double and triple features at the New Beverly Cinema, home of the beloved monthly Grindhouse Film Festival. The Newbev site lists the movies, they started on Sunday, with links to each film's imdb page. Highlights include Rolling Thunder, Autopsy/Eyeball double feature, Blood Splattered Bride, and so much more.

Will Larry ever forgive me for not watching his bootleg Holy Mountain videotape he lent me a few years back? No. But at least i can see it on the big screen March 20th - March 22nd at the Nuart. This run follows 4 days of Jodorowsky's El Topo.

Warner Herzog in person at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica, March 22nd, 23rd, 24th, and 25th with screenings of Nosferatu, Aguirre, the Wrath of God, Grizzly Man, and more, three of the nights being double features.

Night Tide starring Dennis Hopper at the Egyptian, Friday, March 30th.

Suspiria at the Nuart, midnight, 4/13.

Did I get carried away with last night's post?? - about the Wrong Turn family

You could accuse me of posting drunk... but no.

This new google/blogger entity is acting all fucked up, like it has a pair of parents who are brother and sister themselves. I really wanted to post this little observation last night...

inbreeding fucked up weirdos not just for the Wrong Turn set...

This fucked up brother and sister are a couple - they have kids - two out of four are fucked up. They just want to live normal lives, but that ain't gonna happen - it's an absurd proposal. You know, it's bad enough when anyone has kids, but brother and sister breeding FOUR times! Come on, they are disgusting.

I'm all for sexual freedom of gays and lesbians. These two, the incesest couple, are gonna set those movements back and give the conservatives ammo to propose all sorts of laws. Fortunately the couple live in Germany. Maybe they can teach their own kids to fuck each other too. It's only right and natural.

They have two kids that suffer from defects. Hmmmm, big surprise.

....but they love each other....

Blood and Chocolate rebuttal

I know it's old news, but I love it when a blog takes issue with something I wrote. Recently I discovered this rebuttal to my Blood and Chocolate post "audiences laughing their asses off when title 'Blood and Chocolate' hits the screen during preview" - the first of several posts I wrote on that movie. The article that quotes me extensively is from the feminist blog The True Confessions of an Hourly Bookseller and is titled "Synergy and Sexism Mess Up Blood and Chocolate Marketing" - though I do not think this post implies that my writing on the movie is sexist.

Basically her point is that the title is not confusing to the targeted market - teenage girls. I considered the market to be all teens. In the end I think the debate can only be settled by box office receipts. I will quote wikipedia on the matter. "The movie was a box office bomb, taking in only $2.1 million in the United States on its opening weekend and dropping out of the top 20 grossing movies in only its second week of release."

I'd also like to note that upon the weekend of the release they changed the poster in the newsprint ads, obviously to make audiences 'get it'. Shown here with the old above the new.

Academy Awards

I did not watch em', but you can see the Kodak theater outside of my bedroom window, so I looked out regularly to make sure that all was well with the exterior of the building. I'll admit to snooping around a bit down on Highland when the stars were arriving, you could see them, but they were far away from where the general public (all foreign tourists) could stand. I could not ID anyone.

Everything is still lit up beautifully down there. The area is always lit, but it's brighter tonight. The helicopters have only recently stopped buzzing.

I still don't have television in this place nor did I have the time to go over a friend's house and watch the ceremony this evening. My stop motion movie is due in the morning - it's done and printed to tape. Am I happy with it? Hell no. It's watchable on a computer screen, but it's not going to look too good screening in front of the class with the focus problems and light leaks and all.

ass deep

Hey, I've been too busy with my 2 minute stop-motion epic to post.

Grindhouse Film Festival this Tuesday is Black Shampoo and The Human Tornado - it's very unlikely that I can make it, which sucks because there may be big-name guests.

Check out Robert's Blind Vengeance trailer made for a trailer-making contest for QT's Grindhouse. Many Grindhouse Film Festival regulars are in this short. Do you know which one is me?

back 2 basics

I'm watching a horror tape for the first time since God knows when. This one is just what I need to get me to sleep. I've got an early morning tomorrow.

The video? Crawlers, known in some parts as Troll 3, who knows why? I guess once the Italians got their hands on the franchise they could not let go. Fabrizio Laurenti and Joe D'Amato direct under American pseudonyms. Yes, it is THAT Joe D'Amato who did Anthropophagous: The Beast, Buio Omega, Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals, and a bunch more European classics. I guess most of the European director's that we love took a dive in the 90's. Yeah, you probably know that this movie is crap and I really am a sucker for having wanted to see it for so long. It's edited like shit, it's written like shit, and it's even shot like shit. Avoid.

you're invited but your friend can't come

This week's LA Weekly, with Morrisey on the cover, has got the story on the Sundance experience. It ain't pretty... well maybe it is if you are a god among men...

Also some Sundance selections get trashed - the state of indie film in America today...