dancers & ravens & mirrors, oh my

Title - Mirror Mirror 2: Raven Dance
Language - English
Genre - Horror, demon

Mirror Mirror 2: Raven Dance

Raven dance is the first sequel to the 1990’s horror  Mirror mirror and, in my opinion is a much better film.  Raven Dance does not follow on from the first Mirror Mirror but is a complete new story with a new set of characters.  

Set in a church Orphanage Marlee and her brother Jeffrey are talking to a rock band who are playing a charity gig when they uncover an old mirror and it’s not long before strange events and  deaths start occurring.  Throw in a jealous corrupt relative and a mysterious stranger and you have a volatile mix,

Everywhere you look ravens dance is a battle between good and evil, the most obvious is mirror and it’s temptation of Marlee as it helps her by fixing her problems some of which it caused in first place.  We also have Sister Marion trying to do what she thinks is best for Marlee who she sees as disruptive and chaotic & Roslyn and doctor Dr. Lasky trying to get Marlee committed so that they can get her money.

The second theme that runs through the film is desire, as with the first film the mirror is trying to control people through the things they desire, Sister Marion only desires the smooth running of the Orphanage, Roslyn desires money and to a smaller extent to be liked, Dr. Lasky seems to desire Marlee and Marlee desires Christian.  All of which leads to a number of plot threads that could have become quite confusing but Raven dance manages to pull it off quite well.

The characters in ravens dance are well defined and definitely better than those of the first film which were did just seem to be generic stereotypes you could find in any high school horror.  There are a couple of characters that do leave you guessing at what they know:

Sister Marion is only interested in  the smooth running of the orphanage to the point where he will ignore anything that may put it in danger  even if she has the proof that similar events have happened before.  She has Sister Aja locked in a room so that she can not interfere with the running of the building.  we are never sure if she really believes what Dr Laskie is saying but she only ever makes one small attempt to use the orphanage doctor instead.  It seems that once the accident with the band happens she sees Marlee as a hindrance and just wants to wash her hands of her.

Christian is another character who keeps us guessing, he is mysterious and tempting but we never know which side he is on until the end.

Although Raven Dance does not share the ‘high school horror’ themes that it’s predecessor does  it does have a couple of similarities; Both films have a female ‘young adult’ protagonist both of whom do spend a lot of the films moping around feeling sorry for themselves but, in Raven dances case i feel that there is more of a reason or at least Marlee is a more sympathetic character.  Both films also hint at witchcraft but never really use it much, the act of making a wish is akin to spell casting  The mirror contains a demon that was trapped there in an unseen past.  Both girls make a ‘blood pact’ with the mirror (although I still can’t understand why, when they see the mirror bleed their first reaction is to taste it and then press themselves into it). In Raven Dance the magic witchcraft theme  is expanded slightly, Marlee has a cat who acts like a familiar (a witches pet) and near the end Sister Marion does ask for help from god.  There is also an after credit scene with some mini monks that may be a set up for some other ceremony, or they could just be messing around.

It is never said whether it is the same mirror from the first film and I’m tempted to think not.  even though it looks the same it is never explained how it was taken out of the old house (this was impossible in the first film) and the time periods would be out a bit.

At the end credits the film is listed as Raven Dance a tale of the Mirror Mirror. As the first film is listed as a tale it is probably fair to say that there was probably not going to be any sequels.  There are two more films in the series which ill be reviewed next.

Mirror Mirror (1990)

Title - Mirror Mirror
Language - English
Genre - horror, witchcraft

After her father's death Megan and her mother move to a new town in America.  Megan has trouble fitting in at her new school and is picked on by the popular kids until she realises that she can call up on magic from a mirror that was left in her new house from the previous owners.  Megan begins to use the mirror to get revenge on the bullies and to help her friend win the school election but is she controlling the power or is it controlling her?

Mirror Mirror is a film in the same vain as the ‘Craft’ and ‘Heathers’ and focus’ on the  new girl who is trying to fit in it to the a new environment.  Megan  is obviously new and different because she’s in black Goth/rock clothes and everyone else  in the school is in pastels, Chaleen and her group of popular girls are all in very pale colours and Nikki is in darker pastels.  This point seems to have been taken a bit far as i haven't seen many schools (which don’t enforce a uniform) where all the pupils dress almost identically and even in similar films there are different groups even if the ‘new girl’ is normally steered away from them.

After a short scene from the past the film starts off quite slow.  We are introduced to Megan and her mother and we are shown the politics of the school with the class elections coming up with Nikki as one main candidate and Chaleen as the other.  Chaleen instantly starts mocking Megan which and it’s Nikki who helps her.  Now there was no reason it had to be Nikki who helped but i suppose for narrative purposes it helped.

One of the problems with Mirror Mirror is that it seems to start a couple of plot lines that could have taken the film in totally different directions but then it just seems to leave them.  When Nikki first becomes friends with Megan Ron (Nikky’s boyfriend) says that he doesn't want Megan to become another one of her ‘lost causes’ hinting that Nikki has a habit of trying to help other girls in a  ‘Clueless’ kind of way but we never see or hear of any of Nikkis previous causes, in fact we don’t see any any of Nikkis other friends.  Nikki never tries to change or help Megan fit in, if she did then there may have been a few less deaths.

There is also Nikki’s mother.  she starts out as distant, not noticing that Megan is having problems.  When she is talking to the Psychiatrist on the phone she is too busy talking about her self to answer any of his questions about Megan but then she changes with very little provocation and tries to be nice to Megan.  If they had kept the mother self centred then it would have helped in the build up Megans problems or they could have had her always trying to help but failing making the ending a bit more tragic.

In a way this is what is wrong with the film, none of the characters seem to be pushed far enough. Charleen’s bullying is a bit of name calling and dressing the same as Megan for a joke.  Nikki talks to Megan but doesn’t seem to much to help her fit in.  Megan's mom doesn’t seem to much and the antiques dealer is pretty much useless.  Megan herself seems to go from shy solitary goth to full blown killer witch in on scene, although that could be passed off as the mirror manipulating her.

The Mirror is one of the better characters, through flashbacks and dairy reading we learn enough of it's back story and it has clear motivation. There are a couple of versions of the film with the main difference being how much of the demon you see. The actual daemon doesn't really add much to the plot of the film as it does most of it's work via the mirror but it does add a bit more tension to the end of the film when it is included.

For all of its problems Mirror Mirror is still quite a good film and, if you are a fan of films like the Craft then you will probably enjoy this.

Mirror Mirror has 3 sequels which will be reviewed over the next few weeks.

Boogiepop and others

Title - Boogiepop and Others
Language - Japanese
Genre - Sci- Fi

Boogiepop and others it the live action movie based on the  manga of the same name.  There is also an anime called Boogiepop Phantom..

Boogiepop and others is split into four parts all of which are set on the same day and follows a group of high school students as a number of interlocking strange events happen.

We start by seeing a few short scenes that act as an introduction to some of the characters, the scenes are unrelated to each other and show us little, they are expanded on as the stories unfold.

The first couple of parts start the fim off quite slowly.  In part one we hear rumors around the school of the Boogiepop Phantom, an urban legend about a strange person that keeps appearing.  Boogiepop is possibly a shinigami (a Japanese death god) and attributed to the disappearance of a number of local runaways.  The first part focuses on Keiji Takeda and his girlfriend Toka Misyashita.  We see that Misyashita is becoming distant to Takeda and he doesn’t know why.  Not much really happens, there are a few bits that are related to events in the following parts.  Then Takeda is around when an injured, homeless looking man staggers out of the subway.  Everyone moves out of the mans way and Takeda just stares at him.  A masked girl approaches the man, says something to him and then she looks at Takeda and asked why he just looked on.  Takeda believes that the women is Misyashita but she says that she is Boogiepop and Misyashita doesn’t seem to know anything about Boogiepop.  Takeda keeps looking for Boogiepop, trying to prove that she is Misyashita and he eventually finds her.  Takeda and Boogiepop meet up a few times but don’t do much except talk. There is a strange event which sets off everyones phones and all the street lights followed by a shooting star.  Takeda meets Boogiepop for the last time, he feels that he knows Misyashita better for knowing her.  Boogiepop leaves saying she has defeated the monster she came to kill and Misyashita & Takeda’s relationship improve.

The second part follows Naoko a girl who has two boyfriends and claims to love too much.  Most of this story revolves around Naoko and a man she met called Echos.  Echos claims that he is looking for a clone of himself that is an evil monster and when he has killed it he will return to the stars.  Echos can not speak but can communicate with Naoko via a kind of telepathy.  We also see Saotome a boy who is selling drugs which he gets from the eyes of Minako a girl who is killing and eating people who Saotome is bringing to her.  At the end of this part both Naoko and Echos have disappeared, not together.

Part three follows  Kazuko as she tries to find out what is happening with her friend Kirima who has been acting strange and has been suspended from the school.

The Fourth part fills in the missing parts and find out more about Echos and his clone which has now become known as manticore and looks nothing like him.

Boogiepop and others is an interesting film.  Parts one and three only fill in a little of the information and the main characters don't know of any of the main events that are happening around them to the point that  Takida thinks that the monster Boogiepop has defeated is anxiety.  Takida doesn't think that Boogiepop is anything more that Miyashita’s mental breakdown.

In part three Kazuko knows that there is more going on than Kirima trying to find out about the source of the drug  but, by the end of the section she seems resigned to the fact that things happen around her and she will never know what they are.  kazuko is just happy knowing that Kirima is safe.

These two parts make an interesting change to traditional narrative, in almost every film (and in real life) there will be people who don't know what is going on around them.  Most people are like Takida, they treat the events that affect them as the most important and ignore anything that doesn’t include them and for the most part this is ok the events in someones life are more important because they are affecting that person and so that is what we have to react to.  If there is some unknown event that is happening to someone we know then we have two choices either get ourselves involved which may get in the way of the other person or get on with our own lives and look out for our friend when we can.  Kazuko tries, with the best intentions to help out Kirima but becomes aware that whatever is happening is not really anything to do with her and that not everything that happens will always involve her.

It is clever how, even though parts one and three are removed form the main action they still contribute by adding little bits of information and developing some of the characters.

The film is clever in the way it builds up the plot giving clues here and there to what is happening.  It starts off slow but also tells us a lot about the nature of Boogiepop right at the start

Boogiepop and others is quite a long film a 2 hours but it uses it time well  introducing the characters and plotlines slowly so there is not too much happening at once.  Some films try to put everything into the shortest possible time to get in more action and this can lead to confusion especially if the film is not linear with it’s story telling.

Boogiepop and others comes across as slightly ‘low budget’ but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing as the film concentrates on story instead of action and effects.

So give it watch if you want more than just explosions and CGI. 

Phantom of the paradise

Title - Phantom of the Paradise
Language - English
Genre - Gothic, horror, musical

Swan is the best musician/producer in the business who runs death records and now he wants to open the ‘Paradise’, the best rock club ever.  everything is ready for the opening he just needs to find the perfect song for the opening.

Winslow Leach is a struggling musician who is writing a modern musical of Faust.  Swan hears one of Winslow’s songs and decides it would be perfect for the opening of the Paradise the only thing is he does not want Winslow and he won’t let anyone else sing it.  Swan steals Winslows music and tries to ignore him and block all of his attempts to find out what is going on but Winslow won’t give up and keeps trying to see Swan.  During one of these attempts Winlow meets a young singer called Phoenix who he thinks could sing his work.

After one of Winslows attempts to break into Death records he is framed for drug abuse and is thrown into ‘Sing Sing’ jail where he is kept for 6 months until he escapes.

After his escape Winslow attempts to blow up Death records but instead ends up getting his head crushed in a record press.  Winslow survives this but is left unable to speak.  As his attempts to sabotage the record label he sets his sights on destroying the Paradise.  He blows up one of the rehearsals for the opening night and then sets out to find Swan.  When he finds him Swan cuts a deal with Winslow saying he will  run the Faust play how Winslow wants it if he will keep writing for him, Winslow agrees and signs a contract with Swan (in blood)once swan has agreed to let Phoenix sing the lead.  Swan betrays Winslow again and Winslow goes on a rampage but his attempts to destroy the Paradise only lead in better publicity for Swan and end up pushing Phoenix into Swans arms. Winslow attempts to kill himself but find he can not die until Swan dies.  Winslow then finds that Swan is planning on killing Phoenix on stage.  Winslow then has to attempt to find a way of killing Swan.

Phantom of the Paradise starts out as an ambitious remake of the Phantom of the Opera bringing it up to date (in the 1970’s) and setting it in the corrupt world of the music industry.  A lot of the familiar scenes and characters from phantom of the opera are present. Winslow is the Phantom and Phoenix is Christine.  Instead of living in the sewers under the theatre the Phantom lives in the theatre and has access to a number of secret passages that Swan was already using.  The opera is replaced with Winslow’s musical version of Faust which is more rock than opera.  The chandelier is replaced with a neon thunder bolt.

Technically only the middle of the film is a retelling of Phantom of the opera, the beginning of the film covers how Winslow becomes the phantom.  Winslow starts out as a quite musician and seems to be the type of person who wouldn’t harm anyone  he is the total opposite of Swan.  The only thing that Winslow cares about is his play and it is the loss of this that becomes his downfall.  As Winslow has very little proof that he wrote Faust he can't go through the courts and as Swan has most of the police in his pocket he would have probably lost any way.  we watch as Winslow becomes more and more obsessed with getting his work back.  At one point there is an almost light-hearted approach as Winslow  first meets Phoenix who he seems to fall for straight away and then in the next scene he is dressed in drag and looking quite silly.  This is the last time we see Winslow resemble anything normal as it is straight after this though when the film takes it dark turn and Winslow is sent to jail and we watch in a few short scenes his desperation turn to madness.  The last of Winslow is lost with his voice, the last thing he had to hold onto.

The end of the film differs from that of Phantom of the opera as story changes to mimic that of the Faust Play or of the picture of Dorian Gray.  There are clues earlier in the film  that swan is not all he seems to be.  He is very secretive and offers temptation and corruption and the viewer could easily assume that he is the devil.  He even gets the Phantom to sign his contract in blood.  The first real clue we get to the true nature of Swan is a short scene where a woman is trying to speak to him, she claims they went to school together in the 1950’s and has a picture of him where he looks no different, as the film is set in the 70’s he should have been showing some age.

The play of Winslow’s version of Faust is interesting, the main part we see is more reminiscent of Frankenstein with the main character being brought to life by lightning with the main actor being killed off with a neon lightning bolt in this film's version of the chandelier scene.  There is something about this part of the play that is reminiscent of the Rocky Horror show.   The lightning bolt  also seems to represent a change in the phantom, he is no longer under Swans control and will now do whatever it takes to break all connections with him.  Even when the Phantom finds out the truth about the contract he signed and with Swans threat to make Phoenix disappear the Phantom’s goal is to get away from Swan and to protect Phoenix.

The costumes and the music both play an important in the film as well.  The music itself mimic what is happening in the film, both in tone and lyrics.  The music and the bands that are under Swan change and get darker as the film progresses.

Winslow’s costume changes as he changes from winslow to the phantom with the two biggest changes being when his teeth are replace with metal ones and when his face is burnt

Swan’s appearance only changed twice first when he signed his contract and at the end.

It had been a long time since i had last seen Phantom of the Paradise and there was one scene that i actually thought was from another film and that was when the Phantom was hooked up to the organ to get his voice back, I that this was a scene from one of the Doctor Phibes films

So basicly Phantom of the paradise starts out as an updated version of Phantom of the Opera but then detours into the picture of Dorian gray and pays homage to to Frankenstein and is absolutely brilliant.

The Quatermass Conclusion

Title - The Quatermass Conclusion
Language - English
Genre - Sci - Fi

The Quatermass Conclusion is the fourth and final Quatermass film and also the only one not released by hammer horror.

Set in the near future, stated as the last quarter of the 20th century in the film, we see that society has become to crumble.  All over the world there are gang wars and most cities are no go areas.  The gangs are composed of teenagers and young adults and anyone of that age group that are not involved with the gangs are part of a group known as the Planet People.

We meet an old Professor Quatermass as he is on his way to a T.V. station in London, when his taxi drops him off quite away from the station he is attacked by one of the gangs, he would have been killed if Joe Kapp, another scientist on his way to the station, had not intervened. The show Quatermass and Kepp are commenting on is a live broadcast from the ‘Hands In Space’ a joint space project between America & Russia.  Live on air something happens to the project and the station seems to break apart. After the show Quatermass joins up with Kapp to see if he can find out more about the different gangs in the hope of finding his Granddaughter.

Kapp is based at a radio observatory which is housed in a building that goes back to the 15th century.  On the land is an ancient stone circle that dates back to 5000 years.

During the incident with the hands in space project the observatory picked up a strange signal.

The members of the Planet People start to mass at ancient meeting sites around the world and what is left of the police and army attempt to break up these meetings.  One of the meetings is held at the stone circle on the observatory's land and Quatermass and Kapp witness a blinding light hitting the circle and all the people in it have gone, the planet people leader who was outside the circle insists that the people have been take up to another planet, something they prophesied would happen but Quatermass is unconvinced.  As Quatermass looks into the incident he makes some horrific discoveries and finds a connection to the violence that is happening around the world.

The Quatermass Conclusion is slightly different from the other three films, to start with it is not a horror in the same sense as the others.  It does play on myths and legends in the same way as Quatermass and the pit but to a lesser extent.  The stone circles and other meeting places were created to warn people of danger and then surrounded by superstition.  There is also no monster in this film as all we see of the aliens is the beam of light.

The character of Quatermass also starts off different, he is older and feels that he is uncertain of things.  He feels that he is losing his memory and is retired from rocket science.  His only purpose is to find his granddaughter but he finds himself drawn back to science as  he is one of the few people who is not influenced by the force that is causing the violence.

There are two sets of people in the Quatermass Conclusion, the young and the old and both of these can be broke down into a further two groups.  The young are either rioters or Planet People.  Most of the young are in gangs that are fighting and destroying civilization and this is how  the older people see all of the young.  The smaller group of the young are the Planet People, a hippy like group who are seen as a cult, they renounce science and believe that they will be saved by aliens who will take them to another planet.

The older generation seem to be split into two other groups those that are fighting against the gangs, mainly shown as the ‘Pay Cops’ and those who are trying to survive.  The series the film was made from was made at the end of the 1970’s  and some of the views in the film are how society was seen .  Since the second world war there was a gap forming between the older generations and the younger and there were a lot of the older generation that saw this as a problem, we had had events like the Vietnam war which had had a lot of protestors and the rise of rock and punk was seen as antisocial and violent.

This is where the Quatermass conclusion did something different, it did not say that young were wrong and the old were right, Quatermass himself stated that the generations were different and that the young were open to things that the old could no longer see.  In the  film we see that some of the older generation become members of the gangs or the Planet People and this is representative of the new way of thinking taking over the old ways but the day is saved by the old scientists showing that the old ways still have some use, in fact the final scenes, where the old use the ‘essence of the young’ shows the old ways and the new working together.

The Quatermass conclusion is a good end to the series.  It still has the feel of the other Quatermass films but also has an end, the world is changing and the old ways (Quatermass) are giving way to the new.

It is well worth a watch especially if you have seen the other films.

Quatermass and the Pit

Title - Quatermass and the pit  (five million years to earth)
Language - English
Genre - Horror, Sci-Fi

Quatermass and the pit is the third Quatermass film, the first in colour and the last one by Hammer horror.

The film starts with a team of workers digging to extend the ‘Hobb’s end’ tube station in the London underground when they discover a number of skulls and skeletons.  The site is then handed over to Dr Mathew Roney who believes that the skulls belong to an ancestor of man who roamed the earth five million years ago.  The excavation is halted when the team discover a strange item that is believed to be a bomb of some type.

At the same time Professor Quatermass has been called in to a meeting with Colonel Breen who tells him that his rocket/moon project is now being controlled by the military, Quatermass is not happy about this.  The meeting is interrupted by a message to Colonel Breen asking for him to go to the Hobbs end site with bomb disposal to examine the object they have found.

The object is said to be safe so it is fully uncovered.  The team find an entrance and, once inside they find a room full of what appears to be giant insects.  Breen believes that is an old experimental German V weapon and the creatures are fake, put there to scare British during the war but Quatermass and the archaeological team believe it is something else and that is is tied to all the tales of haunting that have been reported around Hobbs end all through history.

Out of the four films Quatermass and the Pit the most different, the other three concern themselves with an alien threat that has come from beyond the stars and, even though the first two take some influence from horror as well as sci-fi Quatermass and the pit is, at it’s core a horror film with leanings towards Sci-Fi.

There seems to be an anti military message in Quatermass and the pit.  this is first evident when Quatermass finds out that his project is going to be taken over by the military, he is outraged as he sees the colonization of other planets as a way of leaving our old warlike  behind.  The theme is carried on by the way the army is portrayed.  Both  Quatermass & Breen  refuse to believe that any of the supernatural events are connected to the find at hobbs end, in fact both refuse to believe in the supernatural at all, but as the film goes on  Quatermass begins to accept that there is something odd happening and that it is connected to the aliens whereas Breen just becomes more and more stubborn and un-receptive to anything other than his own theory.  There is also a hint of an army with the aliens/ possessed human as they go ahead with the racial cull.

The Aliens in this film seem to be better developed that in the previous two films, they have a better back story and more of a reason to want to conquer us although this does cause a problem with the effects.  This is overcome well though, the scenes on Mars are always seen through grainy footage and the alien corps’ are meant to be degrading so they are not seen for long.

The intertwining of Sci-Fi and horror is also handled well, the way the memories of the aliens have become change over time to become our devils is used well and the explanation that phenomenon such as ghosts and poltergeists are actually caused by latent psychic power inherited from the Martians is interesting.  It is interesting to note that there a similar theories about poltergeists in the real word, minus the aliens of course.

I feel that Quatermass and the pit is best of the four films, it has a strong story and a good mix of horror and Sci-Fi and is definitely well worth a watch.

Quatermass 2

Title - Quatermass 2, (the  enemy from space)
Language - English
Genre - Sci-Fi

Set a few years after the <Quatermass Xperiment> we find professor Quatermass  working on a project to set up a base on the moon.  He has a new rocket which has been fitted with an atomic engine which is unstable and the ministry he is working for has just pulled the funding for his work.  Whilst returning from a meeting Quatermass nearly crashes into another driver who is trying to get her boyfriend to hospital  after he had been burned whilst looking at something that had fallen out of the sky.  At the same time Quatermass’ assistants are tracking a number of objects that are falling from the sky.  Finding that the object that had hit  the man in the car was hollow Quatermass hands it to his lab for further testing and goes to investigate where the others fell.  Finding the village of Winnerden Flats destroyed and replaced with a facility that looks alot like his own moon base Quatermass begins to investigate what is going on and what the connection is with the meteor showers.

Like the Quatermass xperiment, Quatermass 2 lets the sense of threat build.  We have the two mysteries; what is the facility at Winnerden Flats and what are the meteors.  The two are linked quite quickly when Quatermass finds the ground around Winnerden Flats littered with broken meteors but it is a while before we find out how dangerous each is.

The size of the threat of the Winnerden Flats site is not known until the end of the film, partly because the site is believed to be manufacturing a synthetic food and what the meteors contain is thought  to be some kind of an infection.

Quatermass 2 seems to be about conspiracy.  At first Quatermass believes that the Winnerden Flats site is a rival project  and probably why his  funding was cut.  As the film progresses the function of the site is covered up  adding to the mystery so that when it is revealed to be a plant for making synthetic food people don't believe them causing Quatermass to investigate further.  Quatermass’ own theory about the site, that is an alien invasion is also treated with some doubt.  Other characters think that his theories are wild and he is only spreading tales because it does look like someone else has a more advanced version of his moon base project.  The conspiracy is heightened by the meteors, as soon as they land the plant guards are out looking for them, they are dressed in protective suits complete with gas masks and they won’t speak to anyone.  Anyone who handles one of the meteors when they first fall is take ill and then take away by the guards, by force if necessary and it is these actions that help convince people the plant and it’s guards are more of a threat then first seen.

In my review of the first Quatermass film (<the quatermass Xperiment>) I compared the film to Frankenstein and, in the same way Quatermass 2 has elements of the early Zombie films.  The Pre ‘night of the living dead’ zombie films i have seen have the zombies more as servants than a brain eating hoard and that can be said of the people who are infected by the meteors, the guards appear to be mindless shells who only protect the plant and look for the other meteors, this may explain why they open a gate to let their vehicles through even though there is a mob of angry villagers already there, trying to get in.  Those possessed by the meteor aliens also have a mark, a v shaped cut on them which seems unnecessary, if the alien is a kind of infection then it would enter via the mouth or nose, the injuries could be seen as a throwback to zombie movies.  Of course these similarities can be drawn to most of the ‘body snatcher’  genre of film.

One of the main things that make the move is the Winnerden Flats plant, the whole thing seems unearthly but has a very real feel to it. this is down to the fact that is it filmed  at a Shell Oil refinery which is a huge industrial site with odd shaped buildings and piping everywhere.  It looks other worldly now so it must have been even more effect back in 1957 when this was made.

I don’t think that Quatermass 2 is the best of the series but it doesn't suffer in the same way as a lot of other number 2 films do I believe that this is due to the stories being relatively unconnected, they are both sci-fi and have alien invasion but it’s different aliens and a different plan.  The creature effect are not quite as good as the creature from the first film  but it doesn't detract from the film 

The Quatermass Xperiment

Title - The Quatermass Xperiment (The creeping unknown )
Language - English
Genre - Horror, Sci-Fi

The Quatermass Xperiment is the first  of four films following the adventures of the British scientist Professor Quatermass.  The film started life as a BBC series but most of the episodes have been lost.  It was later made into a film by Hammer Horror as one of their first films.

The film starts with a rocket crash landing on a farm.  The rocket was part of a government experiment for the first manned flight into space.  The project was headed by Professor Quatermass who is in trouble for launching the rocket early.  The rocket had a crew of three but when it is opened there is only one person aboard, Victor Carroon.  The space suit's of the other astronauts are still intact and the door has not been opened.  As the rocket has been in space there is no where the other astronauts could have gone.

Victor is very ill and is kept at Quatermass' lab.  At the same time Scotland Yard begin an investigator to find out what has happened to the other men, this is led by Inspector Lomax. Quatermass thinks the investigation is a waste of time as no one at Scotland Yard is qualified to investigate anything that happens in space.

Victor is moved to a hospital when it is decided that there is not enough medical equipment in Quatermass' lab.  Victor's wife, Judith tries  to break him out of the hospital but, in the few minuets he is left alone Victor pushes his hand into a cactus and he kills the man who was helping  her.  As Victor goes on a killing spree he slowly changes into something else and Quatermass and Lomax realise they are dealing with an alien invasion.

The Quatermass Xperiment was released in 1955 and, in my opinion it still holds up now. Admittedly  some of the technology is a bit dated but, as Quatermass' lab is mentioned to be quite hi tec it's not that bad.  The film does not rely to heavily on special effects and the creature at the end is not seem much so this does not go against it.  It has a good story and characters.

Quatermass starts wanting to be in control of everything and he finds the involvement of Scotland Yard nothing but an annoyance.  As the film progresses he begins to realise that, even though he has the most knowledge on the rocket and space side he is not equipped to deal with the situation.  He begins to release some control of the situation when he is convinced to let Victor go to a hospital and, once Victor is on the loose he knows that he needs the police to help track him down.  It does seem to annoy Quatermass that he is equipped to deal with everything and this is evident at the end of the film when he takes control of the situation ignoring every done else to stop the creature.

Inspector Lomax is almost the other side of the coin to Quatermass.   He realises from the beginning that he is ill equipped to deal with the situation but he knows that he has a job to do.  There are a couple of scenes at the start of the film where Lomax could have become the comic relief as a bumbling detective who is out of his depth but this is cut short when he goes to Quatermass offering to help him in stead of trying to handle everything himself.

Victor, as the monster is handled well.  As I have said the film is not effects heavy.  For most of the time we see Victor as a normal man although his features are drawn out .  Most of the transformation is kept to his arm which he keeps hidden for a lot of the film.  Victor is portrayed as scared and in pain for most of the film, needing to feed but fighting for his humanity.  This is most apparent in a scene where he meets a little girl by a river.  The scene has a striking similarity’s it to a scene in Frankenstein.  In both tales the monster meets a little girl by a river but in Frankenstein the monster kills the girl by accident and this helps the creature realise what he is and that he does not want to live, making him more human.  In the Quatermass Xperiment Victor does not kill the girl and goes on to become  ore monstrous, loosing his humanity.   In a way the character of Victor is almost a reverse of Frankenstein monster, the monster starts as a none human creation and becomes more human where as Victor starts out human and becomes more monstrous. The similarity are only heighten by the creature in the Quatermass Xperiment bearing the name of the man who d created the monster in Frankenstein.

The monster at the end of the film is not shown much.  When we do see it we get the feeling that it is some kind of plant jellyfish,  it is resting so not moving much which is good because if they had put to much movement into it I think it would have looked dated now.

By the standards of today's films the Quatermass Xperiment is not too scary.  When it was first released in the UK it was given an X rating (an 18 in today's ratings) but modern releases have been dropped to a pig (children can watch with there parents).  There are some creepy parts to the film but it does rely on its story and characters.

Well worth a watch in my opinion but if you don't fancy it in black and white the series was remade in 2002 and this is also worth a watch.

H K the forbidden super-hero

Title - H K the forbidden super-hero
Language - Japaneses
Genre - Super-Hero, comedy 

















 The H K stands for Hentei Kamen meaing Pervert Mask.  

Hentai means pervert and used to describe pornographic animation and comics in the west.

Kamen means mask and is associated with Japanese superheroes such as Kamen (masked) rider and the power rangers.   

Kyosuke Shikijo’s father was a good police man and his mother was a dominatrix.  His father died threes after meeting his mother and Kyosuke spends a lot of his time alone.  when he does see his mother she is normally on at him for not having a girl friend.  when a cute new girl, Aiko starts in his class and becomes the manager of the schools martial arts club Kyosuke becomes besotted with her but he doesn't know how to ask her out.  Whilst he is walking home he passes a bank that is being robbed and notices that Aiko is one of the hostages.  Deciding he has to do something to help Kyosuke breaks into the bank to try to help Aiko.  He defeats one of the robbers and decided to disguise himself as the robber so he can get close enough to help Aiko.  Distracted by this thoughts of Aiko he picks up a pair of women’s pants instead of a mask and doesn’t notice until he has them on his head.  He’s about to take them off when he realises how well they fit and how much he likes it.  Disgusted by this he feels guilty and this triggers the perverted dna he inherited from his  mother and this causes him to transform in the Hentai Kamen.  Kyosuke stops the bank robbers but Aiko is torn she likes Hentai Kamen but she also sees him as a pervert.  This upsets Kyosuke as Aiko is still not interested in him.

As Hentei Kamen, Kyosuke starts to clean up the streets but a new menace enters, Tamao the leader of the local Karate team is intent on taking over the school because he believes that there is treasure buried somewhere under it.  Foiled by Hentei Kamen, Tamao hires a number of assassins but they all fail, until a fake Hentai Kamen appears and takes Aiko.,

H K The forbidden Hero is a parody of modern superhero movies it opens with pages of a manga flickering just like the Marvel comic movies.  The character of Kyosuke is similar to that of Peter Parker (Spider-man) in his everyday life or Dave Lizewski (Kick-Ass) in the way he wants to help and protect people.  Like both characters Kyosuke is a bit of a loser, he can’t get the girl and he’s not strong  enough to help when he sees people in trouble.  The parallels with other superheros is quite apparent especially with  spider-man there is even a scene where Hentai Kamen is swinging around the town like spider-man, the only difference is that he uses bondage ropes instead of webbing.

Part way through the film Kyosuke has a crisis of faith about his alter ego, this is a theme that is popular in other modern superhero stories, both spider-man and kick ass think about giving up.  Only in Hentai Kamen’s case it’s because he’s worried he is becoming a pervert.  This brings up a point, Kyosuke is concerned that he’s becoming a pervert, Aiko is torn because she is falling for Hentai Kamen but she is disturbed by his behavior and the fake Hentai Kamen revels in the guilt he feels.  Kyosuke has to decide whether there is anything wrong with what he is doing.  Is there really anything wrong with being a pervert.

You can not take Hentai Kamen seriously, which is a good thing.  The acting is over the top (especially Kyosuke’s mother), the action good and the costumes are great.  I have to admit i laughed a lot but i think you do need a certain sense of humor.

Ghost School / Whispering Corridor's overview

I have recently watched and review the 5 films that make up the Whispering Corridors/ghost School series of films  and thought that i might also look at the series as a whole.

The series consists of 5 films (at the time or writing), these are:

1 Whispering Corridors

2 memento Mori

3 Wishing Stairs

4 Voice

5 A Blood Pledge

The 5 films come from Korea are separate stories with different characters and can be watched in any order but, they are connected by certain themes and plots;

All the films are are set in an all girls school, it is never said whether it is meant to be the same school but it does look like the same buildings are used in some of the films.  The girls in Whispering Corridors walk past the steps that are used in Wishing Stairs.

There is always at least one ghost but the reason for the hauntings and how the ghost appears differs.

The main protagonist are a group of two or three girls normally with one other who wants to join the group or be friends with one of the other girls.

The narrative of the films focus more on the relationships of the living girls than the ghost.  Even ‘Voice’ which starts by having one of the main characters killed off and trying to work with her friend to find out what happened ends up focusing on the living lead and a new friend.  As part of the focus on the character's relationships  we see that there is always two of the girls who have a close relationship some of whom can been seen to lovers.  These relationships often play a  big part in the focus of the narrative and, even though i can’t think of a part in any of the films where it is shown/stated that any of girls are lovers there are often rumours going around the classes and it is often these rumours that act as a catalyst in the films.  Most of the time the effects of the rumours are bad, they either drive a wedge between the girls or lead to one of them being ostracised from the class or group.  In ‘A Blood Pact’ the rumour is spread about one of the girls being pregnant and even though the rumour turns out not to be true (or at least about the wrong girl) it is still shown to cause grief and problems for the girl.

One thing that stood out to me about the handling of the relationships is that they were done well.  Some of the girls have very close relationships and it would have been very easy to show this with some kind of physical device like kissing or even sex.  Unlike some movie's I don’t think the inclusion of a sex scene would have done these films any damage but the fact that the relationships are shown to be so strong with one is a good thing and even when a relationship does get physical it is always as part of the story and, again nothing is ever shown and only referenced when needed.

The films don’t shy away from things like bullying and abuse and the different films it can take and the feel of these seems to change as the films go one.  In the first two films there are abusive male teachers one of whom has a relationship with one of the girls but the later films have less of this.  I’m not sure if this was something that used to happen and has been phased out as attitudes changed in the real world but it does seem to be something that may have influenced the earlier films.   The abuse of the girls is not solely down to the male teachers.  In ‘A Blood Pledge’ we have one of the girls beaten by her dad because he thinks she is worthless. In ‘Wishing stairs’ one of the things shown is a mother pushing her daughter into something she doesn’t want to do (Ballet) because she never had the chance to do it when she was younger and in ‘Memento Mori’ a friendship is broken up by a teacher because one girl could do better but is being held back because her friend is different.

The films also show bullying, normally caused by the main characters classmates when they see that one of the main cast is different.  normally because of how close two of the girls are but also if one of the girls is seen to be different like in Memento Mori.  In ‘A Blood Pledge’ we also see one girl picking on the others in the group because she is weaker and how the whole pledge is set up just to get rid of one rival.

The ghosts are more than just a your normal horror villains.  They are rounded characters who, in some cases were members of the main group when they were alive.  They differ from ghosts in other movies because they are not just revenge driven.  It’s true that some of them are out for revenge but there are other motivations as well.  The films do not necessarily go for the big scares although the ghosts can be scarey.  The films play on some of the tropes for instance there is a scene in ‘Wishing Stair’ where one of the girls climbs through a window, she is on all fours with her hair over her face, the scene is reminiscent of Sadako coming through the T.V. in ‘The Ring’.  The ghosts intentions are not always evil but their presents causes problems and their methods are not always the normal way.  Some of the behavior of ghosts is explained in ‘Voice’.

The interesting thing about the ghost, especially in the first 3 films is that they are not always necessary as a lot of the ghosts  action  is phycological.  I did read (but not verified) that the ghost in ‘Memento Mori) was never meant to be seen and was only put in because it was felt that people would not like a ghost film with no ghost in it.

The Ghost School films are good but I did have a problem with them and that is that they are not linea.  This is especially true of Memento Mori and Voice.  Memento mori is told via a lot of flashbacks but i found that it was hard to tell when the flashbacks were happening.  The voice is split into 4 days but the days are not shown in order and are also separated by the credits running.

The Whispering Corridor / Ghost school films are a good set of films that tell emotional tales and also feature ghosts.  The stories are well thought out even if a couple of them seem to come across a bit jumbled due to their non linear nature.  The are not played just for scares but, in the context of the film it’s not necessary.  The films don’t go over the top on the gore but again this is not necessary, if there is a need for blood than there is blood.  For the most part the ghost are not monsters they are like a lot of J & K-horror ghost that people (in the west) will have seen, that is pale people with black eyes  like Sadako.

If you are looking for gory, slasher films then the whispering corridor / Ghost school films probably aren't for you although it may be worth giving ‘A Blood Pledge’ a watch. If you are looking for something different with a good story then give them a watch.

A Blood Pledge

Title - A Blood Pledge (whispering Corridor 5, Ghost school 5)
Language - Korean 
Genre - Horror, Ghost
















 A Blood Pledge is the 5th film in the Whispering corridor’s / Ghost school series.

This time the film is set in a catholic girls school and follows 4 main protagonists:

Eun-Young

Soy

Unjoo

Lee - Eugene

and a fifth character, Jung-Un who is Unjoo’s sister.  These are the names of the characters as they appeared on the subtitles on the version i was watching but when i have looked on IMDB and Wikipedia some of the names are different, in fact the names are different on Wikki to IMDB so I’ll keep using the names from the DVD.

The film starts with Eun-Young, Soy & Eugene making a suicide blood pact saying they will all kill themselves and, if one doesn’t go through with it then they will be cursed with death.  The ceremony is interrupted by a knock on the door and we later find out this is Unjoo who joins the pact.  Unjoo is the only one of the girls who goes through with the suicide.  Unjoo’s sister is waiting for her and is the only witness to  Unjoo’s death.

Rumours start going around the school about Unjoo jumping because she was pregnant (which it turns out she wasn’t) and the other girls were present when she jumped.  Eugene, who is the leader of the girls first denies any of their presents but eventually tells people that Soy was there.  People start to believe that soy had more to do with the suicide, a point which seem to made more true by Eun-Young’s increasingly strange behaviour.

As the film progresses we learn that Soy & Unjoo used to be inseparable friends but Unjoo became friends with Eugene and was accepted into her friendship group.  Eugene only let Unjoo join them because she was trying to get her away from Eun-Young because soy was now dating Ki-Ho who was Eugene’s ex.  To make matters worst Soy was the one who was pregnant with Ki-Ho’s baby.  as the film continues Unjoo’s ghost stalks the corridors making the blood pact come true.

Out of the 5 films I found that ‘A Blood Pact’ was one of the easiest to watch.  The story was told in a mostly linear fashion with any flashbacks made more obvious.  I think that the setting of a Catholic school also helped as some of the symbolism and references are present in western culture.

A Blood Pact has some of the themes that run through all of the Ghost school films but, instead of focusing on the relationship between to of the pupils it took a small group and looked at how one incident (Soy’s relationship with Ki-Ho) could change the dynamics of it.  The group is also used to power, Eugene tries to use the suicide pact to get revenge on Soy, planning with Eun-Young that they don’t jump.  Even when the plan goes wrong and Unjoo dies Eugene tries to take control of the situation by firstly letting the class know that Soy was on the roof with Unjoo and then later by trying to fake Soy’s suicide.

A Blood Pledge is more like a modern ghost story than the other films, it still has the same feel as the other films but the ghost effects are are more gory but, like the others it does not go for the horror as much as the story

A Blood Pledge is a strong film with good characters and a strong story and well worth a watch.