Golden Title: The Shining (1980)

The Shining (1980)
Rating: *****
Starring:  Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall and Danny Lloyd

Cabin Fever never looked so clean and sounded so quiet, until the fall of the axe and the screams of the doomed.

Hoping to get some peace and quiet while he works on his new novel. Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) accepts the caretaker position for the infamous Overlook Hotel despite the manager sharing to him what happened to the previous caretaker, who went crazy and killed plenty before committing suicide.

Joining him for the job is his wife Wendy and his son Danny, touring the hotel with their guide and chef Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers) who then realizes that Danny has the ability to see things and talk telepathically. Hallorann calls the gift the "Shining" and tells Danny that though the hotel itself can "shine" its darkest events, it is rather harmless and that if there is anything to be afraid of in the hotel, the boy can shine Hallorann for help.

However, what any of them didn't expect is Jack's descent to madness as both cabin fever and the dark supernatural influence of the hotel itself begin to take over his sanity. In any time now, he will snap and his family have no choice but to try and survive.

There's very little words to express the beauty of this film; it's both a feast for the eyes and the mind, boasting stunning cinematography with simple yet very brooding images that foreshadows a lot of upcoming nightmares. The single car in the opening sequence can be seen as a man alone in the untamed world, later to be driven insane enough to murder. The labyrinth? See it as the confused line between the sane and the insane. The Overlook hotel itself is also a nice backdrop on the film's theme of isolation; every part of the hotel work perfectly in bringing out paranoia and gloom.

It's a thinking man's horror, with its subtext of true horror lying not in viscera or jumps, but in its unsettling mood, uncertainties over answers, and realism despite the impossible. Jack's cabin fever, for example, can happen with or without the aid of the supernatural and Nicholson's performance (and ad-libbing) gave his character more of a fearsome and unsettling nature. Even after so many times it is spoofed, the "Here's Johnnie!" line still looks disturbing when put into context that this is coming from a man we all see gone axe-crazy.

Shelley Duvall's performance as Wendy, the passive wife, also comes off as very believable with her frightened yet concerned looks showing both her vulnerability and care still despite the stressing changes going on with her family. Duvall paid no attention to how her character appears or how "little" her role might be, but instead she kept it real. A realistic fear for a near-realistic situation. Danny, played by young (and ironically named) Danny Lyod, also come off very natural as the young, frightened and presumably dual-personality stricken boy whose trauma from an abuse left him scared and scarred. A memorable performance despite this being his debut.

Interestingly enough, the film's influenced by giallos and slashers despite being a supernatural thriller. Kubrick's direction mixes the sensibilities and build of a psychological thriller, the scares and imagery of supernatural horror and a climax that's pure slasher/giallo, complete with a brutal axe murder and a chilling chase scene around a snowbound hedge maze.

Without comparing much from the original novel, Kubrick's vision is undeniably old school but working. I love everything he does to the film. The lighting, the music. the shocks, the shots, the creepy random scenes treated to us (manbear fellatio, anyone?), I even love the lengthy conversations that our characters get into, even if it leaves us a lot of unanswered questions. I love this ambiguity.

It's a different kind of horror, a horror that reaches out to us, rather than us reaching to it. The Shining has something for everyone, no matter what genre we're used to. It's fear for the sake of fear and scares for the sake of scares. A must-worship.

Bodycount:
1 male axed on the chest
1 male froze to death
Total: 2

See you all soon.

Lonely Blue Christmas: P2 (2007)

P2 (2007)
Rating: ***1/2
Starring: Rachel Nichols, Wes Bentley and Simon Reynolds

Written by Alexandre Aja and directed by Franck Khalfoun, as in the actor who played the gas stop guy who got a fire axe swung into his gullet in Aja's Haute Tension (2003). So that's two guys from the cult fave modern French Extreme, making a movie about a business woman trapped in a building parking garage during Christmas Eve and getting harassed by a lonesome and very unhinged security guard with intimacy issues.

Looking at it, P2 (2007) has a very thin plot and a direct approach to boot as the movie's basically just one long stalk-and-slash scene between Rachel Nichols' working woman character and Wes Bentley's love-struck psycho. There are some good kills along the way, which I'm thankful for their simplicity yet brutal nature in a year where torture porn's a big cash hype. I'm happy to see this one steps back a bit and just be gorily thrilling without the need of being nauseatingly torturous and, for a movie that takes place inside a parking lot, it boasts a production value that looks impressively stunning with its cinematography and intense in its direction.

The only drawback I can sense here is that, for a thriller-horror that only centers on two main character, they're very one-dimensional. Bentley's hinted to have some sort of mental issues stemming from his past but it's never explored, leaving it more of a foot note to basically another sociopath-turned-psycho killer. Same goes for Nichols' role which is basically just a woman who wants to go home for the holidays, but is held in against her own will. They're paperthin, but, again, the simplicity of the plot works well to their benefit as a identifiable protagonists and antagonists in a popcorn-friendly slasher, wherein we can just feel scared for the trapped final girl for the fact that she is trapped and hunted, while fear the maniac for the fact that he is going to these lengths to get his twisted needs.

With a nice pacing and bloody suspense, I find it hard to reason why this film is so underrated. It's thrilling for the sake of thrill, and, by that, I call it a fair shot because it's honest to what it wants to be. P2 (2007)'s nowhere a cinematic masterpiece, but it's worth a look.

Bodycount:
1 male repeatedly smashed against the wall with car
1 male found dead
1 dog stabbed and impaled with crowbar
1 male handcuffed to a gasoline-leaking car and set ablaze
Total: 4

Deliverance Delinquents: While She was Out (2008)

While she was out (2008)
rating: ***1/2
starring: Kim Basinger, Lukas Haas and Craig Sheffer

It's ultimately a love-it-or-hate-it film, but I definitely will keep this one. Nothing says Christmas Eve than painting the woods red, Tool box style.

What does a single mother do in Christmas Eve? Stay home, read Christmas propaganda books to her kids, make final preparations for the big day, smile at her hubby while saying "Yes, hun. Okay, hun. Whatever you say, hun"?

Not Della.

No, Della lives with her twin children and a foul-mouthed husband in a quite cul-de-sac suburbs. She rarely talks back, but this one Christmas eve night, after going out for some wrapping paper, Della is forced to do something much worse than answer back. She has to survive.

After insulting the owner of an old car that took two parking spaces, she got herself the attention of four teenage punks who're threatens her and soon murders a security guard. Fleeing and fearing, Della enters a nearby woods and get stalked and chased by the gang who're now out to kill the only witness of their crime. But they'll soon find out that everyone has a breaking point, and Della reached hers sooner than they think...

At first, I thought of nothing of this film until I took a gander at the suspiciously "bodycount" worthy plot. Turns out While She was out is a quick-paced yet thrilling look at somebody who just got out of their comfort zone and into the untamed reality. The story didn't do much other than try to make a good movie out from a potential stalking scene; it had no real plot, no other purpose but to entertain us with just a simple survival thriller about a suburban woman put into a night she didn't expect to come yet faces and learn from it nonetheless. It's pure 70s drive-in element, and that, folks, I learn to like.

I'm no fan of Kim Basinger so I'm not giving this film stars for any big names. I'm not even going to rant about acting cuz, by far as I'm concerned, it's either laughable, annoying or dull. (No, making your four hoodlums multi-racial doesn't help either...just make the villains look funny) Not even going to criticize the closet space logic here like how a gun can go off without anybody else noticing it? Or how a shot man can go unnoticed and left to die until 60 minutes later? No, I watch movie to be entertained, not see if a 40 year old actress still got it, or learn whether it's possible to impale a guy's nose with a tire iron.

All this, I can overlook with what matters the most here: thrilling chases, suspiciously feminist roars that obviously points out that not every woman will remain a victim forever, some bloody good kills to go with that, and a satisfying ending. While She Was Out is a decent, if not engaging, independent thriller that hits me just right where I want it. Simple, Fast, bloody.

Bodycount:
1 male shot twice in the head
1 male had his back stomped on and his neck broken on fall
1 male had his face beaten and impaled with a tire iron
1 male gets a screwdriver forced through head, exits to mouth
1 male shot on the chest
1 male presumably shot
Total: 6

TV Terror: All Through The House (1989)

And All Through The House (Tales From The Crypt" episode 2/ season 1 (1989) )
rating: ****
starring:  John Kassir, Mary Ellen Trainor and Larry Drake

My most favorite "Tales From The Crypt" episode and the only one who is daring enough to pack all three main essence of the comic books: Scares, Suspense and Laughs!

Directed by Robert Zemeckis, this Holiday episode features a greedy woman's Christmas night where she murders her hubby to collect his life insurance. This proved to be harder to be done that night as a lunatic in a Santa suit is loose on the streets and has made his way over her home to spread some holiday fear.

This episode proves to be warmly welcomed by fans old and new like a cozy fireplace and its best remembered for it's tightening and frightening intensity as well as some nice twists along the way. What I like about here is that all the characters think and sticks with their roles. Mary Ellen Trainor does a magnificent role as our "bad character", whose greed and sleaze immediately marks her for the taking. It's her twisted evil that makes her ordeal fun to watch and her sly creativity that left me chuckling, but she's not the best thing about this episode. Rather, it's that the killer Santa..

is Larry Drake.

KYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!

That's right, Ole Bubba Ritter from Dark Night Of The Scarecrow, Darkman's Robert Durant and Dr. Giggles himself! Playing our killer Santa with grittiness and maniacal rawness that he's cartoonishly scary in all the good ways! One thing I learned from comic book adaptations is that it has to have both something  familiar and something new, be faithful to the origins while adding some personal tastes, and this killer is that very package.

Naughty...or nice?

And true to its comic book origin, the story also has its shares of laughs too. My fave scene is when the wife suddenly realizes that she can get away with a clean slate by blaming the murder on "Santa". After hacking her hubby's corpse and faking a 'terrified" call, acting turns to panicking as she realizes her dear killer's not all that dead yet! It's one of those "OH-FUCK-(facepalm)!" moments that makes you feel alright watching it cuz you know it's all for good fun.

NOOOOOO!!!! x infinity = cheesy ending.

I find this an essential seasonal watch for my holiday needs; comic book morals meet ghoulish delights, I'll tell you, All Through The House one got it all right. One of the best episode Tales From The Crypt Evah!

(Trivia: Hubby looked familiar? should be, Freddy towel-slapped his arse in A Nightmare on Elm street part 2, Freddy's Revenge!)

bodycount:
1 male hacked and beaten on the head with fire poker
1 female hacked offscreen with axe (implied)
total: 2

Sunny Side Up Holiday Fear: To All A Good Night (1980)

To All a Good Night (1980)
Rating: **1/2
Starring: Jennifer Runyon, Forrest Swanson and Linda Gentile

Dear David Hess, who passed away October 8, 2011 at the age of 75, will most likely ring a bell among horror fanatics as Krug, the notorious ringleader thug and rapist in Wes Craven's and Sean Cuningham's debut film, Last House on the Left (1972). What some may not know is that he once tried a hand on directing a fright flick, a slasher by the title of To All A Good Night (1980) which, as much as I wanna pay good respect to the man, isn't without it's own sets of shortcomings.

The story's far from anything original. More like watching a holiday-themed re-envisioning of Friday the 13th (1980), as a gaggle of naughty girls opted to stay in campus during a Christmas break to party. The same campus wherein two years ago, a prank involving a killer Santa led to the accidental death of a frightened sorority girl. You can tell this is going to be the "must avenge dead kid from prank and/or initiation gone wrong" motivation of our killer's murder spree, as someone dressed up as Kris Kringle would soon start stalking the campus, snuffing out college girls, the dates they flown in via plane (!) and ill-fated doomsayers.

The holiday theme in this one isn't felt well as the overall aesthetic of the film looks too warm to be anywhere Christmassy. But as a sunny-set sorority girls-in-peril type? To All A Good Night (1980) is a charming little number of bad ham down to the bit of dialogue and acting that are clearly tainted with cheesy fromage through and through. A charm that may or may not work with every slasher fanatics, really depending on how much one can tolerate unlikable sets of girls and guys this side of all murderous and weird have ever seen. (Just constant noise from these yaps) I believe the notion here is, possibly, "Oh, splatter fans want kills! Let's make the cast so unbearable that they want them dead! That way, they wouldn't feel so sorry for them!" 

And, true enough, the killings here really help make the movie all the more tolerable with its wide array of murders, apparently showing ole' Sick Nick here has gone a little creative with his deadly presents for these campus clusters, ranging from a crossbow shootings to a battle axe hacking, complete with a full suit of armor! It all would have worked a little better, though, if we can see clearly what they were doing to these kids in the dark. But, to be fair, we do see it. Just a tad grainy, is all. (Or, well, it could just be my copy...)

Cheese enthusiasts would likely find some guilty pleasure from this, and perhaps hardcore slasher collectors, as well as die hard fans of David Hess, too. For the rest of us, though, To All A Good Night (1980) could have been so much better than what it is; a gamble of a movie that you'll either hate or love. If you're after some decent Christmas slashers, you can certainly try this, but I really suggest looking elsewhere. Perhaps a deranged killer snowman named Jack Frost might interest your cheesy needs?

Bodycount:
1 female falls off a balcony
1 male stabbed offscreen with a switchblade
1 female gets a switchblade to the chest
1 female had a throat cut with a kitchen knife
1 male had his head crushed with a rock
1 male shot on the head with a crossbow
1 female beheaded with a battle axe
1 male found with a gaping hole on his forehead
1 male had his head split open with an axe
1 male knifed on the back
1 male hung and garroted with a thin wire noose
1 male and 1 female shredded to bits by airplane propeller
1 female pushed to her death off a balcony
1 male shot on the back with a crossbow
Total: 15

Short Shear Terror: Treevenge (2008)

Treevenge (Canada, 2008)
ratng: ****1/2
starring: Jonathan Torrens, Sarah Dunsworth and Maris Morgan

Tis the holidays again and here in StickyRed, I'm a little tired of the family friendly program we get on TV everytime Christmas' getting a day closer and closer. But just because everybody else is celebrating the Holidays with cheers doesn't mean we can't celebrate it with fears! And I just got the stuff. The Red stuff that is~!

Again, thanks to Maynard Morrisey's Horror Movie Diary where I saw this little nasty in his list and read about it; tis' the season to be Jolly once again for us humans and this year, another line of pine trees get chopped down by, what I'm sure are, mentally-challenged lumberjacks who does tree-chopping maybe a little off the chart. A few trees were lucky to be alive as the rest of their fallen comrades suffer the fate of saw mills and bonfires.

Lisa Simpson, eat yer heart out.

 Soon, however, they discover the true horror of their survival as they get "mistreated" as Christmas trees. But this year, the trees aren't sitting... standing... planted... this one down. As Christmas day comes, so does their revolution. And the bloodshed.

What I like about Treevenge is that it's simple, funny and a little unnerving at the same time. Brought to us by the geniuses who made one of my favorite splatter-action "Hobo With A Shotgun", which I URGE for you to find and watch, this little number of nature fights back is every vegan and tree-hugger's dream...or nightmare, depending on how they take it.

It doesn't hold back on anything, from making us feel sorry (and chuckle a bit) on the pathetic attempts of our tree-brothers to free themselves from their doom as decors, to the slash-happy "treevolution" that does away what every humans has done to them, now done to us without mercy, complete with the most shocking, splattery, blood-doused murders that nods and winks to some classic splatter films like Evil Dead and Lucio Fulci's Zombie, where everyone's a victim, and the "save the children" gig is shit. It's like watching a revenge flick, a 70s/80s slasher movie, a splatter-comedy and an art-house exploitation, all four sub-genres rolled in one short, yet very satisfying package.

Least now we know what do trees really felt about this great holiday of ours, and now we know they'll be stomping on our heads in the near bleak future, but that doesn't mean it can't be this fun for us to watch! Camp, shock and gore rolled into one, what more could you ask for this Christmas?! Just keep it AWAY from yer loved ones. Baby scene might offend...

bodycount:
1 tree chopped down with axe, burned in bonfire
1 tree cut down with chainsaw, burned in bonfire
1 tree chopped down with axe, burned in bonfire
1 tree chopped down with chainsaw, burned in bonfire
1 tree cut down with hacksaw, burned in bonfire
1 tree sapling stomped on
A number of trees seen being processed in saw mill
1 tree snapped to bits with garden shears
1 girl mauled to death
1 male gets a christmas star thrown to his neck
1 cat found killed
2 females killed offscreen
1 female gets a branch punctured her eye out from the mouth
1 male gets a branch poke his eye out
1 male had a leg hacked off with axe, killed
1 female seen being killed
1 male seen with a tree latched on his back
1 female seen with a tree ran through her gut
1 male pulled off from a post with Christmas streamer, falls to his death
1 male seen being strangled with branch
1 male seen being stomped on by tree
1 female seen attacked by tree
1 male smothered by trees, killed ("yes they took you alive, mate.")
1 baby killed (how? is a surprise~!)
A number of people seen being killed and mauled off by trees all through out the massacre
total: 24+

Psycho of the Month Holiday Special: "Billy"/ STICKY RED'S HOLIDAY SLAUGHTER

"Billy" (Black Christmas (1974)
played by: Nick Mancuso (actor)/ Bob Clark (voice)/ Unknown (eye)
status: alive (and at large)
killcount: 6

Twas the Night, Before Christmas, 

and All Through the House, 

Wild eyes staring,

quietly like a mouse

The Stockings were Hung by the Chimney with care, 

but it was Hard to Say that St. Nick would be there.

heavy breathing came and heavy breathing out

savagely loving all the girls who will shout

A Christmas of another Colour, 

brings a Killer on the Loose.

Say you prayers if you like

it will help nothing if he choose...

you.

"Agnes, it's me, Billy, Don't tell anyone what we did..."

Happy Holidays~
______________________________________________________________________________

Now that December's here, I'll be putting a lot of Holiday-themed-appropriate horror flicks. Just because our folks are happy to see us again, or when we're partying with our buddies in this festive time of the year, don't mean all things hacking and slashing'll die down for a while.

No, here in Sticky Red, we like to be active, and we like to party, even if the rest of the clan don't know how we plan our "parties".

So grab a hot cocoa and wear yer Christmas sweater, for old Saint Nick will be creeping up on you, or when ole Frosty the Snowman's pumping up to fuck it all up. Evil Trees? we got em, too! Eye-eating cannibals, they'll be staying with us, luv.

Happy night and happy counting, both days and bodies~!