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Bounty (2009)
Dog the Bounty Hunter Meets 'Body Snatchers'
Another cool little flick as I slowly make my way through the films of director Kevin Kangas. This is his Body Snatchers; a familiar premise viewed through the unique lens of a Dog the Bounty Hunter-esque show. Not a bad elevator pitch.
It's not a full-fledged narrative in the traditional sense. It watches like an intimate side-story unfolding while a much larger-scale threat looms in the background, perfectly suited for a smaller-scale budget like this one.
It's very entertaining, and as the story progresses, it skillfully captures the bleak mood of an increasingly grim situation. For me, there were definitely echoes of John Carpenter's early stuff; that forbidding isolation captured in Assault on Precinct 13, The Fog and Escape from New York.
From the films I've seen so far, the cast of this one feels like the director's strongest, with some welcome familiar faces popping in from Kangas' other movies. A couple of weak links in the chain actingwise, but none to the point of distraction.
If I have a gripe with this one, it's that some of the exposition is doled out with a heavy hand. Ernie Litwak, our lead scientist along for the ride, is there to tell us everything that's developing in a super despondent demeanor; when you catch onto the fact that he's never wrong, it's not hard to tell where the movie's headed.
Nevertheless, it's a fun ride. The subtle music and sound is applied to great effect. The first-person point of view of the in-movie documentary's camera operators does a fine job of capturing that reality show-gone-askew feeling needed to pull this thing off. It wasn't until the very end that I got that nagging "Put that camera down and run, dude" awareness. I'd take that as a good sign.
Looking forward to my next late-night Kangas Kahn Films watch.
Terrortory (2016)
Second Viewing
I revisited the original Terrortory tonight. Since my first viewing, I've fallen deeper into the rabbit hole that is microbudget indie filmmaking, specifically of the horror variety.
I "get it" now, and I'm a fan. You can't come into this expecting a polished film with seasoned actors (although a few are quite good). What you can expect is a fun, well-written script, some legitimately weird, scary monsters with their own memorable trademarks (DID YOU BRING ME MEAT?), some nice camerawork, a pretty terrific score, and a palpable love for the genre.
Even if there's a segment in this anthology you're not super impressed by - for me, it's 'The Prowler,' - a new one starts up before you know it.
For me, it's the writing in 'Smiling Jack' and the nightmarish weirdness of 'Gotz' that make this one of my new favorites. Support these for-the-love-of-moviemaking filmmakers! There's a lot here to admire.
Terrortory 2 (2018)
Great Follow-Up
This is a fantastic follow-up to Terrortory. Tons of credit to writer and director Kevin Kangas for expanding on the first movie's mythology, crafting a single narrative with compelling characters, and showcasing a wide variety of creeps and monsters, each given their own unique sequence, for horror fans like myself. Clearly, the filmmaker loves the genre.
My biggest issue, which carries over from the first one, is a lot of the acting comes across as stilted and challenged me to stay invested in the story 100%. I'd love to see this improve as I plan on following Kangas' future work.
Chopping Block (2016)
You All Can Make Something Better
I caught this movie on Amazon the other night. I like to watch indie horror movies and an assortment of oddball things late at night during the week. They help me wind down the day, I suppose. Many of these I enjoy, others I don't I can generally dismiss and not give a second thought to. This is a rare occasion when I wasn't thrilled with the movie, but I'm compelled to discuss it. In my opinion, Chopping Block is not good, but I can tell it was made by people who CAN make a good movie. I don't mean for that to sound idiotic or condescending; let's see if I can clarify my point.
The performances in this movie are not great, but I found the actors likable. The largest issue for me was that it's a movie completely about the characters, but no one is quite developed or compelling. So much of the dialogue feels like an improv exercise, but nobody appears to know their character's motivation — and that's the ENTIRE film. The scenes are stretched incredibly thin, and all they're running on is this dialogue that meanders and often sounds forced. Don't make it an acting showcase until the actors have some palpable chemistry.
When Chopping Block doesn't rely entirely on the actors, it looks solid and doesn't have a "cheap" feel to it. The picture is sharp, the lighting is good. In fact, the minimal camera work is good too, but is way better suited for a more seasoned ensemble.
The sparse soundtrack is unique and fun, but there isn't much of it. The music montages have a lively feel, but the energy on the screen doesn't match the tone.
Regarding the story, there's just so little of one. A team of employees lose their jobs, and after a month, decide to plan a kidnapping of the boss's daughter to extort money from him. Turns out, the team's entire plan consists of parking outside of their home and snatching her when they see her. Also, they're not sure which house is her's. Also, at the exact same time they're waiting for her, she's walking home from being the sole survivor of a mass killing. Nothing in this movie is earned — it just happens.
It doesn't feel like a wholehearted comedy or horror flick, although it has elements of both. You know SOMEthing is going to happen, but that may only be because the title of this thing is Chopping Block, and the first character we see is splattered with blood.
(Note: The opening scene I'm referring to doesn't actually introduce any real peril; it's a vague, ultimately silly scene of a bloodied girl walking down the road, getting willingly picked up by a group of inept strangers. There's no threat or actual dilemma introduced, and it's not particularly funny or scary, it's just presented as a thing that happens)
So much time passes by after we see that grisly-looking character, and so much aimless talking between the not-particularly-distinct characters goes on, that you nearly forget that people could be hacked to pieces by the end of this thing. Anything that approaches action or suspense in CB happens in the final 20 minutes of the movie, when there's almost a complete tonal shift and another movie is awkwardly shoe-horned into the rambling, half-baked comedy you've been watching.
Also worth mentioning is that there are SO MANY allusions to things that happened, but we see very little ACTUALLY happening. I'm not saying that in and of itself is a misstep, but there's so little momentum driving this thing that when something actually happens, it feels awkward and out of place.
This all might make it sound like I hated this movie. Well, I kinda did, but in such a way that had me thinking "You all can do better!" I stayed with it because it had the markings of potential. It didn't deliver, but also I'm not super disappointed — I still feel like there's good stuff in there, it just needs to be fine-tuned. I'll be very interested to see how the next one turns out.