AKA "The Gates of Hell" in the USA.
It's been in my collection for ages now, and I've just never gotten around to it until the other day. I've been in a bit of a grindhouse vibe of late again (what with Cannibal Apocalypse and The New York Ripper last month), so it was time for a new (to me) slice of Lucio Fulci - this time his 1980 supernatural undead follow-up to his rather successful (and rather good) Dawn of the Dead rip-off Zombi 2 (aka Zombie Flesh Eaters) from 1979.
Unfortunately, while COTLD looks the part with creepy, smoke-drenched production design, luxurious camerawork (even if the stylishly fun zooms are overused), and moments of superb gore (a fantastic scene where one victim cries blood - with utterly convincing make-up effects - before vomiting up her own innards steals the whole show, as does a scene which introduces a head to a bench drill), it just doesn't live up to the pace (or gore) of Zombi 2, nor the exploitation hallmarks of The New York Ripper.
Indeed the pace of the plot is at times mind-numbing in its ponderousness, and while sleazy grindhouse flicks aren't renowned for having Oscar-worthy scripts, COTLD barelys makes a lick of sense for the most part which leaves the viewer frustrated, confused and bored. It's only in the final act that things begin to pick up pace (aside from a few choice moments in the first hour) and the film starts to live up to its name ... although neither of the titles mentioned here are lived up to. Dunwich certainly isn't a city (it's more like a rural town), and there's not nearly enough of the supernatural/hell aspect to warrant the North American title - what's more, there's not nearly enough zombies throughout until the final moments.
All-in-all, while it's dripping with style and looks, and moments of fantastic gore, it simply cannot match its peers, nor better examples of Fulci's work. A shame really.
Thursday, 4 March 2010
Doing Our Bit (2009)...
This was a quick project that was put together for the One Minute To Save The World competition that ran in Autumn 2009 ahead of the Copenhagen summit on climate change. Filmmakers were asked to put together a one minute long video about the environment.
Our video was based on the theme referenced in the title - the little things that everyone could easily do to all help towards the effort of making our society more fuel efficient, less throw-away in nature, and involved in recycling.
In the end our video didn't get chosen for the final selection, but there seemed to be a significant controversy during the process of picking the videos that caused many of the involved filmmakers to lodge their protest. I never really found out what that was all about, but in the end we've still been able to show this short film at public screenings and the reaction to it has been positive.
The style of the video was one part inspired by old public domain information films, one part inspired by old music show countdowns (such as Top of the Pops in its heyday), and one part inspired by the film High Fidelity. The project also allowed me to advance by filmmaking skills across several areas - conceiving a brief and sharp idea, shooting in a controlled manner to get footage that could then be edited in a snappy manner, and finally in terms of the editing process, where I further honed my skills at saying the most with the least amount of footage, inside a very tight time frame.
You can watch the film on YouTube by following this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZY55AMbyYI
Our video was based on the theme referenced in the title - the little things that everyone could easily do to all help towards the effort of making our society more fuel efficient, less throw-away in nature, and involved in recycling.
In the end our video didn't get chosen for the final selection, but there seemed to be a significant controversy during the process of picking the videos that caused many of the involved filmmakers to lodge their protest. I never really found out what that was all about, but in the end we've still been able to show this short film at public screenings and the reaction to it has been positive.
The style of the video was one part inspired by old public domain information films, one part inspired by old music show countdowns (such as Top of the Pops in its heyday), and one part inspired by the film High Fidelity. The project also allowed me to advance by filmmaking skills across several areas - conceiving a brief and sharp idea, shooting in a controlled manner to get footage that could then be edited in a snappy manner, and finally in terms of the editing process, where I further honed my skills at saying the most with the least amount of footage, inside a very tight time frame.
You can watch the film on YouTube by following this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZY55AMbyYI
Borderlines Film Festival 2010...
Find out more about the festival here:
http://www.borderlinesfilmfestival.co.uk/
On Saturday February 27th we had our screening of "Gaia", "The Rapture", "All Things Are Connected" (three of the five portions that make up "Gaia & Genesis") and "Doing Our Bit" (our entry for last year's One Minute To Save The World filmmaking competition).
From the website concerning locally produced films:
"Shell Shock is just one among a cluster of films showing at Borderlines this year that were made locally. Still Life is a strikingly ambitious drama made by The Rural Media Company with members of the community in Bromyard while Gaia: all things are connected consists of two thoughtful and visually exciting short films on the future of our environment from Herefordshire film-maker Joe Jenkins."
The drive there (the screening was at the Hereford Courtyard theatre) wasn't much fun being that it was torrential rain and the roads are all still littered with potholes after January's hellishly cold bout of persistent snow ... and then the parking ticket machine had the cheek to take my £1.10 and not give me a ticket, and the other one (that actually worked) wouldn't give me change, so it stole a further 10p from me ... my guess is that the ticket machines are working for the government, stealing money from innocent civilians so that it can go towards paying off our nation's ludicrously gigantic debt.
Anyway, the night before the screening I'd be thinking "oh geez, please let there be more than two people there", so I was pleasantly surprised when I found out the theatre had been almost sold out!
The screening itself went well, having already met the nice folks we'd been liasing with in the lead-up to the screening, and there was lots of positive feedback after the show when we met members of the audience and discussed the films and the filmmaking process behind them in some depth.
So it was a positive atmosphere with the audience all enjoying the films on show. It's always nice to get a boost like that as a struggling filmmaker, because at times it can appear bleak - in this early stage in one's career - however, it's really a nice boost to your confidence when you get a good turn-out at a screening and the people respond positively.
As for the drive back, there wasn't so much rain, but there was hellish traffic leaving Hereford - which is notoriously clogged with traffic most of the time - and of course having learned the layout of the potholes on the road driving towards Hereford, the drive back would naturally have an entirely new layout of potholes to avoid, ha!
You can also view the festival's Flickr photostream here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/41085820@N04/
http://www.borderlinesfilmfestival.co.uk/
On Saturday February 27th we had our screening of "Gaia", "The Rapture", "All Things Are Connected" (three of the five portions that make up "Gaia & Genesis") and "Doing Our Bit" (our entry for last year's One Minute To Save The World filmmaking competition).
From the website concerning locally produced films:
"Shell Shock is just one among a cluster of films showing at Borderlines this year that were made locally. Still Life is a strikingly ambitious drama made by The Rural Media Company with members of the community in Bromyard while Gaia: all things are connected consists of two thoughtful and visually exciting short films on the future of our environment from Herefordshire film-maker Joe Jenkins."
The drive there (the screening was at the Hereford Courtyard theatre) wasn't much fun being that it was torrential rain and the roads are all still littered with potholes after January's hellishly cold bout of persistent snow ... and then the parking ticket machine had the cheek to take my £1.10 and not give me a ticket, and the other one (that actually worked) wouldn't give me change, so it stole a further 10p from me ... my guess is that the ticket machines are working for the government, stealing money from innocent civilians so that it can go towards paying off our nation's ludicrously gigantic debt.
Anyway, the night before the screening I'd be thinking "oh geez, please let there be more than two people there", so I was pleasantly surprised when I found out the theatre had been almost sold out!
The screening itself went well, having already met the nice folks we'd been liasing with in the lead-up to the screening, and there was lots of positive feedback after the show when we met members of the audience and discussed the films and the filmmaking process behind them in some depth.
So it was a positive atmosphere with the audience all enjoying the films on show. It's always nice to get a boost like that as a struggling filmmaker, because at times it can appear bleak - in this early stage in one's career - however, it's really a nice boost to your confidence when you get a good turn-out at a screening and the people respond positively.
As for the drive back, there wasn't so much rain, but there was hellish traffic leaving Hereford - which is notoriously clogged with traffic most of the time - and of course having learned the layout of the potholes on the road driving towards Hereford, the drive back would naturally have an entirely new layout of potholes to avoid, ha!
You can also view the festival's Flickr photostream here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/41085820@N04/
Tuesday, 2 March 2010
"The Inevitable Decomposition of Zombie Man" is now online!
Saunter over yonder - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-45h8eDda-M - and check out the newest DeadShed Productions short film.
Was having some problems with YouTube yesterday which prevented me from uploading it, but I managed to get around the issue (although YouTube really need to fix the problem on their end, especially as people have been experiencing the problem for months now) ... anyway, after all the frustration of yesterday's failed uploads, I'm happy to say it's now online.
I'll blog about the film fully in due course (as I have done with all my other projects).
Was having some problems with YouTube yesterday which prevented me from uploading it, but I managed to get around the issue (although YouTube really need to fix the problem on their end, especially as people have been experiencing the problem for months now) ... anyway, after all the frustration of yesterday's failed uploads, I'm happy to say it's now online.
I'll blog about the film fully in due course (as I have done with all my other projects).
Monday, 1 March 2010
Flavours of the Month: February 2010...
Similar to January, February is a month that can kinda just slip away, nevertheless it's time for another Flavours of the Month.
Kicking off in grand style, but in a thoughtful and atmospheric way (some might say depressing, but whatever), with having the film adaptation of The Road stuck firmly in my head, accompanied by the utterly spiffing soundtrack composed by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis (who also composed the effing amazing score for The Assassination of Jesse James).
There's been a fair few DVD bargains this month too, what with the Hostel 1 & 2 box set, the jam-packed 4-disc Titanic DVD, as well as the 2-disc 'Ultimate Action Edition' of Die Hard 4.0, as well as Cannibal Apocalypse, The Wrestler and Crank 2.
I've also been getting to know the ruddy great Adventureland all over again as it was finally released in the UK this month, and it's just as charming and involving as it always was.
The soundtrack to February has mostly been M83's "Saturdays = Youth", the new Rob Zombie CD "Hellbilly Deluxe 2" (which I really dig) and the latest album from HIM called "Screamworks" (which is a return to form after the fairly standard "Venus Doom" back in 2007).
Life on Mars USA came to a close on FX. It has been a show that I've ended up quite enjoying, even though the original British show is naturally superior, but aye, I really did quite enjoy it. The ending was a bit iffy ... kind of like having its cake and eating it too, and then some. Still, at least they didn't just do the same ending as the UK version, so that's something.
I've been enjoying some nostalgic VHS viewing too, having replaced the videotapes propping up the DVDs on the top shelf in my bedroom with steel book ends ... as a result I found some old videos from my youth, a couple have gone aside for charity bags, and the other two are Volumes 1 and 2 of Deputy Dawg, a great cartoon that was made between 1959 and 1972. I tell you what, you certainly wouldn't have a canine lawman forcefully recruiting children (Muskie and Vince) at gun point to work for him in a cartoon these days, ha!
Further to my tour round some old videotapes in my collection, I dug out my old Vipco release copy of Lucio Fulci's notoriously sleazy (and quite misogynistic) New York Ripper. It's a real classic (misogyny aside) of the video nasties era, of Italian grindhouse cinema, but bloody hell this release is terrible - it's the second worse Pan & Scan job I've ever seen. The opening titles play out in the original 2.35:1 ratio, before switching to 4:3 ... and there's sod all panning going on, so characters are constantly talking to people out-of-frame, or getting half-cut-out themselves, or details (such as the red VW on the ferry) not moving off are completely missing from the shot.
What's the worst Pan & Scan job I've ever seen, you ask - a Channel 5 showing of Short Circuit, a film which was also originally shot in 2.35:1 - but this time there's no shortage of panning. The frame swished left and right in a desperate panic to get all the characters and details in, which also doing a piss-poor job of scanning, so that the image is not only horribly degraded, but flickering at the same time. A truly dreadful example of Pan & Scan, which was itself a stupid idea invented for stupid people incapable of understanding Original Aspect Ratio (OAR).
I've also been doing a lot of planning on my next script - although I'm still seeking a good title for it - but I'm getting very close to being able to start the writing process on that one.
Finally the month was capped-off by a viewing of the actually quite good The Crazies (2010) - one of the few remakes that have actually been worthwhile, and I was inspired to dig out The Crazies (1973) from my collection and give it yet another viewing.
(I will blog soon about the Borderlines Film Festival screening of Gaia & Gensis on Saturday 27th February.)
Kicking off in grand style, but in a thoughtful and atmospheric way (some might say depressing, but whatever), with having the film adaptation of The Road stuck firmly in my head, accompanied by the utterly spiffing soundtrack composed by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis (who also composed the effing amazing score for The Assassination of Jesse James).
There's been a fair few DVD bargains this month too, what with the Hostel 1 & 2 box set, the jam-packed 4-disc Titanic DVD, as well as the 2-disc 'Ultimate Action Edition' of Die Hard 4.0, as well as Cannibal Apocalypse, The Wrestler and Crank 2.
I've also been getting to know the ruddy great Adventureland all over again as it was finally released in the UK this month, and it's just as charming and involving as it always was.
The soundtrack to February has mostly been M83's "Saturdays = Youth", the new Rob Zombie CD "Hellbilly Deluxe 2" (which I really dig) and the latest album from HIM called "Screamworks" (which is a return to form after the fairly standard "Venus Doom" back in 2007).
Life on Mars USA came to a close on FX. It has been a show that I've ended up quite enjoying, even though the original British show is naturally superior, but aye, I really did quite enjoy it. The ending was a bit iffy ... kind of like having its cake and eating it too, and then some. Still, at least they didn't just do the same ending as the UK version, so that's something.
I've been enjoying some nostalgic VHS viewing too, having replaced the videotapes propping up the DVDs on the top shelf in my bedroom with steel book ends ... as a result I found some old videos from my youth, a couple have gone aside for charity bags, and the other two are Volumes 1 and 2 of Deputy Dawg, a great cartoon that was made between 1959 and 1972. I tell you what, you certainly wouldn't have a canine lawman forcefully recruiting children (Muskie and Vince) at gun point to work for him in a cartoon these days, ha!
Further to my tour round some old videotapes in my collection, I dug out my old Vipco release copy of Lucio Fulci's notoriously sleazy (and quite misogynistic) New York Ripper. It's a real classic (misogyny aside) of the video nasties era, of Italian grindhouse cinema, but bloody hell this release is terrible - it's the second worse Pan & Scan job I've ever seen. The opening titles play out in the original 2.35:1 ratio, before switching to 4:3 ... and there's sod all panning going on, so characters are constantly talking to people out-of-frame, or getting half-cut-out themselves, or details (such as the red VW on the ferry) not moving off are completely missing from the shot.
What's the worst Pan & Scan job I've ever seen, you ask - a Channel 5 showing of Short Circuit, a film which was also originally shot in 2.35:1 - but this time there's no shortage of panning. The frame swished left and right in a desperate panic to get all the characters and details in, which also doing a piss-poor job of scanning, so that the image is not only horribly degraded, but flickering at the same time. A truly dreadful example of Pan & Scan, which was itself a stupid idea invented for stupid people incapable of understanding Original Aspect Ratio (OAR).
I've also been doing a lot of planning on my next script - although I'm still seeking a good title for it - but I'm getting very close to being able to start the writing process on that one.
Finally the month was capped-off by a viewing of the actually quite good The Crazies (2010) - one of the few remakes that have actually been worthwhile, and I was inspired to dig out The Crazies (1973) from my collection and give it yet another viewing.
(I will blog soon about the Borderlines Film Festival screening of Gaia & Gensis on Saturday 27th February.)
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