February

FEBRUARY

by Jaime Davis

Have you seen Legally Blonde? Look, don’t get all bent out of shape. I know the title up there says February but I promise you I have a point. So, have you seen Legally Blonde? You have, right? There’s a nerdy oafy law school character in it played by someone named Osgood Perkins. Osgood! Perkins. Osgood Perkins played my second favorite character in Legally Blonde (my first fave is Bruiser, because.) Ok so anyway Osgood Perkins just so happens to be the son of Anthony Perkins, he of creepy Psycho fame. And Osgood Perkins also happens to be a director, and he made a scary movie called February.

Phew – it took me long enough but I said I had a point! I read a bit about February before heading to the Toronto International Film Festival this year and was immediately intrigued. Two girls (Lucy Boynton, MAD MEN’s Kiernan Shipka) stranded at their Catholic boarding school? Emma Roberts (AHS, SCREAM QUEENS) running around in the snow all kinds of covered in blood? That guy who played gross Richard on SEX AND THE CITY? (Jaime, the man has a name and his name is James Remar.) Yes, yes, yes to all of these things.

So I managed to score a ticket to one of the February screenings during TIFF and Osgood was there smacking his gums off about the movie. Oz (no, really he goes by Oz), was quick to mention he’s not a big fan of horror, and said his intention was to make a horror film that was pretty to look at. And I would say without a doubt he succeeded on that front. While not shot in black and white, the cinematography is washed out and muted, white and gray and black as far as the eye can see. Filmed on location in Canada, shots are composed with an eye for visual detail you don’t normally find in this genre, and that was certainly refreshing. (I was immediately reminded of 2009’s The House of the Devil, but not in a way that felt like it detracted from February or made it feel like a copycat. I’d call them companion pieces for sure).

So let’s talk plot. That’s the one thing I knew little about going into the film, except, you know, two girls. Stranded. Boarding school. Yadda yadda yadda. Well it turns out that yes, two girls are indeed stranded at boarding school but one of those girls also happens to be pleasantly, cheerfully possessed by the devil. And said possessed girl goes totally and completely off the motherfucking rails in pursuit of her possession. Yep, home girl is WILLINGLY possessed. She WANTS it, bad, the way I want whiskey after a long day or ice cream at any moment ever. Anyway I think that was my favorite part of the story – a nice little twist I haven’t seen all that often within this type of film.

And don’t forget, Emma Roberts! I won’t spoil her storyline for you because it’s a helluva lot of fun trying to figure out what the frack she’s up to. The story, told in non-linear fashion, kept me super engaged, on-my-toes-freaked for an hour and 30 some minutes. You best believe you won’t find me at a Canadian boarding school any time soon.

Read more from Jaime at What Jaime Watched. 
Read more of Jaime’s reviews from TIFF in the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival Moviejawn Special! Out now!

Rated M for Meesh (Or No?)

RATED M FOR MEESH OR NO?

THE LAST MAN ON EARTH (1964)

by Michelle Lupia

This movie is Rated M for Meesh but that doesn't mean I enjoyed it. Perhaps I would've enjoyed it had I seen this before I watched I Am Legend (which is Rated M for Meesh with the caveat, the dog...) Because I saw I Am Legend first I was entirely jammed up the whole time. Where's the dog?, where's the love interest?, I would yell at the screen. Then sure enough they came. (Guess the Hollywood formula has been around for at least 40 years)  Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed being able to link this back to Omega Man and I am Legend but now I got to watch those films again for the comparison.

So this frustrates me and almost makes this not rated M for Meesh as time is something I'm limited on and this one movie equals at least 2 movies that I have to watch.

Movie starts with this quote "another day to live through, better get started.” (A thought I too have had many times upon waking.) Dr Robert Morgan is played by Vincent Price (by the way was this dude ever young?) We witness him having a psychotic break: is this his first in 3 years or is this part of his every day? Anyways he lives his life collecting bodies and burning them and slaying zompires.  I’m left wondering what are you living life for? I guess it's a meditation on having to deal with life as it comes and the reversed. This movie asks you to look at a life with "Hope" as something less desirable. Everyone you know has died, even the stray dog has died and all the while you're wondering if you can die but maybe you can't due to some weird bat bite you encountered. Is it luck? Could you have saved humanity, should you? Is living life through chemistry better living?  I don't know, if I was this cat I would've ended it all before I had to watch too many more movies that are exactly the same thing; Last Man On Earth  aka Groundhog Day. Although very cool seeing Santa Monica Blvd’s  famous palm-lined road lined with palm saplings.

#watchmoremoviesdafuq

Frightened and Without Hope: An Ode To Horror

FRIGHTENED AND WITHOUT HOPE: AN ODE TO HORROR
by Neil Cleary-Trask

So, over six years ago, a friend had the great idea of making a mix cd which would be, as the title suggests, an ode to horror. I had the great idea to steal his idea, as I love spending hours and days making elaborately compiled and edited theme mixes. So we each set about our mixes without knowledge of how the other's was being built, and what of. Mine became "Frightened And Without Hope", and is a mix of actual horror movie score cues and music, for me at least, which was evocative of a horror movie.

There was a particular vibe I was going for with this, those Horror movies which have an almost oppressive feeling of doom and hopelessness. Ones which also made me feel as though I was teetering on the brink of madness. Movies like Night Of The Living Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Shining, Pet Sematary, The Ring (2002), The Exorcist, Bug or, hell, even Martyrs. But I also wanted to couple that with a narrative of familial loss and the Supernatural like you'd find in Don't Look Now, The Other, Audrey Rose or, again, some of the others already mentioned.

For this issue, I decided to tinker with the mix a bit, and cheekily, but appropriately, added the "Director's Cut" signifier.

Download Frightened and Without Hope: An Ode to Horror (including printable artwork) here.

FEATURING: Siouxsie & The Banshees, Rachel's, The Children's Hour, David A Jaycock, Russell Haswell, Bauhaus, Xiu Xiu & Grouper, Hair Police, Aphex Twin, Memes, Long Hind Legs, Smegma, Liars, Dorine Muraille, Damon Albarn & Michale Nyman, The Caretaker, Broadcast, Inca Ore, Orion Rigel Dommisse, Tim Krog & Jan Bartlett & Ed Christiano, John Harrison, Ennio Morricone, Swans, John Carpenter, Can, Southern Man & Pykrete, Jay Chattaway, I Am Spoonbender, Wendy Carlos, Joy Division, and Helium

Fall Is Here!!