This is one of the harder reviews I’ve had to write, simply because Steven Monroe’s remake of the brutally extreme 1978 rape-revenge film I Spit On Your Grave will be so incredibly divisive and polarizing. It’s quite difficult to maintain an aesthetic distance from this sort of film simply because you have to ask yourself – how do you judge the ‘quality’ of a film in which a solid third is dedicated to the systematic breaking down, physically and mentally, of a helpless woman? What makes this rape scene ‘better’ or ‘more effective’ than another, like the one in Gaspar Noe’s harrowing film Irreversible?

Monroe’s adaptation of the 1978 film is extremely similar in theme and structure to the original, with the rape sequences made far more realistic with much more tension added and the revenge kills are similarly ratcheted way up, and are much more realistic.  One of the many issues I had with the original I Spit was that the lead, Jennifer Hills, lures her rapists in for the kill by seducing them and actually does sleep with one of them again in order to trap him.  This is completely insane and adds an element of absurdity to the entire rape-revenge scenario.  No woman on earth would ever willingly invite her rapist into her bed (or clearing in the woods, in this case) within hours of such a violent act but we see this multiple times in the original film.  This is, thankfully, rectified in Monroe’s remake. There is a clear separation between the rape and the revenge, and I think that’s the best way to handle this particular story. At no point do you feel that Jennifer Hills is enjoying what’s happening to her (which unfortunately comes across in the 1978 film), and that is a serious improvement.

I mean, getting back to that objective distance thing – the original I Spit On Your Grave is really poorly-acted.  It was only on a whim that I decided to go back and watch it – I probably saw it back in the mid-90’s for the first time and never again – and it is embarrassingly facile and completely lacking in nuance. It’s definitely a landmark film and all, but in terms of actual performances I think that the remake works far better than the original in all aspects.  In the context of the film,  the rape scenes in the remake are definitely disturbing and senseless enough that you can’t possibly be desensitized to what you’re watching (the original is so badly-acted that it’s almost funny, which is disturbing in and of itself), and that is key to digesting the second half of the film. If you’re not absolutely engaged, horrified, and disgusted by that rape scene the kills would seem either meaningless or too far over the top, so Monroe is to be commended for retaining that feel from the original work while adding a necessary  element of seriousness. If anything, the fact that medics had to be called into our screening to attend to someone that fainted during these scenes is indicative to the effect it can have. Be warned, it is unsettling and highly vivid.

Sarah Butler is startling in the lead role and has many physical similarities to the star of the original, Camille Keaton (Buster Keaton’s granddaughter). Her performance during the rape scenes does a good job of conveying the brutality and humiliation she is subjected to, and it is definitely one of the bravest performances I’ve seen this year. However, when it comes time to turn the tables on her attackers, I found that there was something missing. Neither mindlessly detached as a result of the trauma she has endured nor blind with rage – with the exception of one scene in which this comes out, though in a benign way – Butler seems a little more casual than I would like to see. If she had decided to go one way or the other, those scenes would work even better than they do now. It can be argued that Monroe is going for a more realistic approach here, and it’s possible and even probable that one’s reaction to being raped would fall somewhere between anger and despondence, but I can’t speak to that with any authority.

The rapists, especially the Sheriff, are about as nuanced and realistic as they can be in a movie like this. The younger men, at first, seemingly have only one personality trait – these guys love rape. But as the film moves along they are presented as being uniformly ignorant and malicious, allowing for no hint of sympathy for any of them, and I can appreciate that that’s really the only way it can be played given what they do and what they have to endure in the film’s second half. If you feel, at any point, that these guys aren’t getting exactly what they deserve, no matter how horrific (and make no mistake, their deaths are stomach-turning, even by Hostel/Saw standards), then the film is an abject failure. Perhaps most startling is long-time soap opera heartthrob Jeff Branson in a terrifying turn as Johnny. I’m not a big soap fan, but when I mentioned his role to a Young And The Restless-loving coworker, she was shocked that he could pull off a role like this.  Not having seen him on the soap, I can’t imagine the inverse – he’s so brutal and terrifying in the first half of the film that you can’t imagine the ladies fawning over Branson at all. This is definitely a testament to his ability to inhabit that role completely.

While it’s certainly flawed, there is absolutely something of value in I Spit On Your Grave. So much so, in fact, that the original – to say nothing of the awful sequels – is hardly worth watching in comparison, and honestly is rendered completely obsolete with Monroe’s adaptation.  For those looking for Hostel-esque kills and gore, there’s certainly lots here, and for those looking for a kick-ass female going to town on the most ignorant bunch of jackasses to grace the screen at After Dark 2010 – well, you’re covered there too.

 In what’s sure to be one of the most out-of-left-field movies in a festival that resides squarely in the left field, High School brings together a bizarre, very eclectic cast and a screenplay that should be framed on your dealer’s wall.

It’s a story as old as time. Straight-laced A-student smokes his first joint with his burnout buddy and, coincidentally, must pass a school-wide drug test the following day in order to retain his scholarship to MIT. The solution? Drug the entire student body and faculty with a highly-potent marijuana extract so that everyone fails. Been there, done that, right?

Sean Marquette, Adrien Brody, Matt Bush

Not with this cast, you haven’t.  Adrien Brody (The Pianist, Splice) plays a sociopath drug dealer in what can only be described as a complete transformation. Michael Chiklis (The Commish, The Shield, Fantastic Four) also undergoes a total change as the creepy principal, and you can just feel the smarm dripping off him.  Combined with a hilariously quirky supporting cast that includes Colin Hanks (Mad Men), Michael Vartan (Never Been Kissed, One Hour Photo), and Yeardley Freaking Smith (the voice of Lisa Simpson), and you’ve got a recipe for some serious hijinks. 

 Director John Stalburg gives all the actors (particularly Brody, Chiklis, and Hanks) freedom to riff on their lines and throw themselves into their roles, and it really shows.  Brody is spastic and often terrifying, while Chiklis is equal parts Mr Belding and Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones. The two leads, Matt Bush and Sean Marquette, are to be commended for being able to hang with the rest of this stellar cast, and they don’t fade into the background at all.

 What’s absolutely criminal about High School is that this movie, bizarrely, doesn’t even have distribution yet so who knows when or if it’ll ever see the light of day outside the festival circuit! I’m baffled at how a movie with two relatively high-profile stars doesn’t have any guarantees that it’ll make it to theatres or even DVD. I would love to recommend this film to you, but there are currently no avenues in which to see it!

 And that, dudes, is a total buzzkill.

Greetings folks! It’s been a while since I’ve been on Ohmpage but I’ll be bringing you reviews and reviews and coverage from one of Toronto’s weirdest, underground film festivals.  Killer tires, human centipedes, medieval zombies,  super-graphic horror, and much more will be on display this year!

Friday nights opening gala was an odd choice, to be sure, for a lineup that contains films that are far more high-profile (Rubber, Human Centipede, Doghouse, or the Eli Roth-produced The Last Exorcism).  The Last Lovecraft: Relic of Cthuhlu is a tough movie to review – on one hand, it seems to have been shot on a budget of about $75 (with $74 reserved for visual effects).  Director Henry Saine has devised a tale that will positively infuriate fans of H.P. Lovecraft’s work, transforming Lovecraft’s mythical octopoid alien god Cthuhlu into a badly-rendered tentacle-laden blob (that is, when you finally do see it). On the other hand, the film is quite enjoyable to watch and is, at least, somewhat self-aware. Saine chooses to direct the humour at the characters, rather than the Cthuhlu mythos or Lovecraft himself, and this works at least half the time.

The story follows regular-guy Jeff (Kyle Davis) and his buddy Charlie (Devin McGinn, who also wrote this thing), who are selected by a member of the ancient Cult of Cthuhlu to protect an ancient idol which can bring about the return of the alien octopus god. There are several laugh-out-loud moments here, with many coming from an inexplicable character named ‘Captain Olaf’, whose bizarre Irish intonation cracked me up every time. While this is hardly going to win any sort of award or distinction, it is an admirable effort on the part of McGinn and Saine for crafting a fun, often-hilarious monster tale with some better than average effects.

Watch this space throughout the week for more reviews from After Dark, culminating next Friday in an absolutely epic double-review of Rubber and future Best Picture nominee for this year’s Oscar (I’m calling it right now), HUMAN CENTIPEDE!

We’ve checked out some of the previous incarnations of Flip Video camera when they hit Canadian store shelves and had seen a lot of potential in the product line early on. Recently, we got a nice surprise bit of news though: A new Flip Video camera is hitting shelves. It’s a new generation of the Flip MinioHD and it’s worth checking out. continue…