Pontypool is one of those film’s I’d always seen up in the “Netflix recommends” corner but never really did anything about. Finally, I decided to Google it and was surprised by my findings. What I thought was another shlocky horror movie was actually a much more thought provoking flick. Based on Tony Burgess’ novel “Pontypool Changes Everything”, Pontypool is a claustrophobic thriller that uses the power of suggestion to instill fear.

Stephen McHattie (who you probably know as Elaine’s manipulative psychiatrist on Seinfeld) plays Grant Mazzy, a former shock jock turned radio-news announcer in the isolated town of Pontypool, Ontario. It’s the dead of winter when Grant and his staff get a report of an unexplained violent riot outside a medical facility and it doesn’t take long to discover that people are starting to change. Uniquely enough, it is through the spread of language that people are becoming infected and turning into violent, zombie-like beings.

The virus works in three steps: 1. You begin to repeat a word. 2. Your language becomes scrambled and confused. 3. You become so distraught over your inability to communicate that you try to chew your way through the mouth of another. It’s a little out there but it’s a unique concept. If you think about it, all forms of violence stem from individuals inability to communicate with each other. I never really thought about that until Pontypool. I admire this film reaching for something new, even if it does comes up short in a few spots.

The entire film is shot from inside Grant Mazzy’s radio station and though I admire the film’s approach to shooting a viral outbreak from an isolated perspective, it does drag. The film is so verbal that I often wonder why it even needed to be a movie? Stephen McHattie has a great voice but I can’t see the justification in needing to see him or anyone. If the audience is not going to see the outbreak, why do we need to see anything? It’s kind of a love/hate relationship that leaves me with a so-so response. I love how bold and different this film is but it leaves me wanting so much more.

Just imagine had this film starred Rush Limbaugh?

If there’s one film I could use as an example that the horror genre is as strong as ever, I would go with Let the Right One In. The film’s balance of misunderstood adolesence with the great fears that lie in the dark make for a stunning work. Director Tomas Alfredson (Four Shades of Brown and Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy) puts a masterful touch of beauty and horror into every image. Let the Right One In is not just one best horror movies of the last ten years, but of the last twenty years.

Adapted by John Ajvide Lindqvist from his own book, Let the Right One In is about Oskar (Kare Hedebrant), an overlooked and bullied12-year-old boy living in a suburb of Stockholm in 1981. One night, Oskar meets Eli (Lina Leandersson), a beautiful but peculiar girl who has just moved into Oskar’s apartment complex. They quickly develop a friendship that evolves into something special, but there’s one hitch… Eli’s a vampire.

If only every “Twihard” could see this and realize this is the way a real vampire love-story should be told. There has to be the perfect balance of love, terror, and sadness, and Let the Right One In is that and more. Even the U.S. remake, Let Me In is a superb film. It just goes to show the strength of John Ajdvide Lindqvist as a storyteller with two different, yet stunning interpretations of his work. Just go and sink your teeth into it, I can’t recommend it enough.

I guess it isn’t easy growing up anywhere.

It’s Halloween time and granted only one of the features here is a horror film. Still, I figured the whole experience was visceral enough for my list. Grindhouse was a special theater experience for myself. Never getting to know the twisted joys of going to a grind house theater in the 70s or 80s, Grindhouse was my chance to finally take in the grind house experience (complete with a double-feature and trailers). The style, attitude, effects and more make Grindhouse a cult oddity that will never quite be replicated.

Writer/director Robert Rodgriguez helms the first flick, “Planet Terror”, a pustule popping zombie-invasion flick complete with Rose McGowan’s sexy machine gun leg. McGowan draws the most attention as deadly go-go dancer Cherry Darling, the ex-girlfriend of the mysterious El Wray (Freddy Rodriguez). Marley Shelton also takes notice as bisexual anesthesiologist Dakota, wife to a heavily bearded and quickly infected Dr. Block (Josh Brolin). The bad guys are a gross collective of deformed soldiers led by Bruce Willis and the ride is non-stop. I love the cameos, the action, and the never ending bloodflow dripping down the screen.

Tarantino’s entry is a different beast entirely. “Death Proof” is a sassy tribute to 70s car chase movies with Kurt Russell in one of his best roles in years. Stuntman Mike (Russell) is hard drinkin’ and hard killin’ but still no match for a feisty group of gear-head girls featuring; Rosario Dawson, Tracie Thoms and Zoe Bell. The results can be slow and self-indulgent early on but the last half is a helluva a thrill-ride.

And how could I forget the trailers? Mexican action romp Machete is perhaps the standout. Weird to think that has turned into its own subpar franchise, who saw that coming? Edgar Wright’s British supernatural story Don’t is a strong second in the trailer department. Thanksgiving and Werewolf Women of the S.S. are nice additions but are lacking the same satirical stabs as the other two films. I could’ve watched a whole 90 minutes of grind-house trailers, good stuff.

Aaudiences should feel very fortunate that something like this found its way to theaters. A grind-house double-feature with trailers all for the price of one? Each helmed by a different cult fav filmmaker? Even the B-movies that Grindhouse celebrates didn’t have the same ambition or scope. Robert Rodriguez goes all out with explosions and gore while Quentin Tarantino orchestrates one of the most intricate and impressive car chase sequences in movie history. The trailers in-between the films are just the shiny, blood-red cherry on top. That’s what I’m talking about.

That’s what I call gettin’ a leg up!

Back in 2009 (on this very blog) I declared REC as the scariest movie I’d ever seen. Though I’m not sure if that’s still true I honestly can’t think of what could have topped it since. Clocking in at only 75 minutes, REC uses every second to create non-stop terror. A creative combination of claustrophobia, handheld cameras, and sheer madness leaves for quite an experience that I’m not still not sure I’m ready to revisit.

Ángela Vidal (Manuela Velasco) is a television reporter in Barcelona who along with her cameraman Pablo (Pablo Rosso) is filming a segment for a show about people who work nightshift jobs. On this particular night, Angela accompanies a couple of firefighters called out on a disturbance to a local apartment building. What starts out as routine call soon escalates into a viral breakout transforming residents into enraged psychopaths. The building becomes quarantined and the next thing you know, everyone is trapped in a frightening fun house of thrills and chills.

I’ve always been a proponent of the found-footage movement and this is the most effective example I can think of. The audience is literally trapped in an enclosed space and has no choice but to follow along with Angela and her cameraman. The diseased adversaries feel real and any sense of hope is gone right off the bat. It’s hard not to be locked into this film from the get go.

REC was remade in 2008 as the American film Quarantine starring Jennifer Carpenter. The consensus seems to be that although both of the films are very similar, REC is grittier, faster paced and less melodramatic. In its native Spain, REC is a franchise that now includes three films with a fourth one on the way. I’ve never had any interest in seeing the formula repeated, so I’ll stick with the original, thank you. Still, if you want a freaky flick, check REC!

Fight for your right to party!

If you walked into a place that sold DVDs and saw Inside your first instinct would probably be, “What’s this piece of shit?” The U.S. release looks like another one of those throwaway Fangoria Frightfest or After Dark Horrorfest DVDs (in this case “Dimension Extreme”). Some cheap or obscure release with a gory cover and a forgettable title. Though look at the French poster and you’ll think you’re looking at an art film. In reality, Inside is somewhere in between. It has the violence the U.S. cover promises but with more emotional drive than you’d expect.

The film opens with the burning wreckage of a grisly head-on collision between two cars. Sarah Scarangelo (Alysson Paradis) is the soul survivor of the incident, unless you count the unborn child in her womb, and tragically loses her husband. Four months later on Christmas Eve, Sarah finds out her little bundle of joy is due the next day, though there’s isn’t much else in her life worth celebrating. Sarah’s mother and boss try to reach out to her but Sarah decides to spend the holiday by herself… Big mistake! Later that night, a mysterious woman (Beatrice Dalle) begins to stalk Sarah at her home. Sarah quickly realizes that it is not her that the woman is after, but her unborn child. What follows is a grisly game of cat-and-mouse over the course of one very unhappy holiday.

Inside is an incredibly visceral (in more than one way) film but also very stylistic. Sarah has many contemplative moments that are excellently captured to drive home an artistic or emotional response. The atmosphere is heightened by a sharp cinematic eye and brooding John Carpenter-ish style score for a full experience. The storytelling is simple but builds to a clever conclusion, well sort of. The ending goes a little further into the abstract then I would have liked but it doesn’t hurt the film too severely. The bigger concern is that Inside does drag in a few spots.

Inside is often grouped into a category of film’s referred to as “New Wave French Horror”. These films tend to exhibit extreme violence but with a stronger artistic sensibility. The film High Tension which I also reviewed this month is another example. Frankly, Inside is miles above High Tension in artistic and emotional impact. Why High Tension director Alexander Aja has been succesfull and not Inside directors Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo is beyond me. Still, the die-hards know which is better. Inside not only received positive reviews but is often considered one of the best horror films of the decade.

Boy is she red in the face.

It’s unlikely that the causal horror moviegoer has seen The Poughkeepsie Tapes, or even heard of it for that matter. In a way, the story of this film’s disappearance is almost as interesting as the actual film itself. Originally advertised before screenings of The Mist in 2007, this found-footage/mockumentary never saw wide release and as of 2013 is still unavailable on DVD.

The Poughkeepsie Tapes is one part Blair Witch and one part Errol Morris. The film opens like a gritty crime documentary. The authorities of Poughkeepsie, New York have recently unraveled hundreds of tapes chronicling the murderous escapades of “The Poughkeepsie Killer”, a criminal mastermind and maniac who has videotaped every single person he’s ever captured and killed. Intercut with interviews and footage from the killer, The Poughkeepsie Tapes is a chillingly real story about the anger and fear that comes from an unsolved case that has hurt so many.

The Poughkeepsie Tapes never goes too far off the deep-end, always maintaing a sense of realism. All the actors in the film feel appropriate and the dialogue feels genuine. Had this film surfaced out of nowhere, say as a bunch of tapes in someone’s basement, you might even believe it was all true. It’s an interesting concept and surprisingly gripping. But what happened to the release of this film?

The Poughkeepsie Tapes was acquired by MGM after premiering at Tribeca Film Festival in 2007 and was slated for a wide release, until MGM took a tailspin into financial mucky muck. Thus, The Poughkeepsie Tapes was pulled 5 weeks before release (along with a few other MGM films). Yet even after recouping the studio hasn’t chosen to do anything with the film. They won’t sell it to other studios and wont release it themselves, so it’s in limbo. It’s a shame because had it been released just two years later it would have been a hit. Paranormal Activity in 2009 opened the door once again for found-footage movies to bring in blockbuster numbers and there’s no reason this film couldn’t have been one of the those blockbusters. Instead, this film is just as mysterious and elusive as the Poughkeepsie Tape Killer himself.

The greatest porn collection of all time.