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Couch Pumpkin - November 2009A New BeginningWelcome to "On Reel" at Couch Pumpkin dot com. Reviews posted prior to November 2009 were written by a previous blogger and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the current writer. As such, some territory may be retread! Fear not, I'll take a look over the old material and let it be if I have nothing significant to add.
Reality Rundown: Week of 11/15(What schedule? I made no promises!)
Welcome back to "On Reel"'s Reality Rundown. As before, spoilers abound. This week, once again featuring "The Amazing Race," "Top Chef," and "Survivor". The Amazing Race - Season 15, episode 8 - Air Date: 11/15 The teams head to Tallinn, Estonia. Reading the clue, the first of many pronunciation errors appear. Is it "ta-leen"? They don't know. Mass transit: The Great Equalizer. And how cool is it to take a 16-hour ferry? It's like a miniature cruise. The Speed Bump for father and son team Gary and Matt happens right before the Road Block. They have to strip down and take a 5-minute sauna. Relaxing! But of course, this will put them five minutes and travel time behind the other teams. Travel time could be a lot, since they aren't even sure what a "sauna bus" is. Or a "sah-oona" bus, as they say in Northern Minnesota. Once they find it, Gary rambles like he's drunk, while Matt tries desperately not to look down the towel of the beautiful blonde sitting beside him. For the Road Block, the candelabra leads the racers to a specific room, where they must use the classic invisible-ink trick of holding a seemingly blank piece of paper over a candle to let the heat reveal a message. They have to figure this out themselves, though. Flight Time's idea for revealing the message is to color it with a crayon. Sound in theory, but not right for this task. The table full of medieval-clad laugh at Matt's "candle uh bra" confusion. When he realizes it sounds like candle, though, he's on top of the task in an instant. Then the crayon is on top of his paper, too. Oops. Misreading the clue sends them to the Pikk Herman Tower, rather than the Pikk Herman Tower Garden. Double oops. Detour! Mud volleyball, or slingshot the moose target? The first four teams choose the volleyball, while Gary and Matt take the slingshot task. Only two teams can play volleyball at a time though, so with Megan and Cheyne already at the Pitstop, and Sam and Dan and the Globetrotters playing in the mud, the married couple are left to shoot the moose target. Despite being distracted by the attractive men covered in mud, the brothers finish the task at the same time as the Globetrotters, and the two teams race through the bog practically on top of each other. There is shoving, and Flight Time goes down. Big Easy: It's on now. Brian and Ericka finish the task before Gary and Matt even get to the detour, so the oldest remaining contestant and his neon-haired son are last to the pitstop and reflect that they regret nothing. (Except the candelabra. Matt states he never wants to see another in his life.) Next time: Operatic Globetrotters and taxi theft! I love the brothers, but they are not making friends with their competitors. Top Chef - Season 6, Episode 13 - Airdate 11/18 (Unfortunately, I was unable to see this episode properly, so I can't review it.) You can see a recap here: Top Chef Recap Next week... Chefs on a train! Survivor - Season 19, Episode 10 - Airdate 11/19 Scramble! There's another immunity idol in the game, and after Russell's game-flipping, everyone wants it. Richard Hatch Jr. himself is riding high and has regained his arrogance. His allies are elated, his enemies distressed. But as arrogant as he is, Russ doesn't sit by and let the game flow like the water around him: He's up in the morning before anyone else, searching high and low for the new idol. Shambo works to get another vote to oust Laura if the opportunity arises--she's the Samoa individual immunity queen, the same way Russell is the hidden immunity king. Reward time: A team challenge. Swing for the flags, win a trip and a phone. Russell wants to win for the idol clue--"If I find it, it's over." Unfortunately, he's on a team with Laura. On the other team, Shambo is taking a vocal leadership role. Watching this, does anyone else want her team to win so she can get the clue to Russell and Laura won't have access? It is not to be, though. Russ's team wins, he's going on reward with Laura. It is the first reward trip for him and for Natalie, however, so I can't feel too bad about it. Myspace photos on the plane to the reward, and Laura doesn't know how to smile. She grimaces instead. Back at camp, the Foa Foa refugees work on getting the sixth vote necessary to make the vote go their way without an idol in the pocket. As soon as the winners return from the reward, the search is on. There was a video clue on the phone and Russell leads Dave on a merry chase through the jungle.. then doubles back and retrieves the hidden idol for the third time. And they are off to struggle for immunity. Laura is one of six to not make it to the second half of the challenge, and it is Mick who walks off with the necklace. Shambo makes another attempt to pull in a sixth vote against Laura from the old Galu. Trying to save Laura, three of the Galu decide to plant a seed with Foa Foa that John is the one to be voted out. John is, as Dave says, flighty and nervous--and he feels his old tribe is composed of idiots. Russell decides to take it a step further: They need to tell John Monica is trying to throw him under the bus. Brett beats him to the punch, and John is not pleased. In the jury, Eric's reactions to the discussion are some of the most entertaining visual moments in the episode. And really, who can't even spell "Laura"? Of course it's a tie. If it wasn't they would have cut out all those minutes discussing the mechanics of a tie. The suspenseful moment arrives: Will John flip to ensure his own continued existence in the game, or will he take his chances with the random draw? Laura: 5 Natalie: 4 Laura is shocked, Eric and Shambo are delighted, and Dave sums it up for all the Galu sans John: "Wow..." Next week: Shambo takes the lead, Russell frees a chicken.
Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet(This review contains spoilers.)
I love bad horror movies. But I do enjoy picking them apart. I have an issue with this movie from the very beginning. The opening scene shows Mary murdering her parents... from start to finish. Then it shows her in the asylum as she's older, then most of her rampage there. It doesn't leave any mystery, any suspense. At one point in the beginning of the slaughter, blood runs down to obscure the screen. Personally, I would have considered this the place to cut the film to the present-day, letting the viewer think that was the reason Mary Hatchet was a legend. Reveal the remainder bit by bit over the course of the movie. And why would the cops open fire on a naked, unarmed woman? They had no way of knowing she had killed people in the asylum with her bare hands. During the opening credits, the viewer is taken back through crime scene photos and news headlines of the history of what was just seen. The only additional information is that her rages are set off by her menstrual cycle. An observant viewer would have noticed the location of the blood on her white nightgown before she started killing her parents. Then we are introduced to the "Blood Night" festivities: vandalism, masks of Mary marked with blood, legends that she haunts a certain road. Finally, the main movie begins: Teenagers, preparing for Blood Night '08. Nate Dushku is a rugged cutie, and is actually the older brother of Eliza Dushku. I'd never heard of him before. Pity. The teens seem to at least have the sense they're in a cheesy horror movie, and don't take themselves too seriously as they set up a Ouija board on Mary Hatchet's grave. Nothing happens while they touch the planchette, but when they all stand to investigate a noise behind them, it moves without them. Enter: Gus (Bill Moseley!) who sits down with the kids to tell them a Mary Hatchet ghost story. At the end of the story we get another crime scene photo, but since everyone in the story is dead, how could he possibly know the details of what happened? The kids don't question him. It's Blood Night, after all. And Gus tells the tale with all seriousness, leaving no room for skepticism. The teens gather after the graveyard for a party. There is alcohol, sex talk, underwear talk, and.. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. (Or not. The film in the tin for Attack of the Killer Tomatoes turns out to be a 70's porno.) There are too many teens at the party. There's no way to care about all of them. And of course, when one girl says "I was born here, I will die here," the viewer knows she will not be surviving the movie. When told to "Get a room," one couple actually goes upstairs to have sex. Their activities are inter cut with the showing of the "movie" and the subsequent striptease of the two main girls downstairs. And of course, at the climactic moment, there is the first modern death in the movie. No one downstairs hears the screaming over the music and cheering. The cast of too many teenagers is trimmed down, weird things happen, and panic sets in. Sent upstairs to look for the couple having sex, Dushku's character looks.. in the bathroom? And briefly into another room. It is not until a headless body is thrown through the window downstairs and people start to flee the house that he returns upstairs and finds the naked dead people. In fact, he seems to discover a lot of the bodies. He is inside looking for his keys when a pair of vandals are discovered dead in the SUV. He's attacked by a bloody head and flees without the keys. Gus has perfect timing though, and pulls up in front of the house at just that moment in a truck with plenty of room for the surviving high schoolers. He takes them up to the King's Park psychiatric facility, site of the original Blood Night massacre and also, says Gus, be the burial site of Mary's baby. He buried her himself. A review I read before mentioned a twist that isn't much of a surprise. It's true. What is a surprise, though, is that the psychiatric facility still has electrical power, 20 years after Mary's bloody rampage. Five teens go into the hospital with Gus, two couples and a solo guy. Two remain outside, a boy and a girl. At least these kids have the good sense to run when the blood is gushing. I won't give away the end, but if you've been paying attention to the movie, it's not much of a surprise. The missing pieces are filled in with flashbacks, and in hindsight there wasn't much room for discovery of Mary's crimes, though the bits and pieces in the opening credits could have been enough to cut out most of the opening 12 minutes. The film has more plot than a standard slasher, but still follows most of the genre conventions. The visual framing is good, as are the transitions and inter-cutting. The visual effects are the standard B-movie cheesy fare, and I think the sound effect guys were practicing foley under the influence--some of the sound effects are ridiculous. If you like movies like Halloween and Friday the 13th, you'll enjoy Blood Night. The DVD includes a making-of documentary, where they discuss the urban legends that inspired the movie and some things that happened on set. There is a long section about the special effects. (Gallons of fake blood, then more liquid fake blood done in post!) Also in the features section: Outtakes, Teaser, and theatrical trailer. /Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet. Unrated Director's Cut: Sex, violence, nudity, language. Starring Bill Moseley, Nate Dushku, and Danielle Harris./
Reality Rundown: Week of 11/08Warning: Reality Rundown discusses the previous week's installments of certain reality television shows. (Currently: The Amazing Race, Top Chef, and Survivor.) These discussions will contain spoilers.
The Amazing Race - Season 15, Episode 7. Airdate - Nov 8, 2009.
Masters of HorrorA quick disclaimer on this one: "Masters of Horror" was a series on Showtime, but it was a series of short films, which have also been released individually on DVD, and were released theatrically in some places. As a result, I consider the episodes movies rather than TV.
Before I review the individual films, I wanted to take a look at the series as a whole
TV Bonus - Paranormal StateAn intriguing horror reality show featured on A&E, "Paranormal State" follows the work of the Paranormal Research Society, founded as a student organization at Penn State (and now a professional organization), who help people with issues of supernatural or demonic forces.
According to the "About" section of PRS's official website, the show is "based on" the group's investigations. As such, it helps to take the episodes with a grain of salt. They are edited for dramatic effect, taking just over 20 minutes (after commercials) to show the case information, the investigation, and the solution
Paranormal Activity (Theatrical)Halloween may be over, but I worked so hard to get myself into the mood of it that I'm not quite ready to let go. (I'm still indulging in A&E's "Paranormal State".)
So "On Reel"'s first review will be of the sniper hit that is Paranormal Activity
PrologueWelcome to "On Reel."
You can expect a few things from your stay here. Primarily, "On Reel" will feature reviews and analyses of movies, both new and old. For movies out of theaters, features of the DVD might also be included
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