Shriekfest – Saturday, October 4th, 2008
Shriekfest is a great homespun kind of festival. It’s an intimate affair held at the Raleigh Studios in famous Hollywood, CA. I’m pretty big on the shorts the fest chooses because they are uniformly excellent but this year I could only manage to see two of the features, Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown & Dark Reel… What I love so much about this festival is that not only is Raleigh Studios a fantastic studio to visit but you can sometimes find yourself hobnobbing with the likes of Harry Manfredini or Tony Todd, like I did this year. What can I say, it makes me feel important. So there.
I enjoy reading H.P. Lovecraft and I love watching adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft stories but I’ll be the first to admit that I know very little about the man behind the wildly evocative stories. That’s where Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown comes in. Essentially this is a talking heads piece featuring various authors (such as Neil Gaiman and Peter Straub) and filmmakers (like Stuart Gordon and John Carpenter) walking the viewer through the history of the reclusive author whose imagination spawned so much inspiration, it would be impossible to recount them all in one short review. The documentary follows Lovecraft’s life in a typical linear fashion as it expounds upon his work and his personal life. What struck me about Fear was that although there is no actual footage of Lovecraft (however several pictures are displayed), the film’s visual flow remains intact.
Much care is given into laying out the Cthulhu Mythos and the recurring themes behind most of his work. Lovecraft was obsessed with the cosmos and how we as humans were a small part of the infinite universe. He challenged ideas; he created great science fiction reminding us that some things are better left undiscovered. His work was progressive and provocative and he was virtually a pauper when he died at the age of 47.
What truly brought Fear to life were the interview subjects. Each one has something interesting to say and they all speak in such a conversational manner you feel as though you could be at a dinner party listening in on a discussion. Fear won the Best Documentary prize at this year’s ComicCon and it’s easy to see why. It might not have been weaved the way a verbose Lovecraft story was, but I think the author would be proud to know that the limitless boundaries of his imagination continue to inspire us.
Where does one start with Dark Reel? A convoluted but stylish slasher that mixes in a bit of David Lynch and a dose of comedy along with a very creepy looking Edward Furlong sounds like a potential recipe for success, right? It’s more like a recipe for disaster.
Using the Black Dahlia as inspiration, Dark Reel begins in the 50s (complete with black and white footage) with a wannabe actress named Scarlett May (Alexandria Holden) who naively follows a young filmmaker to a studio where he dismembers her on film. It’s 53 years later (!) and a gross-loner-fanboy named Adam (Edward Furlong) wins a walk on part in a new B movie titled Pirate Wench. Here he meets indie starlet Cassie Blue (Tiffany Shepis looking gorgeous) and starts an unlikely romantic relationship with her. It is also here that a series of murders (well, more like two!), befall the cast of the film. At some point the ghost of Scarlett May appears before Adam (during a screening of the dailies, no less!) and he attempts to solve her unsolved murder and the current crop of deaths.
That is best I can do at describing the plot. I’m missing many elements like the paparazzi guy who always shows up at the wrong time, or the Corman-esque movie producer (a brilliant Lance Henriksen) who has to breathe into a paper bag, or the British leading man who lives on a diet of red onions. Oh, and did I mention Tony Todd plays the cop investing the crimes or that… oh forget it!
There is simply too much going on in Dark Reel and very little of it is actually worth it. The seasoned players are excellent; with Henriksen taking center stage in an awesome comic performance. But Dark Reel remains flat and uninteresting. I spent most of the movie thinking about how Edward Furlong was horribly miscast and how unfunny the comedy bits were. That’s not to say that there isn’t a good story inside this mess somewhere. And there is enough style on display that I believe the director has a good film in him. This one just ain’t it!
Want more from Amanda By Night? Check out Made for TV Mayhem
