Movie Review: Maximum Shame (2010)
Teacher: Carlos Atanes
Students: Ana Mayo, Marina Gatell, Ignasi Vidal, Paco Moreno, Ariadna Ferrer, David Castro, Eleanor James
High School: Fortknox Audiovisual
Study Guide: www.carlosatanes.com
I first became aware of Carlos Atanes’ third feature film Maximum Shame because its cast included, among others, the British scream queen Eleanor James, whom I really enjoyed in films such as Colour From The Dark and Forest of the Damned. I was even fortunate enough to meet her on the sets of Unrated – The Movie and Karl The Butcher Vs. Axe. Elle’s scene in Atanes’ movie, however, is rather short and weird… and to be honest it didn’t help much to aid my viewing pleasure of what’s most likely one of the strangest, most fucked up and unfortunately least entertaining flicks I’ve seen in quite some time.
If I understood correctly, the film tells the story of a husband and his wife who somehow end up in a nihilistic parallel world, which is basically an abandoned warehouse or factory. Stranded in that awkward scenario, the two lovers try their best to escape the cruelty of that place’s eccentric ruler, the so-called Queen, who gets kicks out of torturing her lackeys by poking them with sticks, eating cakes in front of their hungry eyes or singing to them in a shrill, annoying voice.
Continue reading ‘DVD Review: Maximum Shame’
Indie horror director, Patrick Rea, has shown great promise through his darkly dramatic collection of short films. They have style and substance, slowly built up to explore an unexpected yet all encompassing personal horror. His feature, Nailbater, shows much of this same promise. It has great atmosphere, production values, and performances. Still, it felt like it fell short of the potential it held.
SHRIEK OF THE SASQUATCH is about a couple, Julie and Nick, who are on some kind of road trip and run afoul of good ol’ sasquatch. The film starts out with a photographer taking pictures of this hot chick in the woods when he suddenly spots something hairy and humanoid off in the distance.
The trailer was my first exposure to this film. I remember seeing it on TV and it immediately caught my interest simply because of its title—HUMONGOUS! Based on what you see in it, you can easily assume it’s a monster movie, and that’s what I thought it was. I also thought it took place in a jungle and not the woods.
After releasing his magnum opus Mutilation Mile last year, underground auteur Ron Atkins now gives us the release of his long awaited The Cuckoo Clocks of Hell, a story of two psychopaths who meet up in a post-apocalyptic world.
In 2011, there have been very few horror films that have actually delivered the goods. In fact, over the last decade, it has seemed that the best films have been coming from across the pond, most notably from Spain, France, and jolly old England. The English has been exporting plenty of quality programs to American audiences over the last few years spanning from The Mighty Boosh, both versions of the Office and an American remake of Shameless on Showtime to miniseries/films such as Dead Set, Colin, and the new film Panic Button which has definitely lived up to the hype it has had before this review.
Published by Warren Chan October 20th, 2011
in MOVIE REVIEWS (ALL) and NEWS.
The first Wrong Turn came out in 2003, well after I had lost faith in mainstream horror films. I have still never seen it. But after accidentally seeing the first few minutes of Wrong Turn 2, I decided to give the franchise a shot.
Being a movie hoarder, er….collector, certain titles repeat in my collection and not just once, twice but sometimes three, four or five editions of the same title. Gaining numerous items of the exact title does a number on my subconscious; the notion that is inserted about these various editions leaves me lethargic in getting to the actual movie and, in turn, can cease my ambition in reviewing a blu-ray edition of one of the best, if not the best, exploitive movie we’ve seen to date! Cannibal Holocaust is notorious around the world and was once believed, and probably considered still is, a snuff film even if the actors have revealed themselves alive and well. In my eyes, Cannibal Holocaust is a kind of snuff film, but not the sort of snuff film that you’re thinking.
If you’ve been a horror fan for longer than the last five minutes, the title THE THING should be very familiar to you. It’s John Carpenter’s aliens-in-the-arctic masterpiece, one of the best horror films ever made. And now there’s a different The Thing in theaters. Yet, Universal has been insisting this is not a remake, but a prequel to Carpenter’s Thing.
A couple years ago on a Wednesday morning, I sat down in a tiny, almost empty theater, on the highest floor of the IFC Center in New York City. I was there to have an experience I had been looking forward to for months, after relishing in the promo images, the rants of sickened critics, and most of all, the online film community’s obsession with the mad scientist who stitches his victims ass to mouth.
Eric Stanze has been one of the indie horror scene’s most prominent and influential filmmakers for at least 20 years. His production company Wicked Pixel Cinema has given us low budget wonders such as the 1994 shot-on-video demonic possession picture Savage Harvest, the 1998 Super 8 surreal, experimental art house horror film Ice From the Sun, one of the most disturbing and graphically brutal serial killer movies, Scrapbook, released in 2000 and introducing viewers to frequent Wicked Pixel leading lady Emily Haack, the Severed Head Network short films compilations, and the chilling psychological horror outing Deadwood Park in 2007.
Do you still remember the heighday of the drive-in cinemas, when hundreds of thousands of American teenagers sneaked out of their bedroom windows at night, short-circuited their daddy’s factory-new Buick convertibles and took their high school sweethearts to the local drive-in, where the two love birds made out on the leather-upholstered backseats while trashy terror flicks like Humanoids From The Deep, Sadomania and I Drink Your Blood flickered across the giant screen in front of them? Well, to be perfectly honest with you, I don’t recall that time at all, because not only was I born too late but also on the wrong side of the ocean to ever have been able to take part in this wonderful era. Thus, I’m always more than happy when I stumble upon a movie such as Chillerama which lives and breathes the reckless exploitation spirit of yesteryear throughout each and every second of its playing time.
For as long as he can remember, life’s not been kind to Frank D’Arbo (Rainn Wilson). Beaten by his father, harassed by bullies at school and ignored by just about every girl he’s ever had a crush on, he ekes out a dreary existence as a cook in a run-down, barely frequented diner. The only shining light in his otherwise depressing life is his beautiful wife Sarah (Liv Tyler), whom he loves more than anything else in the world. When she leaves him for an arrogant strip club owner Jock (Kevin Bacon), Frank is crushed beyond repair and willing to let go of whatever tiny bit of self-respect he had left.
With the age of digital filmmaking and the style and sub-genre of films like The Blair Witch and Paranormal Activity it really makes it so anyone can make a film. Especially with films like these a lack of budget or visual composition can be written off as a stylistic choice. If you can deliver with the content and suspense to back it up this can work wonders. Films that have done this well have been the largest profiting box office films. Even the best within this sub-genre are more the exception than the norm. The norm is Evil Things. It really looks like an unscripted home video. I guess you can say it paints realism, but if there’s nothing interesting to offer it becomes painfully dull and just pointless.
Films about the walking undead are a dime a dozen. Every Joe Schmo can make a zombie feature length film with his Hi-Def hand-held camera and a modest budget, but this indie ambition in trying to be the next George A. Romero is a false Godsend sent straight from God knows where and seeks what most (ignorant) people crave in horror movies – a good amount of blood and guts. Eventually, the needle in the hay stack will be found, but the agonizing scrambling and digging through endless projects can wear a person down and make their eyes tire of bad taste and boredom. However, a zone lies in between that sole most glorious needle and that vast amount of crap.
