Candyman 3: Day of the Dead (1999)

Dia de los rubia

By: JWBM

Direct to video, without Clive Barker involved, and a move to Latin fused neighborhoods of Los Angeles with the Day of the Dead around the corner, what can one expect of the third installment of the Candyman franchise? Well, don't hold your breath.

The daughter of Annie Tarrant—Caroline—finds herself living alone in the heart of Boyle Heights L.A. She's an artist who has an upcoming gallery with original paintings that her grandfather—the Candyman himself—painted before his public execution for loving a woman not of his own race in a time when the white man had an all-time high track record for hate and prejudice. According to some of the L.A. detectives in this story, not much has changed. You guessed it, all this attention and the fact that no one listens and has to test the waters by reciting Candyman's name five times in front of a mirror calls him back in full hook-through-the-back fury. Soon, the towering man in a trench coat and a knack for a stadium-deep voice goes around saying mean-spirited and potentially incestuous things such as, "Be my victim" and "There's no reason to live." Might as well be a Valentine's Day poet for the lonely and depressed.

Literally, the only excitement this movie has going for it is of the sexually tantalizing kind. Or at least it wants to hope so. If it's any indicator, the lead was on "Baywatch" a year earlier and walks around with bountiful blonde hair, and in panties every other chance she gets. There was a point where Caroline came in on a family member in the tub with a slashed neck, and the filmmakers even had to show the attractive relative on display topless. I mean, that's not even a fair shake of your senses. I guess if you know your movie has zero credibility going for it, then you might as well go for gold. Yeah, yeah, hot people die and have murderers come after them—the '70s Spanish/Italian horror features were king of this—though this just doesn't have anything else of worth to show for itself. It then tries to get the gears going mid-way through with a kind of race-against-the-clock feature with weak attempts at romance thrown in, and a failed attempt to include the Mexican culture, including the celebration of Dia de los Muertos. This is a festive and interesting event in real life, though it seems out of place here.

It's a pain to see what the series has been reduced to. One could smell trouble before even throwing this one on. After seeing part three though, it makes you want to put on the first film to show how the story was once brilliant, full of mystery, and included a kind of unshakable and unrivaled atmosphere for a horror film in the '90s. This is nothing of the mentioned, and is not worth the time or investment.

Rating: 3/10

Director: Turi Meyer (Sleepstalker)
Actors: Tony Todd, Donna D'Errico, Jsu Garcia
Info: IMDB link
Trailer: Youtube link

The Ninth Gate (1999)

Everyone's trying to get their hands on Satan's autograph

By: JWBM

Adapted from Spain's Arturo Perez-Reverte's historically abound novel "The Club Dumas," the film version is a chapter-by-chapter evolving experience in itself. It gives a taste of how far occult literature extends back for the past couple hundred years, and turns what was once heresy into a modern world of wealthy, shadowy characters shamelessly sipping on expensive bottles of human vice. A place where Latin is alive and woodcuts smell of freshly inked templates; dusty areas start to shimmer, strangers in the back shift to the forefront; quiet libraries ring alarm bells, and exquisite vacation spots for foreigners now cause them to requestion their next travel plans.

A collector of rare books commits suicide only a day after he sells his most prized piece. A wheeler and dealer, Dean Corso, gets hired by another book collector exclusively of the dark arts named Boris Balkan, who has since acquired "The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows," and wants him to varify its authenticity to the only other two known in the world. The man who authored them back in 1666 was burned at the stake for his blasphemous spoutings. Now in 1999, strange and tragic things start to happen surrounding those who come into its leather-bound, pentagram decorated path. The lingering question: Is it the cause and effect of the books or the unscrupulous people themselves? Or both?

"The Ninth Gate," from director Roman Polanski--"Rosemary's Baby"--presents a tried and true style of move-making that relies on basic but worked through mechanics to deliver the goods. From the gradual build up that gets more and more involved, to the slowly creeping camera angles, antique furnished sets, and who could forget good ol' distinctive orchestras to solidify the tone around it. The experience feels like stepping out of your door and into a more traditional European lifestyle over, say, a Hollywood affair with modern and trendy aspects of the year it came out. Compare this to a string of the millennia-approaching, end-of-times films back then, and you can see a noticeable difference of which ones aged.

There are some twists and turns to give this momentum and make it a memorable experience. However, a share of it has a purposeful simplicity to give room for believability when something outstanding does happen. In order to break into the idea of black magic cults and Lucifer supposedly being a low-key author, there is also a dry and somewhat playful tongue-in-cheek sense of humor sprinkled about. Depp's role, as Corso, is less eccentric than past films and stays closer to an everyday type of shady businessman. With the help of a tentative partner, Corso ends up from one accented person and scenic country to the next. You can imagine the book has passed hands for hundreds of years, yet it's a perfect way to enact survival-of-the-most-evilest in the current day world by enlisting the most greedy, back-stabbing people amongst us that are capable of taking it solely for their own gain. From lusty gold diggers to sign-the-dotted-line-or-die capitalists, the tale makes everyone who gets in its path a victim of their own lust and desires.

"The Ninth Gate" will make one glance at formerly uneventful places in a darker light: a secretive-like atmosphere that is cloaked in enough shadows that the general person is oblivious as to what lurks around them. It also has a certain amount of mystery that gives room to unlock Easter eggs and hidden theories on additional viewings from not outright handing everything over to the viewer. The story and concept itself is intriguing  enough to anticipate what comes next, though underneath, the momentum is guided by an unphysical, somewhat unlikeable book swindler; you get reactions and mundane habits similar to an everyday person who could be your neighbor Bob if not for a sly characteristic and a penchant for a shoulder bag. It's logical why it's set up that way on paper, though watching the experience play out isn't always thoroughly compelling. It's still a well-done and an esteemed film for its cumulative qualities, though hoping for more layers--such as all the musings and step-by-step thoughts in the book version--from the lead on further viewings comes to a stand still at points.

In one respect, the next secluded mansion, not to mention the next time you pass by an antique book store, there will be a little reminder as to what it conceals rather than the usual yawning words and stiff aristocrats. Something that should be left alone or pursued? Well, I guess that choice is up to you and how far you are willing to push your luck to be just a little bit closer to the world below. If not by you, there's always another that will stop at nothing.

Rating: 7.5/10

Director: Roman Polanski (Chinatown, The Tenant, Death and the Maiden)
Stars: Johnny Depp, Frank Langella, Emmanuelle Seigner)
Info: IMDB

Trailer: Youtube link

Ravenous (1999)

When your dinner walks, talks and breathes

The studio didn't give this the promotion it deserved back in the day. I remember seeing a preview early on by my guess to test the waters, but then some time later this passed by theaters without even warming the seats. Needless to say I caught this on a rental, and thought it was an effective film that got lost in the shuffle due to not having an established movement to back it up. It also might be that it didn't come with powerful filmmaking names. This was only the second film made in the US by the director--who had to take over after another dropped out--apart from a dominating list of TV projects in the UK. It also comes from a first time scriptwriter. The lead, Guy Pearce, didn't have impacting star power at that point for American audiences. Then it was shot in Europe about a time period in the U.S. that usually comes as either a western, adventure or period drama. It seemed like people--promoters included--weren't taking a chance with this irregular film at first. Though what makes "Ravenous" worthwhile after the fact, is it wasn't trying to fit into horror or even the time period it focused on. It was a somewhat unique film that dodged what you'd expect.

A Lieutenant named John Boyd (Guy Pearce) during the Mexican-American War in the 1840s pretends to be a goner while his men are dying left and right. Despite at first being a traitor, something awakes in him when he gets the taste of blood and he gets the courage to capture the enemy command. He's promoted to Captain but his superior is still disgusted at his initial cowardice and sends him to a place called Fort Spencer in California. There are seven others of various abilities to accommodate travelers passing through. Boyd doesn't quite fit in as he's quiet and contemplative about the traumatic war experience that originally caused him to freeze in his tracks and then afterwards rear at the sight of blood. A man named Colqhoun (Robert Carlyle) suddenly arrived in bad shape with a story to tell about a previous adventure gone wrong that involves six laid up in a cave during a run of bad weather and it resulting in cannibalism for lack of anything else to eat--shoes and belts included. They form a party to go investigate, but not before George, the native American, explaining about the Weendigo (Wendigo): a myth that when resorting to cannibalism, a person can gain another's strength and spirit, only to become even more hungry--or ravenous.

People turn into something else, traps are in place and Boyd has to make a decision to muster up more courage to beat the tempting desire to feed and a competitive force out to consume more flesh on people's backs. With less dialogue and outward personality, Boyd seems to be a character that the filmmakers speak through with morality to put in perspective all the conquering people around him. What's effective here is he can be viewed as either weak or strong depending on where your perspective lays. Since he's always bloodied or bruised up, he can be seen as a martyr that stands up for a cause--or even a weakling that's unable to adapt and conform to a new situation. It's left in the eye of the beholder. He's playing a mental chess match with a madman who is willing to do what it takes to feed an enormous appetite that never ceases. That's the other character in the equation that seems to mirror not what's necessarily happening in the 1800s but rather how far we've taken our drive since. Not to mention our search for easy solutions at the expense of others. That need-for-more message is delivered a little more subtly than turning it into a let's-all-get-along experience. The film can be point blank at times. There are some bloody scenes, though it doesn't always go for broke to put the grizzly subject matter in the audience's face. Shocking, but not to the point of going for superficial sensations to miss out on the contemplative portions. This has a strangely humorous environment in that it's not always laugh out loud as it's just a satirical play on situations that could have been otherwise stiff, grim or gray. Some of the characters carry a more serious tone, while others provide direct amusement or even deadpan humor that gives it a somewhat black comedic taste.

Sometimes this has off-beat, somewhat abstract music that partially carries a tone of the times but in a much more tainted way that would still seem alien to someone in the 19th century. Occasionally it can be loud, to imperceptive in volume or even missing for awhile altogether to let the visuals and dialogue take a turn. It makes it that much more harder to pin down, with anticipation of what will be played next with its unguessable sounds that are a foreign matter on the first passing. The sets and outdoors look like the Americas despite being filmed in Czech Republic. Nature is captured as well as the harsher times of the 19th century without looking too polished and with formal actors in unfamiliar situations. The subject matter is handled rather effectively in that it flows from one transition to the next without jumping into the proceeding portion of the story too quickly. This is a thriller at heart, but it still moves at a steady pace to get a feel for the situation and surroundings. It makes it feel less inevitable than other films like all the revised slashers at that time from "Scream" to "Urban Legend," which fortunately makes it dodge being formulaic, though it still comes with some irony to give it that horrific touch in the face of morbid curiosity.

Rating: 9/10

Director: Antonia Bird (Priest, Face)
Stars: Guy Pearce, Jeffrey Jones, Robert Carlyle, David Arquette, Neal McDonough
Link: IMDB, history of a Wendigo

Historical questions from the Black and Red (Answers below, don't cheat!):

1. In which state did the Oregon Trail begin?
2. What were the people nicknamed in the California Gold Rush?
3. Between what years did the Mexican-American War last from?
4. What was the name of the party in the 1840s that participated in cannibalism on their way to California?




------------

Answers:
1. Missouri 2. Forty-niners 3. 1846-1848 4. Donner Party

From Dusk Till Dawn 3 (1999)

Rough and pale riders square off in the past

I originally rented "FDTD 2" and remember turning it off for lack thereof to the original. Similar to "Exorcist II" missing the mark and losing the essence of the first, I didn't even give the third part a chance for a while. "From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter" moves at a much more steady pacing than the mentioned and has a story that is richer with legend. This is a western/horror prequel that includes some characters from the first film but set a hundred years ago in Mexico with additional outlaws and more folks that just got mixed up at the wrong place at the wrong time.

A man named Johnny Madrid (Marco Leonardi), who looks to be doomed by the fate of a broken neck with a crowd of onlookers, is walked to a podium and first suffers the whip of The Hangman (Temuera Morrison). He escapes with the help of a younger friend and shoots his way out, but not before kidnapping the ruthless executioner's daughter Esmeralda (Ara Celi) who radiates a comely look and innocence opposite of her scarred face father. The younger friend, Reece, wants to join the newly formed gang of Johnny Madrid and gives him information about a cynical writer by name of Ambrose Bierce (Michael Parks) who is set to trade Pancho Villa something valuable to his revolution. Madrid and gang catch up with Bierce and a religious couple riding in a stagecoach. They knock them around and steal their belongings, only for everyone included to catch up at a bar/whorehouse later where every vice imaginable is taking place, and, of course, a deadly trap awaits when some blood is spilled.

The western/adventure aspect was handled pretty well with some decent enough acting and performances. Michael Parks, as Bierce, gives some charisma to the role with a certain wit and a pessimistic outlook, along with strange visions that give him a kind of mysteriousness--possibly due to alcoholism--or something else? Marco Leonardi brings some fun to his character of Madrid, even if you can't take his persona as the toughest outlaw to ride despite the scruffy facial hair and bladed boot. There's some gory scenes that make this one of the bloodier westerns out there--the Italians would be proud. This has a share of setups and a consistent pacing when it comes to action sequences instead of milking a certain set for budgetary reasons. There is also some atmosphere at times to show that there isn't anything but antiheroes out on the harsh, dusty terrain--just a you or me attitude.

For the latter portion the characters end up at what looks to be a slice of heaven with a saloon/whorehouse. By this point the setups were handled with less of the steady flow and tact of the earlier portion by instead going for an all-out, in-your-face delivery. Where most of the humor was somewhat dry before then, they threw in Orlando Jones as a salesman with a lisp and he seems so out of place, it's as if he just got off the set of a Mad TV skit without switching tones for the movie he's in. There are a share of extras and they don't always seem to be coordinated, as it feels like a free-for-all with strobe lights to add to the confusion of vampires gone wild. The first film jumped right into the horror portion as well and threw out some tongue in cheek humor. Though here the horror aspect feels like nearly a complete joke and a parody of itself, not to mention it's hard to take it seriously with soap opera looking lighting and with some of the props looking just shy of what you'd get at the Halloween store with styrofoam and painted on stones. It takes a complete miss on any suspense of the survival horror aspect and concentrates more on gags.

Looking at director P.J. Pesce's filmography with some westerns and action films, he feels out of his element with the horror portion. Yeah, there's some nudity, vulgarities, fights, more gore and vampires running amuck for amusement, but it also feels like it immediately got cheapened. The most to get out of this section is some character change away from the straightforward, and then a momentary twist regarding Esmeralda, which gets somewhat buried to concentrate on the others. There's tragedy in it, but it goes by so quickly as to be unrecognized.

Rating: 6/10

Director: P.J. Pesce (The Marshal TV series, The Desperate Trail)
Stars: Marco Leonardi, Ara Celi, Michael Parks, Temuera Morrison, Jordana Spiro, Rebecca Gayheart, Danny Trejo, Orlando Jones
Link: IMDB

From Dusk Till Dawn 2 (1999)

It's as if no one stepped in with both feet

Right off the bat, this was executively produced by Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino and Lawrence Bender, but sent straight to video, came with a third of the budget and was also handled by a different director and writing team. Not the biggest deal, as other horror sequels such as "Hellraiser II," "Aliens," "Psycho 2" and even "Amityville II" had different directors and scriptwriters and worked in their own ways. Though two of the biggest issues here is they didn't take it as seriously as their counterparts and they tried to do a story on its own that's very loosely related to the first to the point of losing context. It doesn't come with any revelations and the plot feels flat and unremarkable to try to carry its own weight. The opening scene sets up the tone of the rest of the picture with purposefully campy acting, inflated music, overextended screaming, gore and a tongue so far in the cheek that it bores a hole out the other side.

Gone are the glue-you-to-the-screen personalities of the first, and present are a bunch of nincompoops from Texas. The characters are inept, run at a slower pace and have few things on their mind but money and having a sleazy time. It makes you watch this from a distance as there aren't any relating points, just a group of guys that are neither cool, smooth or that you want to be in the same room with. One of them is a criminal named Luther (Duane Whitaker) who escaped from custody in Texas. There are news briefs and a Sheriff named Otis Lawson (Bo Hopkins) looking for him. Meanwhile, Luther contacts Buck (Robert Patrick) about a Mexican bank deal for $5 million of laundered drug money. Buck rounds up a team with his old buds C.W., Ray Bob and Jesus, and off they go to Mexico without showing how the known criminals got there.

On an empty road and with the whole barren area to fly a bat charges into Luther's car grill. After shooting the bat, he heads up the road to the Titty Twister and mentions the situation to the barkeep (Danny Trejo), who offers to give him a ride to the hotel where the rest of the crew are meanwhile extensively watching and talking about porn. The barkeep instead heads to Luther's car, gets out and follows the blood trail of the bat. The bat is transformed back into a regular vampire form and after a scuffle, Luther gets turned. He heads over to the hotel, turns one of the others into a vampire and then tells the rest of the crew that they need to do the job tonight. Not being the brightest people, they head over and from one thing leading to another more of the crew gets turned and Buck tries to escape only to get caught up in a heated cops vs vampire shootout.

Some of the characters here don't even make sense. The barkeep returns without explanation as to why he's still alive. Bruce Campbell and Tiffani-Amber Thiessen play lawyers for a pointless opening scene that gave another homage to Hitchcock but otherwise was pointless. White hotel clerks, black security guards, and then Texas Rangers allowed to investigate a crime scene in Mexico where they have no jurisdiction. Some poetic license for entertainment value is fine--the first movie even had some omissions as well--but this just pushed the bar and it makes it look like it's not even trying. As if everyone here treated it as a stepping stone by giving it half an ounce of effort with the intention of moving on as fast as possible. For a viewer, all those little nuances that made the first returnable are lost with the second followup, and that in itself is disappointing.

"From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money" is a movie that does it all on purpose, so how do you fault it for doing nothing but that? Except it feels like it missed the mark completely with very little redeeming value even by those lesser standards. The dialogue doesn't always give separation of character between the performers. There are a few momentary puns and jabs at its own devices that get some chuckles, a nude scene, and a few inventive camera setups, but those areas only carry it so for amusement. There's very little relating points emphasized--not even the money angle; even a 'Got to do it for a cause' line--nothing to learn, not much to see as far as locations and all of the characters you want harm to come their way, but then get upset that it took too long to do so. This has none of the elaborate creature effects of the first, but then again some are made to look cheesy, such as enlarged bats. Though money was spent in the last quarter of the movie. That segment was entertaining to a degree as it turns into an all out action battle with tons of fire power gone off and some gory deaths. Still doesn't make you forget what came before it.

Rating: 3.5/10

Director: Scott Spiegel (Intruder, writer of Evil Dead II)
Stars: Robert Patrick, Duane Whitaker, Bo Hopkins, Raymond Cruz, Danny Trejo
Link: IMDB