Frequency

Frequency is a film about a police officer named John Sullivan who is down on his luck. His father, Frank, is dead, and he no longer has any zest for life. One night, after his girlfriend leaves him, he finds his father’s old police radio and turns it on. He begins messing with the signals, and somehow makes contact with his father exactly 30 years in the past, on the day before he died. Before the connection cuts out, John is able to shout out the circumstances that led to Frank's death. Frank is skeptical about the situation, and believes that he is being messed with, however, when the circumstances brought up in their conversation prove true, Frank believes and trusts John's words, escaping the fire to safety. Since John was able to warn Frank away from danger, his father's death never occurs. However, it is not without consequences. Since John and Frank were able to alter the past, life in which they know it suddenly changes. John's altered future is one in which his mother, in turn, has been murdered by a serial killer. Now John in the present and Frank in the past must communicate via radio to try to solve the mystery of the killer's identity and change the outcome again.

Frequency is one of my favorite films of all time. It is a great piece, built around a realistic and caring father/son relationship and ordinary characters who are trying to accomplish extraordinary things in order to change the past. The movie has a lot of heart and you really learn to care about the characters and worry about what will become of them. I also very much admire the uniqueness of the plot. It is both interesting to contemplate the complexity behind it, as well as to watch. It is a little slow to take off, but once it gets going, there starts to be action at every turn. It is definitely one of those movies that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

The Night of the Hunter

Every christmas my brother and I exchange movies. Usually a film from the most specific categories, something you wouldn't be able to find easily, and have probably never heard of. This annual tradition has yielded some of the greatest films I have seen. One of my favorites to come out of this exchange was a film called "The Night of the Hunter"directed by Charles Laughton (one of the two films he directed). As usual with these gifts, I wondered how he could have possibly found this and why he selected it as this years gift (we always do extensive research before making our purchases). He said "I read the description and it seemed horrifying". And it was. But not in the way that a horror film is scary, but in the way that it builds an eerie suspense that leaves a bad feeling in the pit of your stomach.

The story goes something like this: A man goes to jail for robbery, and leaves the money he'd stolen hidden somewhere with his children. The only person he tells about this is his cellmate, Reverend Harry Powell, a serial killer with the words love and hate tattooed on his knuckles. When the man gets executed for his crimes, Powell decides to try and seduce his wife in order to get the kids to spill the beans. This may not sound like that horrifying of a film, compared to today, but it really really is.

Like with most great films each frame tells the whole story. Just look at how terrifying these images are, even without know the story, they are chilling:

The expressionistic lighting and cinematography (done by Stanley Cortez) builds the unsettling mood. Sound is also a big part of this film, in the same way that the music in Jaws, lets the audience know that something is off, the Rev. Powell's singing acts as a warning that things are going to get ugly. Watching this horrible, creepy man terrorize these children, chasing them into attics, and pursuing them down the Ohio river, is more suspenseful and terrifying than any slasher film. This is one of those films that really gets under your skin, and makes you feel ill. It depends on all of the elements of film to bring out the horror, something I wish more films would do today.

Here's a clip that shows what I mean. The extreme dramatic lighting in this scene really makes it. It heightens the mood and the suspense, and without it the scene would not be nearly as successful.

Mimic

      Mimic is one of the more suspenseful movies I've seen in a while, even though the production value is not stupendous. The premise is simple: a genetically engineered insect mutates and evolves into something fearsome that poses a threat to all mankind.

      But there's no reason to be misled by the scientific background; Mimic turns into pure horror right after we witness the creation of the "Judas Breed", an insect that is a cross between a mantis and a termite containing designer genes. The Judas Breed is unleashed to destroy the carrier of a disease that threatens to wipe out all the children in New York City: the cockroach.

      The Judas halts the disease, and its creators, Susan Tyler (Mira Sorovino) and Peter Mann (Jeremy Northam), bask in their 15 minutes of fame. Three years later, these bugs, which were sterile and carried apoptosis genes that ensured they would die after fulfilling their mission, turn up again in New York's subways. Tyler and Mann, being the brave souls that they are, go down the subway system to track these bugs down, along with some help (read: bug din-din). This enables one to play guessing games as to who gets picked-off next by the terrifying insects, in a dark and claustrophobic setting.
What is not surprising, and perhaps indicative of the biggest hole in the plot, is that the creature manages to survive. What is surprising is that the creature mutates and evolves into a predator of man in such a short time.

      There are various sub-plots used to build-up suspense and horror as the movie progresses, before the final confrontation between Tyler and gang, and the Judas Breed, occurs. A particularly gruesome scene involves the killing of two bug bounty hunters by the Judas Breed: the details are masked in the movie, but our imagination fills in the gaps. The little boy (Alexander Goodwin) who is able to mimic the sound of the Judas Breed with spoons who he calls "Mr. funny shoes" provides an interesting touch. Most fascinating I found was the detail of the subway systems. The bugs are quite convincing, as are the actors.

       The main problem with Mimic is that while the build-up of suspense is effective, the ending is a bit of an anti-climax. Still, I think the movie is worth the matinee fare if getting scared appeals to you as a form of entertainment.

      I think you all would enjoy this film! try it out!

The Untouchables: Classic

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This week I re-watched one of my all-time favorite movie, The Untouchables. This Brian De Palma crime classic centers on the effort to arrest the notorious gangster, Al Capone. The movie takes place in the beginning of the 1930’s at the height of the prohibition in Chicago, Illinois. Eliot Ness and his gang of “Untouchables” must bend the rules of the law in order to capture the heavily influential criminal. 

The film stars Kevin Coster as Eliot Ness, Sean Connery as Jimmy Malone, and Robert De Niro plays Al Capone.  The film takes advantage of several engaging shots that really bring the viewer into the retro setting of this film to life. One thing I noticed this time watching it that I had not noticed before is that the clothing was all chosen and designed by Giorgio Armani. I am not really a fashion buff, but I know the significance of Mr. Armani’s name and I believe he did a really good job. The music in the film is entirely done with a full orchestra and it really lines up to the time period and the subject at hand.

The acting is superb. All characters shine especially De Niro’s interpretation of Capone. De Niro, known for his mobster roles, does the part great justice and really helps you understand how sick he really was.

I recommend the film to all.

Safe Haven... Yes, I saw a chick flick, but it was great!

For my Valentines day, my girlfriend and I went to dinner and a movie, and of course we ended up at a chick flick called, Safe Haven.


The movie started with the main character, Katie (Julianne Hough) fleeing from a house because of something that the audience has yet to discover. She skips town and arrives in a small-town in North Carolina, looking for clean slate after her horrible past in Boston. She finds a job at a local restaurant,  and rents a small, secluded home buried in the woods, hoping to avoid the tight-knit community. Alex (Josh Duhamel), a widowed store owner with two children, tries to welcome Katie to the neighborhood, but she denies him, not wanting a relationship with anyone.

Soon after the denial of friendship, Katie’s new friend in town Jo (Cobie Smulders), encourages her to become friends with Alex and to give their friendship a chance.  The art of Nicholas Sparks strikes again, after a date on the beach, a romantic canoeing trip, and a cute dinner date with dancing and laughing, Katie and Alex fall head over heels for each other.

 But, what's unique about this film over other Sparks films is that there is a good majority of suspense and surprisingly thrilling scenes all the throughout the movie. In an earlier scene Katie is running from the law, but we are unsure of the details. With a unique mix of excellent cinematography in the screenplay the audience is able to revisit Katie’s past in Boston through perspective of a drunken police detective Kevin (David Lyons), who is intensively trying to track her down.

Director Lasse Hallström excellently incorporates the beautiful scenery of North Carolina to benefit the plot, and the creative cinematography of particular scenes is just captivating.

 I will not give away the last few minutes of the film, but the twist was very uniquely placed in the storyline. The average viewer view it as cheesy, desperate and maybe a little strange, but I really thought it brought the whole emotional circle together. 

Even though the film doesn't truly live up to the other Sparks films like The Notebook or A Walk to Remember, the addition of cool cinematography and suspense creates a great new twist to his orginals. The Valentine’s Day release date will definitely play a huge roll in the popularity of this film.

Any couples out there, I suggest you go see!

House of Cards Kills

After listening to Arturo's such positive comments about the brand new Netflix series "House of Cards", I decided I'd give the first episode a try and see if they held true. 12 episodes later... I concurred that Arturo was right.

House of Cards proved to be a very intelligently written political drama that kept you on the edge of your seat throughout. It was extremely difficult to stop watching once I got started, with the ending of each episode leaving you on even more of a cliffhanger than the last. In addition to the excellent storytelling, the acting was absolutely superb. Kevin Spacey delivers an immaculate performance as Francis Underwood, the ruthless Majority Whip whose hellbent on scheming his way to the Presidency, and not letting anyone get in his way. However he still doesn't outshine his co-stars, with Robin Wright, Kate Mara, and Corey Stoll bringing their A game as well.

This is the second original series Netflix has put out, and this one really knocked it out of the park. Whether or not the show is a success hinges on how many of Netflix's subscribers decided to watch the show and keep watching once they got started. Netflix hasn't released any numbers yet, but the hope is that releasing an entire season all at once will keep viewers hooked given the accessibility of the next episode, as opposed to releasing each one weekly. Essentially, Netflix hopes their original series inspires the "binge watching" in which many customers end up using the service for (especially college students). After my experience, I have no doubt that it will.

Dial M for Murder

This week, I watched my first Alfred Hitchcock film, Dial M for Murder.  It's basically about a guy who finds out that his wife is cheating on him and comes up with an extremely elaborate plan to kill her as way of revenge.  I don't want to ruin the movie but the story is absolutely brilliant.  There are so many plot twists and elaborate schemes that you constantly find yourself thinking one thing is going to happen and then something else happens.  I constantly had to remind my self that this film was well over twice as old as I am, yet it was done so, so well.  Hitchcock was way ahead of his time in his storytelling.  From a video shooting/editing/aesthetic aspect, it was pretty bare bones in my opinion.  Everything was what it was supposed to be, and nothing more.  There were plenty of shots that we consider cheesy now, but they were almost necessary back then.  I absolutely was hooked watching this film.  I definitely plan on watching more of his films from now on.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Tyler

Creating Suspense: Zombie Style

After Breaking Bad ended and before Dexter starts in a couple weeks I decided that I needed a new show to watch. Naturally I turned to my Netflix account to see what I could find. My housemate Pat, a self proclaimed TV buff, recommended that I check out The Walking Dead. This is a show on AMC that only has two seasons so I figured it would be easy to catch up and add to my collection of TV series that I follow. One thing that caught my eye about Walking Dead is the fact that it was created and developed by the critically acclaimed Frank Darabont. I wrote about Darabont before and his work on Shawshank (one of my favorite films).  This seemed like a no-brainer.

The pilot episode starts in a run down town in what appears to be hit by a Zombie Apocalypse. The main character of the show that was in a coma during this Apocalypse leaves the hospital hurt and stunned that no one is tending him in the hospital. From the start of the episode it is obvious that the director is trying to create suspense in the episode. The first scene was brilliant in not only creating suspense but also sustaining this suspense throughout the first couple of scenes.

The camera work was exceptional. Each shot created a mood that something was seriously wrong with this world and bad things were to come. One of the first shots was of the main character walking on to the streets alone. The camera was at the characters feet. The camera was focused only on the characters feet for about 10 steps. This was a great way to create suspense. By only showing part of his body raises questions about where this character is, where he is going, and what exactly is around him. As the scene continues it is obvious that this town has been deserted. There are various shots of run down houses and empty cars parked on the street. One of my favorite parts of this scene was the patience the director showed. It felt like 10 minutes until another character was in the scene. Obviously there was going to be Zombies at some point, but by showing how alone the main character was at this point, really developed the plot and suspense without any dialogue.

Not only did the camera work create suspense in the opening scene but the audio also played a major factor. The scene really focused on natural sound and no music. Hearing the footsteps of the main character created a more fitting mood than any music of sound effects could have. The audio selection made it feel as if you were the character.  By not using music suspense is created. The audience is waiting for something to happen. The relative silence in the scene creates a scary environment, which is exactly what the director wants.

Darabont’s work is usually visually stunning and the pilot episode of The Walking Dead did not disappoint. In a series about Zombies, creating suspense is essential and the directors and producers did this in a unique way. By using natural sounds and multitude of camera angles this show had me on the edge of my seat for the first 20 minutes. Especially for a pilot, getting the viewers attention is crucial. I am going to continue to watch this show and I will report back more thoughts in the future.

-Michael Vulcano