VOD Review: Inside (2018)

"Tame, by comparison. Or even on its own."

In 2007, the directing duo of Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo gave us one of the best Horror movies of the new millennium with Inside (À l'intérieur).

Inside was a gory, bleak, extreme film that had us gripping our seats until the very end, and it left us feeling a bit dirty when all was said and done.

It's a modern day classic, to say the least.

This remake, however, is a watered-down disappointment that feels like it was made to appeal to a wider audience instead of actually being bold and making a statement. 

Sarah and her loving husband are expecting a baby, and they couldn't be happier. When a car accident claims the life of hubby, that happiness is ripped away from Sarah, and she's forced to face the future, and the impending birth of their child, all alone.

NOW, SHE'S JUST SAD. AND VERY PREGNANT.

Flash forward to Sarah at home, preparing for a lonely Christmas. When a shadowy woman knocks on her door in the middle of the night asking to use the phone, her Christmas is about to get a whole lot bloodier, because this woman wants her unborn baby for her own.

If you've seen the original, you know how the plot plays out. If not, go watch it now, and avoid all spoilers.

DON'T ANSWER THE DOOR, IT'S A TRICK!

As with the Martyrs remake, this Americanized retelling of the French classic Inside is lacking in many ways. Where as the original was an artistic gorefest that pushed boundaries and was soaked in nuance, this remake just feels like any other run-of-the-mill offering that hits VOD week after week these days, because that's exactly what it is.

It's a well-made little movie, but absent is the dread and the shocking visceral punch that made the original so memorable. That's extra disappointing given the fact that it's produced by Jaume Balagueró (the guy who brought us the [REC] series, and it's directed by Miguel Ángel Vivas (the guy who brought us Kidnapped.) With that kind of talent behind the camera, this remake should have been way better than it is.

Rachel Nichols does a solid job as the terrorized widow who is about to give birth and finds herself fighting for the the life of herself and her unborn child; and Laura Harring does an admirable job as The Woman who is bound and determined to cut the baby from her and make it her own, but in the case of the latter, her character doesn't ever really feel terrifying, like Beatrice Dalle's counterpart in the original. The problem is where the original played more on atmosphere, this remake humanizes the villain far too much, giving her way too many lines of dialogue that lessened the impact of the threat she posed.

And the ending... what in the hell were they thinking?

It's really hard for us to watch a remake like this and not compare it to the original. I know that every film should be judged on its own merit, but then, when a film's merit is shared with that of another, far superior film, how can we not judge it by comparison?

SORRY, RACHEL. WE KNOW YOU TRIED.

There's some gore on display here, but it all feels rather conventional, as opposed to shocking.

DON'T WORRY, NOTHING COMES OF THIS.

Nada.

WHAT A MISSED OPPORTUNITY...

If this wasn't a remake of a beloved modern day classic, then it wouldn't be a bad movie at all. Because it isn't a bad movie. It is however a pallid remake of a movie that hit us like a gut punch back in 2008, and because it lacks the originals nuance and shock factor, it's thusly doomed to live in mediocre remake hell.

If you dig remakes though, and can view them on their own merit without needing to compare, then this movie may be worth a look for you.

C

Inside is available on VOD now.

Well, at least the movie's eye candy game was on point.

Blu-ray Review: IT (2017)

"It's even better the 2nd time around on Blu-ray."

(aka The Loser's Club.)
Release Date: September 8th.
Country: USA.
Rating: R.
Written by: Chase Palmer and Cary Fukunaga.
Directed by: Anthony Muschietti.
Starring: Jaeden Lieberher, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Jack Dylan Grazer, Chosen Jacobs, Wyatt Oleff, and Bill Skarsgard.

There have been some great movies this year, but as we approach the 4th quarter of 2017, none of them has made us feel like the remake of IT did.

In direct contrast to the 1990 mini-series, it's not even Pennywise that made this remake so great, but the story of the kids. IT definitely has a Stranger Things vibe about it, but watching The Loser's Club run around Derry, Maine brought to mind movies like The Goonies or The Monster Squad, probably because we're old, and those movies came way before the hit Netflix show did.

Point is, it reminded us of a time when our friends were all we had, and we stuck together through whatever came our way.

It might sound crazy, but this new take on the world of IT is so captivating that I really wish that they would have gone the TV route with it. Season 1 could have been 8 episodes of the kid's story, and Season 2 could have switched gears to the adults, and finished things off.

As it stands though, the IT remake is a great piece of work that made us wish we were kids again... just not in Derry, where a killer clown from the nth dimension would be trying to eat us.

On a rainy day in 1988, stuttering Bill Denbrough makes a paper boat for his little brother Georgie, so that he can go outside and sail it in the gutters. The boat washes into a storm drain that is occupied by a clown who introduces himself as Pennywise the Dancing Clown before biting the kid's arm off, and dragging him into the sewers.

JUST LET THE BOAT GO, GEORGIE.

9 months later, and the list of missing kids is growing. While Bill and his friends, The Loser's Club, spend their days being terrorized by the sadistic Henry Bowers and his gang of thugs, they all start having horrific run-ins with a clown, who tries to kill each of them in ways suited to their worst fears. Mainly because Pennywise feeds on fear.

AND HE ALSO INSPIRES FEAR QUITE WELL.

When they finally realize that Pennywise is a very real threat and has been eating children every 27 years for centuries, they band together to put an end to him once and for all.

INTO THE GLORY HOLE OF DOOM THEY GO.

IT is the kind of Horror movie that we desperately need. Not only is it scary as hell, but the coming-of-age story that anchors most of the movie is genuinely heartfelt, and it sucked us in and made us want to be a part of The Loser's Club. As scary as it is, and it is scary, it's filled with plenty of humor and humanity, and it captures the perils of being an outcast child fantastically.

The casting of the kids is just about perfect. Watching Sophia Lillis as Beverly, I said to myself "This girl is going to win an Oscar someday." Sounds crazy, but the girl displays the type of nuance that separates good actors from the great, and she played the part as if she'd been born to do so. It was an absolute star-making turn. The rest of the kids were great too, with Finn Wolfhard's Richie being our fave; the kid made us laugh, and he brought some much needed levity to the dark proceedings.

As for Bill Skarsgard's take on Pennywise... Look, say what you will about the 1990 mini-series, but Tim Curry was brilliant as Pennywise, and his performance will stand as one of the Horror greats forever. So what can we really expect from someone else trying to follow that kind of lead, you know? Skarsgard makes for a terrifying clown, and he gives the film plenty of menace, but it just wasn't as good as Curry's turn. And it didn't have to be.

• The Lego turtle was a nice nod.
• As was the doll of Tim Curry's Pennywise.
• The bathroom scene was a huge improvement over the one from the mini-series, and it was one of the best bits in the movie.
• The rock fight rocked.

THIS GIRL STOLE THE SHOW.

As with any remake, or adaptation of a novel, there are going to be changes. Here, they made Georgie go missing instead of his body being found early on; the way that Bev makes it into the sewers at the end is different, and not as good; what exactly was Henry Bower's fate? Who will take the rap for the child murders? It was a bummer that Patrick Hockstetter's creepy story wasn't delved into a bit more too. And what about The Wolfman? The giant bird? The Paul Bunyan statue that comes to life? And why did they change Mike's character so much? And a bolt gun instead of the slingshot?

They obviously made these changes to appeal to the modern audience, and make things scarier. These are minor gripes, as we get that not everything from the book could possibly make the movie, but we miss certain elements.

THE HOUSE ON NIEBOLT STREET.

IT ended, and we wanted more. Also, production on the 2nd part of IT (which is not a sequel, but the back-half of the story) hasn't even begun production yet!

GIVE US MORE!

The bathroom scene with Beverly is literally soaked in blood, and it is glorious.

THOSE TAMPONS SURE ARE GOING TO COME IN HANDY NOW.

Not that kind of movie at all.

INSTEAD, IT'S THIS KIND OF MOVIE.

IT looks and sounds great in 1080p (and we imagine it must look even better on 4K), and it made our return trip to Derry, Maine a technically impressive one. I personally loved the Pennywise Lives! and Loser's Club featurettes, and the look behind the scenes that they gave us.

The only bad thing about this disc is that in a few months there will be an Extended Director's Cut released, so it feels like buying this one is a bit of a pre-double dip. I needed to own it, and to watch it again now, but for people who aren't a big fan of double-dipping, you may want to wait until that DC is released.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Pennywise Lives! – Discover how Bill Skarsgård prepared to portray the primordial creature known as Pennywise the Dancing Clown
• The Losers' Club – Get up close and personal with the teenage stars of "IT" as they bond together during the production,
• Author of Fear – Stephen King reveals the roots of his best-selling novel, the nature of childhood fear and how he created his most famous monster, Pennywise
• Deleted Scenes – Eleven deleted or extended scenes from the film
• Languages: English, Latin Spanish, Canadian French, Brazilian Portuguese
• Subtitles: English, Latin Spanish, Parisian French, Canadian French, Brazilian Portuguese

HE'S A SCARY DUDE.

The bottom line is this: IT is a great remake, a great film in its own right, and it should be seen by all. It has a special, nostalgic quality about it, it's terrifying (at least for those who fear clowns), and for us, it more than lived up to its massive pre-release hype.

Read the book, watch the original mini-series, and then grab the disc and enjoy.

A+

IT is available now on Blu-ray, DVD, and VOD.

Some shots of Pennywise, because who doesn't need a few more nightmares in their life?

DirecTV Review: Leatherface (2017)

"Leatherface is more of a road revenge flick than it is an origin story."

(aka The Road to Mexico.)
Release Date: September 21st.
Country: USA.
Rating: R.
Written by: Seth M. Sherwood.
Directed by: Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury.
Starring: Stephen Dorff, Vanessa Grasse, Lili Taylor, Finn Jones, Sam Strike, and Jessica Madsen.

I'm going to come right out and say it: I love the 2003 TCM remake, and its follow-up, TCM: The Beginning, nearly as much as I love the original. In a vastly different way, of course, but I thought they were good flicks.

About this prequel/re-imagining, I'll say that while it's plagued with issues, that it's still better than every other film in the franchise, save for maybe TCM 2, which is debatable.

Did I mention that this movie has issues though? Because it does.

It's 1955, and Verna Sawyer and her brood of inbred whelps live a happy life, killing people for fun. When the Sawyer kids lure a dumb-ass girl (who should have stayed in the car) to her death, they invoke the rage of her father, the sociopathic Texas Ranger, Hal Hartman, who has them committed to a boys home for the criminally insane.

WHY WOULD YOU FOLLOW THAT INTO THE WOODS?!?

Ten years later, little Jed (I thought his name was Bubba) Sawyer is all grown up and living in the asylum where he was left to rot, just waiting around to become Leatherface. Missing her son, Verna visits the asylum, where she sparks a riot in which he and some other teen nutbags escape, taking a sweet and innocent nurse hostage in the process.

CAN YOU EVEN TELL WHICH ONE OF THEM IS NOT INSANE?

As they make a run for Mexico, Hartman and his lawdogs give pursuit. What follows next is a bloody cacophony of twisted death, very little of which involves a chainsaw.

Ultra-violent road revenge antics ensue.

YEAH, THAT'S PRETTY MUCH HOW EVERY SOUTHERN LAWMAN LOOKED BACK IN THE 60'S.

Leatherface serves as more of a great series of gory set pieces than it does a prequel to one of the most beloved Horror franchises of all time. It's bloody and nasty, which should delight the gorehounds out there, but a lot of those bits feel like they were included just to make the movie seem over-the-top, rather than serving the central narrative.

Most of the story is told from the perspective of the bloodthirsty teenagers who escape from the asylum with Leatherface, instead of, you know, making the story about him, which makes it feel almost pointless to call this a Texas Chainsaw flick. Maybe they got caught up in the "twist" that the movie lays on us towards the end, and they thought that building everything around that would somehow make it better?

We already know the Sawyer clan is a bunch of deranged, backwoods cannibals, and that Leatherface is the half-wit muscle of the brood, so why try and change it up and make him something altogether different? By the time it started to feel like a TCM flick at the end, I thought to myself "This is where they should have started things, not ended them.

That said, the movie works on some levels. It delivers on gore, it's got plenty of twisted action throughout, and the cast did a solid job in their roles; Stephen Dorff rocked it as the Texas Ranger who is as deranged as the inmates he's pursuing.

THERE'S NO JOY IN THIS MAN'S LIFE. NONE.

The twist... I won't give it away (you'll figure it out towards the end), but I will say that I didn't dig it. Aside from it being there to seem clever, it just didn't play well for me.

SHE APPARENTLY DIDN'T LIKE IT EITHER.

How sick do you have to be to have a threesome with a corpse?!?

"DRINK UP AND PRETEND THIS SHIT ISN'T HAPPENING."

If nothing else, Leatherface delivers on the blood and gore, which is pretty much a staple of any Maury & Bustillo film. The headshot in the diner, the threesome, the Texas Tauntaun scene... this one gets plenty nasty.

WELL, IT WAS A GOOD RUN WHILE IT LASTED...

Jessica Madsen bares all, and even french kisses a rotting corpse...

...AND THAT'S WHY SHE HAS TO GO TO DIRTY WHORE JAIL!

The bottom line is this: Leatherface is an uneven addition to the TCM universe. It's a gorfest that loosely gives us some background on the titular character's childhood, but plays it too casual with the plot to be considered a definitive Leatherface origin story. I mean, it is an origin story, but only at the beginning and end really.

If you're looking for a bloody entry in the story of the Sawyer clan, and can overlook the film's shortcomings, then Leatherface is definitely one to rent when it hits VOD outlets later in the month.

C+

Leatherface is streaming on DirecTV now, and will hit VOD outlets and limited theaters on October 20th.

The girls in Texas sure are purty!