
NateWatchesCoolMovies
Joined Feb 2008
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Leigh Whannell's Wolf Man feels oddly clipped, curt and inconsequential, a B-grade script we've seen countless times on the SyFy channel given the big screen treatment for inexplicable reasons, providing similar results. After a promisingly tense opening sequence set in the lush Pacific Northwest wilderness, the film settles into a listlessly familiar story of a 40-something couple (Christopher Abbott & Julia Garner) and their young daughter (Matilda Firth) driving out to a rural area to settle his deceased father's estate. They are promptly attacked on the road and flee from their vehicle, taking shelter in a nearby cabin as the beast rages outside and the husband begins to exhibit changes from a bite wound on his arm. There are subsequently some chases, a bit of gore, some moderately suspenseful confrontations amidst moody nighttime scenery and that's about it. The creature makeup does nothing to stand out or leave a lasting impression and the most inspired bit of the film, involving communicated language and the loss of it as he transforms, was already spoiled in the trailer so it doesn't land as the innovative surprise it should be. I haven't seen the ancient black and white wolf man movies but if I think back to the 2010 one with Benicio Del Toro, which wasn't perfect, had some silly CGI and disinterested performances, at least that one *tried* to be grandiose, memorable, something special within the horror genre. This one plays like a made for TV monster flick and if it was released as so I would have been adequately entertained by it and left feeling satisfied, but as a big screen release from the guy who gave us the brilliant Invisible Man, Upgrade and helped on the Saw movies? Not so much.
Peter Berg shows us how the west was glum in American Primeval, a beautifully shot, stunningly well made yet persistently bleak and ruthless western miniseries that will test your limits in enduring human suffering onscreen. In the mid 1800's, Utah is a ferocious mess of warring factions including the US military, various Indian tribes, corrupt Mormons and all manner of freakshow fringe players. A woman (Betty Gilpin) on the run with her young son hires a grizzled tracker (Taylor Kitsch) to guide them basically through hell, while a young religious man (Dane DeHaan, so intense I thought he was going to implode) feverishly searches for his kidnapped wife (Saura Lightfoot-Leon, fantastic) following their wagon party's brutal massacre. Elsewhere, legendary Jim Bridger (Shea Wighman, stealing scenes with alarming ease) deals with the encroachment of nefarious Mormon leader and Utah governor Brigham Young (Kim Coates, radiating pious malevolence). These stories intersect and unfold together with competent fluidity and gorgeous visual style but damn if Berg doesn't seem hellbent on dampening the collective spirit with this relentlessly downbeat, impossibly cruel picture of America at an advent of destructive progress and violent amalgamation of the utmost worst qualities in the human being stewed together in a recipe that leaves you gagging and gasping for cathartic respite, of which there is eventually a modicum of, but very little overall. On top of the scalpings, rapes, stabbings, beatings, throat slitting, wild animal maulings, broken bones, shootings and near constant verbal berating Berg also seems more than happy happy to throw in a harrowing sequence where Kitsch and his party run into a ghastly clan of inbred backwoods Cajun psycho murderers right out of The Hills Have Eyes and as undeniably scary and effective a sequence as it is, I wonder at its inclusion being a bit overkill as the diseased cherry atop an already overbearingly grotesque narrative cake. Yet despite all this grim ugliness there is no denying the quality in production, acting, cinematography, score (terrific work from Explosions In The Sky), makeup, lighting and overall storytelling prowess. It's a captivating experience, if you have the stomach for it. Streaming now on Netflix.
We haven't had a really good vehicular themed horror movie in a while and The Man In The White Van is just the ticket to kick off this year for the genre. Vaguely based on a true story (serial killer Billy Mansfield, if you feel inclined on a rabbit hole dive), it's tight, taut, character based shocker about a young girl (Madison Wolfe) in 1970's rural Florida being stalked and terrorized by a mysterious white van that keeps haunting her on the edges of her family's acreage, desolate backroads and quiet, eerie locations that add a lot of atmosphere. She has a hell of a time convincing her parents (Sean Astin & Ali Larter) that this guy really exists, mainly because at first his interest in shadowing her is so subtle and gradually encroaching over the space of a couple years that only she really notices. Two thirds of the film is really well done character development and just existing within this 70's family setting, getting to know this girl, her high school life, internal headspace and time riding her horse that she loves. When the killer finally makes a discernible move after hovering on the edge of her (and our) uneasiness for so long, we really care about her and want to see her come out of this alive and minimally traumatized and that's also thanks to Wolfe's terrifically engaging, sympathetic lead performance. This is the first feature for director Warren Skeels and he shows skill in using atmosphere and spatial dynamics to generate dread infused suspense, the looming, leering presence of the van in the desolate, often quiet and visually open landscapes (Shreveport, Louisiana standing in for rural Florida) is a genuinely chilling scenario, made all the more uneasy by a nervy, writing score from Scott Thomas Borland that gives the chases, pursuit and gradual buildup a palpable menace.