Jaws

Jaws is an unforgettable film experience for anyone has seen it. The essential aqua horror, it is a tale of deep blue. Jaws is a giant great white shark that terrorizes the waters of Amity Island, New England during the summer of 1975. It is based off of Peter Benchley's book with the same title. A girl goes missing one night while skinny dipping in the ocean at a party. The police come to the conclusion she is killed by a shark. A young boy during the 4th of July also goes missing at the beach one day and the hunt for the shark begins. Brody, Quint, and Hooper go out in the Orca in an attempt to slay the beast. Quint slowly becomes obsessed with killing the shark and destroys many of the boats bare essentials in an attempt to force the trio to have to destroy the shark. Hooper goes into a dive cage in an attempt to stab Jaws with a drug on a spear to kill it. The dive cage is destroyed and Hooper finds safety on shore. The shark attacks the back of the boat and Quint falls into the monster's "Jaws". Brody shoves a scuba tank into it's mouth when another attack occurs. The shark barrels forward to Brody and he shoots the scuba tank, blowing the shark to smitherens. 

There are many elements to this film that contributed to it's grand success. The source material definitely plays a part. Steven Spielburg changed the story to a degree, editing the first two parts of the novel's story and keeping the third. Another important element, The fact that he does not actually show the audience the shark until the latter part of the film. This creates great suspense that carries throughout the film until the final reveal. The score by John Williams masterfully creates an eerie and terrifying vibe as well. A simple two low tones would terrifying every beach swimmer for generations. Spielburg uses William's score to reveal the antagonist's presence without revealing it's identity. Steven Spielburg wasn't a household name with his earlier films. After Jaws, he was widely known as a great director and went on to make other great movies like the Jurassic park series and Indiana Jones series. 

Django Unchained

At face value, Django is a testament to spaghetti westerns. Though, it is so much more. The story follows a young black slave by the name of Django. He is given a generous offer by Dr. King Schultz to help him hunt down three men from Django’s past. Schultz offers freedom and $75 dollars for the information. Django becomes Schultz bounty hunting partner. During a successful winter of hunts, Schultz tells Django he has located his wife. The two travel to Mississippi to gain more information on Broomhilda’s location. They arrive to Candyland, Calvin Candy’s grand ranch where many “Mandingo” fights are held. They pose as Mandingo officiandos who are looking to purchase their next big fighter in order to appease Calvin. Eventually they reach his plantation where Broomhilda is found. Their cover is blown. Calvin makes Dr. King Schultz sign the original offer for a Mandingo he made, $12,000. Schultz shoots and kills Calvin, and Schultz is killed. Django kills everyone, blows up the plantation, roll credits. 

Quentin Tarantino’s name on a film instantly gives the general public a nod due to his resume in the industry. First, we have a western film. There have been a few western’s in the cinema of recent memory, but none like Django. More than a testament, it is a synthesis of celebration. The cinematography and the dialogue carry the film in my opinion. There are many great shots of life in the old west. Be it saloons, deserts, old cabins, or campfires, nothing is spared in that degree. This creates the mindset that we are really in this western time period of 1858. There are many moments where the racial slur “nigger” is used. This would be normal for 1858, but there is a point where I realized it was used too much. I believe that Tarantino had the idea that if he pushed using that word to an absurd degree, it would separate the film from other westerns. The overuse of the word “nigger” tells me that it the film is not to be taken too seriously. The cinematography and soundtrack create this incredibly realistic western environment, while the dialogue ensures that it is not only a western. It pays tribute to the classics, while creating a fantastic character driven story too not be taken too seriously. 

Harold and Maude

A young man in his early 20s seeks to obtain that which he is most obsessed: death. So obsessed, in fact, that he performs elaborate fake suicides on a regular basis to show his discontent with life. His mother does not quite understand what he is going through, with her constant attempts to change her son from who he is. He also attends funerals frequently. One of these funerals is where he meets Maude. A nearly 80 old woman on the latter side of her life has a quite carefree mentality to everything in life. Harold finds great interest in her personality, and likewise Maude with Harold’s. Against the will of Harold’s family, the two fall in love.  Maude teaches Harold the valuable lesson of the value of life, to find value in himself. On Maude’s 80^th birthday, Harold throws here a surprise party. He finds out that she took a multitude of sleeping pills and she tells him that 80 is the perfect age to die. He rushes her to the hospital and she dies. Harold fakes his suicide by driving a car off of a cliff. He is seen walking away from the cliff, playing a banjo in the last scene. 

The film seems to revolve around it’s own soundtrack. The music of Cat Stevens seems to be the forefront of this movie. Stevens actually wrote two songs specifically for the film “Don’t Be Shy” and “If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out”. I feel that Harold and Maude’s music is the forefront of the message it is attempting to convey, which is to enjoy life. Cat Stevens music and lyrics are very upbeat to fit this theme. Every time that Harold tries to kill himself, or do something that does not involve dialogue, Cat Stevens is heard.I believe that the soundtrack of a film is very important. The music of Cat Stevens could have been used in the wrong manner. It was implemented into the movie correctly and it shows. 

Evil Dead (2013)

"Evil Dead" is the remake of the 1981 classic horror film that jumpstarted director Sam Raimi's career. He is a known fan pleaser, so the updated 2013 remake comes with no surpass as well as a planned sequel to the original "Evil Dead". The plot circulates around 4 young people who are communing at an abandoned cabin to break their friend Mia's drug addiction. They find a mysterious evil book in the basement, and as expected, read from it. Demons from the surrounding woods are summoned and their situation continually gets worse. 

The elements of this film, are that of most horror films in the genre. Rather, it plays off of the stereotypes of the genre to a masterful degree.The characters need to investigate every single noise or weird movement, the use of suspense built seemingly anything (including things that are completely non-threatening), and also the ability of the main characters to slip and fall during every altercation with a demon. Surprises are also another element used frequently. Stereotypes are followed to such a degree that twists are never seen coming. The movie forces you to believe that they are following the set formula so well, that it made the curveballs thrown are enjoying that much more. Channeling the original film, also becomes the forefront of the feature film. Subtle nods are frequent and great for any fan of the original. 

Fede Alvarez was hand picked by Sam Raimi to direct this film. Raimi definitely saw something in the young director, who had little experience other than a few small films prior to a $30 - 40 million contract with Ghost House Pictures and the responsibility of a huge horror movie franchise reboot/remake. In my opinion, Alvarez does a fantastic job using the genre as a tool. Evil Dead did great and for many reasons. One, you have the remake of a classic film that has a major cult following. Two, a new fan base of film goers who are intrigued by the trailer, which was made very intelligently to capture horror fans. Three, it is a self aware film. Evil Dead knows that you expect all of the normal horror films stereotypes. Sometimes delivering, sometimes twisting and turning. If you lead the audience to believe something just enough using imagery and sound, they will have never seen the next surprise you have in store for them. 

Black Snake Moan: 

Directed by Craig Brewer, who is famous for 2005's Hustle and Flow, Black Snake Moan is a drama fixed in a small town in Mississippi. It is a film of overcoming your problems. The plot circulates around the three main characters Lazarus, Rae, and Ronnie. All three of these characters have issues that they deal with throughout the film. This movie is a fantastic psychological drama based around Blues music, and a girl with an addiction to sex. Christina Ricci plays her role as Rae effortlessly, so much to the point of self-criticism. She believed that the way the movie was marketed was potentially exploiting women. After viewing the film, it is easy to see how she would come to such a conclusion. Rae is a character who comes across as simply what some would call sexually deviant. There is much more to her though. In her sinful and sexual anguish, there is promise of decency within. Lazarus see's this. Lazarus is a blues man living in the country on his own farm. A man of faith who has alcohol and faith issues himself. Samuel L Jackson is one of my favorite actors because of how well he makes his characters his own. So it came to no surprise when he seemed as if he was born to play Laz. These two characters collide and bounce off of each other so well. My favorite scenes were the ones with serious dialogue between Rae and Laz. Ronnie is a member of the Tennessee National Guard that has a problem with anxiety attacks. He is shipped off in the beginning of the film, to Rae's discontent. It seems that once Ronnie was shipped off, Rae's addiction got worse. So much in fact, that she is put into a situation of being beaten into a short coma and left for dead on the side of the road. Laz finds her, and thus begins the clashing. Lazarus see's more inside of Rae, and tries to break her of the sexual addiction that constantly haunts her. The more of I watched the film, the more I realized that the true theme was about finding something inside yourself to hang onto when your sorrows eat away at your soul. Overcoming the tribulations you suffer through, just to see the other side. Overall, I would highly recommend this film. It is sad that the marketers made the film come off as only a tale of sexual eye candy. People should really give it a chance, as I almost overlooked it at face value. You could say that the theme of this film overcame what the marketers determined it to be. I suppose that is what great screenplay/cinematography can do for a movie such as this.

The Evil Dead - A Film Review

This week I chose to review: The Evil Dead directed and written by Sam Raimi. This film has a huge cult following, as well as a reboot coming out April 5th. This is one of my favorite horror films in recent memory. It originially released on October 15, 1981 and it shows. The use of props, fake blood, and a Super 8mm camera helps explain the film's roughly estimated $375,000 budget. The film's format is blow-up 35mm. Sam Raimi was only 20 years old at the time and had a very difficult time finding investors, eventually to the point of begging. Much of the crew was inexperienced, which made for unintentionally funny film. There was so much inexperience in fact that Raimi would run through the woods with his camera, strapped to a wood log, to capture the first person perspective of a demon running through the woods. This "horror comedy" played with many of the horror genre's stereotypes to become what it intended to. A general plot summary for this film sounds something like this: Five college students from Michigan State drive into the hill's of Tennessee to enjoy their spring break vacation in a cabin. The setting of the cabin in the woods helps to carry the overbearing feeling of loneliness. Upon their arrival, a sense of eeriness comes over them. They find a book entitled: The Book of the Dead, as well as private recordings from an unknown. They begin to be attacked by the forces of evil that they have summoned from reading this book. Bruce Campbell plays Ash,  a stereotypical college student protagonist. With him are his girlfriend Cheryl, and friends Scotty, Linda, Shelly. I do not see much of a serious theme, much because this is not much of a serious movie. It is meant to be entertaining and gory. I think much of the reason that this film does want it intends to so well is that it does not take itself seriously at all. I believe that there are two parts to this film: The first half, which involves the build up of the demon attacks and the second half being the psychological battle within Ash.  Sam Raimi knew what he was doing, and he knew how ridiculous it was. I feel that great directing comes from the director executing on exactly what he is intending. The mood of this film bounces around like a beach ball at a Nickelback concert. One moment, there is sheer terror and horror overcoming you as Ash is chased by a demon zombie, the next being the hilarity of a girl being "raped" by a bunch of trees. Raimi more than delivers with an unspeakably huge cult following as well as being cited among the greatest horror films of all time.