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Wetiko (2022)
Intimate film that deals with big themes and pulls it off flawlessly.
Incredible to look at movie that takes you to another world and has the kind of authenticity cinema rarely achieves. Main character Aapo hops on a motorbike and heads into the Yucatán jungle after being enticed by the alluring charms of a sensual Mayan woman who approaches him at his mother's pet shop. The woman has come looking for special toads which secrete a hallucinogen sought after by hipster, faux backpacker types out to expand their spiritual horizons. As Aapo is a novice toad handler the captivating woman hires him to come to a retreat in the jungle overseen by a New Age shaman charlatan who it turns out is running a scam to get land cheap for redevelopment from the indigenous people living in the village. A feeling of menace slowly builds... The movie is masterfully done.
Tejano (2018)
glad I came across it
It's a shame this movie hasn't gotten more attention. It's very well made and beautifully photographed. Performances are solid and the story is a welcome relief from the usual overblown Hollywood fare.
Virus (1980)
Has a lot of charm
A weaker effort in the Italian zombie sub-genre that flourished for a short time in the late 70's and early 80's, although the movie is not without its charm and inspired moments. The make-up effects are on the cheesier side and obviously the production didn't have much of a pyrotechnics budget, consequently the gunshots and exploding squibs don't have much pizazz. Not surprisingly the film's set-up owes much to George Romero's "Dead" movies.
The story line? A government is creating some type of dangerous chemical in an unimpressive-looking smoke stack factory. The chemical leaks out – a dead rat makes a cameo. Don't ask. People turn immediately into zombies and naturally enough want to eat juicy regular Homo sapiens. A political statement about over-population is thrown in. For some reason a SWAT-type team who blows away a band of eco- agitated terrorists at the beginning of the movie is sent on a mission to Zombie Island. This is where the bulk of the film takes place.
The quartet of commandos is comprised of a charismatic squad leader, a somewhat colorful psycho who likes to taunt the zombies and two other nondescript types. The commandos run into a fairly hot-looking Iti reporter chick and her annoying mustachioed cameraman on the island. A husband and wife along with their zombie-bitten son are quickly dispensed with at this juncture.
The best thing to do when watching a flick of this type is throw logic out the window and enjoy the high points. And there are a few. Most notably when the reporter chick tells the guys she'll have to go ahead and smooth the way for a powwow with the local villagers. She then proceeds to pop her top, revealing a most exquisite pair of natural breasts. As we all know, wacky tribes people go around topless, so it only makes sense that our reporter would do likewise – to make them feel at ease as it were. Hey, when in Rome
It's a great way to introduce gratuitous nudity into a picture and also be able to tell the actress playing the part, "But this is essential to the story, honey." There's some National Geographic type footage of tribesmen and women dancing around and eating maggots. Then our stars get to react with extras dolled-up to resemble the tribes people in the other footage. I learned a lot about native customs.
Another inspired scene has one of the commandos (who can remember their actual names?) deciding to suddenly become a transvestite by donning a tutu and doing a little dance while in the midst of searching an abandoned house for zombies. Of course he enters the wrong room and ends up being devoured by the dead.
It would be remiss of me to not also mention:
All Italians seem to have (at least in this movie) a predisposition to helplessly watch as their fellow countrymen are eaten alive by zombies. They seem incapable of moving or doing anything to help. A very strange condition. They can even watch themselves being eaten without actually resisting. Must be attributable to pasta shock.
Hell of the Living Dead (aka Night of the Zombies) should win an award for some of the worst examples of mismatched wildlife stock footage integration in a motion picture. And couple that with worse sound effects. At least half of the shots of birds and other animals are inexplicably accompanied by the sound of gobbling turkeys. Guess they only had one wildlife sound effects album in their collection.
The driving Goblin soundtrack ain't bad at times. Another tip of the hat to Romero.
The commandos constantly have trouble remembering to shoot zombies in the head even after being frequently berated by their resident psycho comrade.
Sooner or later every character cannot resist wandering off by themselves, acting as if they are on a picnic - and sure enough they find zombie trouble.
Overwrought characters repeat lines such as, "Die bastard! Die!"
Night of Something Strange (2016)
Wow
Basically a masterpiece of the genre - twisted, sick and funny. And the filmmakers have balls, taking things to a level rarely dared. One quick example – after a high school hottie discards a bloody tampon in a gas station toilet a zombie janitor fishes it out and wolfs it down like a tasty morsel.
But as aggressively as Night of Something Strange pursues the gross-out humor it still maintains a level of charm due to the actors' performances. The movie is also for the most part well-shot with smart camera work (especially the night time stuff). And it has one of the best music scores I've ever heard in a low budget indie. The weakest part about Night of Something Strange is its rather generic title.
Varsity Blood (2014)
Has a certain magic
Wow. The expression "so good it's bad" is overused, but in Varsity Blood's case it's absolutely apropos. I was enthralled. With porn level acting, 25 to 30 year-olds playing teens, chunks of inane exposition dialog, this flick has enough cheese to keep a contingent of Frenchmen content for generations to come. I especially appreciated the waterboy character charging around with a rifle which he knows is not loaded and then the end face-off between the killer and our heroine where she waves a handgun as if it's a knife and the killer reacts as if it's one also. The movie moves along at a good pace, the limited and brief gore is decent and I liked the killer's mascot mask.