Movies
Madhouse (There Was a Little Girl)
“MADHOUSE has some genuinely eerie scenes, but they’re shotgunned throughout a lame and poorly-paced narrative, resulting in a film that’s truly hard to defend, even by B-movie standards.”
Working on the fringe of Italian horror cinema for over 40 years, prolific movie producer Ovidio G. Assonitis also managed to log a few hours as director, helming staples of 70s cheese like BEYOND THE DOOR, TENTACLES, and PIRAHNA PART TWO: THE SPAWNING. In MADHOUSE—a little-known snooze getting a DVD re-release from Dark Sky—he regurgitates themes previously explored in other, better psychological horror films from the 1970s, but there’s no denying the guy knows how to frame a shot.
Julia is an attractive young teacher of deaf kids, living a carefree, early-80s life, when she is contacted by Mary, her long ignored twin sister. Mary is sequestered in a hospital, suffering from “deformed features” and “skin erosions”, and Julia hasn’t seen her in years. Back when they were little girls, the two siblings didn’t really get along, with the sadistic Mary occasionally poking her twin sister with needles. On Julia’s birthday, Mary tormented her with a vicious attack dog, Abu Ghraib-style, and Julia has spent the past 30-odd years refusing to come to terms with their jacked-up twinner relationship.
The deformed Mary escapes from the hospital, Julia begins getting hang-up phone calls, and a rash of poorly-staged death scenes ensue, all of which are telegraphed FAR in advance with the use of synthesized laser blast sound effects that could only have been considered suspenseful in 1981. Mary makes the occasional scary appearance, but for the most part, she’s one of those lazy deformed evil twins who sends her attack dog to do the dirty work. And once you’ve seen one guy get his throat gnawed off by a fake, rubbery-looking dog head, you’ve seen them all.
MADHOUSE has some genuinely eerie scenes, but they’re shotgunned throughout a lame and poorly-paced narrative, resulting in a film that’s truly hard to defend, even by B-movie standards. There’s no denying the occasional effectiveness of Assonitis’ framing and shot selection, and Dark Sky has released a crisp print with rich color saturation. Too bad the actual narrative can’t match the director’s obvious talent behind the camera.
Movies
’28 Years Later’ – Ralph Fiennes, Jodie Comer, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson Join Long Awaited Sequel
Danny Boyle and Alex Garland (Annihilation, Men), the director and writer behind 2002’s hit horror film 28 Days Later, are reteaming for the long-awaited sequel, 28 Years Later. THR reports that the sequel has cast Jodie Comer (Alone in the Dark, “Killing Eve”), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kraven the Hunter), and Ralph Fiennes (The Menu).
The plan is for Garland to write 28 Years Later and Boyle to direct, with Garland also planning on writing at least one more sequel to the franchise – director Nia DaCosta is currently in talks to helm the second installment.
No word on plot details as of this time, or who Comer, Taylor-Johnson, and Fiennes may play.
28 Days Later received a follow up in 2007 with 28 Weeks Later, which was executive produced by Boyle and Garland but directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. Now, the pair hope to launch a new trilogy with 28 Years Later. The plan is for Garland to write all three entries, with Boyle helming the first installment.
Boyle and Garland will also produce alongside original producer Andrew Macdonald and Peter Rice, the former head of Fox Searchlight Pictures, the division of one-time studio Twentieth Century Fox that originally backed the British-made movie and its sequel.
The original film starred Cillian Murphy “as a man who wakes up from a coma after a bicycle accident to find England now a desolate, post-apocalyptic collapse, thanks to a virus that turned its victims into raging killers. The man then navigates the landscape, meeting a survivor played by Naomie Harris and a maniacal army major, played by Christopher Eccleston.”
Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) is on board as executive producer, though the actor isn’t set to appear in the film…yet.
Talks of a third installment in the franchise have been coming and going for the last several years now – at one point, it was going to be titled 28 Months Later – but it looks like this one is finally getting off the ground here in 2024 thanks to this casting news. Stay tuned for more updates soon!
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