Movies
100 Feet
“I haven’t seen too many of Eric Red’s films, either when he’s just the writer (Near Dark) or taking directing duties as well (Body Parts), but I feel safe in saying that 100 Feet will be remembered as one of his best.”
I haven’t seen too many of Eric Red’s films, either when he’s just the writer (Near Dark) or taking directing duties as well (Body Parts), but I feel safe in saying that 100 Feet will be remembered as one of his best. Taking a minimal (and potentially disastrous) storyline – a woman under house arrest being tormented by the ghost of her abusive husband – and maximizing the number of scares and surprising plot elements, his work here should be commended, and seen by the widest audience possible.
First of all, there’s fewer ways to ensure an audience stays engaged with what is onscreen than to structure your film in a manner that places Famke Jannsen front and center for nearly every second of the running time. She’s always been an interesting actress (has she ever even stooped to a romcom?) and she’s as hot now as she was 13 years ago in Goldeneye. On the surface, a movie about a woman confined to her home sounds as visually exciting as watching paint dry, but Red and Famke prove that notion wrong.
And you gotta give props to Michael Paré, playing the ghost of her ex-husband. The ghost design is super creepy (it’s sort of J-horror inspired, but with a touch of German expressionism), and while you never really see Paré’s face, you can tell it’s him, and he is one brutal motherfucker. There’s a bit late in the film when he utterly annihilates Famke’s new boyfriend, and the blood splatter from the guy forms an image of his person, a la the invisible man effects in Hollow Man or Memoirs Of An Invisible Man. It’s one of the best (and most violent) “ghost attack” scenes I’ve seen in ages.
Again, this could all be ludicrous, but the film is played 100% serious, and it works. There are at least 4 great jump scares in the film, plus one of the all time best “hand in the garbage disposal” scenes. Lots of horror films have this gag, and sometimes it fails to deliver the intended effect (i.e. scaring me out of ever putting my own hand in one again – I’m always losing bottle caps down there!), but this one nails it.
I also like how Red chose to not beat us over the head with some of the details. Early on the ghost begins tossing plates at Famke at breakneck speed. Later on, we see that she has replaced all her kitchenware with plastic or Styrofoam, but we don’t have a cutesy scene of her buying bulk Dixie stock. One detail I wish they did explain though was why Famke always stretches to open her front door, as it falls just outside her “100 foot” range. We are told she has 3 minutes before she will get in trouble, and she even leaves the house entirely at one point (timing her 3 minutes), so why she can’t just open the door normally and walk the two steps back is a bit puzzling.
Another minor issue is her husband’s ex-partner. He starts off the film hating her, assuming she just killed her husband for no reason and not self-defense. But halfway through he’s suddenly on her side, however he’s now convinced she didn’t really kill him, but that someone else did and she is covering for them. Huh? He even admits to finally reading her police reports that the husband’s buddies had “lost”, so how he came to this alternate conclusion is a bit baffling.
Still, for a ghost movie, two minor issues is way below par. Like I’ve said before, I don’t usually find ghosts/supernatural type things to be particularly scary, but this one works. The occasional humor does its job (levity), and it never drags, which is, again, something you don’t expect when you’re dealing with something that could almost be done as a stage play. Its theatrical future is uncertain, but if it eventually goes DTV, don’t let that fool you: this is a movie that deserves to be seen.
Review courtesy of BC, visit his website Horror Movie a Day for more reviews.
I was never against Sony’s initial idea to produce solo movies based on Spider-Man’s most memorable supervillains. After all, a hero is only as good as his Rogues’ Gallery is intimidating, so it stands to reason that there were plenty of dark stories to tell here.
While rushed productions like Morbius and Kraven the Hunter didn’t quite turn out as I had hoped, it’s a relief to see James Gunn and the DC Extended Universe learn the right lessons from Marvel’s flops by investing in supervillain stories that aren’t afraid to step into the horror genre.
The new trailer for James Watkins’ upcoming Clayface movie is a great example of this, as the new footage confirms our suspicions that the movie is set to be a full-on piece of body horror focusing more on telling a standalone scary story than setting up a brand.
With that in mind, I’ve decided to take a closer look at the trailer in order to find out what we can expect from this highly anticipated comic-book adaptation from hell.
So without further ado, here are four things we learned from the new Clayface trailer!
4. Matt Hagen is a Club Vesuvius Regular
A seedy nightclub owned by “former” mobster Johnny Sabatino, the comic books have established Club Vesuvius as a hotspot for criminal activity and metahuman action since 2009. Throughout the years, the club has seen everything from an attempted arson by Firefly to magical acts performed by Zatanna herself.
The trailer for Clayface appears to suggest that Vesuvius will feature prominently in this story as well, as the footage shows us several shots of Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries) casually attending the club as well as a couple of more concerning moments where Gotham City Police roll up to the establishment to deal with some kind of emergency.
3. The Movie Will Not Adapt Any Single Specific Comic
As I mentioned before in my Clayface primer for horror fans who aren’t all that familiar with the character, the initial teaser for the film had me convinced that the project would be more of an adaptation of Batman: The Animated Series’ two-part episode Feat of Clay rather than any specific comic-book.
This latest trailer has only confirmed my suspicions, with Hagen’s predicament here feeling much more in line with Marv Wolfman and Michael Reaves’ sympathetic vision of the character than the more traditional criminal that we usually see in the comics. That being said, I’m curious to see how the filmmakers intend to connect this tragic version of Clayface to the more unpleasant monster we saw in Creature Commandos now that it’s been confirmed that these are indeed the same person.
2. James Watkins is Combining Practical and Digital Effects
I’ll always prefer a well-executed practical effect over CGI simply because the former is closer to the stage magic that inspired early moviemaking. That being said, there’s an undeniable artistry to well-crafted visual effects, and I’d argue that a character like Clayface requires the best of both worlds in order to be convincingly brought to life on the big screen.
I’m clearly not the only one who thinks so, as the trailer has shown us that Watkins is combining digital imagery with prosthetics and plenty of flesh-colored goop to depict Hagen’s unique brand of monstrous body horror. James Gunn had already promised us that the film would feature plenty of old-school practical effects wizardry, so it’s exciting to see that this approach in action.
1. Hagen Will Eventually Transform into Clayface’s Iconic True Form
In the comics, whenever Clayface isn’t pretending to be someone else, the character spends most of his time in his “natural” form resembling a gigantic golem-like monster. This look has certainly evolved over the years, but, at this point, most artists have settled on a vaguely humanoid shape accompanied by a gaping maw (though the villain’s terrifying re-imagining in DC’s Absolute Universe is a bit more complicated than that).
While fans were initially skeptical regarding whether or not the upcoming adaptation would even feature this admittedly outlandish design, the trailer has basically confirmed that Hagen’s condition will get progressively worse until he finally resembles the hulking monstrosity from the comics!
Be sure to comment below if you think we overlooked any interesting details in the trailer, and keep in mind that Clayface will be hitting theaters on October 23.
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