Movies
The Vanguard (V)
“But writer/director Matthew Hope bogs down his narrative with the baggy minutia of varied subplots until the entire point of his film seems lost in the trials of unnecessary secondary characters.”
According to the pre-credits crawl at the beginning of THE VANGUARD, we use up all the oil on the planet by 2015, the world devolves into social anarchy, and a major Corporation develops a euthanasia drug as an attempt to cull the bloated population. The Corporation’s pernicious plan: simply administer their Kevorkian Kocktail as a required vaccine, kill off ¾ of the losers on the planet, and cha-ching!, oil shortage averted. But the scientists entrusted with the development of the drug decide to revolt, altering the chemical composition so that instead of merely putting the citizens to sleep, they’re instead transformed into bloodthirsty, 28 DAYS LATER-style creatures, growling monstrosities called Biosyns that do not require food or water to survive. That’s right, evil Corporation, you just got totally served by your own scientists! They felt guilty about killing off the majority of the population, so they just transformed them into soulless savages, instead. Nice work, people. Now hit the showers.
Max is one of few remaining human survivors. With his medieval beard and dual hand axes, he looks like a rabid escapee from a nearby Renaissance Festival (huzzah!), but his old-school appearance belies his talent as a wicked fast Biosyn killer, maniacally thumping his twin hatchets into downed creatures in more than a few highly satisfying kill scenes. THE VANGUARD features some virtuoso camera work and clever editing, and had the entire film centered around Max’s lonely plight as a Biosyn-hatin’ everyman, the film would have triumphed as a moody, post-apocalyptic vision of man’s solitary future in the I AM LEGEND vein.
But writer/director Matthew Hope bogs down his narrative with the baggy minutia of varied subplots until the entire point of his film seems lost in the trials of unnecessary secondary characters. There’s a Muslim soldier dispersed from the Corporation to seek and destroy any Biosyns, there’s a couple of members of “The Resistance” who have been separated from their group, and soon they meet up, along with Max, in the forest, and hold a lot of lengthy and boring discussions regarding individual allegiances and possible betrayals. It turns out that The Resistance hates the Corporation and Biosyns, and the Corporation soldiers hate The Resistance and the Biosyns AND the Corporation that employs them, and the Biosyns just hate everybody, even each other, because, you know, they’re basically just zombies. It’s a lot of hatred to keep track of.
A contemporary reimagining of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story Herbert West: Reanimator is on the way, and Deadline has unveiled the first look at the new Herbert West and the pathologist drawn to his orbit.
The original screenplay and storyline come from Jade Sandberg Wallis.
Michael Grossman (“The Originals”, “Pretty Little Liars”) directs.
The new images introduce star Joseph Morgan (“Vampire Diaries“), who plays “brilliant surgeon and scientist Herbert West, who is obsessed with creating a serum to reanimate the dead.” Katie Cassidy (Speed Demon) stars opposite as the pathologist with a troubled past who joins his efforts.
Together, they prove that conquering death may be the ultimate sin against life itself.
The film’s official synopsis: “As a child, Herbert West watches his father Peter reanimate his dead mother Judith in a secret basement lab — only for Judith to mortally wound Peter and nearly kill Herbert before Peter shoots her. The trauma leaves its mark on Herbert, but so does one final image: his mother’s finger, twitching after death. Thirty years later, Herbert West is a brilliant, secretive surgeon still chasing his father’s obsession.
“Pathologist Kate Locke arrives in town and is drawn into his orbit — first through a spark at a hospital fundraiser, then through his secret lab, where he reveals a serum capable of reanimating severed tissue. Kate, hiding a dark past of her own, is thrilled rather than horrified, and moves into West’s mansion to work alongside him. Their early experiments on a cadaver succeed only briefly. West concludes that dead tissue is the problem — they need something fresher.”
Supporting cast includes Scott Aiello, Ira J Amyx, Randall Newsome, Emma Reinagal, James D. Bryce, Kathryn A Bentley, Jack Lancaster, Amy Holland Pennell, John Pierson, Mindy Shaw, Eric Dean White, Tristan Wilder Hallet, Adrienne Lamping, Aaron Crippen, and Drew Patterson.
Makeup artist Jeff Lewis (“Star Trek: Voyager,” “Star Trek: Enterprise”) and cousin Roger Lewis are heading the production via their newly established Woodlake Entertainment.
Lovecraft’s short story, first serialized in Home Brew magazine in 1922, is the first among his works to mention the fictional Miskatonic University. It was most famously adapted into a 1985 horror movie from Stuart Gordon, starring Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West.
Herbert West: Reanimator is set in Alton, Illinois, where production is now underway.
Herbert West: Reanimator. Photo credit: Matt Lief Anderson
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