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Post by masterofallgoons on Mar 15, 2018 15:18:53 GMT
How do you rate this thing? It's such a strange movie in that it almost seems like it was made by two different directors and based on two different scripts.
At first I thought maybe it was just that the creature design is so fucking stupid. It would look great if this was some campy, cheesey monster movie produced by a hair metal band. But the other scenes are sort of dramatically effective. Even if the lead character's last name is actually Hell-and-Back... I'm sorry, Hallenbeck, it's super subtle.
There are convincing scenes of family drama and characters you actually believe in, a beautiful and evocative setting, and conversely have this ridiculous looking, toy store monster roaming about with glowing eyes. Bad makeup effects are abound in older monster movies, it's par for the course, and if you're going to appreciate those sorts of films you have to be able to look past them. In this case however, the creature seems intentionally ridiculous and appears to be on loan from a more fun movie. However, towards the end we also get some absurdly campy dialogue and absurdly campy performing from a silly priest character, before we get to the old 80s favorite of 2D animated lightning and electricity effects to show us that some sort of magic is saving the day, and of course a stupid cliche of a final shot.
I think this problem might be prevalent in other Clive Barker movies too, even those that work. The seem not to be able to reconcile the tone of taking this stuff seriously and embracing the absurdity of it all. Hellraiser does it well, but it's still an issue. Nightbreed seems to revel in the silliness a bit more. Midnight Meat Train has a really tough time with this, but is fun enough to look past some of the pretensions.
I'm not sure how much of this might be in the writing vs a director's ability to interpret the material properly, and I understand that Clive Barker hated this movie, but it does feel like it belongs to him.
It was a fun movie, but I don't think I enjoyed it for the reasons that were intended.
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Post by RiP, IMDb on Mar 15, 2018 21:12:28 GMT
I've seen it when it first came out on VHS. I'd have to rewatch it to rate since it's been too long.
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Post by lostinlimbo on Mar 16, 2018 0:10:47 GMT
The first time I watched Rawhead Rex, I was dumbfounded by its sincere trashiness and the monster’s googley eyes. It’s was hard to tell if it’s actually meant to be serious, or not? The next time, I just went with the flow; unhinged and all. Enjoyed it so much, I got a copy of the recent bluray release. So it would be great see how it pops out on screen, like you mentioned, the backdrop is simply stunning. Also it would be stellar to get the background info from the director to the SFX crew on this film, especially hearing their thoughts on the monster costume.
The execution of George Pavlou’s direction and style of Barker’s writing does seem to clash. They had the same sort of issues, probably worse off(?) in their previous film;Underworld aka Transmutations. Barker actually wrote the screenplay for the film, however it’s on the same level that he disowned it too. The material’s themes obviously wants to be more than what transpires, although I think there’s too much going on and a real lack of character. A cheaply produced, rough blueprint, you could say for Nightbreed. But again the tone, and story was all over place. The limited budget didn’t help film’s vision and it looked like Pavlou had no clue where to go with Barker’s ideas. Visually speaking, for something so low-rent, it had its moments with its moody aesthetics like something out of dated music video clip. It was a mess, and certainly not as entertaining, say like Rawhead Rex. After those two efforts, you can understand why Barker took it upon himself to direct his next film adaption; Hellraiser.
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Post by masterofallgoons on Mar 16, 2018 21:09:58 GMT
I have not seen Transmutations, but it definitely makes me curious. I never quite connected with Nightbreed, but I love the ideas in it. I think there's still a great movie to be made from that world. Maybe Barker will actually return to it one day.
I saw Rawhead Rex for the first time the other day. If it had been some strange memory and I revisited it I might have had more enthusiasm for it. It's just so strange how well it works dramatically and cinematically in parts, and how shoddy and shitty it can be with some of the horror elements. It was hard for me to reconcile the two.
But I would be curious to hear more about the monster effects. If I had to guess, the saved most of the creature effects shots for the end of the production and ran out of money or something. That doesn't explain the 80s punk band Mohawk, but there's gotta be some reason it looks as bad as it does.
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