For the last night of the Greensboro Summer Fest Massacre Part II, we watched two HD downloads from the Playstation Store: Creepshow and Shaun of the Dead. If you're going to have a weekend of "Horror Comedies", then you'd better include these at some point.
There are a number of strange reasons why we only got to watch two movies tonight. Some have to do with exhaustion, some with auto repair, and a few related to the fact that all of us have school, work, or both tomorrow morning. That being said, I wanted to close things out on a high note, so the Cap'n will give you some brief thoughts on both films.
Creepshow is a movie I often forget to be a George Romero joint, in part because of how well he adapts the "comic" sensibilities. The movie is awash in strong primary colors, weird framing, kooky angles, and broad acting. Of course, that's why Creepshow works; because it borrows so heavily from EC Comics and it's very difficult to do those kind of "ironic horror" anthologies without tongue (or fang) firmly planted in cheek*.
The cockroach story at the end remains my favorite, as after years I still find the final scene disgusting (where the bugs emerge from inside his body), and Stephen King's acting in the plant man segment is so bad that it almost works. Well, almost.
I'll be picking this up on Blu-Ray in September, as the film looks like gangbusters in 1080p, no small feat for a movie made in 1982. Kudos to Warners for making their catalog stuff look top notch. Now we can just hope it's not a barebones disc.
---
Shaun of the Dead continues to reward with repeated viewings, as I catch more and more payoffs to seemingly innocuous setups late in the film. There's virtually nothing Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg don't introduce early in the movie that doesn't appear in some way, shape, or form before Shaun of the Dead is over. The gore continues to be impressive for a "comedy", and I had a nice chuckle at a throwaway 28 Days Later joke at the end of the movie (where the zombie plague is not blamed on "rage filled monkeys") delivered by Wright in newscaster voiceover.
I think that Hot Fuzz is perhaps better in other areas, but as watchability goes, Shaun of the Dead is hard not to watch repeatedly.
---
Thanks to everyone who came over the four days (and those brave souls who were there every day) and the Cap'n and others can attest that having both Cranpire and Ad Rock was something not to be missed.
I really have to recommend you hunt down Terrorvision in any way you can and watch it, and that you sit tight on Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus. Drag Me to Hell was fun but I suspect many of you can save it for a renter. Hillbillys in a Haunted House is also something you should look into, but it's not for all tastes. Just good ones.
Stay tuned tomorrow for some pictures from Summer Fest and a handful of anecdotes that deal loosely with movies. I'll also give you my recipie for "Hobo Bug Juice" if you're daring enough to try it.
If you're lucky, I might even tell you about Stab Lincoln and Civil War Zombies (1 and 2).
* A key example is the straight up horror version of Tales from the Crypt Amicus made in the 1970s. It's still better than you'd expect it to be, but the lack of humor pulls it away from the source material in odd ways.
No comments:
Post a Comment