Shocktober Revisited: Documentaries - Going to PIeces; The Rise and Fall of the Slasher FIlm

 Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film is a pretty good documentary, if a little light on content. Truthfully, it's a pretty good overview of the genre (with the exception of never mentioning Black Christmas and only showing clips of it during a montage of kills), but you could make much longer pieces about any number of sub-sections they spend time on. Sure, there are plenty of lengthy docs about the Friday the 13th series and at least three really good Halloween documentaries, and more Tom Savini featurettes than you can shake a stick at. Still, there's some interesting stuff tucked into the middle section of the movie, including the first acknowledgment of Splatter University's existence I've seen. Some lesser discussed slasher and post-slasher movies get their due; movies like The Prowler, Sleepaway Camp, He Knows You're Alone, and April Fool's Day. Even something as shitty as Return to Horror High gets a quick mention.

As noted above, many devotees to the genre are going to wonder why certain movies don't get as much attention (Alice, Sweet Alice, Black Christmas, and a deeper investigation of Suspiria's influence) and the transitional music is a little distracting, even if it is by Harry Manfredini (he of the ch-ch-ch kill-kill-kill). There's sort of a lull between A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream, but the movie is so front heavy you might not notice.

There's also the curious style of interviewing people: the director really must have wanted something different, because some interviewees are constantly walking or being circled by the camera (the editor of Fangoria and Greg Nicotero stand out) and the camera is sometimes uncomfortably close to people like Tom Savini and Robert Shaye of New Line. Still, the line up of people interviewed is pretty impressive. Of particular note are Felissa Rose (the original Angela from Sleepaway Camp) and Fred Walton, who defends April Fool's Day and its twist ending, insisting that Paramount decided to market the film as a slasher movie. Oh, and kudos to Going to Pieces covering the feminist angle on Slumber Party Massacre during the "Critic Bashing" section.

You may not have the same problem that I did with this, but the movie itself would not play from the dvd menu. In fact, nothing would; I had to press stop and then play again to get the film itself to play. None of the special features would play either, which bummed me out because there was a bonus interview with Bob Clark, director of Black Christmas (and, incidentally, A Christmas Story) which leads me to believe there was some coverage of Black Christmas cut from the film. Bummer.

At 88 minutes, Going to Pieces is possibly too short, but if you're a fan of slasher movies or want to give somebody a good primer on the genre, it's certainly worth watching. Some of the stories won't be new, but the inclusion of lesser known entries and the people who made them more than cover for old anecdotes. If you can get the dvd to play, it comes Recommended.

Now bring on the follow-ups!

A Little Something to Tide You Over

While the Cap'n has many things which I could write about - reviews of Cronos, The Red Shoes, Fantasia 2000, Iron Man 2, or yet another essay on holiday-based cinema, my rules for writing, or musings on film criticism - or things I hope to write about - future reviews of True Grit, The Town, Exit Through the Gift Shop, and even Tron Legacy - soon, I am alas frequently pulled away from the computer by forces beyond the world of film.

Accordingly, I don't want to leave you hanging, and while I would very much like to talk about Cronos (which begins in December), it's going to have to wait until there are less, shall we say, distracting forces at play. In the meantime, I offer you this, which came too late to be a Video Daily Double but nevertheless should amuse you, whether you celebrate Christmas or not.

Neil Gaiman presents a poem:

39 Degrees North: Christmas Card 2010 from 39 Degrees North on Vimeo.

Additionally, five holiday related movies the Cap'n recommends instead of watching A Christmas Story* on a loop tomorrow:

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
The Ice Harvest
The Ref
Die Hard
Batman Returns



* not that there's anything wrong with A Christmas Story in and of itself, but 24 hours is a bit much, TBS...

Blogorium Review: Murder By Decree

Now that we're in the dog days of DVD, as Blu-Ray is creeping in and digital downloads are looming in the distance, the one thing that can be counted on when a remake or a re-imagining of famous source material hits theatres is retails shelves being flooded with back-catalog titles tangentially related to the new film. Every now and then, attentive viewers can catch a movie they've never heard of in this glut of titles. For example, the release of Warner Brothers' Sherlock Holmes caused previously unavailable or forgotten Holmes films to get their day in the limelight. Such was the case with Murder By Decree, released by Lionsgate late last year, a film that has an interesting premise to say the least.

1979's Murder By Decree is based on an "Original Script" by John Hopkins, taking the Jack the Ripper case and inserting the facts into the fictional world of Sherlock Holmes. It's a clever idea, one that was used later the same year in Nicholas Meyer's Time After Time (which sets H.G. Wells after Jack the Ripper*). The film has a wonderful cast, and works in a number of ways, but suffers from a setback that I cannot quite come to terms with.

The film manages to blend the Ripper mythos with the Holmes canon fairly well; well into the career of sleuthing, Sherlock Holmes (Christopher Plummer) and Dr. John Watson (James Mason) are celebrities of a sort in London - a scene where Watson chides Holmes for his lack of humility stems from the latter's insistence on riding in an open carriage to be recognized - but thanks to political machinations in Scotland Yard are on the outs with the police.

When a local organization in Whitechapel approaches Holmes to help with the murders, the duo find themselves welcomed by Inspectors Lestrade (Frank Finlay) and Foxborough (David Hemmings), but are threatened with arrest by Sir Charles Warren (Anthony Quayle), a Royalist and the new head of Scotland Yard. Holmes and Watson are left to piece together the clues on their own, and quickly discover something much more sinister than a serial killer in London's East End.

I added the above quotations to original script because the film neglects to mention until the closing credits that Hopkins screenplay is based on Elwyn Jones and John Lloyd's "The Ripper File." As I imagine that many of you haven't seen Murder By Decree but have seen the Hughes brothers' From Hell, much of the intricacies of the mystery will already be familiar to you. Even if you've had a cursory interest in the Ripper killings, you can probably figure out where Murder By Decree is headed before Holmes gets there, which does not work to the favor of a two hour movie.

What does work for Murder By Decree is the cast; the aforementioned Plummer and Mason have a comfortable relationship as Holmes and Watson that doesn't rely on reducing either one to stereotypes (the most common being Holmes as the distant savant and Watson as the buffoon sidekick). Instead, they behave as colleagues would who spent years together working in tandem, and the two actors have a banter that suggests this pairing extended well before the movie started. But there's also fine work being done by David Hemmings, Anthony Quayle, Genevieve Bujold, Susan Clark, Frank Finlay, and Donald Sutherland, who plays psychic Robert Lees, a man who knows more than even he is willing to tell Holmes. Fans of A Christmas Story will recognize actress Tedde Moore (who plays Mrs. Lees) as Ralphie's teacher Miss Shields.

Murder By Decree was directed by Bob Clark, who is alternately known to various genre fans for a wide ranging body of work (if you're into comedies, then he made Porky's, Children's movie fans know him best for A Christmas Story, and horror nuts have Clark to thank for Deathdream, Black Christmas, and Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things). Here, Clark is operating somewhere between slasher movie and period drama.

The early parts of Murder By Decree alternate effectively between foggy Whitechapel and pristine Baker Street, and Clark makes the most out of the model shots that establish London throughout the film (Murder By Decree was shot partially in London and partially in Canada). When Clark shoots Jack the Ripper on the prowl, there is a hint of the anonymous killer POV shots from Black Christmas, although we're given too many good looks at the Ripper's face too early in the film for my money.

Despite this, I can't quite shake the impression that Murder By Decree feels like an elevated "made for TV movie." I've been trying to put my finger on exactly why, but it's not one element that does it. Partly I blame this on the lighting, which often has no sense of mood to it; instead, every set is lit evenly, so that even when characters should be hidden in shadows, they're clearly visible. There's no depth to any of the locations of sets because of the flat, television-esque cinematography. The music doesn't help much either; when it's not jarringly inappropriate for the scene, it fails to create a mood that's conducive to the story.

The editing is also a prime culprit, lending an episodic structure to the film that strips it of any narrative cohesiveness. It seems that whenever a scene is done, the camera lingers for a little too long on the establishing model shot of London, as if punctuating commercial breaks. Murder By Decree establishes no rhythm in the story, and while there is an action packed chase between Holmes and one of the murderers, the scene which immediately follows it lacks the gravitas I can only assume Hopkins and Clark were aiming for.

SEMI-SPOILER ALERT: Holmes confronts the Prime Minister (John Gielgud), Sir Charles, and another high ranking member (forgive me, but the name escapes me and IMDB is less than helpful in this matter) about a Masonic conspiracy to protect the Royal Family that necessitates the "Jack the Ripper" murders, and while the scene should be a tense challenge of power by the great detective, the flat lighting and ho-hum editing rob the sequence of any power. Instead, it's a rather long scene where Plummer lays out the facts of his case and Gielgud and the others claim to know nothing about it, ending in a stalemate completely undermined by a chirpy ending of Holmes and Watson riding around in a carriage laughing.

That may also have something to do with the "TV" feel, as the credits have a "Blah Blah was played by This Actor" text while a "memorable" scene they were in plays silently. And yet Murder By Decree was released in theatres in February of 1979. It's not a bad movie by any means, but what does work - the acting, some of the atmosphere and mystery - is often canceled out by unintentionally dull lighting, awkward pacing, and an overlong running time. I recommend renting Murder By Decree if you're a Sherlock Holmes fan, if you have an interest in Jack the Ripper (or From Hell), or if you'd like to see that the Guy Ritchie take on the Holmes / Watson relationship didn't simply materialize out of thin air (one could easily make the argument that the Plummer / Mason dynamic is echoed in the Downey Jr. / Law relationship).

Stay tuned for tomorrow review; since I brought up Jack the Ripper today, it's only fair to segueway into another movie that tangentially involves the Whitechapel murders - the 2010 remake of The Wolfman.


* The Holmes / Jack the Ripper crossover was also the subject of 1965's A Study in Terror.