From the Vaults Double Feature: Hostel II and Ocean's Thirteen (?)

editor's note: To give you some idea of how much older Blogorium entries drop off as "From the Vaults" winds down, I present a double review of two sequels. I'd be willing to bet that no other reviewer ever mentioned them in the same post, nor should they. That being said, I believe that both films a (under) represented fairly.


I've attempted to get people I know who like horror movies to at least watch Hostel, but for many of them, it got caught up in the wave of post-Saw garbage and they consider it to be as crappy, and to some of you, it might be. From where I'm sitting, Hostel is light years better than Saw, and this is coming from someone who grew to HATE Cabin Fever for it's inconsistency in tone and inability to end. Eli Roth made a giant leap forward with Hostel, and it really is a more mature picture than anyone will ever believe it to be.

That being said, if I can't convince you all to watch Hostel, then there's no chance you're going to see Hostel Part II, which from everything I've read is at least tonally a departure from the original, and plays familiar notes in unexpected ways. So yes, I do want to see Hostel Part II, without the trepidation I approached the first film with.

On the other hand, I've totally given up trying to convince people to see the Ocean's movies. Again, it's an issue of people already making up their minds about a sequel to a sequel of a remake that many of you probably didn't like anyway. That Ocean's Twelve was Steven Soderbergh's ode to European films of the sixties is beside the point, because you either want to see them or you don't. I remember when I saw Ocean's Twelve with Jenn she enjoyed it, and I think Andrea fell asleep during Ocean's Eleven. Call me crazy, but I really like the group of actors who come together to hang out, and that easygoing vibe permeates the screen and in turn makes for two hours of harmless fun. Is it going to improve your quality of life? Probably not, but it is a good time.

The decision to see Ocean's Thirteen turned out to be both necessary and serendipitous; when I called Liz to follow up on a raincheck for last weekend's movie, it turned out she hadn't seen Hostel or either of the Ocean's movies, and since it wasn't imperative to see Ocean's Twelve or Ocean's Eleven in order to watch Thirteen (whereas it seemed pretty necessary to have seen Hostel), that's what we went to see.

Earlier in the evening, Adam called to give me his two cents on Hostel Part II, and as the conversation went on, it became abundantly clear that his minor problems with the movie were actually HUGE problems and he came to the realization that he really wasn't going to ever see it again, which didn't give me much hope. I saw Hostel because he recommended it, and we have a similar taste when it comes to horror movies. If he truly recommends something (not like when he says "go see *snicker* Venom") then it's worth seeing to me, but his problems with Hostel Part II echo our problems with Cabin Fever, and apparently the plan to replace the more lurid aspects of Hostel to make things creepier may not quite work. He said it was a better rental, so I'll probably do that.

However, Ocean's Thirteen was perfectly enjoyable, as I expected it would be, and easy enough to acclimate to that Liz didn't have a problem keeping up with the who's who. It doesn't hurt that the films all rely on certain key elements: dialogue which is short handed to the point of being impossible to decipher, characters double and triple switching plans, and surprise twists near the end, so that if you're willing to keep up with the movie itself then knowing the character connections isn't crucial. I'm curious why neither Julia Roberts or Catherine Zeta Jones weren't available for even a cameo, but there was more than enough fun in adding Al Pacino, Ellen Barkin, David Paymer, Julian Sands, Bob Einstein (aka Super Dave Osborne), and nice repeat performances from Vincent Cassel and Eddie Izzard (who has a MUCH larger role than in Ocean's Twelve).

Again, I know I'm not going to change many minds here, but I still say Ocean's Thirteen is as good as any of them, and I'm sure it'll fund the next three or four oddball Steven Soderbergh film projects.

I wonder... I wah wah wah wah wonder...

Since we're nearly a week away from Horror Fest (get used to it, because I'll be talking about it a LOT until November 2nd) the Cap'n decided to test a theory. I often tell people that horror is not all I watch, am interested in, and write about. I think the blogorium in months not ending in -ctober bears that out, but as we've learned, numbers rarely lie.

I went over to my DVD Aficionado page (feel free to make fun of me for having one) and created a separate page for "Horror" as closely as it resembled my Horror Shelf, then dumped everything that fit in there.

Out of a little over 1,000 dvds/Blu-Rays, around 300 are Horror by that definition. We can look at this two ways:

1. Horror makes up 1/3 of all of the movies I own, ergo the Cap'n likes Horror the most.

2. It was a lot less than I thought it would be, and if you go to an actual disc count, it's a whole lot less than what I actually own.

However, I can't really deny the power of argument number one. As a genre, it dwarfs practically every other shelf (which are mostly broken into genre) and based on the titles, I've probably seen all of nearly all of them.

Since I don't really know where I'm going with this, I thought we could play a game instead. Take the following list of Horror movies and... uh, highlight the ones you've seen. You can post it as a comment or in your own blog like one of those memes, however you want to do it. In your own time, because this is quite a list...

28 Days Later
30 Days of Night
An American Werewolf in London
The Horror of Dracula
Dracula has Risen from His Grave
Taste the Blood of Dracula
Dracula A.D. 1972
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
The Alligator People
An American Werewolf in London
Anthropophagus: The Grim Reaper
The Antichrist
Army of Darkness
Baby Blood
Bad Taste
Basket Case
Bay of Blood
Murders in the Rue Morgue
The Black Cat (1934)
The Raven
The Invisible Ray
Black Friday
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage
Black Sheep
The Blob (1958)
The Blob (1988)
Beware! The Blob
Beyond Re-Animator
Black Sheep
Tombs of the Blind Dead
Return of the Evil Dead
The Ghost Galleon
Night of the Seagulls
Blood and Black Lace
Blood Car
Blood Feast
Two Thousand Maniacs
Color Me Blood Red
Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Bride of Re-Animator
The Brood
C.H.U.D.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
The Cabinet of Caligari (1962)
The Call of Cthulhu
Carnival of Souls
Carnivorous (aka Lockjaw: Rise of the Kulev Serpent)
A Cat in the Brain
The Cat O' Nine Tails
Cat People (1982)
Cemetery Man
Cheerleader Camp
Children of the Corn
Child's Play
Chopping Mall
The Church
City of the Dead (aka Horror Hotel)
City of the Living Dead
Clownhouse
The Company of Wolves
Contamination
Count Yorga, Vampire
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Revenge of the Creature
The Creature Walks Among Us
Creepshow
Critters
Curse of the Devil
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Day of the Dead
Dead & Buried
Dead Alive
The Dead Hate the Living
The Deadly Spawn
Deathdream
Demons
Demons 2
Demons of the Mind
The Descent
The Devil's Backbone
The Devil's Rejects
Dr. Giggles
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)
Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde
Dog Soldiers
Dracula (1931)
Dracula (Spanish Version)
Dracula's Daughter
Son of Dracula
House of Dracula
Dracula: Prince of Darkness
The Satanic Rites of Dracula
Drag Me to Hell
The Entity
The Evil Dead
Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn
The Exorcist
Exorcist II: The Heretic
The Exorcist III: Legion
Exorcist: The Beginning
Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist
Faceless
Faces of Death
Fade to Black
Hell Night
The Fall of the House of Usher
Faust: Love of the Damned
Fear No Evil
The Fearless Vampire Killers
Feast
Fido
Fiend without a Face
Flesh Eaters from Outer Space
Invasion for Flesh and Blood
The Fly
Return of the Fly
Curse of the Fly
The Fog
Four Flies on Grey Velvet
The Lodger
The Undying Monster
Hangover Square
Dr. Renault's Secret
Frankenstein
Bride of Frankenstein
Son of Frankenstein
Ghost of Frankenstein
House of Frankenstein
Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell
Frankenstein Created Woman
Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires
Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed
Freaks
Freddy vs Jason
Friday the 13th (1980)
Friday the 13th Part 2
Friday the 13th Part 3
The Frighteners
From Beyond
From Beyond the Grave
From Dusk Till Dawn
Garden of the Dead
The Gate
The Ghoul
Ghoulies
Ghoulies 2
Ghoulies 4
Ginger Snaps
Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed
Ginger Snaps Back
Grindhouse Presents: Planet Terror
Halloween (1978)
Halloween (2007)
Halloween II
Halloween III
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
The Haunted World of El Superbeasto
The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll
Curse of the Mummy's Tomb
The Gorgon
Scream of Fear
Brides of Dracula
The Curse of the Werewolf
The Phantom of the Opera (1962)
Paranoiac
Kiss of the Vampire
Nightmare
Night Creatures
The Evil of Frankenstein
The Hand
The Haunting (1963)
Haxan
Hellraiser
Hellbound: Hellraiser II
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
Hillbillys in a Haunted House
The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
The Hills Have Eyes (2006)
The Hitchter
Hostel
Hostel Part II
Interview with the Vampire
Mark of the Vampire
The Mask of Fu Manchu
Mad Love
The Devil-Doll
Doctor X
The Return of Doctor X
Horror of the Blood Monsters (aka Vampire Men of the Lost Planet)
Horror Rises from the Tomb
House
House II: The Second Story
House of Wax (1953)
Mystery of the Wax Museum
House on Haunted Hill (1959)
The House that Dripped Blood
The Howling
Human Beasts
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)
The Hunger
I Bury the Living
In the Mouth of Madness
Incubus
The Invisible Man
The Invisible Man Returns
The Invisible Woman
The Invisible Agent
The Invisible Man's Revenge
It's Alive!
Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
The Walking Dead
Frankenstein 1970
You'll Find Out
Zombies on Broadway
The Last House on the Left
The Last Man on Earth
Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part III
The Legend of Hell House
Let the Right One In
Don't Torture a Duckling
Maniac Cop
Martin
Martyrs
Matango
May
The Mist
The Monster Squad
The Mummy (1932)
The Mummy (1959)
The Mummy's Hand
The Mummy's Tomb
The Mummy's Ghost
The Mummy's Curse
The Mummy's Shroud
Plague of the Zombies
My Bloody Valentine (1981)
My Bloody Valentine (2009)
Near Dark
New York Ripper
Night of the Demons
Night of the Lepus
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Night of the Living Dead (1990)
Nightmare City
A Nightmare on Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge
A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 3: The Dream Warriors
A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 4: The Dream Master
A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 5: The Dream Child
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
Wes Craven's New Nightmare
The Ninth Gate
Nosferatu (1922)
Nosferatu: The Vampyre (1979)
The Oblong Box
Scream and Scream Again
The Old Dark House (1932)
The Omen
The Orphanage
The People Under the Stairs
Phantasm
Phantasm II
Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead
Phantasm IV: Oblivion
Plague Town
Prince of Darkness
Prom Night (1980)
The Prowler
Pumpkinhead
Re-Animator
[REC]
Repulsion
Return of Swamp Thing
Return of the Killer Tomatoes
Return to Horror High
Return of the Living Dead
Return of the Living Dead Part 2
Return of the Vampire
Rogue
The Gian Claw
Creature with the Atom Brain
Zombies of Mora Tau
The Werewolf
Scanners
Scars of Dracula
Scream, Blacula, Scream
Seed of Chucky
Session 9
Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye
Shadow of the Vampire
Shark Attack 3: Megalodon
Shaun of the Dead
She Demons
The Shining
Shocker
Silent Night, Deadly Night
Slaughter High
Slaughter of the Vampires
Sleepaway Camp
Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers
Sleepaway Camp 3: Teenage Wasteland
Sleepy Hollow
Slither
Splatter University
StageFright
The Stepfather
Stepfather 2: Make Room for Daddy
Strangler of the Swamp
Student Bodies
The Stuff
Suspiria
Tales from the Crypt
Vault of Horror
Tales from the Crypt Presents: Demon Knight
Tales from the Crypt Presents: Bordello of Blood
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1973)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2
Them!
The Thing (1982)
The Tingler
To the Devil, a Daughter
Trick 'r Treat
Troll
Troll 2
Two Evil Eyes
Uncle Sam
Undead
Revolt of the Zombies
Hard Rock Zombies
The Black Cat (1941)
Man Made Monster
Horror Island
Night Monster
Captive Wild Woman
Urban Legends: Final Cut
Cat People
Curse of the Cat People
I Walked with a Zombie
Body Snatcher
Isle of the Dead
Bedlam
The Leopard Man
The Ghost Ship
The 7th Victim
Vampire Hunter D
Vampyr (1932)
Village of the Damned
Children of the Damned
Tales of Terror
Twice Told Tales
The Abominable Dr. Phibes
Dr. Phibes Rises Again!
Theater of Blood
Madhouse
Witchfinder General
The Virgin of Nuremberg
Waxwork
Waxwork 2: Lost in Time
Werewolf Shadow (aka The Werewolf vs the Vampire Woman)
Willard (2003)
The Wizard of Gore (1968)
The Wolf Man
Werewolf of London
She-Wolf of London
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
Wrong Turn
Zombie
Zombi 2
Zombi 3
Zombi 4
Zombie Holocaust
Zombie Strippers

Horror Fest III: Whatever Happened to the "Splat Pack"?

Yesterday, The Cap'n got into a nice discussion about what "old school" horror means with the Cranpire and the Rianimator (feel free to jump in with your two cents; it's not like the conversation is over or anything), but I posed a question in the comments that got stuck in my craw:

What exactly is the "new school"?

For those of you allergic to like, scrolling down or something, here's what I said exactly:

How would you qualify the current "school" of American horror; one dominated by horror films, homages (Hatchet, Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer), deconstructions (Behind the Mask) and films about home invasion, torture, and the occasional hulking wrestler-turned-monster?

This is actually jumping ahead of where I want to go today, because I'd like to dial it back three years or so and discuss the so-called "Splat Pack", a group of directors referred to as "an emerging and collegial band of horror auteurs". At the time the article in Time appeared, many of them had big hits under their belts, and were popular with fans for bucking the conventional trend of remaking Asian horror movies that was dominating the early 21st century*.

If you don't remember who was part of the "new school" Splat Pack class, allow me to refresh your memory:

Eli Roth, Neil Marshall, Alexandre Aja, Darren Lynn Bousman, Greg McLean, James Wan, Leigh Whannel, and Rob Zombie.

Roth and Zombie you probably remember pretty well. Between them, they were responsible for House of 1000 Corpses, Cabin Fever, The Devil's Rejects, and Hostel.

Neil Marshall made Dog Soldiers and The Descent, Greg McLean directed Wolf Creek, Alexandre Aja brought us High Tension and The Hills Have Eyes, and Bousman, Whannel, and Wan were responsible for the first three Saw films at the time.

We have one outright remake, one two homages to seventies horror, a French film with a seriously gory streak, a Werewolf horror-comedy, a claustrophobic film about spelunking with cave monsters, a wildly inconsistent horror comedy borrowing from The Evil Dead, and the birth of what was called "Torture Porn", both from American and Australian perspectives.

There was some serious buzz around all of these guys; they counted the likes of Takeshi Miike, Quentin Tarantino, and Tobe Hooper as mentors, and their movies were at least inventive, if not always great. Buzz was strong for the followups: Marshall's Doomsday, Roth's Hostel: Part II, Rob Zombie's Halloween, Aja's Mirrors, Wan and Whannel's Dead Silence, and the never ending Saw series.

And then all of that seemed to go away. It wasn't just that the movies were (mostly) underwhelming, but the "torture porn" stigma started getting nasty. Dead Silence was terrible (the Cap'n apologizes for ever trying to defend it), Mirrors was incomprehensible garbage, and Doomsday was less than it promised to be (the progeny of The Road Warrior and Escape from New York).

Hostel: Part II felt like Roth was treading water; yes, it had some interesting moments, but where was the giant leap forward we experienced from Cabin Fever to Hostel? Halloween remains the favorite of many, even though I feel like it fails on so many levels not only as a remake but also as a coherent film in its own right. Don't get me started on the ridiculous path Saw followed to pump out a movie every year.

Rabid fan support only really seems to exist for Zombie these days, mostly residual good will for White Zombie and The Devil's Rejects, which was light years better than House of 1000 Corpses. Despite the fact he admitted to not even having written his script for Tyrannosaurus Rex, fans are gnawing at the bit for this "ultimate badass" film. People are still begging for a Werewolf Women of the SS feature film, even though he could barely keep the premise interesting for two minutes**.

Roth was going to direct an adaptation of Stephen King's The Cell, although it looks like that's dead and buried in the wake of a movie like The Signal. His long awaited extension on Grindhouse, Trailer Trash, pops up but never seems to be going anywhere. That's a shame, because if it really is a horror / exploitation riff on The Kentucky Fried Movie, I'd be interested in seeing it. Other than Edgar Wright's Don't, Roth's Thanksgiving trailer had me the most interested to see the man get back to work.

I don't think Doomsday killed Neil Marhsall's career, but even supporters of the film like myself understand that it didn't do well, critically or commercially. When fans are more excited about a sequel to The Descent Marshall has nothing to do with, he's got a steep hill to climb.

Truth be told, I'm perfectly okay with Aja going back to the remake well for Piranha. He's promising a 3-D gorefest along the lines of Dead Alive, and if there's someone capable of delivering on that promise, it's that crazy Frog.

As I've stated openly, I haven't seen a Saw movie since the awful second part, but I do read up on the plots and I've seen enough footage online to know where the series went, and it sounds fucking stupid. Whannel, Wan, and Bousman are all off of the series now, but to be honest with you, Death Sentence didn't look very interesting and I have NO interest in Repo: The Genetic Opera.

You might have noticed that Greg McLean pretty much vanished from the equation, which is sad, because he actually made a pretty good follow up to Wolf Creek called Rogue. Most people never noticed it slide in on dvd, and those who saw the dvd cover likely mistook it for the craptacular Giant Croc movie Primeval that came out earlier this year. That's a shame, because Rogue is a much better movie than almost any of the follow ups I listed above. I'm strongly considering putting it into the Horror Fest III lineup.

I'd be remiss to leave out the negative impact of the botched Masters of Horror series, which did not include any of the directors listed above but did carry their seal of approval. Season one was shaky, with a handful of decent episodes from veterans and relative newcomers (May's Lucky McKee) but equally terrible installments from other legends of the genre and questionable choices as to who qualified as "master".

Season two was, in my opinion, and unmitigated disaster. Other than Joe Dante's shaky "Screwfly Solution" and Stuart Gordon's pretty good "The Black Cat", there's not a good one in the bunch. Contemporaries of the Splat Pack like Rob Marshall (Wrong Turn) got a shot and didn't get far. The otherwise reliable Brad Anderson (Session 9, The Machinist) brought great sound design to a turgid and predictable "Sounds Like". And don't get me started on Peter Medak's "The Washingtonians", or John Carpenter's terrible "Pro-Life" (I didn't think it could get worse than "Cigarette Burns").

The failure of watered down Fear Itself, which I didn't bother watching, pretty much left the experiment dead, and I'm not convinced that's a bad thing. It certainly didn't help the Splat Pack to be supporting such a waste of time, and that coupled with the stillborn Grindhouse experiment, they just don't seem to be the "new school" anymore.

Any thoughts? Did the rise of Platinum Dunes help the fall of the "pack"? Did you think they were overrated to begin with? Have other theories? Join me in the comments below to discuss...


* how fucking pretentious does that sound? still, it's true, so I'm sticking with it.
** gotta give the man props for being a bright spot in Nicholas Cage's filmography for one brief moment in 2007, though...