More new music from Low Cut Connie ahead of their new album, Livin in the USA, out July 3rd. You can pre-order a copy directly from the band HERE.
Watch:
Tuesday night, I rewatched Marcus Nispel's 2003 Platinum Dunes remake of Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel's seminal Horror film, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. For context, I actually owned this movie when it first came out on video. I didn't buy it - an ex bought me a two-pack DVD set of the original film and this. I no longer remember if that was how I first saw Nispel's film, a blind gift given to me. I will say, back then, before my feelings about Michael Bay had solidified, I still regarded this film as a mixed bag. It's also important to note that 2003 was also before we'd become completely inundated with remakes. So take all that into consideration, and I find that, despite ranting and raving about how bad this film is for years, my feelings remain pretty much the same today.
A mixed bag.
First, you have to ask, right? Why would anyone remake a classic like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a film that, by its very mangled, outsider nature, you'd have no hope of repeating its cultural impact? Well, because, like the proverbial mountain, it's there. Hollywood has something of a 'pave the world' ethos; they can and will remake everything.
My reaction to this film over the intervening 20+ years has been one of general disdain, primarily for two reasons: Final Girl Jessica Biel's performance, which, true to form, starts and stops at looking great in a pair of low-rise jeans, and the melodramatic fashion flavor to much of the violence is off-putting at best and downright laughable at worst. Biel stabbing Mike Vogel's Andy through the chest is among the most melodramatic Horror deaths I've witnessed this side of Hammer.
And yet, I saw this pop up on Shudder recently and something moved me to give it another go. This is something I do quite often with films I don't like. Because I can and often am wrong. So I reevaluate.
This time, I felt a little better about Nispel's film. Honestly, I've realized that part of my issue with Jessica Biel isn't about this film at all, but more a combination of disdain for her performance in this film and in another, Pascal Laugier's bafflingly bad The Tall Man from 2012, a film that, to this day, I still cannot believe came from the same man as Martyrs 2008 and 2018's Incident in a Ghostland. I'm not going to eat crow and say I think Biel's performance in TCM is good, but it's certainly not nearly as bad as some others I've witnessed in Horror from the 00s (Prom Night remake, I'm looking at you).
Biel is adequate, and so is pretty much everyone else. I've been a fan of Eric Balfour since his role on Six Feet Under as Clair's troubled boyfriend Gabe, and I've always thought he should have lived a lot longer than most of the cast. Also, after roles on Justified and Hannibal, Jonathan Tucker has become a recent favorite character actor of mine, and he shows a bit more range outside of 'deluded psychopath' here.
The elements to really love about this film are the lighting and the camerawork. There are something like five or six wide shots of the Hewitt house during various parts of the day/night, and each one is a thing of majestic beauty.
Now, that's not really enough to hang a movie on, but there are some other things about this one that work for me. I like the structure of the family and the town, which appear to be one and the same. Like the original, we meet various people in various places that seem like they might help, only to find out they're in on it, too. Here, though, those tendrils of malevolence feel like they stretch farther. Maybe it's the inclusion of R. Lee Ermey as the Sheriff, a position that makes the Hewitts' reach feel more omnipotent, or maybe it's the trailer with the two women, a scene that might pack the most creep factor in the whole movie. Either way, the conspiracy - and it has always been a conspiracy in this franchise, hence why Henkel goes so far as to add the Men in Black to part four - feels way deeper and, ultimately, perfect for a Horror film: inescapable.
*That probably didn't happen until around the time the first of his Transformers movies came out; I had not seen any of his 90s films, so M.B. was basically unknown to me when I saw this TCM
Read:
l Jane Schoebrun has a novel up for pre-order! Public Access Afterworld will be released by Penguin-Random House on October 27! You can pre-order this now wherever you get your books.
Wow. It occurs to me more of my life has been lived in 'dark times' now than light. But I digress. Here's the solicitation, which thankfully tells us gloriously little, but just enough to stoke the flames of my anticipation:
"A mysterious realm on the other side of our screens. A dark force that draws victims into its static. The unlikely hero called to save them and herself from this electric hell."
Can't wait.
Playlist:
John Carpenter w/ Alan Howarth - Prince of Darkness OST
Steeve Moore - Bliss OST
White Reaper - Only Slightly Expanded
Grotus - Mass
Flogging Molly - Live at the Greek
Me and That Man - New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol. 1
Carter Burwell - Blood Simple OST
Atticus Derrickson - The Black Phone 2 OST
Meat Puppets - Dusty Notes
Tossers - In the Valley of the Shadow of Death
Tar - Roundhouse
Grotus - Slow Motion Apocalypse
PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love
Poe - Hello
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Two of Pentacles
• King of Wands
• Queen of Swords
The Two of Disks, followed by the King of Wands, might suggest imbalance. The Queen of Swords reminds me that intellect, not emotion, will serve as the appropriate antidote.
I'm thinking this is a direct nod to an imbalance in my life regarding creative pursuits. I.E., too many podcasts, not enough writing.
