Lunopolis (2011)

The mockumentary is a genre that expects us to believe in the impossible in the disguise of the possible. History are filled with, I would say, most interesting productions. It's like the genre itself makes the filmmakers extra careful with details, acting and trying to stitch together a script that will stun the audience. From Zelig and Cannibal Holocaust to The Blair Witch Project and The Last Broadcast, to modern movies like Survival of the Dead to Troll Hunter. Lunopolis was released this year, and so far - and I've seen most of them - this is one of the most powerful and intelligent mockumentaries made. The budget is low and some of the effects (like manipulated photos) aren't the best, but it makes everything come together in the end like never before.

Could the strongest idea with Lunopolis be that they took the most absurd idea, the most wacky storyline every conceived and made  it look like something possible? Yes, the basic idea is that a some filmmakers discovers a strange machine deep down in a secret underground base. It's an electronic device that nearly kills one of them. Everything leads them to The Church of Lunology (who bears more than one resemblance with Scientology) who believes people are living on the moon! The deeper our heroes go the more complicated the plot becomes and soon the day that some people believe is the end of the world arrives, the 21st of December 2012...

Lunopolis mixes every lunatic (sorry) conspiracy theory into one tight script. We have everything from ancient astronauts, hidden structures on the moon, the 2012 doomsday, UFO's, ghosts and sects mixed like never before, and hell yeah, it works! The footage of the crew investigating the leads and sooner or later getting themselves in danger is inter-cut with extremely well-made interviews with experts of mythology, religion, time and space. These are so realistic they could have been take from anything produced by the History Channel. But it's fake and it's so well-made I can't believe it.

What really takes me out of the story whenever it happens are a few not so good manipulated photos and two occasions when a characters draws a gun, which felt both unexpected and not really necessary becomes it suddenly feels like a cheap action movie. But that's my only complains. The rest is a very convincing and entertaining conspiracy-thriller with sci-fi elements. The acting is good, especially from the "experts" and I'm very impressed by the work Matthew Avant and his team has done with finding locations - from the secret underground base to the impressive headquarters of The Church of Lunology.

One of the highlights is actor Dave Potter, playing David James, a "moon-escapee" who wants to tell his story. His performance is excellent, worthy of very price in the book, and reminded me a lot of the equally brilliant performance by Raymond J. Barry in Interview with the Assassin, one of the best mockumentaries ever made. The director, Neil Burger, went on to bigger projects like The Illusionist and Limitless, but his first movie is still the best he made.

The moon has been a source of mockumentaries before: Alternative 3, Dark Side of the Moon, Apollo 18, but Lunopolis is the best. Without a doubt.

Matthew Avant will probably have a similar career, a successful one, but I hope he will stay closer to the ground and make movies like this - or better - in the future... or maybe he already done better movies in the future, or... right now?

Glen or Glenda? (1953)

I first saw Ed Wood's Glen or Glenda at a bad movie festival in my old hometown, Östersund. The salon was packed - like with all the movies - and the audience was hysterical. Everyone loved the movies and laughter and applauses filled the house. This was years ago, before Tim Burton's brilliant biopic about Mr Wood or easy to find DVD releases of his work. So it was time to watch it again and it's now I fully can appreciate it for being what it is, not a bad movie - but a very silly and confusing movie getting the facts wrong, but still with it's heart at the right place.

It's basically a docudrama about transvestites, telling the stories of three men and their road to happiness... or death. One of them, Glen, is played by Ed Wood himself and his real-life girlfriend Dolores Fuller is playing his girlfriend. This is also the part that takes up the bulk of the movie and dives in to some truly surrealistic and experimental sequences that goes from weird striptease and S&M to classic fifties kitchen-melodrama.

And... it's first now I put everything together. This movie was released in 1953! Somehow, in my imagination, I always felt it was made later - maybe in the end of the fifties or very early sixties, but imagine - 1953, a crazy, wacky movie dealing with transvestism! Not that it ends on a truly positive note. Glen learns to control his "Glenda"-character and becomes a happily married man. That never happen in real life. Dolores broke up with him, he got into heavy drinking and he never stopped wearing women's clothing. Glen or Glenda was his fantasy, his good old happy American fantasy about living his life as a respected man. Or what he thought was a good way of living.

Even of Glen or Glenda is full-blown exploitation it's made with a heart and a passion, with a few iconic images. The scene where Dolores gives Ed his angora sweater, or when Ed is sneaking around the stores spying on the mannequins in the windows. This has forever been imprinted in modern pop-culture, not only because of Tim Burton's movie but because they are strong images worthy to be remembered.

But even more iconic is the odd footage of Bela Lugosi, like a God-character watching over the life's of these transvestites, rambling immortal lines. I'm not sure what the purpose was, but it's still an essential part of an exploitation-classic. Let's finish this with the words of Bela Lugosi, the scientist...

Beware.

Beware.

Beware of the big, green dragon that sits on your doorstep.

He eats little boys, puppy dog tails and big, fat snails.

Beware. Take care.

Beware.

Ratline (2011)

The truth be told, I don't want to tell you anything about the story of Ratline. First of all because it's an original story that actually is original for real, and not inspired by countless other genre movies. Second, it's far to complex to just write down a few words about. It's so much more than gore and nudity, but Ratline includes both of these fan-favourites - without being juvenile and talentless like for example the movies from another famous indie-director, Andreas Schnaas. I'm very new to the work of Eric Stanze, the director of Ratline, but last week I saw Savage Harvest - his first movie - and now his latest. What surprises me is how similar they are in atmosphere. Stanze has a very distinct style, and now it's more mature, more or less fully developed. I can't wait to see the movies he made in-between.

Nazis + Occultism = instant interest from me. And I'm not alone in that. It's a shameful fetish most of us enjoy reading about, watching movies based on and just spending a couple of hours on the web reading fucked up site about conspiracy theories about the occult nazis can keep me awake all through the night. Richard Stanley's The Secret Glory is a must-see documentary about the subject. The McGuffin in Ratline is the infamous Blutfahne, stained by the blood of the early Nazis during the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. An object said to have enormous powers, especially in combination between ancient occult rituals and quasi-science. It's here we meet Frank Logan (Jason Christ), a man with one single goal, to find the flag and continue the that was started in the 1940's. This leads him to a small mid-western town where he instantly gets interested in Crystal (Emily Haack), a lesbian on the run after a drug-heist gone wrong. And from there everything just goes downhill...

Ratline is an interesting and unique mix of horror, thriller and drama - but to be fair, it's mostly a very intelligent and emotional drama with touches of gore, nudity and Nazi iconography. Don't let this scare you away, because 105 minutes goes very fast, mostly because of engaging characters and a very unpredictable script (written by Christ and Stanze).  The naturalistic acting and realistic locations gives Ratline an aura of the American seventies, or the realism of Larry Clark and Harmony Korine, but without even wandering over the border of pretentiousness. John Cassavetes also comes to mind, with the similar themes and the same actors refining their works from film to film.

Talking about the actors, they're all very good. From Jason Christ to Joseph R. Engel, but the shining star is Emily Haack. She's an amazing character actress, who plays a character that feels 100 % realistic. She never fools us that this is a movie, she tells us that this is real. And for me, that's god damn real acting.

Ratline can be purchased directly from Wicked PixelMedia, and it's also signed by director Eric Stanze. I'm pretty sure you won't regret buying it, because it's a movie you will revisit sooner than you think. Ratline makes you think, makes you react. This is not a horror movie for lazy viewers, it's a horror movie for us who loves to jump-start the brain after being force-fed with mainstream bullshit.

The First Power (1990)

I admit to be a strong and stubborn opponent to religion, and maybe specifically Christianity - because I was raised in that religion and saw some very dark sides of it that some people might not know about. Once when I was at a Christian camp for teenagers I was reading Whitley Strieber's The Wolfen and one of the pastors saw me and asked if that was good for me. I replied: "It's just a book". The same evening the same pastor got a message from "god" that someone (guess who?!) read books that wasn't good for him. For me it was the last nail in the coffin and I left religion and never turned back.

So what has this to do with The First Power? Well, every time I scream about the stupidity of religion Jocke at Rubbermonsterfetishism points out to me that with out nasty religions we wouldn't have so many fun horror movies based on Christianity! Well, he's right about that and that's one of the reason we have this Lou Diamond Phillips thriller from 1990. I remember how me and my dad rented it and I liked it, but I haven't seen it for at least twenty years and tonight I had the pleasure of watching it again. No, not a masterpiece - but still a good thriller.

A serial killer, Patrick Channing (the great Jeff Kober) is stalking LA with ritualistic murders involving occultism and devil worshipping. Lou is the twelve year old super-cop Russell Logan who finally catches him and watches him die in the electric chair. But some time after the killings starts all over again and Russell sees and hears visions of Patrick. A psychic, Tess Seaton (Tracy Griffith) helps him, because no one else believes in Russell's visions. Yes, Patrick is back from the dead and he's using the bodies of drug addicts to continue his killing spree!

Lou Diamond Phillips wasn't twelve years old when he shot this movie, but in some takes he sure looks that age. Anyway, The First Power is one of those slick, well-made thrillers that plagued Hollywood during the nineties. And friggin' love them all! Why? Because they look good, have nice neat little scripts, some violence, good stunts and a couple of audience-friendly twists and turns. Hardly original, but good entertainment. The level of violence isn't especially high, but the stunt-work is often fantastic. In this movie there's a couple of crazy stunts and action sequences, and I they must have been a blast to watch in cinema.

One of the best scenes - and the only one I remember from when I first saw it - is when the killer is taking control over a ceiling fan and chases our heroes out from an old building, climaxing in a nice stuntman-hanging-on-to-a-car-stunt that looks very dangerous.

The First Power is a good old occult thriller mixed with a nineties cop-movie. Lou Diamond Phillips might look very young, but he's good and handles the action and drama well - and shows of his hairless chest a couple of times. But Jeff Kober steals every scene he's in as usual, and that's fine with me. He makes even the most boring movies a little bit better. The First Power can be a bit troublesome (or more correct, expensive...) to find nowadays, but I found an Australian R4 release which looks good and are in fullscreen (not sure if it's open matte or not).

That's all folks!

Mask Maker (2010)

Over and over again filmmakers are trying to recreate the good old days of slasher movies. They claim to bring back the gore and grittiness of the golden days, but the truth be told the only slasher-style movie who I consider really gritty was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and that one almost completely lacks gore. And there's very few of the other real slasher classics who actually are so gory as modern filmmakers claim. I mean, Hatchet 1 and 2 are extremely gory compared to the movies they claim to have been inspired by. That's why I was surprised by the quality of Mask Maker (aka Maskerade) from director Griff Furst. I read some comments on the dreaded IMDB and people complained about the lack of gore, but I'm not sure they're understand what they're talking about. This is by far the most retro-realistic of the new slashers I've seen.

Jennifer and Evan are a young couple trying to stay together, to survive the everyday problems of having a relationship. But Evan has a big surprise for Jennifer, a house! A real vintage American gothic house. Sure, he got it very cheap, but with a little bit of renovation it will make good business in the future. What they don't know is that outside in the nearby shrubbery, a killer is buried. A killer with a mask made of human skin. He's been kept there, dead, for years with some ancient native American magic - but of course some fool breaks this spell and now he's back in business, trying to take back what's his!

Yeah, Mask Maker is very generic - but what it overcomes that weakness with being well-made and having a very good cast of both newcomers and veterans. The newcomers, especially the leads Nikki Deloach and Stephen Colletti, are interesting enough to care about and are portrayed with charm and wits by the actors. No Oscars here, but better than many of the bigger budgeted genre movies I've seen recently. But the veteran cast is really the highlight, from Treat Williams in flashbacks to Terry Kiser (yes, Bernie from Weekend at Bernie's and the nasty Dr Crews in Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood). But the best of the bunch is the brilliant Michael Berryman who is typecasted against his usual screen persona as a nice, gentle, smart and kind man. He's very good and it's so much fun to see him doing something different.

So, what about the gore? First of all, which is even more important, Furst really handles the murder-set-pieces very well. They are intensive and looks great. Clever editing that enhances the brutality on screen. The gore isn't that much different from any Friday the 13th movie from the eighties. Not mega-graphic, but it delivers some gore, blood and violence of good quality. Leonard, the name of the killer, is basically a mix of Leatherface, Myers and Voorhees, but kinda come off as creepy himself even if he's not that original.

Mask Maker is out from Njuta Films and it's a recommended buy!

Finale (2009)

Avid readers of Ninja Dixon knows I can be a very enthusiastic reviewer. I rather love moies than hate them and can find something good in almost everything ever produced. That's just my style and I just don't want to waste time with writing about bad movies. I mention this because John Michael Elfers Finale is probably one of the most visually stunning indie movies I've seen in years. I'm sure there's few other movies in this budget scale and with such a small crew and shot over a length of two years that can rival the visuals in this one. It's far from a perfect movie, but it so well-made that it's hard to not love it in one way or another.

The oldest son of Helen (Carolyn Hauck) and Peter (James Johnson) takes suicide after having a nervous breakdown. Their only daughter, Kathryn (Suthi Picotte) tries to cope with the loss of her brother and handles it much better than Helen, who's convinced foul play is behind her son's death. Kathryn joins the drama class at school and is offered the lead in a play, but something is not ok with the group - at least that's what her mother thinks. Soon Helen starts to see stuff, something demon-like in every reflection in the house - and like her dead son she starts painting everything black to stop this evil force from reaching her. But is she mad, or is she just getting insane because of her sorrow?

Eh, no. There's real supernatural stuff going on in this movie and makes it even better. No pretentious stuff about "it's all in her mind" or crap like that. This is the real deal.

The story is actually more complicated than this, and Elfers fills the movie with atmospheric scenes of both intelligent drama and strong horror. The scares themselves might not be that new, I've seen it before and after this movie, but it's made with so much talent and imagination that it stands out a lot from the rest. Most effects are done in-camera, just like "the good old days" (which I despise, the story is everything - not how you shoot it), but because the whole movie has a vibe of European genre film from the seventies and eighties (some reviewers has gone so far as compare it with Argento, I personally wouldn't go so far - the style is very different) and it helps that it's shot on film and not digital video (which I have no problem with, believe me).

The theme of the movie is also very retro. A satanic cult, demons, conspiracy, a young woman who enters the world of theatre - this feels like something from 1979 and not 2009. The acting is also top-notch and it never, not once, feels like a smaller production with less experienced actors. There's no way to tell that the whole movie was shot over two years either. Finale is just a very well-made horror movie. However, don't expect any gore. Blood and violence, yes, but the lack of graphic violence takes away one thing that Finale would have been even better with. It just fits the story and atmosphere, and the few blood-spurts and beatings wasn't enough for me. Here Elfers could have gone more Argento.

Don't be fooled by covers and reviews, this is neither a slasher or a Argento-esque movie. It stands on it's own two legs and is one impressive piece of American indie film history. 

Don't Open Till Christmas (1984)

Dick Randall, the hyperactive jokester in exploitation cinema. Few men has delivered so much insanity to our screens, tapes and nowadays discs like Big Dick. Don't believe me? Just watch these movies and you will come crawling back on your bare knees for forgiveness: Death Dimension, Crocodile, Supersonic Man, Challenge of the Tiger, For Y'ur Height Only, The Clones of Bruce Lee, Pieces, Horror Safari, Slaughter High and countless other classics from Europe and Asia. I have a feeling that Mr Randall just had a blast with his investors money. He know what sold and used the budget to entertain himself - and the actors - to a maximum. I think we all can agree that none of his movies are 100 % serious. It's exploitation in EVERY way possible.

A psychotic killer is murdering every person dressed in a Santa Claus-outfit in London. Cranky old inspector Edmund Purdom investigates while there's a murder every ten minute or more, including an unhealthy dose of tits and ass.

Yeah, there's some silly sidestory where Belinda Mayne and her boyfriend is getting in trouble. Something like that. And it's not really important either.

Don't Open Till Christmas was a very troubled production. Purdom started directing it, but after realizing this would probably kill every other chance he had to direct something he quit and two years later two other directors plus a new writer cobbled everything together to the mess we all learned to love over the years. Mind me, it's neither a boring or a bad-looking movie, but the script is all over the place the atmosphere is so f**king seedy and sleazy. There's lots of backyards, alleyways, prostitutes, public toilets, drunken santas, breasts and thick RED blood all over the place. The murders are primitive when it comes to special effects, but the nasty way they're handled makes them more powerful. There's an sense of pure sadism over these sequences.

It's easy to see that the story was put together in chaos. The style differs from each scene and sometimes the focus is anywhere near the target. Most of the drama, the typical social realistic scenes that made the UK so famous still looks good and works most of the times very good, but cut together with extremely colourful bloody murder scenes makes the movie even crazier. I have no idea, but it feels like Purdom directed the drama and some other talented sprayed the blood later on.

The DVD from Mondo Macabro looks - yes, I'm not hyping it - stunning. At least compared with earlier DVDs and tapes out there. It has a nice natural grain, but it's very sharp and clear and everything you wanted to see in a movie about someone killing santas you can see here without rubbing your eyes every fifth minute. Even the dark footage looks gorgeous, and one scene that really comes out as great-looking is the weird ghosthouse/museum/whatevah set-piece.

Mondo Macabro never failed to bore me with their releases and Don't Open Till Christmas is not exception. Buy it before you get your dick cut off in a seedy London toilet!