Hope & George review this week’s new releases: Wicked: For Good, Sisu: Road to Revenge, Jay Kelly, Rental Family, Sentimental Value, Peter Hujar’s Day, Reawakening, Altered, and Time Travel Is Dangerous. Plus, movie news & notes from The Schlocketeer Daniel Baldwin!
by Daniel Baldwin
Socio-political allegory and science fiction storytelling go together like peanut butter and chocolate. One can enjoy their tastes separately, but when combined in the right portions, they taste even better together. The trick, of course, is in getting that mixture right. Making sure that the visuals, themes, world-building, and characters are all executed at a high level. When that’s done, we are handed gems like RoboCop, Children of Men, They Live, Nemesis, Gattaca, or any number of Twilight Zone episodes.
Writer/director Timo Vuorensola (Iron Sky) gets a lot right with Altered. This film posits a post-apocalyptic society that outwardly seems like a utopia but is anything but for anyone who is not deemed genetically perfect by its leaders and culture. Those “unblemished” by genetic “deficiencies” are referred to as the Genetics. They are the “pure” ruling class.
Anyone deemed imperfect – those who are disabled in any way – are called the “Specials”. They are allowed to contribute to society, but generally only through manual labor and menial jobs. Platitudes of equality and unity are dished out in public speeches by the Genetics, but inequality is the true atmosphere of this world. Something that the Specials would like to change.
The world-building is effective, and the themes are relevant. The execution? Not so much. One can see what the film’s core message is meant to be – that we are all important and have worth to society – but these themes are frequently muddled by character and storytelling choices that undercut them throughout. Brief bursts of sci-fi action involving a (pretty silly) plant-powered super suit help to paper this over in bits, but it’s never enough to offset the often undercooked writing.
New lower-budget sci-fi movies roll out by the dozens each and every year. Given that Altered is on the higher end of those in terms of production value and cast (Tom Felton, Elizaveta Bugulova, Richard Brake, etc.), hardcore sci-fi fans may still find a bit to enjoy here. Casual viewers will find far less within to hold their attention. It’s a film that does have at least something going on under the hood, but there’s not enough gas in the tank to get it across the finish line.
Screens Friday, October 17 at 4pm
by Daniel Baldwin
Attempting to reinvent a film franchise can be an incredibly tricky thing. If things change too much, filmmakers risk incensing fans and making audiences wonder why the new project even bears the same name as the original. If not enough is changed, subsections of fandom might be happy, but everyone else will still be left thinking, “What’s the point?”
That’s the fine line to be walked as a creator when tackling a pre-existing thing, especially when it comes to horror. There’s also a quiet truth: you’re never going to please everyone with your reinvention. Just ask folks like David Gordon Green, Nia DaCosta, Fede Alvarez, and filmmaking team Radio Silence. All tackled recent renewals of long-running slasher series to varying degrees of success, both of the critical and commercial variety. Fans still argue about all of them today and they will continue to do so for decades to come. For better or worse, franchises inspire passion in their fanbases. Sometimes that passion is born of love and acceptance. Other times, it is overflowing with hatred and malice.
This is the core subject of Ritesh Gupta’s satirical slasher, The Red Mask. Together with screenwriters Samantha Gurash and Patrick Robert Young, Gupta has crafted a fiercely critical look at both sides of the coin when it comes to a slasher series being redone for a new generation. The terror tale begins with acclaimed indie screenwriter Allina Green (Helena Howard) kicking off a stay at a secluded cabin with her fiancé, Deetz (Inanna Sarkis). The goal? To write a killer script for a reboot of popular fictional slasher series, The Red Mask.
Things take a turn when Allina & Deetz’s brainstorming sessions are interrupted when a couple (Jake Abel & Kelli Garner) with a clashing Airbnb reservation arrive at the cabin. Also – wouldn’t you know it? – they happen to be big fans of The Red Mask films who have their own very different thoughts on how their beloved saga should be revived. The stage is now set for a battle (both verbal and physical) between filmmakers and fans over the soul of an intellectual property.
It’s the kind of thing one only ever sees play out in comments sections and social media posts, but instead of ALL CAPS WARFARE, the fight becomes decidedly more literal in the hands of Gupta & Co. What results is a very savvy and fun piece of horror filmmaking that is sure to thrill you and make you chuckle in equal measure. Keep an eye out for this one, horror fans. It’s a really good time.
by Daniel Baldwin
Genre mash-ups are a tricky thing. A consistent tone is hard enough to maintain when one is working in one genre, but once you add any additional genres into the mix, the odds of things going off of the rails increase exponentially. More often than not, they tend to fall apart. After all, for every From Dusk Till Dawn or Sinners, you have a Cowboys & Aliens or an Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
Writer/director Ashley Cahill’s Resurrection Road is a genre mash-up, melding a Civil War men-on-a-mission tale with a heavy dose of supernatural horror. A squad of Black Union soldiers is tasked with a deadly clandestine mission to take out the heavy cannons at a nearby fort so that the army can safely approach it a few days later. It’s effectively a suicide mission and one that the men are blackmailed into accepting. One that would be impossible enough on its own in a standard war actioner but is now made even more impossible with the additional supernatural threat at work.
Malcolm Goodwin (iZombie, Reacher) is our lead and, as always, his presence alone elevates the material. His protagonist, Barrabas, is the most complex and interesting character in the film and Goodwin does everything in his power to carry Resurrection Road across the finish line. It’s not enough.
This isn’t the first time someone has attempted to craft a Civil War-era horror/action hybrid. Alex Turner’s Dead Birds attempted something similar a couple decades back. Making any sort of period piece on a low budget is a tall order, as one has to not only get the dialogue right, but also the production design. Resurrection Road unfortunately comes up short in both areas.
Fans of the ever-underrated Goodwin might still want to check this out, as he gives it his all. Folks who really enjoy period piece horror might also find something of interest here. Otherwise, it is a hard film to recommend. There’s always something to be admired in a project that’s reach exceeds its grasp, but in the end, this film just doesn’t measure up.
