Monster Scholar

Cultural mores and traditions that inform the themes of films like Kairo or Ju-On are often re-contextualized for a Western audience in their remakes. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though some critics would argue it results in a simplification of often complex films. Ju-On for instance becomes a haunted house story, losing the non-linear narrative utilized by Shimizu as it adapts to a more Western understanding of haunted spaces. The same is true of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Kairo, known stateside as “Pulse,” but whose title resonates more with the word “Circuit” Whereas Kairo is more about the fear of loneliness and an inability to connect, its remake is more about a threatening Other that seeks our destruction though the gateway of technology. Pulse is an very psychological film, a departure from the distance Kurosawa keeps us from the disconnected characters of Kairo. Mattie, our main protagonist is psych major who has several sessions with her professor-cum-therapist who tells he...

My first though obviously is, could there be a crappier remake? But for those of you wanting more, here are some of my additional thoughts on MBV, accompanied by stills and funny captions.  Did anyone else notice the striking similarity between the killer and Dr. Satan’s monster from House of 1000 Corpses? You would have to be dumb, deaf and blind not to figure out that Tom was the killer about halfway through with all that mirroring movement with the killer and him being gone when the murders occur. Who do they think we are, Lois Lane? The movie jumps forward ten years to pick up with the main characters after the massacre, but no one has aged a day? That’s Hollywood for you. In an excellent excuse for full frontal female nudity, an irate woman goes after a trucker in the parking lot after he videotapes them having sex. Favorite line—Trucker: “Put some clothes on before some kid sees you.” Axel is a slut and Sarah is an idiot for taking him back. Hearts make the best can...

To ring in the holiday season, I’m bringing you 12 deaths of the Black Christmas remake. As far as remakes go, this one is pretty godawful, but it has more deaths than the original so it meets my 12-death quota. For the 1st death of Christmas, Billy gave to me… A sorority sister smothered with a trash bag and stabbed in the head with a fountain pen. For the 2nd death of Christmas, Billy gave to me… A security guard stabbed in the throat with a candy cane. For the 3rd death of Christmas, Billy gave to me… Yet another smothered sorority sister with a bonus eye gouging. For the 4th death of Christmas, Billy gave to me… A dead Santa in a dumpster. For the 5th death of Christmas, Billy gave to me… A Christmas tree topper through murdering stepdad’s eye. For the 6th death of Christmas, Billy gave to me… Mom strangled with Christmas lights, beaten to death with a rolling pin then used for flesh angel cookies. Yum. For the 7th death of Christmas, Billy gave to me… A trowel to the back of the h...

On the heels of my review of Sorority Row here on Monster Land, I was contacted by the director of SR, Stewart Hendler. After I recovered from the shock, I was given an exclusive interview with the director as he recounts what motivated him to film a horror remake with a positive message for women. As we’ve seen in the past with films like feminist Rita Mae Brown’s Slumber Party Massacre , it can be hard to make a horror film with a positive message for women. How did you set out to do just that? All horror movies are (or attempt to be) morality tales, so there’s a built in structure that allows you to use them to make a statement. I’m a big fan of the genre, but not particularly proud of how it treats women, so I wanted to do something different with Sorority Row. When I read the script, it appealed to me because it examined a very particular and very bizarre subset of American culture—the sorority. Built on the principles of sisterhood and service, I truly believe that sororit...

I went to a showing of Sorority Row at my local Movie Tavern expecting the usual from a modern remake of yet another 80s slasher. I leaned back in my seat and prepared for an hour and a half screaming bimbos being pursued by a masked killer with a pimped out tire iron. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised by a film that critiques the sorority system as one that revolves around male stereotypes of women and argues that female solidarity can only exist outside such an oppressive system. To give a broad synopsis of the film, five sorority sisters are stalked by a vengeful killer after a prank ends in the death of their friend Megan. They are Cassidy, the hold-out; Ellie, the nerd; Chugs, the alcoholic; Jessica the queen bee and Claire. In on the secret is Garrett, the one technically responsible for killing Megan. Looking first at the hooded killer, it is obvious that he represents a patriarchal threat much like the psycho paterfamilias in the original Stepfather , the remake of which is ...

“You’ve done terrible things. Be strong”--Anthony Hopkins The Wolfman A bootleg trailer for 2009's The Wolfman was leaked to the internet back in July of 2008 and I just got a chance to see it and share some thoughts. It has a distinctive Sleepy Hollow feel to it with its depiction of a dreary 1880s London and the isolated inhabitants of the town being threatened by a ravenous beast. Cinematically my favorite part of the trailer was the shot of a terrified Emily Blunt hiding behind a tree while a wolfish Benicio can be seen in the background. An interesting thing I gleaned from the trailer is that the film’s treatment of the werewolf might go beyond just the physical transformation and explore the concept of lycanthropy as a mental disease. Toro is depicted bound in a straight jacket in the middle of a crowded operating theater and screams “I will kill all of you!” as his hands turn into claws. His immersion in ice water also resembles a kind of turn of the century calming treatme...

Sony pictures is coming out with a remake of the original 1987 slasher The Stepfather , starring Dylan Walsh from Nip/Tuck as the shady father figure David Harris and Sela Hardin as Susan Harding, the single mother of three who marries him. Their family is picture perfect as David takes the kids to movies, the arcade and and still has enough time left over to shower his new wife with affection. But Susan's teenage son Michael begins to suspect that his stepfather isn't what he seems when their elderly next door neighbor thinks she recognizes him from an episode of America's Most Wanted. Michael does some web research and finds out the killer featured on AMW is wanted in the slaying of an entire family. As it turns out David is the killer and his modis operandi is searching for the perfect family by marrying single women with kids. But when that family doesn't live up to his expectations, he disposes of them and moves on to the next target. Things start to fall apart a...

In Rob Zombie’s return take on the 70’s slasher, Michael Myers is still at large and just wants some quality time with his sister. Picking up where Zombie’s 2007 Halloween left off, the film follows Laurie Strode as she is rushed to the hospital with wounds inflicted by her brother a few hours earlier. She assumes that Michael is dead but in typical slasher style, Michael somehow lives and continues his murderous rampage on the hospital staff and anyone else unfortunate enough to get in his way. The original remake of Halloween was criticized for its lack of directorial vision, as Zombie fell into the trap of making a “typical” remake that wasn’t up to par with his gritty style of horror. As a result it was dubbed in some circles as Rob Zombie’s John Carpenter’s Halloween , but that is a mistake Rob Zombie won’t make again. Though he admits to the challenge of working with characters and a story that were not his own in the first film, Halloween II is a second chance for Rob Zombie t...