Welcome to TBO.com. Skip directly to: our Keyword Search, Section Navigation, Content.

TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online

John Allman

If you’ve ever wandered the aisles at the video store or surfed the DVR pay-per-view options and seen a bunch of movies that you’ve never heard of, chances are John has watched them. Why? He loves movies. All kinds of movies. Good, bad, so-bad-they’re good, even the truly unwatchable ones. He mostly loves horror and science-fiction and drive-in exploitation movies that most upstanding model citizens wouldn’t dare watch. Then he writes up his thoughts so you can decide - watch, don’t watch or avoid at all costs. Sometimes he even gets to talk to the cool folks who make some of your favorite films.

Blood, Violence and Babes
John Allman

Most Recent Entries

Monthly Archives

New Releases for Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2011

Posted Aug 2, 2011 by John Allman

Updated Aug 2, 2011 at 09:25 PM

What’s new in stores and on video shelves this week:

Stake Land
Genre: Horror
Directed by: Jim Mickle
Run time: 98 minutes
Rating: Unrated
Format: Blu-Ray

The Lowdown: It must be incredibly difficult these days to come up with an original way to convey an apocalyptic future, a nation ravaged by an epidemic and reduced to basic, primal needs.

Lord knows, many films have tried of late: “The Road” likely came closest, with its bleak and pitch-black portrait of a grey world left smoldering after an unidentified series of disasters, but the soul-sucking tone left me drained and weary. “The Book of Eli” played too much like a self-aware genre mash-up with Denzel Washington unable to shed his unique Denzel Washington-ness in order to transform into a blind messiah. Even “I Am Legend,” for all its exciting set pieces and big-budget price tag still left me wanting more.

How funny then that a small independent film, financed for less than $1 million, co-written by its director (Jim Mickle) and star (Nick Damici), could somehow do the improbable and completely nail the post-modern wasteland that might remain following a ravenous vampire scourge.

But damn if “Stake Land” isn’t the best genre film of its type that you’ve seen since “The Road Warrior,” deftly balancing rich character development with taunt action scenes and some genuinely chilling creatures to contend with.

Following up on the promise of “Mulberry Street,” his infestation-#####-zombies-in-NYC debut, Mickle puts it all out there, swinging hard and fast right from the jump, and it works. Oh boy, does it work.

This is not just an apocalyptic road movie where the protagonist is striving to reach some mythical safe haven. It’s a coming of age story about one young man’s maturation from innocent child to vampire-slaying protector. It’s a social commentary that considers what factions might be left after some terrible global disaster, and what might those factions be motivated to do. And, above all, it’s a full-throttle horror movie filled with small, but brilliant, details that most directors would save for a money shot. Not Mickle and Damici. They pepper their movie with so many little flourishes that it’s nearly impossible to catch them all on a first viewing.

In a perfect world, one devoid of Smurfs and threequels about giant robots, “Stake Land” would be a major studio tentpole release.

On second thought, maybe this is better. This way the fans who come by this film will do so honestly because they have to seek it out. And they will follow Mickle and Damici from here on out because they will recognize their talent and appreciate the intelligence, the care and the obvious love they have for the genre.

The Stuff You Care About:
Hot chicks – Hello, Danielle Harris, even pregnant and dirty, you’re still hot.
Nudity – Brief.
Gore – Yes.
Drug use – No.
Bad Guys/Killers – It’s a tough call between the vampires, nasty feral things, or the religious cult that tries to use them to wipe out the resistance.
Buy/Rent – Buy. It. Now.
On the Web – http://www.scareflix.net/stakesite.html

YellowBrickRoad (The Collective, 98 minutes, R, DVD): The second film from the new Bloody Disgusting Selects shingle is a thoroughly unsettling ghost story called “YellowBrickRoad.”

First-time writer/directors Jesse Holland and Andy Mitton have concocted a chilling tale of paranoia and isolation that, quite frankly, bothered the hell out of me. I actually woke up several hours after watching it, thinking about “YellowBrickRoad,” and feeling scared and disturbed laying there in the dark.

That doesn’t happen often, but then, few films that I watch actually creep under my skin and burrow their way deep into my subconscious. This one did, and I honestly can’t tell you exactly why.

Part of the explanation, I think, lies with the fact that there are few answers provided. And part of the reason has to do with the very nature of urban legends – the best ones scare you because they pray on fears you don’t like to think about, the crazy person under your bed licking your finger or the malevolent spirit in the mirror you might conjure simply by saying her name three times, in the dark.

“YellowBrickRoad” is an urban legends-style flick. It deals with an unexplained phenomena – the disappearance 70 years before of an entire New Hampshire town, which suddenly walked, en masse, into the woods. There was one survivor, and he literally had been driven insane by what he experienced.

Into this town now comes an accomplished married couple, both writers and photographers, along with a close friend/psychologist, brother and sister cartologists, an intern and a state wildlife officer. The group plan to walk the same road, ominously marked ‘yellowbrickroad’ by the locals, to determine, if possible, what happened to the townsfolk so many years before.

Taking a cue from recent retro-horror films like “House of the Devil,” Holland and Mitton opt for a slow burn, allowing the characters to gradually develop. Thankfully, they avoid stereotypes, and create real people who you are believable. Suffice to say, there’s no jock, tramp, nerd, etc.

After several days of hiking, the crew makes a chilling discovery, or I should say, they suddenly find themselves enveloped by a chilling development. Miles from town, away from any recognizable urban structure, music begins to fill the woods. As if that wasn’t creepy enough, the music is from the early 40s, the same time period when the town’s residents went missing. And it keeps escalating until it reaches eardrum-bursting decibel levels that immobilize the group.

The first actual blast of gore is so sudden, so shocking, so unexpected in its ferocity, that it feels like a hard, open-palm slap.

And from there, “YellowBrickRoad,” with its odd, obtuse references to “The Wizard of Oz,” its purposefully vague plot progression and its ever-present sense of anything can and might happen, just pushes north, striding forward on a mission to shock and confuse the viewer, almost the same way that the eerie music disorientates the team and slowly, slowly, slowly drives them mad.

Also Available:

Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer – I was there, opening night, May 14, 1982. My favorite comic book hero of all time finally had his own movie. It was bloody, brutal, epic. I was 12 years old. The sequel that followed in 1984 was good, not great, but enjoyable like a solid issue of the comic. And now, almost 30 years later, the original “Conan the Barbarian,” as well as “Conan the Destroyer,” are coming to high definition. Just in time for the remake. Sigh.

Exit 33 – Kane Hodder, the man responsible for Jason Voorhees in four films, plus Victor Crowley, tops a low-budget throwback to slasher films. Sadly, this one isn’t all that much to get excited about, but Hodder’s fans – and there are many – should enjoy.

Better Off Dead – I want my three dollars. French fries, French toast, French dressing. Go that way, really fast. If something gets in your way, turn. The quotes just don’t stop coming in the 1985 cult classic that launched John Cusack into the collective conscience of America. Cusack’s Lane Myer was a comic creation the likes of which we had never seen. The original cool geek. Until “Say Anything,” four years later, that is.

Strigoi: The Undead – A vampire film so unique and original that you will forget you’re watching a vampire film. And these days, that’s saying something.

Streetwalkin’ – This 1985 exploitation flick stars recent Oscar-winning actress Melissa Leo in a Roger Corman Cult Classic about girls, guns and life on the street.

Eastbound and Down: The Complete Season 2 – Danny McBride owns the role of Kenny Powers, a once-great Major League pitcher who got derailed by the excesses of fame. No one else but McBride could make you sympathize with such a schmuck. And for that, we are grateful.

The United States of Tara: The Third Season – The third season of this now-canceled Showtime series starring the amazing Toni Collette.

Spy Kids, Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams, Spy Kids 3: Game Over – Robert Rodriguez’s popular kid’s franchise gets a Blu-Ray upgrade just in time for the fourth installment to hit theaters.

Zen: Vendetta, Cabal, Ratking – BBC series about an Italian detective Aurelio Zen (Rufus Sewell). Good stuff.

Outside the Law – Historical drama, and Academy Award nominee, about Algerian soldiers fighting to free their country from French colonization.

The Music Never Stopped – J.K. Simmons and Lou Taylor Pucci star in this true story about the healing power of music and the bond that exists between father and son.