A group of ‘idealistic’ students (‘Don’t think, act!’) go to the Amazon to help safe the rainforest and thus protect the ancient tribes who live there. After their ‘succesful’ mission is completed their small plane crashes and the surviving members end up being captured by a cannabalistic tribe. ‘No good deed goes unpunished’ reads the tagline, indeed it doesn’t.

This is one of those typical horror films the fans will enjoy a lot. It has a lot of inside jokes tthey will have fun spotting. The film itself is an hommage to the Italian cannibal films of the late 1970s and early ’80s, a list of which is even included in the end credits of the film.
Its main inspiration is Ruggero Deodato’s ‘Cannibal Holocaust’ (1980) which even features a film-within-a-film entitled ‘The Green Inferno’. Please note that unlike the Deodato film and films such as ‘The Blair Witch Project’ (1999) Roth’s film is not ‘a found footage horror film’.
The character that takes the lead of the activist student group is called Alejandro (after Jodorowsky?) and the female lead or heroine of the film is called Justine. Considering all the torture and perverted actions she has to undergo the link with Marquis de Sade, and perhaps even more so with the Jess Franco film, is certainly not a coincidence.
Roth fans wil certainly recognise Richard Burgi as Justine’s father the United Nations attorney who played one of the ‘victims’ in ‘Hostel: Part II’ (2007).

As most horror films do, ‘The Green Inferno’ has a lot of ‘serious’ themes it tackles, such as female genital mutilation, the destruction of the rainforest, the corruptibility of social activism and the extreme forms of egotistical behaviour when self-preservation is at stake. These themes are off course just an ironic excuse to have a fun gorefest with scooped out eyeballs, dismemberments and interesting ways of supplying cannabis to cannibals.

After ‘Knock Knock‘ and its original ‘Death Game‘, this concludes our Eli Roth contribution for the week.

Jan Bollen

With the opening shot of the film, a seemingly one take tracking shot which lasts for several minutes, director Sam Mendes immediately leaves his calling card. In Mexico City amidst the Day of the Dead festivities James Bond accompanied by a woman (no surprise there) follows a man in the partying crowd. When the man enters a building Bond and the woman enter the hotel next door, take the elevator and enter a room and to her surprise instead of making love to her he immediately exits the room via the balcony, casually walks across the rooftop untill he can look into a window of the opposite building where the mystery man he was following re-appears. End of the opening shot.

The entire film is directed with a lot of class and respect for the older Bond films and continously has -at times- rather subtle nods to the entire series. A lot of scenes and circumstances hint at the pre-Daniel Craig Bond films. The main henchman looks like a mash-up of Oddjob and Jack Palance. When you see Ernst Stavro Blofeld you expect to see a cat and low and behold … .

Before the opening shot of the film -as discribed earlier- really gets going the statement ‘The dead are alive’ appears. When you look at the typical highly stylised James Bond opening credit sequence you may briefly spot certain characters that died during the 3 previous Craig Bond films o.a. Vesper, Silva, Le Chiffre and M. The story of the film itself revolves around the criminal organisation SPECTRE (Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) which might have been active throughout the Craig reboot Bond series without us really knowing about it.
Bond is on a rogue mission -as was Ethan Hunt in episode 5 of the M:I series called Rogue Nation- to hunt down the head of the SPECTRE organisation, and as was the case for the M:I agents the 00 agents are also under threat of being closed down. Modern technology makes blunt tools like the 00 agents obsolete according to a new boss in the UK’s  Secret Services world called C.

All the elements you wish (or expect) to see in a Bond film are present, beautiful Bond girls (Léa Seydoux and Monica Bellucci), Miss Moneypenny, Q, a spectacular Bond car (The Aston Martin DB10), a lot of breathtaking stunts and a larger than life villain played by Christoph Waltz.
Waltz is getting one of those old fashioned star entrances: a character everybody is talking about and who’s being feared but it just takes a long time before we actually really get the see him. We first get to see his head from behind during a funeral. In a next scene we get to see his silouette, his face remains in the dark before a sudden turn lights-up half of his face. One of those delightful Sam Mendes directorial touches that give his Bond films (he also directed ‘Skyfall’) that little extra.

Jan Bollen

One of the taglines of the film (see poster above) states: ‘What happens to me if I fail your test? The test in question is the so-called Turing test invented by Alan Turing. Last year the movie ‘The Imitation Game’ handled the life, trials and tribulations of Turing’s life. The test basically tries to determine via a set of questions if one of the participants in a conversation is a human being or a machine who can mimic human like responses.

Ridley Scott’s film ‘Blade Runner’ opens with a Turing test gone bad. Other films dealing with the philosophy surrounding  Artifical Intelligence, such as Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ and its H.A.L. 9000 ‘character’ and Spielberg’s ‘ A.I.’ (initially also a Kubrick project Spielberg got to make after Kubrick passed away) are using ideas derived from Turing’s writings.

In the film Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson, son of Brendan), after ‘winning’ a competition, is invited by Nathan (Oscar Isaac in yet another high quality product and great as always) -an IT guru- to his remote resort were he is to perform an objective Turing test on AVA. AVA is an A.I. robot with the delightful shape of Alicia Vikander. As Nathan is its creator (the Deus missing from the title), he can not perform it himself. It would be a shame to reveal more of the plot.

If you’re expecting a sci-fi action flick you will more than likely get disappointed as Alex Garland -writer and/or producer on several Danny Boyle films including ‘Sunshine’ and ’28 Days Later’, and the underestimated (Judge) ‘Dredd’ remake- made more of a huis clos psychological drama. Who is really pulling the strings?

Universal Pictures is having a financial miracle year with ‘Jurassic World’, ‘Furious 7’, ‘Minions’, ‘Pitch Perfect 2′, Fifty Shades of Grey’ and the surprise hit ‘Straight Outta Compton’, yet in Belgium they’ve deprived us from a theatrical release of Michael Mann’s ‘Blackhat’ and ‘Ex Machina’. Sad.

Jan Bollen

Now that Eli Roth’s remake ‘Knock Knock‘ is being released (see previous post) its original ‘Death Game’ (a.k.a. The Seducers) (1977) is getting some attention. Is it a forgotten gem that now finally is getting its due? I’m afraid not.

The film starts of with a message stating: ” This motion picture is based on a true story. It should serve to remind us that fate allows no man to insulate himself against the evil which pervades our society.”
Highly unlikely, in the case of the Coen brothers ‘Fargo‘ we at least knew for sure it was not a serious statement.
The story of ‘Knock Knock’ closely follows that of ‘Death Game’. There are some minor differences, the children are only mentioned in the original but are not seen. The family is absent during father’s day whereas it’s the fathers birthday in ‘Death Game’. The pet has been changed from a cat to a dog and the lady of the house is not an artist, so the house is not covered with her art sculptures. No Iphones, no Uber apps … and the movies resolution differs as well.

It’s interesting to see how many (now) famous people were involved in this project, many of whom may no longer wish to be reminded of it. Except perhaps for the two female leading characters Sondra Locke and Colleen Camp. Sondra Locke is best know for being a former girlfriend of Clint Eastwood, she starred in 6 of his feature films (The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Gauntlet, Every Which Way But Loose, Bronco Billy, Any Which Way You Can, and Sudden Impact) and since their highly publicised break up has done little else. She acts as an executive producer on Roth’s remake.
Colleen Camp has a little cameo in the remake and acts as one of its producers and has had a steady acting career every since, including roles in ‘Apocalypse Now’ and several Peter Bogdanovich films to name but a few.
Bil Paxton -who would later star in several James Cameron films a.o. ‘Aliens’, ‘Titanic’ and blockbusters like ‘Twister’ and directed the solid thriller ‘Frailty’- was assistant set decorator on the film.

The art director on ‘Death Game’ was Jack Fisk, who was art director or production designer on all of Terrence Malick’s films, ‘There Will Be Blood’ and ‘The Master’ by P.T. Anderson and several David Lynch films. Fisk’s wife, the famous actress Sissy Spacek was a set dresser on the film. A job she also had on De Palma’s ‘Phantom of the Paradise’, her husband being the production designer. At the time of ‘Death Game’ she had already played the lead in Malick’s ‘Badlands’ and received an Oscar nomination for best actress for De Palma’s ‘Carrie’, both films for which Fisk did the art direction. Spacek also helped out her husband and David Lynch on ‘Eraserhead’ and would later star in yet another Lynch film, ‘The Straight Story’.

Seymour Cassel who was a John Casseavetes protégé plays the male lead. The voice you hear in the film is clearly not his and was obviously dubbed. I have a sneeky suspicious he’s not to proud of the film even though he’s not that bad in it. Since the early 60’s Cassel can with high regularity be seen on the silver screen and in later years starred in several Wes Anderson films + opposite Sam Louwyck in Tom Barman’s ‘Turnpike’ video.

Jan Bollen

On wednesday Eli Roth’s 2013 ‘The Green Inferno‘ will be released in Belgium. His latest film ‘Knock Knock’ (2015) starring Keanu Reeves has only been made available via video on demand (Telenet).

When his family is away for the weekend two young girls, Genisis (Roth’s wife Lorenza Izzo) and Bel (Ana de Armas), ‘happen’ to knock on Evan’s door. They are soaking wet and are looking for help. They were on their way to a party but a taxi has dropped them of at the wrong place. After a slight hesitation Evan invites them in, he gives them robes, puts their clothes in the dryer , makes them a cup of tea and calls them a new cab (via the Uber app).
The girls however were not planning on leaving, they’re on a mission to make his life a living hell, be it a pleasurable one at first. The devout husband, happily married man, with the perfect family and the perfect house may lose it all.

The tone of the movie is hard to discribe as it’s not clear to which extent the filmmakers were taking the film serious. From the get go the ‘happy family’ scenes are bordering on camp and the so-called “free pizza” speech Keanu Reeves delivers towards the end is so funny I can’t imagine it was meant to be taken seriously. The film is not really trying to be scary either and as Eli Roth has a proven track record for horror -Cabin Fever and the 2 Hostel films- that were both horrific and funny, it’s hard to believe he would have lost his touch during the 6 years of his directing hiatus when he was mainly producing films or starring in films by his buddy Tarantino.

When comparing the ‘torture porn’ in ‘Knock Knock’ with that of ‘Hostel parts I & II’, it’s perhaps safer to conclude the film is probably ‘a conscious guilty pleasure about a guilty conscience’. It’s as if John Waters has successfully stolen Eli Roth’s identity. If you were expecting Haneke’s ‘Funny Games’ (1997 or 2007 for the US version ) mixed with Adrian Lyne’s ‘Fatal Attraction (1987) you will be disappointed.
As far as movie references are concerned, the scene were a body is hidden in a paper mache work of art brings to mind Scorsese’s ‘After Hours’ (1985) and a family portrait is hung in a hallway very similar to the famous mirror/portrait in Argento’s ‘Profondo Rosso’ (Deep Red) (1975).

Tomorrow I’ll be reviewing the original ‘masterpiece’ ‘Death Game‘ (a.k.a. The Seducers) (1977) of which ‘Knock Knock’ is a remake (or perhaps a Knock-Off).

Jan Bollen

Sometimes a local film is receiving good press, quite understandably so to support the local film industry even if the film itself is not that good. For instance, check out some of the rave reviews Wim Vandekeybus’ hugely disappointing ‘Galloping Mind’ received. If the critics are losing their credibility when it comes to local films, it’s not a good idea in the long term.
‘D’Ardennen’ (The Ardennes) marks the directorial feature length film debut by Robin Pront and is the latest release from production company Savage Films (Rundskop, a.k.a. Bullhead, and the above mentioned Galloping Mind). There was quite a hype surrounding the film at the time of its release.

After a somewhat slow start there was a short moment I was afraid the hype was not deserved, but there was no reason to. It seemed the movie -like the lyrics of that opening song of Friends- was somewhat ‘stuck in second gear’. But Pront is just taking his time planting seeds and confidently lets scenes play out in single, rather long takes, giving his actors the time to really get into their characters. Once the film reaches the scene in a nightclub where the argument ‘who is the greatest Belgian, Eddy Merckx or Jean-Claude Van Damme?’, is settled once and for all the film really ‘kicks’ into gear.

By then most of the main characters have been introduced. Kenneth (Kevin Janssens) has just been released from prison after solely taking the rap for a bungled home-jacking, that also included his now ex-girlfriend Sylvie (Veerle Baetens) and his brother Dave (Jeroen Perceval, who also wrote the script adaptation based upon his stage play). A love triangle emerges that will be settled in the Ardennes, the location were past joyful family holidays had taken place.

Kevin Janssens (who replaced Matthias Schoenaerts) is really impressive (as is the rest of the cast. To many people his performance will be quite a surprise. A bit like John Ford said about John Wayne after directing him in a rather uncharacteristic emotional scene in ‘The Searchers’ (and after having already worked with him for decades): ‘I never knew the son of a bitch could act.’

The plot is set-up a lot more subtly than is usually the case in these type of crime drama’s. Even when the character Joyce appears, a drag queen played by Sam Louwyck, the tone remains rather serious. Another director might have let things go more over the top. Pront seems to be going more for the dramatic intensity of a James Gray (‘Little Odessa’, ‘The Yards’, … ) or David Michôd’s ‘Animal Kingdom’ than for a more Coen brothers like humorous approach although the end result is somewhere in between. A fine confident debut that makes you yearn for more.

Jan Bollen