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Joe Begos
Retro-grindhouse film-maker that uses practical effects and old-school filming techniques, and often pays tributes to 80s cult and horror films. Several of his films copy plot elements and the look & feel of his favorite movies, bringing to mind another Steven Kostanski, but he also sometimes directs original creations with a grindhouse aesthetic. Other stylistic choices include neon lighting, gonzo energy, spiraling chaos, urban locations, and gooey practical effects. Although gore always makes a strong appearance in his movies, many are only borderline extreme, focusing primarily on the grindhouse rather than on the splatter. Not included here is his first film about aliens 'Almost Human' inspired by Fire in the Sky, and the more conventional but slightly delirious slasher 'Christmas Bloody Christmas'. A spiraling binge movie with a possible vampiric angle. This movie is more of trippy horror experience than a proper horror movie with an interesting plot. An obnoxious but hot female painter is under pressure to finish her painting and pay her rent. Drugs lead to experimental drugs which lead to strange increasingly violent trips where she loses time and progresses with her painting... There are violent attacks that are very gory as well as trippy blood-fests, but the gore-level remains mostly borderline extreme. The drug-induced madness is somewhat trippy but not surreal. The music is a superb pounding mix of metal, sludge, doom, goth, dark electronica and punk. The dizzying and very dynamic camera-work seems to have taken its cue from Gaspar Noé. It all adds up to a pretty intense experience, as mentioned, but only as far as that. Begos pulled out all the stops for this unique home project over four years. Inspired by Evil Dead, this takes places in a few rooms with only two actors, the rooms converted into a neon nightmare and a psychedelic spaceship. Begos revisits alien abductions (after his debut Almost Human), but this takes the trippy approach of Bliss and multiplies it by a hundred. The splatter is also way over-the-top for this one, except it's buckets of fluorescent goo, with rubbery limbs and aliens. The only thing that surpasses the goo however, is the sheer amount of alcohol and substance abuse by the characters. Both Jimmy and his friend Stiggs are energetic jerks that attack each other or themselves as often as they attack the vicious aliens. The random abductions, constant surprising alien appearances, and disappearances of both Jimmy and Stiggs, combined with sounds that hint at possible hallucinations, neon colors, loud sound, the goofy aliens, and the constant splattery violence all create a unique effect. In short, this is an eye-bleeding, sludgy, mind-warping, over-the-top experience that is unlike any other. An obvious homage to Scanners, this one also gleefully reproduces the 80s horror vibe with practical & gooey not-quite-convincing special effects, and a loud synth soundtrack. The story is an uninspired copy of Scanners and others like it, where a group of scientists and hench-men capture people with telekinetic powers to study and train them, with a few other secret agendas. The independent telekinetics fight back, leading to a climax of literally head-exploding proportions. The gore-factor is higher than Scanners, and the movie just barely crosses the border into splatter, with a few heads being chopped, exploded or decapitated, but it's all in the final third of the movie. The actors are below-average amateurs and the story is uninspired, but fans of this style of 80s horror should enjoy it somewhat for what it is. Begos continues his series of throwback grindhouse and horror movies, this time inspired by Assault on Precinct 13, except with tons of splatter. Just because it has splatter, however, he doesn't lose sight of the primary ingredient in a movie like this: Tension and character. VFW is a bar for veteran soldiers, except tonight the tough old geezers are in for a surprise when a girl runs into their bar followed by a gang of vicious drug-dealers and an army of addict-zombies. The bodies and ultra-violence pile up as the siege escalates through the night... This one is a well done homage for the most part, except for one thing: The lighting is way too dark. So a lot of the fun acting and splatter effects are drowned in gritty darkness. Otherwise, it's fun retro-grindhouse with a nice electronic soundtrack inspired by Carpenter. |
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