NoWo600Wo: C is for Crap filmed in Richmond, C is for (good) Canadian Horror
Cry_Wolf
The inherent problem with using a technological or internet fad in a film is that sooner rather than later usually, it becomes obsolete. Cry_Wolf is a film where at only 4 years old, you look at it now and laugh at the use of AOL IM, candy bar cell phones, and possibly the first version of the T-Mobile Sidekick phone – the only piece of technology that is still relevant. I seriously think 2005 was the last year I used AOL IM. This isn’t the only problem with Cry_Wolf however. When your cast of characters basically consists of spoiled, overprivileged prep school kids who are all jerks of various levels and are just minimally conceived, it’s hard to care. I imagine the pitch for this movie was “a modern telling of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” meets The Usual Suspects meets Heathers.” The filmmakers received a $1 million grant from Chrysler to make the film after winning a short film contest (and you can understand now why car companies are in trouble). The only reasons why this movie was watched in my household was 1) it was filmed in Richmond, at the University of Richmond, Union PSCE, and St. Joseph’s campus’ – all schools that look way nicer than the university I attend and my sister and I work for, despite UofR and my university being somewhat competitive in certain areas. Although one scene I recognized as being filmed in the dingy stacks of the Main location of the Richmond Public Library, where at the time, was where they hid their tiny DVD collection; and 2) Jared Padalecki, playing a Senator’s son from Texas, whom, despite being from Texas himself, J. Pads does not sport a Texan accent in this film. I’m pretty sure only crappy movies are filmed in Richmond, although we occasionally get pretty good TV shows and mini-series filmed here, such as HBO’s John Adams series. Most of the movie was spent with my boyfriend, sister, and I asking questions such as, “Do you think Jared Padalecki went to Ellwood Thompson’s or Ipanema when he was here?” and “Where do you think Jon Bon Jovi went to when he was here?” Despite getting the “Unrated” DVD copy, there really isn’t much gore or any nudity, so there isn’t much reason for your typical horror fan to rent this. It is just a gutless film altogether, no pun intended. I’m assuming it was aimed towards teenagers, but seriously, teenagers deserve decent movies too.
Cry_Wolf is somewhat similar to another horror movie that came out around that time called Stay Alive, which was based in RPG video games, and featuring Frankie Muniz, Milo Ventimiglia, and Angelina Jolie’s brother. I feel bad saying that Stay Alive is actually the more entertaining movie and still fairly relevant.
I hate underscores, by the way.
It’s unfortunate that the poster is cooler than the movie.
Curtains
All About Eve meets Samuel Fuller’s Shock Corridor meets a giallo film. An aging, but still pretty Method actress pretends to be insane to be put into a psychiatric institution to research a part, and the director has her full support. But after awhile, the actress does become a teensy bit unhinged, and the director abandons her in the institution and chooses to recast the part. She breaks out of the institution and invites herself over to his weekend casting session at his house with six younger actresses, and the younger actresses begin to die one by one, just as the director is bedding almost each actress. There is a post-modern twist to this in that Samantha Eggar (from Cronenberg’s The Brood) is playing an aging actress named Samantha, and the director in the movie is named Jonathan Stryker, who is the director of Curtains (the director in the movie is played by an actor though…confused yet?). Despite Samantha being set up as the protagonist and lead suspect of the film, she is missing from this movie for long periods of time, I guess partly to lay more suspicion on her. So it is hard to know who to root for when there is no clear protagonist or villain really, other than Stryker. The film does have a good twist ending, and is really well-paced. It’s also somewhat known for the mask of the killer being pretty scary and how one woman is chased on ice skates.
I still find it interesting that Canadian horror films in the late 1970s and early 1980s primarily featured adults in the casts. Not adults portraying teenagers, such as the case with American horror films.
And yeah, I’m not going to make a habit of using “pitches” to describe movies.
Now I want to see Curtains, but Netflix doesn’t have it.
Yeah, it’s never been released on DVD. You can find stray copies on VHS still, plus you know, other methods if you’re into that sort of thing *cough*.