Hello dear reader, as I had a wonderful holiday in my Yorkshire hometown I didn’t watch so many movies this month, but the June weather was notably very schizophrenic – hot as balls and chilly as fuck. Talking of personality disorders, here are my short reviews of what I’ve been watching this month…
My reviews are spoiler free.
Disturbing Behaviour (Extended Cut) (1998) 6/10
David Nutter’s teen sci-fi horror thriller is an engaging if flawed movie about conformity, the hollowness of perfection and the problems with generational divides. Troubled teen Steve moves with his family to Cradle Bay, a small tight-knit community, to start over again after his brother’s untimely death. Steve gets to know the fellow outcasts at his high school and also becomes aware of a clique of seemingly perfect teenagers called the ‘Blue Ribbons.’ Soon it becomes clear that the Blue Ribbons have sinister intentions towards Steve and his new friends Gavin and Rae, and these teens must unravel the mystery before it’s too late. It’s evident that Nutter is an X-Files alumni – there’s moody fog, dark cinematography, an eccentric counter culture character, shadowy corporate figures and the whole plot feels ripe for a Mulder and Scully investigation. This film represents the tail end of the 90s tradition of setting horror thrillers in Washington State which reached its apotheosis in The Ring (2002), which incidentally also features the same greyish colour palette and ferries, always so many ferries. I avoided this movie for ages because I was lead to believe it was atrocious, but I actually don’t think it’s that bad. It delivers a fairly decent, teen update of Stepfordian paranoia and provides some insightful critique on how society pressures young people to conform. The Blue Ribbons are a creepy fantasy of adolescence (middle-class, conservative, largely white, straight and abstinent) in the Pleasantville (1998) mold/Reaganite nostalgia of the 1950s. They have no humour nor charming personality quirks and their state of being strikes me as a potential metaphor for issues with anti-depressant use. The film also highlights the problems with an older generation trying to intrusively control normal teenage rebellion instead of providing their children with the love and understanding they need. James Marsden as Steve is passable and Gavin (a character on the Randy/Xander axis of toxic nerdom) is played with some fervour by Nick Stahl. Katie Holmes plays Rae, the working-class gothy love interest, who is wildly under-written although has some decent moments of agency. Rae is not given the opportunity to explore her traumas in any meaningful depth, so it would be extremely welcome and timely to have an updated version of this story from a female teen’s perspective. Canadian scream queen Katherine Isabelle also turns up in an early role as Steve’s little sister and is obviously completely underused. This film is certainly not perfect – there’s some annoying sound design, one sequence has an odd tonal shift that doesn’t quite work, there’s a strangely placed sex scene and the ending feels too abrupt (the original ending actually strikes me as more fun and philosophically realistic). However, the film ultimately does get us to question what is actually more disturbing – teenage rebellion or soulless conformity?
Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street (2019) 8/10
Roman Chimienti and Tyler Jensen’s excellent and informative horror documentary examines the legacy of Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985) and reveals how final boy Mark Patton’s acting career was destroyed by homophobia within the film industry and society at large. The film follows a pretty typical horror documentary format, setting out the Elm Street franchise and the second film’s impact along with talking heads from the cast, crew and diehard fans. But it also chronicles Patton’s life, his return to prominence after disappearing from public life and how he is seeking to reclaim his own legacy by confronting the film’s writer David Chaskin. In this day and age when there has been a modicum of progress around LGBTQ+ rights, it is easy to forget how difficult it was for gay men living under the dark shadow of the HIV crisis in the 1980s. The film thoroughly details this historical context and the absolutely disgusting level of homophobia and discrimination within the film industry at the time. In one telling scene Jack Sholder, the director of Freddy’s Revenge, notes that he was not even aware of the queer (sub)text or signifiers in the movie. As a straight man he was completely oblivious to this dynamic and how it would affect Patton demonstrating how willful ignorance can be just as harmful as deliberate discrimination. I’d read that some people felt that Patton is self-aggrandising and too focused on his own troubles, but I didn’t really feel that and found him to be a very compelling figure. I mean, sure he’s a bit of a diva, but what scream queen isn’t to a certain extent? Also, that interpretation feels like an attempt to undermine and erase the trauma that Patton experienced. The documentary also serves as a great introduction to anyone wanting to understand more about the queerness of horror and shows how queer horror is finally gaining recognition within the horror community. It movingly highlights how much horror movies mean to the queer community and how the Elm Street franchise helped some people deal with their own struggles with identity. There is also a section focusing on horror movie conventions reminding us of their historical tendency to exclude certain people or films because they don’t fit into a preconceived idea about what horror ‘is’ (remember when Rachel True wasn’t invited to horror conventions featuring ‘The Craft’?). Although Mark Patton’s story is enraging, the documentary does demonstrate that change is possible and anyone who feels like an outsider can be lovingly embraced by the horror community. Definitely worth watching.
Deep Rising (1998) 7/10
Stephen Sommer’s aquatic action creature feature is a fun, campy, modern B-movie about greed, environmental degradation and perhaps even colonialism. In the South China Sea, the maiden voyage of the luxury cruise liner the Argonautica is disrupted when a sea creature violently attacks the passengers including the glamorous thief Trillian. Simultaneously, Captain Finnegan and his crew transport a group of mercenaries across the ocean unaware of the mercenaries’ plan to board the ship. After climbing aboard the vessel, they soon realise the sea creature has not finished causing murderous havoc and everyone must fight to stay alive. Deep Rising really feels like a dry run for Sommer’s next movie The Mummy (1999) which is far superior and a childhood favourite of mine. As Finnegan Treat Williams is fine, but it’s clear that Sommers really found his perfect leading man for action horror romps in Brendan Fraser. As Finnegan’s sidekick Joey, Kevin J. O’Connor delivers a hilarious performance with a surprising amount of self-awareness and sets himself up nicely for his best role as The Mummy’s Benny. As Trillian, Famke Janssen is having a good time in her sensational red dress and she clearly understands what type of movie she’s in. Also, for a 90s action movie she gets the opportunity to do some cool stuff, although part of me just wishes she was the lead actor and Captain Finnegan was a side character – how cool would that be? Anthony Heald plays the smarmy cruise ship owner Simon Canton with a delightful level of unpleasantness which only seems fitting considering his memorable turn as Hannibal Lector’s arsehole jailer Dr. Chilton. The movie is surprisingly gory and nasty at times, with some decent macabre creativity in the kill scenes, although overall it feels like a mélange of all your favourite action horror movie moments, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I appreciated the sea creature’s final form, which is definitely an underused monster in cinema, and also its multiple meanings within narrative – does it represent a colonial return of the repressed? Perhaps it’s an avenger against destructive capitalism or conversely a representation of how late-stage capitalism sucks us all dry? As an 80/90s-style action movie there’s also the requisite homoerotic undertones between the hilariously uber-masc characters with big guns and short-tempers. The movie certainly has its flaws – although there’s some good practical effects there’s also dodgy 90s CGI, questionable gender politics and, of course, racial stereotyping. Although some of the black characters survived a wee bit longer than I expected, it seems Asian women are the early sacrificial lambs in this plot. Deep Rising certainly wasn’t going to win any Oscars, but overall it’s a perfectly entertaining and ridiculous Saturday night movie.
So what did you think of these movies? Did I hit the nail on the head or was I completely off the mark? Let me know in the comments below!
Let's Scare Lauren to Death 