Film Review :"Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein"

 

This was going to be under a hard microscope for me as Frankenstein's Monster is my favorite literary character, yet more than the Hulk, so the expectations were high, however had faith in Del Toro, as his take on the Creature from the Black Lagoon was pretty solid except for the dance bit in the middle. The same could be said for this one if you replace the dance routine with CGI wolves that look like they came from a Lord of the Rings Video game.. It was odd because otherwise the film was emotionally stunning and pulled on all the right heartstrings. I admit by trepidation, going into it was mroe of the Netflix connection. Would they throw in diverse casting just for the sake of it? Nope, did not happen, stayed true to the setting. The costumes might have gone over the top at times, but they had flair. 

The acting was great, everybody did well, and I believed everyone. It, of course, stuck closer to the book, though here comes the catch, as it took a few liberties, the end being a glaring one, but it had heart to it and proved the Doctor was really the monster. The Monster was almost more like Snow White as animals loved it, except for the wolves. The monster design owed more to Bernie Wrightson's designs, which was a good choice; the OG Boris Karloff monster will always be the GOAT. They did a good job with the Monster. I am glad he was super strong and not just a whiny baby. He learned the world was cruel and adapted to it. 

If you are totally jsut about Universal Monsters and that is what you want, this is going to come closer to Hammer Horror. So  I understand why people might not like some of the changes, but I am more invested in the book and accepted the fact that the book and the Karloff movie were different as a child, so it seemed cooler to be into the book, though I love the Karloff Frankenstein, sadly, this skill did not translate over into other things as I grew up But this movie was enjoyeable, and not just vapid eye candy but it drew you into the world he created, 

Film Review : the Shape of Water

Remake the Creature From the Black Lagoon with the same thoughtful quirk of "Amelie" and you are sure to win over the critics and win every award. Guillermo del Toro has made it no secret that he pulled inspiration from the Creature, but it is almost impossible to make a movie about a "mer-man" and not. While the Creature in this movie is as stunning visually as any of the things that go bump in the night, this is about as much of a horror movie as "Twilight", This time the forbidden love is not necrophilia, but bestiality.  I am sure it will be implied that this is making a deeper social commentary, about racism, what it really asks is ..."is it ok to have sex with animals?" The movie insists he is more human than his looks might suggest. Is he really more sentient than a chimpanzee? By he we are referring to the monster and not the director. While I am not opposed to human on monster sex the context here is a little more awkward as it's not just getting raped by tentacles.

The acting is great with Michael Shannon pretty much stealing the show with his fingers rotting black. The story is endearing, though the movie  gambles with your suspension of disbelief. Would the bathroom really fill up with water like that ?Who would have thought the cold war was really a race to send a mer-man into space? The movie is well paced. It keeps things tense when needed as the clock begins to tick. This is not the first time we have seen the role reversed and the audience was asked who is the monster and the answer has been the human. The most horrific thing the monster did was eat a cat and someone got scratched by mistake. I think he defended himself as needed in fact like the Hunchback he probably took too much shit and I do not think it was a coincidence he was chained on the dais like he was in the one scene. There are plenty of winks to the old classic monster movies . Like this movie most of which are not considered horror movies by today's standards.

The only mis-step was the musical fantasy. I am not sure if that was a wink to the Creature from the Black Lagoon musical that tanked or Jackson's King  Kong. It was silly and I was the only person laughing out loud in the theater at it. I went to an art theater so every one else was watching it like they were in an art gallery and trying to ponder the deeper racial issues before going homse to wank off into a PBR. So was it a good movie? Was it worth the wait? I can say unlike most movies I am glad I paid the $ 11.00 ticket, I think this is my new movie rating system how much was it worth. it's an endearing and cute $11.00, $15.00 might have given me buyers remorse. I have a friend who said it was one of the 20 twenty movies now , that is an exaggeration as I can think of at least 50 that are better.

Review : Crimson Peak

Guillermo del Toro loves horror. He is even good a co-writing it as the Strain books proved. The Devil’s Back Bone was a decent stab at a ghost story and “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark’ had it’s moments. Pacific Rim gave a nod to the Godzilla movies. But like many bands that think they are metal who are not, liking something and even being influenced by it doesn’t make your music that if that is not what is coming out of your amps when you lightly hit the strings. The strings are hit very lightly here. My first assessment walking out of the theater was this was diet horror. There was ominous music and ghost jumping out, gruesome ghosts by appearance who turned out to be less ghastly than what the living were up to.

I missed a little bit of this movie because I feel asleep. The pace it moved at made it possible for me to pick up where I left off when I woke back up. It was pretty to look at. The bloody ice laid out in front of the gothic mansion was a great shot, as was the snow that drifted into the old house. But the atmosphere here was not enough to scare you like it was in House of the Devil or the Shining. To put it even more simply if you are going to compare this against other horror movies that came this year, I fell asleep during this movie, but I stayed awake for the entire duration of “the Green Inferno”. We did go to an earlier showing of Green Inferno, but it was without question much more tense than this movie. Horror is not all about gore. There were a few bloody moments in this movie, none of the made you wince like Eli Roth can. Hiddleston gets stabbed in the face. But it seemed as this was done gracefully rather than capturing what it would be like to get stabbed in the face.

If you thought Pan’s Labyrinth was a horror movie, then you will more than likely find this movie scary since you do not know what a horror movie is. This film was well acted though thick on the creamy icing of romance almost to the point of having a dynamic like Frozen. Perhaps is one of the ghost had sung “Do You Wanna Build a Snow Man” it would have all clicked into place. I think it is best to adjust ones expectations when going into this and give careful consideration to Del Toro’s track record, while he is not as bad about flirting with horror as Tim Burton, whose fans also want him to make a horror movie, his goal is making something that is a visual spectacle and here he succeeds, I did see the trailer for “the Forest” which looks to be promising, so next year horror might have better luck.