observation notes: Wildflower

For this one we've got to get in The Asylum Way-Back Machine, and return to the year 2000 and the studio's early days when original productions were far fewer than they are now. This film - a steamy and twisting erotic thriller - is of particular note, as it was directed by Asylum producer David Michael Latt (Megafault, War of the Worlds).

After the death - by a prostitute-induced heart attack - of a wildly successful L.A. businessman, his three grown children - a cuthroat and selfish son (Dean Stapleton), a snarky and empowered daughter (Kim Little) and an unraveling alcoholic/gambling addict younger son (Chris Hoffman) - head for the family's remote cabin to negotiate the division of Daddy's empire. When the youngest son picks up a nympho hottie fleeing a dickhead boyfriend (despite having his lady on the trip), she helps incite a spellbinding and sensuous struggle for power, control and - most importantly - money. Intrigue, eroticism and peril ensue.

On the surface, this might come across as just another low-budget flesh fest, a flimsy story to support ample displays of nudity. And don't get me wrong, there's a lot of nudity in this, a Solid A for nudity, but the story is anything but flimsy. The script, by one Angel Orona, his only effort to date, is intricate, thrilling and sound, a story with hints of Basic Instinct, Indecent Proposal, The Last Seduction, Double Indemnity (I said it) and, of course, Daddy's Dying, Who's Got The Will? There are twists and turns (that I won't reveal) that while sensational are not at all outlandish or contrived, and help to deliver a solid and in fact superb B-thriller. 

Another element helping elevate this above the pack is a capable cast with good chemistry, especially among the three siblings. Dean Stapleton plays egomanical douchebag "Ethan" as a stern and dickish philandering asshole you can't help but hate, while at the same time strangely respecting his will and ambition; Kim Little (Supercroc, Princess and the Pony, Killers 1 & 2) as "Audrey," the sister, undergoes an intense and surprising character arc, an evolution pulled off flawlessly by Ms. Little, who reminded me here of an actually intelligent Bridget Fonda; and Chris Hoffman as weakest link "Dennis" does an excellent job making us believe he is the sort of young, rich sleaze with drinking and gambling problems who would pick up an extra chick for the weekend then try and get his other girl to sleep with her (which, SPOILER, she does), while simultaneously making the same character sympathetic and even endearing.

Other notables include CC Costigan as the nympho hottie that joins the team - sultry and sinister, the film's femme fatale, oozing wicked sensuality - Kristina Edlund as Ethan's embattled and embittered trophy wife, "Jackie" - a rigid, modest, cold woman, the result of a debasing marriage and the realization she may not be the only trophy in the case - and Tammie Sheffield as Dennis' original girlfriend, "Zooey" - the film's sweetest eye candy.

Overall then, allow me to reiterate what I said earlier: this is a tense erotic thriller, heavy on the "erotic," rife with impassioned performances that elevate this above the usual D2DVD fare. Is it campy? Yeah, sure, a little bit. Is it low-budget? Oh hell yes. Is it exploitative? Absolutely. And in addition to all this greatness, there's an actual film here, with a strong, intriguing narrative that doesn't fall apart at the end, quite the opposite, it keeps escalating, raising the bar, each level more thrilling than the one before. I'm not just whistling Dixie here, puffing smoke or kissing ass. This is a solid movie, an actual thriller, erotic, yes, but more than that, it's intelligent, effective, suspenseful and just plain fun. 

And that's all I'm ever looking for.

inmate profile: AnnaMaria Demara

As the release date for the next Asylum film, 200MPH, is fast approaching us (no pun intended), I thought it time for the next smattering of inmate profiles, all aimed at the creative talent behind this street-racing epic. First up, quite possibly the hottest thing Canada has ever produced, AnnaMaria Demara:

Hailing from the fine and lovely metropolis of Toronto, AnnaMaria by the grace of god and fate made her way to sunny California where the entertainment industry - having eyes and ears with which to sense greatness - has begun to warmly embrace her. After working for a few years for TV shows like "Jimmy Kimmel Live," "Deal or No Deal," "Nip/Tuck" and "Days of Our Lives," AnnaMaria has finally broken into films, and has several lead roles coming up in the course of the next year, including See How They Run with John Savage (Deer Hunter) and Havana Heat with Peta Wilson ("La Femme Nikita").

Ms. Demara in 200MPH

But the film we're here to talk about is 200MPH; in it AnnaMaria plays Claudia, the smokin'-hot love interest, I'm supposing, of the street-racing, heart-of-gold-bad-boy portrayed by Jaz Martin. I don't like to make crazy predictions (actually I do), but I'm having a "we-knew-her-when" moment here; given Ms. Demara's knock-em-dead, younger-Eva-Longoria looks, if she can act as well as she can pose, she's golden. And from what I've seen of her reel, she can act like crazy. Small surprise here, as The Asylum is typically right on when it comes to casting strong, sexy, smart female leads (Kim Little, Sarah Lieving, Erica Roby, Eliza Swenson, Kristen Quintrall etc. etc. etc.). 

Find out for sure Tuesday, April 26th, when 200MPH hits DVD, and here's hoping this is only the first of several films Ms. Demara will bestow upon we faithfully committed.


A list of where you can find Ms. Demara online:


website
vimeo (including 200MPH teaser and reels)
twitter

observation notes: Countdown:Jerusalem(Armageddon)

Don't let the headline confuse you: most often this film goes by its proper name, Countdown: Jerusalem, although on occasion, especially when a part of a multi-pack DVD, it can be found as Countdown: Armageddon. The name change is the only difference between the two. 

Another in the Faith Films line, this one opens with a montage of news footage beginning with the creation of the State of Israel in the late 1940's, and progressing from there forward through the decades, tracing natural, climatological, economical and social disasters right up until the present day, our modern era, when, as a stunning miracle to oppose all the horror we've just seen unfold, that ever-elusive Peace in the Middle East has just been declared. As though commentary on the improbability of this pax, instantly there begins from every corner of the globe earthquakes, tornadoes, explosions, mass destruction and carnage. Caught in the middle of this inexplicable, cataclysmic turmoil is TV reporter Allison (Kim Little). When her young daughter Mary (Ms. Little's real-life daughter Audrey Latt) disappears from a single-entrance bathroom following a sonic boom of sorts, escalating catastrophes worldwide lead her to Israel and the discovery of an apocryphal conspiracy set to eradicate all of humankind, a.k.a. the end of days.

Kim Little as the lead - arguably her biggest role since Killers 2, and certainly since Supercroc - plays her as highly-motivated, equal parts workaholic divorcee and devoted mother, driven and concerned; the result is the portrait of a skilled professional with an emotional impetus to get to the truth. Ms. Little here reminds us why she's the original Queen B and the First Lady of The Asylum: she's emotionally versatile, intelligently formidable, erudite and utterly relatable. 

Another notable in the cast is Clint Browning (Street Racer, The Terminators, Mega Piranha), who plays a sort of holy warrior; that is, a man with a fighter's disposition but a faithful soul. As a guardian figure of sorts to Ms. Little's character, he's an almost-angelic figure. I half expected him to sprout wings at a point, so effective was Mr. Browning's portrayal, an effective juggling of soft-spokenness and unflinching capability. Also handing in a convincing performance is Russell Reynolds (Dragonquest, The Terminators) as the head of an Israeli underground sort-of spiritual brigade, more military than CB, a nice balance in the spectrum of fervency to the other actor's position of thoughtful warrior.

Overall, I found this to be an intense, interesting film, part political thriller, part religious disaster flick woven into a winding plot with twists both secular and holy, creative an effective adventure rife with a multitude of massive FX courtesy of Tiny Juggernaut that include seas turning to blood, a slew of natural disasters, helicopters, crumbling buildings, mass panic and all sorts of other goodies. The tornadoes were especially impressive.

C:J(A) was directed by A.F. Silver, whose only other credit comes as the cinematographer of Sherlock Holmes (which leads me to believe it could be a nom de plume), and written by Jose Prendes (Haunting of Winchester House) from a story by David Michael Latt. The former gentleman's use of light and exquisite framing really elevates this above your run-of-the-mill direct-to-DVD actioners, while the latter gentleman's delicate handling of the script manages to turn in a religious film whose message, while apparent, isn't too heavy-handed, and in fact comes across no different from any other hero's personal philosophy in any other action film - e.g. Bruce Willis' die-hard devotion to a wife he isn't with anymore, Spiderman's great power/great responsibility spiel - only with, you know, 2,000 years of context backing it up. Make no mistakes, whatever the title, this is definitely a religious film; its enjoyability, however, is not exclusive to religious viewers.  

Countdown: Whichever You Call It is built upon a layered story expertly brought to life by a competent and impassioned cast and all overseen by a sharp direction that ties it all together. Definitely worth a watch.

observation notes: Jolly Roger - Massacre at Cutter's Cove

Arrgh is right.

This fright of a film begins when a group of typically-hornball, beer-guzzling young folk goes coast-camping right after a hurricane. Amidst their nocturnal romps, a weathered treasure chest is discovered washed ashore by the storm, but when it is opened, it's not a treasure they discover inside, rather quite the opposite: the cursed spirit of a demonic pirate with a not-so demonic name - Jolly Roger. Jolly manages to slaughter the majority of the young folk, but the sole survivors, bad-boy Alex and good-girl Jessie (Tom Nagel and Kristina Korn, respectively), try to warn local law enforcement (Kim Little and Tom Downey) of this soggy, supernatural threat, but, of course, no one believes a bunch of kids, so the pirate goes about his mission of bloody vengeance as our teen heroes attempt to unravel the mystery around what exactly conjured Jolly Roger, what exactly he wants, and how exactly to send his damned soul back to Hell.

And oh, that we could go with him.

No, now, it's not that bad, really. It's bad, for sure, but not worth eternal damnation just to avoid. The performances, for the most part, are strong. The two standouts in the cast are two of the most-regulars, Tom Nagel (Beast of Bray Road, Pirates of Treasure Island, The Apocalypse, Hillside Cannibals, Dracula's Curse) as young, troubled Alex and Kim Little (Killers, Killers 2, Supercroc, War of the Worlds, War of the Worlds 2, Countdown: Jerusalem) as Lowenstein, the female officer in town. Nagel comes across a lot like James Marshall's "James" from "Twin Peaks:" the good guy with a tough past that resulted in an infraction of the law that wasn't totally his fault but now has him pegged as a no-good troublemaker despite his sensitive, kind and well-meaning center. Nagel crafts a hardened and world-wise if not world-weary young man well worth rooting for. And as far as Ms. Little is concerned, still in her ginger phase here, she assumes a sort of Scully-esque demeanor, both physically - in her oversized, androgynous, non-fitted suits - and emotionally - she projects a superficially cold and professionally distant demeanor that masks a soft core, a real, trusting, emotional center, and it is this center that elevates Ms. Little's supporting performance above mere supporting recognition. 

The rest of the cast, they do all right: Kristina Korn does an amazing job, but only if she's supposed to be playing the role as a self-centered, obstinately-naive, over-educated bitch; if not...She comes in late on most of her cues, and her overall emotional state seems to be one of weepy inconvenience rather than actual, unbridled fear for her life. Despite all this, however, she is a good pairing with Nagel's over-compensating milquetoast Alex. Tom Downey (a 13-film Asylum vet, including Beast of Bray Road, King of the Lost World and upcoming Ballistica) as Mathis is a great addition to the cast, but he's woefully underused in this one-dimensional character. Nice use of regular faces in bit parts though, including Griff Furst as a warehouse landlord, Leigh Scott as a strip club owner, and, in a spot that nearly steals the show, Amanda Barton as a rockin' secretary. And then there's Rhett Giles, the great Rhett Giles, hero of so many Asylum films, a great actor and a charming fellow by all accounts - but even someone as talented as Rhett Giles could not make the character of Jolly Roger anything more than a bad joke.


I blame this on FX and script, honestly. Mr. Giles does his best - but for the accent, I'm not letting him escape that one - but the conceit of the pirate is just so incredibly cheesy, from his outfit to the crud all over his face to his dialog to the situations in which he finds himself, that there was never much of a chance audiences would take him seriously. I mean, it says something, to me at least, that every character in the film who comes in contact with Jolly, their first impulse is to think he's some douchebag in a costume (though I do have to give one bit of positive feedback at this juncture: I loved how old Jolly just walked around seeking his vengeance in his waterlogged pantaloons in broad daylight, often in public places, without giving the slightest hint of a fuck. That's some swashbuckling badass-ness right there.). And it's this failure to convince that kinda brings down the whole film. I mean, the concept is pretty neat, a little Scooby-Doo, but still ripe with potential. However, the screenwriter's attempts to realize this potential are at best half-cocked and at worst, laughable. Jolly ends up in a strip club, for fuck's sake, and not ironically; he's just there, killing strippers. Every time the pirate was off-screen, I thought this had the makings of an inventive, intense horror film. Every time the pirate was on-screen, he just ruined it, and no matter how great an actor was behind the crud, the crud was all that showed.


Every spectrum needs its parameters, two opposite ends by which everything in-between is defined, evaluated. If then, one end of the spectrum of Asylum films are my personal favorites like I Am Omega, Mega Python vs Gatoroid, Beast Of Bray Road and 2010 Moby Dick, then waaaaaaaay down at the other end of the spectrum there's a dark, dank, quiet and depressing hole in which I mentally filed Jolly Roger: Massacre at Cutter's Cove.


And I'll say it again, because despite it's own inherit cheesiness, it bears repeating: arrrrrrrgh.

observation notes: Death Valley - The Revenge of Bloody Bill

This often-amusing blend of zombie lore and Confederate vilification comes to The Asylum courtesy of the Yuan Brothers, who most of us probably know best for their acting roles as twin security guards in the Seth Rogen dark comedy Observe and Report. This is the only film they've written to date, and their only other experience with The Asylum came on the film Scarecrow Slayer, on which John worked craft services and Matt was a boom operator.

The film opens with a coke-using speedster getting chased down a deserted desert highway by an officer of the law (a ginger Kim Little)(any film that opens with a car chase, I'm in; the song that accompanies said car chase? not so in). She loses him when he tosses the brick of yeyo out the window and onto her windshield, where it bursts in a white cloud that blinds her from continuing pursuit. But though our drug-addled bandit gets away , he's far from having escaped, as his car soon enough breaks down, leaving him stranded and on foot in Death Valley, the worst-named place ever.

After hours of braving the heat, thirst and the inevitable come-down, like a mirage suddenly our outlaw finds himself at the outskirts of a small town called Sunset Valley, which, according to the sign and all visible cues to the contrary, has a population of 99. Our fella walks into the town bar, and sure enough there are folks, but they aren't the friendly sort, and not in the usual small-town-ignorant fashion, but more so in the undead-ravenous-for-brains sense. He fights off one or two of them, but there are more than one or two; there are 99, it turns out, and quickly the outlaw is done away with. Now the movie can really begin.

Intro to our real heroes, four spring breakers, members of the debate team, no less: three hotties, two dudes and a teacher. Their holiday festivities are soon cut short, however, when they seemingly strike a pedestrian who turns out not to be a pedestrian at all, but rather a very daring carjacker who uses their confusion and concern to seize the van and the plot. He directs them into the desert, where they locate the drug-runner's broken car. Seems it was our carjacker's product Speedy disappeared with, and the carjacker is looking for money or drugs, anything to make this deal not a total bust. But he finds nothing in the car. Outside of the car, however, he finds a trail of footprints heading deeper into the desert. Once again our crew is on the road, pushing farther and farther from civilization, unknowingly pressing forward into waiting, deadly and decomposing hands.


That's enough as far as plot is concerned, I think. But rest assured, the film unfurls soundly and the legend behind Bloody Bill is pretty chilling, and effective, up until this line:


"The only thing he hated more than Yankees, was black people."


Okay, all right, I get it: Confederate zombie, he's gotta be racist, right? However, as a Southerner, born and bred if not current, I took enough offense at this generalization to draw attention to it here. That line's akin to making the drug-dealing carjacker the film's only black guy. Which was done. So, pot, meet kettle; you guys got some stuff in common.*


All this aside, my general consensus here is of a slick, taut, off-beat, inventive, frighteningly believable and beautifully-executed zombie-thriller. The script is strong and well-developed, and for what the characters can't convey, there are spectacular landscapes throughout that really add to the sense of desolation, isolation and foreboding hopelessness. These elements are complimented by inventive, intimate, swooping and frenetic direction by Byron Werner, primarily a cinematographer, as he was for himself here. The effects are pretty graphic and gory, and realistic enough that at the least they don't detract from the film.

As for the cast, it's a workable ensemble, but for me the standout was easily female lead Chelsea Jean (below), who gave an impassioned, empathetic and willful performance as

the one member of the team willing to do more than debate with Bloody Bill. Too bad, however, because according to IMDB, this is the only work she's ever done. If you ever Google yourself, Chelsea Jean, and find yourself reading these words, get back to work! With Rachel Leigh Cook all but a fond memory in our collective consciousness, the world needs a precocious, sassy, disaffected B-queen. Come back to The Asylum, fulfill your promise!

So overall, despite my philosophical issues, I gotta give this one two gnawed thumbs up (sorry.).


*it's worth noting that this line is countered three minutes later when, after the discovery of the first of their pal's bodies, one of the dudes runs off into the desert, abandoning the group, saying: "I ain't waiting around for some fucking lunatic to mistake me for one of you. I'm from Georgia." Nice attempt at amends, but, really, this line should've read "one of y'all."

Sounds Like an Asylum Movie to Me

So, the above image was captured by the Hubble telescope last week, and is assumed to be a green cloud of gas illuminated by a quasar that blinked out of existence some 200,000 years ago. 

The object, given the catchy moniker Hanny's Voorwerp (which sounds more like a top-shelf expenditure in Amsterdam's Red Light District than an astronomical anomaly), is said to be the size of our own Milky Way galaxy, and composed of a 300,000 light-year-long stream of gas. The glowing part is supposedly oxygen, and this nebulous nebula is, by current calculations, 650 million light years from our peaceful planet. So even if it was dangerous - which officials insist it is not - it wouldn't reach Earth for several, several, several lifetimes.

Yeah right.

That's exactly what they would say, isn't it? Of course it's just gas, of course it's harmless, of course it's too far away to be dangerous. Let me pose a question: if this thing's moving so slow, where was it the day before you discovered it? It's green and glowing and 300 thousand light-years long, not exactly the kind of thing that creeps up on you. For all we know, this thing leaps light-years like lily pads and it's just resting up between jumps.  

And maybe I'm being paranoid, maybe I've been influenced by too many science-fiction films, but since when is a glowing green cloud from deep space the size of our galaxy not considered dangerous? Nothing the size of our galaxy is harmless. Blue whales are supposed to be docile things as well; try dropping one on your house. Docile or not, big shit causes damage. 

from www.longhousestudios.com

Of course it's coming for us, this strange radiation cloud, this cosmic dragon that as we pass through it will incinerate everything that crosses its green, glowing line, unless a team of crack scientists can find a way to reflect or some other way thwart the cloud from causing the whole planet to combust. 

And every team needs a leader, preferably a bit of a maverick, a brilliant and well-educated, vastly-experienced rogue who plays by his own rules, isn't afraid to take a risk, and in the end cares more about survival and discovery than fame and fortune. Ooh, ooh, and his ex-wife should be involved. James Van Der Beek and Kristen Miller were born to play these roles, born I say!

Round out the team with a couple of technicians/specialists, roles for folks like Kim Little, Jude Gerard-Prest, Jay Gillespie, Erica Duke, that sort of crew, and maybe even a two-man astronaut crew, valiant martyrs for the greater good, played by Rhett Giles and Griff Furst, just for old time's sake.

Stranger films have been made, but not much stranger things have been discovered.

observation notes: 30,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Another stand-alone sci-fi thriller from The Asylum, this one a re-imagining of Jules Verne's classic sea-faring tale, the big change being that now the Nautilus is both mechanical marvel and monster, able to launch robot squids to inflict its altruistic terrorism on military, capitalistic and environmentally offensive targets (also, it takes places 10 leagues deeper than the novel, so, you know, it's more extreme).

When one of these targets - a US nuclear submarine - gets off a rescue buoy before going down in the Marianas Trench, the authorities are alerted to the fact that something fishy's going on (rimshot)(couldn't help myself), and enlist the services of Lieutenant Michael Aronnaux (Lorenzo Lamas), a Navy recovery specialist, and his team to recover, naturally, the missing sub's crew, if alive, and its nuclear stores, no matter what. What makes this team so adept at such a deep water recovery? you might be asking, if such aspects of marine technology interest you. Well, friends, it's something The Asylum whipped up called an "oxygenator," basically the opposite of the goo in The Abyss, some thing or another with the alchemical powers to transform sea water into breathable oxygen. Handy device, that.

Anywho, further complications arise when it turns out it won't be Lorenzo leading the recovery mission, though he's the most seasoned man on board. The key word here is "man." The mission will instead be lead by Lt. Cmdr. Lucille Conciel (Natalie Stone), a British woman inexplicably high-ranking in the US Navy, and, coincidentally, unless it's an Asylum film, Lorenzo's ex-wife.

Long story short, the recovery mission descends and is captured by Nemo, a brilliant but lunatic scientist who's built a submarine city deep below the surface and who's intent on stealing the oxygenator to help him resurrect and restore...wait for it...fucking Atlantis!!! Huzzah!!!

(oh, and he wants the warheads too, something about annihilating the surface world and all us filthy land-lubbers before he brings his precious utopia back to life. whatevs.)

The rest is spoilers.

Overall, 30K holds to the original conceit of the novel - one brilliant man pushed too far attempting to remedy an irredeemable society - while successfully giving it a palpable dose of 21st century fanaticism. The result is a suspenseful, thrilling, inventive sci-fi drama that lives up to it's legacy. Jules Verne would have been intrigued. Despite its hard, technical exterior, the film is driven by it's soft, character-oriented heart, a nice change from some similar Asylum films where explanation can dominate characterization. Not to say the technical aspects are lacking - especially the visual effects, robo-squids specifically, courtesy once again of the wizards at Tiny Juggernaut - but the true strength here lies in the strong, deft, well-paced script by Asylum staple Eric Forsberg (Mega Piranha, Snakes on a Train), and an array of solid performances.

Lorenzo Lamas (Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus) plays it suave and slick, boasting a stern yet restrained aggression, more "Falcon Crest" than "Renegade," i.e. a little phoned-in, but hey, what were you expecting? His ex-wife is played with harsh, taut and chilled vulnerability, like a dominatrix with her own safe word, by Ms. Stone (Allan Quatermain and the Temple of Skulls), whose lips aren't nearly as inflated and thus not nearly as distracting as in the parenthetical film.

Sean Lawlor (MSvGO), the ninth man to play Captain Nemo onscreen, does so with bravado, whimsy and resolved, stoic insanity. He's believable believing his radical plans as practical and pragmatic solutions to a decaying civilization, and while his intelligence is never called into question, his sanity is never called out. Other Asylum regulars round out the cast, including Michael Tower (Invasion of the Pod People, Surpercroc, Dracula's Curse), Damien Puckler (Death Racers, 666: The Beast, Journey to the Center of the Earth), and Kim Little (Countdown: Jerusalem, The Apocalypse, The 9/11 Commission Report), who displays youthful exuberance as Lorenzo's doting technician.

Jules Verne is a Phillip K. Dick figure in sci-fi (it's the other way around, truthfully, but for my purposes i'm ordering it as such) in that nearly every idea the man ever had has been mined and re-mined and will be inevitably mined more in the future than it's been even to date. However, this one is nowhere near as hackneyed or contrived, or even derivative, as many of the other entries. 30K is, as I said, inventive, pertinent and fantastic, everything Verne himself wanted the story to be.

Another undisputed success, here, as far as this inmate's concerned.

observation notes: Killers 2: The Beast

One of two Asylum sequels subtitled The Beast (the other being that to 666: The Child), Killers 2, the sequel to the first-ever Asylum production (and also the first feature collaboration between current Asylum partners David Michael Latt, who directed here, David Rimawi, who produced, and Paul Bales, who wrote), opens with Kim Little's character, the only survivor of the first film, now involuntarily committed (ha!) to a mental asylum (double ha!) on account of the horrors from film one of which authorities think she is the sole cause.

As is customary with mental asylums in horror movies - and often in real life - the place is rife with corrupt doctors and orderlies and the patients are more dangerous than one's own psychosis. And speaking of psychosis, the longer KL has to stay in this terrible place, the more she has to suffer the particular horrors of institutional life - teamed with the remembered horror of her recent trauma, teamed with the actual horror of hitmen associated with the drug lord from the first film infiltrating the asylum and attempting to kill her - the weaker her convictions of her innocence, her sanity, grow. I don't want to give too much more away, because this really is a thrilling journey, rich with subtle and not-so-subtle terrors hiding around every corner, lurking behind every shadow.

Kim Little is unbelievably good in this as a sort of fractured Alice in the opposite of Wonderland - sick, crazy, delicately desperate and deceptively dangerous. I've given pretty good marks to Ms. Little in most everything I've seen her in, but this thus far is my favorite of her work. Other cast highlights include D.C. Douglas (Titanic II, Scarecrow Slayer), who plays a frighteningly confident/boyishly professional/naively arrogant doctor, Steven Glinn (The Source, Shapeshifter) as "Jim," the macho, debaucherous, goateed orderly and grade-A prick whose death you long for, and Melissa Renee Martin as a suicidal hot-chick patient.

Overall I found this film to be more thrilling than the first, an all-around cleaner, crisper outing. Kim Little grew a lot as an actress between the films and it really shows, as she carries this with frenetic and frighteningly realistic aplomb. David Michael Latt, who directed the first film as well, also progressed as a director; there aren't as many lighting tricks or claustrophobic framings but still somehow this film feels more confining and menacing than the first, stark instead of atmospheric, more intimate, face-to-face with the madness, and yet still eerily institutional. The scenes where KL's losing her shit were especially well shot, I thought, a kaleidoscope of light and sound and focus and shadow that swirl together to create a truly hallucinatory and maddening impression of a descent from sanity.

The script is the final part of this puzzle, and, like the lead actress and direction, it's gotten much, much better. Bales took an admittedly flat backstory not his own and pulled from it an intense, witty, sharp, shocking, brutal and vibrant scenario with some real choice dialogue that manages the impossible task of adding levity to a most unfunny situation. And he throws in a disproportionate amount of hot chicks for a mental asylum, which only leads - naturally - to a pretty bitching shower catfight.


Bottom line, the promise of the first film is more than fulfilled by this, the second. One of the better asylum-set (notice the lack of capitalization) films I've seen, balancing nicely the delicate seesaw of inner and outer terror. I count this one as "highly enjoyable." Quote me on it.

observation notes: Killers

This is where it all began: the very first Asylum production, in their very first year as a company, 1997 - Killers, directed by David Michael Latt and starring Kim Little.

The plot is simple enough: a handful of low-grade, thrill-junkie and just-junkie bikers make a shady deal to buy a bunch of drugs at 1/10th their street value. How come the good deal? Because the drugs are stolen, of course, from the notoriously violent son of a local drug baron. But our junkies don't know this, and to make matters worse, they agree for the deal to go down at this out-of-the-way, practically-condemned, nice and deserted industrial complex.

Junkies. Always doing stupid shit.


Anywho, the deal goes down as planned, but just as it does, the violent son tracks down the thieving dealer, bringing in tow with him a team of severe-looking henchmen, lead by a ponytailed and very angry Paul Logan. This is when the shit begins to hit the fan. The dealer, amusingly named "Speed" - you know, like the stuff he deals - is the first one captured and tortured, but when it's revealed he doesn't have the drugs, our villains are clued in to the fact that he's not the only one in the building, and go looking for some payback...in blood.

As the junkies scatter and try to stay alive, the film's focus falls on the character played by Kim Little, the girlfriend of the head junkie, a pretty, white, rich girl looking for more thrills than just drugs, slumming-it to satiate some no-doubt deep-seeded daddy issues, basically your good-girl-gone-bad scenario, turned thoroughly-fucked by the interjection of murderous henchmen. When PL shoots her man point plank in the head (not a spoiler as much as a necessary plot reveal. the spoiler is...well...you'll see), Kim's character sobers up (somewhat) and realizes that in order to survive this surreal ordeal, she must transform herself body and spirit into that which she fears the most: a ruthless, remorseless, cold killer.


From here it's just a matter of who gets killed in what order, and who's on what side and where the line between those sides is drawn, as well as the lines within the characters between life and death and what each will do for either.


Overall, I found Killers to be entertaining, suspenseful and unpredictably complex for such a simple, subtle, sometimes underwritten scenario. But whatever problems the script has - and there are problems, mostly cliches - this is balanced by tight and intentionally-disorienting direction that really throws the viewer into the mix and helps create a thrilling empathy with our hapless characters. The inventive, always evolving lighting scheme goes a long way towards establishing a foreboding, seemingly boundless atmosphere, as though this building were the only one in the world, and there is no true escape; shots framed through fencing, grates and around pipes and posts add to this sense of claustrophobia. And whereas the supporting actors might have been a little one-note, and trying a bit too hard, the leads turn in nice and developed portrayals that reach beyond the screen and worm their way into your imagination.


Kim Little as the heroine (insert drug joke here) is perfect as the rambunctiously naive poster-girl for lost innocence forced to shed her doped-up and blissfully-ignorant perspective because of, you know, all the killing. If I had one criticism, I'd say she's almost too presentable for the role, almost too good-seeming to have fallen so far, but Ms. Little balances this with an impassioned performance that transcends appearances and gets to what it's truly like for characters of this sort when the veneer of thrill is dropped and one is left facing only survival. I've always been a proponent of Ms. Little's, but this is the most emotive I've seen her, as a woman driven to the edge of sanity and left there to teeter over the abyss. And she kinda resembles a cuter Bridget Fonda, also a plus.


Resident badass Paul Logan is extra badass in this one, the first time I've seen him play the villain (Terminators and Way of the Vampire notes yet to be written), and man is he good at it, incredibly menacing with those thin eyes and permanently-snarling upper lip, the kind of bad guy that makes you piss yourself a little. PL plays it cold, calculating, cruel and efficient. The hair's a nightmare, but hey, it was 1997; in 1997 I had hair down to my shoulders, a patch-plagued hobo-beard and Buddy Holly glasses, so who am I to judge? Bottom line: PL's awesome streak is totally alive.


Other notables include Christopher Maleki as the biker-junkie leader/Kim's love interest (giving a basically competent and emotional performance, though a few shades shy of the asshole he needs to be), Erica Ortega as the other spazzing-out biker bitch, Frankie Ray as the aforementioned Speed and Scott Carson (Scarecrow Slayer, Death Valley: The Revenge of Bloody Bill) as the pretty-boy drug-baron offspring. 

Killers was followed in 2002 with a sequel, appropriately titled Killers 2, with the subtitle The Beast. More on that to come.

observation notes: Supercroc

"For all of our advanced technology, we have not created anything that comes close to the aggression, resiliency, and overall fighting power of the ancient crocodile."

Truer words were never spoken: this beast clocks in at 50 feet long, 25 feet tall, hungry, ornery, and complete with a rock solid exterior no bullet can pierce. It's Supercroc, The Asylum's capitalization on the croc-craze of '07 instigated by films like Rogue, Primeval and Black Water, and, like those films, it's about a really, really big crocodile. Really big. Revisit the specs above if needed.

The films opens with a platoon of soldiers scouting a wooded area. This didn't make a lot of sense to me until the arrival in the ninth minute of the biggest GD CG croc I've ever seen. It promptly eats the most obvious target - the soldier in glasses - and then most of the others, leaving only one, female survivor, a chick I thought was Erica Pod People Roby until just this moment, when I linked to the IMDB page (Asylum doesn't mention this one on their website. I'm sure it's a legal thing and not, you know, a shame thing.).

The slaughter of soldiers definitely raises the ire of the military. In their investigation they determine a quake a few days earlier in the Pacific must have released this thing of prehistoric parameters from some sort of stasis. So it's really old, really evolved, and really fucking hungry. These are the things that make it Super. By the way, it's the croc that's super, not the CGI of said croc, that's actually kinda not so good, pretty fake, in a Walking with Dinosaurs kind of way. That aside, though, it's a really big fucking crocodile, I can't emphasize that enough: it's city-bus big, twin-engine-plane big. And because of this bigness, plus the attack on U.S. troops (you know we don't play that), the military goes all out in its attempts to slay the Supercroc, a mission that takes on a new urgency upon the discovery of dozens of supercroc supereggs. Dozens. It's a full-on supercroc invasion we're facing here, people!

"Son, I've got a 10,000-pound reptile barring down on a populated area; the last thing I need is comic relief. Understood?"

Yessir. Sorry.

So the croc stalks, and the military tries everything they can think of to stop it, to no avail, and as a result, pretty much everything the supercroc comes across, it eats. We get the genesis of the Mega Shark/airplane scene here when the supercroc lurches from the depths to take down a helicopter. It's a prolonged scene, too, not like the blink-and-you-miss-it Mega Shark takedown.

As for the rest of the film, it's all about figuring out how to kill the oldest, most evolved creature in existence; the word "impenetrable" is used a good half-dozen times, most in the same monologue.

So, as the film really revolves around the girl I thought was Erica Roby, and since I thought she was Erica Roby, most of the notes I took focus on what a startling improvement she made from Pod People. Those are out now. I'll just say the girl that is actually in the film carries it very well, and balances her emotions deftly between bereaved and enraged. Kim Little is the other standout, an Asylum vet (she's got good connections) who brings intensity and credence to her performance as the lady in the know about ancient crocodiles. She's kind of a mix between Sweet Dee from Always Sunny, Angela from The Office and the porcelain-skinned beauty Laura Harris (who by the way needs to be in an Asylum flick, stat.) The other actor who caught my eye was David Novak, but only because he looks like a skinny Robert Forster.

All in all not bad; if you like giant-crocodile movies you'll probably like this one. I could have used more and varied destruction - the film takes place in two locations: the woods and the control room - I mean, you've got a supercroc, you might as well use him. Have the motherfucker taking down skyscrapers, Croc Kong and shit like that. Kudos on the chopper scene, though. That, plus the talented collection of actors, pull this one off.