Day 272: Mulberry Street

Mulberry Street

Where the streets have no names...well, except for all the ones that do

New York City is a great location for horror movies. Plenty of scary things happen there in the real world so it's only natural that horror films would fit in. Whether it's Cloverfield or Midnight Meat Train, or C.H.U.D., the city allows for all sorts of scary genres and subgenres. In a city where anybody can feel like a nobody, anything can happen. You can have large cataclysmic events or self-contained person terrors. In the case of Mulberry Street, you get both.

Mulberry Street is a 2007 “zombie” movie released by After Dark Films (Zombies Of Mass Destruction, The Deaths Of Ian Stone). The movie stars Nick Damici (World Trade Center, Stake Land) as Clutch, a retired boxer living in a shabby apartment on Mulberry Street in New York City. Clutch's daughter Casey (Kim Blair, The Look, The Mighty Macs) is a soldier returning home to New York from war, sporting fresh scars on her face from battle. Clutch is preparing for her return with his friend Coco, when strange news reports about rat attacks across the city start to come out. The building's super Ross is busy fixing all sorts of problems with the buildings when he is bitter by a diseased rat. Ross begins to slowly transform, first with coarse hair growing on his body and then facial mutations. Similar mutations occur across Manhattan as the city shuts down public transportation in hopes of containing the outbreak, which is transmitted through infected bites, from spreading. Waves of violent cannibal attacks stretch across the city as Casey tries to reach her father. Ross has now become a full-fledged zombie with Clutch and Coco fighting him off and locking him in a closet. At the same time, Clutch ventures out into the mayhem to find his neighbor, Kay (Bo Corre, Eldorado, Harrow Island) whom he has feelings for. He finds Kay at the bar she works at and the two fight off the infected people, who now resemble giant humanoid rats. Casey, who stole a car, manages to find her father, but Kay is grabbed by a zombie before they could save her. Quarantine is declared for the city with scientists and soldiers planning to come in and exterminate the infected. They make it back to the apartment and barricade themselves inside. Ross has escaped the closet and is crawling around the walls of the apartment. With the infected inside the walls and pounding at the door how will the tenants of Mulberry street survive?

"Oh, Lordy! Save me, Cheeseus!"

There's some debate online if this movie is officially a zombie movie or not since the infected are technically mutated rat people and not the undead. For all intensive purposes, Mulberry Street is most definitely a zombie movie. All the tropes are there: infection caused by a bite, mutation, cannibalism, loss of humanity, and swarms of mindless monsters chasing the uninfected. I mean, there's a scene straight out of Night Of The Living Dead where the mutants hands are coming through the door trying to grab Clutch and Casey. Just because one detail has been changed from typical zombie canon does not change what the movie is about. The story itself is fairly standard zombie fair, complete with chase scenes and bloody violence. The movie smartly uses New York City as the setting for the movie. The infection spreads incredibly fast (the events of the movie take place in just one day) and the quarantine makes sense, as Manhattan is an island. In all likelihood, it wouldn't have worked, but for the story, it's acceptable. If you've in a New York City subway station, you've seen the rats, so the basic concept is sound as well. Unfortunately, we never get a reason as to why the rat bites are changing people. It would have been nice to get some sort of clue just to add to the overall horror. Was it a chemical leak or nuclear waste? How about a comet hit the city? Just give me something to work with.

The lack of a reason, while not important to the story itself, does present another overall problem in the movie and that's a lack of social commentary. Like all good zombie movies, there needs to be a bigger overall meaning to the movie. While other zombie movies question human nature or our impact on the environment, Mulberry Street pretty much ignores all of this. I thought they might be building something with Casey, showing her post-traumatic stress from the war or hiding her scars, but nothing came from it. Even the ending was another lost opportunity, with soldiers coming to the apartment to kill the infected. It was a good chance to talk about government conspiracies or human nature, but again, we get nothing. I don't need to be preached at, believe me, but I need something more than just “mutant rat people overrun New York City”.

Mulberry Street is obviously a low budget horror movie as most of the movie is shot within the apartment and on public streets. The movie gets the most of it's actors thanks to good performances from everyone. On paper, the idea of Mulberry Street sounds silly, but it's actually a decent horror film. You can probably compare it to 28 Days Later in terms of fast chase scenes and frantic action. The violence is good with a fair amount of blood and gore. The mutated rat people look decent, though the camera never really focuses on them, so I can't really determine if the makeup and effects were great. My biggest issue with the movie is the grainy, low quality footage. Some scenes are perfectly clear, but it's when they venture outside of the apartment where the quality of the footage goes down the drain. The poor quality of the film makes multiple scenes extremely difficult to see what is happening. It's not an artist decision by the director, it's just a cheap camera and the rest of the movie suffers for it.

Seriously, did they smudge sand all over the camera when they shot this?

Mulberry Street is a decent zombie movie that tries to make the most out of a low budget. While the idea of mutant rat people running loose in New York City sounds worth of the SyFy channel, the movie is actually not as silly as it sounds. There is a good amount of action and violence with some nice suspense. The acting is what helps keep the movie from becoming ridiculous. The biggest problems in the movie come from the low quality of the film during certain scenes and the lack of social commentary. Mulberry Street has it's moments and with a bigger budget and a little more thought in the script, it could have been great.

6.5/10

Day 122: Against The Dark

Against The Dark

You have the right to remain dead

Steven Seagal. The greatest martial artist, action star, lawman, and thespian of our or any time. OK, that's a stretch, but I am endlessly entertained by him, for good or bad. Believe it or not, Seagal still makes a lot of movies, almost all direct-to-DVD and direct-to-Spike TV. While the little details may change, all of the movies involve Steven Seagal and ass-kicking. You can keep your Chuck Norrises and your Jean-Claude Van Dammmes. This man is a killing machine wrapped in a leather trench coat that he never takes off. Lucky for us, he decided to delve into the world of horror with Against The Dark. (Side note: You ever notice how a lot of his movies are explanations of what his character is? Like "Steven Seagal is...Under Siege". "Steven Seagal is...Half Past Dead". Weird, right?)

Against The Dark is a 2009 horror/action movie starring the one, the only, Steven Seagal (Under Siege, Above The Law) as the vigilante creature hunter Tao. An epidemic has swept across the planet, turning most of the population into blood thirsty cannibalistic zombies. Saying blood-thirsty and calling them cannibals isn't a mistake because these “zombies” drink blood and eat flesh. They are also afraid of the light, so I guess they're more like vampire zombies. Survivors Charlotte (Jenna Harrison, My Brother Tom, 12 Days of Terror) and Morgan (Danny Midwinter, From Hell, Dead Cert) has been hiding in an abandoned hospital when they run into another group of survivors, including a young girl named Charlie. They have run out of food and the hospital's generators are going to fail soon. They decide to head over to the other side of the hospital to find food and get to the security doors. The have to fight their way through the vampire-zombie hordes while Tao, Tagart (Tanoai Reed, Doom, Iron Man 2) and the rest of the hunters make their way to the group. Meanwhile, Lt. Waters (Keith David, Pitch Black, Barbershop) has been given the order to “cleanse” the area that the survivors are in. The group is slowly killed off and one of them is kidnapped by a doctor still in the hospital. The doctor reveals that the creatures have evolved and are not mindless monsters. He plans to feed him to his mutated daughter, but Tao saves the day. Will Tao be able to get the group out of the hospital before the army blows them up?

You don't have to be in shape to shoot a gun

Without going any further, I have to address the creatures in this movie. It's never really established what they are other than mutants. They look like corpses, they eat flesh, and they were turned via an epidemic. Sounds like a zombie, right? That's not the case because we also see them drinking blood, they're afraid of the sunlight, oh and they talk. Yeah, they fucking talk. Not a lot, just a few scenes. If that's the case, why were they not talking the rest of the movie? I guess it's fine because they're technically mutants so really anything goes, but for viewing purposes, it's incredibly stupid. Why not just make it a zombie movie? You're not improving the story by throwing in little bits of other monsters.

Despite being a “Steven Seagal” movie, he's not in it that much. Or perhaps he's not in it enough for my liking. If I'm watching a Seagal movie, I want him in it for at least 95% of the time for his “great” one-liners and lazy action moves. More focus is given to the group making their way through the hospital. The entire scene with the doctor kidnapping someone came out of nowhere and made less than no sense. It's completely random and doesn't really progress much of the movie. The creatures evolve and can talk, so what? It feels like a lot of the scenes throughout the movie were just half-baked ideas that just got thrown into the blender and puked out onto the film. Thankfully there is a good amount of action with some nice violence and blood. At least they got that right.

He's practically poured into that over-sized trench coat

Against The Dark is Steven Seagal's first horror movie. He is actually fine in it, though I was wanting to see him more. The story has lots of holes (wouldn't the mutants starve pretty quickly since the only a small percent of humans still exist?) and is a mish-mash of horror genres and cliches. There is plenty of violence and blood to keep you entertained, but not enough to distract you from the terribleness. I'd definitely like to see more Steven Seagal in horror movies (or romance or comedy), but this one was just too bad even for Seagal to save.

3/10

Day 48: The Last Man On Earth

The Last Man On Earth

And he still can't get a date

Older horror movies are special. They were made in a time where it wasn't all just blood and entrails. Actual stories were needed to keep the audience entertained and terrified. Nowadays, movies just throw some special effects at you and call it a day. It was time to watch an old horror movie and what better way to jump in than with a Vincent Price movie?

Based on the novel I Am Legend, The Last Man on Earth stars Vincent Price as Dr Robert Morgan. A plague has decimated the planet, leaving only Morgan and horrible, vampire-like creatures that terrorize him when the sun goes down. The mutants hate garlic and cannot stand to look at their own reflections in the mirror. Morgan has survived three long years by a long supply of canned food, generators, and meticulous routine. He makes his daily rounds, going through the city, killing mutants with a stake to the heart and throwing their bodies into a burning pit. We learn that Morgan's daughter and wife both died from the plague despite all his hard work at a lab. To his surprise, Morgan discovers a dog and takes him in. He is crushed to discover that the dog is infected and disposes of it. During his rounds, he sees a living woman and runs after her. The woman is named Ruth and Morgan takes her back to his fortified home. Suspicious, he shoves garlic towards her and she recoils. Ruth is infected and reveals that she is part of a society of infected humans that have learned to control the mutation. The society knows of Morgan and plans to kill him because he has been unwittingly killing their loved ones during his rounds. Ruth pulls a gun on Morgan, but cannot fire. With her blood, Morgan is actually able to cure Ruth completely. Will they have enough time to warn the coming horde of the cure or will it be too late?

This is going to hurt you a lot more than it is going to hurt me

The story of I Am Legend has appeared on the big screen many times. The Last Man on Earth sticks pretty close to the basic material. Vincent Price does well in his role as a tortured man, but it feels a little odd when he's shown in flashbacks as a loving father. It just doesn't feel right seeing him as a father. His voice and emotion is perfect for the narration and really sets a creepy tone for the entire movie. You really feel the hopelessness and loneliness in the scene involving the dog. Maybe its because I love dogs, but that really got to me. There's a brief moment where Morgan has hope and says something along the lines of “It's going to be alright”. You know he's really talking to himself and it just breaks your heart when he discovers the dog is also infected.

The mutants themselves take a lot from vampire lore, such as the garlic, reflections, stakes to the heart and only coming out at night, but I wouldn't officially call them vampires. They are able to somewhat talk and the use clubs to smash, but they're not the romanticized (or sparkly) vampires you see today. There is a bit of action, but by today's standards, the movie is pretty tame. Most of the real action is psychological as Morgan wrestles with the knowledge that he couldn't save his family and the crippling loneliness.

These Jehovah's Witnesses just won't quit!

The Last Man On Earth is a good story and well acted. It's a bit light on action and heavy on the psychological, so it tends to drag in spots. There are a few plot holes and you'll find yourself questioning Morgan's actions a bit too much. Overall, its an enjoyable watch for the thinking horror fan. The Last Man On Earth gets you to ask some serious questions about ourselves. In this age of smart phones, wi-fi, and social media, sometimes its hard to imagine being alone, but that can all end in a flash. Think of how many people you would lose contact with or what news you would miss. Once technology goes out, will anyone be there to help you light a candle?

7.5/10

Day 4: C.H.U.D.

C.H.U.D.

J.F.K. P.T.A. U.F.O.

C.H.U.D. is one of those movies that you always saw in the video store (remember those?) when you were younger, but were always too afraid to watch. I knew that CHUD stood for “Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dweller” but beyond that, knew very little about the actual movie. Originally panned by critics, C.H.U.D. has gained a cult following, thanks in part to multiple references on shows such as The Simpsons, Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Castle.

I was also unaware that many well-known actors appear in C.H.U.D. John Heard (Home Alone, The Sopranos), Daniel Stern (City Slickers, Whip It) and Kim Greist (Throw Mama From The Train). Even John Goodman makes a brief appearance. It's nice to see that actors in a B-movie are still getting work to this day.

Above: C.H.U.D. Nelson

We follow the story of police captain, a photographer, his model girlfriend and bum in the dirty, squalid, hell hole known as New York City in the early 80's. Strange disappearances and murders plague the local police force already strained by a rampant homelessness problem. A government conspiracy and mutated monsters are the cause and all four must band together to save the day.

All four actors work enough with the script to make their characters easy to relate to and sympathetic without overdoing it, and Daniel Stern stands out especially as the former criminal turned Reverend. Each character could easily be turned into an obnoxious stereotype, but in the end you're rooting for all four to survive.

C.H.U.D gives commentary on homeless and environmental safety in a casual way, so you don't really feel lectured while watching it, though it can get a bit heavy-handed at times. There is also a government coverup so big that it would make Lyndon LaRouche scream in fear, this movie is definitely smarter than meets the eye.

Above: Ashley C.H.U.D.

The only issue I do have with the movie is with the monster itself. Great detail was put into the design of the creatures head and claw-like hands. The sharp, animalistic teeth and light-up eyes are a nice touch and feature prominently when the monster is shown, almost to a fault. Close-ups of just the teeth, eyes, and hands for a majority of the movie remind me too much of Jaws; unlike Spielberg the cinematic chops aren't here to pull off compensating for mechanical issues or what was likely a lack of funds. Most disappointing, though, is when you finally do see a full-body shot, the creature looks like a guy in a wet potato sack. For so much detail spent on the head and arms, they really didn't try on the body.

I'm usually very wary of any remakes, especially when it comes to horror movies, but I think I'd like to see a modern take on C.H.U.D. I think updated effects and a proper advertising campaign could bring the original some much deserved attention. This movie is definitely worth your time to check out.

7.5/10