Day 229: Graveyard Shift

Graveyard Shift

Sure he's missing his eye and skin, but he still has his smile

Stephen King is a household name. While the mainstream audience knows him from his work on The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and Stand By Me, we horror fans love him for his work on such classics as Children Of The Corn, Cujo, The Stand, and The Shining. King is able to create horror movies in believable setting and weave tales that are both compelling and horrifying. His stories are full of suspense yet we cannot look away. Being a superstar writer whose movies have also become big hits, I find it strange when I come across a movie based on his work that I've never heard of before. What could possibly be the reason?

Graveyard Shift is a 1990 horror movie based on the short story of the same name by Stephen King. The movie stars David Andrews (Fight Club, Apollo 13) as John Hall, a drifter who has just arrived in a small town in Maine. He goes to the local textile mill and is able to procure a job from the manager, Mr. Warwick (Stephen Macht, General Hospital, The Monster Squad), a sadistic man that enjoys verbally abusing and punishing his workers. John works the graveyard shift, 11 pm to 7am, pulling cotton from a separating machine. The mill is infested with rats and John tries to scare them off by throwing empty soda cans at them with a slingshot. Warwick employs Tucker Cleveland (Brad Dourif, Deadwood, The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers), a disturbed Vietnam veteran, as the mill's exterminator, but he is unable to keep the population under control. The mill should be closed down due to the infestation and potential fire hazards, but Warwick is able to bribe inspectors and keep it open. Workers sent down to clean up the basement start to disappear. When the exterminator goes into the graveyard next to the mill to kill rats, something pulls him down into the ground. Warwick send Hall and several other workers to clean up the basement. They discover a subterranean maze beneath the mill that leads into the adjacent graveyard. They also realize that they are not alone. Something is done their with them, picking them off one by one and eating them. Hall, an unraveling Warwick, and the rest try to flee onto to come across a mound of bones, belonging to missing workers and the graveyard. What is this horrible monster and how will they survive?

"Oh yeah, you're going to need that tooth removed."

Well, there's a good reason why I've never heard of this Stephen King movie: it's just not good. Graveyard Shift is a simple monster movie that takes way to long to get to the point, forcing the audience to sit through a whole lot of nothing. There are a few hints at the monster living beneath the mill, barely enough to keep things interesting. Despite John Hall being the main character of the movie, more time is spent on Mr. Warwick. He's the most developed and entertaining character in the movie, so I understand why, but then why bother with focusing on the background of Hall when it really doesn't matter. There's no need to make him a drifter if it really makes no difference. He could have just as easily been a regular worker. They tried to make him interesting and set him up as a hero, but it feels too hollow, mostly due to the story being stretched out. As a short story, I can see the appeal of Graveyard Shift, but as a full-length movie it doesn't work. The plot is very basic and when you stretch it out over and hour and a half, you realize how thin it really is.

The movie tries to make up for the lack of entertainment by cramming in a lot of excitement and violence in the last twenty minutes or so. When it finally becomes a horror movie, Graveyard Shift becomes far more watchable and fun to watch. The sets used for the underground tunnels look adequately creepy and the dark atmosphere plays nicely with the violence. The monster looks pretty good when it was finally revealed as some kind of giant, mutated bat. Making the monster a bat does beg the question of why were rats a big focus for most of the movie. Shouldn't the big monster be a rat? The inclusion of rats made me hope that the movie would be similar to H.P. Lovecraft's “The Rats In The Walls,” one of my favorite Lovecraft stories. While the stories are separate, the scene where Hall is climbing a huge pile of human bones in an underground labyrinth is straight out of “The Rats In The Walls” and was very cool to see. One thing that wasn't a problem in the movie was the acting. Everyone plays their part well with Stephen Macht and Brad Dourif putting in the best performances. 

"Have I ever told you about the time I was a doctor in the Old West?"

Graveyard Shift is a good short story, but as a full-length movie, it just doesn't work. Some short stories have enough going on with them that they can be stretched out and easily fill an hour and a half of screen time. The acting is good, so that's not the problem. Unfortunately, Graveyard Shift is unable to do this, leading to boring scenes and weak character development. Nothing of real importance happens until the last twenty minutes or so, which is a shame, because they are a pretty entertaining twenty minutes. They have action, suspense, scares, lots of blood, and even a fight between Hall and Warwick in which they hit each other with skeletons and bones. It's just not enough to make for a better movie.

5/10

Day 147: Monkey Shines

Monkey Shines

Quit monkeying around

Happy Creature Feature Saturday and the beginning of Memorial Day weekend. I hope you get a chance to enjoy this extended weekend, unless you're working, then I hope you are paid extra. This holiday weekend I gave me the time to finally see a movie I've wanted to see for a while by one of the masters of horror, George Romero. Best known for his “...of the Dead” films, some people don't even realize that he has down other movies in the horror genre not related to zombies. While some argue that his last few films, Land, Diary, and Survival of the Dead have been less than stellar, they still have their moments of greatness and are entertaining. But those are all zombie movies. It was time to check out something different.

Monkey Shines is a 1988 horror movie, based on the story by Michael Stewart, starring Jason Beghe (G.I. Jane, Californication) as Allan Mann. A star athlete, Allan goes for a run and is hit by a truck, leaving him a quadriplegic. Unable to move anything below his neck, he is relegated to an electric wheelchair and his house is set up with the latest technology. He becomes despondent and tries to kill himself, but is discovered by his friend Geoffrey (John Pankow, Mad About You, Batteries Not Included) in time. Geoffrey is a scientist at the local University has been injecting monkeys with serum derived from a human brain in hopes that it would increase their intelligence. He takes one of the monkeys to Melanie Parker (Kate McNeil) who trains her to become a monkey helper. They give the monkey, named Ella, to Allan and his life slowly improves. Geoffrey continues to secretly inject Ella with the serum and her intelligence grows. A telepathic bond occurs between Ella and Allan as he begins to see through her eyes when she escapes through the house. His anger and rage also begins to grow when she is around, spilling into violence when he learns is former girlfriend is now seeing his doctor. A supposedly random fire breaks out and kills both of them. A romance grows between Allan and Melanie, despite Allan's overbearing mother's objections. Allan visits another doctor and learns that his paralysis is actually congenital and not caused by his accident. Ella becomes possessive of Allan and more violent towards others and actually kills his mother by dropping a hair dryer into her bath. Geoffrey tries to stop Ella by injecting her with poison, but she outsmarts him and stabs him with the syringe. Melanie also tries to stop Ella, but is tripped and hits her head on a table. How will Allan be able to stop Ella when he can't even move?

"Back away from the bananas and no one gets hurt!"

The best way to describe Monkey Shines is “different and interesting”. It's certainly not your typical creature feature as the monkey Ella doesn't just go around and rip faces off. The movie goes for the slow (and sometimes very slow) build, showing the sweetness of the relationship between Ella and Allan and then the relationship turning obsessive and scary. The story is smart, but incredibly dull at times. Clocking in at over two hours, the movie manages to have compelling moments and ideas, but little in the way of action and horror. While the basic concept is scary in general, the movie itself is lacking and true scares. What could have legitimately been terrifying came off as just a little creepy and startling. Part of the problem may have been that the distributor, Orion Pictures, had recut the film against George Romero's wishes, so we'll never really know what could have been. The music for certain scenes is all wrong and takes away any fear the audience might have.

Despite problems with the studio, Romero's talents still shine throughout the movie with some really good shots and direction. Scenes shot from Ella's point of view are similar to that of the traveling through the woods scene in Evil Dead. Frantic shots of Allan's face during tense scenes look good and add to the overall fear and are not overdone. The acting is pretty good throughout, with Jason Beghe putting in a solid performance. It must have been difficult to go through almost an entire movie without using his extremities. Boo, the monkey playing Ella, was very good, aided by tight shots of her face that showed genuine emotion. There are also good, but small parts played by Stanley Tucci (The Hunger Games, Captain America) and Stephen Root (No Country For Old Men, Dodgeball). 

The ultimate killing machine

Monkey Shines is not your typical animal-based horror movie. It is an interesting and different concept that isn't seen very often. The movie is far too long and lacks true horror. It should have been far scarier and had a lot of potential, but just didn't make the cut for whatever reason. Romero still manages to do a good job and the acting is well done. If you're a big fan of Romero's work, Monkey Shines is worth watching. If you're looking for a good horror movie, you could do better. It has it's moments, but not enough to make it great.

6/10

Day 70: Masters of Horror: Pelts

Masters of Horror: Pelts

Fur is murder

It's Saturday, so that means another creature feature. This one is a little different than your typical SyFy channel animal movie. I decided to look outside the box and what better way to do that than with a Dario Argento movie. I have to confess I have not seen any of Argento's work. I think a big reason is that his work either came out before I was of viewing age, most hasn't been in American theaters, and they are almost never shown on television. Thankfully, he has done some work for the Masters of Horror series, bringing his demented visions to a wider American audience.

Pelts, based on the short story by F. Paul Wilson, stars Meat Loaf (Fight Club, Celebrity Apprentice) as boorish fur trader/manufacturer Jake Feldman. His main suppler of fur is trapper Jameson and his son. They go onto the land of the mysterious Mother Maters and find their traps full of racoons among the bizarre ruins. They brutally kill the animals and skin them. Jake meanwhile is at a strip club to see his favorite dancer, Shanna. Jake tries to force himself on her and is physically rejected. Jameson contacts Jake and tells him that the pelts are the most beautiful fur he's ever seen. Some unseen force comes over Jameson's son and he viciously bashes his father's head in with a baseball bat before placing his head in an animal trap. Jake arrives at Jameson's, takes the pelts and anonymously informs the police. Jake has his workers fashion a beautiful coat out of the pelts to be shown at a fur expo. The people working on the coat soon commit suicide in particularly horrific fashion, one using a scissor to cut himself open and a seamstress sewing her eyes, nose, and mouth shut. Jake heads to Mother Maters land to talk about the racoons in hopes that she would give him more for another coat. Maters explains that the racoons, or pinelights as she calls them, guard the ruins on her land and she in turn guards the pinelights. Jake brings the coat to Shanna so she can be his model. Will the same gruesome fate fall on Jake and Shanna?

Oh yeah, I see the problem. You have no face.

God damn is this movie violent! If you are squeamish when it comes to guts and blood, you may want to shut your eyes because there is a lot of it. While some movies show a bit and cut away, Pelts actually goes for the squishy closeups. The makeup and prosthetic artists deserve a lot of praise because everything looks very good. There is also a lot of nudity, so if you watch movies with a young horror fan, you may just want to skip this one for a while. Also, there's a sex scene involving Meat Loaf that may traumatize people more than the violence. While the violence may shock, it's the music that brings out the fear. A creepy “lala” style song plays when the characters look at the fur and right before the killing starts.

Meat Loaf puts on a good performance as the disgusting Jake Feldman, though the need to make him Jewish, or at least sound Jewish, is unnecessary. Maybe it was unintentional. The story itself is basic, but entertaining nonetheless. Dario's directing is spot-on, with good shots and no scenes wasted. The insane love of the pelts brings to mind scenes from The Lord of the Rings triology where characters fall in love with the one ring. If people killing themselves in bloody fashion for a supernatural sounds familiar, that's because M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening essentially used the same idea two years later.

I'll never eat at Olive Garden again!

Pelts is an entertaining, if not disturbing, watch. You'll find yourself simultaneously cringing, laughing, and shouting curse words at all the action. The final scene in particular will bring out all these emotions. Meat Loaf and the supporting cast all do a fine job and the effects are solid. The story is simple and fun, but definitely not appropriate for a younger audience. If you're like me and really hate animal cruelty, it may bother you some, but if you see it as a revenge movie, it can take away some of the uncomfortableness. This is a very good introduction for people like myself unfamiliar with Dario Argento's work. Definitely check it out.

9/10