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In 1952, Cecil B. DeMille’s The Greatest Show on Earth sought to wow audiences with its depiction of circus life, and the behind-the-scenes drama that went with putting on such grand entertainment. DeMille infused his movie with the same epic sensibilities that he poured into many of his films, doing his best to ensure The Greatest Show on Earth would be a big-screen extravaganza to rival his own The Ten Commandments.
The problem was the story wasn’t worthy of such a herculean effort, and felt more like a soap opera overflowing with love triangles and backstage drama than it did a grand spectacle. The Greatest Show on Earth has its moments, for sure, including a train wreck towards the end that at least approaches its director’s lofty intentions. But ultimately, I was unimpressed, and wonder why such an overblown motion picture won out over High Noon and John Huston’s Moulin Rouge at the Academy Awards as the year’s Best Picture.
Flash forward a dozen years, when another showman with big ideas, Samuel Bronston, tackled another Big Top-themed movie, 1964’s Circus World. With Henry Hathaway in the director’s chair and John Wayne headlining an all-star cast, Circus World had all the makings of a circus epic.
Circus World came up short as well, but not quite as short as The Greatest Show on Earth. Whereas DeMille’s film was pompous and heavy-handed, Circus World is hoaky, but also kind of sweet, and that sweetness would win out in the end.
Circus owner Matt Masters (Wayne) has just wrapped the show’s American tour. Instead of packing up for the season, he decides to take his troupe overseas.
Unfortunately, things don’t go well for Matt or his team. Upon their arrival in Europe, the cruise ship carrying the circus capsizes and sinks. Matt and his crew manage to save all performers and animals, but lose their most important asset: the big top tent!
Matt does his best to salvage the tour, but his real reason for taking the circus overseas was to track down Lili (Rita Hayworth), an old flame and the mother of Matt’s adopted daughter (and fellow circus performer) Toni (Claudia Cardinale). Lili left Matt and Toni behind 14 years earlier after the tragic death of Toni’s father, a trapeze artist who plummeted to his death during a performance. Matt and Lili do eventually reunite, but are reluctant to tell Toni the truth about their own relationship, and what really happened to her dad on that fateful night all those years ago.
Right out of the gate, Circus World had a mawkishness to it, with character introductions and comedic asides that would have been more at home in a kid’s movie. Even the big scene, the sinking of the cruise ship (unlike DeMille’s film, which saved the train wreck for the final act, this tragedy occurs in the first 30 minutes), featured over-the-top sequences that had me rolling my eyes, including a moment when Wayne’s character subdues an angry lion in the ship’s hold, using a whip to force it back into its cage while sporting a western outfit and ten-gallon hat!
But as Circus World pressed on, it began to win me over. The relationship between Matt and Toni had a tenderness to it, as did the romance that blossomed between Toni and fellow performer Steve (John Smith). Even the inevitable return of Toni’s mother, played quite well by Hayworth, was a welcome turn in the story.
Like The Greatest Show on Earth, Circus World never achieves that epic feel it was reaching for; even the circus performances, though well-executed, don’t quite get there. In its quieter moments, I was absolutely tuned in to Circus World, and this connection to the characters and their situations gave the final scenes, when things get “big” again, a gravity that was lacking early on.
As a producer, Samuel Bronston often reached for the stars, telling big stories in grand fashion. He sometimes hit the mark (El-Cid, The Fall of the Roman Empire) and sometimes came up way short (55 Days at Peking). Circus World falls somewhere in the middle, and though occasionally corny, is just endearing enough to be worth a watch. Rating: 7 out of 10
As I sat watching Ti West’s X on the big screen in 2022, I knew I was experiencing something special. A gritty, hard-hitting motion picture, it would go on to rank #1 on my list of the year’s Top 10 horror films.
Having just seen it again, I can’t shake the feeling I may have shortchanged it that first time around. X is, far and away, the best movie of the 2020’s. Period. All genres. On top of that, it’s the first film of the decade to crack my 250 Favorite Movies list.
Yes, X is that good.
The year is 1979. Night club owner Wayne (Martin Henderson) aspires to make a name for himself in the porn industry, and convinces both his stripper girlfriend Maxine (Mia Goth) and talented employee Bobby-Lynne (Brittany Snow) to star in his first X-rated film. With Jackson (Kid Cudi) as the male lead, and film student RJ (Owen Campbell) and RJ’s girlfriend Lorraine (Jenna Ortega) handling the technical side of things, Wayne predicts they’re all going to make a boatload of money.
Packing everyone and everything into a van, the troupe makes its way to rural Texas, where Wayne has rented a guest house situated on the property of elderly farmer Howard (Stephen Ure), who lives alone with his wife Pearl (also played by Mia Goth).
Once they’ve settled in, Wayne and the others get down to business, shooting one sex scene after another, all the while hoping Howard won’t figure out what they’re up to in his guest house.
But Howard isn’t the one they need to worry about, as Maxine discovers when Pearl takes a liking to her. Pearl may seem like a frail old woman, but the obsession driving her, which is not unlike the one pushing Maxine to excel in the adult entertainment industry, makes Pearl more dangerous than anyone could have imagined
Exploring themes of sexuality, desire, and a burning passion to be the best, X is also a loving tribute to the horror movies of the 1970s, films like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (West duplicates several shots from Tobe Hooper’s masterpiece, including the darkened silhouette of Wayne standing in the doorway of Howard’s farmhouse, asking if anyone is home); Hooper’s 1976 follow-up Eaten Alive (a pond on Howard’s property is home to an enormous alligator); and John Carpenter’s Halloween (it’s no coincidence that, during the scene when X first takes on the characteristic of a slasher film, Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper” fills the soundtrack).
Along with these nods to the past, X matches the down-and-dirty look of both a ‘70s grindhouse flick and a porno from the same era. West never backs down from his subject matter, filling the screen with graphic nudity and, eventually, graphic violence, making. X the perfect first entry in what would become an intriguing trilogy (followed by the prequel Pearl, also 2022, and the 2024 sequel MaXXXine).
The film tackles both fame and sexual desire by way of the passions driving Pearl and Maxine, each played wonderfully by Mia Goth. Having not read or seen anything about the movie prior to my initial viewing, I didn’t even know until afterwards that Goth also played the elderly Pearl (she disappears behind excellent make-up)! Her performance as these two pivotal characters, each as ambitious as the other, will blow you away.
Maxine is determined to become a star, even if it takes appearing in pornos to get her there. Pearl, who we discover also once had dreams of making it big in show business, now longs for the vitality of youth, the sexual intensity that Maxine so expertly conveys in front of the camera (Pearl was secretly peering through the window when Maxine shot her first sex scene). Pearl becomes fixated on Maxine, a preoccupation that at first struck me as a sexual attraction. But on second watch, I see that Pearl coveted Maxine’s good looks, her vitality, her charisma. Much like Elizabeth Bathory, the 16th century Hungarian noblewoman and convicted serial killer rumored to have bathed in the blood of virgins to retain her youth, Pearl wanted to draw from Maxine’s life essence, to make her more desirable to both Howard and several members of Wayne’s crew. Her dreams of stardom may have faded over time, yet she still longs to be the center of attention, and It’s when Pearl fails at seduction (save one very memorable bedroom scene with Howard) that she becomes dangerous.
The parallels drawn between Maxine and Pearl, as well as its various homages to horror classics and the occasional jab at the adult film industry (RJ, who says he wants to make an ‘artistic’ porn flick, has no problem shooting one sex scene after another until his girlfriend Lorraine decides she also wants to be in the movie), transform X into what I consider the best film of the admittedly young decade, and a movie that, over time, could very well prove to be one of the greatest ever made. Rating: 10 out of 10
J.R. Bookwalter turned out 1993’s Ozone for only $3,500. That, in and of itself, is not what is impressive. I mean, it is impressive, but what makes the movie a true wonder is that, despite its meager budget, Ozone is so damn good!
Detectives Eddie Boone (James Black) and Mike Weitz (Tom Hoover) are on a nighttime stake-out, hoping to catch drug dealer Richter (Bill Morrison) in the act. When things go south, Eddie and Mike give chase. Eddie eventually catches up with Richter, who, during the melee, injects the detective with a new narcotic called “ozone”.
As Eddie soon discovers, Ozone has some severe side effects, turning a good many addicts into mindless zombies. Eddie continues his investigation into the trafficking of Ozone, even as he begins to change, both physically and mentally, leaving him to wonder if the drug’s effects will eventually wear off, or if they are permanent.
Ozone is, first and foremost, a body horror film, and it’s an outstanding body horror film. From the exploding head that kicks off the movie to the many transformations to follow, the make-up and effects are beyond impressive. In one of the film’s best scenes, Eddie meets Justine (Lori Scarlett), who is addicted to ozone. During their brief encounter, the two undergo a metamorphosis that completely alters their appearance, resulting in a scene that is as gross as it is amazing.
Bookwalter also made the interesting choice of having each Ozone addict experience different side effects to the drug; not everyone becomes a zombie. During his investigation, Eddie encounters a bloodthirsty mob of Ozone addicts that force him to fight a cage match against a much bigger opponent; and later goes toe-to-toe with a trio of cannibals that corner him in a darkened alley. Keeping the effects of the drug random not only made for a more interesting film, but kept things moving at a brisk pace (the film’s 81-minute runtime feels half that long).
With performances better than you’d find in most low-budget direct-to-video productions (James Black does an amazing job in the lead role) and special effects that are shockingly good, Bookwalter managed to take $3,500 and turn out a movie as entertaining as any $200 million Hollywood production. Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Released in 2018, Hell Fest is a modern take on the slasher subgenre. What’s more, it’s an amazing slasher, introducing to the world a masked killer every bit as terrifying as Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees.
College student Natalie (Amy Forsyth) returns home to visit her best friend Brooke (Reign Edwards), and is surprised to discover that Brooke is now roommates with Natalie’s former adversary, the overbearing Taylor (Bex Taylor-Klaus). Annoyed at first, Natalie chills out when Brooke informs her that not only are the three of them going to Hell Fest, a legendary traveling horror attraction, later that night, but the VIP tickets for the event were secured by none other than Gavin (Roby Attal), who has the hots for Natalie.
Along with Brooke’s boyfriend Quinn (Christian James) and Taylor’s beau Asher (Matt Mercurio), the trio and Gavin head to Hell Fest, hoping it will live up to its reputation as the greatest horror attraction of all-time.
But the six will get more than they bargained for when a real-life serial killer (Stephen Conroy), donning a mask that makes him look like just another park employee, sets his sights on Natalie. And this particular killer never stops until he’s finished the job.
One of the best things about Hell Fest is its setting. Laid out like an amusement park, Hell Fest boasts dozens of rides and mazes to get the pulse pounding. Many of the attractions are damn creepy, as are the actors working them (the haunted school was especially eerie).
More than this, Hell Fest proves the perfect setting for a slasher film because the killer can take someone out and patrons will assume it’s all part of the show! Bloodied carcasses become just another prop. We get a sense of this early on, when Taylor and Brooke tell Natalie about a tragedy from a few years earlier in Orange Grove, when a girl was stabbed to death at a haunted attraction, then strung up, hanging there for days until her body started to stink (the movie’s opening scene features this very murder, the victim portrayed by Cynthea Mercado).
The actors playing the friends / potential targets of Hell Fest have great chemistry together. We really care about all of these characters, and while we accept not everyone can make it out alive, we root for them anyway. Most impressive of all, though, is Stephen Conroy as the killer. Hidden behind a mask the entire time, he moves methodically, never running or even walking at a fast pace. Like Michael Myers in Halloween or Jason Voorhees in the Friday the 13th sequels, the killer in Hell Fest doesn’t need to rush around. He knows he will catch up with his targets eventually, making those moments when he does all the more intense (a scene with Natalie in a rest room had me on the edge of my seat).
There is also a great reveal at the end of Hell Fest, a final scene so strong it will have you wishing a sequel, perhaps even an entire franchise, was in the works. As of this writing, that doesn’t look to be the case, and that’s a real shame.
A solid horror film and a terrific entry in the slasher subgenre, Hell Fest is sure to become an October staple for genre fans, and will stay one for many years to come. Rating: 9 out of 10
October 31, 2004. Islamabad, Pakistan. U.S. troops are engaged in a firefight with Islamic forces. The Americans are heavily outnumbered, and those left alive at the end of the skirmish are taken prisoner.
Two are executed, while a third is tortured by having the skin peeled from his face. Now badly deformed, this soldier vows revenge.
Shot mostly hand-held, this opening features some genuine excitement. Still, it’s not exactly how you’d expect a movie titled Halloween Pussy Trap Kill! Kill! to kick off, is it?
Jump ahead to a modern-day Halloween night. The all-girl rock band Kill, Pussy, Kill has just finished a gig, and are on their way to an even bigger venue when they stop for gas. While there, one of the band’s members, Misty (Kelly McCart), disappears without a trace.
Searching for their friend, the rest of the group, aka Amber (Sara Malakul Lane), Cat (Lauren Parkinson), Natalia (Nicole Starling), Bridgette (Kelly Lynn Reiter), and their manager Roger (Tristan Ott), are approached by the station attendant Dale (Richard Greico), who claims he was asleep in back and has no idea of Misty’s whereabouts. To add to their problems, Roger’s van suddenly won’t start.
Informing the distressed musicians that his uncle has a van they can borrow while theirs is being repaired, Dale drives the group a few miles down the road, then gases them, rendering them all unconscious.
When they come to, Roger and the girls find themselves locked in a basement, where they are informed by an ominous voice (over a loudspeaker) that they are going to be tested. Those lucky enough to survive the test will gain their freedom.
Of course, not everyone will survive, as they discover when their first test is revealed: move to the next room and locate a hidden gun. The person who finds the gun must then kill one of the others!
Borrowing heavily from Saw, Halloween Pussy Trap Kill! Kill! has its share of violent scenes, some of which are effective (like when the gun is found by one of the girls), and some that are spoiled by wonky CGI (especially bad are the various explosions littered throughout). The film also introduces us to the Mastermind of this “game” (played by Jed Rowen but voiced by Dave Mustaine) and a few members of his “family”, including Bertha (played by producer Kelly Erin Decker) and an elderly little person in a child’s dress (Zahra Susan Ingersoll), a trio that gives the film something of a Texas Chain Saw Massacre vibe as well.
Considering Halloween Pussy Trap Kill! Kill! is a low-budget affair, the acting is fairly good, especially the girls in the band, who struggle with the decisions they are forced to make while under the control of the Mastermind.
Also turning up to help the girls is DJ Speed (Demetrius Stear) and his buddies (Tim Casper and David Oakes). DJ Speed is a former bandmate who was tossed out of the group earlier that night for forcing himself on Misty. He’s pulled into the chaos when he stops at the same gas station and notices Roger’s van off to the side. Though late to the “party”, the scenes with DJ Speed are fairly intense, and prove to be some of the film’s best.
Alas, Halloween Pussy Trap Kill! Kill! loses its way a few times, notably in the scenes involving the Mastermind’s family and how they handle the trick-or-treaters who knock on their door throughout the evening (they are literally in the middle of nowhere. Who in their right mind would walk several miles for a single piece of candy?). Intended to be funny (they aren’t), these scenes add nothing to the film. I also didn’t buy the Mastermind’s motivation for putting strangers through such a terrible ordeal, claiming it’s to help them appreciate their freedom (an even more egregious rip-off of Saw, and not a convincing one).
In addition, the music that plays throughout Halloween Pussy Trap, Kill! Kill! isn’t memorable, and even the band’s trip through the torture chamber eventually wears thin.
It’s hard not to feel some affection for Halloween Pussy Trap Kill! Kill!. Writer / director Jared Cohn is clearly a fan of the horror genre, and he and his cast did their part to make it an entertaining homage to several classics that came before it. Unfortunately, the results are mixed, and while I’m not unhappy that I saw it, I doubt I’ll be adding Halloween Pussy Trap Kill! Kill! to my October watchlist anytime soon. Rating: 5.5 out of 10
Best friends Sergio (Carlos Santos) and Brad (J.C. Villarreal) are throwing a wild party at the house they share with bad-tempered roommate Chuck (Tony Cavalero), who has been a real drag since he sobered up. Strapping a GoPro camera to a helmet, a drunken Sergio stumbles from room to room, capturing the insanity of a party that is spiraling out of control.
Ready to crash before the party ends, Sergio makes his way upstairs, only to hear sexual moans coming from behind a closed door. Chastising the lovers, he throws the door open.
There is nobody in the bed.
Suddenly, he hears the moans again, this time in the closet. Again, Sergio opens the door. Again, there is nobody to be found. Confused, he steps out into the hallway, where he has a frightening encounter with what could only be the ghost of a woman.
These opening moments of 2013’s Ghost Team One get the movie off to a chilling start. But as its story plays out, the scares give way to laughs, and while it is neither the funniest nor most frightening horror / comedy ever made, if is still an entertaining watch.
Initially reluctant to admit their house might be haunted, both Sergio and Brad have a change of heart when the gorgeous Fernanda (Fernanda Romero) shows a keen interest in the paranormal, and offers to help the two investigate these strange occurrences. Sergio, who is single, is immediately smitten with Fernanda. Brad is attracted to her as well, despite the fact he’s been dating Becky (Meghan Falcone) on and off for a while now.
As their probe into the house’s ghostly history intensifies, Sergio and Brad begin competing with one another to win Fernanda’s heart, never realizing that the spectral entity sharing room and board with them is becoming increasingly more dangerous.
With its emphasis on comedy over horror, Ghost Team One does have its share of funny scenes, most of which center on the leads’ attempts to win the affections of Fernanda, who is herself too busy obsessing on the supernatural to even notice. Also getting a few laughs is Tony Cavalero as Chuck, who is always confronting his roommates over what he sees as their lack of respect for the house they share (when we first meet Chuck, it’s the night after the party, and he’s screaming at Sergio and Brad after discovering someone took a shit in their kitchen sink).
Ghost Team One also boasts a couple of effective jumps scares, but horror is definitely not the film’s strength. And while the ghost does seem ominous at times (it turns out the angry spirit is that of a Filipino prostitute who once resided there), the film’s final 10 minutes, which feature a very unusual “possession”, are just silly enough to undermine the entity’s effectiveness.
I am definitely not a fan of how Ghost Team One ended, but it didn’t ruin all that came before, and with decent performances from the main cast and a handful of funny sequences, I ultimately had a good time with it. Rating: 6 out of 10
Director Gregory Hoblit’s Untraceable delivers its message of internet desensitization a bit heavy-handedly, but as a thriller, it’s one hell of a tense ride!
FBI agent Jennifer Marsh (Diane Lane) and her partner Griffin Down (Colin Hanks) have teamed with detective Eric Box (Billy Burke) of the Portland police department to track down a serial killer, one who live-streams his murders over the internet. In fact, the more visitors the killer’s website (killwithme.com) receives, the faster his victims perish, often in the most brutal ways imaginable.
An expert in cybercrime, Marsh does what she can to pinpoint the killer’s whereabouts, only to be frustrated at every turn. And now that the investigators have put themselves in this psychopath’s crosshairs, it may only be a matter of time before one of them becomes his next victim.
Diane Lane is superb as Agent Marsh, a dedicated investigator juggling her professional responsibilities with being a single mom (her daughter Annie is played by Perla Haney-Jardine), while Hanks, Burke, and Mary Beth Hurt (as Marsh’s mother, Stella) are solid is support.
It’s the story of an internet killer, though, and the manner in which his victims are slaughtered, where Untraceable truly distinguishes itself. Using everything from heat lamps to sulfuric acid, the killer leaves it up to his audience as to how quickly his “subjects” die. The more viral the video goes, the faster the death. And these killings are vicious! The subjects do not die quickly; even late in the film, when the viewership numbers jump exponentially by the second, these poor souls suffer for what seems like an eternity, making each fresh kill tougher to watch than the last.
Director Hoblit and screenwriters Robert Fyvolent, Mark Brinker, and Allison Burnett also throw us for a loop at one point. The killer’s identity remains a well-kept secret until just before the movie’s halfway mark, at which point we the audience finally see his face. Yet his motives, his exact whereabouts, even his identity remain a mystery. It is as if the filmmakers were toying with us in much the same way the killer toys with the police and the FBI. In most thrillers, an early glimpse of the villain functions as an “a-ha” moment, an exposé that answers a few questions we might have had up to that point. In Untraceable, we see his face. That’s all we get, and just like before this slight reveal, we’re relying on Agent Marsh to fill in the rest of the blanks.
As mentioned, Untraceable is not subtle about what it’s trying to teach us. The internet has made the world a much smaller place, granting anyone and everyone access to grisly real-life images and shocking news videos from around the world. With mayhem and murder a simple Google search away, we have become passive observers, taking in real-life violence as if it were nothing more than a TV show, with no concern whatsoever for the people whose lives have been forever changed.
Yet while Untraceable may deliver its message with all the delicacy of a sledgehammer, this does not detract at all from the film’s overall effectiveness. A taut police procedural and a first-class thriller, Untraceable will have you nervously biting your nails from start to finish. Rating: 8.5 out of 10
