A blog exploring the sexy, shocking, surreal, and silly side of horror films.

November 22, 2010

Screamwave #25: THE WALKING DEAD

"We can dance if we want to. We can leave your friends behind"

DIRECT DOWNLOAD
SUBSCRIBE on iTUNES
SUBSCRIBE by RSS


This episode, Kris and Aaron discuss the first three episodes of AMC's very exciting new zombie series THE WALKING DEAD.

Then, in Earth and Beyond, Aaron and Kris discuss a bevy of odd stories starting with the Dancing Plague of 1518 before hitting some modern stories about exploding gum, death's inescapable reach, and the video of a scrappy cat who fends of two alligators with its own bare paws. Exciting stuff.

Of course, we round out the show with listener feedback as usual.

Don't forget to enter our DURHAM COUNTY DVD giveaway. One lucky Screamwave listener will receive a copy of Durham County season one. All you have to do is email us your full name and mailing address

[Original music by Nathan Fleet]

Leave Feedback
206-350-7019
screamwavepodcast@gmail.com 

www.horrorinthehammer.com

Show Notes

November 14, 2010

Tokyo Gore Police (REVIEW)

 
Tokyo Gore Police (2008) 
(Tôkyô zankoku keisatsu)

Director: Yoshihiro Nishimura

As an outsider to Japanese culture, I can only wonder what mainstream audiences in Japan think of films like Tokyo Gore Police. Do the excessive gore, sexual perversion, ultra-violence, and twisted stories feel as bizarre and fringe in Japan as they do in North America? Perhaps they're as par-for-the-course in Japan as the romantic comedy is in North America. Regardless, I can only speak for myself: Tokyo Gore Police is the most gleefully fucked up movie I've ever seen.

SYNOPSIS


Tokyo Gore Police is a Japanese action splatter film spliced with Videodrome on acid and sprinkled with a helping of Robocop's tongue-in-cheek media satire.

In future Japan, the privatized Tokyo police force attempts to apprehend and kill a strange species of mutants known as Engineers. For the most part, these mysterious Engineers appear human but are notoriously difficult to kill because they have the ability to transform any injury into weapons. A severed limb could grow back as a deadly blade. The severed legs of an Engineer may regenerate as the fanged jaws of a monster. Some even take on bio-mechanical traits with fleshy, grotesque limbs and body parts that double as machine guns. To confront this menace, Ruka (Eihi Shiina) is a samurai sword-wielding cop with a bloody knack for dispatching Engineers. While investigating a series of Engineer-related murders, she discovers that the origin of the Engineers is linked to the murder of her own father. She discovers a past of betrayal and deceit, all the way hacking and slashing a gory trail to the truth.

Rating: 4.5 / 5 Snail Strippers


IS IT SHOCKING?

You don't call a movie Tokyo Gore Police and not bring some pretty outstanding violence to the table. I've gory violent images in Tokyo Gore Police that I've never seen before. Partly because the premise is so fantastical (bloody wounds turning into even bloodier and more disgusting weapons), and partly because the film is so violent (too many decapitations, severed limbs, and melted faces to count), Tokyo Gore Police lives up to its name: a wet-dream for any gore-hound.

 High blood pressure is the #1 killer in Japan.

If you took the body-meets-metal aesthetic of Tetsuo: The Iron Man but switched out the metal with unpredictable mutating flesh a la The Thing, you may get a sense of the way bodies are treated in Tokyo Gore Police. Even as a long-time horror fan, I encountered shocking images in Tokyo Gore Police that made me gasp and question what I saw. Tokyo Gore Police is Peter Jackson's Dead Alive without the restraint.

IS IT SILLY?


At the same time, Tokyo Gore Police is not a somber grind-fest. It's almost cartoon-like in its approach to the futuristic world of Japan and its techno-samurai police force and fleshy mutant transformers. Don't confuse the gore in this film with the gore in snuff fiction like that from August Underground or by Remy Couture (whose extreme FX work has got him into hot water in Canada recently). The difference is a matter of tone. You are supposed to revel in the gore and laugh at the over-the-top blood sprays -- laugh with that gross-out reflex one gets from seeing a human face sliced off but the body stumble around like a headless chicken. 

" It's raining blood! Hallelujah, it's raining blood."

The film also has a satirical take on media and culture that extends the silliness beyond the gore and into the background of the film. As in Robocop, we often cut to spoof commercials but on Japanese television. Although real Japanese TV is widely considered weird by North Americans, the Japanese media in the world of Tokyo Gore Police is much stranger. Ads for cutely designed box-cutters cater to kids that like to cut themselves. A presenter on a home-shopping channel kills himself with a sword. An ad for a Wii-like systems shows a family participating in a video game where the goal is to torture an imprisoned man. The mixture of this black humour and satire prevents Tokyo Gore Police from being a mean-spirited film, but it is no less shocking.

IS IT SEXY?


That depends on how into body modification you are. I'm not just talking tattoos and piercings here. I'm talking about nude strippers and prostitutes who have had their nipples removed and breasts sutured with big metal staples. I'm talking about nude women who are anatomically part-snail. I'm talking girls with penises for noses.


Think twice before getting between her legs.


Because Monster Chiller Horror Theatre often dwells in the low-brow, mildly titillating full-frontal nudity is all it takes to count as sexy. If you can forget for a moment that the woman above has an alligator for a torso, then -- yes -- Tokyo Gore Police is sexy.


IS IT SURREAL?


This dude's brain has cannons sticking out of it.
I have such an explosive migraine right now.
------------------------

If everything I've shown you about Tokyo Gore Police tickles your fancy, then you'll really enjoy this example of gorified splatter action/comedy. As far as I can tell, the performances are good, the fight choreography is exciting, and the story has enough twists and turns to keep you invested in some very slightly disjointed scenes of violence or goof-ball humor. It's the gore and practical effects, however, that you'll remember most.

Don't be surprised if you get a little blood on your face just from watching.

Screamwave #24: MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN

"Step away from the meat"
 
DIRECT DOWNLOAD
SUBSCRIBE on iTUNES
SUBSCRIBE by RSS


Now departing the station: Screamwave #24. We review The Midnight Meat Train (2008), directed by Ryûhei Kitamura. Also this episode, Kris interviews Nathan Fleet, the director of the Hamilton Film Festival and musical contributor to Screamwave. 

In Earth and Beyond, we discuss a monster with a funny-sounding name as well as a macabre art installation in Los Angeles. Finally, at the end of the line, we briefly address feedback.
 
[Original music by Nathan Fleet]

Leave Feedback
206-350-7019
screamwavepodcast@gmail.com
www.horrorinthehammer.com

Show Notes

November 4, 2010

Screamwave #23: SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD

“BRAINS!”

DIRECT DOWNLOAD
SUBSCRIBE on iTUNES
SUBSCRIBE by RSS


With Halloween and the Hamilton Zombie Walk right around the corner, Screamwave has zombies on the brain!

This episode, Aaron and Kris review the Bluray of George A. Romero’s SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD. Also this episode, Aaron interviews John Migliore, a zombie extra from Hamilton who has appeared in Survival of the Dead and other recent zombie films. We talk about what it takes to be a zombie extra, and we take a tour of his zombie memorabilia collection.

In our Earth and Beyond segment, both Aaron and Kris bring to the tables stories of bizarre situations and strange circumstances. They’re not paranormal stories, but they are weird.

Finally, with some shout outs to Paracinema magazine and author Tony Burgess, we round out the episode with feedback.

Find more episodes: screamwave.libsyn.com

[Original music by Nathan Fleet]

Leave Feedback
206-350-7019
screamwavepodcast@gmail.com

www.horrorinthehammer.com

Show Notes

November 3, 2010

Creep Reel: TERRORGRAM (1988)

"Starring James Earl Jones as the voice of retribution..."

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails