With all of the insane and colorful zest of a Douglas Sirk melodrama, the similarly unnatural bodily horror dysplazia of VIDEODROME, some incredibly witty, well written and razor-sharp dialogue to rival the likes of FASTER, PUSSYCAT KILL! KILL!! And even HEATHERS, finished off with equal parts ERASERHEAD. FORBIDDEN ZONE and THE CORPSE GRINDERS, the resulting abortion emerges as director Stephen Sayadian's brilliant, long overdue sequel (of sorts... not really, though!) to the 1919 classic German expressionist CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI, this more recent incarnation, also titled DR. CALIGARI, reaches such insanely overblown, expressionistic and unlikely comedic heighths, that it is an immensely bizarre and enjoyably welcome, diverting hoot of a bad acid trip that consistently veers off in the opposite direction from the atypical genre fare one might easily anticipate from such efforts, that it really does emerge as a wholly original and consistently first rate breath of fresh abstraction, quite apart, above and far beyond anything one might wish to compare it to... the mere fact that DR. CALIGARI was produced, released and exists at all justifies it as achieving meritorious mention as the unheralded and unsung art/sex/grindhouse classic that it truly is, rightly belonging alongside all those other, better known underground cult classics of the last fifty years, and, to my reasonably well-educated, informed cinematic estimation, is nothing short of a minor masterpiece and truly one of the very finest horror comedies in all of film history.... That being so firmly stated : UNLESS sustained representations of abnormal psychology and psychotic situations, every kind of aberrant sexuality, highly stylized instances of day-glo color schemes, synchronized avant-garde staging beyond any rational, functional or logical reasoning and some of the funniest, most ridiculously realized puns & double entendres ever to appear so intentionally, consistently rhythmic and delivered with such hyper-realized absurdist aplomb as you're ever likely to experience from any other title in the library of contemporary adult genre films... If any of that doesn't exactly sound like your particular cup of angel dust, then I would earnestly suggest that you definitely steer clear of this queer grand guignol melting pot of ideas, genres and psyches! Sure, the film is far from perfect, but hell, even SUNSET BOULEVARD had it's fair share of mis-steps!
Reviews
3 Reviews
Man of God
(2021)
A Message for the Ages, or, You can make a film about Belief in God and not have it Suck!
29 March 2022
Pay no attention to all the haters out there, Yelena, You have actually produced a very emotionally resonant and extremely well directed and, especially, well cast motion picture experience. I say this because, watching the film in a theatre and on a large screen really payed off for the visual meter presented before you. Some may shout minimalism, but what I witnessed last night in theatre 16 of the Arcadia, CA AMC theaters, was perhaps one of the best looking films I had seen in a very long time. Sure, there are a few glossed-over or outright ignored elements, such as there seemingly being just two small groups of boys in attendance at the school depicted in the film, however, conversely, the film manages to successfully radiate from within a most tangible presence of a higher power, as it is felt and related to by the characters in the film, particularly whenever the lead actor refers to his uncontestable understanding of patience and exemplary faith in he who remains faceless and always off somewhere in the wings of our lives. I was particularly moved by the truthfulness and honesty of the man who played the headmaster of the school. The moment in the film when Nektarios is leaving the school and the man admits that he is very fond of him although he actually dislikes everything about him immensely, and the realism of the scene between the two men I found to be one of the most truly moving moments in the film up to that point. A visually quite lovely film and I do NOT agree with those who claim that the fact the film is spoken in (occasionally somewhat stilted) English, saying that it cheapened the experience and compromised the overall suspended disbelief of the piece, have simply never communicated telepathically with one another, because in any language, MAN OF GOD would remain a most topical, worthwhile and lovely film going experience, with notable acting, direction and cinematography. 8 out of 10 - Brandon Quinn.
Freddy's Nightmares
(1988β1990)
Well It Started Out Quite Promisingly, at any rate....
12 January 2019
Just as ex-New Line Cinema Head CEO & mogul Robert Shaye stated in the 5-hour NOES documentary, "well... the first 10 episodes we're pretty good... but after that..." and Shaye was spot on in his approximation, although, I personally feel that the last enjoyable, good quality and interesting episode was THE END OF THE WORLD, in which Mary Kohnert's dreams started affecting her waking reality & then even managed to narrowly avert WWIII.... FREDDY'S NIGHTMARES did start off pretty strongly all things considered, even its uneven tone and predominance of episodes lacking much of or even any Freddy involvement, still managed to entertain viewers with imaginative, appropriately surreal and nightmarish episodes that included plenty of in-jokes for those in the know, surprising guest stints from the likes of George Lazenby, Patty McCormack and the lamentable Susan Oliverπ’ and was even further complemented with a good sized built-in audience base eager to see next week's episode (hell, my grandmother was even watching it one evening when I arrived at her house, and she had never even been a horror fan!?!) Toward the latter half of the first season, there seemed to be a sudden shift in the look, over all tone, writing and
the production values of the series, even Krueger's appearance changed quite noticeably (this was the time when, in response to Englund's severe dermatological skin problem due to the continuous application of the prosthetic latex makeup used to transform him into Freddy Krueger, Mark Shostrom or Howard Berger created an entirely different design and a new procedure was implemented, limiting the amount of time it took to apply the Freddy makeup, allowing the arduous daily process of its application to become far less intensive.π) There were a few moments later on that were able to break free and shine in a similar vein to the earlier episodes grandeur, such as LIFE STINKS, freddysomething, and especially the series' finale, IT"S MY PARTY & YOU'LL DIE IF I WANT YOU TO, which did successfully afford the show to end with a BIG, fat, noisy (and ridiculously dumb!π) BANG!! but for the most part, after THE END OF THE WORLD, the NIGHTMARES episodes always struck me as being some really bad, uninteresting, poorly staged, terribly written, uninspired and sadly, beyond lackluster, regrettably throw-away moments in truly awful television!! π’ But, boy some of them were just soooo good!! π
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