The First Face/Off: Pierre Brasseur (left) and Alida Valli (right) carve up another victim in EYES WIHTOUT A FACE.

With theaters offering no new genre films this weekend, The Cinefantastique Podcast turns its all-seeing gaze back through the mists of time to a 50th anniversary examination of EYES WITHOUT A FACE, director George Franju’s moody masterpiece of art house horror. Imagine a dream of lyrical black-and-white images, of a lonely young woman, flitting through her home like a silent spectre. Her face, hidden behind a placid, mannequin-like mask, is a ruined mess. Her father, a brilliant but monomaniacal surgeon, is trying to restore her beauty – a process that involves kidnapping look-alike victims and transplanting their faces onto hers. When you see the operation in full view of the unblinking camera, you realize that your dream has erupted into a nightmare whose shock derives from the horrendous manner that the graphic imagery violates the poetic beauty of the film. The result is a classic not only of the genre but of cinema, easily one of the greatest horror films ever made. Follow Dan Persons, Lawrence French, and Steve Biodrowski as they dare to look beneath the mask – it’s all part of Cinefantastique’s ongoing Celebration of the science fiction, fantasy, and horror films of 1960.

IN THIS EPISODE:

1. News
2. Opening in Theaters
3. 50th Anniversary Discussion: EYES WITHOUT A FACE
4. New on Home Video
5. New at cfqmag.com

An Even Dangerouser Game: Adrien Brody (right) and Alice Braga (center) take point in PREDATORS.

This week, the Cinefantastique Podcast sets its sights on PREDATORS, produced by Robert Rodriguez and directed by Nimrod Antal, from a screenplay by Alex Litvak and Michael Finch. Is this sequel to PREDATOR (1987) a brilliant pop culture mediation on the ability of the human spirit to triumph in dire circumstances, or is it merely a crushing disappointment that fails to deliver on the promise of its trailer? Listen in to find the answers to these and other intriguing questions, along with the usual roundup of news, events, and home video releases in the world of science fiction, fantasy, and horror film.

Genuine Gold: PSYCHO (left); PEEPING TOM (center); and HOUSE OF USHER celebrate their 50th anniversaries.

With no new horror, fantasy, and science fiction films opening nationwide this week, the Cinefantastique Podcast turns its eye on the 50th anniversary of a trio of terror from the year 1960: Alfred Hitchcock’s PSYCHO, Michael Powell’s PEEPING TOM, and Roger Corman’s HOUSE OF USHER. Relax and sit back in your time machine as Dan Persons, Lawrence French, and Steve Biodrowski offer their retrospective analysis of these classic films. Also this week: an interview with Richard Clabaugh, director of EYEBORGS, due on home video on July 6. Plus the usual compilation of news, events, and upcoming releases.

IN THIS EPISODE:

1. News
2. Opening in Theaters
3. Interview: Richard Clabaugh on EYEBORGS
4. Discussion: The 50th Anniversaries of PSYCHO, HOUSE OF USHER, and PEEPING TOM
5. New on Home Video
6. New at cfqmag.com

Tougher than You: Doctors at work in LIVING IN EMERGENCY

It’s getting to be that my fortitude is being tested on a weekly basis. I’ve witnessed the psychotic outrages of THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE (and liked it), the moral confrontation that is THE KILLER INSIDE ME (liked it), and the let’s-put-The-Rock-in-a-tutu TOOTH FAIRY (you’re kidding, right?). But all that was make-believe stuff. LIVING IN EMERGENCY is very real, a documentary, and at points can be rough going. But if you can work up the nerve to tough it out, your courage will be greatly rewarded.

‘Course, if you want to talk about courage, you have to talk about the subjects of the film: four doctors who have volunteered to work for Doctors without Borders (aka Médecins Sans Frontières) in two, war-ravaged countries: the Democratic Republic of Congo and Liberia. Director Mark Hopkins — making his feature documentary debut having previously produced numerous docs — takes his cameras into the exam, operating, and break rooms, and doesn’t flinch from showing both the staggering challenges the volunteers face, and the effect those challenges sometimes have on them (one doctor compares the attitude of another to Heart of Darkness — that’s never a good thing). The film winds up an unwavering, credible evaluation of why the organization has justly received a Nobel Peace Prize — one of the best docs I’ve seen so far this year. It also reminded me why I need to stop whining when I have to watch movies like TOOTH FAIRY.

Click on the player to hear the interview.

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EXAM

LIVING IN EMERGENCY
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No connection, but a great doc.

This week, the Cinefantastique Horror, Fantasy & Science Fiction Podcast scrutinizes a pair of sequels that seem to have nothing in common: SHREK FOREVER AFTER, the latest family-friendly CGI fantasy from DreamWorks Animation; and SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD, the latest horrifying episode in George A. Romero’s on-going zombie apocalypse, which began way back in 1968 with NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. What’s the connection? Although each film has its worthwhile moments, both raise the question of whether their franchises are tapped out and in need of a hiatus to recharge their batteries. Also on the menu: a round-up of recent news, a preview of the week’s home video releases, including TRUE BLOOD: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON and THE ROAD; and listener mail.

Trolls? Goblins? Troblins? Fans of TROLL 2 get in gear in BEST WORST MOVIE.

Have no doubt, I love bad movies. I still have fond memories of the first time I stumbled onto ROBOT MONSTER, back in the days when local broadcast television had afternoon movie shows, and one could serendipitously chance upon such inspired dreadfulness as a cheesy science fiction epic — with Hamlet-like ambitions — in which the titular monster was actually some guy in a gorilla suit wearing a toy diver’s helmet (check it out if you don’t believe me). Lemme tell ya, there’s nothing quite like sitting through ninety minutes of “What the frak is this?!” to put a spring in your step and reinvigorate your will to live.

Problem is that, these days, fortune has dictated I be late to this particular party, getting around to the legendarily awful long after their cults have formed. Which is by way of saying that I haven’t yet seen TROLL 2, the notoriously awful non-sequel (title notwithstanding), not-really-horror film that’s at the center of the documentary BEST WORST MOVIE. Not to worry, director Michael Paul Stephenson — who two decades ago was the child star of the movie — is less about celebrating the film than he is about exploring its impact on those involved, both before and after it had attained its midnight-movie status. To that end, he tracks down many of the project’s key players, including director Claudio Fragrasso — who expresses some well-justified discomfort with being embraced by this particular group of admirers — and co-star Dr. George Hardy, a dentist whose zeal for the spotlight first found him cast as Stephenson’s father, and then embracing his notoriety with perhaps a bit too much ardor.

The film is an intriguing examination of a certain, two-edged brand of fame and how the artists involved handle its effects. I got to explore the issue with Stephenson, amongst other topics — bottom line: He seems to have survived the trauma quite handily. Click on the player to hear the interview.

This Episode is Brought to You by
SONY BRAVIA

BEST WORST MOVIE

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The One, the Only, the Legendary.

Turn Your Head and Scream: The inimitable Dieter Laser as Dr. Heiter in THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE.

There are some films that you’re either for or agin, and wow, does THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE fit into that category. A vivid little bit of Grand Guignol wherein a couple of hapless tourists (Ashley C. Williams and Ashlynn Yennie) stumble upon the lair of the prototypical mad doctor (Dieter Laser) who proceeds to stitch them (and a Japanese guy played by Akihiro Kitamura) together to form the titular medical abomination — and yes, that means mouth-to-anus and, yes, we do get to watch them experience the subsequent digestive process — this offering from Dutch director Tom Six is the kind of thing that seems expressly designed to test the will of the die-hard horror-lover.

And I surprised myself: I like it. Yeah, I turned off the playback about a half-hour in, but once I steeled my nerves enough to resume, I found that, after reaching about the halfway point, a certain grand absurdity begins to take hold of the proceedings. It helps that the good doctor’s creation, once unveiled, is patently ridiculous, and that Mr. Laser has no problem chewing the scenery with a ferocity that suggests that director Six kept him away from the craft services table for the length of the shoot. The film still pushes all kinds of buttons (the tag line reads, “100% Medically Accurate,” after all; and the young actors seem to have been cast for their capacity to sob and groan), and some will style this as yet another sign of the coming fall of civilization. If so, at least we’re having a laugh as we go down the drain.

Tom Six and I had an opportunity to talk about how the film was born from a rather creative notion on the meting out justice, as well as what it takes to wardrobe the modern mad scientist and what the audience might expect from the upcoming sequel (danger, Will Robinson). Click on the player to hear the interview.

This Episode is Brought to You by
HALO: REACH – Autumn, 2010

THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE (FIRST SEQUENCE)

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More Medical Malfeasance (Alliteration!)

Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz) takes on mob boss Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong).

Cinefantastique’s Horror, Fantasy & Science Fiction Podcast returns with a blow-by-blow knock-down debate regarding the merits (or lack thereof) in the new comic-book superhero fantasy KICK ASS, starring Aaron Johnson, Chloe Moretz, and Nicolas Cage. Does the film kick ass, or does it fall flatter than an empty cape? Also on the agenda, the usual round-up of news, recommendations, and home video releases.

Public Threat: A criminal (Javier Godino, left) delivers a not-so-subtle message to public servants Soledad Villamil and Ricardo Darin in the Oscar-winning foreign language film, THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES.

Seems to be some confusion about the title of this. For the record, according to the front page of the production notes, it’s THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES. Not THE SECRET OF THEIR EYES or even THE SECRET IN HER EYES, which is the way the video file for the trailer is labeled. So I hope we’ve got that all ironed out, now. Let’s move on, mmmkay?

The nominees for this year’s Best Foreign Language Film were a strong bunch: AJAMI; THE WHITE RIBBON; A PROPHET (UN PROPHÈTE) — I didn’t get to see THE MILK OF SORROW, so can’t say how it matched up. That the Argentinian SECRET — the story of a retired police inspector (Ricardo Darin) who delves back into a rape-murder he investigated in 1974 — took the prize may have had much to do with director Juan Jose Campanella’s ability to mold the film (adapted from a novel by Eduardo Sacheri) as a popular, whodunit while running deeper currents about love and sacrifice underneath. It probably didn’t hurt that supporting actor Guillermo Francella — better know in Argentina for his comic roles — delivered a complex, powerful performance as the inspector’s flawed sidekick, or that the film boasts a stunningly choreographed arrest sequence set in a crowded soccer stadium.

Campanella was clearly enjoying his victory, and we had a fun time talking. Click on the player to hear the interview.

This Episode is Brought to You by:
Current TV’s DEADLIEST JOURNEYS
“Death Slide Home!”

THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES
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Another Powerhouse Nominee from 2009