Fantastic Fest 06–Origin: Spirit Of The Past/Piano Tuner Of Earthquakes/The Living And The Dead/Broken/Hatchet

This was my last long day of movies. Luckily, I managed to see more movies today than any other day, so it was a good day. I didn’t even have to break out my AK.

God, I’m pathetic.

ORIGIN: SPIRIT OF THE PAST

I really like anime. That may make me a total dork, but I can’t help it. I’ve always loved animation and add to that my love of Asian cultures and we’re right there with the anime. So, anytime an anime plays at a festival, I’m there.

This one is about a post-apocalyptic future (of course) where nature has retaken her thrown as the master of Earth. The forests are no longer hospitable to humans. In fact, they try to kill any humans who venture into them. Some people are able to merge themselves with the trees to power up, but that takes its toll eventually if they don’t learn how to control it.

Agito lives in a town right on the edge of the forest. His dad is a leader of the town, but…there’s something strange about him. When Agito meets Toola, a young girl from the past who he accidentally unfreezes, his life, and the future of the human race, changes forever.

There are good people who want to live in harmony with the forest and bad people who want to destroy the forest and become the owners of the world again. Toola is caught in the middle when it’s revealed that she may be the key to destroying the forest.

I’ve seen all of this before in other, better anime, Princess Mononoke being the best of the man vs. nature genre. The characters were alright, but they were very stereotypical anime characters. Because of that, I found Origin just a little blah. Not terrible, but not great, either. Just kind of somewhere nearing worth seeing.

What was amazing is the animation. The blend of CGI and traditional animation is something that Disney should learn from. (Of course, they won’t because they’ve decided to close down their traditional animation shop. Bastards.) It was beautiful to watch even when the story wasn’t enthralling me.

If you’re an anime fan, check it out. If not, of course, stay away. If you’re on the fence, this one won’t send you one way or the other.

PIANO TUNER OF EARTHQUAKES

Speaking of not converting anyone, The Brothers Quay are a hard sell. I rented a DVD of short films that they did and couldn’t make it through the whole thing. Sure, their films are beautiful and very respectable from an artistic standpoint. I just wish they had some sort of story.

Piano Tuner has something to do with a doctor who wants to turn a girl into a clockwork nightingale. Where this nightingale comes into the story, I don’t know. I don’t actually remember seeing it.

Of course it didn’t help that I kept falling asleep throughout the whole film. I couldn’t stay awake for more than 10 minutes at a time. It was such a lulling movie. There always has to be at least one film that I just can’t keep my eyes open through and this was it at this festival.

I think this is probably the Quay’s last chance for me. I’ll look at still shots from their films from now on. It’s much more palatable that way. Otherwise I’m always looking for a story that’s just not there.

THE LIVING AND THE DEAD

What happens when you put a mentally disturbed person in charge of a physically disabled person? Apparently, hell.

James (Leo Bill) is the mentally unstable son of a rich family in England. But, because of James and a nearly invalid wife (Kate Fahy), patriarch Donald (Roger Lloyd-Pack) is at the end of his financial string. The house is falling apart. There’s no one around to take care of the place or, for the most part, anyone in the house. He has a nurse for his wife, but that’s about it. And she doesn’t live on the property, so she’s only there occasionally.

When Donald needs to go out of town on business, James says that he wants to take care of mummy. Donald refuses and says that the nurse will be there soon. But James has other ideas. He doesn’t answer the door and said hell ensues.

The entire cast is amazing, but Leo is especially great. He is so frightening, yet sympathetic as a man-child who just wants to do right by his parents, but just can’t quite seem to get anything right.

The only problem I had with the film was the ending. I couldn’t quite figure out what was going on. I can’t say too much, but it involves a knife, a possible miracle cure or a prolonged dream sequence. Since the film involves madness, it kind of works, but a little bit of an explanation would have been welcome.

It’s definitely worth seeing, though, and is open to any interpretation. I’d be interested to hear anyone’s thoughts on the end.

BROKEN

This is quite possibly the second bleakest film of the festival. (Tideland, of course, takes that particular cake.)It’s certainly the most misogynistic.

Broken is an extreme cheapie about a woman named Hope (Nadja Brand) who wakes up in a coffin. She has a razor blade sewn into her stomach and is told by an unnamed man (Eric Colvin) that, if she wants to live, she has to dig it out. She would probably give up, but she has a daughter that she has no clue what happened to. Has the man killed her? Is she buried alive, too? Or is she safe at home waiting for her mommy?

There are some pretty good effects and makeup (it won an award at the festival for makeup), especially considering how cheaply it was made. And the acting is pretty damn good, too. Colvin is incredibly evil. And Brand manages to be sort of strong at the same time that she is being broken into being this horrible man’s slave.

It’s really gory and has an ending that punches you in the gut. I kind of wonder if director/writers Simon Boyes and Adam Mason were jilted by the same woman. They certainly seemed to hate all of the women in their film. (Check out how stupid the school girl who shows up in the middle is. She has a perfect chance to get away and kill the guy, but she squanders it by her sheer stupidity. I HATE THAT!!!)

Worth checking out for its use of so little money. But don’t expect an uplifting film. There’s nothin’ uplifting here.

HATCHET

Now, Hatchet, on the other hand, is INCREDIBLY uplifting! Especially if you’re looking for a return to the old days of slasher films where there wall to wall gore and boobs.

The only story here, really, is that a bunch of people are in the wrong swamp at the wrong time. They are picked off one by one by Victor Crowley (Kane Hodder, Jason in about 15 Friday The 13th movies–he says this is the best movie he’s ever been involved with), a deformed man who finds new and interesting ways of gutting his victims. But he’s almost a little bit sympathetic. Almost.

Director/writer Adam Green wanted an old school horror flick, so he did his best. It’s not perfect, but what movie of this genre is? And you kind of get the feeling that the imperfections are there on purpose. (Victor jumps out of nowhere when the folks are standing in the middle of a field with nothing to hide behind. Heh.)

There are a lot of recognizable faces amongst the victims. There’s Richard Riehle from Office Space, Joel Murray brother of Bill, Mercedes McNab from “Buffy” and “Angel,” Joel Moore from Dodgeball and Joshua Leonard from The Blair Witch Project. And, of course, there’s cameos from horror vets Robert Englund and Tony Todd.

There’s not a lot to say about this movie except that it’s freakin’ awesome. It does have distribution and will be released soon, so look for it. It will be cut up a bit in the theatre, but go see it anyway. We need to get this guy some money so he can make the next two movies in what could be a great franchise. He’s already got a plan all mapped out for them. (He told us a little bit about his plan, but screw you. You don’t get to know. NYAH!!!) One good thing is that it will only be released ONCE on DVD, and that will be completely uncut. YAY!!! None of that, “buy it three times” bullshit. Screw production companies for that crap.

And where else can you see a “Buffy” alum showing her tits?

SHORTS

EXISTENCE (played with Piano Tuner)

Um…what?

Just as ponderous and boring as the feature it’s played with, there’s almost no point to this 27 minute short. The synopsis says it’s about life and death and how the lead character doesn’t want to go to his destination.

Whatever. It’s about the director masturbating with film. Let’s move on.

THE HANDYMAN (played with The Living And The Dead)

This was a really cool short directed by the director of the feature, Simon Rumley. It’s about a woman who needs a hand down on the farm, finds a young man to help her out, starts an affair with him and then…things get weird. Is he a serial killer? Is she what she seems?

It’s short, to the point and very suspenseful. Definitely worth a look if there’s any way to.

IF I HAD A HAMMER (played with Hatchet)

A very funny short about Thor looking for a new hammer. The animation is a bit old school computer animation, but that’s alright. It’s still cool. Thor’s awesome. He needs to be in a full series of these shorts.