dimfuture.net

Neil Marshall, writer and director of The Descent, is probably best known to fans of cult cinema for helming the quirky and unique horror flick Dog Soldiers, which combines dark humor with a fresh (but sufficiently gory) spin on the classic werewolf tale. In The Descent, Marshall takes on more serious themes and a more textured story, combines them with a simple and effective cinematic approach, and officially puts himself on my personal list of directors to watch for.

Following a sudden and tragic accident that comprises the opening of the film, adrenaline junkie Sarah (Shauna McDonald) goes on a spelunking trip with a group of close friends, led by the fiercely independent Juno (Natalie Jackson Mendoza, someone else that I hope we’ll be seeing much more of). The women set out to explore an obscure cave, and Juno, fulfilling the destiny of countless hapless explorers before her, leaves behind the vital guidebook, confident that her skills will be enough. Things turn bad for the group when an unstable cave collapses behind them, leaving them with no way back — and turn worse still when they begin to suspect they may not be alone.

It goes without saying that The Descent is not a movie for the claustrophobic. Nearly the entire run of the film takes place in dark, pressing, underground caverns, shot in extreme close-up with little to no ambient light. If close quarters make you edgy, you are likely to spend most of The Descent squirming. The movie capitalizes brilliantly on its dark and relentless atmosphere, giving the viewer no respite — there are no cut-aways to concerned relatives or unnecessary B-plots. From twenty minutes onward, the film takes place in near-complete darkness, with no relief in sight, and it’s enough to make the viewer uncomfortable in all the ways a horror movie should.

Unfortunately, the biggest and most effective scare of The Descent is blatantly given away by the trailer and commercials, so if you’ve seen any of the promotional materials surrounding the film, you probably know the gag by now. The good news is, the movie is frightening enough without the added twist that comes about halfway through — though that twist deftly changes the nature of the horror, adding to the fright without taking away the stark intensity of being trapped two miles underground. The Descent‘s canny obstacle-stacking reminds me of classic horror thrillers like Aliens, where bigger difficulties chase after smaller ones, relentlessly raising the stakes until the viewer is shrinking back in his chair and madly munching peanuts like Eddie Izzard watching an American movie. (Okay, well, I did both these things, anyway. Your mileage may vary.)

One of the best things about The Descent is that it is actually about something other than gathering a large group of English women together and then systematically killing them off. So many contemporary horror movies simply take a swipe at establishing characters as a passing courtesy before wiping them out in the second reel. While many of the secondary characters of The Descent could easily be labeled as disposable, certain strong characterizations survive the exposition of the film and are carried through to the end — most notably the tension between Sarah and Juno, as the opening sequence subtly implies a romantic rivalry between them without ever openly spelling it out. In addition, the characters undergo a “descent” that is metaphorical as well as physical; in the deadly, unforgiving circumstances in which they find themselves, the characters make decisions which would be brutally amoral by the light of day — but deep underground, in desperate straits, it’s a much different story. Shauna McDonald’s performance as Sarah is particularly transformative, as she gradually turns from a tragic, mousy figure into something far more animalistic and brutal, right down to her body motions and facial expressions.

This level of subtlety and texture, though hardly elevating The Descent to art-house levels, is nearly unheard-of in the today’s horror-movie climate, and it made me want to leap out of my chair and give The Descent a big kiss. Only I didn’t, because it’s bloody and gross and I couldn’t find my flashlight. The Descent is not perfect — I found some of the gore a bit overdone, and a very few plot turns seemed a little contrived, but these are small criticisms in a film that is otherwise one of the best horror films to come along in years. To un-ironically borrow a phrase from horror movie trailers of ages past — this is one to watch with the lights off.

8/10

In case you’re wondering about the sudden visual change to dimfuture.net, it’s undergone an overhaul. I’m merely making some back-end changes to the theme, as I realized a bit ago that the links were no longer properly showing up, quite possibly because of the switch to the latest version of WordPress (but then again, maybe not — I don’t know how long they’ve been gone). So, I’m switching to a more stable theme until I can get the issues with the “original” theme fixed. Thanks for your patience!

Edit: And we’re back to our trademark dystopian orange! That didn’t hurt so much, did it? Yes, this is now the default theme, at least until further notice. So, you see, within the space of a single post, I made a liar out of myself!

“There is a sole survivor, and he is miraculously unharmed.”

Unbreakable is a quiet, heartfelt love-letter to the comic art form, a superhero movie told with a subtlety and grace that has never been replicated in the genre before or since (although Ang Lee’s disastrous attempt at a Hulk movie tried, and, in the opinion of this reviewer, failed on every conceivable level).

The movie’s premise could be the origin story of any number of comic heroes. The unhappily married and seriously flawed David Dunn (Bruce Willis) survives a terrible train collision that leaves hundreds of others dead — and Dunn himself miraculously unharmed. Through an anonymous note, he comes into contact with an eccentric gallery owner named Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), who, without a hint of irony, tells him something unbelievable — that he is, in fact, a comic-book superhero.

Unbreakable is unique in that it is a superhero movie with none of the spectacle that we have come to associate with superhero movies, and yet with so many of the conventional genre elements comics fans know and love. The movie itself mentions these very conventions by name, not with a sly wink and a not, but genuine love and conviction. Unbreakable never breaks character; it never winks to the audience or slips into camp — even the movie’s most theatrically showy lines carry somber gravitas in the hands of Samuel L. Jackson’s not-yet-tiresome screen presence. Despite its serious tone, however, Unbreakable never strays into self-importance or overblown melodrama (Shyamalan saved all that, apparently, for Lady in the Water). Elijah genuinely believes in the art form, genuinely believes in superheroes — and David so convincingly doesn’t believe that it makes the audience believe even more.

What Came Before: In 2000, M. Night Shyamalan was still a few years away from his now nearly ubiquitous condemnation as a once-talented storyteller gone off the rails into self-serving megalomania. He was still keeping his cameos short — his cameo appearance in Unbreakable is pretty much the least embarrassing performance Shyamalan turns in, as an innocent football fan getting hassled by The Man. Not yet knowing of Shyamalan’s intentions to insinuate himself ever more centrally and obnoxiously into every movie he made, I let the overlong and unnecessary cameo slide without giving it much thought — there was plenty of other things in the film to be excited about.

Let’s Do the Twist: After The Sixth Sense, it seemed the whole world was waiting for the “big twist” in the next Shyamalan. film. After Unbreakable, everyone was really waiting for it. After Signs came out (complete with a twist some called too big), Shyamalan often spoke in interviews of writing his next movie sans twist — and, given the unmistakably telegraphed ending of The Village, I’m still not convinced that he didn’t do just that. (Is there anyone you know who didn’t pat themselves on the back for their cleverness in seeing The Village’s ending coming? Be honest. Your pet hamster probably figured it out.)

The twist of Unbreakable, however, is still one of Shyamalan’s best, if not quite as resonant in the popular culture as “I see dead people.” It doesn’t fuck around. It rearranges the audience’s assumptions in a very efficient, straightforward way, and then just ends, leaving the viewer with questions and a desire for more. The only weak spot are the freeze-frame subtitles, which not only stink mightily of studio interference, but are just utterly unnecessary. They undermine the power of what would otherwise be a terrific closing scene, and one of these days, when I find the time and technical know-how to re-edit the goddamn movie myself and remove them, I’m going to.

Rumblings of a sequel brewed briefly after Unbreakable‘s release; such a sequel will almost certainly never happen now, and after seeing Shyamalan’s follow-up efforts, I’ve become surprisingly okay with that. But the comic-hero mythos set up by Unbreakable cries out for more stories to be told in that world — and for that reason alone, I find Unbreakable an unqualified success.

Twelve Days of Dimfuture Trivia Track: I saw this movie with Reverend Matt himself, on the big screen, after it had come out on DVD! I was fortunate enough to have a close friend with keys to the University theater. It’s also one of the first DVDs in my collection, third after Blade Runner and David Lynch’s Dune. And it shows. That DVD’s been through hell and back. But, like its hero, it just keeps on going.

I want to take this opportunity to congratulate the Reverend Matt for landing a writing gig at Superhero Times, where he is writing action figure reviews with all the skill and aplomb that made him famous here at dimfuture.net. Although he hasn’t outright said so, I fear this means the end of Men of Action at dimfuture, and we will all be the poorer for it. Actually, come to think of it, he may have outright said so. Well, we’ll see. I enjoyed Men of Action tremendously, and I know many of our readers did too, and I hope the Reverend’s writing at Superhero Times makes him into the vengeful, angry God many of us already know him to be.

Meanwhile, look for a new installment of the now pathetically long-suffering Twelve Days of Dimfuture, soon to reach ironic greatness in its own mounting irrelevance!

My scan is complete; you are clearly afflicted with girl germs. No returns.

So, as we chronicled last time out, Mezco announced in 2005 that it would take a year for the second wave of Hellboy figures to come out. Meaning they’d be out in September or October of 2006. And some people freaked out, ruining everyone’s fun. Then a year passed. And then a further month. And then another one. And the figures were nowhere to be seen – at least, nowhere in the Midwestern hometown of your humble reviewer. Some were gonna be set aside for him at his comic shop and everything. But nope! On the Internet, though, there the series was thick as thieves! Thicker! And so he broke down and ordered ‘em thus. So yes, hooray, he’s got his figures – thing is, Mezco has stated that series 3 is dependent on the sales of series 2. Which I’m frankly anticipating to be poor. Sales are often less then brisk for a product that is not made available. Ah well. At least your reviewer got a mysterious Hellboy Alien before the series went (presumably) belly-up.

Where do they come from? What do they want? What is their connection to – what the hell?

Articulation: Well, it’s okay, but not fantastic. Most of the points of articulation generally found in this series are there. But the movement of the arms is limited by the giant shoulders. Plus, there’s no foot articulation. No foot articulation. My God, it’s like that nightmare I had…

Sculpt: Once again, the reproduction of Mike Mignola’s artistic style is absolutely sterling. Right on down to the really boring legs – one of the disadvantages of reproducing so minimalist a style as Mike’s. (We appear to be on a first name basis, now, your reviewer and Mike.)

The time has come to reveal all – we are observers of the Earth, seeking to – OOOF

Paint: Well, there’s not much to work with, and a bit of bleed, for what there is. Not terrible, though, and maybe your reviewer should throw some more stars on there, in hopes that it will prompt you to buy the figure, and thus increase the chances of series 3. No – no, that would be lying.

Durability: Probably good! But maybe not! Review copy didn’t break at all! But who knows? You? Nope!

Oh, fer chrissakes, Mulder, now what?

But Can It Do the Robot?: No. No it can’t. But that’s because it’s a bit on the front-heavy side to begin with. It actually stands up quite easily and stably, if one pays attention to what one is doing. Standing up action figures is not something to be done lightly, friends.

Accessories: Oh, now we’re talking. Alien here comes with three separate alien doohickeys, each of them a translucent green rod-type thing with a handle! They’re all different shapes. Presumably for different functions; one is a scanner, perhaps, and another a weapon, and the third a pet-groomer. Or one is a beacon, and another surfs the Internet, and the last one writes poetry! Who knows? It’s limited only by your imagination! Anyway, there’s also the new Mignola alien-picture on the packaging; that’s neat too.

Overall: