Lady .38 Premiere [Film]

TEN: The Preview [Film]

Created by Walter Sickert

TEN is an incredibly exciting indie horror film based upon an original trailer (for a film that was never intended to be made) created for the Brattle Theater Trailer Smackdown in Cambridge, Massachusetts that has turned into a triumphant phenomenon in its own right.  Creators Michael J. Epstein and Sophia Cacciola are no strangers to Trainwreck’d Society.  As musicians, their respected bands like Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling, The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library, and Darling Pet Munkee have been featured here at TWS numerous times and on several occasions.  But now I bring to you, TEN.  The sensational duo of creative talents have ventured into the film world, and boy are should be we honored that they have.  TEN proves to be one of the finest indie horror films of 2013, and possibly of this lifetime.  With a stellar cast, a few very intuitiave folks and enough creativity to fill a looney bin, there is no way that this could turn out to be a brilliant masterpiece.

Here is a brief synopsis from the film’s Facebook page:

TEN is a post-exploitation psychological thriller devised as a possible explanation for the events of the 1972 Spektor Island Massacre. On a cold December afternoon, ten women arrive at a mansion on Spektor Island, famed for years of reported hauntings and strange activities. Will they live through the night.  The all-female cast film is a response to exploitation, slasher, and thriller films, with particular focus on the kind of storytelling prominent in b-movies and genre films from the 1950s to the 1980s. It explores the meaning and fluidity of identity and takes a number of surprising turns, paying homage to filmmakers and producers such as Alfred Hitchcock, Roger Corman, John Carpenter, Wes Craven, Jim Wynorski, and Andy Sidaris.

Indie horror is no stranger to Trainwreck’d Society.  As you may recall, our very first Person of the Year was none other than legendary indie horror filmmaker Steve Sessions and featured words from a who’s who list of indie horror scream queens and shock stars like from Suzi Lorraine to Jeff Dylan Graham, all the way to legendary horror host Count Gore De Vol (who we have also interviewed).  We’ve also had the pleasure of interviewing the on screen scream queen Christa Campbell, who is responsible for the latest installations in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre series.  So, in short, we know horror.  More specifically – we know indie horror, and the struggles and strivings of making art from a low budge in a world devoured by million dollar projects.  We appreciate the hard work and can see through the shrink wrapped nonsense to devour the pleasures that can be offered to the world with nothing but shoe strings and dreams.

And TEN has already proven itself to be a wonderful addition to this already inspiring world.  From the beginning, this has been an extremely exciting project to follow.  From the Kickstarter campaign where they raised over $12,000 for the production costs, to Epstein’s wonderfully insightful recap of the principal photography on His and Sophia’s Blog, all the way up to almost every day when these cats release stills and videos pertaining to the film’s release at the end of this year, and to the more widespread release in early 2014.  Michael J. Epstein has a brilliant and precise idea of what it means to self promote.  He is consistently inviting his fans to join in on the road that he travels alongside his significant other, and the brilliant people he surrounds himself with each day.  And as I have previously mentioned, based upon the abundance of goodies that have already been delivered to us, this is going to be an amazing film that is surely not to be missed.

And for your viewing pleasures, I present to you a few still shots from the film, proving just how awesome TEN is going to be.  Enjoy!

To check out more about TEN, and for more great photos, head on over to the film’s website.

Watership Down… The Aftermath [Film]

It seems there has been some interest in my previous review of the infamous movie Watership Down. I would like to think this is because of my uber awesome writing skills, but I’m afraid it probably only means that far more people had their childhoods ruined by this film than I originally thought. As such, I felt it was appropriate to give a follow-up on this. Maybe it will help bring us closure, and hopefully allow us to move on with our lives as normally as we can. I know it’s hard after you’ve been exposed to a melee of bleeding rabbits, but here we go.

Let me begin by saying that I grew up in a farming family. Not only did we farm, but we hunted too. I’ve seen many rabbits go the way of the buffalo in real life and I can tell you beyond any doubt that it’s nowhere near as violent or disturbing (or even as bloody) as the poor bunnies in this animated film. It is because of this that I am shocked at how striking the images in this film were, and more so than that, how deeply it effected me. How could I be so moved and so traumatized by some over-dramatized, anthropomorphized rabbits? I think the answer lies in the fact that on an instinctual level, we know the film isn’t really about bunnies. We see through the cute and fuzzy wrapping paper that the rabbits represent to the core message of the story, and the real injurious scarring comes from our ability to empathize with the characters and situations that they are presented with. Coming to terms with the hard reality of the true message the film is the hardest part to wrap your mind around. We don’t want it to be true… We hope is really is just about the bunnies… But we know it’s not. And that scares the living hell out of us. As horrible as the truth may be, it is why this movie has stood the test of time and become a classic with a cult following. We don’t remember many animated films from the 1970′s, but we sure as hell can’t forget this one.

Like many great stories, Watership Down is probably written on many different levels. You could probably take many things from it by peeling back the layers of the story like an onion, but I believe the core message of the story is about the struggle for freedom over tyranny, and more importantly, the terrible cost of that freedom.

The story begins by placing us in a setting where the rabbits live in a ”warren” or a social structure that although isn’t the best, has worked for them for ages. Then they’re forced to deal with their first challenge, a coming change that will threaten their whole system of living if they don’t act upon it. The failure of their leader to act in a way that would provide for their safety and well-being is what gives them the drive to become independent and seek a place where their freedom and safety is more assured. The rest of the movie mainly revolves around the trials and hardships they face along the way.

Many brave rabbits gave the ultimate sacrifice for the opportunity to live free. Nothing was guaranteed, there was no “promise” of safety or even success. In fact all the odds were against them from the beginning. Some of the rabbits died in an almost random fashion, such as the one picked off by a hawk out of nowhere. But they were all working toward the same goal, and the cost of doing nothing was unbearable. In many ways the story could have ended at that. It could have been the equivalent of a slasher film where they’re all slowly picked off one by one until none we are left to tell the tale, and the story could have still remained true to its core. Sometimes the struggle for freedom ends badly. In the real world, there is always a chance that the things we fight for remain out of reach. As hard as this story is to swallow, at least it doesn’t leave us hanging like that.

Above all they secured a future for their children and their children’s children. The cost of that was high, and many of the rabbits never saw their dream fulfilled, but the lesson to take away from this is that the dangers and hardships never held them back from striving to achieve a better existence. Every generation faces its own trials, and this story was about one generation paying a price for the next. The same way those who came before us carved out an existence so we could thrive, and gave us an opportunity (although not a promise) of safety and security, so long as we ourselves could keep it. Just as we will do the for our next generation. So in a very real way, WE are those rabbits in that story. Our fathers and grandfathers were those rabbits, and one day our children will be those rabbits. And that’s a very scary thought. It’s an uncomfortable truth isn’t it? That you could do everything right, keep fighting the good fight, and get nothing in return but scorn from your peers, shot at by hunters, chased by dogs, and even if you evade all of them, you might still be snatched up by a random hawk out of the blue. But we keep trying anyway. We keep up the struggle because we must. Because the cost of doing nothing is too high. And why should the movie sugar coat this? They were right to not pander to our delicate sensibilities. There is only one real truth in life, and that is that none of us are going to get out of this alive! We all go to that big warren in the sky in the end. The best we can hope for is that we did something good and left the world a better place than how we found it.

Part of growing up is the realization that nothing really worth having comes without some kind of fight. We shouldn’t shrink away from that. Glory and fortune comes to those who triumph, and there can be no triumph without some kind of hardship. Some people spend their whole lives trying to come to terms with this concept. As a small example of this, have you ever heard this one? “If there is a God, how could he allow THIS to happen to his children”? Maybe you’ve asked that yourself. And just to illustrate what I’ve been saying I could answer you in this way. Imagine I placed you in the shoes of God himself. This could be in the form of asking you to be an author, and create a story of your own, about a character you created. And we’ll say that I ask you to write a story about this person in which this person grows as a human being throughout their life, and becomes a better person as a result. You would almost immediately start picturing all kinds of hardships for your character! Not because you wanted them to have a hard life, but because you wanted them to overcome and to grow and share and use that experience to help others, and end up as a better person because of it. Now that’s a rather nebulous exercise, but it’s the same concept.

So is it any wonder why this little story about bunnies has lasted as long as it did or why it gained such a following? Perhaps it was meant to ruin our childhood. Maybe people like you and me only care about that movie because it was one of the things that pushed us into the cold hard reality of this world. That little cartoon rabbit showed us the world as it really is. Strange how things can work out that way. And maybe, just maybe, one day we’ll see someone triumph over hardship and death and say with a tear in our eye “I haven’t cried this hard since all those bunnies died for our freedom”. Try to keep your head up, and try to keep moving forward toward the greater good. And above all, trust that the good things we do here in life are never really lost.

As good as that message really is when you think about it… That doesn’t mean I can bring myself to watch it again though.

Be sure to check out Ray’s original film review of Watership Down as well.

Watership Down [Film]

I was feeling bored the other day so I thought I’d watch a movie to pass the time. Something light, maybe even cheerful, so when I came across an older children’s movie with a cartoon rabbit on the cover, I figured it would fit the bill. What could be more cheerful and light hearted than happy bunnies right? Boy was I wrong!

The movie is called “Watership Down”. Not a particularly descriptive name, especially since they never actually mention the name in the movie. Apparently, Watership Down started as a book by Richard Adams, and was later adapted to an animated film in 1978. I suppose my first clue as to how this movie would be should have been the tag line on the cover; “All the world will be your enemy. Prince with a thousand enemies. And when they catch you, they will kill you… But first, they must catch you.” That’s pretty heavy stuff for a kid’s flick huh?

The movie starts out with a typical 70′s style of animation showing how the world of the animals were created. This story has it’s own god figure, and it’s own parables and unique mythology scattered throughout the movie, so this beginning stage is very important to understanding the rest of the movie. The main things they talk about in the beginning is how ”Frith” (the god figure, represented by the sun) created all the animals in the world the same, and they all ate grass. But, because the rabbits ate too much of the grass, Frith gave gifts to the other animals to allow them to eat the rabbits to keep them under control. That’s where things start to get a little gruesome. So, after being chased around for a while with all his people getting eaten, it’s now the rabbit’s turn to receive a gift, but because he’s scared now, he turns his back on Frith and tells him that if he wants to bless anything, he’ll have to bless his back side, and so Frith gives the rabbits powerful legs to jump and run faster than their predators. Not much of a gift but Frith promises the rabbits that they will always be allowed to thrive so long as they can out smart and out run their enemies.

After that brief introduction, we cut to the actual story where we’re introduced to the main characters, Hazel and his brother Fiver. Fiver is the runt of the litter, and is also a psychic (he sees visions), but seems like he displays many symptoms of mental illness and is quite paranoid and prone to very disturbing fits. After some small talk, Fiver sees his first vision, the field they live in filling up with blood and all the other rabbits dying a horrible death. We’re not even ten minutes into this movie and already I’m imagining children watching this getting wide eyed and having nightmares. The scene reminded me of the part in “The Shining” where the kid sees a vision of the elevator doors opening and the hallway filling up with blood. Anyway, that sets the rabbits on a journey to find a safer place to live. The journey, however, is anything but safe. Each time they try to get anywhere, more trouble befalls them, and many rabbits perish along the way. What strikes me is how graphic the scenes are.

You remember in most children’s movies when a character dies, it’s usually off camera? You get a cut scene, and usually a sound effect to tell you what happened. Not in this movie. There are very few exceptions. One that comes to mind is when the rabbits are resting in a corn field and “Violet” goes just a little too far to get something to eat. We see a hawk flying overhead, then a close up of the hawk’s talons as it swoops down, then a cut scene with a “thud” sound effect, and then the spot where poor Violet was with nothing left but a tuft of fur left blowing in the breeze. You think you’ll get lucky with the next death scene as one of the rabbits run into a bush and you hear a “choking” sound like he’s caught in a snare… But then they show the rabbit caught with a snare around his neck as the others try desperately to get him out. The scene seems to go on and on as eventually the rabbit starts to cough up blood and even after the other rabbits free him, he appears to die. The other rabbits stand around his bloodied body and say a prayer for their fallen friend. This is one of the most gruesome death scenes I’ve ever seen in a cartoon. Luckily, the rabbit doesn’t actually die, he gets up a few minutes later, apparently he was only knocked out. This is one of the very few times in this movie where you think a character has died, but they actually make it. Most times here, it’s permanent. They move on, and other bloody, gory, and terrifying scenes follow quickly as they meet up with one of the rabbits that didn’t leave the field with the main group. He’s almost dead, and tells them that the vision Fiver had was right, the field was bull dozed for development and they don’t hesitate to show rabbit burrows clogged with dead and dying rabbits as he tells the tale. This theme continues through the rest of the movie with rabbits dying one by one in the most horrible and disturbing ways. There’s even some mild cursing. One thing is for sure, this ain’t Disney.

There’s not enough room here for me to describe all the deaths in this movie, so I’ll just jump to the one that people remember the most. Probably the saddest moments I’ve seen in any movie, let alone a cartoon. The end of the movie, the main characters have made it to a safe place to live and they are prospering. In my mind, this is where the movie should have ended. And they all lived, happily ever after… But, alas, it’s not to be. We see Hazel, now a very old rabbit, wandering away from the family group to graze. Then, he hears a voice, it’s the voice of the “black rabbit” (the grim reaper of the rabbit world).

[Black Rabbit] “Hazel… Hazel… You know me don’t you?”

[Hazel] “I don’t know…”

The apparition reveals himself as the black rabbit and Hazel gasps

[Hazel] “Yes my Lord, I know you”

[Black Rabbit] “I’ve come to ask you if you’d like to join my Owsla. We shall be glad to have you, and I know you’d like it. You’ve been feeling tired havent you? If you’re ready, we might go along now.”

Hazel looks back at his family

[Black Rabbit] ”You needn’t worry about them. They’ll be alright, and thousands like them. If you come along now, I’ll show you what I mean.”

“So leaving his friends and no-longer-needed body behind, Hazel departs Watership Down, slipping away, running easily down through the wood where the first primroses were beginning to bloom.” This is shown by the rabbit’s body slumping over and his transparent spirit getting up and following the Black Rabbit away. Now that everyone who saw the movie is in tears, I’ll move on with the review.

I know in days past, cartoons were supposed to teach children something, and many cartoons taught children about death. However, I’ve never seen one quite so graphic or heart wrenching as this. Many people (like me) would say that this is in no way a children’s movie. Given the complexity of the situations and constant loss of life and mutilation in very dramatic fashion, there’s no way I could recommend this film for children. Now, it’s fine to explore the topic of death in a cartoon, but I really think they should have let the audience experience it in an easier way. But what could let you down easier than dealing with it by using fluffy cartoon bunnies? I suppose I see both sides of the equation, but the graphic nature of the film was more harsh than watching real life events on the Discovery Channel. Far from a light hearted experience, this film left me in somewhat of a somber stupor while I contemplated the meaning of it all. Do you think when the folks drawing this were depicting a rabbit dying in a snare with blood gurgling from his mouth that even one of them thought “hey, do you think this will freak kids out”? I can’t imagine anyone bringing up the question and then deciding that it was just fine.

I suppose, that even though we may be prepared for facing our own mortality, there really is no preparing for facing the mortality of loved ones. And this movie brings that to the surface in shocking fashion. This movie is harsh because life is harsh and the harshest part of life is when it comes to an end. Ignorance is bliss, but that’s why children are happy, because they’re ignorant of all the perils of the world and how it can all fall apart. This movie removes that innocence. Other than the constant and terrifying deaths, this movie is quite epic. The story is complex, the rabbits have their own caste system, religion, and even their own language. The story is one of searching for a safe place to live free. To endure hardship and trials so that those who come after you will have a better life.

So if it wasn’t for being scarred for life, nightmares of mangled bunnies, or losing your innocence and being scared shitless of horrible deaths, then the movie would be a masterpiece. One thing is for sure, it certainly leaves an impact on those who watch it. If you’re looking for a light hearted or inspirational film, look elsewhere. Black Hawk Down will be more likely to give you that than Watership Down.