Steve Villeneuve

  • Under the Scares (2010)

    Under the Scares (2010)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, May 2021) Are you thinking about making a horror film? Don’t. No, don’t let ever-cheaper digital production means convince you otherwise. Don’t let a long history of cheap horror films striking box-office gold tempt you. Don’t think that a passion for the genre is in any way a palliative for a lack of knowledge or experience in filmmaking. And if you need another kick in the pants to convince you, have a look at Under the Scares to dissuade you. The irony, obviously, is that this is a documentary film meant to inspire horror filmmakers: writer-director Steve Villeneuve (who had and has since worked in Canadian horror) goes around interviewing low-budget horror luminaries, gathering hard-won lessons and providing tips for anyone intending to follow in their footsteps. What I liked best about the film is that it’s remarkably candid about how hard it is to make a low-budget film. It goes into near-excruciating detail about what awaits budding directors — lack of budget, flaky cast and crew, indifferent distributors, muddy sound, and overexposed market among them. Think of the film as providing tough-love therapy to an audience that could use a bit of discouragement. If ever, despite what Under the Scares has to say, you decide to still go forward… congratulations, you just passed the test.

  • Hail to the Deadites (2020)

    Hail to the Deadites (2020)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, October 2020) As some of you may guess from the title alone, Hail to the Deadites is a documentary celebration of Evil Dead fans, either in appreciating the film trilogy (the series wasn’t yet broadcast during the making of the film), weaving it into their lives or creating derivative works. It’s… either endearing or embarrassing. Part of the problem is that the documentary refuses to engage critically with the franchise—there’s not much discussion of what it means (perhaps because it’s fun enough that it doesn’t need to mean anything) and perilously little discussion of where the series may have done better (the tree sexual assault scene is mentioned, and then forgotten). Writer-director Steve Villeneuve focuses on fans instead and the result can be uneven: excessive fandom is more concerning than impressive (in my own cosmology, being an outspoken fan of a genre or medium is fine, but being an outspoken fan of a specific work is more troublesome) and the examples unearthed by the series often cross the endearing/embarrassing boundary. But what’s more frustrating is that, aside from having Bruce Campbell turn up for a typically charismatic interview, there isn’t a whole lot here that distinguishes Evil Dead fandom from just about any other horror franchise fandom: Any similar film about, say, the Nightmare on Elm Street series would have felt much like the same, with superfans obsessed by the series in mostly the same ways. I don’t really want to rain on those fans’ parade, though: they’re having fun, so let’s just embrace that fun. Hail to the Deadites, in that lens, feels like the kind of “extra DVD” documentary that you’d include in a series box set: Entertaining, but not essential.