Tom Savini

  • Necronomicon (1993)

    Necronomicon (1993)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, June 2021) Horror anthology films are a roll of the dice every time — not only are the films themselves a gamble, but so are their individual segments as well. Necronomicon has the distinction of focusing on adaptations of Lovecraft’s short stories, but that’s about all that the segments have in common. The framing device has Jeffrey Combs playing Lovecraft as he reads the Book of the Dead in an evil library — not a bad concept, but clearly not the meat of the film either. The rest is uneven. The first segment, “The Drowned,” has some marine chills and an authentic Lovecraftian monster as an antagonist. Follow-up “The Cold” is a more domestic piece that gets away from classic Lovecraftian mythos to deliver an ill-fated romance between a male prey and a female monster (although it does feature David Warner). Final segment “Whispers” is thankfully crazier, going back and forth between reality and fantasy and climaxing with an insane kind of revelation that’s both fun and makes the segment rather pointless. Behind the scenes, there are some impressive names in the crew, from Brian Yuzna to Tom Savini to Christophe Gans. But the result doesn’t quite match the intent — Necronomicon is watchable without being memorable, and there’s a feeling that the tight budget may have limited some ambitions. It’s likely that a modern attempt at the same would be closer to its intentions due to digital special effects technology. More substantially, there’s something regrettable in seeing that the “Lovecraftian” horrors conjured here are about the flash of gooey creatures more than the headier cosmic horror often found in the author’s work. But that’s evaluating Necronomicon based on later, loftier standards — it does remain a decent piece of 1990s horror, and one thankfully focused on supernatural creatures rather than psycho slashers.

  • The Theatre Bizarre (2011)

    The Theatre Bizarre (2011)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, April 2021) As far as horror anthologies go, The Theater Bizarre is a bit more striking than most. For one thing, it doesn’t hold back on the gore, sex and disturbing material; for another, it’s also curiously versatile in the ways it approaches horror. There’s a framing device (starring Udo Kier) having to do with a woman discovering the titular bizarre theatre and being told macabre tales until terrible things happen to her. The first story, “The Mother of Toads,” is probably the blandest of the bunch, what with an entirely predictable bit of Lovecraftian folk horror. Things don’t necessarily get better with “I Love You,” a tragic anti-romance with another completely predictable ending — although the segment does get blackly hilarious as a standard I’m-leaving-you speech gets progressively crueller, to the point where it leaves no awfulness unturned in its quest for the ultimate put-down. “Wet Dreams” abruptly cranks the gore and the body horror within another tale of adultery — and a supporting role from horror legend Tom Savini, who also directs the segment. “The Accident” is the oddest and best segment of the bunch, largely gore-free but haunting in illustrating a conversation about death between a mother and her young daughter. “Vision Stain,” from well-known Canadian cinematographer Karim Hussain (you can spot downtown Montréal streets in the exterior shots), looks great but more immediately renews with the horror by way of needles in eyeballs to make up for a nonsensical story. Finally, “Sweets” does end in predictable gore, but takes an interesting path to get there, going for food-based grossness for once — it’s remarkably disturbing. Clearly meant for fans of all-out horror leaving nothing to the imagination, The Theatre Bizarre remains a better-than-average horror anthology, especially considering the ways some of the segments take a slightly askew approach to the genre.

  • His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th (2009)

    His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th (2009)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, April 2021) Considering that I’m very much not a fan of the Friday the 13th series (considering my loathing for slashers in general, it’s no surprise if my favourite entry, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, is the one that die-hard fans hate), it’s a wonder why I’d willingly submit myself to a feature-length documentary about it. But what can I say? Completionism ruins everything, and considering that I’ve seen the entire series, I might as well have the documentary as the cherry on top. At its best, His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th is a coherent exploration of the twists and turns of a series over three decades, quickly explaining how every entry came to be, telling us anecdotes about the production of each film, and letting the actresses tell us about their experiences shooting the film. In this regard, His Name Was Jason does the job: we get a short look at each film in the series, at the filmmakers and the actresses (with a scream supercut). But this documentary comes with two caveats — one specific and one far more important. The specific one is that my least favourite moments of horror movies are “the kills,” the elaborate special-effects sequences in which characters are slaughtered every few minutes and seem to be the chief attraction for many fans that I barely restrain myself from calling psychopathic. As a result, the fairly lengthy segment in which the series’ “best kills” are lovingly detailed and gushed over had me reaching for a copy of The Rise and Fall of American Civilization. But, hey, everyone likes different things for different reasons. SFX artist Tom Savini certainly looks as if he’s having fun here. The far more important caveat in taking in His Name Was Jason is that it’s chiefly a promotional item made to highlight the arrival of the 2009 reboot of the series — not a great film, despite the over-the-top praise that participants in the film are delighted to plug in. As such, don’t expect any critical analysis or much acknowledgement of how the franchise erred along the way — this is for fans, and His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th reflects what it thinks the fans want from such a puff piece. You can conclude many, many things from that intention, but I’ve already said too much.

  • Maniac (1980)

    Maniac (1980)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, January 2021) The early-1980s slashers are easily at the bottom of my list of most despised genres. Boring and ultra-violent, they seldom amount to more than a collection of death sequences (usually filmed with far more gusto and affection than the rest of the film) loosely strung together. Maniac is a particularly nasty example of the form, combining gorier-than-usual special effects (from legend Tom Savini, who also plays a character destined to violent death—Savini got the role because he had a cast of his head ready to be blown up) with a repellent character study of a serial murderer. You can argue that this slightly different approach, not keeping the murderer in foggy mystery but entering his life openly, distinguishes Maniac from other examples of the genre and that’s probably true. (Star Joe Spinelli, of no great photogenic disposition, also wrote the script.) But it certainly doesn’t make the result any easier or more interesting to watch—it’s still a film in which a man kills several young women in terrible and voyeuristic ways and I’ve never understood the appeal of that. If that’s your thing, sure, have a look at Maniac. Otherwise, I’m going to enjoy never having to think about that movie ever again.