Masters Of Horror

This last weekend, during the MOTELx - International Horror Movies Festival of Lisbon, I ended up seing what will certainly turn out to be two of the best movies of my personal cinematic 2007. Funnily enough, they were originally made for television, as part of the Masters Of Horror project, which consisted of autonomous 1-hour episodes directed by prestigious horror-movie cineasts and first shown on cable in the USA, during 2005.


John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns (dir. John Carpenter)


Why I loved it:
- The whole huge terror-densing atmosphere built around...a search for a movie!?
- Many references that will be loved by all the cinema enthusiasts out there.
- An homage to all B-Series classics. Hell, with so many means, even some of the acting still kinda sucks and the movie only gets better because of this spirit.
- Who of us doesn't end up desperately wanting to see "Le Fin Absolue Du Monde"?
- It's a classic John-Carpenter-at-its-best, period.

Plot:
"In this film by legendary horror director John Carpenter, a wannabe film producer named Kirby Sweetman (Norman Reedus) obsesses over a lost cinematic treasure. Called LE FIN ABSOLUE DU MONDE, the film was screened only once because its premiere turned the movie theatre into a madhouse of killing and violence. As Kirby goes to great lengths to track down this notorious film, he starts to have hallucinations of dangerous proportions. Will the rumors surrounding the film destroy him, or will he find it in time to use it as a weapon?"


Homecoming (dir. Joe Dante)


Why I loved it:
- Don't think there's ever been such an acid and caustic critic towards the Bush administration as this one.
- Huge sense of irony with loads of second-meaning quotes and situations.
- Is this a horror movie, a comedy or a documentary?
- Never too much to mention the Bush thing: even Michael Moore movies are 100% politically correct when compared to this.
- You end up on the zombies side.

Plot:
"A horror film with a political message, HOMECOMING comes from director Joe Dante (GREMLINS, THE HOWLING). With a war going on abroad and an election coming up, the Republican party is anxious about getting enough votes to seal the deal. But when they wish for the soldiers who died in the war to come back to life and speak on their behalf, they never expect it to actually happen. Rising from their graves, the undead men and women set out to tell their own version of events, and to get revenge by voting out of office the party that sent them to war."

Best Of 2006: Top Tv Moment

1. Final moments of Six Feet Under



After ending the series proper plot, Alan Ball spends the final 6 minutes making a time travel to the future and, on its way, killing all the main characters he created, ending with the death of Claire in 2085 . I doubt that in 2006 there was anything more intense and emotional than this in television. (Soundtrack: "Breathe Me" by Sia Furler)

Underrated Projects # 3 / TV Moments # 3

On The Air (1992 TV sitcom)


Fresh from his initial Twin Peaks / Who-killed-Laura-Palmer success, David Lynch returned to television to share with us his own vision of what a sitcom should be, thus resulting in this fascinating On The Air, a TV show about a TV show where everything always goes wrong. Full of surreal and absurd moments, this was a big fuck-you to all the prominent TV-languages that had been seen so far, inventing its own rhythm and even its own sense of humour. Such audacity resulted in the show being cancelled after just 7 episodes, but it still remains as one of the greatest TV lost pearls.

TV Moments # 2

Six Feet Under


You've surely heard about this show by now and you either love it or you absolutely don't care. For those of us that are fans, new episodes are starting today on portuguese television (RTP2, 22:30). Tune in and don't miss it.

TV Moments # 1

Desperate Housewives


The second season starts today on the portuguese Fox Channel. It will be nice to once again be taken by the black humor that is all over it, while we follow the lives of the characters, all so complex but oh so normal.

Must-have objects for a survival kit #1

Futurama Seasons 1-4 Complete Box Set



This includes the whole four seasons (total 15 dvd's!) of Futurama, the show created by Matt Groening, the genius brain behing the Simpsons. Futurama is actually one step ahead of their more famous older brothers and is clearly a labor of love of its creator. The show lasted 4 entire seasons due only to his pressure: the audiences were low, but Matt told the bosses at Fox Channel that if they cancelled Futurama, he would stop making the Simpsons. Unfortunately, after 4 seasons, he gave up and the show ended.
The best description is really something like "The Simpsons in the future", only that instead of a family, we follow the lives of the crazy employees working at a delivery company. There's Fry, the 1999 boy that got accidentally frozen only to wake up in the year 3000 . Or Leela, a beautiful one-eyed mutant alien. And, of course, Bender, a robot with a substance abuse problem, who basically lives for pickpocketing, stealing, drinking, smoking and partying non-stop.
Taking place in the future, there's more space for delirious plots and sick jokes, making it a bit more absurd. I don't know the reason for its lack of success, there's one theory saying that the average audiences couldn't identify themselves with the characters as they do with the Simpsons. Regarding that, i will only say that i really like Bender-the-robot!
Anyway, as amazon says, this is a hip and hillarious show, loaded with "zippy lateral-thinking contemporary pop cultural references".