howl
I watched Dog Soldiers last night and, barbarian that I am, I loved it! I know this is going to sound odd - but, I love a good puppet. I'm not talking Farscape puppets (sorry chocolaterabbit) - because no matter how good they are, I really don't think puppets can hold their own in a main role (except in The Labyrinth of course!) but films like Ginger and Dog Soldiers, who obviously didn't have great budgets (though it rarely shows) - didn't opt for the cheaply and oh-so horribly done SFX critters (cough. excalibur. cough), and went instead with the old-fashioned 'dude in a hairy suit'. Sure, the faces perhaps sometimes don't move in accordance with any known biology/physics (but then, we are talking werewolves here - who knows what they're really made of?) and these supernatural creatures always seem to have a human physiognomy despite their otherworldly origins - but that doesn't really matter. The X-Files episode 'Host' (you know, the fluke-man who for years an old friend of mine and I called 'the steamed dim-sim man') actually addresses that problem 'scientifically' - "that creature came off of a decommissioned Russian freighter that was used in the disposal of salvage material from the meltdown. It was born in a... in a primordial soup of radioactive sewage." But that's kind of besides the point - I watched that ep last night and that quote was stuck in my head. Um, so the point was...? Puppets! As long as the thrills are still inspired (and they were last night - man, I haven't jumped so much in a film in ages) I don't see why people are so down on puppets - I know that they can look a little cardboard, but they also bring a reality to the film that it might otherwise lack. I'm thinking here specifically of the Dog-Alien (that was far less gory and, I think, so superior as the Cow-Alien in the extended version) in Aliens3. Sure, there's no way you can make one of those H.R.Giger creations by dressing up a person in a suit - they are just too many 'extra-features' and impossible wasp-thin waists, not to mention stunts which require the Alien to be able to move fast and smoothly - to make dressing up possible - so you have to resort to CGI to capture that extreme otherness of the Aliens, which would be great - BUT, they totally messed up the light filters or something, and as a result, the Alien just looked tacked on and completely unreal - which was a shame, because it had the potential to be so bloody spooky. Anyway, I like a good puppet, and I love a good werewolf movie (but for every good one there are a thousand bad ones, more's the pity), and I love kooky English humour. Who else would have a film about a cabin full of besieged soldiers, stuck in the middle of nowehere, surrounded by hostile forest, one of them 'turning', another with his guts falling out of his stomach who's so doped up he looks at said guts and says "Sausages!", the others put some water on to boil to perform essential surgery - and mix up a pot of tea while they're at it - "I think we could all do with a brew." Adorable! Also, crazy actor who's who - Vronsky/Bothwell/Billy (did anyone else see North Square?) and Agravaine from First Knight (yay!) and that Sherrif Berigar guy from Cadfael. Anyway anyway, I know you girls - chocolaterabbit and pop_pony - have seen it, at the lovelywestgarthhorrormoviemarathon (which is still running? even though they've been taken over by Palace?) I'd be interested to know what you thought. You have to have loved the Scottish-ness if nothing else - imagine if David Tennant had been in it! Speaking of which - it's the Anthony Head ep of Doctor Who this week - so so good, I love all the Sarah Jane Smith vs. Rose angst, "The new missus meeting the ex, it's every man's worst nightmare, mate" not to mention all the K-9! love, whee, good times, and great classic hits.