Verbal-17

This is a very funny short film that spoofs zombie movies (and horror films in general). The plot basically involves a security guard who must fight for his life after zombies invade the office building he works in. In addition to the zombies, he also encounters a gun-toting babe and the scientist who started it all.

What makes this ridiculous film work is the clever way it lampoons cliches from just about every horror movie ever made; title cards actually check off the cliches as they are played out (The Love Interest, The Twist Ending, etc.) and the actors are clearly having fun with the material.

Highly recommended: head on over to atomfilms.com and check it out!

I saw this bizarre, unsettling horror film from India at the Seattle International Film Festival. The woman who introduced it described it as "one of the most mystifying films I have ever seen." I don't know if I'd agree with that assessment, but I can certainly understand it.

The story takes place somewhere in the Indian countryside, and involves a landowner who seems to have it all- a productive farm, a loving wife and child- until one morning he wakes up to find a mole on his chin. At first the mole is merely a puzzlement, but soon it gradually begins to grow into a large, oozing wart that both he and his family worry about night and day. Soon he can think of nothing else, and when his wife pleads with him to go to the doctor to get it removed, he stubbornly insists on only using traditional methods (such as herbal remedies) to heal it, and they are ineffective. Eventually the wart bizarrely begins to take on a mind of its own, and threatens to envelop and destroy him.

From there, the movie dives headfirst into horror territory, and the gentle earlier scenes between the man and his family give way to something resembling a grotesque nightmare. Having seen it, I am not quite sure what to make of it. Is it intended as a straightforward horror film, a fable, or a dark satire of the Indian caste system, in which rich landowners are seen as people who stubbornly hang on to useless traditionalism, and who unnecessarily obsess over things that don't really matter, until those things envelop them?

An argument could certainly made that the film is intended as such a satire- it echoes the British film How To Get Ahead In Advertising, in which a man's sins are personified by an evil boil on his shoulder. But this argument is belied by the gentleness with which the main character is portrayed: the rich man is not selfish or vain, and genuinely cares about his family and the servants who work on his farm, which makes him an unworthy target for ridicule. Indeed, we can see very little that he has done to deserve what befalls him, and what happens to the man in the second half of the film resembles a biblical curse rather than an earned punishment.

Interestingly, the audience I watched the film with had a variety of reactions to it. In the early scenes, some audience members laughed at how the man and his family talk ceaselessly about the mole, while others did not. Later, as the film got creepier and nastier, some were clearly disgusted, and others sat silently mesmerized at the bizarre spectacle on screen (and, no doubt, with feelings of sympathy at how this gentle but flawed man is thoroughly victimized by his affliction).

In conclusion, I found this to be an intriguing but ultimately unsatisfying film because its makers are never clear on exactly what they are trying to say with it, if anything. Are they trying to tell us something about Indian society, or simply to creep us out? (If their goal was the latter, it definitely worked- I walked out of the theater wanting to go straight to the doctor and get every mole removed from my body). If you see the film, perhaps you will be able to accept its ambiguity of meaning better than I could. It is certainly an unsettling, challenging film, and in that it has its rewards, but it is definitely not for everyone.

Traps was an excellent cop drama that, like so many other intelligent, well-written shows, was cancelled by its timid network before it ever got a chance to make an impression with viewers. And that's a shame, because after seeing the first few episodes, I for one was hooked by the compelling acting and impressive writing displayed on screen.

The plot: after a highly-decorated detective is killed in the line of duty, his twentysomething son Chris (Dan Cortese, currently seen in Rock Me Baby), also a cop, must carry on with his life while dealing with the professional pressures of inevitably having to measure up to his great father. He is aided in this by his father's former partner (Bill Nunn) and his grandfather Joe (the late great George C. Scott), who is a retired cop that is nevertheless doggedly investigating some of the cases that he never solved during his career (there is a touching scene where he calls the mother of a murder victim to let her know that he still hasn't given up; this scene makes it very clear how much police work means to Joe).

What really made this show stand out was that it fully developed its characters and took the time to explore the greater meaning of what being a cop was (unlike most cop shows, which simply give you your daily fix of mystery and thrills, and nothing more). In the pilot episode, for example, Chris must deal with a corrupt cop in his own department, while most other cops simply want to look the other way. This is a standard plot line for a show like this, but the episode ends not with a cliche shoot-out scene, but instead with a moving speech by Scott's character about how the then-recent scandals (Darryl Gates, Rodney King etc.) had soiled the reputation of policemen throughout this country.

If this show had been allowed to build an audience, it might have been another NYPD Blue. As is, it exists merely as a reminder to those few who had a chance to see it of what it could have been.