Strangeland

Admittedly this film is far better than the sinister Rob Zombie junk. (sorry Rob fans)

At least Snyder put some substance, plot, and decent action into this. Have to hand it to him: he's not a bad actor. Especially in a psychotic role; which some may accuse of him as being cliché'. However, it is Dee Snyder. He wouldn't unrealistically portray a warm, loving father. Keep it real. And while I was never a huge fan, nor follower of metal music, I loved Twisted Sister. And Dee Snyder is my all-time favorite. Here he almost brilliantly resurrects his Capt. Howdy personae.

And featuring Robert Englund; a very noted actor, whom of course revolutionized horror movie history with his iconic Freddy Krueger. Here we are subject to an opposite, non-sinister role as Jack, much like Englund's nice-guy character Willie, from the classic V - TV series. Snyder obviously is an Englund fan (like the rest of us :) and deliberately cast him in this film, as honorary appearance. No doubt Englund is brilliant, and could easily pull off a crime-drama psychotic serial killer as well.

Overall, a few sinister scenes do drag a bit, and lack some intensity. However, Snyder does pull this thing off, for the most part.

That Twisted Sister's Dee Snyder wrote and produced this may have turned some people off from even giving it a try. It's also in no small part inspired by The Silence of the Lambs (from which it steals at least one scene) and Se7en, and as with other movies that have taken inspiration from those movies, such as 8mm, Feardotcom and Saw, took some flak for that too. The title is a stumper, I don't know what it means and it doesn't seem to suit the movie well. The shocking cover image is well chosen, though it might surprise some that a person's mouth sewn shut could be found in the opening scene of a movie from the early 1930s, Murders in the Zoo.

In truth, it's not all that bad. A young woman is lured to a party through an online chatroom and an IM from "Captain Howdy," and her friend turns up dead with signs of body modification-inspired torture. A large septum piercing found in the trunk of her car provides a clue (I didn't understand how it could have been accidentally left, or why it would have been planted). The cop learns a bit about "modern primitives" (I think there's a shot from the RE/ Search book of that name) and online chatrooms, still a danger to the unwary today.

Somewhat surprisingly, partway into the movie we get a "four years later" intertitle, and the discovery of a second set of victims seems awfully convenient. The ending confrontation is disappointing.

There are nods to other movies as well, as when a group of neighbors tries to lynch the bad guy, led by Jack (Robert Englund). This is quite reminiscent of the lynching of Freddie Krueger (Robert Englund again) by his neighbors in the Nightmare on Elm Street backstory.

I saw the version on video, and am not sure how the unrated DVD might differ.

Horror fans who also wanna rock will have a blast with Dee Snider's Strangeland, which sees the Twisted Sister frontman playing Captain Howdy, a metal-loving psycho with a penchant for body modification who uses internet chatrooms to lure unsuspecting victims to his torture chamber.

Filmed during the 'wild west' days of dial up, when the average Joe wasn't online savvy, Strangeland takes quite a few liberties with the technology of the time (downloading a picture took several minutes, so I'm pretty certain that video calls weren't feasible, and accessing the internet in a car was an impossibility), but the film is still a lot of twisted fun thanks to a solid central turn by Snider, whose tattooed and pierced Jame Gumb-style sicko is a memorable maniac, a great supporting cast which includes Robert Englund*, Linda Cardellini, Elizabeth Peña, and Amy Smart, and quite a few graphic scenes of mutilation. Kevin Gage plays police detective Mike Gage, who tracks down Howdy after his own daughter is abducted by the freak.

Decent horror films starring heavy rock/metal acts are so often crap (Jon Mikl Thor in Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare, Alice Cooper in Monster Dog, and all of Foo Fighters in Studio 666), but this is one of the better examples.

7/10.

*Inspired by Twisted Sister's song Horror-Teria (The Beginning), from their classic 1984 album Stay Hungry, Strangeland mirrors the premise for A Nightmare On Elm Street, which makes Robert Englund's presence a particularly nice touch.

As a simple but interesting story, Strangeland is in the middle of good and bad. It borrows too much from other flicks, like Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs. Some lines ("What a rush?") are kind of terrible. And the Twisted Sister references that no one picks up on are laughable: the "we're not gonna take it" sign that the angry mob is holding and Dee's character "Capt. Howdy". Yes, it's in the Exorcist, but it is also a Sister song. On a good note, Dee Snider is a creepy looking character. The first time you really get a good look at him he's intense. And there are a few gross sadist scenes, one involving piercing an unwilling man in the most dreaded of all places. That part made me wince. And that's fairly hard to do. Also, I loved the fact that Robert Englund plays a character that is the exact opposite of his role in A Nightmare on Elm Street. Instead of playing the killer, he is the leader of the mob going to find the killer. Krueger fans will know what I'm talking about. It's a brilliant and appropriate piece of casting that genre fans should appreciate. Overall, the good outweighs the bad, and I would recommend watching it (at least once). You have to give Dee some credit, there are a lot worse movies out there.

"Strangeland" isn't that bad if it features fears of yours.

**SPOILERS**

Genevieve Gage, (Linda Cardellini) is just the latest in a series of disappearances plaguing a small town. Her father Mike (Kevin Gage) just happens to be the detective on the case, and his partner Steve Christian, (Brett Harrelson) convinces him to check out a club that specializes in piercing and scarification, which is also the secret hideout for Captain Howdy, (Dee Snider) also known as Carleton Hendricks, who is the suspected cause of the disappearances. With the help of his cousin Angela Stravelli, (Amy Smart) Captain Howdy is caught and brought to justice. After a couple years in an insane asylum, he gets released back into the community, and a local militia group led by Jackson Roth, (Robert Englund) kidnap him and leave him for dead. When new evidence confirms that he may not be dead, Detective Gage tries harder than before to stop him.

The Good News: As it gets more and more commonplace for people to chat online and in instant messaging, the fact that this one was the first out of the gate to show the potential evils and dangers of the situation is a nice and original approach. Even though it deviates from it towards the end, the original set-up is pretty great. The ending is also pretty great and pretty exciting, with a great bit of action in there as well. Most of the focus on this film is the discomfort one gets when exposed to extreme forms of scaring and skin piercing, and it is a subject most get uncomfortable viewing. This is mostly played out in the psychical form of Captain Howdy, who does look pretty creepy. His look, though, drives the film, so I won't spoil it, but it is a really disturbing and shocking look that will definitely get you a little crept out the first time his full appearance is shown.

The Bad News: This film basically relies on the belief that extreme piercing, full-body tattoos and scaring are scary images for the average person. If none of them are scary or frightening, then most of the film's power will be lost. Besides that, there really isn't a whole else in the film. It's not a traditional horror film in the slasher sense, so for some it can be quite boring, as there's no real jumps, suspense or anything similar.

The Final Verdict: If any of the acts or ideas featured in this one are fears of yours, this could be a pretty scary film. If not, this can be a pretty dull experience. Otherwise, it's pretty middle of he road and pretty forgettable. Use your own judgment to determine if you will like this one or not.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Nudity, some Language, a brief sex scene, scenes of torture and extreme images of body modification