Film School

I'm really looking forward to this weekend's film school session. We're rolling up our sleeves on Italian horror. On deck, we've got an Argento double-header with Tenebre and Deep Red, followed by Fulci's Demonia. We had a lot of choices for the third pick, but were ultimately swayed by the creepy zombie nun on the cover.

This past weekend, I watched Wrong Turn 2. I got it mostly because my man Texas Battle -- he of Hitting the Bricks fame -- is a co-star. I scored it from Netflix just for Texas, but as a bonus I discovered Henry Rollins plays a crazy ex-Marine-turned-reality-show-host, and Erica Leerhsen, one of my favorite scream queens, is in there, too.

Texas is great. His reaction to the chick getting naked in the stream is priceless. Erica's fine, though she has to try to sell some awful dialogue at times. ("I don't know if you've noticed, but I can be kind of a bitch sometimes." Groan...) They dyed her red hair blonde and jet-black to make her look Gothed out. It didn't do anything for me, especially since it was in service to a genre cliche -- we see a lotta Goth chicks showing up in horror movies these days. And Henry has some choice moments. It's pretty smart casting -- both Henry and his character are big, aggressive guys with a media-savvy streak. Good stuff.

Outside of the fun casting, the rest of the movie plays at the level of a DTV knockoff of The Hills Have Eyes remake. Weirdly enough, I had very similar feelings about the first Wrong Turn -- a mediocre movie somewhat elevated by good casting. In that flick's case: Desmond Harrington in the lead, Jeremy Sisto and another of my fave scream queens, Lindy Booth.

I know they stuck Eliza Dushku on the poster/cover, but I wasn't crazy about her character's default setting to "formless anger for no good reason." I understand the desire to build a character with some strength and edge, but is being as persnickety as possible at all times the best way to build sympathy with the aud?

Not to say the Italian movies I love so much are these brilliant works of cinematic genius, but they make up for the ludicrous plots and atrocious dialogue with imagination and all-out, batshit insanity. I'll take nightmare imagery over by-the-numbers gore fests any day.