Here we are again folks in the wonderful mountain town of Telluride. Why have the dark forces
summoned us to this wonderful place? To do our dark bidding of course and by that I mean talk about awesome horror films!!
I started my journey this year by watching the “The Horror…The Animated” a series of shorts, some horrifying and some funny but all animated. Last year we had such wonders as Canis and Pandy and this year was no different. The best of the animated shorts this year were as follows:
Accidents, Blunders and Calamities
A wonderful bedtime story read from father to children about why humans are the worst. The story goes through the alphabet lime a miniature ABC’s of death with small animals what typically are killed by humans in our daily life. From flies to varmints the deaths are creative yet maintain an air of cuteness.
The Backwater Gospel
One of the best animations I have seen in a while. The Animation Workshop brought us an awesome borderlands like western about the Undertaker and a town who falls from grace quicker than a rattlesnake strikes from the brushes, YEEEHAW!....Well I tried but seriously this short was amazing and fun and looked beautiful.
Under the Apple Tree
Two brothers, a farmer and a vicar, live next to each other. When the farmers apple crops are spoiled and he kills himself the vicar is pleased to cut down all his trees. At the same time tow worm brothers that inhabit the rotting apples are separated and one finds out he can control the dead and ends up saving the day with the help of some other worms. This was an awesome short that was beautifully done in stop motion. It was pleasant and pestilent at the same time!
Okay so now on to the big boys of the day the movies the first one Sickle and I saw together was:
The Windmill
This film was brought to us all the way from the Netherlands by director Nick Jongerius.
This film follows a ragtag group of Amsterdam randos on a Happy Holland bus tour. The group starts to break apart when the bus breaks down in the middle of nowhere. This move starts pretty quick and the kills are pretty fantastic. From stomped heads to ripped guts the movie has some of the best kill scenes I have seen in a long time. However it has a strong story as well with character all having fairly deep stories behind them and very interesting interactions because of it. One of the criticisms I had was that the actions leading up to most of the kills were very cliché and no one was really catching on. Mostly is does one thing I like in my movies now a days, give the viewers a hard decision between who to root for.
Crazy bad guy versus sinning humans, regardless who wins I will see the losers soon.
The last film of the night was highly touted:
We Are the Flesh
This film came from the long lost land of Mexico and was directed by Emiliano Rocha
Minter. It was described to us as a very disturbing movie involving sexuality and the darker side of
humanity and while the description was not wrong, I am not sure what the point of the movie was. I am left here not really disturbed and mostly bored with the randomness and nonsensical plot. It does have very, VERY sexual scenes but it is nothing you would see on now night of surfing the internet for porn.
That being said I did find the lack of fear surrounding the exposure of the human body very refreshing. This is probably the film that makes me think of cults the most besides one of the shorts from V/H/S 2. I would not suggest seeing this movie ever unless you are really into films like Antichrist but without the mutilation.
We are both ready for an awesome day tomorrow and you should be ready for a write up late in the wee hours of Sunday morning!!