Trailer Hitch
By Eric Hughes
September 16, 2009
Welcome to Trailer Hitch, BOP's look at the latest movie trailers to hit the Internet. This week: Willem Dafoe enters Eden, a college girl chooses the wrong house to babysit at and Bella and Edward do the long distance thing.
Black Dynamite – Opens October 16th
Here's something refreshing: a spoof movie not from the Scary Movie camp. I'm referring to Black Dynamite, a parody of blaxploitation films of the 1970s. But don't go around thinking this is the next Undercover Brother. (It doesn't have that mainstream feel to it). Though well received, the 2002 Eddie Griffin-starrer looked more like Austin Powers in blackface than anything else. Black Dynamite, on the other hand, appears to stay truer to its source material.
Picked up in August by new shingle Apparition from Sony Worldwide Acquisitions, Black Dynamite stars Michael Jai White as the title character, a former CIA agent called back into work after finding out that the Italian mob killed his brother, among other troubles. He soon discovers he's in the middle of a conspiracy, which leads all the way to the White House. Supporting cast includes Arsenio Hall, Tommy Davidson and Nicole Sullivan.
Grade: B-
Antichrist – Opens October 23rd
With just two characters, Antichrist is as about as sparse a film as films get. In it, Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg retreat to the woods – named Eden – following the death of their baby. There, they come into contact with gruesome happenings.
The flick, dubbed "the most shocking film in the history of the Cannes Film Festival" by The Sunday Telegraph, was an official selection at a number of film festivals and seems to come highly touted – at least from critics from its native Denmark. Even so, the preview available for viewing now is a bit of a yawner. I couldn't get that interested because I was never really aware of what the studio was trying to sell me. I'll blame the marketing department if I end up missing out on something good.
Grade: D+
The House of the Devil – Opens October 30th in theaters; VOD on October 1st
If you heard a new horror movie was coming out that centers on a young, hot college student who's in for the ride of her life after accepting a babysitting job at a remote mansion, I'm almost certain – unless you've never seen a single horror movie ever – you'd give up on the project before even finishing the movie's plot outline. A word to the wise: Don't skip over The House of the Devil.
It's not, at least from what I can tell from the trailer, some cheap, glamorous thriller. (It's not even Hollywood; two indies – Dark Sky Films and Glass Eye Pix – are responsible). And if cultish, '80s-era horror chillers are your bag, then there's a good chance The House of the Devil is your movie.
The look of the movie is fantastic. Colors are muted, the imagery is disturbing and what actually goes on in that house over the course of a single night is not quite known. All we're given is Samantha (Jocelin Donahue), the babysitter, really needs the money, and it also so happens to be the same night as a lunar eclipse. Cut to flashes of otherworldly faces and pentagrams drawn with blood, and you've got yourself a good time.
Grade: B+
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