I have many projects to show you in the upcoming months. One will have its own space on the web and is a collaboration; something terribly nerdy. The other is something I meant to do years ago and always found an excuse to postpone. Not this time; 2010 will be spent on that project and I will either see it to completion or drop the idea forever. So stay tuned for that.
In the meantime, I'm sure I'll come up with more stencils and props for various parties, which I'll show here. Posts like the one below, about my thoughts and whatnot, will be posted... elsewhere. I will refrain from spamming this blog with uninteresting bullshit.
This stated, here's my latest work, which I've rushed to do in a week. Behold, my Halloween costume: The Riddler, from the Batman animated series.
So... So here is how it was done.
I started with the cane by checking a few images on Google. I noticed that the cane from the Batman Forever movie was the most esthetically pleasing, though barely ever used anywhere else. I did find a few pictures, however, of the Animated Series Riddler WITH said cane and decided that it was canon enough. A couple of cardboard patterns later, with a plastic tube, duct tape, sand paper and gold paint and I had a cane. I sanded the tape to remove the glossy look and painted over it. It is not perfect but since I rushed through everything, it was good enough.
The hat I could not find anywhere. I resorted in buying a cheap black bowler hat and painted it with fabric acrylics. This ended up being a blessing, since I could not find a fitting suit for the longest time. I tried dyes, without success. I wasted three jackets doing so. In a fit of rage, I went to ebay, typed "green business suit" and found the suit shown in the pictures. I then proceeded to paint the hat with as matching a colour as possible.
The tie, gloves and masks were quick dye jobs, with acrylic paints and water. Simply, I bathed the fabrics in the purple goo, let them dry and went over them with an iron to really cement the colour.
The question marks I've done with black acrylic paint, manually. Being pressed by time, I did not iron the jacket, which resulted in the dry black paint to eventually stain the jacket when moving. This suit stained so easily. In retrospect, I should have gone with a darker green suit NOT made of 100% polyester but again, I had no time. It was one week to Halloween and I NEEDED the costume done, to fit my friend's Two-Face costume.
In the end, it went pretty well. I won 3rd place at Gameloft Montreal's costume party. Two years now with intricate, time-consuming costumes. I think I deserve a break for 2010.
Hallowhat?
Hi, youse.
Well, I haven't done anything in months.
I feel bad letting this place go to waste. So let's hit it.
How many times must a man look up before he can see the sky?
Working on the tenth level of a great, tall building, overlooking most of the city gives one a different look on his surroundings, his life. I am looking at my city and I cannot help but feel at peace with it and with myself, somewhat. This is where I belong, where I deserve to be. For once in my life, I see everything as necessary steps towards a better life. My successes, my failures; all part of growing up. It just took twenty-eight years.
We tend to forget that obstacles exist solely to force yourself to improve and to emphasize the eventual triumphs and rewards. Myself, I used to see obstacles as solely negative things and learned to fear them in a way that would send me doing anything to avoid them, in any way fashionable. Sometimes, it meant not to socialize with anyone, refusing promotions, not going to familly meetings and so on.
It took years of failures caused by my fear of obstacles to realize that I have to let loose, brace myself for impact and let them come. Things have been looking up ever since. I have seen what I already knew but never bothered to take into consideration; every failure I have had since I have become an "adult" is directly connected to my successes. I have learned so much from them that they have become tools with which I help myself improve.
By failing to keep friendships, I have learned the harsh reality of being alone and what is truly important in a friendship. By failing as a son, a brother, I have learned how important familly is, no matter how cruel and twisted it may be. With every heartbreak, I discovered myself, I discovered that I am filled with emotions and love to give. By failing to catch "the one" at the right time, I have learned that such a thing does exist and that I should strive for this when looking for a better half. By failing to produce a decent screenplay, I have learned how scriptwriting is important to me and how not doing anything linked to it professionally pains me. By failing at doing proper stencils, I have learned how much I want to improve myself and get recognized for my skill.
The sun is rising over Montreal and though I have often fallen and know that I will fall and stumble still, I feel the sun ripping away at that pessimistic core stuck deep in my chest. I have finally come to a point in my life where I do not even look at pessimism as a safety blanket.
Life is good.
Fantasia Fest Totally Short Movie Review: Mutants
Mutants: A Fantasia Festival Movie Review.
Mutants. What an original title. Do not confuse David Morlet's Mutants with Amir Valinia's Mutants. Or Katalin Godros; Mutanten. Or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Mutants was horrible. Mutants feels like some French guy watched 28 Days Later and thought "France can do better".
However, mister Morlet quickly realized that he had no budget and promptly started filming during a snow storm, in an abandoned building, with old Uruk-Hai costumes from the set of Lord of the Rings. The story hurts my brain so much.
Two ambulancers/doctors ride with a big, black, tough army woman. In their ambulance. A bit of drama happens and they pull at a gas station. They meet an autistic kid. The premise at this point is PERFECT. A couple, an autistic kid and a tough army woman. Killing zombies in an ambulance.
But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooOOOOOOOOOOOO! A gunfight happens for no reason between all of them. Result? Man is wounded. Autistic kid and army woman, dead. So the movie now focuses on the troubles the female doctor faces, to save her boyfriend.
The rest of the movie is pointless and stupid. She gets to an abandoned house. She's heard the army has set a colony to protect people. She thinks she's immune because she was bitten before but didn't turn. She tries to heal her boyfriend who somehow got infected and is turning into an ork. Er, zombie. It doesn't work, so she traps him in the basement.
Bad people arrive, they fuck everything up, zombies invade the place. Husband, now a proud spawn of Saruman, er, zombie, attacks those who are trying to hurt the woman because, hey, she's now pregnant for some reason. She escapes, there is indeed a colony and they find her.
The end.
I came out of the theater thankful that I had seen this piece of trash before seeing Dead Snow. I might not have gone to see the hilarious Dead Snow, had it been for Mutants. This movies makes me ashamed to be a zombiephile. This movie makes Last of the Living look good and Christ, that was a horrible movie too.
A pointless movie obviously made to emulate the atmospheric mood of 28 Days Later but which fails miserably. Avoid it.
Fantasia Fest Totally Biased Movie Review: Dead Snow
Dead Snow: A Fantasia Festival Movie Review
It was a stormy night over Montreal and I was angry. Events had occurred after seeing Thirst, the night before and had left me with a mood foul enough to sour milk in a twenty miles radius. The kind of anger that takes precedence over every other basic need. I had not fed, I was alone and I was waiting in line, under the rain. Dead Snow had better be terrific.
And, my stars and garters, it was! I was rewarded with an hour and a half of pure fun and a cleverness horror movies had forgotten. This is by far the best horror movie I've seen this year. And here is why.
First of all, if you're new to the genre, do yourself a favor and rent Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness and Friday the 13th. These will become important as the movie progresses; the cast even states it themselves in the first few minutes of the movie.
A group of German medical students decide to spend their Easter vacation in a secluded mountain cabin. One of them remarks how silly it is to be alone in the middle of nowhere in a shady cabin, which reminds him of the movies mentioned above. This is a foretelling of events to transpire, something Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg often do in their own "blood and ice cream" movies (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz). Reaching the cabin, they have a bit of fun and end up meeting an old local man who promptly informs them all that they're dooooooooooooooomed! (sounds familiar to any of you?)
Following this, some of the kids start to disappear as the rest find an old box underneath the cabin. While not the Necronomicon ex-Mortis, it still ends up being something pretty shocking; it is a chest filled with Nazi Gold. This validates the story of the old man, who explained that a Nazi post was set in the region to conduct strange experiments. As World War 2 drew to an end and the Germans were losing, the troop quickly started gathering all the gold and silver they could get their hands on. The villagers, having enough, killed the Nazis and dumped their corpses on the mountain. Of course, their evil would not end that day...
This is where the plot mostly ends (and reappears in the last two minutes of the movie). This is the movie's main flaw; it feels obvious that the plot was added at the very end and was never really important to anyone. What is important is the Nazi carnage that follows.
A horde of undead Nazi soldiers start emerging from their hiding spot and proceed to annihilate anyone in their way. They (most likely) can feel that some of their gold is in human hands and want it back. Ensues some of the most hilariously gory scenes I have ever had the chance of witnessing. Someone hanging down a cliff while grabbing on a zombie's entrails? Check. Someone beating a crow senseless while perched in a tree to avoid being detected? Check. Zombies cut in half with a chainsaw? Check. Almost every scene is an homage to the genre and none disappoint. This feels the way a Mcdonald's Big Mac trio feels: it satisfies you while you're eating it and then you feel damn guilty you enjoyed it. There is so much blood and body parts flying everywhere. Only 300 came this close in the brutality it displays.
However, it always does so with a good amount of humour. It is important to note that Timmy Wirkola, the director, has obviously been inspired by The Three Stoogies as much, if not more, as Sam Raimi ever was. Yes, it is slapstick and it is cheesy but it is so good. There is a lot of love shown by Wirkola towards Raimi and, to a further extent, Peter Jackson (back when Bad Taste and Braindead/Dead Alive were the highlights of his career). There is a shed scene, a thing popular in Raimi movies. There is a chainsaw. There is a cut hand. There is something hidden in a cabin in the middle of nowhere. The nerd gets some intimate time with the hot girl (although in a very disturbing scene...); all of this reminding the cult movie enthusiast of the best Evil Dead / Army of Darkness scenes. However, one of the biggest similitude is that, well, the zombies... are not zombies.
In Evil Dead, the infected people turned into Deadites; essentially, it was an infectious possession. Not Zombies. No flesh was devoured. In Dead Snow, the Nazis are undead, no doubt but they do not infect anyone. They are faster and stronger than normal, like Deadites. And while it would be easy to categorize both movies as being "zombie movies" none actually are, if we are to follow the three rules of the Zombie Movie:
1- Zombies spread through infection. (Evil Dead comes close but since some of the victims are infected without being around other people, the infection does not seem organic)
2- Zombies are of equal or lesser strength and speed.
3- There's a black person in the group of people the movie is following. Usually the survivor or the one to help the survivor escape.
I know, I know. Rule 3 is blatant positive racism. Still, if you pay attention to movies like Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, even 28 Days Later (which kinda fits the Laws except for the fact that the people, well, aren't dead) and so on... the rule applies.
So, not a zombie movie. The Nazis are uber fast and strong undead. You can expect the victims not to go too far. Unless one of them remembers the plot...
So, to recap, Dead Snow is a great movie if you want something not one bit serious and with plenty of creative, gory moments. If you're a fan of Raimi and Jackson, you will enjoy this movie.
Fantasia Fest Totally Serious Movie Review: Thirst
Thirst: A Fantasia Festival Movie Review.
Armed to the teeth with vampire fan repellents (pictures of a dirty, womanizing Robert Pattinson, the IMDB listing of Tom Cruise's career after Interview with a Vampire and a copy of Plan 9 from Outer Space for the old guys), I set to wait in line with the group of people that would become the first to watch the American release of Chan-Wook Park's latest work, Thirst. Surprisingly, the crowd was not comprised of gothic preteens and old bachelorettes but rather the kind of person who would normally go to Cannes, with a few exception.
Press corps, no doubt. Movie critics, sure. A few oddballs here and there but not the crowd I used to associate with on previous Fantasia festivals. I had to gulp; this movie was serious business! I lit a cigarette, poisoning everyone around with my toxic fumes. I was waiting on a friend, you see. No way I was going to see a serious movie without a compadre. Especially if the compadre had borrowed a VIP pass and could let me in before the snob clique. So in we went and sat ourselves for two hours of very serious stuff.
Thirst starts with a priest having a faith crisis; the man feels that his job is not enough and wants to fully devote himself to heal the sick. So he goes to Africa, where religious doctors are trying to cure a new form of leprosy that knows no cure. The priest contracts the disease and in a scene reminiscent of Peter Jackson's early flicks, dies in horrible pain.
The end.
Not really. This is where his story really starts. Spoilers galore from here, folks. A blood transfusion given to him as the doctors try to save his life end up being "special" blood. Our priest comes back to life, to everyone's shock and returns to Korea to resume his earlier life. Only, being a priest and all and having resurrected from a sure death, he quickly is seen as a saint. For this reason, people gather around the church hospital, asking him to lay his hands on the sick. One of these people, an old woman, asks him to visit his cancerous son. After having done so, the son miraculously heals and the family quickly realize that they remember the priest as a kid; both he and the patient used to be friend. Quickly, the family include the priest in their small circle of friends. The priest meets the son's wife, a girl he used to like as a kid. Later on, we learn that she liked him as well. Everything is fine and dandy for our man.
However, events soon occur that trigger in the priest an obvious bloodlust. Feeding on the comatose patients, our man discovers that the disease that killed him is still inside and requires blood; the more he drinks, the more normal he looks and reality doesn't seem to affect him much anymore. He runs fast, he jumps high and is stronger than ever. However, his disease also affects him in other ways; the sun burns him and his blood is contagious. In essence, all traits shared with traditional vampires. He thus assumes that he is one.
His relationship with his old crush intensifies as he realizes that the family he used to know treat her like a dog, beating her and bossing her around. They plan the death of the son (a total idiot) so that they can be together. The priest, no longer led by faith, commits the deed. However, the son's ghost decides to haunt them, sending them slowly into a spiral of madness. Eventually lashing at one another, the priest discovers that the girl manipulated him into killing the son; her wounds were self-inflicted and she meant all along to take over the family's business. Angered, he strangles her. Regretting his act and feeling lost without her love, he decides to transform her and turns her into a vampire, so as to offer her a new life, free from her past.
The rest of the movie is the classical philosophical debate that plagues every vampire movie: should a vampire limit himself to hide in the shadows and drink blood where he can find it or should he see humans as cattle and playthings? Clichés are overused at this point and the priest eventually understands that he has created a terrible monster and sets off to fix everything, leading the way to a dramatic ending.
Can the movie live up to the hype? It has won prizes everywhere it has been shown and is seen as one of the best, new vampire takes in recent years. Is it really, though? My grandmother used to say that if you stuff a rotten ham with pristine apples, the ham still tastes like shit. While the Korean take on the vampire story is indeed interesting, romantic, beautiful and so on, I do not think that it offers anything remotely new; rather, it seems to use known, old "facts" that all vampire movies use (with the exception of Twilight.... ugh, Twilight). Vampires afraid of the sun? Check. Vampires drink blood? Check. Vampires leap over tall buildings and are very fast? We got that too. What we end up with, story-wise, is the same old thing, wrapped with Korean seasonings.
Another problem I faced with the movie is the direction. Due to its length, the movie seems to lose itself as it goes along. It takes a sharp turn into quasi-slapstick humour for a while, diverges into true horror and ends up being a "made for TV" drama. Knowing Chan-Wook Park's earlier work, this does not feel like the homogeneous directing of styles he is usually known for. It feels badly stapled together.
However, where Chan-Wook Park excels, same as ever, is in the dialogs. The man knows how to write a dialog. Forget Tarantino; Park knows how to weave a script to give the viewers the maximum effect. As the movie goes along, you cannot help but feel clever when some lines are said; you feel you are part of an inside joke that only you and the character knows. This has always been his strong point and Thirst is no exception.
I left the theater confused. Had I enjoyed my experience? I believe that Thirst should be seen by vampire fans. I believe it should be seen by Park buffs who want to understand his progression as a director. However, for the common man, this movie is too scattered, too diluted and stretched and offers nothing terribly new and might, dare I write it, bore. I enjoyed the experience, though I might not see it twice.