Devil's Knot

As I stated on my last entry here on the Video Creep that Jason Baldwin was one of the many guests at this year’s Texas Frightmare Weekend and one of the guests that I was most looking forward to meeting.

When I finally did meet Mr. Baldwin and his wife Holly I personally welcomed them to Texas and told him that I was glad to have them here.

I briefly conversed with them about the documentaries as well as the case and on Saturday I had the honor of shooting their QnA which was the most requested by staff and convention goers alike.  

Now He wasn’t there for the whole Weekend because on Saturday he had to leave right after the QnA but he did return late Saturday night the reason that Jason and Holly had to leave the event was because they were attending the premiere of the film Devil’s Knot.

Now as many of you already know that my mission statement on this Blog is to only review movies that I like and that I will recommend to you to watch and I would not make one of these recommendations without actually watching the movie and griping about it without ever watching it.

Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr serve as Executive Producers on this film however Damien Echols is not involved in the film for his own reasons.

As many of you know I have been following this case since it happened in 1993. Many of you have read my reviews of Paradise Lost 3 and West of Memphis and I have spoken about my own opinions in the case.

 I want to point out is that many reviewers are spouting their opinions that this story has been told already with four documentaries as well as a True crime book that this very film is adapted from and the question that they are asking is why is this needed?

The question that I am asking is Why Not?

This story is far from over. Many are saying The WM3 are out and have been released but that is not all it.

Jason Baldwin, Jessie Misskelley Jr and Damien Echols all had to enter an Alford Plea to be released but there is more to it than that. The Alford plea is still a guilty plea and they were sentenced to time served and these three now when they interview for a job they have to mark yes when ask if they have ever been convicted. That doesn’t look good when looking for a job.

They are still on the books as convicted murderers for a crime that they did not commit.

Also they lost 18 years of their lives that they will never get back but there is another fact that is the real reason that this must continue.

A killer still walks the streets!

Now Paradise Lost 3 and West of Memphis have heavily implied who this killer is and the state of Arkansas is still not investigating this individual and not even looking for the killer and that is not a miscarriage of justice it is an Abortion of justice.

Devil’s Knot is also the first film about this subject that is narrative and dramatized.

Now I know that this film was made in Georgia but they did a great job of recreating locations in West Memphis Arkansas.

I recommend checking out the book that this film is based on by Mara Leveritt for more information.

Directed by veteran filmmaker Atom Egoyan this film is far more of a dramatization of the events from before the murder to the convictions which plays as much as a court drama than documentary.

The film primarily is told from the point of view of Pam Hobbs; mother of victim Stevie Branch.

Academy Award Winner Reese Witherspoon plays the role and surprisingly well. From moments before the murder the film follows her through the grieving process and her moments of doubt in the guilt in the suspects during the trials as well as her suspicions of her husband Terry.

She is joined by fellow Academy Award winning actor Colin Firth as West Memphis Private Investigator Ron Lax who decides to take on the case and work with the defense and begins to see the holes in the prosecution which makes him a target of not only the authorities but also the ire of Pam Hobbs’ Husband.

Firth and Witherspoon are joined by a surprising cast with Bruce Greenwood as Judge David Burnett, and Rex Linn as Inspector Gary Gitchell, with veteran character actor Elias Koteas with the small role of Parole Officer Jerry Driver.

I know that I have stated many times that I am a fan of John Mark Byers because he is quite frankly entertaining in the Paradise Lost documentaries and he is featured in this film played by Kevin Durand who does the man justice.

There is a deleted scene on the BluRay where Byers and his wife are interviewed for Paradise Lost and it features the filmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky as themselves.

Prosecutor John Fogelman is played by True Blood star Stephen Moyer. While his performance is great in the role I feel that he was probably not the best fit for it.

Now I am most impressed with the young actors Seth Meriwether Kristopher Higgins, and James Hamrick who play  Baldwin, Misskelly , and Echols.

As I stated ealier Devil’s Knot focuses on areas that Paradise Lost didn’t and that is another reason that I say this flick proves that there is more of the story to tell.

A major subplot of the film is the suspicion of Chris Morgan and Brian Holland who knew all of the children and mysteriously appeared after the murders at the home of Pamela Hobbs after the murders and very quickly relocated to California soon thereafter.  Particularly disturbing is the scene where they are examined by the court and the Judge demands that all persons that are not officials of the court leave the room.

Another suspect that is explored in the film that the investigation never particularly looked at was a mysterious man that appeared in the Bojangles restaurant covered in blood and mud and the police seemed not interested in. This man could either be a suspect or a witness that tried to intervene but was hurt or failed in the attempt.

The rest of the film focuses on the rush to point the finger at the three young suspects and the many holes in the prosecution’s case.

Vicki Hutcheson, whom is portrayed by World War Z star Mireille Enos plays a large role in the development of the case. Hutcheson not only involves her young son but also is the one that initially points the finger at the teenagers.

I also love the use of footage from the movie Race with The Devil in the film.

As I had earlier stated I definitely recommend checking out the film especially if documentaries isn’t your thing this film you should watch to learn more about the story of the West Memphis 3.

Texas Frightmare Weekend 2014

Well this has been a crazy month here at Triple C Productions and I offer my apologies for my tardiness here on the Video Creep and once again I bring you the news that The Texas Frightmare Weekend once again retains its title as the Best Convention Above All.

This year had a different feel to the show than it had before. There was a definite Heavy Metal influence this year with the addition of Ace Freelay and Dee Snider as well Twiggy Ramerez, Ogre, amd Ghost  and musicians are a different breed than many are expecting.

Now as many of you know I began my Career down in Deep Ellum shooting many of the local bands and I have been in my fair share of hotels with some of the more famous musicians in the industry and many of them are pretty guarded especially some of the more experienced.

As always every year on Friday I make it a point to walk around to all of the Tables and introduce myself to the guests and let them know that I will be shooting the event for Loyd and Sue. Now many are happy that I am doing this, others don’t care and some this where they tell me that they don’t want to be shot on Video and I tell them that this is not a problem.  This year the management of the musicians at the show almost all declined to be filmed for the event that is with the exception of Dee Snider who I didn’t even get to speak to which I wish that I did because I am again a fan.

Now I did get to meet many of my idols and people that I am a fan of since Childhood.

I had the pleasure of meeting John Kassier the voice behind the Creepkeeper who shot the traditional introduction to my annual video and I was going to get him to record a message to a friend of mine that was in the hospital but I honestly at the moment that he asked me what I wanted him to say my mind went Blank. I had expected him to have a message of his own but he was doing the right thing in asking me what I wanted him to say. I was about to get an autographed picture for my friend as well butI knew what picture she would have wanted and I knew that he would not have it because it is a rare one.

I also was fortunate to meet the cast of the Blair Witch Project which as many of you know here is one of my favorite films. It was great to have a conversation with Heather Donahue and Joshua Leonard about how the film helped me have the desire to enter the business and that when I watch the film it reminds me of being in college.

I also got to meet the original Creature From the Black Lagoon and Julia Adams.

It is always great to see some of the regulars like Bill Moseley who I always make it a point to stop by his table and have a brief conversation with him.

The best video that I shot this year was Jason Baldwin but I will speak more on that on my next entry here on the Video Creep.

I will also have a bigger announcement in the near future. 

Curse of Chucky and the saga of Charles Lee Ray

I am glad to find out that some franchises don’t have remakes and are instead choosing to do their reboots with sequels instead of a remake that retcons the other films out of existence.

There are some of the sequels that take the franchise to a new direction and then the reboot is used to make the films frightening again.

Curse of Chucky is a rare example of a franchise that manages to give it’s self a reboot and return to it’s original scares without the use of a remake.

Now first off Let us go into details on the exploits of Charles Lee Ray.

Child’s Play was released by United Artists in 1988 with much fanfare. At first the marketing of the film focused on the frightened patrons and not on the villain of the film. Much of the marketing consisted of moviegoers standing outside of the theatre talking about how frightened while watching the movie.

The plot of Child’s Play followed Karen Barclay (Catherine Hicks) who gives her son Andy (Alex Vincent) a Good Guy Doll which is the toy that is all the rage at the time. What Karen does not know is that the doll is possessed by the spirit of Serial Killer Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) who was killed by detective Mike Norris (Chris Sarandon) before his demise transferred his soul into the body of the Doll. 

After Chucky begins to murder people that don’t suspect the truth about him he learns that he has to transfer his soul into Andy’s Body so that he does not have to stay in the body of the doll which is beginning to become human and bleeding and such.

With Norris’ help Karen manages to defeat Chucky by burning him to a crisp and saving her son.

Childs Play was written by Don Mancini and directed by Genre Veteran Tom Holland.

Special Effects by Kevin Yagher who not only married Hicks after meeting on the set has also gone on to be one of the designers of the Crypt Keeper as well as Freddy Kruger and Directed Hellraiser: Bloodline.

Chucky was also created utilizing giant sets with a midget dressed as Chucky for the scenes where Chucky was running alone in the shot but Chucky was mostly animatronic.

I feel that one of the reasons for the appeal of this film is many people’s fear of Dolls. This fear goes along well with the fear of Clowns that go back to many people’s childhoods.

I liked the fact that the film combined this fear with the Mass Consumerism of the 1980s. 

A year after the release of Child’s Play the franchise rights as well as the characters were sold to Universal Studios. This was brought on because UA was recently sold and the new owner did not want to release Horror films.

Universal was fast to utilize their newest asset by producing Child’s Play 2 and 3 simultaneously to be released Back to Back.

Unlike its predecessor when Child’s Play 2 was released in 1990 the Add Campaign featured Chucky front and center and even featured commercials with Chucky destroying a Jack in the Box with the line “Sorry Jack, Chucky’s Back”

While Mancini remained on as a writer Tom Holland did not direct any more films in the franchise.

The only character to return from the original besides Chucky is young Andy Barklay who is again played by Alex Vincent.

Taking place two years after the events of the first film the company that owns the Good Guy Dolls has had much bad publicity and are trying to re-launch the line to recoup their losses. This has included rebuilding Chucky from head to toe and after the death of a technician Chucky kidnaps a young executive and after successfully locating Andy Chucky begins to stalk his former pal.

Since the end of the first film Karen has been institutionalized and Andy is sent by home to live with a foster family and their other foster child Kyle the cynical product of CPS.

After a series of events with Chucky and the death of the foster parents Andy is taken back to the home and eventually Kyle learns the truth behind Chucky, who soon kidnaps her to take him to Andy where they face off against Chucky in the Good Guy Doll Factory.

Childs Play 2 and 3 were basically filmed simultaneously and as a result the decision was made for the franchise to skip ahead eight years and Andy is now 16 years and has made the decision to attend Kent Military Academy where after the Good Guy Corporation has once again rebuilt Chucky after his blood enters a vat of plastic and Chucky is once again on the killing path tracking Andy to the Academy where he decides instead of taking Andy’s body he chooses the young Tyler as his next host.

 Andy who is in the process of trying to adapt to life on the Academy where he is the subhect to bullying and Hazing by the upper classmen eventually faces off against Chucky in a carnival Dark ride where Andy succeeds in throwing Chucky into a giant fan and chopping him to ribbons. The last that we see of Andy is him being placed into the back of a police car

Since Andy is now 16 the role had been recast to and future Jimmy Olsen player Justin Whalin took on the role.  Like many of the Child’s Play films part 3 also features a great supporting cast including Perry Reeves who would go on to the role of Mrs. Ari on Entourage.

Genre veteran Andrew Robinson has a small role as Sergeant Botnick. Robinson is known to fans as Scorpio in the original Dirty Harry and had the memorable role of Larry/Frank Cotton in the original Hellraiser.

Child’s Play 3 was met with issues in the UK where after the brutal murder of young James Bulger at the hands of two 10 year olds and the investigation revelaed that one of their fathers had in fact rented Child’s Play 3 and since the killers tortured Bulger with Blue Paint and there is a scene where Chucky is shot with a Blue paintball gun the authorities in the UK decided that the murder and the movie were connected. Child’s Play 3 was added to the list of films that were banned in England, which was eventually lifted.

The franchise was also blamed for the murder 16 year old Suzanne Capper in 1992.

I think that due to these incidents and the lowered appeal of genre films in the mid-1990s the franchise was viewed as all but dead in the time and eventually with the popularity of the film Scream many Genre films began appearing back in theatres.

In October of 1998 Chucky returned to theatres and while the Child’s Play title was dropped, Chucky had a new look and he was not alone this time.

Jennifer Tilly joins the franchise at this point in the title role in Bride of Chucky.

Like many Horror franchises when the franchise at that point where they are in their forth film and begins to turn more towards comedy rather than horror. Now I have to point out that Chucky since the beginning did in fact have some comedy elements.

The first film features a scene where Chuck is in an elevator with an elderly couple that remarks on how ugly Chucky is to which he responds with a “FUCK YOU”. One of the better scenes in Part 3 is the scene where Chucky jumps out at a the Colonel  screaming and brandishing a knife.

The film begins with a evidence storage in a unnamed police station which also featured  Many infamous horror props from other franchises such as Michael Myers and Jason’s Masks Leatherface’s Chainsaw and Freddy’s Glove. After a cop is steels a package he is promply murdered by Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly) and it is revealed that the package contained the remains of Chucky which Tiffany promptly sews back together and using the book Voodoo for Dummies resurrects Chucky and…

Well the reunion dosen’t go so well and Chucky after killing Tiffany then transfers her soul into the body of a doll creating the Bride of Chucky.

The rest of the film follows the exploits of Chucky and Tiffany as they kidnap a young couple in order to take their bodies

There are some scenes that I felt were not needed and one of the scenes that was where I felt that the film Nuked the Fridge or put nipples on the suit as many complain about is the scene where Chucky and Tiffany decide to consummate their relationship. I honestly felt that it was way too over the top which was the direction that they were taking the franchise at the time.

If it wasn’t for this scene we would not have our sequel Seed of Chucky.

After Chucky and Tiffany are destroyed at the end of Bride it is revealed that Tiffany was in fact with child and the born.

Seed picks up soon afterward with the kind doll who searches for his parents and soon finds that a film is being produced about the Childs Play films and he goes to their reassembled bodies and manages to reanimate them with an amulet that he found on him when he was born.

Directed by Don Mancini himself Seed of Chucky was a comedic take more than any other film in the franchise and was filled with jokes such as the subplot where Chucky and Tiffany decide that now they are parents they should stop the killing to set an example for their son. This was Tiffany’s idea and Chucky just pretended to go along with the idea. This is where the best of the comedy comes from in the  film.

Honorable mention has to go to a scene where Chucky runs a Brittany Spears lookalike off the road to her death and the best death goes to Cult director John Waters in the film.

In the end Tiffany manages to transfer her soul into the body of Jennifer Tilly herself and Chucky decides that he would rather remain in the doll relishing in his Boogey Man Status.

There is a funny Special Feature featuring the Killer Doll Family looking at their family vacaton photos. 

After Seed of Chucky was released the franchise once again went into Hiatus as talks of a remake began to take place and nearly a decade after Seed of Chucky Terrorized the box offices across the nation the killer Doll then took the route of Direct to Home Media bringing us Curse of Chucky.

Again directed by Don Mancini Curse of Chucky successfully returns the franchise to it’s frightening roots with this dark entry to the franchise which is also a treat for longtime fans of the franchise.

Joining the series is Chucky’s new nemesis Nica who is played by Fiona Dourif who is the daughter of the voice of Chucky himself Brad Dourif.

The film takes the series back to it’s origins where Nica and her mother receive a package in the mail which as you can guess has Chucky. After tragedy leads to a family reunion of Nica’s sister her husband and their daughter Alice as well as Alice’s nanny Jill and trust me this family has some issues.

There are some twists such as the fact that this family has a connection to Charles Lee Ray before he became the plastic psychopath and there are some great flashback sequences featuring Brad Dourif reprising the role.

I like the fact that the film originally has Chucky in his original form before revealing that this is just a cover for his scarred face.

After the film stay tuned for a post credit sequence featuring Alex Vincent reprising his role of Andy which is a nice treat for fans of the first film.

I really like the fact that this is a sequel and not a remake which is what we are all seeing with these 80s Horror Icons.

Curse of CHucky also manages to maintain continuity which is a rarity in long term horror franchises of this sort. 

The use of lighting definetly gives the film it’s errie feel that the series has lacked since Childs Play 3 and I really liked that the film returned to the true Roots of Horror and like the first film no expence was sparred to bring life to the killer doll.

You can definitely tell that there are multiple Chucky’s in the film with the use of the regular doll to a midget actress used for long shots and to walk down the stairs.

The house was a nice touch and you can tell that it added creativity to the filming process.

As I said this is a welcome treat for Chucky fans.

8 Dead Bodies

0 Breasts

1 Killer Doll

Eye Stabbing

Skull Crushing

Electrocution

Throat Slashing

Bones Breaking

Heads Roll

Wheelchair Fu

Doll Fu

4 Stars

Check it out and definetly look at the new Chucky Box set featuring all of the films in the series for the first time.