SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE II (Deborah Brock, 1987)

It begins with Courtney (Crystal Bernard), the younger sister of Valerie, the two survivors of the first film, who helped kill the murderer, now in high school herself, dreaming about the boy she has a crush on.  If you've seen any slasher films you know this can't be a good thing.  Sex and sexual desire are things to be punished in these movies and, sure enough, just as the dream is closing in on physical contact, we get a collection of both flashes from the first film and some of the horrors that are to come in this film.  Cut to breakfast and we hear Courtney's mother (Jennifer Rhodes) telling Courtney that "Dr Watts says that it is perfectly normal to dream about it again from time to time.  After all, dreams are one way our mind help us deal with frightening experiences."  She goes on to indicate that Valerie has not been able to come to grips with these events which is why she remains institutionalized.  Courtney says she understands and doesn't need to see the therapist because it is "just the same old dream."  Courtney returns to her room and we see her remove a photo album from under her mattress.  The traditional hiding place of pornography contains instead, newspaper clippings detailing the events of the first movie's murders.  The forbidden excitement and titillation of porn is replace by daily reminders of the horrors that continue to disturb her subconscious and the "dangers" of sexual awakening.  On the way out she encounters one of those horrors directly in the form of a dead bird, the image of which we have just seen in her nightmare. She stares at it, trance like, mesmerized by this portent of death until her friend Amy (Kimberly McArthur) pulls up to give her a ride.

On their way to school they encounter Matt (Patrick Lowe), the boy of Courtney's dreams.  Amy encourages Courtney to talk to him as she knows Courtney likes him and has heard that the attraction is mutual.  They have a pleasant exchange that ends in Amy and Courtney inviting Matt to watch their band play after school.  Refreshingly there is absolutely no creepiness in Matt's desire for Courtney; he seems genuine and mature at all times.  Matt shows up to the practice and is invited to a weekend at "Shelia's (Juliette Cummings) dad's place."   After she convinces her mother that she should be allowed to go on the weekend (another scene of remarkable amiability and understanding), Courtney is seen talking to Matt on the phone, expressing her wish that could he could come earlier on Saturday.  She hangs up to go to bed and is again plagued by violent nightmares that include Matt, as well as a message from her sister to not "go all the way."  Generally punishment for sexual desire in slashers manifests in the form of a physical threat, i.e. the killer.  What distinguishes Slumber Party Massacre II is that the threat is completely internalized.  Courtney's traumatic experience in the first film and her sister's institutionalization have created in her a fear of her burgeoning sexuality, which is expressed in the nightmare warnings.  As Courtney gets closer to a relationship with Matt or encounters anything sexually related (a book that Sally [Heidi Kozak] has, the noisy coitus of Shelia and T.J. [Joel Hoffman]) these nightmares not only increase in severity, but become waking hallucinations as well.

As they become more intense, Courtney's interaction with the hallucinations expands as well; what was originally just a set of feet, a maniacal laugh and a series of seemingly random images, begins to take the shape of a demented rocker.  Think part Elvis, part Andrew Dice Clay, wielding a guitar with a gigantic, phallic drill bit.  Despite her collection of clippings about the murder and her own memories of it, Courtney's dream version bares little resemblance to the killer of the first film, with the noticeable exception of the drill.  Here though, it is not simply a drill but is attached a demonic looking guitar.  Courtney is the guitarist in the band and the "killer" is not only out to punish her sexual desire but to steal from her those things which form the basis of her identity and pleasure.  When Courtney confronts him in a hallucination, accusing him of killing Valerie, the killer dismisses it and tells Courtney that, "I am you, and you are me, until we go all the way."  Unless she confronts her fears, she will never be free of this "killer."  Despite his increasing menace, the killer is not in every hallucination.  Just prior to Matt's finally arriving at the house, Courtney hallucinates the death of Sally (Heidi Kozak) and the killer is not a part of it, though she still evokes him when relaying the story, stating that she believes that he is "somewhere in this house."

Her friends, for the most part, are extremely understanding and compassionate about the whole thing.  Sure, the douchebag character continues to act like a douchebag, but everyone else is genuinely concerned.  Matt goes as far as to call the police who, not surprisingly, don't take Courtney's account of Sally's face exploding to seriously, despite the fact that Sally hasn't been seen since.  They are of course right to be skeptical, given the lack of physical evidence and the fact that Sally shows up part way through the statement.  The scene is important as the cops will now not respond when the group inevitably calls again while in actual danger.  The rest of the group decide to take off for a bit so Matt can try and calm Courtney down.  They retire to her room where Matt brings her a birthday cake, complete with burning candles.  Where did it come from?  Who knows, but it is in keeping with the narrative (Courtney mentions earlier that her birthday is this weekend) and with the theme of maturation.  This momentarily lightens Courtney's mood but soon she is crying again and telling Matt that "she doesn't know if she's going crazy or what" and that he "must think she is the weirdest person in the world."  Matt, continuing to be one of the nicest men in slasher films, says "No, I think your a very sensitive person who had something bad happened when you were little and all the excitement from your crazy friends brought it back for awhile today."  Besides being a spot on analysis of Courtney's mind state this also relieves Courtney of the burden of this secret (the rest of her friends don't know anything and think her sister went off to college).  Turns out Matt's parents were friends with...ah it doesn't matter.  What does matter is that Matt knows and Courtney acknowledges that she and her sister killed the murderer.  He acknowledges as well and confirms what she already knows: the killer is dead.  He did not survive the previous confrontation and can pose no threat to her or anyone else.  It's the affirmation she needs and it allows her temporary reprieve from her anxiety.  As the rest of the group returns downstairs, Matt and Courtney begin to make out.  As they get closer to consummation, Courtney tries to tell Matt that she is a virgin but when she begins the phrase "I've never..." it is the killer that finishes "gone all the way."  Any comfort Matt provides for her is not enough to stave off the years of fear and anxiety connected to the previous murders and her growing sexual desire.  He promptly drills a hole through Matt's chest.  Courtney, scared but with a new sense of understanding, tells the hallucination that "he is dream," to which he picks up Matt's severed arm and asks "does this look like a dream to you," throwing it on the cake and extinguishing both the candles and any remnants of Courtney's innocence. Courtney runs out and downstairs.

This time, when she finds her friends, they see that she is covered with blood, and when the killer comes down the stairs, they see him as well; attempting to fulfull her sexual desire has caused Courtney's nightmares to manifest in reality.  Thus begins the standard slasher third act, where the characters are executed one by one while making incredible bad choices along the way.  What is great about this scenario though is that it doesn't make a difference what choice they make.  Normally we would grown at how easily the killer catches up to the victims and admonish them for going down a dead end or into some other easily avoidable trap.  Here though it is consistent with the dream logic that the film establishes. So they run and scream and die, while the killer just laughs and (literally) pops up wherever they are.

Eventually every one is dead but Courtney, who races through a half finished subdivision, the open walls a reminder of how she can't hide from a pursuit that originates in her psyche.  What do you do when you can't run or hide anymore?  You attack.  Courtney finds a welding torch and, with a maniacal laugh of her own, turns it on her tormentor.  His own laughter turns to screams as he is ignited and falls off the roof.  Fade to a beatific sunrise.  Courtney stands outside the previous set as police scurry about.  She stops paramedics as they wheel out a body.  Courtney pulls down the sheet to look at Amy, the last to die.  Abruptly Amy opens her eyes and starts to laugh with the giddy laugh of the killer.  Cut to: Courtney startled awake in bed next to Matt.  She grins and leans over to kiss him awake.  He begins to reciprocate but we see the hand of the killer rise to embrace her.  She pulls away but he holds her, saying "I love you."   Courtney screams as the camera pushes quickly in to her open mouth, then pulls back out again.  The scene has changed; we are now in the room of the mental ward where we had previously "seen" Valerie.  Courtney looks around and, recognizing her confines, screams more.  This would seem like the end of the film, with Courtney's reality being that she is the patient of this mental ward.  However, director Deborah Brock adds one addition shot to make the whole thing more disturbing.  It is a wide shot of the room.  We continue to hear Courtney's terrorized scream but then we see the drill pierce the floor, its phallic danger taking up the foreground.  Cut to black, roll credits.

As if an existence living in a mental hospital isn't horrible enough, at least that would provide a measure reality, regardless of how unbearable it is.  But no, what Brock does is even more insidious; she leaves Courtney with the "curse of eternal waking," a never ending series of nightmares within nightmares that makes here reality as unreliable as what we have witnessed for the last 75 minutes. What appeared to be about a puritanical fear of sex, the most common of slasher themes, is in reality a story of post traumatic stress, a less common but for more interesting slasher theme.  What Brock did in 1987, was create a self-aware slasher flick without the winking at the camera that would accompany movies like Scream a decade later, as well as one of the better "dream logic" films you're likely to see.  This is one smart flick.

LAWLESS (John Hillcoat, 2012)

Oh, Shia LaBeouf, how hard you try to sink this movie.  It's a tremendous effort and there were, at times, real concerns that you'd be able to pull it off.  Not the least of which is the unbearable narration.  I know it is not entirely your fault (writer Nick Cave is a bit lazy), but still your delivery doesn't help.  What saves your performance is the fact that your character, Jack Bondurant, is supposed to be a little on the slow side.  Your ability to act dim witted is the most natural thing you've ever done.  Nice try though, better luck next time.

Back to that narration; is there any need, when the image on screen is clearly 20s era and we see men removing crates full with bottles of clear liquid, to tell us that it the prohibition era and that we are dealing with bootleggers?  Are you worried we might assume their just Culligan delivery guys?  It's clear that much time and money has been spent in making the image look authentic, why distract from that with the obviousness of this narration?  Such striking imagery offset by such unnecessary exposition.  It's a real shame but, unfortunately, it's not the most egregious thing the screenplay does.  For that you have to look at the center piece where Tom Hardy's Forrest Bondurant has his throat slit and his recent love interest, Maggie Beauford (Jessica Chastain is...well, something happens to her.  Or maybe not, at the moment when the assailants grab her and indicated that they are going to "have some fun," Hillcoat cuts away.  The next time we see her it is as Forrest is waking up at the hospital.  There is no visible sign that anything happened to her.  This in and of itself is not a big deal.  I've loved many a dramatic cut in my time.  The problem occurs when the moment is finally addressed near the end of the film.  It's as if Cave forgot about the earlier scene and realized he had to deal with it.  So we get a quick confrontation between Forrest and Maggie, where she tells him that it was her that saved his ass and he asks if she encountered the assailants.  She admits to seeing them but adamantly denies that anything happened.  That's it.  Forrest accepts this and goes off to the films final showdown.  What else could he do really?  He'd already had his revenge, one that was not in the least bit motivated by what they might or might have done to Maggie.  It had already been established that she was a working girl in Chicago and had left to get away from, well something.  The absence of physical abuse leaves little room for speculation; she must have volunteered her body in exchange for her life (at that moment she didn't know the fate of Forrest, whom she hadn't yet noticed bleeding to death behind his truck).  Okay, fine.  I'd probably do the same if it meant not being killed or horribly maimed, but her sacrifice means nothing to the film.  When Maggie tells Forrest that she came back and found him he is surprised, he thought he walked to the hospital.  When he asks if she saw the perpetrators, she denies that anything happened.  When he becomes more emphatic, she denies through tears but that's it.  It's the last we hear or see regarding the truth of that night.  It's annoying; the original ellipsis teased the promise of future purpose, making us believe that it would come into play, in some way be significant (which it should be).  To leave it as an afterthought is insulting to the audience and to Maggie.

While the screenplay may have its issues, there is much to praise about Lawless.  Since resurfacing with (he made a single feature in both the eighties and nineties) with 2005's superb The Proposition, Hillcoat has shown that he is a gifted stylist.  While neither The Road nor Lawless have the narrative success of The Proposition, both show a visualist worth keeping an eye on.  There are stunning moments in Lawless that feel unique despite the films heritage of prohibition era films.  This makes the deficiencies of the script all the more upsetting.  If Hillcoat and Cave could just find some symbiosis with regards where they are going with the film, the strange narrative turns wouldn't feel so jarring.  The situation with Maggie is not the only occasion where the script lets us down.  Gary Oldman plays Floyd Banner and after one of the better character introduction you're likely to see this year, he virtually disappears from script, popping up a couple of more times mostly to show the "growth" of LeBeouf's Jack.

The cast almost saves this film.  With the exception of LeBeouf, everyone is tremendously solid in their roles, with two especially good performances.  One comes from Hardy who plays another variation on the brutes that he has played in Bronson, Warrior, and this past years The Dark Knight Rises.  While it isn't as good as what he accomplished in Bronson, it is the strongest of the remaining.  His mumbling, cigar chomping, brass knuckle wearing alpha male is truly scary.  However, with very little affectation, Hardy is able to expose a vulnerable side to Forrest as well; a look here, a gesture there, the absence of a word when you might expect one, all this adds a lot to what could have been a very one dimensional character.  But the real revelation here is Guy Pearce.  Pearce has been good in many movies (including Hillcoat's The Proposition) but I've never seen him as terrifying or focused as he is here.  He plays "special deputy" Charlie Rakes, a vicious but cowardly lawman brought in to help out with the bootlegging problem.  Like many a power drunk lawman before him, Charlie has basically slipped into the role of serial killer.  Under the guise of doing his duty of course.  He struts into town like he's above these pathetic hicks but soon discovers that they are more formidable than he might have believed.  He then preys on the weakest of them until his violence inevitably comes back to him.  He is one of the slimiest characters I can remember and Pearce owns him from the first moment we see him.  He's reason enough to see the film.

Flawed but interesting, Lawless proves that Hillcoat isn't a fluke.  It's a improvement over The Road though it still can't come close to The Proposition.  It went virtually unnoticed during it's theatrical run and the "awards season" isn't giving it any love (despite Pearce giving possibly the best performance I've seen all year).  Take some time and check it out.  It's worth it.