Break it down for me

UNBREAKABLE (2000)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
Original review from 2000 screening

M. Night Shyamalan's "Unbreakable" is an ambitious effort - to deconstruct the myth that people may have special superhuman powers - but it fails to rise beyond that very notion. And yet, as evidenced by Shaymalan's previous effort, "The Sixth Sense," he has an uncanny ability to draw the audience in with precious directorial tools - atmosphere and subtle, introspective performances.

Bruce Willis, who also starred in "Sixth Sense," is a security guard named David Dunn who has just survived a catastrophic train crash. It is so catastrophic that everyone on board the train dies except for David. He does not have a single wound! How can this be? His wife (Robin Wright-Penn) does not recall a single day in their 12-year marriage where he ever got sick, much less suffered an injury. His idolizing son (Spencer Treat Clark) is worried about his father, arguing that he may have special powers to the point where he wants to show off his father's athletic ability to other kids. I mean, who on earth could survive such a train crash with nary a scratch?

Enter the cryptic Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), a comic-book gallery owner who has a medical condition where the bones in his body are practically brittle - he was born with broken arms and legs and walks around with a purple cape and a glass cane! He looks like a comic book action hero! Price is interested in David's case, and assumes that David must have superhuman powers. After all, David is able to...oh, I would not dream of revealing much more than that.

"Unbreakable" is the psychological version of "X-Men," a supposedly analytical study of one man's amazing ability to survive tragic accidents that should otherwise leave him for dead. The problem is that Willis hardly engages us. He seems to walk around as if in a trance, virtually catatonic to the point of being a zombie. Wouldn't Willis's character, David, at least wonder why he survived the crash? And why his life seems indifferent considering there is the potential of a divorce from his wife? How about the scene where his son threatens to kill him with a gun? Wouldn't David feel any emotion about his curious condition and how it may be affecting others? The problem is that his wife seems to be in a bit of a daze herself over their marriage.

The nature of David's condition brings up all kinds of philosophical questions. I thought writer-director Shyamalan might invite us to ponder the answers but he refuses to. Once David discovers his gifts and abilities, the film shifts into a thriller-of-sorts where the madness of the world and its inhabitants shakes, rattles and rolls David. Unlike the underrated 1993 film "Fearless" that dealt with how one comes to grip with surviving a tragedy, "Unbreakable" merely turns into a cartoonish version of itself, expunging all drama and tension for the sake of some minor thrills. The surprise ending is not so much a surprise as it is a hindrance, and we are thus left with more questions than answers. That is not necessarily a hindrance in itself (I do love unsolved puzzles) but here it is the result of an underwritten screenplay.

I will say that M. Night Shyamalan has a gift of his own - he knows how to appropriate the right kind of atmosphere and mood. There are superbly visceral moments of fear and dread, such as the scene where David walks among the families of the dead passengers who are perplexed at his survival, the train station scenes where David observes every person walking near him, and a precious moment between David and his son where words are silently exchanged.

There is a lot to admire in the choice of actors. Leaving out Willis's zombiefied state, I loved the electric presence of Samuel L. Jackson - a truly unbreakable actor who is irresistible to watch. Robin Wright-Penn does not have much to do in a relatively thankless role but there is some compassion and humanity in her character. Spencer Treat Clark is no Haley Joel Osment but he does have some affecting scenes of his own.

"Unbreakable" is often fascinating and haunting but its central lead character walks through the film in such a daze that you wish someone would break him.

Ghosts in Philadelphia

THE SIXTH SENSE (1999)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

(Originally written in 1999)

Good horror stories are a dime a dozen mainly because writers and directors have lost the imagination to tell them - gore and dismemberment have stood in the way of cohesive storytelling elements. "The Blair Witch Project" is a great horror film whereas "The Sixth Sense" is merely a good one - a sensitively written, well-directed story of a journey into the world of ghosts. This film along with Bruce Joel Rubin's "Ghost" play with the idea that ghosts inhabit the earth for a reason - to complete some unfinished business.

"The Sixth Sense" begins with Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis), a psychologist who at the start of the film is shot in his home by a deeply disturbed patient of his. A year later, the seemingly recouped Malcolm finds a morose, quiet boy named Cole (Haley Joel Osment) suffering from similar problems as Malcolm's former patient - Cole becomes Crowe's latest study. It turns out that Cole can see ghosts in his own home, though nobody else can. One is a nervous, evidently abused woman in a pink robe, the other is a girl who brings Cole some mysterious box, and so on. Crowe is mystified and intrigued by Cole's visions yet he does have problems of his own. Crowe's forlorn wife, Anna (Olivia Williams), suffers from depression and is ostensibly having an affair, which angers him enough to throw rocks through storefront windows. They seem unable to communicate, and she leaves hastily when he is late for a dinner date. He is consumed by work, she is consumed by sadness.

"The Sixth Sense" is mostly told through the point-of-view of Cole - we see these visions through his eyes. No adult can see them, but the good doctor begins to believe him. The best scenes are when Cole is scared and tense about some of the ghosts intruding in his home, or when he senses something unspeakable in a dungeon-like room at a friend's house. There is also a scene where Cole sees a car accident victim while trying to convince his mother (Toni Collete) that he "sees dead people."

There are some effective scenes of controlled tension and without the minimalist strength of Willis's performance or Osment's whispered innocence, "The Sixth Sense" might have fallen apart from lesser hands. It is only when dealing with Cole's and Crowe's inner lives that writer-director N. Night Shyamalan ("Wide Awake") fails to lend much weight. Olivia Williams, the incandescent co-star of "Rushmore," is given little to do and her role lacks development or impact. Somehow, we know she does not listen or communicate with Crowe, but we learn little about her and her feelings. There is also scant development regarding Osment's mother - we get mostly reaction shots and a big emotional scene but little in the way of knowing how she relates to her tense son. She almost seems to avoid him, or not pay much mind when she finds the kitchen's drawers and doors open a second after leaving them intact while her son is eating breakfast.

"The Sixth Sense" has a haunting sense of menace through its controlled level of mood and pace (the city of Philadelphia never looked so daunting and overcast), but it is off-kilter in its emotional context. Its surprise ending pays off nicely, but there is none of the unifying breadth or tension of the similar, dream-like "Jacob's Ladder." Still, Willis and Osment keep you involved and guessing as to what will happen next.

Massacre Laid me Down to Sleep

THE RETURN OF THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1994)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

A week ago, I watched the engrossing documentary "The American Nightmare," a compelling study of how society and world events can sometimes shape a horror film's scare factor. It was fascinating and introspective, particularly director Tobe Hooper's comments on what made the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" possible (a description about lack of gas in one scene mirrored the country's own lack of a precious commodity). Watching "The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (also known as "The Next Generation"), I can safely say that nothing in this film was influenced by anything except greed.

Well, there is one other factor. The film posits the theory that Kennedy was not killed by the goverment but by crazy backwoods people! That is certainly a new theory, unworthy of much speculation. And who would have thought that Leatherface would listen to his intended victim by sitting down at the dinner table and keeping his mouth shut! And how does a prom queen, who is visibly impaled on a meat hook, able to drag herself out of the dreaded cannibals' house with no visible blood spillage? And how about Matthew McConaughey as the most over-the-top ex-CIA agent-cum-cannibal in history whose right leg runs on batteries and keeps a slew of remote controls in his pockets! And if nothing is as deadly awful as that, how about Renee Zellweger as the mousy virgin who at one points makes a declaration that even Marilyn Chambers in the original wouldn't have thought of: "I am leaving right now!" Well, she almost makes it. Interestingly, I might have overstated one fact: this new family doesn't seem to be interested in cannibalism. They just want to scare the living daylights out of their victims.

The original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" is a nightmarish masterpiece of unblinking, unrelieving terror that still gives me goosebumps. I would have preferred revisiting it than watching yet another poorly conceived and downright unwatchable sequel. Another cartoonish sequel like this and Leatherface will have his own Saturday morning cartoon.

An extended Twilight Zone episode

STIR OF ECHOES (1999)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Kevin Bacon is another one of our most unsung actors in the movies whose talent is often unspoken of. This man has appeared in "J.F.K," "Sleepers," "A Few Good Men," and "Apollo 13." He has also had his footing in the sci-fi/horror genre in films like the original "Friday the 13th," "Flatliners" and "Tremors." It is nice to see him back in this genre with the fitfully exciting and alternately disturbing "Stir of Echoes."

Bacon plays Tom Witzky, a telephone service repairman with a faithful, pregnant wife (Kathryn Erbe) and a cute son (Zachary David Cope), who talks to himself in his bedroom and in the bathtub. But who is he talking to? Some unseen force or spirit, or is it the kids' imagination? Of course, a creepiness sets in when we see that he is talking to us, and we are the spirits.

One night, Tom goes to a neighborhood keg party and is hypnotized by his sister-in-law (the quixotically alive Illeana Douglas). Afterwards, he begins to get headaches, drinks orange juice by the gallon, and feels the need to dig in his backyard searching for something. Tom also sees visions of the ghost of a missing girl in the neighborhood, and every time he gets close to her, he feels cold and sees frost in the air (shades of "The Sixth Sense"). Everyone thinks he is going crazy except for his son who tells him not to be afraid.

"Stir of Echoes" is great, intriguing entertainment for the first hour. Tom's visions begin to get more bizarre and violent, and he also foresees the future. We also see how this affects his wife, their sex life, and his son who seems to embody other spirits (he is possessed briefly at one point). Unfortunately, as written by Richard Matheson (based on his 1958 novel) and David Koepp, the movie gradually stirs itself into a narrow corner. Too many plot threads are left hanging and we are left with a movie about the spectre of a dead girl who affects an entire neighborhood. Once the film examines the mystery of this girl, "Stir of Echoes" never truly builds on the psychological layers of Tom's character to see how this might affect him. There is nothing here to suggest the implicit ironies of "The Sixth Sense" or Roman Polanski's masterpiece, "The Tenant." And the anticlimactic, mediocre ending lends little in the film's favor.

There is still a lot to savor in "Stir of Echoes." Kevin Bacon projects anxiety and fear in a nicely balanced performance - his cocky, tense behavior is well-modulated but he could have done so much more with an in-depth script. Illeana Douglas is a sprightly wonder and brings the film alive with her charisma. A real shame that she is so underused considering she unleashes the can of visions to Tom in the first place. I also enjoyed Kevin Dunn's brief role as Tom's sexually lustful friend.

There are some surprises but not enough to overcome the fact that "Stir of Echoes" is nothing more than an extended "Twilight Zone" episode. It had more potential than that, if only writers Matheson and director David Koepp stirred all the elements to come up with a fruitier mix.

An atheistic stigmatic

STIGMATA (1999)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

(Originally written in 1999)

It is a pleasure to see the horror genre back again with a keen interest in the supernatural, eschewing any of the tired slasher routines since "Scream's" wake. It is less pleasurable to see that filmmakers can become so misguided as to make complete drivel like "Stigmata," a poorly conceived, beautifully shot yet pointless rip-off of "The Exorcist."

Patricia Arquette stars as Frankie Paige, a Pittsburgh hairdresser who frequents clubs with her pals (she also has an unseen boyfriend who no doubt finds her as irritating as I did). One day, she receives a rosary from her mother in the mail, and suddenly finds thick nail wounds on her wrists while taking a bath. Frankie goes to the emergency room but feels no pain, and the doctors unbelievably feel the wounds were self-inflicted. Oh, please. I don't think anyone would have the strength to drive thick nails through their wrists. Nevertheless, Frankie seems undaunted by all this and still goes club-hopping. Unfortunately, her customers want someone else to cut their hair (understandable, I mean, would you want someone with bandages around their wrists to cut your hair?) Frankie starts to see visions, such as a woman dropping a baby on a street corner. She also suffers more wounds, like being relentlessly whipped in a out-of-control subway car.

The truth is that she is afflicted with stigmata, the supposed wounds that Christ suffered during the crucifixion. So, yes, there are the whippings, thorns penetrating her skull, nails driven through her wrists and feet, and so on. But nothing seems to faze Frankie, she just becomes annoyed that such an affliction would get in the way of her nightlife and sex life. Another truth glossed over is that stigmatics are usually Catholic but in Frankie's case, she is atheist. But this rosary apparently came from a Brazilian priest who passed the stigmata to the next available customer (Question: how come Frankie's mother did not get it first?)

The Vatican (almost all of its members photographed in deep shadows) discovers this particular stigmatic and decide to employ Father Andrew Kiernan (Gabriel Byrne), a scientist who determines the veracity of miracles around the world, to investigate this woman and see if she is indeed a spiritual manifestation of the Holy Ghost. Kiernan finds that she is, but he is also a man grappling with his own faith (read Jason Miller's Father Karras in "Exorcist"). I was curious about a scene where he almost decides not to pursue the case once Frankie admits to being atheist. Of course, why any of these spiritual happenings would affect an atheist is a question never posed by anyone in the entire movie. Instead, we get intimate scenes between the girl and the priest, some moments of brief possession, and a laughable fiery exorcism sequence that lifts whole sections of dialogue from "The Exorcist." What any of this has to with stigmata is beyond me.

"Stigmata" has ambitions to be either a spiritually cleansing exercise or a psychological portrait of a self-destructive young woman grappling with her spiritual beliefs. Instead, director Rupert Wainwright depicts Frankie's life-changing event as if it were an inconvenience. Also, we get alot of talk about how deeply painful it is to be stigmatic because there are so many repercussions from different spirits, both good and evil. But Frankie is an unchanged woman from beginning to end - a cipher with no inner life. She never seems affected or truly afflicted, despite the numerous special-effects and mili-second cuts of drops of water and horrid images of bleeding wounds. Those are all devices constructed as if we were watching an MTV film with music by Nine Inch Nails, and they detract from the character and the story.

"Stigmata" has caused a haelstorm of controversy because it is seemingly anti-Catholic. As written by Tom Lazarus and Rick Ramage, the film is not good enough to provoke any such argument. The only committed heresy is how much of it is borrowed from "The Exorcist."

Quickens the heart and draws blood

MARY SHELLEY'S FRANKENSTEIN (1994)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

All due respect to Boris Karloff's iconic creation of the Monster with electric bolts and square head, Robert De Niro's incarnation of the Creature looks like something assembled out of human body parts that are sewn together. Complete with stitches, sores, huge hands and a limp, this monster is determined to make life a living hell for his creator, Victor Frankenstein (Kenneth Branagh).

At the start of "Frankenstein," the mad doctor is seen in the icy landscape of the Arctic chased by the Creature. Frankenstein is finally able to get away long enough to tell his story to a determined explorer (Aidan Quinn) of where this creature came from. We all know the story of Frankenstein as he slowly grows insane, desperately trying to create life out of dead human tissue. The climactic, over-the-top sequence begins exactly as one would expect. In his subterranean lab, Dr. Frankenstein makes several attempts to bring life to an executed beggar (who has Frankenstein's mentor's brain) with thousands of volts of electricity tapped into a huge water tank. The Creature breaks out of the tank, escapes and finds refuge at a barn where a blind hermit lives with his family. The Creature learns to communicate and read, and then it discovers rather quickly that the good doctor has created him and made him into an ugly being. Meanwhile, Frankenstein has fallen in love with his adopted sister, Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter). Their mutual attraction is interrupted by tragedy and death in the wake of the Creature.

"Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" moves at a fast clip but it is hampered by Kenneth Branagh's portrayal of the doctor - at first, he seems like a young, mad and immoral scientist but after his creation walks away, the vigor and excitement drains away as if Branagh did not know where to go with the character. Of course that could be intentional but it appears as if he is sleepwalking. Sad to say that the wonderful Helena Bonham Carter ("Howard's End") brings zilch to the role of Elizabeth, probably due to being severely underwritten. She is mostly reduced to myriad romps in the hay with bare-chested Branagh.

The heart and soul of "Frankenstein" can be found in De Niro, who brings pathos, sadness and terror to the Creature that touches base with Mary Shelley's novel more so than most other versions. With several ugly stitches, scars, two different eyes and a bald head, he comes across as a tragic figure who could literally break your heart.

Spectacular production design, fine special-effects and a rapid pace enliven "Frankenstein," but sometimes Branagh does not know when to quit. Too many circling camera pans and hyperbolic, overly theatrical performances and sequences (including a Caesarean birth) are overstating - they would make Ken Russell jealous. As terrific as De Niro is, the last few scenes feel like a revisiting of his Max Cady psycho from "Cape Fear." On the whole, it is as if Branagh was trying to outdo the operatic flourishes of Coppola's version of "Dracula" (Coppola incidentally produced this one as well). "Frankenstein" has style to spare, but it needed to be dramatically dialed down.

Faux fright cliches

THE HAUNTING (1999)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

(Originally viewed in 1999)

While watching this remake of "The Haunting," I began to wonder how this film would fare if it was not a remake, but just another haunted house story. In other words, what if this was the first film adaptation of Shirley Jackson's 1959 novel, forgetting that the 1963 Robert Wise classic ever existed?

Let's look at the particulars. Independent film queen Lili Taylor is Ellen, the morose, mousy woman invited to Hill House where a special insomnia study is being conducted by a doctor (Liam Neeson). The other guests, or subjects, are the blonde surfer dude Luke (Owen Wilson - who looks like a surfer dude even if he isn't one) and the sexual cat, Theo (Catherine Zeta-Jones), a bisexual who comforts Ellen and is thus teased by Luke. Oh, and did I notice the quick departure of Todd Fields as another subject? I suppose, I did. Maybe he was called in for some reshoots in Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut."

I am sorry but this film hints at disaster from the get-go, and if this had been the first adaptation, it would have surely spelled doom for future fright fests. The fact is that "The Haunting" is directed by Jan De Bont, who helmed the exciting "Speed" and "Speed 2," the latter of which I have avoided. To be fair, the first hour of "The Haunting" captures a sense of spookiness and quiet calm that made the original so memorable. I mean, there are actually no special-effects! The characters are somewhat interesting if buffoonish and detached. Zeta-Jones makes a sparkling entrance as she proclaims with a luscious, breathless voice upon entering Hill House: "Don't you just love it here? You don't get this from a Martha Stewart catalog." Neeson shows a little gleam, and shows interest in Taylor's Ellen who has her own demons to confront. Wilson has a few one-liners to offset the creepy dimensions of the inevitable haunting. Dare I say, this movie was starting to look like a classic ghost story. But then...all hell is unleashed.

De Bont unleashes one special-effects gimmick after another, never alluding to or insinuating the mysterious forces within the house. Instead, he shows us everything and anything. The final half-hour is especially laughable as the main demonic spirit crashes the house in a digital FX blowout of collapsing frames, cracked windows, contorted beds, split floorboards - it is all so outrageously banal that it makes the locust finale of "Exorcist II" look frightful by comparison.

Since De Bont shows us only gaping actors staring at FX galore, we never feel as if this house is truly haunted - it feels like William Castle put on an expensive light show at Universal Studios. Sure, the art decoration and set design of the house is spectacular but hardly suggests that lurking shadows or ghosts inhabit it. And with scarce insight into any of the characters, "The Haunting" becomes an interminable void of faux fright cliches.