SPRING

 

Publicity poster for Spring (© Justin Benson/Aaron Moorhead/XYZ Films/Drafthouse Films/FilmBuff – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

My film watch on 14 July 2024 was a quite extraordinary movie from 10 years ago entitled Spring, and best described as a body horror/modern romance.

It was directed by Jstin Benson and Aaron Moorhead who doubled-up in various other roles too (they co-produced it, with Benson co-editing it, as well as writing its screenplay, plus Moorhead serving as its cinematographer), and released in 2014 by Drafthouse Films and FilmBuff.

Spring centres upon young American Evan (Lou Taylor Pucci) who flies on a whim from the States to Italy in order to escape his grief after his mother succumbs to cancer. While staying in a small village near Naples, he meets a mysterious young woman named Louise (Nadia Hilker) who is very adept at evading questions but is also very keen to have unprotected sex with him, so they do.

The movie's viewers, but not Evan, are then privy to some grotesque scenes in which Louise shape-shifts into bizarre, monstrous entities, during which phases she kills and devours various animals and also murders a young man who approaches her in a dark alley one evening, mistaking her for a prostitute.

After Louise abruptly breaks up with Evan, however, he unexpectedly turns up at her home to try to resolve matters, but is terrified to find her writhing on the floor in the form of a hideous multi-tentacled monster that reminded me of Greek mythology's Scylla. However, he succeeds in injecting her with a hypodermic syringe that she always keeps close by for a medical condition that she has never elaborated upon to Evan, and he watches as she gradually transforms back into human form.

During the lengthy explanation that follows, Louise informs Evan that she is a 2,000-year-old immortal entity who renews herself every 20 years, on the spring equinox of that year, by becoming pregnant and then absorbing the resulting embryo's stem cells. Just prior to each regeneration, however, her body becomes wildly unstable, causing her to metamorphose erratically into previous monstrous incarnations, as has been happening now, and is the reason why she broke up with Evan, to keep him safe from her dangerous ravages.

Evan pleads with Louise to give up her immortality and become mortal so that they can be together as a normal mortal couple – but even though she does love Evan, is her immortality too powerful a gift, or curse, for Louise to be willing or even able to sacrifice?

The special effects are brief but effective, especially the climactic tentacled monster reveal scene, which is positively Lovecraftian and  quite horrific. On the downside, there is far too much wholly gratuitous bad language, which becomes ever more grating as the film progresses. Otherwise, however, Spring is a thoroughly offbeat but engrossing romantic fantasy, quite unlike anything that I've seen before.

If you'd like to watch an official trailer for this movie, please click here to view one on YouTube.

Finally: to view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

THE GREEN KNIGHT

 

Publicity montage poster for The Green Knight (© David Lowery/A24/Ley Line Entertainment/Sailor Bear/Bron Creative/Wild Atlantic Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Many years ago, I read and greatly enjoyed a 1950s translation into modern English by The Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit author J.R.R. Tolkien of a quite lengthy yet hitherto-obscure Arthurian-inspired alliterative poem dating from the late 14^th Century that was originally untitled but is nowadays commonly known as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. (Incidentally, Tolkien's translation of this previously long-forgotten early literary work remained unpublished until 1975, two years after his death, and I still own it in paperback.) The poem is written not in the familiar London version of Middle English utilized by the likes of Geoffrey Chaucer back then, but instead in a much less accessible Midlands version utilized by its unidentified Midlands-based author, which may explain its long-overlooked status, and in this original form it is preserved in only a single now-priceless medieval manuscript held at the British Museum.

This poem tells of a gigantic and seemingly supernatural green-hued knight (deemed by some scholars to personify England's ancient Green Man symbol of fertility and rebirth), who rides his immense green steed uninvited into King Arthur's Camelot court one New Year's Eve, carrying a huge axe, and challenges whether any of Arthur's noble Knights of the Round Table is brave enough to behead him with it and subsequently journey to the legendary Green Chapel in his distant realm in order to receive the same treatment from him in a year and a day's time. Whoever wins the contest will retain the axe. Sir Gawain, Arthur's nephew, accepts this daunting challenge, but when he decapitates the Green Knight with a single mighty blow from the axe this verdant visitor does not die. Instead, he simply bends down, picks up his severed head, and then rides away, leaving the axe at Camelot after telling Gawain that if he is indeed of noble knightly stature he will honour his sworn oath, made in the presence of everyone there. The rest of the poem chronicles Gawain's subsequent quest to the Green Chapel, alluding to all manner of adventures and experiences en route (in particular his fateful meeting with a mysterious Lord, Lady, and old crone, none of whom are what they seem), and what happens to him when he finally encounters his uncanny adversary and presents the axe to him, to wield accordingly as agreed...

Several different big-screen, small-screen, and on-stage interpretations of this engrossing fantasy have been produced down through the years since Tolkien prepared his translation, including the famous 1984 movie Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, starring none other than Sean Connery in fine fettle as the Green Knight. However, on 26 April 2022 I finally watched the latest cinematic incarnation – The Green Knight. (I say 'finally', because this movie was originally due to be released into cinemas globally during 2020, when I would have definitely watched it, but this release was cancelled in the UK and various other countries due to the Covid pandemic closing cinemas for long periods of time during the lockdowns, so I waited until it became available on DVD.)

Directed and co-written for the screen by David Lowery, and released (albeit only briefly) in the USA during 2020 by A24, The Green Knight is an unexpectedly dark, sombre affair for much of its length, with its storyline taking a fair few liberties with the original medieval source material. Some of these plot departures and deviations add to the magic – such as the mystical mist-enshrouded giants briefly encountered by Gawain (played by Dev Patel), and his spooky meeting (in every sense!) with the Welsh virgin martyr St Winifred (Erin Kellyman), not featured in the original poem.

Others, conversely, do not. For instance, Gawain is accompanied for much of his journey by a fox companion (CGI-rendered) that he has befriended and which behaves in an entirely normal vulpine manner – until, that is, it suddenly begins talking to him, and in a decidedly otherworldly voice (even for a fox!), when, near the movie's climax (more about that later!), it seeks to dissuade him from completing his quest to confront the Green Knight. Yet why the fox abruptly transforms from fellow traveller into temptation personified is never explained in the film (though I did later discover its opaque meaning).

Also, at times Gawain is decidedly whining rather than winning in his attitude to what lies ahead, and behind, him during his epic foray. This is not what I'd expect from a valiant Camelot knight errant, and in turn says even less about the other ennobled Round Table residents, who unlike Gawain had baulked at taking up the Green Knight's challenge (which takes place here on Christmas Day, btw, not on New Year's Eve, and the Green Knight wears green armour instead of being without armour like he is in the poem). Having said that, it needs to be pointed out that in yet another marked change from its source material, in this movie Gawain has not actually been knighted when he embarks upon his quest, which is actively commented upon by various characters that he meets during his travels – until the Green Knight refers to him as a knight when Gawain bravely confronts him as agreed at the Green Chapel and thereby makes him one (according to traditional knight custom).

In fact, in a number of ways, especially concerning matters of honour and integrity, Gawain's role in this movie is, surprisingly, an exact opposite version to that in the poem. However, I'll avoid saying more about that here, and will instead leave viewers to see what I mean when they watch this film themselves.

Overall it has its moments for sure, and I definitely do not dislike it, far from it, but for me The Green Knight is less impressive than I'd been anticipating. Filmed in Ireland, it certainly contains enough gorgeously viridescent Emerald Isle visuals and hauntingly ethereal Celticesque music to create an ample supply of Clannad or Enya music videos, but also much supplementary content that makes little if any sense. Moreover, this sad latter situation is not helped in the slightest by a movie-long attack of the mumbles afflicting most of the cast, to the extent that I finally acquiesced to turning on subtitles. Less attention to visuals, more to vocals by the production team was definitely needed here.

Finally, after sitting through almost 2 hours to reach the dramatic climactic scene, which then turns out never to have actually happened(!), the real ending proves to be anything but an ending! In other words, if you want to discover what really happens to Gawain after meeting and submitting to the Green Knight (played by Ralph Ineson), not to mention the latter's connection to the Lord (Joel Edgerton) and Lady (Alicia Vikander) – a connection never even featured, let alone ultimately revealed, in this movie – you'll have to seek out Tolkien's translation (or various alternatives now also in existence).

All in all, it may come as no surprise to learn that a frequent criticism of this film by viewers has been that they didn't understand its plot, that it was too abstruse to follow – and if truth be told, had I not already read Tolkien's translation as well as having viewed various previous on-screen versions, I might not have done either.

Ah well, at least I did learn one useful fact from watching The Green Knight. For if its Arthurian accuracy can indeed be trusted, Gawain's name is apparently pronounced GARwin, not GaWAIN, as I had always assumed. You live and learn!

If you'd like to keep company with gallivanting Gawain and his fickle fox on their perilous if at times querulous quest for at least the length of an official movie trailer, be sure to click here to view one for The Green Knight on YouTube.

Finally: to view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

Publicity poster for The Green Knight (© David Lowery/A24/Ley Line Entertainment/Sailor Bear/Bron Creative/Wild Atlantic Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

 

PEGASUS VS. CHIMERA

Full cover of the official DVD for Pegasus Vs. Chimera (© John Bradshaw/Shaw Media/Chesler-Perlmutter Productions/Vesuvius Productions/Sony Pictures Television – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

On 8 July 2020, I watched another of my Region 1 (North America-only) DVD films. This one was a TV movie entitled Pegasus Vs. Chimera, but although it features these two formidable adversaries from Greek mythology, the movie's storyline was entirely different from the classical Greek myth.

In the latter myth, the chimera is slain by hero Bellerophon riding Pegasus, but Bellerophon is in turn killed when he then attempts to ride Pegasus directly to the gods on Mount Olympus, Pegasus shrugging Bellerophon off so that he plummets to his death on Earth.

Conversely, in this wholly new, original story the land of Tirrin (whose basic geographical location is never revealed but its scenery doesn't look remotely Greek) is being devastated and its people decimated by an egomaniacal emperor, Orthos, assisted by his equally evil second-in-command, General Actae, who is versed in the black arts, feeding his own blood to Orthos in order to keep him perpetually young. Moreover, to speed up the massacre of Tirrin's people albeit at great spiritual cost to himself, Actae conjures forth the monstrous chimera, a terrifying mega-beast that duly sets out upon a hideous rampage of slaughter.

But fear not, you good people of Tirrin – because intent upon thwarting this bloodthirsty horror are two unlikely allies. Namely, a courageous blacksmith named Belleros (played by Sebastian Roche), who as a boy witnessed his father purposefully killed for fun by Actae; and the warrior-trained Princess Philony of Tirrin (Nazneen Contractor), whose own father the king was beheaded by Orthos. Assisting them is a powerful witch named Mayda, whose incantations call down from his heavenly constellation to Earth none other than the legendary winged horse Pegasus, to assist them in their forthcoming battle against the chimera, Actae, and ultimately Orthos himself.

The special effects are good but not outstanding - the chimera is definitely of the bargain-basement variety inasmuch as it lacks the classical Greek chimera's second, goat head rising forth from its leonine shoulders and also its venomous living serpent for a tail. Instead, it simply resembles a large lion with several horns encircling its head and a normal lion's tail but with spikes instead of hairs at its tip.

As for Pegasus: somewhat amusingly, and no doubt to keep the sfx costs down, his wings only appear when he is flying; when on Earth they are invisible.

Overall, however, Pegasus Vs. Chimera is entertaining enough, a product of Syfy Channel and first screened in 2012. It was directed by John Bradshaw.

And here is a short trailer on YouTube that shows both Pegasus and Chimera in action!

Finally: to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE!

PAN'S LABYRINTH

Pan's Labyrinth publicity poster and film still (© Guillermo del Toro/Telecinco Cinema/Estudios Picasso/Tequila Gang/Esperanto Filmoj/Sententia Entertainment/Warner Bros)

On 30 May 2017, I watched the Spanish fantasy/war movie Pan's Labyrinth (with English subtitles), directed by the highly-acclaimed Mexican film-maker Guillermo del Toro, and I can honestly say that it has been some time indeed since I have been so emotionally involved in a film. However, this one incorporated so effectively and so evocatively such a diversity of universal themes that it would have been impossible for me not to have been.

[Indeed, it was after watching this mesmerising movie that I instantly became a del Toro devotee and I have since purposefully sought out, viewed, and thoroughly enjoyed a number of other films directed and/or produced by him. These include The Shape of Water, which I have already reviewed here on Shuker In MovieLand, and others that I'll be reviewing in later SIML blog posts – so look out for those too.]

Originally released in 2006, Pan's Labyrinth deftly intertwines the grim reality of bloody aggression in 1944 Spain between Franco-supporting Falangist nationalists and a forest-protected outpost of Maquis republican guerilla rebels with a living fairytale featuring a young girl named Ofelia (played with gamine charm by Ivana Baquero).

 

Living through this time of great civil unrest with her loving mother Carmen (Ariadna Gil) but cruel Falange officer stepfather Captain Vidal (Sergi López), one fateful day Ofelia finds herself led by a stick insect-impersonating fairy into a forest-hidden labyrinth. Once inside, she discovers that it conceals a huge Pan-like faun (Doug Jones, who would go on to play the gill man in del Toro's multi-Academy Award-winning The Shape of Water a decade later). It tells her that she is really a princess, and gives her three tasks to complete, promising her immortality and her permanent return to her rightful kingdom if she succeeds in completing all of these tasks.

This part-mystical part-parable movie contains strange magic and dark fantasy, including not only the faun and shape-shifting fairies that reminded me of Ray Harryhausen's winged homunculus in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, but also a gigantic subterranean toad, a screaming writhing mandrake root, and a hideous child-devouring humanoid monster known as the Pale Man (again played by Doug Jones), whose eyes are not set in his face but instead are inset within the palms of his claw-fingered hands. Nor is that all.

Effortlessly transcending barriers of any kind, Pan's Labyrinth also both mercifully and mercilessly showcases beauty and barbarism; the misery and futility of warfare; self-sacrifice for the greater good of others; plus haunting music; and profound sadness – so much profound, pervasive sadness. As you'd expect, the traumatic scene in which Ofelia's mother dies is one that I could scarcely even look up at, let alone watch.

But just like the original one in Greek mythology, this cinematic Pandora's Box also contains hope, sometimes faint but always flickering, and with that the viewer is ultimately sustained. Pan's Labyrinth is a spellbinding masterpiece of a movie, and one whose images and emotions will remain with me, I'm sure, for a long time to come. Check out this trailer for it here, and you'll see what I mean.

And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE! 

Publicity poster from Pan's Labyrinth featuring the grotesque and thoroughly terrifying cannibalistic Pale Man (© Guillermo del Toro/Telecinco Cinema/Estudios Picasso/Tequila Gang/Esperanto Filmoj/Sententia Entertainment/Warner Bros)