I Am Zozo

I_Am_ZozoThe 2014 film Ouija spelled out “BOX OFFICE HIT” on the board, as the film took in a whopping 100 + million bucks. Ouija: Origin of Evil nearly did the same.

I Am Zozo (2014) predates Ouija by two years, but of course, doesn’t have the Blumhouse backing.

Shot very capably on Super 8*, the film features a group of collegians off to a cottage for some Halloween fun and frolic. This abode is located on an island, and their Styx-like crossing adds some heavy Gothic ambiance.

I Am Zozo, to its credit, spends ample time investing in its principals.

But maybe it shoulda been called I am Yo-Yo, as in Ma, because the tale begins with a rather bedraggled cellist Tess, who doesn’t look like she’s ready for the Boston Philharmonic. Teary-eyed Tess, bow in hand, recounts to a sympathetic therapist that she “was once normal.”

Then there’s Nick, a budding amateur magician who dresses like one. He channels (among other things) self-styled skeptic James Randi.

Mel is a pretentious Wiccan, that silly fad religion with no cohesive intellectual tradition, but a terrific character to have for a movie of this type. Naturally, she explains the finer points of Samhain to a credulous Tess and breaks out a Ouija board.

i_am_zozoNick enlightens the two girls about the finer points of “idiomotor action,” in which people make movements unconsciously, i.e., that Ouija boards are basically nonsense. This, as they prepare for the night’s repast, a freshly caught fish, gutted in a rather pointless and lengthy montage.

As the kids get increasingly drunk, they naturally conjure up spirits, one of whom, Zozo, tells them exactly what time they’re going to die.

Kelly McLaren is terrific as Tess, and these kids are pretty darn likeable. There’s also some authentic dialogue (“Do you have a gun in the house? You kidding, my dad’s a liberal!”) and solid atmosphere for a smidgen budget.

But we have to admit, we’re not the target audience for this by virtue of its tameness and our aversion to the mystical (we like our supernatural horror Italian – with vivid gore). As liminal horror for the newbie set, I Am Zozo is a perfectly functional and well-made psychological thriller, a film which will hopefully turn them on to more intense experiences.

*** (out of 5)

*I Am Zozo was the winner of a the Best Feature and Audience Choice Awards at the 2012 U.S. Super 8 Film Festival

Escape from New York

escapefromnewyork1A match for They Live in terms of sheer paranoia + entertainment value, Escape from New York is a ballbuster.

Who needs a peninsular Panopticon when, in the near future, all of Manhattan is a prison and there aren’t even any guards?

Air Force One careens into the Big Apple, but not before the US president exits via escape pod. Unfortunately he’s been captured on the island, soon after he touched down.

Luckily, there’s one man who can save the day. And that man, is Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell). He’s a former special forces op, before Steven Seagal ruined that designation in perpetuity. He’s a King of the Prison Break Movies before our rotund aikidōka ruined those as well. He wears an eyepatch and has awesome flying/shooting skills while lacking stereoscopic binocular vision.

In exchange for his freedom (Snake is a convicted bank robber), he’s compelled into what on the surface is a suicide mission: drop onto island via glider, rescue the president, and do all of this before subcutaneously injected capsules on time release blow his arteries to bits. The injections are to prevent the resourceful Snake from simply escaping (the open air island prison may be escape-proof, but as we saw with Alcatraz, it’s possible someone as substantial as Plissken could make a go of it).

To assist him on the mission: a yellow cabbie played by Ernest Borgnine, of all people. He shepherds Snake to get intel from Brain (Harry Dean Stanton).

But it gets better. Along for the ride, the incomparable Isaac Hayes as the Duke of New York, a kind of capo di tutti cappi of the roving prison gangs. All roads to the president must lead through him.

snake_escape_from_new_yorkThe New York City streets have seldom looked this mean (in truth, they’re actually St. Louis). The one shot that is The Big Apple is perhaps the most ironic and iconic: the tracking shot of Lady Liberty, holding her torch above this newly-created urban penitentiary.

The dystopian cityscape is a wonder. John Carpenter’s direction is simply stupendous. The man really outdid himself here.

As gorgeous and compelling as it was upon first release, you owe yourself to see this thriller.

There’s talk that Escape from New York is being set up for a reboot: Fox has obtained the rights, though it’s too early to know anything further.

**** (out of 5)

[CHECK OUT THE ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK PODCAST]