mopedcecil Reviews

Modern Vampires (1998 TV Movie)

Better than you might expect

[10/10 · 4 April 2003]

Matthew Bright and Richard Elfman team up yet again to give hollywood the middle finger in this over-the-top vampire film. If you liked movies like Near Dark and From Dusk 'til Dawn, but hated movies like John Carpenter's Vampires and Blade 2, you'll probably like Modern Vampires. It has just the right amount of story vs. ridiculous gore.

Elfman and Bright have been both critically acclaimed and critically ignored. They have been working together since 1980's The Forbidden Zone, Richard Elfman's cult classic musical in which Matthew Bright co-wrote and starred in. Modern Vampires is definitely a different flavor than anything either of them has done previously. One thing I appreciate in particular about this movie is the undefined line between good and evil. It sets a realistic tone in a movie that is not realistic at all.

If you haven't seen other Richard Elfman or Matthew Bright Films, I would recommend Freeway or Shrunken Heads before Modern Vampires. But if you're looking for a good vampire movie, be sure to check this one out; it's much better than the average.

Shrunken Heads (1994)

Super-hero kids with no bodies...cool!

[10/10 · 1 April 2003]

Master of the B movie Richard Elfman brings us a tale of 3 kids out to avenge their own deaths and put an end to a neighborhood gang of hoodlums. Sounds like a typical plot...but there's a twist: They have no bodies!

For those of you who were waiting for Richard Elfman (the director of the brilliant Forbidden Zone) to return to the cinema and finally follow up his masterpiece, this movie might not be what you expect. Elfman is known for outrageous characters and chaotic nonsense warped into something that actually makes sense. Besides the shrunken heads flying around with no bodies, Shrunken Heads takes a more subtle approach. But make no mistake, Richard Elfman's twisted handprints are all over this movie!

Like it's predecessor The Forbidden Zone, Shrunken Heads takes us to a world of its own liking where there are only reflections of a time or era that we might be familiar with. This might make some viewers feel uncomfortable. For me, it only expands the possibilities and exercises the imagination. Tim Burton (an obvious influence-ie of Elfman) captured a similar world in Edward Scissorhands.

Critics may not like Shrunken Heads for the same reasons they don't like other Full Moon movies. It does not fit into the intellectual box that most critics have constructed around cinema as far as pacing and originality are concerned. My advice to the viewer of this movie: if you don't over-analyze it, you will find its compelling qualities. I am not a qualified movie critic (obviously), but I like horror movies, and I thoroughly enjoyed this one.

Forbidden Zone (1980)

A beautiful surreal masterpiece

[10/10 · 31 March 2003]

The Forbidden Zone may be one of the most under-recognized movies of all time. Fans of the movie are far and between, yet it remains today an incredibly influential film. Frenchie, a foriegn exchange student, wanders into her uncle's basement to uncover a world that is even stranger than Richard Elfman's interpretation of our own...The Sixth Dimension!!! Occupied by a giant frog, a horny midget king played by Herve Villechaize (Yes, that is Tattoo from 'Fantasy Island.'), Satan played by Danny Elfman, and countless other oddities direct from the imagination of the director, The Forbidden Zone could very well be the strangest world ever captured on film.

So it's wierd; but what makes it good? My favorite film settings are those in which there is no time, no relevance to any "era," worlds within film in which ideas are the only thing we can relate with. Ideas are timeless. So is The Forbidden Zone. It is a beautiful, surreal masterpiece made obviously for the sake of art rather than money. And of course there is the added bonus of a great musical score by Danny Elfman and the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo.

It would not be right to recommend this film without a disclaimer. The Forbidden Zone is not for the weak. It is about as twisted and chaotic as cinema gets. It is disgustingly shocking, and at times offensive (especially the uncut version, which i had the pleasure of seeing recently in a small theater in Seattle, Washington). I use the word "offensive" lightly, though, because..well, come on, people, it's just a movie!