Backrooms (2026)

 Backrooms. 

Impressive.

Most impressive if you count the director, Kane Parsons is 20 years old ! It's based on his youtube found footage series & Kane Pixels. 

To be seen and appreciated in a cinema !!! Really !

Plot description: After a therapist's patient disappears into a dimension beyond reality, she must venture into the unknown to save him.

I saw it tonite., and the theater was packed with teenagers. They knew the backstories, the innerworld of the film, the odds and inns. I guess it's one of the reasons Backdoors has a great thetrical run, the best of A24 til now (overpassing Civil War ). 

Totally psychedelic & psychotronic, some M.C. Escher angles and tricks, reminding recent Exit 8, and some other cool mindf*cks, Cosmatos' Beyond the Black Rainbow, Tarsem's The Cell, Cube, Us, Severance office sets  (actually inspired by the Backwoods originals) and Twin Peas Black Lodge landscape and soundscape, even shades of Eraserhead. 

Imdb suggests you see thse movies before seeing this. I guess you can also do that afterwards. 

The production /set design is all practical, was built as a maze. And the colors (yellowish) and the lightning. Widescreen cinematpgraphy mixed with video formats.

Could've been more claustrophobic, and it has some weaknesses, clumsiness, confusing ideas, also starts too slow and it's too long, but still, as I wrote above, Impressive.

Chiwetel Ejiofor is Clark, the Alone Man, the furniture shop `Architect` and Renate Reinsve (fresh from Oscar's Sentimental Value and Cannes fare, Fjord) is Mary, a shrink whose book Window of self is a also a clue. Mrk Duplass is the Third Man, as a scientist with a more complicated backstory...

A sort of Malice in Wonderland occurs. Some RMI too, or not ? 

And there is also a clue from a classic film and tale/book, The Neverending Story...

Anyhu, I hope a new serious genre Director was born...

Horror had a great (Theatrical too) run recently, with (i'm mentioning my chouces here): Ari Aster (Hereditary, Midsummer, Beau is Afraid, Eddigton), Ti West (In the Valley of Violence, The Sacrament, X, Pearl, Maxxine), Osgood Perkins (exec. producer here- Longlegs, The Monkey), Damian McCarthy (Caveat, Oddity, Hokum),  Zach Cregger (Barbarian, Weapons), Tilman Singer (Luz, Cuckoo), Charlie Polinger (The Plague), and feminin fare too, Coralie Fargeat (The Substance), Julia Ducournau (Raw, Titane, Alpha)...

I just hope this will not start another weak franchise as I just saw a whole video about the backstory of the Backrooms here...

3 1/2 out of 5, 7 out of 10 !

Sound design and soundtrack wise, kudos, this song from Boards of Canada on the closing credits was the highlight. 

https://pitchfork.com/news/boards-of-canada-soundtrack-backrooms-end-credits/

also a Klaus Doldinger song in it too (Moonchild). 

MaXXXine (2024)

MaXXXine ends the X trilogy, continued with prequel Pearl (2022). Of course he just made it up as he went along...

It might be Ti West's most ambitious yet, more Meta and auto-referential. Plus the whole Hollywood puns and the 80's cheesy sleazy world of addiction and decadence. It's also the most self-ironical, self-conscious film of the three, more like a parody than the others, cynical, tongue-in-cheek, movie universe based, locked & loaded.

This is an article mentioning 7 films related to MaXXXine. Psycho (again!, after Pearl) and De Palma's Body Double (complete with a Frankie Goes to Hollywood sequence !)

Adding to that Sunset Blvd., What Happened to Baby Jane, Profondo Rosso,  Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains, even Chinatown... the elevator from 8 Millions Ways to Die, a showdown at the Hollywood sign...  

And that damn Alligator has a cameo, this time on the small video screen, not from Tobe Hopper but from the Sergio Martino's the Great Alligator (1979) ;)

an interview with Ti West (here's my notes on his western, In a Valley of Violence, and the cult film The Sacrament), on the Konbini video store series, about his models, references, favorite flicks here or below: 

His BFI top films list is a classical (and classy;) one.

In a Valley of Violence (2016)

Westernul anului / Western of the year
In a Valley of Violence  has shades of Lucio Fulci and Clint Eastwood's High Planes Drifter in this unexpected homage to gritty westerns and the whole spaghetti genre, from the opening credits to the great music score (by Jeff Grace). Ti West's (The Sacrament, House of the Devil) most accomplished film, with elements of humor and horror. Travolta is great fun again for once, and Ethan Hawke is forgiven for the sin of Magnificent Seven. Taissa Farminga has the best performance, that after the genius dog Abby (Jumpy) that steals every scene she's in. Somehow weird, this film has the same premise that John Wick has.
3 1/2 out of 5. 7 out of 10 !

Sacrament, The (2013)

3 din 5
filme similare:
1. Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones (1980 TV Movie)
The story of the People's Temple cult led by Jim Jones and the events involving its move to Guyana and its eventual mass suicide.
Director: William A. Graham | Stars: Powers Boothe, Ned Beatty, Irene Cara, Veronica Cartwright
2. Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple (2006) documentar de Stanley Nelson
3. Guyana: Cult of the Damned (1979), cu Stuart Whitman in rolul lui Jim Jones
'si cea mai importanta contributie metal, Manowar cu Guyana...Cult of the Damned, de pe albumul Sign of The Hammer-1984 :) "Thank you for the Kool Aid, Reverend JIM"

Marilyn Burns RIP

Marilyn Burns avea 65 de ani impliniti de o luna, pe 5 iulie. Si a murit ieri, pe 5 august. Tocami am (re)vazut-o tipind apocaliptic in ploaie la Biertan la Luna Plina III, in proiectia aniversara de 30 de ani la Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) care s-a dat si la Cannes. Si vorbeam despre o adevarata Scream Queen. Si despre cit de paroxistic si cumplit este inca filmul lui Tobe Hopper.
A mai jucat in urmatorul film al acestuia, Eaten Alive (1977) aka Death Trap, despre care am scris aici.
Ultimul film, Sacrament, in 2014. As vrea sa o omagiez in septembrie la Cinemateca Patria cu o proiectie la TCM in cadrul Dracula Film Festival Friends.

intre timp au murit si Dick Smith (machiorul hollywoodian state of the art, Oscra onorific in 2012) si Dick Wagner, chitaristul lui Alice Cooper si Lou Reed...amindoi pe 30 iulie:(