Change Your Image
lacaseley
Reviews
Cropsey (2009)
Goes Everywhere...And Nowhere
This film held my interest, and was solidly creepy in terms of the atmosphere it created. Unfortunately, it hovers in the uncomfortable space between a documentary and a fictitious film.
Cropsey tells the stories of five children, many of them developmentally disabled, who disappeared from Staten Island in the late 70s and 80s. While the remains of one were found, the others remain missing until this day.
The movie makers attempt to uncover a seedy and tragic underbelly of Staten Island, revealing its past in the form of unsanitary and inhumane mental institutions, such as the notorious Willowbrook Institute, and suggest that the abandoned patients had formed an underground society of sorts beneath the foundations of an abandoned building (which may or may not even be Willowbrook). It is suggested that these people are connected with the disappearances of the children, though no exact evidence is given. It seems these people, who are never seen (except in footage from a Geraldo Rivera expose) but only talked about, serve as scapegoats and freaks for the filmmakers and viewers alike, and this discrimination is ultimately one of the more chilling aspects to the film. There are some references made to the tragedy of the sub-human conditions in which these patients were forced to live, but the film keeps coming back to the idea that the mentally ill are somehow people to be feared.
There's also the obligatory mention made of a "Satanic cult," but that subplot never really goes anywhere. The main suspect, one Andre Rand, who has been in prison for these crimes without, it seems, solid evidence other than his weirdness, is an easy villain, and while some of the people interviewed are not willing to believe his guilt, many are, including, it seems, the filmmakers.
Overall, Cropsey does little to uncover any truth about the legends or the missing children. To its credit, the film owns up to this in the end, saying that urban legends, with their manifold versions, are not things that can easily be determined as true or untrue. The film stays exactly in the place it started, offering little breakthroughs or even possibilities. The belief in Rand's guilt seems present from the outset, and little is done to explore any alternatives.
The one good thing this film does, perhaps unintentionally, is bring to light the mob mentality and the simultaneous repulsion to and interest in the sensationalism of the crimes seen in the Staten Island locals. Interviews with them show a shocking lack of critical thought on the matter, and a willingness to believe the most "us-vs-them" version of possible events.
I'd recommend this movie, but caution viewers not to take it literally, and to actively think about what they are being shown.
Within (2005)
So bad I'm actually impressed
A group of cocky Americans and their Kazakh guides go into a "cursed" cave. What follows appears to have been filmed with Photobooth on someone's Macbook with the "glow" effect turned all the way up. We're set up for something supernatural--the creature that stalks and kills most of the party seems to be capable of causing magnetic disturbances and is apparently impervious to bullets--but I guess they didn't have the budget for that. Instead we get a tacked-on ending about the disfigured survivor of a plane crash (who managed to singlehandedly bring the entire wing of a plane through the narrow tunnels of a cave at age 12...yeah, don't ask) and the whole thing ends with some freaky caveman rape.
Seriously the worst movie ever. The best part about it was getting to write this review as revenge for the time taken out of my life to see it.
Nutcracker (1986)
The only version, as far as I'm concerned
This is the version of the Nutcracker that I grew up watching, and fell in love with. I loved its dark undertones and its creepy aesthetic, and as an adult I can appreciate the psychology behind the production. It seems some people are put off by the darker aspects of this interpretation, but I guess it's all what you're used to; after becoming accustomed to this version, other versions made me recoil with their saccharine cuteness. If you are looking for a strict ballet performance, this might not be the film for you, as it is first and foremost a dramatic film--think of it as a fantasy movie with dance in place of dialogue. The attention to detail and the deliberate choices in the casting, costumes and props are all wonderful, as are Maurice Sendak's sets. Again, this is a somewhat off-beat interpretation of the story, and does not ever get very sugary, but its multifaceted, complex and provocative imagery is definitely pretty sweet.