belladonna2054 Blog

The 21st Century Female Version of "Mad Max"

belladonna2054 — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 17:20:34 GMT

An epidemic of a lethal virus has spread in modern day Scotland, sending the United Kingdom into a crisis state. Everyone is racing to get out before they become infected or stuck. Unfortunately this is the case for many people, including Eden Sinclair's (played by Rhona Mitra) mother.

30 year later the quarantine still holds and the rest of the world believes that everyone locked inside has died from either becoming infected or starving to death. But they receive an unlikely challenge to their belief: infected people were able to get through the guarded barriers and more survivors have been discovered via satellite. Believing that the survivors have a cure to the virus, the UK government quickly assembles a team of soldiers to go into the area to retrieve it. Once inside, they discover how the survivors have descended into animals in near literal sense.

Director Neil Marshal directed Doomsday (2008) who also drected the cult hits Dog Soldiers (2002) and The Descent (2006) misses the point with this film. It's too much like a remake of Mad Max (1979) and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1986) with a female lead and a slightly different setting. There are direct rip-offs of these films in the film. Particularly the part where Eden, is taken to a medieval-like arena and is forces to joust with a supposed knight. It is a direct rip-off of Thunderdome. I don't know if this is a homage to these films, but if one wanted to watch these films they would instead of wasting their money either renting or buying Doomsday.

Acting wise, Rhona Mitra did a descent job. When I first saw the trailer for Doomsday, I actually thought it was Kate Beckinsdale because they look so much a like in terms of their hairstyles. For Beckinsdale sported a similar look in the Underworld films. This also poses a question as to whether or not Marshal wanted Beckinsdale instead of Mitra for the lead role. Bob Hopskins, known for his Academy Award nominated performance in Who Frame Roger Rabbit, also has a small role as a boss/mentor of Mitra's character. He wasn't used much at all, which is disappointing because he is a great actor. This film also starred Malcolm McDowell as the great scientist in which Mitra's crew has been searching for. Now turned evil king-like (much like Tina Turner in Thunderdome) he has turned his back on modern society and returned to the Medieval times where he now rules from an ancient castle. But like Hopskins, he is quite underused in the film.

I personally lost interest in the film. I only finished the film because it reminded me of the Mad Max films. Marshal should only stick to making horror films. But should you be interested in this film or ones like it, I recommend the Mad Max Trilogy, Underworld and Dog Soldiers.

The Heart and the Film is Most Deceitful...

belladonna2054 — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:46:49 GMT

The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things (2004) was a movie based on the bestseller "biography" that was written by J. T. Leroy. The book was based on Leroy's traumatic childhood of living in and out of foster homes and with his unstable mother. But prior to the film's release, it was discovered that the author himself never existed. Though the book was entirely fiction, it was made into a great film.

Directed by and stars Asia Argento as Sarah, Jeremiah’s drug crazed mother. We first see Jeremiah (at age 7 played by Jimmy Bennett), taken away from his foster parents who tried to adopt him, but were denied by his mother. Before Jeremiah knows it, he is given back to Sarah. It becomes clear that something is not quite right with her. The apartment that she lives in is a wreck: very little furniture, no dishes and little food. Jeremiah, not unexpected, is very upset and is in a state of denial of it all. He does not want to be there, he does not believe that the woman he is with is his real mother and he wants to go back to his foster parents, much to the chagrin of Sarah. She in turn, quickly fed up with Jeremiah’s refusal to accept her, becomes abusive, by telling him that it was his foster parents that did not want or love him, thus the reason why they gave him up.

One day Sarah quits her job as a waitress and takes her son on a car ride down a road where the lines of reality and insanity begin to blur. She quickly hooks up with a guy from a bar, leaving Jeremiah in a car waiting. When he does come into the man's apartment, he is told to sleep in the tub where he accidently urinates himself in. Sarah finds out about this and punishes him via the guy from the bar, with a belt. This string of men that Sarah becomes involved with continues until she meets and marries a man named Emerson (Jeremy Renner). Both delinquents leave Jeremiah to fend for himself for two weeks, while both go on their honeymoon. He withdraws into himself and seeks refuge in his imagination as he waits for their return. But when someone does return, it is not who he expects. Emerson, alone and upset, comes in. Sarah apparently has left him, and left Jeremiah in his care. But it is not the type of care that one would get at a would-be stepfather and Jeremiah is abandoned on the streets to be found and taken to a hospital.

When Jeremiah wakes, he is told that his Grandmother (Ornella Muti) has custody of him. She takes him back to their house and into their Evangelical teachings of his Grandfather (Peter Fonda). He is forced to submit into their doctrine which is fanatical and leaves you wondering which family member is he better off with. After three years in their custody, a now older Jeremiah (played by Dylan and Cole Sprouse) is reunited with Sarah. He is taken, without the permission of his grandparents, by her and her new boyfriend where he once more goes down the path that nearly killed him.

At times this was a hard film to watch because some of the scenes are graphic. All of the children that played Jeremiah: Jimmy Bennett, Dylan and Cole Sprouse, did a fantastic job. Asia Argento was excellent in her role as Sarah which was uncanny at times because you have to wonder if she really was going crazy. Though he had only a cameo role, Peter Fonda did well as the Puritanical grandfather. Fonda looked and sounded what one would and you definitely get a sense of what life was like for Sarah, as a child, and eventually Jeremiah.

I recommend this film to those who also enjoy Clean (2006) and The Basketball Diaries (1995).

Innocence Does Not Come Undone

belladonna2054 — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 01:55:14 GMT

Mauro (played by Michel Joelsas) is like all ten-year-olds. He loves his parents, his friends, but most of all soccer. However innocence is only granted to the children of Brazil in 1970. Unbeknownst to Mauro, his parents are in trouble. They all quickly pack their things and take Mauro to his grandfather’s place. His parents continue to say that they are only ‘going on vacation’ and they should return soon. When Mauro asks when they would return, they say they will return by the World Cup. This sets the stage for Cao Hamburger’s The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (2007).

1970 is a tumultuous year in Brazil. The political climate is changing with a dictatorship taking over which creates a militant state for those who are opposed to the new regime. Mauro, left in care of his grandfather, Motel (Paulo Autran), in a Jewish town of Sao Paulo or so they thought. He waits for hours until Motel’s neighbor, Shlomo (Germano Haiut) comes home and finds Mauro on Motel’s doorstep. What Mauro doesn’t know is Motel died earlier that day. Shlomo takes him in and when Mauro tells him that his parents are on vacation, Shlomo doesn’t believe it. Seeking advice on what to do with him, Shlomo goes to his Rabbi and the community elders. They tell him to take care of the boy and wait for his parents until the World Cup.

Shlomo follows this advice, but Mauro and he have a difficult time adjusting to each other as Mauro was not raised Jewish as his father was. But both learn to adapt to each other. Meanwhile, Mauro discovers the other children that live in the neighborhood and quickly becomes friends with Hannah (Daniela Piepszyk). At first Mauro rejects her and the others afraid to leave the telephone, but eventually he becomes brave enough to do so and joins Hannah and her gang of boys as they play soccer and pay her admission to her mother’s clothing shop to see the young women undress.

Hamburger’s portrayal of innocence in a chaotic world is priceless. He essentially asks the question: ‘When should a child know the full truth? Or do they know the full truth already?’ But these questions are left to the viewer to decide as it is never fully answered in the film. In the end innocence never ends, it continues on in a dualistic life outside reality. The only unifying aspect of this world is the World Cup where everyone bands together in hopes that Brazil wins. Everyone from the children to the Rabbi gather in groups in the diner, in their own homes, to cheer on the team to victory.

Michel Joelsas does a excellent portrayal of Mauro, but when the subject of his character’s parents’ ‘vacation’ comes up he handles the denial that the possibility that he was abandoned wonderfully. In response to any discussion, he delves back into the one thing he loves: soccer. Soccer is a refuge for him to cope with life without his parents. Germano Haiut also does well portraying Shlomo. He is a man who never really handled children before and at first he is hesistant, but sympathic to Mauro’s situation. As time passes by he grows fond of Mauro to call him his own.

The movie is a great independent foreign film that deals with a child’s point-of-view of a chaotic world. Usually this is not my type of film, but on occasion a film does change my perspective. This film is recommended for those who enjoy The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things (2004) and The Sixth Sense (1999).

It's Straight to the Dogs

belladonna2054 — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 23:10:35 GMT

Sun Dogs is a documentary about Jamaica's first dog sled team. This film really is about the underdogs. Like Jamaica's first bobsled team, which was featured in the movie, Cool Runnings, people didn’t think it would work. However through perseverance and a lot of gull, one can succeed. The difference between Jamaica’s dogsled team and other countries’ teams is that it consists of all stray dogs. These were dogs that have been rescued from the streets of Kingston, which is considered one of the hardest towns to live in Jamaica. Neglected and without homes, these dogs were taken to a school to be cared for and trained to be what would be Jamaica’s first dogsled team. It was Danny Melville, who created Jamaica’s first bobsled team and the endorsement of Jimmy Buffet to put in all in motion.

The challenge was difficult because these dogs were not raised like traditional sled dogs, but it was the dogs’ and their trainers’ determination was there to put it all together. But the documentary is not just about the dogs and their trainers, Devon and Newton, it is about Jamaica itself. Though the country is a popular tourist attraction, made famous by its sandy beaches and resorts, it is actually one of the poorest countries in the world. Director Andrea Stewart made light of this in the film. She doesn’t sugarcoat it; she brings up the fact that there are not many education or employment opportunities, there’s a lot of crime and economic desperation. Through many of the experts that Stewart interviews, this team could shed some hope for the country economically as well as morally.

The dogs and the mushers are trained in Jamaica before the mushers are sent to the United States to be trained further by more experts and to race. This is due to the quarantine laws of Jamaica which state that you can take a dog out of the country, but the dog cannot go back. So this was it. Through some complicated hurdles, the team quickly makes headlines, not just because they are from Jamaica, but from their fortitude to succeed.

Devon is the head trainer and caretaker of the dogs. He is chosen to be the lead musher of the team because of his love of the animals. Newton, who is one of Devon’s workers, is also chosen to be on the team because of the love of the dogs and has a lot of motivation for the team. Both are trained by some of the best experts in bobsledding. Due to a sticky situation Devon is the one that remains to hold on to the pressure to succeed, the most pressure as he is the only one that represents Jamaica. Before long he is taken to Scotland for the international dogsled race. It is there that he and the team really makes a name for themselves all around the world just by forming a team and racing.

Stewart did a great job on this film. The photography is great with shots on not only the beauty and the true life of Jamaica, but of the lives of the dogs and the people who lead these dogs to greatness. Though the film is not about the dogs themselves it is about the lives of the trainers and those who interact with them as well. You get a great aspect of what people deal with and grown up with in Jamaica which is not always pretty or glamorous as all the commercials on television depict it to be. The documentary also shows how these people love these dogs greatly.

A Wondrous Review

belladonna2054 — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:22:51 GMT

Wondrous Oblivion is about a young boy named David Weisman (played by Sam Smith), in 1960 London, who dreams of one day of being a cricket star, however there is one problem: he has no talent. This does not stop David’s passion for the sport, much to the chagrin of his classmates and family.

One day new neighbors, the Samuels, move onto David’s block which causes a stir within the community. The new neighbors are from Jamaica. This causes racial tensions to rise further for David’s family, who are already subtly persecuted by their neighbors because they are Jewish. It is further raised as David sees Dennis Samuel (played by Delroy Lindo) build a cricket fence in his backyard. Seeing this as his opportunity to build his cricket skills, he breaks his mother’s (played by Emily Woof), rules by going over and being coached by Dennis.

The other neighbors quickly take notice to David’s time spent with the Samuels and trouble begins for Mrs. Weisman in the form of two busybodies, Mrs. Dudley (Mary Cunningham) and Mrs. Wilson (Carol MacReady). At first to try to coax her into talking to their landlord into getting rid of the Samuels, when Mrs. Weisman does not go through with it, she continuously receives taunts and harassment from the neighborhood. But this does not stop her from allowing David to spend time with the Samuels. As time passes, Mrs. Weisman’s own relationship with Dennis begins to grow. Meanwhile David’s cricket skills improve and his dreams of being a part of his school’s cricket team come to pass.

Delroy Lindo does a great job as Dennis Samuel, the big hearted patriarch of the Samuel family. Sam Smith also does well as the young David Weisman, the innocent young boy who faced a lot of challenges because of his inability to play cricket and because of his religion. Emily Woof was impressive in role as Anna Weisman, a woman who married young who is struggling in her role as a mother and handling the neighborhood busybodies. Director Paul Morrison did a good job on this film for the small special effects on the trading card scenarios and for the story over all, which he wrote. He chose well in having Delroy Lindo and Emily Woof, they are both great actors who played their parts very well.

This was a great film to watch. It’s great for family and adolescents who are learning history of the 1960s. But for the average viewer, the story is the average boy coming-of-age set in the 1960s. I personally enjoyed it because it is relatively cute. However there are scenes in the film that are never really explained why they are there.

One is where David collects and plays with cricket player cards which come to life for him. It would have been interesting to find out what type of role those scenes played in the film, but you never know. You are left to the assumption that it is all in David’s imagination. There are also scenes in which go on for more time than what they should. An example is when David obtains his dream of getting on the cricket team at school. There are scenes in which he continuously excels at games, but how long do they have to go on until you have to say enough?

I recommend this film for families who want to see a good coming-of-age story. Kids would like it for the ‘hero’. Parents would like it because it doesn’t have much violence or have any foul language. This story is good because it is not taking place in the United States (which are the typical settings) and different time, 1960. I wouldn’t recommend it for the typical movie viewer because it is a repetitive story. But overall it is a great story.

Summer Palace

belladonna2054 — Sat, 17 May 2008 00:56:44 GMT

Summer Palace (2006) is based on a true story that centers on a young woman named Yu Hong (played by Hao Lei) as she goes on a 20-year journey from the late 1980s to present day China. We first see her as a young girl falling in love with the boy next door named Xiao Jun (Lin Cui) only to move on after being accepted into Beijing University. While attending university, we see her study, make friends, and become involved with the political activity that sweeps the campus. All the while Yu Hong records every thought and feeling she experiences in her diary which becomes the narration of the film.

We see the conditions that she and other college students had to endure and restrictions placed on them by the Chinese government. Through it all she meets and falls in love with a man named Zhou Wei (Xiaodong Guo). It is their tumultuous relationship becomes the main focal point of the film. Yu Hong constantly says in the film that she wants to live and experience things more intensely. Though she is admired by her friends as being very passionate with living there are drawbacks. The intensity of her love for Zhou Wei is so great that they cannot be together. From their breakup she goes through relationships with several different men over the course of the next several years to make up for her loss of Zhou Wei. Her narration of the film, shows how is unable to handle all the conflict and pain that she experiences in these relationships and her inner self.

Time passes, but we can see the internal conflict building within her and Zhou Wei. But both manage to go on. Zhou Wei eventually moves to Germany with a couple of friends, while Yu Hong remains in China. But their minds remain on each other. There are several sequences that you see major events that have occurred over the last twenty years, i.e. Berlin Wall Falling, Britain turning over Hong Kong back to China, etc., intersect with Yu Hong and Zhou Wei’s lives. In a way these events are an analogy with them. One example is when the last British colony turns Hong Kong back over to China, Zhou Wei returns to China and eventually back to Yu Hong.

Directed by Lou Ye, the film has won acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival upon its premiere in 2006. Because of its political subject matter, the film was banned in China. It is a film that is powerful not because of the political satire, but to see how a woman who lives under a suppressed government has liberated herself by her own internal conflict. Hao Lei does an excellent job playing Yu Hong. She embraces all the emotional aspects that make the character a strong, vulnerable character. Xiaodong Guo does a great job playing Zhou Wei. In the beginning you do not like him because of what he does, by the end you sympathize and realize how much he is like Yu Hong.

Ye’s use of actual footage of the historical events depicted in the film makes the viewer a part of the film. Though from time to time you see subtext of years and what happens to the characters you really don’t realize that this film is based on true events until the very end. Summer Palace is a great historical romantic film that almost be compared to Love Story. It can even be considered existential due to philosophical narration of the film’s main character. I recommend this film to those who like historic romantic films.

13 Tzameti meets Hostel But With Sophistication

belladonna2054 — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 17:16:57 GMT

13 Tzameti (2007) meets Hostel with little gore, but a lot of sophistication. Directed by Gela Babluani, the story revolves around Sebastian (Georges Babluani), the main supporter of his immigrant family, who struggle to survive in a small French town. He works as a handyman of a gentleman named Jean-Francois Godon (Philippe Passon). While fixing the roof, Sebastian overhears a conversation between Jean-Francois and his wife, Madame Godon (Olga Legrand), that he is expecting a package that holds promise to obtain a lot of money. While Jean-Francois leaves to take a bath, Madame Godon takes a look at the letter and sees a paid hotel bill and a ticket for a train to Paris. Realizing that he was not joking, she is startled as she sees water coming out of the bathroom. Unable to open the door, she calls on Sebastian for help.

Sebastian runs quickly to the bathroom and breaks the door down finding Jean-Francois dead of an overdose. With Jean-Francois dead, leaving no one to pay him for his labor, Sebastian eventually leaves, but as luck would have it, he discovers the letter had been blown outside. Seizing the opportunity that he could obtain a fortune, he takes it and follows the instructions. They lead him to Paris locker room where he finds another package containing more instructions and a small card with a number thirteen printed on it.

Another set of instructions tells Sebastian to take a taxi to a wooded area and to get out and wait. Soon a black car pulls up with a bearded figure driving who holds up another card bearing the number thirteen. Sebastian reveals his card and waved over to the car. He gets inside the car and is taken to a building deep inside the woods.

Once inside, Sebastian is introduced to a world that few people see or survive. The building is filled with one group of men that are dressed in suits and another group of men who are dressed in pants and grey shirts with large numbers printed on their backs. Sebastian is quickly taken to a room where an older gentleman comes in and looks suspiciously at him. He asks who he is and where is Jean-Francois. Sebastian quickly informs the man of Jean-Francois' recent demise. Reluctantly, the man accepts him as his “player” and Sebastian quickly finds out what it all means to value your life in a Russian Roulette-style game where only one man can survive to win it all.

Filmed in black and white, 13 Tzameti is a gritty, hold-on-to-the-edge-of-your-seat thriller. It is tense from beginning to end. Babluani was very smart by filming it in black and white because you can see the intensity building within the actors more clearly than you would in color. Hostel was the same way, but with 13 Tzameti you do not have the gore. You have the sophistication of seeing the workings of an underground group of gamblers who take bets on different “players” to see who will win each round. Whereas in Hostel you see their group “purchase” their man or woman and they can do whatever their perverted desires' wants.

The only down points of the film is you get lost in the beginning of the film in trying to figure out what is going on in the main plot. It can be slow at times, from trying to put point A and point B together. There are characters that have small roles you have a hard time seeing how they fit into the plot if they do have a role.

The story is not what it seems though. I personally was expecting something else entirely by the middle of the film, but was taken aback by the twists. They let you see a darker side of humanity within the “game” which leads to a very ironic and twisted ending. Unlike Hostel, it is not a happy ending.

I would recommend this film if you definitely have a love for international thrillers and twists and turns.

A Long Road to Become Clean

belladonna2054 — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 21:57:58 GMT

Clean (2004) is a movie by Olivier Assayas, director of as Paris, je t’aime (2006), takes us on a journey into the hard world of the music business and drugs. Clean stars Maggie Cheung in her award winning role as Emily Wang, girlfriend and heroin addict of a struggling rocker and fellow junkie, Lee Hauser (played by James Johnson). After breaking off a potential gig in Canada, both travel back to their hotel. They both argue about how she is blamed for Lee’s continuing failures and she ends up leaving for the night and gets high in an empty parking lot. The next morning when Emily returns, the police are in the room where Lee was found dead of a drug overdose. The police arrest her when she attempts to get into the room and discover a couple of bags of heroin in her purse.

Emily is sentenced to six months in prison and when she is released, she is briefly reunited with Lee’s father Albrecht (played by Nick Nolte). Albrecht also takes care of Emily and Lee’s son Jay (played by James Dennis) whom they left behind in Vancouver. He goes over what is left of their finances and tells her that the court has awarded custody of Jay to him and his wife, Rosemary (played by Martha Henry). Knowing the predicament that she is in, Albrecht is sympathetic, but taking Jay’s best interests first, he tells Emily to stay away until she can straighten herself out. Emily travels to Paris a few weeks later to build a new life for herself and we see her struggle through the abandonment by friends and family. Upon hitting rock bottom, we finally see her turn around to achieve her ultimate goal: to see her son again and getting another opportunity for a career in music.

Maggie Cheung won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival in 2004 for this role. This was an award well deserved. In a movie that spans two continents (Canada and Europe) and three languages (English, French and Chinese), Ms. Cheung has outdone herself. We see her as the narcissistic addict, going through a cold turkey recovery and finally as the vulnerable mother.

Academy Award nominee Nick Nolte, who in real life is a drug addict, does well in his role. The character he plays, Albrecht, is both sensitive and strong, but also caring grandfather and fatherly figure to Emily as he helps her rebuild her life. One of the best scenes in which he displays his sensitive and strong side was after he finds out that Lee has died and his wife and grandson come home and startled, immediately jumps up and cannot speak, but has to tell Rosemary. Overall Albrecht is much more forgiving of Emily than Rosemary, who blames her for the death of their son.

Assayas’ film is one of the best independent films that I’ve seen. He brought together a great team of actors, most notably of which was Nick Nolte. He even went as far as going to the music business to include real-life musicians such as Tricky and the band Metric and music producer David Roback, who all have brief cameos in the film. With their involvement, this makes the film more believable. Even Maggie Cheung herself sings a couple of songs. All are connected to the states of which her character she plays is in throughout the movie: chaotic, through the song by the Metric, “Dead Disco”, recovery through her own song “She Can’t Tell You”, then finally at the end as she obtains the future for her and her son with “Wait For Me”. The instrumental music is also notable, with contributors such as Brian Eno, who featured portions of the same score from 28 Days Later in this film, Tricky and David Roback.

The cinematography, done by the award winning cinematographer Eric Gautier, was extraordinary and symbolic. In the beginning titles with the factories blowing out smoke out of the smoke towers and then again, with the addition of the explosion, in the scene where Emily gets high is a connection of the environment to Emily, who was becoming more “unclean”. At the end of the film, we see Emily run off the scene looking off a view of the wooded hills in San Francisco that can be seen as a “clean” view.

This was a wonderful film and the first I have seen of Olivier Assayas and would love to see more of his work. What grabbed me was the cinematography, then the actors themselves. How they put a lot of effort into their roles was very striking. Not a lot of actors can pull off what they could do and you can tell that Assayas wanted and received the effort from them. If you want to see a great independent film, and you’re new to this genre, I recommend Clean for you.

A Legend Hits the Drive-In Theater

belladonna2054 — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 20:04:43 GMT

The Legend of Boggy Creek is a campy movie that was originally released as a drive-in theater in 1972. The story begins around the narrator, who as a young boy was rushing to get a doctor for his sick mother, came into contact with a creature that scared him to death. When he reported what he saw to the doctor and other members of the town, they were in disbelief until other reports of incidents of the creature ranging from sightings to down-right frightening begin to occur.

Fouke is a real town located near the border of Arkansas and Texas. The movie consists of reenactments of incidences with the creature that were reported to have occurred for nearly a decade. Though the music itself is a bit rough around the edges and the acting is not the greatest, it is an enjoyable movie to watch at night to get a little bit of the willies. I first saw this film when I was little and it did scare me at first. Now I see it as more of a documentary-type of film with the reenactments of the reports. My personnal favorite is the story about the two couples who just moved into the same house when strange things begin to occur late at night when both of the wives' husbands go to work at night.

If you can find the DVD to rent or to buy, I do recommend it if you're interested in some campy fun.

The Original That Created the Remake Classic With A Little Known Movie Fact Included

belladonna2054 — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:13:18 GMT

The Thing From Another World premiered in 1951. It became an instant classic. So much so that the legendary John Carpentier created the remake of it 31 years later called The Thing.

Watching it today, the original The Thing From Another World doesn't really appear scary, unless you're a little kid who doesn't know better. The special effects compared to today's is a little so-so. But as you watching the film, the little special effects there are are great because it not overly done. It's just enough to give you a bit of a scare. There's no blood or gore in the film (sorry my gore loving friends, but this was the 1950s) nor heavy violence. This is a sharp contrast to Carpentier's 1982 version of the film which has plenty of blood and gore and a great classic in itself for its special effects.

The movie is set on a research outpost in Antarctica. One day one of the men stubble upon a UFO that has crashed some 10,000 years ago and its pilot only several hundred feet away, buried in the ice. They take the body back to the station where it defrosts and the fun begins as the creature has come back to life and spreads its terror among the scientists.

If you are not familiar with either this or John Carpenter's version, I highly recommend watching this version, followed by Carpenter's. Not only will you be watching a couple of classic horror movies, but you get a real appreciation of how much love that Carpenter had for the original to make his own version.

As promised, here is the little known fact about both versions of the film:

Both films are based off of a horror novel called Who Goes There? However the 1951 version is a much scaled down version of the book than John Carpenter's. In 1951, it would have been considered too graphic to be release had it been exactly like the book. Additionally, John Carpenter had read the book and wanted his version to be just like the book. So if you are going for more authenticity, go for Carpenter's version.