Exposition de Merde de la Science-Fiction
(Science-Fiction Shit-Show)
Reviews by Nick Peron
While attending Soirée d'Horreur this past month in Montreal I picked up some short films from my friends at A.normale Productions. You may recall that I have reviewed a number of their films in the past (Seduction of Evil, Bonbon Rouges, and Killer Cup 1 & 2) all of which I gave starling reviews for. They are very impressive short films.
This time around, I've got two interesting selections Flush, which A.normale Production's Jef Grenier calls "my most gory film ever", and Mascarado Production's L'Invasion Silencieuse (The Silent Invasion) a film that is a homage to old 1930's science fiction films. I knew I was going to be in for an interesting ride.
Flush:
If you've picked up any old comic book or magazine then you've probably seen this before: Advertisements by companies offering prizes that sound too good to be true. For a low low price you can get an amazing prize: a gun that fires real bullets, x-ray glasses that let you see through clothing, exploding gum, a money making machine. Every prize had some outrageous or dubious claim.
These ads are the cornerstone to the plot behind Flush, a short film that was an official selection at the 2007 Fantasia International Film Festival as well as winner of the Quebec D.I.Y. #3
Jef Grenier takes up the male lead as a horror movie fanatic who has ordered away for some strange exotic plant. For the low low price of only a single dollar, you too can have an amazing mystery plant that grows instantly in water.
Of course, when he gets the package, he puts it in water and attempts to make it grow, however when results don't happen fast enough he flushes the seed down the toilet. There, the plan begins to grow into a vined plant-monster that comes up and attacks the girl next door (Stéphanie Gagnon) from her toilet. As a living vessel for this creature, the girl goes next door where she also kills and infests Jef.
This is a cool little short film, much like Bonbons Rouges it shows off Jef's extensive collection of horror memorabilia (really cool stuff) and is full of a lot of humor. Then there is the crowing achievement of the film: The gore special effects. Jef Gren-- er I mean Jef.X (Hey, I just finally got that, very clever) this is one gory piece of work.
The plant creature, with all of it's tendrils literally comes out the sewers and swims up the girls butt. There is some positively creepy shots of the girl on the toilet with vines swirling and wrapping around her. They don't stop there, they show some very well done shots of the plant creature crawling up inside her. It's just down right gross, and it all happens in front of a teddy bear. Nice contrast. It's kind of like watching someone getting ass-raped by Little Shop of Horrors.
It's a fun little gross out film, I would highly recommend it. It also features a blink and you'll miss it appearance by Isabelle Stephen, and comes with a little baggie containing your very own plant monster seed. Just remember not to flush it down the toilet, but if you do, always look before you sit.
The film is in French, however it does come with English subtitles. The timing is a little off on them and they sometimes cut away too fast, but they're there -- But I really ought to stop being so lazy and learn how to understand French better. That aside, this is a great little short film, lots of fun to watch.
L'Invasion Silencieuse:
Wow. Just wow. This film is impressive. As I said above L'Invasion Silencieuse is a homage to 1930's science fiction films, and it has it down pat. The film is about a young man named Oniris (Jean-Sébastien Durocher) who is about to propose to his sweetheart Paulette (Martine Losier) when she is suddenly abducted by alien invaders from outer space.
The young man enlists the help of retired Mexican wrestler/crime fighter El Mascarado (who is that masked man?), who agrees to come out of retirement and help Oniris rescue his girl. She has been taken prisoner by the UFO's leader the evil, eye-patch wearing Glen (André Dubois) and his henchmen Glend'Ha (Anne Cusson) and Veidt (Marty Noreau) who have taken up shop just outside of the local cemetery as the staging ground of their invasion of Earth.
With the aid of Inspector Vomel (Martin Sauvegeau), Oniris and El Mascarado fight off a hoard of resurrected zombies and a robot in order to save Paulette from these dastardly alien invaders. Ultimately in the end, love prevails and Glend'Ha and Veidt turn on their master and help free Paulette so that she can be happily reunited with her one true love.
This film is a homage to silent films, as there is no spoken dialogue, just text that appears on the screen. They use circle wipes not only as transitions, but to focus on objects (such as Oniris' proposal ring at the beginning of the film) as they did back then. The special effects are very impressive, and I have to commend the attention to detail there is with this film when it comes to creating some of the sets. The movie really feels like it was made in the 1930's even though there are a lot of obvious clue ins to the fact that the film was made in the year 2000.
The most impressive thing is the robot costume, it looks down right amazing. It's got that made-out-of-building-supplies that was common place in old science fiction films (like Undersea Kingdom or the Phantom Creeps), but doesn't look like utter garbage. It also has a lot of nods to more contemporary science fiction films of the 50's and 60's, including a huge nod to the late Ed Wood (the UFO bringing the dead back to life, that two of the villains are named Glen and Glend'Ha, and in case you missed that there is a fake tomb stone with Ed Wood's name on it at the end as well)
This film is also in French, obviously, but has English subtitles.
It's a great little film and I would strongly recommend it.
If you're interested in getting a copy of either Flush or L'Invasion Silencieuse, then head on over to the A.normale Productions website and pick yourself up a copy today.
