#321 -- Otis (2008)

Director: Tony Krantz
Rating: 4.5/ 5

When I first heard about this movie, I knew it was something that I would love. Or at least, I hoped it would be something I loved. I knew it was about some guy who was abducting girls and keeping them locked up in his basement. It's a very dark subject, but the movie looked silly. In a good way, of course. It wasn't anything like I expected it to be, though. Where I expected a bumbling idiot stumbling his way through abduction after abduction, I got a disturbing and tragic tale that added a few laughs in for good measure.

So, the basic story is fairly simple. There's a guy named Otis, who keeps abducting pretty blonde teenagers and keeping them chained up in some room inside his home. Her name was Riley, but he called her Kim, as he did with all the other girls. He acted like a football player, dressed her up in a cheerleader's uniform, and told her that they would be going to prom together. If she didn't play along with his little "game," she would be blinded and burned by a bunch of light bulbs over her bed, or he would just come in and punch her in the face. The other girls were dumb; Riley was not. She learned, quite quickly, that if she wanted to survive, she'd have to play along.

That's some pretty disturbing stuff. Girls, put yourself in that position. Would you be able to play along with Otis, pretend to be his girlfriend and go along with his prom charade? Or you would do everything physically possible to get yourself out of the situation? A lot of the girls seemed to go with the latter, which is understandable due to stress and fear. But which is worse? To drive yourself crazy with the reality of the situation, or to let yourself succumb to the monster with the smallest amount of hope that you'd come out of it alive? There was no guarantee that Otis wouldn't kill her anyways, but she acted out his will and became someone that she wasn't in order to appease him. I think that, after so much of this, some girls would probably wish for death. If Otis didn't kill her, and she kept playing along, would he let her go free once prom was over? No, certainly not. He'd risk exposure; and he wouldn't let her get away, the one who obliged him and made him happy. He would keep her there, a prisoner of his desires until he was either caught or killed, or both. That could be a long time. Even though it is a fairly silly movie (though not nearly as silly as I thought it was going to be), it does have a grim atmosphere, and the things taking place are very real and very dark.

The entire movie wasn't spent in that basement with "Kim" and Otis. The last half of the movie was spent watching Riley's parents break down, and their search for revenge on the monster who harmed their little girl. I think it goes to show that you can only push people so far until they break, and no matter how much of a monster you (or they) might think you are, they'll return with a savageness in their hearts that you will not be able to destroy. The family was so devastated by Riley's disappearance that they were not only heartbroken and worried sick, but they were absolutely infuriated. Once they discovered the identity of the madman, they'd stop at nothing to see that he was stopped. Prison was too good for him. They fucked it up, which was where the comedy popped up. But that rage was still there, and that emotion was also very real.

Toward the end of her imprisonment, I thought I saw a glimmer of forgiveness in Riley. You could catch her smiling as she was dancing with Otis during their "prom," and I felt like she didn't want her parents to do what they had planned. There was one point, where her brother mentioned Otis raping her, and she said..."He didn't rape me. He wanted to, but he couldn't. He just...danced with me." I think that quote adequately sums up the tragedy that was Otis. He was a monster, there's no doubt about that. But this character was so sad that I felt bad for him. I can see his life as vividly as if they'd shown it to me on screen; that's how much emotion I felt from the character. In high school, there was a cheerleader named Kim. Otis was in love with her, but she barely knew he existed; and if she did, she was probably cruel to him. I think he probably tried out for the football team as well, and was rejected. There were scenes with him and his brother, who was also very cruel to him. He called him names, shoved him around, and made him feel like the lowest form of scum on the planet. Even though most would agree that he was indeed all of those things, his brother didn't know anything about the girls in the basement. He simply did not respect Otis at all. I'm sure his childhood was much the same, and his parents were probably just as cruel to him as his brother was. Otis was extremely lonely, and I think Riley could see that.

So, this is a movie that I expected to be very silly. Turns out, it wasn't all that silly after all. Some parts, yes, but mostly it was a disturbing and sad story about a lonely man who would do anything for some love. It left a mark on me, emotionally, which is very rare these days. If anyone knows the song "Prom Queen" by The Insane Clown Posse...This movie is that song come to life. I think it would be incredibly disturbing to watch Otis with that song playing in the background...Something I might have to check into one day.

On a brighter note...Remember the little baby sister in "Growing Pains"? Well, she's all grown up now and looking pretty darn cute.

#312 -- The Clinic (2010)

Director: James Rabbitts
Rating: 3.5 / 5

These days, I'm a little hesitant when it comes to surgery/hospital based horror movies. I haven't seen that many of them, so I'm not entirely sure why I'm so against them to begin with. I think it's because I'm afraid that something Human Centipede-esque is going to happen. Thankfully, this one wasn't anything like that. To me, it felt like Hostel meets The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

It took place in 1979, several years before the invention of DNA testing, which proves to be a crucial plot point. We meet Beth and Cameron, an engaged and pregnant couple on their way visit Beth's parents for Christmas. When they're run off the road by an old, rusty ambulance, they decide to stop and rest for the night at a shady motel. In the middle of the night, Cameron leaves to search for a snack, and when he returns, Beth is gone. The police are no help, nor is the equally shady manager of the motel, so Cameron takes matters into his own hands. He ends up pulling a gun on the police officer, stealing his car, and crashing it right before he can get to Beth.

So, where is Beth? She's at the clinic, of course. Her baby has been prematurely removed from her and hidden away in the clinic. She wakes up in a tub of ice, discovers that her child is missing, and goes on a search to find it. Along the way, she meets up with three other women in the same predicament. They are, for the most part, certain that their babies are alive and somewhere in the building, and their main priority is to find them. Everything turns out to be a sort of twisted game. Inside their bellies is a tag which matches the tags on their babies. Since there is no DNA testing at this time, the only way to figure out which baby is theirs, they have to remove the tags from their stomachs. There is another woman somewhere in the building who is on a mission to kill all the others, in order to provide a process of elimination to discover which baby belongs to her.

There are several different elements at work here. I mentioned two other movies earlier; allow me to explain my statement before you get too angry at my comparisons. It feels like Hostel for more than one reason, one of them being quite obvious: that the women wake up in strange places and in very strange and dangerous predicaments. The other reason you will discover once you watch the movie for yourself (I don't want to spoil the ending). Now, it feels a bit (only a little bit) like TCM because of the "everyone's in on it" aspect of it. The police, as well as the motel manager, knew everything all along, and they played a role in things in the end. That is where the comparison stops. The Clinic doesn't feel like a copy-cat at all. It has its own ideas, it works on its own merits, and it's definitely an enjoyable ride. I'm simply trying to give you an idea of what you're getting into.

This is not a scary movie, do not be mistaken. It is disturbing in some ways, but mostly...it's just sad. I'm not even a mother yet, but I could feel the women's horror and fear for their children. Most of them died with no way of knowing whether or not their babies would survive. Each and every one of them had one single dying wish: take care of my baby. It's a deeply terrifying thought: to create this beautiful little person, and then to be shoved into a terrible situation with no way of protecting it. It also proves just how strong a woman can be when the thing she loves the most is in danger; the lengths that a mother will go to in order to ensure the safety of her child.

The ending, while somewhat awkward and nonsensical, works in its own way. It raises some questions about the rest of the movie, but it makes enough sense as to not ruin it entirely. It ends on a neutral note that is both happy and depressing. It is not a perfect movie by any means. It has its plot holes, and it raises several questions when everything is said and done. It might leave you questioning the intelligence of some characters and the morals of some others. But in the end, all of those things can be forgiven. What this is, is a deeply disturbing movie that will give you a bad feeling in the pit of your stomach -- especially if you're a woman, and even more so if you're a mother.

#284 -- Mum and Dad (2008)

Director: Steven Sheil
Rating: 3 / 5

Before I tell you anything of real importance about this movie, let's talk about that poster. I think it alone tells you just about everything you need to know. Those two people pictured are, of course, Mum and Dad. See how they look like the average every day couple. Mum's standing behind Dad, where he probably believes she belongs. Dad looks kind of sullen and angry, like everyone says every husband feels. It's safe to say that they appear to be a very normal married couple. But in the background there, you can see a severed head on a shelf, so I guess they're actually not quite normal. The tagline is "They're dying to have you over," which I think is kind of incorrect. They're not dying at all, but you will if you don't follow their rules. To me, at the very core of their relationship, Mum and Dad seem like the stereotypical 1950s couple. Dad's the bread winner, and Mum is the one who keeps the house in order. He wants to make sure she's happy, and she's there to calm him down whenever he gets a little bit too angry. They seem like they're in love, and I'm sure it would have been impossible for either of them to find someone else to satiate their needs, so they're actually quite a perfect couple. Aside from the craziness, of course.

The story centers on Lena, a young Polish girl working as a cleaner at an airport in London. She's new, and she makes it clear that she doesn't really have anyone that she can count on. She says that she and her parents don't get along, and she is distant from her siblings. I'm not even sure that her family lives nearby, so it's safe to say that no one would miss her if she disappeared. She's a sweet and smart girl, and she's pretty, so of course everyone should want her. She meets two other employees at the airport, Birdie and her brother Elbie. Birdie seems cheery and nice, even though she's quick to steal things she finds lying around. Elbie doesn't speak at all, but he never seems weird. He's just a shy guy (maybe...), and it's obvious to me that he has a good heart. After a night of working together, Birdie invites Lena over for drinks, but Lena declines stating that she has some things she has to do and that she'll try to go the next day. Birdie obviously isn't happy about this. Not long after that, a few things happen that cause Lena to miss her bus home. It isn't anything major; Birdie says that she forgot her phone and asks Lena to go back inside and help her look for it. I had the feeling, though, that Birdie had her phone all along, and that she only wanted to make Lena miss the bus. So when the bus does, indeed, leave without her, Birdie invites Lena to come stay with them for the night, so she'll at least have somewhere to sleep. Left with no other options, she accepts. Once she arrives at their home, it becomes clear pretty quickly that something isn't right. Birdie and Elbie disappear immediately, leaving Lena all alone in the kitchen. She's conked on the  head, knocked out, given a drug that leaves her unable to speak, and tied up in a dirty room.

Mum and Dad only have one child of their own, an apparently mentally retarded girl they keep tied up in an upstairs bedroom. The rest of their "children" are people they abducted. Birdie and Elbie are among those, but they were able to become "a part of the family." Dad often tells Lena that if she follows the rules, she will be okay, so we can assume that's what Birdie and Elbie did: they went through unspeakable amounts of torture and never misbehaved. And now, they help Mum and Dad capture new children, and they're free to come and go as they please. Lena is tied up and has designs cut into her skin. Once, she is locked into a suitcase and beaten with a wooden mallet. But these are not the acts of both parents' lust for blood. Mum is the one who enjoys torture, and she simply calls it "playing with her children." Dad doesn't even like them, it seems, and he only tolerates them for Mum's sake. But when they misbehave, he is there to deal out the punishment. Dad's the disciplinary figure, while Mum is the caring maternal figure who takes care of the family.

For the most part, they're a normal family. The have family dinners around the table, all the children have their own set of chores to do, and they even celebrate Christmas (with gifts like knives and naughty magazines). But instead of the traditional Christmas decorations, they've got bodies nailed to the walls. And instead of traditional family television, they watch porn while they're having their family meals. Oh, and sex is not kept a secret from the children, as they are invited to watch as Dad fucks a chunk of raw meat that most certainly belonged to a former "child."

Lena learns very quickly that she'll have to suck it up and take whatever they throw at her if she wants to survive; because if she misbehaves too much, she'll end up like the other chopped-up body parts that Elbie is seen incinerating in the back yard. She does an okay job of it at first, but there's only so much torture a person can take, and she soon starts fighting back. It becomes clear that if she doesn't escape soon, she'll be dead meat.

Mum and Dad definitely isn't a movie for everyone. Some would call it disgusting and disturbing, which it is. But as a horror fan, it's definitely not the worst case of abuse/torture that I've seen. I think the real torture is having to be stuck in that house with them, rather than the actual things that are being done to Lena; it is the knowledge that she'll either have to escape or die, and dying certainly seemed easier. There was one scene that I found particularly disturbing, but other than that, it's really not all that bad. It is fairly easy to enjoy, with characters that are easy to relate to, hate, and root for. It will keep you engaged through most of it, and it'll keep you wondering what they'll do next. I really enjoyed it up until the end, which I found was too abrupt and not very difficult. It spent the entire movie establishing the difficulty of escape, but then turned around and made the escape easy. There wasn't enough struggle or consequence; there wasn't enough fighting back or injury for me to really believe that Lena had a tough go of it. It left me wondering why she wasn't able to do it sooner. But other than the quick ending, I'd say it's definitely a movie that's worth seeing. It's not boring, it doesn't feel rushed or forced, and most importantly...the story isn't completely stupid.