Max Koch Hits SCREAMFEST 2011 (Day Three)

By Sunday, I was already a little burnt out. Not by Screamfest so much as life itself.  I know.  To some, my life sounds like some kinda damn vacation all the time... but Papa needs a REAL vacation.  I'm tellin' you.  I might be a workaholic.  I rarely EVER turn off.  All I ask is ONE week of doing absolutely NOTHING.  But I know that will NEVER happen because the minute I start "doing nothing", say, on a tropical beach somewhere, I'll start to get an idea that I wanna film a dumb bit in the sand or something and the next thing you know, it's a production.  "Gary Busey Builds a Sand Castle" or some similarly preposterous concept.  Then I'll kick myself in the face for forgetting to bring my Gary wig.  DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY WIGS I'VE PACKED FOR A SO-CALLED VACATION???  Don't ask.

I spend each and every day expending some degree of great energy and the older I get, the more walls I hit.  I just hit one just now!  All I was doing was putting away some stupid groceries and I got really, really, really sleepy.  It didn't help that I was in the dentist's chair for ninety minutes this morning.  Going to the dentist can be very stressful for me!  Stress takes it's toll, man!  And so all I wanted to do was lie down.  But there's always so much SHIT to be done around here that-- oh, why am I complaining?  Who gives a crap about my exhaustion woes?  This is a blog entry about Day Three of Screamfest.  Just know I hit the couch for 13 minutes... and now I'm sitting up right with a freezing cold iced tea-and-lemon typing.  See?  Energy.

There were FOUR films on the schedule for Sunday but I only caught one.  Well, first of all, last night was the season two premiere of "The Walking Dead" and there was NO WAY I was about to forgo that.  Not to mention, I'm going to be gone the next six nights and I miss my family tremendously.  So I chose the first show of the day, which was a zombie film with a unique slant entitled "Exit Humanity".  I was especially excited to catch this one because it co-starred the supremely-lovely Dee Wallace (Stone) and the great Bill Moseley.  If you don't know Moseley, you don't know horror.  Moseley was ChopTop in "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2" and Otis Firefly in Rob Zombie's "The Devil's Rejects" (in my estimation, one of the greatest 'rampaging murderer' performances ever captured on film).  

Manson-as-all-hell.

"EXIT HUMANITY" REVIEW

This is a prime example of how an inappropriate, over-bearing score can disable a film's power.  A post-Civil War era-set zombie thriller, "Exit Humanity" (a title I adore) tells the story of a man who suffers extraordinary loss only to be challenged evermore by a coupla mean-ass rebels and, oh, yeah, hoards of undead "daywalkers".  The score is SO severe that the drama of the first act swiftly shifts to melodrama and, a little sadly, the proceeds almost veer towards unintentionally comical.  I just wish bombastic music didn't have to overwhelm (and occasionally suffocate) nearly EVERY scene.  Because the actors here are working very hard to tell the tale as credibly as they humanly can.  Playing screams of emotional agony against dead silence can be profoundly chilling.  And even though the director told us when he introduced the film that the cast and Canadian crew had to work with a micro-budget, I thought the thing LOOKED great.  The zombie make-ups were very effective.  But the film is too long and at times too plodding and plot-less to care enough about the fates of our hero or anyone else for that matter.  


In lieu of little money to work with, the director employs the device of some fairly crude animated segments that I thought were actually pretty kickass.  It lent itself to a sort of "moving graphic novel" feel.  I mean, this thing coulda been "The Road" of Civil War zombie movies if it wanted to (there is a father/son relationship depicted near it's heart's core).  Brian Cox gives good narration.

Dee Wallace (Stone) is amazing as always and so the highlight of my day was meeting her.  I was SO nervous to trouble her for a snapshot.  But she totally chatted me up!  I have been a mad admirer of Wallace since I wished she was my mommy after the first time I saw "E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial". Lest we not forget her stellar work in "Cujo", "The Howling", "Rob Zombie's Halloween" and my personal favorite, Ti West's "The House of the Devil". 

Yeah.  Ms. Wallace could NOT have been sweeter to me (and sexy and funny as hell... GREAT laugh).  And her instructions for this photo were simple: "Make sure you Facebook the CRAP outta this, Max". Whatever you say, baby...

So now I'm really excited for tonight (Monday) because my buddy Brett Pearsons will be joining me for a psycho hillbilly double-bill, "Wrong Turn 4" and "Madison County".  Naturally, we'll be hitting a Happy Hour first.  BRING IT!  

I am enjoying Screamfest.