Halloween 2025: September 29th

 

Cold Prey 2 (2008)

Fritt vilt II
 

The entire point of my Horror Around the World themes is to expand my horizons as a horror nerd. To not only see films I've never seen before but to expose myself to cultures I'm not that familiar with. I want to learn what the words "horror movie" mean on the African plains, the balmy beaches of the tropics, or the frozen reaches of Norway. Which begs the question of why I'm watching the sequel to the Norwegian movie I watched last September for this year's entry from the land of the fjords. Especially since the first "Cold Prey" struck me as a somewhat middling attempt to emulate the American slasher remakes of the 2000. The mountainous nation has produced more horror films than you might think, after all. Well, I'm always willing to check out a slasher flick, even if it's a sequel to a movie I didn't like that much. Maybe doubly so, since the slasher subgenre is one of the few places where sequels are often improvements over the previous installment. That seemed to be the case with "Cold Prey II," which is widely regarded as one of the best body count movies of the 2000s. Any of my Norwegian friends, please forgive me for going with another obvious pick. It's simply too hard to say no to more blood on the snow.

In the snowbound town of Otta, near the Jotunheimen mountain range, resides a small hospital that is in the process of being decommissioned. The skeleton crew of a staff – Dr. Herman, Dr. Camilla, her ambulance driver Ole, a handful of nurses and security guards – go about their business. Their quiet night is interrupted by the arrival of Jannicke, the traumatized survivor of a massacre at an abandoned ski resort in the mountains. She claims a masked man with a pickax killed her friends and dropped them in a snowy gorge. The police investigate and discover this to be true, bringing the bodies back to the morgue... Including the burly murderer, who it seems Jannicke did not kill. The hospital staff are honor bound to revive the man, despite Jannicke's protest. It's not long before the lunatic is back on his feet, swinging pickax around again, and offing the hospital staff. Jannicke, finding a fellow survivor in Camilla, is determined to end it this time.

Having moved on to Norway's first disaster movie, original “Fritt vilt” director Roar Uthaug passed the reins of Norway's first slasher franchise over to Mats Stenberg. Stenberg hasn't directed much else but he does show a more confident visual approach than Uthaug did on the first one. While the Marcus Nispel-like washed-out lighting and grayish green color palette remain, the sequel ditches the thundering musical score, frantic camerawork, chopped-up editing, and overdone musical design. In its place is a humble slasher flick that utilizes its setting for some decent suspense. A sequence where a nurse hides under a gurney, clinging to the bottom at the killer walks over head, is genuinely suspenseful. The quiet and mostly empty building makes for a fittingly creepy setting. When the film does employ flashier visuals or loud jump-scares, they are better utilized. A pickax tossed towards the camera or a seemingly dead body leaping to life are distinctive exclamation points on the build-up of tension that came before. This is most apparent in the sequel's very last image, a moment of high-attitude that takes the audience out with a chuckle and a rush.

In general, “Cold Prey II” also has a sturdy grasp on what we expect from a slasher sequel. Namely, it does mostly the same thing as the first one but bigger, bloodier, and better. The script – from Uthaug, Thomas Moldestad and Martin Sundland – seems to pattern itself after two horror sequels that did exactly that. The hospital setting seems probably inspired by “Halloween II” while the story takes more than a few queues from “Aliens.” Namely, in forcing the deeply traumatized final girl back into a confrontation with the same monster. Jannicke displays a “nuke from orbit” reaction to the mountain man's reappearance. By the climax, she heads into the villain's lair, ready to take the fight to them. The comparison is most evident in a bad-ass scene where the local police enter the hospital, armed with SWAT gear, only to be quickly overwhelmed and taken out by the murderer's more guerilla techniques. While the first “Fritt vilt” was weirdly conservative with the bloodshed, part two is notably not. The movie features a gnarly neck snapping, a spurting slashed throat, multiple fire extinguisher bludgeoning, and plenty of pick-axe impalement too.

 

Probably the biggest improvement “Cold Prey II” makes over the original is by providing us with a more fleshed-out cast. Like the first one, the sequel takes a bit of time to establish the characters before sending the masked murderer after them. Unlike the first one, they aren't an indistinct batch of spam-in-a-van cliches this time. Having the cast be a group of young professionals, instead of your typical horny teens, ads a little more personality to them. It also makes one of the subgenre's oldest cliches – a girl stops to take a shower – actually make sense. Bringing Ingrid Bolsø Berdal back, now as a perpetually on-edge survivor with no patience for mistakes, is also a good idea. She's the only one who knows how bad it's going to get, adding a bit of suspense. The script is also smart enough to make the killer, nothing more than a big dude in a ski-mask last time, into a bit more of a mythic figure. We learn he has a history this time, having been killing people up in the mountains for decades, and seems to be developing a Jason-esque tendency to shrug off seemingly fatal injuries. 

“Cold Prey 2” still doesn't utilize its wintry setting nearly as much as it could. The hospital is less isolated than the first film's ski resort, meaning the sense of icy desolation is lessened. In general, it's hard to say if these movies are the Norwegian riff on the very American slasher archetypes so much as they are Norwegian filmmakers deliberately emulating American archetypes. Nevertheless, the second one is a big improvement over the first. The sequel had the highest grossing opening weekend of any Norwegian movie ever, which probably says more about the lack of popcorn blockbuster franchises in that country than the Scandinavian appetite for slasher shenanigans. The film ends in a fairly definitive way, which did not stop a third installment from being made. I liked “Cold Prey 2” a good deal but it has mostly encouraged me to seek out more Norwegian horror in general than watching the next installment right away. [7/10]

 

Space Monster Wangmagwi (1967)
Ujugoe-in wangmagwi

A while back, I wrote about “Yongary, Monster from the Deep,” which has the distinction of being the most iconic South Korean kaiju movie of the Showa era. By which I mean it's the most direct imitator of “Godzilla.” You might think that “Yongary” was the only giant monster movie made in that country during the sixties but you'd be wrong. The fire swallowing dinosaur was beat to theaters by a few weeks by “Space Monster Wangmagwi.” Not that there was much chance to verify this for many years. The Korean Film Archive held the sole complete copy for decades, the motion picture unseen because of copyright hang-ups. Once that was cleared up, festival screenings started to pop up in Korea in the 2000s. This finally cleared the path for a proper re-release of “Wangmagwi.” Now the formerly “lost” movie can be easily seen by anyone, because we do indeed live in an age of wonders and horrors untold. As a discerning kaiju head, what's my reaction to this rare piece of monster movie history?

Across the gulf of space, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic regard this Earth with envious eyes. Namely, the tin can clad conquerors of the world known as Gamma surely draw their plans against us. That plan involves dropping an ape-like monster onto the southern plains outside of Seoul, South Korea. The creature grows to enormous size within Earth's atmosphere and quickly begins to run amok. It stomps on people, wrecks buildings, and sprays a combustible gas from its forehead. This invasion is a big inconvenience to Ahn-hee, who intends on marrying her boyfriend, Oh Jeong-hwan, that day. Oh is a fighter jet pilot and called upon by the air force to defend his homeland from the enormous beast. Ahn-hee refuses to evacuate and, while still wearing her wedding gown, is abducted by the monster. She encounters a little boy who climbs atop the giant's body, one of several incidents happening around the city in the midst of this national emergency. 

By 1967, the giant monster movies made in Japan had already gotten very silly. This was the same year Godzilla found a son, King Kong fought a robotic double, Gamera gained a dizziness prone blood-sucking rival, and not one but two strangely chicken-like leviathans flattened Tokyo. This makes it unsurprising that “Wangmagwi” is more comedy than horror film. In fact, Hyeok-jinn Gwon's film is almost akin to a sketch comedy movie at times. After Wangmagwi begins its rampage across Seoul, the movie often cuts away to a series of farcical events happening during the attack. A pair of buffoons make bets against each other as the monster attacks, offering each other money and their wives should the other die. In a shelter, a man has to take a shit at the same time a woman is about to give birth. This is unrelated to a guy climbing atop a rescue vehicle in only his underwear. The humor in “Wangmagwi” is quite scatological and juvenile. A little boy, not unlike the kid heroes from “Yongary” or the “Gamera” flicks, climbs atop Wangmagwi's head. His actions include deafening the monster by stabbing at his ear canal and disrupting its radio connection to its alien overlord. He also takes a piss inside the monster's head, a truly unexpected sight. 

Considering how knowingly ridiculous “Space Monster Wangmagwi” is, the titular titan is not the most intimidating of movie monsters. Amusingly, Wangmagwi's arrival on Earth and march towards Seoul are not depicted on-screen, merely being told to us during a news broadcast. The urban destruction is fairly brief. The monster crushes some buildings, knocks over at least one recognizable landmark – Independence Gate – and sets a city block ablaze with its fiery spray. Wangmagwi notably steps on a human being, an act Godzilla is always implied to do but rarely actually depicted as doing. He also carries a maiden around in his hand, King Kong style. However, Wangmagwi's reign of chaos is short-lived. His ultimate defeat is rather anticlimactic. In general, he's a fairly silly looking monster. He's got big droopy ears and exaggerated fangs jutting out of his oversized jaws, making him resemble a cartoon bulldog. The creature's appearance is very human-like, with two legs and two arms. He moves exactly like a guy in a suit too. Whatever illusion Toho and Daiei's kaiju flicks created that these rubber creations were actual fantastic beasts is not all that present here. 

No matter how ridiculous the kaiju genre got, there were still fascinating reflections of the culture that birthed them. Ishiro Honda was a staunch pacifist and believer in world unity. Despite that, an undeniable nationalistic pride emerged from his “Godzilla” movies in the lengthy montages of Japan's definitely-not-an-army fighting the beast. Though made with a fraction of the budget and resources, there's a Korean vein of this same idea in “Wangmagwi.” The military assembles against the monster efficiently and bravely. Oh faces off against the monster without a trace of fear. Cops run through the streets and fire their pistols at the monster's feet. With the Korean War not far in the past, the film represents a pop culture depiction of the nation being strong, resourceful, and independent in the face of an outside invader. The possibility of using a nuclear bomb against the monster is also regarded as an absolute last resort, another reminder of how the atomic horrors of World War II float over every movie like this. The Korean national identity is also reflected in the melodrama of Ahn-hee being so committed to marrying her boyfriend, that not even a kaiju attack can convince her to postpone the ceremony. When the couple adopt the brave boy in the last reel, it feels like the Korean family unit being put forth as an unshakable institution. May no intergalactic goliaths tear it asunder. 

All of the above means “Space Monster Wangmagwi” is not exactly a lost classic. The special effects are fairly janky. Despite the oversized threat, the movie's ambitions strike one as rather limited. Nobody, down to the alien overlords orchestrating this plot, seem to take anything that happens as too momentous an occasion. Mostly, the extremely silly script makes this a fluffy, light-hearted affair. How am I to resist any giant monster movie that features a little kid pissing in the kaiju's ear though? There's an undeniable charm to “Wangmagwi's” weird tonal switch-ups and goofy creature effects. It reflects the Korean self-image in a way that the more generic “Yongary” simply did not. I am glad monster movie fans all over the world can see it now. By the way, “Wangmagwi” isn't the first Korean kaiju movie either. A 1962 fantasy about a bulgasari – an iron eating dragon of sorts – attacking medieval Songdo predates it. That film remains lost and probably always will but who knows. If “Wangmagwi” can be rediscovered, perhaps that one is still out there somewhere too. [7/10]

 

Amazing Stories: You Gotta Believe Me

I guess I didn't get enough of ominous visions concerning crashing airplanes when I watched “Final Destination” earlier this season. “You Gotta Believe Me” concerns Earl Sweet, an ordinary fellow sleeping in his bed. He has a vivid and distressing nightmare of an airline jet crashing right outside his house. He sees the ghosts of the dead passengers pass him by, the scorched remains of their bodies on his front yard. Earl awakens in a cold sweat, unable to shake the disturbing feeling the dream has left him with. He walks to the near-by airport, soon recognizing the possessions of the passengers awaiting the next flight in the lobby. This convinces the man that his dream was actually a vision of the future. He attempts to alert the authorities, who dismiss him as a raving lunatic. The man has to take matters into his own hands to prevent the disaster only he knows is about to happen. 

Like all the best episodes of “Amazing Stories,” “You Gotta Believe Me” ditches the Spielberg-ian whimsy or Dante-esque madcap comedy most of the show attempted. The episode, which aired eleven days before Halloween, is probably one of the eerier installments of the program. The opening nightmare scene plays out in still, slow medium shots. There's little music and a far-off sound design as we see the old man wandering through the burning wreckage. He centers in on the a charred Teddy Ruxpin, discordantly repeating a line of a childish fairy tale. It's a creepy moment and “You Gotta Believe Me” manages to make that feeling last for the rest of its half-hour. When Earl arrives at the airport, it is strangely empty. The announcements echo like far-off cries. He moves like a still, sleepwalking observer through a placid dreamland. It's surprisingly creepy, director Kevin Reynolds showing an aptitude for spookiness that his future Kevin Costner collaborations rarely displayed. 

The other element making this episode a good one is its lead performance. Great character actor Charles Durning plays Earl. While the temptation might have been to play the role as entirely hysterical and panicked from the beginning – think John Lithgow in “Twilight Zone: The Movie” – Durning makes the choice to underplay it. He is quiet and calm at first, allowing the sense of unease on his face to slowly reveal itself more and more. The entranced quality he goes for fits someone who has been startled awake, uncertain of the reality of what he's seeing. This allows for a slow build, as the feeling that the crash is destined to happen becomes increasingly certain. That makes the action packed climax stronger than it would've been otherwise, an exciting pay-off to what has come before. Like a quality short story, “You Gotta Believe Me” then orderly wraps up right after that. All these factors surely make “You Gotta Believe Me” one of the best episodes of “Amazing Stories'” entire run. [8/10]

The Addams Family: Lurch's Grand Romance
 

For the penultimate episode of the original “Addams Family,” we get a special guest star and a Lurch centric narrative. Morticia's previously unseen best friend Tiny Trivia is visiting the Addams household. Trivia has recently decided to devote herself full-time to her dream of becoming a singer and actress. Lurch is immediately smitten with the lady. The butler proves to be a little shy around women, however. The family goes about attempting to help him gain some confidence but it's no use. Grandmama decides to go a more direct path. She whips up a love potion and hands it over to Trivia. The concoction works too well and the woman is soon smothering Lurch with a level of affection he finds uncomfortable. In addition to that, the brew makes Trivia uncontrollably horny for any man she sees. Gomez, Fester, and Cousin Itt all become her next targets for romance in quick order. 

Bringing in a guest star to “The Addams Family” but having them do something other than run and scream has worked out in the past. Diane Jergens was a song-and-dance gal in real life and already a veteran of early television sitcoms by the time she played Trivia. It would actually be her final on-screen credit, the actress retiring shortly afterwards. She's an energetic presence however. Listening to her sing the same song repeatedly is kind of annoying but she's got a go-for-broke intensity that suits this show well. Especially in the last third, when she's gone guy-crazy and is kissing over every male she encounters. Seeing Gomez flustered and out-matched by a female for once is a good joke.

This episode, in general, has some amusing moments. The family coming together to teach Lurch some game is a decent set-up. His inability to use Fester as a stand-in for an attractive lady is a solid joke. “Lurch's Grand Romance” is most remembered as the source of the first Wednesday dance sequence, Lisa Loring attempting to teach Ted Cassidy some of her moves. Both of these scenes allow for Cassidy to stretch his comedic muscles, Lurch getting to say and do a lot more than usual. Seeing the Frankenstein-ian man-servant be awkward and stuttering made me chuckle. I like it when the whole family is involved in these scenarios. (Well, almost the whole family. Pugsley must be at school.) Those scenes are a little more amusing than watching Trivia act like a nut, though those aren't terrible either. An early sequence where Fester looks into a crystal ball or continued discussions about Gomez' reaction to hearing someone speak French also result in some solid one-liners. [7/10]