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Some years back, a list started to circulate around social media displaying the scariest films for each of the last fifty years. According to who? The person who created the image, I guess. Most of the usual suspects were present and accounted for, as you'd expect, but a few more left-field choices did crop up. One of which, for the year 2008, was “Coming Soon.” This was the sole title mentioned that I was unfamiliar with. A little research showed me it was a well-regarded Thai film, the directorial debut of Sophon Sakdapisit. Sakdapisit previously wrote “Shutter,” the film largely responsible for putting Thai horror on the map in the new millennium. That film was also my previous sole exposure to terror tales from this particular country. Since my journey around the world via horror films this season has brought me back to Thailand, watching “Coming Soon” seemed like the logical next step to take.
A multiplex holds a cast-and-crew only screening of “Resentful Spirit,” a yet-be-released horror film. Projectionist Shane, a former drug addict trying to rebuild his relationship with co-worker Som, has agreed to bootleg the film pre-release and sell it to some gangsters. As his friend Yon records a clandestine screening of the film, he mysteriously vanishes. Shane investigates further and soon sees that Yon's dead body is now part of the movie. Haunted by visions of the film's ghostly antagonist, Shane becomes convinced the movie is cursed. Teaming up with Som, he digs into the origins of the film and the grisly legend – of a mad woman who kidnapped children and gouged their eyes out, before a mob lynched her – that inspired “Resentful Spirit.” Can he unravel this mystery before it is too late?
If the focus on screeching ghost faces didn't make it apparent, "Coming Soon" has a limited interest in subverting audience expectations. The script has a frustrating habit of seeming to go in a more clever direction before getting right back on the expected track. Midway through the story, Shane and Som seek out the origins of the legend that inspired the cursed movie. As in "Ring," "The Eye," and "Shutter," their investigation takes them to a remote village in the country. This all proceeds a decently surprising twist that seems to confound what you'd typically expect from a plot structure like this... Before another routine origin is plainly revealed for this haunting. This is not the only time "Coming Soon" counteracts a swerve. Shane eventually decides burning the physical film might end the curse, a standard conclusion to make in a movie like this. Instead, this action traps him in a time loop. Instead of pursuing this idea further, it's merely another set piece on the way to a standard climax.
Unlike a lot of Asian horror films that received international attention in the 2000s, "Coming Soon" was spared a mediocre Hollywood remake. I can't imagine this one being improved by getting the "One Missed Call" treatment. However, a good remake that delves more into the ideas present in the film, of interrogating why we are drawn to watch horrible acts, would be a worthwhile endeavor. Despite the obvious skill on-display in "Coming Soon," it never rises above the standard ghost movie shenanigans it seems designed to counteract. That rotting corpse ghost woman – whose slashed mouth, twisted ankles, and stringy hair seems to combine different mythological figures from across the Asian continent – is pretty freaky though. Hopefully she doesn't start popping out at me after watching this one. Would giving "Coming Soon" a middling score make me more or less likely to be targeted by the curse? We should've gotten a sequel about that... They could've called it "Coming Sooner." [6/10]
Charles Band may be the last exploitation movie producer – in the grindhouse/drive-in sense, where the line between coattail rider, con man, and P.T. Barnum showman blurs – in the business. In 2020, when the world was being ravaged by an unprecedented pandemic, he threw together two actresses in front of a green screen and lots of repurposed footage to cash-in on the widespread disaster. At this point, it's hard to imagine that questions of taste crossed his mind on the way to making a quick buck. Band has always been like this. In the old days, he'd mock-up a poster, an image he knew was marketable, and build a movie around it only afterwards. This is undoubtedly how “Zone Troopers” came to be. And what a poster it is! Slotting a snarling alien in place of Uncle Sam in the classic pose, beckoning personally to the person looking at it, made “Zone Troopers'” one-sheet an object of frightful fascination for some young people. The movie itself – a few years early to be a “Predator” rip-off, instead drawing obvious inspiration from “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “Star Wars” – is more of a question mark though. I already own the poster, and love it, so it's past time for me to see if I feel similarly about the actual motion picture.
World War II rages in the Italian countryside. A small troop of American soldiers see their inexperienced leader killed by the Germans. This forces roughneck Sgt. Stone to take charge, leading the group further into enemy territory. They come across an unexpected Gestapo stronghold, in the same area where their compasses give odd readings. The team soon discovers that the Nazis have captured a downed alien vessel and the strange lifeform inside. The Americans take it upon themselves to rescue the extraterrestrial. The outsider seeks to be reunited with his kind but will the visitors be sympathetic to the U.S. war effort? What of the Germans, hot on their trail?
This lack of direction is also apparent in the indecisive treatment of the alien. Despite its threatening visage on the poster, the hairy, mandibled critter is only played as a figure of fear in one brief scene. Later, it's seen emerging from an egg, giving you the impression that this monster is a baby. That's quickly changed, the alien instead being a female science officer of some kind. When other extraterrestrials appear, they look like blue-skinned Nordics with tubas on their heads. This constantly changing approach to the aliens is also present in how they act. The dramatic crux of the script has the infintry men asking the visitors to assist in the fight against the Nazis. They initially resist before changing their minds entirely off-screen. It would have been nice to have a scene of the aliens realizing what the soldiers did for them or seeing that the Nazis were a monstrous threat that demanded their attention. Of course, this wouldn't blend well with the lackadaisical, made-up-as-it-goes-along nature of the story. You can also see that in the alien tech, which can do anything the scene demands.
Bilson would only direct one more theatrically released film, forgotten ensemble comedy "The Wrong Guys." This is not to say he hasn't had a long fruitful career. He co-wrote "The Rocketeer," created three successful TV shows, and later pivoted successfully into video games. Most recently, he provided the blueprint for Spike Lee's "Da 5 Bloods." Which probably makes up for him fumbling this men-on-a-mission war flick. Like a lot of Band's Empire Pictures, "Zone Troopers" was MIA on disc for many years. During that time, it cultivated a bit of a cult following. I can't help but wonder how much VHS rental nostalgia and the bitchin' poster art influenced that. "Zone Troopers" sadly does not live up to its potential. A Charles Band production being outshined by its box art is certainly not unprecedented. That's the way it goes sometimes. [5/10]
"Alfred Hitchcock Presents" didn't make quite the impact on pop culture that "The Twilight Zone" did. This might explain why it got the slightly more successful revival in 1985. Though the new "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" mostly featured direct remakes of the classic episodes. Such as "Night Fever," which follows a charming young psychopath named Jerry. After failing to pick up a girl at a grocery store, he robs it instead. When the cops arrive, Jerry starts shooting. He fatally wounds an officer and receives a bullet into his own arm. He arrives at a hospital, knowing the police will book him the minute he heals up. That's when his nurse, a sweet and naïve woman named Ellen, catches his eye. He attempts to woo her into helping him escape.
The 1985 version of "Night Fever" casts Robert Carradine as its Starkweather-esque psycho. The star of "Revenge of the Nerds" – same director, by the way – might seem like an odd choice for a seductive killer. Somehow, the episode makes it work. Jerry is obviously good at spotting vulnerable people. When he sees the dowdy Ellen, he immediately checks her as a lonely young woman ready to be taken advantage of. He immediately compliments her appearance, knowing that'll work, using the exact same line on her that he used on the girl in the first scene. (Whose jaw he broke afterwards.) This is, of course, exactly how sociopaths operate in real life. They only care about themselves and usually aren't very smart – Starkweather was barely literate – but have enough outward charm to win over those most susceptible to their wiles. "Night Fever" reminds me a lot of Jack Ketchum's "The Lost" in the way it clearly depicts this seemingly contradictory dichotomy. Not only because both stories have killers with a rockabilly style about them.
We get a rare Fester centric episode in "Crisis in the Addams Family." After some pirate themed roleplay goes awry, Fester blows a hole in the family's plumbing. This leads to Gomez filing another claim with the family's put-upon insurance agency, who decide to cancel the Addams' policy. Distraught over all the drama he's caused, Fester sinks into a depression. Gomez encouraged him to seek out a new job to invigorate himself, which leads to Fester finding employment at the exact same insurance company the represents the family.
"Crisis in the Addams Family" is quite an unfocused episode. At first, it seems to be about Uncle Fester feeling frustrated with his role in the household, tired of always playing the bad guy in Gomez's games. The scene where he confined himself to his bedroom, in a funk, seems to support that idea. Instead, the script quickly changes gears to be about the always exciting world of insurance policies. The two ideas don't seem to have in common with each other. Fester getting a job with, coincidentally, the same agency about to cancel the family's plan seems like a desperate attempt to mash together two unrelated premises.
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