Wow, Mark Rogers sure likes this whole apocalypse thang‘. Yes, this film is
based on a novel by the Haunted Bog’s very favorite author! I’ve never read it,
and after sampling Roger’s other work, I never will.
Maybe I’m wrong but I’d bet dollars to donuts it’s full of paper-thin characters
spouting asinine dialogue. There is a bit of that in this film as well, with
actors cropping up only to have awkward conversations, before serving as Purina
® monster chow.
So the question remains, why is
this film so damn good?
Oh yes, I’m heartily recommending this little nugget. It’s the type of buried
treasure that us horror fans wade through mountains of atrocious video store
rejects looking for. Well, I don’t want to overstate my case. This film isn’t
another ‘Carnival of Souls’ or anything, but it is relentlessly entertaining.
It’s the type of flick you might have caught playing on USA’s “Up All Night”,
and been damn glad you did. (God in heaven, what ever happened to basic cable?
The 100% Weirds, the Monstervisions, the little shorts that used to play on the
Sci-fi channel? You know, the things that actually made TV worth watching! Now
it seems like the cable networks are in a competition to see who can
differentiate themselves the least. I’m rambling. )
At its heart, this film really is just a monster show, but with one hell of
a monster. Don’t get me wrong, your not going to mistake the baddy for any thing
but a guy in a suit, but that suit is done very well. I remember thinking how
smart they were to half conceal the creature in shadows and mist in order to
hide the low-budget effects, then being completely surprised when they brought
him out into the open. The whole beastie is organic looking enough not to make
you giggle, but creative enough to keep you looking at it. It was a pleasant
surprise. (And enough to make an old-school snob like me wish that cgi had never
been invented)
The film has a great energy. We join the
story in medias res, (Note to self: Stop writing in Latin when reviewing
monster movies. You're not Pauline Kael, thank God.) and the film uses its
zip to teach us who its main characters are going to be, and what there all
about. And get this! The film develops these figures by showing
us who they are, not standing
around and telling us! Wow! I still can’t believe Rogers wrote this thing!
On the down side some of the characters feel a bit hollow, and a few like they are
affected in order to make them more interesting (like the well-meaning but f
bomb-addicted police detective). Then again, you don’t see a killer Norse monster movie
for gripping character development, and this may even add to the film‘s goofy
charm. And I think that’s the key to enjoying this movie, its goofy charm.
It’s not going to replace ‘Dawn of the Dead’ in your film rotation, but it’s
damn interesting, not to mention unique. My cardinal rule for reviewing a film
is this: it doesn’t matter if it’s scary, exiting, funny, or even bloody ridiculous, as
long as it’s not boring. Runestone has enough weird appeal to land itself
a …