THE INFERNAL CAULDRON (1903)

 

(original French title: LE CHAUDON INFERNAL; American title: THE INFERNAL CALDRON AND THE PHANTASMAL VAPORS; U.K. title: THE INFERNAL CAULDRON. Director/screenwriter/producer/star: Georges Méliès)

 

Review

In this two-minute, G-rated silent short, two excitable, almost cartoonish devils stuff three humans into the titular flaming cauldron so that they can summon their sacrifices’ ghostly essences. While there’s not much storyline, the visual aspects, especially for a brief 1903 work, are amazing— Méliès, INFERNAL’s only credited player, appears as one of the bluish-green, shirtless devils (Belphegor, according to Méliès’s Star Film Company); the struggling souls are clad are soft pink, with other soft colors (yellow, orangish brass) sprinkled in the background. All of this was hand-colored by the prolific Méliès, a French illusionist and director whose talents innovated filmmaking with his (according to Méliès’s IMDb page) “use of special effects, popularizing such techniques as substitution splices, multiple exposures, time-lapse photography, dissolves and hand-painted color”, pyrotechnics, soft focus, and storyboards. Méliès is especially famous for his 1902 film A TRIP TO THE MOON.

Great two-minute thrill, worth your time.

KRISTY (2014)

 

(Director: Oliver “Olly” Blackburn. Screenwriter: Anthony Jaswinski.)

Review

KRISTY opens with several hoodie-wearing people leaving a female corpse, Heather Price (listed as “Dead Girl” on IMDb), in a gray-morning field while a newscast is heard telling how she’s been missing for three days.

Cut to working-class college student Justine Wells (Haley Bennett) getting ready to spend her Thanksgiving break in her dorm with her roommate Nicole (Erica Ash). Nicole flakes on her “stay-behind” (as Wayne, a college security guard calls it) with Justine when her dad surprises her with a trip to Aspen.

When Justine, alone, goes to a nearby minimart for late night food, she’s in-store stalked by a creepy young woman wearing sunglasses and a hoodie. Justine leaves the store after the creepy woman leaves, only to encounter her driving a muscle car on the road. Justine manages to lose her, makes it back to her dorm and takes a nap, thinking everything is okay despite the “weird” (her word) encounter with the pierced-lip, creepy woman (Violet, played by Ashley Greene). Everything is not okay, because she’s been followed by not one, but several hoodie-wearing strangers, and as her terrorizers up their assault tactics, it looks like Justine—although a capable fighter—might not survive the night.

KRISTY is a good, steady-build slasher film, with effective foreshadowing, solid acting, a few solid twists (the killers are not random), and equally effective cinematography (credit Crille Forsberg) and consistent, mostly entertaining flight-and-fight pacing (editor: Jeff Betancourt, THE GRUDGE, 2004)—aside from a few instances when Justine should end her would-be killers instead of running. KRISTY isn’t memorable, but it’s well-shot, well-written and tightly edited, a relatively non-gory flick that provides some welcome T-Day thrills and chills.

 

KRISTY’s other notable cast members include:

James Ransone (SINISTER, 2012) as Scott, Justine’s friend and would-be protector;

Chelsea Bruland, a stunt woman in quite a few films (including Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, 2014) as Heather Price, or “Dead Girl” (as IMDb lists her role);

and

Mathew St. Patrick (SIX FEET UNDER, 2001-2005) as Wayne, a  night-shift security guard in Justine’s dorm.