5 — Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
‘Boy Next Door’
successful camp
UNIVERSAL PICTURES
I have many leather-bound books (and first editions of The Iliad).
Self-aware film
brings laughs as
well as thrills
By CHLOE GILKE
Managing Arts Editor
“The Boy Next Door” has all the
ingredients of cinematic garbage.
The January release date, the $4
million budget
that was appar-
ently
spent
solely on per-
fect salon blow-
outs
for
J.Lo
and bad digital
rain
effects,
the dialogue so
heavy-handed
and
ridiculous
that the screen-
writer obviously hasn’t even seen a
movie, let alone written one — you
don’t even need to know that “The
Boy Next Door” has an 11 percent
rating on Rotten Tomatoes to
know that this movie isn’t going to
win any awards.
But “The Boy Next Door” is
aware of exactly what kind of
movie it is. It takes its trashiness in
stride, embracing all the elements
that should make it objectively bad
and spinning crap into pure enter-
tainment.
Jennifer Lopez (“Monster-in-
Law”) plays Claire Peterson, a
high-school English teacher with a
needy teenage son and a husband
who cheats but is really sorry about
it. J.Lo is actually a very talented
actress, and it’s a shame that this
role doesn’t give her much to work
with. But Lopez is naturally like-
able, and the fact that she carries
her historically rom-com oeurve
wherever she goes adds another
dimension to the plot. For the first
twenty minutes of the film, the
audience is just waiting for her
Channing Tatum type to show up
and sweep her off her feet.
That Channing Tatum type
stand-in is handsome new neigh-
bor Noah (Ryan Guzman, “Step
Up: All In”), who, immediately
upon moving in with his sick
uncle, shows up to Claire’s house
to fix her car and make her blush.
Their chemistry is irresistible,
despite the fact that Claire’s awk-
ward son is still hanging around
and that titular “boy next door”
is only 19 years old. Noah is drop-
dead gorgeous with emphasis on
the “drop dead,” youthful and for-
bidden and a little dangerous, but
all the more appealing because of
it.
... Until he becomes just plain
terrifying. Guzman plays the
switch from sweetheart neigh-
bor to lethal stalker surprisingly
well; he literally becomes a roar-
ing, bloodied, vengeful monster
in front of our eyes. His irrational
actions are never really explained
(beyond the fact that he has a “bad
temper” and a history of violence),
but that makes some scenes all
the more terrifying, since the
audience sees events unfold from
Claire’s point of view. When she
slept with Noah, Claire had no
idea that he was a master hacker,
fighter and all-around criminal
mastermind. With each new rev-
elation at how far Noah will go to
enact his vengeance, we’re still
completely in the dark as to his
motivations or what he’ll do next.
Whether or not this effect was
intentional, it’s genuine suspense.
But though “The Boy Next
Door” adds up to an entertain-
ing, somehow coherent whole, its
parts are still hilariously trashy.
The writing is just horrendous,
alternating between awkward,
out-of-place dialogue (J.Lo telling
her son to wipe the “schmutz” off
his face during dinner, because
apparently her lexicon features a
fair amount of Yiddish) and word-
less fight scenes. Most of the sub-
plots just don’t make any sense,
like why Claire’s son is bullied for
having allergies and why he has
an allergy attack while boxing.
Actually, very little in this movie
makes sense logically. How did
Noah get a first edition copy of
The Iliad? Why does it look like a
book of fairytales? Why did Noah
get expelled from school, and
why does the movie make such a
big deal out of that without even
attempting to provide an answer?
What’s the purpose of all those
Greek epic allusions unless it was
all leading to the moment when a
metaphorical cyclops got stabbed
in the eye with an EpiPen?
“The Boy Next Door” doesn’t
want to be thought provoking.
It assumes that every viewer is
going into this theater to see a
dollar-store remake of “Fatal
Attraction.” It assumes you’re
there to laugh and stare at Ryan
Guzman’s chest and pay $10 to
watch it, because the movie only
needs to sell a couple tickets to
make a profit off its microscopic
budget. But through all its absur-
dity and thoughtlessness, the
movie remains wildly fun and
fast-paced, even bringing a few
nuggets of real thrills and sus-
pense. “The Boy Next Door” is
a beautiful, trashy, hot mess of a
movie, and it’s pretty damn proud
of itself.
Timeless ‘Evil’ shines
By MATT BARNAUSKAS
Daily Arts Writer
Note: This review contains
major spoilers for the Finale of
“American Horror Story: Freak
Show.”
Well,
that
went downhill.
The
pre-
miere
of
“Freak Show”
had
promise:
a
potentially
terrifying con-
cept,
which
called back to
the cult classic
“Freaks,” filled
with opportu-
nities for social
reflection. But
then the train really went off the
rails with never-ending preoccu-
pation with unnecessary charac-
ters and subplots. One week it was
a weird mash-up of ’50s horror
and “Glee”-style musical num-
bers, the next, Neil Patrick Har-
ris (“How I Met Your Mother”)
showed up.
Salvaging a broken product
was all that the finale “Curtain
Call” could do. It opens with psy-
chopathic Dandy (Finn Wittrock,
“Unbroken”) in charge of the titu-
lar freak show after Elsa Mars
(Jessica Lange, “Big Fish”) aban-
doned it to pursue her dreams of
Hollywood stardom. How will the
freaks respond and survive with a
character that can be turned into
a killer at a drop of a hat?
“Not very long” is the answer,
as it takes all but 15 minutes into
the finale before Dandy goes off
on a shooting spree in the camp,
and there’s not a bit of surprise to
it. Dandy snapping on the freaks
was inevitable, but having it hap-
pen so soon killed any illusion of
dread or suspense along with the
majority of the freak show.
The well-shot massacre should
have been terrifying, but it was
too clear who was going to live
and who was going to die. If the
cast member was part of the
repertoire of “American Horror
Story” regulars, they were just
fine. The side characters, like
Paul (Mat Fraser, “Cast Offs”),
were just there for the body count
and were doomed from the start.
According to “AHS,” Angela Bas-
sett (“ER”) ’s three breasts are just
sexier than real-life disabilities.
But even with its failings, “Cur-
tain Call” was still able to wrap up
several important threads. Dan-
dy’s death was fitting, even with
the ham-fisted “You are the big-
gest freak of all time!” line thrown
in to remind viewers that you
shouldn’t judge a book by its cover
– if that wasn’t already painfully
obvious.
But there was more than a half
hour left in an already bloated
runtime. And with a flash for-
ward, “American Horror Story”
became
“The
Jessica
Lange
Show,” and a passable finale to
a disappointing season became
insulting.
In 1960, Elsa has become the
“Queen of Friday Night” with a
variety show and everything else
she wanted, despite the fact that
the show has, on multiple occa-
sions, pointed out that Elsa isn’t
that talented. Despite her suc-
cess, Elsa is lonely. “I’m bored,”
she says at one point, echoing my
exact sentiments.
With her career facing ruin as
her past catches up with her, Elsa
decides to perform on Hallow-
een. This is an obvious excuse for
Edward Mordrake (Wes Bentley,
“The Hunger Games”) and his
ghostly crew to show up again
and kill her on stage. This sea-
son, Elsa has sold a character into
slavery, killed her best friend and
sold her freak show to not one, but
two madmen leading to most of
the freaks’ deaths. So what pun-
ishment awaits her? Nothing. All
is forgiven as Ethel (Kathy Bates,
“Misery”) greets Elsa in freak
show heaven. The explanation?
“It’s like you always said, sweet-
heart: ‘Stars never pay.’”
Bullshit! An ending where the
bad guys win is fine, but this was
something else — this was a despi-
cable character who got every-
thing she wanted, still wasn’t
happy and was rewarded with
undeserved salvation. At no point
did Elsa do anything redemptive
or possess the necessary self-
awareness to earn the ending she
got. The audience is served up an
ill-advised love letter to star Jes-
sica Lange from series’ creators
Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk.
This odd adoration spits in the
face of the show’s own logic,
which has condemned similar
characters (in the same episode)
for many of the sins Elsa has com-
mitted.
The ending basically says,
“Yeah this is a mess, but isn’t Jes-
sica Lange just the greatest?”
No. Just no.
B-
The Boy
Next Door
Universal
Pictures
Rave &
Quality 16
D+
American
Horror
Story:
Freak Show
Season 4
finale
FX
Wednesdays
at 10 p.m.
By JACOB RICH
Daily Film Editor
Like it or not, re-releasing old
titles has become an institution in
the video game industry. As games
become increas-
ingly complex,
they’re
also
increasingly
expensive
to
make.
Sales
numbers
for
re-releases
of
games are sur-
prisingly solid,
even when com-
pared to their
original release sales numbers.
Re-releases just make financial
sense for developers and publish-
ers — they can cash in on past
popular titles for minimal rede-
velopment time and cost.
In 2014 alone, we saw upgraded
re-releases of “Pokémon,” “Grand
Theft Auto,” “Halo” and “Tomb
Raider” games hit the market.
Now, for the first video game re-
release of 2015, it’s the seminal
survival horror game “Resident
Evil.”
Wait … doesn’t this sound
familiar?
It should, because “Resident
Evil” already had its turn. Six
times. “Resident Evil (2015)”
marks the seventh time the 1996
classic has been re-released in
some form. So how is this week’s
“Resident Evil” ’s release at all rel-
evant?
To put it simply, it’s because the
game is still fantastic; “Resident
Evil” is a game that each genera-
tion of gamers should play. It’s still
scary. It’s more beautiful than
ever. It’s meatier and much more
memorable than the vast majority
of video games released today.
For the uninitiated, “Resident
Evil” is an extremely influential
survival horror game, pioneering
gameplay mechanics that would
be genre staples for years to come.
“Resident Evil” ’s genius is its
revolutionary use of restriction to
instill fear in players. It was among
the first games to limit the player’s
ammo and the number of times
they could save, and was certainly
the first to use these restrictions
fairly and effectively. This com-
bination of limiting factors forced
frantic resource management and
a pervading feeling that at any
given moment, you might not have
enough stuff to survive.
Another restriction in “Resi-
dent Evil” is its camera, which
aims in fixed angles depending
on the location of the player in
the room. This allows the game to
hide scares extremely effectively
and makes for some interesting
visual puzzles. The game is full of
puzzles — actual interesting, com-
plex puzzles — which mainstream
video games seem to avoid at all
costs lately.
Perhaps the only thing wrong
with the original “Resident Evil”
was the time and place it came
out. The 1996 Playstation version
looks, well, terrible compared to
today’s popular hits. Its simple
polygonal characters move stati-
cally and the game relies too heav-
ily on FMV (real video of real
actors — yeah, it was real bad). It’s
aged worse than almost any other
classic game with similar levels of
acclaim.
In
2002,
“Resident
Evil”
received a remake (note that
remakes are more effortful ven-
tures than re-releases that alter
the way an old game looks or plays)
on Gamecube. This remake was so
good that it made the original look
completely unplayable by compar-
ison. It completely overhauled the
graphics, sound and cutscenes of
the original, giving the cutscenes
in particular a slick CGI treatment
instead of FMV.
“Resident Evil (2015)” is an HD
upgrade of that game. Now, it’s
playable in widescreen HD, with a
new, optional control scheme that
upgrades the archaic tank-like
controls that plagued the 2002
treatment.
The only knock on this game
is that the CG cutscenes weren’t
upgraded to HD like everything
else, so they feel very out of place.
Otherwise, this is the very best
version of a seminal video game.
If “Resident Evil” doesn’t already
occupy a spot in your collection,
there has never been a better time
to change that.
“Resident Evil” was reviewed
using an advance digital copy pro-
vided by the publisher.
A
Resident
Evil (2015)
Capcom
PS4 (reviewed),
PS3, Xbox One,
Xbox 360, PC
‘American Horror’
finale freakishly bad
FX
This is the last “American Horror Story” article for a while, we promise.
TV REVIEW
‘The Fall’ enthralls
By KIM BATCHELOR
Daily Arts Writer
Finally,
the
long-awaited
sophomore season of the Irish
crime drama “The Fall” has hit
Netflix.
The
series focuses
on the cat-and-
mouse
chase
of serial killer
Paul
Spector
(Jamie
Dor-
nan,
“Fifty
Shades
of
Grey”) by the
Belfast police, led by Detec-
tive Superintendent Stella Gib-
son (Gillian Anderson, “The
X-Files”). This season brings the
pair much closer until they are
practically on top of each other
– literally.
The premiere picks up almost
exactly where the season one
finale left off. The episode’s dark
themes are beautifully echoed
in the low lighting and muted
tones, and characters are often
only silhouetted by single-point
light. The music and dialogue
are similarly hushed, with large
swaths of silence where nothing
can be heard but the sounds of
breathing. This sets the mood for
the whole season to come — dark
and dangerous — but not like a
fast explosion. Rather, it is slow
and creeping, silent and deadly,
like a concealed dagger. And, in
case we’d forgotten over the hia-
tus, we are quickly reminded of
the eerie feeling that no one is
ever safe. Finally, the dramatic
turn from slow burn to sudden
attack at the end pushes the
show forward.
The real high points of the
episode are the character inter-
actions. Paul’s love for his daugh-
ter, Olivia (newcomer Sarah
Beattie) is soured by the use of
his skills as a murderer to com-
fort her. His kind smile toward
Rose Stagg’s daughter (Valene
Kane, “Jump”) before his kidnap
is purposefully jarring. Never-
theless, it is the women of the
episode who steal the show. Ais-
ling Franciosi’s (“Quirke”) char-
acter, Katie Benedetto, gains
complexity as a character and
develops from innocent bystand-
er to fully immersed in the thrill.
In Stella’s interview, Karen Has-
san (“Hollyoaks”) ’s poignant
performance in her role as a
survivor of one of Paul’s attacks,
paints a believable picture of not
only a murder survivor, but a
sexual violence survivor.
This season, even more so
than the previous one, employs
the practice of surveillance and
the feeling of being watched.
This theme carries out with the
installation of cameras in the
Spectors’ home, the videotap-
ing of victims and Paul’s secret
observation of Stella. This makes
many intimate moments pub-
lic, and it forces viewers to face
their own positions as voyeurs in
these people’s lives. At one point,
we are even called out as specta-
tors, when Spector asks “Why
are you watching this? You sick
fuck!”
“The Fall” also relies on some
strong
cinematography.
This
season continues the trend of
visual doubling — the use of mir-
ror images and juxtaposition of
everyday actions with those of
sinister intent. The visuals are
written into the plot at the very
level of the character’s personal-
ities. Where Stella is clinical and
Paul is sensual, both are sexual
beings who strive for complete
control in their lives. It is these
similarities that allow them to
get in the other’s head, constant-
ly outdoing the other, and driv-
ing the show.
Dornan’s soft-spoken serial
killer, Paul, is slowly losing his
humanity with his separation
from his family, which he plays
with subtle and cold dead eyes.
Meanwhile, Stella is warming
up, with Anderson opening up
cracks in her armor and bringing
out real emotional depth. Addi-
tionally, Stella is the Queen of
the inversion of the Male Gaze,
using the men around her to her
advantage. The supporting char-
acters are further fleshed out in
this season as well. John Lynch’s
(“Black Death”) character, Assis-
tant Chief Constable Jim Burns,
provides a wonderful example
of a man who is tired of a job he
has been in for too long, while
Niamh Mcgrady (“Holby City”)
and provides his counter as an
ingénue who still sees the best in
people with her character, Police
Constable Danielle Ferrington.
A new addition to the team
is the young and upstart Detec-
tive Sergeant Tom Anderson
(Colin Morgan, “Merlin”) who is
described as both promising and
attractive – both things true of
the character and the actor who
plays him. It will be interesting
to see where his character goes
in the next season, especially
with the parallel lines drawn
between him and Spector.
The season wasn’t without
its shortcomings. Unlike its
predecessor, season two felt
the need to spell out the visual
comparisons it made verbally.
This aspect has not only weak-
ened one of the show’s greatest
strengths, but underestimated
the audience’s ability to figure
it out on their own. “The Fall” is
the kind of show meant to make
you think, and to dumb it down
is to patronize those who enjoy
the challenge of a good puzzle.
Overall, season two does not
lose momentum and honors its
strongest points: the complex
characters who are portrayed
with depth and respect by the
talented cast.
A
The Fall
Season 2
Available to
stream on
Netflix
FILM REVIEW
VIDEO GAME REVIEW
TV REVIEW