This Week in Seattle Cinema: Shock and Awe
These days, the word "edgy" is probably the one word thrown around Hollywood more hastily than "remake," often signifying little more than a boring, hopelessly uninspired narrative hidden under tit shots and dick jokes that could barely get a rise out of a Quaker in our jaded media landscape. The mass production of explosions and entirely computer-generated chase scenes is probably a great boon for special effects studios, but the law of diminishing returns has rendered most of these once spectacular cinematic experiences into dispassionate chores. Luckily, you don't have to go far off the beaten Hollywood path to find something truly ghastly or titillating, as the world is brimming with starving, emotionally damaged artists whose entire purpose in life is to meticulously illustrate all of the things that make you squirm. Here are three jarring films that are all but guaranteed to raise your blood pressure through the chilling October nights.
Death Kappa
Grand Illusion Cinema (10/15-10/20; 7:00 PM)
Rabid supporters of the tried-and-true "Giant Monster Destroys City, Possibly Fights a Different Giant Monster" genre will be overjoyed to hear that something called "Kaiju Kaos" is taking place at Grand Illusion Cinema this week. The sub-festival looks ironically diminutive this time around, which means if you want Seattle to screen more quality metropolitan devastation via supernaturally-enlarged cold blooded animals, you should really put a butt or two in the seats for this or Takeshi Miike's The Great Yokai War. Honestly, I don't know a whole lot about Death Kappa as its own film, besides the fact it was produced by the same team behind thoroughly bloodsoaked Japanese testaments to devout outrageousness like Tokyo Gore Police and Machine Girl. Furthermore, Grand Illusion's synopsis officially contains my favorite sentence of the week: "Mankind's only savior is an irradiated water goblin that is on the rampage with death in its eyes."
LA Zombie
Egyptian Theatre (10/16, 11:59 PM)
Toronto-based shock auteur and underground gay pornographer Bruce LaBruce is making a big impact in this year's Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, with a brand new helping of sexually-charged horror and a documentary devoted to finding some degree of method (or at least context) behind LaBruce's madness. You may best know LaBruce from directing 2008's Otto; or Up With Dead People, a "political-porno-zombie movie" which might have very well been the very last original idea for a feature-length film featuring the shuffling undead. With LA Zombie, LaBruce goes back to the festering, amorous well for a decadent 65-minute bite of sex and violence that will hopefully plunge the zombie film back into the visceral, sensational depths that endeared us all towards the little reanimated suckers in the first place.
The Human Centipede II: The Full Sequence
Metro Cinemas (10/15-10/20; 10:00 PM)
I'm going to be straightforward here, and say that I really have no intention whatsoever in seeing this movie of my own free will. That being said, it would just be irresponsible to talk about controversial cinema this week and not mention the film that was aggressively banned from the United Kingdom for posing a "real risk [...] that harm is likely to be caused to potential viewers." Granted, the film was eventually allowed exhibition in the U.K. (after heavy cuts, of course), but if you're looking for a film that has been confirmed by trained professionals as something that no one of sound mind should watch, The Human Centipede 2 will be your huckleberry. If you're gonna pull the trigger on this utterly disgusting affair, you ought to be quick about it: the critically-maligned sequel has appropriately received the most limited of limited releases here in the states, and Metro's projectionists only have so many sick days left.
