Director: Joe Dante
Cast: Dee Wallace, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan, Christopher Stone
Have I Seen it Before: Never… Which ought to be somewhat surprising*.
Did I Like It: Joe Dante is a filmmaker who, for my money, has made an entire library of work while having one hand tied behind his back. There may not be a better forging of filmmaker and material than when Dante made Looney Toons: Back in Action (2002), but the film only managed to be a mildly pleasant diversion. I’ve never quite loved Small Soldiers (1998), even though some people swear by it and on paper I can see the appeal, but not everyone can make a hit every time at bat. Even Spielberg had 1941 (1979). Even Gremlins (1984) is only a glimpse of the unleashed demented genius which was finally given the keys to the studio for Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990). Matinee (1993) is pretty great and also disproves the theory a bit. I’ll exchange words with anyone who says otherwise.
So, too, does this movie almost feel like a work of subversive genius, but only in those moments when the money behind a film aren’t paying attention. The film swings somewhat between being a serial killer cat-and-mouse thriller, an body snatcher-style invasion story, a marital drama, and ultimately in its final act the werewolf story advertised. By the time the heroine (Wallace) attempts to take control of the situation, and warn—at great self-sacrifice—the world of what is to come, the world reacts pretty much like the audience of a horror movie might, by shrugging and going on about their lives as if not much of any consequence has happened. It’s a pretty great ending for a movie, and the rest of the film—minus a set of cell-animated werewolves copulating—works against the Joe Dante curse and reaches for that brilliance Hollywood seems to want to stop him from accomplishing.
*To say nothing of the fact that this will be my first film back on Beyond the Cabin in the Woods. Life’s funny sometimes, and there’s always room to move forward and return to what worked in the past.