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Moriarty Says THE DEVIL DARED ME TO... And I Liked It!
I think it’s official: if I hear one more person use the word “grindhouse” as an adjective, I’m going to punch a baby. No, scratch that. I’m going to punch every baby. Alphabetically. Over and over and over.
I think it’s an annoyance because (A) most of the people using the word never heard it before six months ago and (B) most of the people using it are using it incorrectly. You can’t just randomly apply it to any film that seems a little crazy or that has exploitation elements. It refers to a specific era of distribution, a specific moment, and that age has, sad to say, passed.
But there are still films made that I think fit the mold that Tarantino and Rodriguez were using when they put their films together, films that don’t try to emulate this particular brand of low-budget insanity, but that simply embody it. And this year, at SXSW, a film premiered that is exactly that kind of movie. I was lucky enough to get a look at a rough cut of it, a print that wasn’t totally finished but that was close enough. I’m not sure when you’re going to get a chance to see THE DEVIL DARED ME TO, but when you do... buckle up. Someone’s gonna get hurt.
I’ve never seen the New Zealand show BACK OF THE Y MASTERPIECE TELEVISION, but that’s where Chris Stapp and Matt Heath first started working together. It’s also evidently where they originated the character of Randy Campbell, a daredevil stuntman who does miserable, awful stunts that inevitably end in death. And before you say “Oh, you mean like SUPER DAVE,” no... I don’t mean like SUPER DAVE. Unless perhaps SUPER DAVE had been directed by BAD TASTE-era Peter Jackson.
THE DEVIL DARED ME TO is the story of Randy Campbell (Stapp) and his rise from obscurity to abject failure to mediocrity and back into obscurity, with severed limbs and mutilated faces and dead family members littered in his path. Randy comes from a long line of daredevils, but both of his parents are killed when he’s very young, and he’s raised by his aunt and uncle who don’t want him to follow in their footsteps. He finally gets his opportunity, though, when he goes to see Dick Johansonson (Heath), an egomaniacal jackass who runs his own low-grade traveling stunt show. Johansonson is a glorious monster, and from the moment he meets Randy, he’s perfectly happy to treat him like complete shit. More importantly, Randy’s happy to let him in the hopes that someday, he’ll be able to do a stunt of his own. He wants to do that to honor the memory of his parents, and also so he can impress Tracy “Tragedy” Jones (Bonnie Soper), the girl who lost a leg at the first Johansonson show he attended.
Trying to explain this in terms of story points and synopsis is sort of futile, though. Heath and Stapp co-wrote the script and Stapp directs it with a sense of total comic abandon. There’s nothing he seems unwilling to try in his attempts to make you laugh or throw up, or in the best moments, both at once. The film is incredibly low-budget, and that’s part of its charm. There’s a great making-of featurette that was produced for THE ROAD WARRIOR many years ago, detailing the way the stunts on that film worked, and after several of the stunts where there are wipe-outs or other accidents, the narrator intones in a very serious tone, “Something... has gone... terribly wrong.” And god help me, every single time, it seems to get funnier. Well, that’s the spirit of this movie. No matter what the characters attempt, you know it’s going to go wrong, and the fun comes from watching just how awful things get. Gallons and gallons of blood are spilled, and the entire supporting cast (including the terrific Andrew Beattie) contribute to the lunacy. It’s Stapp and Heath’s show, though, and Stapp manages to create a sense of real sweetness that grounds even the most deranged moments in the movie. Towards the end of the film, I even found myself touched by the emotional resolution of the whole thing. It never quite turns into the sort of shameless attempt on your heartstrings that Hollywood would try, but it manages an odd poignancy that it actually earns.
I wish I’d actually gone to SXSW so I could have seen this with an audience. It’s that kind of film. Seeing it at home on DVD, I laughed a lot, but I would have loved to have heard the outraged screams and the gasps of horror that I’m sure greeted the film’s crazier moments. I hope I get the chance to see this with an audience in the future, and that you guys get a chance to see it, too, if for no other reason than I’m curious to see what sort of madness Stapp and Heath will come up with in the future.
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
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pair that sound like they have similar sensibilities to the guys behind Shaun of the Dead? Interesting.
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The film will be released in New Zealand cinemas later in the year. Trailer is available to check out here www.devildaredmeto.com The creators are in LA at the moment, terrifying executives and other suits everywhere.
Get your 'Devil Dared Me To' Jizz Lobber shirt before they run out ! -
that´s the word
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oh wait, except THE FILM TRILOGY THAT WON THE MOST OSCARS EVAH! suck on that, kiwi haterz!
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mirrors the debate that raged over film noir. Was film noir just a period of filmmaking that occurred in the post world war 2 malaise? It can be easily argued that this is the case. However, since certain films have taken so completely the mood and tone of that era that it could be called a genre or at least a sub-genre. Now, Moriarty, you see seem to taking the same approach that Paul Schrader took with film noir ie, grindhouse is epoch only. However, just like the in the Seventies critics took delight in calling every other film "neo-noir," we have reached a similar junction. My God man, don't you see? See there in the distance the demonic silhouetted forms of Roth and Zombie riding upon their pig-like steeds -- with grindhouse as genre in their wake. Run, run for your lives. They're coming... they're coming...
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Your reviews are usually dead on. I'll find this one on rental when I get the chance. Thanks again.
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Good, now go punch some babies. Heh heh.
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...has gone terribly wrong" in an Eric Idle as narrator type of accent, it will automatically make you laugh. I don't care what kind of documentary you're watching. In fact, the next time you're watching some kind of meerkat special on animal planet with someone else in the room, wait for a lull in the narration and bust out a very low key British "something has gone terribly wrong" and see how hard the other person laughs.
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Baby killing, I could never imaginneer anything like someone named Drew Mcweeny killing and baby unless the picture is a mother's revenge thing. That's pretty good, nerd kills baby due to frustration with evolovig slang he can't keep up with, mother seeks revenge. THAT"S SO GRINDHOUSEISHISTIC
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GRINDHOUSESQUE
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And they were super nice. It stinks that their screenings were the second weekend because I missed it too. But the reason it was playing the second weekend is the coolest thing yet... they are in a rock band! Directors by day! Rock band by night! They're funny and ridiculous guys. They deserve kudos for a fun as hell film.
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punch the fucking baby in face!!
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Grinders!
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...grindhouse. I mean, like, totally grindhouse, dude.You do that in front of their moms and they'll go all grindhouse on your ass, too. Then it will be a compelte fucking grindhouse up in this mother, what with all the grind to the house and grindhousing of grindhouses. Grindhouse? Grindhouse.Grindhouse,
G.R. Indhouse -
Yeah...I'm sorry...shoot me now...
Sigh... -
was so grindhouse. I mean I thought "grindhouse" man! Like so wow. 7th Heaven was also uber grindhouse! No wait! Dawsons Creek!!!!!!!! Oh god, what about Gilmore Girls! OH SWEEET JEBUS SAVE ME!!!! Now go donkey punch a baby you freaks!
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http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1752858
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what a thing to defend. "use grindhouse properly! Posers!" That is lame. long live shaky cam
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That movie was only mentioned in Death Proof, but I think it deserves at least a trailer.
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Apr 11, 2007 12:31:43 PM CDT
I don't think Road Warrior was very grindhousely made.
by lanemyersclassic
That was an adverb. Mad Max was pure grindhouse.
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Great video.I doubt it'll make anyone see the error of their ways as I bet that most firsters don't read past their magnificent achievement.
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You know... when Vern said it... yesterday. In his Grindhouse review. Soon instead of seeing Grindhouse used repeatedly as an adjective to be cool, we'll be seeing how cool it is to hate the word Grindhouse used as an adjective. Then hopefully someone will write an article about that, and someone else will point out sarcastically this talkback entry already exists.
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http://www.devildaredmeto.com/
This one, I have to see. I actually did the "bike down a hill with rockets" bit when I was 12 or 13, but only suffered some 1st and 2nd degree burns and had a nice snack of dirt when I faceplanted on the landing. -
"Im so Grindhouse!" ....yeah,your missing a reel.
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and - sorry asskissers - fuck tarantino and fuck rodrigues - and - sorry misty-eyed romantic fanboys - fuck grindhouse - *THIS* looks like a proper COOL FUCKING FILM! (well, the trailer looks cool, anyway...)
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and the wrote one of the greatest lyric for a chorus ever..."can't do what I wanna do with you you weren't even born in the eighties"
great band -
There. OK?
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Looks a lot better than Death Proof.
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...just like you can't make a 'so bad it's good' movie... just like you can't make a 'cult classic' - they just become them after an arbitrary period of time. Unless it's anything by Edgar Wright, of course, then it's an instant cult classic. Just add ice cream.
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Word.
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The exaltation of crap. What's next? Proclaim Sidney Sheldon the next Shakespeare? It's fun stuff, but there is not one of those exploitation films that's worthy of preservation, except as an artifact demonstrating the coarseness of our popular culture.
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Wouldn't Uwe Boll's movies qualify?
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..was the first thing I thought of when I saw the artwork for this. The main difference between this and Death Proof is that DEVIL was great.
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but Stapp and Heath have a few of thier BotY vids on youtube...
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=loosetothemax
You may have to join thier group tho...
If you don't want to join the group just do a search for "Back of the Y" on the main youtube page.
sweet
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