Dread. That’s what you’ll feel in the first two episodes of Netflix’s new series, Archive 81. And it only gets worse (or better?). It’s about a man repairing destroyed videotapes. So immediately you’ll think it could be like the supernatural horror of The Ring. It’s about a small community of isolated people. So is it like Wicker Man or The Stepford Wives? It has a freakish cult, so is it another take on Rosemary’s Baby or Devil’s Advocate or Midsommar? You Should Have Left, Vacancy, 1408, and other recent creepily surreal voyages will come to mind, but it’s certainly suspense and definitely a thriller. But how much horror lies ahead and how chilling will it get? Is it a throwback to 1970s mainstream horror or trash B-movie slasher horror, or based on real-life horror, like The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel? Is it more possession or body swapping like Fallen or Skeleton Key or Intruders or Get Out? Science fiction like The Man in the High Castle? Surreal supernatural fantasy like Doctor Strange? Weird rituals like Eyes Wide Shut or The Watcher in the Woods? Or is it The Lost Room or John Carpenter’s The Prince of Darkness?
For me, Close Encounters of the Third Kind was the film that got away. I was lucky to have been taken to every great sci-fi classic and Spielberg film from Jaws forward, but multiple Star Wars viewings probably nudged out my chance to see this one back in 1977. Close Encounters didn’t arrive in theaters until the Christmas season that year and it would likely have generated some nightmares as I was only about a year older than the boy co-star of the film–so it was probably a good thing. Close Encounters of the Third Kind is back in theaters this week to celebrate its 40th anniversary. Watching it for the first time on the big screen was like filling in a last brick in the wall. It’s a satisfying re-watch, and every time you screen a classic in the theater again you learn something new. The film is being preceded this week by a behind-the-scenes featurette, including an interview with Steven Spielberg and excerpts from the home movies he routinely films as he directs his movies. It also contains a clip of each iconic scene in the film, so those who haven’t seen the film and want to view it for the first time may want to duck out for popcorn during the previews. Close Encounters is screening only for a few more days, so no matter how many times you have seen it, it’s time to go back again. Nothing beats a classic, especially a Spielberg film, on the big screen.
You might find Close Encounters’ pacing to stand out as a bit slow. Movies today need to be action-packed to grab viewers. The elements the viewer needs to know are laid out methodically, and yet the film is not told in normal storytelling fashion. Richard Dreyfuss’s innocent everyman Roy Neary is not your normal protagonist. Every bit the victim here, he also may be more like a lottery winner, selected to do what many dream of. He asks for none of the personal invasion he encounters–ripped from his family and job, this uncontrollable compulsion arrives, pursuing him with only a realization that whatever this vision is about it’s somehow important. From the film’s abrupt start it feels very avant-garde, a bit like modern independent filmmaking, with its back and forth explanation of a communication project in progress spliced with a utility worker who experiences a strange event. Sequences of real world end-to-end conversations that other directors might have edited to more quickly get to the point also illustrate unusual directing decisions. Only in what doubles as a horror movie sequence–basically a child abduction–do we get a clear realization of aliens as one possible antagonist of the film. And when the movie really kicks in at Devil’s Tower the audience can see the international marriage of scientists and military is possibly another villain. Or is there a villain at all? Many scenes suggest dissonance itself is the culprit–all the barriers to clear communication that get in the way–the ongoing, pounding barrage of multiple interpreters in a single conversation, air traffic control operators speaking at once, Neary’s wife played by Teri Garr and her kids all talking or screaming or beating toys to pieces, Roy’s co-workers on the radio all speaking at once, a room full of scientists babbling at each other as they try to interpret these six repeated numbers beings sent to them from outer space, aliens playing rapid tones against humans doing the same. And the sound of all the toys turning on at once, the toys of little Barry (Cary Guffey) that wake up his mom Jillian, played by Oscar nominee Melinda Dillon, forcing her to join the story as a victim along with Roy. Then the resolution of conflict only arrives as the aliens and humans finally reach clarity with the tonal communication between them in the film’s climactic encounter. In the preview to the film, Spielberg mentions Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket’s crooning “when you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are” as his inspiration–what the film is all about. That familiar Disney motif is certainly present thanks to John Williams’ beautiful score. Maybe Roy is his own enemy–unable to break away from the influence of these beings? Or by following this calling does he rescue himself from a family that doesn’t understand or listen to him, and a mundane job and neighborhood of zombie-like suburbanites who always seem to be watching him?
Whatever the through line of the story is intended to be, the film is sweeping and enormous in scope, addressing subjects everyone can get sucked into: telepathy, conspiracy theories, all the UFO theories (from cattle mutilations to Area 51 to alien abductions and flying saucers), and unexplained phenomena (from missing people to the curious fascination of aliens with rummaging through refrigerators). It’s all there in this suspenseful package, all from this brilliant young filmmaker who said he and his cast just couldn’t wait to show everyone this great thing they had created. Hints at so many films are contained here that you could wonder if Spielberg starts generating every subsequent project idea by first watching Close Encounters: We see the young child’s parents terrified in their home by some strange force in Poltergeist as Jillian tries to prevent the aliens from breaking into her home. We see the quiet standing crowd at night waiting at the foot of Devil’s Tower for something good or bad to happen filmed similar to the soldiers waiting as the Ark is opened at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. And it’s almost a surprise to realize the mother ship at the end of Close Encounters is not the ship from E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial, another giant, flying, lit-up Christmas tree-house transporting that curious little botanist who would arrive only five years later.
I was 11 in the Summer of ’82. And yet I remember that summer vividly. Rare has there been a year since that I saw so many awesome movies in the theater. Many have commented on what was the best year in movies over the years, with the classic answer from critics usually being 1939 because of stellar films like The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind, Stagecoach, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Little Princess, Young Mr. Lincoln, and Drums Along the Mohawk.
So what do you think is the best year of movies? If you whittle it down to the best summer of movies, I’ve got a real contender here.
I remember standing in line at a new theater on my side of town, with my mom and sister, getting a sticker advertising a new brown and orange candy somehow tied to one of the movies. I saw an unexpectedly powerful sci-fi franchise entry with my brother at the S.E. 14th Street Drive-In Theater (pictured above before they tore it down a decade later) on a really hot day one Friday night. And he and his RadioShack computer tinkering friends took me to see a new Disney film that had its setting inside a computer at a Saturday matinée. The preview for one of the movies gave me nightmares. Two of the movies I wouldn’t truly appreciate for another 20 years. It all happened during the summer 33 years ago.
Check out this summer movie sneak preview from the YouTube archives and recall where you were during the Summer of ’82:
The tropes of Steven Spielberg run rampant in the new TV series The Whispers. Its pilot episode premiered Monday night on ABC and it teases enough of those things we love about Spielberg movies–it’s practically an homage to the producer of the series–to prompt us to return for more next week. Network science fiction as a whole tends to be full of more shock and awe than the sci-fi of cable TV (compare Lost and Heroes to shows that delved deeper into the human condition like Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, or The Dead Zone), so the story will need to do more than just tease what’s really going on for us to not get bored and simply move along.
To begin with, The Whispers has that “creepy little girl” thing going that we’ve discussed plenty here at borg.com. It’s hard to miss the throwbacks to the original Poltergeist (Spielberg wrote the screenplay). Only this time we have more than one little girl talking to something no one else can see. We don’t really know yet whether this is a purely sci-fi show or entirely horror–or a bit of both.
The show follows Claire Bennigan, played by Lily Rabe, a federal agent whose husband died three months prior to the events in the show’s first episode. He’s also the pilot missing from a jet presumed lost in the Arctic, a jet just discovered far away in the African desert. Will the relationship between Claire and her lost husband (Milo Ventimiglia) form the foundation of a relationship as in Spielberg’s supernatural romance Always?
An imaginary friend named Drill is speaking to little kids in a way only children can hear–and Drill’s voice always come from the lights (even we don’t hear this voice so we don’t know whether it’s real or not). But these lights are up to something, like the energy from the Lost Ark from Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark. It’s not just the idea that harkens back to Raiders–as the power of the light swishes about it can’t be long before it starts zapping those who stand by who fail top keep their eyes closed.
We can see E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial imagery, like the feds in hazard gear closing in on Elliott’s house. Here, government workers close in on a giant structure that has somehow reached up and grabbed a jet from far away. E.T.’s mom, played by Dee Wallace, even makes a brief appearance in the pilot for The Whispers.
What a busy year! We took in more content this year than ever before, reading more books, watching more TV series, and reviewing more movies. Wading through all that Hollywood had to offer, we try to hone in on the genre films and TV series we think are worth our time. We went back and looked at it all and pulled together our picks for our annual “Best of the Best” list. Today we reveal the best content focusing on movies. Come back for more of our picks tomorrow. If you missed any of these films this year, check them out when they arrive on video or digital release.
Edge of Tomorrow — Best Film of the Year, Best Science Fiction Fix, Best Action Fix, Best Actress (Emily Blunt), Best Supporting Actor (Bill Paxton). The benefit of Blu-rays/DVDs is the ability to go back and verify whether a movie was as good as you remembered it in the theater. Of all the top genre films of the year, including Guardians of the Galaxy and X-Men: Days of Future Past, it was Edge of Tomorrow that became an addictive re-watch, to see all those great, funny scenes, like Tom Cruise’s demoted soldier rolling under the jeep, and Emily Blunt’s Rita Vrataski destroying all those aliens. Rita was the best character we saw this year–anywhere–and Blunt provided the best performance. Superb sci-fi components? Check. Superb action sequences? Check. With top-notch acting by Blunt and Bill Paxton. This will be the movie of 2014 that we one day will re-watch just like we re-watch Aliens and Predator today.
Guardians of the Galaxy — Best Superhero Fix,Best Actor Runner-up (Dave Bautista), Best Supporting Actress (Zoe Saldana), Best Villain (Lee Pace), Best Soundtrack, Best Rock Album. It was the perfect blend of B-level superheroes and a space fantasy like we hadn’t seen since the original Star Wars. A surprisingly fun ride. Guardians introduced the world to Dave Bautista, who will likely get more and more popular in 2015 and beyond. His serious but comedic Drax may have been the best part of a great cast of new characters. Zoe Saldana created her best genre role so far and Lee Pace’s Ronan was a perfect comic book villain. And those tunes on Starlord’s Walkman! What was more fun this year than Rocket and Groot?
The defining film of the 1980s attempt to reignite the 3D medium, the 1982 sequel Friday the 13th, Part 3, represents both the best and the worst in the 3D genre. It’s a film completely unapologetic about its three-ring circus of 3D gimmicks, yet in providing a hundred ways to throw something at the audience it stands by itself for trying things no other movie has tried. Want to see an eyeball pop out of someone’s head and come right at you? This is your movie. If that doesn’t sound all that appealing, never fear, this is 1980s horror, so there is more to laugh at than truly be grossed out.
But let’s talk about the current options first. You can watch Friday the 13th, Part 3 a few different ways. As part of its October Halloween schedule (previewed at borg.com here) AMC is featuring a few showings of the Friday the 13th movie series October 20-22, 2014, including showings of Part 3. You can also pick up a DVD Deluxe Edition version here or updated Blu-ray with features here from Amazon.com. It’s not available on streaming but is a rental option from Netflix. Certain versions, like the Deluxe Edition, come with a blue-red 3D glasses and the standard 2D version. For this review we chose the standard version with the 3D TV upconvert option with Extreme 3D.
For some perspective, the film came out in the year of classic hits like E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial, Tron, Poltergeist, The Dark Crystal, Blade Runner, The Thing, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.Friday the 13th, Part 3 begins with a complete recap of the climax of the prior sequel. The disfigured Jason Voorhees, who we actually get to see in this film, returns to Crystal Lake, to torment young camp counselor Chris Higgins (Dana Kimmell), one of his targets who slipped away years ago.
or updated Blu-ray with features 
from Amazon.com. It’s not available on streaming but is a rental option from Netflix. Certain versions, like the Deluxe Edition, come with a blue-red 3D glasses and the standard 2D version. For this review we chose the standard version with the 3D TV upconvert option with Extreme 3D.
