Saturday 24 July 2010

Dr. Moreau's House of Pain (2004) Dir: Charles Band

You know, I had a dream a while back in which I opined the paucity of
movies featuring bare breasts and half human, half pig hybrids. "Why oh
why oh why," I cried, "Can we not see more breasts and pig men?" Well,
fear not my fellow brutarians, Dr Moreau is here to answer all of our
prayers.
Directed by Charles Band, he of low budget horror legend status,
unhealthy obsessed by killer doll movies (Blood Dolls, Puppet Master,
Dollman vs. Demonic Toys) here he takes a stab at the film noir genre,
bringing us a tale of human / animal experimentation in Prohibition era
America.
All the noir trappings are there: smoky streets, illuminated only by
atmospheric streetlamps, wiseguys in brimmed hats, broads in fur coats
and shawls with cigarette holders stuck between their well rouged lips,
and automobiles relevant to the period and, it must be stressed, for a
low budget movie he does a remarkable job of 'placing' the movie.
Whilst the plot is a fairly silly one, involving a young man searching
for his brother who went to Dr. Moreau for treatment and was
transformed into half man, half big cat, the trappings surrounding it
work very well.
Whilst hardly Orwellian, the script is nevertheless effective enough,
and the acting more than passable.
So, if you, like me, find yourself yearning for those hybrids anytime
soon, you could do worse than check this out

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