Mulberry Street Review

Mulberry Street is one of the After Dark Horrorfest films.  It has received a lot of good press from the festival circuit and wound up as an After Dark film.  Usually, that’s probably not such a good thing.  These films are marketed as ones that are so gruesome or what have you that they do not usually receive theatrical release – which usually means they just can’t find a distributor and aren’t that good.

My friend and co-worker let me borrow this film, as I’m currently a man without a video store.  It was pretty good.  I wasn’t expecting much.  It had some nice build-ups in it, and the creatures in the film, I thought, was pretty effective.  Basically, some rats bite humans, turning the humans into these violent rat people.  The main story is a man waiting for his daughter to come home – she had been in a hospital after returning from the war in Iraq.  The rat epidemic makes the reunion difficult, as she tries hard to get back to her dad’s apartment.  The story also involves others that live in this apartment building.

The movie takes on a Night of the Living Dead tone, I thought, especially the end of the film.  I liked the cinematography a lot – the use of lighting.  The film has a wonderful gritty tone, adding to the realism of the events, even though it is showing unrealistic events.  The acting is surprisingly good and effective.

Definitely worth a rental (or borrowing it free from a friend works even better).  I wouldn’t rush to add this to my DVD collection, but I would probably pick it up if I saw that it was previously viewed or on clearance.  Although, I think my friend said he picked it up for only $12.99, which sounds about right for the film.

3 1/2 Heads.

Night of the Gelatin Cow – Part One

As in all stories like this, the thunder booms, the lightning forms perfect  jagged lines, and the rain descends from the sky in an amazingly uniform sheet.  Randy, with his perfect sandy blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes, comes into his isolated beach house from outside without a single hair out of place.  How? you may ask.  He isn’t even carrying an umbrella.  Well, that’s hardly the point now, is it?

His friends arrive shortly after for their weekend party, bummed by the weather, but not allowing for it to deter them from sex, drugs, and booze (and maybe a little rock n’ roll).  Of course, in this group, one outcast resides, the slightly younger sister of one of the popular girls.  She doesn’t necessarily want to be there, and no one wants her there.  She’s homely (because her hair is pulled back and she’s wearing glasses) and anti-social (she wears black and shows no cleavage).  She doesn’t drink, do drugs, or have wanton sex.  She’s a goody-goody vegetarian, armed with a couple books and a sketch pad to keep herself occupied while the others party.  Her name is Mary.  And, oh yeah, she has a secret crush on Randy.

The party really starts to kick in, as some couples find the bedrooms, while another girl just must take a shower after the long trip for some gratuitous nudity.  Others sit around drinking and smoking pot, telling some sort of spooky story, while the fire crackles in the fireplace.  Did we mention the electricity went out?  Oh yeah, the electricity went out, yet shower girl is somehow still in full view, while the others are using the millions of candles that were luckily being stored here.  Mary stops sketching by candlelight, as she looks around, worried.

“Something just doesn’t seem right,” Mary tells her sister, who is one of the pot smoking drinkers.  “We should get out of here.”

“Relax,” her sister says.  “Here.  Try some of this.”  She tries passing the joint to Mary, but Mary just scoffs and turns away.

Excitement ensues as a bolt of lightning hits the house and temporarily illuminates it before the light fades again.  For added suspense, all the candles blow out as well and are quickly lit again.

In the kitchen, positioned in such a way that no one can see it, the refrigerator glows as the door has been opened.  Is the light coming from the fridge powered from the lightning strike?  Or, is it a minor oversight in the logic of the narrative?  No one knows.

Some gelatin dessert, which is sitting in a bowl in the fridge, begins to pulsate and slide around.  It crawls up the side of the bowl and over the edge, somehow staying all in one piece instead of breaking apart like it normally would.

The gelatin hits the ground with a big splash resembling blood because, oh my god, that is disgusting.  The gelatin’s mass grows and grows, forming into a shape that is partially obstructed by the lack of light.  Once it has finished shaping and the music has hit its crescendo, the head of a cow is clearly visible.  After we back away a bit to reveal the entire form of the Gelatin Cow, it belows a low, loud “MOOOOO!” that no one else seems to have heard.

to be continued….