After Last Season (2009)

[M.10rda]

WHY BAD MOVIES?

In high school, I reviewed "bad" movies on VHS for Joe Bob Briggs' "We Are The Weird" zine... so Joe Bob didn't have to. Once he sent me a movie titled CAGED TERROR... originally titled GOLDEN APPLES OF THE SUN (1973). At the time and for a long time after, I thought it was the worst movie I'd ever seen, on account of it being most of the things we all associate with Badness on this site: it was laborious, boring, pretentious, ridiculous, poorly acted, poorly produced, and cheap. (Also sometimes amusing in its Badness.) I would later buy a used copy on VHS and subject friends to it, and on repeat viewings, I still think CAGED TERROR is about as "bad" as Bad Movies probably get... worse than MANOS... worse maybe than GHOSTS THAT STILL WALK... much worse than MONSTER-A-GO-GO or PLAN 9. CAGED TERROR might be worse even than AFTER LAST SEASON... it is, anyway, more poorly written than AFTER LAST SEASON! (Yes. Yes.)

But I rarely think of the "worst" Bad Movie I've ever seen anymore, even amidst all the time I spend on this website. I truly enjoy most of the movies we discuss on this site, even the most Bad ones, hence I rarely participate in "Worst" conversations. 'Cause those movies don't make me happy - they make me angry and/or sick at heart.

Those movies fall into two categories. One is movies I don't ever bring up by name and won't here. I'd call them "Children of SALO". There's a few I've seen in the past 30 years that I wish I could unsee and thus don't mention 'cause I don't want to inflict them on others. Clearly they were made to revel in human suffering... though just onscreen, at least. Those are Bad, and in no way fun for me - so I reject them from the Mind Palace.

The other category are films that may be better made than AFTER LAST SEASON, yet actually do harm to humanity. DW Griffith is still often cited as an early master filmmaker, but BIRTH OF A NATION is an infinitely worse film than AFTER LAST SEASON, as BIRTH OF A NATION actually did real harm to marginalized people and lent comfort to abusers in traditional positions of power.  I recently called THE SOUND OF FREEDOM one of the worst films of this century, because it contributed to pervasive disinformation and public confusion. (I'd also argue it's not well made, though it's better than ALS.) In the same sentence, I grouped HILLBILLY ELEGY with TSOF... inescapably, Ron Howard's stoopid (also not terribly well-made) movie contributed real and lasting harm on the United States and its citizens. Those movies can't be banished from my mind palace, 'cause their impact is manifest in the physical world - not just on my psyche.

Sometimes I think about those films when I watch films like AFTER LAST SEASON, and it helps me keep things in perspective. Watching ALS also made me think of another tiny low-budget movie made and released (only) in Western New York in 2000. I won't name that movie, either - it's director later made a in-name-only horror sequel that was distributed on Netflix (on DVD, not streaming) and lots of people ended up seeing it and I think it's even been discussed on here. That director probably has a lot in common with Mark Region in terms of ambition. Anyway, he wrote, directed, and starred in a feature in 2000 that - as I recall my one viewing - is indeed probably worse than ALS and worse than CAGED TERROR in terms of filmmaking but also Bad on the deeper level of the categories I mentioned above, in that it derives entertainment and humor from mental illness, abuse, and disease. The guy that made it started a local film festival, took advantage of people, exploited and mistreated them, etc. He seems like not a good guy, and I hated his movie - hated it.

As Bad as AFTER LAST SEASON is to watch - it did provide me with hours of enjoyment researching it, reflecting on it, talking about it with y'all, and writing about it. Thus - ALS is net-positive in my book.

Also, CAGED TERROR is inescapably aware of the prevalence of toxic masculinity, knee-jerk religiosity, and the damage wrought by American involvement in Vietnam, particularly for a movie made in 1973. Also 50% of its cast is non-white, FWIW. (It does suck as a film, natch.)

So anyway. Viva la BADFILM!

[Rev. Powell]

Nice summary, M.10.

[bob]

I will give After Last Season some credit: it's better then Bucky Lardon

[zombie no.one]

HARD TO WATCH + HARD TO UNDERSTAND

two of my favourite Steven Seagal flicks...

Now, the lead actor has gone on the record in interviews about Mark Region appearing utterly earnest about making a film that was both Good and Successful, thus said lead actor is the Prime Witness for the Defense against claims that Region was trying to manufacture a Bomb.

actors dobbing the director in for trying to re-frame a movie happened with THE ROOM as well I think...

also can't remember if it was Nic Cage or Neil Labute himself who started claiming the WICKERMAN remake was some intentional warped experiment in strangeness, which other cast then refuted...

if I ever make a film all my actors are signing NDA's... it was intentionally crap, and that's the end of it.

Region claimed the film cost $5 million, yet it looks as cheap as any movie made in the 21st century that I've seen (even including the circa-1998 toaster-level computer graphics).

all the scenes in the trailer look and sound like the 'movie' me and my classmates made on a standard camcorder for our media studies A Level

[M.10rda]

I didn't take the bait when WICKER MAN v2 was mentioned yesterday in another thread but now I'll take the bait. LaBute is (sometimes) a good writer but manifestly a terrible director. Like Mamet, he somehow made at least a couple of good (if simple) films - in LaBute's case, his first two. Everything from NURSE BETTY onwards seems insanely poorly made to me. He appears to take whatever job pays his bills. I don't think there was much intentional artistry behind the WM remake.

Some of my student films have ALS qualities. There's something about aesthetic flatness that appeals to young/amateur filmmakers. Hartley (who has made masterpieces) does flatness (because Godard did it); Mamet does flatness because, as he wrote in his book On Directing Film, "What's the best place to put your camera? Over There." Mamet truly believes that the script is everything and the film just comes together magically around a good screenplay w/ no other care or rigor. That's a very alluring idea for filmmakers who primarily identify as writers (like me). And somehow Mamet accidentally directed at least a couple very very good films (THE SPANISH PRISONER and HOMICIDE)... plus some decent ones and some stinkers.

Good Seagal joke!

[lester1/2jr]

"8% liked this movie"

that's tough

[Rev. Powell]

"8% liked this movie"

that's tough

8% seems awfully high. I'm not sure "like" is a term I'd use about this movie. It's no fun at all, but I am glad I saw it just because nothing like it will ever exist again.

[Trevor]

"8% liked this movie"

that's tough

8% seems awfully high. I'm not sure "like" is a term I'd use about this movie. It's no fun at all, but I am glad I saw it just because nothing like it will ever exist again.

There's a YouTube vid which speeds the movie up by 1000% and it actually makes sense at that speed.

The sense it makes is by asking the viewer "Why are you watching this?" 😳😂😃😉🐢