the world of new media and in- expensive technology have thrown open the doors to cre- ators previously denied a voice. A good thing, yes, but not exclu- sively so: it is now within the reach of amateur filmmakers to make professional-looking things that probably should not have been made. The realm of science fiction fandom is particularly rife with avid visionaries whose en- thusiasm for the trappings of the genre is not counterbalanced by any great gift for storytelling. Give those people some high-end CGI tools and they can churn out movies full of space battles and sexy aliens but lacking in the ba- sics of human drama.
Andrew Bellware is a former sound technician and composer- turned-director who seems to think of himself as a modern-day Roger Corman. BLOODMASK was shot on DV in a scant 22 days, using his parents’ base- ment in place of a soundstage, and indulging in enough topless swordfighting and other nudities to win a distribution contact in Japan. Retitled MILLENNIUM CRISIS for domestic DVD sales, it depicts a sort of STAR WARS/ STAR TREK-hybrid world capably manufactured on desktop com- puters. Where the STAR WARS and STAR TREK films, at their best, told exciting stories of rec- ognizable and universal dramatic conflicts dressed up in sci-fi garb, MILLENNIUM CRISIS is akin to watching a role-playing game, in which sketchily-drawn characters with explicitly defined missions are thrust into arbitrary confron- tations with one another. Despite top billing for Ted Raimi and Ato Essandoh, the lead role—and the dramatic weight of the entire enterprise— rests on the shoulders of Clare Stevenson as the enigmatic Au- rora. The film follows her jour- ney of self-discovery—which is
narratively convenient, because it justifies her walking into scene after scene asking “What’s going on?” whereupon the other char- acters get to fire-off baldly exposi- tory information in response. The rare lines that do not exclusively describe the plot offer little in the way of character development: “I apologize for interrupting you, for I know you are animating your corporeal being,” or, “You must obey the laws of robotics!” Like some DUNGEONS & DRAGONS tournament from the 1980s, there is no sense of any individual character as an individual, just a representative of some species whose characteristics are as- sumed to be common to all members. Aurora’s process of self-discovery does not reveal any unique traits of her as a person but just what race to which she belongs.
Her adventure is an episodic ramble broken into easy-to-digest chunks separated by fade-outs, as if predestined for a life as a series of downloadable web- isodes. Along with the iconogra- phy of the sexy female assassin, the effect is reminiscent of the original MTV AEON FLUX car- toons. Eventually, Aurora’s path crosses that of a quirky archae- ologist played by Raimi. His cameo is enjoyable but stiff enough to reveal how little of Bellware’s attention was going to his cast and their performances. The soft but colorful image is identified on the package as “HDTV-compatible,” which ap- parently is just a way of saying 16:9 formatted, yet is not the sort of thing that shows off a HDTV set to its best advantage. Given its heritage, you should probably be watching this movie on a com- puter screen, or some portable iPod-like device. The DVD comes with ample making-of material, including cast interviews and a behind-the-scenes featurette
about the effects work. On the commentary track, director Bellware and producer Laura Schlachtmeyer boast of their eco- nomical approaches to lighting and set design, often finding ways to suggest an entire set with just a neutral backdrop and some colored gels in front of the lens. Along with their realization that fog machines can hide a multi- tude of sins, these are techniques likely to earn a warm smile from Edgar Ulmer, looking down from low-budget movie heaven. It all begs the question, though, of whether your time and money wouldn’t be better spent simply making your own movie?
THE RETURN OF DRACULA / THE VAMPIRE
1957/1958, MGM/20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, DD-2.0/MA/16:9/LB/ST, $14.99, 77m 2s/76m 9s, DVD-1 By Bill Cooke
Vampires, 1950s style— that’s the theme of this eagerly anticipated “Midnight Movies” double feature that neatly sums up the fluctuating attitudes American filmmakers had mid- way through the 20th century toward the supernatural. Produced by Gramercy Pic- tures during the big rush for youth-targeted drive-in fare, both THE RETURN OF DRACULA (in- explicably rechristened THE CURSE OF DRACULA on early TV prints) and THE VAMPIRE share the artistic team of writer Pat Fielder (THE MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE WORLD) and prolific television director Paul Landres. Though relegated to this disc’s flipside, THE VAM- PIRE (1957) came first and re- mains the better of the two. Interestingly, despite its stark, straightforward title, the film has nothing to do with phantom
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