STRANGELAND

Twisted

Dee Snider, who most of us have written off as the lead singer of the cartoon metal band Twisted Sister, has hereby changed that perception forever. Snider, a lifelong horror fan, has succeeded in spearheading something truely unexpected: a serious post-Scream horror film that works.

In order to make a really scary movie, you have to think about what's scary in real life. Out of control forces during the depression gave rise to the supernatural horrors of Dracula, Frankenstein and the Mummy. Atomic bomb nightmares yielded Godzilla. Fear of communist takeover brought on an Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The Me Generation lost their identities to an army of faceless slashers and the subconcious guilt of the '80s gave us A Nightmare on Elm Street. Snider has tapped into what's scary in the late '90s, writing and producing a cautionary tale of the vulnerability of the modern world.

The kids of today are smarter and more sophisticated than they've ever been, and enjoy greater freedom, but that freedom makes them more accessable to the world's dangers. Snider plays Carleton Hendricks (aka Capt. Howdy), a fiend that lures teens to his house via internet chat rooms, then forces them into his world of "modern primitivism" via torture. He has no problem capturing the daughter of the police detective assigned to his case (Kevin Gage as "Mike Gage"), an old school cop uncomfortable with new technology. To get his daughter back alive, Gage has to fight through his personal anguish and learn to use some new tools.

So far this may sound like a particularly strong, R-rated episode of Millenium, and there were times when I feared the show would sink into familiar horror territory, but Snider's story continued to surprise me with fresh twists. Most horror films end with the capture or apparent death of the monster. Strangeland puts this climax in the middle of the movie, making it possible to explore the story's continuation in its second half. Most folks would be satisfied that the first half had enough to it that they'd make their cash back, then gear up to strike again with a sequel. Snider gives us twice as much material than is really necessary. He's not interested in making just another horror film. He's made something different and I really respect that.

When the legal system let's him escape punishment, Hendricks tries to return home, his evil side subdued by medication. But when the local right wing trash, led by horror mascot Robert Englund, act on their fears with an attempted lynching, Capt. Howdy goes off his meds and seeks vengeance.

With his elaborate piercings, tattoos, etc., Snider's costume makes him look as bizarre as any Batman villain, but his evil is played deadly serious. There's no camp in his portrayal to soften the material, and John Pieplow's direction is avoids the kind of flashy camerawork that would call attention to itself and break the illusion. Capt. Howdy's deeds are all the more sinister because he's the only horror character that I can think of with no interest in killing people. His aim is to cause his victims mental and physical agony.

In his 1980 horror classic Zombie, director Lucio Fulci depicted all kinds of excessive gore and violence, but got the strongest reaction from a poke in the eye. Snider and Pieplow get under your skin (no pun intended) the same way here by exploiting a sense of instinctive repulsion and fascination. Strangeland pushes a lot of buttons, as smart and disturbing a horror film as I've ever seen. I'm not anxious to see it again, but I recommend it to all horror fans.

Blood; extreme torture devices; fire dancing; psycho; p-star Englund.

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The Movie Madness section and its contents are ©2007 Brian Thomas