It's been a round a few years, doing the rounds at festivals - but finally, in december 2012, it was unsleashed on the world. And boy, this is good stuff. I wasn't really prepared for it, there's too many hyped up retro-movies out there - one boring one after another, but The Millennium Bug didn't try to go the old slasher-road, it does something completely the different: the old backwoods horror road... but with a giant twist! Yeah, it's a monster movie and it's so extremely ambitious that it completely blew my mind.
What's good about it? Well, it's mostly becuse there's a director (and producer, writer, editor, production designer etc), Kenneth Cran, who knows to tell a story. It's just not him and his buddies making a movie at their backyard, this is pro stuff made by someone who knows storytelling. Either it is because he watched a million movies or maybe he's just born with it. I really don't know. But he knows what he's doing. The main story isn't anything special, it's the combination of two genres that makes it cool.
A city family goes out in the wilderness, far from technology, to be safe when the dreaded millennium bug strikes - you know who people was afraid that everything would crash when the year 1999 went over to 2000? Nothing happened of course, but I'm sure more than a few escaped out to their cottages to save their asses from the upcoming doomsday. This family, on the other hand, didn't get lucky. Becuase there's a family of inbreds out there and they want a new fresh woman to give birth to new family members! Shit hits the fan... but an even bigger shit is on the way, a HUGE motherf**king monster, half mosquito, half dinosaur, half... bison? I have no idea, but it's big - it's angry and it's hungry! And it has a lot of teeth!
Yes, this is as good as it sounds. The technical quality is outstanding with gorgeous digital photo and decent actors making it nice of the eyes and ears to be entertained by. It's the slick direction by Kenneth Cran that makes the biggest splash, clearly inspired by the "good old" eighties, and maybe the late seventies. The camera tells the story, just the way it should be when the characters is sligtly under-written and the focus is on awesome special effects. Yeah, it has a lot of special effects. A lot.
From the beginning it's bascially classic gore effects. Axe in face, stabbings, lots of stuf that makes our little hearts jump around a bit extra. Not particularly realistic, but it works good. Then the monster comes and it's an impressive creation. From a distance to the smallest details. Of course it chews most of the cast and the blood is plenty.
The Millennium Bug is one of those few movies that could be considered candy bag of goodies. It's so packed with fun stuff, scene after scene that actually leads to something disturbing, disgusting, funny and maybe even touching (at least for a few seconds). There's very little padding here, and even a character like the cryptozoologist has been given some depth - or at least persona. It's not a deep movie, but it has heart and passion.
And that's the most important thing for me.
"I wasn't really prepared for it, there's too many hyped up retro-movies out there - one boring one after another, but The Millennium Bug didn't try to go the old slasher-road, it does something completely the different: the old backwoods horror road... but with a giant twist! Yeah, it's a monster movie and it's so extremely ambitious that it completely blew my mind."
And I love creature features.....this mix or genre hyrbrids is another thing I like.
"you know who people was afraid that everything would crash when the year 1999 went over to 2000? Nothing happened of course, but I'm sure more than a few escaped out to their cottages to save their asses from the upcoming doomsday."
Well.....one thing happened.....radiosatire program pippirull in P3 pointed out one thing.....the swedish governements info page on Y2K wasn´t Y2K safe.....and it crashed!
Ironic, isn´t it...?
"Shit hits the fan... but an even bigger shit is on the way, a HUGE motherf**king monster, half mosquito, half dinosaur, half... bison? I have no idea, but it's big - it's angry and it's hungry! And it has a lot of teeth!"
Judging from the trailer, it looks like the monster from The Relic(1997), and that could only be good.
"The Millennium Bug is one of those few movies that could be considered candy bag of goodies. It's so packed with fun stuff, scene after scene that actually leads to something disturbing, disgusting, funny and maybe even touching (at least for a few seconds)."
Well....sounds like a film for me.
Good review and thanks.
Posted by: Megatron | March 01, 2013 at 17:44