Vengeance, a Thai genre mash cum creature feature started the day off. Would I watch it again? Possibly for the vampire effects and one or two of its monster attacks. But on the whole I would say that while it was entertaining enough to command it’s Sunday Afternoon slot it took itself a bit too seriously to transport me to that special place great B movies do. The film moves through genres like a machete through dense jungle hacking a path through sci-fi action and monster movie conventions trying to give its characters room to breathe in a plot that promises B grade faux epic and instead delivers.

That said Vengeance does have great monsters and is quite a bit better than most of the CGI direct to video monster movies here stateside. There are the flesh eating wasps, some really forbidden fruit, and a host of other beasties put to generally thrilling use.

Next up was the Pang Brothers Recycle. I had been warned that the film was mostly just pretty to look at and have to say I disagree. I found it to be the most visually compelling work the Pang’s have done topping even The Eye for sheer cinematic audacity. Like other great imaginary landscape films this one creates a world utterly other, at times terrifying and at other moments inexpressibly beautiful. I’m thinking specifically here of What Dreams May Come, Mirror Mask and the Aranofsky’s The Fountain. That said those who are immediately turned off by CGI should avoid this like the plague.

A best selling author finds herself in a world made up of the places, plot points and characters she has rejected while starting her new novel. Some of it is recognizable and some of it harkens back to something she can’t quite or doesn’t want to put her finger on. But even as she is warned she must leave, and is offered guidance by a mysterious young girl she is drawn inexorably towards a confrontation with all that she has abandoned and mislaid.

The film reunites the directors with The Eye’s Angelica Lee who exudes just the right note of cracking confidence as she desperately weaves her way through her own creation. A hallmark of the film is certainly its consistent tone which is dreamlike and achieves a poetry of genre conventions. Some around us felt that it was over the top and while the audience id laugh in couple of awkward moments I thought the film moved towards it’s ending with grace and sure footedness. This is a film sure to start conversation amongst those who find certain issues polarizing but I fear to reveal anymore would put me in spoiler territory. Suffice to say I really liked this film and will be thinking all the issues it raised through a few more viewings before I’m through.

Last of the night was hardest to digest. Mad Cowgirl was up to something but don’t ask me what it was. A young woman searches for love and a sense of connection in a world where she may have Mad Cow Disease, may have a brain tumor or may have both or just be going nuts, or or-or or-or-or. Along the way she finds herself used by and using a variety of men (including her brother) to try and salve her longing for meaning and coming up empty handed decides the best thing is to kill them all and let whatever’s up there sort them out. Or does she? Or or. The film is so ambiguous about whether it’s blasphemous or insightful about religion, and whether it wants you to be shocked, titillated or cynical that its intense violence and constant if muted sexual content will probably alienate all but the most dedicated cineastes despite an absolutely riveting performance by lead Sarah Lassez who displays an astonishing range of emotion and creates a character like nothing I’ve ever seen on film before. Walter Koenig also has a great turn as a preacher who is one of the many dysfunctional men Therese turns to for comfort.

If I had to criticize the film for anything it was that I felt a little pandered to, winked at. Mad Cowgirl offers plenty of good performances, and interesting ideas but they almost seemed in danger of being overshadowed by the exploitation. As if Therese’s desire to become The Girl With The Thunderbolt Kick and the subsequent barrage of B movie chop-socky imagery was on an equal par with images of gratuitous violence and intimations of incest that aren’t explored nearly enough. Perhaps for some this is merely entertainment but I felt like I needed a shower- not because the imagery was there but because I was left to make sense out of it with too few storytelling markers and a nervous feeling that the filmmakers didn’t care that much themselves. Stuff like this needs to inspire more than t-shirts and fodder for pop cult angst.