31 Days of Halloween (Day 11) - The Wolf Man (1941)

Today we hop into the Wayback machine and travel to 1941. Released to theaters a few days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, The Wolf Man is one of my favorite horror movies from the Golden Age of cinema and one of Lon Chaney Junior's best roles.

Running a tight 70 minutes, The Wolf Man tells its story economically, quickly sketching out its main characters, setting up some interpersonal tension and then getting to the horror. Chaney plays Larry Talbot, a man returning to his family home in England after 18 years in America (which explains why he doesn’t have an accent). His older brother has died in a hunting accident, so Larry has come home to help his father John (the always wonderful Claude Rains) run their estate.

Larry suffers from a Propecia overdose. Men, don't let this happen to you!

While fiddling round with his father’s telescope, he spies (and spies on) the comely Gwen (Evelyn Ankers), checking her out in her bedroom. She lives above her father’s shop, so Larry heads into town to...well, kind of stalk her. It’s an unintentionally creepy scene as he stares at her in the shop, then deploys knowledge he gained watching her in an attempt to pick her up. While clumsily flirting with her, Larry picks up a walking stick with a silver wolf’s head and a pentagram on it. He doesn’t know what it means, so Gwen explains the legend of the werewolf, including reciting the famous (and made-up) poem “even a man who is pure of heart and says his prayers by night, may become a werewolf when the wolf-bane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.” This scene is a well-done, efficient info dump, providing the viewer with everything they need to know about werewolves in 90 seconds. One kind of funny thing is that EVERYONE but Larry seems to be aware of the werewolf poem. Maybe it's required reading in the English school system? Hmmm...

A band of gypsies enters town. Larry, Gwen and Gwen’s friend Jenny head to the gypsy camp to have their fortunes told. Larry finds out that Gwen is engaged, but takes this as more of challenge than a deterrent. While he’s hitting on Gwen, Jenny is meeting with the gypsy Bela (Bela Lugosi). He sees a pentagram in the palm of her hand, indicating she will be his next victim...because Bela is a werewolf. Bela shifts into wolf form and mauls Jenny to death. Coming to her aid, Larry kills Bela by beating him with the silver head of his cane, but not before being bitten.

Interestingly, Bela turns into a wolf, while Larry turns into a wolf/human hybrid. Is this an indication that Bela has given himself over to his animal side, while Larry still fights to retain his humanity?

Larry's seduction strategy leaves something to be desired.

Larry’s wound heals rapidly; the bite is gone by the morning. Larry visits Gwen and has a run-in with her fiancee, Frank Andrews (Patric Knowles). Later, Larry - and, apparently, everyone in the town - are at the gypsy camp. He runs into Bela’s mother Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya) and finds out that he is cursed to be a werewolf. Larry has some kind of hallucinatory freakout session, but makes it home. Of course, he soon turns into a wolf man...and, oddly enough, gets a change of clothing to go along with his claws and fangs. He heads into the fog shrouded woods and kills the local gravedigger (why he is out n the cemetery in the middle of the night is a good question). The next night, traps are set and Larry’s wolf form is caught in one. Maleva finds him, is able to turn him back into a human and helps him escape.

Would you like a flea and tick collar?

Larry goes to tell Gwen he is going to leave. She offers to run away with him, which is odd since the entire time she has known him has been either kind of creepy or acting unhinged. Not that it matters. Larry sees a pentagram in Gwen’s hand and runs off screaming. Back at Talbot Manor, his father up Larry in his room, in order to prevent him from leaving or hurting himself. Larry shifts into wolf form, breaks free, goes on a rampage, and almost kills Gwen. His father shows up in the nick of time and beats him to death. As he dies, he shifts back into human form. The End.

Filmed in black and white, the film is a very moody with many of the scenes filmed on fog shrouded sound stage forest sets. The makeup by Universal Studio legend Jack Pierce (Frankenstein, The Mummy) is neat, particularity the paw-feet Larry has in wolf form; it's a nice touch. Larry’s weird dream/hallucination sequence is well-done, giving us an idea of what's going through his head and how the curse is contaminating his thoughts. The acing is fine, although all of the characters are underdeveloped. Or, rather, they are developed just enough for the lines they are supposed to deliver. The big problem is that the attraction between Larry and Gwen is never established. We are just supposed to assume it is there. Since Larry comes across like a stalker-ish weirdo throughout the movie, there is nothing shown that indicates why she is attracted to him.

This is a great film and a good example of how to tell a compelling story in a pared down, steam-lined fashion.

31 Days of Halloween (Day 10) - Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974)

I love some the movie categories that Netflix picks for me. Today’s movie, Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell is under “Violent Mad-Scientist Movies.” I wonder, is there another category for “Passive Sane Scientists Movies?” Hmmm...

Anyway, Monster from Hell was the last of the Hammer Frankenstein films. And, if you don't know what I mean by 'Hammer' check out Mondo Esoterica’s Hammer Studios page for a nice thumbnail history of the company. Even better, pick up The Hammer Story, a great, coffee table style book about the studio.

The short version: Hammer is best know for their series of Gothic Horror films made from the late-fifties through the early-70s (although Hammer made films in just about every genre from it’s founding in 1934 through the end of it’s film production in 1975). The sumptuous, colorful gothic horror films, starting with 1957’s The Curse of Frankenstein and ending in 1974 with Monster From Hell, were the movies that made a mark on cinematic history.

Monster From Hell finds Peter Cushing’s Baron Victor Frankenstein in an insane asylum. While there, he is not ready to give up on quest to master death - and life. In the Hammer films, Frankenstein is both protagonist and antagonist. As portrayed by Cushing, he is brilliant, amoral, obsessed, cold and rational to an almost inhuman degree. He wants to expand knowledge for it’s own sake. However, he also is spreads death and misery, whether by killing people who learn too much (or are needed for spare parts) or by creating homicidal of mankind.

The film opens by introducing a new character, Dr. Simon Helder (Shane Briant) who is sent to the asylum for body snatching, using corpses in an attempt to replicate Frankenstein’s work. He finds the Baron at work as the asylum doctor. He has blackmailed the unstable asylum director into “killing off" Frankenstein and establishing a new identity. Although his hands are damaged from a fire, he is serving as the asylum doctor. He is assisted by the mute Sarah (the stunning Madeline Smith), rendered voiceless from shock after her father - the aforementioned director - tried to rape her. Frankenstein quickly recruits the talented Helder to help him out, first as an orderly, then as an assistant on his project to give life to a cobbled together body.

Madeline Smith...now, don't you feel stunned?

Of course, the experiment works...after a fashion. The body is reanimated, but the brain, that of an imprisoned professor, eventually goes mad from his horrifying condition. It is also implied that the body - that of a barely human murderer - retains some its homicidal impulses. Violence ensues and Frankenstein’s latest creation is torn apart by the inmates. But he and Helder survive and prepare to continue the work of instilling life in lifeless matter.

There are many nice touches. For example, we find out that Frankenstein is tone-deaf and unable to appreciate music. This is an elegant way of reinforcing Frankenstein’s detachment from anything that is not coldly logical, purely scientific. The claustrophobic asylum serves to reinforce the feeling of being inside Frankenstein's psyche, a place of solid walls of reason...but with the demons of madness lurking within. Although Frankenstein is sane in the conventional sense, he so obsessed with his work that nothing else - including human life - matters.

The Monster From Hell...in serious need of a body waxing

Cushing, of course, is a joy to watch in the role that, along with his portrayal of Van Helsing in a number of Hammer vampire films, made him internationally recognizable. A low-key actor, he conveys the required genius tinged with madness that the role demands. Briant is good playing the part of the young disciple of Frankenstein. As the film progresses, he starts to display more humanity than he appears to have in the beginning. While he wants to expand his knowledge and follow in Frankenstein's footsteps, he also balks at some of the more ruthless measures that the Baron takes (including manipulating one patient into committing suicide). And Madeline Smith is both attractive to watch and does a credible job of conveying her emotional state through her expressive eyes.

The makeup is well done, even if the “monster suit” worn by David Prowse (who played Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy) looks a little rubbery. Still it is imaginative and one of the most visually arresting Frankenstein monsters. There is some gruesome body par business with jars full of eye balls, lopped off hands, graphic brain surgery - including a hilarious scene where he steps in a pan containing a brain he’s going to dispose of. The sets are appropriate gloomy, looking more like a medieval dungeon than a place of solace and healing.

The Doctor is in...sane!!!!!!! Sorry, couldn't resist.

If there is a weak part, it is the performance of John Stratton, playing the asylum director. He overacts shamelessly, coming across as far more disturbed than most of the inmates. In part, that is purposeful; we are to understand that the ideas of “sanity” and “madness” have to do with who is in power. The director is a man of position and title, so his impulses towards sexual violence - he regularly assaults female inmates and, of course, tried to rape his daughter - is ignored. And, in his own little universe of the asylum, Frankenstein is a measure of sanity, even if his mind turns towards reanimating corpses, manipulating people into suicide and planning a horrific fate for Sarah.

The Baron’s true madness surfaces as his creation begins to revert to a more violent, primitive state. He decides the only way to salvage the experiment is to mate the creature with Sarah. Helder is appropriately horrified - he says that there have to be limits to science. There is a story problem with this development. How would impregnating Sarah prove anything? Frankenstein doesn't really say. It won't help arrest his creation’s deterioration. For a fairly tightly plotted film, it’s a weird moment; unfortunately, it also sets up the finale, so it’s pretty important. However, we’ve already seen that Frankenstein isn’t completely rational; for him, the thing is to keep the experiments going. You get the feeling that Frankenstein is constantly in search of new intellectual stimulation. Over the course of the film series, you have the feeling that part of his drive is to stave off boredom. He constantly experiments with the boundary of life and death because it keeps his own existence interesting. In this sense, mating his creation to Sarah can be seen as just another test of how well his creation mimic natural life. But, this is not explained; it is something I am inferring.

For modern audiences, the set-bound, fairly low-key proceedings might seem boring. however, it is well-acted, has a number of great images - the brain surgery, a nightmarish scene where the monster digs up the grave where his brain’s body is buried - and is taut little Gothic Horror story. Check it out.

31 Days of Halloween (Day 9) - Godzilla: The Half-Century War

Godzilla. When I was a kid, I wanted to be Godzilla. An unstoppable force of nature, crushing all before me. Of course, while wiping out random cities held an appeal to my 8-year-old self, I usually made certain that my fantasies of destruction had a personal touch. Annoying teachers, oppressive bullies, the fucking neighborhood dog that bit my face...they were all running from me, screaming in terror as my size 9000 feet got closer and closer.

While the colorful scenes of destruction wrought by giant monsters were the highlight of the films, I always wondered about the people on the ground. Not the heroes - there were always some people running around, filling up time with b-stories between cities being laid waste. I wondered what the pilots of the fighters thought as they were being swatted out of the sky or the tank crews picking through the ruins of Tokyo only to be incinerated by the a blast of radioactive breath.

In Godzilla: The Half-Century War, we find out. James Stokoe writes and illustrates the comic, crafting the gripping tale of Ota Murakami. Beginning in 1954 with Godzilla’s first raid on Japan, Stokoe’s follows this soldier through fifty years of fighting kaiju. After a harrowing experience as a young tank commander - one of the few survivors of the military units confronting Godzilla among the toppling towers of Tokyo - Murakami is recruited by a multinational organization - the Anti-Megalosaurus Force - to fight against the rising tide of giant monsters.

Apocalypse-Zilla

Issue two takes us to Vietnam, 1967. While the Vietnam War rages, Godzilla levels Hanoi. It then heads south, straight towards Saigon. The US military tries to stop the lizard leviathan, but fails. The AMF tries out a new weapon, maser cannons (which are well known to fans of the movies) which seem to be having an effect...until...Anguirus erupts from the ground beneath them. Godzilla and Angirus fight with Angirus finally tunneling away. Godzilla looks like he’s going to keep heading south...and then suddenly loses interest and heads for the sea. The last panel shows Colonel Schooler - field commander of the AMF - in a downed aircraft, disabling some mysterious piece of hardware.

The kaiju enjoying lovely downtown Accra.

Issue three is set 8 years later in Ghana. More monsters have appeared and the issue starts with an awesome splash panel of Godzilla, Rodan, Battra, Megalon, Kumonga Mothra, Ebirah and Hedorah all beating the crap out of each other in the middle of Accra, the capital city. We find out that the AMF has been almost completely destroyed in the battle against the monsters. We also find out that the device at the end of issue two is a psionic transmitter, a piece of technology designed by Doctor Deverich for the AMF to act as a mental barrier against Godzilla. The device didn’t work and Deverich disappeared, only to show up years later, using his device to “weaponize” the monsters, attracting them to specific targets. One of the themes of the Godzilla films - that man can be his own worse enemy (e.g., in Godzilla vs The Smog Monster where pollution creates a city destroying monster) - is reflected here. This issue also has a great line. When our intrepid monster killers go looking for the transmitter that is drawing the creatures to Ghana, Murakami asks if anybody brought a gun along. To which, one of his colleagues responds “I never saw the point of bringing a gun to a Godzilla fight.” Quite right. The AMF team finds Deverich taking bids for his psionic transimitter. Deverich manages to escape and Schooler is killed, leaving Murakmai in charge.

Issue 4, is set in 1987, in Bombay, where Godzilla is on a rampage. Murakami is still fighting the good fight; but, 30 years of fighting against an unstoppable force is taking its toll on him. After the defeat in Ghana, the AMF has been reduced to monitoring the monsters with the field combat teams disbanded. In Bombay, however, the AMF deploys Mechagodzilla, a giant, heavily armed war machine. Murakami is left wishing he was piloting the massive mecha as it goes toe-to-toe with Godzilla. While watching the fight, Murakami spots Deverich and chases after him. Murakami apprehends him and finds that Deverich has perfected his device, making it far more effective. Effective enough to summon Space Godzilla. Yes, everyone’s favorite space-lizard/crystal hybrid descends from orbit. As Godzilla and Space Godzilla duke it out, Murakami takes over Mechagodzilla and assists Godzilla in destroying his nemesis from the stars.

Gigan and Gidorah hanging ten.

Issue 5, the finale, is set in the Antarctic in 2002. After the attack by Space Godzilla two other creatures from space - King Ghidorha and Gigan - arrive and destroy half the world. The AMF has set up a last ditch trap using psionic transmitters to attract the monsters, a revamped Mechagodzilla to keep them occupied and the Dimension Tide device, a weapon firing a miniature black hole, to destroy them. Murakami, now in his seventies, hijacks Mechagodzilla. He and Godzilla cooperate to distract the other monsters long enough for the Dimension Tide to destroy them. Murakami then attacks Godzilla. The two grapple until both are sucked into the black hole. In the last panel, we see very familiar spiked fins emerging from the ocean. The end.

In addition to an engaging story, one in which Murakami progresses from someone trying to destroy Godzilla, to a man who has a more conflicted relationship with his destructive nemesis, the art is amazing. Highly detailed with a manga influence, Stokoe’s art creates the needed “big budget, wide-screen” images needed for Godzilla. Replete with bold colors, splash panels and scenes of impressive destruction - as well as the details needed to capture the human interest parts of the story, this is a book that is feast for the eyes.

If you like a Godzilla story with lots of action and a good “human” story, as well as great art, Godzilla: The Half-Century War is for you.

---

And, as a bonus here's my own Godzilla story from a few years ago, Captain Takashi's Big Day

Captain Jiro Takashi, Japanese Self Defense Force, was a career soldier in a country that, officially, didn’t even have a military. He felt comfortable only in uniform, loved the company of his men, and experienced an almost unseemly thrill when he would take his position as commander of a Type 61 main battle tank.

His father had served in the Imperial Army during the war. He had fought the Americans across the Pacific and ended the war in a prison camp in the Philippines. When his father had left home to serve the Emperor, Jiro was eleven and he remembered his father as a strong, quiet man. After the war, his father was still quiet; but the strength was gone, drained by his experiences.

Until he saw his son in uniform. Jiro distinctly remembered his father smiling when he completed basic training. And then, that night, while Jiro celebrated with his fellow soldiers, his father went home and hung himself.

Captain Takashi only remembered the smile. The war had destroyed his father; Jiro felt that he had given his father back the strength to do what he felt was necessary. That was enough.

Jiro felt his own life was limited by the various conditions the Americans had imposed on Japan after the surrender. He would comfort himself with the thought that, perhaps, one day the Cold War of the Americans and the Soviets would turn ‘hot’ and he could finally fulfill his destiny as a soldier.

So, while it was still a bit of a surprise, when the mobilization alert had come to his armored unit one Sunday morning, he was mostly relieved. This was what he had wanted for so long.

He sent his crew to the tank to prepare it for battle, while he met with Colonel Saito and the rest of the tank commanders.

“Men,” Saito barked,” we are being sent to Tokyo. I have no details of the nature of the engagement, but we are to consider ourselves at war.”

There was a murmur in the briefing room. Most of the men expressed some dismay. Jiro did not. He maintained his normal stoicism on the outside; but inside he was bursting with joy. He would show his mettle while defending the capital of his country.

He rushed back to his tank, informed the crew of the mission and ordered them to join the rest of the battalion as it moved down Route 17 towards the capital. As the column of clanking war machines neared the city, Jiro could see numerous columns of smoke rising from the Shinjuku area. He briefly wondered if the city had been by attacked with a nuclear weapon; however, he quickly pushed such speculation aside. He had to focus on the task at hand; finding and defeating the enemy.

The battalion split into companies and drove into the city along parallel routes. Other units were converging on the scene of battle, a mass movement of men, vehicles and the other accoutrements of war. From Jiro’s perspective, however, the “war” thus far was limited to thickening clouds of black smoke, cramped city streets and little else. He could make out the two tanks in front of him, the lead vehicle of the company commander and that of Lieutenant Soto. Behind Jiro’s vehicle were six others, vague shapes, lost in the smoke.

The company commander’s voice crackled over jiro’s headset.

“All men, prepare to engage, prepare to…AAAAAGGGHHH!!!”

Jiro saw a stream of what looked like intense blue flame come from the sky and hit the commander’s tank, which exploded almost instantly. Jiro looked up. A vast, dark shape loomed through the smoke. Buildings ahead crumbled from some great force. Jiro could hear Soto repeating “dragon, dragon, dragon” when an immense reptilian foot crushed the 35-ton tank like a cardboard box.

Jiro could now see the “enemy” clearly. It looked to him like a bipedal reptile, a hundred meters tall, with plates running down its back. Jiro could make out a long, thick tail, smashing buildings with each sweep. It took another step forward, the impact lifting Jiro’s tank of the ground.

“Fire,” Jiro whispered, his mind reeling from the impossibility of what he was seeing.

Akagi, his gunner, was screaming.

“Fire,” Jiro shouted.

Akagi triggered the main gun. The 90mm shell bounced off the thick hide of the advancing colossus.

“No effect!!!”

Jiro could see the scarred sole of the creature’s 10-meter-long foot as it lifted high over his tank.

“Not this way,” was Jiro’s final thought, as the monstrosity took another step.

31 Days of Halloween (Day 8) - Vampires

I hear it now, "another John Carpenter movie?" Well, stop your whining; there will be a couple of other ones before this thing is over. Carpenter makes great horror and science fiction movies. Well, at least he did up until In The Mouth of Madness. At that point, his output became more uneven. One of those uneven films is Vampires, based on the John Steakly book Vampire$, which I enjoyed and recommend.

Carpenter's Vampires is a good example of the parts being greater than the whole. The movie has some very nice scenes, images, ideas and acting, starting with the first ten minutes. James Woods plays Jack Crow, leader of a team of vampire hunters, supported by the Catholic Church. The movie opens on a sun blasted southwestern plain, with the team approaching a dilapidated ranch house. They have located a nest of vampires ("goons" as they call the less powerful creation of "master" vampires) and are going to exterminate it. These first ten minutes see Carpenter at the top of his game. Carpenter conveys a sense of professionalism through the use of specialized equipment (chainmail neck guards, metal pikes, highly polished and functional looking steaks), the look of the team (scruffy, but tough), the direction of the action (the team seems to function as one, using various tactics that look like the product of years of fighting the undead) and Woods scenery chewing, but effective, take on the team leader, complete with a list of "rules" for vampire hunting. In short, in this ten minutes you get the sense of what a team of vampire hunters would actually be like, if vampires existed.

Jack Crow and company ready to kick some undead ass.

Some of the acting is good as well. Although Woods plays his profane, violent, misogynistic, fanatical vampire hunter in the most bombastic, hyper-macho mode possible, it works in terms of the film. You would have to be an ultimate badass to survive fighting against monsters that are stronger and faster than humans and almost indestructible. And Woods has a screen presence, something some of his co-stars lack. Time Guinee, playing Father Adam Guiteau also does a good job as the newest member of the team, assigned to Crow after his last priest (and most of his team) is killed.

They should have stayed at a Motel 6.

Carpenter also comes up with some arresting images. In particular, a scene of a group of vampires rising out of the desert floor at sundown is creepy and memorable. In addition, as is usual with Carpenter's movies, the soundtrack enhances the film, the southwestern/electric theme playing into the film's modern western feel.

Unfortunately, there are significant problems. Daniel Baldwin, playing Anthony Montoya, Crow's right-hand man is terrible, with two emotional states - screaming and sleepy. Sheryl Lee, playing Katrina, a hooker who is bitten by the chief vampire and sharing a telepathic link to him, is fun to look at, but seemingly bored with the role. Thomas Ian Griffith, playing Valek, the protagonist and, apparently, the source of all vampires, has no personality. In spite of Carpenter trying to create a new more "realistic" type of vampire - at one point Crow tells Guiteau they aren't "hopping around in rented formal wear and seducing everybody with cheesy Euro-trash accents" - what we get instead are Goth looking people who mostly growl.

Sheryl Lee giving us her best "come hither" look.

The story has some serious problems, particularly how Valek (and all vampires) were created created by an "inverse exorcism" and how his master plan is to complete it so he can walk in the daylight. Um, okay...but,if the exorcism was to drive out evil (and something went wrong) why would completing it make him more pwoerful? And, while some of the set-pieces work well, others do not. Much of the second act in a motel room having to watch Baldwin and Lee try to emote which is, frankly, dull. and, there is a nasty streak of misogyny with both Crow and Montoya. I guess it was to make the characters as old-school, un-PC as possible. What it does is make them seem like dicks. And, finally, there are some pretty clunky lines...or, at least,they are poorly delivered.

It is unfortunate that Carpenter took a great premise - a professional vampire hunting team - and didn't go anywhere with it. Instead we get another one of his riffs on Westerns (in this case, Rio Bravo) with horror trappings. Still there are enough fun bits that I don't ever mind watching the film; I just see what could have been, something that could've made the movie a classic instead of just okay.

31 Days of Halloween (Day 7) - House (1986)

House is a horror film from the mid-80s, one that I remember seeing on cable years ago. Thanks to Netflix, I can indulge in all my nostalgic movie impulses, including one in which William Katt fights an undead, pissed-off Richard Moll in a Vietnam War zombie suit.

Really.

Katt plays a successful horror novelist who is also a Vietnam vet. Before the movie begins, his son mysteriously disappears from his aunt’s house, leading to a divorce from his wife, the very attractive Kay Lenz. A short time later his aunt commits suicide and Katt returns to the house to work on his latest book, an autobiography of his time in Vietnam. He soon finds that the house is a portal to a spectral realm full of ghost, goblins...and a very angry Moll.

Isn't this how all authors dress when writing? I know I do.

House is not a particularly scary movie. It is generally billed as a horror comedy and there are some funny bits, although the movie is not a parody a la the Scary Movie series. My favorite humorous bit involves a hot neighbor (Mary Stavin) who at first seems to be coming on to Katt. Later, it turns out she was sizing him up...as babysitter material. She deposits her son with him while she heads off on a date. And, of course, the ghosts try to snag the little rug-rat.

Kay Lenz orders a pizza...or something.

The film is light-hearted as far as horror movies go. The creature designs are imaginative, but not particularly frightening. There are a couple of jump scares and some bloodless dismemberments (these are ghosts after all). The spirit realm is basically a jungle set, including Viet Cong. This makes sense since it appears this little slice of the afterlife gets its form from Richard Moll's Vietnam zombie ghost. Moll, who seems to be orchestrating things and commanding the other creatures, is after Katt. During the war, he was severely injured in an attack. Katt found him, left him to get help and while he was gone, the VC captured Moll and tortured him to death. Moll blames Katt for not killing him quickly...but not the VC who actually killed him? Well, no one said ghosts have to behave rationally.

Richard Moll preparing for his Night Court reunion show.

In the end, Katt rescues his son - who was sucked into a portal to the ghost world in the pool, overcomes his fear of Moll (and, by extension, the trauma of the war) and blows him up. Moll...not his son. Lenz shows up just in time to see Katt and son emerge from the burning house. Smiles all around. The end.

So, what do I like about it? It’s just a FUN movie. Although it starts a little slow, midway through the second act the action picks up and doesn’t stop. The effects are rubbery, but look neat and fit the sense of an alien reality bleeding into ours. The spirit world is minimal - a dark jungle set - but given that it is a reflection of Moll’s evil spirit and represents a part of Katt’s life that he never got over, it works. And the movie is pretty funny. And, yes, there is nostalgia at work. I was a kid when I first saw the movie. Like other films from that time - e.g., Fright Night, Hellraiser, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 - seeing them does take me back to those days. And, that is part of the appeal of Halloween for an adult. The chance to indulge in a child’s sense of wonder and terror.

If Mary Stavin showed up looking like this, asking for baby sitting services even I would say yes.

31 Days of Halloween (Day 6) - Prince of Darkness

John Carpenter. I do love him so. Halloween. The Thing. Escape from New York. Some of the best horror and science fiction movies from the late-70s through the end of the 80s came from Carpenter. They are relentless, well-filmed and have a strand of nihilism running through them that appealed to me as a kid and still appeals to me as an adult.

One of my favorites is Prince of Darkness. The movie, which relies heavily on concepts Carpenter gleaned from HP Lovecraft and Nigel Kneale, not to mention some reading he was doing at the time about quantum physics, it deals with an evil that predates humanity. Part of entity was locked away in another dimension (The Father, basically Satan), the other segment, a green fluid is locked in a container before man walked the Earth. This creature is The Son; in Christian terms, the Anti-Christ. For thousands of years, this container was guarded by a sect of the Catholic Church, the Brotherhood of Sleep. This name has a number of meanings. Not only do they watch over The Son to make certain it stays asleep, it is also responsible for keeping the masses unaware of the true nature of evil, not a spiritual force, but an actual physical entity. Now, something has changed, heralded by the arrival of light (and radiation?) from a distant supernova. The Church recruits a team of scientists (mostly grad and PH.D students) to prove that the substance within the container is an alien intelligence, one that threatens mankind if it is allowed to awake.

Why does this make me want to order a pizza? Hmmmmm

Like Keane’s Quatermass and the Pit (in which the idea of the Devil turns out to be humanity’s racial memory of its origin; a hybrid simian/martian slave race) Carpenter’s film posits that the devil is not a spiritual being but a powerful alien intelligence. Oh...and Jesus was a human/alien hybrid sent here to warn us of the danger represented by The Son. This also ties in with Lovecraft’s idea (greatly expanded on by decades of writers in the Cthulhu Mythos) that there are no gods, only immensely powerful aliens and personified natural forces. For Lovecraft fans out there, who has seen this movie and not thought that the Father and Son are just avatars of Nyarlathotep? And, for those of you who read that sentence and thought “Nyarlatho-what?” don’t worry about it.

Lime Jell-O is the source of all evil in the universe

The movie works as a horror film - there are jump scares, nasty kills, gooey monsterish things - but it also works as science fiction. Everything that happens is basically an attempt to understand and fight an entity that existed on Earth before man (and is possibly the original intelligent life on Earth) and that will destroy humanity as we know it, if it ever escapes from its extra-dimensional prison. It plays with a lot of interesting concepts, in particular the idea that the spiritual world is essentially a PR gimmick used by the world’s religions to hide the truth; that we are caught in struggle between the Earth’s original inhabitant and some possibly benevolent aliens. We are not at the center of things; we just happen to live on the battlefield. It is ultimately, a bleak, secular view of existence. Good and evil are human concepts and we can't rely on God to save us...or the Devil to damn us, for that matter.

Survival tip: when around evil fluid...keep your mouth closed

One of the implications of the film that I find provocative is that this universe is Hell, in that it is the home of The Father; i.e., Satan. The Father is imprisoned in another dimension and The Son caged in the container by someone, perhaps the same aliens who created Christ. But there is no indication that that someone is God.

I also like the portrayal of the science team. Unlike the trend in modern films and TV to make scientists aggressively quirky (look at the portrayal in things like Pacific Rim, Fringe and the more recent Agents of Shield) the characters in Prince of Darkness seem like real people. The actors sell their roles well and deliver the technical jargon in a believable fashion.

Are there problems with the movie? Sure. There are some plot point that are odd, like the need to use a mirror to create a gateway between our dimension and the one The Father is trapped in. Why a mirror...other then it looks kind of neat? The acting is pretty good, but not universally so. And this is a movie where a viewer can see how a bigger budget would’ve helped. This is a film that could’ve used some really fucked up, tentacle-and-teeth monsters keeping our heroes trapped in the church and not some homeless people (even if one of them is the awesome Alice Cooper).

Still, this is a great film. It has some amazing images; the ending, where Lisa Blount’s character is trapped in the other dimension, reaching up towards the closing portal, is nightmarish. The ending, where we find that all of our hero’s sacrificing having only changed the details of the coming apocalypse, is chilling, nihilistic...and completely satisfying.

Alice Cooper wishes he had some lines in the film

31 Days of Halloween (Day 5) - The Hills Have Eyes

So, decided to watch The Hills Have Eyes (2006 version - I'll just refer to this as THHE06) while having breakfast. Because, what goes better with Cheerios than a blood and viscera splattered battle between inbred, cannibal mutants and an average, middle America family? Nothing, that's what.

Based on Wes Craven's 1977 film of the same name, THHE06 is a tense, violent, brutal film. It also is a good movie, thanks to Alexandre Aja direction - he knows how to build visual tension, as demonstrated in High Tension - and the cast, who quickly make their characters sympathetic. The special effects - both the plentiful gore and the mutant make-up - by Greg Nicotero is great, with some imaginative kills and gruesome (and believable) mutants.

The Carters - patriarch Big Bob (Ted Levine), matriarch Ethel (Kathleen Quinlan), son Bobby (Dan Byrd), daughters Brenda and Lynn (Emilie de Raven and Vinessa Shaw), son-in-law Doug (Aaron Stanford) who is married to Lynn, granddaughter Catherine (some baby...they're all the same, right?), and two dogs, Beauty and Beast - are traveling across country, heading for San Diego where Big Bob, a retired cop, is going to start a new life with his family. They are directed into a former nuclear test site by Tom Browser, playing a nameless gas station attendant who is working with the cannibals. Soon, their vehicle has been disabled and, when night falls, they are attacked. Half their number (Big Bob, Ethel, Lynn and Beauty) are killed, Brenda is raped by two mutants and Catherine is taken. Whether this is done to taunt the survivors, bring some new blood into the clan or as a snack isn't clear.

Brenda welcomes the mutants to the camp

The next morning, Doug and Beast head off to find Catherine, while Bobby and Brenda rig up a warning system and trap around the disabled camper. From this moment forward, the film is relentless, with Doug engaging in various acts of brutality to save his daughter, while Bobby and Brenda get some payback against the head of the Cannibals - Papa Jupiter, played by the always great Billy Drago. As the film ends, most of the mutants are dead. Doug, Brenda and Bobby are all traumatized, but still alive, having shown just what people are capable of when their survival - and family - is threatened. Of course, this being a horror movie, the last scene is the survivors walking out of the desert...and then we see they are being observed by another mutant through binoculars. The end.

The mutant Pluto asks Doug "Want to see my butterfly collection?"

The movie does make some stabs towards larger issues instead of just wracking up the body count. The cannibals are a stand-in for the poor, their clash with the Carters a very physical manifestation of class warfare. And, both are to some degree victims of the government/upper class. The mutants are descendents of people who were exposed to radiation from nuclear weapons tests, albeit their ancestors refused to leave the area when ordered to by the government. The Carters are not the "1%." They are solidly middle class. But, because the government/the rich can't clean up the messes they make they become victims. Okay, not a very "deep" theme; but, it is there and it does shown that writers Aja and Gregory Levasseur (who worked on High Tension with Aja) had more of an agenda than just a sun-blasted entry into the gore-porn genre.

Anyway, check it out.

Doug wakes up on the mutant version of a therapeutic mattress...finds he does not like it

31 Days of Halloween (Days 1 - 4)

Welcome to the first annual examination of all things scary on The Last Great Roadshow. You're getting the first four days in one post because your humble author has been as sick as a dog all week. But, I'm back on my feet and ready to dive deep in the dark waters of the horror sea.

Day One: Re-read volume one (issues 1 - 6) of Walking Dead. I've been reading Walking Dead for years. Robert Kirkman establishes strong characters early on, which helps distinguish this tale of a world overrun by the flesh eating ghouls. Tony Moore's moody, detailed black and white art is the perfect accompaniment to the story, creating a stark, gritty world of dead cities and hungry ghouls.

Day Two: Cruising through Netflix, I came across Episode 50. It sounded interesting - a reality show crew of skeptical ghost hunters and a team of Christian believers who think ghosts are evil spirits or demons or something - who go into an old asylum and encounter something nasty. Okay, could be cool. Unfortunately, the acting is terrible, the conceit that all of the footage was found after the two teams were wiped out makes no sense, since there are numerous scenes where there are no cameras that could've picked up the action and the "rules" of the ghosts/demons/whatever seem to change as the movie goes on. For me, a horror movie needs to have internal rules that are coherent and consistent. They don't have to resemble anything in the real world, of course. But, they should make sense in the context of the movie and not just change due to poor writing. Would I recommend it? If you have Netflix - or Amazon Prime, etc - sure. But, unless you want to own every "found footage" or ghost story, I can't tell you to buy it.

Day Three: I love some of George Romero's work. One of his films I have mixed feelings about is Land of the Dead. It has a lot going for it: pretty good acting; good zombies effects; appropriate levels of gore (at least in the unrated version that I have); and the expected social commentary (rich vs poor, the rise of the national security/paranoia state in the aftermath of 9/11) is there and as blunt as ever. However, there are problems. The main one is the story. There are things - like the obsession with money, in a world where most civilization is gone and scavenging and barter are the only economic activity - that makes no sense. Character motivation - like Simon Baker's protagonist wanting to leave the city, when there is nothing outside the walls but zombies or John Leguizamo's obsession with extorting money in a world where it has no worth - often doesn't make sense. And most of the characters aren't even one-dimensional, introduced to serve as zombie fodder. This can be okay; expendable characters who are there to demonstrate whatever the danger is, are a horror film standard. In this case, however, the time spent with them detract from the character stories that are both interesting and need development. Land of the Dead is worth seeing; however, it is a definite step down from Romero's original zombie trilogy.

Day Four: Watched the Raymond Burr version of the original Godzilla. After watching the trailer for Gareth Edwards upcoming Godzilla movie, I felt the need to check out a movie with the Big G. This was the first one I came across in my movie collection, so, in the PS3 it went. And, as usual, I loved it. Shot in moody black and white, it has a documentary feel to it. The scenes of destruction are brutal and the various human sub-plots are well done (if a tad melodramatic). Of course, the dubbing is pretty bad and the Raymond Burr inserts seem tacked on (which, of course, they are). I have the Japanese version as well and prefer it...but, I also have thousands of movies and had little patience for looking through them today. And, to be fair, the Burr inserts aren't horrible; he just doesn't put any effort into the roll and they are transparently info dumps, to make up for what was cut out. With that said, both versions are worth seeing. Godzilla is a classic for a reason and a movie that everyone should see.

New Fake Movie Trailer - Bloodmarch

When asked about Blood March during a 2002 interview, then governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said “Blood March...sounds like a digestive problem.” That sums up the attitude most people involved with this 1985 production seem to have. Made on a shoestring budget with John Saxon as the heroic - if randomly destructive - Colonel Blood, Schwarzenegger as the explosion-loving "El Presidente" and Dyanne Thorne playing an ex-Nazi scientist (looking surprisingly good for a woman who, since the film was set in 1985, would have to be well over 60) by San Pedro Productions (they would later turn to making cat food commercials), Blood March is a barely known entry into the mid-eighties action film boom.

Filled with explosions, gunfire, topless Neo-Nazi scientists and an exploding porpoise, Blood March has the ingredients for a satisfying, if lowbrow, action film. What it doesn't have is competence behind the camera or interest from the cast. The normally reliable Schwarzenegger and Saxon don't just phone it in; they send it by Western Union. The story is incomprehensible - something about John Saxon fighting communist rebels in a fictional Latin American country, where the government employs Asian mercenaries and former Nazis to create super-human drug smugglers. After the first five minutes, it's clear that the writers (all six of them; too many cooks pissing in the soup), director, actors, gaffers...everyone...just gave up on telling a story and opted for as many explosions and boobs as their budget could afford.

Director Pasqual Featherstone, best known for his series of commercials for “Fussy Kat Cat Food, Fussy Food For Fussy Cats” is one of the few people to even acknowledge working on the movie. During a 1996 interview with the author, he provided a few interesting details. Excerpts follow:

“Dyanne Thorne was the best thing about the movie. Did you see her tits? Well, everyone else did too...repeatedly. And not because she was trying to show 'em, you know. Apparently, our wardrobe person was French and wanted to read everything in metrics or something. So all the costumes for Dyanne were too small. Every time she moved, buttons were popping. Anyway, she was a good sport about it...although that wardrobe guy walks with a limp now...don't know if that’s connected.”

“Shooting was pretty smooth. The worst part was the Marine Corps incident...Yeah, that’s right, US Marines. Apparently, the place where we shot the big finale was near some Marine Corps base. Our production manager forgot to inform the military that we were going to be blowing stuff up. When our pyro guys blew up a couple of dummy buildings, a Marine chopper was flying overhead...I got it on film, thought it would look cool, right? Well, twenty minutes later, jeeps are pulling up with guys armed to the teeth. I guess they thought we were Sandinistas or something. We straightened it out. Arnie signed autographs, John explained who he was, Dyanne’s top popped open...everyone was a team player that day.”

“Anyway, it was a fun movie. I don’t care if everyone has “forgotten” they were in it. Hey, the checks cleared...to me that means it was a success.”

When it was released, it was generally panned. Most reviews of the time turned into complaints about the reviewer’s employer forcing them to see this movie. While there is a fringe of aficionados of 80s action movies who see it as something of a lost classic, it is safe to say that few of them have seen it. Some things are best left lost.

Movie Review - Xtro 1983

I have a new review up on Yahoo voices; Xtro, a science-fiction/horror movie from 1983. Check it out.