It's a Sunday night horror triple feature. After spending the weekend in lovely Philadelphia - and not thinking about posting - I'll be giving you triple the value.
Friday, I checked out an old favorite of mine, The Night Stalker (1972). Starring Darren McGavin as Carl Kolchak, a newspaper reporter who has seen better days, The Night Stalker follows Kolchak as he tracks down a killer in Las Vegas who turns out to be a vampire. At the time of its airing, The Night Stalker was the highest rated TV movie ever. The entire cast - mostly familiar faces from TV and character actors - is uniformly good. The characters, particularly Kolchak and his editor, Tony Vincenzo (Simon Oakland) are well-developed. The action scenes are exciting and well choreographed. The effects, although minimal, look good. The soundtrack by Bob Cobert has a nice jazzy-creepy vibe to it. And the movie is relentlessly logical; if a vampire actually existed in modern day Vegas and if the authorities found out about it, this is exactly how events would play out. The vampire would see Vegas as a perfect hunting ground, the authorities would try to cover everything up (so as not to start a panic...or embarrass themselves) and anyone trying to get the truth out - like a pesky newspaper reporter, for example - would find himself at odds with everyone. Barry Atwater plays the vampire as a cunning, silent predator and the action sequences establish just how tough he is. The two main action sequences - one in and around a hospital, a second around a pool - are brutal. And the ending is in keeping with the gritty, realistic tone of the film and a cynical view of authority. Check it out.
On Saturday, the highlight was going to Eastern State Penitentiary to check out Terror Behind the Walls. A partial conversion of the sprawling prison into a pretty creepy haunted house, TBTW is set apart from other haunted houses by the authentic setting (I've been on the prison tour during the day and it's unsettling), as well as great makeup, elaborate sound and lighting effects, some set-pieces (like a section that uses 3D glasses) that are pretty trippy and enthusiastic performers. The whole walk-through takes about 45 minutes. If you are in Philly, check it out.
And tonight, I'm wrapping up the weekend with a viewing of Godzilla vs Hedorah (1971). Made when Godzilla had become a defender of Japan, GvsH (also known as Godzilla vs the Smog Monster) is a weird mix of the gruesome (people disintegrating while writhing in agony), the goofy (Godzilla using his atomic breath to fly) and the excruciatingly bad (seemingly endless psychedelic rock/dance sequences). Hedorah is a pretty neat creature, a glistening blog of muck with glowing red eyes that changes shape from giant tadpole to toxic gas spewing flying pancake to lumbering, acidic blob barfing humanoid form. Born from a toxic stew of pollution (and maybe a meteor; the story is kind of fuzzy on a few things) is a suitable menace. And, as allegory, it's not bad, even if hamfisted...and a little muddled. Hedorah is the personification of our destruction of the environment; okay, that sounds good. But, Godzilla is also the personification of a destructive aspect of man, nuclear weapons. So...our pollution is bad...but we can save ourselves by nuking garbage dumps? Hmmm...I don't think that's the message we're supposed to get. Flaws aside, this is a fun attempt to break out of the rut Godzilla films were falling into. For fans of Godzilla or kaiju movies in general, it is worth seeing.
You are now flying Godzilla Airlines...please fasten your seat belts.
