wow this is rank. Every single character exists only to die in a usually cursory and unconvincing way, as they meander through dialogue that exists only to bridge the bodycount. Even the motivation of this new “Jason” is utterly ridiculous. A couple of the deaths had a little frisson, but that about it. The very beginning, with Corey Feldman, was maybe the only decent part.
Rather fine 50s scifi that is very Quatermassy (it was intended to be a sequel to the original Quatermass movie, but Hammer couldn’t get the rights), and rather good. It has a creature reminiscent of The Blob, and the effects in this film are better than The Blob, actually. Dean Jagger does a really good job as the American scientist in Scotland – good character actor. Very enjoyable scifi from Hammer before they concentrated so much on horror.
Mark discussing Quatermass on the Talk Without Rhythm Podcast
This was a lot of fun, and definitely at the top end of 80s B-movie horror. Witty, self-knowing script (in a good way), some good effects (and bad effects), and some really decent setups/payoffs. It thrilled me.
pretty weak entry, with very little tension or decent dialogue, but bolstered by Marty McFly’s dad, and a pretty good final act where a kid takes the war to Jason – AND THAT KID IS COREY FELDMAN WITH A SHAVED HEAD!
Rather fine, and I think a little forgotten, Roger Corman movie with Vincent Price. The film looks really crisp and lush, and Corman knew how to stretch the dollars to keep the film looking classy, but kept it cheap by running the smoke machines for every single exterior shot. Price isn’t too hammy here, and gives a fine performance. What is funny is that Corman is trying to sell this as being an Edgar Allen Poe-based movie when it’s clearly an H.P.Lovecraft story. There’s mentions of the elder gods, Yog-Sothoth, and some very fine imagery going on here, with a story of a wizard burned for mating young girls with beasts from the other dimensions, cursing the whole village to horrible mutations, and then resurrected into his own ancestor. Enjoyable shennanegins.
This is a weird and subtle British horror movie that is really about a child’s dreams. The acting is generally quite poor from the children (who are essentially the leads), but it static quality actually works fine in this movie, whose qualities come out really in the visuals and sound design, especially (but not entirely restricted to) in the dream sequences. More subtle and Lynchian than, say, Freddy Krueger in its exploration of dreams. Recommended.
Ignoring the shockingly bad DVD transfer, this is one of the most fun godzillas for me, with both beasties smashing up trains and cities, and watching Kong’s arms change length throughout. I’m sure there was a bit where Kong swings Godzilla round and round by the tail, but I only saw a snatch of it in this version. Also Kong’s face looks terrible in this, as do the blacked-up Japanese island natives. FUN.
The Wicker Man (1973)
In the Cinemas in 1973 but made a few years earlier, The Wicker Man is an exceptional and very classy horror movie, dealing with a seemingly gentle though unusual society, seen through the eyes of a stout Christian.
A policeman is sent to a remote Scottish island called Summer Isle to investigate the disappearance of a young girl. He’s a dedicated old-school Christian, and is first disconcerted by the strangeness of the community, then shaken by its open sexuality and possibly passive-aggressive stance to his questions, and then finally disgusted by its adherence to Pagan rituals. Finally his investigations lead him to the truth behind the girl’s disappearance, and the more startling secret behind that…
This film is wonderful. Edward Woodward (probably known to many of you as the star of ‘The Equalizer’) is excellent casting for the dour and grim hero of this piece, as is Christopher Lee as ‘Lord Summerisle’, leader of this community. This film is also whimsical (in the folky music) and erotic (with Britt Ekland playing the pub landlord’s daughter Willow, who tries to entice the policeman by singing a slightly bawldy song while dancing). Woodward convinces you he is deeply tempted, but also a man of conviction that can hold out to such temptation.
This is a slow-burn movie, but does convey a sense of off-kilter from the very beginning, as the policeman arrives. We are aware he is an outsider given his uniform and his obvious fish-out-of-water demeanour, and we empathise with his dislocation, I think. The growing dread of the policeman as he nears the truth of the disappearance is obvious and palpable. The film builds confidently as it goes, and the different elements (music, sex, ritual, mysticism) are conveyed brilliantly through the dialogue and direction. This wouldn’t have worked with a less talented director and screenwriter, but here it is just wonderful. The sense of creeping, dawning dread has you on the edge of your seat at times, just waiting to see the next discovery in the investigation.
The film is also remarkable as it is one of the most cliche-free movies you’ll see. It doesn’t rely on the usual horror movie conventions to frame and create its tension…it’s more like a detective movie with a touch of the eerie and erotic much of the time, but it is definitely tense and ultimately horrific.
I’ve been very careful not to give away too much here, as the whole film should be a pleasure taken first-hand, and if you’ve not seen it and don’t know about the story from start to end, I envy you and urge you to see it.
Rating: ODD, 10/10
Suitable for adults only.
Bubba Ho-Tep
Elvis is alive! Or at least he is in this film. The premise of the film is this: Elvis swapped places with an Elvis impersonator when he got bored with the fame and restrictive lifestyle, and while the impersonator died, Elvis lived on to old age, and eventually wound up in a nursing home. In with him is an old black guy who claims to be JFK. The pair of them are feeling their age, and how everything is going to hell, until, somehow, an ancient mummy ends up creeping the hallways, sucking the life out of the residents so that it can live…
Ok, this screams pulp horror garbage, but you think that, you’d be wrong. This is a class film. Elvis is played by Bruce Campbell, of Ash/Evil Dead fame, as a down-beat, running-on-fumes old guy that suddenly finds meaning in battling the ancient mummy. Ossie Davis – a great black actor seen in countless 60s and 70s TV shows – plays JFK. They bring a dignified air to their parts, and in the lead up to the battle and while they try to battle the mummy, they bring a solomn gravitas to the proceedings. Here, buried in the pulp story, is a study in the effect of ageing on the spirit, and how the elderly are treated in modern society, done to a touching and meaningful depth that ‘serious’ films rarely reach.
This makes is sound pompous – but it isn’t. It’s fun, interesting, and engaging. All this is wrapped up in a fun and interesting 92 minutes, and I believe you miss this, you’re missing something very good.
Also, there’s been talk of a sequel where a younger karate-kicking Elvis takes on Dracula or similar in ‘Bubba Nosferatu’. This gets less and less likely the older Bruce Campbell gets, but we can only hope, huh?
OVERALL: 6/10
REWATCHABILITY: Once every year or two Okay for adults and teens above 13 or so.
28 Days Later
The whole premise of this film can be summed up in two words: Running Zombies. That’s not to denigrate this cool B-movie with A-movie ambitions, but that’s what it is. And it’s a great premise, even if similar films like the remade Dawn of the Dead have watered it down some by repetition.
This movie is set in England, where a group of animal rights’ activists unwittingly unleash a ‘Rage’ virus that decimates the whole country, leaving anyone who gets it as ‘The Infected’. The Infected are very angry, bloodthirsty ‘zombies’, by any other name.
The hero of this movie, played nicely by Cillian Murphy, has been in an accident, and wakes up 28 days later, finding the place deserted. And when I say place, I don’t mean some little-out-of-the-way hospital, I mean London. He wanders empty London streets in daylight, passing overturned buses, trying to make sense of it.
Finally he encounters other people and these running, raging zombies, and starts to understand what has happened. The survivors show him – graphically – how you have to be ruthless against anyone who might be infected without mercy if you yourself are to survive. More survivors are encountered, and finally they find themselves going northwards, following a faint radio broadcast.
They encounter, after losses, an army unit holed up against the Infected. But things aren’t quite as you’d expect…
I won’t say any more, but this is a film of two halves. The first half is absolutely terrific, and if you’d only seen that, you’d be not far wrong thinking it was one of the best horror movies ever. First, you get our hero wandering an empty London. This is completely startling (especially to someone like me, from London), as is the first contact with the ‘Infected’. These are scary monsters. The old-school shambling zombies are creepy and tend to build tension (you only die if you get complacent or careless with those guys), but these running zombies are terrifying, with no easy way to stop them, knowing one bit of contact with them might turn you the same…
Finally, the survivors decide to move on, following a broadcast radio message, and travel through London to get to the northbound motorway, and hit the quiet country and roads, and there’s a sense of both peace and dread. Finally they hit a roadblock, and meet an army troupe.
This marks the end of the first, great half of the movie. There are lots of distinct and clear homages/echoes of other apocalyptic and zombie movies. Day of the Triffids, The original Romero Zombie films (especially Dawn of the Dead in the first half), The Omega Man, The Last Warrior, The Quiet Earth, as well as the Richard Matheson’s book ‘I am Legend’. It’s startling, scary and engrossing, and shows some of the pain and fear, as well of the humanity and sacrifice of humanity, of the survivors in a satisfying and engrossing way.
In the second half, when the soldiers are encountered, the film, which to me had tremendous potential to go anyway it chose at this point, seemed to close itself down. The soldiers were mostly stupid and unsympathetic (though the only good new thing about the second half is the watchable Chrisopher Eccleston as the commanding officer), and the whole plot was similar, but significantly inferior to, Romero’s ‘Day of the Dead’; bickering soldiers and civilians trying to understand what to do, and not knowing what’s left of the world and whether they will be rescued.
While it continues at a steady pace, and resolves reasonably well, the film is unsatisfying for the disparity between the fantastic first half and the formulaic second half. Overall though, it’s a solid horror movie that’ll scare and entertain. And really deserves to be seen because of the brilliant and near-hypnotic-in-places first half.
And great music!
This movie is not for the faint-hearted though.
OVERALL: 6.5
REWATCHABILITY: Once or twice a year. Suitable for older teens up.
Red State
The latest film from Kevin Smith, and a big change of gear from his usual, jokey offerings, this is a film that changes gear about every 20 minutes or so – starting as a teen comedy, then switching to what appears to be torture-horror, then switching again to some kind of siege movie, then again to something else by the end (I won’t spoil it).
It stars Michael Parks doing a fantastic job as a fire-and-brimstone preacher so radical that neo-nazis distance themselves from him. If you can’t place him, he did the great semi-monologue at the beginning of From Dusk Till Dawn as a sheriff. The first half of the movie is terrific, with Parks taking centre stage, but unfortunately it goes off the rails somewhat as events escalate. It’s still fine (there’s even an action sequence that very well executed – which I am surprised Smith could pull off).
Also starring is the always-solid John Goodman as a weary, troubled G-Man brought in to handle the situation, but ordered to handle it in a way he doesn’t want to go.
It’s flawed – for one, we have no central character spanning the movie that we can sympathise with – Goodman doesn’t show up until about half-way-through – and the resolution is a little kooky – but somewhat amusing.
If it had kept the pace of the first half, and avoided the pure-exploitation route it seemed to be heading towards at the half-way point, this could have been a really great movie – maybe even a classic -but as it stands, it’s good and solid, and worth a watch.
OVERALL: 6.5/10
REWATCHABILITY: Every 5 years maybe
SUITABILITY: Strictly adults only
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
This film marked the final film for several of the universal monster franchises, such as the Frankenstein, Wolf Man and Dracula series, and is touted by some critics (but by no means all) as some sort of low-point.
Junk! This film works a treat on horrific and comedy levels – the monsters are treated with some respect, and not turned into clowns or parodies of themselves (unlike, say, Freddy Kreuger). To me, it marks a going out with a bang, and I consider this probably the best Abbot + Costello film by far. The title itself is a joke – Frankenstein is not a character in this film, much less someone the guys meet!
It’s consistently funny, old-fashioned scary and good for young (probably 6-7 upwards) and old alike, and cracks along at a fair pace.
It’s nicely filmed, nicely plotted, gives the boys time to do their funny stuff, and there’s some crackerjack lines. Example:
“You don’t understand. I sometimes turn into a wolf!”
“You and 20 million other guys!”
Even those that don’t like Abbott and Costello, there’s plenty here to like.
Alice, Sweet Alice aka Communion
An interesting little thriller that plays like an Italian Giallo, but is set and made in America. Got famous for the brief presence of Brooke Shields at a young age (and she never acted better than in this), but I find many of the actors interesting – particularly the girl under suspicion for murdering her sister and others – played by Paula Sheppard very effectively.
The movie borrows from a few sources among Giallo, and is also strongly reminiscent of Don’t Look Now, but it also seems to be an inspiration for later movies. The music and the use of the music, for example, seems a direct precursor to the music and its usage in Halloween, coming 2 years after this.
The director shows flair, with a good build up of tension both in plotting and his use of shots and music, but also in the use of some very strange characters (like the grossly overweight, effeminate landlord who seems morbidly interested in the young girls who live in his apartments, and seems to eat the catfood he feeds to his kittens). He also uses in-plot music to add to the weirdness (watch out for ‘three little fishies in an itty-bitty pool’).
Overall, recommended and worth seeing.
Fright Night 2
Okay Fright Night was recently made with David Tennant channelling Russell Brand as a vampire hunter, but this is a review of the sequel to the rather charming original.
This sequel suffers from a number of problems. The main antagonist is a woman, a sister to the original’s suave Chris Sarandon vampire, but she really can’t act and doesn’t have the charisma to pull this off. Secondly, we’ve lost Charlie Brewster’s original girlfriend (who was played by the woman who became Marcy in Married With Children), who was cute, likeable and believable. The new girlfriend is again not a great actress (but gets better as the film goes along), and not that likeable. Coupled with an internal logic that just doesn’t work (one vampire gets staked and just falls dead, while others immediately melt or somesuch), and not great dialogue, poor motivation and not a very good story, it’s not a patch on the original.
However, it has some merits. The practical special effects are fun, and one of the Queen Vampire’s underlings is quite good. He looks like a young James Woods with enormous and long hair. There’s also the odd shot that’s pretty memorable, such as a striking-looking black vampire skating towards the camera.
Maybe worth seeing the once for a fan of 80s horror.
In episode 004, Mark and Sam talk about the cheap and cheerful space-horror-fest Jason X, pick the movies they’d most like to see remade, and discuss surviving the zombie apocalypse
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