31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN 2018

"CRY OUT IN FEAR OF THE FUTURE / CRY OUT IN FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN / CRY OUT IN FEAR FOR OUR PLANET/ THAT THE HUMAN RACE CALLS ITS OWN..."
- KREATOR / Fatal Energy

ALL DISQUIET ON THE EUROPEAN FRONT



THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE (1921)
Victor Sjöström, Astrid Holm, Hilda Borgström, Tore Svennberg, Tor Weijden, Einar Axelsson, Concordia Selander
Directed by Victor Sjöström
St. Sylvester's Night (New Years Eve). Sweden. A pious Salvation Army sister named Edit, suffering from consumption (tuberculosis), is on her deathbed and calls for David Holm (played by Sjöström). He however, is in a cemetery with 2 drunken pals and he tells them of his deceased friend Georges, whom recounted to him the legend of how a ghost chariot materializes every year to carry off those who will die near the start of the brand new calendar. The last sinner to die on Dec 31st before the clock strikes 12, becomes the new coachman who carries out the task for the full 365 before the reins are handed over to the next unfortunate doomed soul to fulfill the annual tradition. David is found in the graveyard and told of Edit's last wish to see him but he refuses to visit. When his wino friends try to take him to her, a brawl breaks out and he is accidentally killed when hit on the head with a bottle. As Georges died at the end of the same holiday night the year before, the old friend shows up, hooded and scythe-wielding, in the horse-drawn buggy to collect David, whose spirit rises from his body. David was a happy family man with his wife, Anna, and their 2 kids but Georges was a bad influence, and through flashback we are led through David's vice-ridden past deeds and see how his chronic drinking, and being mean & hateful both corruptingly ruined his life and destroyed his family -- with glimpses of him being thrown in jail for rowdiness, his brother sentenced to prison for drunkenly killing a man, and David returning to an empty poverty-stricken apartment to find his wife & kids gone and swearing revenge to find them. In his search, he arrived at the Salvation Army where he met Edit.

She sewed his filthy torn coat and he promised to come back and see her in a year as a follow-up, but he returned the act of kindness with cruelty by ripping out the stitching for pure spite, of which he took pleasure. Tender but naive Edit sees her mission as that of a savior who makes it their quest to please God. Her supreme task is to succeed in helping David overcome his personal demons. In a strange metaphysical way, her failure to prevent his pathetic self-destruction sees her contracting his same illness from contact alone, almost as a punishment (and thus reducing him, further and lower, to a literal walking disease). Making him keep the promise against his will, Georges takes David in the carriage to see Edit. In another flashback, David is shown at a bar and then a Salvation Army meeting with Edit pleading for him to give up booze but he is callous and unaffected. When Anna later tells her of the worry she has about his love of liquor, Edit plays mini-marriage counselor and the couple do alright for a little while but in no time at all, his inebriation drives her to total despair. Begging him for the sake of the children, she locked him in the kitchen and attempted to take off with the kids for safety, but fainted as he chopped through the door with an axe. When he awoke her with a cup of water, he immediately berated her. Georges enters Edit's room with David in tow. She blames herself for his welfare and family troubles, and seeks his forgiveness. Deeply remorseful for all his wrongdoing and kissing her hand, from this sincerity and having remained hopeful and virtuous to the end, she dies peacefully. Georges tells David that others will collect her, and then shows him that Anna, also afflicted from consumption and having lost the will to carry on, plans on poisoning the children & herself.

David begs Georges to stop her but he has no power over the living. Having regained consciousness in the cemetery, does David have a desperate last act of decency or for that matter, any selflessness left? With innocent lives in the balance, can he heroically prevent a terrible act of tragedy from taking place? Can he ultimately save himself from utter damnation? THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE is adapted from Selma Lagerlöf's 1912 novel, 'Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness!' (In 1909, she became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for literature). With the Swedish name translating as 'The Wagoner' for this silent and spooky fantasy-horror movie, it also went under Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness!, The Phantom Chariot, and The Stroke of Midnight. Whatever the titles in trying to capture the genre, at heart is a morality tale of memory and warning, filled with modern issues of domestic abuse, abandonment, depression, misanthropy, alcoholism, addiction, abstinence, and rehabilitation -- all of which help give a sense of timelessness. Alongside his parallel with German directors like F.W. Murnau and Fritz Lang, this specific Sjöström offering was a watershed moment in early Swedish cinema and so immensely influential on fellow director Ingmar Bergman, that Bergman reportedly said after first seeing it at age 15, that he went on to watch it every New Year's Eve, and had viewed the movie well over 100 times. He died in July 2007, at 89. As well, Bergman's character of 'Death' in his 1957 film, THE SEVENTH SEAL, was inspired by Sjöström's meditative presentation, and he further cast Sjöström in his other 1957 film, THE WILD STRAWBERRIES (which also references THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE). Sjöström (aka Seastrom during his MGM years in the USA) died in January 1960, at 80.

The sfx are a stunning masterpiece of painstaking post-production with double exposures, match cuts, and multiple superimposed layering to create the dazzling ghostly transparency. Whether walking though walls or a great underwater sequence in a swirling sea, the beautifully lit haunting imagery of ethereal supernatural visions were a major, innovatively advanced, sophisticated, and superb technical accomplishment. And complicated as they were, however crude the process may be considered by present standards, to this day they nevertheless appear flawless, convincing, and still rival any current CGI. Without too much dispute, Stanley Kubrick's famous terrorizing axe attack from THE SHINING is an echo (if not an outright & overt rip off) from this picture -- which in turn could also have been Sjöström "borrowing" from a similar hatchet scene he may have seen in 1919's BROKEN BLOSSOMS by D.W. Griffith. The flashback narrative fabric of reviewing David's existence through the error of his ways and the damage he's inflicted recalls (in much bleaker manner) A CHRISTMAS CAROL's Ebenezer Scrooge, and IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE's George Bailey (with Georges as both Jacob Marley, and Clarence Oddbody). But David is no mere lovable reprobate and as Death's impending but reluctant new driver, he is told that the weight of each day on earth will feel like 100yrs, and his own painful journey shown through the filter of his somber conscience (feeling like a long funeral procession) is a miserable, wasted existence of selfish obnoxiousness. Glum and guilt-ridden for all the negativity he has wrought as an intoxicated asshole, he faces reckoning before any repentance or reform. And before any atonement, we see all that was anguished and appalling.

Realistically, David certainly deserves to have the extremely unpleasant task of being 'harvesting Grim Reaper' hoisted upon him. The most difficult thing about watching silent movies are having to sit through boredom from tedious storylines, reading from flashcards from start to finish, and the exaggerated silliness of long-outdated, corny melodrama histrionics. Even for the 1920's, films were still in their infancy, rife with rough shortcomings, and there was plenty of drawn-out preaching & lecturing as THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE, too, has it's fair share of Christian overture dwelling on prayer and humility throughout. Redemption is the big theme here, but its sometimes convoluted, and the certainly old-fashioned structure will have many attention spans waning for while an ambitious plot, it's very jumpy and that distraction unfortunately displays some lack of focus. But it's the larger delivery of what is viewed here that definitely more than makes up for the faults (and debatable ending). THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE saw a 1939 French remake, a 1958 Swedish remake, and a 2000 Swedish TV play, THE IMAGE MAKERS (which centers on the meeting of Sjöström and Lagerlöf, their clashing over her wanting to film on location vs. his wanting to use a studio, and the early shooting stages of the movie as they watch scenes). Overall, the 1921 Sjöström version is a splendid gem with even Charlie Chaplin repeatedly giving it his highest praise. And in closing, the movie is a very worthy spectral entry in the non-Hollywood arena of yesteryear -- daunting, often lost fare that is sadly too easily prone to being relegated/reduced to little more than silver screen footnotes. THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE is one celluloid chapter in a bygone era that should not be forgotten.




THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1920)
Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Friedrich Feher, Lil Dagover, Hans Heinrich von Twardowski, Hans Lanser-Ludolff, Rudolf Klein-Rogge
Directed by Robert Wiene
In the small German mountain village of Holstenwall, a man named Francis is narrating our tale. On a garden bench with an elderly stranger, he speaks of his friend named Alan, and points to his nightgowned fiancée named Jane who passes by in a daze. In flashback, he tells of a madman named Dr. Caligari, a selfish hypnotist (and svengali-like evildoer who can mind control minions, like Dracula) and his zombie-ish sleepwalking henchman, Cesare (a fiendish Frankenstein-like Golem of sorts) who is claimed to have been in a snoozing slumber since birth for 23yrs(!) Caligari has gotten a permit from the boorish town clerk to open a curious carnival exhibit showcasing Cesare, which Francis and Alan attend. Cesare is a mindreader and foreteller of the future, and when awakened to answer questions from the audience, he forecasts Alan's death saying the doomed man will die at dawn. The shocked pair of friends leave but recover after they run into Jane, the daughter of the town physician. Both men are in love with her and are affably competing for her affection. When Alan is found dead in the morning, the baffled police investigating the alarming killing begin wondering if they have a serial killer on their hands (as the town clerk was also found stabbed in his bed), and if the deaths are connected to the arrival of the mysterious & suspicious newcomers. With Caligari running his sideshow tent as ringleader at the local fair, this prompts Francis to spy & snoop on him further, but Caligari with Cesare slyly sidesteps the police who are searching for the culprits responsible.

A recently arrested criminal caught in the act of attempting to knife an old woman, is charged with the 2 murders -- which the miscreant adamantly denies. Caligari orders Cesare to kill Jane, and our proto-Goth goon (with a blend of Mike Myers' Dieter character from SNL's Sprockets) glides into her bedroom where she screams and faints from his attack. Ghoulish but unable to harm Jane due to his attraction to her (as another instance of being spellbound), the pitiful Cesare instead abducts her, making his exit by carrying the poor maiden onto a crooked trail where he is chased by a mob that was alerted by her noise. Putting the unconscious Jane down, Cesare suddenly collapses & drops dead. And from this unsuccessful kidnapping, the townsfolk make their way to Caligari's wagon abode where they find him missing, and a dummy in Cesare's casket/coffin. Caligari returns but manages to escape during the stirred up commotion. Francis hits the nearby insane asylum to dig up possible info on Caligari, and is told by an employee to see the director who it turns out is Caligari. This convinces Francis that Caligari is indeed the murderer, and with the director asleep, the would-be sleuth along with some staff check his office. Scrounging through his books, Francis finds a diary which reveals that Caligari is obsessed with a same-named 18th Century mystic who had a companion -- a hypnotized, submissive servant (also named Cesare who is trapped in telepathic trance). This predecessor perpetrated a killing spree in northern Italian towns.

The director's pages are ravings about how he must become a new Caligari of infamy, as if to absorb himself into a very ideal of power -- not unlike a position he's already abusing. Through Francis exposing the duo's foulness leading to Caligari's unveiling, the police arrive with Cesare's dead body. When Caligari returns to his office, and is confronted with the corpse, the unraveled director has a psychotic break and goes crazy trying to strangle a doctor. He is quickly fitted with a straitjacket and confined to a cell as an inmate in his own institution. But SURPRISE(!), it is Francis who is the real madman relating his story (a fabrication) to us as a mental patient in the asylum courtyard. A quiet Cesare, and Jane are also patients (with Jane believing she is a queen, and who rejects Francis). And the real Caligari is shown as the director who has no sinister bone in his body but rather is a benevolent man whom is attacked by Francis in a screaming outburst. This earns Francis his own straitjacket and cell, with Caligari intent on curing him of the demented delusions that have twisted his brain. As for the real killer? (Perhaps Francis, unable to reconcile his guilt thus concocting a falsehood?) His face was never visible, and we are left open to subjective/metaphorical interpretations that contemplate identity, victimization, jealousy, paranoia, truth and deception. Perhaps the most immediate discussion in talking about THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI is the appearance of its unusual painted backdrops...

...An abstract and bizarre landscape in a theatrical visual style filled with tilted chaotic distortion, twisted sharp points, curves & jagged edges, and diagonal, zigzag & slanting lines galore -- all evidenced in narrow passages, uneven windows & stairs, peculiar furniture, and spiked trees & thorny grass. [It's an impelling misshapen look of exaggerated asymmetry and defied gravity, whose out-of-joint weirdness, revolutionary approach, and captivating dark flair plays like a disturbing dream that has surely inspired Tim Burton]. The film has been shown in dirty yellowish brown, green, and blue tints, and along with its use of light & charcoaled shadow, iris lenses, words representing surrounding voices, and set design, its manner of framework keenly juxtaposes competing stark contrasts of insanity vs. stability, and reality vs. nightmare. The intellectual, philosophical, and psychological academic context of the film has even gone far beyond the analytical discussion of a radical discordant artform, to present scholarly theories that through symbolic teutonic obedience to authority, prevailing disorder, and corruption of the world, what we view in its entirety is a subliminal premonition/precursor/predictor of the tyrannical rise of Nazi fascism 13yrs before Hitler came to power. Arguably the world's genuinely first horror movie, we can quite literally trace the whole trope of a twist-ending, beginning with this famous and foreboding German film alone and with it's pioneering techniques, it is highly notable that this movie also introduces the clever craftsmanship of what are now-familiar premises of bait & switch reversals, red herrings, maguffins, and most specifically: unreliable narrators.

An iconic and incredible foundational landmark of huge historical importance, this quintessential film is a magnificent gold standard recommended BIG time, and is an absolute must-see, seminal classic for both film buffs and first-time enthusiasts. Fractured and still fresh with it's longest running length at 78 minutes, even if you have a strong aversion to silent movies (and especially foreign ones), you should see this atleast once in your life and all the way through. Overall, with its avant-garde expressionism, and early template for all lurking lunatics and villainous stalkers to follow, THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI was an experimental and cerebral groundbreaker WAY ahead of it's time that stretches into additional referential subject matter such as modern art, the scarred psyche of post-WWI, the Weimar Republic, repressed memory, Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche, and film noir. And ultimately, the filmmakers couldn't have possibly imagined in their wildest dreams how much their surreal and mesmerizing, creepy creation would clear a trailblazing path to influence later horror for decades & generations afterwards. [It spawned a 1962 20th Century Fox version; a 1989 sex-driven horror comedy sequel; a 1991 rendition (with just music score and no dialogue) that was screened only during the 1992 Sundance Film Festival and never released to cinema, starring Joan Cusack, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Peter Gallagher, and Werner Klemperer; and a 2005 US indie release which is a nearly shot-for-shot remake with sound]. A century on, THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI continues to remain a fantastic, engaging, and enduring potent piece of work that brilliantly stands the test of time.

WILDLIFE'S WRATH 1



ALLIGATOR (1980)
Robert Forster, Robin Riker, Michael V. Gazzo, Henry Silva, Dean Jagger, Jack Carter, Patti Jerome
Directed by Lewis Teague
Chicago, that toddlin' town. (Or are we really in Missouri?) August 1968. Marisa Kendall has just returned with her family from a Florida vacation (complete with an alligator wrestlin' show where a performer was badly injured by his animal opponent and almost became lunch). She's brought back a baby alligator she bought, and named it Ramón. Mean Dad is none too thrilled about this wee sprog of a pet, and flushes it down the toilet where it makes its new residence in the sewers. Ramón survives by eating dead dogs which have been dumped in the sewers (not counting the obvious and endless hors d'oeuvres of disgusting rats scurrying around). The canines were part of secret & illegal lab tests, all injected with a genetic growth formula. The project was being run by a nefarious pharmaceutical corporation, and scrapped because of the side effects of alarming hormone growth and voracious appetite. Having fed on these carcasses, the alligator mutated into a gigantic 36ft. beast, with impenetrable skin. And with the experimental hyper-serum coursing through its body, this is one Ramón who is not sedated♪ 12yrs have passed, and now with sewer workers being gobbled up, and human limbs washing up, Officer David Madison is assigned to both a rash of pet disappearances and the grisly investigation. He has a bad rep for unluckiness with partners thanks to a case he worked in St. Louis that finished in fiasco. With the news running a 'Jack the Ripper-like madman at large' angle, Madison meets Marisa, who has grown up to become a herpetologist (reptile & amphibian expert). Both begin a rocky Burton/Taylor affair, and he gets along with her rambling Mom. The couple also have warm discussions about male baldness.

When Madison ventures in the sewers with an enthusiastic young cop named Jim Kelly (too bad it wasn't the blaxploitation karate hero(!), looking for clues, Ramón puts the hi-yah! chomp on Kelly, dragging him away. Madison's freaked out account falls on deaf ears, and he is further helped in being disbelieved by Slade, a wealthy bigshot industrialist in the Windy City (or are we really in Missouri?) with an agenda: he wants to cover up his dubious involvement with the lab tests. Things ramp up when tabloid reporter, Thomas Kemp, ventures in the sewers looking for undeniable proof of the alligator. Kemp is a smearing nuisance and pain in the ass of Madison, but he gets the shocking photographic evidence needed at the expense of becoming Ramón's latest snack (as well as making the front page with his own demise). The story becomes a public sensation and an all out hunt begins to flush out the massive creature. As the police and SWAT (some armed with rocket launchers) fail in their efforts, and with Madison fired (for getting to close to the truth by uncovering the lab connections), Ramón has decided to expand his geographical horizons. Yes, tired of stalking subterraneously in putrid and dank dwellings, the creature finally comes above ground by bursting through a sidewalk to interrupt a night game of street stickball. After another cop is killed, egotistic big-game hunter Colonel Brock (who hires a trio of ghetto kids as "native guides" for assistance) is brought in to track the beast. He is hilarious when he flirts with a TV newswoman by imitating a male alligator in heat, and again when he later finds an enormous dung heap. A young boy in his backyard birthday party ends up on the menu after a tragic game of swimming pool 'walk the plank', and Brock becomes a meal when he is ambushed from out of a garbage pile in jive-named Booger Alley.

Like arrogant Great White Hunters before him, it was only a matter of time before he met his match that turned him into the prey. Same as before, law enforcement fails to bag the creature after a bungled chase in a reservoir, and an uninvited Ramón (just wanting to have something to do♪) gatecrashes a garden wedding reception held at Slade's mansion. Plowing through the jet set, and skipping the champagne & cake, the alligator stomps and crushes his way towards human hamburger as Slade, the crooked Mayor, the groom (who was a lab scientist conducting the tests) and several other guests all become fatal food. Ramón biting his way into this snooty social register (with his own unique version of these people = gourmet cuisine) on the most special & unforgettable of happy, ceremonial occasions will not quickly be forgotten. Madison and Marisa follow Ramón back into the sewer, where David lures him to a section that has been packed with dynamite charges. Killed by a huge detonation of explosives, we bid farewell Ramón: you don't have to live this life anymore♪ As the couple walk away together after blowing up the beast, a drain in the sewer dribbles out another baby alligator. Using the premise of an old NYC urban legend, the threat of ecological nightmare striking back as nature's karma, and a little mad science; from the belly of a city to the bowels of a monster, ALLIGATOR (riding on the back of the popularity of JAWS, and JAWS 2) is an enjoyable thriller. With it's mixture of action, and eccentric rounded out characters, there is a solid pacing that never plods, decent practical fx (which should be commended for not looking too cumbersome like Bruce the shark, and of which Bryan Cranston worked as a production assistant), and real juvenile gators crawling through some miniature model sets (which will garner laughs for looking ill-advised).

All told, there is a rollicking and pre-CGI glorious good time to be had here. The movie's sewer scenes have a creepy atmospheric touch, and with its fine dose of humor, film & TV pop culture fans will get the witty injokes about Ed Norton and Harry Lime. Together, this complimentary balance of fear and even slight frolic gels well together: When unsavory pet store owner/dog catcher, Luke Gutchel (who sold poor lil' pups to the lab, and callously disposed of their bodies) becomes an early victim in the sewer, a stage is set for more comeuppance. When victims are trapped in the creature's gargantuan gaping mouth, it looks frighteningly real. And when we see the rampage through the demolished wedding, the crème de la crème carnage and bourgeois ruin is wonderfully silly & over the top. Also of note is how this monster deserves props -- he's no slouch and more than just a devouring machine, he actually manages to get himself around Chi-Town (or are we really in Missouri?)... [An awful SyFy remake placing us in Chicago would go overboard to incorporate the Sears/Willis Tower; Wrigley Field; the Bean in Millennium Park; the Biograph Theatre; the Daley Plaza; and of course, the famed River. And I wouldn't rule out the old Joliet Prison either]. Written by screenwriter/director/actor John Sayles (who slips in jabs at media circus frenzy, the class system in the USA, and torturous vivisection), ALLIGATOR brings the chomp and delivers. [Sayles had just done PIRANHA (1978) and THE HOWLING (1981) would be next]. While there are plenty of oversized, maneating gator/croc pictures to sink your teeth into, this beloved and fun B-movie is one of the very best in the bunch.




GRIZZLY (1976)
Christopher George, Richard Jaeckel, Andrew Prine, Joe Dorsey, Joan McCall, Tom Arcuragi, Charles Kissinger
Directed by William Girdler
Macho and denim-clad helicopter pilot, Don Stober, is flying 2 Senators high above a National Park, telling them the forested area has been unencroached much since the days of the Native Americans, and is making a case for conservation. Simultaneously, Michael Kelly, the head ranger is briefing his team who in turn rally a group of backpackers for a hike. Meanwhile, his perky photographer girlfriend, Allison, is at the local restaurant lodge owned by her Dad. When 2 female hikers (claiming they've walked 10 miles(!), are savagely killed by an unseen animal except for a swiping paw, they are reported missing and a search for them is conducted. Their mangled bodies (one of which is partially buried) are found and afterwards, the coroner confirms a bear was responsible. This was no camping accident. Charley Kittridge, the park supervisor rakes Michael over the coals saying since bears are supposed to be moved to high country so as not to interfere with the tourist season, this looks like gross negligence by the ranger, warranting an investigation. Both men argue about shutting down the park, the safety of moving hikers off the park's mountain while keeping campers in the lowlands, and of Arthur Scott -- the eccentric outdoors expert who has tagged all the bears. It seems they might have a rogue on their hands so Michael contacts Arthur to have him find out and take care of the problem. A ranger-couple searching for the bear in the woods, split up with the young lady stripping to bra & panties (because she wanted to soak her feet) to emulate a shampoo commercial beneath a waterfall.

The timing for the semi-skinny dip couldn't be worse and it's the last shower she'll ever take as the bear strikes -- complete with killer-POV/gazing distance that mirrors a peep show of every sex maniac ever who murders a woman in her skivvies. Allison tries to cheer up Michael over his frustration with the whole ensuing scrape, and the next day he is taken up in the helicopter by Don to look for the bear. They meet Arthur (out tracking in an deer-pelt cape) who tells them their animal is indeed an outsider: a 15ft near-prehistoric grizzly weighing over 2000lbs. Don & Michael are casually unconvinced and scoff. At a nearby campsite, a woman enters her tent for a little cosmetic fresh-up, and is killed by the barging-in bear as people flee in panic over the sound of her dying screams. Michael consoles the crying boyfriend, and is again blasted by Charley whom also gives Arthur a dose of his bad temper. Charley is one annoying authoritarian: as a stubborn park supervisor who is told that a grizzly is on the loose, he too is dismissive, and still staunchly refuses to close down the park. Michael is pissed off to see hunters in the woods the next day -- one of whom narrowly escapes a confrontation with the bear by throwing his rifle down(!) and tumbling down a river bank into the water to be swept away by the current. Charley states offering a bounty is the best solution, and as to why as park supervisor he is an incessant ballbreaker full of resistance? He doesn't like Michael for being a maverick. Allison wants to join in the bear hunt but Michael gives her a firm 'hell no'! (and from that point forward she goes AWOL for the rest of the movie).

That night, a bunch of hunters try to capture a bear cub to use as bait, but their effort is all for naught as killer bear drops in and makes dinner out of the Teddy Ruxpin. Michael is again pissed, this time at the hunters for their botched insensitivity. Arthur chimes in to say the grizzly is male since they are known to eat their young. Michael, Don, Arthur, and the hunters form a plan to flush out the bear, with Don telling a story about an ancient tribe of grizzlies that once ate an Indian tribe (USS Indianapolis speech, anyone?) Arthur states he'd like to take the bear alive using tranquilizers which causes an argument with a disagreeing Don (with both men descending into each insulting the other's mother), but Michael gives Arthur the OK on condition that he not act alone. At sunrise, the plan is kicked into gear with the male ranger companion of waterfall girl, who is in an observation watchtower overlooking the forest. The bear pays him a visit and in lumberjack mode, knocks down the tower. Killed in the fall, the ranger's body is found and back in Michael's office, predictable Charley again rips Michael a new one by insisting he needs extra help, while Arthur leaves both men to continue their shouting match. An angry Michael yells about closing the park, and condemns the invited media parked outside; accusing Charley of headline-seeking and political opportunism to land himself on Capitol Hill. That night at the ranger station, Arthur goes after the bear solo. In the morning, a young boy is playing with his rabbit in a fenced yard while his Mom is tending to a clothesline inside.

The rabbit escapes but is brought back by the boy who unknowingly leaves the gate door open. [Sorry little fella, this ain't Yogi Bear here to steal picnic baskets. Or Winnie the Pooh or Paddington in search of honey. Or Smokey the Bear to warn you about fire. Or Baloo from THE JUNGLE BOOK ready to sing 'The Bare Necessities'. Or TV's Gentle Ben visiting from the Everglades]... The kid screams as he is scooped up in a bear hug causing Mom to run outside, armed with a broom to fend off the grunting & growling beast. The bear rips the boy's left leg off below the knee and Mom is killed. With the mutilated kid in the hospital and Mom in the morgue, a shocked Charley is finally removed, and Michael tells the media that greed -- and they -- are to blame for incompetence & turmoil in addition to the bear's reign of terror. The park is finally closed, along with all hunters banned. The next day, Michael and Don grab weapons and use a gutted deer carcass hanging from a tree as a trap before setting off in another helicopter search. The bear is chased through the woods (yellow barrels, anyone?) but it disappears, and returns to claim its Bambi steak. Arthur looks for the elusive bear on horseback and finds the deer remains which he drags behind him as a lure. The bear ambushes him, decapitates the horse with one smack(!), and half-buries him. Unconscious Arthur attempts to Lazarus himself from his shallow mini-grave but the bear comes back and finishes him for good. Michael and Don find his body, and when they take chase in the air, they spot the animal in a patch of open field and land in a clearing.

The bear shoves the helicopter causing it to spin which ejects Don. Don shoots the bear with a shotgun but to no avail and is killed. Michael shoots it with a rifle but also to no avail. Not to fret however, he grabs a bazooka (the US Forest Service had access to that?) and blows the big bad bruin to a Rambo-style, fiery kingdom come. We conclude with Michael sadly walking past its burning remains, back towards Don's body. [The novel by Will Collins featured a different conclusion with Don surviving his attack, and Michael using a flamethrower]. Filmed in Georgia, GRIZZLY for the longest time has been called a shameless JAWS-on-land ripoff, blatantly trying to capitalize on that phenomenon's success, one year after its blockbuster release. [Michael was Chief Brody; Allison was Ellen Brody; Arthur was Hooper; Don and his helicopter were Quint and his boat; Charley was Mayor Vaughn; the 2 female hikers were a doubleshot of Chrissie Watkins; the little boy was Alex Kintner; the local yokel hunters were the throngs of fishermen attracted to the $10,000 reward; and Harvey Flaxman (the movie's writer & producer) has a cameo as a reporter, just as author Peter Benchley did]. Inspite of the truth to the exploitation accusation, and widely bashed by critics, this B-movie was still a surprising success that resulted in a box office of $39 million worldwide, from its low budget of $750,000. It was also the most profitable indie film of 1976, and remained so -- all-time -- until 1978 when a little picture called HALLOWEEN took its crown away.

The movie's overkill and "smile, you sonofabitch!" ending is gonzo terrible-riffic, and yet fitting for the crescendo of all the bear's carnivorous maulings. With nice scenic aerial photography, several spots of bad acting, and as one of the first bear copycats in the 'when animals attack' category -- as quickie offerings also saw CLAWS (1977), and PROPHECY (1979) -- what looks like ursine baloney for its campiness, mechanical furry arms, stuntmen in bear suits, and acrylic paint-looking blood, is nevertheless still quite earnest and fondly remembered. And then there's the bear itself which kept changing in size thus never looking as giant as described. The poster also wrongly has it at 18ft, and its fierce cover art looks more of a conjuring of the bear that mega-trounced Leonardo DiCaprio in THE REVENANT. So overall, is the movie underappreciated and even underestimated, while being cheapish, thinly written, and unoriginal? Yes. Is it unwatchable? Definitely not. GRIZZLY is roaring and formulaic fun with its cheesy charm, some corny puns to think about (great pause, grisly demise, bearing thoughts), and a monster who has a real sinister knack for silently popping in from outta nowhere. [There was an attempt to film a sequel in 1983 titled GRIZZLY 2: THE PREDATOR about another bear attacking an outdoor concert. Shot in Hungary, and starring George Clooney, Charlie Sheen, Laura Dern, Louise Fletcher, and John Rhys-Davies, the film was shelved due to fx problems, but a bootleg workprint (showing the movie has not aged well) was released in 2007].

HALLUCINOGENIC CHEMICAL STIMULATION AND OUT-OF-BODY ACID SCREAMS



JOHN DIES AT THE END (2012)
Chase Williamson, Rob Mayes, Paul Giamatti, Glynn Turman, Clancy Brown, Fabianne Therese, Johnny Weston, Jimmy Wong
Directed by Don Coscarelli
David Wong is a college dropout & slacker who recounts killing a zombie skinhead a year earlier with an axe, and philosophically pontificates if the weapon is the same after having undergone some changes. In a grimy Chinese restaurant, he talks to an investigative journalist, Arnie Blondestone, and tells him of the weird & supernatural happenings that have occurred in his city. David and his fellow dropout friend, John Cheese, are somewhat monster hunters and were at a party featuring John's band (Three Arm Sally), along with fellow buddies Justin, Fred, and Amy (who has an amputated hand, and whose dog, Bark Lee, bit the local drug dealer -- a wannabe Jamaican named Robert Marley). Back in his apartment, a high/freaking out John called David over, who found a syringe with a black-colored designer street drug named "soy sauce" that was given by Marley. The substance grants the user powerful and otherworldy knowledge as well as heightened psychic awareness which further opens a portal to multidimensional time travel. John (with a past version of himself having already contacted David) was the only one in his group that could see a bizarre creature, and when David was bitten by the active syringe in his pocket, now with a mind of its own, he was thrust into the various dimensions. Back in the present, a man named Roger North showed up in the backseat of David's car (as John was being driven to the hospital) to throw a slug down his shirt, and give him advice on the mounting strangeness taking place.

After he went off on a rambling ripride pondering life, North disappeared from the vehicle when David scared him off all gangsta/thug-style with his gun, and then stomped the slug into paste. David and John were then taken into custody and questioned by detective Lawrence Appleton about the party, and were shocked to learn that from an after-party thrown by Marley, the 2 of them were sole survivors whereas the remaining attendees had either disappeared or been gruesomely killed. Having heard enough, a stunned Arnie tries to leave but is shown a monster by David. During the police interrogation, John seemingly died but telepathically spoke to David for help to not only escape from the cops, but was also aided by a ghost officer who lead him to Marley's house. David (now having to use soy sauce to find out what happened to John) was knocked unconscious from Marley's drug, and as he awoke to find the detective (having gone nuts) getting ready to burn down Marley's trailer, he was told that John's body had disappeared and that the soy sauce is a gateway that allows evil to flow (as hostile beings can make their way through from the other side). The detective shot David but he survived by time-traveling to mess with the bullet. John controlled Amy's runaway dog by having the animal talk and drive David's car(!) to rescue him (because if Toonces can do it, why not Bark Lee?)

When a possessed Justin kidnapped David, John, Fred, Amy, and the dog, and took the group to an abandoned mall intending to use a portal ghost door to enter another dimension, John tricked Justin causing him to be killed by the detective, but the officer's eyeballs then spontaneously exploded and released an infestation of tiny white parasitic bugs whom then possessed Fred. And poor Fred was killed by a reluctant John. Amy opened the dimension door (with her missing phantom hand) which granted David and John access where they met up with Roger North, and a hotshot TV self-help guru/psychic/exorcist named Dr. Albert Marconi. The foursome banded together to take down an ancient bio-supercomputer named Korrok that operated as a genocidal deity which communicated through cartoons, and used soy sauce to conquer dimensions. As Marconi gave David and John a nuclear bomb laced with LSD to stop Korrok, the duo landed on an alternate Earth where naked minions wearing masks (looking like they are about to attend an orgy in EYES WIDE SHUT) and their leader named The Large Man, hailed them as chosen ones (tools) to set them free. This brutal society maims all of Korrok's enemies and when the duo were brought before Korrok, the tyrannical Supreme Being planned on devouring them to consume their wisdom & abilities, and thus conquer their world. When John blundered in trying to detonate the bomb, it was the dog that saved the day to defeat Korrok -- with Marconi telling David and John afterwards that this was meant to be all along.

Amy became David's girlfriend, and he and John followed in Marconi's mystical footsteps. Back in the present, a skeptical Arnie decides to publish the crazy story while worrying it'll torpedo his writing career, and is in for a shock when David makes a startling revelation about him. Later as David and John play basketball, they suddenly find themselves in a post-apocalyptic dimension. But what will the misfit duo do when they are approached by representatives of a galactic federation army who need them to end a deadly plague, save humanity and restore the world? Based on the same-named comic horror/sci-fi novel by Jason Pargin (or pen name aka David Wong) that originally started as a web series in 2001, the movie is eccentric and funny as it is baffling with its protagonists pulled into space-continuums that fiddle with perception; explore interplanetary alternate realities; are given paranormal means to talk to the dead; uncover an evil extraterrestrial plot that incorporates bodysnatching bugs; and ultimately try to prevent an alien invasion. Supposedly, the book explains the events in a more coherent manner and if so, it's too bad the adaption couldn't have done quite the same. The need for having to condense is understandable with timecrunching (and sticking closely to the source material is commendable) but for all of the random outlandishness that goes on, there was both a lot of confusion, inexplicability and plot holes that come from compromise and missing exposition.

So while the style from page-to-film frequently doesn't translate well in an overall broad sense, JOHN DIES AT THE END however (inspite of the wild narrative and slapdash of insanity all over the place), is a surreal & trippy oddity of lunacy that is best imagined as a blending of William S. Burroughs, David Lynch, and H.P. Lovecraft all through the filter of BILL & TED'S EXCELLENT/BOGUS antics, and Scot Pilgrim. Now whether that description amounts to either a cult hit, or sloppy mess depends on your threshold for peculiarity. Amusing, offbeat, and filled with manic monologues, the movie in total generally throws caution to the wind and certainly doesn't suffer from dullness, but the real test is in how much interest one can maintain when almost the entire second half of the movie feels lethargic. Loaded with screwy manifestations -- whether a demonic turkey-headed meat beast, using a bratwurst as a cellphone, or the very cool animated gorefest of giant spiders eviscerating people -- it's hard not to like this low budget picture (with sfx that are laughingly, and perhaps deliberately, rubbish) that hits the ground running in several directions; no matter how convoluted, incohesive and mental they are at most times. For those same reasons, JOHN DIES AT THE END will not be everyone's cup of tea, and even with some nice cameos by Angus Scrimm and Malcolm McDowell, will have plenty of viewers turned off and vowing to stick with weed.




BLUE SUNSHINE (1977)
Zalman King, Deborah Winters, Robert Walden, Charles Siebert, Mark Goddard, Ray Young, Ann Cooper, Alice Ghostley
Directed by Jeff Lieberman
What do a doctor speaking to his cancer patient (A), a housewife complaining about her hubby to a next door neighbor (B), and a woman babysitting for her friend (C) all have in common? The trio all lead us to Jerry Zipkin (who looks like a young & scruffier cross between René Auberjonois and Sean Penn, and keeps his hands in his pockets a lot). Jerry is at a Los Angeles party in a cabin where he sees a guest (Brion James) suddenly burst into a Rodan impersonation, flapping & squawking his arms. Then an old friend, Frannie (played by Billy Crystal's brother, Richard) descends from stairs crooning ala Ol' Blue Eyes. After his song, Frannie gets his wig yanked off for putting the moves on another man's woman, causing him to flee into the woods. With everyone out looking for him, he returns to the cabin, kills 3 women, and stuffs their bodies into a huge fireplace. Jerry confronts Frannie and fights him, and as both men spill outside onto a road, Frannie is fatally pushed into the path of an oncoming truck. With Jerry responsible for this death, and shot in the right arm by the vehicle's passenger, he is now wrongly accused of the party murders and goes on the run, first seeking medical help from an old friend he's tracked down, Dr. David Blume (from A). Jerry's feisty girlfriend, Alicia, also attempts to help him clear his name while pouring back cocktails. Stressed & frustrated, he discovers that 10yrs earlier in 1967, Frannie was amongst a group of Stanford University kids who had been given a bad batch of LSD ('blue sunshine') which caused the users to get shredding headaches, lose their hair, and the most alarming negative side effect: has turned them homicidal exactly a full decade after first taking the drug -- with the condition irreversible.

The drug dealer back then was Ed Flemming, who is now a Neo-Con politician running for Congress. When Jerry reads of a John O' Malley (from B), an ex-detective having slaughtered his family, he breaks into the man's house to sift through the crime scene where he suffers a psychedelic panic attack with a frightening premonition. Jerry and Alicia meet Flemming at his campaign headquarters, along with his bodyguard named Wayne Mulligan who was a former football player. Hoping Flemming will give him answers about the drug, Jerry comes up empty knowing Flemming is hiding something. Still a fugitive eluding the police (primarily Lt. Clay), Jerry returns to Dr. Blume and finds out that Doc knew Flemming from their school campus flower power days, having sold drugs for him as classmates were "turning on, tuning in, and dropping out." He asks for tranquilizers but leaves without any. Meanwhile, Mulligan hits on Alicia who is taken aback when he yells at a blaring truck that zooms by. Hesitant, she nonetheless agrees to meet him at a shopping mall discotheque. When Jerry visits Wendy Flemming (the would-be Congressman's wife from C) for more info about blue sunshine, she boots him from her apartment but unsettled, he comes back just as she goes bonkers, chasing 2 children in her care (who are shouting for Dr. Pepper!) with a butcher knife. Defending himself, he tosses her over a balcony. After Lt. Clay pays Flemming a visit enquiring about his wife's death and Jerry's involvement, Jerry is in a park frequented by junkies. At first spooked by a bald man (who is either gay cruising, another cue ball on the path to flipping out, or just an average weirdo), he sees Dr. Blume who hands over some tranquilizers.

As Alicia contacts Lt. Clay in preparation to apprehend Mulligan (to test him for blue sunshine), Jerry buys a tranq gun. When Alicia meets Mulligan at the disco, he is agitated by noise and excuses himself to the bathroom. Outside, Jerry sets up the tranq gun and Lt. Clay arrives to meet Alicia inside. Told that Mulligan is in the bathroom, Lt. Clay goes to fetch him but is promptly attacked and knocked out after Mulligan pulls off a wig. Mulligan returns looking like an angry Mr. Clean and goes spectacularly apeshit and trashes the place in berserk Hulk mode. As Flemming is giving a rally in the same mall (complete with lip-synching marionettes of Barbara Streisand and Frank Sinatra!), Jerry keeps an eye on him (as his campaign already has cover-up implications which will be worse should the crooked candidate wind up in Washington), but Flemming's speech is broken up by screaming patrons running past in terror from the disco. Flemming tries to take down Jerry but is shaken off as Jerry heads to the disco. He hits the dancefloor and grapples with Mulligan but quick-thinking Alicia cranks up the genre's terrible tunes knowing the loud music will drive Mulligan away. As Jerry chases Mulligan through the mall, will he be able to take down the linebacker with the tranq gun? Will he pick up some Xmas cards & wrapping paper as he passes through the gift shop? Did he hear Flemming's political ads playing on the TVs announce how "it's time to make America good again?"

Are there more individuals out there still to pop up as menacing, slightly zombie-ish, wacko chrome dome killers? BLUE SUNSHINE is an obscure & off kilter, socio-political fringe thriller that is delirious but entertaining with it's interesting premise that recalls early David Cronenberg without the graphic grossness. Far from innocent & harmless substance abuse, and the odd 'bad trip' from a couple of tabs, the idea of involving former graduates having indulged in past "experimentation" who are now respectable "establishment" who suffer mad shark-eye stares, psychotic breaks and lash out in raging rampage, makes for a great plot and seems to even carry a vague, elitist anti-hippie sentiment. The movie does have pacing problems which along the lines of suspenseful made-for-TV fare, has some bland characters, overacting making for unintentionally funny, and the tension sometimes deflating into flatness, but if nothing else, it has originality going for it (regardless of twitchy Jerry flirting between silently subdued, erratic, immature, and ridiculously temperamental to the hilt) and offers a lot of guess work as to who might be a potential kook. Also of note is how the movie is a real product of the 1970's. The backdrop of that decade saw a penchant for cynicism and mistrust with unnerving films of the post-Vietnam & Watergate era delving into paranoia, conspiracies, and infection/invasion themes (all with resident car chases).

Here, the uinque twist comes from the subliminalism of revolutionary counterculture values having turned into the horror of mass conformist, corporate/capitalist collaboration. [It's also probably no accident/coincidence that the narcotic nightmare of 'blue sunshine' ominously echoes the CIA'S notorious 'Project MKUltra' mind control program from 1953-73 that conducted secret experiments with psychotropic drugs on human test subjects in colleges & universities, prisons, and hospitals -- with the institutions each serving as fronts. Often unwilling citizens (Americans and Canadians) went haywire from mindbending trances & flashbacks, and the purpose of manipulating brain function was tantamount to torture. The most extreme accusations contend the CIA using MKUltra to create assassins, triggered from brainwashing. 20yrs of controversial revelations and damning documents led to Senate Hearings in August 1977]. BLUE SUNSHINE's discordant and eerie musical score adds to a creep factor, and with a firm cult status and crossover appeal, the movie was often seen projected behind many bands playing on stage at CBGB's during its early punk years, and UK group The Glove (The Cure's Robert Smith and Siouxsie and the Banshees' Steven Severin) were such huge fans of the film that they named their album after it. Overall, this movie is a neglected off the wall rarity that in addition to defying singular categorization, no matter how it's labeled (a more psychological cousin of THE 39 STEPS without the dementia from electric Kool-Aid?), still fits perfectly beside your copy of REEFER MADNESS.

RIDE THE LIGHTNING



SHOCKER (1989)
Mitch Pileggi, Peter Berg, Michael Murphy, Richard Brooks, Camille Cooper, Ted Raimi, Vincent Guasteferro
Directed by Wes Craven
Horace Pinker is a terrifying serial killer with a limp, and doubles as a TV repairman. He's slaughtered over 30 people in an L.A. suburb named Maryville, and the police finally zero in on him as their prime suspect. Lead detective, Lt. Don Parker, is all set to at last nab the sonofabitch, but Pinker eludes him and savagely kills Parker's family, except for his foster son, high school football star Jonathan, who by sheer luck was not at home during the massacre, but dreamt it. Parker remains on the case, and as Jonathan mourns the devastating loss of his adoptive family, he starts having more disturbing dreams that point to Pinker's repair shop. He tells his Dad, who in turn with a number of cops arrive at Pinker's place which is full of cluttered junk, electronics, and numerous TV's displaying scenes of catastrophe & destruction. After a shootout resulting in 4 dead officers, the killer's narrow escape, and Parker in deep shit with his bosses, Pinker murders Jonathan's girlfriend, Allison, in revenge. She quite literally dies in a bloodbath. Jonathan (who at this state should be catatonic) has another dream of Pinker on the prowl, but this time he thwarts the madman's kidnapping and barely escapes being killed himself during a fight on a rooftop. With the cops in tow, Pinker is finally apprehended, and his arrest is followed by un unseen but no doubt sensationalist trial resulting in quick conviction, and sentence of death by electric chair. Jonathan demands from his Dad to attend as a witness, and Parker agrees. On the execution date, Pinker is in his jail cell making a deal with the Devil, by performing a black magic ritual on his knees infront of a TV, hooked up to jumper cables(!) He is zapped/anointed from a groovy-voiced, demonic force and sparks fly just before he is stopped by guards.

The accompanying Priest is stunned and disgusted by the Satanic paraphernalia. Having passed out, Pinker bites the lip of one guard trying to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, chomps on the fingers of the other, and is then beaten while he laughs maniacally. Led to the chamber and utterly remorseless, he locks eyes on Jonathan and tells him that he is his real father. As a boy, Jonathan shot biological Papa in the left knee to protect his mother whom Pinker was fatally attacking; thus accounting for their strange, psychic connection. Parker angrily jumps up and tells Pinker to STFU. The execution goes awry, and Pinker disappears in darkness where he kills some prison staff. Jonathan and Parker find Pinker's body which bursts into flames and vanishes. Having gotten a real supercharge instead of just dying-by-frying, a now newly juiced-up Pinker has turned into an immortal being of pure, evil energy; able to body-swap and travel through cable wires & powerlines into people's televisions to slaughter more families. Back home (how the hell does a kid at 16 or 17 back then even have their own place?), dreaming Jonathan is visited by Allison's ghost, and she hands over a heart pendant which gives him the strength to drive Pinker away; setting the course for our hero to play a deadly game of cat & mouse, trying to stop Pinker from resuming his body count. Our killer on the loose possesses the female prison doctor; a cop; most memorably: a little girl in a playground who swears like a trucker as she bouncingly hops & drags to operate a bulldozer, and is tackled by Jonathan infront of the girl's freaked out mother; the mother; a buff construction worker (Alice Cooper guitarist Kane Roberts) who tosses the pendant into a lake with his pickaxe; Jonathan's football coach; and Parker who nearly suffers a lethal heart attack during a chase atop a high voltage broadcast tower.

Alison protects Jonathan with an inner light (the power of undying love?) that repels Pinker, but after a brief wrong arrest for copycat murders to which he fled, Jonathan is cleared by his father. As Pinker escaped via a beam from a TV satellite dish, Jonathan is helped by his teammates (on standby at a power station ready to pull a little technical difficulty ala short circuit sabotage), and a pair of TV videocameramen (in a replica of the dead little sister's bedroom, set to go live-on-air) to bring Pinker back; trapped in the real world, where he'll be subject to the physical limitations of manipulated signal reception. [For Jonathan, this seems like the biggest/cleverest/riskiest experiment he'll ever partake in, for I'm guessing the how-to instructions needed for this digital trickery were probably not exactly plastered in the Panasonic and Sony equipment manuals of the day. So bravo & good luck you stealthy stuntman, as you venture into the idiot box airwaves]. While dreaming in his vibrating reclining chair, he makes out with Allison and gets back the pendant. He is also visited by the spirits of Pinker's victims who tell him to wake up, stop smooching, and prepare for his showdown. Pinker attacks him in his house by passing through light sockets in the wall but is repulsed by the pendant. Jonathan goes after him and the term "don't touch that dial" is completely thrown out the window as both men engage in a bizarre, channel surfing chase as they run amok through a crazy TV show landscape of documentary war footage; classic sitcoms; Alice Cooper concert antics on stage; historical disaster; South Korean street rioting; boxing; Entertainment Tonight with John Tesh (atleast he wasn't singing); Dr. Frankenstein and his famous monster; nuclear explosions; a redneck family's living room (complete with obligatory fat wife pigging out on the couch); and a televangelist preacher game show(!)

Will Jonathan get remote control, freeze-framing retribution? Will he still bang his dead girlfriend? Will Pinker be reduced to the output of a kiddie sparkler? What will happen to the neighborhood in a blackout? With their boob tubes broken, what will people do without their nightly fix from the TV Guide? While similarities to A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET can't be helped (a wisecracking villain who goes after his victims with an emphasis on sleep, anyone? How about parental guilt, or alternate realities?), this was a better than average slasher flick for Craven, inspite of the negativity heaped upon it. Originally more graphic with its violence, the movie was submitted to the MPAA 13 times before finally getting its X-rating changed to R. As Pinker was intended to be a new horror icon, the subgenre was fizzling out near the end of its craze, and the idea of a freshly-created franchise never saw fruition. However derided it is in Craven's stable for being cheesy and over the top in ridiculousness, its premise certainly brings laughs -- even if unintentional. Berg (more of a direcor & producer these days) looks a bit too old to be a high schooler, but ironically (and hilariously) he seemed to get his ass kicked more harmfully by running into a goal post and falling over a water table, than by Pinker tossing him around like a rag doll and beating the crap out of him. Yes, Berg's stiff & monotone acting is quite bad, and his character is a slight dork, but this is Pileggi's movie through n' through.

Best known as Walter Skinner on "The X-Files" for its entire run, Pileggi shines playing a merciless, brutish psychopath, and is clearly having a blast hamming it up as a homicidal heavy with bursts of insane giggling. [Pileggi and Craven teamed up again 26yrs later for the Director's last film (which he co-produced), THE GIRL IN THE PHOTOGRAPHS, before his death at 76 on August 30, 2015]. Heather Langenkamp, Dr. Timothy Leary, and Craven himself (along with his son & daughter) drop in for quicky cameos, and the soundtrack features Megadeth covering Alice Cooper; Iggy Pop; Dangerous Toys; and hair metal one-off The Dudes of Wrath comprising members of Alice Cooper, Kiss, Van Halen, Mötley Crüe, and Whitesnake. In closing, SHOCKER is enjoyably silly, with some interesting & imaginative ideas for the sfx of the time. While there might have been an attempt at some sort of subliminal commentary about the exploitive oversaturation of 24hr news trauma, or excessive media consumption, or the budding germ of technological overload thanks to the proliferation of a mass communication medium, the movie is still a very funny romp. [The sound of an unseen British nature show narrator being punched out as he describes the red-crested nuthatch, instantly followed by Pinker climbing a tree near the bird's nest, and peering out over a sleeping Jonathan, still cracks me up]. In all fairness, the movie's amusing and wild absurdity single-handedly makes this an unapologetic, unashamedly, nostalgic, guilty pleasure fave of mine. Uneven and filled with imperfection, I loved it in high school and still fondly dig it the same all these years on. It definitely hits the spot for those goofy moods.




THE HORROR SHOW aka HOUSE III: THE HORROR SHOW (1989)
Lance Henriksen, Brion James, Rita Taggart, Dedee Pfeiffer, Aron Eisenberg, Thom Bray, Alvy Moore
Directed by James Isaac
Dedicated detective, Lucas McCarthy, has finally nabbed sadistic serial killer, "Meat Cleaver" Max Jenke, who has murdered a staggering 110+ people. The fateful night of capture involved splitting up with his partner as they tracked Max to a diner. Finding 2 cops dead in the kitchen, his partner legged it to a nearby power plant, and McCarthy followed to find his partner dying with both arms severed. McCarthy apprehended Max (but not before the death of a little girl grabbed hostage) and was stopped by his Lt. from putting a bullet in the sicko's head. Put on leave of duty, seeing a shrink, and still plagued by nightmares, McCarthy witnesses the disturbing execution in the electric chair (a great sequence reminiscent of SCANNERS with bulging & popping veins, and rippling & bursting skin), in hopes of freeing himself from tormented dreams. Old Sparky however, is just the beginning. As Max's body burns to a crisp before exhaling his last breath, he has dabbled in diabolical dark arts to elevate him to another level of reality, and tells the detective it ain't over by a longshot. McCarthy is soon shocked to find Max is far from dead as a doornail, and fears he will soon come after him, and carry out a new series of gruesome killings. Max goes a step further by scaring the bejesus out of McCarthy's family in their new home. Wife Donna discovers their cat has gone missing, and the furnace keeps blasting itself on. That's because it now houses Max's malevolent soul. Hallucinations start to drive McCarthy a little loopy, and he wonders if his house is haunted, and if he's going full-on batshit.

Meanwhile, with Mom & Dad going out for a celebration meal, daughter Bonnie sets up a rendezvous with her rebel boyfriend, Vinnie, in the basement but he is killed by Max impersonating her voice. The next day, son Scott (who likes music, and scams companies into sending him freebies) helps his big sister look for the missing Vinnie as an angry McCarthy yells at Max in the basement boiler to 'come out, come out, from wherever you are' and keep his grubby hands off his family. Hearing the noise, his kids think he's shouting at Vinnie. Later, (in the movie's absolute wackiest moment) when he sees Max morphed in a roast turkey on the dinner table (a nod to ERASERHEAD?), he stabs it insanely which in some extreme circles would suggest that he would rather have preferred chicken. This is quickly followed up by him turning the TV off with his gun because he sees Max taunting him on every program. McCarthy sees a police shrink, and a college professor of questionable reputation, who knows a thing or two about the occult, tells him that the only way to defeat demented Max is: Are you ready for this? -- To destroy his electro-ghost evil spirit with an overdose of power since this will cause the electricity surging in him (that has made him superhumanly immune) to be brought into the real world (as a re-resurrection from his already undead state?) allowing for a re-energized re-electrocution to destroy his electromagnetic essence and make him a Regular Joe again (even though he wasn't quite an Average Joe to begin with)... Or some crackpot science-planation to that effect.

Dad has tried to "fix" the furnace but his kids don't steer clear of the dreadful downstairs, and when a lured Bonnie returns to the basement, she finds Vinnie's dead body, and McCarthy is arrested thanks to Max's frame-up. Professor Paranormal Investigator is also killed after snooping about in Jenke's old apartment. With Dad in police interrogation and out of the way, Max runs roughshod over the McCarthy family by killing Scott (guess what with), entering Bonnie's body, and taking Donna hostage. Intent on clearing his name, McCarthy escapes and makes it back home to fight Max once and for all, and try to save his family. He enters the furnace(!) which apparently operates like Mr. Peabody & Sherman's WABAC time machine. In this Narnia-ish nightmare (just in case we needed to be reminded of all the trauma McCarthy has swirled through), we make stops back at the diner, and power plant where Jenke chops at a transformer panel causing the voltage to blast both men (and Donna) back into the McCarthy living room. Having materialized back into mortal form, Max is shot dead. Yep, after all that slugging it out and exchanging of quips (that reminded me of Spiderman vs. Electro), the preposterous/convoluted-claptrap/psychobabble theory actually worked. Shortly after, the McCarthy's are moving out of their house with Scott alive (um, what?), and the cat having come back. Donna snaps a happy family pic and we fade to black from the snapshot.

Hmm, so let's see here: another profane, dangerous, cruel, unrepentant & unstoppable killer with a twisted laugh, who has made a pact with the Devil; returns from the grave and threatens heinous revenge; harnesses electricity; displays a penchant for body-jumping transference/possession; alters reality; pins murder on the protagonist hero; borrows from A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET; was introduced with hopes of its killer becoming a re-occurring slasher badass; and also saw considerable cutting from the MPAA. Sounds like a real familiar "SHOCKER" doesn't it? The confusing thing about the lame-named THE HORROR SHOW is that it was released as HORROR HOUSE: HOUSE III in Europe, as a 7-part Italian rebranding of movies (La Casa) which are actually unrelated whatsoever to the original cannon (except for production crews), yet continue in the series as sequels -- even though they are unofficial. The direct-to-video HOUSE IV is actually the proper continuation from HOUSE II, meaning IV should be the real III. But since it follows after the European numbering which is wonky by US/Canadian order, there's further murkiness which -- wait for it -- gets more vexing(!): The installments also wrongly tie into THE EVIL DEAD titles as well (excluding ARMY OF DARKNESS). Did you get all that? Another arbitrary wedge-in sharing nothing in common to the franchise. Mamma Mia. As both electric chair films were released in the same year, (and arguably equal in plot holes and flaws) many people wrongly believe THE HORROR SHOW was the low-rent rip off, when infact it opened in April -- 6 months before SHOCKER. Unlike Pileggi's extravaganza of sheer craziness, Brion James (certainly no stranger to playing menacing goons) in his grimmer flick was going for more violent bloody gore, hacked off limbs, and intensity in addition to humor.

And due respect, he does a solid job as a sleazeball wreaking havoc. Sadly, James died in August 1999 at 54 from a heart attack. Of the nearly 100 movies in his filmography, he said playing Max Jenke was his all-time favourite role. Alongside him is Henriksen who always brings A-game seriousness, and is fun to watch as he unhinges into paranoia. Unfortunately though, he's wasted here as the story stretches into periods of dullness, too many flashbacks (including the clichéd intro of a flashback in a dream, which is taking place in another dream), and James just not used enough. Outside of the 2 stars, the acting is nothing to write home about, and the only real bright spot are the sfx (of which Greg Nicotero was a part). Oh yeah, Kane Hodder did stuntwork. THE HORROR SHOW is dumb but not outright terrible. [Except for the huh? ending. If Scott is alive, is it because the undoing of Jenke has reversed all of the killer's actions? With Scott suddenly just back with no explanation, or device to indicate the whole ordeal was imagined, I feel a better implication would have been to leave us wondering if this is a final dream orbiting around what is still a reign of terror being conducted]. Enough digression. Overall, the movie is still a much more erratic & unraveled mess than SHOCKER. If you got a good jolt out of Horace Pinker, this movie is worth a watch for a particular comparative contrast in presentation; to see if Max Jenke (even with his impressive body count) in your opinion is either big league or farm team. In case I haven't made my allegiance known, I'll take the orange jumpsuit with checkerboard chest strip.

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVECRAFT

TODAY IS

PATRIARCH KNOWS BEST



THE STEPFATHER (1987)
Terry O'Quinn, Shelley Hack, Jill Schoelen, Stephen Shellen, Charles Lanyer, Jeff Schultz, Blu Mankuma
Directed by Joseph Ruben
Henry Morrison is in his bathroom, cleaning himself up from blood. After a haircut, fresh shave, and new contact lenses, he grabs a suitcase and calmly leaves his quiet house. He's just massacred his entire family of 4 in Bellevue,WA, and has tied up loose ends. On a ferry, he tips the suitcase into the ocean. One year later and now living in a Seattle suburb (Oakridge), he's assumed the identity of mild-mannered Jerry Blake, a real estate agent. His new wife is Susan Maine, a recent widow. 16yr old rebellious stepdaughter, Stephanie, is not a fan of Mom's new hubby, and her relationship with Jerry (even after he gave her a puppy) is frosty. Due to grieving over her real Dad's death and from fighting in school, she is seeing kindly psychiatrist, Dr. Bondurant, who tells her to give the new parent a chance. Stephanie is soon expelled and expresses her wish to go to boarding school but Mom and Step-Pop aren't enthused about what they feel would be her essentially running away. Back in Bellevue, Jim Ogilvie convinces a reporter to run an article about the still-unsolved murders of the Morrison family. Jim's sister, Vicky, was Jerry's wife. During a backyard barbecue, Jerry reads the newspaper story and Stephanie sees him visibly shaken by it. Fetching ice cream in their basement, she sees him ranting crazily to himself about 'keeping family together' but he tells her that he's just blowing off steam from the stress of work.

When she finds the article, and confides in a friend by suspecting Jerry is the killer, she writes the newspaper (under the guise of a class assignment) asking for a photo of Henry Morrison. Jim meets up with the reporter again, angry that Henry's picture was not with the story. The reporter tells him to forget the tragedy and move on but Jim can't & will not let it go. After Jerry intercepts Stephanie's mail of the newspaper sending her Henry's photo, he confiscates it and has another solo freakout in the basement. Jim gets information from a detective about Henry Morrison, learning the name is false and that he may have committed the same crime even earlier. With no evidence for the police to go after him, Jimmy gets a gun to take matters in his own hand. While Jerry gets Stephanie re-admitted back to her school, she tells her shrink she is still worried and afraid of him. As Jerry had refused to meet with Dr. Bondurant, the Doc uses a ruse of pretending to be a potential home buyer under the name Mr. Martin. Stephanie excitedly finds the mail sent from the newspaper but is deflated by the fake photo which Jerry has substituted to steer her away from the truth. When Bondurant meets Jerry at a sale house, he asks too many questions tingling Jerry's Spidey-sense, and is beaten to death by a 2x4 wood plank. That night, his body is placed in his car which is staged in a fiery accident over a cliff, and Jerry tells Stephanie (already tricked into feeling guilty for her suspicions) of his demise in the morning, consoling her as she cries.

The 2 bond over a birdhouse they raise on their front lawn. From a clue in a magazine, Jim gets a lead on Jerry's new location, while the newly happy Step-Pop espouses -- in almost sacred sanctity -- how special family is over Thanksgiving dinner. But the good tidings end faster than crap through a goose when Jerry goes ballistic from catching Stephanie kissing a boy on their front porch one night, absurdly accusing the young man of rape. Daughter and Mom argue, and Stephanie takes off after being slapped in the face. When Susan tells Jerry he is at fault for his hysterical overreaction, he quits his job the next morning just as Jim has driven into town (in his beat-up junkbox) looking to find him. At an appointment for a new shrink, Stephanie sneaks into Dr. Bondurant's office and finds a written record of the sale house meeting. Jim conducts a door-to-door search of recently married widows and divorcées, crossing names off a list. Jerry has changed his appearance and has created a new identity, now getting ready to settle in Rosedale,WA, as Bill Hodgkins who works for an insurance company. The Maine family is on the verge of being no more but Jerry keeps up pretenses between his commutes -- by which time he has found a new house and has set his eyes on his next door neighbor, Dorothy. It's just her and her kids, and it looks like they'll be an item in no time. Jim shows up at the Oakridge home and meets Susan, telling her he will return to surprise Jerry. She calls the real estate agency and is stunned when told Jerry quit several days ago.

Jim gets confirmation of Jerry & his job description from a photo he has and races back to the Oakridge home. [If Jim had the photo all along, why wouldn't he have shown it to Susan upon his introduction?] Susan questions Jerry regarding his whereabouts but he lies and in the movie's most iconic moment, acts confused before smashing her in the face with a phone, and then punching her down the basement stairs. With a kitchen knife, he intends to kill Stephanie who is showering upstairs but Jim shows up, and the determined ex-brother-in-law is at last face-to-face with Jerry. Will he get justice with his revolver? Will we get to see Scary Jerry snap and fly off into one of his patented rages? Will Step-Pop atleast have the decency to wait til Stephanie gets dressed before attacking her? What about that knife? Will it take a lady to save the day? Outside of Freddy, Jason, Michael, Pinhead & the Cenobites, Chucky, Leatherface, the ghosts after Carol Anne Freeling, the vampires after Charley Brewster & Peter Vincent, and the demons after Ash Williams, THE STEPFATHER was an uncommon but refreshing and above average entry in 80's thriller/horror for presenting the most terrible of monsters -- a person in real life in our everyday, plausible midst. The movie is loosely based on family annihilator, John List, and O'Quinn is excellent in a breakthrough role as the clean-cut, conservative, hard-working, and outwardly nice guy with best intentions. Jerry's sole idyllic dream is of wanting nothing other than a picture-perfect, modern family.

This seems normal enough, but the nightmare is that he gives horrendous new meaning to "home sweet home" because he keeps having to "erase" the inevitable mistakes and disappointments brought on by a spouse and kids that can never live up to his antiquated, high standards (which strongly hint at a need for sexual dominance). And in his warped mind, the burdens that result in breakdown beyond repair are never his fault so in a rinse-repeat cycle, his only solution to "fix" damage is to keep obliterating innocent victims and restart the slow process of ingratiating, for if at first you don't succeed -- kill, and kill again. Jerry maintains a veneer of stability to keep his fantasy of old-fashioned values in place, but when cracks begin eroding & crumbling his surface, he predictably switches gears and flips on a dime. And after outbursts of explosive violence, he's right back to whistling 'Camptown Races'. A cult classic, O'Quinn owns this movie, and to his credit he never goes over the top. Yes, he's Jekyll & Hyde-psycho but fascinating for a current individual who appears stuck in imaginary, 1950's Norman Rockwell nostalgia -- which we can only speculate may be due to a possible childhood trauma. The co-stars are solid as well. Best known as a brief Charlie's Angel, Shelley Hack as caring Susan plays a believable cluelessness (until it's too late), and Jill Schoelen as Stephanie pulls off all the emotions of moody teen angst, distrust & defiance. 30yrs on, THE STEPFATHER still remains a potent and fantastic nailbiter in the arena of abusive, familial upheaval.




FRAILTY (2001)
Bill Paxton, Matthew McConaughey, Powers Boothe, Matt O'Leary, Jeremy Sumpter, Derk Cheetwood, Missy Crider
Directed by Bill Paxton
By way of a stolen ambulance, a regretful Fenton Meiks is in the Dallas office of FBI Agent Wesley Doyle and tells him that his younger brother, Adam Meiks, is the elusive "God's Hand" serial killer. Adam has since taken his own life with Fenton keeping a promise of burying his body in a public park rose garden in Thurman,TX. The site also contains the bodies of murder victims and as Fenton and skeptical Doyle drive to Thurman to verify the startling claim, we flashback to the summer of 1979 with Fenton narrating the childhood of the brothers. Their Dad is a humble single father, and car mechanic who is devout and devoted to his boys. One night he bursts into their bedroom, wakens them from sleep, and tells them that he has been visited by an angel (through a glistening trophy) sent from God, who has a special mission for him: to kill demons who are hiding in ordinary people. No one outside of the family can be told of this "job" or else he will die, thus bounding the brothers to secrecy. Obsessed & fanatic Dad is waiting for a sent hit-list of people to be "removed" which we later see is just him writing names out of a phone book. (Or is he infact gathering up their addresses?) The individuals are first abducted at night (in a newly bought van), brought to the Meiks home and bound in a shed, determined to be a demon by mere touch, killed with an axe named 'Otis', and finally buried in the rose garden behind their house. Driving around searching for unholy prey, a woman is kidnapped ("captured") from her house, and next a man from a shopping mall parking lot. At every stage, Dad has his boys along as accomplices, and views himself as carrying out commands that cannot by disobeyed.

Young Adam is a true believer who soon states that he can also see the same sins of the demons that Dad sees in his visions. Adam even draws up his own crayon-scrawled list. As Fenton struggles to comprehend, he is instantly wary of this "work," and is afraid of the criminal participation. He sees Adam as too easily manipulated and desperately tries to rein his little brother in (suggesting they run away) but to no avail, which incurs distrust for his opinion of thinking Dad is psychotic, and even worse: wrong for what he is doing. Fenton's growing ill-at-ease and defiance is witnessed by his father, who states that the angel has deemed him an untrustworthy threat, so Dad forces him to dig a large square hole in the backyard which after a week is built into a storm cellar with the shed rolled over it. Fenton is told to pray so that he may see the light, but he steadfastly refuses. When Dad abducts another victim and orders Fenton to kill him, Fenton takes off straight to the Sheriff, telling him everything. The Sheriff brings him back home, not believing the story but checks the cellar nonetheless. Dad kills him and at the rose garden, in tormented sincerity, again insists he is not murdering people but destroying demons. He angrily blames Fenton for compromising the mission, and thus being responsible for the death of an innocent. In their arguing, he is called crazy and raises a shovel close to striking Fenton but is stopped by a pleading Adam. When they return to the shed, Fenton is forcefully locked in the cellar in hope that a divine revelation will fill him with faith. Denied food, Adam brings him water but does not free him when begged.

After weeks of confinement, near starvation, and having passed out, Dad finally takes Fenton out of the cellar, who now pretends to have seen God which fools Dad. After father and son join for another abduction (which almost backfires), the victim is brought back to the cellar and Adam now with the axe is told to kill him. He hesitates and instead plunges the axe into Dad's chest. Adam rushes to his father's side, and Dad whispers in his ear before he dies as Fenton stands looking over him. The look on Adam's face is one of betrayal. Fenton removes duct tape from the victim's mouth, who screams just as Adam runs in to kill him. Adult Fenton tells Agent Doyle that after the brothers buried Dad and the victim in the rose garden, they reported Dad missing and as he was never found, they ended up in separate orphanages. Having arrived at the rose garden, a handcuffed Fenton is removed from the back seat of the car and tells Doyle that he made Adam promise to bury him at the same place if he was ever to be "destroyed." Adult Fenton now reveals he is infact Adam and kept his promise, now leading Doyle (who has his gun drawn) to the body of Fenton who grew up to be the serial killer -- traumatized by his father, and conducting his own killing spree (with bodies buried in his home basement) that was not truly part of the real mission; perhaps more so of a misguided & warped form of atonement/apology to his father, out of guilt he never got over. Adult Adam tells Doyle that when the angel told his father that young Fenton was a demon, since Dad couldn't take his own son, the duty of continuing on the mission was passed down to him.

Adam "destroyed" Fenton, and when he now touches Doyle we see the Agent killed his own mother and got away with it. Adam's visions, like that of his father's, show the true personalities of people who have perpetrated hideous crimes and gone unpunished. Doyle's name was on the list of demons to be destroyed, and as Adam frees himself of the cuffs, he throws Doyle into an open grave. The Agent tells Adam he will be recognized for having been seen at the FBI office, but Adam says it will be Fenton who will be sought out and blamed for Doyle's disappearance. Adam says God will protect him and then kills Doyle with the axe. Will Adam get away with this twist? Will the deceased Fenton be exposed? Is Adam cut out for law enforcement? Rather neglected but sophisticated, FRAILTY is an impressive & entertaining directorial debut for the late Bill Paxton, who also appears as Dad, with police procedural nods to THE USUAL SUSPECTS. The performance of both child actors who absolutely carry the movie are exceptional, especially in evoking sadness & pity. Upon first glance, Fenton and Adam's happy and quiet upbringing appears proper with nothing out of the ordinary. Mom died giving birth to Adam and Dad's strictness is initially not through any harsh discipline but as a father raising his boys to be honest, respectful, responsible, and decent. As young boys who are very close and both look out for each other, Fenton immediately calls bullshit on "the mission" and tells his younger brother that far from being a "chosen one," Dad is simply making everything up as he goes along.

But Adam is very quick to buy into what Dad puts forth as gospel because the most important thing for him is approval. His young mind equates the actions to that of superheroes, and his most worrying fear is of exclusion. He doesn't understand that Dad proclaiming "necessary protection" is nothing more than concealment of horrific activity, inspite of being right there with an eyeful of the terror taking place. Adam expresses disappointment in his big brother for not sharing the same commitment. If he was older, and wiser when Dad first introduced "God's plan" for them, and still held his positive conviction, he might even consider Fenton a traitor for not following blindly as he does -- which clearly puts Adam's collusion on full display, and ironically coincides with an episode of the claymation 'Davey and Goliath' he watches, in which a parallel lesson/cautionary tale in the program about brainwashing does not register. At that moment, Adam's obedience is not on par with any independent thought sinking in. And ultimately, Dad (who never relishes being an executioner) leaves us with questions to ponder: Was he really visited by a celestial avenging messenger? And is Otis the axe -- found in a barn bathed in sunbeams looking like golden rays shining down from heaven itself, as if meant to help point (or bludgeon) the eventual way to destiny... Are these really signs from God? Is this father really slaying demons masquerading as humans? Or is it all just a lie of bizarre and deranged behaviour brought on by delusions & insanity?

[Whenever anyone embarks on a quest, as a soldier of the Lord, to cleanse & purify mankind by attempting to vanquish all evil in the world, aren't they always a few cards short of a full deck? If God really does demand this type of thing, isn't he the sick one?]... Without question and no mistaking, Dad dearly loves his boys but the real abuse he inflicts from his paternal authority (which is not aggressive manhandling or physical beating) comes from his zealotry; a warped biblical sense of morality, loyalty and justification that unforgivably shatters their innocence by turning them from onlookers which then tragically ropes them into being contributors to the madness. [For another movie that similarly depicts the extremities of faith, check out 1991's THE RAPTURE]. One thing for certain is that FRAILTY is divisive. Its curveball-turn aside, plenty of detractors have grumped about ambiguity, and the louder objectors have called it both Christian-right propaganda, and New Testament vigilantism. [I'll say this: judgemental hyperbole, and negative criticisms notwithstanding, I don't believe the movie's intent (or Paxton's) was to subliminally or overtly spew any religious/ideological/political agenda whatsoever. Period. Why? Because too often such scathing accusations are just bitterly biased, exaggerated projections]. In total, FRAILTY is about cleverly planted clues that challenge you to pay attention to the transpiring darkness, and in turn make you examine key instances for their larger importance, and reconsider preconceptions once we are brought to conclusion. In this regard, the movie achieves this splendidly.