1980’s Horror Triple Bill

Posted on October 31, 2024October 31, 2024 by fenrisfil

That’s right, It’s the final night of my October Review Challenge. That means it’s Halloween and *that* means it’s triple bill time. As you can probably guess, I watch the movies I review in October the day before I post (Sometimes earlier). So what I do on Halloween is sit back and enjoy three old classics without the pressure of having to review them. But this year, I’m sharing the fun somewhat by offering you a triple bill of reviews as well. That takes this years review challenge up to 35 movies reviewed. A new record (For me anyway). Anyway, tonight I’ve got a mixed bag of 80’s horror for you. Ouija boards, rats and very small demons. Let’s get to it!

Of Unknown Origin (1983)

Rats. They are creepy, territorial and hard to get rid of. Some are harmless pets, but even those creep the hell out of a lot of people. Naturally rats have always found their way into the horror genre. Tonight’s movie is the rat horror “Of Unknown Origin” from 1983. This is based on the 1979 novel “The Visitor” by Chauncey G. Parker III. The movie is directed by George P. Cosmatos and stars Peter Weller (Of Robocop fame). Cosmatos would go on to direct such smash hits as “Rambo” and “Tombstone”. His horror CV isn’t quite as impressive but “Leviathan” and “Cobra” do have their fans (Including myself for the latter). Brian Taggert provides the screenplay, René Verzier the cinematography and Kenneth Wannberg composed the soundtrack.

The movie focuses on Bart Hughes (Weller), an investment banker. Bart has just moved into a recently renovated house in New York City. His wife and daughter are due to go on Holiday, with Bart staying at home to finish work on a major project he thinks will earn him a promotion. Not long after, a flood in the flat reveals the presence of a rat somewhere in the house and Bart sets about trying to kill it. This turns out to be easier said than done, with the vicious beast not falling for his tricks and turning his life into a living hell.

Captain Ahab

At one point in the story Bart throws the book he is reading at the ceiling out of anger at the noises he is hearing from the invading rat. We get a clear shot of what he is reading and it is of course Moby Dick. This is basically all you need to know about the movies subtext. This is one man’s obsession to prove he can eliminate his nemesis. The rat doesn’t quite turn out to be his undoing though I’m sure he probably didn’t earn his promotion at work after all that.

The rat itself doesn’t look particularly good, but the movie compensates by being clever with what it shows and when.The result is we actually get some pretty disturbing visuals with glimpses of the rats teeth or eyes or a tail disappearing behind objects. It’s certainly creepy. Most often though you don’t see anything, you just hear noises. The weight of convincing the audience to buy into this movie is entirely on Peter Weller’s head. It is his performance that is the driving force behind the movie and he doesn’t let us down.

You Dirty Rat

Your millage may vary with this horror. When the focus is something like rats, obviously how you feel about those animals is going to impact if you find the film scary or even just end up sympathizing with the rat. However, I think everyone can appreciate the fear of an unseen monster running around their home and appreciate Weller’s performance. The downside is that there just isn’t anything more to the plot. Once you get the Moby Dick reference it’s basically just man vs beast to the end. Man wins, but at a cost. Because of that I can’t really give this more than a strong 5.5/10.

Ghoulies II (1987)

For the second entry in our triple bill I’m watching the sequel to 1984’s Ghoulies. This one promises to actually focus on the Ghoulies themselves instead of saving them for the final act as in the first movie. This is of course from Charles Band’s Empire Pictures (The precursor to Full Moon Features) and is directed by Charles’ father Albert. The screenplan is from Dennis Paoli and the movie stars Damon Martin, Royal Dano and Phil Fondacaro.

The setting for this sequel is a carnival fun house called “Satan’s Den”, which has found itself home to an infestation of Ghoulies. That is small mischievous psychotic demons. The funhouse is in danger of being shut down by the carnivals accountant/investor. The sudden arrival of the Ghoulies initially turns out a boon for business, but as their antics become more fatal it is down to Larry (Martin), Nigel (Fondacaro) and Nicole (Kerry Remsen) to deal with them.

Ghoulies Go To The Fair

I feel like there has been a definite budget increase between this and the previous movie. Not that it looks expensive, but we do see a lot more of the Ghoulies and they are a lot more mobile than they were in the first movie. That’s good because the creatures effects are pretty cool and their murderous antics are entertaining. One of the Ghoulies actually does get to get someone in the end… Ahem. The death scenes, including those of the Ghoulies are pretty amusing. That’s basically all they are going for here and that’s fine, this is a movie that knows what it is.

The acting quality is about what you expect for a Charles Band horror in the 1980’s. A just about passable lead and weaker performances the further down the cast you get. Nothing that really takes you out of the movie though and that is the important thing. The characters aren’t particularly compelling, but have a bit of charm to them. I love how the Fun House actually has a fully sharpened bladed pendulum as one of the attractions. Not to mention how quickly bits of it explode. Yeah, this carnival probably should have been shut down. I guess it’s part of the fun how little of this movie makes any kind of sense.

They’ll Still Get You In The End

As sequels go this is giving the audience what they want. The main complaint from the first film was the lack of Ghoulies, so this definitely addressed that. However, that film at least had a plot. This is basically just Ghoulies being Ghoulies for an hour and a half. I don’t know why it wasn’t a more direct sequel to be honest. The intro is never explained and serves no purpose. The Ghoulies were already on the loose, so they could have just turned up at the Carnival. Anyway, this is a dumb fun film. Nothing more. Effectively it’s just a B-Movie version of Gremlins (Even more so even than the first one). For the fun factor and creature effects this narrowly hits a 5.5/10. You already know if you want to watch it.

Witchboard (1986)

For the last movie of the 2024 review challenge I’m checking out Ouija board horror Witchboard from 1986. Written and directed by Kevin Tenney in his feature movie debut. Tenney would go on to direct a run of similar low budget horror movies to varying degrees of success. The movie stars Tawny Kitaen, Todd Allen and “Days of Our Lives'” Stephen Nichols.

The movie tells the story of a Linda Brewster (Kitaen) who becomes entranced into using her friend’s Ouija board alone after it was accidentally left behind at her party, resulting in her becoming terrorized by a malevolent spirit. Linda’s boyfriend Jim (Allen) and her ex Brandon (Nichols), whose board it was brings in a psychic medium (Kathleen Wilhoite) to exorcise the spirit. Things take a turn for the sinister when the psychic is murdered on her way home. Before Jim and Brandon can save Linda they have to find out just who the sinister spirit is that is terrorizing her.

Something Stupid This Way Comes

The cast and characters are not especially strong None of them are particularly likable and most of the supporting cast are given over the top personalities that just make them annoying, especially when mixed with below average acting. The worst offender is the medium Zarabeth, whose role is thankfully short. But the police detective is a close second. The leads are only marginally better. Despite that at least there are some interesting character dynamics.. The two male leads being old friends and now part of a love triangle is the most original thing, but It adds some much needed interest because outside of that their personalities suck.

The story on the other hand is actually pretty compelling and original. It is well paced and actually keeps you guessing at least until the final act. The layout of the three acts reminds me a bit of movies like Shocker and The Changeling where each act is virtually it’s own film. The middle act is probably the peak where the story turns into more of an investigation. Sadly the final act turns generic horror, leading to an underwhelming conclusion. There is pretty good use of sound throughout, both music and sound design in general. The visuals are not stunning but have creativity in places. .

Ouija Quit It

Overall this is a pretty average horror with a good story that unfortunately becomes silly at the end. The biggest problem is how annoying the characters are. Some, such as the police detective and the medium didn’t really need to even be in the story. The central three you could get away with providing everything paid off. Specifically, the relationship between the two childhood friends should have played a role in the finale. It didn’t though and the eventual solution was sort of dumb. While the movie is quite original, there’s a few too many flaws with this one to give it more than a 5/10.

That’s A Wrap

Well, that’s it for this years October Challenge! The top five recommendations this year turned out to be Peeping Tom, Blood and Black Lace, A Dark Song, Opera and Crimson Peak. The only clangers (Below 5/10) were The First Omen and The Limehouse Golem. The rest was generally above average. I didn’t get in any Japanese horrors this year, but covered most of my usual traditions. Anyway, I don’t know what the future holds for me or this blog, but if I am back for another round next year I hope you will join me! Don’t forget, I do post reviews and articles throughout the rest of the year too. I’m most prolific in October and more horror focused, but I think you’ll find value to checking screen-wolf out all year round. Anyway…

Happy Halloween!

Opera (1987)

Posted on October 22, 2024October 22, 2024 by fenrisfil

For tonight’s review I’m returning to the world of Italian Giallo horror. This time to perhaps it’s greatest master Dario Argento and what is sometimes called his “Final masterpiece”. It was his most expensive film to date and perhaps his most ambitious. Ronnie Taylor provides the Cinematography and Brian Eno the soundtrack. The movie stars Cristina Marsillach, Ian Charleson and Urbano Barberini. If you’ve seen my previous Giallo reviews you’ll know the deal with Italian dubbing. Basically there is no fighting it, no matter how much you prefer subtitles. Even the Italian language versions are dubbed. Indeed Charleson would have been speaking in English on set (So on the English dub his lips actually do sync).

While not technically an adaptation of Phantom Of The Opera, the movie, this movie is heavily influenced by it. This is the story of Betty, a young Opera singer thrust into the limelight after an accident injures the lead in a production of Verdi’s Macbeth. She is stalked and abused by an deranged fan determined to kill anyone close to her so he can have her for himself. More than that though, he will force her to watch him committing these murders. But there is more to this stalker that just a fan, he has been in Betty’s nightmares ever since she was a child.

The Raven Himself Is Hoarse

Some movies are difficult to fit a synopsis into one paragraph. Not the case here. The premise is very simple on the surface and yet the film itself makes it feel much more complicated. This is because frankly this film is a bit of a mess. The individual parts are actually very good, but they are put together in ways that don’t always compliment each other. The most obvious example here is the soundtrack. Obviously the movie features a lot of Opera, but it also has soundtrack composed by experimental musician Brian Eno. These two would be fine, but then almost as a theme tune for the psychopath the movie throws in a number of heavy metal songs by the band “Gow”. Metal and horror can work together for sure, but mixed with the rest it’s just a little strange.

The story has a similar situation. The main plot is straight forward, but there are bits and pieces on the peripheral that just seem thrown in. When Betty is rescued by a young girl from her apartment block crawling through the old air conditioning vents it feels incredibly random. It feels like a character that should have been more involved earlier, but wasn’t. Similarly with Betty’s agent, she is called in as someone Betty obviously trusts and thinks can help her with her incredible situation and yet we don’t really get any kind of feeling of that relationship. Betty’s childhood dreams have a big reveal involving her mother and her relationship with the killer. This turns out to be very much a Lady Macbeth reference (The character Bety is playing in the Opera). That’s a neat idea, but it barely seems to be actually explored in the movie.

Of Direst Cruelty Make Thick My Blood

This is Dario Argento, so the truth is we aren’t tuning in for the plot. We’re tuning in because he is a master of visual horror. So the question is, does the film live up to those standards? Absolutely. It’s actually possibly his most impressive film visually (Though it’s been a while since I’ve watched the “Three Mothers Trilogy”). The use of the ravens are pretty unique, especially when we get the ravens-eye-view shots and their use in the plot is pretty cool. The Opera house setting works well too. The most memorable visuals though are the murders. The idea of forcing his victim to watch with the razor blades on her eyes is terrifying, though it’s only done twice in the film. The bullet through the spy hole in the door is a great scene too. It was predictable, but done so well that didn’t matter.

Even though I criticized the disjointed nature of the story, the actual elements are not bad in themselves. What I think was the issue is Argento had too many ideas and tried to squeeze them in. This took him years to get the script to a filmable place. Apparently earlier drafts were far too long and some of the scenes were so graphic that they would only be able to release the film in Japan. That was according to Argento himself. It’s not that he had bad ideas, he just had too many of them and ones that he just couldn’t get away with. I particularly like the poetic irony of Betty’s mother being a Lady Macbeth like character. Though a twisted, psychotic one (Rather than encouraging killing out of ambition).

Out, Damned Spot

Overall, this is a good horror that just feels a little weird in places. Dario Argento fans won’t care though. It delivers on all the things you expect from the writer/director. Those less accustomed to the director and giallo in general may find the movie a little too weird or possible even a little too bloody. Modern audiences likely won’t find the latter, but will find it weird especially if they aren’t used to the Italian dubbing style. However, if you’ve seen other Argento movies, I feel confident you’ll enjoy this. I give it a very strong 6.5/10 and a recommendation.

Blood Diner (1987)

Posted on October 31, 2023November 1, 2023 by fenrisfil

Well that’s it, the final review of my 2023 October Challenge. This is the low budget horror comedy “Blood Diner” from 1987. The movie was the third of four movies directed by Jackie Kong in a short career likely only made possible by the VHS boom of the 80’s. The movie was written by Michael Sonye, who has had a reasonable career as an actor but only has writing credits for six movies. This is the highest rated on IMDb at 5.3/10. His lowest is rated at 2.8 out of ten. This is one of those movies where much of the cast have only appeared in this one film and many of the ones that have been in other things use shots from this movie as their bio picture on IMDb (Or have no picture). This gives you hint of what to expect!

Bon Appétit.

The plot of the movie revolves around a pair of cannibals and their “Vegetarian” diner. Two brothers and their dead uncle (Now a brain in a jar) are planning to perform an ancient ceremony to resurrect the ancient Lumerian goddess Sheetar. To do this they have to make a number of preparations that mostly involve killing young women, preparing a cannibalistic stew that will make those that consume it turn into feral zombie like cannibals and prepare the sacrifice of a virgin. On their tail are a pair of tough yet bumbling police officers, investigating a what appears to be a serial killer targeting vegetarians.

Junk Food.

Okay, so I’m just going to say it: This is a bad movie. Whenever I review a fairly average movie I usually say “It’s not terrible but…”, well this one is terrible and there is no real “But” to that. There are some good ideas, but the execution of them is so poor that most viewers likely won’t even give it that much credit. It is poorly acted, poorly scripted, badly paced (Rushing from one joke/murder to the next without giving any of it room to breath), music that seems absent half the time it is needed and overstays it’s welcome when it is not, the gore was so comical that it lost all impact and worst of all, it just wasn’t funny.

Most of the humour falls flat. Most of the jokes are either casual but cartoon like violence or general gross out stuff. There were three scenes that were sort of funny. One was the intro, specifically the radio broadcast about the psycho. Another was where one of the brothers has to keep running someone over before he actually dies and another where a woman having seen her friend being chopped up goes to run away, but then runs back because she forgot her handbag. That was it. The rival chef’s ventriloquist dummy could have been funny in theory, but didn’t really work in practice. It felt out of place and just came across as pointless and dumb.

So Bad It’s Bad.

The acting is especially bad. I’ve watched a lot of low budget B-movies, so I have a pretty good tolerance for bad acting, but this was next level bad. Pretty much all the actors playing the police were dreadful. The worst of the bunch was Sheba Jackson as “LaNette La France” and it’s no surprise to see this is her only credit on IMDB. Max Morris was almost as bad as the Police Chief and joins Sheba in the “This is my only acting credit” department. Fortunately Rick Burks and Carl Crew, who played the two cannibal brothers were just regular bad, though the script they had to work with didn’t do them any favours. Drew Godderis also managed a tolerable performance as the brain in a jar psycho uncle, though he is helped by just being a voice actor.

I get the impression half of the joke here is meant to be that the film is really bad. This kind of thing never really works for me. Things being intentionally bad always fail to reach that “So bad it’s good” category. Most humour works best when played straight, most funny low budget movies work best when the makers treat it seriously, no matter how crazy the ideas they are working on are. Here it seemed they spent too long laughing at their own jokes. Really a lot of this plays like a series of sketches haphazardly thrown together, with most of it adding nothing to the overall story.

Concussion.

Ultimately, this is one big fail. The concept could have worked, but not with this director, writer and most of these actors. Some people may be able to get a kick out of it and I think being drunk and/or high will help. But coming in dry, it’s just plain bad. I give it a few points for trying to be fun and for the half decent concept, but the most generous I can be with this one is a low 3.5/10. On a side note, I like the trailer. It’s better than the movie. That’s all. Happy Halloween and whatever your viewing tonight (If anything), I hope it’s better that this!

The Hidden (1987)

Posted on October 18, 2022October 18, 2022 by fenrisfil

I’m back to the 80’s horror now and with body snatching space slug film “The Hidden” from 1987. Staring Kyle MacLachlan looking pretty much exactly as he did in Twin Peaks a few years later and acting a bit like he did in the series relaunch more recently. He plays FBI Agent “Lloyd Gallagher” who teams up with cop “Tom Beck”, played by Michael Nouri. The film is also the feature debut of Claudia Christian (Ivanova from Babylon 5). The film is directed by Jack Shoulder (Alone in the Dark, Nightmare on Elm Street 2) and written by Jim Kouf (Stakeout, National Treasure, Rush Hour).

THE HIDDEN, Kyle Maclachlan, Michael Nouri, 1987

October Review Challenge – Day 18

The film kicks off right away with a violent bank robbery and a car chase, with the robber having a whale of a time blasting out rock music while driving recklessly to evade the cops. Eventually he gets gunned down, but is taken to hospital and put in intensive care. At this point FBI agent Lloyd Gallagher turns up at police headquarters looking for the same suspect. However on discovering the suspect dead at the hospital his hunt turns to another patient that had contact with him. Both suspects are unusual because they showed no sign of criminal activity or malicious acts in the past and just seem to have flipped and gone on a rampage. Both sharing a love for sports cars and rock music.

Of course since this is a science fiction horror there is more to it and as I opened up by calling it a “Body snatching space slug film” you can probably guess where this is going. The real antagonist is said space slug and it transfers itself between victims and then uses them to go on it’s sociopathic crime sprees. After wearing out the bodies of the first two it takes control of a stripper, Brenda (Christian) leading to a tense chase with Gallagher and Beck. Gallagher though has a secret of his own and a personal vendetta with the alien. Things become more difficult for our heroes as their target starts to get more ambitious with it’s choice of bodies, leading to a dramatic final showdown.

A Source of Inspiration?

This is an interesting film and a pretty original take on the body snatcher idea. It reminds me a lot of the film “Fallen” (1998) with Denzel Washington, and I can’t help but wonder if they took some influence from The Hidden when writing that. Fallen is the better film, at least as a horror and did a lot more with the idea, but that’s not to say The Hidden is bad. The movie is pretty light in the horror and science fiction aspects and is really an action movie with a horror/sci-fi premise and in that regard it is pretty satisfying. There are a lot of shoot outs and the body thief can take a lot of punishment before at has to flee a body making it a little bit like a Terminator film.

Kyle MacLachlan playing a weird FBI agent before he starred in Twin Peaks is interesting too. There is almost no way this film didn’t play into his casting and long before his “Dougie Jones” days (In the recent Twin Peaks continuation) he showed his talent for playing “not quite there” characters. Thes rest of the cast do an adequate job and I always enjoy seeing Claudia Christian (As well as playing a fan favourite on Babylon 5, she just seems like a cool person. One of the few celebrities I never regretted following on social media).

Assessment

The action scenes are pretty solid and the plot pushes along at a good pace so you are never bored watching. The plot tries to keep itself simple and a lot of that requires suspension of disbelief and not thinking too hard about what the reaction from most people would be to these events (Like when people they’ve known for years suddenly turn into unstoppable killing machines and go on murder sprees for no apparent reason). There are definitely some holes there, but the fast pace stops you dwelling too long on them.

Overall this is a pretty good movie, but it trades exploration of the premise for quick action and by the standard of 80’s action movies it is not especially notable. As a body thief horror though it comes up very short against the similar Fallen (or the first two Body Snatchers films), so it isn’t in the upper reaches of good, but it is well worth checking out some time. This is a strong 6/10.