Railway Terrors....

 

Horror Express (1972)

I don't recall seeing this film when I was young, but it is exactly the sort of movie I would have sought out on TV. Horror Express is a lot of fun in a horror movie sort of way. And how can you not love this film? It has Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, but it has an additional bonus of a fantastically overacting Telly Savalas. The story is a bit inspired by John W Campbell's 'Who Goes There?' which inspired both The Thing From Another World in 1951, and John Carpenter's The Thing in 1982, and the more poorly received prequel/remake also called The Thing in 2011. Its a bit inspired by Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express. 

The basics of the story are, that, in 1906, Christopher Lee's character of Professor Sir Alexander Saxton has discovered a fossil 'missing link'' in a cave in Manchuria China, and he boxes it up to take back to London with him. In order to get back, he needs to board the Trans-Siberian Railroad back to Moscow (and presumably from there to London.) Lee encounters Peter Cushing's Dr. Wells at the station as well, which sets up a bit of a friendly rivalry between them. 

Over the course of the film, it becomes clear that the central protagonist is Lee, and Cushing, while given a number of amusing lines, is clearly a supporting character, and given only a few things to do. There is a reason for this, which is part of a touching behind the scenes story. 

Cushing had lost his wife some months before this film started filming. When he arrived in Spain for the film, he immediately told the producer he didn't feel up to performing, and was considering dropping out of the project. Lee actually called him up, and spoke to him kindly, and reminded him of all the fun they had on previous film shoots. He convinced Cushing to continue with the film... but it does seem that they understood and gave Cushing 'light duty' in the movie. His character, Dr Wells, is clearly as intelligent as Lee's Saxton, but is somewhat more underhanded than Saxton. The initial scene between the two of them sets up their differences. When the ticket agent refuses to give them berths on the train, Cushing merely turns on the charm and offers up a considerable bribe to the agent to secure his tickets. Lee looks on this somewhat disparagingly, and then goes his own route, which is pushing the ticket agents things off his desk and trying to intimidate him.... which ends up being backed up by local soldiers presenting themselves to him "to assist him in any way he needs." Wells is the slightly lazy, slightly underhanded sort, Saxton is the man of action. 

I have seen this film a number of times, but this viewing was on a remastered version making it the clearest version I have yet seen. And this viewing, I noticed something new. The story is tightly constructed, and I was amazed at the way they played with the side characters. No part is wasted, no part is a throwaway. Everyone introduced serves a purpose. The conductor. The Inspector. The Count and Countess. The Monk. The Engineer. The American Woman. The bacteriologist. The spy. The thief. The Baggage Clerk. ALL of them fill a role in the actual story, and not just window-dressing. 

The monster kills the thief and learns how to open locks. It kills the baggage man and learns the layout of the train. It kills the spy and learns about the experimental steel. It kills the engineer to learn about the technological capabilities of the human race. Each becomes a logical step. The bacteriologist is killed to reveal the witnesses to the images in the creature's eye. The random American woman at first is a dinner companion of the engineer, and then later is the witness to the engineer's death, and then finally become the woman who attracts the lascivious attentions of Telly Savalas's Captain Kazan. 

Maybe I'm used to other films of the era, which tend to use bit parts more cavalierly. Often, in say, Hammer films, the minor roles are there basically to react to the story. Michael Ripper's characters are there to tell you what you already know... that the creepy fellow that moved into the house is a foreigner who imports Egyptian antiques, or the the villagers never visit Dracula's castle, or that its foolish to go outside at night. There may be extras who are there for Dracula to kill in order to show how dangerous he is, or random villagers to cower in fear or act suspicious of whatever Baron Frankenstein is up to,,, but they never really have an impact of the story. At least, not in the way that they do here. Every one person who has a line of dialogue in Horror Express interacts organically with the story. They could easily have switched the American woman out and had three separate women in all those scenes, and in other films, they very much might have done that. This 'economy of supporting characters' works well with a scenario set on a train, where you SHOULD be limited in the number of available people.

The movie also plays with ideas of faith vs science, but in fairness, it never really gives faith a fair shake. The monk SHOULD represent Faith, but instead, very quickly flips from faith in God to faith what he perceives as the Devil. He is in the employ of the Count and Countess, who don't seem to value his input very much, and who delight in tormenting him by deliberately IGNORING his advice. The Countess even playfully asks not only her husband but the Monk which dress she should wear to impress Saxton (and it seems implied that she is wearing it in an attempt to seduce him to a degree... the husband is amused by this, and seems to treat it as a game... the monk is angered and horrified.) Later however, The Countess herself echoes a sentiment of faith when Saxton mentions Evolution, and she says "I've heard of evolution... it is immoral!" however, this is brushed aside easily by Saxton who just responds with "It is a fact, and facts are neither moral or immoral." There is a lot of this sort of dismissal that goes on in this film... later when the monk offers himself up to the Creature, who has thus far only been assimilating people useful to him, the creature itself dismisses him by saying essentially "You have nothing of value in your head, why would I want you?" 

The film is not without its problems and plot holes. How, for example, are people in the train sending messages outside the train about whats happening? Why does Moscow get involved and order the train derailed? (Which, in itself is an error, since the Capitol of Russia in 1906 was St Petersburg.) Why, when the creature transfers its mind into Inspector Mirov, does he acquire the hand of the creature as well? Why is Telly Savalas chewing the scenery like it is made of candy? Who cares.. its a tremendously fun ride.

Host and The Suicide Squad

 This week sees me viewing The Suicide Squad (2021) and Host (2020). SPOILERS AHEAD

Lets start with Host, shall we? This is a film that should be really called "Jump Scare: The Movie". Its a technique that's often criticized, but, when done correctly, it is EFFECTIVE. Host uses it both effectively and ineffectively. The final shot is predictable, telegraphed.... and you STILL jump at it. However, there are other scares over the course of the film that actually do jump scares in new ways, which is not only effective, but also startling and scary.

The other things about Host is that it cleverly uses the techniques of "found footage" and the isolation of the Covid-19 quarantines of the year to ratchet up the tension. The film is set in a video conference call, with each person in their own separate locations. When things start happening, all the other people can do is look on in horror. Because this is a video call, there is a REASON for things to keep filming, which makes a nice change from other found footage films, where you find yourself wondering why they feel the compulsive need to film every last thing constantly. 

The story is essentially, 6 friends, during the lockdown in Britain, arrange to have weekly video meetups. On this one, one of the girls has arranged to bring in a medium into the call, who will conduct a séance for them. They are warned to take it seriously, but one of the girls in the call decides to play a prank anyway. The medium is dropped from the call, and then.... all hell breaks loose. It seems the prank invited a hostile entity or demon into their midst, and it decides to take them all out. 

The acting is pretty effective, as the people react more like genuine people that find themselves under assault by some supernatural agency. People drop in and out of the call periodically, and in one instance, one of the girls says 'screw the lockdown', puts on her mask, and runs to the apartment of one of the other girls who lives close to her. It is the only time in the film when two of the main actors come together, and its a nice reminder of the fear of Covid, even amid the paranormal siege. When they see each other, their first reaction is to hug one another, but at the last second they pull back and instead bump elbows. They may be terrified by a demonic assault, but they are just as terrified by the pandemic. 

By the same token though, because everyone is disconnected in this way, it seems the demon is rather arbitrary in its decision to target all of them. Some of the deaths are simply not "earned." One character, for example, drops out of the call before the séance even begins. He rejoins later on, after the presence has manifested, and is almost immediately targeted and killed. What exactly did HE do to earn that? 

Still, its not something you notice immediately. Its a worthwhile way to spend some time.

On the other end of the spectrum is The Suicide Squad from director James Gunn. This is a big budget film, with big stars, and a big release, in a big franchise... you get the picture. It is a sequel/reboot of the previous Suicide Squad film, done by David Ayers. The original film, released in 2016, was... problematic, on a number or levels. The premise is more than a little promising. Super villains who are currently serving prison sentences are offered the opportunity to reduce the time left on their sentence if they agree to participate in Black-Ops missions for a shady government agency. Because they are criminals, they are completely expendable.

In the original film, the premise got a little lost in a sub plot about The Joker and Harley Quinn, and a non-sensical plot involving the ultra-powerful being known as The Enchantress. It made little sense, and it was carried mostly on the charisma of its two leads in Will Smith as Deadshot and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. As far as the "suicide mission" angle goes... well... a couple people die, largely telegraphed ahead of time. Who is Slipknot? Who cares, he dies shortly after he is introduced. And then.... no one of importance dies until the climax. The body count for the first movie is.... 3. Slipknot, El Diablo, Enchantress. And a bunch of faceless minions and soldiers. It is grim and suffers from the biggest problem of the DCEU films... a gritty over-seriousness that really detracts from the colorful nature of the original comics. 

Enter James Gunn... and out of a total of 14 Squad members, 4 survive the story. 6 if you pay attention to the post credits scenes. But more importantly he brings humor and brightness back into play, making it for a far more engaging film than the first one. And by engaging, I mean FUN. Is it a good film? No, but it is an ENTERTAINING film. And in some ways, that's all you need.

Again, its not without its problems. Idris Elba's Bloodsport is almost identical in backstory to Will Smith's Deadshot. You could swap them back and forth and not miss any character beats. That said, I do prefer Idris Elba to Will Smith. He carries more gravitas in the role, which I think makes a nice contrast to John Cena's Peacemaker. 

Speaking of Peacemaker, John Cena cannot necessarily be considered a good actor, but he is well suited to the part of Peacemaker, and creates a great deal of humor. Peacemaker likes to think he's deep and intelligent and philosophical. He's not, and that, for me, is one of the funniest things in the film. He never seems to realize how shallow he really is, and in one particularly funny moment, even loses track of his own arguments. 

Peacemaker: If this whole beach was completely covered in dicks, and somebody said I had to eat every dick until the beach was clean for liberty, I would say "no problemo!"
Ratcatcher II: Why would someone put penises all over the beach?
Peacemaker: Who knows why madmen do what they do?

Peacemaker literally forgets that HE was the one who originally imagined this scenario, and can't give a good explanation as to why he came up with it. And that's Peacemaker in a nutshell. He just doesn't think too far ahead, or about what he's saying. 

But in comparing this film to its predecessor, I also keep coming back to Viola Davis' Amanda Waller and the other members of 'Mission Control' back at Task Force X. In the original film, Waller is both practical and evil, but in a weird way. Inexplicably, she guns down her own technicians in the first film.... for.... reasons that are never made clear. To show how evil she is? I don't know... its one of the many scenes in the first film that made no sense to me. In this film Waller is still utterly ruthless, but she has been humanized. She may not like her technicians, she may get angry with them, but in this film, you can't imagine her randomly gunning them down. And frankly, they give her far more reason to. 

And, they give her a sense of humor, which was sorely lacking in the first film. Her eyerolling response to the activities of her team, as they try (none too successfully) to hide the fact they are betting on who will survive the mission, or the fantastic side-eyed death glare she gives John Economos when it turns out Weasel can't swim are amazingly funny. She grumpily complains about her golf game, because she has to play with a senator the next day, and doesn't want to be embarrassed. She falls asleep in her chair while they are waiting for the communications to be re-established. She is HUMAN. She is a formidable human, but she is still, in the end, just a human. 

This is a bloody film, and intentionally so. If you are going to do The Suicide Squad, you NEED the stakes to be made clearer than a single person dying. The opening scene takes out nearly EVERYONE. And it is by far my favorite part of the film. It is extremely violent, and it is extremely funny. Harley's reaction to TDK's powers is utterly classic, as is Flagg's helpless "*I* didn't pick the team!" 

Also of note, since this is James Gunn film, is the soundtrack. There are two standout tracks, both at the beginning... the first is Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash which is what opens the film, playing over Savant sitting in the prison yard on his own. And the next is the main theme, which is People Who Died, by The Jim Carroll band.. which, quite frankly is a perfect choice. Morbid, and still upbeat, it matches the tone of the film perfectly.

Quick Looks:

The Last Shift (2014): A rookie police officer is left on her own as the last shift at a closing police station. However, the history of the place and one of its more horrific cases returns to haunt her. This is a pretty disturbing film, but I can't say its a good film. There are a lot of really creepy imagery. There is a lot of gore. Its essentially mind games. Its worth a look, but there isn't a lot here.

One Cut of the Dead (2017): This is a tremendously fun film, that tricks you multiple times, to great effect. It took me by surprise, and became a lot more meta than I expected, but it is a celebration of not just horror and zombie movies, but of low budget filmmaking. Its a love letter to the independent horror film auteur. And the One Cut of the title you see at the very beginning, and it is a fantastic technical achievement. Pay attention in this film, because its clever, and there are multiple stories going on, which you don't necessarily know at first, but as the layers begin being pulled back, you learn what those other stories are, and things which seem like mistakes early on are revealed, and even better, things that WORK really well turn out to be complete accidents.

Teddy (2020): A French werewolf horror movie, which is uncomfortable to watch. It tries, I think, to be a sort of male counterpart to Ginger Snaps, but it rather fails at that. We follow our 'hero' Teddy, who is a sullen, somewhat rebellious teenager who gets infected with lycanthropy and we see his slow transformation to full fledged werewolf. The problem is, Teddy is still not that interesting a character, and unlike the Fitzgerald sisters, he has little charisma and no humor. The movie proceeds at a rather dull pace, and finally culminates in a bloodbath of truly epic proportions.... which happens mostly off screen. 

After Midnight (2019): This is another odd, indy film, that seems to work. We meet Hank who seems to spend his days wandering around his empty house drinking and daydreaming about his early relationship with Abby, while spending his nights drinking and shooting at a mysterious monster that tries to gain entry to his house every night. We discover that Abby has left Hank, leaving behind only a vague note. Hanks friends can't draw him out, and don't believe him about the monster. The film is a really weird combination of romance and monster movie. And oddly, it works.

An Unusual Aside....

 While I primarily focus on films in this blog, every once and a while something in another form comes up that I find interesting and relevant to the topics discussed here, so I'll throw those in. That is the case in this weeks entry. 

In 1962, one of the most popular TV Series in the United States was Route 66. Now, this is not the typical show you'd be expecting to see in a blog like this. It followed the adventures of Tod Styles (Martin Milner) and Buzz Murdock (George Maharis) as they travel the country in a Chevy Corvette and get into various misadventures along the way. It was an early anthology series, where each story was stand alone, with only Buzz and Tod as the connecting feature. This afforded them the ability to do any sort of story they wanted, provided that they could fit the two principle characters into it. In many ways, it almost mimics the more modern series Supernatural, but without the horror elements.

The third season's sixth episode brings them to Chicago in the story titled 'Lizard's Leg and Owlet's Wing.'

Readers may note that title is a phrase used by the three witches in Shakespeare's Macbeth. This is deliberate, and we find out why even before the main characters appear on screen. It opened with a hunchback, reaching out apparently to menace a young boy sleeping in bed. Very quickly you find out however, that there is no menace here. It is none other that Lon Chaney Jr, in full hunchback makeup (no doubt an homage to one of his late father's most famous roles.) and he is visiting his grandson, who is enthusiastic about the makeup. Their scene is interrupted when Chaney is reminded that he has a teleconference he is late for. 

I was amused by this early reference to telecommuting. Even 50 years ago, working remotely was becoming an accepted thing. 

His meeting turns out to be with two other horror greats, Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff. Lorre and Chaney are trying to engage Karloff in a new film project, but Karloff is resistant. He believes 'the old ways' of horror are now passé, and thinks they should update and become more modern. Lorre and Chaney argue that the old ways are just as effective as ever. They agree to meet in Chicago to argue out the details in person, but Karloff insists they do so anonymously so as not to draw attention to themselves. He suggests book rooms at the hotel in the name of some benevolent society and use assumed names.. (not very CLEVER names, it must be noted.... Peter Lorre becomes 'Mr. Retep', Karloff becomes 'Mr. Sirob', and Chaney is 'Mr. Nol.') 

Then we switch to Chicago where Tod and Buzz have just been given jobs as 'Liaison executives' for various convention groups at the hotel. Buzz is thrilled to be assigned as liaison to a convention of young Executive Secretaries that are meeting there, while a less thrilled Tod is given to 'The Society for the Preservation of the Gerenuk"... which he doesn't realize yet, but is the fictional society the horror actors have created to meet under.

The show has some truly cringeworthy examples of early 60s sexism, while curiously, at the same time, giving voice to genuine women's issues at the time. There is actual discussion of the disparity in pay, and an early call for 'Equal pay for equal work.' On the downside, most of the women are treated like they are all sort of superficial and shallow, and faint at the slightest provocation, and there is one subplot of one particular secretary who is in love with her boss and heartbroken at his inattention which is especially annoying.

However, any scene in which the horror icons appear is a delight, and Peter Lorre in particular is given some hilariously deadpan scenes which shouldn't, by rights, be funny, but actually are because of of his wonderful delivery. I couldn't help but laugh as he earnestly explains to Tod what a 'gerenuk' is and why its so important to preserve them. (A gerenuk, incidentally, is a kind of African antelope which was on the verge of extinction. Lorre gives the grave warning 'If it can happen to the gerenuk, it can happen to US!") 

Lon Chaney (having dropped the Jr.) gets to have a great deal of fun dressing in various elaborate costumes throughout the episode, rarely appearing when NOT in a disguise. It nice to see him back in action as the hunchback, the mummy, and the wolf man again. He seems to be having a ball through the whole episode, running around scaring secretaries until they faint. He meets his match in the lovesick secretary however, who doesn't appear to notice his wolfman makeup at all, and even gives him a kiss on the cheek... which causes him such despair he starts sobbing. 

Karloff, on the other hand, maintains great dignity, as befits horror royalty such as himself. He very quickly solves the lovelorn secretary's problems, as soon as he becomes aware of them, and gently disapproves of the antics of Lorre and Chaney for much of the time. So great is his screen presence that he doesn't really HAVE to act to command the screen, he just has to stand there and you instantly pay attention to him. Only at the very end, he dons a version of his famous Frankenstein's monster makeup... its a version more simplified than the Universal films version, but its rather nice to see him in costume again. 

There are some extremely funny moments in the episode. Peter Lorre clinically analyzing the reactions of the secretaries to Chaney in wolfman makeup while Tod furiously takes notes is particularly noteworthy, especially his indignation when one of the women faints after seeing HIM sans any makeup at at. "I'm a little insulted...." he sulks in the way only Peter Lorre can. 

As an additional note for horror fans... The lawyer Karloff insists be present at the meeting, Mrs. Baxter, is played by Martita Hunt. who was just coming off her own horror performance as Baroness Meinster in Hammer's The Brides of Dracula in 1960. She has less to do, but she does get to be very unimpressed by Lon Chaney's theatrics and is almost as deadpan in her delivery as Peter Lorre.

All in all, a great deal of fun for horror fans.

An Intersection of Horror and Science Fiction

 If you consider the background of the stories from a certain angle, H.P. Lovecraft wrote science fiction rather than horror. The creatures of the Cthulhu Mythos, including Cthulhu himself were alien beings of unimaginable power, rather than gods or demons. The unknowable, and indifferently hostile cosmos behind his monsters is what ultimately created the bleak, existential horror of the stories, and as mankind uncovered the secrets of nature through science (because Lovecraft treated magic and science interchangeably), it unleashed forces beyond our control, and worse, often brought attention to us to predatory beings from beyond.

And that brings us to Intersect (2020). This is a very odd film. The opening scene takes place in the aftermath of .... something. The camera spins through a dizzyingly weird landscape of shadowy darkness and tendrils of blackness, as it zooms in on Dr Ryan Winrich (Jason Spisak) cradling the mortally wounded Dr Caitlin Webb (Leeann Dearing) and the two share a moment. 

Then we flash back to a few hours earlier, as the two lounge in bed together an discuss their relationship, and the project they are working on together. This is the first sign of the very odd narrative structure of this film. It is, in essence, told backwards, with pieces of it unfolding as you learn each step prior to the immediate one you re experiencing. In this first instance, we see Winrich discovers that someone has brought a bomb into the lab where he has been building a time machine at Miskatonic University. When he realizes Caitlin is in the lab, he races there and crosses the police line and heads to the lab. 

THEN, the film flashes further back, and we see the initial perfection of the Time Machine with input from a THIRD member of their team, Dr Nate Beaumont (Abe Ruthless). 

What unfolds is not exactly Lovecraftian at first. We see the three friends as inseparable throughout their lives, under the tutelage of kindly professor Bill Marshall. As each earlier segment unfolds, we learn more details. Unlike most traditional horror films, as you go along, MORE characters are added. We see the romance develop in reverse, from culmination of their story to their first meeting. We know ahead of time that their Bill has passed away, and then see the actual event later in the film. 

Its a difficult film to really understand because of this structure. For example, when we see the apparent death of Nate, in a drunkenly ill-advised test of the Time Machine, we can't really relate to it, although it obviously impacts Ryan and Caitlin deeply. Because we don't know their shared history yet... But we see it unfold through the rest of the film. Its only at the end that you understand what they have lost. This formula is repeated several times over the course of the movie. I have mixed feelings about its effectiveness, but it does leave you feeling a bit unsettled, which I suppose is sort of the point.

The initial scene seemed oddly out of place and confusing. What exactly was that weird black spiral? You see it is obviously connected to the "portal" which opens in their time travel experiments, but that seems to be about it.... at first. One very odd thing you see is a point when, as teenagers, Ryan and Caitlin are walking and turn down an alley, and see these odd, semi-organic looking pods sitting, inexplicably, in the alley ahead of them. They regard them silently for a few moments, and then casually suggest walking a different way, NEVER ADDRESSING THEM. This is a baffling moment, but its explained in a flash back further still, that this is NOT the first time they have encountered them. 

In fact, young Ryan encounters the pods, and their disturbing, spindly, monstrous occupants for the first time, mere moments before he meets Bill Marshall for the first time. Nor is it, apparently, the first time Bill has encountered them. Bill assures him that they are harmless, and just watch. 

Also you learn about a childhood bully of theirs, who, in the future, becomes a religious fanatic. You learn the final fate of Nate, who locates Ryan in his childhood with tragic results. He warns Ryan about 'The Watchers' before Ryan has any clue about them, implying that they are the ones manipulating him into the creation of the Time Machine. This is also where we start seeing a stronger Lovecraftian influence. A Weird, patient menace from somewhere outside of the known universe, manipulating our world for their own ends.

In the final scenes, we jump back to Ryan entering the lab to save Caitlin from the bomber in their midst, and we see the way the opening scene came about. However... 

However, AFTER that scene things become more confusing, as Ryan enters the portal himself, and .... ends up in a forest, where he finds the gift box Caitlin gave him as a child sitting inexplicably on a log. When he opens it there is simply a handwritten note inside saying 'Remember'... Ryan screams in anguish and seems to ... dissolve into black mist and finds himself in the portal again traveling.... somewhere? Some when? The entire ending is ambiguous. We see that the Watchers were coming though the portal before his initial jump. So... what happened to them? There was a point made earlier about the energy requirements needed to keep a time portal open for more than a few seconds.... so.... how is the portal remaining open now? 

There are some intriguing ideas here. The acting was surprisingly good and the production values were excellent for such a low budget film. There is a surprise cameo with Richard Dawkins, of all people, voicing the computer in the lab. However, the film is difficult to follow. Its ambitious in its approach, but I think most people will be turned off by the backwards storytelling. The Lovecraftian elements are minimal, and for the longest time, I wondered why they would set the film in the iconic Miskatonic University if they were not going to delve into the weirder side of Lovecraft's fiction. But, like most of Lovecraft's stories, the idea that literally everyone in the the film, from Ryan and his team, to his mentor Bill Marshall, to childhood bully Abner Rosen were manipulated by forces from outside the universe to the end we see them all come to. 

It didn't exactly land home, thought I can appreciate the effort.

Other films this week:

Burn, Witch, Burn (1962) - Apparently also known as "Night of the Eagle" this is a loose screen adaptation of Fritz Leiber's Conjure Wife. This is a lesser known film about witchcraft, but really not a bad little film. Its tightly crafted, and the scene toward the end where the main character is pursued by a gigantic stone eagle is rather interesting. This film tries to capture the magic of Night of the Demon, but doesn't quite make it. But it has a similar atmosphere, and is certainly worth a look at if you're a fan of either Fritz Leiber or movies about Witchcraft.

The Blackout (2019) - This Russian film is a curious mixture of Science Fiction, Post-Apocalypse, Zombies, and Alien Invasion. The basic idea is that an event takes place, and the entire world seems to fall into a blackout except for a small area of Eastern Europe. Anyone who ventures outside the area does not return. The movie follows a military expedition out of the area, and the meaning of the Blackout. It is surprisingly philosophical, but also, incredibly bleak.

Gamera Vs Jiger (1970) - A childhood favorite, watching it with adult eyes lays plain all its many flaws. This was the 6th of the Gamera films, and the costumes were starting to look a little rough. Daiei Films evidently didn't have the budget of rival studio Toho. It is shockingly gross in one scene, where a scientist shows a film to some reporters to illustrate what he believes has happened to Gamera, and shows them a video of the dissection of an elephant infested with parasitic worms. There are some surprisingly funny moments in the film, such as the father wearily identifying his daughter's crush in spite of her denial. This is one of the infamous entries where small children prove to me more effective than either the military or scientific community. The children in question steal a minisub and use it to sneak inside Gamera's body to locate the parasite growing in it. They receive a warning about traveling into his stomach where they will be dissolved by the digestive acids. Nice children's fare here! 

Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021) - I am not a basketball fan (and in fact I find it the most boring, pointless sport in the world next to golf), but as a Clevelander, I am legally bound by municipal ordinance to watch and report on any media involving LeBron James, so.... I watched this. The original Space Jam was a fun Looney Tunes romp, and this one tries to recapture the magic of it. It doesn't quite succeed for a few reason... First and foremost is LeBron James doesn't quite have the same charisma as Michael Jordan. Secondly though, the Looney Tunes themselves seem almost sidelined through the course of the film. Things play out exactly as you expect. There are no real surprises here. The humor misses more often than it hits.... And yet, it isn't all bad. Don Cheadle makes for an entertaining, if predictable villain. Cameos by real actors or sports personalities are minimal, but there are a LOT of cameos of other Warner Brothers properties in the background, making it a fun movie to watch whats going on behind the main action. Everything from King Kong to DC Superheroes to Harry Potter are represented. Naturally, the villains all seem to congregate behind the "evil" team's bench, and there is something funny about seeing Agent Smith from the Matrix cheering on the team next to Voldemort and The Mask (who, seemed a little out of place). Meanwhile King Kong, The Iron Giant, and Superman are cheering of the Looney Tunes team. And while the BIG stakes are the game are supposedly that the Looney Tunes will be erased from existence, its thrown in as such an afterthought, that it hardly seems consequential. The higher stakes of the game are more personal and actually provide a genuine heart to the movie, and that is that it brings Lebron James and his son together. And really... those are better stakes. It lacks the charm of the original Space Jam, and it doesn't even reach the heights of Looney Tunes: Back in Action, but its not a bad all-ages film to waste a couple hours on.

An Unexpected Turn...

 One of the problems I run into is that sometimes its actually hard to find new films. that are interesting. And this is especially true in horror films. So, when I saw a Polish film named Werewolf (2018) I thought I knew what I'd be getting into. 

I was wrong.

The setting begins in a Nazi Concentration Camp in 1945. We see Nazi's executing prisoners and using vicious dogs to control them. Meanwhile, some child prisoners watch this, and when the Nazi's some in to check on them, they manage to distract them long enough until the Nazi's laugh and leave them. However, this is the end of the war, and so the children are liberated by the oncoming Russian Army... but largely left to their own devices. 

The children are brought to an abandoned mansion where they are to be cared for by a weary nurse until they can be returned to their homes from wherever they had been taken from. They are clearly all traumatized, and the war has devastated the entire area they are in. They have little by way of food or water. When they venture out into the grounds, they occasionally find bodies of soldiers... including one which appears to have been mauled by an animal.

The nurse soon becomes a victim herself, leaving only the oldest children in charge trying to keep them alive, they discover that the dogs from the prison camp they had been in have now formed a wild pack and they are laying siege to the children in the mansion.

It is a tense and bleak story, but not a supernatural one. The title recalls more the imaginations of children encountering something fearsome in the woods which is picking off the adults. It also calls to mind the plans of the Nazi's from after there war, with their Operation: Werewolf, which involved hiding loyalist partisans to terrorize and harass from secrecy. We also see that these children are almost feral themselves, only reclaiming their humanity again toward the end of the film. And finally, we see that one of the children is quite traumatized to the pain and horrific to the point where he secretly works against his peers out of jealousy... and learns the secret to command the formerly well trained guard dogs, thus implying that he is something of a werewolf in personality as well. There are many layers to the title.

Its a painful movie to watch, not out of gore, but because it is a chilling reminder of how horrible war is in its impact on innocents. It may not be about actual werewolves, but it is nevertheless, definitely a Horror film. 

The best scene in the film for me, is the very final one. The children finally emerge from their hiding place and move themselves out in search of food and water and safety again, complete with a new group of protectors

This film should NOT be mistaken for the 1996 film called Werewolf, which included such luminaries as Richard Lynch and Joe Estevez doing profoundly stupid things in the American Southwest. THAT particular Werewolf I recommend only watching the version riffed by Mystery Science Theater 3000. Its a personal favorite.

International Horrors!

 This weekend was all about foreign horror films, apparently. Back in the day, Saturday Afternoons and evenings would often bring the occasional foreign film, in the form of Hammer films from Britain or various Kaiju and Tokusatsu fare. It was only later, when I was able to take advantage of cable TV and video and DVD rentals, that I began to see more from other countries, such as Spain, Mexico, Italy, China, and Russia and Scandinavia.

One of the more vibrant genres I've discovered is Italian horror from the 1970s and 80s... which includes the subgenre known as 'giallo'. Its quite distinctive and unique, and seems to fuse together the sensibilities of American Film Noir of the 1940s and 50s, with the splatter/slasher genre which came later in the 1980s and 90s.

There is a quality to American movies from the 1970s, especially in low budget horror genre films, which seems to try to follow a sort of "cinema verite" sort of sensibility. Everything is sort of grimy, dusty, and with an almost uniformly bland color palette used. It gives it a washed out quality, that, at least for me, sucks the vitality right out of the film. There is often a tendency to set films out in rural areas, deserts, swamps, and forests. Not so with Italian film, which revels in bright colors and often highly urbanized areas, or architecturally interesting buildings. 

For example, look at Dario Argento's 'Profondo Rosso', or 'Deep Red' from 1975. There is a scene early on in  the film where the here is in an ancient plaza in Rome, with an old fountain and statues.... and it is largely empty, EXCEPT, for the 50s style diner that is along one side of the plaza, which is done in shades of chrome and deep cobalt neon blue, which looks like it comes directly out of an Edward Hopper painting. Argento, in general, can be relied on to provide a bright and visually interesting film, but he is not alone.

Look no further than Mario Bava's 'Planet of the Vampires' (1965), which visually stunning and which influenced Ridley Scott's masterful 'Alien' in 1979. There is an artificiality which Bava acknowledges and embraces in his set design. Even without the story (which is pretty solid), Bava creates an atmosphere that unsettles the viewer, and makes the viewer uneasy. 

Also look to Bava's 1973 release 'Lisa and the Devil' which is stylishly filmed in an old villa, but with chic, modern furniture and fashions, and an unusual dream-like quality to the narrative, where everyone in the entire film seems to be artificially playing a role, like they are puppets going through the motions of life.... with the exception of Telly Savalas' butler character, Leandro. Leandro, however, may be the Devil himself, though he wouldn't admit it, unless it amused him. Leandro is the one character in the film who doesn't seem scripted in what he does... he drifts in and out with a manic sort of humor.

For other dream-like films, consider also Italian gore-master Lucio Fulci, who opted many times to forgo ordinary narrative techniques to explore suggestive visuals, and the end result is seen in such films as 'City of the Living Dead' (1980) and 'The Beyond' (1981) which often get criticized for being "disjointed" or "incoherent". While that is fair to say on a story level, stepping back and looking at the film entirely visually only, there IS a sort of cohesion. The Beyond, in particular, takes its protagonists from a very complacent, ordinary world, where they are simply restoring and repairing an old hotel, into an increasingly bizarre, supernatural half world, and finally divorces them from reality entirely in the final scenes as they move into a sort of Hell, or Purgatory where the laws of our reality no longer hold sway.

The other thing that sets these film apart are the graphic sex and violence. These are things which are central to the plots of most of these films. Take a look, for example, at Emilio Miraglio's 1971 film 'The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave'. Sex and violence are, in fact, central to the plot. We see the main character, Lord Cunningham, as played by Anthony Steffen, in the opening scenes, bring a prostitute to a secluded tower on his estate, which turns out to be not only where he 'entertains' his mistresses, but also his private bondage dungeon. This character, ostensibly the 'hero' of the film, then proceeds to torture and murder his victims while he has them pose as his dead wife Evelyn. But, oddly, this is NOT the main plot of the story.... When he remarries, someone starts murdering people connected to him, and it seems to be the doing of his dead wife... and THAT is the main story. Bizarrely, the hero's own homicidal proclivities are just mostly ignored. 

Look also at Dario Argento's Tenebrae (1982), in which a killer targets people based on some sort of desire to punish 'moral deviants'. The death of a pair of lesbian prostitutes in one scene juxtaposes them wandering around the scene mostly naked before being violently dispatched with a straight razor... We see the deaths of cheating lovers in this, as well as shoplifters, and those accused of 'spying'. Petty offenses that the murderer judges worthy of execution. One of the final scenes is frankly shocking in it violence, gore, and, because this is Italian, the actual calculated BEAUTY of the scene. A woman sits by herself at a table in a stark white room. She is dressed in white, and anything else in the room is silver. She's holding a gun, anticipating the arrival of the murderer. The window next to her breaks and an axe wielded by the killer severs the arm holding the gun. In an American film of this era (Friday the 13th Part III came out the same year), you might see the limb get severed, but the rest of the scene would be lost in shadows. Not so in Tenebrae. The woman stands and the blood sprays from the stump of her arm, arcing across the bare white walls... the brilliant red contrasting with the white. The camera stays on here during this time, and there is also no DOUBT that this is a mortal wound. The actress credibly sells getting weaker and weaker as more blood pours out. Its HORRIFYING to watch. But visually, it is STUNNING, and it sort of leaves you wondering how they did it. Mind you, it is NOT a movie for the squeamish or faint of heart.

Anyhow... other films this week, with an International Flavor:

The Amazing Mr. Blunden - (Britain, 1972): A confusing film for children, involving both ghosts and time travel. Or possibly Time Traveling Ghosts. Its hard to say. It was a bit difficult to follow what was going on, and the denouement of the film is ... exciting, but not very satisfactory. Very little by way of explanation in this film makes sense. The acting is not even particularly good, and most of the characters are annoying. This might be fine for sensitive early teens and pre-teens, but overall, its a disappointing work, and worse yet, its a DULL one.

Your Vice is a Locked Room, and Only I Have the Key - (Italy, 1972): Oddly enough, this is a version of Edgar Allen Poe's 'The Black Cat'.... but with a MORE than healthy dose of Italian sex and violence added into it. There are so many twists and turns in the last couple scenes, that it really only makes sense the last couple moments as they begin to kill off once conspirator after another, and you're left with the last person pulling the strings. My biggest problem with this film is the unlikability of pretty much every single character. Some start off promising, and then are revealed to be just as horrible and depraved as the others. Others seem likeable, and then are unceremoniously killed off. I had a hard time mustering sympathy for anyone except possibly the cat. 

And Now The Screaming Starts - (Britain, 1973): Amicus films was a slightly cut rate version of Hammer, but which still made effective horror films. Mainly known for their anthology films, this one was their one Feature Length effort. Its very much in the Hammer mold, as a Gothic period piece involving family secrets and curses. Peter Cushing arrives in the second half of the film to add a bit of dramatic weight to the piece, and Herbert Lom does what amounts to an extended cameo. Not a bad film, but its pacing is glacial.

The 8th Night - (South Korea, 2021): This is an engaging and action packed horror story about an ancient evil which has awakened, and one reclusive monk must stop it from reuniting with its mate. Its a pretty fun movie, and surprisingly tense in places. The demon needs to follow 'stepping stones' until it reaches its final destination, and the trick is that if you remove one of the stepping stones, it stops the demon... which sounds easy until you realize that the 'stepping stones' are in fact the people it must possess on its bloody mission, and the only way to 'remove' them is to kill them. So, it becomes a 3 way hunt, with the demon, the monk, and the police all searching for each other. The odd couple pairing of world weary Park Jin-soo with naive, happy young monk Cheong-seok leads to a lot of comedy. Actually the character of Cheong-seok is played rather endearingly by actor Nam Da-reum, who provides a lot of the laughs as the monk who has taken a vow of silence... but once the vow is broken, he simply won't shut up. Keep paying attention... there are secrets inside of secrets in this film, and it unfolds beautifully.... until a climax that makes me scratch my head and want to watch it again to figure out exactly what happened.

The Enchanting Phantom - (China, 2020): This is yet another version of the classic Chinese ghost story about the scholar and the ghost that has been filmed a number of time previously, most notably in the Tsui Hark production from 1987 called A Chinese Ghost Story. This is really a beautiful production, atmospheric and fun, and Eleanor Lee as Nie Xiaoqian is completely charming and lovely. However, if you've seen A Chinese Ghost Story, there are no real surprises here. I don't feel I wasted the time I watched this, but its all very familiar. Its fight scenes are not as hyperactive as those in the Tsui Hark version, but they are well done and satisfying. And one part to this I don't actually remember from the older version is the Coda, where the scholar Ning Cai Chen, having achieved his ambitions, is walking through a market some 20 years later, and encounters the reborn Nie Xiaoqian. Its a really sweet moment, and gives the opportunity for a long delayed happy ending. It reminded me in some ways of the ending of the animated Chinese Ghost Story from 1997. 

Queen of Spades - The Dark Rite - (Russia, 2016): This is an odd one....A Russian production that feels very much like a typical low budget American horror film. There are a few differences. Notably, the teenagers who unleash the evil Queen of Spades are ACTUALLY teenagers, and not "Hollywood teenagers"... you know, 20 or 30 year olds trying to pass for anywhere from 15-19. At least, they look it. This makes it perhaps a little more shocking when they start getting killed off. Another difference is that these kids are NOT left to fend for themselves, with actual adult caregivers trying to be supportive and helping them. The story holds together well, except for a few odd moments. I find it inexplicable, for example, when Valeriya Dmitrieva's character Katya seems to fall victim to the Queen, who has killed 2 other boys already. Then inexplicably, she shows up again, with no explanation as to what actually happened or why she isn't dead. But this is minor. Overall, its as effective as any low budget Hollywood horror film.

Queen of Black Magic - (Indonesia, 1981): I wasn't sure what to make of this one. However it proved more interesting than I thought. The setting is a small Indonesian village where an important man is getting married, much to the dismay of his jilted lover Murni. However, when weird supernatural events disrupt the proceedings, the locals are quick to decide Murni is a witch and attack her. Murni is left for dead, and she's rescued by a real witch who teaches her how to use magic to exact her revenge. Meanwhile, a young man who is a devout Muslim has returned to the village and sets about trying to restore the faith of the inhabitants. Its actually pretty interesting to watch. The actress playing Murni is named Suzzanna, and she turns in a remarkably nuanced role, where she ranges from weak and ineffectual to confident, sexy, and dangerous. Her internal conflicts are effectively portrayed, and the ending comes with a bit of a twist that I wasn't really expecting, and which, while not earth shattering, did create something of an effective ending with some closure not just for Murni, but the village as well. Its worth a look.

Werewolves on my mind

 So, among the films of this last week was somewhat generic werewolf movie, that nevertheless had some points of interest to it. When I was growing up, there seemed to be a limited number of werewolf movies that got shown. Typically you'd see Universal's The Wolf Man (1941) most regularly, and occasionally, the Werewolf of London (1935) or I Was A Teenage Werewolf (1957). On the evening movies I seem to remember Hammer's Curse of the Werewolf (1961), and I have vague memories of Moon of the Wolf (1972) as a TV movie of the Week, and at some point I remember staying up late to see The Werewolf of Washington (1973). But overall, werewolves were scarce. Later on I would discover more, such as the enormously fun The Beast Must Die! (1974) or the largely forgotten Cry of the Werewolf (1944) with Nina Foch, or Paul Naschy's Waldemar Daninsky movies from Spain (1967 -2004).

An American Werewolf in London (1981) and The Howling (1981) seemed to bring werewolves back into the spotlight, and of those two, I always preferred The Howling. People around me always raved about An American Werewolf in London, and while I can appreciate Rick Baker's creature design and the groundbreaking transformation sequence, the film itself always seemed to have very little story or plot, and the humor just really failed to engage me. 

More recently still there have been other interesting takes on the Werewolf, with things like the Ginger Snaps series (2000 - 2004) reinventing the subtext of the werewolf story, or films like Silver Bullet (1985) and Late Phases (2014)examining lycanthropy from the perspective of other physical disabilities. Dog Soldiers (2002) finally answered the question as to who would win in a fight between werewolves and heavily armed and well-trained and disciplined soldiers in a tense, funny, and high energy piece that belongs on every werewolf fan's shelf. 

But for every one of those, there are ones that slip between the cracks, and this week's werewolf films were of those varieties; Bad Moon (1996) and Werewolf: The Beast Among Us (2012).

Both of these films are somewhat low budget, forgettable pieces, but they have points of interest. Of the two, Werewolf: The Beast Among Us is the fluffier movie, placing a werewolf mystery into a steampunk Victorian setting not unlike the disappointing Van Helsing (2004). Say what you will though, it gives a nice visual aesthetic if nothing else. Apparently, Europe in this film universe is overrun by enough lycanthropes to warrant the need for wandering bands of werewolf hunters living off the bounties their prey brings. Lets face it, that's a LOT of werewolves. It upends the usual mythology of using werewolves as the servants of vampires, and has the victims of werewolves rise as zombie-like undead known as wurdelacs. Wurdelacs may, or may not, evolve into something more akin to the traditional vampire, but which are immune to sunlight. Its an interesting take on monster ecology, really. The actors are largely one note, but they are competent enough, and though the "mystery" of the piece is solved a bit early, its got enough twist remaining to keep it interesting. Its a fine popcorn flick, and a good way to while away a couple hours.

The other film, Bad Moon, is a more traditional movie in a lot of ways, with some solid B-list actors in its cast. Its headed by Mariel Hemingway and Michael Pare. Pare in particular has been in some favorite B-Movies, ranging from Eddie and the Cruisers (1983) to genre pieces like The Philadelphia Experiment (1984) and Moon 44 (1990). Its not really a spoiler to let you know that Michael Pare's character is infected by a werewolf in the opening scene, and the film unfolds from there. There isn't much mystery in this piece, and in a lot of ways, its a predictable story. What makes it more interesting is that Pare's main nemesis in the film is NOT Mariel Hemingway (who plays his character's sister) but rather her dog, Thor. Of all the characters in the film, Thor is the one who is instantly aware of the werewolf in their midst, and does what he can to protect his family from it. However, being a dog, it can't exactly point out the monster or explain its actions, and so it becomes a sort of odd battle of wills between Thor and Pare. Its an unusual choice, and one I can respect. 

What I also respect is Pare's performance here. His character, Ted Hamilton, comes across as uneven... sometimes seeming to fight against the lycanthropic curse, and other times, seeming to willingly give in to it. This uneven response must have made it difficult for Pare as an actor to understand his motivations. They seem to shift from scene to scene. So... at one point, Ted is crying about his curse, and in the next scene, he seems to be subtly menacing and carefully choosing his next victim. Or, later, after successfully framing the dog Thor for an attack, he watches with satisfaction as animal control takes the dog away, even mockingly waving goodbye to the dog when no one is looking... but in the next scene he's trying to chain himself to a tree to prevent himself from attacking the family now that their protector is gone. 

Werewolf movies typically depict the curse as either being something that the victim of is ALWAYS at odds with, or that they have totally given themselves over to the evil nature of the curse... but this is one of the few films I think that show the gradual corruption of the victim. Ted Hamilton is a good man, but he is slowly losing the battle against his cursed nature, and we are seeing his last, desperate attempts to rally his good side, but we also see him willingly giving in to the evil as well. When Pare is onscreen in this film, your attention is on HIM. It works in an odd way that really shouldn't. Its a subtle split personality performance in a place you wouldn't necessarily expect. Its not a major film, but you could do worse.

If you're still looking for werewolf films and the ones I've mentioned in this article aren't enough for you, take a look at Howl (2015), Cursed (2005), The Beast of Bray Road (2005), and for the romantics in you, Blood and Chocolate (2007).