Horrorfest 2022: Deadstream

Deadstream
Written and directed by Vanessa Winter and Joseph Winter
Starring Joseph Winter and Melanie Stone
USA, 2022

One of the reasons I started doing Horrorfest in the first place because I enjoyed YouTuber James Rolfe’s MONSTER MADNESS every year so much. He used to review one horror movie per day for the month of October, and back during his glory days, every October morning was like Christmas.

These days some say he’s lost his touch. I’m not ready to write him off quite yet, but he has really cut back on his MONSTER MADNESS content over the years, so this year there were very few reviews. I did notice he reviewed something called DEADSTREAM, though, so in homage to the once-great Rolfe, I decided to check it out myself.

Ultimately I was glad I did. DEADSTREAM is the tale of a disgraced prank/stunt livestreamer (Joseph Winter) who attempts to redeem himself among his audience by staying overnight in a haunted house – and livestreaming the entire thing. Of course, this being a horror movie, the house turns out to ACTUALLY be haunted.

This movie is also a comedy, as much as it’s a horror movie, and a lot of the laughs come from how scared the livestreamer is of everything. I feel like sometimes you don’t see that enough in horror movies – I mean sure, you get people screaming and running from stuff, etc., but a lot of times they’re “over it” or unimpressed by stuff that would freak any normal person out. I think that’s one of the reasons those Abbott and Costello movies were so funny – it’s funny to watch a grown man freak out. Hell, I guess that’s why I like the EVIL DEAD movies so much, now that I think of it.

The story is told through the point of view of the various cameras used for the livestream – some GoPros strategically placed throughout the house, as well as one strapped to our cowardly hero, so this puts it firmly in the found footage genre, and it’s a good example of it. Everything makes sense and you never really see any contrived cracks in logic, and it gives our lead (one of only a couple actors in the entire movie) plenty of reason to talk directly to the audience – because he actually has an audience, in the movie!

DEADSTREAM is a Shudder exclusive, so you have to subscribe to the horror movie streaming service to get it. So, unfortunately, it probably won’t be well-seen, but it’s definitely worth a watch if you want a fun, fresh take on a haunted house movie.

So ends another Horrorfest – 31 horror movies in the 31 days of October. Happy Halloween!

Horrorfest 2022: Life After Beth

Life After Beth
Written and directed by Jeff Baena
Starring Aubrey Plaza, Dane DeHaan, Molly Shannon, Cheryl Hines, Paul Reiser, Matthew Gray Gubler and John C. Reilly
USA, 2014

I’ve long been curious about LIFE AFTER BETH, even before I saw other films by the same filmmaker, Jeff Baena. At first, just knowing it starred Aubrey Plaza and was about a guy’s girlfriend who comes back as a zombie intrigued me. Good star, good premise. But then, later, after I saw Baena’s crazy movies like THE LITTLE HOURS and SPIN ME ROUND, I thought – I really gotta see this.

Turns out I didn’t really HAVE to. LIFE AFTER BETH has a good premise – a regular guy is depressed over the death of his girlfriend, only to find out she has returned as a zombie – but the execution is off. Which is too bad because if you read the cast list above you can see that there’s a lot of talent behind this. It just doesn’t amount to much.

By the end of the movie, we’re in the middle of a full-on zombie apocalypse and the movie doesn’t really do anything unique or different with it. I guess no one really has since Danny Boyle, right? Oh wait, there was ZOMBIELAND. Okay, since ZOMBIELAND, then.

Aubrey Plaza does her best with the weak material but it’s sort of a one-note joke that overstays its welcome. Maybe this should have been a short film or part of an anthology or something. As it stands, you can probably skip it.

Horrorfest 2022: Werewolf by Night

Werewolf by Night
Directed by Michael Giacchino
Written by Heather Quinn and Peter Cameron
Starring Gael Garcia Bernal, Laura Donnelly and Harriet Sansom Harris
USA, 2022

The latest offering in a long string of Marvel offerings on Disney+, WEREWOLF BY NIGHT is a throwback to the Universal monster movies of old. That’s the main reason I wanted to watch it. Black and white? Atmospheric? Werewolves? Right up my alley.

The other reason is because it’s less than an hour long. That’s a refreshing run time at a time when most Marvel properties are either three-hour-long movies or multiple part TV shows.

Gael Garcia Bernal stars as Jack Russell, a werewolf (get it?) who goes undercover as a monster hunter at a sort of monster hunting lodge on the eve of a big important monster hunt. Turns out, the monster being hunted is his buddy (a big CGI creature) and he’s got to join the ranks of the hunters in order to get his buddy out of there.

It’s an important night because whoever wins the hunt gets to inherit the Bloodstone which is a magical rock that… I don’t know. It does something. Even in Marvel movie that’s less than an hour long they STILL lost me on exposition. But, don’t let that give you the wrong idea – the movie’s not boring. In fact, it’s pretty great. Nice, simple, to the point. 

It actually left me wanting more WEREWOLF BY NIGHT adventures. Hopefully he’ll be back.

Horrorfest 2022: Hocus Pocus 2

Hocus Pocus 2
Directed by Anne Fletcher
Written by Jen D’Angelo
Story by David Kirschner, Blake Harris and Jen D’Angelo
Based on characters created by Mick Garris and David Kirschner
Starring Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, Sam Richardson, Doug Jones, Whitney Peak, Belissa Escobedo, Tony Hale and Hannah Waddingham
USA, 2022

I know what you’re thinking: HOCUS POCUS 2 is not a horror movie. Well, it has (at least) three witches in it, and a zombie, and takes place on Halloween, so back off.

Almost 20 years after the original, the witches played by Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy return! Basically a retelling of the first movie, with a couple things changed here and there to keep it at least a little fresh, HOCUS POCUS 2 is sort of like the opposite of HALLOWEEN ENDS – instead of taking a hard left turn, it really leans into the fact that it’s a sequel, and delivers pretty much exactly what you’d expect, and want, out of a HOCUS POCUS sequel.

Bette Midler and her chums are just as funny as they always were, interacting like Abbot and Costello, if there were three of them. Oh, I guess that’s what you call THE THREE STOOGES. It’s refreshing to see Sarah Jessica Parker take on a role other than Carrie Bradshaw – over the years I’ve almost forgotten she’s a comedic genius. All three stars give it their all and step into their roles as if they just played them yesterday, turning in performances brimming with physicality and impeccable comic timing and chemistry.

I also liked a couple of the supporting cast members, specifically Tony Hale as the town’s mayor, a super nice (if spacey) guy, hell-bent on getting a candy apple at the town’s Halloween party, and Sam Richardson as an amateur warlock and proprietor of the local magic shop. Both of these characters could have been played as villains, but instead they’re well-meaning generally nice guys, and that’s an example of why this movie works: it’s light-hearted, fun and genuinely positive.

Did we need a HOCUS POCUS 2? No, not really. Is the one we got the best-case scenario? Yes, probably.

Horrorfest 2022: The Visit

The Visit
Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan
Starring Olivia DeJonge, Ed Oxenbould, Deanna Dunagan, Peter McRobbie and Kathryn Hahn
USA, 2015

I’ve been meaning to watch M. Night Shyamalan’s THE VISIT ever since it first came out and only just now got around to it. At the time, his career had had a couple critical and box office failures, and THE VISIT was viewed as kind of a smaller return to form for him. And what a return it is!

I started it up thinking, hey, it’s PG-13, it’s Shyamalan, it’ll be a nice scary movie with a twist but it won’t be THAT scary. I can relax. I was kinda right – there’s a twist, for sure, but relaxing? Naw. This was pretty freaky.

The story concerns a couple kids (Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould) going to stay with their grandparents (Deanna Dunagen and Peter McRobbie). Their grandparents have been estranged from their mother (Kathryn Hahn) their entire lives, so they’ve never met. The older sister hopes this can be an in road to getting her family back together and repairing the wounds of her mother’s past. To this end, she’s brought her camera along for a little amateur documentary-making.  

That’s where we get out main narrative device – this is Shyamalan’s dip into the found footage genre, and for the most part it is successful. He keeps things pretty meta, which helps to cover up any of the awkward questions we might have like “Why would you keep filming this?” that often pop up in lesser attempts. Turns out the guy knows his shit. Go figure.

I guess I don’t really know what else to say except that M. Night Shyamalan really nails it here. Good job!

Horrorfest 2022: They/Them

They/Them
Written and directed by John Logan
Starring Theo Germaine, Carrie Preston, Anna Chlumsky, Austin Crute, Quei Tann, Anna Lore, Cooper Koch, Monique Kim, Darwin del Fabro, Hayley Griffith, Boone Platt, Mark Ashworth and Kevin Bacon
USA, 2022

Time for another teen slasher, this time in the familiar camp setting. But there’s a twist! It’s not just any old camp – it’s a gay conversion camp!

Kevin Bacon returns to his slasher roots as the lead counselor of the kind of camp upset parents send their kids to to get brainwashed and reprogrammed. It’s the stuff of nightmares even if there’s not a killer on the loose, so they really could have dropped the slasher angle.

As it is, there’s already both too much and not enough going on in this movie. You’ve got a wide ensemble of kids dealing with complex real-world issues, plus a killer, and it still moves at a glacial pace. This is all the more surprising when you realize accomplished screenwriter John Logan wrote and directed it.

It is nice, in passing, to have a protagonist (Theo Germaine) who is representational of a group that is not often seen in heroic horror roles. But I wish either more or less had been done with it. This kinda shoots for the middle, which is not where you want to be when it comes to trying to do something different.

Anna Chlumsky also shows up in a supporting role just long enough for me to wish she was in more stuff. Someone give her a star turn, again! It’s been long enough.

Horrorfest 2022: Halloween Ends

Halloween Ends
Directed by David Gordon Green
Written by Paul Brad Logan, Chris Bernier, Danny McBride and David Gordon Green
Starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Andi Matichak, Rohan Campbell, Will Patton, Kyle Richards and James Jude Courtney
USA, 2022

At last, the totally 100% definitely final HALLOWEEN movie is here – HALLOWEEN ENDS. Marketed as the final confrontation between babysitter turned senior citizen Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and evil incarnate spree/serial killer Michael Meyers (James Jude Courtney), this flick instead spends much of its running time focusing on a new character: mild-mannered Cory Cunningham (Rohan Campbell), readjusting to life on the outside after a four-year prison stint for accidentally killing a kid in his charge.

He strikes up a relationship with Curtis’ granddaughter (Andi Matichak) from the last two HALLOWEEN movies, but after initially feeling empathy for him, Curtis eventually begins to see evil in his eyes, and soon we’re wondering if we’ve got a proto-Michael Meyers on our hands, here.

Speaking of Michael Meyers, you might be wondering what he’s been up to since his two-movie kill-crazy rampage leading up to this one and the answer is he’s been hanging out in the sewer.

So, I don’t know what to think of this movie. It has good stuff in it and bad stuff. The bad stuff is not necessarily what most people are complaining about – the fact that it focuses on this kid or the fact that Michael Meyers isn’t in it much – that stuff doesn’t bug me and I kind of like the fact that they’re trying something new.

What’s frustrating and difficult to figure out is… why now? Why wait until the third movie of a series-within-a-series that has been touted as a self-contained trilogy and marketed as something with a beginning, middle and end to suddenly take a left turn?  

During the actual movie I was preoccupied with this stuff. After the movie, after a few days went by, and I thought about it more as its own stand-alone thing and not part of a series, I began to like the choices made in the movie more. Even though it still has big confusing flaws.

Maybe now that this series is over David Gordon Green can go back to making quiet, well-observed indie arthouse movies about the human experience. Maybe.

Horrorfest 2022: Demon Wind

Demon Wind
Written and directed by Charles Philip Moore
Starring Eric Larson, Francine Lapensee, Rufus Norris, Jack Forcinito, Stephen Quadros, Mark David Fritsche and Sherry Leigh
USA, 1990

The fourth and final installment of the all night horror movie marathon, DEMON WIND involves a young man (Eric Larson) who travels with a group of friends to the broken down site of his family’s isolated farmhouse to solve the mystery of what happened to his grandparents.

Pretty much right away it becomes clear something super natural is going on – even though the farmhouse looks basically empty and torn down from the outside, going through the door places you into a complete (if trashed) house with four walls and a roof. It’s kind of a neat idea in a movie that otherwise turns out to be a fairly by-the-book horror flick.

Speaking of books, of course they find one, and of course it has mysterious stuff in it about demonic incantations and daggers and stuff. Now we’re getting into EVIL DEAD territory. It isn’t long before demons are surrounding the house, and just when you begin to wonder why this movie has so many characters, you realize it’s so the demons have people to kill. At one point a couple characters decide to bail, and the movie dutifully introduces to two more. Fresh meat.

I can say this for the movie: they really tried. The demon makeup and costumes are pretty great, if not very well articulated, and the battles against them are well done. Also, the movie attempts to strive for something kind of transcendental and crazy at the climax, but doesn’t quite hit the mark. Still, points for trying.

Horrorfest 2022: Demonoid

Demonoid
Directed by Alfredo Zacarias
Written by David Lee Fein, F. Amos Powell and Alfredo Zacarias
Starring Samantha Eggar, Stuart Whitman, Roy Jenson, Lew Saunders, Narciso Busquets and Jose Chavez
Mexico, 1981

The third film of the all night horror marathon this year concerns an ancient disembodied hand that’s dug up in a Mexican mine and then goes on to possesses one person after another, killing them off as it goes.

The hand’s first victim is the owner of the mine (Roy Jenson) and the rest of the movie follows his wife (Jennifer Baines) who teams up with a reluctant priest (Stuart Whitman) to put a stop to the hand’s rampage.

This is a super low budget and amateurish production that doesn’t have much to offer. It should come as no surprise that Quentin Tarantino loves this movie, though I’m not sure why. I’ll have to give his podcast a listen to find out. My guess is, back in the old days, if you could find something obscure no one else had ever seen, and it was weird enough and had maybe one or two WTF moments in it, it was worth praising. These days not so much, I don’t think.

Then again, I love Ed Wood movies so what do I know.

Horrorfest 2022: Stage Fright

Stage Fright
Directed by Michele Soavi
Written by Lew Cooper and Sheila Goldberg
Starring David Brandon, Barbara Cupisti, Mary Sellers, Giovanni Lombardo Radice, Jo Ann Smith, Robert Gligorov and Piero Vida
Italy, 1987

It wouldn’t be the all night horror movie marathon without a trip to Italy. This year we got STAGE FRIGHT, the tale of a demented and murderous actor who escapes the hospital and picks off the cast and crew of an artsy musical, trapping them in the theater where they’re rehearsing one dark and stormy night.

This movie seems to have something it wants to say about the sometimes abusive nature of show business. The guy with the money behind the play is a lecherous pervert who preys on the actresses and the director of the play is a sadistic dictator who doesn’t care about his cast and crew’s well-being. But none of that stuff ever really factors into the “important” part of the movie – the systematic murder of everyone.

The other problem with the movie is that the entire thing hinges on a contrivance where there’s only one door (for some reason) people could use to escape the theater, and that one door is (inexplicably) locked from the outside? I kept wondering why the future murder victims didn’t just walk out through the lobby. Maybe I missed something.

But what about the positives? Well, the movie is colorful and well shot and the owl mask the killer ends up using to hide his identity is memorable. So it has that going for it, which is nice.

Horrorfest 2022: Kingdom of the Spiders

Kingdom of the Spiders
Directed by John “Bud” Cardos
Written by Alan Caillou and Richard Robinson
Starring William Shatner, Tiffany Bolling, Woody Strode, Altovise Davis, Lieux Dressler, David McLean, Natasha Ryan and Marcy Lafferty
USA, 1977

For the last few years I’ve attended the Hollywood Theater’s All Night Horror Movie Marathon and included the movies shown there in Horrorfest. This year is no different, starting with this creature feature starring one of my favorites, William Shatner.

Shatner stars as a vet for farm animals out in the deserts of Arizona. When animals mysteriously turn up dead, an entymologist (Tiffany Bolling) shows up to announce what we have here is a spider problem. Tarantulas, specifically, and lots of them. For some reason they’ve given up on their docile ways and decided to turn on livestock – and eventually humans! It's not long before Shatner and a band of spider survivors are holed up in a cabin, surrounded on all sides by creepy crawly terrors.

This was a rollicking good time, mostly thanks to Shatner’s performance in the lead as a beer guzzling, womanizing vet, but also thanks to the great soundtrack by Dorsey Burnette. Burnette contributes multiple songs to the movie but the standout is “Peaceful Verde Valley”, the song that plays over the opening and closing credits. That song is worth the price of admission alone.

Horrorfest 2022: The Velvet Vampire

The Velvet Vampire
Directed by Stephanie Rothman
Written by Stephanie Rothman, Charles S. Swartz and Maurice Jules
Starring Celese Yarnall, Michael Blodgett, Sherry Miles, Gene Shane, Jerry Daniels, Sandy Ward and Paul Prokop
USA, 1971

A California couple (Michael Blodgett and Sherry Miles) visit the desert home of their mysterious new friend (Celest Yarnall) only to find out she’s a vampire.

Another artsy (but exploitative) take on the vampire mythos, this time presaging films like THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, where a couple trapped in a predatory stranger’s house becomes the sometimes willing/sometimes unwilling objects of seduction. At first the guy’s into it until he cools off while his wife wants to leave, then the wife gets into it as the husband wants to leave. And so it goes.

The dream like atmosphere and leisurely pace works better for this movie than it did for THE LIVING DEAD GIRL, using the desert locations as an appropriate backdrop for the various shenanigans and goings on. 

Incidentally, it should be noted that this film was co-written and directed by Stephanie Rothman. It’s rare to find exploitation or genre pictures from the 70s (or any era) directed by a woman, so it’s a nice change of pace.

Horrorfest 2022: The Living Dead Girl

The Living Dead Girl
Directed by Jean Rollin
Written by Jacques Ralf and Jean Rollin
Starring Marina Pierro, Francoise Blanchard, Mike Marshall, Carina Barone, Fanny Magieri, Patricia Besnard-Rousseau and Sam Selsky
France, 1982

A recently deceased heiress (Francoise Blanchard) to a large manor house rises from the grave when a couple criminals spill toxic waste in a robbery gone wrong. Her childhood friend (Marina Pierro) is shocked to find her alive – and even more shocked to find she has an insatiable appetite for blood. What’s a loyal friend to do? Become this vampire’s familiar, that’s what.

The first half of this film is slow and dreamy and started to lose me as I began to wonder if it was just an attempt at art for art’s sake – an exploitation flick masked by pretentions. But, as things began to flip and Pierro as the friend took more and more drastic measures to keep the blood flowing for her living dead friend, things got more interesting. At a certain point, the living dead girl regrets her bloodlust and just wants to be put back in the grave. But Pierro won’t have it.

There’s a subplot with a bickering tourist couple (Carina Barone and Mike Marshall) who starts to figure out what’s going on, but it doesn’t ultimately amount to much and ends up just being filler. I guess a lot of the movie is filler, dead space hoping to come across as thoughtful or suspenseful. Maybe I’m not doing it justice.

In any case, it was nice to see Marina Pierro in a second movie this month – she was Dr. Jekyll’s fiancé in THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MISS OSBOURNE. Reading about her for that movie, I learned she’s a bit of a cult movie star for these types of movies, and I can see why.

Horrorfest 2022: Blood and Donuts

Blood and Donuts
Directed by Holly Dale
Written by Andrew Rai Berzins
Starring Gordon Currie, Justin Louis, Helene Clarkson and David Cronenberg
Canada, 1995

Here’s a cute little vampire flick from Canada about a vampire (Gordon Currie) who has been asleep since the late 60s being awakened in mid-90s Toronto by an errant golf ball. Turns out he’s a fairly gentle vampire who is reluctant to feed on humans and, although he’s a romantic, doesn’t want to doom any potential love interests to the tortures of immortality.

The vampire falls in with an eager and friendly cab driver (Justin Louis) and becomes interested in the waitress (Helene Clarkson) at the local diner. The cab driver’s in trouble with the local crime boss (David Cronenberg!) but with a vampire now on his side, his problems might be solved. Or they might be getting worse. Hard to say.

The worst you could say about this movie is that it has a little bit of trouble with tone – the premise reads (and title) reads like flat out comedy, and although there are funny moments the movie is more gently offbeat than outright hilarious, with an over-arching brooding tone, appropriate for the supernatural subject matter. 

Justin Louis as the eccentric cab driver was my favorite part of this movie, stealing nearly every scene he’s in with his unique delivery. It’s not just the actor, though – the character itself is a memorable and likable guy. You can see why this vampire adopts him. Or he adopts the vampire. In any case, it’s unexpectedly (but pleasantly) touching.

Horrorfest 2022: Vampire's Kiss

Vampire’s Kiss
Directed by Robert Bierman
Written by Joseph Minion
Starring Nicolas Cage, Maria Conchita Alonso, Jennifer Beals and Elizabeth Ashley
USA, 1989

There’s 80s flicks and there’s vampire flicks and then there’s 80s vampire flicks. And this is one of them. VAMPIRE’S KISS is probably most notable for the unhinged performance at the center of it, served up by none other than Nicolas Cage, king of eccentric acting choices.

Cage seems to sort of maybe put on an English accent as a high powered, ambitious literary agent who browbeats and intimidates his long suffering secretary (Maria Conchita Alonso) by day and picks up chicks at bars by night. In between he visits his therapist (Elizabeth Ashley) where he discusses his increasingly unraveling mental state, helped along by booze and coke.

One night Cage brings home Jennifer Beals who, aside from being Jennifer Beals, is also a vampire. One bite later and now Cage is convinced he’s transforming into a vampire, too. Except we’re not so convinced. He can’t see himself in mirrors, but we can see him. He has to go out and buy plastic fangs instead of growing them the old-fashioned way. Stuff like that. Did the Jennifer Beals incident even happen? What’s real? What’s not?

As the movie unfolded, I wondered if perhaps Bret Easton Ellis was a fan? His bloody, satirical takedown of coke and money fueled 80s excess, AMERICAN PSYCHO, was published only a couple years later in 1991 and seems to explore some of the same territory as VAMPIRE’S KISS, inspiring a remarkable Christian Bale performance in the eventual film version. 

Rarely has a descent into madness been so funny. Perhaps it is best to view this whole thing as a giant metaphor. Why the cartoonish Cage performance, though? It’s not clear, but much like with TETSUO: THE IRON MAN I guess the companion question would be, why not? This film likely would not be remembered today if it wasn’t for Cage’s unhinged performance, and you cannot deny that it is entertaining. 

Horrorfest 2022: Tetsuo: The Iron Man

Tetsuo: The Iron Man
Written and directed by Shinya Tsukamoto
Starring Tomorowo Taguchi, Kei Fujiwara and Shinya Tsukamoto
Japan, 1989

This one’s been a long time coming and I’m kind of glad I finally got it over with. TETSUO: THE IRON MAN is the kind of endurance test of a movie that film buffs toss around as some kind of proving ground, like if you’ve seen (let alone liked it) you’ve passed some kind of test. This is the kind of movie where, if it had hit my radar when I was 14 or 15 I might to this day tell people how cool it is. Instead, I just kept hearing about it for decades and now I’m an old man who’s here to tell you it sucks.

But, you sort of have to admire it. Clearly a lot of work went into it on the part of the cast and crew, and a lot was done with few resources. I’m not sure I can quite explain what this movie’s about, except to say that it seems to be about a man who increasingly starts growing metal parts out of his body until his more metal than man. This description doesn’t really do it justice, though. Try to picture an early David Lynch movie combined with David Cronenberg’s fascination with body horror and Sam Raimi’s hyperactive, kinetic shot composition and editing. 

Writer/director/star Shinha Tsukamoto has at least done one thing that is critical for a good horror movie, which is to hit on some kind of primal fear or disgust or uncomfortableness. The notion of metal parts growing out of skin, or scraping against each other, all that stuff is squirm-inducing. So, he hit on that, but then kinda doesn’t know what to do with it. Actually, that’s not true – I’m sure this is probably exactly the film Tsukamoto wanted to make. Just not sure why. 

But then again, why not, right? 

Watching this film I got “first movie” vibes. I thought, okay, so, this experimental bout of insanity was this guy’s first shot and after this he went on to something bigger and better that I’ll recognize the title of. So, I was surprised to find out this film is squarely in the middle of Tsukamoto’s filmography, and didn’t lead to anything bigger or better (unless you count sequels).

Horrorfest 2022: Dream Demon

Dream Demon
Directed by Harley Cokeliss
Written by Christopher Wicking, Harley Cokeliss and Catherine de Pury
Starring Jemma Redgrage, Kathleen Wilhoite, Jimmy Nail, Timothy Spall, Mark Greestreet and Susan Fleetwood
UK, 1988

A young woman’s (Jemma Redgrave) anxieties about her pending nuptials manifest themselves in disturbing and violent dreams. She’s set to marry a “hero” (Mark Greenstreet) of the Falklands war, so the local London paparazzi (Timothy Spall and Jimmy Nail) is following her around trying to get the story. As both the dreams and the press become more intrusive, lines between reality and fantasy begin to blur and it becomes unclear whether this is all in the young woman’s head, or if something supernatural is going on.

This is a strange, unpleasant movie that takes a little too long to get going. Once it does, it eventually deals with astral projection and childhood trauma. My favorite part of it was the central relationship between the two female leads – early on, Redgrave meets an American tourist (Kathleen Wilhoite) who is in town in search of answers about her own past. Wilhoite helps Redgrave stand up to the paparazzi, and the genuine platonic friendship that forms between the two of them as they offer each other support is nice to see.

Horrorfest 2022: Brain Damage

Brain Damage
Written and directed by Frank Henenlotter
Starring Rick Hearst, Jennifer Lowry and Gordon MacDonald
USA, 1988

Low budget director Frank Henenlotter returns to Horrorfest with yet another horror comedy, BRAIN DAMAGE. In previous years I’ve had the pleasure of checking out his other classics, BASKET CASE and FRANKENHOOKER, so I went into this one pretty sure I knew what I was getting into, and pretty sure I’d like it.

Turns out I was right. This time around the patented hapless Henenlotter lead (Rick Hearst) becomes host to a parasitic creature that attaches itself to the base of his neck. In exchange for giving his host a euphoric, psychadelic and addictive high, the parasite, inexplicably named Aylmer, gains full control of the host’s body so he can go out, murder people and eat their brains.

It seems like a lot but it’s really pretty simple. Aylmer, the parasite, voice by John Zacherle, is a seemingly polite and well-spoken creature, but of course he has dark intentions for his host. The host, in the mean time, tries to keep his relationship with his girlfriend (Jennifer Lowry) and his brother (Gordon MacDonald) together while also attempting to figure out what’s going on and avoid his neighbors (Lucille Saint Peter and Theo Barnes), the previous hosts who want Aylmer back.

This movie’s gross, cheap and more than a little exploitative in a couple ill-advised murder scenes but it’s also funny, inventive and has a strange sort of innocence about it, embodied by the least likely horror monster you’ll ever meet, Aylmer. From the moment he’s introduced, he’ll steal your heart.

Horrorfest 2022: The Keep

The Keep
Written and directed by Michael Mann
Based on the book by F. Paul Wilson
Starring Scott Glenn, Alberta Watson, Jurgen Prochnow, Robert Prosky, Gabriel Byrne and Ian McKellen
USA/UK, 1983

What’s this? A horror movie written and directed by Michael Mann featuring a cast wall-to-wall with greats like Scott Glenn, Jurgen Prochnow, Gabriel Byrne and none other than Ian McKellen? AND a score by Tangerine Dream? Plus, it’s about Nazis? Sign me up.

Viewed as a critical and commercial flop in its day, and apparently cut down to just over an hour and a half from a much more ambitious 200-some-minute run time, THE KEEP tells the tale of a band of Nazis who show up in a small Romanian village to occupy an abandoned fortress, the titular “keep.” Turns out the locals have all kinds of superstitions about the keep, and while the Nazis roll their eyes and don’t believe anything, it becomes increasingly clear something evil lives within the keep and must not be let out.

Without getting too into the plot, I’ll just say the local priest (Robert Prosky) tells the Nazis they need a specific Jewish historian (Ian McKellen) to figure out the secrets of the keep. Of course this is just a ruse by Prosky to try to rescue McKellen and his daughter (Alberta Watson) from extermination. Meanwhile, the sadistic SS leader (Gabriel Byrne) is increasingly at odds with his more decent counterpart, a captain in the German army played by Jurgen Prochnow. There’s also an enigmatic stranger lurking around (Scott Glenn) who seems to know something about whatever’s in the keep. 

Can the evil power in the keep be used to destroy the Nazis? Or, will letting it out just make the world even worse off than it already is? There’s only one way to find out, I guess.

If you think this sounds awesome, you’re right, though I will admit the movie sorta goes off the rails in the last act. This is a case where all the setup is pretty badass and then the movie doesn’t really stick its landing, but you have to wonder what might be in the rest of the footage Michael Mann shot that never saw the light of day. Maybe this is the best version of the movie we could hope for, or maybe there’s a super-duper director’s cut coming someday, but, yet again, this is not quite the embarrassing failure history would have us believe it is.

It's kinda like… if an entire movie was just the part in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK where the Nazis heads explode… it’d be THE KEEP.

Horrorfest 2022: Next of Kin

Next of Kin
Directed by Tony Williams
Screenplay by Michael Heath and Tony Williams
Starring Jackie Kerin, John Jarratt, Gerda Nicolson and Alex Scott
Australia/New Zealand, 1982

A young woman inherits her family’s country home which has been operating as a retirement home for years. As she looks into diaries left behind by her mother and goes through her aunt’s medical records, she also strikes up a romance with a local guy she had dated a while back. Unfortunately a dead body turns up in the retirement home bathtub and stuff starts to go south quick.

For much of the movie’s run time, I was sort of checked out. It moved along at a slow pace and I wasn’t convinced anything major was ever going to happen. But then boy oh boy did it ever. Rarely have I seen a film where the climax is so insane compared to what leads up to it.

This flick has not only a twist to kick off the climax, but then some really memorable horror scenes as well, including some business in which a victim escapes her attacker by successfully stabbing her in the eye through a keyhole. It’s inventively done, and leads to even crazier scenes of explosive carnage that I couldn’t have predicted.

Horrorfest 2022: The Fan

The Fan
Directed by Edward Bianchi
Written by Priscilla Chapman and John Hartwell
Based on the book by Bob Randall
Starring Lauren Bacall, Michael Biehn, James Garner and Maureen Stapleton
USA, 1981

Michael Biehn has been one of my favorite actors ever since I first saw him in THE TERMINATOR, but although I’m always happy whenever he pops up in stuff I never really sought out any of his more obscure work. As a result, I’ve mostly seen him in hero or antihero roles, usually in sci-fi or action movies. So, you can imagine how excited I was to check this movie out, where young pre-Kyle Reese Michael Biehn plays a psychotic stalker.

Lauren Bacall plays the stalked, a divorced Hollywood actress whose screen career has dried up. She’s turned to Broadway to make her come back. She’s still in love with (and on friendly terms with) her ex-husband (James Garner) who is in town developing his next movie. Her other closest friend is her long-time assistant (Maureen Stapleton) whose tasks include dealing with the fan mail.

That’s where Michael Biehn comes in – he’s Bacall’s number one fan, but his fan letters to her have been getting increasingly creepy. Biehn lives a slightly cleaned up version of a Travis Bickle life, endlessly writing fan letters alone in his apartment and stalking the streets of New York in his spare time.

It isn’t long before things escalate and Biehn moves from obsession to actually entering Bacall’s life, through violent acts and break-ins.

The movie doesn’t quite live up to the promise of its early scenes, but it is far from the turkey that most critics would have you believe. For most of its run time it seemed like a forgotten gem, only sort of losing its footing towards the end as Bacall’s Broadway comeback is played against Biehn’s final attack, more so because of the way the song and dance is treated than the way the suspense story is resolved.

Horrorfest 2022: Roadgames

Roadgames
Directed by Richard Franklin
Written by Everett De Roche
Story by Everett De Roche and Richard Franklin
Starring Stacy Keach, Jamie Lee Curtis and Marion Edwards
Australia, 1981

This is a fun thriller that takes the premise of REAR WINDOW and takes it on the road, as a trucker (Stacy Keach) in the outback thinks one of his fellow road travelers might be a killer. Jamie Lee Curtis pops up halfway through the movie as an heiress on the run, hitchhiking her way into the trucker’s heart. Just when I thought I’d seen every Jamie Lee Curtis horror movie, she pops up in the damndest places.

The Australian scenery is beautiful, and Keach makes for an interesting character study as a loner who keeps himself busy talking to his pet dingo (or at least, what he thinks is a dingo) and flip-flops between a nihilistic “who cares” attitude and an urge to help and do the right thing.

Right up until the very end I wasn’t sure how things were going to resolve themselves, and the extended truck chase goes places I wouldn’t have predicted. Thankfully it cruises into a satisfying ending, making this one of the most consistently good movies of Horrorfest 2022 so far. It’s a wonder it isn’t more well known.

Horrorfest 2022: Strange Behavior

Strange Behavior
Directed by Michael Laughlin
Written by Bill Condon and Michael Laughlin
Starring Michael Murphy, Louise Fletcher, Dan Shor, Fiona Lewis and Arthur Dignam
Australia/New Zealand/USA, 1981

This is the second Horrorfest movie in a row that has a small-town sheriff running around trying to figure stuff out, and so of course, it is also the second Horrorfest movie in a row that reminds me of JAWS. The similarities stop there, though.

This time out, Michael Murphy (the mayor of Gotham City!) is the sheriff, and the murders are focused on teens. But this isn’t your usual slasher stuff as there’s a crazy scheme at work at the local lab, where mysterious scientific studies are being conducted on teens and children. We get a glimpse into this as the sheriff’s teen son (Dan Shor) signs up as a test subject for some quick cash.

This flick is sort of a genre bender as it starts off in slasher territory, shifts gears for conspiracy-type mad scientist stuff and then even manages a twist ending. Along the way there are some truly memorable and squirm-inducing gags including an eye-injection scene and a bloody visit to the bathroom.

As a sidenote, one of the main characters’ buddies is played by Marc McClure who you may remember as Jimmy Olsen in the SUPERMAN movies or as Marty McFly’s brother in BACK TO THE FUTURE. I’d just like to note here I find him to be an incredible likable actor and wish he was in more stuff.

Oh, oops, one more side note – in one sequence a killer wears a Tor Johnson mask. I’d have my Ed Wood fan club card revoked if I didn’t point that out. 

Horrorfest 2022: Dead & Buried

Dead & Buried
Directed by Gary Sherman
Written by Ronal Shusett and Dan O’Bannon
Story by Alex Stern and Jeff Millar
Starring James Farentino, Melody Anderson, Jack Albertson, Dennis Redfield, Nancy Locke and Robert Englund
USA, 1981

Strange murders are taking place in a small coastal town and the sheriff (James Farentino) and coroner (Jack Albertson) are on the case. The bodies pile up at an alarming rate and seemingly no one can be trusted as everyone in town starts to act increasingly weird – including the sheriff’s own wife (Melody Anderson).

As the small-town sheriff races around town trying to figure stuff out, I was reminded a little bit of JAWS. The nice thing about this little oddity is that there is a solution to the mystery that isn’t easily guessed and is a unique take on zombies. If you don’t want to know what it is, stop reading now, because it turns out the coroner is a mad scientist who has perfected a way to bring the dead back to life, and uses his skills as a mortician to keep them looking alive to the point where basically everyone in town is undead.

Even beyond this revelation there is one more small last-minute twist that buttons up this neat little thriller nicely.

Horrorfest 2022: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne
Written and directed by Walerian Borowczyk
Based on the book by Robert Louis Stevenson
Starring Udo Kier, Marina Pierro, Patrick Magee, Howard Vernon and Gerard Zalcberg
France/West Germany, 1981

There’s a possibility THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE by Robert Louis Stevenson is the most-often adapted book in cinematic history. It certainly seems to be in horror film history. Here’s yet another adaptation, this time with the twist of being told through the eyes of Jekyll’s fiancé, as played by Marina Pierro.

Unlike other renderings of the tale, this one all takes place over the course of one evening as Jekyll’s engagement party descends into a murderous orgy of bloody torture. One after another dignitary and/or relative falls prey to Jekyll’s evil alter-ego, Mr. Hyde. This time out, Jekyll and Hyde are played by two different actors – Udo Kier as the “good” doctor, and Gerard Zalcberg as the evil Hyde. It’s an interesting choice, and they’re good in their roles, but I can’t help but think Kier would have been right at home doing double duty.

As for the movie itself, while it’s handsomely shot, it’s kind of the sort of thing where you have to like it BECAUSE of the violence and not in spite of it… so, it wasn’t super engaging beyond the initial premise and a mild curiosity as to what would end up happening.

Horrorfest 2022: The Hidden

The Hidden
Directed by Jack Sholder
Written by Bob Hunt
Starring Kyle MacLachlan and Michael Nouri
USA, 1987

THE HIDDEN hits the ground running and never stops, opening with a spectacular bank robbery and car chase on the streets of Los Angeles, seemingly perpetrated on a whim by an average, normal guy. What would make a guy snap like this and cause so much wanton destruction?

Much to the hard-boiled detective (Michael Nouri) on the case’s chagrin, an FBI special agent shows up to help figure this out. This agent is played wonderfully by Kyle MacLachlan, who at first just seems a little off but quickly begins to appear… alien. 

In fact, maybe the whole thing is alien – turns out, some kind of entity is jumping from body to body, causing seemingly regular people to go on kill crazy rampages, avoiding detective by swapping bodies at the last moment.

This is an endlessly inventive movie that never even flirts with getting boring, and there’s even a strangely effective buddy cop relationship between down-to-earth Nouri and space cadet MacLachlan. There’s even a blink and you miss it Danny Trejo cameo, where he gets to utter a line… before getting killed.

One final note – this film features a flame thrower that is introduced briefly in the first act so that it can come back in a glorious moment of payoff and catharsis in the third act. It made me wonder if Quentin Tarantino had THE HIDDEN in mind when he crafted ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD.

Horrorfest 2022: The Lair of the White Worm

The Lair of the White Worm
Written and directed by Ken Russell
Based on the book by Bram Stoker
Starring Amanda Donohoe, Hugh Grant, Catherine Oxenberg, Peter Capaldi, Sammi Davis and Stratford Johns
UK, 1988

As a lifelong DRACULA fan, I’ve known about Bram Stoker’s less-famous work, THE LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM, and its cinematic adaptation, for decades, so it’s appropriate that I’ve finally gotten around to checking it out. Turns out it’s written and directed by none other than Tommy auteur Ken Russell, a Horrorfest alum.

THE LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM isn’t quite as excessive and over-the-top as your usual Ken Russell movie, though. Before I saw it I might have thought a dialed-back Russell would be a good thing, but part way through the movie I began wishing Russell would turn it up to 11. The material demands it.

The story concerns an archaeology student who digs up a monster’s skull in a field in England. The nearby village has traditions revolving around the legend of a giant worm that lived in the area and was slain long ago. Could this skull belong to the worm? Maybe it’s not just a legend.

The Lady of a nearby manor (Amanda Donohoe) certainly doesn’t seem to think so as she turns out to worship the ancient worm, scheming to offer it human sacrifices, and can even transform into a monster herself. 

DR. WHO fans might recognize a young Peter Capaldi as the archaeologist who gets the story moving, but the real scene stealer here is an equally young Hugh Grant as the ancestor of the Lord reputed to have slain the worm in the first place. Turns out he had that star presence from day one.

Horrorfest 2022: Wolfen

Wolfen
Directed by Michael Wadleigh
Written by David M. Eyre, Jr., Michael Wadleigh and Eric Roth
Story by David M. Eyre, Jr. and Michael Wadleigh
Based on the book by Whitley Strieber
Starring Albert Finney, Diana Venora, Edward James Olmos, Gregory Hines and Tom Noonan
USA, 1981

Albert Finney stars as a washed-up, alcoholic retired New York detective who comes back to the force for one last assignment – figuring out a particularly strange string of murders. As the investigation deepens it begins to become clear that a wolf-like animal might be responsible. Finney turns to a Native American activist he once busted for some answers. In a great performance, young Edward James Olmos explains the killer is a God-like wolf spirit known as a “Wolfen.”

This is a slickly produced Hollywood horror flick full of great cinematography and even greater performances that even includes a bunch of appropriately rageful thoughts about the destruction of the environment and gentrification. It’s a movie that really has something to say, and says it with style.

On a quick side note, the score is by James Horner, who, while a great composer, often quotes his own scores and reuses bits and pieces from movie to movie. In this one, I noticed music cues reserved for the Klingon scenes in STAR TREK III – but of course, this movie came before that one, so I guess really the Klingon music in STAR TREK III is actually WOLFEN music. Who knew!

Horrorfest 2022: The Funhouse

The Funhouse
Directed by Tobe Hooper
Written by Larry Block
Starring Elizabeth Berridge, Cooper Huckabee, William Finley and Kevin Conway
USA, 1981

Now it’s time for some straight up slasher schlock from one of the masters of the genre, Tobe Hooper (TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE). A group of four teens on a double date at the traveling carnival decide it’d be fun to hide out in the funhouse until after closing and spend the night there. Unfortunately for them, the funhouse is inhabited by a murderous and deformed carnie and when they finally try to escape, they find they’re locked inside.

This is a pretty straight-forward teen slasher, with the only unique element being the use of the funhouse/carnival as a location for the carnage. It’s about as rough around the edges as CHAINSAW, but not nearly as ground-breaking or innovative. POLTERGEIST, which Hooper directed the very next year, is way more polished. Still, this is far from the worst the often terrible genre has to offer and is a must-see for fans of the carnival.

 

Horrorfest 2022: Cat People

Cat People
Directed by Paul Schrader
Written by Alan Ormsby and Paul Schrader
Based on a screenplay by DeWitt Bodeen
Starring Nastassja Kinksi, Malcolm McDowell, John Heard and Annette O’Toole
USA, 1982

I watched and reviewed the original 1942 version of CAT PEOPLE (and its sequel) in a previous Horrorfest, but this year let’s check out the 1982 remake. It was co-written and directed by one of my favorite filmmakers, Paul Schrader, a man who isn’t afraid to take on squirm-inducing subjects.

The movie gets off to a good start with a killer David Bowie theme song (so killer that Tarantino himself re-used it in INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS) and continues its show of promise with good performances from Nastassja Kinski and Malcolm McDowell as the titular cat people. The biggest difference between this version of the story and the original was that the original was famous for being ambiguous – you never find out if all the cat stuff is just in the characters’ minds, or if there really is a supernatural cat curse. In those one Schrader puts on front street pretty much from the beginning that this flick is literally about people who transform into cats.

It's not better than the original, which would be a tall order, anyway, since the original is one of the greatest films ever made, but it is an interesting take on the material and a worthy remake. Not one of Schrader’s best films, but definitely one of his weirdest, which is saying something.
 

Horrorfest 2022: Prince of Darkness

Prince of Darkness
Written and directed by John Carpenter
Starring Donald Pleasence, Lisa Blount, Victor Wong and Jameson Parker
USA, 1987

Welcome to Horrorfest 2022! I’m watching 31 horror movies in 31 days to celebrate October, the month of Halloween. This year there’s no theme but I got a big assist from the Criterion Channel – they put up a bunch of great 80s horror and some vampire flicks so the bulk of Horrorfest will be made up of those, plus a few others to fill out the month. So let’s get started.

What better way to start than with one of the masters of horror himself, director John Carpenter. This year I’ve finally gotten around to watching PRINCE OF DARKNESS. I’m not sure why I put it off – I like most of Carpenter’s films, even ones people hate like GHOSTS OF MARS. But every now and then there’s a clunker, like IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS. 

PRINCE OF DARKNESS involves a group of quantum physics students who are called in to help investigate a mysterious tube of liquid found in the bowels under a monastery. As one student after another becomes possessed and zombie-like homeless people (led by Alice Cooper!) surround the monastery, it begins to become clear that dark forces are at work.

The interesting thing about this movie is that it really seems to value knowledge and intellect – treating the supernatural as something that can really be studied, figured out, explained, and that experts should do it. This isn’t one of those flicks where some regular joe magically knows more than the scientists – in this one, the scientists are the heroes. 

Carpenter-favorite Donald Pleasence is on hand as a priest, to represent the faith side of things and Victor Wong plays a pretty credulous physics professor. Of course I guess I’d be credulous, too, if I literally saw the devil in person. The rest of the younger cast is pretty forgettable with the exception of Dennis Dun who has the benefit of having been given all the most memorable lines.

It's worth staying for the killer ending which made me wonder if Christopher Nolan of INCEPTION fame is a PRINCE OF DARKNESS fan.

Black History Month: The Bronze Buckaroo

THE BRONZE BUCKAROO
Written and Directed by Richard C. Kahn, based on his story
Starring Herb Jeffries, Artie Young, Rollie Hardin, Clarence Brooks, F.E. Miller, Lucius Brooks, Spencer Williams, Lee Calmes, Earle Morris and The Four Tones
USA, 1939

This singing cowboy movie stars Herb Jeffries who rides into town with his posse to help an old friend who has disappeared. Turns out there’s an evil rancher who has taken him captive in an attempt to get his land out from under him – land that has gold! Luckily the old friend has a cute sister on hand for Jeffries to both woo and help as he and his posse save the day.

About half the movie’s run time is taken up with comedic side characters played by Lucius Brooks as Jeffries’ sidekick and F.E. Miller as a ranch hand who’s trying to rip him off by convincing him his mule can speak. This sounds lame but I have to admit it was pretty great.

In fact, the whole movie’s pretty great, if humble in its aspirations. It doesn’t want to be anything other than a serviceable western, and it mostly accomplishes that. Jeffries looks dashing and cool in his cowboy gear, the villains are appropriately terrible, especially Spencer Williams as the trigger-happy muscle, and there’s even some nice western tunes. The only thing that wears out its welcome is the drawn out gun battle at the end, which could have been cool but lacks the imagination a bigger production could afford.

Black History Month: The Flying Ace

THE FLYING ACE
Written and Directed by Richard E. Norman
Starring Laurence Criner and Kathryn Boyd
USA, 1926

THE FLYING ACE is the only surviving film of many Race Films made by Richard E. Norman, a white guy who apparently didn’t just want to cash in on the market but also to provide positive role models and give back to the community, according to what little I’ve read.

This is one of the Race Films that doesn’t tackle any complex issues and just happens to feature an all-Black cast in a genre picture, in this case, an action adventure story about a fighter pilot from World War I who returns home to his job of railroad detective just in time to try to solve a recent kidnapping and robbery.

This is basically a super hero movie, with the fighter pilot as the hero and his one-legged engineer as his sidekick, chasing down a villain who also happens to have a plane so they can eventually end up in aerial combat. There’s also a girl that’s torn between the hero and villain.

Due to the film’s low budget, there are no high-flying stunt scenes, but the filmmakers try as best as they can with what they have, which includes full scale apparently working airplanes that can be shot as if they’re in the sky. This is no substitute for the real thing, but does a serviceable enough job giving us the idea of the kinds of action scenes we would have gotten if only the filmmakers had had the resources they deserved.

Black History Month: Dirty Gertie from Harlem USA

DIRTY GERTIE FROM HARLEM USA
Directed by Spencer Williams
Written by True T. Thompson
Starring Francine Everett, Don Wilson, Inez Newell, July Jones and Spencer Williams
USA, 1946

In an inadvertently male-centric Black History Month of movies, Spencer Williams gives us one more female-led movie in DIRTY GERTIE FROM HARLEM USA, about a Harlem nightclub performer, Gertie (Francine Everett), who brings her troupe on tour with her to a Caribbean island to perform. She gets her nickname “Dirty Gertie” from the way she picks up men and then discards them, which, as far as I’m concerned, more power to her. But, as far as her ex-boyfriend is concerned, is reason to try to track her down.

Also on the island are a couple of missionaries who view Gertie and her show as a symbol of sin and want the show banned before it takes off. They also obviously lust after her, as pretty much everyone else on the island does, too, from the owner of the hotel that’s hosting Gertie to an American soldier and American sailor who happen to be on the island.

By today’s standards, Gertie’s a strong character who does what she wants without apology. She’s in charge of her own destiny, as much as she can be, and is both a successful business woman (in the realm of show business) and the master of her own love life, choosing who she wants to spend time with and for how long.

Director Spencer Williams has an odd cameo as a fortuneteller who warns Gertie of bad things on the horizon. I say the cameo is odd because the fortuneteller is said to be a woman and Williams plays her with visible facial hair. Tyler Perry, eat your heart out.

As shamelessly religious as Williams’ other movie from this month, THE BLOOD OF JESUS, was, it’s interesting that this one takes a critical eye towards the missionaries, casting them as hypocrites.

The movie was pretty great, and lived up to its great title, except for the ending. I’m not one of those guys who says the ending should always be happy, but it’s a bummer when a character as alive and blameless as Gertie suffers a tragic fate. It’s tempting to think that’s the moral of the story – a woman as free as Gertie will eventually end up punished, so watch out. If that was the intended message, it’s undermined by Francine Everett’s great performance and the movie instead becomes a warning that in a society that hates women, even the greatest of women are at risk of some asshole killing them. 

Black History Month: The Blood of Jesus

THE BLOOD OF JESUS
Written and Directed by Spencer Williams
Starring Spencer Williams and Cathryn Caviness
USA, 1941

Now, let’s check out a couple films directed by Spencer Williams, an actor who went on to star as Andy in THE AMOS ‘N’ ANDY SHOW, which was derided for its negative racist portrayals. Before that, though, he made Race Films like THE BLOOD OF JESUS.

This is an overwhelmingly religious film about a recently baptized woman who is accidentally shot by her non-believer of a husband. After she apparently dies, despite many prayers on her behalf by her community at her deathbed, she is visited by a host of angels who explain she has a choice between temptation and heaven. The devil and his helpers intervene, and she flirts with temptation, before ultimately choosing heaven over hell. In a twist ending (spoiler warning!) she gets a second chance at life, and presumably, her husband gets a chance at redemption.

It’s a fairly simple story, leisurely told, despite the short running time. What’s interesting is the sheer amount of gospel music in the film, much of it sung by Reverend R.L. Robinson’s Heavenly Choir. This music, along with the time period, rural setting, the early baptism scenes in the river and even a crucial scene set at a crossroads, had me wondering if the Coen Bros. had this movie on their minds when they made O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? I know they’ve cited THE ODYSSEY and Preston Sturges as influences. Maybe Spencer Williams was one, too?

Speaking of influences, this film also had me wondering if Spike Lee had it in mind when he named his remake of GANJA AND HESS as DA SWEET BLOOD OF JESUS. If I ever see him I’ll be sure to ask.

Black History Month: Sanders of the River

SANDERS OF THE RIVER
Directed by Zoltán Korda
Written by Lajos Biro, Jeffrey Dell, Edgar Wallace and Arthur Wimperis
Starring Leslie Banks and Paul Robeson
UK, 1935

My last Paul Robeson movie this month is a pro-colonialism story in which we learn the lesson that as long as a good white colonial patriarch is in charge of an African country, the natives will be cool. But if a shitty white colonial patriarch takes over, the natives will revolt. Of course, this is a terrible message.

You might wonder why Robeson would star in a flick like this. Turns out, he was conned into it – led to believe his role would show the dignified and human side of African tribal leaders, as well as the beauty of the continent and the ways of its people. In actuality, the finished film glorified the titular white guy Sanders (Leslie Banks), loved by his native underlings. In his absence, fighting among tribes springs up. When he returns, it is only he who is able to restore order. Even if he’s stricken with malaria, his glorious super powers of colonialism get him through.

Robeson stars as a tribal chief who is an ally of Sanders. When his wife is captured by a rival tribe, he tracks them down and is captured. Don’t worry, though. Sanders arrives just in the nick of time to save him.

In Robeson’s early scenes it almost looks like he’s in on some joke the colonialists are not. Like he’s humoring them but laughing at them on the inside. As if they believe he’s their buddy but he knows they’re full of shit. Of course I don’t know, but I would guess Robeson was playing it this way because of what he thought the movie was about. Later, he seems like more of an honest ally to Sanders.

In all three of Robeson’s movies I watched this month, it was remarkable what a huge leading man presence he had. It’s a shame he’s not well remembered today, and also a shame there weren’t better films for him to be a part of in his prime. Still, even with limitations, he stands high above everyone round him on screen, dwarfing everyone with his magnetism and charm – a star that was bigger than the pictures he starred in. 

Black History Month: The Emperor Jones

THE EMPEROR JONES
Directed by Dudley Murphy
Written by DuBose Heyward
Based on the play by Eugene O’Neill
Starring Paul Robeson, Dudley Digges, Frank H. Wilson, Fredi Washington and Ruby Elzy
USA, 1933

Paul Robeson stars as a railway porter who turns to a life of crime, escapes prison and eventually finds himself washed ashore an island in the West Indies where he declares himself emperor. After a few years’ reign of terror, he finds himself on the run when his “people” have had enough. Lost in the jungle, he is haunted by images from his past as he grapples with his own sanity.

Robeson also played this role onstage, where the entire play was just that last part – Robeson losing his mind in the jungle. So it was one long monologue after the other. It’s a great performance on the screen, so I can only imagine how great it was on stage. Robeson’s performance is great here as he’s able to play many sides of a character, from a nice guy to an evil one and everything in between, including insanity. He also gets to show off his singing voice, which is a force to be reckoned with.

Ultra-famous playwright Eugene O’Neill wrote the play this film was based on. I haven’t been keeping track or anything but of all the movies I’ve seen this month so far, this one uses the n-word the most frequently, among both white and Black characters. Apparently this is true to O’Neill’s script, which was criticized even in its own time. O’Neill’s defense was he based the language on the way an African-American guy he knew spoke. In any case, it’s jarring, and worth a warning before you watch.

Black History Month: Body and Soul

BODY AND SOUL
Written and Directed by Oscar Micheaux, based on his novel
Starring Paul Robeson, Mercedes Gilbert and Julia Theresa Russell
USA, 1925

Let’s end my Oscar Micheaux series and start my Paul Robeson series with my favorite film from both of them, Micheaux’s best silent feature, BODY AND SOUL, starring Paul Robeson in the dual role of a con man posing as a preacher and his estranged twin brother.

This “favorite” stuff may not be an altogether fair assessment, because part of my enjoyment of this flick comes from the contemporary score by DJ Spooky that was on the print I watched. If you can find this version, I recommend it. DJ Spooky goes above and beyond on this score, providing something really worth listening to, which is great since a lot of these silent films just get any old music slapped on them.

My favorite part of the movie that is not a contemporary edition, however, is Paul Robeson in the starring role(s). His formidable presence puts this movie above any of Micheaux’s silent efforts before it or sound efforts after it. Robeson was already a successful stage actor (and singer) when this film was made, but hadn’t made it on the big screen yet.

The story involves Robeson as an escaped convict who hides out as a preacher, fleecing the townspeople and forcefully “romancing” a local girl. The girl’s mother loves the preacher and believes he can’t do any wrong, so doesn’t believe the girl when she warns about his devious ways.

The film runs longer than most of Micheaux’s works and yet is still incomplete, having been edited down by censors before its release. My only complaints about it are first that any time Robeson is not on the screen, the movie drags a little, and even though he plays two roles, there’s still not enough of him. The mother and daughter scenes seem to go on and on by comparison to the rest of the snappy narrative. Second, the ending involves the old “it was only a dream” cop out when it doesn’t even really need to – I feel like a happy ending could have been contrived even if the tragedies in the rest of the movie really did happen.

Black History Month: Birthright

BIRTHRIGHT
Written and Directed by Oscar Micheaux
Based on the novel by Thomas Sigismund Stribling
Starring Carmen Newsome
USA, 1939

Probably the best sound production Oscar Micheaux undertook, BIRTHRIGHT is the story of a Black Harvard graduate who returns to his home in the south hoping to open a school of his own only to be blocked at every turn by racism.

Most of the plot is taken up by stuff involving the college graduate’s war veteran buddy who becomes his romantic rival in the pursuit of affection from the same woman.

But, as usual, the plot’s not that important, as the continual barrage of racism comes to the forefront, showing how all of southern society, from the top down, is stacked against Blacks by unscrupulous, greedy and hate-filled whites.

Like most of Micheaux’s films, this one only exists in an incomplete format. In this case, the film is missing its first two reels, so opening title cards fill us in on the action thus far. Luckily the third reel begins with our hero’s homecoming, so it doesn’t seem like we’ve missed much.

This Micheaux film is easier to watch than some of his others because it is more technically proficient – there isn’t as much figurative noise in the way of trying to get a clear signal. It doesn’t go any easier on Micheaux’s usual no-nonsense portrayal of racial injustice, however.

Black History Month: Veiled Aristocrats

VEILED ARISTOCRATS
Written and Directed by Oscar Micheaux
Starring Lorenzo Tucker and Laura Bowman
USA, 1932

The concept of “passing” moves off the back burner and into the forefront for this next Oscar Micheaux film, in which a light-skinned Black layer, successfully passing as white, introduces his little sister to white society as well, even going so far as to set her up with Black servants. The drama here doesn’t come from the threat of being found out or whether or not this is any kind of betrayal, but from the fact that the sister is already in love with a darker-skinned Black man, and has to choose whether to return to him or marry herself off to a rich white guy.

Like many of Micheaux’s films, this one only exists in a truncated form, but it is again notable for giving itself over to singing and dancing when it runs out of plot, thus preserving some performances we wouldn’t have under other circumstances. In this case, at the climax of the movie, rather than focusing on plot, the movie is taken over by the afore-mentioned Black servants who put on a ten-minute show, which is by far the best part of the movie.

Black History Month: Ten Minutes to Live

TEN MINUTES TO LIVE
Written and Directed by Oscar Micheaux, based on his story
Starring Lawrence Chenault, A.B. DeComathiere, Laura Bowman, Willow Lee Guilford, Tressie Mitchell and Charlotte Evans
USA, 1932

Here’s another talkie from Oscar Micheaux, a couple of cobbled together short stories of crime centered around a night club. The night club setting is convenient because it gives Micheaux a lot of chances to cut away from the action to linger on singing, dancing and comedy acts. These acts are a little more lively and entertaining than the ones in THE GIRL FROM CHICAGO, so if I had to choose a favorite between the two, I’d choose this one.

Like THE GIRL FROM CHICAGO, the night club acts that are superfluous to the plot(s) of this film are historically significant in their own right as, without this film, there would likely be no record of these acts at all. So, for all its faults, this movie represents a fleeting glimpse into an important part of culture that would otherwise be lost – for better or worse (the acts include a black face routine, unfortunately).

So, the stories here are sort of beside the point, but one of them involves a movie producer who wants to take advantage of a showgirl by telling her he’ll make her a star, and the other involves a woman who is mistakenly marked for death by a deaf escaped convict who is hunting her down. 

Although I called this movie a talkie at the outset, there are long passages that were clearly filmed without sound and had sound added after the fact. Sort of like how all those 2D movies got transformed into 3D movies in post-production in the early 2000s, Micheaux must have done something similar here, starting out this project as a silent film and ending up with a sound one. Either that or it was just cheaper to shoot it silent and dub it later, though if that’s the case, it’d odd only certain sections of the movie are shot this way and not the whole thing.