Highlander III: The Final Dimension (1994)

Thankfully, Highlander III (also titled The Sorcerer as well as The Final Dimension) is a much better sequel to the original Highlander movie than Highlander II: The Quickening. In fact, I'm pretty sure in the 90s I mentally deleted Highlander II from the series once Highlander III was released. However, my memory didn't retain the details of the third movie any better than it did the second, no matter how much better the third movie was. It was more than twenty years ago, so I consider that's an acceptable memory lapse. 

On the other hand, Highlander III was almost too much like Highlander with the wild chase scene where in the original movie The Kurgan (Clancy Brown) terrorizes his kidnapped victim with his game of traffic chicken. In the third movie Kane (Mario Van Peebles) also terrorizes his kidnapped victim with the same exact tactics. Both victims are MacLeod's most cherished loved ones, which logically makes them the number one victims of choice for the villains. 

Also, both movies end with Connor MacLeod (Christoper Lambert) returning to his native Scotland with his newly acquired lover who happily sacrifices her life and career to live out the rest of her days with MacLeod who has won The Prize and can now age and die naturally. The only difference in the third movie is he has an adopted son who makes the family a threesome. 

While the second movie was nothing like the first and was a mixed up mess of a movie, the third, although much better in regard to plot and logical composition, was almost too representative of the original movie. However, I'm thankful that the third movie was created to raise my Highlander appreciation back up to the level it was after seeing the original movie.

The Babadook (2014): Psycho Scary

The Babadook (2014) movie is genius on many levels. However, I heard a lot of bad reviews from disappointed viewers (including my daughter) who were hoping for a typical brainless slasher film, but instead found themselves watching something that probably went right over their heads. My daughter said it was boring and nothing scary about it. I don't get it. I was so creeped out afterwards I had to watch a couple of comedies to wash the creepy feeling out of my head before going to bed.

The Babadook "being" was so dark and shadowy with those Nosterafu/Freddy Kruger fingers and a voice like the creepy sound from The Grudge. The book in the movie was terrifyingly cool!  The acting, writing, directing and everything else about the movie was absolutely phenomenal. The grim disapproving expressions on all the faces of the people Amelia (Essie Davis) came in contact with, mostly in positions of authority, just amplified her loneliness and isolation.

 I felt so sorry for that poor family and kept trying to will Amelia to get some help. I hope this movie can be used as a tool to educate the public and others about what depression can do to a person's mind. It's not all moping around and crying in the dark. It can really warp its victim's thinking and there's still a lot of shame in asking for help, especially when the people who can help don't take it seriously, like the cops Amelia spoke to. The doctor wasn't much help either, reluctantly prescribing sedatives for the son as she cried and pleaded for help. 

The ending was a little weird, but I guess if you can't fully rid yourself of your demons, finding a way to keep them at bay is the next best thing.

Sleepy Hollow (1999)

After all these years, I finally watched Sleepy Hollow! Better late than never to see a movie where Johnny Depp is so cute that it really doesn't matter what the movie is about. However, the movie was really entertaining, more comedy than horror. With Tim Burton's direction Sleepy Hollow was darkly charming like Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, etc.

Right away I observed that the story took place in the same time period that Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights was set. What a cool coincidence! Even though the two stories took place on opposite shores of the Atlantic, seeing the settings and costumes made me wonder if Catherine Earnhart Linton's dresses were similar to those of Lady Van Tassel (Miranda Richardson). Lady Van Tassel's evil vengeful machinations made Heathcliff''s seem like a spoiled school boy's tantrum. 

Christopher Walken is so cool and I had no idea he was in it, let alone as the crazy Hessian killer who became the headless horseman! That was like hot fudge topping on my ice cream with Christopher Lee on top.

Sleepy Hollow was a really good movie that was worth the wait. What other good movies from the 90s did I miss?

Black Sunday (1960)

Black Sunday (La maschera del demonio (original title)) is an Italian horror movie from 1961, directed by the great Mario Bava. It's dubbed in English, so no subtitles to read. This movie went from campy to scary and back again. The beginning lays out the history of a witch trial in the 17th century, which is a good story in itself, and then fast forwards to the 19th century where the descendants of the witch have an underlying feeling of gloom and doom that they can't understand until all hell breaks loose.

There are bats, fog, a creepy castle with a crypt beneath an abandoned chapel, vampires rising from the dead and corpses turning up all over the place. The scenery, atmosphere and story were creepy and well done, but the dialogue and acting in some scenes was so over-the-top dramatic that it was funny. It's a scary movie with little hope for a happy ending as the young Dr. Gorobec (John Richardson) tries to get to the bottom of the horrific happenings. 

Then enters the priest. He's not much of a talker as he listens to the young doctor rant about all the freaky events at the castle and his desire to save the beautiful princess, played by the wonderful Barbara Steele (in a dual role as Asa the witch). As the doctor speaks, the priest wears this odd half smile the entire time with his buggy eyes and cheap wig. I laughed out loud during the conversation:

Dr Gorobec: The maid's daughter claimed to have seen Dr. Kruvajan get in the carriage to come to the castle. It wasn't the castle's driver though. The driver resembled the man in the portrait at the castle.

Priest: The portrait that hangs by the fireplace?

Dr Gorobec: Yes.

Priest: The portrait of the man who died 200 years ago?

Dr Gorobec: Yes. What's so special about the man in the portrait?

Priest: (His eyes seem to get even bigger) Nothing.

Ha!

However, the odd priest was instrumental in helping to rid the castle of the evil curse, but he was a weird one! You can check this movie out on Netflix.

The Raven (2012)

Mid 19th Century scenery and costumes are the best! Sometimes the best part of the movie, but not this movie. The Raven starring Jon Cusack as Edgar Alan Poe had a good story and started out pretty gory but got mysterious and suspenseful as it progressed. It was a pretty creative concept to dream up Poe's mysterious final days and find the mysterious cause of his physical and mental state when he was found ill and ranting in the street never to recover. 

After only seeing pictures of Poe, and not being anywhere near a Poe scholar, it was strange to imagine him so animated, but Cusack did such a good job of portraying him that he almost looked just like him. But I always imagined Poe as someone who spent time in parlors when not at a desk at work. Of course, it was extreme circumstances, but I wouldn't have imagined him chasing killers on horseback or on the catwalks of a theater. Neither would I imagine him as a very passionate lover or dancer either, but those were some pretty sweet scenes as well. I imagined him socially anxious and withdrawn even while drinking. 

Obviously, the whole movie was a fantasy, thank goodness because Ivan (Sam Hazeldine) the serial killer was so demented, he was terrifying! I had no idea how, or if, the mystery would be solved and was happy with how it all ended. What did you think?

The Lost Boys: More 80s Movie Fun

It's fun to watch a movie like The Lost boys that I haven't seen in twenty years or more. Part of the fun is noticing how I perceive things so much differently now with twenty more years of life in my head, in addition to the changes in society and values over time that alter my perceptions. Another part of the fun is the relief that some things haven't changed at all and probably won't. Like Michael's (Jason Patric) caving to peer pressure and his "sex glands" as his brother Sam (Corey Haim) tells him when he becomes obsessed with Star (Jamie Gertz).

Another example, I do not remember Jason Patric being so overwhelmingly gorgeous! Really. They didn't have to keep shoving the Jim Morrison poster in the shot with him when they were in the cave. Was the movie implying that Jim Morrison is also immortal and ageless? I am a Jim Morrison fan, but Jason Patric is better looking, and also alive. Or, is Jim Morrison a vampire masquerading as Jason Patric?? I'm sure there was all kinds of talk about the connection at the time the movie came out, but that's the fun of reviewing movies, books, etc. I don't let anything except the piece of art itself influence my review. And, I don't remember all the talk and gossip about the movie at the time of its release.

The special effects and vampire makeup were really good for that era. The vampire make up reminded me of the vampires in the TV show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Were the same artists involved? I was happy to see the two Corey's again. I always liked Corey Feldman for some reason, maybe because of the characters he played. I didn't watch any of his reality work, mostly because I don't watch reality shows. 

I especially liked the 80s freedom and fun factor in the movie. Of course, they hung out on a happening boardwalk with an amusement park where every day was fun, fun, fun! The vampires even lived in a resort, broken and decaying, but still a resort. I guess that's the best part of being immortal and never growing old; no worries. As David (Kiefer Sutherland) tells Michael, "You never die. You never grow old. But you must feed!"

Frankenhooker vs Re-Animator

Both Frankenhooker (1990) and Re-Animator (1985) are comedy/horror movies having to do with bringing the dead back to life. While Jeffrey Franken (James Lorinz), the protagonist in Frankenhooker is obsessed with bringing his dead fiance back to life, Herbert West (Jeffery Combs), the protagonist in Re-Animator is obsessed with improving and perfecting his reanimation serum and will use any undamaged corpse to test it on. 

I thought Frankenhooker was a little more gruesome because of Jeffrey's inventing "killer crack" to lure and kill hookers so he could use their body parts to build his dead fiance, Elizabeth (Patty Mullen), a new body to sew her head onto, since her head is the only undamaged body part he has left of her. At least Herbert didn't create his own corpses to test his serum on.

It was fun to see Louise Lasser as Jeffery's mom and the scene between the two of them in Jeffery's room was so well-written and Lasser's sense of timing was impeccable as usual. However, the funniest scenes were when Frankenhooker escaped and was on the loose in Times Square and muttered the remarks we heard earlier from the dead hookers whose body parts she is inhabiting. The body work she performs on Jeffery at the end after she regains her identity as Elizabeth is pretty humorous as well.  

Even though Frankenhooker was funny and gross, I preferred the humor and creative effects of Re-Animator as Dr. Hill's (David Gale), headless corpse carries his head around in a metal pan and the goofy face of Dr. Halsey ( as Dr. Hill's zombie-with-a-lobotomy slave.

Re-Animator Made Me Live Again

I'm not sure this hilariously gory film is what Lovecraft had in mind when he wrote the story (Herbert West-Reanimator) this movie is based on, but who knows, maybe it is. After an unusually glum day at work I needed a pick me up and found this on my list for streaming at Netflix and hoped it would raise my spirits.

It did!

A lot of low budget horror movies were released in the 80s but I think I missed this one. It has the bloody gore and dark comedy that reminds me of the anything goes attitude of the 80s but found so rarely in recent decades. Back in the 80s, freedom and fun were bountiful before the push for celibacy in reaction to the AIDS epidemic, a nasty economic repression and the media's obsession with political correctness that turned the 90s and onward into a pit of repressive gloom and doom reflected in Grunge and Alternative Rock. Gone was the fun, in came the fear. 

Experiencing Re-Animator erased my mental numbness and brought me back to life!

Unbreakable (2000)

Unbreakable, written, directed and produced by M. Night Shyamalan, is a unique and very clever superhero movie. I didn't even realize it was a superhero movie until it was more than halfway over. The superhero, David Dunn (Bruce Willis) isn't just reluctant, he has no clue at all that he's not an ordinary man until Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson) makes his acquaintance. It doesn't seem to occur to him that he's never been sick or injured until Elijah points it out. David has to ask his wife Audrey (Robin Wright) if she ever remembers him getting sick. 

David is depressed and withdrawn, his marriage failing, and doesn't want to be bothered with this stranger, Elijah, trying to convince him that he has the ability to mentally pick criminals and dangerous people out of a crowd, even though he does so every day as a security guard. David's son Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark) believes Elijah's theory and pressures David to test his superpowers. After Joseph helps him test his strength on the weight bench and lifts the barbell loaded with every weight in the house plus a few gallons of paint David begins to believe it might be true. 

David takes Elijah's advice and goes to a crowded public place and finds that when people brush up against him he can psychically see misdeeds and evil acts that the people have performed. He follows one evil doer and makes a heroic rescue, ceasing his reign of terror on an innocent family, unfortunately too late to save the lives of the parents.

This superhero story is unique because the character who enlightens the superhero to his powers is a villain who only became a villain to draw out anyone possessing the characteristics of a superhero. 

I like the Unbreakable David Dunn because he's an average working class guy who slowly and quietly awakens to his superpowers and once he masters them, remains the same low-key family man. His change of identity didn't change his priorities or his perspective at all, only making him happier by giving his life more meaning.

The Village (2004): Putting Your Fear to Good Use

Imagine almost everything you know in your life is suddenly revealed to you as a lie by the man you trusted the most. This is what happens to Ivy Walker (Bryce Dallas Howard) in The Village, written, directed and produced by M. Night Shyamalan. The man, Edward Walker (William Hurt), her father, who she looked up to as a trusted leader turns out to be the most cowardly man in the village - a mock 19th century village he created with a group of peers who had all experienced devastating personal losses through acts of violence in the outside world. He is so cowardly, in fact, that he allowed his beloved daughter to lose her eyesight rather than risk taking her into the outside world to seek modern medical treatment. 

Ivy, unlike her father, puts in a request to the elders to pass through the forbidden forest and risk being killed by the people-eating monsters (resembling the big bad wolf of fairy tales) to get the medicine her beloved fiance, Lucian Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix), needs to survive an infection brought on by stab wounds inflicted by the distraught and confused village idiot, Noah (Adrien Brody) who is jealous over the news of Ivy and Lucian's engagement. Earlier in the movie Lucian is denied the same request in hope that Ivy's eyesight could be corrected and Noah's mental problems could be alleviated with the proper medicine. 

Ivy's journey through the forest alone with her imagination (after being abandoned by her two terrified excorts) is probably one of the best examples of human strength and bravery to ever be put on film. Even though her father revealed the truth that the monsters were fake, her mind couldn't let go of the possibility that her father was wrong. Perhaps she lost faith in her father's word when he admitted the huge lie. Perhaps it was just the fact that she was a blind girl alone in the woods! Still, she overcame great physical and mental obstacles by using her greatest fear, the loss of her beloved soul mate, Lucian.

Human beings can overcome any fear with the proper motivation, usually in the form of an even greater fear.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I thought I had seen this movie, but I think I had only seen the last few minutes as I passed through the room where someone else had it on. The ultra fake 19th century way of speech was annoying, but now I understand the relevance after seeing the whole movie.

Once Upon A Time: Welcome to the Dark Side

What a wonderfully topsy turvy Season Finale it was as Emma, the Savior, becomes the Dark One. I'm happy and relieved they're keeping the storyline within the regular characters and not bringing in a group of characters from another story like they did with Peter Pan and the Frozen story lines. I hope they're getting back to the basics that made the first two seasons so compelling.

Isaac Heller's Heroes and Villains was like reincarnation within ones present life. It was almost like the original curse in that none of the characters had any memory of their former lives except for Emma. It's similar to the original Dark Shadows program where a character would time travel or discover alternate dimensions. Isn't magic and the supernatural a wonderful thing!

Now that we know that Merlin is the sorcerer they may be traveling to Camelot or wherever the trail to Merlin leads. I hope that now that Rumpelstiltskin has lost his dark powers he doesn't fade into the background. He's such a complex and mysterious character. It's ironic how he spent the entire season scheming to separate himself and his powers from the dagger without having to give up the dark magic and then has to lose the powers in the end to cure his heart and save his life.

I can't wait to see Season 5!

Morticia Addams, a Goth Classic

In 1964 while Samantha Stevens was keeping her gothic identity a secret and Lily Munster was doting on her Hermie, Morticia Addams (Carolyn Jones) was providing girls with a gothic role model of intelligent, confident, self-possessed womanhood. When I was a kid watching reruns of The Addams Family I remember telling my mother I wanted to be just like Morticia and wear a cool dress like hers. My mother thought I was nuts because the narrowness around the ankles made the dress difficult to walk. I don't think fantasy was my mother's strong suit. 

I loved the peacock chair she had that resembled a throne and made her look like a gothic queen. Her adoring husband Gomez (John Astin) would entertain her with his silly stunts while she knit the never-ending scarf or whatever it was. Then they would fence or tango while Gomez's fiery passion for her would be ignited anew. She was loved and respected by everyone in the house and never had to raise her voice. Only on TV!

I think she may have been the first portrayal of a witch, or witch-like woman, who was pretty and not a wart-nosed cackling hag. Of course, she wasn't evil either. She may have been strange and slightly spooky but she had a kind heart toward her extended family and was gracious to strangers as well.She was everything a young girl could hope for in a role model.

Tucker and Dale vs Evil: A Pleasantly Bloody Surprise

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Browsing movies on Netflix.com is a really fun way to procrastinate. It's also a good way to find something cool that you didn't know existed. At first I was searching for something dark and gothic, but decided it was Saturday night and felt like being jolly and wanted a comedy. Searching "horror comedy" got me a handful of movie options including Tucker and Dale vs Evil starring Tyler Labine as Dale. I've been enjoying his recent work in Deadbeat on Hulu so was curious to check out some of his other work. 

At first I thought it would be another tired horror movie about college kids going camping and being gruesomely murdered one by one when the story was set up in a ghost story around the campfire about college kids being attacked and murdered "on that very spot twenty years earlier to the day." I began to suspect that I was wasting my time with this movie, but realized the two guys also vacationing in the area (Tucker and Dale) did not fit into that mold. As Tucker and Dale settled into their new "vacation home" in the woods, the comedy ramped up in unexpected ways as the usual slasher story did a hilarious flip flop.

I won't spoil it for you but I will list the talent. In addition to Tyler Labine, Tucker is played by Alan Tudyk (Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Firefly) and Christie Liang (Once Upon a Time) as Naomi. Also, the movie was directed and written by Eli Craig who directed Zombieland: The Series, a failed pilot with good intentions. Zombieland, the 2009 movie, is one of my favorite comedy horror movies that I've seen many times, so far. 

Tucker and Dale vs Evil is a fresh, funny movie with some really gruesome scenes as well. The writing is sharp with some good one-liners. I will definitely want to watch this again.

Dan Curtis' Dracula

I keep finding more Dracula movies to watch. Just when I decide to move on to a different variety of Gothic I became happily drawn into another vampire movie. I guess you just can't see enough Dracula movies! I am a huge fan of the late 60s/early 70s Gothic Horror soap opera Dark Shadows created by Dan Curtis so when I saw Dan Curtis' Dracula (1974) as I was scrolling through my queue on Hulu Plus, I had to check it out. Jack Palance played Dracula, which was based on Bram Stoker's novel of the same name. Aside from the typical 70s TV movie music, it was pretty good. I noticed Robert Cobert, created the music as he also did on Dark Shadows.That music they used in the 70s to create mood or whatever always reminds me of Charlie's Angels which is kind of silly when I'm watching a horror movie.

You'd think you know the Dracula story by now, but this movie was pretty scary! Jack Palance played a really good vampire; an evil monster killing and destroying to fulfill his lust for blood. In addition, Dracula craved Lucy Westerna not only for her beauty but for her uncanny resemblance to his true love of centuries earlier. I couldn't help but be reminded of the star crossed love affair of Barnabus and Josette of Dark Shadows. Dracula was to lose his Lucy forever just as Barnabus lost his Josette. The only difference being Lucy wasn't in love with Dracula as Josette was with Barnabus, but drawn to him only through the evil vampire spell he had on her.

I couldn't help but compare the hearse-like horse and carriage sent by Dracula to pick up Jonathan Harker to the extremely frightening and chilling one sent by the vampire (or was he driving?) in Nosferatu. It didn't send chills up my spine the way the manically speeding cloth draped death carriage in Nosferatu did.

There was lots of suspense like when Jonathan Harker attempted to escape castle Dracula right at sunset, then near the end of the movie when Van Helsing and Jonathan's friend Arthur scoured the castle in search of the vampires' coffins intent on destroying them.

With no high-tech special effects the movie was still scary and suspenseful and the dramatic gory ending was quite striking.

Zombie Hunter Film (2013)

I was mainly interested in seeing Zombie Hunter because it stars Danny Trejo who caught my attention in the movie Spy Kids which, correct me if I'm wrong, may be his only non-brutally violent role. The man's been in so many movies, it would be a pretty big undertaking to watch them all, so maybe he's been in other less violent roles, but as a man known as one of his roles, "Machete," it's unlikely. I liked him as the kids' uncle in Spy Kids, but the Snickers Superbowl 2015 commercial where he plays a famished Marcia Brady made me a wholehearted fan. Hilarious! The fact that the Zombie Hunter's rating on Netflix is NR and only has 1.5 stars made it even more compelling to see the movie for myself. How bad could it be?

For an obviously low budget film, I think it made good use of the resources available. First, it begins with some drugged up kids watching (or present in the room during) a news broadcast explaining how a new synthetic street drug is turning its users into zombies/flesh eaters. While the female newscaster explains the outbreak the male broadcaster begins violently vomiting on the floor next to the news desk. The camera stays on him until he recovers and composes himself as though nothing was wrong. Only then does the channel go off the air with "technical difficulties." Hilarious! 

Jump to a year later and we're watching an angry looking guy driving a sweet primer-black 80s vintage Camaro (yes!) with a huge hood scoop racing down a dirt road in a desert while chugging down tequila or some such hard liquor. The word "Hunter" comes up on the screen in a still shot reminiscent of  The Good, The Bad and the Ugly or something Robert Rodriguez/Sin City-ish. We get a stream of thought monologue from Hunter (played by Martin Copping) when he's not talking to the wizened head with a screwdriver in its eye socket in the passenger seat next to him. Also, Sin City-ish but not nearly as poetic.

Suddenly, there's a zombie in the middle of the road chowing on some roadkill who gets the on screen title "Death Angel." When he sees Hunter revving his Camaro and aiming it at him, he flings the roadkill onto the windshield. Unimpressed, yes he does, Hunter turns on the wipers. Ha! He runs down the zombie which explodes in pink and purple gore all over the windshield and hood of the car. The wipers are put into use again. If that isn't gory enough, the car starts misfiring and the Check Engine light glows. He stops the car and gets out to find pink zombie guts totally blocking his grill. Annoyed, he scoops it out with his bare hands flinging it into the roadway. So nasty it's funny.

 After a couple of scenes exposing Hunter's calm committed approach to zombie killing, he's shot by the moron of a group of humans led by Father Jesus played by Danny Trejo. The shooting causes the inevitable Camaro trashing. Have you ever noticed Camaros are totaled in every movie in which they appear? Lyle, the moron (stereotypically fat and oafish) not to mention plain gross, drags Hunter back to the group where the two women of the group nurse him back to health (stereotypically the one that looks like a bimbo isn't much for nursing, just straddling him and hanging her boobs in his face while he heals). The two women fight over him since none of the men in their group are remotely attractive and they find Hunter to be so. Even when he becomes conscious and they experience his bad manners and perpetual anger, they continue to bicker over him like twelve year olds.

Apparently, Jesus is an excellent zombie killer and protects the group because they all stink at defending themselves or even living as though they could be attacked by zombies at any time, which happens regularly throughout the movie as zombies seem to appear silently out of nowhere with surprise attacks. You'd think they would constantly be on guard with a weapon on hand, but they aren't. Good thing for them Jesus is handy with an axe. 

There's a comical sex scene showing no sex at all after Hunter carries Alison (the girl-next-door-type of the two women) to her room and clumsily tosses her onto the bed. So funny as she pulls off her top as she straddles him, then they switch positions and he does exactly the same. She asks him if this is his first time too! Ha! The camera moves to a shot from the floor to show nothing but Hunter's feet and ankles hanging over the edge still wearing his hunting boots, toes down, feet a few inches apart. How he was succeeding at sex like that with his legs straight and almost together, I don't know!

A huge zombie attack ensues as Fast Lane Debbie, the slutty girl, disappointed at her failure to seduce Hunter reluctantly agrees to have sex with Lyle just as he's eaten alive by a zombie. Everyone except dead Lyle races to the truck that airplane pilot, Jerry, has conveniently just gotten to run. Jesus commands everyone to leave without him as he prepares to battle a large reptilian-looking zombie with "buns of steel" as my daughter pointed out, that is much harder to kill than the more human-looking zombies. The movie doesn't explain where these super zombies come from but they seem to travel with the regulars and have a cool choppy stop-animation quality to them. This particular monster loses an arm to Jesus' axe but rips his head clean off his shoulders.

The group heads to a town with an ominous reputation called Dahmer where Jerry thinks he can find them a plane at the airport with which they can fly to a remote zombie-free island and wait out the zombie plague. Dahmer, as in Jeffery Dahmer, they find is where a sadistic clown with a chain saw kills for fun. He waves the chainsaw over his head like Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and laughs as he sends blood and guts flying. But not before, looking for food, the group enters an abandoned convenience store and find something so gory in a freezer that they can't resist looking at individually and puking on the floor in revulsion. Next scene is the group of them, except Hunter who stands a short distance away, in a semi-circle power puking in the dirt. Recovered from the puke fest they realize their truck has disappeared.

Once Hunter recovers the truck and kills the killer clown they continue to the airport, minus the dead Fast Lane Debbie. Once again zombies appear out of nowhere at the airport and just when Jerry gets the plane started he's torn out of the cockpit and killed by a zombie. Hunter, Alison and her obsessed-with-masturbation brother Ricky are the only survivors as they lock themselves in a closet that conveniently contains a wall display of loaded automatic weapons. Alison and Hunter shoot their way through the zombies as Alison and Ricky reach the truck and flee for safety at Hunter's command. Assuming Hunter is dead after being stabbed by a super zombie's talons and detonating a grenade that destroys the entire airport, Alison's stream of thought narration vows to never forget the zombie hunter who saved their lives. Meanwhile, back at the airport, Hunter, covered in soot, lights a cigarette and laments that he can't be killed by the zombies and appears to slice his own throat.

My daughter and I found the movie very entertaining. There were some good lines like Hunter observing "stone cold silence" in every new location where he knew he'd find a zombie and asking "are you retarded?" after hearing Lyle's excuse for shooting him and Ricky's desire to shoot an automatic weapon. The over-the-top gore was comical as well. I liked the whole 80s atmosphere with the music and the car that reminded me of the slew of low budget horror movies of that decade. The story made sense throughout and was well paced. I was a little disappointed that Danny Trejo wasn't the main character like the cover artwork would lead you to believe but he had a good role, however limited. See it just for fun!

The Dunwich Horror

Rated R? The rating system must have been much more strict in 1970. Reeger (Jack Pierce), one of the townsmen hunting down the evil Wilbur Whately (played by Dean Stockwell) at the Devil's Hopyard, said the word "damn" when he fell and jammed his rifle and they showed Nancy's (Sandra Dee) naked hip as she writhed and moaned as though enjoying sex with a ghost. Those were the raciest scenes that I recall. Maybe the Satanic worship contributed to the R rating, however, the movie was made while Dark Shadows was broadcast in the afternoons. It must have been the sexual moaning and there was a brief dream scene of topless painted people including a small set of bouncing boobs.

I need to read the book of the same name by H. P. Lovecraft to know the real original story. It was a pretty good movie even with the awful 70s movie music and low-tech camera tricks. Nancy's dream sequence was shown with what looked like a piece of gauze taped over the camera lens. As Wilbur's ritual was seeing some success allowing evil to enter our dimension and prey on the innocent, the picture would turn to negative and flash either red, blue or green as the evil attacked and ravaged it's victims and their belongings. Love it. 

On the other hand,  Wilbur's  family homestead was a Gothic staple, a cool old mansion with mysterious rooms, especially the locked room at the top of the house where the evil lurked. The stone altar where Wilbur presented Nancy, the necessary virgin for the evil to impregnate, stood at the edge of the woods in a place called The Devil's Hopyard on a cliff above jagged rocks and crashing waves.

The fight scene in the university library between the guard and Wilbur when Wilbur broke in to steal the Necromonicon was an entertaining scuffle reminiscent of the Star Trek fights and other late 60s, early 70s TV fights. Stuntmen with cheap wigs scuffling and rolling around on the floor as strategic camera angles hid their faces from the camera. Pretty funny!

As Wilbur performed the ritual necessary to open the gate and usher the Old Ones back into our dimension to destroy mankind as described in the Neconomicon, I realized how much of the Evil Dead was based on Lovecraft's inventions. The evil awakened by reading the book aloud was portrayed in the Evil Dead the same was it was portrayed in The Dunwich Horror. The evil was more of a spirit rushing like wind through the woods, blowing through tall grass and shifting the flow of bodies of water as it raced with supernatural speed toward the people it longed to destroy.

I've never seen Dean Stockwell so young! My only knowledge of him was as the crusty middle-aged guy in Quantum Leap. But after one quick Google search I learned that he was a child actor who found success as an adult actor as well. Pretty extraordinary. I think that's the only movie I've seen starring Sandra Dee, as far as I can remember anyway. I may have seen her as Gidget on old TV movie reruns, but I always picture Sally Field in that role. Dee was absolutely adorable as was Stockwell, providing icing on the cake of a really good movie!

The Mesmerising Shadow of the Vampire

Big bouncing boobs, indulgence in opiates, bottles of booze being passed around and a kinky cabaret. Who would have connected all these things with the making of the 1921 movie Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror? Well, it was the start of the roaring 20s after all.  It was perverse, creepy and downright nasty in some places. After recently seeing the original I thought it would be a good time to also check out Shadow of the Vampire while Nosferatu was still fresh in my mind. I didn't have great expectations because I thought I had seen it years ago and wasn't that impressed, although I had a hard time really losing myself in movies during the time that I was married to a chatterbox who couldn't keep his mouth shut for 10 minutes if you held a gun to his head. Anyway, even though Shadow of a Vampire was a fictional account of the making of Nosferatu, scenes from the original were beautifully spliced into the more recent film. It was a really cool movie, seeming as though they were filming in the same places and time as the original filming in 1921. Willem Defoe as the vampire portraying Max Shreck as Nosferatu was actually scarier and more shocking, lustful and revolting than Max Schreck's spooky portrayal of the vampire and I thought he was pretty darn creepy. John Malkovich as director F. W. Mernau was just as ravenous to finish the film as the vampire's desire for blood, especially that of the actress Greta Schroder. 

I think the comparison of the vampire and Mernau were really cool how Mernau’s drive and lust to realize his vision of the film drove him to utter madness while the vampire’s obsession with consuming Greta, and anyone else he could get his teeth into, no stalking involved, drove him to be Mernau’s vampire for the film. The two characters’ obsessions and lustful needs portray how human beings can be reduced to ravenous animals when motivated purely by selfish greed and achieving their personal desires regardless of the cost.

From a feminine point of view Mernau’s blatant sacrifice of Greta Shroder as payment to the vampire for starring in the film reminded me of ancient cultures’ sacrificing virgins to the gods, only Greta was definitely no virgin as she complained of the lack of cabarets near the set and flirted with cameraman Fritz Wagner played by Carey Elwes who had to remind her of their past tryst. Obviously, she was such a playgirl she didn’t even remember having partied with him. Who could forget an affair with a man played by the perpetually adorable Carey Elwes? In one scene her naked boobs are flopping all over the place as she writhes, fully clothed, on her bed in a drug induced sexual fantasy. However, nasty old vampire didn’t care anything about her past, her life, or her mind. He only wanted to sink his teeth into her soft flesh and feast on her blood. 

In the final scene when the vampire and Greta are finally in the same room together preparing for their scene, Defoe so completely captured the vampire’s overpowering lust for her blood it reminded me of men I’ve been unfortunately acquainted with and dated in the past. He had no idea nor cared one bit how creepy he was being because, to him, her feelings and even her existence as a living being were inconsequential. She was just a blood-filled body, a piece of material existing only for his pleasure. He crept around her, ready to attack and consume, while Mernau frantically tried to restrain him in order to fulfill his own unbridled passion of finished the movie. Having his crew restrain and drug Greta who was beginning to resist the whole situation was sick, but it only got sicker as he finally gave the vampire the cue to molest and murder Greta in her drug-induced stupor as she lay helpless while the crew excitedly filmed her murder. They deserved to die. I did appreciate, however, how they re-enacted the scene where the vampire approaches Greta and the shadow of his nasty gnarled hand travels up her body toward her throat. 

I found the movie to be absolutely mesmerizing, oftentimes losing all sense of time and place even though I pretty much knew the story! The ending was shocking and gruesome as Mernau lost his grasp on reality and the vampire went on a killing rampage as he continued to keep the camera rolling and direct his crew of corpses. It was a really good movie with a great cast.

From Dusk Till Dawn

I must admit my favorite scene of the movie From Dusk Till Dawn, directed by Robert Rodriguez, was the opening scene before the opening credits where Pete Bottoms the liquor store clerk (played by John Hawkes) seems to be innocently chatting with a Texas Ranger, but is really a hostage following the instructions of the fugitive brothers, Seth and Richie Gecko. Pete is probably one of the bravest people in the film as he keeps his cool the entire time only losing it when Richie accuses him of  trying to tip off the ranger and lying about it. The brothers shoot him as he opens the safe to get a gun and takes several shots of the brothers before they douse him with alcohol and set him on fire and shoot him to death. He was still proclaiming his honesty and shooting at the killers as he goes down in flames while the brothers calmly destroy the entire building and drive away to their next heinous hostage killing. I think he showed a lot of dignity and courage to stand up for his personal integrity instead of groveling and begging the nutty brothers to spare his life. He's the only victim who fought back.

Leaving a trail of blood and destruction after a mentally disturbed brother Richie (played by Quentin Tarrantino who also wrote the screenplay) breaks his crazy, yet really hot, older brother Seth (played by George Clooney) out of prison, the two brothers abduct a grief-stricken preacher and his two teenage children and force them to sneak them over the Mexican border in their RV. The blatant disregard for human life and disrespect for anything or anyone in their path is horrific. I felt like this abducted family was as doomed to die as everyone else these two brothers met in their travels.

Then the second part of the movie begins!

When you think the horror inflicted on innocent people by the two psychotic brothers is all you can take and dread the knowledge that the bloody terror will continue but you just can't look away, the two conjoined families stop at a Mexican biker/trucker bar where the brothers plan to meet some thug who's going to help them pursue their Mexican retirement.The whole atmosphere of the movie changes as they pull into the Titty Twister where there's biker mayhem going on in the dusty parking lot and Cheech Marin as Chet Pussy, the second of three roles he plays in the movie, is on the front steps like a carnival barker attempting to draw a paying crowd into the bar. I wondered who he could be talking to since the place was in the middle of nowhere and anyone in earshot was already there to patronize the place anyway. I guess it was Tarrantino's way to use the word "pussy" more times than in any other movie. It was interesting to me too, that the flight of steps leading to the front door where Chet Pussy shouted his sales pitch reminded me of the steps of a gothic cathedral. 

Once inside, the group is confronted by the owner/bartender Razor Charlie (played by Danny Trejo), what a bod! Of course, the psycho brothers want to resort to physical altercation to earn their admittance but the preacher (played by Harvey Keitel) uses his words to convince Razor they are worthy patrons. There are plenty of big bouncer-looking guys to easily overpower the two brothers, but they want to fight them anyway. They get their chance after Santanico Pandemonium (played by Salma Hayek) performs a mesmerizing snake dance catering right to sexual deviant and rapist/murderer brother Richie. Almost everyone turns into a vampire and the fun begins. The movie goes from depraved crime drama to gothic horror comedy. Heads are rolling and bouncing off the floor, blood is flowing, limbs are being torn off and tossed around and a guy named Sex Machine is shooting vampires with his pecker gun. It's hilarious, like Evil Dead Trilogy hilarious. 

The only survivors are Seth and Kate, the preacher's daughter (played by Juliette Lewis) who, with the help of the rising sun, destroy the last of the vampires.

Black Sabbath, the Movie

I found the movie Black Sabbath on Netflix and had to watch it out of curiosity and also because it’s the movie title that the band borrowed as its name. The movie was an anthology of three horror stories introduced by Boris Karloff who had a role in the third story, “The Wurdalak”, in which he played the patriarch of a ranch family in fear of a wurdalak, in other words, a vampire. While killing the wurdalak/vampire, the father is bitten and becomes a vampire himself. He returns home to methodically turn his entire family into vampires including his little grandson who’s barely out of diapers. I didn’t realize a child vampire character existed before Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire. Fun to know!

The second story was about a young lady getting creepy stalker phone calls with the caller refusing to identify himself at first but creepily describe her every move and what she was wearing even though the door was locked and the blinds were closed. I liked this story, not only for the suspense when we learn that the victim, Rosy, believes the caller is actually calling from beyond the grave, but as a reminder of how limited telephone communication was before cell phones, voice mail, the internet with social media and especially caller ID. Back then the only way to find out who was calling was to take the major risk of having to talk to someone you hate and answer it. It would always ring when you were clear across the house or in the bathroom or, worse, in the middle of an exciting ending of a show you waited all week to watch. If you didn’t get to it in time you’d drive yourself crazy the rest of the day trying to guess who it might have been. Sometimes it would be days or weeks until you found out who that caller was that you missed. Unless they were an obnoxiously relentless caller who would keep calling until you answered, letting it ring and ring and ring until your neighbors wanted to kill you. It used to be protocol that you would only let someone’s phone ring ten times. If they couldn’t get to it within ten rings, they were either sleeping or not home. 

The first story of the trilogy was the ghouliest of the three. A grouchy self-centered nurse is called out in a storm to prepare one of her patients for pick up by the undertaker. The frantic maid who called her anxiously greets her at the door and shows her to the body of the dead medium lying in her bed with eyes agape and face in a leering distortion. The house is huge and messy with a large cat population and dolls everywhere. The nurse finally tries to close the corpse’s eyes after dressing her, positioning the hands and stealing a sapphire ring off her hand. The rest of the movie has the nurse driven crazy by a fly on her ring finger and dripping water once she returns home. It culminates with the corpse appearing in her bed and floating toward her forcing her to strangle herself. 

Sixties movies have some fun features like even if the story was set in a historic era the hair and make-up was always blatantly sixties. Blue eye shadow, thin long arched brows, thick black false lashes and a thick line of eyeliner above cherry-red lipstick. The hair was usually teased and brushed back away from the face and they had those cone-shaped high-lift bras. I also like the color of the sixties movies. I don’t know the technical terms, maybe Technicolor?, but you can tell a movie was made in the sixties just from the color. The color kind of took away from the gothic elements of the decaying old house in the Water Dripping story, but even more in the crumbling castle or church in the vampire story. Even though the stories themselves were dark and sinister, the vibrant color was a slight conflict.