(It’s tradition here at the Lens that, every October, we watch the original Little Shop of Horrors. And always, I start things off by telling this story…)
Enter singing.
Little Shop…Little Shop of Horrors…Little Shop…Little Shop of Terrors…
Hi! Good morning and Happy October the 29th! For today’s plunge into the world of public domain horror films, I’d like to present you with a true classic. From 1960, it’s the original Little Shop of Horrors!
When I was 19 years old, I was in a community theater production of the musical Little Shop of Horrors. Though I think I would have made the perfect Audrey, everybody always snickered whenever I sang so I ended up as a part of “the ensemble.” Being in the ensemble basically meant that I spent a lot of time dancing and showing off lots of cleavage. And you know what? The girl who did play Audrey was screechy, off-key, and annoying and after every show, all the old people in the audience always came back stage and ignored her and went straight over to me. So there.
Anyway, during rehearsals, our director thought it would be so funny if we all watched the original film. Now, I’m sorry to say, much like just about everyone else in the cast, this was my first exposure to the original and I even had to be told that the masochistic dentist patient was being played by Jack Nicholson. However, I’m also very proud to say that — out of that entire cast — I’m the only one who understood that the zero-budget film I was watching was actually better than the big spectacle we were attempting to perform on stage. Certainly, I understood the film better than that screechy little thing that was playing Audrey.
The first Little Shop of Horrors certainly isn’t scary and there’s nobody singing about somewhere that’s green (I always tear up when I hear that song, by the way). However, it is a very, very funny film with the just the right amount of a dark streak to make it perfect Halloween viewing.
So, if you have 72 minutes to kill, check out the original and the best Little Shop of Horrors…
You all remember Boris Karloff’s pre-THRILLER supernatural anthology series THE VEIL, right? Of course you don’t!! That’s because it never aired! It was being filmed at Hal Roach Studios when they went belly up, and only 10 episodes were filmed. Karloff had a role in most of the episodes, including this spooky oddity entitled “The Crystal Ball”, presented here for your Halloween enjoyment. (The series itself is available through Something Weird Video for all you Karloff Kollectors!):
Let me walk you through how I ended up with this video.
At the beginning of the month, Lisa sent me a DM on Twitter with some music videos that might help me to fill 31 days of October. One of them was listed as “The Evil Eye (1972) by Josh Ritter”. I get near the end of this month, and decide to start dipping into these videos. I watched a bit of the video to make sure it’s something I’d like to do. It was. To IMDb I go because Lisa did include the year 1972, so that must mean it is from a movie called The Evil Eye, right?
I find out that there is a 1963 movie called Evil Eye. It also goes under the name of The Girl Who Knew Too Much. Lisa could have made a typo. I found a copy, and watched it.
It didn’t seem to have anything to do with this video other than that it is directed by Mario Bava who would go on to do Lisa And The Devil (1973), which I’d say is more representative of this video. The 1963 Evil Eye has more to do with A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984). A little over two decades prior to Elm Street, John Saxon was in a movie where the female lead was convinced someone was going to come for her at night in her apartment, so she sets up a whole lot of traps to try and catch them. I wonder if Wes Craven saw this movie. I sort of recommend it.
During that same search, I found a movie from 1975 that was also called Evil Eye. That one was harder to track down than the 1963 Evil Eye, but I found it.
Evil Eye (1975, dir. Mario Siciliano)
It has eyes in it that are reminiscent of a Lucio Fulci movie.
Evil Eye (1975, dir. Mario Siciliano)
Evil Eye (1975, dir. Mario Siciliano)
However, while the eyes are certainly present, Evil Hand might have been a more appropriate title.
Evil Eye (1975, dir. Mario Siciliano)
While weird dreams within dreams, unexplained subconscious killings, and a manipulate psychiatrist are revolving around the main character played by Jorge Rivero, the cop below might as well have been in a different movie altogether.
Evil Eye (1975, dir. Mario Siciliano)
This movie doesn’t have much to do with this music video other than that it does share some of the 1970’s look. I recommend the movie only if you enjoyed something like Lisa And The Devil and from what I have read, The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari. It’s been too long since I watched the latter to be sure.
Now I go back to the YouTube video. Someone in the comments section said that Bloody Disgusting brought them there. I had only heard of them from The Cinema Snob review of Black Is Beautiful (1970) where the “doctor” talks about female circumcision, and Snob follows that by saying that “and then Bloody Disgusting will write about the positive sides of female circumcision.” It’s a reference to their review of Eli Roth’s The Green Inferno (2013) where the author goes on for two paragraphs complaining that the film only talks about it as a negative thing. All I have to say in response is to watch the Senegalese film Moolaadé (2004). I’m less looking forward to eventually seeing Roth’s Green Inferno than the 1988 Green Inferno.
The Green Inferno (1988, dir. Antonio Climati)
It’s one of several movies that went by the name of Cannibal Holocaust II.
They have a short Q & A with director Philip Niemeyer on the site. It doesn’t provide a lot of useful information till they ask him about why he combined folk music with horror. He brings up that early 1970’s horror films used that kind of music. He gave two examples. I haven’t seen The Wicker Man (1973). I couldn’t get my hands on a copy on short notice. I could get my hands on a copy of Queens Of Evil (1970), though. Even if the version I had was a bad VHS rip that was dubbed into English.
Queens Of Evil (1970, dir. Tonino Cervi)
Niemeyer was absolutely right about the use of folk music in the video. It’s there for two reasons.
One, actor Raymond Lovelock is also a musician who composed and performed several songs for the movie.
Queens Of Evil (1970, dir. Tonino Cervi)
Also, the movie is about a hippie biker who comes across some witches in the forest who also appear to be hippies living off the grid.
Queens Of Evil (1970, dir. Tonino Cervi)
Queens Of Evil (1970, dir. Tonino Cervi)
I don’t want to spoil the ending, but the devil and its power is a stand-in for the backlash against the free-love and principles that were present among people such as a biker who lives on the road and doesn’t have an apparent fear of sin. I do recommend it.
At times, that movie does look like this video. It’s the one that has the closest ties to it.
Finally, I decided to sit down and write this post only to find that when I did a search again for movies with the title “Evil Eye”, I turned up one more. Lucio Fulci’s film Manhattan Baby (1973) happens to have had the alternate title of Evil Eye.
Manhattan Baby (1982, dir. Lucio Fulci)
Manhattan Baby (1982, dir. Lucio Fulci)
Manhattan Baby (1982, dir. Lucio Fulci)
Manhattan Baby (1982, dir. Lucio Fulci)
It also has a similar effect that we see near the start of the video.
Manhattan Baby (1982, dir. Lucio Fulci)
All of that brings me to the video, which Niemeyer summed up quite nicely in his interview with Bloody Disgusting:
Some definite tropes mark many early ’70s horror films: a satanic and/or a supernatural menace (witchcraft, cultists, vampires), an emphasis on atmosphere, enchanting (often topless) women, a handful of charismatic actors (John Prine, Edwidge Fenech, Pamela Franklin…), analog psychedelic effects, counter-culture protagonists, great acid/prog rock and neo-folk soundtracks, terrific set design, a meandering new wave pacing, an art-damaged narrative sensibility, a nuanced formalism in the photography, and all of these movies–no matter how cheap and trashy–were shot on film. They just look great.
All of these things appeal to me greatly. Don’t know why. Probably something related to childhood.
I guess I could have avoided all those movies. It wasn’t a complete waste of time. I am glad I saw them–especially Queens Of Evil (1970). That is the one I would recommend the strongest out of all of them.
The video does just what Niemeyer said in his interview. It uses a lot of things you’d commonly find in 70’s horror movies before slashers came to dominate horror. I only have a couple of complaints about it.
Why do Hilde Skappel and Katie Flannery look less like they are summoning a special effect, and more like they are having an orgasm at the start of the video?
Maybe that was intentional since the one witch does appear to get jealous when the other one takes an interest in Josh.
A jealousy that appears to culminate in one of them killing the other.
My other complaint is the use of the white dimension for the tarot card scene.
The other shots hold up under HD nicely…
but those scenes don’t, and are a bit jarring when you reach them. Then again, jarring seems to be the right word to describe an edit in the 1975 and 1982 Evil Eye movies, not to mention other 70’s horror films, so what am I complaining about.
They even made a poster for the potential film that could have arisen from what is essentially a trailer for a movie with songs by Josh Ritter.
Dan Forbes was the cinematographer. You can visit his website to see his work as a photographer that includes a black-and-white shot of Jason’s mask.
I hope you appreciate all the pointless movie watching I did in preparation for this post. Enjoy!
The recent release of Jigsaw proves, I guess, that the whole “torture porn” thing isn’t over with just yet, but earlier in 2017 low-budget writer/director Joshua Shreve beat the latest installment of the Saw franchise out of the gate with his straight-to-streaming (and, I guess, DVD, but for our purposes the fact that it’s available on Amazon Prime is all that really matters) effort Talon Falls — the question is, did he beat its at its own game?
There’s no question that this story about four road-tripping teens (played by Morgan Wiggins, Ryan Rudolph, Jordyn Rudolph, and Brad Bell) who make a pit-stop at a Kentucky roadside “scream park” featuring a plethora of blood, torture, and gore that all seems a little bit too realistic is, in fact, sadistic in the extreme — especially when the burly rednecks who run the joynt kidnap all our protagonists, one by one, and…
A thorough appraisal of the micro-budget horror offerings available for streaming on Amazon Prime would’t be complete if we didn’t check out at least one rip-off of The Exorcist (there are literally dozens to choose from), and so I rolled the dice on writer/director David Spaltro’s 2015 effort, Dark Exorcism (originally released under the title In The Dark, not sure when or why the name-change happened), which manages to stand out from the pack in that it features four female leads — but apart from that, I’ll give the game away right at the outset (never an advisable thing to do in the review game, I know, but what the fuck) and just state plainly that this is “been there, done that” stuff all the way.
If you’re still reading, then, here are the particulars : art student Bethany Mills (played by Grace Folsom) has recently survived a horrific…
While two sorority pledges painted his face and then posed for selfies with his unconscious body, Brandon choked to death on his own vomit. The pledges were named Corey (Sarah Booth) and Elaina (Kimberly-Sue Murray) and when they were put on trial for manslaughter, they claimed that it was just a prank gone wrong and that the other members of the sorority put them up to it. Of course, no one was willing to back up their stories. Instead, the president of the sorority, Jacqueline Gill (Katherine Barrell), just went on television and said that she hoped the two would ask God for forgiveness. Corey and Elaina were convicted and sent to prison.
Two years later, Corey and Elaina have been released and now they’re looking for revenge. However, a simple revenge will not do. Elaina is an engineering genius and Corey … well, Corey’s just really angry. They’ve set up an elaborate haunted house and they’ve sent a private invite to each member of the sorority…
Two girls seeking revenge for a sorority prank gone wrong sound like either the set up for a Lifetime movie or the world’s worst Lime-a-rita commercial. (“So, this happened: we thought we were going to a haunted house but then it turned out we were actually being invited to our violent doom. Yep, it was a Lime-a-rita night.”) However, The Scarehouse is neither. Instead, it’s a rather grisly horror film with a streak of extremely dark humor.
But is it any good?
Let’s start with what works. Both Sarah Booth and Kimberly-Sue Murray give very good performances as the two girls. Even when the script lets them down, Booth and Murray keep the movie from dying. The film actually does some interesting things with the two characters. It keeps us guessing about which one of them is really the driving force behind the whole revenge plot. No sooner do you think that you’ve figured out their power dynamic then something will happen or words will said that force you to reconsider what you previously assumed.
Though I had a hard time believing that such an elaborate death trap could have been designed by just two people, the haunted house was a memorable and creepy location. It was full of atmosphere and the promise of doom. If I ever found myself in there, I’d probably be scared.
Finally, you always have to admire a horror film that doesn’t shy away from pursuing things to their darkest conclusion. Once one enters the Scarehouse, there is no escape and everyone’s worst nature will be exposed. There is no exit and Hell is other people.
At the same time, I’ve grown tired of movies that feature lengthy scenes of people being tortured. After nearly two decades of Saw films and Hostel rip-offs, whatever shock value those scenes may have once had are gone. The tortures in The Scarehouse are elaborate and sadistic and thoroughly unpleasant to sit through. A girl with an eating disorder has her corset tightened until she literally splits in half. A forced pillow fight leads to corrosive chemicals eating away at flesh. Some of it is clever but, far too often, these scenes go on too long. There’s only so long you can spend watching someone being tortured until you mentally check out.
As well, The Scarehouse uses a nonlinear time line. In between the scenes of Corey and Elaina getting their revenge, we see flashbacks to the prank that led to death of Brandon. But, since we already know what happened because it’s all Corey and Elaina ever talk about, there’s not really anything new to be discovered in the flashbacks.
Obviously, my feelings about The Scarehouse are mixed. I was pretty dismissive immediately after I watched it but the movie has definitely stuck with me. It has its flaws but it also has two memorable and frightening performances. Watch at your own discretion.
In this episode of the Boris Karloff-hosted anthology series, Thriller, murders are being committed all over Europe. What do all of the murders have in common? They have all happened outside of the same traveling wax museum!
Is it a coincidence or are the wax figures coming to life and committing murder?
This episode was written by Robert Bloch of Psycho fame and originally aired on January 8th, 1962.
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a cat?
Sure, we all have!
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be in the middle of a zombie apocalypse?
Who hasn’t?
Well, now, you can get the answer to both questions! First published in 2011, You Are A Cat In The Zombie Apocalypse is a “pick-a-plot” book. It’s one of those books where, at the end of each page, you’re given a series of options. For instance, at the bottom of Page 120, we have, “Do you run? If so, take off to page 169. If you stay put, turn to page 123.”
In this book, you’re a cat named Holden Catfield. One day, you’re just waking up from a nap. You’re minding your own business. You’re just being a cat, basically. Suddenly, all the humans are acting strange. Weird-looking people are wandering the streets and biting each other! Your owner’s daughter wants you to get in a car with her and a stranger so you can all go somewhere else. Do you get in the car or do you explore your neighborhood?
That’s the first of many choices that you’ll have to make. They’re important choices because, if you do happen to find yourself in a situation where you get bitten by a weird human, you’ll turn into a zombie yourself. And then you’ll be the one looking for people to bite…
Now, our longtime readers know that I’m both a cat person and a lover of zombie films. So, needless to say, I totally and completely loved You Are A Cat In The Zombie Apocalypse! Not only does this book capture what it’s like to be a cat but it also does a pretty good job of capturing what I imagine it’s like to be a zombie. Don’t worry, though. Make the right choices and Holden will never turn into a zombie.
You Are A Cat In The Zombie Apocalypse was written and illustrated by Sherwin Tija, who did an excellent job on both counts. The book ends with a collection of “Catknowldgements” and a page that tells about the “Meowthur” and the “Mewllustrator.” If you’re a cat person, you’ll love it.
Through the Shattered Lens 