Frontier is from Dead Can Dance’s self-titled debut album. This is the sound that largely defined goth in the 80s.
Enjoy!
Author Archives: Jedadiah Leland
Evil Obsession (1996, directed by Richard W. Munchkin)
11 models have been murdered in Los Angeles and Margo (Kimberly Stevens) fears that she could be next. She’s been receiving threatening notes and feels as if someone is watching her and her boyfriend, Bill (Michael Phenicie). She hires a private detective (Mark Derwin) to protect her but it might be too late because Homer (Corey Feldman), the man who has been sending her the notes, has already enrolled in the same acting class of Margo. After Bill turns up dead, Homer is assigned to be Margo’s new scene partner. Is Homer moving in for the kill or is someone else responsible for the murders?
This mix of erotic thriller and horror was one of those movies that used to show up on a late night Cinemax in the 90s, where it could be watched by teenagers who kept one eye on the screen and one eye looking out for their parents. Corey Feldman starred in a lot of these films and in this one, he gives a twitchy and occasionally funny performance as the nerdy Homer. Homer is the most obvious stalker imaginable and it’s hard to believe that Margo, who is so concerned about being stalked that she’s hired a private detective, would not look at Homer and immediately realize that he was the culprit. Feldman overacts but he at least provides the film with the energy that is missing from the performances of Kimberly Stevens and Mark Derwin. Even better is the performance of Brion James as the autocratic and pretentious acting teacher. Watching him, I got the feeling that James probably could have based his performance on any number of Hollywood acting coaches.
Music Video of the Day: Voyeur by Kim Carnes (1982, directed by Russell Mulcahy)
The music video for Kim Carnes’s Voyeur is another music video that was initially banned from MTV and other music shows because it was considered to be too suggestive. The video features Kim Carnes watching and being watched in a red light district.
This was another video directed by Highlander’s Russell Mulcahy, who perhaps did more than anyone to perfect the early music video aesthetic.
Enjoy!
The Demolitionist (1995, directed by Robert Kurtzman)
In the future, America is overrun by crime. Mad Dog Burne (Richard Grieco) and his brother, Little Henry (Randy Vasquez) escape from California death row. Mayor Eleanor Grimbaum (Susan Tyrell) wants the Burne brothers captured and she wants to be able to show the voters that she’s tough on crime. When brave police officer Alyssa Lloyd (Nicole Eggert) is killed by Mad Dog Burne’s gang, she is brought back to life in cyborg form by Prof. Crowley (Bruce Abbott) and, after a training montage, she is let loose on the streets as a police-backed vigiliante.
The Demolitionist owes an obvious debt to Robocop, with Nicole Eggert miscast as an expressionless cyborg who launches a one-woman/one-machine war on crime. The main problem is that The Demolitionist has none of Robocop‘s wit or its subversive subtext. Nicole Eggert is no substitute for Peter Weller and Richard Grieco is no Kurtwood Smith. “Booker’s a good cop!” I said whenever Grieco showed up.
The only interesting this is about the cast, which is full of horror veterans. Jack Nance plays the prison priest who counsels the Burne brothers before they escape their scheduled executions. Reggie Bannister plays the warden. Sarah Douglas plays a surgeon. Joseph Pilato is one of Mad Dog’s followers. And playing Mad Dog’s second-in-command is none other than Tom Savini. Finally, the city’s most popular journalist is played by Heather Langenkamp!
The Demolitionist demolishes almost the entire town but she still can’t come up with any way to make this stale Robocop rip-off feel fresh.
Music Video of the Day: Lonely In Your Nightmare by Duran Duran (1982, directed by Russell Mulcahy)
For today’s music video of the day, we have the second video for Duran Duran’s Lonely In Your Nightmare, to go along with the first.
Both videos were directed by Highlander’s Russell Mulcahy.
The Shadow People (2017, directed by Brian T. Jaynes)
On a rainy night and after nearly crashing their car into a ditch, Andrew (Bug Hall) and Megan (Kat Steffens) arrive at their new country home. Andrew is a writer. Megan is a painter. At first, their new home seems like the perfect place for both of them to practice their art and work on starting a family but then Megan starts to see strange people standing around the house. She fears that they could be the Shadow People, evil spirits that her grandfather told her about. After Megan realizes that she’s lost her necklace, her visions start to get more extreme and violent.
The Shadow People starts out as a really good haunted house film with a good performance from Kat Steffens and a lot of effective jump scares. It works up until a scene where Megan suddenly speaks in a demonic voice, as if she’s been possessed. Later, some of the spirits speak in the same voice and it sounds so much like autotune that it takes you right out of the movie. The spirits are much more effective before they start talking but the movie still has a good twist ending and Kat Steffens’s performance is never less than great so The Shadow People is still worth it.
Top-billed on The Shadow People‘s poster is C. Thomas Howell. Howell actually only has a few minutes of screen time, playing a mysterious minster whose role in the story only become apparent in the film’s final moments.
Music Video of the Day: Lonely In Your Nightmare by Duran Duran (1982, directed by Russell Mulcahy)
This is one of two videos for Duran Duran’s Lonely In Your Nightmare. In this one, Simon Le Bon finds old photographs and remembers a past relationship that might have just been someone’s dream. Lonely In Your Nightmare appeared on Rio, one of the defining albums of the early 80s.
Director Russell Mulcahy was Duran Duran’s video director of choice in the early 80s and, of course, he worked with many other bands as well. His stylish music videos dominated MTV and set the template for which most subsequent videos would come. He also directed a little film called Highlander.
Enjoy!
The Terror Experiment (2010, directed by George Mendeluk)
At the Houston Federal Building, a disgruntled domestic terrorists sets off a bomb that not only rocks the building but also unleashes a government-designed nerve gas that turns anyone exposed to it into an animalistic, rage-fueled zombie who attacks everyone that they see. Soon, the building is full of former friends and co-workers who are now obsessed with ripping each other to shreds. The few people who were not exposed to the nerve gas are hiding on the top floor. Under the reluctant leadership of Cale (Jason London), they try to figure out how to escape from the building.
Meanwhile, on the outside, Police Chief Grosso (C. Thomas Howell) and Fire Chief Lohan (Lochlyn Munro) attempt to rescue as many people as they can before the building is blown up. The scientist on the scene (Robert Carradine) sees all of this as a research opportunity while a sinister government agent (Judd Nelson) conspires to keep word about what has happened from reaching the public.
With its images of suit-and-tie wearing madmen trying to kill everyone in the building, The Terror Experiment may seem like it would have much in common with The Belko Experiment (which came out a few years after Terror Experiment) but actually, The Terror Experiment is mash-up of Die Hard and 28 Days Later, with Jason London and Lochlyn Munro filling in for Bruce Willis and Reginald Veljohnson. With its frequent scenes of formerly normal people suddenly going mad and turning into homicidal maniacs, The Terror Experiment has its effective moments and Jason London does the best that anyone probably could with the role of the film’s reluctant hero. But the film also suffers because you never really get to know who any of these people were before they were trapped in the building and there aren’t really any emotional stakes to whether or not they’ll manage to get out. As well, the scenes outside the building often fill like filler that was included so that some “name” actors could be recruited to appear in the film. Howell, Carradine, and Nelson are all fine in their roles but the only thing they add to the movie is an opportunity to recreate the one of the most crowd-pleasing moments from the finale of Die Hard.
The Terror Experiment is occasionally diverting but it’s hard not to feel that it never really reaches its potential.
Music Video of the Day: Photograph by Def Leppard (1983, directed by David Mallett)
This video was controversial when it was first released with some people wondering if the video would promote violence with its story of a Marilyn Monroe look-alike being photographed while a killer tossed around a knife and newspaper headlines announced that a movie star had been murdered. Controversy sells and the video was put in heavy rotation on MTV, helping Photograph to reach number one on the charts and to stay there for several weeks.
Director David Mallet is one of those directors who has done videos for just about everyone, from AC/DC to Olivia Newton-John to Peter Gabriel.
Enjoy!
Donner Pass (2011, directed by Elise Robertson)
A bunch of teenagers hang out in a house during one snowy weekend. It’s just too bad that the house is located near Donner Pass, the infamous Colorado location where George Donner ate several people while trapped by a blizzard. Legend has it that Old Man Donner is still out there, his spirit tracking down others dumb enough to get lost in the snow and eating them. And even if Old Man Donner doesn’t get them, what about the escaped criminal who is currently missing somewhere in the Colorado wilderness?
As far as the types of film are concerned, Donner Pass is okay. There is one creative kill, the film does feature an unexpected twist or two, and probably enough gore to keep the gorehounds happy. For those of us looking for something more than just gore, Donner Pass suffers from a lack of sympathetic characters. Other than Kaylee (played by Desiree Hall), all of the characters are either wimpy or just alcoholic jerks. There are some atmospheric night shots of the blizzard and the house is a great location but, since you don’t care about any of the characters it’s hard to get invested in the film. The Donner Party is one of those true stories that is so creepy that its true horror defies even the bloodiest of films.
Through the Shattered Lens 