Author Archives: Lisa Marie Bowman

Horror Song of the Day: Willow’s Song by Magnet

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s song of the day comes from the soundtrack of 1973’s The Wicker Man.

Composed by Paul Giovanni, Willow’s Song was based on several songs that screenwriter Anthony Shaffer claimed to have heard at various spring pagan festivals.  Magnet, who is credited with performing the song, was a band of sessions players that were brought together specifically to record the film’s score.  According to Giovanni, the woman singing was Rachel Verney and not, as some people claimed, jazz performer Annie Ross.

Horror Scene of the Day: “Chop Chop” from The Wicker Man

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today would have been the 97th birthday of British director Robin Hardy.

Hardy was best-known for directing the original The Wicker Man.  Indeed, his subsequent films — including the long-delayed sequel — achieved nowhere near the acclaim as 1973’s Wicker Man.  A film in which a Christian detective (Edward Woodward) is lured to an island so that he can be tricked into becoming a pagan sacrifice, The Wicker Man is remembered for Christopher Lee’s chilling performance of Lord Summerisle and, of course, the burning man.

At the risk of being accused of heresy, I’ve always found The Wicker Man to be good but a bit overrated.  Woodward’s detective is portrayed as being such a fool that the film’s ending is nowhere near as shocking as it should be.  (The Wicker Man was written by Anthony Shaffer who, just as he would later do with 1978’s Absolution, lets his own issues with religion bleed a bit too heavily into the film.)  That said, the film is full of wonderfully creepy scenes, like the one below.

“Chop!  Chop!” the villagers say and it may seem like it’s all good fun but the look of relief on some of the people’s faces clue us into the fact that the blades have not always remained motionless.  It’s the supreme act of trust on an island where no one really has any reason to trust anyone.

4 Shots From 4 Horror Films: October 2nd

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!

4 Shots From 4 Horror Films

The Wicker Man (1973, dir by Robin Hardy, DP: Harry Waxman)

Ticket to Heaven (1981, dir by Ralph L. Thomas, DP: Richard Lieterman)

Split Image (1982. dir by Ted Kotcheff, DP: Robert C. Jessup)

Midsommar (2019, dir by Ari Aster, DP: Pawel Pogorzelski)

 

 

Horror Film Review: The Bells (dir by James Young)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

A silent film from 1926, The Bells stars Lionel Barrymore as Mathias, a businessman who lives in a small Austrian village during the 19th Century.

Mathias is the owner of the inn, the bar, and the local mill.  He’s a popular man around town, specifically because he gives away drinks and meals on credit but he rarely bothers to collect.  He’s hoping that his generosity will lead to him being elected burgomaster.  Instead, it’s left him in debt to Frantz (Gustav von Seyffertitz), who threatens to take away everything that Mathias owns unless Mathias agrees to allow Frantz to marry his daughter, Annette (Lola Todd).  Annette, however, is in love with Christian (Eddie Phillips).

On one snowy Christmas night, a traveler from Poland (E. Alyn Warren) enters the bar.  Mathias befriends the man but, when he sees that the man is carrying a lot of gold, Mathias’s desperation takes over.  He follows the man outside and stabs him.  As the man dies, he shakes a set of horse bells at the man.

Mathias is soon out-of-debt and he is also elected burgomaster.  His daughter is free to marry Christian.  However, Mathias finds himself consumed with guilt.  The ghost of the dead man continually appears to him and stares at him without saying a word.  Mathias is haunted by the sound of the ringing bells.  Soon, the man’s identical twin brother arrives in town, looking for the murderer.  Accompanying him is a mesmerist (Boris Karloff) who claims that he can always get the guilty to confess.

The Bells is a surprisingly effective film.  It’s a silent film so we don’t actually hear the sound of the bells.  But we do see Mathias reacting to what he hears and we see him seeing the bells ringing and what we imagine is undoubtedly scarier than anything that a sound film could recreate.  Meanwhile, the silence of the dead man’s ghost is far more ominous than if the ghost had spoken accusingly.  Because the ghost does not speak, Mathias doesn’t know what it wants and neither do we.  The Ghost itself never reacts to Mathias’s words.  Instead, it just stares at him.  We’re left to wonder if the ghost is real or if Mathias’s guilt-stricken mind is playing tricks on him.  It’s also impossible not to notice that, though Frantz was the one who was causing Mathias so much worry, Mathias take his anger out on a stranger, on someone who he probably presumed wouldn’t be missed.  In the film, it’s made clear that the traveler was also Jewish.  He was an outsider, a Jew who came to an inn on Christmas and was murdered because someone else wanted to take his possessions.  The film is not just about the guilt of one man but it’s also a portrait of the institutional anti-Semitism that has historically defined so much of Europe.

Lionel Barrymore gives a strong performance as Mathias.  Since the film was made at a time when actors could not be heard, Barrymore uses his eyes and the tilt of his head to show us what Mathias is thinking and he does a great job showing us Mathias growing increasingly more and more desperate.  Mathias is never portrayed as being a simple villain.  Instead, he’s a man who lost control for one terrible moment and now has to live with the consequences of his actions.  The film also makes good use of Boris Karloff’s imposing physical presence.  Just as with the ghost, the film leaves it up to the viewer to decide whether the mesmerist has any powers or not.  Karloff plays him as being a intimidating enigma.

Considering the limits of the era in which it wad made, The Bells holds up well.  Director James Young emphasizes the story’s ominous atmosphere.  His direction of the snowstorm and the murder is especially impressive.  The sight of the victim’s blood falling onto the snow remains a haunting one.  One hundred years after it was released, The Bells remains a memorable look at the haunting power of guilt.

6 Trailers From October 2nd

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Every Horrorthon, I like to bring out an old favorite of mine.  Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation Film Trailers used to be a regular feature here on the Shattered Lens.  Every week, I would share some of my favorite grindhouse and exploitation film trailers.  Unfortunately, it turned out that YouTube only had a limited amount of good trailers and I soon found myself having to reuse trailers to keep the series going.  As a result, this feature went from being a weekly thing to a holiday thing.

Well, it’s the holidays!

Here are six of my favorite horror trailers!  I will definitely be watching all six of these this October!

(Be warned, some of the trailers are not safe for work and feature quite a bit of blood and violence.)

  1. I Drink Your Blood (1971)

2. Messiah of Evil (1974)

3. Dawn of the Dead (1978)

4. Shock (1977)

5. Zombi 2 (1979)

6. Inferno (1980)

What do you think, Trailer Kitties?

Music Video of The Day: Burn The Witch by Radiohead (2016, dir by Chris Hopewell)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today, we have the video for Radiohead’s Burn the Witch.  Through the use of stop motion animation, Burn the Witch tells a disturbing little story, one that deals with an inspector who comes to a seemingly idyllic English village and who eventually ends up getting trapped in a wicker man.  If any of this sounds familiar, it’s probably because you’ve seen either the original Wicker Man or the remake starring Nicolas Cage.  The video for Burn the Witch is actually a bit more positive than the film that inspired it.   In the video, the inspector escapes at the end.  Neither Edward Woodward nor Nic Cage were quite as lucky.

As for the song itself, it deals with the dangers of groupthink and blind obedience to authority.  Since Radiohead’s music has always possessed a libertarian streak, that’s certainly not a shock.  The video condemns not only those who would demand blind obedience but also on those who are foolish enough to give it.  First released in 2016, this video easily predicted much of what would happen in 2020s, from the COVID hysteria on down.

Of course, with The Wicker Man theme, it’s also perfect for October!

Enjoy!

October Positivity: Forgiven (dir by Kevan Otto)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

On a snowy night, a desperate man named James (Casey Fuller) enters a church with a gun.  He’s on the run from the law and fearful that, if he’s arrested, he’ll be charged with murder.  James holds a pastor (Steven Flanigan) and his two daughters, Elizabeth and Naomi (played, respectively, by Jenn Gotzon Chandler and Amy Sutton Hethcoat), hostage.  While Lt. Morgan (Kevin Sorbo) coordinates the police outside the church, Elizabeth tries to reason with James and convince him to turn himself in.  James feels that there can be no forgiveness for the mistakes that he’s made in his life.  Elizabeth disagrees.

Normally, I can’t stand films about hostage situations.  With a few notable exceptions (like Dog Day Afternoon), they tend to be dramatically inert and they also tend to features characters who spend more time filibustering than actually saying anything interesting.  Inevitably, there’s a harried but idealistic hostage negotiator who tries to convince the main criminal to surrender before things get out of control.  There’s always a lot of yelling, which tends to get old quickly. Because the film can’t really move anywhere beyond the hostage situation, there’s usually at least an hour of people refusing to answer the phone or the negotiator saying, “Hold on, I need more time!”  It’s predicable and it’s boring.

There are certain elements of all of that in 2016’s Forgiven.  This is a talky film and, because it takes place in only two locations, it’s also a rather stagey film.  There were times when I definitely got tired of listening to James complain about his life.  But, as annoyed as I got with James complaining, it was even worse when he would just silently look around with an annoyed look on his face.  At times, the film is pretty predictable.

That said, Forgiven does have a few things to recommend it.

First off, it’s short.  It clocks in at 79 minutes and that includes the closing credits.  It may sound like a backhanded compliment to praise a film for being short but, in this age of 8-part docuseries and three-hour super hero films, it was a relief to see a film that didn’t take forever to make its point.

Secondly, for a faith-based film about a hostage situation, it was generally well-acted.  Kevin Sorbo was properly world weary as the hostage negotiator.  Casey Fuller was convincing as a desperate man who is essentially in over his head.  Jenn Gotzon Chandler had the most difficult role and she played it well.

Third, in this age of cartoonish violence, I appreciated the fact that Forgiven actually was about forgiveness.  Though James may not be a master criminal at heart, he still does some pretty bad things and there are definitely consequences to his actions.  And yet, Elizabeth forgives him for his mistakes and she actually plays a positive role in his life.  That’s certainly not a bad message.

Indeed, forgiveness is a concept that the world could stand to once again embrace.  We live in an age of partisan bickering and grudge-holding.  This film has the courage to say the forgiveness is better for the heart than revenge.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Hunter 2.4 “Rich Girl”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Thursdays, I will be reviewing Hunter, which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1991.  The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi and several other services!

This week, Hunter and McCall investigate a rich girl for murder.

Episode 2.4 “Rich Girl”

(Dir by James Whitmore, Jr., originally aired on October 19th, 1985)

When an elderly millionaire named Ralph Flagg (Robert Rockwell) is shot and nearly killed, his much younger wife, Ginger (Lois Hamilton), is arrested for the crime. Even though she’s acquitted, McCall and Hunter continue to believe Ginger tried to kill her husband for his money. When Ginger plunges off a balcony, they start to have their doubts. What if the mastermind behind the violence is actually Ralph’s daughter, Cynthia (Dorian Lopinto)? Hunter goes undercover as a former basketball player turned golf hustler and gets close to both Cynthia and her loutish boyfriend, Bradley (John Calvin).

The plot doesn’t provide as many twists as one might hope. From the start, it’s made clear that Cynthia and Bradley are the murderers. Bradley may be the more openly evil of the two, but Cynthia is definitely the mastermind. When it starts to seem as if Bradley is going to turn on her, Cynthia shoots him and then claims it was self-defense. When it appears that Cynthia is going to get away with that murder as well, Hunter and McCall convince Ralph to change his will so Cynthia must confess to her crimes if she wants to inherit his fortune. Cynthia responds by going home, grinding a couple of pills into her ice cream, and then apparently committing suicide while a tear rolls down her cheek.

Agck!

That ending really took me by surprise. Cynthia went from being the episode’s villain to an almost tragic figure. That said, I’m not really a fan of Hunter and McCall hounding people into suicide. I would much rather they just make good arrests, but that’s not their style.

At least this episode didn’t end with Hunter saying, “Works for me.”

Chevy Chase as Indiana Jones?

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Was Chevy Chase considered for the role of Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark?

According to the internet, he was. While I was doing research into the casting process that led to Harrison Ford being cast as the iconic archaeologist, I came across several trivia sites that claimed that Chase was one of the many actors considered for the role of Indiana Jones. This struck me as being rather odd. Even though Raiders of the Lost Ark was produced at a time when Chase was still a legitimate film star, it was hard to imagine anything about his screen persona that would make producer George Lucas or director Steven Spielberg view him as being a potential Indiana Jones. The idea of Chase as Indiana Jones struck me as being so strange that I started to search for the source of the rumor. I read post after post about the lost roles of Chevy Chase. I clicked on link after link. And what I discovered is that the main source for Chase being considered for Indiana Jones was an anonymous, unsourced piece of trivia on the IMDb. In fact, according to the IMDb, Steve Martin and Bill Murray were also considered for the role.

I’m just going to say it. I don’t buy it. I don’t think any of those people were considered for Indiana Jones. For that matter, I don’t think John Belushi was considered for the role of Dr. Loomis in Halloween, and I also don’t think Chase was seriously considered for the role of Han Solo.

With that in mind, the idea of Chevy Chase playing Han Solo reminded me of just how important Harrison Ford was to the success of the first three Indiana Jones films. Even if Chase wasn’t one of them, a lot of actors not named Harrison Ford were considered for the role of Jones. Jeff Bridges has said that he was considered for the role, but he also denies having ever gotten a firm offer. According to Spielberg, Peter Coyote’s audition for the role led to Spielberg later casting him in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Tim Matheson, Nick Mancuso, and John Shea have all been confirmed as having been, at the very least, officially considered. Sam Neill said that he auditioned for the role. Was David Hasselhoff a contender for Indiana Jones? I’ve seen Hasselhoff’s name mentioned on several sites, but it seems that this is another case where the ultimate source is the same anonymous piece of trivia that included Chase, Martin, and Murray as contenders. But the idea of the Hoff as Indiana Jones amuses me to no end, so I’m going to go ahead and say that he actually was considered. Yeah, I’m a hypocrite. So what?

George Lucas has said that he was initially hesitant about casting Harrison Ford because he (1) felt the star should be a relative unknown and (2) didn’t want the critics to say that he wasn’t capable of making a movie without Ford in the cast. Marcia Lucas famously felt that Tom Selleck would have been the perfect Indiana, and George agreed with her. It appeared, at the time, that CBS was going to pass on producing Magnum, P.I., a show for which Selleck had been signed to star. When Lucas and Spielberg asked CBS to release Selleck from his contract so that he could do Raiders, CBS instead put the show into production because Selleck was now “in demand.” With Selleck out of the running, Harrison Ford was finally cast in the role that he was born to play.

I’ve always loved Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones but, to be honest, who doesn’t? What always enchanted me about Ford’s performance is that he wasn’t afraid to be intelligent. No matter what adventures Indiana Jones found himself in, Ford always played him as an academic first and an adventurer second. In the first three films, Indiana seemed just as excited as the audience to see what he would discover in his travels. As for the final two films, they failed because they both tried to bring in a replacement. Audiences didn’t want to see Harrison Ford replaced by Shia LaBeouf. They sure as hell didn’t want to see him being put in his place by Phoebe Waller-Bridge. It doesn’t matter how old he gets or how grouchy he may be. Audiences love Harrison Ford, and they love it when he says that it belongs in a museum.

As for who was considered for the rest of the Raiders ensemble, here are the names that I’ve seen mentioned as having been considered. As always, take these names with a grain of salt.

Marion: Debra Winger was not available. Neither was Spielberg’s girlfriend, Amy Irving. (By most accounts, Irving didn’t think much of any of her future husband’s films.) Sean Young screen-tested with Tom Selleck. Wendie Malick has talked about auditioning for the role while hungover. Jane Seymour, Mary Steenburgen, Michelle Pfeiffer, Stephanie Zimbalist, and Barbara Hershey were reportedly also considered, but the role was offered to Karen Allen.

Brody: Apparently, only Denholm Elliott was considered for Brody, and it is impossible to imagine anyone else in the role.

Sallah: Danny DeVito was actually offered the role, but he was appearing in a television show and couldn’t get out of his contract. John Rhys-Davies was cast instead.

Belloq: Jonathan Pryce, who would have been a great choice, read for the role. Giancarlo Giannini and French singer Jacques Dutronc are frequently mentioned as being other possibilities. The role went to Paul Freeman.

Toht: In his autobiography, Klaus Kinski wrote about turning down the role because it didn’t pay enough. Some sites say that Roman Polanski was offered the role. (If that’s true, one imagines that Spielberg is probably happy in retrospect that Polanski turned him down.) Ronald Lacey was cast in the role, and personally, I think he was perfect for it. As intriguing as the idea of Harrison Ford vs. Klaus Kinski might be, the role of Toht didn’t need a familiar face. It just needed someone who could be menacing.

(Actually, the idea of Chevy Chase vs. Klaus Kinski is even more intriguing! That would have been an interesting set to visit.)

In the end, Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of the few films that one can say is perfectly cast, from Harrison Ford to Karen Allen to John Rhys-Davies and Denholm Elliott. And we’re all the luckier for it!

 

 

Lisa Marie Review A Best Picture Nominee: Raiders of the Lost Ark (dir by Steven Spielberg)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I can hear you right now.

“Really? You’re reviewing Raiders of the Lost Ark for Horrorthon? That’s not a horror movie!”

Well, you’re right, it’s not. That said, it’s definitely a film that borrows from the genre even if it doesn’t embrace it. If you’ve got a thing about spiders, you’ll cringe when Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) has to wipe all of those tarantulas off of that guy’s shirt while they’re exploring the Peruvian temple. If you’ve got a thing about snakes, you’ll share Indiana’s reaction when the cobra hisses at him. And don’t even get me started on the justifiably famous finale. “It’s beautiful!” Belloq (Paul Freeman) shouts right before the angels turn into skeletons. A man’s eyes pop out of his head. Another one melts. Another explodes. There are plenty of scary moments in Raiders of the Lost Ark, but it’s such a thrill ride that the fear doesn’t necessarily linger the way that it would need to for Raiders to actually be considered a horror film. We’re too busy cheering on Indy and Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) to duck behind the couch. That said, I think Raiders of the Lost Ark is still a perfect film for the Halloween month. Though it was released a little before my time, I imagine that Indiana Jones, with his hat and his bullwhip, was a popular figure when Halloween rolled around in 1981.

I rewatched Raiders of the Lost Ark on Tuesday and, as always, I found myself more than a little amazed at how well it holds up. There’s not a single wasted moment. The action scenes are still exciting. The moments of humor — that poor swordsman! — still make me laugh. There’s not a single weak performance to be found in the film’s large cast. Denholm Elliott is instantly lovable as Prof. Brody and John Rhys-Davies plays Sallah with just the right amount of gusto. Ronald Lacey and Wolf Kahler are thoroughly hissable as the Nazi villains and Paul Freeman brings just enough wit to the role of the duplicitous Belloq that you can understand why he and Indiana were once friends. Of course, the film truly belongs to Karen Allen and Harrison Ford. Karen Allen projects a toughness and an inner strength that keeps Marion from being just another damsel-in-distress. Harrison Ford was the perfect choice for Indiana Jones and he’s equally believable whether he’s running through the jungle, falling into a crypt, or teaching a class. (Indiana is so cute when he puts on his glasses!) My mom always used to say that she liked the way Indiana would smile in a semi-confused way before taking decisive action. For all the arguments about why the last two Indiana Jones movies failed, the answer is pretty simple. They forgot that an Indiana Jones movie is supposed to be about Indiana Jones, not Shia LaBeouf and certainly not some condescending Brit. Harrison Ford is Indiana Jones. He’s the reason we watch.

Raiders of the Lost Ark is a film that is so good that I think there’s a tendency to take it for granted. That’s why, much like with the best of the James Bond films, I think it’s important to rewatch it and re-experience just how good it is. Producer George Lucas and director Steven Spielberg sought to recreate the experience of watching the serials and the adventure films of their youth and they succeeded. Spielberg directs like a man in love with the movies and, as a result, it’s hard not to fall in love with this movie.

Raiders of the Lost Ark was, of course, a huge box office success. It was nominated for several Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. Harrison Ford was (unforgivably, in my opinion) not nominated for Best Actor. In the end, the Academy selected Warren Beatty over Steven Spielberg and Chariots of Fire over Raiders of the Lost Ark.