A Blast From the Past: Saved By The Belding (dir by Matt Hamilton and Scott Hamilton)

Posted on October 3, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Do you all remember that time that Rod Belding came to Bayside High School as a substitute?

At first, the students were surprised. Rod was the younger brother of their stuffy principal, Richard Belding. Richard was going bald. Rod had long blonde hair. Richard was boring. Rod was exciting. Richard was by-the-book. Rod took chances. Richard wanted to go on a boring class trip. Rod wanted to take the students white water rafting! When Richard called Rod out for the way he was running his class, student Zack Morris accused Richard of just being jealous of his brother. You would think this would get Zack suspended but instead, the studio audience just said, “Awwww!”

But then, the night before the students were due to leave for their rafting trip, Rod told Richard that he had met a flight attendant and he was abandoning the students.

“Cover for me,” Rod said.

“I’m tired of covering for you, Rod. Get out of my school!” Richard snapped.

That said, Richard did cover for his brother. He said Rod had the flu and then he volunteered to take the students on their rafting trip. Kelly Kapowski was so thrilled that she kissed Richard on the cheek, which one would expect to lead to Mr. Belding losing his job once word got out that he had physical contact with a student. Instead, the audience applauded.

Zack asked Richard why didn’t tell the truth about Rod. It turned out Zack had overheard the whole conversation. Richard admitted that the students at Bayside got the less exciting Belding.

“We got the better Belding,” Zack replied as the audience awwed and applauded once again.

The audience was there because this was all an episode of Saved By The Bell. In fact, “The Fabolous Belding Boys” was perhaps the best episode of Saved by the Bell, featuring excellent performances from both Dennis Haskins and Edward Blatchford.

The 2010 short film, Saved By The Belding, tells the story of a group of men who don’t understand that Saved By The Bell was just a television show and that Dennis Haskins and Edward Blatchford were just actors. Hoping to help them regain some sense of reality, their psychiatrist takes them to the Hollywood home of Ed Blatchford. Ed is excited to talk to his fans, asking them if they know him from his work in Last of the Mohicans. The men, however, want to know is he really had the flu or if Richard was just covering for him. Ed, realizing that the men don’t understand that he’s not actually Rod Belding, invites them to join him for dinner at a nice restaurant. However, as Ed is heading to the restaurant, he runs into an old acquaintance — a flight attendant — who invites him to come have dinner with her.

Will Ed abandon his new friends? And will Dennis Haskins once again have to come to the rescue?

Saved By The Belding is a sweet little film, one that views the cultural obsession with Saved By The Bell with both affection and wit. (That said, the cultural obsessions does seem to be waning a bit. For the first time in a long time, it’s next to impossible to find the show streaming online.) Both Dennis Haskin and especially Ed Blatchford deserve a lot of credit for being good sports and appearing as versions of themselves. Ed’s shock when Dennis appeared out of nowhere made me laugh out loud.

Check it out below and ask yourself who got the better Belding.

October True Crime: An Officer and a Murderer (dir by Norma Bailey)

Posted on October 3, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Gary Cole is an interesting actor.

He’s handsome in a distinguished way, even if he’s played some roles that have required him to play down his looks. (Think about his perm in The Brady Bunch Movie or the glasses that he wore in Office Space.) He’s not exactly movie star handsome but he’s definitely good-looking enough to be the star of his own detective series. He’s got the authoritative voice of someone who you instinctively trust. You look at Gary Cole and you see someone who knows what’s going on and who you would probably trust in a crisis.

At the same time, with just about every character that Cole has played, there’s always been a sign of something lurking behind the friendly smile and perfect haircut. At the very least, there’s usually a hint of a threat concealed behind his polite manner. Gary Cole is the ideal actor to play a character who has secrets to hide, whether he’s playing Mike Brady as someone who cheerfully offers up nonsensical advice or telling one of his employees that he’s going to need to come in over the weekend. It’s hard to trust a character played by Gary Cole. Cole has appeared in a wide variety of films and shows. As anyone who has seen Veep can tell you, Gary Cole can be a very funny actor. But where Gary Cole really shines is when he plays the bad guy who no one suspects is a bad guy.

In 2012’a An Officer and A Murderer, Gary Cole plays a very bad guy indeed, Russell Williams. Williams is a colonel in the Canadian Air Force. He’s such a highly respected figure that he was given the job of flying with the Queen of England when she last visited Ontario. Williams has a big house in the suburbs. He has a beautiful wife (played by Nahanni Johnstone). His neighbors love him and they all say hi whenever he’s out for his morning run. Williams had just been appointed the new commander of the local Canadian Air Force base. He’s a respected and beloved figure who raises money for charity, mentors younger pilots, and seems like the ideal gentleman.

But at night, Russell Williams sneaks out of his house and breaks into the homes and apartments of single women. He starts out as an underwear thief, obsessively cataloging all of the bras and the panties that he steals from each house. Unknown to his wife, he has two suitcases filled with stolen underwear. Occasionally, he even wears them himself. The two detectives (played by Laura Harris and Rossif Sutherland) who investigate the break-ins theorize that the perpetrator is going to start to escalate his activities and Williams soon does just that. Williams assaults a young mother, blindfolding her and then filming her while he poses with her. He breaks into another house and removes his clothes while he stares at the homeowner showering just a few feet away. Eventually, two women are murdered. The detectives suspect Russ but can they get him to slip up and give them the evidence that they need to arrest him?

An Officer and A Murderer is based on a true story, which makes it all the more disturbing to watch as Williams breaks into his neighbor’s homes and even tries to frame an innocent man for his crimes. Watching this movie, I found myself wondering about all of the neighbors that I’ve had over the years. Part of living in neighborhood is trusting the people around you but how well do we know the people who are living just a few houses or a few apartment away from us? An Officer and a Murderer tells a sordid story and occasionally, it lingers over the details of Williams’s crimes to such an extent that you worry that Williams’s real-life victims are being exploited all over again. That’s always an issue with films about real-life crimes. That said, Gary Cole gave a genuinely frightening performance as Russell Williams and, if nothing else, the film reminded me to make sure that all of my doors and windows are locked tonight.

Horror Film Review: Godzilla (dir by Luigi Cozzi, Inshiro Honda, and Terry Morse)

Posted on October 3, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The year was 1976 and the flamboyant Italian producer, Dino de Laurentiis, was drumming up a lot of publicity for his remake of the monster classic, King Kong. In Italy, the journalist, screenwriter, and director Luigi Cozzi assumed that the King Kong remake would be a huge hit and decided to get in on the action himself. If Italian audiences loved a film about a big monkey, how about a film about a big radioactive lizard?

Cozzi’s original plan was to buy the distribution rights to Gojira but Toho Studios turned him down. They did, however, agree to allow Cozzi to distribute the American cut of Gojira, Godzilla, King of the Monsters. (That’s the version where Raymond Burr appears as American reporter Steve Martin and, through some clever editing tricks, appears to be interacting with the characters from the original Japanese version.)

Cozzi immediately ran into two huge problems when it came to distributing Godzilla, King of the Monsters. First off, the film was in black-and-white and most Italian theater owners refused to show black-and-white films. Cozzi’s solution was to “colorize” the film by putting translucent gel over the frame, resulting in random splotches of color that gave the entire film what could generously be called a radioactive glow. Secondly, the American cut was considered to be too short for theatrical distribution. Cozzi proceeded to re-cut the re-cut, adding in scenes of actual war footage and clips from other 50s monster movies. As a result Cozzi’s film opens not with Tokyo on fire but instead stock footage of Hiroshima before the bomb was dropped. Later, footage of actual victims of the bomb would he used as footage of victims of Godzilla.

Having re-cut the film, Cozzi then decided that the movie could use a synthesizer-heavy soundtrack, which was provided by Vince Tempera, Fabio Frizzi, and Franco Bixio.

The end result …. well, the end result is a mess but it’s a mess that fascinating for fans of Godzilla. The colorization creates an odd effect, in which the images are all familiar but still seem different, as if being viewed in a dream. Often times, the splashes of color are so harsh and random that it makes it difficult to actually see what’s happening in the scene. I had to look away a few times, due to the harshness brightness of some of the yellows. There are a few times — and by that, I mean a very few times –when the color effects oddly work. In those rare moments, Godzilla’s atomic nature seems to be radiating through the entire movie.

As for the “new footage,” it’s thoroughly tasteless to use actual footage from Hiroshima and Nagasaki but, at the same time, it also serves to remind the viewer of the national trauma that inspired the creation of Godzilla in the first place. The footage reminds the viewer of the horrors of war while also leaving viewers wondering they really should be watching it used in the way that it’s used in this movie. (For his part, Cozzi said he used actual war footage because modern audiences would expect more violence and destruction than was present in the original film. It’s reasonable to assume that any subtext was purely accidental.)

Finally, the soundtrack …. actually, I like this version’s score. It’s wonderfully ominous, especially at the start of the film.

Nicknamed Cozilla by Cozzi himself, 1977’s Godzilla is a bizarre experiment that doesn’t quite work but I would say it’s still one that should be seen by anyone who is interested in the history of either Godzilla or exploitation films in general. (And make no mistake, this version of Godzilla is definitely an exploitation film.) For years, the film was impossible to see outside of Italy. Now, of course, you can find a copy on just about every torrent site.

Previous Godzilla Reviews:

Horror Film Review: The Asphyx (dir by Peter Newbrook)

Posted on October 3, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Asphyx, a 1972 horror film from the UK, opens in what would have been the film’s modern day. A horrific accident occurs when two cars collide. The drivers are both dead, with one of the them rather grotesquely hanging out of a shattered windshield. And yet somehow, an elderly pedestrian who was trapped underneath the two cars is still alive and able to shuffle away from the accident.

The film then jumps back to the Victorian-era. Sir Hugo Cunningham (Robert Stephens) is a scientist who is studying what happens at the exact moment of death. Taking a look of several pictures that were taken of people as they died, he spots a dark smudge that seems to be hovering near the subject of each photograph. Later, while making a home movie with an amazing new device called a motion picture camera, Sir Hugo can only watch in horror as his son Clive (Ralph Arliss) and Clive’s fiancee, Anna (Fiona Walker), both drown in a boating accident. When Sir Hugo later looks at the film, he notices a ghostly blue light that seems to be hovering over both his son and Anna.

Sir Hugo speculates that the light could be what the ancient Greek called the Asphyx, a force that comes for everyone’s life in the moment right before death. Hugo theorizes that everyone has their own individual Asphyx and he also comes to believe that if one were to capture their own Asphyx before it takes away their life, the result would be immortality. Working with his reluctant adopted son, Giles (Robert Powell), Hugo sets out to capture an Asphyx. Unfortunately, to do so means that someone has to be on the verge of death so that their Asphyx will show up. Giles is not happy about the idea of strapping Hugo into an electric chair or of sitting in a gas chamber himself but he agrees to do so in return for Hugo’s permission to marry Hugo’s daughter, Christina (Jane Lapotaire).

(Before we all say, “Ewwww!,” let us remember that Clive is only adopted. Still, it does feel a bit strange.)

The experiments lead to both tragedy and success. Heads roll, literally. And while Giles’s doubts continue to grow, Hugo finds himself more and more obsessed with the idea of living forever.

The Asphyx is a rather low-key horror film. No one is going to mistake this for one of Hammer’s bloody and flamboyant films. The horror is less in what is seen and more in what is implied. That said, the premise is an intriguing one, the film’s plot unfolds with a good deal of intelligence, and both Robert Powell and Robert Stephens overact so grandly during the film’s final few minutes that those who are just looking for a campy British horror film will be satisfied. Robert Stephens gives a very good performance as Sir Hugo, a scientist who claims that he’s just tying to make the world a better place but who is actually motivated by his own megalomania. (He reasons that he deserves to be immortal because he’s a scientist and his contributions are too important to be ended by a mere death.) Robert Powell’s somewhat wooden acting style actually makes him ideal for the role of Giles, who is written to be, at least in the beginning, a somewhat boring person. The film’s best performance comes from Jane Lapotaire, whose reaction to discovering how far her father is willing to go to capture an Asphyx is simply heart-breaking to watch.

The Asphyx is a great pick if you’re looking for an off-beat and intelligent horror film this scary season.

Horror Movie Review: The Fall of the House of Usher (dir by Roger Corman)

Posted on October 3, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The 1960 film, The Fall Of The House of Usher, opens with Phillip Winthrop (Mark Damon) riding his horse across a desolate landscape.

There’s a foreboding mansion in the distance but what the viewer immediately notices is that the land around the mansion looks almost post-apocalyptic. Even though the film is set in the 1800s, the misshapen trees and the high winds all bring to mind a film set in a nuclear-scarred world, the type where you expect to find radioactive mutants hiding behind every tree and rock.

Phillip is a young aristocrat who is traveling to the home of the Usher family. He is engaged to marry Madeleine Usher (Myrna Fahey) but, as soon as he arrives at the mansion, her older brother, Roderick (Vincent Price, with no mustache and blonde hair), informs Phillip that he will never be allowed to marry Madeleine. Roderick explains that the Usher family is cursed and he even takes Phillip on a tour of Usher family history, showing him a series of truly hideous paintings of past Ushers. One Usher was a murderer. Another Usher was blackmailer. An Usher wearing a pirate’s cap is identified as being a slave trader. The Ushers are cursed, with each family member destined to become insane. Roderick’s mission is to bring the Usher bloodline to a close and that means that Madeleine cannot marry.

Phillip disagrees, especially when the sickly Madeleine herself says that she wants to escape from her seemingly mad brother. With the house itself continually shaking as if it’s on the verge of collapsing, Phillip becomes determined to take Madeleine away. Roderick tries to warn him not to. Even the friendly butler, Bristol (Harry Ellerbe), encourages Phillip to give up. But Phillip remains stubborn and determined. However, when Madeleine suddenly collapses and dies, it appears that Phillip’s plans to marry her are at an end. But is Madeleine truly dead?

Based on a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, this was, at the time, the most expensive film that Roger Corman and American International Pictures had ever made. (It was also their first color film.) Of course, the budget was still just $300,000 and the Usher mansion was largely constructed out of props that were borrowed from other films. That said, the film had a name star and, with its vivid colors and its fiery finale, it certainly looked like a big-budget film. This film marked the first collaboration between Vincent Price and Roger Corman and it was a box office success, making a million dollars at a time when a million dollars really meant something.. Corman and Price would go on to do several other Poe adaptations together, all of which were distinguished by Price’s villainous performances and Corman’s pop art visuals.

Seen today, The Fall of the House of Usher can seem to be a bit slow. With only one location and a cast of only four actors, it often feels a bit stagey. Mark Damon is rather stiff as Phillip. (One can see why he abandoned acting to become a producer.) But Vincent Price’s performance as Roderick Usher continue to entertain, with Price delivering every line of dialogue with his trademark aristocratic archness. There’s nothing subtle about Price’s performance but Price’s tendency to overact perfectly matched Corman’s vivid visuals and it’s interesting to watch a hyperactive Price performance paired with the type of dull performance that Mark Damon offers up.

The fiery finale still packs a certain punch and, watching it, one can see why Corman and Price said, “Let’s do this again!” The Fall of the House of Usher (which is also available on some streaming sites as simply House of Usher) remains an enjoyable macabre Halloween treat.

House of Usher (1960, dir by Roger Corman, DP: Floyd Crosby)

Horror on the Lens: Dementia 13 (dir by Francis Ford Coppola)

Posted on October 3, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

(I originally shared this film back in 2011, 2019, 2022, and 2023 — can you believe we’ve been doing this for that long? — but the YouTube upload keeps getting taken down! So, I’m resharing it today!)

For today’s excursion into the world of public domain horror, I offer up the film debut of Francis Ford Coppola. Before Coppola directed the Godfather and Apocalypse Now, he directed a low-budget, black-and-white thriller that was called Dementia 13. In a possible sign of things to come, producer Roger Corman and Coppola ended up disagreeing on the film’s final cut and Corman reportedly brought in director Jack Hill to film and, in some cases, re-film additional scenes.

Regardless of whether the credit should go to Coppola, Corman, or Hill, Dementia 13 is a brutally effective little film that is full of moody photography and which clearly served as an influence on the slasher films that would follow it in the future. Speaking of influence, Dementia 13 itself is obviously influenced by the Italian giallo films that, in 1963, were just now starting to make their way into the drive-ins and grindhouses of America.

Speaking of giallo films, keep an eye out for Patrick Magee, who gave a memorable performance in Lucio Fulci’s The Black Cat. Luana Anders, who plays the duplicitous wife in this film, showed up in just about every other exploitation film made in the 60s and yes, the scene where she’s swimming freaks me out to no end. Other films featuring Luana Anders include Night Tide and Easy Rider, in which she played one of the hippies who unsuccessfully enticed Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper to stay at the commune.

As for Francis Ford Coppola, well, he’s gone on to have quite a career, hasn’t he? It’s been quite a journey from Dementia 13 to Megalopolis!

The Video Store Commercial, Short Film Review by Case Wright

Posted on October 3, 2024 by casewright

Happy Horrorthon! This short is about a video store owner who makes an ad to revive his “Last Blockbuster” business, but he unleashes EVIL.
See: Beginning, Middle, and End. Clear Story. Clear Idea. Simple.

During their filming, they destroy a possessed VHS and the evil spirit starts murderin’ their faces- Literally! It’s gross, but kinda fun. In fact, the demon kills his cameraman, which ends up saving the Demon’s life….whaaaa????! Yep, it happens.

This isn’t the greatest short, but it hits the blocks. If you’ve read my other short-film reviews, you see a pattern. When their is too much budget, it’s usually terrible. A short needs to be self-contained and NEVER make it a pilot pitch- That’s Annoying and I hate the people who do that! If you cannot say your feature length movie or ESPECIALLY your short-film in a sentence, you don’t have a story. Alex Magana is awful, but he does have a beginning, middle, and end to his films- MOSTLY.

I recommend that you take 4 minutes and watch this. It’ll be fun.

October Positivity: Mindreader (dir by Rich Christiano)

Posted on October 2, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

2022’s Mindreader start out telling the story of the Great Dexter (Hamish Briggs).

In 1974, Dexter amazed audiences with his mid-reading tricks. He also amazed his fellow magicians, none of whom could figure out how Dexter performed his tricks. Dexter insisted that they only needed to consider his catch phrase — “I don’t really do magic, I just read minds,” — to understand how he was able to know what people were thinking. Dexter said that his fellow magicians just needed to have faith that he could do what he could do.

But the other magicians, because they were so used to the idea of tricking their audiences, would not accept what Dexter said. They launched an investigation into how Dexter was able to read minds. A particularly jealous magician tried to fool Dexter by lying about what he was thinking. Dexter, of course, saw right through him and humiliated the magician in front of his peers. Those who worked at the same theater as Dexter were offered money to spy on and betray Dexter. Dexter’s story eventually ended with tragedy.

Years later, Dexter is a revered figure. The same organization of magicians that persecuted him now wants to honor him. They interview those who knew Dexter. They hear about Dexter’s powers. They hear about how Dexter’s ability to read minds helped countless people. And they still demand to know how Dexter could have read minds. Dexter’s now aged assistant tells them that they can either believe it was a trick or they can accept that Dexter could do what he said he could.

Now, it’s pretty obvious what this film is getting at. Dexter is obviously meant to be a Christ figure and his persecution is meant to parallel the betrayal and crucifixion of Jesus. It’s not at all subtle but it’s still fairly well-done. For a Rich Christiano film, the first hour of Mindreader is well-directed, well-acted, and nicely paced.

However, the film takes an abrupt turn when the end credits suddenly roll at the 60 minute mark and a whole new film begin. Suddenly, the viewer finds themselves watching as a bunch of college students as they stand up and leave a movie theater. They agree the movie was interesting but they don’t say much else about it. The student who invited them to the movie goes to his dorm room and feels like a failure for not talking to them about the film’s message. But, the next day, he discovers that at least one of them is interesting in what the film was really about and they proceed to discuss it.

Two things about this ending:

Number one, it feels more than a little self-congratulatory. One gets the feeling that this ending was Christiano’s way of clapping back at every critic (like me!) who has ever suggested that a lot of faith-based films don’t really do much to reach people who don’t already agree with their point of view.

Number two, as the magicians in this film could have told you, you should never reveal how it’s done. There’s a difference between getting people to think about something and telling people to think about it. After an effective hour, Mindreader gets too heavy-handed for its own good.

Sometimes, you have to have faith in your audience.

October Hacks: Murder Rock (dir by Lucio Fulci)

Posted on October 2, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Are the streets to blame? Paranoia’s coming your way….

Ah, Murder Rock.

This 1984 film is often dismissed as being one of director Lucio Fulci’s lesser efforts, an attempt to combine the trappings of the giallo genre with the sexy, choreographed dance routines of Flashdance. And certainly, the film does lack the visceral, dream-like horror of The Beyond trilogy and Zombi 2. The film’s killer isn’t even as interesting as The New York Ripper‘s killer who talked like a duck. That said, I think some critics have been a bit too hard on Murder Rock over the years. Taken on its own terms, it’s a well-made slasher with a healthy does of 80s style. Of course, I should admit that, as someone who grew up attending dance classes and dancing through the pain, I could relate to the film’s milieu. I’ve never had to deal with a zombie in real life but I did meet my share of dancers who would do anything to move up.

The film takes place at the Arts For The Living Center in New York City, where young dancers are hoping to land a spot on a televisions show and also hoping to avoid getting killed by the murderer who is haunting the locker rooms and using a long hairpin needle to stop the hearts of his victims. (The sound of a previously healthy victim’s heart beating on the soundtrack and then abruptly stopping is far more powerful than one might expect.)

Previously seen losing an eye in Fulci’s Zombi 2, Olga Karalatos plays Candice Norman, the owner of the dance studio. When one of her dancers is murdered while taking a shower, Candice is just one of many suspects. Candice, however, is haunted by a dream in which she sees herself being stalked by a handsome man (Ray Lovelock) carrying a hairpin. Later, Candice realizes that she’s seen the handsome man before. He’s George Webb, a male model whose face adorns a billboard. Candice starts to investigate George on her own, discovering that he’s apparently an alcoholic who lives in a run-down apartment. When evidence starts to show up suggesting that George could be the murderer, he claims that he’s being framed.

Of course, George isn’t the only suspect. There’s also Willy Stark (played by Christian Borromeo), a dancer whose girlfriend ends up as a victim of the murder spree. With his blonde hair and aristocratic bearing, Christian Borromeo was one of the most handsome actors to appear in Italian films in the early 80s. He didn’t do many films before retiring but he still managed to appear in films directed by Dario Argento, Federico Fellini, Ruggero Deodato, and Lucio Fulci. He played very different characters in all of his films and gave a good performance each time. One reason why I specifically want to single out Christian Borromeo here is because there’s still a lot of people online who are under the impression that Borromeo died a heroin overdose in the 80s. This is largely due to a comment that was made during an interview with David Hess, who co-starred with Borromeo in The House At The Edge of the Park. Hess was confusing Borromeo with their co-star, Garbiele Di Giulio. Di Giulio did indeed die of a heroin overdose. Christian Borromeo is still alive, though retired from acting.

As for Murder Rock, the killings are nowhere near as gory as in Fulci’s other films but that actually adds to the film’s creepy atmosphere. The killer is frightening because the killer is coolly efficient and can kill without resorting to the out-of-control, manic violence of quacking sociopath at the center of The New York Ripper. As is usual with Fulci, the film’s visuals are Murder Rock‘s greatest strength. The first murder occurs while the locker room’s light blink on and off, creating a truly frightening sequence as the camera seamlessly assumes the killer’s point of view. When the police investigate the crime, the flashes of the police cameras are almost blinding as they record the stark crime scene. Candice’s nightmares play out like a particularly macabre perfume commercial (and yes, that it meant as a compliment). Fulci’s camera roams from location to location, keeping the audience off-balance throughout the film. As he did in so many of his other films, Fulci makes New York look like the grimiest, most claustrophobic city in the world.

As for the dance sequences, they’re so over-the-top that you can’t help but love them. The film was obviously envisioned as a way to cash in on the popularity of Flashdance but Fulci’s dispenses of the romanticism that made Flashdance a hit and instead just focuses on bodies moving in a explosion of choreographed carnality. There’s nothing subtle about the way the film lingers on the spandex-clad dancers but then again, that’s why we love Fulci. He was not one to make apologies.

Fulci once said that Murder Rock was meant to be the first part of a projected trilogy of musical gialli. Who knows whether or not that’s true. (As an interview subject, Fulci was always quick to boat of the grand projects he had planned for the future. As the diabetic Fulci was in precarious health at the same time that he made his most popular horror films, there was always something rather poignant to Fulci’s constant boasting about all of the great films he planned to make.) As I said at the start of this review, Murder Rock is one of Fulci’s less-appreciated films but, as someone who loves both dancing and watching horror movies, I’ve always liked it. Even the fact that the killer is exposed in a way that doesn’t really stand up to close scrutiny just adds to the film’s charm. (Seriously, a good giallo rarely makes that much sense.)

In closing — SING IT!

Are the streets to blame?

Paranoia’s coming your way!

The TSL Horror Grindhouse: Spookies (dir by Brendan Faulkner, Thomas Doran, and Eugenie Joseph)

Posted on October 2, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The 1986 film Spookies is not exactly the easiest film to describe.

A 13 year-old boy named Billy (Alec Nemser) runs away from home after his parents forget his birthday. After a conversation with a random drifter, Billy ends up entering a spooky and apparently abandoned mansion. The inside of the house is decorated for a birthday party. “They didn’t forget!” Billy says, assuming the party is for him even though neither he nor his parents live at the house. Needless to say, the party is not for Billy, who soon ends up getting buried alive by a werecat (Dan Scott).

The werecat is the pet of Kreon (Felix Ward), an elderly warlock who lives in the abandoned house and spends his time playing chess and trying to convince his wife, Isabelle (Maria Pechukas), to fall in love with him. He’s been trying to convince Isabelle for 70 years. Kreon is very old but Isabelle is still very young because Kreon has been sacrificing people to keep her young. Isabelle is not particularly happy about that.

Meanwhile, a group of four couples and one friend come across the house on the same night of Billy. Having gotten kicked out of a previous party, they decide to have a new party in the house. The main thing that most viewers will notice about the nine friends is that none of them seem to have much in common. Duke (Pat Wesley Bryan) and Linda (Joan Ellen Delaney) are apparently supposed to be rebellious teenagers, despite appearing to be in their 30s. Adrienne (Charlotte Alexandra) appears to be wealthy and spoiled and is married to wimpy Dave (Anthony Valbrio). Peter (Peter Dain) and Meegan (Kim Merril) both appear to be in their 40s and seem to be way too straight-laced and intelligent to be hanging out with Duke. Rich (Peter Iasillo, Jr.) is the practical joker of the group and carries a puppet around with him. Finally, Carol (Lisa Friede) and Lewis (Al Magliochetti) don’t get much character development as it only takes a few minutes for Carol to get possessed by a demon and for Lewis to die while trying to flee the mansion.

It turns out that the entire mansion is crawling with demons. There’s zombies in both the wine cellar and the nearby cemetery. There’s a spiderwoman who has spun quite an impressive web. There are little green lizard things that chew off people’s faces. There’s a hooded figure who can shoot out electrified tendrils. While the monsters track down and kill the party-goers one-by-one, the Werecat watches from a distance and purrs. Occasionally, he goes and visits with Kreon, who says that everything is going as he planned it. Personally, I think Kreon is just saying that because it’s obvious that next to no planning went into any of this.

To say that Spookies is a bit disjointed would be an understatement. The fact that there are three credited directors provides a clue as to how that came to be. The footage with the partygoers and all the house monsters was filmed first and directed by Brendan Faulkner and Thomas Doran. Creative differences between the film’s producers and financial backers led to the film being temporarily abandoned during the editing process. A year later, Eugene Joseph was hired to shoot the scenes of Billy, Kreon, the Werecat, and Isabelle and those scenes were rather clumsily inserted into the original footage. The end result was Spookies.

But, oddly enough, as confusing and disjointed and nonsensical as it all is, it kind of works. The old mansion is creepy. (Interestingly enough, the mansion is actually the Jay Estate, the home of founding father John Jay.) Some of the monster makeup is effectively grotesque. The story’s incoherence and even the all-around bad acting on the part of the actors playing the victims all come together to create a nightmarish atmosphere. (And, in defense of the scenes that were shot by Eugenie Joseph, the performances of Felix Ward, Dan Scott, and Maria Pechukas are all actually quite good.) The film’s frenzied ending actually works surprisingly well.

At its worst, Spookies is an Evil Dead rip-off that lacks the enthusiasm that Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell brought to that film. At its best, Spookies feels like a filmed nightmare.