Sometimes They Come Back (1991, directed by Tom McLoughlin)

Posted on October 23, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

In 1963, nine year-old Jim Norman witnessed a group of juvenile delinquents murder his older brother Wayne in a tunnel before getting killed themselves when a train came barreling down the tracks. Twenty-seven yeas later, Jim (Tim Matheson) is a history teacher and he has returned to his hometown to take a job at his old high school. He is haunted by memories of what happened in the tunnel and then he is haunted for real as, one by one, all of the dead delinquents returns to life and enroll in his class. They want revenge on the man that they blame for their fiery deaths.

Based on a Stephen King short story, Sometimes They Come Back was actually produced for television. It originally aired on CBS, complete with a warning that viewer discretion was advised. Though the ghost greasers are too ridiculous to really be scary (one of them laughs like a hyena), the movie was still more graphic than anything else that played in primetime that year. I wonder how television audiences, in those pre-American Horror Story days, reacted to one of Jim’s students being dismembered in the backseat of a car and the ghost greasers then tossing pieces of his body over the bridge?

Tim Matheson takes the material seriously and gives an intelligent performance as Jim Norman. Fans of Newhart might enjoy seeing William Sanderson (a.k.a. Larry of Larry, Darryl, and Darryl) playing a serious role as the one greaser who wasn’t killed by the train. Most of the other characters, including Jim’s wife and his students, are forgettable. The movie’s glaring weakness is the ghost greasers themselves. Even with their Satanic car and their threatening ways, they’re too cartoonish to be frightening. Sometimes They Come Back has its strengths but ultimately, it’s a middling Stephen King adaptation.

Retro Television Review: Summer of Fear (dir by Wes Craven)

Posted on October 23, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Sundays, I will be reviewing the made-for-television movies that used to be a primetime mainstay. Today’s film is 1978’s Summer of Fear. It can be viewed on YouTube!

In this made-for-TV movie from 1978, Linda Blair (fresh from the first two Exorcist films) plays Rachel. Rachel is a teenager who lives on a ranch in California. She loves horses and she loves her boyfriend and she’s especially happy that her cousin, Julia (Lee Purcell) is coming to live with her. Julia recently lost both of her parents in a tragic auto accident. Though neither Rachel nor her parents have ever met Julia before, they’re all planning on welcoming her into their very nice home.

The only problem is that, once Julia arrives, she seems to be a little bit strange. She speaks with a strange accent that no one on the ranch has ever heard before. The horses all seems to be terrified of her. After Rachel discovers that Julia has stolen minor personal possessions from her new family, Rachel starts to suspect that Julia might be witch and that she might be casting spells! Of course, by this point, Julia is no longer as shy and awkward as she seemed when she first showed up. Instead, she’s now glamorous and every man who meets her becomes intrigued, including Rachel’s boyfriend!

Based on a best-selling novel, Summer of Fear originally aired on NBC. If it were made today, it would probably air on something like Lifetime and it would have a title like, “Deadly Spell” or “Dangerous Seductress.” Seen today, it’s a bit of a slow movie and Linda Blair occasionally seems to be trying too hard to come across as being wide-eyed and innocent in her role but it’s entertaining as long as Lee Purcell is giving people strange looks and chewing up the scenery. The more out-of-control Pucell becomes, the more entertaining the film. Summer of Fear does build to a satisfying conclusion but it’s still hard not to wish that the story itself had moved just a bit quicker. Jaded audiences in 2022 are no longer as shocked at the idea of witch coming to visit as audiences in 1978 may have been. In the end, probably the most interesting thing about Summer of Fear is that it was an early credit for horror master, Wes Craven. This was his third film and his first “major” production, one that he made in order to show that, after directing two independent films, he could be trusted with a mainstream, studio production. As such, you can argue that, without this film, Craven never would have gone on to do Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream. Modern horror would be very different without Summer of Fear.

Ultimately. the film’s a bit too slowly paced to really be successful but if you’re a fan of Wes Craven’s or even Linda Blair’s, you’ll probably want to watch it at least once.

International Horror Film: The Deep House (dir by Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury)

Posted on October 23, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The 2021 French film, The Deep House, tells the story of Tina (Camilla Rowe) and Ben (James Jagger). Originally from New York, Tina and James are driving across Europe and filming themselves as they explore haunted houses. They have recently learned of a submerged house in France. With the help of a local guide named Pierre (Eric Savin), they track down the lake that Pierre claims is the location of the house. Tina and James put on their diving gear and jump into the water. Pierre, on the other hand, stays on dry land. In fact, Pierre seems like he might have an agenda of his own.

Tina and James find the underwater house and they continue to film themselves as they explore it. (In fact, with their eagerness to go travel the world and film themselves disrupting their surroundings, you might be tempted to think that this film has something on its mind about American interventionism.) Interestingly enough, the house is in surprisingly good shape despite having been underwater for a few decades. In fact, the house is full of posters, photographs, and graffiti, all of which one would expect to be destroyed by exposure to water. Why, there’s even a fake clown head just kind of sitting there. However, Tina and James are a bit more concerned about why their equipment suddenly seems to be malfunctioning. And then, of course, there’s the two dead bodies that are chained to the walls inside the house.

Now, you may be wondering why Tina and James don’t just leave the house. Believe it or not, they try to leave as soon as they come across the bodies. (Most of my friends would probably immediately try to leave as soon as they saw that clown. You have to feel bad for all the misunderstood and misjudged clowns of the world.) But suddenly, the window that they previously swam through has been blocked by a brick wall. In fact, the house seems to be constantly changing and rebuilding itself, all to keep Tina and James from finding a way out. With their air supply running out, Tina and James try to figure out how to escape the house and, even more importantly, how to escape the zombie that has suddenly shown up.

Oh, did I forget the mention the zombies? Well …. there’s a zombie.

Well-directed by Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, The Deep House is an atmospheric horror film, one that doesn’t waste any time launching into its story. While there have been plenty of horror films about people exploring haunted houses and accidentally filming their own demise, The Deep House adds a new wrinkle by having almost all of the action occur underwater. Even if Tina and James manages to escape the house and the zombies, you still have to wonder if they’ll have enough air left to make it to the surface. Maury and Bustillo do a good job of generating suspense and the film has more than enough jump scares to keep most horror fans happy. The Deep House is worth the dive.

Horror Film Review: 47 Meters Down: Uncaged (dir by Johannes Roberts)

Posted on October 23, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Let us take a moment or two to give some thought to the poor, misunderstood shark.

Sharks have a reputation for being the most dangerous predators in the ocean but, for the most part, sharks just swim around and eat whatever is in front of them. They are certainly not harmless but they’re also not the clever, calculating monsters that they’ve been made out to be. As opposed to what all the sequels to Jaws have told us, sharks do not stalk people. They do not seek revenge. They do not look at certain humans and think, “That is my mortal enemy.” A shark will not follow you from New England to the Caribbean just because you’re the widow of the man who killed its cousin. Sharks look scary and, certainly, you should stay out of the water if one of them is swimming nearby. But, for the most part, the only thing that one needs to have to avoid being attacked by a shark is common sense.

Unfortunately, none of the characters in the 2019 film, 47 Meters Down Uncaged, have any common sense. The film tells the tale of Mia (Sophie Nelisse) and her stepsister, Sasha (Corrine Fox). Mia and Sasha are both students at a new school in Mexico. Their father, Grant (John Corbett), has been exploring a submerged Mayan city. Along with their two friends, Alexa (Brianne Tju) and Nicole (Sistine Stallone), Mia and Sasha decide to spend the weekend scuba diving and exploring the ancient city. The girls have a good time looking at all of the mummies and the sacrificial chamber. Unfortunately, a great white shark shows up to ruin their fun. The simplest solution would probably be too leave the city but, because the girls keep screaming and accidentally knocking stuff over, they soon find themselves trapped in the newly collapsed city. Not only have they upset a shark but they’ve managed to destroy a bunch of valuable historical artifacts. Way to go!

47 Meters Down: Uncaged was sold as being a sequel to 47 Meters Down, the Mandy Moore/shark film that came out in 2017. However, other than having the same director, the only thing that the two films have in common is that they both spend a lot of time underwater and they both feature a shark. In fact, I’m not even sure if they get down to the 47 meters in Uncaged but that’s just because, as an American, I find the metric system to be extremely confusing. The original 47 Meters Down also had a slightly interesting premise and a good performance from Mandy Moore. 47 Meters Down: Uncaged, on the other hand, is just about four girls who did something incredibly stupid and then did something else incredibly stupid and then just kept on doing every stupid thing that came to mind. Most people will be cheering for the shark.

That said, it should be noted that Johannes Roberts definitely uses that shark for all that its worth. The film’s characters may be stupid but the shark itself is scary and generates its share of effective jump scares. This is one of those diabolically clever sharks that knows how to hide behind corners until someone swims by. As I mentioned at the start of this review, that’s not exactly realistic shark behavior but it’s definitely effective movie behavior. The scenes where the shark suddenly emerged from the darkness definitely made jump. The scene where one of the girls attempted to climb out of the cave and then fell into the water in super slow motion made me laugh. There’s something to be said for a film that can make you both jump and laugh.

One final note: the sharks lived in that submerged Mayan city for over a hundred years without damaging anything. Mia, Sasha, and their friends visit the city for less than an hour and manage to destroy the place. Remember that the next time anyone says anything against the sharks.

Horror On The Lens: The Student of Prague (dir by Stellan Rye and Paul Wegener)

Posted on October 23, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

For today’s horror on the lens, we have a film from 1913! A German adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s William Wilson, The Student of Prague is often considered to be the first feature-length horror film. Featuring Paul Wegener (who also co-directed the film) in the lead role, this is the story of what happens when the popular but poor Balduin attempts to get rich by dealing with the dark arts. These things never work out well, as Balduin discovers once his reflection steps out of a mirror and goes out of its way to make Balduin’s life difficult.

Of course, to watch the film today, audiences have to adjust both their expectations and the way that they take in and process cinematic storytelling. As of this writing, The Student of Prague is 109 years old and it’s definitely a film of its time. The camera largely remains stationary and, from a modern perspective, the film is rather slow-paced. And yet, the film’s story remains rather intriguing. Despite the static camera work, the film manages to create and maintain a properly ominous atmosphere and a scene in which Balduin and Margit attempt to meet in a cemetery is effectively creepy. Paul Wegener’s performance holds up well. Largely eschewing the overly theatrical acting style that we usually tend to associate with silent cinema, Wegener gives a nuanced and effectively subtle performance as both Balduin and his doppelganger. When he’s acting opposite of himself, you don’t think about the fact that you’re witnessing an early camera trick. Instead, Wegener creates two separate but believable versions of the same character. The doppelganger represents all of Balduin’s undesirable impulses and everything that has kept Balduin from achieving happiness. By the end of the film, Balduin can’t live with his doppelganger but he can’t live without him as well.

The Student of Prague is an interesting piece of history and one that every true student of horror should watch and learn from at least once.

And here’s your chance!

Enjoy!

October Positivity: The Perfect Stranger (dir by Jefferson Moore and Shane Sooter)

Posted on October 22, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The 2005 film, The Perfect Stranger, opens with Nikki Cominsky (Pamela Brumley) feeling very stressed and underappreciated.

She’s an attorney and she really should be heading off for work but first, she has to make her daughter’s school lunch. (Her daughter is not extremely appreciative.) Meanwhile, her husband has just informed her that he’s canceling their date night because he has to go to a baseball game with a client! Nikki was so looking forward to going to a nice restaurant. Finally, to top all off, the neighbors are religious and they keep inviting Nikki to church. Argggh! The frustration!

Nikki gets to work and the aggravation continues. Her administrative assistant calls her “Mrs. Cominskey,” making Nikki feel old. (“Mrs. Cominskey is my mother-in-law!” Nikki snaps.) Plus, there’s a weird note on Nikki’s desk. The note is inviting her to dinner and it is signed Jesus. At first, Nikki is convinced that her neighbors somehow broke into the office and left the note on her desk. But then she realizes how weird that sounds. Instead, she decides that the note is from her husband. Obviously, he canceled his plans and they’re going to go out to dinner. Yay! But why would her husband sign the letter as Jesus? “He must be joking,” Nikki says, with a laugh. Okay, then. Everyone has their own sense of humor.

Nikki heads to the restaurant straight after work and discovers …. that her husband is not there. Her husband went to the baseball game. Her husband was not playing a joke on her. He really is the type of insensitive idiot who would break a date with his wife and go to a baseball game with client. (You deserve better, Nikki!) However, her neighbors aren’t there either. Instead, there’s a blonde man (Jefferson Moore) wearing a suit who says that his name is Jesus and he wants to have a conversation with her. Nikki’s first instinct is to leave but Jesus offers to pay for dinner. That changes Nikki’s mind and I guess that’s understandable. A free dinner is a free dinner!

Nikki and Jesus go on to have the most awkward dinner date ever. Nikki wants to talk about how annoyed she is with her life. Jesus wants to talk about Heaven. Nikki complains about religion. Jesus tells her that her problem is not with religion but with religious people. Nikki says that she feels like she could get just as much out of being a Hindu or Muslim as she could out of being a Christian. Jesus laughs at her. There’s one long stretch of time when we just see Jesus and Nikki talking but we don’t actually hear what they’re saying. Maybe they’re discussing the food, which does look pretty good.

The Perfect Stranger is an example of a popular sort of faith-based film, one in which Jesus has dinner or coffeewith an unbeliever and basically spends an hour telling them that they’re stupid. Jesus always has the advantage in these films, largely because the screenwriter is on his side and the non-believers are usually limited to repeating a bunch of clichés about all the bad things in the world. That’s certainly the case with The Perfect Stranger, in which Nikki is not only an agnostic but also a bit of a flake. One gets the feeling that many of these films was made less to reach nonbelievers and more to give believers a chance to laugh at the other side. Then again, consider how negatively most people of faith are portrayed in mainstream films, one could argue that the faith-based film industry is basically looking at Hollywood and yelling, “I learned it from watching you!”

Anyway, the important thing is that Nikki felt better about her life and she got a free dinner. Good for Nikki.

TSL’s Horror Grindhouse: Queen of Blood (dir by Curtis Harrington)

Posted on October 22, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Queen of Blood (1966, dir by Curtis Harrington, DP: Vilis Lapenieks)

Here’s a question: what happens when Roger Corman buys the rights to two Russian science fiction films, decides to jettison basically everything but the special effects footage, and then hires experimental filmmaker Curtis Harrington to shoot an entirely new film around that footage?

You end up with the 1966 film, Queen of Blood!

Not that that’s a bad thing, mind you. Queen of Blood is actually pretty good and director Harrington manages to smoothly integrate the Russian footage with the new footage. Basically, it works out so that you’ll see a Russian shot of the spaceship taking off or landing and then you’ll see a shot of John Saxon, Dennis Hopper, or Basil Rathbone sitting on a set and pretending like they’re in space.

The film opens with Dr. Faraday (Basil Rathbone) discovering that aliens have been transmitting a message to Earth. They’re sending an ambassador to meet with the Earthlings but the aliens’ spaceship ends up crash landing on Mars! Faraday arranges for an Earth spaceship, the Oceano, to go to Mars and rescue the ambassador.

Aboard the Oceano is a cast made up of a few familiar faces. John Saxon plays Allan, who is the de facto leader of the expedition and also engaged to marry Dr. Faraday’s assistant, Laura (Judi Meredith). A young-looking Dennis Hopper is Paul Grant, an astronaut. Don’t get too excited about Hopper being in the cast. Queen of Blood was made when Hopper was still trying to pursue mainstream film stardom so he gives a rather bland performance here. There’s a few scenes where you can tells that Hopper is on the verge of smirking at some of his dialogue but, for the most part, he plays the role extremely straight. Rounding out the crew is Anders (Robert Boon) and Tony (Don Eitner), neither one of whom would go on to star in Easy Rider, Blue Velvet, or Nightmare on Elm Street.

It’s a difficult journey. The Oceano keeps running into Russian-filmed turbulence on the way to Mars. When they do land, they discover that the ambassador (Florence Marly) is waiting for them to rescue her. She doesn’t talk much nor does she have any interest in eating Earth food. She does seem to like every member of the crew except for Laura. Of course, the ambassador’s defining trait is that she likes to drink blood….

All things considered, Queen of Blood works pretty well. While none of the performances are particularly memorable (though Basil Rathbone does bring some old school class to what is essentially a cameo role), Curtis Harrington does a great job creating and maintaining a properly ominous atmosphere. It takes a while for the crew to finally find the Queen of Blood but, when they do, Harrington gets every bit of creepiness that he can out of the character. The film even ends on an appropriately dark note, suggesting that the human race may be just too stupid to survive.

Queen of Blood is an entertaining B-movie. Watch it the next time you’re in the mood for some intergalactic blood-sucking fun!

International Horror Review: Starship Invasions (dir by Ed Hunt)

Posted on October 22, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Once, during an interview, the distinguished British horror actor, Christopher Lee, was asked to name the worst film in which he had appeared.

Being a very busy actor who appeared in well-over 200 films, Lee paused for a minute to give it some thought and then eventually said that, in 1977, he had appeared in a Canadian science fiction film in which he played a mute alien who was using a suicide ray to conquer Earth. Though he wasn’t quite sure what the title had been, that was his pick for the worst movie in which he had ever appeared.

Now, considering some of the films in which Lee appeared, that’s a bold statement. Was Lee correct? Was that film — which was entitled Starship Invasions — the worst film in which he ever appeared?

Well …. maybe. It’s certainly not one of his best. Lee plays Captain Ramses, who is the leader of the Legion of the Winged Serpents. The legion’s home planet is about to be destroyed by a supernova so he has taken it upon himself to find a new planet to colonize. Earth looks pretty good to him!

Christopher Lee remembered Ramses as being mute. Actually, he communicates through telepathy. We hear his words but his lips never move. The same is true of every alien that appears in the film. And yes, this could be an example of how different and more advanced the aliens are when compared to the humans but a more likely explanation is that it was cheaper to film the outer space scenes without sound and then just dub in the character’s “thoughts” later.

For reasons that are never quite clear, the Legion of the Winged Serpent abducts several Earthlings before then unleashing their suicide ray. Prof. Allan Duncan (Robert Vaughn) is the UFO expert who investigates the abductions before eventually getting abducted himself by a race of good, gray aliens. The gray aliens are determined to save the Earth from the Legion. It’s never really explained why.

Meanwhile, the suicide ray is causing chaos on Earth as people all over are driven to kill themselves and others. And the ray has just been aimed at Duncan’s wife (played by Helen Shaver) so Allan and the good aliens better hurry up and defeat Ramses and the bad aliens!

Is Starship Invasions really that bad? Well, it’s certainly not …. great. Christopher Lee is properly imposing as Ramses but even he occasionally has a “What have I gotten myself into?” look on his face. Most of all, Starship Invasions is very much a product of the 1970s. When Ramses visits a space station, it looks a lot like an incredibly tacky mix of a fitness center and a cocktail lounge. The fashion of both the Earthlings and the aliens is very much of the era. Robert Vaughn wears a turtleneck that just screams “community college history teacher.” The special effects are rather cheap and the plot never makes much sense. The scenes with the suicide ray, however, are surprisingly effective and the film does have a certain campy charm to it, especially if you’re into low-budget 70s sci-fi. Starship Invasions is probably not Christopher Lee’s worst film. It’s just one of his cheapest.

Horror Film Review: Night Tide (dir by Curtis Harrington)

Posted on October 22, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Long before he became Hollywood’s favorite quirky character actor, Dennis Hopper was a young performer who was known for his devotion to the method and for being more than a little difficult. In fact, directors like Henry Hathaway had gotten so frustrated with Hopper and his refusal to “compromise his art,” that, by the time the 1960s rolled around, Hopper had gone from being a promising young star to being virtually blacklisted. He had gone from scene-stealing turns in Rebel Without a Cause and Giant to struggling to get anyone at the major studios to even admit to knowing who he was.

Unable to get a job on a mainstream film, Hopper teamed up with another unconventional talent, director Curtis Harrington. A film critic-turned-experimental filmmaker, Harrington was talented but, like Hopper, he had a reputation for being an eccentric. An openly gay artist who was living and working a time when that was still a crime in some states, Harrington gravitated to other outsiders so it was perhaps inevitable that he and Dennis Hopper would become early collaborators and make a film together.

That film was 1961’s Night Tide. Harrington directed while Hopper played Johnny, a naïve young sailor who, while in on leave in Santa Monica, meets a mysterious woman named Mora (Linda Lawson). Mora works as a mermaid at a sideshow. Her boss is the overly possessive and somewhat brutish Captain Samuel Murdock (Gavin Muir). Captain Murdock makes it clear that he doesn’t want Johnny to have anything to do with Mora. Is it because he’s worried about losing Mora or is there another, more supernatural reason?

Johnny hears rumors that the men who fall in love with Mora tend to disappear. Mora, herself, explains that she’s a Siren. Her destiny is to lead sailors to their doom. Johnny tells her that’s ridiculous but what if she’s right?

It’s a strange film, one that moves at its own slow and rather deliberate pace. As Mora, Linda Lawson delivers her lines hesitantly, as one might expect from someone who is having to pretend to be a human being. Meanwhile, Dennis Hopper gives a compelling but nervous performance as Johnny. As written, Johnny is a pretty bland character but Hopper plays up Johnny’s sense of isolation. He’s far from home, he doesn’t know many people in town, and the woman he loves just explained that she’s a sea monster. One can understand why Johnny is a bit jumpy. There’s a few scenes where Hopper’s devotion to the method works against him. He’s convincing when he’s at the center of the scene but a bit too fidgety in the scenes where he just has to listen to other people speak. But, ultimately, Hopper’s performance works. He plays Johnny with a mix of fresh-faced innocence and hints of instability.

As I said, it’s not a conventional film. It moves at its own dream-like pace. The film was shot in black-and-white and that’s the version to see. Avoid the colorized version, in which the colors are so garish that they ruin the film’s surreal atmosphere. Night Tide is an experiment that won’t be for everyone but, when taken on its terms, it’s definitely intriguing.

Horror on the Lens: Faust (dir by F.W. Murnau)

Posted on October 22, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s Horror on the Lens is a silent German film from 1926. Based on the legend of the alchemist who sold his soul to the Devil, Faust was dismissed by European critics when it was initially released but it has since been recognized as one of the greatest cinematic examples of German Expressionism.

It was after directing this film that Murnau traveled to Hollywood and directed his masterpice, Sunrise: A Story of Two Humans. (Murnau was also responsible, many years earlier, for directing Nosferatu.) The role of Fasut was played by Swedish actor Gosta Ekman, who tragically developed an addiction to cocaine while making the film and who would die as a result in 1938. Playing the role of Mephisto is German actor Emil Jannings, who would later go to win the very first Academy Award for Best Actor. Unfortunately, with the advent of sound, Jannings — who had no interest in learning English — returned to Germany and, after making some classic films with Marlene Dietrich, spent the rest of his career appearing in Nazi propaganda films. Whether or not Jannings was a committed Nazi or just an opportunist remains a point of contention but it’s still undoubtedly not the career path that one would hope for one of the very first Oscar winners.

Here is Faust: