Horror on the Lens: The Golem: How He Came Into The World (dir by Paul Wegener and Carl Boese)

Posted on October 3, 2015 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Yesterday, for our Horror on The Lens, we featured It!, a British film what happens when Roddy McDowall discovers the legendary Golem.

Today, we are very proud to present another film about the Golem, one that is definitely held in higher critical regard than It! (Sorry, Roddy!) The 1920 German film The Golem: How He Came Into The World is, for lack of a better term, an origin story for the Golem, one that shows how the Golem was originally brought to life to protect the Jewish people from persecution and how it was later corrupted by a combination of the dreaded demon Astaroth and pretty human jealousy.

The Golem is also a landmark of both German Expressionism and horror cinema, a dream-like tribute to both the power of the human imagination and the strength and resilience of the Jewish people. This is one of those films that everyone should watch at least once.

And yes, it is a silent movie. So, put your favorite music on in the background and watch The Golem!

Netflix Halloween 2015 : “Pernicious”

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Ryan C. (fourcolorapocalypse)

Trash Film Guru

Indie director James Cullen Bressack is quickly making a name for himself as a guy who’s not afraid to “go there.” The last one of his films that we looked at around these parts, 2011’s Hate Crime, was a visceral tour-de-force of sleazy unpleasantness, and with his latest, 2014’s Pernicious, he adds a supernatural flair to the proceedings that in no way diminishes their right-the-fuck-up-in-your-face power. In short, it appears as though he’s learned how to translate “his type” of gut-punch cinema into a package that might have a bit more mass appeal, but without watering things down in any way.

That’s a pretty solid accomplishment right there, when you think about it, but don’t go getting worried that Bressack is on the verge of “selling out.” Truth be told, his obsessions are still too gleefully prurient to ever make it into the “mainstream,” and while that may…

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The Daily Horror Grindhouse: Savage Weekend (dir by David Paulsen)

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Filmed in 1976 but not released until 1979, Savage Weekend is the story of a brave boom mic that takes a trip to upstate New York for the weekend and ends up witnessing a lot of decadent behavior and, eventually, a few gruesome murders. Sadly, the brave little boom mic apparently has no social skills because everyone pretends like they don’t see it, even though it shows up a few dozen times, always floating at the top of the screen.

It’s also the story of Otis (William Sanderson), a local redneck (I’ve never been to upstate New York but I still find it amusing how movies always portray it as being a step away from Deliverance country) who spends his time talking to his father’s gravestone. Apparently, when Otis was younger, he found out his girlfriend was cheating on him so he branded her with an H. Why an H? Because, we’re told, Otis doesn’t know how to spell whore.

Well, okay then…

Actually, if you’ve watched any number of these type of films, you’ll immediately recognize William Sanderson. Sanderson played a countless number of backwoods weirdos and he always did a pretty good job. (He also played the poignantly sympathetic J.F. Sebastian in Blade Runner.) Interestingly enough, in real life, Sanderson has a law degree.

Savage Weekend, incidentally, has a brilliant opening. After running through the woods, a woman finds herself cornered by Otis. As Otis approaches her, he gives her a strange little half-smile. It’s super creepy and scary and the rest of the film never lives up to it.

That said, Savage Weekend is an interesting film, even if it’s not a particularly good one. I’m not sure if it’s intentional or if it’s a happy byproduct of the filmmaker’s general incompetence but Savage Weekend has a truly surreal feel to it. It moves at a deliberate, almost dream-like pace. Characters appear and then vanish for lengthy periods of time. Plot points are raised and then abandoned. As a result of an inconsistent script, much is hinted at without ever being truly revealed. It makes for a very odd viewing experience.

Plotwise, it’s your standard slasher film. A group of people find themselves in an isolated location and are picked off, one-by-one, by a masked killer. Whereas most slasher films feature teenage victims, Savage Weekend is distinguished by the fact that all of the victims are adults and they’re all way too old and successful to justify continually making the type of stupid decisions necessary for a slasher movie to work. Two of them, Robert (Jim Doerr) and Jay (Devin Goldenberg), are stockbrokers. Marie (Marilyn Hamlin) is the ex-wife of the Governor of New York’s press secretary. (At one point, someone mentions that the governor was corrupt and apparently committed suicide. It’s one of those plot points that comes out of nowhere.) Meanwhile, Marie’s sister, Shirley (Caitlin O’Heany), is accompanied by her best friend, Nicky (Christopher Allport). Nicky is flamboyantly gay and, shortly after being introduced, he single-handedly beats up three rednecks and then dramatically announced, “I was raised in the Bronx!”

Since the first murder doesn’t take place until an hour into the film, we spend more time than usual getting to know our victims but none of them behave in any sort of consistent manner, which adds to the film’s dreamlike feel. Nicky clutches a barbed wire fence while watching Shirley fool around with Jay. Marie appears to be on the verge of touching herself while listening to the story about Otis branding his girlfriend. Later, a good deal of screen time is devoted to Marie and another redneck milking a cow, with the camera zooming in on the milk shooting out of the udders. While being stalked by the killer, Nicky puts on makeup while a lingerie-clad Shirley dances through the house while tango music plays on the soundtrack.

It all just feels very odd and strangely paced, as if huge chunks of the script were either not filmed or left on the editing room floor. But that oddness (along with the boom mic) is exactly what makes Savage Weekend an interesting movie.

Halloween Havoc!: Lon Chaney Jr in SPIDER BABY (American General 1964)

Posted on October 2, 2015 by gary loggins

cracked rear viewer

SPIDER BABY is probably my favorite horror-comedy ever, and I include ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN in that statement. This gruesome tale almost didn’t see the light of day, as the original producers went bankrupt, but independent auteur David L. Hewitt (THE WIZARD OF MARS, MONSTERS CRASH THE PAJAMA PARTY) picked it up for his American General distribution company in 1968. Hewitt then used it as the second half of double feature bills. Known variously as CANNIBAL ORGY, THE MADDEST STORY EVER TOLD, and THE LIVER EATERS, SPIDER BABY has become a cult classic.

We learn in the beginning that the descendants of Ebeneezer Merrye are dying out due to the dreaded “Merrye Syndrome”- a rare affliction causing it’s victims to regress to a sub-human, cannibalistic state. The always welcome Mantan Moreland is seen delivering a package to the creepy old Merrye house. Mantan does some of his tried-and-true “scaredy cat” schtick while looking around the deserted joint. He sticks his head in a…

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Horror Film Review: The Curse of the Cat People (dir by Gunther von Fritsch and Robert Wise)

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Lisa Marie Bowman

So, you can add the 1944 film The Curse of the Cat People to the list of films that made me cry.

And I know that you’re probably going to point out that it’s already a very long list and I know that some people believe that I cry at every movie that I see. (Listen, if I cried every time that I watched a movie, that would mean that not a single hour would pass without me shedding tears and … well, anyway, lets move on…) But seriously, The Curse of the Cat People is a wonderful and heartfelt film.

Technically, it’s a sequel to the original Cat People. Oliver (Kent Smith) and Alice (Jane Randolph) are married now and they have a six year-old daughter named Amy (Ann Carter). Irena (Simone Simon) does return but we’re never quite sure whether she’s a ghost or if she’s meant to be a figment of Amy’s imagination. There is no mention of Irena being cursed, though a hissing cat does make an appearance at the beginning of the film. In the original Cat People, Elizabeth Russell played a mysterious woman who asked if Irena was her sister. In The Curse of the Cat People, Russell appears in a different role but, interestingly enough, she’s still linked to the memory of Irena.

Instead, The Curse of the Cat People is about Amy. Amy is a shy girl who spends most of her time daydreaming and Ann Carter (who was 8 years old at the time) gives a very real and very authentic performance, one that is totally the opposite of the type of performance that we often expect from child actors. I was a shy child myself (I was famous for always hiding behind my mom whenever I saw a stranger approaching) and, from the minute Amy appeared, I knew exactly how she felt and what was going through her mind.

While Alice feels that Amy’s daydreaming is harmless, Oliver worries about her daughter. At one point, he says that he fears that she’ll never leave her fantasy world and that she’ll grow up to be like Irena. (Interestingly enough, this line suggests that Oliver still doesn’t believe that Irena was actually a cat person.) Amy, meanwhile, has a vision of Irena standing in the backyard and soon, the two of them are best friends.

At the same time, Amy has also become friends with Julia Farren (Julia Dean), an elderly woman who lives in the neighborhood. Just like Amy, Julia lives in a fantasy world. She treats Amy like her own daughter. Meanwhile, Julia refuses to acknowledge her true daughter, Barbara (Elizabeth Russell), accusing Barbara of being a spy and saying she is only pretending to be her daughter. Barbara grows more and more resentful of Amy and that resentment leads her to consider doing a truly terrible thing.

I guess it’s debatable whether or not The Curse of the Cat People can truly be called a horror film. While it does have elements of the horror genre, The Curse of the Cat People is ultimately both a coming-of-age story and a plea for adults to allow their children to be children. It’s all so heartfelt and so wonderfully performed by Ann Carter, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph, Elizabeth Russell, and Simone Simon that I couldn’t help but cry at the end of the film. The Curse of the Cat People is a great film to watch in October or any other month.

Late Night Cable Horror: An Erotic Tale of Ms. Dracula (2014, dir. Jake Kane)

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Valerie Troutman

It’s October so I’m legally obligated to write about some horror movies per my contract with Through the Shattered Lens. It’s in article 976, section EVIL, subsection 666. So that means I have to do it. And since it’s late night cable, so do the actors.

The movie opens up and two girls are going at it under water for a few seconds. Then the credits roll. I normally wouldn’t mention anything about the credits, but you know what? More people need to come up with stage names based off of jokes from episodes of Seinfeld.

Let me be right up front here. First, this is one of those where the girls keep looking into the camera. Personally, I find that very annoying. Second, it’s probably about 10 minutes of spoof and the rest is sex.

After four blondes get in a hot tub together, as blondes are known to do, they go at it for a while. Then we find out that one of them is Ms. Dracula.

Ms. Dracula is played by Alexis Texas. According to IMDb she’s in numerous porno spoofs including one of Cheers. That has me really scared. I don’t want to see Carla have a threesome with Cliff and Norm. She’s also in one of Beverly Hills, 90210.

Anyways, we now meet Renfield and our married vampire hunters.

You see the girl on the left. That’s Anna Morna. I think I have mentioned her before has given one of the worst performances I have ever seen in Lolita From Interstellar Space. As bad as this movie is, I’m glad I saw it because based on this, she can act better.

In Ms. Dracula, Renfield has created a potion that allows Ms. Dracula to exist at daytime. The vampire hunters have been hired by Van Helsing to retrieve a girl named Ashley who is being held at the Dracula estate. The vampire hunters are going to pretend to be masseuses in order to get inside. And by masseuses, I mean they are going in to have a lot of sex.

Within minutes of stepping through the door, boy goes with Ms. Dracula, and girl goes with Renfield. Oh, and then three girls play strip pool. I’m really glad they made sure to put in that scene from Bram Stoker’s book.

Now remember Van Helsing who hired the two vampire hunters. He just shows up on the estate and has sex with the three girls who were playing strip pool. Yeah, makes perfect sense. I have to stop right here and say I was disappointed that they didn’t go with the obvious of having Van Helsing kill Ms. Dracula with his wooden stake.

Now we know that Ashley is tied up in a room. After trying numerous tools, including a spoon, our husband vampire hunter gets into the locked room.

Then we hear Ashley’s really sad story. They told her she was going to be turned into a vampire and die a virgin. After checking her left breast with his hand, as you should always do before having sex with a virgin, he screws said virgin. She’s remarkably knowledgable for a virgin.

Now Van Helsing shows up in Ms. Dracula’s room and they have sex. No reason given. They are apparently friends. I’d care that this doesn’t make sense, but…

I was too distracted by the giant stuffed giraffe in the scene. Funny enough, there was also a fake giant rooster out by the pool earlier.

Now the married vampire hunters and Ashley get together in the lobby. Then the three other girls show up and the four girls go at it. Meanwhile, the guy is tied up in the shower by Ashley. She found out they were just there for the money they were going to get paid for rescuing her. Then we discover the mystery of Ashley’s sexual knowledge because she runs into Renfield and tells him she’s a virgin as well.

But don’t worry cause everything works out and they all sit and talk to each other. Turns out Van Helsing hired the two vampire hunters cause he needed a diversion so he could come and see Ms. Dracula. All of this is very faithful to the original source material I assure you. Including the ending.

This actually isn’t that bad. It’s just one of those that has way too much sex. I know that’s not unusual for these movies, but the Dracula spoof stuff is actually kind of fun. I wish they had done some more of that. The back and forth between the two vampire hunters was entertaining. Oh, well. Maybe Scared Topless will be better.

Lisa Reviews An Oscar-Nominated Horror Film: Jaws (dir by Steven Spielberg)

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Lisa Marie Bowman

There’s little that is more intimidating than trying to write a review of the 1975 best picture nominee, Jaws.

I mean, seriously, what’s left to be said about this film? Jaws is one of those movies that everyone has seen and everyone loves. And, even if someone somehow hasn’t seen the film, chances are that they still know all about it. They know that it’s a movie about a giant shark that attacks Amity Island, just as the summer season is starting. They know that the town’s mayor refuses to close the beaches, because he doesn’t want to lose the tourist dollars. They know that the final half of the film is three men (Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, and Robert Shaw) floating around in a boat, searching for a shark. And they certainly know that, whenever you hear John Williams’s iconic theme music, it means that someone is about to get attacked.

Jaws is such a part of our culture that probably not a single day goes by without someone saying a variation on “we’re going to need a bigger boat.” Did you know that, on twitter, Ben Gardner’s boat has its own account? And despite getting pretty graphically dismembered about halfway through Jaws, poor little Alex Kintner has an account as well!

What’s amazing about Jaws is that, even though everyone’s seen it and it’s been parodied a few thousand times, Jaws remains incredibly effective. I still find myself cringing whenever the shark catches Alex Kintner and that geyser of blood explodes out of the ocean. I still jump whenever the shark suddenly emerges from the water and scares the Hell out of Roy Scheider. I still laugh at Richard Dreyfuss’s hyperactive performance and I instinctively cover my ears whenever I realize that Robert Shaw is about to drag his nails across that chalk board.

And then there’s that music, of course! Even after being used, misused, and imitated in countless other films, the Jaws theme still fills me with a sort of existential dread. The mechanical shark was notoriously fake-looking and was rarely seen onscreen as a result. The camera and the music stand in for the shark and it works beautifully.

The one unfortunate thing about Jaws is that it’s been so critically acclaimed and so embraced by audiences that I think people tend to forget that it is primarily a horror film. Mainstream critics tend to look down on horror as a genre so, rather than admit the obvious, they claim that Jaws is more of a thriller than a horror film. Or they talk about how it’s actually meant to be a political allegory or an environmental allegory or an examination of male bonding.

So, let’s just make this clear. No matter what the elitist critics or even Steven Spielberg himself may say, Jaws is primarily a horror film, with that relentless killer shark serving as a prototype for such future horror fiends as Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, and both of the Ghostface and Jigsaw Killers. (Jaws even opens with a stereotypical slasher movie death, as a nude and stoned swimmer is suddenly attacked by an unseen killer.) If not for Scheider, Shaw, and Dreyfuss floating in the endless ocean, you would never have had films — like the Blair Witch Project — about people being lost and stalked in the wilderness. And when that shark attacks and graphically rips apart its victims, how different is it from something you might find in a George Romero or Lucio Fulci zombie film?

On the basis of Jaws and Duel, I think it can be argued that, if Steven Spielberg hadn’t become America’s favorite director of crowd-pleasing, Oscar-contending blockbusters, he could have been one of our best horror directors. Sadly, Spielberg has pretty much abandoned horror and I doubt that Jaws would be as effective if it were made today. (I suspect that the temptation to resort to a cartoonish CGI shark would be too great.)

But that’s all speculation.

What matters is that Jaws remains one of the greatest films ever made.

And it’s a horror film!

Horror On The Lens: It! (dir by Herbert J. Leder)

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Lisa Marie Bowman

For today’s Horror on the Lens, we are happy to present It!, a Hammer-style British horror film from 1966.

In It!, Roddy McDowall plays Arthur Pimm. Arthur works as an assistant at a museum and, needless to say, he’s eager to move up in his profession. There’s nothing unusual about that. And I guess you could argue that, while it’s certainly not ideal, it’s not necessarily unusual that Arthur still lives with his mother. What is unusual is that Arthur’s mother happens to be dead.

That right — Arthur is totally and completely insane.

As you can probably guess, Arthur is probably the last person who should have control of the immortal and indestructible Golem. But that’s exactly what happens! Soon, Arthur is using the Golem to kill his enemies and kidnap the woman that he loves.

Needless to say, things end with a bang.

Along with being a time capsule of 1966, It! is worth watching for Roddy McDowall’s memorably unhinged lead performance.

Halloween Havoc!: THE HOUSE OF SEVEN CORPSES (TCA, 1973)

Posted on October 2, 2015 by gary loggins

cracked rear viewer

TCM is airing THE HOUSE OF SEVEN CORPSES late Friday/early Saturday at 1:30 AM. Do yourselves a favor. Go to sleep. Do not set the DVR. This little opus has nothing to offer. When Faith Domergue gives a film’s best performance, you know you’re in trouble.

The movie is much ado about nothing. John Ireland plays a low-budget film director making a horror flick in the spooky old Beal mansion. Faith is his leading lady opposite hammy Charles Macauley (Blacula). John Carradine’s on hand as the house’s caretaker, so you automatically know he’s a red herring. It’s all about the actors reading lines from the Tibetan Book of the Dead, which causes strange things to happen. The only strange thing to happen in the first hour or so is Faith’s cat being found cut in half. Other than that, it’s like swimming through molasses. Seriously, nothing happens until the last ten or fifteen minutes, and when you finally get…

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The Daily Horror Grindhouse: The Manipulator (dir by Yabo Yablonsky)

Posted on October 1, 2015 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Mickey Rooney is … THE MANIPULATOR!

Up until recently, I firmly believed that Love and Other Drugs was the most annoying movie ever made. But then, a few nights ago, I cracked open my Mill Creek 50 Drive In Movie Classic box set and I watched a little film from 1971. I was just looking for a horror film to review for October. Little did I know that I would soon be watching the most annoying movie ever made!

The name of that movie?

The Manipulator.

The star of that movie?

Mickey Freaking Rooney.

In The Manipulator, Mickey plays B.J. Lang, a former Hollywood makeup artist who has had a mental breakdown. He now lives in a dusty warehouse, surrounded by old movie props and mannequins. B.J. spends a lot of time talking to himself and trying on makeup. Sometimes, he wears a fake nose and pretends that he’s Cyrano de Bergerac. And then, at other times, he imagines all of his mannequins coming to life and taunting him. (It’s kind of like the final scene of Maniac, except nobody’s head gets ripped off.) Occasionally, he has weird flashbacks, which are all about giving the filmmaker an excuse to utilize the fish-eye lens and psychedelic lighting.

Eventually, we learn that BJ (and, as I watched the film, I kept wondering if his name was supposed to make viewers think about oral sex) is not alone in his warehouse. There’s a woman (Luana Anders) who is being held prisoner. He has her tied up in a chair and, whenever she begs to eat, he feeds her baby food. BJ calls her Carlotta, though that’s apparently not actually her name. The woman yells a lot. Her first five minutes of screen time consist of her repeating, “MR. LAAAAAAAAAANG” over and over again.

BJ spends most of his time delivering monologues about how Hollywood used to be and occasionally, he demands that Carlotta help him put on a play. At one point, BJ appears to have a heart attack and this leads to Carlotta going, “DON’T DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEE, MR. LAAAAAAAAANG” over and over again.

And then a homeless bum (Keenan Wynn) shows up and wanders about for five minutes before dying.

The problem with writing about a film like The Manipulator is that, just by describing the plot, you make it sound more interesting than it actually is. You’re probably reading this and thinking, “Wow, this sounds really weird! I need to see it at least once…”

No, you don’t. It may sound weird but ultimately, it’s more emptily pretentious than anything else. This was both director Yabo Yablonsky’s first and final film and there is not a single camera trick that he does not employ. We get the weird angles, the random moments of slow motion, the even more random moments when the film is suddenly sped up, the extreme close-ups, the sudden blackouts, the ragged jump cuts, and, of course, lots of rack focus and zoom lens use. Compared to The Manipulator, the direction of Getting Straight appears to be mild and conventional! The film does feature three talented performers but none of them seem to have the slightest idea what the movie is about or who they are supposed to be playing. In particular, both Rooney and Wynn seem to be making up their dialogue as they go along.

And really, that’s why The Manipulator is so annoying. It should have, at the very least, been an insane misfire. Instead, it’s just boring.

Sorry, Mickey.