In fact, just yesterday, a trailer dropped for a horror film that will be coming out in February! So, happy Valentine’s Day, I guess.
Anyway, the trailer is for The Black Phone, which is the latest film from Scott Derrickson. It’s a return to his horror roots after his detour into the MCU. It appears to be about a kidnapping and the kidnapper is Willy Wonka! Oh, wait a minute …. that’s Ethan Hawke.
The trailer looks kind of creepy. Derrickson’s Sinister is still one of the scariest films of the past ten years. Plus, Ethan Hawke should get all the roles that seem like they were originally written for Johnny Depp. So, I’ll give this one a shot when it comes out next year.
The 2009 film, Nightstalker, opens with a drifter named Richard Ramirez (Adolph Cortez) lying on his back in what appears to be an alley. He’s obviously been beaten. He appears to be only half-conscious. As he lays there in that filthy alley, we’re treated to several negative-filtered flashbacks of Ramirez shooting people. This is followed by a series of blurry shot that were apparently filmed by someone driving down a street in Los Angeles. Discordant music plays on the soundtrack. If you listen carefully, you can hear someone mumbling in the background but good luck figuring out what they’re actually saying. This is a low-budge film and sound quality was not a concern.
Of course, none of this should come as a surprise to anyone who is familiar with the unique aesthetic of director Ulli Lommel. As I wrote in my review of Son of Sam, Lommel started his career as an association of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s before he eventually came to America, got involved in the New York art scene, and made a handful of decent films. Unfortunately, after he divorced the heiress who was responsible for funding the majority of his early films, Lommel spent the rest of his career making zero-budget, direct-to-video films about serial killers, like Richard “Night Stalker” Ramirez. Lommel always claimed that there was a political subtext to his serial killer films and I don’t doubt that he was being honest. You have to be sincerely committed to make a film as inept as Nightstalker. At the same time, it’s not easy to figure out just what exactly it was that Lommel thought he was trying to say.
Nightstalker is undoubtedly one of the worst of Lommel’s serial killer films. Usually, I try to make sure that all of my reviews include at least 500 words but it’s really difficult to think of much to say about Nightstalker. The film is frequently out-of-focus. The sound quality is atrocious. The actor who plays the Nightstalker comes across more like a male model than a homeless serial killer who was known for having bad teeth and disagreeable odor. Because there’s already been multiple films and documentaries made about Richard Ramirez, the Lommel version fails to add anything new to the story. Instead, the film is a collection of scenes of Ramirez aimlessly wandering around Los Angeles, sucking on a lollipop and occasionally flashing back to his abusive El Paso childhood. The film moves slowly and Ramirez’s inner monologue is vacuous. The real Ramirez’s thoughts were probably pretty vacuous as well so give Lommel some credit for not trying make the the guy more interesting than he actually was.
Watching the film, you do get the feeling that Lommel was sincrely trying to say something about being on the fringes of society in America. Lommel’s true crime films often implied that American serial killers were the direct result of American culture and its obsession with violence and wealth. As I said, I think Lommel did think that he was making an artistic and political statement with these films, in much the same way that Lucio Fulci insisted that The New York Ripper was actually a critique of capitalism. (Oh, if only Lommel had possessed just an ounce of Fulci’s talent….) Son of Sam, for instance, actually does have a few moments where Lommel’s hallucinatory approach is somewhat effective. But Nightstalker shows the limits of Lommel’s zero budget, semi-improvised approach. It’s a chore to sit through and it’s a shame that, due to the continuing infamy of the mercifully late Richard Ramirez (Netflix aired a documentary about him earlier this year that had him trending on twitter), this is probably one of Lommel’s most-viewed films. Hell, I watched it. But I think this is going to be my last Lommel true crime film for a while.
Halloween, after all, is meant to be a joyous time.
A disturbed man named Harry starts calling Dr. David Kelly (Joseph Bottoms), a radio psychiatrist who is already being sued as a result of one of his patients killing herself on the air. Harry eats dog food and hates real estate agents because they keep trying to sell the houses in which he’s illegally squatting. The police even suspect that Harry may in fact be responsible for several recent realtor murders. When David mentions that his girlfriend, Lisa (Adrienne Barbeau), just happens to be a real estate agent, it looks like she might be Harry might have a new target!
Open House is from the same group of producers who gave the world Terror on Tour. Like Terror on Tour, it’s a pretty lousy film but at least Terror on Tour had a killer clown and a loud soundtrack. Open House has a bland synth soundtrack and a killer who could just as easily been a generic criminal of the week on an 80s cop show. Rick Hunter would have just blown this psycho away and said, “Works for me.” Because David needs to be redeemed for that patient who killed herself as a result of his bad advice, he gets a chance to encourage Harry to talk about his feelings. It leads to a very long monologue.
The main appeal of the film is that it features the beautiful Adrienne Barbeau but she doesn’t get to do much other than get menaced by Harry. Barbeau supposedly only accepted the roll so that she could use her paycheck to pay for her son’s tuition fees so at least something good came out of this film.
Open House is one of those films that I can remember being displayed prominently at the local video store that we used to visit when I was a kid. It was a popular rental, because it had a cool cover and the back of the box promised much more blood and gore than the film delivered. I can’t remember how old I was when I rented it but I do remember worrying about my mother figuring out what type of movie I had selected. I need not have worried because Open House was about as tame as they come.
Open House has never gotten anything more than a VHS release but it’s there on YouTube for anyone who wants to track it down. I rewatched it knowing that it was a boring film but I had forgotten just how boring. When it comes to this Open House, lock the door and throw away the key.
Kier is 77 years old. This German actor has over 260 film credits to his name, having worked with everyone from Dario Argento to Paul Morrissey to Gus Van Sant to Alexander Payne to Rob Zombie to Lars von Trier. Though he’s appeared in every genre of film, he’s best remembered for his horror appearances. In fact, his career got a major boost when he was cast in two horror films that were produced by Andy Warhol. (As with all things Warhol, there’s more than a little debate as to how much Andy was actually involved.) In 1973, Kier played Baron Von Frankenstein in Flesh For Frankenstein. In 1974, he played Dracula in Blood for Dracula. Both films were deliberately over-the-top in both their gore and their performances and they helped launch Udo Kier on the path to cult stardom. Take, for example, the scene below. This is from Flesh for Frankentein. Kier’s Baron meets his end but not before giving a lengthy monologue. One thing to keep in mind is that this film was originally released in 3D so, while Kier was giving his speech, the Baron’s organs were hanging out over the audiences.
(If you have a hard time with gore, I would not suggest watching this scene.)
Happy birthday, Udo Kier! Thank you for putting your heart into ever role!
Reading a Christopher Pike book after spending a few days focused on R.L. Stine can be a jarring experience.
Even though Stine and Pike are often compared to each other, Pike’s books are usually a lot darker than Stine’s. Whereas an R.L. Stine boo will, more often than not, end with the promise of a return to normalcy, Pike’s novels often seem to end on a down note. The teenage heroes of Pike’s books are just as likely to fail as they are to succeed. Whereas Stine usually only offers up one or two deaths over the course of his books, Pike has no fear of wiping nearly the entire cast by the final chapter. The world of Christopher Pike is a dark disturbing place.
Consider 1998’s The Hollow Skull. The Hollow Skull takes place in the small desert town of Madison, Nevada. Cassie has just graduated high school and is desperate to get out of the town. After all, California’s not that fear away. Why couldn’t Cassie move out there and maybe go to college at UCLA? The only problem is that all of her friends seem to be content with the idea of staying in Madison, including her boyfriend. Plus, if Cassie leaves, that’ll mean leaving her little sister with their abusive, alcoholic father.
Still, because Cassie is determined to escape, her friends suggest that they all go on one last adventure. Hey, why not go down the abandoned mine shaft!? Of course, it turns out that there’s a weird pool of black goo at the bottom of the mine shaft and, after one Cassie’s friends falls in the goo, he starts to act strangely.
In fact, the entire town of Madison starts to act differently, as if they’ve been possessed and disturbing thoughts are now being put into their skulls. Suddenly, everyone that Cassie knows is acting differently. Cassie decides that it time for her and her sister to flee Madison but it turns out that escaping is not going to be as easy as going down an abandoned mine shaft….
Seriously, abandon all hope ye who enter here! This is a dark, dark book. It owes more than a little debt to Invasion of the Body Snatchers but, even more than being a traditional YA horror novel, it’s also a look at just how difficult it is to start a new life. No matter how hard she tries, Cassie cannot seem to make a clean break from Madison. Even if she’s not possessed like everyone else in town, she’s still trapped. At its best, the book captures the hopelessness of being trapped in one location or situation and feeling like you’ll never be able to figure out how to move forward.
Of course, plotwise, it’s all a bit predictable. If you’ve seen any of the versions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, you’ll be able to guess what’s going to happen. For that matter, if you’ve read Christopher Pike’s Monster, you’ll also be able to predict much of what awaits Cassie. Still, if you’re weary of R.L. Stine’s positivity, Christopher Pike provides a rather downbeat antidote.
Okay, no one actually says that in the 1988 Dutch film, Amsterdamned. However, I will admit that, while I was watching the movie on Shudder, I said it after every single murder. Seriously, it’s just too good to resist. Whatever else you might want to say about this movie, you can not deny the power of that title. How many people have watched this movie just because it’s called Amsterdamned? I would guess a few thousand at least.
As for the film itself, it deals with a murderous diver who swims through the famous canals of Amsterdam and kills just about anyone they come across. Our diver is not one to discriminate when it comes to selecting their victims. They may start out killing a prostitute but soon, they’re targeting environmentalists, boat captains, cops, and perhaps even the girlfriend of Amsterdam’s top cop, Eric Visser (Huub Stapel). Visser is one of those cops who drinks too much, doesn’t spend enough time with his daughter, and who is still bitter about his divorce. It’s nice to see that “Cops Who Play By Their Own Set Of Rules” are not a uniquely American phenomenon. Of course, since Eric is Dutch, his partner is named Vermeer (Serge-Henri Valcke). It doesn’t take Eric and Vermeer long to figure out that Amsterdam has a serial killer haunting the canals.
Amsterdamned is a mix of a slasher film and an action film. The highpoint of the film is a pretty exciting speedboat chase between Eric and the Killer, which features some truly spectacular stunts and which definitely shows that director Dick Maas can handle directing action. At the same time, though, the film is also full of point-of-view shots of the diver emerging from the canals and stalking their next victim. The diver is an effectively creepy villain and the film makes good use of the idea that practically anybody or anything could be hiding under the water. I haven’t been to Amsterdam but I have been to Venice and I can tell you, canals are both beautiful and frightening at the same time. It’s had not to look down at the water and to consider all of the secrets that could be hidden under that murky surface. The comparison between the canals of Amsterdam and the canals of Venice is an apt one, if just because Amsterdamned is pretty much a Dutch version of an Italian giallo films. While it’s not as mean-spirited as the infamous Giallo in Venice, it’s just as much a whodunit as it is a standard slasher film.
It’s a film that has its effective moments, though it’s also a film that has some pretty glaring flaws. With a nearly two-hour running time, it’s at least 30 minutes too long and the film occasionally seems to get bogged down with the details of Eric’s personal life, as if the filmmakers didn’t understand that all they had to do was tell us that Eric was a hard-drinking, independent-minded detective and we, as experienced film watchers, would be able to fill in the rest of the details for ourselves. When the killer’s identity is revealed, it’s a bit of a let down and it’s hard not to feel that the movie didn’t exactly play fair with its audience. Even with all that in mind, though, there’s enough creepy moments to make Amsterdamned worth visiting.
We are rapidly reaching the halfway mark of our October horrorthon here at the Shattered Lens. By the time we reach the end of the first half at midnight on Saturday, we will have published over 200 posts. During the second half, we’ll publish …. well, let’s not speculate. You never know. The world could end tomorrow and, as a result, we might never post again. What’s important is that I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished so far and I look forward to seeing what we accomplish during the rest of the month!
(That said, I’m hoping for another 250 to 300 or so posts. 500 FOR OCTOBER! It seems like a reasonable go. We’ll see!)
Anyway, today seems like a good time for another edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse Trailers! And, since today is Jack Arnold’s birthday, it only seems appropriate that today’s edition deals with giant creature features!
Q: The Winged Serpent (1982)
From director Larry Cohen, it’s Q The Winged Serpent! I’ve seen this movie and it’s undeniably entertaining. On the one hand, you’ve got the serpent flying around and looking all dangerous. Then you’ve got David Carradine and Richard Roundtree kind of sleepwalking through their roles. And then, suddenly, Michael Moriarty shows up and gives this brilliant, method-influenced performance. It’s an odd film but it’s hard not to like that Claymation flying serpent.
2. The Giant Spider Invasion (1975)
From Wisconsin’s own Bill Rebane, here’s the trailer for The Giant Spider Invasion! This is probably Rebane’s best film. If you’re trying to frighten your audience, you can’t go wrong with a giant spider.
3. Empire of the Ants (1977)
What’s the only thing scarier than a giant spider? A giant ant, of course! This film is from Bert I. Gordon, a director so obsessed with films about giant monsters that he was actually nicknamed Mr. BIG. (Of course, it also helped that those were his initials.)
4. Food of the Gods (1976)
Speaking of Bert I. Gordon, he was also responsible for this film, Food of the Gods. Like Empire of the Ants, it was based (however loosely) on a novel by H.G. Wells. Two old farmers feed the food of the Gods to the local animals and things do not go well. For some reason, a football player played by Marjoe Gortner decides to investigate. Shouldn’t he be practicing for the big game? Gordon missed an opportunity here by not having a giant-sized Marjoe Gortner.
5. Night of the Lepus (1972)
As frightening as those previous trailers were, can anything prepare you for the terror of killer rabbits!? This movie is proof positive that rabbits look cute no matter who they’re killing.
6. Village of the Giants (1965)
In the end, though, the greatest monster will always be man. By the way, this is another Bert I. Gordon film. Beau Bridges turns into a giant and plots to conquer the world. Only a young Ron Howard can stop him.
I hope you’re having a wonderful October! Never stop watching the shadows!
4 Shots From 4 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!
105 years ago today, future director Jack Arnold was born in Connecticut. Arnold started his film career making documentaries and he ended it directing episode of The Brady Bunch and The Love Boat. In between all of that, he directed some of the best-remembered “creature” films of the 1950s. Anytime you see a movie featuring giant monsters, you’re seeing a film that owes a debt to the work of Jack Arnold. Arnold also directed the classic Creature of the Black Lagoon.
Today, in honor of Jack Arnold, TSL is proud to present….
4 Shots From 4 Jack Arnold Films
It Came From Outer Space (1953, dir by Jack Arnold, DP: Clifford Stine)
Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954, dir by Jack Arnold, DP: William E. Snyder)
Tarantula (1955, dir by Jack Arnold, DP: George Robinson)
The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957, dir by Jack Arnold, DP: Ellis W. Carter)
Where would be without science? We would have less mad scientists and Halloween would be much less interesting! The pulp ere was full of men and women of science who had been driven crazy by the search for knowledge. Today, we pay tribute to the terrifying scientists of the pulp era!
In the 1981 slasher film, My Bloody Valentine, Mabel (played by Patricia Hamilton) is the sweet old woman who has convinced the mayor of Valentine Bluffs to reinstate the annual Valentine’s Day dance. The dance had been a tradition, up until the great mine explosion of 1960. Harry Warden was the only miner to survive the explosion, which everyone agreed wouldn’t have happened if the two mine supervisors hadn’t left their post to attend the dance. (Why two middle-aged men were so eager to attend a teenage dance party is a question that is never really explored.) Harry went mad in the mine and resorted to eating the other miners to survive. AGCK! The next year, Harry killed the two supervisors and was promptly sent off to mental asylum. Meanwhile, the annual dance was canceled because I guess it was easier to blame the dance than the mining company or the corrupt union bosses.
Mabel, however, has brought the dance back and it’s probably not a minute too soon because the town of Valentine Bluffs is one of the most depressing towns I’ve ever seen. The sky is permanenlyt overcast. Everyone spends all day down in the mine, getting covered in soot and trying not to die. At night, they go to the bar and get drunk and argue with each other. If the men need to talk about their feelings, they have a drink at the local junkyard. Among the slashers films that came out in the early 80s, My Bloody Valentine is unique for taking place in an authentically blue collar milieu. These aren’t upper class teenagers who are about to be targeted by a demented killer. These are tough men who work hard all day and who are apparently really into Valentine’s Day dances.
Unfortunately, we all know that it’s impossible to move on from a decades-old murder. No sooner has the Valentine’s Day Dance been announced than some old drunk starts telling everyone that they’re doomed. People start to get strange and bloody packages in the mail. A man dressed up like a miner kills Mabel and stuffs her into a washing machine, which seems like an overreaction on the part of The Miner. It does, however, make one thing very clear. If even sweet old Mabel can die, then anyone can die.
After Mabel’s death, the mayor and the sheriff announce that the dance is off but those miners are really into Valentine’s Day so they decide to throw a party anyway. A few of them go down into the mine, which is not necessarily what I would want to do at a party but whatever. I just don’t like soot. Unfortunately, our brave heroes go down into the mine at the same time that the Miner shows up at the party and starts killing people.
The assumption, of course, is that the Miner is Harry Warden but most member of the audiences will have seen enough slasher movies to know better. There’s two obvious suspects. There’s Axel (Neil Affleck), who has a temper and knows how to use a pickax. And then there’s TJ (Paul Kelman), who also has a temper and knows how to use a pickax. Axel and TJ are both in love with Sarah (Lori Hallier) but only one will get to ask her to be his “bloody valentine.”
Among horror fans, My Bloody Valentine is notorious for having been heavily edited to get an R-rating. Supposedly, cuts were made to every single death scene and, even with the cuts, this is still a notably gruesome film. The scene involving the showerhead impalement is especially macabre, even if it has obviously been edited. The Miner is not one of those talkative, quippy, fun-loving murderers that eventually became a staple of the genre. Instead, he’s notably cruel. The murders he commits feel personal and calculated. He’s not one of those movie slashers who just kills anyone unlucky enough to discover Camp Crystal Lake. Instead, he has a plan. In the end, the Miner is one of the more frightening of the killers to come out of the early 80s slasher boom.
My Bloody Valentine works far better than it has any right to. The mine is a notably creepy location and the film does a good job of creating an atmosphere where you really do believe that anyone could die at any minute. The film plays out like a nightmarish urban legend come to life and it provides an example of the giallo-inspired thrillers that slasher films used to be. Despite being a Valentine’s Day film, it’s one that your really should watch for Halloween.
When you’re watching either this film or the 2009 remake, be sure to offer up a prayer to Mabel. With her love of Valentine’s Day, she made it all possible.
Through the Shattered Lens 