The TSL’s Horror Grindhouse: Single White Female 2: The Psycho (dir by Keith Samples)

Posted on October 2, 2019 by Lisa Marie Bowman

13 years after the release of the first Single White Female and a countless host of imitations, an official sequel was released straight-to-video in 2005. Subtitled “The Psycho,” (because apparently, Jennifer Jason Leigh was totally stable in the first film), Single White Female 2 tells the story of what happens when one roommate becomes obsessed with the other. It all leads to murder and sexual infidelity and sudden hairstyle changes.

Maybe you’re thinking that this sounds exactly like the first Single White Female. And, okay, there are some similarities. But just consider some of the differences!

1. In the first Single White Female, Jennifer Jason Leigh’s character grows obsessed with Bridget Fonda after moving into Fonda’s apartment. In Single White Female 2, Tess (played by Allison Lange) becomes obsessed with Holly (Kristen Miller) after Holly moves into Tess’s apartment. See, this time, the psycho has her name on the lease. HUGE DIFFERENCE!

2. In the first Single White Female, the plot is set in action after Bridget Fonda discovers that Steven Weber cheated on her. In the sequel, the plot is set in motion by Holly’s original roommate, Jan (Brooke Burns), seducing a client who Holly was also sleeping with. Again, that’s a huge difference and it also leads us to wonder if maybe Holly just sucks at choosing roommates.

3. In the first Single White Female, Jennifer Jason Leigh played an unstable bookstore employee. In the sequel, Tess is a nurse who has a history of killing people who she feels would be happier dead. In other words, Tess is a psycho with a mission.

4. In the first Single White Female, Jennifer Jason Leigh’s character hung out in a sleazy S&M club. In the sequel, Tess actually performs on stage.

5. The first Single White Female actually looked like a real movie whereas the sequel has the flat and rather bland look of a film shot for and on video.

6. In the first Single White Female, you could understand why an insecure person would want to steal Bridget Fonda’s identity. In the sequel, Holly’s identity doesn’t seem to be interesting enough to justify trying to steal.

7. In the first Single White Female, Jennifer Jason Leigh gave a performance that inspired both fear and sympathy. In the sequel, Tess is just your typical straight-to-video movie psycho. There’s no indication that she could have ever been anything other than a straight-to-video movie psycho.

8. The first Single White Female was a good film, almost despite itself. The sequel is rather dull.

So, I guess my point here is that, if you want to watch a movie about a roommate stealing someone’s identity and getting a new haircut, the first Single White Female is the one to go with. The sequel doesn’t really add anything worthwhile to the story, nor does it improve on it in any way. Give some credit to Brooke Burns, who plays Holly’s untrustworthy ex-roommate and who, at the very least, seems to understand the type of movie in which she’s appearing. Brooke Burns gets the worst lines but she at least seems to be having fun delivering them. Otherwise, it’s best just to forget about this sequel.

Video Game Review: Vampiric Tower (2000, Mike Behrens)

Posted on October 2, 2019 by Jedadiah Leland

Vampiric Tower is a simple but addictive puzzle game that I found on the Internet Archive.

In this game, you are a purple haired vampire in a ten-story, fifty-room tower. Your goal is to go through each room and collect all of the vials of blood. Only after all of the vials have been collected will the door to the next room open. At first it’s simple:

Things get more complicated with each room that you enter.

For instance, in the room above, there’s plenty of blood but there’s also objects in the way. Fortunately, you can turn into a bat and fly over the obstacles but there’s only so many times that you can transform and you always have to return to your “human” form if you want to collect the blood. You can push the obstacles out of the way but, if you’re not careful, you can very easily ended up locking yourself into a corner.

Each room has more obstacles than the last and you’ll have to be smart about how you use your transformation powers if you’re going to get all of the vials.

You’re also not alone in the tower.

Those jack o’lanterns may not look dangerous but get in their line of sight and they’ll kill you.

Vampric Tower is a simple puzzle-solving game but it’s also very addictive. No sooner have you managed to figure out how to escape one room than you find yourself in an even more elaborate and dangerous location. How quickly can you make it through the vampiric tower? Play the game to find out!

Horror Scenes That I Love: Bela Lugosi Introduces Himself In Dracula

Posted on October 2, 2019 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I swear, nothing annoys me more than when wannabe hipsters go out of their way to trash old movies.

You see that a lot on twitter. People who, for the most part, haven’t even studied film or cultural history will try to post something snarky about a film that was made decades before they were born. They either make fun of the acting or the dialogue or they attempt to call out the film for not being properly woke. It’s an easy way to get likes and retweets but it’s also about as intellectually lazy as you can get.

For instance, there’s a tendency to dismiss the 1931 version of Dracula and Bela Lugosi’s performance in the lead role. Personally, I do think that Dracula is a bit too stagey (it was, after all, based on a stage play that was based on Bram Stoker’s novel) and I wouldn’t put it up there with director Tod Browning’s best work. The Spanish-language version of Dracula, which was filmed at the same time, is technically a better film. But, that being said, I will accept no criticism of Lugosi’s performance. Lugosi is the perfect Dracula. If he seems overly theatrical …. well, Dracula’s a pretty theatrical character. It has to be remembered that Lugosi is playing a character who is supposed to be several hundred years old. If he acts like a man out-of-time, that’s because that is exactly what he is.

Ultimately, it comes down to this — a lot of actors have played Dracula. Some of them have been very good in the role. Some of them have been very bad. But, if not for Lugosi, none of them would have had the opportunity.

So, in honor of that legacy, today’s horror scene that I love comes from the original Dracula and features Bela Lugosi at his creepiest:

Book Review: Air Force One Is Haunted By Robert J. Serling

Posted on October 2, 2019 by Lisa Marie Bowman

OH MY GOD, AIR FORCE ONE IS HAUNTED!

A few weeks ago, I was going through my aunt’s collection of old paperback novels, searching for anything that I could possibly review during October. While I found a good deal of promising books, I have to admit that I almost squealed for joy when I came across Air Force One Is Haunted.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I had never heard of the book before and I knew absolutely nothing about the plot. But I saw that title and I knew I just had to read it. I mean, seriously — Air Force One Is Haunted! That’s like the greatest title ever! I looked at that title and I asked myself, “What’s haunting Air Force One? Angry druids? Zombies? Succubi? Woodrow Wilson?” Either way, it sounded like it had the potential to be terrifying!

Then I got home and I read the book and I discovered that …. well, let’s just say that my imagination got ahead of me.

Air Force Is Haunted was originally published in 1985 and the author was not only a world-renowned aviation expert but he was also the brother of Twilight Zone-creator Rod Serling. So, it’s perhaps not surprising that Air Force One Is Haunted feels like an extended episode of The Twilight Zone. It’s one of those things where a good but conflicted person has the chance to do something that seems like it might be good for him but it will also be bad for the world at large. Fortunately, a ghost shows up and gives him a lot of advice.

The conflicted person, in this case, is President Jeremy Haines. Haines is in his second term and it seems like the entire world is falling apart around him. America’s in the middle of a great depression. Russia and China are teaming up to possibly try to take over the world. President Haines could always launch a first strike, which would wipe out Russia as a world power but which would also kill a lot of innocent civilians. He can’t make up his mind what to do and, as a result, people across the world are starting to view him as being weak. The President has even started to see a psychiatrist but they’re soon too busy having tasteful, mass market paperback-style sex to actually do anything about the President’s issues.

If only there was a mediocre ex-president that Haines could talk to and get some advice from! However, it appears that even Jimmy Carter is refusing to take his calls.

That’s when FDR shows up.

That’s right. It turns out that FDR is haunting Air Force One and, whenever President Haines boards the plane, he ends up getting advice from him. FDR has a lot of stories to tell about governing during an economic depression. He also says “Bully,” a lot, even though that was Teddy’s phrase.

Anyway, I think the book would have been a bit more interesting if FDR had turned out of be some sort of malevolent demon who intentionally gave President Haines bad advice that eventually led to World War III. And, to be honest, I kept expecting that too happen. I kept expecting FDR’s eyes to suddenly burn like hellfire as he said, “Burn it! BURN IT TO THE GROUND!” But that never happened. Instead, this is one of those books where FDR is the greatest dead president ever and, in the end, middle-of-the-road liberalism keeps the world safe for democracy.

As you’re probably guessing, this is kind of a corny book but it is written with a lot of sincerity. One gets the feeling that Serling really did feel that, if only America’s leaders just looked to the ghost of FDR, every problem in the world would be solved. The book is also overwritten in the way that well-meaning, melodramatic novels of the past often were. One character is identified as having a “gnawing ulcer of doubt” deep in the “bowels of his conscience.” (Ewwwwwww!) That’s the type of book that this is. It’s definitely a product of its time but, if you’re a history nerd like me, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

If anyone is haunting Air Force One, I personally hope that it’s Rutherford B. Hayes. He was the best!

International Horror Film Review: The Student of Prague (dir by Stellan Rye and Paul Wegener)

Posted on October 2, 2019 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The year is 1820 and Balduin (Paul Wegener) has a problem.

Yes, he might be the most popular student at the University of Prague. And yes, he may be known as the greatest swordsman in the city. And yes, he might get invited to all of the parties and he might have a lot of friends who all look up to him. However, what Balduin does not have is money. While everyone else seems to be living a life of luxury, Balduin lives in a tiny room where his only luxury is the mirror in which he often appreciates his own reflection.

Balduin could really use some money because he’s fallen in love with Countess Margit (Grete Berger) but there’s no way that a member of the noble class could ever marry a destitute man. Instead, it appears that Margit is destined to marry her cousin, the Baron (Fritz Wiedermann).

However, an old man named Scapinelli (John Gottowt) claims to have a solution. He promises to give Balduin a fortune in gold if he agrees to let Scapinelli remove just one thing from his room. Convinced that he’s fooled the old man because he has nothing of worth in his room, Balduin agrees to Scapinelli’s conditions. Scapinelli promptly turns to the mirror and, as Balduin watches, Balduin’s reflection steps out of the mirror and then leaves with Scapinelli. Balduin starts to laugh hysterically.

So now, Balduin has no reflection but he does have a lot of money! Balduin sets out to try to win Margit away from the Baron. Making things difficult is that, no matter where Balduin goes, someone always seems to be following him. Sometimes, it’s a mysterious wandering girl (Lyda Salmonova) who always seems to be intent on eavesdropping on every conversation that he has. And then other times, it’s his doppelganger! There’s now two Balduins running around Prague and, whenever the first Balduin finds himself alone with Margit, the second Balduin always seems to pop up and ruin everything.

Obviously something must be done….

This German silent film was first released in 1913 and it’s considered by some to be the first feature-length horror film. (Georges Méliès directed several films featuring ghosts and haunted houses but the majority of those films ran only a handful of minutes.) It’s also considered to be one of the first art films and, since Paul Wegener financed the production and distributed the film himself, also the first independent film. It was also the first film to make use of the type of double exposure tricks that we today take for granted. In 1913, audiences were stunned to see Paul Wegener apparently acting opposite himself. The film was a big hit, with none the less than psychoanalyst Otto Rank praising the film for its psychological depth.

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 106 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.

4 Shots From 4 Films: The Exorcist, Female Vampire, Ganja and Hess, The Wicker Man

Posted on October 2, 2019 by Lisa Marie Bowman

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!

This October, we’re using 4 Shots From 4 Films to look at some of the best years that horror has to offer!

4 Shots From 4 1973 Horror Films

The Exorcist (1973, dir by William Friedkin)

Female Vampire (1973, dir by Jess Franco)

Ganja and Hess (1973, dir by Bill Gunn)

The Wicker Man (1973, dir by Robin Hardy)

Horror Film Review: Single White Female (dir by Barbet Schroeder)

Posted on October 2, 2019 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Allie Jones (Bridget Fonda) is an always fashionable software designer who is living in New York City and who has just broken up with her cheating lover, Sam (Steven Weber). She has pretty hair, a big apartment, a closet full of nice clothes, and a totally devoted gay best friend.

Hedra Carlson (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is shy and socially awkward and in need of someone who will give her a cute nickname like “Hedy.” She has pretty hair that’s just slightly less pretty than Allie’s, a job at a bookstore, a dead twin sister, a pair of really nice earrings, and a television that only seems to show old black-and-white movies.

Together …. THEY SOLVE CRIMES!

No, actually, they don’t. Instead, Hedy answers an ad that Allie placed about needing a new roommate. Even though Allie was thinking of asking another homeless woman to move in with her, Hedy impresses Allie by fixing her sink. Seriously, how can you turn down a potential roommate who knows how to do simple plumbing? Allie invited Hedy to live with her and, at first, everything is great. Hedy even brings home a dog that Allie quickly falls in love with. However, then Sam shows back up and we quickly discover just how obsessed Hedy has become with her roommate.

Single White Female was originally released way back in 1992 and, even if you’re viewing it for the very first time, you’ll probably feel a sense of deja vu while watching the movie. This is one of those films that has been so endlessly imitated and has been unofficially remade so many times that you probably already know everything that happens in the film, regardless of whether you’ve actually sat through it or not. A few years ago, there was a film called The Roommate that basically was Single White Female, just with a college setting and a bit less of a subversive subtext. As well, I’ve lost count of the number of Lifetime films that have basically ripped off Single White Female‘s plot. Any time that a new friend proves herself to be excessively clingy, chances are that she’s going to get compared to Jennifer Jason Leigh in this film.

And yet, despite all of the imitations, Single White Female still holds up surprisingly well. A lot of that is because Single White Female was directed by Barbert Schroeder. Schroeder started his career as a disciple of the French New Wave and, much like Paul Verhoeven, his American films tend to be genre films with just enough of a subversive subtext to stick in your mind afterwards.

For example, Single White Female is often describes as being a film about “the roommate from Hell” but what always seems to be missed is that, especially during the film’s first half, Allie is often as bad of a roommate as Hedy. For instance, when Allie comes home late after spending two days with Sam, Hedy is pissed off and waiting for her. On the surface, the scene is the first indication that Hedy has become obsessed with Allie. But, at the same time, Hedy actually is making a valid point. After repeatedly telling Hedy that she wants nothing to do with Sam, Allie runs off and spends two days with him without bothering to call home once. Though Hedy may have been a bit too quick to yell, she still had every right to be annoyed.

In fact, Allie really is a bit of self-centered character. She impulsively invited Hedy to live with her and then, just as impulsively, she gets back together with Sam and decides that it’s time for Hedy to move out. Of course, then Hedy tosses a dog out of a window and you pretty much lose whatever sympathy you may have had for her.

Still, you can’t help but feel that, just as Hedy wants to be Allie, there’s a part of Allie that would like to be Hedy. Hedy does all the things that Allie’s scared to do. When Allie is sexually harassed and nearly raped by a client, Hedy’s the one who actually gets revenge. While Allie tries to get over and suppress her anger at Sam, Hedy’s the one who acts on that anger. Just Hedy seems to need Allie’s life to be happy, Allie seems to need Hedy’s anger to survive. In short, there’s a lot more going on underneath the surface of Single White Female than its reputation might lead you to presume.

Not surprisingly, the film is dominated by Jennifer Jason Leigh’s performance. When Hedy first appears, Leigh plays her as just being slightly off. She has some obvious confidence issues but, at the same time, she comes across as being so innocent and naive that you can’t help but want to protect her. You find yourself wondering how she could have possibly survived living in a city like New York. It’s only as the film progresses that you start to discover that Hedy was never particularly naive and everything that she’s done and said has basically been about manipulating the people around her. And yet, even after Hedy has started killing dogs and people, you can’t help but feel a strange empathy (though not necessarily sympathy) for her. There’s an emptiness to Hedy, an emptiness that she attempts to fill by stealing the personalities of the people around her and Leigh does a great job of expressing the pain that would come from not having an identity of your own. Plus, poor Hedy just seemed so happy with Allie said that she liked her earrings! I mean, I just can’t imagine being that insecure but I get the feeling it would really suck.

(Fortunately, I’ve also never really had a truly bad roommate situation. One advantage of having three older sisters is knowing that you’ll always have someone to stay with.)

Despite all of the imitations and rip-offs that have come out over the years, both Single White Female and Jennifer Jason Leigh’s performance hold up remarkably well. I’d recommend watching it before inviting anyone to come live with you. If nothing else, you’ll at least learn what stiletto heels are really for.

Horror Review: Glyceride by Junji Ito

Posted on October 2, 2019 by Arleigh

Junji Ito Glyceride

While Junji Ito’s work has been done both in long-series format and novella-style stand-alone, most of his work has been through short story collections which has been collected in tanboko collections. It’s with some of his short stories that themes really shine through despite their short length. He’s able to disturb unnerve, disgust and horrify a reader with a quick read than most horror writers and filmmakers have tried using much longer formats.

One such short tale is “Glyceride.”

“Glyceride” is chapter 5 of his collection of one-shot stories in the collection Yami no Koe (Voices in the Dark). It tells the tale of a girl named Yui whose family owns a barbecue restaurant (city or town never mentioned other than it has a clear view of Mt. Fuji) in town. The place is always dark, dirty and there’s a heavy atmosphere of grease permeating everything in the place.

It’s this sense of grease both literal and figuratively which creates that sense of otherworldly horror and uneasiness. Ito’s artwork makes one feel the very grease the tale’s protagonist speaks about to such a level that, at least for me, one would need to take a thorough shower once done.

While the story is quite brief it leaves a definite imprint on the reader. Below is the anime adaptation of the short story.

Horror on the Lens: The Little Shop of Horrors (dir by Roger Corman)

Posted on October 2, 2019 by Lisa Marie Bowman

(It’s tradition here at the Lens that, every October, we watch the original Little Shop of Horrors. And always, I start things off by telling this story…)

Enter singing.

Little Shop…Little Shop of Horrors…Little Shop…Little Shop of Terrors…

Hi! Good morning and Happy October the 2nd! For today’s plunge into the world of public domain horror films, I’d like to present you with a true classic. From 1960, it’s the original Little Shop of Horrors!

When I was 19 years old, I was in a community theater production of the musical Little Shop of Horrors. Though I think I would have made the perfect Audrey, everybody always snickered whenever I sang so I ended up as a part of “the ensemble.” Being in the ensemble basically meant that I spent a lot of time dancing and showing off lots of cleavage. And you know what? The girl who did play Audrey was screechy, off-key, and annoying and after every show, all the old people in the audience always came back stage and ignored her and went straight over to me. So there.

Anyway, during rehearsals, our director thought it would be so funny if we all watched the original film. Now, I’m sorry to say, much like just about everyone else in the cast, this was my first exposure to the original and I even had to be told that the masochistic dentist patient was being played by Jack Nicholson. However, I’m also very proud to say that — out of that entire cast — I’m the only one who understood that the zero-budget film I was watching was actually better than the big spectacle we were attempting to perform on stage. Certainly, I understood the film better than that screechy little thing that was playing Audrey.

The first Little Shop of Horrors certainly isn’t scary and there’s nobody singing about somewhere that’s green (I always tear up when I hear that song, by the way). However, it is a very, very funny film with the just the right amount of a dark streak to make it perfect Halloween viewing.

So, if you have 72 minutes to kill, check out the original and the best Little Shop of Horrors…

Music Video of the Day: Voodoo In My Mind by Massive Attack, featuring Young Fathers (2016, dir by Ringan Ledwidge)

Posted on October 2, 2019 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Yes, that’s Rosamund Pike starring in today’s music video of the day. This video was released two years after Rosamund Pike found fame starring in Gone Girl. Of course, I’ve been a fan of hers ever since I first saw An Education, in which she played Dominic Cooper’s glamorous girlfriend.

As for this video, it’s pretty obviously a take on the 1981 classic, Possession, with Pike playing the role that was taken by Isabelle Adjani in that film. This video may feature a lot of blood but it’s nowhere near as much blood as shows up in Possession. Agck!

Enjoy!