Director Julian Doyle also directed videos for Kate Bush but he may be best known for working as an editor on several Monty Python and Terry Gilliam films, including Life of Brian, Time Bandits, The Meaning of Life, Brazil, and Terry Jones’s Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.
Enjoy!
In 1989’s Dance of the Damned, Cyril O’Reilly plays a vampire with a sensitive side.
The Vampire is out on his nightly prowl. He goes to a strip club where he finds himself drawn to a dancer named Jodi (Starr Andreef). The Vampire is drawn to Jodi because Jodi is thinking of committing suicide. It’s her son’s birthday and the boy’s father refuses to even let her see him. The Vampire approached Jodi and says the wants to talk to her because he hasn’t talked to anyone in a long time. He offers to pay Jodi one thousand dollars if she’ll come back to his house and have a conversation with him.
Because the Vampire doesn’t drive, they take a city bus back to his place. While sitting on the bus, they are harassed by two wannabe punks. The Vampire pierces one of their eyes with the stem of a rose. Oddly, Jodi barely notices.
At the house, the Vampire reveals his fangs and explains that he rarely feasts but tonight is one of those nights when he does. He says that he picked Jodi because he could sense her loneliness and could tell that she wanted to die. He also explains that, contrary to the vampire mythology, Jodi will not turn into a vampire after he drinks her blood. Instead, she’ll just die. Jodi’s response is to shoot the Vampire several times. The bullets fall off of his body.
Jodi and the Vampire end up talking. In fact, Dance of the Damned often feels more like a one-act play than a traditional vampire film. Both Jodi and the Vampire are lonely and they discuss what its like to feel like they have nothing in the world. The Vampire cannot exist in the daylight and, as a stripper, Jodi’s life is centered around the night as well. When Jodi learns that the Vampire has never been to the beach because he never felt like there was much point in going during the night, Jodi insists that they go immediately. The Vampire discovers what sand feels like. He struggles to walk on it which was kind of weird but whatever. At least the movie was trying to do something different!
The main theme of the film is that both the Vampire and Jodi are outsiders. The Vampire was born a vampire and has no idea what it’s like to be a mortal being that can safely walk around in the daylight. Because he has scars from a childhood incident with the humans, even the Vampire’s own people have rejected him. Jodi, meanwhile, has been rejected by conventional society because she’s a stripper and now, she can’t even see her own child. They are two outsiders who are linked together by their feelings of being lost. Over the course of the night, they fall in love but it’s obvious that only one will still be around the next night and it’s also fairly obvious which one it will be.
I liked Dance of the Damned, though I imagine that it might be too talky for a lot of fans of the horror genre. It’s more of a dual character study than a traditional vampire film. Just as she did with films like Poison Ivy and The Rage: Carrie 2, director Katt Shea uses the horror genre as a way to explore the pressure that society puts on women to act, look, and dress a certain way. Shea’s direction is moody and atmospheric and she gets an excellent performance from Starr Andreef. Dance of the Damned is not a film for everyone but for those who are looking for a little emotional honesty to go along with their horror, it’s an intriguing film.
Tonight’s episode of Hammer House of Horror is Carpathian Eagle.
Men are being murdered in bed by a woman who removes their heart. Inspector Clifford (Anthony Valentine) investigates with the help of a true crime historian named Natalie (Suzanne Danielle). Natalie tells the story of an ancient Carpathian countess who murdered men in the same way and suggests that the murders might be the work of a modern-day descendant. The truth turns out to be a bit more complicated, if also a bit predictable.
This is not my favorite episode Hammer House of Horror but still, it’s worth watching to catch a young Pierce Brosnan in an early small role. This episode originally aired on November 8th, 1980.
In 1989’s Out of the Dark, a man dressed in a clown costume is killing phone sex operators. He lurks in the darkness and jumps out of the shadows to commit his dastardly crimes. Especially during the first hour or so, the film has its share of both suspense and gruesome moments. In the style of Italian giallo and pre-Halloween American slasher pics, the film actually tries to create some mystery about who the killer could be. Lt. Frank Meyers (Tracey Walter) suspects that the killer might photographer Kevin Silvers (Cameron Dye). Kevin and his girlfriend, Kristi (Lynn Danielson-Rosenthal), think that the police should be taking a closer look at David Stringer (Bud Cort), an accountant who has an office in the same building as the phone sex company. Meanwhile, Detective Langella (Divine) thinks that the murders might be linked to a serial killer who is targeting prostitutes.
The main problem with Out of the Dark is that it’s pretty obvious from the start who the killer is and it’s hard not to judge the people who can’t figure it out for themselves. The movie doesn’t really offer up enough viable suspects to keep you guessing and than it spends so much time trying to make it look like one of the suspects is guilty that any experienced film watcher will automatically know that he isn’t. The viewers are supposed to be shocked by the killer’s identity but there’s nothing shocking about it. It’s pretty obvious.
On the plus side, Out of the Dark does have a one-of-a-kind cast. Divine and Tracy Walter play detectives. Bud Cort is intense and nerdy as the bitter accountant. Cameron Dye is vacuously handsome as the photographer. Geoffrey Lewis shows up as an alcoholic. Lainie Kazan plays an aging prostitute. Tab Hunter drives a car. Paul Bartel manages a motel and gets upset when he sees the blood pooling in one of his rooms. And finally, Karen Black plays the owner of the phone sex company and gives a far better performance than the material actually deserves. Black brings some much needed emotional reality to the film.
As I said at the start of this review, Out of the Dark has its moments. The clown costume is truly creepy and the opening murder is all the more disturbing because it happen outside and in a public park. (You do have to wonder how no one noticed a weirdo dressed like a clown wandering around.) A scene in which the clown attacks a phone sex operator who has agreed to serve as bait is also well-done and genuinely frightening. The story moves at a quick and steady pace and it deserves some credit for ending on a definitive note as opposed to trying to copy the ambiguity that was so popular with other slasher films of the era.
If only the identity of the killer had actually been a surprise, Out of the Dark would probably be considered a classic. As it is, it’s just another well-made slasher film.
Fresh from defeating an attempt by a Sontaran to disrupt British history, the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) and his newest companion, reporter Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen), return to present-day London and discover that it has been transformed into a ghost town. Dinosaurs are roaming the streets. The Doctor teams up with UNIT to try to figure out who has been monkeying with time but what he doesn’t know is that the trusted Captain Yates (Richard Franklin) is working with the people responsible for the dinosaur invasion.
Invasion of the Dinosaurs was the second serial of the 11th season. Like The Sea Devils, this was another case where I read the novelization long before I got a chance to see the actual serial. Well-written by Malcolm Hulke, the novelization really got me excited to watch Invasion of the Dinosaurs. It did not prepare me for how fake the dinosaurs would look.
It was to be expected, though. Classic Doctor Who was never known for its wonderful special effects. Instead, it was known for rubber monsters, torn costumes, and alien landscapes that were often made out of cardboard. For many of us, that was a part of its charm. The dinosaurs in this serial look like toys that have been unleashed on a still photo of London. I’ve read that the serial was criticized for its bad dinosaur effects when it originally aired 1974 and that was long before Jurassic Park made everyone take the idea of seeing a realistic dinosaur for granted.
Despite the very fake dinosaurs, Invasion of the Dinosaurs still has one of the better scripts of the Pertwee era. The villains aren’t the typical evildoers who usually showed up on Doctor Who. Instead, they are people who have convinced themselves that the only way to save humanity is to dial back time to what they consider to be the “Golden Age,” before technology and industry blighted what they believe to be the ideal landscape. Of course, they plan to take only the very best among the population to their golden age with them. The villains are elitist environmentalists, convinced that they and only they know what is best. This may be the first episode of Doctor Who where the main antagonist, Sir Charles Grover (Noel Johnson), is a member of Parliament.
Captain Yates’s betrayal of UNIT and the Doctor adds some emotional depth to this story. While Yates was never as important a character as the Brigadier or Sgt. Benton, he was still present for almost all of the Third Doctor’s adventures and the small scenes where he would flirt with Jo Grant were some of the most awkward moments of the Pertwee era. Captain Yates was a loyal member of the Third Doctor’s entourage and his betrayal was motivated not by greed or resentment but instead by a desire to make the world a better place. The novelization made it clear that it was actually the terrible things that Yates saw as a member of UNIT that convinced him that time needed to be turned back.
This was the final Jon Pertwee story to be set entirely on Earth and, though Yates and the Brigadier would return for Pertwee’s final serial, it was the last true UNIT story of the Pertwee years. Jon Pertwee had already decided that the 11th season would be his last. The 12 season would feature a new Doctor. And while the BBC considered actors like Graham Crowden, Bernard Cribbins, and Jim Dale for the role, the Fourth Doctor was ultimately be played by Tom Baker, an actor who was working as a construction worker when Invasion of the Dinosaurs first aired.
Doctor Who would never the same.
High atop Mt. Olympus, Zeus (Laurence Olivier) and his fellow Gods look down on Earth and jealously manipulate its citizens. When Zeus impregnates Danae (Vida Taylor), the daughter of the King of Argos, she and her son Perseus (Harry Hamlin) are banished to sea. Zeus responds by ordering Poseidon (Jack Gwillim) to release the Kraken.
Years later, when Callibos (Neil McCarthy), the son of the Goddess Thetis (Maggie Smith), destroys all but one of Zeus’s flying horses, Zeus transformer Callibos into a tailed monster. Thetis tries to get her revenge by having Callibos kill Perseus but instead, Perseus chops off Callibos’s hand, comes to possess Pegasus, the last of the flying horses, and also wins the right to marry Andromeda (Judi Bowker).
At the wedding, Cassiopeia (Sian Phillips) declares Andromeda to be even more beautiful than Aphrodite (Ursula Andress). Big mistake. Aphrodite demands that Andromeda by sacrificed to the Kraken. Along with Pegasus, Ammon (Burgess Meredith), Thallo (Tom Pigott-Smith), and robot owl, Perseus goes on a quest to get the snake-haired head of Medusa so he can turn the Kraken into stone.
There’s a lot that I love about Clash of the Titans, from the Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion special effects to the blind witches who pass one eyepiece among them to Burgess Meredith’s performance as Ammon. I even like the robot owl. But the thing that has always made the biggest impression on me is that Mt. Olympus is portrayed as having a shelf that holds a figurine for every human in the world. The Gods casually move the pieces around and transform them on whims. Of all the films that have been based on Greek mythology, Clash of the Titans is one of the few that really captures the idea of the Gods essentially being a bunch of petty and jealous libertines who view humans are just being their playthings.
Let’s not overthink Clash of the Titans, though. The main appeal of Clash of the Titans is that it’s just a good, old-fashioned adventure movie. In this age of CGI and humorless heroes, it’s hard not love the film’s mix of old-fashion stop-motion animation, strong characters, and occasional moments of humor. (I like the owl and I won’t apologize for it.) Also, Medusa has appeared in a lot of movie but she’s never been scarier than in this movie. Who can forget the yellow glow of her eyes, followed by men turning to stone? Who can forget the hiss of her tail or the moment when Perseus waits to strike while trying not to look into her eyes? Beyond Medusa, who can forget the Kraken rising from the sea or the blood of Callibos giving birth to giant scorpions? Without CGI, Clash of the Titans still captures the feel of living in a different time and a different land. Clash of the Titans brings mythology to life in a way that few other films have been able to,
I loved the original Clash of Titans when I was a kid. I rewatched it last month and I happy to say that I love it still.
Since it’s Guillermo Del Toro’s birthday, it just seems appropriate that today’s horror scene that I love should be one of my favorite scenes from one of my favorite Del Toro movies.
Here’s the opening of 2015’s haunting (and, in my opinion, underrated) Crimson Peak!
This 1991 made-for-TV movie opens with a murder in a Brooklyn park. The year is 1979 and a group of teenagers are accosted by two men carrying guns. The men rob the teenagers of their drugs and guns. One person is killed. When the police arrive, almost everyone says that it was too dark to see anything. However, a 15 year-old named Jimmy O’Neill (Tristan Tait) says that he saw the faces of the men.
At the police station, the detective (Mark Metcalf) shows him a picture of a man named Billy Ferro (Zachary Mott) and Jimmy identifies him as one of the gunmen. The detective then produces a picture of a 19 year-old named Bobby McLaughlin (Brendan Fraser) and asks if Bobby was the other man. When Jimmy hesitates, the detective says that McLaughlin has been arrested with Billy in the past.
Of course, the truth of the matter is that, while Bobby has been arrested in the past, he’s never been arrested for anything as serious as murder and he’s never met Billy Ferro. The man who had been arrested in the past with Ferro was named Harold McLaughlin. The detective accidentally grabbed the wrong picture.
Bobby, a high school drop-out who lives with his foster parents (played by Martin Sheen and Caroline Kava), is arrested and charged with second degree murder. It doesn’t matter that Bobby passes a polygraph because the results are not admissible in court. It doesn’t matter what Bobby has an alibi because the prosecutor portrays all of his friends as being a collection of stoners and losers. It doesn’t matter what Bobby has never even met Billy Ferro because Ferro isn’t going to help anyone out, even someone who he knows is being falsely convicted. Bobby is convicted of second degree murder and sent to prison.
For the next seven years, while Bobby tries to survive prison, his foster father attempts to prove his son’s innocence. With the police refusing to help, Bobby’s father is forced to launch his own investigation but it seems like no matter what he discovers, it’s not enough to get Bobby out of prison. Still, neither he nor Bobby gives up. Neither one will accept a system in which you’re guilty until proven innocent….
For most people who choose to watch this film, I imagine it will be because of that “Introducing Brendan Fraser” credit. Fraser gives a very good performance in this film, playing Bobby as basically well-meaning but directionless teenager who finds himself trapped in a nightmare. Of course, the majority of this film is Martin Sheen yelling about the injustice of it all. This is the type of crusader role that Sheen has played often. As was often the case when he was cast in films like this, there’s nothing subtle about Sheen’s performance but it’s not really a role that needs or demands subtlety.
Though this was made-for-television and, as such, is never quite as critical of the system as perhaps it should be (if anything, the film argues that one should trust the system to eventually do the right thing, even if it does so seven years too late), it still shows how one cop’s mistake can ruin an innocent’s man life. It’s all the more effective because it’s based on a true story. Of course, I immediately knew the cop shouldn’t be trusted because he was played by Mark Metcalf. Niedermeyer as a cop? That’s definitely not going to end well.
Today’s song of the day is this 1984 classic from Ray Parker, Jr. Have you busted a ghost today?
This October, I’m going to be doing something a little bit different with my contribution to 4 Shots From 4 Films. I’m going to be taking a little chronological tour of the history of horror cinema, moving from decade to decade.
Today, we take a look at the first few years of 1940s.
4 Shots From 4 Horror Films
Dr. Cyclops (1940, dir by Ernest B. Schoedsack)
The Wolf Man (1941, dir by George Waggner)
Cat People (1942, dir by Jacques Tourneur)
I Walked With A Zombie (1943, dir by Jacques Tourneur)
Through the Shattered Lens 