Horror Film Review: The Pit and the Pendulum (dir by Roger Corman)

Posted on October 4, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The second of Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, 1961’s The Pit and The Pendulum opens in much the same way as The Fall of the House of Usher. A young Englishman (played by John Kerr) rides a horse across a colorful but desolate landscape. A castle sits in the distance.

Of course, as opposed to the 19th Century British setting of The Fall of the House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum takes place in 16th Century Spain, at a time when the country was still scarred by the horrors of the Inquisition. And Francis Barnard is not traveling to the castle to see his fiancée but instead, he’s searching for information about the disappearance of his sister, Elizabeth (played by the one and only, Barbara Steele). At the castle, Francis meets Elizabeth’s husband, Nicholas (Vincent Price) and Nicholas’s sister, Catherine (Luana Anders). Nicholas explains that Elizabeth died under mysterious circumstances, while suffering from a rare blood disorder that seemed to quickly sap away her will to live. Nicholas’s best friend, Dr. Leon (Anthony Carbone), explains that Elizabeth died of fright after she locked herself in one of the iron maidens in the castle’s torture chamber….

Oh yes, the castle has a torture chamber. Nicholas’s father was a leader of the Inquisition and he used the castle as a place to conduct his business. Nicholas’s father was a madman who suspected that his wife was cheating on him. One day, while young Nicholas was exploring the torture chamber, he witnessed his father murder both his wife and his brother. Nicholas watched as his mother was entombed alive and ever since, he’s been terrified of the idea of premature burial. In fact, his fear that he may have buried alive Elizabeth while she was still alive is driving him mad. The sudden arrival of the suspicious Francis doesn’t help matters….

The Pit and the Pendulum opens with splashes of color spreading across the screen, a sign that Corman was once again in a pop art state of mind when he directed this film. The Pit and The Pendulum takes everything that worked (and didn’t work) about The Fall of the House of Usher and it turns it all up by a notch or two. The castle is even more gothic. Vincent Price’s Nicholas is even more mentally fragile than his Roderick Usher, though Nicholas is also a quite a bit more sympathetic. If Roderick was a control freak who used his family’s curse as an excuse to embrace his own authoritarian tendencies, Nicholas is just a frail man suffering from PTSD. He’s definitely more of a victim than a victimizer … or, at least, he is at first. Much like Mark Damon is The Fall of the House of the Usher, John Kerr is a bit of a stiff in the role of Francis but it doesn’t matter. Vincent Price is the main attraction here and Corman’s direction shows that he understood that.

And then there’s the Pendulum. It takes a while for the Pendulum and its swinging blade to make an appearance but when it does, it lives up to the hype. The Pendulum swings and Corman goes all out, zooming into Price’s crazed eyes while the Pendulum comes closer and closer to its latest victim. The images are tinted red and green and the Pendulum itself seems to swing in a slow motion, the cinematic equivalent of a nightmare come to life.

The Pit and the Pendulum is a wonderful work of gothic pop art. Featuring Vincent Price at his most wonderfully unhinged, this is a film we should all watch this Halloween.

Pit and the Pendulum (1961, dir by Roger Corman, DP: Floyd Crosby)

Horror On the Lens: Creation of the Humanoids (dir by Wesley E. Barry)

Posted on October 4, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Creation of the Humanoids (1962, dir by Wesley Barry)

What makes us human? What does it mean to have free will? What is love? What is freedom? The questions and more are asked in the low-budget (and rather odd) science fiction epic The Creation of the Humanoids, which you can view below!

Now, I should warn that Creation of the Humanoids is an extremely talky film. And the plot is occasionally difficult to follow. There’s a lot of ennui to be found in this particular film, both from the humans and those who have been built to serve them However, I find it impossible not to love this one because it’s just such a strange movie. I love it for the colorful set design, the contrast between the resentful robots and the paranoid humans, and the fact that the film — despite being made for next to nothing — actually has more ambition than anything ever made by several of the more successful directors working today. And, while it may not really be a horror film in the way that some of our other October films are, it still feels appropriate for the Halloween season. It just has the perfect holiday atmosphere.

First released in 1962, Creation of the Humanoids was reportedly one of Andy Warhol’s favorite films. Keep an eye out for Plan 9 From Outer Space‘s Dudley Manlove.

October Positivity: The Apocalypse (dir by Justin Jones)

Posted on October 3, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

First released in 2007 and produced by The Asylum, The Apocalypse opens in much the same way as many Asylum films. An asteroid is hurtling towards the Earth. It crashes into our planet without warning, destroying the town of Monterey. (“And nothing of value was lost!” says the old timey Borscht Belt comedian.) Then more asteroids strike the planet, causing mass panic. The power goes out. People desperately try to reach their loved ones.

And then a tornado hits out of nowhere.

And then the state of California is suddenly hit by torrential rainfall.

And then….

Well, you get it. Things are not going well in California or in the rest of the world. As I said at the start of this review, the Earth being bombarded with asteroids is a pretty common theme when it comes to the Asylum. Indeed, anyone who has watched more than a handful of Asylum films is probably already picturing the stock footage of the asteroid hurtling through space with Earth in the distance. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve seen that rock start to burst into flames as it enters the atmosphere.

What sets The Apocalypse apart from other Asylum asteroid films is that, after the first asteroid hits, people start to vanish. They’re not crushed underneath an asteroid, or at least they aren’t as far as we can tell. Instead, they just seem to vanish into thin air, as if they’ve been taken to another place. Those who do not vanish can only stand around and wonder why they didn’t go to church more often….

“I’ve been left behind,” one character says and yes, this is indeed a mockbuster version of the Left Behind films. I guess it makes sense. The Asylum has produced mockbuster versions of every other genre out there. Why shouldn’t they also try to cash in on the end times. Really, one has to respect the fact that the Asylum managed to make its own Left Behind film without abandoning the idea of the world being bombarded by asteroids.

(And, if we’re going to be honest, the idea of God using asteroids to destroy humanity actually makes a lot more sense than the usual story that these films tend to tell. I mean, asteroids have to be good for something, right?)

The Apocalypse follows Jason (Rhett Giles) and Ashley (Jill Stapley), a divorced couple who are trying to make their way through the state of California so that they can see their daughter Lindsay (Kristen Quintrall) before the world ends. Along the way, Jason and Ashley discuss their own failed marriage and their guilt over the death of their son. Though Jason and Ashley do have to deal with some unexpected weather and asteroid events, the film itself is surprisingly somber for an Asylum film. There’s far less self-referential humor than in the usual Asylum film. The pace is deliberate, thoughtful, and, to be honest, a bit too reverential for its own good. The world ends but it ends very slowly. This is probably the talkiest film that the Asylum has ever produced.

That said, the film does create a believable portrait of the type of desperation that would accompany the end of the world, with the various characters all attempting to find some sort of peace before everything ends. The special effects may be a bit cheap but the images of deserted streets and desolate countryside are far more effective than what one might expect from an Asylum film. This is a case where the mockbuster, flaws and all, is still superior to the original.

The TSL Horror Grindhouse: Boogeyman II (dir by Ulli Lommel)

Posted on October 3, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Filmed in 1982 but not released until 1984, Boogeyman II is — as the name implies — the sequel to 1980’s The Boogeyman.

What’s that, you say? You don’t remember anything about The Boogeyman and you don’t want to take the time to read my review of it? Well, don’t worry. It’s not necessary to have seen the original Boogeyman to follow the sequel, largely because the sequel is full of flashbacks to the first film. Boogeyman II is only 79 minutes long and 30 minutes of that running time is taken up with footage from the first Boogeyman. Indeed, if you want to see the good parts of Boogeyman without having to deal with any of the filler, I would recommend just watching the first 30 minutes of Boogeyman II.

There is a plot to Boogeyman II, kind of. Having survived the massacre of her family at the farm, the now-divorced Lacey (played by Suzanna Love, the then-wife of director Ulli Lommel) goes out to California to visit her friends, actress Bonnie (Shannah Hall) and her husband, director Mickey (Lommel). How is it that Lacey, who was portrayed as being a simple and not particularly worldly farm wife in the first film, happens to be friends with a wealthy actress and director? It’s never really explained.

Bonnie and Mickey ask Lacey whether or not the people who killed her family were ever caught. Lacey replies that they can’t be caught because they’re spirits. Over dinner, Lacey tells Bonnie and Mickey the story of the shattered mirror and the killer whose spirit was trapped in the broken glass. Bonnie and Mickey listen sympathetically, though they both think that Lacey’s crazy. (Perhaps they noticed that Lacey’s flashbacks include scenes in which she wasn’t even present. Or maybe they’re wondering why Lacey would take the time to apparently describe a lengthy, bondage-themed nightmare that she had during the first film. Or maybe they’re just amazed by the presence of John Carradine in the flashbacks.) Bonnie and Mickey also think that Lacey’s story would make a great movie!

For some reason, Lacey is still carrying around a piece of the haunted mirror. This is the mirror that contains the spirit that possessed her during the first film and which killed the majority of her family. I would throw that piece of the mirror away but I guess Lacey’s more sentimental than I am. A creepy butler named Joseph (Sholto von Douglas, a rather stiff actor who still had a fascinatingly menacing screen presence) steals the piece of the mirror and soon, Hollywood phonies are dying.

Boogeyman II was directed by the late Ulli Lommel, a German director who got his start as an associate of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s and who eventually came to America, where he hung out with Andy Warhol, directed some documentaries about the American punk scene, and married heiress Suzanna Love. Love bankrolled Lommel’s early films, including The Boogeyman. With Lommel, it was always a challenge to figure out how seriously he took any of his films. In interviews, he would joke about being an exploitation filmmaker while, at the same time, claiming that his films were designed to expose the hypocrisy of American society. Boogeyman II is full of phony Hollywood types and there’s a scene where Mickey comments that, in America, “exploitation is a genre.” It’s probably not a coincidence that it’s the servant, Joseph, who uses the mirror to take out the film’s wealthy victims. The opening credits of Boogeyman II appear to literally be written in magic marker. Is Lommel mocking expensive Hollywood productions or could Lommel only afford a box of magic markers? I suppose both could be true.

The best parts of Boogeyman II are the flashback to the first film, which was a genuinely atmospheric horror film with some serious pacing issues. The rest of Boogeyman II is dull, though you do have to appreciate the sense of ennui that Lommel brings to the proceedings. Was the ennui intentional? That’s the mystery of Ulli Lommel.

As for Lommel, he and Love eventually divorced and Lommel ended his career making trashy true crime films that went direct-to-video. As usual, Lommel claimed that his crime films were meant to be a serious critique of everything that was wrong with America. Lommel’s true crime films have none of the atmosphere or occasional flashes of wit that distinguished Lommel’s earlier films. Was Lommel an incompetent director or was he a subversive artist? Again, both could be true. Lommel died in 2017, bringing to close an enigmatic career.

A Blast From the Past: Saved By The Belding (dir by Matt Hamilton and Scott Hamilton)

Posted on October 3, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Do you all remember that time that Rod Belding came to Bayside High School as a substitute?

At first, the students were surprised. Rod was the younger brother of their stuffy principal, Richard Belding. Richard was going bald. Rod had long blonde hair. Richard was boring. Rod was exciting. Richard was by-the-book. Rod took chances. Richard wanted to go on a boring class trip. Rod wanted to take the students white water rafting! When Richard called Rod out for the way he was running his class, student Zack Morris accused Richard of just being jealous of his brother. You would think this would get Zack suspended but instead, the studio audience just said, “Awwww!”

But then, the night before the students were due to leave for their rafting trip, Rod told Richard that he had met a flight attendant and he was abandoning the students.

“Cover for me,” Rod said.

“I’m tired of covering for you, Rod. Get out of my school!” Richard snapped.

That said, Richard did cover for his brother. He said Rod had the flu and then he volunteered to take the students on their rafting trip. Kelly Kapowski was so thrilled that she kissed Richard on the cheek, which one would expect to lead to Mr. Belding losing his job once word got out that he had physical contact with a student. Instead, the audience applauded.

Zack asked Richard why didn’t tell the truth about Rod. It turned out Zack had overheard the whole conversation. Richard admitted that the students at Bayside got the less exciting Belding.

“We got the better Belding,” Zack replied as the audience awwed and applauded once again.

The audience was there because this was all an episode of Saved By The Bell. In fact, “The Fabolous Belding Boys” was perhaps the best episode of Saved by the Bell, featuring excellent performances from both Dennis Haskins and Edward Blatchford.

The 2010 short film, Saved By The Belding, tells the story of a group of men who don’t understand that Saved By The Bell was just a television show and that Dennis Haskins and Edward Blatchford were just actors. Hoping to help them regain some sense of reality, their psychiatrist takes them to the Hollywood home of Ed Blatchford. Ed is excited to talk to his fans, asking them if they know him from his work in Last of the Mohicans. The men, however, want to know is he really had the flu or if Richard was just covering for him. Ed, realizing that the men don’t understand that he’s not actually Rod Belding, invites them to join him for dinner at a nice restaurant. However, as Ed is heading to the restaurant, he runs into an old acquaintance — a flight attendant — who invites him to come have dinner with her.

Will Ed abandon his new friends? And will Dennis Haskins once again have to come to the rescue?

Saved By The Belding is a sweet little film, one that views the cultural obsession with Saved By The Bell with both affection and wit. (That said, the cultural obsessions does seem to be waning a bit. For the first time in a long time, it’s next to impossible to find the show streaming online.) Both Dennis Haskin and especially Ed Blatchford deserve a lot of credit for being good sports and appearing as versions of themselves. Ed’s shock when Dennis appeared out of nowhere made me laugh out loud.

Check it out below and ask yourself who got the better Belding.

Scenes That I Love: Lou Ferrigno Battles A Bear in Luigi Cozzi’s Hercules

Posted on October 3, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s scene that I love comes from Luigi Cozzi’s 1983 epic, Hercules!

In this scene, Hercules (Lou Ferrigno, making up for his lack of range with nonstop and likable sincerity) shows us the proper way to deal with a rampaging bear. There have been a lot of film versions of Hercules, some good and some bad. But none were quite as cheerfully weird as the Hercules that was given to us by Lou Ferrigno and Luigi Cozzi.

October True Crime: An Officer and a Murderer (dir by Norma Bailey)

Posted on October 3, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Gary Cole is an interesting actor.

He’s handsome in a distinguished way, even if he’s played some roles that have required him to play down his looks. (Think about his perm in The Brady Bunch Movie or the glasses that he wore in Office Space.) He’s not exactly movie star handsome but he’s definitely good-looking enough to be the star of his own detective series. He’s got the authoritative voice of someone who you instinctively trust. You look at Gary Cole and you see someone who knows what’s going on and who you would probably trust in a crisis.

At the same time, with just about every character that Cole has played, there’s always been a sign of something lurking behind the friendly smile and perfect haircut. At the very least, there’s usually a hint of a threat concealed behind his polite manner. Gary Cole is the ideal actor to play a character who has secrets to hide, whether he’s playing Mike Brady as someone who cheerfully offers up nonsensical advice or telling one of his employees that he’s going to need to come in over the weekend. It’s hard to trust a character played by Gary Cole. Cole has appeared in a wide variety of films and shows. As anyone who has seen Veep can tell you, Gary Cole can be a very funny actor. But where Gary Cole really shines is when he plays the bad guy who no one suspects is a bad guy.

In 2012’a An Officer and A Murderer, Gary Cole plays a very bad guy indeed, Russell Williams. Williams is a colonel in the Canadian Air Force. He’s such a highly respected figure that he was given the job of flying with the Queen of England when she last visited Ontario. Williams has a big house in the suburbs. He has a beautiful wife (played by Nahanni Johnstone). His neighbors love him and they all say hi whenever he’s out for his morning run. Williams had just been appointed the new commander of the local Canadian Air Force base. He’s a respected and beloved figure who raises money for charity, mentors younger pilots, and seems like the ideal gentleman.

But at night, Russell Williams sneaks out of his house and breaks into the homes and apartments of single women. He starts out as an underwear thief, obsessively cataloging all of the bras and the panties that he steals from each house. Unknown to his wife, he has two suitcases filled with stolen underwear. Occasionally, he even wears them himself. The two detectives (played by Laura Harris and Rossif Sutherland) who investigate the break-ins theorize that the perpetrator is going to start to escalate his activities and Williams soon does just that. Williams assaults a young mother, blindfolding her and then filming her while he poses with her. He breaks into another house and removes his clothes while he stares at the homeowner showering just a few feet away. Eventually, two women are murdered. The detectives suspect Russ but can they get him to slip up and give them the evidence that they need to arrest him?

An Officer and A Murderer is based on a true story, which makes it all the more disturbing to watch as Williams breaks into his neighbor’s homes and even tries to frame an innocent man for his crimes. Watching this movie, I found myself wondering about all of the neighbors that I’ve had over the years. Part of living in neighborhood is trusting the people around you but how well do we know the people who are living just a few houses or a few apartment away from us? An Officer and a Murderer tells a sordid story and occasionally, it lingers over the details of Williams’s crimes to such an extent that you worry that Williams’s real-life victims are being exploited all over again. That’s always an issue with films about real-life crimes. That said, Gary Cole gave a genuinely frightening performance as Russell Williams and, if nothing else, the film reminded me to make sure that all of my doors and windows are locked tonight.

Horror Film Review: Godzilla (dir by Luigi Cozzi, Inshiro Honda, and Terry Morse)

Posted on October 3, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The year was 1976 and the flamboyant Italian producer, Dino de Laurentiis, was drumming up a lot of publicity for his remake of the monster classic, King Kong. In Italy, the journalist, screenwriter, and director Luigi Cozzi assumed that the King Kong remake would be a huge hit and decided to get in on the action himself. If Italian audiences loved a film about a big monkey, how about a film about a big radioactive lizard?

Cozzi’s original plan was to buy the distribution rights to Gojira but Toho Studios turned him down. They did, however, agree to allow Cozzi to distribute the American cut of Gojira, Godzilla, King of the Monsters. (That’s the version where Raymond Burr appears as American reporter Steve Martin and, through some clever editing tricks, appears to be interacting with the characters from the original Japanese version.)

Cozzi immediately ran into two huge problems when it came to distributing Godzilla, King of the Monsters. First off, the film was in black-and-white and most Italian theater owners refused to show black-and-white films. Cozzi’s solution was to “colorize” the film by putting translucent gel over the frame, resulting in random splotches of color that gave the entire film what could generously be called a radioactive glow. Secondly, the American cut was considered to be too short for theatrical distribution. Cozzi proceeded to re-cut the re-cut, adding in scenes of actual war footage and clips from other 50s monster movies. As a result Cozzi’s film opens not with Tokyo on fire but instead stock footage of Hiroshima before the bomb was dropped. Later, footage of actual victims of the bomb would he used as footage of victims of Godzilla.

Having re-cut the film, Cozzi then decided that the movie could use a synthesizer-heavy soundtrack, which was provided by Vince Tempera, Fabio Frizzi, and Franco Bixio.

The end result …. well, the end result is a mess but it’s a mess that fascinating for fans of Godzilla. The colorization creates an odd effect, in which the images are all familiar but still seem different, as if being viewed in a dream. Often times, the splashes of color are so harsh and random that it makes it difficult to actually see what’s happening in the scene. I had to look away a few times, due to the harshness brightness of some of the yellows. There are a few times — and by that, I mean a very few times –when the color effects oddly work. In those rare moments, Godzilla’s atomic nature seems to be radiating through the entire movie.

As for the “new footage,” it’s thoroughly tasteless to use actual footage from Hiroshima and Nagasaki but, at the same time, it also serves to remind the viewer of the national trauma that inspired the creation of Godzilla in the first place. The footage reminds the viewer of the horrors of war while also leaving viewers wondering they really should be watching it used in the way that it’s used in this movie. (For his part, Cozzi said he used actual war footage because modern audiences would expect more violence and destruction than was present in the original film. It’s reasonable to assume that any subtext was purely accidental.)

Finally, the soundtrack …. actually, I like this version’s score. It’s wonderfully ominous, especially at the start of the film.

Nicknamed Cozilla by Cozzi himself, 1977’s Godzilla is a bizarre experiment that doesn’t quite work but I would say it’s still one that should be seen by anyone who is interested in the history of either Godzilla or exploitation films in general. (And make no mistake, this version of Godzilla is definitely an exploitation film.) For years, the film was impossible to see outside of Italy. Now, of course, you can find a copy on just about every torrent site.

Previous Godzilla Reviews:

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Luigi Cozzi Edition

Posted on October 3, 2024 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 is all about letting the visuals do the talking.

Today the Shattered Lens honors the the underrated Italian filmmaker, Luigi Cozzi!

4 Shots From 4 Luigi Cozzi Films

The Killer Must Kill Again (1975, dir by Luigi Cozzi, DP: Riccardo Pallottini)

Starcrash (1978, dir by Luigi Cozzi, DP: Paul Beeson and Roberto D’Ettorre Piazzoli)

Contamination (1980, dir by Luigi Cozzi, DP: Giuseppe Pinori)

Paganini Horror (1989, dir by Luigi Cozzi, DP: Franco Lecca)

Horror Film Review: The Asphyx (dir by Peter Newbrook)

Posted on October 3, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Asphyx, a 1972 horror film from the UK, opens in what would have been the film’s modern day. A horrific accident occurs when two cars collide. The drivers are both dead, with one of the them rather grotesquely hanging out of a shattered windshield. And yet somehow, an elderly pedestrian who was trapped underneath the two cars is still alive and able to shuffle away from the accident.

The film then jumps back to the Victorian-era. Sir Hugo Cunningham (Robert Stephens) is a scientist who is studying what happens at the exact moment of death. Taking a look of several pictures that were taken of people as they died, he spots a dark smudge that seems to be hovering near the subject of each photograph. Later, while making a home movie with an amazing new device called a motion picture camera, Sir Hugo can only watch in horror as his son Clive (Ralph Arliss) and Clive’s fiancee, Anna (Fiona Walker), both drown in a boating accident. When Sir Hugo later looks at the film, he notices a ghostly blue light that seems to be hovering over both his son and Anna.

Sir Hugo speculates that the light could be what the ancient Greek called the Asphyx, a force that comes for everyone’s life in the moment right before death. Hugo theorizes that everyone has their own individual Asphyx and he also comes to believe that if one were to capture their own Asphyx before it takes away their life, the result would be immortality. Working with his reluctant adopted son, Giles (Robert Powell), Hugo sets out to capture an Asphyx. Unfortunately, to do so means that someone has to be on the verge of death so that their Asphyx will show up. Giles is not happy about the idea of strapping Hugo into an electric chair or of sitting in a gas chamber himself but he agrees to do so in return for Hugo’s permission to marry Hugo’s daughter, Christina (Jane Lapotaire).

(Before we all say, “Ewwww!,” let us remember that Clive is only adopted. Still, it does feel a bit strange.)

The experiments lead to both tragedy and success. Heads roll, literally. And while Giles’s doubts continue to grow, Hugo finds himself more and more obsessed with the idea of living forever.

The Asphyx is a rather low-key horror film. No one is going to mistake this for one of Hammer’s bloody and flamboyant films. The horror is less in what is seen and more in what is implied. That said, the premise is an intriguing one, the film’s plot unfolds with a good deal of intelligence, and both Robert Powell and Robert Stephens overact so grandly during the film’s final few minutes that those who are just looking for a campy British horror film will be satisfied. Robert Stephens gives a very good performance as Sir Hugo, a scientist who claims that he’s just tying to make the world a better place but who is actually motivated by his own megalomania. (He reasons that he deserves to be immortal because he’s a scientist and his contributions are too important to be ended by a mere death.) Robert Powell’s somewhat wooden acting style actually makes him ideal for the role of Giles, who is written to be, at least in the beginning, a somewhat boring person. The film’s best performance comes from Jane Lapotaire, whose reaction to discovering how far her father is willing to go to capture an Asphyx is simply heart-breaking to watch.

The Asphyx is a great pick if you’re looking for an off-beat and intelligent horror film this scary season.