Tag Archives: Film

Cleaning out the DVR: Anna to the Infinite Power (dir by Robert Wiemer)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Curious film, this one.

In this 1983 film (which was based on a book), Anna Hart (played by Martha Byrne, a child actress who later grew up to star on a few soap operas) is a 12 year-old musical prodigy who has a hard time fitting in with normal children. She suffers from frequent headaches, especially whenever she’s near an open flame. She loses her temper quickly. She has disturbing nightmares about World War II, an event that occurred long before she was even born. Perhaps most alarmingly, she’s a compulsive shoplifter.  (Admittedly, when I was in high school, it was rare that I paid for all of the makeup that I slipped into my purse whenever I skipped school at Target.  But, then again, I was kind of a brat….) When a music teacher named Michaela DuPont (Donna Mitchell) moves in next door, she takes a curiously intense interest in Anna. She starts to give Anna lessons

Anna just happens to see a story on the news about another 12 year-old musical prodigy. She’s named Anna Smithson and, like Anna Hart, she’s the daughter of a musician and a scientist. Anna Smithson also just happens to look just like Anna Hart!

Can we say cloning?

It turns out that Anna Hart is one of five Annas, a part of an experiment to clone Anna Zimmerman. Anna Zimmerman was a musical prodigy who spent her childhood in a Nazi concentration camp and who died in a mysterious fire 20 years earlier. All five of the Annas are being raised by similar families and under similar circumstances, all in an attempt to bring Anna Zimmerman back to life. Shocked by the news, Anna struggles to figure out who she is — is she Anna Hart or is destined to grow up to be Anna Zimmerman? And, if she decides that she wants to live her own life, will she allowed to do so? How far will the scientist who cloned Anna go to protect their secrets?  And why was Anna cloned to begin with?

Anna To The Infinite Power is an odd little film. It has got more than enough conspiracies and traumatic flashbacks to qualify as a hybrid of the horror and science fiction genres but it’s also a rather unconventional coming-of-age story. Anna has to decide whether or not she’s okay with the idea of her entire life having been plotted out for her. Can Anna escape destiny?  Even if she can escape it, should she do it? It is an intriguing question and the film’s intelligent script quickly grabs your interest.

Unfortunately, the film’s direction is not as strong as the script. Visually, Anna to the Infinite Power has a bland and rather flat look. It would be easy to mistake it for a special, extended episode of an 80s television show.  (In fact, I assumed that the movie was a pilot until I looked it up on the imdb.) Still, Martha Byrne is sympathetic as the multiple Annas while character actor Jack Gilford does a good job as the scientist responsible for the experiment. It’s an intriguing film and one to keep an eye out for.

October Positivity: Thin Ice (dir by Rick Garside)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Thin Ice, a short film from 1988, tells the story of Vince (Jay Roberts, Jr.).

Vince is a college student.  He likes to party and drink and basically do all of the stuff that, if we’re going to be honest, people are supposed to be doing in college.  I mean, yes, it’s true.  College is about getting you ready to enter the adult world.  But it’s also that last chance that most students will have to truly enjoy all of the stuff that’s typically frowned upon by the adult world.  College is supposed to be a time of experimentation and Vince has certainly been experimenting!  Good for him!

His parents, of course, disagree.  When Vince comes home the winter break, his parents insist that he go to church with them.  Vince is all, “I’m too cool for church!” but he goes anyways because otherwise, he might have to stay at a hotel.  He meets some other college students at the church and he ends up getting invited on a ski trip to Lake Tahoe.  Vince loves to ski so, of course, he says yes.

Vince is stunned to discover that his new friends are actually being sincere when they say they’re Christians and he struggles to adjust to hanging out with them.  However, he soon discovers that they’re not as a weird as he thought they were.  Of course, Vince and everyone else is soon more concerned with Shawna (Amy Lyndon).  Shawna is the type of bitter atheist who always shows up in movies like this.  From the minute she first appears, she’s complaining about religion and accusing all of the members of the youth group of being hypocrites.

A good deal of the movie is literally this:

Youth Group Member: “Hey, Shawna, good morning.”

Shawna: “YOUR GOD HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH CREATING THE MORNING!”

Youth Group Member: “I think I’m going to get some skiing in, if you want to come.”

Shawna: “YOUR GOD ALLOWS TOO MANY PEOPLE TO DIE IN SKIING ACCIDENTS!”

Youth Group Member: “Okay, well, let me know if you change your mind….”

Shawna: “MY MIND BELONGS TO ME, YOU HOLLY ROLLER!”

Yes, Shawna is pretty spiteful and, most of the time, pretty annoying.  But she’s ultimately so extremely hateful that it becomes oddly fascinating to listen to her.  As a character, she really is the epitome of what most Christians think of when they think of an atheist.  She’s intolerant, angry, condescending, and self-destructive.  Admittedly, there’s quite a few atheists who are like that but there are others who simply don’t believe in God because they don’t and not because they’re angry at the world or consumed by self-loathing.  Just as secular films always seem to struggle with the idea that a normal person can go to church, Christian films can never seem to accept that some people just don’t believe in God.  Instead, the assumption is that everyone secretly believes in God but they’re just not willing to admit it.

Anyway, a character eventually falls through some thin ice (hence, the title) and nearly drowns.  This leads to everyone having a religious epiphany so I guess the lesson here is that, if you’re confused about what you believe, just wait  for a casual acquaintance to have a near death experience.

Anyway, Thin Ice is a pretty typical 80s Christian film.  It’s not quite as slickly put together as the films of the Christiano Brothers but, at the same time, it also doesn’t have the mean streak that runs through a lot of the early Christiano films.  Shawna may be an obnoxious atheist but she’s not threatened with Hell or anything like that.  For the most part, though, this is a pretty low-key and forgettable film.  It’s a bit of a time capsule of the time in which it was made but otherwise, Thin Ice is almost as forgettable as an ice cube melting in the summer.

Horror Film Review: Angel Heart (dir by Alan Parker)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

First released in 1987 and set in 1955, Angel Heart tells the story of Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke).

With a name like Harry Angel, it’s perhaps not surprising that Harry is a private investigator.  Harry operates out of New York.  He’s got a shabby apartment.  He wears wrinkled clothes.  He rarely shaves.  He smokes almost constantly.  (In a rare moment of comedy, the camera catches Harry blithely emptying a full ashtray in the middle of the street.)  Harry looks like he reeks of tobacco, beer, sweat, and lost dreams.  And yet, it’s difficult not to like Harry.  He’s got a charming smile, even if his face is often bruised from his latest beating.  He speaks in a low whisper and it’s hard not to get the feeling that Harry is actually kind of shy.  He’s incredibly sleazy but there’s something about him that just makes the viewer want to take care of him.

Harry is hired by a mysterious man named Louis Cyphere (Robert De Niro, cheerfully overacting).  Louis wants Harry to track down a singer named Johnny Favor.  As Cyphere explains it, he did a favor for Johnny and Johnny has yet to pay Cyphere what he owes.  Johnny has been suffering from PTSD ever since he served in World War II.  When last seen, Johnny was receiving electroshock treatment in an upstate hospital.

Harry’s search for Johnny leads him into an increasingly complex and disturbing conspiracy.  He meets a doctor who is addicted to morphine and, when the doctor turns up dead, Harry coolly uses the dead man’s shoe to light his match.  Eventually, Harry’s investigation leads him to New Orleans, where he meets both Johnny’s wife (Charlotte Rampling) and Johnny’s unacknowledged daughter, Epiphany (Lisa Bonet).  As Harry searches for Johnny, he deals with strange visions of his own mysterious past.  He sees himself wandering around Times Square shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Harry also finds himself having to deal with the fact that almost everyone that he talks to ends up being brutally murdered.  Every time that Harry tries to quit the case, Cyphere offers him more money.  (Cyphere tends to show up whenever Harry finds himself on the verge of abandoning his search.)

Angel Heart moves at its own deliberate pace.  In fact, the first hour can feel a bit slow but that first hour definitely pays off during the second half of the film.  By the time that Harry starts to truly uncover what has happened to Johnny, the audience actually cares about Harry and is actually worried about what’s going to happen to him when he reaches the end of the case.  Mickey Rourke was (and is) an eccentric actor but he’s at his most effective in Angel Heart.  A lesser actor would have just played Harry as being a typical hardboiled detective.  Rourke plays Harry as being a lost soul, a vulnerable man who is often as confused and scared as the people that he’s looking for.  By the end of the film, Harry realizes that the answer to the mystery was right in front of them and his look of despair is surprisingly powerful.  If De Niro gives a good performance that is almost totally on the surface, Rourke gives the type of performance that allows the audience to explore what’s going on beneath the surface of a character who many would initially view as being a cliché.  Mickey Rourke’s Harry Angel is right up there with Bogart’s Sam Spade and Jack Nicholson’s Jake Gittes.  He’s a familiar character who also seems to be a human being.

Full of sex, violence, and increasingly disturbing imagery, Angel Heart is not for everyone.  Alan Parker’s direction emphasizes the darkness of Harry’s world and the bleakness of his situation.  The film ends with a twist that may not be totally unexpected but which is still undeniably disturbing.  The more you think about it, the most disturbing it gets.  Angel Heart is an atmospheric and intelligent chiller.  It’s existential horror at its most nightmarish.

Lisa Marie’s Oscar Predictions For October

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Even though Horrorthon has taken up the majority of my time this October, I still have been watching as this year’s Oscar race has developed over the past 29 days.  And that’s a good thing because it’s time for my monthly predictions!

Below, you’ll find my predictions for October!  In order to see how my thinking has evolved over the course of the year, be sure to check out my predictions for February, March, April, May, June, July, August, and September!

Best Picture

Babylon

The Banshees of Inisherin

Elvis

Everything Everywhere All At Once

The Fabelmans

She Says

TAR

Till

Top Gun: Maverick

Women Talking

Best Director

Chinonye Chukwu for Till

Todd Field for TAR

Martin McDonagh for The Banshees of Insherin

Sarah Polley for Women Talking

Steven Spielberg for The Fabelmans

Best Actor

Austin Butler in Elvis

Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick

Colin Farrell in The Banshees of Insherin

Hugh Jackman in The Son

Brendan Fraser in The Whale

Best Actress

Naomi Ackie in I Wanna Dance With Somebody

Cate Blanchett in TAR

Olivia Colman in Empire of Light

Danielle Deadwyler in Till

Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All At Once

Best Supporting Actor

Brendan Gleeson in The Banshees of Insherin

Tom Hanks in Elvis

Woody Harrelson in Triangle of Sadness

Judd Hirsch in The Fabelmans

Ke Huy Quan in Everything Everywhere All At Once

Best Supporting Actress

Jessie Buckley in Women Talking

Claire Foy in Women Talking

Nina Hoss in Tar

Janelle Monae in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

Carey Mulligan in She Says

The TSL’s Horror Grindhouse: Teenage Caveman (dir by Roger Corman)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Who is the Teenage Caveman?

Believe it or not, he’s Robert Vaughn.  Vaughn, who would later go on to appear in The Magnificent Seven, The Man From UNCLE, Bullitt, The Towering Inferno, and Hustle, was 26 years old when he played a nameless caveman in Roger Corman’s 1958 film, Teenage Caveman.  At the age of 26, Vaughn looked like he was closer to 35 and he certainly didn’t resemble a teenager.  Despite wearing a loin cloth, he also didn’t appear to be a caveman.  If he was a caveman than he was certainly a well-groomed caveman and perhaps the only caveman to understand how to use hairspray.  Seriously, his hair is perfect in this film.

As for the film itself, it’s about a primitive tribe of people who live in a rocky wasteland.  However, just across the river, there’s a land that’s full of plants and animals.  It would obviously be a much better place to live and Vaughn’s teenage caveman is totally annoyed that the older folks on the tribe refuse to cross the river.  They claim that a monster lives in the river and that it will kill anyone who tries to cross.  Being a rebellious teenager, Vaughn decides to cross the river anyway.  He convinces a group of friends to go with him.  When they reach the river, they meet and fight the monster and they also discover that the monster was doing more than just guarding the river.  It all leads to a plot twist that feels as if it was added at the last possible second.

In a later interview, Robert Vaughn referred to Teenage Caveman as being the worst film in which he ever appeared.  He went on to suggest that it was the worst film ever made.  Those are bold words coming from someone who appeared in as many bad films as Robert Vaughn did.  That said, I do think that Vaughn was being a bit too hard on Teenage Caveman.  For what it is — an extremely low-budget film that barely runs over an hour — Teenage Caveman is entertaining if you’re in the right mood for it.  It’s hard not to smile at the cavepeople, with their modern haircuts and their very American accents.  As well, the film features the same stock footage of dinosaurs fighting that appeared in countless other B-movies of the time and, again, it’s hard not to smile at the actors valiantly trying to pretend that there are dinosaurs fighting just a few feet away from them.  And while that final plot twist may come out of nowhere, it’s just random enough to be interesting.  Worst film of all time?  With all respect to the teenage caveman, I have to disagree.  It’s a B-movie and, if you enjoy B-movies, you’ll enjoy this one.  And let’s give some credit to Robert Vaughn.  He gives an earnest performance, even though he later said that he felt foolish every time he stepped out on the set.  Add to that, his hair is perfect.

International Horror Review: The Werewolf and the Yeti (dir by Miguel Iglesias Bonns)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

This 1975 Spanish film is known by several titles.  In Spain, it was called La Maldicion De La Bestia.  In some other European countries, it was released as either Night of the Howling Beast or Hall of the Mountain King.  In the United States, it was released under the title The Werewolf and the Yeti.

Regardless of which title you see the film under, this is the eighth of 12 films in which Paul Naschy starred as Waldemar Danisky.  Waldemar was a Polish nobleman who, in film after film, transformed into a werewolf so that he could battle some other monster.  What set the Danisky films apart from other horror franchises is that each film was totally unrelated to the one that came before it.  Every film featured Danisky getting transformed into a werewolf for the first time and the majority of them ended with Danisky dying.  Even though Naschy was playing the same character, each film seemed to take place in a separate universe.  Apparently, regardless of the reality that he found himself in, Danisky was always destined to become a werewolf.  Talk about rotten luck!

Despite their bizarre lack of continuity, Naschy’s werewolf films were popular across Europe and, to a lesser extent the United States.  Of course, in America and the UK, they were only released in badly dubbed versions.  Indeed, the plot was often changed during dubbing depending on where the film was set to be released.  As a result, it’s difficult to fairly judge both Naschy and his films.  Paul Naschy had a definite physical presence but it’s rare that anyone ever heard his real voice.  In most of the Danisky films that I’ve seen, Naschy seems to play Danisky as if he is in a permanently bad mood.  But, I guess if your entire existence revolved around getting turned into a werewolf every year or so, you’d be in a bad mood too.

In this film, Waldemar Danisky is an explorer who is romantically involved with the daughter of Professor Lacombe (Josep Castillo Escalona).  Lacombe is planning on leading an expedition into the Himalayas, despite the presence of pirates, warlords, and Yeti!  Danisky warns Lacombe against attempting it but, in the end, he still agrees to serve as the expedition’s guide.  Unfortunately, this film’s version of Waldemar Danisky isn’t very good at his job and he soon gets separated from the expedition.  The professor and his daughter are captured by a group of mountain pirates who torture them and make plans to sell them into slavery.  Meanwhile, Danisky stumbles across a cave that is inhabited by two women who also happen to be …. WEREWOLVES!  It’s not long before Danisky gets bitten and finds himself transformed into a werewolf.  He uses his new werewolf powers to kill the women in the cave and then he heads off to rescue the professor.  It’s a good thing that Waldemar’s a werewolf because it turns out that the pirates have a …. YETI!

Yes, this is a weird and incoherent film.  Of course, that’s the main reason why it’s hard not to enjoy this silly little film.  It’s quickly paced and, like many of Naschy’s film, it operates on its own strain of dream logic.  The most interesting thing about the film is that no one is particularly shocked to discover that Waldemar Danisky has been transformed into a werewolf and Danisky himself seems to accept it as having been inevitable.  One gets the feeling that the expedition watched a few Paul Naschy films before heading to the Himalayas and, as a result, they knew exactly what to expect.  As I mentioned above, it’s hard to judge Naschy as an actor because his films were so poorly dubbed.  But, you can judge him as a werewolf and he really puts his heart into fighting that Yeti.  Waldemar Danisky is the werewolf that you want on your side.

¡Viva Naschy!

4 Shots from 4 Horror Films: 2018

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More 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, I’m going to be doing something a little bit different with my contribution to 4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) 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 2018!

4 Shots From 4 Horror Films: 2018

Mandy (2018, dir by Pan Cosmatos, DP: Bejamin Loeb)

Hereditary (2018, dir by Ari Aster, DP: Pawel Pogorzelski)

A Quiet Place (2018, dir by John Krasinski, DP: Charlotte Bruus Christensen)

Halloween (2018, dir by David Gordon Green, DP: Michael Simmonds)

Horror Film Review: Attack of the Puppet People (dir by Bert I. Gordon)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

At the start of the 1958 film, Attack of the Puppet People, Sally Reynolds (June Kenney) is looking for a job.  Fortunately, Dolls, Inc. is hiring!  Dolls, Inc. is owned by Prof. Franz (John Hoyt), who is the world’s greatest dollmaker.  In fact, he’s got an entire display case full of very lifelike dolls.  Why, the dolls are so authentic that it almost seems as if they could be alive.  Is it possible that Franz had been shrinking people and then sticking them in his display case?

It’s not only possible but it’s also exactly what Franz has been doing.

Soon, Sally and her boyfriend, Bob (John Agar), have been shrunk down to dollsize and are living with the other dolls in the display case.  It turns out that Prof. Franz’s motives aren’t really malicious.  He just tends to get lonely and he’s decided that they best way to keep people around is to shrink them and then imprison them.  Fortunately, getting shrunk doesn’t seem to lead to any health complications or anything like that.  It just means that you’re now very small and vulnerable to dogs and cats.

Franz even allows the dolls to come out of the display case at night.  Much like the toys from Toy Story, the Doll People throw a party every night and pretend to just be inanimate objects whenever anyone steps into the store.  That said, the puppet people don’t necessarily want to spend the rest of their lives on display.  Can they figure out how to escape from the store and how to reverse the shrinking process?

It’s a pretty silly film but then again, what else would you expect from something called Attack of the Puppet People?  There are a few amusing scenes where the puppet people have to deal with maneuvering around and dealing with giant furniture and, at one point, a really big door knob.  And, of course, there’s the inevitable scene in which a curious dog spots two of the puppet people trying to make their escape.  It’s a 50 B-movie, dumb but undeniably fun.  John Hoyt appears to be having a lot of fun as the doll-loving mad scientist and John Agar is his usual stolid but oddly likable self.

Attack of the Puppet People was directed by Bert I. Gordon, who also did The Amazing Colossal Man and War of the Colossal Beast.  (At one point, Bob and Sally got to a drive-in that’s show The Amazing Colossal Man and Gordon shares a few minutes of his previous film.)  Gordon specialized in films about giant lizards, giant insects, giant ants and sometimes even giant people.  In fact, his nickname was “Mr. Big,” both because of his initials and the subject matter of his films.  Attack of the Puppet People is a unique Gordon film in that it deals with shrinking instead of growing.  It’s also one of his more entertaining films.  Bert I. Gordon, incidentally, is still with us.  He turned 100 years old on September 24th.

Live Tweet Alert: Join #ScarySocial For A Halloween Double Feature

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on twitter.  I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of #MondayActionMovie!  Every week, we get together.  We watch a movie.  We tweet our way through it.

Tonight, we’ve got a special Halloween double feature!  First up, we’ve got 1987’s The Falling!  Also known as Alien Predators, this film features three teenagers who, while driving through Spain, find themselves transformed into flesh-eating mutants!  The Falling stars Dennis Christopher, Martin Hewitt, and Lynn-Holly Johnson!

After The Falling, we will be watching a true classic of both indie and horror cinema …. 1962’s Carnival of Souls!  We cannot wait to watch this eerie ghost story with you!

Along with watching these two films, we will be sharing trivia, playing games, and awarding special prizes!  Halloween is always fun at #ScarySocial!

If you want to join us on Saturday night, just hop onto twitter, start The Falling at 9 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag!  The films are available on Prime and Tubi.  I’ll be there co-hosting and I imagine some other members of the TSL Crew will be there as well.  It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.