Tag Archives: Horror

Horror Film Review: Dementia 13 (dir by Francis Ford Coppola)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

So, imagine that the year is 1963 and you are the legendary producer/director Roger Corman. You’ve just finished shooting your latest film and it turns out that you didn’t spend all of the money that you had allocated to make it! You’ve got an Irish castle at your disposal and some extra cash. Why not assign your ambitious assistant to make a quick little movie that’s specifically designed to cash-in on the success of Psycho and it’s numerous imitators?

And that, of course, is how Francis Ford Coppola came to direct his first film. Today, of course, Coppola is best known for directing three of the best American films of all time, The Godfather, The Conversation, and The Godfather Part II. (Some people would include Apocalypse Now in that list, as well.) In 1963, he was just another aspiring filmmaker making his debut under the watchful eye of Roger Corman.

Coppola both wrote and directed Dementia 13. The film’s a pretty nifty little horror/mystery. Of course, the plot doesn’t make much sense if you give it too much thought but any fan of the Roger Corman-style of film making should be used to that by now.

Luana Anders plays Louise Haloran, the film’s greedy femme fatale. When we first meet her, she’s calmly watching her husband drop dead of a heart attack. After learning that she’s not going to be receiving any sort of inheritance because her husband died before his mother, Louise decides to invite herself to the Haloran family castle, where her mother-in-law, Lady Haloran (Eithne Dunne), is about to take part in an annual ceremony that is meant to pay tribute to Haloran’s dead daughter, Kathleen. Looking for a way to try to trick Lady Haloran into making Louise her heir, Louise tries to fool Lady Haloran into believing that Kathleen is trying to contact her from beyond the grave.

Got all that? Because I’m not going to try to type it out again.

Anyway, I don’t want to spoil the rest of the plot but let’s just say that it all leads to a midnight swim and a shocking axe murder. Who could be the killer be? Could it be one of Louise’s two brother-in-laws, Richard (William Campell) and Billy (Bart Patton)? Could it be the local doctor, Justin Caleb (Patrick Magee?) Or how about Richard’s fiancee, the oddly named Kane (Mary Mitchell?” Or how about Simon (Karl Schnazer), the local poacher? Or maybe Kathleen really has risen from the dead? Or how about….

Well, look, it could be a lot of people. Dementia 13 has a labyrinth plot and it’s got a few twists that you probably shouldn’t spend too much time thinking about. It’s very much a young director’s film but, at the same time, that’s also the film’s greatest strength. Coppola reportedly got in trouble when the film went overbudget (which is something that had never previously happened on a Corman film) but the end result is a film that features several spooky visuals, an ominous atmosphere, and one very shocking murder. You wouldn’t necessarily watch a film like Dementia 13 and think that the director would go on to make something as great as The Godfather. But Coppola’s talent, even if it’s a bit unformed, is still very much noticeable while watching his directorial debut.

Speaking of watching the film, it’s in the public domain so it’s very easy to watch! Pick up a Mill Creek 50-DVD box set and there’s a good chance you’ll find Dementia 13 included within. Or, you can just go over to YouTube and watch it for free!

Enjoy!

Horror On The Lens: Gammera The Invincible (dir by Noriaki Yuasu and Sandy Howard)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Okay, I’ll be the first to admit that 1966’s Gammera The Invincible is not really a horror film.  Maybe there was a time when people found the idea of a giant, fire-breathing turtle to be scary but I kind of doubt it.

But let’s think about this!  What better time is there to watch a movie about giant, fire-breathing turtle than in October?

Seriously, this is a fun movie and if you’ve got some time to kill this morning, I guarantee this movie will make you smile.

As I wrote in my 2014 review of this film, Gammera is one hell of a turtle.

Enjoy!

Horror on TV: Friday the 13th: The Series 2.19 “The Butcher” (dir by Francis Delia)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Tonight, for our horror on the lens, we have the nineteenth episode of the 2nd season of Friday the 13th: The Series!

In tonight’s episode, Jack takes center stage as he finds himself forced to battle and repeatedly kill an evil from his own past. Nigel Bennett plays quite a frightening villain.

This episode originally aired on April 29th, 1989.

The TSL’s Grindhouse: Body Bags (dir by John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

An odd but mildly likable film, that’s the best description of Body Bags.

Originally, Body Bags wasn’t even meant to be a film.  Instead, in 1993, Showtime wanted to do a horror anthology show, one that would mix comedy and chills in the style of HBO’s Tales From The Crypt.  Three episodes were filmed.  Two were directed by John Carpenter.  The other was directed by Tobe Hooper.  Robert Carradine, Stacy Keach, and Mark Hamill all agreed to appear on the show.  That’s an impressive collection of talent but, for whatever reason, Showtime decided not to pursue Body Bags as a series.  So the three episodes were strung together in an anthology film.  Linking the stories was a warp-around segment where Carpenter played a coroner and Tobe Hooper and Tom Arnold played morgue attendants!

Now, it must be said that John Carpenter probably made the right decision when he decided to become a director instead of an actor.  That said, what Carpenter lacked in acting technique, he made up for with unbridled enthusiasm.  Carpenter appears to be having a blast playing an old style horror host.  Who can blame him?  In fact, I would say one the most appealing things about John Carpenter as a personality is that he always seems to be truly enjoying himself, regardless of all the crap that he’s had to put up with in Hollywood.

As for the segments …. well, they’re uneven.  That’s not really a shock. Part of the problem is that, because they weren’t originally envisioned as all airing together, a lot of ideas and story points are repeated from segment to segment.  The first segment is about a serial killer.  The second segment is about a transplant.  The third segment is about both a transplant and a serial killer.  It gets a bit repetitive.

Carpenter directed the first two segments, The Gas Station and Hair.  The Gas Station is a bit too simple for its own good.  Robert Carradine is a serial killer who harasses a woman at a gas station.  That’s pretty much it.  Carradine gives a good performance ad Halloween fans will get a laugh out of a reference to Haddonfield but there’s not much else going on.  Hair is a bit better.  Stacy Keach plays a businessman who gets a hair transplant, just to discover that the hair is extraterrestrial in origin.  Hair is clever and playful, like an above average episode of The Twilight Zone.  Keach plays his role with the right mix of comedic outrage and genuine horror.

The third segment is called Eyes and it was directed by Tobe Hooper.  Mark Hamill plays a baseball player who is losing his eyesight as the result of a car accident.  He gets an eye transplant.  At first, everything seems fine but soon, he’s having visions of himself murdering people!  It turns out that the eye once belonged to a serial killer.  You can guess where this is going but Mark Hamill really throws himself into the role and Tobe Hooper’s direction is appropriately intense.

Body Bags is a pretty minor entry in the filmographies of two great directors but, at the same time, it’s enjoyable in its own silly way.  There’s a likable goofiness to John Carpenter’s wrap-around segment and it lets us know that we shouldn’t take any of this too seriously.  Watch it for your own amusement.

The Unnominated: Star 80 (dir by Bob Fosse)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Though the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences claim that the Oscars honor the best of the year, we all know that there are always worthy films and performances that end up getting overlooked.  Sometimes, it’s because the competition too fierce.  Sometimes, it’s because the film itself was too controversial.  Often, it’s just a case of a film’s quality not being fully recognized until years after its initial released.  This series of reviews takes a look at the films and performances that should have been nominated but were,for whatever reason, overlooked.  These are the Unnominated.

First released in 1983, Star 80 is an examination of fame, obsession, misogyny, and finally madness.  All four of those qualities are exemplified in the character of Paul Snider (Eric Roberts), a man with a charming smile, a ludicrous wardrobe, and the personality of a pimp.  When we first see Paul Snider, he’s naked and he’s covered in blood and he’s ranting about how the world is trying to destroy him.  Even if he wasn’t holding a rifle, he would be terrifying.  Suddenly, we flash back to a few years earlier.  Snider is being dangled out a window by two men.  Snider pathetically begs to be pulled back into the room.  The men laugh at him before pulling him up.  Snider, looking fairly ridiculous in a cheap suit that he probably thinks makes him look like a celebrity, fights off tears as he says he deserves to be treated with dignity.

Star 80 is based on a true story.  Mariel Hemingway plays Dorothy Stratten, the actress and Playboy playmate who was murdered by Paul Snider.  Snider, who often claimed credit for having “made” Dorothy, was married to her at the time, though Dorothy had filed for divorce and was dating director Peter Bogdanovich.  Unwilling to let her go and return to being a small-time hustler, Snider shot Dorothy and then himself.  Director Bob Fosse, who was best known for directing musicals like Cabaret and All That Jazz, was attracted to the story because he understood that type of world that produces sleazes like Paul Snider.  According to Eric Robets, Fosse even said that he probably would have ended up like Paul Snider if not for his talent.

Snider, the film quickly establishes, really doesn’t have any talent beyond the ability to manipulate people who are too naïve to see through his bullshit.  Snider wants to be a star.  He wants to be rich.  He wants people to kiss his ass.  When he meets Dorothy, he sees her as his ticket.  Dorothy’s mother (a poignant performance from Carroll Baker) sees straight through him from the start.  Tragically, Dorothy doesn’t realize the truth abut who he is until they’re already in Hollywood.  As Dorothy tries to break away from him, Paul desperately tries to find some sort of success, all the while complaining that the world is conspiring to keep him from being a man. 

Eric Roberts dominates the film and it’s one of the scariest performances that I’ve ever seen.  Roberts is convincing when he’s ranting and raving against the world that he feels is against him but what’s even more disturbing is that he’s convincing when he’s turning on the charm.  Paul Snider may not be smart.  Paul Snider may not be talented.  But he know how to gaslight.  He knows how to destroy someone’s fragile confidence, largely because his own confidence has been shattered so many times that he’s become an expert in exploiting insecurity.  Snider is a tacky dresser and nowhere near as smooth as he thinks but, intentionally or not, he uses that to his advantage.  He tries so hard to impress that it’s easy to see how someone could feel sorry for him and want to help him.  However, because Fosse lets us know from the start what Snider is really going on inside of Sinder’s head, we never make the mistake of trusting him.  We know who Paul Snider is because we’ve all known a Paul Snider.

Eric Roberts’s performance is so intense that it’s unfortunate but not surprising that it was overlooked at the 1983 Oscars.  He was playing a truly repellent character and he did it so convincingly that I imagine many viewers had a hard time realizing that Eric Roberts was not Paul Snider but was instead an actor playing a terrible character.  Some probably said, “Why should we honor such a loathsome character?” and again, the answer is because there are many Paul Sniders out there.  Roberts captured much more than just one man’s breakdown.  He captured a sickness at the heart of a fame-driven culture.

Of course, Paul Snider was not the only symptom of that sickness to be depicted in Star 80.  Every man that Dorothy either uses her in some way or just views her as being a commodity.  Hugh Hefner (Cliff Robertson) presents himself as being a fatherly mentor but Robertson plays him as being just as manipulative and ultimately narcissistic as Paul Snider.  Director Aram Nicholas (Roger Rees, playing a character based on Peter Bogdanovich) seems to love Dorothy but their relationship still feels out-of-balance.  Aram, afterall, is the director while Dorothy is the actress.  The private detective (Josh Mosel) that Paul hires to spy on Dorothy seems to have no lingering guilty over the role he played.  Even Snider’s roommate (David Clennon) is more interested in talking about his dog and his car then about the murder/suicide of two people with whom he lived.

It’s a dark film and not one to be watched when depressed.  At the same time, it’s a portrait of obsessiveness, misogyny, and an overwhelming need to be “someone” that still feels relevant today.  Along with Sweet Charity, it was the only Bob Fosse film not to be nominated for Best Picture.  (This was back when there were only five best picture nominees.  Three of the nominated films — Terms of Endearment, Tender Mercies, and The Right Stuff — hold up well.  Two of the nominees — The Dresser and The Big Chill — are a bit more iffy.)  Eric Roberts was not nominated for the best performance of his career.  Again, it’s a shame but not a surprise.  This was a dark and disturbing film, a true Hollywood horror story.  One imagines that most members of the Academy wanted to escape it far more than they wanted to honor and be reminded of it.

Previous entries in The Unnominated:

  1. Auto Focus 

Murder by Phone (1982, directed by Michael Anderson)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Here’s a movie that will make you thankful for the death of landline phones.

People across Toronto are answering phones and blowing up.  Someone has created a device that can send a blast of electricity through the phone line.  The blast is so powerful that it causes hemorrhaging before it blows its victim off of their feet and then melts their phone.  The first victim is a woman who makes the mistake of answering a pay phone.  (It was 1982.  Pay phones were very popular with the youngsters.)  Her college professor (Richard Chamberlain!) decides to investigate her death.  Helping him, for at least a few scenes, is his mentor (John Houseman!!).

Chamberlain and Houseman were serious actors so who knows why they’re in this largely tepid thriller.  But present they are and one of them eventually makes the mistake of answering his phone and seeing a legitimate actor have to pretend to die in such a stupid way almost makes the movie worth the trouble of watching.

Despite all of the killer phone stuff, Murder by Phone is pretty slow and the murderer turns out to be pretty boring.  I only watched it because it was directed by Michael Anderson, who also directed The Martian Chronicles, which I’m planning on reviewing tomorrow.  He also directed a legitimate Best Picture winner (Around the World in 80 Days) and Logan’s Run so he had it in him to do a better job with the promising material in Murder By Phone than he did.  Instead of going all out with the science fiction elements, Anderson directed the movie like it was an episode of a cop show.  It’s disappointing because the story really had potential to be something better.  When it comes to movies about killer phone calls, the top prize still goes to Telefon.

The movie is also known as Bells, which sounds even worse than Murder By Phone.

Horror Scenes That I Love: The Ending of The Thing

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Since I paid tribute to John Carpenter earlier today, it only seems appropriate that today’s horror scene that I love should come from one of his best films. The final scene of 1982’s The Thing is chilling, both literally and figuratively. Watch below but remember, it’s also a spoiler if you haven’t seen Carpenter’s film yet.