Today’s horror scene that I love comes from the 1931 Universal classic, Frankenstein!
Though it’s been parodied to death and often used out of context (for example, a few years ago, it was used in a freaking car commercial), the “It’s Alive!” scene from Frankenstein is still a classic piece of horror history. Colin Clive is often unfairly criticized for going overboard in this scene but let’s be honest here: if you ever reanimated a corpse, you’d probably get pretty damn excited about it.
At the risk of getting in trouble with at least a few people around the TSL offices, I am going to say something right now. It may be controversial. It may be shocking. It may even make you question your belief in whatever it is that you believe in.
Ready?
Here we go:
I do not think that the 1995 version of Village of the Damned is that bad.
Now, please notice that I didn’t say that I thought it was that great, either. However, when you listen to some people talk about this movie (which, admittedly, doesn’t seem to happen a lot), they make it sound as if Village of the Damned is one of the worst films ever made. It is usually cited as being a waste of director John Carpenter’s abilities and Carpenter himself has said that he’s indifferent to the film. Carpenter has gone as far as to call the film a “contractual assignment.”
Of course, one reason why people dislike the 1995 Village of the Damned is because it’s a remake of an acknowledged classic. Even worse, it’s an unnecessary remake. I would not disagree with that opinion. The 1960 Village of the Damned holds up remarkably well, featuring George Sanders at his best and a lot of creepy little children. (If anything, the fact that the original is in black-and-white makes the children look even creepier in the original.) Having recently watched both versions of Village of the Damned, I can say that the remake doesn’t really improve on the original.
And yet, I would still argue that John Carpenter’s Village of the Damned is an underrated and crudely effective little movie.
The film tells the story of the town of Midwich, California. (The original film took place in the UK and Midwich doesn’t really sound like the name of a town you’d find in California. Incidentally, my favorite town in California is a place named Drytown, specifically because the town bar advertises itself as being “the only wet place in Drytown.”) Midwich is a nice, little town. Everyone is friendly. Everyone knows everyone else. Carpenter spends a while establishing Midwich as being the idealized coastal town. But then, one day, the skies turn dark and everyone in Midwich loses consciousness. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work out well for some people. Frank McGowan (Michael Pare), for instance, is driving when the blackout occurs and he ends up dying when his truck goes off the road. Another unfortunate fellow was manning the grill at the church picnic and, when he passed out, he ended up burning to death.
When everyone does wake up, it’s discovered that ten women are now pregnant. One of them, Kate (Linda Kozlowski), is the widow of Frank. Another, a teenage girl named Melanie (Meredith Salenger), is a virgin. Nine months later, all of the babies are born on the same night, though Melanie’s is stillborn. The 9 babies eventually become 9 very creepy children. They have pale skin, white hair, glowing eyes, and no emotions. Soon the government, led by Dr. Verner (Kristie Alley), invades the town so that they can investigate and experiment on the children. You know that once the government shows up and takes over, everyone’s screwed.
And, while all of this is going on, the once friendly and vibrant town of Midwich becomes a far different place. We watch as the citizens of the town die, one after another. Melanie finds herself ostracized and abandoned. The local reverend (Mark Hamill) goes insane and ends up perched on a hill with a rifle. The town doctor (Christopher Reeve) loses his wife when she walks into the ocean.
And the children continue to coldly and unemotionally kill anyone who displeases them. One man is forced to shoot himself. In perhaps the film’s most disturbing scene, a scientist is forced to dissect herself.
Admittedly, some of the actors do a better than others. Meredith Salenger gives the best performance while Mark Hamill definitely gives the worst. At first, Kirstie Alley seems miscast but she actually gives one of the better performances in the film. As the nominal hero, Christopher Reeve is boring but then again, many small town doctors are. Of course, nearly everyone in the movie is dead by the time the end credits roll.
It’s a seriously dark movie and, when taken on its own terms, it’s definitely effective. Carpenter does such a good job of establishing Midwich as a place where anyone would want to live that it does carry an impact to see the town suddenly isolate from the world and the once happy citizens resorting to suicide just to escape the town’s children. In the end, John Carpenter’s Village of the Damned does capture the anguish of feeling as if there’s no escape from the present nor hope for the future.
Village of the Damned is crudely effective but effective nonetheless.
In Baal, you are a leader of something called The Time Warriors. A demon named Baal has stolen a super weapon and it is up to you to infiltrate Baal’s underground lair, kill Baal’s warriors, get the weapon, and destroy Baal. It sounds simple but this game is biased against people like me who aren’t any good at games like this.
The game starts with you materializing in Baal’s lair. I think the blue contraption is a transporter.
Yes, there are ladders and multiple levels. The controls are simple. Use the arrow keys to move. Press the space bar to fire our weapon. If you want jump, press the space bar and an arrow key at the same time.
That serpent is one of Baal’s minions. You can destroy the serpent by shooting it several times but don’t make my mistake and get too close. Touching the serpent kills you.
After it kills you, the serpent flies away. That was cool.
After getting killed by the serpent, I was given a second chance. This time, instead of running forward, I ran up the ladder. I discovered that, much like the serpents, you do not want to touch that blue force field. I also discovered what happens when you fall off a level.
Eventually, I figured out how to jump and I also managed to kill the serpent before it killed me. This is what I discovered at the other end of the cave.
Another force field! I decided to test my theory that running into the force field would cause me to die.
It did.
That was it for me. Baal can have the super weapon. Hopefully, Baal’s next opponent will be better at games like this than I am.
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.
This October, I am going to be using our 4 Shots From 4 Films feature to pay tribute to some of my favorite horror directors, in alphabetical order! That’s right, we’re going from Argento to Zombie in one month!
Today’s director is the man who put Halloween on the map and a personal favorite of TSL editor-in-cheif Arleigh Sandoc’s, John Carpenter!
For today’s horror on the lens, we have a made-for-TV monster movie from 1972, Gargoyles!
What happens when a somewhat condescending anthropologist (Cornel Wilde) and his daughter (Jennifer Salt) head out to the desert? Well, they stop by a crazy old man’s shack so that they can look at his genuine monster skeleton. Before Wilde can thoroughly debunk the old man’s claims, the shack is attacked by real monsters!
That’s right! Gargoyles exist and they apparently live in Arizona!
This film was introduced to me by TSL contributor and Late Night Movie Gang founder Patrick Smith and we had an absolute blast watching it. There’s nothing particularly surprising about the plot but the gargoyles are memorable creations and Bernie Casey gives a good performance as their leader. The gargoyle makeup was designed by none other than Stan Winston, who won an Emmy for his work here and who went on to win Oscars for his work on Aliens, Terminator 2, and Jurassic Park.
As well, a very young Scott Glenn shows up in the cast. I like to think that he’s playing the same character in both Gargoyles and Sucker Punch.
For tonight’s excursion into the world of televised horror, we have the 2nd ever episode of the HBO anthology series, Tales From The Crypt!
In this one, a woman (Mary Ellen Trainor) kills her husband on Christmas Eve, just to discover that she can’t properly dispose of the body because a psychotic escaped mental patient (Larry Drake), who just happens to be disguised as Santa Claus, is hanging around outside of her house. It’s a bit of a mess, especially since the woman’s daughter is eagerly awaiting the arrival of Santa herself.
This originally aired on June 10th, 1989 and it’s an enjoyably insane package of holiday cheer and menace. And, of course, it was directed by none other than Robert Zemeckis!
First released in 1973 but reportedly filmed several years before, A Name For Evil tells the story of John Blake (Robert Culp) and his wife, Joanna (Samantha Eggar). John is a successful architect who lives in the big city. He used to be a passionate rebel but now he’s just a boring corporate man. Even his wife is bored with him. John knows that he has to make some changes. Since this movie was made in 1973, those changes start with throwing a TV out of a window.
(Trust me. If you watch enough films from the early 70s, you will see so many TVs get tossed through so many windows that it will no longer surprise you. Apparently, being a rebel in 1973 meant destroying a TV. According to Wikipedia, the top five TV shows in 1973 were, in order, All In The Family, Sanford and Son, Hawaii 5-0, Maude, and the NBC Sunday Night Mystery Movie. I choose to believe that the NBC Saturday Night Mystery Movie is what drove everyone over the edge. Anyway…)
Anyway, John decides to quit his high-paying job and instead move up to New England and live in his grandfather’s mansion. (His grandfather, by the way, was known as The Major.) Joanna is reluctant to accompany him and she’s even more upset when it turns out that 1) the house is a total wreck and 2) the last tenant died under mysterious circumstances.
John, however, grows somewhat obsessed with the house. This is despite the fact that John doesn’t seem to really like the house or the inhabitants of the nearby town that much. For instance, there’s a scene — which might be a dream — in which John crashes the funeral of a local boy who died in Vietnam and he starts to laugh uncontrollably when the minister praises the boy for sacrificing himself for his country. I think we’re supposed to like John during this scene but John laughs so long and so hard and he just keeps going and going that, by the end of it, I think even the most dedicated peace activist would look at him and say, “What an asshole.”
At the house, John keeps seeing strange shadows and hearing weird noises. Occasionally, he sees someone who looks like the long-dead Major riding a white horse. He hears voices coming from the walls and he accuses Joanna of being behind it. Joanna tells him that he’s being paranoid. Of course, Joanna herself is slowly coming to appreciate the house, especially after a ghost kisses her hand…
Suffering from ennui, John does what anyone in 1973 would do. He tracks down the local hippies and he takes part in a down-with-the-establishment orgy. Are the hippies real or are they figments of his imagination? Is the house real or is it a figment of John’s imagination? Is John real or is he just a figment of his imagination? A Name For Evil does not seem to really know but you can be sure that we’ll get another shot of that TV falling out of that window before the movie ends.
On the one hand, A Name For Evil is a standard haunted house/spiritual possession type of film. But, on the other hand, it’s obvious that A Name For Evil was trying to make some sort of grand statement about life in America in 1973. How else do you explain the hippies, the funeral scene, and that TV flying out the window? Robert Culp spends the entire movie so pissed off that there’s no way he wasn’t meant to be some sort of generational spokesman. It makes for a very strange, only-in-the-70s hybrid type of film.
Now, I should mention that I actually did a little research before writing this review. I discovered that A Name for Evil was originally produced by MGM but it spent years on the shelf until Penthouse (the magazine) bought the film and re-cut it for theatrical release. Apparently, the first version was clear about being an attempt at social satire with a little horror and nudity thrown in. The version that was actually released was edited to emphasize the horror and the nudity. That probably explains why the film feels like such a strange mishmash of genres and attitudes.
If you ever get the chance, I’d recommend watching A Name For Evil. It’s not that good but it’s just too strange not to watch.
In 1964, the state of Wyoming executed Charles Forsythe (Viggo Mortensen) for killing another inmate at Creedmore State Prison. Forsythe was innocent of the crime but the only other two people who knew, a prisoner named Cresus (Lincoln Kilpatrick) and a guard named Eaton Sharpe (Lane Smith), kept silent. Twenty-three years later, Cresus is still an inmate and Sharpe has been named the new warden of Creedmore. When a group of prisoner open up the old execution chamber, Forsythe’s electrified spirit escapes into the prison and starts to kill the prisoners and the guards, one-by-one. A convict named Burke (also played by Mortensen) understands what is going on but can he get anyone to believe him?
If the idea of an executed murderer turning into an electrified spirit sounds familiar, that’s because the exact same idea was used in Destroyer, The Horror Show, and Wes Craven’s Shocker, all of which went into production and were released at roughly the same time. Why did the late 80s see so many director making movies about convicts coming back to life after being sent to the electric chair? We may never know.
Of the four electric ghosts movies, Prison is the best. Lane Smith is a great villain and Prison makes good use of its claustrophobic setting. Since Charlie is stalking inmates instead of horny teenagers, there literally is no way for anyone to escape him. (It never makes sense, though, why Charlie is killing “innocent” prisoners when Sharpe, who hates all of this prisoners, is the one that Charlie is targeting for revenge.) The best scenes are the ones where the warden desperately tries to force the inmates to confess to the murders so he won’t have to confront the truth about Charlie’s revenge. Lane Smith, who would later be best known for playing Richard Nixon in The Final Days, acts the hell out of those scenes.
Prison was the first American film to be directed by Finnish director Renny Harlin and it is a hundred times better than many of the overproduced action films that Harlin would later be best known for. Of course, it’s no Die Hard 2 but I would gladly watch Prison over Cutthroat Island.
The worlds of Horror and Blaxploitation intersected frequently during the 70’s, beginning with American-International’s BLACULA . The vampire tale spawned a subgenre of black oriented riffs on familiar themes: BLACKENSTEIN (man-made monsters), DR. BLACK, MR. HYDE (Stevenson’s classic novel updated), ABBY (demonic possession), and SUGAR HILL, a crazy voodoo-zombie revenge tale that’s creepy, outrageous, and entertaining as… well, as hell!
Foxy lady Marki Bey plays foxy lady Diana “Sugar” Hill, whose boyfriend Langston runs the voodoo-themed Club Haiti. Southern-fried gangster Morgan (Robert Quarry) wants to take over the club, and sends his goons to ‘persuade’ Langston. When he refuses, they stomp him to death in the parking lot, leaving Sugar no recourse but to return to her ancestral home and ask ancient voodoo queen Mama Maitresse (Zara Cully of THE JEFFERSONS) for help. Mama conjures up voodoo god of the dead Baron Samedi (Don Pedro Colley), who gives Sugar control over an army of…
In 1964, the state of Wyoming executed Charles Forsythe (Viggo Mortensen) for killing another inmate at Creedmore State Prison. Forsythe was innocent of the crime but the only other two people who knew, a prisoner named Cresus (Lincoln Kilpatrick) and a guard named Eaton Sharpe (Lane Smith), kept silent. Twenty-three years later, Cresus is still an inmate and Sharpe has been named the new warden of Creedmore. When a group of prisoner open up the old execution chamber, Forsythe’s electrified spirit escapes into the prison and starts to kill the prisoners and the guards, one-by-one. A convict named Burke (also played by Mortensen) understands what is going on but can he get anyone to believe him?
Through the Shattered Lens 