Tag Archives: Larry Brand

Email of the Damned: Paranoia (1998, directed by Larry Brand)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Interior designer Jana Mercer (Brigitte Bako) is haunted by the night that her entire family was murdered by serial killer, Calvin Hawks (Larry Drake).  Even though Calvin was captured and imprisoned, she still fears that someday he’ll get out.  Calvin, meanwhile, feels that he and Jana have a special bond because he decided to allow her to live.  From his prison cell, he follows her life via the internet.  He even sends her messages, which doesn’t do much for her state of mind.  Finally, a former neighbor of hers invites her to return to her old neighborhood so that she can confront her fears.  However, after serving 20 years in prison, Calvin has been released for good behavior.  As a part of his parole, he is not allowed to go anywhere near Jana or any of the scenes of his crimes.  Soon after getting released, Calvin decides to violate his probation.  A serial killer violating probation?  Who would have guessed?

Paranoia raises a few questions.  What type of prison would allow a serial killer to have a laptop in his cell and access to the internet, let alone send out messages unsupervised?  What type of legal system would sentence a serial killer to only 20 years in prison?  Why wouldn’t the authorities make any effort to let Jana, as the sole survivor of Calvin’s crimes, know that Calvin is about to be released from prison?  Why would Jana, a recluse who says she is incapable of trusting people, be so quick to accept an invitation to go to the country with someone that she barely knows?  It makes no sense but the movie still somehow maintains enough suspense to work.

The best thing about Paranoia are the performances of Brigitte Bako and Larry Drake.  Bako, who was one of the best of the 90s direct-to-video stars, brings some needed sass to the role of Jana while Larry Drake was a B-movie veteran who always made a good villain.  Larry Brand, who also did Overexposed and The Drifter, wrote and directed Paranoia and, just as he did in those two previous films, Brand includes a lot of pop cultural references.  It’s not every day that you see a direct-to-video B-movie that includes an inside joke about The Dick Van Dyke Show.  Brand and his cast bring some unexpected style to the nonsensical story.

Watching Paranoia today, it’s hard not to get nostalgic.  With a plot that hinges on email almost as much as the plot of Sleepless in Seattle, it’s a 90s film, through and through.  They don’t make them like this anymore.

A Movie A Day #52: Overexposed (1990, directed by Larry Brand)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

overexposedSomeone is stalking soap opera star, Kristin (Catherine Oxenberg).  She is receiving frightening notes and her coworkers are dying.  Who is after her and what does it have to do with a tragic fire at a birthday party?  Is it one of her jealous co-stars?  Is it her duplicitous boyfriend (David Naughton)?  Is it the stranger (William Bumiller) that she’s having an affair with?  Or is it the obsessed fan (Karen Black)?  Detective Morrison (Larry Brand) is on the case!

The return of Detective Morrison (played, again, by the film’s director) makes Overexposed a sequel to The Drifter.  (Both films were directed by Brand and executive produced by Roger Corman).  Morrison has much more to do in Overexposed than he did in The Drifter so maybe the plan was to launch a low-budget franchise of Detective Morrison movies.  It didn’t happen, because Overexposed is much less interesting than The Drifter.  The spoiled and rich Kristin is never a likable character and the movie’s real star was Oxenberg’s busy body double, Shelley Michelle.

Overexposed does have a few good scenes, including death-by-acidic-facial-cream.  The best thing about movie is Karen Black, who brilliantly delivered a monologue about why she loves television.  It doesn’t have much to do with the rest of the movie but Karen Black knocked it out of the park.  The monologue ends with Karen Black paying homage to The Mod Squad by shouting out, “Solid!”

Overexposed was forgettable but Karen Black?

Karen Black was solid.

A Movie A Day #51: The Drifter (1988, directed by Larry Brand)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

the_drifterHow much keeffe is in this movie?

Don’t worry.  There’s Miles O’Keeffe in The Drifter. (™ MST3k)

While driving back to Los Angeles from a fashion show, designer Julia Robbins (Kim Delaney, long before co-starring on NYPD Blue) picks up and has a one night stand with a hitchhiker named Trey (O’Keeffe).  Even though Julia does not ever plan to see him again, she still gives him her grandfather’s stopwatch.  Trey is so touched by the gift that he shows up in Los Angeles and starts demanding to see her.  Julia, who already has a cheating boyfriend (Timothy Bottoms), doesn’t want anything to do with Trey.  When one her friends is murdered while staying at Julia’s apartment, Julia finally goes to the police and tells Detective Morrison (played by the director, Larry Brand) about Trey.  But is Trey the one who she should be worried about?

The Drifter is an above average example of the films that Roger Corman executive produced in the 80s and 90s.  The predictable plot won’t win any points for plausibility but Larry Brand did a good job directing and everyone in the cast (especially Delaney) contributed a decent performance.  The film has a twist ending that might take viewers by surprise but probably won’t.  As for where this ranks in the Miles O’Keeffe filmography, it’s better than Tarzan, The Ape Man but it’s still no Ator.

The Drifter was enough of a success that it got a quasi-sequel in 1990.  Larry Brand (and Detective Morrison) returned in tomorrow’s movie a day, Overexposed.