Peter Cushing was a horror mainstay who played both heroes and villains, often appearing opposite Christopher Lee. By most accounts, Cushing was a kind and old-fashioned British gentleman, one who was beloved by both his colleagues and his fans. Christopher Lee described him as being his best friend and reportedly, never fully recovered from his sadness over Cushing’s death in 1994.
(Cushing’s long screen collaboration actually first started in 1948’s Hamlet, in which Cushing played Osric and Christopher Lee had an uncredited role as a spear carrier.)
Though Hammer Films often cast Cushing as the mad Baron Van Frankenstein, I preferred his work as the stern but kindly Dr. Van Helsing. This scene from 1958’s Horror of Dracula, in which Van Helsing drives a stake through Lucy and ends her eternal suffering, features Cushing at his best. In this scene, we see both Van Helsing’s determination and also some hints of the kindness that Cushing brought to the role.
The 1985 film, Confessions of a Serial Killer, is based on the confessions of Henry Lee Lucas. Lucas was a one-eyed Michigan-born drifter who was arrested for murder in Texas in 1983. Once in custody, Lucas started confessing to murder after murder. At one point, it was estimated that Lucas had claimed to have killed around 600 people, sometimes by himself and other times with the help of his friend and sometimes lover, Ottis Toole. (Lucas “married” Toole’s 12 year-old niece, Becky, and then later chopped her up in a field.)
Of course, eventually, someone actually looked at Lucas’s confessions and came to realize that they didn’t really add up. Lucas had confessed to so many murders that, in order to believe him, you would have to be willing to accept that he could commit a murder in Florida in the afternoon and then somehow commit a second murder in upstate New York that night. (And that’s not even getting into the fact that Lucas confessed to killing Jimmy Hoffa and claimed that the CIA sent him to Cuba to take out Fidel Castro.) In the end, it was determined that Lucas was simply telling the police what they wanted to hear and that, sometimes deliberately and sometimes accidentally, the police were feeding him information about unsolved crimes in order to make his confessions more credible. Today, it’s generally agreed that Lucas may have killed 11 people. It’s also possible that he only killed two. (On the other hand, Ottis Toole really was the degenerate serial killer that Lucas claimed her was.)
Still, the national coverage of Lucas’s confessions inspired two independent films that were made in the mid-80s. One of those two films (and the better known of the two) was John McNaughton’s Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, in which Lucas was played by Michael Rooker and most of the action took place in Chicago. The other film was Confessions of a Serial Killer, which was filmed in Texas.
In Confessions of a Serial Killer, Henry Lee Lucas is re-imagined as Daniel Ray Hawkins (Robert A. Burns), a polite and mild-mannered redneck whose short stature, glasses, and somewhat quizzical expression all hide the fact that he is actually a vicious serial killer. Having recently been arrested, Hawkins nonchalantly confesses his crimes to Sheriff Will Gaines (Berkeley Garrett). Hawkins obviously enjoys telling his stories and he also appreciates that, whenever he and the sheriff go out to a crime scene together, he gets a hamburger and a chocolate milkshake. (“If these policemen weren’t here,” Hawkins tells one waitress, “you’d be mine.”) Hawkins talks about his childhood, growing up as the son of the town prostitute and a shellshocked father. He claims that his first victim was a sex worker in Scranton. Though flashbacks, we see Hawkins’s friendship with the moronic and equally bloodthirsty Moon Lewton (Dennis Hill). Hawkins eventually marries Moon’s sister, Molly (Sidney Brammer), who turns out to be just as sociopathic as her brother and her new husband.
Though it never escapes from Henry’s shadow, Confessions of a Serial Killer is an effective and disquieting film. The low budget works to the film’s advantage, especially in the scenes in which Hawkins wanders across the Texas countryside. Watching these grainy, documentary-style scenes, the viewer can literally feel the humidity and see the bugs buzzing around the tall grass. Though the cast is made up of unknowns, they all bring an authenticity to their roles. Anyone who has ever spent any time in small town Texas will automatically recognize the stoic but fair-minded sheriff played by Berkeley Garrett and the humble and religious doctor played by Ollie Handley. That said, the film is dominated by Robert A. Burns and his effectively low-key performance as Daniel Ray Hawkins. Burns himself was a set designer who got his start designing the house of horrors from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Burns plays Hawkins as being someone who has figured out how to come across as harmless but who also can’t help but seem off-center. His flat delivery of Hawkins’s lines captures the fact that, on the inside, Hawkins is empty. Even when he kills someone to whom he was close, he can only blandly say, “I was sorry about that.” True feelings are unknown to him.
Confessions of a Serial Killer is a film that stick with you. It’s a film that reminds you that you never know who might be watching you. Is that polite man just looking to be helpful or is he another Daniel Ray Hawkins?
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 Tod Browning, who started his career during the silent era, ended it in the sound era, and was responsible for some of the most important horror and suspense films of both eras!
4 Shots From 4 Tod Browning Films
West of Zanzibar (1928, dir by Tod Browning, DP: Percy Hilburn)
Dracula (1931, dir by Tod Browning. DP: Karl Freund)
Freaks (1932, dir by Tod Browning, DP: Merritt Gerstad)
The Devil-Doll (1936, dir by Tod Browning, DP: Leonard Smith)
Filmed in 1978 but not released until 1984, The Astral Factor tells the story of Roger Sands (Frank Ashmore).
Known as the Celebrity Killer, Roger is a serial killer who murdered women who reminded him of his famous mother. It may seem like Roger is destined to spend the rest of his life in prison but what the legal system didn’t consider is that Roger has the ability to not only move things with his mind but to also turn himself invisible. How did Roger get those powers? Who knows? At one point, Roger’s psychiatrist mentions that Roger was a student of the paranormal. Later, it’s revealed that he had several books about the supernatural in his bedroom. Apparently, Roger figured out how to do it himself.
Anyway, Roger is now invisible and soon, he has escaped from prison. He is determined to kill the five women who testified against him at his trial, both because they remind him of his mother and also because he blames them for sending him to prison. Roger strangles his victims, which in this case means that the actresses playing them have to pretend like they’re struggling with someone who can’t be seen. In fact, Roger spends almost the entire film in a state of invisibility.
How do you catch a killer who can’t be seen? It’s a fair question but police Lt. Charles Barnett (Robert Foxworth) might have the answer. Barnett’s solution involves grabbing a gun and keep firing it until you hit something. That’s a straight-forward solution but The Astral Factor is a pretty straight forward film. The film begins with Roger turning invisible and, to its credit, it doesn’t spend too much time trying to justify or explain Roger’s magical powers. The film understands that all the audience really needs to know is that Roger can’t be seen and that it’s up to Lt. Burnett to find a way to stop his killing spree.
The Astral Factor is a low-budget film, one that is full of formerly prominent performers who obviously showed up to get a quick paycheck. Sue Lyon, Marianne Hill, Leslie Parrish, and Elke Sommer all play potential victims and all of them look like they would rather be doing anything other than appearing in The Astral Factor. Robert Foxworth, to his credit, does his best to give a convincing performance as a level-headed cop who is forced to accept the reality of the paranormal. Not only is he having to investigate a series of murders but he’s having to do it on his birthday. Stefanie Powers plays his girlfriend, Candy. Candy often refers to herself in the third person whenever she’s having a conversation with her boyfriend. I tend to do the same thing so at least there was a character in this movie to whom I could relate. Knowing the rules of the genre, I spent the entire movie expecting Candy to be put in danger and I was actually impressed when my expectations were subverted and that didn’t happen.
With the exception of a few atmospheric scenes and an entertainingly garish and tacky dance number, the film itself has the rather flat look of a made-for-TV movie, though the occasional hint of nudity indicates that it was meant to be a theatrical release. As I mentioned at the start of this review, The AstralFactor was originally filmed in 1978 but it sat on the shelf until 1984. That’s when a slightly shortened version was released under the title The Invisible Strangler. Today, the film is available in countless Mill Creek Box Sets, under its original title and with its original run time restored.
Today’s horror on the lens is a short horror comedy from 1942. In The Boogie Man Will Get You, Winnie Slade (Miss Jeff Donnell) buys an old house from Prof. Billings (Boris Karloff) with plans to covert it into a hotel. However, one of the conditions of the sale is that Prof. Billings and his servants be allowed to live on the property. What Winnie doesn’t know is that Prof. Billings had been conducting experiments on traveling salesman. He hopes to turn them into supermen who, much like Captain America, can then be sent overseas to fight the Nazis. However, his experiments have yet to be successful and have mostly just resulted into a lot of salesman being buried out in the rose garden.
However, things start to look up for Prof. Billings when he meets Dr. Lorencz (Peter Lorre), who is not only a doctor but also a mayor, sheriff, and dog catcher. Seriously, Dr. Lorencz can do it all!
The Boogie Man Will Get You is a fun little time capsule of the time in which it was made. For horror fans, it is mostly interesting because it features both Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre. Both Karloff and Lorre appear to be having a lot of fun parodying their usual screen images.
As week 1 of the 2023 Horrorthon comes to a close, it’s time for me to admit that I am absolutely, 100% exhausted. Hopefully, this latest edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse Trailers will help to keep me awake!
Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Here’s a trailer that’s as good as any when it comes to giving you a reason to try to stay awake!
2. Bad Dreams (1988)
Freddy isn’t the only person haunting the dream world.
3. Dreammaniac (1986)
Actually, there’s a lot of dangerous things out there in Dream Land.
4. The Cell (2000)
Even Jennifer Lopez and Vince Vaughn know better than to get lost in someone else’s dream.
5. Phantasm (1979)
And, of course, we can’t talk about sleep and dreams and nightmares without including the classic trailer for Phantasm.
6. Dreamscape (1984)
Fear not, though! If things get too intense in the dreamworld, we can always call Dennis Quaid.
2016’s Glorious tells the apparently true story of Vince, a kid from Chicago.
Vince (played, as a child, by Gabriel Aaron Zavelta) starts life with a lot to overcome. For one thing, his family is poor. He’s never met his father and his mother (Olga Cunningham) is often busy at work, leaving Vince alone with his stepfather (Paul D. Morgan). Vince’s stepfather is quickly established as being a cruel and abusive man, one who looks for any excuse that he can find to beat Vince. When, after taking a shower, Vince drips water on the “clean rug,” his stepfather sees that as an excuse to take Vince into the basement and whip him with a belt. At school, Vince never fits in and is introverted and shy.
It’s not until a local gang leader take an interest in Vince that Vince starts to feel more confident about his life. After Vince withstands a violent initiation, he is praised for being tough and resilient and the sad thing is that this is probably the first time that Vince has ever been praised in his life. Soon, Vince is leading a double life. At school and at home, he’s still the shy kid who struggles to express himself. On the streets, he carries a gun and has no hesitation about opening fire on a car being driven by a rival gang member. In one of the film’s more shocking moments, he even opens fire on another student, shooting him outside of the school. Vince may pretend to be hard but the guilt gnaws away at him. When the cafeteria lunch lady gives him an accusatory “I saw what you did,” greeting, Vince looks like he’s about to cry.
Vince eventually ends up doing several stints in juvenile hall. Finally, the teenage Vince (now played by Darcy Grey) is accepted into a program that is designed to rehabilitate youthful offenders. He has to work maintenance for a school while attending chapel on a daily basis. Initially skeptical, Vince sticks with the program and starts to turn his life around. However, every time that he is released from juvi, his past is waiting to catch up with him. No sooner has Vince met and fallen in love with Cynthia (Tanya Nungaray) than his former friends are trying to gun him down. Can Vince escape his past or is he destined to be brought down by it?
Glorious is a low-budget but earnest look at one man’s search for redemption and it’s actually not that bad at all. The actors are all convincing in their admittedly thinly written roles and director Juan Daniel Zavaleta keeps the action moving at a good pace. One reason why the film works is because Vince doesn’t automatically become a saint. The film makes clear that, even as he commits to no longer being a criminal, Vince still has a long way to go. Unlike so many other faith-based film, Glorious does shy away from the difficulties that the main character is going to continue to face. At the same time, the film does highlight the importance of trying rehabilitate — rather than just blindly punish — the incarcerated. That’s something about which I feel very deeply and it’s obvious that this film does as well.
The budget’s low and occasionally, the film relies a bit too much on the shaky camera gimmick to create tension but, otherwise, Glorious is an effective look at one man’s path to redemption.
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Saturdays, I will be reviewingthe Canadian sitcom, Check it Out, which ran in syndication from 1985 to 1988. The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi!
Check It Out is a show that I recently came across on Tubi. It’s a Canadian sitcom from the late 80s, one that took place in grocery store. Don Adams starred as Howard Bannister, the store’s manager. Dinah Christie played Edna, who was Howard’s girlfriend and secretary. Kathleen Laskey, Aaron Schwartz, and Tonya Williams played cashiers. Jeff Pustil played the assistant manager. The security guard was played by Henry Beckman and Simon Reynolds played a teenage bagboy. Since I had never heard of this show before, I figured why not review it? What’s the worst that could happen?
Besides, check out the totally funky theme song!
Episode 1.1 “No Security In Security”
(Dir by Ari Dikijian, originally aired on October 2nd, 1985)
Welcome to Cobb’s, perhaps the most depressing location that I’ve ever seen for a Canadian sitcom. Cobb’s is a grocery store and, interestingly enough, it actually looks like a grocery store, with cheap displays, bored employees, and floors that you can tell are probably sticky. Usually, most sitcoms — especially sitcoms that aired in the 80s — go out of their way to try to look inviting. From the minute we see Cobb’s, the show seems to be telling us, “Run away! Shop elsewhere!”
As the pilot opens, store manager Howard Bannister (Don Adams) watches as a security specialist named Vicker (Gordon Clapp) installs several new security cameras. Howard asks what channels the cameras get. Vicker replies that you can watch produce, you can watch the front doors, and you can watch the registers. Howard weakly tries to explain that he was making a joke. It goes over Vicker’s head.
You know what isn’t a joke? The fact that Mrs. Cobb (Barbara Hamilton), the fearsome owner of the store, now expects Howard to fire Alf (Henry Beckham), the ancient security guard who has been working at Cobb’s for his entire life. Howard is reluctant to fire an old man, despite the fact that everyone keeps talking about the fact that Alf is not that good at his job. The assistant manager, Jack Christian (Jeff Pustil), volunteers to do the firing but Howard says that it’s the type of the thing that should be done by the manager. After getting an angry visit from Mrs. Cobb, Howard takes Alf outside and fires him. Alf responds by punching Howard in the stomach.
Well, I guess it’s a good thing that they fired Alf! Seriously, violence is never the answer! Still, Howard feels so guilty that he can’t perform sexually with his girlfriend and secretary, Edna Moseley (Dinah Christie). But, don’t worry! Alf calls in a bomb threat and gets his job back….
Seriously, that’s the plot of the first episode. It’s a plot that had some potential. One of The Office‘s best episodes was the Halloween episode where Michael was forced to fire Devin. On The Office, the story was more about Michael’s fear of being the bad guy than the actual firing. Michael knows that he has to fire someone but he’s just scared to death of getting anyone mad at him. Things are a bit less complicated on Check it Out. Alf is terrible at his job but Howard doesn’t want to fire him because he’s old. Fortunately, all it takes is a fake bomb threat to get Alf’s job back.
It was a bit of a forgettable episode, though it introduced the characters and that’s what a pilot is supposed to do. The main problem is that, with the exception of Gordon Clapp’s performance as Vicker, the episode itself just wasn’t that funny.
Maybe the second episode was an improvement! We’ll find out next week!
This has been an exhausting week. Getting sick with the flu during the last week of September set me behind as far as my Horrorthon plans were concerned and this week has been extra busy as a result. I’ve been working very hard and it’s been very emotionally rewarding but still, I’ve been pretty busy over the past eight days or so. So, I didn’t want much television this week but still, here are some thoughts on what I did watch!
The Amazing Race (Wednesday Night, CBS)
My favorite reality show has been back for two weeks now and I have yet to get to really sit down and focus on it. The first week, I was sick with the flu and I could barely focus on what was going on. Then, this week, a huge storm came up while the show was airing and, as a result, the local weather people interrupted the show and then refused to leave. It was very frustrating! I know the show is on Paramount Plus. Hopefully, I’ll get a chance to rewatch both episodes on Sunday.
I came across this old Canadian sitcom about a supermarket on Tubi. I watched the first episode earlier today and my review will be dropping here in about two hours.
Dr. Phil (YouTube)
I watched an episode on Monday that featured a former high school guidance counselor who, after having emergency surgery to remove her gall bladder, fell into paranoia and drug addiction and ended up living in her RV. At the end of the episode, she agreed to get some help but, to be honest, she seemed kind of beyond saving.
I continued to watch and pick episodes of The Hitchhiker for this year’s horrorthon. You can find the episodes that I selected on this site, under “Horror on TV.” My favorite thing about this show is, without a doubt, the extremely melodramatic monologues of Page Fletcher’s hitchhiker.
On Friday night, I watched an episode of Night Flight that was about music videos with science fiction themes. I followed this with another episode that dealt with the top “new music of 1985.”
This week, the Prime Minister had to make serious budget cuts, which worried Sir Humphrey as it could have possibly led to the Civil Service not getting their usual pay raise. Fortunately, Sir Humphrey was able to trick Jim into giving him what he wanted. As always, the episodes where Sir Humphrey is the one doing the tricking and the manipulating are the best.
On tonight’s episode of The Hitchhiker, Michael Woods plays a cocky gigolo who spends the weekend at a cabin with an alcoholic director (Jerry Orbach) and his sultry wife (Season Hubley). When Hubley suggests that Woods murder her husband, it seems like a standard noir-situation but it become obvious that Orbach is not quite as clueless as Woods assumed. Who is playing which game?
This is an enjoyable episode, largely due to the performance of the wonderful Jerry Orbach. This episode originally aired on May 12th, 1987.
Through the Shattered Lens 