I have to admit that, with everything I’ve got going on right now, I kind of rushed through the 1993 R.L. Stine novel, Sunburn. In fact, I read it so quickly that I had to go back and re-read some of it because this is one of those books that ends with one of those totally incoherent R.L. Stine twists that essentially comes out of nowhere. I couldn’t really find any evidence that Stine in any way set up the twist nor could I find any explanation as to how the twist could even work. Of course, I kind of had to rush the re-read as well but I’m going to go ahead and declare that this is the silliest twist that R.L. Stine ever came up.
How silly is this book’s twist? It’s so silly that I actually guessed it about halfway through the book but then I laughed and said, “Nah, no way. No one’s that stupid.”
The book opens with a fairly effective scene in which Claudia awakens on the beach, totally covered in sand except for her head. The tide is coming in, Claudia is going to drown, and the friends that she came to the beach with have vanished. Fortunately, the totally sensitive and hot Daniel comes walking up and saves Claudia’s life. Claudia takes Daniel to her friend’s house so that he can see the people who abandoned her but Daniel vanishes as soon as her friends show up. Could Daniel be a …. GHOST BOY!?
(“We’ll call you …. Ghost Boy!” is a line that I was waiting for but which, sadly, was never uttered.)
Claudia is hanging out with a beach house with some of her friends from summer camp. Hopefully, hanging out at the beach can help all of them recover from the trauma of something terrible that happened the last time that they were at the camp. (They were traumatized at the camp but they still want to hang out with each other. Make of that what you will. I’ve never been to summer camp so maybe it’s just a crazy bonding experience, I don’t know.) Claudia is confused because her best friend Marla is acting strange. In fact, Marla appears to be the one who encouraged everyone to leave Claudia on the beach! Claudia wonders why Marla is acting so strange. Maybe it has something to do with the tragedy that happened back at camp, as it did directly effect Marla’s family. Or maybe it’s because of a totally weird twist that basically comes out of freaking nowhere.
A lot of weird things happen in Sunburn, from ghostly Daniel to the weird camp tragedy to the fence around the house that occasionally becomes electrified. I haven’t even gotten into the bit about the dog gets eaten by a random shark. (It was an evil dog, don’t worry.) This is a weird book and I think Stine pretty much just made it up as he went along. It’s entertaining, though. When a YA thriller has got a twist as random as this one does, how can it not be entertaining?
The 1985 film, Out of the Darkness, takes place in New York City.
It begins in 1977 and it ends in 1978. As the opening title card informs us, it’s a film about a city that was living in fear of the gunman known as the Son of Sam. One of the first images that we see is an a handgun being fired at two people who are making out inside of a car. We then cut to a police station where a homicide detective (played by Sam McMurray) reads aloud the letter that the Son of Sam sent to Jimmy Breslin.
That said, David Berkowitz, the killer who claimed that he was told to murder by a dog before later changing his story and claiming that he was a part of a Satanic conspiracy, spends most of the film in the shadows. His name isn’t even mentioned until the film’s final third. Instead, the majority of the film focuses on Ed Zigo (Martin Sheen), a New York City detective who tries to balance his desire to catch the Son of Sam with taking care of his wife (Jennifer Salt), who is due to have surgery for her heart condition. Ed Zigo is dedicated and intelligent New York cop, the type who has no problem walking into a Mafia-controlled bar and asking the owner if his son has any connections to the family business. He’s also a dedicated family man who freaks out when his daughter goes out on a date. When his wife dies after surgery, Ed Zigo deals with his grief by throwing himself into his work but, as he tells his priest (Hector Elizondo), he no longer has his old confidence. He fears that he’s going to make a mistake that’s either going to put his partner (Matt Clark) in harm’s way or allow the Son of Sam to continue to killing.
And really, it’s not a problem that the film focuses less on the killer and more on the people trying to track him down. Martin Sheen gives a strong and sincere performance as the dedicated Ed Zigo, perfectly capturing not only his dedication but also his fear and his weariness. (In many ways, his performance here feels like a forerunner to his performance in The Departed.) The film captures the feel of living in a city where no one trusts anyone and it is also a good example of a “New Yorkers will be rude to anyone” film. Even with a killer running around, no one wants to listen to a word the police have to say. When David Berkowitz does show up, he’s played by an actor named Robert Trebor who gives an appropriately creepy performance.
Interestingly enough, Joe Spinell also appears in Out of the Darkness, playing the small but important role of an early Son of Sam suspect. Though he only appears in two scenes, Spinell makes a memorably seedy impression. Of course, today, Spinell is remembered for playing a character based on the Son of Sam in the infamous 1980 grindhouse shocker, Maniac.
(Trivia fans will also want to note that Charlie Sheen has a wordless cameo as a man who shuts his apartment door in the face of Martin Sheen and Matt Clark when they attempt to ask him if he witnessed the latest murder. “Nice guy,” Martin says, in response.)
If you’re looking for a film in which Berkowitz is cursed out by a dog, Summer of Sam is probably the one to go for. However, if you’re looking for a more low-key but realistic portrayal of Berkowitz’s reign of terror, Out of the Darkness is a good one to go with.
A few Octobers ago, I got the bright idea to try to review all of Dario Argento’s films over the course of TSL’s annual horrorthon. Unfortunately, I got that idea on September 29th, two days before the start of Horrorthon. I managed to make my way through Inferno until I had to temporarily abandon the project to focus on everything else that was going on that month. However, since I’m not the type to fully give up on anything, I figured this would be the great year to finish up my Argento reviews.
Following the commercial failure of Inferno, a disillusioned Dario Argento returned to Rome. His bad experience with 20th Century Fox had soured Argento on continuing to work with Hollywood and his struggles to film Inferno (as well as his increasingly strained relationship with girlfriend Daria Nicolodi) left him with little desire to continue The Three Mothers trilogy. Instead, he focused on a new idea, one that was inspired by his own experience with an obsessed fan who had left vaguely threatening messages for him when he was in New York. Released in 1982, Tenebrae was Argento’s return to the giallo genre and it would turn out to be a very triumphant return, even if in, typical Argento fashion, it would take a few years for many people to realize just how triumphant.
Argento himself claimed that, while the film was certainly a giallo, it was also his first stab at science fiction. In an interview that appeared in Cinefantastique, Argento said that the film was meant to take place a few years in the future, after some sort of calamity had occurred that has greatly reduced the world’s population. Interestingly, Argento said that the survivors were largely from the upper class and that none of them wanted to talk about or remember what had happened.
Is the science fiction element actually present in this film? I think it is, though perhaps only because I’ve specifically looked for it. Rome, as portrayed in Tenebrae, is a city that is full of sleek but impersonal buildings, the type that would have been recently built by a wealthy society that was unsure of what it believed. Argento specifically avoids filming any scene near any historical landmarks, suggesting all of the evidence of Rome’s former greatness has been wiped out.
Perhaps the most futuristic element of the film (and the most prophetic) is that no one really seems to have a connection with anyone else. The crowd scenes in Tenebrae aren’t really that crowded, even the ones that take place in what should be a busy airport. (In many ways, the film’s portrayal of a Rome that is both busy but strangely empty brings to mind Jean Rollin’s portrayal of Paris in The Night of the Hunted.) Even when we see people socialize, there seems to be an invisible barrier between them, as if they don’t want to run the risk of getting too close to each other. When one character is fatally stabbed while out in public, perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the murder is that so many people just walk away, as if they’ve been conditioned to ignore anything unpleasant. The only thing that prevents this scene from feeling like a vision of 2023 is that there aren’t a bunch of people filming the victim’s final moments on their phone.
The film opens with a sequence that, as a former teen shoplifter, left me feeling disturbed. Elisa Manni (Ania Pieroni, who played The Mother of Tears in Inferno and the enigmatic housekeeper in Fulci’s The House By The Cemetery) is a shoplifter who gets caught trying to steal the latest book by thriller novelist Peter Neal. After being released, the carefree Elisa walks back to her home and, after being menaced by both a barking dog and a pervy old man, Elisa arrives in the safety of her house, starts to undress, and is promptly attacked by a black-gloved killer who slashes her neck and stuffs pages of Neal’s book into her mouth. It’s not just the murder that makes this scene disturbing but also the fact that the killer was somehow waiting for Elisa in her house, establishing that this is a world where the safety of even a locked door is an illusion.
Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa), who we first see riding his bicycle in New York, has come to Italy to promote his latest book, Tenebrae. He arrives in Rome with his manager, Bullmer (John Saxon, giving a likable performance) and his assistant, Anne (Daria Nicolodi). Confident to the point of arrogance, Peter is a pro at dismissing claims that his books are violent and misogynistic but even he is taken aback when an old friend of his, the journalist Tilde (Mirella D’Angelo), suggests that Tenebrae might inspire violence.
Peter Neal is a celebrity and a pretty obvious stand-in for Argento and everyone in the film is obsessed with him. His ex-fiancée, Jane (Victoria Lario), has followed Peter to Rome, intent on getting some sort of revenge for the way that he treated her while they were together. (Daria Nicolodi felt the vindictive and unstable Jane was based on her, which was another thing that strained her notoriously volatile relationship with Dario.) Peter’ young assistant, Gianni (Christian Borromeo, of Deodato’s The House on the Edge of the Park and Fulci’s Murderrock) hero worships him. The puritanical talk show host, Christiano Berti (John Steiner), wants to interview Peter about the morality of his books. And the killer, whoever they may be, is leaving letters for Peter, informing him that his book have inspired the killer’s crimes. Detective Germani (Spaghetti western star Giuliano Gemma) is investigating the letters and he is an admitted fan of Peter Neal’s novels but, somewhat alarmingly, he mentions that he’s never able to guess the killer’s identity.
Argento’s camera restlessly prowls his futuristic Rome while Goblin’s music booms on the soundtrack as the people in Peter Neal’s life are murdered by a killer wearing black gloves and carrying a straight razor. The murder scenes feature some of Argento’s best work, directed in such a ruthless and relentless manner that we understand the killer’s determination without having to see their face. This is a film of elaborate set pieces and, as if in direct response to 20th Century Fox’s attempts to control his work on Inferno, Argento is eager to show what he can do when left alone. The film is remembered for the sequence where the camera glides over the exterior of an apartment building while the killer stalks the inhabitants but, for me, the scariest scene is when poor Maria (Lara Wendel), the daughter of Neal’s landlord, finds herself being chased straight into the killer’s lair by a very viscous Doberman.
When the film does slow down, it’s for flashbacks to a beach and acts of sexual violence performed by and against an enigmatic woman (who is played by transgender performer, Eva Robbins). The beach flashbacks unfold in a hazy, dream-like manner and they leave us to wonder if what we’re watching is real or if it’s just a fantasy. If the “modern” scenes feature Argento at his most energetic, the beach scenes feature Argento at his most enigmatic.
Daria Nicolodi often said that she considered her final scene in this film to be Argento’s greatest act of cruelty to her. Coming across the killer’s final tableaux and discovering the truth about who the killer is, Anne stands in the rain and screams over and over again. Nicolodi apparently felt that Argento required her to stand there soaked and screaming in order to punish her for having worked (with Tenebrae co-star John Steiner) on Mario Bava’s Shock, instead of having accepted a supporting role in Suspiria.
Whatever personal motives may have been involved in the decision, I think Nicolodi’s screaming is one of the most powerful moments to be found in Tenebrae. It’s certainly the most human moment because I think anyone with a soul would scream upon learning the truth of what has been happening in Rome. Every assumption that Anne had has been overturned. Who wouldn’t scream? Continuing with Argento’s claim that the film was about a world where people no longer discuss the terrible things that have happened, Anne’s screams are the most human part of the movie.
Tenebrae is the last of Agento’s truly great and flawless films. Of course, in usual Argento fashion, it was not treated well in the States, where it was initially released in a heavily edited version and with a terrible title (Unsane, under which it can still be found in certain Mill Creek box sets). But Tenebrae has since been rediscovered and today stands as one of Argento’s greatest triumphs.
Seriously, the best thing about the 1964 film, Monstrosity, is that it features a black cat named Xerxes. Xerxes is not only a cute little kitty (and, seriously, who doesn’t love a black cat?) but Xerxes is also the best actor to be found in the entire film. While everyone else is struggling to deliver their lines and not wander out of the shot, the cat delivers its meows with the skill of a pro and always hits the right mark. If there was an Oscar category for best animal actor, Xerxes definitely would have been the one accepting the Oscar from the Breakfast at Tiffany’s cat. Seriously, I hope Xerxes was paid well for this role. I hope it opened up a lot of doors for Xerxes. When animal actors get together, I hope that they take a few minutes to raise a toast and to praise a true trailblazer and a wonder performer, Xerxes the Cat!
Unfortunately, the rest of the film doesn’t really live up to Xerxes’s work. Xerxes was obviously doing the best that a cat could do to save this film but there is only so much that a cat can do. At some point, the humans have to step up and make a little bit of effort as well.
Monstrosity, which is also known as The Atomic Bomb, tells the story of Mrs. Hettie March (Marjorie Eaton), a thoroughly unpleasant but very wealthy woman who lives in an isolated mansion. Working in her basement is Dr. Otto Frank (Frank Gerstle), a mad scientist whose work in the field of brain transplantation has led to a lot of strange things happening at the house. For instance, there’s a guy who has the brain of a bulldog. There’s also a woman who wanders around the laboratory with a blank look on her face. Still, Mrs. March is convinced that Dr. Frank will eventually be able to take her brain and transplant it into a younger and more attractive woman.
An ad is put in the classifieds, asking for a young woman to come work as a housekeeper at Mrs. March’s mansion. Three women show up for the job, not realizing that they are actually being set up as candidates to become Mrs. March’s new body. Nina Rhodes (Erika Peters) is from Austria and is the most level-headed. Bea Mullins (Judy Bamber) is from the United Kingdom and speaks with such a thick accent that the viewer will automatically know that she’s not actually British. Anita Gonzalez (Lisa Lang) is from Mexico and rarely speaks. The women arrive at the mansion and soon find themselves at the mercy of the rich old woman, the mad doctor, and all of the failed experiments.
Monstrosity is pretty dumb and remarkably poorly acted, with Lisa Lang’s performance as Anita being the main offender. (Bradford Dillman, who would go on to become a very busy character actor, provided the film’s narration.) That said, Xerxes was a true star. All hail Xerxes!
(I originally shared this film back in 2011, 2019, and 2022 — can you believe we’ve been doing this for that long? — but the YouTube upload keeps getting taken down! So, I’m resharing it today!)
For today’s excursion into the world of public domain horror, I offer up the film debut of Francis Ford Coppola. Before Coppola directed the Godfather and Apocalypse Now, he directed a low-budget, black-and-white thriller that was called Dementia 13. In a possible sign of things to come, producer Roger Corman and Coppola ended up disagreeing on the film’s final cut and Corman reportedly brought in director Jack Hill to film and, in some cases, re-film additional scenes.
Regardless of whether the credit should go to Coppola, Corman, or Hill, Dementia 13 is a brutally effective little film that is full of moody photography and which clearly served as an influence on the slasher films that would follow it in the future. Speaking of influence, Dementia 13 itself is obviously influenced by the Italian giallo films that, in 1963, were just now starting to make their way into the drive-ins and grindhouses of America.
Speaking of giallo films, keep an eye out for Patrick Magee, who gave a memorable performance in Lucio Fulci’s The Black Cat. Luana Anders, who plays the duplicitous wife in this film, showed up in just about every other exploitation film made in the 60s and yes, the scene where she’s swimming freaks me out to no end. Other films featuring Luana Anders include Night Tide and Easy Rider, in which she played one of the hippies who unsuccessfully enticed Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper to stay at the commune.
As for Francis Ford Coppola, his career has had its up and downs but he’s a beloved figured on the pop cultural landscape and a director whose best films continue to inspire and influence. He is currently filming Megalopolis.
The 2018 Australian film, Trust, tells the story of Daniel Rainwater (Keith Austring).
Daniel is an illustrator whose seemingly perfect life falls apart in just one day. He loses his job and doesn’t even receive a severance package. He discover that his wife (Lisa Carey) has been unfaithful and wants a divorce. With no money coming in, he loses his home. His children move in with his wife. At one point, he develops a terrible rash on his face. When he does get a new place to live, it’s a tiny apartment that is so cluttered and dusty that it looks like it should be on an episode of Hoarders. When he gets a new car, he is involved in a terrible car crash and ends up breaking his leg in five different places. When he finally gets the cast off, the first thing he does is fall flat on his face. When he does get another job, he finds himself working in a warehouse….
Well, you get the idea.
At one point, one of Daniel’s friends informs him, “I think you’re going through a Job-like test.”
“Awesome,” Daniel replies.
Yes, Trust is yet another film based on the Book of Job but, as opposed to so many similar films, Trust actually has a sense of humor about itself. Instead of resorting to melodrama, as so many other Job-inspired films do, Trust often finds the humor in Daniel’s various situations. I mean, the guy just cannot catch a break. Indeed, Daniel’s problems can often just as easily be ascribed to him having terrible luck as they could to an wager between God and Lucifer. Daniel is the type whose laptop dies right before he needs to use it. He’s the type who always locks his keys in his car. He’s the type who gets drenched by a sudden rainstorm. Daniel has a lot to deal with and he frequently gets discouraged but he never gives up and, as played by Keith Austring, it’s hard not to like him.
Yes, it’s based on the Book of Job and Job is a Rorschach test for how one feels about the idea of being tested. Many see the book as a celebration of faith in the face of adversity. Others see it and wonder why poor Job and his family (the majority of whom ended up dying) had to be put through so much for just a wager. Trust avoids a lot of the issues inherent in the Job narrative by making Daniel’s problem more down-to-earth. Daniel may have to move out of the house and he may not get to see his children as much as he likes but at least they aren’t killed by a plague. Though Daniel eventually finds peace with all of his problems and realizes that they’ve helped to make him a stronger man and a better father, the film itself never feel preachy. Trust is a well-directed and well-acted film, one that understands the importance of humor and humanity.
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Thursdays, I will be reviewing Highway to Heaven, which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1989. The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi and several other services!
This week, Highway to Heaven is determined to make you cry.
Episode 1.3 “To Touch The Moon”
(Dir by Michael Landon, originally aired on September 26th, 1984)
Oh my God, this episode. Seriously, this episode was a real tear-jerker and a good example of how this show’s earnest and extremely sincere approach could make even the most predictable of stories emotionally effective.
This episode deals with two young boys living in Houston.
Arthur Nealy (Barret Oliver) is the son of a man who flew to the Moon as a part of NASA and then died when the plane that he was flying crashed. (Before the crash, Arthur’s father got the plane out over the ocean and saved the lives of everyone who was underneath him.) For most of his short life, Arthur has struggled with Leukemia. After a year of being in remission, the cancer has returned and, as his doctor (Don Starr) tells his mother (Carrie Snodgress), there is no hope this time. Arthur’s only wish is to “touch the moon” before he dies.
Tony Rizzo (Tony La Torre) is a tough kid who has been in trouble with the police numerous times and who is on the verge of being kicked out his apartment by his own grandmother (Penny Santon).
Mark and Jonathan meet Tony while the latter is standing on the side of the road and hitchhiking. Former cop Mark doesn’t want to stop to pick up any hitchhikers. Jonathan, being an angel who can basically do anything, forces the car to stop anyways. Jonathan and Mark agree to give Tony a ride but, when they stop off to get breakfast at a diner, Tony promptly steals Mark’s car. While Jonathan goes off to do angel stuff, Mark pursues Tony.
Eventually, Mark tracks Tony down to his grandmother’s apartment but, when Mark discovers that Tony’s parents abandoned him and that his grandmother doesn’t even want him, Mark doesn’t have the heart to take Tony to the police. (Awwwww!) Instead, he takes Tony with him to an address that Jonathan give him earlier.
The address is the Nealy House, where Jonathan shows up to give Arthur a birthday gift and introduces himself as being a friend of Arthur’s father. (The implication is that Jonathan and Arthur’s father have been conversing in Heaven.) Arthur asks his mother if Tony can stay with him for a few days. Arthur’s mother agrees. When Tony tries to later sneak out of the house, he’s stopped by Jonathan, who reveals that Arthur has cancer and who gets Tony to agree to be Arthur’s friend for a few days.
You can probably guess where this is heading. Tony and Arthur end up bonding. Tony lets down his tough exterior. Arthur says that he wants his mother to adopt Tony after he dies. One happy family montage later, Arthur collapses in his bedroom and is taken to the hospital where Jonathan visits him in his hospital room and shows him that death is nothing to fear. Arthur stares out the hospital window and the camera zooms in on the moon, the implication being the Arthur’s spirit is now free to touch the moon.
“Your home, son,” Jonathan says, his voice cracking, “you’re home.”
I mean, Good Lord! I’m crying just typing this up! And really, that’s the best review that I can give you of this episode. It was heavy-handed and sometimes the performances felt a little awkward but it totally made me cry. There’s not a hint of cynicism to be found here, nor are there any hints of snarkiness. There’s just a lot of very honest emotion.
Next week, I assume the show will make me cry again.
Tonight’s episode of The Hitchhiker features Melody Anderson and David James Elliott as, respectively, a veteran prostitute and a polite young man who seems to be the rare honest person that the guy with the lantern was always looking for. However, someone also happens to be killing men who talk to prostitutes.
This episode originally aired on November 18th, 1989.
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Thursdays, I will be reviewing Jennifer Slept Here, which aired on NBC in 1983 and 1984. The entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!
This week, Jennifer helps out when it looks like both Joey and Marc are about to get their hearts broken.
Episode 1.3 “Not With My Date You Don’t”
(Dir by John Bowab, originally aired on November 4th, 1983)
I should start this review with an admission. Though every episode of Jennifer Slept Here has been uploaded to YouTube, some of the uploads are a bit better than others. That’s not the fault of the uploader. The uploader undoubtedly used the best copy of the third episode of Jennifer SleptHere that they had available. It’s just an acknowledgement that Jennifer Slept Here is a show that briefly aired 40 years ago and it’s doubtful that anyone, at that time, knew that a reviewer would need a good copy of the third episode to watch in 2023. The 3rd episode of the show is available on YouTube but the sound quality is a bit muddy and I often struggled to understand all of the dialogue. So, I’m just going to admit right now that I did the best that I could and if I misheard anything, I apologize.
As for the episode itself, it opens with Joey rehearsing asking out a classmate in front of his mirror. Jennifer materializes in a red dress that is to die for. Joey asks Jennifer where she’s going to go in that outfit and Jennifer says that she’s just going out. To be honest, Joey’s question is a good one because, seriously, where does Jennifer have to go? She’s a ghost!
When Jennifer finds out that Joey is feeling nervous about asking pretty blonde Linda (Viveka Davis) to go on a date with him, she decides to help him out by going to school with him. This makes sense because, as we all know, there’s nothing more attractive than a teenage boy who wanders around his school talking to himself. Anyway, with Jennifer’s encouragement, Joey asks out Linda but she informs him that she already has a date ….. WITH MARC (Glenn Scarpelli)! Marc is Joey’s annoying best friend.
Joey’s parents set him up with a blind date, who I think was named Eileen (Megan Daniels). At least now Joey can go on a double date to the movies with Marc and Linda. (Yeah, there’s no way that won’t be awkward.) However, Eileen turns out to be a punk rocker with multi-colored hair, who yells at the movie and totally embarrasses Joey in front of Marc, Linda, and Jennifer (who decides to tag along in ghost form). Eileen decides that the movie sucks and leaves. Linda asks Marc to go get her some more popcorn and, after he leaves, she immediately moves over to Marc and starts hitting on him. Jennifer is scandalized, saying that Linda has no morals.
Later, after the date, Joey is feeling pretty proud of himself when Marc suddenly shows up and accuses Joey of “stealing my girl.” This brings their friendship to an end. Yay! Seriously, Marc is a dork! Joey needed a better friend. Jennifer, however, is upset that Joey is allowing Linda — a girl with no morals! — come between him and his dorky friend.
The next day, in school, Jennifer decides to take actions into her own invisible ghost hands by grabbing Linda, shoving her up to the chalkboard, and then grabbing Linda’s hand and forcing her to write that she lied on the chalkboard. Apparently, the reason she lied was to get Joey to buy her tickets to a Rick Springfield concert but don’t quote me on that. This where that muddy soundtrack kicked in and made it difficult for me to follow all of the conversations. All I know that Jennifer forced Linda to write, “I lied” and then Jennifer added, “Springfield tickets” underneath Linda’s admission. So, that would suggest Linda either wanted to see Rick Springfield or maybe Dusty Springfield, depending on the depths of her musical knowledge. Or maybe she actually wrote Springsteen on the chalkboard. I really couldn’t tell. The important thing is that Joey dumps Linda for being dishonest and he and Marc are friends again.
Even when it came to the parts that I could understand, I wasn’t a huge fan of this episode, largely because I felt it was way too judgmental of Linda. I mean, really, the only thing that Linda did was flirt with a guy who she hoped would take her to a concert. It’s not like she was married to either Marc or Joey. In fact, she only went out with Marc once before hitting on Joey so it’s not like Linda was really even dating either one of them. Ann Jillian’s outfits were cute but this episode just didn’t work for me.
Jim Van Bebber’s The Manson Family (a.k.a. Charlie’s Family) opens with chaos. The viewer is assaulted with a series of quick cuts and disturbing images. The American flag flies. The American flag is covered in blood. Insane faces flash by. We catch glimpses of blood squirting and we hear people screaming while two performers go through with some sort of S&M bondage ritual with a red, white, and blue dildo. I have to admit the opening few minutes of the montage actually made me nuaseus. That’s not necessarily criticism, though. If anything, I imagine that was Van Bebber’s intention. The opening announces that the viewer is not just about to see another film about the Manson murders. Instead, TheManson Family is a plunge into the heart of darkness that beat at Spahn Ranch. It’s not a film for those who cannot handle being shocked.
The disjointed nature of the film’s montage is carried over into the film’s narrative. The Manson Family deals with two different time periods. In 1996, a journalist named Jack Wilson (Carl Day) sits in the studio of his show, Crime Time, and watches grainy footage of the former members of Manson’s Family being interviewed. Some of them still proudly have X’s carved into their foreheads and continue to parrot Manson’s hippie psychobable. Others are interviewed from prison and try to play down their own roles in the crimes. Tex Watson (Marc Pitman) and Sadie Atkins (Maureen Alisse) both appear to be in a prison chapel. Tex, who was one of the most brutal of the murderers in Manson’s Family, comes across as mild-mannered. Sadie — who was nicknamed Sexy Sadie when she was a member of the Family — now has gray hair, glasses, and the speaking style of a high school guidance counselor. At first, only Bobby Beausoliel (played by director Van Bebber) seems to be willing to fully admit to what happened but even he eventually changes his story to seemingly protect Manson. While Wilson watches the footage, a group of young Manson fans ominously wait outside of his studio.
During the interviews, the film frequently flashes back to 1969 and we watch as Charles Manson (Marcello Games) unsuccessfully pursues rock stardom and gathers the members of his so-called Family at the Spahn Movie Ranch. While Manson’s followers talk about how charismatic and wise he was, the flashbacks reveal that Manson was actually a cowardly racist who ordered others to kill for him and who went into hiding after he shot a drug dealer because he was convinced that the Black Panthers were going to come after him. The film suggests that Manson’s murders had less to do with Helter Skelter or any of his other hippie psychobabble and more to do with Manson’s anger over not being famous. At Spahn Ranch, Manson lives like almost a parody of a rock star, complete with all the drugs, groupies, and sex that he could want. But, ultimately, it doesn’t matter because, unlike his friend and follower Bobby Beausoliel, Manson can’t even get a record contract. The murders are depicted and this is a very bloody movie but, to its credit, the film never attempts to make Manson or the majority of his followers into sympathetic characters. Instead, by featuring the character of Jack Wilson putting together yet another exploitive TV show about Manson, the film examines how the media can even turn as scummy a loser as Charles Manson into an icon of sorts.
It’s a chaotic film, one that features its share of shockingly explicit footage. When the incarcerated members of the Family say that the early days at Spahn Ranch were a nonstop orgy, Van Bebber doesn’t hesitate to show us what they’re talking about. At the same time, there’s a constant threat of violence to be found in every scene. Every shot feels just a little bit off-center, preventing the viewer from ever feeling like they can relax. Even the moments that shouldn’t work, like Tex briefly turning into the devil, do work when viewed as being a part of the film’s portrayal of a world that’s spiraling out of control. Throughout the film, we hear snippets of not Charles Manson but instead Jim Jones, exhorting his followers to commit mass suicide at Jonestown. It’s a reminder that Manson was not the only cult leader who convinced his followers to do terrible things. The Manson Family is a messy, raw, but effectively disturbing film of a death-obsessed culture.
The production of The Manson Family was, itself, a rather chaotic one. Van Bebber spent ten years filming the movie and, indeed, one reason why the character of Charles Manson disappears from a lot of the film is because the actor himself stopped showing up on set. (Interestingly enough, that works to the film’s advantage as it makes Manson into a character who always feels like he’s present even when he isn’t.) A rough cut of the film made the festival circuit in 1997. The film, itself, didn’t get an official release until 2003. One gets the feeling that the disjointed nature of the film’s production was reflected in the film’s equally disjointed narrative but again, that works to the film’s advantage. Though not always easy to watch, The Manson Family is one of the better Manson family films to have been made. If nothing else, watching the film makes it much easier to understand why so many people cheered when Leo DiCaprio set Sadie Atkins on fire at the end of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.
Through the Shattered Lens 