Tag Archives: review

Horror Film Review: Alligator (dir by Lewis Teague)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

1980’s Alligator begins in 1968.  While on vacation in Florida, a teenage girl named Marisa Kendall purchases a baby alligator named Ramon.  When she returns home to Chicago, her jerk of a father flushes Ramon down the toilet.

12 years pass.  Marisa (Robin Riker) becomes a herpetologist.  As for Ramon, he actually survives being flushed down the toilet and thrives in the sewer.  He eats the carcasses of animals that had been a part of an experiment involving a growth serum.  The serum had the desired effect of making the animals bigger but it also increased their metabolism to the extent that they became aggressive and had to eat constantly.  Evil industrialist Slade (Dean Jagger) is convinced that, by tossing the carcasses in the sewer, he’s ensured that no one will ever find out about the experiments.  Instead, he’s turned Ramon into a giant alligator who is always hungry.  Soon, the super-intelligent alligator is ambushing and eating sewer workers.

Burned-out Detective Dave Madison (Robert Forster) teams up with Marisa to solve the mystery of why so many body parts are turning up in the sewers.  It’s not easy.  No one wants to admit that there might be a giant alligator living under the city.  Everyone wants to believe that’s just an urban legend.  But, after a tabloid reporter (Bart Braverman) manages to snap a few photographs of Ramon before being devoured, the police are forced to deal with the fact that they’ve got an alligator on their hands.  As Slade continues to try to cover up his involvement, big game hunter Colonel Brock (Henry Silva) comes to town and announces that he will be capturing the alligator.

Directed by Lewis Teague and written by John Sayles, Alligator is a dark comedy disguised as a horror film.  While numerous people get eaten and the film ends on a properly ominous note, Alligator is obviously not meant to be taken seriously.  The cast is full of good actors who send up their own images.  That’s especially true in the case of Henry Silva, who appears to be having a blast as the hyper macho Colonel Brock.  Robert Forster, meanwhile, delivers his lines with a self-aware weariness that seems a bit more appropriate for a noir hero than a film about a detective investigating a giant alligator.  One reason why the film works is because Forster, Silva, and the rest of the cast understood exactly what type of film they were appearing in and they delivered their overheated lines with just enough wit to let the viewer know that the film was in on the joke.  The big and somewhat stiff-looking alligator may not look entirely real and it may move somewhat awkwardly but ultimately, it’s the most likable character in the movie.  It just wants to relax in the sewers but, every few minutes, someone else is bugging him.

When first released, Alligator struggled at the box office but it has since gone on to become a cult favorite.  Quentin Tarantino is a self-described fan and he had said he was inspired to cast Robert Forster as Max Cherry in Jackie Brown after seeing him as Dave Madison in this film.  That’s not bad for a movie about a giant alligator!

Horror Film Review: From Hell It Came (dir by Dan Milner)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

“And to Hell it can go!” — The Critics

Sometimes, you’ll come across something that simply defies easy description.  It’s something that actually has to be seen to be believed.  I could describe to you the monster at the center of 1957’s From Hell It Came but I don’t know that, even with my extensive vocabulary, I really have the capability to capture just how absurd and weird this thing is.

In this case, a picture says more than a thousand words ever could:

The monster in From Hell it Came is a walking tree that has a rather angry (not to mention immobile) face.  After Prince Kimo is framed for the murder of his father, the chief of a tribe that lives on a South Sea island, he is sentenced to execution.  He announces that he will seek revenge on everyone who framed him.  He’s then stabbed in the heart and encased in the trunk of a hollow tree.  (Apparently, the knife is left in his heart which seems kind of unnecessary but who am I to argue?)  Later, Kimo comes back as a walking tree who tosses his enemies into quicksand.  The knife is still sticking out of the tree, which would suggest that Kimo was physically transformed.  However, the native insist that Kimo has actually become one of their legendary monsters, the fearsome Tabanga.

Along with the natives, there is also a group of American doctors on the island.  They’ve been sent to conduct research and to also give the natives medicine to help them deal with an outbreak of the plague.  The natives don’t trust the medicine.  They trust the magic of their medicine men.  Since this film came out in 1957, the doctors react to this by rolling their eyes and talking down to everyone.  If there’s one thing that has remained consistent over the decades, it’s that the worst way to get people to do anything is to talk down to them.

The doctors are the first to discover the tree stump that will eventually become the Tobanga.  They take the stump back to their laboratory, where they discover that the stump is radioactive due to some nearby atomic tests.  The next day, the stump comes to life and leaves the laboratory.  One of the most interesting things about this film is that the scientists are skeptical about the natives claim that the tree stump is one of their legendary monsters come to life but they are willing to accept that radiation created a walking stump.  Radiation bringing a tree stump to walking life actually makes even less sense than magic doing it.

While the tree is killing its enemies, the American doctors deal with their own drama.  For instance, Dr. Terry Mason (Tina Carver), is a woman and that greatly disturbs her male colleagues, all of whom  can’t understand why she’s not currently married and raising a family.  Meanwhile, Mrs. Mae Kilgore (Linda Watkins, an American actress who played the role with an amazingly bad British accent) owns the local trading post and is not happy about having a killer tree wandering around the island.  Mrs. Kilgore is prone to saying things like, “I saw the bloomin’ thing!”

In the end, the Americans finally figure out how to deal with the murderous tree.  “Your American magic is better,” the current chief of the natives says.  “Hell yeah!” I shout in response, “AMERICA!”  From Hell It Came is a thoroughly ludicrous movie but, once you watch it, you’ll never forget that tree.

 

Horror On The Lens: The Terror (dir by Roger Corman, et al)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today, we’ve got a treat!

Who wouldn’t love to see a movie where a youngish Jack Nicholson played a French soldier who, while searching for a mysterious woman, comes across a castle that’s inhabited by both Dick Miller and Boris Karloff?

In Roger Corman’s 1963 film The Terror, New Jersey-accented Jack Nicholson is the least believable 19th century French soldier ever.  However, it’s still interesting to watch him before he became a cinematic icon.  His performance here is rather earnest, with little of the sarcasm that would later become his trademark.  Boris Karloff is, as usual, great and familiar Corman actor Dick Miller gets a much larger role than usual.  Pay attention to the actress playing the mysterious woman.  That’s Sandra Knight who, at the time of filming, was married to Jack Nicholson.

Reportedly, The Terror was one of those films that Corman made because he still had the sets from his much more acclaimed film version of The Raven.  The script was never finished, the story was made up as filming moved alone, and no less than five directors shot different parts of this 81 minute movie.  Boris Karloff’s scenes were filmed first, with the other actors performing in front of a body double during their scenes.  Among the many directors who filmed bits and pieces of The Terror: Roger Corman, Jack Hill, Monte Hellman, Francis Ford Coppola, Coppola’s roommate Dennis Jakob, and even Jack Nicholson himself!  (Despite this number of directors involved, Corman received the sole directorial credit.)  Perhaps not surprisingly, the final film is a total mess but it does have a definite historical value.

(In typical Corman fashion, scenes from The Terror were later used in the 1968 film, Targets.  In that film, Karloff plays a version of himself, an aging horror actor who watches The Terror and dismisses it as being “terrible.”)

Check out The Terror below!

October Positivity: Jerusalem Countdown (dir by Harold Cronk)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

2011’s Jerusalem Countdown opens with the world on the verge of destruction.  Israel and a nuclear-armed Iran are negotiating in Washington and not everyone wants the two countries to be at peace.

In Chicago, Daniel (Carey Scott) watches the news of the summit and then looks out his window as his unfriendly and glowering neighbor comes and goes from his house.  Daniel worries that his neighbor is up to something.  He could be a member of a terrorist cell!  Daniel’s wife (Jaci Velasquez) tells him to stop worrying about things that he can’t control but that’s easier said than done.

FBI agent Eve (Anna Zielinski) is approached by her father (Stacy Keach), a former intelligence agent who warns her that the end times are approaching.

Another intelligence agent, Shane Daughtery (David A.R. White) is contacted by a burned-out arms dealer (Lee Majors), who informs him that a group of terrorists are planning on setting off a series of bombs and plunging the world into war.  The arms dealer is assassinated by a man who keeps reciting passages from the Book of Revelations.  Meanwhile, CIA bigwig Jack Thompson (a seriously miscast Randy Travis) continually tells Shane that he can’t share too much information with him because it’s all classified….

Jerusalem Countdown is a faith-based film that also tries to be an action film.  In fact, I would say that far more emphasis is put on action than on faith.  Until the final few minutes of the film, there’s really not much focus put on religion, other than Daniel briefly praying when he finds himself trapped in the neighbor’s house and a scene where a librarian scolds Shane and Eve for not knowing about the Ten Commandments.  One major commandments, by the way, is Thou Shalt Not Kill but Shane and Eve manage to kill quite a few people in this film.  Of course, they were all bad people and Shane and Eve are trying to keep the world from being plunged into a world war so I’m willing to cut them some slack.

The cast, as you may have noticed, has a number of familiar faces in it.  It’s largely a nostalgia cast, the type that’s designed to make people over the age of 60 say, “Lee Majors is in this!”  With the exception of Randy Travis, none of the “stars” have a particularly large role.  One gets the feeling that Stacy Keach filmed his scenes in a handful of hours, collected his paycheck, and then got out of there.  It’s amazing to me that Eric Roberts is somehow not in this film.

As for the film itself, it’s competently made and David A.R. White is one of the better actors amongst the Pureflix regulars.  (White has even managed to maintain a semblance of dignity through five God’s Not Dead films.)  That said, the film itself moves a bit slowly and the low-budget keeps the action from being as memorable as it could be.  There’s a cool helicopter crash but otherwise, it’s never as exciting as it obviously wants to be and there’s a lot — and I do mean A LOT — of filler-type scenes of people talking on their phones while driving from one location to another.  The plot itself feels a bit muddled and there’s a lot of loose ends left dangling, as if the film was meant to be a set up for a sequel that never came.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Freddy’s Nightmares 1.11 “Do Dreams Bleed?”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing Freddy’s Nightmares, a horror anthology show which ran in syndication from 1988 to 1990. The entire series can be found on Plex!

This week, there’s a new threat in town!

Episode 1.11 “Do Dreams Bleed?”

(Dir by Dwight H. Little, originally aired on January 8th, 1989)

There’s a new serial killer in Springwood!

We don’t really learn much about the Chopper, other than he attacks people with an axe.  When the episode begins, high school football star John Warring (Damon Martin) is dealing with dual trauma of having not only found the Chopper’s latest victim but also being the number one suspect.  His grades start to slip.  (As was so often the case on this show, his parents are conveniently out-of-town.)  He fears that he’s going to lose his girlfriend, Roni (Sarah Buxton).  Not even John’s coach, Coach Gacey (Jeff McCarthy), is much help.  That’s probably because Coach Gacey actually is the Chopper, not that anyone figures that out.  Driven mad by his dreams, John finds himself being taken away to an asylum.

(Really?  Coach Gacey?  He should have been the number one suspect based on his name alone.)

The second half of the episode follows Ronni as she now starts to have nightmares.  She wants to believe that John is innocent but her dreams indicate that she has her doubts.  Eventually, John escapes from prison and is able to save Ronni from Coach Gacey.  However, when the police arrive, they just assume that Coach Gacey was trying to save Ronni and that John is the Chopper.  Ronni is so shaken by the entire experience that she no longer knows what’s true and what’s not.

Wow, that’s dark!

This was actually a pretty good episode.  For once the two stories had coherent plots, with Ronni’s story logically building off of John’s.  The dream sequences were effectively creepy, director Dwight Little kept the action moving at a good pace, and even the dark ending felt earned as opposed to forced on the narrative.  I would have liked to have heard Freddy’s thoughts on Springwood having a new serial killer (instead, during the host segments, Freddy just did his usual bad jokes) but otherwise, this was a surprisingly good episode.

AMV Of The Day: Crazy In The Night (Gakkou no Kaidan)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

As the third day of Horrorthon draws to a close, how about an AMV?

Song: Crazy In The Night by Kim Carnes

Anime: Gakkou no Kaidan

Creator: rspectcopyrightmyass (As always, please be sure to check out this creator’s channel)

Past AMVs of the Day

A Blast From The Past: Frankenstein (dir by J. Searle Dawley)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 1910, Thomas Edison produced what is thought to be the first ever film version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein!  Clocking in at 12 minutes and 41 seconds, this film was directed by J. Searle Dawley and stars Charles Ogle as the monster.

Admittedly, the surviving prints of this 107 year-old movie are not in the greatest condition.  But I still think it’s effectively surreal and, in its way, quite creepy.  While it always takes a while for modern audiences to get used to the more theatrical acting styles of the silent films, Charles Ogle still makes for a very memorable monster.  I especially enjoy the tinted scenes where the monster comes to life.  In the video below, it start around the 2:18 mark and it’s truly a scene that I love!

Enjoy this piece of film history!

Horror On TV: Hammer House Of Horror Episode #2: The Thirteenth Reunion (dir by Peter Sasdy)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In this episode of Hammer House of Horror, Julia Foster plays a tabloid reporter who is assigned to investigate an unconventional weight loss program.  Foster discovers that weight loss is actually the last thing that the clinic is concerned with.  This is an enjoyable macabre episode, one the features a particularly nasty twist.

The Thirteenth Reunion originally aired in the UK on September 20th, 1980.

Brad reviews HOUSE OF WAX (1953), starring Vincent Price and a very young Charles Bronson!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

As my readers probably know, I’m one of actor Charles Bronson’s biggest fans, and I’m always on the lookout for venues showing his films on the big screen. In the summer of 2024, the Ron Robinson theatre in downtown Little Rock screened the 1953 Vincent Price classic, HOUSE OF WAX, which features Bronson in one of his earliest on-screen roles. It was so early, he was still being billed as Charles Buchinsky! Of course I wasn’t going to miss it! 

HOUSE OF WAX stars Vincent Price as Professor Henry Jarrod, a talented wax sculptor in early 20th-century New York City. Jarrod’s museum, which features historical figures that look amazingly lifelike, is his pride and joy. However, his business partner, Matthew Burke (Roy Roberts), has grown impatient with his investment and decides he wants to burn down the wax museum for the insurance money. When Jarrod refuses to take part in the fraudulent scheme, Burke sets the museum on fire, leaving Jarrod presumed dead in the process. But Jarrod survives, and with the help of his mute henchman Igor (Charles Bronson), returns to open a new wax museum with a dark and dangerous twist… his exhibits are eerily lifelike because they are real bodies coated in wax. As his former friend Sue Allen (Phyllis Kirk) and her boyfriend Scott Andrews (Paul Picerni) snoop around the house of wax, they begin to suspect that Jarrod has lost his mind and has descended into the mad depths of murder. Will they be able to expose Jarrod’s gruesome secret, or will they become his next exhibit?!!

Directed by André de Toth, HOUSE OF WAX is a landmark horror film, notable for its early use of 3D and Vincent Price’s excellent performance. The film’s strength lies in its undeniably creepy premise, that of turning human beings into wax sculptures, as well as Price’s ability to blend sophistication with menace. Jarrod is quite the sympathetic character at first, but he’s gradually revealed to be certifiably insane as a result of his near-death experience, and that transformation is quite scary. Young Charles Bronson’s portrayal of Igor is also quite freaky. His cold, blank, murderous stare says, “I’ll kill you and not even think twice about it.” His stalking of the heroine, played by Phyllis Kirk, in the dark, spooky house of wax near the end, is one of the true highlights of the movie. It’s also fun seeing Carolyn Jones (AKA Morticia Addams) show up as a spirited victim of the madman! Of course, you can’t help but notice the moments set up for the 3D effects, which come off as quite gimmicky at this point. I specifically took note of the movie’s use of paddleballs and leg kicks! I must admit, however, that these dated elements add to the overall charm of HOUSE OF WAX as a reminder of the olden days of 50’s Hollywood! 

Overall, in my humble opinion, HOUSE OF WAX is a classic scary movie. It’s a perfect treat for fans of vintage horror as well as a testament to the magnetic screen presence of Vincent Price!

The TSL Horror Grindhouse: Fear City (dir by Abel Ferrara)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Manhattan in the mid-80s!

While self-righteous vice cop Al Wheeler (Billy Dee Williams) patrols the streets with the fury of an Old Testament prophet, men flock to seedy bars to watch women like Loretta (Melanie Griffith) dance and strip.  Mobsters like Carmine (Rossano Brazzi) control the streets while club owners like Mike (Michael V. Gazzo) and Frank (Joe Santos) try to do business and make enough money to keep things open.  Bookers like Nicky Parzeno (Jack Scalia) and Lou Goldstein (Jan Murray) compete to see who can place their girls in the most clubs.  Nicky’s best friend and business partner, Matt Rossi (Tom Berenger), is haunted by his violent past as a boxer and his failed relationship with the drug-addicted Loretta.

Meanwhile, a nameless man (John Foster) practices nude tai chai in his warehouse apartment and writes feverishly in his journals.  At night, he stalks the streets with a blade in his hand.  He targets strippers, attacking them as they try to get home from the club.  Honey (Ola Ray) is attacked on a subway platform.  Loretta’s girlfriend, Leila (Rae Dawn Chong), is attacked on the streets.  Obsessed with Loretta’s safety, Matt struggles with his own inner demons as he prepares for a final confrontation with the killer….

1985’s Fear City is another one of director Abel Ferrara’s heavily stylized fever dreams.  In typical Ferrara fashion, the plot is so sordid that one might be tempted to think that the film is meant to be a self-parody and the dialogue mixes profane insults with bizarrely philosophical asides.  As played by Billy Dee Williams, Al Wheeler is not just a cop who wants to clean up New York and Times Square.  Instead, he’s a seething soldier to traditional morality and one who is so intense that it’s something of a shock that he doesn’t just walk around New York shooting people for jaywalking.  Meanwhile, Tom Berenger’s Matt is a hulking brute who is haunted by the time he killed a man in the ring.  He knows what he’s capable of and it scares him but, in order to save Loretta and his business, he’s going to have to become that deadly boxer once again.  “I hate Matt Rossi because he’s arrogant,” Al Wheeler says through gritted teeth.  Meanwhile, Matt deals with his own issues by trashing his office and then leaving the mess for someone else to clean up.  I’m not sure what that was supposed to accomplish but it’s apparently something that Matt just has to do.

Abel Ferrara directed this film five years before King of New York and, in some ways, Fear City feels like a dry run for King of New York.  Both films are highly stylized and both present New York as being a neon-lit Hell where the rich and the poor come together in mutual self-loathing and where the criminals often have more of a code of honor than the cops who are trying to stop them.  Of course, King of New York had Christopher Walken’s magnetic performance as Frank White holding the film and its many storylines together.  Fear City doesn’t really have that.  Billy Dee Williams, Tom Berenger, Jack Scalia, and Melanie Griffith all give strong performance but none of their characters are really quite compelling or grounded enough to keep the film from spinning off into delirious excess.

In other words, Fear City is a mess but it’s one of those over-the-top, shamelessly sordid messes that you really can’t look away from.  There’s enough philosophical dialogue to confirm that, as with King of New York, Ferrara was shooting at something more than just a typical exploitation film.  Unlike King of New York, Ferrara doesn’t quite succeed in saying anything particularly deep about the human condition in Fear City.  But that’s okay.  It’s an entertainingly sordid film.