70's Blaxploitation Horror Part One

BLACULA
(1972)
Dir - William Crain
Overall: GOOD

The film whose success made it possible for others to quickly come in its wake, Blacula remains historically noteworthy above anything else.  Being the first depiction on film of a black vampire, it was culturally a big enough deal when released and thankfully a sufficient enough work to make the melding of horror and blaxploitation a viable box office commodity.  It easily warrants inclusion on any serious horror buff's "to get to" list, but despite its archival merits, it makes both good and bad strides as an actual movie.  The prominent technical issue with all blaxploitation films is assuredly present, namely being an unmistakable lack of budget.  Director William Crain makes the best with what he has got, but a mere mortal as he can only do so much with the minimally designed sets, rather silly make-up, occasionally dodgy camerawork, and few and far between visual effects.  For his performance as the title character, William Marshall mostly excels, but his mannerisms often clash with one another like how he can be a tragic figure in one scene and then a manically laughing fiend in the next.  These are modest nitpicks though, as there are a number of memorable scenes, lucrative humor, (usually on the politically incorrect side like the liberal use of the word "faggot" and hilariously dated jive), and a well maintained tone, all surpassing what could have been a trashy affair.

ABBY
(1974)
Dir - William Girdler
Overall: GOOD

One of the films that both was deliberately derivative of The Exorcist and one that got successfully sued by Warner Bros. for copyright infringement, Abby could easily stand as the best of any of said "rip-offs".  The blaxploitation Exorcist premise on paper is intriguing enough, but it is very pleasantly surprising how well the film balances both its ridiculous and sincere qualities.  Abby takes itself seriously which gives it an element of class, something thatis certainly added upon by William Marshall's distinguished performance as the virtuous priest.  Director William Girdler though stages a generous amount of excellent horror set pieces and the budget never really comes into question with so many effective shots of a demon wreaking havoc.  And on that note, there is plenty to chuckle at where Carol Speed's possessed title character's shenanigans are concerned as she spews forth outrageous profanities that are absolutely befitting to the evil trickster spirit that has taken her over.  Yes it is definitely a stylized cash-in on The Exorcist no one will deny, (with the trips to African caves, voice modulated demon speak, and even the quick subliminal flashes of said demons' face on the screen), but it is also a lot more fun yet still on the safe side of not being brazenly over the top.

J.D.'S REVENGE
(1976)
Dir - Arthur Marks
Overall: MEH

Though mostly genuine and very well acted all around, (particularly from the lead Glynn Turman), J.D.'s Revenge is a bit dull pacing wise and has some rather glaring plot problems.  It is hard to take things seriously when Louis Gossett Jr.'s hustler-turned preacher character is supposed to have aged thirty years yet actually looks younger with a shaved head in the present day.  Also, why doesn't the spirit of J.D. Walker get that all important revenge part out of the way first before going about his switch-blade slashing/women beating business?  He regularly looses control of the body he is possessing yes, but he also maintains it for random lengths of time depending on how many scenes the script has in it for him to unleash his violent pimping.  Also, the ending leaves it wide open that in fact he can jump back into Glynn Turman's body whenever he feels like gambling or smacking some women around again, and they literally laugh this off as the characters walk away with their "happy ending".  Things assuredly do not add up by the title credits and because the length of time it takes to get to them is not quite engaging enough, J.D.'s Revenge is a bit of an unfortunate flop.

70's British Horror Part Nine

TAM-LIN
(1970)
Dir - Roddy McDowall
Overall: MEH

In his one and only directorial effort, (made at the same time Beneath the Planet of the Apes was under production, hence his not being in said film), Roddy McDowall really pulls out all the stops.  With enough symbolism and visual flourishes to impress Orson Welles, Tam-Lin, (The Ballad of Tam-Lin, The Devil's Widow, The Devil's Woman) is anything but boring too look at.  It is a bit of a La Dolce Vita re-imaging seen through eyes of the 1960's dying, with romanticism and beauty clashing with cynicism and what could be seen as supernatural forces at work.  It is also a bit too confusingly staged with so much Bohemian tomfoolery taking up screen time that some characters seem to be all over the place conceptually.  Which in fact may be one of the points.  As a "horror" movie, it only dabs its toes in the genre during the last twenty minutes which actually feel like the most exciting part of the entire movie.  Busting out the captivating if perhaps dated hallucinatory visuals, McDowall builds up a satisfactory final set piece and it is rather remarkable in a similar way as to how Charles Laughton displayed such confident control over his solo film behind the lens as well with The Night of the Hunter.  Ultimately, the movie is not as good as Night of the Hunter, but still.

THE GHOUL
(1975)
Dir - Freddie Francis
Overall: GOOD

Prolific British horror director Freddie Francis once again teams up with Peter Cushing for the rather delightfully macabre The Ghoul, (Night of the Ghoul, The Thing in the Attic).  Cushing had actually become just recently widowed upon the making of the film, which proved exponentially more emotional for the actor as he played a man whose wife had also passed.  For his part as the ex priest Dr. Lawrence, Cushing of course is on the ball as ever.  Yet it is really John Hurt as the vile, brute gardener who steals the movie.  He does not even bother tying up any of the women he captures; he just coldly and confidently sneers at them and amuses himself with roughing them up whenever they try and escape or talk back to him.  It is a wonderfully villainous role and thankfully, said women he comes in contact with are anything but helpless horror movie damsels.  They rather defiantly stand up for themselves and pretty much forgo doing anything implausible in their situation.  Little character behavioral details like this give the movie just enough of an edge, as the story itself is relatively familiar but certainly adequate.  Some may have preferred the title character to get more screen time, but his reveal is ultimately well-timed and the ending though easily anticipated, does nothing to impede the rest of the movie.

THE COMEBACK
(1978)
Dir - Pete Walker
Overall: GOOD

Pete Walker's second to last film in the decade where he made all of his noteworthy ones, The Comeback is one of several that can be credited to ushering in the slasher trend.  So like most "pre" slashers, it is far better than the multitude of creatively vacant duds that came in its wake.  The film is also very Pete Walkery, meaning that it keeps its silliness completely in check.  Walker rarely if ever lets his films get out of control and here he more embellishes a conventional mystery setting with barely any of his dark political or religious satire present.  As a "who is the killer?" vehicle where the main point is to mislead your audience and drop a massive twist for your finale, The Comeback is a roaring success as it is nearly impossible to see the conclusion coming.  Red herrings are shrewdly sprinkled everywhere and as a familiar viewer to such films, it becomes amusing to realize you are being mislead throughout all of it, making the last reveal all the more satisfying.  For the horror buff, the kills are brutal yet quite minimal, yet the movie makes up for it with several scenes that seem straight out of a Halloween haunted house.  Much of these things plus several others, (like the killer's costume and entire scheme to make the main protagonist go mad for no reason), can be picked out as rather ridiculous on paper, but once again Walker manages to deliberately manage them in an engaging manner.

70's British Horror Part Eight

CRUCIBLE OF TERROR
(1971)
Dir - Ted Hooker
Overall: MEH

One of the more peculiar British horror entries, Crucible of Terror, (Unholy Terror), at the very least deserves some acolytes for its rather uncommon plot.  There have been films about villainous artists before to be sure, but not too many presented as a murder mystery infused with Eastern occultism.  Mike Raven, (who delivered the camp in only four films in his career, including Lust for a Vampire and I, Monster), is as eccentric as ever as the obsessively horny and pretentious painter/sculptor with a wicked lisp to boot.  This has a number of brutal death sequences and ultimately a gratifying, final twist, but it does not quite overcome its pacing issues or flesh several of its other plot points out.  There are two scenes early on that are never followed up on or explained and then later story arcs are just sort of unnecessarily there, giving it a bit of a disjointed feel as if either certain filmed scenes were missing or the screenwriters never bothered to put them in.  Perhaps some of the blame can be laid at Ted Hooker's feet, who had only edited a small handful of projects before this, his first and last directorial effort.  Yet the film is reasonable to recommend both for Raven's hammy performance and for having enough unique and morbid details dashed here and there to keep it engaging.

DEATH LINE
(1972)
Dir - Gary Sherman
Overall: MEH

The one saving grace to Gary Sherman's dour, desperately dull debut Death Line, (Raw Meat in the U.S.), is actually a bittersweet saving grace.  That is the lead performance by Donald Pleasence who clearly seems to be enjoying himself as the rude, pompous, and arrogant police inspector.  Unfortunately, said performance starts out pretty funny but becomes a bit obnoxious and unrelatable once he starts yelling at people in trouble to leave him alone.  Its almost always annoying when cops act like they cannot be bothered to take any pedestrian in need of assistance seriously in movies, but it is actually worse when these same pedestrians just push officers out of the way and make loud commotion instead of explaining what the trouble is.  These are all minor annoyances, but the film's biggest muddled step is how absolutely boring it is.  There are so many unnecessarily long takes that watching this movie without fast-forwarding large parts of it would be a grave mistake.  There is a dank atmosphere maintained at some points to clash with the blatant comedy, but Sherman really sinks the proceedings by meandering way too long on scenes that go nowhere as slowly as possible.  Just think, Marlon Brando was originally cast as the mindless cannibal which certainly would have been a chuckle to see.  Still, at least Christopher Lee is hilarious in his five seconds of screen time.

VAMPYRES
(1974)
Dir - José Ramón Larraz
Overall: MEH

Far more akin to the barely scripted, incredibly slow moving erotic vampire movies made by European filmmakers like Jean Rollin and Jess Franco than anything emerging from Merry Ole England, José Ramón Larraz's Vampyres is a bit unorthodox in this respect.  Though Larraz was actually Spanish, that would explain something despite the fact that his most well known films were British productions such as this.  Regardless of Vampyres' country of origin, it fairly has an equal amount of things both going for it and going against it.  The Oakley Court mansion, (which was used in everything from a number of Hammer movies to The Rocky Horror Picture Show before becoming a luxury hotel in more recent times), is an excellent setting and for anyone primarily seeking immense amounts of nudity and blood, look no further than here.  Sadly though, it is all rather a bore to endure.  There is very little tension, no character resolution, and yet even less of a story.  Larraz concocts a few sinister moments, but the film is just too one-note to maintain a fascinating enough mood as its undead lesbians hitchhike, get their guests drunk, do naked things with them, drink their blood, and then repeat until the movie gets close enough to ninety minutes to simply end.

70's British Horror Part Seven

THE CORPSE
(1971)
Dir - Viktors Ritelis
Overall: MEH

A low budget re-imagining of the much surpassing in quality Les Diaboliques, The Corpse, (Crucible of Horror in the U.S.), is a messy movie to be sure.  The first half of the film sufficiently builds to an enticing enough moment, with genre-mainstay Michael Gough delivering a menacing performance as a tyrannical, obsessively proper father who torments his wife and daughter only to nonchalantly read the paper and prattle on about insignificant headlines a mere moment later.  He also washes his hands a lot and seems rather insistent on tidiness being maintained.  The build up to his comeuppance is interesting enough, but then things get less interesting and more head-scratching.  It is not only confusing how his wife and daughter continue to behave, but it is certainly also confusing how the laws of physics are vanquished as what may or may not be supernaturally transpiring is anyone's guess from the way it is conferred.  This is not done in a clever psychological manner, (though that was probably the desired end game), but instead through a random and sloppy mishmash of editing and scenes.  You are assuredly not likely to "get" it, but one may still enjoy what transpires to a point.

HOUSE OF MORTAL SIN
(1976)
Dir - Pete Walker
Overall: MEH

For Pete Walker's next stab at shining an ugly light on religious hypocrisy, he goes big with House of Mortal Sin, utilizing no less than an evil Catholic priest as its villainous brute.  Walker still takes his subject matter seriously and keeps it far enough away from overt camp, with some convincing portrayals helping him out along the way.  Shelia Keith has a minor yet important role one as she is once again a menacing, cruel old crone, but Anthony Sharp, (A Clockwork Orange), delivers splendidly as the tormented priest who is both childishly pitiful and overbearingly sinister at a moments notice.  Walker and David McGillivray's script almost keeps everything together to make it all convincing, but it is a shame that it relies so heavily on convincing the audience that a normal, rational woman would be declared delusional beyond any doubt by so many people for so long.  It is a detrimental cliche when characters in horror movies will not even fathom let alone look into other character's pleas for help, instead continuously giving them sedatives and saying they are emotionally stressed.  In this regard, Mortal Sin sins far too much.  The film is not likely to cheer anybody up, (a Walker hallmark if ever there was one), and the ending is even more dour than usual, but its genuine presentation is commendable at least above anything else.

DRACULA
(1979)
Dir - John Badham
Overall: GOOD

Saturday Night Fever director John Badham took a stab at adapting the Dracula stage play, (the same that Universal's 1931 Dracula was based on), to screen with Frank Langella returning to the role that won him a Tony Award on Broadway.  Being the most familiar story in all of horror fiction, this take intriguingly shuffles things around enough.  The best part of the book and most film adaptations is actually entirely skipped over, where Johnathan Harker meets the Count for the first time at his Transylvanian home.  Instead, many details that transpired then and throughout Bram Stoker's novel are cleverly moved around and adapted to follow a slightly different chain of events.  For his title character role, Langella excels with a suave, sophisticated confidence as he deliberately presents himself as the most charming man in the room, cutting off people's sentences and demanding everyone's attention with the most charming of mannerisms.  The grey and bleak set design and John William's musical score are also top notch, this version being the most directly influential one on Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 take, which upped many of these elements to almost schlocky overkill.  The only mistakes here are the typical ones with Dracula movies, like how he ignores his most useful powers at times when the script needs him to appear too vulnerable.  This aspect slightly fumbles the ending, but there is so much done exceedingly well throughout that it can easily rank as one of the very best of all Dracula films.

70's British Horror Part Six

AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS!
(1973)
Dir - Roy Ward Baker
Overall: MEH

A rare Gothic horror outing from the Amicus production company, (who generally left period pieces to the more famous Hammer studios, Amicus instead utilizing more contemporary settings), And Now the Screaming Starts! does not quite live up to the higher quality of other films in their catalog.  Though the gruesome, ghostly goings ons begin almost immediately and are quite campy and memorable, the mystery of it all becomes far too frustrating.  It is because Stephanie Beacham, (Dracula A.D. 1972, House of Mortal Sin), begins seeing supernatural occurrences within minutes of walking into her new home and said occurrences do not let up that it is all too aggravating that every single person surrounding her refuses to divulge any information at all, even whilst admitting that they are keeping everything from her.  By doing so, they also keep it from the viewers while at the same time testing our patience to constantly believe that everyone, (especially her husband), would just watch this poor woman loose her mind.  On the other HAND though, (that is a pun for anyone who has seen the movie), it is rather the point that keeping us in the dark for so long very much mirrors the film's main damsel's plight.  Still, the "she's just imagining everything and needs a nap" excuse does get stretched a little too thin.

FULL CIRCLE
(1977)
Dir - Richard Loncraine
Overall: MEH

The first film adaptation from one of the works by author Peter Straub, Full Circle, (The Haunting of Julia in the U.S.), is a rather confused realization of the source material it is based on.  Mia Farrow, (who would portray a tormented woman in a number of horror films), is fine as the main protagonist caught up in the ghostly goings on, which is more than you could say about her estranged husband Keir Dullea who seems to be trying to win an award for having the least convincing/minimally even trying British accent in all of cinema.  The story follows many familiar beats as Farrow's Julia takes all the standard steps towards solving the mystery, like having a psychic medium freak out in her house, going to a library to look up old newspapers, interviewing a number of participants who partook of some wickedness when they were children, and finally a visit to the movie version of a loony bin where patients roam the hallways, walk in circles, spout nonsense, stare blankly at walls, and an old woman smiles creepily at her and then gets angry and threatening.  Yet there are a handful of loose ends along the way with characters whose deaths are never followed up upon, plus the point A to point B maneuvering of the plot seems to be missing a number of pit stops along the way.

SCHALCKEN THE PAINTER
(1979)
Dir - Leslie Megahey
Overall: GOOD

Broadcast during the same time slot as A Ghost Story for Christmas, Schalcken the Painter is based off the renowned Irish Gothic horror writer Sheridan Le Fanu's fictions "Strange Event in the Life of Schalcken the Painter".  Though a completely fabricated story, it nevertheless was part of the BBC's Omnibus documentary series, in part not only because it features real historical painters Godfried Schalcken and Gerrit Dou as characters, but also because it provides insightful reenactments into the Leiden Fijnschilders period of Dutch art.  John Hooper's cinematography, (based off Johannes Vermeer's paintings from around the same era), is the star of nearly every frame.  Utilizing natural candle lighting and period sets to showcase both deep shadows and layers of details, an ideal atmosphere for the film's more fantastical elements is created with such elements appearing to be subtly lurking in the background throughout.  The few actual horror movie moments could not be more successfully displayed and director Leslie Megahey cultivates a deliberate mood throughout the just over an hour running time, with very little dialog and sparsely used music working in unison to keep things delicately spooky.

70's British Horror Part Five

SEE NO EVIL
(1971)
Dir - Richard Fleischer
Overall: GOOD

Richard Fleischer, (The Vikings, Soylent Green, Red Sonja), deserves nearly all of the props for what really works in See No Evil.  The premise of a blind woman under attack has been done a bundle of times, but Fleischer in utilizing a Hitchcockian gimmick to never reveal the killer's face until the last scene, (keeping both us and Mia Farrow's hapless damsel equally in the dark), makes for an innumerable number of effectively tense scenes.  The fact that most of these instances play out with no dramatic music underneath them also incredibly helps.  On that end though, the score when it does arrive succumbs to that near ruinous trait to be mood killing as it is much too lovely and swelling to fit the movie it is in.  Mia Farrow does not come off as cinema's most convincing blind woman as she noticeably makes eye contact with speaking characters a handful of times.  There are also two scenes that are not intended to be hilarious but rather are when she slips wildly and wide-eyed down a mud hill and gets knocked off her horse by a tree branch which resembles something right out of a Looney Tunes cartoon.  These are very insignificant complains though as once the movie hits the half hour mark, the majority of what follows is pretty heart-racing stuff.

THE STONE TAPE
(1972)
Dir - Peter Sasdy
Overall: GOOD

One of the most lauded horror works within the television medium, The Stone Tapes debuted on Christmas Day, 1972 on BBC Two as a standalone part of its annual Christmas ghost story tradition.  Director Peter Sasdy recently had some Hammer productions under his belt, (Taste the Blood of Dracula, Countess Dracula, and Hands of the Ripper), and writer Nigel Kneale was already known as one of the most prolific screenwriters in England, most famously for originating the Quartermass series.  As it holds up all these decades later, this is still pretty solid.  The cast is recognizable from other horror genre works, Doctor Who episodes, and even by one of them, (Jane Asher), being Paul McCartney's old love interest.  Though it is expertly performed,  delivered very straight from Sasdy's directorial chair, and has a very unmelodic and adequate score, Kneale's unnerving and approximately realistic story itself is the star attraction.  Few horror works would influence actual science, but The Stone Tapes indeed has a theory named after it in the paranormal research community, pertaining to the play's premise of ghosts leaving behind recordings within a natural environment.  Rather impressive.

PSYCHOMANIA
(1973)
Dir - Don Sharp
Overall: GOOD

Both silly and fun in equal amounts, Psychomania , (also known more appropriately as The Death Wheelers), is one of those movies where its absurdity has everything to do with its charm.  Though it has a distinguished enough cast, (with George Sanders no less in his last film role), and director Don Sharp is credited with some straight-laced Hammer outings, Psychomania is a ludicrous, often exploitative movie that uses its nuttiness to its advantage.  There are one or two genuinely chilling scenes, (the one involving the weird room and the mirror for the win), but most of the time it is humorous to watch the main motorcycle gang partake of many outrageous, leisurely activities.  The film's premise is as outlandish as they come, but there are so many odd details that you can not only forgive but actually kind of admire the randomness of many of them.  One moment involving a guy getting buried in a hole while he sits perfectly erect on his motorcycle while his buddy sings a jaw-droppingly terrible hippy song about how rebellious he was was so asinine it should derail the whole movie.  Instead, it proved rather memorable, be it in a way most likely not intended.  To be clear though, most of the enjoyment to be found here is meant to be found.  It is a wonderfully wacky addition to anyone's British horror viewing.

70's British Horror Part Four

AND SOON THE DARKNESS
(1970)
Dir - Robert Fuest
Overall: MEH

Though co-scripted by prolific Doctor Who writer Terry Nation, having Dr. Phibes director Robert Fuest behind the lens, and featuring Pamela Franklin, (The Innocents, The Legend of Hell House), all on board, And Soon the Darkness ends up being a sleazy bore.  Emphasis on the word "bore".  As was unfortunately commonly done in this era, monotony is a gargantuan problem here, a movie that once again makes up nearly its entire running time with scenes of people walking, running, and looking around two or three locations back and forth, over and over again.  Fuest does not concoct nearly enough suspense to keep these endless moments of waiting for anything at all to happen come off as anything but laborsome.  Now to the film's credit, the actual mystery as to what is going on is very successfully kept secret until the last possible second and there are numerous moments that cleverly misdirect the audience.  The only problem again is that these moments are suffocated by a such a tedious pace and honestly the final reveal is a little dumb.  Maintaining an effective slow burn is a delicate matter to be sure, but the movie does not pull it off in the least and is a bit of a near-miss, (or near-hit), judging on the handful of elements that otherwise would have elevated it into being one of the more unique thrillers of its kind.

FRIGHTMARE
(1974)
Dir - Pete Walker
Overall: GOOD

Following up the same year's House of Whipcord and once again teamed up with Shelia Keith who would go on to be featured in a number of his films, Pete Walker's Frightmare is arguably the director's most straight-laced horror movie.  This is even taking into account that his very last movie would feature horror icons Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and John Carridine.  Certainly exploitative though forgoing any nudity, the film has cannibalism, family dysfunction, some nasty murders. and even a gang of hoodlums beating a bartender to a most bloody pulp as part of its makeup instead.  This would go on to become a lauded role for Keith who portrays a type of mania that hits several different beats, often in the same scene and never venturing too far into schlock terrain.  In fact most of the film keeps a lid on it as far as going too far over the top with some very well-staged moments that appear more natural than one would expect from the genre-ripe script.  This is both in part of the entire cast playing it straight and Walker controlling the jolts very attentively.  It is this type of fine line control that would make Walker a well-respected name in his field, Frightmare proving that he had the skills to keep his outrageous scripts reasonably in check.

SYMPTOMS
(1974)
Dir - José Ramón Larraz
Overall: GOOD

Missing for several decades due to the original prints being mishandled and simply circulating in bootleg form for the time being, José Ramón Larraz's Symptoms was finally located and re-released in 2016.  This is fortunate not only from a film preservation standpoint, but also because it is a rather sufficient bit of psychological horror to be sure.  There are some pacing problems as it boils perhaps a bit too long on the kettle, but Larraz has an aptitude for exhibiting very subtle, creepy moments usually in a "blink and you'll miss them" fashion.  When these moments do transpire, they successfully grasp the viewer back into it all and there is just enough of them to not crawl everything down.  Rare for a horror film, the shocks are actually rather shocking here, being mostly attributed to the patience Larraz has in revealing them.  Donald Pleasence's daughter Angela not only looks exactly like him, but her skeletal, odd, and unkempt appearance is matched perfectly to her abnormal performance.  It is obvious to see the comparisons one can make to Roman Polanski's top-notch Repulsion, which took a far more visually striking, avant-garde approach to similar subject matter.  Yet Symptoms is a unique and more low-key enough beast on its own merits.

70's British Horror Part Three

MUMSY, NANNY, SONNY, AND GIRLY
(1970)
Dir - Freddie Francis
Overall: MEH
 
A rare auteur work of sorts from Freddie Francis that was not a directorial assignment from a production studio, Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny, and Girly, (Girly), was instead made independently and represents one of the exploitation British films from the turn of the 1970s that channeled more risque subject matter.  Based on Maisie Mosco's two-act play Happily Family, screenwriter Brian Comport toned-down or outright eliminated elements of incest, lesbianism, and sadomasochism, though the story kept the disturbed premise of a cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs family that holds up in a spacious mansion, kidnapping hapless people and making them partake of childish games and regulations.  Francis set up the project both as a means to attain full creative control and to shoot something at the Victorian Gothic house Oakley Court in Berkshire, which he had merely utilized for exteriors on other films.  Both Vanessa Howard and Howard Trevor behave like kids in a unwholesome home life that skews proper English etiquette into twisted playtime that go on perpetually, and Francis keeps the dark humor in check with all of the ghastly murders played for shock value as the ridiculous scenario goes on undeterred.  Excessive in length and repetitive with an unsatisfactory ending, it still has enough historical merit to recommend.

THE BEAST MUST DIE
(1974)
Dir - Paul Annett
Overall: GOOD

One of Amicus's more gimmicky entries, The Beast Must Die basically locks Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None and Richard Connell's The Most Dangerous Game together in a room with a werewolf.  The premise being a rather clever "who done it?" hybrid, much of the movie's success stems from its concept alone.  Peter Cushing has a bit part and the man could not come off as more classy and professional if he tried, plus other genre regulars Anton Diffring and Charles Gray bring in more familiarity.  In the lead, Calvin Lockhart is either delightfully or annoyingly over the top as the eccentric millionaire who is as equally obsessed with hunting a lycanthropian beast as he is making grandiose speeches at every opportunity.  The film slags a little bit as it becomes clear from the outset that we are going to sit through all three nights of the full moon before finding out what is transpiring.  There is ultimately little else to do but have Lockhart continually shoot at a wolf that keeps getting away and then accuse his party guests who grow less and less tolerant of the monotony of it all.  The climax is relatively satisfying though, all the more so for coming after a rather funny and meta "werewolf break", something rather unique to this movie.

THE SHOUT
(1978)
Dir - Jerry Skolimowski
Overall: GOOD

Boasting a genuinely strong cast, (including John Hurt, Alan Bates, and even Tim Curry for a few moments), Jerry Skolimowski's The Shout is the type of arty, psychological semi-horror film that very deliberately presents itself as a bewilderment.  Based off pf the short story by Robert Graves, there are minor hints of Lovecraftian madness, but the appearance of it all is something uniquely credited to Skolimowski most likely.  As a graduate from the National Film School in Łódź, (who also has Roman Polanski as one of its alumni), Skolimowski's direction of his actors particularly and the way the film is spliced together are its largest components to the intended on-screen delusion.  Yet the avant score from two members of Genesis not only contributes to the movie's hipness, but also does a bang up job of furthering what is strange about it.  The narrative increasingly bounces between what' is most likely the present and what is most likely not the "actual" past, and all the behavior from all of the characters does everything it can to make the viewer uneasy as to what on earth can be occurring.  No audience spoon-feeding allowed, it is a welcomed approach regardless of the overall outcome, but thankfully said outcome is quite effective in its subtle eeriness.

70's British Horror Part Two

THE BEAST IN THE CELLAR
(1970)
Dir - James Kelley
Overall: WOOF

Nearly every last aspect of The Beast in the Cellar is deplorable.  These are not even taking into account any message or story elements because who cares about that when the viewing experience is this catastrophically boring.  It goes past the point of unintentional comedy when the entire film is made up of rapidly edited, terrible POV shots of people getting attacked followed by an ungodly amount of minutes with two elderly women grumbling on about tea, feeling fine, then not feeling fine, then some of the most ridiculous expository dialog staging you can imagine.  The lack of budget is a monumental hindrance as it is filmed at one house for 90% of the time, which is fine in and of itself if anything actually interesting ever transpires.  There is monotony and then there is what this movie takes to near uncharted territory.  Not only does it just faintly qualify as a horror film, but it is barely a movie at all since it far more closely resembles a play that was written and performed in a retirement home by its occupants and the only people forced to endure it are the other inhabitants who only cheer at the finale since that means they can go play bingo now.

THE ASPHYX
(1972)
Dir - Peter Newbrook
Overall: GOOD

Though there are a few dubious missteps in Peter Newbrook's The Asphyx, (Spirit of the Dead, The Horror of Death), by the whole it is a genuinely particular take on the mad scientist genre.  To fully immerse oneself in the science of the plot, one has to gulp down a generous concoction of absurdity, but as far as the realms of even the most remote of realistic possibilities are concerned, it does a swell job of keeping the preposterous logistics of its universe in check.  The story really wins some points in being unique amongst the untold amount of would-be similar horror films made throughout the decades though as few if any others hold quite the same fantastical premise.  Newbrook forgoes going with a dramatic score a noticeably frequent amount of times and uses many stylistic editing techniques such as long takes, characters beginning one conversation in one location and then seamlessly continuing it much later in another, and the old walking into the camera to quickly fade it out and in from black to another scene.  Really it is only a few needlessly extravagant death scenes you can see coming miles away and the lead performance from Robert Stephens, (1968's Romeo and Juliet), that fractures what is solid here from time to time.  Several of Stephens' hysterical breakdowns garnish unintended laughter, especially when they transpire at very pivotal and alarming instances.  Still, the film is certainly different and well accomplished enough elsewhere to be worth the watch.

HOUSE OF WHIPCORD
(1974)
Dir - Pete Walker
Overall: GOOD

Peter Walker and screenwriter David McGillivray's first collaboration is the mostly notable House of Whipcord, which is probably one of the strongest women in private prison movies that has been made.  The ironic humor is so undercut by the very grim, dire tone that permeates most of the film that it is only occasionally noticeable.  The opening on-screen text is the obvious in-joke and most of the sequences between Ann-Marie's roommates act as silly and somewhat boring mood killers that get in the way of the real meat of everything, being psychotic right wing sadism brought forth upon innocent young girls who have the audacity to be flirtations and shameless whilst showing some skin once in awhile.  There are some liberties taken with physics and logic to move things along, particularly in the final act when the prison that took several hours to drive to earlier in the film takes but mere minutes later on, (unless we are to believe that Anne Michelle's Julia has been playing cat and mouse with her pursuers for much longer than is conveyed).  Also, why Julia is the first and only one to break free from the grand total of two prison madams who act as the establishment's muscle is rather far-fetched as the place is hardly equipped with an arsenal of guards to keep it running smoothly.  It never once convincingly comes across as an inescapable fortress.  Still, Walker turns what could have been ludicrous and trashy for trash's sake into something that comes off as very consistently dire and menacing by the end. 

70's Sergio Martino Part Two

THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH
(1971)
Overall: MEH

Sergio Martino's first of many giallo offerings was The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, (Lo strano vizio della Signora Wardh, Blade of the Ripper, Next!, The Next Victim).  Lead actress Edwige Fenech would end up being in a whole lot of this Italian sub-genre, (more helmed by Martino as well), and she would be naked in even more movies than that, making her rather the textbook, preeminent giallo scream queen.  Several screenwriters were on hand here and it rather shows since the film ultimately cannot make up its mind as to what its twist is going to be.  So many players could potentially be behind such murderous plotting so why not make all of them behind it, (kind of)?  You are more likely to chuckle to yourself than scratch your head by the last ten or so minutes, particularly where two characters decide to swerve all over the road whilst cackling over their fiendish scheme going off without a hitch.  It was a goofy moment proceeded by lots of naked ones with the occasional "oh, now this woman is obviously going to die" throat-slashing scene thrown in.  This would usually happen while said woman was still naked of course.  It is easy to dismiss these films as male libido driven excursions into sexism even when those same males in the film generally get their comeuppance, but though this one is delivered with a wildly convoluted plot and plenty of eye candy, it is still basically giallo by numbers.

YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY
(1972)
Overall: MEH

Well this one certainly wins the "most ridiculous title for a giallo movie" award.  Confusing matters, Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key, (Il tuo vizio è una stanza chiusa e solo io ne ho la chiave, Gently Before She Dies, Eye of the Black Cat, Excite Me!), is actually taken from a letter that a killer left in The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, (so many vices).  In that film it made sense more or less but in its context here, it is rather headscratching.  The film follows the pattern of having lots of horny people who ultimately have no redeeming qualities to them.  The blade-wielding psychopath is more of an afterthought here, but on top of numerous women getting their necks slashed so we can see blood splattered across their chests, other women get routinely smacked around, upping the male chauvinism tenfold.  As mentioned, it becomes more of a miserable experience in that the three main protagonists are all awful people so you on the one hand want them all to get what is coming to them, but also do not want anyone coming out on top.  Since nearly all of these stories follow the same series of blueprints, it really comes down to cinematic styling as far as how successful they are.  Martino knowingly references Edgar Alan Poe's The Black Cat throughout which gives it just a hint of a supernatural quality and he expertly frames all of the mysterious goings on to keep us in the dark.  Yet the despicable aspects are too cumbersome to make the movie properly enjoyable.

THE SUSPICIOUS DEATH OF A MINOR
(1975)
Overall: GOOD

Sergio Martino trades in any and all elements of macabre or even dreamlike stylistic touches with The Suspicious Death of a Minor, (Morte sospetta di una minorenne, Too Young to Die), one of his lesser appreciated giallos.  Instead, he pretty much makes the Italian version of Dirty Harry.  The script, (credited to Martino and Ernesto Gastaldi who worked with nearly every B-movie Italian genre director throughout the 60s, 70s, and 80s), is rather competent with layers of corruption, prostitution, and drug trafficking mixed with chase scenes, people shooting guns, and bad guys murdering women.  As the main protagonist, (and clear Clint Eastwood stand-in), Cladio Cassinelli is effective at gaining our sympathies even when it is unclear for quite a ways into the film that he is actually the "good guy".  Which is a pleasant structural twist in and of itself.  Things get a little bumbly along the way with slap-stick comedy and goofy music overtaking the score at several instances, many of which come off as kind of sidetracking any genuine tension that could have been communicated.  These are minor, (huh huh, get it?), complaints though as the film becomes increasingly more interesting as it goes on.  Martino stages most of the plot curves admirably, even the ones that may have been more predictable than others.  Perhaps slasher fans may find the movie lacking in more brutal, gory, and elaborately staged murdering sequences, but as a capable, Euro-flavored action film, it gets the job done.

70's Italian Horror Part Two

LADY FRANKENSTEIN
(1971)
Dir - Mel Welles
Overall: MEH

With the most noteworthy thing on his resume being the role of the flower shop owner in the original Little Shop of Horrors, you are not necessarily going into a "directed by Mel Welles" movie with the highest of expectations.  An international joint production that was heavily funded by Roger Corman's New World Pictures after an Italian bank backed out, Lady Frankenstein is of course one of the countless films that once again adapts the Mary Shelley novel.  Well, adapts its "Man playing god" premise at least.  There are some less common flourishes for this round with Frankenstein's bizarrely horny daughter fetching a scheme that can only exist in low budget horror movies to have her father's assistant's brain transplanted into a young, hunky village idiot's body in order to both make sweet, Gothic lover to him and be strong enough to kill her father's monster that is repetitively murdering people by throwing things at them in every other scene.  So it is definitely stupid, but it is also delightfully stupid for the most part.  Welles, (a coincidental last name as none other than Joseph Cotten plays the Baron, hardly looking the thirty years older that he was since Citizen Kane), does not drag the film down into typically tedious pacing and there is just enough nudity and cliched shots of mad scientist equipment that serves no logical purpose besides having to be there because Frankenstein.  The ending is comically abrupt and asinine, but it also does not really surprise you by being so.

THE NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF THE GRAVE
(1972)
Dir - Emilio Miraglia
Overall: MEH

Many giallo films fly off the rails at various times, usually around the conclusion when the mystery of who is causing all the bloody shenanigans and why is finally divulged to the audience.  Yet The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave, (La notte che Evelyn uscì dalla tomba), consistently keeps things absurd the entire time.  The main protagonist is psychotic as soon as we meet him and we witness this several times throughout the film, not only making him wholly unsympathetic, but also making it very far-fetched and silly by the end that virtually every other character is even more diabolical.  The viewer is completely mislead, (which is a given for these bloody, Italian pre-slasher movies), but the "pay-off" at the end where multiple rugs are pulled out from under us in a matter of mere minutes is wacky to the point of being comical.  This can be considered a plus though as the incredibly implausible lack of realism certainly does not make the film come off as anything resembling "boring".  To flavor things up, it is loaded with Gothic horror elements, (including a very goofy seance, a dark and spooky castle, crypts being opened, ghost sightings, and even a woman wearing a skeleton mask), all of which make the script's believably suffer while at the same times making for a more fun ride.  There is conclusively too many missteps, (particularly in the jumbled ending), to give it a sincere recommendation, but it does distinguish itself just enough as a hoot.

THE HOUSE WITH LAUGHING WINDOWS
(1976)
Dir - Pupi Avati
Overall: WOOF

What a bizarre experience this is.  Few, (make that no), giallo films are more frustrating in their presentation than Pupi Avati's generally praised The House with Laughing Windows, (La casa dalle finestre che ridono).  One can be brought to an aghast standstill over how unbearably boring it is.  The one-hundred and ten minute running time is the movie's undoing in so many ways.  Nothing happens for so very, very long besides people leaving vague warnings over the phone, (which are never explained), our main protagonist having two love interests, (the first of which is 100% irrelevant to anything), several characters repeatedly attempting to deliver expository dialog only to continually be stopped, and so, so, so much back and forth between various locations where absolutely nothing transpires to further the plot.  It is simply exhausting to have our main character be in one building, walk around slowly or have a conversation, then have him go to another building and do the same over and over again for well over an hour with the outright bare minimum in suspense being portrayed.  This is a pivotal mistake to wearing the viewer's patience down so incredibly much that by the ridiculous ending, it is nearly impossible to have any kind of investment nor the faintest idea of what is going on.  Shaving off an hour and a half where it could have been a short segment for a TV series may have proved memorable, but in its brutally uncompromising full-length, giallo rarely gets more excruciating to stay awake for than here.

60's British Horror Part Five - Fu Manchu Series

THE FACE OF FU MANCHU
(1965)
Dir - Don Sharp
Overall: MEH

Ignoring the ever present whitewashing that many films in typically Anglo Saxon countries produced during this time, (only one actual Asian speaking main character is actually Asian here), The Face of Fu Manchu has Christopher Lee as the fictitious, evil criminal mastermind and because it is Christopher Lee, it is therefor certainly watchable.  Thankfully, the legendary actor had enough class and good sense to not put on a fake Chinese accent to go along with the fake Chinese makeup, (though he would unfortunately hint more at that in later installments), but his title character is written as generically boring as they get despite how competently Lee portrays him.  The plot is so simple that much of the action seems forced and barely warrants much more than a complacent shrug from the audience.  The general lack of creativity in the script department unfortunately permeates the whole, which throws in a lot of drawn-out fist fights to make the film appear more exciting than it is, with said fist fights being just as lackluster as anything else transpiring.  Four more films immediately followed this one, (each one emerging a year apart as to effectively wear-out the franchise), but unfortunately things were already off to a very mediocre start to begin with here.

THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU
(1966)
Dir - Don Sharp
Overall: MEH

Once again Fu Manchu is up to his old tricks which in installment two is already starting to wear thin.  Handled again by one of Hammer's second tier directors Don Sharp, (The Kiss of the Vampire, Rasputin, the Mad Monk), this would be Sharp's last in the Fu Manchu series before he was replaced by Jeremy Summers the next go-round.  The role of Scottland Yard detective/Fu Manchu's arch enemy Nayland Smith was switched from Nigel Green to Douglas Wilmer, but besides that, The Brides of Fu Manchu is an almost identical run-through as the previous year's Face of.  Daughters of prominent scientists and political figures, (who all seem to conveniently be around their mid twenties and attractive), are gathered up by the Asian-by-way-of-Christopher-Lee tyrant to use as leverage to get his next doomsday weapon operational.  He thwarts the authorities hunting him every step of the way through the exact same means, (misleading them with disguises, red herrings, and announcing dates and locations of his attacks by way of the airwaves), until he does not anymore, then getting his headquarters blown up only to have him ominously threaten in voice-over that he will of course be back to fight another day.  Lee gets a little more screen time and we pretty much jump right into him back in action with no set up, but the retreaded story elements are so precise that it barely if all all warrants its existence in the first place.

THE VENGEANCE OF FU MANCHU
(1967)
Dir - Jeremy Summers
Overall: MEH

Switching directors with Jeremy Summers, (House of 1,000 Dolls), for round three in the Constantin Film produced Fu Manchu series, thankfully the villainous, title-character overlord at last changes up his world domination scheme.  Though he still cannot help but to kidnap somebody's daughter and torture them to get what he wants.  The man has an itch he seems incapable of not scratching.  The Vengeance of Fu Manchu is appropriately titled as the story focuses near exclusively on the would-be undoing of his arch enemy Nayland Smith, which up until a point is showcased somewhat interestingly.  We are given a rather large thematic-leap pill to swallow for the plot to gain momentum, but this is forgivable as the pace is kept up even though most of the action set pieces yet again seem to be padded on to fatten the fist fight quota.  There are also some very unmemorable side characters with rushed-to-non-existent backstories, two entirely pointless musical segments, and everything is more clumsy than clever in that Smith's at-long-last capture is depicted entirely off-screen.  The biggest flub though is in the ending which appears to have been improvised after they forgot to write one.  At this point it is assuredly laughable that no one ever bothers to check the recently blown-up remains of Fu Manchu's hideout to see if he is actually dead, instead just continually shrugging and literally proclaiming that they will probably hear from him again.  With two more sequels on the way, their very predictable prediction would prove correct.

THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU
(1968)
Dir - Jesús Franco
Overall: WOOF

Well, bringing Jess Franco on board to helm the fourth Fu Manchu excursion noticeably changes a few aspects, none of which in a good way.  The first three films in the franchise being relatively competent if somewhat lifeless in many parts, The Blood of Fu Manchu is the first one to aggressively insult the viewer's intelligence.  To pit all of the blame on Franco would probably be unfair as most of the observable directorial choices he makes are innocent enough quirky camera angles, zooms, and more nudity and sadism than was previously on display.  Yet he also very jarringly inserted footage from another movie, (The Girl from Rio), and somebody somewhere made some dubious editing choices.  Lady Manchu Lin Tang, (Tsai Chin), now has randomly generic Eastern mystic powers for the first and only time, (for one scene), and has a brief moment of her cackling on her throne, which is also out of character.  The schlock level is jacked-up elsewhere as well with the worst character in the series, (some fat bandit pendejo called Sancho Lopez), getting way too much screen time and Dr. Petrie badly attempting comic relief about how cold his tea is getting while he is suffering in a dungeon.  It is the plot though that takes the most jabs at our intellect as Fu Manchu gets a bunch of kidnapped girls, (yes, more of that), to get bitten by a snake and then sends them all over the world to kiss and poison his enemies which will miraculously kill all of them at the exact same moment six weeks later when the moon is full.  When the heroes dash in at the last minute to save the day, do they unleash a stream of bullets anywhere near Manchu or his daughter who are just standing there watching?  Why would they do that when they can instead easily pick off all his no-name henchmen and for the forth straight time blow up his hideout and admit that he is probably going to return again later.  As Mr. Charles Brown would say, "Good grief".

THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU
(1969)
Dir - Jesús Franco
Overall: WOOF

Well the "movie" that finally brought the Fu Manchu franchise to a mercy killing end is powerfully awful enough to have had the potential to end everyone's career involved, let alone the titular villain's fictional legacy.  After watching it, one can be at a complete understanding as to why it caused the cast of MST3K to break down into tears of agony.  Right out of the gate, the signs are pointing towards doom as footage from two different movies, (the earlier The Brides of Fu Manchu and inexplicably the Titanic film A Night to Remember), are spliced together to make up the opening scene.  In fact nearly all of the effect shots are taken from stock footage and other films, (including a moment where a dam gets demolished for absolutely no plot-worthy reason).  So there are assuredly budget problems here.  Things get increasingly muddled to the point of incomprehensibility and also wearisome as the running time clocks down, making the majority of The Castle of Fu Manchu the kind of bad cinema that is more boring than funny.  For a few moments sprinkled throughout and certainly all of the last twenty minutes though,  the bets are all off.  Characters easily escape as Fu Manchu watches them escape, characters whose names we do not even remember fall in love with absolutely no build up, a woman drowns in waste high water, a prisoner is declared to have no further use only to have further use in the next scene, a doctor easily bests several trained guards at unarmed combat, a scientist who can speak just fine is given a heart transplant in order to continue to speak just fine and when he is asked again to divulge a secret formula and simply says "no", Fu Mahchu gets it anyway on a piece of paper that someone nonchalantly hands him, and well, this will go on for about another thousand words if we are to list everything atrociously wrong here.

70's Spanish Horror Part Three

HANNAH, QUEEN OF THE VAMPIRES
(1973)
Dir - Julio Salvador/Ray Danton
Overall: GOOD

This one is rather all over the place.  Existing mostly under the horror radar with a scant few reviews you can find online after some digging, Hanna, Queen of the Vampires, (La tumba de la isla maldita, Young Hanna, Queen of the Vampires, Crypt of the Living Dead, Vampire Woman), appears to be made up of footage shot by two different directors, placing its initial origin somewhere vague.  Was it a co-production from both America and Spain or a Spanish film that got sliced and diced by an American director for said market?  Or both?  Ray Danton was mostly known as a B actor, (and for being married to Creature from the Black Lagoon scream queen Julie Adams), but he is credited with being behind the lens on this one along with Julio Salvador who is obscure enough to not even have his own wikipedia page.  Script wise, the film adheres to as many cliches as it possibly can with rude, superstitious villagers, a shouting foreigner who follows science, cult worship, a mute wild man in place of a village idiot, creepy kids, a vampire who is barely threatening and easily thwarted, and of course a tomb, wooden stakes, and dogsbane, (in place of wolfsbane) to round up the undead specifics.  Yet despite the occasionally goofy story elements and some jerky editing, the pace is remarkably brisk and the entire film is satisfyingly atmospheric with a nice, nasty ending and a creepy if easily anticipated final tag to boot.

THE LEGEND OF BLOOD CASTLE
(1973)
Dir - Jorge Grau
Overall: MEH

Though mostly interesting yet ultimately brought down by a tedious flow and botched editing, Jorge Grau's The Legend of Blood Castle, (Bloody Ceremony), is a near recommendable vampire outing that succeeds at manipulating many of the sub-genre's stereotypes.  In this universe, dead vampires are put on trial, (wheeled into a lavish courtroom, coffin and all), and the entire town acts not as a manic, superstitious mob, but instead as a very well-organized and oiled, vampire investigating machine.  Vampirism and witchcraft both seem to just be normal things that are dealt with just as legally as say a land dispute.  This all makes it a very exclusive take on the Gothic, Hammer-esque style that otherwise the film closely follows, certainly taking into consideration that it is yet another re-working of the Elizabeth Bathory legend.  Oddly though, the film is sort of given an additional twist that seems to have been thrown in as an afterthought where instead of being shown flashbacks, it would have been far less confusing to let the scenes pan out in a natural, chronological fashion.  Instead, it rather looses the audience along the way and then abruptly tries to smooth it out once it is rather too late.  The set pieces though bounce back and forth rather tiresomely, which is yet another shame given all the potential to be thoroughly unique elsewhere.

WHO CAN KILL A CHILD?
(1976)
Dir - Narciso Ibáñez Serrador
Overall: GREAT

Screenwriter/director Narciso Ibáñez Serrador has only made two theatrically released films in his decades long career, instead being far more prolific in television.  Yet both of them, (this and 1970's The House That Screamed) are easily two of the best European horror films out there.  Adapted by himself and Juan José Plans from the latter's own novel titled El juego de los niños (The Children's Game), Who Can Kill a Child? is one of the many in the Village of the Damned vein where the premise alone is naturally disturbing to any viewer.  Serrandor simply excels with the material though.  The film could almost be criticized as being too long if not for the fact that all the time spent building and then simmering in the eerie fantasy is deliberately given enough depth and detail to work.  With an eight minute intro of war footage showcasing suffering children and then a full half hour of our main protagonists innocently portrayed without any cliche foreboding, by the time the film enters its second and third acts, everything unbelievable that transpires sits in a completely realistic set of circumstances.  The performances are as believable as they get and Serrador stages all of his heart-racing scenes in the most memorable way possible, with virtually no blunders to be found.  It is far more appropriately unflinching than exploitative and the only real downside to the experience is that Serrador has so very few such other works under his resume.  On that note, having two out of two masterpieces is highly commendable.