70's Foreign Horror Part Four

THE DEVIL'S NIGHTMARE
(1971)
Dir - Jean Brismée
Overall: GOOD

Slow in parts and if you are watching the English dubbed version, be prepared of course to unintentionally chuckle at how awful the dialog comes off, but the Belgium/Italian co-production The Devil's Nightmare, (The Devil's Longest Night, The Terrifying Night of the Demon, and The Devil Walks at Midnight), gets by just enough on its spooky atmosphere and fun, be it simple premise.  All of the avenues that the plot takes are pretty standard and foreseeable as the characters are more caricatures than anything, each meeting their doom while somewhat representing one of the seven deadly sins, which is highly convenient for the evil forces that are after them.  Yet director Jean Brismée does a mostly fine job of staging everything in a memorable way, whether it is uncomfortable closeups of gluttony, brutal murders by way of medieval torture devices, random lesbians for some reason, and subtle, creepy make-up design.  Most of the performances come off either too stiff or silly, but Daniel Emilfork and Erika Blanc still manage to be appropriately ghoulish in their respected, sinister roles.  The musical score for once is actually rather strong as well, probably because it is from the hilariously named Alessandro Alessandroni, the man behind the iconic, "Man with No Name" trilogy soundtrack.

THE RAT SAVIOR
(1976)
Dir - Krsto Papić
Overall: GOOD

One of the few, (only?), Croatian horror films out there, Izbavitelj, (The Rat Savior), was based off of Russian author Alexander Grin’s 1920’s novel Pacolovac, which translates to "The Ratcatcher".  Made on a very modest budget and shot in the country's capital of Zareb, it plays out as a creepy fairytale with excellent similarities to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Society, or any other "what is this large group of people up to?" type fare.  The movie is not particularly shocking or even that violent while being less of a mystery in general and more of a moody, politically-conscious, extreme fantasy where the social commentary can likewise remind one of George Orwell's 1984 amongst other things.  The Rat Savior is also pretty void of humor and not at any point does it treat itself in any kind of tongue in cheek way.  This is a plus and a testament to Krsto Papić's wise direction which builds up a level of dread while still successfully glossing over many details, briskly moving the film along, (it is less than a hour and a half), letting the minimalist make-up effects never come off as silly, and not letting any hammy performances get in the way.

THIRST
(1979)
Dir - Rod Hardy
Overall: MEH

One of the stranger vampire films to come out of the 1970s, (saying something), Rod Hardy's full-length debut Thirst is an interesting, partially successful combination of Soylent Green and any film where the main protagonist cannot seem to wake up from their nightmare nor be able to tell whether they are tripping balls or not.  The set-up is certainly interesting and carries the movie through most of its deficiencies.  These would be the score by Brian May, (no not THAT Brian May), which rarely shuts up long enough to not tell us when something evil is going on.  Also, the kind of underwritten plot leaves out too many details for its own good.  Ambiguity can very often times be a plus in horror films, but Thirst does not necessarily give off the aura of mystery that it needs in order to complement the lack of answers that we are given.  It just seems kind of "buh?" instead.  The ending in particular is structured like it is supposed to be a twist, but there is a lingering feeling that several things may not have been conveyed like they were supposed to, making the wrap-up unsatisfying.  Some of the performances are rather eerie and Australian soap opera star Chantal Contouri is excellent as the tormented lead with a diabolical lineage, but it is still a shame that the movie comes so close to pulling off its wacky premise only to fall just shy of such an accomplishment.

70's Foreign Horror Part Three

DIABEL
(1972)
Dir - Andrzej Żuławski
Overall: MEH

This politically conscious, nasty art film Diabel, (The Devil), from Andrzej Żuławski was his second overall and helped set the template for excited characterizations from his cast as well as overt violence and sexual deviance.  With nigh an exception, every character seems to uncontrollably contort their body in extravagant spasms and with the whole thing beginning with the, (probably), title character freeing the main protagonist from a completely overrun insane asylum during the 18th century, Prussian invasion of Poland, it could be logically assumed that the entire movie is an intentionally bewildering allegory of some sort.  If not, then it is just a bunch of miserable, awful set pieces meant only to make you loathe humanity and be uncomfortable, (Lars von Trier probably saw this and got such an idea for his entire career).  There are certainly movies more strange and many others more unwholesome, but the lengthy running time and deliberate incoherence does indeed make it all a steady bummer to sit through after awhile.  Żuławski shoots much of it in frantic, hand-held, long takes that while impressive, likewise serve their purpose to make the viewer rather distressed in their seat.  The bleak cinematography does a similar trick that if anything else, also makes the harsh tone thoroughly consistent.

BLACK CHRISTMAS
(1974)
Dir - Bob Clark
Overall: MEH

POV shots, a cat and mouse sensibility, and the picking off of young, attractive college girls are some of the more future-frequented elements in Bob Clark's seminal Black Christmas that would occasionally be done better but usually far, far, far worse in the coming decades.  Clark was already an established horror maestro with Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things and Deathdream directly proceeding this and the future Porky's and A Christmas Story director infused a liberal amount of humor to A. Roy Moore's script, which works in some instances while not in others.  Margot Kidder and Marian Waldman make excellent drunks, but the "fellatio" gag happens two times too many and goes on for too long in both instances.  Olivia Hussey is hit or miss as the final girl as some of her dialog and delivery steps too far into high school play territory, but the ambiguous ending and Carl Zitter's strange, ambient piano banging "music" are excellent touches.  By being a slasher film though, Black Christmas does too many things insultingly wrong.  If the screaming calls are coming from inside of the house, (and at least once happening when a loud murder is actually taking place), how in the fuck would the person on the other line not notice it is inside the house?  Nobody is going to check the attic at the end even when you can see a fucking dead body through the window from outside?  Also Hussey's character does the textbook, excruciatingly aggravating thing of not getting the fuck out of harm's way when every shred of conceivable logic would make anybody do so.  Oh, and one of the all time worst horror cliches of cops not taking anybody seriously rears its ugly head as well, though at least that latter detail is poked fun at within the film.  Still, putting it there in the first place does everything to take you out of the experience, as so many of these slasher faux pas commonly do.  Also the movie is honestly pretty boring since it just revolves around waiting for the phone to ring to hear some incomprehensible gibberish and screaming.

LONG WEEKEND
(1978)
Dir - Colin Eggleston
Overall: GREAT

One may find Colin Eggleston's first non-softcore porno movie Long Weekend to be a bit of blatantly on-the-nose silliness.  You may also be caught up in what does NOT happen to the point of being genuinely captivated.  From the get go, the two person cast are as unlikable as you get, deliberately so.  Not only are they in a clearly dysfunctional relationship with each other, both switching wildly from being aggressively whimsical to almost psychotically angry and distant with each other, but their disregard for all things nature is given frequent examples.  They haphazardly chop down trees for no reason, run over animals, shoot off ammunition into the wilderness, spray pesticide to the point of murdering any organic lifeform within miles, smash eagle eggs, and leave garbage and food lying around.  Yet what begins to transpire all around them is quite gradual to the point where something fantastical is clearly at play, but it is given no specifics at any point.  Eggleston and first time non-TV screenwriter Everett De Roche take a lot of opportunities to insinuate that this will be another out of countless "people get murdered by a bunch of creepy locals while on vacation" movies so when it does not go that route, an applause at the very least is in order.  Even as a nature horror film, it also forgoes just having a giant animal or something ala Jaws spring up and reek havoc so in effect, it plays a much more creepy, bewildering game.  With a more fractured tone or less visceral performances from its two leads, Long Weekend could easily be a failure but instead it is one of the more refreshing tweaks to the horror film out there.

70's Paul Naschy Part Five

EL JORABADO DE LA MORGUE
(1972)
Dir - Javier Aguirre
Overall: MEH

While it is true that Paul Naschy was rarely better as an actor than he was as the deformed, simpleton title character Gotho in El Jorabado de la Morgue, (The Hunchback of the Morgue, The Rue Morgue Massacres), Naschy's own script for the film in all honesty is exasperatingly stupid.  Particularly, the movies that Naschy himself wrote, (this one included), always hilariously have women falling head over heels in love with him, but the excuse he makes here is more bananas than usual.  Speaking of bananas, the mad Dr. Orla is comically narcissistic and goes from a normal scientist to one that makes excited speeches about how wonderful his creation is with zero concern for how many people he consistently convinces Nashy's hunchback to murder.  Those who help him with all of this nonsense come off even more dumb.  If you are already planning on turning the guy in to the authorities and are practically positive that he has either kidnapped or murdered your fiance, why would you go to his lair unarmed and confront him before calling the police?  It is certainly amusing to watch all of this play out and the film is plenty gory.  It even manages to throw in a torture chamber, a totally unexplained zombie for one scene, and an oozy goo monster.  Very peculiarly, the editing is virtually void of any establishing shots and as it goes along, the movie seems to be in a frantic hurry to be over with.  At least you cannot complain that the pacing drags then.

EL MARSHALL DEL INFERNO
(1974)
Dir - León Klimovsky
Overall: MEH

Based rather vaguely off the Baron Gilles de Rais of France, (who fought alongside Joan of Arc and then far less respectably died as a confessed child murderer, oops), El Marshall del Inferno is far more a historical action film than horror and not much better off because of it.  Translated to The Marshall from Hell and released internationally as The Devil's Possessed as well as Satan Possessed in Argentina, Naschy teams up once again with his frequent collaborator León Klimovsky, but the result does not generate much interest for anyone outside of the steadfast Naschy fan.  There are a few scenes of diabolical rituals and torture, but Naschy's character from the get-go is rather lazily duped by his conniving wife and her alchemist who far too easily trick him into spending years murdering innocent villagers, former allies, and then sacrificing their daughters to the point of a revolt that does him in.  Because Naschy's Barron is too pathetic and underwritten, he is never given any proper depth as to why he goes so insane.  Even after he finds out that he is being played for a sucker, the movie still goes on for twenty more minutes with him acting just as horribly to everyone.  Lots of screen time is dedicated to Guillermo Bredeston being a dashing hero rallying the townsfolk and it is just as lackluster to sit through as everything else.

EXORCISMO
(1975)
Dir - Juan Bosch
Overall: GOOD

Though it remains unconfirmed whether or not Paul Naschy did indeed pen the script for Exorcismo before The Exorcist was released as the actor always proclaimed, in either respect it is impossible not to compare it to the most famous horror movie ever made and in effect see it as the Spanish "answer" to it.  If it was simply a coincidence, (or if in fact Naschy had caught wind of William Peter Blatty's novel for inspiration himself), it is a pretty remarkable one.  There are plenty of details that are quite different though, such as but not limited to the girl possessed being much older than twelve-year old Linda Blair, the serial killer subplot, scenes of hippies conducting nude Satanic masses, and Naschy's Father Dunning is a much stronger-willed, straight good priest to Jason Miller's conflicted Father Damien Karras.  In any event, this is one of Naschy's better scripts by a mile and it successfully transcends being an exploitative knock-off.  The concept of an upper-class young woman succumbing to possession after her father suffered mental illness and then falling into drugged-out occultists, (with a perverted house servant, overbearing brother, and an over-dotting mother not particularly of any help), is plenty layered.  Director Juan Bosch never once lets the film stride anywhere near camp, keeping the music and tone perfectly in unsettling check.  The only complaint really is the somewhat ho-hum finale, but it is solid enough up until then to still warrant it as one of Nashy's all around better movies.

70's Paul Naschy Part Four

SEVEN MURDERS FOR SCOTLAND YARD
(1971)
Dir - José Luis Madrid
Overall: MEH

Paul Naschy's first giallo Seven Murders for Scotland Yard, (Jack el destripador de Londres, Jack the Ripper of London), is a pretty dull one.  A number of screenwriters were credited including Nashcy and director José Luis Madrid, (who the actor would go on to make The Crimes of Petiot with next).  While the script appropriately keeps you guessing as long as possible and only shows the killers feet or hands as is typical, it is still a pretty "eh, whatever" reveal.  Most of the problem lies with Madrid's direction which is severely lacking in the proper gusto that Italian giallos were usually ripe with.  None of the murder scenes are remotely exciting and when it becomes crystal clear that every woman we see on camera is eventually going to get a knife stuck in their stomach, (usually within seconds of introducing them), it does not do much to keep the viewer invested.  Naschy for his part is rather wasted, spending the whole movie limping around and looking like either a sad or angry puppy, depending.  Worse yet, there is only one piece of music that is played in nearly every single scene and it grows increasingly obnoxious to hear the same funky bass line and hi-hat groove over and over again, despite what one may think.

LA MALDICION DE LA BESTIA
(1975)
Dir - Miguel Iglesias Bonns
Overall: GOOD

The eighth Waldemar Daninsky go-round for Paul Naschy was in La Maldicion de la Bestia, (The Curse of the Beast, Night of the Howling Beast, The Werewolf and the Yeti, Hall of the Mountain King), the last to be released in the 1970s.  The gimmick here was to switch the location to Tibet and have a wolfman fight a yeti, (though he was also bitten by one in the debacle Fury of the Woflman earlier in the decade).  This as well as a few other fresh ingredients such as a Daninsky getting transformed by two vampire women biting him, (?!?), Tibetan pirates, a sadistic witch, and a cure for lycanthropy involving a red flower and blood or something that actually works all heighten it a bit over others in the series which essentially recycled the same plot ad nauseam.  The nudity and gore are as on point as any other of Nashy's films and one particularly gruesome scene sees a woman getting her back flayed alive.  Most surprising of all though is how comparatively tight Nashy's own screenplay is.  It is still quite rudimentary, but despite the yeti being rather shoehorned in there and the almost fairytale-worthy, convenient ending, it follows a pretty coherent thread and the slew of nasty villains and wacky details typical of a Naschy film all help it transcend most of the actor's other fun yet still flawed works.

INQUISITION
(1976)
Dir - Paul Naschy
Overall: GOOD

For his directorial debut, Paul Naschy chose the much frequented witch trials of Europe as subject matter.  Though it takes place in a historically accurate setting, (16th century France), Inquisition is not based off of any specific events.  It may as well be as it hits the same beats as many, many other films of its kind that also dramatize that long, dark period where any and everyone could be tried and executed as having a pact with the Dark One and hundreds upon hundreds of people where indeed put to death over such nonsense.  As always, the "divine" acts of the church and Nashy's witchfinder are depicted brutally and despicably.  In this respect, one cannot say that the film does not deliver when it comes to horrific scenes of torture.  Whereas it is usually common for no satanic tomfoolery to be happening at all in these movies and they just act as horror via extreme religious paranoia, Inquisition actually has some fantastic scenes of sabbaths full of naked people, blood drinking, and Naschy himself as Satan equipped with a goat mask, red eyes, and horns while sitting at a huge banquet table, foreseeing his evil orgy.  What really elevates the movie though is Naschy's very strong, low-key performance and by incorporating actual supernatural elements and playing them seriously, it shows such real life events in a more fantastical way, making it far more interesting than just another incredibly depressing, witch-murdering movie.

70's Paul Naschy Part Three

LOS MONSTRUOS DEL TERROR
(1970)
Dir - Hugo Fregonese/Tulio Demicheli
Overall: MEH

What could fairly be described as Paul Naschy's all time silliest movie, Los Monstruos del Terror, (Dracula vs. Frankenstein, Reincarnator, Assignment Terror), must have been a euphoric experience for the actor who got to write and star in a Spanish version of all of his favorite Universal monster mash-ups.  While Naschy plays his trusty werewolf Waldemar Daninsky for the third, (though second to be released), time, he is joined by one of the lamest Draculas, a mummy, and a Frankenstein monster and also gets to personally duke it out with the latter of the two.  Naschy's part is comparatively small as is the budget which was originally to include more sci-fi elements as well as a golem.  This leaves most of the running time to none other than Michael Rennie, (Klaatu from The Day the Earth Stood Still),  playing Dr. Odo Warnoff who was sent to earth with several other of his alien cohorts.  The story is beyond laughable and involves an alien takeover by means of first using a bunch of pretty girls because human men are dumb, (or something), and then resurrecting as many classic movie monsters as they can to make clones of, (or something), to repopulate the Earth, (or something).  The fact that the cast takes it all rather seriously is actually kind of a bummer since the plot is so absurd that everyone going full schlock would have probably helped.  When characters are not standing around and being boring, it is agreeably fun, but boy is it stupid.

THE HANGING WOMAN
(1973)
Dir - José Luis Merino
Overall: GOOD

In typical Euro-horror fashion, The Hanging Woman got released under enough titles to ensure proper confusion, including La orgía de los muertos, (Orgy of the Dead, not to be further confused with the embarassingly stupid, Ed Wood scripted "film" of the same name), as well as Beyond the Living Dead, Return of the Zombies, and Terror of the Living Dead.  Paul Naschy for this one is reduced to a supporting yet equally memorable role as a cemetery caretaker with a low IQ.  The main story is ripe with silly plot holes, laughably written characters, and even a Saw-worthy twist montage at the end that is better than one would expect.  Director José Luis Merino, (who also co-scripted the movie with Enrico Colombo), keeps the pace quite brisk and wonderfully stages enough actually spooky visuals and set pieces throughout to qualify it as successfully macabre and eerie.  Enhancing some of the strangeness, the "hero" is a preposterous jackass who is quick to violence and shouting.  In the span of about twelve hours, he goes from boning his uncle's widow, (who is also a witch), to making a servant girl cry by having her undress in front of him, to proclaiming that he intends to propose to the latter since now they are in love.  Creepy zombies, black magic, and graveyards though so, yay!

CRIMSON
(1976)
Dir - Juan Fortuny
Overall: MEH

Essentially a rather poor, contemporary gangster film with a mad scientist scheme rather haphazardly thrown in, Crimson, (Las Ratas no Duermen de Noche, Rats Don't Sleep at Night), is as unmemorable as any of Paul Naschy's non-supernatural horror movies ever got.  The actor is wasted throughout, only given a very little bit to do within the last several minutes.  Before that, he is left unconscious in various locations while criminals and ladies from rival gangs fuss over him and each other.  There are other nods to some of James Cagney's well-renowned gangster films, (White Heat particularly comes to mind), and one cannot help but think of Quintin Tarantino possibly making something interesting out of the plot here where a handful of goofy, somewhat morbid details occur and pretty much all the bad guys end up dead, (spoilers).  Director Juan Fortuny, (in his only time working with Naschy), cannot muster enough laughs or any suspense out of the proceedings though as everyone plays it too stiff and dull, plus the back and forth plot just lumbers along to its inevitable conclusion.  For the Naschy completest, there are two dubbed versions with the French one offering up a minimal amount of extra nudity, but otherwise you get the same idea with the English dub as well.

70's Paul Naschy Part Two

COUNT DRACULA'S GREAT LOVE
(1972)
Dir - Javier Aguirre
Overall: MEH

Another lovable yet remarkably flawed Paul Naschy ode to the Gothic horror of both Universal and Hammer, Count Dracula's Great Love, (El gran amor del conde Drácula, Dracula's Great Love, Cemetery Girls and Dracula's Virgin Lovers), sees the man in the title role crossing off yet another classic monster movie villain from his list.  The editing is bizarrely unfocused, (often scenes appear to change locations before a character has even finished delivering their lines), and the dubbing could not be worse with most of Nashy's vampiric dialog reading more like a narration as his mouth literally remains closed while he is "speaking".  None of this helps the "buh?" story from becoming anything close to coherent and most of the outcome is simply laughable because of it.  That said, Naschy is still admirable on screen even if it makes hardly a lick of sense that he uses an alter ego in Dr. Wendell Marlow for most of the movie, bones multiple women, inexplicably falls in love with one within mere moments of knowing her, (a love which goes both ways), and daftly portrays himself as being both a romantically tragic figure and a fiend who willingly tortures women while leaving his discarded vampire wenches to burn in the sunlight.  Visually, it is one of Naschy's strongest works though since the undead are portrayed rather creepy and the dark, fog-laden cinematography is pitch-perfect.

A DRAGONFLY FOR EACH CORPSE
(1975)
Dir - León Klimovsky
Overall: MEH

Another Spanish giallo offering that is every bit deliberately Italian in style as humanly possible, A Dragonfly for Each Corpse, (The Vigilante Challenges the Police, Redkiller), sees Paul Naschy playing a police detective and the film's straight hero which in and of itself is unique.  The budget is typically small, the English dubbing typically abysmal, and Naschy and Ricardo Muñoz Suay's screenplay is typically all over the place though the red herrings are toned down more than usual.  The over the top details are readily available though, such as the killer's twisted passion to clean up the streets and target those he sees as unworthy to live, which are namely lowlifes, adulterers, homosexuals, sex workers, and drug addicts.  If this sounds a bit Seven-ish, the similarities don not stop there as there is also a package delivered with a severed head in it.  The scattered fascist symbolism gives it a mild, political layer and honestly the movie needs all the help it can get to keep one interested.  It is not very well structured as we watch Naschy and his department try and piece everything together, there are too many characters to keep track of, and the inevitable killer reveal is anything but interesting.

EL RETORNO DE WALPURGIS
(1974)
Dir - Carlos Aured
Overall: MEH

The seventh Waldemar Daninsky entry if you count the supposed second one Las Noches del Hombre Lobo which was never released or seen by anybody was El Retorno de Walpurgis, (The Return of Walpurgis, later put out in America as late as 1976 under the title Curse of the Devil).  As usual, all of the events of the previous Daninsky installments are ignored and the character is once again given another origin, be it a similar enough one to several others in the series.  On that note, the movie hardly brings anything new to Paul Naschy's beloved franchise in any respects.  It has another opening of a witch's curse, (which is actually the best part of the film, full of wonderful, blasphemous dialog and a bunch of Satan's servants getting brutally hung off a bridge), then the Daninsky line being of course cursed with Waldemar himself meeting his end at the hand of yet another beautiful woman he barely knows who falls madly in love with him.  The phrase "seen one you've seen em all" fairly applies to Naschy's werewolf movies and Walpurgis is not bad, but it is quite formulaic and makes one question its mere existence in the first place beyond just being for fans who like to keep seeing the Spanish wolfman terrorize a village in all his bloody mayhem.

70's Paul Naschy Part One

DR. JEKYLL EL HOMBRE LOBO
(1971)
Dir - León Klimovsky
Overall: GOOD

Teaming up again with The Werewolf Vs. the Vampire Woman director León Klimovsky who he would go on to make a total of nine films with, Paul Naschy returns as Waldemar Daninsky for the surprisingly clever mash-up Dr. Jekyll el Hombre Lobo, (Dr. Jekyll and the Wolfman or Werewolf depending).  Playing out in two parts, the first half is in rural Romania and follows the usual pattern of Naschy being cooped up in a castle with textbook, superstitious villagers who of course eventually rise up against him.  While this may confuse you as to whether or not you are watching the right Naschy movie, once things switch to modern, swinging London and we meet Dr. Jekyll's grandson who has the same first AND last name, (familiar Spanish horror face Jack Taylor), the movie gets far more interesting.  Naschy gets to wolf-out in a broken down elevator, a nightclub, and best of all gets to be two iconic movie monsters at the exact same time.  His script once more glosses over most of the details with barely written characters and nods to horror cliches that while done lovingly, are still as illogical as can be.  Yet the movie is quickly paced for a change and certainly mixes up the formula in a highly memorable way.

THE MUMMY'S REVENGE
(1974)
Dir - Carlos Aured
Overall: MEH

Sadly, Paul Naschy's lone mummy movie, (not counting the monster mash wet dream Los Monstruos del Terror from 1970), is a textbook example of both lazy, endlessly re-treaded mummy film troupes and typical sluggish, Euro-horror pacing.  The production is decent enough with some effective Egyptian sets and Naschy's Amenhotep makeup is rather excellent.  You also cannot say that the movie does not deliver when it comes to gore, with one hilarious scene in particular sticking out where Naschy's title character literally smashes a bunch of women's faces into bloody goo with his bare hands.  Everything else here is a drag, particularly in the Americanized version.  While Naschy plays two different characters well enough, the dubbing on Amenhotep is laughably atrocious.  When not sounding like a parody of a cartoon villain, he is grunting like an ape which is made all the more odd since his mummy has no problem speaking words yet because monster movies, they also wanted him to behave like a mindless brute as well.  The story is exactly what you think it is, (evil Egyptian comes back to life to be evil while finding his bride's doppelgänger), and scene after scene go on with him murdering women in the most boring of ways while other characters stand around and talk in rooms.  Also the clumsy ending will probably have you laughing out loud, which was probably not intentional.

BLUE EYES OF A BROKEN DOLL
(1974)
Dir - Carlos Aured
Overall: MEH

Credit where it is do, Paul Naschy and director Carlos Aured's script for Blue Eyes of a Broken Doll, (Los Ojos Azules de la Muñeca Rota, House of Psychotic Women, House of Doom), is certainly worthy of the most ridiculous of giallos.  Whether that is a good or bad thing depends on how silly one likes there Italian-styled slashers where the reveal of the killer cannot help but to come equipped with an audible groan from the audience who can barely keep up with all the red herrings thrown their way.  It would be incorrect to call it a masterpiece, but the simple fact that this is one of the rare, non-supernatural horror films from Naschy alone makes it rather intriguing and Aured's direction is fittingly stylized for such an affair.  The blood flows frequently and brightly, there are inventive camera angles galore, and Francisco Sánchez' cinematography is often pretty good, making wonderful, wide framed use out of shadows and whatnot.  The problems then mostly lie with the derivative, stylistic genre choices such as inappropriate jazz music in nearly every scene and more plot holes than you can begin to wrap your brain around.  Also Naschy's character is confusingly handled as he seems to be a tragic figure yet also a convicted rapist who cannot help but to be violent towards women, has no problem boning one sister after the other, and eye-humps any other girl he sees.  Also he has one of those pistols that magically holds forty-seven bullets without re-loading.

70's Spanish Horror Part Four

THE CANNIBAL MAN
(1972)
Dir - Eloy de la Iglesia
Overall: MEH

The title is a bit misleading in Eloy de la Iglesia's The Cannibal Man, (La Semana del asesino, The Apartment on the 13th Floor), which could easily be confused as a braindead splatterfest since it opens with actual slaughterhouse footage.  Once we realize that our would-be title character works there, two and two could be easily put together.  While some of the unpleasantness one would imagine does go down, (kind of), the film is mainly de la Iglesia's metaphoric answer to an unhinged mind living under the Franco regime.  While this is a noble and interesting angle to be sure and certainly something to elevate it above pure exploitation, the problem is that the social commentary falls flat due to the underwritten story.  Vincente Parra's Marcos is completely unsympathetic since he immediately resorts to killing people, (mostly loved ones and those who are kind to him), while at the same time he goes about his business while being sociable.  He gets along rather great with a rich, homosexual character, but the relationship between the two of them never gets properly fleshed-out.  The potential is fairly here for a thought-provoking be it rather gory thriller, but none of the plot elements really come together as they should.

A CANDLE FOR THE DEVIL
(1973)
Dir - Eugenio Martín
Overall: MEH

A year after making the superb Horror Express, Eugenio Martín directed A Candle for the Devil, (Una vela para el diablo, It Happened at Nightmare Inn), a very different and very inferior film all around.  This is another one where the premise is rather elementary yet the unfocused writing makes everything fall apart.  As two sisters run a small inn in a Spanish village, one of them is murdering any woman who shows any amount of skin, declaring that she is doing the lord's work when she is not putting on make-up, practically licking her lips staring at young shirtless men, and prancing around in a scandalous dress unabashedly.  Meanwhile the other sister is even more screwy since she is sometimes helping her sister willingly, sometimes unwillingly, sometimes arguing with her and breaking down into tears of guilt, and sometimes acting on her own accord and murdering for other reasons.  All the while, the movie just goes from one victim to the next as we wait for the sisters to be caught which only happens when they are pursuing their near-last victim at an absolute snails pace for no reason.  There are obviously religious themes here that revolve around repression and hypocrisy, but they just come off as confusing.  Plus, the tedious plot does not offer up any suspense or creativity whatsoever, making the whole thing easily forgettable.

THE NIGHT OF THE WITCHES
(1974)
Dir - Amando de Ossorio
Overall: MEH

From the mind of the Blind Dead creator Amando de Ossorio comes another silly film with slow, slow, sloooow moving monsters, more nudity than you can keep up with, and a script that someone who has gotten kicked in the head too many times would think is coherent.  The Night of the Witches, (La Noche de los Brujos, The Night of the Sorcerers), came out in between the first two and last two Blind Dead movies and features familiar Spanish horror faces such as Jack Taylor and Maria Kosti, the latter being the only female present who does not spend most of her screen time with her bare chest exposed.  As he was often able, de Ossorio comes up with striking visuals like zombie voodoo priests and priestesses rising out of their clumsily made, stone burial sites.  There are also amazonian-clad women running and exposing their fang-ridden grins in slow motion, because yeah there are vampires too.  When the soundtrack is not playing dated, out of place, wah-guitar music, it is actually pretty creepy.  The plot and its many holes are laughably dumb, (including the asinine ending), mainly due to how every single character in it consistently makes the most ridiculous decisions possible.  These things kind of enhance the fun, but the story is simple to a fault as pretty much the same thing happens each day as predictably as you can imagine.

70's British Horror Part Thirteen

PERSECUTION
(1974)
Dir - Don Chaffey
Overall: MEH

When a thriller only poses a half-assed mystery at best and that mystery is not even the least bit interesting, you know you have a problem.  It is also not a very pleasant idea to open your movie with a young boy drowning a cat in milk before an excruciating "let's get on with it already" opening title sequence over children singing "Good King Wenceslas" that seems to go on for centuries.  More complications than this derail Don Chaffey's Persecution, (also released as Sheba, The Terror of Sheba, and The Graveyard throughout the years), which is probably one of the most lame-scripted, badly-paced psychological horror films ever made.  The plot is all over the place, having characters be conniving villains and then helpless victims at the drop of a dime with hardly anyone's actions making any sense.  Poor Lana Turner, (in a role she fairly considered one of her worst), is practically humiliated on camera near the end as she is forced to meow and behave like a cat.  It remains unfocused throughout the entire film though just what in the hell her problem is to begin with.  Because both her and on-screen son Ralph Bates are playing such poorly written characters, we feel absolutely nothing for either of them with the breakdown and torment of both just becoming straight-up boring to watch.

SATAN'S SLAVE
(1976)
Dir - Norman J. Warren
Overall: MEH

Norman J. Warren's first horror film and the first to be independently funded by his and former cameraman Les Young's production company Monument Pictures had a working, appropriate title of Evil Heritage which was changed to the more crowd-enticing Satan's Slave by distributors.  It is a common example of many occult themed, 70s horror outings where posh, upper class socialites act out their devil worshiping shenanigans, this time operating more on the traditional, "direct decedent" angle where sacrifices, resurrections, and blah blah blah have to be made.  The filmmakers chose to shoot additional, more ghastly scenes once the film was first cut, omitting much of the expository dialog that they found redundant.  This pushes Satan's Slave squarely into the exploitation vein as it is chock full of nudity, very nasty violence, and sadomasochism towards women.  Which are all hallmarks of such cinema to be sure.  Michael Gough was a sport and agreed to appear for less than his normal fee and it is certainly fun to see him giving praise to Satan while wearing a red robe and a wicked goat mask.  The script is rather juvenile as one would expect as it is easy to lose count of how many times the unnecessarily cockamamie scheme of Gough's character could have went wrong.  Plus Candace Glendenning's main heroine falls for the "I must've had a bad dream" ploy far too frequently and easily.  All that said, it would be a lie to say it does not present an adequate amount of unholy, goofy fun.

MURDER BY DECREE
(1979)
Dir - Bob Clark
Overall: MEH

The last foray that Bob Clark would take into semi-horror was with the unique Sherlock Holmes/Jack the Ripper hybrid Murder By Decree, a co-production by both England and Canada that was based somewhat on The Ripper File by Elwyn Jones and John Lloyd as well as Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution by Stephen Knight.  It is a frustrating film that muddles its tone too much, features a ramshackle plot, and is way too long.  The latter element being the most prominent shortcoming as the unnecessary length only hurts the end result further. Clark makes wonderful use out of his small, fog-ridden, late 19th century London sets though and he still displays a knack for menacing visuals such as the Ripper's stone black eyes and mysterious, slow motion horse and cart.  The cast is without flaw as Christopher Plummer and James Mason make a fine Holmes and Watson when they are humorously playful with each other at least.  Elsewhere, Holmes is rather uneven and comes off bafflingly emotional at the worst times when the script is getting even more confusing.  The movie then goes on for twenty more minutes longer than it should have and only gets more "huh?" from there.  It is a shame as a more consistently funny, user-friendly adaptation would have worked far better from the evidence presented here.  Instead, all of the added ambition pretty much undoes what actually works.

70s British Horror Part Twelve

DARK PLACES
(1973)
Dir - Don Sharp
Overall: MEH

Don Sharp was a bit uneven as a director, having made a couple of OK to good films in the horror vein plus a few unremarkable ones as well.  Dark Places is one in the OK variety.  A small yet fully recognizable cast starting with the top-billed Christopher Lee and Joan Collins, Czech born character actor Herbert Lom, (Hammer's Phantom of the Opera, Jess Franco's Count Dracula, Mark of the Devil, The Dead Zone), and Robert Hardy, (Berserk!, Psychomania, Demons of the Mind, and Cornelius Fudge in the Harry Potter franchise), the film has some potential with a simple plot device of a dead, rich guy who left all his money hidden in a haunted house that every character is after.  It is almost creepy in a couple of scenes, but Sharp does not film nearly enough of it in any kind of creative manner.  The textbook script just kind of goes along in a predictable manner even if the angle of jumping from past to present in a single scene is still a nifty idea.  It is not a poor production and the script by Ed Brennan and Joseph Van Winkle is fairly tight.  That said, it is just pretty ordinary and instead of building on a potential, spooky atmosphere, it plays the psychological elements too straightforward to really grab you.

LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF
(1975)
Dir - Freddie Francis
Overall: MEH

The smaller Tyburn Films scored Freddie Francis, Peter Cushing, and screenwriter Anthony Hinds for their rather unnecessary re-working of Hammer's Curse of the Werewolf, here changed to Legend of the Werewolf.  Both films were based off of the Guy Endore, 1933 novel The Werewolf of Paris, feature nearly identical make-up design.  Hinds also scripted each one, making the similarities between this and the Oliver Reed-stared film from fourteen years prior unmistakable.  Each movie suffers from far too little on-screen wolfman time as well as a too familiar story that even tweaked significantly as it is here in some parts, still comes off as predictably as can be.  This is not to say that a decent production cannot be made out of wholly recognizable horror cliches as many of these British studios alone had been essentially making the same handful of movies over and over again for decades at this point.  While Cushing is always quite marvelous and gets enough to do here and Francis tries to spice things up with some red-tinted POV shots, the derivative and nature simply cannot elevate it above just being another OK werewolf movie.

TERROR
(1978)
Dir - Norman J. Warren
Overall: MEH

Shot independently with the revenue made from Norman J. Warren's previous Satan's Slave, (and utilizing one of the same locations from said film), the bluntly titled Terror was a deliberately stupid, supernatural giallo-channeling hodgepodge.  The film cannot really decide if it wants to be straight Gothic horror, a simple "who dunnit", a haunted house movie, or a colorful, extravagant Italian slasher so by attempting to be all of the above, it is assuredly messy.  It is no accident that it comes off as a second-rate Suspiria at times, with Warren and screenwriter David McGillivray, (who also worked with Pete Walker on House of Whipcord and House of Mortal Sin), intentionally borrowing as much surface level elements from Dario Argento's masterpiece as they can.  The result is thoroughly less successful of course, but Terror is the type of movie where if you give in to its utter disregard for coherency, it is passably enjoyable.  Still, everything is simplified to the point where it becomes rather silly.  Several scenes are pointless, hardly any of the murders are necessary, sometimes they appear supernatural and other times they do not, there are random characters that serve no purpose at all, the editing is confused, the cinematography uneven, and the ending falls a bit short of being as creepy as it was intended. 

70's British Horror Part Eleven

GOODBYE GEMINI
(1970)
Dir - Alan Gibson
Overall: MEH

Deviating itself quite a bit in structure and tone from Jenni Hall's Ask Agamemmon novel for which it it based, Goodbye Gemini is a strange, occasionally annoying thriller in the vein of others near the turn of the 60s which portrayed London's bohemian counter culture as unflatteringly as possible.  Whether it was intended or not, the film is loaded from top to bottom with unlikable characters.  The young hippies are spoiled, violent brats and the older gentleman are either sleazy, sexual deviants or in Michael Redgrave's case, (in one of his last roles), they just appear to be bored.  It does not help that at the heart of the cinematic version of the story, the incestuous relationship between the twins takes center stage instead of the more interesting, tripped out, non-linear dream sequences of the novel that more underplayed the exploitative elements.  Alan Gibson would go on to direct the last two Christopher Lee Dracula films for Hammer, but aside from a few decent moments that serve as exceptions, there is not enough style over substance with Gemini to lift it over its rather abundant, unpleasant qualities.

TOWER OF EVIL
(1972)
Dir - Jim O'Connolly
Overall: MEH

The only redeemable elements to Jim O'Connolly's Tower of Evil are many of the visual ones as the film has some nice, atmospheric sets, gruesome murders, and slimy, decomposed corpses for us to look at.  The opening is somewhat promising as well since the movie's setting is properly introduced in the most creepy of ways.  Very sadly though, the story itself is insultingly moronic.  A slasher movie with all of the stupid, stupid cliches in full-throttle, this is the type of crap where nearly everything that happens shows a severe lack of sound judgement on the character's, (and screenwriter's), part.  Everyone suspects a maniac is running about so characters wonder around by themselves, (unarmed of course), split up at the dumbest possible time, (unarmed of course), tell each other their imagination is playing tricks on them when they claim to see something, decide to bone each other while all of this is going on, laugh manically when they find hidden treasure, keep vital information from each other, and of course the mongoloid killer is astronomically proficient at outsmarting nearly everyone until the end.  You could say more about it, but really why bother?

NOTHING BUT THE NIGHT
(1973)
Dir - Peter Sasdy
Overall: MEH

Promising to a point yet sloppily handled in several respects, Peter Sasdy's Nothing But the Night, (The Devil's Undead), is another Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee staring vehicle where the two wonderful actors at least share plenty of scenes together.  The bulk of the film is rather dull.  There is a mystery as to who is killing a bunch of people, Lee and Cushing are there to uncover said mystery, and it goes on for quite a long time before the movie almost inexplicably unveils the true agenda of its premise for an awkward finish.  What ends up happening is quite sinister on paper, but there lies the problem since in the actual execution, it is a botched effort.  Clumsy editing equipped with the tedious nature of the pacing in general makes the creepy reveal more "huh?" than anything.  It springs up rather suddenly, with characters discovering it even more randomly as things only get more curious from there since the final scene is a conflicting mess of what should be disturbing yet is instead rather goofy and weird.  There are some nice, sinister twists and the talent is certainly present, (Sasdy made Countess Dracula after all and again, Lee and Cushing), but it is still unmistakably flawed.

70's British Horror Part Ten

INCENSE FOR THE DAMNED
(1970)
Dir - Robert Hartford-Davis
Overall: MEH

Incense for the Damned, (also released as Bloodsuckers, Freedom Seeker, and Doctors Wear Scarlet), is a mess of a film, one that ran out of money midway through and had to resume shooting at a later date with a new director, new actors, and new scenes to accommodate the situation.  It certainly shows as it becomes very clear just where the production had to change the entire movie they were making.  The primary chunk of it takes place in Greece and follows a single, linear thread, but then the film appears to end about thirty minutes early and the last act seems awkwardly tagged on since that was exactly what it was.  Peter Cushing is wasted, only appearing in a single scene at the beginning and then again later on in a far more perplexing fashion.  The entire script never explains itself properly and gets more haphazardly handled as it goes on.  There is some dated, trippy orgy scenes near the beginning and a couple rather lame action moments, but the rest of the movie goes virtually nowhere and just features people talking, talking some more, talking some more after than, and then occasionally behaving irrationally towards each other while still talking a lot.

THE FLESH AND BLOOD SHOW
(1972)
Dir - Pete Walker
Overall: MEH

Though Pete Walker had directed the thriller Die Screaming, Marianne the year before, The Flesh and Blood Show can more properly be seen as his first bona fide horror film.  There is plenty of nudity right out of the gate to fit the sexploitation label appropriately and the script by Alfred Shaughnessy establishes to a tee the "old crazy people vs. the attractive youth of England" motif that Walker would routinely use.  The plot is void of the director's typical, tongue-in-cheek morality themes though and instead it is just a straight slasher outing where someone is picking off young, good looking people while we are just waiting to find out who it is.  While it occasionally seems that Walker is giving us red herrings as one is supposed to do with this type of fare, he does not play that angle enough and because of this, the mystery is resolved very predictably as well as unsatisfyingly.  Up until the final reveal, (which was initially presented in 3-D in theaters), it is just a bunch of naked boobs and people getting scared really.  Walker would do far better and interesting work with these themes over his next several movies, but for completists, it is worth a look.

THREE DANGEROUS LADIES
(1977)
Dir - Robert Fuest/Alvin Rakoff/Don Thompson
Overall: WOOF

Most horror anthologies, (particularly ones produced in England in the 1970s), were not only comprehensively solid but more often than not they represented some of the finest cinematic horror ever seen, with Amicus' marvelous series of films particularly coming to mind.  Three Dangerous Ladies on the other hand, bletch.  Each segment was originally part of a 1975 UK television program called Classics Dark and Dangerous that ultimately proved short-lived for reasons that become apparent upon viewing the collection put together here.  Even with some solid talent on hand such as actors Keir Dullea, (2001: A Space Odyssey), Charles Gray, (The Devil Rides Out, The Rocky Horror Picture Show), Glynis Johns, (Vault of Horror), John Hurt, and Dr. Phibes director Robert Fuest, the best Three Ladies can muster is in its first story "Mrs. Amworth" which is just a thoroughly unmemorable, poorly written vampire yarn.  The two that follow it are aggressively worse.  "The Island" is enormously boring and has a underwhelming, head-scratchingly stupid ending while "The Mannikin" has some truly awful, awful music, confused editing, and a surprisingly terrible performance from Nashville's Ronee Blakley.

70's British Horror Shorts

SALOME
(1973)
Dir - Clive Barker
Overall: MEH

Made in Liverpool when he was a mere teenager, Clive Barker's Salome was an adaptation of Oscar Wilde's play of the same name in the loosest sense of the term.  A textbook, experimental student art film in the vein of so many others, Salome plays out in intentionally super-grainy black and white without dialog and is brimful of bizarre images that young, energetic filmmakers would find profound.  This is not anything to make fun of per se, in fact quite the contrary; Barker and his crew of friends, (which also includes future Pinhead Doug Bradley), get by a lot on their amateur charm here more than anything else.  That said, it is certainly a very primitive effort that while managing to succeed with a few striking visuals, does not come off as anything remotely close to a masterpiece of avant-garde cinema.  That is unfair to expect of it though and any horror connoisseur who would logically also be a Barker fan would be doing themselves a disservice by not seeking this and its similar follow-up The Forbidden both out.

THE SPIRIT OF DARK AND LONELY WATER
(1973)
Dir - Jeff Grant
Overall: GOOD

This famous Public Information short commissioned by the UK's COI, (Central Office of Information), was played frequently during children's programing over a number of years and took a strikingly darker tone to such material which was usually more humorous and kid friendly.  For whatever reason, they were more serious this time about scaring kids away from the dangers of playing near bodies of water.  The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water, (sometimes just referenced as Lonely Water), was narrated by none other than Donald Pleasence and shot outside in broad daylight over two days.  Running less than two minutes in length, it still manages to come off as a very chilling bit of work due to the fittingly calm, creepy voice-over and the hooded, grim reaper-like black figure who slowly walks or stands still while children play carelessly around him.  For a spooky little commercial, it gets the job done plenty.

THE RETURN
(1973)
Dir - Sture Rydman
Overall: GOOD

There is little information out there on The Return, a thirty-minute long film that was presumably shown as a double feature in cinemas as opposed to being produced by the BBC or something.  Sture Rydman only has two writer/director credits, (both of them shorts), and he is successfully joined here by Indiana Jones cinematographer Douglas Slocombe.  The only two person cast consists of Rosalie Crutchley, (Mrs. Duddley in The Haunting), and Peter Vaughan, (lots of stuff), and the story is a conglomerate of two literary works, Nobody's House by AM Burrage and The Middle Toe of the Right Foot by Ambrose Bierce respectfully.  The result is appropriately quite spooky and Slocombe shoots it in natural lighting where virtually any supernatural spectre can be lurking in any multitude of shadows at any time.  A bit predictable yes, but it is still quite good in its simplicity, plus the short running time keeps it flowing at the best possible pace for such material.

THE CONTRAPTION
(1977)
Dir - James Dearden
Overall: GOOD

The debut from screenwriter/filmmaker James Dearden, (who also wrote Fatal Attraction), was the theatrical-supporting feature The Contraption.  Also on board is none other than The Rocky Horror Picture Show's Richard O'Brien in the lone, staring role as a very quite man who spends the entire seven-ish minute running time building something.  That is really about it, but stay for the finale as it is quite a hoot.  Clearly a black comedy, Dearden edited it as something more closely resembling an advertisement in style, though the tone remains effectively dark and of course mysterious.  Without uttering a word, O'Brien is perfect as he seems genuinely pleased with his progress and even in such a short amount of time, cannot help but to come off as a bit menacing.  Dearden would follow this up with the more straight-forward though equally solid Panic the following year.

THE FORBIDDEN
(1978)
Dir - Clive Barker
Overall: MEH

Clive Barker's second independent, amateur film The Forbidden was his knowingly pretentious, avant-garde interpretation of the Faust legend.  Nearly twice as long as the eighteen minute Salome short that proceeded it, Forbidden is equally bizarre as it is once again dialog-less and in black and white, though this time the print is shown almost entirely in negative.  This gives Barker and his small art crew the chance to stage wonderfully creative visuals, painting the sets, costumes, and actors themselves in inventive ways while experimenting with the inverted images.  From a technical and visually pleasing standpoint, it is nearly a triumph and a solid improvement over Barker's previous film, but the problems come in the movie's running time which is too prolonged for what it is.  Scenes involving shadowy nails hammered into wooden squares, (a clear pre-curser to Pinhead there), a naked man dancing with a full-on erection, and another naked dude getting flayed as he lays heavily breathing on a slab; they all go on for far, far too long.  Which is a shame as all of them are quite interesting from an optical standpoint and represent many of the hallmarks of Barker's creative works.

PANIC
(1978)
Dir - James Dearden
Overall: GOOD

The second short feature from James Dearden was the seventeen-minute Panic, (literally "on the streets of London", sorry I could not resist), which would later be remade by Sean Ellis again as short in 2001 titled Left Turn.  His to-date last short film, Dearden would follow this one up with his full-length debut Diversion which would likewise be remade as Fatal Attraction seven years later.  Most likely based on an urban legend and utilizing the well-established and often effective premise of "picking up hitchhikers = scary", Panic cleverly has some misdirects as Dearden leads the viewer down one or two different roads, (pardon the slight pun), as to what creepy doings are indeed transpiring.  That said, the final sequence is a bit foreseeable yet truth be told, it is also incredibly well done, bringing in more welcome and inconclusive supernatural elements that leave the viewer with a nice, creeped-out feeling.  As is appropriate.

70's British Horror Shorts - A Ghost Story for Christmas Part Two

THE ASH TREE
(1975)
Dir - Lawrence Gordon Clark
Overall: GOOD

The final M.R. James adaptation done for the A Ghost for Christmas strand was The Ash Tree, yet another included in his 1904 collection Ghost Stories of Antiquary.  It is identically stylized just as the other Lawrence Gordon Clark directed installments were, playing out over virtually no dramatic music whatsoever and slowly becoming more and more otherworldly-centered as it goes on.  The then shortest in the run at only thirty-two minutes, it is one of the few that could benefit from a perhaps tighter screenplay.  Irish playwright David Rudkin's work is certainly decent enough, but it still feeling as if some core information is missing.  The main difference with The Ash Tree comparatively though is not only some brief nudity, but most certainly the finale which is shocking in the best of ways, going for a less subtle, more visually gruesome route than would be expected.  Then as a plus, Ramona II/Miss-Briefly-Tom-Baker Lalla Ward shows up as well.

THE SIGNALMAN
(1976)
Dir - Lawrence Gordon Clark
Overall: GREAT

The first A Ghost Story for Christmas segment to not be based off of an M.R. James work but instead one by Charles Dickens was The Signalman and it is possibly the most thoroughly well-done entry in a ceaseless slew of them.  Essentially using a two person cast, (Denholm Elliott and Bernard Lloyd), Lawrence Gordon Clark once again directs with a calm control, letting each of their exchanges play out deliberately and just as gradually upping the ghostly occurrences until they become appropriately bone-chilling.  The strengths that Clark routinely displays helming such entries in the Ghost Story series cannot be under appreciated as the mood is always impeccably maintained.  Whether working within a thirty-odd minute or near hour format, no moments are either wasted or rushed.  Dickens' story here is particularly strong as it uses respectable if standard motifs of specters behaving in a foreboding nature, (the man did write A Christmas Carol after all).  Done so stylistically well as it is here, few can argue that this is as exceptional of a supernatural horror work that can possibly be done.

STIGMA
(1977)
Dir - Lawrence Gordon Clark
Overall: GOOD

For whatever reason, the BBC decided to change up the formula to their successful A Ghost Story for Christmas strand with the penultimate installment, Stigma.  This was the first one not to be based off of an older literary work as it is instead an original screenplay by Clive Exton.  It is also the first to be explicitly set in modern day and the last that Lawrence Gordon Clark would direct.  While the eerie tone is as in check as ever, (likely due to Clark still being on board, who always handled the material in a deliberate, composed manner), the story is even more ambiguous than usual.  The supernatural forces at play are unquestionable yes, but they all remain off-camera and one could even argue that there are no ghosts at all present for this go-round.  Not that any of this particularly matters at the end of the day as quality is quality and Stigma still delivers as a slow, unearthly horror short, just in a different manner than what was seen before in the series.

THE ICE HOUSE
(1978)
Dir - Derek Lister
Overall: GOOD

Closing out the annual, A Ghost Story for Christmas anthology series was The Ice House, the first to be directed by someone other than Lawrence Gordon Clark, Derek Lister stepping in instead.  Similar to Stigma from the previous year, Ice House is set in modern day and resembles an old fashion ghost story even less than its predecessor.  This one in fact has no ghostly apparitions at all, yet it is still just as puzzlingly spooky and full of curious supernatural occurrences all the same.  It bares more in common with Invasion of the Body Snatchers or even the Batman the Animated Series episode "Eternal Youth" which is a good thing as it certainly warrants plenty of chills, literally in this particular case.  Some may find it too at odds with the previous installments or even too unresolved.  Though Lister does an adequate job, the flow is noticeably less creeping as well.  It is the only such entry that feels a tad rushed, be it only in a minor way.  The Ice House is a minute quality drop if anything and if not the strongest way to close out the strand, it is still a rewarding and challenging one.