90's American Horror Part Twenty

THE FIRST POWER

(1990)

Dir - Robert Resinikoff

Overall: MEH

 

Certainly not a top-shelf entry into the occult/police detective hybrid genre, The First Power is also not a total waste of ninety-eight minutes, as close as it may come. The usual late 80s/early 90s action movie staples are present of police detectives getting away with behavior that would permanently make sure they never worked in law enforcement again, tough guy dialog front to back, and an absolutely comical car wreck sequence that Lou Diamond Phillips literally just stumbles out and walks away from.  On the horror cliche end of the spectrum, it takes pentagrams seriously, nuns and psychics speak in unnecessarily cryptic terms, and all supernatural powers are completely arbitrary depending on what the particular scene calls for.  It is a predictability fest every step of the way though with obvious foreshadowing, obvious psyche-outs, a forced romance, and one unmemorable, contrived scene after the other.  Naturally, villainous-faced Jeff Kober makes for a sufficient, demon-possessed bad guy and Bill Mosely shows up for a couple seconds if that is worth anything to anyone.  It is all harmlessly mundane, but mundane all the same.

SLEEPWALKERS

(1992)

Dir - Mick Garris

Overall: WOOF

The first film that Stephen King penned a screenplay for that was not based off of one of his pre-existing works, Sleepwalkers is a sure-fire trainwreck.  Directed by Mick Garris who has made a career of mostly B-grade, straight-to-video and/or made-for-TV horror movies, it at least introduces a typically intriguing premise from King about proto-vampire/werecat hybrids.  Things quickly crumble into absurdity though with atrociously random and ill-timed comic relief, "huh?" behavior from certain characters, cars blowing up with a single handgun blast, and inconsistent physical quips ranging from totally lame ones like knocking two guys heads together or just pushing someone to the ground, to much more schlocky ones like stabbing a cop in the back with an ear of corn or biting Ron Perlman's fingers off.  King's script is littered with a mix of plot holes, cliches, and conveniences which all assuredly affect the major tone issues at play.  When your title monsters have superhuman strength and can make cars disappear or change their make and model, yet a single house cat can scratch up their face and put them on their deathbed or set them on fire, good luck making anything else that happens not come off equally as silly.

FALLEN
(1998)
Dir - Gregory Hoblit
Overall: MEH

Mediocre yet acceptable from top to bottom, the supernatural thriller Fallen is as conventional as they come yet it gets by on a few saving graces.  Not surprisingly, the premise of a formless demon that can effortlessly jump bodies merely by brushing up against one goes a lot longer a way than the execution.  While there are a few moments where such a concept is sinisterly conveyed, (one where The Rolling Stones' "Time is On My Side" is turned into a sing along in a police station and a tense standoff near the end being chief among them), eventually everything gets bogged down by the evil antagonist toying with people for no other reason than to get the movie to the two hour mark.  Performance wise, it is strong though with a brief, typically unnerving appearance by Elias Koteas and particularly Denzel Washington in the lead who is just as typically stellar as always.  It gets a tad groan-worthy in its final moments, but the prolonged resistance to hamming it up from director Gregory Hoblit, (Primal Fear, Frequency), is admirable as it mostly benefits by its more dark, somewhat weighty nature.

90's American Horror Part Nineteen

FLATLINERS

(1990)     

Dir - Joel Schumacher

Overall: GOOD

 

After taking a slight detour with the romantic comedy Cousins, Joel Schumacher's near-follow-up to his seminal vampire yarn The Lost Boys was the Brat Pack-esque, psychological horror film Flatliners.  Reunited with Keifer Sutherland once more in addition to Julia Roberts, Billy Baldwin, Kevin Bacon, and Oliver Platt, the cast is solid enough to elevate the at times flat, (har, har), material to a higher plane.  The script by Peter Filardi poses some interesting questions about life after death, but they end up being just questions as answers are bypassed in place of some very different concepts getting thrown into the mix about reckoning with one's dark, past grievances.  These details are a bit vague yet not so much in a detrimental way as Schumacher first and foremost maintains a vibrantly eerie tone even with the minor comedic jabs sprinkled in for good measure.  The ending is not the most satisfying in the world, but even with the last act not quite holding up to the first two, it is a memorable, evocative enough work for the duration.

 

BASKET CASE 3: THE PROGENY

(1992)

Dir - Frank Henenlotter

Overall: MEH

 

The third and last installment in Frank Henenlotter's increasingly absurd Basket Case series, Basket Case 3: The Progeny picks up right where the last one left off, even opening with said film's final moments just in case anyone watching may have inexplicably stumbled in uninitiated.  The practical effects budget seems to have been entirely blown on making the evil title twin look better than ever as no effort was made to even hide the seam-lines on the wigs and masks of the returning assortment of freaks.  This, the cartoon level, exaggerated performances, and the purposely moronic script, (this one co-authored by Fangoria editor Robert Martin), all go a long way in making this easily the least horror-tinged and most comedically-focused entry in the franchise.  Not that any of the other installment nor really any of Henenlotter's works prided themselves at all on anything less garish in nature or execution, but there is no denying that the lid has particularly flown off here.  The humor is so prominent yet the story so exasperatingly odd that many of the jokes are bound to miss their mark, but it is still a hoot by many measures.

 

APT PUPIL

(1998)

Dir - Bryan Singer

Overall: MEH

 

One of the rare Stephen King stories that qualifies as a horror entry without having any supernatural components, Apt Pupil doubly serves as Bryan Singer's follow-up to the crowd-pleasing The Usual Suspects from three years prior.  It had undergone production setbacks from within only a few years of being initially published as a novella in King's Different Seasons collection, finally getting green-lit after both Singer and Ian McKellen enthusiastically became involved.  While there are a few intense, well staged sequences and its subject matter is sufficiently skin-crawling, some fundamentals with the plotting itself inevitably bring it down a bit in its final act.  Up until that point, the audience can stay on board with an overly arrogant, morbidly curious highschooler taking advantage of an even less sympathetic Nazi war criminal, but eventually some eyeball-rolling coincidences stretch the plausibility factor a bit too thin to make the rather stagy finale deliver as well as it should.  The characters are not particularly fleshed-out enough to work either, though McKellen and fourteen year-old Brad Renfro give quite evenly matched performances as the disturbed, co-dependent teacher/student duo.

90's American Horror Part Eighteen

THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM

(1991)

Dir - Stuart Gordon

Overall: MEH

 

Director Stuart Gordon and frequent screenwriter collaborator Dennis Paoli's The Pit and the Pendulum, (The Inquisitor), is straightforward, witch trial horror that goes through the motions as many other films of its kind had before it.  The title of course comes from the famous Edgar Allan Poe story, one that has been adapted in name only to the screen numerous times throughout the decades.  The story here is interchangeable with any other set during the Spanish Inquisition, where terrified and innocent peasants were tortured with the kind of laughably disturbing "damned if they do, damned if they don't" logic.  Also, the main Inquisitor once again falls in love with one of these accused beauties which goes about as well as it does in any other such movie from the 70s that uses an identical plot devise.  Assuredly lacking in originality then, Gordon is a solid enough filmmaker to at least make such an excursion darkly entertaining.  Lance Henrikson is an efficiently hammy, one-note villain and familiar genre faces such as Mark Margolis, Jeffrey Combs, Tom Towles, Frances Bay, and even Oliver Reed in a sweaty cameo all do an equally admirable job.  It is by the books to a fault, but innocently so.

SAFE
(1995)
Dir - Todd Haynes
Overall: GOOD

Notable for featuring one of the first leading roles for Julianne Moore who delivers a delicate, transformative performance as a San Fernando homemaker who succumbs to multiple chemical sensitivity and its pseudo-science, New Age treatment program, Safe doubles as filmmaker Todd Haynes most chilling examination of psychological detachment.  One in a long line of films that takes dark inspiration from society's growing complacency and reliance on frivolous domestic concerns, it specifically looks at the emotional trauma that is suffered by those who struggle with their newfound ailment, even if it can be fairly described as detrimentally influenced by those who wish to "cure" it.  Haynes manages to stage everything with deliberate distance, avoiding closeups and putting the viewer in a fly-on-the-wall seat where we can only witness what is going on without being spoon-fed any direct answers as to what Moore's frail protagonist is truly suffering.  This emphasizes that the point is not what she is going through but how it is effecting her, turning her from one form of a sheepish existence into another where she has traded her clean and superficial housewife persona for one as a debilitated victim amongst a commune of others who both support and enable her.

THE RELIC

(1997)

Dir - Peter Hyams
Overall: MEH

This textbook reptilian/monster/nature horror movie from Peter Hyams was an adaptation of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's novel Relic, with the adjective "The" added to the cinematic version here presumably just to give the theatrical poster artists more letters to work with.  Besides the derivative and uncompelling narrative that is all too easy to tune-out of, another problem is one that was probably is the consistently dark cinematography which not only obscures the murderous, half CGI/half puppet creature, (party for the better as the digital effects are primitive and lousy), but also many, many other shots that are unnecessarily pitch-black.  The frenzied editing job is another typical feature coming from late 90s, sufficiently budgeted action films and it also goes a long way in making the movie just as frustrating to view as the "What the hell am I even looking at?" lack of lighting.  The cast is not bad, but they are also interchangeable as any character actor could have handled yelling the tough-guy dialog or screaming at the scary thing that are chasing them.  It is a mediocre effort all around; dark, loud, and wet with some explody-ness to keep its popcorn-munching nature in line.

90's American Horror Part Seventeen

TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE: THE MOVIE

(1990)     

Dir - John Harrison

Overall: GOOD

 

Unofficially belonging in the Creepshow franchise as both Stephen King and George A. Romero were involved with either contributing stories or screenplays and itself based on the television series of the same name that Romero created, Tales from the Darkside: The Movie is a knowingly fun anthology outing that is more consistent than most.  Another connection to the Father of the Zombie Film is in director John Harrison who worked as either a composer or actor in Dawn of the Dead, Knightriders, and Day of the Dead.  Behind the lens here, Harrison maintains a lighthearted, generally amusing tone throughout every segment until the final "Lover's Vow" which is a modern, Western adaptation of the Yuki-onna legend in Lafcadio Hearn's collection Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things.  The consistently recognizable cast is fun, with a young Steve Busemi as a slimy graduate student and David Johansen as a slimy hit man being particularly hoot-worthy.  An adequate amount of gore and unpleasantness goes a long way too, with a cat crawling into a guys mouth and a young boy trying to delay being cooked in a conventional oven by a suburban witch being just two examples.

 

BRAINSCAN

(1994)

Dir -  John Flynn

Overall: MEH

 

Occasionally awkward and uneven, Rolling Thunder and Out for Justice director John Flynn's lone horror film Brainscan boasts a premise that can only exist because the 90s.  Well, even though it has a CD-ROM video game advertised in Fangoria that promises the ultimate experience in horror, a bunch of grunge and metal pops up on the soundtrack, and a flannel-clad, perpetually high looking Edward Furlong is the lead, it all still plays off the same tired, Satanic panic tropes of lonely, horny, adolescent boys being negatively influenced by monster movies and obnoxious music that had already been a cliche for a decade prior.  Also typical of the era, it has a ham-fisted villain non-cleverly called The Trickster who just as easily could have popped up in any untold number of increasingly ridiculous sequels, yet inexplicably never did.  While the tone suffers from clumsy humor at times and the story is anything but unpredictable, it offers up some innocent if disturbed fun.  The dated special effects are amusing, Frank Langella is uncharacteristically understated as an emotionally cold police detective, and everything wraps itself up nice and tiddy like.  It is certainly not anything to blow many minds with originality or by challenge its audience, but it is mild, likeable schlock all the same.

END OF DAYS

(1999)

Dir - Peter Hyams

Overall: MEH

As Arnold Schwarzenegger's would-be come-back from the movie that killed the Caped Crusader's franchise Batman & Robin, End of Days is a pretty abysmal effort front to back.  Several directors and actors were attached to the project at one point or another, (including Sam Raimi, Guillermo del Toro, Tom Cruise, Kate Winslet, and Liv Tyler), and apparently James Cameron had some sort of role in getting the director job to Peter Hyams, (2010: The Year We Make Contact, Timecop, Sudden Death, The Relic).  In any event, it is front loaded with mountains of both horror and action film cliches from every kind of antichrist-ushering, demonic apocalypse, broken down tough guy with a heart of gold, comedic sidekick-paired, save the girl movie that came before it.  For a Schwarzenegger vehicle, it is pretty low on one-liners and intended schlock, but it makes up for that with an all around pedestrian presentation and plenty of groan-worthy, unoriginal dialog to laugh at.  Because it is all played too seriously for its own good, unfortunately that means the future Governor of California's thespian shortcomings are more noticeable than usual and he is rather uncomfortably stiff here.  It is a pretty stupid, loud mess and easily one of the most forgettable films of its kind with so many cookie-cutter elements making up its DNA.

90's British Horror Part Four

DARK WATERS
(1994)
Dir - Mariano Baino
Overall: GOOD

The curious entry Dark Waters, (Dead Waters), from Italian filmmaker Mariano Baino also serves as his to date only full-length movie.  As one of the first non-local films to be shot in the Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it is equal parts unforgivingly baffling and macabre as well as cinematically clumsy at irregular intervals, creating an odd atmosphere in the process.  The pacing issues and perhaps unintentionally goofy moments are difficult to come to terms with since the movie also seems assuredly serious.  Music by Igor Clark and unearthly sound design which features indistinguishable growls and moans throughout, (as well as nearly incessant rain), generally go along memorably with a hodgepodge of nonsensical yet confidently evil visuals like gratuitously candlelit catacombs, blind, ancient looking nuns, people eating raw things, burn victims, creepy kids, disturbing paintings with album-cover worthy demons on them, bubbling gore, and almost everything on screen looking wet, cold, and on fire all at once.  Good luck trying to stay invested in the actual story, but with such a barrage of uniquely strange horror movie eye candy to gawk at, the film certainly leaves an impression.

THE HAUNTING OF HELEN WALKER

(1995)

Dir - Tom McLoughlin

Overall: MEH

 

Yet another retelling of Henry James' The Turn of the Screw, The Haunting of Helen Walker inescapably does not compare to the original, 1961, Jack Clayton film version The Innocents, but it is as mediocre as any other such adaptation.  Originally airing on CBS in December of 1995 and shot in England with a cast including Diana Rigg, Michael Gough, and Valerie Bertinelli in the lead, genre director Tom McLoughlin never gets it past the Lifetime movie presentation to create anything all that visually or otherwise remarkable.  While the seasoned adults are surely competent, a smirking performance from child actor Aled Roberts gets rather annoying even if he is playing a brat who is possessed by a creep.  As far as psychological horror goes, it forgoes creating a slow, brooding atmosphere sans a small handful of somewhat creepy set pieces and in place of that, some wordy exchanges rush the plot a bit to its finish line.  Speaking of a finish, the ending is laughably weak and one that is entirely due to characters reaching conclusions that they only could have reached because they read the script.  It is fine for what it is of course, but the pedestrian presentation as well as familiarity of the source material does not really go too far.

TALE OF THE MUMMY

(1998)

Dir -  Russell Mulcahy

Overall: MEH

 

A few months after Stephen Sommers' mega hit The Mummy dropped, prolific, Australian music video director Russell Mulcahy, (also of Highlander fame), delivered his own ode to Hammer monster movies with Tale of the Mummy.  Though it received a theatrical release and its production schedule could be seen as a mere coincidence, it nevertheless comes off as the lower-rent, straight-to-video mummy movie from that year.  The cast is mostly recognizable though hardly A-list, with brief appearances from Gerard Butler, Shelley Duvall, and Christopher Lee, all of whom appear for about a grand total of maybe six and a half minutes of screen time.  In any event, the schlock is laid on massively thick, with cliches in every scene, macho performances, frantic editing, and textbook early digital effects that are wretchedly embarrassing.  That said, the practical effects and set design are acceptable enough.  As far as the movie's title villain goes, there is not a more lame mummy in all of cinema history as most of his scenes simply revolve around dirty, CGI toilet paper whipping around and making people scream to death.  Eventually he does take on a conventional form, but by that point the ham-fisted presentation is laughable enough to undo, well, the whole movie.

90's British Horror Part Three

THE REFLECTING SKIN

(1990)

Dir - Philip Ridley

Overall: MEH

For his full-length debut, English artist/novelist/filmmaker Philip Ridley was inspired by American prairie lands, American Gothic artwork, American films, and American literature to make The Reflecting Skin.  Ironically shot in Alberta Canada then, it is a stylized piece of Americana cinema all the same and one that portrays some horrific elements through the imaginative eyes of a young boy while the sun shines brightly, the birds chirp, and the farmhouses are decorated in plain colors of yellow, brown, and white.  While moments in it are certainly bizarre and it follows a sort of childlike, nightmare logic at times, it is so lushly photographed and even whimsical in nature that it makes for a bit of a clashing experience.  The characters are not easily relatable and some are even downright off-putting, but the movie gets by on Ridley's somewhat eccentric vision or at least it tries to.  Ultimately, the story is not particularly engaging enough to work though, save for a few interesting ideas scattered about.

 

MARY SHELLEY'S FRANKENSTEIN

(1994)

Dir - Kenneth Branagh

Overall: MEH

 

Two years after Francis Ford Coppola artistically and commercial updated Dracula for the big screen, Shakespeare enthusiast Kenneth Branagh attempted the same thing with the other big, classic cinema monster in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.  While it is likewise far more faithful to its source material than virtually any other version before or since and goes for the same over the top, melodramatic flare that Coppola did, (at least on paper), Branagh misses the mark in a pretty consistent manner.  Cranked up to eleven, it is incessantly loud with hardly a solitary moment of subtlety.  For a two hour long movie, the story is bulldozed through in a typical, blockbuster-style, ADD manner.  Since it never stops to catch its breath then, instead it bombards the screen with Romantic era set pieces, grime and nastiness, things being both soaking wet and laughably combustible, dutch angles, rapid-fire editing, and characters overacting to the very best of their abilities, all of which are set to lush, dramatic music that never lets up.  Branagh does not show a quirky or even remotely avant-style; it is just a blaring, grandiose mess.  For straight-up monster movie fans though, Robert De Niro's turn as the creature and Helena Bonham Carter's briefly as his bride are relatively memorable and some of the artistic details can be seen as a nice addition to the Frankenstein mythos overall.

I, ZOMBIE: THE CHRONICLES OF PAIN

(1998)

Dir - Andrew Parkinson

Overall: MEH

 

Distributed by Fangoria Films and serving as the debut from writer/director/editor Andrew Parkinson, I, Zombie: The Chronicles of Pain is a simple yet ambitious walking corpse yarn.  Shot very primitively on 16 mm film which gives it a somewhat unfortunate SOV quality, it is not the most visually compelling movie in the world.  It does win points for its earnest attempt at being a far more tragic and thoughtful zombie film, one whose entire premise is exploring the slow, emotional as well as physical deterioration of its subject; an average Joe that is randomly bitten by a woman and then goes on to rot as he holds off his flesh-eating urges.  A unique idea on paper, but the execution is a bit dull beyond its poor look.  It is presented as a part documentary, but also one that is narrated by the main protagonist who is presumed missing by everyone the entire movie.  The concept is also a little TOO simple as it becomes predictably monotonous.  Ultimately, it is a rather depressing experience as well.  Probably better for zombies to turn as quickly as possible and then get a bullet in the head just as hastily than watch them mentally deteriorate and jerk off to their girlfriend.

90's Italian Horror Part Two

THE MASK OF SATAN
(1990)
Dir - Lamberto Bava
Overall: MEH

A quasi-remake of Mario Bava's seminal Black Sunday from his son Lamberto, The Mask of Satan, (La maschera del demonio, Demons 5, Demons V: The Devil's Veil, La Mascara del Satan), is a somewhat charming though ultimately mediocre retelling of its source material.  It was made for the European television series Sabbath, debuting in the summer of 1990 where it inevitably got lumped in with Lamberto's own Demons franchise, becoming one of the several non-official sequels in it.  Fusing the loose, Black Sunday concept of a condemned witch in an iron mask coming back to wreak her vengeance with a contemporary setting where dumb-dumb, horned-up, attractive characters get possessed and run around laughing a lot, it cruises along at a solid enough trot to not become too concerned with the humdrum script.  Despite some inconsistent character behavior and a comparative lack of gore, it is well decorated and has a consistent, mostly non-schlocky tone until about the last five minutes at least.  The story really is not dense enough to keep numerous moments from growing repetitive though, especially the third act where it tries to get more psychologically ambitious and clever.

THE DEVIL'S DAUGHTER

(1991)

Dir - Michele Soavi

Overall: MEH

 

Another stylish collaboration between Dario Argento and Michele Soavi which acts rather as a Euro-Rosemary's Baby, The Devil's Daughter, (The Sect, La Setta), becomes inescapably messy, but has some charm to it nonetheless.  The story is not particularly strong, struggling as most Italian horror films do to maintain coherency while primarily being concerned with macabre set pieces that are often fun and ghastly, yet almost comically arbitrary as well.  In the lead, Kelly Curtis' performance is uneven as is the score by Pino Donaggio which gets a little too over the top at times.  That said, at least genre regular Herbert Lom delivers the creepy as a mysterious, hobo-esque Satan enthusiast.  Tone wise, Soavi plays it very serious, something which occasionally enhances the inherent bizarreness, particularly during a moment where a woman's face gets ripped off ceremoniously by hooks and then when Curtis is attacked sexually by a bird and forced to give birth in a pool surrounded by weird women egging her on.  Sadly though, the cumbersome running time and inadvertently laughable qualities do undermine its potential to actually be frightening, which it assuredly is not.  Interesting at times yes, but that is about it.

WAX MASK

(1997)

Dir - Sergio Stivaletti

Overall: GOOD

 

This quasi-remake of House of Wax doubles as a rare collaboration between Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci, indented as a directorial effort for the latter who ended up dying before shooting began.  Handed off to special effects artist Sergio Stivaletti to be behind the lens then with a story by Argento and a screenplay co-written by Fulci, Wax Mask, (M.D.C. - Maschera di cera), is a gory, fun, and sloppily plotted update of the standard, Italian-flavored variety.  Visually, Stivaletti's steampunk version of the horror classic has rusted medical equipment, brightly colored liquid bubbling in gigantic tubes, skeletal, Terminator-esque monsters, and elaborate needles and masks which seem old fashioned and futuristic all at once.  This all goes along with the usual ingredients of an ugly assistant, the secretly deformed mad genius, a dramatic soundtrack that plays incessantly and obnoxiously throughout, the dashing hero, women who cannot keep their boobs covered for very long, and a story that is as predictable as they come.  Its combination of mundane and inventive qualities somewhat cancel each other out, but it is briskly paced enough with just the right amount of schlock to comfortably please genre fans.

90's Italian Horror Part One

NIGHTMARE CONCERT: A CAT IN THE BRAIN

(1990)
Dir - Lucio Fulci
Overall: MEH

A thoroughly bizarre, late entry in Lucio Fulci's increasingly inconsistent filmography, Nightmare Concert: A Cat in the Brain, (Un gatto nel cervello (I volti del terrore)), finds the director not only appearing as himself, but also top billed for the first and only time in his career.  A meta-film which desperately cobbles together footage from some of Fulci's older works as well as those from various other filmmakers, the linking story and entire presentation is rather lame and uninteresting.  It is not just the sequences of previous movies included that give it an out of date feel, but the liberal use of zooms, piss-pour dubbing, and the giallo-flavored story line are anything but contemporary.  To the film's credit, the mix mash of footage is not as consistently jarring as it could have been, though solo shots of Fulci simply reacting to things that are taken from different movies while never sharing the same screen space with anything in them is still pretty ridiculous let alone incredibly monotonous.  It might be the easiest entry in Fulci's repertoire to tune out of while watching and sadly, a pretty embarrassing one to nearly go out on.

 

CEMETERY MAN

(1994)

Dir - Michele Soavi

Overall: GOOD

 

Director Michele Soavi's first attempt at comedy be it of the dark, off-kilter variety was this adaptation of Tiziano Sclavi’s novel Dellamorte Dellamore, here also given the English title Cemetery Man.  It is a bizarre mix of genres, some co-mingling more inconsistently than others.  As the title character whose aim with a handgun is uncannily accurate, Rupert Everett seems all at once perpetually horny, easily love-stricken, cynical, cut-off from reality, and self-loathing in his desperately lonely job as a graveyard caretaker who also "takes care" of its inhabitants.  Meaning inhabitants that routinely rise up as zombies for reasons the script spends literally zero time explaining.  While it is often wildly unorthodox and bordering on incoherence because of it, this also serves as a large part of the film's charm.  The absurdness is more subtle than overtly over the top, almost as if its messy lack of plotting is unintentional, though this is likely not the case.  Throw in tone issues and inconsistent character behavior and it all makes for quite a unique, avant-garde finished product that is certainly headscratching, yet also entertaining enough for the same reasons.

THE MYSTERIOUS ENCHANTER
(1996)
Dir - Pupi Avati
Overall: GOOD

A return to the horror genre and probably the best work in it form Italian filmmaker Pupi Avati, The Mysterious Enchanter, (L'arcano incantatore, Arcane Sorcerer), is a different beast than his more well-known giallos.  That said, it does bare similarities to The House with Laughing Windows from twenty years prior as it takes place in a remote location, focuses on a character that is employed by an excommunicated monsignor, and features a diabolical twist.  Plenty of other bizarre details are scattered about as well, though it is essentially a mood piece, with Avati, cinematographer Cesare Bastelli, and composer Pino Donaggio creating a menacing mood out of the large, run-down, candle-lit estate that is home to an enormous library presumably full of mysterious, supernatural enchanting volumes.  As far as most Euro-horror which it is in part a throwback to, the story is more streamlined if not still intentionally ambiguous.  There is no emphasis on outrageous set pieces or logic-defying silliness in other words; instead it is genuinely creepy and subdued, thankfully with no pacing lulls despite the small cast of characters and isolated setting.