90's American Horror Part Twenty-Eight

GHOST

(1990)

Dir - Jerry Zucker

Overall: GOOD

 

Knocking it out of the park for his first solo effort behind the lens, Jerry Zucker's Ghost plays an entirely different game than the director's legendary laugh fest collaborations with his brother David and Jim Abrahams.  He is hardly the sole individual to take the credit though as all parties involved make it a top to bottom crowd pleaser that perfectly weaves its various genre components.  A romance story first and foremost, the on screen chemistry between Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore is the stuff of Hollywood legend and the tearjerker elements to the story are infections to say the least.  Whoopi Goldberg is quite scene-stealing and hilarious as a con-artist turned genuine spiritual medium and both Tony Goldwyn and Rick Aviles make excellently loathsome villains.  While the horror elements are comparatively underplayed, the script by Bruce Joel Rubin still offers up some clever supernatural ideas and both scenes where demonic shadows drag the bad guys presumably to hell are pretty chilling.  Commercially successful on a massive scale, the movie helped revitalize "Unchained Melody" as the ultimate love song and made both pottery and female boy cuts sexy, but thankfully it also holds up as something emotionally impactful, funny, and slightly spooky.

RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD 3

(1993)

Dir - Brian Yuzna

Overall: MEH

 

Pivoting quite noticeably from the first two installments, Return of the Living Dead 3 sees filmmaker Brian Yuzna taking at crack at the franchise with mixed results.  The characters and setting are practically all new, focusing on a military operation that moronically wants to make zombies into controllable weapons because of course they do.  This goes as awry as it always does when such scenarios play out and on top of this, Melinda Clarke and J. Trevor Edmoond are the hoodlum couple thrown into the proceedings with the former turning into a punk rock wet dream version of a brain-munching babe.  While there are plenty of goofy details and a sufficient amount of preposterous gore, it is still a toned down effort coming from Yuzna who does not embrace a schlocky enough tone to make it as hilarious as it should be.  Also, the minimal budget shows throughout, with below average, straight-to-video special effects making it look like the cheap B-movie that it is.  It is worth seeing at least for fans of campy zombie tropes, blood, and menacing keyboard soundtracks that play throughout every scene.

BORDELLO OF BLOOD

(1997)

Dir - Gilbert Adler
Overall: MEH

The cinematic property that finally put the lid on the Tales from the Crypt coffin, Bordello of Blood is a remarkably juvenile vampire yarn that is both half bad and half hilariously bad.  Originally conceived of by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale back in the 1970s as an exploitation cheapie, it was dug up decades later by Universal Pictures as a follow-up to Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight, upping the comedy angle tenfold while still indulging in loads of gore and naked women.  On paper, the concept kind of works, but the resulting script from A.L. Katz and Gilbert Adler is exceptionally stupid and only befitting to something that is not even remotely taking itself seriously.  On that note, the casting of Denis Miller in the lead is a particularly daft move as the helplessly smart-assed comedian allegedly only agreed to star if the payday was a million dollars and then proceeded to improvise all of his lines.  His utter disdain for the material cuts through every moment that he is on screen, which actually makes his "performance" rather a hoot.  Less is the case for Corey Feldman and especially Angie Everhart whose actually scripted dialog is as wretchedly embarrassing as their ham-fisted mannerisms.  Still, watching Miller and Chris Sarandon murder a bunch of vampires with super-soakers to the tune of "Ballroom Blitz" is something more movies probably need.

90's American Horror Part Twenty-Seven

DEMON WIND

(1990)

Dir - Charles Philip Moore

Overall: WOOF

 

If not the worst Evil Dead/Night of the Demons knock-off ever made, Demon Wind is easily up there as one of the most hare-brained.  Essentially all of the blame lies at writer/director Charles Philip Moore's feet, making his solo debut here.  Considering that Moore made a career out of nothing but derivative, D-rent garbage like this, his "skills" behind the lens are either intentionally asinine and uninspired or just pathetically inept.  From the ominous keyboard score that never, ever shuts up, to the distorted demon voices that never shut up, to the horrendously unlikable characters that never shut up, every actor trying to do a worse job than the other, and dialog made up of as many cliches as every single plot point has, the movie plays out like a series of only the most schlocky horror movie tropes that have long been burnt out to death.  The tone is far too sincere to be considered any kind of a spoof and Moore's pacing is utterly monotonous, growing tiresome long before everyone is trapped in a creepy cabin and each person get inevitably picked off by putty-faced monster versions of themselves whose warped, scary-voiced dialog we can barely understand.  Not that anyone should give a shit about what they are saying in the first place.

 

DEATH BECOMES HER

(1992)

Dir - Robert Zemeckis

Overall: GOOD

Lighthearted yet cheekily macabre, Death Becomes Her was yet another in a string of box office hits for director Robert Zemeckis.  One of the earliest works to rely heavily on CGI, such effects may look as dated as one would expect today, yet they are utilized in a stream of clever set pieces, each one of which is successfully played for laughs.  The script by Martin Donovan and David Koepp is an over the top satire of superficial Hollywood where Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep's envious bickering is matched only by their selfish desire to live forever.  As a cruel, twist of fate tale of comeuppance, said characters are given relatable if petty motivation behind their awful behavior which along with the hilarious gags, dialog, and performances are just enough to make them sympathetic.  While Streep is predictably good in everything and Hawn had long proven herself as a comedic juggernaut, Bruce Willis surprisingly steps up to own all of his moments as the shamed yet ultimately noble plastic surgeon that is the only person in the movie to see through the eventual, lonely shortcomings of being both fabulous and immortal.

THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE

(1997)

Dir - Taylor Hackford

Overall: GOOD

Stuck in development HELL, (har, har), for a number of years, the A-list budgeted adaptation of Andrew Neiderman's novel The Devil's Advocate eventually emerged under Taylor Hackford's direction as a slick, John Grisham/Rosemary's Baby/The Omen hybrid.  In a role tailor-made for his particular brand of scenery-chomping, Al Pacino excels as the Great Deceiver.  This version of Satan leans into Faust/Paradise Lost influences which are integral to the actual story, even going as far as to having the character use the alias John Milton.  The entire film hinges on the premise of free will, where Keanu Reeves is constantly given an out yet he lets his vanity ultimately doom him into Pacino's unholy hands.  Though the plot hardly contains any surprises, it cruises along at a pace that forgives the nearly two and a half hour running time.  Pacino certainly and predictably owns the movie, yet Reeves is quite strong as well in the lead by showing off some chops, (as well as a far more convincing accent than his infamous one in Bram Stoker's Dracula), that most of his other performances hardly call for.

90's American Horror Part Twenty-Six

MISERY
(1990)
Dir - Rob Reiner
Overall: GOOD

The only detour into the horror genre from director Rob Reiner ended up being widely recognized as a one of the best Stephen King adaptations ever made.  While Misery may not boast any supernatural components and is more accurately in the thriller vein, its solid reputation is quite justified with the usual disturbing King premise, tight pacing, and skilled performances out of its two leads.  In the role that kicked her career into hyper-drive, Kathy Bates makes an iconic "cuckoo for cocoa puffs" villain while James Caan steps out of his usual tough guy persona and becomes the vulnerable victim.  Reiner and prominent screenwriter William Goldman faithfully streamline the novel while tweaking the infamous scene where Annie Wilkes breaks writer Paul Sheldon's ankles instead of severing them, which makes her slightly less monstrous enough to feel some level of pity for.  Riding that line of tongue-in-cheek schlock is a tricky yet essential one in ordter for such naturally outrageous material to work and thankfully, Reiner and co satisfyingly elevate things here until the last uncomfortable, balls-out act.

TALES FROM THE CRYPT: DEMON KNIGHT
(1995)
Dir - Ernest R. Dickerson
Overall: GOOD

Banking on the success of the popular/now iconic television series, Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight was the first theatrically released tie-in film which plays exactly like a full-length version of the show, with the same opening and bookending Crypt Keeper segments in tow.  The script was originally its own beast, going through several directors and studios before kicking off what was planned to be a trilogy of Tales from the Crypt movies, though only two were ultimately made.  Because of this, the story is not an adaptation of one of the original EC Comics titles and is instead a Biblical end of days bit of schlock that intentionally leans into its B-movie archetypes.  One of those archetypes is rather loose plotting that features a handful of "stupid people in horror movies" cliches, yet director Ernest R. Dickerson seems to know his audience and keeps up a highly engaging pace with his first work in the genre.  As the main, wise-talking baddie, Billy Zane chews up the scenery accordingly and the practical effects deliver the blood-drenched, slimy goods.  It is no masterpiece, but as silly, entertaining, and macabre popcorn fare, it delivers all that is required.

BELOVED
(1998)
Dir - Johnathan Demme

Overall: GOOD

Johnathan Demme's follow-up to the Oscar winning Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia was the ambitious and largely faithful adaptation of Toni Morrison's novel Beloved, which unfortunately failed commercially.  Oprah Winfrey secured the film rights to Morrison's source material shorty after it was published over a decade earlier and this reunites her with The Color Purple co-star Danny Glover, both of whom turn in stellar performances along with Kimberly Elise as Winfrey's daughter Denver.  The only work in Demme's filmography with a supernatural component, it is far more disturbing in its historical depictions of slavery and the troubled aftermath of the Civil War than in any horror movie type moments.  This is fitting though as the highly traumatic past of the characters would have been cheapened by conventional genre pandering and the overarching theme of manifested guilt and the eventual outcome therein hits stronger in this more serious, be it melodramatic tone.  While it is steadily sensationalized and the nearly three-hour running time is a bit cumbersome, it is still a powerful work as was clearly the intention.

90's American Horror Part Twenty-Five

IT

(1990)

Dir - Tommy Lee Wallace

Overall: MEH

 

ABC's partially inconsistent adaptation of Stephen King's massive, cocaine-fueled novel It is a frustrating view.  Originally even longer in length to accommodate the intimidating source material, George A. Romero was set to be behind the lens and did a considerable amount of pre-production work on it before scheduling issues forced him out and John Carpenter collaborator Tommy Lee Wallace in.  Given a hefty budget for a miniseries, Wallace and his production crew stage some creepy and fun set pieces and for his role as Pennywise the Clown, Tim Curry created one of the most memorable horror movie bad guys of all time.  Elsewhere though, the highly condensed script comes off more silly and plot hole-filled than anything.  Though there is a campy charm to the sterile television presentation at times, it is certainly less frightening than it otherwise could have been.  Most troublesome of all though is the weak ending which jumps from a goofy looking spider monster to a level of sugary, sickening sap that would even make Stephen Spielberg embarrassed.

 

HOCUS POCUS

(1993)

Dir - Kenny Ortega

Overall: WOOF

 

The incessantly obnoxious kiddie horror film Hocus Pocus is quite the mangled effort.  The original script by Mick Garris was heavily re-worked to tone down its more gruesome elements, but the resulting plot is a slapdash mess that barely keeps its ill-conceived rules together if it does so at all.  Even for a cutesy Disney product, it is quite bombastically joyless.  The concept of Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy either bellowing, screaming, or mumbling their, (very), unfunny dialog like an embarrassing imrpov version of the Three Stooges grows old immediately and only gets more impossible to stomach as it goes along.  None of the other characters or performances come off any more amusing and without any exceptions, every attempt at a gag would only make someone laugh who does not know what comedy is.  Some people may have miraculously fallen under its antithesis of charm over the years, (lord help them), but this is far too annoying to be enjoyable even in a trainwreck capacity and is probably more logical to be avoided like the plague.  Clearly just watch Tim Curry sing "Anything Can Happen on Halloween" from The Worst Witch instead.

 

THE FRIGHTENERS

(1996)

Dir - Peter Jackson

Overall: GOOD

 

Just before venturing into Middle Earth for several years, Peter Jackson made his to date final comedy/horror hybrid The Frighteners.  Jackson and partner Fran Walsh initially put the script together on Robert Zemeckis' insistence as a possible feature-length entry to the Tales from the Crypt series.  The resulting film, (which was shot in Jackson's native New Zealand though set in the American Midwest), is far more commercial than the director's early, independent, degenerate splatter movies, yet it is still bombastic in an almost Sam Raimi pizazz sense.  Jackson's always hyper-fueled pacing is in full swing with Danny Elfman providing his usual deafening and persistent score.  Michael J. Fox is highly likeable in the lead while Jack Busey, Dee Walace, and especially Jeffrey Combs crank it up to eleven in supporting roles.  Jackson's newly formed Weta Digital company has a field day with the cartoony special effects, some of the most elaborate and time-consuming to produce at the time.  While the script fails to connect some of its intricate pieces, the movie is still a highly enjoyable bit of popcorn ready, dark humor fun.

90's Spanish Horror Part Two

CTHULHU MANSION

(1990)

Dir - Juan Piquer Simón

Overall: MEH

 

The silly yet adequate haunted house movie Cthulhu Mansion, (Black Magic Mansion, La Mansion de los Cthulhu), is at least better than what one would come to expect from Spanish filmmaker Juan Piquer Simón.  The Lovecraftian deity is nowhere to be seen and serves more of a mood setting purpose for the mansion in question which holds some dark, otherworldly secret involving elemental evil being trapped behind a locked door or something.  The supernatural occurrences are as random as ever for such movies, including cliches like the old bleeding shower, a phone call from the dead, (on a line that has been cut), animated foliage, and monster hands coming out of the fridge ala Ghostbusters.  Such moments are fun in a purely spookshow, eye candy sense and the movie has a consistently creepy mood as well.  The fact that more than half of the characters are obnoxious, drug dealing scumbags is more of a problem than the repetitious pace and lousy dialog, plus things derail into nonsense more as it goes on.  Far from a masterpiece, but its macabre, schlocky heart is in the right place.

 

TESIS

(1996)

Dir - Alejandro Amenábar

Overall: GOOD

 

A rather unmistakable commentary on people's voyeuristic draw towards violence, Alajandro Amenábar's debut Tesis, (Thesis), is an impressive one with enough red herrings to keep even the most jaded thriller aficionado satisfied.  Writing about what you know, Amenábar made the movie while studying filmmaking at Complutense University in Madrid, which is exactly where it takes place and more or less what the central characters here are engaged in.  The subject matter of snuff films is universally disturbing and the localized ring of such individuals taking place in their filming and distribution here does not unveil a conspiratorial network of underground murder as much as it shows the morbidly curious draw for those outside of it.  Ana Torrent's college student persistently denies her fascination with such unpleasantness until it is too late to fool anyone and at that point things have persistently pointed in all directions, which casts a wide net as far as how much and to what degrees different people can be consumed by that fascination.  It can be argued that the movie might have a few too many set pieces, but the unveiling of layers is expertly handled by Amenábar and its level of suspense is certainly commendable.

 

PERDITA DURANGO

(1997)

Dir - Álex de la Iglesia 

Overall: GOOD

A Hispanic companion piece to David Lynch's Wild at Heart as it was an adaptation of the third novel in Barry Gifford's series, Perdita Durango, (Dance with the Devil), takes a different kind of absurd approach to such satirical ultra-violence.  Spanish filmmaker Álex de la Iglesia is not the utterly singular, surrealist wizard that Lynch is, (nor is anybody), and the resulting movie here lacks the kinetic, acid-fueled presentation of Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers to compare similar thematic material, but Iglesia's hilarious, very dark humor shines through in his unmistakable, auteur manner.  Rosie Perez' title character and her Santeria practicing cohort, (played with a trademark ridiculous haircut in tow by Javier Bardem), are the type of thieving, raping, and murdering anti-heroes that challenge the viewer to sympathize with main characters that are complete villains in every conceivable way.  Party due to their engaging performances and the gritty yet ludicrous tone throughout, a slew of vile acts seem less disturbing than they actually are.  Supporting roles from James Gandolfini and Screamin' Jaw Hawkins of all people are also delightful, with the former getting comically tossed around like OJ Simpson in The Naked Gun series and the latter as, (of course), a rambling voodoo priest.

90's Spanish Horror Part One

THE DAY OF THE BEAST
(1995)
Dir - Álex de la Iglesia
Overall: GREAT

The second full-length The Day of the Beast, (El día de la bestia), from Spanish filmmaker Álex de la Iglesia is renowned by many of his peers as a game-changing horror movie that helped to revitalize the genre in its native Spain.  Iglesia's penchant for dark comedy jives perfectly with the end of days scenario where a possibly delusional, unassuming priest is hell-bent on a quest to sell his soul to Satan so he can find out where the Antichrist will be born in order to destroy it.  Along the way, several other likeable, eccentric characters come into the picture including but not limited to a goofy metalhead, a violence-prone mother who is handy with a shotgun, a drug-fried grandpa who refuses to put on clothes, and a charlatan, occult expert TV personality.  The wonderfully committed performances help keep things moving in Iglesia and frequent collaborator Jorge Guerricaechevarría's ridiculous yet inventive script where the next hilarious moment gets that much more strange and diabolical all at once.  This is also one of the first Spanish films to use digital effects and though they are rather poor from a technical standpoint, everything else going on is so relentlessly entertaining and clever that any perceivable flaws can quickly be forgiven.

LICÀNTROPO
(1996)
Dir - Francisco Rodríguez Gordillo
Overall: MEH

 

Five years after suffering a rather serious heart attack, Paul Naschy staged what would be a failed comeback with Licántropo, (Lycantropus: The Moonlight Murders, Lycantropus: The Full Moon Killer), the eleventh entry in the Waldemar Daninsky series and first since 1983's The Beast and the Magic Sword.  Elements of the film seem right out of the Spanish Wolfman's 70s output, namely the flat direction and piles of exposition.  The problem is that both of these "qualities" are exactly what undoes the final result as the movie is alarmingly talky, almost completely absent on gore, actually absent on sex appeal, and incredibly boring.  Worse yet, it throws in a pathetic slasher sub-plot and Naschy only appears in werewolf makeup for what amounts to less than a minute of screen time.  The makeup itself is far more toned down and therefor light years less impressive than what his previous portrayals were known for, plus the once exuberant actor is noticeably older and clearly struggling to muster any enthusiasm in his performance.  There are some halfway passable attempts at creating a suspenseful atmosphere with the flat material, but this is still quite a slog.

THE NAMELESS
(1999)
Dir - Juame Balagueró
Overall: MEH

The full-length debut from Spanish filmmaker Juame Balagueró has a strong emphasis on cliched mood aesthetics and plot details, but the half-baked script undoes things much further.  An adaptation of Ramsey Campbell's 1981 novel The Nameless, it has a sinister, thriller-style premise of an emotionally traumatized mother, an ex cop, and a curious newspaper reporter investigating an evil, clandestine cult, but the end result is more unnecessarily cryptic than frightening.  Some of the cast does solid work with the underwhelming dialog, but a few of the performances are rather difficult to sake seriously in their scenery-chewing creepiness.  Writer/director Balagueró relies far too much on lazily manipulative music and quick, static cuts of grainy, disturbed imagery to give the film a differentiating style, becoming underwhelming in the process.  Things grow increasingly convoluted as it frustratingly reaches its schlocky, melodramatic climax and again, if the presentation was more effectively menacing to match the deadly sincere intentions, then this may have packed more of a punch instead of a whimper.

90's Foreign Horror Part Four

SEMYA VURDALAKOV

(1990)

Dir - Gennadiy Klimov/Igor Shavlak

Overall: MEH

 

The confused and frustrating Semya Vurdalakov, (Семья вурдалаков, Family of Vampires, The Vampire Family), is another quasi-adaptation of Russian author Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy's The Family of the Vourdalak which viewers will recognize also inspired the "I Wurdulak" segment with Boris Karloff in Mario Bava's Black Sabbath.  Set in contemporary times and focused on a reporter who is sent to investigate a very remote farming village where the residents are regularly disappearing, director's Gennadiy Klimov and Igor Shavlak, (the latter who also appears in the lead), go for a sleepy time tea-induced mood in every conceivable way.  The music is minimally used up until the finale, hardly any of the characters emote except for rare instances, the cinematography is purposely impenetrable, and the story moves at such an alarmingly lackadaisical pace that it soon becomes quite difficult to stay with.  This is a shame in that the atmosphere is occasionally effective and on paper there are moments that should be more chilling than they ultimately appear, but the lumbering presentation makes things nearly incomprehensibly boring instead.

 

MAN BITES DOG

(1992)

Dir - Rémy Belvaux/André Bonzel/Benoît Poelvoorde

Overall: GOOD

Certainly an exercise in audacity, the low budget mockumentary Man Bites Dog, (C'est arrivé près de chez vous) from Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel, and Benoît Poelvoorde is a movie that effectively toys with the viewer's thresholds for what is fascinating, funny, and appalling.  Shot on 16mm film, Belvaux, Bonzel, and Poelvoorde handle nearly every production aspect as well as appearing on screen with the latter portraying the charming, sadistic, and blasé serial killer Ben who treats his murders as if they are simply an enjoyable profession.  The challenging aspects are not just the subject matter which purposely emphasizes a disregard for human life that is more nonchalant than glamorizing, but the fact that Poelvoorde's character is downright likeable if still clearly psychotic.  His friends, family, and the crew filming him all seem under his charismatic spell and the world they inhabit is an uncomfortable bizarro one that seems eerily grounded and familiar on account of the non-glossy presentation.  The tone shifts gradually as if the movie itself is coming to its senses, but by that point we have been captivated and disturbed in equal measures and the lingering feeling is anything but warm.

 

TWISTS OF TERROR

(1997)

Dir - Douglas Jackson

Overall: MEH

 

Made for Canada's The Movie Network, Twists of Terror is a mediocre anthology film and the second of only two feature-length properties written by author John Shirley.  It is the usual set up of three individual stories being linked by a "host" who is simply a mad conspiracy theorist held up in his house while spouting warnings at the camera.  That easily being the lamest aspect to the narrative, the segments themselves are not particularly bad, they just are not all that exciting.  None of them are supernatural based either and each one involve some sort of diabolical twist with the one in "The People You Meet" being convoluted, "The Clinic" predictable, and "Stolen Moments" rather random and unconvincing.  The synth score is the same found in every other low-budget horror movie from the era and therefor highly forgettable, but there is a low-level sleaze factor throughout that along with the minimal gore is pretty tame by those same standards of the day.  As a Canadian stab at a type of Tales from the Crypt property it is certainly a failure, but it is a harmless one that easily could be worse.

Guillermo del Toro Horror

CRONOS

(1993)

Overall: GOOD

 

Proving himself a visionary even on his first feature length film, Cronos is Guillermo del Toro's fascinating re-working of vampire mythos.  Made independently in his native Mexico, a then twenty-eight year old del Toro explores the undead via an ancient contraption fused with the heart of an alchemist and an immortal, blood-drinking scarab that transforms elderly Federico Luppi into a creature of the night through further unconventional means.  The heart of the story is that which is between Luppi's Jesús Gris, (the name "Jesus" intentionally in reference to his rising from the dead three days after the fact), and his non-speaking granddaughter Aurora, both of whose committed, nurturing, and truly lovely relationship skews every concept of the diabolical nosferatu that we have previously seen.  Both Ron Perlman and Claudio Brook make short-sighted, capitalist villains yet even as a bratty goon, Perlman has a charm to him that counters Brook's eccentric, selfishly cold uncle character.  Made on modest production values in comparison to American movies of the day, del Toro and his dedicated team still manage to create something that is visually compelling without the enhanced flare of the director's later works.

THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE

(2001)

Overall: GOOD

After the less than satisfactory experience with his first Hollywood feature Mimic, Guillermo del Toro ventured to Madrid to film the much more personal and auteuristic The Devil's Backbone, (El Espinazo del Diablo).  Set during the tail end of the Spanish Civil War in a completely isolated, haunted orphanage, it has some of the scope of Sergio Leone Westerns with that same grit transferring over to its supernatural elements.  There is much said here about a repeated cycle of tragedy where Eduardo Noriega's orphan-turned-caretaker becomes a sadistic loner who desperately tries to overcome his lifelong setbacks by destroying whatever comes in his way.  Meanwhile the setting only adds more spirits to its now dilapidated grounds as the next generation of children are left on there own to carve out a bit of hope.  Purposely on del Toro's part, the realism of the war-torn setting and its effects on the characters is much more frightening than the ghosts as the filmmaker pulls no punches with some brutal violence and tragedy.  It is probably del Toro's least fantastical horror film to date and a necessary stepping stone to his later work which would be much more grandiose in scale while still allowing for unflinching brutality to ground it.

PAN'S LABYRINTH

(2006)

Overall: GREAT

A thematic and narrative companion piece to The Devil's Backbone, Pan's Labyrinth, (El laberinto del fauno), is Guillermo del Toro's first bona fide masterpiece; a combination of brutal, real world oppression and fantastical storytelling made exclusively on the filmmaker's terms.  Shot in the Guadarrama mountain range in Central Spain and once again focusing on a susceptible child newly arriving at a frightening location under the influence of the Francoist period, the two worlds here that del Toro presents are significantly linked at various intervals with the magical one becoming more undeniable as things progress.  Visible through the eyes of Ivana Baquero's resurrected Princess protagonist Ofelia, the land of mystical realms and creatures is seemingly impenetrable to the adults who have had any imaginative innocence coldly beaten out of them.  Still, the effects of the supernatural on "reality" are integrated all the same and the antifascist agenda of trusting one's benevolent intuition as opposed to blindly following orders without question is a paramount one.  Just as the two different universes co-exist, there is a similar melding of practical and computer generated effects which represent a triumph of both.  If anyone were to proclaim that this is one of the most visually gorgeous and moving of all dark fantasy films, such a thing would be rather impossible to argue with.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa Horror Part Two

LOFT

(2005)

Overall: MEH

Though it is beautifully photographed, has a handful of noiselessly eerie moments, and largely evokes the identical, lethargic mood that all of his horror films utilize, Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Loft makes some puzzling choices along the way.  Speaking of the filmmaker's deliberate, tried and true pace, the near two-hour running time is less forgiving here.  This is due to a script that is both barren in large parts, then silly and incomprehensible in others.  The first two acts are largely void of narrative movement and the third becomes monotonously confusing.  In this regard, a good twenty to even thirty minutes of screen time seems like it could have been removed to streamline everything.  Especially in the finale, it becomes curious as to whether or not Kurosawa was even going for some kind of avant-garde humor, which obviously clashes with the rest of the meditative, dour tone.  Ultimately, the story is not that interesting and when romantic music sweeps in and characters start talking like they are reciting Hallmark greeting cards, it is all a bit head-scratching as to what the takeaway is supposed to be.

 

RETRIBUTION

(2006)

Overall: GOOD

 

In 2006, Kiyoshi Kurosawa provided his entry into producer Takashige Ichise's J-Horror Theater series with Retribution, (Sakebi).  Actor Kōji Yakusho is in all of Kurosawa's supernatural tales and he is quite effective here as a psychologically stressed Tokyo detective who is unraveling before our eyes.  Speaking of eyes, the lovely Riona Hazuki makes an effectively haunting presence as well.  Kurosawa generally takes his leisurely time with not only the scares but the story as a whole and this is a textbook example.  Cliches are regularly bypassed as well, with specters ignoring the rules and showing up in the daylight, sticking around to have meaningful, (be it still cryptic), conversations, and usually having no stock, creepy music accompanying their appearances.  Even when utilizing such things as jump scares and electricity not working though, the tranquil tone remains unchallenged.  The director's ability to equally convey dread and thought provoking ambiguity by the film's end is on par here as much as ever, making this one of his many triumphs.

CREEPY

(2016)

Overall: GOOD

 

The domestic thriller Creepy, (Kurīpī: Itsuwari no Rinjin), sees filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa returning after ten years to his horror aesthetics even if the movie technically does not fit into said genre in a conventional sense.  Based off of the novel of the same name by Yutaka Maekawa, Kurosawa spins the common, "disturbing neighbor" motif in his always singular way, utilizing long takes and sparring incidental music to create his usual understated tone.  Though the entire cast is quite good, the film largely hinges on Teruyuki Kagawa's performance as a mysteriously disturbed eccentric who manages to be aloof, charming, terrifying, and pathetic often within the course of a single scene.  There are a few curious plotting moments where plausibility is stretched; character's not explaining concerning behavior to each other, police not catching on to the bad guy far sooner, a silly monologue near the end, etc.  Yet just when it seems like such issues will undue the otherwise tightly controlled presentation, interesting surprises spring up that seem to set things back on track.  It is still an odd story to be sure, but it is also one that is  ideally suited for Kurosawa's abilities behind the lens

DAGUERROTYPE

(2016)

Overall: GOOD

As the first non-Japanese speaking, (or cast), film from Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Daguerrotype is an unmistakable change of locale for the filmmaker yet it attains many of his hallmarks.  The mood is persistently understated and the pacing is as deliberate as ever.  Thankfully as well, Kurosawa's penchant for staging his select yet impactful, supernatural moments in broad daylight and without the use of virtually any derivative horror cliches is just as unwavering and strong.  The tone still carries the bulk of the weight, but the material allows for Kurosawa to indulge in far more contemplative and romantic ideas than usual.  With the feel of a period piece, (even though it is set in the modern day), and a narrative that seems like it was based off of a novel, (even though it is solely from Kurosawa's own pen), it showcases a boldness that is quite admirable to say the least.  Performance wise, it could not be better with the almost entirely French cast fitting effortlessly into the director's well-honed aesthetics.  There are some plot points that may seem a bit too sparse, yet the film's ambiguity appears to be intentional so in this regard, it is an effectively challenging end product.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa Horror Part One

SWEET HOME

(1988)

Overall: MEH

Released simultaneously with a video game of the same name which later inspired Resident Evil, the film Sweet Home, (Suwīto hōmu, The Mamiya House), not only bares absolutely zero similarities with the zombie survival series, but it also shares none of the hallmarks of its director Kiyoshi Kurosawa's subdued future work.  On the one hand, it is a standard, "ghost out for revenge in a cursed, abandoned mansion" story, but the tone is primarily goofy.  Horrendously terrible, sappy synth music interrupts random scenes and slap stick or just plain quirky humor is attempted at times.  This occasionally jives oddly with moments that are gory and dark, as it never goes fully into something akin to Sam Raimi Looney Tunes mode even though it seems like it wants to.  Several set pieces are gleefully absurd though, like a guy turning into a melting skeleton and a woman getting her skull split open by an unnecessarily large ax.  The practical effects are also solid, particularly with a giant, animatronic ghost monster during the finale.  Things crawl a bit too much at regular intervals though and the movie is ultimately more ridiculous than interesting.

THE GUARD FROM UNDERGROUND

(1992)

Overall: MEH

 

If one was to imagine Javier Bardem's character from No Country from Old Men as a seven-foot tall ex-sumo wrestler who decides to murder everyone in a high-rise office building for no reason, than this would at least give you an on-paper idea of what Kiyoshi Kurosawa's The Guard from Underground, (Jigoku no Keibiin, The Guard from Hell, The Security Guard from Hell), is.  The title maniac here just calmly tells people that they do not understand that there are people like him in the world, which is the only answer he ever gives in smashing them to death.  Anyone expecting some profound meaning behind any of this will be gravely disappointed though.  While Kurosawa was beginning to experiment with subdued atmosphere at this point, (letting a large number of moments play out to no music and very little if any action), the plotting seems to have been bypassed in the process.  Taking place at one location, it is detrimentally monotonous during its first two acts especially.  Almost nothing of any interest transpires well into the movie and once Japanese Lurch cuts the power off to start meandering around on his murder spree, even more boring slasher motifs are brought into the proceedings.  It is a skippable entry from top to bottom.

CURE

(1997)

Overall: GREAT

For the first time in his directorial career, Kiyoshi Kurosawa was able to match his sobering tone with a story that was perfectly suited for it in Cure, (Kyua).  Said story is enormously puzzling and the fact that the main character, (played exceptionally well by Kōji Hashimoto who would go on to appear in a number of Kurosawa's films), grows violently frustrated with just how puzzling it is, allows him to act as a perfect stand-in for the audience.  Some could argue that the approach here crosses over into style over substance as the material is certainly obtuse enough to discredit as pretentious.  Amazingly though, the ethereal atmosphere is so rich that even after the refreshing shock of how void of genre-pandering the film is has run its course, layers can be theorized as to why the material was tackled in such a patient manner.  Few movies of any kind manage to portray the fascinatingly curious concept of hypnotism in such a creepy way.  "Creepy" in the sense of being impenetrably unknown.  The film could be as deep or as void of heaviness as one can surmise yet in either event, it captures a strange, unsettling mood that is wonderfully difficult to shake off.

SÉANCE

(2001)

Overall: GOOD

Kiyoshi Kurosawa returned to supernatural terrain with the television film Séance, which is another triumph for the director.  Kurosawa was approached by Kansai Telecasting Corporation to adapt Mark McShane's novel Seance on a Wet Afternoon which had also been the basis for a 1964 British film of the same name by Bryan Forbes.  Being a Japanese movie, the setting is obviously changed while the story still focuses on a doomed, unassuming couple who are haunted by the unfortunate decisions that they make.  Story-wise, it is an examination of how well-meaning people can so easily panic, followed by the guilt that inadvertently consumes them after a calamity occurs by their unwilling hands.  The material gels ideally with Kurosawa's fully realized, consistently restrained style and the TV presentation does not hurt the end result in the slightest.  Quite the contrary actually as it further allows for the filmmaker to calmly undersell the frightening bits without the use of an overt violence or gimmicky shocks.  The characters only occasionally even raise their voices and it stays very haunting as well as almost oddly soothing in its mood.  This is hardly a feel-good product mind you, but for a sombre tragedy with ghosts in it, it is rather exceptional.

Clive Barker Horror

HELLRAISER

(1987)

Overall: GOOD

 

Clive Barker's full-length debut Hellraiser remains his most seminal cinematic work; a flawed though inventive, disturbed, visceral, fleshy, sexually-charged, over the top nightmare that spawned a hefty franchise.  Barker adapted his own novella The Hellbound Heart where much of the dark, overt eroticism was toned down by studio heads to garnish a more acceptable R rating.  The movie is still plenty unflinching in its gruesomeness though, with exceptionally wet and bloody visual effects rather stealing the show when they appear.  Of course the design of the Cenobites is the most iconic; freaky S&M torture demons that are actually minimally used in this first installment compared to the others where they became the main attraction.  Barker's inexperience behind the lens is impressively undetected, though his chosen style occasionally gives way to grandiose camp which he would lean into far more with his next two directorial efforts.  The only other issues is the somewhat jarring American dubbing of British actors and the miscasting of Clare Higgins who looks more like a crotchety accountant than a sexy, evil accomplice.  Otherwise, good stuff indeed.

 

NIGHTBREED

(1990)

Overall: MEH

 

For his second film behind the lens, Clive Barker adapts his novel Cabal which is a much more ambitious endeavor than his debut Hellraiser, even if it ended up being less successful and enduring.  Though Nightbreed was granted a sufficient budget which he puts to excellent use with top-notch special effects, monster makeup, and production design, the finished product was butchered in the editing room.  Various cuts of the movie exist, with the theatrical release being nearly an hour shorter than the one Barker initially intended.  This unfortunately emphasizes the movie's poorly structured plot which is made more frustratingly messy due to the slice and dice presentation.  For better or worse, (depending on the audience member), there is an abundance of schlock, with vacantly-written characters, horrendous one-liners, and Danny Elfman's romantically bombastic score that plays uninterrupted throughout the entire running time.  The movie is unmistakably over the top by design and visually stunning, but Barker's grandiose style seems more like a byproduct of studio tampering than a fully-formed realization of his own source material.  At least we get to see David Cronenberg play a serial murderer with a silly mask though.

 

LORD OF ILLUSIONS

(1995)

Overall: MEH

The to-date final directorial effort from Clive Barker was the expanded adaptation of his "The Last Illusion" short story which appeared in the sixth volume of the Books of Blood.  Here titled Lord of Illusions, it works within the budgetary confines of his previous film Nightbreed and similarly, it was given a theatrical edit by the studio that was not in keeping with Barker's initial vision.  It is also bombastic, violent, homoerotic, and loud, with the schlock knob purposely turned up to eleven.  On paper, the neo-noir/horror hybrid is an interesting one with Scott Bakula's private dick Harry D'Amour having previous run-ins with the supernatural, here getting drawn in ever deeper with dark magic, an alluring dame played by Famke Janssen, and an utterly evil, god-like super wizard raised from the dead.  Some of the concepts and set pieces are inventive and the movie works visually when it is not hampered by horrendous digital effects, but the presentation is abundantly silly.  Barker abuses jump scares, grandiose music, screaming, and hokey dialog, with nuance being nowhere in the cards.  It becomes a bit of an accidental comedy too much of the time, failing to work as a chilling piece of macabre fantasy.  Still, the ramped-up charm that is anything but boring at least.

80's British Horror Part Seven

LINK

(1986)

Dir - Richard Franklin

Overall: GOOD

 

One of the more quirky animal horror films to probably ever emerge, Link is a strange, somewhat awkward pairing of killer monkey suspense and humor.  The story was loosely inspired by famed primate specialist Jane Goodall's accounts of ape on ape violence, which contradicted an earlier, excepted theory that mankind was the only species to commit murder against each other.  Director Richard Franklin was an avid enthusiast and protegee of Alfred Hitchcock and there are some similarities to Psycho here that are fun to pick up on.  In general, the movie has an adequately intense pace with some clever camera work and editing.  It also has a goofy, comical score from Jerry Goldsmith and since the film utilizes actual chimpanzees, (and one orangutan made to look like a chimpanzee), much of their behavior comes off as adorable and amusing even when it is supposed to be sinister.  It is difficult to tell how much of this was intentional since the overall presentation seems to be genuinely straight, but it has a singular charm to it that is still pretty easy to fall for.

 

BLOODY NEW YEAR

(1987)

Dir - Norman J. Warren

Overall: MEH

 

Though it has an oddball appeal in some respects, Norman J. Warren's final directorial effort Bloody New Year, (Time Warp Terror, Horror Hotel), largely suffers from its weak production values and messy plotting.  Originally conceived as a parody of 1950s B-movies, it does not quite get its intended humor across and instead throws a barrage of arbitrary set pieces into the mix with a tone that is more accidentally goofy while still trying to be inventive and spooky.  Obvious comparisons can be made from everything to early Sam Raimi, nonsensical Euro horror, Herschell Gordon Lewis films, and premise ideas taken from The Shining and Shock Waves to name a few.  Yet besides Lewis' work, it is more of a D-rent reputation of its influences.  The characters are completely interchangeable and there is no rhyme or reason to any of the supernatural occurrences that take place, perhaps purposely so.  Warren seems to be doing his best with the shoddy budget and in that respect, some moments are quirky enough to be memorable, but it still routinely comes off as a poorly atmospheric, rushed job.

THE HOUSE OF USHER

(1989)

Dir - Alan Birkinshaw

Overall: WOOF

1989 saw two Edgar Allan Poe adaptation/remakes that no one asked for from director Alan Birkinshaw and screenwriter Michael J. Murray.  The first of which was The House of Usher, followed by a slasher version of Masque of the Red Death with Frank Stallone of all people.  As far as the former goes, they managed to score both Oliver Reed in the lead and a smaller role for Donald Pleasence, but the two admirable British thespians were hardly in their heyday judging by their involvement in this dung heap.  Just as unfaithful as any such cinematic reworking of the source material, it is a cliche catastrophe in the plot department, with the added ingredient of turning half of the Usher household into creepy rapists.  This is all bad enough, but worse is the pathetic, D-rent TV movie presentation.  A cheap keyboard score plays virtually uninterrupted, the set design lacks almost any and all atmosphere, and Birkinshaw's direction is persistently flat.  Whether it is mere budgetary constrains or a lack of talent behind the lens, when the film does try and deliver in bizarre and/or macabre spectacle, it is an embarrassment and more laughably inept than anything.  Ill-conceived from the start, things only get more messy and absurd as it goes on and anyone who remembers that this movie was even made truly deserves one's deepest condolences.

80's British Horror Part Six

THE AWAKENING

(1980)

Dir - Mike Newell

Overall: MEH

 

The full-length debut The Awakening from English director Mike Newell is a primarily underwhelming entry and partially infamous for Charlton Heston poorly attempting a British accent throughout.  An adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel The Jewel of Seven Stars, (which also loosely inspired Hammer's Blood from the Mummy's Tomb nearly a decade earlier), it is essentially an Egyptian curse/reincarnation story, but one that hardly picks up momentum at any interval.  It is no exaggeration to say that nothing happens for at least an hour into the running time so that once some murder sequences emerge and characters begin to react to supernatural occurrences, even the most patient of viewers would have long checked out.  This also gives the third act a sloppy feel where everything seems to rush to the finish line, resulting in an ending that is unfortunately just as lackluster as everything that came before it.  Production wise, it has some effective sets and location work, but even aside from the detrimental pacing issues, Newell does not bring any style into the proceedings.  Despite what the poster may suggest, not so much as a single mummy comes to life either, providing yet another basic thing that the movie could not bother to get right.

OMEN III: THE FINAL CONFLICT

(1981)

Dir - Graham Baker

Overall: MEH

 

20th Century Fox wrapped up their Omen trilogy with Omen III: The Final Conflict, naturally the most lackluster in the series.  Ignoring the fact that Damien Thorn has grown into adulthood within six years time and the film is still set in modern day as were the earlier installments, (and that he dropped his British accent sometime between adolescence and now), the story does in fact take a logical approach to pit the Antichrist in a position of political power against the newly born second coming of Christ.  Director Graham Baker does a steady job with the material, keeping it tonally in line with the previous two movies at least, while Jerry Goldsmith's choral, Latin score is as bombastic as ever.  The elaborate death sequences are more silly than chilling though and in the lead, Sam Neill hams it up, delivering blasphemously pompous monologues as one does.  Due to its lack of effectively sinister momentum, the film is a bit too tedious in swaying through its predictable beats in direct line to its equally predictable conclusion.  Both as a movie and as a nail in the franchise's coffin, it gets the job done adequately; it just does so without having anything memorable to say of its own.

 

THE WORST WITCH

(1986)

Dir - Robert W. Young

Overall: GOOD

 

In 1986, British production company ITV Studios adapted the first book in Jill Murphy's series The Worst Witch, notable for featuring Diana Rigg, Tim Curry, The Facts of Life's Charlotte Rae being particularly hammy, and an early performance from Fairuza Balk.  It was also directed by Robert W. Young whose 1972's film Vampire Circus was one of Hammer Studio's most memorable horror entries that decade.  Not that this particular television movie has any such blood-sucking hallmarks.  As a lighthearted children's musical, it plays out predictably enough and is basically Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with witches.  The production is crude and cheap with horrendously silly special effects and costumes right out of a discount Halloween bin, but it is still quite innocently charming.  There are a number of clever set pieces and details within the script where a school of young girls have broom flying practice and get pop quizzes on potions.  Best of all though, Curry gets to belt out in his strong, theatrical, Rocky Horror-esque baritone in "Anything Can Happen on Halloween", clearly the best song about said holiday ever written.

80's Foreign Horror Part Fourteen

ALISON'S BIRTHDAY

(1981)
Dir - Ian Coughlan
Overall: MEH

The last and only theatrically released film from writer/director Ian Coughlan, Alison's Birthday has some unique charm here or there, yet it does not entirely deliver on its potential.  Mostly elderly people involved in mysterious cult practices is an age old horror movie motif and this certainly has a Rosemary's Baby angle to it to name its most famous influence.  The curious elements are Coughlan's strange directorial touches which are occasionally genre-defying, creepy, and silly all at once.  Various moments play out with no musical score which provide them with a successfully unnerving tone while shots of a one-hundred and three year old woman and people changing gibberish in black robes are at least unintentionally chuckle-worthy.  Coughlan could use a little oomph in the pacing department as things eventually drag a bit, getting interrupted by goofy plot points like Alison's boyfriend laughably bamboozling his pursuers and ultimately hurting his ankle while running which of course seals his doom.  Yet for borderline unconventional occult horror of the Australian variety, it is worth seeing at least.

 

AMERICAN NIGHTMARE

(1983)

Dir - Don McBrearty

Overall: MEH

 

Ironically a Canadian production, American Nightmare is not a particularly memorable slasher outing.  Shot in Toronto on a modest budget, genre regulars Michael Ironside and Lenore Zann are present along with a mostly unrecognizable cast and the story is a typical, giallo-inspired mystery where the killer's identity is kept secret until the movie's final moments.  He still murders female sex workers, (plus one cross-dresser), yet substitutes the black gloves with clear latex ones.  Director Don McBrearty makes no attempt at any outrageous visual flare though and presents things in a more seedy, restrained manner.  This is fine in that the more serious atmosphere is kept in check, interjected with some strip club routines that are exploitative without being overtly tasteless.  Still, the plot contains nothing that has not already been seen dozens of times already and it is almost impossible to stay captivated with.  Not ugly enough to disgust and not campy enough to revel in its sleaze, it instead just casts a lukewarm, thoroughly forgettable spell.

 

3615 CODE PÉRE NOËL

(1989)

Dir - René Manzor

Overall: MEH

The French export 3615 code Père Noël, (Deadly Games, Dial Code Santa Claus, Hide and Freak, Game Over), is mostly known as a precursor to Home Alone where a ten year-old kid outsmarts a malicious invader on Christmas Eve.  Writer/director René Manzor went as far as to threaten legal action, but the basic premise also has as much to do with the Tales from the Crypt story "...And All Through the House" as well as countless others where a guy dressed up as Santa Claus is up to no good.  As far as this particular take on the concept goes, it is a curious one that presents its kid Rambo scenario in a partly serious yet unmistakably absurd manner that creates an impenetrable tone.  Alain Lalanne is somewhat likeable as the scared yet laughably resourceful little Thomas de Frémont, yet his nauseating mullet, ridiculous supply of gadgetry, insultingly nimble IQ, and the gargantuan castle that he turns into a contraption-laced fortress are way too far-fetched and silly to work with the more sinister elements.  As a genre mash-up, it is admirably ambitious, but a dog-murdering Santa, countless dutch angles, horrible Christmas music, cutesy adorableness, and heart-racing suspense sequences hardly jive well together.