BEWARE! THE BLOB
(1972)
Dir - Larry Hagman
Overall: WOOF
The only theatrically-released directorial job from Dallas and I Dream of Jeannie household name Larry Hagman, Beware! The Blob, (Son of Blob, The Blob II, The Blob Returns), is a sequel that no one asked for and one that is done by low-rent means. Despite its attempts to make a franchise out of a successful B-movie that was already fourteen years old at the time, (as well as the fact that numerous familiar faces inexplicably show up), this has all of the stylistic trappings of regional nonsense that was made by inexperienced filmmaking hopefuls. According to screenwriter Anthony Harris, the script was ignored and most of the scenes were improvised, which would explain the loose and shoddy presentation. The awkwardly comedic tone could be chalked up to Hagman having only directed a handful of television episodes before this, but in all fairness, everyone could only do so much within what looks like a non-existent budget. One could hardly think that a sequel could be even more boring than the boring movie the proceeded it, but this series of long introductions to lame characters getting picked off by the titular blob proves otherwise.
(1972)
Dir - Larry Hagman
Overall: WOOF
The only theatrically-released directorial job from Dallas and I Dream of Jeannie household name Larry Hagman, Beware! The Blob, (Son of Blob, The Blob II, The Blob Returns), is a sequel that no one asked for and one that is done by low-rent means. Despite its attempts to make a franchise out of a successful B-movie that was already fourteen years old at the time, (as well as the fact that numerous familiar faces inexplicably show up), this has all of the stylistic trappings of regional nonsense that was made by inexperienced filmmaking hopefuls. According to screenwriter Anthony Harris, the script was ignored and most of the scenes were improvised, which would explain the loose and shoddy presentation. The awkwardly comedic tone could be chalked up to Hagman having only directed a handful of television episodes before this, but in all fairness, everyone could only do so much within what looks like a non-existent budget. One could hardly think that a sequel could be even more boring than the boring movie the proceeded it, but this series of long introductions to lame characters getting picked off by the titular blob proves otherwise.
(1976)
Dir - John Guillermin
Overall: GOOD
It amazingly took forty-three years for an official King Kong remake to emerge, which is where producer Dino De Laurentiis' large scale version comes in. After some shifty wheeling and dealing from behind the scenes, Laurentiis was able to deliver the goods with an all-star cast, director John Guillermin who was hot off of the success of 1974's The Towering Inferno, a young Rick Baker assisting with the ape suite as well as performing in it, screenwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr. kicking up the sentimentality and tongue-in-cheek humor, plus a hefty enough budget to stage some top-notch special effects and set pieces. The film is overlong and takes nearly an hour for the title primate to arrive, but Guillermin is able to maintain an agreeable pace for the majority of the proceedings. Even though the characters and their initial motivations have technically been tweaked, they still fulfill the same roles and the overall plot goes where it is expected to. Charles Grodin is as big of a dope as Robert Armstrong was in the original, a spry Jeff Bridges makes for a solid and bearded contemporary hero, and newcomer Jessica Lang is both easy on the eyes and gets to scream a lot. More of an emphasis is placed on the tragedy of Kong's arc and the finale is particularly brutal and likely to make the kid's eyes swell up, but this is still a lightweight bit of popcorn fluff that is as solid as one could expect without coming near the original's well-deserved legacy.
(1978)
Dir - Richard Cassidy
Overall: MEH
People seem incapable of NOT getting murdered in horror movies that are set in a boarding houses and Slipping Into Darkness, (Crazed), exemplifies this trope as lazily as any other. This was the only credited directorial job for Richard Cassidy, (who also penned the screenplay), and it has little going for it unless someone is suffering through insomnia and is desperate for a cure. To be fair, there are some possibly intentional goofy moments, like when Beverly Ross' new landlady Belle Mitchell complains about "getting the farts" from eating cream donuts and a writing professor who screams at his students about discipline, punches a wall, and then gives a long-winded dissertation which ends with "And that's why Shakespeare became a fag". Outside of these sparse interjections of goofiness, the film is a relentless bore. It concerns a socially awkward Vietnam vet who goes off the handle and then continues to do so whenever anyone finds out that he has gone off the handle. Unfortunately these more extreme moments do not occur until the third act, making this one long build up to unimaginative and unhinged behavior that we have all seen a thousand times before and done on a more engaging level than here.
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