(1970)
Dir - Donald Wolfe
Overall: MEH
The lone film from writer/director Donald Wolfe, Savage Intruder, (Hollywood Horror House), is some psycho-biddy exploitation with veteran Golden Era leading ladies Miriam Hopkins, Gale Sondergaard, and Florence Lake on board. The plot is a more sleazy variation of Billy Wilder's seminal Sunset Boulevard, with Hopkins' delusional has-been seamstress falling for her male nurse that is young enough to be her grandson. David Garfield plays said male nurse with a smirking, douchebag, groovy-dude "charm", but his grating persona at least stirs up some emotions in an otherwise humdrum affair. Also spicing things up is an opening giallo-styled murder, some unsettling flashbacks, free-flowing hedonism, limbs being sliced off, psychedelic kaleidoscope freak-out visuals, and a wacky third act involving a mannequin. At the heart of Wolfe's story is a clashing of eras, with old timey showbiz ladies lamenting a bygone time that has given way to wildly-dressed hippies who dance, do drugs, and listen to noisy music. We are meant to feel bad for Hopkins' character, but we end up just feeling bad for Hopkins who closed out her career with such mean-spirited and dull trash.
(1974)
Dir - Jerry Jameson
Overall: WOOF
This earlier work in television director Jerry Jameson's career is a lifeless creature feature snooze, one that goes out of its way to show as little monster mayhem as possible. It is no surprise that The Bat People, (It Lives By Night, It's Alive), comes from American International Pictures who spent the previous two decades churning out equally dull genre films that were almost exclusively full of no action and people talking, all so that teenagers in drive-ins could make out with their dates and rightfully ignore what was on the screen. A throwback of sorts then with a humorless tone to boot, it does not even have the common decency to offer up much gore or any nudity in order to keep it in line with its actual era, instead trudging along as characters argue about whether or not Stewart Moss is running around killing people after getting bitten by a bat. The audience knows what is going on and the characters do not, making for a mind-numbing and tedious watch that is void of suspense. This was one of the Stan Winston's earliest screen credits, but his make-up work does not make a full appearance until there is only eight goddamn minutes left in the running time and it is shown for a few "blink and you'll miss it" seconds at that.
(1979)
Dir - David Burton Morris
Overall: WOOF
A Minnesota-based no budget, no talent, D-rent version of The Phantom of the Opera except in a movie theater, The Meateater, (Blood Theatre), is more concerned with showing Caucasian suburbanites making small talk in their homes or by the concession stands than anything resembling monster tomfoolery. A family buys the local and dilapidated movie theater because who cares, only to find out that a deformed madman lurks within its walls. The filmmakers frequently forget that said madman/phantom/meateater is supposed to be in the movie, instead focusing on one unfortunate looking white person after the other going about their Middle American life as the pedestrian cinematography captures all of the ugly and dated decor on cheap film stock. We also get a good amount of screen time dedicated to claustrophobic close-ups of grainy footage being projected on the screen. Arch Jouboulian in scabby make-up finally gets to ham it up as the title character at over an hour in, after previously being shown just in quick bursts either grabbing a woman or shoving a rat in his mouth. At least his death turns his face into a pile of bloody wet goo.
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