(1979)
Dir - Percival Rubens
Overall: MEH
A South African slasher movie with a top-billed Cameron Mitchell as a psychic detective who uses his unexplained powers to help a family locate the killer of their daughter, The Demon, (Midnight Caller), is a less than engaging dud from director Percival Rubens. It was released anywhere from 1979 to 1985 depending on the source, but its killer is even more bland and forgettable than the lot of em that came in the wake of the slasher boom. Though he was top-billed and the only name actor on board, Mitchell has almost nothing to do here, disappearing entirely an hour in and only getting one scene early on to take note of when he sniffs a pillow in one of the victim's bedrooms and starts ripping the feathers out of it. Elsewhere, it is lackluster stuff, introducing characters that we never care about as the murderer lurks around and kills random people with zero exploitative flash. Though there is nudity scattered about and some bloodshed, it has more of a watered-down television presentation which does not do the film any favors. It is difficult to tell what Rubens was going for here since he fails to build any eerie atmosphere and stages zero alarming set pieces, wasting any potential to hop on the post-Halloween bandwagon.
(1979)
Dir - Carl Schenkel
Overall: MEH
1979 produced more Dracula movies than Cuba does cigars and Dracula Blows His Cool, (Graf Dracula in Oberbayern, Count Dracula in Upper Bavaria), is of the West German sex comedy variety. The debut from Swiss director Carl Schenkel, it mixes boobs, Béla Lugosi and Peter Lorre accents, rotten disco music, castle tombs, undead high-jinks, and juvenile horndog jokes at a reckless abandon. The movie is stupid, but Schenkel knows the assignment to put as much titillation and groan-worthy boner comedy gags in as possible, all within a horror spoof framework that pokes fun at blood that is of a bad vintage, the vampires blending right in with oblivious disco patrons dancing and talking their clothes off, and people exploiting the blood-sucking ancestors living in the crypt while a crotchety local woman disproves of all the nakedness and biting. Erich Tomek's screenplay uses the mistaken identity angle where Gianni Garko plays both the Count and his descendant who turns the family castle into a discothèque because again, 1979. Therefore some of the comedy revolves around people confusing the two of them, but the final ten or so minutes gives up on this angle and the two main vampires just decide to go on strike and huff it back to Transylvania since their new blood supply is too ready available. Some moments are funny, most are not, but the film has its doofy heart in the right place.
(1979)
Dir - Alain Jessua
Overall: GOOD
An understated thriller that plays off the fears of mob like panic, lower class uprising, and immigration, The Dogs, (Les Chiens), was the third and last movie of the 1970s from French filmmaker Alain Jessua. It is in line with his previous metaphorical genre works, (Shock Treatment and Armageddon, respectfully), taking a low-key approach to its paranoia-ridden subject matter. On the surface, the characters do not act irrationally since we see vandalism and rape within the first act, making it reasonable for those in this everyday town to start protecting themselves with well-trained guard dogs. Yet we also see a black man getting attacked for no reason and a mayor getting murdered under dubious means so that by the time we meet Gérard Depardieu's mild-mannered canine handler, there is some gray area to explore as to who is provoking who. It becomes more clear where our sympathies are meant to lie as it inches its way towards the finale, a finale that is brutal in its lack of victors. This is a potent cautionary tale where no one comes out on top and mankind can be all too easily groomed when there is an external threat to exaggerate, sadly fitting in with any era before or after the film's release.
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