(1970)
Dir - Roddy McDowall
Overall: MEH
In his one and only directorial effort, (made at the same time Beneath the Planet of the Apes was under production, hence his not being in said film), Roddy McDowall really pulls out all the stops. With enough symbolism and visual flourishes to impress Orson Welles, Tam-Lin, (The Ballad of Tam-Lin, The Devil's Widow, The Devil's Woman) is anything but boring too look at. It is a bit of a La Dolce Vita re-imaging seen through eyes of the 1960's dying, with romanticism and beauty clashing with cynicism and what could be seen as supernatural forces at work. It is also a bit too confusingly staged with so much Bohemian tomfoolery taking up screen time that some characters seem to be all over the place conceptually. Which in fact may be one of the points. As a "horror" movie, it only dabs its toes in the genre during the last twenty minutes which actually feel like the most exciting part of the entire movie. Busting out the captivating if perhaps dated hallucinatory visuals, McDowall builds up a satisfactory final set piece and it is rather remarkable in a similar way as to how Charles Laughton displayed such confident control over his solo film behind the lens as well with The Night of the Hunter. Ultimately, the movie is not as good as Night of the Hunter, but still.
(1975)
Dir - Freddie Francis
Overall: GOOD
Prolific British horror director Freddie Francis once again teams up with Peter Cushing for the rather delightfully macabre The Ghoul, (Night of the Ghoul, The Thing in the Attic). Cushing had actually become just recently widowed upon the making of the film, which proved exponentially more emotional for the actor as he played a man whose wife had also passed. For his part as the ex priest Dr. Lawrence, Cushing of course is on the ball as ever. Yet it is really John Hurt as the vile, brute gardener who steals the movie. He does not even bother tying up any of the women he captures; he just coldly and confidently sneers at them and amuses himself with roughing them up whenever they try and escape or talk back to him. It is a wonderfully villainous role and thankfully, said women he comes in contact with are anything but helpless horror movie damsels. They rather defiantly stand up for themselves and pretty much forgo doing anything implausible in their situation. Little character behavioral details like this give the movie just enough of an edge, as the story itself is relatively familiar but certainly adequate. Some may have preferred the title character to get more screen time, but his reveal is ultimately well-timed and the ending though easily anticipated, does nothing to impede the rest of the movie.
(1978)
Dir - Pete Walker
Overall: GOOD
Pete Walker's second to last film in the decade where he made all of his noteworthy ones, The Comeback is one of several that can be credited to ushering in the slasher trend. So like most "pre" slashers, it is far better than the multitude of creatively vacant duds that came in its wake. The film is also very Pete Walkery, meaning that it keeps its silliness completely in check. Walker rarely if ever lets his films get out of control and here he more embellishes a conventional mystery setting with barely any of his dark political or religious satire present. As a "who is the killer?" vehicle where the main point is to mislead your audience and drop a massive twist for your finale, The Comeback is a roaring success as it is nearly impossible to see the conclusion coming. Red herrings are shrewdly sprinkled everywhere and as a familiar viewer to such films, it becomes amusing to realize you are being mislead throughout all of it, making the last reveal all the more satisfying. For the horror buff, the kills are brutal yet quite minimal, yet the movie makes up for it with several scenes that seem straight out of a Halloween haunted house. Much of these things plus several others, (like the killer's costume and entire scheme to make the main protagonist go mad for no reason), can be picked out as rather ridiculous on paper, but once again Walker manages to deliberately manage them in an engaging manner.
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