70's American Horror Shorts

THE GRANDMOTHER
(1970)
Dir - David Lynch
Overall: GOOD

The third short from David Lynch was hist first to exceed a mere few seconds in length, The Grandmother being produced off a grant from the American Film Institute.  Working with sound designer Alan Splet for the first time, (who would later go on to collaborate with Lynch on Eraserhead, Dune, and Blue Velvet), and shooting the film himself, The Grandmother may be less iconic than Eraserhead, but it is as much a kindred spirit to the said, future AFI-funded film as can be imagined.  It is pure surreal cinema and pure Lynch in every regard.  There is no dialog, but the story is ambiguously conveyed through grotesque, disturbing sound effects and simple yet still ambitious visuals.  Even at this very early stage in his filmmaking career, Lynch was able to put images on the screen that defied genre classification and showed a remarkable knack for conveying a dreadful mood.  The only problem is that it is a little too slow and literally too dark at times, becoming very difficult to decipher what it is you are even looking at.  Still, it is David Lynch so you cannot really go wrong.

DAFFY DUCK AND PORKY PIG MEET THE GROOVIE GOOLIES

(1972)

Dir - Hal Sutherland

Overall: MEH

This installment in The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie series brings together Filmation's Groovie Goolies yuckfest and the Looney Tunes, the former of which was cancelled later in the year.  A rare collaborative effort for the Warner Bros. famed cartoon properties, said characters are sadly not an ideal fit for the groan-worthy escapades of their dated co-stars.  While writers Chuck Menville and Len Janson are largely to blame for their lame gags and jokes that only work if everyone on screen is as dumb as everyone watching, the stock laugh track is particularly ruining.  The Goolies program was grating at best because of these issues, but no one needs to see fake "audience" hysterics added to Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Sylvester, and the titular Daffy Duck and Porky Pig trying to do their thing.  At least Mel Blanc was still providing all of the voice work for the latter stable of beloved characters, though his timbre is unfortunately pitched higher for some of them, which pushes things into Alvin and the Chipmunks terrain.  A live action Goolies segment near the end is also something to take note of, but this is overall skippable silliness.

THE VIRGIN SACRIFICE
(1974)
Dir - J.X. Williams
Overall: GOOD

One of the most positively curious horror shorts floating around out there was made under the pseudonym J.X. Williams, (the same that Ed Wood used to pen pornographic novels), and the conflicting stories surrounding its existence are as weird as the movie itself.  The mere eight minutes and fifty-odd seconds of footage of The Virgin Sacrifice may be all that is left of an intended fuller length version that may or may not have been partially funded by Church of Satan affiliates and ALSO may or may not have involved copious amounts of drugs and Hell's Angels as part of the crew.  At the same token, none of that may be remotely true.  In any event, it begins hilariously enough as two women welcome their new roommate to their flat and beyond casually tell her that they worship the Devil and it is "the IN thing to do", (a direct quote).  The rest of the movie is nothing more than a surreal, Satanic fever dream with dancing naked, people, murder, animation, pentagrams, and fuck knows what else.  The less that's truly known about it, the more fascinating it is, but in any event, the whole "drugs playing a role" part is most likely very accurate.

WITHIN THE WOODS
(1978)
Dir - Sam Raimi
Overall: MEH

Notable as being technically the very first entry into the Evil Dead franchise, Within the Woods was a self-described prototype film made by Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell to secure funding for what would become the first Evil Dead proper four years later.  After the movie was screened in a Detroit theater before a showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and also after Raimi had begged and pleaded with anyone who would listen to him, the gamble paid off and the rest, (as the cliche goes), is history.  Watching it now, Within the Woods is a very rough experience.  Because it was shot on 8mm film and then later resized to 35mm, any existing prints you are likely to watch are nearly impossible to make out from a visual perspective.  The special effects are far more primitive than even in the initial Evil Dead, but a lot of the same ideas are executed well enough including the POV camera rig and gnarly sound design.  All would later be improved upon tenfold, but for completests who are prepared for the bare-bones, amateur version, then this is worth seeing.