(1981)
Dir - Oliver Stone
Overall: MEH
Oliver Stone oddly enough in retrospect began his directing career with two horror films, The Hand being the second and to date last one he would ever make. Based off of Marc Brandell's novel The Lizard's Tail, it also has contributions from Stan Winston, Barry Windsor-Smith, and James Horner with Michael Caine collecting a paycheck in the lead though doing as admirable a job as he is regularly accustomed to. With all of the notable talent on hand, (har, har), no one would confuse the film for a masterpiece, but it is not a complete dud either. Before spending the rest of his career with political conspiracies serving as his main muse, Stone, (who also wrote the script as usual), is in rare, straightforward, conventional thriller mode here. Thankfully though, the screenplay and direction are still controlled and tight. On paper, it is a bit of a frivolous premise, (comic book artist is haunted by his severed hand, sort of), but it is played consistently straight and spends way more time getting in the increasingly disturbed head of Caine's character than allowing for genre-pandering horror moments. When "the hand" does show up though, Stone has a bit of a demanding time making it not come off kind of silly. On that note, watch out for his cameo as a stumbling bum who falls into a pile of garbage while screaming at the title "thing".
(1982)
Dir - John Russo
Overall: WOOF
The directorial debut by George A. Romero collaborator John Russo, Midnight is an atrociously amateurish trainwreck. Based off of his own novel of the same name, every production aspect of the film sans Tom Savini's regularly competent make-up effects is embarrassingly wretched. It really cannot be understated how truly, truly bad the performances are. Even a veteran like Lawrence Tierney puts in a D-rent effort, but he comes off like peak Marlon Brando compared to the unprofessional actors who glaringly deliver every preposterous line of dialog in almost an insultingly cringe-worthy manner. It does not help that Russo's script is inept and it is difficult to tell if the dialog is so horrendously awful because it was written that way or if the actors are so incredibly bad that it sounds improvised and therefor incompetent. Behind the lens, Russo has absolutely zero chops as well. The film looks as boring as it plays out; flat, dull, uneven, and tortuously slow. There is even a schmaltzy soft rock theme song that shows up a handful of times that is as hilariously awkward as everything else happening on the screen. By the time the movie finally, FINALLY gets to its last act and tries to go all torture-porn disturbing, it falls flat on its face and miraculously grows even more boring. A hall of fame crud rock that is for damn sure.
(1987)
Dir - David Keith
Overall: MEH
The second film adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space, (and differing wildly from the American International Pictures distributed, Boris Karloff-starred Die, Monster, Die! from twenty-two years prior), The Curse is a bit jumbly and uneven at best, borderline lousy at worst. While Lovecraft's initial story was a bit more straightforward, this one bounces back between too many characters, none of which are that interesting and several of which are rather obnoxious. Some technical mistakes like one of the actresses hilariously calling Wil Wheaton by his actual name instead of his character's name in one scene make it a bit amateurish, but maybe that is on account of this being the debut of actor turned director David Keith behind the lens. The camp value gets turned up a bit high during the end once a Bible-quoting, shithead farmer and his hillbilly family start turning into green puss-drooling monsters, but the film does not embrace how goofy it comes across. Instead, it tries to stay dark and atmospheric even as it grows more visually and narratively unfocused. For what it is worth, the musical score from Italian composer Franco Micalizzi is quite good though, mixing typical 80s synths with twangy banjos.
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