Thursday, October 6, 2022

90's American Horror Part Thirty-One

BODY PARTS
(1991)
Dir - Eric Red
Overall: MEH

This adaptation of Pierce Boileau and Thomas Narcejac's novel Choice Cuts ultimately goes off the hinges of its worn-out, "surgery with a serial killer's limbs" premise.  Body Parts is both derivative and alarmingly stupid, particularly in its final act which becomes unintentionally hilarious due to a number of ridiculous set pieces, plot holes, and a mad doctor twist that is both unsatisfying and insulting.  Enough "bad movie" hallmarks to be sure, but the film is less interesting in a trainwreck capacity since it plays itself persistently straight.  Jeff Fahey is emotionally solid in the lead even if some of his dialog is hare-brained and the script does not emphasis the severity of his situation until well after he appears to be overreacting to everything.  South African character actor Zakes Mokae is a bit miscast as a gruff police detective, but Brad Dourif is his usual, entertainingly overacting self in a minor role.  Also on the plus side is the gore and stunt work, with a particularly nasty car accident and a solid head explosion showing up.
 
FROM DUST TILL DAWN
(1996)
Dir - Robert Rodriguez
Overall: GREAT
 
Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's brilliant From Dust Till Dawn was their first collaborative, balls-out celebration of exploitation cinema and it remains arguably the best action horror hybrid ever made.  Producer Robert Kurtzman initially hired Tarantino years earlier to write a Mexican vampire script with Rodriguez's eventual involvement post-Desperado sealing the deal.  Wonderfully split into two completely separate genres, the first half plays as an archetypal Tarantino, dialog-heavy, bad guys on the run, neo-Western until absolutely out of nowhere, blood-sucking, flesh-ripping monsters erupt on the scene and all hell breaks loose.  Both sections are hilarious, violent, and cinematically riveting with wonderfully committed performances down to the mere cameos.  George Clooney was still working his day job on ER when he got the lead here and to date has yet to play another vile, badass tough guy like this, with Tarantino never better in front of the camera as his deeply disturbed, psychopathic sex creep brother.  Tom Savini, Harvey Keitel, Juliette Lewis, Fred Williamson, Danny Trejo, Cheech Marin, (in three roles), Michael Parks, and a jaw-droppingly sexy Salma Hayek round out the main to supporting cast, plus the bluesy soundtrack which features everyone from Jimmy and Stevie Ray Vaughan, ZZ Top, and Tito & Taranchula, (who appear on screen as "that fucking band"), is nearly as good as the movie itself.
 
HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL
(1999)
Dir - William Malone
Overall: MEH
 
As a contemporary, trying to be hip reworking of William Castle's old school spooky original, the House on Haunted Hill remake by director William Malone follows about the only trajectory it possibly could.  Maintaining the basic premise while kicking everything up to eleven with gore, grime, twitchy ghosts, dutch angles, an insane asylum that is parody levels "creepy", nudity, music video bombast, a big, stupid digital effects ghost thing, naughty words, Marilyn Manson's cover of "Sweet Dreams", and every other late 90s popcorn horror trope that there is, it all makes practical, camped-up sense.  To be generous, this is a "better" offering than it otherwise should be, though such an assessment can only be reached if the audience meets the movie on its schlock-heavy terms.  The cast seem appropriately committed to such silliness, delivering the smart-assed, cliche heavy dialog with their smirks in place and tongues in cheek.  Even when the script unveils its twists and the supernatural randomness tries to be genuinely frightening, it all pretty much sticks to the goofy B-movie plan.

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