70's American Horror Part Thirty-Six

THE OMEGA MAN

(1971)

Dir - Boris Sagal

Overall: MEH

 

Though it collapses in a drowning sea of plot holes within the final act, (plus someone had the horrendous idea to have cornball music play throughout nearly every second of the running time), the 1970's re-imagining of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend is not without its perks.  The Omega Man is one of three major sci-fi staring vehicles for Charlton Heston who does admirable work talking to himself and looking rugged, being more of an action hero protagonist as opposed to Vincent Price's much more sombre and hopelessly lonely turn in the 1964 adaptation The Last Man on Earth.  Story wise, a significant number of changes are made to Matheson's source material, nearly to the point of unrecognizability.  The most direct of these is in changing the population-wiping virus to that of biological warfare and the vampiric leftovers have become deranged, albino mutants with a quasi-religious, "back to primitive man" ideology.  By letting both the soundtrack play incessantly and the actors be allowed to barely keep their tongues in cheek, director Boris Sagal maintains a campy tone that is entertaining without being remotely profound or atmospheric.  Rosalind Cash's sudden turn to the dark side is only one of many narrative points that is never explained, but if one can turn their brains off for a bit and enjoy Heston's tanned, bare chest, Anthony Zerbe and his black-robed cult's freakish look, and all of the funky music on display, then a fun time will still be had.

EVIL COME, EVIL GO

(1972)

Dir - Walt Davis

Overall: WOOF

 

An absurd, pornographic, black comedy horror "movie", Walt Davis' Evil Come, Evil Go is a hysterical mess in some respects and just plain ole embarrassing in others.  Clumsy from front to back, Davis tries to utilize his forty-seven cent budget for what one could presume are intended laughs as Cleo O'Hara's messenger of Jesus Sister Sarah Jane Butler goes about trying to rid the world of horny men, in the process recruiting the most gullible lesbian of all time as her cohort.  All of the dialog is either awkwardly improvised or simply delivered by the most unnatural actors on earth, though O'Hara is a riot as she dials it up to eleven lecturing about the evils of pleasurable sex, endlessly repeating herself while occasionally violently murdering someone.  Being an early softcore porn movie with full genitalia, the sex scenes are comatose-inducing in their boredom, pathetically shot with endless, moaning dialog ADRed over them and a soundtrack record seemingly played on random, (not counting the folk rock theme song which logically could be the worst piece of music ever written by humans).  The whole thing is far too incessantly stupid and cheap to be offensive or even properly sleazy in an exploitative sense, but if one's attention span can endure people fumbling their lines while lazily rubbing body parts on each other, it can be seen as an amusing trainwreck.

LOVE AT FIRST BITE

(1979)

Dir - Stan Dragoti
Overall: MEH

 

While its vampire-out-of-water premise is rock solid and George Hamilton does Béla Lugosi proud, Love at First Bite is far too dopey to really impress.  Initially a collaborative effort between Hamilton, investor Harold Sonny Van Arnem, and screenwriter Richard Kaufman who authored it under the working title of "Dracula Sucks Again", the project was eventually handed off to director Stan Dragoti who would then stick with comedy throughout the rest of his career.  Sadly, the jokes are the major problem here as they are groan-worthy at best and only deserving of a cricket's applause at worst.  Also, various Jewish and African American stereotypes plus a few homosexual ones are thrown in for "good" measure, all played for laughs that come off as bottom-barrel quips that a spoof-meister such as Mel Brooks for instance would never allow in a finished draft.  Still, Hamilton's completely sympathetic and non-threatening version of Count Dracula is a hoot at times as well as a refreshing one since he is basically the movie's good guy, with Richard Benjamin's Van Helsing descendant coming off more as the unnecessarily crazed, jealous boyfriend that cannot take any of his mannerisms or line readings the least bit seriously, not that anyone could blame him.  There are certainly worse horror parodies out there, but again, this one just drops the ball persistently when it comes to actually being funny.