80's American Horror Part Eighty

WHITE DOG

(1982)

Dir - Samuel Fuller

Overall: GOOD

 

Samuel Fuller's adaptation of Romain Gary's novel White Dog is a heady examination of learned vs incurable racism, manifested in a K9 who was trained as a puppy to attack black people.  Various changes were made by Fuller and fellow screenwriter Curtis Hanson, switching the African American dog trainer from a more hateful Muslim to a benevolent character determined to utilize the opportunity to experiment on de-conditioning, plus the ending here is much more tragic in slamming home the fact that racism and hatred in general is such a troubled and deep-seeded sickness that cannot be so easily eradicated.  It is a deliberately uncomfortable watch, not just for its universally relatable themes of prejudice which sadly still linger in the several decades since both the book and film's release, but also for animal lovers in general.  A scene in a euthanizing animal shelter and images of a beautiful White Shepherd playfully interacting with Kristy McNichol only to be snarling its teeth, caked in blood after murdering innocent black people are both direct and profound in their impact.  The film pulls no punches in its heartbreaking depiction of such sensitive material and is as far from a feel-good movie as a major Hollywood studio production can get, but it would be dishonest and sugar-coated any other way.

 

TOO SCARED TO SCREAM

(1985)

Dir - Tony Lo Bianco

Overall: MEH

An American giallo except without the pizazz, (and released four years after it was filmed on account of the independent production company going out of business), Tony Lo Bianco's first and last directorial feature Too Scared to Scream, (The Doorman), still would not have made much of a memorable dent in any part of the slasher era.  While the killer reveal is ridiculous enough and Ian McShane turns in a sufficiently "on the spectrum" performance as a Shakespeare-quoting bellboy, the structure is predictable and humdrum.  The kill scenes are liberally spread apart and are hardly inventive, plus the killer of course displays his victims in nonsensical ways for the sole purpose of getting a jump out of both the people who find them and the viewer.  Also, producer/star Mike Conners looks exhausted as the lieutenant out to get to the bottom things and his flirtations relationship with fellow detective Anne Archer, (who is twenty-odd years his junior), comes off more awkward than not.  Worse yet though is poor Maureen O'Sullivan who came out of her fifteen year retirement to play an elderly woman in a wheelchair with no lines.

WITCHTRAP

(1989)

Dir - Kevin S. Tenney

Overall: WOOF

 

The third feature Witchtrap, (The Presence), from straight-to-video maestro Kevin S. Tenney plays more like an impractical joke than a sincere attempt at base-level horror schlock.  Not since the laughably inept days of Ed Wood Jr have more staggeringly  wooden performances been captured in something that is otherwise presenting itself as a "real" movie.  The exclusively ADRed dialog is distracting enough as is the repetitive, insultingly stupid nature of the actual words that these painfully moronic characters are forced to say.  In this respect, it is hardly any wonder that all of the actors put in the most minimal effort possible and come off like they are inconvenienced by being on camera in the first place.  Bouts of melodramatic buffoonery do start to take over in the third act which give such portrays something beyond monotone indifference, but Tenney's script and his embarrassing lack of creating the, (possibly?), intended tongue-in-cheek tone is torturous to endure.  Making a bad movie on purpose is a task that several filmmakers have taken over the years and supernatural horror is as deserving of a genre for parody as any, but Tenney makes the grievous mistake of not letting his audience in on the joke by structuring this trainwreck as a would-be campy, suspenseful, and creepy hybrid as opposed to something that John De Bello or Lloyd Kaufman would simply throw the kitchen sink of stupid at.