(1986)
Dir - John Carl Buechler
Overall: MEH
Unfocused at best, special make-up artist-turned director John Carl Buechler's Troll is an odd bird, coming off like a children's fantasy movie with head-scratching set pieces and starling practical effects. On that note, Buechler and his FX team do solid work, utilizing various puppets that range from weird, to gross, to adorable. Sonny Bono has a sleazy cameo and gets the most ridiculous scene where he transforms into an explody fairy tree or something after various green bladder effects pulsate and ooze. Besides Bono, there are several recognizable faces such as Phil Fondacaro in a dual roll as both the title creature and just a regular guy living in the film's apartment setting, plus ex Saturday Night Live players Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Brad Hall, Michael Moriarty, and the mother/daughter team of June and Anne Lockhart playing older and younger versions of a mysterious sorceress. The script by Ed Naha and Oliver Gonzalez is either ingenious or moronic as it concerns a mystical and malevolent takeover of a tenant building because reasons, but the tonal shifts and bizarre goofiness like Dreyfus prancing around as a half-naked pixie, Moriarty dad-rocking out to "Summertime Blues", and Fondacaro turning people into things with a glowing ring at least keep the movie from being boring.
(1988)
Dir - Franco Steffanino
Overall: WOOF
A film that is more interesting in a behind the scenes capacity than anything else, The Undertaker was a long-unfinished project that was to be the penultimate movie appearance of Joe Spinell. To say that the film's star looks worse for wear is a mute point since Spinell made a career out of playing schlubs, but his performance here could lead some to believe that the man was suffering a rough patch. Profusely sweaty and mumbly, Spinell looks lost most of the time and his staggering line-readings come off as rehearsals instead of anything that should have made the final cut. He occasionally widens his eyes, cries, or goes for scenery-chewing gusto, but the man mostly comes off as bored, drunk, and confused. Not that we can blame him since the film's story is both heavy padded and laughably underwritten. None of the characters are fleshed-out, least of all Spinell's who murders people at random for any multitude of reasons. The credited director Franco Steffanino is a pseudonym for the producers, screenwriter, and cinematographer who all played a part in getting the film shot and doing a piss-pour job in the process. There is no sense of pacing, actors fumble through awkward scenes that go on for too long, the background noise is either distracting or non-existent in mid-scene, and the script becomes more incomprehensible as it goes on. Yet if you are in the mood for a sweaty, violent, incompetent, and rambling mess, this is the trash heap for you.
(1989)
Dir - Philippe Mora
Overall: GOOD
For the generous viewer, Communion can be seen as a movie that turns its multitude of bizarre choices into saving graces. An adaptation of Whitley Strieber's alleged autobiographical book of the same name, the author penned the script himself and Christopher Walken plays him on screen, doing a fascinating job in the process. According to some sources, the crew and cast took potshots at Strieber and his material, and this makes sense upon seeing the finished product where Walken rides a razor-thin line by playing the eccentric novelist with a nod and wink to how absurd his alleged "true" story is. At the same time though, Walken effortlessly comes off as a man who is broken down by his unexplained experience, venturing into random hallucinations, (or something), while laughing, rambling, and even dancing with his extraterrestrial abductees. It is a baffling watch in this respect, made more singular by Eric Clapton's Lethal Weapon guitar licks on the soundtrack, little alien men who look laugh-out-loud ridiculous, and a tone that seems more accidentally surreal than purposely head-trippy. This is likely due to the fact that Philippe Mora was behind the lens, who had recently done the first two sequels to The Howling which were each the opposite of critically hailed. This film here though is a more interesting mess, sort of like if The Amityville Horror and Fire in the Sky smooshed together with Walken bringing his A-game to the party.
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