1970s British Horror Part Twenty-One

THE NIGHTCOMERS

(1971)

Dir - Michael Winner
Overall: MEH

The horror label is quite misleading for Michael Winner's The Nightcomers, a prequel to Henry James' more psychologically supernatural The Turn of the Screw.  Notable as being Marlon Brando's last performance before landing The Godfather which he would shoot soon afterwards, he may not be in peak form, but he is also a far cry from the embarrassing low-point he hit in Candy from three years prior.  That said, the Irish accent here is a bit goofy.  Michael Hastings' script examines the scoundrel aspects of Brando's Peter Quint and how impressionable his behavior in turn corrupts Miles and Flora.  By setting up the questionable shenanigans the two unassuming children would get up to in Jame's novel, the story here takes most of the mystery out of it, which is quite a faux pas on paper.  Even if one is to ignore how it misses the point of the ambiguous spookiness found in the source material, the results are still mediocre at best.  Not much interesting happens despite a few macabre touches and though the ending finally seems to arrive somewhere, it is nowhere as chilling in presentation as perhaps intended.

 

HORROR HOSPITAL

(1973)

Dir - Anthony Balch

Overall: GOOD

 

Film distributor and occasional exploitation director Anthony Balch's Horror Hospital, (Computer Killers), is an adequately humorous horror spoof.  Part of the movie's charm lies in how its presentation is indistinguishable from other strictly serious films of its kind from the same era.  By playing things straight, Balch gets to slyly lampoon some of the genre's inherent silliness.  British horror mainstay Michael Gouh optimizes such dynamics as a fiendish, wheelchair-bound mad scientist who is making a horde of young, attractive zombies for no other reason than to just be an evil asshole.  Most of the humor hits its mark with lines like "There's no reason to get uptight about anything.  I'm not going to rape you." and details like a random goo monster and a limo that decapitates passersby providing some sleazy chuckles.  Balch's directorial skills leave a bit to be desired though as the movie drags in place and the plotting gets monotonous.  It could probably afford to be more ridiculous than it is, but it delivers some proper high-jinks all the same.

THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH

(1976)

Dir - Nicolas Roeg

Overall: GOOD

For his follow-up to the excellent psychological horror film Don't Look Now, Nicolas Roeg chose to adapt Walter Tevis' novel The Man Who Fell to Earth with screenwriter Paul Mayersberg.  In his first lead role, a cocaine-addicted David Bowie is perfectly cast as the emotionally aloof and distraught alien Thomas Jerome Newton.  The story slowly weaves through his doomed life, whose family and home planet are endlessly on his mind yet just as endlessly out of reach.  He physically stays unchanged while those around him grow old, die off or are killed, lose interest in him, or succumb to their own vices.  The performances are strong all around, with Candy Clark being particularly superb as the lone country girl who becomes obsessed and sucked into Newton's aura.  From a production standpoint, the movie is fully realized.  Anthony B. Richmond's photography is quite beautiful and though the story spans a considerable timeline, it seems stuck in the era it was made.  This enhances the rather immortal existence of Bowie's isolated protagonist.  By taking a surreal, deliberately enigmatic approach to exploring the turmoil of loneliness and unfulfilled longing, Roeg made a challenging film quite fitting for the material.

1970s American Horror Part Twenty-Seven

SOMETHING EVIL

(1972)

Dir - Steven Spielberg

Overall: MEH

This made-for-television film was the second full-length that Steven Spielberg had done and his third over all.  Debuting on CBS on January 12th, 1972, Something Evil is one of the few straight horror outings for the legendary filmmaker and for genre, (and Christmas) fans, it features none other than Kolchak himself Darren McGavin in the lead opposite Sandy Dennis.  The film may garnish more attention than other similar TV films from the decade merely due to Spielberg's involvement, but the director does show above average skills at regular intervals.  There are some dynamic camera angles, moments of extreme silence, and one or two ominous visuals.  None of this truly disguises the cookie-cutter narrative though, one of untold hundreds where a family moves into a remote house only for the woman to see all the supernatural occurrences and lose her mind while her husband is too busy at work to believe her.  Since the most frightening thing that happens is some extreme wind blowing Dennis' hair around, it is probably more of a curiosity for Speilberg completists than horror fans.

SHANKS

(1974)

Dir - William Castle

Overall: MEH

 

At once, William Castle's final film Shanks doubles as both his weirdest and slowest.  An experimental work in many respects, toying with fantasy elements and silent film aesthetics, it features the movie debut of Marcel Marceau in a dual role.  Sans his famous Bip the Clown makeup, the legendary mime artist is both a mute and deaf puppeteer and a mad scientist, actually speaking dialog with the latter.  It is partly a showcase for Marceau's pantomime, who is one of four actors to play live marionette.  The movie also uses intertitles, an atmospheric graveyard set piece, a large Gothic mansion, and oodles of macabre visuals and situations, including one of the most utterly strange birthday parties perhaps ever filmed.  All of the quirkiness is undermined by a borderline terrible plot and some of the most sluggish, meandering pacing imaginable.  By the time a biker gang beyond randomly shows up in the final act, Castle's odd-ball schtick has well worn-out its welcome, and coherency has been lazily abandoned.  Its daring quirkiness is appreciated, but as a viewing experience, it is quite necessary to watch the whole thing in fast-forward.

I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE

(1978)

Dir - Meir Zarchi

Overall: MEH

The quintessential "rape and revenge" exploitation movie, Meir Zarchi's I Spit on Your Grave had and continues to have one of the most notorious reputations of any film of its kind.  On the surface, the thirty-minute rape scene could be the most gratuitous ever filmed, though this would imply that Zarchi was solely concerned with shocking and disgusting his audience for the mere sleazy glee of it.  In actuality, the filmmaker was inspired by a real life event where he helped a woman in Central Park who had been brutally beaten and raped, only for her to be treated with indifference by the police.  Combining that with the completely unassuming and stark presentation, (slow pacing, no musical score, no comic relief of any kind), one can make a reasonable argument that this is not a movie made to delight anyone, let alone sadists and depraved perverts.  Everything is set up for the unleashed vengeance of Jennifer Hills, (Camille Keaton, in a performance that is brave in the truest sense) and no sympathies for the viewer lie anywhere else but with her.  It is a statement of sorts, but unfortunately one that is so unpleasant to watch that it nevertheless becomes quite difficult to justify its existence.

1970s American Horror Part Twenty-Six

NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS
(1971)
Dir - Dan Curtis

Overall: MEH

 

Released a year after House of Dark Shadows and completed after the soap opera was officially off the air, Dan Curtis returns with Night of Dark Shadows.  Though he had initially wanted it to be a straight sequel to the previous film by bringing back Barnabas Collins, actor Johnathan Frid was done with the character.  Instead, vampires are out of the equation and the focus is now on another key member of the Collins family, Quentin.  Utilizing the alternate timeline concept from the series, some actors return playing different characters.  Similar concepts such as resurrection play a major role, deepening the mythos of the supernatural-entwined family.  The results are properly moody and atmospheric at times, even if they are rather void of frights.  Sadly, they are also a bit messy as Curtis was forced to cut thirty-five minutes from the finished run time and allegedly given a single day to deliver a new edit.  It all shows in the finished product, one that is also bogged down by stagnant pacing even in its mangled form.  A disappointing follow-up, but one that is still made with a level of admirable class at least.

SCREAM BLOODY MURDER
(1973)
Dir - Marc B. Ray
Overall: WOOF
 
Screenwriter Marc B. Ray seldom got behind the camera and his second stab at it was with the low-rent exploitation bit of nastiness Scream Bloody Murder, (The Captive Female, Claw of Terror, Matthew).  Shot in rural California with actors that no one has ever heard of, it has the usual regional horror trappings of amateurish production values and performances, focusing on a mentally unstable young man who murders whoever because whatever.  First, Fred Holbert offs his own father on a tractor when he is a kid, (an incident that also takes his left hand which is now a hook), then once he is released from an asylum, he quickly does away with his stepfather and accidentally does away with his mother.  Holbert then hits the road and gets triggered into a murderous rage, usually whenever anyone is intimate with a woman and all for reasons that are never divulged, even though the film is sluggish enough in its pacing to afford a hackneyed explanation of sorts.  Who cares though when we can just watch Holbert cry, say "Mama" a lot, kidnap a woman, and crudely murder people, (including a dog), at the slightest breeze?

THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU

(1977)

Dir - Don Taylor

Overall: GOOD

 

American International Pictures made three H.G. Wells adaptations in less than two years, the second of which was the most famous and horror-centric The Island of Dr. Moreau.  Directed by Don Taylor and staring Michael York and Burk Lancaster in the leads, it is quite solid from a production standpoint.  The mostly excellent make-up effects were led by Thomas R. Burman who would go on to create Sloth in The Goonies, amongst much else.  Out of the exclusive club of actors who have played the title character, Lancaster matches the description in Wells' story the most and the actor basically could not deliver a bad performance if he tried, which is certainly the case here.  His Moreau is more calmly and almost pathetically insane than sadistic and his inevitable downfall is fittingly dour.  The script differs significantly from the source material and other versions, changing the fate of certain characters, particularly a rather underused Nigel Davenport as Montgomery.  It all follows a satisfying, self-contained trajectory though.  Things catch on fire, blood is spilled, and real life tigers fight stunt doubles so, not much to complain about.

1970s American Horror Part Twenty-Five

THE POSSESSION OF JOEL DELANEY

(1972)

Dir - Waris Hussein

Overall: MEH

Directed by British/Indian filmmaker Waris Hussein who is noteworthy to Doctor Who fans for being behind the lens on the very first every story An Unearthly Child, The Possession of Joel Delaney is an adaptation of Ramona Stewart's novel of the same name.  The film is most infamous for its final scene in which a thirteen year old boy is forced to dance naked and his young sister likewise forced to eat dog food.  The unwholesome conclusion appears rather jarringly, having come from a rather plodding ninety minutes where very little of interest happens, least of all something so disturbing.  A-lister Shirley MacLaine does admirable work even with the rather weak material, but the movie does not offer up any unique possession concepts within the annals of horror films.  As a story about a sadistic Puerto Rican serial killer who was abandoned as a child and brought up in poverty who then takes over the body of an upper class, causation woman's brother, there are some borderline themes of race and classicism.  The movie does not explore such things too compellingly though and the predominant lack of scares or tension plus the meandering pacing leaves it nowhere really to go.

THE PREMONITION

(1976)

Dir - Robert Schnitzer

Overall: MEH

A low-budget and quite unusual psychological horror film from Robert Schnitzer, The Premonition has a number of unconventional problems.  The editing is often sloppy, actors fumble their lines, and the plot becomes incomprehensible in its final act.  Schnitzer utilizes guerilla-style, hand-held camera work and flat cinematography, yet juxtaposes these with hallucination sequences that are more oddly ambitious.  At least on paper, there are some effectively startling scenes, but they may become less or more disturbing due to the overall strangeness of the presentation.  The lead characters are quite unhinged, with Richard Lynch making for a menacing villain and both Danielle Brisebois and Sharon Farrell coming apart at the seams as two emotionally traumatized women.  Things take awhile to truly get underway, but the movie's last thirty minutes play off as if the production had run out of money and they were forced to put together an ending based on whatever footage they had already shot.  Stylistically, the amatuerish, technical mistakes and eerie, deliberate tone make for a curious watch, which is more successful in certain moments than in others.

STRANGER IN OUR HOUSE

(1978)

Dir - Wes Craven

Overall: MEH

Wes Craven's third feature-length film and first directorial gig since relocating from New York to Los Angeles was the relatively average Stranger In Our House.  An adaptation of Lois Duncan's novel Summer of Fear, (the title of which it was releases as theatrically in Europe), it debuted on NBC on Halloween in 1978.  Hot off the trainwreck that was Exorcist II: The Heretic, Linda Blair is not blowing any minds with her pretty weak lead performance here, though it is not quite as bad as some of her future, Razzie nominated ones.  For his part behind the lens, Craven does not get to shine much within such sterilized, made-for-TV confines.  The story has some potential, but it mostly just ends up revolving around Blair and Lee Purcell not getting along while it is bright and sunny outside.  By the director's own admittance, it was more of a technical learning experience than an ideal, creative outlet.  A job is a job after all.  Things finally get a little atmospheric and freaky in the last ten minutes, yet not only is this far too little too late, but the ending hardly packs much of a wallop anyway.  Of interest to the curious Craven fan perhaps, though that is about it.

1970s American Horror Part Twenty-Four

SISTERS

(1972)

Dir - Brian De Palma

Overall: GOOD

 

Brian De Palma's first fully formed thriller and arguably his most deliberately Hitchcockian in nature and execution, Sisters also remains a darkly humorous and potent critique on women's liberation.  Throughout the film, men are continually ignoring, condescending to, or ogling the females, females who fight back defiantly and in the case of Margot Kidder's title characters, quite violently.  The tone is kept more quirky than preachy though, not getting particularly disturbing until its final act.  While the body count is quite low and the emphasis is hardly on gruesomeness, when it does indulge a bit more on such horror components, the effects benefit greatly from De Palma's controlled and often humorously suspenseful presentation.  Both narrative and cinematic motifs lifted right out of Rope, Rear Window, and Psycho are present and as if the Hitchcock-channeling was not intentional enough, De Palma even got a semi-retired Bernard Herman to score the film.  It is not all just directorial hero worship, but even if it was, there is more than enough substance and style here to carry its copycat/homage nature through.

 

HAUNTS

(1976)

Dir - Herb Freed

Overall: MEH

Though it is persistently undermined by its very rough, amateur production values, Herb Freed's Haunts has a strange sort of charm to it.  There are no shortage of unintended laughs due to the standard, low-rent, independent B-movie shortcomings.  These include but are not limited to lousy performances from both unprofessional and veteran actors, incomprehensible plotting, stagnant direction, choppy editing, meandering subplots, and cheap, budget-less visuals.  Freed does not come off as if he is making anything for sleazy, exploitative purposes as he seems to be going for a dark and sincere, psychological horror vibe.  It is just that his ambition exceeds his finances and technical skills, or lack thereof.  This not only makes the movie's obvious and numerous flaws forgivable, but also interesting for the bizarre way they come off.  Understandably, it does not hold itself together even in a curious way, dragging on for large moments and compromising its off-beat aesthetics to boredom.  Ending with a somber and ultimately confusing expository dialog dump at the end does not really help much either, even if Cameron Mitchell is the one delivering it.

DAMIEN: OMEN II

(1978)

Dir - Don Taylor/Mike Hodges

Overall: MEH

Any film as successful as The Omen was not bound to go without a sequel and two years later, Damien: Omen II dropped.  Even though it is set seven years after the first movie yet still in contemporary times and the Antichrist is now thirteen, never mind that as he is a full-grown adult in 1981's Omen III: The Final Conflict.  For a horror follow-up, the formula is pretty standard which is to basically make the same movie again except up the body count.  Case in point here.  There are some Hollywood heavyweights present once more with William Holden and Lee Grant, Jerry Goldsmith's concocts yet another over-the-top score, and the story by producer Harvey Bernhard recycles the same beats and even some of the same scenes.  Some people are on to Damien's infernal legacy, no one believes them, they meet their end in graphically violent ways, Satan wins, hooray.  Take out all the fun, ghastly set pieces and you are left with mostly humdrum, bureaucratic-centered dialog, but the focus stays primarily on the good stuff.  Director Don Taylor, (and Mike Hodges who was replaced after shooting a number of scenes), do admirable, slick work with the safe material and for those essentially looking for more of the same, the movie easily suffices.

1970s American Horror Part Twenty-Three

HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS

(1970)

Dir - Dan Curtis

Overall: GOOD

Filmed while the soap opera series was still in full swing, House of Dark Shadows was the theatrically released film accompaniment.  Utilizing the same actors and basic, be it stripped-down narrative arc of its lead vampire Barnabas Collins, series creator Dan Curtis makes his full-length feature debut behind the lens.  It is a pretty slick, appropriately atmospheric horror outing which is very akin to countless others from across the globe during its era.  Many of the well-established Gothic tropes are fully utilized, (stormy weather, fog, creepy cemeteries, imposing, unkempt mansions, British accents), and the familiar story emphasis the more romantic, love-lorn aspects of the undead mythos.  Several plot-points are lifted right out of Bram Stoker's Dracula and its many re-interpretations, which made for an interesting framework to utilize for the soap opera that bounced between contemporary and older timelines, as well as featuring various other supernatural horror "monsters".  Since everything is naturally far more streamlined here, it feels a bit rushed and does not have the complex world-building of the series to flesh everything out.  That said, it works plenty well enough as its own thing.

THE REINCARNATION OF PETER PROUD

(1975)

Dir - J. Lee Thompson

Overall: MEH

 

The Reincarnation of Peter Pound is an interesting, low key psychological quasi-thriller, one that plays out like a mystery even if it technically is not.  Max Ehrlich wrote the screenplay for his own novel of the same name, here adapted by J. Lee Thompson, (Cape Fear, Conquest of and Beneath the Planet of the Apes).  Dealing more with obsession than anything else, the story is one man's quest to uncover the nature of the supernatural occurrences plaguing/possessing him, a quest which puts him on some shaky moral ground.  The plot has some creepy details, (dude dates and romanticizes the daughter of the guy he is reincarnated as, ew), but it has very little typical horror atmosphere going for it.  Not that any such thing is particularly necessary mind you.  Featuring a fair amount of both male and female nudity though not in an exploitative way, Thompson's direction is assured, but he also fails to keep the story particularly engaging as it goes on.  Michael Sarrazin is somewhat too aloof in the lead, but even though she does not get any lines until the final act, Margot Kidder brings some compelling life to the proceedings as a tortured and troubled mother under quite unconvincing old age makeup.

WHEN A STRANGER CALLS

(1979)

Dir - Fred Walton

Overall: MEH

Fred Walton's follow-up to his own short The Sitter was his full-length debut When a Stranger Calls.  The film is mostly recognized for its opening twenty-minute scene which served as the basis for the initial short.  Its influence was most famously seen in Wes Craven's Scream, which likewise recreated it as its intro, except that time with Drew Barrymore.  Walton pulls-off some other tense moments after the beginning, where the movie's psychopath avoids capture and almost calmly terrorizes his intended victims.  Typecast sleazeball Tony Beckley makes for a standard, neurotic villain, effortlessly menacing and intense in an appropriately pathetic sort of way.  Carol Kane also turns in a solid performance as the traumatized babysitter.  The overall plotting does not really keep things afloat though.  By stretching the initial premise out to a ninety-seven minute long movie, it is a little lazy and loose with the excuses to let Beckley's Curt Duncan get away with basically everything that he gets away with.  By the time it reaches the final act, the whole thing feels more redundant than spine-tingling.

1970s American Horror Part Twenty-Two

THE RETURN OF COUNT YORGA

(1971)

Dir - Bob Kelljan

Overall: MEH

 

While Bob Kelljan's Count Yorga, Vampire was an OK entry for such a film, his immediate and final follow-up The Return of Count Yorga improves upon some of the aspects of its predecessor while essentially being the exact same movie.  The humor is more deliberate, yet it is also dry at times, bleeding into a number of genuinely creepy segments as well.  Kelljan balances the entire movie this way, equally riding the line of silliness and straight horror movie atmosphere.  Large portions play out to no musical accompaniment, making for stark, chilling sequences where comatose-moving vampires advance on/toy with their prey and Robert Quarry's title character spouts pretentious platitudes only to comically lunge at his victims while hissing.  No explanation is given to the Count's return by the way; it is just another movie where he charms some people, has a horde of undead minions, and the cops laugh at the possibility of vampirism.  Redundant to an extent then, it also suffers from sluggish pacing.  Again, the lackadaisical and quiet flow does enhance some of the macabre mood and makes for one or two effectively startling scenes, but coupled with the identical story, one Yorga movie is likely all you really need.

BLOOD SUCKING FREAKS

(1976)

Dir - Joel M. Reed
Overall: WOOF

 

The infamous exploitation film Blood Sucking Freaks, (Sadu: Master of the Screaming Virgins, The Incredible Torture Show), is basically what you would get if you fused Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom with the splatter-ridden, filmmaking incompetence of Herschell Gordon Lewis.  Featuring all of the weaknesses and none of the strengths of the aforementioned works, (if you can consider Lewis' films to have any "strengths"), this is well-deserving of its lousy reputation.  Deliberately tasteless, its groan-worthy gags are occasionally funny in an embarrassing sense, with most of the laughs stemming from the unflinchingly amateurish production values.  The performances are pure nonsense, the story is a pathetic social satire on sadism and misogyny, and the endless barrage of nudity and clever-less torture sequences grow more lackluster as things progress.  It is too stupid to be disturbing, (certainly by contemporary standards), and the movie says nothing about anything; it is just lame, juvenile shock-tactics for the mere sake of it.

THE EVIL

(1978)

Dir - Gus Trikonis

Overall: MEH

 

Contemporary haunted house cliches run an absolute muck in Gus Trikonis' The Evil, (Cry Demon, House of Evil).  Characters see things and forget to tell anyone, windows and doors slam shut to trap people inside, men argue with women that there must be some rational explanation to everything, a locked gate to hell is easily found and opened, hysterical women get smacked across the face by men, the Devil shows up in a white suit, etc.  As is also commonly the case, the demonic, supernatural forces at play only adhere to the rules of the script.  They routinely appear all knowing and ever present, yet they can get in someone's head and make them saw their own hand off just as easily as they cannot see someone running at them with an iron cross.  The contradictions are numerous and the incredibly straight tone makes them more jarringly silly than not.  Performance wise, the entire cast is committed and save for Victor Buono as an appropriately hammy Satan, all of them play things deadly serious.  Trikonis throws in a boatload of horror set pieces and keeps the pace running smoothly, but it is all so uninspired and textbook that you are likely to easily confuse it with any other such movie.