1980s American Horror Part Sixty-Six

THE AFTERMATH

(1982)

Dir - Steve Barkett

Overall: MEH

 

With the look and feel of 1970s television and the production values of a high school play, writer/director/producer/lead actor Steve Barkett's first of only two movies where he was behind the lens is crappindicular stuff.  This is a typical vanity project where the filmmaker's ambitious largely outway his means of achieving them.  By casting himself in the heroic lead, Barklett comes off unintentionally ridiculous as he has the charisma and physical presence of an assistant produce manger at a grocery store.  It is a good thing then that he brought Sid Haig on board as a low-life bad guy, Forrest J Ackerman as a museum curator, and Dick Miller to provide a bit of voice over in one scene.  The post-apocalyptic story involving crashed astronauts, mutated humans, and a kid-murdering/women-raping gang are interspersed with sloppy editing, the occasional matte painting, melodramatic music, stiff performances, day for night scenes, and bargain bin special effects.  There are a handful of bad movie chuckles along the way, but everything is played so unironically straight that it is just more adorably lousy than actually fun to endure.

 

THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK

(1987)

Dir - George Miller

Overall: GOOD

 

For his first post-Mad Max trilogy full-length, director George Miller chose this A-list adaptation of John Updike's novel The Witches of Eastwick, a genuinely funny performance showcase for those involved.  While Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Susan Sarandon bring fully-realized, unique attributes to their characters and Veronica Cartwright has some gleefully scenery-chewing moments in a minor role, few could argue that the movie belongs to Jack Nicholson and his bravado performance as essentially the Lord of Darkness.  At his best, Nicholson could sink his teeth into a role that fully benefited from his expertly crafted blend of over acting, and every moment where he lets loose here, (and there are many such moments), is a delight to behold.  The fact that he brings an amount of vulnerable charm to his portrayal even as he snorts and unabashedly hedonizes his way into the hearts of the witches of the title is even more impressive since at the end of the day, he is really not all THAT bad of a guy.  Michael Cristofer's script fails to be the tightest in the world, but being much more lighthearted than the novel, it has a care-free if still somewhat sexist undercurrent that is at least forgivable due to the silly, R-rated tone.  An alarming amount of projectile vomiting and the grandiose finale may seem unnecessarily excessive for some, but just as many others may see it as fitting right at home with such whimsical, diabolic fun.

HACK-O-LANTERN

(1988)
Dir - Jag Mundhra
Overall: WOOF

The second American film from Bollywood director Jag Mundhra, Hack-O-Lantern, (Death Mask), is some ridiculous low-budget sleaze that is hilariously stupid enough at regular intervals to be a festive addition to anyone's Halloween version of a "bad movie night".  Part slasher, part Z-rent incompetence, and part Satanic cult nonsense, it throws in an adequate amount of gratuitous nudity, violence, and overall perversity to go along with acting that is either high-school-level-play embarrassing or scenery-chewing in the most applaudable way.  This is mostly the case where Gregory Scott Cummins and Hy Pyke are concerned, both of which regularly try and out-mug each other with the former playing a forty-three year old teenager and the later playing a grandpa who looks as old as the father that he burns alive.  Other quirky details include head-scratching pranks, heavy metal fantasies, perverse oversharing amongst friends and family members, and a Halloween party including a guy dressed as a salad, a man in drag dancing by himself, a stripper that goes full monty, and some random asshole doing pathetic standup in the parking lot.  The kill scenes are a combination of "huh?" and awkward, plus every character on screen exhibits dubious morals at one point or several, giving the audience no one to relate to yet plenty to laugh at.

1980s American Horror Part Sixty-Five

THE BABYSITTER

(1980)

Dir - Peter Medak

Overall: MEH

 

Airing later in the same year that he delivered the exceptional haunted house film The Changeling, Peter Medak was also behind the lens for the ABC Friday Night Movie The Babysitter.  A far less memorable effort in comparison of course, it is still notable as a pre-T.J. Hooker vehicle for William Shatner who is joined by a top-billed Patty Duke in the frequently repeated story of a young, wacky, home-wrecking seductress playing both sides of a slightly troubled marriage against each other.  Things unfold predictably and obnoxiously as Duke's character moronically confines in Stephanie Zimbalist's clearly manipulative villainess, all while Shatner is just as much of a chump while falling for her sexual advances.  Everyone eventually comes around to what is happening, but only once it is literally beating them over the head.  Along the way, it seems as if key scenes are missing and the fact that the film fails to pick up any real diabolical tension until the last eight or so minutes just makes it an annoying chore of too much unrewarded dramatic irony to bare.

 

CREATURE

(1985)

Dir - William Malone

Overall: MEH

 

A particularly lousy, no-budget Alien knock-off of which there were many, Creature has a few attributes for genre enthusiasts to take note of at least.  The second feature-length work from co-writer/director William Malone, (who had made 1980's Scared to Death and would go on to do the House on Haunted Hill remake as well as the infamous FeardotCom), it also features lousy special effects from Robert and Denis Skotak who fittingly did much better work with John Richardson on Aliens around the same time.  As horrendously cheap as it is catastrophically boring, the movie is given a slight, much needed jolt when Klaus Kinski brings his always natural unwholesomeness to the proceedings about a half-hour in.  Though he is delegated to a bit part, Kinski makes the most of it by chewing his scenery just enough to seem as if he was not merely sleep-walking through another paycheck as he was sometimes wont to do.  There are a few other recognizable faces with Ferris Bueller's dad Lyman Ward, Bruce Dern's hot, The 'Burbs trophy wife Wendy Schael, Pee-Wee's brief love interest Diane Salinger, and Twin Peaks' Annette McCarthy.  Elsewhere though, this is a typically embarrassing effort for all parties involved who have to make the most out of the limited, seventy-five cent sets and a cliche-ridden script.  It certainly has discount VHS bin/"Can't believe it wasn't produced by Roger Corman"/bad movie nostalgia written all over it.

 

EVIL DEAD II

(1987)

Dir - Sam Raimi

Overall: GOOD

After his failed collaboration with the Coen brothers in 1985's Crimewave, Sam Raimi and his trusted band of cohorts scored a substantial budget from Dino De Laurentiis for Evil Dead II; much more of a remake than a proper sequel to the first installment.  A beloved comedy/horror hybrid and signature work for its director, this was the movie that truly established Raimi's adrenaline-ridden, Looney Tunes with gore aesthetic that would serve him throughout the rest of his career, (just minus the gore part when it came to the Spider-Man trilogy).  The film only has two modes; jacked-up ridiculousness and pin-drop quiet while waiting for more jacked-up ridiculousness.  While this can be irksome at times, the set pieces are so bombastically inventive that they are impossible not to fall for.  Both this and especially the original Evil Dead's production values get by on their DIY charm and Raimi plays with the concept of manically relentless demons tormenting Bruce Campbell while ravaging cinema's most famous cabin in the woods as if he has limitless resources at his disposal.  Stop-motion animation, geysers of blood, animatronics, monster makeup, matte paintings; everything is thrown at the screen to garnish the ghoulish giggles.  A preposterous movie by design, it is a hoot for all of its intended reasons.

1980s American Horror Part Sixty-Four

BEYOND EVIL

(1980)

Dir - Herb Freed

Overall: MEH

 

Released in the slasher heyday, Beyond Evil has the look, feel, foreign/exotic location, and John Saxton of a typical low-budget, supernatural Italian B-movie, except that it is an American production from top-to-bottom.  Ohio born director/co-writer Herb Freed made a handful of such films, this one focusing on a colonial mansion in the Philippines that is haunted by a long-dead, occult practicing sorceress that decides to posses Lynda Day George.  The tanned, hairy-chested men often rock Lacoste's polo shirts while discussing business, the locals are superstitious "faith healing" believers, the soundtrack has some effectively creepy whisper/chanting going on at times, there is a silly devil statue that keeps showing up, fog and green lighting are used, etc.  While nothing is to be taken seriously and nobody involved in the proceedings would argue otherwise, the story and presentation only get the job done in an unremarkable fashion.  There are not enough absurd, over the top moments to make it unintentionally comedic, plus fans of excessive and sleazy gore and nudity will be disappointed as there is little to none of either.  It could be worse, it could be better, but is certainly is a movie.

WITCHBOARD

(1986)

Dir - Kevin Tenney
Overall: MEH

The debut from horror B-movie writer/director Kevin Tenney Witchboard spawned a couple of sequels despite its pedestrian and unimpressive presentation, though this is hardly anything new for an era ripe with straight-to-video franchises.  Conceptually, an Ouija board is always an inherently silly utensil to hinge a premise on, and watching numerous scenes of characters taking themselves seriously while contacting spirits in broad daylight fails to conjure up the appropriate mood.  This is one of the 1980's least atmospheric/least frightening works in the horror genre and not just because of the aforementioned fact that nearly all of it takes place in sunny California weather or in contemporary furnished, unassuming living rooms.  The central love-triangle story is handled respectfully, but it sure takes up a lot of screen time where audience members will be growing impatient by how cookie-cutter it all feels.  There are a couple of goofy moments that liven things up, (some intentionally and some not), but it often comes off as if it has no idea what a spooky/scary movie is supposed to look or feel like.  With ten minutes left, Tawny Kitaen does get naked in the shower, talk in a distorted voice, put on a suit, and then attack people with an axe though, still mostly all in broad daylight of course.

I, MADMAN

(1989)

Dir - Tibor Takács

Overall: MEH

Hungarian/Canadian filmmaker Tibor Takács' follow-up to The Gate features a weird and visually striking serial killer monster, as many horror films from the era also made it a point to include.  Played by visual effects artist Randall William Cook, the "guy with a fucked-up face wearing nothing but black" look of said villain in I, Madman, (Hardcover in the UK and Europe), is a cross between Max Shcreck, Darth Vader with his helmet off, various Frankenstein monsters, Robert Englund's take on The Phantom of the Opera which was released less than a month later and Sam Raimi's Darkman that dropped the following summer.  He makes a creepy presence which is of course helped by incomprehensible amounts of fog-ridden back lighting while indoors.  The script by David Chaskin is hardly unique as it follows the typical slasher movie waiting game nonsense and the more that it goes on, the more it seems to just lazily piece itself together.  Jenny Wright, (the "Are all these your guitars?" groupie in Pink Floyd - The Wall), makes an adequate damsel in distress, and The Gate's stop-motion gargoyle things reached full-sized maturity apparently as one of them random shows up here with no proper narrative explanation.  For fans of campy, late-80s camp who are also looking for something more obscure though, this may appease.

1980s American Horror Part Sixty-Three

NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR

(1985)

Dir - Jay Schlossberg-Cohen/John Carr/Phillip Marshak/Tom McGowan/Gregg C. Tallas

Overall: WOOF

 

A fascinatingly awful trainwreck, (har, har), which both disastrously and hilariously cobbles together four different movies, Night Train to Terror could be the most head-scratching anthology horror film ever vomited unto the masses.  Each of the three segments are made up of footage from just as many previously unreleased movies, with a preposterous framing narrative of Satan and God arguing in a train while a bunch of painfully white white people all music video-out to the same embarrassingly terrible song over and over again.  Things are bizarrely off-putting from the get-go, yet the rails fly off once the first story gets underway; a story that unfolds as a montage which bulldozes through its entire narrative with reckless abandon.  Same goes for the next two episodes, each one equally incomprehensible simply due to the fact that they were all originally supposed to be their own full-length properties and not just smashed together into an incoherent highlight reel.  The "quality" of the segments themselves is just as bad, with scenery-gorging performances and stop-motion animation that a Mr. Bill sketch would be ashamed of.  Whoever's cocaine-fueled idea this was deserves props for how completely idiotic and ill-conceived it is and for anyone curious as to what Ed Wood Jr. would have probably been allowed to do with creative freedom had he lived until 1985, here lies your answer.

REVENGE
(1986)
Dir - Christopher Lewis
Overall: MEH

Graduating from SOV to 16mm, (not that anyone would notice), Christopher Lewis' Blood Cult sequel Revenge, (Revenge: Blood Cult 2), scores both John Wayne's son Patrick and "Anything for a buck" genre thespian John Carradine, each of whom provide the star power to what is ultimately just another regional hack-job.  Comparatively, this is a more polished effort from Lewis who utilizes his professional equipment to stage things conventionally if not effective in an atmospheric sense, (not least of all because the majority of scenes take place in broad, sunny daylight and merely consist of characters sitting across from each other while talking).  He still has no sense of pacing and fails to elevate the stock story which is about an evil dog cult that is full of political higher-ups who sacrifice people because Satan, as well as simply murder others who get in the way or ask too many questions.  The performances are acceptable and the cheap keyboard score never shuts the hell up, but none of the set pieces are memorable and the movie's more straight-faced sheen actually undoes what maid Lewis' previous entries stand out, be it in a laughably terrible way.  It still has incompetent ADR placing. tomato soup blood, and illogical details like someone calling a woman several times without saying anything, only to ominously utter "Get out" once she answers the phone and gets frustrated enough times, but it is all relentlessly boring stuff.

HOUSE II: THE SECOND STORY

(1987)

Dir - Ethan Wiley

Overall: MEH

For his directorial debut, Ethan Wiley collaborated with screenwriter Fred Dekker and producer Sean S. Cunningham on the second installment in the House franchise, fittingly titled House II: The Second Story.  A full-blown comedy this time with nyuck-nyucks provided by comedic players Arye Gross, Johnathan Stark, and Bill Maher, it is a dopey affair that throws plot logistics to the wind and fails to land almost all of its intended humor.  That said, there is a wacky charm to it that is due to numerous inventive set pieces in a completely different mansion from that in the first movie, which is home to otherwordly portals that send our gang of schlubs into prehistoric times, the Old West, and an ancient Aztec temple.  The make-up, sets, and special effects are also of a high quality for what is essentially an unabashed B-movie, with stop-motion animation, puppetry, and gnarly zombie designs for both Royal Dano and Gregory Walcott who play dueling cowboys.  It is a shame that Wiley took Dekker's ideas and churned them out with a barrage of juvenile gags that are predictably groan-worthy, plus the story barely establishes any supernatural rules to follow which gives it lazy, creative license to throw any type of convenient plot maneuver and "bozo fall down" bit of silliness into the mix.  It is lighthearted enough as not to offend the viewer's intelligence, (at least too much), and for a series that was already slapdash and not taking itself seriously, this one fits right in.

ABC Weekend Special Horror Part Two

HENRY HAMILTON GRADUATE GHOST

(1984)

Dir - Noam Pitlik
Overall: MEH

 

Season eight of the ABC Weekend Special series kicked off with Henry Hamilton Graduate Ghost based on the 1982 book of the same name by Marilyn Redmond.  Though the presentation is borderline embarrassing in its cheapness and the whole thing is about as cinimatically spectacular as a box of Raisin Brand, the story itself concerns a Confederate soldier returned from the grave who is tasked with scaring a suburban family out of their home in order to graduate from ghost school, plus there is an amusing side arc where an African American, supernatural fanboy neighbor conducts a spell to exorcise him.  Naturally, all real life Civil War atrocities are glossed-over and aside from several questionable moments where a grown man-specter kisses children that are not his own, it has a harmless, dopey agenda with one or two clever laughs present for those who can stomach the syrup.

THE ADVENTURES OF A TWO-MINUTE WEREWOLF

(1985)

Dir - Pamela Pettler

Overall: MEH

 

Coincidentally released the same year as the Michal J. Fox comedy Teen Wolf, The Adventures of a Two-Minute Werewolf utilizes an almost identical premise, exploring the themes of male adolescence via lycanthropy.  It even throws in the angle of such coming-of-age transformations being hereditary in their literal hairiness, though the tone is appropriately more suited for pre-teens than high schoolers, with it being a children's program and all.  Continuing in the tradition established by Joe Dante whereas a werewolf movie most have werewolf movies playing in the background, little Knowl Johnson and his buddy Julia Reardon watch Universal's The Wolf Man in a movie theater and one or two other Easter eggs are scattered about as well.  The source material by Gene DeWeese is tame stuff by any standards since the most ferocious thing that Johnson's character does while wolfed-out is partake of some spontaneous gymnastic practice and sit on top of a bully while playfully making gruff noises until the police arrive.

CAP'N O.G. READMORE MEETS DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE

(1986)

Dir - Rick Reinert

Overall: MEH

 

Season ten of the ABC Weekend Special opened with the second full episode to feature the series' master of ceremonies Cap'n O.G. Readmore with the accurately titled Cap'n O.G. Readmore Meets Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  Besides hosting the show since 1984, the character had been primarily featured in the previous year's Cap'n O. G. Readmore's Jack and the Beanstalk and would go on to get three more such appearances where he enters into the novel chosen for his all-feline Friday Night Book Club.  Naturally they jump into the Robert Louis Stevenson classic here, interfering with the story to the point where Stevenson himself has to appear to set things right.  As one could guess, the horrific exploits of Mr. Hyde are neutered to the point of unrecognizablity as the most fiendish of his acts is throwing a bunch of cabbages around and interrupting a play with his horrendous singing, which is all fine for the kiddos of course as not to scare them with prostitute tormenting and murder.

THE MONSTER BED

(1989)

Dir - Carole Beers/Andy Kim/Ray Lee

Overall: MEH

 

A reworked adaptation of Jeanne Willis and Susan Varley's hit children's book of the same name that is not to be confused with the similarly premised, Fred Savage/Howie Mandel vehicle Little Monsters from the same year, The Monster Bed closed out the twelfth season of ABC Weekend Special in typical lighthearted fashion.  Both this and the aforementioned source material were aimed at four year olds and played off of the "there's a monster under my bed" cliche of nighttime anxieties, so the lack of any nods or winks towards adults means that any viewers from preschool on up will find little to latch onto here.  This is not helped by three cutesy musical numbers in about twenty-five minutes, one of which is rap-adjacent for extra datedness.  There are some clever gags where a human boy ventures into a monster dimension and drive-in B-movies with titles like People from the Blue Lagoon are meant to be scary, but this is otherwise forgettable stuff.

MONSTER IN MY POCKET: THE BIG SCREAM

(1992)

Dir - Don Lusk/Ray Patterson
Overall: GOOD

 

This Hanna-Barbara produced television pilot found its home in the fifteenth season of the ABC Weekend Special and was a tie-in to the briefly popular Monster in My Pocket toy-line from Matchbox.  Airing on Halloween in 1992 and appropriately titled Monster in My Pocket: The Big Scream, it has a proper English Invisible Man, a Rastafarian Werewolf, a dim-witted Frankenstein monster, and a mummy squaring-off as the good guys against a vampire with a ponytail, Medusa, and a swamp monster who represent the villains.  All parties involved have been shrunken to one inch size due to a spell gone wrong and now they run around trying to get back to their normal form with the help of a famous horror novel writer's daughter and a scream queen actor.  There is hardly enough here to hinge an entire series on hence it being a one-off, but the animation is solid, the voice cast seem to be enjoying themselves, and it makes for an amusing addition to the largely forgotten franchise as well as some fun holiday view for now-grown 90s kids.

ABC Weekend Specials Horror - Part One

THE GHOST OF THOMAS KEMPE 

(1979)

Dir - Robert Chenault

Overall: MEH

This season three episode of the ABC Weekend Specials series is an adaptation of Penelope Lively's children novel The Ghost of Thomas Kempe, which concerns a particularly annoying poltergeist who gets a young boy into an endless barrage of trouble.  Thus a long-established staple of the horror genre is beaten into the ground where someone witnessing supernatural activity is never believed by anyone, which is commonly reserved for women or kids to be at the butt-end of such unwavering prejudice.  Considering the the title spirit is a centuries old sorcerer, it is ridiculous that everyone endlessly blames little James Harrison for mischief that defies the laws of physics, several such grown-ups even doing so just because he is seen walking his dog in the vicinity of vandalism or objects being thrown around.  Even though it is a kids program first and foremost, nothing that transpires here is remotely frightening let alone spooky, plus a missed opportunity was taken in expanding upon the backstory of the title spectre besides just making him a pesky asshole.

 

THE TROUBLE WITH MISS SWITCH

(1980)

Dir- Charles A. Nichols

Overall: MEH

The first of two children's films based off of author Barbara Brooks Wallace's Miss Switch character, The Trouble with Miss Switch aired on Saturday morning as part of ABC Weekend Specials which regularly adapted literary material aimed at younger teens.  A Ruby-Spears production with the company's frequent director Charles A. Nichols in tow, it has a fun, slightly spooky musical score and lighthearted antics like witches flying around on broomsticks who brew up spells in their cauldron and cause high school quarterbacks to disappear.  This particular story presents the concept of a witch's council that utilizes a Compute-O-Witch to tally its members magical accomplishments, a concept that is as silly in animated form as it sounds on paper.  Unfortunately, it is about as funny as it is scary and since it focuses on two adorable, nerdy kids helping their favorite sorcery-practicing teacher around, it is definitely for younger audiences only and not something to be marveled at besides its innocent, nostalgic appeal.

BUNNICULA, THE VAMPIRE RABBIT

(1982)

Dir - Charles A. Nichols

Overall: GOOD

A loose adaptation of Deborah and James Howe's initial novel in their Bunnicula series, Bunnicula The Vampire Rabbit was the first of two horror-tinged installments in the fifth season of the ABC Weekend Specials program, both of which were animated.  The story is largely unfaithful to the book, only maintaining the basic premise of the vegetable juice-sucking title critter being found in a shoe box with a note written in Romanian also inside of it.  Whereas in the novel said bunny was never proven to be an actual member of the undead, here he is shown to have explicit vampiric abilities, flying around in a cape with glowing red eyes while he magically levitates three ravenous wolves in a food processing plant.  Granted said shenanigans were reveled to have happened outside of Harold the dog's vision, (Harold being the narrator of the story and ergo not a hundred percent certain of what transpired in this particular instance), but even the story's plot here has a unique trajectory to what it is based upon.  Still, it is an amusing romp that anyone familiar with the source material may get an innocent enough kick out of.

MISS SWITCH TO THE RESCUE

(1982)

Dir - Charles A. Nichols

Overall: MEH

 

Ruby Spears Production's The Trouble with Miss Switch sequel Miss Switch the the Rescue features the same main voice cast and personnel while adapting another of Barbara Brooks Wallace's books with identical, purely kid-friendly results.  Comparatively, this is a more elaborate story involving time travel, a character getting turned into a troll, and flying pirate ships.  That said, it still revolves around the good-natured title character pitting her wits against her nemesis Saturna who was banished to the inhospitable Island of Fire and Ice after their previous encounter with each other.  This also serves as the final project that frequent voice actor Hans Conried, (from Dudley Do-Right and Disney's Peter Pan fame), ever appeared on, voicing a seventeenth century Warlock.  Oddly, the one-two punch of each ABC Weekend Specials episode did not result in at least a season long series to capitalize on their moderate success, but they collectively make a harmless, mildly spooky double-feature.

 

THE HAUNTED MANSION MYSTERY

(1983)

Dir - Larry Elikann

Overall: MEH

 

The sixth season opener of ABC Weekend Specials was an adaptation of Virginia Masterman-Smith's 1979 novel The Treasure Trap, here changed to the somewhat misleading title of The Haunted Mansion Mystery.  Notable for containing an early performance from a thirteen-year old Christian Slater, it features he and Tristine Skyler investigating the whereabouts of a crotchety old, child-hating miser who lived in the latter's house and presumably hid away his vast fortune before mysteriously disappearing.  Standard stuff which is anchored well enough by the likeability of the two young leads, but there are only vague supernatural teases thrown in and it ultimately leads to a low-stakes finale where everyone gets to laugh and smile about how safe everything turned out.  Perfectly fine entertainment for the youngster demographic that it is aimed at, but hardly memorable and only of passing interest to anyone coming across it all of these decades later.

Rankin/Bass Productions Horror

JACK O'LANTERN

(1972)

Overall: GOOD

For their Halloween installment in the Festival of Family Classics anthology series that aired throughout a late 1972-early 1973 season, Rankin/Bass produced Jack O'Lantern which takes the Irish tradition of caving up vegetables and turns it into a kid-friendly tale of a helpful Leprechaun who rids a well-meaning farmer, his children, and their talking livestock of a pesky witch and her effeminate warlock husband.  Such a narrative route was likely taken in that instead adapting the Irish legend of Stingy Jack, (a drunkard who makes a deal with Satan and ends up roaming the earth as an animated pumpkin), would have been too macabre for the kid-targeted audience of such a program.  Even with the cackling villainess flying around on her broomstick while threatening children and commanding a legion of demons to do her bidding, this is still tame stuff that is not likely to deliver the chills for anyone watching.  What it lacks in ghoulish atmosphere or even half-baked chuckles though is forgivable for its charming voice cast and whimsical be it simple, fable-esque storytelling.

 

MAD MAD MAD MONSTERS

(1972)

Overall: GOOD

A lighthearted companion piece to 1967's Mad Monster Party?, Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr.'s Mad Mad Mad Monsters is not as enduring as its predecessor, yet it delivers the ghoulish nyuck nyucks just fine.  Released in late September of 1972 as part of The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie series, sadly Rankin and Bass' excellently stylized stop-motion animation is replaced by the tradition variety which is akin the CBS's Groovie Goolies cartoon that aired for a single season the following year, perhaps purposely so.  Once again Baron von Frankenstein, (here changed to Henry instead of Boris as Mr. Karloff was replaced by Bob McFadden in the voice department), finds an excuse to gather the usual monster suspects together for a bash, this time as he marries off his hulking Creation to the Bride.  Impressionist extraordinaire Allen Swift returns to handle every male monster in the lot, including but not limited to Count Dracula, Claude the Invisible Man, Igor, and Ron Chaney the Werewolf, with Rhoda Mann stepping in taking the female roles, including Nagatha the Invisible Woman whose nagging banter with her husband is the highlight of the entire affair.  Most of the jokes are groan-worthy and/or fit for a three year old, but it is still hard for monster kids young and old not to fall for such campy charm.

 

THE LAST UNICORN

(1982)

Overall: MEH

One of the final theatrically released films from Rankin/Bass and yet another collaboration between them and the Japanese animation studio Topcraft, The Last Unicorn brings Peter S. Beagle's fantasy novel of the same name to well-crafted life.  Realism is purposely skewed in order to give each character and creature on screen a unique design which fits the mystical setting full of wizards, harpies, dragons, talking skeletons, blazing fire bulls, and of course forest-dwelling unicorns who in this particular story have been banished to the sea by Christopher Lee's distraught King Haggard.  Besides Lee whose voice is the most instantly recognizable, the cast is full of heavy hitters such as Mia Farrow in the title role, Alan Arkin as the second-rate magician with a heart of gold, Angela Lansbury as a wicked crone, Jeff Bridges as the heroic Prince, and Robert Klein as a singing butterfly.  Though Beagle penned the screenplay and remained faithful to his own source material, the story regularly meanders with most of the characters endlessly repeating themselves and speaking in either platitudes or riddles.  Also the soundtrack composed by Jimmy Webb and performed by America is lousy and because of this, the fact that several songs are stacked on top of each other in the running time becomes a problem, though Farrow, Bridges, and Klein prove to have adequate, unique enough singing voices for what the material calls for.