1970s Blaxploitation Horror Part One

BLACULA
(1972)
Dir - William Crain
Overall: GOOD

The film whose success made it possible for others to quickly come in its wake, Blacula remains historically noteworthy above anything else.  Being the first depiction on film of a black vampire, it was culturally a big enough deal when released and thankfully a sufficient enough work to make the melding of horror and blaxploitation a viable box office commodity.  It easily warrants inclusion on any serious horror buff's "to get to" list, but despite its archival merits, it makes both good and bad strides as an actual movie.  The prominent technical issue with all blaxploitation films is assuredly present, namely being an unmistakable lack of budget.  Director William Crain makes the best with what he has got, but a mere mortal as he can only do so much with the minimally designed sets, rather silly make-up, occasionally dodgy camerawork, and few and far between visual effects.  For his performance as the title character, William Marshall mostly excels, but his mannerisms often clash with one another like how he can be a tragic figure in one scene and then a manically laughing fiend in the next.  These are modest nitpicks though, as there are a number of memorable scenes, lucrative humor, (usually on the politically incorrect side like the liberal use of the word "faggot" and hilariously dated jive), and a well maintained tone, all surpassing what could have been a trashy affair.

ABBY
(1974)
Dir - William Girdler
Overall: GOOD

One of the films that both was deliberately derivative of The Exorcist and one that got successfully sued by Warner Bros. for copyright infringement, Abby could easily stand as the best of any of said "rip-offs".  The blaxploitation Exorcist premise on paper is intriguing enough, but it is very pleasantly surprising how well the film balances both its ridiculous and sincere qualities.  Abby takes itself seriously which gives it an element of class, something thatis certainly added upon by William Marshall's distinguished performance as the virtuous priest.  Director William Girdler though stages a generous amount of excellent horror set pieces and the budget never really comes into question with so many effective shots of a demon wreaking havoc.  And on that note, there is plenty to chuckle at where Carol Speed's possessed title character's shenanigans are concerned as she spews forth outrageous profanities that are absolutely befitting to the evil trickster spirit that has taken her over.  Yes it is definitely a stylized cash-in on The Exorcist no one will deny, (with the trips to African caves, voice modulated demon speak, and even the quick subliminal flashes of said demons' face on the screen), but it is also a lot more fun yet still on the safe side of not being brazenly over the top.

J.D.'S REVENGE
(1976)
Dir - Arthur Marks
Overall: MEH

Though mostly genuine and very well acted all around, (particularly from the lead Glynn Turman), J.D.'s Revenge is a bit dull pacing wise and has some rather glaring plot problems.  It is hard to take things seriously when Louis Gossett Jr.'s hustler-turned preacher character is supposed to have aged thirty years yet actually looks younger with a shaved head in the present day.  Also, why doesn't the spirit of J.D. Walker get that all important revenge part out of the way first before going about his switch-blade slashing/women beating business?  He regularly looses control of the body he is possessing yes, but he also maintains it for random lengths of time depending on how many scenes the script has in it for him to unleash his violent pimping.  Also, the ending leaves it wide open that in fact he can jump back into Glynn Turman's body whenever he feels like gambling or smacking some women around again, and they literally laugh this off as the characters walk away with their "happy ending".  Things assuredly do not add up by the title credits and because the length of time it takes to get to them is not quite engaging enough, J.D.'s Revenge is a bit of an unfortunate flop.

1970s British Horror Part Nine

TAM-LIN
(1970)
Dir - Roddy McDowall
Overall: MEH

In his one and only directorial effort, (made at the same time Beneath the Planet of the Apes was under production, hence his not being in said film), Roddy McDowall really pulls out all the stops.  With enough symbolism and visual flourishes to impress Orson Welles, Tam-Lin, (The Ballad of Tam-Lin, The Devil's Widow, The Devil's Woman) is anything but boring too look at.  It is a bit of a La Dolce Vita re-imaging seen through eyes of the 1960's dying, with romanticism and beauty clashing with cynicism and what could be seen as supernatural forces at work.  It is also a bit too confusingly staged with so much Bohemian tomfoolery taking up screen time that some characters seem to be all over the place conceptually.  Which in fact may be one of the points.  As a "horror" movie, it only dabs its toes in the genre during the last twenty minutes which actually feel like the most exciting part of the entire movie.  Busting out the captivating if perhaps dated hallucinatory visuals, McDowall builds up a satisfactory final set piece and it is rather remarkable in a similar way as to how Charles Laughton displayed such confident control over his solo film behind the lens as well with The Night of the Hunter.  Ultimately, the movie is not as good as Night of the Hunter, but still.

THE GHOUL
(1975)
Dir - Freddie Francis
Overall: GOOD

Prolific British horror director Freddie Francis once again teams up with Peter Cushing for the rather delightfully macabre The Ghoul, (Night of the Ghoul, The Thing in the Attic).  Cushing had actually become just recently widowed upon the making of the film, which proved exponentially more emotional for the actor as he played a man whose wife had also passed.  For his part as the ex priest Dr. Lawrence, Cushing of course is on the ball as ever.  Yet it is really John Hurt as the vile, brute gardener who steals the movie.  He does not even bother tying up any of the women he captures; he just coldly and confidently sneers at them and amuses himself with roughing them up whenever they try and escape or talk back to him.  It is a wonderfully villainous role and thankfully, said women he comes in contact with are anything but helpless horror movie damsels.  They rather defiantly stand up for themselves and pretty much forgo doing anything implausible in their situation.  Little character behavioral details like this give the movie just enough of an edge, as the story itself is relatively familiar but certainly adequate.  Some may have preferred the title character to get more screen time, but his reveal is ultimately well-timed and the ending though easily anticipated, does nothing to impede the rest of the movie.

THE COMEBACK
(1978)
Dir - Pete Walker
Overall: GOOD

Pete Walker's second to last film in the decade where he made all of his noteworthy ones, The Comeback is one of several that can be credited to ushering in the slasher trend.  So like most "pre" slashers, it is far better than the multitude of creatively vacant duds that came in its wake.  The film is also very Pete Walkery, meaning that it keeps its silliness completely in check.  Walker rarely if ever lets his films get out of control and here he more embellishes a conventional mystery setting with barely any of his dark political or religious satire present.  As a "who is the killer?" vehicle where the main point is to mislead your audience and drop a massive twist for your finale, The Comeback is a roaring success as it is nearly impossible to see the conclusion coming.  Red herrings are shrewdly sprinkled everywhere and as a familiar viewer to such films, it becomes amusing to realize you are being mislead throughout all of it, making the last reveal all the more satisfying.  For the horror buff, the kills are brutal yet quite minimal, yet the movie makes up for it with several scenes that seem straight out of a Halloween haunted house.  Much of these things plus several others, (like the killer's costume and entire scheme to make the main protagonist go mad for no reason), can be picked out as rather ridiculous on paper, but once again Walker manages to deliberately manage them in an engaging manner.

1970s British Horror Part Eight

CRUCIBLE OF TERROR
(1971)
Dir - Ted Hooker
Overall: MEH

One of the more peculiar British horror entries, Crucible of Terror, (Unholy Terror), at the very least deserves some acolytes for its rather uncommon plot.  There have been films about villainous artists before to be sure, but not too many presented as a murder mystery infused with Eastern occultism.  Mike Raven, (who delivered the camp in only four films in his career, including Lust for a Vampire and I, Monster), is as eccentric as ever as the obsessively horny and pretentious painter/sculptor with a wicked lisp to boot.  This has a number of brutal death sequences and ultimately a gratifying, final twist, but it does not quite overcome its pacing issues or flesh several of its other plot points out.  There are two scenes early on that are never followed up on or explained and then later story arcs are just sort of unnecessarily there, giving it a bit of a disjointed feel as if either certain filmed scenes were missing or the screenwriters never bothered to put them in.  Perhaps some of the blame can be laid at Ted Hooker's feet, who had only edited a small handful of projects before this, his first and last directorial effort.  Yet the film is reasonable to recommend both for Raven's hammy performance and for having enough unique and morbid details dashed here and there to keep it engaging.

DEATH LINE
(1972)
Dir - Gary Sherman
Overall: MEH

The one saving grace to Gary Sherman's dour, desperately dull debut Death Line, (Raw Meat in the U.S.), is actually a bittersweet saving grace.  That is the lead performance by Donald Pleasence who clearly seems to be enjoying himself as the rude, pompous, and arrogant police inspector.  Unfortunately, said performance starts out pretty funny but becomes a bit obnoxious and unrelatable once he starts yelling at people in trouble to leave him alone.  Its almost always annoying when cops act like they cannot be bothered to take any pedestrian in need of assistance seriously in movies, but it is actually worse when these same pedestrians just push officers out of the way and make loud commotion instead of explaining what the trouble is.  These are all minor annoyances, but the film's biggest muddled step is how absolutely boring it is.  There are so many unnecessarily long takes that watching this movie without fast-forwarding large parts of it would be a grave mistake.  There is a dank atmosphere maintained at some points to clash with the blatant comedy, but Sherman really sinks the proceedings by meandering way too long on scenes that go nowhere as slowly as possible.  Just think, Marlon Brando was originally cast as the mindless cannibal which certainly would have been a chuckle to see.  Still, at least Christopher Lee is hilarious in his five seconds of screen time.

VAMPYRES
(1974)
Dir - José Ramón Larraz
Overall: MEH

Far more akin to the barely scripted, incredibly slow moving erotic vampire movies made by European filmmakers like Jean Rollin and Jess Franco than anything emerging from Merry Ole England, José Ramón Larraz's Vampyres is a bit unorthodox in this respect.  Though Larraz was actually Spanish, that would explain something despite the fact that his most well known films were British productions such as this.  Regardless of Vampyres' country of origin, it fairly has an equal amount of things both going for it and going against it.  The Oakley Court mansion, (which was used in everything from a number of Hammer movies to The Rocky Horror Picture Show before becoming a luxury hotel in more recent times), is an excellent setting and for anyone primarily seeking immense amounts of nudity and blood, look no further than here.  Sadly though, it is all rather a bore to endure.  There is very little tension, no character resolution, and yet even less of a story.  Larraz concocts a few sinister moments, but the film is just too one-note to maintain a fascinating enough mood as its undead lesbians hitchhike, get their guests drunk, do naked things with them, drink their blood, and then repeat until the movie gets close enough to ninety minutes to simply end.

1970s British Horror Part Seven

THE CORPSE
(1971)
Dir - Viktors Ritelis
Overall: MEH

A low budget re-imagining of the much surpassing in quality Les Diaboliques, The Corpse, (Crucible of Horror in the U.S.), is a messy movie to be sure.  The first half of the film sufficiently builds to an enticing enough moment, with genre-mainstay Michael Gough delivering a menacing performance as a tyrannical, obsessively proper father who torments his wife and daughter only to nonchalantly read the paper and prattle on about insignificant headlines a mere moment later.  He also washes his hands a lot and seems rather insistent on tidiness being maintained.  The build up to his comeuppance is interesting enough, but then things get less interesting and more head-scratching.  It is not only confusing how his wife and daughter continue to behave, but it is certainly also confusing how the laws of physics are vanquished as what may or may not be supernaturally transpiring is anyone's guess from the way it is conferred.  This is not done in a clever psychological manner, (though that was probably the desired end game), but instead through a random and sloppy mishmash of editing and scenes.  You are assuredly not likely to "get" it, but one may still enjoy what transpires to a point.

HOUSE OF MORTAL SIN
(1976)
Dir - Pete Walker
Overall: MEH

For Pete Walker's next stab at shining an ugly light on religious hypocrisy, he goes big with House of Mortal Sin, (The Confessional), utilizing no less than an evil Catholic priest as its villainous brute.  Walker still takes his subject matter seriously and keeps it far enough away from overt camp, with some convincing portrayals helping him out along the way.  Shelia Keith has a minor yet important role one as she is once again a menacing, cruel old crone, but Anthony Sharp, (A Clockwork Orange), delivers splendidly as the tormented priest who is both childishly pitiful and overbearingly sinister at a moments notice.  Walker and David McGillivray's script almost keeps everything together to make it all convincing, but it is a shame that it relies so heavily on convincing the audience that a normal, rational woman would be declared delusional beyond any doubt by so many people for so long.  It is a detrimental cliche when characters in horror movies will not even fathom let alone look into other character's pleas for help, instead continuously giving them sedatives and saying they are emotionally stressed.  In this regard, Mortal Sin sins far too much.  The film is not likely to cheer anybody up, (a Walker hallmark if ever there was one), and the ending is even more dour than usual, but its genuine presentation is commendable at least above anything else.

DRACULA
(1979)
Dir - John Badham
Overall: GOOD

Saturday Night Fever director John Badham took a stab at adapting the Dracula stage play, (the same that Universal's 1931 Dracula was based on), to screen with Frank Langella returning to the role that won him a Tony Award on Broadway.  Being the most familiar story in all of horror fiction, this take intriguingly shuffles things around enough.  The best part of the book and most film adaptations is actually entirely skipped over, where Johnathan Harker meets the Count for the first time at his Transylvanian home.  Instead, many details that transpired then and throughout Bram Stoker's novel are cleverly moved around and adapted to follow a slightly different chain of events.  For his title character role, Langella excels with a suave, sophisticated confidence as he deliberately presents himself as the most charming man in the room, cutting off people's sentences and demanding everyone's attention with the most charming of mannerisms.  The grey and bleak set design and John William's musical score are also top notch, this version being the most directly influential one on Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 take, which upped many of these elements to almost schlocky overkill.  The only mistakes here are the typical ones with Dracula movies, like how he ignores his most useful powers at times when the script needs him to appear too vulnerable.  This aspect slightly fumbles the ending, but there is so much done exceedingly well throughout that it can easily rank as one of the very best of all Dracula films.

1970s British Horror Part Six

AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS!
(1973)
Dir - Roy Ward Baker
Overall: MEH

A rare Gothic horror outing from the Amicus production company, (who generally left period pieces to the more famous Hammer studios, Amicus instead utilizing more contemporary settings), And Now the Screaming Starts! does not quite live up to the higher quality of other films in their catalog.  Though the gruesome, ghostly goings ons begin almost immediately and are quite campy and memorable, the mystery of it all becomes far too frustrating.  It is because Stephanie Beacham, (Dracula A.D. 1972, House of Mortal Sin), begins seeing supernatural occurrences within minutes of walking into her new home and said occurrences do not let up that it is all too aggravating that every single person surrounding her refuses to divulge any information at all, even whilst admitting that they are keeping everything from her.  By doing so, they also keep it from the viewers while at the same time testing our patience to constantly believe that everyone, (especially her husband), would just watch this poor woman loose her mind.  On the other HAND though, (that is a pun for anyone who has seen the movie), it is rather the point that keeping us in the dark for so long very much mirrors the film's main damsel's plight.  Still, the "she's just imagining everything and needs a nap" excuse does get stretched a little too thin.

FULL CIRCLE
(1977)
Dir - Richard Loncraine
Overall: MEH

The first film adaptation from one of the works by author Peter Straub, Full Circle, (The Haunting of Julia in the U.S.), is a rather confused realization of the source material it is based on.  Mia Farrow, (who would portray a tormented woman in a number of horror films), is fine as the main protagonist caught up in the ghostly goings on, which is more than you could say about her estranged husband Keir Dullea who seems to be trying to win an award for having the least convincing/minimally even trying British accent in all of cinema.  The story follows many familiar beats as Farrow's Julia takes all the standard steps towards solving the mystery, like having a psychic medium freak out in her house, going to a library to look up old newspapers, interviewing a number of participants who partook of some wickedness when they were children, and finally a visit to the movie version of a loony bin where patients roam the hallways, walk in circles, spout nonsense, stare blankly at walls, and an old woman smiles creepily at her and then gets angry and threatening.  Yet there are a handful of loose ends along the way with characters whose deaths are never followed up upon, plus the point A to point B maneuvering of the plot seems to be missing a number of pit stops along the way.

SCHALCKEN THE PAINTER
(1979)
Dir - Leslie Megahey
Overall: GOOD

Broadcast during the same time slot as A Ghost Story for Christmas, Schalcken the Painter is based off the renowned Irish Gothic horror writer Sheridan Le Fanu's fictions "Strange Event in the Life of Schalcken the Painter".  Though a completely fabricated story, it nevertheless was part of the BBC's Omnibus documentary series, in part not only because it features real historical painters Godfried Schalcken and Gerrit Dou as characters, but also because it provides insightful reenactments into the Leiden Fijnschilders period of Dutch art.  John Hooper's cinematography, (based off Johannes Vermeer's paintings from around the same era), is the star of nearly every frame.  Utilizing natural candle lighting and period sets to showcase both deep shadows and layers of details, an ideal atmosphere for the film's more fantastical elements is created with such elements appearing to be subtly lurking in the background throughout.  The few actual horror movie moments could not be more successfully displayed and director Leslie Megahey cultivates a deliberate mood throughout the just over an hour running time, with very little dialog and sparsely used music working in unison to keep things delicately spooky.

1970s British Horror Part Five

SEE NO EVIL
(1971)
Dir - Richard Fleischer
Overall: GOOD

Richard Fleischer, (The Vikings, Soylent Green, Red Sonja), deserves nearly all of the props for what really works in See No Evil.  The premise of a blind woman under attack has been done a bundle of times, but Fleischer in utilizing a Hitchcockian gimmick to never reveal the killer's face until the last scene, (keeping both us and Mia Farrow's hapless damsel equally in the dark), makes for an innumerable number of effectively tense scenes.  The fact that most of these instances play out with no dramatic music underneath them also incredibly helps.  On that end though, the score when it does arrive succumbs to that near ruinous trait to be mood killing as it is much too lovely and swelling to fit the movie it is in.  Mia Farrow does not come off as cinema's most convincing blind woman as she noticeably makes eye contact with speaking characters a handful of times.  There are also two scenes that are not intended to be hilarious but rather are when she slips wildly and wide-eyed down a mud hill and gets knocked off her horse by a tree branch which resembles something right out of a Looney Tunes cartoon.  These are very insignificant complains though as once the movie hits the half hour mark, the majority of what follows is pretty heart-racing stuff.

THE STONE TAPE
(1972)
Dir - Peter Sasdy
Overall: GOOD

One of the most lauded horror works within the television medium, The Stone Tapes debuted on Christmas Day, 1972 on BBC Two as a standalone part of its annual Christmas ghost story tradition.  Director Peter Sasdy recently had some Hammer productions under his belt, (Taste the Blood of Dracula, Countess Dracula, and Hands of the Ripper), and writer Nigel Kneale was already known as one of the most prolific screenwriters in England, most famously for originating the Quartermass series.  As it holds up all these decades later, this is still pretty solid.  The cast is recognizable from other horror genre works, Doctor Who episodes, and even by one of them, (Jane Asher), being Paul McCartney's old love interest.  Though it is expertly performed,  delivered very straight from Sasdy's directorial chair, and has a very unmelodic and adequate score, Kneale's unnerving and approximately realistic story itself is the star attraction.  Few horror works would influence actual science, but The Stone Tapes indeed has a theory named after it in the paranormal research community, pertaining to the play's premise of ghosts leaving behind recordings within a natural environment.  Rather impressive.

PSYCHOMANIA
(1973)
Dir - Don Sharp
Overall: GOOD

Both silly and fun in equal amounts, Psychomania , (also known more appropriately as The Death Wheelers), is one of those movies where its absurdity has everything to do with its charm.  Though it has a distinguished enough cast, (with George Sanders no less in his last film role), and director Don Sharp is credited with some straight-laced Hammer outings, Psychomania is a ludicrous, often exploitative movie that uses its nuttiness to its advantage.  There are one or two genuinely chilling scenes, (the one involving the weird room and the mirror for the win), but most of the time it is humorous to watch the main motorcycle gang partake of many outrageous, leisurely activities.  The film's premise is as outlandish as they come, but there are so many odd details that you can not only forgive but actually kind of admire the randomness of many of them.  One moment involving a guy getting buried in a hole while he sits perfectly erect on his motorcycle while his buddy sings a jaw-droppingly terrible hippy song about how rebellious he was was so asinine it should derail the whole movie.  Instead, it proved rather memorable, be it in a way most likely not intended.  To be clear though, most of the enjoyment to be found here is meant to be found.  It is a wonderfully wacky addition to anyone's British horror viewing.

1970s British Horror Part Four

AND SOON THE DARKNESS
(1970)
Dir - Robert Fuest
Overall: MEH

Though co-scripted by prolific Doctor Who writer Terry Nation, having Dr. Phibes director Robert Fuest behind the lens, and featuring Pamela Franklin, (The Innocents, The Legend of Hell House), all on board, And Soon the Darkness ends up being a sleazy bore.  Emphasis on the word "bore".  As was unfortunately commonly done in this era, monotony is a gargantuan problem here, a movie that once again makes up nearly its entire running time with scenes of people walking, running, and looking around two or three locations back and forth, over and over again.  Fuest does not concoct nearly enough suspense to keep these endless moments of waiting for anything at all to happen come off as anything but laborsome.  Now to the film's credit, the actual mystery as to what is going on is very successfully kept secret until the last possible second and there are numerous moments that cleverly misdirect the audience.  The only problem again is that these moments are suffocated by a such a tedious pace and honestly the final reveal is a little dumb.  Maintaining an effective slow burn is a delicate matter to be sure, but the movie does not pull it off in the least and is a bit of a near-miss, (or near-hit), judging on the handful of elements that otherwise would have elevated it into being one of the more unique thrillers of its kind.

FRIGHTMARE
(1974)
Dir - Pete Walker
Overall: GOOD

Following up the same year's House of Whipcord and once again teamed up with Shelia Keith who would go on to be featured in a number of his films, Pete Walker's Frightmare is arguably the director's most straight-laced horror movie.  This is even taking into account that his very last movie would feature horror icons Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and John Carridine.  Certainly exploitative though forgoing any nudity, the film has cannibalism, family dysfunction, some nasty murders. and even a gang of hoodlums beating a bartender to a most bloody pulp as part of its makeup instead.  This would go on to become a lauded role for Keith who portrays a type of mania that hits several different beats, often in the same scene and never venturing too far into schlock terrain.  In fact most of the film keeps a lid on it as far as going too far over the top with some very well-staged moments that appear more natural than one would expect from the genre-ripe script.  This is both in part of the entire cast playing it straight and Walker controlling the jolts very attentively.  It is this type of fine line control that would make Walker a well-respected name in his field, Frightmare proving that he had the skills to keep his outrageous scripts reasonably in check.

SYMPTOMS
(1974)
Dir - José Ramón Larraz
Overall: GOOD

Missing for several decades due to the original prints being mishandled and simply circulating in bootleg form for the time being, José Ramón Larraz's Symptoms was finally located and re-released in 2016.  This is fortunate not only from a film preservation standpoint, but also because it is a rather sufficient bit of psychological horror to be sure.  There are some pacing problems as it boils perhaps a bit too long on the kettle, but Larraz has an aptitude for exhibiting very subtle, creepy moments usually in a "blink and you'll miss them" fashion.  When these moments do transpire, they successfully grasp the viewer back into it all and there is just enough of them to not crawl everything down.  Rare for a horror film, the shocks are actually rather shocking here, being mostly attributed to the patience Larraz has in revealing them.  Donald Pleasence's daughter Angela not only looks exactly like him, but her skeletal, odd, and unkempt appearance is matched perfectly to her abnormal performance.  It is obvious to see the comparisons one can make to Roman Polanski's top-notch Repulsion, which took a far more visually striking, avant-garde approach to similar subject matter.  Yet Symptoms is a unique and more low-key enough beast on its own merits.