1970s Spanish Horror Part Five

SCREAM OF THE DEMON LOVER
(1970)
Dir - José Luis Merino
Overall: WOOF

A wretchedly boring, run-of-the-mill Euro-Gothic nudie, Scream of the Demon Lover, (Il castello dalle porte di fuoco, Ivanna), is nothing but cliches front to back and only for those ravenous enough to find no error in such a trait.  Laboratories, murdered village maidens, a devilish yet charming Barron, a hideous monster, a torture chamber, a disapproving housekeeper, a castle that the townsfolk are afraid of with mysterious locked doors inside, dubbing that is not good, pacing that could not be in less of a hurry, and possibly more camera zooms than Jamaica has mangos, it never lets up on the vapid, hackneyed horror tropes.  As a Spanish-Italian co-production with actors from each country, (given anglicized names for US release), the performances transcend the stock dubbing at least which is about the only mild positive you can grant it.  If you are looking for boobs and gore, it is not very plentiful in either, but rest assured, a woman does almost get raped of course because why wouldn't such a moment like that happen?

MANIAC MANSION
(1972)
Dir - Francisco Lara Polop
Overall: MEH

Taking your sweet ass time making a horror movie, well, seem like a horror movie is a risky undertaking.  Acting as the debut from Spanish filmmaker Francisco Lara Polop, (who did not make another horror film until his last, 1990's The Monk), Manic Mansion, (La mansión de la niebla, Murder Mansion), is not likely to blow anybody's mind with its first two meandering acts.  Even with tired tropes like characters getting lost in the fog and holding up in a mysterious castle, women going in to shock just because they were told a vaguely disturbing story, creepy passages leading to creepy crypts, and a convoluted, Scooby-Doo worthy plot to drive people crazy with would-be supernatural shenanigans, so little happens of any interest for so long that by the time the movie starts really indulging in its cliches, you have forgotten what the mystery was supposed to be.  It is all in fact so unendurably boring though that it is almost impossible to tell that there is a mystery going on in the first place.  It perhaps could have been a more pleasantly unique, contemporarily set bit of Gothic horror otherwise, but too little, too generic, too late.

THE KILLER OF DOLLS
(1975)
Dir - Miguel Madrid
Overall: GOOD

A positively weird, Spanish semi-giallo, The Killer of Dolls, (El asesino de muñecas, Killing of the Dolls), is the second of only three films directed by Miguel Madrid, here going by the name Michael Skaife.  It focuses on an odd, young, thin, hairy, effeminate, Norman Bates stand-in who wears a woman's mask and wig, likes to take lots of baths and showers, hallucinates mannequins and dolls everywhere, and naturally enjoys murdering and fondling people because a woman in a mirror tells him to.  He is also a surgical school reject who got kicked out for being afraid of blood.  Indulging in hazy dream sequences and impatient editing, Madrid keeps up a remarkably frenzied pace that is rarely not burdensome for a change.  The film's overall presentation is quite manic, fusing the usual elements of overtly dramatic acting, colorful set and costume design, zooms, nonsensical plotting, and a dated, porn-worthy soundtrack that also includes a fittingly random rock music sequence that is as ridiculous as anything else going on.  This is not one that is particularly easy to keep up with, but that is also certainly part of its fun.  It is a shame that Madrid was behind the lens on so few occasions as his work here is eccentric enough to take note of.

1970s Vincent Price Part Two

SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN
(1970)
Dir - Gordon Hessler
Overall: MEH

Released the same year as The House the Dripped Blood and being the second pairing of Vincent Price with director Gordon Hessler, Scream and Scream Again was Amicus Productions' version of a hip, contemporary-set sci-fi thriller.  The horror tinged title is not the only misleading aspect as the three icons in the genre who receive top billing, (Price, Christopher Lee, and Peter Cushing together in one film for the first time), collectively have the least amount of screen time out of anyone present.  Not only that, but besides one brief moment near the end, they also share no scenes together.  Foiled expectations out of the way, what is left is an impressively confusing presentation.  For almost the entire film's duration, the plotting is so unapologetically obtuse that by the time it explains everything, (or tries to), in one gigantic expository dialog dump, there is still an alarming number of questions in place of answers.  While repeated viewings may make sense of a few more things, the drawn-out pacing and dated, unsuspenseful music also hinder the whole.  Too impenetrable to truly recommend, its complexity is somewhat admirable at least.

DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN
(1972)
Dir - Robert Fuest
Overall: GOOD

It says a lot that a movie with an almost insultingly lazy, hole-ridden script following up an unarguable masterpiece within its genre can still get by on its stylish charm, violence, and of course Vincent Price in top, camp-fueled form.  While The Abominable Dr. Phibes wrapped up with an open-ended enough finale, it still unmistakably comes off that its sequel Dr. Phibes Rises Again rather concocted a premise out of the ether.  Wouldn't Phibes had mentioned something in the first film about sleeping for three years to go find the river of life in Egypt when the stars aligned?  In any event, things cruise along at a near-laughable rate and the storyline barely takes a breath to explain how Phibes' fancy bed right under his demolished house managed to go undiscovered, how he still has gallons of disposable income, a fully equipped, electricity-laced hide-out in a presumably unexplored cave in a different part of the world, elaborate murder contraptions at his disposal at all times, a beautiful assistant who just materializes to life after being burned to death in the last movie, and a police force who proclaims "he always comes back" when in fact this is actually the very first time that he has come back.  All of the goofy ideas mesh well enough with the intended humor and Price's expertly tongue-in-cheek performance.  Even if it is a mess compared to its predecessor, it is a damn fun mess to be sure.

ALICE COOPER: THE NIGHTMARE
(1975)
Dir -  Jorn H. Winther
Overall: GREAT

Given the chance to promote his first solo album Welcome to My Nightmare after the Alice Cooper band officially folded, good ole Vincent Furnier indulged his love of theatrics and horror movies with the television special Alice Cooper: The Nightmare.  Originally broadcast on ABC on April 25th, 1975, (a month and some change after the album was released), it is essentially a series of promotional music videos for every song off said record, plus "The Ballad of Dwight Fry", thankfully so.  The "Steven" and "The Awakening" segments are probably the creepiest while "Some Folks" and "Department of Youth" are the most kitsch-friendly.  Also, Vincent Price is in it, expanding his role as the "Black Widow" guy on the album as the Spirit of the Nightmare here.  Cooper's eventual wife Sheryl is spottable too as a dancer in a few sequences, namely as the title character in "Cold Ethyl".  All parties involved seem to be having a splendid time, Cooper and Price playing off of each other in such a hammy, fun way that it is a shame they did not work together on any further spook show projects.  Considering that WTMN is the strongest solo Alice album, there is not a weak moment present musically.  The overall production is excellently staged though as a camp-fueled, macabre variety hour.

1970s Vincent Price Part One

CRY OF THE BANSHEE
(1970)
Dir - Gordon Hessler
Overall: MEH

The second film in so many years that had Vincent Price playing a malevolent witchhunter, (1968's Witchfinder General being the other one), Cry of the Banshee has a noticeable air of redundancy to it.  The same could be said about House of Usher and The Pit and the Pendelum from the previous decade though, which also can fairly be seen as two different versions of the same movie.  In any event, this would be the last pairing of Vincent Price and director Gordon Hessler, (with Christopher Wicking likewise returning to re-write the screenplay), and it is neither particularly unique nor terrible.  Price rarely participated in any horror movies squarely on the side of terrible, but he is also not really given too much to work with in order to elevate anything here beyond the realm of mediocrity.  The script is not without its share of inconsistencies and in fact a major plot point revolves around Price's Lord Edward Whitman acting quite out of character and letting a proven witch and her coven escape into the woods instead of doing away with them as he does anyone else who is simply accused of being in league with evil Pagan deities.  An opening title sequence by Terry Gilliam certainly helps a little bit though.

AN EVENING OF EDGAR ALLAN POE
(1970)
Dir - Kenneth Johnson
Overall: GOOD

This television production made by American International Pictures has a simple enough premise of Vincent Price in different period costumes and wigs reciting four different works from Edgar Allan Poe.  Primarily shot as a live theater piece, (Price is not literally sitting with a book of Poe's works in front of him, but has in fact memorized them as a monologue as he would on stage), Price is unhinged in the very best of ways.  Considering that most of Poe's works are from the perspective of an individual succumbing to madness, the horror icon lets loose here, enthusiastically sinking his thespian claws into each performance as feverishly as anyone ever has.  The camerawork has a hard time keeping up with his physical mannerisms occasionally, but otherwise the presentation is solid by making the most out of the minimal setup and only indulging in some production enhancements with the final "The Pit and the Pendulum" segment.  Aside from that one, other popular pieces "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Cask of Amontillado" are also present, though it is nice that the lesser-known "The Sphinx" is given a spotlight as well.

MADHOUSE
(1974)
Dir - Jim Clark
Overall: MEH

One of the final films by Amicus Productions, Madhouse whether intentionally or coincidentally represents sort of an end of an era for its star Vincent Price.  As the semi-autobiographical horror actor Paul Toombes, (Dr. Death), Price is haunted by his own real life movies, clips of which are shown from several.  While he was anything but washed up or bitter about his typecasting in horror, his prolific output in the genre did take a sabbatical after this film which pays homage to and also knowingly parodies some of his renowned and popular works from the previous decade and some change.  The premise starts off promising enough yet after awhile, it becomes a bit silly as so many people in and around Toombes' television comeback keep being outlandishly done away with while the production never gets shut down and no arrests ever get made.  Plot issues persist elsewhere, frequently becoming more odd and awkward as it goes on.  The spirit to make it a campy and macabre romp is present, but it never quite delivers.  At least not in the way that the Price movies it references and aspires to deliver.  The Dr. Death make-up is cool and Peter Cushing is dressed as Dracula in one scene though, so there is that.

1970s British Horror Part Twenty

WHAT BECAME OF JACK AND JILL?
(1972)
Dir - Bill Bain
Overall: MEH

At the turn of the 70s, Amicus Pictures attempted to break into more strictly exploitative terrain to counter act their excellent, contemporary-set anthology films.  What Became of Jack and Jill?, (an adaptation of Laurence Moody's novel The Ruthless Ones), was the lone result of this concept and it is a rather stodgy one at that.  Australian director Bill Bain spent the later years of his career working in Britain, never on anything that substantial.  Not that the blame lies exclusively at his feet here, but this is mostly sluggish, uninteresting scenes set to no music.  Because the story plays out as a combination of unpleasant and boring, it fails to create a properly moody atmosphere.  Instead, we just watch a lazy, scumbag young couple vaguely torment and manipulate an elderly woman into thinking the youth is out to get old people as they wait for her to croak so that they can carelessly spend her inheritance.  As an interesting side note, this would be the penultimate film appearance from Vanessa Howard, who would abruptly, (and to some, mysteriously), retire after the following year's The Picture of Dorian Gray television production.

TALES THAT WITNESS MADNESS
(1973)
Dir - Freddie Francis
Overall: MEH

In the midst of working for both Hammer and Amicus on a consistent stream of horror properties, director Freddie Francis made a brief detour with the lesser known World Film Services while sticking with the exact same sort of material, namely anthology horror.  Tales That Witness Madness has Donald Pleasence and Joan Collins on board as well as a small hodgepodge of other familiar British character actors, many of which regularly appeared in other such omnibus productions.  Scripted by actress Jennifer Jayne, (whose only other writing credit was the same year's Harry Nilsson-starred spoof Son of Dracula, also helmed by Francis), its segment concepts are either generic or positively odd.  There is the standard, imaginary friend story, but that is followed by one where a portrait of someone's uncle possesses him to ride a penny-farthing bicycle to travel back and time, (?!?), and then one where a tree and a wife jealously fight over the same man's affections.  The most unsettling comes last and involves some sort of Hawaiian pagan ceremony in which Doctor Who's Mary Tamm plays a significant role.  None of the stories are poor, but they and the presentation is pretty formulaic, be it still mildly enjoyable.

DRACULA
(1974)
Dir - Dan Curtis
Overall: MEH

A dream team collaboration of sorts between prolific horror television director Dan Curtis, prolific horror screenwriter and I Am Legend author Richard Matheson, and Jack Palance rather ideally cast in the title role, this British, 1974 televised adaptation of Dracula is mostly of note for said personnel being involved.  As far as offering up anything unique against the enormous crop of other versions, this was the first to portray the Count and Vlad Țepeș as the same person and also the first to introduce the concept of a resurrected love, Lucy in this case.  Otherwise, it is a polished, adequately produced interpretation, but also one that mostly feels rushed.  Usually the first act between Dracula and Johnathan Harker at the former's Gothic Transylvanian residence is the most atmospheric and moody, but it is regrettably gotten out of the way quickly here.  Then, entire other characters and sub-plots such as Quincey Morris, John Seward, and even Reinfeld are omitted altogether.  This is not particularly singular amongst Dracula films which often slice and dice the source material to make for something more compact though.  Those familiar with the rightfully better known Dracula movies will not have a hard time keeping up with the hurried presentation, but so many have been made that this one inevitably bleeds together with the rest.  Pun intended.

1970s British Horror Part Nineteen

ENDLESS NIGHT
(1972)
Dir - Sidney Gilliat
Overall: MEH

The last film directed by Sidney Gilliat was the later-era Agatha Christie adaptation Endless Night.  Christie's works generally was not brimming with horror elements and this is no exception.  The, (very), few times something approaching macabre happens, it is jarring due to how vaguely non-confrontational the actual story is.  The characters are likeable and outside of a mildly eccentric old crone who only has one scene of dialog spouting some general warning about a curse, nothing antagonistic seems to be afoot.  Naturally, this ultimately does not last as there would be no movie without some sort of plot jolt, but the twist comes off as brutishly abrupt.  The way that the film is presented is more interesting and ultimately satisfying than how unpleasantly the story is resolved.  Clues are given as to the main character's deficient psyche as he confuses what he sees and hears, plus we are never shown who he is talking to off camera until the end.  Yet by that point, it has treaded too weak on the thrills and chills that it needed all along.

DON'T LOOK NOW
(1973)
Dir - Nicolas Roeg
Overall: GREAT

One of the most influential and renowned psychological horror films ever made, Don't Look Now, (A Venezia... un Dicembre rosso shocking), was the third effort from cinematographer turned director Nicolas Roeg.  Based off the short story of the same name by English author Daphne du Maurier, few horror films if any make grief such a primary focus.  Understanding that the mere concept of losing one's child is about the most traumatic and ergo horrifying thing that a couple can experience, Roeg forgoes any cheap genre pandering altogether.  Examining the concept of supernatural premonitions, both the characters and the viewer become disoriented with an almost aggressive use of motifs shown via flashback and flash-forward editing techniques.  A sprawling, labyrinth-like Venice is purposefully used to this advantage, creating a complex barrier where both the language and physical location itself is frustratingly foreign.  Every creative component, (direction, editing, cinematography, performances), cooperates, and the film's patience with its subject matter never comes off as laborious.

SPECTRE
(1977)
Dir - Clive Donner
Overall: GOOD

One of a handful of failed 70s pilots by Star Trek creator/producer Gene Roddenberry, Spectre is an occasionally clashing and odd, occult-themed detective property that is reminiscent enough of others from the era.  Kolchak; The Night Stalker naturally comes to mind.  Falling short of being picked up as a series in the US, an extended version was released in the UK with nudity added to exploit it up.  There is a of a charm to the hodgepodge of supernatural details frequently used, and the skeptic vs. believer relationship between the two main characters, (American actors Robert Culp and Gig Young, respectively), mirrors that of agents Mulder and Scully in The X-Files some seventeen years later.  The editing is occasionally a bit harsh and the added ingredient of random, near-sex scenes gives it clumsy, unfocused feel.  Of course no occult movie worth its weight in pentagrams would be complete without a showstopping black mass and the Asmodeus-praising one here makes good with the crimson and black robes, the screaming, and the crazy make-up.  Goofy business yet still kind of fun.

1970s British Horror Part Eighteen

DIE SCREAMING, MARIANNE
(1971)
Dir - Pete Walker
Overall: WOOF

Pure, laboriously dull nonsense from beginning to end, Die Screaming, Marianne was Pete Walker's first minor foray into horror and it is as unremarkable as they come.  Calling it a horror film is as misleading as the title, but if one uses their imagination, they can almost see it as a thriller of sorts.  The plot is equally convulsed and uninteresting which is an insurmountable obstacle to overcome.  Whether or not the characters here meet through convenience or contrived scheming is as inconsequential as how they come to their end.  Worse yet, Leo Genn mumbles his lines so obnoxiously that almost none of his dialog is even decipherable.  Never once along the way is anyone's relationship to anything that is happening fleshed out anyway.  With such a murky, barely present story to work with, absolutely no tension arises throughout.  By the ending, you are likely to be as confused and as bored as you were at any other point before that.  Being a Walker film might make it of passing interest to those familiar with the director's more notable works, but this is assuredly, (and rightfully), an obscure one.

FRENZY
(1972)
Dir - Alfred Hitchcock
Overall: GOOD

Alfred Hitchcock's return to London after having spent decades in Hollywood resulted in his penultimate film Frenzy.  A typically violent murder thriller for the director, (after his previous two works Tom Curtain and Topaz were espionage themed), it was based on the Arthur La Bern novel Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square.  The hallmarks of an innocently accused man being on the run where the smallest details of course end up being particularly important are both present, though the director breaks new ground for himself by including nudity for the first and last time in his career.  It is also a bit heavy on the humor both dark and light, such as how the script delves out important information via a police inspector eating insufferable gourmet cuisine from his chipper, naive wife.  Being a Hitchcock movie, there are naturally a handful of long takes and a couple of nerve-wracking scenes that are as memorable as any from the master of suspense, (an extended and almost ridiculous one taking place in a potato truck being particularly memorable).  It is often easy to take Hitchcock's work for granted, but even with so many legendary films under his belt, this one is easily still a high-note to nearly go off on.

DOMINIQUE
(1979)
Dir - Michael Anderson
Overall: MEH

An adaptation of Harold Lawlor's 1948 short story The Beckoning Ghost, Dominique, (Dominique Is Dead), has an interesting enough if not that singular of a premise where a scumbag husband drives his rich wife insane to the point of suicide, only to have the tides turned on himself in a pretty elaborate way.  It stops way short of being gruesome, but still has the proper, EC Comics comeuppance angle of spending almost the entire movie waiting for the bad guy to get his.  The wait is occasionally annoying as said bad guy, Cliff Robinson is awkwardly stiff, giving a performance that unfortunately borders on poor.  Both he and the wife also see a generous handful of seemingly unexplained, logic-defying things in a short time, yet neither barely utters a word to anybody about them and of course predictably look like fools when they do.  Anderson adapts a leisurely, deathly still pace for his numerous, tense set pieces which in fact take up nearly the entire movie, though most are rather decent.  The twist is as convoluted as one would assume and naturally rather unsatisfying, but it still gets by enough for what it is.

1970s British Horror Part Seventeen

SCREAM...AND DIE!
(1973)
Dir - José Ramón Larraz
Overall: MEH

Originally screened as Please Don't Go in the Bedroom, but more commonly known as Scream...and Die! or The House That Vanished in U.S. markets, this was the first entirely British production directed by José Ramón Larraz, (likewise being the first where he went under the anglicized name "Joseph Larraz").  A proto-slasher of sorts yet lacking in the more lurid style of Italian giallos that were still in their prime, it is mostly concerned with dark, slow, drawn-out scenes that inevitably get interrupted by some form of a Lewton buss.  An incense sub-plot and plenty of boobs aside, the eerie pacing at least is not without its charm, but the script from sexploitation screenwriter Derk Ford has some logical shortcomings.  A woman witnesses a murder, the culprit of which begins clearly stalking her, and her friends advise her to sit back and wait it out, calling her foolish for wanting to go to the police.  While everything else from there goes for a tense atmosphere first and foremost, it is also then on flimsy footing story-wise, which regrettably undermines it.

SCHIZO
(1976)
Dir - Pete Walker
Overall: MEH

By 1976, naughty horror filmmaker Pete Walker was on a roll and Schizo marks yet another slasher outing that walks that careful line of blood, boobs, and mild bad taste.  While this is noticeably a comparatively less over the top offender of Walker's usual, aforementioned shtick, it does maintain yet another variation of his fundamental violence against youth theme as the killer here is a older gentleman targeting his former stepdaughter.  Sadly, the more serious approach wields rather mundane results as the script, (authored by Walker's frequent collaborator David McGillivray), brings virtually nothing unique to the table and has a twist that comes off as a cockamamie groan.  Many of the scenes are adequately suspenseful, but they are also very formulaic in the way that the killer toys with his primary victim and predictably does away with others.  It is even less impressive that once again no one takes a woman seriously who claims multiple times that someone is stalking her.  Instead, her husband, friends, and the cops all believe that she is most likely imagining everything, even though she has positively identified who her pursuer is.  Is there a more aggravating cliche?  Likely not.

THE LEGACY
(1978)
Dir - Richard Marquand
Overall: MEH

Flawed yet not without some weird, supernaturally pleasing ingredients at its disposal, The Legacy was the debut and only horror movie from future Return of the Jedi director Richard Marquand.  Co-scripted by Hammer screenwriter and director Jimmy Sangster, it is one of the many adequately funded, occult-themed genre films from the decade and a typically mediocre one.  For one, the musical score by Michael J. Lewis occasionally embellishes in dated and terrible romantic disco music and has an opening song sung by Kiki Dee which is equally appalling as well as positively mood killing.  The dialog gets clumsy from time to time with Sam Elliot and Katharine Ross, (in the movie that the real life married couple met on), suffering the most from it.  The script ultimately blows its chance to make for a satisfyingly creepy ending, but that said, the central mystery is sufficiently curious and finds room for some gruesome death sequences that break up the rest of its "people politely stuck in a house that they can't leave" monotony.  There is also Roger Daltrey and a cat with two different colored eyes in it for whatever that is worth.