DESTINATION NIGHTMARE (1958)
Article #1143 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-1-2004
Posting Date: 9-28-2004
Directed by Paul Landres and others
Featuring Boris Karloff, Denise Alexander, Tod Andrews

Boris Karloff hosts four tales that pierce the veil.

If the above plot description doesn’t clue you off, then I’ll tell you this is another compilation of episodes from the unsold TV series “The Veil” stitched together to make a feature. The series was fairly uninspired and the episodes were indifferently written. Despite the presence of Karloff as both host and various characters, they weren’t really trying for scares; since they were based on purportedly true stories, the emphasis was more on making us wonder about the mysteries of the beyond. Unfortunately, the end result was all too often to have a lot of the running time being spent watching people be puzzled about the events without making any attempt to really understand them; it does make for a rather shallow experience.

This anthology does have a theme binding all four stories together; in this case, the theme is that of the dead influencing the lives of the living. Roughly, this divides into two different types of tales; the second and fourth are both ghost stories, of which the second (involving an apparition seen in the cockpit of an airplane) is the more interesting, as the fourth is predictably hackneyed. The first and the third deal with people who have been taken over by the personalities of dead people, the first via possession (an unsatisfying story that has some potential but really goes nowhere) and third involving reincarnation and the memory of a previous life. Both of these stories suffer quite a bit from the aformentioned “puzzled” sequences, though the third one does manage to have a real story to tell. Still, the main attraction here is the parade of familiar faces. Outside of Karloff, you might recognize Tod Andrews, Whit Bissell, Roy Engel, a young George Hamilton (in one of his earliest roles), and Myron Healy.

DEEP RED (1975)
(a.k.a. PROFONDO ROSSO)
Article #1142 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-30-2004
Posting Date: 9-27-2004
Directed by Dario Argento
Featuring David Hemmings, Daria Nicolodi, Gabriele Lavia

When a psychic is murdered after picking up the thoughts of a psychotic murderer, a witness to the crime tries to figure out who is responsible. He then finds that the killer is stalking him and anyone who helps him.

Certain movies in these series of write-ups represent landmarks in that they finally serve to introduce me to directors who have become well-known in the genre but who I haven’t yet encountered. This marks the first movie I’ve ever seen by Dario Argento, and though you can’t judge a director like this by one movie, it does serve as a starting point for an exploration of his work. I’ve heard Argento is a master stylist, and there are certainly scenes here that bear that out, particularly during the opening sequence. Other aspects of the movie do leave me less than satisfied. What follows is a list of some of my reactions to various aspects of the movie.

The dubbing – This was definitely a minus; my only print of this was dubbed, and I have no doubt that a subtitled print would have been much more effective. As it is, the dubbing was distracting.

The death scenes – The death scenes are inventively staged. However, some of them seemed a little more outrageous than was strictly necessary. In particular, the last two deaths seemed almost comic.

The story and plot points – Some of the plot points were brilliant and fascinating; my favorites included a message that could only be read with the help of hot water, and the revelation of the significance of the missing picture. On the other hand, some parts of the plot are quite muddled. Though they may sort themselves out on rewatching, I did find it hard to follow on a first watching.

The music – Though the movie makes great use of sound effects at times, and the use of the children’s song motif is quite unnerving, I found myself mostly irritated by the musical soundtrack by Goblin; melodically, it reminded me of those cheap, repetitive synthesizer tracks that passed for music on some of the cheaper made-for-video movies of the eighties.

In conclusion, I found the movie a very mixed bag. Though I can’t say that I was really satisfied with the movie as a whole, nonetheless, I do look forward to seeing more of Argento’s work and getting a better feel for it. There appears to be plenty of it out there.

DEATHMASTER (1972)
Article #1137 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-25-2004
Posting Date; 9-22-2004
Directed by Ray Danton
Featuring Robert Quarry, John Fiedler, Bill Ewing

A vampire insinuates himself into a house of hippies.

I like the central premise of this movie. This is that a group of hippies who embrace the counterculture and reject the establishment would prove to be ideal victims for a smooth-talking and charismatic vampire. The movie is also helped by a good performance by Robert Quarry, who captures well the kind of personality that would take in this group of people. However, the movie becomes dumber as it progresses; as several characters act with supreme stupidity. To specify, I put forth DS’s rules for vampire hunting.

If you are going to enter a house that you know is inhabited by vampires, remember these three rules:

1) Enter the house during the day when the vampires are at their least powerful.

2) Arm yourself with items that can be used to protect yourself from vampires and with which you can destroy them.

3) Also arm yourself with anything you need to protect yourself against the vampire’s human minions.

I can forgive someone forgetting the third rule. However, if you forget either of the first two, you’re being stupid. And if you forget both of them, you’re being supremely stupid. The heros in this movie forget both of them.

And why does the vampire keep leeches in a bowl near his coffin? He doesn’t need them to suck blood (he can do that on his own). And as far as pets go, he already has a cat.

THE DAY THE SKY EXPLODED (1958)
(a.k.a. LA MORTE VIENE DALLO SPAZIO)
Article #1136 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-24-2004
Posting Date; 9-21-2004
Directed by Paolo Heusch
Featuring Paul Hubschmid, Fiorella Mari, Madeleine Fischer

When a rocket explodes in space, it puts a cluster of meteors on a collision course with Earth.

This French/Italian end-of-the-world crisis tale is uneven. On the plus side, it’s directed with a certain amount of energy, the special effects are interesting (if not always entirely convincing), and Mario Bava handles the cinematography. On the other hand, it suffers from an assortment of cliches, including the guy trying to hit it off with the brainy female computer operator (which they keep referring to as a calculator) and the guy who cracks under pressure and tries to hoodwink the scientists’ attempt to save humanity. It also uses a lot of rocket launch stock footage, and the science-fiction sound effects (especially one “oooooooeeeeee” sound) are overused. Consequently, the movie never quite reaches the level of tension it needs to be really effective, but it is a lot more exciting than a lot of Italian science fiction. Oddly enough, the movie runs 82 minutes, but my print runs 90. Is it loaded with extra footage? No, but it does loop back at one point so that I see about eight minutes of footage repeat itself. This one is not to be confused with THE NIGHT THE WORLD EXPLODED.

DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS (1971)
(a.k.a. LE ROUGE AUX LEVRES)
Article #1134 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-22-2004
Posting Date: 9-19-2004
Directed by Harry Kumel
Featuring John Karlen, Delphine Seyrig, Danielle Ouimet

A newly married couple stay at a nearly empty but sumptuous hotel where they end up encountering Countess Bathory and her friend.

You know, I’ve heard a lot of talk over the years about how vampirism and sex are connected, and plenty of movies have played up the theme. However, most of those movies do nothing more than play up the “victim-loves-to-be-bitten” angle and have all the vampires look as sexy as possible. This one is a rare exception; it goes much deeper into the various aspects of sexuality, seduction, sadomasochism and dominance/submission games. You really become fascinated with how each character relates to and feels about the other characters, and things never quite happen in the way you expect. Straightforward horror fans will probably be disappointed; the movie abjures many of the usual vampire trappings (for example, there are no obvious barings of vampire fangs, though other things are bared) for more subtle types of horror. In fact, the sexual dynamics make the movie feel more like film noir than horror. Despite a lot of nudity and a certain amount of blood-letting, the movie somehow deftly avoids being merely exploitative. It’s not for everyone, but it is definitely worth a look.