Month: August 2020

The Grapes of Death (1978)

THE GRAPES OF DEATH (1978)
aka Les raisins de la mort, Pesticide
Article 4881 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-25-2015
Directed by Jean Rollin
Featuring Marie-Georges Pascal, Felix Marten, Serge Marquand
Country: France
What it is: What happens when you drink the wine

A woman on vacation finds herself stranded in a village where the inhabitants are mutated and murderous, the result of poisoning due to the insecticide used in a recent crop of grapes.

It’s been a long time since I last encountered Jean Rollin in my cinematic journeys, but here he is again, and not for the last time. Most of his movies up to this point have confusing and surreal arty-erotic-gory experiments, usually with vampires. This is the closest I’ve seen him come to an ordinary movie. It is pretty gory, but he mostly keeps his artiness in check, and its ventures into eroticism are gratuitous but fleeting. It’s basically his take on NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, though the murderous killers aren’t zombies but victims of poisoning; in this way, it’s similar to THE CRAZIES. Granted, since it’s a Jean Rollin movie, the feel is distinctly different. Instead of tightening the screws to a fever pitch, the movie actually becomes more distant and detached as the action progresses, and I suspect this is due to the changes undergone by the heroine of the movie, and if you’ve been paying attention to her actions throughout the movie, you’ll see what’s happening before it actually does. The musical score is eccentric and used very sparsely, and this adds to the movie’s odd flavor. Yes, there’s some surreal and flamboyant grotesquerie (especially in the middle of the movie), but it wouldn’t be a Jean Rollin movie without it. This one is actually pretty decent; it’s certainly the most approachable film of his that I’ve seen to date.

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Night of the Demon (1980)

NIGHT OF THE DEMON (1980)
Article 4880 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-24-2015
Directed by James C. Wasson
Featuring Michael Cutt, Joy Allen, Bob Collins
Country: USA
What it is: Bigfoot movie

A professor and five students undertake an expedition to locate a murderous Bigfoot.

The worst Bigfoot movie? Probably not; the competition is way too stiff, and as long as CURSE OF BIGFOOT is still floating around, I don’t think this one has to worry. It is, however, the sleaziest and goriest one I’ve seen so far. Lots of blood flows in this movie, though none of it is really convincing, and when it’s not being gory, it’s usually being fairly dull. It does have a few oddball plot elements to add to the mix, especially those involving the Bigfoot’s relationship with a young girl, her religious fanatic father, and a coven of townspeople who worship the creature as a deity. It does have its fans among those who love no-budget sleazy drive-in fare, but with the bad acting and poor cinematography, I can’t really recommend this one to anyone else.

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Murder By Decree (1979)

MURDER BY DECREE (1979)
Article 4879 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-23-2015
Directed by Bob Clark
Featuring Christopher Plummer, James Mason, David Hemmings
Country: UK / Canada
What it is: Holmes meets Jack the Ripper

Famed consulting detective Sherlock Holmes is hired by private citizens to solve the Jack the Ripper killings. Holmes agrees to do so, but a nagging question remains – why hasn’t Scotland Yard sought his help in solving the case?

This isn’t the first cinematic encounter between Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper; that would be A STUDY IN TERROR from 1965, and I was quite startled and delighted to find out that that movie and this one share two actors – Anthony Quayle and Frank Finlay, with the latter taking on the same role in each film. The earlier movie was quite good. This one goes it one better by adding a conspiracy that embraces the government, the police force and the Freemasons into the mix. Christopher Plummer is excellent as Holmes, while James Mason is also very good as Watson; the latter manages to channel Nigel Bruce while managing to keep the buffoonery of Bruce’s performance in check (though there are a few laughs). Great performances abound; both Finlay and Quayle do fine jobs, as do David Hemmings, Susan Clark, John Gielgud and Donald Sutherland (the latter as a medium whose presence adds to the fantastic content of the story). Still, the pivotal performance in this movie is Genevieve Bujold’s performance as Annie Crook; she has only one real scene, but she does it so powerfully that it kicks the movie to a whole different level where it becomes much more than a mere Holmes pastiche and adds an emotional center to the film. I didn’t expect a Sherlock Holmes movie to do so, but this one had me tearing up towards the end. This one is complex, powerful and emotionally satisfying; I recommend it.

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Artistic Rag-Pickers (1908)

ARTISTIC RAG-PICKERS (1908)
aka Chiffonniers et caricaturistes, The Rag-Picker Caricaturist
Article 4878 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-21-2015
Directed by Segundo de Chomon
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Stop-motion trick short

Two rag-pickers demonstrate their magical artistic prowess with their given mediums.

This silent short falls roughly into two parts. In the first, the male rag-picker throws scraps onto a black sheet of paper and they form themselves via stop-motion into caricatures of various famous people. In the second part, the female rag-picker demonstrates how her clay arrangements form themselves into strange faces. Beyond demonstrating these two special-effect techniques, there’s not much purpose to this short. It’s fairly entertaining, but it probably would have been even more entertaining to see it when it was first made and recognize the various personages being caricatured; beyond a couple that were of Teddy Roosevelt, I really couldn’t tell you the identities of the models. The clay sculptures don’t appear to be of specific people; the faces are rather demonic, and one looks a bit like Popeye. Chalk it up as another trick short from the silent era.

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Werewolf Woman (1976)

WEREWOLF WOMAN (1976)
aka La lupa mannara, Legend of the Wolfwoman
Article 4877 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-20-2015
Directed by Rino Di Silvestro
Featuring Annik Borel, Howard Ross, Dagmar Lassander
Country: Italy
What it is: Sleazy psycho killer movie

A woman with a traumatic history becomes convinced she is a werewolf and begins tearing the throats out of her victims.

This movie was directed by Rino Di Silvestro, a film-maker who made a career out of very sleazy and sometimes offensive exploitation fare. This movie is no exception. The opening scene does feature a woman who has turned into a werewolf, but it’s only a dream sequence; the main character never undergoes a transformation of that sort. The movie is largely a compendium of scenes involving murder, rape, sex and nudity punctuated by scenes of police talking about the investigation and doctors spouting pseudo-psychiatric babble. It’s the type of movie where when a nice guy appears on the scene, you know it’s only setting you up for more brutality and nastiness down the road. Fans of exploitation might have some use for this one; as for me, movies that seem to appeal to the lowest-common denominator as this one does are more likely to depress me. Reportedly, it’s a favorite of Quentin Tarantino’s.

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It’s Alive (1974)

IT’S ALIVE (1974)
Article 4876 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-19-2015
Directed by Larry Cohen
Featuring John P. Ryan, Sharon Farrell, James Dixon
Country: USA
What it is: Mutant killer baby movie

A mutant killer baby is born and terrorizes a town.

The idea of a mutant killer baby is one of those concepts that seems so outlandish that I’m a little surprised that they didn’t go the obvious route and play it for laughs. But writer/producer/director Larry Cohen goes the difficult route and plays it seriously, and I think for the most part he succeeds. He keeps the baby in the shadows for the most part and mostly plays the attack scenes out of the frame (probably because he knew they wouldn’t be very convincing), and instead concentrates on finding a good emotional thread by which to carry the story, and that emotional thread is that of the baby’s father’s attempt to come to terms with bizarre situation in which he’s thrown, one that ends up having a profound effect on his work, his relationships and his life. The script is even clever enough to see the parallels between his situation and that of Frankenstein’s, and when he speculates on the confusion between the man and the monster, we begin to wonder as to which one he will turn out to be. Still, the movie doesn’t quite transcend its campy reputation, and it you do have to laugh a bit when the baby attacks a milkman. Nevertheless, the script goes a long way towards making this movie more thoughtful than it might have been.

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Humanoids from the Deep (1980)

HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP (1980)
Article 4875 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-18-2015
Directed by Barbara Peeters and Jimmy T. Murakami
Featuring Doug McClure, Ann Turkel, Vic Morrow
Country: USA
What it is: Marauding monster movie

Mutant fish-men terrorize a fishing town.

I have a soft spot in my heart for marauding monster movies, but a lot of them from this era were rather ugly and glum. Furthermore, the exploitative decision to make the monsters rapists as well adds a level of unpleasantness that sucks the fun out of the movie for me. Given this subject matter, I was rather surprised to see a woman’s name on the director’s credit for the movie, but, from what I gather, the original script didn’t have all of the rape and nudity; it was only added after Roger Corman decided the movie needed it, and when the director refused to shoot the scenes, she was fired and replaced. As it is, the exploitation elements are probably the most memorable thing about the movie; the rest of it feels pretty standard-issue by-the-numbers low-budget movie-making for the era, with subplots involve prejudice, environmentalism and corporate irresponsibility all incorporated into the story, albeit in a pretty uninspired fashion. It throws in touches of JAWS and ALIEN as well. I’m actually rather surprised that there was a 1996 TV movie remake of the movie; it just doesn’t seem the type of movie to merit a remake. At any rate, this movie is mediocre at best.

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The Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll (1974)

THE BLUE EYES OF THE BROKEN DOLL (1974)
aka Los ojos azules de la muneca rota, House of Psychotic Women
Article 4874 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-17-2015
Directed by Carlos Aured
Featuring Paul Naschy, Diana Lorys, Eduardo Calvo
Country: Spain
What it is: Spanish giallo

An ex-convict vagabond takes a job in the house of three disturbed women. Shortly after that, blue-eyed blonde women start being murdered in horrible ways.

For the second day in a row I find myself in the realm of Spanish horror. This is Paul Naschy’s attempt at a giallo, and though director Carlos Aured doesn’t quite have the stylistic panache of the Italian masters of genre, he certainly isn’t afraid to supply a plenitude of bloody mayhem. The script is a bit of a mess, and it spends too much time dwelling on characters who are obvious red herrings, and I have to admit that for most of the movie, I was expecting to write a very negative review. Yet, in the final analysis, I think the movie works. Why? It’s because it really does supply one humdinger of an ending, one that is quite outlandish and gruesome, and the fact that it is also unbelievable doesn’t seem to matter as much. The ending pulls the movie out of its bloody doldrums and gives you something to remember about it. However, I doubt that animal lovers will find much to love here, especially in an unnecessary scene where a pig is slaughtered. All in all, I must rate this with Paul Naschy’s better films.

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Horror of the Zombies (1974)

HORROR OF THE ZOMBIES (1974)
aka El buque maldito, Zombie Flesh Eaters
Article 4873 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-16-2015
Directed by Amando de Ossorio
Featuring Maria Perschy, Jack Taylor, Barbara Rey
Country: Spain
What it is: Blind Dead movie

A publicity stunt involving two models in a boat in the middle of the ocean goes awry when it encounters a ghost ship populated by homicidal zombies.

This was the third of Amando de Ossorio’s four “Blind Dead” movies, and, as I noticed when I reviewed the fourth movie, there doesn’t appear to be any overriding story arc to the series; it just features the slow-moving, rotting Templar zombies in a variety of different locations and situations, sometimes with different abilities and weaknesses. I like the premise of having them aboard a ship so that there’s no real place for the victims to run when they attack, but sadly, the movie doesn’t really make good use of the idea. Furthermore, the movie jettisons the most interesting aspect of the zombies (being blind, they were dependent on sound to locate their victims), and, being aboard ship, they’re not allowed to present themselves at their eeriest (which is when they’re riding horses in slow motion). Furthermore, the script is very weak, full of horrible dialogue, and the acting is mostly terrible (though it’s good to bear in mind these faults may be the result of the translation and dubbing). The slow-moving zombies themselves are still pretty creepy, but they were much better used in the other three movies. For my money, this is the weakest of the series.

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The Hand (1981)

THE HAND (1981)
Article 4872 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-15-2015
Directed by Oliver Stone
Featuring Michael Caine, Andrea Marcovicci, Annie McEnroe
Country: USA
What it is: Crawling hand movie

A comic-strip writer in a troubled marriage loses his hand in a freak accident. He begins to see his disembodied hand crawling around, but is it really there? And is the hand really the one killing his enemies…?

The John Stanley guide describes this movie as “the thinking man’s BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS”, and that’s as good a place as any to start discussing this one. Still, I’d rather watch BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS (which is a lot more fun) than to spend a lot of time watching the crumbling marriage which serves as the center of this one. I think my problem with this movie is that once you’ve sussed out the game the movie’s playing and the way it dovetails with the main character’s marital problems, there’s really not much in the way of surprises, either as a drama or a horror movie. I can’t help but notice that Stone wasn’t above resorting to horror cliches (such as cars not being able to start) when it serves his purpose. And though I understand that it was being done to build mood and suspense, I still find scenes where we get a hand’s view of the action while it is breathing heavily to be rather silly when dealing with a body part that has neither eyes nor lungs. Oh, and there’s a twist ending (which if you think about it, really isn’t) that some people love and some people hate, but it really doesn’t do much for me one way or the other.

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