THE EXORCIST (1973)
Article #538 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-4-2002
Posting date: 1-28-2003

When the daughter of an actress is possessed by a demon, a psychiatrist priest is called in to investigate.

Because this movie was William Friedkin’s follow-up to his oscar-winning THE FRENCH CONNECTION, it was given greater attention and prestige than was usually accorded to horror movies, even garnering an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. Though I hadn’t seen the movie, I kind of resented that this movie got so much attention when many other great horror movies over the years were largely ignored. It wasn’t until I finally caught it years later that I was impressed, and I still am; despite the endless talk about the pea-soup spitting, the foul language and the head-spinning, it’s the other aspects of this movie that really make it work; the interesting array of characters, the subtle ways in which the plot flows, the excellent use of sound effects to create an atmosphere of unease and the excellent performances throughout all give the movie a depth and a texture that is highly effective. I also like the feel it gives of being a snapshot of a much deeper story; every character seems to have a real history to them, and one really gets a sense that this conflict between good and evil is something that has been going on for ages, and that we are just seeing one point on the chronology of the story.

ESCAPE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN (1975)
Article #537 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-3-2002
Posting date: 1-27-2003

Two children with strange psychic powers find themselves on the run from a greedy tycoon who wants to use them to make a fortune.

The fact that the movie is from Disney should clue you in to the fact that there will be quite a bit of cuteness at play here, and there is, particularly during a scene involving dancing puppets. Despite this, the movie largely takes itself seriously enough, with some interesting scenes and several welcome faces, particularly Donald Pleasence and Ray Milland. It works all right, but I found myself wishing they had gone all the way and made a thriller; it’s not quite as exciting as it might have been. For that matter, the humor could have been funnier and the magic a little more magical, but as far as I can tell it’s still one of the better Disney live-action movies from the period.

EARTH VS. THE SPIDER (1958)
Article #536 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-3-2002
Posting date: 1-26-2003

A giant spider is discovered in a cave, and an attempt is made to kill him.

I have yet to see a giant spider movie that I would really call great, but if I had to choose one of the ones I’ve seen (I’ve not seen them all) as a favorite, this would be my current choice. This is really only saying that I prefer it slightly over TARANTULA; though that movie has a better story and more interesting characters, it’s a bit more tedious; this one is fairly efficient, gets to the action early, and doesn’t waste any time. It has its problems; the acting is merely adaquate throughout, but I think this is primarily because the script really doesn’t have much in the way of interesting characters; the most noteworthy of them is Gene Roth’s skeptical sheriff, but this part is also quite cliched. The spider seems to vary in size from scene to scene, particularly in its walk through the city, where it seems far larger than it did elsewhere. This in itself isn’t a crime; KING KONG has been accused of the same problem. The difference is that KING KONG keeps the action at such a taut level that you actually have to make an effort to notice his variation in size (for me, anyway), whereas this movie gives me plenty of opportunities to notice the variation, and to muse how he got out of the somewhat small entrance of the cave, or how they fit him in the high school gymnasium. Nonetheless, Bert I. Gordon’s special effects look better than usual this time round, and I actually like the rock ‘n’ roll song in the gymnasium scene; it actually sounds like rock ‘n’ roll. And I do admit that the opening scene is a doozy.

THE EXPLOITS OF ELAINE (1914)
Article #484 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 7-12-2002
Posting date: 12-5-2002

Elaine Dodge tries to find the murderer of her father, a villain known as The Clutching Hand (the murderer, not the father).

This is one of the earliest serials I’ve seen, though I can’t strictly say I’ve seen it; though all episodes are believed to exist, only about half are available, and I’ve seen only six of the fourteen episodes. This early serial really didn’t have cliffhangers as such; each episode is somewhat self-contained and tells a single story as well as fleshing out the overall arc; in many ways, it’s more like a TV series in its feel than a serial. It’s quite entertaining at that, with some science fiction concepts thrown into the mix.

One of the pitfalls of watching old serials, though, is that even if all the episodes exist, they may not all exist in the same language; I think that only two or three of these were in English; the rest were in a variety of different language, which left me scratching my head over more than just the identity of the villain.

THE END OF THE WORLD (1931)
(a.k.a. LA FIN DU MONDE)
Article #455 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 6-13-2002
Posting date: 11-6-2002

A comet is on a collision course with the earth.

Apparently, this movie is not readily available in its original version; a fifty-five minute version for English audiences is all that is available. I can only guess what the original is like; this one is unique. After a stiff, talky introduction featuring a scientist who lacks the abillity to sound natural on camera, the movie starts in earnest. It hovers somewhere between sound and silent cinema, with rushes of voices, bizarre dissonant music, title cards and a plot which seems to be there only to support a nonstop barrage of montage scenes. The editing is bizarre and jarring; it would probably be extremely difficult to recreate the original print as it almost seems like it would be hard to tell what was intended and what was just spliced and edited. Victor Francen has the lead role of the scientist who discovers the comet; apparently most of the footage involving Abel Gance himself is not in this version. It’s not an easy watch: I can only take so much montage at once, but it’s worth a look to anyone interested in unique cinema.

EYE OF THE DEVIL (1967)
Article #444 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 6-2-2002
Posting date: 10-26-2002

The wife of a marquis visits him on his estate against his wishes and discovers strange goings on in the vicinity.

Apparently this movie was cut before its initial release, which may explain why it’s somewhat muddled. Still, it has one of those solid horror premises in which someone finds themselves in a strange isolated community with odd beliefs (the same basic setup as THE WICKER MAN), and you expect a little confusion to be part of the story. This would have worked if it had built up to a satisfying ending, but once it was all over, I felt let down and disappointed, not because of how it chose to end but rather because that was all there was to it. So the movie seems to be missing something; the mystery in itself isn’t elaborate enough to sustain the length. What I think is missing is character; there are very few people in the movie that seem to exist as human beings; I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the actors in the movie saw their characters as existing solely to creep out the wife, and in order to make the whole thing more compelling, they need more humanity and dimension. As it is, the movie spends way too much time trying to be creepy, and there are way too many scenes of villagers just standing stock still and staring at people; you keep hoping someone will at least scratch themselves or something.

THE EMPIRE OF DRACULA (1967)
(a.k.a. EL IMPERIO DE DRACULA)
Article #443 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 6-1-2002
Posting date: 10-25-2002

Travelers stay at Dracula’s castle and find themselves in peril.

Impressive title, huh? Since it’s mostly a rehash of the situation in DRACULA, PRINCE OF DARKNESS, maybe they wanted it to sound as regal as that one. At heart, though, it’s just your basic vampire flick, and unless there is a wealth of subtleties hidden in the Spanish dialogue that I would need subtitles to understand (it’s in Spanish, undubbed and unsubtitled), it doesn’t really add anything new to the Dracula canon, unless you count seeing his name listed as Draculstein in a book. As it is, the most impressive scene is a fight on the top of moving carriage; it must have worked so well that they added a second one at the end of the movie. Incidentally, this was the first color Mexican horror film.

AN EVENING OF EDGAR ALLAN POE (1972)
Article #402 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 4-21-2002
Posting date: 9-14-2002

Vincent Price narrates four of Poe’s stories; “The Telltale Heart”, “The Sphinx”, “The Cask of Amontillado”, and “The Pit and the Pendulum”.

A movie which consists entirely of recitations of prose can’t help but flirt with tediousness, even if the prose is written by Poe and the reciter is Vincent Price. Fortunately, there is solid editing, a nice well-used score, wonderful sets and great costumes for Vincent Price to keep things moving along, and this production (made for television by AIP and lasting only 52 minutes) is a model of how such an idea can be brought to life. In all honesty, I have to admit my favorite segment was “The Sphinx”, not because Vincent Price does a better job with it than the others, but rather because it’s the least familiar of the stories included; the other stories I have read so many times that there is no surprise to them. I would especially recommend this show to those not familiar with the original stories; it’s a wonderful way to be introduced to the world of Poe. And by using the stories as they were originally written, one certainly can’t complain about liberties having been taken with his work this time around.

THE EYES OF THE MUMMY (1918)
Article #356 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 3-6-2002
Posting date: 7-23-2002

An explorer saves a woman from an evil Egyptian who is holding her prisoner.

One of the problems of doing a comprehensive review of fantastic cinema is that you have to face up to the fact that some movies just haven’t been prepared for English-speaking people. All the title cards in this silent are in German, and though I have a little familiarity with the language thanks to my dim and distant high school education, I could hardly call myself fluent in the language. Thus, it’s actually a bit hard to say whether this melodrama about obsession actually belongs to fantastic cinema or not; the Emil Jannings character may be a mummy, but nothing I’ve seen makes that a definite. He’s not swathed in bandages, though he does seem to have a certain hypnotic power over the Pola Negri character. I also remember a comment from yesterday by Henry Nicolella that the Pola Negri character is, in fact, the mummy; someday when I get a version of this with English titles, I’ll sort it out. At this point, I think the title is the main thing that contributes to this movie being thought of as horror; right now I think of it rather as fatalistic melodrama with a slight horror backdrop. Incidentally, this was an early film by Ernst Lubitsch, better known for his sophisticated comedies of the thirties.

ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES (1971)
Article #216 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 10-18-2001
Posting date: 3-3-2002

Three chimps escape from the nuclear devastation of Earth in the future to arrive in the present day. Their presence startles the world, and the government begins to get paranoid after discovering what the future may hold for the human race.

I had fond memories of seeing this movie as a kid, and the scenes I remember best (the scene where Zira aces several intelligence tests but doesn’t eat the banana, Zira fainting at the sight of a large animal on display in a museum and revealing her pregnancy, and the memorable final scenes of the film) were pretty much as I remember them. However, I have problems with the movie nowadays; the scenes where the chimps share their wisdom with the world (particularly Zira’s address to a woman’s group) seem horribly trite, and much of the movie is dull and clumsy. Also, the use of a man in a gorilla suit (who kills one of the chimps) looks horribly fake; I’m surprised they were still using that approach at this late a date. And

SPOILERS AHEAD

I’m surprised that this movie got a G rating in theaters; the shooting of the baby, bloodless as it is, seems far too intense for the very young.