Looker (1981)

LOOKER (1981)
Article 4460 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 2-25-2014
Directed by Michael Crichton
Featuring Albert Finney, James Coburn, Susan Dey
Country: USA
What it is: High-tech thriller

When several of his patients die mysterious deaths, a plastic surgeon begins to suspect that something foul is afoot, as all of them were commercial actresses who worked with a company called Digital Matrix… and a fourth patient may be the next victim.

There’s an eerie prophetic quality to the science fiction aspects of this thriller; with a premise that involves the creation of fully controllable computer-generated images modeled off of beautiful actresses, it’s not hard to see a connection to recent CGI technology. There’s some stunning use of set design, and there’s some stylish direction as well, and the acting is very strong. The problem is that the story gets a little lost in the mix; it hints at several side issues (such as the use of the technology for political manipulation and the that the doctor is being framed for the deaths of the models) that remain undeveloped, certain plot developments don’t make much sense, and though there’s something fascinating about the gun that can be used to freeze someone’s mind so that they skip a few minutes of time, I’m not quite sure what it’s doing in this movie. Furthermore, the stylish qualities sometimes work against the movie; the entire climax of the movie may be fun to look at, but it’s also seems so distant that it generates virtually no suspense. In the end, I found the movie more interesting than exciting, and I was left feeling somewhat unsatisfied; it’s more of a nice try than a success.

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Kung Fu from Beyond the Grave (1982)

KUNG FU FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE (1982)
aka Yin Ji
Article 4459 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 2-24-2014
Directed by Chiu Lee
Featuring Billy Chong, Lieh Lo, Chin-Lai Sung
Country: Hong Kong
What it is: Martial arts of the macabre

A Kung Fu expert is called on by the ghost of his father to find his bones and take revenge on the man who killed him. However, the target for his revenge has the help of black magic on his side.

I’ve covered a lot of movies with outrageous titles over the years, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that if the movie comes from the supernatural side of martial arts movies, they’re going to be even more outrageous and wilder than the title. The weirdness never lets up in this one, what with the ghosts, zombies, vampires (Dracula himself!) and black magicians all engaging in martial arts mayhem, which consists of (as usual) a frenetic combination of gymnastics, dance choreography and sound-enhanced gesturing. I suppose I could complain about the lack of coherence, but then, I never really expected it going in. As usual, all I can do is sit there and try to take it all in, and though I’m sometimes not sure whether I’m being entertained or just being overwhelmed, at least I’m not bored, and there’s plenty of laughs along the way. Still, I’m glad that these types of movies only come along sporadically in the series; things would get very tiresome if I watched too many of them at once.

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Keep My Grave Open (1976)

KEEP MY GRAVE OPEN (1976)
Article 4458 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 2-22-2014
Directed by S.F. Brownrigg
Featuring Camilla Carr, Gene Ross, Stephen Tobolowsky
Country: USA
What it is: Mad psycho thriller

A woman lives on an isolated farm with Kevin, who may be her brother and/or lover, and who may also be responsible for the deaths by sword of trespassers on the property.

I’ve seen only a handful of S.F. Brownrigg’s low-budget movies, but then, he only directed a handful. He’s definitely one of the more interesting directors I’ve encountered who works on such a low budget, largely because he manages to throw in unexpected twists and odd touches that are rather intriguing. It’s anchored by a strong performance from Camilla Carr as the disturbed woman who obsesses about her brother, and much of the mystery and suspense in this one hinges on the nature of Kevin; it’s not so much a matter of who he is, but it is a matter of whether he is actually present. Parts of the movie are quite predictable, but not entirely, and I found the ending very intriguing indeed. It is as much a character piece as a horror thriller, though, and there’s a chance that some people might find this one a little dull; nevertheless, I liked it. The movie also features Larry Buchanan regular Bill Thurman as a hitchhiker.

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Nazi S.S. (1966)

NAZI S.S. (1966)
aka Borman
Article 4457 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 2-21-2014
Directed by Bruno Paolinelli
Featuring Sandro Moretti, Liana Orfei, Dominique Boschero
Country: Italy / France
What it is: Spyghetti… sort of

Escaped Nazi Martin Borman hatches a plot designed to resurrect the Third Reich, and it’s up to an American agent to find him and stop him.

It occurred to me on viewing this how rarely Nazis popped up as villains in the Superspy genre, given how ubiquitous they have been as villains over the years. I suspect there are reasons for this, not the least of which is that the source for so many of the Bond-inspired movies was Italy, which was one of Germany’s allies during WWII; as a result, I suspect there might be a bit of cultural discomfort with the idea. This is one of the rare exceptions, and I do notice that the movie wavers a bit between being a more serious spy adventure and a superspy movie, as if it’s not quite sure which way it wants to go. Storywise, the movie is passable, but between the heavy use of stock footage and the scenes of people walking from one place to another (which serves the dual purpose of padding the film and showing off the location footage), it gets pretty dull on occasion. Easily the most memorable scene involves a crash landing on an aircraft carrier, which I suspect is a cleverly used piece of stock footage, but I might be wrong. As far as the fantastic content goes, it’s very slight here; there’s some minor gadgetry, and since the action involves a historical character involved in a world-changing event, it might qualify as political science fiction, but that feels like a real stretch.

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Jack the Ripper (1976)

JACK THE RIPPER (1976)
Article 4456 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 2-20-2014
Directed by Jesus Franco
Featuring Klaus Kinski, Josephine Chaplin, Herbert Fux
Country: Switzerland / West Germany
What it is: Jack the Ripper movie

A doctor who specializes in charity cases is murdering and mutilating prostitutes. The police try to catch him.

The movie is focused and coherent, which is something I can’t always say about a Jesus Franco film. The acting is generally good, though it is sometimes difficult to tell through a dubbing job that isn’t particularly good. It’s also nice that the sex scenes are actually relevant to the story, and that’s usually a sign that it’s one of Franco’s better films. It is also a bit on the obvious side, not particularly original, and though it does generate a bit of suspense on occasion, it has some dull stretches. Still, it is one of Franco’s films that can be enjoyed by people who aren’t particular fans of the director, and it does look like he took a little more care with this one.

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Porcile (1969)

PORCILE (1969)
Article 4455 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 2-19-2014
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini
Featuring Pierre Clementi, Jean-Pierre Leaud, Alberto Lionello
Country: Italy / France
What it is: Art film

In the past, a man becomes a cannibal and starts a cult of followers. In the present, a young man finds himself alienated by human relations that leaves him with strange desires.

I know I’ve encountered Pasolini before, but I don’t quite remember what my reactions were to his other works. I found this one, which seems to be a meditation on taboo subjects (cannibalism, bestiality), capitalism and Nazism, among other subjects, to be very difficult. Some of the user comments on IMDB do lead me to believe that there is a point to the movie, and I do sense that there is something there, but I find myself unable to really explain it. I do get the feeling that the cannibal in the historical section and the young man in the modern section are essentially the same character; though played by different actors, they look quite similar and in some ways suffer the same fate. The cannibal plot puts it into the realm of horror, and the historical section seems at least partly a fantasy.

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Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973)

INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS (1973)
Article 4454 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 2-18-2014
Directed by Denis Saunders
Featuring William Smith, Anitra Ford, Victoria Vetri
Country: USA
What it is: Science fiction exploitation

A town with a government research facility is the site for a number of deaths of men who have had heart attacks from an overabundance of sexual activity. A government agent is sent to investigate.

Apparently Nicholas Meyer wanted to have his name taken off the credits due to script tampering. I can’t help but wonder what elements were his and what was the result of tampering. Given that the movie isn’t outright porn, I suspect the only place it could lead is into exploitation, and that’s what you get here; there’s lots of nudity, quite a bit sex humor,  I’m never quite sure exactly what the experiments that result in the bee girls are supposed to accomplish, but in a movie like this, explanations are probably extraneous. At any rate, I suspect that the main audience for this one are those who are attracted to the central concept in the first place. For those primarily interested in its fantastic content, there’s not a lot here.

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Bloodbeat (1983)

BLOODBEAT (1983)
aka Blood Beat
Article 4453 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 2-17-2014
Directed by Fabrice A. Zaphiratos
Featuring Helen Benton, Terry Brown, Dana Day
Country: USA
What it is: Offbeat horror

Something is killing hunters in the Wisconsin woods. What is it, and what does it have to do with two psychic women in a nearby family?

This movie starts off with a fairly deliberate pace and has some rather arty touches about it. Though I know this would be an instant turn-off for some, I found that it caught my attention and made me hoping for something quite different than my usual fare. As a result, I thought the first half of the movie showed some promise. Despite the touches, however, this is primarily a horror film, and when it does go for the horror, it… well, it looks like an extremely cheap and increasingly silly horror movie from the early eighties. After that point, it’s hard to take any arty touches (or, for that matter, the movie itself) seriously, even if it does occasionally show a perverse imagination. Ultimately, the movie becomes a bizarre combination of slasher film and psychic drama, and I got quite annoyed with the fact that the main reason you’re not quite sure what’s going on is because the characters that do know what’s going on refuse to talk about it. In the end, the movie falls flat, but I do have two pieces of advice for anyone making a cheap horror film. 1) If the only special effects you can afford are really shoddy, use them very sparingly or you’ll end up with a lot of annoying glowing swords, and 2) If you’re going to have a character assaulted by inanimate objects in a kitchen, take a good look at the inanimate objects you’re going to use and figure out how scary they are (Cutlery: Yes – Canisters of name brand chocolate drink mix: No).

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Beyond the Bermuda Triangle (1975)

BEYOND THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE (1975)
TV-Movie
Article 4452 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 2-16-2014
Directed by William A. Graham
Featuring Fred MacMurray, Sam Groom, Donna Mills
Country: USA
What it is: Supernatural… uh, thriller

When some friends disappear inside the Bermuda Triangle, a retired businessman investigates.

Fred MacMurray projects such an amiable warmth that you can’t help but like him, and that comes through even when he’s saddled with poor dialogue and a dull story as he is here. In short, he’s the only real reason to bother to tune in to this lethargic exploitation of the Bermuda Triangle legend; everything else here feels like made-for-TV cliches and filler. And don’t expect much in the way of special effects; the theory put forth this time around is only talked about and never shown, and I greeted the end of the movie with a kind of glum dejection at the realization that that was all I was going to get. In short, this one is talky and dull, with only MacMurray’s performance to lift it out of the doldrums.

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The Treasure of the Petrified Forest (1965)

THE TREASURE OF THE PETRIFIED FOREST (1965)
aka Il tesoro della foresta pietrificata
Article 4451 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 2-15-2014
Directed by Emimmo Salvi
Featuring Gordon Mitchell, Ivica Pajer, Eleanora Bianchi
Country: Italy
What it is: Norse epic

Evil viking Hunding seeks the Sword of the Nibelungen, which is hidden in the petrified forest. It is up to Siegmund, son of Wotan and leader of the Nibelungen, to prevent him from getting it.

Though I can’t quite think of this one as a sword-and-sandal movie, it’s pretty much in the same mode. It takes place in the same fantasy world as the Nibelungen myth, but I think those seeking it for its fantastic content will be disappointed; Siegmund may be the son of Wotan, but he has no superpowers; the Valkyries (who decide who will live and die in battle and take the dead to Valhalla) mostly ride around on horses and shoot bows and arrows in battles that they are not supposed to be involved in, and if the sought-after sword has any powers at all, all that manifested itself in the movie is that you can run someone through with it, a power that it seems any sword might have. In fact, outside of the presence of a soothsayer who makes some predictions, almost all of the fantastic content is merely talked about rather than shown. As for the movie itself, it seems to be mostly an endless series of battle scenes fleshing out a story of little consequence. However, I will say that this movie convinced me that Gordon Mitchell is probably better cast as a villain as he is here than he is as a hero; he has the ability to project an effective streak of cruelty that is on display here. There’s lots of carnage, the usual betrayals, a comic-relief dwarf, and very little in the way of surprises.

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