Possession (1981)

POSSESSION (1981)
Article 5157 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-15-2016
Directed by Andrzej Zulawski
Featuring Isabelle Adjani, Sam Neill, Margit Carstensen
Country: France / West Germany
What it is: Intense Art-house horror

After returning home from a mysterious business trip, a husband discovers that his marriage has crumbled and his wife is leaving him. The discovery unhinges him and he begins taking desperate actions to win her back. But the wife is fairly unhinged herself, and she’s harboring a secret that is truly disturbing…

According to IMDB, it is rumored that director/writer Andrzej Zulawski was going through a divorce at the time he wrote this. If so, it must have been one unpleasant experience to yield this movie. Given the fact that it’s something of an art film, you might find yourself suspecting the horror classification will turn out to be something of a false lead; certainly, the first forty-five minutes will lead you to be believe this is mainly an intense and sometimes shrill divorce drama. It’s only when you find out what’s inside the wife’s new apartment that the film takes its turn into horror, and not just a mild turn, either; there are reasons this one ended up on the UK’s “Video Nasties” list. Nevertheless, it is an art film; parts of it don’t really make rational sense, and it comes as very much a personal expression from a man who is in a very bad place. It’s loud, hysterical, frantic, bloody, and hard to sit through (you will get tired of hearing people constantly scream at each other), but it does feel that it was meant to be cathartic. Isabelle Adjani apparently said it took her several years to recover from this role, and I believe it; many of her scenes look utterly exhausting. I’m not sure if I quite believe it is a classic, but it does appear to be one of those movies that needs to seriously be reckoned with.

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Hu-Man (1975)

HU-MAN (1975)
Article 5156 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-14-2016
Directed by Jerome Laperrousaz
Featuring Terence Stamp, Jeanne Moreau, Agnes Stevenin
Country: France
What it is: Arty science fiction

An actor, still hurting over the suicide of his wife, is coaxed by an old lover to take part in a time travel experiment where he is placed in dangerous situations which are shown on television, and the energy harnessed by the audience can move him through time.

This movie ended up on my “ones that got away” list several years ago, and at that time it was considered a lost film. However, a print appeared about a year ago, and I finally got a chance to see it. Unfortunately, there are no English subtitles or dubbing on it, so I’m left to the mercy of my imagination and what few plot descriptions I could find. I’m glad I did find the latter; the movie might well have been impenetrable to me otherwise, and I suspect even with dubbing I would have had a hard time grasping it. Fortunately, much of the movie is visual; there are long sequences of Terence Stamp (playing a character of the same name) wandering through various landscapes, and some of the visual content is very striking. The movie also makes some very interesting use of sound and music, and some of the songs on the soundtrack are in English. I was able to have some appreciation of the movie on this level, but my lack of proficiency in the French language deprives me of making any real meaningful review of this one. However, I do consider myself fortunate to have finally seen such an elusive movie.

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Milano odia: La polizia non puo sparare (1974)

MILANO ODIA: LA POLIZIA NON PUO SPARARE (1974)
aka Almost Human
Article 5155 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-12-2016
Directed by Umberto Lenzi
Featuring Tomas Milian, Henry Silva, Laura Belli
Country: Italy
What it is: Crime thriller

A small-time psychotic crook hits upon a kidnapping scheme to put him in the big time. He’s not going to let anyone get in his way. But how far will the policeman who is chasing him go to catch him?

This crime thriller was marketed as a horror movie in certain quarters, which was probably tempting to do given that the English title lends itself to that interpretation. There’s no doubt that the villain is a psychotic madman, so it nudges into horror on that item, but it definitely plays out like a crime movie rather than a horror movie. It is, however, a very good if brutal crime thriller, with strong performances from Tomas Milian, who practically oozes twitchy psychosis, and Henry Silva, effectively cast against type as a police inspector. It’s one of those movies where you don’t harbor much hope for any of the side characters; at least one of them knows that there’s no hope for them, but given what they know about their boss, I’m a little surprised that the villain’s accomplices weren’t better prepared for what was going to be their fate. Yeah, there’s a few cliches here as well, but the convincing performances are what sell the movie.

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Wild Beasts (1984)

WILD BEASTS (1984)
aka Wild beasts – Belve feroci
Article 5154 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-12-2016
Directed by Franco Prosperi
Featuring Lorraine De Selle, John Aldrich, Ugo Bologna
Country: Italy
What it is: Nature goes wild

When drugs get into Frankfurt’s water supply, animals at the zoo are exposed to it. They become savage, and when they escape the zoo, the city is terrorized.

Before seeing this, you may want to be aware the director Franco Prosperi’s oeuvre mostly consists of (sometimes uncredited) directorial work on movies like MONDO CANE, which are known as shockumentaries. This may prepare you for one of the most offensive elements of this movie; for the sake of realism, real animals were killed for this movie, and this is mostly noticeable during two sequences, one in which a swarm of rats is set on fire, and one in which some of the wild animals are let loose in a slaughterhouse where they attack cows, pigs and horses. Other scenes give me the sense that he had the animals just let loose in certain environments and filmed whatever happened, such as a scene where cattle on a stampede break into a restaurant. It’s a latecomer in the “nature gone wild” subgenre that became popular in the seventies, and we get attacks of marauding rats, cheetahs, tigers, elephants and a polar bear. Some of the scenes are effective, but others are not and much of the acting is terrible. There’s a bizarre theme about parents and children being at war with each other that pops up sporadically, and this will give you a clue to the climax of the movie. Whatever its merits (some people find it effective, others don’t), the treatment of the animals makes it a movie I find impossible to enjoy.

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Wacko (1982)

WACKO (1982)
Article 5153 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-11-2016
Directed by Greydon Clark
Featuring Joe Don Baker, Stella Stevens, George Kennedy
Country: USA
What it is: Slasher parody

Thirteen years ago, a killer wearing a pumpkin head did away with teenagers going to the Halloween Pumpkin Prom. Today, a cop believes the killer will return, but who will it be? Is it Zeke, the janitor? The Weirdo? The Looney?

I have to admit that my heart goes out to this one, if for no other reason that in attempting a parody of the slasher genre (and any number of other horror movies such as THE OMEN, THE EXORCIST, PSYCHO, THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU, etc.), it chooses to approach it in the throw-everything-against-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks style of AIRPLANE!. If more of it stuck, it might have been good, but I’d say a good eighty percent of it falls flat. The only thing that sticks consistently (and easily the best thing in the movie) is Joe Don Baker as the cop who is determined to catch the killer. He does a hilarious parody of the slob cop type of role that he did in MITCHELL, and he proves remarkably adept at comedy. The movie’s biggest problems were that it often played things way too broadly (AIRPLANE! was often very deadpan), and it had a tendency to beat its running jokes into the ground. Still, I’ll give it a few points for trying, and Baker makes it worth catching.

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Alien 2 (1980)

ALIEN 2 (1980)
aka Alien 2 sulla Terra, Strangers
Article 5152 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-10-2016
Directed by Ciro Ippolito and Biagio Proietti
Featuring Belinda Mayne, Mark Bodin, Roberto Barrese
Country: Italy
What it is: Not a sequel, but owes a bit to the original

A space capsule brings living rocks to Earth, where they inhabit human bodies and cause them to explode. Can a telepathic woman do battle with them while spelunking?

Reportedly, 20th Century Fox wanted to sue the makers of this film for using “Alien” in the title, but they lost the case because it was found that a novel from the thirties also had the title “Alien”. Not that anyone is likely to mistake this low-budget Italian movie for a real sequel to the original; the musical score during the opening credits convinced me this movie wasn’t even in the same universe. This is not to say that the movie wasn’t inspired by ALIEN, but all it’s really interested in imitating is the use of gory “aliens-bursting-out-of-human-bodies” special effects, only having them burst out of the head rather than the chest, not because it makes more sense, but because it’s grosser. Those choosing to wend their way through this movie will have to endure quite a bit of shaky camerawork and dead time before the gory effects manifest themselves; most of the movie consists of hanging around with a bunch of young adults in a cave. The movie generates very little suspense, despite the best efforts of a musical score to make it seem gripping. The ending is no better than the rest of the movie. I am left with one question, though; why, at the end of the movie, is the machinery in the bowling alley going gangbusters at setting up pins and delivering bowling balls when the place is deserted?

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The Sex Machine (1975)

THE SEX MACHINE (1975)
aka Conviene far bene l’amore
Article 5151 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-9-2016
Directed by Pasquale Festa Campanile
Featuring Gigi Proietti, Agostina Belli, Eleanora Giorgi
Country: Italy
What it is: Science fiction sex comedy

In the year 2000, mankind has exhausted its energy resources and has regressed to a relatively primitive existence. However, a scientist hopes to tap into a heretofore unsuspected source of energy; that produced by the human body during sex.

Given that the director of this one was the same person who gave us the horrid WHEN WOMEN HAD TAILS, I didn’t exactly hold high hopes for this Italian exploitation comedy. Sure enough, as a sex comedy, I found it witless, though I should point out that much of the blame may go to the translation and dubbing into English; much is usually lost when this happens. Nevertheless, the movie swings into full-blown satire in the second half, and at this point the movie becomes much more interesting, as it investigates the mutability of the civic and religious authorities in coping with the discovery, and their willingness to bend, break, and rewrite the laws of morality to suit this new world. There’s enough thoughtful material in this part of the movie that I wish the whole movie had been focused on that part of the story, but let’s face it; sex is more salable than satire. Nonetheless, I’m glad there is a bit more to this movie than the leering.

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Un horrible cauchemar (1902)

UN HORRIBLE CAUCHEMAR (1902)
aka A Horrible Nightmare
Article 5150 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-8-2016
Directed by Ferdinand Zecca
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: A bad dream

An opium smoker has a nightmare in which he is in an inescapable prison and tormented by a disappearing devil.

If this is the kind of experience you have when smoking opium, it’s just as well I never took up the habit. It’s your basic bare-bones Melies imitation; even the elaborate background painting smacks of Melies’s style, and the devil is like a variation on Melies’s ubiquitous tumbling imps. And if the ending is any indication, then your Teddy Bear is going to get the worst of the experience. At any rate, it’s a fairly amusing early trick short.

On a side note, when I first conceived of this project, my first strategy was to watch all of the movies in a strict chronological order. I abandoned this approach as it would have been a logistical nightmare; the silent era is full of difficult-to-find obscurities, and research on the era is full of so much misinformation that I would have rapidly gotten mired in the project and it would have never gotten off the ground. Instead, I chose a much looser approach (which has a chronological edge to it) that would allow me to start with movies much easier to find, and I’m glad I did. Still, the silent era fascinates me, and even this late in the game, some of these elusive titles pop up and I can still cover them.

However, I really do owe a debt of thanks to all of those who have taken an interest in my project and have pointed me in the direction of finding some of the rarities I’ve seen, especially those who have helped me negotiate the pitfalls of the silent era. This movie initially ended up on my “ones that got away” list with a LOST status, but then doctor kiss at the Classic Horror Film Board revealed that he had located the movie in a streaming file of unidentified Pathe shorts, giving me a chance to catch a movie I might otherwise have never seen. I dedicate this review to all of those who have been generous in their help; this project wouldn’t be the same without their help.

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Further developments…

After the death of my local “Creature Feature”, I didn’t lose interest in fantastically themed movies. Though I no longer had the regular TV show, there were other developments that had an impact on me.

One was that I started to hunt for and collect books that featured lists of the types of movies I wanted to see. Some books I was able to find at local book stores; I found most of the John Stanley “Creature Feature movie guides” that way. Others were more difficult and more elusive. However, I eventually discovered a resource called “The Movie/TV Entertainment Book Club”. They offered books about movies and TV shows, including many from a book company known as MacFarlane.

Perhaps my favorite title from them was Bill Warren’s two-volume set, “Keep Watching the Skies”, dedicated to science fiction movies from the fifties, my favorite era. It was a joy reading through these books, and hearing about obscure titles from that period that never showed up on my local Creature Feature. How I wished I could actually watch all of these movies, but it seemed impossible.

However, other developments were changing the movie landscape. The rise of home video opened up the possibilities of actually possessing copies of these movies for repeated viewing. The rise of VCRs was next, allowing the recording of movie off of the TV, and with the ability to program them ahead of time, it was possible to catch things in the middle of the night or at times when you weren’t home. The rise of cable TV suddenly and dramatically increased the number of movies being shown on TV. As a result of these developments, I began to build a movie collection from video store purchases and recordings off of TV.

Yet there was one more development that needed to happen: the arrival of the internet. The rest of the world had opened up. More places to buy movies became available, and it was possible to connect with more movie fans than I ever thought possible. Then, one day, I visited the online site for one of my favorite sources for fantastically-themed movies, Sinister Cinema. To my surprise, they had something known as a “message board”, and looked it over. When I discovered that the author of “Keep Watching the Skies” was on the board, I joined in as well. There were other fantastic film historians as well, including Tom Weaver and Ted Newsom. I made several online friends and engaged in interesting discussions.

Everything was in place for me to begin the project…

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Psycho from Texas (1975)

PSYCHO FROM TEXAS (1975)
aka Wheeler
Article 5149 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-7-2016
Directed by Jack Collins and Jim Feazell
Featuring John King III, Herschel Mays, Tommy Lamey
Country: USA
What it is: Southern crime movie

A sadistic serial killer is hired to kidnap a retired oil baron for ransom. However, good help is hard to find…

If there’s any lesson to be learned from this movie, it’s that serial killers may not be the best people to hire for a job; instead of doing their job properly, they may leave the work in the hands of a dimwitted sidekick while they run off pursuing their hobby. But then, there’s another lesson to be gleaned from this; if you’re coming to town to take part in a kidnapping, you shouldn’t first introduce yourself to the kidnap victim, his daughter, and the local sheriff, especially if you find it necessary to kill the latter’s daughter before it’s all through. But I guess being a serial killer doesn’t necessarily mean you’re smart. For the most part, this is just a silly crime movie with a serial killer subplot, and since the most potentially exciting scene (the kidnap victim trying to escape from the stupid sidekick) is played for laughs (including encounters with skunks and hogs), it’s really hard to figure out just what effect the movie is going for. The editing is very clumsy when the movie tries to follow several story threads at once, the music is all over the board and not always right for the scene, and some of the scenes are downright embarrassing (such as when the black housemaid finds a dead body). The movie seems to be mostly remembered for featuring the debut of Linnea Quigley, who does a nude scene, but you might feel a bit queasy about it; she was born in 1958, and if you consider the year of this movie… well, I’ll let you do the math. However, not to worry – It looks like the Quigley sequence was added to the movie in 1979, four years after the rest of the movie was made.

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