Carrie

Carrie

1976

Director- Brian De Palma

Cast- Sissy Spacek, William Katt, Nancy Allen, John Travolta, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, P.J. Soles, Beth Buckley

            

   Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) is a lonely teenager, growing up in a single parent home, raised by her hyper religious mother (Piper Laurie) who has demonized sexuality and told Carrie nothing about it other than it is evil. When Carrie begins having her period at school she freaks out, thinking that she’s dying. The other girls quickly use it as a way to shame and humiliate her. Carrie bears a secret though. She has burgeoning telekinetic powers and they lash out when she is angry.

            

    The high school gym teacher (Buckley) tries to protect Carrie by punishing the girls involved. One of the girls, Sue (Amy Irving) learns her lesson and begins to feel sorry for Carrie. Another girl, Chris (Nancy Allen) hates Carrie even more now. Sue comes up with a plot to make Carrie feel better, by having her boyfriend (William Katt) take Carrie to the prom. Chris, on the other hand, comes up with a plot to humiliate Carrie even further, with the help of her boyfriend (John Travolta).

            

   The supernatural elements aren’t the main story here, they are just a plot device. The real story is the lonely, social isolation of Carrie. She is a marginalized, beaten down person. She is rejected by peers, abused by her mother. It’s a grim lesson ,I guess, that the better angels of our nature don’t always win, because Chris’s plot to humiliate Carrie ultimately prevails. When this happens, Carrie snaps and her powers run wild, resulting in a chaotic massacre.

            

    This movie is a “classic” and is mandatory viewing amongst many horror fans, but it’s also 43 years old, so probably many fans have not seen it. The film is based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name, the first of his novels to be published (I guess he knocked it out of the park on the first swing). Even people who haven’t seen the film have seen the classic imagery of Carrie White, covered in blood. That image has inspired uncountable tributes and homages over the years.

    

   The movie was made for a little under 2 million and made almost 34 million (proof that horror is the most profitable genre). This was helped by a tremendous amount of talent. Brian DePalma was a very successful and influential director through the 1980’s giving us Scarface, Carlito’s Way and the incredibly well received The Untouchables. Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie were both nominated for Oscars for their portrayals. Amy Irving went on to a long career, including starring in The Fury, another DePalma film about a kid with special powers. Nancy Allen had a long career as well, starring in several more DePalma movies. She is probably best known today as Lewis, the spunky partner to Robocop. John Travolta had the most success of the actors involved and the next few years was a golden age for him, making Saturday Night Fever, Grease, and Urban Cowboy within the next four years. P.J. Soles, who played Chris’s minion, had a successful few

year herself, starring in John Capenter’s Halloween (1978), Rock n’ Roll High School (1979), Private Benjamin (1980),  and Stripes (1981). Of the entire cast, William Katt is probably the most beloved by genre fans. He was the star of the superhero TV show, The Greatest American Hero and the horror/ comedy movie, House. 

            

     The film, despite its age, is particularly relevant today, even more relevant than when it premiered.  The prevalence of disconnection and disaffection in today’s youth, pervasive bullying fueled by “social” media and a general lack of empathy in society, has created an entire generation of kids who have grown up under the threat of school violence. Carrie was a few decades ahead of its time.

The Pit and the Pendulum

 

The Pit and the Pendulum

1961

Director- Roger Corman

Cast- Vincent Price, Barbara Steele, John Kerr, Luana Anders, Antony Carbone

            

   The story begins with a nobleman, Francis (John Kerr) visiting the castle of Nicholas Medina (Vincent Price) and his sister, Elizabeth (Luana Anders). Nicholas was married to Francis’ sister (Barbara Steele) and she died under mysterious circumstances. Francis has come to find out the truth.

            

    Nicholas, however, is reluctant to tell Francis the truth because he himself has a dark secret. His father was a torturer for the Inquisition and carried out his trade in the castle. Nicholas’ father, suspecting that his wife was having an affair with his brother, tortured his brother to death and entombed his wife, alive, within the castle walls.

            

    The family doctor (Carbone) visits the castle and relates that Francis’ sister died of fright. He says the castle has a gloomy presence and that she had become obsessed with it. One day she ventured into the torture chamber and saw something that scared her to death. Meanwhile, Nicholas, because of what happened to his mother, lives under the paranoid delusion that his wife was also buried alive and that now her spirit haunts him. As Francis continues to investigate , we are treated to twists and suprises until finally the terrible truth is revealed.

       

     

      Poe fans that are hoping for a faithful adaptation will be sorely disappointed as the Poe story only serves as an inspiration. If, on the other hand, you want a well put together, creepy, gothic, psychological thriller then you’ll be very satisfied. The screenplay was by horror great Richard Matheson, author of I am Legend. The film is a follow up to the previous year’s House of Usher, which teamed up a Matheson script with director Roger Croman and actor Vincent Price. In many ways, it is a remake in that it explores similar themes; an outsider visiting a cursed family, an enmeshed brother and sister, premature burial etc.

            

     This was a very successful and influential film. Many more Poe influenced stories followed. That of course, could be cynically viewed as Hollywood cashing in on a formula. But its influence was felt far beyond Hollywood and could be seen in many of the Italian gothic horror movies of the next ten years. In particular, its theme of unravelling sanity would be visited many times by the genre. The only complaint I have is that there isn’t enough Barbara Steel. Interestingly, this filmed premiered 1 year and a day after Steele’s most famous work, BlackSunday.

Bloodsucking Freaks

Bloodsucking Freaks (The Incredible Torture Show, Sardu: Master of Screaming Virgins)

1976

Director- Joel M. Reed

Cast- Seamus O'Brien, Viju Krem, Niles McMaster, Dan Fauci, Alan Dellay, Ernie Pysher, Luis De Jesus, Alphonso DeNoble, Illa Howe, Carol Mara, Ellen Faison, Helen Thompson, Linda Small, Lynette Sheldon

            

   Master Sardu (O’Brien) runs a sex slavery / snuff ring. He has women kidnapped and tortured by his demented servant Ralphus ( De Jesus). Some he sells to important rich people. Most he uses in his “art” show. He tortures the women with Skinnerian behavior modification until they become mindless servants who will do whatever he says, including letting him torture them to death. He then publically executes them in front of a live audience who are told that it’s just special effects. The crowd oohs and ahs and claps, not realizing (or admitting to themselves) that they’ve just witnessed murder.

            

    Sardu gets ambitious and kidnaps an eminent ballerina (Krem) to use as the showcase in a special show that he has planned, along with a critic who has panned his “art.” Her boyfriend, a celebrity football player, hires a crooked cop to find her. Along the way we are exposed to torture, cannibalism, necrophilia, mutilation, and dismemberment.

            

    This movie brings up the old question, is it art or is it porn? This question comes up with a lot of films from the 1970’s especially with the works of JessFranco, but also with films like The Devil in Miss Jones. However, in these cases, the presence of graphic sex is what creates the debate of art or porn. Bloodsucking Freaks features copious amounts of nudity, as all of the girls are featured in various stages of undress. The problem though, at least as far as trying to classify this movie, is not the sex, but the combination of sexual imagery with violence, especially sexual violence towards women.

       

   

     Any good horror film should elicit an emotional reaction. This is why the combination of sex and death usually works so well in horror; it creates a combination of feelings that normally aren’t experienced together in daily life. The question with Bloodsucking Freaks is whether this is art designed to produce such a reaction, or just something appealing to our basest, sickest desires. This is one of the oldest examples of the so-called “torture porn” genre (Two Thousand Maniacs! came out a few years earlier), and it’s obvious to see how it influenced later films like Hostel, Human Centipede or Serbian Film. However, Bloodsucking Freaks is so outlandish, and at times silly, it doesn’t have the same sinister feel as those films, which makes it a little easier to take.

            

     The concept of the film is actually pretty clever. Sardu’s audience enjoys watching sexual torture, but they keep their consciences clear by telling themselves that it’s all just a show. In that respect, we the viewers are much the same as his audience. The film’s reputation was helped (or hurt, I’m not sure) by the fact that it’s lead actor Seamus O'Brien was murdered by burglar a few years later. If the film had been handled by someone like David Cronenberg you’d have a well-respected horror story; a deep psychological examination coupled with body horror.  What we got though, is a pretty graphic example of exploitation and a movie that is still controversial today, but as one of the characters proclaims, “Who am I to say what’s art and what isn’t?”

Killer Barbys

Killer Barbys (AKA Vampire Killer Barbys)

1996

Director- Jess Franco

Cast-Silvia Superstar, Santiago Segura, Mariangela Giordano, Aldo Sambrell, Charlie S. Chaplin,  Carlos Subterfuge, Los Angeles Barea, Billy King, Pepa López

            

  The main attraction in this film is the Spanish rock group The Killer Barbies, fronted by the beautiful Silvia Superstar. Why the name of the group and the name of the movie are spelled differently, I have no idea. Lost in translation perhaps? The band is leaving a gig and their van breaks down. They accept the hospitality of a stranger who invites them to stay the night in the local castle (perfectly reasonable, right?).

            

    The castle is the home of an aging movie star.  She is decrepit and rotting but uses the blood of sacrifices to bring back her youth, ala Elizabeth Bathory.  She has a loyal servant who procures victims for her. He is in turn served by a crazy man (played by Santiago Segura who fans may recognize as the Satanic metal head from El Dia de la Bestia ) and his little people minions. The band members catch on, but not before some gratuitous nudity and gruesome deaths ensue.

            

    If I hadn’t known that this movie was directed by Jess Franco, I wouldn’t have guessed in a million years that he was the director. It just feels very different than anything else I’d seen by him. Now granted, he was most prolific in the 60s and 70s and I guess I know him mostly from those films, so it’s natural that he would have changed over the next 20 years.

  However, even though the film was made in the mid-90s, it feels like a film from the late 70s or early 80s. The 90s have some good horror movies but I think the decade was a little weak compared to the 60s-80s, at least in terms of originality. Killer Barbys returns to the gothic settings and wilder, more unpredictable feel of an earlier decade. Or maybe that’s just the Spanish influence, who knows. If it weren’t for some of the grunge inspired hair dos, you’d think this movie was made around 1980. At any rate, this is a low budget movie, and it shows in several places. However, it’s got spirit, and is fun at times. It’s not a return to Franco’s earlier days of glory, but it shows that even in the tail end of his (incredibly long) career, he could still put together an entertaining movie. A sequel, The Killer Barbys vs. Dracula, was made in 2002.

 

Dr. Sleep

Dr. Sleep 

2019

Director- Mike Flanagan

Cast- Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson, Kyliegh Curran, Cliff Curtis, Carl Lumbly, Zahn McClarnon, Emily Alyn Lind, Alex Essoe, Carel Struycken, Henry Thomas

           

   OK, fair warning, I have not read the book that this film is based on, so I have no idea how it compares. Also, fair warning, this movie is a direct sequel to the movie The Shining, so if you haven’t seen The Shining, there is no point in seeing this film until you do. You’d likely be scratching your head a lot. Given that The Shining is almost 40 years old, it’s entirely likely that many people, even many horror fans, haven’t seen it. So, I won’t summarize The Shining. If you’ve seen it, then there is no need, and if you haven’t, I don’t want to spoil it for you.

        

   

   Dr. Sleep takes elements from The Shining and extrapolates them. First, it asks the questions, if someone did have the “gifts” that Danny Torence had in The Shining, what would it be like to grow up with that, especially after suffering the trauma he had. Danny, as an adult, has plunged down a black hole of alcoholism (following in his dad’s footsteps) in an effort to shut out the visions that his gifts provide. He has also become a loner and a little cynical. He ends up in a small town and is befriended by a recovering alcoholic that helps him start his life over. Meanwhile, through the years, Danny maintains a long distance relationship with a sort of psychic pen pal, a little girl named Abra that communicates with him telepathically.

    The second question it asks is what if other people had these gifts and they were evil. That brings us to Rose the Hat (wonderfully played by Rebecca Fergeson) and her crew of supernaturally powered sociopaths. They track down and murder other people with special gifts, sucking off their energy so that they can live forever. They are vampires in every sense of the word. Rose becomes aware of Abra’s existence, and Danny must leave the new life that he has made for himself to save Abra from Rose.

        

  

    There are appearances of characters from the first film; Wendy, little Danny, Jack Torence, the creepy twins, and Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers in The Shining). This is done with actors playing the parts and that was fine with me. I’m not a fan of trying to CGI older actors to look young or dead actors to look alive. It never looks right. It never fools your eye.

            

    Ewan McGregor turns in a fine performance as always and the movies ingénue,  Kyliegh Curran, adequately handles the heavy lifting required of a big role for a young actor. Of course, the villains are the real attraction, right? Carel Struycken (Lurch from the Addams Family movies and Star Trek: The Next Generation) is Grandpa Flick, an ancient psychic vampire who seems to be the groups spiritual leader. Crow Daddy (Zahn McClarnon) is Rose’s right hand man and a cold killer in his own right. Snakebite Andi (Emily Alyn Lind) is the youngest member of the gang, a 15 year old Lolita that takes quickly to the life of a vampire.

   

Rose the Hat , though, steals the show. I think an actor can go their whole career and not get a role like this, and Rebecca Ferguson takes full advantage of it. Rose is an attractive, charismatic bohemian, the kind of free spirit you would have seen in a coffee shop in the 90s or brewing an herbal mint tea. Beneath that though is an utterly callous murderer that gladly tortures and kills children in order to preserve her own youth. I don’t want to be presumptuous, but Rose might be in my top 10 all-time villains list. Maybe that’s a knee jerk reaction, but she is that good.

If you are expecting another The Shining, you will be sorely disappointed. Nobody can beat Kubrick and that movie was an example of all of the right pieces coming together at the right time. It’s not reproducible. However, if you want a worthy sequel that continues the story, preserving the tone of the original while making its own mark, then I think Dr. Sleep will leave you satisfied (but pee before you go in, at 2 and a half hours, you get your money’s worth).

 

UPDATE- I’ve haven’t updated one of my reviews before, I guess there was no need. But I thought this was worth it. Three months after seeing the movie in the theatre, I’ve had the chance to see the director’s cut on Blu-ray. It’s 30 minutes longer making the movie a 3 hour epic. The additions don’t change the direction or feel of the movie but do enhance the enjoyment. There are a few extra short scenes but most of the additions are to already existing scenes. Some scenes run a few seconds longer, some a few minutes.

            

     As for my opinion of the film, it’s still much the same as it was 3 months ago. I still think Rose is one of the best villains in horror movie history. I think what makes this movie so enjoyable is that it respects the viewers intelligence. It doesn’t spell out the supernatural phenomenon, believing that you will be smart enough to figure out what is happening and why.

       Since you’ll be watching this at home now, you don’t have to worry about peeing before you start the film, but make sure you have some snacks, because you’re not going to want to stop watching once you start.

Spider Baby

 

Spider Baby

1967

Director- Jack Hill

Cast- Lon Chaney Jr., Sid Haig, Jill Banner, Carol Ohmart, Quinn Redeker, Beverly Washburn

            

   The tagline for the film was “The Maddest Story Ever Told”, but in fact this was a deceptively clever film. It was made with the talent of a big budget film but the energy and originality of an indie cult classic.

           

    Various members of the Merrye family suffer from a congenital disorder that begins to express itself around puberty. As their bodies grow older their minds start to regress to a primitive state, until, at adulthood they are little more than animals. Lon Chaney Jr. plays Bruno, a loyal servant to the family that swore an oath to its patriarch to watch over the family’s surviving members, which in this case, are 3 adolescent children in various stages of regression.

            

     Elizabeth (Beverly Washburn) is the least deranged of the trio and watches over her siblings when Bruno is away. She has a child’s morality and separates everyone into those she hates or likes and often tells others who they should hate. Virginia (Jill Banner) likes to pretend that she is a spider (hence the name of the movie). She refers to other people as “bugs” that she catches in her web and stings them. Occasionally her game turns deadly. Virginia is not evil. The gravity of what she does escapes her, like a cat playing with a mouse.  Ralph (Sid Haig in one of his earliest roles) is the oldest and most “devolved” of the group. He is reduced to grunts and points and acts like a horny caveman most of the time.

           

     A distant cousin, unaffected by the malady, wants to take advantage of the family to get access to their home and wealth. She brings her brother, her lawyer and the lawyer’s assistant to the family home with the intention of having Bruno declared unfit to raise the children and have the children taken away and made wards of the state. Bruno objects but is powerless to stop them. Despite his objections,  the group insists on staying in the home. Bruno tries to keep the children in line but eventually their true natures assert themselves and people start coming to bad ends.

     

   

       The roles of the 3 children are great roles and I imagine the actors had a fun time exploring such interesting characters.  They display a real family dynamic that gives it authenticity. Virginia and Elizabeth, display a sibling rivalry but side with each other when outsiders appear. Ralph, as the older brother, is adored by his younger sisters who seem giddy when he appears. The girls don’t seem oblivious to his deteriorating state as much as it just doesn’t matter to them. Lon Chaney Jr. was always good as an amiable character and he turns in the same sort of worried but lovable performance that made his Wolfman so enjoyable.

           

     The movie was made in 1964 but due to problems with the studio it wasn’t released until 1967. Lon Chaney Jr. was on the tail end of his career, and would die a few years later, but he doesn’t phone in his performance. Sid Haig, of course, went on to an incredibly prolific and long career, becoming most famous for his role in Rob Zombie’s Devil’s Rejects films. Beverly Washburn had a long career before and after Spider Baby. Her film and TV credits span from 1950 through 2018! Jill Banner, who played the Spider Baby, went on to act for a few more years (including several episodes of Dragnet) before leaving Hollywood. Unfortunately she died young from a car accident. It’s too bad that Spider Baby wasn’t more popular. I think her character could have become one of those quirky goth icons like Lydia Deetz or Wednesday Addams.

           

    There are several reasons to see the film. First, you get to see 2 horror icons, Lon Chaney Jr. and Sid Haig, on the screen together. Second, it’s a very original film. It walks the line carefully between horror and black humor. It is a fun, entertaining film with good performances from all involved.

   

House of Usher

 

House of Usher

1960

Director- Roger Corman

Cast- Vincent Price, Mark Damon, Myrna Fahey, Harry Ellerbe

           

     Phillip (Mark Damon) has traveled to the mansion of the Usher family to see his fiancé Madeline (Myrna Fahey) and meet her family. He is greeted by the family butler (Harry Ellerbe) and Madeline’s brother Roderick (played by a very emo Vincent Price with blonde hair and without his trademark mustache). Roderick refuses to let Phillip leave with Madeline but he is very vague as to why. For her part, Madeline is ambivalent and depressed, resigned to some mysterious fate.

            

     After some persistent nagging, Phillip discovers that the Usher family lives under a curse, or at least Roderick believes so. The Ushers have always been evil; murderers, traitors, scammers, etc. Roderick believes that their house is evil and that their blood is tainted, and that the only way to end the curse is to let their bloodline die off.

            

     The Usher house seems to be tied to the fate of the family, and with only two members of the family left, the house seems to be ready to cave in at any time. Phillip tries futilely to convince Madeline to leave with him and Roderick is willing to do whatever takes to end his family curse, including murdering his sister!

            

     The film explores several different themes. One is the idea of a place being evil. This idea was explored years later with the Marston House in Stephen King’s Salem Lot. Another theme is the idea of generational evil, evil that is not a product of choices but of blood, passed down over the years. And of course, the film never explicitly spells it out for us, so it is up to the viewer to decide if the curse is real or Roderick’s delusions.

    

      This was the first of several Vincent Price /Roger Corman collaborations based (loosely) on the works of Edgar Allen Poe. The screenplay was by Richard Matheson, the best horror screenplay writer ever. A lot of elements of this film show up in the next collaboration, Pit and the Pendulum. The Corman/ Price films began the 2^nd phase of Price’s career and signaled the start of a prolific decade for him. Today, Corman’s name may be synonymous with low budget, on par with Troma, but his Price-Poe pictures were very important films that had an impact on horror for decades afterward, and this film was the start of that.

            

    Mark Damon, who played Phillip, though an unknown name to most, has had an extremely long, prolific, and important career. He starred in several other horror films including The Devil’s Wedding Night. He was a producer on many important, successful films including Das Boot, The Never Ending Story, Monster with Charlize Theron and The Lost Boys!!!