HOWLING VI: THE FREAKS (1991)

 

(Director: Hope Perello. Screenplay by Kevin Rock, loosely based on Gary Brandner’s 1985 novel The Howling III.)

Storyline

A young werewolf is forced to join a malevolent carnival owner’s freak show.

Review

A young man, Ian (Brendan Hughes, RETURN TO HORROR HIGH, 1987), drifts into a small, dying town (Canton Bluff), where he is given room and board if he helps one of the townspeople, Dewey, repair his church. Elizabeth, Dewey’s young adult daughter, also lives with Dewey─a romantic bond forms between Ian and Elizabeth, though Ian is gun-shy about it.

Not long after that, a traveling carnival rolls into town, owned by the manipulative and mellifluous R.B. Harker (Bruce Payne, WARLOCK III: THE END OF INNOCENCE, 1999). The Canton Bluff citizens welcome the carnival, which puts down stakes on the edge of the town. Ian takes Elizabeth there, and Harker, seeing him, senses something about the shy young man. Because it’s that lunar time of the month, Ian turns into a werewolf and runs around town (while harming no one). Harker cages him and outs Ian as a lycanthrope, forcing the gentle young man to become a new attraction for the traveling sideshow. 

Murders rock the town. Ian is blamed for them despite the fact he was in his cage at the time. Can Elizabeth, Ian and the other townspeople stop Harker before more people die?

FREAKS has a mostly solid screenplay, a couple of briefly spooky scenes, and solid acting but its slightly overlong running time and limited budget hobbles the effectiveness of its film quality and its FX (some are good, though Ian’s werewolf makeup is laughable). Having said that, FREAKS is considerably better than its two preceding in-name-only prequels (HOWLING IV: THE ORIGINAL NIGHTMARE and HOWLING V: THE REBIRTH), so if you feel the need to watch one of the later, budget-challenged HOWLING movies, this might be the one to pick─just don’t expect much from this occasionally uneven flick.

B-movie geeks might also note these actors: Antonio Fargas (FIRESTARTER, 1984) as the physically deft Bellamey; Carol Lynley (THE NIGHT STALKER, 1972) as Miss Eddington; Elizabeth Shé (HOWLING: NEW MOON RISING, 1995) as Mary Lou; and Deep Roy (CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, 2005) as the cruel Toones.

A BAY OF BLOOD (1971)

 

(a.k.a. TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE; a.k.a. CARNAGE; a.k.a. THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, PART II; a.k.a. ECOLOGY OF A CRIME. Director/co-screenwriter: Mario Bava. Co-screenwriters: Fillipo Ottoni and Giuseppe Zaccariello, billed as Joseph McLee, their work based on Dardano Sacchetti and Gianfranco Barberi’s story and four other writers’ ideas.)

Storyline

The supposed suicide of a rich countess─shown as a murder─kicks off a spiral cycle of murders along a small shoreline over the course of several days.

 

Review

After a wealthy, wheelchair-bound woman, Countess Federica Donati (Isa Miranda, THE NIGHT PORTER, 1974) is killed by her husband─a crime made to look like a suicide─it sets into motion twelve more violent murders on the Countess’s privately owned island.

Her death is ruled a suicide, and it’s not long before other people come to the island, some to party (four young adults), some to kill and claim the old woman’s property.

BAY is credited with being a proto-slasher flick, a bleak, dark-filtered work that heavily influenced (possibly began) the slasher genre, along with Bob Clark’s 1974 grim-humored masterpiece, BLACK CHRISTMAS. Bava’s last giallo is an atmospheric, hazy, nightmarish succession of clever and cruel deaths, including the simultaneous spearing of two lovers, and a machete to another character’s face (both would later be used in FRIDAY THE 13^th PART 2, 1981─this recycling of these kills, according to FRIDAY producer/director Steve Miner, is because of Phil Scuderi, who co-produced and helped distribute both films. (Miner made these comments in Calum Waddell’s article “Steve Miner Talks About the ‘Friday the 13^th’ Franchise,” The Dark Side magazine, issue 210.)

For viewers trying to follow BAY’s wild storyline, good luck. Few clues are provided for much of the film, and the deaths─in their execution styles and order of dispatch─have a random feel until near the end, when certain facts come to light (via an exposition scene or two), and there’s only so many people left to off. Fans of bright red splatter may delight in Carlo Rambaldi and Bava’s FX, which were graphic, even for a Bava film.

What makes BAY distinctive from other stalk-and-slay gialli is its blending of distinctive quietness between kills (during locale shots of flora, buildings, and water), its spare-use soundtrack (courtesy of Stelvio Cipriani), and its mostly greed-based character motivations and palpable sense of mystery (giving it an almost traditional crime thriller feel).

There’s not a lot of backstory given about the twisty characters, but the actors are effective in their roles.

Claudio Camaso, billed as Claudio Volonté, played Simone, the fisherman. Chris Avram (THE KILLER RESERVED NINE SEATS, 1974) played Franco Ventura. Anna Maria Rosati, billed as Anna M. Rosati, played Laura, Ventura’s lover. Claudine Auger (BLACK BELLY OF THE TARANTULA, 1971) played Renata Donati, Filipo’s estranged daughter. Luigi Pistilli (YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY, 1972) played Alberto, Renata Donati’s husband.

Leopaldo Trieste (DON’T LOOK NOW, 1973) played Paolo Fosatti, one of the Donatis’ neighbors. Laura Betti played Anna Fosatti, Paolo’s wife.

An uncredited Renato Cestiè played Renato and Alberto’s tween son. His same-age sister was played by Nicoletta Elmi (DEEP RED, 1975).

BAY is a standout flick for many reasons, among them its stylistic choices, many of them made because of its ultra-limited budget─only a master filmmaker like Bava could turn serious monetary constraints into a spooky, dreamlike, shocking (for its era) and influential virtue, something he and his crew pull off with relative aplomb. It’s not perfect, but given the conditions it was made under, it’s nothing less than a nasty-minded and miasmic miracle, one that viewers seem to love or hate.

HOWLING V: THE REBIRTH (1989)

 

(Director: Neal Sundstrom, billed as Neal Sundström. Screenplay by Clive Turner and Freddy Rowe, billed as “based on” Gary Brandner’s The Howling trilogy, but it’s not.)

Storyline

While visiting a Hungarian castle, strangers discover they have a werewolf in their midst.

 

Review

Budapest, 1489.  A family, living in a castle, are slain at their dinner table by a couple who kill themselves afterward─just as they discover a baby survived the slaughter.

 Five hundred years later, Count Istvan invites eight strangers to the reopening of his castle. The guests include: former rock star Ray Price (Clive Turner); a distracted Professor Dawson; movie star Anna Stenson; photographer David Gillespie; songwriter Gail Cameron; tennis player Jonathan Lane; playboy Richard Hamilton; and a ditzy, aspiring actress Marylou Summers.

Shortly after they arrive at the snowy abode, Professor Dawson tells Marylou, a loud American, about wolf packs that preyed on local townsfolk a thousand years prior─these packs were, still are, said to be led by a lycanthropic Satan. About the time that happened, the castle’s construction was finished before being abandoned for unknown reasons.

Things quickly go sideways for the guests. Dawson disappears. Count Istvan─who recounted the 1489-slaughter tale to them over breakfast─tells the others Dawson left, without saying anything more about it. It’s clear he’s hiding something. And a fierce winter storm has trapped them in the castle.

Flirtations, sex, more deaths, suspicion, and allegiance-switching occur. Eventually, the reasons for their invitations become clear. The identity of the killer and the ending, not unexpected, are solid.

This campy, supranatural take on Agatha Christie’s 1940 novel And Then There Were None has good, character-interesting moments in it. Unfortunately, REBIRTH runs long in the middle before picking up near the end.

REBIRTH’s players are mostly solid. Some of the characters are off-putting, but that seems intentional. Solid performances include: Phil Davis (ALIEN 3, 1992) as Count Istvan; Nigel Triffitt as Professor Dawson; Elizabeth Shé (HOWLING VI: THE FREAKS, 1991) as Marylou Summers; Mark Sivertson (VAMPIRES, 1998) as Jonathan Hammet; Victoria Catlin (MANIAC COP, 1988) as Dr. Catherine Peake; William Shockley (SHOWGIRLS, 1995) as Richard Hamilton; Stephanie Faulkner (J.D.’S REVENGE, 1976) as the no-nonsense Gail Cameron.

The FX are not great but, given REBIRTH’s limited budget, are worthwhile─the werewolf itself gets a few seconds of screen time, so if you’re looking for good werecreature footage, skip this one (I appreciate that the producers didn’t foist a crappy-looking shapeshifter on REBIRTH’s viewers).  The violence is mostly off-screen, with torn-out throats seen post-assault.

REBIRTH is an uneven film. Its storyline, its atmosphere, its players, and some of its early scenes are promising, but its overlong running time leads to some dull moments. It’s still more entertaining and amusing (intentionally so) than its predecessor (HOWLING IV: THE ORIGINAL NIGHTMARE, 1988) but I’d suggest that only franchise completists and core genre fans spend time on this fifth outing.

CAT PEOPLE (1942)

 

(Director: Jacques Tourneur. Screenwriter: DeWitt Bodeen.)

Storyline

A Serbian immigrant woman weds an American man, triggering her superstitious belief that she’ll turn into jungle cat if she has sex with her husband.

 

Review

When an American, Oliver Reed (Kent Smith, THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE, 1944), marries a Serbian fashion artist, the neurotic Irena Dubrovna (Simone Simon, THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE, 1944), it exacerbates an irrational terror within her. She fears that if she kisses her husband, she’ll turn into a jungle cat and tear him apart. Her terror and his frustration are heightened when he and his close co-worker, Alice Moore (Jane Randolph, THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE, 1944), realize they’re in love.

A psychiatrist, Dr. Louis Judd (Tom Conway, THE SEVENTH VICTIM, 1943), tries to help the distraught Irena, who stalks Alice and Oliver at night. (Conway reprised his character in SEVENTH, a character-linked prequel to CAT.)

Irena’s downward emotional trajectory worsens, underscoring an increasingly dangerous question: can she be saved before she transforms, goes murderously insane?

At seventy-three minutes, this is a stunning film. The psychological and nuanced potency of DeWitt Bodeen’s taut, character-sketched screenplay is further brought to iconic and suspenseful life by its visual and musical aspects. Roy Webb’s score is dramatic without being overly so; art directors Albert S. D’Agostino and Walter E. Keller’s use of chiaroscuro and animation is enhanced by Nicholas Muscuraca’s cinematography, Mark Robson’s editing and Jacques Tourneur’s direction.

Acting-wise, all the players are dead-on in their roles. The leads are backed by notable actors, including Alec Craig (THE SPIDER WOMAN, 1943) as a “Zookeeper” and Alan Napier (THE UNINVITED, 1944) as Doc Carver─both Craig and Napier are uncredited in their CAT roles.

CAT is one of my all-time favorite films of any genre, one that is worth seeing if you enjoy suspenseful, psychological films with striking visual aspects and haunting characters. 

HOWLING IV: THE ORIGINAL NIGHTMARE (1988)

 

(Directors: John Hough and an uncredited Clive Turner. Screenplay by Clive Turner and Freddy Rowe, based on Gary Brandner’s The Howling trilogy.)

Storyline

A bestselling author and her husband head to the small town of Drago so she can recover from a mental breakdown, unaware it’s den of werewolves.

 

Review

HOWLING IV is essentially a remake of THE HOWLING (1981). Curiously, this fourth franchise entry is a more faithful adaptation of Gary Brandner’s 1977 novel of the same name.

This time out, it’s a bestselling author, Marie Adams (Romy Windsor, THE HOWLING: NEW MOON RISING, 1997), who has a mental breakdown─she sees visions of a nun who keeps trying to warn her about something, but Marie can’t tell what. Her husband, Richard (Michael T. Weiss, FREEWAY, 1996), suggests they go to a quiet, secluded mountain town he was told about, where Marie can rehabilitate. The town is Drago, the site of lycanthropic happenings in the first film.

At first, it seems close-knit and homey, if gossipy. Night after night, Marie hears “sinister” howls, which people say they don’t hear, or dismiss as coyotes. Marie’s nun-visions occur more often, each successive appearance showing the nun to be more frantic, making Marie, who feels increasingly alone, more neurotic, further driving away her moody, jealous husband. The presence of a flirtatious local artist, Eleanor (replacing the character of Marsha Quist from the first film), does not help Marie’s state of mind─Eleanor clearly has designs on Michael, who’s on shaky ground as far as marital fidelity goes.

Director John Hough (THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE, 1973) has stated in interviews that HOWLING IV is not his work. He was constantly at odds with producer/screenwriter/uncredited director Clive Turner, who undercut Hough’s authority by constantly changing the script, not letting Hough meet co-screenwriter Freddy Rowe (whom Hough believes is a fictional person created by Turner) and other trickery. Once Hough delivered the finished film to Turner, Hough said the producer─who also has a cameo as “Tow Truck Driver”─shot more scenes and drastically recut the film, the version that was released.

It may be for the best for Hough that he can disavow this flick. While it’s mostly solid story-wise (aside from those weird nun-visions and how the werewolves fear the bell tower), its ultra-low budget goes a long way toward ruining it. It was shot without sound, with audio dubbed in post-production, and its uneven sound quality reflects that. It also lacks suspense (a good soundtrack would have helped) and there are a few instances of questionable editing. Its FX (melting-puddle werewolves?) are laughable─according to FX artist Steve Johnson who worked on the film, the FX team’s creative hands were tied by Turner and HOWLING IV’s financial constraints.

Normally, I would not criticize a film for its limited budget, but given some of the unnecessary scenes and other questionable creative choices made in the film, HOWLING IV could have better used its resources to deliver an improved movie─I’ve seen other filmmakers do it, why not Turner and (possibly) company?

Two of HOWLING IV ‘s other horror-notable actors: Susanne Severeid (DON’T ANSWER THE PHONE, 1980) as Janice, a friendly visitor with secrets; Lamya Derval (HELLHOLE, 1985) as Eleanor, Michael’s temptress artist.

Can you skip this one? Absolutely.

THE SEVENTH VICTIM (1943)

 

(Director: Mark Robson. Screenwriter: Charles O’Neal and DeWitt Bodeen.)

Storyline

A naïve young woman goes to New York City to find her more worldly sister, who’s disappeared─and is being targeted by a satanic cult.

 

Review

Mary Gibson (Kim Hunter, THE KINDRED, 1987), a student in a Catholic boarding school, heads to New York City when her sister, Jacqueline (Jean Brooks, THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS, 1940), disappears. Once there, Mary discovers that Jacqueline sold her cosmetics business (La Sagesse) and that, around the same time, she somehow crossed a satanic cult, the shrouded-in-mystery Palladists.

The mystery of her sister’s disappearance grows darker when an ally─a private investigator, Irving August (an uncredited Lou Lubin)─is stabbed by an unseen assailant, dying in front of Mary while his murderer escapes.

More creepy, suspenseful weirdness occurs. Mary is aided in her quest by Gregory Ward (Hugh Beaumont, THE MOLE PEOPLE, 1956), Jacqueline’s husband, and Jason Hoag (Erford Gage), a poet who’s friends with Jacqueline. Their help leads them to Dr. Louis Judd (Tom Conway), Jacqueline’s psychiatrist─a reprise of Conway’s character in Jacques Tourneur’s loosely linked sequel, CAT PEOPLE (1942). Eventually, things come to a non-violent climax when Mary and her allies directly confront the cultists, with mixed results.

This tightly shot, atmospheric and mostly non-violent thriller is a rewatchable subversive high point in the horror genre. Its stylized look is drenched in plays of shadow and light (courtesy of legendary cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca, CAT PEOPLE, 1942); it goes a long way toward creating a mixed horror-noir vibe while Roy Webb’s score furthers its suspenseful, melancholic mood─Webb, among his other works, scored the 1959 film RETURN OF THE FLY.

Charles O’Neal (CRY OF THE WEREWOLF, 1944) and DeWitt Bodeen (CAT PEOPLE, 1942) penned a slyly written screenplay that brings to the screen themes and settings that the Production Code Administration (PCA), a Catholic-faith forerunner to the MPAA, frowned upon. One of these elements is that of suicide, strong hinted at in a key scene in SEVENTH─a scene I’ve read puzzles modern viewers who seem to be allergic to subtlety, in this case Code-forced subtlety. (Suicides were not allowed to be shown in films in 1943; villainy had to be punished by the law or accidental death.)

Another then-subversive element is that of sexuality. Jacqueline and Dr. Judd’s interactions imply they had an affair, another PCA no-no. Not only that, Frances Fallon (Isabel Jewell, BORN TO KILL, 1947) reacts to Jacqueline’s disappearance and possible death in such a weepy, furious way that it’s obvious there was something more than friendship going on between them. The fact that SEVENTH is set in gay- and lesbian-friendly Greenwich Village, and that at least one funny-quip gay character was shown cements the nature of Jacqueline’s alluded-to relationships.

Some viewers may appreciate a cleverly shot shower scene with Mary that not only slips under the radar of the PCA’s ire but predates Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 thriller PSYCHO by seventeen years. These same viewers may also appreciate seeing an uncredited Elizabeth Russell (THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE, 1944) as Mimi, Jacqueline’s melancholic neighbor.

SEVENTH is a seventy-one-minute gem of a B flick, one that I consider to be perfect, given the period it was made and its multilayered themes, characters and settings, all guided to the screen by producer Val Lewton and director Mark Robson, who brought their talent, passion and editing expertise to it. This is not only worth your time, it’s worth owning.

Citation

“Lewton vs. Breen” by Clive Dawson (The Dark Side magazine, issue 210, pp. 40-9)

HOWLING III (1987)

 

(a.k.a. HOWLING III: THE MARSUPIALS. Director/screenwriter: Phillipe Mora, his script barely based on Gary Brandner’s 1985 book The Howling III.)

Storyline

A young lycanthropic runaway’s bad luck turns when she’s cast in a horror film. Unfortunately, members of her werewolf clan have followed her to the big city to return her to their fold.

 

Review

CAVEAT: possible mini-spoilers in this review.

Billed as a lyncathropic terror flick, HOWLING III is a quirky dramedy punctuated with horror elements. In it, a young woman, Jerboa (Imogen Annesley, QUEEN OF THE DAMNED, 2002) flees her backwater town (Flow) and her abusive stepparent, Thylo (Max Fairchild, THE ROAD WARRIOR, 1981) for a big city, where she─seen on the street by a sharp-eyed film crew member (Donny Martin)─is cast in a werewolf film (SHAPESHIFTERS PART 8).

Meanwhile, an American scientist, Professor Harry Beckmeyer (Barry Otto), working for his government, has flown to Australia (where HOWLING III takes place) to prove that werewolves exist, and stop furry-beast attacks across the globe. Beckmeyer’s not the only one seeking Jerboa─a trio of funny, shapeshifting nuns also track her. It’s not long before Jerboa, pregnant and close to giving birth, and Donny (Lee Biolos, billed as Leigh Biolos) find themselves in Flow, along with Beckmeyer and his associates, who study the town’s denizens in a laboratory. Local hunters and American and Australian soldiers show up as well.

One of the things I like about HOWLING III is how it delves into its distinctive, Oz-centric history, mixed biology, and mythology. I also like how it embraces its amiable, humane and sometimes goofy tone (even if the nun-based storyline fizzles out into an underexplained dead-end, and its ending, echoing that of the first HOWLING film, undercuts the largely positive and solid vibe of what came before it. Though effectively foreshadowed, this finish is character/situation inconsistent.

Unfortunately, HOWLING III sometimes comes off as unintentionally funny (e.g., the scenes where Dagmar Bláhová, playing Olga Gorki, appears to be overacting when her werewolf tendencies come to the fore─ Bláhová is solid when she’s not given ridiculous reaction scenes, so more’s the pity). Speaking of ridiculous scenes, fans of Larry Blamire’s THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA (2001) may enjoy a certain scene involving bones and dumb hunters. It does not help that many of the FX (e.g., the nuns’ wolfed-out scenes) feel like a silly Claymation, something more suitable for an early Peter Jackson film. Another potential minus for many viewers is its lack of suspense, though I don’t see it as a demerit, considering that the movie is not a horror flick. That said, it’s too bad that this subgenre-hybrid film got marketed as a terror work, making it almost certain to disappoint horror fans, who are often catholic in their narrowly defined expectations.

Horror and western fans may recognize some of HOWLING III’s players. Michael Pate (CURSE OF THE UNDEAD, 1959) played the American “President.” Frank Thring (MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME, 1985) played Jack Citron, a movie director. Ralph Cotterill (THE PROPOSITION, 2005) played Professor Sharp. Barry Humphries (SHOCK TREATMENT, 1981) played one of his iconic characters, Dame Edna Everage, as an “Academy Award Presenter.”

I wouldn’t recommend HOWLING III unless you’re looking for an ambitious, experimental werewolf dramedy with a few glaring flaws and a seriously low budget.