SATANICO PANDEMONIUM (1975)

 

(a.k.a. LA SEXORCISTA; director/co-screenwriter: Gilberto Martínez Solares, based on Jose Barragán’s story. Uncredited co-screenwriter: Adolfo Martinez Solares.)

 

Review

This dreamlike, for-mature-audiences-only shocker is one of the best nunsploitation films I’ve seen. SATANICO takes a few minutes to set up the film’s simple storyline and its Mexican location before the action kicks in. After Sister Maria (played by Cecilia Pezet) sees a nude, virile man (Luzbel/Lucifer, played by Enrique Rocha) stroll out of a river, she sees him and evidence of his influence everywhere (half-eaten apples, an owl, a black cat) in the unlikeliest of places. She alternates between punishing herself with a whip and a belt of thorns and seeking sexual pleasure with others. Maria’s acts become more brazen and brutal.

There are brief-for-the-genre lesbianism scenes, and quite a few scenes where Maria sheds her bride-of-Christ attire. The blood is bright and vivid, though SATANICO’s showing of it is restrained.

At an hour and twenty-nine minutes, SATANICO runs at a steady, character-true pace (while Maria’s sacrilegious behavior ramps up), the visual/color-palate aspects are intriguing (credit cinematographer Jorge Stahl Jr. for this), and if the ending feels like a cheat, it’s a mild let-down (at least for this viewer), I’m guessing it was written as such because SATANICO was made in a Catholic-dominated country, where the filmmakers had to take into account the powers and opinions that be. Standout film for the nunsploitation genre, this─worth checking out.

Fans of Robert Rodriguez’s 1996 crime-horror flick, FROM DUSK TILL DAWN may recall Salma Hayek’s vampiric stripper character, Satanica Pandemonium─not an accident that she’s named as such.

LEATHERFACE (2017)

  

(Directors: Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury. Screenwriter: Seth M. Sherwood, his script based on characters created by Kim Henkel and Tobe Hooper.)

 

Review

LEATHERFACE, a prequel to THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (1974) and TEXAS CHAINSAW 3D (2013), opens in 1955 on the Sawyer farm (established in 1845, according to its arched gateway). The murderous family chooses the wrong victim when they lure a young woman (Betty Hartman) onto their farm and kill her. Her date, Ted Hardesty (future father of Sally and Franklin Hardesty, siblings seen in the 1974 film), calls the cops who immediately respond. Not only are the Sawyers known to the police as probable killers (something the cops can’t prove), but Betty is Sheriff Hal Hartman’s adolescent daughter.

Hal Hartman (Stephen Dorff, BLADE, 1998) and his fellow law enforcement brethren find Betty’s body but can’t prove the Sawyers killed her. Raging and grieving, Hal declares Sawyer matriarch Verna to be an unfit mother and takes her tween son (Jedidiah, “Jed”) into “protective custody.”

A decade later, Jed, renamed “Bud” by the authorities for his protection, is a ward of the ECT-brutal Gorman House Youth Reformatory. Jed is a hulking simpleton, whose only ward friends are Jackson (Sam Strike), a good-hearted and emotional young man, and Elizabeth “Lizzy” White, a pretty, sympathetic nurse.

Verna Sawyer─newly surnamed Carson through marriage─shows up with her lawyer (Farnsworth) and demands to see Jed. When Dr. Lang (Christopher Adamson, RAZOR BLADE SMILE, 1998) refuses, citing Jed’s safety, Verna tries to free Jed, who escapes without her. A violent, occasionally gory series of events follows, including a wild road trip for young Jed and his fellow escapees (psychopathic Ike and pyromaniac Clarice, who’ve kidnapped Jackson and Elizabeth) while the cops, led by tough-as-nails Sheriff Hartman, pursue them.

The underrated LEATHERFACE is tonally and continuity-true to the events of TEXAS (1974) and TEXAS 3D (2013), from its grimy, sepia-edged cinematography (the work of Antoine Sanier) to its soundtrack, to the Sawyer house, a faithful copy of their home from the original film (credit production designer Alain Bainée). Seth M. Sherwood’s screenplay and Sébastien de Sainte Croix and Josh Ethier’s editing strike a deft, Terence Malick-esque balance between TEXAS’s underlying horrors and the relative, initial innocence of its traumatized characters─this is a bit of departure for a TEXAS flick, as the rest of the films are more about traditional-horror thrills and kills. Not that LEATHERFACE completely ignores or de-legitimizes the remaining five TEXAS films─it doesn’t, and acknowledges them, e.g., by making Jed’s family surname “Sawyer,” a detail that originally appeared in THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 (1986).

Its cast is equally standout. Among them: Lili Taylor (THE ADDICTION, 1995), who played Verna Sawyer/Carson with memorable, maternal intensity; Sam Strike (CHERNOBYL, 2019), who played Jed’s good-hearted, heroic fellow inmate with convincing sincerity, anger, and doubt.

While its story is not groundbreaking, LEATHERFACE’s eschewing of non-stop terror and gore for occasionally bloody drama and character-exploration is a frame-busting flick in a series that too often has fallen into familiar-with-little-variation trappings─it’s worth seeing if you’re watching it for good acting, miasmic mood, downward-spiraling characters, and identity-themed drama.

THE CRIMSON CULT (1968)

 

(a.k.a. CURSE OF THE CRIMSON ALTAR. Director: Vernon Sewell. Screenwriters: Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln, based on Jerry Sohl’s story, loosely extrapolated from H.P. Lovecraft’s story “Dreams in the Witch House.”)

 

Review

Antiques dealer Robert Manning (Mark Eden) visits his family’s English ancestral home of Greymarsh when his brother, Peter (Denys Peek), disappears during a business trip. Peter’s last known location is Craxted Lodge.

Once Robert arrives, he is warmly greeted by Craxted’s owner (Morley), a descendant of Lavinia Morley (a green-skinned Barbara Steele) who was burned at the stake in 1652. Also in residence is Eve Morley (Virginia Wetherell, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, 1971), Morley’s niece, who becomes Robert’s romantic interest and fellow investigator. A cryptic local historian of the occult (Professor John Marsh) also visits Craxted; he is barely civil to Robert.

Robert’s questions get the run-around treatment, so he further investigates, at night having kaleidoscopic nightmares about a green- and red-lit room, and half-naked servants (men and women) who hold goats and writhe around Lavinia, sitting on her throne.

Eventually, all becomes clear with help from surprising quarters, ending in a visually fun (cheesy for some) end-shot.

CRIMSON, is a mostly bland, silly admixture of a straightlaced murder mystery and pseudo-psychedelic hippie-ish Lovecraftian nightmare, with its filler party scenes, a sex scene, and overlong, investigative-dream sequences. By the time Robert has figured out what happened to his brother and why, it’s a great, is this movie done yet? situation. CRIMSON’s behind-the-scenes crew made a good-looking movie, made darker with Peter Knight’s spare, effective music score.

Beyond the seething and sensual Barbara Steele (PIRANHA, 1978), a big part of what CRIMSON gets right is its top-billed leads: Christopher Lee (SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN, 1970) as the polite Morley, who is hiding something; Boris Karloff (BLACK SABBATH, 1963), in one of his final roles, as Professor John Marsh, whose brusque manners hide something as well; Michael Gough (DR. TERROR’S HOUSE OF HORRORS, 1965) as Elder, the Morleys’ troubled butler; and Rupert Davies (DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE, 1968) as “The Vicar.”

CRIMSON, with its not-quite-psychedelic trial scenes, solid behind-the-scenes work and worthwhile actors, is a “meh”movie, not terrible, not great─and worth seeing if you’re a completist fan of any of its leads, as long as you expect CRIMSON to be one of their lesser flicks.

BLOODY HELL (2020)

 

(Director: Alister Grierson. Screenwriter: Robert Benjamin.)

Review

BLOODY is an above-average, fast-paced, horror mash-up flick. In it, Rex (Ben O’Toole) is a wrongly imprisoned ex-con who heads to Finland for a fresh start. Upon arriving in his new country, he is kidnapped. He wakes up hanging in a basement. Fortunately, or unfortunately for him, he talks to his visualized conscience, which has a dark, nasty sense of humor, an aspect of himself that may save him or expedite his doom.

What follows is a fresh take on what could’ve been a familiar situation. I won’t say much beyond that, except there’s plenty of effective twists in this frenetic, lots-of-dark-humor and (as the title says) bloody film. If you’re looking for deep characterization or ponderings on life, this probably is not the movie for you. Screenwriter Robert Benjamin gives viewers enough facts and visual clues for us to figure out why people and things are the way they are. His writing is given full life by choice dialogue, a few well-timed jump scares, and actors, who across the board, nail their unusual roles. Also, there’s lots of violence─some of it slapstick funny─and an irreverence that is sadly lacking in many films these days. Check this out if you’re looking for something different, deft, hilarious, and splatteriffic.

FREAKY (2020)

 

(Director/co-screenwriter: Christopher Landon. Co-screenwriter: Michael Kennedy.)

 

Review

When the Blissfield Butcher (played by Vince Vaughn), a taciturn serial killer ignorant about a mystical, Aztec dagger he’s wielding, attacks a new victim (Millie Kessler, played by Kathryn Newton), they body-swap. Now he’s running around in her body, thrilled to have further access to new high school-aged victims, and Millie─trapped in the body of a now-familiar-to-all serial killer─must find a way to switch them back without getting arrested or killed, either by well-meaning citizens or the Butcher.

This R-rated mix of Mary Rodgers’s 1972 novel FREAKY FRIDAY (later resulting in several Disney films) and FRIDAY THE 13th (1980) is a fun, fast-paced, emotionally involving, suspenseful and smart film. It was originally titled FREAKY FRIDAY THE 13th but concerns about possible lawsuits compelled the filmmakers to shorten its title.

Christopher Landon, who directed and co-wrote its script with Michael Kennedy, deftly mixes John Hughes-style coming-of-age humor and pathos, fresh slasher flick and body swap movie homages and suspenseful and gory kill scenes, making FREAKY an imaginative and progressive-minded take on these subgenres. It’s a breezy, often laugh-out-loud funny and gripping work, one that stands out in a worthwhile way.

FREAKY’s freshness is not surprising, considering that Landon─son of actor Michael Landon (I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF, 1957)─is the co-author and director of the entertaining, genre-mix films HAPPY DEATHDAY (2017), HAPPY DEATHDAY 2U (2019), and SCOUTS GUIDE TO THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE (2015), among others.

Its cast is excellent as well. Kathryn Newton and Vince Vaughn, during their body-swap scenes, effectively convey their counterpart’s natures─Butcher, psychotic; Millie, smart and energetic (Vaughn is especially hilarious when channeling Millie). Celeste O’Connor played Nyla Chones, one of Millie’s best friends. Misha Osherovich played Josh Detmer, her other best friend. Katie Finneran played Carol Kessler, Millie’s grief-stricken, alcoholic mother. FREAKY’s other actors also nailed their roles, but it’s a big cast, too many to list here.

Horror-genre fans may appreciate Landon and Kennedy’s nods to other films, including HALLOWEEN (1978), FRIDAY THE 13th PART 3 (1982), JENNIFER’S BODY (2009), SCREAM and SCREAM 2 (1996-7) and CHERRY FALLS (2000).

My only nit─and it’s really minor─is that the Aztec ritual dagger (called La Dola) is not given much explanation, a few lines at best. That said, I don’t mind too much that there was not a lot of background as it’s not vital to the events of FREAKY, and to give further time to La Dola’s history and nature might have unnecessarily slowed the rollercoaster pace of the FREAKY. Not only that, it leaves further intriguing, twist-promising room for a sequel to explore─although Landon has said that he sees FREAKY as a one-shot work. He has indicated in interviews that he’s ready to shoot the third DEATHDAY film, wrap up the dangling plot threads from HAPPY DEATHDAY 2U.

FREAKY is excellent, funny, suspenseful, and smart. Check it out!

THE CAR (1977)

 

(Director: Elliott Silverstein. Screenwriters: Dennis Shryack, Michael Butler and Lane Slate.)

 

Review

Released stateside on Friday, May 13, 1977, and inspired by Steven Spielberg’s 1971 television film DUEL, CAR opens with narrator Anton LeVey quoting the Satanic Bible’s “Invocation of Destruction” (“Oh great brothers of the night who rideth upon the hot winds of hell, who dwelleth in the Devil’s lair; move and appear”). While LaVey does this, the titular vehicle appears in a wide-angle, aerial shot, driving through the desert toward the small town it will shortly menace.

The possibly driverless, tank-solid satanic car cruises around the town’s periphery, immediately killing two bridge-crossing bicyclists. The police, led by Sheriff Everett (John Marley), investigate the suspicious deaths, not convinced they’re accidental. Not long after that, a hitchhiker’s hit-and-run death is witnessed by a violent drunk (Amos, played by R.G. Armstrong) and his battered wife (Bertha, played by Doris Dowling). The hunt for the murderous vehicle is on.

Shortly after this, lead deputy Wade Parent (James Brolin) takes charge of the investigation. Car chases, crashes, explosions (cop cars damn near explode when looked at), building destruction, and a few deaths follow. The car─a canny opponent, with its distinctive, disconcerting horn─is often simultaneously terrifying and hilarious when it circles, lunges toward, and revs its engine at its potential victims.

Can the Car be stopped? Watch and find out!

CAR’s cast is great. Brolin (THE AMITYVILLE HORROR, 1979) is his usual stalwart, masculine self as Wade Parent. Kathleen Lloyd (IT LIVES AGAIN, 1978) played Lauren Parent, Wade’s schoolteacher wife and mother of their two children. Kim Richards played Lynn Marie Parent, Wade and Lauren’s oldest daughter; Kim’s sister, Kyle (HALLOWEEN, 1978) played Debbie, the Parents’ youngest daughter. Ronny Cox played Luke, an emotional, alcoholic deputy.

The actors’ performances are enhanced by their well-sketched characters, whose deep links to each other are palpable, sometimes emotionally involving.

CAR is a PG-rated terror flick─there’s no blood, no actual harm shown to its victims. It’s a fun, if plot-lite and silly work that deftly balances demonic overtones, humor, and small-town pathos. Given its basic storyline and writing, it’s best viewed as a modern-day fable with cheesy 1970s FX with a better-than-its-B-material players and behind-the-camera talent. While not a good film, it’s often entertaining.

(For the Car-curious: the titular, striking-in-appearance vehicle was─in real life─a 1971 Lincoln Continental Mark III black coupe, its roof three inches lower than usual and its side fenders longer and lower than usual. It had no visible exterior door handles. Its chrome-plated, deep-recessed Cragar wheels and its interior-shade/exterior-amber laminated windows lent the car a menacing, indestructible look. The car’s distinctive, alarming horn tone was the Hadley Ambassador Rectangular Bell horn. The car was modified at the request of the movie’s director by George Barris, famous for customizing Hollywood vehicles, including the Batmobile [Batman, 1966-8]. There were four of these cars made for the film, the main one costing eighty-four thousand dollars at the time.)