DOLLS (1986)

 

(Director: Stuart Gordon. Screenwriter: Ed Naha.)

Review

Two groups of pothole- and mud-stuck travelers, caught in a sudden, violent storm, seek overnight shelter in the old, spooky, and curiously charming house of Hilary and Gabriel Hardwicke, a canny elderly couple who make porcelain dolls, and might be witches.

The first group of travelers is made up of spouse-whipped David Bower (Ian Patrick Williams, RE-ANIMATOR, 1985), his rich, unpleasant wife (Rosemary, played with thorny perfection by Carolyn Purdy-Gordon, RE-ANIMATOR, 1985) and David’s charming, imaginative pre-tween daughter, Judy, who’s consistently, openly abused by her father and stepmother.

Second group of travelers: a sweet-natured businessman, Ralph Morris (Stephen Lee, THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM, 1991), and Enid (Cassie Stuart, SLAYGROUND, 1983) and Isabelle Prange (Bunt Bailey, SPELLCASTER, 1988), the latter two petty-thief hitchhikers intending to prey upon Ralph and the Hardwickes.

When post-bedtime, theft-minded Enid sneaks off to check out one of the rooms with antiques (which she pronounces as “ant-i-cues”), the underlying dark tensions between key characters explode into a cycle of gore-restrained, darkly humorous poppet vengeance.

Released stateside on May 29, 1987, this low budget, tautly scripted and edited hour-and-seventeen-minute cinematic morality play evokes, on all levels, its fairy tale/innocence-and-darkness influences. Everything works, from its sketched-out characterizations to its visual effects (courtesy of a team of FX artists, including John Carl Buechler [NECRONOMICON: BOOK OF THE DEAD, 1993], and stop-motion effects artist David Allen [THE HOWLING, 1981]). Its dreamlike cinematography (thank you, Mac Ahlberg, RE-ANIMATOR, 1985) helps accomplish this as well.

 

DOLL’s other, fun-as-their-co-stars players include:

Carrie Lorraine (POLTERGEIST II: THE OTHER SIDE, 1986) as Judy, David Bowers’s charming, imaginative pre-tween daughter;

Guy Rolfe (PUPPET MASTER III: TOULON’S REVENGE, 1991) as Gabriel Hartwicke, child- and magic-appreciative dollmaker, witch, and husband to Hilary;

and

Hilary Mason (DON’T LOOK NOW, 1973) as Hilary Hartwicke, Gabriel’s equally canny wife and fellow witch.

 

If you’re looking for an above-average, modest, low budget and gore-restrained fairy tale with a happy finish, DOLLS might be your hour-plus thrill source.

 

Deep(er) filmic dive

According to Wikipedia: Ed Naha’s screenplay was sparked by Bruno Bettelheim’s well-regarded 1976 nonfiction book The Uses of Magic. Director Stuart Gordon considered the film a modern take on the Grim Brothers’ 1812 fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel” (aka “Little Stepbrother and Little Stepsister”).

Among Ed Naha’s other screenwriting/film-story work: TROLL (1986).

According to IMDb: DOLLS was “shot before” and “on the same sets” as FROM BEYOND (1986) but was “released almost a year after [FROM BEYOND] due to all the doll effects in post-production”.

Also according to IMDb: Stuart Gordon’s wife (Carolyn Purdy-Gordon) and children (as well as friends of the Gordons) provided the whispering of the dolls.

Enid’s lack of a surname and over-the-top outfit mirrors that of “Material Girl”-era Madonna.

Also according to IMDb: actress Bailey Bunty, Isabel in DOLLS, appeared as the main girl in a-ha’s [1984] pop music video “Take On Me”

Also according to Wikipedia: a DOLLS sequel was considered, Stuart Gordon again directing. Its plot: Ralph and young Judy (from the first film) are now a happy Boston-based family after his marriage to Judy’s mother. Judy gets a package in the mail from England, containing doll versions of Hilary and Gabriel Hardwicke, the witches the first film. Plans for this follow-up movie ended before production resulted.

BODIES, BODIES, BODIES (2022)

 

(Director: Halina Reijn. Screenwriter: Sarah DeLappe, her screenplay based on Kristen Roupenian’s story.)

Review

David (Pete Davidson) and four rich, college-age friends and two guests gather at David’s house for a hurricane-watch party, where they drink, have sex, swim, and hang out. They also play an inebriated version of the film-titular Improv Game (also called Murder in the Dark, whose players run around in the dark while a killer “murders” them by touching them). When one of them turns up dead under unnatural circumstances, all their racial, sexual, and youthful insecurities come violently to the surface, resulting in an escalating cycle of death.

This slick, woke-satirical comedy slasher—Roupenian’s source story hewed closer to satire then DeLappe’s killer-on-the-loose screenplay—is solid and often funny, its cinematography flashy, its editing tight (hello, Julia Bloch and Taylor Levy), and its pacing quick. Viewers looking for an Old School, dead-of-night atmospheric slasher flick might not want to invest time in it, as it’s geared toward hashtag-hooked twenty-somethings (whose mindsets are also skewered in BODIES).

Its solid cast, a few who play intentionally annoying characters, includes:. Amandla Stenbert (SLEEPY HOLLOW, 2013-14) as Sophie, a former wild-card drug addict, and girlfriend to quiet, new-to-the-group and level-headed Bee (Maria Bakalova, BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM, 2020); Rachel Sennott as Alice, an overly emotional, über-woke podcaster; Myhal’la Herrold as Jordan, Sophie’s control-freak, action-oriented ex; and Lee Pace as Greg, as a chill, middle-aged, New Age-therapy guy.

BODIES, if you are okay with its well-directed flashy, MTV-style shooting style, sometimes irritating characters, and light gore, might enjoy this entertaining, quick-moving flick. I don’t know that I’d want to see it more than once, but I still got a kick out of it.

THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957)

 

(Director: Terence Fisher. Screenwriter: Jimmy Sangster, his screenplay loosely based on Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s 1818 novel.)

 

Review

CURSE, a creative overhaul of the 1931 film FRANKENSTEIN, based on Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s 1818 novel), is bookended by scenes of Victor Frankenstein (Peter Cushing, THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN, 1958) in prison. The nineteenth century scientist is about to be executed for murder. He, in a non-repentant tone, tells a priest (played by Alex Gallier), about his experiments that led him to inhabit this filthy dungeon.

Shown in extended flashback, Frankenstein’s backstory runs thusly: Frankenstein and a fellow scientist, Paul Krempe (Robert Urquhart) work to reanimate the dead. When Frankenstein’s ruthless, blasphemous intentions run afoul of Krempe’s sensibilities, he bows out of the experiments. Tangled in this mix of science, amity, hubris, and betrayal is his maid/lover Justine (Valerie Gaunt, HORROR OF DRACULA, 1958) as well as Victor’s benignly neglected wife, Elizabeth (Hazel Court), who’s blissfully unaware of the details of her husband’s illegal and unethical activities. Then, of course, there’s The Creature, a wild-card personality to reckon with—played with violent intensity by Christopher Lee, his version of the “monster” enraged, murderous, and distinctly disfigured, with no resemblance to makeup designer Jack P. Pierce’s copyrighted 1931 version, is truly a hideous beast.

Inevitably, The Creature escapes. Assault and murder follows, not only in Baron Frankenstein’s castle, but in the nearby village. It bears noting that much of the violence and (imagined) gore is of the offscreen variety, though its atmosphere is effectively harsh and effective, furthered by the excellence of its players, including Michael Mulcaster (Tattoo Harry in THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN, 1958) as a Warder.

CURSE, Britain’s first color horror film (courtesy of Eastmancolor), is one of my favorite Frankenstein works—audiences loved it, though it was critically drubbed upon its initial release. Like many of Hammer Films’ better terror/monster flicks, it’s based on Jimmy Sangster’s tightly penned screenplay, edited by James Needs, directed by one of Hammer’s in-house directors Terence Fisher, and sports intense cinematography by Jack Asher, another Hammer regular.

More grim than scary, this standout Hammer Films adaptation is worth your time, a high mark in atmospheric horror, with a great cast and crew. Followed by THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1958).

 

 Deeper film(ic) dive

CURSE is Cushing’s first film for Hammer Films, as well as the first of his six cinematic outings as Victor Frankenstein. It’s also one of twenty-four movies he made with his good friend Christopher Lee (their first movie together was HAMLET in 1948). Cushing made thirteen Hammer films with Terence Fisher at the helm.

I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER (1998)

 

(1998; director: Danny Cannon. Screenwriter: Trey Callaway.)

 

Review

A year after the events of the first KNOW film, Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt, from the first film) is traumatized by her friends’ murders. She and her ex-boyfriend, Ray Bronson, now have intimacy issues. The body of Ben Willis, a.k.a. the Fisherman, who tried to kill her and Ray, were never recovered─and there was that ham-fisted ending of the first film.

Julie and her friend, Karla Wilson (Brandy Norwood), win a radio contest for a vacation in the Bahamas, on Tower Bay Island. Karla brings her horny boyfriend, Tyrell (Mekhi Phifer), and Julie invites Ray (Freddie Prinze Jr., also from the first film). Unfortunately for Ray and his co-worker/friend, Dave (John Hawkes), they encounter the Fisherman─who may not be Ben Willis. . . Taking Ray’s place on the vacation is Will Benson (Matthew Settle), who wants Julie to ditch her long-distance flirtation with Ray.

When the four college students show up on Tower Bay Island, they’re told that their arrival falls on the last day of tourist season, an odd booking, made stranger by an impending tropical storm. The bearer of this alarming news is Mr. Brooks, their hotel manager, given fun, snarky life by the always-entertaining Jeffrey Combs (THE FRIGHTENERS, 1996). Also stuck on the largely deserted island with the Fisherman: Nancy the bartender (a smart, tough Jennifer Esposito); Estes (another hotel employee, played with gravitas by the inestimable Bill Cobbs, THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS, 1991); Titus Telesco, a white, dreadlocked drug dealer (an uncredited Jack Black, MARS ATTACKS!, 1996), and a few others.

This by-the-numbers, film-only sequel with its mostly dumb characters (especially Julie) is a silly and tired melodramatic mess with a few okay kill scenes and notable supporting actors (including Mark Boone Junior, 30 DAYS OF NIGHT, 2007, as a pawnbroker, and Red West, as Paulsen, a fisherman).

Some viewers may be put off by three of the characters (who were racially inappropriate even in 1998): Titus (a white guy sporting bad dreads and a supposed-to-be-funny pseudo-Jamaican attitude); Karla, whose practical-for-a-player advice to dump Ray indicates deeper character flaws; and whinging, c**k-blocked Tyrell, a probable cheater who flirts with every attractive female within range. The first two KNOW films were obviously rooted in the 1990s, but these characters embody that point to the nth degree. 

Unless you’re a die-hard fan of any of its players, avoid STILL. Followed by I’LL ALWAYS KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER (2006).

PIRANHA (1978)

 

(Director: Joe Dante. Screenwriters: Richard Robinson and John Sayles.)

 

Review

Plot: At the height of summer, a pushy, impulsive skiptracer, Maggie McKeown (Heather Menzies-Urich, billed as Heather Menzies, SSSSSSS, 1973), tracking two missing adolescents in the Lost Lake River area, breaks into an experimental military lab with help from a reluctant, local drunk, Paul Grogan (Bradford Dillman, DEMON, DEMON, 1975). While inside the facility, she drains the deadly pool where the teenagers died, unwittingly unleashing genetically engineered, hyperaggressive fish into local waters. Then the military shows up, worsening a bloody, out-of-control situation.

To say any more about the plot of this darkly funny, sometimes gory, campy cult classic (in the best, truest sense) is to ruin it. It’s a gutsy work, nobody—not even children—get spared in it (something that might upset sensitive parental types), an economically shot, fast-moving, lots-o’-nudity, truly-a-B-movie with a love of old horror and camp (not surprising, considering its director, Joe Dante, and its producer, Roger Corman).  Its fish-attack scenes, often shot in extreme closeups (amidst water-cloudy gore) are effective and gripping, something that can be said about all aspects of this grindhouse gem, one worth watching and rewatching, unless you’re planning to go swimming in the immediate future. Followed by PIRANHA II: THE SPAWNING (1982).

 

PIRANHA’s other standout players and crew include:

Richard Deacon (INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, 1956), as Earl Lyon, Maggie McKeown’s skiptracer boss, who assigns her the missing teenagers case;

Keenan Wynn (KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER, 1974-75, and THE DEVIL’S RAIN, 1975) as Jack, Paul Grogan’s easy-going friend, who loves fishing with his dog;

 

Kevin McCarthy (INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, 1956) as Dr. Robert Hoak, frenzied, onetime head of a long-dead Vietnam War-era project (“Operation: Razorteeth”) that spawned the genetically engineered piranha;

 

Barbara Steele (THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM, 1961) as Dr. Mengers, scientific lead and media spokesperson of the military team trying to contain piranha/their media release, and kill the fish;

 

Bruce Gordon (CURSE OF THE UNDEAD, 1959) as Colonel Waxman, Dr. Menger’s like-minded commander of the military team;

 

Dick Miller (GREMLINS, 1984) as Buck Gardner, a local real estate agent, also interested in hiding the truth about the piranha;

 

Paul Bartel (DEATH RACE 2000, 1975) as Mr. Dumont, head lifeguard—pompous, tough-love aggressive;

 

and

 

Belinda Balaski (THE HOWLING, 1981) as Betsy, the lifeguard who tries to comfort Suzie, a girl who’s afraid of the water.

 

Deep(er) filmic dive

PIRANHA is John Sayles’s script-penning debut. He also played a “Sentry” in the film.

 

According to IMDb, “The piranha [attacks] were done by attaching rubber fish to sticks.”

 

Also from IMDb: “The extras were all paid $5 a day and given a box lunch.”

 

Also from IMDb, Universal studios was going to sue New World Pictures for making fun of Steven Spielberg’s JAWS (1975)—acknowledged by PIRANHA filmmakers early on, when someone is seen playing a JAWS video arcade game. The suit didn’t happen because Spielberg saw PIRANHA, really liked it, and declared it “the best of the JAWS rip-offs”.

 

PIRANHA director Joe Dante later worked with Steven Spielberg on THE TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE (1983).

 

Actor Richard Dreyfuss, one of the leads in JAWS (1975), had an early-in-the-flick cameo in Alexandre Aja’s 2010 remake of PIRANHA 3D.

 

In Anthony Petkovich’s article “If It’s a Good Picture, It Isn’t a Miracle: An Interview with Joe Dante” (Shock Cinema magazine, issue 61, February 2022, p. 38), Joe Dante said that Kevin McCarthy was a Method actor (more so than co-star Bradford Dillman). Because of this, Dillman was “scared” when McCarthy’s character (Dr. Robert Hoak) attacked Paul Grogan (Dillman’s character) when they first meet in the film.