WHEN A STRANGER CALLS (1979)

 

(Director/co-screenwriter: Fred Walton. Co-screenwriter/producer: Steve Feke.)

Review

STRANGER, a highly successful independent feature expanded from Fred Walton and Steve Feke’s 1977 twenty-two-minute college short THE SITTER, shares a lot of elements with Bob Clark’s 1974 proto-slasher BLACK CHRISTMAS (down to the exact phrasing of “the calls are coming from inside the house”) and John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN (1978), the latter of which was a large impetus for STRANGER getting financed and made. That said, STRANGER is not a mere retread of BLACK and HALLOWEEN, it is a top-notch and relatively bloodless thriller that is just as excellent and distinctive as those other two films.

The story runs thusly: while Jill Johnson (Carol Kane) babysits the Mandrakis’ two young kids, a strange man calls her and asks her “Have you checked the children?” (She hasn’t in the last few minutes). More calls, in swift succession and with increasing ring-volume, follow.  (The increasing ring-volume was director Walton’s idea, to further jangle viewers’ nerves.)

Initially, Jill thinks it’s Bobby, a guy she hopes would call her (a reversal of Laurie Strode’s stated wishes in HALLOWEEN). Jill quickly realizes that the calls are not from Bobby and calls the cops, who at first dismiss the calls as a crank, then take her seriously. Through luck and smart thinking, Jill escapes physical harm though the Mandrakis’ children are killed by the apprehended Curt Duncan, a lunatic who murdered them with his bare hands (this is only shown in a flashback, with the unseen dead kids under blankets).

Seven years after these events, Jill is married with two kids. She’s still haunted by her last babysitting gig at the Mandrakis residence and acutely protective of her children. She’s unaware that Duncan (Tony Beckley) has escaped from the asylum he’s been interred for the past seven years. Detective John Clifford (Charles Durning), a retired cop who arrested Duncan, knows about Duncan’s offscreen violent escape as does Dr. Mandrakis, father of Duncan’s victims seven years prior. Mandrakis hires Clifford to track Duncan down and punish him. Clifford agrees.

When Duncan sees Carol’s picture in the newspaper (she’s a media personality), he begins stalking her children, leading to STRANGER‘s thrilling climax and somber denouement.

The look and feel of the tightly written and shot STRANGER are intense, with great use of chiaroscuro (at one point NOSFERATU-ish), its cinematography provided by Donald Peterson in his first film as a director of cinematography. The pacing is solid, feels Seventies in its color palette, and the talent involved in the making of this film is stellar.

Carol Kane (AVA'S POSSESSIONS, 2015) is great as the initially-carefree-then-wary Jill Johnson. Tony Beckley, who was terminally ill during the making of STRANGER (his last film) nails it as the jittery, mentally unstable, and pathetic Curt Duncan, a fully expressed character whose conflicting needs make for a memorable villain. Colleen Dewhurst (THE DEAD ZONE, 1983) also nails it as Tracy, briefly the focus of Duncan’s post-escape obsession.

Charles Durning (SISTERS, 1972) plays Detective John Clifford as an initially understated character who becomes more concerned and darker in his intentions as the film goes on─Durning, pro that he is, embodies this familiar-to-him character with aplomb. Ron O’Neal (SUPERFLY, 1972) is entertaining as the level-headed Lt. Charlie Garber, a fellow policeman.

Other notable actors, brief in their roles, include: Carmen Argenziano (GRADUATION DAY, 1981) as Dr. Mandrakis and Rutanya Alda (AMITYVILLE II: THE POSSESSION, 1982) as Mrs. Mandrakis.

Kane and Durning reprised their roles in director Fred Walton’s television film WHEN A STRANGER CALLS BACK (1993), also titled SILENT RAGE.

STRANGER is one of my all-time favorite suspense thrillers, an intense-from-the-get-go flick that uses the oft-used urban legend of The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs, yet makes it unique in its look, characters, and delivery. The phrase “seminal work” has been applied to the mostly bloodless and only-briefly-violent STRANGER with good reason. 

AMITYVILLE II: THE POSSESSION (1982)

 

(Director: Damiano Damiani. Screenplay by Tommy Lee Wallace and an uncredited Dardano Sacchetti, loosely based on Hans Holzer’s 1979 book, Murder in Amityville, re-released as Amityville: Fact or Fiction?)

Storyline

Before the storied Lutzes moved into 112 Ocean Avenue, the Montellis [cinematic stand-ins for the DeFeo family] did, with even more horrific results.

 

Review

AMITYVILLE II, released three years after THE AMITYVILLE HORROR (1979), is noticeably different than its source film.

AMITYVILLE II, a prequel, opens with an across-the-yard shot of the supposed devil abode. The Montellis─Anthony and Delores, with their four kids, various ages─arrive in three cars. Everything is idyllic until Sonny, the oldest, teenage son, is bullied by Anthony (Burt Young, THE AMITYVILLE MURDERS, 2018) for arriving five minutes after the rest of the family. Not long after that, Sonny sees something in the house’s iconic “evil eye” windows─something viewers are not shown.

Delores, Catholic mother, discovers the first-floor windows are nailed shut. A mover accidentally discovers a crawlspace-room in the cellar─an unlit, hidden room full of flies, stinking muck, and leaking water from the floor above. It’s not long before the camera POV switches to a fast-moving Demon POV (reminiscent of Sam Raimi’s THE EVIL DEAD, 1981). This Demon POV is often utilized to good effect throughout AMITYVILLE II.

In swift succession, more supranatural, how-do-you-explain-that stuff happens. Demon POV tracks an initially oblivious Sonny while he walks through house. A distorted, male voice speaks to him through his Sony Walkman headphones, uttering comforting lines like “Why didn’t you kill the pig?” (referring to Anthony). Soon after that, Sonny, sickly looking and creepy, seduces his slightly younger sister, Patricia (Diane Franklin, THE AMITYVILLE MURDERS, 2018).

The consensual incest between Sonny (Jack Magner, FIRESTARTER, 1984) and Patricia occurs off-camera. In the original cut, there was R-rated on-camera carnality, but test audiences complained mightily about it, so it was trimmed. Director Damiani wanted to push horrific boundaries with the film, especially this scene. Also trimmed, again because of test audience reactions, was a non-explicit anal rape scene involving Anthony and Delores.

While much of this violent, morally icky stuff happens (or doesn’t happen), Father Adamsky (James Olson, THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, 1971) is in contact with the Montellis, trying to bless (then cleanse) the house, and later, trying to exorcise Sonny.

In its last half hour, AMITYVILLE II becomes a different kind of hybrid than its source film. It switches from its haunted house/possession storyline to a legal drama with tacked-on, blatantly thieved elements from THE EXORCIST (1973) and EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC (1977).

It’s a jarring shift, an unnecessary and overlong follow-through to the happenings of the previous hour-and-fifteen minutes. AMITYVILLE II, excellent as a nasty grindhouse flick up to that point, could have been wrapped up with a shot or two showing what happened to Sonny, or─given where the demon ends up─could have easily placed one of AMITYVILLE’s key characters at the house during the killing scenes. Also, there are a few instances where the creature/possession FX feel too over-the-top for the movie; most of it works, but when it doesn’t, it feels like more like a knock-off of ALIEN (1979) than an AMITYVILLE sequel.

That said, the last half hour of the film does not entirely ruin it. There is so much to appreciate in this underrated movie, e.g. its simple bookend final shot, which recycles its opening shot. It’s simple and effective.

The talent behind and in front of the camera is, as with the first film, worth noting. The overall look and tone of AMITYVILLE II is mood-effective, even when holy frak stuff happens, and Lalo Schifrin, composer from AMITYVILLE, takes a different approach in AMITYVILLE II─his score work is composed of quieter, sadder compositions, with occasional heightened PSYCHO-esque-alarm moments (whereas in the first flick the score was constantly loud, sharp, and nerve-jangling).

The cast furthers the excellence of AMITYVILLE II’s better parts. Burt Young gives a layered, wow-worthy performance as a tetchy, insecure, and scared guy who honestly seems to love his family, despite his vicious, lash-out temperament (e.g., when he hugs Sonny at a birthday party─there’s sad, palpable tenderness between them despite their violence and tension). Rutanya Alda (CHRISTMAS EVIL, 1980) also stands out as the wife and mother who’s trying to keep her oldest son and husband from killing each other, while living in a satanic, tantrum-throwing house. Jack Magner’s Sonny is a nuanced character as well, an angry, sweet-hearted young man who’s struggling to maintain his temper and sense of familial propriety while fending off an insidious invader. Diane Franklin imbues Patricia with a balance of innocence and desire in the lead-up to her family’s murders─this balance makes Father Adamsky’s post-slaughter focus on her slightly less pervy (even if the house hellspawn is preying on his guilt).

Other noteworthy actors try to transcend their characters, thinly sketched and genre-typical on the page. They don’t always succeed, but it’s good to see these players anyway: James Olson as Father Adamsky; Andrew Prine (THE LORDS OF SALEM, 2012) as Father Tom, Adamsky’s co-worker and fishing buddy; Leonardo Cimino (THE MONSTER SQUAD, 1987) as their Chancellor, who refuses to allow Adamsky to perform an exorcism on Sonny; Moses Gunn (FIRESTARTER, 1984) as Turner, a homicide detective whose later actions are plot-convenient unlikely; Allan Dellay (BLOODSUCKING FREAKS, 1976) as the “Judge” whose reaction to Sonny’s not guilty plea is fun.

Ultimately, AMITYVILLE II is worth watching, if you can pretend its last half hour, aside from Father Adamsky’s last scene and its bookend final shot, didn’t happen. With this film, Damiani and his cast and crew made a film that is, in many ways, a more viewer-resonant work by embracing the gritty, nasty, and sometimes tender dynamics of its events and characters in its first, taut hour and fifteen minutes─in this way, it maintains a more serious tonal balance that eschews the feel of the first film. Yeah, AMITYVILLE II’s last half hour flies off the rails, but prior to that this flawed but gripping flick has a grounded (if more squicky) quality that its source work lacked.

CHRISTMAS EVIL (1980)

 

(a.k.a. YOU BETTER WATCH OUT; a.k.a. TERROR IN TOYLAND. Director/screenwriter: Lewis Jackson.)

Storyline

A toy factory employee goes on a killing spree after a Christmas-related meltdown.

Review

CHRISTMAS is a unique, excellent entry in the Santa’s-on-a-rampage genre, a work that did not get the box office and critical kudos it deserved when it came out. It has since become a cult classic, helped by the fact that John Waters lavished love on it, going so far as to provide an audio commentary for Synapse Films’ 2006 Special Edition DVD of the film.

What sets CHRISTMAS apart from Claus-has-got-a-blood-dripping-bag flicks is that the main character, the gone-murderous Harry Stadling (Brandon Maggart) is not simply seeking revenge for a personal wrong. His motivations stem from the holiday chasm of people’s professed “goodwill towards men” and what they’re doing to those around them. His co-workers at the Jolly Dreams toy factory play tricks on him and call him a “schmuck” behind his back; his boss’s publicized charity is a sham; everybody around him, even his concerned brother (Phil, played with equal intensity by Jeffrey DeMunn) is a Christmas naysayer in Harry’s eyes.

Then, of course, there’s the traumatic realization of thirty-three years prior, that Santa Claus isn’t real, revealed when Harry─then a young boy─saw his mother have sex with his father while his father wore a Santa suit. This impels Harry to preserve the Christmas spirit, lest it die at the hands of corrupt, unfeeling others.

Once Harry snaps, he reels from one surreal event to another: he kills somebody, and a few minutes later, finds himself the awkward toast of a Christmas party (where people don’t notice the blood on his Santa suit); not long after that, more violence occurs, and the last fifteen minutes of CHRISTMAS intentionally plays out like much of the ending of James Whale’s FRANKENSTEIN (1931), replete with torch-wielding New Jerseyites. Some people might be put off by the offbeat, occasionally lagging (drama) pacing of CHRISTMAS, which is not a hyper-focused slash-and-kill horror flick, and that’s fine─every film is made for a certain audience, and CHRISTMAS has deeper message than the usual, jump-cut-edited killer-on-the-loose flick, and film geeks might recognize Rutanya Alda, billed as Ratanya Alda, who played Theresa─Alda later appeared in other films, including AMITYVILLE II: THE POSSESSION (1982).

The ending is atypical of the genre, a finish that leaves Harry’s fate open to interpretation. Since the tone of the film is sympathetic to Harry’s point of view, I have my own take on it, a mix of what really happened and how Harry sees it, but others might view in a less forgiving or more fantastic, holy-cow light. Either way, this one of the most original Santa slasher-mixed-with-social-commentary flicks ever made, one the viewer likely won’t forget, like it or hate it.