SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 4: THE INITIATION (1990)

 

(Director: Brian Yuzna. Screenwriters: Zeph E. Daniel, Richard N. Gladstein, and Arthur Gorson)

Review

After a woman’s building-leap, spontaneous combustion death, an aspiring reporter/classified ads editor Kim Levitt (played by Neith Hunter) investigates the story despite her dismissive male boss, Eli (Reggie Bannister, PHANTASM, 1979) and equally dismissive male colleagues at the LA Eye—one of these colleagues is her easy-going boyfriend, Hank (Tom Hinkley, WATCHERS II, 1990).

Kim’s investigation drives her to seek out a book on spontaneous combustion. She looks for it at a feminist bookstore (Bring Down the Moon) in the building from which the flaming woman leapt. While purchasing a book on the subject, she meets Fima (Maud Adams, THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, 1974), owner of the establishment, who gives Kim a book, Initiation of the Virgin Goddess by J.B. Beattie, and invites Kim to a feminist-group picnic the following day.

Bizarre stuff happens to, and around, Kim. A filthy, oddly shy, and seemingly simple street guy (Ricky) follows her up to the roof and tries to hand her a hand-plus sized squirming larva. Cockroaches, in large numbers, appear in her apartment. She sees disturbing faces in everyday places (simulacrum). Her dreams and perceptions become life-threatening. All the while, she’s being stalked by Fima and her fellow female cultists who somehow are linked to Lilith, Adam’s rebellious ex-wife who is linked to “things that crawl.” It’s clear that Kim is changing somehow, and the cult has a lot to do with it.

While SILENT 4’s set-up isn’t hard to figure out, it’s a well-made (especially for a low budget direct-to-video film). The actors range from solid to excellent (especially Neith Hunter and Clint Howard, who plays the deranged but somehow tender Ricky), Richard Band’s mood-effective score is perfect, and Peter Teschner’s editing keeps SILENT 4 sharp and tight. Screaming Mad George (and FX company)’s disturbing and icky FX suit the visual-highlight moments of SILENT 4’s already unsettling milieu, all centered around Kim’s evolution, and maybe more—if she can break free of those counting on her sacrificing herself for them.

SILENT 4, a standalone film in the SILENT franchise, is worth watching if you don’t require a big budget to be entertained, and can appreciate an excellent, theme-ambitious cast and crew making the most of out of what little they have to work with, including often icky effects.

 Followed by the standalone SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 5: THE TOY MAKER (1991).

Deep(er) filmic dive

Brian Yuzna, one of the story sources for SILENT 4, has said that he was “not interested” in focusing on Christmas in SILENT 4, hence its few scenes highlighting the holiday season. Yuzna co-produced its sequel a year later and tried to make up for it by mandating that Christmas should be central to SILENT 5’s storyline.

 

According to IMDb, SILENT 4’s premise was going to be used for the third entry in the SILENT franchise but was rejected by the third entry’s filmmakers.

 

In one scene, scenes from SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 3: BETTER WATCH OUT! (1989) are broadcast on an onscreen television.

 

Neith Hunter (who played Kim Levitt in SILENT 4) played a character named Kim in SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 5: THE TOY MAKER, 1991). Clint Howard, who played Ricky in SILENT 4, played a character named Ricky in SILENT 5. Conan Yuzna, real-life son of Brian Yuzna, played Lonnie (Hank’s younger brother) in SILENT 4—he also played a character named Lonnie in SILENT 5.

According to Brian Yuzna, in a commentary track for a Blu-Ray version of SILENT 4, Yuzna said these recurring-name characters may or may not be the same characters, that he and fellow SILENT 4 and 5 filmmakers were “playing around” with names between the two films. . . He didn’t mention if Howard’s character (Ricky) is a call-back name to Ricky Chapman, younger brother of killer-Santa Billy in the original SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT (1984) and the killer in the first two sequels that followed.

 

According to IMDb, the call letters on a television news reporter’s microphone is UZNA, a reference to the film’s director, Brian Yuzna.

 

The giant cockroach seen in Kim’s apartment is a reference to Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. The long nose that Ricky wears during Kim’s ritual scene is a reference to Stanley Kubrick’s A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971).

 

According to Brian Yuzna, his son (Conan), who appears in the film as Lonnie, isn’t fond of mentioning/promoting his appearances in this film and SILENT 5. Yuzna mentioned this in his commentary track for a Blu-Ray version of SILENT 4.

RARE EXPORTS (2010)

 

(a.k.a. RARE EXPORTS: A CHRISTMAS STORY; director/co-screenwriter: Jalmari Helander. Co-screenwriter: Juuso Helander, Jalmari’s brother. Dialogue writers: Petri Jokiranta and Sami Parkinnen.)

 

Review

This Finnish-language (with some English dialogue) film is a delightful, masterful mix of light and darkness, humor, fantasy, brief action, horror, mythology, and heart. It’s rated R for male/nonsexual nudity, brief violence, thematic darkness, occasional bloodiness, and profanity.

After an American company, Subzero Inc., falsely advertising itself as a crew of “seismic researchers,” blasts open the icy tomb of the original, beastly Santa Claus within the Korvatunturi Mountains, strange things happen in the area.

Meanwhile, a young boy, Pietari Kontio, is concerned about the presence of Subzero Inc. and its continuous mountain-blasting. He researches the original Santa myth (where he’s a child-devouring monster who was frozen, trapped by the Sami people). Then the reindeer roundup goes awry, One of the American crew members─thirty years old, but he looks like an old, feral-eyed man─is found in Pietari’s father’s illegal wolf pit, harbinger of the chaos to come.

At eighty-four-minutes, RARE moves at a brisk pace. The deft, multi-genre tone of it is mostly light with a touch of dark, its ambience furthered by Mika Orasmaa’s cinematography and Juri Seppä and Miska Seppä’s spot-on soundtrack. The cast is dead-on as well, especially Pietari (played by Onni Tommila) and his father (Rauno, played by Jorma Tommila, Onni’s real-life father). Jalmari Helander, the director, is Onni’s maternal uncle.

RARE is one of my Top Five Christmas movies of all-time for its originality, its charm (it always maintains a heartfelt feel, even when events are dark) and its overall execution by the filmmakers. Well worth your time this, if the above elements appeal to you, and you keep your expectations realistic.

SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT (1984)

 

(Director: Charles E. Sellier Jr. Screenwriter: Michael Hickey, his script based on Paul Caimi’s story.)

 

Review

Christmas Eve, 1971. After five-year-old Billy Chapman, baby Ricky and their parents visit their supposedly catatonic Grandpa (who says menacing things about Santa Claus to Billy) in a “Utah Mental Facility”, a roadside criminal in a Santa Claus suit (Charles Dierkop, MESSIAH OF EVIL, 1973) kills Billy’s parents while the hiding, fearful boy watches.

December 1974. Eight-year-old Billy and four-year-old Ricky are now residents at Saint Mary’s Home for Orphaned Children, run by strict disciplinarian Mother Superior (Lilyan Chauvin, PUMPKINHEAD II: BLOOD WINGS, 1993). Billy’s classroom drawings─childish renderings of his parents’ murders─indicate that Billy, quiet, is still traumatized by them, not that the strap-wielding Mother Superior cares (“Punishment is necessary. Punishment is good,” the no-nonsense nun tells Billy). Billy’s situation worsens when he, shocked, espies one of the sisters in flagrante delicto, and he─further freaked out─hits a visiting man in a Santa Claus suit.

Spring 1984. One of Saint Mary’s more sympathetic nuns (Sister Margaret, played by Gilmer McCormick) gets him a job as a stock boy at nearby Ira’s Toys. Things are going good─Billy seems nice, well-adjusted─until December rolls around, and memories of his parents’ killings return in full force.

Mr. Sims (Britt Leach, BUTCHER, BAKER, NIGHTMARE MAKER, 1981), owner of Ira Toys, has Billy don a Santa suit for the store’s Christmas Eve shift. Billy is depressed but complies without complaint. He witnesses the near-rape of one of the female employees (Pamela, who he’s crushing on) and snaps, flashing back to his mother’s near-rape. He kills her assailant (Andy), then her─Billy’s town-wide murder spree has just begun, one that will eventually bring Billy home.

Shot in Heber City, Utah, this tightly edited (thank you, Michael Spence!) and controversial killer-rampage flick has a dark, focused intensity with its religious-critical, punishment theme (reiterated by “Killer Santa,” Grandpa, Mother Superior), its foreboding, humor-leavened mood reinforced by cinematographer Henning Schillerup’s effective mix of Christmas-light cheer and shadowy darkness as well as composer Perry Botkin Jr.’s unsettling, bordering-on-Eighties-cheesy score. Charles E. Sellier’s direction is solid, effective in its execution. Rick Josephson and G. Lynn Maughan’s relatively restrained FX simultaneously add a sense of fun to SILENT (with its syrupy-looking blood) while contributing to the movie’s overall mood and the effectiveness of the creative and varied kill scenes.

Its cast ranges from solid to excellent. Robert Brian Wilson is B-movie good as the trying-to-be-good-before-he-snaps Billy, while Alex Burton, in his only role (Ricky at 14), matches that B-flick goodness (a mix of cheese and sincerity) when he utters the word “Naughty.”

Other players include: Nancy Borgenicht (HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS, 1988) as the feisty Mrs. Randall, one of Billy’s co-workers; Scream Queen Linnea Quigley (THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD, 1985) as Denise, a lusty babysitter; and Leo Geter (HALLOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS, 1995) as Tommy, Denise’s boyfriend.

Selliers’s workmanlike direction, along with SILENT’s creative kills, bordering-on-bleak humor and other elements, makes this a standout holiday-horror B-movie, one that spawned four sequels, starting with SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT PART 2 (1987).

 

Deep(er) filmic dive

Released stateside on November 9, 1984—the same day as Wes Craven’s A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET—it made twice as much money as NIGHTMARE (SILENT was in more theaters, before being pulled two weeks later, after a group, “Citizens Against Movie Madness”, were outraged when SILENT was advertised during primetime television, terrifying children, and angering their parents). SILENT‘s ads were pulled six days later. Curiously enough, producers had expected SILENT’s controversy to stem from its potent anti-Catholic vibe, not the killer Santa theme, which had been done already.

Director Charles Sellier retired from directing because of the film’s reception—it was too hard to find work. He focused on producing instead.

GERMAN ANGST (2015)

 

(Directors: Jörg Buttgereit, Michal Kosakowski and Andreas Marschall. Screenwriters: Jörg Buttgereit [“Final Girl”], Goran Mimica [“Make a Wish”] and Andreas Marschall [“Alraune”].)

Review

This tripartite anthology features “love, sex and death”-themed segments, all of which take place in Berlin. There is no wraparound story in GERMAN, though each segment is separated by footage of Berlin architecture and closeups of the city’s fountains.  

 

Jörg Buttgereit’s sly, melancholic “Final Girl” features extreme close ups, odd camera angles, blurry-image mirrors, and home film footage. Its suburban-set story concerns a teen girl (with a proclivity for cutting), her beloved guinea pigs and a blindfolded, gagged man tied to a bed. Girl (as her character is called) obsesses on guinea pig behavior and the man’s gory pain via household instruments. Buttgereit provides enough visual and dialogue clues to provide the (possible) backstory leading up to the current situation, with a finish that is suitably abrupt and striking (credit editor Michal Kosakowski for that─Kosakowski also edited his directorial segment, “Alraune”). “Final” put me in the mindset of the 1976 American film THE LITTLE GIRL WHO LIVES DOWN THE LANE.

Lola Gave played “Girl.” Axel Holst played “Father.”

 

“Make A Wish,” initially light and romantic, turns malicious and violent after a deaf and dumb couple (Jacek and Kasia) explore an abandoned industrial building where they’re interrupted by racist punks. The couple’s situation parallels something that happened in a Polish village in “late summer 1943” when Jacek’s grandmother, along with her fellow villagers, were rounded up by Nazi tormentors─and, like those long-ago soldiers, the punks don’t know about a two-figured necklace their intended victims have in their possession.

“Wish”’s story is interesting, the camera work is fluid and constantly moving (Kosakowski lacks Buttgereit’s propensity for artsy closeups), and its tones─visual and otherwise─is grimy, contrasting well with “Final”’s almost antiseptic cleanliness. (Credit cinematographer Sven Jakob-Engelmann, who worked on all three segments.) Unfortunately, “Wish” runs long in the middle, though its ending, like “Final”’s, is sharp and satisfying.

Among “Wish“’s standout players: Matthan Harris (FOR WE ARE MANY, 2019) played Jacek; Annika Strauss, Kasia.

Andreas Marschall’s “Alraune” centers around a successful bottle photographer (Eden) who tells his girlfriend (Maya), via flashback, about a mysterious dark-haired seductress (Kira Kutyneko) who inadvertently introduces him to a secret “members only” sex club (Opius), where the powerful Petrus (with his menacing charm and curious empathy) holds sway. There, Eden’s carnal encounters with Kira take on a further, supernatural edge, one that hooks the pushy photographer─he’s blindfolded and told not to lift it under any circumstances (lending a fairy tale-esque morality to “Alraune”). Then, of course, he lifts it, unleashing a nightmare existence.

This is my favorite of the three segments, one that beguiles (with its brief bursts of extremity, humor, rich color, intuitive closeups and effective editing)─a great minifilm with some gory, nasty elements coming to the forefront near its finish.

Milton Welsh, who provided voicework in “Wish,” played Eden. Désirée Giorgetti (ZOMBIE MASSACRE 2: REICH OF THE DEAD, 2015) played Maya. Kristina Kostiv (the upcoming THE CORPSE GRINDERS) played Kira. Rüdiger Kuhlbrodt, with his striking features, played Petrus.

 

GERMAN is a good, memorable film (even with “Wish”’s brief lag-time), one of the better compendium gore-and-shock films I’ve seen in a long time, its execution enhanced by Fabio Amurri’s subtle and effectively mood-fluidic compositions.

RACE WITH THE DEVIL (1975)

 

(Director: Jack Starrett. Screenwriters: Lee Frost and Wes Bishop.)

Review

Texas-based couples (Frank and Alice, Roger, and Kelly) head from San Antonio, Texas, to Aspen, Colorado in Frank’s RV. Early in their journey, the men witness a satanic ritual where a young woman is killed. The smiling, intense satanists, who could be anybody, pursue the panicked couples across Texas as they flee the scene of the sacrifice. Disturbing events and bloody sabotage ramp up, resulting in an action-wild, shotgun-blast climax and unsettling finish.

The PG rated, eighty-four-minute RACE is a mixology-punctuated satanic- and witchcraft-interrupted road trip is more psycho-terror than supernatural in tone. It initially feels like a Seventies-drama telepic, becomes intense and paranoiac, before slamming into a series of shotgun-blast action, a flick that thrills with its well-foreshadowed horrors, tight editing, and pacing (credit editor John F. Link), strong acting, effective cinematography (Robert Jessup), lots of non-PC vibing (e.g., Alice and Kelly who do little more than scream a lot, especially Kelly) and a truck that explodes for no reason.

RACE’s pulpy fun doesn’t surprise me, given RACE’s on and offscreen talent. Helmed by Jack Starrett (actor, FIRST BLOOD, 1982), who cameos in RACE as a “Gas Station Attendant,” it was scripted by Lee Frost (director, THE THING WITH TWO HEADS, 1972), who played Deputy Dave, and further shaped by script supervisor Joyce King (SCREAM BLACULA SCREAM, 1973). She, also uncredited, played a “Librarian” in RACE. Paul Maslansky (THE THING WITH TWO HEADS, 1972), a RACE co-executive producer, played an uncredited “Roadworker in Cowboy Hat.”

Of course, this would all be for naught if its onscreen talent weren’t worth watching as well. Warren Oates (BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA, 1974) played Frank. Loretta Swit (S.O.B., 1981) played Alice, Frank’s wife. Peter Fonda (FUTUREWORLD, 1976) played Roger, Frank’s easy-going business partner and friend. Lara Parker (DARK SHADOWS, 1967-71) played Roger’s wife.

Supporting players also include R.G. Armstrong (THE CAR, 1977) as the amused Sheriff Taylor and Paul A. Partain (Franklin in THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE, 1974) as Cal Mathers, who may or may not be a satanic cultist. An uncredited R.C. Keene (also uncredited in MACHETE, 2010) played a masked satanist.

DEADTIME STORIES (1986)

 

(a.k.a. FREAKY FAIRY TALES; a.k.a. DEADTIME; director/co-screenwriter: Jeffrey Delman, who cameos as “Strangling Man” in “The Boy Who Cried Monster” segment. Co-screenwriters: J. Edward Kiernan and Charles F. Shelton.)

 

Review

Plot: This four-microtale, fairy tale-themed anthology revolves around a sleepless boy, murderous witches, a jogger stalked by a werewolf, and four psychos inhabiting the same house.

In the first story, DEADTIME’s wrap-around work (“The Boy Who Cried Monster”), a sleepless boy (“Little Brian”) won’t go to sleep, forcing his impatient Uncle Mike to tell him off-the-cuff and oft-pervy-version fairy tales. “Boy” is a solid, fun envelope-work, one that provides a not-surprising but well-executed finish for the film.

 

Uncle Mike’s first fairy tale, “Peter and the Witches,” revolves around a young slave (Peter, played by Scott Valentine), who’s torn between his duty to two witches (who seek to resurrect their dead sister) and a beautiful young woman (Miranda) they must kill to achieve that.

Like “Boy” this is a well-edited and shot microwork, with good acting (especially Anne Redfern and Phyllis Craig, in their only cinematic roles, as witches Florinda and Hanagohl).  Lisa Cain, stuntwoman for many films including WOLFEN, 1981, played “Living Magoga,” Hanagohl and Florinda’s resurrected sibling.

 

“Little Red Runninghood,” the second tale, is less focused than its preceding segments. In it, a beautiful young woman (Rachel) is accidentally given the wrong meds for her grandmother at a pharmacy, meds meant for Willie (a lycanthrope who uses them to prevent him from werewolfing out). This leads to an inevitable “Red Riding Hood” crisis for all involved.

While sometimes funny, clever, and effectively twisty, its overlong sex scenes between Rachel and her boyfriend─which flesh out DEADTIME to feature-length, but also undercut “Runninghood”’s overall humor and pacing do the rest of DEADTIME an injustice. It doesn’t ruin the movie but it’s a glaring lag in this otherwise worthwhile flick.

Matt Mitler (BASKET CASE 2, 1990) played Willie.

 

In “Goldi Lox and the Three Baers,” three fugitives from the law─two of them escapees from Saints Preserve Us Home for the Hopelessy Insane─and their driver flee to their old Amityville house and discover that a virginity-obsessed and equally murderous telepath (Goldi Lox) has taken up residence there.

“Goldi” is a ridiculously funny, fresh take on the “Three Bears” fairy tale, one that’s not quite iconic, but─like most of DEADTIME─clever, knowing, with a wink-at-the-audience, genre-true sense of humor. The dialogue, editing and over-acting are spot-on, transcending DEADTIME’s limited budget.

Melissa Leo (RED STATE, 2011) played Judith “MaMa” Baer. Kevin Hannon played Beresford “Papa” Baer. Timothy Rule (LURKERS, 1987) played Wilmont “Baby” Bear. Cathryn de Prume (TRUE BLOOD: “F**k the Pain Away,” 2013) played Goldi Lox.

Overall, DEADTIME is worth watching, provided you like 1980s cheese and humor, aren’t a fairy tale purist, are okay with “Runninghood”’s sex scenes-lag and enjoy watching non-professional actors (many of the players only have a film or three to their respective credits) and are in a silly mood. The filmmakers clearly knew how to effectively guerilla shoot, getting the most onscreen bang for their limited cash─that, at least for this viewer, impressed me. Just don’t expect it to win any awards.

DON'T LET HER IN (2021)

 

(Director/screenwriter: Ted Nicolaou)

Review

A city-loft, twenty-something couple (Amber and Ben) take in a sexy roommate, Serena, whose stack of cash (“nine months’ rent”) silences their request for her references. Serena is a Goth-dark charmer who deals in (supposedly) healing stones and weird Wicca-esque rituals. It’s not long before Amber and Ben start having disturbing sex dreams (that might not be dreams) about her, night visions where she has the face of a demon. Then a strange man in a duster (Elias Lambe) appears on the street outside their warehouse-district flat. It seems he’s stalking Serena. Who’s a villain here─Elias or Serena?

This brightly lit, hour-long, direct-to-video, demon-themed thriller is (mostly) story-solid and well-directed, a by-the-numbers flick that lacks suspense, sports solid FX and mostly solid performances (to be fair, the actors aren’t given much to work with, given the film’s screenplay and length). There’s welcome humor in one scene involving Amber and the statue, one that recalls a scene in Steven Spielberg’s 1981 film RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK.

Kelly Curran played Amber, blonde, schoolgirl-haircut illustrator who slowly realizes that Serena’s exotic habits may not be holistic. Lorin Doctor played Serena, a dark, bold seductress. Cole Pendery played mellow stoner/rock musician Ben, whose character is especially dumb at important moments. Austin James Parker played the not-given-much-to-do Elias Lambe.

I watched this because I saw Nicolaou’s name attached to it─Nicolaou directed the tightly written and directed, impressive-for-its-budget SUBSPECIES tetralogy (the fifth film is in pre-production). As far as direction, production and writing goes, DON’T is tight like his SUBSPECIES work─unlike those vampire films, it’s a relatively generic experience, albeit one with professional, impressive-for-its-budget and a notable filmmaker at its helm.

MY BLOODY VALENTINE (2009)

 

(a.k.a  MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D; director: Patrick Lussier. Screenwriters: Todd Farmer and Zane Smith, based on John Beaird’s 1981 screenplay.)

 

Review

Harmony, a small mining town, Valentine’s Day. Miner Tom Haniger (Jensen Ackles, SUPERNATURAL, 2005-20) forgets to “bleed the [methane] lines” in one of his father’s company’s tunnels, and an explosion traps six men underground. One of them survives, Harry Warden─and he’s in a coma. Local newspaper headlines scream this information as they fly across the screen during the film’s opening credits.

One year later. Tom attends a party at the same mine (tunnel No. 5) where the accident happened. A lot of his peers are there, including Tom’s girlfriend, Sarah Mercer (Jaime King, SILENT NIGHT, 2012). Warden, who’s awakened from his coma and slaughtered twenty or so patients and hospital staff, dons mining gear and a gas mask, and, wielding a pickaxe, attacks those attending the mine party. Just as Warden’s about to kill Tom, the police shoot him dead.

Ten years later, almost Valentine’s Day. Tom, who disappeared after Warden’s attack, returns to Harmony to sign legal papers to sell the mine, still considered by many Harmonians to be the town’s economic lifeblood. He’s cagy about where he’s been, further alienating others, including his ex, Sarah, who’s married to one of their friends, Axel Palmer (Kerr Smith, FINAL DESTINATION, 2000), the local sheriff who has a secret or two of his own.

New murders occur─one of the victims a trucker named Frank (co-screenwriter Todd Farmer)─and the main suspect, of course, is Tom, who survives a second attack by The Miner). Tom begins an investigation independent of Axel, hostile toward Tom, believing him to be the killer. Meanwhile, the gory, splashy mayhem and attacks continue.

This remake of the 1981 stab ‘n’ pickaxe film wastes no time in its execution, and is notably different than its grim, atmospheric source film. The 2009 version has a slicker look (not surprising, since it was released as a 3D, “Real D,” movie), and cuts to the terror quicker─there’s also more suspense, nudity, gore, explicit violence and dead bodies, and The Miner’s murder style is more brutal, though just as creative. Conflict between many of the characters, especially Tom and Axel’s, are heightened, while director Lussier’s restive cameras add to the film’s roller-coaster-fast and source film-respecting storyline.

Additonally, Lussier and Cynthia Ludwig’s editing keep the movie tight and suspenseful, an effect furthered by Michael Wandmacher’s jump scare-punctuated score, Brian Pearson’s cinematography, and the film’s art/set design. The acting, across the board, is solid, including these notable players: Tom Atkins (THE FOG, 1980) as Chief Burke; Kevin Tighe as Ben Foley. Megan Boone (THE BLACKLIST, 2013-?) as Megan. Edi Gathegi (THE BLACKLIST, 2013-?) as Deputy Martin; and Marc Macauley (DRIVE ANGRY, 2011) as Riggs. Richard John Walters, billed as Rich Walters, played Harry Warden.

MY, like the notably different 1981 film that spawned it, is worth seeing, both aspire to do what a good splatter-genre flick should: entertain with R-rated gore, sex, delusion, and violence.

MORTUARY (1983)

 

(Director/co-screenwriter: Howard Avedis. Co-screenwriter: Marlene Schmidt, who also appeared in the film as Lois Stevens.)

Review

After a middle-aged psychiatrist (Dr. Parson), relaxing at home, is murdered poolside, it’s ruled an accident. Everyone but his frantic daughter, Christie (Mary Beth McDonough, MIDNIGHT OFFERINGS, 1981), believes it.

Later, Christie’s boyfriend (Josh) and his friend (Greg Stevens) break into Josh's ex-boss’s warehouse, where they accidentally witness a robed satanic séance in the basement and are discovered. Josh, away from Greg, is murdered then hidden by a black-robed assailant wielding a long embalming tube. Greg, with Christy, looks for Josh, to no avail. When they report what happened to the police, the police dismiss it as a prank. Then more alarming events occur while the Greg and Christie dig deeper into the mystery, not the least of which is: who is Christie’s black-robed stalker?

Given the clues and brief glimpses of the killer’s face, it’s easy to figure out that cultist’s identity (not a criticism). If I do have any criticisms, it’s that the characters sometimes don’t act in ways that make sense, e.g., why doesn’t Christie confront her mother, Eve (Lynda Day George, PIECES, 1982), who clearly knows more than she’s saying? Also, MORTUARY runs twenty minutes too long─if the sex and several pursuit scenes had been shortened, it would’ve made this a taut, striking film. Its shock ending it anything but, although I understand why they might’ve used it.

Despite these nits, there’s a lot to like about MORTUARY. It’s suspenseful and creepy in many parts. John Cacavas’s score is mood-effective and weird when it needs to be, and the film is mostly fast-paced until its last third. The acting, some of it appropriately melodramatic, ranges from good to solid.

Bill Paxton (BUTCHER, BAKER, NIGHTMARE MAKER, 1981) is a standout player as Paul Andrews, a creepy funeral home employee who’s crushing on Christie. Christopher George (CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD, 1980) is fun in his final film as Hank Andrews, Paul’s cultist, frustrated father and employer. David Wysocki, billed as David Wallace, is solid as Greg Stevens─Wysocki appeared in television shows and other movies (among the latter, HUMONGOUS, 1981).

MORTUARY is an often fun, R-rated, cultic-stalker movie with enough weird charm and strange-blend story elements to recommend it for a late night when you’re tired, have nothing else to watch, and want to fall asleep to something trashy and oddball with a few notable actors.

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.

ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE (2015)

 

(Director/screenwriter: Todd Nunes)

 

Review

Shot in seven days, ALL is a moderately entertaining and well-edited X-mas horror flick, for the most part. If it’s not suspenseful, it’s not for the lack of the filmmakers’ trying: scenes might have been suspenseful are undercut by its low budget, and flat acting by much of cast lumps ALL in a budget-hobbled, direct-to-video category. Despite those limitations, this could be a fun, late-night flick for more forgiving viewers.

Story: Rachel Kimmel (Ashley Mary Nunes) returns home from college during the winter holidays. A sense of reluctant obligation compels the twenty-something Rachel and her same-age friends (Gia and Sarah) to help her grandmother’s eccentric neighbor (Mrs. Garrett, an older woman) decorate the interior of her already-Xmas-gaudy house. The women’s reluctant sense of obligation stems from the fact that Rachel feels bad for Garrett, whose husband (Mitchell) left her under mysterious circumstances “sometime in the Nineties,” fifteen years prior, and whose daughter (Jamie) died under equally cloudy circumstances─at least as far as Rachel, Gia and Sarah are concerned. Mrs. Garrett and Rachel’s foul-mouthed, wheelchair-bound grandma (Abby) know, but they refuse to tell her (“That’s a conversation for another day,” Mrs. Garrett says, early on in ALL.)

Rachel’s arrival sparks a cycle of murders that target twenty-something heterosexual couples who are about to have sex or have had sex. A killer in a Santa Claus suit and a white-beard, silver-painted mask, wielding a big pair of gardening shears, stabs female breasts and castrates the men (male violence is off-camera). Eventually, Abby, Rachel and her friends become targets and must fight to survive.

The first two-thirds of the film are quick character and story set-up, shadowy and Christmas-creepy shots interior shots of Mrs. Garrett’s house and a series of 1990s-esque, humorous, soft porn-ish kill scenes with nudity and impressive, practical FX and blood. The third-act twists are solid, though genre-familiar viewers may glean them earlier on.

Acting-wise, the standouts are: Ashley Mary Nunes (Rachel); Cathy Garrett (having fun with her role as Rachel’s spitfire grandmother); and Melynda Kiring, as the pleasant but obviously “off” Mrs. Garrett. A notable actor, for his real-life connections, is Justice Lee, Ashley Mary Nunes’s son and Todd Nunes’s nephew─he plays “Young Jacob.”

Fans of Seventies-era Alice Cooper might enjoy the appearance of one of the late-in-the-flick character reveals, and its ending is fun (if key character-illogical). I also appreciated the scenes that screenwriter/director Todd Nunes used to effectively bookend the movie.

If you’re looking for something pays a well-directed, direct-to-video homage to more iconic/memorable slasher films, this might be a good match for your late-night mood.

HOWLING II: YOUR SISTER IS A WEREWOLF (1985)

 

(a.k.a. HOWLING II: IT’S NOT OVER YET; a.k.a. HOWLING II: STIRBA—WEREWOLF BITCH. Director: Philippe Mora. Screenplay by Robert Sarno and Gary Brandner, said to be loosely based on Brandner’s 1978 novel, THE HOWLING II, but if it is, it’s only in spirit.)

Storyline

Ben White, brother of Karen White from the first HOWLING, goes after werewolves who wanted to claim his sister’s resurrected body, with help from his girlfriend and a werewolf expert.

Review

Los Angeles, California.  HOWLING II begins at Karen White’s funeral, attended by her brother (Ben) and his girlfriend (Jenny Templeton). The details of Karen’s on-camera death at the end of THE HOWLING (1981) are not known by Ben and Jenny (the tapes of her death disappeared). All Ben and Jenny know is that her death was a suicide.

Also at the funeral is Stefan Crosscoe (Christopher Lee), a stranger who tells Ben and Jenny about the circumstances surrounding Karen’s death─and that she’s not dead, since the M.E. took the fatal silver bullet from her body. At the next full moon, Stefan says, Karen will rise from her grave as a lycanthrope. Jenny isn’t sure what to think until Stefan shows them the tape of Karen’s transformation and death. Jenny believes Stefan. Ben still thinks Stefan is full of it. Later, they go to Karen’s coffin and by the end of the night, Ben is a believer too.

Stefan tells them he’s going to the Balkans to wipe out the remainder of the werewolf pack─a few of whom were seen at Karen’s funeral. They want to take her to Stirba, a lycanthropic enchantress and Stefan’s mortal enemy. Ben and Jenny go with Stefan─Ben wants revenge for his sister; Jenny wants to help resolve the situation.

Stefan, Jenny and Ben arrive in the Balkans. (In addition to LA, the film was shot in Czechoslovakia, specifically Central Bohemia and Borrandov Studios in Prague.) Werewolves stalk them, occasionally attack them.

The film meanders while Stefan and Stirba-hating villagers locate her castle near town. While this happens, Stirba─an old crone─breathes in a young sacrifice’s yellow soul-vapor during a satanic ritual. Stirba de-ages into a big-breasted, sexy woman (Sybil Danning), who dons metal-adorned leather and wraparound sunglasses (Danning had conjunctivitis) and prances around when she’s not ripping off her clothes and writhing in orgiastic, R-rated passion with Mariana (Marsha A. Hunt, DRACULA A.D. 1972) and Vlad (Judd Omen, C.H.U.D. II: BUD THE CHUD, 1989), her hunky second-in-command.

Jenny is kidnapped by Stirba’s minions and held as a future sacrifice. Stefan, Ben, and Stefan’s villager friends battle Stirba and her worshippers. Will Ben rescue Jenny? Will Stefan and the others defeat Stirba and her pack?

HOWLING II is not a good film but it has a lot of humor and occasional Hammer flick drama in it, along with a few worthwhile actors (this does not include the wooden role-fillers who played Jenny and Ben). Despite his evident disappointment with the project, Christopher Lee is professional and fun, elevating the film to a barely watchable level. Sybil Danning (THE RED QUEEN KILLS SEVEN TIMES, 1972) is good as the villainess with a mysterious link to Stefan, and for those who can’t get enough of her breasts, one of her few nude shots is repeated seventeen times during the end-credits─a producer’s doing, something that pissed Danning off when she saw it. Tired of taking off her clothes on camera, she had been reluctant to do topless shots, but she’d relented. Then to see them used in that manner. . .

HOWLING II also has decent (if cheesy) practical FX, especially when one considers what the filmmakers had to work with. The blood is bright red, shots are clever, and some of the lycanthropes are ape-like─according to IMDb, that’s because the filmmakers were accidentally sent ape suits from a PLANET OF THE APES project, so Mora and company made do with what they had.

HOWLING II might appeal to fans of low budget, playful Eighties films and Lee/Danning completists. It’s far from the worst entry in this seven-film franchise, but for most people, it probably wouldn’t be worthwhile fare.

BODY COUNT (1986)

 

(a.k.a. BODYCOUNT; director: Ruggero Deodato. Screenwriters: Alessandro Capone [billed as Alex Capone], Luca D’Alisera, Sheila Goldberg, an uncredited Tommaso Mottola, and Dardano Sacchetti [billed as David Parker, Jr.].)

Storyline

Fifteen years after murders where a campground killer was never caught, a campsite becomes the location for a new spate of murders.

 

Review

An eight-year-old boy (Ben Ritchie) sees a couple murdered on the campgrounds owned by his parents (Robert and Julia Ritchie)─the murderer is not caught. Fifteen years pass, and Ben (Nicola Farron) still lives there. When a group of fun-loving young people come up to party and hike, a fresh round of killing begins.

Set in Chicago but filmed in Italy, BODY COUNT is an intermittently entertaining and oddball film. It mixes the ribald humor of PORKY’S (1981), the stalk-and-slay focus of FRIDAY THE 13^th (1980), marital drama, and the dreamlike intensity of a giallo. As a slasher work, it’s solid in parts, intertwined with scenes where the campers run around the campsite enjoying nature, in and out of their clothes. Their oblivious-to-danger behavior drives Robert Ritchie (played with loopy relish by David Hess) closer to a violent breakdown─Robert is haunted by the escaped murderer fifteen years prior. He lays traps in the woods and walks around with a gun, ready to shoot the killer should he show himself again.

Robert is not the only one affected by the murders. His wife, Julia (Mimsy Farmer, THE BLACK CAT, 1981), tired of dealing with Robert’s moodiness, is having an affair with Charlie, a quirky, bad-ass deputy (played by Charles Napier, BODY BAGS, 1993). Of course, Ben, who witnessed the murders, is strange─he is a nerd with rage issues, made worse by his parents’ problems.

Following the start of the new brutal murders, a few of them taking place in the campsite’s bathroom/shower house (convenient for multiple female nude scenes), the killer hides their corpses. The other characters do frivolous things.

Eventually the bodies are discovered. Robert and Julia’s marriage comes to a death-struggle end. Charlie the Deputy shows up for the big killing show, after running around the campground, checking out one clue or another.

BODY runs considerably longer than it needs to, with odd tonal shifts and sometimes bad editing (e.g., two characters, start to kiss in daylight─seconds later, when their lips touch, it’s nighttime). 

The characters, aside from the older adults, are disposable and unmemorable (though Nicola Farron’s Ben is unintentionally hilarious when he emotes). Much of the blame for these issues might lie in having a written-by-committee screenplay and a few instances where the film blatantly adheres to FRIDAY THE 13^th tropes: several scenes in BODY are lifted straight from FRIDAY flicks, e.g. a body thrown through a window, and some of its soundtrack sounds like a direct rip-off of Harry Manfredini’s FRIDAY THE 13^th PART 3 (1982) scoring─while these elements are effective and nerve-jangling, they also distract from what’s going on in BODY.

What BODY gets right is noteworthy, too. When Claudio Simonetti, composer extraordinaire and keyboardist for the prog-rock band Goblin, creates original music, it’s effective and often subtle. Emilio Loffredo’s cinematography, murky during daytime scenes, lends a dreamlike vibe to BODY. The neurotic older characters are straight out of a giallo, furthering the flick’s weirdness.

It helps that the older cast members are standout players. David Hess (THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, 1972), a prolific and successful musician and actor, was known for imbuing his often-raw characters with unexpected sensitivity. Ivan Rassimov (THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH, 1971), a veteran player in action and gialli, has a brief role in BODY, but he makes his character, Deputy Sheriff Ted, interesting. Mimsy Farmer is palpably distressed (and later unhinged) in her portrayal of Julia. Charles Napier’s Charlie the Deputy has a good-‘ole-boy-but-heartfelt-about-Julia vibe.

Its sequel-inviting end-scenes are not shocking but appropriately offbeat.

The above elements make BODY a mostly mundane and sometimes badly edited flick with a few instances of standout acting and entertaining bits thrown into it. While I’m glad I saw it, it won’t be a film I revisit any time soon. It’s worth your time if you're really into slashers/gialli and keep your expectations low.