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Without Warning! (1952)
DVD Review "Without Warning" By Marcus Pan
DVD Review
"Without Warning"
By Marcus Pan
Hitchcock fans take note. This 1952 black and white noir thriller, given a recent facelift this year by noir rescuers Dark Sky, will thrill any old style mystery and slasher fan. From Levy-Gardner-Laven Productions, story and screenplay by Bill Raynor and directed by Arnold Laven, it's a very good foray into old style mysteries and murder thrillers.
Killer Carl Martin, played by Adam Williams ("North by Northwest") is a clean cut gardener who finds other more eccentric uses for his gardening scissors. After two murders the police's only leads are unmatched fingerprints, knowledge of the weapon being "scissors of some type" and a piece of a blue suit. The police frantically scramble to find this serial murderer with a hankering for pretty blondes and an unknown motivation.
While the police, featuring a detective played by Ed Binns ("12 Angry Men"), canvas the laundry and clothing repair shops waiting for the blue suit to turn up in need of mending, Carl Martin goes about his everyday business as a gardener while drawing the local garden shop owner's daughter (Meg Randall), who fits the bill under the pretty blonde category, into his trap of shearing madness.
Without success there, at least at the outset, Carl takes to the bars to find another of his blondes and the police nearly pick him up at the scene of a third murder. The following foot chase and cab jumps to throw the police off his tail serves for a little while, with the noose of the law now starting to draw closer around our gardening madman. A string of blonde beauties with detective backups is put out on the street in an effort to snare Carl, brilliantly using a habitual nuance of his to track down the right man. It was a piece of the murder weapon - his gardening shears - and a bit of excellent police work that bring Carl Martin to justice as the serial murderer.
Fans of "CSI" and other crime scene investigation style motion pictures would also find a lot to enjoy here, as the police explore the crime and seek to solve the murders using top of the line investigation methods of the 1950s. It will give you a great look at the investigation and police work efforts of the time.
I enjoyed this film, and without Dark Sky to pick it up and save it from a silent death in the back rooms with black & white master tapes of its time, it would have never reached me...or you. Hitchcock fans will enjoy the film for its charm and suspense and mystery buffs will enjoy this film for its old school step by step clue tracking. If you've watched "The Birds" or "Psycho" one too many times and need something new (old?) of this style, drop by Dark Sky and pick up Without Warning for some original thrills.
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Originally published in Legends #152. Minor edits since. De-URLed.
Nasser Asphalt (1958)
DVD Review "Wet Asphalt" By Marcus Pan
DVD Review
"Wet Asphalt"
By Marcus Pan
From the "lost noir" category of Dark Sky Films' new releases, "Wet Asphalt" portrays the story of prison releasee Greg Bachmann (Horst Buchholz). An early release prompted by Cesar Boyd (Martin Held), mogul oldster reporter of the day, places Bachmann as personal assistant and helpful reporter protégé to the older mogul. During the course of his work, in an effort to build sensationalism for his stories, Boyd makes the grave error of developing a story not from a news source, but his mind.
The result resembles something you'd see during the Telephone Game - where you'd tell a story at one end of a chain of people and by the time it reaches the others at the end of the line it's been extremely exaggerated. The creation of this story, which ends up in a Parisian newspaper on the weekend, builds to include other reporters picking up the idea. This leads other reporters to add new details, to the point where the governments of multiple nations are attempting to safeguard against a possible international event.
During the course of young Greg's investigation into this story he helped Boyd write up, he is lead to the discovery of the story's initial fabrication. Being an honest type, the idea of concocting a story for mere sensationalism and passing it off as "news" terribly upsets Bachmann. Watching the story take on a life of it's own, build to a crescendo and result in people being hurt through riots and demonstrations, with Boyd not showing the least bit of remorse for it, sends Bachman over the edge. The result is his quest to expose the fallacy of the story.
The movie brings forward many ideas and questions concerning media and its practices and those morals still stand and should be practiced as much today as it was back when this movie came out - 1958. That helps the movie remain timeless, as it echoes an ideal that has been wrestled with for many years and since newsmen have begun to write about the world at large.
The audio track was a bit off, but this is to be expected when you're dealing with a film nearly a half century old. Other than that, the movie stands as a good example of the genre and asks some very important questions about truthfulness in news media and sources. Somebody send a copy of this to CNN and all the other news programs as a reminder.
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Originally published in Legends #154. Minor edits since.
Violent Midnight (1963)
DVD Review "Violent Midnight" By Marcus Pan
DVD Review
"Violent Midnight"
By Marcus Pan
Dark Sky Films are still out there, rescuing all the crazy slasher flicks they can get their grubby hands on. This time around they bring us the Del Tenney film, "Violent Midnight". In this hour and a half 1963 film, we are introduced to Elliott Freeman (Lee Philips), a Korean war veteran with a shattered past that involves the shooting death of his father during a hunting accident, a pose painter in a small college town. When his latest model turns up dead detective Parma (Dick Van Patten) looks towards either Elliot or the model's bar-hopping ex boyfriend, Charlie (James Farentino).
When yet another local college girl turns up floating wrong side up in the local watering hole, it heats up a bit. While the police rush to find the two suspects, a third possibility in the form of a peeping tom professor crops up. As Charlie gets hauled off to the precinct, Elliot gets grabbed by his own lawyer to be committed to help his insanity plea and the peeping tom is tromping around, the climax moves to Elliot's home where his sweetheart rushes over to see him.
The rush to the end of the film where, of course, our murderer is revealed, took me quite by surprise. I can honestly say I didn't see it coming. The identity of our deranged slasher here in "Violent Midnight" was really a shock. So while cheesy as always, "Violent Midnight" delivered a good twisty ending.
Del Tenney moved on to such notable B-classics as "The Curse of the Living Corpse" and "The Horror of Party Beach", this one being his first. It's a nice addition to the B-cult collection of most slasher fans, with the added bonus of it being believable and even surprising in its mystery.
B-movie hilarity and a good ending? Wow!
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Originally published in Legends #159. Minor edits since.
Trilogy of Terror (1975)
DVD Review "Trilogy of Terror" By Marcus Pan
DVD Review
"Trilogy of Terror"
By Marcus Pan
In the midst of a nearly 48 hour straight period of working in the home office, I took a break and delved into one of the recent DVD reviews I had to look at. I was intrigued by this one because it really tries to grow over the B-cult fare that I've seen earlier from Dark Sky Films. And it has such notable names attached to the project.
Made for TV, the "Trilogy of Terror" tells the story of three women - all played by Karen Black - in three short Twilight Zone-like episodes. And no wonder as the stories were written by Richard Matheson of "The Twilight Zone" fame as well as William F. Nolan ("Logan's Run"). First off, I found the constant reminder that MPI owns the rights to this and it's only for private purposes overlayed at the bottom of the screen at all times a bit of a nuisance, and additionally I found all three episodes to be somewhat predictable in content.
The first episode tells the tale of a college teacher who seems to have been taken advantage of by an amorous and controlling student named Chad. Throughout the film I'm full sure that the meek Julie is going to turn the tables on Chad in some way, and I knew in my heart of hearts that she had orchestrated it all somehow. Yes indeedy, dead on. Point Pan.
Next we have a story that opens with the humdrum and plain laced Millicent warning folks about the antics of her Satan worshipping evil sister Therese. From the get go I knew what was going on here - a tell tale and obvious case of dual personality syndrome. The clichéd presentation of the super-prudish Millicent contrasted against the super-tramp Therese couldn't have been any more obvious.
Lastly we get a full dosage of ghastly blue cheese. This one has all the make-up of dated horror - the living doll, the bathtub scene (admittedly very low key for early TV of course, but implied) and the loud screaming woman. She brings home a fetish doll for her anthropology professor boyfriend. The doll has a gold chain around its waist and its said that if the chain is removed the spirit of the African warrior that inhabits the doll will bring it to life to kill again. Okey dokey. Just before her bath, she puts the doll down and the gold chain happily falls off. What follows could have been comedy for all the laughs it got out of me. The ghastly big mouthed fetish doll runs around slashing her a while, gets shoved in a suitcase to cut itself out, thrown in an oven to burn and chases her from room to room. I'm not quite sure why she didn't just leave when she had it locked in the suitcase for a while. Plenty of time to get out of there, no? No. She eventually wins, but becomes a basketcase.
There you have it - predictable at worst, hilarious at best. The fetish doll segment is my favorite as you can tell - not nearly as cool as Chuckie and even sillier than a Gremlin.
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Originally published in Legends #160. Minor edits since. De-offensified.
Kaitei daisensô (1966)
DVD Review "Terror Beneath the Sea" By Marcus Pan
DVD Review
"Terror Beneath the Sea"
By Marcus Pan
This 1966 Japanese cult classic is about as quiche as you can get. It's downright silly by today's standards, and that makes it that much more enjoyable to watch. Clichéd superheroes, forced-laughing mad scientist villains and amazingly over the top monster costumes make this a collector's must have.
Any fans of original monster horrors - "Creature From the Black Lagoon", "King Kong", and yes of course the "Godzilla" series - would love this sort of thing. The scenery is dazzlingly low budget, the crazy shiny fish-men costumes is cheekily hilarious. This movie is as much a pastiche horror as it is comedic gold. Even the premise of the story has N. W. O. Level entrapments and a Dr. Evil of its own sort; Dr. Moore.
Dr. Moore finds a way to create an army of fish-men, rambling about looking like long lost cousins of the black lagoon creature of old. By applying some medications, and thereafter implanting a set of fish-like lung-gill combinations, he creates these creatures that transform, after the lung transplant, into terrible looking mermen who can only follow such subliminal commands as "fight" and "work." The control panel that keeps these creatures in check, a twist dial that looks like a cross between a child's play desk and a starship bridge, is one of the most hilarious examples of low budget set scenery I've ever seen.
Another that I enjoyed was the small cardboard-looking badges that allowed our intrepid heroes, Ken and Jenny, to escape their glass cell to roam about the complex - a modeled underwater complex more than three thousand feet beneath the ocean. The sound effects are pure gold also, the woosh of the door and the blips of the control panels. The flaming guns are a nice touch. This is B-film, low budget joy.
After battling some of the mermen and eventually vanquishing Dr. Moore himself our heroes, along with their other captured friends, blast from the dome of the underwater complex in a rocket-like contraption that's part Willy Wonka and part NASA just prior to the dome-shaped model's violent explosion.
This movie will remind you why B-movies have cult followings. It's the movie collector's equivalent of a comic book collector's rare find of, say, an old "Spiderman" comic from the 60s. You can't get any more cheeky than this, and you'll rarely have as much fun watching a horror flick ever.
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Originally published in Legends #154. Minor edits since.
The Serial Killers (1995)
DVD Review "The Serial Killers" By Marcus Pan
DVD Review
"The Serial Killers"
By Marcus Pan
Three DVDs, six and a half hours, of death and perversion is enough for just about anybody methinks. On Dark Sky Films' 2005 release of "The Serial Killers", we have thirteen episodes of biographies, discussion and interviews with men and women that have struck fear into the hearts of millions during their heyday. Going as far back as The Lipstick Killer (William Heirens), one of the USA's first, and occasionally looking at items such as the true story of The Amityville Horror (Ronald DeFeo Jr.), The Serial Killers 3 disc box set will satisfy your murderous cravings.
Well made and produced and some of the best documentaries of any genre, the discs cover many aspects of all of the serial and mass murderer's rampages. As good as law enforcement could piece together from confessions and evidence, the makers didn't concentrate on any one point of view. Local law enforcement officers, prosecutors, victims and their families are given equal screen time. The killers themselves are usually interviewed directly for heady insight into the minds of the deranged.
This isn't your "Silence of the Lambs" standard fare fiction. The crimes discussed and shown are real. It's enough for anybody, really, who has even a cursory interest in psychology, law enforcement, forensics and criminal behavior. The Lethal Lovers duo (Catherine May Wood & Gwendolyn Graham), The Hillside Strangler (Kenneth Bianchi) and the notorious Lady Killer (Theodore Robert Bundy) are here. We stay in the recent few decades of the past in order to show us a full storyline instead of delving too far into the current where stories are still being developed and change as each yelp of the messed up minds of today's killers run awry. And many of the murderers here I have only known about cursorily. This will give you an in-depth look at some of the more obscure serial killers of our country.
The soundtrack of the series is an eerie combination of jazz fusion and spookiness, giving the production as a whole a slick sound and feel. Videography is top notch and direction is superb. The killers themselves are near remorseless and just seeing them on screen knowing what they have done as it is explained to you step by step, in gory brutal detail, is haunting. Equally scary is the statistics stated at the beginning of each episode - that there are as many as two hundred serial killers still plying their trade in the world at large. I find it interesting that just about all of the convicted murderers never accept what they've done - they always refer to their victims in the third person. "Yes, she was killed." Not, "Yes, I killed her/him."
The success of such films as "Silence of the Lambs" and its prequel/sequels, "Seven" and television shows like The "X-Files", "CSI", and "24" shows a country-wide (and worldwide) fascination with the macabre. Wanting to see either things that you don't have the balls to do - or just can't accept having being done. It's this that makes DVDs like "The Serial Killers" fascinating. What if you were raised by a bad mother like Henry Lee Lucas? What if your young life was as unfulfilling and rife with money problems as Lipstick Killer William Heirens? Would you snap just as boldly and all-encompassingly as these men? Could you be a part of a Lethal Lover duo if your life was just as messed up?
Motivations of these men and women range from the grotesquely insane to the perversely sexual and everything in between...vengeance, hatred, fear. All of what made "Silence of the Lambs" and "Hannibal" dark, twisted and evil makes "The Serial Killers" tenfold as dark because, here, it's real. It's not Hollywood made up story time - actual crimes, actual victims, actual derangement. If you thought a Hollywood thriller was frightening, give this a shot - and know it can happen to you.
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Originally published in Legends #153. Minor edits since. De-offensified.
Shin honto ni atta kowai hanashi: Yuugen-kai (1992)
The Best of the Three of the "Scary True Stories"
Directed by Norio Tsuruta with screenwriting by Chiaki Konaka, the "Scary True Stories" DVD release by Dark Sky collects all ten individual stories that came from the three part series the duo created - "Scary True Stories", "Scary True Stories: Night Two" and "Scary True Stories: Realm of Specters". These short ten films take you into the J-horror underground as you are shown what is supposedly truthful stories of ghostly hauntings.
The last series, "Realm of Specters", is by far the scariest of the "Scary True Stories" bunch and closes with "Be Gone Crone!!" - a tale of a young child's horror from her window; "My Friend at the Stairwell" - a pair of classmates try to help the lonely spirit of a boy in a stairwell of their school. "Paralysis" - a woman finds herself tormented at night by a grotesque goblinesque creature who won't allow her to move during his work; and "The Black Hair in the Abandoned Building" - some young folks are cursed after making mischief in an abandoned and supposedly haunted local mansion.
Honto ni atta kowai hanashi: Dai-ni-ya (1992)
DVD Review "Scary True Stories" By Marcus Pan
DVD Review
"Scary True Stories"
By Marcus Pan
The Japanese horror genre combines anime-like cinematography and visions of supernatural horrors with long periods of Hitchcockesque suspenseful build-up before delivering terrible views of evil that sends fear shredding the length of your spine. Recent scenes you will be unlikely to forget displayed on American silver screens have come from Japanese horror films like "The Grudge" and "The Ring".
One of the forerunners of this J-horror boom was a three part series made for Japanese television. Honto Ni Atta Kowai Hanashi ("Scary True Stories") thrilled the Japanese audience in 1991 & 1992, setting the stage for imagery that has crossed the Pacific to even mystify stateside audiences and horror lovers.
Directed by Norio Tsuruta with screenwriting by Chiaki Konaka, the "Scary True Stories" DVD release by Dark Sky collects all ten individual stories that came from the three part series the duo created - "Scary True Stories", "Scary True Stories: Night Two" and "Scary True Stories: Realm of Specters". These short ten films take you into the J-horror underground as you are shown what is supposedly truthful stories of ghostly hauntings.
Most will lead you for some time, taking lessons from Alfred Hitchcock and other suspense directors. The imagery remains dark of course, being ghost stories after all, but the images of the ghosts themselves are thrown at you after a long period of being dragged along by further heightening levels of fear and suspense which increases the fright that occurs swiftly at the climax.
The last series, "Realm of Specters", is by far the scariest of the bunch and closes with "Be Gone Crone!!" - a tale of a young child's horror from her window; "My Friend at the Stairwell" - a pair of classmates try to help the lonely spirit of a boy in a stairwell of their school. "Paralysis" - a woman finds herself tormented at night by a grotesque goblinesque creature who won't allow her to move during his work; and "The Black Hair in the Abandoned Building" - some young folks are cursed after making mischief in an abandoned and supposedly haunted local mansion.
Also of merit is "Mystery of the Red Earring", a story of two high school girls who must find the match for a mysterious red earring found in the bushes. This one in particular has a near-comical scene with a Bhuddhist monk who finds the whole situation of a ghost terrifying the girls looking for her earring to be hilarious. "The Hospital at Midnight" is strange, detailing some of the adventures of a young nursing student assigned to the midnight shift in her local hospital.
"The Grudge" and "The Ring" is ghost/spectre horror at its finest. And if you enjoyed those, you'll certainly enjoy this Dark Sky Collection of "Scary True Stories", which is one of the series that set fire to this brilliant ocean-crossing genre of modern horror. Done in Japanese with English subtitles and with the filmed aspect ratio unchanged to remain as true as possible to the original airing, the alternate language itself becomes less of a burden when watching as I actually found myself paying strict attention to everything on screen so as not to miss a beat. This, of course, made every nuance of the stories that much clearer and should serve to do the same for you.
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Originally published in Legends #156. Minor edits since.
Honto ni atta kowai hanashi (1991)
DVD Review "Scary True Stories" By Marcus Pan
DVD Review
"Scary True Stories"
By Marcus Pan
The Japanese horror genre combines anime-like cinematography and visions of supernatural horrors with long periods of Hitchcockesque suspenseful build-up before delivering terrible views of evil that sends fear shredding the length of your spine. Recent scenes you will be unlikely to forget displayed on American silver screens have come from Japanese horror films like "The Grudge" and "The Ring".
One of the forerunners of this J-horror boom was a three part series made for Japanese television. Honto Ni Atta Kowai Hanashi ("Scary True Stories") thrilled the Japanese audience in 1991 & 1992, setting the stage for imagery that has crossed the Pacific to even mystify stateside audiences and horror lovers.
Directed by Norio Tsuruta with screenwriting by Chiaki Konaka, the "Scary True Stories" DVD release by Dark Sky collects all ten individual stories that came from the three part series the duo created - "Scary True Stories", "Scary True Stories: Night Two" and "Scary True Stories: Realm of Specters". These short ten films take you into the J-horror underground as you are shown what is supposedly truthful stories of ghostly hauntings.
Most will lead you for some time, taking lessons from Alfred Hitchcock and other suspense directors. The imagery remains dark of course, being ghost stories after all, but the images of the ghosts themselves are thrown at you after a long period of being dragged along by further heightening levels of fear and suspense which increases the fright that occurs swiftly at the climax.
The last series, "Realm of Specters", is by far the scariest of the bunch and closes with "Be Gone Crone!!" - a tale of a young child's horror from her window; "My Friend at the Stairwell" - a pair of classmates try to help the lonely spirit of a boy in a stairwell of their school. "Paralysis" - a woman finds herself tormented at night by a grotesque goblinesque creature who won't allow her to move during his work; and "The Black Hair in the Abandoned Building" - some young folks are cursed after making mischief in an abandoned and supposedly haunted local mansion.
Also of merit is "Mystery of the Red Earring", a story of two high school girls who must find the match for a mysterious red earring found in the bushes. This one in particular has a near-comical scene with a Bhuddhist monk who finds the whole situation of a ghost terrifying the girls looking for her earring to be hilarious. "The Hospital at Midnight" is strange, detailing some of the adventures of a young nursing student assigned to the midnight shift in her local hospital.
"The Grudge" and "The Ring" is ghost/spectre horror at its finest. And if you enjoyed those, you'll certainly enjoy this Dark Sky Collection of "Scary True Stories", which is one of the series that set fire to this brilliant ocean-crossing genre of modern horror. Done in Japanese with English subtitles and with the filmed aspect ratio unchanged to remain as true as possible to the original airing, the alternate language itself becomes less of a burden when watching as I actually found myself paying strict attention to everything on screen so as not to miss a beat. This, of course, made every nuance of the stories that much clearer and should serve to do the same for you.
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Originally published in Legends #156. Minor edits since.
And Now the Screaming Starts! (1973)
DVD Review "And Now the Screaming Starts" By Marcus Pan
DVD Review
"And Now the Screaming Starts"
By Marcus Pan
An old curse, a new wife and a splendid castle-like mansion give "And Now the Screaming Starts" an old world feel in the genre of spook masterpieces. Everything that defined the haunted house style story of old is here - spooky portraits hanging on the walls of the old family estate, a spooky mysterious woodsman, severed body parts and ghosts galore!
When Charles Fengriffen brings his new wife, Catherine, home to his family estate in the foothills of England (circa 1795), an old gypsy like curse placed on Charles' grandfather comes to roost as well. A nasty old man with a nasty disposition and inability for remorse, his grandfather's actions breed a malevolence that follows his family until the first "virgin bride" is brought to the old manor. Catherine's fate is, as expected, being the first virgin bride since the time of her husband's grandfather.
The visit to Catherine's wedding bed of an old and angry spirit ushers in the final moments of the curse, following harrowing episodes of ghostly visits, horrible sights and the search by Catherine to discover the truth about the curse that had, up until now, remained secreted in the Fengriffen family books with Charles disbelieving and others not telling due to fear of the spirit.
"And Now the Screaming Starts" was a good film, combining elements of splatter horror and "Night of the Living Dead" style grotesquerie. It also retains an old world flavor without becoming too outdated, bringing out some classic elements of haunted mansion storytelling. Well directed and not nearly as b-cult level as other Dark Sky offerings, "And Now the Screaming Starts" is a good addition to any classic horror aficionado's collection.
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Originally published in Legends #160. Minor edits since.
The Manson Family (1997)
DVD Review "The Manson Family" By Marcus Pan
DVD Review
"The Manson Family"
By Marcus Pan
This is, easily, one of the most brutal films I've ever watched. There were numerous stops while I was watching it to save other members of the family from having to deal with the graphic work of director VanBebber as portrayed here. "The Manson Family", possibly one of the more truthful takes on the Charles Manson murders, was fifteen years in the making. Following Jim VanBebber's 80's period success with "Deadbeat at Dawn" and his music video direction with acts like the infamous Skinny Puppy, The Manson Family was begun in 1988 as a project called "Charlie's Family" and with funding issues and the like was piecemealed until its release in 2003. It made it to double-DVD on April 26, 2005 in R and unrated editions. The latter was sent to me.
"The Manson Family" is frighteningly brutal in its depiction of Charlie's rise from obscure druggie to leader of a near-cult "family" at the Spahn Ranch in California. It spends more time than other depictions of the family covering the earlier period of time prior to the worldwide-known Tate-LaBianca murders on August 9, 1969. The loving nature of Charlie Manson, which served to bring other people within the circle of his influence, is portrayed. The constant drug use is plainly displayed and the outward sexual conduct is clearly shown. The unrated version of The Manson Family that I have would probably garner an NC-17 if the movie industry had their way.
You'll notice Manson's increased paranoia and violence as his record contact bails and his fear of race war builds. He's gone from preaching freedom and love at the onset of the movie to hatred and superiority by the time members of the family make their sadistic run to the home where the pregnant Sharon Tate and her cohorts were that evening. Throughout and during the portrayal of the pre-70s years, VanBebber also ties in mockumentaries and a vicious plot line following some modern day family wanna-bes in modern days, bringing all three pieces of stand-alone film together into a vicious climactic ending.
Cinematography and imagery hovers from surreal to sadistic, depending on how far in the film you are and what piece of the tri-run plotlines you're viewing. The movie degenerates into evil as it progresses, the scenery and cinematography getting darker and more twisted as we move along. VanBebber's use of the camera is excellent and his visions are extremely fierce and terrifying.
"The Manson Family" is a brilliant film and has all the catches common to slasher era horror. What sets it apart from all the others is one simple and impossible to overlook fact - the events of "The Manson Family" are not fiction. No Hannibal Lechter, Leatherface or Jason VorHees can touch Charlie Manson. The former three slashed things in fiction only - Charlie and his family did it in our world. And that adds a note of terror that far surpasses others.
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Originally published in Legends #156. Minor edits since.
Magic (1978)
DVD Review "Magic - A Terrifying Love Story" By Marcus Pan
DVD Review
"Magic - A Terrifying Love Story"
By Marcus Pan
"Magic" was a rare receipt from Dark Sky, purveyors of filthy cult-B sci-fi and splatterpunk action thrash. Not here...with "Magic" we have a re-release of an old gem that already has a following. As a matter of fact, there's a line of people waiting for me to finish this review in hopes of getting their hands on it when I'm done. So I should get on...especially considering that Dark Sky is kicking this puppy out officially on February 26, 2006 and I promised my friends there I'd have this done by then.
Let's throw some names at you...Anthony Hopkins in one of his earliest roles appears here as Corky, a fledgling stage magician looking for his niche and schtick. Some of you might remember Anthony Hopkins in such roles as the deranged Hannibal Lecter in the famous "Silence of the Lambs" (and its companions "Red Dragon" and "Hannibal") for which he won an Academy Award in 1992. Hopkins is also a holder of a Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement as of this year. Another actor in "Magic" also you might know - Burgess Meredith ("Batman") is Corky's talent agent Ben Greene, trying to help guide the kid away from a downward spiral of madness and shattered personality. Ann Margaret ("Viva Las Vegas", "Grumpy Old Men") appears here as well as Corky's new soul mate who has yet to realize his perturbations.
Corky finds his niche in the form of Fats, his sidekick ventriloquist dummy who becomes the alter ego to his magical cohorts on stage, giving him an edge over the competition. When he's about to break into the TV big time, Corky panics as somewhere in the back of his mind he really does realize he's a little on the deranged side - Fats, you see, has become more than a ventriloquist dummy. When his magician mentor died, it was Fats who became Corky's only companion on his painfully awkward and shy journey in life.
The TV station demands a physical per his new contract and that forces Corky to run off into the Catskills. There he stays at the estate of an old high school crush, Peggy, who's stuck in a failing relationship with high school sweetheart Duke (Ed Lauter). Corky, with help from Fats, finds enough courage to enter a dubious courtship with her. The end result is the complete mental breakdown of what's left of Corky's personality as it shatters completely into the two complete halves of Fats, and Corky himself, following a devastating meeting when his agent, Ben, tracks him to his Catskills retreat.
Hopkins puts on a phenomenal performance here as he slips headlong into madness trying to avoid a physical that will prove to him that he is indeed mad. After Ben's meeting, which shows it thoroughly, the nasty little Fats exerts his authority over the much more timid personality of the original Corky, leading him down a dark and twisted path of death and suicide. Magic is a dark film with an early look at the work of everyone's best known psycho-actor - a brilliant performance that proves Hopkins deserves the Cecil award.
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Originally published in Legends #159. Minor edits since.
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)
DVD Review "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" By Marcus Pan
DVD Review
"Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer"
By Marcus Pan
Nicknamed "The Confession Killer" by the media, Henry Lee Lucas was one of the rudest, craziest and outright deadliest serial murderers the country has ever known. He's featured on the DVD documentary "The Serial Killers", and now he's got his own movie in the biographical "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer".
Within 5 minutes of the film I counted five dead bodies, one a brutal and gruesome death by beer bottle to the face in a bathroom. Right from the outset there's blood everywhere and I'm wondering 10 minutes in if Henry has blown it's proverbial wad before I've reached satisfaction yet. It's rare when a film can open this powerfully and maintain itself for the over 80 minutes of its run.
The film focuses on the period of time when Henry (Michael Rooker) and Otis (Tom Towles) terrorized the streets of Chicago. Henry takes Otis under his wing as a teacher does to a pupil and shows him how to elude the police by never striking in the same place, using the same methods or for the same reasons.
Otis' little sister Becky (Tracy Arnold) joins the duo in their apartment, unknowing of their diabolical acts elsewhere, and takes a shine to the disturbed Henry. A scuffle in the three roommate's apartment ends with Otis' death, Becky and Henry thereafter leaving together. A great climax during this confrontation whets your appetite for more mayhem to come, but the film abruptly ends leaving you wanting more after such a riveting scene.
"Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" was filmed in under a month with direction by John McNaughton in 1985. Upon its release it has won acclaim and listings across the country. Rooker's performance is eerie and dark and Tracy Arnold's performance as Becky is brilliantly done, creating a bright but disturbed creature in the form of a lost little girl looking for anything even remotely safe to cling to.
The DVD re-release by Dark Sky is the 20th anniversary of the movie's creation and comes boxed with two CDs containing the movie itself, theatrical trailer, photo section and the making of the movie documentary as well. Well put together by Dark Sky Entertainment, it gives a brief, theatrical tale of some of Lucas' Chicago area murders and life.
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Originally published in Legends #153. Minor edits since.
The Flesh Eaters (1964)
DVD Review "The Flesh Eaters" By Marcus Pan
DVD Review
"The Flesh Eaters"
By Marcus Pan
Another rescue mission by Dark Sky Films nets this 1964 classic and presses it to DVD. "The Flesh Eaters" began a new genre of "gore" horror, utilizing new shining-model special effects that haven't been seen before. Starring Byron Sanders, Rita Morley, Barbara Wilkin and with a superb evil scientist portrayal by Martin Kosleck, the film fuses the fear of the ocean deep with the fear of cold-war era biological experimentation.
When it's discovered that Germany attempted to waylay the oceans against America with flesh eating bacterial organisms, psychotic mastermind Kosleck attempts to re-engineer the organisms, and chooses an uninhabited island where he can run his experiments at will without prying eyes. With the advent of bad weather and engine trouble, a charter plane pilot, his drunken actress flyer and the actress' secretary land searching for shelter, throwing a wrench in the experimental plans.
Duping them into helping him with his experiment, applying electrical current through the organisms, the scientist creates more than he bargained for. Pseudo-science indeed, as the electricity gels the DNA of the creatures together into one...well you'll just have to watch the film, I can't give it all away.
Splatter punks will cherish this DVD, "The Flesh Eaters" being one of the first of its kind after all. Fans of modern movies who rail against the older quiche will not. It's sometimes fun however to see where movies were forty years ago and witness the glowing special effects, wacky creatures and more of lost days though. It's also interesting to see the feelings of the times echoed in movies, as they always will be, with Nazi scientists and drunken actresses being on people's minds with the still-recent end of World War II and the cold war fears of the times.
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Originally published in Legends #155. Minor edits since.
Einer frisst den anderen (1964)
DVD Review "Dog Eat Dog" By Marcus Pan
DVD Review
"Dog Eat Dog"
By Marcus Pan
Cult cinema always has its cheese, and "Dog Eat Dog" is no exception. The fight scenes are hilarious, with the quick-speed throws to show the fall through the window just a little faster...the obvious misses that result in our thespians being flipped over pianos and blondes pulling at each other's hair like rag dolls on parade. It's all quite cheesy. Let's not forget the overacting and brilliant melodrama!
The gist of the tale is the evils of money and how its abundance can mar the lives and souls of even the cutest big breasted blonde and her cohort. 50s/60s sex symbol Jayne Mansfield stars here as a goofy gal, pointing her Madonnaesque teats at whoever might get their hands on the illusive million dollar heist money next. Hiding on a Mediterranean island after the heist of US currency that was supposed to have gone back to the states for destruction, the original trio of heisters - consisting of your pretty boy mastermind, dumb-brained heavyset enforcer and the lucky goil, Mansfield - finds themselves followed by a hotel manager and his innocent sister who catch wind that these three are the thieves walking around with a million dollar stash.
Once on the island it's found that the homeowners have returned so now we add the melodramatic old lady and her goofy eccentric housemate. All seven try to find ways to wheel and deal for a share of the money when bodies start turning up. Bombs, knives, goofy overacted death scenes and paranoid schizophrenia later, we find all seven dead by one means or another further telling us that money, when it's your focal point, will become the proverbial death of you.
As far as cult classic cheese goes, "Dog Eat Dog" is dead on. It's got your sex symbol girl, tough and rugged sex symbol guy, innocent virginal girl for the shy fans and a goofy eccentric flat mate with a conniving mind and more. And it's got a pile of money. And a pretty Mediterranean island to hang out on. And a whole lot of unintentionally funny fights, arguments and pointy boobs! You can't go wrong.
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Originally published in Legends #158. Minor edits since. De-offensified.
Der Mönch mit der Peitsche (1967)
DVD Review "College Girl Murders" By Marcus Pan
DVD Review
"College Girl Murders"
By Marcus Pan
Another revival of an old 60's release, Dark Sky has put out "College Girl Murders" on DVD this year (2005). Written by Edgar Wallace of 1933's original "King Kong", "College Girl Murders" brings out the 60s in its full groovy form. All the funkadelic hijinxs of the time are whipped up in a smattering of death, gas and mad scientists with a soundtrack that would make Austin Powers shimmy away.
Dr. Kaplan, scientist of the strange, formulates an odorless deadly gas poison. His intentions of wealth are met with a whip of death at a dark night rendezvous. As the movie moves along we're treated to an elaborate jailbreak, mysterious men and a Catholic all girls' college riddled with secret passages, pervy teachers and lots of strangeness being investigated by an over-zealous police chief trying to rely solely on his recent psychological training.
The bumbling Sir John rambles from mistake to mistake with his new age psycho-babble while Inspector Higgins does his best to keep his hands around the elusive case with the arrival of a monk in red, eccentric writer, mysterious gardner and strange after hours parties where rendezvous are scheduled and mysteries conducted. As people on campus drop like flies, including two of his most important leads, Higgins tries to piece together a strange series of ritual like college girls gone dead.
A monk swathed in red shows up to whip things about and the mad doctor's poison finds its way scattered about campus as a mysterious benefactor breaks men out of prison to do his murderous bidding. Utilizing a silly looking poison gun that shoots deadly silly strings, inspector Higgins follows the breadcrumb trail of strangeness to a reptile infested home of the man behind the crimes. The final scene includes a cheeky Scooby Doo like unmasking and the final bumblings of Inspector Clueso-like Sir John.
"College Girl" Murders has a nice mix of mystery and murder while keeping it light and humorous. One detracting caveat is the voice overs being a bit off from the on-screen speakers, but considering the 1967 dating of the movie you can forgive a little distraction what-with the fact that this movie would have disappeared if it weren't for Dark Sky. I liked it - a movie that helped build the shenanigan clichés of modern slasher spoofs without being too over the top. And the mystery of it was really quite good so the plotline, while silly sounding, really isn't bad at all.
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Originally published in Legends #152. Minor edits since.
Asylum (1972)
DVD Review "Asylum" By Marcus Pan
DVD Review
"Asylum"
By Marcus Pan
Another Amicus classic, "Asylum" features some of the folks you'll see in their other releases - Peter Cushing most notably, one of my favorites. Amicus were one of the first companies to seriously look at the horror genre - up to this time we had black and white features ("Creature From the Black Lagoon" and "The Blob" are notable examples), but few in the way of technicolor horror. With such features as "The Beast Must Die", "And Now the Screaming Starts" and "Asylum", Amicus attempted to redefine the genre - color, a budget and actual acting!
"Asylum" is an interesting story. A new doctor applying for a position at an asylum for the "incurably insane" is given a challenge to get the job. It seems one of the head doctors has gone ahead and lost his mind and became one of the patients. New shrink-doctor hot shot must go upstairs, interview the patients in the asylum and give his diagnosis as to which of them is the previous head of the asylum.
The movie takes on a "Canterbury Tales" stint from this point, as you are treated to a mini-movie of each of the patients' cracked minds and what drove them to being so. Strangely silly stories of magical shining tailor made suits that make cadavers and even mannequins come alive, flailing meat-packed limbs and, of course, your staple multi-personality murder sprees. Then there's the "other guy" - who makes little cheesy robot-looking dolls that he claims are filled with mortal essence...so to speak.
The robot-driven murder of the new head doc was comical indeed. The flailing meat-wrapped limbs were brilliant and hilarious all at the same time. And the twisty ending - as both the new hotshot doctor and myself chose the wrong patient as being the previous head of care. Seems he had us all fooled. Fortunately enough for me, I'm still alive.
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Originally published in Legends #162. Minor edits since. De-offensified.
The Crow (1994)
A Goth Culture Classic
I was a big fan of James O'Barr's classic graphic novel, so the making of this movie was greatly anticipated. I enjoyed it immensely. I thought it was quite well done compared to most Hollywood glitzed up presentations that were developed from comics at the time. These days the MCU (Marvel) and DCEU (DC) movies are now coming to a point where nearly all of them are well done and worth watching even if they change the backstories to conform to the interests of today's world.
The movie itself is dark and brooding. Scenery of the crow flying through the city and views of the rooftops below are breath taking and laced with sadness. The characters really dig into your heart as you watch the murders of Eric and Shelly, senselessly done merely for the amusement purposes of "Devil's Night". And the forlorn, emotionally compelling portrayal of Sarah by Roshelle Davis is heart wrenching. You root for the brutal slaying of Tin Tin and his gang of Devil's Night thugs, even if it's strange to be rooting for the murder. Or is it really, as a group as morally bankrupt as them are deserving of such a fate even if it's by vigilante justice, yes?
The soundtrack to this movie is OUTSTANDING. Jane Siberry's "It Can't Rain All the Time" is such a mournful opener. And the bands on the album put it on the charts with some of gothic/industrial's best: My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult, the Cure, Jesus & Mary Chain, Nine Inch Nails and the punkier metal of Rollin's Band, Stone Temple Pilots (with their well known "Big Empty"). And more. Brilliant!
The death of Brandon Lee on the set was a huge loss as he was poised to take the movie industry by storm. Like his father, his death is shadowed in multitudes of questions and conspiracies.
Unfortunately after this movie Hollywood kind of pooped out the rest in the series, but this first foray remains as one of the best "gothic" movies. I still remember with amusement all the "Dravens" showing up on BBS and Usenet boards like alt.gothic after this movie came out. It's impact was huge and it stands forever on my best list.
Ministry: Tapes of Wrath (2000)
REVIEW: Ministry - "Tapes of Wrath" By Dan Century
REVIEW: Ministry - "Tapes of Wrath" By Dan Century
Does anyone remember when MTV played nothing but videos? Does anyone remember when music videos were actually fun to watch? Ministry's "Tapes Of Wrath" brings me back to the good old days: a time before Al Gore had invented the Internet, and before we knew there was more than one George Bush. I haven't been this excited about a music video product since the release of Wax Trax!'s "Black Box" videos*, and who can blame me?
"Over the Shoulder", from 1996's "Twitch" album, marks the last time we heard Al Jourgensen sing discernable lyrics. The video is as bizarre as Jourgensen's drum machine driven music. When Al is not gliding around a supermarket (probably standing in a shopping cart) wearing a bus driver's cap he is writhing covered in eggs and flower. Way strange dude! Way low budget too, but the perfect visual partner to one of most unusual electronic albums ever pressed on wax.
"Stigmata", from 1988's "Land of Rape and Honey", combines the low-fi weirdness of "Over the Shoulder" with post apocalyptic and industrial imagery (machinery, factories, etc...), rapid fire eyeball montages, skinheads as well as every "we only have $500 to spend" camera and editing trick in the book. Al looks a lot tougher, dressing like a punk-rock/biker/homeless/smack addict (yeah, I know...), and footage of Paul Barker chasing him around Chicago on a motorcycle adds even more credibility to Al's look. "Stigmata", which defined the look of "industrial" videos for years to come, is a genuine mindblast of a video still guaranteed to monopolize every eyeball in the room.
"Flashback", also from "Rape and Honey", features more low budget madness -- and a lot more color courtesy of creatively used X-mas lights (do you remember how everyone in the late 80's / early 90's had X-mas lights 24/7 hanging up in their living room? Okay maybe a lot of my fiends were stoners.). Due to "Flashback"'s explicit lyrics, you'll never see this beautiful mess on MTV. And by the way, is it me or does Paul Barker look EXACTLY like Howard Stern?
"The Land of Rape and Honey", is cut from Ministry's 1990ish live video "In Case You Don't Feel Like Showing Up (Live)"**. The footage doesn't do their stage show justice, but you do get a look at the tremendous steel hurricane fence that lined the stage during the Mind tour. See Al joined on stage by Skinny Puppy's Ogre and a thumb-sucking Jello Biafra (Green Party candidate, the singer for Lard, and Dead Kennedy's).
"Jesus Built My Hot Rod" was the musical exponent of Jourgensen hanging out in Austin Texas doin' dope with Butthole Surfer Gibby Hanes; it's as plain and simple as that. Who knew heavy metal dragged behind a nitro fueled funny car could be this fun? The video features plenty of stock footage of drag races, Gibby on the mike, and the rest of Ministry acting like a bunch of degenerate, unprofessional metal-head drunks (yeah, I know).
I never liked "New World Odor" (sic) too much because it sounds exactly like a stripped down version of "Burning Inside" sprinkled with George Bush Sr. Samples. Nevertheless this video is hilarious (but not intentionally so). Picture Al walking down smoke-filled urban streets sporting his giant cowboy hat and Paul Barker and Mike Scaccia standing on the curb playing guitars. Funny!
"Just One Fix" is the greatest tribute to the Midwestern junkie ever committed to video: junk-sick kids, William S. Burroughs (need I write more?), 'tarnados' and Al nodding off at the mike. Sweet!
I'm going to skip the "Lay Lady Lay" video and the "Reload" video. If you want to see Jourgensen dressed up like Jackie Kennedy check it out. The video for "Bad Blood", Ministry's best song in seven years, is a super-slick montage of medical equipment, green and red "blood", women in nurse uniforms and lots of shots of Al and Paul thrashing a mixing board. Paul no longer looks like Howard Stern.
RevCo became Ministry's answer to both Devo and Funkadelic: a mob of intoxicated musicians having a whole lot of fun with technology and music - an aural steam valve for Ministry's deviant, intentionally tongue 'n' cheek experiments. Surprisingly "The Tapes of Wrath" features two RevCo videos.
"Crackin' Up" gets my vote for the trippiest video of all time: combine early 90's 3-D computer animation (cheesy), thousands of swirling fractals (like the TV is melting, dude), Timothy Leary (yes, really) and RevCo's semi-retarded brand of aggro-funk, sprinkle in some 'shrooms, maybe some dust, and you have a very sick video. Al even raps on this one. The most video fun I've had since Devo. If someone could explain the tiny finger microphone to me please do; at first I thought it was a coke spoon, but I'm not sure.
RevCo's video for "Do Ya think I'm Sexy" might send Rod Steward gagging all the way to the hospital, but it has me hitting the rewind button again and again. Imagine Ministry in a bar where the staff turn into blood thirsty zombies, imagine Al Jourgensen's head on a beautiful body, imagine devil women in bikinis, imagine women in bikinis shooting machine guns, imagine the Intel "Bunnyman" torched by a flamethrower!!!!!
Overall... I ran the sound out through my stereo and it sounds phenomenal - every bit as good as the CDs if not better, and without a doubt better than an mp3 played through your PC speakers. The packaging is the standard cardboard DVD case with the flimsy plastic snap closure. I realize not that many people care about Ministry anymore, but for us old-timers the "Tapes of Wrath" is a real treat, and it makes me actually look forward to Ministry's work on the soundtrack for Spielberg's upcoming film "A. I."***
* A must for Wax Trax! Fans. See the greatest video ever made: Laibach's "Life is Life". Unfortunately, the Black Box videos aren't available on DVD.
** By the way, thanks for the cassette tape Pan!
*** Which Stanley "Clockwork Orange" Kubrick was going to make, had he not died.
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Originally published in Legends #106.
Edited & de-offensified (x2) by Marcus Pan.
American Rumble (2001)
REVIEW: "American Rumble" Film By Chris Eissing
REVIEW: "American Rumble" Film By Chris Eissing
On Halloween 2000, Spindrift Records USA UK invited thousands of psychos from all over the world to gather at the Birch Hill in Old Bridge, NJ for the first New York Big Psychobilly Rumble.
There has never been anything of its kind before. It would be three days of Psychobilly, Surf, Garage, Rockabilly and Mayhem... caught on film.
This is how "American Rumble" starts. Being a fan, student, and artist in music and film, "American Rumble" offered a tantalizing opportunity to fill in the gaps of my understanding and awareness of psychobilly, and to see the film makers work their magic to enlighten and entertain an even less aware audience with the music, story and history of this genre and subculture.
Opening with a welcome from Reverend Doom who is followed by a montage of vampiric imagery, demonic overtones, and stylized cemeteries, sets a strong gothic undertone. It sets the audience up to receive revelations of what these images mean, how they fit in with psychobilly, and perhaps have a glimpse of understanding into this subculture and its music.
Documentaries of subcultures are sought to gain understanding of people and places that are foreboding, unapproachable or unwelcoming in their day-to-day reality. "American Rumble" puts the ownership of familiarity and understanding of the subject matter on the audience. For this, it can best be appreciated by fans who already have a relationship and knowledge of the music, the bands represented, and the lifestyle.
From the get-go the film treats the audience as outsider. Treated to taunts and hostility, as if they are unwelcome, even to view the film, by an obscenity-laden in-your-face, confrontational, psyche-out by Hillbilly Werewolf, lead singer for the first band and the emcee for the event. Throughout his emceeing he is semi-incoherent and confrontational with the show-goers. "I think they're a bunch of [...] myself, but, whatever." was the reaction of one show goer to a Hillbilly tirade.
He, however, is the thread that holds the continuity of the film's first two thirds together. Hillbilly Werewolf and his tirades are breaks before new performers, each introduced with stylized out takes by Cult of the Psychic Fetus' Reverend Doom. The film focuses on each bands' performance. However, incomplete time is given to each artist, and their performances are often interrupted and inter-spliced with band member and audience out takes.
None of the interview-style out takes leave the film audience with any greater understanding of psychobilly, or the players more than, "Ahh, [...] I will miss them." "How would you describe your music to someone who never heard your band before?" - "Shakey pants rock and roll...Everybody just drinks beer until they ... themselves." "Anything you'd like to add to the interview?" "Ummmm." "You're going to say something about beer." Because of this structure "American Rumble" exists in limbo. Not quite a documentary, and not quite a concert film. The out takes offer great opportunity to drive the insightful side and answer the question, "what is psychobilly?" Unfortunately, they do not.
To compound an encumbered structure, the audience's tour guide to the world of psychobilly switches without segue from Hillbilly Werewolf, removed from the viewer by distance and attitude to an up-close interviewer. The attractive female interviewer's identity is not overtly revealed, and for the last third of the film she is in a full red-body paint scantily attired devil costume. At first glance her presence can only be assumed to be to up the eye-candy. Not until reading the promotional materials would I learn this is Mistress Persephone, a professional bi-coastal model. However, the connection between this and psychobilly is never explained to illustrate her selection as interviewer beyond being eye-candy.
The disjointed rhythm of the film is further compounded in the segue footage of the daytime activities between the festivals' Friday and Saturday performances. Highlighting Sparky, singer for Demented are Go, incoherent and disoriented, he starts a pine barrens fire. While local police and firefighters secure the area, Sparky and other parking-lot wanderers join in showing their penises to the camera. Later, Mark (Sparky) is arrested for grabbing a young girl dressed as a witch at a local shopping mall, thus canceling their appearance at the Rumble. He was arrested.
There were slight undertones in the film that this was an unfair arrest, but they are quickly brushed aside. The film cites fear of a riot at the event upon the announcement of Demented Are Go's cancellation. It cannot be determined if this moment is under or over dramatized as it is given little screen time and no audience reactions are solicited.
The last third of the film meanders, but it does convey the feeling of being at the dwindling hours of a three day festival. A little tired, repetitive, and winding down the time.
For fans of psychobilly who have intimate knowledge of the lifestyle and music, this film would be a welcome addition to their video collection for its impressive lineup. Also, it captures the last performances of some well-known psychobilly bands. Overall, the sound quality is impressive given the small venue, especially considering the low-to-mid quality of comparable independently made concert-based films. The cinematography can hold its own even compared to films tackling the same subject matter with far bigger budgets.
"American Rumble" is a daring and commendable attempt to open the viewer to the world of psychobilly. Filming a 3-day festival under any condition, especially those of a small club, and creating a work that gives equal justice to all those participating, all while trying to document surrounding events, is a monumental undertaking. When successful films like this are held up along Woodstock and "Gimme Shelter" and stand not only as musical entertainment, but as time capsules capturing the surrounding social tapestry.
"American Rumble", in its enthusiasm for the music and the personalities it documents, loses focus on the message it wishes to convey. Because of this, explanation and insight of what psychobilly is, where it comes from, and what binds it together is lost. Created by those with an intimate knowledge and appreciation of psychobilly, the film makers forget to speak to those that are on the outside looking in.
Documentaries fail when they pose questions or expose the audience to experiences, places, people, or events, and then offer no insight. Lack of explanation creates a vacuum in which the audience can only piece together their conclusions from assumption and personal bias.
For those who are unfamiliar with psychobilly, "American Rumble" creates this vacuum from the onset. The imagery and exploits showcased in the film paints a potentially violent, unwelcoming, anti-social, and somewhat perverse picture of a world populated with incoherent, predatory, and confrontational personalities that strive to frighten and intimidate. For as much as this is not the reality, no alternate perspective is given.
Compared to other alternative-music subculture films like "Another State of Mind" or "The Filth and The Fury" it pales as a documentary failing to give insight or allow the audience to become intimate with the personalities or the history of the subject matter. As a concert film it is frustrating for its disjointed flow and incomplete coverage of the individual performances. It does stand up as a document of an event, and for as much as it does not successfully attain all it reaches for, it points its cameras down enough avenues to show that psychobilly is a diverse and vibrant subculture whose entirety would be nearly impossible to capture in a single film.
On a personal note, the framing of "American Rumble" as a New York event left me, as a New Jersey resident, feeling slighted. The Birch Hill, the venue for "American Rumble", is equidistant to New York and Philadelphia, and is a premier club in a vibrant New Jersey Punk and Alternative music scene*. It holds the station once held by the storied Stone Pony as being the place where all musical roads through New Jersey converge, the place where local and national bands on their way up cross paths with bands who have already passed through the peak of their fame.
* Having been a rabid fan of Birch Hill (and having it being the first date of my wife and I), the editor heartily agrees with this paragraph.
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Originally published in Legends Magazine #121.
Edited & de-offensified (x2) by Marcus Pan.
The Creation of the Humanoids (1962)
DVD Review "Creation of the Humanoids" By JHR
DVD Review "Creation of the Humanoids" By JHR
The second film of the set, "Creation of the Humanoids", begins as a nuclear test educational piece, but unfortunately isn't. Then there's some stuff about early golf computers that are turned into the aliens from 'Earth vs. Flying Saucers', but that doesn't seem to go anywhere either. Shame. Instead, it appears that after a nuclear war, instead of knocking about with the accompanying nuclear winter and mass mutation into fridges and sitting rooms, the surviving populace build a school-of-Le Corbusier's-dog city and people it with robots that look like the badly re-animated corpses of Michael Stipe, Uncle Fester and Matt Lucas before settling down to... Speak... Very... Slowly... And... Over... Emphasize... THE... Wrong... Words. Highjinks ensue!
A vat-grown Tom Waits plays a hillbilly scientist who keeps a severed robot arm on his desk, presumably so he can scratch his bum with both hands full. Meanwhile, one robot seems to spend every other scene droning on about taking no offence at any robotist comments. It's obviously going to crazy apebug with an axe at some point.
The highest profile anti-robot types are some flavour of militia dressed up like confederate soldiers. Even an English oaf can spot the heavy-handed symbolism there... It gets worse. Under the light of a silvery disco ball, we learn that the chief crypto-confederate bigot's wee sister is a paid-up member of the robot-shagging club. Drama!
This goes down about as well as you'd expect, and before you can say 'Crow Robot', there's a howling mob outside wearing pointy hats and waving burning spanners. Or indeed not. They probably couldn't afford the extras. How d'you lynch a robot anyway? God, what a society. I'm now hoping that the robots rise up and boot out the humans.
Oh, for heaven's sake. Some Perfect Female Stereotype has just turned up. She and boy are clearly taken with each other (in a very badly acted manner). It'll be jolly group hikes and roasting foreigners over campfires before you can say 'strength through joy'... And now they're off...
... No they're not. In a brilliant stroke, telegraphed from a long way away, boy and woman are robots but don't know it. In a better film (or a far worse one) this would be interesting, but it's just silly. Oh, and because they're nice robots the woman gets to be thin and is pleased by this turn of events. Jayzus.
Actually, I'd rather be reading Wyndham's "Compassion Circuit" which covers the same concept in a non-annoying manner. Perhaps I'm missing the point, but if you're going to watch a bad film, it's best if it's MST3K material, rather than something that makes you want to heave the telly out of the window.
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Originally published in Legends #161.
Edited & de-offensified (x2) by Marcus Pan.
Werewolves on Wheels (1971)
DVD Review "Werewolves on Wheels" By Dan Century
DVD Review "Werewolves on Wheels" By Dan Century
Before there were "Snakes on a Plane", there were "Werewolves on Wheels"!
Dig this: a gnarly gang of bikers and their biker mommas are cruising across the desert Southwest, kicking, flashing and raising hell. Helen, one of the biker mommas, asks "Tarot", the gang's spiritual leader, to read her Tarot cards. Her fate: to be struck dead by lighting in a tower. Not long after, the gang arrives at the grounds of a monastery, with a tower that looks exactly like the tower foretold by the Tarot cards. A gang of monks descends from the tower and offers the bikers wine and bread...
One thing leads to another and Helen is doing a snake dance for the monks, who as luck would have it, are satanic monks. Bikers and Satanists! What is this, a movie, or backstage at a Monster Magnet concert? The bikers, drugged by the satanic monk wine, wake from their stupor, kick some monk butt, and rescue Helen (what a buzz kill! - I was hoping the snake dance would last for the rest of the movie). The monks beaten unconscious (obviously they were not Shaolin Kung-Fu monks) and Helen rescued, the bikers ride for the desert and make camp. Mouse and Shirley scurry off into the brush into a werewolf that precedes to slaughter them. And that's only the beginning of the gory, satanic, lycanthropic insanity (I don't want to spoil the ending for you).
If it weren't for the boobs, blood, cat murder and Satanism, "Werewolves on Wheels" would be perfect fodder for "Mystery Science Theater 3000" - it's too silly to take seriously, but it's certainly entertaining enough to enjoy at a party with a room full of friends. (If you took the werewolves out of the movie and just make the characters go psycho, it would have been a much creepier and even believable film.)
"Werewolves on Wheels" was co-written and directed by Michel Levesque, who was the art director for some of Russ Meyer's wackier films: "Up!", "Supervixens", and my favorite "Beyond the Valley of the Ultravixens", and you can definitely see similarities between "Werewolves..." and "Supervixes" and "Beyond...". The bikers and their rides look very authentic, the soundtrack is very good considering that's it's a low budget film and the desert scenes are gorgeous. The weakest part of the film is unfortunately the werewolf makeup and transformations.
If you're a biker film or Russ Meyer fanatic, then you might as well rent "Werewolves on Wheels". If you're looking for a crazy film to watch with a room full of wacky maniacs, a keg of beer and a couple loaves of satanic monk bread (or pizza - pizza works too), you should get this wacky film.
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Originally published in Legend #159.
Edited & de-offensified (x2) by Marcus Pan.
The Horror of Party Beach (1964)
DVD Review "The Horror of Party Beach" By Dan Century
DVD Review "The Horror of Party Beach" By Dan Century
"The Horror of Party Beach" was featured in episode 817 of "Mystery Science Theater 3000". I wonder why they didn't feature it sooner? "The Horror of Party Beach" is an absolute classic of exploitation cinema, which transcends the "beach party" genre adding horror, super science and voodoo to the mix.
The film begins with budding scientist and frat jock Hank Green arguing with his girlfriend Rita. Hank wants to get serious about life, and Rita wants to beach party all the time - "You ain't seen living 'till you see Rita swing!"
Meanwhile, out at sea, the "Floating Pig" trash barge is dumping radioactive waste. Surprise! The movie takes place in Connecticut, not New Jersey or Los Angeles. Apparently, when you dump radioactive waste on human skeletons, sea life begins to grow around bones, and before you know it you've got 6 or 7 radioactive sea monsters to deal with. Sea monsters, or actors in costumes who stumble around like they can't find the costume eye holes.
Rita is on the loose... While Hank is off thinking about science, Rita is checking out a biker. This leads to a classic beach party film cliché: the fight scene between the clean cut jocks and the bikers. This happens in every beach party movie. During the fight scene Hank does a back flip and kick that looks more like spastic ballet than fighting.
Rita is confused and disgusted because Hank fights like Peter Pan and still managed to kick the biker's can, so she goes for a swim in the sea. Waiting in the ocean is one of the radioactive sea monsters that either brutally murders her or massages chocolate frosting all over her body. Honestly, I couldn't tell.
Rita is dead, and it's up to science to discover the answer why. Thankfully Hank's mentor Dr. Gavin is an expert in Carbon 14 and genetic testing, and his maid Eulabelle is an expert in zombies and voodoo. Eulabelle is a classic B-Movie character - her constant jibber jabber about voodoo and zombies makes the film all the more enjoyable.
Nothing can slake the radioactive zombie sea monster's thirst for blood, and soon they claim three "bad girls" lost in the woods (not sure how the creatures got from the beach to the woods), as well as 20 sorority girls who smell something "fishy" and mistake the sea monsters for frat boys. No movie stereotype is safe: screaming teenagers in pools and comical drunks get slaughtered too.
Fortunately the sea monsters are as dumb as a stack of dead fish, and one of them attacks a mannequin in a store window, slicing off one of its arms in the process. The arm seems to be made out of garbage and live centipedes. Kudos, props department! Dr. Gavin provides a lengthy, but riveting scientific explanation of how the creatures are actually humans whose flesh has been replaced by protozoa and sea anemones, and the reason why they need to drink blood is because they lack a human digestive system. Wow! Ironically voodoo-obsessed Eulabelle discovers the way to destroy the creatures when she inadvertently knocks a glass of liquid sodium on the severed arm. Apparently this isn't the same kind of sodium that you find in the salt water the creatures come from.
Now they have a way to kill the monsters, and after some more pseudo-scientific expository dialog, they determine they can track the creatures with Geiger counters. At this point Hank drives to New York City to score some sodium, and as if to prove he's actually in New York he passes the Guggenheim, the MET and Washington Square Park (in the correct order). All I can think is "why"? Why are we suddenly in the middle of Manhattan, when minutes ago we were at a beach full of blood thirsty monsters?
The film ends with a showdown with the monsters, as you would expect. If you enjoy B-Movie cheese like "Plan 9 from Outer Space", "The Horror of Party Beach" is worth a look. The soundtrack, provided by a surf rock band called the Del-Aires, is sweet as well.
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Originally published in Legends #160.
Edited and de-offensified (x2?) by Marcus Pan.
The Curse of the Living Corpse (1964)
DVD Review "The Curse of the Living Corpse" By Dan Century
DVD Review "The Curse of the Living Corpse" By Dan Century
"The Curse of the Living Corpse" opens in 19th century New England at the funeral of Rufus Sinclair, patriarch of the Sinclair family. In the beginning moments of the film we witness the selfish Sinclair family violate all the stipulations of Rufus Sinclair's last will and testament. Rufus feared that his family would bury him alive, and so he crafted a terrifying will to punish his family with terror. According to the will:
· His wife Abigail would die in a fire,
· His son Bruce - the first of many disappointments - would die with his face disfigured.
· His other son, the sickly Philip, would be choked or smothered to death.
· Vivian, Philip's unfaithful wife, would drown.
· Cousin Robert would have his beloved wife take from him, and · Seth, the handyman, would join Philip in his tomb.
Since all of them violated the will in the first scene, it was only a matter of time before the body count began. After a meeting in the tomb with Bruce, Letty the maid is relieved of her cranium by a cloaked phantom. Is Rufus really alive and back to murder his clan? It would seem so.
In the first of many classic, gristly scenes Letty's head arrives in Bruce's room served on a platter (instead of Bruce's breakfast). Bruce remains cool and calm and reveals Letty's head to Vivian while delivering the classic line "Would you prefer a better menu?" Bruce convinces Vivian to aid in the disposal of Letty's halves in a quicksand bog.
Before long Bruce is murdered, and his precious face is destroyed. At this point the family is certain that Rufus has risen from his tomb. The lawyer offers these gangster rap-like lines: "If he was buried alive you can be sure of one thing, by now he is hopelessly insane, a homicidal maniac bent on one thing, revenge by the most horrible means". What means are those? Being forced to watch this movie twice? Just kidding - I'm actually enjoying this film.
The family enlists the aide of the bumbling local police. The best protection the police can offer is by helping Philip polish off a bottle of whiskey; "Official procedure, just to make sure it hasn't been tampered with." As you might guess the murders continue until the end, which I won't spoil for you because I think this is a rather good film and I think it's worth seeing without further spoilers.
"The Curse of the Living Corpse" benefits greatly from the strength of the two lead actors, Roy "Jaws" Scheider and Robert Milli, as well as a fair amount of clever and quotable dialog - it's a shame Del Tenny didn't write more scripts. My favorite quote has to be: "The body is a long insatiable tube, in need of drink and relaxation". "The Curse of the Living Corpse" is an enjoyable mystery that would make an excellent remake if Hollywood were looking for scripts to resurrect. Maybe they can remake it with gangsta rappers!
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Originally published in Legends #160.
Edited & de-offensified by Marcus Pan.
The Mission: Lighting the Candles (2005)
DVD Review The Mission - "Lighting the Candles" By Pat Hawkes-Reed
DVD Review The Mission - "Lighting the Candles" By Pat Hawkes-Reed
Are you a fan of The Mission? An ex-Eskimo? If you are, you need to have this DVD box set in your collection! The box set consists of 2 DVDs, a live CD and a full colour booklet.
The first DVD features a live concert recorded in Koln Germany in April 2004. It features most of the big hits and a few more recent songs. The gig is well-filmed with multiple cameras, excellent sound and lighting. This was originally recorded for the WDR Rockpalast TV show. The band line-up consists of Wayne Hussey, Rob Holliday on guitar, Richie Vernon on bass and Steve Spring on drums.
Fans will be happy to have a selection of Mission videos, especially the US fans who may have only seen these on MTV's 120 Minutes back in the late 1980's and early 1990's. This video section completes the first DVD.
The second DVD is my favourite, really. I've always loved seeing the backstage antics, rehearsals, TV appearances (performances and interviews), personal photographs, and recollections of the formative years/history of bands, and this DVD has all of that! Wayne Hussey talks about The Mission: how they formed, the various tours, member changes and all the high and low points of the band. This section has photographs from Wayne's teenage years up to the 2004 line-up of The Mission.
The second section has a complete discography - all the singles, albums and videos shown visually with the dates they were released and the label they were released on. It features Wayne performing acoustic versions of some of the songs. The third segment is titled "A Day in the Life" which has the band sound checking and hanging backstage at a gig in Germany. It gives one a good idea of what goes on behind the scenes. It's followed by a segment of interviews. I especially liked the one done by Kim Leonard, since he was one of the "Eskimos" who followed the Mission around on (mainly) European tours in the formative years.
The following section has various video bootlegs that Wayne has collected over the years. You can watch them with or without Wayne's commentary. The final section has a handful of live performances filmed during Wayne's solo acoustic tour. I was quite thrilled to see the Stay With Me segment, since I was at that gig at London's Borderline club! The final clip has Wayne covering a Frank Sinatra song...he has joked that he is "the Dean Martin of goth."
The third disc is an audio CD with live performances recorded during the Breathen Tour of April 2004. I was lucky to be at the Whitby show, so this was a bonus treat for me! All are recording off of the mixing desk, so are of high quality.
So, this one box set can give a Mission fan many hours of enjoyment both visually and aurally. It can give those not lucky enough to get to a gig (or live near where they are touring) a chance to experience the past and present of The Mission and Wayne Hussey.
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Originally published in Legends #157.
Edited & de-offensified by Marcus Pan.