Molly and the Ghost (1991) (f/1990)

Directed by:

Donald Jones

Causing much filmography confusion over the years, there were two different horror / exploitation directors named Donald Jones working in the 80s. Muddying the waters a bit further, both men not only directed films but also worked as writers, editors, cinematographers and in other capacities behind the scenes. The first, Donald Marcus Jones (usually billed as Donald Jones or Donald M. Jones), was born in California in the late 1950s and was responsible for such video store shelf fillers as Murderlust (1985), Project Nightmare (1987) and Housewife from Hell (1993). As of 2017, he was still working. The other, Donald Evan Jones (usually billed as Don Jones or Donald Jones) and the director of the movie we'll be taking a look at today, had been around much longer. Born in 1938, this Don Jones started working in the 1960s alongside the likes of Roger Corman, A.C. Stephen, Ted V. Mikels, Jack Hill, Gary Graver, David L. Hewitt and countless other notable exploitation filmmakers. By 1970, he was directing his own films and he went on to make some entertaining exploitation flicks like Schoolgirls in Chains (1973) and The Love Butcher (1975), plus the not-very-well-regarded backwoods slasher flick The Forest (1982). Molly and the Ghost would be his final film as director, though he continued to work (mostly doing sound) on documentaries until 2007. He passed away just a few months ago at the age of 83.

There were a few pleasant surprises for me right away. Firstly, the female lead is Ena Henderson, an unknown young actress that I was impressed with in the SOV film FATAL EXPOSURE (1989). In that, she not only looked gorgeous but also displayed above average acting chops; a combination of which should have resulted in a better career, or at least a formidable B-movie career. I had no clue she'd even done other things, so I was more than happy to see her pop up here yet again in another lead role. According to her IMDb page, after starring in just these two films, she took a long hiatus to raise a family but is now residing in Denver, Colorado and is back to acting. She still looks great, so best of luck to her.

The second casting surprise is the male lead, who's billed as "Ron Moriarty." IMDb lists only two credits for him: this and the notoriously awful SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT PART 2 (1986). I knew this guy looked familiar but it took me a second to place him. "Ron Moriarty" is Tim Abell. Abell first hit my radar starring in a bunch of Fred Olen Ray films like Attack of the 60 Foot Centerfold (1995) and Hybrid (1997), plus a slew of erotic thrillers, where he stood out as a better actor than usual for that genre and for his willingness to join the female cast members in providing full frontal nudity (something not at all common back then). Though Tim seemed to materialize out of thin air in the mid 90s, his film career began a decade earlier. Back then he was mostly using the name "Ron Waldron" (see: the shot-on-video HELL SPA).

After getting into a fight with her father, 17-year-old small town girl Susan Maguire (Henderson) runs away to the Los Angeles suburbs to locate her estranged 30-something sister, Molly (Lee Darling). Molly has done well for herself from humble beginnings; getting a job as a Realtor and recently marrying equally successful businessman Jeff (Abell). When Susan shows up at their door with a suitcase, a delighted Molly agrees to let her stay there for awhile. Susan soon proves to be something of a scheming sociopath. She lounges around in the Jacuzzi topless, blares rock n' roll music, steals money and jewelry, spies on her sibling having sex and then slips on some lingerie and attempts to seduce Jeff. When Molly catches the two of them sitting in bed together, she buys Susan a one-way plane ticket back home and kicks her out.

Instead of going home, Susan has the taxi driver dump her off in Hollywood. She gets a room in a sleazy hotel and then hits Hollywood Boulevard. After being mistaken for a hooker and getting chased by a couple of men, she ducks into a bar. There she meets a pothead 'Nam vet (P. K. Flamingo... if that is your real name!) who claims to be a hit man. Offering him sex in exchange for chopping up her sister with a machete, the attempted hit doesn't go off as planned when the incompetent would-be assassin gets cold feet and runs off. Susan then calls Molly and pleads with her to allow her to come back. After Molly has a truly bizarre conversation with her husband ("Did either one of you seduce the other? I mean, it's OK if you did, at least you kept it in the family" [!?]), the two agree that it'd be a good idea to give Susan a second chance. Of course it turns out to be a TERRIBLE idea as Susan wastes no time picking up right where she left off.

Susan hooks up with a long-haired, pseudo-military nut named John (Daniel Martine) that she meets in the classified ads in a gun magazine. He agrees to off Molly for 5 thousand bucks; 1K up front and then the 4K upon completion. Lying about wanting to get into a computer class, Susan bums the money off of Molly and Jeff. Unfortunately, she sends the assassin the wrong photograph: One of herself. Doh! John then sneaks into the home and strangles her to death.

Susan's ghost materializes in a graveyard and she's picked up by a white limousine by her spirit guide ("Lyric Lawson" / veteran actress Carole Wells, also the executive producer), who plans on transporting her to the beyond. However, feeling she has unsettled business to attend to, Susan uses a loophole that allows her to return to Earth. The only problem is that there's only a short window of time and if she strays too far or stays out too long, her entrance to the beyond will close permanently, forcing to her be a wandering spirit for the rest of eternity. Nevertheless, she feels it's more important to get "revenge" for her death (that SHE caused, but never mind all that!) and terrorize her sister.

The ghost first lures the contract killer out into the desert for a slow-mo shoot-out that ends with him impaled on a tree branch. She then starts haunting her sister and brother-in-law and refuses to leave them alone. She pops up on a TV screen repeatedly ("I'm baaaaaaaack!"), destroys their cups, plates and vases, slaps her sister, seduces Jeff (again) and drives their friends away by playing a porno on the TV set and then pelting them with VHS tapes. The couple eventually resort to enlisting the aid of an incompetent parapsychology professor (Reg Green) and his bimbo grad student assistant (Stephanie Johnson), who flee after Susan shows up with a bunch of horribly-animated snakes coming out of her face. The last act features a little body swapping and a possession.

A mash-up of a supernatural horror-comedy, made-for-TV thriller and soap opera, this unimaginatively directed and flatly-photographed 16mm cheapie is so clumsy, misjudged and all over the place that I can't say I was ever bored! 

Though I usually like him as an actor, Abell gives a bland performance and makes no impression whatsoever here. He also made a notable physical transformation in just a few short years. In this, he's pale, awkward and gangly looking, making it hard to swallow that two attractive women would be fighting over him. Just five years later he was tan, buff and looking good paired up with late night cable vixens like Shauna O'Brien and Tane McClure. Thankfully, the two female stars manage to keep things rolling. Henderson is a lot better in the first half when she's playing her bitchy, backstabbing human character than she is as a one-liner-spouting ghost, but she's still very entertaining and has great animated facial expressions. Just like most of the rest of the cast, I suspect her co-star, Lee Darling, is using an alias because there are plenty of moments in here that show her to be a competent actress. Both ladies contribute a bit of nudity as well but when I say a "bit" I mean it. It's limited to one scene apiece and it's so brief it may as well not even be in here.

Produced by the director and actor James R. Sweeney, who shows up very briefly in an uncredited cameo as a detective (he has no dialogue and is only seen in a long shot). Jean L. Clark, a Hollywood sound man who also acted in a lot of Gary Graver films, was another producer. The only VHS release I'm aware of was in the UK on the 20:20 Vision label, but there are later DVDs releases by Rareflix, who offer this either standalone or paired with two other movies: the Italian action film The Killer Likes Candy (1968) and the sci-fi film Run Like Hell (1995).

SBIG

Visitants, The (1987)

... aka: Die Nacht der Ausserirdischen

... aka: Les envahisseurs de l'espace (The Invaders from Space)

... aka: Night of the Extraterrestrials

Directed by:

Rick Sloane

I figured I'd hop from HOBGOBLINS (1988) right on over to this earlier Sloane film because, well, sometimes you just want to get all of the pain and suffering out of the way as soon as possible. The director has described this one as being "an homage to Plan 9 from Outer Space," which instantly triggered my auto-cringe reflex. It still floors me that so many wannabe "cult" filmmakers don't realize that if you intentionally make something stupid, inept and bad, it doesn't magically then make your film somehow good. It's still stupid, inept and bad, only it usually ends up even worse than the supposed bad movie you're trying to make fun of. An accidentally terrible film typically still has its earnest, likable and charming qualities, but a film that's purposely bad almost always comes off as arch, cynical and a huge waste of time. I mean, what's there to really like about a filmmaker who doesn't even care enough to attempt to make a good film? To me, that's far less admirable than a director with good intentions who winds up making a terrible film. At least that person tried.

One thing that's impressive about Sloane, and something I will give him endless kudos for, is the fact he just went out there and made his own movies regardless of what anyone had to say about it. He attended Los Angeles City College and was reputedly told by multiple professors that he had no talent and would never make it as a director. He ignored them and then turned around and directed a number of low budget 35mm films that were highly successful and profitable VHS releases. To date, Sloan has made a total of around 15 features at the cost of less than a million dollars. Let me rephrase that: The combined budgets of all fifteen of his films is less than a million dollars. And many of these went on to receive international distribution on home video and likely grossed tens of millions. Regardless of what you or I may think about his movies, that's certainly commendable, at least from a business standpoint.

The Visitants opens with a bickering, human-looking alien couple; Exeter ("Johanna Grika" / Jordana Capra) and Lubbock (Joel Hile), landing on Earth in the 1950s and immediately turning their ray guns on a young couple who've just returned from watching a monster movie at their local drive-in. That's followed by some cute opening credits spiced up with simple bits of animation. So far, so good. We then jump ahead thirty years as the alien couple, who haven't aged a day in their decades on Earth and have settled under-the-radar into suburban living, prepare to move on to the "final stage" of their mission. However, the flashing lights and loud noises coming from their home attract the attention of their next door neighbor: high school senior Eric (Marcus Vaughter).

Thanks to the frequent ruckus, Eric has been kept up all hours of the night and is starting to tire of it, both figuratively and literally. When he wakes up one morning, he finds that his alarm clock has been mysteriously cut in half, though none of the inner mechanisms has been damaged. He consults his science teacher, Professor Levelland ("Jeffrey Culver" / James R. Sweeney), about this, but he doesn't have a clue what's occurred. Eric begins to suspect that a toy laser gun he's seen his neighbors messing around with has something to do with it. Levelland then suggests he try to get his hands on the gun and bring it to him. Looking at this through contemporary eyes (at least by someone who doesn't live in the Deep South), it's downright comical to see a teacher suggest a student bring a gun into school.

Eric breaks into the alien's house, finds their laser gun and hides it in his backpack. When the aliens catch him there, they tell him they work as T. V. repairmen and hand him a convincing note signed by "Their Boss" that reads "Lubbock and Exeter are t.v. repairmen. Uh, that's right, t.v. repairmen." Lubbock accidentally uses his powers to close a drawer without touching it, which forces them to finally let cat out of the bag. They're aliens! But they're at least kind enough to give Eric a friendly warning. If he tells another soul about what he's just seen, they'll either be forced to kill him or take him back to their home planet when they do leave, which will be very soon.

Once they discover their gun missing, Exeter and Lubbock go after Eric at school, which ends with Eric stabbing Lubbock during a pumpkin carving demonstration, which doesn't even phase the alien. With their Earth evacuation date fast approaching (it's scheduled for Halloween night), the aliens then decide to just kill Eric after he reveals the whereabouts of their laser. He eavesdrops on their conversation and learns of their plans but is unable to convince his parents (Cliff Corder, Joan Tinei) not to go to Palm Springs for the weekend. With the folks away, his best friend Sherwin (William Thomas Dristas) decides to throw a Halloween party. The aliens, who we learn are able to change their appearance into whatever they want, crash the shindig and kidnap Eric, Sherwin and Eric's girlfriend Ellen (Nicole Rio).

Well, whatta ya know! Though I'm shocked to find myself saying this, and it may be because I had my expectations set at their lowest possible level prior to viewing, but I found Visitants (gasp!) somewhat enjoyable. Or, at least it all went down painlessly enough, especially when compared to most of the director's other films. Sure, it's still incredibly cheap, poorly made, written and acted at times, thinly plotted and filled with overly long, static camera set-ups, lame comic sound effects and peculiar dead end conversations that don't seem to have much to do with anything. However, it also manages to create a good-natured and enjoyably daft tone that partially makes up for the many areas where it's seriously lacking.

Though the acting is generally bad, I enjoyed the amusingly dispassionate performances from Hile and (especially) Capra as the emotionless aliens. Vaughter is decently likable as the male lead, as well, though the poor guy didn't have much of a career thanks to always getting typecast. He appeared in just four other films and since I've actually now seen all of them I can confirm that he got stuck playing a nerd / geek in ALL FIVE of these movies! I don't even know if Eddie Deezen had it so bad. Vaughter, Dristas and Sweeney can all be seen in NIGHTMARE SISTERS (1988) and Vaughter and Rio were both in the slasher flick SORORITY HOUSE MASSACRE (1986).

The production values and special effects are basically non-existent here. And when you don't have any money for sets and props, you have to whip out the colored gel lights and fog machines, make a living room look "alien" with a strategically placed lava lamp and use a regular ole satellite dish as the alien's means of communication back to their home planet. There's also an alien monster (seen only at the beginning and end) which is basically just a guy in a rubber mask and an even less impressive puppet monster which is seen for all of 5 seconds. Sloane also plugs his earlier film BLOOD THEATRE (1984) and throws in a nightmare sequence where Eric is tied down to his bed and cut open with an electric hedge trimmer (!?)

Fred Olen Ray is thanked in the end credits, the cast also includes Ralph Lucas (Beverly Hills Vamp) as a janitor and Kelley Palmer (one of the stars of Hobgoblins) and it was shot in 9 days on a budget of just 8,500 dollars. This is (I believe falsely) listed as a 1986 release on most websites, which conflicts with both the 1987 copyright date in the end credits and the initial 1987 VHS release from TransWorld Entertainment. It was reissued on video just three years later by Star Classics and, in 2018, received a DVD and Blu-ray release from Vinegar Syndrome.

★★