De dødes tjern (1958)

... aka: Lake of the Damned, The

... aka: Lake of the Dead

Directed by:

Kåre Bergstrøm

Norway hasn't produced many horror films over the years. A few cross-over hits, such as Dark Woods (2003), Next Door (2005), Dead Snow (2009), its 2014 sequel Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead and the Cold Prey (2006-2010) series have come out here semi-recently, but before that their genre output was nearly nonexistent. As a matter of fact, a Norwegian horror keyword search over on IMDb only brings back three titles made before 1990. Lake of the Dead (also released as The Lake of the Damned) is one of these. In fact, it's the earliest Norwegian horror film listed and may actually be the very first horror film produced in that country. While fairly well regarded on its home turf, the film isn't very well known here in the States at all, but it really should be. Lake is a very well-made, intelligently-written and stunningly photographed mystery that keeps you guessing and makes unnerving use of its picturesque outdoor locations. One hopes the 2012 DVD release from Sinister Cinema - the first time the film has been available with English subtitles to my knowledge - will finally get the film some much overdue attention.

After a brief prologue, mystery novelist Bernhard Borge (Henki Kolstad), his wife Sonja (Bjørg Engh), critic Gabriel Mørk (André Bjerke, who also wrote the novel this is based on), psychologist Kai Bugge (Erling Lindahl), painter Lillian Werner (Henny Moan) and Lillian's fiance Harald Gran (Georg Richter) all decide to take a train trip across country to visit Lillian's hermit brother Bjørn (Per Lillo-Stenberg) at his secluded woodsy cabin. When they arrive, Bjørn is nowhere to be found. Lillian, who seems to have an extrasensory link to her sibling, feels anxious and senses danger. Local legend has it that a hundred years earlier Tore Gråvik, a peg-legged madman with an incestuous bent, took an axe to his own sister and her lover before drowning himself in a nearby lake. The lake is now rumored to be cursed by Gråvik's spirit. Upon the discovery of Bjørn's diary, it's revealed that Bjørn was either being haunted by Gråvik's ghost or has simply lost his mind.

The characters speculate about what's actually going on and what became of Bjørn; some favoring the rational, others leaning toward the supernatural. As one character reads a passage from Bjørn's diary, another character envisions the events, which are chillingly done with some odd stop-motion work of a bird perched on the rooftop and a faint phantom rising from the lake and chasing Bjorn through the woods back to his cabin. Various complications arise in the story (Lillian is caught sleepwalking, a member of their group is eventually found murdered...), but it's best not to give away too much here because it's as much a story-driven piece as it is a visual one.

Excessive talk might turn off certain viewers, but the dialogue is well-written and the character interactions and relationships are interesting. From a visual standpoint, it's often breathtaking. The sense of complete isolation in the forest is effectively eerily and the lake itself, dotted with lily pads and often shot glimmering in the moonlight, begins to take on an ominous feeling after awhile. In some ways I was reminded of Peter Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), which also contrasts the beauty in nature to more sinister goings-on. Unlike Picnic, though, we eventually do get an explanation to what's going on.

Director Bergstrom also made a second horror feature; the elusive anthology Klokker i måneskinn (1964), which has never been released in the U.S.

★★★1/2

Borei kaibyo yashiki (1958)

aka:
Black Cat Mansion

aka:
Mansion of the Ghost Cat, The

Directed by:
Nobuo Nakagawa

Tokyo-based doctor Tetsuichiro Kuzumi (Toshio Kuzumi) decides to move to a small town with his ailing wife Yoriko (Yuriko Ejima), who's suffering from tuberculosis. Eager to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life, and thinking the fresh air and solitude will do his wife some good, Tetsuichiro decides to move into a large mansion owned by Yoriko's family, which has been uninhabited for years and is rumored to be haunted. He opens up his clinic there and begins seeing local patients, but his wife keeps seeing visions of a black cat and an old, white-haired woman lurking around. Their dog is killed and the old woman attempts to strangle Yoriko several times. The doctor and his brother-in-law Kenichi (Hiroaki Kurahashi) go to a priest for help and learn that the home is cursed. The priest then relates a story going back many years to the former occupants of the home.

The period scenes involve samurai Lord Shogen (Keinosuke Wada), who's basically a prick who abuses his power and tries to kill anyone who angers him. A young man named Kokingo (Ryûzaburô Nakamura) is hired to teach the Lord a game called Go but is killed after calling out Shogen for cheating. The Lord later rapes Kokingo's blind mother, Lady Miyagi (Fumiko Miyata), who returns home, curses the entire family and then kills herself. Using the guise of Shogen's elderly mother (Fuji Satsuke), the spirits of those wrongfully killed enact their revenge against the Lord, his son (Arata Shibata) and servent girl Yae (Noriko Kitazawa). The only one spared the wrath is faithful servant Saheji (Rei Ishikawa), who apparently moved on to start his own family. Guess who Yoriko and her brother are descendants of?

Though not nearly as dramatically strong as the director's other supernatural tales, this manages to seperate itself by sandwiching the period-set revenge story in between one set in contemporary Japan. One thing that's not the least bit diminished is Nakagawa's visual eye. There is a lot of great, innovative camerawork on display here, which is very sophisticated for the time. The film opens with one continuous unbroken POV shot of someone with a flashlight walking through dark hospital corridors, finding a corpse on a stretcher, going up some stairs and then closing in our protagonist. There's also an amazing shot that follows a stream of tricking water to darkness, rises up through some brush to show a crow on a tree branch and then dips back down to slowly follow characters through a gate, pushing branches out of the way as it goes. Another visually striking scene involves a montage illustrating Shogen's descent into madness as he's seen furiously swinging his sword around while bold colors flash behind him. Strangely, the contemporary scenes are all shot in black-and-white with a slight blue tint, while the period scenes are done in a muted Eastmancolor.

The presentation of the possessed grandmother is pretty memorable, too. She takes on a cat like appearance (with fangs and pointy ears that spring up from beneath her crazy white hair) and cat like behavior (clawing people, lapping up blood and eating raw fish). How she's able to reel her victims in, so the speak, is exaggerated mimicry influenced by kabuki theater choreography.

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It was adapted from a Sotoo Tachibana novel by Jiro Fujishima and Yoshihiro Ishikawa, who'd later go to write GHOST CAT OF OTAMA POND (which Ishikawa also directed).

★★★

Vampire Hookers (1978)

...aka: Cemetery Girls
...aka: Ladies of the Night
...aka: Night of the Bloodsuckers
...aka: Sensuous Vampires
...aka: Twice Bitten

Directed by:
Cirio H. Santiago

American sailors Tom Buckley (Bruce Fairbairn) and Terry Wayne (Trey Wilson) are looking for a wild time while on leave in Manila. They get drunk, gets into a bar fight, are tricked into eating unborn duck by some locals, encounter some transvestites in a disco club, try to pick up some hookers and almost get mugged. Another sailor, Taylor (Lex Winter), wanders off with one hooker named Cherish (Karen Stride), and doesn't return. As the two men look into his disappearance, Tom is led to a big cemetery and ends up finding a secret stairway leading to an underground crypt where worldly, Shakespear-quoting vampire count Richmond Reed (John Carradine) resides. Richmond uses his three attractive female vampires; Cherish, Suzy (Lenka Novak) and Marcy (Katie Dolan), to lure men there. His tubby, retarded henchman Pavo (Vic Diaz) also wants to become a vampire but hates the taste of blood and has a bad case of flatulence. Meanwhile, Terry tries to locate his buddy.

Embarrassing, juvenile horror comedy derives most of its humor from terrible dubbing, which admittedly is pretty funny at times. The rest is a series of pea-brained gags, fart jokes, awful one-liners ("Coffins are for being laid to rest... Not for being laid."), hammy overacting and a neverending, slow motion scene where Tom beds down with all three hookers at once. That scene provides plenty of nudity by the female stars, the sets in the vampire lair are pretty good and there's a great theme song ("They're vampire hookers... and blood is not all they suck...") over the end credits, but that's really about it.

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Cirio Santiago had a very long career as a producer and director that lasted over fifty years until his death in 2008. He was involved in the productions of well over 100 films (mostly action; including 20 for Roger Corman) and owned and operated his own movie studio (Premiere Productions) in Manila. Screenwriter Howard R. Cohen went on to make the equally unfunny SATURDAY THE 14TH horror parodies. Emmett Alston, who'd go on to make the awful NEW YEAR'S EVIL (1981) and the very fun DEMON WARP (1987), was the production manager.

Many cheap-looking prints of this one are floating around. Your best bet is going with the 2008 BCI Eclipse release. It's a nice quality print and they've paired it with the Paul Naschy film COUNT DRACULA'S GREAT LOVE (1972).

★

House That Would Not Die, The (1970) (TV)

Directed by:
John Llewellyn Moxey

Competent, but very forgettable, made-for-TV haunted house/ possession tale, based on Barabra Michaels' novel Ammie, Come Home. Ruth Bennett (Barbara Stanwyck) and her beloved niece Sara (Kitty Winn) move into a very old country home that belonged to a distant, reclusive relative that Ruth hardly knew. Things look up for both ladies as they quickly find potential romance; Ruth with next-door neighbor Pat McDougal (Richard Egan), a college professor, and Sara with Stan Whitman (Michael Anderson, Jr.), a college student. Pat's sister (Mabel Albertson) gets permission to bring psychic Madame Sylvia (Doreen Lang) over to the home for a seance and soon after several of the characters start behaving strangely. Sara freaks out during the seance and tries to strangle her aunt later that night, but can remember nothing by the next morning. Pat becomes violent and sexually aggressive. A painting falls into the fireplace, sudden gusts of wind open and close doors and a male voice can be heard calling out from the garden...

Ruth and company begin researching the history of the home and eventually uncover a few dark secrets hidden in the family closet. Around two-hundred years earlier during the Revolutionary War, a general and his daughter lived there. The general, a traitor siding with the British during the war, was threatened to be exposed by the girl's soldier boyfriend after the general forbids the two to marry. So what horrible things happened to the three of them? Whatever it is, it's likely located right behind a boarded-up door in the cellar. Sara is periodically possessed by the girl and wants to expose the secret, while Pat is sometimes possessed by the general, who tries to make sure no one finds out what really happened.

The cast is fairly decent, but the storyline is incredibly predictable and the chills just aren't there for the most part, though nostalgic viewers who saw this one as kids seem to look at it through rose colored lenses. One senses Henry Farrell (WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?), who adapted the book, may have had to tone things down a lot for the tube, as there's some hinting toward childhood sexual abuse here. Stanwyck, who also appeared in William Castle's THE NIGHT WALKER (1964) and the TV-movie A TASTE OF EVIL (1971), injects some class into the proceedings for what's it worth. Winn (billed as Katherine Winn) would go on to win the Best Actress prize at Cannes for PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK (1971), play Ellen Burstyn's personal assistant in THE EXORCIST (1973), appear in the 1977 flop follow-up, EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC and then basically threw in the towel on her acting career to raise a family.

Released to VHS by both Worldvision and Guild Home Video, but there's no official DVD release. Aaron Spelling was the producer and it was an ABC "Movie of the Week."

★★

Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks (1975)

...aka: Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks

Directed by:

Don Edmonds

While the original was seedy exploitation mostly played straight, this first sequel to the drive-in hit ILSA, SHE WOLF OF THE SS (1974) goes more for high camp while maintaining the overall nastiness of the first movie. And in many ways, it's actually a funner movie to watch. Working on the review.

★★1/2

Blood Feast (1963)

...aka: Egyptian Blood Feast
...aka: Feast of Flesh

Directed by:
Herschell Gordon Lewis

Have you ever had... an Egyptian Feast? Dum dum dum. Well actually, no I haven't! And I can't believe I'm just now getting around to watching what has been widely heralded as "the first gore film." That's a debatable label, since a number of pre-1963 movies put that into question, yet I can't think of any that actually went this far and were specifically made to gross people out. Despite the technical ineptitude constantly on display, this drive-in hit has certainly earned its place in the film history books as a premiere bad taste achievement in American cinema. Egyptian foods store owner Fuad Ramses (Mal Arnold), he of the frosted blue hair and huge arched drawn-in eyebrows, is doing more in his spare time than catering parties for brain dead Florida beach bunnies... He's actually killing and dismembering them. It's all because he's making a special body part stew that will help to resurrect an ancient Egyptian goddess. Or something. Throw in a cop ("Thomas Wood" aka William Kerwin) investigating the murders and an airhead college student (Connie Woods), both of whom are conveniently studying Egyptian history, and you basically have BLOOD FEAST.

The patented blood is bright red, the colors are blindingly gaudy and the acting and dialogue are both terrible. I'm not even sure how to rate this one. When put in context to when it was made, one would be foolish to completely dismiss it or deny its importance in the development of the modern horror film and yet it's not good by any stretch of the imagination.

★★ SBIG

Kaibyô noroi numa (1967)

...aka: Bakeneko: A Vengeful Spirit

...aka: Cursed Pond, The

...aka: Ghost Cat of Cursed Pond, The

Directed by:

Yoshihiro Ishikawa

In 1615, treasonous vassal Naoshige Nabeshima overthrows Lord Ryuzoji Takafusa’s castle. The old lord is buried alive and his wife, when forced with the prospect of marrying the traitor, choses to drown herself and her pet cat Tama in a nearby swamp instead, effectively cursing the area. Naoshige, now in complete control of the village, turns out to be a merciless, power-mad ruler (“The law doesn’t apply to me!”) who orders anyone who usurps his authority in any way immediately killed. While watching a fireworks display, Naoshige spots beautiful young Yujiki and demands she become one of his wives and move into the castle to “serve” him. The problem is that Yujiki, the daughter of high-ranking Mataemon, is in love with and engaged to marry treasurer’s son Jonosuke Yuki. Irregardless, disobeying the new lord is punishable by death. The young lovers find themselves unable to comply and plot to flee the village together, but an eavesdropper overhears their plans and both are killed in the swamp. Tama, now a ghost cat, licks blood from Yujiki’s body and a curse immediately sets into motion.

Lady Hyuga, one of Naoshige’s many wives, is immediately possessed and causes the deaths of many of those living inside the castle. She’s sometimes seen wearing wild makeup and crazy hair, sometimes has hairy, clawed hands and, in one memorable scene, feasts upon dismembered hands in a graveyard! After eliminating a good number of people, Hyuga takes the appearance of Yujiki, pays one last visit to her mother and then disappears. Some time later, corrupt counselor Shuzen Kuroiwa decides to let the lord have his unwilling younger sister Yuri and history begins repeating itself. Yuri chosing to commit suicide instead of becoming the lord’s slave, becomes possessed and then enacts the second part of the revenge, which includes making the four-year-old heir deathly ill and driving Naoshige insane.

Despite overly familiar story elements (the ghost cat, the cursed swamp, etc.), this is extremely well done. The acting and art direction are both good, it’s atmospheric and it’s very stylishly photographed in black-and-white. It’s also surprisingly bloody and violent. There are graphic decapitations (and in one great bit a vision of a dozen or so decapitated living heads), arms chopped off, faces slashed open, impalements, rotting corpses and much more. Some directorial choices are pretty clever, such as overlapping the possessed eyes of the humans with the cats. There’s also a striking montage of an insane Naoshige going on a rampage, part of which is reflected in the cat’s eye.

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The cast includes Kotaro Satomi, Ryohei Uchida, Kyoko Mikage, Yuriko Mishima and Bunta Sugawara. The director also made THE GHOST CAT OF OTAMA POND (1960) and co-wrote the Nobuo Nakagawa films MANSION OF THE GHOST CAT (1958) and THE GHOST OF YOTSUYA (1959).

★★★1/2