Directed by:
James L. Wilson
Lake Durand doesn't
have the best reputation in the world. The Indians nicknamed it "Coyote
Lake" because of the weird and unexplainable howling noises the wind
seems to make
there. A family who lived there decades earlier all met gruesome fates;
corpses were found scattered about, heads were ripped off, bodies were
pulled apart... Because their home was completely demolished, the deaths
were written off as a "natural disaster," but an Old Indian claimed the
family had actually been killed by "Shataba;" an ancient and very evil
spirit that only comes to life during the winter time. The same force may
have also been responsible for a freak accident that killed several
lumberjacks during the 40s, and may have had something to do with an
entire family disappearing in the late 50s, and so on. Having heard
about the legend and those accompanying stories, John (Matt Borel)
decides to test his luck and drags nine of his friends there for the
weekend... during the winter, of course! He only lets Cal (Patrick
Byers) in on the Shataba legend and even shows him the remains of the
home once owned by the dead family, as well as their graves. That evening,
everyone grabs a beer and cozies up by a fireplace, where different scary
tales are told; three of which are then visualized for us.
Our first story is "The "Moss Point Man;" which is a play on that old
urban legend about a hook-handed fiend who hangs out at Lover's Lane (as well as another popular urban legend about a date gone sour).
After leaving the school dance early, Roger (Ray Gaspard) and his
girlfriend Estelle (Brandy Barrett) run out of gas on a back road.
He decides to walk on ahead and get some gasoline while she stays behind
in the car. A barely-seen Bigfoot-like creature is lurking about. It chases Roger around and then kills him. Back at the car, Estelle hears the
sounds of something dragging along the roof... This only runs for a
few minutes. Steve (Gil Glasgow) next offers up the story "The
Green Light;" about a trio of fraternity pledges having to spend the night
in an old abandoned hotel rumored to be haunted. Geeky Ron (Borel again),
tough guy Parker (Glasgow again) and fraidy cat Billy (Gaspard again) show
up and have been instructed not to leave the first floor. Parker does
anyway and doesn't return. After an hour, the other two decide to explore
the upper floors and get more than they bargained for. Both of the above
tales are pretty lame.
After an almost completely useless first hour, this finally starts to
improve a little bit. Rich snob Elaine (Mary Agen Cox) narrates the
third and by far best of these stories about a girl she knew from high
school named Annie (Beverly Allen). Because she's so shy and quiet,
some people who feel sorry for her and set her up on a blind date. It
backfires when the slob (Glasgow again) attempts to rape her. She stabs
him to death, claims to police they were attacked by someone else and gets
away with it. Now off to college, Annie is unpopular, uptight and "crazy
as a jaybird." She calls her roommate (Robin Bradley) "trash"
because she dates guys and destroys all of her belongings because she
borrows her shawl without asking. The two get into a heated argument which ends with
"Crazy Annie" moseying on down to the kitchen and getting herself a big
butcher knife. Back at the cabin, a couple of the guys try to scare
everyone with gorilla masks and the wind has really started to pick up...
The PG-rated low-budgeter was shot on 16mm in Louisiana and is tame,
usually dull, predictable and highly uneven, though it does boast a pretty
effective ending. I also liked how the actors in the framing scenes are
also the stars of the various stories. It's not been released on DVD and
the distributed VHS copy through VCI is a heavily damaged, worn print. A
young William Ragsdale (later to star in the big budget vampire hit FRIGHT NIGHT [1985]) appears in
one scene as a gas station attendant who tries to warn everyone about all
the "weird stuff" that's happened at the lake.
★★
No comments:
Post a Comment