Destroyer (1988)

...aka: Edison Effect, The

...aka: Shadow of Death

Directed by:

Robert Kirk

A closed-down prison is the setting for this above average shocker (pun intended) about an executed mass murderer (muscleman Lyle Alzado) returning from the dead to kill off the cast and crew of a low budget movie shooting in the same prison he met a electrifying demise (ok, I'll stop now) years earlier. Deborah Foreman (WAXWORK) is her usual fun and enthusiastic self as our tomboy stuntwoman heroine and Anthony Perkins seems to have a blast as the harried director of "Death House Dolls," the women-in-prison exploitation movie in question. Alzado (who passed away in 1992) attacks his role with gusto, and manages to make his character alternately campy and menacing. It's an entertaining thriller, the film-within-a-film format is used well and there are good performances, a few clever murders and several good electric chair scenes to keep your interest. The video box it comes in though is ridiculous, and usually ended up in the action section of video stores. Also in the cast are 80s heartthrob Clayton Rohner (who had already appeared with Foreman in APRIL FOOL'S DAY) and Jim Turner. It's not on DVD yet, but certainly deserves to be.

★★1/2

How Awful About Allan (1970) (TV)

Directed by:

Curtis Harrington

Allan (Anthony Perkins) is blamed for an accidental fire that killed his father (Kent Smith), disfigured his sister (Julie Harris, who wears a plastic device over part of her face) and landed him in an institution. Eight months later, partially blind and guilt-stricken, he's let out of an institution and rents a room from his estranged sibling in an effort to put his life back together, but someone is out for revenge and wants to drive him crazy. Is it his darling sis? Friendly neighbor / ex-girlfriend Olive (Joan Hackett)? The creepy new boarder whose face is always obscured? The father back from the grave? Or is it just in Allan's mind? Perkins can do the paranoid/fragile/slipping-sanity act in sleep and Harris and Hackett offer good support, but this tele-pic is dull, light on plot and fizzles out way before the finale. Blurry POV shots and murky photography make for a pretty oppressive viewing experience. Henry Farrell (who also wrote WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? and HUSH... HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE) adapted his novel of the same name. Aaron Spelling was the executive producer.

★★

Pretty Poison (1968)

...aka: She Let Him Continue

Directed by:

Noel Black

Dennis Pitt (Anthony Perkins) fantasizes his way through a humdrum existence as factory worker by day and accomplished arsonist by night, but he’s about to learn a true lesson in sociopathic tendencies from an unlikely source; chirpy blonde high school majorette Sue Ann (Tuesday Weld), who turns out to be even more disturbed than he is! This timeless and corrosive black comic thriller toys with our perceptions, our assumptive nature and, especially, our eagerness to reflect on and allude to the notion of small town American ideals that probably never even existed in the first place. In that regard, this can be seen as a precursor to David Lynch's critically acclaimed BLUE VELVET. Perkins and Weld deliver knockout performances, Beverly Garland contributes a great character bit as Sue Ann’s bitchy, ice-cold mother and it’s sharply and insightfully scripted by Lorenzo Semple, Jr. A winner.

★★★1/2

Psycho (1960)

Directed by:
Alfred Hitchcock

Review coming soon.

★★★★

Edge of Sanity (1989)

...aka: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

...aka: Dr. Jekyll et Mr. Hyde

...aka: Split - Edge of Sanity

Directed by:

Gérard Kikoine

Most Harry Alan Towers productions from the late 80s/early 90s are awful, but this is an exception. One big reason is having Anthony Perkins in the lead role. He gives an excellent, completely unhinged performance in this entertaining, interesting, pretty kinky fusing of Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Hyde and the Jack the Ripper legend. Tony is obsessive scientist Henry Jekyll, who becomes crazed killer Jack Hyde when he smokes an experimental drug. Flashbacks to his disturbed childhood show that young Henry witnessed a murder. Older Henry visits a whore-house frequently and slits the necks of various attractive prostitutes. I must admit that It's pretty startling to see Mr. Perkins ripping the panties off of hookers, rubbing their asses and sexually satisfying them with his cane before brutally killing them, but that's exploitation for ya. A man (Ben Cole) and a woman (Sarah Maur Thorp) at the whorehouse smoke up with him, have sex in front of him (with his help and encouragement) and later become his crazed followers. The guy hangs upside down in one scene while Henry and the woman slice him up and laugh maniacally. Glynis Barber co-stars as Henry's devoted, compassionate and charitable wife (who volunteers helping prostitutes and the homeless) in scenes that oddly parallel Henry/Jack's sex-violence spree. Also in the cast are David Lodge, Jill Melford and Claudia Udy.

One of the most surprising things about this is the arty and unusual direction by Kikoine (who previously had done porn, movies for Playboy TV and the pretty awful Poe adaptation BURIED ALIVE for the same producer one year earlier). The camera tilts, spins and pivots, some set pieces are almost black and white and neon pink lighting is all over the place. Perkins gives another one-of-a-kind performance. Some will probably claim he's overacting here, but it's appropriate for this material and no one plays a neurotic, fidgety, laughing maniac quite the same way he does. Actress Maria Rohm (Towers' wife) was the associate producer.

★★1/2

Psycho II (1983)

Directed by:

Richard Franklin

Rehabilitated, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) returns to the Bates Motel after spending twenty-two years in a state institution for the murders committed in the first film. After getting a job in a diner and returning to the motel to try to live a normal life, he thinks he's losing his mind after receiving notes and phone calls from "mother." Then the murders start up again... Has Norman returned to his old ways, are others conspiring against him or is it perhaps a combination of the two? Could it have something to do with co-worker Mary (Meg Tilly), who starts to live with Norman after her boyfriend kicks her out? You know how mother loathes "whores." Or bitter and vengeful Lila Loomis (Vera Miles, returning from the original), who doesn't seem too happy that Norman was able to walk a free man. He's actually not on the good side of many in his small town, including sleazy hotel manager Dennis Franz, and others at the diner and around town who are very well acquainted with his history. After a badly cropped and unnecessary recap of the Janet Leigh shower death in the 1960 classic, this picks up in a big way and becomes a surprisingly worthy sequel. One could nit-pick and deconstruct it and unfairly compare it to the original, but as far as 80s horror sequels go, this is by far one of the superior ones; suspenseful, scary, very well acted and extremely well crafted.

Director Franklin does an excellent job setting up the shock scenes and building suspense, all with great respect for the style and humor of The Master. Restraint is used for the most part when it comes to gore (with some mainly sliding in at the very end), and there are many deliberate and knowing camera angles that instantly bring the films of Hitchcock to mind. The ending possibly goes too far, but it's still a surprise I doubt many people will see coming. One of the major reasons for this film's success however is the outstanding central performance from Perkins, who manages to pull off being sincere, sympathetic and creepy all at once. Regardless of how batty Norman becomes throughout the film, Perkins has made sure he's human first and foremost; never a cardboard cut-out. Many of the supporting cast (including Hugh Gillin, Robert Alan Browne and Lee Garlington) returned in PSYCHO III, which was directed by Perkins himself. The score (also fashioned with respect to composer Bernard Herrmann) is from Jerry Goldsmith. Look out for that peephole scene!

★★★1/2