Black Room, The (1982)

... aka: Himon musta huone (The Black Room of Lust)

... aka: Kammer der Schrecken (Chamber of Secrets)

... aka: La chambre noire

... aka: La habitación negra

Directed by:

Elly Kenner

Norman Thaddeus Vane ([supposed] co-director)

Thirty-something Larry (Jimmy Stathis) is feeling unfulfilled with the boring everyday rituals of life. It's work as a stationary supply salesman during the day, then unruly kids and a compromised sex life at night. Rinse and repeat. Still, it's extremely difficult to view this man as being anything other than completely selfish. His wife, Robin (Clara Perryman), puts in every effort possible to please this guy. She's pretty, pleasant, has a delightfully sarcastic sense of humor, is uncommonly open-minded and anything but frigid. She describes her sexual history and fantasies openly and even giddily, is willing to try new things and does everything she can to keep things active in the bedroom. Problem is, their kids - Mark (Bill Anglemyer) and Jenny (Allisun Kale) - are almost comically insufferable brats. Every time the couple attempt to be intimate they're met with laughing and screaming coming from the other bedroom. Apparently these little buggers never go to sleep! They also constantly whine about things like their dinner and intentionally spill their drinks ("I hate milk!") any time the couple try to show affection toward one another. I'm sure there's some fucked up Freudian thing going on here that I probably don't even want to know about.

Jason's temporary escape from his family drama, mundane job and modest suburban home in Van Nuys is to shell out 200 bucks a month to rent a room in a secluded mansion in the Hollywood Hills. But not just any room, this is a specially designed "fantasy" room with a zillion candles, black velvet drapes covering the walls, a state of the art stereo system, a glowing coffee table (which is actually pretty awesome), mirrors and lots of pillows and comfy bedding. This place is clearly designed for sex and sex only. The mansion owners; siblings Jason (Stephen Knight - THE WITCHING), a photographer, and Bridget (Cassandra Gava), a model, promise privacy and complete discretion. Larry can come and go as he pleases, and bring whoever he wants there. They'll even prepare the room for him in advance by providing wine, fresh flowers, music and such. When Larry happens upon a bored college girl hitchhiker named Lisa (Charlie Young), who wants to have a quick fling and "get wrecked" as those wild 80s kids apparently used to say, Larry is happy to oblige, and now he's got the perfect place to do it!

Interestingly, when Larry returns home from one of his little romps, he tells wife Robin all about them, and all about his "black room," to get her in the mood. Of course, she has no clue he's actually renting this room and doing all of these things in real life and believes it's all just some elaborate fantasy. All she knows is that they've recently had an improved sex life since "the black room" has entered the picture, so she plays along with it. But Robin isn't the only one being left in the dark. Larry has no clue what his new landlords are up to either... but it's anything but normal!

Jason and Bridget use a two-way mirror to spy on, and take photos of, Larry and his various conquests... and that's just the START of it. The seductive Bridget easily sinks her claws into Larry (the first day they meet) and the two are soon using the room for kinky activities that involve pretend bull riding, feathered headdresses and body paint. As for Jason, he has a very rare inherited blood disease called thalassemia (a real disorder), where he doesn't produce enough hemoglobin and red blood cells. That requires regular blood transfusions, which have recently increased to twice weekly.

As opposed to just going to the hospital, he prefers his transfusions to be as fresh as possible, though perhaps not under the most sanitary of conditions. The siblings are actually utilizing the space to procure victims (using drugs and chloroform to subdue them) and many of the ladies Larry brings there end up being the unwilling blood donors. Their bodies are hooked to up an elaborate blood pumping machine and drained completely dry before being buried in coffins up in the hills.

After discovering Larry's dirty little secret, Robin makes a copy of his room key and decides to pay a visit to the mansion. There, she encounters Jason, who doesn't hesitate to tell her exactly what her husband has been up to. In fact, he shows her through the two-way mirror when Larry invites Lisa back, this time accompanied by her boyfriend Terry (Christopher McDonald in one of his first roles), for a little drug-fueled three way action. Initially shocked and saddened, Robin decides to flip the script on her cheating spouse and use the room herself to give Larry a (deserved!) taste of his own medicine. Eventually the couple find themselves handcuffed together in the room and slated to be the next donors, with their kids and babysitter Milly (the underutilized though always welcome Linnea Quigley) also being put in jeopardy.

Though it's been awhile since I last watched this, I've actually been a defender of it for quite some time, even though I've received a little pushback when I included it on a 20 hidden gems of the 80s list. To some, this is a slow, talky, boring film that doesn't really work. To others, it's a fascinating, atmospheric and unique movie that completely stands out for its time. This was the early 80s after all, when major studio, fx-heavy offerings and paint-by-numbers slasher flicks dominated the box office and few films - especially American ones - dared to try to put spins on tired tropes. Finally having a chance to check out the restored Blu-ray release from Vinegar Syndrome has only made me dig my heels in deeper with this one. I'm still gonna defend it. This is a good, and perhaps also somewhat misunderstood, film. It's certainly not perfect, but it's consistently interesting, stylish and provides enough subtext to resonate.

I also appreciate the fact this actually cares enough to make its characters real, flawed people with complexities and insecurities. The sleazy, voyeuristic Jason, who's in the end stage of his life (at least his human one!), has basically entered his idgaf phase and is out to do whatever he pleases. In that regard, he shares some similarities with the disillusioned Larry, who's thrown caution to the wind and put everything at risk because he's dissatisfied following a generic life script. 

Bridget, who's trapped in an unhealthy codependent relationship with her sibling (yep, there are some strong incestuous vibes going on there), ultimately fears being alone, part of the reason she's reluctant to let Larry go, especially with her brother's impending demise on the horizon. Exotic and husky-voiced Filipino-American Gava (best known for her small role as the witch Arnold Schwarzenegger briefly shacks up with in Conan the Barbarian) is highly memorable in this role. She's even given the chance to show off a lot of her professional modeling photos, including the cover of the 1976 Jefferson Starship album Spitfire.

Quite surprisingly given her competition, the most interesting person here is actually Robin, and the little-known Perryman is really great in this part. In most other films this would be a bland side character, but she's actually one of the most progressive mother / housewife characters I've ever seen in an older genre film. This woman is proactive in the extreme! She stands up for herself, she knows her worth, she speaks her mind, she's level-headed yet adventurous, she demands respect for the sacrifices she makes taking care of the house and kids and, while she loves her husband, she's not willing to be a doormat or be disrespected without taking some action herself. Casual everyday conversations, and the occasional arguments, between her and her husband have a really nice naturalistic quality to them and ring true.

According to pretty much everyone who worked on the production, Vane did not actually direct the film proper. Him being being given a "co-director" credit supposedly was part of an agreement he'd made with producer Aaron C. Butler, something that the film's real director, Israeli-born Elly Kenner, knew nothing about during production. Even though no one seems to have very nice things to say about the man (I don't either after reading more about him in Stephen Thrower's Nightmare USA and having already sat through some of his other stuff), he does at least deserve credit for this evocative script. Supposedly it's based on some of his real-life sleazy sexcapades, but I'll leave that up for you to discover on your own if you want all of the sordid details.

The crazy finale manages to somehow both disappoint and impress. In a way, it kind of undermines some of the finer plot points and muddies motivations (or at least makes us rethink them), on the other hand, it's lively and kind of creepy, ending with a flash-edited barrage of black and white shots of resurrecting corpses with color shots of blood pumping. It's definitely... unusual... much like the rest of the film.

Well-shot by future director Robert Harmon (THE HITCHER), this also boasts lots of gliding Steadicam shots courtesy of Jeff Mart, which both add to the dreamy, hazy feel and aid some of the action scenes, notably a great bit where the siblings pursue a half-drained victim (Geanne Frank) who manages to escape their home around the Hollywood hills. The often subdued electronic score is also great. Make-up and special effects from Mark Shostrom, who'd go on to work on a lot of 80s horror favorites like Videodrome, From Beyond, Evil Dead II and the first three Elm Street films, are solid.

After a very limited American theatrical release, Vestron Video issued this on home video in 1985. It was a well-distributed tape like many other Vestron titles and I'm sure audiences back then, probably expecting something more gore-drenched and formulaic, probably didn't know what to make of it. In many ways, I think this fits in better with today's “elevated horror” market than it did back in the 80s as a video rental.

The Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray (released just last year) is a long-overdue upgrade for this previously forgotten film, which had, until then, only been available as old rental tapes or VHS-sourced online copies, all of which were far too dark. This release rectifies that and also includes a ton of extras, including interviews with actors Stathis and Perryman (who now goes by her married name, Claire Corff, and is a voice teacher), Shostrom, Kenner and production assistant Lisa Cronin (also the daughter of executive producer Doug Cronin, who appears as a victim in the first scene). Thrower is also given a long segment where he basically relays information from his extensive previous interview with Vane (who passed away in 2015) for his book. The only real disappointment here is that they weren't able to track down Gava, Knight or Quigley for a chat, especially since all three of them appear to still be active.

★★★

Heartland of Darkness (2022) [f/1989]

... aka: Blood Church

... aka: Fallen Angels

Directed by:

Eric Swelstad

It usually takes awhile to plan a film, shoot a film, make it through post production and then find a distributor... but it usually doesn't take 33 YEARS! Just why this particular film took so long to finally make it to the masses is a long story (laid out in much greater detail than I'm about to in the extensive Blu-ray extras) but it basically boils down to money. Shot on 16mm around Columbus, Ohio by Ohio State University graduate student Swelstad in 1989, apparently all of the money was used during production and there were no funds left to do post production work. Despite doing some PR in the Ohio press around 1990, the film (then called Fallen Angels) was effectively stalled before some technical issues could be fixed and a final edit could be completed. In 1992, it was being promoted yet again, this time under the new title Blood Church but nothing happened aside from a poster and a promotional video. In the early 2000s, around half an hour of raw footage taken from some VHS source leaked online, prompting some renewed interest.

Jump ahead a few more years to 2007 when a new trailer, website and promotional materials emerged for the film, this time promising a release sometime in the near future under yet another new title, Heartland of Darkness. As for the "near future," that turned out to be an additional 15 years! But, hey, it's now finally finished and has been released to Blu-ray and streaming platforms by Visual Vengeance and Wild Eye Releasing.

Widowed editor Paul Henson (Dino Tripodis - way too young for this role despite the gray hair streak attempt), who lost his wife to a drunk driver and is now raising his teen daughter Christine (Sharon Klopfenstein) as a single dad, leaves his position at the Chicago Tribune and moves to the small town of Copperton, Ohio to take over their newspaper, the Copperton Chronicle. As father and daughter prepare their new office, they're immediately greeted by several locals looking for work, including experienced secretary Evelyn Spyker (Mary Alice Demas) and former New York Times staff writer Shannon Cornell (Shanna Thomas). Both are hired on the spot without so much as showing a resume. The lucky breaks continue when, on his very first day there, Paul stumbles onto a potentially huge news story after a disemboweled corpse is found in a field. The sheriff (Lee Page) claims it was some kind of drug-related murder but neither Paul nor Shannon buy his theory and immediately begin looking into matters.

It turns out that Copperton is a town overrun with devil-worshipers and nearly everyone, from the church regulars to the district attorney all the way up to the mayor, is under the thumb of the evil Reverend Donovan (Nick Baldasare) and his MIB-style posse of sunglasses-sporting goons. In addition to regularly sacrificing victims / acquiring souls for Satan, Donovan doesn't hesitate murdering and mutilating anyone who rubs him the wrong way. That not only includes detractors and snoops but also anyone who tries to move to another town or so much as make a simple mistake that could potentially expose them. When Paul and Shannon start publishing stories suggesting a murderous cult may be at work in the area, they also paint huge targets on their backs.

After a teenage girl is murdered, a general store owner disappears and someone breaks into a hospital, kills a nurse and then steals a dozen newborn infants, Reverend Kane (John Dunleavy), who's been going around the country busting Satanists, shows up at the newspaper office to offer his assistance. He, Paul and Shannon go to a mental asylum to visit Dobson, who sacrificed a bunch of babies years earlier, and are pointed in the direction of a remote rock quarry. There, the men discover a bunch of bones, human remains and a pentagram. As for receiving any help from local authorities, they may as well forget it. Not only is nearly everyone in Copperton in the cult and marked as such with an upside down cross branded on their wrist, but so are many people in the upper echelons of state politics are willing to cover for them. I knew Ohio had one of the most corrupt state governments in the entire country but I had no idea it was to this extent!

After going to report his findings to the (it turns out devil-worshipping) Ohio attorney general Richard Davidson (Wesley Coleman), Paul finds himself being hunted down by all kinds of cultists. During a car chase, they attempt to shoot him with a machine gun and then he's attacked in a store by a mulleted bodybuilder with a blowtorch he unfortunately never turns on. Making it home, he discovers his apartment has been ransacked and Christine has been kidnapped. They then take their evidence to the Governor, who hasn't yet been converted, but he's assassinated before he can get anything done. That leaves Paul and Shannon with the difficult task of taking out Reverend Donovan and saving Christine before she becomes the next sacrifice in a black mass ceremony.

Linnea Quigley is also here in a half dozen scenes as Julia Francine, a high school history teacher with a hilariously inappropriate wardrobe. When she's not filling her student's heads with glowing positive commentary about Aleister Crowley and Hitler (!), she's being sent out by Donovan to work her seductive charms on the newcomers. Quigley was obviously hired for a few days to be the name draw and that did prove to be an apt decision eventually. I'm not sure there would have been much interest in ever releasing this had she not been in it as it's been primarily promoted as her "lost" film for years now. Though Quigley's screen time is limited, she's a real asset to the production, not only because she's her usual cute self and has two topless scenes but also because she has a certain on-screen charisma that's otherwise sorely lacking from the otherwise amateurish cast.

While the film suffers from all of the usual pratfalls associated with first time filmmaking, some aspects come as an unexpected surprise. For starters, this is genuinely ambitious and actually not too poorly made for an ultra low budget regional film. There are tons of location changes and they've done a fairly nice job with both the pacing and establishing the 'evil town' scenario using limited means. Working in the political angle was interesting, there's quite a bit of action (not all of it well-executed, but it's still there!) and the script has enough narrative drive and plot complication to keep you watching.

However, all of the effort, good intentions and high aspirations are undermined throughout by unconvincing and, in many cases, appallingly bad acting. Aside from Quigley and perhaps Baldasare, whose very theatrical, pseudo-camp turn as the main bad guy is somewhat fun, most of the rest of the principal performers are dreadful. It's been awhile since I've seen so much wooden dialogue delivery and deer-in-headlights facial expressions in just one film! Seeing how this was made by college students, you'd figure they'd have access to some moderately talented theater majors they could have cast instead of who they ended up with. But, to be completely fair, the (male) lead does at least try and a few of the minor roles; the secretary and attorney general, for example, are adequately performed. Still, the acting as a whole does bring the film down.

I'm not entirely sure of the extent of post production work that had to be done to prep this release, but it's obvious some CGI "enhancements" were recently added, including some awful-looking lightning, machine gun fire and an explosion. A lot of the people who worked on this had also worked on Beyond Dream's Door (1988), another OSU student film, only that one actually received a VHS release here through VidAmerica in 1990 and was also released in Canada, Japan and other countries before its 2021 Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray release.

Despite the highly uneven nature of the film, one thing that cannot be criticized is the work Visual Vengeance / Wild Eye have put into the Blu-ray release. They've really gone all out with the extras. Included are a new 40-minute documentary Deeper Into the Darkness featuring interviews with director Swelstad (who also directed the doc), Baldasare, producer / cinematographer Scott Spears and producer Thomas Baumann, two commentary tracks (one with Swelstad, Baldasare, Spears and composer Jay Woelfel), a new 2021 Quigley interview, a 20 minute interview Quigley did for a local TV show called Columbus Close-Up to promote the film in 1989, a 37-minute Fallen Angels workprint, a 12-minute Blood Church promo video and so much more.

Currently listed on most websites as a 1992 release, I was unable to verify any actual release (theatrical or home video) prior to this 2022 release.

★★