Trial by Terror (1983)

... aka: Acusado sin culpa (Accused Without Fault)
... aka: Das haus (The House)
... aka: Notte di terrore (Night of Terror)
... aka: Traumstein

Directed by:
Hildy Brooks

I used to make it a habit to watch all of the Best Picture Oscar nominees every single year; a habit I eventually broke myself of thanks to movies like Precious (2009). What really killed that movie for me was just how much pain and misery got heaped on the title character. Obesity! Poverty! Abuse! Illiteracy! Incest! Rape! Teen pregnancy! Special needs children! At one point, after already watching Precious suffer through one hardship after another for what felt like an eternity, I sat there thinking "Jesus! What's next? Is she going to get diagnosed with cancer or AIDS or something?" and, low and behold... It was at that moment I started laughing. No, the content itself wasn't funny, and these are all serious issues many people face, but just how obvious it was that the director was intentionally trying to craft something that would hit all of the critical acclaim hot buttons certainly was. Due to how forced and calculated the film was being, I was unable to really immerse myself in it. Or believe any of it. And the fact it worked on many critics and Oscar voters says worse things about them than the movie itself. 

Even though I usually enjoy Lars von Trier films, I get a similar feeling from some of his work as he basically tortures his protagonists for two straight hours to the point where it becomes almost comical. While going absurdly over-the-top works when you're making an exploitation film, it typically doesn't when you're wanting to explore adult topics in a serious manner. This is also one of the biggest issues I had with Trial by Terror.

After saving every penny they've earned for five straight years, Greg Armstrong (Wayne Crawford) and his wife Karen (Kay Lenz) have just put down a down payment on a nice new home in the safe suburbs. Greg is doing well at the gym equipment manufacturing plant where he works and has just been promoted. Out of the workforce, Karen is looking forward to finally having children and starting their family. But their plans for the future are about to all come crashing down. The first bad omen comes during their housewarming party when they hear the sound of glass shattering only to find out their friend Buddy's (Joe Unger) car has been broken into and his stereo stolen. The cop (Rod McCary) who shows up to investigate seems less interested in the crime and more interested in hitting on Buddy's new policewoman girlfriend, Terri (Colleen Camp).

Later that night, Greg and Karen are woken by noises coming from outside. Upon further investigation, they realize someone has taken it upon themselves to dump all of the neighbor's trash cans into their front yard. The police are called again and the officer who shows up writes it off as "a little malicious mischief" and says they can't do anything about it. He does however let Greg know that if he doesn't clean it up they'll be cited and have to pay a fine for littering! Greg's best friend K.C. (Karl Johnson) suggests he get a gun, but Greg is resistant due to Karen's dislike of firearms. That resistance doesn't last long after Greg and Karen return home from a nice promotion celebration dinner only to find the punks have broken in, spray painted their walls, destroyed nearly everything they own and left behind a death threat. Firearm it is!

Of course the cops are called and, yet again, do absolutely nothing but nonchalantly talk about cars (?) while they're there. Karen goes to her next door neighbor to ask if she heard or saw anything. The widowed cat lady who lives there informs her, "Nobody's gonna protect me so I mind my own business!" Greg finally goes to the gun store to purchase a rifle and just in the nick of time as the intruders break into their home yet again later that same evening. This time, Greg shoots one of them dead. When the cops arrive this FOURTH time, the couple are victimized all over again when she's restrained and he's almost shot, thrown to the floor and handcuffed. And this is just the beginning of their troubles.

The couple are forced to go to a hotel for a few days, then try to return home only to be greeted by a chalk outline of the intruder's body and a blood-splattered wall. The fact they're being targeted by multiple punks also makes it impossible to feel safe there as one of them could return at any time for revenge. Back to the hotel they go. When they're finally forced to return, they receive anonymous death threats by phone and are hounded by the press, who question whether or not they used excessive force. Every noise becomes a potential intruder and the husband is haunted by guilt for killing a teenager. The district attorney is thinking about pressing criminal charges and then the dead intruder's mother decides to sue them for wrongful death in civil court, threatening to bankrupt them and make them lose the house, anyway. Geesh!

On the bright side, they find an ally in detective Jay Galen (Martin Landau), a 20-year homicide veteran, who talks D.A. Frederick Estus ("Allan Goorwitz" / Allen Garfield) out of prosecuting Greg for murder, as he's planning to do merely to set an example. Still, someone continues to lurk outside the couple's home, so they're forced to move to a trailer in the country that Greg's boss owns and lets them use. The faceless stalkers eventually track Greg down at work and try to kill him with a welding torch and then find out where the trailer is and go after Karen.

While there's not much "terror" in this obscure film, there's enough empty yapping and flat / unimaginative direction to make this feel like it was made-for-the-tube. A lot of action movies and thrillers made in the 70s and 80s were basically a call to arms for (usually white) "good people" to run out and buy guns to defend themselves against (usually black or Hispanic) killers, thieves and gang members. This movie starts out that way, but instead of becoming a full-fledged vigilante pic it tries to explore the legal / criminal / social repercussions of using a gun for self-defense. However, instead of tying up those story threads, this completely forgets about them and instead spends the last 20 minutes trying to be a thriller again, concluding with a big shootout. There's no real resolution to any of the couple's other struggles.

Though the acting is generally OK, it's easy to see why this one's been completely forgotten over the years. It can't quite decide what it wants to be and what little it tries to add to the conversation about guns and the necessity of taking the law into your own hands if need be was just as simple-minded and irrelevant back then as it is today. There's even ample evidence that the filmmakers themselves are aware that what they're doing here is steeped in stereotypes and even faintly offensive. 

In order to stave off potential criticism for making all of the criminals Mexican (and the non-English-speaking mother of the slain punk basically an extortionist) and a scene where Greg goes to the “bad neighborhood” and they show nothing but black people walking around, they cast a black extra for the party scene and a Mexican actress (Alma Martinez) in a nothing role as the best friend's wife. See! They aren't ALL bad! And just so they aren't accused of hyperbolic depictions of all cops as inept buffoons, they make sure one of them – just one – isn't so bad. The other 20 are depicted as rude, tone deaf and / or clueless.

This was one of many collaborations between star / writer / producer Crawford and writer / producer Andrew Lane, whose partnership stretches all the way back to 1975's God's Bloody Acre and includes a lot of other movies like Tomcats (1977; aka Avenged), Night of the Comet (1984), Jake Speed (1986) and Servants of Twilight (1991). The executive producer was Ed Adlum (Invasion of the Flesh Hunters) and the busy Robert O. Ragland did the score.

I could not locate a single theatrical poster or English-language VHS box scan for this movie so I have no idea if it was ever commercially released in the U.S. or not. However, CBS/Fox released it in a number of other countries, including France, Italy, Argentina and Germany. The quality of the VHS dupe I watched was awful and this doesn't seem like something that's ever going to get the deluxe DVD treatment.

★1/2

Alone in the Dark (1982)

... aka: Armoton yö (Unhappy Night)
... aka: Ausbruch der wilden Wölfe (Outbreak of Wild Wolves)
... aka: Dément (Insane)
... aka: Zwei Stunden vor Mitternacht (Two Hours Before Midnight)

Directed by:
Jack Sholder

You pretty much know right away, in an opening sequence featuring a chef-clad Donald Pleasence hacking Martin Landau in half crotch-first, that this isn't gonna be your normal everyday slasher flick. Then again, you could probably also tell that from examining the cast list. Psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Potter (Dwight Schulz), who prefers working with the seriously deranged instead of having a cushy job listening to wealthy neurotics, has just landed a new position working at The Haven, a nuthouse run by kooky doctor Leo Bain (Pleasence). It's just your standard issue funny farm where people wander around, sit in the lobby eating paper and play croquet out on the front lawn. Dr. Bain prefers to allow most of his "voyagers" (what he prefers to call his patients) roam freely, but there are a few exceptions to the general rule...

On the third floor of the hospital where Dan is set to work are the real psychos; the potentially very dangerous ones. They're so bad that Dr. Bain had to have a special security system installed with electrically-operated doors and windows just to be able to legally keep them there. On Dan's first day at work he's introduced to the four patients he'll be tending to. There's former war vet Frank Hawkes, nicknamed "Colonel" (Jack Palance), former minister Byron Sutcliffe, nicknamed "Preacher" (Landau), big guy Ronald Elster, nicknamed "Fatty" (Erland Van Lidth) and John Skaggs, nicknamed "The Bleeder," who always keeps his face hidden. Each of Dan's deranged patients is given their own distinct mental problem. The Colonel is a paranoid schizophrenic who thinks his stint in The Haven is just a "vacation," Preacher is a pyromaniac bible-quoter who enjoys setting fire to churches, Fatty is a child molester and The Bleeder is a serial strangler whose nose bleeds every time he's about to commit a murder.

Since Dr. Potter has just moved to town, he, his wife Nell (Deborah Hedwall) and their young daughter Lyla (Elizabeth Ward) are just getting settled into their new country home. Toni (Lee Taylor-Allen), Dan's punk sister who's just recently suffered from a nervous breakdown after being attacked, also comes to stay with them for a week. Her first night there she decides to drag her reserved bro and sister-in-law to watch the punk band The Sic Fucks perform "Chop Up Your Mother." Mid-concert, there's a citywide blackout due to problems at a nearby nuclear facility. Rioting and looting commences, and the four nuts at The Haven take advantage of the opportunity to escape. Fatty breaks an orderly's back over his knee then kills a doctor so they can steal a car.

Immediately heading into town to gather some supplies, the four psychos break into a hardware store; stealing knives, a crossbow, a hockey mask and a few other handy tools. The Bleeder claws out a guy's throat with a three-pronged garden claw before disappearing, so the other three steal a van and run over a mailman just so Preacher can get his hat. The Colonel has it in his disturbed mind that Dr. Dan has killed their previous psychiatrist, so he wants revenge and talks his buddies into helping him out. After sneaking in to kill a babysitter (Carol Levy) and her boyfriend, the escapees then lay siege on the Potter household, trapping the family, a police detective (Gordon Watkins) and Tom (Phillip Clark), a guy Nell and Toni met after getting thrown in jail for picketing the local nuclear power plant, inside. There's death by arrow, cleaver, strangulation and stabbing, a delusion featuring a zombie-like ghost (which was designed by Tom Savini) and Pleasance pops back in briefly to get his ear whacked off.

New Line Cinema would later become jokingly known as "The House That Freddy Built" because of the huge commercial success of their Nightmare on Elm Street series. But if Freddy built the house, then Alone in the Dark purchased the lumber and nails. This was New Line and producer Robert Shaye's very first horror release. Miramax had an almost identical genesis at around the same time with their first release THE BURNING (1981), a profitable slasher that helped to establish a company that would later flourish. Though it sometimes uneasily wavers between camp and wanting to be taken seriously, is a bit slow to get started and is pretty skimpy on gore, Alone is still better than most other slasher flicks from its time. Having Palance and, especially, Landau (who's at his creepy, grinning, crazy-eyed best) as two of the nuts is definitely a huge plus and Pleasence also has a fun role as an aloof, New Age-y pot-smoking (!) doctor who doesn't seem far off from being committed to his own hospital. It's generally well made and most of the performances are fine, there are a few good laughs and some scenes, especially one where the portly pedo tries to coax the little girl into her bedroom, are surprisingly tasteless.

The cast includes Brent Jennings (The Serpent and the Rainbow), Frederick Coffin (Mother's Day) and the producer's sister, future horror icon Lin Shaye, in a small role as one of the patients. According to Sholder (who'd go on to make the second Elm Street film and The Hidden), Matthew Broderick auditioned for the part of the babysitter's boyfriend but was turned down. This made it into Fangoria's 101 Best Horror Films You've Never Seen book and was also one of the picks for the 2014 doc The 50 Best Horror Movies You've Never Seen.

★★★