Bride of the Monster (1955)

... aka: Atomic Monster, The
... aka: Bride of the Atom
... aka: Monster of the Marshes

Directed by:
Edward D. Wood Jr.

Bride started life as a script called The Atomic Monster, written in 1953 by Alex Gordon, who'd go on to co-write the director's Jail Bait the following year. Wood so liked the idea that he completely rewrote it and then re-titled it Monster of the Marshes. Since he'd already befriended down on his luck / drug-addicted horror icon Bela Lugosi (who had already appeared in Wood's 1953 transvestite epic Glen or Glenda?) he was able to pay him a measly 1,000 dollars to star and had some money from donors to start the project. Production under the new title Bride of the Atom began in October 1954 at Ted Allen Studios in Hollywood, but had to be shut down after just a few days due to money problems. Seeking further funding, Ed turned to Arizona meat packing entrepreneur Donald E. McCoy, who forked over the majority of the budget in exchange for Wood casting his inexperienced son Tony McCoy in the heroic lead role, plus making sure there was an anti-nuclear war sentiment and explosion at the very end. The total budget ended up being 70,000 dollars, making it the highest-budgeted film of Wood's entire career. It is also believed to be his only film to turn a profit during its initial theatrical run. Filming was completed by 1955 and it debuted under the new title Bride of the Monster at the Paramount Theater on May, 11 1955. Samuel Z. Arkoff was involved in distribution of the picture and supposedly used some of the profits to form his American International Pictures (along with James H. Nicholson) the following year.

After fleeing his homeland, mad scientist Dr. Eric Vornoff (Lugosi) has taken up residence in an old abandoned house in the country along with his rotund, mute henchman Lobo (400-pound Swedish professional wrestler Tor Johnson). There, Vornoff works on his experiments in a hidden lab that's accessed through the fireplace, with aspirations of one day creating a race of "atomic supermen" to take over the world. In the meantime, he's content watching his “monster” (stock shots of an octopus) swim around as it guards the swamp waters outside. A couple of hunters seeking refuge from a storm have the misfortune of stumbling onto the home. One meets his fate in the monster's tentacles, while the other is captured by Lobo, brought back to the lab, strapped down to a table and dies after being hooked up to some electronic thingamabob. It appears Vornoff has yet to perfect his experiments.

Since there have been twelve disappearances around the marshes where Vornoff has set up shop in the past three months, Captain Robbins (Harvey B. Dunn) puts his best man Lt. Dick Craig (McCoy) on the case. Dick's engaged to be married to Janet Lawton (Loretta King), a pushy reporter who doesn't buy the garbage the police are selling her about people dying in the quicksand bogs or from alligator attacks. She believes that a monster is actually responsible and sets out to prove she's right. Not heeding advice of the police to stay away from the area, Janet goes out to Lake Marsh during a storm. She ends up running her car off the road, gets out, sees a snake, sees Lobo heading her way and passes out from the shock of it all. After taking a whiff of her fluffy white Angora hat and sticking it in his pocket to do God knows what with later, Lobo carries Janet back to the Old Willows Place. There, Vornoff uses his Dracula-like hand motions to hypnotize her.

Professor Vladimir Strowski (George Becwar) mysteriously shows up at the police station claiming to be an expert on prehistoric monsters who can help them in case there is indeed a monster lurking the swamps. Dick thinks he's “a strange sort of bird” and he's not far off. Strowski is actually a foreign agent sent there to try to locate Vornoff and bring him back to his country to help them create the “master race.” The doctor isn't having any of it though because his experiments had previously got him laughed at, ultimately banished from his homeland and separated from his wife and son. As far as he's concerned, he no longer has a home and all of his experiments are going to be for his own benefit. Strowski promptly gets fed to the octo-monster. Meanwhile, Dick and his partner Marty (Don Nagel) head out to the swamps, where they find both Janet and Strowski's abandoned cars. Dick decides to walk on up to the Old Willows Place to check it out. Can he get there in time to save Janet from becoming a woman of super human strength and super-beauty aka Vornoff's latest creation “The Bride of the Atom?” Will Dr. Vornoff pay because “He tampered in God's domain?” And will Lobo finally turn on his master (even a semi-retarded mongoloid can only stand so much whipping!) and get to experience the soft, comforting touch of the Atomic Bride's lacy new gown?

A lot of people watch this after seeing various silly scenes reenacted in Burton's 1994 Ed Wood bio-pic. I'm sure they were pleased to discover that movie didn't exaggerate. The dialogue is just as awful and stilted, the acting is just as wooden, the sets are just as cheap and wobbly, the octopus model (supposedly stolen from Republic Pictures' prop house... except they forgot to take the motor!) is just as unconvincing and the whole thing is just as rushed and poorly-made as it came off in Burton's film. There's also Wood's trademark liberal use of cost-cutting stock footage (lightning bolts, an octopus, an alligator, an atom bomb explosion...) as well as lots of close-ups of Lugosi's “sinister” eyes to bring to mind his earlier work in superior films like White Zombie (1932). This one certainly has its fans, as do many Wood films. Some even claim this is legitimately good but just misunderstood. It's not. It's awful. Hilariously awful, entertaining and not without its own weird charms, including a few poignant moments for Lugosi in his final speaking film role, but still awful.

Also in the cast are Paul Marco as Kelton the Cop (a role he'd repeat in numerous other Wood films), Wood's girlfriend-at-the-time Dolores Fuller in a small role as a file clerk and an uncredited Conrad Brooks, who can be seen sitting on a bench outside of the police office. Many of the actors (Johnson, Marco, Nagel, Dunn) would return for the follow-up, Night of the Ghouls (1959), which didn't get released until the 1980s. Because of Wood's cult popularity and the film's public domain status, it's been released on DVD and VHS by too many different labels to name here. The 2008 release from Legend Films also includes a colorized version of the film.

SBIG

Jui gwai chat hung (1983)

... aka: 7 Ghost Chasers
... aka: Seven Heroes Chase Ghost
... aka: Trail, The
... aka: Zhui gui qi xiong

Directed by:
Ronny Yu

Developing a love for the cinema from a young age (they were first an escape from a bout with polio when he was just nine years old), Ronny Yu decided to explore film further in America when the time came for college. Telling his father he'd study business or another surefire lucrative profession while abroad, he majored in advertising and communications instead and took as many film courses as he could while earning his other degree. Upon returning to Hong Kong, he went to work for his father's company and became acquainted with a few guys who wanted to get involved in the film business. He then co-wrote a script. After the major studios turned it down, his backer suggested he direct it. It was then a case of learning on the set for the young, inexperienced director, who had no clue what he was doing and relied on the cameraman, editors and other more experienced crew people for advice. The resulting film, the 1979 crime-drama Cheung laap cheing ngoi (or The Servant), ended up becoming a surprise hit, which led to other opportunities. The next decade was spent making a number of films in various genres, but it wouldn't be until 1993's Bai fa mo nu zhuan / The Bride with White Hair (a winner of three Hong Kong Film Awards) that Yu would receive international attention. Hollywood eventually came calling and he ended up directing both Bride of Chucky (1998) and Freddy vs. Jason (2003).

The Trail was Yu's fourth film, his second film for Golden Harvest Company and his first horror effort. It's worth noting that even though the Internet Movie Database lists it as an adventure / comedy, other Hong Kong databases categorize it (correctly) as a horror / comedy. It's a good thing I stopped relying on IMDb and their genre tags long ago to come up with my horror lists or else I'd be missing out of hundreds of horror movies here. Speaking of IMDb, this has a paltry 30 votes and a middling 5.9 rating over there. That really needs to change. I would say poor distribution is the main reason why this is so under-seen but that doesn't seem to be the case. There was an English-subtitled VHS release by Tai Seng, a VCD distributed by Mega Star and a DVD from Fortune Star.

The setting is the Xiang Xi Provence of China in 1922. Wealthy, evil Master Miao (Miao Tian) is used to getting whatever he wants and getting away with whatever he does, in part because his father has been struck down with leprosy (supposedly bad karma from being a playboy for years) and doesn't have control over much of anything anymore. Those indebted to Miao's family usually have a steep price to pay, especially those with daughters that can be bartered as sexual favors to buy them more time in paying back the money. One evening, Miao demands the company of a beautiful songstress (Siu Ling Tsui). When she refuses to put out, he drowns her husband in a fish tank, leading to the song bird's suicide. Miao quickly wants rid of the musician's corpse so it doesn't ruin his reputation, so he has the body wrapped up like a mummy and hands a bag of gold over to two monks and tell them to dispose of him. The monks; Ying (MR. VAMPIRE co-star Ricky Hui) and “The Captain” (Kent Cheng), actually aren't monks at all, but opium smugglers.

Along with the rest of their seven-man smuggling operation; brains of the operation Reader (Anthony Chan), wonky-eyed, sunglasses-sporting Little (Addy Sung), oafish Bo (Cheng Fu Hung), skinny Fatty (Mars) and silver boomerang-armed cool cat Flint (Fat Chung), the men hit the trail to their next destination with plans of disposing of the corpse somewhere along the way. While going through a bubbling sulfur swamp, Ying and Bo get stuck in a quicksand bog and have to be rescued but they lose the body when it sinks down into the muck. Assuming they've done the job of getting rid of the body, the men carry on, encountering a group of thugs along the way and getting on their bad side after accidentally cutting off the leader's ear. Those men won't be the only problems they'll face when the corpse rises from the swamp looking for revenge.

The men stop by an inn, where Captain gets in hot water with drunkard innkeeper Walter Tso's flirty younger wife (BLACK MAGIC star Ni Tien aka Tanny) and ends up getting his legs shaved in the process. Later that night, one of the men is found with his head twisted around backwards. The next morning, villagers swing in to the inn to complain about finding their pigs and chickens dead, drained of blood and smelling like sulfur. A superstitious old woman says these are all signs that a zombie is on the loose. And, as well all know, there are several ways to fight a zombie... Fire? Well, no. Decapitation? Sure, but not here. Smashing in the brain? Hmmm... did you forget we're in Hong Kong? Try yellow paper, nets, learning how to croak like a frog and, of course, urine from a virgin. Knowing they will have a tough fight ahead, the men get busy making up strips of spell papers, practicing their bellowing and having little prepubescent schoolboys pissing in pots for them to use later on.

The action moves back to the woods to a crumbling old temple, where the men encounter the slimy, lumpy-faced zombie late at night but are unable to kill it, plus waste all of their hole-y water trying. The next day, they descend down into a series of caves and locate an awesome “king's tomb” lit with blue and green lights and full of human bones, stone statues of Terracotta warriors, mice and snakes. After locating the zombie and unsuccessfully attempting to kill it, only two of them make it out of there alive. We also check in with the tormented Miao from time to time and learn he's being haunted by horrifying visions of the creature and signs that it's coming his way.

Things gets really crazy during the last twenty or so minutes. Our heroes (decked out like scarecrows) battle the zombie once again with the help of a powerful Taoist priest (Shu Tong Wong), but attempts to do it in with fire and lightning bolts shot from a rosewood sword don't work. After finding out what Miao has done to prompt this curse in the first place, our heroes attempt to blackmail him for gold and find themselves being used as zombie bait instead. That leads to the zombie showing up to go the Jaws route and chomp some men under the water, plus decapitate one with its tongue and cause a house boat and dock to blow up. Not good enough? How about an out-of-left-field send up of a famous scene from The Exorcist (1973) to wind things down?

This is a very well-made, nicely-photographed, atmospheric, energetic and very busy film. There's so much going on and so many characters to keep track of it's sometimes difficult to follow (especially in the first half), but things eventually settle in quite nicely. Yu co-wrote with comedian Michael Hui (also the producer) and their script offers up numerous hilarious moments, plus many more sure to at least put a smile on your face, without short changing viewers on the action and horror in the process. I've seen enough by now to know that's not an easy thing to pull off and most fail at it, but this one seems to find the right balance. Production design is excellent and the actors acquit themselves well and seem perfectly chosen for their particular roles. In addition to a sometimes confused narrative, this also gets dinged for stealing much of its music from other films, most notably Tangerine Dream's score from William Friedkin's Sorcerer (1977) and Ennio Morricone's score from John Carpenter's THE THING (1982).

Yu's horrorography also includes The Occupant (1984), a romantic horror comedy about a haunted apartment, Bless This House (1988), a more serious ghost story about a family moving into a new home that's haunted, and The Phantom Lover (1995), a Phantom of the Opera-inspired tale set in a 30s-era theater. He also directed "Family Man;" one of the better episodes of the short-lived series Fear Itself.

★★★