Disciples of the Crow (1983)

... aka: Night of the Crow
... aka: Stephen King: The Night of the Crow
... aka: Stephen King's Night Shift Collection II

Directed by:
John Woodward

Children of the Corn (1984) is one film whose enduring popularity is completely lost on me. While I understand the nostalgia factor (I too remember being scared by it... when I was about 8 years old), the film certainly doesn't hold up well for me as an adult viewer. Filmed a year before its bloated, silly cousin, Disciples runs just 19 minutes and is a much cheaper and starker, a more succinct and effective adaptation of the same Stephen King short story. "Children" was first published in a 1977 issue of Penthouse Magazine and later turned up in King's 1978 collection "Night Shift." After several hit adaptations of his work, King began to offer film students and independent filmmakers a special discount; allowing them to adapt any of his short stories for just 1 dollar. This led to Jeffrey C. Schiro's THE BOOGEYMAN (1982), Frank Darabont's THE WOMAN IN THE ROOM (1983) and this one right out of the gate. Schiro and Darabont's shorts were paired together for the VHS release Stephen King's Night Shift Collection in 1986. The tape did well (as did pretty much anything with King's name attached to it at the time), so the same distributors got together Disciples and Jack Garrett's haunted hotel opus The Night Waiter (1987), which was not based on anything King wrote, for Stephen King's Night Shift Collection II in 1989. Later, Interglobal Home Video released these, too. Their "Night Shift Collection: Volume One" included only Darabont's short, while their "Night Shift Collection: Volume Two" included only Schiro's (which they misspelled "The Boogyman"). Yes, at one time there were two different Part I and Part II's of these tapes, so buyers beware if you're looking to purchase used VHS copies.

Set in Jonah, Oklahoma (Children placed the action in Gatlin, Nebraska where the original story is set), this starts out in 1971 when a small group of children, seemingly led by the mole-faced Billy (Steven Young), fall over into the dark side, start worshiping some evil God, view crows as being sacred, carry pouches of corn around their necks and toss bugs and frogs into a boiling pot. They eventually decide to slaughter their parents and all of the rest of the adults in town. Twelve years later, bickering couple Vicky (Eleese Lester) and Burt (Gabriel Folse) are passing through the area when they accidentally run over a little boy who jumps out into the road from a field. After inspecting the dead body and finding a corn cob knife sticking in him, they determine that they hadn't actually killed him, stick the body in their trunk and continue on; eventually arriving in Jonah, which appears to an uninhabited ghost town. Vicky insists they leave, Burt insists they stick around, and all of the creepy kids - again led by the now-adult Billy (played by director Woodward) - come crawling out of the cornfields brandishing axes and other weapons.

Clearly made on a very low-budget, this has pretty amateurish acting, but the visuals and an effective music score are pretty good compensation. Instead of over-explaining things, it opts for a more ambiguous approach, which results in a creepier film than the later feature or the 2009 TV remake. In Germany, it received a separate DVD release under the title Night of the Crow.

★★1/2

Beasts Are on the Streets, The (1978)

Directed by:
Peter R. Hunt

Some major road rage is going down out on a busy Texas highway and it's being instigated by Jim (Billy Green Bush) and Al (Burton Gilliam), a pair of obnoxious, beer-guzzling, good ol' boy rednecks with a deer strapped to the roof of their car. They drive like maniacs, shoot at road signs and almost run a trucker with a weak ticker off the road. A cop finally pulls them over to give them a ticket. The trucker honks and laughs as he passes. When the rednecks catch back up, they pull alongside him, rest a rifle scope on his head and pretend like they're going to shoot; only to speed off. Shaken up by the incident, the trucker pulls off the road to catch a breath, but the damage has already been done. When he gets back onto the highway, his heart gives out, he runs off the road and crashes right into the African Wildlife safari park, taking down many of the security fences in the process. The truck blows up, causing even more damage, and a massive multiple car pile-up occurs right outside the downed gates. Staff veterinarian and single mom Dr. Claire Macauley (Carol Lynley) and her boyfriend, park ranger Kevin Johnson (Dale Robinette), are soon going to have more problems on their hands than assisting in a camel's breach birth as dozens of wild, dangerous animals escape.

As terrified passengers sit in their cars shrieking their heads off, the road fills with llamas, zebras, camels, bears, lions, antelopes, tigers, ostriches, elephants, giraffes, panthers, rhinoceroses and other beasts. Because of traffic and sight-seers, many of the animals are able to make their way into the local neighborhood. The staff of the park all immediately get to work and head out with special tranquilizer guns to help round them up. The police, on the other hand, aren't so humane in their approach, and want to shoot to kill, which causes some problems. A bear and a tiger both crash an amusement park, where a couple on a hilariously try to paddleboat their way to safety. A couple of dummies in a dune buggy encounter a bunch of rhinos, elephants end up in an old woman's front yard and a little boy tries to lasso an ostrich. Some scenes try to be scary and suspenseful, while others try to be lighthearted, comic and / or cutesy.

This starts out fairly well. The premise is great and watching all manner of wild animals running loose down suburban streets and inside houses and buildings is really a whole lot of fun (and somewhat startling). Once the novelty of that wears off, things do begin to lose steam. In the second half, this concentrates most of its energy on three lions that need to be recaptured. The first is Rinaldo, the star attraction at the park, who kills some livestock and then becomes trapped in a brush fire and must be rescued with a helicopter. The second and third are a lioness named Diana and her cub. Diana scours neighborhoods, breaks through windows into houses, destroys an entire vet's lab and, finally, enters into a hospital, all while searching for her lost baby. Lots of scenes also focus on Jim the redneck, one of the guys who helped cause the problem to begin with. Jim and his buddy want in on the action so they drag Jim's sensitive teenage son into the forest late at night on a hunting trip. It all backfires in a bad way when the friend is killed by the lion and Jim accidentally shoots his son. Lesson learned.

This is the kind of movie you simply wouldn't see being made nowadays; at least not without liberal use of CGI, so for that reason alone you may want to check it out. It probably took a great deal of time and care to orchestrate the various scenes with real animals and stunt men, some of which are pretty impressive. The opening disclaimer says the animal sequences were supervised by the American Humane Society and a veterinarian. Though that may have been the case, it's hard to imagine that no animals were actually hurt while making this. They're not only out of their element, but also seen running around near fire and things exploding, jumping on and off cars and sparring with one another. Bears and tigers, dogs and lions, lions and horses and other animals are all put in scenes together and chase, fight and / or attack each other. It's not gory or all that violent and nothing is seen actually being seriously hurt, but the animals sometimes look seriously distressed being put in dangerous situations.

Joseph Barbera (of Hanna-Barbera cartoon fame) backed this project, which was filmed around Grand Prairie, Texas. The cast also includes a pre-Miami Vice Philip Michael Thomas as a park worker, screen vet Anna Lee (star of the Val Lewton production Bedlam [1946] among other things) in one brief comic scene, Laura Whyte (Blood Salvage) as Jim's wife and Bill Thurman, a regular in Larry Buchanan and S.F. Brownrigg films, as the trucker who crashes. Though this used to be on regular rotation on the cable channel TBS in the 80s and early 90s, there's never been an official DVD or VHS release.

★★1/2

Corruption (1968)

... aka: Carnage
... aka: Laser Killer

Directed by:
Robert Hartford-Davis

Wealthy, esteemed surgeon Sir John Rowan (Peter Cushing) can't resist his beautiful model girlfriend Lynn Nolan (Sue Lloyd). Despite the fact he's about thirty years her senior and the two appear to have almost nothing common, they plan on soon being married. After a long, exhausting day of work, John is talked into attending a wild party being hosted by Lynn's obnoxious photographer Mike Orme (Anthony Booth). When Mike attempts to get Lynn to pose nude for an impromptu photo session in front of all the guests, he and John get into a fistfight, a large flood lamp is accidentally knocked over, hits Lynn directly in the head and ends up burning and disfiguring half of her face. She's taken to a hospital, where John's colleague, Dr. Steve Harris (Noel Trevarthen), does what he can, but extensive and painful plastic surgery will be needed to restore Lynn to her former glory... and even then she won't quite be the same. Lynn's sister Val (Kate O'Mara) flies in to help out after John takes his depressed, suicidal fiancée back home. What's a brilliant surgeon to do? If you've seen EYES WITHOUT A FACE (1960), THE AWFUL DR. ORLOFF (1962) or any number of other films dealing with this exact same subject matter, you'll have no problem figuring it all out.

John hits the books, starts experimenting with guinea pigs and finally hatches a new plan to restore Lynn's good looks. The only problem is he'll need some raw materials to work with. Thankfully he's able to get those by raiding the morgue where he works. John creates a formula using human pituitary glands which, when used in conjunction with a high-powered laser, manipulate the endocrine system and promote new tissue growth. Val assists him in the trial operation, which turns out to be a success. Lynn's face looks better than ever. She and John go on a celebratory cruise, which is called off early when the operation backfires. It turns out, the effects are only short-term. Now back at square one, John then decides he needs fresher material. Since both he and Lynn are starting to go a little mad, they resort to murder to get them. John starts off by killing an airhead hooker (Jan Waters) in her flat. Even with a fresher pituitary gland, the effects also don't last for very long. Lynn and the increasingly paranoid John eventually retreat to his seaside summer cottage for more of the same.

Corruption basically transplants star Cushing's patented mad doctor character to hedonistic late 60s swingin' London. Though utterly ridiculous, this does stand out among Cushing's other films from the same time in that it's much trashier, goofier and more mean-spirited. The period films he was doing for Hammer, severed limbs, "full-blooded color" and all, were restrained and downright classy compared to this one. Cushing decapitates a woman (Valerie Van Ost) aboard a train and puts her head in the freezer and things get really hysterical toward the end during a speeded-up chase around some rock cliffs on the beach and when teenage runway Terry (Wendy Varnals) ends up staying in the home, which eventually leads to a home invasion by the group of unbelievable beatnik burglars (played by David Lodge, Phillip Manikum, Billy Murray and Alexandra Dane) she usually runs around with. The (hilarious) finale features nearly the entire principle cast being wiped out when Dr. Rowan's laser suddenly goes berserk and starts zapping everyone dead.

Cushing gives his usual solid performance in a more-manic-than-usual role and is frequently seen drenched in sweat with messed hair and bugged out eyes, looking like utter hell via fish eyed camera shots. Lloyd is quite good in her role also. It's also interesting in that - unlike other films of this type - the tortured, disfigured female lead isn't the least bit sympathetic. In fact, she's extremely narcissistic (her idea of a gift is buying her man photography equipment so he can take photos of her), manipulative and heartless; demanding her reluctant future-husband go out and kill simply so she can maintain her good looks. The critical response at the time was mostly negative, but initial distributor Columbia did whip up a memorably amusing ad campaign ("Corruption is not a woman's picture! Therefore: No woman will be admitted alone to see this super-shock film!!") It's been unavailable on home video here; never garnering a DVD or VHS release in America, though it does sometimes pop up on Turner Classic Movies.

Vanessa Howard, who'd later give a memorable performance in GIRLY (1970), has a small role here as a bimbo model. Director Hartford-Davis also made The Black Torment (1964), Incense for the Damned (1970) and The Fiend (1972). Producer / cinematographer Peter Newbrook went on to make the very good The Asphyx (1973), and sibling writers Derek and Donald Ford had their hands on a number of genre films over the years; particularly the latter.

The prostitute murder was actually filmed twice; a tamer (off-screen) take for the regular version and another, more explicit take (utilizing a different actress in the role) for the "continental version," which was released in France. In the latter, the hooker is topless and Cushing wipes his bloody hands on the woman's bare breasts after killing and decapitating her!

★★