Mania (1986)

... aka: Mania: Episodes in Terror
... aka: Mania: The Intruder (maybe)

Directed by:
Paul Lynch
David M. Robertson
John Sheppard

I know nothing about the history of Mania - and there's next to no information about this forgotten film online - but it has all of the hallmarks of having at one point been an attempt at developing a TV series. For starters, it's an anthology featuring four unrelated tales with no linking segments. Two, it opens up with a flashy credits sequence announcing that it was “created by” Peter Simpson and then lists four other producers. Three, each segment falls well short of the 30-minute range and cut to black about every 8-10 minutes, clearly because they were intended to be wedged into 30-minute time slots and accommodate commercial breaks. Four, each segment opens with the title in quotes and lists just the primary star(s) and writer / director. And last but certainly not least, it's from Canada. Canada? Yes, Canada. Canada was pretty much the master domain of syndicated horror television in the 80s and 90s. “The Hitchhiker,” “Friday the 13th: The Series,” “The Outer Limits” revival, “Poltergeist: The Legacy” etc. etc. Mania does not show up on the TVarchive database for Canada; meaning the separate episodes never played on TV. My best guess is that to salvage what was shot, someone decided to throw the completed shorts together and then released it as a feature. It likely debuted either direct-to-video or on Canadian TV.

Vista Home Video release [USA]

C.B. Films VHS release [Spain]

We open up with “See No Evil;” written and directed by John Sheppard. Accountant Steve Harold (Wayne Robson) has just spent some quality time with a hooker he frequently hires. As she's leaving his home at 2 in the morning, a bearded guy in a trench coat (Deryck Hazel) stabs her to death right outside in the courtyard. Hearing her screams, Steve looks out the window and sees the killer. The killer sees him. Steve rushes to the phone and starts to call the police but then hangs up. I mean, how would he explain having a hooker over at his place in the middle of the night to the police without getting into some major trouble himself? A police inspector (David Petersen) shows up, Steve lies to him, claims he didn't see or hear anything and then tries to go about life as usual... but the murderer begins stalking and then trying to frame him for the murder using various tactics. This has some sketchy acting and is basically just Hitchcock lite, but the twist at the end is at least a little amusing.

Story #2 is “The Intruder,” written by Sheppard (he actually wrote all four of these) and directed by David M. Robertson. Wealthy couple Jack (Richard Monette) and Ruth (Cheryl Wilson) Benson are worried about three recent burglaries in their area. Ruth wants a guard dog. Because of a traumatic childhood incident where he was attacked and nearly killed by a dog, Jack is deathly afraid of them, but doesn't want his wife to know because he's embarrassed. After some nagging, Ruth ends up finally getting her way, so the two go to a kennel and purchase a big Rottweiler named Dox. Dox immediately begins annoying (and scaring) Jack by sitting in his favorite chair, constantly barking and staring him down in an intimidating way. When Ruth goes away to visit her sister for a few days, things take an unexpected turn. Much better performances than in the first segment and this builds up to a shocker of an ending.

Paul Lynch's “Have a Nice Day” is up next. Kelly Foran (Deborah Grover) sends her young daughter Hillary (Rikki Lynn Wosnack) off to school and, soon after, receives a phone call from someone saying every parent's four least favorite consecutive words “we have your daughter.” The kidnapper (Bill Croft) claims her phone is tapped, she's being watched and if she doesn't do everything he says or attempts to inform the police, her daughter will be killed. The caller also seems to know things only someone very close to her would know, like that she has some valuable jewelry in a safety deposit box at her bank. She's instructed to go into town and retrieve the jewels and then return home, where a few surprises await her. While I kind of figured out the big twist ending, this is a decent piece of suspense about a sociopath using (then brand new) technology to ensnare his victim and cleverly playing up a parent's inherent paranoia to their own benefit.

"The Good Samaritan;” again directed by Lynch, is the fourth and final story. After leaving a bar, divorced advertising executive Dan Weston (Stephen  B. Hunter) stumbles upon a young woman - Julie Somers (Lenore Zann) -  being attacked by a guy with a knife (Dwight McFee) in the subway. He helps her escape and the two run back to his home, but they've been followed there by the mugger. Julie calls the police and, as they wait for them to arrive, the attacker tries to gain access to the home. The least of these stories, this has two twists at the end that don't really work because they requires at least one of the characters to behave in a bone-headed fashion in order to pull off.

As with all anthologies, some stories work better than others. The two in the middle (which feature very good performances from Monette and Grover) were easily the standouts for me. The whole thing is quite glossy in that special 80s kind of way and vividly lit, with lots of bold lighting choices and a handsome blue tint to the night scenes (especially in the first segment). Many of the people involved in this one were involved in the Canadian Prom Night slasher series. Simpson produced all four of those, Lynch directed the original, Monette appeared as a priest in the second and director Robertson, producers Ilana Frank and Ray Sager, composer Paul Zaza, cinematographer John Spooner and others in the crew worked on at least one of the sequels.

No, no, no...

IMDb erroneously claims this played at the 1986 Berlin International Film Festival (!!), but someone has just confused it with a seldom-seen Greek film also called Mania (1985). Yes folks, take the info you see over on IMDb with a grain of salt and always, I repeat always, cross-reference the data you get there before using it. I've learned that lesson the hard way myself, and as much as I love and use the site, it's time we stop treating it like the one-stop-shop for film particulars and continue spreading their misinformation as fact. IMDb also claims this debuted on TV, but it doesn't list when or where, nor have I found proof it was released as "Mania: The Intruder" as they currently list it (none of the videos have that name and the title screen just calls it Mania). What is easily verifiable is that it received a VHS release here in America in the late 80s by Vista Home Video, which unfortunately came in a box so generic and nondescript that even I wouldn't have rented it back then. It was also released in Spain on the C.B. Films label. The only country I'm aware of that's gotten a DVD is Germany, courtesy of CMV Laservision.

★★1/2

Night Visitor, The (1971)

... aka: L'assassino arriva sempre alle 10 (The Murderer Always Arrives at 10)
... aka: Lunatic
... aka: O visitante inesperado (An Unexpected Visitor)
... aka: Papegojan
... aka: Perfekte Rache (Perfect Revenge)
... aka: Salem Come to Supper
... aka: Tappaja yöstä (The Night Killer)

Directed by:
László Benedek

The first image we see in The Night Visitor is of a tall stone building silently sitting atop a snow-covered hill at night. A shadowed figure soon comes into frame, scales down the rocky embankment and begins hurriedly running through the woods. When the figure finally comes into view, we realize the guy's wearing only a t-shirt, underwear and boots. No, he's not a member of the Polar Bear Club, but an escapee from that tall building (an insane asylum), and he - Salem (Max von Sydow) - is about to head home. Er, what used to be his home. Once he arrives, he sneaks inside through an upstairs window and makes it there just in time to eavesdrop on an argument his sister Emmie (Hanne Bork) is having with their other sister Ester (Liv Ullmann) and her husband Anton (Per Oscarrson). Ester and Anton want to sell the home and farm and move elsewhere so that Anton, a doctor, can make more money. Emmie refuses. As for Salem, he has other ideas in mind, namely revenge for being convicted for a crime he may not have actually committed.

Salem steals a neck tie, a syringe and three bottles of morphine from the doctor's bag and manages to run back outside without being noticed. His first stop is the bedroom of a startled young girl named Britt (Lotte Freddie). After strangling her to death, he sneaks back into his former home to return the tie and bashes in Emmie's skull while he's there. Salem makes sure his presence known to his brother-and-law before fleeing into the night once again. When a police inspector (Trevor Howard) shows up to look into matters, Anton finds himself in the rather precarious situation of having to explain matters. Not only were his tie and his paper weight used to kill both victims, but the man he claims has murdered them had never even left his cell at the asylum. That is, according to the hospital staff, who claim he's carefully locked up in his cell each and every night. The Inspector even goes on a tour of the drafty seaside hospital and learns from Dr. Kemp (Andrew Keir) just how impossible it would be to escape from there. Of course, where there's a will, there's a way.

All of these bizarre events transpire because someone took an axe to an inquisitive farmhand who stumbled upon something incriminating two years earlier. Salem, who had full control of the farm prior to being incarcerated, ended up taking the fall despite having no hand in the crime. That turns out not to be coincidental or a miscarriage of justice, but a frame-up by design. Both of his sisters, his girlfriend, his brother-in-law and his worthless lawyer (Rupert Davies), who was paid off to change the plea from innocent to guilty by reason of insanity, all had a hand in getting him put away. But there's nothing like spending two years in a nuthouse to get the cerebral hamster wheel spinning and Salem has devised an ingenious way to finally get his revenge.

A great film in many ways, this is well-made and nicely shot by Henning Kristiansen, has an effectively minimalist score from Henry Mancini, is very well acted (especially by von Sydow) and boasts a very clever premise. One particularly interesting touch is a talking parrot that ends up becoming the 'Poe Black Cat' of the story. There's wonderfully chilly atmosphere, with the windy, wintry landscapes of Scandinavia (parts were filmed in both Sweden and at the Asa and Laterna Studios in Copenhagen, Denmark) making for a perfect backdrop.

People frequently compare this to Ingmar Bergman and that's one thing I cannot really agree with. Sure, it was filmed in Sweden and, sure, it features Bergman stars von Sydow and Ullmann, but the similarities pretty much end right there. I wish it were true, though. This film suffers most from shallow characterizations and a curious absence of psychological depth, so if anything it could have used a little shot of Bergman. The best moments here are found in the suspense department and the director has managed to stage several great, heart-racing sequences. The resolution is simultaneously clever and unsatisfying; clever in that it's completely unexpected and unsatisfying because it doesn't feel fully realized.

This was the second-to-last film for Hungarian-born director Benedek, who began his career in Europe at the tail end of the silent era and eventually came to the states to work for MGM. His greatest claims to fame came early on: directing the classic adaptation of Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman (1951), which won him a Golden Globe, and then following that up with the controversial (and now somewhat iconic) biker flick The Wild One (1953) starring Marlon Brandon. While the latter was a hit with teenagers, it caused a stir with critics and conservative moralist groups at the time and was even banned in several countries. Its success was sort of a double-edged sword for the director, who'd spent most of the rest of his career working on television. While Visitor isn't all that widely-seen, it's still probably the director's most widely-seen outside of the two films just mentioned. Actor Mel Ferrer was the producer.

Visitor debuted in February 7th, 1971 in Sweden (under the title Papegojan) and would make its U.S. debut (distributed by Universal Marion Films with a GP / PG rating) just three days later in New York City under the Night Visitor title. A critical blurb from Look Magazine used in many of the ads - "If your flesh doesn't crawl, it's on too tight!" - was later reused as a tagline for Bob Clark's proto-slasher BLACK CHRISTMAS (1974). The reviews were mixed and it quickly sank from view. In 1981, it was briefly re-released by 21st Century Film Corporation under the new title "Lunatic" and again disappeared. United / VCI Home Video released it on VHS at least three different times here in America (twice in the 80s and once in 1991) but it took them until late 2013 to finally get this one out on DVD. I didn't watch the new remastered version, but I'm sure you already knew that looking at the screen caps.

★★★

The 2015 Orloks - 1979 Results

Started many moons ago by Prof-Hieronymos-Grost, the Orloks were a yearly poll on the IMDb horror boards where users submitted Top 5 lists of their favorite horror movies for each year. All of the results were then tabulated to come up with a definitive list of the year's most-liked genre offerings. Alas, when the good Professor decided to depart the boards years ago, the awards went with him... that is until now. IMDb-er seth_yeah - taking on responsibilities as both host and calculator - has decided to bring back this long-standing tradition in 2015, and now the awards will have a permanent place right here on this blog. Scoring is rather simple and done on a weighted system where first choice receives 5 points, second choice 4 points, etc., with a +1 bonus then awarded to the #1 selection on each list. IMDb release years are being used, but it is left up to voters to determine what they may or may not consider horror (which may be in conflict with IMDb's genre labeling system). If you'd like to participate, head on over to the IMDb HORROR BOARDS to vote! So without any further ado, the results...

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1979

Top 5

* * * * * * * * * *

1. Alien

UK, USA / 116 points / Ridley Scott

* * * * * * * * * *

2. Phantasm

USA / 62 points / Don Coscarelli

* * * * * * * * * *

3. Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (Nosferatu the Vampyre)

France, West Germany / 43 points / Werner Herzog

* * * * * * * * * *

4. The Brood

Canada / 40 points / David Cronenberg

* * * * * * * * * *

5. Salem's Lot

USA [TV] / 37 points / Tobe Hooper

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Making the Top 10:

6. Zombi 2 (Zombie) / Italy / 32 points / Lucio Fulci

7. Buio Omega (Beyond the Darkness; Buried Alive) / Italy / 19 points / Joe D'Amato

8. Tourist Trap / USA / 17 points / David Schmoeller

9. (tie) Fascination / France / 11 points / Jean Rollin

9. (tie) Thirst / Australia / 11 points / Rod Hardy

10. Fukushû suru wa ware ni ari (Vengeance Is Mine) / Japan / 10 points / Shôhei Imamura

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Others receiving votes:

- Amityville Horror, The / USA / Stuart Rosenberg

- Apocalypse Now / USA / Francis Ford Coppola

- Arrebato (Rapture) / Spain / Iván Zulueta

- Dip bin (The Butterfly Murders) / Hong Kong / Hark Tsui

- Don't Go in the House / USA / Joseph Ellison

- Dracula / UK, USA / John Badham

- Driller Killer, The / USA / Abel Ferrara

- El caminante (The Traveler) / Spain / Paul Naschy

- 'Hukkunud Alpinisti' hotell (The Dead Mountaineer Hotel) / Soviet Union / Grigori Kromanov

- La tía Alejandra (Aunt Alejandra) / Mexico / Arturo Ripstein

- Murder by Natural Causes / USA [TV] / Robert Day

- Prophecy / USA / John Frankenheimer

- Schalcken the Painter / UK [TV] / Leslie Megahey

- Screams of a Winter Night / USA / James L. Wilson

- Silent Scream, The / USA / Denny Harris

- When a Stranger Calls / USA / Fred Walton

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Links here will be connected when the time comes:

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