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.

★★★

Beyond Atlantis (1973)

... aka: La Atlántida: el paraíso perdido (Atlantis: The Lost Paradise)

... aka: Sea Creatures

... aka: Sea People

... aka: Terror en el fondo del mar (Terror at the Bottom of the Sea)

Directed by:

Eddie Romero

What started life as your usual low budget, shot-in-the-Philippines-by-Americans exploitation flick meant for the drive-in circuit soon morphed into something else entirely. Originally planned as an R-rated film with violence and nudity (i.e. the usual for this particular crew), Dimension Pictures founder / head honcho Lawrence H. Woolner decided to up the budget (which was still only in the low 200K range), hire some name value actors and aim for a more mainstream, family friendly demographic. That enabled them to hire Patrick Wayne, the son of John, who supposedly only agreed to do the film if it would be PG rated. (Note: If that's true, and I have no reason to believe otherwise since several people involved in this production made the same claim, Wayne was able to put his morals aside just a few years later to appear in bed with a topless Priscilla Barnes in the R-rated action film Texas Detour (1978) and later hit a career low playing part in the direct-to-VHS 80s gore flick Revenge.)

The resulting film was a big flop. Too tame for the adults who'd usually watch something like this and not a grand enough big budget spectacle for the kiddies, this was unable to find much of an audience. Toning things down also appears to have kneecapped its international sales potential. Going by ad materials, this doesn't appear to have had much reach outside of the North and South American markets, and didn't even do well within those parameters. There was also a UK release, but it was on the bottom half of a double bill with Godzilla vs. the Cosmic Monster (better known these days as Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla).

Fisherman Manuel De Baracuda (Vic Diaz) has just returned to Manila after giving a mysterious young beauty a ride to a remote island in the South Seas. In lieu of monetary payment, she instead gave him a handful of pearls. Manuel sells the pearls to smooth-talkin', cigar puffin' pimp Fast Eddie (Sid Haig), who's the type always looking to make a quick buck. Whether or not it's by legal means is of little concern to the man. Logan (John Ashley), a diver with a gambling problem who frequently hits up Eddie for loans, takes one look at the pearls and visions of dollar signs start circling his head. These aren't just ordinary jewels of the sea but "Tuscarora pearls," which are very high quality, very rare and very, very expensive. Even though Logan doesn't want to split potential profits three ways, Eddie hatches a scheme that will involve another diver named Vic (Wayne), who owns a boat they can take to the island.

If two's company, and three's a crowd, might as well make it a party. Kathy (Lenore Stevens) eavesdrops on a conversation Logan and Vic are having at a casino, flirts with Logan and then sets up a date for the following day. That all turns out to be a ruse to weasel her way into their trip. You see, Kathy is actually Dr. Katherine Vernon and she's an anthropologist who's interested in searching for a lost tribe rumored to populate one of the islands. A mask she has that's from the same tribe contains the same pearls the men will be out looking for so she may as well tag along and do some research. Seeing how she's not interested in the money, Logan agrees. They put together a small crew of Filipino locals (hey, someone's gotta die, right?) and they're off.

After going to visit Manuel, Eddie is able to get (i.e. beat) enough info about him to locate the island. When they arrive, the village is seemingly abandoned yet hot food has been left out, meaning the natives fled to somewhere else when they spotted a boat coming. After barely managing to survive falling into a pit filled with flesh-eating crabs (!), Eddie and his traveling companions finally get to meet the tribe, a bunch of ping pong ball-eyed, tailless mer-people dressed in animal fur swimsuits and brandishing spears. They don't really have any special powers aside from being able to hold their breath underwater for lengthy periods of time. For some reason, tribe leader Nereus (George Nader) and his blonde, blue-eyed daughter Syrene (Leigh Christian) are the only two who look like normal humans and, by "for some reason," I mean because he was once a well-known star and she's hot so it would be a shame to make either of them wear a goofy-looking rubber mask.

The tribe offer some guest huts to the visitors but our heroes soon discover they have ulterior movies for wanting to keep them there. Vic's first mate (played by the director) dies while out scuba diving when his oxygen tank line is cut. And then Syrene is forced by Nereus to mate with one of the human men. I'm sure you can guess who she selects. No, not Sid Haig. Turns out the mutant fish-eyed people look the way they do because of inbreeding ("Incest?!") and now need to introduce some new blood into the tribe. And if anyone can do some successful seducing, it's the tan, toned and curves-in-all-the-right-places Syrene.

Though I'd imagine she'd probably be successful seducing about 99.9% of the heterosexual male population, Syrene makes the mistake of going after Mr. PG Rating himself. He swiftly rebuffs her advances and tells her he'll only put out if it's with someone he loves. No bother, Syrene isn't called Syrene for nothing. She uses her synchronized swimming mating dance and patented call to entrance and then mate with Vic under the sea in one of the most awkward scenes I've ever laid my poor eyes upon. Makes one wonder why she didn't just do that in the first place instead of asking. Maybe she has a humiliation fetish. I also have to wonder what was going through Mr. Wayne's mind thinking that appearing in an R-rated film would somehow project a worse public image than getting raped by a mermaid in a PG-rated film.

I usually enjoy lost world and trapped-on-an-island movies, but this (which is based on a story by the usually decent Stephanie Rothman) never amounted to much of anything. There's very little plot and even less action, but lots of wasted time with endless scenes of swimming and pearl diving. A large chunk of the higher-than-usual budget reportedly went toward filming the underwater scenes... and boy did they get their money's worth! What they didn't take into consideration is that absolutely no one wants to watch a movie where half the screen time is set aside for people gathering up clam shells from the ocean floor.

Director Romero's filmography contains loads of sleazy horror, action and exploitation flicks that were profitable in their day, so watching him try yet fail to restrain himself here is actually pretty amusing. Even though there's no nudity or explicit gore, the man just can't help himself when it comes to sneaking in trashy stuff! There are real chickens dying in cockfights, hookers, massage parlor girls, illegal gambling dens, a long catfight, beaten-up cops, terrible pick-up lines and double-entendres, a baby goat getting tossed into a piranha pond where a person will later die a bloody death and the camera practically staying glued to the female star's (admittedly very nice) ass during most of her scenes. Hey, it's a hard habit to break, baby!

Aside from Haig, who tries to turn in a fun character and almost succeeds, the acting is terrible. The good news for Wayne is that he's better looking than his father ever was. The bad news is that his acting skills are even more limited. Ashley, who also produced, was about ten years outside of his Beach Party days and whatever screen appeal he once had is about completely gone at this point. He never was a very good actor and continues on in that tradition here. Christian and Stevens are both stunning to look at but most of their line delivery (much of which seems to have been looped in later) is flat. The biggest shock in veteran Nader. With his track record you'd figure he'd easily outperform the others, but he's pretty awful here himself. This was the last movie he ever appeared in and, though he looks impressively fit for a 50-something, you can tell his heart just wasn't in it. Hopefully he was paid well and enjoyed his vacation.

After VHS releases from Wizard Video (one of their early releases from way back in 1982 before they started doing the great box art) and United, this was issued on DVD in 2000, courtesy of VCI and as part of their "Drive-In Classics" line. VCI also handled the upgraded Blu-ray release in 2019, though extras on the release are slim. This title is also easy to find on streaming sites. Decent prints are currently on Youtube and Tubi so I certainly wouldn't pay good money to watch this.

★1/2