...aka: Curse of the Living Dead...aka: Nightstalker, The
...aka: Sanctuary for Evil
Directed by:
Lawrence D. Foldes
Review coming soon.
★
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Document of the Dead (1985)
Directed by:Roy Frumkes
If you loved DAWN OF THE DEAD or like the work of director George A. Romero or special effects artist Tom Savini (and if you don't then I donwannaknowya!), then do yourself a favor and watch this well made and informative documentary. It mostly covers the productions of Dawn and (then jumping ahead around ten year) TWO EVIL EYES, but also touches on other Romero films. I was very surprised to see a commercial for Calgon soap (a clever FANTASTIC VOYAGE take off) that Romero and his crew worked on in between films. In a telling scene, Romero and Savini spend all day on the set (of Two Evil Eyes) to make sure a special effects scene comes out just right. It is that kind of dedication that always shines through with the finished product. Susan Tyrrell narrates the early footage and many actors and production people are seen hard at work or being interviewed. I liked it quite a bit, and if you're interested in horror filmmaking, FX make-up, or film production, then you'll probably like it, too.
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It's been released numerous times to video and DVD and is now one of the features on the four-disc "Ultimate Edition" of Dawn (released by Anchor Bay). DARIO ARGENTO'S WORLD OF HORROR (1985) briefly touches on Argento's association with Dawn, and is another recommended documentary. Frumkes returned to write and produce the very gory and tasteless STREET TRASH (1987).
★★★
Dolls (1986)
Directed by:Stuart Gordon
Minor but passable little killer doll film isn't nearly as successful as director Stuart Gordon's breakthrough hit RE-ANIMATOR (1985), but is nonetheless watchable, fairly well-made and should please those who enjoy these kind of things. A sweet-natured overweight "big kid" type (Stephen Lee), truly wicked stepparents (the director's wife, Carolyn Purdy-Gordon, and Ian Patrick Williams), their cherubic young daughter (Carrie Lorraine) and two obnoxious new wave party girls (Cassie Stuart and Bunty Bailey) become stranded at a remote mansion during a thunderstorm. Inside, a seemingly nice and very hospitable elderly couple (Guy Rolfe and Hilary Mason) craft beautiful handmaid dolls that magically come to life and kill them off one by one. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out who's going to survive the night and the plot is pretty nonexistent, but it's atmospherically set and photographed in a nice looking old house, the special effects (a mix of doll models and some wonderful stop-motion animation) are convincing and the production values are good enough to rate this right below TRILOGY OF TERROR (1975) and CHILD'S PLAY (1988) in the killer doll department. Gordon also made the (much better) FROM BEYOND that same year.
★★
Don't Look Now (1973)
...aka: A Venezia... un dicembre rosso shockingDirected by:
Nicolas Roeg
Review coming soon.
Score: 5 out of 10
Deadly Friend (1986)
Directed by:Wes Craven
Craven's follow-up to A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984) and the TV movie CHILLER (1985), is a well-meaning drama with a major horror twist. Matthew Laborteaux (best known as Albert from the Little House on the Prairie TV series) stars as Paul, a teen genius who has just moved into a new house in a new town with his mother (Anne Twomey), has developed a remarkable robot sidekick named B.B. and falls for troubled, pretty blonde next-door neighbor Samantha (Kristy Swanson). After the robot is destroyed by an unbelievably bitchy old woman down the street (the memorable Anne Ramsey, who'd get some attention that same year for THROW MOMMA FROM THE TRAIN) and Samantha is killed by her abusive stepfather (Richard Marcus), the depressed teen revives his lost love by putting the robot's microchip in her brain. She returns to life and he's thrilled, but since this is called Deadly Friend, you can probably guess how long his glee will last. Many (mostly deserving) characters die and this has that famous decapitation by flying basketball death, which was actually inserted against the director's wishes but is ironically the most memorable part of the entire film! It's sweet-natured (well, for a horror movie...), but when Swanson starts flinging people through the air and jumping over police cars, you know that Craven has gone a little too far and compromised the serious content. The ending is especially disappointing.
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Based on Diana Henstell's novel "Friend", which was adapted by Bruce Joel Rubin (GHOST and BLOOD RAGE!). Charles Bernstein did the music for this Warner Bros. release. Michael Sharrett co-stars as Paul's friend and Charles Fleischer provided the robot voice.
★★
Deadly Embrace (1989)
Directed by:
David DeCoteau
I've had a strange fascination with the films of David DeCoteau since my pre-teen years tuning in to the USA network's Up All Night program, where I'd marvel at such lowbrow, upbeat offerings as NIGHTMARE SISTERS (1987; which actually had new "clothed" scenes shot specifically for airing on that program), SORORITY BABES IN THE SLIMEBALL BOWL-O-RAMA (1987) and DR. ALIEN (1989). Embrace is one of the director's only films from that era never to make the show's line-up; probably because when you remove all of the sex and nudity you're not left with much else. The film is one of the earliest examples of an erotic thriller made for the direct-to-video market and was made several years before the two Shannon's (Tweed and Whirry) began dominating late night cable and video erotica. Earlier mainstream films such as BODY HEAT (1981) and FATAL ATTRACTION (1987) laid down the groundwork for these types of films, but the genre itself wasn't really solidified as a formidable and profitable subgenre until the blockbuster BASIC INSTINCT (1992) hit theaters. The long-forgotten Embrace (which has yet to see the light of day on DVD) doesn't hold a candle to any of those bigger-budgeted films and unfortunately isn't even a good example of a low-budget erotic psycho-thriller. It's just bad. Plain and simple.
College student Chris Thompson (beefy Ken Abraham) gets a summer job as a live-in handyman for the Morland's; wealthy and almost always absent businessman Stewart (Jan-Michael Vincent) and his attractive, lonely, stay-at-home wife Charlotte (Ty Randolph). Stewart has been having an affair with his secretary (Ruth Collins) and wants a divorce from Charlotte once he can find a way out of the marriage and keep his considerable fortune in tact. In other words, he hopes to catch Chris and Charlotte in an affair so that he can use that to keep her from cashing in once they separate. It isn't long before Chris and Charlotte start crossing employer-employee boundaries but, strangely enough, it isn't Stewart who is monitoring things with hidden cameras placed around the home, but Charlotte herself. She uses a two-way mirror to keep tabs on her new boy toy and finally goes over the edge when Chris tries to call things off and invites his bubbly aspiring actress girlfriend Michelle (Linnea Quigley) over for a visit. A kidnapping and few deaths follow.
Utilizing a noir-ish framework featuring close-ups of hands holding cigarettes and gesturing and utterly redundant voice-overs to recount what is going on to pad out the slim-as-can-be storyline is really the least of this film's problems. The fact that none of the characters are adequately developed, the acting is highly uneven, the premise is anything but original and it's weakly scripted and directed are other clear problems, but the pacing being positively glacial is what really does the whole thing in. It drags so much and for so long that Charlotte's potentially entertaining psychotic breakdown is mostly relegated to the last 10 minutes (!) Even those scenes, with her tying up Quigley in the basement and threatening her with a gun, fail to build even the faintest amount of suspense. No one is really asking for depth in something like this, but is a tiny bit of excitement or tension really asking too much from a so-called "thriller?" Opting for filler instead doesn't quite cut the mustard.
Speaking of filler, numerous silent fantasy sequences featuring a fan-blown Michelle Bauer (the "Female Spirit of Sex" according to the credits) stripping off in slow-mo in an all-black room and having sex, plus some colorfully-lit clothes shedding from Quigley, were spliced in throughout the film. Even though these were clearly added to the mix as a way to pad out the time even further, I actually enjoyed these scenes more than the main storyline! Part of the reason could be that the voluptuous Bauer looks delectable sans clothing, but primarily because the scenes take on a bizarre and almost artsy-surreal quality after awhile. The film certainly does deliver on the promise of nudity; though this is one of the only films I've seen where Ruth Collins actually keeps her clothes on! And since this is a DeCoteau movie, ample time is also focused on the male star's physique, something not all that common in one of these things (though certainly common in the director's movies... even at this early stage in his career).
Though lead actress Randolph isn't given much at all to work with and is saddled with a poorly-written character, she at least manages to give a mature, somewhat subdued performance under the circumstances. Possibly best known for her bit as a horror movie actress in Brian De Palma's BODY DOUBLE (1984) - anyone who has seen that film remembers those closing credits quite fondly! - Randolph had a spotty career throughout the years in both exploitation and big budget Hollywood films, stretching back to the early 70s. According to some sources she also did a handful of X-rated films under the alias "Lisa Berenger." This is one of her only starring roles. All but one of top-billed Vincent's boring scenes take place in either his office or his attorney's (guest star Jack Carter) office, so his fans shouldn't really make this a priority. Abraham and Quigley also shared the screen in DeCoteau's low-budget ALIEN copy CREEPOZOIDS (1987) and in the Rick Sloane-directed comedy VICE ACADEMY (1988), another Up All Night staple.
The VHS was distributed through independent label Prism.
★1/2
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