Directed by:Mickey Rose
Review coming soon.
★1/2
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Steel and Lace (1990)
Directed by:Ernest D. Farino
An attractive classical pianist (Clare Wren) is so distraught after being brutally gang raped that she decides to end it all by leaping to her death. Her brother (Bruce Davison), a scientist who used to work for NASA, decides to get revenge by reconstructing his dead sister as a killer cyborg specially equipped to teach her attackers a lesson. This film is pretty dark and depressing, but it's not bad as far as these things go, with decent effects work and acting. More review coming soon.
Score: 5 out of 10
Spookies (1986)
...aka: Goblin...aka: Twisted Souls
Directed by:
Thomas Doran
Brendan Faulkner
Eugenie Joseph
TWISTED SOULS was filmed in upstate New York in 1984 by Faulkner and Doran and was about finished with post-production by early 1985 when the film was seized from the filmmakers by executive producer Michael Lee. After some legal wrangling, Lee hired a new director (Ms. Joseph) to scrap about half of the original footage, shoot brand new stuff and then cobble it all together in the editing room. The result (which is about a 50/50 split of footage from both shoots) is basically a cluttered and confusing monster movie hodgepodge, but there are still plenty of fun moments that manage to shine through for fans of 80s horror.
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Young runaway Billy (Alec Nemser), who's upset his parents forgot his birthday, ends up making his way to a large country mansion at about the same time two car loads full of friends show up looking for a place to party. All end up trapped inside and face myriad monster terrors, which are all controlled by a creepy zombie-like man named Kreon (Felix Ward). Kreon wants to resurrect his perfectly preserved wife Isabelle (Maria Pechukas) and needs to kill off the home's new visitors to do so. At least that's what I made of the newly structure plot. What's left is a mixed bag of special effects that are sometimes hokey, but usually excellent, and they're the primary reason to check this one out. Included are tons of zombies, a clawed cat boy, a green-faced zombie kid with oversized plastic teeth, a witch dummy prop, an EVIL DEAD-like demon, flatulent "muck men" monsters that are dissolved by wine, little GHOULIES-like critters, a giant lizard like thingy with electric tentacles, a hulking Grim Reaper and a truly excellent spider monster. The effects from the older version (which were created by Gabe Bartalos, Jennifer Aspinal, Vincent J. Guastini and others) are superior to the stuff we see in the newer footage.
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For the record, the scenes of the kid runaway, Kreon and Isabelle, the graveyard zombies, the cat boy, the green zombie kid and the witch puppet were all shot by Joseph, while the rest is from the original shoot. Some of the people involved with this one (Faulkner, Doran, some of the actors) were also involved with IGOR AND THE LUNATICS (1985).
★★
Stepford Children, The (1987) (TV)
Directed by:Alan J. Levi
The third in the series, following the theatrical hit THE STEPFORD WIVES (1975) and the forgettable made-for-TV effort REVENGE OF THE STEPFORD WIVES (1980), is a silly and somewhat dull (though watchable) telefilm from the director of the Frankie Avalon "horror" BLOOD SONG (1982) and countless TV movies. Two big city teens (Tammy Lauren, Randall Batinkoff) move with their parents (Barbara Eden, Don Murray) to a small town where the sinister adults have perfected making robotic "model" teenagers who do exactly as they are told. With Ken Swofford (BLACK ROSES), Sharon Spelman (THE BLOB remake), former pro football linebacker and sports commentator Dick Butkus, Richard Anderson (THE NIGHT STRANGLER), James Coco (a bright spot as a cooking teacher), a young John Cameron Mitchell and Judith Baldwin (who had appeared in the original film). At least this one never polluted our video shelves here in America since it was never released on tape (and has yet to receive a DVD release either). It was followed by yet another TV "sequel" in 1995 (which was made for cable) called THE STEPFORD HUSBANDS and then Frank Oz's 2004 abomination starring Nicole Kidman. The original is the only one of these that's really worth watching.
★★
Supernaturals, The (1986)
Directed by: Armand Mastroianni
The tiny subgenre of "zombie soldier" flicks includes the fairly good SHOCK WAVES (1975), the notoriously awful French film ZOMBIE LAKE (1980), the equally bad Spanish effort OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES (1981) and a couple of others. Here's another to throw on that pile. It's American and involves confederate Civil War zombies. Just because the costumes are different that doesn't make this any better than others of it's ilk. In fact, it pretty much blows. "Yankees" make some confederate POWs walk through a field of land mines. Everyone dies but a little kid who turns around and clinches his fist, which then glows. Many years later, some young military recruits show up at a training camp and the vengeful ghouls kill them off. Star Trek fans might enjoy seeing Nichelle Nichols (Sgt. Uhura) in a rare lead role as the tough drill sergeant and the zombie make-up in decent, but the photography is terrible, the movie is too dark, nothing of much interest really happens and the whole thing is dull.
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The cast includes British schlock/horror movie hunk Maxwell Caulfield, Talia Balsam (Martin's daughter, who also starred in CRAWLSPACE), LeVar Burton (Reading Rainbow), Bobby Di Cicco and Scott Jacoby. The director also made the wedding slasher HE KNOWS YOU'RE ALONE (1981) and writer/producer Joel Soisson went on to make direct-to-video sequels to MANIAC COP, THE PROPHECY and PULSE.
★1/2
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