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Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula (2000)
"You have given me eternal life . . . "
This 2000 TV film, which, I believe, originally aired on Lifetime for Halloween of that year, is excellently done.
It begins with Vlad (Rudolph Martin) meeting with his spiritual adviser, Father Stephan (Peter Weller). He is to appear before the authorities of the Orthodox Church to face charges that he has committed heresy/blasphemy by converting to Roman Catholicism.
Vlad tells his tale, which begins with the "folk-tales" he says he is familiar with: to-wit, an engraving of the Blessed Virgin wept tears of blood at the moment of his birth, a sign that he is an Antichrist. Also tales of hideous torture which he describes as "forgeries and lies", maintaining that only "those who broke the law" were punished.
Then we go back to when he and his brother Radu were children; they were captured by their father's enemy, the Sultan, to be held prisoner until their father, Prince of Romania, agrees to the tribute the Sultan demands. Radu, it is implied, becomes the Sultan's personal plaything, while Vlad is subjected to torture for refusing to comply with his (the Sultan's) desires. Eventually, as a young man, Vlad is released. He seeks out the King of Hungary (Roger Daltrey) for financial/military aid to fight Turkish oppression, as well as those in his own country of Romania who are complicit with the Turkish overlords. The king agrees.
At a banquet with the King, Vlad meets Lidia (Jane March) and her father, Aaron. He learns that Lidia intends to join a convent, but the two soon fall in love, and instead, she becomes his bride. The two soon have a son. One night, Vlad hosts a banquet for Romanian nobles, who he believes are in league with the Turks and are also responsible for the death (by being buried alive) of his father. The men, after a few drinks, are told the real reason Vlad has called them there; the are captured at swordpoint, soon to be impaled. But Lidia, upstairs in her bed, hears their cries. She comes out of their bedroom to see what is happening but goes into labor. Their son is born.
As the child grows, Vlad gains a reputation for brutality. His method of justice includes public impalements. At one point, a group of Romanian emmisaries who have come to make a final demand for tribute from his country - and are led by his brother, Radu, who has stayed with and decided to side with the Turks - refuse to remove their turbans when asked to do so. Vlad thinks of an appropriate punishment for this - their turbans are nailed to their foreheads. He spares only his brother.
Lidia witnesses this, and it is the final straw. She has already begun to be driven mad by her husband's methods, having witnessed impalement firsthand. She imagines that she hears the victims of such punishment crying out to her. She decides that she must leave her husband and take their son with her, before his father has any further influence on him. Instead, Vlad keeps their son and sends his wife to a convent. His battles with the Turks continue.
Eventually, he calls for his wife to be sent back to him and asks for her understanding and forgiveness for what he must do. His wife stays with him, but, after Vlad seemingly comes back to life after his soldiers were convinced that he was killed in battle, she becomes convinced that her husband is a damned soul; that is to say, that his spirit is doomed to remain in limbo on earth forever because neither Heaven nor Hell will receive him. She commits suicide, which, according to her own beliefs, will damn her own soul.
Lidia's father, who blames Vlad for his daughter's bad end, devises a plot against him; going to Radu, Aaron has given him a set of forged documents that indicate that Vlad was conspiring against the King of Hungary, his greatest ally. When Vlad appears before the King to ask for further aid, he is instead imprisoned for years. However, he is released when the King uncovers the plot. "Would you like to become Prince of Romania again?", he asks Vlad. But there is one condition; he must marry the King's daughter, which would also entail converting (even if in name only) to Roman Catholicism. And from now on, when he battles, it will be on behalf of the Catholic Church.
This is what leads to the trial Vlad must face before the Orthodox priests. They are determining whether to excommunicate him from their Church. Although he insists that he "accepted the Pope's money, never his religion", they ultimately decide to do so.
There follows a final revelation of betrayal (I won't give the twist away), a final battle with Radu, and Vlad's death. When Father Stephan does not want to bury Vlad inside the Orthodox church where he had worshipped in his lifetime, Vlad's son pulls a sword on him and says, "or you die with him".
But one night, Fr. Stephan hears strange noises coming from below his study, where Vlad's coffin his being kept. He goes downstairs and finds said coffin empty. Then Vlad himself, very much alive, appears before him. "I wanted to thank you", he says. You see, by excommunicating him during his lifetime, the Orthodox Church has supposedly damned him to remain immortal on earth forever by damning his soul. The final shot is what makes this a dark-tinged romance more than anything else; Vlad and Lidia, walking hand-in-hand through a thick mist, two souls, we are led to assume, that are now spending their eternal damnation together.
Well worth a watch, especially this time of year (note date of my review). And yes, if I neglected to mention it, Rudolph Martin is gorgeous! And for you gentlemen, Ms. March is still no slouch herself.
Cheers.
The Shining (1997)
The King Book, not the Kubrick Film
This '97 miniseries is well-written (by Mr. Stephen King himself), well directed (by frequent King adapter/collaborator Mick Garris) and brilliantly acted by Steven Weber, Rebecca DeMornay and Co.
Jack Torrance (Weber) is a recovering alcoholic - recovering because, in a drunken fit of rage, he broke his own son's arm. This, of course, nearly destroys his marriage with wife Wendy (DeMornay). There was also an incident that led to his being fired from a teaching job AFTER he had sobered up - he badly beat a student who he caught in the act of slashing his tires.
But a friend/fellow recovering alcoholic helps him get a job at the Overlook Hotel, a swanky resort that will be closing for the winter soon and needs a caretaker. Jack is hired against the wishes of its testy manager (Elliot Gould) who is not thrilled at letting someone with Jack's admittedly spotty past take care of "his" hotel while he is gone.
The family moves in, they meet a few staff members who are on their way out for the season including the cook, Dick Halloran (Melvin Van Peebles), who shares a unique gift with their little son, Danny; what most of us would call psychic abilities, and what he calls "the shining". He advises young Danny to call him mentally if he needs help. You see, he knows, as does Danny before he even gets to the place, that the Overlook suffers from what you might call "bad Karma" due to events that have happened there which left a kind of psychic stench that they can both feel, such as a woman who committed suicide in one room and a previous winter caretaker who ended up committing murder and suicide - the murder of his own family. Also a mob-hit murder. (This place was frequented by some shady characters in its heyday as well as celebs of the times).
Ghost sightings, "REDRUM" on the walls, and Jack's ever-increasing insanity ensue. It is worth mentioning Weber's performance - Nicholson's shoes are big ones to step into in any case, and Weber is unafraid. He plays the role with gusto, especially in the final scene with his son.
Give yourself a Halloween treat (note the date of my review) and give this one a look.
Cheers.
Werewolf (1987)
One of my best 80's memories - Great Horror Show
Ah, "Werewolf". I still remember looking forward the being thrilled and chilled on the night of the premier episode, and I wasn't disappointed. The show boasted a fine cast including lead John J. York, who would go on to become a long-term cast member of General Hospital and now General Hospital: Night Shift, as Eric Cord, the unfortunate who is bitten, and the late, great Chuck Connors as Janos Skorzeny, the werewolf who, Eric believes, is the progenitor of the "blood-line" that he must kill in order to lift the curse of lycanthropy from himself. There was also Raphael Sabarge, who played Ted, Eric's best friend/roommate in the pilot episode, and later, Brian Thompson as another more-ancient-than-Skorzeny werewolf. Those are the stand-outs for me. Also look for future "NYPD Blue" cast member Gail O'Grady as the female werewolf victim in the opening.
Make-up/creature effects? No problem there: They were done by Oscar-winner Rick Baker. Occasionally, we would get a glimpse of Eric/some other werewolf in mid-transformation (mostly fangs & contacts, possibly some facial fur or a shot of a shirt tearing open to reveal furry flesh underneath). Mostly, Eric/whoever would fall out of frame, and a fully-transformed werewolf would emerge a moment later.
The plot? Simple enough: Young, happy college student Eric (York) comes home after an afternoon with his cutie of a girlfriend (Michelle Johnson) To find the lights out. At first, he thinks his best friend/roommate Ted (Sabarge) has neglected to pay the electricity bill, but then he finally finds Ted in the process of loading a gun - with, as it turns out, silver bullets. Ted confesses to being a killer to the disbelieving Eric, and then blows Eric's mind even more when he reveals the reason he is responsible for the deaths: He is a werewolf. He was attacked by, as it turns out, a fishing-boat captain named Janos Skorzeny (Connors), although at the time he thought it was a dog. He survived, and, several nights later, the sign of the pentagram appeared on his palm. This was followed by his first transformation - and his first night of killing. He confesses that, initially, he would try to confine himself to keep from hurting anyone when he knew he was going to change again . . . but he is losing his desire to do so. "I knew I was going to change . . . and I wanted it", he says. He has determined that "The only thing that can help me is my dying".
Eric, of course, thinks that his friend has gone off the deep end. . . until the sign of the pentagram appears on Ted's hand and begins to bleed - the first sign of transformation. He witnesses his friend's transformation and shoots him with a silver bullet - but not before he is bitten. The remainder of the episode - and all future episodes - centers on his tracking down Skorzeny and trying to elude "Alamo Joe" Rogan, the bounty hunter who has been sent after him since he went on the lamb after being charged with Ted's murder. In the process, he meets some interesting people and gets into some scrapes - always, of course, being saved by transforming at a good time - for him, not for the bad guy/guys of the episode.
I feel sorry for anyone who missed this the first time around - definitely worth a look.
Cheers.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)
"Come back, won't you ?. . . Oh, yes, you can."
Very impressive - and, as other commentators have pointed out, surprisingly sexy - adaptation of the classic tale.
Dr. Jekyll (the great Frederic March, an Oscar winner for this) is a scientist who has dedicated himself to discovering a way to separate the "good" and "evil" sides of human nature. His stated goal is to make it possible for all people to be rid of their "evil" side for good so that it will "trouble them no more"; this, in turn, will give the "good" side freedom to reach its full potential.
Jekyll is engaged to a beautiful young woman named Muriel (Rose Hobart) whose father insists they wait for marriage. Jekyll is in love with (and let's be honest, hot for) his fiancée and wants to marry sooner, but his intended does not want to hurt her father's feelings by going against his wishes, so he agrees to wait for her.
Meanwhile, Jekyll has met a local tart named Ivy (Miriam Hopkins, spectacularly sexy and decidedly non-waifish). He hears her scream - it appears, although we don't see what actually happened, that she has been hit and knocked down by a man - and he carries her up to the loft she lives in. After getting a good look at her handsome benefactor, our Ivy decides to turn on both the "poor-me's" and the sex appeal, of which she has plenty, especially in bed wearing nothing but a garter. (The scene contains no nudity but innuendo and tension aplenty). When he finally tells her he has to go, she calls out the words I have used as the title of my review to him.
In the meantime, his tries a new potion he has concocted on himself. This leads to his first transformation into "Hyde", who, in this version, is portrayed as somewhat ape-like, suggesting an evolutionary throwback (always allowing for the theory of evolution). This character could care less about the mores of the society around him. Hyde's first emergence is cut short before he can cause any trouble by the arrival of his alter-ego's manservant.
But Muriel and her father have gone away, and Jekyll soon gives in to temptation, drinking the potion again. This time, he DOES go out, and immediately seeks out what Jekyll wanted but denied himself - Ivy. He finds her at a seedy music hall where she performs/hangs out, invites her to his table, and comes on like the Cro-Magnon he is, scoffing at men like his alter-ego who "like your (Ivy's) legs but talk about your garter", referring to the fact that Jekyll had warned Ivy earlier that her garter was tight enough to cut off her circulation.
Ivy is soon (and not exactly willingly) "shacked up" with Hyde, refusing to leave or try to find help for fear of him. But Hyde reads in the paper that his fiancée and her father are coming back, and informs Ivy that he will have to leave her for a time, but, "If you do one thing I don't approve of while I'm gone . . . the least little thing, mind you . . . I'll show you what horror means". Their goodbye scene is one of the most chilling in movie history, perhaps as close as any filmmaker of this period would ever come to an actual "rape" scene.
Jekyll is reunited with his fiancée and future father-in-law, and is able to convince the latter not to make them wait so long for their wedding.
He goes home overjoyed, but not for long. You see, he sent Ivy fifty pounds cash as a way to try to make amends for his treatment of her as Hyde. But she appears in person. She doesn't want his money -Hyde would only hurt her if he found out she had it- she wants help getting out of the trap she is in with him (at one point, she shows Jekyll her back, and although we are not shown the actual wounds, she says, "Pretty, ain't it? It's a whip, that's what it is, a whip!).
Jekyll, feeling more ashamed than ever of his behavior as Hyde, gives his word to Ivy that Hyde will never come back; she can keep the money without fear.
Feeling better - after all, he has made amends to Ivy, he will soon be married to his fiancée, and he is rid of Hyde, or so he thinks, Jekyll goes for a pleasant walk in a park. But he sees a cat stalking - and, although we are not shown this, presumably killing and eating - a bird, and this brings out the predator within himself again. After another transformation, Hyde seeks out Ivy and, after a horrific scene in which he confronts her over going to Jekyll for help, kills her.
Jekyll reads in the paper what he has done (we are led to assume, I think, that he has no memory of his actions as Hyde)and decides that the only "peanance" he can offer is to call off his engagement (not to mention that he now feels he must leave Muriel for her own safety).
But he transforms yet again - it's worth noting here that March is able to portray this transformation with his back to the camera as he peers in at the sobbing Muriel, simply through body language - and goes back into his now ex-fiancée's house. Hearing his daughter's scream, her father comes running in and is killed by Hyde.
It all ends in a police chase and the death by shooting of Hyde/Jekyll.
Worth a look, definitely.
Cheers.
Misery (1990)
Harrowing, brilliant, worthy of its Oscar
I would rate this and "The Green Mile" as the two best King film adaptations ever made. In this case, our screenwriter is the great William Goldman ("Princess Bride" book & screenplay). He previously collaborated with director Rob Reiner on the film version of his own novel "The Princess Bride", and this is, to say the least, quite the change of pace for both writer and director.
The story: novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan) is driving himself home one dark and snowy night after finishing his latest book. He is in a nasty accident. But he wakes up in the isolated home of retired nurse Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates, well-deserved Oscar winner for this). She has basically converted a guest bedroom in her home into a hospital room for her patient. And, in addition to being a trained RN, she is a huge fan of Paul Sheldon's writing, ESPECIALLY his series of bodice-ripping style romances about a woman called Misery Chastain.
What a lucky man, right? WRONG.
You see, Annie is a bit unhinged (to make a massive understatement). While working as a nurse, she pilfered some presciption-only painkillers that she proceeds to give to Paul, who proceeds to become addicted to them. Also, she reads the manuscript of Paul's new book and is not pleased, particularly with the raw language. (Actually, she seems to make sense in their argument about whether "people talk like that all the time in real life"). But she takes her displeasure to the extreme, forcing him to burn the manuscript. But that's nothing compared to her reaction when she finds out that, in the last Misery book, her favorite character is killed off . . . let's just say that, if Annie has her way, this will be the "last Misery book" over PAUL'S dead body.
Directing: A. Writing: A. Performances: Oscar for Bates, and Caan more than keeps up with her.
Not to be missed, especially if you are a King/horror in general fan. Takes it to another level.
Cheers.
The Green Mile (1999)
King plus Darabont equals Match Made In Heaven.
As great a writer as Stephen King is, film adaptations of his work tend to be hit-or-miss. I've noticed it's the non-horrific works (Stand By Me, Shawshank, Dolores Claiborne and this)that seem to work the best. I would say "horror" King films that are up to the same standard as the films I mentioned just now are rare, but I would certainly put "Misery" in their league.
Anyhow, this is an absolutely brilliant adaptation of the "serial" novel (published in installments) that King wrote. While not a "horror" movie, it does contain one element of the fantastic - John Coffey's healing ability - that is handled as realistically as could be expected. Darabont's script is spot-on. Tom Hanks has never, in the films I've seen him in, given a less than great performance, and this is no exception. And the supporting cast? Try David Morse, James Cromwell, Michael Jeter(RIP), Barry Pepper, Doug Hutchison, and of course, Michael Clarke Duncan as John Coffey. Then there's the crazy Sam Rockwell and the beautiful and talented Bonnie Hunt and Patricia Clarkson. All brilliant. A note on Mr. Hutchison's performance as Percy Whetmore: When I first saw this film, after the scene of Del's (Michael Jeter) horrific (due to Percy's sabotage) execution, when Percy sulkily mutters, "I didn't know the sponge was supposed to be wet", I actually spoke out loud to the screen - "Like h--l you didn't". That is how much I was drawn in by his performance and made to loathe his character.
Anyway, on to the plot. John Coffey (Duncan, in his Oscar-nominated performance)is found holding two tiny, dead girls in his arms and crying hysterically. The only words he can get out are, "I tried to take it back, but it was too late". This circumstantial evidence, on top of the fact that he is black (given the times the story is set in) leads to his quick conviction and sentencing to death. He arrives on the "Green Mile", so called for its green tiled floor, E-Block. This is Death Row circa 1930's Louisiana, and it is presided by senior guard Paul Sheldon (Hanks) and other guards (Morse, Pepper, Hutchison and Jeffrey DeMunn, who I'm afraid I neglected to mention earlier)who serve under his command. Coffey is escorted onto the Mile by conceited, self-centered guard Percy Whetmore (Hutchison) accompanied by Percy's cries of "Dead man walking". We soon learn that Coffey is a gentle, childlike, mentally challenged giant. He is afraid of the dark and, although he could probably snap any one of the guards like a twig if he ever so chose, he does not choose to do so.
The ensuing plot twists and healings are brilliantly portrayed. This is, perhaps, the best of all King film adaptations. Highly recommended. Cheers.
Wishmaster (1997)
Watch it for Mr. Divoff's performance.
I, for one, am a somewhat offbeat horror fan - gimme vampires, fake fangs/make-up, blood & gore, but spare me the gratuitous nudity & explicit sex. This is one of the reasons I am a fan of this film - gore effects aplenty, and good ones, but none of the other crap that keeps me from being able to watch films I might otherwise like.
The Djinn (Andrew Divoff; terrific) is an ancient, mystical being who is released by our heroine (Tanny Lauren) from the gem in which he has been imprisoned. His M.O.: granting wishes that have . . . well, let's just say, not exactly the outcome the wishmaker was hoping for. He has a special need, however, for our heroine; he must grant her 3 wishes in order to succeed in his EEEEVIL plan, which is to overrun mankind with others of his kind. She, however, turns out to be resistant, and tougher, and smarter, than your average horror heroine (another reason I, as a woman myself, took a special liking to this one.) The main reason to watch the film is Mr. Divoff. His performance, even under mounds of good make-up, is great. Look for other genre/film luminaries as Robert(Freddy Krueger) Englund, Tony (Candyman) Todd, and director Sam Raimi's brother, Ted.
Enjoy. Cheers.
Red Eye (2005)
Well-done change of pace for horror maestro Wes Craven
Imagine if you will: You are an attractive, successful young woman who meets an equally attractive, nice young man while waiting to board a delayed flight. The two of you have a drink at an airport bar while waiting to be let on board and strike up a (somewhat flirtatious) conversation. Then your flight is finally called.
To your surprise - and delight - the young man has been assigned the seat next to yours! You happily sit next to him with the intention of continuing your conversation (and flirting). But your potential new love-match is not what he appeared to be.
You see, he is in league with a group of assassins who have targeted a Homeland Security official staying at the luxury hotel you manage. And he needs you to use your authority as manager to get said official transferred to another room so the assassins can carry out their plans. If you don't, your father, with whom you are very close, will be killed instead by a goon who is already staked out outside his (and formerly your) house.
WHEW!!!
This is a top-notch thriller, from direction to acting to camera work . . . all around. The two leads, Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphey, are two of the best actors of our generation. And they are backed up by a fine supporting cast, including Brian Cox as our leading lady's father. The chemistry between McAdams and Murphey is definitely there - from sexual tension/flirting to menace, it's all believable. Highly recommended.
Cheers.
Nutcracker (1986)
Don't let another Christmas go by without seeing this, if you can.
This is an absolutely magnificent filmed production of The Nutcracker. I would dare to say that it even surpasses the great Baryschnikov's (sp?) production, which had only one thing truly going for it that this doesn't have - him. The dancing is gorgeous, the costumes and sets are designed by the great Maurice Sendak, and the narration is provided by the fine actress Julie Harris. And the music, of course, is classic. We started out taping this off TV, but then I discovered Amazon and was lucky enough to be able to find a couple of used VHS copies for sale. I don't know if it can still be found on tape now, but if not, you owe it to yourself this holiday season to search this out on TV. You are in for a treat you will want to make a yearly tradition! Cheers.
Return of the Living Dead III (1993)
Romeo & Juliet meets Brain-Eating Zombies?! Yes, it CAN be done!
This is a little horror gem from the early nineties. J. Trevor Edmond and Melinda Clarke (of future "The O.C." fame) play a teenage couple, Kurt and Julie; a military man's (Kent McCord) son and his sexy, morbid, punk-rock girlfriend. One day, they sneak into Dad's base to see just what is going on there, and are they in for a show! A dead man is brought back as a zombie by good old Trioxin and proceeds to attack (and chow down, of course). They leave before they see how this gore-fest all turns out, but Julie (Clarke) can't get it out of her mind.
Kurt's father comes home and announces that he is being transferred. Kurt, however, refuses to leave because he doesn't want to leave Julie, although his father says that "getting away from that girl would be the best thing that ever happened to you". The two young lovers go tearing off on Kurt's motorcycle and are in an accident (helped by Julie's Roman hands and Russian fingers, LOL) and Julie is killed. Unable to bear the loss, Kurt decides to sneak her back onto the base and use the Trioxin on her. Of course, we know where this is going - Julie is going to become a brain-eating monster! Almost immediately after being brought back, she begins to complain of feeling terribly hungry, so the two stop at a convenience store. She begins to randomly grab various snack cakes, etc., off the shelf and unwrap and eat them right there, but nothing satisfies. Meanwhile, a group of thugs hold up the place. In the ensuing scuffle, Julie bites one of the said thugs and gets a taste of what she's REALLY been hungry for all along. The owner/clerk is shot. Kurt and Julie manage to escape with him and take off in his van with him in the back. The only problem? Julie gets a craving again and this time, she knows EXACTLY what she wants. She heads straight to the back of the van and our poor dying shopkeeper. Kurt is treated to the sight of his lady-love feasting on brains for the first time, but, this being a horror movie, is not freaked enough to dump her right there.
The two escape and meet River Man (Basil Wallace), an eccentric, shall we say, who lives in the sewers. He takes them in, not knowing that lovely Julie is rapidly becoming ZOMBIE Julie. Julie has, however, discovered that she can distract herself from her craving for human flesh/blood/brains by inflicting pain on herself. We are treated (if that's the word) to shots of her stabbing herself with pins, deliberately cutting herself, etc. Our young lovers have been followed by the gang of thugs from the store, who do not intend to take one of their members being bitten lightly. They show up and threaten River Man and Kurt. But, unbeknownst to them, Julie has fully transformed into SUPER SEXY ZOMBIE JULIE!!! She appears and is a sight to behold. Kudos to Steve Johnson, who I understand did Zombie-Julie's makeup. It's scary, sexy, realistic and all-around brilliant. Anyhow, Zombie-Julie proceeds to make mincemeat out of - and infect - our gang of thugs, as well as River Man, who Kurt makes the fatal mistake of leaving alone with her. The calvary arrives - I should mention someone I forgot earlier, Sarah Douglas, who is great - and Julie and the other zombies are captured. But Kurt STILL can't let go. There follows zombie mayhem, escape, and an ending I won't describe (although the comparison the R & J might have clued you in).
Well worth watching if you're a horror/zombie/gore fan. Cheers.
Raising Arizona (1987)
"Son, you got a panty on your head . . . "
Hilarious! Two then-unknowns, Nicholas Cage and Holly Hunter - both future award-winners, and deservedly so - play the most unlikely of couples. Cage is Hi, an "armed" (I use quotation marks because he normally makes sure the gun he carries is not really loaded) convenience-store robber. Upon being arrested, he meets a lovely little police officer named Ed (Hunter) and does not let the circumstances stop him from flirting with her ("What kind of name is Ed for a pretty thing like you?" Her answer: "Short for Edwina. Turn to the RIGHT!) Upon the occasion of his second arrest, he notices that his Officer Ed has clearly been crying. She reveals to him that her fiancée has dumped her for another woman, and he responds by calling her ex a "fool" for leaving her. Hi serves his time and meets other inmates including a trustee (I assume) who simply growls at him as he passes by and two other convicted armed robbers/brothers (John Goodman and William Forsythe; these guys are geniuses at casting). Upon his release, He and Ed are married ("Okay, then", says the pastor who performs the ceremony after they say their I-do's). But something is wrong in paradise. You see, Ed BADLY wants to have a child - or children - and after some time trying to conceive on their own, they decide to see a doctor, who gives them the news that Ed is infertile. Upon trying to adopt, they are rejected because of Hi's, as Ed herself puts it, "checkered" past. But then, they see on television that a local millionaire furniture-store owner who goes by the name Nathan Arizona and his wife have just had a set of quintuplets due to the wife's use of fertility drugs. Rationalizing that it won't be so bad to take one baby from a couple who already have four others, they proceed to kidnap one of the tots (Nathan Junior, they think) and bring him home.
But of course, complications ensue. You see, our two brother-convicts have escaped, and who do they seek out? None other than their prison buddy Hi. Needless to say, Ed is not thrilled with this turn of events. Meanwhile, Hi has lost his job due to beating up his boss (after said boss, while at their house for a barbecue, tells him that he and his wife are "swingers" and wants to know if Hi would ever consider "wife-swappin".) Hi cannot bring himself to tell Ed that he lost his job for "defending her honor", and this causes tension between the two. So much so that, although he has turned down a chance to join in a bank heist with the escaped-con brothers, he decides to rob a convenience store he goes into with the intention of getting diapers for the nipper (which he does, just before he pulls an unloaded gun on the clerk and orders him to empty the till). Seeing what he is doing, Ed decides to leave him there, driving off and taking the baby with her. Meanwhile, it turns out the teenage, braces-wearing clerk has a (loaded) gun of his own, and has no qualms about using it. There follows a chase scene that must be seen to be believed. The words "fall on the floor funny" come to mind. Ed finally shows up, picks up Hi, and they retrieve the diapers, which had been abandoned on the road somewhere along the way.
The Arizonas, in the meantime, have troubles of their own besides a missing baby. You see, a bounty hunter (Randall "Tex" Cobb) has shown up and promised to find the child. But he is not satisfied with what they have officially offered as a reward and threatens to sell the baby on the black market if they do not agree to his price.
Poor Hi, meanwhile, has to deal with his outraged boss (the "swinger") who shows up at his trailer again to officially fire him. But that's not all, folks - he has figured out the baby's true identity for himself, and wants the baby for himself and his wife (who seems to have a baby obsession; she wants another as soon as the youngest one they have is "too big to cuddle"). But the brother-cons overhear this and decide to kidnap the baby for the reward. Hi, of course, refuses to let Nathan Junior (he thinks) go without a fight, but he loses. The brother-cons take the baby and attempt their bank heist. But they decide to take the baby into the bank with them and then forget to put him back in the the car as they make their escape. Upon discovering they have forgotten him, they scream - and then scream some more when a cannister of blue paint that was put in their bag along with the money from the bank explodes.
It all leads up to a final confrontation between the bounty hunter, Hi, and Ed. I won't give anything else away, just say that this is one of the funniest, most original films I have ever seen. Cheers.
The Fly (1986)
Real Romance, Real Scares, Real Gore, Really Great!
This is a landmark of horror/sci-fi, not just for the eighties but forever.
A reclusive -but hunky! lol - scientist named Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) meets an attractive, smart journalist, Veronica (Geena Davis, Goldblum's real-life girlfriend at the time and future wife). She drives him back to his place, and on the ride, he becomes motion-sick, which, we discover, was his true motivation for developing his mind-blowing invention - TELEPODS, capable of transporting (at this stage)inanimate objects from one place to another like a magician's trick, only it's not a trick.
After a contentious start to their relationship(he is upset upon discovering she is taping their first conversation and she refuses to return the tape, as the story is much too newsworthy to give up and he understood she was a reporter), the two become friends as he continues working on his marvelous new invention, trying to figure out how to make it possible to "teleport" living things. He attempts to begin with animals with the hope of progressing to humans, but his first attempt on a baboon is - I mean this literally - a bloody disaster. As he begins to open up emotionally to his journalist/friend, the two become lovers, much to the jealousy (disguised by snarkiness and sarcasm) of her current boss/former lover, Stathis (John Getz). One night, she discovers that Stathis plans to run with the Brundle story without her, she goes to confront him . . . leaving Seth alone to stew in his booze and jealousy, a bad combination. On a drunken impulse, he decides to teleport himself, but there is a fly in the machine with him . . . and the rest is eighties - and all time - horror history.
The acting? Could we have asked for a better cast? Goldblum is quirkily brilliant, Davis would go on shortly hereafter to be an Oscar-winner, and Getz holds his own. Cronenberg . . . well, what more do I have to say than that? Cronenberg. There was some talk of Goldblum being nominated for an Oscar for his work here, but that unfortunately did not happen. However, the make-up effects did win, and this was well deserved. A not to be missed classic.
Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning (2004)
Ginger Snaps Back . . . In Time
This "prequel" to the outstanding 2000 original, I think, is better than the sequel, "unleashed". What we have here is basically a retelling of the original story as a period drama - same sisters, same names, same actresses. After their parents' death (murder? There is some suggestion that they may have done something to Mom & Dad), the two main characters we've come to love - played by Katharine Isabelle and Emily Perkins for the third time - end up at a fort in 1800's Canada after meeting a handsome young Native American (Canadian?) man. The characters they meet are colorful, to say the least. Especially the preacher who could put a Salem witch-hunter to shame (Hugh Dillon, who I understand from the commentary is mainly a singer - fine performance here; I'd like to see more of him acting). But this particular fort, of course, is besieged by werewolves that the inhabitants are struggling to protect themselves from. Ginger, as in the first film, is bitten, and her sisters' sense of devotion ultimately curses her to become what her sister is becoming.
My favorite scenes? The "leech werewolf test" (you'll know what I'm talking' about when you see it if you watch the film yourself), and the partially-transformed Ginger's return to the fort with some of her new pack-mates to raise a little h--l.
Impressive acting - especially, as in all three films, from our two leading wolf-girls - as well as set design and make-up/creature effects. Check this one out - you won't be disappointed.
976-EVIL (1988)
"Don't ever touch me again . . . pass it on."
Yes, it is a cheesier knock-off of Carrie: Here we have our tormented, misfit teen (Stephen Geoffreys instead of Sissy Spacek this time)who gains supernatural abilities (demonic possession instead of telekinesis this time) and proceeds to take nasty revenge on the bullies who done him dirty and on his psycho-Christian of a mother (told ya, Carrie) played by Sandy Dennis, who, if humanly possible, does a more over-the-top variation of Piper Laurie's performance.
But Mr. Geoffreys makes this a gem of 80's horror. His performance is so quirky and, at times, so endearing, and yet he can be frickin'SCARY when he wants to - check him out in the scene where he attacks a gang of bullies in the projection room of a movie theater. It's a thrill to watch because of him. Also the bathroom stalking. And, well, every scene once be becomes fully possessed. I'm glad to hear about his return to the genre after the (in my opinion) unfortunate turn his life took not long after he made Fright Night and this. Welcome back, Mr. Geoffreys! All in all, worth watching for horror - and, more specifically, 80's horror - aficionados.
Cheers.
Hulk (2003)
"You're gonna have to watch that temper of yours . . . . . "
I quite enjoyed this sci-fi effort from Ang Li, possibly because I wasn't necessarily looking for a re-production of the Bixby/Ferrigno TV series, or for two solid hours of "Hulk-outs".
Dr. Bruce (I forget what his adopted family name is; sorry), played by Eric Bana, who, among other things, does a good job of shedding his natural Australian accent (and speaking Spanish at the end; more on that later), is participating in experiments involving good old gamma radiation that he hopes will give human beings the ability to heal themselves beyond normal human capacity; perhaps even be indestructible. One day, in the process of protecting a lab assistant from being hit by the aforementioned rays, he ends up being hit himself. This should have killed him, but instead, by his own description, he feels better than he ever has in his life. He is still required to spend some time in the hospital, however, and while in there, he is visited by a scraggly janitor who claims to be his biological father (Nick Nolte) and told that his real last name is - you guessed it - Banner.
After being released from the hospital, Bruce BANNER begins having dreams - nightmares, really, - that are, at least in part, flashbacks to repressed early-childhood memories.
Turns out, Mr. Scraggly Janitor IS in fact, Bruce's "real" father, and he has done prison time for continuing experiments - on himself - that he had been forbidden to perform. He has genetically altered himself, and passed this onto his son. This, combined with the exposure to gamma rays, results in the creation of . . . THE HULK! Bana gives, I think, a fine performance here. He is, I think, intentionally restrained and distant except for his pre-transformation moments. Then, his facial expressions are quite convincingly those of a man whose bottled-up rage is about to literally come bursting out. Jennifer Connelly, as his former love/current co-worker, also delivers as the only person who can bring him back to human form one he "Hulks out". The expressions on her face as she looks at him later in the film, both in Hulk and human form after transformation, are effective.
I won't try to describe any more of the complicated plot twists. Watch and see for yourself. I will mention, however, the two tips of the hat to the TV show: A cameo by comic book icon Stan Lee and none other than Lou Ferrigno, who is still buff all this time after the series aired, and the ending, in which we find Bruce, who has survived a climactic battle (again, watch for yourself), and is now in some tropical, Spanish speaking locale trying to help the impoverished people with much needed medicine/medical care. When a group of guerrillas come along and try to confiscate everything, Bruce looks the lead Bad Guy in the eyes and warns, in Spanish, "You're making me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry". Then, after hearing the famous line, we see the famous first sign of the Hulk-out - eyes changing color, in this case green - before the camera pans up into the green trees and we hear the familiar roar. Enough to let us know that the Bad Guys are about to get their butts whooped by the Big Green Guy. A fine way to end the film, IMHO.
Cheers.
The Resurrected (1991)
Worth having if you're a gore effects/Chris Sarandon/both Fan
"The Resurrected" is a fine little re-animator style gore fest from the early nineties. It takes awhile for the aforementioned fest to begin, but when it does, every viewer who ever read/wrote a letter to "Fangoria" magazine should be pleased. So should fans of the fine (both as in looks and as in talent) actor Chris Sarandon, who has delivered in every film I've seen him in. (Yes, I'm a Fright Night freak).
It begins with an escape from an asylum, where we are - perhaps I spoke too hastily in my first paragraph - treated to the sight of a partially-eaten body. The escapee, we learn, is Charles Dexter Ward (Sarandon). We then go back in time, to when Ward's dish of a wife (Jane Sibbett, looking her Hitchock-blonde best and delivering a good performance as well), goes to a private investigator (John Terry, passable; Sarandon is the real highlight)and expresses her concern over Ward, who has just moved out of their house after she has refused to allow him to continue his mysterious "reaserch" in their home. She has not spoken to him in some time, and their first wedding anniversary is approaching.
Anyhow, there follows a bizarre tale that boils down to: Ward has become obsessed with an anscestor of his, who, in addition to being physically identical to Ward, had discovered a way to re-animate dead people. We travel back to this anscestor's time, where we are treated to the sight of a failed re-animating "experiment" floating in a lake and subsequently burned alive (an act of mercy, believe me) on a woodpile.
Ward, as it turns out, has discovered and duplicated the research and brought his identical forebear back to life. But, it seems that this particular method of re-animation comes with a catch; the "subject" must have fresh (preferably human) meat to survive. Poor Ward, it turns out, has been murdered by his own re-animated anscestor, who, being identical and all, has assumed his identity after some time masquerading in a fake beard as the mysterious "Dr. Ash".
The final confrontation between the investigator, who has discovered the truth, and the false-Ward is the true highlight of the film, largely due to Sarandon's performance. (Yes, I'm a Fright-Night freak, as I said, but you don't have to be to be impressed by his performance here). He chews the scenery with his (fake) bad teeth and is genuinely menacing, especially in the moment when he tears himself out of the straight-jacket.
I won't give away the ending, partly because, I must confess, I'm still somewhat confused by it. (I've only seen the film once as of this writing). But I am now planning a Halloween double-feature of this film and the inestimable Fright Night; what a perfect night to spend with Chris! I would recommend this to horror/gore buffs of any stripe.
Cheers.
Ravenous (1999)
Laughs + chills + a brilliant cast =10.
This little indie movie, Ravenous, happens to be one of the best horror/dramas ever made. It starts with a young soldier (Guy Pearce, handsome and talented) who is sent to an isolated fort as a result of his cowardice in the Spanish/American War. There he meets a ragtag bunch of fellow military men, all of whom are played by wonderful actors from Jeffrey Jones to Jeremy Davies to David Arquette to Neal McDonough (sp?).
One night, a man named Colquhoun (Robert Carlyle, who plays this role like he was born for it), shows up nearly frozen to death. They nurse him back to health and he tells a tale of Donner-Party style horror; a group of stranded travelers, including himself, who eventually resorted to cannibalism in order to survive. He leads them to where he claims a lone fellow survivor might still be alive, but then . . . this is when Mr. Carlyle shows his character's true colors and his brilliance as an actor. I might hesitate to join the man for a meal in real life, if I ever had the chance! He's just that good. There ensues murder and mayhem, of which Guy Pearce is the only survivor. But (long story short) he, too, finds himself resorting to cannibalism to save himself and return to the Fort, where he tries in vain to convince others that colquhoun (who now goes by Colonel Ives) is a cannibalistic murderer. There follow several scenes, some of them strangely sexually charged, of "Ives" trying to convince Pearce's character to give in to his temptation to continue eating human flesh. I suppose that, like vampirism, there is something sexual, in a forbidden way, in the idea, if not the actual practice, of cannibalism.
There ensues a fight to the death . . . but no, I won't tell how it turns out. Just watch this brilliantly written and acted, darkly humorous little gem.
Cheers.
The Princess Bride (1987)
Magical
I first saw this film as a teenage girl and was instantly enchanted. Occasionally, things just GEL -writing, direction, music, casting- in a way that words cannot really describe. This was one of those movies.
Goldman does a brilliant job of giving us a satirical fairy-tale that is not so heavy on "satire" that is steals the enchantment and romance. The swordfighting scenes are probably among the best that have ever been captured on film. The romance is beautiful (between two beautiful people; Mr. Elwes and Ms. Wright (now Wright-Penn) are, as director Rob Reiner describes them in his commentary, "two of the better-looking people on the planet"). And, leaving aside our maturity and independence, what woman was not once a girl who daydreamed about falling in love with and being saved by a dashing hero and being given a kiss like the ones shared by our couple in this film? There are classics "for their time", and there are classics of all-time; this belongs in the all-time category.
The Night Flier (1997)
"You've been here before, Richard . . . . . "
"The Night Flier" has to be in the overall "Top 5" of Stephen King film adaptations. It may depart from the story in some respects, but the changes are effective for a film.
The excellent Miguel Ferrer, who often pops up in King-based films, stars here as a tabloid reporter, Richard Dees. He seems to have "lost his touch", or at least his boss thinks so, but he gets a chance to cover a juicy new story: a pilot who lands at small, obscure airports and kills the people vampire-style. His victims seem to be entranced by him and, in the case of one woman, infatuated by him, and despite warnings posted throughout the country, no one has reported seeing his plane or turned him in. He calls himself "Dwight Renfield", an homage to both the character Renfield and the actor, Dwight Frye, who played him in the Lugosi version of "Dracula".
But there's also a new reporter in town, Katherine Blair (Julie Entwistle). She is young, perky, enthusiastic . . . everything the jaded, emotionally numb Dees is not. It's a case of "hate at first sight". Dees turns down this story at first, but when Renfield claims another victim, he decides to start following the case. There follows a period of Dees simultaneously stalking and being stalked by his "prey", Renfield, as he interviews friends of victims and witnesses. In the course of this, he dubbs his subject "The Night Flier".And, in case we should wonder just how low he's willing to sink for a good tabloid story, we see him vandalizing a victim's grave by decorating it with dead flowers and smearing his own blood on it. He receives warnings to stop his pursuit of the story, including, in one darkly humorous scene, a Bloody Mary that he did not order for himself. When he inquires, it turns out that the man who ordered the drink for him has disappeared. When he looks at the napkin under the glass, he sees a simple note: "Stop now". Our killer, you see, does not want to have to kill Dees, for reasons that become more clear later. Meanwhile, Dees's more-than-slightly-devious boss has encouraged Katherine to pursue the story herself, and laughs delightedly when he learns that the two are staying at the same motel and are therefore bound to bump into each other . . . and butt heads.
They do, in fact, meet up, and Dees convinces Katherine that he wants to join forces. The two start working together and eventually come up with a hot lead: Dees talks to a supervisor at an airport who is clearly lying when he claims not to have seen Renfield or his plane.
The two plan to go to said airport together, but Dees pushes Katherine into a closet in his motel room and locks her in, intent on keeping the story for himself (Renfield has become something of an obsession for him). He arrives at the airport and finds himself surrounded by Renfield's freshly-killed victims. Any doubt that he had actually been tracking a "real vampire" goes out the window. He begins taking pictures, but soon is unable to remain his usual stoic self and becomes physically ill. Enter Renfield, who we cannot see at first, as we are looking into a mirror in Dees's POV, but who we hear in the form of footsteps and see in the form of smashing mirrors and stream of blood instead of urine going into a urinal.
Here follows the ultimate, final confrontation between "journalist" and "subject", in what is possibly one of the most intensely frightening scenes I've ever seen. After demanding that Dees open his camera and destroying the undeveloped film, Renfield explains why he does not want to kill Dees. You see, Dees, in his own way, is a vampire . . . a tabloid journalist who "feeds" on human depravity and tragedy by making his living on the stories he covers. Renfield sees him as a kindred spirit, but still threatens to "swallow Dees whole" if Dees continues to track him.
As Renfield is making his escape, Dees chases after him, demanding to see his face . . . which we, the audience, have not seen, either, at least not in its entirety. Renfield complies, and we get our first real glimpse of an absolutely wonderful mask made by KNB. Again, one of the creepiest things I've ever seen.
Renfield decides to feed Dees his blood, and there follows a hallucinatory, black-and-white, Night-Of-The-Living-Dead only with Vampires scene that comes to a head when Dees decides to use an axe to defend himself against this horde of undead creatures.
Then, as the police enter, we transition to color again, and we wonder . . . was there really a Renfield, or did Dees actually do the killing to begin with? Was it really him all along? That question is answered for us, however, when Katherine, who has escaped the motel room and is on the scene, looks out a window and catches a glimpse of our vampire as his human-looking self. (We also know from a glimpse of pictures in an album he keeps inside his plane that Katherine looks very much like a woman he loved before becoming what he now is . . . was she with him in a past life? Does she feel an emotional connection to him because of that? We'll never know). The police are forced to shoot Dees when he comes at Katherine with the axe, and when one of them asks who he is, Katherine answers, "His name is Richard Dees . . . we call him the Night Flier". Dees is dead . . . long live Katherine.
A definite "must see" if you're a fan of King, Vampires, or both. Cheers.
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992)
Girl-on-girl . . . psycho thriller. (What did you THINK I was going to say?)
"The Hand Rocks The Cradle" is one of the best of what director Jonathan Kaplan ("Unlawful Entry")describes as the "From Hell" genre. (In his case, it was "Cop from Hell"; in this case, it's "Nanny From Hell".
Claire (Annabella Sciorra), a happily married mother-to-be with one young daughter already, goes to her gynecologist and is taken advantage of on the examining table. With her husband's (Matt McCoy) encouragement, she speaks out and presses charges against the doctor. This leads several patients and former patients of his to come forward and make accusations of their own. Unable to handle the (highly likely) loss of his medical license and the public embarrassment, the not-so-good doctor shoots himself.
But guess what? He had a pregnant wife of his own (Rebecca DeMornay, in the role of her lifetime), and said wife is driven to miscarriage by his suicide and the news that she will not have access to any of his estate due to the pending charges and lawsuits.
Said wife then zeros in on Claire and her family, determined to take not only the children (Claire has had her baby boy in the interim) but the husband for herself. She gets herself hired on as a nanny for the new little one, and the manipulation starts almost immediately thereafter, when Peyton (as she now calls herself) deliberately ruins a dress that Claire plans to wear for an evening out with her husband and another couple after Claire confides to her that her husband bought her the dress and that she feels "sexy" when she wears it. Things quickly escalate, as the older daughter becomes more attached to Peyton than her own parents (due in no small part to Peyton's deliberate emotional manipulation of her) and the baby starts to become "fussy" when anyone other than Peyton tries to hold him and will not nurse from his own mother. As we already know, he is not hungry when his mother tries to feed him because Peyton has been secretly nursing him herself. The scene in which we first see this is quite chilling: Peyton is alone in the nursery as the baby lies helpless in his crib. She approaches said crib holding a pillow, and knowing what we know about her . . . . well, we know where we THINK this is going. But no - she lays the pillow down in the crib, picks the baby up as gently as anyone could want, and begins nursing.
Peyton then continues to pull emotional strings by planting evidence that the mentally challenged groundskeeper (Ernie Hudson)has been molesting the daughter, then convincing Claire that her husband has rekindled a romance with Marlene (Julianne Moore), his former flame and current friend and the wife in the other couple I mentioned earlier. This leads to a scene at a surprise party in which Claire ends up humiliating herself, not to mention her husband and Marlene, who are innocent of what Claire has been led to believe. Almost needless to say, Peyton tries to move in on Claire's hubby herself, but is shot down.
It all leads up, of course, to Claire discovering the truth about the Nanny From Hell, and a final confrontation between the two women. (interestingly enough, while Claire's husband is there, he is incapacitated, leaving the film's resolution up to the two women. If I didn't know better, I might think that this was directed by as well as written by a woman.) This final showdown is, again, as much about emotional as physical brutality. What wife and mother wants to have a rival for her family's affections whisper in her ear, "When your husband makes love to you, it's my face he sees", or, "When your baby is hungry, it's my breast that feeds him"? It ends the way such thrillers must end; the villain(ess) DIES.
All in all, a fine example of, as Mr. Kaplan put it, the "From Hell" genre.
Turbulence (1997)
"Buffalo Gals, won't you come out tonight . . . . "
An implausible but intense thrill ride with a more than competent cast.
As the film opens, it is Christmas Eve, and we get our introduction to our Bad Guy, Ryan Weaver (Ray Liotta, doing the kind of character he does best). He's a good-looking, charming-on-the-surface killer who has come to be known as the "Lonely Hearts Strangler" because his M.O. is apparently to target a single woman, romance her for a time, and then . . . well, they do call him "Strangler". After leaving a toy store with a cute stuffed animal and arriving at his new girlfriend (next intended victim's) place, he is arrested and kicked in the stomach by the detective (Hector Elizondo) who has been after him for years and even framed him by planting evidence (although it's okay in this case because HE DONE IT! Who cares what they had to do to get him?) In a clever bit of opening misdirection, we see shots of Bad Guy on his way to his latest target's place intercut with shots of our Heroine (waifish but not anorexic, blonde-haired-big-blue-eyed Lauren Holly) in her own place in such a way as to make us think that she is his new "girlfriend", when in fact she is not.
The two do meet, however, since our Heroine is a flight attendant assigned to the Christmas Eve flight on which Bad Guy is being transported to prison to await his execution. Along with Bad Guy is another con (Brendan Gleeson, in a Glee-ful performance) who's first words are his reply to our Heroine's question, "What would you like?", referring to drinks. His response? "I'd like to nail you, baby,", in the slimiest-sounding Cornpone accent you've ever heard. Is this guy really British?! Anyway, our charming con goes on to ask to be taken to the plane's bathroom, uses the soap-thingy as a weapon to kill the officer who is guarding him, and proceeds to make like Jeff Foxworthy if Foxy was a BAD-ASS Redneck. He ends up holding our Heroine hostage with a gun to her pretty blonde head, and who talks him into letting her go? None other than our Bad Guy, who at this point is still making like an unjustly accused and convicted Good Guy. In another dust-up, the other con and several others are shot. (The pilots have, in the midst of all this, been killed).
Our Heroine is told by our Bad Guy that the pilot hit his head but is all right and is going to land. He begins to win her sympathy, asking her if she believes in capital punishment, to which she answers "No". Our Heroine is sharp, however, and notices that the plane does not appear to be descending. She decides to go to the cockpit herself to check things out and finds the pilot and his co-pilot dead. She manages to make contact with the ground, however, and they patch her through to a pilot (Ben Cross, who brings his presence and accent to the role)who instructs her on how to communicate with the people on the ground and how to operate the plane(to LAND it, of course). Our Bad Guy, however, is determined that they will crash and, he hopes, take as many other people with them as possible. He shows his true colors, and it is at this point that it becomes almost impossible not to enjoy watching Mr. Liotta; he simply seems to be having so much FUN playing this particular wack-pot. As the plane tosses them to-and-fro (did I mention that they're headed into a six-on-a-scale-of-one-to-six thunderstorm?) our Heroine must defend herself after being coaxed out of the cockpit by our Bad Guy. While not trying to come across as the Xena of flight attendants, Ms. Holly is determined and tough mentally and also physically when forced to fight for her life. Yes, at one point, she uses sex - or at least the promise of sex - to get our Bad Guy to let his guard down for a moment, but, hey, it's one of the few "weapons" she has at her disposal, along with the fire extinguisher she clobbers him with shortly after the bogus come-on. (Why, under these circumstances, does our psycho-but-sharp Bad Guy believe for a MOMENT that the woman he's terrorizing would have sex with him, even to save herself and the few other people on board the plane he hasn't killed? Because it's a movie, children!) Anyway, after kicking a little Bad Guy butt and ultimately getting ahold of a Marshall's gun and killing him, our Heroine manages to land the plane. Merry Christmas! If you just want to shut down your higher brain functions and watch a good psycho-killer-chiller, and especially if you like it when said chiller supposedly takes place on Christmas, this is highly recommended for you. Cheers.
The Lost Boys (1987)
"How far you willing to go, Michael? . . . "
My first impression watching this as a teenage girl? Eye-candy overload! Let's face it, the Lost Boys themselves (along with their almost-recruit, Jason Patric) have got to be one of the best-looking groups of young men ever brought together for one film! And Keifer Sutherland? He looks sexy in a MULLET! Enough said.
On further viewing, this one has come to be my OTHER favorite Schumacher film, beside POTO. The camera work, music, costumes, sets . . . as the Phantom himself would say, "Bravissima"! And the performances are superb, including those from some very young (at the time) actors. My favorites? The entrance of the Lost Boys on the carousel in the opening and the campfire massacre. Mr. Schumacher saved the vamp/gore effects for this moment, but when it came, did he ever deliver! As indicated above, I am a child/teenager of the eighties, but I grew into a thirty-five-year old woman who still adores this movie. Cheers.
Psycho (1960)
"Why, she wouldn't even harm a fly . . . . "
In the opening, scene, rather risqué for its time, Marion Crane (beautiful Janet Leigh) and boyfriend Sam are about to end a lunchtime rendez-vous in a no-tell motel. After the bra-and-slip clad Leigh does some final cuddling with her shirtless man (didn't I tell you, risqué?)we learn that she is tired of being his lover "on the down-low", as we would say today, and is getting anxious for him to make an honest woman out of her (in other words, marriage). But Sam is in tight financial times due to his ex-wife and doesn't want to marry Marion when he can't offer her a very comfortable lifestyle.
Shortly after returning to her office, Marion is trusted with $40,000.00 cash given to her boss by a client, which she is supposed to deposit at his bank for him. After getting permission to leave the office early . . . well, she has the money there in her car with her, she and her man need it to start a real life together . . . you see where this is going. Marion is by no means a thief by nature or a hardened person, but this is more temptation than she can withstand. She heads to Phoenix to her boyfriend, imagining all kinds of conversations in her mind: Her man's reaction when he sees her unexpectedly, her boss's reaction when he realizes that both she and the money he had given her are missing, not to mention the irate client " . . . I'll track her down, never you doubt it. I'll get that money, and if any of it's missing, I'll replace it with her fine, soft flesh." Yikes! But Marion is in for a change of plan. You see, she's pulled off onto a back road and ended up at the Bates Motel, where she meets its proprietor, Norman, and (sort of) his Mother . . . .
What can I say? Simply one of the most genuinely scary films ever made and perhaps Hitchock's masterpiece. The shower scene is a classic example of "what you don't see is scarier than what you do". And Bernard Hermann's music? Please. The man was brilliant.
Perhaps what chilled me the most, though, is the final shot. The look on the great Anthony Perkins' face is absolute genius. And, as another reviewer pointed out, if you look carefully, you'll see Mother's skull superimposed over her son's face before the final shot of Marion's car being pulled from the swamp.
With all due respect to the equally great Sir Anthony Hopkins and his brilliant performance as Hannibal Lecter, Norman Bates should have been named the greatest villain of all time.
A final note - AVOID the remake. Nothing is on par with the original movie and the director added a couple of unnecessary and gratuitous touches (in the motel scene, Sam is completely nude, and in the "peeping" scene, Norman masturbates as he secretly watches Marion get undressed before taking her fateful shower - did we need to see THAT to understand that Marion had become the object of his repressed desire? I don't think so). The original, however, is a MUST SEE, whether you are a horror aficionado or not. Best watched on Halloween night, but friggin' creepy any day of the year. Cheers.
Pet Sematary (1989)
"I finally came back for you, Rachel . . . . "
The book "Pet Sematary" is, perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, one of the deepest AND most frightening things that Stephen King has ever written, possibly because he was driven to write by two things that happened in his own family - The death of the family cat and the near death of his son, at that time a toddler, who ran toward the road. According to one of the extras on this DVD, King thought of the basic outline of the story as he was carrying his son, who he had successfully stopped from running into traffic, back toward his home.
This story is, quite literally, about death itself; the conflict between Louis (Dale Midkiff) and Rachel (Denise Crosby) over what, if anything their young daughter (Blaze/Beau Bernthal) should be told about death; the ACTUAL death of the family cat, followed shortly by the son (adorable and born actor Miko Hughes). The question: If you knew of a way to bring back the pets/people you loved and lost, would you do it? For Louis, the answer, tragically it turns out, is YES. Early on in the film, his is cajoled into "promising" his daughter that nothing will happen to their cat, Church, although he knows the futility of promising her that "nothing will happen" to anyone, as this is ultimately beyond his or any human being's control. When the cat does indeed die by being run over by a truck, his is guided by Jud Crandall (the wonderful Fred Gwynne) to the Micmac burial ground, a place where dead animals - or people - who are buried will come back. Although the film makes no reference to this, the book mentions the "wendigo", a spirit in Native American folklore that can possess a human and turn them into a cannibal - the implication being that perhaps it is a "wendigo" that is reanimating the bodies of people and animals that return after being buried on this ground. In any case, what comes back ain't the same, and it ain't pretty. In the case of Church, it doesn't seem to be THAT big of a deal; the kitty seems moodier, hisses a lot and, in one "EEEEWWW" scene, tosses the remains of a nicely mutilated mouse into the tub while Louis is in it. Yucky, but the cat isn't going to kill anyone. Meanwhile, Rachel has explained her hang-up about death to Louis, telling him the unpleasant story of her sister Zelda, who died of spinal meningitis - while a very young Rachel had been left alone with her. Rachel is quite literally haunted by her sister; haunted by guilt over having wished by the end that her sister would just die and end her own and everyone else's suffering. She admits to being frightened as a child that she would be accused of murdering her sister by people who knew her every thought and feeling. Scary stuff.
But then, adorable toddler Gage is killed when he runs after his kite toward traffic, and his father is NOT able to stop him in time. There ensues, of course, deep grief, and a nasty fight between father-and-son-in-law, between whom there was never any love lost before Gage's death, at the funeral service. This scuffle, in film and book, leads to the little coffin being knocked down and, momentarily, jarred open, giving us a heartbreaking glimpse of a small boy's hand and funeral suit cuff.
Shortly after the tragedy, Rachel and Ellie go to stay with Rachel's parents for a time, leaving Louis at home by himself (see where this is going?). Louis, perhaps inevitably, does bury his little son in the forbidden burial ground, and the results are far more horrific than before. Gage comes back, a killer still packaged in the body of a sweet little boy. His first victim, in one of the most genuinely frightening scenes, is old Jud (the shot of the knife slicing his heel is truly cringe-worthy). Louis, who has gone home exhausted and fallen asleep, wakes up to remember what he has done. Then, the phone rings. Louis hears his tiny son's voice again, asking him to "come play". He goes, taking with him a vaccine he has prepared that can be used on any resurrected body to "put it back to sleep". He gives this first to Church and it works. Next is Gage - but before a surprisingly believable fight between a grown man and a three-year-old boy, Louis discovers that Gage has already claimed TWO victims - Jud and RACHEL, who got to the house first and saw Gage just after imagining that she was being confronted with her long-dead sister, who warns her that she will "never get out of bed again!" Foolishly, Rachel rushes to embrace her boy, who says to her, "I brought you something, Mommy" . . . that something is a knife.
Having long since been pushed beyond sanity, Louis administers another syringe of the drug to his little son, who does indeed go back to sleep . . . and buries his wife in the forbidden ground. What happens next is probably the biggest difference between book and film . . . but I've gone into enough detail. The book AND movie are recommended for all my fellow King fans, just don't read the book's ending at night before going to bed and trying to sleep (I made that mistake once).
Cheers.
'Salem's Lot (2004)
A Standout among made-for-TV vampire movies
"Salem's Lot", Starring Rob Lowe, James Cromwell, Rutger Hauer, Donald Sutherland, and Andre Braugher, was a very enjoyable made-for-TV film. The performances were excellent, the sets and lighting striking, and the overall mood good.
The cast: Rob Lowe is solid as Ben Mears, but the standouts are, natch, the villains - Rutger and Sutherland. As Straker, the vampire Barlow's business partner/henchman, Sutherland gives one of the best performances I believe I've seen him give in his impressive career. Of particular creepiness is his encounter with Eva Prunier at his antique store: he obviously knows Eva's "dirty little secret" from her youth and is happy to taunt her about it in her own first language, French, which he speaks quite beautifully. (Some of you native speakers of the language may disagree, but it sounded great to this girl who only studied the language for a couple of years in high school). She is so disturbed that she runs out the door, to which Straker responds with a "don't ask me what's wrong with her" shrug and puzzled look on his face. Hauer, meanwhile, as Barlow, is MUCH better than the Nosferatu wannabe in the original TV film. He is more like the character described in the book - intelligent, articulate, handsome, a seducer rather than an attacker. He makes the proposition of becoming one of his "children" seem appealing and like the rational thing to do.
Now, onto makeup and effects - both leaps and bounds over the first. The eyes and fangs are effective, and shots of the vamps prowling around at night are eerie. The scene where a vampirized Floyd Tibbits (sp?) comes after Ben by crawling through a vent which no human body should be able to fit into is also an effective scare.
All in all, a definite "9 out of 10", especially for made-for-TV films. Recommended to my fellow King/vampire fans.