HAPPY HALLOWEEN

THE KEEP (1983)-trailer

Rewatched this last night for the first time in years and once again I 'enjoyed' it. I say 'enjoyed' because it is such a mess of a movie and such a destruction of the book its based on that it could never really be a wholly great experience. But......I do like watching it and wondering what it might have been. What a cast! And it looks amazing too. But that score was a misstep. And I'm pretty sure at least 20 minutes of story was hacked out of the running time.

More Lovecraft Radio

I meant to add at least one more non-Lovecraft penned horror radio show to the blog in October but my trip to Florida has delayed things a bit. Here finally is Suspense's pretty smart version of The Dunwich Horror which recasts it as a radio broadcast much like the Mercury Theater altered War of the Worlds. Enjoy!

Horror movie marathons

(click to embiggen)
Back in the 1990s (feeling old now) each October I and a group of friends used to trek up to Columbus, Ohio to attend a 24 hour horror movie marathon. First held in the Drexal North Theater then moved to various places it was a long but fun trip that always made for great stories afterward. And the movies we got to see were great too! How else was I to see THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES, THE TINGLER, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, THE EXORCIST, Jose Larraz's VAMPYRES, SCARS OF DRACULA or a host of other great movies on the big screen? Those were great days but we stopped going around 2000 when it just started to become too hard to get everyone's schedules in order. It appears that they have continued doing the show and I would have loved to go this year. *sigh* Sadly it was the weekend I was in Florida......and I had no idea until today! Maybe next year. Maybe.

LINK

Italian Gothics list

Over at the web site Listal.com someone has compiled what might be a complete list of the Gothic Horror films made in Italy in the past five decades. Two things occurred to me as I ran through it.

1. Were there only 36 made?!?
2. There are a couple I haven't seen yet!!

But closer examination brought up other questions. Why are the last three considered right for this list? NOSFERATU IN VENICE doesn't seem to really qualify, THE CHURCH is a modern day tale and DARK WATERS just seems a stretch. I like all three movies but I've never thought of them as Gothics. Also, including THE REINCARNATION OF ISABEL is pushing things too. Its a completely crazed movie but its not really got much in the way of Gothic trappings. And TRAGIC CEREMONY wasn't a Gothic at all as I remember it. Also, I would have listed number 16 by its more impressive title CEMETERY OF THE LIVING DEAD.

Still, quibbles aside, its fun to have a list like this. It gives me a few movies to track down I was unaware of at all and its good for debates among aficionados.

LINK

CRESCENDO (1970)

While obviously one of the long line of psychological thrillers that Hammer (and plenty of other studios) were cranking out by the bucket load in the late 60s CRESCENDO elevates itself above the pack in several ways. The script co-written by Jimmy Sangster is one of his more interesting efforts in that, while stealing wholesale from earlier movies from his own pen such as PARANOIAC , SCREAM OF FEAR, NIGHTMARE and HYSTERIA, he added enough things to make it a bit fresher than it really should be. After all- the plot is essentially the exact same damned thing as three of the four movies I just mentioned! I used to wonder if Sangster wrote a whole new screenplay each time Hammer asked for one of these tales or just scratched out the old names and replaced them. But this is film we’re talking about here. A certain amount of stealing is expected and even lauded if you can make it somehow entertaining. Of course, I’m tempted to give some credit to director Alan Gibson as I’ve always been entertained by his often mocked 70s twofer of DRACULA AD ’72 and THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA but the truth is the director’s hand is only strongly felt a few times. Gibson does a good job with this story but another competent filmmaker could have probably done just as well.

I won’t run down the plot as I hope to encourage folks to see it. I’ll just mention the stand out elements that I feel worked or didn’t. First- I loved the bookend shot-on-location sections at the beginning and end of the film. As the entire center of the movie takes place in the house/on a (good) set, having the real locations there in those places made Susan’s (Stephanie Powers) arrival and departure seem very much like entering and leaving another world. Almost as if her stay in the French house of her musical hero and his bizarre family was a dream turned nightmare she was lucky to awaken from. In a recent online discussion of CRESCENDO a buddy pointed out the similarity of this bracketing device to Mario Bava’s LISA & THE DEVIL (1972). Powers is one of the best things about the movie in my opinion. She turns in a completely believable performance that makes the journey Susan takes sad and scary by turns. It doesn’t hurt that Miss Powers was a stunning beauty and I was not made unhappy by her time in a bikini or her brief moment of nudity either.

I also liked the sleazy aspects of the tale. There’s drug addiction, sexual deviancy of several types, blackmail and nasty jealousy around every corner. I was almost relieved when the matriarch (Danielle Ryman in a fine performance) of this sick household revealed herself as not quite the sick puppy I thought she might be. I was sure insest was on the plate but I was off a little. There is a dual role in the movie played by James Olson which is handled very well too. Olson has a tough job as he has to appear to be hiding things (which he is) but also seem honest in his affection for Susan. Attributing his swings of emotion and temperament to his addiction is the obvious thing and it provides a solid cover for the warring desires the actor has to play.

I also like the mystery at the center of it all. I can honestly say that when the answer to things popped up I was shocked. It was just about the last thing I was expecting. The small hints toward a supernatural element are almost always a red herring in these movies but I had started to think (as I’m sure we are supposed to) that Olson just went non-verbal in his heroin fits and pounded on the piano…. and maybe his mother, if you follow my incest thought progression. I like the vaguely sinister chauffer/servant played by Joss Ackland and the evil/sexy maid played by Jane Lapotaire. Her exit from the story is quite well handled with the sight of the drained pool adding to the mystery at the time as well as the creep factor.

The one story element that I didn’t think highly of was Susan’s falling in love with Olsen’s character. It was the one element that seemed, in a way, too much....except... Powers had me buying it. That's how good she is here, in my opinion. Also, the obvious emotional rush Susan was feeling at her amazing opportunity to write about her idol made it plausible (to a degree) that she would get swept up in a romance. It wasn't until after the film was over that I thought too hard about that aspect of the story which tells me the movie worked better than it had a right to.

So, if it sounds intriguing please check it out.

HAND failure

I give up! I have tried to watch Oliver Stone’s 1981 horror movie THE HAND twice now and haven’t been able to do it. This has nothing to do with the quality of the film in question. Not even the clear disinterest in the project that star Michael Caine displays could keep me from sitting through a disembodied hand movie. And he really does NOT seem to care here! Seriously- in some scenes it’s as if he thinks they were doing a camera test or a practice shot instead of an actual take! No! Indifferent acting is not the reason for me moving on to the next movie in the October stack. The truth is that I have tried two different DVDs of THE HAND from NetFlix and neither has been playable. The first looked as if it has been skipped across the Kroger parking lot for giggles and the second one has a strange dimple in it that locks the movie up at about the 17 minute mark.

So I give up. Maybe one day in the future I’ll see this flick but not this month. Or year.