What I Watched in January

I was extremely reluctant to go see the first UNDERWORLD film in 2003. Judging by it's trailer the film smacked of silliness and stupidity wrapped in stylistic excess, but my girlfriend wanted to go so I went. To this day I'm thankful for her insistence because I loved the first film and it's entire universe of vampires and werewolves locked in an ancient war for dominance. Overly stylized? Yes. Blue tinted? Yes. More action film than horror story? Yes. But it worked on me and, to my greater surprise, so did the sequels. Call me a fanboy, I guess.

But now we have the fifth film in the series and I have to report that they have finally  disappointed me. For the first time I didn't get caught up in the story and I wasn't dazzled by the fight scenes. I didn't even give a damn what happened past a certain point. UNDERWORLD: BLOOD WARS is a dud.

Kate Beckinsale returns as Selene, the vampire warrior currently on the run from both her own kind and the Lycan race. Her daughter Eve from the previous film is quickly written out of the narrative other than as a McGuffin driving part of the story. Things hold together pretty well until about the halfway point when the double and triple crosses of the vampire elders becomes tedious and the Lycan threat begins to feel like where the film should have focused it's energy. As the film creeps along I found myself less and less interested in the events onscreen, merely hoping for things to wrap up already. That's right - for the first time an Underworld film bored me. It might be time to retire the franchise and move on.

It must be my month for films with colons in the their titles because I also went to the second run theater and caught OUIJA: ORIGIN OF EVIL. Checking this film out in the theater marks a first for me as I have never watched a prequel movie without having seen the original beforehand. I feared I would be missing vital information necessary to enjoy the story but two things pushed me to see it -  good word of mouth and the fact that it was made by director Mike Flanagan. Flanagan has proven himself to be a solid crafter of horror films in the past few years with ABSENTIA, OCULUS and HUSH all being well done, suspenseful exercises in the genre. I'm glad I chose to see this one too as it once again proves this fellow has the skills to build a career to be admired.

The film takes place in 1967 Los Angeles where a widowed woman and her two girls work a fortune telling scam to earn a living. When the eldest daughter suggests incorporating a Ouija board into their séances the mother agrees but then unknowingly contacts a spirit that takes possession of the younger daughter when she foolishly uses the board alone.

At first the spirit seems benevolent helping the family by revealing a cache of hidden money in the basement and turning their fake medium act into the real thing. But after the young girl is seen to be writing a lengthy document in a language she doesn't know the local priest is asked to intervene. Eventually they learn the dark secret of the family's house, who the possessing spirit really is and why using a Ouija board was a bad idea to begin with. The film is creepy, well paced, scary and very well done on every level. I guess I should see the first film to find out if it measures up to this excellent prequel.

THE LIST

GIRL MISSING (1933) -6 (fast and funny mystery with the great Glenda Farrell)

MISTER SUPERINVISIBLE (1970) - 4

THE CAREY TREATMENT (1972)- 8 (James Coburn as a murder solving doctor)

UNDERWORLD AWAKENING (2012) -7 (rewatch)

UNDERWORLD BLOOD WAR (2017)- 5

THE SHINING (1980) - 9 (rewatch)

ROOM 237 (2012) - 7 (rewatch)

RUN OF THE ARROW (1957)- 8 (Sam Fuller western)

THE DEVIL MAKES THREE (1953)- 7 (Gene Kelly in post-war Germany drama)

THE PHANTOM PLANET (1961) - 4 (rewatch in colorized form)

HEAVENLY BODIES (1984)- 5 (cheesy, silly and obvious aerobics drama that somehow works)

BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE (2016) - 8 (excellent animated adaptation)

STUNTS (1977) - 6 (pretty good on-set mystery)

THE NAKED FACE (1984)- 7 (mystery thriller with Roger Moore)

RESIDENT EVIL RETRIBUTION (2012) - 7 (rewatch)

THE LAST FRONTIER (1955) -6 (Anthony Mann western)

HAWK OF POWDER RIVER (1948) - 4 (standard B-western staring Eddie Dean)

OUIJA: ORIGIN OF EVIL (2016) - 7 (prequel is solid - guess I need to see the first film)

THE EVIL MIND (1935) - 7 (a.k.a. THE CLAIRVOYANT)

INQUISITION (1976) - 8 (rewatch)

THE TERRIBLE PEOPLE (1960) - 7 (West German crime film based on an Edgar Wallace novel) 

Bernie Wrightson Cover Art

ONE ON TOP OF THE OTHER (1969)

George Dumurrier (Jean Sorel) is a supposedly wealthy doctor with his own medical clinic in San Francisco. His brother Henry (Alberto de Mendoza) helps run the private clinic but the siblings often clash over George's sometimes crass publicity attempts to get the facility better recognition. At home things are not great either, as George's rich wife Susan (Marisa Mell) is a virtual shut-in suffering from asthma and requiring almost constant care. The couple's relationship is in bad shape and he has been denied access to the areas of the house Susan occupies. On top of this is the poor man's newly strained relationship with his long time mistress Jane (Elsa Martinelli), who is close to deciding to leave him and the city. He loves Jane but knows that without his wife's money his debts would destroy him. Has this guy got problems or what?

Only by making a grand romantic gesture does George manage to change Jane's mind and convince her to stay in Frisco. He makes vague promises of divorce and hints that his rich wife can't life forever in her condition. No sooner does this conversation take place than he receives word that Susan has died! Completely shocked by her death he is even more surprised when he learns that she'd taken out a life insurance policy naming him as the sole beneficiary. While this unexpected windfall will allow him to clear the clinic's debts and put him comfortably in the black, he can't understand why she would've done this. The marriage had been on shaky ground for years and Susan had made her displeasure with his financial dealings known. The police show some interest at first but nothing suspicious is  evident, so they leave things alone.

Then a few weeks later George receives an anonymous call telling him to go to a particular nightclub. He does, accompanied by the suspicious Jane, and witnesses the striptease act of Monica Weston (also Marisa Mell). Stunned by the uncanny resemblance to his dead wife, he can only see two minor differences —hair and eye color. Monica is a blonde, green-eyed beauty while Susan was dark haired with brown eyes. After her stage act the sexy woman makes it plain that she's available for sex with George and Jane or the both of them if the price is right; he begs off but is far too intrigued to let it go. He contacts Monica on his own and meets her at her apartment. After a scare when he notices a drug Miss Weston uses that Susan needed as well, George becomes convinced it's just a bizarre coincidence but is it, really? 

This is a crackerjack of a film! Lifting both the setting and the central conceit of a dead beautiful woman's doppelganger from Hitchcock's Vertigo, Lucio Fulci (Zombie) doesn't simply make a copy of that portrait of obsession. He comes at the story sideways, like some kind of sex-crazed loon hell-bent on one-upping Hitch while playing, tricking and mesmerizing his audience. Unlike Vertigo's nice guy protagonist we're presented with a main character we can't sympathize with very much. He's a bit of a con artist, willing to lie to advance his business prospects. He's clearly no longer in love with his wife — if he ever was — and as we see her gasping for air during an asthma attack the look of hurt accusation in her eyes invites our hostility toward him. But then during a stylishly filmed lovemaking scene, as he gently holds his mistress, we see someone we could possibly like. And after his mad race to Jane's train destination we see him as a flawed man certainly, but not the monster he might have been. And, of course, the fact remains that we know he didn't kill his wife. So when the finger of guilt points to George we're with him because we understand his confusion. And what a lot of confusion he has to contend with!

Of course, one of the things confusing poor George so is also one of the big reasons cult film fans have been drawn to this movie for decades — the beautiful Marisa Mell. Playing both Susan and Monica, she is very good here, showing more range than she was usually allowed. When first we see her as the pale, dark haired woman at death's door it's a bit of a shock to viewers familiar with her from Danger: Diabolik. In that Bava comic book classic she's the epitome of sexiness; as the sickly wife she is a haggard mess. But don't despair if you picked this film out to ogle bare flesh, because as Monica we're given the chance to stare at her gorgeous body in scene after scene and in many fetching poses. The sequence in which Jane photographs the stripper in her private studio has enough imagery to jumpstart puberty in an 8 year old! I think that even if the film's story stank it'd be worth seeing for a lot of people simply because of Marisa Mell's many nude scenes. She was certainly one of the most beautiful women to grace European films in the '60s and '70s, and if there's a film that shows more of her physical charms I'm unaware. And if there is one, please contact me immediately!

Be aware that the version of this film released several years ago on domestic DVD under the alternate title PERVERSION STORY is the shorter 97 minutes cut. I much prefer the 107 minute version of the film as that time adds depth and character to this excellent mystery. With luck this Fulci classic will show up on Blu-Ray soon. 

Bernie Wrightson's Aliens

Bernie Wrightson's Batman

Bernie Wrightson Vampires

Bernie Wrightson Werewolves

Today I read that artist Bernie Wrightson was retiring due to an illness that has impaired his ability to draw and paint. I have been lucky enough to meet Mr. Wrightson and have him sign my copy of his magnificent version of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein but I always thought I'd have the chance to talk to him again at another convention down the road. Here's hoping he is comfortable in his retirement and feels the love and affection of his millions of fans.