Combat Shock (Buddy Giovinazzo, 1986)
Poverty row
Taxi Driver variant about Frankie; a disturbed Vietnam veteran on skid row struggling to provide for his nagging wife and mutant baby. Grim and depressing in every way imaginable this well intentioned, ambitious cheapie is sadly undone by it's budgetary short comings. Whist
Combat Shock is reasonably well written and photographed; the acting (particularly from a gang of drug dealers) leaves a lot to be desired, and ultimately undermines the material. Giovinazzo was clearly going for that gritty urban documentary feel that worked so well in films like Frank Henenlotter's
Basket Case, but never achieves the same level of authenticity. Plus Frankie's Vietnam flashbacks in which we see real footage interspersed with laughably staged battles, are amateurish at best. Add to that shots of his deformed baby who looks more like something from
The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb, and you're left with a tonally uneven mess that's a real chore to sit through. Shame.
Prey (Norman J. Warren, 1978)
A murderous (carnivorous) alien on a scouting mission to earth (Barry Stokes) ends up the guest of a quarreling (vegetarian) lesbian couple in their secluded country retreat; the possessive man-hating Josephine (Sally Faulkner) and suggestible submissive Jessica (Glory Annen). Whilst his odd behavior and food intolerances are initially passed off as male eccentricities, it gradually dawns on Josephine that he's most likely mad, and a rival for Jessica's affections. Offbeat, original take on the familiar alien invasion genre is largely successful thanks to believable well written characters, and three strong performances. Warren makes the most of what must have been a shoestring budget with effective minimal alien makeup, clever choice of location, and bizarre touches like the couple dressing Stokes up in drag for a celebratory dinner. Undeniably exploitative, with the obligatory lesbian sex scene, but arty and intelligent, with a delightful dreamy atmosphere, and some satisfying scare scenes. Having been partly raised by a lesbian couple, I had personal motives for wanting to see this film when I read the plot synopsis, and it didn't disappoint. Two thumbs up.
The Manitou (William Girdler, 1978)
Hilarious nonsense adapted from Graham Masterton's novel about woman who develops a growth on her back which turns out to be the reincarnation of an ancient Indian medicine man. Saving the day is Tony Curtis (clearly having a ball) as a tarot reading charlatan who resorts to calling in real Indian mystic John Singing Rock (Michael Ansara) for help. Clearly third rate hokum, but with a lively sense of humour from a spirited cast who make what should be bottom of the barrel garbage very watchable indeed. Throw into the mix some surprisingly decent special effects, and a wham bam ending involving Curtis calling on the spirits of the hospital computers for help, and you have a fun little time filler on your hands.
Season of the Witch aka Hungry Wives (George A. Romero, 1972)
+
Not to be confused with the crappy
Halloween sequel, this largely unseen early effort from Romero fell victim to bad promotion from distributors who refused to put his name (which was hot on the back of
Night of the Living Dead) above the title, and insisted on calling it
Hungry Wives. As a result many people assumed it was a porn film, and those who did see it were left sorely disappointed by the lack of exploitative content on offer.
Season of the Witch isn't porn
or a horror film, but a feminist drama given Romero's own unique stamp. Jan White plays Joan Mitchell; a sexually repressed housewife with an abusive controlling husband who regularly goes out of town, and a hormonal teenage daughter who gets more sex than her. Her best friend Shirley (Ann Muffly) is menopausal, and feels life has passed her by, whilst the rest of her friends seem content to play bridge and gossip. Craving empowerment and excitement Joan begins practicing witchcraft after a visit to a local tarot reader who inspires her. Believing herself to have new found magical powers she casts a spell to lure the local womanising school teacher Gregg (Raymond Laine), round to her house and begins an affair with him. Gradually her obsession with witchcraft takes over as the lines between reality and fantasy blur eventually leading to murder...
Essentially a character study and social commentary on gender roles, female empowerment, sexual frustration, and aging; Romero gives this low budget outing a very personal (if somewhat claustrophobic) feel with lots of close quarters photography, hints at occult symbolism, and some excellent honest dialogue. Particularly brilliant is the scene in which Gregg (much to the disgust of Joan) fools Shirley into believing she's smoking a joint, just to put some excitement and rebellion back into into her jaded life. To me that scene served as a metaphor for the whole film, as Shirley's feeling of empowerment was based on the magic of deception, much like Joan's. It's also brilliantly acted, not only by Jan White who Romero felt was tailor made for the role, but by Laine as the cocksure lothario, and particularly Mufflly as Joan's middle aged friend. To sum up, this isn't going to appeal to everyone, certainly not strict horror and sexploitation fans looking for blood boobs and beast. But as I was expecting neither, the substance, fine performances, and gritty low budget film making on offer here proved hugely satisfying.
Vigilante (William Lustig, 1983)
Mild mannered factory worker Eddie Marino (Robert Forster) goes all Charlie Bronson after his son is killed (shotgunned in the bathroom) and wife stabbed by yet another vicious street gang. The gang leader is identified and caught, but given a suspended sentence by a lenient judge after plea bargaining. Naturally Eddie loses it and tries to throttle the judge getting thirty days in the slammer for his trouble. On his release he's left with no option but to seek help from Fred Williamson (I mean who wouldn't want The Hammer on their side) and his gang of vigilantes. Bloody retribution follows, involving one scene in which a couple of cops are brutally machine gunned in their car
Reservoir Dogs style. Gritty, nasty stuff with plenty of violence, a good cast (which includes Woody Strode as Eddie's aging prison mentor), and macho posturing from Williamson. Sadly it's also incredibly dumb, with one dimensional characters, and a generic, predictable plot.
Rolling Thunder it ain't, but as a mindless action film you could do a lot worse, especially if you like the genre. Which leads me onto this turkey...
Exterminator 2 (Mark Buntzman, 1984)
Exterminator star Robert Ginty sadly passed away on the 21st of September this year, and I thought it only right to re-watch the two films he's best known for. I haven't tabbed
The Exterminator because, it's been covered recently, but I am a fan of that movie despite the poor editing, and derivative script; in short it's brutal, and kicks ass. I give it a
-.
Exterminator 2 on the other hand is one of the worst sequels I've ever seen. Once again there's a vicious gang of street punks on the loose (are there any other kind?), this time led by X, played by Mario Van Peebles who looks like he's auditioning for a Kid n' Play video. Ginty who's swapped his blow torch for a flame thrower this time round, has a girlfriend in the form of sexy dancer Caroline (Deborah Geffner), but not for long. Naturally she gets crippled, then murdered by Peebles and co, forcing our welding masked hero back into action to make human barbecue out of them. By the numbers isn't the word for this grade Z dreck. Ginty (who's started combing his hair back eighties style) phones it in, and that's only when he's on screen. All the scenes with him hidden behind the welding mask are clearly performed by a stunt double; what a con. Add to that the most inappropriately annoying 80's filler music in every scene, and lunkheaded dialogue from X such as
'where's my dugs', and don't even get me started on the scene in which Ginty goes all
A Team on us and turns a garbage truck into a heavily armoured snow plow.
Anyway R.I.P. Robert Ginty, thanks for being so cool in
The Exterminator, and I'm only sorry you had to suffer the indignity that is
Exterminator 2.
Alice, Sweet Alice aka Communion (Alfred Sole, 1976)
Is this the most bonafide link between the 70's Italian giallo, and 80's American slasher? Of the films I've seen it would certainly appear so. It's also one of the best gialli/mystery thrillers/slashers (take your pick) I've seen. Set in a 1960's New Jersey catholic community, suspicion falls on the mentally disturbed Alice after her younger sister is strangled and immolated at her first Holy Communion. A further murder, and vicious knife attack take place in her apartment block by a figure wearing the same yellow rain slicker and doll mask she likes to play in. The evidence is overwhelming, and Alice is sectioned, but is she really the killer?
Sole (who's oddly done nothing noteworthy since) crafts a labyrinthine psycholigical mystery masterclass that keeps you guessing right up to the final chilling frame. It's wonderfully photographed, with stylistic nods to Nicholas Roeg's
Don't Look Now (the rain coat), and murder set pieces that recall early Dario Argento. Paula Sheppard is incredibly convincing as the clearly insane, and very creepy Alice, and the film serves as a damning comment on the closed, superstitious nature of deeply religious communities. The doll mask worn by the killer would signal a trend in the slasher boom that would follow, as this film ranks up there with Bob Clark's earlier
Black Christmas, and Dario Argento's
Deep Red, as
the seminal 70's slashers. It's also much better than what was to follow in my opinion. I'd also like to thank Honeykid for recommending this one. Thanks HK.
Other stuff I watched...
The Dark (John 'Bud' Cardos, 1979)
-
Not even William 'Rolling Thunder' Devane can save this clunker about an alien that fires lasers from it's eyes terrorizing L.A. Originally conceived as a zombie movie, this was radically re-edited and effects spliced in after the success of
Alien. What can I say, it shows...badly. The rarely seen closeup alien effects look rather good, but most of the time the monster shambles around in zombie like fashion as does the boring overlong script. There is a cool final showdown in which a group of police get 'lasered', but I was really struggling to stay awake. Good cast though.
Bad Moon (Eric Red, 1996)
Michael Pare goes to visit his sister (Mariel Hemingway) and nephew after being bitten by a werewolf and murdering some people in the woods. His reasoning? Maybe family love can cure the curse, duh. Dumb, by the numbers werewolf flick, hampered by Pare's wooden performance, and some truly awful CGI transformation sequences. Partially redeems itself with an exciting showdown sequence involving the family dog Thor (the biggest star of the movie) fighting the monster, but most likely forgettable unless you saw it as a kid.
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