PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Friday Night Movies 929

Sleep 2020 Written by Thomas Friedrich and Michael Venus, directed by Micheal Venus. A German film with the title of Schlaf.

Marlene is haunted by her dreams, she's filled dozens of journals with the same drawing of a hotel. She takes a trip to the small town of Stainbach and checks into the very hotel featured in her dreams. Marlene has a psychotic break and goes into a coma. Marlene's daughter Mona travels to Stainbach and stays at the same hotel.

Unbeknownst to Mona her mother has a connection to the hotel owner. He's a bad man and a Nazi clinging to their past glory. The hotel has been the home of three suicides and Mona can see glimpses of these past events. She mostly has a bad time on her visit and nearly dies. Luckily, Mona gets some help from her dead grandmother.

It's a arty ghost story that was a bit pokey at times. There's a fair bit of people staring off into the distance and static shots of the hotel and it's surroundings. There's also a bit of action, some romance, murder and the humorous drugging of the Nazis. We were all hoping they'd burn the hotel down with the Nazis in it but I guess the budget didn't allow. I liked it for the most part but didn't think I'd bother picking up a copy for myself.

Doctor Death: Seeker Of Souls 1973 Written by Sal Ponti and directed by Eddie Saeta. This is the only film Sal Ponti wrote, he was also producer. From 1959 to 1978 he appeared in 28 TV episodes and 4 feature films. His script for DD:SOS isn't very original.

The movie screams TV movie but I can't see any mention of it being one. I'm thinking with Eddie Saeta's film making background and the low budget it's what Eddie knows. Eddie only directed one film, this one, and it was the last credit on his IMDb page. In the 60s he directed an episode of The Man From Uncle and an episode of Hondo. His career started in 1937 as an assistant director at Columbia Pictures, in the 30s and 40s it was mostly Westerns.

In the 50s Eddie was AD on a couple of films I knew, Creature With The Atomic Brain and 20 Million Miles To Earth. In the 50s he was AD on a lot of TV. In the 60s he worked on 18 episodes of The Man From UNCLE and one of The Girl From UNCLE. He also was AD on Three Stooges In Orbit and The Three Stooges Go Around The World In A Daze. He gave Moe Howard his last role, he played a member of the audience at Doctor Death's magical soul transfer event. He had a speaking part and a bit of a joke.

John Considine plays Doctor Death and Barry Coe plays Fred. After the death of his wife Fred becomes obsessed with his wife returning from the dead. Doctor Death claims to have the power to transfer souls and that's why Fred goes to see him. Doctor Death puts on a soul transfer event to lure more customers for his services. A badly damaged woman is dying and that's what she needs to do to get her soul transferred into the freshly dead body of Sivi Aberg. DD is a showman and he jazzes up the transfer with a stage magician's sawing a woman in half trick.

This time there's no trick, he really saws a woman in half, blood dripping off the table top, then we see her soul transfer into Sivi. The badly damaged lady now has a nice new body to play around in. Somehow the transfer magically makes the dead woman whole and healthy again. It's all enough to lure Fred in, he pays DD's $50,00 charge, no prob. DD has a problem, he can't transfer the wife's soul into another woman, he can kill a woman and transfer her soul into the wife's dead body. It won't be the most important part of his wife but Fred will have her body back. It's a pretty stupid idea, especially when DD pick's Fred secretary as the new victim. Now Fred's got to man up and fight the monster.

Glad I saw it, I did enjoy the laughs, but I'll not be buying this one either. You can decide if you like it by clicking the title above and taking a gander at it on YouTube.

The Asphyx 1972

The Asphyx 1972 Story by Christina Beers and Laurence Beers, screenplay by Brian Comport, directed by Peter Newbrook.

Victorian scientists trying to figure out death find that a magical blur comes to collect the soul when someone is dying. They figure out how to capture the magical blur and gain immortality. It doesn't go well for the people involved. You'd think the screen writers had something against the poor saps.

Pretty much average. You can check it out on YouTube.

Friday Night Movies 908

Summer Of 84 2018 Written by Matt Leslie and Stephen J Smith, directed by François Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell. The 3 directors are the same three that wrote and directed the 2015 film Turbo Kid. I enjoyed that film more than this one, mostly because I'm not much interested in a serial killer story.

A 15 year old named Davey decides that the policeman who lives across the street from his family's house is the Cape May Slayer. The killer had written to the local newspaper confessing to the 15 previous killings. Davey sees some clues that lead him to believe the cop is the killer and he's convincing enough to get his three friends to help him investigate. Turns out Davey was right. That knowledge puts him and his gang in great jeopardy, especially once Davey's father, an incredible asshole, spills the beans to the cop. There's no happy ending for Davey once the cop is outed, he escapes the police dragnet, stopping briefly to threaten Davey with the promise of a return visit for a bit of revenge.

It's well made but the story isn't the sort of horror film I like. It's not something I'd bother with again.

Daughters Of Satan 1972 Story by John A Bushelman, screenplay by John C Higgins, directed by Hollingsworth Morse. I didn't recognize the title but I had seen it back in 2010. It didn't look familiar while we were watching it.

Tom Selleck is a museum curator in Manila. He sees a painting in a shop, it depicts three witches being burned at the stake, Tom notices the witch in the middle looks a lot like his wife Chris. He buys the painting and brings it home, Chris doesn't like it but somehow knows the name of the coven and the day they were burned at the stake. 

The painting is a cursed magical thing that allows the long dead witches a chance to take over the bodies of living women. When the witch possesses Chris her image in the painting disappears. Two other women are possessed and the reformed coven team up to get some revenge on the magistrate who ordered them burnt at the stake. That guy's long dead. No matter, the witches don't mind killing the relatives of their oppressors. Tom's that relative and it doesn't go well for him during the movie.

It's not much of a movie, it's struggling to get to average, I gave it a generous five. I doubt I'd need to see it a third time.

Friday Night Movies 904

Love Brides Of The Mummy 1973 Written by Vincent Didier and Julio Salvador, directed by Alejandro Marti. A Spanish French co-production that was released on Blu-ray by Mondo Macabre in a limited edition of 1200 copies. It's out of print and going for prices I wouldn't begin to consider. You can download a huge file of the movie over at Rarelust. The film comes dubbed in French with English subtitles or an English dubbed version. It also comes in two versions, one four mins longer than the other. We watched the longer version.

A Count lives in a castle with his servant Paul and a severed hand chained to the wall. An Egyptologist of some sort comes to the castle, the Count tells him about the Egyptian sarcophagus that was delivered to his castle. He opened it up and reanimated the mummy only to find it needed a supply of blood to rejuvenate itself. The mummy can hypnotize people and he takes over minds of the Count and Paul. The Count fights free and the mummy and Paul lock him up in the dungeon.

The mummy continues with his kidnapping, rape, torture and blood sucking of the local women. There's plenty of nudity but it adds little or nothing to the story. You'd think you were watching a Jess Franco film from the lowest part of his career. This was the director's second and last film. It's not surprising.

Eventually the Count escapes his imprisonment and hacks off the arm of the mummy. We don't see the actual severing, there's not much by way of gore in the film. Even the blood sucking scenes are weak, the ladies look like someone has rubbed chocolate sauce all over their necks.

Not a very good movie when said and done. I wouldn't need the Blu-ray as I wouldn't need to see it again.

Hey, Stop Stabbing Me! 2003 Written by Patrick Casey and Worm Miller, directed by Worm Miller. Patrick plays the lead character in the film. He's a bit of a better writer than he is an actor.

The film was made with a budget of $500 in Bloomington Minnesota. I live nearby and worked in Bloomington for 35 years. Casey and Miller went on to write Hollywood films and TV shows. I have not seen any of their other work but heard of their recent Sonic the Hedgehog film.

Patrick plays a college student who's done with college. He's got no home to go to so he takes a room in a house with some other young guys. His roommates are mostly annoying but one is a serial killer. Some of the previous tenants are thought to be buried in the garden.

The script throws one curve ball after another at Patrick, he gets a job but it's a weird one, he gets a girlfriend but she's a hyperactive sexpot who humps everyone available behind his back, the annoying house is made more annoying by the clothes stealing monster in the basement. The film ends with a battle to the death and more dead bodies in the garden.

It's pretty silly and some of the jokes hit well. It's got a weak script with too many coincidences and easy outs. Patrick can't go home to his parents house because they're away on a 3 month cruise. That's according to their phone message, he seems to be learning of it for the first time. You'd think he'd know that was going to happen and have made arrangements. Patrick seems overly clueless.

Still, despite that weakness there's some good entertainment value in the film. It's also shot and edited fairly well. The actors are fair to poor but they got me through the film to the end. I've put it on my Amazon Wishlist. Time will see if I follow through with a purchase, plenty on that list right now.

Friday Night Movies 901

Shriek Of The Mutilated 1974 Written by Ed Adlum and Ed Kelleher, directed by Michael Findlay, cinematography by Roberta Findlay. We watched the new Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray. Nice print of a really poor film.

Some college students go on an expedition to a house on an island. There's stories of a Yeti in the area. They have a boring drive up there and a horrible time at the cabin. There's a lot of yelling and running about in the woods.

There's nothing much to recommend about the film. They've got a turgid script and a poor cast to carry it off. Roberta's cinematography is pretty pedestrian with the occasional nice image. The music was inappropriate and annoying. The kind of movie I'd want to punch in the face. It has a nice level of weirdness but it just doesn't make up for for any of the bad work a person has to sit through. It sure made it's 72 min running time seem much, much longer.

Future Kick 1991 Written and directed by Damian Klaus, produced by Roger Corman.

Don the Dragon Wilson is a cyborg in this SF tale set in 2025. The rich have fucked off to the moon and the rest of humanity lives in poverty on the overcrowded Earth. A medical company uses the poor as a body parts bank for the rich. Meg Foster is a woman who goes to Earth to find her husband's killer. Then we find out it was all a simulated reality.

Total Recall came out the year before Future Kick. Not that you can compare the two films. In fact, this was worse than Shriek Of The Mutilated. It might be the reason that Damian never made another film. If I made that film, I'd want the ground to open up under me to save me from having to apologize for it again. Hopefully I'll forget about it by morning. I didn't find a copy on YouTube. So, small mercy.

The Great Alligator 1979

The Great Alligator 1979 Story by George Eastman, screenplay by Casare Frugoni and Ernesto Gastaldi, directed by Sergio Martino. Original Italian title Il fiume del grande caimano. That translates to The Giant Alligator River and the movie appeared under that name in a few places, in the US it was The Great Alligator. In Canada it was The Big Alligator River, that title was also used on the US DVD box. West Germany has my favorite title Der Fluß der Mörderkrokodile.

There's about 25 mins of nothing much going on until the alligator starts attacking a new tourist resort in Africa. It's really Sri Lanka but I couldn't tell. Mel Ferrer is the resort owner and Barbara Bach is assistant. A photographer is visiting the area when the attacks begin. Many locals are slaughtered and the living local believe it's the tourists fault. There's some tribe and tourist friction.

It's a below average giant monster movie but not by too much. I got a few laughs out of it but that first long stretch before the critter shows  up is a hump. When it does show up it lacks greatness. You can see if you like the movie on YouTube in the link above.

Grizzly 1976

Grizzly 1976 Written by Harvey Flaxman and David Shelton, directed by William Girdler and David Shelton. The poster says the bear is 18 feet, in the movie the bear is said to be 15 feet tall, the bear in the film is called Teddy and he's 11 feet tall. Still massive, they don't call them Ursus arctos horribilis for nothing. Teddy, Christopher George and and Richard Jaeckel were in the 1977 film Day Of The Animals together. It's a similar story to this film.

Christopher George is a park ranger where the grizzly decides to pick up lunch. There aren't supposed to be any grizzlies in the area, they were all wiped out by the locals a long while ago. Andrew Prine is a helicopter pilot who had a bad time in Vietnam. Richard Jaeckel is a naturist who studies the forest and provides the park staff with bear info. The local black bears aren't much of a problem but they like to know where they are and what they're up to anyway.

The grizzly starts slaughtering from the get go and he's eating the victims. He chomps on a smorgasbord of campers, hikers and hunters, man, woman and child. Christopher wants more help to hunt the bear. Rather than get more rangers or qualified help his boss lets the press in for a look around. He doesn't close the park right away. Then he lets a gaggle of hunters in, hoping they'll get the bear. That doesn't work out so well, many more are killed.

There's a lot of forest activity, it was filmed in Georgia and the area seems nice enough. I wouldn't care to go camping but I'd drive thought if I was nearby and younger. The campers there seem to like it, until the bear ravages them in their campsite. There's a fair body count and a lot of blood being splashed around. The gore makeup is of mixed quality, often fairly decent. Some of the grizzly interaction scenes aren't that well shot but the mechanical bear looked fairly good. Sadly the bears paws change from black to brown on occasion.

Despite the weaknesses the film did fairly well at the box office. The $750,000 cost turned a nice $39 million. It was the most financially successful Indy film of the year. I enjoyed it but only gave it a 5 on the IMDb where it has a 5.2 average. I watched it on YouTube, it's a fairly decent copy, here's the link.

The Turn Of The Screw 1974

 

The Turn Of The Screw 1974 Based on the 1898 novella by Henry James, screenplay by William F Nolan, directed by Dan Curtis. The last film in The Dan Curtis Macabre Collection. A made for TV movie that was shot in England.

Lynne Redgrave is the new governess, she finds her two new charges a handful, especially when the ghosts are about. Things get worse and it doesn't end well for anyone, especially the boy. It's not much of a place to live. I thought the movie was about average for a TV movie. I doubt I'd need to see again.

The Picture Of Dorian Gray 1973

The Picture Of Dorian Gray 1973 Based on the Oscar Wilde novel, screenplay by John Tomerlin, directed by Glenn Jordan, produced by Dan Curtis. Another selection from The Dan Curtis Macabre Collection.

A fairly decent adaptation of the novel. Shane Briant plays Dorian and Nigel Davenport plays Sir Harry Wotton. Dorian get his picture painted and his wish that the picture age while he doesn't comes true. He follows a path of evil treating people worse and worse until he's destroyed. It all takes years and years and as the painting grows hideous the man stays young and good looking.

I hadn't seen it before and I thought it was less interesting than the Dracula and Dr Jekyll films in the set. The 1945 version, The Picture Of Dorian Gray with Hurd Hatfield and George Sanders, is much more interesting and entertaining to me. I'd watch that before I watch this again.

Empire Of The Ants 1977

Empire Of The Ants 1977 Written by Bert I Gordon and Jack Turley, directed by Bert I Gordon. Bert's still going and he'll be 100 on September 24 2022.

I'd seen this not that many years ago and thought it was entertaining in a slight way. It scores a 4.2 on the IMDb and that's not an unfair score. I gave it a four. It's just not one of Bert's better works. Not that Bert had many good films in the 2 dozen he directed. There's a reason they featured on MST3K so often.

I found a Blu-ray of Empire Of The Ants and Jaws Of Satan. I didn't have either film and it was cheap. Now someone's selling copies on Amazon for $65 to $81. Stuff goes out of print quite quickly, despite not being worth that much moolah.

I mostly picked up the Blu-ray because it had a commentary by Bert. Despite his faults I was kind of interested in the guy because of his 50s films. He started as monster and horror film maker and has kept an oar in the genre ever since. Sadly Bert doesn't keep his oar in the water of the commentary. I don't know if it was his age, his lack of interests in doing a commentary, whatever he just wasn't participating very much in the process.

It doesn't help he was being interviewed by Kevin Sean Michaels. This guy was the worst host of a commentary I've come across. He was lackluster, didn't ask good questions and made dumb conversation. Only on a tiny number of occasions did he get Bert to reminisce about his past films for more than a yes or a no. It was mind numbing and frustrating to sit through. Boo on you Kevin.

Michaels film credentials including being an art director at Troma and making some short films, some TV and some documentaries. I can't say I've seen anything by him. I might be interested in his first couple of films, Vampira: The Movie and The Wild World Of Ted V Mikels. Hopefully they'll be less boring than this commentary.