20 Horror Movies for $7.50  — Part V.

Well this is strange.  I just discovered that I already saw this film on 09/07/13 (yeah, I keep track), but remember absolutely nothing about it.  One purpose of this blog was to force me to watch a lot of new films and old TV shows.  But I guess I set the precedent as a completist with the Night of the Living Dead rewatch, though, so here goes . . .

Darryl Coltrane (William Mopather) takes in his brother’s family after a fatal car crash. The accident is a little fishy as the cars ended up almost nose to nose with one of the them being upside down.  I can’t conceive of a scenario with that result.

The family is less than thrilled to now be living in a salvage yard in the boonies.  Darryl is a little creepy (naturally, being played by William Mopather), but he does take in his sister-in-law Helen and kids Lenore and Conrad.  Much to everyone’s surprise, there is soon another cuddly addition to the family.

No, Darryl didn’t knock up Helen (although the idea has clearly crossed his mind over the years she was married to his brother).  It turns out that dear old dad had another family.  The teenage daughter Sarah comes to live with the family at the junkyard.   Even though the family does not know the relationship, it is still awkward.

Conrad is an artist who’s scrap metal creations are so bad they could be featured in the Museum of Modern Art.  He is a good guy, though, offering his bedroom to her, and not as a bunkie.  Once she arrives, though, things start to get strange.

It is a question for a while whether it is Darryl responsible for the strange occurrences (such as a murdered duck).  Also, the visor falls out of Conrad’s welding mask and nearly blinds him.  Clearly Darryl does not want them there, and is set in his ways.  His passions are his junk and especially a car that he is restoring.

He is further cast as suspicious when he is shown in Helen’s bedroom watching her sleep, and when it is implied that he is peeking at Lenore taking a shower. Plus, he is still William Mopather.

Eventually, Lenore discovers the truth about Sarah and then people start dying or at least getting hurt.  Sarah begins tarting herself up and soon becomes a little Lolita rather than the awkward kid from the beginning.

There is not a whole lot of story, but i liked what was there.  All of the performances and the direction are solid.  It is a strange criticism, and sounds absurdly minor, but one of my few complaints is Helen’s voice.  It is so high pitched and girlish that I had to keep reminding myself that she was the MILF, er . . . mother.

Post-Post:

• I gave this 3 stars on NetFlix in 2013, and stand by that.  Would have gone 3.5 if I could.
• BTW, kudos to William Mopather for not living in Tom Cruise’s shadow.  He was on Lost and also worked with Brit Marling, so he’s Brando to me.
• Not a lot of effort in this review.  I saw the movie before and despite it being pretty good, I just can’t get too enthusiastic.
• These are the somber faces of women sitting beside their dying son/brother, who just saw their brother-in-law/uncle hanged, had a best friend murdered, and killed a young girl.  It’s Miller Time!

20 Horror Movies for $7.50 — Part V.

I read in several places that this film was the cream of the Asylum crop.  I assume that referred to the “mockbuster” titles.  I actually liked the Two-Headed Shark Attack and the Sharknado movies.

I haven’t haven’t the pleasure of seeing the er . . . homages such as The Terminators, The Day the Earth Stopped, or Transmorphers.  What’s strange is that this is considered a rip-off of I am Legend but bears little resemblance to that movie or any other movie made from that btheook.  Richard Matheson is even credited on IMDb (although not in the movie).

It gets off to a start that seems clear, but actually becomes more confusing as the movie progresses.  A young woman is frantically gathering a few key possessions and hustling her son into a pickup.  Sadly, one of the key possessions was not the keys, so she must go back into the house.  A zombie bashes her head into the windshield and her son is grabbed by a pair of hands under the truck.  Renchard (Mark Dacascos) sits bolt upright in bed with his gun drawn.

Cinematically, this tells us that the boy escaped and grew up to be Renchard.  He just awoke from a recurring nightmare about being unable to save his mother.  Or does it?  A few minutes later, he looks at a picture of the woman and boy — so possibly they were his wife and son, but that was a strange POV for a nightmare if he was not present?

The next half hour is literally a waste of 1s and 0s.  He imagines a radio is playing, he gets an incoming message on his laptop which he doesn’t answer, he shaves, brushes his teeth.  We do at least get a flashback that indicates they were his wife and son.

He literally punches a time clock and goes out in his ratty car do do his day job.  He is driving around placing explosive charges near gas lines, set to blow in 24 hours.  To what end?  This zombie infestation does not seem to be a local problem — what good is blowing up the city going to do?  And I suspect it is Los Angeles — he would need an H-Bomb to make a dent in that 500 square miles.  He does not appear to be a psychotic arsonist like Trashcan Man, so what is the point?

Vasquez Rocks

His robustly still-functional computer alerts him that he has another incoming message, but he again ignores it.  More confusion — is he just a nihilist, suicidal at this point and doesn’t want to meet other survivors?  It doesn’t seem so given his grooming and attire. Then why leave the messaging program open, and ignore it?

38 minutes in, he gets a visit from a couple of yahoos in a van.  One of them repeatedly calls him compadre which is an interesting character tic for about 3 times, but then just turns into an annoying drinking game as he uses it over and over and over.  They want Renchard to join them to go get the girl who was been texting him, but he isn’t interested.  It does get his attention when one of them asks when the charges are scheduled to blow.  Since they all seem to have LED readouts, that’s a pretty dumb question.

They get to the girl via sewers which apparently have the structure and reliability of Sunnydale.  And she really looks exactly like his mother.  This guy might have issues, but they’re about to get resolved.

At an hour and 6 minutes in, we finally get something interest, and an actual laugh.  I’ve already wasted too many words on this film, but it is the set piece that starts with the convertible in the parking garage.  It isn’t all that well staged, but it has some fun and some ideas — elements sorely lacking up to this point.

Sadly, things continue with a thoroughly unnecessary twist from a thoroughly unlikable character.  On the plus side, he can’t be blamed for ruining the movie.  Renchard comes through, though, in an unlikely final showdown.

There was a good movie to be had here and it had nothing to do with I Am Legend.  I just didn’t care for Renchard as the lead.  The bad guys were unlikable, but not in the good way.  And sadly, the girl was just a poor actress.  Combine that with some mediocre zombie make-up and direction, and you got yourself a major squandered opportunity.

Post-Post:

• Visually, the film was mostly a dud.  Really nothing made me want to do a screencap except the Vasquez Rocks.
• Title Analysis:  Not to be pedantic, but he is not Omega (the last).  Ω is the 24 letter of the Greek alphabet —  maybe there are 24 survivors.  Or maybe no one gave a shit.

20 Horror Movies for $7.50 — Part IV of XX.

I’ll say this for 20 Horror Movies for $5 — they had the restraint to not include Night of the Living Dead in yet another collection.

The more entertaining film would be the explanation of how this fell into the public domain and how many people George Romero killed after he got that phone call.  That would be fascinating — not enough to actually do 30 seconds of research — but fascinating all the same.

OK, I put in the 30 seconds and found an excellent article that explains it very well. Apparently no one was killed, and an argument can be made that it all turned out for the best.  Still, all the people who took advantage of a now-defunct legal technicality to hijack the movie are like Homer Simpson mocking the Suggested Donation sign at the museum.

Johnny and Barbra’s car appears as a speck on the horizon of a bleak landscape just like Peter O’Toole in the famous shot in Lawrence of Arabia; except the bleak landscape they are in is Pennsylvania.

They are making the annual trip to place flowers on their father’s grave.  There are a few lines that could have launched Tarantinoesque dialogue about Daylight Savings Time, and about what happens to the flowers that are left every day by mourners.  But that passes pretty quickly.

As Johnny is making fun of his sister for being afraid in the cemetery, she is grabbed by an old man who has shambled up from a tiny blip in the background just like their Pontiac (a company which has a future about the same as the old man’s, BTW).

Johnny is actually kind of a dick — driving gloves, really? — but I will say he immediately jumps in when the man grabs his sister.  Unfortunately, he falls and is knocked out, leaving the man to pursue Barbra.  She runs to the car, losing her shoes in the process — another Tarantino trademark.  Johnny has the keys, but she cleverly puts it in neutral and lets it roll down the hill as the man continues after her.  Not so cleverly, Danica Patrick here manages to run into a tree while racing along at 10 MPH.  Luckily there is a farmhouse nearby that she is able to break into.

Soon she is joined by Ben at the farmhouse.  If this is anything like the farm on The Walking Dead, this movie will be a year long and feel like five (but there will be hot farmer’s daughters).  Ben goes outside and dispatches several zombies with a tire iron (although the word zombie is never used). As others intrude into the house, he takes care of them too.  Unfortunately, Barbra is so scared she is in a near-zombie state herself.

After Ben has done all the hard work of zombie-proofing the house, Harry Cooper and Tom emerge from the basement.  There is immediately an argument about whether to stay upstairs or retreat to the basement.  Ben is set up to be the rational character, but it is Harry that actually has the more sensible strategy — stay in the basement.  But he’s white, bald and wearing a tie so his opinion is worthless.  Finally Tom brings his girlfriend Judy upstairs and Cooper goes back to the basement with his wife and sick daughter.

Later, in an effort to gas a truck up to flea to a safe-zone in Willard (although that area might be overrun by rats), Tom and Judy are killed in an explosion.  Ben is able to make it back to the house, but Cooper is more interested in getting back to the basement than in opening the door for Ben.  Once Ben is able to kick his way in, he understandably gets medieval on Cooper’s ass.

These zombies are smarter than The Walking Dead zombies — at least they have a rudimentary understanding of tools.  They begin using stones and pieces of wood to break into the house.  As Ben tries to hold the window, Cooper tries to steal his shotgun. Ben shoots him which really was unnecessary.  He does, at least, manage to fall down the stairs to his beloved basement — where he dies, his zombie daughter begins eating him, and their daughter kills Mom with a garden trowel.

Barbra finally become coherent again just in time for the next wave of zombie attacks. She is pulled out by her glove-wearing brother.  As all the doors and windows begin to give way to the zombie hordes, Ben heads to the basement for safety . . . hey maybe everyone would still alive if he . . . nawwwww.

With no fresh meat, the zombies just wander around upstairs mindlessly moaning and bumping into things like a cocktail party as Ben waits it out in . . . the safety of the basement.

The next morning, Ben hears the clean-up crew carrying guns, killing the remaining zombies and figures it is safe to come upstairs.  The whole movie could have been an advertisement for the 2nd Amendment and NRA.  Well, except for some yahoo blowing Ben’s head off at the end.

Post-Post:

• I cheated and watched a cleaner version on Amazon Prime.  They have a couple to choose from — the 40th Anniversary Edition seemed to have the best transfer.

20 Horror Movies for $7.50 — Part III of XX.

We open with a SWAT team opening fire on a house in the woods.  Amazingly, most of the men inside are able to escape despite their strategy of standing directly in front of the windows, backlit,  firing at the police.  The SWAT team pulls a Waco, but the men are able to escape down a hatch in the floor. I doubt this escape route is the length of the chunnel, but the police opt to not look for the exit.  The leader concentrates on interrogating the one man left behind.  When asked who they are, he replies, “The future.”

Cut to Nita (Lindsay Wagner) and Allison (Joanna Cassidy) driving through the mountains.  They meet up with their friend Connie her hot teenage daughter at a diner where they will begin their mountain climbing adventure.  With the all female cast, and one waving a guidebook that will no doubt prove useless, there is a definite The Descent vibe; without the, you know, quality.  So maybe it’s more of a The Descent II vibe.

They hire local drunk Ding (Tom Skerritt) to lead them on horses to the top of the mountain.  Near the summit, they encounter the survivalists who escaped the burning building.  They shoot one of the guides and start shooting the horses.  BTW, in various places they are referred to as Aryans, survivalists, Neo-Nazis.

One of the men accidentally stumbles onto Ding and they fight it out until the man goes over the waterfall.  The group now has to make a decision — should the hungover Ding try to trek the 15 miles to the ranger station through thick brush?  Yeah, the girls don’t put up much of a fight on that one.

On his way down the mountain, Ding snags a trip wire that sets off a grenade sending him tumbling down the mountain.  On the plus side, it probably cut 200 vertical feet off his trip, on the other hand — tumbling down 200 vertical feet and landing on rock.

Meanwhile, young Tracy is playing with her radio and is picking up a very staticky signal which is strange — since it apparently picks up FM, CB and walkie-talkie frequencies, it must be a pretty good piece of equipment.  Nita very sensibly suggests that she climb to the top of a nearby rock outcropping for a clearer signal.  When that doesn’t quite do it, she suggests pointing the radio upstream.  Now, I’m no Marconi, if you’re lost on a mountain, 1) I suspect radio signals do not flow downhill, and 2) I suspect the search party would be coming from downstream.

Ding finally wakes up with the world’s worst hangover; also hurting from the fall.  Soon his trusty dog Buster and the girls finds him.  On the radio, they hear that the group is on their trail.  The group also says to be sure to “keep two of them.”  Well, the college girl is clearly the first round draft pick, and I would go for Lindsay Wagner as the 2nd.

In short order, Ding gets shot, and his dog is killed.  As the men spot the group and begin pursuing them, things get so intense that Nita actually unbuttons her top button.

There is all kinds of potential here to be a great survival movie like The Descent, Eden Lake or a dozen others.   Sadly, there is almost no area where it excels.  I can’t recall a note of the score (if it even had one), the bad guys were boring, the police lacked such presence that they could have been cut from the script altogether, some locations were interesting, but muted by the cinematography (or, to be fair, the cheap transfer).  Most of the cast seemed capable, just poorly used.

The standouts were Skerritt and Lindsay Wagner.  Skerritt spent most of his screen time drunk or shot so his options were limited, but he did what he could with the role.  The producers (of “Rain Man” the cover tells us) missed a huge opportunity by not making Lindsay Wagner the center of the movie.  She is identifiable as a natural leader even from the time they are in the diner.  It takes forever to bring her into the action and get a gun in her hand; she doesn’t even get to cap off the last bad guy.

Joanna Cassidy realizing she is in 2 movies in this collection.

Sigourney Weaver looked tough, so never really felt like she as playing against type (only if you were watching the movie in the evil sexist 1970’s).  Lindsay Wagner is more an older version of Sarah Connor in the first Terminator movie.  They just seem like nice women, a generation apart, who both got caught up in something they were totally unprepared for.  Lindsay Wagner has shown in some nothing parts that she can dominate the screen — this could have been gr . . . well, much better.

Post-Post:

• Skerritt was one of Hawkeye and Trapper’s tent-mates in the movie MASH, but his character didn’t make it to the TV show.  So, Ugly John and Spearchucker Jones, they kept, but Duke was a little too controversial?  It was a different time.  Well, we’ll always have Dallas.
• Joanna Cassidy has been in 2 out of 3 movies in this collection so far.  On the plus side, they were the two best.

20 Horror Movies for $7.50 — Part II of XX.

Alana Powers (Joanna Cassidy) is outside the prison where serial killer Laurence Dvorak (Bruce Davison) is to be executed that night by “Big Keyboard” for creating an alternative.  One hour before the joyous occasion, she will have an exclusive interview with him.

The usual crazies are shown protesting outside the prison.  Special scorn is reserved for the people who respect human life (of the victims, that is) as they carry misspelled signs or wear t-shirts that say FRY ‘EM despite the fact there is only one guy being executed.

Like most “journalists” Alana can’t help fawning over a man who has killed 27 women, calling his acceptance of his fate admirable.  “Mr. Dvorak, you are a brilliant man, self-taught lawyer, contributor to several legal journals”, blah blah.  Meanwhile, the governor’s denial of a reprieve is harshly described as vehement.

During the interview, the guard stupidly allows Alana to have a pencil on the table.  This despite the fact that last year at that prison an inmate killed his lawyer by jabbing an Eberhard-Faber in his lawyer’s sound-hole.  As Dvorak’s hand inches near the sharpened pencil, the guard really lets him have it — by snapping his fingers at him.  Dvorak pulls his hand back, but a few seconds later knocks the pencil off the table.  As the guard goes to pick it up, Dvorak bashes his head into the table, takes his gun, and takes everyone in the execution chamber hostage.

Whatever value this film has had better start here.  Although there is a good cast, the cheesy music and amateurish direction have just about sunk it already.  Paradoxically, it appears cheaply shot on video, but the scenes that are supposed to be shot through the newsman’s camera look even more video-er.

Dvorak has Alana introduce him on camera again.  With her butt on the line, she now refers to him as a murderer and a psychopath.  He carefully poses his fellow death row denizens — which somehow include a woman — for the camera and asks Alana to start again.

Dvorak promises the audience a discussion about “the truth of the death penalty . . . and then someone will die . . . yes, someone will die. And you will see it right there in your living room.  It won’t be a sanitized TV series death.  Blood will flow onto your carpet.”

Because what better way to convince the public that the death penalty is wrong than to equate murdering an innocent person to the execution of a tried and convicted serial killer.  And ruin their carpet to boot.

Alana talks to the woman, who is in jail for killing her children.  She calmly tells Alana that she wasn’t crazy when she did it; her husband wanted to take custody of them — so of course the child-killer is irresistible to Alana.  If she had also shot a cop we might have had some girl-girl action.

Even when Alana surreptitiously speaks to her producer about the SWAT team preparing to rescue them, she refers to her rescuers as “stormtroopers.” As someone once said, “You have have to go to college to be this stupid.”

It would have been forgivable if this character was just a flaming criminal-loving do-gooder, but no effort is made to portray Alana that way.  In fact, her character is really supposed to be a bitchy, driven newswoman.  The sympathy toward the killers really just seems to be the natural inclinations of the film-makers shining through.  I suspect they believe all people think just like them; certainly anyone they ever deal with.  Well, except them racist tea-baggers what pay their salaries watching’m on the tee-VEE.

The warden cuts the power, and in retaliation, Dvorak straps the guard into the electric chair. Turns out he had been taken hostage by prisoners once before and raped repeatedly for 17 days.  Christ, who was managing that stand-off, Janet Reno?

Since then, he has taken his revenge out on the prisoners.  Dvorak is ready to throw the switch to electrocute the guard, but the child-killer volunteers to take his place.

Things do not go exactly according to Dvorak’s plan.  There are deaths, but some are off-camera.  The group is able to maneuver Dvorak into Old Sparky, and someone finally does the right thing.

I can’t say it is a criminally bad movie.  I think Cassidy does some good work to prop up an average script and robotic direction.  And Art LeFleur is always welcome.  Davison’s role could have been made riveting with a more intense actor, though.

Post-Post:

• This is a better than average transfer for one of these collections.  The colors and resolution are fine.  They are so good, in fact, that for the first time I realized how bad Joanna Cassidy’s teeth are.  From the front, no problem.  From the side, very jagged and there might even be a tooth missing — or at least double-spaced.
• Joanna Cassidy is a fine actress, but she really shows her acting chops by sincerely plugging this low-budget joint on E!  You were in Blade Runner, for God’s sake!
• Not to be confused with Live from Death Row by Mumia Abu-Jamal, which is no doubt on Alana’s bookshelf.