Category: Horror Movies (Page 86 of 96)

Scare of the Day: “Premature Burial” / “X – The Man with X-Ray Eyes”

October 9, 2007 /

Trying to put together a definitive box set of Roger Corman films would be a fool’s errand. Between the number of different studios he’s worked for over the years and the sheer volume of the man’s work as a director and producer, there’s just no way you could ever put together anything that could truly be called a definitive representation of his career. Still, give MGM credit for taking a shot at it with The Roger Corman Collection; at best, it’s still only a mixture of good, great, and utter dreck…but, then, that’s Roger Corman in a nutshell, anyway.

For the purposes of our Scare of the Day feature, we’ll look at two of the eight films within the set today, then hit up one more tomorrow. Today, however, has been officially declared Ray Milland Day at Premium Hollywood, which means that we’ll be tackling 1962’s “Premature Burial” and 1963’s “X – The Man with X-Ray Eyes.”

“Premature Burial” is based on a short story by Edgar Allen Poe, an author whose works were regularly plundered by Corman for his films. I say “plundered,” but I’m really only kidding; in truth, modern audiences would probably be way less familiar with Poe’s work if it hadn’t been for Corman’s adaptations of “House of Usher,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Raven,” “The Masque of the Red Death,” and “The Tomb of Ligeia.” For that alone, he deserves praise, even if he hasn’t always been 100% on the mark when transitioning the stories into films.

In the case of “Premature Burial,” unfortunately, I can’t make a comparison between the two, having never read the original short story, but I will say that Corman succeeds in putting together a creepy tale of Guy Carrell, a man who’s convinced that he suffers from catalepsy. If you’re not familiar with that particular malady, here’s the scoop: it’s a condition characterized by muscular rigidity, fixity of posture and decreased sensitivity to pain…and in the days before medical technology really took off, it wasn’t too hard for someone in the midst of a cataleptic seizure to be declared dead.

Carrell is in the midst of a full-on obsession with his possible catalepsy, to the point where he even breaks off a relationship with Emily Gault (Hazel Court) because he feels he can’t give it his all. She convinces him to give her a chance, however, and they end up married…if not necessarily happily. Carrell is sure that his father was buried alive while in the midst of a seizure, and to avoid any possibility of such a thing happening to him, he designs a crypt for himself that’s equal parts Rube Goldberg and Dr. Frink from “The Simpsons.” It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad. Eventually, Emily convinces her husband to have his father’s remains exhumed, so he can see once and for all that it was a legitimate, peaceful death…and not to spoil it for you, but, um, that screen shot is of Carrell’s dad, and I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t look like a smile on his face. “Premature Burial” is an enjoyable Gothic horror flick, and while it’s gotten some rather unfair complaints over the years because Milland took the lead rather than Corman’s usual Poe go-to man, Vincent Price, there’s no question than our man Ray plays the role with all the intensity it requires.

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Scare of the Day: “Jekyll”

October 8, 2007 /

Since we’ve already made one visit to the world of the BBC, let us keep that trend alive by chatting today of a second, more recent horror-themed endeavor by the network: “Jekyll,” an updating…or, more accurately, a continuation of the classic Robert Louis Stevenson tale of a man and his dark side.

Well, actually, saying that it’s a continuation isn’t exactly true, either. This is, you see, a rather complex tale, one which takes place predominantly in present day England while also taking a few trips into the past as well, including at least one jaunt to the era of Stevenson’s original tale…but, then, trying to explain the why and wherefore of said expeditions would give away more of the plot than would be appropriate for us to do, so let’s avoid that and just offer up the general concept of the series.

In this incarnation, we don’t actually have a Dr. Jekyll, per se. In fact, his name is Dr. Jackman…but, of course, he’s not unaware of the similarity between his name and the classic Stevenson character, especially given that he himself has a darker self who comes out to play on occasion. There’s no potion involved in this transformation, however, nor are the differences between Dr. Jackman and his Mr. Hyde nearly as dramatic as those in most other versions of the tale; here, James Nesbitt plays both roles, and it’s more to do with adjustments in hairline and facial expressions than anything like, say, becoming a monstrous hairy figure.

There’s a further difference between Drs. Jekyll and Jackman that adds quite an important wrinkle to the proceedings: Dr. Jackman is married with children, and Mrs. Jackman (Gina Bellman) hasn’t a clue about her husband’s “friend.” This is mostly due to Jackman playing it as safe as humanly possible, creating a co-existence with Hyde via back-and-forth messages (notes, tape recordings, etcetera) without ever letting him in on the fact that he has a family out there. Inevitably, of course, Hyde finds out, and it’s not a pretty scene at all. The back-and-forth between Jackman and Hyde isn’t the end-all and be-all of “Jekyll,” however, but, unfortunately, to tell you a great deal more would be to give away the surprising fun of the series. Suffice it to say that there are others in the world who are aware of Mr. Hyde’s existence and are quite interested in finding out exactly how the transformation occurs…and, more importantly, how to reproduce it; it’s easier said than done to get hold of Mr. Hyde, however, since he’s full of surprises, including near-superhuman strength and senses.

As one might expect, much of the success of “Jekyll” sits on the shoulders of Nesbitt, who manages to keep things subtle while playing Jackman and then taking it well over the top when portraying Hyde…and, boy, is it way, way, way over the top at times. Don’t get me wrong, he’s equally funny and chilling, and if you’ve never seen Nesbitt’s work before, watching his work in the series will put his name on your “keep an eye out for that guy” list. But even with that said, there are still a few occasions during the course of these six episodes where one wonders if the director had gone to lunch, leaving no-one to tell Nesbitt to “reign it in just a tad, Jimmy.”

As with so many other British series, “Jekyll” ends long before it’s worn out its welcome and, indeed, leaves viewers wanting more, providing a final scene which, even after gripping the arms of my chair for all six episodes, I still didn’t see coming. (My wife and I watched it separately, and she called me after I watched it, mostly just to say, “Holy shit, could you believe that?”) There’s been no word on whether we’ll get any further adventures of Dr. Jackman and his legacy, but we can always hope.

Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, Horror Movies, Reviews, Scare of the Day, TV, TV Dramas, TV Sci-Fi

Scare of the Day: “Count Dracula”

October 7, 2007 /

Heaven (or Hell) knows that the Gothic horror tale of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” has been told about a zillion times over the years, often with considerable liberties taken with both the novel as well as its titular character; in fact, it’s been changed so many times over the years that one might get the idea that doing an adaptation that’s more or less faithful to the Stoker text isn’t worth doing. In 1977, however, the ever-diligent BBC produced a version – entitled “Count Dracula” – that, in addition to being one of the most precise transitions from novel to screen, is a pretty damned good viewing experience all around.

Here, the Count is played by Louis Jordan, who, even with credits on his lengthy resume which range from “Gigi” to “Octopussy,” will always be most fondly remembered by this writer for his villainous turn in “Swamp Thing” (and, to a decidedly lesser extent, “The Return of Swamp Thing”). Your mileage may vary as to your opinions on how he plays the role of Dracula, but I was entertained by the vaguely smug manner in which he reacted to those persons reacting to him. Other actors of note who appear in the production are Frank Finlay (he played Porthos in a trio of “Musketeers” films) as Professor Van Helsing, and Judi Bowker (she was Princess Andromeda in “Clash of the Titans”) as Mina Westenra.

The production bounces back and forth between film and video, like most BBC productions, but given that there’s decidedly no shortage of real castles in the UK, it looks quite authentic more often than not. Director Philip Saville (“Mandela,” “Metroland”) opts to utilize a film-negative effect when Count Dracula is feeding, with an additional amount of red around the eyes; it looks a mite cheesy nowadays, but not in, say, a mid-’70s “Doctor Who” way. (In other words, you see what he was going for and learn to accept it pretty quickly.) There are some surprisingly disconcerting moments throughout the proceedings, the most notable of the bunch being when the Brides of Dracula are clearly shown to be feeding on the blood of a baby; apparently, the scene was excised from various rebroadcasts over the years, but it’s intact on this DVD release. It’s also an inexpensive but effectively creepy moment when we see Dracula crawling down the wall of his castle, a scene which apparently had never been included in an adaptation of the novel before.

Given that it is an impressively faithful adaptation of the Stoker novel, “Count Dracula” can get a bit slow at times, but all told, I’d personally pick this over Francis Ford Coppolla’s version.

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Scare of the Day: “Ice Spiders”

October 6, 2007 /

As God is my witness, I don’t know how anyone could screw up any film with a description like this one:

“At a secret mountain-top government lab, a visionary scientist breeds giant spiders in order to use their super-strong silk to make lightweight body armor and new weapons. Suddenly, the aggressive spiders escape, invading a nearby ski resort and embarking on a killing spree among the guests and staff. Now, it’s up to the mad scientist’s colleague and a former star skier to take control of the chaos…before the entire resort is leveled!”

There’s only one word for this premise: GENIUS.

Unfortunately, if there’s any sort of Giant Spiders Union, then I’d recommend that a designated representative from the organization hightail it over to Sony to protest the God-awful acting in “Ice Spiders.” While I realize that you come to expect a certain level of badness in any Sci-Fi Channel original film, it’s so bad here that, for the first 40 minutes of the movie, I was convinced that there hadn’t been such a waste of giant spiders in a feature-length film since…well, truth be told, I think you’d have to go all the way back to the 1975 Alan Hale, Jr. vehicle, “The Giant Spider Invasion.” (If you’ve never seen it, surf immediately over to the online store of your choice and place an order for “The ‘Mystery Science Theater 3000’ Collection, Volume 10” right this minute.)

I was never a “Melrose Place” devotee, but I’m led to understand that it’s a vaguely big deal that “Ice Spiders” manages to reunite three of the series’ stars: Thomas Calabro (Dr. Michael Mancini), Patrick Muldoon (Richard Hart), and Vanessa Williams (Rhonda Blair). Calabro does well enough as the leader of the commando unit that’s trying to stop the spiders, but Williams is completely out of her element as a geneticist, and Muldoon turns in such an absolutely awful performance as a former championship skier that you can’t even believe that he’s a professional actor.

Giant spiders and “Melrose Place” fans won’t be the only ones let down by this film. Anyone who spots the DreadCentral.com blurb on the front cover of the DVD and thinks to themselves, “Wow, I didn’t even know I wanted to see a see a film that’s a cross between ‘Eight Legged Freaks’ and ‘Hot Dog: The Movie,’ but now I realize that my life won’t be complete until I do,” should get ready for profound disappointment. This is in no way a comedy. Like 99% of all Sci-Fi Channel original movies, “Ice Spiders” takes itself way more seriously than its budget or performances can stand. It’s a movie about giant spiders, people. There’s only one person in the film who seems to know how to treat the material, and that’s David Millbern, who plays the role of a not-evil-just-misguided scientist like he’s doing a Will Arnett impression, and his delivery is right on the money.

To be fair, the skittering of the obviously-CGI spiders makes for fun viewing, and when our eight-legged friends have the run of the film, you remember that, yes, there was once potential for this movie. Okay, so a film directed by the man who brought you “Mansquito” and “Killer Rats” was never going to be as good as the premise of “Ice Spiders” deserved.

But, dammit, I had such hopes…

By the way, in lieu of a trailer, here’s a clip from the TV Guide Channel where they do an Action Figure Reenactment of a scene from the film. It’s more entertaining than the film itself, but mostly because they repeatedly display that they don’t know a single thing about the movie by inaccurately referring to Vanessa Williams as being the former Miss America and the co-star of “Ugly Betty” when, in fact, it’s the other Vanessa Williams who’s in this:

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Scare of the Day: “Poltergeist II: The Other Side” / “Poltergeist III”

October 5, 2007 /

I hadn’t really intended to focus on films that weren’t currently sitting in my “To Review” pile during the Scare of the Day feature, but given that last night found my wife and I attending a 25th-anniversary screening of “Poltergeist,” it seemed like an appropriate time to revisit that film’s two sequels, which were released as a 2-fer DVD a few years back.

I’ll go into this in more detail when I do a full review of the “Poltergeist” DVD reissue, but, for the purposes of this column, let me just say that, despite having seen the movie probably two dozen times over the course of the last two and a half decades, last night was the first time I’d ever seen the film in a theater. As such, it was the first time I’d really appreciated it as something other than just a string of scary moments and special effect sequences. Oh, it’s still a damned creepy film (even if the face-ripping scene seemed a lot creepier 25 years ago), but I’d never realized that it owes its effectiveness to the fact that it takes its time building an emotional core; by not feeling rushed, you’re given the opportunity to actually care for the characters…and that’s something neither of the film’s sequels allow for.

Given the success of the original film, it was pretty much a given that there’d be a sequel, and the good news was that Jobeth Williams (Diane), Craig T. Nelson (Steven), Heather O’Rourke (Carol Anne), Oliver Robins (Robbie), and Zelda Rubenstein (Tangina Barrons, medium at large) would all be returning for the flick. (Actress Dominique Dunne, who played Dana, was strangled to death by her boyfriend not long after the original film was released.) Although it’s great to see all of the old faces again, the bad news was that producer Steven Spielberg wasn’t constantly hanging around the set this time to help mold things into shape….and it shows.

Funnily enough, I remember really loving the film when it was first released, back in 1986. (Guaranteed, I was in the theater on opening weekend.) Looking at it now, though, it’s obvious that people were sitting on the sidelines, saying, “Okay, so what worked in the first film, and what’s the bare minimum that we can tweak it so that we can re-use it in the second film?” Perhaps that’s phrasing it a bit cynically, but, in particular, the moments of playful romance between Steven and Diane and sibling bickering between Carol Anne and Robbie which were cute and natural in the original feel utterly forced here.

The Freeling family has left Costa Verde and moved in with Diane’s mother (Geraldine Fitzgerald), but that ultimately only serves as a plot device, so that we can meet Carol Anne’s grandma, have her die, and then have Carol Anne use her gifts to speak with her from beyond the grave, and Grandma’s death occurs so abruptly – albeit quietly, no doubt because a lot of kids watched “Poltergeist” on HBO and had their allowance all ready to spend on the sequel – that there’s no virtually no emotional heft to it. There’s a subplot involving an Indian mystic (Will Sampson), but he’s all cliche, so, again, he feels like a plot device, too.

In fact, there’s only one character in this film who succeeds, and that’s why he’s the only thing you remember about this film…and why he’s over at the right, even as you read this line, screaming, “You’re gonna die in hell! All of you! You are gonna die!”

Yeah, the Freeling family really had it bad. Not only was their house built on top of a cemetery, but the cemetery was built on top of a massive underground cavern that, in the 1800s, became the final resting place of a Utopian cult led by Rev. Henry Kane (Julian Beck). Kane had assured his followers that the world was going to end, so he buried both them and himself in the cavern to wait for it; unfortunately, his prophecy didn’t come to pass, and everyone died screaming in the bowels of the earth, trying desperately to claw their way out. Being little more than a bunch of lemmings, however, Kane’s followers still clung to his every move, and the whole bunch of them were still trying to find their way to the afterlife…and it seems that only a little blond-haired angel named Carol Anne can help them.

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