It stars Easy Action, the first Swedish band to ever get a worldwide record deal, which is a fact on their Wikipedia page that kind of smells fishy. Abba?
The band split up in 1986, a year after this effort, when guitarist and band leader Kee Marcello quit the band to join Europe. That band went on to sell 30 million albums, so he did pretty well. Singer Zinny J. Zan went on to join the band Kingpin, which you would know better by their later name, Shotgun Messiah.
American hair band Poison used the chorus of Easy Action’s 1983 single “We Go Rocking” in their song “I Want Action,” which led to a lawsuit that the Swedish band won.
The original lineup just played their hit album That Makes One at the Sweden Rock Festival. That makes me happy.
There’s a whole bunch of mayhem, hairspray and murder in this movie, including people getting their eyes eaten, axes to the head and impalings. It’s pretty grisly, which is great, because it juxtaposes the ridiculous antics of this band and its groupies trying to make a movie in the snow.
The best part of all of this is that Easy Action were all afraid to act, so director Mats Helge Olsson got them drunk. You can tell — they’re destroyed for most of the movie. I advise that you’re in the same condition when you watch this.
We featured Blood Tracks as part of a “Drive-In Friday: Heavy Metal Horror Night” alongside Monster Dog, Rocktober Blood, Terror on Tour, and Hard Rock Zombies. Join in the fun, won’t you?
After everyone has had a chance to share their ten favorite slasher films, I’ve finally decided to take my turn. I’ve watched a couple hundred, according to our Letterboxd B&S About Slashers list, so I certainly have plenty to choose from. I should pretty much have entitled this “How Slasher Movies Ruined My Life,” as from high school when I was investigated as part of an occult task force due to my constant drawings of Leatherface and love of metal to even today, when my obsessive need to keep thinking about movies has professionally damaged my life, these movies are really important to me.
I’ve been doing a lot of soul searching lately and have used slasher movies as the lens through which I see myself, if that makes sense. Why do I keep watching these movies? What is the comfort that I find within them when life grows chaotic and upsetting?
I think it’s the fact that you know the rules and you know why you’re there to watch. There’s no ambiguity or even promise of artistic experience. Instead, you’re going to get a cathartic release of adrenaline. To quote Pieces, “It’s exactly what you think it is.”
But enough of my depressive rambling. Let’s get to the slash, stalk and kill.
1. The Prowler: For all the excesses of Tom Savini’s blood and chunks FX, this movie — as well as Maniac — go as far as possible without becoming a class in anatomy. Joseph Zito would also make Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, which is pretty much the movie most non-slasher fans think of when they imagine Jason Vorhees. I’ve debated putting that movie on the list as well, but there are just so many to choose from.
2. Slumber Party Massacre II: I’ve really based my list on what movies would go best with a group of your friends, some beer, some pizza and probably some other substances. This is by no means a serious slasher, but it rewards you with everything you wanted and a lot that you didn’t — musical numbers, self-aware characters and a guitar drill.
3. Trick or Treat: I lived this movie. Fuck, I’m still living this movie. Every day, I feel like people laugh at my love of metal and horror movies and think that it makes me childish or unprofessional. Unfortunately, I have no Songs in the Key of Death to play backward and get my revenge. The bait is you, I say to myself every day.
4. Bad Dreams: You may have noticed that I’ve been trying to list movies that haven’t made it to many of the lists before. That’s because these are the ones that again — I’d ply you with beer and pizza — you would watch if you hung out with me. I fucking love this movie. I want more people to discover it. It’s got everything — dream death, cults that set themselves on fire, Richard Lynch — and it’s worth tracking down.
5. Stagefright: This is at the same time the smartest and dumbest slasher on the list and that’s exactly how I like it. The first time I watched this, I was shocked by just how gory and violent it is. It’s great to see a progeny of Argento who was a progeny of Bava who both gave birth to the slasher and the giallo go full on and make this movie, which is pretty much my perfect film.
6. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2: This movie is the biggest fuck you, which is why I love it so much. It also never stops, giving you a limitless buffet of blood and entrails. Every single scene is awash in gore and grossness. This is the six-pack of movies.
7. Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night 2: Slashers where the villain wants people to have more sex are few. This would be one of them, a movie that blows away the original while having delirious and demented joy with every single frame.
8. The Town That Dreaded Sundown: I get it. The comedy parts don’t work. That said, there’s also a scene where the Phantom Killer murders someone with a fucking trombone. And if that doesn’t entertain you, get off my site, the internet and the planet.
9. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter: When people think of a slasher, this is the movie that they’re imagining. Throw in Crispin Glover dancing and a bald Corey and you have the best Friday there is.
10. Halloween 2: This is THE slasher in my book. Brutal. Uncompromising. Funny. Terrifying. Influenced by the giallo. And the end, when blood comes out of Michael’s eyes? I get emotional every single time.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Lana Revok is the curator of STARTS TODAY!, a collection of vintage movie newspaper advertisements which can be found on Twitter. Her ads have also been featured in DRIVE-IN ASYLUM, SCARY MONSTERS and TEEN MOVIE HELL.
Here are my top ten favorite slashers. It was hard to narrow it down to ten so I tried to stick to the late 1970’s/1980’s golden age of slashers to make my decisions a little easier.
10.) Memorial Valley Massacre (1989): A feral Willie Aames lookalike spends a long holiday weekend violently offing campers in what has got to be one of the most entertainingly bad films horror films ever made.
9.) Visiting Hours (1982): Michael Ironside gives one of his most chilling performances in what I consider to be the second best slasher film ever set in a hospital.
8.) Eyes of a Stranger (1981): I didn’t actually see this one until much later in life but boy, did it creep me the hell out! And top notch gore effects from Tom Savini to boot!
7.) He Knows You’re Alone (1980): What can I say? I’m a sucker for a severed head in a fish tank.
6.) When a Stranger Calls (1979)/ When a Stranger Calls Back (1993): Sure, the opening scenes are iconic but I find both films terrifying from beginning to end.
5.) Prom Night (1980): A Vaseline smeared nightmare of revenge fueled by the beautiful melancholic sounds of spooky disco music.
4.) Terror Train (1980): Love the boozy New Year’s Eve atmosphere and freaky masks.
3.) Friday the 13th Part 3 (1982): I’m a huge Friday the 13th fan in general but this installment is my favorite by far. It’s a genuinely scary film filled with memorable characters and death scenes. The last shot of Jason in the window traumatized me for life!
2.) My Bloody Valentine(1981): Speaking of memorable death scenes, the extended version of My Bloody Valentine features some of the most jaw dropping slasher effects ever! The kind of stuff that will make you say “OH MY GOD!!” out loud no matter how many times you’ve watched it. Plus it’s got a great story, great cast and a jammin’ theme song that will get stuck in your head forever. Just a really fun movie all around!
1.) Halloween (1978)/Halloween 2 (1981): There isn’t much left to say about these two underwear staining classics that hasn’t been said before but I will admit that I find Part 2 to be a little bit scarier than Part 1. #nucleartake
Douglas Hickox, who also directed this film, was the director of one of my favorite TV movies, Blackout. This is yet another — that’s not a bad thing — Vincent Price film where he’s done wrong and must avenge himself through increasingly odder crimes.
This go around, he plays Shakespearean actor Edward Kendal Sheridan Lionheart, who is treated poorly by the members of the Theatre Critics Guild, so he kills himself by jumping off a bridge into the Thames. Of course, he survives thanks to a group of vagrants who soon become his…Theatre of Blood.
The critics are killed according to the scripts of some of Shakespeare’s best-known plays. There’s a murder by a mob ala Julius Caesar, a horse dragging from Troilus & Cressida, a decapitation from Cymbeline, a heart being sliced out just like The Merchant of Venice, a drowning from Richard III, a murder right out of Othello, a scene like Henry VI: Part One and a critic fed her dogs just like a memorable death in Titus Andronicus.
The last critic nearly dies in a Romeo & Juliet fencing battle before he’s due to be blinded with burning knives, just like Gloucester in King Lear. However, his daughter Edwina (Diana Rigg), who has been helping him, is killed, so he takes her body to the roof where they both disappear in the flames.
This film was one of Price’s favorites, as he had always wanted the chance to act in Shakespeare. Before or after each death, he gets to recite speeches from each play. Diana Rigg felt much the same way about her work.
Ironically, she also introduced Price to his future wife Coral Browne, without knowing that Price was married. She would go on to be his third wife.
While no Dr. Phibes film, Theatre of Blood is quite enjoyable. Price is having the time of his life and his joy is infectious.
Day 34 The Gold Watch: One set in a retirement home or elderly community (or elderly Satanic coven)
You’d think I would have learned by now to research a film on B&S Movies before I write a review. Hey, it’s an L.Q Jones project and you can never, ever get enough of the very cool L.Q Jones (1975’s White Line Fever). My only quibble with L.Q: Why didn’t you write and direct more films, bro? The Brotherhood of Satan and 1975’s A Boy and his Dog (see Sam’s 2017 “Fucked Up Futures” review) are finer than any other demon cult-horror or post-apocalyptic film out there.
Before we came to see L.Q on a weekly, weekend basis courtesy of the perpetual TNT cable replays of Martin Scorsese’s Casino (he’s the western-styled Vegas Commissioner Pat Webb; his dweeb nephew was played by Drive-In guru Joe Bob Briggs) and as Sam Peckinpah’s go-to actor (Major Dundee, The Wild Bunch, Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid), the man that Justin Humphreys chronicles in his book, Names You Never Remember, With Faces You Never Forget (2006), L.Q Jones augmented his prosperous television and film acting career — which began in 1955 — with writing and directing assignments.
During the course of his TV acting endeavors, Jones befriended TV western writer Claude Hall to direct (under the Justus McQueen nom de plume) Hall’s western-dramatic feature film, The Devil’s Bedroom (1964). (As far as I can tell: L.Q’s directing debut has never aired on cable television or seen a VHS release. And it seems no one else has seen it either: there’s no reviews posted on the IMDb and other web resources only offer a cut ‘n pasted synopsis that traces to the TV Guide (so, maybe it did air on TV at some point in the pre-cable universe).
Seven years later, Jones sat behind the camera again as a producer, and as a screenwriter, on the Albuquerque, New Mexico-shot (doubling as a small California town), The Brotherhood of Satan, directed by another one his old western TV director-friends, Bernard McEveety. (Bernard’s career goes from Clint Eastwood’s Rawhide to The Dukes of Hazzard. He also co-directed the 1958 cult horror, The Return of Dracula.) And, get this: L.Q’s other TV buddy, Alvy Moore, the ditzy Mr. Kimball from the ‘60s TV series, Green Acres, co-produces and stars.
“Okay, but what’s this got to do with the elderly theme for today’s Scarecrow Challenge? You hinted about an old people’s coven?”
The Brotherhood of Satan begins as most horror tales do: a family on vacation stumbles into the wrong town at the wrong time where the aloof local sheriff (L.Q Jones) and his hick deputy (Alvy Moore) are investigating the murders of several people and multiple child kidnappings.
“I knew I should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque (that small California town).”
. . . Ah, old Doc Duncan (Strother Martin), who may be Satan incognito, is the head of an elderly Satanist coven stripping the children’s bodies of their souls so the crusty curmudgeons are “reborn” in the children’s bodies. And long before Chucky and Charles Band made a career in the creepy toys market, these elderly Satanists can “mobilize” toys to do their will. i.e., a knight-on-horseback wielding a tiny sword becomes a murder weapon.
Caveat: This is a film where evil triumphs. So if you’re not into the souls of innocent children becoming eternal, spiritual fang-chum for Satan, then you best rent something else. But if you do: You’re missing out on one of the creepiest, underrated low-budget horror films of the ‘70s, one of the best made to cash-in on the horror boom ignited by George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (although BoS’s geriatric-cult is more likely influenced by Roman Polanski’s 1968 signpost, Rosemary’s Baby). Pair The Brotherhood of Satan with Necromancy (1972) and Messiah of Evil (1973, review, review) and you have yourself a night of surreal, creepy viewing.
And . . . pop quiz: Can you name the actress who starred as “Jan Brady” (Eve Plumb’s replacement) in the mid-‘70s variety-show sequel to The Brady Bunchand the splatter classic, I Dismember Mama (1974)? It’s Geri Reischi, who stars as K.T in The Brotherhood of Satan, the kidnapped daughter of the bumbling travelers who fall into the lair of Satan’s Geriatric Rehabilitation and Soul Re-Implantation Clinic of Albuquerque. (One of the cult’s victims is Judith McConnell, later of The Thristy Dead, who was making a career out of being a cult victim until she got smart and started taking roles in U.S daytime soaps.)
As with Rob Zombie utilizing dialog from 1966’s The Undertaker and his Pals (reviewed as part of B&S Movies’ upcoming November “Pure Terror Month” tribute to the Mill Creek 50-film box set namesake), the twenty-something grungers of the Gen-X world came to rent-out The Brotherhood of Satan as result of My Life with the Thrill Kill Cult sampling lines from the film—“Blood, Blood” and “Drown our useless age in blood”—for “Rivers of Blood, Years of Darkness” from their second album, 1990’s Confessions of a Knife.
Oh, and while we are on the subject of movie lines sampled in songs—and I have Strother Martin (1973 snake-horror Sssssss) on the brain—his classic line from 1967’s Cool Hand Luke was used by Guns N’ Roses. You can watch the song-film comparison on the Who Sampled database. (Mr. Zombie? It’s time to sample Strother from his two horror offerings in your own songs.)
L.Q Jones eventually adapted The Brotherhood of Satan into a 1980 paperback, while the VHS found its way into the home video market in 1986 through RCA/Columbia, and on a 2002 Columbia TriStar DVD. If you’d rather a Blu-ray: Mill Creek Entertainment issued a 2013 double-pack with Mr. Sardonicus. You can stream or download The Brotherhood of Satan from Amazon and Vudu. Sorry, there’s no free online VHS rips.
Clint Eastwood, Green Acres, The Brady Bunch, My Life with the Thrill Kill Cult, Guns N’ Roses, Martin Scorsese, and Bugs Bunny? Referenced within the frames of one film?
It can only happen on the Drive-In and video fringe. And it’s only on B&S Movies.
We bow to you, Mr. L.Q Jones. We bow. So much so that, in addition to myself, Sam reviewed it, and Horror and Sons proprietor Dustin’s Fallon took a January 22 take on Brotherhood of Satan as part of B&S About Movies’ “Satan Week” (well, three weeks!). Yes. Three reviews for one flick. That’s how good it is!
Doh! Now it’s four with our review of the new Arrow version review. Yes. It is that good. Watch it.
About the Author: You can read the music and film reviews of R.D Francis on Medium and learn more about his work on Facebook. He also writes for B&S About Movies.
I kind of love the copy that was used to sell this movie: “Imagine every newlywed’s fantasy, a rustic secluded lover’s paradise — Honeymoon Island. What starts as a weekend of love, turns into a nightmare of blood and terror for three young innocent couples. What lurks in the shadows of Honeymoon Lodge? Is it the caretaker, or perhaps something more fiendish and deadly? Honeymoon Island, where newlyweds joined in holy matrimony spend their wedding night screaming in terror!”
This movie was filmed at the Austin Patio Dude Ranch in Grapevine, Texas, which was built at the head of DFW Airport’s main landing strip. In case you didn’t realize, like the filmmakers, this is a busy airport, so all of the planes kept interrupting the movie.
Yet somehow, this was one of the very first direct to video films purchased by Sony Home Video and released to rental stores. Somehow, this movie isn’t available on DVD, despite how successful it was for Sony. They spent $50,000 on the film and made around $22 million off of it. Then again, I got that statistic from IMDB and it could very well be bull.
Director Harry Preston only has one other credit to his name, a movie called Blood of the Wolf Girl that was never released and may have never ran in a theater.
I’m telling you all of these facts to cover up for this film, because it’s one of the more pointless slashers you’ll ever seen. Perhaps the only reason to watch it is for the fat sheriff, who is so ineffectual that he locks his keys in his car, meaning that he doesn’t even catch the killer, who is a burned up ex-husband. Actually, he’s a good reason to see this, too.
Actually, let me be honest again. As bad as this 1982 slasher is, it’s better than any that came out this year. Talk about dwindling returns!
Day 31 The Gold
Watch: One set in a retirement home or elderly community
For next year’s 2020 Scarecrow Psychotronic Challenge, one
of the days should be “H.B.O Exposed: Movies you first saw in the ‘80s on
H.B.O.”
Where would I begin: A Little Romance, Breaking Glass, The Great Santini, Hot Stuff, One Trick Pony, Over the Edge, Zoo Radio. . . . I could go and on with those days of cable television’s infancy as my flesh became one with the shag carpet in front of the TV watching movies on H.B.O and The USA Network. Another one of those never-heard-of-it-and-saw-it-first-on-H.B.O movies was the “geriatric” dark-comedy Homebodies, a film that effectively brews horror with black humor to convey a depressing story regarding the harsh treatment and ignorance the dismissive youthful express to the old. I can’t think of another film that is so cold, yet so warm, in its recognition of the real, heart wrenching problems associated with aging. It’s a case of coming for the horror and leaving with a newfound respect for the elderly.
Homebodies is the tale of quiet, lonely pensioners who have no one to rely on but each other. When they discover their apartment building has been condemned to make way for a new apartment complex, they spring into action to save their “Home, Sweet Home.” Then we’re treated to deliciously devilish, cleverly executed murders as these underestimated, geriatric Jasons hide their grim exploits knocking off real estate agents and developers, social workers, and construction workers for the common good of preserving their dignity of what little time they have left.
I have a deep, nostalgic connection to this movie, as it
reminds me of my late father. We watched Homebodies
as a family on a Friday evening on H.B.O. The scene when construction foreman Kenneth
Tobey (1951’s The Thing from Another
World) is disposed of in a concrete form and encased in cement became a
family “in joke” for many years. When the form is filled and the deed is done,
the “Homebodies” discover part of Tobey’s foot sticks out of a cutaway in the
form. “Well, there’s only one thing left do to,” says Ian Wolfe’s
matter-of-factly character . . . and WACK!
goes the axe and off goes the peeking appendage. And with that . . . any time
something went off-the-rails in the household, my dad would say with a swipe of
hand, “Well, there’s only one thing left to do, WACK!” So, Ian, if you’re up there listening: I love you, man. You
did one hell of a job in your only leading man role. Your delivery of that line
of dialog created a lifetime memory. Oh, and Mr. Tobey? No offense. I’m sorry
you had to lose a foot over it. I watch The
Thing with my dad too, and your movie scared the crap out of me.
While Embassy Pictures issued the poorly distributed and
promoted theatrical in 1974, it found an additional theatrical life in Sweden and
a few other European countries in 1978. And while it found its way into the
overseas home video markets through Embassy Home Entertainment in the early
‘80s in Australia, Europe, and East Asia, the film never appeared in the U.S until
a 1994 VHS issued by Sony Pictures Entertainment. Thus, for U.S audiences,
their first exposure, and only exposure, to Homebodies
was on Home Box Office.
According to a 1974 report in the industry trade Variety, the shot-on-location in
Cincinnati, Ohio-film’s cast was composed of veteran actors and actresses who
appeared in a collective “nine hundred films,” but were receiving their first
top-billing for the first time in their careers.
B&S eyes recognize Ian Wolfe right way from his role in THX 1138 (1971), while we remember Peter
Brocco in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest
(1975). As for William Hansen and Ruth McDivitt: Just wow. Pick a U.S TV Series
from the ‘60s and ‘70s. Paula Trueman, who started her career in the ‘30s (and is
seemingly always mistaken for the great Ruth Gordon), was Grandma Smith
alongside Clint Eastwood in The Outlaw
Josey Wales (1976) and was Mrs. Schumacher alongside Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing (1987).
Director Larry Yust made his debut with one of the lesser-known films in the Blaxploitation canons, Trick Baby (1972). After the theatrical failure of Homebodies (it deserved to be a box office hit, it’s so well-made and acted), he reverted into TV work. He eventually returned to film with the rich-man-leaves-his-son-an-interitance-if-he-marries-within-24-hours plot in Say Yes (1986) starring Jonathan Winters. It was Yust’s final film.
Unfortunately, there are no free or PPV online VHS rips available. And caveat emptor those grey market DVD-Rs polluting the marketplace. Buy them if you must, but know your regions before you finalize the cart. Courtesy of this review, hopefully you know what you are in for with this movie; however, let me caveat emptor you once more: Regarding the artwork tomfoolery of those bogus DVD-Rs (one of two of variations) that illustrates a modern, high rise skyscraper surrounded by three, very large and ethereal, elderly heads swathing the building. While you do get a definite Michael Winner’s elderly-Exorcist inversion with his The Sentinel (1977), there is nary a vapor of wraith of the Poltergeist III (1988) supernatural variety in Homebodies. So, if you want to add this to your home movie collection, you are best to wait for the fine folks at Kino Lorber to finalize their upcoming 2020 Blu-ray.
About the Author: You can read the music and film reviews of R.D Francis on Medium and learn more about his work on Facebook.
Sometimes, slashers go into the winter. This would be one of those times.
This was directed by Jeff Kwitny, who also directed Lightning In a Bottle, Illegal Alien and Beyond the Door III, which is also known as Death Train and has nothing to do with any of the other Beyond the Door films. I mean, that’s par for the course. Bava’s Shock was also sold as Beyond the Door II. If you want to see that one, Vinegar Syndrome has just released it.
We’re here to talk about Iced.
A group of teens watch one of their friends die while skiing. Yeah, that was a crazy idea — Jeff and Cory were racing to see who would get Trina. Cory was in love with her, Jeff was a jerk, he catches the two of them in bed together and then, you know, he goes off the trails and crashes into the rocks.
Five years later, they have been invited to the opening of a ski resort, but there’s someone in ski gear that starts to kill them one by one.
Normal people wouldn’t recognize a single actor in this one, except that I’m not normal and can tell you that lead actress Debra De Liso was in Slumber Party Massacre. Janette is played by Lisa Loring, who in addition to being married to adult star Jerry Butler, was Wednesday Addams on The Addams Family. Rodney Montague, who played Biff, went on to be a visual effects artist. And that’s pretty much it.
If you’re wistful for 80’s movies with bad interior design and worse hair, good news. This movie has all of that and a Casio synth soundtrack that is at odds with every single scene that it plays behind. That’s pretty much a good review around here.
Two Evil Eyes is a very personal movie to me. It was filmed when I was 18, in my hometown of Pittsburgh, by two of the greatest minds to ever work in horror, George Romero and Dario Argento, who also brought along Luigi Cozzi and Tom Savini to aid and abet. It’s an anthology film inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, with both directors using their own unique vision to make one disjointed but interesting film. If you were around town at the time of its filming, Savini was often bringing the props to conventions, so seeing the incredibly gory “Pit and the Pendulum” girl up close was a shocking event.
The Facts In the Case of M. Valdemar is directed by Romero and is all about life beyond death. Jessica Valdemar (Adrienne Barbeau) travels to dahntahn Pittsburgh to meet with her husband’s lawyer (E.G. Marshall) about her husband Ernest’s (Pittsburgh acting legend Bingo O’Malley) will. Pike believes that Jessica is exerting undue influence on him, but the old man explains over the phone that his wife is entitled to his money.
Of course, she’s been having an affair with the man taking care of him, Dr. Robert Hoffman (Ramy Zada) and they’ve both been hypnotizing him to ensure that they get his $3 million when he dies. However, while he’s still hypnotized, the old man dies and the couple hide him in a freezer.
Soon, the body is making noises and even able to speak, explaining that he is trapped in a void with other souls that want to bring others into their dark world. Jessica panics and shoots the corpse, but that’s not the end. Soon, she’s dead and Robert is being haunted by the others, who show up as strange human shapes only visible through the flashes of lightning.
When the police, led by Detective Grogan (Tom Atkins), break in to his apartment, it’s scattered with bloody cash and Robert has become a zombie who is awake forever.
Look for Romero’s second wife Christine Forrest in this, too.
The second story, directed by Argento, is The Black Cat, which is all about Rod Usher (Harvey Keitel) who is a crime scene photographer who often works with Detective LeGrand (John Amos). It also seems like the city of my birth was host to some insane giallo-style murders in 1990!
Rod’s home life isn’t fun. Sure, he has an attractive, if strange, violin-teaching girl named Annabel (Madeleine Potter), but they aren’t compatible and he’s given to abusing the black cat that she’s adopted, all the way to strangling it while he takes photos for his new book.
Annabel searches for her missing cat as Rod goes insane, even dreaming of a pagan festival where he’s murdered in retaliation for killing the cat.
Soon, a bartender (Sally Kirkland) gives him another cat that looks exactly like the cat he’s killed, so when he tries to repeat the crime, Annabel stops him and gets murdered instead. I love that Kim Hunter and Martin Balsam play the elderly couple who tries to investigate — it’s as if Argento is indulging in complete play instead of work here, excited to work with an American crew who worships him (this is apparent in the behind the scenes footage) and working with stars from his favorite movies of the past.
Of course, Annabel’s students — Julie Benz is one of them in her first film role — suspect Rod of her murder and the black cat keeps coming back to get killed again and again. It all ends in completely disgusting fashion, as the wall Annabel was buried behind is taken down to reveal that she’s been consumed by cats and then all hell breaks loose.
Argento originally wanted the film to be a collaboration between Romero, John Carpenter, Wes Craven and himself. Carpenter and Craven pulled out, but there were also plans to make this into a cable series, with Michele Soavi making The Masque of the Red Death and Richard Stanley directing The Cask of Amontillado. It’s a tragedy that none of this ever happened.
For the best possible viewing experience, get the Blue Underground blu ray release of this film. It’s packed with extras, like a soundtrack CD and an entire disc of behind the scenes features, including interviews with the directors, a visit to Tom Savini’s home and new interviews with Barbeau, Ramy Zada, Madeleine Potter, composer Pino Donaggio, writer Franco Ferrini, assistant director Luigi Cozzi and more.
Blue Underground has had an amazing year of releases and this is a worthy addition.
The second disc astounded me, seeing Argento and Cozzi walking the streets that I have walked. The connection to my heroes and the place that I love moved me.
Two Evil Eyes didn’t get the release it deserved when it came out. You should rectify that by watching it as soon as possible.
DAY 31. THE GOLD WATCH: One set in a retirement home or elderly community. A fitting wrap-up, eh?
John Hough quietly has become one of my favorite directors to seek out. His Hammer effort, Twins of Evil, is one of the best late era films that the studio would make, the perfect blend of Hammer’s sumptuous glamour and style mixed with the coming need for more violence and nudity in their films. There’s also Legend of Hell House, The Incubus and Biggles, all very interesting and unique efforts.
Here, Hough brings together Rod Steiger and Yvonne DeCarlo to tell the tale of two old folks and their insane daughter. In fact, everyone in this movie is crazy.
Cynthia (Sarah Torgov, Meatballs) has been destroyed since her baby drowned in the bath. Five of her friends — Jeff, Rob (Mark Lindsay Chapman, who played John Lennon in Chapter 27, which is somewhat ironic, no?), Lynn, Paul (Stephen Shellen, The Stepfather) and Terri — take her on a vacation trip that ends up crash landing on a deserted island. Luckily — but not really — they find a cottage.
The cabin is owned by an elderly married couple known as Ma and Pa (Steiger and DeCarlo). Their weirdness comes out when Pa flips out at Lynn for smoking and gives them the rules, such as no swearing and boys and girls being seperated. Oh yeah — they also have a middle-aged daughter Fanny (Janet Wright, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains) who acts like she is 12 years old.
They also have a son named Woody (Michael J. Pollard), who somehow turns swinging into a death sentence for Rob. And oh yeah — they have another brother named Teddy (William Hootkins, who shows up in everything from Burton’s Batman to Dust Devil, Hardware and Raiders of the Lost Ark. You’d probably know him best as Porkins from Star Wars).
Fanny has a doll that’s really a mummified infant. And she wants Jeff all to herself, so she uses a statue to stab out his eye and kill him. Actually, everyone dies but Cynthia and then even worse things happen to their corpses, if you can imagine that.
By the conclusion, Cynthia has joined the family as yet another child before the sins of her past cause her to freak out all over again, killing the entire family one by one. This is one of the few slashers I’ve seen where the final girl becomes the killer. This is definitely unlike any other film you’ve seen.
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