Monthly Archives: November 2020

Retrospective: The Phantom of the Opera (1943)

28 Saturday Nov 2020

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Having explored numerous aspects of Gothic Literature for Universal’s cannon of horror features, it was time to turn their attention once more back to Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera; a tale of a deformed phantom who haunts the Paris Opera House, murdering people to aid the woman he loves, Christine, to become a star.

It was a bold choice as nearly twenty years prior, the production house had successfully released a version starring “The Man With A Thousand Faces” Lon Chaney as the titular Phantom back in 1925. 

It was deemed however, that ample time had passed despite Chaney’s son, Lon Chaney Jr now a contracted player for Universal, which meant that the ‘25 version was still fresh in the minds of some people. Chaney Jr allegedly expected the part to fall to him in order to reprise his father’s role, but the studio elected instead to cast Claude Rains (The Invisible Man). This did not go down well with Chaney Jr. and apparently some bitterness ensued between him and his The Wolf Man co-star.

It has to be said that I have always enjoyed Rains’ performances on screen and this was no exception as he brought a certain level of heart and empathy to his role as Enrique Claudin. Claudin is the doomed romantic, whose heart belongs to Christine Dubois, a soprano that he has been privately funding her singing lessons.

We certainly feel for Claudin, who is a violinist for the Paris Opera House and is let go due to the ailing use of his fingers. Looking to make ends meet, he then ventures to his music publisher in the hopes of getting money from a piano concerto that he has written. Tragedy has struck however, when he learns that the publisher is attempting to steal his work. In a fit of rage Claudin strangles and kills the publisher, only to have the publisher’s assistant throw etching acid in his face, deforming him.

From here on in, Claudin withdraws to the shadows with his new moniker of the phantom, and then goes to extreme measures in order to propel Christine to stardom.

The film plays out well enough and Rains more than holds his own, but it never feels dark or sinister enough to scare or thrill the audience. It doesn’t help that it is peppered with operatics with an upbeat jovial manner, potentially to juxtapose the dark energy that surrounds it. And it is the setting after all, but if that was the aim, then the darker elements needed to be amplified much more.

As it stands, it’s a solid film, but is no match for its predecessor. There were plans for a sequel called The Climax, but a combination of not being able to cast Rains again due to other commitments and problems working through a decent storyline that would work, it failed to materialise and instead would be reworked as a completely different movie starring Boris Karloff.

With Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical aside, the story would not be revisited again until 1962 Hammer Films starring Herbet Lom, then another twenty year abstinence until Robert Englund would don the mask in 1989 for 21st Century Film, and a Dario Argento feature in 1998.

  • Saul Muerte

Movie review: The Empty Man (2020)

28 Saturday Nov 2020

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Half an hour into this movie and I sincerely believe that I was watching the wrong film.

It’s billed as a supernatural horror thriller set in a Midwestern town in the States, where a group of teens start to disappear as a result of an urban legend known as The Empty Man.
The trailer set up plenty of promise, following a retired cop, James Lasombra (James Badge Dale – World War Z), who investigates these disappearances.
Tonally I was hoping that it would strive to meet the chilling intrigue developed in Clive Barker’s Candyman, but realistically it falls more in line with recent poor outings such as The Bye Bye Man or Slender Man. 

Writer / Director, David Prior, who is more known for directing documentaries takes a wild stab at a feature, and from this reviewer’s perspective, projects a similar structure, but unfortunately misses in a big way.
The exposition is too convoluted with twists and turns told in an incredibly laborious manner, that it simply turns the viewer off.
The curious choice to have such a lengthy introduction in order to lay the scene and the foundations of the The Empty Man legend, is unwarranted, especially as we have no connection with any of the characters bar the “infected”. And even then, it is a minimal moment reintroduced as a means to tie everything back together.

By this time, we are so lost in the meanderings of Prior’s apparent love of film noir, yet without any deep intrigue attached to the psyche of our protagonist.
The audience is cuffed by the ankles and dragged along the storyline without any care or attention to building on that relationship, as we are forced to feel every bump and bruise until its bitter conclusion.
I’d say hit the snooze button, but this proves hard viewing and you’re likely to wake up with a lot of jolts and “WTF?” moments and not in a good way.

The Prognosis:

With a whopping 2 hours and 17 minutes running time, you feel every twitch and strain of the central character’s dive down the urban legend rabbit hole. 

Only we’re armed with a toothpick, the ground is made of wurtzite boron nitride, and the plotline is so tangled in its own web, there’s no saving grace for our protagonist or the audience. 

  • Saul Muerte

Retrospective: Captive Wild Woman (1943)

27 Friday Nov 2020

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No doubt when Universal were bandying around the idea behind Captive Wild Woman, they thought they potentially had another horror film franchise on their hands in the tale of an Ape Woman with humanistic tendencies.
The result however, was received with mixed feelings, in part due to its abomination of religious doctrination that caused one of several changes to the script, which would ultimately take around two years before it was greenlit.
By this time the kernel of the story had undergone a transformation not unlike its subject that morphed into a hybrid version of the original concept. 

The story gathered together a collection of characters, starting with animal trainer Fred Mason (Milburn Stone) who returns from safari with a series of animals to be used in the Whipple Circus. Chief among these is Cheela, the afore-mentioned gorilla, played by stuntman Ray ‘Crash’ Corrigan.

Accompanying Mason is his fiance Beth (Evelyn Ankers, now establishing herself as a stable actor for the studio following The Wolf Man and The Ghost of Frankenstein) whose sister, Dorothy (Martha MacVicar) is suffering from undisclosed health problems. In steps our antagonist and a dialled down John Carradine (The Invisible Man’s Revenge) as Dr Walters.

Walters is your typical mad scientist villain, a carbon copy of Dr Frankenstein with his malicious  pursuit of science at the cost of all those around him. In this instance Walters is hellbent in transforming the gene pull to change a living creature such as the gorilla into human form. He succeeds in doing so but like Frankenstein realises that in order to be truly successful, he must use a human brain and here his bloody pursuit amplifies starting with his assistant, but when this takes a turn for the worse, he sets his sights on Beth.

The human form of Cheela would be played by the exotic Acquanetta, who was a self-proclaimed Native American and would go on to reprise her role in the sequel Jungle Woman. Cheela has a hidden power over creatures which plays well at the circus and she becomes part of the act. She also has a fond connection with Mason and becomes incredibly jealous of his fiance Beth. This puts Beth against two adversaries and the rest of the tale leads to whether or not she will survive.

The film feels a little stale in places as we struggle with the plentiful shots of Mason in the ring taming the wild cats. It does help to have Carradine’s manic performance to keep the audience interested in the outcome, but it does limp along in the process. The surprise is that it generated not only one but two sequels… but more on those at another time.

  • Saul Muerte

Movie review: The Craft: Legacy

26 Thursday Nov 2020

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So it comes to pass that the Blumhouse team attempt to breathe new life and awaken the magic that stirred genre-movie fans of yester-year whilst rekindling a whole new generation into the fold.

It’s a move they’ve done on several occasions now and more often than not their trick has succeeded. Whether it’s a straight up sequel/reboot such as Halloween, The Invisible Man or a reinvention of comedy gold with Happy Death Day or Freaky. 

Among the successes there have been some misfires though. Notably the recent releases of Black Christmas and Fantasy Island. Despite this, Blumhouse continues to pull in the numbers and attract new blood into the folds of teen horror.
So it’s no surprise that they should turn their attention to mid-nineties movie The Craft, which similarly tapped into the pulse of the young generation at the time and formed a cult status in the process.
What’s more, the promise of a female coven of witches would similarly create further space into a story presented with a female gaze. The film itself, much like it’s namesake, would follow a teenage girl, in this case Lily (Cailee Spaeny) moving into a new school and feeling cast as an outsider only to form a friendship with three other misfits (Frankie, Tabby, and Lourdes) igniting their inner witchery, beginning with the power of telekinesis. As the rest of the film unfolds, it soon becomes apparent that they may have pushed things too far.
There is further promise too as the momentum builds around a domineering paternal figure, Adam (a welcome performance from David Duchovny) who lords over his three sons and Lily’s mother Helen (Michelle Monaghan).
So, it’s a shame that it falls short of this potential and fails to build on the shoulders of its predecessor. It could so easily lend itself to a tale of womanhood and an awakening of empowerment but instead the creative team feel content with a middle of the road narrative that is all sparkle and no shine.

There are some moments of glimmer in the performances, especially from Spaeny, who more than captivates in her lead role, but without that extra attention of plot and character development, The Craft: Legacy drifts away from the sphere of its audience’s attention.

The Prognosis:

A chance squandered to rejuvenate the tale of young witches coming into their own. We’re presented with a half-baked potion that never really lands with its delivery, coasting on the tailcoats of the original film and sadly lacking in any atmosphere or charm.

It’s only saving grace comes in the final scene with a wonderful nod to its predecessor, but by then, it’s all too little too late.

  • Saul Muerte

Retrospective: Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man (1943)

24 Tuesday Nov 2020

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Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man marks a significant moment for Universal Pictures as it was the first instance that the production company introduced an ensemble of monsters in a single feature.
This film would initiate the birth of the classic horror universe and would pit two of its iconic creatures, Frankenstein’s monster and The Wolf Man against one another. 

Clearly aware that Universal had a hot property on their hands and the chance to ride on their previous successes, a strong cast would be required and they didn’t fail to deliver.
Reprising his role of Larry Talbot would be Lon Chaney Jr., and accompanying him would be Maria Ouspenskaya (The Wolf Man) as the gypsy woman Maleva, Lionel Atwill (The Atomic Monster) as the Mayor, Ilona Massey (Invisible Agent) as Baroness Elsa Frankenstein, Patric Knowles (The Strange Case of Dr. Rx) as Dr. Mannering, and Dwight Frye (Dracula) as Rudi in his last credited role in feature film.

Interestingly Bela Lugosi was cast as Frankenstein’s Monster, a role he was initially cast to play in Universal’s 1931 feature but turned it down.
Here at the age of 60, Lugosi would try to inject some of the character’s previous personality as imbued from Ygor’s brain swap from The Ghost of Frankenstein.
These characteristics included a paralysis of his arm, blindness, and the ability to talk.
The latter however was cut from the final film as people found the notion of The Monster speaking in a deep Hungarian accent too humorous.
Lugosi’s suppressed efforts didn’t end there as scenes were cut, especially any reference to the Monster’s blindness as it was deemed too confusing. The result saw Lugosi’s actual screen time reduced significantly and the feature feels more like a sequel to The Wolf Man than it does as a continuation in the Frankenstein saga. 

The positive outcome to this is that Larry Talbot’s story and plight is one worth telling, reawakened when grave robbers remove the wolfbane from his coffin during a full moon.
(These moments of reanimation would become more far-fetched throughout the Classic Monsters universe but somehow part of its charm too).
Here, Talbot is doomed to walk the earth in his hairy transformation whenever the moon is full until he can end his life.
When Talbot learns of Frankenstein’s experiments, he believes this may be the answer to his prayers.

So, the first half of the feature plays out Talbot’s resurrection, turmoil, and recovery at Dr Mannering’s hospital, while the latter half sees him travel to the village of Vasaria, where he would encounter Frankenstein’s descendant Elsa.

The heart of the film is ultimately what connects us to the narrative, but unfortunately the final showdown between the two iconic monsters was something of a let down and an opportunity was squandered when they clashed at the ruins of Frankenstein’s castle. 

Despite this weak ending the film does still entertain, but this is primarily down to its strong cast and able screenwriting from Curt Siodmak.

Frankenstein’s monster and The Wolf Man would not reanimate again until 1944’s House of Frankenstein in something of a support role.

  • Saul Muerte

Movie review: We Summon The Darkness

23 Monday Nov 2020

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Whilst some reviewers have dismissed this film as your average middle of the road affair, there’s more than meets the eye from the vision of director Marc Meyers (My Friend Dahmer) and I’m not just talking about the casting of Alexandria Daddario (Texas Chainsaw 3D) as one of the films’ leads. 

The reason I feel that this film deserves more praise and not be shafted into the mist of other On Demand titles, is down to screenwriter Alan Trezza’s clever subversion of the expected and the turning of some stereotypical plot points. This combined with witty scenes and dialogue along with a strong cast to carry out the beats with aplomb. 

The film follows three best friends, Alexis (Daddario), Val (Maddie Hasson – Twisted), and Beverly (Amy Forsyth – Hell Fest) who undertake a road trip to a heavy metal concert where they encounter three struggling musicians, Mark (Keean Johnson – Nashville), Kovacs (Logan Miller – Escape Room), and Ivan (Austin Swift), and appear to form an affinity for one another. And yet when it comes to We Summon The Darkness, you should not rely on its appearances, for no one is as they seem.
When the trio of girls invite the three musicians back to Alexis’ fathers mansion, things take a sinister turn and the first of many revelations occur. 

Joining the cast as they battle a potential satanic ritual in the making, is pastor John Henry Butler played by Johnny Knoxville, and chews through every scene he’s in with absolute confidence and swagger.
It’s a joy to see Knoxville on screen again and soaking in his magnanimous character. 

In fact, the energy of this film is part of its appeal, as each character engages the audience and with every shift and turn they make, draws you in further to the narrative and encourages you to follow to its conclusion.

The Prognosis:

For it’s 90 minute running time, Director Marc Meyers, serves up an enjoyable film in We Summon The Darkness that surprises as well as delights.
The cast propels the storyline further with captivating characters and while it doesn’t break new ground, the film does provide an entertaining narrative and is definitely worth checking out if you find yourself searching for a decent night in.

  • Saul Muerte

Movie review: His House (2020)

18 Wednesday Nov 2020

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Is it possible that director Remi Weekes has just generated the most impactful horror film of 2020? And what’s more a debut feature film that has launched on streaming platform, Netflix.

With a refugee storyline front and centre, depicting a couple who have barely survived escaping from war-torn Sudan to settle in England. as they carry their scars in the decisions they make in order to fight for their freedom.
These choice moments wear them down both physically and mentally which is then projected into the walls of their new abode.
Are these ghosts of their past, a demonic presence, or maybe something far more sinister lurkin from the depths?

I’m a sucker for films that spend the time to create depth in their characters and here Weekes has carefully crafted a storyline with meticulous research and infusing his leads with a predicament based on real life situations to grind as much reality onto the screen, amplifying their turmoil further.
It’s this attention to detail that is even crafted through the production design and cinematography that cements the story and the sheer harrowing ordeal to the very core of humanity.
We continue to question our choices and the decisions we make through life and sometimes these fleeting moments are what haunt us the most, and we must choose to face up to them or continue to burden them upon our backs. It is these minute details and the dedication to the ground work in film making which casts Weekes with a promising career ahead of him. 

Weekes is quick to attest the success of His House to his lead performers, Sope Dirisu (Humans) as Bol and Wunmi Musaku (Lovecraft Country) as his wife, Rial.
Both of whom are beyond amazing with their performances and clearly emote every ounce of the weight that their characters embody, but I would argue that this is a result of what happens when a director allows their actors the space to breathe life into their roles and develop the profundity of their misery.
We the audience are all the better for it and shoulder the burden of every twist and turn along the way, which makes a certain reveal all the more gut-wrenching when it comes along.

The Prognosis:

For a first time running a feature length film, Weekes belies his film-making status, leading the audience to believe that he is a veteran of his craft.

The story is dark, disturbing and ultimately human.

His characters are a showcase in depth, fuelled with the emotion that his fantastic leads, Musaku and Dirisu embody in order to tell a tale that is rich and ultimately rewarding.

His House is an amazing film and has left a significant mark on this reviewers’ soul.

  • Saul Muerte

Movie review: Freaky (2020)

12 Thursday Nov 2020

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Once again director Christopher Landon proves his mark in the realm of teen slasher horror. Whilst Happy Death Day had its faults, Landon struck a vibe with the new generation of horror fans by taking a classic comedy film ala Groundhog Day and adding a slasher twist. The success proved such a success in collaboration with Blumhouse, a production company that have excelled in recent years tapping into the horror genre with great success, that would go on to produce an equally profitable sequel. Proving that the formula works to reinvent family-friendly comedies of yester-year, Landon hits his stride with the twist on body swap sub-genre and the Freaky Friday film, this time around seeing teen protagonist Millie Kessler (Kathryn Newton – Supernatural) switching bodies with a serial killer, The Blissfield Butcher (a surprisingly good Vince Vaughn). 

Landon’s language on screen has also come into his own as he projects great energy with his admittedly one-dimensional characters, (if there is one criticism to be held, it’s definitely here) but it’s the way Landon plays with these characters within his realm with the number one aim to have fun with it. I can not stress how much Freaky owns the comedy element, knocking around familiar concepts in the genre with some cracking nods along the way, notably Halloween and Friday the 13th franchises respectively and sure fire proof that Landon knows his craft.

What surprised me about this film was how the ‘camp’ elements played in favour of its narrative, which so easily could have bent in the wrong direction, tipping into painful territory, but manages to keep that balance in check. This also allows for some decent heartfelt moments especially for Vaughn to chew his teeth into and adding some nice beats in the more quiet moments in the film. 

There are also some cracking gore moments to keep the horror enthusiasts thirst for on-screen blood satiated. It may not go dark enough to some, but to do so would be detrimental to the humour component that Landon was striving for. 

The Prognosis:

This is a fun, enjoyable ride that does exactly what it says on the tin.

Landon excels in this environment, playing with the genre concepts with glee and producing a cracker movie filled with great energy and plenty of gore whilst keeping his finger on the pulse.

  • Saul Muerte