Category Archives: retrospective

Retrospective: Slither (2006)

19 Saturday Jun 2021

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15 years ago, before he would helm the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, Director James Gunn would mark his directorial debut with Slither, a black comedy, sci-fi horror movie centred around a small town in South Carolina that comes under siege from an alien parasite.
It’s a visual spectacle peppered with some humorous dialogue, highlighting the slow paced energy of the townsfolk suddenly thrust into a frenzied assault on their humble town and investing their bodies.
Upon its release, Slither was considered a flop, as it never fell short of the budget used to make the film by a few million.
I remember being a little bewildered by this at the time of its release as I thoroughly enjoyed its energy and direction, coupled with its strong influences from both Carpenter and Cronenberg, directors with whom I greatly admire their work.

It also boasted cracking performances from Nathan Fillion (who had already made a name for himself in Firefly) as Police Chief Bill Pardy, Elizabeth Banks (Brightburn) as Starla Grant, our female heroine, and Michael Rooker as her overbearing and protective husband Grant, who also becomes the first infected by the parasite.

The effects on show are its main selling point who create the tentacled, worm-like creatures with an element of Lovecraftian, body morphia. The humour too is light and zestful, which suits Fillion’s on-screen persona and a testament to Gunn’s writing ability.

This June, Umbrella Entertainment have released a blu-ray edition of the film as part of their Beyond Genres series with some cracking extras including: 

  • Audio Commentary with James Gunn and Nathan Fillion 
  • The Slick Minds and Slimy Days of Slither: Making of featurette – 10 Mins 
  • Who Is Bill Pardy? – 5 Mins 
  • Slither Visual Effects Progressions – 5 Mins 
  • Bringing Slithers Creatures to Life: FX Featurette – 19 Mins 
  • Slithery Set Tour With Nathan Fillion – 5 Mins 
  • The Gorehound Grill: Brewin’ The Blood – 3 Mins 
  • The King of Cult: Lloyd Kaufman’s Video Diary – 9 Mins 
  • Deleted Scenes – 11 Mins 
  • Extended Scenes – 8 Mins 
  • Gag Reel – 8 Mins

All of which resurrect the fun element that was notably present behind the scenes and projected in all facets of what we see on-screen with the final product. This further cemented for me that Slither is a gem of a movie and the reason why it has garnered a cult following as a result.

If you haven’t caught this film, or was deterred by the low box office attendance at the time of its initial release, then I highly recommend that you check it out.

  • Saul Muerte

Retrospective: Docteur Jekyll et les femmes

17 Thursday Jun 2021

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Anyone familiar with the works of Polish film director Walerian Borowczyk will no doubt identify his craft with his overtly pornographic imagery. Docteur Jekyll et les femmes, is no different to this association and one would be forgiven for misinterpreting this movie for its blatant sexual depiction and depravity of the female form that is on display throughout the narrative. Yet, this is also part of its genius and the reason that it won over many critics and why Borowczyk walked away with the coveted Best Feature Film Director award at the 1981 Sitges Film Festival.

Based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella, The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Borowczyk brings the subject material down to its core animalistic roots, namely sex and violence, and how the ‘Mr Hyde’ that remains buried in our inner human traits, can be brought to the surface and inflicted on all those around you, if you are drawn to do so.

This is Dr Jekyll’s (Udo Kier) secret and one he wishes to harbour from his socialite guests, but like any drug, it is hard to contain, and when the drive becomes greater than the human will, then it will break to the surface and ultimately be the ruin of everyone.

If anything, the film is a social commentary on the oppression that we inflict on ourselves in order to ‘fit in’ to what is accepted and any such inhibitions should be kept hush hush, only to be carried out behind closed doors. One of Jeckyll’s guests, General Carew (Patrick Magee) has his own sexual fantasies towards his daughter and this becomes the subject of ridicule from Mr Hyde.

Throughout the film, Jekyll is betrothed to Miss Fanny Osborne (Marina Pierro) and appears to be reserved about this engagement. The irony however is that the sexually curious Osborne uncovers his dark secret and rather than being repulsed, is drawn into his carnal sin, immersing herself into the pool of eroticism and accompanies him on this dark and devious journey on the brink of human existence.

If you are unaware of Borowczyk’s films, then don’t be deterred by what the initial images on display but rather bide your time, as the result is a spotlight on our venereal and lustful acts and how gothic literature can be the perfect subject to bring the taboo to the fore.

  • Saul Muerte

Retrospective: Lake of Dracula (1971)

16 Wednesday Jun 2021

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Lake of Dracula epitomises the substance which resides at the kernel of J-Horror with its evocative imagery and atmospheric style. On face value, the film has very little to offer in plot, but poses some interesting characters and has a psychologically eerie feeling throughout.

In many ways, there are similarities to its namesake in that a vampire arrives on the scene and quickly makes a bride in the supported female character.
Where it does stray in the storyline is through its central figure, Akiko (Midori Fujita), who was scarred from a chance encounter with the vampire (Mori Kishida) 18 years prior. In the same confrontation, Akiko discovers a dead woman and is unable to shake that image from her mind.
So when a white coffin turns up from overseas and the body count begins to rise, along with mysterious bite holes in Akiko’s sister, Natsuko’s neck, the nightmares are about to begin again.

It is down to Akiko and her doctor boyfriend, Takashi Saki (Osahide Takahashi) to confront the evil and put a stop to any further torment that has arisen in their seaside community.

Lake of Dracula buries itself in vampirism folklore and rests on this subject to paint and weave its visuals. There is a decent backstory to the vampire that is revealed towards the end of the movie and the inevitable climax, which admittedly is a little low in its delivery, but there is enough here to whet the appetite of the average horror enthusiast, especially for those interested in the historical vault of Japanese horror.
As part of three vampire films produced by Toho Studios in the 70s, I’m intrigued to watch their other features The Vampire Doll and Evil of Dracula. Another couple for the horror movie bucket list. 

  • Saul Muerte

Retrospective: Dead and Buried (1981)

29 Saturday May 2021

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1981 is strongly starting to feel like an incredibly poignant year in horror and strangely another classic cult feature had slipped me by.

I intend to right this wrong this year and finally took the time to sit down and watch Dead and Buried, and straight off the bat, I can see why it is revered so highly.

Right from the get-go, the opening scene pulls you in as we follow an amateaur photographer visiting the small town of Potter’s Bluff. He quickly becomes enamoured by a beautiful woman along with an invitation to copulate.

The photographer becomes ensnared and what starts out as a moment of sexual intrigue swiftly leads to his ruin when he is ambushed by some of the townsfolk, who beat him and set him on fire. As if that ordeal was torture enough, the photographer somehow survives, only to be finally put to rest by the temptress who visits him in the hospital dusguised as a nurse.

It’s a gripping and horrifying sequence that hangs heavy on the mind and wrongfully shafted the feature into the video nasty category.

It’s the raw approach to these harrowing scenes that force the viewer into the dark world lurking in the shadows of a remote American town.

This isn’t even the masterstroke of the film however, as director Gary Sherman (Death Line, Poltergeist III) guides us through Dan O’ Bannon and Ronald Shusett’s screenplay via Sheriff Dan Gillis’ (James Farentino). Gillis is drawn to the increase in murders that are sprouting up in town and enlists the support of eccentric mortician, Dobbs (Jack Albertson) to unearth those responsible. In doing so though, Gillis finds himself falling down a rabbit warren of death and despair, and curiously (although perhaps not surprisingly considering O’Bannon’s involvement) the discovery of reanimated corpses. 

As Gillis descends further into his investigation, the behaviour of his wife Janet (Melody Anderson, who will always be remembered fondly as Dale Arden in 1980s Flash Gordon), adding to the bizarre things that continue to occur.

The final blow when it happens is a killer moment and one that leaves the rug firmly pulled beneath Gillis’ feet and us the audience along with him.

If you’ve not seen this movie before, I highly recommend it and it firmly confirms to me the genius mind of O’Bannon, who keeps on impressing with his writings of the Undead.
Oh and it boasts an early performance from a certain Robert Englund in the mix too.

  • Saul Muerte

Retrospective: Svengali (1931)

21 Friday May 2021

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This 90 year old film starring John Barrymore in the titular role was based on the novel Trilby by George du Maurier. It essentially is a tale of a swindler character who lures women to him through the use of hypnosis and profit from their fortune. The term ‘svengali’ actually means someone who can control or mesmerise someone for sinister means.This has left some debate around the categorising of Svengali as a horror film, which admittedly has a thinly veiled occult theme due to Svengali’s abilities, 

We learn that Svengali’s motives are nefarious early on the piece when he cruelly snubs Honori, a young lady that has left her husband to be with him, but with no money or talent for Svengali to sponge off, he influences her into running off and allegedly take her own life.

Barrymore relishes in this cavalier attitude that he carries around with him and brings a larger than life demeanor to his performance that is engaging to watch. This infectious nature is apparent when engaging with the other characters around him, who either shrink away for fear of being controlled or are instantly drawn to him like a moth to a flame.

So when Svengali falls for the young Trilby (Marian Marsh) he decides to manipulate her to his will. Especially when she doesn’t return his love, as she has eyes for another, Billee (Bramwell Fletcher).Once ensnared, Svengali then persuades Trilby to fake her own suicide and reun away with him to Paris.
In Paris they set up a new life and Trilby becomes a successful singer and they both live off the fruits of her success.

Billee meanwhile refuses to give up and continues to pursue them in the hopes that he can win her heart back.

Svengali follows a fairly simple plotline but did win critical approval when it was released, which included an Academy Award nomination for the cinematography and set design. It didn’t, however, resonate with the audience at the time and failed to draw people into the cinemas.
Svengali was also surprisingly dark for its time as there is no happy ending to the film. Instead the movie encircles its leads towards a bleak conclusion. This in part was in kee[ping with the movies of the time, labeled Pre-Code, before there was an official approval process. This allowed some filmmakers to produce some questionably deep subjects for the era, especially moving into crime stories such as Public Enemy. For this, Svengali does stand out along with Barrymore’s performance.

  • Saul Muerte

Retrospective: Omen IV: The Awakening

19 Wednesday May 2021

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Whilst I can applaud the attempt to take this well trodden franchise into a relatively bold new direction, this French-Canadian made for tv horror, can’t remove the shackles that Damien Thorn had on The Omen. The problem arises in how this franchise can exist without the antichrist himself being integral to the uprise of evil. The fact of the matter is that it can’t. No matter how you try to dress it up, any manifestation of darkness will be secondary in comparison.

In what would be the last instalment, chronologically speaking before the 2006 remake, Omen IV: The Awakening tries to inject the fear again by introducing Delia to the fold. Delia, like Damian before her, was an orphan with an ominous background and brought into the world in a nun-owned orphanage. 

There are a lot of similarities to the original 1976 feature, with a powerhouse couple (in this instance, two attorneys) Gene (Michael Woods) and Karen (Faye Grant) who raise Delia, only to discover something more sinister at play. Also the protective nanny, overseeing that no harm should befall the anointed one. Omen IV appears to follow a more female gaze with Karen’s journey as the central theme in juxtaposition to Gregory Peck’s Robert Thorn. It’s a missed opportunity however as if this wasn’t tied down to 90s tv budget territory, there could have been a more poignant message to explore here. 

There are some other nice elements, such as the army of New Age spiritualists who deem themselves strong enough to rise up against the forces of evil, but prove to be too weak. I also like the cojines twins macguffin that held the idea of the antichrist reborn. It’s a loose thread but one that I could attach myself too. No pun intended.

Despite these elements, Omen IV was always punching above its weight and restricted to the platform of choice in order to carry out the story. It suffers from poor acting as well, so it was never going to amount to much trying to deliver a paper-thin version of what the original movie was able to achieve.

  • Saul Muerte

Retrospective: The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)

17 Monday May 2021

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By the early 1970’s at the time of The Abominable Dr. Phibes ‘ release, its star Vincent Price had already established himself as the larger than life charismatic characters that he presented in the horror genre. 

In many ways this film and his portrayal of the titular Dr. Phibes is a tongue in cheek profile of his on-screen caricature and he relishes in the camp, Phantom-esque presence from the moment he rises from the depths playing an organ with relish, accompanied by the animatronic band, Dr. Phibes’ Clockwork Wizards. 

It’s this exuberance and the dark humour, accompanied by a strong cast that all play it straight, elevating the dark comedy to the fore and establishing the film as a cult in its own right.

The central theme is a simple one about revenge on behalf of Phibes who feels that the surgical team that were operating on his wife, Victoria (Caroline Munro) were responsible for malpractice.
Presumed dead from a fiery car accident, Phibes returns to carry out his dastardly plot using extreme measures that call upon the ten plagues of Egypt in order to satiate his vengeance.

These outlandish murders soon raise the interests of Scotland Yard headed by a typical bumbling Brit detective, Inspector Harry Trout (Peter Jeffrey) to track down the culprit.
His investigations lead him to deduce that a connection surrounds the medical staff who worked with Dr. Vesalius (Joseph Cotten) and that there is inevitably someone out to kill him and his colleagues. The only trouble is that the prime suspect, Phibes, is supposedly dead.

All the performances are solid and on point, notably Terry Thomas as Dr. Longstreet and Aubrey Woods as the Goldsmith, who each hit their comedic notes perfectly.

The glory belongs to Price however, and part of the appeal to his character of Phibes is not only his deadly pursuit but also that he is no longer able to speak bar through his use of acoustic that allow his presence to be deliberately off-kilter, but you can also tell that he his having a lot of fun in his role.

There is a cracking ending too that plays to the hand of a sequel, Dr. Phibes Rises Again, once again directed by Robert Fuest (And Soon The Darkness), possibly a pre-ordained plan on part of the producers, especially knowing that further scripts were bandied around called Phibes Resurrectus, The Bride of Dr. Phibes, and The Seven Fates of Dr. Phibes, but unfortunately would not see fruition.
A shame as I would loved to have seen Price and Dr. Phibes enact more gloriously over-the-top grisly murders along the way.

  • Saul Muerte

Retrospective: La Noche de Walpurgis (1971)

16 Sunday May 2021

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I’m only just learning now that La Noche de Walpurgis, which celebrates 50 years since its release this year, is actually the fifth instalment of a 12-part series called The Hombre Lobo series about a werewolf called Waldemar Daninsky.

Supposedly, these movies have little to connect one another apart from the afore-mentioned lycanthrope and its star, Paul Naschy. So it’s probably a goog thing that I was unaware of this when I sat down to watch this instalment.

Naschy coincidentally picked up something of a cult following due to his numerous portrayals of classic horror movie characters, which earned him the title, The Spanish Lon Chaney.

Here though, Naschy sticks to the debonair Daninsky, a charismatic gent by day, hairy wolf by night.

Made for the paltry sum of $120,000 and it shows, especially the first scene which is incredibly camp and should not be judged for the tone of the rest of the film… kind of.

We witness two doctors examining Daninsky’s corpse and mockingly jest that the removal of the silver bullets that killed him would resurrect him once more. When this actually does happen, said doctors are shocked at the figure transforming before them, before being mauled to death.

This made sense now knowing that it followed on from the previous film in the series, The Fury of the Wolf Man.

Director León Klimovsky does his best to hide the obvious blemishes through stylised shots and creating an eerie atmosphere, which is typically European and predominantly shot in slow motion, which sort of works in places.

The crux of the film itself follows two students, Elvira and Genevieve who go in search of a tomb belonging to a medieval murderess, who happens to be a vampiress called Wandessa (Patty Shepard). Inadvertently Elvira resurrects Wandessa by bleeding onto the corpse. Wandessa then goes on a killing rampage in her wake to build her disciples of creatures of the night. The only thing that can stop them is the noble-hearted lycanthrope, Daninsky. But at what cost?

La Noche de Walpurgis is exactly what you expect from a low-budget European 70s film, but it was a hauntingly visual treat that actually boasted some decent effects considering.

  • Saul Muerte

Retrospective: She Wolf of London (1946)

16 Sunday May 2021

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Less She-Wolf of London and more She-Wolf in Sheep’s clothing as this 1946 feature from Universal Pictures attempts to pull the wool over their audience’s eyes.

The ruse is well implanted in the psyche by the antagonist, leading our heroine and us down a mythological lie born out of the fear and paranoia that the Allenby family has werewolf blood in its veins.

It may have served better to have called the film, The Curse of the Allenbys, (which is actually the title given to the feature for its UK release), but then this would not have put as many bums on seats and capitalised on the Universal backlot of Werewolf movies that starred Lon Chaney.
It would also have been cool to have used the same plot but leveraged from the 1936 vehicle starring Henry Hull as Dr. Wilfred Glendon. Instead of using the Allenby family name, if they had used their bluff around Dr. Glendon, then there would have been more merit to the gaslighting component.

All this may sound a little harsh, because in truth, the film is incredibly strong in its delivery and using greed and power as its core theme for the subterfuge. Our lead character, Phyllis (June Lockhart) stands to come into the Allenby fortune, but standing in her way is either her Aunt Martha (Sara Haden) or her cousin Carol (Jan Wiley) who have lived in the mansion all their lives and could lose it all.

The fact that there has also been a series of murders near the estate and reported sightings of a she-wolf only adds fuel to Phyliss’ fears, forced to her bed and away from society in case she is the one responsible.

She-Wolf of London struggles to find an identity of its own as it attempts to prize itself free from the coat-tails of yester-year movies produced by Universal, but inevitably the film is slow and cumbersome with barely a ripple of fear to be seen.

  • Saul Muerte

Retrospective: Happy Birthday To Me (1981)

15 Saturday May 2021

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Another cult film to have been released in 1981, and criminally escaped me was Happy Birthday To Me.
In my defense, and I had to keep using this as my “Get Out Of Jail Free Card”, was the fact that it was lumped into the video nasties category, which meant that growin up in the UK, a lot of these movies were confiscated and hard to come by.

I do distinctly remember the video cover though, and finding the notion of death by kebab both, hilarious and intriguing.

Now that I’ve finally ticked it off my watchlist, I can see why it gained a cult following.

It’s not the most shocking or intelligent movie but it’s a hell of a lot of fun, plus it starred Little House On The Prairie’s Melissa Sue Anderson as its lead in a marked step away from her innocent portrayal of Mary Ingalls. 

It’s most interesting premise was for Anderson to play Ginny, who suffered a brain injury when she was younger, and is now having blackouts. These temporary bouts of unconsciousness lead Ginny and the audience to question her actions when the bodies start to pile up and she has no memory of where she was at the time.

It doesn’t help that Ginny is part of the social elite called ‘The Top Ten’ that is made up of the most privileged students at the local high school, and that the members of this group appear to be the target of the killer.

There are plenty of twists and turns along the way to keep the audience guessing and the ending plays delightfully with the revelation, which pushes Ginny over the edge, with no hope of return. It would have been interesting to have seen how the original screenplay would have been received had it remained, as it played with the idea of possession, and sat more squarely with the original concept.

Having said that, I did like the off-kilter and downbeat ending that leaves the audience with little hope, despite the ending being neatly tied up.
There are some admittedly bizarre deaths that the publicity team took no hesitation to promote heavily upon the film’s release with some nice effects at play. It also marked another triumph from the minds of My Bloody Valentine, John Dunning and Andre Link, who managed to package a solid movie and a decent premise, albeit a little shaky on the payoff.

  • Saul Muerte