Samhain Project ‘24: Ghost Story

Cannon Films once produced a movie with Vincent Price, John Carradine, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, and titled The House of the Long Shadows. They were trying to create an ultra all star horror film, but really it ended up being a comedy of sorts.  I guess Menachem Golan wanted to put together the Universal Monsters, but, you know, there is a reason they're known as the UNIVERSAL monsters. 

In a reversal of fortune here, mainstream old Hollywood legends Fred Astaire, Melvin Douglas, John Houseman, And Douglas Fairbanks Junior star in a fantastic horror adaptation of Peter Straub’s classic novel. A 1981 Halloween adjacent movie that aired on Spectrum !

John Irving’s somewhat classy Ghost Story.

 

Secrets have a way of coming back to destroy people. Literally in real life, the buried truth can be a nightmare. And in works of fiction, it can be murder and hell on earth. 

Alice Krige is absolutely terrifying in certain  early parts of this film as she arrives to seduce a pair of twins then kill one. These young men (both played by genre vet Craig Wasson) bear a connection to our primary cast.  These four men who call themselves The Chowder Society (our 4 cinematic legends) have a long history together that may have some buried darkness. 

But do you believe in ghosts?  The film has a deliberate slow pace but has plenty of grasping shocks. Those stunning moments, with the help of make up stalwart Dick Smith,  peppered throughout its unnerving crawling pace, make it a horror film that deserves to be remembered. 

And maybe reevaluated.

It should be remembered not just for its amazing cast, but for a truly creepy and excellently told ghost story, as the title does indicate.  

Samhain Project '24: Wishmaster

 Wishmaster is a 80s/90s horror fans dream. Before I get into any sort of the narrative of the story, let’s look at who’s in the film shall we? 

It has Tony Todd (Candyman). It has Kane Hodder also known as Jason Voorhees.  Ted Raimi pops up, who has been in multiple horror films of the 80s, including Candyman and Evil Dead II, and let’s not forget Robert Englund, who is legendarily known as Freddy Krueger. 

There’s smaller side appearances by Joseph Pilato from George A. Romero's Day of the Dead, and of course, Phantasm’s Reggie Bannister, as the foul mouthed pharmacist. He argues with an equally profane Buck Flowers, who’s appeared in several of John Carpenter's films, and is the utterer of “crazy drunk drivers” when Marty McFly reappears in his own time in Back to the Future.

I also can’t disregard the opening of the film's narration, which is read impeccably by Angus Scrimm, also known as the tall man in the Phantasm series.

I don’t think I need to go any further than that.  This movie, produced by Wes Craven,  is surely no less than an 80s 90s film fanatic’s dream as far as casting, but let’s look at who really is the star of the film. That would be Andrew Divoff,  whether he’s in his regular skin and his intimidating facial expressions, or Greg Nicotero and the rest of KNB‘s facial make up, he is unsettling.  His voice, very equally so.

He plays of course a djinn, which is an evil genie; here to try to take over our dimension after being bottled up in a gem for the last several hundred years. Tammy Lauren, who was in thousands,  it seems, of television programs during the 70s as a child actress,  plays our lead here and does a pretty good job with it. She’s the target of our villain.  The Wishmaster needs her to wish 3 times to fulfill his evil course of action.  Getting her to cooperate is not as easy as he had hoped. 

Overall, I can’t say enough about Wishmaster being a ton of fun. Is it gonna scare the crap out of you? No, that’s not gonna happen, but I still gotta give it a Project Samhain thumbs up anyway. 

Samhain Project '24: Natty Knocks

Ok,  this movie is kind of a whirling dervish.  It has a lot going for it, ya know.

William Mosley as our twisted antagonist.  He's been an antagonist before, but not like this. He’s very understated.  Took the day off from Rob Zombie.  Robert Englund, who still blows my mind for taking the simplest damn near-cameo sized moments and making you glue yourself to his every sentence.  He does that here again.

We have the reuniting of Danielle Harris and Dwight Little.  Star and Director of 1988's Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers.  She was about 9 when she played Jamie in that film, and grew up to be executive producer of this one.  Little is one of the best journeyman directors in the biz.  He also provided us with Brandon Lee's kickstart, a film wonderfully grounded by Powers Boothe, Rapid Fire.

This is a Halloween film for sure, as it begins and ends around Halloweens decades apart.  Our protagonists are teens, and well written and performed ones at that.  One of our adolescents has a character dating his mother that has a wonderful and unexpected character arc.  It is very much away from the typical "slasher film supporting role" trope and it’s a pleasant surprise. 

The rest of the film, though fairly underwritten, looks great and is directed well.  With a vet like Little at the helm, that is to be expected. 

But it has enough plot holes to look like swiss cheese, that sure hurt the film enough if you think about it, but they're easy to ignore if you're just looking for a good October spooker.  A nice enough blending of mad slasher and the supernatural in a story that's at the very least, fun. 

Can't say I was thrilled with the ending, as its connection to one of those plot holes make it a question mark. 

But hey, don't let that stop you.  It's almost Halloween!

Samhain Project '24: The Other

 

The Other, based on Thomas Tryon's novel (which I believe my sister Linda had a paperback copy of) is an interesting production.  The first half is like an episode of Little House on the Prairie (oddly, Little House's Victor French plays a small but key role here) and features real life twin brothers Chris and Martin Udvarnosky in convincing roles as twins Niles and Holland.  They are exquisite in their roles as little boys running about their family farm, basking in the joys of the land, the house, and the family. 

Not hard to see, and very early, how this film must have influenced Goodnight, Mommy.  Farm life and running free with your twin brother seems grand enough at the outset, until grisly occurrences open the door to memories of heartbreaking events in the recent past.

    

You feel on the brink of true disaster at this point.

A loving grandmother, stepping forward where the boys' mother and cousins and aunts and uncles cannot, tries to stop the nightmare the second half of the film descends into.  She fights a difficult mental and emotional battle.  That's how much she loves our young leads. Maybe too much. 

As warm as The Other opens, it closes just as dark.  It's brutal as shit, and the ending is a kick in the fucking nuts.  Well worth watching as the ending turns a Norman Rockwell painting into something sinister and twisted.  

It's amazing that although it was produced in 1972 by the director of To Kill a Mockingbird and Summer of '42, unlike those other wonderful efforts, it's a production you'll want to forget right after you've seen it.  

Not because The Other is a bad movie, but because it becomes something wretched by the end.

Samhain Project '24: Race With the Devil

There's something about 70's horror.  I don't know how to describe the flair it has, but it's all its own.  Especially when it stars Easy Rider himself Peter Fonda, and the face of Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, Warren Oates.  Yes, Sergeant Hulka himself.  

I was just thinking the other day, as growing up a fan of Stripes, the older I get, the more I respect Oates' Hulka over Murray's John Winger, but that's getting way out in the weeds here. 

Anyway.  

I hadn't seen this one since 1988 when my brother Dan's wife Carol and I were at the Red Owl grocery store with my Dad on an early Saturday morning.  We decided to rent some movies, and Carol wanted to definitely go with Race.  I told her "No way Dad's gonna roll with a horror movie."

"You just let me handle Dad", she replied.

Race With the Devil got watched that evening.

   

1975 was pre-Satanic Panic, but post Rosemary's Baby, so it fit neatly in its era.  It grabs you from the get-go with a truly eerie opening credits sequence before giving you a quick introduction to Fonda and Oates, and their wives.   A January motor home vacation is planned to go from San Antonio to Aspen, Colorado.  And away we go. 

That first evening, while parked in a clearing, Oates and Fonda are congratulating themselves for being bros when a fire flares up across the river from them.  Our two heroes get close enough to see a human sacrifice take place.  Some nice foreshadowing occurs earlier during a stroll as Lara Parker,  (Mrs. Fonda) gives a chill-inducing stare to the naked tree that will soon serve as the background to the ritual.  This is where they begin to shit their pants as they have no idea what they've stumbled onto. 

Just then Hot Lips Houlihan, I mean Loretta Swit, turns the light on in the motor home and starts making a ruckus so the San Antonio Satan Union #37 knows they've been made and the chase is on. 

As Frani points out, much like Rosemary's Baby, it seems most of central Texas is in this cult, and make escape very difficult, although action-packed.  Fonda and Oates are exceptional in roles that don't require a shit-ton of dialogue, but Parker and Swit are given little to do as their wives.  Minus a Satanism study at the local library that is.  However, I can't express the sheer terror Parker is able to convey with just her eyes. It's quite compelling.

Being a mid 70's film, RG Armstrong is of course required to play a role, as a local law enforcement magistrate whose motivations are questionable from the outset.  Director Jack Starrett (looking and sounding a lot like a young Xander Berkley) makes a cameo here as well. 

The movie moves quickly, and ends feeling like it should have another half hour to go.  Race With the Devil is worth every penny, and gets a Samhain recommendation.

Samhain Project '24: The Children

1980's The Children is one bizarre excursion into cinema.  As the film opens, you have a couple of gomers who work for a nuclear plant arguing about how much attention they should be paying to a pressurization issue.  

I'd say more. 

Later on, we have a bus full of kids singing 99 Bottles and a weird Hail to the Bus Driver tune before driving through what appears to be a giant mustard fart cloud.  Now, the only thing weirder than this movie is probably the community it takes place in.  It seems to have two cops and a population of about 12 people who have massive homes and plots of land.  

Strange dead ends hang in the atmosphere.  For example, once shit starts hitting the fans, we have two people signed up to monitor a road block who are never accounted for again.   A heartbroken waitress, teary-eyed and miserable, heads home in the dark, stood up by her ride, (who in all fairness has some serious shit to do) and is also never heard from for the rest of the film.  Weird.

   

What's happening is our Mustard Fart Cloud kids are now bullet-proof black-fingernailed, smokey-eyed weirdos who want to hug everybody so they can cook them alive.  This is a low- budget film, however, so you have to grade on a curve.  I will say Gil Rogers as the sheriff does pull his weight.  Harry Manfredini works the score here, and it sounds like he's doing a rough draft of his superior Friday the 13th score, mixed with Bernard Herrman's Psycho elements.  I forget the director's name already.  It's that sloppy.

1980 had a plethora of low budget horror, but where The Children sets itself apart is it isn't a slasher film.  It's kind of a zombie film in an odd way.  The residents of this small town are made short work of by our bus riders, not a big deal with only 12 members of the community.  All of them either assholes or perverts, so who could blame the tykes anyway.  

I must warn you, despite the factors that make this seem like light horror fare for one to enjoy on a Saturday Night, (like my sisters and I tried to do in 1981 on Spectrum) there's a heavy few jaw droppers in here that give genuine weight to the affairs and kind of take the wind out of the sails of the "fun horror giggles".

That being said, is The Children a good movie?

No. 

Is it worth watching?  Based on its complete and utter bizarreness, definitely.  Happy Halloween!!

Samhain Project '24 : The Last Shift

The Last Shift is a low volume thriller by Anthony DiBlasi that would trip Jason Blum's trigger.  It has one primary protagonist, about four other cast members, and it all takes place in one building.  That structure being an abandoned police station. 

Taking a bump from John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13, you have a single police officer (in this case a female rookie) who is to run the last shift of a police station closing after its final night. 

After a freaky and confusing encounter with her shift's predecessor, she's left alone.  Clearly, you can tell she's prepared for the rigors of police work, as she's studying the department manual and reciting it, and the way she handles the first piece of rough business is excellently accomplished.  She takes no guff as gradually weirder and weirder shit starts to occur.  

The only major downfall in this film in my eyes is a late revelation that makes this positioning of the young woman something nobody on the police force would ever consider.  

But I digress. 

Eventually we learn demonic entities are involved here, in some way tied to our young officer's father (a dead ex-cop) and a cult that leave our leading lady wondering what's real and what's not.  The tension builds nicely in this one, as it goes from creepy to scary in its quick running time.  Excellent low budget work and comes highly recommended. 

This film was made in 2014 and for some reason, a couple of years ago the same filmmaker decided that instead of making a sequel, he would remake this one.  I've not seen the second attempt, but after seeing this, I'm not sure why he went in that direction. 

 

Samhain Project '24: Next of Kin

 This film is so tightly wound. To say the least. The pacing is incredible.  It’s a tension wheel that starts cranking so slowly you almost don’t notice it until you’re hooked when it hits breakneck speed. 

When you look at the amount of story and character development that they have sandwiched into one hour and 26 minutes, you must credit the achievement. This Australian number was made in 1982, when there was quite a run of quality suspense and horror from that continent from the likes of Peter Weir, Richard Franklin and others. But this is one that doesn’t get the attention that its contemporaries do.

It starts off with a prelude that is a reflection of its denouement.   One that is vaguely disturbing for its opening moments.

The story is that of a woman who inherits a a retirement home from her dead mother and finds herself encapsulated in a mystery involving manipulation of finances and family, buried memories, revenge, and quite possibly murder.

Does Next of Kin spell it all out clearly?  Not really, but it still comes together in a satisfying conclusion and the final 20 minutes are a missile shot that you can’t take your eyes off of. Great performances all around, (including that of a young John Jarrett, who would go on to play one of the most terrifying psychopaths of the 2010s in Wolf Creek), beautiful scenery, and stunning cinematography make this film hold up even after 40 years.

Next of Kin comes highly recommended, (a Tarantino fave) but remember it is a slow burn, and by no means a slasher or monster film of any form.   However, creepiness is deeply entrenched in its 90 minute running time, so as it inches along, it makes you feel more and more ill at ease. 

This may not be something somebody wants to get together and watch at a party on Halloween, but it is  a damn worthy investment of your time. 

Samhain Project '24 : In a Violent Nature

This film came out earlier this year to much hullaballoo and deservedly so.  A low volume affair by young director, Chris Nash.  He displayed a vision and held to his process through to the end.  

Yes, this is a slasher film.  Indeed.  But.....

1.  It's like Mutual of Omaha's Friday the 13th, and this is a compliment.  The Ontario visuals are gorgeous from start to finish.

2.  You spend much more time with the slasher than you do his stupid teenage/early 20's victims. You learn just enough of his motivations, but are privy to all his actions. Jump scares are not what Nash is dealing in here.

3.  Disregard the shit you've heard about it being from the killer's (this time, an undead chap named Johnny) point of view.  Most of the camera work is from behind Johnny or to his left.  Like you're following him, not being him.  This removes the well-worn critical finger pointing of the past, blaming  the audience for somehow being complicit.  Now you're following him.  Hoping to god that Johnny doesn't turn to his left, look over his shoulder and see you.

4.  Nash shoots his film in 4:3, wanting to give audiences the vibe of watching those old slasher films with a boxy image on their 1980's pre-widescreen console televisions.  The man is a student of the game.  

5.  It has a classy ending.  Not a last minute shot of Johnny's eye's opening, or someone jumping out of the water, or being pulled somewhere.  This ending sends a message for you to interpret.  There is a final girl, and her subtle behavior as the film winds down gives you all you need to know.

In a Violent Nature, while being a throwback in a sense is unique, because Chris Nash takes the tropes and cliches (Thanks Horror's Greatest) and sets them on their ear, making this film completely unpredictable.  There are horrendous kills in this film, but they take their time; if you don't cover your eyes, prepare to cringe.  More than one moment will make you cock your head in realization that what you're seeing is completely out of left field for material of this sort.  

Hey Halloweeners, this one's for you, and if you're one of those folks who complains that Johnny spends too much time walking, maybe you need to spend some time in the woods. 

Look around. 

 
 

Samhain Project : Devil's Pass

SPECIAL

My wife and I had seen a couple of documentaries about the Dyatlov pass incident, a 1950's Russian expedition, where 9 people were eventually found dead in various unexplained and grisly ways.  To say the least, the story is chilling, whether you look at the many different possible and really bizarre ways these people could’ve died, to the fact that the fuckin' yeti may have been involved. He may have even possibly been photographed; all of that is disturbing to say the least. 

There still is no logical explanation as to how any of this happened. Medical tests settle on absolutely nothing, other than they all died extremely painful deaths.  Crushed skulls, a couple with lethal internal injuries but no external bruising and one with a potentially fatal dose of radiation.  Renny Harlin does a really good job of taking the concept of that story, (which is fucked up enough on its own real standing) and getting a good found footage film out of it.  Renny's made some good films, Die Hard 2, Deep Blue Sea, got mileage out of The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, and apparently the recent reboot of The Strangers. 

Devil's Pass involves a group of young filmmakers trying to find out what the hell happened up there, and what the hell is up there now. Of course they won’t like the answer, and the answer is absolutely batshit crazy. Crazy to the effect that it even involves the Philadelphia experiment, an American urban legend involving possible 1943 naval time travel, and even theorized teleportation.  Remember, as debunked as that legend is, the background on it is so thick and detailed, it remains fascinating.  John Carpenter even began a script on it that became the finished 1984 film,  The Philadelphia Experiment, of which the completed movie apparently resembles John's concepts in no way. 

Warning: the last 20 minutes is off the hook weird, but the movie itself and its set up is well worth the watch.