October Horrorshow: Proteus (1995)

Who doesn’t like a good Alien ripoff? Well, lots of people, I imagine. Alien ripoffs proliferate, with multiple films made every year using the tried and true methods perfected by Ridley Scott back in the late 1970s. It’s a formula that never seems to go out of style, but that doesn’t guarantee good results.

1995 saw the release of Proteus, from screenwriter John Brosnan, adapting his own novel, and director Bob Keen, who has spent most of his career in special effects. Proteus, by the way, is an old Greek god of rivers and seas. The name doesn’t offer much of a clue to the proceedings in the film, but it does fit. Continue reading “October Horrorshow: Proteus (1995)”

October Horrorshow: Shocker

Wes Craven is one of the giants of horror cinema. With The Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes, he mastered the art of dread in horror. He seemed less concerned with frightening his viewers than with making them deeply uncomfortable. He lightened up in the 1980s, though, introducing one of horror’s most wisecracking antagonists with Freddy Krueger. That new style of his continued, less effectively, with Shocker, the story of another mass murdering serial killer with personality.

Mitch Pileggi plays Horace Pinker, a ruthless killer terrorizing the fictional California town of Maryville. It seems not a week goes by when there’s a news report of a home invasion where Pinker murders an entire family. One of those is the family of the detective investigating the murders, Lt. Don Parker (veteran That Guy Michael Murphy), and his adult foster son, Jonathan (Peter Berg), a star football player at the local college. Continue reading “October Horrorshow: Shocker”

October Horrorshow: The Funhouse

There was a period, from the 1970s into the ’80s, when Tobe Hooper was one hell of a filmmaker. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Eaten Alive, Salem’s Lot, Poltergeist, and today’s film, The Funhouse, are all excellent showcases of his talents. Afterwards he took those talents to Cannon and, well, that’s another story. But, there are countless filmmakers who would kill to have a run like the one above.

The Funhouse, released in 1981, was Hooper’s followup to Salem’s Lot. The movie has a simple premise. Four teens, Amy, Buzz, Liz, and Richie (Elizabeth Berridge, Cooper Huckabee, Largo Woodruff, and Miles Chapin), out on a double date to a carnival, decide it would be fun to sneak in and spend the night in the funhouse ride after everything closes for the night. This was 1981, folks. Teenagers back then were even more desperate to find something to do than they are now. Basically all there was to do was smoke grass and have sex. And that’s all these teens planned to do in the funhouse. I suppose it was a nice change of pace from someone’s basement lit by a single red bulb. Anyway… Continue reading “October Horrorshow: The Funhouse”

October Horrorshow: Devil Story, aka Il était une fois…le diable

What does a deformed slasher wearing an SS uniform, a black cat and a black horse, a ghost galleon, an Egyptian mummy, and an emotionally troubled young woman have in common? That’s not a joke. If someone out there knows, get in touch and I’ll forward the info to filmmaker Bernard Launois.

That’s more than a little facetious. All the events in Launois’s bizarre horror flick, Devil Story (French: Once upon a time…the devil), do tie together, but in more of a tangle than a knot. Thank goodness this site is more interested in the craft of film rather than interpretive criticism, because trying to unravel the mess that is this film’s story is futile. Continue reading “October Horrorshow: Devil Story, aka Il était une fois…le diable”

October Horrorshow: Zombie Cop

J.R. Bookwalter, Akron’s finest filmmaker, strikes again. Zombie Cop, his third feature, is something of a redheaded stepchild in his oeuvre. According to Bookwalter, he was in an unhappy place with his filmmaking at the time. He had been contracted to shoot six movies in seven months for distributor Cinema Home Video (prolific b-auteur David DeCoteau, owner of CHV, executive produced), and that experience left him so burnt out he almost left the business for good. It’s no wonder, then, that he has mixed feelings about Zombie Cop. The word ‘disowned’ appears here and there in the tubes, but that seems to be an exaggeration. He may not like the final product all that much, but his name is still on Zombie Cop, warts and all. Continue reading “October Horrorshow: Zombie Cop”

October Horrorshow: The Day of the Triffids (1963)

Leave it to England, land of the most enthusiastic domestic gardeners in the world, to produce a monster flick about giant, carnivorous plants.

The Day of the Triffids comes to us from 1963. Adapted by screenwriter Bernard Gordon from the novel by John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids tells the story of an alien invasion of Earth. But, these aren’t the normal, big-eyed, grey-skinned creatures with laser guns with which audiences are so familiar. These are, as noted above, huge, ambulatory plants that poison their victims and then consume them. They are creatures that require no sentience to carry out their invasion. Like the kudzu, they have strength in numbers. Continue reading “October Horrorshow: The Day of the Triffids (1963)”

October Horrorshow: Body Melt

Australia’s Body Melt, from 1993, feels like a movie designed to be a punk rock cult classic. It has the requisite absurdity, complimented by characters’ blasé acceptance of all the strangeness. It has weirdos and straights, a frenetic pace, and only a passing commitment to its plot. It’s kin to Repo Man and Street Trash — another entry chronicling the glorious downfall of western civilization.

Philip Brophy directed and wrote (with Rod Bishop, who also produced), and an ensemble cast stars as the beleaguered residents of Pebbles Court, a liminal cul-de-sac in a Melbourne suburb, and the scientists who toy with them. Continue reading “October Horrorshow: Body Melt”

October Horrorshow: The Creeping Flesh

When is a Hammer flick not a Hammer flick? Well, when it wasn’t made by Hammer. It’s not a trick question. But, the filmmakers behind The Creeping Flesh, from 1973, made every effort to craft a movie indistinguishable from a Hammer flick, going so far as to cast Hammer Film Productions’ two biggest icons in Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.

Taking place in Victorian England, Cushing plays Emmanuel Hildern, a scientist recently returned from an expedition abroad. He has returned with a monstrous skeleton he excavated, which he hopes proves his theories about the origin of man. Continue reading “October Horrorshow: The Creeping Flesh”

October Horrorshow: Click: The Calendar Girl Killer

For about two-thirds of Click: The Calendar Girl Killer, the movie flirts with being an erotic thriller, featuring a passel of middle-aged Hollywood b-listers cashing checks. Then, for the final act, the movie makes a hard turn into slasher horror. It’s a change in tone that’s unusual, only because there is no indication this will happen. It’s obvious to viewers that violence will be coming in the final act, but not the scale, and not how it is depicted.

Something of a vanity project in the world of b-movies, Click was written by Hollywood acting stalwarts Ross Hagen and Hoke Howell, with David Reskin and David Chute. Hagen also directed alongside longtime stunt man John Stewart. To make it a family affair, Hagen’s wife, Claire, co-produced. Continue reading “October Horrorshow: Click: The Calendar Girl Killer”