Dracula Has Risen From The Grave (1968)

   

Issue 16 of Diabolique Magazine May/Jume 2013, which I will happily give it away, after this project is done. There are a couple more remembrances of Peter Cushing "Pass the Memories" by David Del Valle, a review of Cushing's Memior, "Peter Cushing: The Complete Memior" reviewed by  James Gracey and finally Christopher Gullo, president of the Peter Cushing Association reminisces about Cushing with his piece "Peter and Me" so if you have a need to really know all about the man, the legend then ask me about getting this Magzine for free! The final article was an interview with actress Veronica Carlson written by Michele Galgana mostly because she was in the Hammer Studios Horrors of Frankenstein but that was not one of the Cushing films I chose to cover for this writing project. Instead the final film I am doing includes Carlson is from the article "Hammering Vitality in Dracula: Hammer Studio's Re-vamping of Bram Stoker's Classic by Colin McCraken. The film is the 1968 Dracula has Risen from the Grave

This is the last review for this issue of Diabolique Magazine Issue 16, so contact me if you want it. Otherwise recycled another way is it's fate.

Dracula has risen from the Grave, starts with another body being found in the bell tower of the Church in a village near Dracula's castle. It raises the the idea Can vampires enter churches? There are several things to think about on that and I don't think there is a clear answer.  Consecrated Ground: Many stories treat the holy nature of a church as a barrier that burns or pushes back the unholy blood-drinker. The Invitation Rule: Some traditional lore suggests that a vampire cannot cross a threshold uninvited—though whether a public house of worship counts as a private residence requiring an explicit invitation varies. Faith: In some mythos, a church is only as strong as the active faith within it; an abandoned or de-sanctified church might lose its protective properties. In quite a few movies the grounds of a church are not a place for vampires can go but this mythology in our current age changes as film makers try to put their unique spin on the subject of vampires.

In this film a monsignor in the church decides that he and the local reverend must go to Dracula's castle and perform an exorcism to cleanse the space and free the village of it the curse. In a ridiculous scene a storm rolls in during the exorcism but the reverend who was to afraid to go all the way to the castle falls on some rocks cutting his head and lands on the entombed in glass Dracula in just the right way to have his blood drip into the vampire's mouth raising him from the grave. 

Dracula is pissed that the cross has ruined his castle and goes after the senior preist who performed the exorcism and his house, his house keeper, and his brother's daughter and friends who are at the house for a gathering. He forces the younger preist to do his bidding and so begins the tale of Dracula's revenge. There is a bit of interpersonal drama between Maria (Carlson), her boyfriend Paul, Maria's Mother Anna and the Monsignor as well as a side story with the local  waitress Zena. We know full well that this is going to be a story where Dracula wants to get with the lovely Maria. He has the faithless younger preist as his servant and Dracula's will over other people is a central part of his powers in this film.

This is not really a good film mostly because you barely see the vampire. Instead the village meladrama rules the day. It really is only on the last thirty minutes where Dracula gets to Maria, feeding on her., but even then it's all about Maria. Not until the last fifteen minutes is there even a confrontation between the forces of good and those of evil. In the end it is up to the Aithiest boyfriend Paul who must fight off the vampire with Christain symbolism and the Preist who is still in Dracula's control. Paul is a strong young man though and we know how things end for Dracula but not before Paul must make a decision about his lack of faith or does he?  In end the final battle is as improbable as the release of the vampire.

So if you are interested in a magazine with this content, read updates here soresportmovies.blogspot.com, or on Letterboxd.com to learn how my magazine giveaway is going but follow me on Letterboxd if you want to read my movie reviews and comment on the films. I still have a mail connected to my blog movies@edhovey.com where you can write me or comment on blog entries.

My Letterboxd.com handle is @Hovey1127, when I am done with the Issue of the magazine I will offer it up and we can work out the details of me getting it to you. I am not really looking for money just someone who also would love to read it. If no one wants it well it will probably end up on a magazine rack at the library or something.

Chatting with me is difficult, I have stopped my social media account years ago because time… it’s ticking at my age and I would rather spend it doing other things like this for example. Or chatting with my friends at the Zombiegrrlz.com podcasts on their discord. I am a fan of the podcasts they publish The More Deadly Podcast and the Zombiegrrlz podcast and as a Patron for very little $ I get access to the discord. So if you want to good horror content and a great horror community check them out.You can also find me on the Here's Johnny Podcast and  Faculty of Horror Podcast discords. Look them up join my online friends for some good conversations.

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)

   Issue 16 of Diabolique Magazine May/Jume 2013, which I will happily give it away, after this project is done. Like I said in my last post is really full of content. I still have to kick myself for picking one of the most dense issues they put out. I am in it now so we are moving onto the second article in the issue, The Cushing 13, written by Johnathan Rigby gives us what the writer thinks is the thirteen essential Peter Cushing films. Now I am not cover them all but here is the list in case you want to.

  Most actor are lucky to have one defining role in his/her career, Peter Cushing had three. As we have already covered in other entries he played Victor Frankenstein and in this film he plays Sherlock Holmes and as you shall read in my next post he played Doctor Van Helsing opposite the character of Dracula. Is he the actor that defined the role? Well such debates are worth the effort. I have friend who are just not horror fans and never have been and one, Neighbor Dave ( who by the way has the best beer fridge in my town) said he had never heard of Peter Cushing. Shocking as it is to me I understand, I am a child of the 60 and 70s and had a heavy dose of television as baby sitter while growing up. Also a horror fan from an early age, thank you Creature Double Feature, I have been well versed in the genre from an early age. I had to tell Dave that he was Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) so he would have some sense.

In The Hound of the Baskervilles Peter Cushing plays Sherlock Holmes in one of the most famous Arthur Conan Doyle stories ever shot on film. Like many actors before and after him Cushing plays the role as it is written self assured and the smartest man in the room. The character itself is a bit of a dick always proving him, self by testing Watson and those around them to point out how much they did not observed and he does. 

This version of the story has a long prquel where we learn of the start of the Baskervilles curse. Baron Hugo Baskerville is a tyrant in his realm, cruel to his subject and always looking for things that give him pleasure. The curse starts with his pursuit of a young women who has no interest in him. When she flees he chases her to some old ruins in the Dartmoor moors. Throws her onto what looks like a fallen acient alter and you think he is going to rape her but instead with glee in his eyes stabs her to death. Almost immediately he hears the howls in the distance and then meets his demise at the hands of a furry creature. 

A voice over brings us to Doctor Mortimor(Francis de Wolff), Watson (Andre Morell) and Holmes (Peter Cushing) debating the story we just saw and the latest baskervilles death generations after the start of the curse. Holmes has an interest in it and Mortimor brings the case to him wants him to investigate the latest strange death. It is omportant to note that this is a mystery in the finest sense so talking about the machinations of the film is a real nono. What I can say it does a great job of highlighting Holmes' character and laying the red herrings that keep the viewer guessing. Christopher Lee plays Sir Henry the heir to the Baskervilles fortunes who may or may not be in grave danger.

I really loved this film even though I have a soft spot for the earlier version starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes. Still Cushing was made for a role like this and enacts it with grace and percision. All the supporting cast are wonderful at moving the story along. Andre Morell carries a large load as Watson and is completely up to the task. The twists and turns keep you guessing although because I am a repeat viewer for me it was more about appreciateing the movie making and acting. 

Give this one a view especially if you are a mystery buff. 

So if you are interested in a magazine with this content, read updates here soresportmovies.blogspot.com, or on Letterboxd.com to learn how my magazine giveaway is going but follow me on Letterboxd if you want to read my movie reviews and comment on the films. I still have a mail connected to my blog movies@edhovey.com where you can write me or comment on blog entries.

My Letterboxd.com handle is @Hovey1127, when I am done with the Issue of the magazine I will offer it up and we can work out the details of me getting it to you. I am not really looking for money just someone who also would love to read it. If no one wants it well it will probably end up on a magazine rack at the library or something.

Chatting with me is difficult, I have stopped my social media account years ago because time… it’s ticking at my age and I would rather spend it doing other things like this for example. Or chatting with my friends at the Zombiegrrlz.com podcasts on their discord. I am a fan of the podcasts they publish The More Deadly Podcast and the Zombiegrrlz podcast and as a Patron for very little $ I get access to the discord. So if you want to good horror content and a great horror community check them out.

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

  Issue 16 of Diabolique Magazine May/Jume 2013, which I will happily give it away, after this project is done. Like I said in my last post is really full of content. I still have to kick myself for picking one of the most dense issues they put out. I am in it now so we are moving onto the second article in the issue, The Cushing 13, written by Johnathan Rigby gives us what the writer thinks is the thirteen essential Peter Cushing films. Now I am not cover them all but here is the list in case you want to.

Nineteen Eighty Four (1964)

The Curse of Frankenstein(1956) 

The Hounds of the Baskervilles(1958)

The Flesh and the Fiends(1959)

The Brides of Draculs(1960)

Captain Clegg(1961)

The Skull(1965)

Corruption(1967)

Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed(1969)

Tales from the Crypt(1971)

Asylum(1972)

From Beyond The Grave(1973)

A Tale of Two Cities(1980)

As you can see from the title I am covering The Curse of Frankenstein in this entry. I am sure I will not be covering all these film for this project but I might continue with a couple more choices from the list before moving on.

The Curse of Frankenstein as Johnathan Rigby says in his article "was the small picture that established Hammer Film Production as a major playerand sparked off a Gothic revival Worldwide". I personally love Hammer films even the lower budget ones when in the end they were trying to save themselves. The film stars as Peter Cushing as Victor Frankenstein, Hazel Court as Elizabeth, Robert Urquhart as Victor's tutor turned assistant and "rival"(?) Paul.and Christopher Lee as the Creature. Not allowed to call him Frankensteins Monster we can't say Lee joins Lon Chaney Jr. as the only men to play Dracula and the Frankenstein Monster but it is as close as you can come without doing it. I went to check this on the internet and the internet has it wrong which yeah good for you you cute little AI.

Hazel Court on loanfrom the movie studio Rank at the time only did two Hammer films but it was enough to reignite her career after taking a break fromacting to raise her daugher Sally. The other film the classic Vincent Price piece The Masque of the Red Death (1964) was her final major film role although she was seen on Alfred Hitchcock Presents on occasion. In her later years she became an acclaimed scultor. The thing about her role in Curse is that the character Elizabeth was the cousin of Victor Frankenstein, a more common marraige relationship than we have in modern days I suppose. Her character is sort of a non factor in the film with no agency or internal drive. She seems to be there to be put at threat by the monster and as a piece of property to be vied for by Victor and Paul.

Robert Urquharts role Paul is there to removed the hunchback assistant Igor and replaces him with a teacher who becomes a rival after Victor  surpasses him as his student. The wrap around story shows the outcome of that storyline. He is also is the character who tries to shine a light on Victor as he more and more leaves ethics behind in his drive to create life. 

Peter Cushing as Victor Fankenstein has a character written to be cruel but never thoughtless. He from the earliest age is dead set on his path in life and show little empathy to those around him. As an adult and banging the french maid while engaged to Elizabeth at the same time his cruelty can be seen in the scene where she, Justine (Valarie Gaunt) confronts him because she was promoised mararige by Victor. She reveals her pregnancy and Victor's response is vile. Not only that it does not end there, when Justine says she will tell people around him he arranges the circumstances of her death at the hands of the monster.

  In fact the script itself written by Jimmy Sangster is a cruel little take on a story that by 1957 was a well known tale in film already. The take on the story actually makes it new and interesting. In the end you all sort of know what happens but the wrap around story gives it a somewhat satisfying twist. This is really a very vine film and you should all seek it out as an example of how to take a well trodden on idea and make it fresh.

So if you are interested in a magazine with this content, read updates here soresportmovies.blogspot.com, or on Letterboxd.com to learn how my magazine giveaway is going but follow me on Letterboxd if you want to read my movie reviews and comment on the films. I still have a mail connected to my blog movies@edhovey.com where you can write me or comment on blog entries.

My Letterboxd.com handle is @Hovey1127, when I am done with the Issue of the magazine I will offer it up and we can work out the details of me getting it to you. I am not really looking for money just someone who also would love to read it. If no one wants it well it will probably end up on a magazine rack at the library or something.

Chatting with me is difficult, I have stopped my social media account years ago because time… it’s ticking at my age and I would rather spend it doing other things like this for example. Or chatting with my friends at the Zombiegrrlz.com podcasts on their discord. I am a fan of the podcasts they publish The More Deadly Podcast and the Zombiegrrlz podcast and as a Patron for very little $ I get access to the discord. So if you want to good horror content and a great horror community check them out.

Books 2023 - What did you fill your head with?

 This year was a big year for reading, my daughter got me reading about colonialism in the Congo late in 2022 and that expanded into 2023. Not only did it continue but expanded and we both brought ourselves from early Belguim colonialism to modern societies current version. The following were on the subject that we covered this year.

King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild - The book that started it all about the man who unfortunately started it all. Everyone should read this to understand the roots of central african colonialism.

For a more modern history which include French, American and the most modern colonialism in the area these books cover from the 1930's to the modern day.

White Malice: The CIA and the Covert Recolonization of Africa by Susan Williams (Author), Chanté McCormick (Narrator), PublicAffairs (Publisher)

Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa by Jason Stearns (Author), Mike Chamberlain (Narrator), Tantor Audio (Publisher

The Golden Thread: The Cold War and the Mysterious Death of Dag Hammarskjöld by Ravi Somaiva

Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives by Siddharth Kara - An excellent book about the pressures on the Central Africa with the advent of cell phones that need the precious metals found there.

After so much of authors talking about Africa I decided to find a book from an African that would give me a more inside look of the area. I settled on ...

The Lights of Point Noire: A Memior by Alain Mabanckou

Having done over a year on the subject I turned my attention to the United States and our own continued colonialist attitudes. I listened to a few audible books starting with...

A Peoples History of the United States by Howard Zinn - It had been about 20 years since I read it so a return visit to it was needed.

Then focusing on probably the worst case of American Colonialism 

The Battle for Paradise: Puerto Rico Takes on the Disaster Capitalists by Naomi Klein - A reminder that our territories continue to be exploited and the most extreme forms of Capitalism inflicted on the people that live there.

Fantasy Island: Colonialism, Exploitation, and the Betrayal of Puerto Rico by Ed Morales This is a more indepth look at it with more history of how we got to this point in the US Puerto Rico relationship.

I read a couple autobiographical books one of an actor I love and another a book given to me by a friend.

Kilo 3: The True Story of a Marine Rifleman’s Tour from the Intense Fighting in Vietnam to the Superficial Pageantry of Washington, DC by Richard W. Foster Jr.  A fascinating book about a soldier who starts as a kid in the Vietnam war and his later life a an honor guard. I have never been one for war experiences but damn was this book rivetting.

Christopher Lee: Tall, Dark and Gruesome Paperback by Christopher Lee  Awesome look into an incredible life, from his youth in WWII to his early acting career with spotty results all the way up to his later life where fans rediscovered him.

FICTION!!!!!!

I am usually all over the place here, focusing on the short story format but this year I had a couple reads with other people so this is really all over the place.

Trans Wizard Harriet Porber and the Bad Boy Parasaurolophus by Chuck Tingle - Funny and provocative this was a group read with some friends.

San Juan Noir by various authors - dark little stories set in Puerto Rico

Boston Noir by various authors - dark little tales set in Boston MA

Ghoul by Brian Keene - Horror - Just a randomly chosen listen on Audible

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia - Recommended by friends online. I enjoyed it but it got me thinking about whether rewriting old literature motiffs and classics is flattering to them or unethical.

The Kolchack Papers by Jeff Rice - A movie and TV project I did involved watching all the Night Stalker stories, these are the books they were based on. Really rather enjoyed that project.

Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon, again a nostalgic thing. I was influenced towards being a horror fan as a child by the made for TV movie, The Secret of Harvest Home. This is the book that film is based off. It plays on the 60s-70s move from crime ridden cities to the country but brings in elements of fear of small town communities and fear of matriarchy. A bit sexist if you ask me but I think the author is older which is not an excuse but may be a cause.

REFERENCE

The Ultimate Guide to Strange Cinema by Michael Vaughn - Pretty awesome look at the wierd movies of our lifetimes.

New England's Scariest Stories and Urban Legends by Summer Paradis & Cathy McManus - Awesome urban legends from the area I live in. Fun and a quick read.

31 Days of Halloween 2018

October 9:

Boo (2005) It's Halloween night and a group of friends enter an old haunted hospital for a good old fashioned scare. Unfortunately for them a ghost on the third floor is looking for a way out and possessing the recently dead body is the only way he can escape. Thwarting his plan is Jessie (Trish Coren) who is having visions that may just save her and her friends. The difficult script has a lot of exposition at the strangest times, like in the middle of ghost haunts and gunfire. Beside Jessie is her boyfriend Kevin (Jilon VanOver), Marie (Nicole Rayburn) and Freddy (Josh Holt). Emmett (Happy Mahaney) went ahead to set up scares but by the time they find him he is past being quite human. You see when the recently dead are possessed his / her body begins to rapidly decay, making for some squishy slimy effects. Entering another route into the hospital is Allan (Michael Samluk) in search of his sister Meg (Rachael Melvin) who with some friends also came to explore the hospital. He finds her frightened and wishing she had never stepped foot in the place. The final character is Arlo (Dig Wayne), a cop who is looking out for Allan. Eventual after a bunch of visions and some fairly decent gory effects the characters come together. They have to find a way out of the hospital, hell even off the 3rd floor would be good, beat the evil pedophile ghost Jacob  ( M. Steven Felty) who wants to escape, and hopefully survive the night. Written and Directed by Anthony C. Ferrante this film is a hot mess. He has gone on to some fame for writing the first five Sharknado films but here I think the film could have used more work. From the less than convincing dialog and acting to the logical leaps explained through exposition well into the 3rd act to the convoluted endgame; it leaves the viewer bewildered. I watched with someone who is not really a horror person and his reaction primarily was two reaction saying WTF, and laughing. I do have to say the one real joke was pretty funny. They setup that Arlo was a former action star in blacksploitation films and his character Dynamite Jones would light a matchstick and kick it at a target. There is a great seen where Arlo attempts this trick only to have it fail which completely subverted expectation and was very funny. In the end the film only makes a little sense but it spends some lines setting up that the entire ordeal of Jacob trying to use the living to escape the hospital could happen again with another unfortunate group. Really not in anyway a favorite of this writer it is only included this month for it's name and the fact it happens on Halloween.

The Bat (1959) Well although included here this was not really a Halloween type movie so I had to do something else to make up for it. This film is a murder mystery in a big old house several people vie to find 1 million stolen dollars. It stars Agnus Morehead as Cornelia van Gorder a wealthy mystery writer who rents a big old house in the country to finish her latest novel. The story unfolds where the owner of the manor house and local bank president John Fleming (Harvey Stephens) has embezzled one million dollars from his bank. He tells this to his long time doctor Malcolm Wells (Vincent Price) while on a hunting trip, offering half the cash to have Wells help fake his death. That did not go as well as he planned and soon Wells is looking for ways into the house to find the loot. van Gorder and her maid Lizzie Allen (Lanita Lane) are in the house and frightened by a mysterious killer in the area, The Bat who kills with metal claws. Meanwhile the cops are around as well as a butler and a couple others and the audience is unsure who the culprit is. The Bat makes several appearances and there is more murder before the story comes to a climax and the Bat is unmasked. This film is really great fun and entertaining in that 50's cornhttps://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001186/y kinda way. Not really a horror movie so it does not count but it sure was entertaining.

October 10

To The Devil a Daughter (1976) - At the time Hammer Film Production was just about out of money when Christopher Lee obtained the rights to make this Dennis Wheatley novel into a film. They found financing and John Peacock went about adapting the novel with Christopher Wickings. As the production started director Peter Sykes thought the script was not shoot able so brought in Gerald Vaughan-Hughes to rewrite while they were filming. The result is an interesting if scattered treatment of the novel that was hated by Wheatley and he disavowed it promising to never work with Hammer again. Furthering the problems with the film was they brought in American actor Richard Widmark to play John Verney. Hammer had never really had good relations with the American actors they worked with and Widmark was no exception. He found the production to be less than Hollywood standards and was vocal about letting them know it , calling the production Mickey Mouse. Still they managed to keep him on set and finished the film which went on to a  amount of financial success. Probably riding on the huge tail of the Exorcist a few years earlier. Unfortunately the original investors reaped most of the benefit of its box office leaving Hammer film near death. The great cast of Widmark, Christopher Lee and a young Nastassja Kinski made up for a cobbled together script but that was not enough considering the construction of the financing.
  The film is about Catherine (Kinski) and the satanic cult she was raised in, run by Father Michael Raynor (Lee) and there plans to turn her into the living version of the devil. There plans are foiled when Catherine's father Henry Beddows (Denholm Elliot) breaks his pact with the cult and manages to get John Verney (Widmark) a writer on the occult to steal his daughter away at the airport. Alot of the film features Lee and his clan trying to get Catherine back, by both physical and Spiritual means. She is connected to them and can be influenced by there incantations. The imagery is striking in this film where Catherine remembers a ritual in which the devil is simulating sex with her, not in reality but followers hold a statue of him over her while Lee is nearby impregnating a follower. This baby is to be a sacrifice of blood that will later baptize Catherine allowing the devil to take over her body.
In fact later in the film is a weird scene of the baby creature thing crawling into Catherine's vagina which is bizaare and so out of place in the film. It even appears to be eating her out at one point. This scene was hated by Lee when he saw the film as well as appalling Wheatley since it was not in his original story.
  As the time of her baptism draws closer Raynor uses his chants and spells to get Catherine back into the fold. At the same time Verney tries through the church to find a way to stop the ritual. The problem is that the film never gets a full ending. The writers in rewriting the script forgot this whole element where one of the cultist allows all her blood to be drained. They then had to figure out how to work that back into the ending. So at the baptism we see Father Raynor creating a circle of blood to do the ritual in. That being the case Verney needs a way in to get Catherine so there is another contrivance where he has a rock he had hit one of the cultist with. The blood of that disciple is what allows him to enter the circle. Confused? Well it gets worse. Verney throws the rock hitting Raynor in the head, and he vanishes. WTF? Well the original ending had Raynor getting hit by lightening  and following down into what would look like an inverted crucifixion but someone at the studio thought that was too similar to another Cristopher Lee death from the Scars of Dracula (1970) so the sequence was cut. So instead Lee disappears and Verney carries Catherine out of the circle and the film ends. Completely crazy. Now I still like this film even with all its flaws. Lee is fabulous as the crazed true believer bring satan back to earth. I like how the story bring a bit more information in until we have the full story and are ready for the climax. Unfortunately it does not pay off quite as well as one would hope. I could see this film as a remake someday fixing problems and making a great devil cult film.

The Resident (2011) - Horror Stalker

The Resident (2011) - SEE THE FILM BEFORE READING OR IT WILL BE SPOILED! This is going to be a "Spoiler filled blogpost" because honestly I just feel the need to talk about this one. Not in my normal taste in horror films The Resident although passable is that sicko psycho character thing that frankly gives me the heebie jeebies. I grew up in the city of Boston and living in tight quarters is tough enough. Hearing your neighbors fight or have sex is not endearing but part of the environment. Looking out your window and catching a flash of the girl next store as she walks across the window in her undies happens sometimes, it may be momentarily exciting but you should not be camping out there waiting for another chance. Secretly manipulating people to move into your building full of secret passages with peep holes may just be going too far. No it is going too far and if that is the line then drugging and playing with his/her past out body is just plain criminal and repulsive. In exploitation films often the horror is having a conscious victim who knows you are going to do terrible things to him or her. Tension is created by seeing the reaction to the threatened abuse, in this film it is all about the reveal that while you were sleeping horrible things were being done to you. 
 This film is all about that reveal and the turn is better than expected, but there is a wierd flaw I will discuss later. It starts as a film about Dr. Juliet Devereau (Hilary Swank) and her need to find a new place to live after leaving her cheating boyfriend. She is a doctor working hard in Brooklyn and not finding the best places in a city where living in a closet is expensive. Responding to a call back from Max (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) owner of a place right on the bridge and next to the park Juliet runs in daily she finds he has this great spacious apartment for $3800 a month. Worth every penny in fact a steal and if there is one thing we have learned through horror movies of the past, if the apartment is too good to be true, its probably sitting on a gate to hell. In this case she feels no is not an answer she can give and moves in pronto. We then get to see some creepiness and a whole lot of  the good doctor's body. The idea is to show how relaxed we are in our own spaces, stripping our clothes off, masturbating in the bath, rubbing lotion on our body anywhere in our own space. In a way it was an advertisement for the fact that Hilary Swank has a pretty smoking body. Its saying please directors you can still cast me as the young (enough) hottie, I don't have to be in the Mom role yet. Really though it is for the first reveal, the reveal that her landlord is a peeping tom behind the walls watching her.
At the same time we have been watching the two Juliet and Max connect a bit. She being on the rebound finds his attention enjoyable and he is polite and seems kind. Just when things seem to be getting hot and heavy between the two, Juliet has second thoughts and puts a stop to the relationship. She rejects him in bed and then is quick to start moving him into the friend zone. This is when the film does a really strange thing. This movie which has been about a professional woman rebounding from a cheating boyfriend shifts to a completely different story. There is a literal rewind where we see the last couple months through the eyes of Max. We quickly see the interactions and chance meetings between the two as orchestrated manipulations. How Max lured her into seeing the apartment, and made it to good to pass up. It is a weird shift taking the focus off who we thought the main character was and placing it on Max. So instead of a story about Juliet we start to see her as a victim of the strange obsessions of this man. I have to say that I was not expecting this rewind and for a second thought something was wrong with my PlayStation.
So now the second act become all about Max and his increasingly irrational behavior towards Juliet. The writers Antti Jokinen and Robert Orr wanted us to see behind the innocent mask that Max puts in front of Juliet and start to delve into the sick psyche, and escalating behavior he has when she is not with him. The film does a very good job as slowly revealing his sickness. We see him at first in the peepholes, watching Juliet prancing around in the candlelight of her apartment. She always seems to light candles instead of use electricity which makes the setting more creepy. Then there is the coming in the house and watching her sleep, a bit more wierd but not quite at the sick level to come. When we learn that Juliet is having trouble waking up on time we get the reveal about Max and his date rape drug that he is doing her with. Creep fact jumps! When we see him beat off in her tub we have seen enough but this film is not done with us yet. As Max learns that Juliet is getting back together with her ex boyfriend Jack (Lee Pace) his behavior gets even more erratic and weird. We see him drugging her, kissing her as she lay out cold in her bed, then he is under her bed licking her fingers as she sleeps. All though is now focused on Max and to be honest I don't really want to see his behavior escalate.
  The tird act shifts back to being about Juliet and how everything that has been going on is revealed. She eventual brings this all to the final sequence by doing two things, first she has blood work done on herself to try to figure out why she is sleeping so soundly, and second she has security cameras installed in her house so she can try to get rid of that feeling that someone else is there. The ex boyfriend being back has put Max into the dangerous psycho realm and now we have to have Juliet learn the full nature of the goings on so we can come to a finale. She learns she is being drugged and calls Jack to warn him away from the apartment. Always too late for those calls though in these kinds of movies so off she goes  to save him. When she gets to the apartment and sees the video of Max in her place she and we the audience get the great reveal of just how fucking sick Max is. We have seen him doing some weird shit but the video the tear filled Juliet sees shows that she is being drugged and raped by Max. Its an powerful scene before the final fight for survival which will inevitably come after such a reveal.

  The final scenes of running and hiding and fighting and dying are pretty standard fare and luckily for our main character she has the camera tapes to prove her case to the police, although that will happen after the film ends. I think I liked the way the film revealed things slowly. I do have to say though I really suspected after learning that the drugging was happening that Max was raping her in the nights. Still they had his behavior slowly escalating so the view could think he was working his way there and had not yet crossed that line. I loved the smaller role of Lee Pace as the boyfriend Jack since I have such fond memories of him from the short lived series "Pushing Daisies". Also anytime I still get to see Christopher Lee in a film I consider it a gift. He played the ill fated grandfather of Max and his death in the film was the turning point for his grandson who at that point was a killer instead of just a creeper.
  In closing there are no great apartments left in NYC so just stop moving there, its the only sound thing to do. Don't trust your landlord and by all means if you are sleeping late get some blood work done. Of course if your new place is nice and the landlord does not end up being sinister, your new place, as I said earlier, is sitting on a gate to hell so things won't be good for you anyway. Of course in horror moving to the country won't be the answer either so anyway you cut it you are fucked.

The Whip and the Body (1963) Mystery

The Whip and the Body (1963) - Another film from the year I was born. In this Mario Bava directed mystery the sadistic son of a 19th century nobleman appears to rise from the grave to seek revenge on his family which has disowned him.Well written and executed this period piece is a refreshing side trip from all the biker movies I have been watching the last month and a half. Co-written by renown Ernesto Gastaldi, Ugo Guerra and Luciano Martino all prolific, experience writers and producers. Directed by Mario Bava on of the great Italian directors and performed by a cast including Christopher Lee, Daliah Lavi, Tony Kendall and Ida Galli it is one of the better mysteries I have seen in a while.
 The story goes that the eldest son Kurt Menliff (Christopher Lee) was sent away from the castle loosing his spot as heir to his father's title after cruelly killing the daughter of the castle's maid Giorgia (Harriet Medin). Details of the girl's death are never shown other than the knife she was killed with, but it is implied that it was a cruel death. So much so that Count Menliff (Gustavo De Nardo) disowned his son after he was implicated. His inheritance and title forfeited to his younger brother Christian (Tony Kendall). Kurt returns to the castle with Giorgia swearing vengence, the old count shaking in fear at his return and Christian now married to Kurt's former lover Nevenka (Daliah Lavi). Complicating the setting further is the revelation that Nevenka only has eyes for Kurt and there relationship includes violent whipping. This must have been somewhat shocking to audiences when this film came out. Kurt standing over the beautiful Nevenka whipping her repeatedly with a horse crop. Nevenka crying out but also showing a quivering anticipation, waiting in an aroused state for the next blow.
   The setup aside this film is both simple and wonderfully mysterious. The simple setting and the possible directions turned in a way I was not ready for. The fact that Christopher Lee was the star I figured we would be following him throughout the film. Not so! very early on he is murdered and we are left wondering who killed him. The red herring has to be Giorgia who made it obvious she would love to see him dead. Or how about the younger brother who married Nevenka only after his father required it. He loves his childhood sweetheart Katia (Ida Galli) who follows him around like a puppy dog. (also a suspect), or is it the count himself who out of fear only needs to remove his fear by removing the threat. Or did Nevenka herself do away with the man who both excites and harms her. Then when it seems Kurt starts being seen around the castle at night, it may be his death was faked by him and he has put a diabolical plot in motion to take back what was once his. Now when I was watching it before paying attention to who was in the cast. I saw Christopher Lee and was like" Wow they really got a Christopher Lee look alike for this film." but later I found out it was him but all of his lines were dubbed by someone who sounds nothing like Christopher Lee. Shocking!
  Becoming the featured cast member Nevenka leads us through the tale to its conclusion. I make a point never to share too much in a mystery review.In particular one like this which is intriguing all the way through. Bava sets a mood and carries it through the film masterfully. If there is a weakness in the film it is the score by Carlo Rustichelli, not because it is not wonderfully created but because he develops a theme and repeats it too often through the film. When all is said and done though this may be one of Bava's best films. It stands as a really wonderfully developed and acted mystery thriller. Maybe a ghost story if you want to stretch the meaning. So spend a bit of time and go rent this one. I found it on DVD at Netflix.