Neighbor (2009) Horror Psycho

Neighbor (2009) does not leave you guessing very long, bringing us into the very deranged character of  "The Girl" (America Olivo). We are introduced to her through a couple short scenes where she has bound and tortured people in their homes. Cutting their flesh biting their skin while showing a psychopathic joy in their suffering. We can see her cruel actions in purposely killing an elderly woman by switching out her life saving medication, her nonchalant reason of wanting to see how long it would take the lady to die exemplifies her callous glee in killing. Already you can see that a lot of this film will be carried by the lead.
As the movie sets up the other characters we see The Girl on the edges of the action, in a bar or a bookstore. She is infiltrating the community looking for the link that will get her in, In this case it seems to be anyone she comes across, but mainly we see Don Carpenter (Christian Campbell) a love lorn musician who with his friends are the only ones we see in the film that are not already victims. Director Robert Angelo Masciantonio is taking the common middle class neighborhood and showing how behind the closed doors we do not know what is happening. Safety is thinking that it can't happen to you, even though gruesome murders are on the nightly news next door is never a place you would consider as the next target.
   The Girl is successful because everyone thinks they are safe in their cul-de-sacs, Don with his sound proof recording studio wakes to realized that the sinister Girl is a real threat as she proves it with a pair of clippers. The very gruesome realistic torture affects make will make the squeamish turn their heads and block their ears as holes are drilled into flesh. Casual in her approach knowing that neighbors never knock on each others doors she rips and cuts her way through Don as he goes through the stages of being a victim. First his rage and then he negotiates, then he begs and hallucinates, all the while Olivio plays the part of loon with a zeal essential to pull off the role. So cruel and fucked up that she does the one kind of torture a man does not want to see.
  Masciantonio plays the lines between reality and fantasy well and leaves the viewer in a state of anxiety guessing what evil act will come next. Upping the ante each time we let relax in the slightest. The torture is well cut with closeups and the after affects of her acts even when not seeing the gruesome cuts. This said so there are enough bloody gory fake blood spurting practical effects to satisfy the most depraved viewer.
  What is underwhelming about this film is that although The Girl is strongly motivated in her killing ways we never really get why she is how she is. Willing to harm without regard but just being motivated does not round out the character. The viewer is left with "just a crazy bitch". Leaving the turn that she will totally get away with her crimes because of her amazing luck that another killer had escaped from prison just at this time. Or did she mastermind that too?
  

Blood Sisters (1987) Horror Slasher

Blood Sisters (1987) -The film starts setting up the killer as many a horror movie does. A small boy is traumatized by a little girl, with her making fun of him. See she knows that the boys Mother is a prostitute in the local brothel. The boy runs away from the taunting. Goes home and shoots his Mother to death with a gun that is way too big for him. This is especially important information about the killer when we jump forward whatever number of years to when he is an adult and again free in society, Edmonson College 13 years later. We see pledges getting ready for their final task for Cappa Gamma which is to spend the night in the house where the murders took place. Nothing good will ever come of this but that is what makes it a horror film. Pretty standard fare for a slasher at first I thought there were some high ideas to be explored in the film but the cut was bad. Then I watched the interview with veteran Director Roberta Findlay and she basically said she threw this film together on the quick to avoid a tax penalty. It shows in the film with a couple different tracks the plot takes and some of the ideas never being fulfilled in the film.
There are a couple things we can learn from this movie and horror in general. If the killer is a traumatized child and it is years later but we never are shown the killer, then the killer is someone we have seen in another role in the film. Stealing from the great psycho this killer is seen in bits, a hand here, a back there but never fully seen. Women's clothes are in frame sure but since we sort of know it was a boy that killed his Mom we know this is to throw us off the track. This blocking is to have a big reveal at the end of the film and chances are the killer is one of the cast who has been introduced earlier in the film. So who will it be. Well since the victims will be women we can safely go with the men that leaves it to about four people. So which of them is the secret crazed killer? The second thing we can be sure of is that each of the girls will have a trait to define them. Linda (Amy Brentano) the sorority's head is dating the football player John (Brian Charlton Wrye).  Make a point at identifying the Jewish girl, Bonnie and there are several jokes she makes to make her look stupid. There is also Diana flirtatious one, Helen the cautious on,Cara is the psychic one, etc etc.
Guys had set up a whole lot of gags in the house to make it spooky, skeletons, and a coffin and some prerecorded noises. They are played to be buffoons and are played by the actors more for laughs with lines like " Eat my shorts tampon breath." One is a bit jumpy thinking the house is haunted. Played for comedy there is a whole sequence getting Larry more and more scared until he leaves. The girls for their part will be creeping around in the dark on a scavenger hunt.
 The girls are blindfolded and driven to the house. Instead of using the scene to really accomplish something the director is happy to let it be filler with meaningless gabbing. So they arrive and the killer up in an upper window moves a curtain so we will know that he is there.
  So you would think this is all a setup for your average slasher. Problems with the script though have the story going different directions so it never quite gets there. Early on there are visions of ghost, primarily seen by Cara but then mirrors also flash back to scenes of the past. What is frustration is those parts never really play a part in the plot. The characters don't react to the ghostly apparitions in any meaningful way. They don't really add any depth to anything we don't already know about the house's history either. The spirits don't threaten or interact in anyway with the girls so they are wasted.
  The killer returns to his childhood home theme is filled with references to Psycho. The kills are not particularly graphic or suspenseful and there is no final girl. Oh and the cops in the New Jersey town are the worst cops ever, brushing off the last victims story of murder so casually you would think the production ran out of money the day they were shooting.
  So in the end this is not a film that is worthy of a recommendation.

Nurse 3D (2013) Horror Psycho

Nurse 3D (2013) - Sometimes advertising is a real influence in getting people to watch a film, Nurse 3D has some really great poster art and with it came my choice to watch the film. I really wish the film was half as good as the posters, but it is not. What it is at heart is a story of a psychopath damaged as a child by the so overly predictable trauma of seeing her Dad fucking someone other than her Mother. This trauma follows her into adulthood where she works as a nurse and on the side uses her ample assets to lure married men into cheating and then doling out punishment for being so weak. The film could be an homage to movies past but I don't think from listening to the director, writer Douglas Aarniokoski's commentary that this idea was in his head at all. He was trying to make a sexy, crazy thriller that he thought was cool. In fact he cared a lot more about the shots in the film more than whether the story was original. Maybe I am being a bit harsh off the top of my head I can only think of one film with a similar traumatic event, Silent Night, Deadly Night. Still the film just does not feel very original. It could be that there are some things that are small that seemed to be played over the top and I just didn't like. Later in the film when we get the flash back to the damaging events, they just did not seem that traumatizing. The fact that the killer as a child does something horrible in a tense situation between her parents I suppose is suppose to carry the idea into her adulthood but that seemed a stretch.
 There is also a real lack of subtext here..There could have been social commentary about the objectification of women but for all of the sexuality oozing through the film it really just says its a great tool for a serial killer. Abby (Paz de la Huerta) is a woman who punishes men for their infidelity but it is really not saying anything about infidelity because the character is so insane she takes the impact away. You really can't pull for the killer even though the men are cheaters because the impact of their cheating is never seen. It also does not touch the question of the impacts of those deaths on the spouses and children left behind. It all is just a premise to have this serial killer go after men.
  The story is about a serial killer woman Abby posing as a nurse who has boundary problems and a need to punish men who cheat on their wives. She is off her rocker and it is not good for the people around her. Still the avenging angel of infidelity persona only lasts enough time to establish a motivation. The story being told is how she gets interested in fellow nurse young attractive, Danni (Katrina Bowden), after a night out drinking together, whether Abby drugged her is probable, Danni wakes in Abby's apartment embarrassed because she blacked out. In the strange voice over we hear Abby explain how the finger fucking of young Danni to orgasm and it was a great experience. Then the story is about the two women, Abby who feels slighted by the non responsive Danni start a plan of fucking with her life. Danni who just wants to forget the night comes to realize just how fucked up and dangerous Abby is. As she learns the about the psycho she also realizes that Abby is setting it up so that no one will believe her if she exposes the lunatic. Eventually thing unravel for Abby in a blood soaked rampage that is so unbelievable that the viewer is left mouth agape wondering why cops and security guards do not exist in this world.
  The first is the lead Paz de la Huerta who just seeps sexuality in this film. She plays the character so strangely that it is hard to believe a single person in the story's reality would not find her creepy. She is so unreal and strange but everyone interacts with her like she is perfectly normal. The director too loves not only this character but the actress and spends a good deal of time making her look sultry. Slow motion walks with semi see through dresses, lace underwear, lots of cleavage all to make her hot and irresistible. Paz de la Huerta gives it her all and really plays a psycho really well but the character seems too bizarre not to have been found out long ago.Then on top of it the premise that she could just get a job at a hospital using someone's identity seems pretty far fetched. She takes the name of the nurse who cared for her in a psychiatric ward and goes to work as a nurse. How?  Just how does that happen that she can replace a woman twice her age and no one finds her out. The actress does all with her acting skills to sell that Abby is a very damaged and emotionally unstable woman but flaws in the screenwriting makes it hard to believe.
  In fact there are several small things done for effect that really bothered me, like needles full of fluid being displayed that are way too big and used just for effect. In one scene we see Abby give a needle with about an ounce of fluid in it to a victim and later she describes it as 4cc. You would use a tiny little needle for that. In a scene where Abby is fucking a dead victim we see like twenty needles stuck all over his chest and stomach, so ridiculous that it takes away from the tension of the movie. Then there is the age thing, we have a back story for Abby where an orderly tells her story to Danni but he tells it as he was there, the actor though looks like he is the only a few years older than her, in order for her to be eight at the asylum that man should be at least 50 years old. Then there is the Danni shower scenes, who the hell showers in her underwear? I understand if the actress does not want to do nudity. That can be respected but you do not have to shoot it so she is standing in the shower in full view with her panties on. How about just a shot of the head under the shower head or just cut out the lower half.
 Costar Bowden does a fine job as the new nurse who has her life turned upside down by Abby. She is vulnerable and then fights back with a strength that is admirable. I found myself wondering what else she was in and did not really remember her roles in other film. Seeing a lot of film makes it hard at times to place actors, but Bowden was in the very forgettable Piranha 3DD and in the recent comedy Movie 43 in the segment Super Hero Speed Dating. She holds her own here, if this film was meant to be a comedy, she would be the straight guy to de la Huerta's clown. Maybe this is a comedy and I just did not get the humor?
There are some smaller parts and cameos that should be noted here, Judd Nelson as Dr. Morris plays a great douche bag of an attending physician. In the end he gets what every harassing ass should get in a film about punishing the likes of his character. Then for one scene a quick appearance by Kathleen Turner who sounds like the smoking has finally caught up with her. Comedy actor Niecy Nash does a sassy black nurse character that is a stereotype of stereotypes but does it with the confidence to pull it off. All characters in this movie are substantiated only to drive the simple plot so are sort of wasted.
 Amazed by the final fight sequence that was so over the top that it leaves you wondering how the security at this hospital manages to get paid. Then the unbelievable scene where Abby strips and lays in a bed in a hospital room covered in blood from the destruction she has just done. When Danni and her boyfriend Steve (Corbin Bleu) come is they attend thinking she is another victim I shuddered at the stupidity. WTF she is totally recognizable!This is a film that may be a lot of fun in a roomful of drinking buddies but fails as a serious horror film. There is certainly camp value here but not enough to get a recommendation in this blog. The sequel ready ending is enough to make this reviewer want to rip his beard out.

Skinned Alive (1990) Horror psychos

Skinned Alive (1990) -  . Its a simple setup for a very simple film. Tempe DVD is still in business and still selling some wonderfully horrible trash films. This one is horrible but not wonderful and really difficult to get through. What do you expect for a film made for $18k? A family of psychopaths travel the country looking for victims to kill, skin and make leather products out of. Could be an interesting set up but the script written by director Jon Killough is a horror comedy lacking both horror and comedy.  The primary problem is the cast that just yells at each other in every scene and swears constantly. Playing completely over the top might have seemed like a good idea at the time this feature was made but it really has not aged well. We have a family of killers here, Crawldaddy (Mary Jackson) the Mom is the handicapped matriarch with two adult children, Phink (Scott Spiegel) and Violet (Susan Rothacker) who drive around killing people and then skinning them. The chaos of what they do is not in their actions but more in their interactions with each other. Shouting, cursing and general low brow behavior makes the film almost unwatchable. There is a bit of a storyline when they settle into a neighborhood after their van breaks down. They are invited by the locals Paul (Floyd Ewing Jr.) and Louise (Jennifer Mullen) to stay with them, contrasting the trusting locals with the traveling assholes. There is some killing and then stupidly not getting rid of the bodies, so the risk of getting caught but there is a problem with this set up. The locals are way too simple to get these people are jerk offs and family of killers are way too unlikable to care if they get caught. You sort of want them to get caught just to shut them up.
  The sort of one reasonable character is the neighbor Tom (Lester Clark) a former cop with a powerful gun. When the shit hits the fan he lets the human leather making family have it and its the one thing that we can cheer about in the film. All and all though this is not a fil I can remotely recommend. Its on you if you need to make yourself suffer through it.

Cold Sweat (2010) Horror psychos

Cold Sweat (2010) - Continuing on the switch to the movies of Adrian Garcia Bogliano I get to "Cold Sweat" a story of a couple radicals of right wing anarchy who years after they have past their prime carry on a sick and twisted vision of creating utopia through torture. Bogliano like in "Rooms for Tourists" uses a house as the tight claustrophobic setting for the fear to come. The opening of the film give us a bit of a history lesson in Argentinian politics. Scenes and images of right and left wing protest flash across the screen telling the story of 25 cases of stolen dynamite and the torture and abuse rendered by sides to try to find it. The right had the Triple A, an anticommunist death squad that operated under President Isabel Peron in the mid 1970's. It is an origin story for a couple of the characters in the film but when viewing it you really don't know that yet. The intro although useful to understanding the motivations of the bad guys in this film is secondary as they are the only ones affected by that story. It is like showing scenes of pacific fighting during WWII just before you tell a story about a Japanese soldier who is still fighting the war 50 years later. This story is very similar, the two old men who are the antagonists of the story are still fighting the Communist in a society that has already moved on.
  The modern day story of these two men is introduced by two other characters Ramon (Facundo Espinosa) and Ali (Marina Glezer) who are working together to find Ramon's ex-girlfriend Jackie (Camila Velasco) who went missing after hooking up with a blonde guy on the internet. Ali and Ramon are outside the house of the old men and little do they know the house of horrors awaiting them inside the house. They think this blonde guy is a person who Jackie is fooling around with and Ramon is obsessed with catching them. He has looked through her email and chats and he and Ali have tracked him to this house. Ali goes in as another flirty girl to meet the blonde guy and hopefully have a look around. When after entering the house a white haired old guy (Omar Gioiosa) sneaks up behind her and knocks her out you known something is horribly amiss.
  What this leads to is a story of a couple old agents still fighting the war against communism in a very unique way. They could be said to just be crazy at this point and not really in touch with the reality of the world but even so they are committed to their cause. Can you call killing young people a cause? We enter their world with victim number one (Noelia Vergini) harnessed up hanging in a room. Walker using old guy (Omar Musa) puts a drop of acid down where the young woman's head can be moved. She is terrified, we don't know it yet but he has put nitroglycerine on the girl's head and if it comes in contact with the acid it will cause it to explode. The scene is a very good and gory example of setting the stage. Ali also captive in the room knows the stakes after watching the demise of the first victim and when a drop of nitro is put on her forehead she is clear of the implications. I have never seen this as a murder method and liked the original (at least for me) way of execution.
Unfortunately what follows can only be termed a horrible mess of poor decisions by the protagonists of the film. When Ali does not come out of the house he looks to go in through a back window to find her. He is clumsy and not really brave but manages to get to her in the maze of an apartment. I am always frustrated with the idea that tech savvy people can't seem to make a simple phone call to the police instead of putting themselves in jeopardy. I am not saying that the film making is bad, I just hate the horror trope of people going in to the horror situation on their own without first calling for help. The actual sneaking around the house are pretty tense and suspenseful scenes, especially when Ramon ends up behind a two way mirror where he witnesses the first on screen killing. Ramon does just that setting up a film where he and Ali sneak around but can't seem to find a way to leave. Ali after being freed by Ramon wanders about never finding a way out. Ramon still seeking the Jackie decides to stay around until he finds her. Shit if he had called the police in the beginning all of this would have been resolved in an hour, the old men arrested and everyone that could be save would have been. Instead we get a fairly enjoyably tense game of cat and mouse based on these horrible decisions.
  Baxter the white haired old man is still fit enough to be a physical threat but the walker guy is not and Ramon could have over powered him anytime but instead just sneaks around avoiding contact. When he finds Jackie covered in nitro and scared he has to problem solve getting her out without blowing her up. The film like I said is somewhat unique and entertaining. As we move into the third act the old men discover the young people and we get a final gory showdown that is worth the look. There is also some (unintentional?) humor when the nitro covered Jackie is dragging herself across the floor trying not to drip the explosive off her skin and is being pursued ever so slowly by the walker guy. He has a syringe of acid and is trying to blow her up by squirting it at the nitro on her body. It is the slowest chase scene in the history of film but even still well done on a movie making level.

A decent film I thought it was original and fun with unlikely villains and some messages about how there is a danger in modern technology. Early in the film we see both sides of technology, Ramon reading the messages of Jackie learns she is going to meet this blonde guy and affectively cheat on him. Also though with Ali they track the IP to this house and the benefits of the internet is used to find the missing woman. Jackie was attracted to the house by chatting with a blonde guy but that guy another captive is not even really communicating with the girl. Instead we learn that the walker guy is the brains behind it. He sees youth of the day as stupidly too trusting and exploits the internet to attract victims.These old men use the internet against a generation too trusting of chat rooms and avatars it is quite a message. Then when Ramon goes into the torture room to save Ali he quickly uses his phone to look up what to do to neutralized nitroglycerine, a good use of technology in a tight situation. There was no cliche loss of signal or anything like that. A draw back is the strange cannibal women of the cellar, who are never really explained. I guess past victims who were never killed, or maybe the way the old men got rid of the bodies?
  So I will recommend this film it has some cool ideas and is original enough to keep you interested. Having to overlook the stupid behavior of a couple of the characters is challenging but still I think the tension created by the director out weighs those flaws. So far in this new  Bogliano themed week I am pretty please. There is a lot of originality, a definite skill for creating tension and what seems a love for making horror movies. I look forward to the next choice for this this director Penumbra.  So enjoy.

Wild Riders (1971) - Bikers Psychopath

Wild Riders (1971) - So far my Biker films have been a real mixed bag, a couple decent ones and a couple real duds, so when Wild Riders arrived from Netflix to break the tie I immediately found the time to watch it. I have to say though that it did not really impress, it is less a biker movie and more of a home invasion film. The opening scenes set up our main character Pete (Arell Blanton) and Stick (Alex Rocco), a young woman (Linda Johanesen) is being abused by bikers who are all around and laughing and jeering, we don't see exactly what was done to her but the after affects as she appears to be dead bound to a tree. Next we have the bike gang leader Dirty Denny (his real name) telling Pete that all the old ladies in the gang are too uncomfortable with the murder of the woman in the beginning and want him and Stick to leave the gang. There will be heat from the police as well and the whole gang will not tolerate going down with the two. Pete tries to explain that when he saw the woman with the black member of the gang he flipped. He uses more colorful language but Dirty is not hearing it. He is not a racist and the decision is made, the two have to go their own way.
  It is something to see that the motorcycle gang finds the two too repulsive to allow in the gang. Also that the woman in the gang used their relationships with their men to move the two out. The first scene at first looks like an assault and the gang just laughing at the woman. We only learn afterwards that she died. Pete says things got out of hand so the viewer is left thinking that Pete is not necessarily a bad dude but maybe like he said things just went wrong. Next we get the required tracking shots of Pete and Stick riding across the country to California. They are desperate, low on cash and towards the end of the credits looking for food in trash bins. This is when Pete looking through a site seeing monocle sees the two woman in a house. Sitting by the pool in the plush California hills home. He and Stick make for the house.
  The two woman at the house are a lonely housewife named Rona (Elizabeth Knowles) and her college years friend Laure (Sherry Bain). Rona's musician husband (Ted Hayden) is traveling so the two women are having some girl time, enjoying the pool when the two bikers show up. Pete being the more handsome of the two talks his way into the house. Rona attracted to the handsome biker makes the poor decision to let the two in. Laure not inclined to socialized with the two dangerous looking guys is apprehensive. Rona is a woman bored with her life. A woman with a boring husband who is constantly on the road she is looking for any adventure to liven up her lonely life. Pete is just the answer for her, he easily seduces her. Unfortunately this leaves his less than stable friend Stick in another part of the house with Laure. Things go horribly wrong!
  Director Richard Kanter wrote the screenplay for this film from a story by Sal Comstock and I don't know if it was intended it but seems to be making a comment on biker society. They are a group outside the law, but  Pete and Stick are too bad for even the bikers. Is it because the bikers already are outsiders that they ever accepted the even crazier pair. Do the craziest in our gravitate to these groups? Well we soon realize that Stick is completely off his rocker. Angered by a frog statue he thinks Laure put in front of him, he loses his cool. He accuses her of making fun of him and starts man handling her, ripping her clothes and then he rapes her. Kanter cuts back and forth between this scene and one of Pete seducing and making love to Rona in a gentle caring way. This editing is quite fucking disturbing and editor Marco Meyer should get credit for screwing with the viewers brains.
  From this point forward the film moves to a real hostage situation where Pete tries to get them to let go of the act that Stick did. His charming nature is replaced by a hard edge as he bullies the women. They know although he is still coming across as the kind one that their is danger just behind his eyes. We learn more about Stick, obviously mentally ill he has no impulse control nor a sense of right and wrong. We learn that he is the one who lost it on the girl in the beginning of the film and staked her to the tree with metal spikes. So we have a picture that Pete who has been best friends with Stick since childhood is the guy who tries to keep him in line.
  Needing money before they can move on Pete takes stuff from the house to sell at a nearby fence. Each time he leaves the house is a frightening experience for Rona and Laure as they are left alone with the unstable Stick. Still it is also an opportunity to escape the situation and they do try. They fail a couple different times but still they give it an effort. This behavior only antagonizes Pete and Stick and they become more hostile as the film goes on. On the second trip out to the fence Rona convinces Stick that Pete has left him behind to take the fall for all that has happened (which included the murder of a neighbor) and get him to agree to take them on the road as he heads to Mexico. They figure they have a chance if they can get out of the isolation of the house. They almost make it too, if Pete didn't show up right at the moment they were getting in the car. He loses it and it is revealed that Pete is much more dangerous than thought too.
  Things seem really gloomy for the women, and when the husband returns in a cab the final sequence plays out in a violent fashion. What I liked about this film was the slow development that showed the relationship between Pete and Stick one way, and then flipped it on its head. As the film goes on and it is revealed that both are really sick individuals changing how we as viewers approach them. Actor and fellow Bostonian Alex Rocco is great as Stick capturing the schizophrenic behavior of the character and being both simple and complex. Still not sure this can necessarily be called a biker film. It is certainly a lesson about not letting strangers into your house. I would have to say though that the bad films now out number the good in this little exercise. This film although not horrible is really not very nice. Women are mistreated and there is rape and bullying and murder and although the ending was acceptable for all the behaviors presented, I am left with a negative feeling in the end. Available on dvd at Netflix.

Roman (2006) Horror Drama

Roman (2006) -  This film although a piece of horror is at its heart a love story, a totally fucked up one but a love story just the same. The titular character is a sad sack lonely welder played well by Lucky McKee. Working hard all day he spends his evenings all alone in his drab apartment, looking out the window, waiting for the chance to see his lovely neighbor (Kristen Bell) walk by. There is something a bit disturbing about Roman. The fact that he plans to be in front of his window at just that time just to watch for this particular girl. Director Angela Bettis uses close up and flashes of Roman's thought to build the sense that this may not be the healthiest man around. We flash into his workday where he is thinking of this lovely smiling woman through the sparks of his welding torch. Furthering our discomfort is seeing Roman with his coworkers, awkward detached the director Bettis with writer Lucky McKee effectively foreshadow the flaws that bring so much pain for the character and those he interacts with later in the film.
  We journey with him as he builds up the courage to almost talk to her. When they have a chance encounter on the roof of the building finally we see there could be a spark between them. She is a free spirit who although his uncomfortable nature is drawn to the quirky innocence Bell captures the right tone of interests with fleeting looks of bewilderment when Roman says something a bit strange. We can see in her the desire to get to know him and her internal brushing off of his stranger comments with that goal in mind.  They do connect but increasingly he makes her a bit more uncomfortable. His boundaries with what information to share and not share are blurred. When the incident with Bell's character spiral out of control Roman is reminiscent of Steinbeck's Lennie in "Of Mice and Men" holding onto the little girl's dress his mind not thinking quick enough to extract himself from the situation. No malice intended but dire consequences for his actions. It is a compelling first act.

  Slightly less compelling is the after effects of the incident with its possibly not professional actors as neighbors and police. They did not fit as neatly as McKee and Bell and just seemed a bit out of place. The necessary voice over helps to move the story forward, the linking of what Roman obsesses on eating and drinking as well as his routine to keep his secret shows the effects of his depression. These scene really only a few minutes in length establish his post incident life. They show his struggle to keep it together. The moving of the couch in his apartment was really a smart move. Early in the film it faced out with the living room window in full view when sitting on it. The spot to view Bell's character "The Girl" from. When that relationship closed we have Roman in the same room but with the sofa turned to face into the apartment, the curtains pulled shut because there is nothing out there for him. we watch his care of the place decline as his focus is inward.
  The introduction of  Eva (Nectar Rose)into the picture turns the story again. She like "The Girl" before her is a nymph, playfully enticing Roman out of his shell. Where roman was the obsessed one with the girl this interaction with Eva brings all kinds of feeling that make his uncomfortable. The use of close up in these interactions is very effective when combined with Roman's expressions to relay his discomfort, yet attraction. bringing back the dreamy shot of sparks and a face, but this time with Eva as the face reminds us how women dig themselves into his damaged psyche. We are being setup here, rebooting if you will. The second act is about the new relationship, a chance for Roman to succeed where once failed. He will struggle with not wanting to put his foot into the water again but boy she is persistent. He still is trying to hold onto "The Girl" while slowly being drawn in by Eva.
  He also must come to terms with his mistakes of the past. To let go of the past and fully embrace his possible future with Eva. This is his struggle and his solution is one that seems to work for him. Little by little the past is discarded and he learns to know and love Eva more and more. She although an energetic and loving person, has feeling as dark as his. She is both  a way to a future for Roman and a reflection of the darkness inside him.They of course must have some conflict to move their relationship forward and it is her private obsession reminds him of "The Girl" way too much to tolerate. There fight is also an opportunity for Roman to grow and he does just that finally making the decision to let the past be the past. To move on and try to reestablish something with Eva.
  The final act is surprising even though if you had paid attention you would have seen it properly foreshadowed. Roman come out of his shell and begins to live. Eva is just the right medicine for him and then the final turn completes what is a wonderfully sad story about love , love lost, love and ... well you get the picture and not go see this movie.
  Lucky McKee is plays the awkward protagonist well, his tall lanky body fits enhances his innocence, and clumsiness with women well. Both women are significantly smaller in stature and juxtapose his size well. Both women are excellent in there roles as muses to lighten Roman's world. As stated earlier the rest of the cast seemed less accomplished and took  away from the story in the small parts they played. Angela Bettis keeps this quiet story tight and quiet, probably how it should be constructed. The use of close up and flashbacks are effective throughout the film. It is a well done job on her part. You will have to excuse the one out of place comedy piece in the film, whether intentional or not it did not fit.
  Roman is certainly a dramatic horror piece that should be seen and you should seek it out. He is a flawed man who Like Steinbeck's Lennie he must meet the consequences of his actions even if they were committed without harmful intent. All acts are paid for in the end as the crowd gathers at Eva's apartment, symbolic of George telling Lennie about the rabbit before his end and Lennie responding "Let's go there, let's go there now.

She Killed in Ecstasy (1971) Horror Revenge

She Killed in Ecstasy (1971) -Unlike my last review this one does not have a great opening. An attractive woman comes down some stone steps to look at a beautiful ocean. Her voice over leads into a recap that will bring her to this place. She is Mrs Johnson (Soledad Miranda) a woman at a turning point in her life, about to do something she can not come back from. How did she arrive at this point? She and her husband Dr. Johnson (Fred Williams) were a happy couple, in love and moving through life in love's dream. He a successful doctor working on improving the species through hormone therapy and she, well his very attractive lover. He recently presented his life's work to the board of doctors who will fully instate him making his life perfect.
 Unfortunately the panel did not see his work as groundbreaking; in fact his work, which included experimentation on nearly grown fetuses, is seen as criminal. Dr Johnson is barred from performing medicine permanently. It is a devastating blow, while he tried to defend himself the panel's commentary on what is moral and acceptable in medical experimentation is clear and he returns home a broken man. Staring off into space and mumbling he ends up in a horrible depression eventually taking his own life. We come back to Mrs. Johnson standing on the shore of her private island and swearing revenge on the panel of doctors who she believes took her husband and their perfect life from her.

Beautifully filmed in Calpe, Alicante, and Valencia Spain the print I saw was in good shape and the locales when in frame were nice. Cinematographer Manuel Merino capture the location well and there are some nice angle captures in this film.  German with English subtitles the film has some passages where it seemed the emotion was trying to be captured but then other times the dialog read was a bit stilted. The music a weird mix of groovy beats from the seventies and more serious tones is noticeable from the very beginning of the film.
  Soledad Miranda was excellent as the grieving widow seeking revenge. Very attractive she manages to show her grief and anger behind her eyes. It is not a reach for us to believe that each doctor she seduces and kills would want to be with her. There is a fair amount of partial nudity in this film as with most every movie made by director and prolific Euro-Sleaze auteur Jesus Fanco. Miranda who was on the cusp of a long career as Franco's "it" girl sadly died a couple years after this film in a car crash in Portugal. It is said she was on her way to sign a long term contract with Franco.

  The character of Mrs. Johnson is indeed over the edge of crazy. When she finds her husband dead she does not call the police, no instead she lays his body in the bed and grieves. In fact all through the film no one knows that he is dead except her. She returns to spend time with him after her kills and each time she does it seems a bit sadder. You would think that maybe she is not bat-shit but after the first kill when she violently stabs her knife into the man's penis cutting it off (we learn later from the useless cop) we see the wild in those beautiful eyes. The character is a strange one to start with, a woman who does not appear to work. In a couple with no friends. Who live out on an island where there are no neighbors.That I suppose would drive anyone insane.  SPOILER! The ending where she has the least convincing drive off a cliff I have ever seen, she does so with the body of her man in the seat next to her. A side comment on that drive, it is a hill that runs down to the beach and sure it is not an easy ride down but to think it actually causes her death is silly. END SPOILER

  I think about this film are that I thought is was well put together. Refreshingly cogent for a Franco film it does not go off on any strange tangents as some of his work does. Sure there are things that are a bit strange but maybe interesting also. Prof. Walker (Howard Vernon) likes his sex rough and to be called names while it is happening, which ends up being a great scene for Mrs. Johnson as she can fulfill his needs while really meaning some of the things she is saying. A more common Franco cliche is that the woman doctor Crawford (Ewa Stromberg) is a lesbian, there is a really pretty framing of the two bodies as she makes love with Mrs. Johnson. A stranger less believable sequence where she is following Doctor Houston (Paul Muller) and he a tall man seems genuinely scared of her. This is not so believable when you see the slight Miranda.
 There is quite a bit of social commentary in the film, the primary being the doctors being against Mr Johnson's research and the use of human fetuses in doing testing. It is heavy handed but appropriate for the setup of the film. Then there was this great bit spouted by Dr. Walker about the youth at the time. Paraphrasing he that today's youth (1971 mind you.) can not be fit into a schema, because they will not take orders and execute them without question. They claim to be searching for a better world with protest against war, demonstrations and riots, and drug use. They distort their reality and thus do not fit into the reality of structure they will have to fit in at some point in their lives.
 Overall this is not a bad film, constructed well enough with week but passable characters. The plot is a simple revenge story that is executed with varying amounts of cohesion. It is not the most compelling or memorable film I have seen but it is not a failure either. I think it gets a recommendation but I think some people will find it a bit slow. So if you are an excitement seeker you may want to avoid this one.
Rating (5.0) 5.0 and up are recommended, some more recommended than others
 

Black Christmas (1974) Horror Christmas

Black Christmas (1974) - What is this, a horror movie where you never see the killer? That is the unique approach taken by Black Christmas. There are a lot of shadows, and flashes of eye balls or hands plus a lot of point of view (POV) of the killer but he/she is never revealed. It seem that the killer is male but it is never revealed.  How the film pulls this off is... well it really doesn't pull it off, the lack of closure leaves the viewer feeling a bit cheated if you ask me. Also leaving you cheated is the incredible but true fact that there is absolutely no back story for the killer. I watched the extra features and director Bob Clark did think they were doing something unique, well it is unique but I am not sure it really works. Roy Moore wrote the screenplay and barely worked again after that and I think you can see why.
 I don't recall this film as a child, I would have been 11 when it came out but since we were too poor to attend the movies, I probably missed most things. Nothing, the film opens with the POV of the killer showing up at the sorority house and climbing a trellis to get in an attic window. I guess the killer has randomly chosen this house as the next place to stalk. Later we learn there has been a killing in town and that currently a thirteen year old girl is missing. Still this does nothing to establish anything other than our voyeuristic fascination as the killer moves around the house spying on the occupants. It is a tough sell, the killer when he chatters sounds crazy as shit and you would think there is a story there. Sometimes on the phone there seems to be more than one voice, one male and one female but without a reveal that just stays a mystery
Inside a gathering at the sorority house with girls and their guys hanging out having a good time. We establish characters, Jess (Olivia Hussey) who is having troubles with her boyfriend Peter (Keir Dullea), he is not at the party because he has a concert for his professors at the music conservatory. Its a lot of stress and we see with a phone call she has with him that there is something not right between them that she won't reveal on the phone. Clare (Lynne Griffin) and Chris (Art Hindle) are a couple, and she wonders what her parents will think of him. Barb (Margot Kidder) is a bit of a college alcoholic, loud and boisterous she can be the life of the party of the reason it breaks up. There are a couple of particularly nasty bits she does that show the flaws of her character, early in the film she and all the rest of the girls have gathered around the phone because the prank caller has called. Someone mentions that a couple weeks ago a local girl was raped in the area, and Barb says "Come, on everyone knows you can't rape a local. " This comment really directed at poor Clare who is an actual local attending the college. It is very mean spirited alcohol aided vitriol.  Phyl (Andrea Martin) is there also and the house mother Mrs Mac (Marian Waldman), a woman whose drinking problems have progressed to the point she has bottles hidden all over the house. The other thing we establish at the party is that there has been a prank caller repeatedly calling the house. This is interesting because since it ends up being the killer and has been going on for a while we know the killer has targeted the house well before the events in the film happen.
  The film plays out at a leisurely pace although the first kill happens rather quickly. Clare is up in her room packing and hears sounds in her closet. Thinking that Chris may be playing tricks on her or one of the other girls she creeps over asking "Is anybody there?" as she closes in on the closet we get a POV of the killer as he/she wraps Clare's head in plastic and suffocates her. Then we see the shadow of the killer as Clare's body is taken up into the attic and placed in a rocking chair in the single attic window, head covered in plastic dead. We come back to this image again and again in the film. In fact anyone paying attention outside would see poor Clare when they looked up at that window, but off course nobody does.
  Things get bumped up a notch when Clare's father comes to take her home but she is not at the meeting place. Clare is now noticed to be missing the girls in the house head to the local police station to see if they can get some help. While there they learn that there is a missing 13 year old girl in town. I think the introduction of the police is that they are bungling small time group and by the end of the film you really get to see how poor they are at doing their jobs. They do get involved with the sorority house though and do their best to solve the disappearance they really are inept.
  The primary story line between Jess and Peter is that she is pregnant right at the time that he is preparing for his performance. Since it is 1974 the choices Jess have are discussed on screen with her initially not wanting to tell Peter and just going to have an abortion. She decides he should know though and his immediate response is that they should forgo the lives and dreams they have had up to this point and get married. Jess is not in that particular headset and is more inclined to have an abortion. She does not want to trade her life hopes and dreams because of an accident with a man she does not want to marry. I thought the scenes where they discuss the issue are emotional and honest with realistic reactions and conversation. The topic of how sexual miscalculations put at risk all of the plans of those involved and the dilemma when one person may not want the marriage solution society implies in those situations. Besides being a stage for a discussion between a woman's right to choose and the inherent distaste for the procedure it was a way to make Peter seem angry. So when suspects are being bantered about by the police his name had to come up. The audience can wonder about him but never seriously, the characters in the film though definitely see him with skeptical eyes. They also have the poor guy get this news right before his big performance which he has been practicing for night and day. The added pressure sure did not help as he blows his big moment. Trashing the piano so that the police see he is a loose cannon does not make him seem any less suspicious to the police.
  As the killer gets more victims it is Jess who ends up in the house for the climax. A phone tap makes it so the police can call and tell her the call is coming from the other phone in the house. Things get crazy from there with the classic finding of the friends dead. Jess is our final girl and the police arrive well after the action is over. Of course the audience also does not really see all the action which is a real disappointment. The police headed by Lt. Fuller (John Saxon) and the ending are truly dreadful, it would seem they have no procedures at all in their department. The film ends with them leaving the house and then us hearing the killer chattering about upstairs. They did not even search the house! I know they thought that the killer was already taken care of but since two people are still missing wouldn't you still search the place top to bottom. I guess those bodies up in the attic are going to have to start stinking before they are found.
  Over all I was a very disappointed with this film. In most of the movies so far, even the bad ones there is some kind of back story about why the killer is the killer. What are his motivations and usually it has something to do with Santa fucking someone, or a relative being killed on Christmas. Here though nothing, just a psychopath engaged in a killing spree. No one knows why and it seems no one cares either. There was nothing wrong with the characters reactions to the situation and the film overall was not poorly constructed. It just was missing the killer story, not to mention the killer is never really seen. There is the strangeness of the phone voices sometimes sounding male and sometimes female but it just is not enough to keep the tension. The acting is fine if a bit cartoonish at times. Mrs Mac in particular is more of a caricature then a character. Don't get me wrong there is something here, Hussey was great as Jesse and Kidder plays mean drunk really well. Over all though I could have skipped this film and been alright with that, it is really middle of the road horror.
Rating (4.7) 5.0 and up are recommended, some more recommended than others.

Don't Open Till Christmas (1984) Horror Christmas

Don't Open Till Christmas (1984) - A bit of a mess of a movie from the incomparable Dick Randall, it is a Christmas slasher film hoping to ride the coattails of the some what successful Pieces (1982) but had problems right from the start. The director and Actor Edmund Purdom only took the role because he was also given the directors role. Unfortunately he was not particularly successful at the directing part; So Producer Dick Randall had screen writer Derek Ford assist him. This still did not work so they were both scrapped from that role and Editor Ray Selfe and Writer Alan Birkinshaw co directed a film that was already a mess. Too tame for a Randall film they rewrote a good portion of the script adding in some very gruesome kills. They also inserted the strange stage performance from the lovely Caroline Munro near the end of the film. It is more noted for seeming completely alien to the film more than any performance Munro gave. When all was said and done the film really is a strange combination of parts. Some solid eighties synth  music by Des Dolan accompany some very tense and wonderful stalking scene. But the film is riddled with strange plot twist and dialog and the very violent deaths that sometimes come out of no where and end too quickly.
  The quick and dirty plot seems to encompass the film, a maniac is loose and is going around killing anyone dressed as Santa. The New Scotland yard is reeling from the events and the pressure to solve the case falls on Inspector Ian Harris (Purdom). That sums up the basic plot but boy, it is so much more than that. The masked killer has these crazy brown eyes just like many of the male characters in the film so guessing who the murderer is will be tough. Also hooded so no hair color is ever seen makes it that much harder. There are some people to consider though.
  The first obvious red herring is Cliff Boyd (Gerry Sundquist), the boyfriend of Kate Briosky (Belinda Mayne). They have the misfortune of watching Kate's Father (Laurence Harrington) be speared through the face while performing as Santa at a night club. Cliff who pan handles with Kate, playing the flute for his income is low on cash and could be in line for some inheritance if Kate ever calls the damn lawyer back. Because everything early on gears towards him as a suspect he can't be the killer. It is a bit ham handed how fast and hard the script points the finger at him. When you make someone obviously the killer the audience can generally figure out it is a dead end. A dead end even though the writers worked to have reasons to suspect this character. You have to know that money is not the motivating factor for this killer, everything points towards a psychopath just because of the brutality of the crimes.
  Then there is reporter Giles (Alan Lake) who shows up spouting cryptic things about Inspector Harris. He thinks Sgt. Powell (Mark Jones) could more easily solve the case  and get a promotion. He is strange and brown eyed and very definitely could be a suspect. Not to the characters in the film he is barely in it. Its just that the scenes he is in his personality is so strong and slightly off that he is definitely to be considered. The character of Giles really does not get fleshed out until the end of the film and by that time you are probably just wishing the film is over. He does have those crazy brown eyes though.
 As the film goes on even Inspector Harris becomes a suspect, well at least for the audience. He shows signs of cracking under the pressure to solve the case. He off camera is being berated by his higher ups and seems to become dour thinking he is going to be fired. When it becomes known that his last name is not Harris and that secretly he has been visiting the Parklands Mental Institute he is suddenly a real possibility. What is he doing at Parklands? Was he once a patient?
Hell, all of this leading towards the real killer is so clumsily done that it is frustrating to watch. Really its just a couple of scenes that are really done well in this film and those and the added elaborate fast murders make it interesting at all. The first kill scene in the very beginning of the film although not original is classic Giallo slasher type scene. A guy dressed as Santa comes into an abandoned alley to meet his woman. They go to the car they have thee and start to make out in the back seat. We get a point of view of the killer as he closes in on the car. The sound is the breathing through what must be a mask. He circles the car and annoys the man inside who thinks he is a voyeur. The man gets out and confronts our unseen killer. The killer's hand stabs out a long blade into the abdomen of the Santa. The woman screams and panics trying to get out the far side of the car. Through the killers eyes we watch her trapped in the alley looking desperately for a way past the killer. She backs against the wall of the alley and the killer again lashes out killing her.
 The other longer, and maybe too long scene to note is the cat and mouse between the killer and a drunk Santa who realizes his plight and flees into a the London Dungeon wax museum. There is quite a suspenseful scene before he fails to escape.Also in the scene is the poor woman working there, played by Paula Meadows who has an interesting career in real life as an erotic artist by the name Lynn Paula Russell
  There is a wide variety of Santa damage being done in this movie. Most are sudden and violent and gruesome, spear through the head, Long knife stabbing, burned in a fire, shot through the head, stabbed through the neck, it really is quite an amazing collection of deaths they added into this film. Overall though the film fails to really tell a consistent story, with Kate sort of becoming an investigator on her own and Harris suspended and a suspect in Kate's mind. It all gets so strange at the end with the revelation of who the killer is and his absolutely strange behavior.
  Similar to Christmas Evil (1980) The trauma that set the killer off totally has to do with an event on Christmas involving Santa and sex and in this case the death of his Mother. Walking in on Dad dressed as Santa, having sex with a blonde hottie is too much for the kid and his Mom to take. Unfortunately Mom falls down the stairs and dies forever setting Santa in the kids head as someone to hate. The very last scene too is unexpected but considering how strange the whole thing is it is not unreasonable.
I can't really say this is a film you should seek out unless the practical gore effects are your main interest. Even if that is the case they are things you have probably scene before. It is a remarkably underwhelming film and You can totally understand why the violent brutal attacks were added. If they had put this film out without them it would be a plodding psychological thriller.  So no recommendation will be made here.
Rating (3.2) 5.0 and up are recommended Some more recommended than others.

Christmas Evil (1980) Horror Christmas

Christmas Evil (1980) - aka "You Better Watch Out" is a story about Harry (Brandon Maggart), an adult who was traumatized as a child when he discovered Santa was not real. Now a man in his forties he builds up to the snapping point because no one seems to want there to be magic in Christmas anymore, and the consequences of his breaking are deadly.
 The film starts with a Norman Rockwell like scene of a Mother (Ellen McElduff) with her boys sitting on the stairs on Christmas Eve. They are watching Santa, his Dad (Brian Hartigan) of course as he goes about his business in the living room. The kids are happy to see him eat the treats they left out and after a wink from Santa he goes up the chimney and the kids are sent to bed. Later that night young Harry hearing sounds downstairs goes to investigate. He is shock and traumatized to see Santa on his knees playing with the lingerie around his Mother's private parts. Santa is a fraud and he was a fool ever to think differently. Poor little kid runs up all the way to the attic. He is devastated and when he drops his snow globe while flashing to the scene downstairs and then cuts his hand he has a physical trauma to go with the psychological one.  This is the extent of his problems and although I think, everyone who watches this film will consider this a small harm the writer & director, Lewis Jackson  sees it differently.
  Now most of us realized long before we were told that Santa was not real. Living in a reality based world we did not believe in flying reindeer and magical men giving toys. Harry here must have been nine or ten when he discovered it. It seems a bit old but that is where the story has us so we will just accept it. I know for myself and growing up poor, either I was not very good or Santa was a guy in a suit with a fake beard at the VFW Post, who smelling of scotch had one present each year for us poor kids. The magic was not there for me. Nor for poor Harry who spend the rest of his life trying to find that Christmas magic again. He by the time we join him in the present is a middle manager in a toy factory the Jolly Dream. Not respected by his coworkers he is living a dreary life, no spouse or girlfriend, a dead end job, and little prospects for change. Still he strives though to make Christmas a special time. He surrounds himself with decorations, sleeps in a Santa hat and so wants to capture that special holiday feeling. He makes a beautiful authentic Santa outfit, and paints a red slay on his creeper white van, he really wants Christmas to be special again.
  There is something not right with the man though, and the picture shows us that right away. We see him with his binoculars looking into the houses of the neighborhood children. He is keeping a book with each kids name and listing their deeds both good and bad. Its really creepy him sneaking around houses, hiding in bushes and peeping through windows. He is particularly displeased with a mean little boy named Moss (Peter Neuman) who you have to be concerned may only get coal if Harry has his way. Since we know this is a horror movie we know this is the year he will snap and the first forty minutes is setup and then all the things that build up to his break.
  He hears the humbugs at the toy assembly line talking about how Christmas is the hardest time of the year. His bosses let him in on a scheme to get media coverage for giving toys to sick children but the details mean they get the coverage but the kids may not get the toys. He is bullied by a coworker, Frankie into taking a shift on the line only to find out later that the reason was a lie. He starts to lose it as we see because the director keeps flashing the scenes of his break just so we won't forget the reasons why. The snap comes at the company Christmas party and hearing about the hospital toy scam. He goes into the  warehouse and collects a bunch of toys to deliver to the hospital. Dressed as Santa he breaks into the neighbors houses and puts or takes toys from them.
 Eventually he is bothered by the memories of the people who sort of tried to spoil the season for him and he goes to hunt them down. He kills the executives from his company as they come out of church. He sneaks into his bully coworkers house and kills him. Word of the killer Santa is now all over the television. The subplot is of his relationship with his brother Phil (Jeffrey DeMunn, of recent Walking Dead fame). Phil has watched out for hi all these years and is the humanity trying to pull him back from his madness.

  The ending of the film is a bit crazy. After a confrontation with Phil harry heads back out into the night, only to have his van get stuck in the snow of a strange NY neighborhood. Here the people have been watching the news and when the children run up to Santa, the parents become concerned. Eventually the confrontation leads to Harry fleeing for his life, from torch wielding townsfolk. I am serious it is a lynch mob chasing Santa. The fantastical ending has to be seen to be believed. Overall I thought this film was a slow burn with too small an initial shock for any lasting damage to the main character Harry. It does not make a lot of sense that 35 years later he is just getting to the breaking point. There was the funny as shit bit where the cops are having a suspects line up with a line full of Santas. Still the movie was not very good in my view and I am not going to recommend it.
Rating (4.0) 5.0 and p are recommended, some more recommended than others.