Night of the Demon (1980)

 

Director: James C. Wasson

Screenplay: Mike Williams and Jim L. Ball

Cast: Michael Cutt as Professor Bill Nugent; Melanie Graham as Wanda McGinty; Shannon Cooper as Carla Thomas; Bob Collings as Roy; Jodi Lazarus as Linda; Michael Lang as Pete; Ray Jarris as Gary; William F. Nugent as Lou Carlson; Barrett Cooper as Reverend Emmet McGinty

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies)

 

Let your seeds of evil grow within her!

Among the Video Nasties of the 1984 Video Recordings Act, all of them present their own fascinating history and with Night of the Demon, we find ourselves following the trends of "cryptid" culture, including the legendary 1967 Patterson–Gimlin film footage which was said to capture onscreen images of an ape-like humanoid and feed interest in this legendary figure in cinema. With Night of the Demon, there is obviously the dichotomy that this is also a splatter film in tone, where films which helped pave an interest in making them were more family friendly; films like The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972), a huge independent success, and when Monsters! Mysteries or Myths? (1974), a TV documentary with Rod Serling as the narrator, was expanded into a feature film with new footage (and actor Peter Graves taking over narration) for The Mysterious Monsters (1975) for another hit. This is not even the first gorier Bigfoot film as, whilst its plot involves a fake one, Shriek of the Mutilated (1974) exists, but Night of the Demon among some pretty strong competition in the Video Nasties list still stands toe-to-toe with a level of extremity.

With Night of the Demon, the explanation for how it came to be explains everything about the tone and content - originally this was a suspense film, in which Professor Nugent (Michael Cutt), in a bookend disfigured and recovering in a hospital bed, recounts to doctors and the police about his trip with students to a forest region which is said to be terrorised by a bigfoot creature, only for the production to struggle to be sold and producer Jim L. Ball to film additional gore footage which gained its infamy. This is immediately established when a man has his arm ripped off, both the gore intercut to and showing this is not a friendly Bigfoot. Even without this initial context, where after a first version played off mood and tension from director James C. Wasson, you had the gore added which gained a lot of notoriety for those who had seen the film, Night of the Demon from the first time I saw it, and did not appreciate it, to a growing one for it now, is curious in its pacing and tone. Immediately after that arm is pulled off a man like a doll's, it cuts to seventies flute music over an ordinary school, a reminder the early eighties in horror reflects the previous decade in style until the hairspray came in during the mid-eighties. With the daughter of one of the male victims of this creature in tow, what this becomes is a mystery as the team of Bigfoot finders go to the woods in Northern California, where the sightings are, and first ask around before going further into the woodlands.

The gore scenes are mostly linked to flashbacks from tales recounted by Nugent, filtered throughout, be it a man swung in a sleeping bag by Bigfoot and impaled, to the infamous scene of a motor biker having his penis ripped off, which is more for the sake of spectacle splatter than cohesive in their presentation, more a series of scenes to get reaction from than a cohesive series of attacks by a cryptid. It becomes more of a series of exposition scenes, getting to the culprit, until the later half where "Crazy" Wanda (Melanie Graham), a woman living in the deepest woods, is introduced, someone traumatised by a religious zealot father and a significant encounter with Bigfoot. Alongside its tangents, like the moment involving the Bigfoot cult in the woods, there is material with Night of the Demon with hindsight which is out-there even among the Nasties, particularly as this has as a key plot point a child conceived between cryptid and human being. It is a transgressive and uncomfortable scene in presentation, and meant to be to its credit, and it is another story if one of a few of a cryptid creature in a scenario like this, if one here which attempts to be much more serious and a disturbing take on the matter than, say, The Geek (1971), a porn film which exists and was released by Something Weird Video. It is strange how many films, even as far back as Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) with the Gill Man obsessed with Julie Adams, fixate on the monstrous having desires with human women, and in mind that there is a world of cryptid erotic novels, many actually written by women¹, this is a concept for an entirely different piece but is important to keep in mind with human beings fascinated by the monstrous as something to fear but also having a physicality to them that can even be sexual. In some cases it is erotic, but as Wanda's story becomes central to this film, whilst it can be viewed as tasteless in this context, one of the stronger (credibly) aspects to the production as a drama is that it is meant to be a horrifying story. Of religious zealotry distorting and hurting a young girl, and especially with what happened to the conceived child, which can be lost in the film's tone and included splatter scenes, but should be pointed to as the real attempt at a narrative within this.

There is an absurdity that cannot be denied due to how the film was put together, where you are watching in one scene Bigfoot literally forcing two Girl Scouts to stab each other, which is as ridiculous as that sounds, and the languid tone of what was supposed to be a suspense picture from director James C. Wasson is felt and does make it a slower paced experience. It is to be admired nonetheless for a regional production, knowing how hard film production is, and the figures behind this are fascinating, making this an even weirder and rewarding Video Nasty in its context. Producer Jim L. Ball, coming to this business from an obsession with Maria Montez and films she starred in like Cobra Woman (1944) as a kid², even working at American International Pictures alongside Roger Corman in the sound department. He would end up creating a trilogy of these horror films with Night of the Demon sandwiched between Fraternity of Horror (1964), a 16mm production never released until the 2022 Severin Films/88 Films Blu Ray release, and Prophecy of Blood, a video shoot mummy film that is insanely obscure. Director James C. Wasson's career is even more idiosyncratic as he was a singer before this production, a writer of songs and a musical manager, even writing the musical composition for a song written by one of the men behind the legendary Patterson–Gimlin film, which was an influence on him taking this film as a director³. Night of the Demon on screen and off-screen does gain a lot from this. As much as the production onscreen is a lurid and bizarre bigfoot film which is idiosyncratic to witness, this background context adds to the cherry on the cake for appreciating the work behind it, and its infamy as a Video Nasty has more meaning knowing the first proper release this had in distribution was in the British VHS market², and we know how that went.

Only the knowledge of Tab Hunter being offered a role, and declining, suggests an alternative version of the film I admit I wish I could have seen².

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1) Figures like author Virginia Wade, who even became controversial that Amazon was clamping down on their ebook "cryptid erotica", are a fascinating reminder that unconventional (and eyebrow raising) depictions of sexuality have no gender bias, as is documented in MONSTER PORN: Amazon Cracks Down On America’s Latest Sex Fantasy, written by Eric Spitznagel for Business Insider.

2) Just a Little Green Kid Outta Waco, Texas, a Blu Ray interview short with Ball included for the 2022 USA Severin Films Blu-Ray release, and transferred over to the 88 Films 2022 release in the United Kingdom.

3) The Demon Made Me Do It, the Blu Ray interview short with Wasson included for the 2022 USA Severin Films Blu-Ray release, and transferred over to the 88 Films 2022 release in the United Kingdom.

Psycho Pike (1992)

 

Director: Chris Poschun

Screenplay: Chris Poschun

Cast: Douglas Kidd as Reg; Wayne McNamara as Tim; Sarah Campbell as Dara; Dawn Kelly as Rhonda; Cliff Makinson as Willy T; Red Fisher as Himself; Michael K. Panton as Sheriff of Shippagew; John Alexis as Uncle Slats

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies)

 

You want a picture of my shithouse?

Just when you thought it was safe to go fishing, there is a psycho pike in the water. Credit to director-writer Chris Poschun's sole film however, mostly a melodrama about environmental pollution conspiracy, former lovers stuck together on vacation and a rubber pike monster attacking people occasionally, this is the kind of film I can get behind, falling onto plot tropes but with punches of charisma.

Certainly of the nineties, as its now alternative rock than hair metal on the soundtrack, over images of cows baffled as to why they are being filmed, the film takes its time to get more personality, set up as students out on vacation in the countryside, including Rhonda (Dawn Kelly), concerned about her student work, and the uncomfortable relationship she has with one of her male friends who, dating the other people on the vacation, used to be in a relationship themselves but decided to stay friends. There is unintentional humour - do pikes eat ducks as the male lead suggests - but where Psycho Pike gets interesting is when its eccentricities are deliberate and the plot strands are bolstered by the characters. Melodrama is apt, with our leads' conflicted relationship, and the additional issue that his friend/her boyfriend is part of his uncle's local business behind the pollution in the region's water, causing the psycho pike and killing fish, which they will try to cover up. It is hard to make a horror film where your cast (including extras) spend their time sat down fishin', but the resulting movie has a deadpan sense of humour to its advantage.

There are the line of women sat by the one telephone booth in the area after using it for multiple scenes, to two Hong Kong businessmen - one practicing Tai Chi at one point on a pier whilst the other, still in suit, reflects the sun on his head and neck for a suntan - which leads to a martial arts fight between man and fish. Then there is the best character, Willy the one eyed gas station attendant (Cliff Makinson) who, alongside the unexpected and progressive touch for a nineties film of being romantically involved with another man, is played with a wit even when revealing he lost the eye through a pike in his introduction, fitting the tone. Even a broad joke, like the Austrian photographer who takes photos of bathrooms around the world, stays the right side of goofy, that joke funnier as, reflecting on how people keep reading material in the John and wanting to create a coffee table book on Johns themselves, I would not be surprised if it exists.

An obscure film, it is also not micro-budget with some production value behind it, even able to blow up an entire building for a set piece when the evil corporation will kill to hide their pollution track record. Psycho Pike is still a silly film, but as it took its time, it caught me off-guard by its charm. Plus this does live up to actors being threatened, with gore effects, by a rubber pike monster, so everyone wins by watching this.

The Last Shark (1981)

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Director: Enzo G. Castellari

Screenplay: Vincenzo Mannino

Cast: James Franciscus as Peter Benton; Vic Morrow as Ron Hamer; Micaela Pignatelli as Gloria Benton; Joshua Sinclair as Governor William Wells; Giancarlo Prete as Bob Martin; Stefania Girolami Goodwin as Jenny Benton

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies) #133

Amongst the various attempts to cash in on the success of Jaws (1975) - from a killer whale with Orca (1977), to a bear on land with Grizzly (1976), to actual shark related films - none are as infamous as Italy's The Last Shark as, taking the template of Jaws' plot blatantly, it had a few days of success at the American box office only for a cease and desist from Universal Pictures, owners of Jaws, to have it yanked off screens for plagiarism. For me, the issue of the "mockbuster" compromising another major film has never seemed that fair. Call it a natural suspicion of Hollywood, but particularly as this wasn't like Bruno Mattei's infamous TV movie Cruel Jaws (1995), which did "borrow" shots from Jaws sequels and has made it a licensing nightmare. Even then, like certain Turkish or East Asian movies, I'm still going to fight on the side of these rip-offs as it's like picking on an underdog which, even if it made money, are never going to be as big as the Hollywood films. Especially as Hollywood should be more concerned with issues like if the box office has dipped drastically or the general quality of their work has sunk, factors which are more likely to make anyone worry than a small Italian shark film.

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For me, the issue of these films being suppressed by large Hollywood studios is actually cruel and unfair especially if it lasts into the modern day, where these films would no longer be credible threats but works whose audience are now a select group fascinated by them. It's also the case that many of these films, even if they outright stole music or clips from other films are so vastly different in tone and/or plot. Abby (1974), suppressed as a rip-off of The Exorcist (1973), is a great example of this as it's taken the plot of the more lavish production but is a drastically different narrative and type of film, make it arbitrary bullying from the major studio to still keep a film like it out of public availability. Even if The Last Shark openly rips off the narrative structure of Jaws, you wouldn't confuse it with Jaws, an entirely different language in terms of production style from the Italian golden period of genre films and how Jaws was made. Instead you get a fascinating snapshot of mid-seventies American cinema, still tinged in naturalistic drama and grittiness of adult storytelling even for a blockbuster, against the colourful madness of the Italians in the early eighties, who could still have a great production and technical style to them for even the lowest budgeted, scuzziest of films. Surprisingly, contrary to most film cash-ins from the Italians which upped the gore and weirdness, this is meant to be a serious audience friendly shark film, which makes the contrast even more fascinating.

The Last Shark, as expected from this initial introduction, follows the premise of Jaws almost exactly, although frankly you can make an argument this plot template even found its way outside of natural horror in films like Don Dohler's Nightbeast (1982). A shark so rotund you could roll it down a hill, like a cheese wheel in some obscure English customs, terrorises an American coastal town, American actor Vic Morrow standing in as Robert Shaw, playing a grizzled shark hunter who teams with author Peter Benton (James Franciscus) to take down the aquatic beast, all the while a mayoral candidate for the next local election Governor William Wells (Joshua Sinclair) is trying to hide the shark problem so his giant publicity event, a windsurfing competition, isn't ruined.

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A film like The Last Shark shows how a lot of Italian genre cinema lives in its own world. Films which can be shot on location in the United States, even stealing eye wateringly good location scenes in places the US productions of the time couldn't afford, but show the cultural differences between Italy and the States within little details. That windsurfing is a major cultural event for this town, which has more of a sense of the producers trying to capitalise on what they themselves believe is a trend in popular culture. That and weird details like a booth on a beach dune where, when a coin is put in the slot, an actual person acts like a mechanised automaton playing a banjo. It doesn't detract from its sun-kissed, real American locations or tone, but it also shows that a lot of the charm and love for these Italian films is that they fully exist in their own realities, a pocket dimension whose various tales viewers like me will gladly watch and collect on physical media where reoccurring, frequent actors play multiple individuals and there's always a style, or score, that's worth even rewatching duds.

I openly admit The Last Shark is the poor man's version of Jaws, as while other rip-offs like Abby are very different in story and can bear the brunt of their bigger genes, this is an attempt to remake Jaws with the Giant White Shark in the room being how good Jaws was. Its particularly unfair as having yet to mention him, director Enzo G. Castellari does feel restricted here. Castellari is one of those names from the golden era of Italian genre film who was a working director, not a figure given auteur status like Dario Argento or even Lucio Fulci, but one whose name become known and iconic due to the good films in his prolific career, how even the flawed films in his career had a charm and virtues. Barring The Last Shark, his killer shark film, a giallo Cold Eyes of Fear (1971) and The House by the Edge of the Lake (1979), he rarely directed horror at all. He is known as an action director instead. For westerns. For crime films. For post apocalypse sci-fi. For war films, his most well known Inglorious Bastards (1978) the film that's helped his status become more canonised as Quentin Tarantino made a film in tribute to his work called Inglourious Basterds (2009).

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Here with The Last Shark, a director who can make incredible genre films like Street Law (1974) is stuck in a difficult position of trying to outmatch a legendary Steven Spielberg film. An impossible task which is difficult for any director of any status with any budget let alone him. He tries and you can see he's a solid craftsman, but for someone loved for his slow motion action scenes, seeing slow motion for a woman running down a beach like an episode of Baywatch isn't doing his talent justice. We still have a memorable film in appearance - the early eighties era of Italian cinema is colourful, bright and fun with the American locations actually shot in the US - but considering its premise, the potential for Castellari to show his action chops isn't fully appreciated, probably not helped by the likely fact, aping (sharking?) Jaws, that he was forced by producers to make a film like the Hollywood one and not using his entire talent.

Where The Last Shark works is in that aforementioned charm. An attempt at an already failed idea which was still executed. Guido and Maurizio De Angelis cannot recreate a score as good as John William's from Jaws, but they are great, rightly praised composers of Italian genre films, and whilst this isn't their best work they still bring a solid disco-hazed score. And the shark itself is hilariously memorable. Ironically, they decided to rip-off a Hollywood production where notoriously their elaborate, expensive mechanical shark was as reliable as a shark cage made from papier-mâché, leaving Spielberg to have to shot scenes with it emphasised off-screen or minimally, raising greater tension. There's no tension in The Last Shark, but you do get a very puffy shark¹. So large it's both absurd but also appropriately menacing for a film which decides, instead of tension, to have a Great White that bludgeons sea fairing boats and windsurf boards into oblivion. One that, when they use stock footage of real sharks, changes species noticeably. There's a pleasure in one scene of a boat being propelled into the air by quite a few feet, the dummy stand-in for a cast member propelled as if shot in the air from a cannon, that's impossible to adore. Castellari, even with a production doomed to legal suing, made a solid work and no matter how cheesy and absurd the finished result is, the best of this Italian cinema whether its legitimately great or entertaining for its failings has a higher class to it in how absurd it can be, better made cheese then everyone else's. Cheese that's taken seriously rather than half arsed like modern films.

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In context of the early eighties, The Last Shark is a well made film. Even the fact they had to use obvious models doesn't detract from the film. In fact said model work, a remote control toy clearly being used for a shark versus helicopter sequence, is actually a lot better now in terms of age. When one witnesses the awful TV film level CGI that's used for killer animal films, a higher production quality is now found as that scene, one of the most memorable, has an actual helicopter toy and a prop shark involved, including the most gruesome sequence of gore in a film that's pretty much bloodless like Jaws was. Also worth mentioning, especially for the dubbed version, how the use of American actors alongside Italian actors from Castellari's other movies does help this film. The late Vic Morrow does dub himself with a bizarre reflection in his voice, vaguely Scottish at points, but he does contribute a lot especially against a weaker lead in James Franciscus trying to replace Roy Scheider. The Italian film industry's obsession with casting known American and British actors did add a lot of personality for the films, against Italian or European actors who, even if dubbed in various voices, develop their own cults from how many films they popped up in, Castellari using a lot of regulars from his other films. Even his own daughter (and future Second Unit Director) Stefania Girolami Goodwin as a member of a teenage shark hunting club, Peter Benton's daughter whose friends make the ill advise attempt to hunt the shark with meat strapped to the end of their boat, and just shotguns and arms from their parents weapons cabinets.

Altogether The Last Shark is not one of Castellari's films by a long shot. Against the likes of Inglorious Bastards, Keoma (1976), Street Law etc. it's the curiosity in his career made infamous due to its legal suppression. But knowing this, and keeping expectations low, its entertaining. Ironically, it's better than most shark and killer animal films made now, for whilst its attempt to replicate Jaws' plot is a huge issue, the ending diminishing returns, it's such a scale higher in production quality and entertainment compared to the god-awful likes of Sharktapus (2010), irony far less interesting than a sincere attempt to rip off Jaws.

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1) Find episode 110 of The Gentlemen's Guide to Midnight Cinema, from December 2010, which covers The Last Shark. It was that episode where I first heard of the film and first heard the "puffy shark" joke from, making the time seven years later when I finally see the film worth it as the episode review is even funnier now with visual context. Particularly as they take the film seriously too, finding stuff to love as much as criticise as Castellari fans who find it one of his considerably weaker efforts.