House (1985)

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Director: Steve Miller

Screenplay: Fred Dekker and Ethan Wiley

Cast: William Katt as Roger Cobb; George Wendt as Harold Gorton; Richard Moll as Big Ben; Kay Lenz as Sandy Sinclair; Mary Stavin as Tanya; Michael Ensign as Chet Parker

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies) #115

So begins a film franchise with an exceptionally odd tone between entries, producer Sean S. Cunningham having made his name with the likes of The Last House on the Left (1972) and Friday the 13th (1980) before beginning House. All with the director of Friday the 13th Part II (1981) Steve Miner at the helm and with the story from Fred Dekker. Ironically it's the entre least like the others, House III: The Horror Show (1989) that was the sole film I had ever seen of this series before, during a period when DVD was a new thing and my parents rented and bought discs from a long gone company known as Global Video. So to investigate a series which for the most part is more the ghoulish haunted house variety barring that entry was always going to be a curious prospect. The series even in terms of the other films is known for its shifts in tone, the original House as drastically different from the 1989 sequel as you can get. It's the cinematic equivalent of a funhouse thrill ride, one in which divorced writer Roger Cobb (William Katt) finds himself living in his late grandmother's home only to soon realise its maleficent nature, openly trying to torment him with bizarre sights.

The film's openly a spectacle first, which is as much about letting its special effect creators flex their muscles as it is a movie with a story. But I can openly appreciate it in this case as this is a film which tries its best in doing so. Noticeably, as much a virtue as it's a potential hindrance, is how much the story's trying to bite off in terms of plot within only a ninety minute running time. Tackling a character in the centre divorced but still connected to his actress wife. Whose son mysteriously disappeared years ago. AND was a Vietnam War veteran, finally much to his publisher's chagrin putting his hit horror literature aside to exorcise his experience on paper, the ghost of a soldier he was with called Big Ben (Richard Moll) to be amongst the many monsters haunting him in his new home. It's as ambitious as you could get for what is popcorn horror cinema, especially as this openly embraces a rubber realism of eighties American horror movies where, with practical effects, you anything no matter how weird it is. With the house itself an openly evil entity that can manipulate reality in whatever way it wants, the film has carte blanche to try anything and that thankfully means, whilst it can feel like vignettes rather than a cohesive narrative, that you boarder on actual surrealism here even if its pop surrealism. Where behind the bathroom cupboard mirror there's an alternative dimension with stop motion flying monsters and a fleshed out Vietnam flashback you can step into. Where one's wife turns into a monster and back again, causing emotional distress to the hero. Where various, inexplicable creatures suddenly leap at your closet.

The film openly plays a lot of this up for humour, succeeding particularly with the drawn out ones such as Cobb having to hide a body from police called to his house, tense and humorous at the same time. A significant factor which also adds some humanity to these special effect scenes is that William Katt as the lead is great, utterly likable in the main role and also good with his comic timing comedic timing. Paired with George Wendt as his neighbour Harold, who Cobb first dismisses than starts to bond with as he lets him in on the strange activities in his house, the duo carry the weight of the film on the shoulders well together, keeping it connected with their warmth as characters. The only complaint with House is how easily it wraps up all its plot threads by the end so cleanly. I find that films which do this, for the sake of happy endings, do undercut the qualities they had before. House would've succeeded more in taking a bit more time with its ending, including the final confrontation with Big Ben and various subplots to deal with, having more of a sense of being hard earned with what happens than being a little abrupt and contrived in the final product. That however, especially with how House II: The Second Story (1987) continued in its own quirky direction the virtues of the first film, doesn't detract from the good in the original House. 

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Masters of Horror Season 1 Part 8

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Haeckel's Tale (2006)

Director: John McNaughton

Screenplay: Mick Garris

Based on a short story by Clive Barker

Cast: Steve Bacic as John Ralston; Micki Maunsell as Miz Carnation; Gerard Plunkett as Dr. Hauser; Derek Cecil as Ernst Haeckel; Pablo Coffey as Chester; Jon Polito as Montesquino; Warren Kimmel as Faron; Jill Morrison as Rachel; Leela Savasta as Elise Wolfram

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Shows) #17

[Warning - This review contains major spoilers]

Ending my viewing of Masters of Horror Season 1, everything ends with necrophilia. Certainly a memorable way to end the series after thirteen episodes. Haeckel's Tale, based on a Clive Barker story, was also the other episode another director had to step in to replace one that couldn't join the production schedule in time. This one particularly raises a curious what-if in that it was originally the late George A. Romero who was meant to direct this. As a director known for his zombie films, this scenario here with a noticeably kinkier take on them would've raised questions in where he'd go with the subject matter even if following the same Mick Garris screenplay. Instead, when Romero had to step away, in his place came John McNaughton. Whilst there are a few other horror films in his filmography, his reputation in this genre is built upon Henry: A Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), as drastically different from Haeckel's Tale as you could get in tone. He does well though, knowing all this backstory, with this gristly period piece,  a slice of 19th century morbidness in which a man is warned of the dangers of resurrecting the dead, in bookend segments, by the tale of Ernst Haeckel (Derek Cecil) a wannabe Victor Frankenstein whose failures in actually raising the dead lead him both to Montesquino (Jon Polito), a self proclaimed necromancer, and a couple with a significant age gap, the older Walter Wolfram (Tom McBeath) and his younger wife Elise (Leela Savasta), who rely on Montesquino's services for some very eyebrow raising reasons that prove love will even overcome rotting flesh.

The result's an obvious transgressive plot twist in the end, of love beyond the death of one's lover, but that doesn't stop this from being memorable. It seems pointless to elaborate on this plot as once the plot twist is fully revealed, it has no need for over elaborating on this point. Instead, in favour for Haeckel's Tale is its weirdly luscious tone that's appropriate for an adaptation of Clive Barker. Its behind Takashi Miike's Imprint (2006) in terms of production design, but being the only other period story of the series drastically helps it, as for period detail it inherently requires a clear aesthetic with some care for it rather than shooting in a modern day setting without concern for the environments chosen. The 19th century is perfect for cinema not just for adapting the stories written in the period but because it was an era crossing rationalism through scientific innovation with gothic aesthetic, leading to a decadence in the aesthetic (from the clothes to the locations) which works for horror cinema, from the resurrectionists to literature itself from the likes of  Mary Shelley, That Haeckel's Tale is effectively taking a century old message from folklore, that one has to accept death and any attempt to change that is cause for later remorse, fits the era Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) was written within. That Haeckel's Tale by way of Clive Barker twists this with a significant exceptional to the rule - if  one loves another physically and romantically with flesh or not - not only stands out in the period setting but feels more sacrilegious and subversive as a period piece than set in the modern day.

Its far more so as the ending suggests a beautiful romance between lover and her decaying late husband that transcends the age of either of the couple and one that even becomes a polyamorous relationship with multiple husbands, appropriate from a story by the creator of Hellraiser. It also manages, bizarrely, to evoke Peter Jackson's Brain Dead (1992) with an undead baby, unintentionally hilarious but not distracting to a tone that already has a macabre sense of humour secretly within it already. Haeckel's Tale in general is a solid episode for the series because of this. Its only flaw is nothing to do with the quality of the episode itself, only that it has to bare the weight on its shoulders of other episodes which were less than stellar inclusions, forcing it to have to be picked at more severely in terms of whether it's great episode or just a good, solid one as it actually is. That doesn't however detract from what it does right.

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Masters of Horror Season 1: Conclusion

After all thirteen episodes have been finished, Masters of Horror Season 1 shows itself an awkward experiment, one which was hindered by the title itself. With the weight of expectation that title presents, the irony was that having some of the most iconic directors of the genre helming episodes wasn't something the series was possible to lean on. Its production style, as episodic anthology television on a quick schedule, completely goes against hiring directors like the late Tobe Hooper and John Carpenter in that their trademarks have to be compromised for the shift deadlines. What was a tantalising prospect on paper was actually a poisoned chalice in execution especially as television, unless it has the budget for theatrical cinema level production, lives and dies on factors like performances and scripts rather than their directors.

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The scripts were the biggest issue. Even if the series concentrated on presenting solid twist frights, from well used but still reliable tropes, it would've been enough to have made this series more rewarding. A lot of the episodes however didn't even structure the basics of traditional horror plots well, even ones I was fonder of like Takashi Miike's entry Imprint suffering from botched ending twists if not, with other examples, the entire structure being completely off. It was actually most of the critically acclaimed episodes as well which were the worst offenders for their scripts for the exact reasons they were once praised. John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns being pleased with its cursed film plot but wasting time continually expositing on this trope. Dario Argento's film Jenifer really feeling like a collection of gore scenes without the charm of the schlockier Italian hits, which sounds hypocritical from a die-hard Italian horror fan who knows how many of them of yore were notorious for nonsensical plots, but with the significant different here being an utter lack of mood they had and with a rich psychosexual level to the plot that it wasted. And Joe Dante's Homecoming, probably the most disappointing of them all, being an utterly one note political tale which may have been necessary back during the Iraq War in 2005 but feels so political malnourished in meaningful ideas.

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The project ultimately wasn't strong for the most well known horror directors as a result. Some, like Stuart Gordon, left the project as being utterly reliable with their jobs whilst others led to immense disappointments that would unfavourably be compared to their theatrical hits, fed by the marketing of the series with their involvement. The question of who qualified as a "Master", whilst a greater issue for Season 2 in the future, did rear its head briefly too. Mick Garris, executive producer of the series, including himself in the director's chair would've rose an eyebrow from viewers but really it came more into question with William Malone, whose House on Haunted Hill remake I liked but sadly coming in flat with his episode Fair-Haired Child. If I'm going to rank at least the top three episodes, the best of the series came not only for one of two later replacements for the directors originally chosen who had to step away from the project, but was Sick Girl by Lucky McKee, at that point in 2005-6 new blood for the genre. As the young hot talent in a group of old veterans, he topped the whole series with an episode which felt exactly like his one sole known film beforehand (May (2001) in tone, putting together a story with emotional depth, fun and two memorable central performances.

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The second best was Deer Woman by John Landis, from a director who has only directly two catagorisable horror films, one legendary, but has mainly done comedy and other genres for his whole career, undermining this project being where the best in horror cinema would actually produce the best episodes. The result here though was deeply underrated, openly presenting a farce with his son Max Landis' script in which they took a mythological creature and placed it in the modern day, letting the audience know from the beginning its existence whilst the police chasing it are the ones left baffled by what they learn. I will remember Brian Benben having to console a crying man about his dead monkey. I will remember that, secretly, what could be a one note tone actually has a poignant commentary about the appropriation of  American Indian culture when one sees inside a ghastly Native American themed casino. I will remember the entire, extended punch line Benben imagining various bizarre dear related murder scenarios in bed and being as baffled by what he images. I will remember, for a series that could arguably have been a little juvenile in its lashings of gore and female nudity, especially as banning Miike's Imprint off US cable brings up a huge discrepancy with the lack of restrictions allowed, that you can't argue with Cinthia Moura with her literal doe-eyes being utterly gorgeous as she tempts men on to their doom. And importantly, I've now come around more to the confessional scene of culpability for the protagonist having connotations to Landis exorcising his guilt about what happened during Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), which has to be the one legitimately meaningful moment you take from the series entirely above everything else.

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Finally for third? One of the veterans chosen helming a solid and fun spooky tale in Larry Cohen's Pick Me Up. Both a well made tale with a three act structure, a twist and Michael Moriarty stealing the entire season. Even with the weaker episodes, the real surprise wasn't the directors chosen but, for a medium that depends on performances especially, the actors onscreen. Regardless of my divisive opinion on Masters of Horror Season 1, I will gladly end this coverage of said series with praise for the various actors who stood out as they were the real highlights. The late Angus Scrimm, in Incident On and Off a Mountain Road, playing a mad old man so delighted with everything that his infectiousness could make anyone both happy and as insane as him if stuck with him for hours. Matt Frewer, a Mick Garris regular, in the later's episode Chocolate as the lovable, older friend and joker who can still head a rock band in full Mohawk punk regilia. Angela Bettis being as awesome as she was in May as Sick Girl's lead, a reversal of what was a male character originally allowing her to be a rare case of a geeky woman with verisimilitude to her and being utterly lovable, a greater boost in how her love interest for the story is softcore star Misty Mundae, under her real name Erin Brown, giving such a great performance too that I wish, as I did back when I first saw Sick Girl, that she entered into more known roles. Youki Kudoh, managing to go from being the seventeen year old actress in an iconic role in Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train (1989) to running rings around every other actor in Imprint, especially Billy Drago in what was arguably the worst performance of the whole series, so bad it actually added a feminist dynamic to the narrative which his excitied whinging. Brian Benben and Anthony Griffith as the central cops of Deer Woman, utterly sympathetic as the cops left scratching their heads at the joke only the viewers are in on with perfect comedic banter between them and the rest of the cast. And finally, Michael Moriarty in Pick Me Up. Because Michael Moriarty. 

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Masters of Horror Season 1 Part 7

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Pick Me Up (2006)

Director: Larry Cohen

Screenplay: David J. Schow

Based on a short story by David J. Schow

Cast: Fairuza Balk as Stacia; Michael Moriarty as Jim Wheeler; Warren Kole as Walker

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Shows) #15

My knowledge of Larry Cohen is (surprisingly) lacking. Cohen nonetheless has a legendary reputation just in terms of independent genre filmmaking, beyond merely the horror films he made but other areas like in Blaxploitation. His reputation with New York City alone, producing movies regardless of the fact he was banned from filming there legally, is the stuff of legends. Pick Me Up feels like a production in confident hands, from someone who knows what he's doing and had one of the more rewarding scripts to work with in terms of a carefully laid out plot structure. The premise is the culmination of a certain group of horror film clichés being put together, an innately American fear of isolated country roads, where the hitchhiker one picks up could slaughter you or how dangerous it is to hitchhike yourself. Here the killer hitchhiker (played by Warren Kole) accidentally meets a killer who picks up and kills hitchhikers (played by Cohen regular Michael Moriarty) whilst circling around the same tour bus that gets stuck in the middle of nowhere. One member of that bus who wisely hiked to the nearest motel by herself, Stacia (played by Fairuza Balk), finds herself the bait between two killers jostling for territory.

It's a high concept premise which wisely is used as a three actor chamber piece. Balk, who I've always liked, sadly does take the backseat a little in this story but so  does Kole, as the younger and cockier hitchhiking killer, as Pick Me Up if effectively the Michael Moriarty show the moment he appears onscreen. The one reward even in weak episodes throughout the season has been character actors who've worked in genre cinema stealing their scenes, be they main or side roles, and Moriarty does the same here. With a visible sense of enjoyment to his role as the older, wiser man who would be lovable if he wasn't a murderous sociopath, Moriarty actively commands the screen. Thankfully, the best thing about Pick Me Up, is that it feels closer to the traditional short form horror tale with a ghoulish sense of fun to it, meaning not only does it have a three act structure that's properly set out and works, but it means that whilst Moriarty is the brightest star in the trio, Balk and Kole thankfully have as much to do. Even if they are behind Moriarty, the actors in question are just as good for their own roles. The final twist, whilst obvious, still smacks of a gleeful nastiness that's been missing from other episodes in the series, the tone revealed to be closer to the traditional, lurid scare tales of yesteryear updated to the then-modern 2000s. The tone that Pick Me Up wisely plays as much as dark comedy and drama, managing to gain as much humour and tension in a scene where everything actually stops, becoming quiet as characters literally wait for a snake to cross the road, as it does the suspense scenes. As a result, because many hadn't succeeded in the series in doing this, Larry Cohen's episode is actually one of the best as a result.

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Fair-Haired Child (2006)

Director: William Malone

Screenplay: Matt Greenberg

Cast: Lori Petty as Judith; William Samples as Anton; Lindsay Pulsipher as Tara; Jesse Haddock as Johnny

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Shows) #16

[Warning - Contains major spoilers]

William Malone would've been a controversial choice to include in this series as a "Master" director, even above executive producer Mick Garris picking himself for one of them. A lot of the issue will be that, whilst an old guard, with a great deal of history in the industry, and common commentator on horror cinema in general, his directorial filmography is surprisingly tiny. His most well known film is a divisive little remake from 1999 called House on Haunted Hill, which would immediately put him at odds with other "Masters" for the series, even Lucky McKee, whose most well known films are either viewed as canonical horror films or cult hits, not a film which has its fans but also detractors within a filmography that's not that large either to back it up. Personally, whilst dated to its time period with its Marilyn Manson song on the soundtrack and a grungy aesthetic, I like House on Haunted Hill 1999 in spite of its problems as it was one of the only films from that period, growing up, that had any sense of actual luridness and style to it without leaving a bad taste in the mouth. Not nastiness for the sake of nastiness like later torture porn films, or neutered like many late nineties American horror films, but a ghoulish nastiness with great production and art design to it.

Malone's entry for Masters of Horror, whether he deserved the status or not of directing the episode or not, is not great anyway sadly, negating that question. Fair-Haired Child does briefly suggest the style I liked in House on Haunted Hill in a dream sequence, but the tale of a teenage girl (Lindsay Pulsipher) being kidnapped by an older couple (Lori Petty and William Samples) and dropped into their basement for the titular creature is pretty obvious in where its plot twist will be and that it's not as interesting as it could've been anyway. Finding a boy in the cellar with the heroine, one puts one plus one together and realises what will happen, and the narrative of the parents resurrecting their dead son and having to make sacrifices to it manages not to stretch out enough of the one hour length nor feel elaborated enough on to be fully intriguing. It's somewhat depressing that the review of Fair-Haired Child is going to be as short as it will be, even next to other reviews, because this episode does emphasis that the experiment called Masters of Horror was effected badly by the quality of the stories, needing those that provided some meat even if they are spooky stories for the sense of fun. In this case the story's paper thin and yet is spread over fifty five or so minutes, really not having a lot to go through and thus forcing me to finish this miniscule review here.

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Masters of Horror Season 1 Part 6: Imprint (2006)

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Director: Takashi Miike

Screenplay: Daisuke Tengan

Based on a novel by Shimako Iwai

Cast: Billy Drago as Christopher; Michié as Komomo; Yûki Kudô as the Woman

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Shows) #14

There's the obvious hypocrisy, openly humorous, how the production of Masters of Horror gave their chosen directors carte blanche to film episodes with adult content, and not only hired Takashi Miike in the first place, considering his career by than included Visitor Q (2001) and Ichi the Killer (2001), but expected him not to create a transgressive story when given the chance out creative control. Miike has done commercial mainstream horror, like One Missed Call (2003), but when he was picked because of films like Audition (1999) which pushed boundaries, it's only the production staff for the series to blame when he brought back Imprint, pulled from US cable television for being too extreme. Even with concessions - all the lines of dialogue spoken in English awkardly by most of the cast, whilst Billy Drago "emotes" as an American named Christopher in period Japan going to a pleasure island looking for a geisha named Komomo (Michié) - Miike managed to pull off a paradox in this creative freedom but going too far.

It also reveals how, when J-horror became a commodity of interest for the US film industry, something was visibly lost in translation about Japanese horror storytelling. Another perfect example of this, within this same year or so, was when Miike inexplicably cameoed in Eli Roth's Hostel (2005); seeing him phonetically say a single line of dialogue about his enjoyment of something nasty and horrible, looking like a badass in his trademark shades whilst disappearing off screen never to be seen again, you could see how off the mark Roth was making immediate mirroring of his film and Japanese horror, regardless of the level of transgression in some of them, and missing the noticeable difference between them. Whilst films have been made that are gore for the sake of gore, there's some many differences in tone and content that makes the meeting between American horror and Japanese horror confused. Japanese horror in any medium beyond the gore and weirdness has a significantly different attitude. For every one that feels like a mainstream crossover in the tone of Hollywood, even mainstream films reflect reality through horror tropes (adultery, gender politics, the plight of hierarchy) that's synonymous in Japanese culture or are far more complex in their transgressive natures by way of the types of films they've been inspired by or clear genres like Ero-guro.

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The irony with Imprint is that, beyond the notorious content that got it kicked off the air, the plot's pretty standard in both Japanese horror cinema and even in the likes of Kenji Mizoguchi melodramas. If this has been an episode of a Japanese horror anthology series, it would've been a solid six out of ten.  A little disappointing from Takashi Miike when you expect better, but perfectly solid and amongst some of the Masters of Horror episodes, standing out by a country mile to many of them in terms of quality. The plot's pretty simple to an advantage, built from well aged but reliable plot threads. Christopher wants to see Kimomo again, only to meet a disfigured geisha (Yûki Kudô) who not only says his love committed suicide, but is suspicious in the exact story she tells of how this came to be as well as in discussing her own life since birth. Mostly it's a chamber piece with a Rashomon like narrative where she's not a reliable narrator, the story changing as it keeps being questioned. Kudô, in an episode which honestly has poor acting throughout it, does actually commit to a good performance, arguably amongst some of the best through the series. I was surprised to discover she's in Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train (1989) as one of the iconic pair of Japanese, rock and roll obsessed tourists in Memphis, pleasantly surprised to see her here fifteen or so years later. That her career has spanned English and Japanese speaking roles means she's actually able to create an interesting performance with nuance to her dialogue, this the first of Miike's ill advised attempts at an all-English language film with non-English speakers (Sukiyaki Western Django (2007)), and with Kudô the most comfortable out of everyone including Billy Drago in acting in English. The story does overstuff the twist ending with unnecessary inclusions, missing the point when the geisha herself is so much more interesting than what's done. Not only is Kudô's performance enough by itself, but the reveal of the level of her deformities is enough for a story without the random additional twists included.

Another factor of worth is knowing Imprint's source material is from a female author Shimako Iwai, complicating potential accusations of misogyny with the content particularly the notorious torture sequence halfway through, more so as Iwai herself plays the torturer trying to gain information from Komomo. Iwai sadly doesn't even have real articles on her in the English interweb let alone any published work in English, more so a disappointment as the little on her Wikipedia page suggests such a fascinating figure. An authoress, pornographic director, television celebrity and essayist, the sort of figure I'd be dying to be able to read any of her work of as, particularly as Imprint is seen usually as Miike at his most nasty and transgressive, realising its from a woman's voice originally does bring more depth to an otherwise adequate entry. A story consisting mainly of the voice of a woman (Kudô's character) telling of how women like herself are sold in sexual slavery and the various plights women in general suffer as a result. Even if her geisha character commits evil acts, she's someone created from a life of misery and having had to become controller of said life to avoid this misery further, a continuation of countless narratives like it in Japanese storytelling. It actually further, in a story where women are the predominant characters and the sole male one is a weak willed listener, that Drago's performance is as ridiculous as it is, unintentionally adding a lot to the powerlessness of Christopher in how wooden and hysterical the performance is.

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Lastly, it's interesting for a series that I've mainly ignored the production side of the episodes, as it rarely stands out, that Imprint does stand out particularly in set and costume design. Costume designer Michiko Kitamura stands out immediately with her work giving a deliberate artificiality and sense of colour found in Japanese horror rare in Western stories, just in differing Yûki Kudô (even in the dyed colour of her hair) with blue against the other actresses playing geishas or the brothel Madame in stark red. Having the cinematographer of Gohatto (1999), Toyomichi Kurita, doesn't hurt either. Nor the general production, (be it art, production or set design), where as a period piece in stands more noticeably out than the other period stories in the series just for little touches which catch the viewer off guard. How, even when the disfigured geisha's childhood is retold with even more taboos on display, the shack she grew up in has colourful paper windmills on sticks in every version nearby in a dirt mound. For all the problems with Imprint, especially in its plot structure, it still manages to be more rewarding than other episodes because of this. Miike, even when he drops the ball, usually still creates a film of interest and only rarely in his insanely prolific career makes something completely unwatchable. This could've been a lot better, which is disappointing as one of the those die-hard fans of his, but it's in a class of its own to other Masters of Horror episodes not just because of it being the only banned from air time. 

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Masters of Horror Season 1 Part 5

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Jenifer (2005)

Director: Dario Argento

Screenplay: Steven Weber

Based on a comic book story Jenifer by written by Bruce Jones and illustrated by Berni Wrightson

Cast: Steven Weber as Frank Spivey; Carrie Anne Fleming as Jenifer; Brenda James as Ruby Spivey; Harris Allan as Pete Spivey; Beau Starr as Chief Charlie; Laurie Brunetti as Spacey

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Shows) #12

Amongst the growing list of disappointing entries by favourite directors in this series, Dario Argento's Jenifer can be added to them. This is neither with a sense of pain other fans of Argento's either as my relationship to his work, past Opera (1987) to be technically accurate, is more complicated than others who merely look down on it all mostly. I'd argue Sleepless (2001), flaws and virtues alike, was a great later gem and I'm not in a minority with that thankfully¹. For that period in general, the nineties is the one hazy area of Argento's career I need to view but after Sleepless I'll admit it's not been a great run. Not completely painful to sit through but with lows like Mother of Tears (2007) I couldn't delude myself in viewing as good.

There's still brief snippets of the old Argento though in these later films, like the ending of Giallo (2009), which in amidst the bad (like Adrien Brody in Giallo also) makes it a far more difficult job evaluating what's happened to the quality control of Argento's filmography. Personally the strain of resources available to Argento as a genre filmmaker is the real issue, which ties back into his episode of Masters of Horror if one forgives a tangent for the paragraph. Horror is in a scenario, since the 2000s, where it's in a golden age for many but there's none of the vibrant industry in other places where one would think it could be capitalised on. Older directors in this series (Tobe Hooper, John Carpenter) were edged out of the market at this point and for Argento it was likely a even bigger mountain to climb as (arguably) the last Italian genre filmmaker of the golden age of the industry still churning films out. Not all of them were considered "great", but the iconic and memorable names from the late fifties-early nineties run of Italian genre filmmaking have mostly left or are gone. Others died as the industry also died (Lucio Fulci), retired (Sergio Martino), had to leave or go to television directing other genres (Michele Soavi), or ended careers shooting super low budget films elsewhere until their deaths (Bruno Mattei in the Philippines). Argento, one of the best of them all, is the last of them too. He's also not someone helped by the resources he's stuck with, the screenplays he's stuck with for later work nor the lower budgets and increasing use of materials like CGI. A TV production like Masters of Horror sadly doesn't help either.

I have never read the original comic tale Jenifer originates from, though it does have a considerable reputation, enough to have been included in 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die next to legendary titles, something whatever you think of such books is still of considerable interest here for a medium like horror comics. The story as adapted to screen here - another glum policeman for the series - Frank Spivey (Steve Weber) rescues a woman from being killed in the woods only to find she's both deformed severely in the face and a simple minded, cannibalistic entity he becomes obsessive over - doesn't come off well with an immediate problem in the gender depiction. Inherently what should be a fascinating tale of male obsession over women, where one figure still yields a powerful sensuality in spite of drastic birth defects, just evokes the misogynistic phrase involving the words "paper bag". The script doesn't help, lead actor Weber not a good penman as he has male characters say "subtle" dialogue about how beautiful Jenifer is below the neck, the result of which is just the start of how crass the story is instead of showings the innate meanings you could draw from between the lines. 

The problems have nothing to do with actress Carrie Anne Fleming as Jenifer mind. In fact, under heavy makeup baring one dream sequence where she's seen without it, Fleming as an actress I've never seen in any other production does a commendable job, the one little slither of saving grace to an otherwise bland episode by doing something far more rewarding than anyone else onscreen. Playing it as a adult child who doesn't understand the difference between animal or human (even child) as baring when jealously is involved, she does a commendable job of playing a savant who yet welds an knowing, wanting sense of sensuality that proceeds to scramble Spivey's mind. In the best circumstance, a story like this rather than evoking the unfortunate misogynistic ideas I mentioned a paragraph before should've been about the problems underlining the male heterosexual libido, evoking not only ancient myths of female-monster hybrids that complicated men's notions of female beauty, but more modern retellings of this issue such as Junji Ito's pitch perfect take for manga Tomie (1987-2000) where men are easily bended towards amorality against a figure entirely supernatural, to which Fleming is playing her role as. Unfortunately, as much as I view Dario Argento as one of the best horror/mystery directors of all time, he's clearly here not a director meant for small scale character drama especially when it's not presenting him anything to work with baring Fleming herself.

What plays off as a psycho-sexual drama, where an original act of kindness by the protagonist becomes a strangely beautiful love affair, should be something worth so much more fascinating and transgressive beyond merely nasty gore. Even when Jenifer commits atrocious acts, Spivey gladly buries the evidence and flees with her, which could've lead to a rewarding narrative even if it deviated away from the original text. But the wrong person is at the helm. It's also clear the script is not good enough, just for how obvious and crass it is before as much of the blame is on Argento as well. How else does one explain how the immediate reaction to first meeting Jenifer leading to Spivey's emotional state being depicted with an unfortunate choice of moment in the episode, a change of behaviour mid-coitus with his wife later that night in the bedroom which comes off as silly as it is eyebrow raising. As much of this is Argento too in terms of the lack of carefulness to this material felt onscreen.

The utter lack of any of Argento's style is also felt. Even Dracula 3D (2012) has more of his touch in comparison, which is a truly damning comment to say. Only having Claudio Simonetti, a regular collaborator, evokes any of the old magic even if the score's far from memorable. The production style of Masters of Horror feels alien for a director as visual obsessed as Argento, but further enforced as well near the end of this series is that, again, when the story's not up to snuff there's going to be problems, even if its adaptation a stone cold classic from another medium.

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Dance of the Dead (2005)

Director: Tobe Hooper

Screenplay: Richard Christian Matheson

Based on a short story by Richard Matheson

Cast: Margot Berner as Marie; Marilyn Norry as Kate; Sharon Heath as Gerri; Jessica Lowndes as Peggy; Robert Englund as the MC; Ryan McDonald as Boxx; Jonathan Tucker as Jak; Don MacKay as Steven           

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Shows) #13

Dance of the Dead, set in a post apocalyptic world where chemical warfare's ravaged the American infrastructure, attempts its hardest to stand out amongst the pack. To do so, it's the most mid 2000s of the entire season in appearance and style but it was a nice try. Shaky camera. Quick editing. Beige, grey and washed out colours. Faux Goth and alt culture at the bar where the title event happens, where people are half naked, bound in leather or thrashing about to the house metal band whilst Robert Englund's the MC for Hell in his snake-like manner and constant potty mouth. Consider Tobe Hooper was in his early sixties at the time of this production, it at least warmed my heart briefly that the director I'll defend more than others was just as wild and unhinged as he was throughout the rest of his career. I'll openly admit to being an apologist, but Hooper's career is much more rewarding than initially thought of after Poltergeist (1982) throughout the eighties. Its only from Crocodile (2000) onwards, the film where any of his trademark manic energy and style was sold out, that the films are more difficult to defend from what I've seen, where even The Mangler (1995) beforehand still had a glorious derangement to it in spite of its silliness. In the beginning it looks like Dance of the Dead will be the same with an added advantage of trying to stand out from the other episodes.

As a story however Dance of the Dead is bad. A tedious drama of a young woman  growing up in post-apocalypse America going with the wrong crowd against her mother's wishes, a drama which doesn't work due to the lack of interest in any of the characters. The plot revolves entirely around its titular event which is obvious from the beginning and leads to clichés of chemical experimentation and exploitation of human life at the club. Even the title event is nothing of particular interest, leading to nothing but actors writhing about on a stage. The other problem, more crucial is that it relies on an emotional hook about the protagonist's older sister throughout the narrative. This is a problem as, baring flashbacks to a birthday party where she's a child, not as an adult, one is not provided with the connective tissue as an adult character one needs for her absence to effect one, thus leaving her as a disconnected non-entity. By its end Dance of the Dead is one of the more difficult episodes of Masters of Horror to write a lot about because it has little to actual write about in detail. Nothing particularly stands out as actually of interest, not even Englund in a very sleazy role, because there's no meat to the material as an actual story. The result after the initial rush of its tone is an immense disappointment for me.

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(1) - If only more people could see it nowadays though. An abrupt legal issue meant Arrow Video in the UK didn't just let the license go out of print, but were forced to pull copies off Amazon etc. Whatever the reason, sadly it means it's more difficult for newcomers to the director to see the film in a decent release. Bolstered by his more creative scenes of the 2000s, Max von Sydow in the best performance in any Argento film, and a killer soundtrack from the form of Goblin who reunited for that production, Sleepless has a lot to admire.

Of Freaks and Men (1998)

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Director: Aleksei Balabanov

Screenplay: Aleksei Balabanov

Cast: Sergey Makovetskiy as Yohan; Dinara Drukarova as Liza; Anzhelika Nevolina as Ekaterina Kirillovna; Viktor Sukhorukov as Victor Ivanovich; Alyosha Dyo as Kolia; Chingiz Tsydendambayev as Tolia; Vadim Prokhorov as Putilov; Aleksandr Mezentsev as Doctor Stasov

Synopsis: Turn of the 20th century Russia. Two partners in crime who produce and distribute flagellation erotic divise two seperate schemes which will be beneficial for each other. Yohan (Sergey Makovetskiy), an immigrant to the country, desires the daughter of a wealthy middle class man, Liza (Dinara Drukarova), who is herself revealled to be far from an angelic figure of innocence. His grinning compatriot Victor (Viktor Sukhorukov), meanwhile, is obsessed with a pair of Siamese twins Kolia and Tolia (Alyosha Dyo and Chingiz Tsydendambayev), step sons of Doctor Stasov (Aleksandr Mezentsev) whose blind, hostile wife Ekaterina (Anzhelika Nevolina) Victor is able to weave himself into her life by pure luck.

After a runaway cult hit like Brother (1997), Balabanov threw a curveball from modern day crime drama to a period grotesquery involving erotica and murky moral lines. Admittedly Balabanov, until his sudden death at fifty four in 2013, wasn't exactly known for being conventional or safe. His career is sadly blighted for me with Brother 2 (2001) - a bad sequel already but with a legitimately racist monologue halfway through about African Americans - but the original Brother was a mean, fascinating film which shows how it wouldn't stop is exceptionally low budget from restricting its intrigue and great moments. Of Freaks and Men, made after, is alien to any accusations against the late Balabanov being objectionable as its confrontational and subversive. Brother and Of Freaks and Men are not that opposite of each other either beyond their surfaces, one merely the underworld as depicted in the then-modern day, post Soviet Union Russia of hoodlums struggling to survive whilst Of Freaks and Men takes the glamour of classic Russian period drama, the realm of authors of Chekhov, and shows the grimy, porn obsessed underbelly of hoodlums struggling to survive.

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Despite the steam powered boats and post Victorian fashion, this is a place where individuals of any class, from the middle class to the housemaids, is complicit to the events taking place rather than innocents. Be it the daughter ingesting erotica secretly before being in front of a camera for them, when cinematographic experiments are started by Yohan and Victor, or fathers of these children who are easy to manipulate. It's an incredibly nihilistic view. Where even the villains are far more complicated and absurd in spite of their deplorable acts. Yohan coming off as comedic with his Buster Keaton stone face, and obsessions both with his senile "aunt" who participates in the films. His obsession with dipping carrots in sour cream continually in many scenes or his crippling bouts of epilepsy. Victor with his Cheshire cat, giant teeth a buffoon who, whilst able to weave people around his fingers, eventually gets caught metaphorically with his pants down when someone else has a gun. It's parallel to the Russian literature I've been able to read where characters are permanently flawed and neither the morally bad or good, merely existing. It actually evokes the first, completed half of Gogol's Dead Souls (1842), where every character is gullible or those who are compelling to follow in spite of their cruel, monstrous behaviour, only taken to a further extreme here. The follies and complexities of people shown here in a twisted chamber piece where even the sole innocents, the twins, are actual children and suffer still from one of them developing alcoholism.

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Technical Detail:

The drastic change of tone from Brother (gritty, low budget, modern Russian streets) to Of Freaks and Men is drastic even if they act like bedfellows on the same subjects. A large part of this is the explicit references to silent cinema, shot in sepia and with intertitles emphasising important dramatic points in the narrative which can't be shown onscreen without coming off as exposition. It's a pastiche of the beginning of cinema that however doesn't lead the film to the fantasy of Guy Maddin's work. Instead it's both a beautiful but utterly grungy aesthetic that keeps you off guard. Explicitly it's the important connective tissue of the subplot following the beginning of cinema, from photography to moving pictures and showing the technical innovation not as a triumph but immediately used for pornography, for men in top hats and suits to sit glumly and politely in rooms as the less than a minute long loops play out, What The Butler Saw before any longer forms of porn came to be. The attention to detail - the elaborate wall paper to costuming - doesn't gloss over the inherently griminess the film has tonally, an elaborate aesthetic but one where for every beautiful shot by cinematographer Sergei Astakhov the viewer eventually imagines there's a grotty under passage or backstreet just out of shot of every exterior scene.

The music, lush orchestral compositions or accordion ballads, are also carefully chosen as much for Balabanov to also drag such high art into the gutter as an exploitable quantity. The film briefly demonstrates the beginning of recordable vinyl as Kolia and Tolia are pushed into a musical novelty act, one capable of actual talent but through a transgressive photo on their vinyl recording also figures of exploitation even when they are free of Victor and his teethy grin.

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Abstract Spectrum: Grotesque/Weird

Abstract Rating (High/Medium/Low/None): None

Of Freaks and Men is actually difficult to quantify in terms of being "abstract". Its defiantly an unconventional film, strange and utterly different even from other films which took direct influence, good or bad, from silent cinema. A lot of it is a very straightforward narrative, which undermines it being an unorthodox film in presentation. Instead the film, as is visible from the beginning, is an appropriate follow up to Brother is showing how crime and hoodlums haven't really changed from before in the director-writer's eyes, piercing the aura of nostalgia the past can have by showing how the elegant gowns will be stripped off and lovely decorated rooms are stages for ladies to be laid over tables bare to be whipped by senile old women role-playing punishments. Quaintness in this erotic mixes with the complicit manipulation which pushes the viewer into a difficult scenario of whether these depictions in the film are problematic or psychologically complex, for someone like Ekaterina to visibly be a victim dragged in front of a camera there also to be the housemaids openly enjoying their employees being manipulated and also Liza, our heroine, to be someone possibly complicit in her situation as she is a victim too. It's a bleak film even if there's a sick humour to a lot of it, where the closest thing to a stereotypical male hero is a fop behind the camera who eventually becomes one of the first cinema heroes, chased by groupies, but having forged his reputation first by complicity filming Yohan and Victor's work. 

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Personal Opinion:

Now if we were just ranking this as a weird film, it definitely is weird. A strange micro drama where porn shots comes off as a farce as well as sordid tragedies. Where there are numerous scenes where sexuality are purposely lead into uncomfortable transgressions. A lot of the film can be seen as a very dark comedy, with no side to safely hide behind. As a result Of Freaks and Men is a lot more difficult for the better to digest as its meaning is more complicated than its surface. It's not a "strange" film necessarily, carefully told especially with its intertitle narration, but startling to witness. One for years I've wanted to revisit and now having a significantly changed taste in cinema which can appreciate its virtues and dank undertows.

Masters of Horror Season 1 Part 4

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Deer Woman (2005)

Director: John Landis

Screenplay: Max and John Landis

Cast: Brian Benben as Dwight Faraday; Anthony Griffith as Officer Jacob Reed; Cinthia Moura as the Deer Woman; Sonja Bennett as Dana; Julian Christopher as Chief Einhron; Don Thompson as Detective Fuches; Alex Zahara as Detective Patterson

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Show) #10

By this point in Masters of Horror - at halfway through in my viewing - the first season is actually disappointing. There's a visible sense that, whilst it was an inspired idea to hire the most acclaimed horror directors to helm episodes, if the scripts aren't strong enough they don't work, more so as the restricted structure of this type of television production drastically limits the visual distinctions that many of these directors had for theatrical cinema for the small box. With this in mind, with a director like John Landis who only directed two major horror films and mainly has worked in comedy for his career, he manages to at least provide me with a laugh with Deer Woman. As his story's protagonist Detective Dwight Faraday (Brian Benben)  tries to picture multiple theories to how a truck driver was turned to mince by way of deer hooves, the same two metaphorical figures involved (the truck driver and the woman he went out a bar with) a repeatedly shown in each scenario, wearing different clothes, all of which end like the music video for Queens of the Stone Age's No One Knows. In a series where a major failing is that they're failing to provide eye-catching and memorable scenes that short form horror storytelling should provide, with the exception of one or two stand outs, this entire passage of Deer Woman is such refreshing change of pace.

It's as much, from the director of An American Werewolf in London (1981) and Innocent Blood (1992), that Landis is directing an openly comedic episode. Other episodes have had humour, but the entirety of everything I've watched so far has had a seriousness to them all. Landis with his son and future cultural commenter Max decided to pen a farce instead. It's a story whose explanation is already told to us the viewer in the title and the opening - that the figure behind random killings of men is a deer woman, an American Indian mythological figure of a beautiful woman whose half-deer.  The lack of mystery is replaced by one of the series many depressed cop protagonists having to catch up with us and being unable to accept the absurdity he's finding out. What's dismissed by a random American Indian character as an old, misogynistic tribe tale in the deer woman becomes something that utter jars with modern life, and that's where the story is actually concerned about alongside the gags.

Far from glib and insulting however, this is yet the same episode where you see the ghastliness of a Native American themed casino where patrons have to suffer through a mechanical deer's head telling god-awful pun jokes. The lack of a deeper message on the surface doesn't mean there's ideas still to read into Deer Woman, the inexplicable nature of mythological creatures running around modern civilisation far more appropriate than trying to rationalise them. It's befitting the Deer Woman, played mute by the utterly gorgeous Cinthia Moura, is a force of nature whose motif for targeting men makes little sense, barring hints at it happening centuries ago and always involving anything evoking colonisation of Native American land. That and how she's merely a force with no resolution either, a protagonist and his friendly ally Officer Jacob Reed (Anthony Griffith) always behind her. This is also an episode where a scene where Faraday confesses guilt for the death of a partner is seen as a metaphor for John Landis dealing with the aftermath of The Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), the tragedy of the deaths of actor Vic Morrow and two child actors one which, alongside the reputation of that accident, would weigh heavily on a person's life if they were in the director's chair when the tragedy happened. If the case, that scene does bring a level of emotional depth that none of the other Masters of Horror can touch.

That's neither to dismiss the humour to which Deer Woman can be bizarre as it is slapstick - men crying over dead monkeys against muggers being stabbed by potential victims with their own knives. That tone where the only rationalise why to deal with these bizarre murders is to imagine a deer man carrying a woman off like a Universal horror movie monster is far more rewarding in dealing with mythology as someone to "modernise" and complete de-fang their iconography. Far from the insulting nature of codifying such figures, letting it loose into the modern world and leaving its cast baffled is more aspirated. And as this played out, I laughed and laughed a lot, and considering my eventual reaction to Joe Dante's Homecoming (2005), which wanted to be taken serious as a legitimate political polemic, Deer Woman is one of the strongest entries and an example of when not being blatant in one's messages means far more in depth.

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Homecoming (2005)

Director: Joe Dante

Screenplay: Sam Hamm

Based on the short story by Dale Bailey

Cast: Jon Tenney as David Murch; Thea Gill as Jane Cleaver; Wanda Cannon as Kathy Hobart; Terry David Mulligan as Marty Clark; Robert Picardo as Kurt Rand

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Shows) #11

Out of all the Masters of Horror episodes, Homecoming is vividly remembered for me as the critical darling of the whole first season, all entirely in context of it being an attack on George "Dubya" Bush during a controversial period of his already divisive presidency. Before this sounds like a liberal cheaply attacking a Republican president again, it's potent in spite of my belief Homecoming has dated as a work with a message that I view it now during the Donald Trump era. Bush Deux was the president in the unfortunate position of having to react to the 9/11 Twin Towers disaster, one of the most monumental  events in my generation's life because of how tragic it truly was but also how the shockwaves from it (arguably) influenced events even still. Whether his decision to go to war in the Middle East was right is complex in lieu of an utter tragedy on American soil which no one could've been able to decide with difficulty. Certain people look on Trump as being Satan incarnate but also forget Bush Jr., whether it was wise for his party to have done in lieu of said tragedy, also brought in the Patriot Act in US law, allowing police greater power to protect their land but with all the potential for it to be as much abused.

This isn't even an era I lived through as a child that's entirely to do with the Americans either, as our Prime Minister at the time in Britain Tony Blair is still dogged by his ethics of joining the war on the Middle East with actual court investigations involved. All of this seems heady stuff some may find inappropriate to talk of, believing politics shouldn't be mixed into horror, but Joe Dante decided to take a pre-existing short story and reinterpret it as a direct comment on said political period at a bleak time, making it impossible to ignore its real life genesis. One cannot ignore either whether that message, when it was championed in context, has actually any depth beyond that period now with Trump in the White House and the effects of the wars in the Middle East leading to new concerns in the regions, whether it has any meaning still or like Michael Moore documentaries it's a fragile cultural fossil from only a decade or so ago already.

Homecoming is laborious to revisit, out of time context probably the most aged and overrated of the lot from the series. Its critical idea should've been played as a universal one, where as with the Monkey's Paw story a wish made is shown to be one to regret, in this case as political spin doctor David Murch (Jon Tenney) saves himself during a rare moment of hesitance on live television by coming up with an emotionally exploitative comment of wishing the dead soldiers who fought overseas could return back home and vote in the presidential election taking place. He lives to regret this decision when the aforementioned dead soldiers do return back but are far from please with the side he's been writing speeches for.

Whatever one's political beliefs, whether there's a "just" war in existence or not, if a morally good man or woman, one's neighbour or even yourself, wishes to serve their country in the military to protect their land and those of people in other countries, that's truly is noble and self sacrificing an act. The issues stories like this should tackle is always the moral ambiguity of said wars, or when to paraphrase Black Sabbath's War Pigs, if the generals are treating people like pawns in chess. If Homecoming had entirely been about the grief of these soldiers then we would've had a great story, figures of sadness who only bite and assault the living provoked, instead the zombie as the memories of the lost who can still influence the living. This is seen in the one good scene, where a decayed solder is welcomed openly by the owners of a cafe into their building, parents of a son off in war to treat him as someone in need of warmth and empathy, comforting him even when potential patrons are scared off by his appearance.

Instead, from the director of such manic, Looney Tunes inspired madness like Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990), you get such a pretentious, bloated presentation for a one note gag, its humour entirely deciding to paint right wing Republicans, in Murch or political commentator Jane Cleaver (Thea Gill), as selfish, vain idiots. Even when Murch has back-story suggesting more complexity, it's cheap sympathy for him. Even Robert Picardo, as a Republican party member, is wasted as a villain just missing a moustache to twirl. Its unsubtle and when there's living cartoons in both left and right wing American politics to be embarrassed about, to merely throw faeces at one side with such obvious, clanging political comments is so simpleminded, even in the context of such a politically low period of 2005/6 a waste of material. It's amazing for me to think this was feared as being dangerous back when it was first produced as, nowadays, it completely misplaces emotional sympathy for moral superiority, so right its head's up its own arse and creases to be good horror or message.

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