Chamber of Horrors (1966)

 

Director: Hy Averback

Screenplay: Stephen Kandel

Cast: Patrick O'Neal as Jason Cravette; Cesare Danova as Anthony Draco; Wilfrid Hyde-White as Harold Blount; Laura Devon as Marie Champlain; Patrice Wymore as Vivian; Suzy Parker as Barbara Dixon; José René Ruiz Martínez (credited as Tun Tun) as Senor Pepe De Reyes; Philip Bourneuf as Insp. Matthew Strudwick

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies)

 

A failed TV pilot, based on the 1953 House of Wax with Vincent Price, this like many were salvaged for every other which were simply abandoned to be rediscovered online, to recoup the costs of having made them and at least having a final product, especially as like a few pilots over the decades of American television, this is a feature length one meant originally to introduce this premise. Many however were made into TV movies, whilst from Warner Brothers, Chamber of Horrors was re-appropriated into a theatrical film with a William Castle-like gimmick, where at four gruesome moments, a horror warning (with disregard for epilepsy) fires up with a red light flashing and a "horror horn" blaring. This also opens with a great set piece, likely a scene among a few dubbed too gruesome for the TV series to have been created, where the villain Jason Cravette, actor Patrick O'Neal playing up to Vincent Price mannerisms at points, forces a priest at gunpoint to marry him to a female corpse, the cat at the piano watching as he climbs the stairs with his bride in what is, for a sixties Warner Bros. feature, an act of wedding night necrophilia the film portrays within what they could get away with. Unlike the previous Waxworks films, Price's and the film it remade, Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), the wax museum owners here, alongside recreating horrifying murders for their patrons, have a moral too, as a trio of amateur sleuths happy to help the police catch potential subjects of their museum, such as our villain Cravette himself.

One is an expert and craftsman of the wax models, a charming older man played by Wilfrid Hyde-White, whilst the handsome face of the trio, played by Cesare Danova, is the ladies man who will eventually woo another important character later in the second act, a female sex worker played by Laura Devon, and then there is José René Ruiz Martínez/ Tun Tun as Senor Pepe De Reyes. Tun Tun as he was known is playing a character here that, even if he has many jokes about his height, is portrayed by an actor with dwarfism who is able to whip back the perfect one liners and is absolutely charming as their reconnaissance man. They make a legitimately great trio of male characters, actually good ones with distinct personalities, who are brought on the case of Jason Cravette by his own aunt, someone of high privilege who wants him off the street and not strangling debutants when he is not hiring women to dress as brides.

For a former TV pilot, shot on film at the time, it looks good for a period chiller set in the 19th century, one where even if the film is tamer next to others from the time, is gleefully morbid with scenes like severed hands on a tray. Honestly the only thing that has badly aged is a non-Asian actor playing a Chinese merchant for a brief scene, setting up the second act where, after being arrested and escaped the death sentence at a self inflicted cost of a hand, Cravette is provided a collection of new pointy ones including a hook and various blades to start his revenge on those who tried to execute him, with the twisted plan to construct a body from parts of law enforcement who were involved. The horror warning gimmick itself can also be argued to be a pointless inclusion, as alongside the issue of epilepsy with a flashing red light, it neither goes off a few second before the horror moment, but with enough gaps to not work "properly". It is, however, at least, a cherry on top, to what becomes compelling pulp piece which works by itself, if you really want a fully pulpy genre film which gets a lot right.

Chamber of Horrors was a one-off, which could have spawned a film franchise, juggling the suspense and light tone well here. It manages, goreless, to be legitimately creepy in its premise, as quick to capitalise on the case they are on, the wax models by the leads allow this to show the icky case in detail, including of a headless and armless body wrapped in parcel tape like a public art piece. Contrasting this is the whit, Hyde-White in particular a gleefully invested English man, wishing to separate himself from his family back home, happy to run his museum and publish books on strangulation. It is a film that I would be happy to see get a lot more love for as, for an American horror film, this is a good one from a period where, with movements in the genre coming forth from outside the United States to the independent drive-ins especially, you have something like this, despite its origins as a TV pilot for a show that never came to be, you could hold as a nice gem from mainstream Hollywood.

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.

=====

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.

She's Allergic to Cats (2016)

 

Director: Michael Reich

Screenplay: Michael Reich

Cast: Mike Pinkney as Mike pinkney; Sonja Kinski as Cora; Flula Borg as Sebastian; Veronika Dash as Nancy; Honey Davis as Honey

An Abstract Candidate

 

What, demon cats you’re saying?

Made like a modern, multimedia anxiety, Mike pinkney (Mike Pinkney) is a young man living in Hollywood, wanting to make films and creating video art lamenting his life in his spare time, having to make his income by grooming dogs for celebrities. He also wants to remake Brian De Palma’s Carrie (1976) with cats, i.e. not some unholy musical hybrid from the Andrew Lloyd Webber work with an anthropomorphic John Travolta, but recasting Sissy Spacek with a Persian cat. Obviously, there is a post-ironic absurdity to the proceedings, but director-writer Michael Reich’s film is a chronicle of a mental breakdown, even if it is clear there is humour to this with a prolonged scene dealing with squeezing the anal glands of dogs, which viewers will have to sit through real examples of. Salvation is offered for Mike by a female client named Cora (Sonja Kinski), an assistant to Mickey Rourke’s daughter, who has as chemistry with him and decide to go on a date. He is coasting in existence however, and the rat infestation in his home he needs to deal with before she arrives for date night requires drastic action.

It is tinged with a sarcasm, where his producer is more concerned, when pitched the Carrie remake, that he has never heard of the original film nor the Stephen King novel, but the film undercuts this with moments of the sinister, such as this figure named Sebastian (Flula Borg) suddenly start to talk like a demon at the racquetball court. The best comparison is the “Infomercials” produced and screened by Adult Swim, the adult targeted programming block broadcast by the American basic cable channel Cartoon Network, where they produced works which are meant to be absurd, but with entries like Too Many Cooks (2014) cutting the jokes with conclusions which eventually get into horror. This is more psychodrama in mode, yet the same rules apply, where there is a serious subject in its centre, but there is a prolonged scene, to cause awkwardness, in the locker room afterwards with a man’s bared penis in the centre of shot. There is this sense of bordering on being funny but too weird to laugh is a constant factor here, both to cringe and feel disjointed. This juxtaposition of tonal whiplash does fit the breakdown in Mike, and whilst this cannot afford showing scenes of Carrie, the obvious metaphor of another Travolta film The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976), a made-for-TV film in which, born with immune system issues, Travolta plays a young man who has had to live in a n incubator-like conditions, represents the sense Mike is trapped in his own world even if this plays to deadpan absurdity. The tragedy is there even when he laments at multiple points that he no longer has bananas because the rats ate them.

In structure, this is equivalent of a short story, where the choice which will doom him is a tiny one which is magnified, that he decides to “borrow” from his employment a cat Rosemary to hunt the rats, a cat dubbed vicious by a colleague. What happens in reality is openly stated in the title of the film, the source of where things will go wrong, but the build is more character driven. At first Cora seems to be someone who may be entirely in his own head, as at first her face is mostly obscured on purpose to suggest something is amiss. She is revealed, when clearly a real person, as someone with a complicated psychological back-story of her own, with the shock if you know who Sonja Kinski’s family tree is adding something even unintentionally. The daughter of acclaimed actress Natasha Kinski, thus Sonja Kinski is also the granddaughter of the acclaimed and notorious Klaus Kinski, as known for his off-screen personality (with director Werner Herzog especially) as much as onscreen; whilst this should not cast a shadow over the proceedings, this befits a family which have had distinct and idiosyncratic filmographies between them, and her proper introduction does add a lot more to the film considerably. 

Once Kinski appears and allows Mike Pinkney to interact in their characters, this film despite playing up to ironic wackiness also at the same time becomes a short story toned piece about alienation, based on events that have no basis in producing plot incident but delving into the characters. Sadly it does involves a joke on the lost dog poster that plays a plot point, about transgender people which has no aged well at all, the one real blight on the film as an ironic joke than done to question a character even writing that on the poster looking for the dog. Beyond this however, everything involving said dog, a missing pug named Karma, is without issue, a catalyst for the depth this starts to bring in when the dog makes an onscreen appear. This passage about Karma, when found by the leads, is a shift in drama. It allows these characters to show their own disconnect issues as they, trying to get the dog back to its owner, end up together talking when they decide to break in to complete this virtuous mission, including Cora’s tale as a child of teaching baby ducks to swim in a paddling pool which has a disconcerting end to where the narrative finishes.

It is here where the ironic humour, needing knowledge of pop culture of the YouTube poop video or the Nostalgia Critic, may help appreciate the film, as the man we never see and whose home they break into has a DVD collection entirely about talking animals. I have also found, however, having little context adds to certain works, in context, when even if the references have no grounded form, they became part of the tapestry. The discussion on Howard the Duck (1986) alone is weird, about a topless female duck humanoid with breasts, before you even realise that was a real scene, a brief moment, in a film produced by George Lucas just after the first Star Wars films. Even as the central couple are discussing that real ducks do not have nipples, it is contextually about people who are surrounded by this pop culture and trying to gauge their growing romance underneath this construct. In terms of actual pop culture with meaning for myself, it was actually amusing Congo (1995) is an integral work to an emotional beat, at least as held up as a stolen DVD by Kinski in the rain, especially as I do like that film for its flaws.

Interlacing video layered footage together with this drama also leads a disconcerting edge to Allergic..., especially as it plays to using digital artifice and VHS flaws. The aspect involving the cats and the dog grooming footage, evoking Everything is Terrible!'s DoggieWoggiez! PoochieWoochiez! (2012) in layering footage, is clearly absurd as much as playing to cute animal videos; the Carrie remake is shown, with the famous bucket of blood scene recreated ,by a cat getting the pig’s blood on her through a homemade image layering video project. As Michael’s breakdown continues, and everything is going to end in tears, the more this is involved, including the suggestion of people being possessed by cats, this artifice increasing more and more to the breaking point. That is not including scenes, posing the lead actors or layering, which juxtapose them to ordinary likes art pieces, surreal for the sake of this, but with at least the creative spark with the choices, especially as we are factoring in, in the editing, they represent the thoughts and anxieties of Mike our lead trying to get on with life, slowly becoming more weird and loosing grip with these images exhibiting this. She’s Allergic to Cats will be an acquired taste, undeniably kooky and accused for doing it on purpose to the detriment of the film’s tone, such as a gag of Michael literally falling face first into dog faeces, but the humour is laced with a discontent which becomes more pronounced as the film eventually finishes, not with a bang, but a literal meow.

Abstract Spectrum: Disturbing/Eccentric/Ironic/Wacky

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

Burial Ground - The Nights of Terror (1981)

 

Director: Andrea Bianchi

Screenplay: Piero Regnoli

Cast: Karin Well as Janet; Gianluigi Chirizzi as Mark; Simone Mattioli as James; Antonella Antinori as Leslie; Roberto Caporali as George; Pietro Barzocchini [Peter Bark] as Michael; Claudio Zucchet as Nicholas; Anna Valente as Kathryn; Benito Barbieri as  the Professor; Mariangela Giordano as Evelyn

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies)

 

Mother, this cloth smells of death.

Ye old awesome horror synth opens Burial Ground, an infamous Andrea Bianchi zombie film the wave that came out of Italy after Zombi 2 (1979), which also opens with a man trying to say to the undead he is their friend only to get eaten. The group who come to his mansion of the damned, to meet him, are to find themselves in the midst of this undead horde, including infamously a mother played by Mariangela Giordano and her child son, played by an adult named Pietro Barzocchini under the name Peter Bark, a very miniscule height male actor with the choice of playing him as said child, making viewers squirm since this film's first release. And yes, it was always weird, as his namesake, Bark's character was named Michael, really weird when he wanders into the bedroom his mother is in during an intimate relationship with his father and becomes jealous by their act.

There is not a lot complicated to Burial Ground in general. Set to a really idiosyncratic score by Elsio Mancuso and Berto Pisano, including a lot of lounge jazz that you would never find in zombie films from the 2010s, the basic premise is that they are in the home of Professor Harry, the man already eaten by the first ten minutes, who was studying rituals to summon the dead, and they have to survive. Michael's weird relationship with his mother being with her husband notwithstanding, it is a cheesy zombie film, and honestly, in tone there is no difference to this to a forties or fifties b-movie, of screaming damsels in distress and men helpless to zombies trying to choke them, only with gore and director Bianchi infamously bringing really transgressive content to his work. It is to the point the score at times suggests a UFO will appear any minute to explain why the zombies came out the ground.

The zombies themselves emphasis this film's legacy, how they can be both creepy but ridiculous, the morbidness of their decay in representing death contrasted by their potato sack cloth clothes, or how that, sanely, you could outrun these shambling undead with ease and get off the premises quickly. Instead, the cast are doomed by fear of the uncanny, moving decay or inexplicably start gurning transfixed and trying to fire at one until some figures out later headshots only work. Admittedly, getting a foot caught in an animal trap as at one point is something that could credibly get you eaten, but there is also both a humour and virtue even to this infamous film how the zombies make up in sluggishness with being clever and being able to use tools. Here, you may be decaying but your knife throwing reflexes are as strong as when you were alive.

Burial Ground is a film which, even next to the other zombie films from Italy, looks like it is chasing the others in trend, your mileage drastically changing depending on your taste in camp and feeling icky, something clear as it tries to top the splinter to the eye scene from Zombi 2 with a head through a broken window. There is still a style to all this to appreciate - I like the music as talked of, and this is still a production from a time where you could film at a real mansion with its aesthetic decor helping so much in the production value - but this is as schlocky as you can get. I love this film, but you have to work around this, to be able to appreciate its absurdity as much some cool ideas for the genre, zombies who figure out teamwork and battering rams. This is also with the film finding itself contrasted by its luridness, which became the more infamous aspect for decades, the more explicitly incestuous slant that comes between Michael and his mother becoming more graphic, in a way a) explains the casting of an adult, and b) is really screwed up. The tone is cemented when the film ends on a quote from the "Profecy of the Black Spider", which does not exist, and yes, is not properly spelt as typed there, adding the cherry to this gory guilty pleasure.

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)

 

Director: Dwight H. Little

Screenplay: Alan B. McElroy

Cast: Donald Pleasence (as Dr. Sam Loomis); Danielle Harris (as Jamie Lloyd); Ellie Cornell (as Rachel Carruthers); George P. Wilbur (as Michael Myers); Beau Starr (as Sheriff Ben Meeker)

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies)

 

After Part III Season of the Witch (1982), it took six years before Halloween returned to the silver screen, Michael Myers firmly back in its centre having been in a coma since the second film. At least, and with spoilers difficult to hide with sequels from previous entries, this addressed the issue that the creators were attempting to kill him off with a giant explosion, so this continuation makes sure that, even if rewriting a dramatic ending, it had an effect. Here the results least lead to him in a coma, badly burnt up, for all the years that past within this world, awoke from his slumber in a mental institute when word of him having a niece is uttered in ear shot. Honestly, the biggest issue with The Return of Michael Myers is entirely that it feels contractual to exist when, for the start of the divisive Thorn Cult trilogy, this could have been more playful.

The decision to write Laurie Strode off screen, as Jamie Lee Curtis was long past slasher films in her mainstream career, and switching to an adopted girl played by a young Danielle Harris is actually a smart move to have gone with. I may find the decision to make Strode related to Myers annoying, but if one is forced to continue the series, having the bogeyman plague other members of the family is far more practical, and meaningful, in mind that for the Friday the 13th movies, they got around issues like this by setting up new random groups of teens and young adults. In the casting of Jamie Lloyd, you have a sympathetic figure if anything. Eleven months off from the death of her parents and adopted, the idea of a figure still reeling from this trauma, and having nightmares connected to Myers, an uncle she has never seen, is an interesting premise for any production to run with. Particularly when you get to Part 5 as well, Harris as a child actor in the film is incredibly charismatic and likable, making the fact her two films in the franchise are about Myers threatening and trying to kill a young girl more disturbing.

If we need to have a sequel, the shame of this film petering out is that this just starts with promise as a quietly set up but engaging follow up, only to start becoming more sluggish as it goes along. It is still a basic premise, with the worst step sister in Rachel, played by Ellie Cornell, even having her own subplot about the romantic triangle between her and the daughter of the new sheriff of Haddonfield. Even with the return of Donald Pleasure, turning his Dr. Loomis into an Ahab character slowly losing his mind, there is a build up from the literal scars from the last film, to an amusing tangent with a drunk mad preacher talking about chasing damnation in his beat up car, and the end naturally driving anyone in his position to start howling like a mad man. With Harris an anchor for viewer sympathy greatly needed, we had nothing amiss with this story. Despite losing Dean Cundey as cinematographer, this does also manage to have its own autumn aesthetic which works in its favour. The Blu-Ray era has been an incredible godsend for cinema like this; once a luddite who had no interest in the technology, my sudden change to the medium over DVD has nothing to do with picture resolution but because it has lead to films being restored or at least, with this one getting better visual quality for them. The orange hued yet cold autumn colours of Haddonfield adds to the creepiness of the premise, of scarecrows in the fields, Jack O' Lanterns everywhere and a small local town plague by memories of the bogeyman before he even returns. The slow, glacial nature of the film, even next to the first two in the series, adds an atmosphere that can stand up to the prequels in having its own personality.

The problems are entirely because, after Season of the Witch bombed, The Return of Michael Myers is a very safe direction to have gone with the franchise. Beyond its supernatural twist ending, which leads to the precipice of the franchise's obsession with adding occult details, it is a generic slasher by its ending at a time when the genre, with so many existing, started getting into far more idiosyncratic ones, for good and for the absurd, whilst this is insanely dry. It is strange, once ago I would have lionised this when I really was not as found of slashers, happy when this was drawing things out and not falling into terrible late eighties perms or z-list glam metal songs. I love those glam metal songs now, regardless of what tier of quality they are in, like the eighties perms, still find slashers can get generic but appreciating their goofiness as much as one succeeds in one or more areas, and find this one eventually starts with a personality, being a solid and mood drenched horror film, only to get insanely perfunctory by the time Michael Myers is terrorising people. Considering he begins just being a force off-screen that can decimate an entire building of a few bystanders, as this starts with, less human and a literal force, we could have gone with more of the sense of dread even if we played out the slasher clichés. By the time he is out in the open, the more lurid slashers can gloat that they at least have more personality.  

Aspects are up to question in logic - the most egregious at one time being the subplot of the locals becoming an armed mob, with an unresolved event when they shot an innocent bystander by mistake - have now actually gained personality. It just goes to show that, lavishing praise on this film once ago, things change as you get older and appreciate the horror sub-genre you once had an ambivalent view of, affecting the films you were more positive on. You could blame this entirely on the screenwriter of Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002), and the future director of Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home (1996), but honestly the issue feels more like no one wanted to make a radical turn in the series, merely replicate what came before despite the fact, with hindsight, the original Halloween is really unconventional in how precise and moody it was. Being beholden to how this starts the controversial Thorn trilogy, there is also the issue even with its virtues that, at least alongside Part 5, you have to wait to see if these films work together as one piece or expose even more problems. It is the obvious thing as well that will factor in for The Return of Michael Myers, and honestly, in the strange world of the horror franchise sequels, it feels less a concern wanting to rank them from best to worst, but more riding this peculiar rollercoaster and see what stood out, this one unfortunately now feel like the straight line in this trajectory.

Games of the Abstract: Shinobi III - Return of the Ninja Master (1993)

 

Developer: Sega

Publisher: Sega

One Player

Sega Mega Drive / Genesis

 

Credit where it is due, with Shinobi III growing in worth over me in multiple plays, I admired it already in mind to its history. The story goes that, allowing videogame magazines to preview Shinobi III, Sega found the reviews lukewarm for their expectations, so they took back the game and made it better, trying again and with success¹. Whilst the game does have its difficult spikes, like a final level which involves negotiating around electrical currents, Shinobi III does feel like Sega flexing with the Mega Drive, more so as it feels artistically positive, in a way that seems alien to the industry as a business, to deliberately halt a realize to improve a title than merely release it.

One comparison worth suggesting in how, like Treasure, the legendary developer of Gunstar Heroes (1993) from this era alongside later cult hits, there was an emphasis on making this game “cinematic” in style, with set pieces and events like boss battles being as much events to play through. This proves a virtue in this follow up in the Shinobi series, following Joe Musashi in his quest to end a returning Neo Zeed, the evil organization defeated in the previous game, as the game is steeped in this idea of memorable set pieces which are there more for cinematic spectacle in sprite form, especially in the earlier levels. You have a ninja surfing at one point, one of two scrolling scenes alongside riding a horse, which pretty much shows how of the period of the nineteen nineties this was in feeling like a cartoon in tone, but alongside the regular game play of Musashi going through levels, jumping hazards, slashing villains or throwing shruiken at them, there is an emphasis on set pieces with this particular game which is also matched by its high production quality as a game.

Whilst the game is consistent and throwing new challenges, like a repeating maze in a traditional Japanese manor with platforming puzzles, it does feel like Sega put the best moments earlier on, but the consistency of the game helps it. Undeniably, the game looks sumptuous, the richness of the game’s graphical style knowing that, whilst released in 1988, the Mega Drive/Genesis had such help in developers learning and improving with the technology over time. Knowing the circumstances as well, that Sega pulled the game, and remade the sequel in little time to make a better game, it is a huge compliment how the quality is still there, also applying to the score by Hirofumi Murasaki, Morihiko Akiyama and Masayuki Nagao. Arguably the high point is Level Three of the seven, very early on, when you are thrown into the main villains’ bio lab of horrifying mutant creations. It is a curious logic where, in the regular game play of Musashi going through levels, jumping hazards, slashing villains or throwing shuriken at them, Level One is in the woodlands, like a traditional chambara/ninja tale, Level Two has Musashi taking the battle to the villains at a military base, against their soldiers and robots, only to get into full scale body horror for Level Three. Expect blob critters exploding from glass tubs, a subterranean flesh pit with giant termites and arguably that which should be the game’s most memorable moment, a horrifying flesh monster as a boss, looking like a skinned man and the size of a building.

Gameplay wise, Shinobi 3 is as much an obstacle course as it is hack n slash, the enemies usually one hit to kill and more a hazard to negotiate alongside the platforming, which becomes more significant later on where you are literally negotiating obstacle courses, be they elevators lined with crawl spaces and mechanized defenses, or double jumping falling rocks to stay upward in a freefall. The double jump, important to this series, is a potentially contentious mechanic as, due to the precise nature of it, only achievable on top of the normal jump, it could lose of a lot of lives due to a lot of mistiming. Of great interest too, following on from the previous games, is Joe Musashi‘s access to a variety of magical abilities. One of the more idiosyncratic is literally sacrificing a life, by hara-kiri, for all your health bar back and damage to your enemy, which may seem an extreme idea to include, but turned out to be a fantastic exploit for the final boss, a perfect robotic simulacra of Musashi, especially if you can accumulate lives, as unlike the others it can be done more than once if you wish to take the risk.

Leaving the arcades, and reaching the 16 bit systems with a series of Mega Drive games, this series would continue with Shinobi X (1995), a maligned but still good Sega Saturn follow up with digitized actors that I wish was more readily available; its aesthetic is contentious, but if you can accept it, it takes the gameplay of this game and adds far more, including a wider set of combat moves, which added so much more to an already solid production. Outside of the handheld consoles, this would be the last of the 2D games in this franchise, one which like many of this era emphasized short and challenging platforming and mowing through enemies, part of the Mega Drive flexing its prowess before the 32 bit console generation would take over. Shinobi III is absolutely a game worth viewing as, whilst history made the likes of Sonic the Hedgehog more valued intellectual properties for Sega financially, this shows the quality of Sega at their best in the home console side, including the knowledge as beginning this review they went as far as pay additional expenses to improve a game from the ground up they could have just released in their original form. In premise and style, it would have been a cheesy sci-fi action film, but the best kind that, within the context of video games, is a joy in terms of pure style. There is an inherent pleasure for those of any game skill if they can work with this game’s specific challenges in its aesthetic pleasures, be it barraging through supernatural samurai to fighting a mecha Godzilla monster as a boss, and whilst games thankfully exist recreating this in the modern day, these are the type I see the trademarks of a “Mega Drive” game in terms of stereotypes in a positive way.

 

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1) Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master/Development, from Sega Retro.

Babysitter Massacre (2013)

Director: Henrique Couto

Screenplay: Henrique Couto

Cast: Erin R. Ryan as Angela; Marylee Osborne as Bianca; Joni Durian as Lucky; Tara Clark as Arlene; Odette Despairr as Linda; Serendipity Lynch as Sandy; Geoff Burkman as Mr. Walker; Stephanie Coffey as Allison; Chandra McCracken as Tina

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies)

 

Into the modern day, and slashers have soldiered on with the trends around then, Henrique Couto's Babysitter Massacre showing how the genre can be influenced by the trends around it. In this case, however, this is also a case for me of two different tones, like oil and water, which do not mix well for me. It is a film which is trying to juggle two different horror films, where one poster offers something grim and unremorseful, but contrasts it by what is playful and unapologetic right off the gate, brazen female nudity with a babysitter bathing with the exploitation from the get-go. The jarringly switch of tone but also horror subgenre that comes immediately afterwards fed into my reticence.

It is meant to be a slasher, but do not expect chase scenes, instead riding the capsizing wave of the time of "torture porn", that questionable genre term for when, in the 2000s, horror films emphasised the fear of prolonged agonising pain on victims unable to help themselves. Despite films like Eli Roth's Hostel (2005) cementing the term, what kept it alive arguably was the Saw franchise becoming a permanent part of horror canon from that decade onwards, revelling in edgy, mean spirited but serious scenes of gruel. This has the uncomfortable introduction of this, of the titillation leading to this actress, entirely nude, playing out being tortured, which is thankfully subdued due to the fact the scenes and effects are very minimalistic, in this case pulled finger nails and a simple neck cutting effect. Some will still even find that distasteful, but alongside the fact that I am not going to take a moral stance, as that would come off as a hypocrite for even watching the film, it emphasises the inherent issue in schism this film cannot escape from for me.

The premise, in which former babysitters and friends still haunted by the lost of a friend in their teen years, is contrasted by the seriousness of that premise, in which the killer with a white mask without facial features returns, and one of the characters, a loner, is both overcoming survivor's guilt and is ostracised unfairly by almost everyone of her friends for that person being taken, something is admirable in the attempt. This is however also a film which is both presenting this, set at Halloween too, with what is tonally closer to The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) in tone with significantly more lurid titillation. It is here where I wish Henrique Couto, who has mostly worked in more lighter hearted far, even westerns and a Christmas film named A Bulldog for Christmas (2013), had made two different films. Whilst there are moments in the script where the term "bitch" and jokes are made where you hear a male voice attempt to write women, you actually get some likable interactions in the characters too, both when being serious, the main female lead bonding with her mother, or goofy, like arguing with a former boyfriend who is still a pizza delivery guy since the age of seventeen.

It is gleefully lurid, including the most contrived way to get the leads into lingerie, to feed a female friend's fantasy, and referencing Sorority House Massacre II (1990), that clearly knew how dumb the contrivance was. There is a ridiculous amount of nudity for the sake of it, but there is paradoxically a virtue to this in how, even if it is salacious, this is a cast of actresses for those scenes who are women you would encounter in a bar or on the street, a body positivity with likable characters where, rather than eighties teased hair and casting people for specific looks, the only thing that feels manufactured is how fashion has changed since the early 2010s and now looks of a time period. The best example of this is the most ridiculous and memorable scene, of a nude woman seductively pours Halloween candy onto her body on her bed to tempt the killer, where the actress is a larger figured woman who a sexist would criticise for her appearance, but here in a scene more appropriate for a Slumber Party Massacre parody stands out for this, where she is beautiful in the scene and appropriately game, sexy and brave for it even if, as the cliché goes, the killer has to kill.

The unfortunate thing is that this film wants to lean on a serious plot, the clichés of slashers for once for me something I wish had actually been here. As mentioned, "torture porn" is a distasteful word I am not fond of as a horror subgenre term, and it feels so out of place when mixed with these scenes, like a po-faced Herschell Gordon Lewis film without his sense of fun. If this was a serious film without the jokes, even if uncomfortable, the film would make sense with its structure, with its ending a bleak one, [Spoiler] the killer the father who killed his own daughter, and everyone including the female lead he is fixated on barring one character dying [Spoilers End]. Instead, with its finale, the swipes into comedy, and the abrupt use of an Ouija board that actually works, become more jarring. In Eastern horror cinema, there is more ability to switch between tones like this because it clearly comes from countries like Japan and South Korea where this is more flexible and commonplace in their cinema, and you find films in the West that can pull this off, becoming incredible works as a result; the tonal shifts here, regardless of the nationality of the film, really undercut this, neither fish nor fowl as a result despite things to admire for me.