Category Archives: movies

‘Carnival of Souls’ still creepy

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carnival-of-souls screaming

“Carnival of Souls” represented, until just recently, another of the few holes in my movie-watching experience.

Between late-night and weekend afternoon TV airings in my youth (hello, “Francis the Talking Mule”) and rampant cable and home video watching in the 1980s and 90s, I had caught up on many movies that came out before my time, movies that played in theaters in the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s.

But I hadn’t seen “Carnival of Souls” until just the other day, when I watched it on one of those multi-movie, public domain collections of horror films.

And I thought it was pretty good. It’s effective and creepy and fairly innovative for its time.

The movie, which is in the public domain and thus shows up on many home video collections of horror films, was released in 1962 and reportedly made by director Herk Harvey for $33,000.

The movie shows its bigger-than-it-has-any-right-to-be budget in its first scene. Two carloads of teenagers (?) drag race and one goes over the side of a bridge … and you actually see the car go off the bridge and into the water, not just impressions of movement and shocked expressions on faces.

Church organist Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss) is the only survivor of the car that went into the river. Understandably rattled, Henry begins seeing a white-faced man peering at her through windows and in darkened corners.

When she’s introduced to an abandoned amusement park, she is drawn to the haunted place, a gathering place for ghosts.

The movie plays out like an episode of “The Twilight Zone,” but that’s okay. As plots go – no spoilers here, even after a half-century – the story for “Carnival of Souls” is spooky and effective.

carnival of souls candace hilligoss

Hilligoss, who made only one other film – “The Curse of the Living Corpse,” in 1964 – is pretty good in the movie. She’s sharp-edged and not particularly likable yet still manages to evoke our feelings of sympathy and curiosity. And she’s striking.

Speaking of striking: The movie’s visually quite stark and eye-catching. The black and white cinematography helps, but Harvey found great locations and let them well.

Random observations::

Raza Badiyi is listed as assistant director. He is really Reza Badiyi, who worked for another 40 years or so and directed the “Out of Mind, Out of Sight” episode of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” in 1997, featuring an invisible girl. According to his IMDB page, he also shot the famous curling wave for the credits of “Hawaii Five-O.”

herk harvey carnival of souls

There’s lasting scare value to the scenes in which Hilligoss suddenly sees a white-faced figure looming toward her. The ghostly apparition is played by director Herk Harvey.

Department of unhelpful information, from the dialogue: “Hysteria won’t solve anything. Now control yourself!”

RIP Tom Laughlin

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billy jack born losers

Tom Laughlin is not as well known as Peter O’Toole, certainly, but Laughlin made his own mark on the movie business. He died today at 82.

Laughlin was probably best known for creating the character of Billy Jack, a pacifist who unleashed his deadly martial arts moves when he was pushed … too … far.

Laughlin played Billy Jack in four movies: “The Born Losers” in 1967, “Billy Jack” in 1971, “The Trial of Billy Jack” in 1974 and “Billy Jack Goes to Washington” in 1977. He was ultra-recognizable with his close-cropped hair and blue jean jacket. He was also the guy usually laying waste to a bunch of heavies.

Although the movies were pretty straightforward vigilante fantasies, Laughlin, who also directed, was credited with pioneering modern-day marketing techniques and releasing some of his films himself when big studios spurned them.

Laughlin ran for president – yes, president – in 1992, 2004 and 2008.

Last year I wrote about going to see “The Born Losers” at the drive-in. Here’s that entry.

RIP Peter O’Toole

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Peter O'Toole in My Favorite Year

One of our favorite actors has died. Peter O’Toole has died at age 81, according to early online reports.

O’Toole was best known, of course, for essaying the title role in David Lean’s 1962 epic “Lawrence of Arabia.”

O’Toole was famously a carouser and hellraiser. Here’s a quote from an obituary by The Guardian:

“We heralded the ’60s,” he once said. “Me, [Richard] Burton, Richard Harris; we did in public what everyone else did in private then, and does for show now. We drank in public, we knew about pot.”

Although he’s justifiably famous for “Lawrence of Arabia,” I think most fondly of O’Toole in “My Favorite Year.” the 1982 comedy classic about the early days of American live TV sketch shows and the chaos that arose when a great Brit actor – by that time better known for his drinking and womanizing – appears as a guest star.

I’m startled to realize now that O’Toole was younger at the time he was playing a nearly washed-up actor for “My Favorite Year” than I am now.

We’ll miss him.

Cult classic: ‘D.E.B.S.’

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debs

The first time I was channel-surfing and went past “D.E.B.S.” I thought it must be some TV show I hadn’t heard of.

Maybe it was some syndicated or cable TV show – which might explain why I’d never heard of it – featuring Michael Clarke Duncan, the actor from “Daredevil,” as the supervisor of a bunch of young female spies, living in a dormitory – and hey, are those two young women flirting and kissing?

It was only later, after a cursory Internet search, that I determined I had stumbled upon a cult movie.

“DEBS” – as I’m going to call it from here forward, omitting the periods just like I do with “Agents of SHIELD” – isn’t a TV show, although it would be a natural fit on a progressive cable channel like Bravo or Logo. It’s a 2004 film written and directed by Angela Robinson.

It’s a lightweight and silly movie that’s become something of a cult classic within the lesbian community for three reasons:

It presents a light-hearted flirtation and romance between two young women without a lot of the heartache and tragedy of earlier movies like “Desert Hearts” and “Personal Best.”

debs jordana brewster

There are some “oh my god I can’t believe you’re kissing another girl” moments, but mostly because the romantic leads are young women at the opposite end of the crime and punishment spectrum: Amy (Sara Foster) is one of the DEBS, a government spy recruited right out of school and Lucy Diamond (Jordana Brewster, more recently Elena of the “Dallas” reboot) is a criminal, prone to robbing banks and threatening the world with high-tech weapons. Lucy is kind of like Dr. Evil if he was a woman, weighed 100 pounds, had great cheekbones and to-die-for hair. And Lucy has better taste in assistants: Scud (Jimmi Simpson) is funnier and more understanding than Mini Me.

And thirdly, Amy and Lucy get – spoiler – a happy ending.

There’s no doubt there’s some intent to appeal to horny guys here. After all, the movie features the DEBS agents running around in school girl outfits and high heels.

But the movie doesn’t treat Amy and Lucy like pieces of eye candy – at least not solely for men in the audience. Judging by the online outpourings of love for “DEBS,” the movie has a cult following among the lesbian community. There are not only fan sites but fan fiction out there. That’s a sure sign of a cult movie.

An added bonus if you watch “DEBS” is Duncan and Holland Taylor in supporting roles and Brewster and Simpson (who more recently appeared in movies like “White House Down”) in early roles.

If you want to know more about “DEBS,” check out the fan site debsmovie.com.

‘Godzilla’ remake has beautiful images

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godzilla trailer screen cap

I’ve not been the biggest fan of the “Godzilla” movies made by Toho in the 1950s, 1960s, 1980s and beyond.

Let’s say I like the kitschy concept more than the execution.

I’ll be interested in seeing how the new version, starring Aaron Taylor Johnson, Bryan Cranston and others, comes out.

In the meantime, there’s a new trailer that has some very cool imagery. The screencap above is of soldiers parachuting into a city under siege.

Here’s the trailer.

The Warner Bros. movie opens May 16.

Unsung actors: Kenneth Tobey

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kenneth tobey the thing from another world

Kenneth Tobey was one of those actors who, when he appeared on screen in anything from the classic sci-fi horror film “The Thing from Another World” to the TV series “I Spy,” you just felt like everything was under control.

Tobey, who was born in 1917 and died in 2003, was a character actor in films like “The Howling” who occasionally got to play the lead, as in his 1950s series “Whirlybirds,” about helicopter pilots.

the thing lobby card

Tobey is one of my favorite actors in one of my favorite movies, “The Thing from Another World.”

In the classic 1951 Howard Hawks production, Tobey played Captain Patrick Hendry, who quickly took control of a remote installation in danger from a fearsome alien (James Arness).

Hendry is low-key and no-nonsense and you had the feeling Tobey was likewise.

‘Agents of SHIELD’ – Five ways to save it

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agents of shield cast

Remember way  back in September, when Marvel’s first modern-era TV production, “Agents of SHIELD,” seemed so exciting?

Sure we were all worried about how Marvel and show creator Joss Whedon (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “The Avengers”) would be able to translate the excitement of the big-screen world onto ABC’s small screen. That ABC was showing it at 8 p.m. Tuesdays was also a concern. Nobody expected tough-and-gritty stories and atmosphere anyway, although we might see that with “Daredevil” and the other shows Marvel is doing for Netflix. An 8 p.m. timeslot all but guaranteed a fairly family-friendly aura.

But we were genuinely excited at the thought of everything that might happen. “SHIELD” would be a weekly dose of the greater Marvel  universe, filled with characters we love, characters that have never been portrayed in live action before. Luke Cage! Moon Knight!

At first, “Agents of SHIELD” seemed like a sure-fire hit. The pilot got very good ratings.

But as the first nine episodes continued to air, audience numbers dropped – and so did our expectations of and faith in the show.

Too many episodes, although they seem “thisclose” to really taking off, somehow fail to. The core team of SHIELD operatives isn’t that interesting. Too much time has been spent teasing the audience about what happened to Phil Coulson after Loki “killed” him. And the roster of comic book characters that have been allowed to make an appearance is lackluster. Graviton? Really?

So here’s what the producers of “Agents of SHIELD” need to do before it’s too late. If it isn’t already too late.

nick fury agents of shield

Give us some well-known characters. When Whedon said a while back that “Agents of SHIELD” gave him a few dozen opportunities to make “The Avengers: Age of Ultron” a little less special when it came out in 2015, he wasn’t joking. Obviously nobody at Marvel or Disney or ABC wants to sate the audience’s interest in Marvel heroes before the movie comes out. And obviously Marvel wants to save some characters for big-screen movies, which is why you won’t see Dr. Strange, I’m guessing. But stop with the one-and-done, wannabes and third-raters. There ware many, many Marvel characters the show could introduce.

Retool the cast. Each of the supporting characters is fine, really, but they’re the type of characters that Clark Gregg’s Agent Coulson was in the Marvel movies. In other words, just that: Supporting. I loved episodes of “Buffy” that revolved around that show’s “supporting” cast. Remember “The Zeppo” and Xander as below-the-radar hero? “Agents of SHIELD” hasn’t, so far, been able to do that kind of thing with Fitz or Simmons or May or Skye.

Resolve Phil Coulson’s status now. Or at least take it to the next level. Remember in the final season of “Buffy” when Buffy would make a different version of the “this is gonna be a tough battle” speech what seemed like every week? Jeez, that got old. It seemed like the series was treading water. “SHIELD” seems to have fallen into the same trap with its near-weekly reminder that something is different with Agent Coulson. A while back I suggested they needed to let Coulson – who is blocked from viewing his own medical records – find out he’s a clone or Life Model Decoy or whatever, break ranks with SHIELD and go at least a little rogue. “The good guys versus SHIELD” angle appears to be at least part of the plot of next April’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” so it wouldn’t be totally out of character for the Marvel universe.

aim

Bring on the bad guys. SHIELD’s adversaries in the show so far have been weak to only mildly intriguing. I’m not sure I care a whit about Centipede unless it morphs into HYDRA. How about AIM? Advanced Idea Mechanics was referenced in “Iron Man 3.” In the comics, they were guys in crazy yellow hazmat/beekkeeper outfits. I’m sure the show could come up with an updated uniform.

iron-man-3-after-credits-scene

Give us some star power. Samuel L. Jackson’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance in an early episode was fine. But we want more meat. Remember Mark Ruffalo’s appearance at the end of “Iron Man 3?” We want that in “SHIELD,” magnified.

Maybe “Agents of SHIELD” will resolve its problems quickly and, by February, be the kick-ass Marvel TV experience we all want. A couple of upcoming episodes hold promise.

But if not, it’s hard to imagine many of us sticking around.

Classic shlock: ‘Superbeast’

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superbeast daughters of satan poster

Believe it or not, I’d never heard of “Superbeast” before I saw it among the free movies on the On Demand menu on my cable.

Okay, maybe that’s not all that hard to believe.

The movie was filmed in the Philippines as part of a subset of the movie industry I’ve always been interested in: Cheap exploitation movies filmed – or at least partially filmed – there for release to the US drive-in circuit. For a while there, note some biographies of legendary exploitation filmmaker Roger Corman, exploitation movies and especially exploitation movie trailers included prodigious amounts of Filipino footage of jungles and helicopters and girls firing machine guns. It’s all a little like the footage of chicks shooting machines guns in Quentin Tarantino’s “Jackie Brown.”

superbeast double bill

“Superbeast” was released in 1972 on a double-bill with “Daughters of Satan,” a thriller that starred future TV icon Tom Selleck. Selleck went on to greater things, but the same can’t be said for the male lead here, Craig Littler, who did have a stint in the Saturday morning kid’s show “Jason of Star Command.”

Considering the exotic locales in “Superbeast,” there’s a lot of travelogue material here, including trips down rivers with hippos and the like lying alongshore. All this footage serves to fill out the running time of the movie, which has a rather thin storyline.

“Superbeast” is another variation on a couple of well-remembered and much-exploited stories: “The Island of Dr. Moreau” and “The Most Dangerous Game.”

A doctor, played by Antoinette Bower, investigates mysterious goings-on in the jungle and finds lab experiments that turn men into half-men/half-animals.

But there’s really not a whole lot going on for the first half of the movie, except for the doctor waking up to the sounds of screams and gunshots. The doc finds out that the mutated results of these jungle experiments become targets for the mastermind behind it all, a hunter played by Harry Lauter.

Even this description makes “Superbeast” seem more action-packed and coherent than it is. It’s marked by the lazy lack of cleverness that is the ruin of many low-budget movies – and makes clever low-budget films seem even better by comparison. Rather than writing and shooting meaningful plot points, the filmmakers include lots of footage of people just wandering in and out of scenes.

superbeast

“Superbeast” tries to create shocks by including some real-life gore. There’s an autopsy scene using real footage and another with real organs in a jar. And “Superbeast” might be one of the few movies with exposition delivered via slide show. The movie has a real WTF moment when the female doctor dreams about having sex with one of the mutated natives.

After meandering through the plot for nearly 90 minutes, Litter goes all manimal and shows up in an immobile apeman mask. A struggle ensues and well, that’s pretty much it.

The movie even ends with a “huh?” freeze frame, as if to emphasize the futility of trying to find a coherent plot here.

“Superbeast” didn’t have a life much beyond those 1972 drive-in theaters, and that’s just as well.

‘Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ really sparks

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hunger games catching fire

Somebody said that “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” the second in the series of four movies adapting author Suzanne Collins’ three books, is like “The Empire Strikes Back” for this series and in a way, they’re right.

I wouldn’t call the ending a cliff-hanger, actually. Like “Empire,” there is a resolution.

But “Catching Fire,” like Collins’ book, leaves some pretty big plot threads hanging. And they make us eagerly anticipate the resolution of the story even more.

I’ve noted before that that Collins’ clever and compulsively readable series starts off like a “Survivor”-style battle that demonstrates the cruelty of a totalitarian government but very quickly turns into a war story. By the time “Catching Fire” comes around the Hunger Games event itself is almost secondary to the growing protest by the oppressed citizens of Panem, the future USA, and the heavy-handed crackdown by President Snow and the government.

For 74 years, the government has enforced its rule and beaten down the citizenry – who dared try to overthrow the government three quarters of a century before – by taking two young people from each of the country’s 12 remaining districts and making them slaughter each other in a life-or-certain-death competition, called “The Hunger Games” because the name emphasizes the rewards for winning: A nice house back in your hometown and enough food to sustain your family. Not gold or glory. Just survival.

The way the games are portrayed, at least early in the books, is that they are a “gift” from the government, a not-so-gentle reminder of the price of revolt and “showcase” for the country’s best and bravest young people. It’s an ingenious plot point by Collins, as gifted a writer as any writing today.

The events of “The Hunger Games,” in which young District 12 contestants Katniss and Peeta not only survive but become an inspiration – much to the frustration of Snow – turn long-standing resentment of the government into a burgeoning revolt by the time of “Catching Fire.”

In the second novel and new movie, Katniss and Peeta are chosen, along with other previous Hunger Games victors, to participate in a special, 75th anniversary games – the Quarter Quell – pitting past champions against each other.

It’s an insidious plan. Katniss can either die or be molded into an unsympathetic competitor, willing to sacrifice her fellow champions, victors worshipped in their own districts.

The competition doesn’t come until half-way through “Catching Fire,” and it’s not portrayed with as much detail as the competition was in the first movie. That’s probably a wise move, since even if you haven’t read the book you’ll guess there’s something else afoot here. The new competitors, like Finnick and Johanna, have something up their spandex sleeves.

In some ways, I think “Catching Fire” is a better movie than “The Hunger Games,” which had the disadvantage of setting a lot of plot into motion but did have a shiny new world to show off. “Catching Fire” takes its time telling its story but doesn’t drag. It nicely expands on the storylines and characters and introduces new ones. And even though its ending – heck, maybe it is a cliffhanger – leaves you wanting more, it also leaves you feeling satisfied.

Once again, Jennifer Lawrence is great as Katniss. She’s roiling on the inside but calm on the outside through most of the movie, but the final shot – as she realizes the implications of everything that’s happened and a look of controlled fury appears on her face – is enough to boost audience expectations for “Mockingjay,” which will apparently be a two-movie adaptation of the final book.

Surely you know this by now, but “The Hunger Games” – although ostensibly a “young adult” book and movie series – is dark. Dark. Dark. And the story only gets darker in “Mockingjay.” It’s vivid, brutal and thrilling war fiction but war fiction nonetheless.

 

Classic horror: ‘Night of the Creeps’

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night of the creeps poster

If I hadn’t seen it in theaters in 1986 – and numerous times on stone-age VHS tapes in the years that followed – I might think that “Night of the Creeps” was a modern-day spoof of low-budget 1980s horror/sci-fil flicks.

That’s because director Fred Dekker’s movie is so sarcastic, so canny, so knowing that it feels like a modern-day retro pastiche of cliches from movies of the time.

“Night of the Creeps” is very much an “everything plus the kitchen sink” kind of movie. The opening sequence, set in the 1950s, shows both a meteor landing and a homicidal maniac on Lover’s Lane. In black and white, yet.

Of course, the two calamities coincide and slug-like aliens from the meteor infect a body that is cryogenically preserved until it’s accidentally thawed out in 1986.

Before you can say “Nightmare on Frat House Row,” the alien slugs are turning people into zombies.

“Night of the Creeps” has even more than zombies and alien parasites. There are exploding heads, flame throwers, college nerds suddenly turned marksmen, topless coeds … even future Oscar bait David Paymer in a brief role as a morgue attendant who ends up slug infested. Yes, David Paymer.

There are so many funny moments in the movie, but maybe the first LOL moment – 20-some years before anybody knew what LOL meant – is when a young lover in the 1950s hears the beginning of a report on his car radio about an escape from the local institution for the criminally insane .. and clicks off the radio before the germane information.

night of the creeps tommy atkins

Tommy Atkins, well-remembered for his roles in classic John Carpenter films like “The Fog” and “Escape from New York,” is great here. As student zombies head for the sorority house, Atkins – as a tough cop whose “thrill me” catchphrase is a wee bit overused – turns to the girls and says, “The good news is your dates are here. The bad news is … they’re dead.”

Dekker pays tribute – and provides Easter eggs for fans – in the names of his movie’s main characters, who bear the last names of such directors as David Cronenberg and George Romero. Heck, the university where all the creepy hijinks ensue is names after Roger Corman.

“Night of the Creeps” is a funny, clever horror spoof that’s got just the right amount of spoofery and just the right amount of horror.