by Sam Juliano
The time of reckoning has finally arrived. With eight months of the most stressful existence so many of us have been forced to endure we have reached the time when our opinion can be heard. Tomorrow (Tuesday, November 3rd) is perhaps the most monumental presidential election in our lives and it comes up after the most acrimonious and divisive lead-up imaginable. My sentiments have been expressed repeatedly and I can only hope and pray that polls and general vibes based on months of study and investigation will result in a victory for the Biden-Harris ticket. For some of us the matter has kept us obsessed 24-7 and no matter what the outcome the closure will be a relief, though another surprise will be sure to have us exceedingly depressed for quite some time in the future (an understatement). Most of us had uneventful Halloweens, with the surging COVID numbers keeping children and parents away. Last year we had over 150 trick or treaters, but this year only one single child came to our door! Jamie Uhler’s winding down HorrorFest 2020 is his greatest ever in terms of stupendous writing quality, eclectic selections and volume. This week we have quite a diverse lineup and we are expecting some others for next week as well from him. What a ride from our Chicago horror scholar! Stay safe!
Frankenstein Conquers the World (I. Honda… 1965) monster/sci-fi horror
When a Nazi experiment is rushed out of the country just before it falls to Allied forces in 1945 to Japan, who is still very much in the fight, we know we’re in for quite a wild tale. Japan is looking for a last ditch effort, which a beating heart in a locked box, promises. It’s been given everlasting life from a protein solution discovered by a German mad scientist, that Japan hopes, if harnessed, the solution can create soldiers who don’t die in battle, eventually turning the tide of war. But, in a few months the city is A-bombed and the war ends before it can be brought to fruition. The heart experiment goes missing, and eventually turns up (I think, it’s not totally clear) in a young homeless teen 15 years later who moves and acts very much like a rabid dog. Eventually it’s clear that the teen, growing exponentially under lab observing, is a Frankenstein. He escapes, and hides in the countryside, eventually running into a dinosaur like monster that has been unearthed from the deep recesses of the earth when an earthquake opens up a large rift in the planets crust.
The end where Frankenstein, now several stories tall, wrestles the burrowing lizard beast amidst a raging forest fire that the lizard’s throat vapors has created is positively apocalyptic visually, the beauty of a closely controlled studio shoot. Purple and orange lighting accentuate the aura to beautiful, delirious heights. It’s only slightly hampered when another fight is tacked on when an octopus monster appears that Frankenstein also has to deal with. But, no biggie, it makes me think that the sequel, War of the Gargantuas (which I’ve seen, but largely forget) from a year later will be screened imminently. I can’t wait.
The Black Tower (J. Smith… 1987) art horror/short, 23 mins
A short, arty piece of Modernist Horror where simple video set ups of an English working class city are overlaid with matter-of-fact narration on the ever increasing presence of a moving, black building in the distance. It has no dimensions outside its towering black totality, eventually unnerving the narrator who had otherwise never noticed it before. Is he doing mad? It’s a very dry, but also very effective work, the idea that anyone, with enough creativity can make a great piece of Horror on a nothing budget.
Poltergeist (T. Hooper… 1982) supernatural thriller
The prime time Halloween watch was a revisit of Hooper’s much ballyhooed work of extreme hysterics and special effects. I’m not sure why I chose it, perhaps because I hadn’t seen it since I was a pre-teen probably, and barely could judge its quality now (which I always more or less slagged off). I might have been a tad harsh, but I don’t think totally off base, I liked some of what’s here, but I can’t deny that, like most projects Spielberg was involved in—certainly during this era—the effects take over the story, and characterizations and subtext are rendered moot, or largely in the background. It’s a shame as you can imagine a film where the predatory nature of suburban housing companies that gobble up land for development without much care for its past (in this case that it was hallowed ground) being quite interesting. Plus, it was made for everyone, kiddies included, so the scary bits only go as far as a MPAA would allow. Needs some brutality, as one sequence where a large ghost like skeleton shrieks in the face of father Craig T. Nelson is genuinely scary. Still, it’s pretty entertaining, and was just what the doctored ordered on Halloween night.
Velvet Vampire (S. Rothman… 1971) vampire
This is something of a lost gem, Stephanie Rothman’s feminist reading of vampire lore which I’d imagine would make a great companion with The Blood-Splattered Bride from the following year both in terms of quality and thematic concerns. Here, the vampire is the usual lothario like creature, but he’s instead a she, using her womanly wiles to prey on a couple she’s invited to her secluded desert abode. It brings vampires into the swinging, hippy 70’s counter-culture, and while sure, Hammer did that too (most readily in something like Dracula AD, 1972) this, given its independent spirit, seems more appropriately trippy and progressively original. A slight gem, essential for Horror fans, especially ones in love with the genre’s output from the 1970’s.
Deadly Sweet (T. Brass… 1967) giallo
Apparently before he made both soft- and hard-core highly stylish erotic works on huge budgets, Tinto Brass was an aspiring art director in the New Wave mold; wanting to make crime romps like the French had at the start of the decade. Deadly Sweet then, given these concerns and mix of titillating sex, is a giallo technically, making it worthy of inclusion here. Otherwise the Horror is pretty slight, but this isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy it—rather, I did quite a bit. It was supposedly storyboarded by a comic book artist and you can tell, this is Pop Art pomp full of split screens and mayhem, Brass taking nothing serious but Bernard’s (Jean-Louis Trintignant doing his best Jean-Paul Belmondo in Breathless impression) ever increasing romantic overtures to the beautiful Jane (60’s icon Ewa Aulin) who is connected to a murder that she must hide out from with Bernard’s help. This one isn’t often uttered amongst the more interesting giallos (probably a statement more on its scant availability) but, I’d argue, if you’re a fan of the genre and hoping to explore all its facets, this would be essential.
Lone Wolf (J. Callas… 1988) monster/slasher
This was a totally random watch late, mostly due to insomnia. A small interconnected group of college students (that operate in clinks more aligned with high-schoolers which I spent most of the film thinking that’s what they were, only to realize they look more like they’re approaching 30) are slowly picked off one by one when the full moon is out by a werewolf like beast. Several of the students are also members of an aspiring rock band who has, based on their brimming brilliance, secured a nightly residency at the campus’ most popular bar. It’s all quite cheesy and poorly staged as you can imagine—the band, for example, you keep seeing people say how great they are, but the performances show a cock rock band with terrible songs, so you just sorta laugh. The subplot of the police investigation over the murders partially led by Det. Commitski (lol) also prompts ironic chuckles. With the right group this is a good ‘bad’ beer-and-pizza work of stupid 80’s trash. Should I really be spending my days at 39 doing this stuff? Meh, I don’t know.
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