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"Hey everybody lighten up, its all over"
Frank and Roger (Warren Oates and Peter Fonda) take their wives offroad into the wilds of Texas, for a spot of dirt biking. Whilst camping one night they inadvertantly witness a satanic sacrifice. Obviously they then report it to the local sherrif, but returning to the scene he finds no evidence, so they continue on their way. Soon they find themselves being pursued by cult members and end up on the run for their lives.
A car chase road movie mixed with the occult. Oates and Fonda are well matched as a couple of friends caught up in something they have no knowledge or control over, and the direction keeps the thrills coming. A low budget flick, with a simplistic plot, that turns out to be an entertaining horror.
aka The Hands of Orlac.
"Fortunately our case against Stephen Orlac doesn't depend on fingerprints."
A famous surgeon Dr Gogol (Peter Lorrie) is obsessed by actress Yvonne Orlac (Frances Drake). Then he finds out that she has married a concert pianist Stephen Orlac (Colin Clive). When Orlac's hands are subsequently crushed in a train wreck, Yvonne pleads with Gogol for help. So he decides to graft the hands of an executed murderer, adept with knives, onto her husband. The surgery turns out a success, but Orlac is soon disturbed to find that he has become proficient in throwing knives. Gogol then tries to convince him that he is involved in some murders. Is Stephen now a murderer, or is it a way of Gogol getting to Yvonne?
A wonderfully realised performance by Lorrie centres this film, and provided source material for at least two other adaptions of the story. The film itself is rather expressionistic in style, which only adds to the enjoyment of watching Lorrie slowly notch up the madness.
"Don't go in there!"
An American photographer in Egypt, quite naturally decides to use a disturbed Egyptian tomb for a fashion shoot! Unfortunately the resident mummy takes exception to the prescence of photgenic models everywhere, and sets about letting them know it.
A mix of the standard mummy film, with a zombie flesh eating twist, which doesn't quite work. Patchy, and over long in getting to the meat of the matter, this is only watchable for the unintentional laughs due to the bad acting on display.
aka Horror House. The Dark.
"No-one's going to go running off or running to the police. We have got to figure this out for ourselves!"
Some hip young Londoners, (and Frankie Avalon), are typically bored and looking for some kicks. So they head to the local haunted house on a ghosthunt. Once there one of the gang is brutally hacked to death. Chris (Frankie Avalon) comes to the conclusion that it must be one of them. So with some twisted logic, they decide to hide the body and try and puzzle it out. Then the police get involved and start asking questions. The gang then decide that the only way to solve it is to re-enact the night, and thus return to the house one last time!
A rather uneven film, that seems to spend an eternity setting up the characters and premise, and what a dodgy premise! If I thought one of my friends was an insane murderer, I think I'd be down that police station in two seconds flat, but then I'm not a typical 60's hipster. One to watch if you want some grizzly murders and some hip Carnaby St scenes.
aka Cosmic Monsters. The Cosmic Monster. The Crawling Horror. The Crawling Terror.
"It may be hard for you to believe, but Mr Smith is the legendary alien from outer space."
Dr Laird (Alec Mango) is conducting experiments with magnetic fields and its effects on metals. The experiments seem to be effecting the local village, wih people complaining their televisions are breaking, amongst other things. Both Laird's assistants Gil (Forrest Tucker) and Michele (Gaby André) have their doubts about the experiments, especially when one goes wrong. Then a strange man (Martin Benson) appears asking questions, and seems to know more about it than he's letting on.
Charmingly inept dialogue and clunky direction, make this a cult classic. This has everything a 50's Sci-fi needs, aliens, cosmic rays, mad scientists and mutant creatures, perfect drive-in material.
"Thank you for telling me I'm the devil's bounty hunter."
Johnny Blaize (Nicolas Cage), a motorcycle stunt rider, becomes the supernatural Ghost Rider when Mephistopheles (Peter Fonda) compells him to defeat his son and some other demons. This is due to Johnny having previously sold his soul to the demon in return for his father's life.
Based on the Marvel comic, this tale strips much of the details out and replaces them with a quirky Elvisalike performance from Cage and his dodgy wig! Great FX and the cool Ghost rider cannot make up for the lameness of the rest of the film. Clunky performances, dodgy dialogue and a revamped Johnny Blaize as a jellybean eating, Carpenters listening, Elvis impersonator?!?
aka A Man Alone. Ernest Hemingway's The Killers.
"Once I did something wrong".
Two professional killers arrive in a small town and kill gas station attendant, the Swede (Burt Lancaster). Insurance investigator Reardon (Edmond O'Brien) thinks there is more to this than meets the eye and is determined to solve the case. He weaves together the complex tale of the Swede's life, and uncovers, treachery and crime, all centred around the mysterious Kitty Collins (Ava Gardner).
An elaborate series of flashbacks, fills out the life and death of the Swede in this fine suspenceful thriller, based on a Hemmingway short story. A definitive film noir.
aka Young and Willing.
A well to do woman, Jean Raymond (Glynis Johns) is sent to prison for fraud. Once inside the various inmates, including Betty Brown (Diana Dors), relate their tales of hardship and misery. How will she take to the repressive Victorian prison, or the open prison to which she is sent to see out her sentence?
What was a true life critique of prison life, in the book, is made into a lighter and at times comedic film, with cameo's such as Sid James as an inveterate shop-lifter. An opportunity missed, but it still makes for an entertaining 90 minutes.
'Your chick was a lilyskin.'
A woman is murdered and dumped on a London common. When her identity is discovered, the police also find out that she was a 'coloured' woman passing as white. Suspicion falls on her fiance David (Paul Massie) who had just found out she was pregnant. As the Superintendant (Nigel Patrick) and his subordinant (Michael Craig) investigate they uncover various levels of finely honed racism.
A fine drama that investigates the issue of racism, and the insecurity and fear it engenders, from both sides of the coin. From the racist policeman, to the landlady distraught she let a room to a non-white. It paints a hard-hitting, complex picture, and a fascinating one about prejudice in 1950's Britain. Prejudice that even the film cannot extricate itself from at times.
"To learn how to find, one must first learn how to hide."
In a future dystopian society, all books have been banned, and any that are found are burned by the fire brigade. Guy Montag (Oskar Werner) is a respected firefighter who starts to question his life and job when he falls for book-loving Clarisse (Julie Christie). Slowly he turns and begins to read confiscated books. Will he give up all for Clarisse, or return to his book burning ways?
Based on a Ray Bradbury story, this is a fine adaption, focusing on the controlling nature of governments and the insidiousness of censorship. Its only problem is the stilled nature of the dialogue, due in part to Truffaut's inability to speak effective English at the time.
"My own brother, a Goddamn shitsucking vampire!"
A newly divorced mother of two moves with her sons, Sam and Michael to live in Santa Carla. Once settled in Michael (Jason Patric) falls in with a bike gang led by David (Kiefer Sutherland). What he doesn't know is that they are vampires, and they quickly set about turning him. Sam soon learns about his brothers newly found blood sucking tendancies, and enlists the Frog brothers (Jamison Newlander and Corey Feldman), self styled vampire killers and local comic shop workers, to help. Can they find and kill the head vampire, thus freeing Michael from the curse?
An 80's brat-pack take on the vampire tale, chock full of 80's fashions and music, but don't let that put you off. This is in fact a light-hearted adventure, that doesn't take itself too seriously and has some memorable scenes. Especially good are the Frog brothers, who got their own short lived horror comic franchise out of this.
"Hey everybody lighten up, its all over"
