RANTS & RAVINGS ABOUT HORROR – “HOW MONSTER FILMS DEFINED MY LIFE”

RANTS & RAVINGS ABOUT HORROR – “HOW MONSTER FILMS DEFINED MY LIFE”

Early this year during the 2017 Something Wicked Film Festival (www.somethingwickedfilmfestival.com), Festival Panel Moderator Jim Adams created a panel discussion that would forever define the future of panel discussions for the event (especially since I’m the Festival Director and I just hired him to be the Official Festival Panel Moderator.  One of Mr. Adams’ first duties were to come up with some original ideas for new panel discussions and thus “How Monster Films Defined My Life” was born. 

Now I know part of the reason why Mr. Adams decided on this topic for a panel discussion is because he has the podcast “Monster Attacks!” where he has spoken at length about his love for monster films.  For many people, monster films from the Universal horrors of Dracula and The Wolfman to Hammer Studios’ Frankenstein and The Mummy were defining characters of fear from childhood.  For more modern audiences there is Leatherface and that dream demon Freddy not to mention the likes of Ghostface Killer and The Jigsaw Killer.  No matter which decade, audiences have their own nightmare monster that haunts them or fascinates them to no end.

I was one of the film-makers on this panel discussion and one of the films that defined my childhood was the Joe Dante film Gremlins (1984).  I saw this in the theater in ’84 at the early age of 8 and it left an undeniable impression on me.  The monsters were both cute and cuddly and dangerous and fun at the same time.  It was like watching a bunch of unruly children at play able to do whatever they wanted.  It also had an amazing soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith (who became my all-time favorite music composer).  The film was dark and horrifying as well as funny and entertaining.  It had the perfect mixture of comedy and horror and part of that is due to the very dark photography of the film and the fluid cinematography.  It truly became one of my all-time favorite films for which my love for other monsters would grow.

 

I didn’t grow up with the black & white Universal monsters nor had I seen many of the bloody Hammer Studio films until I became a big horror fan in my teenage and college years.  The next monster I gravitated to was that of the Good-Guy doll Chucky.  When I saw Child’s Play (1988) I had never seen anything like it before.  A serial killer uses Voodoo to possess a doll and to continue his killing spree.  Even though this film played straight into horror (unlike the more comedic sequels) it still was quite fun and entertaining.  By ’88 when this film was released and I was eleven years old I had already become a horror fan but nothing had defined my true love of the genre just yet until this film.  I got the poster for the film from the nearby Video Store (how I miss these establishments) and I placed it lovingly on my bedroom wall (where it was later joined by posters of the second and third films).  It was the first poster I ever put on my wall but it would not be the last.

I followed the continuing exploits of Chucky to cinema with Child’s Play 2 (1990) and Child’s Play 3 (1991) which I had to beg my Father to take me to since I was too young for the R-Rated horror.  At this point I did come to realize how much I loved horror films but more importantly – monster films.

At this point you could say I went looking for monsters as I learned to love all monsters big or small.

It wasn’t until Clive Barker’s Nightbreed (1990) that I wished I was one of the amazing monsters that populated our magnificent world.  Barker crafted a story where the monsters were the good guys while man was the bad guy.  This film defined the idea of what a monster could truly become.  The monsters in Barker’s film were deformed and misunderstood as well as dangerous and fascinating.

It was after this that I became a true and everlasting monster fan.  From the films featuring Godzilla and his rogue’s gallery to the Cenobites of the world of Hellraiser I loved monsters both other-worldly and those more human.  My favorites were monsters not easily described or defined like those in Christine (1983), The Thing (1982), Puppet Master (1994), Critters (1986), and especially Killer Clowns From Outer Space (1988), to name but a small few.

I most certainly enjoyed the exploits of Michael Myers and Leatherface (and family) and even those Freddy films but it was with these non-human monsters that I enjoyed more and would later define my love and appreciation of horror.  For me, monsters aren’t defined as either good nor evil but in most films, they are simply just trying to survive and do what comes naturally.  This is the defining trait of King Kong and Godzilla as well as many other timeless monster films.

Serial killers and mass murders are interesting but monsters are something from the imagination where anything that can be dreamed can become a reality.  Therefore, they’ve had such a profound effect on me as not only a film maker but a storyteller and a film lover.  If nothing else, I implore others to seek out monster movies not just for pure entertainment and enjoyment but to understand oneself and the world in which we live (and the one created for the monsters to live in).  It’s never too late to enjoy a good monster film.

To view the entire “How Monster Movies Defined My Life” panel discussion go here - https://vimeo.com/238990857

FILM REVIEW: KILLDOZER (1974)

Clint Walker leads an all-star cast in the film KILLDOZER (1974).  When a small construction crew on an isolated island come in contact with a strange rock in the ground.  The spirit or energy force from the rock inhabits a bulldozer and starts to kill each of the construction crew one by one.  Walker plays Lloyd Kelly, the foreman of the construction crew just trying to keep his men in line despite the fact that he isn’t well liked by the men.  It is his job to try and keep his people safe and alive for as long as he can until help can arrive.

For a ‘70s TV horror film, KILLDOZER is very much like DUEL (1971) in its execution despite lacking the suspenseful elements that made that film so interesting.  Also, the concept doesn’t really hold up being a killer bulldozer which should make it very easy to escape but the film finds it easy for the men to get trapped and killed.

This is a film I’ve heard a lot about over the years and I see why it could have been viewed as one of the better made for TV movies of the ‘70s but that was a decade that had many great films on the small screen and even though this film was interesting there isn’t much that elevate it passed the nostalgia effect as it hasn’t aged nearly as well as DUEL.

FILM REVIEW: THE EVIL (aka HOUSE OF EVIL) (1978)

Richard Crenna leads an excellent cast in the horror film THE EVIL (1978).  Crenna is C.J. Arnold who is a professor who recently purchased a civil war era house in need of lots of repairs.  He assembles a group of old colleagues and students to help him restore the house but while exploring the basement of the house he comes across a doorway in the floor.  When he removes a cross keeping the doorway closed he unleashes an evil force that locks them all in the house with no means of escape.  The evil force decides that each person in the house is nothing more than a plaything at its disposal and C.J. and his friends must find a way out of the house before they are all killed.

As ludicrous as the concept for the film is Crenna has always had a knack for grounding these types of films such as DEATH SHIP (1980), DEVIL DOG: THE HOUND OF HELL (1978), NIGHTMARE (1974), LEVIATHAN (1989), and MURDER TIMES SEVEN (1990), to name a few.  He has a great supporting cast in Joanna Pettet, Andrew Prine, Cassie Yates, George O’Hanlon, Jr., and Victor Buono, to name a few.   The only main problem with the film is the fact that the female characters are not very fully developed (a product of ‘70s horror films) and make the film dated.

Written by Galen Thompson and Gus Trikonis, who also directs, the film is a very suspenseful thriller that has a mean streak in terms of how each person is killed making for a very entertaining film.  Only when the film delves into religious philosophy towards the end does the film misstep but this can be forgiven as there were many films of this era that tackled this question.  Otherwise this is a very interesting film.

FILM REVIEW: CREATURES FROM THE ABYSS (aka PLANKTON) (1994)

Five teenagers out for a night swim in the middle of nowhere get caught in a freak storm in CREATURES FROM THE ABYSS (1994).  They find shelter in a seemingly abandoned yacht which doubles as a marine research vessel.  As they wait out the storm, they soon discover that something else is on board the yacht with them which may have been the cause for the entire crew of the yacht to abandon the ship out in the middle of the ocean.

Now, unfortunately, this could have been an interesting concept but the film’s plot is flimsy as is the logic for most of what happens in the film not to mention that the monsters are laughable especially for a film from the mid-‘90s.   The film is written by Richard Baumann and directed by Alvaro Passeri (his first film as director before churning out such other great titles as THE MUMMY THEME PARK, PSYCHOVISION and FLIGHT TO HELL).  This is a pretty bad film even by pretty bad film standards. 

There is nothing particularly imaginative or exciting about the film other than the attempt at body horror as the teenagers turn into strange contaminated fish monsters.  This is one aquatic horror film to avoid like day old sushi.

FILM REVIEW: LIFEFORM (aka INVADER) (1996)

The Viking space capsule returns to Earth from its journey to Mars bringing with it something potentially dangerous in the film LIFEFORM (1996).  When the Viking lands within restricted military space Dr. Case Montgomery (Cotter Smith) brings in his most trusted colleagues Dr. Gracie Scott and NASA’s Michael Perkett (Deirdre O’Connell and Leland Oser, respectfully) to help him assess the authenticity of the capsule.  Just as Colonel Pratt (Robert Wisdom) and his men show up to take over the discovery, Montgomery and Scott learn that the capsule was carrying an alien creature that threatens the safety of them all and everyone on the planet.  The base is ordered quarantined and Montgomery & Scott have a limited time to find the alien and make sure it isn’t a threat to national security.  This is made more difficult as the alien is highly intelligent which makes finding it a problem especially when Colonel Pratt and his men have no idea the danger they have now find themselves in.

LIFEFORM is a fun science fiction film in the tradition of CREATURE (1985) and CRITTERS (1986) and the monster holds up fairly well even today.  Although it gets repetitive at sometimes and characters react in that “horror film” way, it’s charm is in the fact that it tries so hard to make the science in the film so believable.

The film is written and directed by Mark H. Baker and this is his sole directing credit although I am surprised that he didn’t continue to direct given that this wasn’t an entirely un-entertaining of a film.  

FILM REVIEW: THE BOOGENS (1981)

A small mining community gets more than they bargained for when they reopen an old mine unleashing a horde of creatures that will do anything protect their home in THE BOOGENS (1981).  For a small community, opening the once flourishing mines was thought to be an excellent idea even after all the deaths that occurred in a collapse years ago, but once the mines are reopened people start to disappear.  Soon the miners learn that the tunnels of the mines go underneath the entire town and no one is safe.

Written by David O’Malley and Jim Kouf (with a story by Thomas C. Chapman and O’Malley) the film does an admirable job of keeping the story moving with its limited cast.  Chapman, who also directors, does a good job creating suspense and atmosphere with the limited number of locations especially the caverns in the mines themselves.  The death scenes are also creative and a highlight of the even.  Even though the monsters, themselves, are cheesy looking by today’s standards, they are not on screen all that much.

I enjoyed the film for the nostalgia factor since I love monster movies (no matter how crude the creature) so fans of monster films will enjoy this film.  For an early ‘80s creature feature its not that bad at all.

FILM REVIEW: THE RUNESTONE (1991)

A Norse Runestone is discovered signally the coming of Ragnarok in THE RUNESTONE (1991).  It seems that Martin Almquist (Mitchell Laurance) has made a profound discovery with the Runestone and hopes to achieve his wildest dreams and desires until the Norse great wolf Fenrir shows up to cause chaos and disorder.  Now it is up to archaeologist Sam Stewart (Tim Ran) and his wife Marla (Joan Severance) to find the truth about the Runestone before it is too late.  With the help of the local police detective Fanducci (Peter Riegert) and Lars Hagstrom (William Hickey), a recluse who knows more about the Runestone than he’s letting on, its own a matter of time before Fenrir’s true purpose is made clear and no one will be able to stand in its way.

The film isn’t all that bad even almost thirty years later.  This is mainly because the performances still hold up very well and the concept isn’t all that bad even if the make-up and monster effects have aged.  The monster is seen a lot in the film as the film-makers are not shy about revealing the creature in all its glory.  I’m sure that in the early ‘90s the monster was impressive but anything has aged it’s this part of the film.  This being said there is a lot of violence and suspense so audiences will be entertained from beginning to end.

Written and directed by Willard Carroll (based on the novel by Mark E. Rogers) the film is very well directed despite the nature of the whole film.  The film is actually better than it should be as the comedic talents of Riegert are on full display and keep the film lively and interesting throughout the hokier moments.  Not a bad film from the ‘90s as there are plenty of worst options out there.