Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Tagline: “When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the Earth”
Running Time: 125 minutes (theatrical version)

Film Quality: 5/5
Gore Content: 5/5
Entertainment Value: 5/5
Originality: 4/5

Introduction

Struggling to get the financing for a follow up to the seminal ‘Night of the Living Dead’ word got back to a young, up and coming Italian horror director by the name of Dario Argento that George Romero was trying to get backing for a sequel to one of his favourite movies. Inviting Romero over to Italy, the pair worked on the screenplay and Argento agreed to produce, retaining the rights to edit and distribute the film across Europe, Romero would do the same in other territories. With the pairing of those two names there should have been no doubt about the success of the film but what was finally created was the ‘Ben Hur’ of horror films!

In a Nutshell

The world is beginning to change in the early stages of a zombie outbreak with society corroding and anarchy setting in. A helicopter pilot, journalist and two members of a SWAT team decide to run, hijacking the radio station travel chopper they happen upon a shopping mall. Realising they have a chance to survive there, they must also face up to a menace every bit as dangerous as the undead…mankind.

So what’s good about it?

What a stroke of true genius to make a shopping mall the location. Romero uses it to create an absolute juggernaut of a satire in which he is able to commentate on our society on so many levels from consumerism and greed to gang warfare and issues of race and gender. The zombies represent mankind, blindly going about their business, completely oblivious to what’s happening around them other than an unquestioning need to consume. Next time to you find yourself in a shopping mall, grab yourself a coffee, stand on the top level and look down...I guarantee you will be presented with a scene from ‘Dawn of the Dead’.

The film has a running time that, at a glance, may appear bloated but Romero crams an awful lot into that two and half hour running time. His pacing is so unerringly accurate that we don’t notice that it takes a good 45 minutes before they even arrive at the mall. That’s because Romero is also interested in exploring the world within which this film takes place. That means plunging us into a world of chaos and an all-out assault on the senses for the incredible first 20 minutes where we see TV interviews desperately trying to make sense of what’s happening, people running around like headless chickens and a SWAT team assault on a tenement building. It paints a picture of a society clinging on to itself and very quickly losing its grip. We also see gun-toting rednecks enjoying themselves, treating the zombie apocalypse like a shoot-a-duck stall at a fairground and a deserted aircraft hangar, looted for anything of worth. It’s apocalyptic in its execution and presents a world from which you would want to run, putting us firmly on the side of our four protagonists.

It’s very easy to forget that this was only Tom Savini’s fourth film as a special effects artist. He puts in one hell of a shift here with some truly breathtaking practical effects that include rib cages getting ripped out, bodies ripped entirely to pieces, the machete in the head scene (left) and an unforgettable exploding head. The word ‘legend’ is bandied about far too often but it is impossible to overestimate the impact Savini’s effects have on this and many other films.

‘Dawn’ is rightly revered for its effects but for me it’s Romero’s direction that truly ‘makes’ the film. There’s a very intentional comic book look and feel throughout the film that cleverly balances the violent excesses. When the fake blood arrived and it wasn’t what you might call a natural colour, Romero stayed with it, against Savini’s initial wishes, as he felt it would heighten that appearance of a graphic novel on film. Remember the scene where one of the bikers falls his bike escaping from the mall and starts firing his gun towards the camera as the zombies close in behind him (left)? There are no zombies in front of him; that shot is specifically set up to look like a comic book frame. I really can’t enthuse enough about Romero’s direction at turning out a two hour plus zombie film that never once outstays its welcome. There is so much happening and it’s done with such style and finesse that we should thank our lucky stars that Dario Argento fronted up the money to allow this man to helm such an incredible movie.

Stephen finds his way home

The zombies are also further developed and we move a step closer to ‘Bub’ from ‘Day of the Dead’. There’s the ‘Hare Krishna’ zombie who is smart enough to realise that there are people upstairs, the zombie that stares wistfully at Francine through the shop window, the zombie at the end that is more interested in Peter’s gun and of course Stephen who remembers the way home after his death. It’s that subtle continuation and evolution of the zombies, continuing in ‘Land of the Dead’ with ‘Big Daddy’ that makes Romero’s universe so intriguing.

What about the bad?

Francine isn’t given a huge amount to do but then again she is pregnant, my main issue with that is that not enough is made of it. Other than that I can’t think of a damn thing! You could perhaps argue that not all of the acting is what you might call top notch and some of the 70s fashions and haircuts leave something to be denied but can you really grumble? This is a monumental movie and ANY attempt by me to belittle it would be little more than nitpicking.

Any themes?

This has been covered to death and it’s been well documented elsewhere that Romero’s film represents a savage commentary on the nature of consumerism and greed. The Mall setting was the catalyst for Romero to hold a mirror up to ourselves to show us that we’re drawn blindly and almost subconsciously to shops with a desperate desire to consume more and more whether we need it or not. Combine this with the literal metaphor of mankind eating itself and the film serves as a pitch perfect analogy for what actually happened in the 80s! A society that favoured wealth, possession, status and opulence over morality, substance and meaning with a blinkered, overoptimistic outlook on life.

There’s some racial and class subtext as well with the opening SWAT team raid on a Puerto Rican settlement and how their outlook on life and the dead differs from ours in terms of respect and treatment. We also see it very briefly with the ‘good ol’ boys’ having a great time shooting the undead as if it were a game with no concept of the danger and context of the upcoming apocalypse. Their love of guns and the feeling of invincibility that holding a firearm gives them is in sharp contrast to the reality that it’s ultimately meaningless and they’re completely oblivious to the true fragility of mankind.

Release history

In the climate this film was released it’s a surprise the film wasn’t placed on the nasties list, such is the level of gore on display. It’s certainly more gruesome than ‘Zombie Flesh Eaters’ which suffered the wrath of the authorities, however that isn’t to say that it wasn’t given a rough ride. A total of 55 separate cuts were requested totalling just under two minutes. The subsequent resubmission saw Romero’s masterpiece suffer further requests to edit a total of 3m 46s of Savini’s splatter to leave a theatrical release and pre cert VHS from Intervision clocking in at a knat’s knob over 120 minutes. Shots removed included the exploding head, screwdriver in the ear, machete in the head and an incredible 19 shots of a biker having his intestines removed and eaten!

It’s worth pointing out here that the censors relayed their dismay and dislike for the film which for me is disgusting and suggests that their personal taste for the film dictated their treatment of it. Why should their complete lack of understanding and comprehension for a film prevent the rest of society from watching the complete film. This group of bell ends considered themselves educated and sophisticated yet were completely unable to see past the onscreen violence to what the film was really about, completely missing the point. They even believed that cutting the film improved it, James Ferman had the audacity to say so in a letter to the distributers accompanying the requested cuts. For me this goes over and above the remit for a ‘classification service’ and just highlighted what an outdated and patronising authority it had become.

As well as doing the effects, Savini plays one of the bikers

It gets worse!

In 1989 Entertainment in Video submitted the same truncated version to Ferman’s BBFC and their attitude to the film hadn’t been diluted. They requested a further 12 seconds of cuts, relatively small but still accounting for seven separate edits…this absolutely beggers belief!

Thankfully (sort of), a reappraisal of the film followed in the 90s when BMG VHS submitted a new, extended version (dubbed the Director’s Cut) which the BBFC passed with just six seconds of cuts. We were still missing the shoulder bite and exploding head from the opening SWAT raid along with the shooting of two zombie children in the airport hanger. To be fair to the BBFC that final scene would most likely have remained in the film but, coming so soon after the Dunblaine Massacre, it was considered culturally inappropriate to explicitly show the children being shot so the scene was shortened rather than edited out completely.

It wasn’t until 2003 when a full uncut version was finally passed, also released by BMG, along with the Argento Cut, a separate edit totalling 114 minutes that was prepared by Argento for many of the European territories removing several scenes of dialogue, adding much of The Goblin score and quickening the pace significantly.

There are five known versions of the film. The 114 minute Argento Cut, the 125 minute theatrical version, 139 minute Directors or Extended Cut, a 142 minute ‘Perfect Cut’ released in Japan and a 149 minute bootleg version, a composite cut which pretty much includes everything present in each of those other four versions. Romero reportedly prefers the theatrical cut, his first edit, although Argento’s Cut was the first to be released in terms of worldwide chronology.

Cultural Significance

Despite the cult hit that was ‘Night of the Living Dead’, there really hadn’t been a massive influx of zombie movies. If ‘Night’ sowed the seed as the first film to feature flesh eating zombies, and there had been a few since then to pick up the batton, most notably ‘The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue’ and Armando D’Ossorio’s ‘Blind Dead’ series (although they were less zombies in the Romero sense and more ghosts in skeletal rotting flesh form!), then ‘Dawn’ was the sunshine and rain that allowed the jungle of zombie movies that followed to flourish. It was the runaway critical and financial success of ‘Dawn’ that really opened the floodgates and it was only fitting that Romero was at the helm to realise that.

The sheer number of Italian knock offs that ranged from the piss-poor (‘Zombie Creeping Flesh’) to the really very good (‘Zombie Holocaust’) echoes that sentiment. It also ushered in a couple of unofficial sequels with Dan O’Bannan’s ‘Return of the Living Dead’ positing that the original ‘Night’ was based on a real event and Lucio Fulci’s ‘Zombie Flesh Eaters’, retitled ‘Zombi 2’ in some areas to mislead people that it was a sequel to the similarly titled ‘Zombie: Dawn of the Dead’, an alternative title in some countries.

Romero’s zombie-lore is still adhered to today, though some films favour Usain Bolt-esque versions of the undead, and as popular as ever in the guise of ‘The Walking Dead’ on TV and ‘World War Z’ in both literature and movies. Quite simply, along with ‘Night’, this one of the most influential movies of all time.

Final Thoughts

This is the ‘Citizen Kane’ of zombie movies and can lay a claim to be the best horror film of the 70s, facing very stiff competition from the likes of ‘The Exorcist’, ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ and ‘Halloween’. A triumph in almost every area of film making it is one of the few examples of a sequel that surpasses the original in almost way, despite the original also being considered a ground breaking classic.

Peter: "Scary, isn't it?

Memorable Quotes

Peter: ‘When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the Earth.”

Stephen (talking about the Mall): “A memory, some kind of instinct…this was an important part of their lives.”

Dr Foster: “Every dead body that is not exterminated becomes one of them and gets up and kills. The people it kills get up and kill.”

Priest: “When the dead walk, senores, we must stop the killing or lose the war.”

You’ll like this if you enjoyed…

‘Night of the Living Dead’, ‘Day of the Dead’, ‘The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue’, ‘The Crazies’

Class of 1999 (1990)

Tagline: “It’s the last lesson you’ll ever learn”

Duration: 99 minutes

Film Quality: 2.5/5
Gore Content: 3.5/5
Entertainment Value:4/5
Originality: 2/5

Introduction

Having shown himself to be a competent director of action and genre films with the Schwarzenegger vehicle ‘Commando’ and King adaptation ‘Firestarter’, Mark L. Lester returned to his most notorious feature. ‘Class of 1984’ caused no little controversy upon its release, particularly in the UK where it was heavily cut for cinema release and then refused a video certificate, not seeing a release until the next century. Its raw social commentary was too much for some so he had another go, this time injecting an element of fun, his ‘Evil Dead 2’ to its troublesome older brother if you like!

In a nutshell

“The year is 1999…and there is no law” screams the opening robotic monologue where society has crumbled and police have abandoned certain areas as lawless ‘free fire zones’. As a pilot project, government cyborgs have been introduced to schools to help restore order, coinciding with the release of some of the less troubled criminals from prison…if they break the terms of their release, which includes school attendance, they’re back inside. The trouble is that the cyborgs think this is a war, and there are always casualties in war!

So what’s good about it?

It’s one of those films that you know is crap whilst you’re watching however, give it its due, it is HUGELY entertaining! Lester displays some very taught direction and paces the film excellently, rarely letting a moment go by without a violent attack, chase or explosion which, in the main, are executed pretty well. The budget was fairly modest at close to $6million and it does retain an element of grittiness, particularly in the gangland scenes which genuinely look like areas you wouldn’t want to stray into. Highlights include the battle between rival gangs the Black Hearts and Razor Heads in the middle of the film, the opening car chase and an excellent confrontation between Black Hearts leader Cody and Mr Bryles in the gym.

Lester managed to recruit some pretty impressive acting talent, somehow persuading Malcolm McDowell to give up two days of his life to the production – to be fair he looks a little bored during most of it. He was originally considered for the role of Bob Forrest, which eventually went to Stacey Keach, who looks like he’s having a ball playing the amoral albino agent, delighted that he’s secured a contract worth millions and not at all bothered by the collateral damage. Pam Grier is suitably dangerous as the seductive Miss Connors, Bradley Gregg puts in a solid shift as the partly reformed Cody Culp, Patrick Kilpatrick is excellent as the unhinged Mr Bryles but it’s John P. Ryan’s wild-eyed performance as the psychotic Mr Hardin (above) who steals the show. Whether it’s hamming it up, force feeding a drug overdose to an addict with a cheesy grin, or a dead eyed stare delivering corporal punishment in front a group of stunned students, he sets the tone for the gleeful violence that always stays the right side of playful.

A quick word on the mixed bag that is the special effects. It’s frustratingly erratic but the gore effects are actually really very good. My personal favourite is the moment Hardin’s hardware splits its way through his arm and propels forwards to force his, now redundant, hand across the room revealing a clawed metal appendage that contains a drill, subsequently thrust through a student’s head. All three ‘teachers’ undergo a gruesome transformation, whether it’s ripping off an arm, ‘Terminator 2’ style (the comparison ends there!), to reveal a rocket launcher or opening up a rib cage to unleash a flame thrower, it’s never short of entertaining.

The second half of the 80s and early 90s featured a huge number of ‘Terminator’ rip offs, within which ‘Class of 1999’ certainly qualifies, before Cameron blew them all away with his own mega-bucks sequel. Many of them were a horrendous, boring mess that looked like they were filmed on a rubbish dump. For me this is where ‘Class of 1999’ stands out from the crowd, it abandons the social commentary that made ‘Class of 1984’ such a powerful film, and adopts much of what made ‘Commando’ so memorable. It’s such great fun that you can forgive it for its flaws…well…most of them!

What about the bad?

These cyborgs were meant to be reprogrammed war machines that have malfunctioned and reverted back to their original programming. But they’re clearly relishing the murder and mayhem, laughing, smiling and even wise-cracking their way throughout the second half of the movie (“Time for a little driver’s ed?”). You could argue that it adds to the movie’s sense of fun but any attempts at making a serious point of an over-reliance on technology as security and the level and troublesome nature of gang violence is reduced to cartoonish silliness.

I mentioned earlier that the special effects are variable. The gore effects are pretty good but it’s plainly obvious that they ran out of money towards the end. The ‘Terminator’ style robotic effects are beyond terrible and, coming as they do, towards the end of the film, really do dampen the effect of the climax. Again, this is partly saved by the slightly camp and jovial atmosphere but I think this is more luck than judgement. By and large, the production values of the film are pretty good but the shot of the completely robotic Bryles walking down the corridor must rank alongside the worst effects of its kind. Shame really although the film, by this point, has descended into the realms of silly pastiche as it looks like it tried desperately to replicate the ending of Cameron’s iconic film.

It also falls into the trap that a lot of futuristic films do by setting a date for itself. One of the reasons ‘Mad Max’ has not dated quite so horribly as others is that it is set ‘A few years from now…’. ‘Class of 1999’ kind of looked out of date within about three weeks of its release and, being set what is now 18 years ago doesn’t help suspension of disbelief. The fashions, cars, music, hairstyles, pretty much everything is so rooted in the late 80s that it’s dated more than most.

The logic, actions and decisions taken by the characters relies on pretty much every single belief you hold to be suspended. Our female lead Christie is quite happy to team up with the guys who tried to rape her earlier in the film. Also, they figure out what’s going on in two sentences with a simple “Why would Hector go to school if he didn’t have to?”…”Jesus, it’s the teachers!”. That’s without the complete lack of self-awareness that they’ve ALL been dutifully going to school when they didn’t have to! So may flaws…so little time!!!

Any themes?

There’s an attempt to comment on the gang culture permeating US society in the 80s and its associated drug problem. The emergence of Cocaine and its distribution from the Columbian cartels to the US market had contributed to a growing culture of gang violence. ‘Class of 1999’ reflects this view of society and runs with that timeline to see where it would end up with two rival gangs fighting it out whilst high on ‘Edge’. Rather than tackle the issue though, the film has fun with the universe it has created and doesn’t pretend to do otherwise, presenting it as a backdrop to the action.

Release History

The theatrical release was delayed by nearly a year due to the folding of Vestron, eventually coming out courtesy of Taurus. The film suffered from some censorship in the UK to several scenes, including reducing the number of ‘elbow to the chest’ blows and the neck break from the violent attack in the gym and the drill through the head scene. It also lost a couple of other neck breaks and some knife play, a total of 15 seconds from the Vestron and Cinema Club VHS releases. The Columbia and Lionsgate DVD releases saw all cuts waived with the ‘Full Uncut Version’ emblazoned proudly across the top.

Cultural Impact

None, although it did spawn a dreadful sequel of its own with one of the worst titles in direct to video history…’Class of 1999 2: The Substitute’.

Final thoughts

Let’s be honest, it’s a popcorn flick, and a highly enjoyable one at that, but it really isn’t a good film. I remember watching it when a friend recorded it from SKY TV in the early 90s after becoming intrigued by the trailer. I’ve always had a soft spot for it since then because it did what any sci-fi/horror/action hybrid should do and that is completely hold my interest for a full 90 minutes. I very much doubt it’s in anyone’s top ten list but if you haven’t at the very least enjoyed it, for all of its faults rather than despite them, then you have a very dark soul indeed!

Memorable Quotes

Cody: “I’m going in there to waste some teachers, who’s with me?”

Cody: “It’s like a f@cked up, George Jetson nightmare.”

Langford: “They’ve been waging war with my students.”
Forrest: “But isn’t that what all teachers do?”

Cody: (After destroying the Chemistry lab) “Well I guess I blew that class.”

Hardin: (Before drilling a hole in a student’s head) “I like to mould young minds.”

You’ll like this if you enjoyed…

‘Robocop’, ‘Chopping Mall’, ‘C.H.U.D.’, ‘Class of Nuke ‘em High’

Friday the 13th (1980)

Tagline: “They were warned…they are doomed…and on Friday 13th, nothing will save them.”
Duration: 95 minutes

Film Quality: 3/5
Gore Content: 3/5
Entertainment Value:4/5
Originality: 2/5

Introduction

Riding hot on the coat tails of John Carpenter’s masterpiece ‘Halloween’, producer  Sean S. Cunningham secured the rights to the title ‘Friday 13th’ before making the film, aiming to cash in on the date-themed title of Carpenter’s film and the dark connotations surrounding that particular time of the calendar year. Taking many elements of Carpenters’ film and borrowing heavily from other genre classics, most notably Mario Bava’s ‘Bay of Blood’, he perhaps unwittingly created an absolute juggernaut of a film that is still out of control, crashing into cinemas and blu ray releases to this date.

In a nutshell

A group of teenagers descend on an abandoned summer camp with the intention of reopening it 21 years after the death of two camp councelors following the tragic drowning of a young boy. Despite warnings of a death curse they proceed with their plans, only to be picked off by an unseen madman…could it be that Jason Vorhees has risen from the grave to exact his revenge on the camp counsellors responsible for his death?

So what’s good about it?

Despite a very low budget of just over half a million clams, the film does boast some pretty good slayings – some, unfortunately, falling victim themselves to the censors snips. Whereas ‘Halloween’ was restrained with its onscreen offal, Cunningham puts most of the kills right up there front and centre and we’re treated to a throat slitting, an arrow through the neck, a full on decapitation and, most impressively, an axe to the head (left). I remember watching this film one Halloween night in a cinema as part of a quadruple bill and the crowd erupted with cheers and applause at that, admittedly, excellent set piece.

The music is also highly effective and very well executed as part of the editing process, becoming ‘Jason’ in the same way John Williams’ score becomes Spielberg’s shark. Henry Manfredini used the musical cues as a substitute for the unseen killer and, rather than the piano and synth score used by Carpenter, went for the rather more shrill and harsh strings and violin. You’ll notice that the music only appears when the killer is close by, similar to ‘Jaws’, just pausing briefly before the big scare to maximise the jumps. It works a treat, lulling you into a false sense of security before the big pay off. It also gave us the iconic ‘Ki Ki Ki….Ma Ma Ma’ sound effect which was created by Manfredini voicing the words ‘Kill Mommy’ and then manipulating the result. Incredibly effective, a ‘Friday the 13th’ film just wouldn’t sound right without it.

The acting can be hit and miss but the chemistry between the group is pretty good. Some of the actors already knew each other prior to filming, having appeared in soaps together, in fact Cunningham reportedly said he wanted actors who would act naturally around each other and for the most part he succeeded. Yes, there’s not much requirement other than screaming, stripping off to go skinny dipping and creeping quietly around abandoned buildings, but you don’t leave the film necessarily with a bad actor taste.

Now, I’ve been in two minds about whether or not to put this next bit in the ‘good’ or ‘bad’ section but it takes the tropes introduced in ‘Halloween’ and effectively turns them into rules. Whereas the kids in ‘Halloween’ are alone for a reason, here they go and investigate strange noises alone, they get killed for having sex, the unstoppable, possibly supernatural killer avenging a wrong, the omnipresent killer. Yes, it’s all there in ‘Halloween’ but it seems so much more deliberate in ‘Friday the 13th’. Perhaps that’s because the endless sequels repeat the trick ad nauseum but this seems so much more like your typical slasher than Carpenter’s film. It’s like comparing Christmas Dinner with a Sunday roast…the ingredients are the same but whereas one feels like a special occasion, the other is routine and ‘by the numbers’.

There may be some of you reading this who haven’t seen the film so I’ll try and keep this last bit a surprise but the film does pull the rug from under your feet in a great double finale that provides a bigger jolt than anything in ‘Halloween’. It might lack the sophistication of Carpenter’s flick but in terms of box ticking with gore (thanks largely due to the ever-reliable Tom Savini), excellent jump scares, irritating teens, creepy abandoned buildings and nudity it’s tough to knock it.

And what about the bad?

If the comments in the above section haven’t expressed my view enough, it is a poor man’s ‘Halloween’. Whereas Carpenter directs the movie with a sure hand, achieving film noir levels of light and shade, Cunningham throws subtlety out of the window in favour of sledgehammer editing and direction. Looking back through 21st century eyes it really does look quite amateurish at times and pedestrian in terms of its pacing with none of the mythology and intrigue that its predecessor brings to the table. Perhaps some of that is down to the fact that it hasn’t had anywhere the attention and care of a good restoration that it deserves (despite my reservations over the films quality, there’s no denying its influence) as much as the generally below average talents of those involved.

Any themes?

As with most slasher films it’s a thinly disguised morality tale. Take a look at my review of ‘The Burning’, which is pretty much the same film, for my comments but characters who drink, have sex or do drugs are killed whilst the pure and lily white virgin can see exactly what’s going on and is aware of a sinister presence right from the start. It’s also a tale of revenge where the teenagers of today are made to pay for the sins of the teens of yesterday.

Release History

Not many people realise that this movie got caught up in the video nasties panic with the uncut 1982 Warner VHS seized by police. This panicked Warner who, as a big company rather than an independent happy for the attention, were not pleased with the controversy and gave no resistance to requests to remove the 10 seconds of cuts demanded by the MPAA, a relief to the BBFC who were happy to pass this version. Don’t forget that during this bizarre time period their collective chests were puffed out towards anything with a bit of girls and gore. Four scenes suffered the wrath of the censor’s scissors including the infamous axe to the head, the opening throat slashing, Kevin Bacon’s throat being on the receiving end of a rather large spear and the climactic decapitation. It all looks a bit crap actually with two of the cuts achieved with very clumsy looking white outs.

The axe to the head was, strangely, restored for Warner’s 1995 release and it was finally released uncut in the UK in 2003 meaning that the pre-cert Warner release was the only uncut VHS print released on these shores. The Friday the 13th series in general has suffered massively from MPAA cuts which means that completely uncut versions of most of the original eight movies don’t exist. That’s a real shame because some of these sequels, particularly the fourth and sixth, are actually very good films that surpass the original comfortably.

Cultural Impact

‘Halloween’ set the scene but ‘Friday the 13th’ got dibs on writing the blueprint for so many of the slasher movies that followed. We saw so many of them set in summer camps (‘The Burning’, ‘Sleepaway Camp’) or the woods (‘Body Count’, ‘Madman’) that all took their cues from Cunningham’s film rather than Carpenter’s. It also inspired, albeit from part three specifically, the hockey masked killer…much scarier than the sack Jason wore in the second part! It also picked up the baton for date-related horrors which brought us ‘Graduation Day’, ‘Mother’s Day’, ‘Happy Birthday to Me’ and countless others. And of course it led to the denouement of that wonderful opening scene in Wes Craven’s ‘Scream’.

All slasher movies effectively take their cues from the two films mentioned most frequently in this blog…it might not be a critic’s favourite but there’s no denying that it helped to usher in a golden period of horror films, for better or for worse!

Final Thoughts

Far more exploitative and raw than Carpenter’s ‘Halloween’ despite costing more to make it, it might not win many fans for its subtlety and professional appearance but it packs a punch. It made a horror icon out of Jason Vorhees despite him barely making an appearance and started one of the most enduring horror franchise not penned by George A. Romero. Let’s face it, he’s been decapitated, buried, drowned, on a cruise, in space, had a bit of a barney with Freddy Krueger and is slated to appear in ‘I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here’ later this year…probably! Influential and derivative in equal measure it’s a must-see piece of iconic horror history.

Memorable Quotes

Mrs Vorhees: “Jason was my son…and today is his birthday.”

Officer Dorf: “We ain’t gonna stand for no weirdness out here.”

Crazy Ralph: “It’s got a death curse.”

Ned: “He neglected to mention that downtown they call this place Camp Blood.”

You’ll like this if you enjoyed…

‘The Burning’, ‘Halloween’, ‘The Mutilator’, ‘Madman’

Society (1989)

Tagline: “If you don;t belong, they'll eat you alive.”
UK Running Time: 99 minutes

Film Quality: 4/5
Gore Content: 3/5
Entertainment Value: 4.5/5
Originality: 5/5

Introduction

Having achieved some success within the horror genre producing two H.P Lovecraft adaptations for Stuart Gordon (‘Reanimator’ and ‘From Beyond’), ‘Dolls’ and some mainstream success as co-producer of ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Kids’, Brian Yuzna was finally given the chance to take the helm on a film of his own. Holding the rights to a sequel to ‘Reanimator’, he used this as leverage to sign a two film deal so that he could direct his own project. He had a script that interested him and insisted on doing this before ‘Bride of Reanimator’ (1989 was definitely Yuzna’s year!) and so ‘Society’, one of the most truly bizarre films of the year, was born.

In a nutshell

Bill always felt that he didn’t quite in fit in, always on the outside and never truly happy despite leading a privileged lifestyle in Beverley Hills. Little does he know that society has a plan for him, and it’ll be revealed all in good time.

So what’s good about it?

Despite its outward outlandishness it is incredibly smart and witty and has an absolute ball in poking fun at the American dream and its elitist pretentions. Take away the truly jaw-dropping practical effects and you’re still left with a biting satire which came at a time, very late in the 1980s, that takes ten years of ‘Dallas’, ‘Dynasty’ and a decade of excessive style over substance and subverts it brilliantly. Basically this does what horror does best and holds a mirror up to the current zeitgeist and sinks its teeth right in.

So what’s the point of the body horror if the script is strong enough on its own? Well first of all, they are outstanding! There is some seriously surreal body distortion going on, but it is quite subtle, that is until the final 20 minutes kick in. There’s something not quite right behind that shower curtain, should her body really contort that way under the sheets? Where did that hand come from? Bill, as many privileged kids in the US seemed to do in the 80s, is seeing a psychiatrist, as the lead protagonist can we really trust his viewpoint? Are we seeing the world through his slightly disturbed mind? This plot device leads us up to the final scenes where effects maestro ‘Screaming’ Mad George is allowed to let rip with one of the most extraordinary denouements to a horror film ever attempted.

Faces merge into each other, people are consumed, heads appear from backsides, eyeballs are gouged out from the inside and in one unforgettable sequence a man is pulled inside out through his own arse. It’s like some sort of surreal orgy made all the more disgusting with each character sporting prosthetic appendages of some description and greased up to the eyeballs. It’s grotesque, even for body horror, yet strangely bloodless but serves its purpose well in conveying its overall message which I’ll get into later.

And a final word on the photography and cinematography, which is wonderfully rooted in soap opera. The film really didn’t go down well at all in its native US and, given that ‘Beverley Hills 90210’ came out just a year later without a hint of irony probably says it all. It is ripping the heart out of the American dream, as it was, of wealth, country clubs and popularity above everything else. It’s everything you saw in soap operas such as the aforementioned ‘Dynasty’ and ‘Dallas’ and it is filmed in the same, slightly cheap and soft focussed manner, perfectly resembling the very thing it is pointing its finger at.

And what about the bad?

It certainly wouldn’t trouble the acting categories at awards bashes with some pretty wooden performances which have the unintentional benefit of further reflecting soap operas and making the script more interesting. That said, there are some pacing issues and, shocking though the conclusion is, it is strongly foreshadowed and the game is given up a little early for my liking. Some of the characters also have ‘victim’ tattooed on their foreheads, Bill’s friend who discovers what’s happening way earlier than the slightly dim-witted Bill was never going to make the end of the film. At times he acts as if he’s strayed in from an ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ remake such are his insane, paranoid ramblings.

Any themes?

First and foremost it’s a social commentary on the class system with the rich leaching off the poor, consuming them in a literal sense. It’s rich and poor, popular and unpopular, attractive and unattractive, honest and dishonest with the question of what people are prepared to do be accepted in society. Coming at the end of the decade of excess, opulence and the ‘greed is good’ culture, ‘Society’ lays it on the line and shows that there is genuine ugliness at the heart of the American dream.

Family values are questioned as the film adopts some pretty creepy undertones in terms of incestuous sexuality. All of what happens in the film surrounds Bill’s sister’s coming of age party where she is projected as this thing of beauty and sexuality by her own family. For me it draws disturbing parallels with those creepy children’s beauty pageants where the morality of projecting beauty outwardly from within the family takes on sexual overtones.

It’s a film that stands up very well today. Such is the power of its attack on society as a whole, particularly in the era of social media where that search and striving towards popularity extends to people we haven’t and never will meet.

Release history

A massive hit in the UK, partly due an almost complete lack of actual blood, it never suffered any issues with censorship, in fact quite the opposite…it was a critical success and generally hailed as a smart, if gruesome triumph. It didn’t receive such praise in the US however.

It wasn’t even released stateside until some three years after its initial release and even then it was limited and largely overlooked. Much of ‘Screaming’ Mad George’s effects were removed and even then it was given the dreaded NC-17 certificate which pretty much sealed its fate as a flop. Thankfully Arrow Video got it through completely uncut with a wealth of contextual material giving the cult hit the treatment it so richly deserves

Cultural Impact

Very slight which is a shame as it has a lot to say and uses its body horror for social comment very well. Yuzna went on to direct the equally quirky ‘Bride of Reanimator’, the excellent ‘Return of the Living Dead Part 3’ (in my opinion the best of the series) and the underrated ‘The Dentist’ along with its sequel. I don’t think he’s ever been given the credit he deserves for serving up some pretty decent, edgy horror films at a time when horror was suffering from a lack of originality. ‘Society’ is undoubtedly his best film and it’s a real shame that it was virtually rejected in his homeland.

A sequel was in production at one point but this was never completed. One of the inserts from Arrow Video’s limited edition release contained the official comic book adaptation of this sequel. This is now incredibly hard to get hold of unless you’re happy to part with the best part of £100 on eBay!

Final Thoughts

The 80s was a great decade for practical effects, probably the best in horror movie history thanks to the censor ridden 90s and CGI driven noughties and teenies (is that was it’s called?). ‘Society’ holds its own when compared with the likes of ‘The Thing’, ‘An American Werewolf in London’, ‘Reanimator’ and ‘The Fly’ and provided us with a fitting end to the decade in terms of body horror. A wonderfully gruesome body horror on the outside wrapped around a scathing satire, it’s originality and inventiveness has won over a number of fans who hold it very dear to their hearts and would personally like to thank Mr Yuzna for an 80s highlight.

Memorable quotes

Jim: “Well son, you were right…I am a butthead.”

Bill: “I feel like something’s going to happen and if I scratch the surface, there’s something terrible underneath.”

Bill: “We’re just one big happy family…with a little incest and psychosis.”

Bill: “I’m not paranoid, all my fears are real.”

Dr Cleveland: “You’re going to make a wonderful contribution to society.”

You’ll like this is you enjoyed…

‘Bride of Reanimator’, ‘Heathers’, ‘Serial Mom’, ‘Flesh Eating Mothers’

Do you like my review? Please leave a comment to let me know your thoughts…thank you!

The Beyond (1981)

Tagline: “Only Death awaits…in The Beyond”

Duration: 87 minutes

Film Quality: 4/5
Gore Content: 4.5/5
Entertainment Value:4/5
Originality: 4/5

Introduction

Having gained something of a reputation for his zombie movies after the success of ‘Zombie Flesh Eaters’ and ‘City of the Living Dead’, Lucio Fulci decided to follow up his adaptation of Poe’s ‘The Black Cat’ with the second part of what would become known as the ‘Gates of Hell’ trilogy. Moving away from the cannibalistic nature of his Caribbean zombies, and Lovecraftian undertones of Dunwich, he goes for surrealism in what many consider to be Fulci’s best film.

In a nutshell

Whilst renovating an old hotel, a couple inadvertently open one of the seven doors of hell to unleash a crazy and highly gruesome series of events. But can they close the door before they open the hotel?

So what’s good about it?

‘Zombie Flesh Eaters’ took the zombie back to its voodoo inspired roots, ‘City of the Living Dead’ was atmospheric and very serious, ‘The Beyond’ is just insane! Fulci has frequently, sometimes unfairly been compared unfavourably to Dario Argento but this could so easily have been part of ‘The Three Mothers’ trilogy with its dreamlike quality, completely baffling series of events and almost total lack of cause and effect. For me it’s all the better for it and as Fulci himself once said, the criticism of its lack of coherence misses the point, intending it to serve as a collection of images. It works perfectly on this level, moving from set piece to set piece in true Grand Guignol fashion.

This would be a choice moment to talk about Gianetto de Rossi’s gore effects which are astounding at times. He clearly has a thing for removing eyeballs (left) which happens on more than one occasion but it’s the sheer relish with which the blood flows. From the opening scene where a warlock is slashed with a chain, pinned to the wall with rusty nails through the arm before having acid poured over his face (a trick repeated later in the film) it barely lets up. Coming way before CGI and clearly on a low budget, an estimated £300,000, the gore effects are expertly done and placed front and centre in glorious close up and in broad daylight which shows the faith and conviction Fulci had in de Rossi’s undoubted ability.

The movie is beautifully filmed and highly stylised, once again the opening sequence sets the tone with Fulci choosing to present it in Sepia tones (right) with a stand out being the staggeringly eerie scene where the corpse of Joe the Plumber rises out of the bath, some incredible make up effects there. There’s a wonderful eeriness about the shots outside the hotel that change from an innocuous sunshine during the early scenes,  changing to a persistent mist that invades the house on occasion. This is most notable when the blind character, Emily, runs out of the hotel after starting to bleed inexplicably from her hands. One of my favourite scenes is early on when Liza encounters Emily on a road that doesn’t seem to lead anywhere, stretching out towards the horizon with water on both sides. Apparently that is a real bridge but what an incredible effect it has on the film. What is Emily doing there? How did she get there? More importantly, what does she have to do with the hotel and what does she know about it?

Perhaps the most impressive thing about the film is just how unpredictable it is. It sprints from scene to scene with very little foreshadowing…there is absolutely no sign of zombies, they just suddenly appear behind the door, the tarantula attack comes out of nowhere and is never eplained, the reappearance of the warlock to Liza in the hotel room and an ending that is surely the bleakest of all of Fulci’s films. But the biggest surprise of all is that it’s not really a zombie film, despite its reputation suggesting otherwise, and like ‘House by the Cemetery’ functions best as a haunted house movie. The zombies are almost inconsequential and, other than Joe, not responsible for the carnage on show. Their sole function is seemingly to drive Liza and John to hell, or purgatory perhaps?

Would the real spider please step forward?

What about the bad?

There’s the terrible dubbing, suspect, over the top acting and overdone sound effects that seem to affect most Italian horror films, but the spider attack really stands out! Some of the spiders are real but it’s equally clear that some, well, aren’t! In a film full of colourful, inventive and gruesome effects, this scene, presumably an attempt to recreate the memorable shark attack from ‘Zombie Flesh Eaters’ falls a little flat. The one saving grace of the scene is that it has another truly wonderful eye gouging…by spider!!!

A special shout out to the worst doctor in the history of cinema…who hooks up a long dead corpse to a heart monitor and expects to see a response!!! Fulci playing a little joke with our expectations perhaps???

Any themes?

Eyes, sight and lack thereof! There are at least three gory eye gougings and two characters are presented without sight, one of whom meets the dangerous end of a gun whilst the other meets the toothy end of her own guide dog. These character, much like the film itself, have no literal view of the outside world, incapable either by circumstance or design of acknowledging reality but being forced to look inwards.

Every turn Liza and John take seems to result in a return to the hotel and, more specifically, its basement. This is made explicit in the final scens where John and Liza escape the zombies in the hospital and run down the stairs to find themselves in the hotel basement despite never leaving the hospital. This places the film very firmly in the dream world, just like ‘Inferno’ and ‘Suspiria’ where the world around conspires to shift geographically, ensuring you arrive at a certain place without rhyme or reason. The final image (above, left) takes this point to its extreme with our survivors blind and trapped in a singular spot from which there is no escape, their own personal hell.

Release History

Yes, this was seriously underappreciated by the BBFC who insisted on substantial cuts, including the gunshot to the little girl’s head (right), two eye gougings and the gruesome prologue. The dog attack was shorn of almost half a minute of its violence but the censors had a particular problem with the unconvincing spider attack, removing 43 seconds! A total of 1m 39s was sliced for the cinema version which then found itself on the banned list when released by Vampix in 1982.

However, it’s NOT considered one of the DPP 39 and was re-released in the same cut version by Elephant in 1987 on VHS and then once again, in the same truncated version by VIPCO in 1992. VIPCO finally grew a pair and submitted an uncut version in 2002 which was passed and has seen several further releases before Arrow got their beautiful little mitts on it to bring out a wonderful edition in 2011 and even brought out a 'Gates of Hell’ boxed set with ‘House by the Cemetery’ and ‘City of the Living Dead’ on DVD only – though this was missing many of the special features from the 2 disc releases.

Cultural Impact

Widely regarded as one of Fulci’s best films this did the grindhouse circuit in the early 2010s, presented by Quentin Tarantino who introduced to it to a new audience that seemed to appreciate its unusual vibe and dreamlike atmosphere. For many in the US this was the first opportunity to see the film uncut as it had been heavily censored (even more so than in the UK) and retitled as ‘’The Seven Doors of Death’ with an uncut limited edition DVD released in the early 00s.

Like many of Fulci’s films, certainly in the US, he didn’t live long enough to see his films truly appreciated for what they are…wildly inventive, semi-surreal, dreamlike masterpieces. It’s great to see the film getting the audience it deserves on both sides of the pond and across the rest of Europe.

Final thoughts

Other than the first five minutes, there’s a real sense of fun running through this film, despite the blood and gore, with the film rocketing from scene to scene, barely giving us the chance to draw breath. Unlike ‘Zombie Flesh Eaters’ and ‘House by the Cemetery’ which are a little more exploitative (not necessarily a bad thing, they’re outstanding films in their own right), Fulci seems to be enjoying his filmmaking a little more. I really appreciated the fantastical atmosphere and, though he frequently plays second fiddle to Argento in the critical stakes, this holds its own against many of the meastro’s greats.

Memorable Quotes

Dr McCabe: “Trust me, I’m a Doctor.”

Emily: “We blind see things more clearly.”

Lyncher: “You ungodly warlock…because of you this hotel and this town will be cursed forever.”

You’ll like this if you enjoyed…

‘Inferno’, ‘City of the Living Dead’, ‘Demons’, ‘Night of the Demon’

Do you like my review? Please leave a comment below and let me know your thoughts.

The Haunting (1963)

Tagline: “You may not believe in ghosts, but you cannot deny terror.”

UK Running Time: 114 minutes

Film Quality: 5/5
Gore Content: 0/5
Entertainment Value: 5/5
Originality: 4/5

Introduction

After reading a review of Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ director Robert Wise picked up the rights to turn it into film. Owing MGM one more movie as part of his contract, he put the idea to them to make a haunted house movie for the 60s. Nelson Gidding, with whom he had worked before, had already written a treatment by this time, coming to the conclusion that there was a certain ambiguity in the novel about whether or not the house was haunted. Add to that Wise’s desire to create a tribute to horror auteur Val Lewton and you have a recipe for the archetypal ‘less is more’ fright flick.

In a nutshell

A parapsychologist recruits a hand-picked team to take part in a serious, scientific investigation of Hill House, a building with an interesting history that is believed to be haunted. Strange things begin to happen during the investigation, but is it a genuine haunting or is something else going on that could put all of their lives in danger.

So what’s good about it?

I’ve already hit on the fact that Wise takes the ‘less is more’ approach to film making, going against expectations by showing you absolutely nothing. He clearly loved the source material and his screenwriter picks up on the ‘is the house really haunted?’ concept and throws it over to the audience to make their own minds up. Nothing is quite as it seems and this is conveyed in several ways. First of all, as Dr Markway explains there are no right angles in the house so doors close by themselves. Secondly, nobody witnesses so much as a spoon bend so, is it all in their collective imagination? Thirdly, if you know you’re in a house with a reputation such as the one conjured up at Hill House and you stayed the night, would you not over-analyse each little bump and creak?

Key to this ambiguity is the characters, how they’re portrayed and how they interact with each other. The two key characters in this respect are Eleanor, the reclusive outsider who has never been able to shake off her poltergeist experience as a child, and Theodora the psychic. There’s tension between the two and is it just possible that the neuroses and supernatural associations of Eleanor may be inadvertently channelled outwards by Theo the psychic? Most of the genuinely frightening moments, particularly the ‘breathing door’ scene, take place when Markway and Luke are elsewhere so there is one theory. The dynamics of the group is superb with the scientist, the sceptic, the psychic and the one in denial of the supernatural.

The film plays very much into the psychological concept of the uncanny, things are strangely familiar but not quite right. When we hear the child’s scream and the banging on the door, the camera closes in on a section of wallpaper (left) and the lighting to give the appearance of facial features. Haven’t we all done that? Seen faces in wooden doors, clouds and wallpaper and been slightly freaked out by it. Then there’s the mysterious Mrs Sanderson whose repeated warnings and expressionless face give the appearance of an automaton alongside the statues and busts that tower over our characters, imposing themselves whilst giving whatever haunts Hill House an almost omnipresent quality.

The way the film is shot is designed purely to disorientate. Many shots are filmed at an angle, we see characters leave the rooms from the right and enter another room from the left so we don’t get a clear idea of the geography of the house, we rarely get a sense of whether or not scenes take place during the day or at night so our concept of time is not necessarily linear. At some points the camera even imposes itself on the characters, at one point jarringly forcing itself upon Eleanor, making her lean over and nearly fall from a balcony wall. Some shots are shown in reverse and there’s the sensational scene (above, right) showing the ageing process of one of the historical characters from childhood to old age over a ten second period onscreen, filmed using overlaid images with an unnervingly surreal effect. Add to this the wonderful sound, many of the effects of which were played out to the actors during filming to get realistic responses and the overall effect is sinister beyond belief.

And what about the bad?

It would be wrong to pretend that the film was a massive hit when it came out. There were some reports of audience anger as they went to see a haunted house movie and came out of it without seeing anything. Of course this is missing the point entirely as it’s not what you see, it’s what you don’t see that scares you here and that point was also missed by the creators of the remake that stank out cinemas in the late 90s. However, other cinemagoers were terrified by the film, expecting a Hammer style atmosphere, colourful and slightly camp. There wasn’t a great deal of middle ground with critics, unsurprisingly given this polarised view from early 60s cinemagoers, giving it a mixed reception agreeing that it is cinematically wonderfully but too serious as a horror film. Perhaps audiences, or at least critics, weren’t quite ready for a serious exploration of our own deep rooted fears.

Any themes?

Madness. Is Eleanor (right) so traumatised by her past experiences with the poltergeist (only mentioned as an aside in the film, but her reason for being there) and her role as her mother’s carer and her subsequent death that Hill House tips her over the edge? One of the backstories of the house is that one of the characters dies whilst calling for help as her aid fools around next door, a situation very close to Eleanor’s own experiences, drawn out by either the spirits of Theo’s psychic abilities depending on your point of view. We discover from a wonderfully camp and chintzy scene early on that her home life is dull, she has no life of her own and longs for adventure and freedom. Finally given the room to let it all out, her anxieties consume her and this negative energy is picked up by psychic Theo and transferred to Markway and Luke.

There is also a lot to be said about what makes a house haunted. If you walk down a backstreet at night then chances are you’ll feel fine, if you were told a murder happened down that particular street the previous night you’d feel very differently about that walk. The same applies here, it raises the question about whether you can keep an open mind in a place where ‘terrible things’ have happened. As Markway puts it, if even one event was proved to be faked or flawed then all of the other evidence would be open to question. The fact that Luke is virtually converted into a believer is irrelevant, his initial scepticisim is mirrored by Markway’s urge to believe and by the end of the film they’ve met in the middle. Luke believes there’s something there whilst Markway believes he’s made a mistake in inviting a clearly unhinged woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Release history

The version released cinematically included a few additional scenes. The first showed the breakdown of Theo’s relationship with her lover, the second includes more inner thoughts from Eleanor on the way to the house whilst the third is a voiceover from Mrs Sanderson, replaced by that of Markway. All three are likely to have been replaced by Wise for reasons of characterisation. Theo’s relationship explicitly showed her sexuality, the film works far better with her lesbianism implied. Eleanor’s inner thoughts permeate the film regularly so toning it down at the start prevents it from becoming tiresome quickly and Markway is the authority figure at Hill House so should be the one delivering its history and introducing us to the house.

There was some opposition to the inclusion of an openly gay character, in fact this was one of, if not THE first mainstream film to feature a homosexual, female character. Perhaps it was this that persuaded Wise to remove that earlier scene for fear of censorship or overshadowing the film itself, however I think characterisation was the more likely reason.

Cultural Impact

It’s widely regarded as one of the best horror films of all time and a landmark of the genre. It has been remade, parodied (a wonderful pastiche appears in the most unlikely form of ‘Waxwork 2: Lost in Time’ with Bruce Campbell as the Markway character…a standout moment in the film!), referenced and acknowledged in countless other movies. Martin Scorses and Steven Spielberg in particular have championed the film and it was clearly an influence on Steven King and Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of ‘The Shining’.

It also brought Val Lewton’s low budget style of not revealing ‘the monster’ into the mainstream big budget horror movies, proving that just because you have the money to put the effects and the monstrous up there on screen doesn’t mean you have to. I can remember watching ‘Jeepers Creepers’ for the first time and for the first half of the film thinking what a refreshing change it was to see something so tense, to watch a film that doesn’t show the monster and cranks of the sense of dread. And then the feeling of utter disappointment as you see the monster and all of that heard work and atmosphere disappeared in an instant. THAT’s the legacy that ‘The Haunting’ has left behind and it’s great to see more films currently showing the same sort of restraint instead of splashing cheap looking CGI over the screen…yes, that’s ‘The Haunting’ remake summed up in a nutshell!

Stephen King and Steven Spielberg came together in the late 80s to produce a tv series based on Shirley Jackson’s novel but they couldn’t find a common ground. Spielberg wanted more action, King more restraint so the project was shelved with King eventually taking elements of that script and working it into the miniseries ‘Rose Red’. More recently, Netflix have announced an intention to adapt the novel into a series…we’ll just have to see how that develops.

Final Thoughts

I distinctly remember watching this as a 13 year old astounded that an old black and white film with no special effects to speak of could terrify me in such a way. I’d not seen a film like it, more used to the slasher films and ‘Poltergeist’ (no disrespect to that particular film, but it is FX heavy!) style horror that showed its hand right there on screen. In not showing what’s behind the haunting, it’s all in your head. Do you remember being scared of the dark when you were four? It wasn’t the dark, it was what might dwell within in that you couldn’t see…that’s the power of ‘The Haunting’.

You’ll like this if you enjoyed…

‘The Shining’, ‘The Conjuring’, ‘Session 9’, ‘The Changeling’