Michael May's Blog, page 90

Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (1987)

Who's In It: Bruce Campbell (The Adventures of Brisco County Jr, Jack of All Trades, Burn Notice), Sarah Berry (CHUD II: Bud the Chud), Dan Hicks (My Name is Bruce), Kassie Wesley (One Life to Live, Days of Our Lives), and Richard Domeier (Teen Wolf, Die Hard 2).

What It's About: Remakequel of Evil Dead, retelling and retconning the events of the first movie before continuing the story of a young man's (Campbell) experience in a demon-infested cabin in the demon-infested woods.

How It Is: I'm not crazy about the first Evil Dead and this one does me the favor of making its predecessor unnecessary. It not only retells the basic story; it also takes what works about the original - pretty much just the creative camerawork - and adds a ton of humor to it.

It's crazy to me that Raimi's approach to horror/comedy even works, much less works so well. He doesn't add jokes to lighten the mood, he just takes horrific situations and makes them funny. But he does it without losing what's also disturbing about them. So while the decapitated head of Ash's girlfriend is chomping down on his hand and he can't get it off, I'm simultaneously laughing and feeling terrible for the guy. Same when he's cutting off his own hand with a chainsaw.

That also has a lot to do with Bruce Campbell's skill as an actor and a comedian. I'm a huge fan and this is the movie that made me one.

Unfortunately, the rest of the cast isn't nearly as good, but then... who is? They're all at least serviceable and if nothing else, they remind me how low-budget and super-independent Evil Dead 2 actually is.

Rating: 4 out of 5 unhinged Ashes.

I Hate/Love Remakes | The Wolf Man

Speaking of Universal Monster movies, a few years ago I joined my buddy Noel Thingvall and his co-host Evie as a guest on their I Hate/Love Remakes podcast. It's a great idea for a podcast and I was thrilled to join them to talk about the 1941 Wolf Man and its 2010 remake.

Since it was designed to be the sequel to a Mummy discussion that was delayed for technical issues, the Wolf Man episode was "lost" for a while. But Noel overcame the difficulties around the Mummy episode and has released it and the Wolf Man in perfect time for Halloween.

I've listened to it again and it's a great discussion. We dug deep into those movies and I'm super happy with how it turned out. It's no wonder that I wanted to work with Noel again, which led to his appearance on Mystery Movie Night and the eventual creation of Greystoked and Thundarr Road . It all started here.

The Monster Squad (1987)

Who's In It: André Gower (Valerie), Duncan Regehr (Zorro on the '90s TV show), Stephen Macht (Nikolas Rokoff in Tarzan: The Epic Adventures), Stan Shaw (Rocky, Fried Green Tomatoes), and Tom Noonan (Manhunter).

What It's About: A gang of bicycle-riding '80s kids fights to prevent classic Universal Monsters from destroying the amulet that's preventing them from ruling the world.

How It Is: The main group of kids is largely forgettable. Neither their leader Sean (Gower) nor his best friend Patrick (Robby Kiger) have any charisma and it was irritating that they referred to their friend Horace (Brent Chalem) as "Fat Kid" for most of the movie. And I never did figure out why tough kid Rudy (Ryan Lambert) hung out with them.

The only ones I really liked were Sean's little sister Phoebe (Ashley Bank) and scaredy cat Eugene (Michael Faustino, who's the little brother of Married... With Children's David Faustino). Phoebe is basically a less-tragic version of little Maria from the 1931 Frankenstein, which Monster Squad directly references a couple of times. Eugene doesn't have a lot to do, but his reactions are priceless; especially in a hilarious scene where he tries to convince his dad (Ernest Saves Christmas' awesome Robert Lesser) that there's a monster in the closet.

But even though most of the gang is bland, the movie's improved by pitting them against an all-star gathering of monsters. Dracula (Regehr) leads them and is the brains of the outfit. In fact, he's the only one with any personality at all. I guess that's not surprising considering the nature of the Wolf Man (Carl Thibault), the Mummy (Michael MacKay) and the Creature from the Black Lagoon (Tom Woodruff Jr, though the character's simply known as the Gill Man, since Monster Squad wasn't released by Universal). It would have been nice to give Dracula maybe one other, intelligent monster to interact with - the Phantom of the Opera or Mr Hyde, maybe - but I'm not dinging the movie for that. These are the heavy hitters and they work best by just mindlessly chasing the kids around.

I haven't mentioned Frankenstein's Monster (Noonan) yet, but he's especially great. True to the character, he melts when he meets the brave and compassionate Phoebe, so he switches sides and starts helping the kids. That's the Monster I want to see and it's lovely that the movie gets him right.

Monster Squad was written by Shane Black and Fred Dekker (who also directed), and it's clear that they have a lot of love for the old Universal movies. From the opening scene, which put armadillos in Dracula's crypt, I knew I was in good hands.

I wish that the main kids were more fun, but the concept itself and the love with which it's handled makes The Monster Squad an above-average example of its genre.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 monster gangs

Dracula (1979)

Who's In It: Frank Langella (Masters of the Universe, Superman Returns, Muppets Most Wanted), Laurence Olivier (Rebecca, Clash of the Titans), Donald Pleasence (You Only Live Twice, Halloween, Escape from New York), and Kate Nelligan (Wolf, US Marshals).

What It's About: The Hamilton Deane/John Balderston play gets a gothic update with extra focus on Dracula's (Langella) powers of seduction.

How It Is: Let's get the movie's big problem out of the way first and that's Dracula's costume. He looks like he's wearing a white turtleneck with a vampire cape from the Halloween aisle at Target. But there ain't nothing wrong with Langella's performance and he may just be my favorite Dracula outside of Max Schreck, who possibly doesn't count (pun totally intended). Langella is good-looking, suave, and charming and I believe it when people fall under his spell. (His hair is too poofy to be believable in the nineteenth century, but oh well.)

The rest of the cast is good, too. I've read somewhere that Pleasance was offered the role of Van Helsing, but turned it down because it was too similar to Dr Loomis in Halloween. I agree and I'm extremely happy with him as Dr Seward: a monster hunter, but sort of a reluctant one and certainly not the obsessed pursuer that Loomis and Van Helsing are.

Speaking of Van Helsing, Olivier disappears into that role. He's doing a convincing (to my ears, anyway) Dutch accent and his facial hair threw me off so that I had to actually go and remind myself who was playing him.

Kate Nelligan brings some extra gravity to her role as Lucy. For some reason (that I'll have thoughts about in a second), Mina and Lucy are switched in this version, so that Mina is Dracula's first victim and Lucy is the one whom everyone's trying to save for the rest of the story. Because the movie is playing up the seduction angle, Lucy doesn't try to resist in the same way that Mina does in the novel. Instead, she's intrigued by the gorgeous count and starts to fall for him, even though she suspects that something's not quite right. It's more similar to real-life romantic attraction than the novel or the Lugosi film are with their emphasis on Dracula's supernatural will. In the '79 movie, Dracula exerts power, but Nelligan plays Lucy more or less as a woman who's heart and head are telling her different things. I believed her falling under his spell much more than I do in other adaptations.

About the switching of Lucy with Mina: It annoyed me at first, because I didn't see the point, but as the movie went on, I started to see how it affected the characters of Van Helsing and Dr Seward in a powerful way. Like in other adaptations, Lucy is Dr Seward's daughter, but in this one, Mina is actually Van Helsing's daughter. So when Van Helsing arrives in England too late to save his own girl, it adds a layer of tragedy and motivation to have him trying to save the daughter of his friend. Pleasence adds to this by being pretty helpless in the whole affair, while Olivier is acting the crap out of his failure to protect Mina and his determination to not let the same thing happen to Lucy.

Describing it that way makes it seem like Lucy's story is subservient to Van Helsing and Seward's, but the movie is concerned about them all. I felt the stakes (pun intended again) in a way that's pretty rare for Dracula adaptations.

Rating: 4 out of 5 sessy vampires.

Hellbent for Letterbox | The Outrage (1964)

Pax and I are joined by our pal Evan Hanson to discuss The Outrage, a remake of Akira Kurosawa's Rashômon, starring Paul Newman, William Shatner, and Edward G Robinson.

And in "Whatchoo Been Westernin'": Grit TV (feat. Death Valley Days), a comics adaptation of True Grit, and Jeff Bridges in Wild Bill.

The Hills Have Eyes (1977)

Who's In It: Virginia Vincent (The Million Dollar Duck), Suze Lanier-Bramlett (Chrissy in one of the unaired pilots for Three's Company), Dee Wallace (ET: The Extra-Terrestrial), and Michael Berryman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Weird Science, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home).

What It's About: A family is stranded in the desert where they have to fend off another family... of cannibals!

How It Is: I've avoided this one for a long time. I love scary movies, but I'm not crazy about gore and The Hills Have Eyes has a reputation for being especially gruesome. But it happens a lot where I've built something up so much in my mind (for instance, the opening sequence of Saving Private Ryan) that the actual movie isn't nearly as bad as I imagined.

I mean, The Hills Have Eyes is certainly harrowing, but it doesn't linger on the gore the way I expected and a lot of it is shot at night with shadows obscuring details. And so much of the movie is about the threat of certain things happening. Some of them do happen and some of them don't, but I was surprised by how much focus is on suspense rather than just one horrible thing happening after another.

Another pleasant surprise was how much I liked most of the characters. The dad played by Russ Grieve is obnoxious, but I liked almost everyone else in the family. And if I didn't like them at first, they all had moments throughout the ordeal that made me like them by the end. Even if they don't all make it all the way through.

Which reminds me of something else cool. When it comes to these kinds of movies with large casts of potential victims, part of the fun is predicting who's going to die and how soon. It was very cool to see my predictions swerved around and run over. The film constantly kept me guessing; constantly pulling acts of heroism out of unlikely people; sometimes rewarding them for it and sometimes not. I had a really great time.

Rating: 4 out of 5 porn-star-looking family men.

Vampyres (1974)

Who's In It: Marianne Morris (Lovebox), Anulka (Lisztomania), Murray Brown (Jonathan Harker in the Jack Palance Dracula), Brian Deacon (Jesus), and Sally Faulkner (who helped the Doctor, Zoe, and Jamie fight some Cybermen in "The Invasion").

What It's About: A couple (Deacon and Faulkner) park their RV on the lawn of an old mansion that's inhabited by two vampires (Morris and Anulka) who lure motorists (like Brown) there for sex and... well, not so much blood-sucking as blood-licking.

How It Is: For a movie about sexy vampires, Vampyres is pretty unsexy. All the women in it get naked at various points, but director Joseph Larraz seems to think that's all that matters. None of the sex is at all romantic and most of it's super clumsy. Morris is an especially awful kisser who's all about the pecking and the licking, but everyone is just attacking each other in the make-out scenes. And not in a good way.

The movie's not all about the sex, but the other parts aren't much more skillful. I don't understand why John and Harriet decide that the lawn of a clearly inhabited mansion - with cars driving up to it every night - is a good place to camp. I do like them as characters, thanks to some nice acting by Deacon and Faulkner, but there's not a lot of sense to their being there or getting involved in the vampires' business.

And with John and Harriet on the periphery of the goings on, that leaves the motorist Ted (Brown) as the audience surrogate. Ted's the first person we see brought into Fran and Miriam's web and for some reason, Fran takes a liking to him. Maybe because he's as bad a kisser as she is. Whatever the reason, she keeps him around for most of the movie. I think I'm supposed to care about whether he makes it out alive or not, but the movie tells me nothing about him and Brown's performance is just sort of cranky and sulky. Don't like Ted. Don't care if he dies.

The one thing I do unreservedly like about the movie is the introduction of Fran and Miriam. John and Harriet notice Fran hitchhiking (that's how she gets her prey) and Harriet sees Miriam back in the woods, just lurking. That raises all kinds of questions in Harriet's mind, but John blows it off. It brought me into the mystery, too, especially with the cool, gothy outfits that Fran and Miriam were wearing. Unfortunately, none of the answers are remotely as interesting as that set up.

Rating: 1 out of 5 vampire women running through cemeteries.

The Wicker Man (1973)

Who's In It: Edward Woodward (TV's Equalizer, the best Ghost of Christmas Present ever), Britt Ekland (The Man with the Golden Gun), Diane Cilento (Hombre), Ingrid Pitt (The Vampire Lovers, Countess Dracula), and Christopher Lee (The Curse of Frankenstein, Horror of Dracula).

What It's About: A straight-laced, tightly wound policeman (Woodward) investigates the disappearance of a young girl on a remote island where the local sensualism is not at all to his liking.

How It Is: Unfortunately, watching The Wicker Man for the first time without already knowing the final scene is about as hard as doing the same for Planet of the Apes. I very much liked Woodward's investigation and his stuffy disapproval of Summerisle's mores, but my enjoyment was tempered by my knowing exactly how things were going to end up.

It was a journey worth taking though. I don't end up liking any of the characters, but I don't exactly dislike them, either. Woodward's Sgt Howie is irritatingly judgmental, but he's also a good man on an honorable mission and his resistance of vice doesn't come easily to him. The villagers, on the other hand, have controversial moral views that would be considered illegal in most countries (including, technically, their own), but they're so good-natured about it. And if the whole community has bought in to this set of rules, then who is Howie to come in and question them?

Except of course that someone has written to the police, prompting Howie's investigation, so clearly everyone has not bought into all the community's practices. The movie raises fascinating questions about morality and culture and I appreciated exploring and thinking about them. (Almost as much as I enjoyed the soundtrack, which is amazing. The maypole song alone is worth watching the film for.)

Rating: 4 out of 5 Christopher Lees in drag.

The Legend of Hell House (1973)

Who's In It: Pamela Franklin (The Food of the Gods), Roddy McDowall (the original Planet of the Apes movies and TV show), Clive Revill (the original Emperor in The Empire Strikes Back), and Gayle Hunnicutt (Marlowe).

What It's About: Four paranormal investigators try to survive a haunted house in order to unlock the secrets of the afterlife.

How It Is: I'm surprised that I don't love more haunted house movies, but I think the problem is generally the characters. This one has a great-looking house, a pretty good mystery, and some spooky scares, but I only really feel anything for one of the characters.

I like the set-up that each investigator has their own area of expertise. Florence Tanner (Franklin) is a medium who specializes in channeling voices. Benjamin Fischer (McDowall) is adept at letting spirits take over his body and act through him. Lionel Barrett (Revill) is a scientist who attempts to measure ghostly phenomena so that he can get rid of it with the exorcism machine he's invented. His wife Ann (Hunnicutt) is also his assistant and she insists on coming along in spite of the deadly history of the house.

Fischer is the most reluctant of the group. He's the only survivor of a previous expedition into the house and has closed himself off psychically. That should make him a fascinating character, but he actually ends up making the house less spooky. Early in the film, it's his job to tell the other characters how deadly the house is, which of course makes me wonder why he's there. The team is being paid extremely well, but why does Fischer think that's worth his life? I end up thinking that the house can't be as bad as all that.

And that turns out to be true when, later, Fischer reveals that he's figured out a way to game the ghost. (It's not played as a shocking revelation; just a bit of information that he's been withholding for no good reason.) The fact that there's a safe loophole in the haunting again makes the whole thing less scary. The only thing keeping the story going is that the other characters either don't know what he knows or care.

Tanner is too trusting of the house and her own abilities for me to take her seriously. And Lionel Barrett is so distrusting and cranky that I don't like him, either. But I do like Ann, who knows that she's going into a dangerous situation, but loves and trusts her husband enough to follow him into it. She's the only character to strike the right balance between being threatened by the place and having a convincing reason to stay.

Rating: 3 out of 5 shook up psychics.

Octaman (1971)

Who's In It: Pier Angeli (Sodom and Gomorrah) and Kerwin Mathews (The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Barquero)

What It's About: It's a Creature from the Black Lagoon remake with an octopus-man instead of a gill-man.

How It Is: It has its charms. I mean, the goofy costume (designed by Rick Baker) alone.

And Angeli is a lovely surprise as one of the scientists who discover and hunt the creature. All the dialogue in the movie sounds dubbed except for hers. I don't know why that is, but her character is the only one that feels natural. And her accent (the story takes place in Mexico) is the only one that doesn't sound like Speedy Gonzales.

There are a couple of other good actors (bad ADR aside), including Mathews (a favorite swashbuckler of mine who's slumming here just a year after his thoroughly enjoyable role in Barquero).

Another guy I liked was Jerome Guardino as a circus owner who finances the hunting expedition after the scientific community fails to come through. Rather than fall into the stereotype of Ruthless Businessman Driven to Succeed at All Costs, Guardino's character is one of the first to lose his nerve and has to be convinced by the scientists to continue.

And speaking of avoided stereotypes, I also quite like what the movie does with Davido (David Essex), a local guide who proves to be quite resourceful and courageous.

For all that I liked some of the characters and the look of the monster though, the movie plods. There's little editing, so shots and scenes drag on longer than they should. And the script pads itself out by just repeating the same attacks over and over again in different locations.

Rating: 2 out of 5 tentacled tellurians.