My roundtable entries, the April Ghouls Monster-Rama, another B-Fest straggler, and more:
The Beast Within (1982), in which the combination of cannibalism and the blood of the First Nations apparently gives you the power to turn into a rapey cicada monster, except not really…
Galaxy Quest (1999), in which people making fun of Star Trek make a better Trek movie than most of the real things…
Kitten with a Whip (1964), in which wannabe Senators should never give a psychotic beatnik girl an even break…
Ladyhawke (1985), in which evil bishops don’t give the objects of their unrequited love any even breaks, either…
Sweet Jesus, Preacherman (1973), in which a black hit man contracting for the mafia goes undercover in Watts impersonating an idealistic minister…
The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976), in which the Boggy Creek guy tries his hand at the emerging slasher genre…
and…
Willie Dynamite (1973), in which it’s hard out there for a pimp, but not nearly as hard as it is for his stable.
#1 by Jen S 1.0 on May 31, 2014 - 11:39 pm
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Ahhhh, Kitten with a Whip. To quote Tom Servo, I just don’t see a downside to this situation.
One small part of this movie I’ve always liked is Midge, the naive girlfriend of Buck who comes over for the party. She’s played and presented as a literal wide eyed idiot, who sums up just about everything she sees and hears with “Neat!” But when things go south, Midge has no trouble saying NOPE and taking off, in her all important car. Now obviously this was to get her out of the way for the third act, but it was nice to see such a twit-seeming character display such agency.
#2 by ronald on June 1, 2014 - 9:51 am
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Reading the review, it occurred to me for the first time: Why do David and Virginia have a bedroom full of stuffed animals? Do they frequently entertain children (or rather, adults who HAVE children and think that babysitters are for OTHER people)?
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“The early 80s were good years for lycanthropy.”
Whereas the late 80s were good years for psychopaths (inasmuch as “American Psycho” is set in the late 80s). Cause and effect? Discuss. Or don’t. 😉
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“The Town That Dreaded Sundown” is always relatively unique among slasher films in that it’s based on the activities of a REAL serial killer, who in turn was active long before the term “serial killer” had been invented. So, you know, there’s that, too.
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“Sweet Jesus, Preacherman”
Not to be confused with “Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter,” of course. 😉
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“As long as we’ve been doing this, it continues to surprise me how much cult-cinema territory remains where the B-Masters have yet to venture as a group.”
It reminds me of the fact that nearly every film on MST3K (except for “Manos,” I suppose) was but one part of a larger wave or genre. For example, how many films like “Teenage Crime Wave” and “High School Big Shot” were made that weren’t even as entertaining as “Teenage Crime Wave” and “High School Big Shot”? I’m guessing “a lot.”
#3 by Jen S 1.0 on June 1, 2014 - 1:56 pm
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I think it is their daughter’s bedroom. Later in the film Jody draws a mouth in lipstick on a picture of Virginia (which is sitting on Virginia’s own nightstand…?) and later, when it’s noticed, David blames it on his daughter, saying he’s waiting for them to come home so he can make her clean it up.
#4 by ronald on June 1, 2014 - 7:24 pm
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Oh, okay, I missed/forgot the part about them having a daughter. Thanks.
#5 by Elizabeth the Ferret on June 2, 2014 - 12:01 am
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I have to admit I squeed like a pathetic fangirl when I saw Ladyhawke on the review list. That movie has always been magical and awesome for me and probably would have gotten two more stars if I’d been reviewing it. Though in part, that might be because I first saw it when I was a little girl. It might also be because I’m one of the few beings in the universe to love both the Howard the Duck Movie and Masters of the Univers (both also seen when I was a little girl. I saw a lot of weird movies when I was little)
#6 by lyzard on June 2, 2014 - 12:16 am
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“He StillLurks The Streets” – seriously?
That is one weird, weird movie. The OCR could hardly be more out of place, and the fact that Pierce chose that of all roles for himels—WTF!?
#7 by Alaric on June 2, 2014 - 1:39 am
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I remember The Beast Within– saw it on tv years ago. It did an excellent job of holding my interest- until the end, when I just got annoyed. Given the similarities in the names of some of the characters to the names of characters from Lovecraft’s The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, as well as the thematic similarity in terms of a character having his life taken over in some way by an evil, literally monstrous ancestor, I can’t help wondering if originally it was going to be an adaptation of the Lovecraft story, which then went in a different direction. Probably not- the names are probably intended as a combination homage/red herring.
Yes, Galaxy Quest was brilliant. I find it interesting that the hapless, friendly aliens were far more alien, both physically and psychologically, than the evil aliens. I’d say that the main non-Star Trek influence on the fictional show was more the ’79-’81 Buck Rogers in the 25th Century series than Battlestar Galactica, though.
Anyway, great reviews, as always.
#8 by El Santo on June 2, 2014 - 9:11 am
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The main thing that got me thinking “Battlestar Galactica” was Laredo, who was probably intended as a Wesley Crusher stand-in, but somehow really reminded me of Boxey. Now that you mention it, though, Gwen De Marco clearly is as much Erin Gray as she is Nichelle Nichols.
#9 by RogerBW on June 2, 2014 - 2:21 pm
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Seems to me that one of the problems with Town, inevitable given its open ending, is that there’s no moralising. In Halloween and Friday the 13th, at least, you’ve got the Final Girl, the sex=death approach, and so on; here, since there’s no narrative line and no resolution, that’s not possible.
ronald, both Psycho and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre are at least theoretically based on the crimes of Ed Gein, though trying to reconcile those two films will quickly show you how far they embellished.
#10 by The Rev. on June 2, 2014 - 4:01 pm
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God, I had completely forgotten I ever read a “Star Wreck” book until you mentioned it. I did so on the recommendation of a Trekkie acquaintance in college. They also insisted I hear “Star Trekkin'” because it was “hilarious.”
I refused to believe her about how funny anything was ever again.
Anyway, despite 15 years of people talking about how good Galaxy Quest is I still haven’t seen it. I suppose I really should rectify that (although I should watch the last two Blind Dead movies first since I finally got around to the first two).
I must’ve glossed over the issues with The Beast Within; when I finally saw it a couple of years ago I rather enjoyed it, more than you seem to have. That might be my affection for Italian horror movies talking, though, since you’re absolutely right about it playing out like something inspired by Fulci.
#11 by El Santo on June 3, 2014 - 9:13 am
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“I must’ve glossed over the issues with The Beast Within; when I finally saw it a couple of years ago I rather enjoyed it, more than you seem to have.”
I was really into it until Judge Curwin finally came clean.
#12 by Richard on June 2, 2014 - 4:51 pm
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Funny, when you mentioned “Star Wreck”, I immediately thought of the feature-length fan-made parody by that name (http://starwreck.com) and not the books.
I wonder where that would rank on the ST quality scale…
#13 by B. Wood on June 2, 2014 - 6:18 pm
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“For the love of Khepi”
I don’t suppose you’ve read Worm?
#14 by El Santo on June 3, 2014 - 9:15 am
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Never heard of it. I just picked Khepri because there are precious few bug-gods by which one can swear.
#15 by ronald on June 3, 2014 - 4:05 am
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>>>both Psycho and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre are at least theoretically based on the crimes of Ed Gein, though trying to reconcile those two films will quickly show you how far they embellished
I actually knew that. Per IMDB, there have also been at least three movies that are flat out about Ed Gein: Ed Gein (2000), Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield (2007), and Ed Gein: The Musical (2010). I said that “Town” was RELATIVELY unique. 😉 And, as you note, closer to the reality than Psycho or Chainsaw.
>>Seems to me that one of the problems with Town, inevitable given its open ending, is that there’s no moralising. In Halloween and Friday the 13th, at least, you’ve got the Final Girl, the sex=death approach, and so on
Well, remember, this was (more or less) about the deaths of genuine actual human beings. Suggesting that they in any way “deserved” to die would have been inappropriate. Any, according to John Carpenter, he had no intention of establishing that trope in “Halloween” (which in any event premiered two years after “Town” (“Friday” appeared two years later). So there’s that, anyway.
Perusing the descriptions of several slasher films (I read about way more movies than I actually watch), I was surprised to realize the extent to which they’re copies of each other; I mean, I knew slasher films are formulaic, but I had no idea that the originality quotient was THAT low.
(I’d hope it goes without saying that I’m not painting ALL slasher films with that brush, just, well, lots of them.)
Something else I noticed is the preponderance of slasher films in which one member of the group of doomed young people is named “Mike.” I guess the moral there is: Don’t go on car trips with anyone named “Mike.” 🙂
Seems to me like slasher films would be a really easy genre to revolutionalize; I mean, almost any variation from the formula (albeit not necessarily any as extensive as those in “Cabin in the Woods”) would be attention-getting. At the risk of sounding immodest, too bad that I’m in no position to do so. 😐
#16 by RogerBW on June 4, 2014 - 8:42 am
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I agree that once you’ve made the decision to try to stick to the historical story you can’t pull in the slasher tropes; I’m just finding it interesting that the makers of Town did in fact do that, in spite of the damage it did to the film as a film. (And it’s a progression towards where we are today, when “based on a true story” means “someone somewhere once claimed that some people with these names were involved in weird events”.)