Today's entry wipes out an entire nest with one stone. With both "The Mummy's Shroud" and "Frankenstein Created Woman" I get my Hammer flick out of the way, but I also get a mummy flick AND a Frankenstein flick in there, too.
"Frankenstein Created Woman" is one of the better sequels within the Hammer Frankenstein franchise. The doctor is once again up to his strange experimentation, and this time he's playing around with soul transference. I might be off on my recollection of the plot, but I remember Frankenstein's lab assistant being framed for a murder and then being executed. The disfigured daughter of the murder victim is also in love with the lab assistant, and winds up drowning herself out of grief. Frankenstein manages to bring her back to life, but additionally he fixes her face and puts her lover's soul in her body. So, once revived, not only if she fine as hell, but she has the raging soul of her boyfriend in her ribcage, and he's craving vengeance against the upper crust dickheads who got him beheaded.
Interestingly, I had read numerous times that Playboy Playmate Susan Denberg, the woman who plays this film's "monster," had committed suicide. Apparently this is only a myth. I don't mean to sound like a morbid prick, but the knowledge that Denberg would go on to kill herself after playing a character that took her own life always gave this film a much darker feel. From her IMDb page:
After becoming immersed in the 60s high life of drugs and sex, Denberg left show business and returned to Austria. News interviews at the time show a depressed Denberg in the company of her mother, at home in Klagenfurt. These news items, repeated in fan periodicals for years, gave the impression Denberg was suicidal or had already died. Actually, she is still alive.
Either way, bitch was fine in this movie. Most probably best remember her as one of Mudd's girls on the original Star Trek. As for "The Mummy's Shroud,"I've always been intrigued by the mummy concept, and I'm a little surprise no one's done an update outside of that recent awful Universal franchise. Now a days, zombies sprint like they got breaded in angel dust. Can't we get a pissed off Pharaoh with a spring in his step? The idea of a running mummy kind of scares the shit out of me. I don't have much else to say other than I always thought that the mummy design in this particular movie was awesome looking. Otherwise, it's pretty standard fair, but nevertheless done well.
Pretty boss Hammerflick continues the Ripper legacy by virtue of a the White Chapel slasher's blood line. When the Ripper's wee daughter witnesses dear old dad rip and rend her mother, it leaves a deep impression on her subconscious which occasionally sends a violent eruption to the surface of her psyche years later. Could it be the spirit of dear old dad controlling her during her murderous blackouts, or is it just bad genes? This was one of the last really luscious looking films Hammer produced. After entering the seventies a lot of the Hammer films tend to look pale, and lack that overly saturated color of their sixties productions. Underrated and unsung, "Hands of the Ripper" verges on proto-slasher with a little more grit to the gruesomeness than you normally see from Hammer. Killer performances cinch this as must see. This was also directed by Peter Sasdy, who directed my favorite of the Hammer Dracula films, "Taste the Blood of Dracula."
If you're strictly familiar with the Hammer Studios brand of horror, there’s enough common connective tissue between your average Hammer flick and this Tigon Pictures production to make you feel at home. "The Creeping Flesh" contains a familiar atmosphere, courtesy of Director Freddie Francis; that seemingly rich period decoration, which makes a Hammer film so warm, is stronger than ever; and certainly the presence of both Peter Cushingand Christopher Lee really bridge the gap. More Victorian Sci-Fi with a primordial twist here, Cushing plays a paleontologist in possession of a monstrous skeleton that has potential relevance to the foundation of man… and evil! The thing gets wet and the flesh comes back and a lot of cool, bad shit happens. Great vibey Sci-Fi horror that’s beautifully shot by Francis, who is without a doubt one of the greatest DPs to ever set foot behind a camera. Francis would later go on to work for the likes of David Lynch on films like “The Elephant Man.” What makes films like these remarkable are that they were produced fairly quickly and with smaller budgets, and yet they look rather lavish. The modern film industry would benefit tremendously if they'd examine exactly how many of these studios functioned.
Here's a scene from the film. Had a trailer up for a while, but I'm pretty sure a litigious prick put the fear of good into some poor soul on YouTube for promoting their product. That'll show him.
An otherwise slow week for new stuff was salvaged by an awesome sidewalk sale at I Luv Video. I walked away with a milk crate of odd-ball finds for a pretty decent price and had a surprisingly good time sifting through tapes with strangers. Considering my hatred for most people, that's unique.
Almost two decade after most mom and pop video shops were either absorbed or assassinated by corporate video chains, both Blockbuster and Hollywood Video are being nudged into the ether by the Red Box phenomenon. Most of my collection has been gleaned from underhanded managers at big chain stores who pocket only pennies by sliding me crates of rare and out of print VHS. Each of them always with a condescending smirk. “Wow,” I can read in their smug expressions, “what kind of moron pays that kind of money for this garbage?” They shake their head like they just sold me a bridge to Manhattan as I literally cart thousands of dollars in tapes out the door for only a fraction of what they were really worth.
While there is a horde of raining neck beards who eBay rare and out-of-print VHS tapes from their mother’s basements at prices that could probably put the children they’ll never have through college, I don’t do this for the profit. Sure, I might flip a 50 cent tape for a Ben Franklin when I can, but it always goes right back into VHS. For me, there is a sense that I am preventing some things from being completely forgotten. I’m saving orphans. The entertainment industry encourages and banks on the ignorance of general audiences so they can keep repackaging the same shit repeatedly, but I’m trying not to forget.
Scores of titles are lost with every generational format shift. I’d say 40% of the two-thousand tapes I own never made it to DVD, and the likelihood of most of them leap-frogging onto BluRay is next to nil. Some titles that do make the transition may experience slight changes that compromise the actual art, though. For instance, a popular song on the original soundtrack may be replaced with something generic or more current because someone doesn’t want to pay to retain the original soundtrack selection. And then there are all the goodies before and sometimes after the features, including bizarre gonzo trailers:
Or hilarious anti-drug PSAs:
These tapes, for me, are about a complete experience. The fact that a lot of this stuff just ends up in a dumpster after some Blockbuster goes out of business is excruciating.
If your town is fortunate enough to have an equivalent of I Luv Video, I urge you to support it. These places are like endangered species reserves. A little digging in the aisles is often more rewarding and a hell of a lot cheaper than going to some bullshit multiplex.
Anyway, here are some of the titles I found this week.
Yet another piece of Bruceploitationflotsam, "Bruce, The Super Hero" stars one of the worst of the clones, Bruce Le. The only thing I can say about this guy is, at least he’s not Dragon Lee. In “Bruce, The Super Hero” a band of martial artists race against Bolo Yeung for lost gold. I now have two copies of this. Don’t ask why. I sometimes dream of applying for a grant so I can research a Bruceploitation encyclopedia. I can't believe no one's written one yet.
I am probably the only person in the history of humanity who wasn’t six years old or retarded who has excitedly screamed “Holy shit! 'Mac And Me'!”This beyond-American McDonalds' production of "E.T." is so mind-bendingly awful that it can have a permanent psychoactive effect on the viewer. In fact, this may qualify as lobotomy-by-cinema. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you "cinebotomy!"
Via Something Weird, “The Child” looks like my kind of flick. A little girl with telekinetic abilities hangs out at a nearby cemetery after dark and uses her powers to animate and play with the corpses. At least on a conceptual level this sounds badass.
Most flippantly discard "Return to Horror High" as another throw-away late-wave slasher piece, but I've always thought it had a more unique take, mainly due to the fact that it's parodic. Its humor and the film within a film gimmick make this one stand out for me. Oh, New World Pictures, how I miss thee.
Produced by Sid and Marty Krofft, "Side Show" tells the story of a teenager, played by "After School Specials" notable Lance Kerwin, who runs away from home to join the circus and soon finds himself caught up in big top intrigue after witnessing a murder. Shot for television in 1979, this has the potential to be pretty good, especially considering how most made-for-tv horror from the seventies were sometimes better than what you'd find in theaters then AND now.
The online reviews for “Don’t Mess With My Sister” are pretty brutal, but the common point of contention seems to be the lack of rape. “Not enough rape, two thumbs down.” Meir Zachi really set the bar for himself with his explosive debut "I Spit On Your Grave.” Perhaps this is a bad film, but so far the only thing he appears to be guilty of is not squirting out a retread of his first film. Looking forward to this one.
Again, in spite of the fact that Hammer churned out back-to-back quickies most of the time, the production value of these films is pleasantly deceptive. Here’s a trailer from my favorite of the Hammer Dracula series, "Taste the Blood of Dracula," starring Ralph Bates and Christopher Lee.
Hammer Studios burnt the hand of glory at both ends from the fifties and on through the seventies, churning out color-saturated Gothic horror, featuring fine thespians and gravity defying cleavage, at a ridiculous volume. These are certainly B-films, shot on the cheap and back-to-back, but Hammer always managed to bring an element of classic charm to their productions with their talented stable of set designers, photographers, and fantastic players. No studio on earth ever did better than Hammer when it came to stretching their dollar and giving audiences the illusion that they were seeing something really big.
“Hammer’s House of Horror” six volume miniseries from the 80s also arrived earlier this week. I’ve actually never seen this but looking forward to a mid-Summer review of this thing.
Hammer Studios has changed hands several times since the eighties, and the current incarnation has several productions slated for release in the next year or so. Disappointingly, they're currently working on a remake of “Let The Right One In,” under the insipid title, “Let Me In.” Fuck that.
Also in this week: “Santa Clause Conquers the Martians” starring Pia Zadora, and Full Moon’s “Retro Puppet Master,” directed by David DeCoteau. One of my favorite current directors, the prolific DeCoteau slings homoerotic SciFi channel fodder like a fucking champ. Kind of like a gay Larry Cohen. I’ll be slapping up a “Leeches!” review pretty soon in DeCoteau's honor. This guy is one of my heroes.
