October Challenge reviews so far

1.

Rewatched Nosferatu (1922) last night. I really wasn't keen the first time I saw it, fault of circumstance it turns out because this time I was very taken with it. The first great Dracula film, albeit an unlicensed knock off with young estate agent Hutter and his wife Ellen, Professor Bulwer, Knock instead of Renfield, and of course, the sinister Count Orlock. The second half differs, but much is familiar before, so much so that the film was ordered destroyed for its infringement. All good now though. And on the whole this is more successful than the more official Lugosi film.

The key is that director FW Murnau knows just how to make horror work in the silent format. Make sure of your central spook, strip down characters and plot, embrace the unnatural and let the images flow. Nosferatu has one of the greatest central spooks of all time in Count Orlock, Max Schreck with claws and verminous visage, human turned beast, weird predator of the night but oddly pathetic too. Much of the time screen Draculas have been more human, charismatic, even handsome, but not here. Count Orlock is a human beast and the film emphasises spiders, flies, rats and others to put him at their centre, a noble of fell nature. And from his first appearance the film is captivating, its simplest means strike powerful chords, its rare effects work the same. Forest, river, castle, coffins, ship, death, come through like childhood fancies of old books by torchlight. The varied colour tints are a huge help. It doesn't matter that the plot is simple, the acting variable. It has the substance of thought forgotten dream and never lets up to the end. Even resolved as if waking

For me this isn't quite up to The Cabinet of Dr Caligari in the silent horror stakes. But still, basically essential.

2.

Watched Shadow of the Vampire the other night. Director F Elias Merhige, of the infamous art-sploiter Begotten, and writer Steven Katz's imagining of the making of Nosferatu (1922), with Max Schreck, the monstrous Count Orlock, a real vampire, with urges that director FW Murnau can but ill control. I have a lot of time for films about film-making, even this kind of clever-clever meta-fiction (that can oft irritate), because at base I find tensions between artifice and reality fascinating. My preference is for nightmare brain melters like Inland Empire or The Manipulator, but I can slip pretty happily into a more straightforward sophisticated entertainment, and Shadow of the Vampire, smart, funny and deftly creepy, with an enduring point, really fits the bill.

The point is simple and familiar but always bears restating. A matter of the artist, imperious, unfeeling, bound only to their Muse, and of their players, wryly curious, sometimes even worried, but ultimately just getting to work. It's a living, no matter the uncomfortable details. And a monster bound only to itself, but needing artist and player alike to live and grow and be far more than they imagined. John Malkovich is very fine as Murnau, radiating vision and talent, breaking into aloof, uncomprehending irritation, breaking still further as events descend. Eddie Izzard does a good job as star Gustav, who played protagonist Hutter, a straight role, suspicious but not too suspicious, while the legendary Udo Kier has affecting torn authority as producer Albin, realising things are going very wrong but in too deep. Best though is Willem Dafoe as Schreck, justly Oscar nominated. He quite disappears into the role, bringing wisdom and pathos and a real sense of the otherworldly to his ancient lonely fiend, he has some funny moments to be sure but is most compellingly sinister.

The general course of the film follows Nosferatu in order, giving it solid structure and good pace. Old time technicalities contrast interestingly with modern advances and more traditional drama and humour effectively grounds the weirder aspects. The humour is very present almost throughout, only the ending turning to pure horror, but is well judged. This is always more than a trifle, always committed. I perhaps could have gone with a little more spectacle, but it's a minor complaint.

By and large, well recommended.

3.

Watched Britsploitation quickie The Last Night (1983) the other night. 70's nasty plot, 80's slasher rags, all over short of an hour, it should be love...

Historically Britain wasn't a great place for independent genre cinema. I'm sure vision wasn't in short supply, but equipment, finance, distribution, general faith and support, not so much. Fortunately nothing held Portsmouth multiple threat Michael J Murphy back. Director from 1967 to his passing in 2015, also writer, producer and cinematographer where needed, working hard for the love of it despite setbacks and never achieving much recognition outside of a certain age and temperament of Brit. The Last Night is actually one of his slightly better known, having had an actual legitimate external DVD release, and I'm glad to say that, by the relative terms of such things, it deserves it up to a point.

The plot sees a regional theatre company performing the last night of their play Murder in the Dark. Their efforts haven't been much appreciated heretofore, but now friends and family have filled the house. Unfortunately maniacs Mike and Gary have recently escaped incarceration, and guess where they decide to stay the night? A good time will be had by all!

This is almost quite ace. Murder in the Dark is an amusing invention, enthusiastic but witless, comically overblown, pretty accurate to low level amateur drama, and the performance runs throughout. The real action gets going in good time and is well paced, with a bit of fun gore and a slight but enjoyable nasty, sleazy edge. There's a certain relatable sense of acting relationships and frustrations, and a good score, brooding synths, plinks, plonks, shivers and simple but effective repetitive melodies. Unfortunately neither staging, editing nor performances are up to making the best of the material, with Mike and Gary particularly notable as just not menacing villains. Sure, they seem like vicious dicks, but the sort you'd laugh at, run from, poke or slap. So there isn't much in the way of tension or shocks or scares, there isn't even much unintentional humour or intriguing weirdness and the end, a little over 51 minutes, comes in good time.

Still, I'm perfectly glad I watched this and will surely be watching more from Michael J Murphy, especially since almost all of his rare output has been posted on Youtube, seemingly by his production company in his memory. An interesting little corner of schlock history, recommended for the real enthusiasts.

4.

Watched Brit supernatural horror Judas Ghost (2013) the other night. My time for this sort of thing grows less and less with time, indies perhaps seen once or twice at festivals then forgotten, cycled endlessly unloved between charity shops and market stalls. But I was mildly drawn by the set up, and actually, though by no means great, I had quite a good time.

The story apparently comes from the Ghost Finders series, by "New York Times best-selling author Simon R. Green". I had never heard of them or him before. More usefully, it's a William Hope Hodgson update, specifically his Carnacki - The Ghost Finder tales. In Judas Ghost, a team of professional ghost hunters, or Ghost Finders, of the Carnacki Institute, set up to make a training film for new recruits in a village hall that has in recent times been routinely haunted. Of course something unusual seems afoot early on, but the team don't leave until they're really in danger, and they must fight not only for their lives but their very souls. Pretty generic stuff of course, but I'm the kind of sucker who can't resist things Hope Hodgson and I have a bit of a soft spot for outright dangerous or evil supernatural forces.

At first this isn't too promising. The characters are stock, brash, sarcastic main man Jerry, quiet Mark, scaredy-cat techno-whizz Ian and attractive lady psychic Anna. The dialogue is cheesy, the village hall is an uninspiring place and the low budget doesn't seem to be leading to much ingenuity. But then the dark forces move in, and suddenly it all comes together. The performances are on point, the characters come through sympathetic and engaging with convincing chemistry. Martin Delaney is liveliest as Jerry, at first a little annoying but rapidly likeable with his sheer confident professionalism and will to survive. And Alexander Perkins also stands out as Ian, something like the audience's voice of reason, funny and sad. Simon Merrels and Lucy Cudden have a lot less to do as Mark and Anna but ably support. The scares are understandably low key but often fun, plenty of inanimate object misbehaviour but also sparse use of surprisingly effective CGI (I particularly liked the climactic effect). There's some fair tension and a nice sense of impending doom.

Unfortunately this is all a bit too predictable and lacking in backstory or weirdness to make up for the lack of spectacle. Especially given Hope Hodgson's original material, whose highlights included a terrifying cosmic hog and the Unknown Last Line of the Shaamaa Ritual. It never offers much in the way of insight or real drama and only builds in fits and starts, with a bit of redundancy. So it isn't the small gem it might have been. But as these things generally go it is pretty reasonable all the same. When it's on, its quite charmingly on. Ok on a slow weekday evening for indie fans.

5.

Watched lame Britsploiter Awaiting (2015) the other night. A backwoods tale, you know the kind of thing, city slicker (here a soon to be engaged lawyer named Jake) suffers the hospitality of mad, sad and savage rural folk (psycho recluse Morris and his pretty daughter Lauren), some chasing, some bad taste nastiness, hopefully some weirdness. Awaiting know's what it's doing, but alas it soon becomes apparent that it doesn't have a great deal else. Well, to be fair, it does have a better than the material deserves performance from Tony Curran as Morris. Awkward, volatile, vicious, with undercurrents of deep sickness and strange, twisted tenderness too, he does most of the heavy lifting and makes the film much more watchable than it might have been. The other main plus of the film is an amusingly over the top turn to the climax. But then there's the rest of it. This kind of thing is rarely very original or enlightening but with a bit of wit and imagination or insight it can be pretty good fun and even a little interesting. Awaiting is a joyless, blandly assembled trudge, ticking its way through the cliches of the genre (this is one of the most basic, formulaic films I've seen in some time) with a grim tone that highlights how absurd it all is and not in a good way. Poor decisions, little apparent thought at most levels, nothing fresh and nothing shocking, just a bit dispiriting. It's basically technically competent, there's a bit of grisly gore and various aspects that are pretty nasty in their own rights, by default as it were. I wouldn't want the makers to just give up and go home. But, yeah, not recommended.

6.

Rewatched Fred Olen Ray classic Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (1988). I've not seen a great deal of Olen Ray films, most sound too effortfully goofy, not gutsy or weird enough for my tastes. But Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers is pretty awesome. A bit of a Ronseal, the story of wisecracking Hollywood private dick Jack Chandler, looking for a runaway girl and finding a chainsaw worshipping cult. The approach is comic, the nudity plentiful and oft combined with cheap and cheerful splatter. Linnea Quigley plays runaway Samantha, Michelle Bauer is a high cultist, and Gunnar Hansen their mysterious leader. Jay Richardson hold it all together with his narration and quips as Jack.

Surprisingly, this isn't anywhere as sleazy or tasteless as one might imagine. There are one or two awkward lines or moments, but for the most part this is just fun, with an appealing free and easy unsophisticated wit, a sense that the chainsaw hookers are really empowered and not villains as such, and that everyone is just having a good time, even the ones that get turned in to meaty chunks. Helps that at just around 71 minutes, with credits, it's perfectly paced. I could have gone for a bit more varied gore, but then again, that's not particularly the point here. Generally, well recommended.

7.

Watched The Returned (2013) the other night. A zombie horror drama in which the zombies are not the real horror, but one which takes on this notion with unusual brains and heart. The set up : there is a zombie virus, it broke out once and killed a hundred million or more, it broke out again and was controlled. If treated swiftly, the virus can be controlled in the infected, or Returned, by daily doses of serum. With the serum the Returned live more or less normal lives. Without it, they become the flesh eating fiends of old. But other than a few fanatics, there is uneasy balance. When supplies of the serum run low, matters descend in frightening fashion. Protagonist Kate, a doctor specialising in the Returned, has been pilfering and stockpiling serum for some time, her beloved husband Alex is one of them. But seeing the way the winds are blowing, they flee. Things will not be so easy though...

I tire easily of the kind of zombie films which purport to strip away the veneer of humanity, they often strike me as cheap, simplistic, sophomoric in their cynicism. In The Returned the balance, the nearness to the old world gives the human horrors plausibility. Total safety, order, seems within reach, tangible, tantalising, something real to fight for. And there isn't just fanatic violence, but mocking bigotry of young with their own worries, people, like Kate, doing bad things out of love, people just scared, ambivalent, trying to make sense of things. All human, relatable, treated with seriousness and sensitivity.

Of course all this wouldn't count for much if the central drama didn't work. Emily Hampshire and Kris Holden-Reid as Kate and Alex do fine work, strained more and more, events taking their toll, but underneath in deep running, easy love. An attractive pair but ordinary and effortlessly likeable, one can see the way things may go and really hope they won't. There's some predictability to things, but the good kind, based in considered order. I did think that the horror elements were a little too underplayed, they could have given the drama more bite, the general course of events (with parallels to reality as well as genre tropes) more impact. But overall things still work. There's certainly suspense, blood, some jolts. Traditionalists or fast zombie excitement enthusiasts should stay away, but I would recommend this. Probably if the genre in general hasn't been enthusing you too much recently but you still want to see something newer.

8.

Also watched Blood Tracks (1985), a cheerfully mindless, enjoyably bloodthirsty and even mildly interesting body count shocker that alas has not had much love even from the people that usually would, as up until just a few years ago it was a real pain to find uncut and by the time it got an intact (at least as possible) DVD release and posting on the director's Youtube channel they had all seen it and been well put off already. A Swedish take on popular US schlock, from director Mats Helge (previously of the idiotic sub-Cannon but still really fun actioner The Ninja Mission) and Britsploitation veteran Derek Ford. Instead of the straight slasher one might expect of the time, a kind of Hills Have Eyes riff, with cheese rock band Solid Gold (played by real cheese rock band Easy Action) taking to the mountains to make a video for their new tune Blood Tracks and disturbing a family of murderous brutes living in an abandoned factory. With deadly consequences of course.

In the opening, a woman kills her abusive husband and takes off with her lover and young children. They seem to have gotten along ok until the 80's, and discovery. I was kind of sympathetic, I think people who ignore big signs like KEEP OUT THIS STRUCTURE HAS BEEN CONDEMNED are really asking for trouble. When your life is of total isolation and endless cold and hardship, when your very existence is threatened, severe measures are sure understandable? Of course they do stretch things a little in a couple of more outre moments of nastiness. Wouldn't be much of an 80's horror if they didn't. But still...

The band, crew and groupies are basic victim fodder. None of them have especially interesting character nor relationships, and this hold the film back from being too compelling even though it moves quick and the situation is classic stuff, especially once avalanches have trapped everyone. I only really cared about the stalking and slaying (though there is a fair amount of fun nudity too), which isn't ideal. But it is good stalking and slaying and it is plentiful. The factory seems to be a quite real place and Mats Helge makes a dark, decrepit maze of it, cold and treacherous, an unloved, forgotten relic for unloved, forgotten people. Good use is made of nooks and crannies and walkways, and the violence is sudden and vicious, starting with your basic neck breaking and nasty falls but getting a good bit redder as things go on. The effects are cheap but they work, with the same sort of slightly bonkers fun of the gore towards the end of The Ninja Mission. Everything builds, or rather crumbles, what with all the killing towards a curiously sad end. And cheese rock over the credits of course.

I can't call this a "good" film, certainly, it's crude, dumb and will stretch the patience of anyone other than trash fans. But for trash fans I would definitely recommend the uncut version. If nothing else, it really deserves a fairer hearing than it's had.