Gory greetings HorrorYearbook alumni! Welcome to the frightening first installment of “Brain Hammer’s Picks From The Crypt“; an exclusive column only available at HorrorYearbook.com where every week I recommend a different “terrible trio” of superior horror and exploitation films that I think deserve more attention. Best of all, these films are all widely available on dvd and can usually be found for a reasonable price to boot!
Let the bloodshed begin!
“Alone In The Dark” (1982)
www.imdb.com /title/tt0083542/
An absolute gem of an old school slasher film from writer/director Jack Sholder and Robert Shaye of New Line. I was blown away by my first viewing of this genre classic. PLEASE do not confuse this flick with the crap Christian Slater/Tara Reid flick of the same name!
The plot to “Alone In The Dark” is deceptively simple. A quartet of murderous psychopaths escape from a mental hospital during a power blackout and soon after lay siege to their new doctor’s house. The psychos are are somehow convinced that their new doctor must have killed the old doctor (who in reality had accepted a new job elsewhere) and decide that his whole family must suffer accordingly.
This flick is a must see for fans of Jack Palance, Martin Landau, and Donald Pleasence. Those three legends have a high time (especially Donald, who spends most of his time in the movie stoned and spouting some especially over the top dialogue!) chewing up the scenery. Every moment Jack Palance is on screen steals the show, and I think he deserved an Oscar nomination for his performance here. The performances from Dwight Schultz (soon to play a crazy guy himself on the A-Team) as the new doctor, and the rest of his on-screen family are also uniformly excellent. I have to say this is one of the best acted horror movies I’ve seen in recent memory. They really don’t make them like this anymore
Not overtly gory, and not lightning quick in terms of pace, but well worth the effort regardless. I actually watched the film in a darkened room and soon found myself totally immersed in the film. There are more than a few tense moments, and the death scenes, while infrequent compared to the slashers to follow, are always brutally effective. The scene where the whorish and woodenly acted babysitter is trapped on a mattress while the killer stabs a knife up at her from below is incredibly tense and beautifully shot too. This flick is also notable for having the first hockey masked killer in horror history. “The Bleeder” dons the now legendary mask and rips flesh here a few years before “Friday The 13th Part 3″. There’s also a wild air of camp to the proceedings. This flick effectively blends wild elements of pitch black humor into its creepy tale of terror. The end result is a wonderfully deranged little film. The bizarre religious themed dream sequence opening and the memorable ending shot of Jack in the throes of insane delight both sum up the “fuck the world” attitude of this film a lot better than I can.
Also of note, this seminal horror flick contains a nifty plot device that was later lifted and reused (almost shot for shot) by writer/director Jamie Blanks for his flawed, yet entertaining and generally speaking, underrated slasher effort “Valentine”. Despite having seen “Valentine” a few times before this, I did not pick up on the “twist” of the film until it was finally revealed. Another testament to how well made “Alone In The Dark” is.
All horror fans, and fans of old school slasher flicks in particular, should consider this a must see. I’m kicking myself for not seeking it out sooner. This fine film is available in a very nice special edition dvd from Image Entertainment.
“The Devil’s Nightmare”
http://imdb.com/title/tt0067592/”
An interesting 1971 gothic horror flick by French director Jean Brismee. A mysterious man in black (could it be…SATAN?) directs a group of lost and weary travelers to the castle of Baron Von Rumberg. The family is cursed, and the eldest daughter of each generation of Von Rumberg becomes a servant to the devil. The seven travelers, each representing one of the seven deadly sins, are soon seduced and murdered by the Baron’s succubus daughter.
The various sinners are killed by serpents, and go flying from windows. The fat, sausage smuggling slob representing gluttony is poisoned in a particularly puke worthy scene. The castle’s conveniently located bed of spikes, guillotine, and iron maiden (!) are all put to good use. One particularly nasty scene has the blood of a twitching and tortured cat carcass dripping from the ceiling onto the people below.
Add to this mix some tasty moments of soft core lesbianism (the chicks are hot!) and a black & white WWII prologue where a baby girl gets daggered by her Nazi father and you have one of the most lurid Euro-horrors of the early seventies on your hands. This flick was later re-released in 1974 and heavily promoted in the States as a pseudo follow up to “The Exorcist” with the memorable tagline “This time the devil wins!”. A graphic and exploitive film for it’s time, well made by those standards, and certainly worth a look. I have fond memories of watching this flick (without the lesbo sex course) on the USA Network as a wee Brain Hammer. This flick is widely available on DVD. Several budget dvd companies have released the same uncut, letterboxed print.
Also Known As:
Au service du diable
Castle of Death (video title)
Nightmare of Terror (video title)
Notte piu lunga del diavolo, La (Italy)
Nuit des pétrifiés, La
Succubus
Terrificante notte del demonio, La
The Devil Walks at Midnight
The Devil’s Longest Night
Vampire Playgirls (reissue title)
“Evilspeak”
An outrageous little occult themed revenge flick from 1981 with the legendary Clint Howard playing an orphan turned misfit military cadet who is brutally tormented by bullies and staff alike until he finds a friend in Satan via his demoniacally-possessed old school piece of shit computer. The spectacular sight of a possessed Clint Howard, sporting a Don King hairdo and glowing red eyes, flying through the air inside a chapel on a cloud of smoke and lopping off heads with a magic sword is not something you’ll soon forget, I assure you.
But this flick isn’t strictly a laughable 80’s cheese fest. It’s also an emotionally effective tale of revenge. You can’t help but feel for poor ugly Clint, especially after the evil bastard bullies kill his only friend in the world - a wayward puppy that he had been taking care of. It’s actually a pretty disturbing scene, and sure to make animal lovers cringe. Another creepy scene features Clint being threatened by a greasy, insane, and drunken janitor who promises to show Clint “his trick where he turns a little boy into a little girl”! BARF!
The Anchor Bay dvd release features the uncut version of “Evilspeak”. It was chopped up pretty bad back in the day to earn an R rating, and was even temporarily banned in the UK as a “Video Nasty”. There is indeed a fair deal of gore on hand, with a heart being torn from a chest by a zombie janitor, flesh eating satanic swine, multiple decapitations (one performed by “Bull” from “Night Court”!), and Clint splitting a guy’s melon in half with the aforementioned magic sword!
Overall, a very unique and enoyable viewing experience. This flick was also a favorite of the late great Anton LaVey. You could call it Brain Hammer tested, Satan approved!
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