Vintage Horror Movie Roundup
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Exorcism (1975)
I kind of liked some of the low-budget horror films Spanish schlock-superstar director Paul Naschy (real name: Jacinto Molina) I've seen in the past, but Exorcism is hellish only in its abysmal tedium. Let's just say you might be 'Naschy' your teeth in boredom…
It doesn't even start off promisingly: In a car wreck, sexy young thing Leila (Grace Mills) almost dies behind the wheel — but she's saved by Satan before she draws her final breath. Her bony, bearded boyfriend (Jorge Torres), a passenger in the careening vehicle, soon suspects that something's supernaturally wrong with his girl and seeks the assistance of a Catholic priest (Paul Naschy, who often starred in his films).
From here on in, there's some illicit sex, naughty possessed-chick ramblings, and looks of abject horror on various faces — but mostly it's a lot of exposition. Lots of poolside patter; long, talky walks through rose gardens; and leisurely sit-down meetings in the old rectory.
The makeup effects are decent, and the cinematography is pretty, but that's about all this devil-diction DVD has to offer.
The Exorcism Special Edition (it has a nice, new introduction from Naschy) is on disc on August 21, 2007 from BCI/Eclipse.
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Zeder (1983)
Italian director Pupi Avati has his swooning cult of fans — mostly, they cite The House With the Laughing Windows as his major burst of brilliance. Not me [read Horror.com's review here]. Zeder is no great shakes either, and it's hardly the "giallo zombie mix" its touted as (it makes too much sense to be a true giallo, and there are no midgets or car races), but overall I liked it.
The mystery/horror follows the dark journey of struggling writer Stefano (Gabriele Lavia), whose reading of the words imprinted on an old typewriter ribbon lead him to unlocking the terrifying secret of bringing life back to the dead.
As luck would have it his sexually aggressive new bride, Alessandra (Anne Canovas), dies, and well… you can guess what happens. Following the teachings of mad scientist Paolo Zeder and finding just the right burial site in the K-Zone, Stefano lands in a world of zombie trouble.
Zeder is a pretty good mystery with a lot of giallo elements to it, but they never quite get "out there" enough to truly qualify (maybe I saw a heavily hacked cut); nor is it suspenseful or gory enough to be a true vintage zombie film. However, if you are in the frame of mind for a more subtle mood movie, Zeder's well worth a peek.
These Are The Damned (1961)
What's a teddy boy? I guess it's kind of a beatnik with a mean-streak. A forerunner to the Malcolm McDowell character in Stanley Kubrick's 1971 killer classic A Clockwork Orange, Oliver Reed plays King, the leather-clad leader of a gang of cigarette-smoking ruffians who like to beat the crap out of innocent people while whistling jaunty tunes. His sexy sister, Joan (Shirley Anne Field), is the bait used to corner and cripple horny old men.
However, one horny old man called Simon (Macdonald Carey) doesn't let a little thing like a vicious caning put him off — he later pursues Joan so ardently, that he winds up kidnapping her. Her jealous bro King gives chase, and they all wind up on a peninsula that's the home of some rather nefarious scientific experiments. Let the Oliver Reed overacting begin! Turns out the rocky domain is a hiding place for nuclear testing, which involves creepy, clammy-cold children.
Director Joseph Losey's work is a mixed bag — but I liked The Boy with Green Hair (1948), Modesty Blaise (1966) and his remake of M (1951) — and while this is a Hammer Film, it feels nothing like one. These Are The Damned is by turns highly amusing (not intentionally) and brutally boring (surely that was not intentional, either).
The black and white cinematography is gorgeous — shot with an artistic eye for composition, which I love. The acting is overwrought, and the incredibly arch dialogue is to die for… so if you get a chance to catch this one, and you're in the right frame of mind for it, do. The under-the-radiation references to molesters, rape, and incest are pretty hard to miss but it's fun to see how these red-button themes were handled back in the day.
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Reviews by Staci Layne Wilson