Horror Film Review: Living Doll (1990)

Living Doll (1990)

Directors:

 George Dugdale, Peter Mackenzie Litten

Review by Mack B. 

LIVING DOLL is another flick produced by veteran schlockmeister Dick Randall (DON'T OPEN TIL CHRISTMAS, FOR YOUR HEIGHT ONLY, PIECES, THE GIRL IN ROOM 2A...he has some winners under his belt).  Howard (Mark Jax) works in the hospital morgue by day and is a med student at night.  Things don't seem to be going his way as he mopes through his day to day life.  His boss is an asshole and his co-worker and friend Jess (Gary Martin) seems to keep him around as a sidekick.  The only bright spot of his day is the beautiful young flower shop salesgirl, Christine (Katie Orgill).  He even skips classes and study groups so he can stalk her and photograph her.  This young man is smitten.  Just kidding he's creepy as fuck.  As sane as someone who struggles through medical school while working in a morgue and stalk a gorgeous bottle-blonde is, one can imagine how much this guy loses his shit when she turns up on the slab and he is supposed to prep the body for autopsy.  He goes even further around the bend when he has to assist the pathologist.

It's a continuous downward spiral as he steals her corpse from the graveyard and takes her to "live" with him in his rat trap walk-up studio apartment.  His landlady (Eartha Kitt) grows steadily more suspicious that Howard has a girl in his apartment because she hears talking and voices coming from his place.   As Christine's corpse decays and putrifies further so does Howard's mind.  Howard interacts with her in his madness and even follows through with her demand to murder her p.o.s. boyfriend Steve.  All the while Howard sees Christine as she appeared in life and does not see her as she is until the absolutely insane conclusion.  

The flick is fairly gruesome and gory though not nearly as much so as the NECROMANTIK series.  The autopsy is off camera following the initial graphic incision and any explicit necrophilia is implied or off camera except for some grotesque scenes of kissing.  Watching Howard's descent from introverted outcast to raving lunatic is truly disturbing.  

Mark Jax is quite good as Howard and Gary Martin hams it up as Jess.  Freddie Earlie is great as the crotchety, angry malcontent of a hospital morgue supervisor.  South African bombshell Katie Orgill was one of The Sun's Page Three Girls and her role of Christine serves as her film debut.  Sadly Katie does not go on to do any other films after LIVING DOLL.

  

The soundtrack is Kenny G atrocious at times and even has a honky tonk theme song sung by Gary Martin and it certainly does not help to improve the viewers listening experience.  Co-directors George Dugdale and Peter Litten acquit themselves very well and unfortunately only directed one other feature together--SLAUGHTER HIGH starring Caroline Munro.  Litten also directed HEAVEN'S A DRAG in 1994.  Howard's hell is devilishly lit varying shades of blue, red and green which lends even more gravity to the growing madness.  It makes his shithole rat trap apartment look like the nightmare it really has become.

Another solid Mondo Macabro release, genre fans should pick this weird ass flick up.  The ending is insane and I'm quite surprised it hasn't developed more of a following.  

Mondo Macabro's DVD release of LIVING DOLL is loaded.  

Features include:

About the Film

Trailer

Interview: Original Scriptwriter, Paul Hart-Wilden

Interview: Lead Actor, Mark Jax

Production Stills

On Set Stills

Press and Publicity

Documentary-The Making of A Horror Film

Featurette: David McGillivray's Diary

Short: Horrorshow

Mondo Macabro previews

Follow Mack on Twitter @3SHorror

Check out more of Mack B's reviews at www.ssshorrorreviews.net

Slasher Film Review: Maniac (2012)

Maniac (2012)

Director: Franck Khalfoun

            

Description from Netflix:

In this high-gloss update of a 1980 slasher flick, Elijah Wood stars as Frank, a mannequin store owner who develops an insatiable lust for blood when he becomes obsessed with a young artist who turns to him for help with her latest exhibit.

Notable actors: Elijah Wood, America Olivio

You can read my review of the original version here.

My thoughts:

One minor point to nitpick in that description.  Frank did not suddenly develop “an unsatiable lust for blood” when Anna comes into the picture.  We saw him kill at least one woman before he meets Anna.  If anything, Anna makes Frank try to fight his psychopathic tendencies.

Aside from two small scenes (as well as a few flashbacks), the entire film is told through Frank’s POV.  When I first heard about it, it seemed a little gimmicky.  An easy way to generate some press.  The cynic in me immediately saw a cash grab.  “Look!  You see everything through the eyes of the killer!  Give us your money!”

Thankfully, that was not the case.  The use of POV was amazing, and Wood did a great job at playing the Frank character in such a way as to convey his overwhelming psychosis without having to see him.  We were treated to scenes that showed what was going on in his head that drove him to kill.  We hear his heavy breathing when he’s stalking his prey.  We are not the killer, but we see everything from his perspective.  I don’t know that we necessarily sympathize with him, but we can definitely see why he does what he does.

To me, one of the most telling scenes comes after a kill, when Frank catches a glimpse of himself in a mirror.  He has just finished murdering and scalping a girl he took on a date.  He sees himself in the mirror, and begins to vomit.  In build-up to that scene, we see why he kills (a deep-seated psychosis brought on by his mother).  But in that scene, we see that his actions sicken him.  He does not want to kill, but he is driven to kill.  He hates himself for it, and he can’t stand the sight of himself after committing such a vile act.  He knows he’s a monster, but he can’t help it.  It’s a terrific scene, and it wouldn’t have been nearly as impactful if the film wasn’t told through the eyes of Frank.

Elijah Wood is the obvious stand-out here.  After all, it’s not easy to command a movie when you’re rarely seen, but he does a tremendous job here.  You can hear the crazy in his voice.  When you catch a glimpse in the mirror, you can see the crazy in his eyes.  And yet, behind the crazy is a tenderness.  A sense of longing.  A need to belong in a world that he no longer can find his place in.  It’s an amazing performance.

But he’s not the only one who turns in a great performance.  Nora Arnezeder (Anna) is perfect.  She’s able to see through Frank’s craziness and appreciate the person he wishes he were all the time.  Through her interactions with Frank, we see how hard he tries to fight his compulsion to kill.  She’s an extremely important character, and Arnezeder kills the role.

Really, I could talk this way about every actor in the film.  Everyone was fantastic.  There wasn’t a weak link in the cast.

The film looked great.  Where the original was a dirty, grimy film, this one felt very sleek, and the pulsing, electronic soundtrack only added to that feeling.  It reminded me of Drive.  But with more scalping.  (Although with less elevator head-stomping, which I felt was odd.)

If I have any problems with this movie, it’s that there were a few scenes that were a bit hard to follow.  But I think that’s less a problem with the narrative structure and more because we’re seeing the events of the film through the eyes of a psychopath.  As a general rule, a madman is not the most reliable storyteller.

Overall, I really loved this film.  There weren’t really any jump scares, but more of an overwhelming, suffocating dread that didn’t let up for the entire film.  It was an expertly crafted film with some tremendous performances.  As of right now, this is in my top-three horror films of the year (along with Mama and Evil Dead).

One final note: there’s a terrific scene after a kill where Frank catches a reflection of himself in a car door, holding a scalp.  It’s a terrific homage to the poster for the original.  I really loved seeing it in there.  It showed the love and respect this director had for the original, while still being able to remake it in his own style.

Rating: 5/5

Read more reviews like this one at Dusty "D" Evely's Zombie Club Blog

Also, Follow "D" on Twitter @norman_myers

Horror Film Review: Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013)

Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013)

Director: John Luessenhop

Review by Dusty "D" Evely 

Description from Netflix:

The Leatherface saga continues where the 1974 horror classic left off.  When a young woman travels to Texas to collect her inheritance, she discovers that the brutal chainsaw-yielding madman is part of the bequest.

My thoughts:

Let’s get this out of the way first: this is supposed to be a direct sequel to the original film.  But there are a ton of inconsistencies with this.

For starters, the ages of the characters.  This film takes place in present day (we know this because we see iPhones).  The main character was a baby at the time of the original.  If the timeline held true, she would be pushing 40.  Leatherface – who we’ll say was probably mid-20s in the original (Gunnar Hansen was 27 at the time) – would be in his 60s.

Granted, no one wants to see a broken-down Leatherface chasing around a bunch of scantily-clad middle-aged folk (well, I’m sure some people would want to see that), but they could’ve at least tried to make sense of the timeline.  Set it in the mid-90s or something.  Or have a Sawyer survive the attack and have a baby 10-15 years later.  Just put a little bit of thought into it.  Frankly, it’s insulting.  Did they not think anyone would notice?

I also had an issue with the number of people in the house at the beginning of this movie (there were 3 people in the house at the end of the original, and at least 7 – excluding the baby – in the beginning of this movie), but I’ve since made my peace with that.  There’s a delay from the time the original ends to the time the cops get to the house, so I suppose they had time to fill the house with inbreds and guns.  Point conceded.

Now that we have that out of the way…

I like how they went back to the idea of Leatherface being a mentally challenged person (he is referred to as “mentally stunted”, having the mental capacity of an 8 year-old).  That’s how he was presented in the original.  However, recent incarnations of Leatherface (both the 2003 remake and 2006’s The Beginning) have seen him presented as an evil force of nature, on par with Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers.  An entity of pure evil, killing without rhyme or reason.  It was nice to see this film going back to basics, and tapping into the soul of the original Leatherface. 

Of course, I say it’s “nice”, but, in the end, the intention of the killer doesn’t matter too much.  Lots of people are dead.  Whether the killer killed with malice or out of habit or because he was controlled by other people makes no difference.  Dead is dead.

Still, I suppose it makes a small difference in how we feel about him.  We’re scared of him, but we also feel a little bad for him.  In the original, he was killing at the whim of his family.  In this film, he’s killing to avenge the wrongful death of his family.  He does kill quite a few innocent people, so it’s hard to feel too much sympathy for him.  But, for a little while, I felt a sliver of sympathy for Leatherface.

By the end of the movie, we’re supposed to be cheering for him.  He even helps out the main character (Heather), even if she has to utter the single worst line in the movie to get him to do so.  It’s almost enough to make you forget that he has killed every one of her friends, all in terrible ways.

Almost.

That brings me to a larger question.  There’s a weird storyline where Heather’s boyfriend (Ryan) cheats on her with her best friend (Nikki).  As near as I can tell, there’s really no reason for it.  It doesn’t create conflicts between the characters.  Heather never even finds out about it.  I think it was just a plot device to separate Heather from her friends, but there are less convoluted ways to do that.

I assume one of the reasons for doing this would be to get us to cheer for their deaths.  “They’re cheaters, they deserve to die, rah rah” stuff.  If that was the case, I’m not on board. 

Look.  I’m not above cheering for deaths in slashers.  Using this series as an example, I openly rooted for the deaths of the two frat kids at the beginning of Texas Chainsaw Massacre II.  It’s not like I’m standing on some moral high ground.  To watch a slasher movie is to occasionally find yourself openly rooting for people to die.  It comes with the territory.

But this?  One minor scene where two characters cheat?  That’s not enough for me to root for death.  That’s just lazy.

Were this a smarter movie, I would possibly think that this was there for this exact purpose: to force the audience to take a look at themselves and ask why they’re cheering for the death of a couple young adults who did nothing wrong other than to sleep with someone they were not dating.  But this was not a smart movie, and that is not what the filmmakers were going for.

There are a lot of callbacks to the original, which could be kind of cool.  But a lot of them were not subtle callbacks.  That’s mainly due to the fact that this movie starts with a montage of moments from the original, and most of the callbacks involved scenes from that montage.  A hot girl with red shorts walking to the house!  A dead armadillo!  A girl in a freezer!  And so on.

There were a couple cool set-up points with Heather’s character.  In the beginning of the movie, we see her working as a butcher in a grocery store.  We also find out that she’s an artist who uses bones (animal, not human) in her work.  I enjoyed seeing those little moments worked into her character.

I can’t say that this was a great movie, or even a very good movie.  But I found myself enjoying it more than I thought I would.  It’s an absolute mess, but a fairly entertaining mess. 

Rating: 2.5/5

Read more reviews like this one at Dusty "D" Evely's Zombie Club Blog

Also, Follow "D" on Twitter @norman_myers

Horror News: Actor Bill Oberst Jr. and Producer Christian Burgess join the ranks of “Love Sick.”

Breaking News from our good friend, Director Todd E. Freeman!

PORTLAND, Oregon (June 12, 2013) 

Polluted Pictures (Cell Count) is proud to announce that, Producer Christian Burgess and horror movie icon Bill Oberst Jr., have been officially attached to be a part of the “Love Sick” production later this fall.

“To say that I’m excited about this movie would be an understatement,” says writer and director Todd E. Freeman. "This is a very personal project that is based in a very real time in my life when I wasn’t sure if I was going to be with the woman that I loved until the day I died. On one hand this is very much an examination of love and the physical/emotional pain that comes from it. On the other bigger hand... well... it’s a badass gore filled monster movie.”

“Love Sick” is about a couple who “have been together for 10 years and after much deliberation have decided to part ways. After separating and being with others they quickly realize how hard it is to disconnect from one another. The pain, lies, and betrayal all begin to manifest physically within the both of them as well as infect the others who have become involved with intimately. They love each other so much that it hurts... some more than others."

Actor Bill Oberst Jr. says of the project, “Todd has created a character that pushes all of my buttons. Dr. Christian's 'biotranference therapy' is rooted in metaphysics, biology and the mind/body connection controversy that has consumed the medical field over the last decade, all subjects of great personal interest to me. Once again, as with Cell Count II: Blood Count, Todd has invited me to be a part of a project that I am passionate about. I love body-horror and Todd has a remarkable talent for writing intelligently about it. I am eager to get Love Sick!" 

Christian Burgess has over twenty years experience in the home entertainment industry, including operating his own online DVD business, through to distribution and working for film festivals. An avid addict of anything film related, Christian is currently one of the Programmers and the Communications Manager for the Toronto After Dark Film Festival. 

“I'm extremely honoured and ecstatic to be apart of the Love Sick production team. Todd had been teasing me for several months with concept for the film and recently, I had the privilege of reading the first act of the script and I was immediately sold on it. Todd has this incredible knack for establishing characters that feel familiar and real, within a world that'll become increasing uncomfortable and bizarre as events unravel for them. I can't wait to share Love Sick for audiences in 2014.” said co-producer, Christian Burgess.

“Love Sick” is the follow up feature film to Cell Count for Polluted Pictures, and this will mark Christian Burgess’ first production with Polluted Pictures as Co-Producer. The film is written and will be directed by Todd E. Freeman, as well as Co-Produced by he and his brother Jason.

Find out more and stay up to date with this project by going to their movie page on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/lovesickflick

Horror Film Review: Rob Zombie's The Lords of Salem (2012)

The Lords of Salem (2012)

Director: Rob Zombie

Review by Dusty "D" Evely

Description from Netflix:

Soon after rock DJ Heidi airs a mysterious album she received on vinyl, the locals start clamoring to hear more from the Lords of Salem.  But the group’s otherworldly sounds have a strange effect on everyone, including Heidi.

Notable actors:

Sheri Moon Zombie, Bruce Davison, Dee Wallace, Meg Foster, Ken Foree, Richard Fancy

My thoughts:

I would like to start off by saying that I don’t really have a problem with Rob Zombie.  I don’t know that I’ve really loved any of his films, but I’ve enjoyed all of them.  So, while I’m far from being a Rob Zombie superfan, I do tend to like his films.    

To watch Rob Zombie films is to know that Sheri Moon Zombie is going to be involved.  I don’t necessarily have a huge problem with her, either.  She’s not the best actress in the world, but she’s far from the worst.  If given a bit part, she’s fine.

Sadly, she is not relegated to “bit part” status here.  As the main character, she’s expected to carry the movie, and she is not nearly talented enough to do that.  This is a slow-paced movie, and it requires a magnetizing presence to drive the movie.  Moon Zombie is a lot of things, but “magnetizing presence” is not one of them.

If that were the only problem with this film, I could easily overlook it.  However, that is not the case.

Some of the scenes – especially when they flash back to the original witches in Salem – look terrible.  The scenery looked cheap.  The witches danced and chanted and screamed like they were in a bad stage production of Macbeth.  With more nudity.  Oh man.  So much nudity.  So much terrible, terrible nudity.

Other scenes were downright comical.  I can’t say too much without getting into spoiler territory, but there was a scene in the last 20 minutes that made me laugh out loud.  And there was no way Zombie was going for laughs.

All that being said, my main problem lay with the stakes of the movie.  I wasn’t quite sure just how terrible things would be if the witches accomplished their mission.  Their ultimate plan was to bring Satan into the world, which seems like a perfectly reasonable mission for a group of ancient witches to have.

But what happens next?  Is the entire fate of the world at stake, or just the town of Salem?  We’re never really told.  I suppose it’s safe to assume that the rise of Satan will portend the end of the world, but that’s a pretty large jump.  After all, the existence of Satan acknowledges the existence of God, and I’m pretty sure God would have some kind of say in whether the world ends or not.  It wouldn’t be quite as simple as playing a record and watching the world go to hell.

(It’s worth noting that Satan looked like a man in a bad gorilla suit.  That amused me greatly.  It was like Zombie found the suit used in Rosemary’s Baby, dusted it off, shrugged his shoulders and said, “Good enough.”  Which, honestly, wouldn’t surprise me a bit.)

I didn’t hate the entire movie.  There were some really interesting scenes.  I really loved the recurring hallway scenes.  There’s one towards the end, with Heidi being pushed in a wheelchair, that was particularly great.

I also thought the concept was pretty cool.  Music taken directly from the diary of Nathaniel Hawthorne that put all direct descendents of the original Salem witches into a trance, and helped to bring about the rise of Satan.  And that song was pretty creepy.  A dark, heavy, dirge-like song that can easily get stuck in your head.

It was a pretty simple plot, which seemed like the way to go.  However, as I mentioned previously, this kind of movie needed a stronger lead actress. 

There were parts of this movie I liked.  Some creepy images.  Some decent scenes.  There’s a scene near the end that is absolutely bonkers, and I enjoyed that.  But, for the most part, this was just kind of a mess.  I think Rob Zombie has a good eye for movie making, but is not necessarily a good movie maker.

Rating: 2/5

Read more reviews like this one at Dusty "D" Evely's Zombie Club Blog

Also, Follow "D" on Twitter @norman_myers