Deathbed

Hey folks. Back again and hopefully dealing better with headaches. I thought we would look at some more Stuart Gordon (Re-animator, From Beyond, Castle Freak, Fortress) and the sheer bizarrity of today's movie. This time around he is producing the cinematic opus rather than writing and directing. The infamy based around the film, is based on the 1977 film Death Bed: The Bed That Eats but hopefully is better. This is Deathbed.

You fart one more time, Jerry.  I swear I'll slice it off.

The director helping our flick is one Danny Draven (I, Vampire, Horrorvision, Aliens Gone Wild, Hell Asylum, Cryptz, Dark Walker and Ghost Month) who can establish it can't rain all the time. No wait, that's Eric Draven. Apologies. Our film is in the setting of a red brick apartment with an amazing view of the Hollywood sign and ambient lighting.

Our young and naive couple Karen (Tanya Dempsey of Shrieker, Dead 7, Witchhouse 3: Demon Fire, The Coven, Demon's Kiss, Hell Asylum, Flash!, Guardian of the Realm and Timeline)and Jerry (Brave Matthews of Visions, Birth Rite, Cake: A Wedding Story, A Song for the Dead and Starf*cker) decide to check move in and all is well with them, their relationship and current abode until... dun dun dun! Karen hears screams, pleas for help coming out a nook or attic. Unlike typical horror characters, she actually calls for help but in the form of the landlord. Lady, 911.

Landlord/former Vietnam Vet Art (Joe Estevez of Terminal Exposure, Soultaker, Werewolf, Fatal Pursuit, Rollergator, Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance and Fangs Vs.Spurs) pop the door to discover a vintage bed from the 1930s so naturally call "Dibs!" and so how that works. Naturally no woman is found, Art and Karen take it downstairs to clean it up and she wants to keep it. Um there was dried blood on the foot rest. Call me a prude but this thing doesn't look particularly safe.

Hellraiser remake or porn shoot?  You decide.

Jerry is at his photo shoot which given the amount of refracted light I think his client is Hustler. Recess light and natural lighting, dude. So Jerry gets back after a grueling few hours to Karen in her bra, thong and see through nightie. Hmm, pretty sure she has the evening planned. Holy God there were enough candles in there, lit to start a brush fire. It's a dry state, people. About an 8 minute sex scene that...kinda drags. Also really got tired of Jerry's albeit tone but very pale butt.

Karen starts having rape scenarios in her head, losing her mind as it were and her art projects of the bed are completely different from what she drew prior. So because of this Jerry and Karen agree she need therapy and some hypno-regression. Yup, Karen got bad touched as a child. What does this add to the story?   Not a damn thing.   Well thanks, movie.   Appreciate that.

Joe springs into action!!

Jerry was as sensitive as a sandpaper condom about Karen's repressed memory and we are treated to a girl with a pixie cut waiting to have Jerry. Well, the wife's away. I see nothing bad happening here.

Karen and Jerry both see the girl separate times and gasp! She's not alive and could possibly own the bed. Look, the original Deathbed: The Bed That Eats was not brilliant by any means but at least it was striving for a plot. Kinda. Somewhat. Okay not really but dammit it tried.

Karen goes to alert Art about her findings to found him somehow strangled to death with his tie. Annnd now your prints are all over the body, Karen. Smooth.

Our doofus duo decide it's time to leave but will they ever escape the bed's grasp?

Normally I try to give a fair shake and given how much I love Stuart Gordon's work I thought this production would be worth his time.   However, the pace is slow, there is not real action, the sex scenes are fairly vanilla and the acting comes off a bit wooden. With some decent FX, a few well timed jump scares and some gore for the climax, it isn't going to escape your attention that for the first hour NOTHING HAPPENS.

So if you need some tired horror tropes, a few cheap scares and splatter material, this is your movie. If you need characters, plot, a story arc or maybe even just motivation for the people being there, this very well may not be the film you're looking for.

Hopefully tomorrow I will have my interview with the very lovely and talented Christine Nguyen. Yeah branching out. I can't just watch schlock films for you all. That's what the YouTube channel is for.

Best Family Circus EVER!!!

Castle Freak

Hiyas guys and gals, I am back. After a stay over with my folks, I have returned to bring about some more films to review, facts to share and a message we can all take in our hearts. Or maybe some trivia. Today's film hails from director/screenwriter Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator, From Beyond, Dagon, The Black Cat, Robot Jox and Fortress) so yeah, there may be a horror theme in it. Produced by Albert Band and Charles Band of Full Moon Entertainment, we are getting an eyeful. This is Castle Freak.

Finally! A castle to do my re-animation projects!

Inheritance can be rewarding, exhausting and more trouble than it's worth.  John Reilly (Jeffery Combs of Re-Animator, From Beyond, Fortress, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, House on Haunted Hill, Star Trek: Enterprise and SharkMan) his stunning wife Susan (Barbara Crampton of Chopping Mall, Re-Animator, From Beyond, Puppetmaster, Trancers II, Robot Wars, The Bold and the Beautiful, The Lords of Salem and Road Games) and blind daughter Rebecca (Jessica Dollarhide of Major Dad, In Living Color, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman and Castle Freak) all travel to Italy to see this 12^th century castle John has inherited from the late Duchess D' Orsino (Helen Stirling of The Gay Lord Quex, BBC Sunday-Night Theatre, Sara Crewe and Angels One Five).

At the advice of the estate's executor, the three stay in the castle until they can unload it. Who wants to own a castle??!!!   I mean, other than me.   Thanks to exposition we get to find out the Reilly family are not a bunch of happy bunnies as Susan apparently blames John for the death of their son and the blinding of their daughter due to a drunk driving accident.  Awkward?   Oh just a touch.

Sweetie, that is a natural cycle for a young woman.

However, our turbulent trio is blissfully unaware of the dangers that lurk in the dungeon.  A bizarre and freakish monster locked away.  No sooner does he hear voices that did not originate from his head, he snaps off his own thumb to release him from his manacles and allow him to scurry about.  Ah manacles.   They must think the sun shines on his ass.

Attica! Attica! Attica!!

With a need for blood,(or Italian food. Pick Italian, dude!) our warped monster roams the countryside in search of victims to work out his frustrations on.   Hey, can't really blame him. Chained up and more or less, left to die?  I'd be pissed too.

Unexplained noises in the night, objects broken without anyone knowing how and Rebecca claims a stranger breaks into her bedroom.  Oh wait, sexist response!  Women!  Be quiet!  Piggish menfolk have no time for your twaddle.  Suddenly the housekeeper is missing...after she fails to find said freak in his cell.  Wait a minute...she may be in on this.

Deaths and disappearances are stacking up including the hooker John picked up after Susan didn't want anything to do with him that night. John starts to unravel who the monster might actually be but can he do it before the grotesque grabs his wife and kid?

As a fan of H.P. Lovecraft, I can appreciate Gordon's bizarre and macabre story.   He certainly liked using Jeffery Combs and Barbara Crampton over and over as they have excellent chemistry together.

In spite of this being a Full Moon Entertainment production, they did not use the castle via Subspecies.   Too bad, you could move the story to another country and boom! Reuse that creepy as hell castle.   Um cat fans, you might not appreciate an orange tabby made snack food for said freak.

Could have done without those cutaway scenes too.   Eerie music setting the tone, a dark story and an excellent cast setting the scene.  From the VHS, DVD and Blu-ray, the versions range from 88 mins American release,  90 UK release and finally 95 minutes.   

I have the full 95 and it is...creepy, disturbing and what I come to expect from Stuart Gordon.

Definitely not one for the kids, parents.  Trust me.

For the last time, there are no re-animated corpses around here!!

Horror I Missed: Re-Animator

Hello all and welcome back to the week. Things are moving a bit hectic around here. Trying to get funds together to get Rotten Ramblin' On to Sound Cloud so everyone can enjoy them including our earliest stuff when we didn't understand stuff like dialing back decibels or compressing files so they sound clearer. At any rate, Rotten Reelz is back with more Horror I Missed. Now to clarify by that I mean Horror films that genuinely had a scary premise, a more or less original story or something tapped into by a good writer. Today we explore the dark and disturbing storyline of one Dr. Herbert West, his gruesome experiments and the impact this H. P. Lovecraft novella had on the screen viewers. This is Re-Animator.

Jeffery Combs or Morrisey in this light?

Based loosely on the horrific novella, Herbert West: Re-Animator and brought to us by veteran Director Stuart Gordon (From Beyond, Dolls, Robot Jox, Daughter of Darkness, The Pit and the Pendulum, Fortress, Castle Freak, Space Truckers, Dagon and Stuck) comes the well paced Sci-Fi/Horror/Comedy that launches so many questions and sadly turned more than a few stomachs with its practical effects, gore gags and slapstick comedy in a dark enviroment. In the University of Zurich Institute via Switzerland, Herbert West (Jeffery Combs of Frightmare, The Man with Two Brains, From Beyond, Dead Man Walking, Freddy's Nightmares, Robot Jox, The Pit and the Pendulum, Trancers II, Doctor Mordrid, Love and a .45, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Enterprise and Voodoo Moon) brings his teacher back from the dead but with horrendous side effects screaming to the authorities he brought him back from the dead.

Wow finally a companion for Jan in the Pan!

So with impending expulsion looming over his head, West makes his way back to the states and enrolls his further studies to Miskatonic University in New England. He rents a room from a medical studen Dan Cain (Bruce Abbot of Tag: The Assassination Game, Velvet, Command 5, Summer Heat, Bad Dreams and Dark Justice) and asks to convert the basement into his own laboratory. Cain feels a bit put out by these requests but really needs the money agrees to this conditions. West demonstrates the effect of the formula with Cain's cat Rufus who "died under mysterious terms" as he is brought back from death.

Heads up! Hehe if I had sides they would be splitting.

Cain's fiancee Megan (Barbara Crampton of Love Thy Neighbor, Body Double, Chopping Mall, From Beyond, Puppetmaster, Robot Wars, Guiding Light, Space Truckers, The Bold and the Beautiful and The Lords of Salem) already creeped out by West witnesses this experiment and freaks out. Dan tries telling her father who is dean of the university but he will hear none of this, convinced they are both cuckoo for coco puffs, the dean bars them from the hospital so Cain and West have to sneak into the morgue and re-animate a corpse. The dosage reacts differently with different people so now we have a zombie with a pre-psychotic rage. If he was a necromancer I would tell him to raise an army like that and go forth and ruin the realm. The dean walks in on all the crazy but he himself gets killed by said zombie causing West to kill it with a bone saw.

With madness piling up, Cain and West have to figure a way to resolve this, publicate the findings and prove that tampering in God's domain is not only possible but very feasible.

Will the boys succeed? Is this experiment possibly unethical? How much karo syrup is Gordon out of pocket?

For a nine hundred thousand dollar budget, Re-Animator pulled in over $2 million making half of its money on opening weekend via 1985 on October 20^th. The special effect department spent over 25 gallons of fake blood during the shoot. That had to be fun to clean up. What director Stuart Gordon and writer Dennis Paoli (Re-Animator, From Beyond, Castle Freak, Mortal Sins, Body Snatchers, Dagon, The Dentist and The Black Cat) were trying to create was to be true to the source material ended up a gross parody of Frankenstein.

This has spawn a cult following to the likes of Evil Dead and Dead Alive fans to the point of making two additional sequels.  For me as a Stuart Gordon fan, I always love that a shovel ends up being used as a weapon at some point in time of the flick. Still love the fact the name Hans Gruber is used in this movie and immediately I think of the late great Alan Rickman in Die Hard.

 

Maybe they're playing "Hide the Soul", like Chucky does.