Amando Ossorio Week:Return of the Blind Dead

Back again kiddies for Day two of Ossorio week as we journey further with a look at the continuation of the Blind Dead series. The story may just bring some new developments.   So get warm and snug in your sleeping bags and listen the tales of high adventure.  This is Return of the Blind Dead a.k.a. El ataque de los muertos sin ojos.

Spoilers can be an inconvenience….

Spa treatments of the 13th Century

Our film opens with of all things a flashback to 13^th century Bouzano, Portugal.  An unruly mob of peasants of captured the Templar Knights and only by using sheer numbers.   The villagers plan on condemning these men for heresy, witchcraft and murder.   One of the knights swears revenge on the village for their persecution and you have to see the irony in that, now don’t you?    Prior to their deaths by fire each of the knights’ eyes are burned out via torch, on the off chance they can in fact raise themselves from the dead and seek bloody retribution. Then they are treated to a little fire, Scarecrow as they roasted alive.  I do not claim to be an authority on chainmail or a historian but the cloaks over the chainmail of our knights… well I can see the stitch patterns.  So it was either the work of demons from the Underworld or a Singer stitched it up hastily

    After that festive and happy scene we crank forward 500 years into the future as the village prepares for the anniversary since the Knights were defeated and the best way I know how to break into a celebration is to hurl stones at the village idiot.  Yes a gaggle of youngsters feel that is truly the best greeting for Murdo (Jose Canalejas of Django (1966 version), A Professional Gun, Horror Express, If You Shoot… You Live! And The Standard) the crippled buffon fends off stones until Monica (Loreta Tovar of Night of the Sorcerers, The Sinister Eyes of Dr. Orloff and When the Screaming Stops) and Juan with his Manos, Hands of Fate handlebar mustache (Jose Thelman of Tombs of the Blind Dead, Night of the Sorcerers, When the Screaming Stops and Night of the Werewolf) shoo the little scamps away. 

Due to extreme recycling laws, kick the can is replaced with Kick the Murdo

Back in town square fireworks technician and former military captain Jack Marlowe (Tony Kendall of The Big Bust Out, They Were Called Three Musketeers But They Were Four, When the Screaming Stops, Giant of the 20^th Century, Cop or Hood and Thrilling Love) converses with the Mayor (Fernando Sancho of I Was a Parish Priest, The Return of Ringo and The Big Gundown) his secretary/fiancée Vivian (Esperanza Roy of The Girl of the Nile, The Garden of Delights, It Happened at Nightmare Inn and The Book of Good Love 2) and Dacosta (, The mayor’s faithful man servant er um I mean aide.   With an expedient backstory, you get the feeling of bad blood between Mayor Duncan and Marlowe as it would appear they love the same woman.  Gasp a love triangle!  Well we all know that will end with quiet, dignity and grace.

Vivian and Marlowe go for a walk in the region as they just happen to stop by the very same ruins were the Knights Templar is buried.   Murdo spies on them making out and then speaks of the legend of Knights Templar.  After they both scoff at him he makes a blood sacrifice of one of the local girls in order to raise our nefarious Knights and bring death and destruction to all those who mocked him.   From flashbacks to current rampages this entire movie has taught me if you an attractive girl you will be topless, stabbed and receive the Mola Ram heart treatment.

 Lot of tight pan zooms and really impressive handheld work here and in 1973 that means they were still using thePFX_Gll Panaflex that still was a load and lug up these hilly terrains.  Possibly Vista Vision but they would have had to pry that from Paramount.  Similar to the anamorphic lens getting high residue shoots with a wide scope shot.   The outcome is a bit more plot, depth in the story from the first but a bit more graphic deaths and yet a far amount of topless shots.  I still feel bad for Ossorio not getting the spectral horse effect he really wanted.  Instead their heads are covered with a foul looking shroud symbolizing they are as undead as their masters.   I am thinking if you did a few spliced shots of the horses in full gallop combined with some foam and fiberglass dummies the riders could sit on in exterior night shots you would capture the effect.     Mind you a very simple but easy costume effect is their undead portion later with just using canvas tarps, smudging and smearing their cloaks with mud, dirt and local cow flop I guess.   A bit ominous and imaginative I have to say I am kinda pumped to see how this tetralogy finishes. 

Amando Ossorio Week: Tombs of the Blind Dead

Howdy all.  Today I have chosen Amando de Ossorio as the subject of the week.    With the mass level of Spanish and European Horror films making a huge surge, Ossorio wanted to stem away from films like: Santo E”La Vengaza De La Momia, The Lepers and Sex, Mission Sabotage and of course the uprising continuation of the Hammer Films of this time like Dracula ’72, The Karnstein Trilogy know as: The Vampire Lovers, Lust for a Vampire and Twins of Evil.   Ossorio knew the mainstream was changing and more violence, an increase in gore and nudity was on the horizon past the exploitation films.   That did not mean that story had to be sacrificed in the process.   The basis of the Blind Dead series is around the ghost stories he heard as a boy.    So huddle in around the burning pit, and make sure your charcoal filtered mask is working.   This is La Noche del terror ciego.

Even spoilers need subtitles… (Incluso spoilers necesita subtítulos)

With capturing the legends of the Knights Templar a order of the Crusade that was said to be annihilated for performing the black arts of witch craft, Ossorio spins the tales of perhaps those very wealthy and pagan men did receive the immortality promised to them all those centuries ago.

 But enough of that, pool party!  Bikinis and more body hair than Ron Jeremy and John Holmes combined and yes everyone disco dancing.    Our story opens with a young couple on vacation running into an old friend from school.   Virginia (Maria Elena Arpon of The House That Screamed, Crimen imperfect, Black Story and El Cristo del Oceano) recognizes her dear friend Betty (Lone Fleming of Bad Man’s River, In Happened at Nightmare Inn, Where Time Began and Return of the Evil Dead) and the two proceed to catch up.  They speak on about their lives, work and any budding romances, when Roger (Cesar Burner of The Man Called Noon, Green Inferno and Last Chance), Virginia’s boyfriend pulls himself out of the pool in a suave yet smarmy manner.  Virginia tells Betty of Roger and her impeding trip into the country.  Free from the hustle and bustle of society and just enjoying the relaxation that the country provides.   Betty is hesitant to join as she is unattached and Roger assures her she will find a man willing and with this they are scheduled to meet up at the train promptly at 4. 

A few odd notes and it will be right back to our gripping story line.   To cash in on the popularity , foreign distribution want re-cut and released La Noche del terror ciego with the alternative title Revenge from the Planet Ape in some half assed effort to capitalize on the success of the Planet of the Apes films.  With a new prologue attempting to link the two stories together, this story makes ape prisoners whom been tortured and maimed, vow to return from the dead to seek bloody retribution on mankind and avenge themselves against man’s injustice and tyranny in the hopes of saving the planet.

Back to our flick in process, our couple is met back up with Betty who couldn’t snare a fella but Roger insists she join them all the same.  Virginia seems to be quietly seething and is of the mindset Roger is looking for a little action on Betty’s behalf.   And with a bit of stomping out and a rather nice dissolve when find out in a flashback that Virginia and Betty were…close one might say and sorry fellas the shots are actually tender (minus the organ music) and feel innocent.  Roger now hip to what is going on, Virginia settles on the brilliant idea of leaving the train at the only port of call being some old ruins and no civilization to be seen.    GENIUS!!!  Roger and Betty discover this temper tantrum; jump the train in the hopes of finding her.  After trekking a bit in the ruins clearly it is time to camp in the very…eerie ruins that is not even on a current map. Now before this sounds cranky this is only in the first 12 minutes. 

Finally, the legion of Spamelot rise and it is clear they are not big on trespassers.    I had the hardest time not snickering as the burial crosses starting to shift in the loose soil. No no, that’s not Styrofoam, that is clear a marble and granite found in the area and just appears as though wind could push it about.   And what brings back the dead you may ask? Why those pesky kids with their smooth FM Jazz and their filthy cigarettes.    Given their complete lack of peepers it is said that the Blind Dead must hunt by sound and sound alone.  Don’t…make…noise.

The handheld, tripod based and steady cam work has been amazing.   I admit I was drooling a bit over the ladies but as characters boy they needed name tags establishing: Born to be disemboweled.  The tone of the movie is captured well by lighting and various fog and smoke effects. Exterior shots as well as a few day for night did not sway me from finishing this.  I gather what the overall effect was to be from this film in telling a ghost story that shook our writer/director’s very being but the limited budget must have been utter hell for Ossorio and personally I would have loved to see the knights’ mounts mostly skeletal with bit of fur and meat draped haphazardly.   Ah well.  What could have been.

Obscure Director: Amando de Ossorio

From the depths of obscurity hails Amando de Ossorio a director from the shores of Spain who devoted himself to the horror genre boom in the 1970's.  His fame or infamy is derived from his Blind Dead Quadrilogy as well as his daunting terror know as La endemoniada a.k.a The Possessed.  It shan't be pretty but for my readers I shall endure these films if only to see a spark of amazing cinematography, storyline and captivating actors and actresses.   We shall see... muahahahahahaha!!!!  Tata for now.

Before They Were Stars: Magic

Well folks we finish off Before They Were Stars week with a Richard Attenborough flick from 1978.  The center or crux of this film is around a ventriloquist by the name of Corky Withers.   You may know him better as Sir Anthony Hopkins.   Gather around the idjit box and stuff your face with munchies.  This is Magic.

Spoilers tried…tried…and failed!

Actor/producer/director Richard Attenbourough (Oh! What a Lovely War, Young Winston, A Bridge Too Far, Gandhi, A Chorus Line and Chaplin) intentionally purchased writer William Goldman’s screenplay based on his same titled novel (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President’s Men, Heat, The Princess Bride, Misery and Chaplin) in order to use the revenue for making Gandhi.   Until he really sat down and read the screenplay. 

 While the main focus is a fumbling magician’s assistant named Corky (Sir Anthony Hopkins of Othello, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Desperate Hours, Silence of the Lambs, Dracula, Chaplin and Legends of the Fall) and summoning the courage to go solo he bombs quicker than a sober guy on open mike night. (Seen it and it is not pretty)   The crowd mocks his act and Corky becomes a little unhinged and starts insulting the audience.  His mentor tells him he needs a real gimmick so a year passes since that conversation apparently and Corky is now seen with a dummy named Fats and what do you know, he is surprisingly good and starts making a name for himself in the entertainment circuit.   Talent agent Ben Greene (Burgess Meredith of Batman, Mr. Novak, The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, Rocky, Clash of the Titans, Gloria and Grumpy Old Men) seeks Corky out and tells him he is ready for the big time!  I’m thinking Ed Sullivan or Johnny Carson myself.  Corky is ecstatic until he learns he will need to undergo a medical examination and Corky gives some half-assed excuse about fear of success and runs off the Catskills.   You see kids; Fats gave Corky more than confidence on stage.   

Corky stays at a hotel run by his old high school crush Peggy Ann Snow (Ann-Margret of Bye Bye Birdie, Viva Las Vegas, The Train Robbers, Tommy, The Villain, Twice in a Lifetime and Grumpy Old Men) who seems to be stuck in a loveless marriage and takes to Corky’s attention as it gives her life again.   Seriously the way Peggy and Duke act, you know they are dreaming of ending one another across the breakfast table. Peggy’s husband Duke (Ed Lauter of Dirty Little Billy, King Kong, The White Buffalo, B.J. and the Bear, Loose Shoes and Mulholland Falls) starts to think Corky may be after his gal and is getting a bit steamed under the collar.  This is not your typical love triangle as so much a quadrangle in that oddly enough Fats is not thrilled with Corky going out on his own either. 

 From what I gather there is no supernatural element in this that Fats is somehow possessed but in actuality it is all in Corky’s mind.   His unbearable self-loathing causes him to doubt his worth by acting out with Fats.   Ben attempts to get ahold of Corky again and pleads with him to get some help.   The best scene in this film is still has to be Corky putting Fats down for 5 minutes.  Sweat just trickles down his face and he cannot help but rush over to Fats yet again.

Now while the horror is a bit predictable when it occurs, it is fascinating watching Corky just losing his mind and soul a little at a time and Peggy really is the emotional lynchpin to this film.  Perhaps if we never saw Corky lose it on stage it would be more of a psychological thriller.  Not a great movie but overall a sound one.   A competent triumph from cast and crew by my account and I deem it noteworthy.

Before They Were Stars: Something Wild

Back again youngins!  We dabble back into Before They Were Stars week with Ray Liotta’s first film.  What happens when a yuppie encounters a free spirit and goes on a wild ride?   Headaches, heartache and a potential relationship is most likely.  Grab some Jiffy Pop, snag a MexiCoke and plop it on the couch.   This is Something Wild.

Spoilers channel rebellion into the mainstream….

Screenwriter E. Max Frye (Amos & Andrew, Palmetto, Where the Money Is and Second Nature) and director Jonathan Demme , a former exploitation and Roger Corman protégé(Caged Heat, Crazy Mama, Last Embrace, Philadelphia, and Silence of the Lambs) captures the imagination with this screwball comedy throwing two completely different people in to a bizarre series of adventures.  This is loosely referred as part of Demme’s small-town trilogy of which started with the 1977 Handle With Care (starring Paul Le Mat, Candy Clark and Bruce McGill) and Melvin & Howard (starring again Paul Le Mat, Jason Robards and Mary Steenburgen)

 Anal retentive straight laced Wall Street tax accountant Charlie Driggs (Jeff Daniels of Checking Out, Arachnophobia, The Butcher’s Wife, Timescape, Speed and Dumb & Dumber) gets a ride to work from her only to be abducted by a freewheeling, adventure seeking girl Lulu a.k.a. Audrey Hankel (Melanie Griffith of Working Girl, Cherry 2000, In the Spirit, The Bonfire of the Vanities, Mulholland Falls and Another Day in Paradise)   Charlie was protests at this crazy ride due to his new promotion, his meetings he must attend, the reports to write and various calls to return. 

Lulu is dragging him off from his tried and true everyday life and asks him to pretend to be her husband for her mom’s sake and her 10^th year high school reunion.  Lulu robs a liquor store for some scotch and whatever was in the till, drags Charlie to a motel, cuffing him to the bed and well…you kinda have to see the scene.     As this road trip is under way Ray Sinclair (Ray Liotta of Field of Dreams, Goodfellas, Unlawful Entry, No Escape, Corrina, Corrina and Unforgettable) Lulu’s ex-con, ex-husband is tracking her down.  He’s pinning to get back together but really unable to confer his full ration of emotions leads to fight scenes, screaming matches and sheer insanity.  You don’t see just an abusive thug in Liotta’s portrayal but a man at the end of his rope one minute and then a level headed cat the next. 

A lot of this movie feels like it is pointing out facets of 1980’s America from the love and worship of pop culture to how the other halves live.  While three protagonists are all white, the background of this road trip has an absorbent amount of black actors playing church members, musicians, waiters, gas attendants and hitchhikers.  I guess the main theme is to point out how the Reagan years were not the best for everyone and these are some of the folk that simply got the short end of the stick.  You get the feeling the influences of David Lynch’s Blue Velvet or perhaps Martin Scorsese’s After Hours.  The whole Yuppie Angst angle that was very popular in both TV and movie.  Yeah ,30 Something didn’t make much sense to me even then.  It is a dark comedy, a romantic comedy and worth of the road trips of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby.   

Before They Were Stars: The Mighty Quinn

Howdy boys and girls!  Yes we are back again with Before They Were Stars and to be honest this film was deeply impressive from the story to the cast and crew.  Grab your snacks, get over that round of musical chairs and let’s kick this pig.   This is The Mighty Quinn.

Spoilers be the devil.

The 1989 film is most definitely a thriller with a pretty top notch crew, lead by TV and movie director Carl Shenkel (Graf Dracula beiBt jetzt in Oberbayern, Abwarts, Bay Coven, The Edge, Silhouette and Knight Moves) writer Hampton Fancher (Blade Runner, The Minus Man) take the thriller novel Finding Maubee based on A. H.Z. Carr’s 1982 novel .  

Police Chief Xavier Quinn (Denzel Washington of St. Elsewhere, Glory, Ricochet, Malcolm X, Much Ado About Nothing, Crimson Tide, Training Day and The Book of Eli) is called to investigate a resort hotel mogul Donald Pater (Bobby Ghisays of Club Paradise, Passion and Paradise and Popcorn) and all circumstantial evidence points to Quinn’s childhood friend Maubee (Robert Townsend of Odd Jobs, The Five Heartbeats, The Meteor Man, Bliss, Taxman and Undercover Brother) this unnamed island in the Caribbean has the typical local bureaucracy with the island governor (Norman Beaton of Black Joy, The Fosters, Empire Road and Desmond’s) and his power player Thomas Elgin (James Fox of The Servant, King Rat, The Chase, Farwell to the King, Patriot Games, Mickey Blue Eyes) seem to want this to be an open and shut case. An American representing Pater’s company Fred Miller (M. Emmet Walsh of Blade Runner, Blood Simple, The Flash, Silverfox, White Sands and Equinox) agrees with the governor.   Quinn is not satisfied with the answers he has been given for his questions.   You get the feeling that most the witnesses have been threatened or bought off.

Maubee is evading the police so well that he even drops by to visit Quinn face to face.   From chatting up the local witch to questioning Thomas Elgin’s wife Hadley (Mimi Rogers of Gung Ho, Street Smart, Someone to Watch Over Me, The Doors, Wedlock and The Rapture).  Hadley makes dreamy eyes at Xavier.  The investigation goes on, feathers are getting ruffled and Xavier is devoting so much time to defend Maubee that his wife and son feel the strain of going beyond the call of duty.  One witness claims to see Maubee take off with a 10,000 dollar bill.  Quinn knows there is no such bill so the mystery is getting stranger already.

The cause of death is pretty spot on to as Pater was found floating in a Jacuzzi tub decapitated.  *adjusts shades* Guess he just lost his head *cues Baba O Reilly*.    The islands doctor Dr. Raj (Keye Luke of The Green Hornet, Charlie Chan at the Circus, King of Burlesque, Kung Fu and The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan) indicates that Pater had a venomous snake bite prior to decapitation.  A man keeps tailing Quinn and making his own inquiries.   The plot thickens further and the entangled web reveals plots and counterplots.   As a first major movie role let alone lead role Washington knocks this one out of the ball park.  The tension ratchets up well and this film will keep you constantly guessing what is happening next.   I found this to be riveting, clever and quite devious.  This is completely worth the watch people.

Before They Were Stars: Darkman

Hey all! We travel further into Before They Were Stars week and let us focus on a fellow who started as he called it a bit actor in some impressive films such as Excalibur, Krull and The Bounty.  So I thought we would reflect on his first lead role.    So get your popcorn and soda, enjoy your comfy chair.  This is Darkman.

Spoilers operate from the shadows…

Director Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead, Evil Dead II, The Quick and the Dead, For Love of the Game, The Gift and Spider-Man) gathers a team of writers such as: Chuck Pfarrer (The Jackal, Red Planet and Virus), Ivan Raimi (Easy Wheels, Army of Darkness, Spy Game and Spiderman 3) Daniel Goldin (Out on a Limb and Stephen King’s Dead Zone) and Joshua Goldin (Out on a Limb, Wonderful World and Outlaw Country) collaborate to create a good, decent man and break him slowly.    With the haunting composure of Danny Elfman (Batman, Beetlejuice, The Flash, Batman Returns, Army of Darkness, Batman: The Animated Series, Tales from the Crypt and Mars Attacks) a gang war is spreading over the territories and land is being snatched up left and right no matter what the cost.   To what end you may ask?   We then shoot over to Doctor Peyton Westlake’s (Liam Neeson of Excalibur, Rob Roy, Schindler’s List, Gangs of New York, Love Actually, Batman Begins and Taken) laboratory as he and his assistant Yakitito (Nelson Mashita of Rising Sun, Independence Day, Drive and NYPD Blue) are attempting to create an artificial skin that would replace skin graphs and deep tissue burns, the catch is they cannot seem to get it to last beyond 100 minutes of exposure to light.   

So close to this discovery that would benefit humanity he discusses the experiment with lawyer girlfriend Julie Hastings (Frances McDormand of Raising Arizona, Mississippi Burning, Hidden Agenda, Fargo, Primal Fear, Wonder Boys and Almost Famous) whose pesky need for the truth may have uncovered some unsavory acts in zoning laws for the newest construction by Louis Strack (Colin Friels of Water Rats, Dark City,The Book of Revelation, BlackJack: Dead Memory, BlackJack: At the Gates and BlackJack:Ghosts) would appear to not only Strack Industries is accountable for bribes but in league with a nefarious criminal Robert G Durant (Larry Drake of L.A. Law, Dr. Giggles, Prey, Darkman II: The Return of Durant and The Beast) on this lucrative land grab scheme to net millions.  

Durant and his boys hit Westlake’s lab, pummeling and disfiguring him as well as killing Yakitito blowing up Westlake’s lab sending him in a fireball out to sea.   He awakes in the hospital but the explosion has altered him.  40% of his body is covered in burns and to cease him from having pain the doctor( Jenny Agutter of Logan’s Run, The Man in the Iron Mask, Equus, Dominique, An American Werewolf in London and MI-5) does a procedure to block the nerve endings are greatly damaged in the fact he can hardly feel anything.   With this in mind, he feels as though he is going through sensory deprivation and is easily angered causing a huge surge of adrenaline within him giving him uncharted amounts of strength.  Little point of observation, I swear one of the visiting doctors looks like John Landis (director of Animal House, An American Werewolf in London, The Blues Brothers and Coming to America).   

Afraid, ruined and broken, Westlake attempts to continue his research if not to be reunited with Julie but to take revenge on Durant and his cronies.   With all his equipment and synthetic skin at his abandoned factory (must be New York, the heroes and villains always find an abandoned factory) the ready he plots and schemes how to best destroy the men that took his life. 

You get the feel of a hybrid of a 1940’s radio show based on the villains’ dialogue but the seamy underbelly of a 1980’s graphic novel all jumbled together.  With influences like the Looney Tunes, Three Stooges and Marvel Comics is it any wonder this film is as insane as it is well constructed.  We get old favorite POV views as well as; Gunsight POV, Ram-o Cam and Shaky Cam as well.   Raimi of course keeps to his favorites to work with and we do get an appearance of Bruce Campbell, his brother Ted Raimi and Dan Hicks; you just gotta keep them eyes peeled. Over the top villains, a tormented hero and of course, the dame with the gams it’s a fun and bizarre ride.