TENTACOLI (1977)

AIP’s strangely belated Jaws rip-off sees a Californian community terrorised by a giant octopus driven to madness and murder by what it hears on the radio. Given that this was 1977, you can hardly blame it.

A handful of big-name American stars and a supporting cast of familiar Euro-faces struggle gamely, but are thoroughly out-acted by two trained orcas and a tank-bound cephalopod…one of which, tragically, did not survive to the end of filming.

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Why not close out Lovecraft Month with a movie that stretches “based on the works of HP Lovecraft” well past the point of being a plausible claim.

BEYOND RE-ANIMATOR

In recent reviews, and as we continue to discuss movies based on the literary works of pulp horror/sci-fi author HP Lovecraft, the names Brian Yuzna and Stuart Gordon have popped up a lot. More specifically, the title Re-Animator keeps getting dropped into impolite conversation. The team of Gordon and Yuzna have enjoyed considerable acclaim from fans for their adaptations of Lovecraft material and for their ability to take Lovecraft’s work and make it something new without losing the essence of what made the story work in the first place. They did this in a number of ways, but probably the wisest decision they made was to confine themselves to the periphery of Lovecraft’s bibliography, selecting lesser known and all-but-forgotten stories rather than Lovecraft’s best known and most beloved. The first of the author’s story the duo chose to tackle was Herbert West, Re-Animator.

It wasn’t one that Lovecraft fans rallied around, so it would be less likely to get dissected or draw ire for departing from the source material. In terms of mind-bending weirdness, it was relatively straightforward, meaning that the filmmakers would not have to grapple with the more abstract horrors with which Lovecraft so often dealt. The resulting film, Re-Animator, is often heralded as a classic of American horror, combining the chills of Lovecraft with a black sense of humor, over-the-top gore, and something lurking beneath it all that means even amid all the mayhem and outrageousness, there’s something that just feels… icky. Almost sordid. Certainly unsettling. I’m not one to argue with consensus in this case; I think Re-Animator is fantastic. I think it’s a cornerstone not just of American horror, but horror in general. It’s a film that one can return to over and over without ever growing tired of it. And it’s amazing still what they were able to get away with. Over twenty years and at least as many viewings later, it’s still as shocking and gleefully unbelievable as it was the very first time I saw it.

So naturally, I’m not going to review that film.

I know, I know. There are some of you out there who are questioning what I have decided to review today for two reasons. The first is that Ziggy’s Gift, while unknown, is not a movie. The second is that it is Christmas-themed, and the actual holiday is still some distance away. But I want to get the word out on it, to plant a seed that may take a little while to sprout and eventually convince people to check this special out before the holiday passes. This special is really special. Trust me.

And what theme ties together the last two movies featured in Month of the Living Dead?  Easy.  They’re both Spanish-language.  And I swear I didn’t plan this.

Grave Robbers (1990)

The Ghost Galleon (1974)

(Their titles both begin with “G,” too, at least in the versions I watched.  How crazy is that?)

FROM BEYOND
The choice of “From Beyond” as the source story for a movie is not necessarily an intuitive choice. It’s seven pages of things that the human eye cannot behold, and really it doesn’t have much “story” to it other than “I saw stuff and almost died, but then I shot the machine and lived, only to wish I hadn’t.” Other than the framing device, the whole story consists of sitting down in front of a machine. Character development consists of describing what a shriveled gargoyle Tillinghast has become. And, again, all of the visuals are meant to be literally impossible things which the eye is incapable of perceiving. But then, Stuart Gordon and Brian Yuzna’s first choice was not this story. After the success of Herbert West: Re-Animator, the follow-up effort was originally slated to be Dagon. That didn’t end up happening, though, because Charles Band didn’t think that fish-people were sufficiently scary. With the potential for special effects in the mid-1980s for this crew, maybe he was right… but then, given that my experiences with Full Moon films have basically been a string of letdowns, I dunno if Charles Band is the authority I’d bow to in terms of what’s scary.

Only one more review to go before the gate is unlocked and we all go mad…

David continues to stretch the definition of “based on the works of HP Lovecraft” to the snapping point…

IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS

Neill’s role in In the Mouth of Madness harks back to his first big break, which was as Damien Thorn in The Final Conflict. The film was the weakest of the three original Omen films, but Neill showed he could be charming, charismatic and devilish too. Here, as Trent, he is snide, sarcastic and cynical — not the nice ‘everyman’ we are used to. His job as an insurance investigator has made him this way after years of uncovering fraudsters and phonies. His view of humanity is somewhat jaded. Yet, somehow, he sees him self as being above this corruption. He also sees himself as a man grounded in reality — at least when the film starts. But then he slowly, after delving into Sutter Cane’s book, begins to have hallucinations. As the story arc continues these hallucinations become a bigger part of Trent’s life until they are in fact reality, and the vestiges of the real world are fantasy.

At the end, the film spins into a deliberate self-referential vortex, where the film In the Mouth of Madness tells the story of a book called In the Mouth of Madness, which is then made into a film called In the Mouth of Madness.

NECRONOMICON
Necronomicon is an anthology film — as mentioned in my review of Alien Zone, a format that never really clicks with me. But considering the names behind this anthology — besides Yuzna himself producing the movie and directing two segments (the final story as well as the wrap-around story that features Jeffrey Combs as HP Lovecraft), two other directors were called in for the project, both of them relatively unknown at the time of the film’s production. But they would both make names for themselves years later, and since I didn’t see Necronomicon until years later (its distribution in the United States has been, at best, spotty), I already knew and had high expectations for the names Christophe Gans (Brotherhood of the Wolf, Silent Hill) and Shusuke Kaneko (the Gamera films from the 1990s, of which I think the second is one of the greatest giant monster movies ever made). The fact that I liked both directors so much, coupled with Yuzna’s track record with Lovecraft (even when he makes a bad movie, Yuzna doesn’t make an un-entertaining movie) was enough to get me over my initial dislike of the anthology film.

Footsteps in the Fog (1955), in which the Edwardian thriller template is driven pleasantly haywire by a  heroine who turns out to be just as crazy and amoral as the villain…

Mimic (1997), in which the usual giant, killer, B-movie bugs evolve a cunning form of camouflage…

Naked Fear (2007), in which people are still ripping off The Most Dangerous Game after all these years…

Scanners (1980), in which David Cronenberg comes even closer than I’d remembered to just flat-out remaking The Power…

and…

12 to the Moon (1960), in which– and you’ll never see this coming– twelve people go to the moon.

No, not an official entry in Month Of The Living Dead; just a scheduling coincidence!

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Zombi Holocaust (1980)

In which a mad scientist encourages a bunch of natives to become cannibals, so that he can turn them into zombies.

Featuring a lot of blood, a few boobs, one bare butt and a scattering of maggots. So, yeah – NSFW.

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EDITED TO ADD:  Association of ideas. I have also re-formatted and added screenshots to my review of Zombie Lake….and you better BELIEVE it’s NSFW!!!!

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THE SHUTTERED ROOM

That many were skeptical of the degree to which these stories –- one of which was The Shuttered Room –- could actually be considered Lovecraft’s work is understandable. Not only had Lovecraft been dead for over twenty years at the time of their writing, but those examples of his notes included in the same volume clearly demonstrate that many of his story ideas consisted of little more than single sentences that had a lot more to do with suggestions of tone than any kind of specific plot details. As a result, these particular efforts on Derleth’s part came to be seen by many as nothing more than a distasteful bit of coattail-riding.

Now I have to confess to not having actually read The Shuttered Room, but if the 1967 movie adaptation of the story is any indication (which, admittedly, it very well may not be), it’s thematic relationship to Lovecraft’s work is –- on a superficial level, at least –- pretty explicit. Or, at least, I should say, it’s relationship to one specific piece of Lovecraft’s work, because the movie seems to rely pretty heavily upon The Dunwich Horror for many of it key elements. The setting is an island off the New England coast (which is actually parts of Norfolk, in the old England, standing in for New England) called Dunwich, which, to the scant extent that it is inhabited at all, is populated mostly by descendents of the Whateley family, that clan who figured so prominently in the action of the original Dunwich. There is talk of a “Whateley Curse” and, most importantly, some kind of unspeakable horror locked away in an attic room in an old house belonging to the family.

In keeping with the impromptu themes that I’ve discovered with every two reviews I’ve posted in this year’s Month of the Living Dead, here are the commonalities that bind together this week’s entries:

a) They were both sent to me as screeners for review.

b) They’re both kind of underwhelming.

Life Room (2009)

Mutants (2009)

Time for a little more SCIENCE IN THE REEL WORLD:

Yellow Jack (1938) – set in Cuba at the conclusion of the Spanish-American War, the true(ish) story of Major Walter Reed and his team, and their search for the truth about the transmission of yellow fever

Without Love (1945) – which offers the somewhat unlikely sight of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy falling in love over the development of an experimental oxygen delivery system for high altitude aviation

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It’s been a long time since I’ve practically begged you readers to check out movies made by PM Entertainment. It’s that time again. Instead of screaming in your face (which hasn’t worked), I’ll start off with a history lesson. PM Entertainment went through so many transformations during its lifetime that it’s hard to believe many of its films were made by the same company when you compare them to each other. Take a look at the company’s history, starting back in the latter part of the ’80s when Richard Pepin and Joseph Merhi first got together and founded the company that was originally called City Lights. In those first few years they made a name for themselves with ultra cheap movies like Mayhem, The Newlydeads, and Dance Or Die. As bad and cheap as those movies were, they must have made a profit, because in the first part of the ’90s they were not only still around, they were making somewhat higher-budgeted movies like Chance, The Art Of Dying, and Street Crimes, which, while not all good, were a definite improvement on what they made previously. (They had changed their name to PM Entertainment at this point, possibly in a ploy to distance themselves from those awful movies they made in their first years.) A few years from that point, the budgets increased slightly again, and they made movies like Cybertracker, Ice, and Direct Hit. Then around 1996 PM hit its peak, raising significantly large budgets for their movies which included Rage, The Sweeper, and Executive Target. The PM movie I’m reviewing here, Firepower, comes from that third stage. Read the review, be informed, and watch PM movies – at least the good ones.

Is there an inadvertent theme visible in the two offerings this week in Month of the Living Dead 9? There is indeed: Titles.

The independent zombie film Contagium bit off more than it could chew when it was retitled Day of the Dead 2: Contagium (2005) before release…

…whereas the mediocre horror film Zombies (1964) got a new lease on life when it was later retitled I Eat Your Skin for the drive-in circuit, and derives what notoriety it has from that title alone.

BEYOND THE WALL OF SLEEP
If my review of The Dunwich Horror proved anything, it was that neither H.P. Lovecraft or the gothic horror films of American International Pictures are areas in which I am particularly expert. It’s for that reason that, when word came down that October was going to be yet another month O’ Lovecraft here at Teleport City, I eschewed making the obvious choice of tackling Dunwich director Daniel Haller’s earlier Die, Monster, Die! I just didn’t think I had that much more to add to what I’d already said on the subject.

But that left me at a bit of a loss as to what film I would cover. Keith helpfully reeled off a list of yet-to-be-claimed titles (I won’t call them the dregs, exactly), one of which, Beyond the Wall of Sleep, I had never heard of. I darted over to the IMDB and perused the user reviews for Sleep, of which subject lines like “Quite possibly the worst film I’ve ever seen”, “Avoid at all costs”, and (emphasis mine) “The single worst movie I’ve ever seen” were fairly representative. “Yes,” I thought to myself. “That just might be the one.”

That’s right, Month of the Living Dead has come to Cold Fusion Video Reviews again — the ninth annual Month of the Living Dead, in fact. And the first two movies make me wonder why I started doing this in the first place, because they are in fact utter kaka:

Snuffin’ Zombies (2008)

Zombie Bloodbath 3: Zombie Armageddon (2000)

GOJIRA NO GYAKUSHU (1955)

The first sequel to Gojira (1954) was a rushed affair intended to cash in on its predecessor’s success, and it shows; the film is an altogether smaller, less powerful, and ultimately less important piece of film-making. However, with the introduction of Anguirus, and the staging of the newcomer’s vicious battle with Godzilla, Godzilla’s Counterattack bestowed upon subsequent kaiju eiga a most blessed gift: the concept of the monster smackdown.

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We also take a look at the tortuous journey by which Godzilla’s Counterattack became Gigantis, The Fire Monster.

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