SECRET SATAN 2023

[RIPPA]

Here is the signup thread for reference

I will be posting the first review shortly

[RIPPA]

PEEPING TOM (1960, Michael Powell)

IMDB

SELECTED BY: @odessasteps

Who only noted he was "surprised it hadn't been picked before"

REVIEWED BY: @driver

Once again Halloween Dishevelment is upon us. I got Peeping Tom and I watched it on Tubi. 

We start out with a right proper lady being filmed. How do I know she's a proper lady? Her seams are straight, innit. And that fur jacket she's wearing? Looks like something Bruiser Brody would've cut the sleeves off and wore into the ring.
The cinematography is great. Everything that is red pops through the screen. The version of Tubi is a great transfer.

Every actor that isn't the lead seems to remind me of either Sam Drucker or a less creepy proto-Clint Howard.

There is some great camera equipment between the ever-present portable movie camera(Bell & Howell Model 70-DR) that the protagonist carries around and the old school "poke your head under a curtain to get a shot" still camera.

At a birthday party a guest asks the mother of the birthday girl "You must be so proud of your daughter" to which she says "Hmm" as she sips her glass of Johnny Walker Red. Loved it. Very understated. Mark(the cameraman) seems to be a shy sort who loves taking cheese cake photos.

I don't know if there is any significance of everything red popping or if it just happened that way. This becomes very apparent in the darkroom when the red lights and Anna Massey's(the birthday girl) hair and dress dominate the scene.

The in color present is contrasted by the black & white footage that Mark has shot. Turns out his dad gave him a camera as a present when he was a boy. Dad also liked to film his son while he's sleeping and toss lizards on him. 

The entire sequence on a film soundstage where he sets up the kill all the while the victim has no idea what her fate is as she dances all around the set is excellent.

The risks Mark takes to film the police removing the body could lead to his downfall in more ways than one. I know he wants his footage, but, yeah, nope.

I'll be damned if the actress playing Helen's mother(Maxine Audley) doesn't look like a ginger Toni Collette.

I really enjoyed this movie. 

EDITOR NOTE

As mentioned, can be found on Tubi. Roku also has it. Both services run it with ads.

[Curt McGirt]

Talk about not giving anything away...

Seeing this in Shudder's scariest moments clip show reminded me that I've only seen like half of it. Need to rectify that. The fact that it crushed Michael Powell's career is utterly criminal. Like, it should have been prosecutable as a crime against cinema. Every one of those that went up in arms should have been forced to watch Salo when it came out over and over again as punishment. 

[odessasteps]

I'd recommend a bunch of the content on youtube discussing the movie, two of the famous being Scorsese (noted Powell champion) and famed academic/filmmaker Laura Mulvey. 

[J.T.]

I am impressed.  Mark actually picked a good scary movie from a director that deserved a far better fate than the one he got.

I thought for sure that some poor bastard would be reviewing Billy the Kid vs. Dracula or Abbot & Costello Meet Frankenstein.

Edited October 10, 2023 by J.T.

[RIPPA]

23 minutes ago, J.T. said:

Abbot & Costello Meet Frankenstein.

Already done

See people follow the rules... except when it comes to picking Black Friday a million times

[odessasteps]

I think my other candidate was going to be a Vincent Price movie, like Witchfinder General.

Edited October 10, 2023 by odessasteps

[driver]

I am still captivated by the significance of the color red in that movie.

[J.T.]

2 hours ago, odessasteps said:

I think my other candidate was going to be a Vincent Price movie, like Witchfinder General.

I could've been convinced to review Theater of Blood since I haven't watched it in ages, it is probably Price's best work, and it has too many plot similarities to The Abominable Dr. Phibes for it to be coincidence.

2 hours ago, RIPPA said:

See people follow the rules... except when it comes to picking Black Friday a million times.

Or picking a gangster movie like Ghost Dog for the last Wong Fei Hung project?

Edited October 11, 2023 by J.T.

[Curt McGirt]

Nobody's done The Last Man on Earth yet and that's so in the public domain and easy to find. And awesome. 

FWIW, Price said his favorite of all the films he did was Dragonwyck. It aired on TCM the other day and is almost able to scrape in under horror. I'd say top ten Vincent Price is:

Spoiler

1. Witchfinder General

2. House on Haunted Hill

3. The Abominable Dr. Phibes

4. Masque of the Red Death

5. House of Wax

6. The Last Man on Earth

7. The Raven

8. House of Usher

9. The Pit and the Pendulum

10. Tales of Terror

The latter has him in THREE roles. Theater of Blood is probably a strong #11. Raven was an ensemble piece, but I think it's fair to give it its placement. Tower of London should be on there but his is a small role albeit one of the best in the film. 

5 hours ago, RIPPA said:

Black Friday

Black Christmas? 

Edited October 11, 2023 by Curt McGirt

[J.T.]

6 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

Black Christmas? 

Either that or Black Sabbath.

[RIPPA]

I meant Black Christmas however I am now shocked there hasn't been a horror movie based on a killer getting people during Walmart's door buster deals

[odessasteps]

9 hours ago, J.T. said:

I could've been convinced to review Theater of Blood since I haven't watched it in ages, it is probably Price's best work, and it has too many plot similarities to The Abominable Dr. Phibes for it to be coincidence.

Or picking a gangster movie like Ghost Dog for the last Wong Fei Hung project?

I think Theatre of Blood was done in the early years of the project. 
 

is it so wrong I like thinking out of the box for these? . 

[RIPPA]

3 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

is it so wrong I like thinking out of the box for these? . 

No - JT is a cranky old man

[odessasteps]

2 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

No - JT is a cranky old man

I mean, so am I. My review will like be at least tongue in cheek old man yelling at clouds given the film I have to do. 

[J.T.]

33 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

No - JT is a cranky old man

Not untrue.

[RIPPA]

GOD TOLD ME TO (Larry Cohen, 1976)

IMDB

SELECTED BY: @driver

REVIEWED BY @The Comedian

October 22, 1976. Two things of note happened that day. One, a fellow was born who would, a little more than 22 years later, would start posting on an internet wrestling bulletin board. The board was named after an Etsuko Mita move, the fellow after an Alan Moore character. Two, God Told Me To hit theaters. Yes, this movie was apparently released the day I was born. How serendipitous.

NYC has become plagued with a rash of spree killers. It starts when a young man begins sniping random people from a water tower. Hero cop Peter Nicholas (Tony Lo Bianco) climbs the tower to try to talk to the man. The guy is amiable enough, but when Nicholas asks why he's shooting, he tells him, "God told me to" before jumping to his death. Two other killers (including Andy Kaufman of all people as a cop) likewise name drop the movie title as their last words before the police start to drum up a lead. It seems all three killers were seen interacting with a strange man with long blonde hair, and a face that no one can quite remember, as if it's being mentally blocked out. The tower sniper's mother ends up giving the best clue; her son was friendly with the weird man and actually told her his name: Bernard Phillips.

NIcholas tracks down Phillips' mother, but upon visiting her she attacks him with a knife, dying herself in the process. Looking further into her, however, shit starts getting even weirder. It turns out she died a virgin! The doctor who delivered Bernard (via Caesarian) remembers him being not fully formed at birth, and only referring to him as a male because the mother did.  More investigation turns up a man who found Ms. Phillips decades ago, naked on the side of the road. Apparently she'd been picked up off Nantucket beach, impregnated by something, and dropped off outside Jersey City.

All this alien abduction and virgin birth shit is a bit uncomfortable for confirmed Catholic lad Nicholas, Not that he isn't a bit free with his own interpretation of Church laws; he's been separated from his wife for four years but won't end the marriage, even though he has a live-in girlfriend. Apparently in his mind adultery is lesser than divorce on the sin scale. Anyway, when he gets suspended due to his over zealousness towards the case, he responds by leaking the "God told me to" aspect to the press, causing a city-wide panic. This seems to get Phillips' attention, as we're introduced to a group of rich mucky-mucks who are in telepathic communication with Phillips and act as his secret cabal. One of them is tasked with inviting Nicholas into the group, but when Nicholas begins asking about Phillips' mother, the man goes into convulsions and dies. When another fails in an attempt to kill Nicholas, the cop forces him to take him to Phillips' stronghold, a basement boiler room. Nicholas finally confronts Phillips (an even creepier than usual Richard Lynch), questioning why such a powerful psionic being seems yo be afraid of him. Phillips tries to kill Nicholas in a fire, but he escapes, only strengthening his conviction that Phillips' telepathic abilities don't work on him. And this, interestingly enough, sends him once again on a parental search. You see, Peter Nicholas was raised in an orphanage. And now he's beginning to question the circumstances of his own birth...

Hey this was a good movie. I'm actually more familiar with Larry Cohen from his blaxploitation work than his horror stuff, and this definitely has that 70's street grit to it. It basically starts off like a police procedural thriller, but it keeps things moving at a solid pace so you don't get bored before it starts getting out there. And when it gets out there...it's like Across 110th Street suddenly ran into Rosemary's Baby by-way-of Chariots of the Gods. Or something like that. 

EDITOR'S NOTES

On Amazon Prime and Shudder (and Pluto with ads)

Found this quick video of Larry Cohen talking about the trailer for the movie - https://youtu.be/Pvjixy2aM3k?si=TFp-RmK_pqGH7jiX

 

[Curt McGirt]

Good movie. Freaky twist. Maybe the oddest of Cohen's movies, and that's saying a lot. 

[RIPPA]

CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS (BOB CLARK, 1972)

IMDB

SELECTED BY: @The Comedian

My choice for Secret Satan 2023 is Bob Clark's 1972 film Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things. You can find it for free on Youtube, and apparently it's also one of Pluto TV's free on demand selections. I believe it's Clark's feature debut and the beginning of his director/writer team with Alan Ormsby, who also stars. I think it's also a deceptively important film; we all know that Romero invented the modern trope of "zombie as cannibal corpse" in NOTLD, but in order to create a trend you need someone to copy the inventor. As far as I can tell, this is the first movie to pick Romero's ball up and run with it...

REVIEWED BY: @twiztor

Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things (1972)

written and directed by Benjamin Clark (later credited as Bob Clark), and starring nobody i've ever heard of.

i have never seen this one, but had heard OF it. likely never would have gotten around to checking it out, not due to any reason beyond being not very prolific. Let's go!

PLOT:
Our main character (although certainly not our protagonist) Alan is a filmmaker, and he journeys with his cast & crew to a cemetery on a nearby island. He is a strange dude, both in speech and actions. He plans on digging up a dead body for use in his latest endeavor. He fancies himself a wizard of sorts (even brought along a robe!) and his plan is to use black magic to raise the dead. He's also an incredibly smug asshole.

When the incantation seemingly doesn't produce the desired results, he turns to cursing the Devil to try to goad him into doing his (Alan's- pronouns pal!) bidding. After a second attempt by one of his cast, they give up and move back to the dwelling they found. They bring the corpse of Orville, the man they exhumed, back with them. Ostensibly to use in the film.

Back in the cabin, the cast and crew and ready to call it a failed adventure and return home. Alan dives even further into the bizarre, performing a macabre "wedding" ceremony between himself and Orville for some reason. The cast is becoming increasingly bothered by the lengths they are involved with, which only drives Alan further. He ends up bringing Orville to a side bedroom. Thankfully, we are interrupted before we get to necrophilia.

What happens next is very "Night of the Living Dead". the dead come back to life, the survivors have to defend the house, all that jazz. The cast tries to un-summon the dead, but are unable to complete the ritual. Spoiler alert, all the humans die. Orville gets the final kill on Alan. Post-credits (or maybe it was during the credits?) we see the returned dead boarding the filmmakers' boat, seemingly drawn to the lights of the city.

THOUGHTS:
Let me start out by talking about the music. and by "music", i mean random noises and sound effects that pop up in bunches. They are mixed WAY too loud and are pretty off-putting. Honestly, they detract from the film way more than they enhance it. bad choice.

I really enjoyed this flick. i have a soft spot for zombies and the implications and circumstances that they are involved around. I definitely covered the actual resurrection and siege the least in my recap, but it is some of the best stuff here. The makeup on the dead is really well done, especially for a movie that is obviously very low budget. The movements of the dead felt natural (or should that be un-natural?) There's a decent amount of gore, as is commonplace for these films, but you never know what you're going to get with low budget + 70s. Happy to report that it looked good and realistic enough. 

As to the plot...... eh? They make a ton of remarks about the cast and crew working for Alan, but they never once talk about what they are going to film, any of the characters they will play, or anything like that. Any mention of the actual film is completely ignored after the first few minutes other than the employment aspect. TBH, that was a pretty major complaint from me as it pretty much downplays the entire reason the adventure exists.

They did a little bit to subvert expectations as well. Right away, in the cold open, you see the caretaker of the cemetery walking amongst the tombstones, when a zombie moves in for the kill. You find out much later that it was really just a couple of Alan's friends that came out to the graveyard early to prank Alan's crew. Excellent move and gets praise from me. Also, when the survivors are holed up, they determine the best course of action is to distract all the zombies out front, while one friend makes a break for it out the back. Surprisingly to me, said friend is immediately dismembered. 

Thanks to whoever sent this one in. Had a great time and experience watching. And sorry to whoever got my choice. 

EDITOR'S NOTE

It is all over Youtube (though I didn't check the quality of the uploads). It is on Pluto and Plex with ads

[Curt McGirt]

Man, I bought that on VHS when Anchor Bay/William Lustig was putting out their very first lineup at the dawn of DVDs (the Fulci, Argento, and Bava flicks mostly) but I don't think I liked and never completely finished it! It was a big red clamshell and I've still got it in a box, probably stopped at the same spot I turned it off on. Feel bad about that. This is turning into a lineup of films to revisit it appears. 

As far as early Romero-influenced stuff goes I was reminded by a review on the Trailers from Hell site that Tombs of the Blind Dead was also '72 and Jorge Grau's stone classic Let Sleeping Corpses Lie/The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue was '74. So Spain might be the first country to take the ball from him and start running.

[Travis Sheldon]

Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things has been a favorite of mine since discovering it on a local TV station back in the 70s.

It's dripping in atmosphere, which is enhanced by the horrible lighting.

The cast perfectly encapsulates the local theatre/filmmaking scene with it's mix of characters and silly dialog.

And they beat Fulci with that ending by many years.

The siege is almost an afterthought, as by the time it happens you're really ready for Alan to get his.

Great choice @The Comedian and great writeup @twiztor.

 

[The Comedian]

It's funny Phil was talking about Black Christmas, since I was torn between choosing one of Bob Clark's other 2 early horror films. I ended up going with CSPWDT over Deathdream, which is a technically superior film and also has a MESSAGE~! delivered with METAPHORICAL SYMBOLISM~! and such (undead 'Nam vet must inject himself with victim's blood to keep from rotting)...but I went with the more fun option of "theatre troupe gets mauled by zombies".

I've seen all four Blind Dead films (even the really shitty one on the boat). They're a crazy mish-mosh of things; vampire zombie skeleton warriors steeped in Templar occultism and Wild Hunt mythology. From what I recall the second one was the best. 

[Curt McGirt]

I dunno if I've seen The Ghost Galleon or Night of the Seagulls, but I have the first two on yet another Anchor Bay release (an old double-feature disc). The second one I watched on VHS as Return of the Evil Dead when I was in high school. I got properly stoned and looooooved it because those movies are sloooooooow. 

EDIT: Ha, just noticed that the zombies on the cover have eyes. You had one job, dude! 

Also, Deathdream is great, so good that I'd put it as 1b over Black Christmas' 1a in Clark's career. And yes, that is over A Christmas Story. 

Edited October 12, 2023 by Curt McGirt

[odessasteps]

Can’t zombies have eyes before they fall out of their head? 

[The Comedian]

4 hours ago, odessasteps said:

Can’t zombies have eyes before they fall out of their head? 

They're the Blind Dead. A major plot point is that they had their eyes put out in life, and they hunt their victims by sense of hearing...

And if you point out that skeletons don't have ears either, then it's time for the MST3K mantra...

 

Also, old VHS horror covers are the freaking best man...

Edited October 13, 2023 by The Comedian
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