THE DAY AFTER HALLOWEEN aka SNAPSHOT, aka ONE MORE MINUTE (Australia - 1979)
One of the more egregious examples of misleading advertising from the grindhouse glory days, THE DAY AFTER HALLOWEEN was the 1980 US retitling of the 1979 Australian import SNAPSHOT, complete with poster art that didn't make any overt claims, but arguably implied that it was somehow connected to John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN (1978). I'm sure audiences became openly hostile by the 20-minute mark, as it obviously has nothing whatsoever to do with HALLOWEEN or Halloween, but taken on its own terms (or, as SNAPSHOT, which is the actual title on both versions on Scorpion Releasing's new DVD--more on that in a bit), it's a compellingly odd character piece that's light on thrills and chills, but does a good job of establishing a palpable sense of unease throughout. It also has a believable performance by Sigrid Thornton (THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER) as young, naive hairdresser Angela. Stuck in a dead-end job with a domineering mother (Julia Blake), a bratty little sister (Jacqui Gordon), and ex-boyfriend Daryl (Vincent Gil) who follows her around in an ice cream truck, Angela is whisked away from her dreary life by bitch-on-wheels cover girl Madeline (Chantal Contouri), who gets her a modeling job. Now with money and independence, Angela is meeting all sorts of new people and finding her way through a new world. And that ice cream truck is still following her.
YouTube fan montage featuring the film's theme song "Angela," by Sherbet!
Co-written by Australia-based American expat Everett De Roche (LONG WEEKEND, PATRICK, ROAD GAMES) and directed by Simon Wincer (later to helm projects as varied as LONESOME DOVE, QUIGLEY DOWN UNDER, HARLEY DAVIDSON AND THE MARLBORO MAN, and FREE WILLY), SNAPSHOT is a strange little film that drops its heroine in an unrelentingly cruel world where she's used, abused, and manipulated by everyone (even her mother drops by her new place and steals some money out of her dresser drawer), and yet, she's curiously unfazed by a lot of it (she finds a pig's head in her bed at one point, and goes on about her day, assuming Daryl put it there). This film is often lumped in with the Ozploitation scene (primarily because of producer Antony I. Ginnane), but there's not much here in the way of exploitative elements. In fact, I'm not entirely sure what Wincer and the writers really wanted to accomplish here, but it's consistently engrossing and you're never quite certain where it's headed. Coupled with an ending that might leave more questions than answers, the only thing one can say with 100% certainty is that whatever title it's going by, it's not a slasher film. Scorpion's DVD is really a thing of beauty: the 2.35 anamorphic presentation of the 92-minute US cut is quite impressive and a major improvement on the blurry, washed-out print that aired on Turner Classic Movies a couple of years ago. I think that faded print is the transfer used for the second version on the DVD: the 101-minute Australian cut that's presented in a vastly inferior 1.78 anamorphic transfer, and most of the additional footage seems to consist of Angela having a much longer confrontation with her mother, a scene of her roommates watching the Ginnane-produced PATRICK on TV, Madeline and Angela walking in on a couple having sex, and more screen time for a shamelessly mugging nightclub performer who should've been cut altogether. It's this longer version that has a commentary track with Ginnane and Scorpion horror hostess Katarina Leigh Waters. Ginnane is personable enough, and covers most of the bases, but Waters really doesn't do a great job of keeping the discussion going (though to her credit, she is improving on her earlier commentary moderation efforts), usually chiming with an "Mmm hmm," to keep Ginnane talking, which I suppose is fine. It's not the best commentary you'll ever hear (and it takes a full hour for either of them to inevitably mention that Quentin Tarantino is a fan of the film), but Ozploitation devotees will find it interesting. The nine extra minutes are superfluous and the film not only looks better in its shorter version, but it's paced better as well. Also of note for trash fans: nearly every female cast member except for Controuri spent time on the Australian women-in-prison cult TV series PRISONER: CELL BLOCK H. (R, 92 mins/101 mins)
WAVES OF LUST (Italy - 1975)
Raro USA brings us the first official US home video release of this early erotic thriller from future CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST director Ruggero Deodato. Ostensibly inspired by Roman Polanski's 1962 breakthrough KNIFE IN THE WATER, WAVES OF LUST is one of Deodato's dullest films, and despite the director's claims that it's a thriller above all, there's not much in the way of suspense or drama. If you didn't think it was possible that constant sex and nudity could be boring as hell, then let WAVES OF LUST show you how it's done. Irem (Al Cliver) and Barbara (Silvio Dionisio, Deodato's wife at the time) meet George (John Steiner) and Silvia (Elizabeth Turner), and are invited for a cruise on George's yacht. They do this despite thinking George may have murdered a business associate with whom they'd earlier seen him arguing. Of course, it doesn't take long for George to reveal himself as a psychotic, controlling, alcoholic douchebag who routinely physically and psychologically abuses Silvia. This prompts her to seek sexual solace with both Irem and Barbara, while Barbara finds herself turned on by George, who does little aside from ruin everyone's vacation, smack Silvia around, and brag about how rich and powerful he is. Only in the last 15 minutes does Deodato decide to make this a "thriller," and it's as unsatisfying as the plentiful but profoundly unerotic sex scenes, the nadir of which has Cliver doing a head stand (a recurring motif that, like the rest of the film, goes nowhere) while the almost constantly nude Turner stands and passionately kisses his ankle and calf, as Deodato provides us with some gratuitous Al Cliver back acne. Joe D'Amato probably could've done wonders with this, but Deodato's made much better films, starting with his next, 1976's awesome LIVE LIKE A COP, DIE LIKE A MAN. Written by Gianlorenzo Battaglia and Lamberto Bava. Deodato, Bava, and Cliver appear in a 17-minute documentary on the DVD, and there's also some deleted scenes that show some additional shots in a few of the sex scenes. Raro's DVD offers both Italian-language and English-dubbed audio, and is 1.85 anamorphic and looks generally acceptable. WAVES OF LUST is worth a watch for Deodato fans and Italian exploitation obsessives, but even they won't get much out of this catatonic, sleep-inducing softcore porn travelogue. (Unrated, 88 mins)
Directed by Howard Avedis. Written by Howard Avedis and Marlene Schmidt. Cast: Mary McDonough, Lynda Day George, Christopher George, David Wallace, Bill Paxton, Alvy Moore, Bill Conklin, Denis Mandel, Donna Garrett, Marlene Schmidt. (R, 93 mins)
A familiar title from the video store glory days, MORTUARY arrived in theaters in the fall of 1983 with one of the most misleading ad campaigns of its day. With poster art featuring a hand sticking out of a grave and a trailer that utilized footage and an actor (THE HILLS HAVE EYES' Michael Berryman) not present in the film itself, MORTUARY didn't exactly endear itself to horror fans. Instead, it's a rather straightforward suspense thriller with post-HALLOWEEN/FRIDAY THE 13TH slasher elements that too often look like clumsily-inserted gore scenes that were added after the fact, as if a distributor or someone controlling the cash flow decided the movie needed more splatter. Exploitation vet Howard Avedis (SCORCHY, THE FIFTH FLOOR) does a nice job staging some effective scare sequences throughout, and until you get a really good look at the killer ("Open the window, Christie!"), his appearance--sort of a cross between Captain Howdy from THE EXORCIST and the frontman of a Norwegian black metal band--is pretty unnerving. But Avedis lets some scenes go on too long, the killer's identity is too obvious too early, and the gore scenes aren't as well done as in some of its contemporaries. When fans today look back at a lot of these '80s slasher films, there's much misplaced nostalgia for some of them and I think it's really the era being remembered with such fondness rather than some of the individual titles. MORTUARY was not a beloved film in its time. Is it a long-buried treasure ripe for rediscovery? No. But freed from the shackles of its hysterically inaccurate one-sheet and trailer and all of those expectations, it holds up pretty well.
Mary McDonough and Lynda Day George
Since her father mysteriously drowned a month earlier, Christie (Mary McDonough) is convinced his death was no accident and thinks someone is after her. Meanwhile, her mother Eve (Lynda Day George) is attending seances held at the funeral home of local mortician Hank Andrews (Christopher George). Hank's creepy son Paul (a pre-fame Bill Paxton), who spent time in a mental hospital after his mother's suicide, has a crush on Christie, who already has a boyfriend, Greg (David Wallace). Greg's friend, a former employee of Hank's, has vanished without a trace. Soon, Christie is being pursued by a robed, hooded, white-faced killer whose weapon of choice is a sharp embalming tube and of course, no one believes her.
MORTUARY was shot in 1981, just as then-20-year-old McDonough was wrapping up a ten-year run as Erin Walton on the classic TV series THE WALTONS. It was probably a surprise to see one of the Walton kids getting naked in a horror movie, but Avedis (who co-wrote the script with his wife Marlene Schmidt, formerly 1961's Miss Universe) does a pretty bumbling job of hiding that it's a body double. You never see McDonough's face and body in the same shot. The gore scenes are also of varying quality, one obviously without the presence of the actor whose character is being stabbed (again, you never see their face). Oddly--for the time period, at least--MORTUARY works best when it's more old-school in its execution. Some of the killer's sudden appearances, as well as a chase through Christie's house (filled some some of the most cluttered and hideously garish decor you'll ever see) are very well done and Avedis seems more invested in these scenes instead of the sloppy, awkwardly-shot gore bits.
"You two donkey dicks couldn't get laid in a morgue!"
With its inconsistencies and its red herrings (the seance subplot never really goes anywhere), MORTUARY is a mixed-bag, but it's entertaining. McDonough makes a likable heroine, and the Georges, who had PIECES in US theaters just two weeks later, are on hand to provide solid professional support (and in Lynda's case, a surprising display of cleavage). Christopher George, who died of a heart attack less than three months after MORTUARY's release, was well into his run as a grindhouse fixture by this point, after roles in THE EXTERMINATOR, GRADUATION DAY, THE GATES OF HELL (the US retitling of CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD) and the forthcoming PIECES, and unlike many in his position, never phoned it in. He seems to be genuinely trying here, and even clearly ad-libs in a few spots, including a bit where he has to sign a receipt and dickishly makes Greg remove the pen cap, and a scene where he's trying to sell a casket to a bereaved couple, telling them with all the smirking charm of the world's sleaziest used car salesman, "I could run things much smoother if people died between 9:00 and 5:00!" But the real selling point for MORTUARY today is the presence of a young Paxton in one of his first films. He's pretty over-the-top, but hard to take seriously, especially when he's seen at one point merrily skipping through a cemetery.
Scorpion's DVD, part of their "Katarina's Nightmare Theater" line, is framed at 1.78:1 and looks good overall. Some print damage here and there, and some of the murder scenes show more wear than the rest of the film, a possible indication that they came from a different source. MORTUARY has been shown with running times ranging from 84 to 91 minutes, and this DVD runs 93, so maybe there's some extra footage in spots. Extras include an interview with composer John Cacavas, and the infamous trailer that does not in any way reflect the actual film:
Written and directed by William Byron Hillman. Cast: Michael Callan, Joanna Pettet, James Stacy, Pamela Hensley, Cleavon Little, Seymour Cassel, Misty Rowe, Robert Tessier, David Young, Don Potter, Sally Kirkland, Terry Moore, Victoria Jackson, Kathy Shower. (R, 95 mins)
Is it possible that someone, in 1983, gave the greenlight to a Michael Callan vanity project? The winner of the Most Promising Newcomer award at the 1961 Golden Globes, Callan had a long career as a character actor in movies (most notably co-starring with Lee Marvin and Jane Fonda in 1965's CAT BALLOU) and was a regular guest star on countless prime-time TV shows in the 1970s and well into the 1980s. In 1983, he made a couple of unexpected trips to the grindhouse with a small role in the legendary women-in-prison classic CHAINED HEAT, and the lead in the giallo-inspired slasher flick DOUBLE EXPOSURE, a vintage bit of Crown International sleaze that was a fixture on late-night cable back in the day. Callan chews the scenery as chick-magnet photographer Adrian Wilde, who's concerned about his relationships with women despite his apparent ability to get more ass than a toilet seat. The middle-aged, slightly paunchy Callan has more of an average everyman look than most cinematic leading men, which no doubt explains his busy career as a character actor. As a protagonist, the Adrian Wilde character comes off as a bit of creep, yet women still throw themselves at him with wild abandon, as star Michael Callan no doubt exudes the level of raw machismo and dynamic animal magnetism that producer Michael Callan was looking for in his lead actor.
As a serial killer offs Hollywood prostitutes, Wilde is plagued by horrific nightmares in which he kills his scantily-clad subjects, only to find out that those women have been killed in exactly the way they were in his dreams. Is he the killer? The bad dreams intensify and the murders continue as he begins a new relationship with the only-in-the-early-1980s-monikered Mindy Jordache (Joanna Pettet), after what can be politely termed a "meet-weird" in a parking garage. Apparently, she finds it a turn-on when a guy aggressively corners her in an elevator, follows her through a parking garage, and then picks her up in a motor home for drinks outside a closed store.
"Heeeey, Joanna Pettet! Whaddaya say we hop in my RV and have some wine outside a closed department store, huh? Yeah, that's right. You know you want this..."
DOUBLE EXPOSURE was a semi-sequel of sorts to the obscure 1974 film THE PHOTOGRAPHER, also from writer/director William Byron Hillman and starring Callan as Adrian Wilde. It's not a direct sequel (although it was intended as such until Callan couldn't secure the rights to use footage from the earlier film) and you needn't see THE PHOTOGRAPHER to figure out what's going on in DOUBLE EXPOSURE. It's rather restrained by '80s slasher standards, though it does have a few gory moments. Plus, Hillman and Callan seem to have the right idea with the frequent nudity by a number of attractive women in the cast, which is mostly TV actors and friends of Callan's. In some extraordinarily effective casting, the tragic James Stacy plays Adrian's stunt driver brother BJ, who recently lost his left arm and left leg in a crash. In 1973, Stacy and his girlfriend were on his motorcycle when they were hit by a drunk driver. The girlfriend was killed and Stacy had to have his left arm and left leg amputated. He continued to work until the early '90s when he utterly imploded with alcoholism, a suicide attempt, and a child molestation conviction. Callan and Stacy look eerily similar, so much so that in a few shots, until the missing arm was brought into view, I mistook Stacy for Callan. Also appearing in the intriguingly bizarre supporting cast are Pamela Hensley (MARCUS WELBY, M.D., BUCK ROGERS, MATT HOUSTON) as a detective investigating the murders; an underused Cleavon Little as the irate police chief; HEE HAW's Misty Rowe as a model; longtime Howard Hughes girlfriend Terry Moore; and Seymour Cassel as Adrian's shrink. Cult movie vet Robert Tessier shows up as a bartender; a pre-SNL Victoria Jackson has a couple of scenes as a racetrack model; future Playboy Playmate of the Year (1986) Kathy Shower is seen as a mudwrestler; and a pre-ANNA Sally Kirkland appears long enough to get naked as a soon-to-be-dead hooker.
Callan and near-lookalike co-star James Stacy
But really, DOUBLE EXPOSURE is pretty much The Michael Callan Show (he's also credited as "Post-Production Supervisor"). His shirts are unbuttoned or off, women fall into bed with him, he goes down on Pettet as the camera focuses on her reaching heights of ecstacy never before bestowed upon the female species, he does backflips in a pair of tight swimming trunks, and he gets a long scene where Hillman lets him have a totally over-the-top meltdown. I'm sure Callan's a nice guy and he was never hurting for work, but he doesn't exactly scream "fashion photographer" as much as he exudes "used-car salesman" or maybe "small-time bookie" depending on how many buttons are undone on his shirt.
Scorpion's new DVD, part of their "Katarina's Nightmare Theater" line, looks very nice in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, rescuing the film from those cheaply-priced 50-movie sets with mostly outdated VHS transfers. The apparently-retired (or at least, inactive in TV or movies since 2007) Callan, now 76, sits down with Scorpion's horror hostess, "former WWE diva and current TNA knockout" Katarina Leigh Waters, for an interview that mainly touches upon his early years and his thoughts on DOUBLE EXPOSURE and the cast members. No mention is made of Stacy's legal troubles or personal problems, though Callan erroneously states that Stacy's motorcycle accident was a year before DOUBLE EXPOSURE when it was actually a decade earlier. It's possible he was confusing it with THE PHOTOGRAPHER, which Stacy wasn't in, but it did come out a year after his accident. He also can't recall Terry Moore being in DOUBLE EXPOSURE, and mistakenly says she played his mother in THE PHOTOGRAPHER (she didn't). But other than a couple of 30-year-old brain farts that could happen to anybody, Callan comes off as a pretty genial guy. He also takes part in a commentary with Katarina and cult movie fixture Scott "Still Coasting on EVIL DEAD II" Spiegel, in which they run out of things to talk about before the credits even start. Lots of dead air and one-word answers from Callan, who just isn't very talkative, and Spiegel only seems interested in the sex scenes or where certain scenes were shot ("Was this on the freeway?"). It's not the worst commentary I've ever heard (thanks to the respectively hapless* and absurd** Walt and Bill Olsen for sitting this one out), but I bailed on it after about 25 minutes. There's a second commentary (!) with Katarina and cinematographer R. Michael Stringer and script supervisor Sally Stringer that I didn't check out.
Scorpion Releasing's latest in the "Katarina's Nightmare Theater" line of exploitation/horror/cult titles is a double feature of previously available titles, though THE DEVIL'S MEN is the original uncut version of the censored LAND OF THE MINOTAUR.
THE DEVIL'S MEN (Greece/UK - 1976)
Released in the US in 1977 in a cut, PG-rated version titled LAND OF THE MINOTAUR, THE DEVIL'S MEN is a shoddy, low-budget Greek/British addition to the '70s Satanist subgenre, top-lined by a slumming Donald Pleasence and Peter Cushing (just before playing Grand Moff Tarkin in STAR WARS), both of whom were no doubt more interested in a paid Greek vacation than anything the script had to offer. This marks the first time that director Costas Carayiannis' uncensored cut has been released in the US, restoring all the gore and nudity and excised from the MINOTAUR release. Pleasence is possibly-Irish priest Father Roche (I say "possibly" because sometimes he sounds like Donald Pleasence, and sometimes he sounds like Lucky the Leprechaun), who calls upon his NYC-based private eye pal Milo (Costa Skouras) to take on a devil-worshipping cult that turns out to be led by obviously evil town elder Baron Corofax (Cushing). Filled with cheap gore effects, bad dubbing of the Greek supporting cast, unintended laughs (like Roche and Milo's complete non-reaction to the zombified police chief), continuity errors (a right punch from Milo aimed at a dude's face immediately cuts to a left punch hitting the guy in the crotch), incompetent day-for-night shooting, and idiotic dialogue (when a woman is chased by some robed figures, Milo says "Maybe it was just a cow loose in the woods"), THE DEVIL'S MEN is given a bit of lift from some appropriately atmospheric Greek locales, the presence of two old pros like Pleasence and Cushing (though I doubt the sporadically-appearing Cushing spent more than a few days on the set), and a chilling electronic score by Brian Eno, of all people. Hardly the most embarrassing picture Pleasence or Cushing ever made, but certainly in the "good Bad Movie" realm. Scorpion's 1.78:1 transfer looks as good as it's probably ever looked, considering its budget-deprived origins. And dig that funky jam over the closing credits! (Unrated, 94 mins)
TERROR (UK - 1978)
Is Dario Argento a fan of British hack Norman J. Warren? Warren is certainly a fan of Argento, and admits as much in a 40-minute (!) retrospective documentary on TERROR, a mildly diverting supernatural horror film with occasional nods to Argento's SUSPIRIA (1977). But what I found interesting were a couple of shots that looked suspiciously similar to later Argento works: one character's death from a pane of glass was probably intended as an OMEN knockoff but now looks a lot like Irene Miracle's fate in 1980's INFERNO, and another's death on a staircase brought to mind a demise from 1982's TENEBRE. But Warren is nowhere near the stylist that Argento was back then (though, sadly to say for Argento, they're probably equals now, but that's another topic for another time), and TERROR isn't exactly some gem waiting to be dusted off for rediscovery. The plot deals with a movie director (John Nolan, uncle of INCEPTION director Christopher) whose latest film is about a witch ancestor who swore vengeance after being burned at the stake. Mysterious deaths start befalling everyone associated with the film. Warren seems inspired more by THE OMEN than SUSPIRIA, but one delirious scene has a guy being attacked by unrolled film in a garishly-lit room that is clearly inspired by the barbed-wire room death in SUSPIRIA. Aside from a few occasionally interesting bits--the unrolled film death; brief appearances by Peter "Chewbacca" Mayhew as a mechanic and the hulking Milton Reid as a sunglassed strip joint bouncer; and a frightening stripper who looks like Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty--TERROR is a pretty laborious slog, indifferently-acted and cheaply-made (a scene with a levitating car is undone by clearly visible ropes hoisting it in mid-air). Not without some decent moments, but largely forgettable. Warren went on to make the infamous ALIEN ripoff INSEMINOID, a much more entertaining film which had a long life on pay cable throughout the '80s under its US title HORROR PLANET. TERROR has been on DVD before, but the making-of doc is a new addition, and I assume the fairly nice-looking 1.78:1 transfer is as well. (R, 84 mins)
Both films are on one disc, with the option of playing them with or without the introduction by horror hostess and former WWE star Katarina Leigh Waters. Trailers for past and future Scorpion titles are also included.
One of the more egregious examples of misleading advertising from the grindhouse glory days, THE DAY AFTER HALLOWEEN was the 1980 US retitling of the 1979 Australian import SNAPSHOT, complete with poster art that didn't make any overt claims, but arguably implied that it was somehow connected to John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN (1978). I'm sure audiences became openly hostile by the 20-minute mark, as it obviously has nothing whatsoever to do with HALLOWEEN or Halloween, but taken on its own terms (or, as SNAPSHOT, which is the actual title on both versions on Scorpion Releasing's new DVD--more on that in a bit), it's a compellingly odd character piece that's light on thrills and chills, but does a good job of establishing a palpable sense of unease throughout. It also has a believable performance by Sigrid Thornton (THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER) as young, naive hairdresser Angela. Stuck in a dead-end job with a domineering mother (Julia Blake), a bratty little sister (Jacqui Gordon), and ex-boyfriend Daryl (Vincent Gil) who follows her around in an ice cream truck, Angela is whisked away from her dreary life by bitch-on-wheels cover girl Madeline (Chantal Contouri), who gets her a modeling job. Now with money and independence, Angela is meeting all sorts of new people and finding her way through a new world. And that ice cream truck is still following her. 
