SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 12/4/13

 

A mix of the "spooky old house" and "axe murderer on the loose" genres, SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT (1972) is hardly the campy-fun slasher-trash fest I expected.  In fact, there isn't an ounce of humor, intentional or otherwise, in this somber, wintry horror tale.

The gravely-intoned prologue, in which the Mayor's daughter Diane Adams (Mary Woronov, EATING RAOUL, ROCK 'N' ROLL HIGH SCHOOL) reflects on  the horrible events surrounding the old Butler mansion at the edge of town, is enough to let us know that we're in for a depressing time,  It all has to do with the house's original owner, Wilfred Butler (Philip Bruns,  "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman"), his mysterious death by fire, and the tragic fate of his daughter, Marianne. 

When his grandson Jeffrey (James Patterson, IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT) disobeys the stipulation in his will that the house remain untouched and unsold, a mysterious killer begins stalking the premises to make sure that whoever goes in doesn't come out.

Cue Jeffrey's lawyer John Carter (a typically urbane, laid-back Patrick O'Neal) and his secretary-slash-mistress Ingrid (the way-cute Astrid Heeren),  who decide to spend a night in the house while finalizing the details of its impending sale.  As if this isn't enough to stir things up, Jeffrey himself returns just in time to endure a night of murder and mayhem that will leave the quiet little town littered with corpses.  His uneasy alliance with Diane will result in them ending up right in the middle of the film's horrific climax. 

The confusing story will eventually yield a nice surprise or two, but it's basically just an excuse for the filmmakers to see how much of a dreary and oppressive gloom 'n' doom atmosphere they can muster with their low budget and limited resources.  Mary Woronov's husband Theodore Gershuny, who directed two other films and several episodes of TV shows such as "Tales From the Darkside" and "The Equalizer", helms Jeffrey Konvitz and Ira Teller's funereal screenplay in a crudely effective fashion.  The film's rough-hewn production elements and choppy editing alternate between being distracting and somehow enhancing its dreary mood.

Once the killer stops creeping around unseen and gets the old axe a-swingin', we get a few mildly gory chop-'em-up scenes with some fake blood splattered about, along with a dismembered hand or two.  These moments of mayhem, however,  come after long, mundane stretches that are interesting only if you enjoy watching a very old John Carradine (and who doesn't?) or a very young and attractive Mary Woronov (ditto).  Distinguished actor James Pattererson, who died at age 40 shortly after this film was made, comes off well despite an understandably uninspired performance. 

Similar in feel to Bob Clark's 1974 BLACK CHRISTMAS, with the dreariest version of "Silent Night" you can imagine and a score that's almost more downbeat than Bernard Herrmann's music for PSYCHO, the best of SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT is saved for its centerpiece flashback sequence.  As Diane reads from Wilfred Butler's tattered journal, we're transported into a grainy, sepia-hued world that's so dark and depressingly surreal as to be almost a cross between David Lynch and H.P. Lovecraft. 

This vignette occurs during the time the Butler house served as an insane asylum, with the inmates being let loose to wreak revenge upon their cruel keepers, and is so fascinatingly, unremittingly nightmarish as to seem like part of a different film altogether.  Afterwards, the story's actual ending comes as something of an anti-climax despite director Gerhuny's efforts to build to a shocking finale that he isn't quite able to pull off. 

The DVD from Film Chest is in widescreen with 2.0 sound.  No subtitles or extras.  Opening titles (featuring the alternate name "Deathhouse") bleed off the sides of the screen a bit.  The film is an HD restoration from 35mm elements but the print used has several rough spots.  Personally, I like it when a film looks like it's been around the block a few times, but those wanting something closer to pristine may cringe a few times. 

Movies like SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT straddled some interesting cinematic territory between old-style Gothic horror and slasher-era gore while inadvertently helping to lay the groundwork for the tired "dead teenager" formulas of the 80s and 90s.  While unpolished and at times technically crude, it still manages to create an extremely effective and unrelievedly depressing mood (definitely not recommended for the suicidal) with atmosphere to burn. 

SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT -- DVD Review by Porfle

AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

(This review was originally posted on 12/17/17)

 

AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS is part of "THE AMICUS COLLECTION" (Blu-ray 4-volume box set) from Severin Films. (And Now the Screaming Starts/Asylum/The Beast Must Die/The Vault of Amicus)]

The title of the original novel by David Case was "Fengriffen", with Roger Marshall's screenplay similarly dubbed "The Bride of Fengriffen."  To the actors' dismay and my delight, the title of this 1973 Amicus production ultimately became AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS (Severin Films). 

I find this not only more interesting-sounding but quite apt, as leading lady Stephanie Beacham (DRACULA A.D. 1972, "The Colbys") and various of her co-stars emit piercing, full-bodied screams every five minutes or so in reaction to some unbearable horror visited upon them by the script.

It all starts when 18th-century British nobleman Charles Fengriffen (genre stalwart Ian Ogilvy) brings his new bride Catherine (Beacham) home to the rustic but extravagantly elegant family estate in the country.  (Perennial film location Oakley Court provides the lavish exteriors, with equally elaborate interiors constructed and shot at Shepperton Studios.)

What Catherine doesn't realize--and which both Charles and everyone else take pains to hide from her--is that due to the heinous crimes of Charles' grandfather Henry against his woodsman Silas (Geoffrey Whitehead), there's a terrible curse on the house of Fengriffen that's to be visited upon the first virginal bride to reside there.  (For which she, to her grave misfortune, qualifies.)

This offers director Roy Ward Baker a chance to punctuate the formal, richly Gothic atmosphere with shocking flashes of lurid imagery as the horrified Catherine is subjected to ghostly visions such as a bloody hand plunging through Henry's portrait and glimpses of the disembodied but ambulatory hand making its way around inside the house while a spectral Silas appears intermittently at the window with gory holes for eyes. 

We're led to wonder if such visions are real or merely figments of her heated imagination--that is, until various household staff and others connected with the Fengriffens begin to die off in violent ways.  Catherine herself needs no more convincing after a spectral presence seems to force itself upon her sexually on her very wedding night, setting into motion what will become the eventual ghastly fruition of the curse.

Baker's surehanded directorial experience on such classics as A NIGHT TO REMEMBER, ASYLUM, and FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH comes into play as he moves the camera fluidly within the spacious indoor sets.  Lighting, costumes, and other production details also contribute to give this film a look beyond its relatively modest budget.

This look is similar to that of the earlier Gothic-tinged Hammer films, and indeed seems to be trying to fill the gap left by Hammer's move at the time toward a more modern image.  Yet it somehow retains what I think of as the distinctive, perhaps indefinable visual ambience of an Amicus production.

Even with its R-rating, gore is kept to a minimum although that severed hand stays quite busy and Silas' bloody axe gets its chance to swing as well.  A couple of implied rape scenes (one featuring second-billed Herbert Lom in a revelatory flashback as the evil Henry Fengriffen) and some brief nudity add to the adult content.

The closing minutes also contain a scene in which a grave is desecrated in such a violent way that it comes off as shockingly morbid, and almost makes everything that came before seem sedate in comparison.  The final twist is no less effective for its predictability--the fact that what we expected all along finally comes to pass is, in fact, somewhat satisfying.

Performances are fine, with the always-reliable Ogilvy and the wonderfully expressive Beacham aided by supporting castmembers such as Patrick Magee (A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, ASYLUM) as a family doctor all too familiar with the curse, and the aforementioned Lom in his brief but effective flashback scenes. 

Distinguished genre legend Peter Cushing doesn't make his appearance until around the halfway mark or later, but he makes the most of his role as a psychiatrist who tries to make scientific sense of what's happening to Catherine and those around her.  Even in those moments when the film's stately pace begins to lag, he and the other leads are always interesting to watch.

The Blu-ray from Severin Films offers a lovely remastered print with only the occasional rough patch.  The bonus menu is nicely stocked as usual, with a lengthy, clip-filled featurette about Oakley Court hosted by horror authors Allan Bryce and David Flint, an audio interview with Peter Cushing (with accompanying photo montage), a review of the film by horror author Denis Meikle, plus a trailer and radio spot.  Two seperate commentary tracks are available, one with Roy Ward Baker and Stephanie Beacham, the other with Ian Ogilvie, and both are marvelous fun to listen to.

AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS is one of those simmering Gothic tales that might've been a bit slow for me in my younger days, but now it's just the thing for me to settle into and enjoy like a good book. Only turn the pages in this book and you never know when a bloody hand or an eyeless woodsman with an axe are going to jump out at you.  

Read our reviews of: 

ASYLUM
THE BEAST MUST DIE!
THE VAULT OF AMICUS

AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

NEXT OF KIN -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 2/23/19

 

A real gem in 80s Australian cinema, NEXT OF KIN (Severin Films, 1982) breaks through all the usual Ozploitation gore and sensationlism to give us a down-under-sized taste of Euro-inspired horror with touches of Giallo.

Not that it doesn't shock, or shies away from morbid elements that give it a nice shivery ambience.  But in the pleasingly literate script by director Tony Williams and Michael Heath, nothing's gratuitous--every dead, bloated body in a bathtub, every bashed-in skull, every punctured eyeball drives the plot relentlessly forward.

In fact, the story takes its sweet time getting started, allowing us to settle comfortably into the relatively normal world of an ivy-covered old folks' home--actually a sprawling mansion--before gradually turning it into a nightmare. It's here that Linda (Jacki Kerin, effective in her only feature film) grew up and is now returning after having inherited the place from her recently-deceased mother.

Linda's a likable sort with a good head on her shoulders, easing back into old relationships with the townspeople including old boyfriend Barney (John Jarratt, DJANGO UNCHAINED, WOLF CREEK) and taking over the home's frazzled financial management, but even she quickly becomes a nervous wreck when people start dying and generally weird, almost supernatural things begin to happen inside that dark, spooky old building.

Some of it seems to be connected to a mystery surrounding her mother's death and how certain people on the staff may be involved. This includes resident physician Dr. Barton (familiar face Alex Scott of "Lillie", "The Avengers", FAHRENHEIT 451, THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES) and the efficient but enigmatic Connie (Gerda Nicolson, GALLIPOLI, "Prisoner: Cell Block H"), both of whom seem in on some secret they're keeping from Linda.

A new resident, Mrs. Ryan (Bernadette Gibson, "Prisoner: Cell Block H"), adds another shadowy presence to the group of old people whose age and infirmity are played for maximum effect in grotesque and squeamish ways.  Most disturbing of all is the dark, unknown figure who keeps popping up in Linda's periphery like Michael Myers.

The first half of the film indulges us in a slow, simmering buildup with little violence or overt terror but lots of eerie Gothic unease and creepy-crawly suspense punctuated by a few very effective jump-scares.  As the mystery surrounding her mother's death closes in around Linda, nightmare flashbacks increase her emotional distress, with whatever malignant force that was always within the house now threatening to come after her as well.

Once all this meticulous build-up has been established, the story then plunges us into the kind of bloody horror and nail-biting suspense that we've been primed for.  Even here, the film shows remarkable restraint, never getting too wildly improbable or going off the deep end, and keeps us solidly involved in what's going on until the last frame.

As a work of cinema, NEXT OF KIN is exquisite, with director Tony Williams' constantly inventive staging only occasionally calling attention to itself due to its sheer ingenuity.  (I was reminded at times of Dario Argento.) Cinematography and lighting are equally good, frequently lavishing us with the most eye-pleasing visuals that such a setting might yield. Also adding to the overall effect is a musical score by Tangerine Dream member Klaus Schultze.

The Blu-ray from Severin Films is transferred from original Australian vault elements and looks fantastic.  The bonus menu includes two commentary tracks--an informative one with director Williams and producer Tim White, and a more informal one with members of the cast--as well as interviews with Williams and actor John Jarratt, deleted scenes, trailers, early short films by Tony Williams, an image gallery, a location revisit, and more.  The Blu-ray cover is reversible.

Unlike many films of this nature, NEXT OF KIN proved to be effortlessly involving--without overly relying on lurid sensation--right up to its most satisfactory fadeout, which I found even more impressive once I learned how ingeniously executed that final shot was.  It's one of the best Australian horror films I've seen, a real standout among that industry's most memorable cult classics. 


Buy it from Severin Films

Release Date:2/26/19

Special Features:
Commentary with Director Tony Williams and Producer Tim White
Commentary with Mark Hartley & Cast Members Jackie Kerin, John Jarrett & Robert Ratti
House Of Psychotic Women Intro By Kier-La Janisse for Morbido TV
Extended Interviews from Not Quite Hollywood
Return to Monteclare: Location Revisit, 2018
Deleted Scenes
Before the Night is Out: Ballroom Footage, 1979
Original Theatrical Trailer
UK VHS Trailer
German Theatrical Trailer
Alternate German Opening
Image Gallery
Tony Williams Short Films
REVERSIBLE COVER

NEXT OF KIN -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

THE WAX MASK -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 10/3/19

 

Talk about "Grand Guignol" to the max--the 1997 Gothic gorefest THE WAX MASK (Severin Films) mixes the antique ambience of early 1900s Italy with generous helpings of the extremely morbid and grotesque in this handsomely mounted shocker.

Conceived by Italian horror/giallo maestro Dario Argento (PHENOMENA, TENEBRE, SUSPIRIA) as a vehicle for the ailing Lucio Fulci (DOOR INTO SILENCE, ZOMBIE 3, THE DEVIL'S HONEY), it's a loose remake of the Vincent Price classic HOUSE OF WAX (along with MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM and numerous other wax museum horror flicks), although that's just a jumping off point for a tale of horror and gore that aims to outdo them all.

With the unfortunate passing of Fulci before filming began, directing chores were handed to first-timer Sergio Stivaletti (THE THREE FACES OF TERROR), previously known mainly for his work in the fields of SPFX and makeup.

Working from a screenplay by Argento, Fulci, and Daniele Stroppa, Stivaletti fashioned a gorgeous-looking film that leisurely unfolds its dark narrative with a keenly efficient style that's never quite as self-consciously arty as Argento's or off-the-hook unhinged as Fulci's yet has its own elegant, colorful appeal.

The story begins with the grisly aftermath of a double murder in a Paris hotel room that's witnessed by a little girl who grows up to be the beautiful Sonia Lafont (Romina Mondello), still troubled by her past even as she gets a job in a wax museum in Rome which specializes in gruesome historical horrors.

The museum is run by the mysterious, creepily eccentric Boris Volkoff (Robert Hossein, RIFFIFI) and features incredibly lifelike wax figures in scenes of death designed to horrify. 

But even more horrific is the reason the figures are so lifelike--namely, each one contains the corpse of a murdered human being who has been processed in the museum's nightmarish basement laboratory and given a severe case of unsightly "wax buildup."

These scenes are the result of director Stivaletti's years of SPFX expertise and are absolutely mind-boggling as we watch one still-living victim, a hapless prostitute from a nearby house of ill-repute, strapped to a table and injected with some volatile serum while Kenneth Strickfaden-style electrical machines spark and crackle. 

But this densely-packed screenplay has a lot more to offer in the way of gory killings, dismemberments, and other carnage before the suspenseful finale in which Sonia's journalist boyfriend Andrea (Riccardo Serventi Longhi), her blind aunt Francesca (Gabriella Giorgelli), and a sympathetic police detective from her childhood (Gianni Franco) fight against time to prevent the hideously disfigured villain and his twisted henchmen from turning Sonia into one of the museum's unholy exhibits.

The Blu-ray from Severin Films features a 4k scan from the original negative supervised by Stivaletti himself. Severin outdoes themselves with this bonus menu loaded with interviews with production principles including Argento, Stivaletti, actress Gabriella Giorgelli, and others, along with vintage behind-the-scenes featurettes.

These bonus features include:

    Audio Commentary with Director/Special Effects Artist Sergio Stivaletti and Michelangelo Stivaletti
    Beyond Fulci: Interviews with Producer Dario Argento, Director Sergio Stivaletti, Producer Giuseppe Columbo, Production Designer Massimo Geleng, Actress Gabriella Giorgelli and Filmmaker Claudio Fragasso
    The Chamber of Horrors: Interviews with Producer Dario Argento, Director Sergio Stivaletti, Producer Giuseppe Columbo, Production Designer Massimo Geleng and Actress Gabriella Giorgelli
    Living Dolls:  Interviews with Producer Dario Argento, Director Sergio Stivaletti, Producer Giuseppe Columbo and Actress Gabriella Giorgelli
    The Mysteries of the Wax Museum:  Interview with SFX Artist Sergio Stivaletti
    The Waxworks Symphony:  Interview with Soundtrack Composer Maurizio Abeni
    The Grand Opening:  Interviews with Producer Dario Argento, Director Sergio Stivaletti and Producer Giuseppe Columbo
    Wax Unmasked: Interview with Film Writer Alan Jones
    Vintage Featurettes: Behind the Scenes, Special Effects, On Set with Dario Argento
    5.1 and 2.0 English and Italian Audio
    English with Closed Captioning, Italian with English Subtitles

Easily one of the best wax museum movies ever made, THE WAX MASK fully exploits the horrific potential of the original HOUSE OF WAX and its ilk like no previous version I've ever seen. Although lacking certain qualities of Argento or Fulci, it more than compensates with a richly-hued, stylized visual sense, lush production values, riveting scenes of carnage, and a fiery, face-melting finale.


Buy it from Severin Films

THE WAX MASK -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

THE H.P. LOVECRAFT COLLECTION, VOLUME 4: PICKMAN'S MODEL -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 12/18/11

 

THE H.P. LOVECRAFT COLLECTION, VOLUME 4: PICKMAN'S MODEL, conceived and produced by Andrew Migliore for Lurker Films, is part of their continuing effort to bring us the best of the short films based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft.  The previous volumes were entitled "Cool Air", "Rough Magik", and "Out of Mind."  Here, Lovecraft's chilling tale "Pickman's Model" is presented in three different interpretations, supplemented by two other short films.  Collectively, they add up to a couple of hours of solid entertainment for the Gothic horror fan.

I was unwilling to start another Lovecraft film review with the disclaimer "I've never read any of his stories, but...", so I found a website containing his complete works and gave "Pickman's Model" a read.  It's the eerie story of Richard Upton Pickman, a deranged artist whose paintings depict scenes of carnage and depravity so realistic and repellent that he is shunned by the "tea table" art crowd.  All except for a man named Thurber, who is morbidly fascinated by Pickman's work and wants to see more.  Pickman obliges him by inviting Thurber to the dark, haunted cellar where he does his most gruesome work and showing him exactly from whence springs his malevolent inspiration.  Which, as you might guess, turns out to be a rather unsettling experience for the unsuspecting art lover.

It's a very short story told in flashback by Thurber to his friend Eliot after the fact, and any filmization must be augmented by extra dialogue and events.  At 43 minutes, the 2000 TV-film "Chilean Gothic", directed by Roberto Harrington from an adaptation by Gilberto Villarroel, is the longest and most altered version on this disc. 

Here, the "Thurber" character is a journalist named Gabriel (Rodrigo Sepúlveda) who is investigating the violent death of his friend Anibal, whose last known whereabouts were in the company of the renegade artist Pickman.  He interviews Pickman's only friend, an eccentric old professor named Mattotti, and the slovenly caretaker of a crumbling apartment house where Pickman once lived.  Both meet a violent end on the same night that Gabriel is lurking through the hidden tunnels beneath the apartment house, where he finds human remains. 



Tracking Pickman down to a remote island, he finds him inhabiting a large, shadowy mansion surrounded by paintings and sketches of unimaginable, otherworldly horror.  Here, Pickman is played by Renzo Oviedo as a frizzy-haired wild man--the other versions will each interpret him quite differently.  Gabriel's confrontation with Pickman leads to an event which is common to each of these films, which is the emergence of some terrifying, unnameable beast from a brick well within the cellar of Pickman's house.  This leads to a final revelation for Gabriel which is unique to "Chilean Gothic" and not found in any other version.  It comes as a pretty satisfying shock ending.

Sepúlveda and Oviedo are intense in the lead roles and the film unfolds as a scintillating mystery that is well told, with an atmosphere of dread that lets us know things aren't going to end on a happy note.  Aside from some shock cuts of Aribal's ravaged body, most of the horror is left to the viewer's imagination, including Pickman's paintings themselves.  As Thurber tells his friend Eliot in the short story: "There's no use in my trying to tell you what they were like, because the awful, the blasphemous horror, and the unbelievable loathsomeness and moral foetor came from simple touches quite beyond the power of words to classify."  Director Harrington reveals only oblique glimpses of the paintings to give us an idea of their content, with one notable exception: a full-on view of Francisco Goya's horrific "Saturn Devouring His Children", which will also pop up in the Italian version next on the disc.

Producer-director Giovanni Furore's "Pickman's Model" (2003) begins with a young woman answering an ad for a painter's model and ending up as an entree for the creature in Pickman's cellar.  Then we veer a bit closer to actual Lovecraft territory as a distraught Howard (Vittorio de Stefano) stumbles into the home of his friend Russel (Alessandro di Lorenzo) one night with a cloth-covered painting and a strange story.  The painting is a Pickman original, which piques the interest of art-lover Russel, and the story is similar to Lovecraft's, with Howard and Russel standing in for Thurber and Eliot. 

This time, the Pickman that Howard meets at an art exhibition is portrayed by Lorenzo Mori as a twisted, spidery hunchback with a really evil leer.  He leads Howard through some creepy old Italian backalleys to a dark, spooky house with stone passageways dripping with water and a cellar with the usual brick well.  As before, the content of Pickman's paintings is only hinted at, but this time we get a disturbing impression of them via subliminal flashes of some truly demented photographs--you'll want to go back and do some frame-advancing to get the full effect.  At one point, the wooden lid to the well starts to rattle violently, and Pickman grabs a gun and locks Howard out of the room, saying something about "rats."  Well, once we hear the blood-chilling racket going on in there, we know it ain't rats--the sound effects alone are enough to give you a large case of the willies. 

The rich cinematography here is nice after the grainy visuals of the Chilean effort, and Lorenzo Mori's scuttling, sinister Pickman is delightfully loathesome.  The story builds nicely to an ending that explicity follows the one in the short story, right down to a shot of the cellar creature itself.  It's still a bit less than our imaginations are capable of conjuring up, but the set-up and pay-off for the twist ending are well-handled. 

Next comes my favorite of the bunch, Texas director Cathy Welch's 1981 college thesis film "Pickman's Model."  The low-budget black and white photography makes it look like something out of the 60s--in fact, the dark, moody atmosphere and nightmarish locations give it the same oppressive aura that hung so heavily over Francis Ford Coppola's DEMENTIA 13 and Herk Harvey's CARNIVAL OF SOULS.  This time we finally get an actual Thurber, although his friends call him "Bill" (Mac Williams), and he's relating his strange story to his gal-pal Ellen (Nancy Griffith), which is pretty close to "Eliot." 

Bill and Ellen are members of an art club that consists mainly of straight-laced conservatives with little appreciation for the ghastly canvases of the eccentric Pickman (the director's brother, Marc Mahan).  As Bill enthusiastically tells Ellen, "Pickman dredges up our darkest fantasies...the ancient terrors in our collective subconscious," while she cautions him, "There's a trick to being fascinated with the perverse without becoming perverse yourself." 

Marc Mahan portrays Pickman as a man with a deceptively bland yet somehow ominous appearance which masks the keenly decadent and ultimately dangerous intellect within.  When he is expelled from the art club, Bill goes with him, intent on finishing his manuscript about Great Painters He Has Known with a special section on Pickman.  He gets invited to the man's house for a look at some of his latest works, and after proving his worthiness, is then taken to Pickman's super-secret studio where he does his really undiluted and downright freaky stuff. 



Deep in the heart of old Boston, a richly-historical setting haunted by the ghosts of the past and resonating with leftover evil from the days of the Salem witch trials, Pickman's crumbling old mansion is a nightmare-inducing spook house.  The well in the cellar, which in the other versions of the story is simply a generic doorway to Hell, is here directly related to the Salem witchcraft days in that it is a doorway to the underground passageways that were said to allow the witches and other creatures of the night to secretly commune with one another, and which may still contain something best left alone.  Pickman himself is part of that lineage--as he tells Bill, his four-time great-grandmother was hanged as a witch under the stern gaze of none other than Cotton Mather. 

Bill becomes increasingly disturbed by Pickman's paintings as we finally get to see some of them as described in Lovecraft's short story.  The renderings are crude but interesting, especially a portrait of a Puritan family in quiet prayer.  They're all bent in solemn communion with God except for the little boy, who is leering at the viewer with anything but pure thoughts.  Other paintings show victims being attacked and devoured by strange canine-human hybrids in graveyards and subways.  One of them, which depicts one of these beasts killing a boy, is brought startlingly to life in a shocking makeup-effects shot that is cheap but effective.  But most disturbing to Bill is the fact that Pickman's paintings are starting to dredge up primal fears within him that seem to be connected to past experiences that his memory has suppressed.

The sequence in which the unknown creature begins to emerge from the well is handled better here than in any of the other versions.  Bill is locked out and must listen to the blood-curdling noises behind the door until finally Pickman emerges.  There's something different about him now--he's hairier, his hands and face are twisted, and his teeth are sharper--in other words, he's beginning to resemble one of those creatures in his paintings.  At that point, Bill suddenly remembers something he had to do somewhere else, and gets his hindquarters out of there.

Lovecraft's story ends with the main character revealing that he swiped a photograph that was pinned to one of Pickman's canvases and stuffed it in his pocket.  Pickman always took photographs from which to better render the background details for his paintings--or so he said.  In the short story, as in this and the Italian film version, a final revelation concerning Pickman's photographs supplies the twist ending.  But here, there's an added sequence that pushes Cathy Welch's interpretation of the story even further into horror film territory and gives it a chilling ending that's right out of your worst nightmares.  Which is just one of the reasons I consider this film to be the highlight of the collection.

The six-minute short that follows is a distinct change of pace.  Based on a single sentence from an unfinished story by Lovecraft, Holland's "Between The Stars" (1998) features Jos Urbanis as Minnekens, an increasingly self-absorbed office drone whose only pleasure in life is to lie on his back with his head sticking out the window and gaze up the airshaft between the surrounding apartment buildings at a single square of star-bedecked night sky.  Another beautifully-shot black and white entry, Djie Han Thung's film is reminiscent of David Lynch's ERASERHEAD in style and content.  We really get into this guy's head as he wanders totally detached through his daily life, preoccupied with the facial pores of a chattering coworker or the miniscule white specks in the printed letters of a book.  A strangely upbeat ending ties this odd entry off rather neatly.

Finally, we get some primitive, old-school computer animation in the form of Geoffrey D. Clark's adaptation of Lovecraft's "In The Vault", the story of a vile cemetery caretaker named George Birch.  This drunken old sot isn't above tossing the dear departed into mismarked graves, robbing them of their valuables, or burying two of them together to save the effort of digging separate holes.  When a long freeze makes gravedigging impossible, the bodies are stored together in a vault until the spring thaw.  As fate would have it, George gets locked into this vault one night and must figure out a way to escape.  But before he does, the meanness and cruelty he has shown to his vault-mates in both life and death comes back to haunt him in a big way.

Clark's rendition of the story is short and simple--more of a childlike fairytale than a horror story--and it comes and goes leaving little lasting impression.  So I read the original story to see if there was more to it than that, and sure enough, it's a dark and disturbing tale of terror that could've yielded a much better adaptation than this.  As it is, Clark's "In The Vault" is a pleasant diversion, sort of like the cartoon that theaters used to play along with the feature, but it had the potential of being memorably frightening if only the source material had been better utilized.

I'm glad I watched THE H.P. LOVECRAFT COLLECTION, VOLUME 4: PICKMAN'S MODEL, because not only did it prompt me to finally start reading Lovecraft after all these years, but it also provided me with a highly-enjoyable evening's worth of really good Gothic horror.  Seeing how a single short story can yield such a mix of wildly-different styles and interpretations makes it consistently interesting.  And it's a great example of how mood and atmosphere can be just as effective, and sometimes more so, than a bunch of shock cuts and gore effects.

THE H.P. LOVECRAFT COLLECTION, VOLUME 4: PICKMAN'S MODEL -- DVD Review by Porfle

Gothic Thriller "WHITETAIL" Comes Home October 19th

 

MUSCULAR PUPPY ANNOUNCES THEATRICAL RELEASE OF

SOUTHERN GOTHIC HORROR ‘WHITETAIL’

Marks The First Theatrical Feature Release For The Texas Based Production Company, Trinity Creative Partnership Takes Ancillary Rights

“A sinister and multi-layered parable” - The Movie Blog
“An intense and violent thriller” - Matt's Movie Reviews
“Raw as nature can be” - Ganiveta Magazine 

 

(LOS ANGELES) –Muscular Puppy, the independent film company based out of Fort Worth, Texas will distribute their feature film WHITETAIL, a southern gothic horror. 

The film will premiere theatrically at the famous Texas Theatre in Dallas on July 2, 2021 followed by a limited run in select theaters.

WATCH THE OFFICIAL TRAILER:

 

WHITETAIL follows the broken family of Donnie Mann, his father and uncle as they embark on a weekend hunting trip. Donnie’s mother has recently died of an overdose and the trio hope to get away to spend some time in nature and clear their heads. 

Instead, they find a mysterious man shot in the stomach and clutching onto a backpack full of money.

A southern gothic thriller with flaring tempers and warped relationships, the story takes place over one day and one night in the brush land of West Texas.

The film is written and directed by Muscular Puppy Partner, Derek Presley (Red Stone, Boon) and co-produced by Alfa Whiskey Entertainment. 

 

WHITETAIL stars rising talent Dash Melrose (Ida Red, Run With The Hunted, Red Stone), Tom Zembrod (Ouija 3, From the Dark), Paul T. Taylor (Hellraiser: Judgement, Sin City), Jason Coviello(“Deputy,” “Roswell, New Mexico”), Billy Blair (Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For), Jason Douglas (“Preacher,” “Walking Dead”) and Ted Ferguson (Logan, “Preacher”).  

Trinity Creative Partnership has acquired ancillary rights of the feature for the UK, Turkey and North America, set to be released on Digital, VOD, DVD and Blu-Ray this fall. The deal was brokered by Alan Green of OneTwoThreeMedia on behalf of Muscular Puppy and Trinity Creative Partnerships. 

FILM INFORMATION 

Release Date: October 19, 2021 (Digital, VOD and DVD)
Written/Directed By: Derek Presley
Produced By: Bart Collins, Garrett Schwindt, Jason Starne, Jorg Viktor Steins-Lauss, Austin Williams
Starring: Dash Melrose (Ida Red, Lost Kings), Tom Zembrod (From The Dark, Knucklebones), Paul Taylor (Hellraiser: Judgement, Sin City), Jason Coviello (Roswell, New Mexico, In Plain Sight), Billy Blair (Alita: Battle Angel, Sin City: A Dame To Kill For), Jason Douglas (The Walking Dead, Cruel Summer), Ted Ferguson (Doom Patrol, Preacher)
Distributor: Reel 2 Reel Films
Production Company: Alfa Whiskey Entertainment
Genre: Southern Gothic Thriller
Rating: N/A
Language: English
Runtime: 123 minutes

Synopsis: Whitetail follows a broken family consisting of a father, an uncle and the son as they embark on a weekend hunting trip out in West Texas. The mother has recently died of an overdose and the trio hope to get away from it all by being out in nature and hunting. Instead they find a mysterious man shot in the stomach and clutching onto a backpack full of money. This film is a southern gothic thriller, drama and survival film. All taking place over one day and one night in the brush land of Texas. 

For more information about WHITETAIL:

IMDB
OFFICIAL HASHTAG: #WhiteTailFilm

ABOUT MUSCULAR PUPPY

Muscular Puppy is an independent film company based in Fort Worth, Texas. Founded by Texas natives and partners Jason Starne, Alex Blackmon, Derek Presley, and Garrett Schwindt, the company focuses primarily on production and development. Recent projects include the thriller Red Stone, starring Neal McDonough, as well the film’s “spiritual sequel”, Boon, starring Neal McDonough and Christiane Seidel. Boon also stars Demetrius Grosse, Jason Scott Lee, Tommy Flanagan, Christina Ochoa, Jake Melrose, John Patrick Jordan, James Madio, Pat Monahan and Gabrielle Carteris. WHITETAIL is the first of three featurefilms to be released this fall.

ABOUT TRINITY CREATIVE PARTNERSHIP

Trinity Creative Partnership is a leading, independent Film, Documentary and TV series sales and distribution business. TCP works across all physical (DVD & Blu-ray), digital, SVOD and TVplatforms worldwide. They represent numerous UK and international Producers, Independent Distributors and Sales Agents. Trinity works with its clients to help them develop and distribute new content each year, as well as enabling them to exploit their libraries containing thousands of hours of material.The Trinity team has managed the acquisition, production and release of thousands of titles around the world for over 20 years.

Gothic Thriller "WHITETAIL" Comes Home October 19th

Amazon & Blumhouse's Gothic Horror Film "THE MANOR" Releasing Worldwide on Amazon Prime Video Oct 8

 

Amazon & Blumhouse's Gothic Horror Film "THE MANOR" Releasing Worldwide on Amazon Prime Video Oct 8

 

A chilling examination of how we view aging and our treatment of the elderly, with a supernatural twist, THE MANOR centers on Judith Albright (Barbara Hershey) who recently suffered a mild stroke and reluctantly moves into a historic nursing home where she becomes convinced an unknown force is killing the residents.  

Axelle utilizes her keen eye for high-brow horror to showcase the exceptional talents of Barbara Hershey in a rare over-70 female protagonist role, supported by a star-studded cast including Bruce Davison, Nicholas Alexander, Jill Larsen, Fran Bennett and Katie Amanda Keane. Axelle’s script explores the humanity of our elderly population and how these members of our society are vibrant, capable, and not expendable.

THE MANOR will launch on Amazon as part of the Welcome to the Blumhouse series, a quartet of unique, unsettling thrillers developed and produced with an eye towards diverse, original storytelling with an emphasis on rising female filmmakers. THE MANOR will premiere as part of the series, among 3 additional titles: Black as Night, Madres, and Bingo Hell.

 

About Axelle Carolyn:
A passionate fan of genre content and a talented director to watch, Axelle has several projects under her belt across both the television and film spaces, helming several recent beloved genre stories. In addition to THE MANOR, she recently directed episodes of several prestigious TV shows in the last year, including the standout, black-and-white chapter of “The Haunting of Bly Manor” from Paramount, Amblin, and Netflix, which Rotten Tomatoes called “the year’s most haunting hour of TV”, as well as Ryan Murphy’s lauded FX series “American Horror Story”, Shudder’s “Creepshow,” and Netflix’s upcoming “The Midnight Club.” Axelle’s previous writing credits also include the “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,” for Warner Bros and Netflix.  Her feature directorial debut, a slow-burn ghost story titled SOULMATE won several awards in festivals around the world and is currently streaming on Amazon.
 

Amazon & Blumhouse's Gothic Horror Film "THE MANOR" Releasing Worldwide on Amazon Prime Video Oct 8

DVD/VOD Release (5/19)-- Southern Gothic Thriller "UNION BRIDGE" from writer/director Brian Levin (Flock of Dudes) Arrives this May -- See Trailer HERE!

BREAKING GLASS EXPLORES HISTORY IN SOUTHERN GOTHIC THRILLER 

"UNION BRIDGE"
 

Philadelphia, PA, April 7, 2020--Breaking Glass Pictures has acquired North America rights to the Lynchian southern gothic thriller UNION BRIDGE, the debut feature from writer/director Brian Levin. Breaking Glass acquired rights to the film in March in a deal negotiated between Breaking Glass CEO Rich Wolff and Levin, who is represented by UTA and Itay Reiss at Artists First. The film will open in Los Angeles on May 15, and arrive on DVD & VOD platforms May 19.

WATCH THE TRAILER:

UNION BRIDGE held its World Premiere at the New Filmmakers NY Film Festival, and stars Scott Friend (“Fourteen”), Emma Duncan (Chicago Med), Alex Breaux (“Depraved”, When They See Us), and Elisabeth Noone (The Wire). The film is proudly produced by Lucie Elwes, alongside Levin.

“We are very excited to team up with Breaking Glass for the release of Union Bridge”, said Levin. “They saw that our film came from a love of cinema as well as a desire to connect with a large audience. Union Bridge has had a strange and magic journey all the way down the line- and the partnership with Breaking Glass was the final and critical piece of the puzzle.”

UNION BRIDGE follows Will Shipe, the scion of a powerful family living near the Mason Dixon line, as he moves back home after years in the city. His old friend Nick, who still lives in town, is feverishly digging in the land because of a vision he can’t escape. What is buried in this small town and the events around it has repercussions that effect many people. Most of all, Will Shipe, and the past and future of his legacy.

“Writer/Director Levin brings an assured sensibility to his debut feature”, said Richard Ross, Co-President at Breaking Glass. “He manages to breathe new life into the “family with hidden secrets” genre, and is ably assisted by a strong performance from lead actor Scott Friend.”

UNION BRIDGE
Genre: Thriller, Drama, History
Running Time: 91 min.
Rating: NR
Language: English

Cast:
Scott Friend
Emma Duncan
Alex Breaux
Elisabeth Noone
Bobby J. Brown
Lateicia Ford
Kevin Murray
Nancy Linden

Director: Brian Levin
Writer: Brian Levin
Producers: Lucie Elwes, Brian Levin
Music Composed by: Chris Retsina, Caleb Stine, Turner Curran
Cinematographer: Sebastian Slayter
Editor: Nick Kovacic
Casting Director: Kate Geller, Pat Moran
Production Design by: Katy Hallowell, Oscar Tiné
Costume Design by: Julie Bennett
Makeup Department: Aedel Park
Sound by: Turner Curran

DVD/VOD Release (5/19)-- Southern Gothic Thriller "UNION BRIDGE" from writer/director Brian Levin (Flock of Dudes) Arrives this May -- See Trailer HERE!

Joker's Famous Museum Blooper: "BATMAN" (1989) (video)

(This one's pretty well-known but it's still fun.)

Joker (Jack Nicholson) and his goons are "improving the paintings" at Gotham Museum. 

Keep an eye out for the Rembrandt...

SPLAT!

Presto! Back to normal!

"Oh, well--who cares?"


I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it.  Thanks for watching!

Joker's Famous Museum Blooper: "BATMAN" (1989) (video)

Sofia Coppola's "THE BEGUILED" Teaser Trailer Available Now

Focus Features will release THE BEGUILED in select cities on June 23, 2017,
expanding to more theaters on June 30, 2017

Acclaimed writer/director Sofia Coppola brings you a seductive thriller starring Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, and Elle Fanning.

For more info, please follow the film on social:
Official Site
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
#TheBeguiled

          Watch the official teaser trailer here:

Sofia Coppola's "THE BEGUILED" Teaser Trailer Available Now