The Bloody Pit #196 - SONS OF STEEL (1988)

John Hudson and Bobby Hazzard join me for a raucous discussion of this bizarre Australian oddity. Are we able to figure out the story? What do we think of the main character? Do we maintain our sanity before the invisible chimp rears his furry head to fling poop everywhere? Thank goodness for the laughing audience in the room to keep us on track and aware of how silly we can be.

SONS OF STEEL (1988) is a film built out of bits & pieces of earlier movies but without the budget necessary to pull it off. It seems to be assembled from random parts of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Blade Runner, Back to the Future, Max Headroom and a little barbarian imagery for texture. The film follows Black Alice, a pompous singer strutting around a dystopian near-future momentarily mourning his dead girlfriend and trying to become a rock star. Strangely, he is also somehow an environmental peace activist – or at least we are told this by agents of the Oceana government. (Did I mention that 1984 is ripped off as well?) The movie is a series of music videos struggling to tell a tale of revolution, love and violence but the most memorable moments are the very 80’s songs scattered across the soundtrack. In Spiritus Wank’em!

If you have any thoughts on Black Alice, SONS OF STEEL or the sequel novels penning by the writer/director, thebloodypit@gmail.com is the place to send them. Thank you for listening to the show!

Trailer - SONS OF STEEL (1988)

If you've never seen this Australian cross between The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Mad Max this trailer will give you an idea of what to expect. Podcast on the way! 

The Bloody Pit #124- TURKEY SHOOT (1982)

We’ve never before dug into the fertile field of Australian genre movies here on The Bloody Pit which means it is long overdue. The classic Ozploitation period is generally thought of has having lasted from the middle of the 1970’s to the late 1980’s which seems a short length of time until you look at the number of films that fall into this category. There are more than three dozen movies produced just in the 1980’s that comfortably fit under the Ozploitation umbrella with several worldwide hits like MAD MAX 2 (1982), ROAD GAMES (1981), RAZORBACK (1984) and DEAD-END DRIVE-IN (1986) being most well-known. Add to that list 70’s stunners such as MAD DOG MORGAN (1976), THE MAN FROM HONG KONG (1975), PATRICK (1978) and the ground breaking MAD MAX (1979) and it becomes clear that the Australian output of horror, action and post-apocalyptic cinema has had powerful, long lasting influence. But, in many cases, the Aussie versions of exploitation fodder was following the prevailing trends and copying successes as best they could. And that brings us to this movie! 

Director Brian Trenchard-Smith has described TURKEY SHOOT (1982) as a movie in which "1984 meets The Camp on Blood Island where they play 'The Most Dangerous Game'". If that isn’t a perfect enticement for curious, thrill-seeking movie goers I don’t know what could be! John Hudson and Bobby Hazzard join me for a rollicking discussion of this astonishing piece of sadistic insanity. We marvel at the actors willing to put themselves through this crazed scenario with emphasis on the pure hell of trying to shoot a film under very difficult circumstances. We toss around many strange metaphors as we attempt to describe the action of the story and have great fun watching people blow up real good! I’m not sure how but somehow Gilligan’s Island is invoked alongside a discussion of pants stuffed with raw meat and dummy deaths. Oh! And Bobby manages to make me do an actual spit-take! Waste of good beer, sadly. 

If you have any comments or questions thebloodypit@gmail.com is the email address for the show. Let us know what you think of TURKEY SHOOT or your favorite Ozploitation film. Should we cover more of them? Could be fun! Thank you for listening. 

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Brief Thoughts -THE BABADOOK (2014)

To usher in the month long viewing of horror films I finally sat down with some friends to watch THE BABADOOK and this may well be the scariest movie about grief and depression I've ever seen. I had managed to keep myself fairly unaware of much about the film's story but I was aware of it causing some fans of the genre to complain that first time director Jennifer Kent merely cut and pasted scenes from classic horror films. Now that I've seen the picture I have to say that the critics have a point in that it is easy to spot lifts from a number of great movies of the past including some David Lynch visuals, a few EXORCIST moments and some interesting ideas from THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI. Of course, in the end (spoiler!!) the film can also be seen as a 21st century variation on Polanski's REPULSION (1965) with added guilt and family problems. But the viewers that reject THE BABADOOK because of these borrowings are being too clever by half because director Kent makes her lifts plain for all to see by showing us the film's characters watching several of the movies she then goes on to reference. Indeed, if as a knowledgeable horror fan, you cannot spot the obvious nods and clever reflections of the classic movies she weaves into her tale you are missing her point. It's a major plot point (and narrative clue) to the nature of the horror unfolding that the main character is aware of these films. By the time we witness a scene in which the main character is watching the 'Drop of Water' segment of Mario Bava's BLACK SABBATH (1963) this should be clear and it presages a wrenching, chilling revelation. This is a good film that announces a new talent I'll be interested to follow in the future even as I feel that this movie shows that she might move out of horror and into straight dramas. I hope not. 

PATRICK (1978)

After Carrie (1976) the cinematic gloves were off and floating around the room. Telekinesis was suddenly a part of the language of horror movies and it was time to catch that bandwagon and jump aboard before it trundled off the cliff. It was time to attach invisible wires to objects, fling them around rooms and marvel at the terror generated by the power of the unleashed mind. It helped that in Carrie and most of the follow-ups/rip-offs the individual slinging deadly things about was a late blooming teenager suffering through puberty in a way that made the average first menstruation, ball drop or voice change seem like a grand day at Six Flags. These movies represented every parent's greatest fear and simultaneously embodied one parental great hope. What mother doesn't wish for their offspring to be able to stand on their own two feet and deal with bullies in a confident, decisive manner? What dad doesn't wish for their daughter the ability to fend off slimy grab-handers with a flick of her princess eyes? Make no mistake — for every nightmare scenario that telekinetic powers conjures up it offers a similar fantasy of effortless, unstoppable strength with few, if any, restraints. The supernatural powers that Carrie White used to enact her vengeance on her schoolmates are the daily dream of every picked upon, mistreated, pushed around kid on every playground and schoolyard on the planet Earth. It is the ultimate "I'll show you!" desire that wells up inside anyone being slapped around by others with strength but no honor. The beauty of the Australian produced Patrick is that the film doesn't take the easy path to have you identify with its title character. Instead it shows him to be what he truly is— a spoiled child in an adult body with no sense of or concern for the harm he does each time he acts out against those around him. Of course, not everyone in the film has his best interests in mind... but that's where things get interesting.

In a pre-titles sequence we see blonde, curly-haired Patrick (Robert Thompson) murder his mother and her lover by tossing a plugged-in heater into their post-coital bathtub. Cutting to several years later Patrick has become a comatose patient in the private Roget Clinic, run by the rather sadistic Dr. Roget (Robert Helpmann). The doc is keeping his latest coma patient alive to study the effects of various nonstandard treatments on his condition. Along comes a young, pretty, recently separated nurse named Kathy (Susan Penhaligon) who takes a job at the clinic after passing a tough interview with the prudish head nurse, Matron Cassidy (Julia Blake). The Matron has no love for her new nurse but seems to have no love for anyone else either, and appears to fear our boy Patrick — she won't step foot inside his room! Kathy is placed in charge of Patrick's room for the second shift hours. She is obviously sympathetic towards him as he lies bedridden, unable to move or show any measurable brain activity. After a few days something strange occurs and Nurse Kathy begins to think her patient is trying to talk to her. By telepathically working the keys on a typewriter Patrick is able to communicate with her but refuses to repeat these amazing feats for anyone else. These telepathic abilities also allow Patrick to wreak havoc at a distance, which translates into trashing Kathy's new apartment out of anger and burning her estranged husband's hands. Once she realizes what is happening an earlier near-drowning of her new lover (Bruce Barry) fits the pattern of jealous rage directed at sexually misbehaving women that started Patrick's story. How far will the lad go before he is stopped? And how do you stop someone capable of tossing you around a room with the power of his mind?

Patrick is a well regarded horror film but not a well loved one. Many times I've heard people complain about the fact that almost nothing of a horrific nature takes place in the movie for nearly half of its running time. I can understand this gripe because if all you're looking for are shock moments, gore or arch villainy this film offers little to sate you. But if you have the patience to simply watch the movie and let it tell its story at its own pace it's an engrossing piece that creeps under your skin and pulls you into it. The movie is very much from the point of view of Nurse Kathy as she notices each small clue about Patrick's abilities and begins to communicate with him. I suppose the script was written to carefully introduce the fantastic element slowly in an attempt to slide it past more resistant viewers until they could be caught up in the story. For my money it works for many reasons, not the least of which is down to the fine craftsmanship involved. Make no mistake — this is a well made film. Director Richard Franklin would go on to make two more brilliant thrillers after this one (Road Games and Psycho 2) before an almost criminal career slide into TV work and only rare returns features. A damned shame, as he clearly knows how to make a suspenseful movie build scene by scene to a satisfying, electrifying climax.

The film also has a nice, adult sense of reality about its character's relationships with each other. Kathy is conflicted at the beginning of the story, unsure if she should return to her husband or start an affair with the handsome playboy doctor she meets at a party. She isn't trying to play both sides of the field but her search for what is best for her is interesting and well played enough to have kept me interested even without the telekinetic plot. I will admit that the film hovers between being a little too long and being lengthy enough to let its story breathe. I'm on the fence about whether it's overlong for the tale it has to tell, but I have to say that I like the fact that time is spent getting to know the characters well enough to make them more than waiting victims or screaming ciphers. Also, I love the small touches placed throughout the film that pay off if you pay attention, like the flickering sign under Patrick's window and the sound of Matron Cassidy's stocking clad feet as she sneaks around the clinic. And even if I feel that Brian May's very effective score sounds like 'Bernard Herrmann Lite', that's really not a bad thing at all.