RareSlashersReviewed

As I've said before, it's an often-touted fact amongst those who know their horror movies that the Australians haven't exactly excelled themselves with the level of their output within the slasher genre. It's fairly ironic then that within the space of a month I've found two credible efforts that successfully manage to disprove that age-old fallacy. First I came across the creepy Cassandra, which mixed erratic photography and razor sharp editing to a surprisingly credible effect. Then I discovered the ambitiously restrained and meritoriously tense Symphony of Evil. Taking a large slice of Halloween's appetizing pie and filling the spaces with a few Hitchcockian nods just for good measure, this confident TV movie is perhaps one of the most commendable and long forgotten late entries to the stalk and slash cycle. It succeeds mainly because it chooses to follow the path of down to earth realism over farfetched gore and gratuitous shock tactics. For example, the heroine of the feature is not an archetypal buxom bimbo that's played simply for eye candy instead of character. She's a life-like young woman that finds herself in a tricky situation, which helps to give the film an undeniably naturalistic edge. Director Craig Nahiff also accepts with glee, the challenge of giving his female characters complete control of the script without relying on sexual overtones to make them appealing. There's no needless nudity or even any slight references towards it; and to be honest, it isn't something that's missed. Surprisingly enough, and adding further flame to the Film's ‘girl power' agenda, the only male that's signifigant in the screenplay finds himself thrown at the mercy of his ex-wife (now there's a thought) in order to help him prove his innocence!

Symphony of Evil even boasts a classy score that's vaguely reminiscent of John Williams' theme from Oliver Stone's masterpiece JFK. After it plays over the credit sequence, we're thrown headfirst into the action. A car pulls up outside an apartment block in the middle of the night, and out steps a young student. She kisses her female partner goodbye, then heads up the staircase into the building. We also see that there's a suspicious looking character lurking around in the shadows trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible. Once inside her flat, the youngster takes off her coat and gets changed to the strains of a Rossini Symphony. Suddenly, there's a frantic knock at the door. She opens it and a masked stranger that's immediately (and rather obviously) reminiscent of Jamie Blanks' psycho from the tawdry Valentine - greets her. There's a brief struggle, but the maniac easily overpowers her, and the last thing we see is her body hurtle through a glass window and land with a thud on the cold hard concrete floor below, artistically splashing a small trickle of blood over a white rose in the shrubbery. The suspicious looking guy that was standing outside approaches the victim, and attempts to resuscitate her; but she struggles, which effectively makes him look like the culprit. This fact is further proven by a gang of spectators shouting, `Stop that man – he's killing her' from their windows! The luckless fellow panics and legs it off into the night, grabbing a strange key that the girl was clenching tightly in her hand as he leaves.

Some time later, the victim's neighbour - Kate Martin () – returns home to the scene, which by now is shrouded with Police cars and ambulances. It was her friend, Anna that we just saw assaulted, but luckily she's still alive (barely) and on her way to intensive care. Meanwhile, the local constabulary, who must've received their Law Enforcement training from the Salvation Army, (simply because they catch him about five times, only to mindlessly let him escape again), are pursuing the accused through some sewers. Down at the station, Detective Turner questions Kate and Anna's musical lecturer – the emotionally overwrought DR. Steiner - who informs us that the girl was ‘ambivalent about her desires' and also that she didn't have too many friends. Whilst at the Nick, Kate catches a brief peak of the artist's impersonation of the guy seen standing over the body, and she's a little more than surprised that it looks uncannily like her ex-husband…

Kate returns to her apartment, where low and behold, the bloke who was framed for the violent attack visits her. It is – of course – Mike, her ex-hubby, who's much more loveable rogue than homicidal maniac, so us viewers know that he has just got to be in the clear. Unfortunately, he dropped that strange key down the drain, which has pretty much scrambled his chance of easily proving his innocence. He believes that Anna is the only one that can get him out of bother and asks Kate if he can borrow her car to get to the hospital. He even attempts to add a little charm, by remarking, `C'mon for old times sake.' His ex-Missus agrees, but doesn't let him leave without adding the sarcastic remark, `I hated the old times – and the new ones aren't any better!'

Mike arrives at the hospital to try and put himself in the clear, but he isn't the only person that's decided on an after hours visit. The masked killer – doing a very credible Michael Myers impersonation – has also turned up, and let's just say, that Mike's illusions of being a free man have just been effectively shattered. Even more so, because an officer has just caught him inexplicably running away from the scene of the murder. I don't think that any amount of charm's going to get him out of this one! His ever-faithful ex-wife visits him, and reluctantly decides to help clear his name. Even if she does feel sympathetic concerning the fate of her ex-partner, the real reason that she intervenes is purely down to a dangerous curiosity that looks obvious to have strong repercussions on her own good self later in the runtime. Much of the following plot line is filled with clues and twists that I'd be bang out of order to spoil for you, so I'll just run through some of the highlights.

Remember that schoolyard urban legend about someone's neighbour that had his car stolen, only to have it returned a few day later? So the story went: upon searching the freshly delivered automobile, inside the victim a note and two opera tickets offered as an apology. Of course, whilst the unfortunate individual was basking in this opportunistic gift, the thief came back and rather brazenly burgled his house and re-claimed the car. The genius of course, was the fact that he knew exactly how long he had to commit the impeccably planned deed. Well judging by the year this was released, it could have been this smart psychopath that boosted that yarn into public awareness and caused it to be spun continuously throughout the world ever since. Yep, sure enough, between mimicking Mr Myers' habit of hiding behind washing lines and stalking Kate from the shadows whilst making a creepy point of holding a bright red rose in one hand, this cheeky maniac re-enacts that legend to perfection. He even goes as far as to turn up later at the opera and suspense-fully chase the heroine and her comical Johnny Cash loving buddy out of the theatre!

But for real nail biting suspense par excellence, nothing can beat the part in which the sword brandishing assassin murders Detective Turner. Check some of the photography as he pursues the baffled officer along a claustrophobic corridor and then slices her to shreds. The beauty of the sequence being that it is carried out with only the smallest drops of blood being spilled, a la John Carpenter - fantastic! Of course, the final scene is equally as impressive, utilising a great use of carefully built shock tactics and razor sharp tension as Kate finds someone's chilled out corpse in a Smokey freezer. There are also some of my favourite horror-fied objects littering the place too; I just can't see how those nightmare-inducing mannequins cannot terrify anyone!

One thing that I haven't yet mentioned about Nahiff's debut is the fact that it resolves around the classical music that the girls study, thus giving the director the chance to include some instantly recognisable operatic cuts that make for an authentic and undeniably agreeable ingredient. There are simply loads of other wonderful elements to appreciate about Symphony of Evil. These include: fairly comfortable performances from the effortlessly likeable leads, and more importantly, it looks like the director was well aware of his budget restrictions, but managed to spend the funds he had wisely and in the right places. For example, Frank Stragio's score does wonders to help create the atmosphere, which works because in the moments where not a lot happens, you're always aware, that something's just about too. Even though this may have lifted more than a slight nod of inspiration from Halloween and its follow-up (the killer stalking the hospital, the Michael Myers-alike disguise et cetera), it's probably one of the few efforts that almost comes close to sharing a slice of its glory.

Although the revelation of the killer's identity is hardly jaw dropping, there's really not much wrong with Symphony of Evil. It's filled with suspense, realistic characters and it has to be said, tonnes of cheesy antics! (Watch out for some of the dialogue between Kate and her humorous buddy!) This may be a tad too archetypal to share a perch with Halloween and Black Christmas, but it sits comfortably alongside such classics as Curtains, Terror Train and Intruder - yes, it is that good. Despite earning the respect to be trusted with bigger budgets from this offering, Nahiff never bettered his work on this atmospheric murder-mystery. Heaven's Burning was a so-so thriller that had the added bonus of starring Russell Crowe, and his most recent movie Black and White was promising, but hardly a worthy follow-up to such an ambitious debut. It just goes to show that bigger budgets don't always make better movies, and he found the perfect medium with this made for TV classic.

The only real problem to be found here, is the fact that you may have quite a struggle uncovering a copy. As far as I'm aware, it hasn't yet seen the light of day on DVD and it's unlikely that it ever will. That's a real shame, because I seriously can't recommend this enough even to the slightest fans of psycho-killer entertainment. If you like slasher movies, then you'll like Symphony of Evil – there's really nothing else to it. Perhaps if this had been a bigger hit, Australia would've lost its reputation for being below par when it comes to horror filmmaking. It seems surprising that films like the insipid Houseboat Horror or the rancid Cut manage to live on in reputation, but a real treat like this disappears from the face of the planet? Still, I suggest you start up a favourite search on ebay and just hope that there are still a few copies floating around. That's where I got mine from and it only cost £1.99 – a real bargain! This is well worth the effort of tracking down

Lance Hayward's Terror Night was one of the surprisingly large amounts of slasher movies that inexplicably vanished from existence very soon after it was initially unleashed in the eighties. Actually, whilst trying unrewardingly to search out some information on the flick's production, I came across a statement from notorious B-movie mogul Fred Olen Ray - that said it never even acquired a US release. I guess that would of course, explain why it seems to have completely disappeared from cinema history. If it wasn't for the odd user comment posted on the IMDB or the fact that I managed to track down a copy (without a cover), I'd be inclined to believe that it was still laying in a vault somewhere, waiting for a label to pick it up for circulation. Information on whether or not it was shelved would be much appreciated from anyone who knows the facts of its history. I'm starting to believe that it may have surfaced briefly outside America only, which explains the reader's reviews and the fact that this copy has German subtitles. If that is the case, and it was withheld in its country of origin, then it's pretty hard to imagine a reason why it never gained the exposure it deserved. It really isn't all that bad; - certainly no worse than the majority of bottom-of-the-barrel genre-pieces that were appearing around '87. It's a damn site better than schlocksters like The Last Slumber Party or the incredibly awful Blood Lake turned out to be. And on top of that, it's a lot more authentic.

Nick Marino's splatter opus even boasts one or two alluring qualities that may have allowed it to reach cult status, if it was given the right chances. Firstly, legendary one-eyed filmmaker Andre De Toth supposedly shot a few scenes and offered his overall guidance to the director; and secondly it plays a great deal like a more successful and charmingly remembered horror film from the early eighties, Fade to Black. Although a few of the necessary trappings were firmly in place, FTB wasn't really a slasher movie by any length of chalk. It was mainly notable for a brief early appearance from Mickey Rourke, just before he hit the big time with Diner and Rumble Fish respectively. This on the other hand, is stalk and slash to the core; but chucks in a few winsome alterations to the traditional formula that I actually found fairly engaging. There's a few imaginative murders, some great disguises for the killer and even a brief cameo from grumpy old horror movie favourite, Cameron Mitchell. Amusingly enough, he's billed as the star, even though he turns up for two minutes and then disappears quicker than a rabbit with an amphetamine addiction. He later made a lucrative habit of showing up and sodding off in slashers like Memorial Valley Massacre and Jack-O. In fact, the only genre movies that he could have rightly been credited as any kind of lead were The Toolbox Murders and The Demon. At least in both of those, he actually bothered to hang around for more than a snippet of dialogue or two.

After a neat credit sequence that's deliberately modelled on those of late '20s cinema, (it even includes a corny 'rag-time' melody a la Al Jolson!), we leap headfirst into the action. We're shown a dilapidated mansion that once housed legendary Hollywood screen star Lance Hayward. Hayward was immensely popular in his day, starring in a number of successful hit-movies before he retired and disappeared into seclusion. Attempts to track down the actor's whereabouts have been unsuccessful. Some say that he relocated to Switzerland and changed his name, while others believe that he must have passed on to the big ol' silver screen in the sky. It's unlikely that he's still alive and kicking, as nowadays he would be over ninety years old. Due to the authority's failure to track him down, a real-estate agent and a Lawyer have arranged to meet at the property and negotiate the building's sale. They plan to demolish what's left of the once beautiful abode, so that they can use the space to develop something more useful than the ageing eyesore.

The first guy arrives a little early, so instead of waiting with the amiable 'security guard' (who really doesn't look too reassuring), he decides inexplicably to drive out into the dense forest that surrounds the grounds and wait amongst the trees. Of course, in a slasher movie, lone-trips into the woodland usually mean that someone's about to suffer a painful death; and this one certainly isn't trying to break the mould in that respect either. A psycho that's dressed in prohibition-era gangster attire, jumps out of the bushes and clumps the unlucky fellow on the back of the neck, effectively knocking him to the ground. He drags the unconscious guy over to a tree and ties his arms around the trunk, before attaching his legs to the rear bumper of his automobile. The luckless seller awakens just in time to learn that he's about to be ripped in half by a totally out of period Frank Nitti impersonator, with some serious animosities towards estate agents! The actual murder (which is nice and gooey) is intercut with stock footage that we later learn is a mix of scenes from Hayward's history of moviemaking. As in the tradition of Fade to Black, each murder is themed by one of his fictional screen credits; and he wears a prominent guise for each bloody deed.

The Lawyer arrives and the security guard stops him to reminisce about a flick called The Mobster and The Lady, in which Lance's character killed a 'rat' using exactly the same methods that we just saw rehashed on that decidedly unfortunate visitor. It's beginning to look like the star has returned to forcibly reclaim his property, and he's not willing to negotiate the sale possibilities with any money-snatching property-developers. But admittedly, his reappearance does kind of beg the question: If this guy's meant to be in his nineties, then I can't really see him being too much of an agile homicidal maniac. 'The psychotic geriatric' doesn't exactly sound terrifying, does it? I know that Michael Myers' slo-mo stalking was creepy, but maybe a Zimmer-frame is taking things just a little bit too far?

After the discussion, the guard is sent home and the attorney meets a sticky end courtesy of a spear through the stomach. Again, the slaughter is intercut with scenes from one of Hayward's previous cinematic successes, this time it was 'Pride of the Bengal Lancers'! Just so that no one thinks that we're watching a sequel to that cheesy old anti-estate agent slasher, Open House; we meet a gang of typical eighties teens - all hairspray and heavy metal - that chuck us into more formulaic and instantly recognisable territory. Every one of the six youngsters is little more than an overused cliché, from the nerdy movie-geek to the loud-mouthed insensitive pair that look certain to suffer a gruesome fate for their apparent over-brashness. They all meet up at an apartment where the six-o-clock news plays on the television, and the major topic is the fate of Lance Hayward's estate. One dim-witted bimbo that's sure to regret the extent of her imagination comes up with the idea that they should drive up to the house and take one last look around before it's bulldozed into oblivion. They all agree on the plan and pile aboard Todd's van for the journey. Unbeknown to them, there's already a pair of rowdy rockers with very similar motivation en-route to the mansion, which takes the body count possibilities up to a whopping eight should-be victims!

After the gang has arrived, they bump into a drunken hobo (Aldo Ray) that's staggering around the grounds, giving us his best Crazy Ralph impersonation. He stops to incoherently warn the youngsters that there's a murderous psychopath roaming the woodland, before donating some corn syrup to Hayward, who's cunningly dressed as a Pirate. Of course, his warnings don't do much to discourage the eager beavers, and neither does the sure to be surviving girl's brief sightings of an ominous shape lurking suspiciously between the trees. They carry on up to the property and discover that a window has already been broken to summon them inside the intriguing location. Once they've entered, they find plenty of nostalgic memorabilia littering the vast foreboding rooms, and a few patent signs that they're not alone, which (of course) they fail to take into account. Before long, each of them finds comically inept reasons to take fateful lonesome strolls that only lead them back to their agent's hopeful waiting lists. On their journey into obscurity, they meet the resident psychopath, and suffer one of his fairly imaginative ideas for cinematic slaughter...

As I said previously, Terror Night doesn't deserve its impossible to track-down status. To be honest, I found it to be a mindlessly diverting splatter romp, with a few alluring elements that work to its credit. It's fairly gooey in places and the killer's vast array of slaughter patterns and disguises were a whole lot of fun. I especially liked the knight in armour, which was used to a similar effect by David Hess in that underrated slasher from 1980, To all a Goodnight. The masked-desperado and Robin Hood were two other humorous camouflages, and there's a big enough bloodbath for him to don an impressive number of costumes. The use of old movies to accompany the murders was an interesting touch; although I must admit that I'm considering the fact that these additions may have had something to do with the flick's total disappearance. The end-credits do not acknowledge where the footage was borrowed from, and one has to wonder whether Marino infringed a few copyright issues, which eventually resulted in the film being shelved? It's only an assumption, but I'm pretty sure that something must have landed this otherwise promising debut - deep into troubled waters. Although the synopsis of 'teens exploring a derelict abode' may sound tediously formulaic, things don't follow suit as closely as you'd expect from a regular genre-piece. The conclusion was somewhat authentic and it does at least try to add a new sheen to the woe-be-tired formula.



Unfortunately, it isn't plain sailing all the way through; and this does suffer a few too many conspicuous flaws. It's inadequately lighted to the point of frustration in places, and it lacks the visual gloss that made a few of its counterparts more memorable. The most obvious blemish that plagues Terror Night's armour, is the fact that it doesn't solve the mystery that it takes the time to build throughout the runtime. We never find out what Lance Hayward actually is, or what was the motivation behind his carnage. Even after the conclusion, we still never learn if he's a ghost, a zombie or just a normal bloke blessed with extremely youthful looks for a ninety-year-old? I won't mention the lamentable performances of the youngsters, or Cameron Mitchell's slumming ten seconds of screen time, simply because, slasher movies have never been noted for their competent dramatics. However I must note the final scene, which breaks all boundaries of nonsensical narrative to helm a conclusion that's, well, - 'bizarre' isn't a strong enough description. Put it this way, it is truly shocking... But for all the wrong reasons!

Terror Night is one of the few slasher movies that had the potential to be a lot better than it eventually ended up, but somehow lost its way between the months of pre-production and the final days of shooting. It's a shame that we'll probably never find out how it might have turned out if it was given the proper chances, and it looks as if it probably suffered a bit of a nightmare production. Still, for fans looking for an extremely rare genre-piece, it does deliver the goods on a few levels. It's packed to the brim with hokey gore and there's some excessive nudity that always interests fans of exploitation. It's just that it never really manages to excel above moderately watchable.