Dreaming Purple Neon

Dreaming Purple Neon

2016

Director- Todd Sheets

Cast- Jeremy Edwards, Eli DeGeer, Millie Milan, Grant Conrad, Jack McCord, Nick Randol, Antwoine Steele, Ricky Farr, Jolene Loftin, Ana Rojas-Plumberg, Stacy Weible. Jodie Nelles Smith, Dilynn Fawn Harvey, Daniel Bell, Glen Moore

            

   In a genre where about half the movies have the words “devil” or “exorcism” in the title, you will never forget a title like Dreaming Purple Neon. Nor or you likely to forget this film. The title refers to a drug being pushed by a Satanic cult that is trying to summon the demon Abaddon, in this film presented as a demoness. Through arcane techniques everyone who uses the drug will be subject to the Demon Queen’s will, once she is summoned.

            

   Through a series of coincidences, a group of disparate individuals end up in a dentist's office; pair of drug dealers looking for their stolen stash ,a prodigal son returned to town trying to meet his lost love, and some poor schmucks that get caught up in the middle. Unfortunately for all involved, the basement of the building is not only the manufacturing center for the drug, but the meeting place of the cultists.

            

    The cult decides to use these interlopers as sacrifices in their rites and what commences is a trip through a house of horrors as they try to foil the Satanists and run for their lives. What we get to see is non-stop insane visuals with tons of gore; beheadings, dismemberments, cannibalism, a baby sacrifice, a demon woman bursting through the chest, full grown, from a victim, a torture machine turning a poor dudes rectum into macaroni and a generous portion of nudity. Good news for the ladies, the nudity is equal opportunity with lots of full frontal men (though let’s be honest, is anything less inspiring than a flaccid penis?).

            

   The film feels like a Tarantino homage that transitions to something akin to House of 1000 Corpses. The director seems much more adept at handling the horror elements though.

           

   This a low budget, probably sub-B, movie and you get what you’d expect; armature acting (though some of the performances are pretty convincing), awkward editing, cinematography that is sometimes distracting and other frequent reminders of its low budget status. But you also get things you’d never get from the studio system with its movies by committee. Low budget films often offer a purer vision and take chances that larger studios would never imagine. Check out Dreaming Purple Neon if you want an occasionally funny, frequently gory, and thoroughly original film.

The Stand

The Stand

1994

Director- Mick Garris

Cast- Gary Sinise, Molly Ringwald, Adam Storke, Jamey Sheridan, Rob Lowe, Laura San Giacomo, Ray Walston, Miguel Ferrer, Ruby Dee, Bill Fagerbakke, Corin Nemec, Matt Frewer, Ossie Davis, Shawnee Smith, Max Wright, Ed Harris, Peter Van Norden

            
   Originally premiering as a four part television mini-series, The Stand is the most ambitious adaptation of King’s most ambitious single work. After It, The Stand is Stephen King’s best known work, so probably you know the story, but if not here goes. A biological weapon, a super flue, escapes from its government creators. In the span of a few months it has spread across the world and wiped out most of the population. The few survivors that are immune are visited by dreams of two people. Mother Abagail, a kindly old woman in Nebraska, and Randall Flag, a dark menacing figure stalking the American highways. People choose sides and begin their journeys across America toward one camp or the other. Eventually, the battle between good and evil culminates in a final confrontation.

           
   

I think it’s fair to say that, among other things, The Stand is a religious allegory. Mother Abigail is a Moses like figure and Flagg is the Devil. He appears in nightmares, shape changes into a raven and possesses some degree of magic. He also recruits his lieutenants in a rather Mephistophelean manner, giving them power in exchange for their loyalty.

            
    Now those familiar with Flagg know that he is much more than the Devil. Appearing in several Stephen King novels, under various names, his evil is too broad to be described in purely Christian terms. However, none of that was evident in the novel and certainly not evident in the mini-series.

            
    So many of King’s works have been adapted to the screen, it would be difficult to list them all. The Stand is one of the better adaptations (maybe the best) owing, I think, to its 6 hour length. There are many greats characters in the novel and most of them appear in the film and they progress in much the same way. Over all it’s a fairly loyal adaptation, probably due to the fact that King himself did the teleplay.

            

    Besides its fidelity to the source material, it has a great cast. Today it is the norm to see actors on both the big screen and the small, but in 1994, it was fairly rare to see movie stars on TV. The impressive line-up included 1980s Brat Pack icons Molly Ringwald and Rob Lowe, veteran actors Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis and Ray Walston and Gary Sinise, who was on the verge of hitting it big with Forrest Gump and that’s not to mention the fine performances from the rest of the cast as well.

Les Demons (The Demons)

Les Demons

1972

Director- Jesús Franco

From France

Cast- Anne Libert, Britt Nichols, Doris Thomas, Karin Field, Cihangir Gaffari

            

     To be honest, at times this film borders on soft core porn with some pretty lengthy sex scenes, but as the movie clocks in at almost 2 hours, there is still plenty of room for story amongst all the sex.

            

      The film opens with an old hag being tortured and burned for witchcraft. She curses the members of the Inquisition that have sentenced her and promises that her daughters will have revenge. The inquisition then sets out to find these mysterious daughters.

            

      Kathleen (Anne Libert) and Margaret (Brit Nichols) are sisters who grew up in Blackmoor convent as orphans.  Kathleen seems to incite lust in everyone who meets her. Lady Winter (Karin Field) visits the convent looking for the witch’s daughters and decides to take Kathleen away as a suspected witch, to the dismay of her sister Margaret. The Lady Winter is a bit of perv and a sadist. She enjoys watching the young girls tortured and it fuels her sexual desires.

            

        While Kathleen is being tortured, Margaret is visited by the spirit of the old dead hag and then by the devil himself who has his way with her. The next morning, Margaret has come out of her shell and seduces the Mother of the convent before running away. She comes upon an old witch who helps her in her quest for revenge. Meanwhile, Kathleen is going from one man to the next, some who try to rescue her and some who want to abuse her.  Eventually, Margaret infiltrates the aristocracy in disguise and seduces and kills her way through the members of the inquisition.

          

    Anne Leibert and Britt Nichols (real name Carmen Yazalde) starred in numerous Franco  films together, including Virgin Among the Living Dead. They probably felt pretty comfortable around each other since they had previously shot two lesbian sex scenes in Dracula’s Daughter the year before (not to be confused with the Universal movie of the same name).

            

    Les Demons was an ambitious film for Franco. Most of his films are modern and this detour into a historical costume piece paid off I think. It’s an erotic film, and is obviously meant to be, but is very different from most of the other inquisition films of this era. Worth owning for fans of either Franco or Britt and Anne.

 

Virgin Among the Living Dead

A Virgin Among the Living Dead

1973

Director- Jesús Franco

Cast- Christina von Blanc, Britt Nichols, Rosa Palomar, Anne Libert, Howard Vernon, Nicole Guettard,

From Spain/ France

            

   This movie is one of the best examples of how studio attempts to broaden the appeal of a movie by altering the original vision can lead to the original vision almost being lost.

Originally Franco made Christina, Princess of Eroticism (which I admit is a pretty stupid name). It was a very low key, strange film that was almost reserved (by Franco standards). To boost its appeal, the studio called in another director to shoot some soft core porn, inserted it into the film, and re-released it. The porn scenes by the way were pretty stupid and lacked even the tiniest bit of eroticism. A few years later to capitalize on the Romero inspired zombie craze they called in French director Jean Rollin to shoot some extra scenes of zombies (that absolutely added nothing to the film) so they rebranded it a zombie movie entitled A Virgin Among the Living Dead (which, giving credit where its due, is an awesome name). Well the final name stuck and that’s what  it is best known as, so that’s why I’m listing it by that name.

Christina (Christina Von Blanc) has found out that her deceased father has left her an estate. She arrives to collect the inheritance to find the mansion inhabited by a strange group of her distant relatives. They seem to be very close knit but also have an antagonism toward each other. They also seem threatening in a way that is hard to put your finger on. One seems to be a lesbian (Britt Nichols from Les Demons) who is always trying seduce Christina. Another seems to be an idiot who only speaks gibberish (Franco himself). They all seem to be sharing a private joke with each other that Christina is not in on.

There are several scenes that could be interpreted as ominous dreams including one where Christina sees her dead father with a rope around his neck from where he has been hung. He reveals that his soul is being held by some mysterious “Queen of the Night” (Anne Libert also from Les Demons). Not until the very end of the film do we discover what is going on and the fate of this strange cast.

If you have only seen the “zombie” version of the film, you may be wondering why I included it on a site devoted to infernal films. The “zombie edition” replaced the occult imagery from the original director’s cut. The original Franco version features an occult ritual that has to be seen as analogous to witchcraft or Satanism and one scene rife with archetypal subtext where Christina, naked, kneels before a giant phallus. 

The “zombie” version of the film not only negates the occult symbolism, it adds pointless zombies in scenes that are shot to hide the fact that the main actress was not actually present.  For years, Virgin was the only version of the film that was readily available. Luckily, for completionists, Redemption video has released a Blu-ray that has the original, unaltered, Franco version Christina, Princess of Eroticism and the zombie themed A Virgin Among the Living Dead and as a bonus, the  extras contain the silly soft core porn scenes from the “sexy” version. However, feel free to watch Christina and skip the rest.

Mandy

Mandy

2018

Director- Panos Cosmatos

Cast- Nicolas Cage, Andrea Riseborough, Linus Roache, Bill Duke, Ned Dennehy

           

     Summarizing the film’s plot is mostly useless as it’s a psychedelic, surreal nightmare. For convenience just imagine the original Mad Max filtered through Hellraiser. 

    Red and Mandy (Cage and Riseborough) are a loving couple enjoying a secluded life in the Pacific Northwest until Mandy catches the eye of Jeremiah (Roache), a crazy leader of a hippie cult. Using an unholy artifact, and the sacrifice of one of their cult members, Jeremiah summons a band of demonic bikers who subdue Mandy and Red for Jeremiah’s pleasure. After a night of torture, the cult departs leaving Red to die. However, he hangs on and then sets out on a quest of vengeance.

           

    Mandy is less a story and more a meditation on evil. The visuals, which have the rich palette of Suspiria, are often other worldly. The score, which is slow, grinding Doom Metal, is ominous and foreboding. Mandy is a nightmare where each new horror fades into the next. Like a dream, or a hallucination, there are no hard and fast rules.  Leave your rational, analytic mind at the door and just surrender yourself to the experience.

            

      Not a film for everyone, but I loved it. If you are open to the surreal and aren’t looking for happy endings, then I think you will love it too.

Phantom of the Paradise

Phantom of the Paradise

1974

Director- Brian De Palma

Cast-   William Finley, Jessica Harper, Paul Williams,  George Memoli, Gerrit Graham

            

     I guarantee you’ve never seen a movie like this before; a rock opera horror comedy (which came out a year before Rocky Horror Picture Show) combining the stories of the Phantom of the Opera , The Picture of Dorian Grey and Faust, directed by suspense master Brian De Palma (Carrie) with a ton of great music by 70s entertainment icon Paul Williams!

            

      Paul Williams plays Swan, the world’s most famous music producer, a satanic figure who tricks and manipulates young ingénues and desperate composers like Winslow Leech (William Finley who starred in several Tobe Hooper films) to further his empire. Winslow is writing a rock opera based on the story of Faust and Swan steals it and lures in Phoenix (played by Jessica Harper whom horror fans will recognize from Suspiria ) as his star.

            

    Winslow tries to seek revenge but has his life systematically ruined by Swan, including being deformed into a bizarre figure that looks like pigeon with an S&M fetish.  Winslow finally joins with Swan in a last ditch effort to see his music produced. Meanwhile, Phoenix falls further under Swan’s spell and begins a downward spiral. As the film progresses, we discover Swan’s demonic secret and the story builds to a final confrontation where Swan’s true identity is revealed.

             

     The music in this film is really good! It spans from pop, doo-wop to hard rock. The songs are catchy and most could have been legitimate top 40 hits. Most of the musical numbers are essentially parody, paying tribute to the various styles. 

            

     This film isn’t for everyone. Its bizarre combination of music, theatrics, comedy and horror won’t mix well on most peoples’ pallet. The film remains relatively obscure though easy to find. But if you’re open to the experience, check it out!

 

Highway to Hell

Highway to Hell 

1991

Director- Ate de Jong

Cast-  Patrick Bergen, Chad Lowe, Kristy Swanson, Adam Storke

            

    This movie is definitely not to be taken seriously. Calling it a horror comedy wouldn’t be accurate. Its more like a live action anime, if such things had existed in America in the early 90s. The premise is so outrageous, and the gags so obvious, that you have to enjoy the movie on face value.

            Charlie and Rachel (Chad Lowe and Kristy Swanson) are a young couple eloping to get married.  The take a wrong turn and pass through a portal to Hell. Rachel is taken by The Sergeant, the chief cop in Hell. Charlie chases after them to rescue his lost love. What follows is a tour through Hell (which happens to look just like the American southwest) as Charlie encounters various denizens along the Highway to Hell.

           

    The film boasts a surprising amount of early 90s star power. Patrick Bergan, as the devil, was at the height of his career and Kristy Swanson was only a year away from making Buffy theVampire Slayer. Adam Storke (Larry Underwood in The Stand) is a malcontent biker in Hell. Ben and Jerry Stiller have small parts as well as Lita Ford, Gilbert Godfrey (as Hitler!) and Kevin Peter Hall (the titular monster of the first 2 Predator films).

            Of course, the real stars of the films are the creatures. The make up by Steve Johnson is wonderful.  Johnson has, for some reason, never been as well-known as his predecessor, Rick Baker, but Johnson’s make up is top shelf and his work in the late 80s and early 90s was the best to be found in genre films. The centerpiece is the Hell Cop himself, who looks like Jason Stathum was horribly burned and then joined Judas Priest.

            The rest of the film is an excuse to try various sight gags; the road to Hell is clogged with VW bugs, the “Good Intentions” highway department chops of people and turns them into asphalt, a donut shop filled with undead cops etc.

            A movie like this would never get made today. It doesn’t take itself seriously enough for a modern audience. Only in the era of the video store could a movie like this get distributed and find an audience. Not a scary movie, but a fun movie, to be sure.

Witching & Bitching

Witching & Bitching (Las brujas de Zugarramurdi "The Witches of

Zugarramurdi") 

2013

Director- Álex de la Iglesia 

From Spain

Cast- Hugo Silva, Pepón Nieto, Mario Casas, Carolina Bang, Terele Pávez, Jaime Ordóñez, Carmen Maura, Macarena Gómez, Santiago Segura, Gabriel Delgado

            

     It’s not easy to concisely describe this frenetic horror-comedy from Álex de la Iglesia, who gave us the brilliant Day of the Beast.  The plot is simple; hapless bank robbers stumble upon a village of witches. Saying anything else about this movie requires a lot more.

            Jose (Hugo Silvia) and Antonio (Mario Casas) rob a high end pawn shop and steal a fortune in gold, mostly pawned wedding rings. Right off the bat you can tell this movie is filled with absurdities. Jose brings his little son Sergio (Gabriel Dealgado) along for the robbery because it’s his day for visitation. Jose is chastised by Antonio in the middle of the robbery for bringing his son along and victims of the robbery chime in as they argue about the expense of child support. Did I mention they were all in costumes (you won’t see Spongebob Squarepants the same ever again).

           

     

   Not surprisingly, the robbery goes afoul and why while escaping they take hostages; a cab driver and a man trying to get to work. The robbers, hostages and child make for the French border followed by Jose’s angry ex-wife (Macarena Gómez who played the mermaid priestess in the excellent Lovecraftian film Dagon). Their journey takes them to the town of Zugarramurdi, which legend says is inhabited by witches.

            Turns out the legends are true. The group happens upon a generational family of witches. The grandmother (Terele Pávez from Day of the Beast) is more senile than evil and likes to employ a deadly pair of razor dentures. The mother (Carmen Maura) is the mastermind and head of the family. The daughter, Eva, (played memorably by Carolina Bang who steals the show) is violent, independent and very sexual.

           

   The witches have a plan to use Jose’s son in a ritual to bring about the end of western civilization. In the process we are treated to witchcraft, cannibalism and a giant fertility goddess that swallows people whole.

            The movie is fun and not meant to be taken seriously. If you are looking for chills, then you better look somewhere else. But if you want something weird and humorous, then you can’t go wrong with Witching & Bitching.

Satánico pandemonium (La Sexorsista)

Satánico pandemonium (La Sexorsista)

1975

Director- Gilberto Martínez Solares

Cast- Cecilia Pezet, Enrique Rocha, Delia Magaña

From Mexico

           

   Even if you haven’t seen the film, you probably recognize the name as Selma Hayek’s character, the voluptuous vampire, in From Dusk Till Dawn. Or maybe you recognize the film’s parenthetical title as that of a White Zombie album. If you’ve seen the film, then you know how it could inspire the likes of Rob Zombie and Robert Rodriguez. If you haven’t seen the film, then prepare yourself for a treat and the best example of the so-called nunsploitation sub-genre.

            The film follows a young nun, Sister Maria (Cecilia Pezet). While walking through the woods, she happens upon the Devil (Enrique Rocha), appearing as a handsome, naked, dark haired man. She runs away and prays, but she can’t get the image out of her mind.

          

       Maria is a kind, compassionate woman. We see her caring for the village animals and comforting another sister who feels alone. But the image of the man keeps returning. The tension builds and it has an observable effect.

            

        This change is one of the themes of the film; frustrated desires, over time begin to poison us and warp our perspective as we seek to, unsuccessfully, satisfy or suppress them. Maria first tries clumsily to seduce a young boy. When that fails she tries to force herself on one of her Sisters. Eventually she progresses to an attempted rape but even that is foiled when she ends up killing the boy out of anger.

           

        At her most depraved, Maria seems to realize how far she has sank and in a truly touching moment asks God for help. She seems to have regained some her virtuousness when Satan appears again to tempt her; this time, not with the empty promise of sex but with a reprieve from the consequences of her heinous actions.  He grants her wishes and in the films orgiastic finale her desires turn to ashes in her mouth as the world around her begins to mirror her own dark soul.

            The film’s ending was left open. According to the film’s writer (and son of the director) Adolfo Martinez Solares, the ending was left ambiguous as a sort of denial mechanism in case of pressure from the church or other groups. The film has a reputation of explicitness and exploitation, but, though there is a fair amount of nudity, it is all relevant to the story and themes and not presented in a purely titillating fashion.

     Cecilia Pezet is excellent as the tortured nun. Few actors can display so

so many different motivations so successfully; piety, compassion, fear, lust, anger, rejection, regret. When she begins down her dark path, we want her to be able to make it back. Cecilia didn’t have a very long career and retired from films soon after she made this movie. It’s a shame because she really is something in this film.

Also of note is the score. Sometimes it’s an arrhythmic, discordant cacophony reminiscent of Forbidden Planet, at others it is calm, pastoral strings and hymns. Sometimes it’s both mixed together.

Anyone familiar with sex addiction can see an obvious analog in this film. Maria’s gradual rejection of her values, and the progression of the lengths she is willing to go to, is something any sex addict could identify with.

The movie often draws comparisons to Alucarda, which is fair I suppose. Both are Mexican horror films from the 70s and superficially deal with similar themes. I think this film though is much more poignant.  Alucarda is ultimately about an outsider who lashes out.  Satánico pandemonium is about the loss of self and all that is important to oneself in the pursuit of unsatisfied desires. A tragic, beautiful story.

The Ninth Gate

The Ninth Gate

1999

Director- Roman Polanski

Cast- Johnny Depp, Frank Langella, Lena Ollin, Emanuelle Singer, James Russo, Jack Taylor, Barbara Jefford, José López Rodero

           

     Johnny Depp plays Dean Corso, an expert on rare books and quite amoral. He isn’t above using his expertise to hoodwink unsuspecting buyers and sellers in order to make a profit. He is hired by Boris Balkan (Langella), a fanatical collector of occult books, to investigate The Ninth Gate, a book reputed to help the reader summon the devil himself. Only three copies are known to exist and Corso sets out on a world spanning trip to compare the three copies to each other. 

            Enter into this two women; Liana Teflger (Lena Ollin) and a mysterious green eyed girl (Emanuelle Singer) who seems to turn up at the most unexpected times. Liana is a priestess of sorts in a coven of rich hedonists who engage in superficial devil worship. She wants the book for herself. Corso soon finds out that people are willing to kill for the book, particularly his employer, Boris Balkan.

            As Corso’s investigation continues, he uncovers the secret of the books that might enable the reader to summon the Prince of Darkness. Corso, Liana and Balkan come into conflict over who will have the secret and be able to use it.  Helping Corso along the way is the mysterious girl who knows more than she should and may possess some supernatural powers.

This is one of the best put together films I’ve ever seen and certainly belongs in any satanic canon or top ten list. Roman Polanski (who also directed Rosemary’s Baby) paid so much attention to detail that you can watch this film again and again and keep picking up little nuances. This is also the rare movie where Johnny Depp showcases his acting skills instead of playing the quirky oddball that he seems to be typecast as in his Tim Burton films. Frank Langella, who has experience playing supervillains (Dracula and Skeletor) tones it down and is subtly menacing .Subtle might be the best way to describe this entire movie.  Also of note is an appearance by 70s horror star Jack Taylor, who places the owner of one of the books.

Don’t watch it if you want thrills and chills, but if you want to be mentally engaged with an intricate occult thriller, this is the film for you.

  

Chemical Wedding

Chemical Wedding (Crowley)

2008

Director- Julian Doyle

Cast- Simon Callow, Kal Weber, Lucy Cudden, Jud Charlton, Paul McDowell, Terence Bayler, John Shrapnel, Esmé Bianco, Helen Millar

            It’s odd that, given his sinister reputation, and his effect on popular culture, there aren’t more movies about Aleister Crowley. Several movie sorcerers have been based on or inspired by the old magician (Mocata in The Devil Rides Out and Dr. Karswell in Night of the Demon come to mind). This film, rather than a biography, is an imaginative “what if”.

            The story begins with the death of Aleister Crowley after he finds out that L. Ron Hubbard and physicist Jack Parsons were trying to summon an elemental (just one of the many strange things you’ll learn from this film). Fast forward 50 years and Crowley is reincarnated in the body of a stuttering Cambridge literature professor. The reincarnation isn’t done in the usual way of séances or pentagrams. Oh no. It’s accomplished through a convoluted mechanism of virtual reality and, I guess, chaos magic.      

   

   The reborn Beast, after a shocking display of profanity and urophelia, sets about putting together the ritual needed to conjure up his own elemental. Along the way are lots of references to sex magic, Crowley mythology, and quantum physics. I’d like to be more descriptive, but even after two viewings, it is still a very dense movie with a lot of information to process. Game of Thrones fans will recognize, and appreciate, a very sexy appearance by Esmé Bianco.  

   Chemical Wedding refers to an alchemy term. The American release was given the more boring but straight forward title, Crowley. I suppose the big marketing point for this film is that it was written by Bruce Dickinson, lead singer of Iron Maiden. However, you shouldn’t expect a heavy metal inspired horror fest on par with House of a 1000 Corpses. This movie is anything but that. It feels more like Lair of the White Worm mixed with Lawnmower Man, sprinkled with some soft core porn.

If that description seems impossible to fathom, well that’s about the same feeling you’ll have after you watch this film. Don’t watch it expecting to come away with some intimate knowledge of The Beast. Rather, you will probably have to stop the movie several times to look up occult terms like Scarlet Woman and Moon Child, or Bible verses, physics theories or other esoteric references. You will come away with more questions than answers. Of course, Crowley would have probably been OK with that.