The Haunting of Morella

 

The Haunting of Morella

1990

Director- Jim Wynorski

Cast- Nicole Eggert, Lana Clarkson, David McCallum, Christopher Halsted, Jonathan Farwell, Maria Ford, Gail Thackery

            The movie begins with a witch, Morella (Nicole Eggert best known from the 80s sitcom Charles in Charge and her stint on Baywatch), being tortured by a mob of angry villagers. Her milquetoast husband stands by with their infant daughter while villagers prepare to finish her off. Morella pronounces a curse that her spirit will live on in the body of their child, Lenora, and that one day she will have her revenge.

            Fast forward and Lenora (also played by Nicole Eggert) is 3 days away from her 18^th birthday, upon which she will come into an inheritance (in a rare bit of spot on casting, Nicole was herself 17 at the time and 4 months away from her 18^th birthday).

Her father has become eccentric over the years and a tad unhinged not to mention he has also gone blind. Lucky for them he’s filthy rich. He has kept Lenora confined to their plantation her whole life. He secretly fears his dead wife’s curse and hopes to shield her from anything that might bring out his dead wife’s spirit.

He is aided by a governess Coel (statuesque Lana Clarkson better known to fans from her sword and sorcery movies like Deathstalker and Barbarian Queen). Unbeknownst to him though, Coel was a disciple of Morella and secretly works to bring back her dead mistress’ spirit.

A young handsome, lawyer shows up with legal papers for Lenora’s inheritance but he’s quickly turned away lest he stir up Lenora’s adolescent loins and risk a return of Morella. Coel decides to take matters into her own hands and leaves Lenora’s father’s diary conspicuously out for Lenora to find. From its pages, she learns the truth about her mother.

Morella, it turns out, wasn’t just a witch, she was working on a Bathoryesque scheme for immortality, complete with bathing in virgin blood. This proves to be just what the witchdoctor ordered. Morella’s personality begins to surface and Coel begins dark, bloody rituals to hasten her mistress’ return.

The movie was directed by Jim Wynorski (best known for the 80s horror-comedy, Chopping Mall and the mainstream debut of Traci Lords in Not of This Earth). It was produced by Roger Corman. It is nominally an adaptation of a story by Edgar Allan Poe. But if you’re familiar with Corman’s work (i.e. Pit and the Pendulum, Masque of the Red Death among others), you know better than to expect a strict (or even faithful) adaptation. This is fine by me as Corman’s Poe pics were all pretty entertaining, just don’t watch one to help you write your book report.

Rather than Poe, this film is more like an erotic retelling of Mario Bava’s Black Sunday. Both films begin with a witch issuing a curse before her execution. Both films have a Gothic setting. Both involve the spirit of malevolent ancestor trying to replace their innocent descendant. Both have the star playing two characters, one evil, one good (this was something that Barbara Steele did several times in her career, including Black Sunday).

Now, I don’t want to sound like I’m equating Black Sunday with The Haunting of Morella. Black Sunday was a landmark film that spawned the Italian Gothic horror genre. Morella is, when it comes down to it, a B movie, all be it a B movie with pretty good production values.   It looks as good as the better Full Moon pictures of the same era. It has impressive sets, a good musical score and good costumes (though probably too revealing for its vaguely early 19^th century American setting).

            But more importantly than what it is, I think you’ll notice what it isn’t!. If you know Wynorski’s catalogue, this film is distinctly unlike most of his other offerings. His older 80s stuff was very entertaining but very tongue in cheek. His 21^st Century stuff has mostly been T&A flicks with porno names (Bare Wench Project, The Da Vinci Coed, The Breastford Wives, Witches of Breastwick….see a pattern here?).

            The Haunting of Morella, on the other hand, is dead pan serious. If I didn’t know better I’d think it was directed by some alternate universe Wynorski. It makes me wish he’d a done a few more movies like this. That’s not to say that this movie is without his signature dose of nudity. There is a fair amount of nudity here. Lana Clarkson fans, especially, will be pleased by her rather lengthy nude scenes.

            But even though Nicole Eggert was seventeen at the time, you don’t have to worry about Chris Hanson showing up if you decide to watch this. This isn’t To the Devil aDaughter. Though Nicole has several erotic scenes, all of the nudity is accomplished with editing and a body double. The use of a double is so obvious in fact, it’s a bit distracting. If I have any complaint about the movie it would be that they should have just ditched her naughty scenes rather than try to pull them off in such a convoluted fashion.

            As for the performances, Nicole was good, especially for someone so young. I wish that she had spent more time in horror because I think she could have been a good scream queen. It was interesting to see Lana in a much more reserved role without a sword. Older fans may recognize David McCallum as Lenora’s father. He was in the creepy Disney movie Watcher in the Woods but he is best known as Illya Kuryakin in The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

            So to sum up, if you’re wanting a thoughtful adaptation of Poe, this is not the film for you. But if you like Gothic creepiness, and you enjoyed Full Moon and Vestron flicks from the 90s, then you will probably find this erotic thriller both entertaining and possibly a little arousing.

Evil Toons

 

 

Evil Toons

1992

Director- Fred Olen Ray

Cast- Madison Stone, Barbara Dare (Stacy Nix), Monique Gabrielle, Suzanne Ager, Dick Miller, Artie Johnson, Michelle Bauer, David Carradine, Don Dowe

            Four hot young girls are spending the weekend in an abandoned house to get it cleaned for the new owner in exchange for $100 (money went a lot further 30 years ago). Terry (Suzanne Ager) is the responsible leader. Jan (80s and 90s porn star Barbara Dare, here under the stage name Stacy Nix) is cool and laid back. Megan (statuesque scream queen Monique Gabrielle) is the naïve innocent. Roxanne (90s porn superstar Madison Stone) is the wild, horny member of the quartet. Checking on the girl’s is a goofy neighbor (Artie Johnson) and the long suffering Dick Miller (Demon Knight, The Howling, The Burbs, Gremlins and about a hundred other things)

A strange man (David Carradine) drops off a package which the girls open immediately to find an ancient grimoire. Its illustrated with cartoons of monsters having their way with beautiful ladies.  That night, one of the cartoons comes to life, in the form of a giant 2D cartoon monster that possesses Roxanne. She then goes about killing everyone and attempting to drag their souls to hell via a “soul shroud.” Naturally, nerdy Meg is the one that must stop her. In the midst of all of this are various contrived situations where the girls take off their clothes.

OK, so the plot is a little thin. But that’s not why you’d watch this movie. The first, second, and third reason you’d watch this film is for the cast. This is a good chance to see several 80s and 90s sexbombs all gathered in one place.

Suzanne Ager had a comparatively short but packed career, squeezing a lot of movies into a few years, including several others with Fred Olen Ray. However, her entire filmography is B movies and most of them are not easy to track down anymore.

Monique Gabrielle appeared in a long list of 80s movies of a surprising variety. She appeared in mainstream popular movies like Night Shift and Bachelor Party and forgotten B movies like Angel Eyes. She ranged from starring roles like in Deathstalker 2 to cameos like in Not of This Earth. Her catalogue ranges from rated PG to X. However, many of these movies have not made the transition from video to DVD or Blu Ray and are hard to find.

Barbara Dare had a prolific career in 80s porn. Her lithe, sultry presentation made her a favorite of the video store era. She also had a few mainstream appearances but porn is what she will always be remembered for. However, only a small part of her filmography has been preserved on modern media. That has nothing to do with Barbara and is just the nature of the porn business. Unlike Disney, which preserves films in their “vault”, porn has always been an in the moment business looking for the next thrill.  Much of the 80s and 90s porn that has made it to the internet are poor low resolution digital transfers of 3^rd generation video copies with fuzzy images and heavy pixelazation.

            Madison is likewise best known for her career in porn. Madison had an appearance, and a presentation, that was unique for her era. Her jet black hair (which was cut in Bettie Page bangs by the time she retired) , obvious tan lines, rock star fashion and piercings (she has a piercing named after her) set the stage for the alt. girls that would follow in her footsteps a decade later.  She cultivated a playful, sometimes goofy, image that was well suited for parts needing tongue in cheek or physical comedy. She puts that to good use in this film.

Madison has a bit more of her career preserved than Barbara, mainly because of her work with the “Evil Empire” (Evil Angel, Elegant Angel and Bruce Seven) which has kept a few of her movies in print. Still, many of her movies have ended up as pixelated, barely watchable, clips on the internet.

            Both Madison and Barbara worked in the era before most of porn had gone “gonzo” meaning the movies still had plots, so they were used to engaging in dialogue and playing a part. Sure, their acting wasn’t going to win an Oscar, but they were at least as good as the majority of actors in B horror movies.

 

 

 Evil Toons is self-referential (one might say self-deprecating), poking obvious fun at the horror genre in general. Fred Olen Ray was good at doing this without beating the joke to death. Dick Miller was always perfect for films that didn’t take themselves too seriously. He somehow convinces you that he is so tired and worn out, that he’s not even interested in the beautiful girls all around him. David Carradine starring in this film is a bit of a mystery, it being so far outside his normal repertoire of martial arts/ action flicks.

            But what about the big cartoon monster? After all, that is pretty much the one thing that separates this film from practically every other film in the genre. Today, 2D animation has suffered an ignominious death at the hands of Pixar but there was a time when it was the only game in town and periodically movies would combine animation with live action to varying degrees of success.

            Anyone over 45 will probably remember Pete’s Dragon. That film (which was one of the standbys that my elementary school teachers had for slow days) put a cartoon dragoon in a live action world. The gold standard for this art form was Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which came out in 1988. Animation impresario Ralph Bakshi would combine animation and live action to create the memorable, sexy film Cool World. Well, Evil Toons doesn’t get anywhere near those films. In the common Hollywood game of “want, settle, get” you want Roger Rabbit, you’ll settle for Cool World, but you get Evil Toons.

 

I would have almost thought that the cartoon monster was not the original intention, like it was a last minute fix for a special effects creature that didn’t work out, if not for the cartoons in the grimoire that seem to indicate that this was the plan for the movie all along. No matter, as I said earlier, the reason you watch this film is for the female cast. Everything else is just garnish on the plate.

            So if you’re expecting big budget, or even low budget, special effects or a well thought out story, then you should probably skip Evil Toons. However, if you are wanting a highly concentrated dose of hotness from a bygone era, then this is just the movie you’ve been looking for.

Perdita Durango (Dance with the Devil)

  

Perdita Durango (Dance with the Devil)

1997

Director- Álex de la Iglesia

From Spain /Mexico

Cast- Rosie Perez, Javier Bardem, Aimee Graham, Harley Cross, James Gandolfini, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Demián Bichir, Santiago Segura,

            

     Those familiar with Álex de la Iglesia’s work (Errementari, Witching & Bitching and Day of the Beast) will probably be surprised by this film. Though it does have his usual dark humor, it ventures into territories foreign to those better known films. If you didn’t know better you’d think it was an early Robert Rodriquez film. You may also be familiar with the character of Perdita Durango as Isabella Rossellini’s character from Wild at Heart. Both stories are based on the works of Barry Gifford.

Perdita Durango (Rosie Perez) is a free spirit who lives according to her own whims and easily gives herself over to her passions whether it is sex or violence. She meets Romeo (Javier Bardem), a criminal and self-styled  Santeria priest. He views his ceremonies as a kind of science that provides him with good luck. And who knows, maybe they do. Several times in the film, people aiming to do him harm meet with unfortunate (one might say comical) accidents. His rituals seem more show than substance however. That is, until Perdita ups his game and they decide to carry out a human sacrifice. Romeo has been hired to smuggle a truckload of fetuses (you read that right) from Mexico to Las Vegas, and he hopes the human sacrifice will bring him extra luck.

They kidnap two American teenagers (Aimee Graham and Harley Cross). They intend to eventually use them for their human sacrifice. Until then, the kids serve as sexual playthings for Romeo and Perdita. The kids eventually begin to undergo a kind of Stockholm syndrome and Romeo and Perdita start to develop a soft side for them (not so soft though that they are going to let them go).

            

     Their journey takes them through the American southwest and they are followed by a persistent DEA agent (Gandolfini). Eventually the consequences of all of their violence catch up with them but not before a string of bodies are left in their wake.

            

     Javier Bardem would become famous (and win an Oscar)10 years later as the assassin in No Country for Old Men. It’s interesting to see him still relatively early in his career, even with the tragic haircut. James Gandolfini would play another detective the very next year in the Satanic thriller, Fallen, with Denzel Washington. He would then become famous as Tony Soprano in The Sopranos.

            

     Rosie Perez, on the other hand, was a little more seasoned actor when this film was made and had already garnered critical praise for several roles, including an Oscar nomination. Rosie is both sexy and dangerous in this film. You can never tell what she will do or how she will react. It would be interesting to watch this movie back to back with Wild at Heart and compare her performance to Isabella Rossellini’s.

            

     Dance with the Devil is a multi-genre film; crime, horror, and dark comedy and it moves back and forth fluidly. Considering that the main characters engage in rape and murder, the film can’t be dismissed as mere escapist fun, yet the film never quite becomes a completely serious story. It’s best to view it as Perdita views herself. She does what she wants when she wants and if it doesn’t make sense to anyone else then oh well.

            

     There are a few versions of the film. The unrated American version (Dance with the Devil) is a few minutes longer (coming it at slightly over 2 hours) than the regular version. The Spanish version, titled Perdita Durango, is a few minutes longer than the American unrated version and has slightly more explicit sex and a little different ending involving a death bed hallucination.

Fun fact- Harley Cross plays Martin Sheen’s son in The Believers. In that film he is kidnapped by a Santeria cult.

Fun fact #2- Old school music fans will appreciate the appearance of the grandfather of shock rock, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins in a supporting role.