Needful Things

Needful Things

1993

Director- Fraser Clarke Heston

Cast- Ed Harris, Max Von Sydow, Bonnie Bedelia, J.T. Walsh, Amanda Plummer

            

      This story has a lot in common with Something Wicked This Way Comes. In both cases, a Mephistophelean outsider arrives in a picturesque small town. Both movies examine not only the evil in people’s heart, but how easily that evil can be brought to the surface. Needful Things, though, gets deeper into how easily our evil can be manipulated by, and directed toward, others. It also examines our personal, emotional attachment with things.

            Max Von Sydow plays Leiland Gaunt, a stranger who has just opened up an antique store in the small town of Castle Rock. No matter who you are , he seems to have something that you really want, something that has deep personal meaning. Rather than charging a standard price however, he deals in trade; an object for a favor. He encourages people in the town to play pranks on one another. The pranks however build in severity. The town’s people, unaware of who is pranking them, become paranoid and start lashing out at each other until Mr. Guant’s favors become lethal.

            Max Von Sydow plays a very likable Satanic figure. He seems to have a little bit of a childish sense of humor. Like a good devil, he never really lies to people. He gives them something they want and they always know what favor he will ask. But that’s the genius of his schemes; even though people know what they are doing, they aren’t able to see how their actions affect so many others. In this new world of “viral” media and politicians playing on our fears and turning one group against another, the lesson of Leiland Gaunt is particularly relevant.

            The town’s sheriff, played by the ever rugged Ed Harris, figures out what Gaunt is up to and discovers that Gaunt has been playing this game for a really long time. When Gaunt’s true identity and purpose are revealed, he is phlegmatic. After all, he as all the time he needs to work his schemes, and what’s one little set back?

            The movie has some great supporting performances by Bonnie Bedelia, J.T. Walsh, and Amanda Plummer who were at the top of their game in the early 90s. It also gives you your money’s worth coming in at a solid two hours.

Dethgasm

Dethgasm

2015

Director- Jason Lei Howden

Cast- Milo Cawthorne, James Blake, Kimberley Crossman

            

    The relationship between Satanism and heavy metal has always been there, whether it be real or imagined. Paranoid parents groups in the 1980s imagined Satanic acronyms hidden in band names and messages hidden in backwards playing records. Ironically, while parents were worried about top 40 acts like KISS and ACDC,  there really were acts espousing demonic messages that flourished, unbeknownst to the middle class church groups (King Diamond anyone?) All of those under the radar groups of the 1980s eventually spawned the Death Metal and Black Metal movements of today (which would have probably literally scared those 80s PTA moms to death). It is that music, and it’s attending culture, that Dethgasm simultaneously makes fun of and pays homage to.

           

    Brodie is forced to move in with his uncle in a new town after his mom gets arrested for trying to fellate a mall Santa while on a meth binge. His long stringy hair and combat boots immediately mark him as an outsider in the small town.  He forms a friendship with the town hoodlum, Zakk who is also a metal aficionado like Brodie. The object of Brodie’s affection is Medina, a preppy blonde who is the girlfriend of Brodie’s douchebag cousin.

            

    Zakk and Brodie form a garage band, Dethgasm and, while burgling the house of a local burned out metal head, they get their hands on  The Black Hymn, a piece of sheet music that, when played, summons a demon that will destroy the world. After getting his ass kicked by his douche cousin, Brodie decides it’s time for demonic intervention and plays the hymn hoping to be granted super powers. What he gets is a town over run by  demons and a group of Satanists chasing him, trying to steal the music. Brodie, Zakk, and Medina must fight the hellish hordes with whatever weapons they can find, whether they be power tools or double headed dildos.

            

   If the movie sounds silly, that’s because it is. There is not one part of this film that should be taken seriously. It is a fun movie with some really nice gore. The dialogue is cleaver and it manages to poke fun at both horror movies and heavy metal while still showing obvious love for both genres.

            

    In America, the movie was released through Wal-Mart as Heavy Metal Apocalypse. Don’t be afraid to pick it up, it is literally the same movie complete with the Dethgasm opening title. Only the DVD cover was changed, though I’m not sure why.

   

Horror Rises from the Tomb

Horror Rises from the Tomb

1972

Director- Carlos Aured

Cast- Paul Naschy, Emma Cohen, Helga Liné, Víctor Alcázar, Cristina Suriani, Betsabé Ruiz

From Spain

            

       This movie has one of the best titles ever. It’s cheesey and scary at the same time, which sort of sums up this movie. This film is also the best (or worst, depending on your view) example of the Spanish exploitation horror films of the 1970s. First, there is lots of unnecessary nudity and when the beautiful girls (of which there are many) aren’t naked, they are wearing pointlessly revealing outfits. Second, the gore is bright red and very little is left off screen to the imagination. And third, there are very few rules as to how the story should play out. One minute it’s a ghost story and the next it’s a zombie siege. In short, this movie is very entertaining.

            

       The story begins in the middle ages with the execution of two evil aristocrats; Alaric de Marnac and his mistress, Mabille De Lancré. They are accused of many things; witchcraft, vampirism, lycanthropy, cannibalism and devil worship. Before dying, they place a curse upon their killers and vow to return.

            

       Fast forward a few hundred years where a group of friends (through a plot device too convoluted to get into) are staying at the ancestral home of a decedent of Alaric de Marnac. Alaric’s spirit begins to influence people, driving some to murder and possessing another. Eventually, both de Marnac and his mistress are brought back to life and they wreak havoc both by summoning a crowd of zombies to assault the protagonists and also by seducing and killing the locals.

            

       Horror great Paul Naschy pulls double duty both as a hapless victim (and descendant of de Marnac) and as Alaric de Marnac himself.  The make-up job is good. Naschy looks particularly satanic with his black hair and pointed beard. It’s a nice change of pace from his usual role, the protagonist werewolf, Waldemar Daninsky.

            

      Most of the cast members appeared in several other Spanish horror films of the era, including  Betsabé Ruizwho appeared in the evil Templar movie, Return of the Evil Dead. The make-up is pretty good, especially the disembodied head of Alaric which looked very realistic for the early 70s. It has, at times, the dreamy nightmarish quality of Jean Rollin’s films, though it’s a lot more coherent than anything Rollin ever made. Modern audiences that prefer their films to follow certain conventions probably won’t like it, but if you are able to sit back and just let the director take you for a ride, you will enjoy this sexy, bloody horror film.

           

           A sort of sequel was made about 10 years later. Paul Naschy reprised his role as Alaric de Marnac in Panic Beats. That film though, has nothing to do with this one and is more of a supernatural murder mystery. Naschy also did a sort of remake of the film several years later in the very enjoyable, Night of the Werewolf which combined the plots of Horror Rises from the Tomb and another Naschy werewolf film The Werewolf vs. the Vampire Woman.

Devil’s Kiss (La perversa caricia de Satán)

Devil’s Kiss (La perversa caricia de Satán)

1976

Director- Jordi Gigó

Cast- Silvia Solar, Olivier Mathot, José Nieto, Evelyne Scott, María Silva

            Clair is a vengeful Countess who has lost her standing. She married a man who was viewed as too good for her by his family. They turned their backs on him and he killed himself out of depression. She teams up with a professor who is not only telepathic, but is also working on a formula to regenerate dead tissue (yep, you read that sentence right). His formula works on the tissue but does nothing as far as actually generating the spark of life and reanimating the dead. They join forces and hatch a plan for her revenge. He operates on a recently deceased corpse, injecting it with serum to repair its cells. She, using occult rituals, summons the powers of darkness to breathe life into the lifeless husk. Using his telepathy, the professor plans to control the reanimated zombie and have it kill the Countesses enemies.

            There is a fly in the ointment though. The professor has a failing heart and his control over the zombie is slipping. One night, the zombie breaks free of his control and kills some people not on the hit list, including the maid in the mansion that the  professor and Countesses are staying in as guests. No problem, just reanimate her right and no one will know. Except that the zombie maid breaks free of his control and murders someone else. Things get out of control and the authorities get involved as the Countesses’ scheme falls apart.

            The movie is pretty low budget and not particularly scary. However, it’s weird plot of a telepathically controlled, Satanic fueled, Frankenstein-eque monster is pretty original. There’s no telling what they could have done with a larger budget. Watch it if you want some out of the ordinary Euro horror.

Twins of Evil

Twins of Evil

1971

Director- John Hough

Cast- Mary Collinson, Madeleine Collinson, Peter Cushing, Damien Thomas, David Warbeck, Katya Wyeth, Luan Peters

“We walk the Earth, but we exist only in Hell.” That line lets you know that you are in for more than a standard vampire film. Intended to be the third installment in Hammer’s “lesbian vampire” Karnstein trilogy (proceeded by Vampire Lovers and Lust for a Vampire), this film proved to be so much more with its successful combination of two different horror genres.

Peter Cushing is a puritanical witchfinder who leads “The Brotherhood” on nightly escapades to capture and burn young girls. For younger fans who only know Cushing as the villainous Govenor Tarkin from Star Wars, they may be surprised to know he was famous for his portrayals of heroes like Abraham Van Helsing, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Who. It’s a good thing he took on the role of the villain here because he was fantastic. Cushing was dealing with the recent death of his wife and he may have poured himself into the role as an escape. His witchfinder, Gustav Weil, is the prototypical religious zealot, but also seems to have a genuine belief in the rightness of his actions.

His social rival is the hedonistic Count Karnstien (wonderfully played by Damien Thomas). The count is the latest in a long family line of sinister aristocrats. Bored with the pleasures of the flesh he endeavors to sale his soul to the devil, and is turned into a vampire, which is fine by him.

Enter into this, Gustav’s twin nieces (the beautiful Collinson twins Mary and Madeline). They have just arrived into the care of their uncle Gustav and he views their cosmopolitan upbringing as a sure sign of their sinfulness. Maria (Mary) tries to abide by Gustav’s strict rules and fit in. Frida (Madeline) rebels and is drawn to the evil Count. She is seduced and brought into the vampire fold.

Gustav and the Count eventually come into conflict with Frida as the Count’s partner and Maria as a pawn. Added to this is a local school teacher (David Warbeck) who is the voice of reason and also the resident expert on vampiric folklore.

The Collinson twins (who do an admiral job and are quite believable) are the main attraction here, but everyone does a good job. The twins are beautiful and possess a youthful, voluptuous sexuality that seemed more common of sex symbols of that era, but much less common today. It’s a well put together movie and works as both a vampire and an inquisition movie. Highly recommended.

FAUST

Faust

1926

Director- F.W. Murnau

Cast-  Gösta Ekman, Emil Jannings, Camilla Horn, Frida Richard

            

   Faust is the archetypal story of the deal with the Devil. It has been passed down and re-interpreted for hundreds of years, entering our modern lexicon as a Faustian bargain. F.W. Murnau, the genius behind the eternally creepy Nosferatu took a swing at the centuries old tale, in this, his last film before he left Germany for Hollywood.

The movie begins with Satan and (what I assume is) the angel Michael making a wager about the fate of the Earth (not sure how God would feel about Mike gambling with the Earth but whatever). If Satan can corrupt the soul of Faust, he wins the Earth. If he doesn’t win, well he’s already in Hell, so I guess he’s playing with house money.

To set the stage, Satan, in the form of Mephistopheles, sends a plague and then tempts Faust with the power to cure it. Though tempted, Faust is reluctant to fully give himself over to the dark lord. Mephisto then offers Faust a trial offer; complete access to the Devil’s reality altering power for 24 hours. At the end, if Faust isn’t interested, he can go free. Of course, Old Scratch turns up the heat on the temptation. The next thing he offers is a sexy woman (it was quite surprising to see a nude woman considering such sights would be banned from Hollywood within a few years).

The Devil really gets Faust’s attention when he gives him a chance to return to his youth, in a rather lengthy scene where Fust time travels to his old home town. Faust sees a beautiful young girl, Gretchen, and Mephisto offers to deliver her via an enchanted necklace. The film really slows down here and gets off track at times such as when Mephisto is trying to get Gretchen’s aunt drunk (or horny I’m not sure).

The Devil makes sure that Gretchen’s affair with Faust is discovered and she is shamed as a harlot in front of her entire village. Nine months later (though the 24 hours is still not up on Faust, Satan can alter the space-time continuum and why not), she is homeless and alone, having just given birth to the bastard child of her and Fast. Shunned by the townsfolk, and despondent, Gretchen murders her child in a moment of lunacy. Though the villagers wouldn’t lift a finger to help the child when it lived, they are eager to execute Gretchen for its death (typical). Faust uses the last of his power and races through time for one last embrace with Gretchen as she burns on the stake.

The Devil shows up to Heaven to claim his reward of the Earth but it seems Michael is reneging on the deal on the grounds that Faust did all of this for love, so it’s OK.

Despite the hokey ending and the soap opera direction it takes about half way through, this movie is highly recommended for fans of the Prince of Darkness for its stunning visuals. The first 40 minutes of the film is the most metal thing you will ever see; a giant, winged Satan, spreading his black wings over a town, the horsemen of the Apocalypse riding through the sky, Faust in a summoning circle calling up the devil.

Interestingly, Emil Jennings (the actor who played Mephisto and was also the winner of the Best Actor award in the very first Academy Awards) seems to have struck a Faustian bargain himself. When Hitler came to power, Jennings starred in several Nazi propaganda films. While this helped him during the Reich’s reign, after the war he was virtually unemployable.

The Marshall from Hell

The Marshall from Hell (El Mariscal del infierno, The Devil’s Possessed)

1974

Director- Leon Klimovsky

From Spain

Cast- Paul Naschy, Norma Sebre, Guillermo Juan Bredeston, Vidal Molina, Graciela Nilson, Eduardo Calvo, Fernando Rubio, Luis Induni, Carmen Carro, Sandra Mozarowsky

           

     Based on the exploits of occultist and serial child murderer Gilles de Rais, this movie was a real international effort with actors from Spain, Argentia, Mexico and Italy.

            A medieval Baron (Naschy) is running out of money. After the king turns down his request for aid, he turns to the dark arts. He recruits an alchemist who promises him riches via the Philosopher’s Stone, the creation of which will require evil rituals.  The Baron engages in some virgin sacrifice, torture and necromancy but to no avail (the real life Gilles de Rais had a similar lack of success). It seems that the Barron’s hot wife and the alchemist are in league together and taking the Baron for a bit of a ride.

            Enter Gaston, one of the Baron’s old army buddies who has returned from the campaigns after being missing for years. Gaston is an Errol Flynn type swashbuckler and quickly recognizes that his old friend has slipped into depravity. Gaston joins a band of outlaws that oppose the Barron. The Barron goes progressively insane from guilt and the conflict with the outlaws escalates to an inevitable battle between the Barron and Gaston.

            The movie has a hard time deciding what it is. Sometimes it’s a cautionary horror story and sometimes Robin Hood-esque adventure. It also has some dangling threads that go nowhere. Horror fans in general can skip it, but Paul Naschy fans will want to catch it, if for no other than reason that to see Naschy as a vile antagonist rather than the sympathetic wolfman that he is known for.