Bloody Nightmares #33: Slasher (aka Blood Cult) (1985)

Blood Cult (renamed Slasher for this collection, despite its general notoriety and the existence of a sequel) was the very first straight-to-video film ever released, which affords it a rather unique place in movie history. Not surprisingly, it's also a cheapo slasher film, and - critically - is also shot on video, giving it that unique early 80s porno look. Utilizing a nine day shooting schedule, director Christopher Lewis tells a by-the-number stalk and slash tale with requisite nods to Halloween and Psycho, but with some gore thrown in for good measure. I've actually seen another of Lewis' shot-on-video epics, Ripper (1985) (which features a small appearance by Tom Savini), and he's a bland if capable director who gets some reasonable mileage out of his slasher scenes, but pads out his running time interminably with scenes of characters sitting around and talking.

But here's the good news for me. I can't give this film a proper review, as the fine folks at Pendulum Pictures managed to botch the transfer of Blood Cult quite spectacularly for its appearance in the Bloody Nightmares collection. What starts out dark and glitchy becomes totally unwatchable, as the final 30 minutes of the movie are totally without sound! Indeed, at a critical moment in the film the soundtrack goes completely mute and it doesn't return for the entirety of the rest of the movie. That said, here are a few thoughts on the plot, since I'd hate to not give the film its due.

"Have you ever had an Egyptian feast?" Oh, sorry. Wrong movie. Anyway, a masked killer is slashing his way through a group of sorority girls, baffling local Sheriff Ron Wilbois (Charles Ellis) who seems rather overwhelmed by a serial killer terrifying his small town. Oddly, the killer also leaves a medallion featuring the image of a dog's head the scene of his crimes, and takes pieces of his victim's bodies for an apparent ritual. How do we know this? Well, thankfully the Sheriff's daughter works at the college library, and manages to track down an occult book which explains that the killings might have to do with some sort of ancient ceremony. Under pressure from the Dean, Wilbois tracks down a complaint from a local farmer regarding apparent poachers making a lot of noise and lighting fires in the nearby woods - which just might be caused by the titular blood cult. While checking out the nighttime ritual - along with his daughters boyfriend for reasons I can't begin to comprehend - the.. whole movie goes totally silent. I did scan ahead to find out who the killer was - spoiler: it's ridiculous - but the exact details of how and why the whole thing pans out isn't something I'm prepared to guess at.

The film opens with a well-staged ten minute murder scene ripped wholesale from Halloween, but at least proves that Lewis can be a capable director when inspired. Even better is the immediately following murder scene where the killer sits in a rocking chair, having decapitated a sorority girl before beating her room-mate unconscious with her severed head. Unfortunately things go rapidly downhill from here, slowing to a crawl as we get a voice-over from the aged Sheriff and his encounters with his daughter and deputy. Lewis tries to spice these scenes up with a few interesting angles, but a nine day shoot doesn't allow for much inventiveness and most scenes are just extended padding to try and get this mess to 90 minutes.

Acting is about what you would expect, though at least the cast seem to know their lines fairly well and only a few flubs are left in the final film. Charles Ellis as Ron Wilbois does a serviceable job, and it's sort of nice to have a protagonist thats a bit older, but he looks as baffled by the plot as anyone else. The less said about James Vance's odd looking Joel Hogan the better, and I'm guessing the biggest acting test for Juli Andelman (as Wilbois' daughter) came after the film went silent. Oh well.

Gore is strictly of the sliced limbs and fake blood variety, though there's a slow gag at the school cafeteria featuring some severed fingers if you're into that sort of thing. You'll never actually care about anyone who is in danger in these scenes, but that's sort of par for the course with these nothing slasher films. It does have a better than average soundtrack by Rod Slane, which at least occasionally makes the proceedings feel like an actual movie, but it really only stands out because of the averageness that surrounds it.

Blood Cult is presented in a murky, dark presentation likely sourced from a VHS tape - this re-edit of the film occurred in 1997, so it's a little hard to say, but there are digital glitches regularly throughout. Lots of digital artifacting, particularly in the darker scenes, but aside from some shaky moments during the second murder scene it's fairly standard VHS quality. Lots of noise on the soundtrack forced me to crank the volume to be able to make out some of the dialogue, and even then it was a little messy, but that could have as much to do with the transfer as with the original recording.

It's hardly worth mentioning that, this being a Bloody Nightmares release, we don't get any special features or even chapter stops. However, allowing me to get away with not watching the final 30 minutes is like a bonus feature in an of itself. Thanks, Pendulum Pictures!

I don't feel comfortable giving a solid opinion on a film that I missed thirty minutes of, but I can safely say that while there are a smattering of interesting moments in the initial hour, this is generally an uninspired slasher that does nothing to rise above the hundred others that were pouring out in the mid-1980s. It's certainly more polished that most of the efforts in this collection - featuring a fine musical score and competent direction - but it's more memorable for its place in the history of straight-to-video productions than for anything original it brings to the table. Followed by Revenge: Blood Cult 2 in 1986.

Thor (2011)

Out of all the sequels, reboots, and all-around mindless fare being released this summer, Thor appeared to be the biggest gamble of the lot. How many people were actually waiting on a film adaptation of a Marvel Comics b-list superhero based on a Norse God who speaks in something approaching Shakespearean soliloquies? Well, feel free to hit up Fandango, because Marvel finally has another successful film franchise on its hands to go along with Iron Man.

I suspect much of the credit should go to director Kenneth Branagh (Henry V) for crafting such a well-made film out of such lowbrow source material. He made a wise decision by focusing most of the attention on an excellent supporting cast and not requiring relative film newcomer Chris Hemsworth (Star Trek) to carry the entire picture. Not to imply that Hemsworth makes a bad Thor, but other than filling out the costume it doesn't seem as if much is asked of him here.

The film begins with a team of physicists (Natalie Portman among them) discovering Thor in the New Mexico desert after he is cast out of Asgard by his father, Odin (Anthony Hopkins), for disobeying and almost starting a war against the Frost Giants. His banishment offers Loki (an excellent Tom Hiddleston) the opportunity to take the throne after Odin falls ill. From there we are introduced to the Warriors Three: Destroyer; Idris Elba as a black Norse God; and Rene Russo back from the dead.

I'm not going to lie; the movie is basically 130 minutes of origin meant to set up The Avengers and—box office receipts willing—Thor 2. But it is also 130 minutes of fun. With Thor, Marvel and Paramount have given us a movie almost as rich in its storytelling as the original mythology.

Jumping the Broom (2011)

Earlier this week I was running down my list of upcoming screenings with a friend. When I got to Jumping the Broom I described it as “second rate Tyler Perry, but less subtle.” Now, at that point I had not seen the film. I was literally basing the description on the fact that it was a mostly African-American cast in a movie produced by the Bishop T.D. Jakes. I had never actually watched one of Jakes' films before, but he's a Bishop, so I assumed he would beat me over the head with the holy roller stuff as soon as I sat down. By the end of the film I was surprised to find that, while the film has its, “Help me, Jesus,” scenes here and there that I can definitely do without, this is a solid piece of cinema.

The film opens on Sabrina, played by the beautiful Paula Patton (Precious), waking up from a one-night stand. While the dude is on his phone making plans for later that night with his girlfriend, Sabrina makes a deal with God that if he helps her leave this situation with a little dignity intact then she won't have sex again until she is married. The next scene is the meet-cute, where she hits her fiance-to-be (Laz Alonso) with a car, and after five months of dating (and holding out), he proposes.

Here is where it gets a little Green Acres. See, her family is all Martha's Vineyard, and his family is all Brooklyn, so you know sparks are going to fly! Also, Julie Bowen (Modern Family) is on hand as the wacky white wedding coordinator to say things like, “Man, you guys really love your chicken, don't you?”

Okay, the plot is a little hack, but there are some great performances in this film. Angela Bassett plays Sabrina's mom and, while stopping just short of chewing the scenery, manages to hold an acting clinic. A special career achievement award should also go to Mike Epps for finally giving a crap in a movie and attempting to act instead of just mugging for the camera.

The most surprising aspect of the film is the great work given by the director, Salim Akil, in his feature film debut. Best known for TV work on such series as Girlfriends and The Game, he shows a confidence lacking in directors that are on their tenth film, and he has no problem at all juggling the cast of seemingly dozens. While watching the film there were moments when it seemed to have been staged by Robert Altman. Akil is a name to watch for in the future.

I would hasten to guess that this movie isn't the usual fare that the average Movie Feast reader would watch. It's too religious, too sincere, too… un-jaded? All I'm saying is, if you're not feeling like a comic book movie this weekend, you could do worse than this. C'mon, let love open the door to your heart.

There Be Dragons (2011)

There have been rumors going around for years that Ben Affleck and Matt Damon never actually wrote Good Will Hunting. Sure, the story goes, they came up with the basic structure and storyline for the film, but various writer friends actually put in the man hours to shape it into what it became: an Academy Award winner. Hence, the duo has never attempted another script.

I think that's crap. The highways of the worlds of science, literature, music, and film are littered with what are lovingly referred to as “one-hit wonders,” people who had one shining moment, one great idea and that was it.

What does this have to do with There Be Dragons? Well, have you looked at director Roland Joffe's filmography lately?

Joffe was an English director best known for his work on the stage and BBC before making his film debut in 1984 with The Killing Fields. That film, detailing the friendship between two journalists during Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, garnered seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Director. His next film, 1986's The Mission, told the story of an 18th century Jesuit missionary in South America. This film also received seven Academy Award nominations, and once again Joffe found himself nominated for Best Director.

Since then Joffe's career has resembled the Iguazu Falls depicted in The Mission. Among the lowlights: the disastrous Demi Moore vehicle The Scarlet Letter, an uncredited turn co-directing Super Mario Bros., and slumming it by wallowing in the torture porn genre with Captivity.

Joffe attempts a return to relevance with There Be Dragons. First things first… no, there are no dragons. There is, unfortunately, a poorly plotted tale involving Opus Dei founder and Catholic saint Josemaria Escriva (Charlie Cox), the Spanish Civil War, and Wes Bentley (American Beauty) plastered in old man latex makeup.

The film begins by telling the audience that the movie is based on true events. Well, yes, the war really did happen and Escriva was a real person, but Joffe invented everything else in the script as a framing device to tell the story of Escriva. We meet Robert Torres (Dougray Scott) while he is researching a biography on Escriva. He finds that his estranged father (Bentley, as both young and old Manolo Torres) may be his most promising source, as he and Escriva were close friends before taking divergent paths. Unfortunately, his father isn't exactly freeflowing with the information, unless you count the endless voiceover narration that occurs during the film. It becomes apparent within minutes of the film that Joffe isn't a big fan of “show, don't tell.”

It can be said without hesitation that Joffe has two masterpieces on his resume. It can also be said that somewhere along the way, whether it was a loss of creative drive or perhaps too much creative freedom, his career came off the rails. Unfortunately for the financiers of this film, this is not the movie that set it all back right.

Capsule Review: Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

While significantly dated by its restraint (though controversial for its language at the time), and perhaps dulled by decades of courtroom dramas that were to follow, Anatomy of a Murder still crackles because of a game cast - particularly James Stewart in the lead - and a case that throws enough (reasonable) twists to keep you guessing until the end. Director Otto Preminger takes the unique approach of forgoing flashbacks, instead letting the information be uncovered naturally before turning the home-spun Paul Biegler (Stewart) loose on the overwhelmed D.A. Mitch Lodwick along with the prissy Asst. State Atty. Gen. Claude Dancer (George C. Scott). The court scenes really sizzle with energy, combining outrage with scenes of good humor - mostly delivered by real life attorney (and Joseph McCarthy opponent) Joseph N. Welch as Judge Weaver. The eventual outcome is a bit too neat, but the build up is relentlessly entertaining.

Capsule Review: North by Northwest (1959)

Perhaps Alfred Hitchcock's most entertaining film, North By Northwest is an absolute juggernaut, matching a wonderfully witty script by Ernest Lehman with an impossibly charismatic Cary Grant in the lead. While lacking some of the more interesting psychological elements of Hitchcock's previous film Vertigo, here the action and adventure have been ratcheted up immensely, with Grant's famous crop-duster encounter and the climax on Mount Rushmore (which has aged surprisingly well) just two of the many memorable set pieces on display. Combine with an outstanding Bernard Herrmann score and a great opening credits sequence by Saul Bass, and you have a film that is nearly impossible not to like. Memorable supporting turns by Eva Marie Saint, James Mason and (particularly) a creepy Martin Landau complete the picture, but it's Hitchcock's sure hand that makes this mistaken-identity spy picture really sizzle - bringing to mind some of the better early James Bond entries. Absolutely essential.

Capsule Review: Easy Rider (1969)

It's hard to comprehend just how revolutionary Easy Rider was for both popular culture and the film industry as a whole upon its release in 1969. Following a hoard of biker films - as well as other films celebrating the counter-culture of the time - none struck the chord quite as strongly, or captured the zeitgeist of the time quite as well. Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper - both veterans of low-budget productions - took their accumulated film knowledge and - along with a script from Terry Southern - created a new type of independent film, one that brought audiences to the cinema in droves and would significantly influence the works to come out of Hollywood throughout the 1970s. Its frank depiction of drugs, communal lifestyles, the search for freedom, and the use of popular rock music on the soundtrack would define the era, and the film would launch it's two stars - as well as co-star Jack Nicholson - into leading roles. Obviously dated, the nihilistic ending still packs a hell of a punch.