Director
Kevin Connor
Cast
Rory Calhoun - Farmer Vincent
Nancy Parsons - Ida
Paul Linke - Sheriff Bruce
Nina Axelrod - Terry
Wolfman Jack - Reverend Billy
The 80s horror flick Motel Hell is a mix of Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Silence of the Lambs (even before there was a Silence of the Lambs) and any movie that pokes fun at slasher horror films. By the way, I came up with that comparison on my own as it was my first time watching this. But the comparison is pretty easy to see. I just wasn't aware other critics beat me to it until after I finished writing this review.
It's a movie that may be obscure to many, but horror fans are surely aware of Motel Hell.
Also, readers of Fangoria magazine may recognize the scene with the farmer dawning a pig's head over his own while yielding a chainsaw which appeared on the cover of issue #9.
Also, readers of Fangoria magazine may recognize the scene with the farmer dawning a pig's head over his own while yielding a chainsaw which appeared on the cover of issue #9.
Farmer Vincent (Rory Calhoun) runs "Motel Hello" out in the country with his young sister, Ida (Nancy Parsons). Located on a farm, Vincent is also well known within 100 miles for his smoked meats.
But what all the residents who buy Vincent's smoked meats don't know is that not all of his inventory is made from beef and pork. No! All kinds of "critters" make up his selection - including humans.
When Vincent goes hunting, he brings bear traps and such to puncture the tires of unsuspecting motorists zooming down the nearby highway. When they flip and crash, his meat supply is then replenished.
But he doesn't just kill his inventory right away. Rather, he severs there vocal chords so they can't scream, plants them whole in his secret garden leaving their head above ground like a morbid Cabbage Patch doll, and covers them with a burlap sack.
He also feeds his "crop" with tubes to ensure they stay alive and are well fed when it's time to harvest.
During one particular night of hunting, Vincent shoots out a motorcycle tire causing it to loose control, and roll down the side of the highway.
He goes to investigate and finds a young couple, Terry and Bo, unconscious. He piles the two in the back of his pickup and brings them back to the hotel.
He takes Terry (Nina Axelrod) to a motel room to rest while Bo is nowhere to be seen.
Meanwhile, Sheriff Bruce (Paul Linke), Vincent and Ida's dopey brother, drops by.
While he's visiting, Terry wakes up and wants to know what happened and where her boyfriend is. Vincent breaks it to her that he died in the crash, and admits he took the liberty of burying Bo himself.
Distraught, bewildered and in a state of panic, she can't come to terms that her boyfriend is not only dead, he's been buried, too. Vincent even takes her to his grave in the local cemetery just to show her.
But she quickly comes to terms with her situation, and begins to love being at the Motel. However, she's unaware of Vincent and Ida's sick cannibalistic secrets.
In fact she takes to Vincent so much that she begins to make advances on him.
He resists initially saying they have to marry first. So, she agrees to wed.
Meanwhile, Vincent and Ida continue to plant their victims and smoke their meats.
Even Sheriff Bruce is unaware of what's happening as he soon grows sweet on Terry and while becoming jealous of her love for Vincent.
Secrets can't be kept forever, and everything culminates to a battle of...chainsaws.
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| Rory Calhoun and Nancy Parsons. |
He resists initially saying they have to marry first. So, she agrees to wed.
Meanwhile, Vincent and Ida continue to plant their victims and smoke their meats.
Even Sheriff Bruce is unaware of what's happening as he soon grows sweet on Terry and while becoming jealous of her love for Vincent.
Secrets can't be kept forever, and everything culminates to a battle of...chainsaws.
The comedy is faint, but it's there. It's goofy in execution, and dry in the dialogue. Still, it's fun.
I picked up a faint taste of parody of slasher movies, especially when it came to Nina Axelrod's character who so nonchalantly becomes attached to the Motel, despite farmer Vincent and his sister's initial surreal company. Her love of the country life is all it takes for her to stay with the two just after her boyfriend dies, and Vincent takes it upon himself to bury him in the nearby cemetery.
In other areas, I picked up on the movie being a slight homage to the classic horror genre. When Sheriff Bruce takes Terry to a drive-in, they're watching the 1957 Sci-Fi horror movie The Monster that Challenged the World.
Director Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) was originally set to direct Motel Hell but backed out when the studio didn't put much confidence in the movie. So, the chainsaw motif makes sense, as does the pig masks.
Instead, Kevin Connor, known for At the Earth's Core (1976) and The Land the Time Forgot (1974), took the director's chair. Connor also directed Peter Cushing in From Beyond the Grave (1974).
The subtly over-the-top gore gives horror fans exactly what they're looking for. The humor is easy-to-swallow is it's not obnoxiously thrown in your face. Rather, the cornball humor is served in small. If it were layered on any heavier, Motel Hell would just be another "one of those kind of movies."
Rory Calhoun and Nancy Parsons are perfect pulling the movie along. They are fun to watch, and are clearly having fun in their roles. Harry Dean Stanton was a casting choice for the part of Vincent. I'm sure he would have been fantastic as well.
Rory Calhoun is so unassuming, likable, and innocent. He and Nancy Parsons should be remember much more among the many movie monsters stained in the fabric of cinema history. They work well off each other.
And Parsons is especially memorable as she creates a character that's funny, intimidating, unsettling, unnerving and warped.
The one question that kept me in front of the screen was how was it all going to end, and who was going to stop it all.
As soon as the first victims are captured and planted in the ground, this movie keeps the intrigue and morbid curiosity going and going.
This isn't the first time Rory Calhoun appeared in a comedy horror. He also starred in Night of the Lepus (aka Rabbits) from 1972. I got to get my hands on that one. Giant killer rabbits? Absolutely!
And gone is the horror trope of the useless sheriff.
Famous American DJ, Wolfman Jack, has a memorable and hilarious cameo as a T.V. preacher. He's hilarious.
I picked up a faint taste of parody of slasher movies, especially when it came to Nina Axelrod's character who so nonchalantly becomes attached to the Motel, despite farmer Vincent and his sister's initial surreal company. Her love of the country life is all it takes for her to stay with the two just after her boyfriend dies, and Vincent takes it upon himself to bury him in the nearby cemetery.
In other areas, I picked up on the movie being a slight homage to the classic horror genre. When Sheriff Bruce takes Terry to a drive-in, they're watching the 1957 Sci-Fi horror movie The Monster that Challenged the World.
Director Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) was originally set to direct Motel Hell but backed out when the studio didn't put much confidence in the movie. So, the chainsaw motif makes sense, as does the pig masks.
Instead, Kevin Connor, known for At the Earth's Core (1976) and The Land the Time Forgot (1974), took the director's chair. Connor also directed Peter Cushing in From Beyond the Grave (1974).
The subtly over-the-top gore gives horror fans exactly what they're looking for. The humor is easy-to-swallow is it's not obnoxiously thrown in your face. Rather, the cornball humor is served in small. If it were layered on any heavier, Motel Hell would just be another "one of those kind of movies."
Rory Calhoun and Nancy Parsons are perfect pulling the movie along. They are fun to watch, and are clearly having fun in their roles. Harry Dean Stanton was a casting choice for the part of Vincent. I'm sure he would have been fantastic as well.
Rory Calhoun is so unassuming, likable, and innocent. He and Nancy Parsons should be remember much more among the many movie monsters stained in the fabric of cinema history. They work well off each other.
And Parsons is especially memorable as she creates a character that's funny, intimidating, unsettling, unnerving and warped.
The one question that kept me in front of the screen was how was it all going to end, and who was going to stop it all.
This isn't the first time Rory Calhoun appeared in a comedy horror. He also starred in Night of the Lepus (aka Rabbits) from 1972. I got to get my hands on that one. Giant killer rabbits? Absolutely!
And gone is the horror trope of the useless sheriff.
Famous American DJ, Wolfman Jack, has a memorable and hilarious cameo as a T.V. preacher. He's hilarious.
And keep an eye out for John Ratzenberger planted in the garden.
It's a movie that makes the genre carry on with very memorable scenes that a filmmaker could only get away with in a horror movie. It also takes subtle talent to add goofball comedy that's neither over-the-top nor distracting. Rather, it fits like a puzzle piece. That over-the-top quality is saved for the story and the carnage.
Movies like Motel Hell are the reason I started this blog in the first place.
It's a movie that makes the genre carry on with very memorable scenes that a filmmaker could only get away with in a horror movie. It also takes subtle talent to add goofball comedy that's neither over-the-top nor distracting. Rather, it fits like a puzzle piece. That over-the-top quality is saved for the story and the carnage.
Movies like Motel Hell are the reason I started this blog in the first place.
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