70) Horsehead (2014)

"Unlock the secrets of your deepest dreams."

Director

Romain Basset

Cast

Lilly-Fleur Pointeaux - Jessica

Catriona MacColl - Catelyn

Murray Head - Jim

Gala Besson - Rose

Generally, in horror, the last thing a character would want to do is fall asleep. Bedtime is guaranteed death in a horror movie.

"Whatever you do, don't fall asleep" Nancy told Glen in 1984's A Nightmare on Elm Street. 

Sleep is our most vulnerable time. It's the closest we come to the "big sleep" while we're alive. 

With 2014's mystery fantasy horror, Horsehead, sleep is crucial for the protagonist, Jessica (Lilly-Fleur Pointeaux).

I'll be honest (not that I'm ever dishonest), I think I should watch this movie a second time before writing a review. I have a feeling I may may have missed a crucial point or two. I don't know for sure. There is visually and metaphorically a lot going on in this movie that it wouldn't surprise me if I missed a plot point or two. 

But regardless of that possibility, I'm attempting a review anyways.

The movie begins with a vivid dream in which we see an older women in a bed surrounded with crimson drapes. 

A demonic entity with the head of a horse slowly peaks in through the crimson revealing part of its face and razor sharp nails tipping its long fingers. Snorts of mist shoot out its large nostrils. 

The woman on the bed is in a state of paralysis. She tries to fight it, and scream, as this horse-headed figure looms over her. 

Jessica then wakes up from a vivid dream. She's been having recurring nightmares since her youth, but they don't mean anything to her. It's as though she's having someone else's dreams. 

With all these bizarre dreams, Jessica has been studying the psychology behind dreaming, as well as engaging in a therapeutic practice with her mentor and boyfriend, Sean. Her goal is to determine the reason and meaning behind her realistic dreams.

After the maternal grandmother's death, whom Jessica hardly knew, she reluctantly returns to her family home to stay with her mother despite not getting along too well. 

When Jessica arrives home, she finds her grandmother's body laid out for a wake in the room right next to hers. 

During Jessica's first night home, she has another vivid and disturbing dream involving her deceased grandmother. 

In the dream, she witnesses her grandmother on the bedroom floor searching for a key. 

Shortly after this experience, Jessica comes down with a fever and has to stay in bed.

So, she decides to use this time to practice lucid dreaming - dreams in which the person is aware they're dreaming, and therefor obtain some amount of control over their dream. 

Per Sean's advice, she learns methods to accomplishing lucid dreams. 

While being in a lethargic ill state during most of her visit at home, she becomes good at lucid dreaming and is able to roam and explore her reoccurring dream. 

Jessica witnesses the same demonic presence we saw at the beginning, as well as a wolf which she's instructed to follow within her dreams. 

These dreams are also inhabited by somewhat warped versions of her mother, grandfather, and grandmother. 

Jessica starts learning dark secrets about her family through from her dreaming. 

Meanwhile, her mother, whose shocked to hear what Jessica is learning about the family, attempts to give her medication in an attempt to cease those dreams.

But Jessica doesn't take the medication, and continues exploring and learning shocking truths about her family's history.  

Like anybody's dream, this movie is surreal throughout. 
Reality and dream state are distinct from each other, there's a lot taking place.

What Jessica is realizing about her family is told through imagery more than exposition. 

It's interesting to see how her mother doesn't seemed surprised with her daughter's dreams, but focuses more in attempting to stop them. It's as though she, too, has the same gift of dreaming.

Pointeaux's acting is really hard to judge. Her character is sick, and constantly sluggish when she's not asleep. How can an actor make such a character stand out to an audience? When we see her within her dreams, she's normally acting as an observer along with the audience. I don't mean to insinuate she's a bad actor. 

I suppose her portrayal of a sluggish girl trying to embrace lucid dreaming is as best she can do. The effort in portraying a torn young girl is evident.

But despite Horsehead being horror, with peculiar and surreal scenes, the movie leans more towards mystery and fantasy, with scares based on frightening imagery. It doesn't stoop to cheap jump scares and haunted house grotesqueries (not that there's anything wrong with those). 

The pace, though, is as sluggish as all the sleeping Jessica does. 

It took some effort to become invested in what was taking place. I couldn't grasp certain elements, particularly a few moments of eroticism one dream leaned into between Jessica and a young version of her grandmother. I fail to see its relevance. 

Water also plays a significant role, but I think a second viewing might help me understand what that role is. Cleansing from the burden and mental stagnation of reality, I think?

Horsehead is a movie that takes itself seriously. I think its pretentiousness works against it. The audience then needs to take it just as seriously. I don't see how it can. 

The movie lacks attention grabbing scenarios, and interesting characters. The only character I was really interested in was the dead grandmother. Why was she reaching out to her granddaughter through sleep? What was her intentions and interest in Jessica?

I kept asking myself why should I care about Jessica and her dreams. Her relationship with her mother didn't seem terribly sour, though it was imperfect. Again, I'm willing to watch this film again hoping some missing parts can be filled.  

The purpose is to engage the audience's imaginations rather than scare them for over an hour. It's story is thought-provoking to a certain degree. But I would moan and sigh if someone suggested Horsehead for a Friday night scare flick. 

Horror in Omaha

 A recent extended weekend vacation to Omaha brought about a horrific night - dinner at "The Monster Club" at Omaha's Old Market area. 
A cocktail (a Moscow Mule) and a smoked monster burger left me begging for my life.

The bloody, horrific, decaying decor killed more than my appetite. I'd go again in a heartbeat, or that of an artery. 

It was a fun time! And they're not a sponsor.

 

69) Family Possessions (2016)

Some family secrets should remain...buried.

Director

Tommy Faircloth

Cast

Leah Wiseman - Rachel Dunn

Erika Edwards - Maggie

Jason Vail - Steve Dunn

Morgan Monnig - Sarah Dunn

Andrew Wicklum - Andy Dunn

Felissa Rose - Susan

Mark Patton - Tyson

Lizzie Mears - Tristen

I pulled this movie from the part of my horror library that increased slightly thanks to a subscription to horrorpack.com. 
I recently published a post on this blog, along with a podcast on anchor.fm, regarding the large number of exorcism horror movies there are these days. I thought this movie would land in the heap of such movies.
Family Possessions is an independent supernatural horror. The word "possessions" is a bit deceptive, though. The cover art didn't help correct my assumptions.

This isn't a demonic possession story as I initially assumed; however, there is a spirit attempting to influence a person from the outside. I believe this is referred to as demonic obsession. 

Rather, "possessions" refers to items handed down from grandmother to grandchild. It sure fooled me. 

Family Possessions, based on an allegedly true story, centers on a young girl named Rachel Dunn (Leah Wiseman) whose grandmother recently passed away. Rachel inherits her grandmother's house instead of her father. Both she and her father are a bit confused as to why his mother left her the house and all its possessions instead of her son.

Per her grandmother's wishes,  her family - parents Sarah (Morgan Monnig) and Steve (Jason Veil) and younger brother, Andy (Andrew Wicklum) - can live in the house as long as Rachel is living under the roof, too. If she decides to move out, as she is preparing to go to college, the house is to be liquidated and all money must be donated to charity. 

As the family moves into the new home, and tries to settle into the new town, they're treated rather coldly by locals. 

Rachel can't help feeling trapped by her new acquisitions. She wants to start asserting her independence, but feels owning a home is a heavy weight she doesn't want to bear.

Her parents are struggling in their marriage as well and that's weighing on her and Andy. 

Rachel heads out to look for a new job in the small community. She meets Maggie (Erika Edwards) during her walk into town to apply at a cafe with a "help wanted" sign. 

Maggie seems a bit odd at first but takes a liking to Rachel. Maggie also acts apprehensive towards the fact that Rachel moved into that specific house.

Erika Edwards (left) and Leah Wiseman.

They both walk to the cafe where the manager Tyson (played by horror icon Mark Patton - A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge) and mean barista girl Tristen (Elizabeth Mears) are cold and condescending to both girls. 

Rachel also meets Kevin (Michael David Wilson) as she fills out the employment application. He owns a club right next door, and offers her a job. The two fall in love, which later arouses jealousy in Tristen.

She and Tyson also ridicule Rachel for moving into the new house. It's clear that the house and her grandma have a less than savory reputation in the community. 

Rachel also begins noticing paranormal occurrences inside the home, which she dismisses as insignificant. 

But Maggie informs Rachel about what the locals thought of her late grandma as they believed she was an actual witch. Meanwhile, Andy also beginnings noticing ghostly goings-on, even catching a frightening glimpse of his dead grandmother.

Maggie, who lives with her verbally abusive alcoholic mother Susan (played by another icon of horror cinema, Felissa Rose - Sleepaway Camp) borrows a book of spells, written by grandma, which Rachel found in the attic. 

Maggie learns as much as she can about the grandmother, the house, and why she left it to Rachel instead of her own son. 

This leads Rachel to some hard truths about her grandmother, and what her intentions were with her granddaughter.

While Family Possessions has a suspenseful buildup which kept me invested throughout, it falls flat on its face in the last act of the movie. 

The ending was one big expositional pay off. I wanted to see the haunting bubble over into something frightening and unreal. Rather, it fizzled out with a lot of talk and little to no action.

This began getting serious with a twist in the second act. And when it comes to story telling, there's a solid rule that needs to be followed. Show! Don't tell. 

The writers for Family Possessions broke that rule like a clueless rebel. I understand that, perhaps, some exposition would have been necessary to a point. Still, there's room for a horrific, scary last act.  It was building up throughout, after all.  

Mark Patton in Family Possessions - his first role in 31 years.

In one scene, Tyson finds himself trapped in the kitchen of the cafe, staring at someone off screen as the audiences see a hand clutching a knife that's just about to be come down on him. It slices into his wrist, and a shrilling screams comes out of his mouth reminiscent of Patton's high-pitched scream as Jesse in A Nightmare on Elm Street II. 

In fact, this is Patton's first film in 31 years.

I couldn't find any articles or stories about the real events that inspired this movie. Nor did I find any reference to what those events are, or where they took place.

There's a parental theme in this movie that consists of parents lashing out at their children in some form or another. 

Maggie is verbally abused by her own mother. Steve is purposely overlooked by his mother when it came time to distributing her goods after her death. And Sarah seems to treat her son less fairly than she does Rachel. She's not cruel or abusive, but there obvious signs whom she favors more.

Family Possessions has good qualities helping it to be an intriguing horror story, especially as it claims to be based on true events. And with Mark Patton and Felissa Rose appearing in this picture, it has potential to be something fun to watch in the genre, until it deflates at the end. Show! Don't tell. How soon Family Possessions forgot this rule. And it forgot it at the end of the movie- the worst time to forget.  

68) Billy the Kid vs. Dracula (1966)

"I haven't met a man yet that a bullet couldn't stop."

Director

William Beaudine

Cast

John Carradine - Dracula

Chuck Courtney - William "Billy the Kid" Bonney

Melinda Plowman - Betty Bentley

Virginia Christine - Eva Oster

Walter Janowitz - Franz Oster

Among my office space decor hangs a postcard pinned to my cubical divider. The image is of a vintage Mexican lobby card for a movie called Billy the Kid vs. Dracula. I bought this postcard ten years ago at a local used book store and hung on to it with the intention that someday, I would find that movie. 

Though I'd never seen the movie until now, the title alone led me to an assumption it was among the schlockiest of horror movie titles I had ever heard of. I've wanted to see this ultimate showdown ever since I bought that postcard. The title is as appealing and enticing to me as Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. That's a real movie, by the way, which was released two years before this one. But unlike that title, Billy the Kid vs. Dracula doesn't give away the ending. This is from the mid-sixties - an era when the good guys always win in the movies. 

The film starts as a fake bat (shhh...we're not supposed to know it's fake. Just pretend it's real) glides behind the opening credits. 

We then witness Dracula (James Carradine) sneak into a campsite as a family is fast asleep. He seduces a young girl with a deathly, hypnotizing glare, and then bites her on the neck. Her mother wakes up to find her daughter lifeless with teeth marks on her neck. It's clear to her what has happened.  

A stagecoach heading to Wickenburg, carrying some wealthy individuals, is on its way to a scheduled stop in the town of Papago Wells for an overnight stay.

On board is Mary Ann Bentley, her brother James Underhill, a Whiskey salesman named Joe Flake, and a mysterious passenger the others don't realize is Dracula himself. As the four riders chat during their trip, Mrs. Bentley starts talking about her daughter Betty Bentley.

She shows Dracula her picture, which unbeknownst to Mrs. Bentley, arouses his passion. He now has eyes for Betty and intends to find her. He doesn't say this to Mrs. Bentley of course, but the audience knows.

When they stop at their destination, Dracula spots an Indian girl named Nana who works for the stagecoach company along with other members of her tribe. 

As night arrives, he transforms into a (rubber) bat and visits her. He then seduces the poor girl, leaving her dead. Those of her tribe find her body and blame her death on white people. They don't hesitate. Her tribe members chase the stagecoach after it departs the next morning and attack it, killing the Mrs. Bentley, James Underhill, and the Whiskey salesman. Dracula stays behind in Papago Wells. 

Once news of the attack gets back into town, Dracula visits the destroyed stagecoach and steals Underhill's papers and the picture of Betty.

Meanwhile, Billy the Kid (Chuck Courtney - Pet Sematary 1989) has turned himself around and is no longer the outlaw he's well known to be. 

He's not only a reformed man, Billy also happens to be working on the Bentley farm and is engaged to Betty. 

He heads to town to await the stagecoach and pick up Betty's mother and Uncle, but is met by Dracula instead at the hotel the coach is scheduled to stop at. Dracula poses as Betty's uncle whom she has never seen before and news of the attack reaches Billy's ears. 

James Carradine as Dracula.

When Billy meets Dracula posing as James Underhill, Billy learns about the attack on the stagecoach and the death of the passengers. Dracula gives a claim of what went down. And while there's no reason for Billy and Betty not to believe him, others at the hotel believe the entire situation to be the work of a vampire. Billy doesn't believe that, of course. 

Dracula returns with Billy to the Bentley farm.

One of the help at the Bentley farm, a woman named Eva (Virginia Christine), is convinced the man posing as James Underhill is a vampire. Billy, however, isn't convinced despite her insistence.

Dracula works to impose himself into the family, ultimately to seduce Betty and make her his bride. While this is playing out, a farmhand challenges Billy to a gunfight at the Bentley ranch. 

Billy shoots the farmhand in self-defense, but is still forced to leave town after being arrested by the Sheriff. Meanwhile, Dracula takes authority upon himself as Betty's fake uncle and forces Billy never to return to the ranch again. 

He gets one of the ranch hands to force Billy out, and even threatens Billy that if he returns the farm hand has permission to kill him. Dracula also fires Eva and her husband, so he can be alone with Betty. 

Betty is forced to call off the engagement under the direction of her "Uncle." And the farm hand, under the instruction of Dracula, begins forcing Billy to leave town altogether. 

But when Eva returns to the ranch, and finds Betty's neck bearing bite marks, she knows what's up. It was her daughter who fell victim to Dracula in the beginning of the movie. Her suspicions are confirmed, and she finally convinces Billy, who didn't believe in vampires before, to face off with Dracula once and for all.

As schlocky as the title may suggest, and as low budget the movie is with all its laughable special effects and rubber bats, it somehow manages to be somewhat engaging. 

Carradine is able to create a character the audience loves to hate. His evil, callous, insatiable appetite, and lack of empathy are clear and despicable. In other words, he makes a decent Count Dracula.

This same year, Director William Beaudine directed a western horror movie Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter. Evidently, it was released the same day as Billy the Kid vs. Dracula. That's a fair amount of horror from the old west in one day. 

But with a run time barely over an hour, the movie is a lot of buildup, albeit somewhat effective, for a quick resolution - the fight we were waiting for. It just fizzles out like a candle at the end of its life. It's just a shrivel, and a puff of smoke. 

The audience does get a fight but I know I felt swindled. It could have been so much more. There was room for more, after all. 

The movie didn't need to make Billy the Kid a redeemed man. I was expecting to see an iconic outlaw of the west face off the unholy, undead monster of Transylvania. That would have been much more epic and satisfying. Clearly, the producers were trying to give audiences a character they could cheer for without feeling guilty about it. This is not who Billy was. In a way, it defeats the purpose of the movie. It's like if Freddy Krueger turned over a new leaf and became a day care provider sometime right before 2003's Freddy vs. Jason. Why bother paying the price of the ticket?  

Billy was a gunfighter who killed eight men at age 21. He was a fugitive. An outlaw. Why change him because he's up against Dracula?

Despite its obscurity, Billy the Kid vs. Dracula has potential to be a fun reboot as this movie could use stronger writing. For something this creative, it deserves a better treatment. Billy just needs to be depicted as the outlaw audiences expect him to be. Not the do-gooder, lover boy no one wants him to be. 

The movie also stars famous western actor Harry Carey, Jr., (Back to the Future III, Gremlins) and Marjorie Bennett (Mary Poppins, 101 Dalmatians, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?) 

I thought I'd be able to find it on YouTube when I first heard of it, thinking it had to be public domain. I falsely assumed it was at least the king of low-budget obscure movies which no one today really cares enough whether or not it's available on social media despite potential copyright infringements. But I finally found a copy to watch. Lucky me. 

It's a fright night, creature feature flick fair enough for one viewing. And props to Carradine for making a Dracula I'm sure going to remember from now one. 

Still, with the trend of reboots in a solid place these days, I'd go see a remake of Billy the Kid vs. Dracula. I'll also keep the postcard up at my desk.