123) Pumpkinhead (1988)

"Can't you stop this? Can't you call it off?"

Director

Stan Winston

Cast

Lance Henriksen - Ed Harley

Matthew Hurley - Billy Harley

John D'Aquino - Joel

Jeff East - Chris
Kerry Remsen - Maggie
Kimberly Ross - Kim
Buck Flower - Mr. Wallace
Florence Schauffer - Haggis
Tom Woodruff Jr. - Pumpkinhead

The late Stan Winston is a legend in entertainment. He's worked as a makeup artist for films such as "Battle for the Planet of the Apes" (1972), "Edward Scissorhands," "Terminator 2: Judgement Day," "Batman Returns" and "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me."

As far as horror movies go, he's worked on "Friday the 13th part 2," "Friday the 13th part III," Disney's "Something Wicked This Way Comes" and "The Entity." He's an absolute master at makeup effects. 

He also sat in the director's chair for Guns n' Roses' "You Could Be Mine" video as well as Michael Jackson's short version of the "Ghosts" video. 

Winston's directorial debut was the 1988 American horror creature feature "Pumpkinhead." 

I think his presence plays a role in the film's cult status. 

"Pumpkinhead" has spawned three sequels - "Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings" (1993), "Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes" (2006) and "Pumpkinhead 4: Blood Feud" (2007). There's also a documentary on Winston's directorial debut called "Pumpkinhead Unearthed" (2008). 

It has been years since I've seen this movie. In fact, it has been so long I couldn't remember if I had seen this in its entirety before. Now, I have for sure as I watched it the other night.

The movie starts in a small secluded cabin in 1957. A farmer named Tom Harley tells his wife and boy to wait inside while he goes to check on the horses and then lock everything up. Something wicked seems too close for comfort.

He sits by the fire with his wife while his son lays in bed, eyes wide open in fear and anticipation. 

Soon, a guy who's being chased by something or someone unseen stumbles up to Tom's front door, pleading and begging to be let in. 

But Tom doesn't want any part of this man's demise. He seems to knows who this man is and whatever evil deed he's committed. Tom yells at him through the door to leave as he must take care of his wife and son first.

Tom's son, Ed Harley, peeks through his window as the man at the door is attacked by a towering creature that's definitely not human. 

The movie shifts to present day. Ed (Lance Henriksen) is a widowed farmer raising a young son of his own named Billy (Matthew Hurley) who's about seven or eight years old. 

Ed operates a small general store alongside the highway. 

When he opens shop, a small group of teenagers pull up hauling dirt bikes in their pickup trucks.

Mr. Wallace (Buck Flower - "Back to the Future"), one of the locals, pulls in as well for supplies plus some animal feed which Ed accidentally left back at the house. 

He leaves Billy alone, telling him to stay in the store while he'll only be gone for a little bit to go grab Mr. Wallace's animal feed. 

Jeff East as Chris in "Pumpkinhead" (1988).

As he leaves, one of the teenagers, Joel (John D'Aquino) decides to ride his dirt bike around the hills behind the shop regardless of his buddies advising him not to. 

Billy's dog runs out of the shop at the sound of the dirt bike's engine. Billy, of course, chases after it. 

When he runs outside, Joel accidentally hits Billy with his bike at full speed, killing him instantly. 

Having just come out of jail, Joel doesn't want to get into trouble again,. So, he packs up his bike and drives off leaving Billy in the dirt. One of the teens named Steve (Joel Hoffman) stays with Billy until his father returns. 

And when Ed comes back and realizes what happened while he was gone, he picks up his son and takes him to Mr. Wallace's place. He assumes all the teenagers are responsible.

Ed knows that a witch lives somewhere deep in the woods who might be able to help his son. He goes straight to Mr. Wallace's place and inquires about this witch, but Wallace refuses to tell him where she lives. He gives Ed money for the feed and tells him to grieve and bury his son. 

Wallace's son, Chris (Jeff East), tells Ed exactly where he can find the witch. Chris even takes him partway to her lone dreary cabin surrounded by standing water and dank atmosphere.

When Ed walks into her dwelling, he doesn't need to tell her why he came. The witch, who's name is Haggis (Florence Schauffeer), already knows. 

He lays his deceased son down on a table. But the witch tells Ed that she cannot wake the dead. 

What she does offer is an opportunity to inflict revenge on the teens in the worst way possible. 

First he must dig up a corpse buried on a specific mound within an old pumpkin patch, and bring it back to her. 

Once that's done, she takes some of his blood and some from his dead son, and pours it on the corpse. It resurrects into a towering demon-like creature. She instructs this demonic entity to seek out the kids responsible.

She warns Ed to let this monster carry out the revenge he was summoned to perform. The creature will kill anyone, even Ed, who dares to stand in his way. 

Once it begins killing each teen one by one, Ed can feel each murder as it takes place. It leaves him twisting and writhing in pain. In turn, the monster can feel any physical harm that befalls Ed. 

Soon, Ed starts feeling remorse for taking his fury out as far as he did. So, he does what he can to stop it and prevent any further killing from taking place regardless of Haggis's warnings. 

Initially, the movie struck me as just another creature feature, but with some originality. This time, I made sure to watch until the end. After letting it settle a moment, I recognized a little depth to the story. There's more substance here, story-wise, than other creature features. In other words, it's not a completely mindless slaughter fest of a horror flick. There's a little something to take away from the movie. 

Seeing Ed lose his young son in an instant is difficult to watch. It's a strong bond that's severed by the stupidity of one teenager. 

And to add salt to the wound, that teen decides to flee.  

On top of that, Ed bears the weight of guilt on his shoulders as he left Billy alone in the store while he made a quick trip back home. 

That aspect isn't mentioned, but it doesn't need to be. Lance Henriksen acts with his eyes and facial features. Guilt is a very reasonable conclusion to come to watching his performance. 

I found Tom's way of grieving curious. He doesn't lose it like one would expect. He goes straight to rage and revenge in the darkest way possible, as though he knew beforehand that those mindless teenagers would cause harm in some way or another. 

The story leaves me with the idea that revenge is an evil thing. A person has no option but to tap into a dark place in some way or another to inflict vengeance on another. Even Batman chooses to work in darkness while carrying out vengeance in Gotham City.

Lance Henriksen as Ed Harley.

It never ends with the complete satisfaction one thinks they'll obtain. 

"Pnmpkinhead" depicts this moral well enough. It has a folktale feel to it. 

The story is based on a poem by Ed Justin.

"Keep away from Pumpkinhead,
Unless you're tired of living,
His enemies are mostly dead,
He's mean and unforgiving,
Laugh at him and you're undone,
But in some dreadful fashion,
Vengeance, he considers fun," as part of the poem goes.

To the movies credit, the actors seem to take their roles with a tone of seriousness.

Mayim Bialik ("Big Bang Theory") has a small role as one of the Wallace kids. According to IMDB.com, this is her first film role. 

The overall tone changes quickly from dry and sunny to the dank backwoods atmosphere laden with fog and uncertainty. This doesn't happen when Billy dies. It seems to occur once Ed  decides to turn to evil for revenge. 

The monster itself is memorable and easily recognizable. He bears a constant grin as though he's enjoying the vengeance he's called upon to inflict.

I appreciate the vulnerability Pumpkinhead carries. While his conjuring comes at a permanent price for the conjurer, it's demise also comes at the same type of cost...for Ed. 

Horror writer Stephen King does something similar in many of his stories. There's a solution, but that solution either comes in a way that the protagonist doesn't want or expect. That solution comes with damage, whether physical, mental, or both for the protagonist. 

"Pumpkinhead" isn't obscure but doesn't seem to stand among other, more prevailing horror movies of the decade. Still, it deserves audiences' attention. 

122) Mothra (1961)

"Those fairies aren't human. They're merchandise."

Director 

Ishirō Honda

Cast

Hiroshi Koizumi - Dr. Shinichi Chujo
Frankie Sakai - Zenichirō Fukuda
Kyōko Kagawa - Michi Hanamura
Ken Uehara - Dr. Harada

Jerry Ito - Clark Nelson
Yumi Ito and Emi Ito - The Shobijin


There's a majestic fantastical persona that surrounds the Japanese kaiju (monster), Mothra. It largely distinguishes her from other Japanese monsters such as Rodan, King Ghidora, Anguirus, and even the King of the Monsters himself, Godzilla.
The giant moth is certainly one of the more popular Japanese monsters after Godzilla. Mothra is just as much a household name.
The 1961 film "Mothra" produced by Toho Studios - the company that gave us Godzilla - and directed by legendary kaiju movie director, Ishirō Honda, introduced the world to the humungous and magnificent Lepidoptera on the big screen.
Mothra appears in several later films, the next being "Mothra vs. Godzilla" (1964).
She also appears with Godzilla in "Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster" (1964), "Ebirah, Horror of the Deep" (1966), "Destroy All Monsters" (1968), "Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla" (1994), "Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack" (2001), "Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S." (2003), "Godzilla: Final Wars" (2004), and "Godzilla: King of the Monsters" (2019). She is also in the series "Godzilla Island" (1997-1998).
But that's not all! Mothra also has her own set of films - "Rebirth of Mothra" (1996), "Rebirth of Mothra II" (1997), and "Rebirth of Mothra III" (1998).   

This introduction to Mothra begins with an expedition to Infant Island which has become radiated due to atomic tests performed in the surrounding waters.
The natives are therefore introduced to civilization outside of the island.
However, one businessman attempts to exploit the island natives, which pisses off the god they worship. 
Off the coast of Infant Island where Rolisican atomic tests are conducted, a boat is caught in a typhoon and runs aground onto the radioactive island. Rolisica is a fictional country in the movie, located between Eastern Asia and Europe, and meant to be an inoffensive reference to both the United States and Russia. Its capital is New Kirk City. I groaned out loud.

Anyways, four sailors are found by a rescue party. None of them test positive for radiation sickness which the sailors attribute to a specific berry juice the natives gave them to drink.
This story breaks in the Japanese newspapers. News reporter Zenichiro Fukuda (Frankie Sakai) and photographer Michi Hanamura (Kyōko Kagawa) come on scene by infiltrating the hospital to interview the sailors.
Meanwhile, a joint expedition between Japan and Rolisica, lead by the greedy and self-absorbed Clark Nelson (Jerry Ito) from Rolisica, heads over to Infant Island. A radiation specialist named Dr. Harada (Ken Uehara) accompanies Nelson on the trip along with an anthropologist named Dr. Shin'ichi Chūjō (Hiroshi Koizumi). Fukuda, being the great reporter he is, sneaks on board their boat as a stowaway. 

Mothra hatches from a coccoon built
underneath a broken Tokyo Tower in "Mothra."

While exploring Infant Island, the crew finds a symbol carved in a rock that looks like a radiating cross. They later find that this symbol, written in the native language of the islanders, means "Mothra."
Chūjō separates from the group and becomes entangled in a vine that begins to twist around and overtake him. He's rescued by a pair of female twins who stand just a foot tall.
When he gets back to the crew, he tells them what he witnessed, and refers to these twins as the "Shobijin" (small beauties).
The Shobijin make their presence known to the entire crew to tell them they want the island spared from any further nuclear testing.
In his greed, Nelson attempts to kidnap the Shobijin but is dissuaded by the natives brandishing weapons and ready to attack him to defend the twins.
When the expedition returns to the mainland, they don't tell anyone what they experienced.
Nelson, however, returns to Infant Island and kidnaps the twins, brings them back to Japan, and forces them to perform as a stage act for his own profit. They plead for their release, but Nelson refuses to let them free. They're too profitable.
So, through telepathic singing, the twins call on Mothra for help. The natives back on Infant Island also beg their god, Mothra, for her aid. At this stage, Mothra is a giant egg.
The egg hatches, and Mothra in larva form, emerges and swims to the mainland to find the twins and punish their kidnappers.
The twins warn Nelson that she's coming and that people will be hurt because he won't let them go.
Of course, he doesn't believe them. 

Fukuda, Hanamura, and Chūjō try to rescue the twins without success. The newspaper Fukuda reports for writes a story that Nelson is holding these small twins against their will.
He threatens a libel suit against the paper and the Rolisican Embassy even comes to his aid.
The larva, meanwhile, survives attacks by military forces while swimming towards Japan. It even takes down a cruise ship along the way.
Mothra finally arrives in Tokyo, and spins a cocoon. Japanese forces attempt to incinerate the cocoon but Mothra still emerges.
The people of Japan are pissed at Nelson for holding onto the twins. So, he's ordered to release them, which he finally does.
He secretly sneaks off to Rolisica, but Mothra immediately flies over to New Kirk City to find the twins, destroying cities along the way.
In true Toho fashion, "Mothra" is made as an epic picture like many of their other monster movies.
While the movie has a rather serious tone, some elements are cartoonish, such as Nelson. He's obviously the villain of the movie as he laughs maniacally whenever he reveals his dastardly plans. He's a little over-the-top as he's driven by greed, and is unmoving and unsympathetic. To Jerry Ito's credit, he makes the audience love to hate his character.
It's worth noting there are several Mothras throughout the kaiju films from Toho. While Mothra is often referred to as "she" in some movies, there have been male Mothras as well.
The majestic nature Mothra possesses carries over into the films she appears in with Godzilla. I think that's part of what makes her as popular and well-known as she is among the rogue's gallery of Japanese monsters.

The pacing of "Mothra" is smooth as they build up to Mothra's ultimate appearance little by little, until the final act of the film. It adds to the epic nature of the entire picture. 

The models, while clearly models, are still truly impressive. The time and effort that surely went into them deserves all the "ooohs" and "aaahs" they must have got back in 1961.
The film is one big introduction to this "monster." 

In a very loose way, Mothra is kind of like Frankenstein's monster in that she's not a ravenous creature who destroys and devours like any other monster would, compelled by some animalistic hunger or driven by an unseen evil. She seeks revenge, but her wrath isn't unreasonable. Mothra is on a rescue mission.
"Mothra" is an entertaining movie, though it really takes its time getting to what audiences want to see - Mothra in all her colorful glory answering the prayers of the natives and gaining revenge on the greedy.
The movie succeeds telling an epic story rather than showing a giant moth destroy everything in sight for an hour and 41 minutes.

The movie holds up in being a truly unique monster film among the rest from Toho.

I'm currently writing up reviews for the first 15 Godzilla movies, known collectively as the Shōwa era (1954-1975), which I'll be posting throughout October. I started back in June. At this point, I'm a little more than halfway done. I wanted to throw this review for "Mothra" into that mix but I simply couldn't wait. So, what the hell.

121) La Maison Ensorcelée - The House of Ghosts (1906)

Director

Segundo de Chomón

It recently occurred to me that I need to watch the 2014 horror film "The Babadook" again. 

When I saw it back in 2015, I watched it primarily for its scare and horror factor, but left not feeling very satisfied. Since then, I've come across a lot of praise for "The Babadook," directed by Jennifer Kent. While I love the premise of the movie, I admit I certainly missed something. The movie doesn't rely on jump scares and thrills. There's a lot of substance within. 
Film critic Glenn Kenny, writing for rogerebert.com, called this movie "...the finest and most genuinely provocative horror movie to emerge in this still very-new century." So, yes...I need to watch "The Babadook" one more time.
A 2014 article from shutterstock.com cites 10 films that "Scared 'Babadook’ Director Jennifer Kent Into Filmmaking." Among those titles is a French silent film from 1906 titled "La Maison Ensorcelée" or "The Bewitched House" according to Google translate, directed by Spanish film director Segundo de Chomón. It's also known as "The House of Ghosts." 
The film is approximately six minutes long, but there's a lot happening within those few minutes. It's considered one of the earliest films set within a haunted house. 
The movie opens with three travelers - two men and a woman - walking along a river trail in the woods before they stumble upon a small house.
Lightening strikes the house three times before the façade transforms into a face.  
When the three travelers barge into the house, all sorts of typical ghostly activity takes place. Their baggage begins moving on its own. A painting of a nature scene on the wall comes to life as some kind a demon appears within the frame. This is likely the most notable moment in the short film. 

The furniture starts disappearing. Their wardrobes emerge from their bags and begin dancing around. And ghosts begin to take on physical manifestations. 
Despite all these paranormal shenanigans, the trio stick around. When they set a table to have some food, a knife takes on a life of its own and starts slicing up meat and bread by itself. Also, an unseen force begins to pour each of them a cup of coffee. When their meal is ready, the food along with the table disappears. 
The longer they stay, the worse things get. When they retire to bed, the entire house rocks back and forth cause the bed to slide from wall to wall. They all hide under the blanket in a huddled ball.
The rooms stops rocking, and the demon that appeared earlier in the painting looms over the bed.
It picks up the lodgers still wrapped in the blanket, plays around with it for a moment in an act of torment, and places them in a tree back out in the woods. 
Similar to an earlier horror film I discussed called "House of the Devil" (1896) from Georges Méliès, "The House of Ghosts" is more of a showcase of special effects than it is an actual story. The story is secondary. It's there to support the effects, which were certainly very novel at the time. They're the foundation for later cinema. 

And the effects still succeed in impressing. Some, of course, are very simple. The film cuts to depict furniture suddenly vanishing. And the use of stop motion depicts unseen forces manipulating mundane objects.
What's truly impressive about the stop motion is the fluidity of how things move. In particular, the knife that slices through sausage, and cuts the bread by itself, is stunning to watch. The fluidity of this animation is impressive.  
The final slice of the sausage tries sliding itself off the plate and makes the knife chase it around the table. 
Once it succeeds, a linen napkin nicely rolled up in a napkin ring climbs out of a coffee cup, then out of the ring, and unrolls itself to wipe off the knife blade before rolling itself back up, sliding back into the ring, and finally back into the cup. 
The napkin later does this again in order to sweep the breadcrumbs into a nice pile and onto the floor. Effects such as these still amaze. The attention to detail in these effects, and the way they add to the frantic tone of the picture is great.

I'm not surprised Jennifer Kent names "The House of Ghosts" as one of the horror movies that inspired her into film making. So much so, she evidently included the film in a scene in "The Babadook." 

Such camera work and optical effects are very similar to the works of Georges Méliès. 

"The House of Ghosts" mixes paranormal horror with comedy seen in the actions and demeanor of the three characters. Segundo de Chomón mixes his comedy style with fantasy in his 1907 film, "Hôtel électrique." He also utilizes a lot of stop motion in that film as well. 

It seems he uses film splicing or overlapping in "The House of Ghosts" to pull off the effect of making the painting spring to life with the image of a demon. It's very similar, if not identical, to a movie he filmed in 1906 called "A Funny Shave" which I've seen on a variety of silent film and public domain YouTube channels.  

"The House of Ghosts" is truly a foundational picture that stands out among the rest!

120) Wrinkles the Clown (2019)

"That's what's awesome. He's real!"

Director
Michael Beach Nichols

Cast

Benjamin Radford - himself
D.B. Lambert - himself
Unidentified - Wrinkles the Clown

I walked into this horror documentary thinking it was fictional. And I use the word "horror" in the loosest way I can. The term that's often used for fictional documentaries is "mockumentary." 

Evidently, this story is real. Or, I'm the most gullible movie viewer out there. 

The release of Stephen King's "It: Chapter One" in 2017, which centers around a group of kids taking on an otherworldly being that takes the form of a child-eating clown named "Pennywise" sparked this surge of interest and popularity in maniacal and frightening clowns. 

Morons across the nation started dressing in clown costumes to try and scare innocent people. 

Some of these idiots even brandished knives and such turning their pranks into matters of public safety. And yet, somehow, it's not as odd as it ought to be in today's society.

It reminds me of the time when Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean" was released in 2003. Suddenly, everyone became fans of pirates. I'm not referring to the modern day Somali pirates. Rather, I mean the classic 16th and 17th century swashbuckling kind of pirates. It's a fad that lingered less and less as more pirate movies were released.

But scary clowns existed years before Wrinkles the Clown, and even Pennywise from 2017. Serial killer John Wayne Gacy turned out to be a true monster who liked to dress as a clown. The movie "Poltergeist" (1982) had that freaky clown doll scene. Musician Tiny Tim played a scary clown once in "Blood Harvest" (1988). Clowns even came from outer space to take us over in the legendary film masterpiece that is "Killer Klowns from Outer Space" (1988). And in 2003 the world was introduced to the loveable clown, Captain Spaulding, played by the late Sid Haig in "House of 1,000 Corpses." 

It seems the 1980s really introduced freaky clowns to the horror genre. 

The documentary "Wrinkles the Clown" dates the frightening clown motif as far back as the early Punch and Judy puppet shows which has roots in the 16th century. 

The film documents the story of a character performed by an unknown "artist" in Naples, Fla., whom parents can hire at a cost to potentially scare their unruly children into better behavior. 

Wrinkles first came on the scene through a YouTube video in 2015. 

In a video titled "Wrinkles The Clown Caught on CCTV" a young girl is seen sleeping as the drawer under her bed begins to open.

A clown - Wrinkles - soon climbs out and just before he scares the unaware child, he reaches for the camera and the video ends. 

This is where the documentary starts. Once Wrinkles is introduced to the audience, filmmakers interview a man living in a mobile home who claims to be the infamous clown. His identity is anonymous. 

This man is a 65-year old retired veteran, divorced, and is a Rhode Island native. 

Though he wears his costume to frighten misbehaving children, he otherwise seems like an average guy. He doesn't act macabre in the least outside of playing Wrinkles. Rather, he comes across as a guy who found a "creative" way to make a buck.  

Stickers appeared around Florida with the clown's name, face and phone number - (407) 734-0254. They were stuck on lamp posts, mail boxes, street signs, bathroom stalls, anywhere they'd fit. 

Though the clown was interviewed on local news channels, and even talked about on late night shows like "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon"  Wrinkles' true identity remained a mystery. 

Other YouTube videos of Wrinkles emerged on YouTube, including one with him hiding in someone's backyard to scare another child. In the video, the clown eventually enters the house before the video ends.

We soon find out midway through the documentary that this retired veteran living in the mobile home isn't really Wrinkles. Rather, his real name is D.B. Lambert who was hired by the real Wrinkles to be his alter-ego, who himself is an alter ego of another anonymous person. 

The real, real man behind the mask is interviewed in the darkness of anonymity. He admits that the YouTube videos, including the one with the clown hiding in the girls bed drawer, are staged productions. The entire Wrinkles act is one big art project concocted by a performance artist.

Calls flood Wrinkles' cell phone. Some are lucky enough to actually reach him. The rest just go to his eerie voicemail. 

I called the number myself and, sure enough, I got the voicemail of Wrinkles the Clown. I even typed his number into spydialer.com. The name Santiago Jadaly came back as the owner of the number.

By the end of the documentary, Wrinkles the Clown is like a local legend whom people might run into on Halloween night. Though he looks frightening with his dark eyes and rubber mask, his demeanor, New York accent, and his willingness to pose for pictures makes him anything but threatening. He's like a fun Halloween decoration.

One question that arises in the film is the ethics behind hiring someone to terrify your children, or threatening kids with a call to Wrinkles.

He doesn't physically harm them. It's all a scare.

Personally, I think it is cruel. There's surely other means to properly handle an unruly child than parents calling a stranger in a clown suit for the sake of making kids think he'll kill then if they don't shape up.

Anyways, this documentary is what it is. It certainly touches on the fear of clowns among children, and it ties in with what the horror genre is - entertainment with the intention to terrify. 

One person in this movie makes the comment that by calling Wrinkles, you're inviting him into your life. The question that the film poses is "why." 

What are Wrinkles' true motives. Money? Fame? Popularity? Thrills? Or does he really think he's performing a community service? 

In the end, Wrinkles says, "Our individual minds are such humongous places and the places that you can go can be some of the darkest deepest depths of just awful terribleness to some of the most enlightening beautiful places. It's just interesting to see where people decide to go in their mind because at the end of the day they're the ones taking this very small information about Wrinkles the Clown and deciding which way to take it." 

As the film suggests, maybe the negative parts of Wrinkles will die off over time, and maybe the fun parts of Wrinkles will live on.