NEW HORROR RELEASES - 86) Malefice: A True Story of a Demonic Haunting

"Demons don't ask for prayers." 

Director

Billy Lewis

Cast

Sean Austin

Dave Spinks

Eric Conner

Ralph Sarchie

When it comes to the paranormal, I'm more skeptical of people who call themselves "experts" than I am of the existence of demons and ghosts.

If outer space is the great unknown, life after death is even more so. And the outer-space experts study years to become such.

In regards to spirits and the afterlife, there's so much unknown which we'll only find out after we shuffle off our mortal coil. Do human souls really haunt locations? If so, why would a soul stay in a certain spot for years, even centuries after death? And why do they stay in abandoned homes, attics, and basements? Self-proclaimed paranormal "experts" in movies and programs that surround the topic of ghostly activity often give audiences an answer to the "whys." They might claim with absolute certainty in front of cameras that spirits are bound by "unfinished business" or "they're scared to go towards the light." But what do they know for sure and how do they know it? Being a researcher is one thing. Being an expert of the unknown needs a lot of substance.

I question how someone can claim to be an "expert" in the field of the paranormal. It's a lot speculation and conjecture that's passed off as certainty.

The independent thriller documentary Malefice: A True Story of a Demonic Haunting was released through the streaming service ScareNetwork.tv on June 15. I was invited to watch an early viewing of it. 

The documentary surrounds paranormal investigator Sean Austin, a lead investigator on the Travel Channel series, Ghost Loop, who believes he assisted the souls of deceased women into the next life while conducting a paranormal investigation inside an old house in Ohio five years ago.

He claims these souls were trapped inside the house by malevolent forces, with audio recordings of alleged spirits and demons to back up the claims. According the Austin, these women were kept in the house against their will during their lifetime by someone who tortured and killed them.

Austin also claims that in the five years following this incident, demonic forces have been trying to retaliate for his stealing those souls from it. 

Now, he attempts to rid himself of this demonic infestation in his life once and for all by returning to the original Ohio home with fellow investigators, Dave Spinks and Eric Conner to help him send these demons back to hell.

Paranormal investigator Sean Austin.

The documentary guest stars Ralph Sarchie, a retired New York Police Sargant turned "traditional Catholic" demonologist. Sarchie is the inspiration behind the 2014 horror film Deliver Us From Evil. 

I don't think you can discuss the existence of spirits without going into religion because religious institutions are the front runners in any discussion of an afterlife. So, pardon me if I sound preachy.

Austin's claims his knowledge of what took place in that home- the women who were supposedly tortured and killed - comes from mental images he received during the investigation. All claims are presented as being understood that this is how it all works. There's nothing to back these claims up other than Austin's mental vision. We have to take this history at his word. 

One thing I find frustrating about many paranormal investigation programs is the lack of any serious inquiry towards the spirits people think their communicating with. Not many ask about the reality of the afterlife nor what death is like. Rather, they ask spirits how many fingers are they holding up, and if they can kick a ball around. 

If these investigators are actually in contact with a spirit from beyond, and maybe they are, that's a huge breakthrough as far as any investigation and research is concerned. There's so much to ask about life after death, heaven and hell, and why spirits take up residence in the basement of an abandoned house rather than someplace that's less of a drag. 

To Austin and his team's credit, their questioning is taken more seriously than many popular TV ghost hunting show.

On one of their nights investigating, the crew use radio devices called a Gateway which eliminates radio interruption so ghosts can speak more freely through radio signals. 

They use three of these Gateways in order to provide a wide spectrum of frequencies. I don't follow why spirits need radio signals to communicate. Regardless, Austin does ask the supposed voices he claims are the spirits and even the demon(s) about what took place while these women were alive, and what they endured. These radio voices supposedly back up his claims. And it's all presented as understood.

The claims would certainly be more credible if some historic documentation was presented. But it's not. The only claim of veracity to the backstory of this building is paranormal investigator Austin's mental visions and voices on the radio. How does that verify anything? It would certainly be more believable if there was something substantial indicating what the house was previously used for, and who used to live there. 

Where's the police involvement? Where's the factual history of the house? Who was the previous owner? All the audience has is what Austin saw in his head. 

Catholic prayers and practices are used in the attempt to exorcise the demonic entities. This includes Austin's use of the Roman Rite of Exorcism used by Catholic priests. 

As a Catholic myself, I was under the impression the Roman Rite of Exorcism was reserved for ordained Catholic priests with the explicit permission from their Bishop, following an investigating into the claim of demonic activity, according to Canon Law. That's one thing these paranormal experts don't seem to mention. Exorcist, after all, is one of the minor orders a seminarian receives on his way to becoming a priest. Would the Catholic Church, or any religion, consider mental visions and some radios to be evidence of demonic activity?

And while anyone can say certain prayers of exorcism, such as the Catholic prayer to St. Michael the Archangel which is recited in the movie, the Roman Ritual is reserved for ordained clergy in the Catholic Church. I mention this because of the way those in the documentary present themselves as experts to the audience.

Nevertheless, I have to cheer for their resorting to Catholic prayers. Call me biased, but how could I not do so? 

Demonologist Ralph Sarchie

The intriguing part of this documentary is its "what if" aspect. What if hauntings are real? That's what most of the paranormal programs have going for them as far as keeping an audience's attention. 

It's the ghost story aspect that kept me sticking around to the end. I took the ghosts, or rather the idea that maybe they're actually there, more seriously than the actual living people in the film.

Otherwise, the documentary comes across as pretentious, and with little to fall back on. Aside from the creepiness of the whole scenario, which is done well, the rest is irritatingly self-conceited and frustrating. 

There's hardly anything informative in this documentary for the audience to take away. I'd still like to know if there were, in fact, women who were tortured and killed in this house, and if their remains were ever found.

Malefice is more of a showcase about this team trying to gain evidence of ghosts, and their thoughts along the way. For audiences watching this, thoughts and questions about death, ghosts, and demons are a byproduct of watching a few guys "hunting" ghosts for an hour and a half. The solidity in the documentary's reasons as to why I'm supposed to believe the word of these experts is just ridiculously lacking. All we have is their word. Why? Because they're "experts" of the unknown.

85) Tusk (2014)

"It's good to cry. It separates us from the animals. Shows you have a soul."

Director

Kevin Smith

Cast

Justin Long - Wallace Bryton

Genesis Rodriguez - Ally Leon

Haley Joel Osment - Teddy Craft

Michael Parks - Howard Howe

Johnny Depp - Guy Lapointe

Comic book guru Kevin Smith's famous (or infamous) horror film Tusk isn't necessarily obscure. 

I initially wasn't going to share my thoughts on this imaginative horror film, but like all the other times I've said "I wasn't going to..." I'm going to.

This is a film that is not meant for everyone. I suppose that's true for any horror movie, or really any movie of any genre. But Tusk is one film in the horror aisle where this disclaimer needs to be emphasized. 

Last August, I wrote a post called Did Tom Six and Rob Zombie Take Horror Too Far? in which I discussed the Dutch horror movie The Human Centipede. 

In the post, I said:

I reluctantly have to give this film credit in that it went beyond the standard norms of SciFi horror films which take grisly scenarios and water them down as far as content goes. Teens are generally the target audience so there has to be a line drawn somewhere, even among slasher flicks. Movie makers can depict a head being severed, or a naked woman being sawed in half, but some lines still can't be crossed. I don't know what those lines are exactly. And quite possibly, neither do movie makers.

The entire purpose behind The Human Centipede seems only to cross lines - to elevate the horror genre to something even more unspeakable than before.

The same can certainly be said of Tusk. However, unlike The Human Centipede, Smith's movie comes from an area of a dark and twisted imagination lies closer to the mental realm where comical and inquisitive thoughts are born, such as "what would happen if someone was surgically transformed into a walrus?"

That's Tusk.

In this movie two friends, Wallace Bryton (Justin Long) and Teddy Craft (Haley Joel Osment) host the "Not-See Party" podcast in which they search social media for humiliating viral videos for the sake of public mockery and ridicule. 

As the movie starts, Bryton and Craft mock a young boy who inadvertently became an internet celebrity for accidentally severing his leg with a katana sword. 

Bryton flies to Manitoba, Canada to interview the kid in the viral "Kill Bill Kid" video as it's called.

When he reaches his destination, Bryton learns the young boy committed suicide because of the unwanted fame and global humiliation. 

Not wanting to have his trip turn into a waste, he looks for another person to talk to for the podcast.

Bryton soon finds a post on a community billboard advertising a room in their home and free "interesting stories."  

Thinking this may be the only opportunity to head back with something worthwhile for the podcast, he calls the number on the flyer, and is invited to the huge estate of Howard Howe (Michael Parks). 

When Bryton arrives, Howe- a retired seaman whose confined to a wheelchair - invites him in for some tea.      

He tells Bryton about an experience he had with a walrus he dubbed "Mr. Tusk" that rescued him from a shipwreck. 

Michael Parks and Justin Long in Tusk.

As he's sharing this interesting story, Bryton passes out thanks to his tea being laced with some kind of sedative. 

When he awakens the next morning, he finds that Howe can walk. But that's not the biggest alarm. He also finds himself strapped to a wheelchair and his left leg amputated. 

Howe quickly informs Bryton that he's going to surgically transform him into a well constructed form of Mr. Tusk.

When Howe isn't looking, Bryton manages to send a voicemail to his girlfriend, Ally (Genesis Rodriguez) before his maniacal kidnapper knocks him unconscious. 

Meanwhile, Ally and Craft fly to Manitoba to find Bryton without knowing where exactly he is. 

Howe continues to mutilate and transform Bryton while telling him how he was sexually abused by clergy for years while he was a foster child.

Howe sews together large pieces of human flesh to alter Bryton's appearance, and surgically inserts large tusks made from the tibia bones in his severed legs.

Finally, Howe's victim is a monstrosity in the shape of a walrus - fins, tail, tusks, and all.

Ally and Craft enlist the help of a French Canadian Inspector named Guy Lapointe (Johnny Depp) who, it turns out, has been searching for Howe for years.

He's certain Howe has Bryton, and is just as determined to find him as he's always been. 

Lapointe believes Bryton is still alive, but tells Ally and Craft he may not appear as they remember him. 

Back at Howe's place, he keeps Bryton in a pool under the house, and forces him to act and think like a walrus. 

He also opens up to Bryton, admitting he killed Mr. Tusk and ate him before being rescued. He now lives with the guilt of killing his flippered savior.

So, for the sake of reliving his final moments of joy with Mr. Tusk, Howe has spent 15 years kidnapping victims, surgically transforming them into walrus creatures, and trying to relive the past. 

Bryton the walrus has nothing to lose now, so he engages Howe in a fight. 

If he's to suffer in human skin sewn to look like a walrus's pelt, he might as well thrown in a serious punch (figuratively speaking).

Tusk is to be taken precisely for the twisted and horrific story it is. I can't say this is a good movie nor can I say it's bad. I can't even say I recommend it.

The grotesqueries are unsettling for sure. And Justin Long's walrus make-up is absolutely impressive and most certainly unforgettable. Well, the entire movie is unforgettable. Once you watch it, you can't take it back. You can't wash it out of your memory. It'll always be that Kevin Smith movie about the guy who's turned into a walrus. 

Tusk is Kevin Smith's own demented version of something along the lines of The Human Centipede. 

And everyone in this movie, despite the horrid nature of it all, puts in so much effort as though they're all in on one monumental joke. 

Michael Parks is impressive as a maniacal old sailor burden with years of guilt for killing his walrus buddy. Despite the ridiculousness of that premise, he plays out the character demented old character well.

Johnny Depp's character, however, grows irritating as he rambles on in distracting, sometimes pointless, dialogue and exposition with his faux French Canadian accent. Guy Lapointe seems like a poor man's version of Peter Seller's Salty Swedish Sea Dog character from Revenge of the Pink Panther. 

While the makeup makes Depp nearly unrecognizable, the rest of his character takes the realism out of the movie. That's odd to say about a movie that centers on a person being surgically mutilated into a walrus. But this movie's tone leans far into realism with the dark...very dark...humor in its premise.

Tusk is an experience for those with stomachs of iron.  

Evidently, the idea for the movie comes from a story Smith told on his weekly podcast, SModcast.

In a particular episode, Smith and his friend and producer, Scott Mosier, spoke of an advertisement found on the British-based classified ads website, gumtree.com. 

The ad was supposedly placed on the website by a homeowner looking for a roommate, and willing to provide living space rent free provided the roommate dress like a walrus. 

Smith gave his listeners a chance to decide whether he should make such a movie by logging into Twitter and tweeting "#WalrusYes" or "#WalrusNo." 

Though the ad turned out to be a prank, the movie is real. 

What Smith is trying to accomplish with his movie, I think he succeeded. I doubt he's trying to create something absolutely phenomenal in the genre of horror. Rather, Smith creates one of the darkest, strangest, unforgettable film experiences I and surely others have ever seen. Who can argue Tusk is none of those things?  

84) Mama Dracula (1980)

"I am lost without you. And you, professor, are lost without me."

Director

Boris Szulzinger

Cast

Louise Fletcher - Countess Erzbert Dracula

Marc Henri Wajnberg - Vladimir

Alexandre Wajnberg - Ladislas

Jimmy Shuman - Peter Van Bloed

Maria Schneider - Nancy

When a movie like Billy the Kid vs Dracula is more engaging and entertaining than whatever other movie you might be watching, you know what you have on is bad. 

I found the 1980 Belgian horror comedy Mama Dracula in a box set of 20 public domain vampire movies called Vampires &More!. I paid about $5 for the set.

The movie is a mix of Young Frankenstein with a touch of Rocky Horror Picture Show minus the singing transvestite. And it stars Nurse Ratched herself from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Louise Fletcher. 

This isn't the first terrible horror movie Fletcher starred in. In 1977 she played Dr. Gene Tuskin in the horror thriller everyone loves to hate - Exorcist II: The Heretic.

In Mama Dracula, a haematologist (someone who studies the physiology of blood) named Peter Van Bloed (Jimmy Shuman) receives a letter from Countess Erzbert Dracula (Fletcher) inviting him to Transylvania to work on creating a substitute for human blood. She offers him $1 million for the monumental task.

He accepts and takes a ship over to her castle to start right away.

The Countess lives with her twin sons, Vladimir (Marc-Henri Wajnberg) and Ladislas (Alexandre Wajnberg) who are quite the outlandish pair of blood sucking vampires. 

The Countess tells Van Bloed that thanks to her practice of bathing in the blood of virgins, she's able to maintain her long life.

Her sons run a high-end clothing store as a front for kidnapping virgins. They invite their victims to try on clothing, and when the unsuspecting girls go into the dressing room, one of the brothers sneaks in through a trap door and pulls them into a secret room. 

In order to supply the amount of blood the Countess is demanding, Van Bloed needs an extensive supply of virgins. So, Vladimir and Ladislas work doubly hard kidnapping as many virgins as they can. As the story takes place in modern times, some tongue-in-cheek humor arises as Countess notices the number of virgins has dwindled over the decades.

It doesn't take long before the police catch on to the sudden disappearance of all the young women. 

A policewoman named Nancy (Maria Schneider, Last Tango in Paris) investigates the surge of disappearances, only to be kidnapped herself by the Countess. 

She keeps Nancy imprisoned in her castle. But when Van Bloed meets her, he immediately falls in love with her.

Louise Fletcher as Countess Erzbert Dracula in Mama Dracula.

The story told in Mama Dracula pulls inspiration from the true story of Countess Elizabeth Bathory of Hungary, who died in 1614.

The Guinness Book of World Records lists Bathory as the most prolific female serial murderer with a victim count of approximately 650 people. However, the number of her victims isn't certain. 

Among the tales told of Bathory was her habit of bathing in the blood of virgins for the sake of retaining her youth. 

The true story is more captivating to me than this movie.

The Wajnbergs's performances are terrible and annoying. They're constantly making slapstick faces in awkwardly angled closeups - licking their fangs and tweaking their lips, hissing at random moments, and wanting to bite the neck of anything human. It's as though they think the audience randomly forgets they're vampires.

The humor is completely dry and inane. Jimmy Shuman, and the Wajnberg twins are basically the comic relief of the whole movie. 

Shuman's role is either flying off the handle in the best mad scientist impression he can conjure up, or he's an overly anxious, jittery blood expert.   

Fletcher as the Countess is as threatening as a hair on a shower wall. She uses her stereotypical Transylvania accent when she talks, has little emotion, and is on screen less than the Wajnbergs.  

She doesn't fit the role at all. Nor does Fletcher look like she's having much fun in the part. And the sex appeal is not even bothered with. Her lax performance is a stark contrast to that of the Wajnbergs.  They're flamboyantly all over the place, jumping around like elementary school kids dressed as vampires for Halloween, opening their capes like Batman, and occasionally throwing in a "blah" now and then.

Indecently, these vampires don't succumb to the conventional dangers vampires generally avoid - sunlight, garlic, crucifixes. Out of the goodness of my dumb ol' heart, I'll give the movie a point for at least trying to be its own thing in that regard. 

Though I criticize the humor, one scene managed to get a laugh out of me. 

During a montage where the Vampire brothers are kidnapping virgins out of the changing room, one of the potential victims is a young girl who acts like she's on to their scheme. 

They kidnap her and take her to the back of the store. 

She smirks, and lifts up her dress revealing a cross on the front of her underwear. The vampire smiles and shakes his head. Then she turns around, and lifts the back of her dress revealing a Star of David on the backside of her underwear. The vampire then recoils in horror.   

Despite that one gag, the movie is difficult to watch, boring to watch, irritating to watch, and confusing to watch. 

Marc-Henri and Alexandre Wajnberg, and Jimmy Shuman.

And on top of the terrible acting, strange imagery, ridiculous humor, and convoluted story, is the damn harpsichord music playing like it's on a perpetual loop. It's annoying and as cliché as can be. This music is what Mama Dracula falls back on to scare the audience. Needless to say, it doesn't work-not even accidentally. 

What was an accident was my sticking through it just to see how it would end. Thankfully, it does end. I could say that's the best part of the movie, but why kick a movie that much when it's already down. 

There is one point where, thanks to exposition, the story starts to come together. And then it just goes in random directions, all culminating to some weird fashion show that just threw me off completely. 

I don't regret watching Mama Dracula. But I do regret the 25 cents I spent on the movie.

83) C.H.U.D. (1984)

"They have the power to shut the sky."

Director

Douglas Cheek

Cast

John Heard - George Cooper

Christopher Curry - Capt. Bosch

Daniel Stern - A.J. "The Reverend" Shepherd

Kim Greist - Lauren Daniels

Before Daniel Stern and John Heard appeared in the well-loved Christmas movie Home Alone, they starred together in the sci-fi horror not-so-well-loved movie, C.H.U.D. 

As Home Alone is about the comedic escapades of a young boy defending his home from two dim-witted burglars in the most hilarious way possible, C.H.U.D. centers on the escapades of a town defending itself from cannibalistic humanoid underground dwellers (C.H.U.D.) who are devouring residents including some of the homeless population.

C.H.U.D. is a movie that, for some reason, popped into my list of recommendations on a few streaming services I use. So, I finally checked it out since the unseen lords of Amazon Prime, Hoopla, and a couple others wanted me to see this so badly.

C.H.U.D. opens with a woman walking her dog down an empty New York City street at night. 

She doesn't notice the manhole cover slowly open as two scaled claws poke out ready to catch her.

The creature beneath grabs her by the ankles as she passes by, dragging her and the dog into the dank, sultry darkness below.

The story shifts to a former fashion photographer named George Cooper (John Heard) who lives with his girlfriend, Lauren (Kim Greist).

Cooper has taken up a new project photographing New York City's homeless population. A large portion of that population reside literally underneath the city streets. They're referred to as "undergrounders."

Meanwhile, there has been an increasing number of missing persons being reported. Police Captain Bosch (Christopher Curry) takes up the investigation as his wife, Flora, is among those missing. 

Bosch questions A.J. (Daniel Stern), who calls himself "The Reverend" as he operates a soup kitchen for the homeless.

A.J. thinks the sudden surge of missing person reports is due to a huge government conspiracy. He claims to have evidence supporting this belief. 

Bosch also starts to suspect that his superiors know more about the situation than they're admitting. 

Looking into that situation further, he soon realizes they're taking commands from Wilson (George Martin) who works for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. (NRC)

These slimy cannibalistic humanoid creatures are surviving on the flesh of the undergrounders. The number of undergrounders, though, is diminishing. The cannibalistic humanoid underground dwellers are now rising from the sewers to look for victims above. 

The best scene in the movie takes place when two cops, played by John Goodman and Jay Thomas, show up to a diner. Who also shows up soon after? The monsters! They attack the restaurant, killing both cops and a waitress. This attack is what draws the public's attention to the existence of these monsters.

George and A.J. end up working together, and find out that the NRC is directly involved. The Commission has been discreetly hiding toxic waste under the streets of New York City.

The undergrounders have been exposed to this waste causing them to mutate into the flesh-eating creatures.

Now, officials are left with the problem of how to stop these things as they rise from underneath. 

C.H.U.D. such a typical late night creature feature movie. I wouldn't watch it any other time of day. It's a movie that needs all the help it can get. 

At first, I wondered if this film is trying to convey some sort of environmental message, or making a statement regarding the lack of concern over the homelessness issue and the way it was dealt with back in the 1980s, or if it's making some general depiction about the condition of American cities underneath corrupt leaders, corporations, and political bureaucracies. Whatever the case is, it's all a far-fetched depiction. 

But it does deserve some credit for the effort behind the make-up of the underground cannibals with their overstretched glistening skin, yellow bulbous eyes, and dripping jagged fangs protruding from behind infectious bloody gums which looks like their lips fell off or dissolved. 

Daniel Stern's performance is fun to watch. His character is not just another stagnant horror movie trope. I found myself wanting to see him pop into frame, especially when the movie began to bore me. 

The rest of the cast, including the monsters, come across as typical and underwhelming. There's little enthusiasm.
The movie did little to nothing for me. All I found entertaining was seeing Daniel Stern and John Heard on screen together because... Home Alone. 

C.H.U.D. tries to create a twist by Bosch admitting to A.J. that it was his wife who was pulled into the sewer while walking the dog. 

I admit I didn't see that coming. Still, my reaction to it didn't excel past a mere "hmmm." 

I initially wasn't going write a review for this film because I had trouble staying focused. Perhaps in the future, I'll give it a second chance lest my thoughts change in some way.

Despite the movie's attempt at instilling fear and terror, I found it boring and flat overall. C.H.U.D. is one big feeble attempt to make either a satirical or subversive commentary about the state of affairs back then, resulting in a stupid, slightly pretentious little movie that now only has nostalgia going for it. 

Evidently, there's a sequel to this flick. Despite my better judgement, the search is on to find it. I'm not anticipating a grand time, though.

82) Fatman (2020)

"All I have is a loathing for a world that's forgotten."

Director

Eshom Nelms

Ian Nelms

Cast

Mel Gibson - Chris Cringle

Marianne Jean-Baptiste - Ruth Cringle

Chance Hurstfield - Billy Wenan

Walton Goggins - Skinny Man

Eric Wolfe - Elf 7

I've said before that a movie's first objective is entertainment. A movie might have the purest of morals and top-of-the-line actors, but if it's not entertaining, it has already begun to fail. I believe this is true of all movies I've seen, from The Passion of the Christ to Pee Wee's Big Adventure.

I love those rare occasions where a trailer leaves my mouth agape, and I ask to whomever is listening, "what the hell was that?" 

The 2020 dark fantasy comedy Fatman starring America's favorite troubled celebrity, Mel Gibson, was released during the holidays last year.

I wanted to go see it, but I wasn't able to for quarantine reasons. 

In the trailer for Fatman, I saw Gibson as some realistic rendition of Santa Claus wielding a gun while in a loathing frame of mind. 

I had to wait for the movie to come out on DVD to watch. I wasn't able to get my hands on until now, just after Easter.

After watching it, I was left with the question "what the hell was that?" However, it wasn't quite the same inquiry as it was after I saw the trailer.

Fatman is a more realistic rendition of a world where Santa exists. 

In this movie, Chris Cringle (Gibson) lives in North Peak, Alaska, with his wife, Ruth (Marianne Jean-Baptiste). I supposed that's close enough to the North Pole? Also, he's not really fat. But now I'm nitpicking. 

His toy workshop operates like a typical manufacturing company. And he keeps his sleigh in the barn under some tarps like it's an old Mustang he works on when he has time. 

Cringle's annual toy income is declining thanks to more and more children falling away from any moral compass. He's hasn't turned evil, nor is he out for revenge. Cringle is crestfallen and tired under the weight of watching corruption of the modern entitled world swallow youth one child at a time.

Though not everyone knows Cringle really exists despite the label on the toys he delivers declaring "built in Santa's workshop." The U.S. Government is certainly aware of Cringle's existence, and is interested in using his facilities for a short while. 

The government sends Capt. Jacobs , Cringle's liaison to the Government, to offer Cringle a two-month contract allowing the use of his facility and workforce (i.e. the elves) to produce parts and components for new U.S. Military jet fighters.

With funds running on the short side, Cringle reluctantly agrees to help compensate those financial shortcomings. 

Meanwhile, a boy named Billy Wenan (Chance Hurstfield), who lives with his wealthy grandmother and is neglected by his father, doesn't accept losing in his life. He's a child who'll stoop to criminal acts in order to get what he believes is rightfully his.

He goes so far as to kidnap a classmate who beat him at a science fair, threaten her with starter cables, and force her to falsely admit she cheated in the fair so he can win another 1st Place ribbon.

After receiving a lump of coal for Christmas - the only negative consequence to his maliciousness - Billy hires hitman Jonathan Miller (Walton Goggins), using his grandmother's money, to kill Santa. 

Miller agrees, and soon figures out where Cringle lives.

While Cringle deals with his belief that he's been a failure in influencing good in people (especially children) as his workshop and farm are temporarily taken over by the Military, Miller makes the long road trip up through Canada and into Alaska to locate and kill Cringle. 

Miller, by the way, has his own vendetta against Santa Claus. 

Mel Gibson as Chris Cringle in Fatman.

It sounds silly as I type out the basic summery of the plot. But it doesn't feel nearly as silly while watching it. The movie tries overall succeeds at setting an overall serious tone. At least, the majority does.

Nothing necessarily stands out about Santa except for his familiarity with the strangers he meets. They don't know Chris, but he certainly knows them, and whether they've been naughty or nice. This would be an interesting world to explore further.  

I certainly have to applaud the film's originality. Not since the 1964 science fiction comedy movie Santa Claus Conquers the Martians has a Christmas movie centering on the jolly old fat man taken a road away from the same old Santa formula. 

Several movies have been made in the past depicting Santa becoming homicidal maniac - Christmas Evil (1980), Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010), and Sint (2010) to name a few. 

Fatman is different. The subtleties help tell the story. 

Though Chris Cringle doesn't fancy himself in the traditional image as St. Nicholas as he struggles in a world leaning more and more towards self-indulgence and entitlement, he still maintains a few of those traditional Christmas customs. 

Cringle has a steady snack diet of Christmas cookies his wife makes. He still tries to maintain some kind of joy within though struggles with a disdain for the world and the direction it's going. He blames himself and wants to quit, and his wife Ruth helps keep his spirits bright.

Goggins portrayal of the hitman Jonathan Miller (credited as "the Skinny Man") is perfect. It's a smidge over the top, but in a movie like this, it needs to be. You want to see him receive the worst consequences. He's a broken man bandaged up with the belief he's outside of consequences. He was failed as a child, so he believes he deserves to get something out of life anyway he can to compensate. Goggins is so well cast for this role as he makes his character someone audiences love hating, and not just because he's out to kill Chris Cringle.  

Chance Hurstfield's performance is fantastic as he makes a convincing child who is willing to kill anyone who crosses him. 

He has an amazing amount of talent he puts into his role.

Hurstfield turns off the innocence like a switch, changing with a skip of his foot into an unsympathetic little shit willing to go the route of criminality to get what he wants. Like Miller, his mind puts him in a place that's out of reach from consequences.  

A selfish sense of entitlement left unchecked can easily lead to violence that'll soon look to kill even the best among us. 

Fatman is rather bold to a degree with all its elements put together. I enjoyed watching it all playout, with Gibson playing a version of Santa that is more grounded in reality, though he still has his elves making toys, and reindeer to pull his sleigh. 

Chance Hurstfield as Billy.

The movie is categorized as a dark comedy. It is dark. And it's more comedic in the sense that it's certainly not routine nor following age old Christmas formulas, rather than being "ha ha" funny. It's not technically a horror, so I'm stretching it a bit since it's dark - there's blood and people get blown away. The story tries to be realistic, edgy, and subtlety fantastical. It builds up suspense, tension, and trepidation which all ends with mere pop rather than a bang. Nevertheless, I walked away entertained.

81) Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter (1966)

"While you finish preparing, I shall activate the artificial brain."

Director

William Beaudine

Cast

John Lupton - Jesse James

Narda Onyx - Dr. Maria Frankenstein

Cal Balder - Hank/ Igor

Estelita Rodriguez - Juanita Lopez

Jim Davis - Marshal MacPhee

Steven Geray - Rudolph Frankenstein

Rayford Barnes - Lonny Curry 

With the recent release of Godzilla vs Kong last month, a rematch fans waited nearly 60 years to see, I was curious as to what other horrific crossovers have wowed audiences in the past. Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman (1943), Dracula vs Frankenstein (1971), Freddy vs. Jason (2003), and Alien vs. Predator (2004) are just a few titles.

Regardless of whether a crossover movie has a bad story or not, audiences always seem to remember the fight over the plot. Even before Godzilla vs. Kong, people talked about Toho's third Godzilla movie, King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962). Even if they had never seen it, they knew of its existence. 

It was the ultimate showdown between the East and the West before Godzilla vs. Kong. 

After my review of one rather forgotten crossover movie, Billy the Kid vs. Dracula, I came across another title - Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter. It was released the same year, and has the same director, William Beaudine. With a title like this, surely this must be the crossover of all crossovers! Right?

Beaudine, by the way, directed the Walt Disney western classic Westward Ho, the Wagons! (1956) as well as another horror crossover I just have to find and watch - Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla (1952). 

I never thought I would stumble upon a copy of Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter (not that I was actually looking for a copy), but I did.

I found it packaged in a collection of other more or less obscure horror thrillers called "50 Chilling Classics." They're a package of public domain films, including Dr. Tarr's Torture Dungeon, Drive-in Massacre, I Bury the Living, Man in the Attic, Lady Frankenstein, Messiah of Evil, Silent Night Bloody Night, and Werewolf in a Girl's Dormitory. These are likely movies most people never heard, including myself. Still, it was the best $10 I ever spent. I'm anxious to watch each one.

Despite the title, Jesse James really meets Frankenstein's Granddaughter. 

In this movie, Dr. Maria Frankenstein (Narda Onyx) is living out west in an abandoned mission she uses as a laboratory.

She continues the experimentation her late grandfather performed, this time on children and cadavers. After kidnapping them, she replaces their brains with artificial ones in order to use them as her slaves. Her brother, Dr. Rudolph Frankenstein (Steven Geray), works as her assistant. 

Little does Maria know that the reason her experiments fail is because Rudolph secretly injects the subjects with poison moments after she revives them. He has a bad conscious participating in her experiments because they're initially playing God on stolen children. He'd rather see them dead than as zombified slaves to his sister.

One of those kidnapped children is the son of Mañuel and Nina Lopez. The couple, along with their daughter Juanita (Estelita Rodriguez), are out searching for their missing son. 

Meanwhile, the outlaw Jesse James (John Lupton) and his muscular henchman, Hank Tracy (Cal Bolder), enter town to join with a local gang called the Wild Bunch, led by Butch Curry (Roger Creed).

They intend to rob an incoming stagecoach carrying $100,000. 

Before the stagecoach arrives in town, Butch's brother and fellow gang member, Lonny (Rayford Barnes), goes to Marshal MacPhee (Jim Davis) about the planned holdup as he wants to go straight from now on, and collect the bounty for James's capture. 

James Lupton and Narda Onyx in Jesse James
Meets Frankenstein's Daughter

When the stagecoach finally arrives, the gang attempt to rob it but the Marshal and his deputies engage them in a shootout, wounding Hank in the shoulder. 

James and Hank escape the gunfire, and stumble upon the Lopez's campsite. 

With Hank wounded and bleeding, James asks the family if they can join them, which they permit. 

Juanita tends to Hank's wound, and offers to take him to a hospital in town. 

Knowing that neither of them can go back into town, James declines the offer.

Juanita then offers to take them to the mission where Dr. Frankenstein resides. 

Her parents, however, forbid she goes there knowing that there's something evil taking place within the mission walls. 

During the middle of the night, Juanita wakes the two men up and secretly takes them to see Dr. Frankenstein. 

Frankenstein agrees to help Hank, though she's really interested in using him as part of her experimentation. Being well built, muscular and healthy, Hank is ideal for her evil scheme. 

When the Marshal starts sniffing around the mission for James and Hank, Frankenstein covers for them. 

She also attempts to seduce James, but he resists. 

Frustrated her advances didn't work, she sets James up by sending him to the town pharmacist with a note he believes is a prescription for Hank. Not bothering to read it, the note actually gives away his identity. 

James does what Frankenstein asks, and gives the note to the pharmacist. 

The pharmacist tries to not show any alarm, and says he has to go into the back room to find what he needs. He actually sneaks over to the Marshal's office to tell him Jesse James is at his pharmacy. The Marshal isn't in, but Lonny is. 

He tells the pharmacist to stall James while he goes over there to shoot him.

Frankenstein starts operating on Hank, and gives him an artificial brain. 

While she successfully revives him with a new brain, and turns him into a slave with the name Igor, Frankenstein discovers Rudolph attempting to sabotage her work on Hank. She catches on that this is why her experiments failed before. 

James returns from the pharmacy, royally pissed that Frankenstein set him up. 

She orders Igor to knock him out, which he does.

They strap Jesse to an operating table and Maria prepares to do an experiment on him as well. 

The majority of this movie is a western with a splash of science fiction horror. It's not until the third act that the horror comes out. 

Though it's easy to poke fun at this movie, especially as the title is the most intriguing part, the story is actually not as terrible as it might sound. It's certainly not cinematic gold. It's not even as memorable as other horror crossovers. It just barely works.

There's an old adage that no one sets out to make a bad movie. 

The acting and writing has some effort behind it, and it shows.

Somehow the story in Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter barely passes by as a decent enough film.

It's as campy as any other western of the era is - gun fights, western sets, and in this case, a mad scientist with a laboratory.

Narda Onyx as Dr. Maria Frankenstein

The two scenarios just do not mix well. 

The film takes place in the 1880s, yet Frankenstein has electronic equipment set up that I'm sure didn't exist during this period. And though she relies on lightening, it's unclear how she's able to electronically feed her equipment. If she has a generator, how is that powered? 

Anyways, the two styles are like oil and water on screen in this movie. 

Looking past that, it's the pairing of the outlaw Jesse James against Dr. Frankenstein's granddaughter that manages to be intriguing. 

It's nothing more than an imaginative hour and a half popcorn classic.

The actors, especially Narda Onyx, seem to be having fun in the production. Otherwise, if it wasn't for the protagonist and antagonist, the movie would be just another 1960s schlock film. (Actually, it already is, to be honest. Without Frankenstein's name in the title, it would be even more so.) 

I wanted to see how the writers of this movie pull it off. It really is a stretch. I don't see how it couldn't be so. 

As I said, the story might be bad, but the fight is remembered by the audience for a long time. In this case, anyone who has seen this movie will surely remember when the historic Jesse James met the granddaughter of Dr. Henry Frankenstein . 

Incidentally, villainous female mad scientists, especially during this era, are few and far between. Just off the top of my head, the only other villainous female mad scientist I can think of is Dr. Pamela Isley, also known as "Poison Ivy." She's one of Batman's foes in the comic books. Her first appearance, by the way, was in Batman issue #181 published in 1966 - the same year as this movie's release. Coincidence? Yeah, probably. I'm sure a Google search can come up with more names. But as far as I know, Dr. Maria Frankenstein is among the earliest female mad scientists. How's that for progressivism?

I have to add that John Lupton resembles Jesse James a bit, too. Good work, casting director. 

It's movies like this that deserve a remake.

80) Magic (1978)

"Magic is getting people to look in the wrong place at the right time."

Director

Richard Attenborough

Cast

Anthony Hopkins - Corky/ voice of Fats

Ann-Margret - Peggy Ann Snow

Burgess Meredith - Ben Greene

Ed Lauter - Duke

E.J. Andre - Merlin 

 
I'm nearing my first 100 horror movie's on this blog. And I wanted to put the 1978 psychological horror film Magic among the first hundred movies. 

It's a film I've had in my movie que for sometime. I've heard little about this movie, but I've seen it included in lists of films about evil dolls such as Dead of Night (1945), Devil Doll (1964), Puppet Master (1989), Dead Silence (2007), Dolls (1987), and Child's Play (1988).  The presence of Anthony Hopkins working alongside a ventriloquist puppet sold me right away. 

With none other than Richard Attenborough in the director's chair, Burgess Meredith (one of my all time favorite actors) also in the movie, and composer Jerry Goldsmith (Gremlins, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Alien, First Blood) creating the music, I knew this needed... yes, needed... to be seen by my eyes. 

Since I've watched it, I keep thinking about it. Something about this makes me want to treat it with a little more reverence. There are no jump scares, or frightening monsters lurking in the shadows. Yet there's a general odd and uneasy atmosphere wafting through the scenes like a thin but visible fog. 

Based on a novel by William Goldman, the author of The Princess Bride, Magic is a movie that seems to receive less attention than it deserves. 

Goldman, by the way, is no stranger to horror as he worked on screenplays for a few Stephen King movies - Misery, Hearts in Atlantis, and Dreamcatcher. He was also consulted on the King movie Dolores Claiborne.

As fantastic and revered an actor as Anthony Hopkins is, being among one of my favorite actors, I initially thought watching him work along side a ventriloquist dummy was going to really seem beneath him. 

How wrong I was. 

Hopkins plays professional magician Corky Withers whom we see performing card tricks and so forth for a rather meager and uninterested crowd at a night club. He doesn't take their lack of attention well, and yells at them. 

Merlin (E.J. Andre), his mentor, suggests he start using a gimmick to bolster his audience's interest - something much more entertaining than just card tricks. His audiences have seen card tricks before. 

So, after a year, Corky develops and perfects an act were he mixes magic with ventriloquism. 

His new partner is a cynical, often vulgar, ventriloquist puppet he calls "Fats." 

Fats proves to be a successful addition. And Corky's agent, Ben Greene (Burgess Meredith) wants to get the team on television. 

This becomes overwhelming for Corky, and he escapes to a secluded location in the Catskills where he grew up. He claims fear of success is the driving reason he's running away from it all.

However, the truth is Corky is worried about the network's requirement that he take a medical exam which would very likely reveal he suffers from mental issues. 

When he arrives at the cabin in the Catskills, Corky runs in to Peggy Ann Snow (Ann-Margaret) whom he knows from high school. 

Corky had a major crush on Peggy back then. Little does he know that she, too, had strong feelings for him as well back in the day.

As the two become reacquainted, Peggy tells him she's in a stagnant marriage with one of Corky's old high school buddies, Duke (Ed Lauter).

They soon reveal how they felt about each other back in high school. Corky then impresses her with Fats and a card trick. 

Anthony Hopkins as Corky in Magic (1978)

She's then convinced their soulmates, and they soon... get it on.

Soon, Fats starts becoming jealous as Corky has conversations with his puppet when they're alone.

During an argument Corky is having with Fats, Greene unexpectedly arrives to his cabin.

He addresses his concern that Corky is suffering from some kind of mental instability. Corky tries to laugh it off using Fats as a means to lighten the mood. Greene challenges him to "make Fats shut-up for five minutes." 

Corky blows off the challenge as no big deal, and sets the puppet aside. 

But within a minute, he is clearly growing agitated as the five minutes ticks on.

He finally breaks before the time is up, spewing line after line in Fats voice. 

Greene insists Corky receive help, and then leaves to contact a doctor.

Right after Greene leaves, Fats tells Corky to stop him, and Corky runs after him.

He beats Greene over the head with his puppet, knocking him unconscious. 

Thinking he's dead, Corky takes him to the middle of a lake to make it appear as though Greene drowned.

But Greene regains consciousness and attacks Corky. 

He drowns Greene, leaving his body in the water. 

After this murder, Fats becomes more demanding and possessive of Corky. The audience sees what this is doing to Corky as he grows more and more tense and unstable while making plans to run off with Peggy.

The movie starts off a bit slow, but does gradually pick up to a moderate pace with enough tension and intrigue to keep the audience absorbed.

It's not an in-your-face type to horror film. It utilizes uncertainty and emotion to draw in the audience and makes them ask themselves what's real.

Trying to determine if Fats is an outlet for Corky's split personality, psychosis, or compulsiveness, or if he's actually possessed by a spirit or demon, or if he's sentient is difficult to tell. There are indications that all might be the case. 

When Corky is controlling Fats, the puppet's movements - especially his rapid eye movements - seem to show he may be alive. Otherwise, Corky may just be great at animating Fats. 

The mere fact he only moves under Corky's control indicates he's an outlet for Corky's mental instability. 

He only opens his mouth to talk when Corky is controlling him. Other times he still talks when Corky is elsewhere in the room, without opening his mouth.

Corky is afraid, after all, of the TV studio requiring he undertake a medical examination and discovering mental issues. 

In a later scene, Fats ends up stabbing Duke when he goes to look for Corky in his cabin, but Corky doesn't seem to be inside. But this death also seems like it happened through complete chance. 

There is one scene were the camera angle moves to align Fats' head with Corky's during a performance - a subtle angle that gives the impression it's really Fats possessing or controlling Corky. 

Whichever the case, Magic is very much a  psychological thriller.  It doesn't leave the audience with any clear answer, and that works in the movie's favor. 

Anthony Hopkins is great in this role. He shifts from self-constrained to terrified. 

He puts in a believable sense of urgency and fear in his role. 

And Burgess Meredith is a master actor. In the scene where his character tells Corky to make Fats quiet for five minutes, he doesn't take his eyes off Corky and keeps a slight smirk on his face. 

There's a lot going on just in his expression. He knows what the outcome is going to be. Greene knows that Corky is really suffering a severe mental state. And yet, he still wants to be fair to him. He also wants Corky to admit what's already known. Meredith is a master when it comes to such small details.

I'm rather bias, I admit, when it comes to Meredith as he is one of my most favorite actors of all time.

Just listening to him in interviews on how he would prepare for roles, and act out specific scenes is fascinating in themselves. He is a true legend!

Gene Wilder was the original choice for the role of Corky. Both Attenborough and Goldman wanted him to play the part. It was producer Joseph E. Levine who didn't want a comedian in the movie believing it would distract from the story.

Wilder was asked years later at a book signing if there was a role he wished he had but didn't. His answer was "Corky." 

If there's an alternate universe out there where Wilder plays Corky in Magic, I would love to see it. Though Hopkins is fantastic in the role, seeing Wilder play Corky would be amazing. I can see his portrayal being lighthearted, yet severely tragic. What could have been!

What is, though, is a great psychological thriller that deserves more attention.