I never went to summer camp, and the reason is simple. I don’t like the outdoors, outdoor sports, bugs, snakes, swimming in lakes, archery, making leather wallets, or getting gruesomely killed by a vengeful psycho. OK, perhaps the latter didn’t come into the equation when I was a lad, but it sure as hell would now. After all, you have to look out for Jason, his mom, Angela, and even Cropsy. That’s right, Cropsy. Not familiar with that one? I wasn’t either until I got a chance to pick up a copy of the 1981 slasher The Burning. While it was the film that launched Miramax, Cropsy didn’t take off like the other slasher characters that made their debut in the early ‘80’s. Bob Weinstein scripted this film before the release of the iconic summer camp film, Friday the 13th, but it was released after and suffered from comparisons. Who is to say that if it didn’t hit the market first that kids wouldn’t be running around in Cropsy masks and wielding plastic garden shears.

I doubt I have to spell out what happens next. It’s almost the end of camp, and the kids go on a rafting trip that ends up with bodies piling up. What makes the kids fascinating is who they are. There’s Brian Backer, who is perhaps best known as Rat from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, as the nerdy creep called Alfred, Larry Joshua (Sea of Love, Dances with Wolves, Romeo is Bleeding) plays the thick necked bully Glazer, and a barely recognizable Holly Hunter shows up in a blink and you miss her role. However, the most intriguing person in the cast has to be Jason Alexander. Yep, that Jason Alexander a.k.a. George from Seinfeld. His character Dave is a clownish guy full of bravado and, more importantly, a full head of hair. Regardless of the fact that the “teenage” Alexander was 22 at the time, he turns out such a memorable part that I kind of wish the movie had been more about him.

While the story is pretty much exactly what you would expect from a summer camp slasher, The Burning is spiced up by the effects work of Tom Savini. Tom actually passed on working on Friday the 13th Part 2 to take part in this film, and he has said many times that he considers this film some of his best work. I can see why, and I guess the Brits could too because this one ended up on the Video Nasties list. The film is chock full of some really gruesome killings that never really cross the line into gore for gore’s sake. Instead, we are treated to some very realistic murders. I was especially impressed by the seamlessness of the stabbings included in the film, and while I never would have considered garden shears a very threatening instrument of death, I can assure you that I wouldn’t want to see a pair coming my way.

While Savini’s effects enhance the film, there’s a couple of things that take away from it quite a bit. The first is the soundtrack that is chock full of noodling keyboard riffs that got on my last nerve. After being irritated by the soundtrack during the film, I was not all that surprised to find out that it was written by Rick Wakeman, the keyboardist for Yes. Now I can get down with some prog rock, don’t get me wrong, but Yes gets a big ‘No’ from me and the soundtrack to The Burning is no exception. Secondly, the POV shots of the killer stalking his prey. While it worked quite well in Black Christmas, it just bugged me here.

This wasn’t an unseen mystery killer. The audience knows who Cropsy is, and the shots with the edges of the lens smeared with Vaseline just don’t have the effect that I think was intended. Instead they detract from the look of the rest of the film which cinematographer Harvey Harrison (who would go on to lens Cheech & Chong’s Corsican Brothers and Still Smokin’) competently shot.

In the end, The Burning was not the neglected slasher gem that I hoped it would be. Instead it was a by the numbers affair. Sure it came out early in the genre’s history and perhaps made the numbers, but the same kind of film has been made dozens of times and often much better. If you’ve seen all the slasher films and this one has escaped you somehow, then check it out. Otherwise, if you want terror at summer camp then a visit to Crystal Lake or a stopover at Sleepaway Camp will probably be a better way to spend a summer day.
Bah, no trailer, so instead check out Savini's work in the raft massacre scene.

When Horror fans, or even the non-Horror loving public, hear the name Boris Karloff, the image that comes to mind is the lumbering square-headed brute known as the Frankenstein Monster. Of course, Karloff was much more than that. He was the Mummy, Mr. Wong, the narrator of The Grinch that Stole Christmas and an actor with 199 credits to his name that touch on almost all genre of film. He was also the star of Peter Bogdanovich’s first film with Targets (1968).

Bogdanovich had filmed about half of Roger Corman’s The Wild Angels, and Corman offered him a job with some stipulations. He had to use footage from Corman’s 1963 film The Terror (which itself was a product of Corman, Jack Hill, and Francis Ford Coppola’s direction.) and had to use up 2 days that Karloff was contracted to work for Corman. In the end, Bogdanovich crafted such a film that Karloff worked for five days and refused to be paid for any extra time. This was a Karloff who was in failing health. He had one lung, had difficulty standing or walking, and had to wear braces on both legs. Yet he gives one of the most vigorous and inspired performances of his career.

Karloff stars as Byron Orloff, a character who was much like himself, a remnant of the classic era of horror movies who has come to the end of a long career. He is tired of making cut rate films, playing the same tired characters he’s played before, and he’s ready to go home to England to live out his life in retirement. Peter Bogdanovich stars as Sammy Michaels, a young director who is trying to get Orloff for one last film, one he feels will change how the public feels about the horror actor, but Orloff is adamant he is going to retire and even refuses to do a public appearance at the Reseda Drive In. In the end, he still intends to retire, but he acquiesces to making the last appearance.

Meanwhile, Bobby Thompson (Tim O’Kelly) is your average all American boy. He’s young and married to a pretty girl, but they still live at home with his parents. He also feels like something strange is happening in his mind, and Bobby, a crack shot, keeps buying more and more guns. Eventually, he kills his mother and wife before climbing a water tower and sniping motorists. In an effort to escape the police, he drives into the showing of The Terror at the Reseda. There the paths of the screen monster and the real life killer will cross, and their fates become intertwined.

The script, by Bogdanovich, his wife Polly Platt, and Samuel Fuller, could nearly have been labeled as “Based on True Events”. Not only are Karloff and Bogdanivich’s characters very close to their actual selves, the character of Bobby Thompson was based off the events of 1966 when Charles Whitman went on a rampage and killed 14 people from atop a tower in Austin Texas. While the details are not exact, the inspiration is clear, and while the events are based on something in the past, the idea, the disassociated lonely killer who takes lives indescrimately, is something that rings very true and very real still today. Targets is a film which is certainly a product of it’s time with the drive in and southern California setting, but it doesn’t feel dated at all. Both storylines are just as strong as they were when the film was released.

O’Kelly and Karloff both ground the film in their own ways. O’Kelly’s innocent gone mental is an engaging character which is only enhanced by the wonderful shots that Bogdanovich and Laslo Kovacs involved him in. Since little about his character is spelled out, the gliding tracking shots that follow his actions make for seamless viewing. The camera in some ways becomes one with the killer in these sequences.

Then there’s Karloff turning in a sensitive portrayal that had to be informed by his own life experience. If it were made today comparisons to Mickey Rourke’s The Wrestler would be unavoidable. For any fans of classic horror, it is a deeply moving performance that will make you recall all the great roles the horror master took on. He is also very funny, and my favorite moment in the film comes when he wakes up with a hangover and is shocked by the look of his own face. Many film goers over the years have has a similar reaction to seeing Karloff’s gruesome visage, and it makes for a very amusing and poignant moment which was a product of improvisation on Karloff’s part.

While Karloff made a couple more low budget features (Blind Man’s Bluff, Isle of the Snake People, and Alien Invasion), it would be better if Targets could be remembered as his last film. On the other hand, the career of Peter Bogdanovich was just beginning. In 1971, he would make The Last Picture Show and follow that up with films such as Paper Moon, Mask, and The Cat’s Meow. Sadly, even though he had shown a deft hand at creating an original horror themed film, he never returned to the genre. Targets was a moment in time. It caught the change in the era of film, and was perhaps the classiest production ever to come from the house of Corman. It took me many years to getting around to seeing it, and I think that it an overlooked classic. So if you haven’t seen this one, I implore you to check it out, and then let me know if my review was right on Target itself.

I apologize for all the foul language in the opening there, but I couldn’t start out this review without the speech that set off the event for this while month. While my love of John Woo’s films predates Tarantino writing Ordell’s monolog, that speech certainly solidified my love for one particular film. So far this month we’ve looked at Woo’s best Hollywood effort, his comedic misstep, and his most overblown action epic, and while Hard Boiled will remain my favorite, The Killer (1989) is a close second. It is a film full of style, tons of gunplay, and most importantly heart.

Ah Jong (Chow Yun-Fat) is a hired killer. While on a job, he accidentally blinds a young singer named Jennie (Sally Yeh). He becomes distraught about his mistake and takes on one last job to pay for the expensive surgery that could repair her vision. The cop assigned to track down the hitman is Li Ying (Danny Lee) who himself has just killed an innocent woman while carrying out his duties. While Ying closes in on him, Ah Jong performs his last job as a hired gun, but he is double crossed by the Triad boss that has hired him, and soon Jong is being hunted by two men.

While Hard Boiled is an explosive over the top exercise in pyrotechnics, camera play, and excess, The Killer is a film styled much more in the mold of classic film noir. It still has the ability to explode into violent scenes and rack up a body count of 160, but it remains a character driven story. It was a film that almost didn’t get made. The legendary company Golden Harvest wasn’t interested in the film, but it’s top star, Yun-Fat, insisted that it was the film he wanted to make. Even after it was made, producer Tsui Hark wanted the film completely re-cut to change the focus of the film from Chow’s killer to Danny Lee’s cop. Thankfully, because of the tight release schedule, The Killer was released with it’s storyline intact.

I’m very thankful the movie’s focus wasn’t shifted. The Killer shows off some of the best acting in Chow’s career. Ah Jong is a complex character whose emotional arc is at the root of the film’s impact. While his scenes opposite Danny Lee are great, the true gems in the film involve Chow and Chu Kong as Fung Sei, the middleman who sets up the jobs for Jong. Originally, Chow had wanted Chu to play the role of the cop, but Chu felt he was too old for the role. The two men have wonderful chemistry, and the scene where Jong confronts Fung over his betrayal is a near perfect example of the quiet cool that the men in John Woo’s films exude.

As great as the two of them are, I don’t want to take anything away from Danny Lee. He makes a great heroic (or villainous?) foil for Chow’s Killer. I do wish more had been explored in his character, but the movie isn’t called The Cop. His greatest scene comes when his partner is killed, and while Chow and Chu’s characters are rekindling their friendship, it is intercut with scenes of Lee’s Li Yang losing his best friend. It is poignant moment, and a wonderful way to set up the explosive ending of the film.

The cinematic feast that Woo brought to The Killer is not as frenetic and stylized as some of his other films, but it fits in with the more reserved style and substance of the film. On this film he worked with two cinematographers Peter Pau ( who lensed Dracula 2000 and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and Wing-Hung Wong (who was behind the camera of Woo’s Hard Boiled. A Better Tomorrow, and Bullet in the Head). While his trademark slow motion is still on display, like all Woo’s other flourishes, it is more reserved in The Killer. Instead the film is full of many well framed and beautifully constructed shots. I am especially reminded of the boat chase in the film which is both exciting and stunningly realized. It seemed as it if may have been inspired by the similar scene in the James Bond film Live and Let Die, but easily trumps it as an action sequence by combining skillful film making with thrilling action.

The only thing that keeps this film from being a perfect example of Woo’s work is how reserved the film is. The Killer, I’m sure, would have a broader appeal than Hard Boiled, but for pure fun I have to choose the latter. For a movie that really defines the scope of Woo’s work, I would have to go with The Killer. Any film whose opening scene, where Chow Yun-Fat wields paired .45’s and dispatches a plethora of foes, could inspire Tarantino to pen a speech like the one from Jackie Brown has to be quite a film. After all, Eveyone Wants a Gun Like The Killer, and everyone needs to see a film like it too. Just like it.

I hope you all enjoyed this month of John Woo films, but next month it’s back to the scary stuff. I know that you all love horror films out there, and this July, I’m gonna give you just what you’re Craven.

The cover art and tag line to this movie will get any fan of exploitation to watch it. How can anyone who loves the films of the 70’s not respond to the tagline “AMEN’ BROTHER!” above a man holding a bible in one hand and a gun in the other. It was as if I was Pavlov dog when I saw the poster on the T.L’s screen. I think the exact words I used were “It is your job to get that movie for me.”

I love old movies, and there’s one thing I always like hearing, old telephone numbers. I love hearing things like Lakewood-7409 or the like. Tonight’s film teaches us about one exchange you don’t want to dial. I know there are probably others. Who wants to Dial U for Urology, Dial B for Bestiality or Dial T for Ticks? Probably no one, and if I’m wrong I don’t want to know. Dialing M for Murder though, that’s a tricky proposition, and Ray Milland is about to find that out. 

Hitchcock made Dial M for Murder in 1954, and like his previous film, I Confess, it was also based on a play. Written by Fredrick Knott, who also penned the classic Wait Until Dark, Dial M for Murder premiered as a British teleplay in 1952 before being taken to the stage on London’s West End and Broadway. When Warner Brother’s purchased the rights to the film, Hitch was developing an original screenplay called The Bramble Bush that he didn’t think was going to pan out. In an interview Hitchcock stated that he was “coasting, playing it safe.” While the material was safe, the filmmaking was daring, but he did not stray far from his source material. Almost all the action takes place in one room because as Hitch says, “the basic quality of any play is precisely its confinement within with proscenium.”

Dial M tells the story of retired tennis pro Tony Wendice (Ray Milland) and his wife the philanderious Margot (Grace Kelly). A year ago, Margot had a torrid affair with American mystery writer Mark Halliday (Robert Cummings), and now that he has returned to England, her husband has set a devilish plan in motion. Tony blackmails a slimy conman, and old schoolmate, Alexander Swann (Anthony Dawson) into agreeing to kill Margot. Tony has set up a plan he believes to be foolproof, but as with any plan, it comes undone. Margot kills her attacker in self-defense, so Tony doctors the scene and plants just enough evidence to finger his wife as a cold-blooded murderess. Chief Inspector Hubbard (John Williams) gets on the case, and begins to dig for the keys to unlock the mystery. 

Dial M is set up as a howcatchem mystery, and the criminal is known from the start. The fun is seeing the detective break down the case. Think Law & Order: Criminal Intent (preferably with Chris Noth or Jeff Goldblum rather than Vinnie D’Onofrio’s head tilting). However, while 

the investigation wraps the film up, it is the wonderful sense of suspense that builds in the opening of the film. As I mentioned last week, Hitchcock like to build suspense by keeping the audience informed and then letting us anticipate what was going to happen. Dial M is perfectly structured for this. The amazing scene between Dawson and Milland where Tony lays out the crime for his hired killer perfectly sets up every motion we re expecting to see. So, when the crime is committed the audience is left recalling the steps the killer must take as well. It all seems logical and foolproof, and so when Grace Kelly grabs the scissors and dispatches her attacker, it starts the second wave of suspense, what is Tony going to do now. 

As usual with Hitch’s films, the suspense doesn’t stop at the dialog or action, but transfers all the way to the visuals. Hitchcock started working with Director of Photography Robert Burks in 1951 with Strangers on a Train. The two would work on twelve total films together ending with 1964’s Marnie. Burks had been working in films since 1937 when he got his start in the special effects department of the Bogart film Marked Woman. Dial M for Murder proposed an interesting proposition for both the DP and Director. It was shot as a 3-D film, but instead of things coming out of the screen, Hitchcock utilized the method to bring depth to the shots. Taking a page from the Orson Wells playbook, Hitchcock had a pit installed in the floor so the camera could capture many low angle shots. Unfortunately, by the time the film hit theaters, the 3-D craze was over, and many theaters passed on showing the film complete with the gimmick opting for the flat screen version instead. The 3-D version was given a brief re-release in 1980. I would love to check it out in 3-D. I can tell by the shots themselves what Hitch was attempting to do, create the feeling of claustrophobia for the audience by giving our main (and almost only) setting an imposing depth.

I think it’s about time I talk about the acting, and I have to start with Grace Kelly. Now I’m not sure if people know it or not, I know there’s the whole becoming a Princess thing and all, but Grace Kelly is quite fetching, but 1954 was her year and she proved she was much more than a pretty face. In that year, alone she made Dial M and Rear Window with Hitchcock and The Country Girl with Bing Crosby, which garnered her an Academy Award. In Dial M, Kelly’s Margot seems a smart young woman who is easily confounded by an intense experience, and I have to say she does seem a bit easily lead by the men in her life. She gives a very sensitive portrayal, and he shining moment has to be the courtroom sequence that is played out with a series of lights coupled with a voiceover while the camera remains on a close-up of Kelly’s face. The scene is simple, but perfect because all we need to know about the events crosses across Kelly’s face. It’s also interesting to see how her wardrobe changes throughout the film. In the beginning of the film she is dressed sexily in a lavish red dress, but as time passes her wardrobe goes to neutral colors and then to somber blacks, grays, and browns. 

While Kelly draws the eye when she is onscreen, the film clearly belongs to Ray Milland. By the time Milland passed away in 1986, he had over 170 credits to his name including films such as Frogs, X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes, and The Uninvited. Milland’s Tony in Dial M is the perfectly unflappable bastard. As he goes from devising a plan to kill his wife to plotting to frame her for murder, each scene provides an extra reason to find him despicable, and it’s needed. After all this a guy who’s wife has run around on him, and even invites her lover out to the theater with her husband, so you kind of feel bad for the dude. Now, I’m not advocating setting up your cheating wife to be killed; all I’m saying is that Tony begins being sympathetic and it’s interesting how Knott’s script follows his villainous arc.

Since there are not that many total characters in the film, the supporting cast deserves to be mentioned. I’ll say right off the bat that Bob Cummings was probably not the best choice for the clever American mystery writer. Cummings was the star of his own comedy show in the late 1950’s and was more widely known for his comic roles. His turn as Mark in Dial M is so broadly played that it’s hard to believe that Ms. Grace’s character would go for a sap like him. While Cummings is miscast, the two other important supporting roles were filled perfectly. 

First, John Williams as Inspector Hubbard, a role he won a Tony award for in 1953 when he played it in the original Broadway run. While there is clearly a Sherlock Holmes influence in his character, I could not help but wonder if the character of Colombo was inspired by him and his constant “one more thing”. He also has a wonderful moment at the end of the film where he combs his mustache in satisfaction of a job well done. Even though it’s nearly the last shot of the film, it is still a wonderful piece of characterization that I appreciated. 

Lastly, I have to talk about Anthony Dawson as the unwilling murderer Swann. Dawson had something of a long career and filled many interesting parts in his time including the 1961 horror flick The Curse of the Werewolf and being the unseen, but heard villain Ernst Blowfeld in From Russia With Love and Thunderball. While Milland’s character had to build to be a sleazeball, Dawson’s Swann is a slimy, slimy mother from the moment we meet him. While he might be being blackmailed into the job, he sure as hell doesn’t take that much convincing to knock off Margot. He only really has the scene opposite Milland and the botched murder, but Dawson makes quite the impression on the film. 

Hitchcock considered Dial M one of his lesser films and due to the success of Rear Window, many critics did as well. Personally, I think it’s another fine example of how Alfred took source material, stamped it with innovative techniques, and got great performances from his actors. If it wasn’t for the weak performance from Bob Cummings, Dial M could be a perfect film. As it is, it is slightly flawed (though leaps and bounds better than the Michael Douglas remake The Perfect Murder), but the flaws, including quite a few cinematical goofs barely detract from it because the narrative structure is so engaging. This is surely another one worthy of a first look or a rewatch, so check it out and I’ll be back again next week with a film reported to be Hitch’s personal favorite. 

Another Terrifying Tuesday has arrived, and I’ve got something really special for you folks today. Over the last 10 months, I’ve been lucky enough to become friends with a few independent film makers, and this week one of my friends is doing me a solid. In 2005, Chance Shirley made one of the best low budget horror films ever made with Hide and Creep. It’s consistently one of my favorite films, and I go back to it time and time again. Now with his next feature finally in the can, Chance has started sending out the finished product to film festivals…..and a little place called the Lightning Bug’s Lair.

That’s right folks, today we’re getting a first look at Chances new sci fi horror comedy, Interplanetary. Now when I first heard the title, all I could think of was the Beastie Boys song, Intergalactic and it’s refrain or “Intergalactic Planetary Planetary Intergalactic”, and much like that song, Chance describes Interplanetary as “The flick is set in "the future," but it's a future as seen through 1980’s eyes. An old-school future, as it were.” I can’t say that I disagree. As a child of the ‘80’s watching this film took me right back to the giddy joy I used to get watching good old fashioned crappy movies when I was a kid. It captures that same kind of playful, self aware nature that made many of those films so much fun.

I suppose I should get around to telling you what the flick is about. Well, the Interplanetary Corporation has set up a base on Mars, Mars Base Two. Why two and not one? Because test marketing showed people responded better to the name. The station is manned by nine crewmembers that spend their boring days hanging around the base. Well, except for Wil and his assistant Ed who spend their time outside surveying for a good location for Mars Base Three. Wil stumbles on a Martian fossil, and from there all hell breaks loose. Strangers show up at the base blowing people away with rocket launchers, scouts get kidnapped by villains who are easily thwarted by reefer, and to top it off, an alien monster shows up and starts ripping people’s heads off. Now, if only there was a corporate guidebook on how to deal with situations like this.

Needless to say, Chance has done it again, and to make it even better he’s done it the old fashioned way. No, I don’t mean he earned it (though he probably did). I mean he didn’t go all hyper digital and ass in a bunch of superfluous effects and gimmicks. Instead he kept it simple. Let me let the man himself tell you,

“Since modern technology has made it cheaper and easier for filmmakers to put their ideas on the screen, I thought it'd be a good idea to shoot a movie with technology from the 1980s. That means Super 16mm film, practical effects, and lots of lumber, nails, and paint. This definitely wasn't the fastest way to make a movie, but I think the hand-made approach does give INTERPLANETARY a character all its own.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself, but there’s something else Chance brought to this film that gives it a character of its own, its cast. Many of the players from Hide and Creep make a return here, and it was wonderful to see those actors spouting Chance’s acerbically funny dialog once more. Returning for another round are Melissa Bush, Mia Frost, Chris and Chuck Hartsell, Kyle Holeman, and Eric McGinty, and they are joined by new editions Kevin S. Van Hyning, Sylvester Little, Jr, and Amanda Myers.

While everyone is great, I have four of the actors I want to give special shout outs to. First all, Kyle Holeman, Oh, love this guy. Why he’s not in every film made, I have no idea. I loved him as Keith in Hide and Creep, and now in Interplanetary he brings another great character as Jackson the gun toting cook who used to be in the Texas mafia. Then there’s Mia Frost as the stoner Beth. The role is a far cry for her turn as Gail in H&C, but her understated performance had me in stitches. Chuck Hartsell once again provides one of the most memorable characters in the film. Chuck gets little screen time as Wil, but the scenes he does appear in make the most of his flat delivery. Finally, I have to take a moment to give major props to Michael Shelton as the films baffled and very unintentional hero. He turns is a great performance and has some of the funniest and most quotable lines.

Working as Chance did with “Super 16mm film, practical effects, and lots of lumber, nails, and paint”, Interplanetary has a style that has made Ed Wood smile somewhere in the great hereafter. I’m not saying it’s shoddily made by any means, and quite the contrary. It’s pretty damn amazing how great the film looks. I see things come out of major studios that the same loving care hasn’t gone into because they want to churn out a product. Chance isn’t looking to make a generic film. Instead, he takes his time and crafts movies that are deftly scripted, thoughtfully acted, and carefully filmed.

Sure, the monster is a guy in a rubber suit, but it’s a damn nice rubber suit, and it’s fun. That’s the main thing that comes through to me in Chance’s films. These are made by people having a good time, with people having a good time, and for people who want to have a good time. Interplanetary should rank up there with the great horror comedies. With its sly wit, over the top violence, and its self aware love of genre conventions, this has fast become one of my favorite films.

I wish I could tell you all to head over to Chance’s site and pick up the film, but its only now hitting the festival circuit so it might be some time before you folks get a chance to see what Chance can do. However, if you’re attending a convention or festival and it’s playing, don’t miss it. I would love to get an opportunity to see it on the big screen myself. Until then, check out Hide and Creep, if you can find a copy. Unfortunately, that wonderful flick has gone out of print, but I’ve seen rumblings lately that it may get a second life on DVD soon. Hands down, Interplanetary is one of the best films I have seen in quite some time, so head on over to the site, check out Chance's blog. check out the trailer below, and as soon as this film gets out for public consumption, you better bet the Bugg will be shouting it from the rooftops.