The Burning (1981)

 'The Burning' is an early 80's slasher film using the New York City area urban legend of "Cropsey" as a jumping off point. Here Cropsey was the grounds keeper of a summer camp who was horribly disfigured by a fire caused by a prank against him gone wrong. After five years in the hospital, undergoing ultimately unsuccessful skin grafts, the disfigure and embittered Cropsey decides to seek his vengeance on campers and their councilors. 

It is in effect a pretty standard type 80's slasher film, but I thought one of the better done ones. It hits all the expected beats, the fairly large cast of characters are mostly well fleshed out and distinct, and its got a decent gimmick with Cropsey making his kills via a pair of pruning shears. This is also of note as the first movie produced by the notorious Harvey Weinstein, who is also one of three people listed under story by credit, the actual screenplay was co written by his brother Bob Weinstein. You can see a little of Harvey in a couple of the characters. 

This movie also boasts an unusual amount of future stars in the cast, including Holly Hunter, Jason Alexander and Fisher Stevens. The film under performed at the time owing to the slasher glut of the early 80's, but has since gained a cult following. There has never been a sequel or a remake. Again this is a pretty standard horror, but I thought the cast was unusually good and so I enjoyed it more then most films of this type. I would even say its better then any of the 'Friday the 13th' films. ***

Piranha 3D (2010)

 A few years back I watched 'Piranha DD' confusing it with 'Piranha 3D'. Turns out 'Piranha DD' is the sequel to 'Piranha 3D', which could loosely be construed as the 3rd film in a franchise going back to a couple of Roger Corman films in the 70's and 80's, if you ignore the 1995 Piranha reboot. 

In 'Piranha 3D' an earthquake opens up an underwater fissure connecting an Arizona surface lake to an unground lake and thus releasing a species of piranha thought extinct for 2 million years. The first person killed by these piranha is Richard Dreyfus in a rowboat singing "Show Me the Way to Go Home", and the person who explains the "science" to the audience is Christopher Lloyd in 'Doc Brown' mode. This movie likes its references. 

The lake into which the piranha are released is a popular spring break destination, and you guessed it, this happens during spring break. The action in the film centers around 3 or 4 groups; local law enforcement and family centered around sheriff Elisabeth Shue, a 'Girls Gone Wild' codded porn shot centered around Jerry O'Connell, and a geological survey team centered around Adam Scott (guess which one of these three center spokes survives).

Somewhat to my surprise there are moments when I felt a genuine sense of horror during the course of this film, something that wasn't the case with the sequel. Also, unlike the sequel the script here is actually pretty tight, it's a legit if often comic disaster movie. My favorite bit was probably the piranha eating all the flesh off a bikini clade babe and then the breast implants floating upward.  ***

The Haunted Palace (1963)

'The Haunted Palace' is the 6th entry in director/producer Roger Corman's "Poe Cycle" of the 1960's (a total of eight Edgar Allen Poe inspired works were released by Corman between 1960 and 1964).  The titles source material, Poe's 1839 Poem 'The Haunted Palace' is short on plot, so this is supplemented by grafting on the story from H.P. Lovecraft's 1927 novella 'The Case of Charles Dexter Ward'; making this the first feature film based on a Lovecraft story. 

In 1765 Arkham, Massachusetts local rich guy Vincent Price is burned at the stake (actually he's tied to a tree and then set on fire), for being a warlock and seducing local woman via magic. 110 years later in 1875, a descendent of the dead warlock also played by Price arrives in town to claim his inheritance. The 18th century Price lived in a century's old castle or palace, which he had bought in Europe then had re assembled brick by brick in the new world. 

The new 19th century Price is actually a pretty good guy, by his evil great grandfathers ghost initiates a psychic link between the two via his old portrait. 18th century Price slowly takes control of 19th century Price's body, and with the help of two fellow warlocks, one of which is played by Lon Cheney Jr., he proceeds to get revenge on the descendants of the people who killed him. In a typically Cormanesque cost saving measure the decedents of the villagers in the opening 18th century sequence are played by the same actors in the 19th century bulk of the film. 

The films okay and by Corman standards better than usual. The 18th century Price had cursed the decedents of the Arkham villagers with having an unusual number of deformities among them, so we have an excuse for some reasonably good make up and prosthetic work. The hero of the film turns out to be the town doctor played by Frank Maxwell, he takes a reasonable course between the superstition of the towns folk and the early skepticism of 19th century Price. Maxwell save's Price's life at the end, but the film concludes with the implication that his ancestors ghost is still hanging around inside of him. Actress Debra Paget, 22 years Price's junior, plays his wife in the film, she is still alive at 93 years of age. **

Halloween: Resurrection (2002)

 'Halloween: Resurrection' aka 'Halloween 8' is a sort of soft reboot that ended up not producing any direct sequels. The story does away with Jamie Lee Curtis's Lauire Strood in the first 10 minutes or so, Micheal finally gets her and I can see how this would be very unsatisfying to devotes of the franchise. But as the films use of the word "resurrection" in the title implies, this movie is not so much concerned with the past, as it is with trying pump new life into a series that was nearly a quarter century old by this point. 

This movie has more African American characters in it then it any of the previous films and attempts to exploit the then relatively recent arrival of 'reality TV' in its plot. A group of Haddonfield University students (since when did Haddonfield have a university), are locked overnight in the Meyers house on Halloween for a live stream reality show; there a cameras planted throughout the house and each 'contestant' has a head mounted camera with them. This proves to be especially usefully as the online friend of one of the contestants is able to use information gathered by the cameras, as well as an early texting feature, to communicate the location of Mike Meyers when he inevitably shows up.

This isn't a very good movie, but what I enjoyed about it most seeing it for the first time now is just what an artifact of its time it is. This is a very 2002 movie in the casting, in the music, in the reality show and period internet elements of the story. This is really a pretty generic slasher, but adding in a nostalgia kick for the period in which it was made, and in which I was also in college, made it rather enjoyable. **

Return of the Killer Tomatoes (1988)

 'Return of the Killer Tomatoes' is (appropriately) the first sequel to the 1978 horror-spoof-adventure-comedy 'Attack of the Killer Tomatoes'. Made by some of the same folks who did the original there are a number of returning characters, as well as additional characters, all/most of whom would appear in the 1990 - 91 Fox Kids animated series 'Attack of the Killer Tomatoes'. I was a big fan of this cartoon during its initial Saturday Morning run, and foremost among the things that fascinated me about it was it's absurd, slapstick humor and an in-joke, self-referential vibe that I couldn't fully understand. 

Well, I can understand that more now as the series is a more or less direct sequel to this movie. This movie however is not for kids, with cruder humor and (I kid you not) a direct tie-in to Playboy Magazine. The cartoon series does some retconning and ages down a number of the characters, but a slightly pervy undertone remained. 'Return of the Killer Tomatoes' is not a good movie, it ironically has a 0% Rotten Tomatoes score.  However, I'm glad I saw it, as it unraveled some of a childhood mystery. *1/2

Fun facts: 

Film featured a young George Clooney. 

A 5th 'Killer Tomatoes' movie is due to hit theaters later this year. 

Alice, Darling (2022)

 Alice (Anna Kendrick) goes for a weeklong vacation at her friend Wummi Mosaku's cabin to celebrate the birthday of mutual friend Kaniehtilo Horn. The three have known each other since elementary school but hadn't seen much of Alice lately. owing to all the time she has been spending at work and with her new artist boyfriend Charlie Carrick. Over the course of the vacation Wummi and Kaniehtilo notice strange behavior from Alice, a nervous fidgetiness, excessive time on her phone, her generally being less fun and more irritable. When Alice starts talking about cutting the vacation short and leaving before Kaniehtilo's birthday, Kaniehtilo takes and hides her keys and cellphone to force her to stay. Cut off from the outside world Alice starts acting more like her old self, and revels that her relationship with the seemingly charming Charlie is not as ideal as it appeared to be. Then Charlie shows up at the cabin. 

This generally understated Canadian production has a nice, unhurried pace, is reflective and enjoyably small scale. Star Anna Kendrick reports having once been in a relationship like this, and the film is a rumination on how otherwise smart and independent women can become trapped in abusive relationships. While Charlie is not a physically abusive man, he is imposingly tall and emotionally manipulative and had slowly been stripping away at Alice's sense of self-worth. Alice was afraid that Charlie wouldn't "let her" go on the birthday trip, so she lied and told him she was traveling for work. When Charlie figures this out, he is upset, yet when he shows up uninvited at the cabin he puts on a show of being understanding. With Alice reverting to subservient behavior, it's up to Wummi and Kaniehtilo to figure out how to best get Alice out of her bad situation. 

The film also contains a counterpoint B plot about a local young woman who has gone missing. At several points in the movie Alice and friends encounter search parties and even assist them for a time. The uncertain fate of the missing girl parallels the uncertain fate of Alice. Once the missing girl's fate is finally reveled, it becomes make or break time for Alice's future as well. ***

Death Line (1972)

A couple of college students, American Alex Campbell (David Ladd, brother of one of the films executive producers, Alan Ladd Jr.) and Brit Patricia Wilson (Sharon Gurney), are returning from a date late one night, and notice a seemingly well to do man lying unconscious on the stairs leading out of the subway station. Alex doesn't want to get involved, but Patricia insists they tell someone, so they tell a policeman, but by the time they get back to where they saw the man he's gone. Alex had taken a peek at the man's wallet, so passed the name on to the police. The local Inspector (Donald Pleasence) is initially uninterested in the report (as there's no body, and no missing person reported), but when a check is run on the name and it is discovered to belong to a holder of the Order of the British Empire, a senior civil servant in the Ministry of Defense, the inspector becomes much more interested. 

The film follows the Inspector and his associates in the investigation, the couple who first found the man, and his murderer. Christopher Lee stops by in a camo role (which he agreed to do for scale as he had never worked with Pleasence before and wanted to) as a member of MI5 who shews the Inspector away from the case. But whatever secret goings on the missing man was involved with turn out to be unrelated to his disappearance. 

The "twist'' of the film is that the missing man (James Cossins) was knocked unconscious and later retrieved by a cannable (Hugh Armstrong). The station in question is located near a long-abandoned tube line that had collapsed in on itself during construction, back in the Victorian era. At that time, it was standard practice not to dig the dead workers out as it was deemed not worth the effort. Here however a number of the male workers and for some reason some women survived the collapse, and again for some reason they didn't dig themselves out and return to the world but formed a small colony that survived for eighty-odd years, picking off as needed fellow members of the lower classes to eat. This apparently didn't attract attention because those that the cannibals picked off were deemed unimportant by the police and upper classes. The class commentary here is heavy handed. 

The colony was at last down to one member, and because by chance he abducted someone deemed important (who was down there trying to hire a prostitute), the larger mystery finally came to light. The killer was essentially a caveman, who could communicate only in grunts and slivers of English that had survived underground. The "good guys" kill him in the end, but projecting forward this case would have become a tabloid sensation and prompted investigations into the better part of a century's worth of crappy police work. 

So yes, the mystery proves to be silly, but the film does a good job of maintaining tension and boasts some interesting characters. For me the most interesting by far is Pleasance's Inspector Calhoun, there is a lot of implied backstory to the character and Pleasance elevates  

him with the particularities of his performance. He's a man who given his age would almost certainly have served in The War. He lives alone and apparently never married, he's very particular about his tea, is kind of a grump, has some sort of ongoing beef with Lee's MI5 character, and as an investigator, I'd give him a B -. 

This is another movie I didn't expect to finish, just wanted a taste of it. However, it proved interesting enough to catch me and hold my attention for its 87 minutes. Smarter than it needed to be, its exploitation far that is just enough off the expected path to be memorable. **1/2