Review: Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn

1987, Color, 85 minutes (less in some foreign versions). Directed by Sam Raimi. Cast includes: Bruce Campbell as Ash, Sarah Berry as Annie Knowby, Dan Hicks as Jake, Ted Raimi as possessed Henrietta Knowby, Denise Bixler as Linda, and John Peaks as Professor Raymond Knowby. Schlock-Meter rating: Eight stars out of a possible 10.

So many reviews like to call Sam Raimi's Evil Dead 2 a comedy, or a tribute to the Three Stooges, and there are some great "gross-out" gags, as well as my favorite comic scene, where Bruce Campbell's Ash, minus his possessed hand, traps it by piling a copy of Hemingway's "A Farewell To Arms" on a container holding the hand. Yes, this film contains a lot of comic parody, and after the first half Campbell plays his part mostly for laughs. And it's true that Raimi's very fast-paced, boom-boom-boom "I'm going to jar the viewer every 30 seconds" seems a tribute to Stooge-like filmmaking. And the excessive gore does desensitize the viewer after a while.

But let's not forget that Evil Dead 2 is a very scary, suspenseful thriller that throws out just about every horror/action plot element that exists. Most work. There are only a few clinkers, and the result is a cinema gem. Critic Roger Ebert pegged it best when he wrote that the film was not in bad taste, but about bad taste. Evil Dead 2 is sort of remake of Raimi's micro-budgeted Evil Dead, but with a little more plot and a twist ending that set up another, even more comic sequel, Army of Darkness. The plot: Ash and his girl Linda (Bixler) decide to squat for a night at a cabin in the Michigan woods. Once there, Ash turns on a tape recorder where a professor, who lives in the cabin, invokes a chant from The Book of the Dead that sends a demon to the cabin. From that point on, all hell breaks loose. Eventually, Ash and a few later arrivals, including the professor's daughter (Berry), are forced to fight it out with the demons.

The film is so fast-paced that you just marvel at the speed and special effects in the film that you forget the plot is pretty light. Director Raimi was destined for bigger assignments (A Simple Plan, Quick and the Dead). He's thrifty and economical. I suspect many minutes were spliced out of the final cut of Evil Dead 2 to maintain the fast pace, horror shocks and, yes, comic timing. Most of the cast is mediocre, except for Campbell, who is outstanding. For the first half of the film, he is largely responsible for carrying the flow of the film, and he uses the right amount of fear, fatigue, anger and outrage to pull it off. There are great visual effects, including a twisted, ominous looking bridge over a high drop, a dancing headless woman-demon, a human snake, a psychopathic hand, a woman being attacked by a tree, a demon's eyeball flying into a screaming mouth, and the most chilling, Ted Raimi's possessed Henrietta Knowby, a thoroughly gruesome old demon hag who hangs out in the cellar.

By all means rent or buy Evil Dead 2. It's well worth the price. However, while it is funny, expect more shivers than chuckles. Also, those who leave the room for a snack will miss several shock scenes. They happen so fast.

-- Doug Gibson

Review: Die Monster Die!

1964, 80 minutes, color, American International Pictures. Directed by Daniel Haller. Starring Boris Karloff as Nahum Witley, Nick Adams as Stephen Reinhart, Freda Jackson as Letitia Witley, Suzan Farmer as Susan Witley, Terrence De Marney as Merwyn and Patrick Magee as Dr. Henderson. Schlock-Meter rating: 4 stars out of 10.

Die, Monster, Die! is one of the more lackluster of AIP’s 1960w Poe/Lovecraft adaptations. The film is supposed to be based on a H.P. Lovecraft’s story Color of Our Space, but really bears no resemblance. There’s virtually no suspense in this slow-moving clinker, but a lot of unintentional laughs as mumbling Nick Adams arrives in England from America to visit his English girlfriend (Farmer) at her forbidding castle with her creepy parents (Karloff and Jackson). It seems that Father Witley (Karloff) has been conducting experiments with radioactive stones, with disastrous results.

The movie starts out with promise. Adams arrives in a small town and can find no one in a tiny English village who will take him to the Witley house. In fact, these villagers are downright rude to old Nick! So, he takes a long walk to the house, and there’s some good atmospheric scenes as Adams passes decayed forests, creepy fences, gates, and is watched by a specter in black. At the house, he’s greeted coldly by a forbidding Karloff, playing his role in a wheelchair.
Then, suddenly, out of nowhere, appears the bubbly Farmer, looking like she just stepped out of an AIP beach movie. She’s totally wrong for the part (there’s no way this vivacious blonde would be the daughter of the dour Karloff) and her presence kills the atmosphere and hope of sustained suspense. Director Haller, who does a competent if uninspired job, tries to substitute shocks for suspense, but even those are weak. Viewers are treated to a black, homicidal specter, hanging objects in the castle that are supposed to be scary, lots of fog, mutant plants, and radiation-mutated humans, including Mother Witley (Jackson) who for no reason turns maniac late in the film.

he best scene in the film shows a mutated tree attempting to encircle a surprised Farmer in his branches, but even that was done a lot better two decades later in Evil Dead.

Adams is also wrong for the part. He reminds me of a Marlon Brando wannabe. He would seem more comfortable battling Johnny Friendly on a loading dock than matching wits with mad scientist Boris Karloff. Karloff is fine, but isn’t really given much to do. He’s in a lot less scenes than Adams and he mostly whines, threatens or talks of his need to see his wife. The final scene, where a green, ringing, radioactive Karloff rises from his wheelchair and goes after Adams and Farmer is pure camp and will inspire a lot of chuckles from viewers.

Be forewarned: There’s no scares in Die, Monster, Die!, but if you are a fan of AIP horrors or Karloff, it will hold your interest, barely.

-- Doug Gibson

Review: Isle of the Dead

Isle of the Dead, 1945, RKO Radio Pictures, 71 minutes, black and white. Directed by Mark Robson, Produced by Val Lewton. Starring Boris Karloff as General Nikolas Pherides; Ellen Drew as Thea; Marc Cramer as Oliver Davis; and Katherine Emery as Mrs. St. Aubyn. Schlock-Meter rating: 8 stars out of 10.

The mid 1940s was the beginning of a transition period for thrillers. The great Universal monsters were now B pictures, and soon to be relegated as fodder for comedy teams. The terrors of the nuclear age to come would bring a new type of horror star, Godzilla and various over-sized insects crawling across movie screens. But in between that change came several great horror films from Val Lewton, who knew how to exploit the supernatural and make the spines of World War II movie-goers chill.

Isle of the Dead is about our worst fears, death, the plague and being buried alive. Producer Lawton and director Mark Robson are old hands at slowly building a story, creating unease, and then slamming the viewer with a terrifying climax. There is a scene, about two-thirds of the way through, that takes this film from suspense to terror. An invalid woman (Katherine Emery) fears being buried alive. It's a legitimate fear since she suffers from spells where she appears dead. She suffers a spell and is presumed dead and put in a coffin. In a crypt, the camera pans to her coffin. She screams, and desperate clawing is heard inside. It's a scary payoff to a well-made chiller.

The plot involves a dour Greek general (Karloff) and an American reporter (Cramer) who visit an isolated island near the front of a war. They spend the night with an anthropologist and his several guests (all of whom have been forced to the island to avoid the war). A British guest (veteran cult actor Skelton Knaggs) is discovered dead. A doctor decrees it to be the plague. The general orders everyone confined to the house. One by one the plague starts to claim its victims.

As mentioned, the film drips in atmosphere. The first scenes show Karloff and the reporter walking through a battlefield strewn with the bodies of dead soldiers. There's a creepy sight of suffering soldiers hauling away wagons full of the dead for disposal. As Karloff explains, it must be done immediately to avoid the plague. The house on the island has a claustrophobic feel, none of the rooms are too large. The island is dark, foggy and creepy, the crypt dark and forbidding.
Karloff does a very capable job as a villain who can still inspire some sympathy. The heartless, but courtly Greek general who places "rule of law" over mercy is a study of extremism from two sides. When the plague starts, Karloff's general scorns the superstitions of an elderly Greek maid, preferring to put his trust in the doctor. But when the plague claims the doctor, a disillusioned Karloff switches beliefs. Still the extremist, he allies with the maid, and with frightening intensity, believes a young woman named Thea (Ellen Drew) is possessed with an evil spirit. They plot to kill Thea.

Today very few horror films rely on atmosphere to turn suspense into horror. Most try to use foreground shots (like John Carpenter's Halloween) to create tension. Some succeed. Most don't. Too many filmmakers err by throwing away characterization, thinking that a quick knife killing serves as a payoff to a lazy viewer. Val Newton's Isle of the Dead is a reminder that creating a scary film is a gradual process that takes time and care.

-- Doug Gibson

Review: What! No Beer?

What! No Beer? 1933. B&W, MGM, 70 minutes. Directed by Edward Sedgwick. Starring Buster Keaton as Elmer J. Butts, Jimmy Durante as Jimmy Potts, Phyllis Barry as Hortense, Edward Brophy as Spike Moran and Charles Giblyn as Chief. Schlock-Meter rating: Four stars out of 10 stars.

What! No Beer? is a curio, a relic from the past. The plot of the mostly unfunny comedy deals with prohibition and efforts to repeal it, an issue which dominated headlines nearly 70 years ago. It was a box office winner due to its stars, Keaton and Durante, but is generally regarded as one of the unfunniest comedies of the 1930s. It was the pair's last film together. Keaton's drinking problem and absences from the set caused the studio to fire him even before the film was released. It was the start of a spiral into film oblivion for Keaton, and his career did not surge again until television began to thrive two decades later.

The plot: Jimmy Potts (Durante) is a barber and Elmer J. Butts (Keaton) is a luckless businessman. Potts, incorrectly thinking prohibition has been repealed, convinces Butts to invest his money in a long-closed brewery. The stone-faced Butts moons over a pretty gangster moll named Hortense (Barry). He wants to be a millionaire so he can win her love. Seeing no other way to earn the million bucks, he agrees to get into the beer business. Police quickly raid the brewery and arrest the pair, but discover there's no alcohol in the brew. Later, a hobo at the deserted plant confesses he was once a great brewer and real beer is made, which is a big hit. Soon the police and the mob muscle in on Potts and Butts.

The film is as unfunny as it sounds. Durante, in particular, is just pathetic. He bellows and brays and cracks unfunny jokes. It's painful to watch him flop on the screen. Although he is clearly half-bagged in many of the scenes, the best part of the film is comic great Keaton. His talent for physical comedy is on display in several scenes, and his naivete and trusting demeanor leads to misunderstandings that bring laughs, particularly a scene where gangsters, sent to muscle him, interpret his bland replies as extreme coolness under pressure, and leave impressed. What! No Beer? is not a good movie, but it's worth a rental to see an early sound Keaton offering.

-- Doug Gibson

Review: The Dark Horse

The Dark Horse, 1932, 75 minutes, B&W, First National Pictures, directed by Alfred E. Green. Starring Guy Kibbee as Zachary Hicks, Warren William as Hal S. Blake, Bette Davis as Kay Russell, Vivienne Osborne as Maybelle Blake, Hal's ex-wife, Berton Churchill as William A. Underwood and Frank McHugh as Joe. Rating: 7 stars out of 10.

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A quick note: "The Dark Horse" is one of those wonderful 1930s programmers that would sit neglected in a film library (or perhaps sit seldom seen in a Bette Davis film collection DVD) if it wasn't for Turner Classic Movies. Film-lovers are in debt to TMC, which daily offers an invaluable history lesson of cinema with its offerings.

Now, on to "The Dark Horse." This is a delightful satire of politics that proves that, even 76 years ago, we weren't fooled by the absurdities of the political arena. Veteran actor Guy Kibbee plays, Zachary Hicks, a bumbling fool of a man who is accidentally nominated by his "Progressive" Party to be governor of an unnamed state after the two front-runners are deadlocked.

A party secretary, Kay Russell, (a very young Bette Davis) recommends that a fast-talking, charming cad of a man Hal S. Blake (forgotten leading man Warren William) be bailed out of jail -- where's he sitting due to unpaid child support -- to run Hicks' campaign. Blake does a masterful job, all while trying to stay one step ahead of his scheming, vindictive ex-wife (Vivienne Osborne) and romancing wary secretary Russell.

The key to the film, though, is the dumbness and naivete of 50sh Hays, thrust out of nowhere. Kibbee is perfect in the role. He provides understated humor in his misunderstanding of situations and constant "yes ... and maybe no" to any question. William's political operative is uncannyingly on-target, you could almost picture him spinning on cable news shows today. Davis hasn't much to do but viewers can sense her screen presence that would lead her to stardom. A fun, fast-paced film that still has relevance today, it's well worth watching when it's on TCM.

Notes: Kibbee was a very much in demand character actor and B-film starrer in the 30s and early 40s. He is best known as the corrupt governor controlled by Jim Taylor in Frank Capra's 1939 classic "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." He also starred in the only sound version of Sinclair Lewis' tale "Babbitt." Kibbee is great as Babbitt in that seldom-seen 1934 film, which aired recently on TCM. Frank McHugh, who played William's political sidekick, is best known as Father Tim Dowd in the 1944 Bing Crosby classic "Going My Way."

-- Doug Gibson

Review: Frankenstein Conquers the World

Frankenstein Conquers the World, 1965, Toho, Color. Director: Ishiro Honda; Cast includes Nick Adams, Kumi Mizuno, Tadao Takashima and Kuji Furuhata. 87 minutes in most prints. Seven out of 10 stars on the Schlock-Meter.

This is a fun film that doesn't fail to deliver cheesy thrills with a fast-growing boy Frankenstein (Furuhata) eating everything in sight and battling a monster named Baragon at the end. Scientists (Adams, Mizuno and Takashima) battle to save the boy monster so he "can be studied."

The FXs are cheesy, with the boy Frankenstein looking pretty silly on miniature sets and with overhead camera shots. The battle scenes are fake but fun, with a rubber monster flipping around a lot. The dubbing is as bad as expected. The most campy dubbing involves a German scientist, who sports an accent so bogus that even "Hogan's Heroes" would be ashamed to use it.

The bizarre plot is as follows: Late in World War 2, the heart of the Frankenstein monster is stolen from the lab of Dr. Frankenstein by Axis soldiers. It makes its way to Japan, where it survives the atomic blast in Hiroshima. It then somehow attaches itself to a small boy who survives the Hiroshima blast. He grows and grows and grows. There are a lot of twists on Mary Shelley's legend: Frankenstein can never die, and if you cut off a limb, it grows again!

This film, corny as it is, can be at times compelling. It takes place in Hiroshima and the horror of the Hiroshima bombing hangs over the plot. Star Adams's doctor is an American so horrified by what happened in Hiroshima that he's chosen to travel across the world and treat those still suffering. Frankenstein Conquers the World, while a misleading title, is a silly film, but it's a cut above its genre. The wild plot and classic Toho effects make it worth a rental and a tape if you can catch it on TV. I saw it on American Movie Classics.

Notes: According to an article in Cult Movies magazine, stars Adams and Mizuno had a brief affair; The film was released in the USA by Henry Saperstein's UPA company; There was more than one ending filmed (the ending for this review has the monster sinking into the earth); Toho made one more film with the Frankenstein monster, War of the Gargantuas, starring Russ Tamblyn.

-- Doug Gibson

Review: Scrooge (1935)

Scrooge, 1935, 78 minutes, B&W, British. Directed by Henry Edwards. Starring Sir. Seymour Hicks as Ebenezer Scrooge, Donald Calthrop as Bob Cratchit, Robert Cochran as Fred, Mary Glynne as Belle and Phillip Frost as Tiny Tim. Rating: Seven stars out of 10.

This very creaky British version of Dickens' A Christmas Tale can't hold a candle to the 1951, 1984 and 1999 versions, but it's better than the 1938 Hollywood adaptation. It stars Hicks as Scrooge. The British actor had the part down pat. He had played Scrooge for decades on the British stage. Nevertheless, he plays Scrooge as a crochety old crank, which is one of your reviewer's pet peeves. I prefer Scrooge to be played as a smug, self satisfied superior sort, such as Sims, Scott and Stewart portrayed Dickens' miser in other adaptations. The result is that Scrooge's experience is a startling comeuppance for him. Like Saul of Tarsus, he's literally brought to his senses and scared straight through divine interference. But with an old crochety Scrooge, all he goes through seems like a scolding that a child would take from an elder.

But still, this is a must-see version for fans. The London sets are simply marvelous. You can feel Victorian England in this film better than any other version. Also, a pleasant surprise is Calthrop as Bob Cratchit. He is the only Bob Cratchit that's able to stand up to Scrooge. Indeed, early in the film, he mutters of Scrooge's miserliness when denied coal for the fire. The other actors are adequate for their roles. One chilling scene has Tiny Tim (Frost) laying dead on a bed for Scrooge to see during the third spirit visit.

There are some odd twists to the film. Not much is told about Scrooge's childhood, and a really strange scene is with Marley's ghost. To the audience he is invisible, though it's clear Scrooge can see him. There is a scene early in the film, inserted for some reason, of Queen Victoria receiving a Christmas toast from London's leading citizens. The final scene where a changed Scrooge fools Cratchit and gives him a raise has the pair taking the day off, rather than having some smoking Christmas bishop to drink. Scrooge is a curio of early British filmmaking and certainly worth a rental for the holidays. For decades this film was literally out of circulation, but with the advent of video it enjoyed a comeback and can now usually be found on TV each holiday season and can be purchased. It can also be seen for free on the Web.

-- Doug Gibson

Review: Curse of the Mummy's Tomb

Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, 1964, Hammer, 81 minutes, color. Directed by Michael Carreras. Starring Terance Morgan as Adam Beauchamp/Be, son of Rameses VIII, Ronald Howard as John Bray, Fred Clark as Alexander King, Jeanne Roland as Annette Dubois, George Pastell as Hashmi Bey, Jack Gwylliam as Sir Giles Dalrymple, and Dickie Morgan as the Mummy (Ra-Antef). Schlock-Meter rating: 4 stars out of 10.

The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb is a very poor sequel to Hammer's much better The Mummy, starring Christopher Lee. The film suffers from a dull plot, too much talk, a boring shambling mummy and a really annoying female lead (Roland), who spends much of film practicing a really bogus Parisian accent.

The plot: An expedition travels to Egypt and digs up the remains of a slain prince. The leader of the expedition is murdered. His daughter, her fiance (Howard), and the others in the party decide to return to London and feature the mummy as a sideshow act, charging 10 cents a look (it's 1900, by the way.) Of course the mummy follows them and starts to exact its revenge on those who desecrated his grave.

The film boasts a couple of shocks, including hands being chopped off and a man's head squashed (implied, not seen). But the film is just so talky, with heavy-handed direction by Carreras. Nothing happens for long periods of time and we are treated to long stretches of dialogue, which as any film fan knows, is often used as a crutch to pad out a weak film. In this film's case, it's already a brief 81 minutes, but seems longer.

Even when the mummy appears, it's a disappointment. No attempt is made to humanize the monster. He just kills. Roland as the female lead is horrible. She's one of the most faithless characters in a movie and quickly goes from mourning her father's death to constant giggling.

Veteran actor Morgan is fairly decent as the villain who steals Roland from her fiance and hides a terrible secret. The most lively actor in the film may be the Carnival-like business huckster Alexander King (Clark), who outrages many by turning the mummy into a sideshow. Clark carries the roll with pizzaz, but he's killed off too early by the mummy. If this movie's on TV and you can't find anything else to watch, it will pass the time. Otherwise, go find a better mummy movie at the video store.

-- Doug Gibson

Review: House of Wax

House of Wax, 1953, 90 minutes, Warner Brothers, Color. Directed by Andre De Toth. Starring Vincent Price as Professor Henry Jarrod, Frank Lovejoy as Lt. Tom Brennan, Phyllis Kirk as Sue Allen, and Charles Bronson as Igor. Schlock-Meter rating: 5 stars out of 10.

The real problem with House of Wax is that it's dull. Vincent Price does a fine job as the mad, scarred professor who wants to wax over many humans in his new museum of horrors, but the film is stagey, with lots of talk and few shocks.

House of Wax also fails to achieve any real cult status for another reason, which is a left-handed compliment. It's too competent a film technically to be corny. The sets are nice. The direction OK. The special effects adequate, and the color nice and unfaded.

The ending bumps House of Wax's Schlock-meter rating a tad. It's quite suspenseful to watch Price casually preparing to murder before being stopped and falling to his death into his own vat of wax. Movie fans will enjoy seeing a very young Charles Bronson in the role of Igor, a mute confederate of Price's.

Still, House of Wax is just too talky and dull in stretches to recommend as a rental. Catch it when it airs on AMC cable, and enjoy a master of the genre, Vincent Price, perform in his usual above-average manner.

-- Doug Gibson

Review: Bowery at Midnight

Bowery at Midnight, 61 minutes, B&W, 1942, Monogram. Directed by Wallace Fox. Starring Bela Lugosi as Professor Brenner/Karl Wagner, John Archer as Richard Dennison, Dave O'Brien as Pete Crawford, Wanda McKay as Judy Malvern, Lew Kelly as Doc Brooks Wheeler Oakman as Stratton, J. Farrell MacDonald as Capt. Mitchell and Tom Neal as Frankie Mills. Schlock-meter rating: Nine stars out of 10.

Bowery at Midnight is Bela Lugosi's finest low-budget Monogram chiller. It's almost as good as PRC's Devil Bat and better than his other 1940s cheapies and starring roles with RKO. One strength is the dual roles that Lugosi plays. His transformation from kindly professor and skid row shelter worker to sociopathic, merciless gangster killer is chilling. It was his most menacing role of the 1940s. The plot, like any Monogram offering, is truly bizarre: Lugosi plays a criminology professor named Brenner. By all standards he's a success. At night he assumes the role of Karl Wagner, kindly skid row shelter operator. But that's a cover for his real activity, which is master criminal.

Keeping skid row criminals in his basement (including a drug-addicted doctor) and killing them off when he finds replacements, Wagner robs several jewel stores and commits several murders. He recruits a baby faced killer as his prize criminal but soon learns he's not so easy to control. Pretty Wanda McKay works at the shelter as his assistant, Judy Malvern. She knows nothing of his criminal activities. Things start to unravel for Brenner/Wagner when one of his students (who just happens to be Judy's fiance) ends up at the shelter doing research for a class project and recognizes his professor. Lugosi brutally and quickly has him shot, but the police, with the help of Judy, discover the connection between Brenner and Wagner. While Lugosi tries to escape, he discovers a horrifying surprise in the basement.

Lugosi, as mentioned, is great in his dual roles. McKay is beautiful and a capable actress, and the ubiquitous J. Farrell MacDonald does his usual fine job in his staple role, that of police captain. The film is a lean, mean 61 minutes and sort of resembles a TV detective drama of today. The scenes of New York's skid row Bowery section will provide nostalgia for many viewers. The film is full of plot twists, perhaps a few too many for its low budget. However, Bowery at Midnight is Lugosi at his B-movie best, and it's a must have for a film library.

-- Doug Gibson

Review: Surgikill

In 1988, underground filmmaker Andy Milligan embarked on directing his final full-length feature film. Media Arts Productions LLC produced it. The film was to be a black comedy set in a small community hospital called Goode Community Hospital, named after Dr. Grace Goode, a character in the film played by Darlene Van Harlingen, also known as Bouvier. Her husband, John Van Harlingen, was the executive producer. This film is quite departure from the canon of other Milligan films, which were over the top sex and gore epics. The film was shot in an abandoned neighborhood clinic near downtown Los Angeles.

Dr. Goode is desperately trying to keep her small hospital in functioning order as some of her staff and patients are being murdered one by one. Not to mention that she is constantly being hounded to sell the hospital for other greedy business prospects.

The film is full of over-the-top gags and gimmicks that are occasionally funny and sometimes overstated and juvenile. For example, one particularly funny scene, at least to me, shows an old woman arriving at the hospital reception desk with a bedpan stuck to her butt. Two hospital orderlies attempt to pry it off her as she stands in complete embarrassment. Other scenes show characters being hit over the head with a bedpan, or splashed with urine from bedpans. These scenes quickly become overstated. Some of the characters constantly repeating: "We care about the people we care for," quickly gets exhausted too.

Another particularly funny scene shows an old woman lying on her back in the operating room with an arrow sticking out of her butt. Apparently her husband had mistaken her for an archery target and accidentally shot her in the butt. Perhaps her husband was on a hunting trip with Dick Cheney at the time, long before he became Vice President?

A latter scene in the same operating room has Dr. Harvey and Dr. Schweitzer performing a gallbladder surgery. They can’t seem to find the patient’s gallbladder, so they end up tearing out several of the organs from the patient. This particular scene has some connection to earlier Milligan films because it is intentionally and graphically violent, even if the organs used in the scene are obviously unconvincing and fake. Herschel Gordon Lewis would be proud of this scene.
A connection this film has to earlier Milligan films is the nurse-receptionist character and drag queen Ronna, who is very similar to the drag queen in Milligan’s excellent Fleshpot On 42nd Street, played by Neil Flanagan. Ronna is later revealed to be Robert Goode, who is Grace Goode’s cousin and the murderer in the film. Robert is murdering hospital staff and patients in hopes to inherit the family hospital for himself.

Nurse Ronna and Dr. Grace Goode are the two characters I enjoyed the most, and felt the audience would have the greatest connection to. The young, fresh out of medical school Dr. Schweitzer, seems a bit unconvincing to me as he constantly sucks on a baby’s pacifier, implying that he is young, inexperienced and "wet behind the ears." This character gets a bit annoying too. Many of the actors in the film are way over the top in their acting, and frequently shout their lines, much like in an early John Waters film.

Is Surgikill a great film? No, but who cares? I like movies to occasionally be campy, over-the-top and unbelievable, otherwise I would not be writing articles for this web site. Is Surgikill Andy Milligan’s best film? Probably not. I place my vote with Torture Dungeon, which I regard as his greatest masterpiece. Still, any die-hard fan of Andy Milligan cannot afford to miss this entry in his filmography. It may not have the same low-budget, gritty charm as his films of the late 1960s and early 1970s, but it is worthy of a viewing, if only to see what his last film looks like before his death in 1991. Like Milligan’s earlier films, I am confident that Surgikill will continue to gain a strong cult following as the years go by. Fans are eagerly awaiting a DVD release soon.

-- Steve D. Stones

Review: Curse of the Demon

Curse of the Demon, 1957, 95 minutes, B&W, British. Directed by Jacques Tourneur. Starring Dana Andrews as Dr. John Holden, Peggy Cummins as Joanna Harrington, Liam Redmond as Mark O'Brien, Niall MacGinnis as Dr. Julian Carswell, Maurice Denham as Professor Harrington, and Brian Wilde as Rand Hobart. Schlock-Meter rating: 9 stars out of 10.

Curse of the Demon is based on a short story, Casting the Runes, by M.R. James, a British writer who gained fame depicting horror in a subtle manner that often left a victim's fate to the imagination. The story is about an American psychologist (Andrews) who travels to England to try and expose the leader of a devil worshipping cult (MacGinnis) as a fraud. On the way, Andrews' character, Dr. John Holden, becomes acquainted with Joanna Harrington, the niece of a colleague of Holden's, Professor Harrington (Denham), who was murdered while investigating MacGinnis' cult leader, named Julian Carswell.

Holden's a cheerful skeptic, and he's amused that so many of his colleagues believe that Carswell can really raise demons. He gets to know Carswell, who informs Holden that he will die in three days. Before he dies, the cult leader informs Holden, he will suffer great anxiety. From that point on the suspense builds as evidence grows that Carswell can do what he says, and Holden slowly grows to realize that he's battling a terror he must learn to believe in.

MacGinnis, as the evil cult leader Carswell, is magnificent. He is a contrast, always full of arrogance, but able to apppear as cheerful as Kris Kringle. However, within seconds, he can move to anger, revealing his lack of humanity, yet never losing his courtly manner. Andrews is in a role where he slowly has to change his beliefs, and he does a good job of trying to resist what his instincts tell him can't be. Director Tourneur builds suspense with little surprises, such as Holden discovering that his date book appointments are all torn off after the 28th of the month, the night he is slated to die. Wilde is wonderfully creepy in a small role as a catatonic ex-disciple of Carswell's who is brought back to consciousness for a short time.

Curse of the Demon is a classic of its genre, and recommended for any cult film library. One minor quibble: The demon in the film should have been implied, rather than shown. It's adequate as a fright piece, but ultimately not as scary as our own thoughts can conjure it to be. Notes: In Britain, the film is titled Night of the Demon and runs 82 minutes; Liam Redmond, who plays a colleague of Andrews in the film, starred several years later as a typesetter in the Don Knotts semi-cult ghostly comedy The Ghost and Mr. Chicken.

-- Doug Gibson

Review: The Slime People

The Slime People, 1963, B&W, 76 minutes, Joseph F. Robertson Productions, directed by Robert Hutton. Starring Hutton as Tom Gregory, Les Tremayne as Norman Tolliver, Robert Burton as Professor Galbraith, Susan Hart as Lisa Galbraith, Judee Morton as Bonnie Galbraith, and William Boyce as Cal Johnson. Schlock-meter rating: 6 stars out of 10.

I wasn’t expecting expecting to enjoy this ultra-low budget cheapie in 1963 from future porn director Joe Robertson. I had just read Mondo Cult 1, where Brad Linaweaver really trashed the film. It’s not a great film, but it’s a lot of fun. The plot: A TV newsman (Hutton) crash lands near Los Angeles and discovers that things are well, silent and different. He’s picked up by a professor (Burton) and his two giggly daughters. The professor explains that underground nuclear testing has caused the underground-dwelling “slime people” to come up and take over. They have built a hard-t0-penetrate dome (shades of The Simpsons film) over the LA area. The slime people sort of resemble creatures from the black lagoon on steroids. Areas infected by the slime people are in a dark haze. (This occasionally makes it hard on viewers trying to follow the action).
The four eventually pick up a gung-ho army man (Boyce) and a smarmy writer (Guess who dies?). Most of the film is talk, but there are cool scenes of our heroes battling slime people and dealing with looters. Surprisingly, director Hutton does a good job of making LA seem deserted, although the film lingers too long at a grocery store (probably due to its low budget). The four young people also quickly pair off in a “me-Tarzan, you-Jane” style. The secret to battling the slimy baddies is finally discovered.
The acting is OK and the film doesn’t drag too much. The special effects are really not that bad and the film has a hokey charm. OK, the hero just happening to run into the professor and having it all explained is a little lame. It would have been better to have him be alone for the first fifth of the film, discover the slime people himself and then hook up with the others. But I like this film. I’m surprised it hasn’t played on Utah;s UEN Channel 9 Sci-Fi Friday. It’d be a good addition.
Notes: Robertson also produced the ultra-cheapie The Crawling Hand, which starred Alan Hale Jr. of Gilligan’s Island fame. Cult director Ed Wood starred in his porn films Love Feast and Mrs. Stone’s Thing. Both are reputed to be horrendously bad films. It’s a pity Wood didn’t work on The Slime People or Crawling Hand. The film was spoofed on Mystery Science Theater 3000.

-- Doug Gibson

Review: House of Frankenstein

House of Frankenstein, 1944, Universal, B&W, 71 minutes. Directed by Erle C. Kenton. Starring Boris Karloff as Dr. Gustav Niemann, J. Carrol Naish as Daniel, Lon Chaney Jr. as Lawrence Talbot, John Carradine as Dracula, Lionel Atwill as Inspector Arnz, George Zucco as Prof. Bruno Lampini, Peter Coe as Karl HussmanAnne Gwynne as Rita Hussman, Elena Verdugo as llonka and Glenn Strange as the Frankenstein monster. Schlock-meter rating: Seven and one-half stars out of 10.

House of Frankenstein is a fun, exciting monster-fest that provides a few chills largely due to the performance of Boris Karloff as mad scientist Dr. Gustav Niemann, who escapes from prison after 15 years with a hunchback assistant named Daniel (Naish). Niemann, a wannabe Frankenstein, was thrown in jail for trying to put a man's brain in the body of a dog. He's brooded for 15 years, and once out, is eager for revenge against those who sent him to jail. He kills the owner of a small traveling horror show (Zucco, in a great cameo), resuscitates Dracula (Carradine) and manages to kill one of his past adversaries. This done, he abandons Dracula (who tries to kidnap a young bride (Gwynne) to be killed and Niemann and Daniel take off for another village to exact revenge.

They pick up an abused gypsy girl who the hunchback Daniel quickly falls in love with. They make their way to Frankenstein's old village, where while he isn't settling scores with old enemies, Niemann finds the frozen bodies of the Frankenstein monster (Strange) and the wolfman Lawrence Talbot (Chaney Jr.). The wolfman, upset at being revived, nevertheless agrees to help Niemann since the doctor promises to end his curse. Of such bizarre plots were delightful horror films of the 1940s created. It's fun to watch. By the way, the cute gypsy girl falls in love with Talbot, thereby frustrating Daniel and turning him against the mad Dr. Niemann. Also, the villagers start to catch on to the the inhumane science occurring at the destroyed castle.

Karloff is chilling in his role. He appears to be without conscience. In an early scene he casually grabs a jailer by the neck and chokes him until given a piece of chalk. His talent to frighten audiences lasted a lifetime as those who have seen the 1960s films Targets and Black Sabbath can attest to. Chaney is whiny, but effective as the wolfman. Carradine underplays Dracula, but does a good job, although it's tough to compete with Lugosi's legacy. Strange, as the Frankenstein monster, is barely in the film, but he does an capable job. The film is tight and fast-paced, and runs at a lean 71 minutes. It's a fun cult film and definitely worth a rental.

-- Doug Gibson