Review of Robot Monster

Robot Monster, 1953, Astor Films, most prints run about an hour. Directed by Phil Tucker. Starring George Nader, Claudia Barrett, John Mylong, George Barrows. Schlock-Meter rating: 7 stars out of 10.

See Robot Monster! The plot: A gorilla with a diving mask (or it may be a goldfish bowl?) calls himself Ro-Man, from a planet that may be the moon. He's hanging out in a cave in Bronson Canyon near Los Angeles with a bubble machine and a TV communicator where he talks to The Great One. Apparently Ro-Man has killed everyone on earth except a scientist, his family, and the scientist's assistant (Nader). He did this with a calcinator death ray. We are shown badly edited stop-animation of small-scale dinosaurs fighting (over and over) to explain the earth's demise.

Try as it might, Robot Monster can't kill the plucky six humans left in the earth that are camped a few hundred yards away. Finally, Ro-Man gets the hots for the scientist's attractive daughter, who just married Nader! The Great One kills Ro-Man as punishment for his lust and destroys the world. More stock footage. It turns out to have all been a dream of a little boy. Or was it? Ro-Man is seen lumbering toward the camera three times in a row. The film was first shot in 3-D.

Robot Monster is so bad that it is funny. This film is tagged as a horror, but it's so non-scary that I wonder if director Tucker may have been making a kiddie matinee film. The acting is atrocious. The German professor's (Mylong) accent is bogus. Ro-Man looks ridiculous waddling through the countryside (HE DESTROYED THE WORLD?). The stock footage doesn't match and often makes no sense. But, it's funny, and that makes it worth a rental.

Here's some dialogue, the scene where Ro-Man, consumed with a lust for the daughter, bellows out his emotions: "Yes, to be like the hu-man. To laugh. Feel. Want. Why are these things not in the plan?" Sheer idiocy. But this cult film is fun, and goes well with a party after midnight. I also like the part where Nader complain that his girlfriend (Barrett) is so bossy she should be milked!

The late director Tucker was a fixture among Grade Z films. Besides Robot Monster, he also directed Dance Hall Racket (with Lenny Bruce!) and Cape Canaveral Monsters. Rumor has it Tucker worked a lot with Edward D. Wood, Jr., but he was always mum when asked about that part of his life.

-- Doug Gibson

Another Review: Carnival of Souls

Carnival of Souls, 1962, 84 minutes, Black and white. Directed by Herk Harvey. Starring Candace Hilligoss as Mary Henry, Frances Feist as Mrs. Thomas, Sydney Berger as John Linden and Harvey as The Man (uncredited). Schlock-Meter rating: 9 stars out of 10.

Carnival of Souls is a very spooky gem -- filmed mostly in Salt Lake City -- about a woman (Hilligoss) who survives a car wreck in a lake that kills her friends. She walks out of the water, seemingly unhurt. An accomplished organist, she takes a job across the country. On the way, she keeps seeing a haunting, white-faced spectre (Harvey).

However, when the woman, named Mary Henry, arrives at work, rents a room and takes a job, she feels herself disconnecting from the rest of the world. She's haunted by music, an abandoned dance hall (at the old Salt Air for movie buffs), and she's seemingly lost the ability to feel for others, as a nerdy would-be suitor (Berger) discovers. Also, she keeps seeing the creepy man spectre. She begins to wonder if she is really alive.

This film is scary, and I wouldn't watch it alone. As Mary Henry's confusion, panic and terror mounts, the audience is drawn into her fear and paranoia. You feel her fear, and there is a scene, where she visits a psychiatrist, that will make you jump from you seat with its payoff shock. The climax takes place at the abandoned Saltair amusement park and dance hall, and literally offers a dance featuring the dead.

Director Harvey keeps the pace moving well, and is very talented in providing a haunting mood throughout. This gem was mostly ignored when released, but maintained a small cult following and eventually was brought to greater publicity in the late 1980s by film critic Roger Ebert, and it played at many art houses. A sort of semi-remake was attempted in 1998, but attracted little attention, and quickly moved to video stores.

-- Doug Gibson

Review: Carnival of Souls

CARNIVAL OF SOULS — Directed in 1962 by independent filmmaker Herk Harvey. Utahns will be pleased to know that a large part of this film was directed in Utah, including the old Saltair fairgrounds at the Great Salt Lake and various locations in downtown Salt Lake City, such as a scene in front of Temple Square.

A carload of drag-racing teenage girls plunges into a river. Soon after, the car is towed out of the river, and one girl survives. ... To forget the tragedy, the girl (Candace Hilligos) moves to a small town here in Utah to become a church organist. She begins to have paranoid hallucinations of being watched and chased by zombie-like phantoms.

Her only escape is to trespass on the grounds of the old Saltair fairgrounds to confront the zombies who haunt her mind. There, we discover she meets her second death to the zombies because she actually died in the car crash at the beginning of the film.

This film is said to be the inspiration for George A. Romero's horror masterpiece "Night of the Living Dead." A true cult classic.

(This review was originally published in the Standard-Examiner newspaper)

-- Steve D. Stones

Review: The Conqueror Worm

The Conqueror Worm (Also known as Witchfinder General)1968, United Kingdom, American International release, Color, about 88 minutes. Stars: Vincent Price as Matthew Hopkins, Hilary Dwyer as Sara, Rupert Davies as John Lowes, Robert Russell as John Stearne and Ian Ogilvy as Richard Marshall. Schlock-Meter rating: 9 and 1/2 stars out of 10.

Ever wanted to see how really evil a person Vincent Price could portray in a film? Go rent, or buy, the Conqueror Worm. This is a magnificent film about 17th Century England and witch hunter Matthew Hopkins (Price) who is the law in a war-torn land. The plot: The sadistic Hopkins and his henchman Stearne (Russell) terrorize towns by executing “witches” and collecting cash for their services. In Brandiston, they torture an aged preacher. In order to save the preacher’s life, his niece Sara (Dwyer) agrees to be Hopkins’ sex slave. But after Stearne rapes Sara, Hopkins loses interest in Sara and kills her uncle.

Back from the wars arrives Sara’s intended Richard Marshall (Ogilvy) and when he finds out how his fiance has been treated, he swears vengeance and goes after the witch hunter, who lays a trap for Marshall. I won’t give away the climax, except to say that the intensity of the last scene has been matched by few cult films.

Atmosphere keeps The Conqueror Worm moving at a fast pace. The characters seem believable, whether they are in a pub, at war or witnessing the execution of a “witch.” Critic Danny Peary describes Price as never having been better. Peary also talks about the triumph of evil, which “will emerge victorious” despite whether Hopkins or Marshall kills the other. In the film, the viewer is jolted into a sense of overwhelming pessimism of the situation. One wonders at the end if the protagonist (Marshall) is really any better than Hopkins.

Credit to the gloomy but effective mood of Conqueror Worm goes to the director Michael Reeves. He was a major new talent in Britain in the 1960s. Besides Conqueror, he directed The Castle of the Living Dead, 1964, and The Sorcerers, 1967, with Boris Karloff. Sadly, Reeves took his own life in 1969.

-- Doug Gibson

Review: Halloween 2007

John Carpenter’s classic film Halloween literally took the box office by storm in 1978. It was immediately hailed as “the new Psycho of the 1970s” and remained the highest grossing independent film for more than 20 years, despite a budget of only $320,000.

It ushered in the “slasher genre” of the 1980s, and remains a classic of the horror film. Its influence can still be seen in many horror films of today.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the film’s release. Rob Zombie’s 2007 reworking homage to Carpenter’s film is also a real treat for the horror film aficionado. Zombie concentrates on giving the audience the point of view of the Michael Meyers character, his childhood, and the transition he makes from a child’s clown mask to the iconic Michael Meyer’s mask that has become so familiar to moviegoers and horror fans.

This time we see a more human side to the Meyers character and less of the supernatural characteristic that defines Meyers in the Carpenter film. The Meyers family can be defined as the typical dysfunctional, middle-American family, with a divorced mother, Deborah Meyers, who works as a stripper, played by the director’s wife Sherrie Moon Zombie, and her deadbeat lazy boyfriend who constantly argues with Judith and avoids the children.

The Meyers home is in constant chaos, which drives Michael to trapping and killing animals in the home bathroom while wearing his clown mask. Zombie makes many of the same references that Carpenter makes in his film, such as a scene of Howard Hawks’ 1951 film The Thing playing on the television, and the music of Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear The Reaper.” Young Michael Meyer’s even wears a KISS T-shirt to school.

The one reference that got my attention immediately is a scene of a young couple having sex in the Meyer’s rundown house while they play the punk rock song “Halloween” by The Misfits, which is sung in Latin. Zombie has also kept the eerie Carpenter score from the original film intact. Zombie spends more time showing the audience the interaction that takes place between Dr. Samuel Loomis, played by Malcolm McDowell, and Michael Meyers as a child. Dr. Loomis records his thoughts into a tape recorder while videotaping young Meyers in his handmade masks.

Meyers spends his time at the sanitarium making paper mache masks. His obsession grows to a room full of masks covering every inch of wall space in his cell. Another major difference between the two films is that the Lori Strode character in the Carpenter film is a virginal, bookworm babysitter who avoids boys out of complete shyness. Lori Strode in the Zombie film is at times a very sexual, nasty teenager who isn’t afraid to use foul language and talk about boys. She appears to be more confident about herself, and enjoys participating in the normal behaviors of a teenage girl.

From a complete visual standpoint, I found this film to be very well made, with genuine scares that kept me on the edge of my seat. Zombie manages to make horror films that combine bizarre visuals and rapid montages that work well with his choice of sound and music. Like his music and live performances, you will walk away from Halloween feeling very entertained and genuinely frightened.

I highly recommend this film to any horror film buff and fan of Zombie’s music. Two thumbs way up on this one!!!!!

-- Steve D. Stones

Review: Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI — Directed in 1919 by German expressionist filmmaker Robert Wiene, this silent masterpiece has been regarded as the first cult film in cinema history. The film concerns a young student named Francis who encounters an evil magician named Dr. Caligari at a traveling fair. Caligari's "act" at the fair consists of a frightening somnambulist named Cesare, who has lain asleep in a coffin for over 25 years. When awakened, Cesare predicts certain death to Francis' friend, and is blamed for a series of murders that take place in the nearby town. (A scene from the film is shown above left)

This film has many interesting characteristics of both German-Expressionist painting and film, such as the transformation of everyday objects — furniture, windows, walls and buildings — into unmistakable symbols that reveal a hyper-psychological essence and the opposition of the standards of naturalism.

"Caligari" is an important film in the history of the cinema because it lays the groundwork for many devices used in contemporary horror films, such as the use of the "mad doctor" or "mad scientist" theme used in many Universal Studios horror films of the 1930s and 1940s, and the use of light, a sense of terror and tension in filmmaking. I highly recommend this film to anyone studying silent films.
(This review was originally published in the Standard-Examiner)

-- Steve Stones

Review: The Omega Man

"The Omega Man." Long before Will Smith and the 2007 film "I am Legend" hit movie screens, Richard Matheson's novel was filmed as "The Omega Man" in 1971. This is the second screen adaptation of his novel "I Am Legend."

Biological warfare has wiped out life on Earth, and lone survivor and scientist Robert Neville, played by Charlton Heston, is forced to forage the streets of Los Angeles in search of supplies. Neville holes up in his high-rise apartment at night, as plague-stricken zombies try to force him out of his "honky paradise." The film is appealing because the ending gives us hope that, regardless of what disasters mankind faces, there will always be a way to start over again and continue the human race.


Fans of the 2007 film "I Am Legend" must see this film, and the first screen adaptation made in 1964, appropriately titled: "The Last Man on Earth," starring Vincent Price.
(Originally published in the Standard-Examiner)

-- Steve Stones