Showing posts with label horror. Show all posts

Sunday, September 4, 2016

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)

“L.A.'s deadliest street gang just declared war on the cops” [1]. A small group of cops and prisoners must band together and try and defend a police station from an attack by deadly gang. The films influences cross genres and include Forbidden Planet, Rio Bravo, The Birds, and Night of the Living Dead. The film was written, directed, scored, and edited by John Carpenter. He is arguably one of the great directors of the 1970’s and 1980’s, creating a ton of movies with cult followings including Dark Star, Halloween, The Fog, Escape From New York, The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China, Prince of Darkness, and They Live.

This was a very low budget film but it really stands out for the directing, editing, sound, and acting. There is a strong story and good dialogue, with the sort of western last stand theme going on. Carpenter said that the whole movie “came up very quickly. An investor from Philadelphia had some money and sad, ‘Let’s make a movie.’ And so, I said, ‘Let’s go,’ and I wrote the script in eight days. I wanted to do a western, and it was the closest thing to it. Of course a lot of movies I made are westerns” [2]. This is the film that provided us with the “horrifying situations, compelling rhythms, and haunting set pieces” that have come to be associated with Carpenter and his films [2]. Before this film, his two others had more comedic elements in them.

The two main characters, Bishop and Wilson are great and mesh well together. Both actors are relatively unknown and didn’t go on to become big stars, but they are the right people for these roles and they end up being quite memorable. The score on all of Carpenter’s movies is good, and in here it adds that extra element of suspense that would be missing without it.

It initially received mixed reviews and didn’t do well at the box office, but has a very strong cult following. It was really limited to mostly festival viewing when it was released in 1976 through 1979, until Halloween came out and it finally got a New York Times review [2]. Had it been seen earlier by a larger audience, this film would’ve declared Carpenter to be competent and rising director.

A remake was made in 2005 starring Ethan Hawke and Lawrence Fishburne, but is nowhere near as good as the original. If you’re a fan of the remake, the director, or action films, then you really need to watch this one. Personally, it is my favorite Carpenter film and I love them all.

Works Cited

[1]	"IMDB," IMDB, 22 2 2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074156/?ref_=nv_sr_3. [Accessed 22 2 2016].
[2]	Cumbow, Order in the Universe: The Films of John Carpenter.

Saturday, September 3, 2016

God Told Me To (1976)

“IT WILL GIVE YOU NIGHTMARES FOREVER” [1]. New York police detective Peter Nicholas (Tony LoBianco) is investigating a series of killings in New with the only consistency between them is that they all say that the reason they did it was because “god told me to.”

This was essentially a precursor to the X-files series, with many of the same elements that appear in the show-alien abductions, religion, the cop that believes and won’t let go of a case, the superiors who don’t believe him, powerful elements, and unexpected and bizarre twists.

Written and directed by Larry Cohen, who is known for several other cult films including Bone, Black Caesar, Hell Up in Harlem, It’s Alive, and The Stuff. Cohen has been able to create a rich and complex world consisting of vivid characters, realistic dialogue and situations, a weird story, all in vibrant New York City locations. Cohen typically looks at social situations and dilemma’s affecting the characters, similar to the way that Alfred Hitchcock did [2]. The film borrows from Hitchcock in many ways, using motifs and recreating some scenes but using them in an unfamiliar way in order to explore new and unfamiliar territory [2].

All of the actors are great and very believable, even ones with very minor parts which is not typical for most low budget movies. LoBianco stands out in his lead performance. He has had a long career and is still an active actor, but this has to be one of his best performances. He also appeared in The French Connection, and the cult film The Honeymoon Killers. There are many great and interesting shots with rapid editing. The score is incredibly done and is reminiscent of old Hitchcock films, most notably Psycho. Bernard Hermann was supposed to score the film; he had done most of Hitchcock’s films, but died before completion of the film. Frank Cordell completed the score with some help from the notes that Hermann had left behind.

Andy Kaufman makes his first appearance in this film as the cop that goes on a shooting rampage at the parade. Kaufman is a comedian mostly known for his appearances on the early seasons of Saturday Night Live, and as Latka on the television show Taxi. TimeOut conducted a poll with various horror experts in the horror genre to vote for the top horror films; this included notable authors of the genre, directors, actors, and critics [3]. This film ended up being ranked 94^th on that list [3].

The film is notable for its early Kaufman appearance, excellent New York location, and unusual X-file like story. If you like the X-Files, or the horror genre, then you may enjoy this.

Works Cited

[1]	"IMDB," IMDB, 24 2 2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075930/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1. [Accessed 24 2 2016].
[2]	T. Williams, Larry Cohen: The Radical Allegories of an Independent Filmmaker, rev. ed., Jefferson: McFarland & Company, inv, 2014.
[3]	"Timeout," Timeout, 14 4 2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.timeout.com/london/film/best-horror-films. [Accessed 14 4 2016].

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Complete Barbara Steele Film Poster Collection

This is the complete movie poster collection of the iconic and beautiful cult film star Barbara Steele, beginning in 1958 through 2016.It also includes some lobby cards and stills from some of her motion pictures.