This blog was begun Tuesday Night, October 27 2020 :
Tonight I watched Roger Corman's "The Wasp Woman"(1959), starring Susan Cabot as the owner of a cosmetics company who, with the help of a Mad Scientist, begins experimenting with an anti-aging extract made from wasp enzymes. When she shows up at the office looking years younger, she announces to her board of directors that they're to start a new marketing campaign with herself as the figurehead. "We're about to revolutionize the industry", she tells them.
Unfortunately (and of course), there are side effects. When the scientist is hospitalised following a traffic accident, Cabot begins injecting herself with the extract in order to speed up her return to youth. All this does is turn her into a Wasp Woman faster than you can say "Jack Robinson", because the movie is only 61 minutes long and Corman has to keep things buzzing. It's not one of his better pictures. I was aware of the movie's poor reputation going in, having read reviews and synopses, but what attracted me was the Blu-ray print on Youtube (and I have since answered my own question from last week : "Yes, they do indeed make Blu-rays from black and white movies").
"The Wasp Woman" has it's moments, particularly at the end, when Cabot turns into a bug-eyed monstrisity with the help of a pull-over mask. It's a cheap "Fly" rip-off, but it's still the kind of thing that would've scared the living bejeezus out of me, had I seen it as a seven year old on late night TV. If that had been the case, I might have considered the movie a horror classic, at least until I saw it again as an adult. Because unlike other "child terrifying" classics like "The Brain That Wouldn't Die", with it's Horrible Potato Head Monster, "The Wasp Woman" would never have stood the test of time nor held up to scrutiny, except perhaps as a commentary on aging. Corman likes to do a bit of social commentary on occasion, via black humor, but it's too obvious here. The fast pacing is a plus, however, as is the competent acting and the manic jazz score.
See "The Wasp Woman" only for the Blu-ray print, and if you are a Corman Completist.
Much better was John Carpenter's "Prince of Darkness"(1987), which I watched a few nights ago while I was still at home. I saw it in the theater when it was released, then I bought the dvd about fifteen years ago. Overall, I'd guess I've seen the movie about six times now, but it wasn't until this most recent screening that it finally hit me, and when it was over I was ready to place it near the top of the Horror Heap as a minor masterpiece.
Do you like John Carpenter? If you're a horror fan, chances are the answer is "yes". Certainly you know "The Thing", his big-budget remake of the seminal 1950s sci-fi classic "The Thing From Another World". And you also know "Halloween", the flick that made "Slasher Movie" a household term. Those are Carpenter's most famous films ("They Live" was a big one, too), but he also has some lesser known works that fall into the "weird" category, like "Into The Mouth of Madness" w/Sam Neill. "Prince of Darkness" is one such film.
An elderly priest dies after serving for many years as the caretaker of an abandoned church on the outskirts of downtown Los Angeles. Upon his death, a key is given to one of his brethren (Donald Pleasence). The key is special; it unlocks a door in the church's basement. Beyond that door is a large room, filled with protective candles, and a large ornate cylinder at the far end. The cylinder is filled with a rotating, glowing green liquid that - as it turns out - is the ancient essence of Satan. A team of parapsychologists is enlisted to study the phenomenon, but it doesn't work out too well for them. Their slow demise is paced by a hypnotic Carpenter score that sets the rhythm for the movie. /////
This part of the blog was written tonight, Thursday October 29 2020 :
And last but definitely not least, tonight I finally saw "The Plague of the Zombies" (1966), the legendary Hammer Studios production directed by John Gilling. I first heard of this movie about six or seven years ago. It kept popping up in various recommendations, on Amazon and IMDB. The trouble was, it had gone out of print and the dvd was a collector's item, meaning the few that were available were high priced. Much as I wanted to see it, I wasn't about to shell out 50-75 bucks, but over the years I kept checking. Alas, I never was able to score a copy.........but wait! In 2019, Shout Factory released a Blu-ray of "Plague". Wow! There must've been a lot of fans like me, who were intrigued by the title and the positively gruesome picture on the original dvd box, and who wanted to know more. Shout Factory to the rescue! The only trouble was, they too wanted an arm and a leg for their Blu-ray : 23 smackers, which, when shipping and tax were added on, meant that you were gonna be forking over around 30 bucks for the motion picture. I was tempted when I first heard the news, but then my inner George Bush kicked in, and I thought....."Not gonna do it. Wouldn't be prudent". I mean, I would've gone 20. But 30? No can do.
So I waited some more, and then came Halloween season 2020. I hoped for a sale, but none was in the offing. I am nothing if not dogged in my pursuits, however, and as I continued scanning the web for Horror Movies On Sale, I came across not a discount for the Blu-ray but a used copy on Amazon of the original dvd, the one with the Gruesome Picture Box. The guy only wanted 12 bucks for it, in "like new" condition. I guess he figured that, with the Blu-ray out, no one would want to buy his regular copy, which would have gone for big bucks a couple years earlier.
But he wasn't considering me, who had been tracking "The Plague of the Zombies" for quite some time. I jumped on his offer, bought the dvd, got it in the mail about a week ago, and saved it for tonight so I could watch it close to Halloween. You could say I'm a Horror Fan.
"But Ad, forget all of that. All we wanna know is 'was it any good' " ?
Well, you know how sometimes you anticipate something, be it a new album by your favorite band, or a trip to a museum exhibit, or a restaurant you've heard was incredible, or whatever? And sometimes you're let down, even just a little bit?
This was not one of those times.
"The Plague of the Zombies" lives up to it's reputation and then some. It's the kind of film Hammer Studios was made for, so full of grim imagery and anti-social thought processes that you're left wondering what the deal is with human beings. This one is right up there with "Blood On Satan's Claw" as far as English countryside horror is concerned, but it's much darker. Sorry to gross you out, but it's about graves and dead people, and it's art directed in a way that only the Brits could pull off. There's something about those folks, the Stiff Upper Lip and all, but nothing seems to phase them.
The movie is set in Victorian England. Andre Morrell stars as a doctor and medical professor who visits his daughter in a small village outside Coventry. While there, he receives a message from a former pupil. There have been a number of Strange Deaths in the next town over, where the pupil is the physician. Will the professor lend his expert opinion to help solve the mystery?
Meanwhile, a Country Squire, the most powerful man in the region, is conducting Voodoo rituals in his Humongous Mansion, which is set next to an Old Mine. He is a Creep of the first order, he's got a set of voodoo dolls and a death mask, and a team of Hatians to help him. The movie opens with a few of them playing bongo drums, then things go downhill from there.
The horror takes a while to build, but when it does, stand back. The last half hour of this movie is as great as Hammer ever got.
Watch it if you dare. ////
See you in the morning, with much love during the night. xoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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