Halloween 2020: October 9th

The Last Man on Earth (1964)

Richard Matheson's “I Am Legend” is one of those books that quietly changed the genre landscape. Its impact was not immediate but has only grown with time. Matheson's conceit was simple enough. If a vampire in a world of humans is a monster, then a human in a world of vampires would also be a monster. His novel would have a wide influence on the post-apocalyptic genre, which was only beginning to take hold in pop culture in 1954. Moreover, Matheson's vision of a fast-spreading virus that turns people into undead creatures would inspire George A. Romero's “Night of the Living Dead.” So, even though it's a vampire story, “I Am Legend” indirectly birthed the entire zombie concept as we know it. Matheson's novel has been adapted to film three times. The first, most faithful, and best is 1964's “The Last Man on Earth.”

Robert Morgan is the last man on Earth. One year ago, an air-borne virus began to sweep across the globe. The infected displayed debilitating symptoms before dying and then seemingly returning to life. Mindless entities with a hunger for blood, and an aversion to garlic and mirrors, the revived can only be described as vampires. Robert Morgan is immune to the virus. As society collapses, he's soon the only regular person left alive in the city. He spends his days staking sleeping vampires, looking for supplies, lost in his memories, and trying to survive. Most recently, he's seen evidence that someone else has been killing vampires. He's spotted loose signs that other people may survive. Robert Morgan is the last man on Earth... But he's not alone.

Watching “The Last Man on Earth” during the COVID-19 pandemic is a very different experience than previous times I've watched it. Sometimes the parallels are startling. During a lengthy flashback, we see Robert and his wife attempt to have a party for their daughter. The good time is hampered by news about the virus, a free-floating anxiety in the air. Inevitably, the daughter catches the disease and grows increasingly sick. She's confined to bed, loosing her vision. Robert tells the wife to pull her out of school. When she dies, she's tossed into the back of a truck and dumped into a mass grave. Is this how the folks in New York felt earlier in the year, when the bodies of their loved ones were piling up inside hockey rinks? That sense that society can no longer withstands such fast-moving change, that grim certainty that everything is falling apart, is all too familiar now.

It's not just the grim feeling of watching everything fall apart that “The Last Man on Earth” so accurately captures. As Robert gets up every morning, from another restless night, he goes through his mental checklist. He has a passionless breakfast, gathers supplies, checks his defenses, and makes more stakes. Some days, Robert looses the ability to focus entirely, the constant stress overwhelming him. This type of weary determination, moving ahead even though everything feels lost, is also very familiar in 2020. Vincent Price's performance, free of his usual campy flourishes, perfectly captures this combination of exhaustion, restlessness, and emotional burn-out. Even his voice-over narration, largely unneeded and frequently distracting, contributes to this feeling. Of repeating daily patterns that have long since lost their meaning.

As good as “The Last Man on Earth” is at capturing the hopelessness of living through a pandemic, the movie is less successful as a horror movie. Yes, the vampires do act rather zombie-like. They have none of the strengths of traditional vampires and all of their weaknesses. They shamble and moan. Morgan admits that one doesn't put up much of a fight. A few time, he pushes them away without much effort. While later zombie movies made the undead masses into a creditable threat, that never happens here. He even runs over a few with his car in one scene. Once Robert learns he's been killing innocent people caught halfway between life and vampirism, “Last Man on Earth” largely abandons the vampire apocalypse concept. Our hero spends the last act running from machine gun-wielding hunters in black suits and limply throwing smoke grenades to the ground. 

Yes, “The Last Man on Earth” is more sad than scary. The bitterly ironic ending of Matheson's book become almost nihilistic here, as the last hope for humanity is killed by the exact people he could save. But at least Robert Morgan, so haunted by the loss of his family, is reunited with them in death. The film certainly captures a fittingly bleak atmosphere, largely helped by the empty Rome locations it was shot in. As a predecessor to the zombie genre, “The Last Man on Earth” is underwhelming. As an end-of-the-world thriller, it's far more distressing. Re-watching this in 2020, it turns out, wasn't a great idea. Though Matheson would co-write the script, he disliked the final film and was credited under a pseudonym. I can only imagine what he thought of the later adaptations, which strayed further from his book. While Matheson's ideal version – starring Harrison Ford, directed by George Miller – sounds pretty great, something must be said for this original, even if it doesn't totally work. [7/10]

Embodiment of Evil (2008)

Encarnação do Demônio

From my admittedly limited research, it seems horror films fell out of vogue in Brazil after the end of the seventies. Jose Mojica Marins would direct a few horror films throughout the eighties – none of which seem to have been subtitled – but spent most of the decade making sex films. During that time, several attempts were made to conclude the Zé do Caixão trilogy, to finish the story that began in “At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul” and “This Night I'll Posses Your Corpse.” Production always fell apart before too long. After the completion of 1987's “Demons and Wonders,” an autobiographical documentary, Marins wouldn't make another feature film until 2008... When, finally, the stars would align and “Embodiment of Evil,” the final Coffin Joe movie, would be released.

Zé do Caixão did not drown to death at the end of “This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse.” Instead, he emerged from the lake, clarified he didn't believe in God, and poked a cop's eye out. The insane undertaker spent the next three decades in prison. Since thirty years is the maximum sentence allowed by Brazilian law, Coffin Joe is unleashed back into the world. He immediately resumes his quest for the perfect woman, to beget the perfect son with. A cult has sprung up around Coffin Joe's teachings and they help him in his quest. The various people the mad mortician has pissed off over the years – that one-eyed cop, the unhinged monk son of a previous victim – seek to end him before he reaches his goal. 

Though Coffin Joe appeared in various media in the intervening decades, :”Embodiment of Evil” sees the character truly re-entering the world after forty years. And the world was a very different place in 2008 than it was in 1968. The film admits how ridiculous Zé do Caixão looked in modern day São Paulo, in a semi-comedic scene where he visits a restaurant. Mostly, the filmmakers attempt to bring the character into the modern day while maintaining continuity with the original. Mojica's wacky scene transitions are maintained. So is some of his rough technique, such as when the camera spins around after a car almost hits the newly free Coffin Joe. “Embodiment of Evil's” cinematography is filled with foggy cemeteries and shadowy nights. The climax is set in a corny carnival dark ride, the brutality of Coffin Joe standing alongside papier-mâché Frankensteins and mummies. Which really brings things full circle.

As in those classic films, Mojica has his trademark character doing double duty as both a horrifying villain and a subversive antihero. The church is not so much the target of his scorn this time. Instead, the police is the social institution Coffin Joe is raging against here. Within hours of being released, Zé spots a cop killing two kids. He slits the guy's throat but he survives. He spends the rest of the movie outrunning the local police, who are openly corrupt and use their authority for petty revenge. Coffin Joe may be the most depraved son-of-a-bitch in Brazil but he's still better than a fucking cop. “Embodiment of Evil” shows Mojica continuing to use his trashy genre pictures as a source of social commentary and anti-authoritarian politics. 

It's not just the changes in Brazilian society that “Embodiment of Evil” reflects. The much more recent sequel also shows how permissive film was, how extreme the horror genre was, in 2008. Throughout the film, Coffin Joe punishes his enemies and “tests” his prospective brides. Which results in the most sadistic torture sequences Mojica's warped mind could concoct. Naked women are dunked in a barrel of blood, sewn up inside a pig carcass, and forced to eat their cut-off butt cheek. People are scalped, crucified, branded, whipped, hung on hooks, and covered in bugs. The most disgusting scene involves a live rat being inserted into a very uncomfortable place. While the special effects are much more convincing than they were in 1968, it's still the sheer ferocity – a wild sense of transgression – that makes these scenes truly unnerving. 

It's not just the gut-churning gore that makes “Embodiment of Evil” effective. The years have shown that Mojica's skill for surreal, gothic nightmares haven't faded any either. Throughout the film, Coffin Joe is haunted by the ghosts of his past victims. In a nice touch, these ghosts are in black-and-white while the rest of the film is in color. Disembodied corpses birthing spiders, murder victims pull knives from their throat, and dead mothers offer dead infants. The movie's most surreal sequence is a visit to Purgatory, following the second film's trip to Hell. After a room fills with blood, Coffin Joe is lead through a fleshy hallway – like a giant artery – before being witness to cannibalism and mutilation. It's pretty rad and brought to life with the same unhinged imagination Mojica displayed in his best films. "Embodiment of Evil" wraps up with a haunting image of a corpse leaping back to life to have sex one more time, as spooky and profane an image as any other the director would create.

There's also a degree of camp here. Despite all the horrors he's seen and reaped, a simple snake is enough to frighten ol' Joe in one scene.  “Embodiment of Evil” would not quite be the end of Jose Mojca Marins' directorial career. He would contribute segments to three separate anthologies: “The Profane Exhibit,” “The Black Fables” and “Memórias da Boca.” Yet it's only fitting that his final outing as Coffin Joe would essentially be his last movie. Somehow, the filmmaker managed to wrap the character up on a fitting, even poetic, note... After about ninety minutes of the sickest shit he could think up. This even resulted in some critical praise, as “Embodiment of Evil” won some awards in Brazil. It seemed Brazil's premiere underground filmmaker finally earned some respect with his swan song. [8/10]

Amazing Stories: Go to the Head of the Class

We have “Amazing Stories” to thank for the full-blown revival of the genre anthology show in 1985. Steven Spielberg, leveraging all his power as the most successful director in Hollywood, conceived a series loosely inspired by the pulp magazine title of the same name. Every week, a new story in the sci-fi, fantasy, or horror genre would premiere on TV. Spielberg would bring A-list talent, film-worthy special effects, and big budgets to the show. He even got John Williams to compose a spiffy theme song, which played against a brilliant opening sequence that chronicled the history of storytelling. Other networks were determined to keep up with this sure-to-be-a-hit show, launching anthology series of their own. Despite the hype and prestige, “Amazing Stories” would not catch on with audiences and ended after two seasons. Still, the show produced a number of episode that would later be recognized as classics. Such as “Go to the Head of the Class,” an hour-long special from season two that was directed by Robert Zemeckis.

Peter is a teenage horror fan who serially oversleeps and is late to class. Professor Beanes is his tyrannical literature teacher. After standing up for a girl he likes, New Wave punk Cynthia, Peter is harshly punished in class. Cynthia convinces Peter to perform some black magic on Beanes. After a misadventure where they gather the ingredients needed for the spell to work, the duo finds their incantation worked too well. Professor Beanes is dead... But attempts to bring him back to life also go horribly wrong. Before the two teens know it, both are being relentlessly pursued by the teacher's decapitated body and disembodied head.

“Go to the Head of the Class” has several factors in its favor. Robert Zemeckis and his team pack this hour full of as much classic horror atmosphere as possible. The cemetery Cynthia and Peter explore is a beautifully foggy set, making for an amusingly spooky location. The two teens are a likable duo, as the more adventurous Cynthia – played by a charming Mary Stuart Masterson – pushed the lovably doofy Peter into more trouble. A running theme throughout the episode is how much sex and romance can convince people to do dangerous stuff, which adds a nice extra layer to the proceedings. Christopher Lloyd is amusingly hammy as Professor Beanes, creating a perfectly despicable villain and having such a good time while doing it. Once the headless zombie angle emerges, “Go to the Head of the Class” goes full speed-ahead into wacky horror/comedy. There's a lot of fine slapstick in the scenes of the reanimated corpse bumbling around. Co-writers Mick Garris and Tom McLoughlin – of “Jason Lives!” fame – probably deserve a lot of credit for that. With a little expansion, this could've been a cult classic feature. [8/10]

Forever Knight: Francesca

As “Forever Knight” nears the end of its final season, the show embraces one of the most unfortunate then-cliches of the crime genre. A killer is leaving dead bodies – stabbed in the heart, drained of blood, and marked with a kiss – around the city. Nick suspects a vampire but can't help but feel something is off. Meanwhile, a man named Frank LoPietro is undergoing hypnotism-induced past life regression. He believes himself to be the reincarnation of Francesca, a vampire Nick was involved with in the 18th century... Who he ended up killing. Nick soon fears that LoPietro does recall his past life and that Francesca's bloodthirsty ways may be taking over his body. 

Let's just get this out of the way: “Francesca” is an uncritical example of the Evil Crossdresser trope. Halfway through the episode, the Francesca personality fully takes over Frank's body. He puts on make-up, a wig, and a dress before continuing to kill. Naturally, he ends up dying in a gruesome manner. The episode never uses words like “transgender” or any then-current equivalent phrases. But it's still using the image of a man-in-woman's-clothing, of gender identities being blurred, for easy shock value. Beyond the politically incorrect elements, this simply isn't a very good episode. The identity of the killer is revealed so early on, it can't qualify as a mystery. The past lives element never comes to any sort of point. The final scene, which suggests Tracy Vetter has past life experiences of her own, is dumb. About the only thing I liked about this one is the action scenes, where Nick uses his vampire super-speed. Those were mildly neat. [5/10]