Halloween 2021: October 7th

The Changeling (1980)

I can never tell if haunted house movies are for me or not. I don't personally believe in ghost but they can be compelling as fictional ideas, for what they represent. I love a good, spooky gothic locations... Yet haunting movies often have the logic problem of why doesn't the protagonist simply leave the ghost-infested home? I also find the stock plot, of uncovering what unfinished business is keeping the spectre here in this home, tedious more often than not. The epitome of this divide within me is how I feel about “The Changeling.” It's a movie that should work for me, for a number of reason, but has always left me a little cold. Let's see how if feelings shift, if at all, on this most recent re-watch. 

Composer John Russell looses his wife and daughter in a horrible accident. Self-isolating in his grief, he purchases a Victorian mansion from the Seattle historical society. No matter how much John wants to be alone, it soon becomes clear that he is not. Doors slam by themselves. Faucets turn on mysterious. He soon begins to suspect the home is haunted. Digging into the building's past, and aided by ghostly visions, he soon uncovers a connection between the home and a local prominent senator. The spirit of the young boy will not let John rest until he resolves the mystery of its death.

“The Changeling” certainly has all the ingredients necessary for a top-shelf haunted house movie. The mansion is a hell of a location, full of dark corridors, mysterious towers, and a central staircase that makes an impression. Peter Medak's direction exploits these sets for all they're worth. His camera often peers down the shadowy hallways and around door frames, suggesting a ghostly presence even when none is around. The musical score by Rick Wilkins, largely composed of a melancholy music box melody and escalating piano keys, further elevates the film's spooky atmosphere. By the finale, when an aggressive wheelchair appears, “The Changeling” has created a suitably tense and creepy feeling in the viewer.

Something else that elevates “The Changeling” is George C. Scott, one of my all-time favorite performers. As a heart-broken man, Scott is certainly compelling. Early scenes, where he wakes up crying or is clearly left numb by his grief, go a long way. Scott's gravelly talents are more restrained here, though he does get to growl and yell in a few scenes. “The Changeling” is a movie about how the past refuses to stay buried. Presumably, John Russell's own grief ties into this, his own unresolved pain concerning his dead wife and daughter. Yet if you're hoping for the protagonist's personal journey to tie in with the haunting plot, you might be disappointed. Russell's own loss is hardly mentioned after the first hour. No matter how strong Scott's performance is, and he's a professional like always, the role does feel a bit incomplete.

And that represents another issue I have with “The Changeling.” For a haunting movie, it's very plot-heavy. John Russell uncovers a conspiracy involving a murdered child, an inheritance, a secret adoption, and big government power. There is some interesting ideas here, about the dead returning to haunt the living because of a political cover-up. How those victimized by the rich and powerful can see justice after death. Yet the connection between the haunting and the senator – played by a stern and stately Melvyn Douglas – is explained too quickly. The movie's entire second half is dependent on an info dump. No matter how effective “The Changeling” as it heads towards its finale – and there's some great scenes here, including a strong climax – it feels out-of-balance because of the awkward plot mechanics. 

This, I suppose, is why I've never connected with “The Changeling” as much as I've wanted to. The movie actually worked for me quite a lot upon this viewing. There's a lot of great haunted house atmosphere here and that goes a long way on a windy October night. Some of those ghostly visions, especially a nightmare concerning the contents of a well, are pretty damn good. The movie remains beloved in most genre nerd circles and I'm doubtful that recently announced remake will result in anything too worthwhile. It's got a great location, is well directed, and knows how to bring the spooky vibes. Yet “The Changeling” is definitely a movie I admire more on a technical level than on an emotional one. [7/10]

Earth vs. the Spider (2001)

Cinemax's Creature Feature series was obviously rooted in the past, drawing the vaguest sort of inspiration from 1950's B-movies. Yet the films were, in an odd way, attempting to be cutting edge too. The second entry, "Earth Vs. the Giant Spider," was the second directorial credit of Scott Ziehl, who previously made the critically acclaimed micro-budget thriller "Broken Vessels." More pointedly, this is a movie riffing on Spider-Man a year before that iconic character's big budget screen debut changed blockbuster cinema forever. I have no doubt Stan Winston and the other Creature Feature producers were aware of the upcoming Sam Raimi adaptation, though the B-movie rip-off coming out seven months beforehand may just be a wacky coincidence. 

Quentin lives in a New York apartment with only his adorable pet beagle to keep him company. He occupies his time crushing on Stephanie, his next door neighbor, and visiting the local comic shop. He admires the comic book superhero the Arachnid Avenger. Yet his real life, which includes working as a security guard at a genetics engineering lab, falls short of his fantastical daydreams. Following a violent break-in at work, during which Quentin's co-worker is shot dead, he's feeling especially hopeless. That's when he impulsively injects himself with the serum the lab is working on, which coincidently involves spiders. At first, Quentin is delighted to develop spider-like powers... But soon begins undergoing a horrible metamorphosis, which brings with it an overwhelming hunger. 

There is, in fact, a pretty interesting idea at the center of “Earth Vs. The Spider.” Quentin looks up to the Arachnid Avenger because his superpowers allow him to enforce justice in the world. In his day-to-day life, Quentin is tormented by cartoonish bullies, who seem like extras from an old film noir. In his lowly gig as a security guard, he's repeatedly belittled. Even after living through the trauma of seeing his partner killed, actual cops beat him up and blame him for the violence. He refers to criminals as “insects” and eagerly talks about his desire to punish crime. His first heroic act is rescuing Stephanie from a sexual assault... Yet he acts as judge, jury, and executioner in this moment, killing the attacker by tossing him through a door. In his second outing as a superhero, he bumbles into a situation without really assessing it. He kills a young Pedro Pascal who is guilty of nothing more than doing some choke-play with his girlfriend at work. (Don't think about it too much.) The film does, in its own way, interrogate the motivation behind the superhero fantasy: That it's based in a fascistic desire for control that would be dangerous, and wholly irresponsible, to apply to real life. 

“Earth Vs. the Spider's” attempts to deconstruct the superhero premise eventually runs into its role as a horror movie. Quentin injecting himself with spider serum causes him to slowly transform into a hideous spider/human hybrid. His fingers fuse together into arachnid-like feelers. He sprouts a pulsating spinneret from his chest that looks like a hairy butthole. By the end, he's growing extra eyes, sprouting additional legs, and hanging people up in giant webs. With Stan Winston's studio providing the effects, the make-up is obviously pretty good. Yet the movie's attempts to play this transformation for horror is often more goofy than scary. Quentin being unable to communicate with Stephanie because he has giant mandibles jutting out of his mouth is unintentionally funny, when I think pathos was the intended effect. (Also pretty silly are the comic book style transitions Ziehl utilizes throughout the film, whose direction is otherwise flat and very workmanlike.) 

In a lot of ways, “Earth Vs. the Spider” is just too underdeveloped to be effective. Stephanie and Quentin, played by Amelia Heinle and Devon Gummersall, have decent enough chemistry that the reveal that she's secretly a comic book nerd too doesn't come off totally as facile wish fulfillment. Yet there's still not enough heart to their story to make the tragic ending – one of many obvious nods to Cronenberg's “The Fly” – feel earned. A subplot involving a police detective, played by Dan Aykroyd for some reason, investigating the crimes feels totally superfluous. When the movie stops to focus on Aykroyd's wife cheating on him with another officer, it feels like the script has truly rambled off-topic. Also, John Cho appears as the proprietor of the comic shop and is forced to speak with an embarrassing pidgin accent. That's another subplot that ends up going absolutely nowhere. 

If “Earth Vs. the Spider” had focused more on the relationship Quentin has with those around him, and how his transformation into a monster effects them, it would've been a better film... But, then again, that would have also made it an even bigger rip-off of “The Fly” than it already is. So I don't blame the screenwriters for foregrounding the superhero stuff, even if the movie doesn't quite have the budget or vision to pull that stuff off either. (A shot of Quentin Spider-Manning up a wall is pretty poorly done.) The ending also features a cameo from the Stan Winston Creatures' action figure of Quentin, which raises some serious question. “Earth Vs. the Spider” has some cool ideas but is badly served by a jumbled-up, thin script. Scott Ziehl, by the way, would go on to direct straight-to-DVD sequels to “Cruel Intentions” and “Road House,” so the film hardly helped his career any. [5/10]

Tales from the Darkside: The Last Car

There are a lot of episodes of “Tales from the Darkside” that are notorious for traumatizing young viewers but “The Last Car” seems to be mentioned more than most. The episode follows Stacy, a young college student who is heading home to Providence for Thanksgiving break. She catches the train, the last train of the night. However, this is a very strange train indeed. Only three, very strange people are on the car with her: An old man who offers everyone sandwiches, an eccentric old woman knitting, and an annoying little boy who loudly plays. The conductor takes his time appearing to take Stacy's ticket. The rules aboard the train randomly change without warning. Occasionally, the train will pass through odd “tunnels,” sending the passengers into unusual spasms. Stacy sees no lights outside and the ride seems to go on for days. Stacy realizes, too late, that something isn't right.

From the opening minute of “The Last Car,” it's incredibly obvious what is happening here. Stacy is never going to make it to Providence. She either died or stumbled upon some sort of inescapable netherworld. What makes “The Last Car” both mildly hilarious and kind of spooky is how very vague its story is. No explanation is provided for how Stacy came to reside in this afterlife or whatever it is. If it's Hell, we don't know what she did to deserve this. Inside the train, a bunch of shit happens for no reason. The little boy's toy gun turns into a real machine gun at one point, shooting up the sandwich guy... Who then sits back up. Only blackness is glimpsed outside the windows and Stacy slowly becomes aware of her fate. The episode is either a nightmare put to film or a televised non-sequitur. Considering the ever-present chintzy production values of “Tales from the Darkside,” it feels more like the former than the latter.

Surreal horror might've been the goal here yet I think a more universal point was being made: That age-old statement of “Hell is other people.” The other passengers on the train are so very irritating. The old woman is both overly familiar and patronizing. The little boy is nonstop obnoxious. The old man seems utterly bored. The conductor, when he wanders on-screen, is a total eccentric. It's about the most depressing and slowly torturous depiction of the afterlife that I can imagine. I can see “The Last Car's” nonsensical spookiness and downbeat philosophy freaking out a little kid back in the eighties. Watching as an adult, it's too goofy to be scary but I can kind of appreciate this one is going for. [7/10]

A Short Vision (1956)

On May 27th, 1956, “The Ed Sullivan Show” held a special showing of a six-minute-long short film called “A Short Vision.” The animated movie provoked controversy and conversation, eventually receiving an encore presentation a few weeks later. This would cement “A Short Vision's” place in pop culture history, no matter how minor. The film, adapted from a poem by co-director Peter Foldes, depicts nothing less than the complete annihilation of the world in nuclear hellfire. It shows animals fleeing as an airplane, referred to only as “it,” flies overhead. The leaders and “wise men” look on as the population sleep in their beds. All are eradicated when “it” produces a mushroom cloud, the entire world reduced to a small burning cinder that is soon snuffed out. 

It's not just the grim content of “A Short Vision” that made it controversial back in 1956. When the atomic explosion that ends the world begins, the film depicts the leaders of the world looking on... And also shows the graphic death of one man, his eyes exploding and his skin burning off until he's nothing but bone. A similar fate is visited upon some of the other film's characters, who also gasp in fear before being reduced to nothing but bones themselves. It's easy to imagine this being too spicy a meatball for television audiences to handle back in the fifties. (Supposedly, Sullivan told the children watching on the first screening not to be alarmed, because it was just a cartoon, but would tell the kids to leave the room on the encore showing.)

Watched now, “A Short Vision” still holds a strange power. The animation is primitive yet still effective. The lion and deer look up at the passing plane stiffly, mechanically, almost more like shadow puppets than animated figures. This fits a film that intentionally involves the past, as the characters all look like something out of a medieval era painting. There's also a beauty of sorts, as the mushroom cloud is depicted as a burst of swirling colors. All the while, the narrator drolly describes his titular vision, which pairs well with the graphic violence and doom-and-gloom events. Cold War anxieties about Mutual Assured Destruction have been replaced by the encroaching inevitability of climate change, meaning mankind has still sealed its own fate. Maybe this is the real reason why, 65 years later, “A Short Vision” still resonates as a suitably unnerving depiction of the complete end of the world. [8/10]