Even if a movie is well received within the horror fandom, that doesn't mean it has any chance of breaking out into the mainstream. Yet Damian Leone must've struck a nerve – so to speak – with Art the Clown. “Terrifier” was a hit on the convention circuit. Its sequel, meanwhile, would receive a limited theatrical release last October... Which proved so successful that the release was extended for several weeks longer than the initial engagement. “Terrifier 2” would eventually gross over 15 million dollars at the box office – considerably more than its 250,000 budget – and even cracked the weekend Top 10 chart. This was unprecedented for a micro-budget horror sequel so gory an MPAA rating was never even a possibility. With that surprise success, came controversy. This is a movie made for horror sickos that broke containment, exposing a whole new audience to Art the Clown's style of carnage. A year later, fans and critics remain as divided on the franchise as ever. I guess it's my turn to weigh-in on last year's hot topic of blood-strewn discussion.
After his apparent death on Halloween 2017, deranged killer Art the Clown is resurrected. He finds a kindred spirit in a spectral little girl that only he can seemingly see. One year later, Art resumes his massacre. Meanwhile, teenage girl Sienna Shaw notices that her little brother Jonathan is obsessed with the murderer dubbed the Miles County Clown. This is because Sienna and Jonathan's father – who recently died – left a notebook full of drawings of Art. Also among those drawings was a sketch of Sienna as a warrior angel, a costume she recreates on Halloween. She is also having dreams of Art and the clown is seemingly hunting her down. After brutalizing her friends, he kidnaps Jonathan and draws Sienna to an abandoned carnival ground, preparing for a bloody showdown.
What makes this obvious is how much time is invested in Sienna and her family. Much was made of “Terrifier 2's” 138 minute run time, which is considerably longer than your average slasher flick. Lauren LaVera gives a lived-in performance as the teenage girl, who is still grappling with the death of her father. Her relationship with her over-stressed mother is strained. But, in a surprisingly sweet scene, it's made clear that she does love her mom. Far from being generic slasher fodder, we get to know Sienna's friends, Brooke and Allie, too. There's a specificity to these characters, allowing them to be far more fleshed-out than is expected. While Elliot Fullam is stiffer as little brother Jonathan, the script takes his grief seriously too. As tempted as one might be to dismiss “Terrifer 2” as nothing but an effect reel or a kill-fest, the filmmaker cares about these people. He wants us to care too.
Ultimately though, as much as “Terrifier 2” strives to be taken seriously as a quote-unquote “real” movie, it is definitely a gore-fest too. Art chops off a dick, blows off a head, bashes in a face, rips out a heart, gouges out an eye, and many other forms of execution. Leone's special effects background shows, in moments when an eye twitches as someone is being decapitated. Guts and maggots are shoved in our faces. The sickening center piece of the film is an excruciating torture sequence, where Art rips apart one of Sienna's friends. It goes on and on, Art going at the young girl like he's a pissed-off chimpanzee or something. And just when you think it's over, he busts out the salt and bleach. It's excruciating. What is the purpose of such an excessive moment of gory spectacle like this, if not to show off the writer/director's twisted imagination and push audience's tolerance as far as possible? On one hand, I was impressed and, on the other hand, I had to ask why the fuck I was watching this.
I'm sure the writer/director will have a chance to expand on these story threads in a third film, which is already in production and intended for release next year. There are elements to the ultra-gory slasher sequel that I admire. If nothing else, the film succeeds in getting us invested in its characters. As in the first, there's an intensity and disturbing cruelty on-display in many of the horrific scenes. I may not care for Art the Clown as a character but David Howard Thornton does a good job of playing him. It's definitely a step-up from the first one, with a stronger perspective beyond just trying to freak the viewer out. I understand now why these films have passionate fan followings. I'll even say that “Terrifier 2” is well-done in many respects. But I'm still veering towards the opinion that these movies probably just aren't for me... [7/10]
Roger Corman is well-known for many things. Such as pumping out countless B-movies at a ridiculously fast clip for astonishingly little money. Or the surprisingly endearing quality of these exploitation films, despite their minuscule budgets. Among respectable film aficionados, Corman is probably best known for stewarding up-and-coming filmmakers into the industry. Before he gave Scorsese, Coppola, Demme, Cameron, Dante, or Bogdanovich their first jobs, his short-lived Filmgroup company hired an aspiring director named Monte Hellman. Before winning critical acclaim for “Two-Lane Blacktop” or “The Shooting,” Hellman made monster movie “Beast from Haunted Cave” for the Corman brothers. And like fellow Filmgroup productions, “Attack of the Giant Leeches” and “The Wasp Woman,” this one has fallen into the public domain as well.
A criminal plot is brewing in the ski lodge town of Deadwood, South Dakota. A man named Ward has organized a criminal scheme to grab the gold bars from a bank vault. The plan is to have his moll, Gypsy, seduce a park ranger, Gil Jackson. Another gang member, Marty, will then set-off a bomb in a near-by cave. This will create a distraction, allowing the robbery to proceed, before Gil leads the group into the woods where a plane will pick them up. The plan starts to go awry when Gypsy begins to actually fall for Gil, who is beginning to suspect the truth. Things get much worst when a spider-like monster emerges from the cave and starts to eat people.
In fact, “Beast from Haunted Cave” manages to mine a surprising amount of tension from this bank robber set-up. From the moment Gil is introduced to the gang, you can tell that Ward doesn't trust him. The ringleader is clearly prone to violence and Gil romancing his main squeeze threatens his superiority. This dovetails nicely with the criminal deception the crooks are attempting to pull off. It all leads to the audience having several questions. When will Gil uncover the truth about the situation? Will that come before Ward goes off and attacks him? Combine this with the snowy, isolated, forested location, and you have a decent set-up for a little crime thriller.
Whether this trade-off is worth it is a matter of personal taste. I enjoy the crime movie aspect of “Beast from Haunted Cave.” Yet the script lays the cards down a little too early, paying off the rivalry between the hero and the villain long before the finale kicks in. That should've been sustained a little longer. I also don't think it would've been a bad idea to give the silk-shooting spectre a little more screen time. (Though, considering the amount of money Filmgroup was working with, the monster being used sparingly was probably a budgetary decision.) Still, some of the eccentricities that define Hellman's later films are evident here. And, if “Beast from Haunted Cave” has no other distinction, I'm pretty sure it's the best horror movie set in South Dakota. [7/10]
Once again, I return to “Ghost Story,” the little loved but underrated horror anthology series produced by William Castle and hosted by Sebastian Cabot. The sixth episode, “Alter Ego,” features a story from celebrated “Star Trek” author, D.C. Fontana. It's about Robert, a little boy who has been confined to his room following an injury. Out of boredom, he creates an imaginary doppelganger of himself to play chess with. Growing increasingly sickly, Robert is unnerved to discover that the double he created has started going to school in his place. While Robert is kind, his copy is a little sociopath who enjoys tormenting his long time teacher and next door neighbor, Miss Gilden. As the evil Bobby starts to take over the boy's life, the conflict with the teacher intensifies.
Too many creepy kid stories assume the fright factor inherent in the premise comes from the sight of supposedly innocent little kids acting inappropriately. Anyone who has spent real amounts of time around young children know what's actually scary about them is how conniving and nuts they can be. The best example of this often abused subgenre, like “The Bad Seed” or “The Good Son,” play this up instead. Thankfully, that's the angle “Alter Ego” rolls with as well. Watching little Bobby gaslight his teacher makes for deviously wicked fun. The way he vacillates between innocent and evil is effectively sinister, as is his ability to make the matronly old woman doubt her own instincts. The episode also generates some uneasy tension from the idea that the evil Bobby likes to torture animals, a common indicator of sociopathic behavior. Any one upset by dead pets might want to skip this one.
“Herman's Peace Offensive” sees the Munsters dealing with a predictable issue of parenthood. Eddie is being bullied by a kid at school. Similarly, a new co-worker of Herman's is a mean-spirited practical joker. When both men try the strategy of peaceful resistance, they receive black eyes. That's when Grandpa advises both his son-in-law and his grandson to be more forceful with bullies. Eddie gets in trouble at school again in “Herman Picks a Winner.” The young werewolf is caught pitching pennies. Seeking to teach his son a lesson about the futility of gambling, Herman bets ten bucks on a horse sure to loose. Instead, the equine is successful, proving that Herman has a talent for picking unlikely winners. Japes ensue when bookies – and Grandpa – get involved.
“Herman's Peace Offensive” is about as close as “The Munsters” got to a character-driven episode, though it still contains plenty of the goofy, physical jokes we associate with this program. One imagines the only way the Munsters have been able to integrate into human society has been by embracing pacifism. Of course, then, as now, some people just really need a sock in the jaw to learn to back off. This causes both father and son to go too far in the other direction, becoming brutes. It's a good lesson to teach – that a balance of standing up for yourself but not being an asshole – is necessary. The episode undermines this a little by going for the easy sight gag of Lily smacking her husband around. See, it's okay when wives beat their husbands! “The Munsters” is always at its weakest when depicting Lily as a battle axe. Otherwise, there's several goofy jokes here, such as the opening bit of Herman acting like a typical movie monster for less than monstrous reasons, the prankster at the funeral home confronting Herman, and the final lesson Eddie is taught.
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