Halloween 2019: October 23rd

The Stepfather (1987)

1987's “The Stepfather” was, for years, a classic of sleepover party horror. By which I mean, it's a movie a ton of horror fans first saw on VHS in their youths, the film scarring a ton of young folks at a pivotal age. This caused the movie's reputation to grow over the years. Especially because, for whatever reason, the movie wasn't available on DVD for many years. High quality bootlegs, ripped from television broadcast, were regularly passed around conventions. Considering how much fan demand there was for the title, one can only assume some weird rights issue kept it off disc for so long. Obviously this was eventually worked out.  “The Stepfather” came to DVD in 2009, thanks to the good folks at Shout Factory, and can now be easily enjoyed once again.

Stephanie is still feeling the sting of her father's death. It's been a year and she's not doing well in school. Her mom, meanwhile, is ready to move on. She's recently married a man named Jerry Blake. Jerry is a hardworking real estate agent. He's well-liked in the neighborhood and projects old fashion, wholesome values. Yet Stephanie finds something off-putting about Jerry. Her fears are confirmed when she discovers him in the basement, ranting in an unhinged fashion. Stephanie is right to be worried. Jerry Blake is actually a serial killer. He marries into a new family, murders them when they inevitably disappoint him, moves to a new town and assumes a new identity, before starting the murderous cycle over again.

There's an obvious reason “The Stepfather” was popular among young people when it was released. The film smartly capitalizes on common teenage fears. If you're a child of divorce, odds are good you've had to deal with the awkwardness of a step-parent or a new boyfriend/girlfriend moving in. They can never replace your actual father or mother, often leading to a lingering fear that they are an impostor. In “The Stepfather,” this is literally the case, Jerry being a deranged murderer who only projects an upbeat image. For once, the horror movie trope of no authority figure believing the teenager is justified. Everyone just assumes Stephanie is acting out, grappling with adapting to a new father figure. Yet she has actually cause to be concerned, which can't help but bring even darker connotations to mind. Isn't this what children dealing with new step-parents who turn out to be abusive feel? No one will believe you, or maybe you don't want to ruin your mom or dad's happiness, but the safety of your home has been violated.

What makes “The Stepfather” especially effective is the quality of its villain. Terry O'Quinn is absolutely chilling in the role. In the opening scene, he psychotically stares ahead while shaving his beard and washing the blood of his family off his body. He coldly goes through the motion, as he buries his old identity and starts his new one. When assuming the Jerry persona, O'Quinn is convincingly sunny and upbeat. He certainly seems like the ideal stepfather. Yet his secret rages seem genuinely unhinged. Even more frightening is the ease with which O'Quinn switches between the two modes. He's a smiling figure of niceness one minute, a calculating psychopath the next. Whether Jerry Blake is a master manipulator, or at the whims of his own fantasies, hopelessly searching for the perfect family, is hard to say. O'Quinn plays him as not always entirely lucid, making a scary villain even more interesting to think about.

Throughout most of its run time, “The Stepfather” is a slow-boiling thriller. As Stephanie – Jill Schoelen at her most likable – slowly uncovers the truth, the audience is left feeling increasingly uneasy. You are left wondering when Jerry is going to snap again, showing his wickedness with at least one other murder. Once he begins to repeat his cycle, a grim sort of feeling overtakes “The Stepfather.” And then, in its last act, it rather randomly becomes a slasher movie. A totally superfluous subplot, about the brother of a previous victim seeking revenge, exists solely to up the body count. Suddenly, Stephanie is a final girl and Jerry is the hard-to-kill slasher. Yet this is admittedly effective too, largely because the cast is so likable and director Joseph Ruben – who also made “Dreamscape” and the similar “The Good Son” – is more-than-capable of staging an entertaining genre escapade.

“The Stepfather” would be surprisingly well received by critics, especially after a decade of them piling on the horror genre. O'Quinn's performance was especially praised, even earning an Independent Spirit Award nomination. The film's success would prompt two sequels, both of which were more traditional horror films and only one of which starred O'Quinn. (There was also the expected remake during the 2000s but we don't talk about it.) While Jerry Blake would be an odd fit for a franchise, the original “Stepfather” still stands as a scary and well executed genre picture that rightfully deserves its cult following. [7/10]

The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!? (1964)

I've said it before and I'll probably say it again: Never underestimate the power of a good title. Or, in this case, an exceptionally long title. Ray Dennis Steckler was a low budget filmmaker who worked throughout the sixties and seventies. His movies were made for next-to-nothing and often self-distributed. The drive-in movie circuit was something of a carny act at the time. Draw in audiences with a wild poster or a crazy title so, even if they think the film is terrible (which they often did), you still had their money. “The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?” – I just love saying that title out loud – is undeniably an example of this tactic. Who wouldn't want to see a film with a title like that? The long title served a second purpose as well. Steckler's film was originally on the second half of a double feature and he wanted to ensure he got his proper space on the theater marquee.

Explaining the plot of “The Incredibly Strange Creatures” is tricky but I'll do my best. At a beach side carnival in California, fortune teller Estrella invites people into her booth. Sometimes, she or her stripper sister Carmella hypnotize the patrons. Other times, Estrella throws acid into the face of the men. This transform them into mindless zombies under her control. The movie zeroes in on Jerry, a slacker who has a similarly carefree girlfriend, who visits the carnival. Estrella hypnotizes him, using him to murder her various rivals from the carnival. Jerry's mind gets scrambled by these events and he tries to unravel what's happening to him.

The above plot description doesn't really do a good job of giving you an idea of what “The Incredibly Strange Creatures” is actually like. Much like the characters in the film, the audience is hypnotized by a bizarre phantasma of images. The film's story, as it is, does not progress in a logical fashion. Steckler's movie jumps between the story of Jerry being into a mixed-up zombie – or maybe he's one of the incredibly strange creature? – and the various acts being performed at the carnival. So song-and-dance numbers, country-and-western songs, and really bad stand-up comedy blend effortlessly with scenes of characters being brainwashed or murdering folks. Steckler then includes an actual nightmare sequence, which is almost impossible to differentiate from the regular tone of the movie. Steckler's film washes over the audience, a strange series of images, music, sights and sounds.

“Mixed-Up Zombies” also serves another interesting function. Steckler apparently did not shoot the majority of the film at an actual carnival. According to Wikipedia, it was largely shot at a sound stage made from an abandoned Masonic temple. Yet there are scenes that obviously were made on location. You see the cast members – Steckler himself played Jerry – ride on roller coasters and enjoy various boardwalk activities. We spot a mechanical monkey shouting about tickets, hear barkers promoting their acts, and see the various rides. One can't help but assume that many of the performers were actual carnival veterans. All of this stuff is long gone now, along with the type of world that birthed them in the first place. So, in its own way, Steckler's film operates as a time capsule for a long extinct culture.

“The Incredibly Strange Creature” was promoted as the “first monster musical,” beating out the other candidate for that title, similar cult favorite “The Horror of Party Beach,” by a few months. So, yes, there's lots of musical numbers. None of which are especially memorable or catchy, most of them dragging on for far too long. So what about the “monster” part of that equation? The sequence of Stckler, with a hood pulled over himself, stalking and murdering people is nightmarish in its own. Especially bizarre is Estrella's henchman, a constantly smoking bearded man named Ortega. The zombies don't appear until the last third, mostly played by actors in unconvincing monster masks. It's all oddly compelling in its own cheap, dumb, extremely weird way. Only the long conclusion, of Jerry being chased by cops across the beach, starts to feel tedious.

Over the years, “The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed Up Zombies!!?” has become a cult film. Some consider it one of the worst movies ever made, a meandering, irritating, deeply incoherent experience made by a clearly unprofessional crew. (Naturally, it ended up on “Mystery Science Theater 3000.”) Others, however, argue for the movie's status as outsider art. And some people just love that a movie with a title this ridiculous, with equally weird content, exists. I did, in fact, find myself enjoying “The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living.” a collection of utter nonsense that is assembled in such a way that it becomes completely fascinating. Dare I watch “Rat-Pfink-a-Boo-Boo” and “The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher” next? [7/10]

Monsters: The Waiting Game

After running for four years in syndication, “Tales from the Darkside” would end. The very same year, producer Richard P. Rubenstein would launch a new horror anthology show. While “Tales from the Darkside” often featured stories from the sci-fi or fantasy genres, “Monsters” would be all horror, all the time. As the title indicates, each episode would feature a monster of some sort. Also airing in syndication, “Monsters” had a modestly successful three year run, ending just as interest in anthology shows was starting to die out. The series continued to air in re-runs for years, where I would occasionally catch episodes as a kid. According to the internet, “The Waiting Game” from season three is widely regarded as one of the scariest, best episodes of the show and I had never seen it before. Onto the Halloween watch-list it goes!

“The Waiting Game” concern two guys, Lieutenant Tyler and Captain Levitt, working in a nuclear missile silo. Both men assume they'll never have to press the buttons. But one fateful night, the calls come in. Nuclear war begins. The missiles are launched. The world is plunged into a never-ending winter. Tyler and Levitt assume themselves to be among the world's few surviving humans. They quickly get into contact with some soldiers from a neighboring silo. They claim to see and hear things outside their silo. Voices and figures urging them to come out and join them. Soon, the different groups are learning that something did survive the end of the world... But it isn't human.

“The Waiting Game” has a dynamite premise, of a situation of nuclear annihilation somehow getting even worst. There is something undeniably eerie about people alone in a nuclear wasteland, beset by strange sounds and sights from outside. The opening scene, of the guys talking and goofing around, immediately causes the audience to bound with these characters. Similarly amusing, even oddly touching, are the moments devoted to Tyler talking to the other survivors in the second base. To spoil the episode's ending is ruin much of the fun but, needless to say, some monsters do appear. “The Waiting Game” ends up being a rather clever riff on a well-trotted horror premise. I don't know if I'd call it scary exactly but it's certainly an entertaining and spooky half-hour of television. [7/10]

Critters: A New Binge: Split Decision

“Split Decision” has Christopher ready to embrace his destiny as a human/Crite hybrid, much to the chagrin of his mom, Veronica. He's totally ready to go to the Crite home world with his alien dad. That's when the Crite space ship receives a message from Earth. The bounty hunters are holding Charlie and Dana hostage, threatening to kill them if the Critters don't return the boy. Though his new alien allies are reluctant to have him return, the boy talks his Dad into helping him rescue his friend.

“Split Decision” starts with a flashback to Christopher's conception, a perhaps inevitable sequence that I don't think we needed to see. Otherwise, this episode has got a number of solid gags in it. The Crites president's tendency to pepper his otherwise dignified speech with random human swear words still makes me laugh. Christopher's introduction to his new alien stepmother is also a really funny, brief joke. So is a gag at the very end, the boy embracing his part-Crite physiology. There's even a degree of interpersonal drama here, as you wonder whether the president is helping Chris out of selfishness or because he really cares about him. The penultimate episode brings things back around by returning to the hot dog eating contest referenced in the very first episode, which looks like will be the setting for the final part. [7/10]