Halloween 2020: October 1st

As October officially starts, it is time for me to engage in another yearly tradition of mine. The Halloween Mood Table was invented by Matt from Dinosaur Dracula. It's a table - or any sort of surface really - that you completely cover with Halloween-y stuff. The idea is that, no matter what else is going on around you, there is one place in your home dedicated totally to Halloween. Also, when you celebrate the holiday for almost two months, it's a good way to make the 1st of October special. Take a look at mine above.

Surviving the Game (1994)

I'm sure, when Richard Connell wrote “The Most Dangerous Game” in 1924, I'm sure he had no idea it would become one of the most imitated plots in modern pop culture history. It turns out, the idea of a hunter pursuing other humans as if they were prey is an endlessly mutable premise. There's been two variations on the idea just this year alone. In 1993, the hunting humans idea would mutate into an elaborate John Woo action flick, giving Jean-Claude Van Damme one of his best roles in the process. Less than a year later, another action-packed version of the game would cross theater screens. Though overlooked at the time, Ernest Dickerson's “Surviving the Game” has since found a small cult following.

Mason is a homeless man living on the streets of Seattle, still haunted by the fire that claimed his wife and child. After loosing his dog and his best friend within days of each other, Mason attempts suicide. He's rescued by a man that promises him a job. He's led into the woods by a rich businessman named Burns and a group of his equally rich friends. Mason is told he'll be a nature guide for the rich dudes' hunting trip. Instead, Mason is the prey. Burns and his friends begin to hunt the homeless man through the woods. But how much longer will it be before the hunter becomes the hunted?

What “Surviving the Game” adds to the story, to differentiate itself from the countless other adaptations, is a touch of social commentary. As in “Hard Target,” the hunters are rich and powerful, while the hunted are the homeless. Unlike Woo's film, where the social commentary was eclipsed by over-the-top violence, Dickerson directly cooks the class divide into his film. The first act focuses more on the struggles Mason and his type face on the streets, abused by cops and left hungry. The hunters outright refer to him as inhuman, as a lesser being worthy of extermination. When he turns the table on his pursuers, it represents the lower class striking back at their societal oppressors. This is such a natural fit for Connell's story that I'm surprised it didn't happen before the nineties. 

Unlike most of the movies inspired by Connell's story, “Surviving the Game” is an official adaptation. It features several of Connell's original elements. Such as a trophy room filled with evidence of past hunts, a log becoming a bridge across a gorge, and the hero and the villain having their final confrontation after the hunt is over. Dickerson has directed all sorts of genre but seems especially fond of horror. So he really digs in when focused on the gore, the severed heads or crossbows fired through a guy's chest. Dickerson gets some decent suspense out of how out-matched Mason is against his pursuers. These moments are better than the film's straight-up attempts at action theatrics. The fights and chase scenes feature a lot of tacky slow-motion and melodramatic explosions. When paired with the cheesy synth-jazz score, it makes “Surviving the Game's” status as a nineties relic most apparent.

What notoriety “Surviving the Game” has is owed to its seriously stacked cast. Somehow, this scrappy exploitation flick filled almost every major role with a beloved character actor. Rutger Rauer plays Burns as a slithering psychopath, who has absolute contempt for anyone he considers “beneath” him. Though he exits the film early, Gary Busey stands out as one of the more unhinged hunters. His (apparently improvised) monologue about a childhood incident with a pet dog is the actor at his wild-eyed best. John C. McGinley is fantastically hammy as one of the more neurotic hunter, prone to John C. McGinley-style outbursts of violent anger. F. Murray Abraham happily inhabits the role of a snobby elitist. Among all this wonderfully talented ham, Ice-T as Mason almost gets lost. He's believable as a desperate man, street wise but just trying to survive. He's less convincing as an action hero, as his fight scenes tend to be a bit awkward.

The oddest thing about “Surviving the Game” is that it's a post-Rodney King movie directed by a black man, starring a black man, all about class divide... That cast two other black men in antagonist roles, with Charles S. Dutton playing one of the other hunters and Bob Miner as an abusive security guard. You'd think race would be an element of the story too. “Surviving the Game” doesn't do anything especially novel with its well-worn premise. No, it's not better than “Hard Target” either. Yet it's still a slice of fun that's smarter than it got credit for in 1994. A surprisingly strong cast and some clever thriller scenes make sure it's a good time. [7/10]

Trilogy of Terror (1968)

Trilogia de Terror

There's few resources about Brazilian movies – much less genre movies – on the English-language web. Yet there's evidence to suggest that Jose Mojica Marins' first two Coffin Joe movies made some sort of impact on the country's cinematic world. After “This Night I'll Posses Your Corpse,” Marins was ask to contribute to a horror anthology. (Which was itself based on a TV show called “Beyond, Much Beyond the Beyond.”) Among the directors involved with the project was Luiz Sérgio Person, whose previous two dramas seem well-regarded. Also involved was Ozualdo Ribeiro Candeias, whose previous film was also a serious drama about life in the country. “Trilogy of Terror” – released six years before the more famous omnibus feature of the same name – suggest Marins was at least in the same league as those guys. The film is among the director's most rare, to the point where I initially had no plan to include it in this marathon. Surprisingly, a subtitled copy emerged on YouTube earlier this year. 

“Trilogia de Terror” contains three tales of horror set in then-modern Brazil. Candeias' “The Deal” follows a mother with an ill child. She goes to the Satanic hippy cult that lives in the caves outside the village, asking for a cure. In return, they ask her to give them a virgin. Person's “Procession of the Dead” begins with a boy heading into the mountains to catch birds. Instead, he discovers a dead body holding a machine gun. The corpse causes rumors – of gangsters, revolutionaries, or supernatural spirits – to spring up around town. The boy's dad investigates. Marins' “Macabre Nightmares” centers around Claudio, who is having reoccurring nightmares about being buried alive. This concerns his fiancee, who hopes to heal him before the wedding. On a trip into the country side, Claudio will face his nightmares.

“Trilogia de Terror's” title is rather misleading, as the horror elements take a backseat to neo-realist drama until Marins' final segment. Candeias' “The Deal” opens the film and is the longest segment in the film, at forty minutes. I had a lot of trouble following this one. There's very little dialogue. There's a subplot involving modern day banditos murdering people and raping a woman, that seemingly doesn't connect to the rest of the plot. An early scene, involving an unresponsive woman laying in bed while a man paws at her, also feels detached from the rest of the story. The segment has a total non-sequitur of an ending, in which Jesus Christ himself saves the day. “The Deal” moves at a snail's pace and features a repetitive score. Only an odd scene involving a mystic who crawls like a chimpanzee or the cave-dwelling hippy cult dancing to groovy music made an impression on me.  

Person's “Procession of the Dead” is a little better, though the pace is still really slow and the soundscape remains minimalist. There's a certain ironic edge to a skeptical dad ignoring his son's warnings and stumbling upon something horrible in the hills. The reveal of what's waiting for him is handled in a very stylish manner. A hundred, almost identical-looking men leaping into view on the rim of a mountain is definitely among the film's most memorable sights. Person's interesting visual approach is also present in the segment's final scene, looping footage used to end things on a surreal note. There is a certain natural beauty to the locations, the lush rain forests and isolated rocky valleys. Still, the characters remain vague ideas. A long sequence set in a bar, where the dad and his friends argue about who or what is responsible for the corpse, goes on for far too long. It's a real mixed bag.

“Trilogia de Terror” concludes with Marins' “Macabre Nightmares.” Though less dream-like than his earlier films – owing to being shot in natural locations, instead of on Marins' trademark sets – the director still sneaks in bizarre, nightmare images. Like a cascade of slithering animals and manic faces. Or the stilted way the sexual assault is edited, with the odd sound effects you've come to expect from the filmmaker. All stories about men with phobias of being buried alive are destined to end the same way. Admittedly. Marins throw in some unexpected stops along the way. The bloody image we conclude on is fittingly grisly, though undermined a bit by some cheesy special effects. Even with this, and some talky scenes, “Macabre Nightmares” is a solid short. Considering this is something of a loose adaptation of Poe's “Premature Burial,” my suspicion that Marins might've been influenced by Corman's film version seems likelier. 

Marins is the only one of the directors involved in “Trilogia de Terror” to have made other horror films. You can definitely see a lack of interest in the macabre from the other two filmmakers, whose segments veer more towards drama than scares. Unsurprisingly, only his story really proves satisfying. Perhaps it was too early in Brazil's trash-horror movement to attempt a multi-director anthology like this. I know the copy I watched is somewhat blurry and degraded, seemingly recorded from Brazilian television, perhaps added to the incoherence of that first story.  Running far too long for this type of thing and extremely slow-going to start, “Trilogia de Terror” can easily be skipped even by devotees of Coffin Joe and Brazilian horror. [5/10]

Ghost Story: House of Evil

I'm not just watching well-known horror anthology shows this October. In the early seventies, William Castle and Richard Matheson would team-up to create a new weekly horror anthology series. Called “Ghost Story,” the series featured distinguished gentleman Winston Essex – played by real-life distinguished gentleman Sebastian Cabot – presenting tales of the supernatural. Despite Castle/Matheson's long experience with the horror genre, and a revolving guest list of prominent stars, “Ghost Story” was not successful. Faltering ratings would force a title and format change mid-way through the series. “Ghost Story” became “Circle of Fear” and Cabot was dropped from the show. This did little to perk up ratings and the series was canceled soon afterwards. Despite the apparent lack of interest, “Ghost Story” would gather a small cult following and even earned a DVD release in 2012.

“House of Evil” would come early in the show's life-cycle. It revolves around a grandfather arriving to see his granddaughter, Judy. Judy's mother died during childbirth and she was born a deaf-mute because of it. Yet Grandpa and Judy seemingly have no trouble communicating, as they are both telepathic. Grandpa is here with a mission. He's never forgiven his son-in-law for his daughter's death. He gifts Judy with a doll house, a perfect replica of the family's home, and fills it with little dolls representing each member of the household. Soon, strange things begin to happen in the home, corresponding to the games Judy plays with her new dolls.

“House of Evil” is probably among the better known episodes of “Ghost Story” because it stars a young Jodie Foster. Despite having no dialogue, Foster still makes an impression as Judy, a little girl with a sinister power that's totally unaware of what she can do. Melvyn Douglas is fittingly ominous as the grandfather, able to come off as warm and loving but also clearly plotting evil deeds in the same scenes. “House of Evil” is surprisingly creepy at times, thanks to a low-key score that keeps the tension rising. A sequence devoted to the elderly housekeeper having a heart attack, while Grandpa reads a story book to Judy, is actually fairly spooky. The episode builds up to a fittingly downbeat ending, that's only undone by a goofy sound effect and a sloppy deus ex machina resolution. “House of Evil” is strong enough that it makes me want to check out more of “Ghost Story,” even if there's a surprising lack of personality in Cabot's host segments. [7/10]

Forever Knight: Strings

“Forever Knight” gets layered in this one. A woman is brutally murdered, run over and shot. Nick and Tracy quickly discover she's the mother of Kristy Black, a rock star currently in rehab. Her therapist, Dr. McGee, is using controversial methods that involve hypnotism. The sway the doctor has over his patient reminds Nick of Rasputin, who, of course, he knew personally. Soon, other bodies are starting to pile up, each killing similar in style. Meanwhile, Tracy Vetters is dealing with her own controlling mentor, as her dad is pushing her to join the corporate crimes division.

I think the writers of “Forever Knight” have finally figured out the best way to use Tracy: Stick her in the background. Her subplot here barely has any connection to the A-plot and she does little to advance the story. This isn't really a problem, as the episode gets along fine without her! The murder-mystery plot is easy enough to figure out, as this is another example of nineties pop culture with a weird anti-psychology angle. Still, Kristy's plight – left numb from pain, drugs, and medication – is involving. Nick using empathy and his super speed to save the day is a nice touch. The flashbacks are strong too. It's only natural that Nick and Rasputin knew each other, that the famously hard-to-kill monk was a vampire. Most amusing is the reveal that LeCroix sired Rasputin in hopes of kick-starting the Russian revolution. Which he did mostly because he was bored. [7/10]