Halloween 2026: September 28th

 

Kraken (2025)
Кракен

In my previous post, I wrote about a very specific type of motion picture: A giant monster movie, from a European country that you don't usually associate with giant monster movies, that is both about and entitled “Kraken,” which received a North American digital release within the last year. Today, I am also writing about a giant monster movie, from a European country that you don't usually associate with giant monster movies, that is both about and entitled “Kraken,” and received a North American digital release within the last year. Yes, by some improbable coincidence, about a year before Norway's big budget “Kraken” movie came out, the Russian film industry would also release a big budget “Kraken” movie. I actually mistook this film for the Norwegian one when the title first popped up on streaming. Upon realizing we had dueling Euro-Trash “Kraken” blockbusters, I knew I had to watch both. This “Kraken” was directed by Nikolai Lebedev, who previously directed what was the most expensive Russian movie at the time as well as a home-grown disaster flick. Once again, it's clear that filmmakers across the Atlantic are trying to create their own Hollywood-style spectacle. 

Near the North Pole, a Swedish geology team is performing tests with explosive charges. The experiments seem to have awoken something. Researchers Julia and Oskar barely escape their compound as it is pulled under the ice. A Russian submarine carrying a top-secret weapon, led by Captain Alexander Voronin, responds to their emergency signal. That is before the sub also goes dark. A second sub is launched to find and destroy the device the other ship was carrying. This mission is led by another Captain Voronin, Viktor, Alexander's little brother. Due to the personal nature of the mission, an Admiral Olshansky is also dispatched to keep an eye on Viktor. While the vessel is rescuing Julia and Oskar, they detect something large and hostile on their radar. Yes, it is the Kraken of legend. The beast is real and it is angry, destroying an oil rig right before the submarine's sensors. Despite the danger, Viktor continues on the mission to locate the missing sub, in the unlikely hope that his brother might still be alive. 

While the two “Krakens” might be easily confused at a glance, they do take very different approaches to the premise. Pål Øie's "Kraken" follows the structure of a standard monster movie, with mysterious sightings and disappearance leading up to the giant beastie's attack. Lebedev's film is much more of a military thriller. There are so many scenes of guys within the cramped interiors of a submarine, rushing from one monitor to another, shouting orders at each other. I would say such sequences occupy the majority of "Kraken's" two hour and fourteen minute runtime. I've heard that big budget Russian movies these days tend to be pro-military agitprop. (Which is not too surprising, considering the current political direction of the nation. I know the U.S. military only assists Hollywood productions if they have approval over the script and I imagine the situation is similar in Russia right now.) The film amusingly features almost no female characters, as it is largely absorbed in the world of serious uniformed guys doing serious military business. Occasionally, the claustrophobic nature of submarining is used for a novel – never suspenseful but interesting – moment. Such as when a smaller, research sub is deployed to explore a deep sea graveyard of sunken ships. However, "Kraken" proves disappointingly stately and dry in its focus on militaristic authority. A lot of this motion picture is devoted to Russian seaman tersely talking and arguing among themselves about what they may or may not be doing at any given moment. 

The presentation is almost suffocating in its stiffness. The musical score is largely composed of classical sounding compositions, heavy and ominous, that maintain the impression you are watching a march-like presentation. The film cannot be critical of the military in any way, which would disrupt its purpose as propaganda. A little bit of conflict arises between Viktor and Olshansky, over who is more worthy to lead the mission. Viktor is, of course, the best soldier for this job, which makes any tension between him and the other officer ineffective. Realizing that's a dead end, the script often focuses on the relationship between the Voronin brothers. Viktor has often felt in the shadow of his big brother, who has also been absent for most of his life. It feels like entirely inessential melodrama, inserted to give the story some depth but not well-formed enough to actually compel in any way. Furthering the purpose of the film, this being a family affair for Viktor makes him a better officer. Serving Glorious Mother Russia is in his blood. 

All the droll submarine shenanigans and maudlin brotherly conflict raises a big question: Isn't this a movie about a giant sea monster? We are nearly an hour into the movie before the enormous tentacles of the Kraken slither on-screen. While I would say the quality of CGI here trails behind the Norwegian production a bit. A scene featuring a pod of whales has the shakiest effects. The big-ass cephalopod still looks neat. A sequence where it destroys an oil rig is the best in the film. When emphasizing the huge eyes or scale of the beast, "Kraken" almost becomes an effective kaiju movie. Unfortunately, this takes up a small percentage of the film. You can tell that "Kraken" is not so concerned with the kraken, as it continues on for a bit after the monster is defeated. You would think a leviathan squid destroying huge structures and chasing the submarine would be dramatic enough. Instead, the film tries to drive tension from its characters, from the inter-officer conflict and concerns over whether the researchers can be trusted or not, but the characters are too one-note that to work at all.

The result is a film that is largely inert. The pacing is glacial, the script so consumed by the stakes of its military arguments and standard arc for the brothers that the movie rarely feels like it's moving. Why isn't a movie called "Kraken" more about a kraken reeking havoc? I guess that would, once again, conflict with the movie's purpose to make the Russian Navy look professional and powerful. At least Michael Bay movies and "Top Gun" have scenes of the U.S. military doing cool shit or explosions or something. "Kraken" is too stately and confined for that. I am always reluctant to declare a movie "boring," as this criticism usually points towards an unwillingness to engage with a film on its own level. But, damn, "Kraken" is fucking boring. About five minutes of the tentacled giant looking threatening or dragging something under the water does not justify how hard I was fighting sleep through this one. If this is any indication, Nikolai Lebedev and his team and presumably government overseers have a lot to learn about making an extended advertisement for the Russian military entertaining, much less a thrilling or fun giant monster movie. [4/10]

Terror-Creatures from the Grave (1965)
5 tombe per un medium

Recently, I was listening to an interview with prolific film journalist, author, interviewer, historian, life-long monster kid and all-around character David Del Valle. Mr. Del Valle is also a former agent and long time friend of Barbara Steele. Among the Dame Steele stories Del Valle shared was an anecdote about how she briefly dated J. Michael Muro, the director of "Street Trash," and was horrified by the script for that film. He capped the tidbit off by saying she is "such a snob." The evidence seems to bear this out. Among her on-and-off reluctance to discuss her horror films over the years, we also have the recollection of filmmaker Massimo Pupillo. He directed Babs in "Terror-Creatures from the Grave" and claims Steele was a total diva on-set, until he berated her before the entire cast and crew.  Well, whatever actually happened and whether Mr. Pupillo was justified in his rant, Steele never let her frustration with her career ever show on-screen. "Terror-Creatures from the Grave," "5 tombe per un medium" in the original Italian, is another gothic chiller that the star brought her particular presence to, totally professionally. 

Attorney Albert Kovac is summoned to the small town of Breggoville, to the estate of Jeronimus Hauff. Upon arriving at the glowering mansion, he learns that Hauff actually died one year ago under mysterious circumstances. Breggoville was the site of a hideous plague centuries before, supposedly intentionally spread by five warlocks. Jeronimus was obsessed with the legend and amassed a wide collection of artifacts related to the tale. His widow, Clio, has little positive to say about her deceased husband. She is among the five people, stipulated in Jeronimus' will, to be present as his body is relocated a year after his death. Anthony stays behind to get to the bottom of this. (Also because he's been charmed by Corrine, Hauff's beautiful daughter.) A curse on the land is often spoken of and people begin to die mysteriously around the mansion, causing suspicion that Jeronimus has returned from the grave to seek revenge on those who wronged him in life. 

Owing to all of them imitating Bava's "Black Sunday," any sixties Italian horror flick with Steele can be counted on for some voluptuous ambiance. This is the sole horror credit of cinematographer Carlo Di Palma, better known for photographing films by Antonioni and Woody Allen. I'm guessing he'd prefer classier fare too but, like Miss Steele, any reluctance is not apparent in the work itself. “Terror-Creatures from the Grave” looks great. Many of the courtyards and cemeteries are thick with fog along the ground. The castle is decorated with shadows, often crossing the performer's faces. Di Palma's camera work brings along some of that Bava-esque smooth camera movements and stylized angles. A shot staring up out of an empty grave is a highlight, as is a moment when some tomb lids slide off on their own. 

“Terror-Creatures” is also notable for being a little bloodier and sexier than Steele's other Italian gothics. The central image of the film are the five hands of the plague spreaders, cleaved off and mummified and now displayed on a wall. The specific of what this disease was are never mentioned but it seems to leave great, weeping wounds on the face and body. The opening scene lingers the effects of a horse stepping on a man's face. Another memorable moment has a man in a wheel chair creatively taking his own life, which goes so far as to feature some unspooling intestines in the aftermath. This film also features, for the perverts in the audience, the closest Barbara Steele ever came to actual nudity, via a bath scene. This is shortly followed up with what is surely one of her more extended sex scenes as well, though nothing much is shown. I mention this because I am a thorough reviewer, of course. 

Steele actually doesn't have nearly as much to do in the film as would've benefited her icy stare and otherworldly presence. As the bitchy widower of a clearly dickish man, she does get to queen it up nicely in a few scenes. Her character is, in easily the most obvious reveal in the film, partially responsible for her husband's death as a result of her lascivious affair being discovered. This is in contrast to Mirella Maravidi as the daughter, who is such a naive innocent that she borders on the childish at times. It's a clear example of the Madonna/Whore dichotomy, the hero running off with the sweet, virginal lass while the shrewish, unfaithful older woman is punished for her crimes. To be fair, most of the characters in “Terror-Creatures” aren't that likable or fleshed-out. Walter Brandi, as Albert, spends most of the film denying anything supernatural is happening. This is supported by a very bored sounding voice-over. 

For a while, I was wondering if “Terror-Creatures” would end up pulling a gaslighting style plot. Perhaps Jeronimus only faked his death as a predecessor to flushing out his enemies and philandering wife? The uncertainty over his exact fate, as in a scene where someone seems to see him sitting in a chair before he vanishes, pairs with a detective storyline that suggests such an ending. Instead, the film does bend towards witchcraft and some actually creatures from the grave  eventually. How terrifying they are is debatable. In fact, the evil spirits never appear on-screen, operating only as ghostly voices and invisible forces. Perhaps that is why the film ups the flesh and blood, to compensate for the lack of actual monsters. 

 

Despite being mid-tier Steele, owing to the drippy lead, mediocre script, and fewer freakies, I still enjoyed myself with “Terror-Creatures.” What can I say, I'm a slut for some black-and-white gothic atmosphere. Another amusing element of the film is that, the opening credits make the claim that it's based on an Edgar Allan Poe story. I guess, if you squint, you can see traces of “Masque of the Red Death” or “Fall of the House of Usher” here, with the emphasis on the plague and the story of a guy traveling to a far-away, doomed abode. At least “Castle of Blood” actually made Poe a character in its story to justify putting his name in the credits. All in all, there's enough shadowy ambiance, one or two spooky moments, and enough moments of Steele glaring with those saucer eyes of her to justify the 83 minutes I spent watching it. Snob or not, nobody could glare like her! [7/10]

 

Unsolved Mysteries: Season 1, Episode 11

The Satanic Panic of the eighties and early nineties remains a topic of fascination for a lot of people. Partially because, in retrospect, it is so laughably obvious as an example of mass hysteria. Also because it never really ended, the exact same rhetoric that was used to accuse daycare center owners of summoning Satanic Chuck Norris in the eighties now simply shift to whatever target of scorn the right-wing is mad at this week. (Usually immigrants and queer people.) Programs like “Unsolved Mysteries” probably deserve some of the blame. For stoking fears around the utterly unfounded belief that Satanic cults were roaming American small towns. Or that harmless hobbies, like heavy metal or horror movies, came with diabolic influence. The show was making that connection as early as its first season. 

The third segment concerns the death of Kurt McFall, a seventeen year old kid from Simi Valley, California. Kurt had been getting into Dungeons and Dragon, medieval reenactment, and pagan religion. While staying at a friend’s house, he allegedly went out into the middle of the night, saying he couldn’t sleep and was overheated. The next morning, his body was found dead at the bottom of an ocean-side cliff. He had not drowned and had died from impact trauma. The implication seems to be that he fell to his death. His father, Tom, claims he got a phone call earlier that night. Saying that Kurt had become involved in a Satanic cult, that he “knew too much,” and was trying to escape the group. He also found some edgy drawings and witchy knickknacks in the boy’s room. This is basically the entire basis of Mr. McFall’s belief that his son was murdered. “Unsolved Mysteries” does track down an unidentified speaker, a supposed friend of Kurt’s that was in this cult with him, but that’s it. 

In other words, this “Unsolved Mysteries” segment does a good job of illustrating how the Satanic Panic worked in many cases. I don’t believe Tom McFall was acting with any malice when he made these claims. He says that the beer bottles around Kurt’s car must have been planted, as his son didn’t drink. Because teenagers are always honest with their parents about their alcohol in-take. He finds some gory pictures in his son’s room alarming, when that sounds like pretty normal behavior for nerdy teen boys to me. He tries to paint the pagan circle the kid was involved with as sinister, when they just look like dorky guys taking on Welsh names and doing some vintage prayers. The unexpected death of your child, at such a young age, is an awful burden for any parent. A random accident leading to his boy’s premature end is a chaotic, shitty bit of happenstance. In his grief, Tom McFall looked for patterns to explain his loss. He landed on the, by then well publicized, trend of D&D and devil-worshiping luring young men into sinister territories. As for that phone call the dad claims he received? Or the testimonial of the friend? Who is to say but it is easy to imagine that, while reeling from the loss of your child or friend, your mind can convince itself all sorts of memories happened. 

The unreliable quality of memory and parents, perhaps, not knowing their kids as well as they hoped are reoccurring trends in this episode. The first segment concerns a seventeen year old girl, secretly dating an older man who had gotten her pregnant, being involved with the murder of a co-worker.  The second follows a man locked up for a robbery, despite numerous witnesses that he was at home during that time. A cop claiming he saw the guy roughly right after the robbery occurred and the testimonial of someone who had never met the man before convinced the jury. Meanwhile, a cop in the first case believes that the teenage girl, groomed and manipulated by a dirt bag, is just as guilty of murder as her partner. Kind of makes the police look bad, ya know! Anyway, this “Unsolved Mystery” is an interesting time capsule more than anything else. Though there are some good shots of Robert Stack wandering spooky woods in a trench coat. [6/10]

Friday the 13th: The Series: The Quilt of Hathor
 

For some reason I have not been able to decipher, basic cable programing became fascinated with the Amish sometime last decade. Increasingly bullshitty reality shows would soon spawn trashy TV movies with hilarious titles like “Amish Stud” and “Stalked by My Amish Boyfriend.” So-called Amishsploitation is not an altogether recent phenomenon. Genre films and television periodically remember that we've got whole communities of weird, quasi-agrarian, religious cults in this country. Like Wes Craven's “Deadly Blessing” before it, “Friday the 13th: The Series” doesn't actually call its clearly Amish-coded group by that name. Instead, “The Quilt of Hathor” is set among the Pentitites. Micki and Ryan arrive in the village looking for a cursed quilt, which allows the holder to murder others through their dreams. A woman named Effie Stokes is using the quilt to bump off any woman that expresses romantic interest in the village's leader, Josiah Grange. As the duo are snooping around the town, Ryan starts to fall in love with Laura, Josiah's daughter. 

Amishsploitation tends to focus on the most outwardly unusual aspects of Amish society. Ya know, the horse and buggies and hats and black clothes and barn raising and old-timey speaks and all that. This ignores the actual sinister thing about communities like this: All the child abuse and a culture designed to silence anyone who speaks up about it. “The Quilt of Hathor” almost hints at this. The very first scene has Josiah attempting to court a barely legal young woman. Rather than comment on the sketchiness of the community leader deciding the teenage girl should be his bride, this is merely a set-up for the episode's Villain of the Week. Effie Stokes, identified as “plain” and ignored by Grange, uses the titular Cursed Artifact to murder her romantic rivals. This happens with startlingly frequency, as Josiah happily moves onto who ever is next in line after his last would-be spouse dies mysteriously. This unwittingly paints the man as either incredibly stupid or unforgivably evil. Considering the same town outright acknowledges that they arrange marriage for kids as young as eight, I'm leaning more towards the latter.

Of course, “Friday the 13th” wasn't that kind of show. Instead, it simply uses the setting for novelty. Micki and Ryan go “undercover” in the community but barely try at all. It's about five minutes after meeting her that Ryan falls for Laura, beginning to court her immediately. This makes his cliffhanger providing declaration of love hard to swallow. We expect this guy to abandon his modern lifestyle for the Pentitite way when he can't be bother to observe any of the rules up to that point? Micki is upset by the announcement and, inevitably, it plays as a romantic rejection. She insists that she's only upset because she doesn't want to hunt down all these evil doodads with just Jack to help. However, her argument turns towards cries of “but what about all the time we've spent together?” very quickly. These two cousins should go ahead and kiss already. I'm sure the Amish are okay with that too.

As for the horror elements, they are quite silly. Perhaps the show writers realized that “evil quilt” is not the best logline for a story. Having deadly nightmares occur when someone hugs the quilt is a decent work-around, that also blatantly recalls the “Nightmare on Elm Street” series. We've got no Freddy Krueger here, only reoccurring dreams set in a vaguely French Revolution era palace. I guess that's what an Amish lifer would imagine as decadent and corrupt. I did kind of like the scenes devoted to Laura's assigned future husband trying repeatedly to kill Ryan. A scene where he's throwing a pitchfork around is mildly suspenseful. The resolution to this rivalry involves an “American Gladiator” style fight over an open fire, which is certainly something to see. Silly episode but not without its moments. [6/10]

Halloween 2025: September 7th

 

Final Destination 2 (2003)
 

New Line Cinema was no stranger to long-running horror series by the time “Final Destination” became a hit in 2000. Considering the studio's history with Freddy, Jason, Leatherface, and the Crites, one imagines talk about Death itself being their next star monster began early. Ultimately, an entire new crew was assembled for “Final Destination 2,” James Wong and Glen Howard committed to other projects. J. Mackye Gruber and Eric Bress were recruited to write the script based on the strength of their then-unfilmed spec script, “The Butterfly Effect.” Veteran stunt coordinator and second unit guy David R. Ellis stepped into the director's chair, despite his only previous directional credit being kiddie sequel “Homeward Bound 2.” That pedigree – a pair of largely unproven writers, a director better known in other fields – suggest the sequel was strictly a mercenary effort. And perhaps it was intended to be. However, Ellis and his team turned out to be exactly the right people for the job. “Final Destination 2” successfully turned one clever fright flick into an on-going series. 

College student Kimberly and her friends are expecting to have a fun, debauched spring break in Daytona Beach. Instead, truck hulling logs comes loose, resulting in a ghastly freeway pile-up that takes the lives of Kim, all her friends, and countless other people. This is, in fact, only a premonition of future events. Kimberly freaks out and attracts the attention of state trooper Thomas Burke. Along with several other drivers, they managed to just avoid the resulting crash that claims Kimberly's friends. The group quickly draw comparison to the explosion of Flight 180 and the bizarre fate that befell the survivors the year before. After two of the people on the freeway that day die in freakish accidents, Kimberly seeks out the help of Clear River, the sole survivor of the first film. The rest of the group – a single mom, a teacher, a coke head, a high-strung professional young woman – all realize they have some connection to Flight 180. That they are all trapped in Death's latest design. They struggle to find an escape, in the form of a pregnant woman delivering her baby and bringing new life into the equation, before all of them are claimed in gruesome accidents. 

The plane accident that kicked off the original “Final Destination” was well-executed. As far as on-screen carnage goes, it was good. One also gets the impression that James Wong worked carefully to make sure it didn't overshadow the stunts to come later in the film. David R. Ellis wasn't worried about that. Putting his stunt work experience to good use, the freeway pile-up in “Final Destination 2” is the kind of legendary horror film making that makes people fans for life. You might have seen the memes about how this movie has made an entire generation paranoid every time they pass a truck hulling logs. That's a good example of how the sequence taps into every day fears. Mostly though, the sequence is a furiously directed and edited escalation of violence. The gore is surprisingly brutal, people pulverized by a sailing log, crushed by a sliding motorcycle, and left to burn. Ellis throws in multiple explosions, each one hitting harder than the one before. It feels like a roller coaster ride, strapped into a nightmare scenario that only gets worst before the truck careens right at the camera, seemingly coming for us viewer too. Good shit, in other words.

That might have resulted in “Final Destination 2” peaking early. Indeed, the sequel is never as intense or scary again as it is in this moment. That doesn't stop the movie from engineering further moments of gloriously fucked-up violence. David R. Ellis goes for bombast, taking the first's formula of chain reactions of small events leading to grisly death and ramping it way up. Fiery explosions reoccur throughout the film, a car going up in flames and an apartment being consumed. The executions are much messier than before. A fire escape ladder smashing into a face, an elevator decapitation, or a barb wire fence flying through the air to slice someone into thirds have a bloody viciousness to them that were largely missing in studio horror movies in 2003. This is clearest during a spectacularly messed up moment when a young kid is totally creamed by a falling plate of glass, reduced to liquid by the weight. 

If all of the above sounds more like Grand Guignol than tightly engineered thrills, that is very intentional. “Final Destination 2” expands on the undercurrent of dark comedy present in the original in a big way. Rather than attempt to build portent by piling on foreshadowing of the characters' fates, they feel way more ironic. A character always nursing a cigarette, glancing at some goldfish, or some pigeons slamming into a window are such specific set-ups for the inevitable “accidents,” that it feels far more sarcastic than suspenseful. The sequel delights in presenting a dozen potential things that could go wrong to threaten a character. This is often misdirection, a slip-up on some tossed-off spaghetti or the Jaws of Life becoming a cause of death being nicely executed and clearly intended as sicko comedy. The escalating unlikeliness of these circumstances are knowingly ridiculous and “Final Destination 2” is gleefully mean-spirited in how it sets up and plays with viewer expectations on the way to gory executions. 

The somewhat flippant tone “Final Destination 2” carries, right through to the clearly farcical pre-credit gag, would suggest that we shouldn't get that invested in any of its characters. Some of the cast members, such as the shirtless lottery winner in a muscle car played by David Paetkau, are cartoonish assholes. However, the sequel does a shockingly good job of making its meat-bags unexpectedly human. Compared to the pretty but indistinct teenagers of the first movie, the cast here is a lot more diverse in demographics. T.C. Carson is a high-strung black man, Keegan Connor Tracy is a single female lawyer, Lynda Boyd is a middle-aged widower. When Carson attempts suicide, to take control over his life back, it is an unexpectedly vulnerable moment. Similarly, the drug addict played by Rory Peters is a fairly one-note character throughout the film. However, a brief moment where he asks someone to protect his mother from his partying life style in the event of his death is unexpectedly meaningful. The sequel is shockingly good at sneaking in little moments of texture like that, going a long ways to making its characters more than merely bodies awaiting execution.

Of course, Tony Todd is here too. He emerges from a morgue bathed in red light and smoke while chuckling darkly, an excellent use of his baritone voice and sinister delivery. Even Ali Larter gives a better performance here than in the first one. The result is a sequel that is multitudes more entertaining than the original, with grislier effects and a wickedly sick sense of humor. This was actually my first exposure to the franchise, becoming a film I re-watched a lot during high school. I wasn't the only one, as “Final Destination 2” remains a fan favorite. David R. Ellis attempted similarly outrageous genre fair after this and never topped it either, suggesting there was something special in the mix on this one. Fuck it, I'm giving this one a high score, because it is that purely amusing and nasty to me. [9/10]

 

An Angel for Satan (1968)
Un angelo per Satana

My buddies over at All Outta Bubblegum used to have a reoccurring feature any time they reviewed a movie starring an especially distinguished action star. Certain iconic performers had a checklist of trademarks they often performed. If you wanted to know how many of Chuck Norris' movies feature him performing a roundhouse kick or how often Steven Seagal snaps a limb in one of his features, that would be the best way to learn. I am so fond of this metric that I've used it myself multiple times. While the action genre is especially good for this, you can cook up checklist for about any star who made lots of the same kind of stuff. For example! The string of gothic horror flicks Barbara Steele made in Italy in the late sixties were all highly imitative of Mario Bava's “Black Sunday,” the film that made Steele a scream queen and kicked off this wave. So much so that you could easily track how often the same tropes appear across these films. If one were to assemble a Scenarios of Steele checklist, it would contain descriptions such as “plays a dual role,” “revenge from beyond the grave,” “plot involving witchcraft or gaslighting,” and “period setting or gothic trappings.” You'll find all of the movies Steele starred in during this time feature one or all of these devices. A very typical example is 1968's “An Angel for Satan,” which is said to be the last film of this exact type Dame Steele would make. 

An artist named Roberto Merigi arrives at the villa of Count Montebruno, a stately manor surrounded by a lake. Roberto has been hired to restore an ancient statue recently recovered from the watery depths. It depicts Belinda, an ancestor of Montebruno that was said to be a beautiful but infinitely cruel witch. A curse is said to surround the statue and its unearthing has the villagers spooked. At the same time, the count's niece, Harriet, returns home from college. Roberto notices a striking resemblance between Harriet and the statue of Belinda, asking her to pose as the model for the restoration. The two quickly fall in love but Harriet begins to act strangely. Her kind personality will randomly be replaced with a sadistic, manipulative one and she begins to play deadly mind games with the people around town. Moreover, during these episodes, she claims her name is Belinda. Has she been possessed by the spirit carried within the cursed statue or is something else afoot? 

All the gothic horrors of Barbara Steele draw extensively from her penetrating eyes, stately beauty, and unearthly presence. It's all the weaker ones truly have going for them. As in "Black Sunday" and "Nightmare Castle," "An Angel for Satan" sees her playing both a predatory villainess and the innocent, virginal descendant. The possession story allows Steele to switch between the wide-eyed Harriet and the seductive Belinda. The latter is when the fun starts. "An Angel for Satan" most comes alive when devoted to Steele tormenting the townsfolk. She strips nude before the village idiot, badgering and horse-whipping him until he pledges servitude to her. Recalling "Castle of Blood," Belinda's wickedness is further signaled by her flexible sexuality, as she does not limit her seductions to only men. When focused on Steele beaming cruelty with her piercing gaze and speechifying theatrically about her own power and the unworthiness of those around her, "An Angel for Satan" manages to entertain. 

Unfortunately, not all of "An Angel for Satan" is devoted to Steele being a devious, mildly gay, dommy queen. Spaghetti western regular Anthony Steffen plays Roberto, a perfectly cromulent lead who is otherwise lacking in charm or depth. The romance between him and Harriet exists as a plot device more than anything else, despite a few steamy scenes of them making out. This is not the only inessential subplot in the film. Truthfully, a lot of "An Angel for Satan" is devoted to setting up the petty melodramas of the various characters around the village. There's a virtuous school teacher courting Harriet's chamber maid, a brutish drunk who hangs out at the bar, his wife and daughter, and several other dangling plot points that entirely too much screen time is devoted to. It takes more brain power to track who everyone is and what their relations are to each other, what particular cliched conflicts are playing out between them, than the film ever pays back. That makes for a slow paced and largely unengaging viewing experience. 

Obviously, the past Italian chillers starring Steele often overcame cliched or underwritten scripts by piling on the misty, shadowy atmosphere. There's some of that on display in this "Angel." The period costumes and stately sets are lovely. Giuseppe Aquari's cinematography does produce some striking visuals. Such as the opening shots of a boat emerging through the fog or Roberto being called out of his bedroom during a stormy night. The highlight of the film is probably a sequence where a portrait catches on fire, the bubbling parchment giving the painted face the impression of movement as a spirit communicates in voice-over. However, there's not quite enough spooky ambiance in this one to activate my third eye the way "The Horrible Dr. Hichcock" or "The Ghost" did. The ratio of Gothic gloom to cheap paperback melodrama is off. The same is true of the kinky undertones commonplace in these films. While the implied lesbianism, mild sadomasochism, and barely off-screen nudity are all fine by me, "An Angel for Satan" also focuses more on the sexual assault and abuse of women than makes me comfortable. I suppose this was a sign of the direction Italian exploitation movies would be headed in within the next decade. But I don't know, this one often feels mean in a way that doesn't sit right with me. 

The final sin "An Angel for Satan" commits occurs mere minutes before the end titles. That would be a twist ending that undermines the most interesting elements of the story in a way that struck this viewer as especially contrived. It happens so soon before the end credits role that the revelation feels shoved in as a last minute addition. The Italian appetite for tales of curses, witches, old castles, and persecuted maidens in lovely gowns was about worn out by this point. Steele would lend her unique talents to one more horror film before the sixties ended before taking a five year hiatus from the genre, by which point horror had transformed into a different animal. "An Angel for Satan" definitely represents this particular wave of films in an exhausted state, the cliches run through and writers and directors fresh out of ideas to revitalize them. But that horse whipping scene is pretty great. They can't take that away from us. [6/10]

 

‘Way Out: Side Show

I was quite impressed with the episode of “'Way Out” – the obscure, partially lost horror anthology that Roald Dahl hosted for thirteen episodes in 1961 – I watched last year, so here's another one. “Side Show” stars future Amity Island mayor Murray Hamilton as Harold, a forty year old man with a crabby wife and a job he hates. On a whim one night, he visits a carnival. He's drawn to the side show. Most of the sights within do not live up to the barker's over-excited sales pitch. However, Harold is drawn to the Electric Woman, a seemingly headless woman in a gown strapped to an electric chair. He hears the apparently decapitated woman speaking to him and feels a connection. He returns every night to the carnival, much to his wife's annoyance, and learns that the Electric Woman is held against her will by the barker. Harold hatches a plot to free his headless object of affection but it doesn't end great for him. 

“Side Show” doesn't have the tension nor the ironic pay-off of “I Heard You Calling Me.” In fact, the episode's twisted ending raised more questions than it answers. From the first scene, it is obvious that there's something sinister about the side show attraction Harold becomes enamored of. That he's being led to his doom by some sort of otherworldly siren is foreshadowed by the eerie music that plays whenever she talks. However, the exact nature of what is happening here is left vague. Whether the barker genuinely is a sinister figure or unaware of what is happening is not elaborated upon. The final reveal makes for a decent shock but I don't think it makes much sense. The moral here seems to boil down to simply “don't trust strange women” but there's not much in the way of interior logic.

I still liked “Side Show” though, largely because Murray Hamilton makes Harold into such a lovable loser. Hamilton has such a natural, sad-sack energy about him, you can't help but feel bad for him. His wife isn't that horrible to him. She seems cranky and fed-up with her husband being such a perpetual downer but I don't think she's that bad. However, you understand immediately why a guy like Harold would be so susceptible to someone – including a woman with no head – saying nice things to him. You get the impression that he isn't appreciated much in his life. That the femme fatale he idealized is literally faceless, allowing him to project all his desires and fantasies upon her, feels like a potentially deep statement. There is definitely an intriguing meanness to “'Way Out” that wasn't present in the thoughtful “The Twilight Zone,” classically spooky “Thriller,” or more genteel “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.” That is further supported by Dahl's deeply sarcastic host segments. That could've distinguished this program from its contemporaries but, alas, it didn't get that shot. [7/10]

 

The Addams Family: Cousin Itt's Problem

Filmways or whoever didn't spend all that money creating furry suits for Felix Silla to sweat in and a miniature set for him to wobble around not to use them. Which means we got another Cousin Itt centric episode. This one sees the fuzzy relative visiting 0001 Cemetery Lane following an adventure in the far east. Gomez gifts him a big dog, that looks like some sort of wolfhound in a Beatles wig. While chopping up his birthday cake with an executioner's axe, the family starts to notice that it appears ol' Itt is going bald. Concerned for their hairy pal, Uncle Fester goes about creating a cure for male pattern baldness in his laboratory. The chemical solution works too well, various objects around the Addams' home starting to sprout full, luxurious manes. 

I guess just about every man has dealt with some anxiety over losing his hair at one point or another. It is a part of the masculine condition, I suppose. Giving that particular anxiety to the most hirsute member of the Addams Family is an amusing joke. This leads to some amusingly silly lines from Gomez and Morticia, gasping in mock horror about Itt's apparent hair loss. This is another joke that clearly doesn't have long enough legs to support a whole half-hour. After Fester's formula works, and he grows a gorgeous mop, he starts to court female attention. This subplot never really goes anywhere and isn't as funny as the Itt related problems. Though Fester's reaction to a phone call at the end did get a chuckle out of me.

Mostly, this episode works thanks to the series of suitably bizarre sight gags it cooks up. The image of random objects around the mansion sprouting hair must rank among the weirder jokes introduced in this series. The image of Thing's box, surrounded by a ring of magically grown hair, is certainly among the odder jokes the classic “Addams Family” brought us. The episode starts with a sequence of questionable racial sensitivity, where Gomez is ineffectually dueling Lurch with samurai swords. Gomez wears a silly hat throughout, making this gag a bit too goofy to be genuinely offensive. There's also a good bit involving the fireman's pole in this episode and Pugsley dressing up. I laughed and chuckled plenty of times. Another winner. [7/10]

Halloween 2024: September 8th

The Strangers: Chapter 1 (2024)

Upon release in 2008, Bryan Bertino's “The Strangers” certainly seemed primed to launch an on-going series. Its premise, of a trio of masked home invaders terrorizing people at random, is an endlessly mutable set-up that a long string of sequels could follow. And it certainly didn't hurt that the movie made 82 million dollars against a mere 9 million dollar budget. Instead of us getting a new “Strangers” every year, it took a decade for “The Strangers: Prey at Night” to arrive. Part two didn't blow the box office up but it still more than tripled its production budget. After Lionsgate acquired the property not long ago, they clearly didn't want to wait that long to make more “Strangers” movies. The company immediately announced an ambitious plan to reboot the concept as a trilogy, directed by Renny Harlin. The company is so intent on turning "The Strangers" into a regularly scheduled series that they made the risky move to shoot the three films simultaneously. This unorthodox scheme, to engineer a horror franchise through sheer brute force, kicked off back in May with “The Strangers: Chapter 1.”

The press material described “Chapter 1” as a reboot while its subtitle implies it's a prequel. This is despite the new “Strangers” clearly being a remake of the old “Strangers.” It follows Maya and Ryan, a couple celebrating their fifth anniversary with a road trip. Their car breaks down in Venus, Oregon. Since the autoshop says they won't receive the necessary part until the next morning, the two find an Airbnb to spend the night in. At first, Maya finds the experience rather romantic. However, a strange girl knocking on their door and asking if someone named Tamara is there unsettles her. That's the first of many terrifying events that night. Soon, the two realized they are being stalked by a trio of masked intruders, ready to play a deadly game with their randomly chosen prey. That is, if you didn't notice, basically the same premise as the original. Imagine how I feel, knowing that a movie I saw in theaters as a teenager is now old enough to get a remake...

For all its flaws, 2008's "The Strangers" did generate a grim tension. It never left any doubt in the viewers' minds that the central couple were doomed from the get-go, that nothing was stopping the intruders from piercing their inner sanctum, and that everything that followed was a sadistic ritual on their behalves. That Bryan Bertino has repeatedly shown a talent for generating eerie soundscapes and a mounting sense of dread was clearly a factor in his original film working so well. Harlin's version, on the other hand, can never capture that same foreboding feeling. It's heavier on the jump scares, with most of the Strangers' sudden appearances on-screen being accompanied by a loud shriek on the soundtrack. The remake trots out the well-known modern cliché of there being no cell service out in the country. "Chapter 1" mostly drops the ball on the sense of isolation that was so important to the original's success. This is largely because the script draws a lot more attention to there being a town around the solitary home the protagonists shack up in. At one point, Ryan jumps on a motorcycle, rides up to a food truck, and gets himself a burger. It definitely diminishes the sense that no one is coming to help these kids if a bustling little town is a short drive away. Making the location an AirBnB makes our heroes feel more connected to the outside world, not alone and vulnerable. 

In fact, there is this lingering suggestion that the townsfolks are somehow connected to the Strangers. The redneck mechanic is excessively creepy, in a way familiar to anyone who has watched lots of backwoods set horror flicks. The kids on bikes passing out religious literature, simply background color in Bertino's film, now have a bigger presence. Suggesting some weird religious shit is going on in the town, which feels like it could link back to the cult-like vibes the Strangers possess. That a waitress points the couple to the central location also hints at a bigger connection. Moreover, Richard Brake – well established as the premiere creep character actor of the moment – has a mostly silent bit part as the town's sheriff. One assumes that a recognizable actor wouldn't be in such a small role unless this preconceived trilogy had future plans for him. You don't cast Richard Brake as a background character, you cast him as a crook or a psycho. Considering a big part of what made the Strangers scary in the first place was how ineffable they were, their motives unknown, their crimes random, their identities unrevealed, all of this feels like a misguided addition. Or, to be brutally honest, a sweaty, desperate attempt to build up a mythology around a trio of villains who were intentionally thinly sketched. To turn Michael Myers from the original "Halloween" into Michael Myers from "Halloween 6." 

"The Strangers: Chapter 1" isn't as scary as the original or as creatively pulpy as the second. However, it's also not without its own merits. Renny Harlin has made plenty of bad movies but he's also not without skills. A scene of Maya navigating a crawlspace, trying to avoid Pin-Up Girl's detection, and running her hand through with a stray nail. That's a decently engineered moment of suspense. As is a later scene of the couple being cornered in a vehicle while the killers plow into them with their truck. Overall, as the movie goes on, it gets a little better at building tension. Harlin has always specialized in pyrotechnic-filled spectacle and he throws some of that in here too, via the motorcycle going up in flames. And that's not a half-bad scene. José David Montero, previously of "Hell Fest" and a lot of undistinguished schlock, is the cinematographer here. He makes the movie rather moody at times, with some heavy fog in the wooded scenes and a general good use of cool blues, blacks, and earthier tones. 

The biggest problem with the original "The Strangers" is that the imperiled couple were not the most likable characters. Their relationship was crumbling, causing there to be tension between them before the masked murderers showed up. The remake, meanwhile, has its protagonists deeply in love with each other. Maya and Ryan's interactions are sexy but also relaxed and comfortable. The script tries to mine drama out of his disinterest in getting engaged but the two seem fairly happy nevertheless. Madelaine Petsch and Froy Gutierrez have decent chemistry together, both displaying a kind of friendly cluelessness that compliment each other. Maybe both of them having Golden Retriever energy was necessary because – as in the original – the victims make some questionable decisions. When Ryan has a shotgun pointed right at a Stranger's head, he rambles on long enough for another to attack, instead of pulling the damn trigger. Before that, he crinkled a water bottle loudly and gave his location away. In general, it feels like any reasonable person would have gotten the hell out after seeing the first signs of a home invasion. Instead, Ryan comforts Maya and convinces her to stay. I know we wouldn't have a movie otherwise. Characters acting dumb in the horror genre isn't anything unusual. But if I had been assigned a remake of "The Strangers," I would've tried to boost the leads' intelligence as well as their affability. 

The original film ended on a distressing, cruel note that felt like a culmination of everything that came before. The inevitable kill that follows after a predator finishes toying with its prey. Since "Chapter 1" lacks that same level of dread, its ending instead feels like some gross, torture gore tagged on as a final, unsuccessful attempt to wring some scares out of this material. That a "To Be Continued..." message appears right before the credit can't help but leave the film feeling unfinished and the audience feeling unsatisfied. The flaws of "The Strangers: Chapter 1" are mostly based in it following the original so closely and sticking to this ill-conceived trilogy gimmick. If Renny Harlin had simply made a "Strangers 3," unburdened from setting up two more installments and not standing so totally in the shadow of Bertino's work, this probably would've been a decently entertaining, junk-slasher sequel. Lionsgate made the movie for 8 mil and it grossed over 40 at the box office, so at least the already-in-the-can other two parts probably won't be a sunk cost. Whether "The Strangers: Chapter 2" will build on what worked here or dig deeper into the flawed elements remains to be seen. Thus the seemingly easy task of making another "The Strangers" becoming a struggle goes on... [6/10]

The Long Hair of Death (1964)

I lunghi capelli della morte

Of all the sixties horror stars, Barbara Steele always seemed the most mysterious, the most remote. Maybe this is the result of the kind of otherworldly beauties she so often played, those piercing eyes projecting an elfin quality that can't easily be pinned down. That she has a much smaller body of work than most of her contemporaries – a row of Gothic Italian chillers in the sixties, a couple of cult classics in the last seventies, sporadic appearances since then – adds to this image as well. She wouldn't discuss her genre work for years afterwards, suggesting she was more ambivalent to it than the Hammer boys. That has thankfully changed in recent years, with Steele becoming a regular on the convention circuit. (Though she always cancels whenever she's scheduled to head to my corner of the globe...) The point of this rambling introduction is that, despite doing fewer films than Lee or Price, Steele's impact on the horror genre would be no less significant. She was basically the face of Italian Horror in the sixties. Look no further than "The Long Hair of Death," her other collaboration with Antonio Margheriti. (Whose name I didn't intend to pop up this much this September but here we are.) 

In 15th century Europe, Count Humboldt has ordered Adele Karnstein to be burned at the stake for witchcraft. The real reason for this is Adele turned down the Count's sexual advances. When Adele's oldest daughter, Helen, offers herself to the Count in exchange for her mother's pardon, he kills her too. The youngest Karnstein daughter, Lisabeth, is accepted into the Humboldt court. Years later, she has grown into a gorgeous maiden. The Count's scheming nephew, Kurt, desires her. After forcing Lisabeth into marriage with him, a mysterious beauty named Mary – who looks just like Lisabeth's late, older sister – arrives at the castle. Kurt is immediately smitten with her. He quickly pulls Mary into a scheme to murder Lisabeth. Yet both women are more than they appear to be. 

Themes of philandering men being punished for their infidelity or other twisted desires are common in gothic horror. Few films, however, attack these ideas with the ferocity of "The Long Hair of Death." The men of this unnamed, vaguely Germantic kingdom are especially wicked. The Count and Kurt both coerce Helen and Elisabeth into their beds, both women proclaiming they hate them as the men have their ways with them. Both guys are all too willing to murder to cover up their sexual improprieties. Each only seem to see other people as pawns to use, stepping stones towards acquiring more power and feeding their insatiable lusts. That both men get away with it for so long paints a grim painting for women in this time... And maybe in any time, as men in position of power still misbehave gravely. It's hard to read "The Long Hair of Death" as feminist, since the archetypes it employs are so embroiled in the sexual politics of 1960s Italy. (Lisabeth still can't bring herself to betray her husband, despite being horrible to her.) The scumbag men do get what's coming to them by the end, the women ultimately functioning as avatars of otherworldly justice. The message, as always, is clear: Even the powerful will face the consequences of their crimes, if it's only in death. 

This mythic story structure, of the wicked being punished by otherworldly machinations their own crimes set in action, recalls classical folklore and fairy tales. Which doesn't disguise that "The Long Hair of Death's" plot is basically a hodgepodge of the other gothic horror flicks Steele had starred in before this. Like in "Black Sunday," Steele had a duel role as both a virginal victim and a scheming seductress from the other side. The film features a sequence of a corpse regenerating and crawling out of its grave that is clearly reminiscent of Bava's classic. The opening burning at the stake scene is also indebted to that seminal film. Like Margheriti's earlier "Castle of Blood," Steele is one half of a pair of mysterious sisters. As in "The Horrible Dr. Hichcock," a young woman being gaslit by her evil husband is a plot point. Like "The Ghost," Steele gets to be part of the conniving couple. The story blending human horrors with the supernatural does distinguish it a little bit. Yet, ultimately, "The Long Hair of Death" doesn't deter the presumption that most of Steele's movies are blatantly imitative of each other. (And would continue to be, as the movies Steele made after this one also features many of these ideas.)

A derivative plot is almost besides the point though. "The Long Hair of Death," like so many of the Italian gothic chillers of this time, is thick with ambiance. Riccardo Pallottini's black-and-white cinematography is thick with foreboding. Though lacking the foggy atmosphere of Margheriti's "Castle of Blood," the film still gets the most out of its deep shadows, dusty hallways, and moldering crypts. A sequence showing how the plague has torn apart the village is easily the most dream-like, shadowy sequence in the movie. The film was mostly shot in an actual medieval castle – Castello Massimo in the Roman province of Arsoli – which no doubt added to the movie's foreboding feeling. There are plenty of memorable visuals here. Such as a corpse seemingly squirming to life, from being plump with rats. To the climatic uses of an effigy of death, which graces most of the poster. 

Naturally, Barbara Steele is fantastic in the film. Despite her actual voice being (badly) dubbed over, her chilling and captivating gaze breaks through all language barriers. Steele's one-of-a-kind screen presence could simply elevate a dusty old ghost story like this with ease. Halina Zalewska is also strikingly gorgeous as the more innocent Lisabeth. George Ardisson and Giuliano Raffaelli are both suitably despicable as Kurt and the Count. While the pacing sags a little bit in the middle, the strength of "The Long Hair of Death's" prologue and climax are enough to easily recommend it to fans of this particular subgenre. It's neither Steele's strongest nor weakest film but will surely satisfy any of her fans. [7/10]

Climax!: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

In August of 1954, CBS ended “Suspense,” an anthology designed to thrill and excite, often based on well-known stories and starring recognizable faces. In October of 1954, CBS began airing “Climax!,” an anthology designed to thrill and excite, often based on well-known stories and starring recognizable faces. The series did not focus solely on macabre stories – the most famous episode is “Casino Royale,” giving us the first on-screen depiction of James Bond – but it did feature horror stories sometimes. Such as probably the second most famous episode, a version of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” Aside from the notoriety of the source material, the episode is an early screenwriting credit of Gore Videl. 

Videl condensed Robert Louis Stevenson's novella somewhat to be confined largely to two different sets, since “Climax!” was broadcast live. The biggest change made to the source material is the beginning, with Mr. Hyde being shot dead by the police in Dr. Jekyll's lab. His personal journal is then read, the story being told via flashback. Michael Rennie, of “Michael Rennie was ill” fame, plays the title part. Cedric Hardwicke appears as Utterson, the doctor's confidant. Mary Sinclair plays the unnamed barmaid – the script obliquely clarifies that she's not a prostitute – that Hyde becomes obsessed with. The episode limits Hyde's wicked acts to harassing that poor girl, picking fights in the bar, and eventually murdering someone. Still, the spirit of the novella is there. Considering how wildly off the mark cinematic “Jekyll and Hydes” tend to go, this one earns points for sort-of sticking to the text. 

When judged on its own merits, this “Jekyll and Hyde” is fairly entertaining. Rennie is no Fredric March but gives a solid performance. The moment when Jekyll looses control over his transformation, and he signals to Sinclair that he's Hyde now through only a change of expression, is a highlight. The make-up used to create Hyde is underwhelming. Rennie is given a unibrow, a mole, some polish on his face, and slaps on an unflattering whig. The sequence when he first takes the potion remains interesting. The camera starts to jostle side to side and there's a really cool shot of the walls bubbling and pulsating. 

Being an example of early, live television, there's a few noticeable slip-ups. Rennie flubs a line in one of his first scenes. A stage hand is seen pulling a curtain closed at one point. Of course, like a lot of shows from this era, “Climax!” also had a corporate sponsor. That would be Chrysler Motors. A lengthy segment is devoted to host William Lundigan showing off some new cars. I don't know how any vintage TV shows managed to build any suspense with required moments like that. Still, on the long list of “Jekyll and Hyde” adaptations, this is a sturdy one. It stands better on its own, and less as a novelty, compared to many of the other really old TV episodes I've watched. [7/10]

Chucky: There Will Be Blood

Chucky might have bit the dust in the previous episode but “Chucky: The Series” is far from done. “There Will Be Blood” has the spirit of Charles Lee Ray arriving in the afterlife, which takes the form of the White House. He meets with Damballah himself, who appears to Chucky: The Man as Chucky: The Doll. On account of his audacity for murdering a president, the god gives the serial killer one more chance. In the corporeal White House, Warren Pryce prepares a cover-up that will officially kill off President Collins and put the vice president in control. Pryce also orders Jake, Lexy, Devon, and Grant locked up. Experts in the paranormal arrive at the White House to investigate. The séance they perform only gives Chucky's ghost a chance to cause more chaos, Jake coming up with a crazy scheme to stop the serial killer once and for all. Meanwhile, in Texas, Tiffany/Jennifer Tilly's plan to avoid execution goes awry and she faces down lethal injection.

Considering how enjoyably nuts “Chucky” has gotten this season, I'm happy that that show puts a creatively bent take on the concept of the afterlife. Previous victims reappearing, their injuries intact, in a version of the White House inhabited by famous ghosts and decorated with the doll's visage is something else. Hearing Chucky's immediately recognizable voice come out of Brad Dourif's actual flesh-and-blood body is a bit disorientating, I'll admit. It is a delight to see the beloved character actor embodying Charles Lee Ray for the first time in years. Having him play against the doll, Damballah acting as a distracted CEO in plastic form, is such a weird, fun scene. 

That opening sequence is so much fun that “There Will Be Blood” never quite tops it. It certainly tries, though. The title is lived up to, when Ray's ghost fills an elevator entirely with blood. The séance is most fun for the way Dourif fucks with the mediums. “Chucky” certainly gets the most of its access to profanity in this episode. I don't dislike the subplot about Pryce using the presidential double to instill a leader he can control in the Oval Office. However, it does feel like a distraction from what's most interesting in this episode. How all of that plays out can't help but feel like “Chucky” hastily clipping away at subplots as it pulls into the final act of season three. This is certainly an episode whose last few minutes exist to set-up the season finale, meaning it's not as satisfying as some of the better installments from season three.

“There Will Be Blood” is notable for another reason. The episode is largely without a musical score. This gives the hour a much more somber, introspective tone. That is especially apparent in the scenes involving Tiffany Valentine heading towards death row. The climatic moment there – I'm reluctant to assume it'll be Jennifer Tilly's last involvement with this franchise – does generate some pathos. This is an unusually downbeat episode of a season that's been quite comedic so far. The more chaotic, violent set-pieces feel more fatalistic than splatsticky. It's still a fairly unique installment in a season that has continuously swung for the fences. I'm excited to see how it'll be wrapped up next time. [7/10]