Wisps (the Fog, 1980)

After two TV movies, John Carpenter returned to the screen with an old fashioned ghost story. Telling the tale of small seaside town Antonio Bay, the Fog follows events leading up to their Centennial. The town is planning to celebrate the near mythic four founders of the town. In the days leading up, there are mysterious events. Add a dense, unnatural fog. The Fog is not the scary part…there is something in the fog. Something cruel and angry.

Only a few townspeople know the true history. Father Malone is a tortured priest who has kept the secret. And the rest of the town continues on oblivious, writing off his warnings. But people are starting to discover some bizarre incidents. They find a ship that appears abandoned, until they find a sea ravaged body. A body that gets up once on land. There are knocks at doors, but there is nothing there. When the fog finally overtakes the town, the vengeful spirits start to decimate the town, while some race to save others.

This is a wonderfully classic haunting story. The characters are interconnected by the narration of Stevie Wayne, the local DJ who works in a converted lighthouse (it is, of course, related to the horrific history of Antonio Bay). As Stevie, Adrienne Barbeau has a sexy and raspy tone. Stevie is a single mother who is separated from her son, and her only way to communicate the threat is to keep talking on the radio. She also has a playful and flirtatious relationship with weather man Dan (Carpenter regular Charles Cyphers). Their relationship is entirely over the phone, but it is engaging.

Tom Atkins (always welcome in any film) is rugged local Nick Castle who picks up hitchhiker Elizabeth (Jamie Lee Curtis, returning from Halloween). They end up trying to save people after hearing Stevie over the radio. Hal Holbrook’s weary priest is a great performance.

The effects are so simply that they impress. The fog crawls through forests, engulfs houses and the ghosts hidden within are emphasized by eerie back lighting. Carpenter has filled the film with many great little touches, such as using the scenery of the town as a character all its own.

If you want a great and classic ghost story? You won’t go wrong with the Fog.

October 8, 2016 0

I Always Feel Like (Someone’s Watching Me!, 1978)

The same year Carpenter unleashed Halloween, he wrote and directed this television thriller. Lauren Hutton is Leigh Michaels, a television producer, new to Los Angeles. She moves into a high-rise apartment and then starts to receive ominous calls from a creepy voiced stranger who seems to know a lot about her. She has an ex who won’t give up and is trying to start a relationship up with a new man.

As the calls escalate (even after changing her number) and she is receiving mystery gifts, the Police let her know there is nothing they can do. Leigh retorts “Well, if he kills me, you will be the first to know!” As plots go, Someone is Watching Me is pretty pedestrian. And considering there are many true crime shows dedicated to stalking now, well, this probably seemed a bit freakier in a time when people were not really talking about stalking. It also becomes a bit like a reverse Rear Window.

It has a strong core cast with Hutton, Adrienne Barbeau and David Birney. Barbeau plays Hutton’s lesbian co-worker. I only note this because the film plays it off as merely another aspect of who she is. It is neither played as a joke or a sign of her being a suspicious individual.

Not unlike Halloween, Carpenter spends much of his time establishing the characters and building tension until the final twenty minutes or so when her stalker gets murderous and she struggles to convince her boyfriend and the authorities she is not making this all up.

Overall, you can see the spark of Carpenter’s film-making gifts. He takes a standard TV movie plot and manages to give his characters personality and build tension, throughout the film.

October 7, 2016 0

Closing Time (Assault on Precinct 13, 1976)

After Dark Star, Carpenter made one of his few films outside his standard horror and Sci-Fi genres. Assault on Precinct 13 is a gritty action film about a group of cops holed up in a Precinct that is about to be closed. A gang has attacks with the express purpose of killing someone that is locked in the precinct. Cops and criminals must unite to survive the night.

The odds are against them, but they are not willing to give in either.

The cast, led by Austin Stoker (Battle for the Planet of the Apes) is a quality combination of both solid character actors and unknowns. These are good performances and Stoker’s Ethan Bishop is instantly likeable. He is a strong and determined officer who lays his life on the line to protect the people trapped with him.

The tale is unrelenting with an uneasy resolution. Unlike a lot of Carpenter’s other works, the threat comes from within humanity, rather than outside of it. That is part of what makes the heroes of the tale so compelling. They are forced to work together to deal with the brutal attacker bent on their complete destruction. Carpenter makes a successful action thriller worth watching.

October 6, 2016 0

Starting Over (The Stepfather, 2009)

This is a pretty slick and glossy remake. It begins much like the original, right down to the Stepfather clearing a fogged up mirror and shaving off a bushy beard. It is a little extended, but the idea is the same. Admittedly, it was a pretty iconic moment, and I get wanting to use it again.

In his new town he meets Sela Ward’s Susan. She has three children, one of whom is in military school (Michael, played by Penn Badgley). He returns six months after his mom and David (the Stepfather) met and they are already engaged. Michael instantly does not trust David. David tries to get him to trust him with a private conversation about they will heal the family together (over shots).

The film establishes that his back story is that his wife and daughter were killed in an accident by a drunk driver. And quickly, he starts to slip up, confusing names of his dead daughter while talking to Michael.

Unlike the first film, David needs to fix his problems very quickly. A little old lady in the neighborhood told everyone about how this police sketch of the family killer she saw on a TV show looked just like David. So, of course he has to kill her. Susan’s ex-husband gets inquisitive. So, He has to die. The film tends to take it’s kill count from the third Stepfather films, going for big numbers, rather than a nuanced exploration of the Stepfather’s psychosis.

The Stepfather of this remake is kind of confusing. The original films he was a very strict traditionalist. He believed in hardcore moral values. He did not believe in sex before marriage or living together before marriage. His rigid morality was a code he lived by and refused to falter on. When he did falter, that is when he started to crack. This version sees a guy who is accused of being to old fashioned, but he seems to have pretty modern attitudes. He lives with Susan and her kids, they are having sex. In a scene reminiscent of the original, Michael puts on headphones to drown out the sounds of sex. In the 1987 version, part of what makes the scene work is when we see O’Quinn and Hack together, O’Quinn has an expression of wanting to be anywhere but there having sex.

Anytime Amber Heard is on the screen, it feels like the director forgot he was making a movie…the film lingers on Heard in a bikini a lot…I mean, it is necessary I am sure…because Michael is a swimmer, so they spend a ton of by the pool. I get it, Heard is attractive…but it is just s obvious that it distracts from the film. It seems to have been distracting enough that we meet some detectives at the beginning working the case. And we never see them again.

Sure, this film is far more action picked, with a big fight, but everything that is no really does not add to the story, everything that links back to the original just feels like a pale imitation. While it is certainly better that Stepfather 3, this remake does nothing to improve on the original.

October 4, 2016 0

We Need More Kills (The Stepfather III, 1992)

While planning to make a third film, the filmmakers ran into a little snag. Terry O’Quinn turned them down. To be fair, he had a pretty television and film schedule going in 1992, so it may have been a scheduling issue. They ended up casting Robert Wightman (John Boy on the Waltons). To explain why he looks so different (and still living after the second film) he visits an underground plastic surgeon and gets his face changed.

He joins a church and starts working at a local landscaping/nursery business. He meets and captures the heart of Christine (Three’s Company’s Priscilla Barnes) and her wheelchair bound son Andy. Andy is into computers and especially enjoys a murder mystery game. Andy just never trusts Keith, even after he marries Christine. As people start getting in the way, the killing begins. He also starts to plant the seeds of a new relationship with Jennifer and her son Nicky. But when the two worlds collide, he finds himself trying to salvage one of the relationships, everything goes sideways.

This film is far more focused on killings and most easily is more of a slasher film than the previous entries. Characters are constantly giving the Stepfather reason to kill them. The film is also shot in a way that makes this film seem like a cheap imitation of the previous entries. Wight does do a decent impression of Quinn’s inflections as the Stepfather, but the film never captures the menace and quite often feels like it is on the verge of parody. Early in the film, it is suggested that while Andy is in a wheelchair, the condition is psychosomatic and he could walk if he could get emotionally past it. This leads to a moment with “inspirational” music playing as he forces himself to stand and fight to save his mom.

This is the bloodiest of the series, and it suffers for that. It also appears that this film was meant to put the series to rest, as the Stepfather cannot really come back from the end of this film…unless you makes him an evil spirit. It is easily the least enjoyable film in the franchise, and not recommended. It has a pretty good poster though.

October 3, 2016 0

Try, Try Again (The Stepfather 2: Make Room For Daddy, 1989)

Terry O’Quinn returns in this sequel that finds a healed Jerry in a high security mental institution. He eventually breaks out and assumes the role of psychologist Gene Clifford (which will turn out to be a poor choice later in the film for a pretty obvious reason). While leading a therapy group for divorced women, he finds Carol Grayland (Meg Foster) and her son Todd (the late Jonathan Brandis). He starts building a relationship with them while her friend Matty (genre veteran Caroline Williams) starts to look into Gene’s background.

While Todd seems to like Gene, Carol is more prone to question things. Though she is good at pushing those concerns aside, even when Matty is pressing buttons.

Like the first film, the primary focus is the state of mind of the Stepfather. It is simple mistakes that interfere with his family, and his attempts to fix it only make it worse. Carol trusts him less and less, and the moment when she realizes that Gene is a killer is very well done. It involves the running theme of the films where the Stepfather whistles Camptown Ladies.

Director Jeff Burr had the film chopped up against his desire. The Weinstein Brothers felt that it tested poorly and needed more blood. The re-shoots were done without Burr or O’Quinn as both refused to participate. In spite of this, Stepfather 2 is still a pretty fine follow-up focused overall less on bloodiness and more the characters. It is a decent follow up to the original and still an enjoyable thriller.

October 2, 2016 0

Blue Is the New Blood Red (Blue Ruin, 2013)

Director Jeremy Saulnier creates a savage tale of revenge and the downward spiral it creates with Blue Ruin. Blue Ruin begins with Dwight being freed from prison. Her returns to his childhood home and estranged family. He is there for revenge, but when his attempts as an assassin go a bit awry, it all escalates.

This is a slow burn film. Dwight’s attempts at revenge lead to himself being hurt and his family being put in danger. Dwight is played with quiet intensity by Macon Blair. The film is bleak, with a tragic ending.

This is a well shot meditation on revenge. The theme seems to be that revenge will eat away and destroy people. Dwight is a bit inept as a killer, but he is also ultimately successful, but at the expense of his humanity. Saulnier is a skilled storyteller and Blue Ruin is a challenging watch. The road of vengeance is the path of self destruction and Dwight lives that out to the bitter end.

October 2, 2016 0

Who Am I here? (The Stepfather, 1987)

A lot of People discovered Terry O’Quinn on lost. But horror movie fans discovered him back in 1987 when he played Jerry Blake, the titular Stepfather.

The film opens with a heavily bearded O’Quinn looking into a mirror. As he shaves and styles his hair, nothing seems terribly off, until he walks down the stairs, passing a scene of brutal carnage. A mother and her children lie in the living room as he calmly walks out of the front door.

Picking up a year later, we meet Stephanie, a sixteen year old high school student (played by Jill Schoelen), who is not all that crazy about her new Stepfather. She intensely misses her own father and is creeped out by her stepfather, Jerry Blake. She also struggles in school, getting into fights and trouble with teachers. Because of her grief, she sees a therapist. While people do not believe her that charming Jerry is a scary guy, Doctor Bondurant is the only one to treat her concerns seriously. As things seem to fracture, Jerry begins to transition towards his new life, meaning Stephanie and her mother are in big trouble.

The Stepfather is a strong psychological thriller. Director Joseph Ruben is mostly of the leave it to your imagination here, having very little gore. It focuses more on the psychological end of things. The film has a low body count, which puts it outside the slasher territory. Blake does not kill for a love of the kill, rather to protect his attempts at a perfect traditional family. But when things get hard with his families, something clicks and he starts to seek a new life and a new perfect family.

O’Quinn gives a bravura performance. As a viewer, we know he is a dangerous killer, and yet, when he is being a gentle husband and father he is ridiculously charming. But when he turns, he is disturbing and frightening.

Both Schoelen and Shelley Hack (as Stephanie’s mother) are very sympathetic. And what really stands out is that nothing really makes the characters look stupid for not realizing he is a killer. When people do not believe Stephanie about how creepy Jerry is, it is entirely reasonable that they question it. Even she questions if she is being paranoid.

This is a great thriller, and worth checking out this Halloween if you have never seen it before.

October 1, 2016 0