Fear Flashback Friday: The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue

The return of Fear Flashback Friday! I'm hoping to do reviews on most Fridays and they'll tend to be of the horror variety. Not all, though - and we'll have Film Flashback Fridays and New Film Fridays as well. Didn't quite have the time I'd hoped for this first week, but I've 'dug up' a neglected classic for 2018's inaugral film. So without further ado:

The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue
This is one of those movies I always wanted to see when I was younger (I’d first heard of it under the title Let Sleeping Corpses Lie), but just never found at any of the video stores I frequented. Somehow I forgot about it completely until I read Jamie Russell’s Book of the Dead. He positions the film as the transitional successor to Night of the Living Dead, sitting somewhere between that film’s anti-establishment nihilism and the later Dawn of the Dead’s explicit, gory violence. Well, that was enough for me to want to track it down! Luckily it was at that time available on Netflix (DVD) and it has become one of my favorite zombie movies.

The Medium

I was lucky enough to find a used copy of the Blue Underground blu ray edition at my local Bull Moose store recently, so when I found myself feeling the urge to watch some gut-chomping action it was a – pardon the pun – no brainer to pop it in. Picture quality is as decent as you can expect for a low-budget exploitation flick and there's a decent selection of extras (no commentary track, though).

The Movie

The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue starts off in a London that is represented as crowded, filthy and jaded. Smokestacks and cars belch noxious fumes everywhere; people do drugs on the street and walk around with cloth over their faces. At one point a buxom young woman strips down and races across the street (this is the 70’s, dontcha know), but no one seems to care. George, our hero, is taking his motorcycle out to the country for a working holiday, trying to escape the poisonous congestion.

At a gas station he meets Edna when the young woman backs into his motorcycle. With the repairs taking all weekend he browbeats her into giving him a ride (and letting him drive!) as they’re heading in roughly the same direction – he to a house on a lake and she to visit her sick sister. Unfortunately they’re quickly lost.

"Douchebagsayswhat?"
"What?"

When George stops at a farm to ask directions he comes across an experimental machine that the Agricultural Ministry is using to try and combat insect pests. It uses “ultrasonic radiation” to excite the primitive nervous systems of insects, inciting them to violence against each other. You would think George, as a bit of a hippie, would applaud something that at the very least doesn’t dispense poison or noxious fumes, but he’s pretty set against ANYTHING that goes against the natural order. And in this case his suspicions are dead-on.

"Sir, give me the colander. You're drunk."

Because within minutes of the device being switched on Edna is attacked by a strange man who is dripping wet and has strange red eyes. Her description matches that of a local tramp (maybe not the red eyes), but of course it can’t be – he’s been dead for several days.

Things spin rapidly out of control from there in traditional zombie flick fashion. Edna’s sister and brother-in-law are attacked and he’s brutally murdered. The local police suspect the wife and Edna and George are dragged into the ensuing investigation. The bigoted and bitter police sergeant distrusts them both and when the evidence at various killings seem to link to their presence he jumps to conclusions, putting everyone at risk.

"Don't think about getting into an 'who's the bigger asshole' contest, punk,
cause I guarantee you'll lose."

TLDaMM is just a really well made film, especially for a 1970’s zombie picture. Yes, there are huge plot holes, but at least one of them leads to one of the more eerie moments in the film. It’s established pretty early on that the “ultrasonic radiation” is affecting the decaying nervous systems of the recently deceased (and the developing nervous systems of newborns, in a weird nursery scene), but those dead for longer don’t seem affected. Then comes a sequence in a crypt where one of the zombies dabs blood on the eyes of a couple of corpses – a moment that’s almost religious in its presentation - and those older bodies also rise.  It makes NO SENSE, but is effective nonetheless.

"Okay, just like we practiced, and a one, and a two..."

And the zombies in this movie are quite a bit more capable than Romero’s walking corpses. They use tools, they plan, and they’re capable of strategic retreat. This is probably the only movie I’ve scene in which zombies use a gravestone to knock down prey! They also make this creepy whining noise, like a pre-vocal child. It’s quite disturbing in spots.

Oh, come on, the selfie stick isn't that bad.

The actors do a great job for the most part, despite some dodgy accents. Arthur Kennedy as the police sergeant does a particularly good job of making us hate him, doing the almost impossible job of getting us to root FOR the zombies by the end. Cinematography is also quite good, with some excellent shots of the city, village and countryside. Pacing is good with very little drag.

The Bottom Line

This is a definite gem, and one that I think isn’t as well-known as it should be. If you get a chance, give it a shot.

The Beyond - Fear Flashback Review at Best Horror Movie List

In the absence of a new assignment from Best Horror Movie List I decided to review one of my favorite Italian horror movies. I'd just picked up the Grindhouse Releasing Blu-ray of The Beyond and it's well worth picking up, especially if you don't have a previous release. (I've also got the Arrow Blu-ray, but I'm happy to have double-dipped, as there are some great new extras and the picture quality is - IMHO - a tick higher on the Grindhouse disc.)

I've got a new assignment for BHML for next week (As Above, So Below), but will hopefully still review older films on occasion.

"The plot of your standard Fulci film is usually a thin excuse for random imagery and gory set pieces at the best of times..." [more]

Fear Flashback Friday: Puppet Master (1989)

Puppet Master (1989)

There was a time when films by Charles Band provided a notable portion of my movie consumption. Between Empire Pictures and Full Moon we got films like Ghoulies, Trancers, Subspecies, Robot Jox, and Puppet Master. (And, of course, Sorority Babes at the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama.) With some exceptions (Re-Animator being one), they were all fairly low budget genre affairs with wooden acting, low production values, cheap special effects and a little nudity/gore sprinkled on top for spice.

And yet... there was always something enjoyable about those films. It's hard to pin down now, but at the time (mid-80's to mid 90's) I looked forward to any Empire/Full Moon tape that graced the shelves of my local video stores. In some ways they reminded me of older B movies, like the William Castle pictures. They were fun to watch and always had a little something extra that set them above their contemporaries, whether that was decent music, a good performance/character, some humor or - as with Puppet Master - interesting monsters.

Look at those faces... aren't they precious?

It's been a while since I watched almost  any of the old Empire/Full Moon films (except for Re-Animator, which I usually watch every couple of years). I DID watch The Lurking Fear last year and was unimpressed, so I started to wonder if my fond feelings for those old Band productions were misplaced. When I saw that Puppet Master was now available on Hulu I decided to bite the bullet and check it out - would it hold up to my memory?

The Medium
Puppet Master is now available on Hulu, and that's how I watched it. There have been several releases over the years - and I understand many of the films are now available via Blu-ray. I'm not sure if this first film in the series is worth the upgrade - the cinematography is okay, but rarely above workmanlike. I guess it would depend on any extras. I'd love to hear about the creation of the puppets.

The Movie
In 1930's California a puppet maker named Andre Toulon hides his living puppets and an Egyptian scroll in the wall of his hotel room, then takes his own life before Nazi spies break in.

Couldn't he just unleash the puppets on the Nazis?

There's no beating around the bush with the puppets - they're obviously self-animated. Toulon creates a new one - Jester - as part of this opening sequence and some of the others are seen moving around. Blade, a trench-coat-and-fedora wearing puppet with a hook hand and blades for eyes, spends a lot of time spying on the spies and running around the hotel's oblivious clientele. There's no real follow up about the Nazis or Toulon in this film, though later entries in the series flesh things out considerably.

After the opening sequence we're brought to present day, where a group of psychics are assembled at the very same hotel. They're brought together by an old associate, Neil Gallagher. None of them seem to have liked him much - when they meet his wife, Megan, the general sense is that of disbelief that he would ever get married. That's quickly forgotten when they discover that he has committed suicide.

"There's just something about funerals that make me want to roll up my sleeves."

The characters are all given quick introductions - including a fun cameo with Barbara Crampton - that serve as character sketches and examples of their abilities. Frank seems to get psychic  impressions or has telepathy. Clarissa is a psychometrist, she reads impressions from objects (though she seems to focus mostly on sexual impressions). Dana is a fortune-teller and general mystic (and carries her stuffed dog around with her). Alex has dreams of the future - including one in which Neil threatens Megan.

A strained dinner is disrupted when Dana's crude remarks about Neil upset Megan and she storms away from the table. Alex follows her and explains that they had all been involved with Neil's search for immortality and that most of them believe he found it in Toulon's work - and that Neil then screwed them over.

That night, the puppets from Toulon's trunk start killing the psychics in various ways, including drilling into their faces, vomiting up leeches, and trying to strangle them.

That's not a good look for you, my dear.

Up to this point, I'll have to admit I was barely paying attention. It's an okay setup - and moments like Dana sticking a huge hatpin into Neil's corpse to prove he's dead are fun - but the pacing is a little slow and the actors are a little bland. When the puppets finally start showing up, however, things immediately get a lot better. A LOT. They're just fantastic creations and animated extremely well. They're fun to watch and their attacks are handled with skill and creativity. I've always been partial to Pinhead, a muscular puppet with human-sized hands and a tiny porcelain head, and the stop motion sequences with him are great.

It's punch-o-clock!

Things move quickly after that, with Neil being revealed as the villain. He has indeed discovered Toulon's secret - but it only works on inanimate things. Neil's gotten around that by having himself re-animated AFTER he's killed himself. And he intends to do the same with the psychics and Megan, as he's tired of experimenting on the puppets.

Unfortunately for him, the puppets don't take kindly to this betrayal.

"Are you seeing this bullshit?"

The Bottom Line
Puppet Master is still not a great movie - and not even my favorite of the line (which has always been Puppet Master III - which I'll now have to track down). It's still a FUN movie, though, and anytime the puppets are on screen is a blast. I was pleasantly surprised and the experience has encouraged me to track down a few of the other Empire/Full Moon films I loved when I was younger.

Fear Flashback Friday: Day of the Dead (1985)

Day of the Dead (1985)

I have a confession to make: for the longest time this was my favorite Romero zombie movie. It was the first of his films I saw, which probably has something to do with it -though I'd definitely seen bits of Night and Dawn, probably through Fangoria. It came out when I was still in high school and video rentals were just getting going. The one movie theater in town had closed - not that they would have shown an unrated movie to begin with. While Evil Dead was the very first movie I rented, I think Day was in the very next batch of tapes.

I don't think it being the first was the only reason, though, as it remained my favorite of the bunch for a decade or more - long after I'd see the others. There was the gore, of course. The effects remain some of the most well-done of any horror movie - from 'Dr. Tongue' through the exposed brain to Rhode's disembowlment. Tom Savini is at his peak in Day and you can see his influence in every zombie productions since. (Particularly in The Walking Dead - special effects supervisor/co-executive producer Gerg Nicotero's first film was Day of the Dead, where he worked on both special effects and in front of the camera as Private Johnson.)   There was also the dark, introspective, almost nihilistic tone - particularly attractive to me as a depressive, introspective, and nihilistic teenager.

...down the halls of my local high school. Oh, wait, that's me.

But if I'm honest there's really only one reason why Day held the top spot in my affections for so long - and that reason is Bub.

The 80's had a lot of what I call 'character monsters.' In the 30's you had Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, the Wolfman, Mummy, and others - protagonists as well as antagonists. In the 80's there was Jason and Michael and Freddy. Monsters that had their own agency - and fan followings. And there was Bub - a zombie, yes, but also a fully realized character who is also arguably one of the heroes of the movie. Out of all the 80's movie monsters, he was my favorite.

As I got older my tastes widened somewhat (though they remain relatively shallow), and Day has fallen out of favor. Night is now my favorite of the Romero films, followed by Dawn. I still love Bub, though. Even as I type this I've got the Amok Time Bub figure staring at me, his reward bucket at his side.

The Medium
I've got the two disk DVD (DiviMax) Anchor Bay release from 2003. It was an excellent release for the time - with a ton of extras, including two commentary tracks, hundreds of stills, a documentary and even a PDF of the 'first draft' script. It still looks very good for a DVD, but if you're thinking about picking the film up in HD, the new Scream Factory release seems to be the way to go, if only for the new feature length documentary. (It also includes the commentary tracks from the Anchor Bay release.)

The Movie
A woman wakes in a white, cinderblock room. On the far wall is a calendar with the month of October showing. All the days have been crossed off. It's October 31, Halloween. She approaches and holds her hand out to touch the picture, an idyllic presentation of a family in a sunny pumpkin patch. Suddenly numerous rotting hands burst through the wall to grasp at her. And she wakes again, this time she's in a helicopter flying low over what appears to be an abandoned coastal city. But appearances can be deceiving...

I want to make a 'watch the hands' joke here.

In some ways this is my favorite section of the movie. The opening bit with the white room/zombie hands is cool and startling, but it's the all-too brief exploration of the abandoned city that really sticks in my head. All those empty streets, the abandoned vehicles, the debris, the alligator. I think this was really the first time the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse was presented - so many films before and since are occupied  more with the apocalypse itself, rather than the results (though I'm sure there are exceptions). The Walking Dead has been great at following up on this, though - and the early episode scenes with Rick in the remains of Atlanta remind me of this sequence in Day.

Zombie apocalypse or San Francisco after the Giants won?

Of course the city isn't really abandoned - it just doesn't belong to the living any more. The new occupants respond to the sounds of people shouting over a megaphone and the dead spill out into the streets, looking for fresh meat. (Amongst these zombies is one of the greatest zombie effects on film - the so-called 'Dr. Tongue' zombie, who has apparently had his face blown away by a shotgun blast - his lower jaw almost gone, his tongue flicking about in the breeze. (I ran an All Flesh Must be Eaten game that included a jawless zombie - one character was gummed and the others almost shot him, thinking he'd been bit.)

Faced with the obvious - that there are no survivors in the city, or at least none that can respond - the helicopter leaves and returns to the military instillation that is their base of operations. It's an underground complex set in a old mine, a place where a ton of things, including boats and old government documents, are stored. This is where the movie settles down into its real story - about a military that wants control, scientists who want to understand, and two guys who want to just enjoy the last dying embers of a world that's already burnt to a crisp.

On the military side we have Captain Rhodes, a high strung commander with only the most tenuous hold on his men and his sanity. His second in command is Steel, a blowhard and a bully. A number of other soldiers round out the unit, including the barely-holding-it-together Miguel.

This is the least shouty picture of Rhodes I could find.

 For the scientists we have the extremely tough and capable Sarah (the woman we met earlier) and Fisher (played by John Amplas, who was also the title character in Romero's Martin). I'm... not exactly sure what it is they do, exactly - supposedly they're looking for whatever caused the outbreak of undead. The lead scientist is a man named Logan, though all the soldiers call him Frankenstein. I know what Logan does - he experiments on zombies. Sometimes he carves them up - there's a memorable scene in his lab that includes a brainstem still attached to a body and a zombie that literally spills its guts - and sometimes he trains them.

"And the good news is... well, there is no good news."

The third group is in some ways the most interesting, but is also the least active in the plot. John, the pilot, and Bill McDermott, the radio operator. They're outsiders both figuratively and literally - they even live outside the underground complex, instead setting up a homey trailer deep within the mine itself. While the other groups struggle to find meaning and reason in a world gone mad both John and Bill are just trying to get by - doing their jobs, but nothing more.

"Why is there no food on this plate, mon."

Most of the film is about the conflict between the soldiers and the scientists. Rhodes wants answers - really, what he wants is a solution to the problem they have, which is that the dead are coming back to life and civilization has gone down the toilet. The scientists are struggling with more basic questions - like HOW the dead are coming back to life and WHY. That is, except for Logan - who really is trying to figure out a solution, unfortunately his research requires a steady stream of 'subjects' from a corral of zombies the military keeps in the mine, and that leads to the inevitable collapse of structure and the deaths of (almost) everyone involved.

I actually skipped a group, and it's an egregious error on my part. The zombies themselves form a distinct fourth group, represented by the one zombie that Logan has managed to train - Bub. The other zombies do what zombies do, mill about aimlessly until a living brain ambles by and then they get real focused. Bub has regained some contact with what he used to be before he died. He tries to shave with a razor, read a book - he even listens to Beethoven with an expression of surprise and, maybe, joy on his face. Bub, in some ways, represents a hope for the future- the possibility of human experience living on beyond death.

Though you can tell he's not quite there because he's skipping to the end of the book.

All the other characters don't seem to represent anything but hopelessness, really. The military just want to shoot their way out of everything, a physical and military solution that has no chance of succeeding. But the scientists are just as deluded - they're looking for an answer where there may be none, assuming that answering a hypothetical WHY is more noble and useful than just trying to get on with HOW. And John and Bill are really the worst - though their point of view seems to be the one Romero favors. And that point of view seems to be "we fucked everything up and even if we didn't God hates us so let's just give up." The sum total of human civilization, achievement and history should be dumped and forgotten. Yeah, there's a lot of absolute crap saved away in deep places as if it should mean something, but there's a lot of good as well. Baby. Bathwater. Whatever man, let's just get high and have babies that we never teach about anything. (And how offensive is John as a character, looking back at it - a lazy, weed-smoking black man from Jamaica? )

As long as I'm aimlessly ranting, WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH THAT CLOWN?

Man, there's just something about this movie that provokes me to ramble about nothing - I guess because that's what most of the movie seems to be about, rambling about nothing. Luckily we get a lot of gory zombie-related goodness in between the shouty bits and an extended zombie assault on the base that provides some of the only comedy available in the film. Bub is awesome and Sherman Howard just kills with his performance - bringing more life and humanity to a zombie than most of the other human characters provide.

The Bottom Line
On one level Day of the Dead is a depressing shitstorm of violence, nihilism, pseudo-philosophical bullshit and indictments of both the military and science. On another it's a thoughtful, introspective look at what humanity means and what, if anything, is worth saving about it. And on yet another level it's a gory zombie romp with a fantastic zombie character and fantastic effects sequences.

I feel like I've been overly hard on Day while writing this - and the truth is it's only in the dissection of the film that I get annoyed with it. As a whole, I still very much enjoy the film - and Bub forever, man. Bub forever.

No, we salute YOU, Bub. We salute YOU.

Fear Flashback Friday: Last Man on Earth

Last Man on Earth

"I can't live a heartbeat away from hell - and forget it."

I read Richard Matheson's I Am Legend pretty late in my sci-fi reading history. I'd already seen and read a dozen things that were inspired by (or blatantly ripped off) the book, but it still had power, and is well worth a read if you get a chance.

While you can see its influence in things like the original Night of the Living Dead, I don't think anyone's really done the original story justice - official adaptations included. Last Man on Earth comes the closest, however. Omega Man has its own cheesy glories, but as an adaptation of the novel it fails miserably. I Am Legend was a fun movie - and in some ways captured a bit of that epic loneliness of the main character - but it's an action movie at the end of the day, more concerned with the CGI monsters and action set pieces.

I wanted to make a joke about 'getting the point' - but I got nothin'.

No, Last Man on Earth - despite the slow pacing, bad acting (except for Price) and the whole low-budget feel to the whole affair - is the most faithful. Whether that's a good thing or not is a matter of opinion. I happen to think it's the best of the bunch - with the changes from the novel being necessary (especially the ending).

The Medium
For years all I've had was a DVD copy that was a part of one of those '50 Horror Classics' type collections. It's pretty crappy, cropped on the sides and with significant dust/scratches/damage. Luckily, Scream Factory has released a Blu-ray version as part of its Vincent Price Collection II. I don't own the set yet, but it's something I hope to pick up eventually.

The picture is a revelation compared to the low-quality versions I've seen on TV and DVD. The picture is sharp and detailed and the contrast is much improved, providing a depth sorely lacking in previous releases.

The Movie
It's the end of the world and we know it. The sun rises on an empty LA. Bodies and debris litter the streets. In a residential neighborhood, in a house festooned with garlic and mirrors, the Last Man on Earth is waking up.

No crowds, but the smell...

The bleakness of Morgan's existence is made obvious early on in Last Man on Earth. The shots of various parts of LA with corpses strewn about, empty streets, debris everywhere. Then there's Morgan's house - full of just the most essential things, piled up everywhere. His living room includes a record player, but it also has a shortwave radio setup and a lathe where he makes stakes. There are what look like blood splatters on the walls. This is a man who is just surviving - and really, if you're the last person on earth, who do you have to clean up for?

Normally I dislike narration, but I'll make an exception for Vincent Price. It's really a one-man show, this movie, and he does a fantastic job - alternately stoic and on the edge of breaking down.

It's an average day for Morgan, bleak as it is. Need garlic and gas. Pile the corpses he find outside of his house into the back of his station wagon and drive them to a smoking pit where he dumps the bodies. Then it's a trip to the grocery store, past piles of corpses.

And a quick trip to the mirror store. What's good in vampire repellent these days?

At this point the rational part of your brain has questions. Generators still working, gas still available after three years? Food still neatly stacked on shelves? Corpses EVERYWHERE? In a modern movie all this stuff would be smashed, the food taken during the collapse of society - but it was a different time.

A good portion of Morgan's day is going door to door, room to room, killing what can only be described as vampires. It's gotta be vampires, right? We've got  garlic, mirrors, and stakes. Yet they look and act more like zombies. Especially once he returns home just before sundown and the creatures come out of the dark to assault his house.

I like how there's a couple of sections off the main area, like he just got bored and needed a change of scenery.

 That look on his face as they assault the house. Imagine three years of that. Gah.

The next day Morgan goes to visit his wife's crypt. One eerie detail - the cemetery is jammed with the rows of cheap, makeshift crosses. He falls asleep and by the time he wakes up the sun has already set. He's forced to run a gauntlet of the creatures to get to his car and back to the house.

Dude. They're zombies. Slow-moving, fairly weak, trouble in groups. Zombies.

Zombies or vampires, this was a stupid place to be at sundown.

This must have been one of the first post-apocalyptic movies that had all these elements. A wrecked city, a lone survivor watching films of his family, checking on the radio for survivors, slowly going mad. Vincent Price is really good in this. I mean he's good normally, but just really understated and effective here.

We eventually get a flashback to life before, when the plague was just getting started, and geez, that's an effective flashback. Here's what life was like - before your daughter was taken away to be burned by the military. Before your wife came back from the grave to try and kill you. And your best friend is the monster trying to kill you every night. We get a very good sense of how things are falling apart. And they actually the word "vampires."

Unfortunately, nobody is a good actor in this film so far except Price. It's not horrible, as most of the film is just him, but it's noticeable when any other actors have lines.

There's a bit in the flashback where the military has come and taken his daughter, who has been infected. He rushes to the pit where they're burning bodies - the same pit he's dumping at in the earlier part of the film. The military won't let him in and he wails that it's his daughter in there. The soldier's reply:  "Mister, a lot of daughters are in there. Including my own."

"We had some levity in the script, but then we ended up burning it in this pit."

That is some dark shit right there.

You know, it's small bits that stick out to me. That he doesn't clean up the sawdust from making stakes. The joy on Morgan's face when he sees the stray dog. The horror at the return of his wife. It's awesome - awful, but awesome.

Eventually Morgan finds someone else IS alive. A woman named Ruth that runs when she first sees him, though he's able to catch up to her and convince her to come with him. What's interesting (at least to me) is that he's less overjoyed at finding her than he was at finding the dog. Maybe it's the suspicion that things will all go wrong. He's right about that, and Ruth is hiding a terrible secret. One that will eventually lead to Morgan's death.

Shouldn't this be pitchforks and torches?

The ending is substantially different from the book, but it is more exciting, with a chase, a gunfight and a final confrontation in a church. There's some dialogue with Ruth about him being just as much a monster to those he's killed as they are to him, but it gets a bit muddled in the rush. (And I wish he'd called them monsters instead of 'freaks' for some reason.) There's no real representation of a new order taking the place of the old - it's just a bunch of people in black rushing about with guns, suddenly.

The Bottom Line
It's definitely a low-budget movie, but Last Man on Earth is a lot better than I remember it being. There's some care and thought put into the piece and I appreciated those a lot more this time around. Vincent Price is great and if the rest of the cast doesn't measure up, well, who does? Like the other adaptations of I Am Legend this one is flawed, but even a flawed gem shines if you tilt it just right to the light.

 

31 Days, 31 Horror Movies: Scanners

Scanners

Scanners, man. Scanners.

Scanners is the only movie that gave me nightmares from just the TV spot. It's not even that scary of a commercial, but somehow it got to me. I remember the nightmare in detail even now, probably because even bad dreams don't usually fill me with the horrible sense of dread I got during that particular dream.

 It'll sound stupid, but here's the dream: I'm sitting in a chair in an all white room. In front of me is a front-loading dryer, which is also white. Behind and to the left of the washing machine is a doorway to a white hall that I can only make out because the light in the hall is slightly dimmer than the light in the room. In the dryer, slowly tumbling and making sounds like a steak sizzling on a pan, is a piece of meat. Not like a steak or something innocuous like that - it's obviously an organ of some kind, like a liver or a pancreas - something I can't immediately recognize, but just know came from inside a person. And for no reason at all I'm absolutely terrified by this piece of tumbling meat. Suddenly I see someone walk by outside the doorway - it's the guy from the commercial, the guy who looks kinda like Frank Oz (the guy whose head explodes, actually, but I didn't know that when I had the nightmare). I try and call out to him, but I can't speak. The door to the dryer is going to open soon. The organ - whatever it is, all red and leathery - will stop tumbling. I don't know what's going to happen then, but whatever it is will be awful.

Gaze into the face of true fear.

And then I woke up. See? Dumb dream. Still gives me a minor sense of dread just thinking about it, though.

You can see the TV spot that inspired it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksQduKLehOU  (EDIT: It's actually this trailer, as my brother pointed out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adxyW-rANuU)

When I finally did see the movie it was nowhere near as scary as my dream. It was, however, the coolest psychic powers movie I had ever seen. Watching it now you'll find that it's very slow and talky and most of the psychic stuff involves closeups of people who look like they're having a gas attack, but at the time it was frackin' amazing. That scene where Vale is basically hacking a computer with his mind and the bad guys shut the link off? In my head that shit was up there with Star Wars in awesomeness.

Not as cool as Imperial Stormtroopers, though.

I spent a good part of the eighties obsessed with psychic powers in movies and fiction. The first comic book character I created was a telekinetic. The second or third short story I ever wrote was about a guy who developed psychic powers and used them to kill the kids that were bullying him at school. (I would probably get suspended or expelled for writing something like that in school nowadays.) I can lay that fascination directly at Scanners' door - and it's a movie I re-watched a lot back then.

One last tangent (yeah, right) about my experience with the movie. The first time I watched it I loved it, but I was initially very confused. For some reason I had gotten it into my head that the movie was an adaptation of "Scanners Live in Vain" by Cordwainer Smith (which I still think would make a great movie). Took several minutes to adjust my expectations.

The Medium
I picked up the Criterion Collection Blu-ray release, and it's fantastic. The transfer itself is top notch - the best the movie has ever looked by far. It's not going to be as clean or detailed looking as a more modern movie - there's a significant amount of grain in certain scenes, for instance - but it looks very sharp. I've read some folks who have a problem with the color tone, which has a distinctly greenish cast, but it doesn't bother me.

There are quite a few extras, including trailers, interviews and Cronenberg's first feature-length film, Stereo (which I'm looking forward to watching). No commentary track, which is a little disappointing.

The packaging is also very nice, with an illustration theme that runs throughout the set. I personally like the art style a lot, but it's an individual taste thing. You can see a gallery of the images here: http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/3221-illustrating-scanners

The Movie
Scanners is a movie about people with a special ability called 'scanning.' It's a little like telepathy, but as described in the movie it's "the ability to connect two nervous systems separated by space." A scanner with enough power can read thoughts, speed up a heartbeat, control someone's actions, and even kill. There's also a telekinetic element and even some pyrokinesis - this stuff seems to fall out of the given definition of scanning, but it's all psychic powers, right? Right.

Hell if I know.

The movie follows a character named Cameron Vale (Stephen Lack) as he goes from homeless person to psychic spy. He's hauled out of being a transient after mentally assaulting an older lady in a shopping mall. He explains his attack by saying something like "she made me do it by thinking about me." There's all kinds of space in that statement to follow up - is it the abuser's "she made me do it" cry? Is there something about being an untrained scanner that means your mind is easily sucked in by those around you? Does an intense 'thought' provoke an intense response in a scanner? It looks deliberate - the attack - to me, so that "she made me" defense reveals a certain flaw in Vale's character if you look at it that way. None of those things are followed up on - it's just a throwaway line - but it's interesting to think about.

That's a total jackass look, though, right?

Cameron finds himself tied to a bed, dressed in white clothes, while a distinguished looking man in glasses (and black clothes) proceeds to psychically torture him with a crowd of people. Eventually the man, Dr. Paul Ruth (Patrick McGoohan) gives Cameron a drug called Ephemerol that dampens his abilities, allowing him to hear himself think for the first time. I'm not sure what the torture session was supposed to accomplish. It goes on way too long for it to be simply a way to show how effective the drug is (this is one of the scenes that slows the pace down a significant amount). It  really does feel like Dr. Ruth (yeah, I know) is purposefully torturing Cameron, breaking him down to the point that the relief the drug offers engenders a sense of gratitude in his torturer.

"At least it's not water boarding, am I right?"

Meanwhile, a company called ConSec (which actually employs Dr. Ruth) is having a demonstration - revealing to a select group of people that scanners exist and what they can do. The demonstration goes horribly awry however when the volunteer in the audience turns out to be a scanner himself, Darryl Revok (Michael Ironside). This leads up to that infamous head-explosion scene.

As a horror movie fan and a gore fan (though more in my teens and twenties than now), that head explosion was always the one against which any other gore effect was measured. It's just truly startling in its realism and graphic nature. It also occurs early enough in the movie to be a calling card - letting the audience know what they're in for.

The movie goes on to pit Revok and Vale against each other. Cameron tries to infiltrate a group of scanners in order to get access to Revok and stop him from killing or subsuming all other known scanners. Along the way he finds a group of unaffiliated scanners, including Kim Obrist (Jennifer O'Neill), but Revok seems to always been just one step behind, attacking and killing everyone Cameron comes into contact with.

With Kim's help Cameron finally infiltrates Revok's company, only to find that things are a lot more complicated than they at first appeared - Revok may be working for ConSec - or perhaps it's ConSec that's working for him. Either way, Revok's plan, a program called Ripe, is a massive conspiracy to create more scanners - and Dr. Ruth may be involved.

On the run from both Revok and ConSec, Vale attempts to download the information about Ripe by scanning the ConSec computer remotely. Security attempts to wipe the computer drive - and Vale - with explosive results.

"Dialup is so damn slooooowwww!!!"

This is still an awesome sequence, 80's phone connection and tape drives and all. As things go bad and stuff starts to explode on both sides of the connection I'm always filled with a level of uncomfortable glee - "that's what you get for messing with a scanner, asshole!" Small details like melted plastic running out of the phone mouthpiece as just fantastic. And if an exploding telephone booth is a bit goofy? Ah well - psychic powers, right? Whattaya gonna do?

Armed with the computer info, Vale and Kim uncover the truth about Ripe and Revok's plan, leading to a final confrontation from which neither Vale nor Revok will emerge unscathed.

It always looks like he went for a fart and got a bit more than planned.

The veins! The flames! It's a fantastic set piece. I never realized that Dick Smith had worked on this film - he's the guy who did makeup for The Exorcist and The Godfather, amongst others (his last film was apparently the remake of The House on Haunted Hill). There was a team of effects guys on this film, but a lot of this final confrontation was created by him.

Watching the film this time around, the creepiest part of the movie to me is the long-range plans of Revok. This is a man who is planning generations down the line. He's seeding the population with scanners and planning on culling and harvesting them into an army. He's got lists that include doctors and patient names and addresses and is willing to put the time and effort and inhuman patience into this plan.

I also still really like the way the powers are portrayed. Scanning is not some easy, twitch-reaction thing. It takes time to make the connection, effort and concentration to accomplish any effect. It looks painful and difficult. Yeah, there are a few too many shots of shaking jowls and rolling eyeballs, but it's still effective stuff. Before that guy's head explodes you feel the pressure building in his skull.

This is a rough estimate of how my migraines feel, by the way.

The movie is let down in a couple of spots. The pacing is off, with some parts being glacially slow and others being over before they have a real chance to get good. Vale's 'indoctrination' via crowd torture goes on way too long and his 'Rocky Training' moment with a yoga master is over almost before it begins. The lighting is often flat, often looking more like a 70's film than an early 80's one.

The biggest issue with the movie, though, is the lead. Stephen Lack's surname seems appropriate, as there is definitely something lacking in his performance. I actually think this lack of affect is intentional - Cameron is someone who has literally never had a moment in which to develop his own personality, so of course he's a bit of a cipher, a bit flat. It's not always enjoyable to watch, however - no matter how much I identified with him as a teen.

Is he mad? Scared? Confused? Constipated?

The other actors are much more fun to watch, with Michael Ironside always worth the price of admission and Patrick McGoohan providing much needed gravitas to all  his scenes. Jennifer O'Neill often looks a bit lost, but she balances that out with some very effective 'Blue Steel' looks as she 'scans' people.

Gotta love the choker plus necklace look.

The soundtrack by Howard Shore is great, with a lot of dissonant electronic chords and isolated piano keys. The theme music is appropriately bombastic and distinctive and adds a certain gothic atmosphere to the scenes in which it plays.

The Bottom Line
Scanners is an old favorite that, for me, holds up even now. It's got its rough spots - uneven pacing, a lackluster star - but it's still a classic. Every time I watch it I find new things to enjoy and think about.

31 Days, 31 Horror Movies: The Stuff

The Stuff

"Are you eating it? Or is it eating you?"

Larry Cohen, man. It's Alive, Q, Maniac Cop. I even liked Return to Salem's Lot. He's a writer with interesting ideas and a director with... well, with tiny budgets. Larry Cohen makes B movies - but they're interesting B movies.

The Stuff was one of my favorite horror/comedies in 80's. It was just so ridiculous - killer yogurt? Kung-fu chocolate chip cookie kings? A racist militia that saves the day? The commercials and the jingle - "Enough is never enough - of The Stuff!"? All solid gold. And there was plenty of gore - though a particularly bloodless kind.

When Gatorade came out with their "Is it in you?" campaign my brother Jeff and I found this hilarious and he immediately started to refer to it like a The Stuff campaign. This tickles him mightily, even to this day, and I made a quick mockup of an ad for him.

The Medium
I watched this on Netflix streaming. The quality is okay - and honestly, with a movie like this you're not really paying attention to composition and color quality. I'd still like to see the British Blu-ray release - if only for the commentary.

The Movie
My first reaction upon finding a mysterious white substance bubbling out of the ground at my mining facility? It would NOT be to taste the damn Stuff. "Say, this stuff tastes real good. Maybe we can sell it to people!" I would have loved to be on the wall of that pitch meeting, "Yeah it comes from the mine tailings, but damn - it's delicious! Just try some... wait, where are you going?"

Brand new natural food source? Nope, birdshit again.

Somehow this Stuff - which does end up being marketed as The Stuff - passes FDA inspection and becomes a huge commercial success, threatening rival fast-food corporations who hire an industrial saboteur to 'handle' things. This is Mo Rutheford, former FBI agent, played with good-natured dimness by Michael Moriarty. He might not be as dumb as he looks - "Nobody is as dumb as I look" - but he's still not all that bright.

Mo quickly uncovers the truth - that The Stuff is not a low calorie, natural dessert (well, not JUST that). It's actually alive, possibly self-aware, and that it gradually takes over anyone that eats it, devouring them from the inside out. Along the way he manages to convince the ad exec in charge of the The Stuff campaign, Nicole, to help him (mostly by posing as a millionaire oil baron - though she doesn't seem much bothered by his eventual reveal that he's not rich). He also befriends Chocolate Chip Charlie (Garret Morris) who is trying to find out who convinced his relatives to sell his successful cookie business to The Stuff executives.

Meanwhile, a young boy named Jason has seen The Stuff move and is convinced something is wrong. He even destroys a bunch of The Stuff at a local grocery store. His family have succumbed to the evil dessert and try to get him to eat it as well, before Mo shows up and saves the day.

I'm not seeing the four food groups in this fridge....

While Charlie heads to Washington DC to warn the FBI, Mo, Nicole and Jason head to the company headquarters to find out what's really going on. This turns out to be nothing less than world domination, as a huge lake of The Stuff is pumped into trucks to be distributed worldwide. Barely escaping with their lives the trio recruits members of a militia to attack the distribution center and spread the word via their radio stations.

In the aftermath, Jason and Mo confront the corporate executives who started the whole thing, delivering a heaping helping of their own product.

Yeah, The Stuff is ridiculous, but Cohen embraces the lunacy completely. It doesn't always make sense - in fact it sometimes seems like he was making the movie up as he went along - but it's always fun. The satire is also pretty pointed, even with tongue firmly in cheek. The faux commercials sprinkled throughout the film - featuring some fun cameos - may seem too cheesy and over-the-top now, but they're dead-on perfect parodies of the kind of thing you'd see on TV in 1985.

This is actually the least ridiculous ad.

The dialogue is terrible - when you can hear it - and the cinematography is uninspiring at best, but the effects are often quite good. A scene in which the hotel bed turns out to be full of The Stuff has some great sequences with vast amounts of the liquid spurting around, crawling up walls and catching on fire. Garrett Morris' sequence near the end is crazy gross, both laugh-out-loud funny and gag-inducing.

Open wide, wider, wiiiiider....

Morris and Moriarty are great and any scene they're in benefits from their energy and charisma. The child actor is not so good, unfortunately, and Paul Sorvino as the militia captain chews so much scenery you expect there to be bite marks taken out of the walls.

The Bottom Line
There's so much wrong with this movie, but I love it anyway. It's a movie about a killer dessert. It's got Michael Moriarty. It's got pointed commentary about consumer culture AND Garrett Morris karate chops a guys face off. What's not to love?