Trilogy of Terror - 1975

I've started this movie no less than 3-4 times, and when I go through it all just now, I am forced to wonder why couldn't deal with it all in one sit.  It's a brisk 72 minutes, an anthology, and stars grindhouse review favorite Karen Black!

Segment one we have Karen Black starring as conservatively dressed teacher Julie.  In the beginning, one of her students sees her and decides she will become the target of his affections.  He begins to chip away at her calm and controlled exterior, asking her out on dates, getting to know her.  Eventually he date rapes her (!) and now we have a dynamic of control...  But, there's something about Julie the student would have never suspected.

Segment two it's Karen Black as twin sisters Millicent and Therese.  They're polar opposites of each other.  Millicent is very much like Julie from segment one, conservative and contained, she is trying to get help from a doctor to control Therese.  Therese is a swingin' cat, interested in sex and power and money, and pretty soon Millicent gets the idea that Therese will have to be killed.  The doctor finally catches on to what's happening but is he going to be too late?

Segment three, Karen Black stars as Amelia.  Amelia is a frustrated woman with a lot going on in her life and an over controlling mother.  She has finally got a man in her life, and he's an archaeology teacher, so she found a weird Zuni fetish doll to give him for his birthday.  But, as she reads from the scroll the doll came with, it's revealed that if the gold chain comes off the doll, the spirit of the warrior will come into the doll. Soon enough the chain slips off, and then it's Karen Black versus a 8 inch fetish doll with a spear.  It's vaguely racist and crazy shenanigans from there on in!

This is a fast paced, easy flick to digest.  There's nothing too crazy or weird about it, except the last part of the anthology.  There's actually quite a bit of the last story to get into, but suffice to say it's the only part of the film which could be interpreted as "bad" but it would be bad in a hilarious way.  The tones shift drastically between the first two and the last one, and I'd be hard pressed to think the last Zuni short was not made to be intentionally funny.

Karen Black pulls off the roles and is easily 90% why you'd want to check this film out, she is a good actress but I will say...  Well, I've seen her work better than this, and I think partly it is due to the material present, and not herself.  Director Dan Curtis we just saw in Scream of the Wolf, and I mentioned he did Burnt Offerings.  He largely worked in made-for-TV movies and the Dark Shadows show, which I've never seen.

It's a fun time, a bit uneven sure, but a culty drinky smoky movie you'll enjoy decently.  2.5 stars.

Scream of the Wolf - 1974

About 20 minutes into Scream of the Wolf, we know who the killer is.  Yes, this is a movie where they try to hide it exactly twice, but I still called it very early on.

Made for TV movies are something else aren't they?  I put this on, watched it in chunks, enjoyed it mildly.  If this was on TV and I was in 1974, and I wasn't doing anything, I'd be happy enough watching this.  It's got known actors, it has plot suspense, it has kills, it even has a mild amount of blood.  I mean, what more can you need?

Peter Graves, Clint Walker, Jo Ann Pflug, and others star in this made for TV movie that aired January 16th, 1974 on ABC.  Isn't that strange, those specific details?  I'm going to guess it was a Friday or Saturday..  nope, it was a Wednesday, and can you imagine that you went to your blue collar job, you spent the day wearing bell bottom jeans, you got in your Chevy truck and drove home, perhaps picking up a canned meat product and a jello salad on your way home, and then you watched this while you used a churchkey to open can after can of Coors?

Yup, it was a different world and yet it still sort of stands up, this movie was not that bad and I in fact dug it a little bit.  It was "groovy" or perhaps "outta sight".  Further research shows this was based on a book by Richard Matheson, it was directed by the guy who did Burnt Offerings, and I will say that it probably fooled a few peeps into thinking the killer was certain other things, people, or animals or anything really than what the killer actually was.  Again, I called it.  Losers.

I liked it just fine, but it's admittedly pretty low scale and slow.  It gets a three.

Claws - 1977

Jaws came out in 1975 to a worldwide boxoffice explosion, invented the "summer blockbuster" supposedly, and was a great critical success.  You can't expect it to have no follow ups, rip offs, or attempts to cash in on that...  And while there are hundreds of stupid killer shark movies, there are also similar forays into killer "other creatures".

I mean lets be honest here, for a minute.  The title?  Pretty fucking cool.  Jaws, Claws?  You see what they're going for here?  Do ya, motherfucker???!  Claws, cause bears have claws.  I'm issuing false enthusiasm here, cause I don't have much.  So let's get to it.

The guy who did the American opening montage of Terror of Mechagodzilla directs this Jaws ripoff about a killer bear.  There's a old Native American legend about a bear demon, and in the beginning of the movie a grizzly gets wounded.  Now, as we all know because we're all reading my blog every day, I discussed revenge as one of my reasons for killing in my last blog entry.  I'll copy and paste here...
3) Animal escapes zoo and generally goes on random rampage.  Seemingly out for revenge, the hunky hero is called in and when tranquilizers don't work, it's kill time (usually sad and dramatic)

Now in my example I said it was a zoo, but what I should have focused on was not the "how" part but rather the revenge part.  In these, it's all about the animal seemingly wanting revenge specifically against humans.  In this case, Jason, Henry, Chris, and the Sheriff, who are all out in a small Alaskan town where people are getting mauled.  Native American dude Henry is warning about the bear while Jason and his ex-wife Chris have spats, and in the meantime don't forget the 15 foot tall bear.

It's a fine example of a decent middle grader movie.  There's nothing BAD about it, in fact I was even slightly entertained.  At the same time, it's not that cool, and there's not much GOOD about it either.  It was filmed in Alaska, and the scenery is beautiful.  Some of the shots of the bear are decent.  But then there's the end, where literally the entire thing is in degrees of slow motion, and there's many a scene where it's shot and edited in a confusing way...  There's also the fact that, plain as day, you never see bear and human in the same shot, and it's obvious as to how this was made.

In an era where people are still hailing Jaws as a classic, movies like this are completely forgotten.  One other reviewer pointed out, this was basically the Asylum knockoff of it's time, but this is before knockoffs were consistently complete shit, so I give this a 3.5...no, a 4 star review.

Night Creature - 1978

Also known as Out of the Darkness.  What we have here is a Donald Pleasence marathon...  Hey, he was a big 70's actor, and as we all know I am marathoning the fuck out of 70's movies.  70's movies are where it's at son.

Night Creature is a plot similar to one we've seen before.  Of all the possible "recurring plots" that may exist in the world, why is this one so common?  This is "the big game hunter".  Big Game Hunter can go multiple ways...  lets see here.
1) Big Game Hunter white man goes into foreign area to help out a local tribe who is hunted by a mysterious predator/ancient god/voodoo curse and he hunts down the creature (usually a lion)
2) Big Game gets a taste for human flesh and starts invading local townsfolk.  Several young maidens are usually slain, and savior white man arrives to hunt the bad boy down (lion or tiger)
3) Animal escapes zoo and generally goes on random rampage.  Seemingly out for revenge, the hunky hero is called in and when tranquilizers don't work, it's kill time (usually sad and dramatic)
4)  And then there's this movie which is very common...  In an endless effort of confronting foes/proving manliness/to become the apex predator, crazy white man takes a creature and lets it loose on an island with the intent for it to be man versus nature.

So, again, why?  Why would they do this in at least 3 or 4 movies I can mention right now including MST3K vehicle Bloodlust?  Night Creature at least has Donald Pleasence in an uncommonly overacted role as a old man whose daughter was killed by a black panther.  The black panther is filmed in a super cool way, and this movie was also filmed in Thailand and looks pretty awesome!

Donald Pleasence takes this black panther to an island to hunt it down, but as he is doing so, several other people come to the island as well.  Ross Hagen (playing a character named Ross, haha) and Nancy Kwan as Leslie show up with several others.  The less important characters are killed off while the three of them, especially Pleasence, mostly talk about the panther.

It's very easy to see that acting saves this movie.  It has a certain surreal quality to it, but that alone wouldn't save it if it weren't for Pleasence, Hagen and Kwan.  The black panther is similarly a huge benefit to this, and they shot it in super creepy ways.  Often, even with the sounds of roaring and such obviously not coming from the filmed animal, it still somehow fits the panther, and it's locked eyes seem to peer deep into the audience.  This film captures the feeling of being hunted extremely well.

It gets mixed reviews online.  People talk about poor pacing, poor editing, and how Pleasence is basically the only good part of it.  I won't disagree entirely.  This movie certainly has some flaws, but I liked it.  It has a ethereal otherness to it, and ambiguous attraction for me.  Lets be honest here, a lot of movies have nothing, and this has 2-3 great things.  I still can't give it much over a 3 though...

New stars.  I'm givin em a shot.