VIDEO REVIEW: The Black Hole

VIDEO REVIEW: Escape From New York

The Lucid Nightmare - Escape From New York Review by jayskitstar

REVIEW: The Devil's Rain

The Devil’s Rain
Director: Robert Fuest
Year 1975
 
The Devil’s Rain is a deliciously devilish and atmospherically heavy horror film that features a tone and ambiance that lies thick throughout its ominous narrative. Infused with an abundance of striking imagery and equally mesmerizing locations, the movie showcases a satanic cult filled with eyeless members and a leader who can shape-shift into a goat-man. How can you go wrong? With its horror roots planted and its unsettling story set up, The Devil’s Rain is a haunting and often disturbing little gem that frightens as well as it entertains.
 
The film is centered around a satanic cult in the middle of rural America, who has been terrorizing the Preston family and causing all sorts of odd things to happen. After his mother is kidnapped by the cult, Mark Preston sets out to locate their whereabouts, which leads him to a seemingly abandoned church in the middle of a decaying ghost town. As Mark begins to search for his mother within this deserted town, his estranged brother Tom Preston notices that his wife is having strange dreams about his family being in danger. Being curious and worried over their overall safety, Tom decides to travel back home to make sure everything is ok. When he arrives, he is greeted by strange stories of satanic cults and melting eyeless people who dissolve in rain, making for a reunion that is anything but pleasant. Armed with a rifle and accompanied by his psychic wife, Tom sets off to retrace his brother’s footsteps in the hopes that he can bring his mother and Mark back while taking out the satanic cult that started all of this mess. Sounds good to me! Let it rain!

William Shatner plays the role of Mark Preston while Tom Skerritt takes on the role of his brother Tom Preston. The two bring a great dynamic to the film and interestingly enough, they never share the screen together aside from a few strangely set-up scenes that serve to be some of the film’s most chilling moments. I’ve always enjoyed Shatner’s acting style, be it his science fiction characters, horror performances, or even his ridiculous commercial stints, and with The Devil’s Rain he brings that obscurely charismatic nature to his character that has always been a staple of his career. Tom Skerritt also does a commendable job with the role of Tom Preston, the hero of the picture. His introduction in the film comes later in the movie and it feels quite jarring, but when he gets into the groove with all that is going on in the story, he quickly becomes an integral part of the story which aids in pushing the narrative along as it delves into this mysterious cult. Like Shatner, I’ve always enjoyed Skerritt’s body of work in the film industry and his constant output of quality films is nothing less then stellar. Add The Devil’s Rain to the list if you haven’t already. Rounding out the good guys is Joan Prather who perfectly hands the role of Julie Preston, Tom Preston’s wife and professional psychic. The character of Julie is a difficult one as it demands for the actor playing it to really emote both horrified expressions and contemplative moments while at the same time performing in the subtlest of ways. I believe Joan handled it perfectly and her doe-eyed stare and beautiful looks haunted the film all the way up to its horrific conclusion.   
 
As for the main antagonist of the film, all the credit goes to Ernest Borgnine as he brings the pain as Jonathan Corbis AKA the Satanic Goat Man. As leader of the cult and the only really functioning member of its ranks, Borgnine knocks it out of the park as he delivers an entertaining performance for the ages. He combines both wildly over the top acting measures and enigmatic style to his characters, and with the case of Jonathan Corbis, the man has created one memorable cinematic bastard. Soaked in evil and cocky as the devil himself, Borgnine makes sure to creep us out at every turn. I really enjoyed his performance in this film, be it a little off the wall, and when he transforms into a half-goat, half-man, he doesn’t look half bad. Here’s to an actor who has created so many cinematic memories that you could fill a book up with all of his outstanding portrayals. R.I.P. Borgnine.

As for the film itself, the movie is an atmospheric gem which features some brilliant cinematography and a slew of breathtaking vistas that highlight the beautiful American rural landscape. The setting is perfect for the story, and the filmmakers make good use of the desolate and lonely locations, often allowing the visual look of the film and the surrounding scenery to tell the story. The town in which the satanic cult calls home is especially creepy and its overall barren look has an abundance of foreboding style in which the film just allows to soak over the audience. The overall feel of the movie is unsettling, and I think that is what I like most about the film. There is a strange quality to it that speaks volumes on the subject matter that the film is covering and the combination of both location and the topical theme of the movie is what really makes this cinematic effort a horror gem.
 
On top of that, the film also boasts an array of creepy effects that, though dated, are practical and downright disturbing. From eyeless cult members, to disgusting depictions of melting people, to Borgnine’s transformation into the goat beast, the film has an impressive line-up of some excruciatingly horrific effects that really combine well with the tone of the film. One of the most memorable moments of the movie has to be the end sequence where we are given an overdramatic depiction of the demise of each and every cult member as they melt into oblivion. The scene is grotesquely wonderful as it focuses on the agony of the moment, never shying away from the mournful cries and unsettling imagery that comes along with twenty odd people perishing in a wild fit of rage and sadness. The sequence is beautifully shot as it conveys an eerie quality that just captures the strangeness of the final moments of the film. With this climactic scene, the movie ends on a dire and sour note, but one that perfectly reflects the film’s obscure tone and overwhelming atmosphere.

The Devil’s Rain is a horror film that just relishes in that 70’s satanic cult wave of insanity that swept the nation during the time period it was produced. With its hasty introduction to the story, where we are dropped right in to the thick of this obscure cinematic world, and the interesting portrayal and mythology that this satanic cult brings to the table, you really can’t deny the haunting presence that this film provides. With a mixture that just seems to work even despite factors like Ernest Borgnine turning into a goat man of all things, the movie is an obscure wonder that contains its “crazy” within its wildly constructed realm.
 
The cast is immensely impressive, with William Shatner, Tom Skerritt, Joan Prather, and Ernest Borgnine turning out some tremendously entertaining performances. Hell, the film is so jam packed with stars that John Travolta of all people plays a random cult member. Add onto this the visual prowess of the production and you’ve got yourself one hell of a satanic yarn. Not only is the story quite interesting, but the execution and application of practical effects elevates this movie to compelling heights. When it comes to satanic cult movies, you really have to nail that tone and atmosphere and The Devil’s Rain does that to perfection. This film is so damn……

Holy shit! Someone get this guy some Visine!

The hills are alive.... with the sound of Satan.

William Shatner is the Marlboro Man.

What's with the life preserver kid? You jump ship?

Borgnine can really rock a robe.

Check out my bling homies.

Your mustache ain't shit Skerritt!

It looks like the perfect wedding chapel.... for SATAN!

I'd recognize that beautiful butt-chin anywhere. Travolta!

I'm coming for you Borgnine!

Check out that back-seat driver.

Baaaaaaaah!

The key to destroying Goat Boy is in this book.... Too bad neither of us can read.

That's the coolest damn easter egg I've ever seen!

Never insult this dude's mustache. He's freakin nuts!

Rock on Borgnine! Rock on!

Goat Boy is really sweating up a storm. Damn that P90X is tough!

Church is out... for.... ever!

REVIEW: The Black Hole

The Black Hole
Director: Gary Nelson
Year 1979
 
The Black Hole is a slickly done science fiction film that poses as a family friendly space opera, yet it ends up having a great deal of depth and some rather haunting and somber moments that amp up the more adult oriented aspects of the production. The approach, while refreshing, is also rather intriguing as we are provided an excellent story that cautions the audience about the price of genius and the moral vacuum that can easily come with it if driven to madness by ones aspirations. With a large focus on the pitfalls of man’s ingenuity, genius, and ambition, the film also makes time to provide a fantastically fun and humorous adventure film, making this movie quite a unique sci-fi gem and an especially enjoyable one at that.
 
The film follows the research ship, the USS Palomino, as it discovers a seemingly abandoned vessel, the USS Cygnus, alongside a black hole. Curios as to where this missing ship has been over the past years, the crew decides to board and investigate this mysterious anomaly. What they come to find shocks them all, for there is only one survivor, Dr. Hans Reinhardt, a mad genius who captains the ship with his army of engineered robots. With a dangerous obsession of conquering the black hole for himself and unraveling its mysteries, Reinhardt leaves the crew of the Palomino to question his sanity and his wild story that the crew were all lost, leaving him the sole survivor of this massive ship. With suspicions abound, the crew inadvertently stumbles upon a most horrific truth, one that shakes their very core and belief in mankind. This under appreciated sci-fi gem is a real treat so let’s get down to business.

Dr. Hans Reinhardt is played by the magnificently intense Maximilian Schell, who brings a brooding madness to his role as the troubled and brilliant scientist on the edge. His presence weighs heavy on the film, giving every scene that he appears in an added bonus of bona fide tension. This overwhelmingly charged atmosphere that Schell infuses into his character is essential to establishing the film’s tone. Without his powerful portrayal of a man on the precipice of insanity, I don’t think that The Black Hole would be as effective as a film. Sure it would have a wonderfully charged atmosphere, but it wouldn’t be as potent without the expertly crafted wackiness of the exceptional Maximilian Schell.
 
While Dr. Hans Reinhardt’s role in this movie is without a doubt, the heart and soul of the narrative, there are a great deal of important characters that come to make up the overall depth of this outstanding piece. First off we have Captain Dan Holland, played by Robert Forster, Dr. Alex Durant, played by Anthony Perkins, Lieutenant Charles Pizer, played by Joseph Bottoms, Dr. Kate McCrae, played by Yvette Mimieux, Harry Booth, played by Ernest Borgnine, and finally V.I.N.CENT, voiced by the legendary Roddy McDowall. With a cast like that, how can this film be nothing short of an entertaining masterpiece? What makes the pedigree of the actors involved so special is that they are all given important roles within the narrative of the story.
 
Forster’s Captain Holland is given the role of leader, while Borgnine shows a more selfish side to his character. With Anthony Perkins and Yvette Mimieux, we get a special kind of interaction, because in their cases they are the ones closest to Dr. Hans Reinhardt, with Perkins falling under the hypnotic spell of the mad scientist’s brilliance and Yvette forced to desperately snap him back to reality. Roddy McDowall, or at least his vocal chords, have probably the most screen time out of all the characters, as he brings the loveable robot V.I.N.CENT to life. All in all, the cast is amazing and they all do their individual parts to make this film feel complete and wholly exciting.

As for the effects work of the film, the visual impact of the interior and exterior sets and miniatures are absolutely out of this world fantastic. The detail and artistry on display is utterly breathtaking, providing some fabulous vistas both within the expansive ship Cygnus, to the star filled wonder that is the black hole. The practical application of these effects is excellent and it makes me wish that we would see more of these kinds of artistic techniques in more modern day movies. Even in its spectacular representation, there are a few embarrassing moments, like when V.I.N.CENT is hovering by the camera and you can clearly see the strings holding him up, but having seen the film for the first time since its release, I’m willing to put up with a few measly strings rather than be bombarded with the overwhelming special effects in most current blockbuster hits. I was highly satisfied by the look and feel of the movie’s practical approach and I thought that it perfectly captured the ominous tone that held this film in a tension filled death grip.
 
The film’s atmosphere is also something that somewhat perplexed me when first viewing it. When initially checking out the trailer I got the impression that it was going to be a fanciful space adventure, filled with silly robots and harmless antics, but when actually sitting down and watching the feature I got something far more deep and meaningful. Don’t get me wrong, the fanciful space adventure is there, filled with silly robots and antics alike, but there’s a dark undertone to the narrative that I just wasn’t anticipating. Contrary to what I was expecting, the cast of characters are in real danger here, pitted against some insurmountable odds with a good many of them not making it out alive. It was this unexpected sense of danger that really turned this film into something special for me. Add onto that the intriguing premise of a crew of ghostly robots led by a maniacal mad man coupled with the prospect of exploring a black hole and you’ve got yourself a recipe for one hell of an entertaining space romp.

The Black Hole is a film that really caught me off guard. When expecting a run of the mill space opera filled with camp and retro flare, I instead got a movie that incorporated all of those aspects, but added on an extra layer of atmosphere, scientific intrigue, and a heightened sense of doom. With a spectacular visual look and an emphasis on vivid colors during the closing chaotic moments of the film, this science fiction entry is anything but ordinary.
 
The cast is picture perfect, garnering a long line of talent that captures each character in an extremely memorable light. Having all of these wonderful resources, the filmmakers don’t waste a second of the film’s runtime in giving each player in the game their much needed respect and attention, and when it comes to the robots, they’re absolutely fantastic. They may not be very expressive in the facial department, but damn do you grow attached to those little bastards. I love you V.I.N.CENT! The Black Hole is an……

Have you two shitheads been drinking the fizzy lifting drink?

This looks cool.

Don't ever correct me in front of the robot!

V.I.N.CENT wasn't told that farting in elevators is rude.

I'm sorry am I boring you?

What gives? Where's my piggy-back ride?

Would you do me the honor of being my BFF?

How do you like my chandelier hat?

Calm down there V.I.N.CENT! Don't go blowing a gasket.

Anthony Perkins...... You PSYCHO!

What the shit did you just say to me?

Looks like the ride ends here guys.

That's no way to treat a book you savage.

This game of laser tag is intense!

I want to SING!

V.I.N.CENT..... the badass!

All hail this guy!

REVIEW: Escape from New York

Escape from New York
Director: John Carpenter
Year 1981

Escape from New York is a wild and entertaining ride brought to us by the legendary genre director John Carpenter. Starring Kurt Russell as the king of all badasses, Snake Plissken, the film is a cult phenomenon that is so much damn fun that you really can’t just watch it once.
 
The movie starts out in the futuristic world of 1997, where shit has really hit the fan and society as a whole is governed with an iron fist by an overbearing and intrusive government. When the President’s plane crash lands inside the now maximum security prison of Manhattan, one eyed convict Snake Plissken is pulled from prison life and coerced into infiltrating the apocalyptic hell of New York City in order to get the President out. Surrounded by the scum of society and enclosed within a giant maximum security prison, can Plissken beat the odds and win back his freedom? All signs point to yes.

This movie is just all kinds of fun, taking every opportunity it can in making the world believe that Kurt Russell’s Snake Plissken is the end all be all coolest dude the cinema has ever seen. Kurt owns the role and runs with it for the entire stretch of the movie, adding flourishes of smart-ass one-liners that just seem so damn right. Even Russell’s mannerisms seem catered to bringing this larger then life character into the realm of the believable, infusing him with an uncommon sense of realism that’s not usually seen in B-grade cinema. If there’s one thing that really makes this film the pinnacle of cult classic cinema, it’s the damn fine role that Russell has done in crafting this tremendously vivid character.

I can’t also forget the fabulous job that director John Carpenter has also done to make this film rise above its meager origins. His direction and overall visual sensibility is prevalent throughout the movie, making it unmistakably a Carpenter film through and through. His original compositions just ignite the soundtrack, giving you a stark audible picture of how cool and realized this film really is. Nothing seems out of place and the production seems to jive perfectly together like some sick and twisted jigsaw puzzle, crafted by a brilliant director at the top of his game. It almost seems ridiculous that a film that has such a bat shit crazy premise can come together in such a harmonious way, but Carpenter pulled it off with flying colors. His genre efforts have always been stupendous and Escape From New York is right up there with some of my favorites of his work.

There are so many aspects of this film that are top notch that it’s hard to narrow it down to a few choice topics. The diverse cast alone is outstanding enough to write a full blown essay about. We’ve got cult actors coming out the ying yang on this production!
 
First there’s Lee Van Cleef, Tom Atkins, and Charles Cyphers in small cameo roles that, though lacking in depth, are extremely memorable and give the film a dose of class. Then we have Ernest Borgnine as a wacky cabby doing his Borgnine thing for all it’s worth. His scenes are a joy and I love how is character is vaguely dubious, walking the line between a good guy and a bad guy. After Borgnine we’re treated to Harry Dean Stanton as Brain and the hot mamma Adrienne Barbeau as Maggie. Here’s another two characters that straddle that hazy line between good and evil. The majority of the characters in this film seem to play with that notion of ambiguity.

The same can be said for the two heavy hitters in Isaac Hayes’ The Duke character and Donald Pleasence’s turn as the President. Both men are represented as having low moral fiber, concerned only with their selfish goals. The Duke wants out of the maximum security prison and the President enjoys pulling the wool over the eyes of the unsuspecting public. In hind sight that might be why Snake Plissken, though a convict and overall bad person, can be viewed as the hero of this film. He is the lesser of two evils and is only doing the job in order to save his own skin. Whatever way you look at it, the film is full of scumbags and it’s a joy to see them all double cross each other in various and interesting ways.

As for the look of the film, it’s dark, depressing, and absolutely beautiful. Enhanced by Carpenter’s trademark anamorphic lens, the film just looks stunning, breaking any kind of preconception that B-grade movies have to be all grit and grime and no class. Don’t get me wrong, the grit and grime are here along with some fabulously decayed locations, but they’re filmed in such a way that it almost seems poetic in structure and authentically genuine, without sacrificing the quality and integrity of the picture.
 
It’s interesting that Carpenter’s style in this film, mirrors earlier spaghetti westerns, which in part flowed like water from Italian filmmakers just over a decade prior to New York’s release. Then to make things even more interesting, the knock offs that soon followed in the wake of Escape from New York’s success, seemed to be solely centered around Italian productions. I guess that’s why some of these Italian efforts didn’t seem so out of place when compared to Carpenter’s original masterpiece, though lacking the master’s specific trademarks. The films had an interlinking cinematic style that seemed to compliment their shared past, which resulted in giving the films creditability to their respective genres, ones that wouldn’t normally receive high praise for being art.

Aside from having that shared atmospheric edge, the films of this ilk are just so much damn fun. They revel in the obscure and play with the notions of “what if”. I mean how can you not have a good time watching a film that has turned the island of Manhattan into a maximum security prison while forcing the president of the United States to dress up in a wig and sing a ridiculous song about a bastard named Duke? It’s impossible!

Escape from New York is one of those cult classics that seem to have all the right elements. The actors are perfect in their roles, especially Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken. The guy was destined to morph into that crazy mofo with an eye patch and he does the character justice, bringing this over the top and highly fictional character to life. Plissken wouldn’t be the highly regarded character that he is today if it wasn’t for the efforts of Russell, and the overall film wouldn’t be the same without the expert eye and heightened sensibilities of director John Carpenter. The combination is a match made in heaven and they’ve proven this by matching up in some of the most heralded horror/action films in genre history.
 
Just thinking about their other match-ups makes me want to pop in Big Trouble in Little China and The Thing, and just sit back and enjoy the awesomeness. Escape from New York proves that if you have the right combo, anything is possible. The film is amazing and brings to mind these wise, wise words. Escape from New York proves that……..

New York City.... What a shithole!

Plissken for President!

I shot him six times! Sorry couldn't resist.

Well don't they make an intimidating bunch?

Looks like we've got one of those there standoffs.

Really living on the edge there Plissken.

This damn GPS is a piece of shit! Over.

Borgnine, you fucking pyro!

Plissken answers the age old question. Who's bad!

Looks like those lazy days of summer are setting in.

Check this out! Here's.......

........Barbeau! Glorious Heavens Above!

Try to look a little more enthused Stanton.

When tricking out the car goes too far.

Either he just got knifed in the head or he's a human unicorn.

What is this, Passion of the Pleasence?

What's the matter Hayes? Your gun don't go boom?

Shit! Looks like another damn fan letter.

Let's get ready to RUMBLE!

That mongoloid is gonna have one hell of a splitting headache.

Takes a licking and keeps on ticking.