Viewings: March 2024

Free time was a bit scarce this month. Hence, the usual obscene amount of films took a hit. Edward Dmytryk's The Sniper was the only real highlight for me.

 

Film:

The Sniper (Edward Dmytryk, 1952)*

The Curse of Frankenstein (Terence Fisher, 1957)

Dr. Who and the Daleks (Gordon Flemyng, 1965)

The Las Vegas Strangler AKA No Tears for the Damned (William Collins, 1968)*

Creatures the World Forgot (Don Chaffey, 1971)*

Craze (Freddie Francis, 1974)*

Identikit AKA The Driver’s Seat (Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, 1974)*

Damage (Louis Malle, 1992)*

Tokyo Decadence (Ryû Murakami, 1992)*

Sweatshop (Stacy Davidson, 2009)*

The Iron Claw (Sean Durkin, 2023/2024)*

Lisa Frankenstein (Zelda Williams, 2024)*

Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2023/2024)* 

Stopmotion (Robert Morgan, 2023/2024)*

 

Television:

Doctor Who - Various Episodes (Sydney Newman, 1963 - 2024)*

Mastermind - Episodes 27 - 30 (Bill Wright, 2023/2024)*

 

*First time viewings.

 

Dada Debaser Notes:

• The NSFWish film poster for Tokyo Decadence is better than the actual film. Would have enjoyed it a lot more if it didn't make such a radical tonal shift in the second half.
• Jack Palance as a London antiques dealer sacrificing women to an African wooden statue good called Chuku should have been an amazing film. Instead, Freddie Francis turns this bonkers concept into a police procedural. Great cast though, including Diana Dors as an amorous landlady.
• Expected Indentikit to be for Elizabeth Taylor what The Swimmer (1968) was for Burt Lancaster. Sadly, it wasn't. This was boring, but well shot shite.
• Really wish Stopmotion was a stop-motion feature film rather than the cliched horror that we got. Kind of pales in significance after the twisted awesomeness of Mad God (2021).
• Watched three Frankenstein themed films; best of the bunch was Terence Fisher's film. Forgot how cold blooded and ruthless Peter Cushing was in it.
  

After Dinner Snack

Snack Shack (Trailer)

Adam Rehmeier, 2024

 

Things I realised from the latest Severin Cellar video: Director Adam Rehmeier has great taste in grindhouse films; I don't own a copy of the classic Aussie horror Patrick (1978); and lastly, Severin did a better job of letting me know about Rehmeier's new film than the marketing team over at Paramount.

Set in the summer of 1991, Snack Shack (2024) is a teen comedy inspired by Rehemeier's upbringing in Nebraska City about two young entrepreneurs and their various escapades. Hardly sounds like the type of film that scratches that itch for Dada Debaser type films, however, judging by its trailer, it's already looking better than the overrated and unfunny shite that was Bottoms from last year.

Dinner in America (Prayer Scene)

Adam Rehmeier, 2020/2021

 

Rehemeier's previous effort was Dinner in America (2020/2021); a film that can fundamentally be described as a rom-com, which wouldn't be a genre that appeals to me at all. Surprisingly, it turned out to be one of the best movies to come around my way in recent years. It's grown into a cult movie since then, with even YouTuble film bozos RedLetterMedia gushing over it with praise. Therefore, I'm eager to see how potentially great Snack Shack might be, and how it compares to Rehemeir's modern classic.

Female Trouble

The Sniper (Edward Dmytryk, 1952)

Always a surprise whenever a film from the past subverts any preconceived notions you hold for a particular era in cinema. Edward Dmytryk's chilling film noir, The Sniper (1952), is one of those types of films. Much like James Landis's The Sadist (1963) being the spiritual predecessor to films like Terence Malick's Badlands (1973) and Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers (1997), The Sniper's Eddie Miller (Arthur Franz) comes across as a precursor to Norman Bates and Frank Zito.

Dmytryk's thriller largely focuses on its antagonist, a violent misogynist working as a dry cleaning deliverer. Miller is an ace shot with a rifle and ever since his release from a prison psychiactric ward, he's been resisting the urge to pull the trigger on various women who have crossed his path. Here's the interesting thing: he wants to be stopped.

What finally pushes him over the edge and turns him into a killer is when he's friendzoned by a bar musician, Jean Darr (Marie Windsor), who, after asking for a special favour from him regarding an emergency dry clean, scurries him out of her apartment when her boyfriend arrives. This results with one of the most disturbing moments of the film, when she's callously shot in the head after leaving her work.

There isn't a clear cut protagonist in The Sniper to counterbalance Eddie Miller's deranged killings; instead we're provided with various characters who might have played the part if they were give enough screen time. Adolphe Menjou is perhaps the closest to one, however, as the elderly Police Lt. Frank Kafka (I'm not joking). There's also a very late introduction of a young criminal psychiatrist played by Richard Kiley, who hardly gets to do much, other than reveal the film's liberal social message; intervention and reform from a young age.

Given its plot of a serial killer armed with a sniper rifle, and the fact that it's set in San Francisco, I can't help but think that The Sniper must have been an inspiration to Don Siegel's classic seventies thriller Dirty Harry (1971). Obviously, the major differences being the latter features a gigachad protector played by the legendary Clint Eastwood. It also contains a more conservative message; criticising the legal system that protects a suspected menace with its bureaucratic red tape. Dmytryk's takes a far more liberal and compassionate view in this regard.

Genuinely surprised a film with such a dark subject matter would ever be released by a Hollywood studio — particularly Columbia Pictures. What would have been more fitting as a low-budget exploitation film produced by the likes of B-movie legend, George Weiss back in the day, is a highly polished and thoroughly thrilling Stanley Kramer production. Thus, The Sniper is not only an excellent film noir, but a serial killer film which might have been ahead of its time.

Pisces of the Puzzle

Andre Nickatina - I'm a Pisces

Cocaine Raps album, 1997

Andre Nickatina · I'm A Pisces

Managed to finally solve the final piece recently in a doubly perplexing puzzle which consisted of two samples used on Andre Nickatina's rap song, I'm a Pisces.

Identifying their origins became something of an obsession ever since I first heard the song on an ancient rap forum. Had a hunch they were both sourced from films, but I was never 100% sure, however. Turns out I was right after all these years:

Bernard Herrmann - Cobra Dance

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad OST, 1958

 

Chanced upon randomly watching The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) on TV many years ago and hearing Bernard Herrmann's Cobra Dance was a eureka moment. The music in question occurs during the scene where the villainous sorceror, Sokurah, melds a handmaiden in a giant clay vase with a cobra, like a progenator to the Brundlefly. With the aid of Ray Harryhausen's ace stop-motion mastery, the snake woman dances before the sultan's royal court. Knew this wasn't some obscure song from a far off continent, but taken from a vintage Hollywood film. Took some years to finally realise it, though.

Death Journey (Trailer)

Fred Williamson, 1976

 

Would have loved it if the vocal sample from the start of the song was a similar discovery to the one above, but this was a lot more straight forward - Googling! Yes, it took decades until your host realised he could do a simple Google search. Lo and behold it turned out to be from a Fred Williamson film called Death Journey (1976). The dialogue in question appears at 58 minutes and 21 seconds into the film, but you can hear a part of it in the trailer, too. Thus, the final piece in the puzzle which has antagonised the little grey cells for so long has finally been laid to rest.

To the Devil a Trailer

Late Night With the Devil (Trailer)

Cameron Cairnes & Colin Cairnes, 2024

The Phillippou Brothers weren't the only siblings hailing from Australia with a horror film in 2023. Unfortunately, Cameron and Colin Cairnes's Late Night With the Devil (2023/2024) wound up doing the festival route while Talk to Me (2022/2023) found distribuition via wunderlabel A24 and subsequently became one of the highlights that year.

A trailer has recently been unveiled. No doubt the Cairnes Brothers are hoping for similar success with their seventies throwback to late night television. For the Brits out there, the film's premise strikes comparison with the supernatural spectacle of Ghostwatch (1992). The very reason this blipped its way on the blog's radar in the first place. 

The underrated David Dastmalchian as the late night talk show host, Jack Delroy, is a major plus as he's always been a "that guy" in his scene stealing minor roles. Dastmalchian's Polka-Dot Man was also one of the reasons The Suicide Squad (2021) proved be one of the few good comic books movies in recent years. This all makes Late Night With the Devil something of a must watch for your host, hopefully it lives up to its potential.

Quest for Misfire

Out of Darkness (Andrew Cumming, 2022/2024) 

Stuck for two years in the film festival quagmire, Andrew Cumming's prehistoric survival horror Out of Darkness (2022) unearths its way to the general public with a new title (PKA The Origin) and the final result is it should have stayed in the bog.

Set in 43,000 B.C, Out of Darkness begins with a small tribe landing on the shores of an undiscovered land; somewhere in ancient Europe. Tension soon replaces elation when our Paleolithic collective soon discover that they're not alone in the hostile wilderness. At first, it's the suspicious demise of a mighty beast, then it's the sounds from the darkness beyond their campfire. When one of the party is snatched into the blackness of night, the horror elements of the film really come into play.

What sells the film is its premise; this isn't just another one of those fish out of water stalk and slash type films, but one that's set in the prehistoric past, where its characters are familiar with survival. The other selling point is the unique language created for the film that's spoken by its cast. That's the good out of the way.

The problems of the film become abundantly clear with its typically modern and generic story telling. That's all well and good in your average Star Wars or MCU shite, but it's immersion breaking in a film which has taken some effort striving for authenticity with creating an ancient language. Why on Earth would a writer feel compelled to point out how awful the patriarchy is in a caveman horror thriller? Wouldn't be surprised if the writers gave themselves a pat on the back when they named two of the film's characters Adem and Avé. These eye rolling, cringe worthy faux pas would have been forgiven if Out of Darkness did not have one of the most reprehensible girl boss protagonists to ever grace a film since Odessa A'zion's Riley in Hellraiser (2022). Capping it all off, the film ends with an underwhelming final act revelation containing a glib social message en par with Robert Kerman's "I wonder who the real cannibals are" from Cannibal Holocaust (1980).

Worth noting that the Scottish Highlands look fantastic in the film and really drive home its ancient setting. It's all a huge shame as the cast are generally good, particularly Kit Young as the young Geirr. Also, I can't really hate on Safia-Oakley Green as the girl boss Beyah, either; hardly her fault her character was written so poorly. If only this film was produced around the same time of the classic subterranean horror The Descent (2006), which also contained cavemen of a sort. The film wouldn't have fallen victim to such modern day unnecessary distractions like its menstruating girl boss protagonist worrying about her toxic tribal chief stripping her of her virginity amidst the unknown entity which is stalking them.

Funny thing about Out of Darkness's general negative reception is the criticism over it containing a diverse multi-ethnic tribe, Gucci looking fur clothes and shaved faces ruining their perceptions of prehistory. None of those were an issue for me. They might very well be anachronistic (who really knows, am I right?), but they were far more tolerable than the Tumblrina levels of writing. Besides, the best caveman film is Don Chaffey's One Million Years B.C. (1966) which was blessed with the iconic Raquel Welch and dinosaurs (courtesy of the legendary Ray Harryhausen) that were already extinct when our ancestors first walked the Earth:

One Million Years B.C. (Trailer)

Don Chaffey, 1966