RACE WITH THE DEVIL
1975: Peter Fonda (Easy Rider, Ulee's Gold), Warren Oates (The Wild Bunch, Bring me the Head of Alfredo Garcia) reached the highpoint of their respective careers in Race with the Devil, in which they play two guys who, with their wives, buy a mega-sized RV and begin a nice vacation. Unfortunately, though, they stumble upon some strange night ritual. Fonda stares through binoculars as a man wearing a horned mask dances around with a bunch of crazed hippies. "What is it? An orgy, maybe?" an excited Oates asks, but no, to the audience's dismay, it's just a satanic ritual. The satanists see our heroes and soon give chase, but after Oates & Fonda (like Oates & Hall, but different) escape, they begin to realize there may be a conspiray afoot. Their dog is killed, someone puts a rattlesnake in their cupboard, and before you know it, the satanists are zooming down the highway (in cars, of course), after their mega-RV. Lots of good car-explodin', hillbilly-shootin' action as the dumb but persistent satanists attack again and again. Then, just when you think everything is fine after a movieful of racin' with the devil, flames suddenly burst up around the RV and satanists come on from all sides! We're getting ready for the final, big climax when .... the credits roll? What? That was it? The End? Oh, well . . .
It's the only car chase/horror movie I know of, and despite the lousy ending (which might have come off better had it been edited differently), this is still mighty good fun. Nothin' like seein' some satanist hillbilly hippies get wiped! Wait - hillbilly hippies? When the satanists are first seen, they seem like young hippie types, but when they show up later, they're mostly older, more establishment-oriented (even the dumb crazy ones). Some of them are plain upright citiens, except for the satanism thing, including a young couple and -gathp - a sheriff! It's odd that the satanists never exhibit any supernatural powers; they're just a wacky cultish gang. But hey, Warren Oates + Car Chases + Cult of Satanist Hillbilly Hippes = A definite must-see. Back
RAIDERS OF THE LIVING DEAD
1985: Some decent zombie effects, including an exploding head, and good acting (including a very welcome appearance by The Mummy's Zita Johann) enliven this silly production made in New Jersey and Ontario. The location of the climax - an abandoned prison - seems great, but the whole last 15 minutes or so are tinted blue to simulate night, thus rendering everything hard to see (maybe it looked better in theatres). A boy makes a laser gun out of a broken laserdisc player, and the opening scene - involving the theft of some hazardous chemical, or something - seems to have nothing to do with the rest of the movie. But it's still okay despite its many, many shortcomings. Back
RED PLANET MARS
1952: Hilariously preachy sci-fi about a dedicated scientist (Peter Graves) who ignores the spiritual in his attempt to build a radio to communicate with Mars. He eventually gets it working, but little does he know that the messages he receives come not from the Martian civilization but from an evil ex-Nazi working for the Communists!!! The messages tell of a benevolent civilization in which resources are all ultra-cheap. For no reason, this disrupts Earth's economy (Why should the knowledge of ultra-cheap grain on Mars put Earth farmers out of business? We can't even get to Mars in the first place, let alone buy grain there!). Even though this makes absolutely no sense at all, it's pivotal to the plot - I mean, you have to wonder, didn't somebody realize how little sense this makes? Oh, well, anyway, they eventually figure out that the ex-Nazi is behind the whole thing, but then a strange thing happens - more messages arrive preaching world peace and understanding - messages not sent by the ex-Nazi! But, then -- where are they from? Graves' wife explains - "Why, don't you see? It's the sermon on the mount - on Mars!" Of course! The peaceful messages stir a revolt in Russia, too. RED Planet Mars, get it? Commie red! It's fall-down-on-your-face funny, and all the more hilarious for being completely straight-faced.Back
REPO MAN
1984: Creative punk-era action/sci-fi has young nowhere man Emilio Estevez joining up with repo man Harry Dean Stanton in the urban wasteland of a slightly bent Los Angeles, where everyone's chasing after a Chevy Malibu with dead aliens in the trunk. The movie's loaded with weird characters, and the loose narrative winds through one amusingly strange encounter after another. Entertaining even if you - like me - find punk pretty repulsive. Vonetta McGhee (Blacula, Shaft in Africa) plays a secretary at the repo depot. Back
THE RETURN OF DRACULA
1958: Francis Lederer stars as a vampire - never identified as Dracula himself - who arrives in a small American town masquerading as a family's distant relative. The family takes to him immediately, but their teenage daughter gradually begins to suspect that something is wrong (the whole thing is very similar to Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt). Better than average writing and acting make the characters believeable, and it's much more atmospheric than many of the more sensational American horror films of the period. No giant bugs, no campily overplayed villains -- just a sly, serious vampire in a nice, quiet town. No masterpiece, but an effective little film. Though it's in black and white, one shot - the 'staking' of a young girl through the chest - is in colour, allowing us all to bask in the crimson glow of her gushing blood. Yum! Back
Text copyright 2000 by Conall Pendergast.