Demon Under The Influence

 

(imdb)

THE INCUBUS-1981-After two teens are viciously attacked, the boy dies but the girl who is brutally raped is barely alive. Dr. Sam Cordell (John Cassavetes) operates on her and does an autopsy on the boy. Later, a museum curator is also victim of a rape/murder. A police guy (John Ire-land) investigating butts heads with newspaper editor Laurie Kincaid (Kerrie Keene) who reminds Cordell of his dead wife. Meanwhile, Cor-dell's daughter (Ellen Flannery) is dating a guy who has weird dreams. Many more people are slain violently and the boyfriend reveals that he thinks he is the killer. A demon rapist with red sperm is the culprit. More violence follows with a twist (?) ending. 

Story goes Cassavetes rewrote most of the script which shows as the characters talk endlessly in this dark, sick story directed by John Hough (TWINS OF EVIL (1971), THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE (1973)). He had made THE WATCHER IN THE WOODS for Disney the year before.

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Dead Talking

 

 (mubi.com)

THE DEAD TALK BACK-1957-After some dark scenes of a woman being stalked, Henry Krasser (Aldo Farnese), a weird cigar smoking self- proclaimed “metaphysic” talks to the camera and says he doesn't believe you're dead when you die. He shows various projects he's working on. He also mentions a murder case he's helping the police with. Then he proceeds to give a rundown on the people he lives with at a boarding house including a weirdo named Fites Freuger (Curtis Roberts), soon to be victim model Renee (Laura Brock), Raymond Millburn (Myron Natwick), Christy (Kyle Stanton), a Bible spouting loony and others. Krasser helps a cliche cop (Scott Douglas) solve a bow and arrow murder. 

Talky low budget junk, produced, written and directed by Merle S. Gould. Star Farnese was a kids TV host in Philadelphia. Co-star Natwick was in many TV shows later on. In 2000, he was in TV Mikels' THE CORPSE GRINDERS 2.

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Lisa, The Devil And You

 

 (themoviedatabase)

LISA AND THE DEVIL-1973-In Italy, Lisa (Elke Sommer) sees a mural of the devil then meets a guy (Telly Savalas) who looks like the mural. She gets lost and is a given a lift (after she seems to kill a man) by Francis (Eduardo Fajardo) & Sophia (Sylva Koscina) and their chauffeur George (Gabriele Tinti) who's having an affair with Sophia. The car breaks down at the residence of Maximilian (Alessio Orano) and his blind mom, the Countess (Alida Valli). Their manservant, Leandro, is the same guy Lisa met earlier. There also seems to be one other person in the house. 

Weird things happen and then George is killed. Max romances Lisa. His mom scolds him. Lisa seems to be pursued by the man she killed. After Sophia runs Francis over with their car (about 5 times), she's bludgeoned to death by Max who thinks Lisa is his long dead love, Elena. Later, Lisa winds up on a jet with the dead people as passengers and Leandro as the pilot. She turns into a corpse. 

Pretty crazy stuff especially when you consider it was co-written and directed by Mario Bava! When it failed to get a distributor at Cannes, the producer Alfredo Leone had Bava shoot a framing sequence with Robert Alda as priest and called it “House of Exorcism” (THE EXORCIST was big at the time). Only years after Bava's death was his original finally released.

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AlohaTV

 

 (imdb)

CODE NAME: DIAMOND HEAD-1977-In Hawaii, agent Johnny Paul (Roy Thinnes) (his code name is Diamond Head) is assigned to find out why criminal Sean Donovan (Ian McShane) is on the island. He gets help from entertainer Zulu (Zulu; TV's "Hawaii 50") and club owner Tso Tsing (France Nuyen). A German hit man Graeber (Eric Braeden) and a Japanese assassin Sakai (Michael Frank Liu) are also there. Apparently, Donovan is also a master of disguise. He impersonates an Army Colonel and learns that a research facility has created a powerful something. With Kent Smith and Ward Costello (TERROR FROM THE YEAR 5000). 

Not much TV movie, director Jeannot Szwarc made this failed TV pilot while doing a lot of TV shows (Baretta, The Rockwood Files). He later made the feature films JAWS 2 (1978) and SOMEWHERE IN TIME (1980).

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Umma

 

 (youtube.com)

UMMA-2022-Amanda (Sandra Oh), a Korean beekeeper living in the US with her American born daughter, Chrissy (Fivel Stewart) is afraid of electricity. Her honey making business is booming but then her stinky uncle comes with news that her estranged mom has died and he's brought her remains from Korea. After she tells him to get lost, she starts to hear screaming and sees weird visions, many of them connected to her dead mom. When her daughter shows an interest in going to college, it seems Amanda is going off the deep end but later it's clear mom is possessing her. Dermot Mulroney is a helpful neighbor. 

Good acting but story is unoriginal. Sam Raimi was one of the producers. Written and directed by Iris K. Shim.

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Home? I Have No Home…

 (imdb)

 

BRIDE OF THE MONSTER-1955- Mad scientist Dr. Eric Vornoff (Bela Lugosi) is so far unsuccessful in his attempts to create a race of atomic superman. In his cheapo lab where he fries victims’ brains, he has a stove, refrigerator and a giant octopus. In town, the deaths are blamed on “The Monster”. Police Capt. Robbins (Harvey B. Dunn), who has a pet parakeet, discusses the case with Lt. Dick Craig (Tony McCoy) and his fiancée reporter, Janet (Loretta King) who is investigating the monster story. The suspicious Prof. Strowski (George Becwar) thinks the monster might be like the one in Loch Ness. On her way to Lake Marsh, Janet has a car accident. She faints but is rescued by Lobo (the one and only Tor Johnson), Vornoff''s hulking servant. Craig and his partner Marty (Don Nagel) go to the lake to find Janet, who's kind of being held prisoner by Varnoff. Meanwhile, Strowski visits the bad doctor.

Turns out the professor is from an unnamed country that had exiled Varnoff years before. Strowski wants to take Varnoff “home” but he will have none of it and throws Strowski to the octopus he happens to have on the premise (that's the monster). Varnoff decides to make Janet an atomic bride (complete with wedding gown) but Lobo has other ideas. He frees Janet and straps his boss to the operating table. Lobo and Craig have a fight (the Lieutenant fairs well). Somehow Lobo manages to turn Varnoff into a monster (now portrayed by stuntman Eddie Parker; no stranger to playing monsters..). Robbins, Marty and Kelton the cop (Paul Marco) arrive just as their tussle begins. Lobo is killed and now atomic Varnoff takes off with Janet. All's well that ends well as the doc becomes a victim of his own octo-monster. Robbins sums it all up: “He tampered in God's domain”. 

Several other Ed Wood “stock players” appear: Conrad Brooks (uncredited), Bud Osbourne, Ben Frommer and of course Dolores Fuller in a bit role as another reporter. Former “Bowery Boy” William “Whitey” Benedict also has a small role. Saying this is director Ed Wood, Jr.'s best movie might be stretching it but despite its so-so acting, weird plot, the who gives a shit editing and not too special effects, it's fun to watch and not see nearly as much as PLAN 9 has been in recent years. There's stock footage, of course and the scenes where the octopus kills its victims are pretty pathetic but after watching a few modern horror/Sc-Fi movies recently, I have to say for its entertainment value, BRIDE beats them all! 

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Early Alfred

 

 (imdb)

BLACKMAIL-1929-It takes a little while to get started but a woman Alice (Anny Ondra) has a fight with her policeman boyfriend Frank (John Longden) then goes with an artist (Cyril Ritchard) to his studio. Un-beknownst to her Frank sees them. After some flirtation he tries to rape her but she stabs him to death. The police investigate and Frank finds Alice's glove and sees that the dead man is the one she was with. When a man shows up at Alice's father's tobacco shop attempting to blackmail Alice, Frank devises a plan to pin the murder on the blackmailer. A chase through a museum highlights the story. Guilt ridden Alice wants to confess. 

This was Alfred Hitchcock's tenth movie and though originally done as a silent film it was decided midway way through the production that a sound film would also be made. This silent version is very well done with Hitchcock showing many of the traits he would use in subsequent film classics. It also features the longest of his many cameo appearances. The new score is a bit overwhelming.

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