"It's Only a Movie"

 

 

 (imdb)

SPECIAL EFFECTS-1984-An outcast film director Neville (Eric Bogosian) kills a nude model (Zoe Tamerlis; MS.45 (1981)) and films it. Her husband (Brad Rijn; SMITHEREENS (1982)) gets arrested for her murder by two imbecilic cops Delroy (Kevin O'Connor) and Vickers (Bill Oland). Later the nutty director convinces the husband and stupid Delroy that he wants to make a film about the dead actress and incorporate the snuff footage as the finale. He gets a lookalike (also Tamerlis) to portray her. 

This well-made outing from writer/director Larry Cohen was shot in NYC but it's very drawn out and talky with the typical cast of Cohen characters. Bogosian later became known for his one-man stage plays like TALK RADIO.

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Cohen Returns

 

 (imdb)

GOD TOLD ME TO-1976-This opens with a sniper on a water tower killing people in NYC. Police officer Peter Nichols (Tony Lo Bianco) tries to take him down but the sniper jumps to his death after saying “God told me to”. Later Nichols visits a guy in the hospital who randomly stabbed a bunch of people. When asked why, he replies “God told me to”. At the St. Patrick's Day parade, a cop (Andy Kaufman) goes crazy and shoots several people. Before getting fatally shot he yells “God told me to”. The religious cop has a hard time coping while investigating and is eventually suspended. People riot when it seems 'God's own hand” is driving the murders. A drug dealer kills a cop and this too is blame on God. Meanwhile a cartel of businessmen worships a “living” God. Actually, a glowing, sexless offspring of an alien (Richard Lynch) and an Earth woman (Sylvia Miles in the present). Later the alien seems to take over Nichols and he makes a pimp kill some other thugs then himself. The alien/God wants a kid of his own but Nichols causes its destruction in the freaked-out finale, ending with Nichols arrested for murder and committed to a mental hospital. Some of the plot also involves Nichols' ex-wife (Sandy Dennis) and his new girlfriend (Deborah Raffin). 

This quirky, even strange, story was the concoction of writer/director Larry Cohen (two years after IT'S ALIVE) and as usual features weird dialogue and characters but some of the scenes seem out of place, not part of the story.

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Killer Babe

 

 (tcm)

IT'S ALIVE-1974-A woman named Lenore (Sharon Farrell) gives birth to a monster baby that kills all the doctors and nurses who helped bring it out. Frank (John P. Ryan), the monstrosity's father acts weird and wants to know what happened to his baby. His boss (Guy Stockwell) wants him to take a vacation. Meanwhile the mutant moppet kills people (the milkman victim is particularly crazy). A university head (Andrew Duggan) wants the baby body dead or alive. The cause of it may have been some birth control pills and the CEO of the company (Robert Emhardt) wants the baby destroyed. SWAT teams converge on it at one point but only find a normal harmless baby. The killer babe goes home and mom hides it in the basement. It threatens their older son and kills a neighbor. Mom goes crazy. 

Eventually the police trap it in a sewer but Frank feeling fatherly saves it. It screams a lot and Frank tries to convince the cops it's harmless (right after the shootout what looks like to me a UFO dots across the sky...). The baby is killed but a police lieutenant gets a call that another mutant baby has been born. 

IT'S ALIVE was the brainchild of maverick writer/director Larry Cohen, made in between HELL UP IN HARLEM and GOD TOLD ME TO. It caused a stir upon its initial release. Many people didn't like the idea of a “killer baby”. It still holds up well today and is better than most modern dunnage that passes for horror. (There was a remake in 2009!) Cohen made two sequels.

Of course I reviewed the Part 2 first!

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More Killer Babes

I was just watching the Outer Limits episode "Cold Hands, Warm Heart" with Bill Shatner as an astronaut returning from Venus who can't stay warm. The name of the space program he's with? Project Vulcan!

IT LIVES AGAIN-1978-In this crazed sequel a couple (Frederic Forrest and Kathleen Lloyd) are about to have a killer baby. Killer baby hunter Mr. Mallory (John Marley) plans to get rid of it but Frank Davis (John P Ryan; returning from the first film) breaks up the plan and forces them at gunpoint to let the wife have her baby at a secret clinic run by mad scientists R. Perry (Andrew Duggan) and Dr. Forest (Eddie Constantine!). They have another set of killer babes in the basement which they think they can control. Eventually the babies revolt, kill their captors and terrorize mom and dad. Dad finally kills his son and then tries to warn other couples. 

This is another quirky outing by written and directed by Larry Cohen, full of cool camera work, weird acting, choppy editing and some unintentional humor (I think!).

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Negative (should be) Deleted

MESSAGES DELETED-2010-More derivative pretentious horror garbage (this time from Canada) with a wannabe screenwriter (Matthew Lillard from the SCOOBY DOO movies) tied to a series of murders because the killer is using stories he wrote. It's all the work of a deranged film student in this drawn out talkie bullshit with not one likable character. The screenplay is by (former?) director Larry Cohen (IT'S ALIVE). The director Rob Cowan is usually a producer (THE CHERNOBYL DIARIES, THE CRAZIES remake). Filmed in British Colombia.

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Why? Why?

CAPTIVITY-2007-Another in the seemingly unending treadmill of torture-horror-bullshit overrated hits like SAW have inspired. Now more than ever I feel the people who churn out crap like this really need psychiatric help. Don't get me started on the audience!

Jennifer (Elisha Cuthbert from HOUSE OF WAX and THE GIRL NEXT DOOR) is a top fashion model who's drugged at bar and kidnapped and imprisoned by a sadistic nut (Pruitt Taylor Vince). Occasionally she's forced to watch films of the killer torturing previous victims (and also of herself being interviewed). Eventually she meets another captive named Gary (Daniel Gillies; John Jameson in SPIDER-MAN 2). They try to escape a couple of times but don't succeed (unfortunately for the audience). The loony kills her dog and subjects her and Gary to a bunch of disturbing mind games (while watching them on video).

 It has to do with two brothers (Oh! What a giveaway!) who were molested by their druggie mother as kids. Things take a real stupid turn when 2 FBI agents show up. 

One of the screenwriters was Larry Cohen who once made good B-type movies (IT'S ALIVE, THE STUFF, Q). Director Roland Jaffe made films like THE KILLING FIELDS and THE MISSION, so like what happened?

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Hammer's Other Time

BLACK CAESAR-1973-Blaxplotation classic starring Fred Williamson (who had starred in HAMMER the year before) as Tommy Gibbs who rises from abused shoeshine boy (who helps with a mob hit) to Black Caesar, the head of the Harlem underworld. He gets help from a phony black preacher (frequent co-star D’Urville Martin) and a corrupt white lawyer (William Wellman Jr.) to secure some ledgers that can expose some corrupt politicians and nearly kills his own father (Julius Harris). In the wildest scene he puts shoe polish on the face of a corrupt white cop (Art Lund) and makes him sing “Mammy” while beating him to death.

Gloria Hendry (who had a role in LIVE AND LET DIE the same year) plays his girlfriend who later betrays him. Val Avery is a mob leader Gibbs muscles out and Don Pedro Colley is Crawdaddy, Gibbs’s right hand man who causes a lot of trouble. The ending finds Gibbs seemingly dying near a burned out building in his old neighborhood after being beat up by local kids. 

He doesn’t die though. Gibbs/Williamson returned in HELL UP IN HARLEM later in the year.

BC was the second feature directed by Larry Cohen (who also wrote and produced). Besides the sequel he also made IT’S ALIVE around the same time and went on to make other quirky features. He and Williamson re-teamed (with Jim Brown, Pam Grier, among others) for ORIGINAL GANGSTAS in 1996.



HELL UP IN HARLEM-1973-This sequel was pushed into production and it shows. It’s a major letdown after the incredible BLACK CAESAR and has a lot of unintentional laughs.

Gangster Tommy Gibbs apparently didn’t die. Despite being shot and beaten he manages to phone his dad (returning Julius Harris) who comes to his rescue, hides the ledgers and gets “some brothers who can still be trusted” to help out. They take Gibbs to a hospital and hold the staff at gunpoint and force a surgeon to operate (with no anesthesia). This part is pretty funny. Eventually the Gibbs character is re-molded into a force for good battling drug dealers and corrupt politicians. For a while he turns over his gang to dear old Dad who starts a gang war and kills his ex-girlfriend (the also returning Gloria Hendry). D'Urville Martin repeats his role as the preacher who is now legit and believes Tommy is doing good.

It’s entertaining but kind of a letdown. It’s been said the role of Tommy Gibbs was first offered to Sammy Davis Jr. who turned it down!

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"Much violence is based on the illusion that life is a property to be defended and not to be shared." Henri Nouwen