Dead Graffiti

 

 (themoviedb)

MESSIAH OF EVIL-1973-From a mental hospital, a woman Arletty (Mariana Hill; she was in THE GODFATHER PART 2 the same year) tells the story of how she went to a town called Point Doom looking for her estranged father. Stopping for gas, the attendant (Charles Dierkop) acts weird and gives her a warning. He gets very perturbed when a big albino stops for gas with two dead bodies in his pickup. The attendant is killed a little later. 

While snooping around town Arletty meets a freaky art dealer and his blind mother and talkative town drunk Charlie (Elisha Cook Jr.) who talks about the blood red moon and people bleeding. She meets dandy Thom (Michael Greer; FORTUNE AND MEN'S EYES) who seems interested in the legend of the blood moon, and his two female companions the stuck-up snob Laura (Anitra Ford) and the dumb Toni (Joy Bang). Later after a lot of talk, Laura decides to leave. She hitches a ride with the albino (Bernie Robinson) who eats a rat. She wanders around town, goes to a supermarket and sees a bunch of weird people eating raw meat. They chase her down and eat her. Meanwhile, Arletty reads from Dad's diary. Poor Toni! She goes to see a movie and is attacked and eaten by the audience. Thom wanders around town. Dad (Royal Dano) shows up to explain the story of a dark stranger who had been part of the Donner party. It's not a good reunion though. Arletty sets her dad on fire. Then she tries to kill Thom. The dark stranger comes back too…

The directing and writing credits of this low budget bizarro horror film go to the husband-and-wife duo of Williard Hyuck and Gloria Katz who the year before had written the screenplay of AMERICAN GRAFFITI (they also have cameos as zombies). It is a kind of eerie movie but some parts don't make sense. Some critics have praised it as a “neglected masterpiece”. Re-released under the title DEAD PEOPLE.

Thanks for reading!

Klaus The Shrink

 

 (imdb)

SCHIZOID-1980-Julie (Mariana Hill; THE BABY), an advice columnist, receives threatening letters. Her hot headed ex-husband (Craig Wasson) is also her editor. She belongs to a therapy group run by a weird perverse psychiatrist Peter (Klaus Kinski). Someone is killing the patients in the group with a pair of scissors. Peter has trouble with his weird daughter Alison (Donna Wilkes; future star of ANGEL) who has a gun and rants to dad about her mother when Julie is invited to dinner. An ineffectual cop (Richard Herd) investigates the murders but doesn't think much of Julie's letters. 

This typical for the time slasher movie (which would inundate the '80's) has a dumb finale where the murderer is revealed. Christopher Lloyd on TV's “Taxi” at the time plays a red herring handyman and Flo Gerrish from DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE plays Julie's friend Pat. After this writer/director David Paulsen became a TV producer.

Thanks for reading!

The Baby

THE BABY-1973-This is a weird one! Anne Gentry (Anjanette Comer) a social worker visits the family of Mrs. Wadsworth (Ruth Roman: in Curtis Harrington's THE KILLING KIND the same year), her two daughters Germaine (Mariana Hill) and Alba (Susanne Zenor) and her son called Baby (David Manzy) a full grown adult who acts like a baby. He can't walk, sleeps in a crib, wears a diaper, drinks from a bottle and has to be fed. After an "encounter" with Baby, a babysitter is whipped and beaten by the female trio. Anne, who seems to have lost her husband, becomes obsessed with Baby's welfare and development. Alba punishes her brother with a cattle prod and Germaine has sex with him. Tod Andrews (from FROM HELL IT CAME) plays a doctor who tries to help Anne and Michael Pataki plays a pot smoker who tries to pick up Anne at Baby's birthday party before she is drugged and tied up. Fortunately Baby helps her escape and she takes him back to her house when she leaves. Mom and her daughters invade Anne's house to get Baby back. It doesn't turn out too good for them. Anne stabs both daughters to death then buries (wth help from her mother) Mrs, Wadsworth alive!  In the surprise ending....well there is a surprise ending too.

The acting is very good especially from Ruth Roman (an actress who always looked like she was wearing wig) as the fanatical mother. The sicko story was written by Abe Polsky who also penned THE REBEL ROUSERS in 1970. The direction by Ted Post (HANG 'EM HIGH, BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES) is also very good and there's a good suspenseful finale although the scenes when Anne and Wadsworth fight over an axe are kind of goofy. Mariana Hill was in HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER and MESSIAH OF EVIL around his time.

Thanks for reading!