THE CURSE - An eighties sort-of Lovecraft adaption which I only got round to seeing the other day. In it, a meteorite lands in a small town and starts to rot the population. We follow the decline of a mostly noxious family of hillbillies. I thought it was pretty good, and was glad it took itself seriously and didn't descend into goofy histrionics unlike so many of its mid decade direct to video brethren. There was something quite depressing about the atmosphere during its latter half which could have been all the more powerful had it been able to rise above its limitations, which I guess were mostly tied to the aesthetics of its era and budget. A couple of scenes were commendably revolting - the maggot ridden flanks of cattle oozing away into slop, the ever-curdling mother character. Wasn't it produced by Lucio Fulci? I could see the influence. Worth catching, and available on a budget double bill with 'The Curse 2'.
FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM - A top tip from Dem, FAWTAS is an anthology from genre stalwart Jeff Burr and features Vincent Price in the unlikely company of four vignettes which emphasise eighties splatter rather than old skool gothic. I guess it goes for a post-Creepshow EC inspired kind of feel, but minus the humour and deftness of touch. It's quite serious and slightly nasty in tone, and there's some great stuff on show, particularly during the first and final segments - Clu Gulager as a nebbish necrophile and a house full of manic civil war kids respectively. The latter segment is the standout, and made me wish 'Children of the Corn' had taken the same route and involved some similarly vicious gore and mean spiritedness. 'From A Whisper To A Scream' is well worth picking up, and is twinned with 'Theatre Of Terror' on a recently released cheap DVD.
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