AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS – See UK society laid bare in microcosm in this awkward combo of social realist horror and inexplicable bizarreness. A family is held captive in their pebbledash abode by an unknown authority that communicates to them via the TV – the freaked-out householders are put through a wringer of ‘protect and survive’ type exercises whilst steadily losing it. Is it all a messed-up government experiment? Can I just spoil it for the genuinely interested and say “no – it’s actually all the work of an alien organism that resembles a mass of pipe-cleaner worms or something”. Some may lose patience with its inability to reconcile horror sci-fi cliché, social content and baffling strangeness. Not Frankie though, that’s exactly where I get on board. Pretty good, genuinely claustrophobic and just ultimately, well, weird.
NIGHTMARES – Australian slasher from a vintage year, maybe 1980 or something. A traumatised young woman joins a theatre production presided over by a massive dickhead of a director. There are all kinds of on-set tensions for our ingenue and the wider ensemble to navigate, but the bigger problem is the bunch of generic but satisfyingly nasty murders that keep happening. ‘Nightmares’ is not very good in some ways. There’s an odd stiltedness to it all that runs through the acting, the pacing, the editing… for example, fade-outs are used heavily and arbitrarily, and go from signposting the ‘amnesia’ theme to just being a random device. Maybe that goes in its favour and adds a bit of weirdness, makes ‘Nightmares’ seem stranger than it is… and well, who can’t love a film whose ‘slasher’ is clearly telegraphed from the start and then makes a big deal about it all being a mystery. “But the killer is exactly who we were kind of led to believe it was!?” you will blurt in exasperated rage if you still give a shit come the ‘reveal’. Entertaining though.
VIDEOMAN – Perhaps this is example of a latter-day cinematic trend I occasionally feel I can detect, that of the movie that makes use of genre themes and tropes to explore basically mainstream dramatic territory. ‘Videoman’ follows a washed-up VHS horror dealer as he struggles to manage alcohol addiction, complications with his ex, and the possibility of new romance. At the same time, a mysterious collector seems to be stalking him after a deal involving a rare and costly tape falls through. ‘Videoman’ works well as a relationships drama, but falls a bit flat when it plays with more ‘fantastique’ elements, whether these take the form of clumsily deployed Bava-esque lighting or half-baked Giallo-like plot trimmings. With more subtlety, ‘Videoman’ coulda been a contender, although I’d say it’s definitely still worth a watch for trying to do something a bit different.
WHEN A STRANGER CALLS BACK – Carol Kane is pretty mighty in my book; she always stands out a mile and, unlike the majority of assembly line thesps, never fails to bring something a bit pungent to whatever she’s in. Here she is in WASCB along with Charles Durning, her co-star from the original. Like that film, WASCB gives us a fairly intense first half hour or so, although to be fair manages to sustain a decent pace and a reasonable level of suspense thereafter (the first seemed to shift gears into a bleak, oppressive drama after its notorious opening). There are a few high points that maybe deserved a bit more expansion – the killer’s ventriloquist act would’ve made Thomas Ligotti shudder, for example. When all’s said and done, it’s a nineties TV movie, so is held in check by a certain aesthetic. But taken for what it is, it’s good, and with Kane and for that matter Durning, it’s even better.
THE VISITOR – Been a while since I checked in on this one – wow, forgot it was such a big freako. It’s the cinematic equivalent of prog-rock, or maybe a prog-rock album cover. Its own soundtrack is an overbearingly screechy disco-funk rendering of ‘Apollo 13’, complete with strings so bombastic they flirt with fascism. The one number plays endlessly throughout and becomes distressingly addictive. As for the plot, well, something to do with a Damien-esque little girl who is the descendent of an alien villain called ‘Sateen’ and bad dad Lance Henrikson’s attempts to knock up his wife at the behest of a secret cabal who want a male heir of evil… don’t worry, John Huston’s around being an enigmatic saviour and Sam Pekinpah is a moody doctor of no consequence. Oddly, ‘The Visitor’ manages to achieve a celestial and almost creepily spiritual atmosphere despite the guffaws and the constant head-scratch factor. You could try to understand this film, but you would never succeed.
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