The Strange Door

"The Strange Door" (1951, Joseph Pevney, Universal Pictures] is a strange film, indeed. It is neither truly horror nor solely period drama. It's loosely based on a Robert Louis Stevenson short story and it hails from the post-horror period of Universal's history.

A nobleman called Alain (Charles Laughton) tricks a high-born, drunken good-for-nothing called Denis (Richard Stepley) to enter the only door to his miserable mansion with the intentions of marrying him to his neice, Blanche (Sally Forrest).

He hates his neice for he blames her for the death of her mother, his forbidden love, who died in childbirth. He also hates his brother, Blanche's father, (Paul Cavanagh) for he accuses him of stealing his 'true love' in the first place. And so, naturally, he's locked up his brother and told his neice that her father is dead... As you do.

His devious plan is foiled, however, when Denis turns out not be such a bad chap afterall, Blanche decides that marrying him would be OK with her and his manservant, Voltan (Boris Karloff), changes his allegiences and throws a man-shaped spanner in the works...

A strange movie, that doesn't feature much of its namesake strange door, the highlights are definitely the wicked and pompous brushness of Charles Laughton's character, some of the more flowery scripting which elevates the film to a more cerebral affair and, of course, the brief but important presence of the wonderful Boris Karloff, who could have definitely been given more to do.

The main drawbacks are that it's quite slow burning with very little action and too much dialogue, the Denis character has too much screentime and is of little interest when compared with his screenmates and, like some other latter Universal works, Karloff's character smacks of after-thought and comes across as a little forced.

By far it is not the best Universal movie, but it has its own charms.

[Image: Universal Pictures]

 

Hani

 

Demon Wind

"Demon Wind" (1990, Charles Philip Moore, Demon Wind Productions Ltd., United Filmmakers) is a low budget demon movie which uses every overused horror convention known to man.

See checklist:

• Boy and girl on a trip in the sticks? Yep
• Boy with bad past, digging it up a little? Yep
• Bad dreams and premonitions about a creepy place resulting in the characters deciding to go to said creepy place? Check
• Creepy petrol station and even creepier couple owning it? Certainly!
• Inhospitable locals? You got it!
• Religious stuff and the weirdest demonic beginning ever? Uh huh
• Crusified remains? Yep
• Evil fog? Oh yes!
• Spooky old books and characters dumbly reading them aloud to begin the mayhem? Of course!
• Demons?
• Zombie things?
• Spew?
• Bloody writing?
• Magick spells?
• Ghosts?
• Confusing, 2D characters?
• Inescapable location?
• Odd special effects?
• Creepy children?
• Demonic voices?
• Evil fog?
• A place you can't leave or escape?
• Technology failing them?
• Never-ending shotgun rounds?
• Yes to all!

Oh yes! This film is like 10 films in one. And all of them kind of suck!

Oh, but one thing that was missing.... Demon Wind! That was what made me click play on the YouTube machine! I wondered, is it about demonic gas? Evil methane? Or is it a place like the name of the house is 'Demon's Wind' or something? Nope. Still confused!

The main character is called Corey (Eric Larson) and he and his girlfriend, Elaine (Francine Lapensée) are driving to Corey's old family home; a delapidated farm house in the middle of nowhere. His father has committed suicide after telling Corey that their family is cursed for worshipping Satan and that his grandparents had died in the cottage in a fire started by a Demon worshipping madman cleric.

How's that for a plot? Bloody crazy? Oh, it gets better.

So, it seems ol' Corey just couldn't have himself and Elaine have all the family tree, family death plot viewing fun to themselves, and invited all of their friends. And the friends actually turn up! Go figure!

Some of the friends are hilarious:

• You have a magical karate kid magician who looks a lot like Jared Padalecki (but obviously isn't as he's way too young!)
• You have the sensible dude (you know he's sensible because he speaks proper English and wears glasses) who from some angles kind of looks like a very young Alan Tudyk (but isn't).
• And you have your jock, who looks a bit like Zack from "Saved By The Bell". But isn't.

The characters are all a bit touchy-feely and everything just seems plain forced. There's also some awkward demon-boob-groping, which is a bit reminiscent of "Basketcase", but with clothes.

The dialogue is terrible, and the demons (and pretty much most of the plot) is like a crappy copy of "Evil Dead". There's also a lot of shots of demons spewing white stuff and I believe most of the SFX budget was blown on one particular scene where Magician dude and the dude called Stacey (Jack Vogel) blow apart some zombie-demon/deadite-knockoffs with sawed off shotguns. Body parts flying everywhere!

I especially enjoyed the very 80s/90s neon light special effects!

The end is just confusing with Corey and Elaine suddenly becoming super witches and then Corey's head going all Coneheads-meets-Star Trek.

One thing I really liked though; how do you have a haunted farmhouse and a place for your characters to be stuck in if your farmhouse has been inconveniently burnt down in the opening scene? Easy! Alternate dimensions! Enter through the door and go back in time to the full house. Enter from the side of the ruin, and stay in reality!

Things that really just annoyed me:

1. Maggots in an egg.... WTF?
2. They get magic knives, or Athanes, which will kill the demons. They use both up very quickly and promptly lose them.
3. Why did one girl turn into a demonic baby doll?!
4. Why did one guy grow backwards and turn into a dove?!

These are the questions I'd like answered!

Generally, a complete and utter load of crazy with some typical demonic voices and several plots going at once. In fact, I'm still confused! This film didn't know what it was, and tried to do everything. All that was missing was a possessed hand and some foliage rape and this damn circus would have been a complete rip from the great mind of Raimi. But again it's free, so if you want to find out for yourself just how awesomely bad this film is, get on YouTube!

[Picture: United Filmmakers]

"Demon Wind - It'll blow you away!"

Hani

White Zombie

"White Zombie" (1932, Victor Halperin, United Artists) is credited as the first 'feature length' zombie movie and is the inspiration for the band, White Zombie, 's name... clearly!

It stars Béla Lugosi as Murder Legendre, a Voodoo witch doctor, on Haiti.

Neil Parker (John Harron) and his beautiful fiancé, Madeleine Short (Madge Bellamy) arrive in Haiti in order to be married. They are invited to the home of a rich plantation owner named Mr. Beaumont (Robert Frazer). Unbeknownst to them, Beaumont plans to turn Madeleine into a zombie slave for himself, using the powers of Legendre.

Beaumont's plans go awry, however, when Legendre changes his mind and opts to keep Madeleine for himself! Can Parker and his friend, Dr. Bruner (Joseph Cawthorne) save Madeleine from a fate worse than death?!

A silverscreen original, in the typical Lugosi style; lit up eyes and over dramatic posturing. But I love it!

This film did terribly in its original box office ratings, as it was released at a time when other movies of a similar genre were flooding the market and it used many props from other films in order to keep the costs down.

The acting was criticised at the time, but I find it to be typical of the 1930s horrors. Again, if you're not a fan of old, creaky horrors, this film is not for you! It's long and quiet and you can see where the scenes have been edited in the cutting room. Also the screeching of the vultures become monotonic and annoying after a while! I find this quaint and interesting, but it may just distract you from the story.

The makeup is impressive for the time, I especially enjoyed the zombie chauffeur!

All in all, it's an old movie, and its charms are only valid to enthusiasts like me. "White Zombie" is a traditional zombie movie; no infected monkeys, no solanum virus, no Umbrella Corporation, no running zombies, just plain old walking undead under the control of a ruthless Vodun priest.

"With these eyes he rendered her powerless!"

[Picture: United Artists]

Hani