Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972)

3 / 5 Jun '10
Tagline: Flesh crawls! Blood curdles! Phibes lives!
Directed by: Robert Fuest
Written by: Robert Fuest, Robert Blees
Actors include: Vincent Price, Robert Quarry, Peter Cushing
Genre: Horror
Length: 89 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
Although I did really like the first installment of the Phibes series, this didn't really work for me. It begins with Phibes waking up three years later and discovering that his house is demolished and his papyrus scrolls are missing. He finds the culprit and starts his trek to Egypt with his assistant Vulnavia in order to awaken his dead wife. Of course he needs to punish the folks who stole his scrolls which is where the fun comes in. The deaths are yes ambitious, over the top and completely implausible. Sure some creativity is involved and Price is quite enjoyable to watch but watching him go on length narration through a talk box (he can't talk) isn't very thrilling. It just seemed rather lackluster especially considering the talent involved, I was disappointed.

Availability:  On DVD

The Devil's Rain (1975)

3.5 / 5 Feb '10
Tagline: Absolutely the most incredible ending of any motion picture
Directed by: Robert Fuest
Written by: James Ashton, Gabe Essoe
Actors include: Ernest Borgnine, Tom Skerritt, William Shatner
Genre: Horror
Length: 86 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
This one is sort of a mixed bag, on the plus side we have Ernest Borgnine as one of the leads of the erm church of the devil. On the con side, the plot is pretty ridiculous, a group of Satanists who have something called "the devil's rain" in a jar (which causes them to melt if broken?). William Shatner plays Mark Preston, a curious fellow investigating what happened to his Mom who turned up dead with blackened eye holes. See it seems that most of the worshippers have blackened eye holes (which is dark glass of some kind hiding the eyes, sort of a cool effect) after joining the cult. The film was overseen by real life Satanic cult leader Anton LaVey which is kinda neat I suppose, perhaps that means some of the rituals are based in fact who knows? The effects are reasonably impressive, especially for something that feels so low budget, and this film also marks the debut appearance of John Travolta (though blink and you will miss him). As far as Satanism movies go, this isn't my favorite but it's still a reasonable offering, I just think the end goes on for way too long. Worth a viewing for fans of trash and devil related films, probably not as bad as it's reputation would suggest.

Availability:  On DVD

And Soon The Darkness (1970)

4.5 / 5 Jan '10
Tagline: N/A
Directed by: Robert Fuest
Written by: Brian Clemens, Terry Nation
Actors include: Pamela Franklin, Michele Dotrice, Sandor Eles
Genre: Thriller, Horror
Length: 99 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
This is one film that actually gave me the creeps, it felt real and they did a perfect job of giving off that vibe of alienation and horror. The story is about two young British girls (Jane & Cathy) bicycling through the back areas of France neither of which are fluent in French. After the girls get in a squabble Jane takes off and leaves Cathy suntanning out in the woods. She decides to sit at a roadside cafe and wait until Cathy catches up. After waiting quite a while she decides to bike back to try to find her friend, but she isn't there. Only a few random items are left as a reminder that they were ever there. A ways back a Fellow was watching them, could he have taken Cathy? Jane will stop at nothing to find out, and it's one frightening ride to say the least. I've heard some complain that many of the characters speak in French (untranslated) but the thing is, that's how the girls would have felt. I can only pick out a word or two of French but it was enough to know that something was terribly wrong. I was surprised just how horrific this one actually was, though it is rather slow moving at first (but not in a bad way, it just builds into a doomy tense situation). Recommended highly, this was a real treasure, thanks to Infofreak for recommending this one to me, it's frightening!

Availability:  On DVD but OOP