Babysitting Two-fer.

Hello all! This week's VHS Friday hits right before my yearly pilgrimage to Montreal for the Fantasia Film Festival. I had recently noticed that I had two babysitter-centric tapes in the pile so I figured I would knock them off together. I have a fascination with the concept of the babysitter. I wager it is from the horror trope, and not any real experience since my brother was seven years older and the time we actually had one was very narrow (she was a family friend that I remember vaguely; her name was Dorothy). However, the idea of leaving a young non-family member with your children alone obviously stuck for me to make my own rendition in 2013. But, I digress. Our first title is the 1980 teleplay The Babysitter.

The Benedict's (Bill Shatner & Patty Duke) hire a live-in babysitter named Joanna (Stephanie Zimbalist) for their daughter Tara (Quinn Cummings) but are unfortunately unaware of her nefarious intentions.

As I stated, this was a TV movie, but off-the-hop you could be forgiven for thinking this was an Italian thriller based on the score and how the opening was shot. Imdb says some stock music was used so I wouldn't be surprised if the theme was lifted from a 70's giallo I can't quite place.

 

Will Shatner & Stephanie Zimbalist in The Babysitter.

Directed by Peter Medak, The Babysitter was made right around the time he did the far superior The Changeling, but the former is still quite watchable and riddled with recognizable character actors. Set in Washington, but almost surely shot north in BC, the locale is pretty, with no shortage of exorbitant mansions to plot your employer's demise.

Zimbalist (doing the ever popular exercise of playing a teen in their mid-twenties) carries herself well, projecting a certain unpredictability that made we wonder at times what her actual endgame was. I mean, ultimately I knew because this is a story I've seen many time before (The Hand That Rocks The Cradle comes to mind) so sadly I was waiting at least a half-hour for John Houseman to go find her previous family dead in their bed. It's funny, I could see the image in my head like a crystal ball. It was still a hoot, after watching many episodes of Remmington Steele as a kid, to see her in a role like this.

Moving on, I checked out my tape of the 1975 film Wanted: Babysitter.

A young woman (Maria Schneider) doing babysitting jobs to make ends meet in Rome finds herself kidnapped with her charge in a ransom plot.

It's funny that The Babysitter was an American movie that I first thought was Italian, and Wanted: Babysitter is an Italian film that I assumed was American. I didn't know babysitting was even a thing in Europe, I mean, admittedly I don't know why I figured it was confined to North America. I just would've expected a more appropriate title like The Babysitter Wore Red, or The Babysitter Knocked Twice.

John Whittington & Maria Schneider in Wanted: Babysitter.

The final picture directed by journeyman René Clément, Wanted: Babysitter isn't really a horror film, it's more of a Euro-crime thriller with some character actors from outside of Italy like Vic Morrow and Robert Vaughn (damn, he looks young in this, maybe it was the eye make-up) sprinkled in. Also, I didn't realize until I looked her up after, but Schneider was the actress in that infamous scene in Last Tango In Paris. It now makes more sense why she went for the jam during the breakfast sequence here. 

This movie is a serviceable thriller, though I have to admit I was confused about the kidnap plot for the first half-hour or so. I didn't catch that the boy (who is inexplicably named Boots?!) had been moved to a new location so my geography and how Schneider found herself involved was disorienting. It could've been that my tape's quality rapidly declined as it went on to the point I could barely make out the bathtub scene towards the end. It definitely has that Italian feel, right down to the comic relief subplot with the boyfriend (Renato Pozzetto) who I'm certain improvised most of his dialogue.

A nice little find after all, and a counterbalance to The Babysitter, where the title character was protagonist instead of antagonist. That's it for the babysitting two-fer. Hey, does that mean I get paid double time??

HCD 2024!

You Are What You Watch.

Sorry for the absence, June has been a month racked with little annoyances that have kept me off my couch doing the “important” things. Anyhoo, with Canada Day happening soon, I pulled the nearest Canuck horror off the pile, a 1980 joint called Deadline, shot here in our fair Toronto. It actually took me a while to acquire this tape so I was chuffed to finally watch it.

A controversial horror novelist struggles to balance his failing marriage with his agent breathing down his neck for new content.

Within the first few scenes of this movie, I had to ask myself “why doesn't Deadline get talked about more?” I mean that blood shower sequence is way more gratuitous than the one from Death Ship - also 1980 and the only memorable part from that film - and then there's the snowplow scene where Black Philip looks on as a mechanic gets mangled to pieces.

As Deadline wears on, it becomes more and more apparent that the movies that author and now screenwriter Steven Lessey (played by Stephen Young) are way more interesting (or at least entertaining) than the one I was actually watching - much like Dave Parker's 2009 movie The Hills Run Red. At a certain point, I had to concede that Deadline is obscure because the last half is pretty meandering and its conclusion nowhere near as good as its setup. I wonder if there was a lot of meddling in post, because even though it was shot in 1979, it did not release until five(!) years later.

Stephen Young as Steven Lessey in Deadline.

One thing that stuck with me, was the scene where Lessey is at his alma mater to receive a commendation and is then berated by his audience for the violence in his work. It reminded me of the backlash against David Cronenberg after Shivers came out. Due to being partially funded by the Canadian government, detractors were incensed that taxpayer money was going to something so “depraved” and “repulsive.” Because Deadline was also a tax shelter movie, I can't help but think this scene (and movie) was a dig at these fools.

It was also good to see Cindy Hinds pop up in a few scenes. Man, what a great time for her, getting to “hang” around in this, after also being chased by monster kiddies in The Brood. I wonder which of these two movies was the most upsetting to shoot. I see her kicking around the Ontario convention circuit from time to time, I should ask her next time we cross paths.

Deadline is terrific Gif fodder, but it ultimately gets diluted by the long and drawn out scenes of Lessey's descent into madness, putting it below the fold for all but Canuxploitation completionists and fans of Carole Pope & Rough Trade who also appear performing their song, Revenge.

June 26th Horror Trivia Screening Guide

To all those who came here from the event or Storm Crow's FB page, welcome! I am Jay, one half of the horror trivia quizmasters and this is my humble blog. Here's the selected list of titles mentioned at the last event. Click on the titles to be redirected to their Imdb listing. Horror Trivia Night happens at Storm Crow Manor in Toronto. If you're in the area, come on down! Register here.

Pontypool (2008)

The Gate (1987)

Humungous (1982)

Blood Quantum (2019)

Rabid (1977)

The Mask (1961)

Psycho Goreman (2020)

Visiting Hours (1982)

The Fog (1980)

Cabin in the Woods (2011)

Crawl (2019)

Night of the Demons (1988)

The People Under The Stairs (1991)

Possession (1981)

Cruising (1980)

Chillerama (2011)

They/Them (2022)

The Hunger (1983)

Hellbent (2004)

We LOVE It When Our Friends Become Successful

Hey all! I just wanted to give a quick shout-out to my buddy Chris Nash. His debut feature In A Violent Nature is hitting screens this weekend. You should go see it!

I've known Nash for close to two decades and after having worked on a half-dozen projects with him, I know what a talented and driven guy he is. He deserves the spotlight. I urge you to support indie films like this, so Shudder and other companies continue to foster unique voices like Nash, Kyle Edward Ball & Robert Morgan.

If you are a fan of slashers, this should be a no-brainer, as even if you're not down with ambient and deliberate narrative of IAVN, you'll at least be thrilled by the visceral kills. That's basically what I told Nash after I saw it, “Man, sure there's gonna be a bunch of people that say, this is fucking boring, but there's also gonna be sizable subset that really dig and appreciate what you were trying to do here.”

If you're the latter, make your voice heard!

May 29th Horror Trivia Screening Guide

To all those who came here from the event or Storm Crow's FB page, welcome! I am Jay, one half of the horror trivia quizmasters and this is my humble blog. Here's the selected list of titles mentioned at the last event. Click on the titles to be redirected to their Imdb listing.

Horror Trivia Night happens at Storm Crow Manor in Toronto. If you're in the area, come on down! Register here. If you're not local, we do occasionally stream the event on @ruemorguemag Instagram.

Hell House LLC (2015)

Puppet Master (1989)

The Witch (2015)

Sleepaway Camp (1983)

The Final Terror (1983)

Body Count (1986)

Backcountry (2014)

Pyewacket (2017)

The Ritual (2017)

The Crazies (1973)

Shakma (1990)

Stopmotion (2023)

Alice Sweet Alice (1976)

Dead Snow (2009)

The Voyeurs (2021)

Nocturne (2020)

The Perfection (2018)

Invitation to Hell (1984)

House of Usher (1960)

The Terror (1963)

Galaxy of Terror (1981)

Forbidden World (1982)

Humanoids From the Deep (1980)

Piranha (1978)

Horror Movie Guide: Brainwaves

It's been a while I know, but I managed to hit up the next movie in the Guide this week. It was Ulli Lommel's 1982 movie Brainwaves, which I may have actually thought was the Chris Walken movie Brainstorm. But no, different brain movie for which I had no reference, except it was what Lommel made between The Boogeyman and Boogeyman II.

After suffering severe head trauma, Kaylie (Susannah Love) undergoes an experimental procedure to repair the damaged synapses in her brain, only to have her recovery complicated by memories of a murdered woman.

Brainwaves is a coherent thriller. If you detect surprise in my text, it is because I wasn't sure Lommel was up to such a task. My prior experiences with his work range from the ridiculous to the unbearable so colour me impressed. It did take a while to get going, as save for the bathtub electrocution at the hop, it seemed like I was watching some sort of Regarding Henry-esque family drama. But, then the unseen reject from the Cult of Thorn re-emerged and I just waited patiently for the two stories to connect.

Keir Dullea & Susannah Love in Brainwaves

Keir Dullea plays the beleaguered father and husband and has the acting chops to hide his no-doubt recurring thoughts of “I went from Kubrick to Clark to this???” The rest of the cast is solid, with Lommel filling it out with players from his previous movie and distinguished character actors like Vera Miles and Tony Curtis - who after The Manitou probably thought this set was sedate by comparison. 

I'm going to take a leap that this movie was made to cash in on the coma fiction that was happening around that time with movies like Coma and Patrick. While it does seem more fiction than science, patients who receive life saving assistance from donors have always been fertile ground for horror movies.

I did notice the score from journeyman Robert O. Ragland seemed to be melding of Psycho & Friday the 13th though I'm not going to complain about that. My only other comment is that I'm not quite sure how Dullea was able to unravel the mystery by just writing a bunch of XX's on a whiteboard, but then again, it was a muddy rip and he did once outsmart HAL.

The Guide certainly seemed to agree with my opinion that this was a significant step up for Lommel, as well.