Eyesore Haul

There was a VHS swap meet down at the ol' Eyesore Cinema this weekend and here is the resulting booty.

Looking forward to digging into these over the next few months. Been a long time since I watched The Mangler, but my memories of it are quite fond. I mean, you really haven't lived until you've seen Ted Levine get attacked by an icebox.

A Little Bundle of Cohen.

With the recent passing of genre giant Larry Cohen, this week's title is his first horror film, 1974's It's Alive.

The birth of the Davies' second child brings them nothing but pain and suffering when it turns out to be murdering mutant. And it's loose in Los Angeles!

Had to spring for VOD on this one, as I do not own the VHS sadly. It's Alive was another title I thought I'd seen as a kid, but realized pretty early on that was not the case. I guess my memory of the baby's POV tearing through an operating room must have been from one of the sequels. No matter.

I could certainly see that this was Cohen's earliest foray into horror as it possessed a more deliberate pace than his later efforts. The ones I grew up with, specifically Q & The Stuff, have more grandeur and larger scope. When looking at his work as a whole, you can see his progression as a filmmaker.

Sharon Farrell & John P. Ryan in It's Alive.

Now, that's not to say there isn't a shitload of personality in this movie. John P. Ryan (who always played the villain in the movies of my youth like Avenging Force and Class of 1999) had some terrific moments, including some odd banter with a Scottish nurse and his choice to smoke & chew gum at the same time. How? Why? And don't even get me started on the cops.

It's Alive existed in a weird universe that seemed to over-react to the situation at hand. A mutant baby escaped from the hospital and somehow it's the parent's fault, as the father lost his job and the mother was loaded up with pills. Even the press seemed to be on their back, naming the couple in the news before the blood was even dry.

I did like how the creature itself was handled. It was a gradual reveal, using shadow and blurred lenses to start, and even some body suit work in its most effective moments. The puppetry was obviously more rudimentary than what we'd get from gore guru Rick Baker in the decades to come, but the sound design made up for it in spades. Throw in a solid score from legend Bernard Herrmann and you've got an inherently watchable flick, if maybe not as colourful as Cohen's later collaborations with Michael Moriarty.

Also, now that I've read that the baby was modelled after the Starchild in Stanley Kubrick's 2001, that's all I can fucking see now!

R.I.P. Joseph Pilato 1949-2019

I do not like how frequently we are losing horror royalty these days. This Sunday past we lost actor Joseph Pilato. He was 70.

Joseph Pilato 1949-2019.

Pilato appeared in many films over his fourty year career, but was best known for his role as Captain Rhodes in George A. Romero's Day of the Dead. I was lucky enough to meet him in 2012 when he appeared at the second edition of Shock Stock. He was warm, energetic and a born entertainer. He called me a puss fuck!

Pilato at Shock Stock 2012.

Rest in peace, Mr. Pilato.

Short of the Week #59: Antimity

This week I'm showcasing an entire channel. Antimity is a collective led by filmmaker Larry Alan that produces horror short films at a pretty alarming pace. My fave below is an amusing yarn called Hands.

For more Antimity, check out the channel including their most recent offering, Violet.

R.I.P. Larry Cohen 1941-2019

We lost another icon this weekend in writer/director/producer Larry Cohen. He was 77. I have spoken a lot about Cohen over the years because there really aren't many people who were as important to indie horror as this guy was. 

R.I.P. Larry Cohen 1941-2019.

It wasn't just the wonderful output that features fantastically weird and wild titles like Q: The Winged Serpent, The Stuff and God Told Me Too, but also that he was one of the genre's purest filmmakers who never put anything but his unadulterated vision up onscreen.

I was extremely lucky to see him (and his regular cohort Michael Moriarty) a few years ago at Fantasia premiere lof Cohen's biodoc, King Cohen where he picked up a lifetime achievement award.

Cohen accepting his Lifetime Achievement Award at Fantasia 2017.

He was also prolific in that he directed twenty films, but wrote at least ten more that weren't even produced. Cohen deserves a grand farewell and I can think of nothing better than to have Moriarty serenade his buddy into the great beyond.

Ask Evil Home.

In honour of the recent passing of genre icon John Carl Buechler, this week's VHS is his 1988 effort, Cellar Dweller.

Thirty years after a comic artist (Jeffrey Combs) is murdered by his own demonic creation, a new generation of artists convene in the same building only to repeat his misadventure.

I have to admit that I had no idea that Buechler made this picture before this week. I'd heard the title before (though I always get it mixed up with the 1971's Beast in the Cellar), but never gave it more than a cursory glance. My loss because it is actually an entertaining yarn. It's not as batshit and effects heavy as his movie Troll, made two years earlier, but Cellar Dweller has a lot going for it, as well. It actually shared a similar structure to Troll in that it's one location (an art school instead of an apartment complex) and a creature bumped off the residents one by one.

Cellar Dweller had a fairly unique through line in that the character's drawings came to life. I feel like that's an untapped resource that hasn't been explored since the eighties with things like Creepshow, Paperhouse and that bit in Nightmare 5. Bring that shit back! Buechler cleverly padded his running time with these comics, often using it in place of special effects. It could've felt like a cheat, if said comics hadn't been so dang awesome. The work was credited to both John Foster or Frank Brunner, but whoever penned them did a bang-up job!

Buechler was obviously having fun here, whether it be from the thinly veiled digs at some of the “arts” or his in-joke set dressings. I find it hilarious that the main character (played by newcomer Debrah Farentino) had a Re-Animator poster on her wall and didn't once think, “hey, the guy in that movie sure looks at lot like the guy who got me into comics and died in this house thirty years ago”. I guess we can all be blinded by our idols.

Mainly, I was impressed that Buechler kept his sense of humour considering how busy he must have been in 1988. Not only did his installment of the Friday the 13th franchise come out that year, but he also did effects for Nightmare 4 and Charles Band's Pulse Pounders. This guy loved his work. Anyway, Cellar Dweller is definitely worth a watch.

Short of the Week #58: Videobox

Considering yesterday's sad news, I'm keeping things light with this cute short from 2016. Ben Fullman's short film Videobox not only captures the era, but also nicely executes a pretty neat idea. Enjoy!