EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC (1977)

EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC (1977)

In 1973 director William Friedkin shocked the world with THE EXORCIST. Four years later, John Boorman had the same effect but for all the wrong reasons.

EXORCIST II is even worse on a re-view than back in the 80s. The script is sparse and ultra-dumb, and is a total waste of the talents of Louise Fletcher, Ennio Morricone and Richard Burton, who to his credit gives his clunky-as-a-bag-of-spanners dialogue every ounce of the gravitas of which it's not worthy. Linda Blair also must have wondered if 'better the devil you know' was a viable teenage career move.

The editing is suspiciously abrupt at times, giving credibility to the story that Boorman tried at least three attempts to re-edit the ending after one of the worst premieres in movie history. (According to Friedkin, this showing was received with such legendary bad grace that an audience member got up at the end and shouted to the crowd: "The people who made this piece of shit are IN THIS ROOM!!"

THE HISTORY OF HORROR CINEMA (podcast) - EPISODE 1: THE SHORT SHARP SHOCKS OF LAUREL & HARDY

THE HISTORY OF HORROR CINEMA podcast) - EPISODE 1:
THE SHORT SHARP SHOCKS OF LAUREL & HARDY

Here's my first episode of studio audio talks woven together from my horror writings. 
Beginning with the horror-tinged shorts of Laurel and Hardy (34 mins)


https://soundcloud.com/ichampion-1/ian-champion-history-of-horror-cinema-episode-1-the-short-sharp-shocks-of-laurel-hardy?fbclid=IwAR3NeTd6CnfpFEvunOjD-wYHc_m8_Oio1zRG4xyCejbyjownzCs9KbEaVsY

TETSUO: THE IRON MAN (1991) + TETSUO II: BODYHAMMER (1991)

TETSUO: THE IRON MAN (1991) + TETSUO II: BODYHAMMER (1991)
Shinya Tsukamoto's gloriously bananas vision of urban metal fetishism across two films is an acquired taste to be sure. TETSUO: THE IRON MAN is less a linear plotted movie, and more a 67 minute monochrome bio-mechanoid performance art piece influenced by Cronenbergian body horror. The imagery is fast, absurdist and coupled with a cool industrial techno soundtrack reminiscent of early New Order. Apparently filmed over 18 months in his house, the conditions were so tough Tsukamoto's entire crew left before the shoot ended!

The sequel makes somewhat more concessions to the mainstream with colour and plotting but is equally and compellingly insane. Each movie manages to end in a deranged yet strangely upbeat way by taking their premise into epic madness.  

FREDDY'S DEAD: THE FINAL NIGHTMARE (1990)

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1990) - "They saved the best till last!".

No it wasn't and no they didn't.
In the DVD interviews even newly-promoted director Rachel Talalay and franchise producer Robert Shaye struggled vainly to say good things about this ill-conceived turkey. On the upside, we get all-too-brief cameos from Roseanne Barr and Tom Arnold, plus Alice Cooper as Freddy's abusive step-dad. However, we also have to step in roughly eighty minutes of quality quicksand around them.
The attempt to satirise Freddy's influence on pop culture means we get Breckin Meyer absorbed into an 8-bit video game and then spat out into imitating gaming moves in the real world. Watching him pogo-ing up the stairs and striding about like a bad Streetfighter graphic is utterly cringeworthy. Krueger, the shadowy nemesis of the first film, has now become a fully-lit (and overexposed in screen time) pantomime baddie with sub-Butlin's one-liners.
And for bad measure, who's idea was it to saddle the production with a climactic ten minutes of clunky 3D footage? Audiences had to guess at when to put the glasses on based on when the final girl did, which then treated them to clumsily thrust items and flying heads that are an unsubtle 'homage' to Evil Dead 2. Only Wes Craven would dare clamp crocodile clips to this series to re-activate it - and fortunately he did...

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 1 - 5 (1984 - 1989)

No time nowadays to do in-depth writing on these but still documenting what I've been re-watching. The

first doesn't hold up that well except for Craven's highly original premise. The second is a rushed cash-in that at least is amusing for its unusual homoerotic edge. The third is the best and the most professional, the fourth has imagination and got Renny Harlin the gig directing DIE HARD 2, whilst the fifth does at least have some bite to its set pieces like the Geiger-inspired human/motorbike interface...