With the release of Zombie, Lucio Fulci entered three visual touchstones into the zombie pop-culture lexicon: the image of the zombie that graces the poster art with an eye socket full of maggots, a zombie slowly pulling a victim’s eye through a splinter of a door, and the underwater fight between a zombie and a shark. As time fades on and you forget the details of this zombie classic, you'll likely start referring to this movie as “the one with the splinter though the eye” or more commonly “the one where the zombie fights a shark”, and this begs a question: Why didn't the idea of underwater zombie ever take off?
George A. Romero ran with the underwater zombie in Land of the Dead and Max Brooks addresses the idea (as does Shock Wave apparently, though I have not yet watched it), but it's strange more modern zombie movies aren't embracing the water-mobile zombie. Possibly the idea adds too much cost to production (I imagine makeup that holds up underwater isn't cheep, nor are underwater stunt people). But what if the underwaterness was used as premise to the story rather than mere sight gags. A deserted island could easily be over run by a water logged horde, a cargo ship could pick up what they thought was a man-overboard, a shipwrecked crew could see what could perhaps appear to be their saviors slowly lumbering from the depths of the ocean...
So, I guess what I'm driving at is this: while you're enjoying Zombie and all it's quintessential contributions to the zombie cannon, fantastic gore, and makeup effects, take notes and write a screenplay that dictates the next direction in zombie horror. Why not? What else are you going to do on a Wednesday afternoon?
If you missed the insanity that was our Mystery Movie this month, it happens to be the very first movie I wrote up for this blog! Tim will have the poster up on his etsy shop sometime this week and if you made it out to the screening, thank you and we hope you had fun!
At the screening we also announced our theme for next month: Italian Horror! We're partnering with the Trylon in presenting Lucio Fulci is Rated X every Monday and Tuesday through the month of October at the Trylon microcinema! I'll be writing up each movie for the Trylon's blog Perisphere[Update: The posts will be on this blog while the Trylon's blog is on a short vacation!], and Tim designed and screen printed a poster that will be for sale at the Trylon.
But enough about next month! Next week is big enough with Trailer Trash Lives on Thursday the 24th @ 6:30 and a Super Secret Mystery Movie to follow that even we haven't seen, so we might all be in for some Deep Hurting...
This movie had me at hello. There is nothing I love more than an eco-horror movie, especially if there half understandings of science and far flung conclusions in it. But this movie also offers two bat-shit crazy villains, loads of 90's-ness, and fantastic dinosaur effects. Well, fantastic considering this movie was thrown together and released to beat Jurassic Park to theaters. (This was also one of our previous Tape Freaks movies, if you missed your chance at snagging a poster, we've still got a couple left here!)
The plot unfolds something like this: Eunice Corporation has employed a clearly mad bioengineer who has taken it upon herself to re-introduce dinosaurs to the planet. But she's not happy stopping there (being clearly mad and all), she's going to wipe out the human race in the process. And, unlike most movie villains, she's not monologuing...
Things to watch for: The best mad fill-in-the-blank scientist to grace a b-movie. Obligatory 90s wire rim glasses. A politician being bribed to support food additives by the head of the company making the additives whose crouched on a conference table (on all fours) feeding him blueberry pie. Lovely dinosaur effects by Magical Media Industries Inc headed up by John Carl Buechler.
Watch if you loved: Blood Freak, The Bay, or Jurassic Park.
What we learned: Letting an employee you already don't trust sign a contract that prevents you from checking in on what they're working on might result in them releasing dinosaurs back into the world.
Best quote found while researching this movie: “That [Diane] Ladd took this role just a few years after her Oscar-nominated turn in Wild at Heart is a testament to the sheer dearth of opportunities available for older actresses.” -Scott Meslow, The Week
This movie's trailer was featured in Trailer Trash 3: People 0. It's a fantastic trailer, but nothing could have prepared us for the insanity that is this movie.
The plot unfolds something like this: Mandroid is scheduled to be dismantled by his creator when a lab assistant (who is also Mandroid's only friend) saves him from from his senseless death. But the front door of the building is as far as his friend can take him on his quest for freedom. Will Mandroid be able to find the person who designed him, a swamp-rat tour guide, and a ninja to team up with in order to defeat the man who wishes Mandroid dismantled?
Well that escalated quickly: So much that happens without provocation in this movie. Mandroid escapes the compound and somehow the first person he stumbles into is the very engineer who conceived Mandroid's design, though she was not responsible for his actual construction. She walks into a bar asking for the best guide in town and instantly the bar erupts in a brawl. The last man standing (literally) is somehow deemed worthy of being the guide which causes several of the snubbed bar patrons to hunt down our heroes with the intent to kill them. Eventually Mandroid gets separated from the engineer and the guide which is unlucky for them because they are immediately kidnaped by some kind of neanderthal tribe, that is somehow located in modern Louisiana.
Things to watch for: The ultimate team-up for no apparent reason. A flying, matter displacing, robot that plays the dual rolls of Toto and R2D2.
Parallels we drew: For most of the movie we were making Star Wars and Indiana Jones jokes, until one of our guests proclaimed “This movie is basically the Wizard of Oz on the bayou”. And it pans out. The engineer is Dorthy, Mandroid is totally the tin man, the swamp rat is the Scarecrow, leaving the ninja to be the cowardly lion (entirely by default). The yellow brick road is the river, the neanderthal tribe are the flying monkeys, the little flying robot is toto, and the man who wants Mandroid dead is the wizard (even appearing as a disembodied head at one point). We were tempted to watch the whole thing again with the sound off with Darkside of the Moon playing...
Yep, that's: Denise Crosby (Star Trek: The Next Generation) and Roy Dotrice (The Cutting Edge).
What the filmmakers might have been thinking: Alright, who has some ideas for a movie? Everyone? Oh good, we'll use 'em all.
Oh boy. Larry Cohen and Michael Moriarty don't let us down in this one. Moriarty carries this movie (whether by design or by force is unclear) which is always a good time, and we're talking about a movie franchise that revolves around killer babies, how can you go wrong? The title tells you know how much they intend to amp up the crazy in this installment, but what it doesn't tell you is how gleefully they overshoot that mark...
The plot unfolds something like this: The parents of mutant babies are tired of seeing their children murdered in cold blood so, they form a class action suit against the city. The demand? For the city to make reasonable accommodations for the baby-monsters in an effort to end the killing. The parents win and the city ships the baby-monsters to a remote island where they'll be free to live out a natural life. Everyone's happy! Well, everyone but the babies...
Sounds straightforward enough right? But then... : The island is a former testing ground for nuclear devices and the radiation accelerates the baby-monster's growth. Five years after they're left on the island a group of scientists lead an expedition to make contact with the babies (who are now adults) to see how they're developing without human interference... or something. The group insists Stephen Jarvis (Moriarty's character) come along even though he totally does not want to. This causes the already unstable Jarvis to become extra erratic. He breaks into song, sings over dialogue, says nasty stuff to the scientist crew but plays it off as joking, and he laughs while delivering lines. (It's kinda hard to tell if Moriarty's acting, or just reacting to negative interactions with people on set.)
More insanity with some SPOILERS: The adult-monsters force Jarvis to take them to Florida on the boat the scientists came on. (Never mind that Jarvis only knows how to operated the boat because he asked the crew a few questions during the sailing montage.) But as they near land, Jarvis' kid throws him overboard seemingly in an attempt to save him from the other monsters. [GIANT SPOILER AHEAD!] Lucky for Jarvis some Cuban militants find him adrift in the ocean and take him to Cuba! Yes that's right, now he's in Cuba and has to convince the militants to take him to Florida.
Oh yeah! Karen Black is in this movie: Karen plays Jarvis' ex-wife and mother of their monster-son. She's changed her identity and started a new life in an effort to run from her past, but somehow the monsters know exactly where she is.
Things to watch for: Asinine stop motion baby effects. Moriarty breaking into song at the most inappropriate times. The flimsiest excuse to end an expedition ever (“Someone's already been here? Back to the ship everyone!” might be the actual line). Moriarty having to act as though the monsters are present when there wasn't enough money in the budget to have them on set. Asinine adult-monster costumes.
Things to look away for: For some reason the filmmakers (or script writers) didn't feel there was enough violence in this franchise installment, so there are two separate sexual assault attempts in the last third of the film. Both are out-of-the-clear-blue and neither fit into the larger plot by any stretch of the imagination.
The best movie to double-feature this with: Salem's Lot 2. It not only features the star and director pair, but Moriarty is another a dad with a problem kid.
George A. Romero ran with the underwater zombie in Land of the Dead and Max Brooks addresses the idea (as does Shock Wave apparently, though I have not yet watched it), but it's strange more modern zombie movies aren't embracing the water-mobile zombie. Possibly the idea adds too much cost to production (I imagine makeup that holds up underwater isn't cheep, nor are underwater stunt people). But what if the underwaterness was used as premise to the story rather than mere sight gags. A deserted island could easily be over run by a water logged horde, a cargo ship could pick up what they thought was a man-overboard, a shipwrecked crew could see what could perhaps appear to be their saviors slowly lumbering from the depths of the ocean... 
