The Friday Night Horror Movie: Demon Knight (1995)

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When I was in college, I went to the movies pretty much every weekend. Sometimes two or three times. I saw absolutely everything that I had even the slightest amount of interest in. I probably did have interest in Demon Knight when it came out, as I liked horror comedies. But I honestly don’t remember. What I do remember is watching it in the theater and absolutely loving it.

Demon Knight is branded as a Tales From the Crypt story. Tales From the Crypt originated as an anthology horror comic in the 1950s and was hosted by the Crypt-Keeper, a wise-cracking corpse. It has been revised in various formats over the years, including an HBO series that lasted from 1989 to 1996. I’d never read any of those comics, and I don’t think I’d watched any of the HBO episodes, but the Crypt-Keeper would pop up in commercials and things, so I was definitely familiar with the brand.

Demon Knight was successful enough that they commissioned a sequel, Bordello of Blood, which came out a year later. I hated that film. So much so that it completely turned me off the whole Tales From the Crypt thing, and I never watched anything from them again. I never even came back to Demon Knight. So I haven’t seen it in 30 years.

It is one of those films I’d periodically think about, and I’d think I should revisit it, but for whatever reason I never did. It seems to be a movie that’s more or less been forgotten by the culture. I never see anyone talking about it. There are lots of other movies like this – some I did watch when they came out, some I didn’t – that get brought up periodically in online discussions. Those I usually seek out and watch again. But the lack of discussion about this one meant that anytime it would pop into my mind, it usually popped right back out again.

I cut the cord years and years ago. I own a lot of DVDs, but I do subscribe to various streaming services. I’m one of those people who subscribes to one service for a month or two, and then I’ll cancel it so I can subscribe to something else. I figure there is only so much stuff you can watch in any given month, so why spend all your money subscribing to every service?

A couple of months ago, Starz had one of those super deals where you could subscribe to an entire year for like $20. I’ve subscribed to Starz before and remembered it being okay, so I signed up. Tonight is the first time I’ve actually watched anything on their service since I subscribed. Most of the stuff they have is of no interest to me, and the stuff I am interested in I’ve already seen and own on DVD.

But while looking for a horror movie to watch, I found this and decided to finally give it another go. Actually, what I really did was watch The Mothman Prophesies on Starz, the Richard Gere flick from 2002, but it was so god-awful I decided I didn’t want to write about it for my Friday Night Horror Movie, and I dug around Starz some more and found this.

For the first ten minutes or so I wished I hadn’t. This was not what I was wanting; my fears that it would not live up to my memories were coming true. But then I was able to click my brain off. I was able to enjoy the film for what it was actually doing, not what I wanted it to do.

What it does is create an incredibly goofy, violent, goopy, and funny little horror story with lots of comedic elements and some pretty good practical effects. Billy Zane is having the time of his life, too.

Zane plays a demon called The Collector, who is after a guy named Frank Brayker (William Sadler). Brayker has a powerful artifact known as the key, which the demons need to take over the world, but which also contains some of Christ’s blood, which can kill the demons.

Brayker holes up in an old mission turned hotel, and the film becomes a base-under-siege story. Also in the hotel are an assortment of people, including the sassy owner (CCH Pounder), an old man (Dick Miller), an ex-con (Jada Pinkett Smith), an asshole (Thomas Haden Church), and others.

The film doesn’t do anything particularly new with the concept. There is lots of infighting, attempts to sneak away, and a traitor, but it does it with gusto and a real sense of fun. I remember when I first watched it, one of the joys was watching Thomas Haden Church play a character completely different from the good natured goof he played on the TV show Wings. Here he cusses, drinks, and has a prostitute attach battery clamps to his nipples!

The demon designs are good, and it is a real treat to see how many practical effects they used. CGI was just getting started at this point, and there is some use of it here, but mostly the demons are made of real stuff, and the gore is visceral (and the blood was made out of glow stick juice!).

This is a film that understands it isn’t going to win awards. The Oscars will not be calling. But it does what it does well and has a blast doing it. I had a lot of fun watching it, too.

The Last of Us: The Complete Second Season 4K UHD Review

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The other day I was flipping through our streaming services, and I came across The Last of Us. I turned to my wife and said something along the lines of, “Did we ever finish Season 2?” She said, “No” but then thought that maybe I had watched it on my own.

I literally couldn’t remember if I’d watched it or not. I knew I had watched and reviewed Season One and that we had started watching Season Two, but in my memory we stopped it after a major (and intense) plot point happened.

Friends, I did in fact finish the season by myself, and I did in fact write a review. One should not think this reflects on the quality of Season Two, as it is excellent, but rather on my incredibly bad memory. Maybe I should see someone about that.

Anyway, you can read my review here.

Peking Opera Blues (1984) 4K UHD Review

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I’m a growing enthusiast of Hong Kong cinema. I love the Shaw Brothers and kung fu movies, of course, and I dig me some John Woo, but I’ve never dug all that deep into it. So I was delighted to get a copy of Peking Opera Blues. It feels like a perfect example of what HK Cinema is – weird, hilarious, and action packed. You can read my full review here.

Airport, Airport 1975, Airport ’77, and The Concorde…Airport ’79 4K UHD Reviews

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I have become a big fan of 1970s disaster movies. There is just something wonderful about a great big cast full of classic movie stars and up-and-comers all facing off against some ridiculous disaster. Airport (1970) essentially launched that genre and created most of its tropes. They released three more Airport movies, all of which had very little to do with each other, and were sometimes only barely connected to an actual airport but did all star George Kennedy as Joe Patroni, a mechanic/pilot/administrator. Kino Lorber recently released them all in 4K, and I reviewed them for Cinema Sentries. They have now released a boxed set of all four, but I got them individually.

You can read them in order here:
Airport (1970)
Airport 1975 (1975)
Airport ’77 (1977)
The Concorde…Airport ’79 (1979)

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Body Puzzle (1992) Blu-ray Review

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Lamberto Bava was the son of Mario Bava. Mario Bava was one of the great Italian directors of the 1960s and 1970s. A former cinematographer, Mario Bava’s films are gorgeous, often filled with bright, bold colors and fantastic camera placements. Lamberto wasn’t nearly as good, but he still made some fun films.

Body Puzzle isn’t great, but it has a great idea. A serial killer is collecting various parts of his victims to create…well, I won’t spoil anything, but it’s a fun concept that’s a little clunky in its execution. You can read my full review at Cinema Sentries.

Five Cool Things and Jeff Tweedy Live

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Hello friends. I’ve got another Five Cool Things up over at Cinema Sentries. This time I’m talking about Bright Rock by Graham Greene, Donna Jean Godchaux, Norah Jones playing with Jason Isbell, the new FX series The Lowdown, Predator Badlands and a Jeff Tweedy concert. Click here to read all about it.

Together is the Pick of the Week

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I’m mildly obsessed with Alison Brie, and I don’t know why. I loved her on Community. I enjoyed her in that one season of Glow I watched (nothing wrong with the show; I just got distracted and never got around to watching the rest). I’ve seen her in various other things that were fine. But she’s been in a million other things that I’ve not watched. Honestly, I don’t think she’s that great of an actress – she’s fine, but not amazing. And she chooses a lot of projects that I have no interest in. But still, I like her. She feels like an actress from another era. She would have been huge in the 1980s.

What I do really love about her is that she seems to have shied away from really big projects. Like the Lego Movie was probably the most mainstream thing she’s ever done, and that was a relatively small part. For years now she’s worked in smaller, more independent films (and some ridiculous animated TV shows) rather than try to climb the ladder to super fame. I appreciate when an artist is happy doing what they want instead of always trying to be famous.

I know very little about Together. It stars Brie and her husband, Dave Franco. It is a horror movie about a married couple who move to the country and are attacked by some kind of supernatural presence. Apparently, this means their bodies start to meld together. The few images I’ve seen show their lips stuck together, stretching outwards. I love a good body horror picture, and I appreciate that Brie continues to make weird films that won’t appeal to everyone.

Also out this week that looks interesting:

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: 50th Anniversary 4K UHD: Milos Forman’s Oscar winning film is based on a Ken Kesey novel. Jack Nicholson stars as a brash rebel sent to a mental institution where he rallies the patients against the tyrannical Nurse Ratched. I’ve not seen this in years, but I’m looking forward to catching it in UHD.

Burden of Dreams 4K UHD: In 1979, Werner Herzog took a film crew deep into the Amazonian rain forest to make Fitzcarraldo, a film about a man determined to move a steamship over a mountain. Herzog being Herzog, he decided that rather than use special effects, his film crew would literally move a steamship over a mountain. The film was plagued by setbacks, including accidents, poor weather, Klaus Kinski acting horrible, and an actual native attack. All this was documented by Les Blank in his documentary Burden of Dreams. It is one of the greatest making-of movies ever made. Criterion has the release.

The Howling 4K UHD: One of the great werewolf movies gets a nice Steelbook from Shout Factory.

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale/The Ultimate Legacy Collection: I stopped watching this historical drama somewhere in Season Four, I think. It is one of those shows that I loved for a while, and then it all became a bit too much. But it was a huge hit and it chugged a long for several more seasons and a few movies. They just released what they are promising to be the final movie, and as such, they’ve also produced a big boxed set of everything.

The Luc Besson Collection: Luc Besson is a director who has made some great films (Leon: The Professional, La Femme Nikita) and some utter garbage (The Messenger The Story of Joan of Arc). The garbage turned me off enough that I stopped paying him much attention. This boxed set includes Le Dernier Combat, Atlantis, Angel-A, Subway, The Big Blue, La Femme Nikita, Léon: The Professional, The Fifth Element, and The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc.

Caught Stealing 4K UHD: This Darren Aronofsky film about a regular guy trying to survive amidst the criminal underbelly of 1990s New York kind of came and went without much fan fare. I’m looking forward to catching up with it.

The Naked Gun: This remake of the popular 1980s-1990s film series got surprisingly good reviews and did pretty well at the box office. I loved the original films, but I tend to no longer like super silly comedies in my old age. But I’ll probably give it a shot for old times sake.

Creepshow: The Complete Series: I don’t think I ever watched this series, but I did enjoy the two films as a kid. It is an anthology horror series hosted by a creepy ghoul.

The Mask 4K UHD: Arrow Video gives this comedy that finds Jim Carrey at the height of his powers the UHD treatment.

Freakier Friday: Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan return in this legacy sequel to a remake of the 1976 Disney classic. This time it’s a quadruple swap with Lohan’s character’s daughter and soon-to-be stepdaughter swapping alongside the Curtis and Lohan characters. Hilarity, no doubt, will ensue.

Noirvember: Cairo Station (1958)

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Cairo Station is a film that’s been popping up in my feeds and suggestion lists for a while now. The story sounded interesting, and that black and white poster with the train running above a man and woman covered in oil is a good one, but something about it kept making me put off watching it. Somehow, I think the fact that it was an Egyptian film put me off of it. That’s weird because I’m a fan of foreign films; I dedicate an entire month to them in February. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen an Egyptian film. I’m not super familiar with Middle Eastern or African cinema either.

I want to know more about their culture and cinema, but it also feels a little daunting to dive in. It feels a little like work, and I’m lazy, so I put it off. But finally this week I decided to give it a try. I’m glad I did, as it turned out to be a terrific film.

It is a little slow in the going. For the first fifteen minutes or so, it sets up its stories and its characters. I almost turned it off around then. I couldn’t quite get a grip on it. It is a film full of people. It lives at the titular train station, and it follows the hustle and bustle of numerous people working there. The main focus is on Qinawi (Youssef Chahine, who also cowrote and directed the picture), a poverty-stricken young man with a lame foot. He becomes obsessed with Hannuma (Hind Rostom), a beautiful young woman who sells cold drinks to train passengers. She’s engaged to Abu Siri (Farid Shawqi), a robust, fiery man who is attempting to organize all the train workers into a union.

There is a lot of politics in the film. It deals with these poor workers trying to survive. But because it is set at a train station, we get glimpses of all sorts of classes. It is a microcosm of Egypt at this time. I think, in part, this is why it took me a minute to climb into the film. In some ways the film is universal; the working class struggles everywhere, but in other ways it is a very Egyptian film, set in a very particular moment in their history.

Qinawi’s obsession with Hannuma is sexual in nature. His handicap and poverty cause him to be mocked by most women. But while his lame foot makes it difficult for him to get around, he’s still a man in the prime of his life. He still has desires. Hannuma is beautiful and boisterous, full of life. She’s flirty and sexual. She’s also nice to Qinawi, which makes him think he has a chance. That goes into some dark territory, which I won’t spoil, and it makes Qinawi more of an anti-hero than a sympathetic character.

It is shot like a classic noir with stark black and white photography emphasizing the shadows and grit of the train station. It feels like a politically tinged melodrama with sharp edges. It may have taken me a long while to finally watch the film, and it took me a little while to get into it, but once it had me in its clutches I sank right in.

The Friday Night Horror Movie: Memoir of a Murderer (2017)

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My father has Alzheimer’s. It is early stages yet, so things are mostly okay. He sometimes forgets things that he’s just done, or other little details, but he always knows where he is and who I am. His father had it as well, and I watched Grandpa go through its entire course. It was awful. He often didn’t know who his wife or his children were. He’d forget where he was and what he was doing. He started hoarding money. It is an awful, awful disease.

As it turns out, it can also be a pretty good twist in a South Korean thriller.

Byeong-soo (Sul Kyung-gu) killed his father when he was a teenager. The father was a horrible man who often beat Byeong-soo and his sister. When the cops never came to get him, Byeong-soo began to believe the murder was justified. And then he began thinking maybe other murders would be justified. He became an avenging angel, murdering anyone he felt deserved it.

The years rolled by, and the bodies piled up. But then he had an accident, and it did something to him. Dementia came next, and a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. He often has blackouts, and his memory is not so good. He stopsed killing and becomes a model citizen and loving father.

His daughter, Eun-hee (Kim Seol-hyun), knows nothing of his past. She cares for him and gives him a little microrecorder that he can use to record everything he does in a day. This, she thinks, will help his memory.

One day he gets into a fender bender with a man named Min Tae-joo (Kim Nam-gil). This causes Min Tae-joo’s trunk to pop open. There is something wrapped in plastic inside, and blood is dripping to the road. Min Tae-joo says it is a deer he hit earlier, but Byeong-soo recognizes human blood when he sees it and the cold look in Min Tae-joo’s eyes. This man, he knows, is a killer. More than that, he knows he must be the man who has been killing young women in his province. Three bodies have already shown up.

Ah, but Min Tae-joo also recognizes a killer when he sees one and decides to play a game. He discovers Byeong-soo has a daughter and begins to woo her. He sneaks into his house and reads his journal. Suddenly it is serial killer versus serial killer, except one of them can’t remember who he is half the time.

The film never really manages to rise above that pulp plot. The dementia angle adds some interesting twists. It creates a sort of unreliable narrator. The film is told through Byeong-soo’s point of view, so sometimes we’ll see something happen, and then he’ll question whether or not it was real, thus making us wonder the same thing. But it is also used a few too many times as a plot device. Beyong-soo will come close to killing Min Tae-joo, but then his eye will twitch (the film’s indication that he’s having an episode), and he’ll get away.

It mostly plays his Alzheimer’s as a plot device, as something to add an edge to the proceedings. We get a feel for how it affects Eun-hee, and there is a cop friend of Byeong-soo who reacts with astonishment whenever he either cannot remember him or he actually does. I can’t really complain that the film doesn’t spend a lot of time with the emotionality of dealing with that disease, as I’m not sure if I’d be able to take it. And it isn’t that it’s handled poorly here, but this is definitely not a feel about that disease and its effects on both those who have it and those that must take care of them.

Min Tae-joo is a fairly generic villain. He’s your typical basic cable serial killer. He is a cop in this one, so that’s interesting, except the film doesn’t really delve very deeply into that angle. Sul Kyung-gu is excellent as our anti-hero, and the film remains quite entertaining and thrilling. The final fight scene is well staged, and I mostly dug the entire film. But it’s never anything more than you expect.

Blackout Noir: Black Angel (1946)

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A man goes to see his ex-wife on their anniversary. She refuses to see him. She has the doorman turn him away. She still refuses even when he’s sent up a fancy brooch. As he’s walking out, another man comes into the hotel asking to see the woman. He’s let up with no problem. The first man goes to a bar and gets drunk. Later, a third man comes to the hotel and is let up to see the woman. He finds her lying on the floor dead. While there he hears someone sneak out. He notices that the brooch she was holding in her hand when he first came in is now missing.

Black Angel was directed by Roy William Neill, who is best known for directing most of the Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone. It is a loose adaptation of a novel of the same name by Cornell Woolrich. I was twenty minutes into it before I realized I had seen it before.

The first man is called Martin Blair, and he’s played by Dan Duryea. The guy who found her dead is Kirk Bennett (John Phillips), he’s a married man who was having an affair with the dead lady. But things turned sour, and she was blackmailing him to conceal the affair. The cops figure that’s the motive and arrest him. He’s convicted and sentenced to die in the gas chamber.

Kirk’s wife, Catherine (June Vincent), believes her husband to be innocent and starts her own investigation into the matter. She’ll eventually connect with Martin, and he’ll tell her about the second guy, the one he saw entering the dead woman’s room. That guy is Marko, and he’s played by Peter Lorre, so you automatically know he did it. Catherine and Martin know he did it, too, but they have to prove it. They figure that proof is in a safe inside his upstairs office at the club he owns. They get a gig there as a lounge act.

It is all nicely done, and there are a couple of good and tense scenes with Peter Lorre, but it never quite connected with me. This was Duryea’s first starring role, and he’s good in it. He’s a washout and a drunk who finally sobers up when he meets Catherine. Finding her husband’s killer gives him purpose, and he naturally falls in love with her, which gives him even more purpose. But she’s still in love with her husband. That creates a bit of drama. Peter Lorre is always good, but he’s not given a lot to work with here.

It is a fine movie and worth watching if you are a fan of film noir.