We watch several movies a week. Every Friday, we'll talk a little about some of the movies we watched that we felt were Worth Mentioning.
Lost Romero, Friday the 13th alumni, and Pam Grier!
THE AMUSEMENT PARK (1973 / 2019)
Back in 1973, George A. Romero and his company Latent Image were hired by the Lutheran Service Society - described as a "faith-based provider of human services" for "seniors and others in need" - to make an educational film about ageism and elderly abuse. The result was The Amusement Park, and the story goes that when the Lutheran Society saw what Romero had made, they decided that it was too disturbing to present to the public. They shelved it, and were so successful at keeping it from the public that few Romero fans had even heard of this movie before a print was unearthed in 2018, a year after the director had passed away.
You may wonder why the Lutherans wouldn't expect a master of horror to deliver something that was more disturbing than they were comfortable with, but at that point in Romero's career the idea of him making something like the Lutherans were looking for wasn't so off-the-wall. Sure, he had already given the world the classic Night of the Living Dead, but most of his horror features were still far ahead of him. He had also made the hippie drama There's Always Vanilla and the sort of "horror adjacent" Season of the Witch, but at this time he was still making commercials and industrial films, as well as the sports documentary series The Winners. So an educational film on the mistreatment of older people would fit right in with those other projects.
And yet the movie Romero and screenwriter Walton Cook crafted when given this assignment is so bizarre, it's somewhat baffling that they ever could have thought the Lutheran Service would go along with it. Although the folks at the George A. Romero Foundation have said The Amusement Park is not a horror movie, I feel that it absolutely qualifies as psychological horror. It's quite disturbing and mind-boggling, and equally experimental and artistic. The unexpected choices begin with the concept: who other than Romero and Cook would think of setting an examination of ageism in an amusement park?
The film stars Lincoln Maazel, known to Romero fans for playing Cuda in Martin. It always seemed a shame that Martin was the only movie Maazel ever had a substantial role in, so to see him take the lead in this 54 minute movie was a treat. Even though his character gets put through the wringer, it was great to be able to watch Maazel again for such a long time. The actor, who addresses the audience directly during the lengthy introduction and informs the audience that he'll be turning "71 years of age" on his next birthday, plays an elderly man who makes the bad decision to spend the day at an amusement park where other elderly people are shown trading undervalued personal possessions for ride tickets. The film was shot at West View Park, an amusement park that was located just north of Pittsburgh and closed down a few years after this, having declined in popularity after 71 seasons.
During his time in the amusement park, where rides have restrictions like income minimums for their passengers, the man experiences and/or witnesses all sorts of troubling scenarios, and there were some where I wasn't even sure what they were supposed to represent. Others are very obvious, like when an old couple's ride on the bumper cars ends with them arguing with a younger bumper car driver (Romero himself in a cameo) over who was responsible for a collision. A cop and an insurance man even get pulled into the argument. Through it all, Romero's editing and the sound design work to keep us as perturbed and discombobulated as possible.
One of the most harrowing sequences actually doesn't involve Maazel's character, but comes when a visit to a fortune teller results in visions of an elderly woman making desperate phone calls to a doctor, trying to get help for her husband, who appears to be dying in their apartment, which inside a poorly maintained building. Given that this sequence takes us away from the allegories of the amusement park and offers a glimpse of a more straightforward but still nightmarish day in the life of an elderly person, I imagine that's something closer to what the Lutherans were initially hoping to see in the educational film they commissioned. It's definitely easier to decipher than the dining sequence that's set to library music that was also featured in Dawn of the Dead, or the scene where menacing bikers show up and advance toward Maazel through the use of jump cuts while a masked Grim Reaper looks on.
With the release of The Amusement Park, we have a new film to call Romero's strangest, but it's also a fascinating entry in his overall filmography. It's understandable that the Lutheran Society didn't appreciate it, but many Romero fans will. The director and screenwriter were certainly asking the audience to ponder the things they were being shown, and I'm sure a lot of viewers are going to be poring over every moment now that the film has finally been set loose in the world. I didn't always "get it", but I was always captivated, happy to see "new" Romero and to see Maazel in another role, and impressed by the artistry.
Adding further appeal to the film for genre fans is the fact that Bill Hinzman, known as the Cemetery Ghoul from Night of the Living Dead, was the cinematographer.
DEMENTIA (2015)
Kristina Klebe has crossed paths with both Michael Myers (in Rob Zombie's Halloween) and Jason Voorhees (she provided a counselor voice for Friday the 13th: The Game), and she also plays a very interesting character in director Mike Testin's 2015 psychological horror movie Dementia.
Written by Meredith Berg from a story Testin crafted with J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules, Dementia stars Gene Jones as George Lockhart, an elderly war veteran who has a stroke as the film begins. George's son Jerry (Peter Cilella) and granddaughter Shelby (Hassie Harrison) aren't close to him due to his background as an abusive alcoholic, but his medical condition pulls them into his life, as they have to figure out how George is going to be taken care of as he recovers from the stroke and struggles with memory loss. While Jerry continues to keep George at arm's length, Shelby is intrigued by her grandfather and tries to establish a connection with him. When nurse Michelle Anderson (Klebe) visits George's home to check on him, it's Shelby who suggests that Michelle could handle George's daily care.
Michelle takes the job, but it's not long before the viewer starts questioning whether or not she was the right choice. There's something here, and bad things keep hanging around the house - like when George wakes up in the morning to discover that he, according to Michelle, butchered his cat while sleepwalking. There's a sense of impending doom throughout this movie, but it takes a while to figure out whether this is all due to George's mental condition, or if Michelle is some kind of threat. Klebe handles the balance act quite well, playing some scenes as if she is a capable, trustworthy nurse, and playing others in a way that make her seem like she has dark intentions for the old man in her care. We can't take her word that George was the one who killed that cat when she gets so intense during some moments with George when Jerry and Shelby aren't around.
Jones delivers a terrific performance as George, tormented by his failing health and horrific memories, and possibly by Michelle. Harrison makes for a good heroine as Shelby, the character we hope will get to the bottom of this situation.
I had been meaning to get around to watching Dementia for years before my recent viewing. I should have watched it long ago, but I'm glad I finally did, because it is a captivating thriller that is very well put together by Testin and carried by some great acting.
GAS PUMP GIRLS (1979)
The feature directorial debut of Joel Bender, but not his feature writing debut because he had previously scripted an "adult film", 1979's Gas Pump Girls is a sex comedy that doesn't have a lot to offer the viewing other than the opportunity to see attractive young women in skimpy clothes - and occasionally no clothes. But it's of special interest to fans of the Friday the 13th and Halloween franchises, as two of the young women in question are Kirsten Baker from Friday the 13th Part 2 and Sandy Johnson, a.k.a. Judith Myers from the original Halloween.
Baker even has the lead role in this film, playing recent high school graduate June. Her uncle Joe (Huntz Hall) runs a gas station and has recently been facing some serious competition from a rival gas station that opened up right across the street. When Joe is hospitalized, it looks like his gas station is going to have close for good... But then June has an epiphany during a surprise musical interlude. She and her friends April (Johnson), Betty (Linda Lawrence), January (Rikki Marin), and Jane (Leslie King) - very odd that Bender only named three of the five after months - will keep the gas station running in Joe's absence, and they'll draw in customers by pumping gas while wearing cut-off shirts and short shorts, and by making suggestive announcements over the PA system. Boyfriends are hired as mechanics, a local motorcycle gang (including Ken Lerner as a fellow called Peewee) are hired as the tow truck crew, and Joe's Super Duper is so successful that the owner of the other gas station - Dave Shelley as Mr. Friendly - even tries to have June killed at one point. She says they were sent to rob her when she tells someone about it later, but it sure seems like she was about to get snuffed.
Gas Pump Girls isn't as amusing or eventful as I hoped it would be when I started watching it, but it's still a bit of mindless '70s fun and its 86 minutes go by reasonably quickly. It was also cool to see Baker and Johnson outside of the horror movies I primarily know them for - and since Johnson, who was brunette and didn't have much face time in Halloween, is blonde in this and the camera spends more time on her face, I actually didn't even recognize her at first.
How do you revive a vampire who attempted to take himself out by stepping into the sun? Well, voodoo, of course. From Maniac Cop 3 to Victor Crowley, voodoo spells have proven to be a perfectly acceptable way to bring back horror villains whose days appeared to be over, and before those movies did it the Blacula sequel Scream Blacula Scream already got there.
Directed by Bob Kelljan from a screenplay by Joan Torres, Raymond Koenig, and Maurice Jules, this one begins when the queen of a voodoo cult passes away and the woman's son Willis (Richard Lawson) learns that her followers plan to disregard him as her heir - since he's not a very pleasant person - and elect Lisa Fortier (the always awesome Pam Grier) their new leader instead of him. In the mood for revenge, Willis seeks the help of the cult's former leader, who also feels wronged because he was thrown out by his followers. Probably because he's not very pleasant, either. This guy gives Willis the bones of Blacula, the idea being that Willis will revive the vampire and command him to attack the cult for him. The plan doesn't work out at all. As soon as Blacula (again played by William H. Marshall) is revived, he bites Willis and turns him into his lackey.
Before being turned into a vampire by Dracula hundreds of years ago, Blacula was Prince Mamuwalde of the Ibani tribe in Africa. After meeting Lisa and learning of how skilled she is in voodoo, he comes up with the idea that she could perform an exorcism on him to rid him of his vampirism so he can return to Africa and live in peace. But don't worry, just because Blacula doesn't want to be a vampire anymore doesn't mean he doesn't suck any blood while waiting to be cured. He has drained plenty of bodies and created plenty more vampire minions by the time we reach the climax and the exorcism attempt.
While I feel that Scream Blacula Scream is a step down from its predecessor because the story isn't quite as good, it is a decent sequel. I can't complain about a follow-up that adds voodoo and Pam Grier into the mix, and Marshall again turns in a terrific performance as the vampire. In fact, Marshall is so good in this role that I'm disappointed they didn't pump out more Blacula sequels over the years just so we could continue to watch him play this character. Sadly, they didn't make a third Blacula movie at any point before Marshall passed away in 2003 at the age of 78.
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