Axiom's Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy

Our ongoing series reviewing the greatest Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror movies. Note that these reviews may contain spoilers.

Directed By: Roy Ward Baker
Produced By: Anthony Nelson Keys
Written By: Nigel Kneale
Starring: Andrew Keir, James Donald, Barbara Shelley
Original Release: 1967

Reviewed By: John J. Joex

Rating: 4 ½ out of 5 Stars

Synopsis: Based on the six-part BBC television serial from the 50’s by the same name, this movie follows Professor Quatermass of the British Experimental Rocket Group who investigates a strange missile-like object found deep beneath London by a construction crew. At first the professor and his colleagues theorize that this might be an experimental, undetonated German weapon from World War 2, but fossilized remains of primates are found very close to it and Quatermass ultimately surmises that it may have alien origins. Continued investigation of the object unleashes dormant forces that take control of those nearby, sending them on violent rampages. When Quartermass discovers the carcasses of horned, insect-like creatures inside the missile, he theorizes that these may have been beings that came to Earth from a dying Mars millions of years ago and that they must have implanted memories of their civilization (including a final racial purge) in the minds of the early primates that provide the origins for much of the superstition surrounding devils and demons in human culture. And as the latent force in the spaceship becomes more powerful, it begins to affect all of the inhabitants of London as they begin to reenact the slaughter of the racial purge from the dying days of Mars.

Review/Comments: This was the third movie (all from Hammer Films) to bring the Quatermass character to the big screen and it adapted the third of the BBC serials. The story it was based on was also by far the best of both the television series and the movies (though the other two are still quite good). Quatermass and the Pit (more commonly known as 5 Million Years to Earth in the States) mixes supernatural elements with science fiction and does it by presenting a plausible scientific explanation for the paranormal events it observes as well as for the latent superstitions that recur across many cultures. But it doesn’t go that route by giving a talky psycho-anthropological dissertation, it does it by delivering a film that stirs up the very fears it speculates upon. It should come as no surprise to those familiar with the output from Hammer, but this one delivers a truly scary film that that still stirs up chills when viewed today. And even though it runs half as long as the television serial it that it was based on, it stays true to its source (with series creator Nigel Kneale penning the script) and perhaps even improves upon that by delivering a tighter, more focused story than the somewhat slow-paced (though never boring) television version.

The only real knock on this film is that it has not aged well from a technical standpoint. The special effects showing the flashbacks to the aliens on Mars are crude at best and laughable at worst. Modern-day audiences may have some difficulty sitting through those scenes without roaring aloud. But then other scenes, especially when the invisible force starts to sweep through the city and make the ground tremble, still hit the mark and help make this into a chilling and at times unsettling film. Part of me would like to see this one remade with a budget that could more adequately bring to life its ambitious script, but then I fear that the Hollywood machine would quickly lose touch with the primal terror that this film evoked and bury its genre-bending, penetrating story beneath CGI smoke and mirrors.

Those who have never seen this film should definitely give it a look, just understand going in that visually it falls short at times. But the overall story is strong enough and the dedication of the cast and crew is quite apparent throughout the film. This is an old-style Science Fiction film that manages to stir up our emotions while also making us think. Something that has become all too rare in a time that we now have the technical prowess to create films that deliver on this promise.

Unfortunately, this one is currently unavailable on DVD, though interestingly enough the original Quatermass and the Pit serial from the 50′s (which never aired in the United States) is now available.  Also, the second serial, Quatermass 2, is available on DVD.  Only two episodes survive from the original serial, The Quatermass Experiment, so that has not been released in the States (though a PAL format DVD collects those two episodes with the other two serials).  The first serial was remade in Britain in 2005 from the original script with a pre-Doctor Who David Tennant making an appearance, but that version has not received a DVD release here either.  The final serial from 1979, titled simply Quatermass, is also available on DVD which includes the four-part serial and the shortened theatrical version.

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Our ongoing series reviewing the greatest Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror movies. Note that these reviews may contain spoilers.

Directed by: Matthew Robbins
Produced by: Hal Barwood, Howard W. Koch
Written by: Hal Barwood, Matthew Robbins
Starring: Peter MacNicol, Caitlin Clarke, Ralph Richardson, John Hallam
Original Release: 1981

Reviewed by: John J. Joex

Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars (Highest Rating)

Synopsis: In a sixth century post-Roman kingdom called Urland, King Casiodorus (Peter Eyre) has made a terrible deal with a dragon in which he promises to offer it a virgin, chosen from amongst the population by lottery, twice a year so that it will not harm the kingdom. Several of the subjects unhappy with this arrangement seek out the aid of the wizard Ulrich (Ralph Richardson) whom they hope can depose the dragon. The king’s general Tyrian (John Hallam) follows this group to Ulrich’s castle trying to stop the attempt and he ends up killing the wizard unintentionally. Shortly thereafter, the wizard’s young apprentice Galen (Peter MacNicol) finds that he has inherited his master’s powers through an amulet that the sorcerer left behind and he seeks out the Urlanders to offer himself as Ulrich’s replacement. They are reluctant at first, but eventually accept him and he also starts to show feelings for the Urlander named Valerian (Caitlin Clarke) who had previously disguised herself as a boy in order to escape the lottery. Galen, however, finds that he cannot control the magic he now posseses as he thought and comes afoul of the king and his men and ultimately is thrust into a direct confrontation with the dragon which he is ill-prepared for.

Review/Comments: True sword and sorcery movies are fairly rare on the big screen so it is always a delight when an exceptional example comes along. And this movie, which hit the theaters long before CGI replaced special effects innovation, succeeds in unfolding a visually superior, grand epic on the big screen, though it followed a different course than you might expect from the blockbuster is was marketed as. Dragonslayer does not give us the dashing hero saving the princess type story, but instead delivers a more grounded tale that audiences can relate to. It focuses on the young apprentice Galen who demonstrates the immaturity and poor decision-making that you would expect from a person of his age. He at first acts cocky and sure of himself when he discovers Ulrich’s amulet, but quickly discovers that he has minimal control of its powers and eventually finds himself humbled in front of those he would protect. Ultimately, his participation is integral to the slaying of the dragon, but he cannot do it without the help of others, thus delivering a tale very much tied to themes of maturity and mutual cooperation.

The movie also delivers a very real, gritty world that looks like it takes place during the dark ages. We see the power that kings and religion held over people of that time and we also see the hypocrisy and self-interest in their actions. But not by giving us the clichéd, conniving villains. Instead, the film delivers several well-developed antagonists whose actions are motivated by their desire to do the right thing even if that ultimately does bring harm to others. We don’t see the clear-cut good and evil characters that you expect in a Fantasy story, though each have their leanings in one of the two directions. Each has a desire to do what is right, even if they do not quite achieve their ends, which adds that murkiness which gives the story and its characters more depth.

In lesser hands and without first rate talent, a film like this could easily go astray and embrace the clichés of the genre or just descend into a contrived mess. But Matthew Robbins (who directed and co-wrote the film and who also previously assisted George Lucas with THX-1138 and Steven Spielberg with Close Encounters of the Third Kind) proves quite adept at helming a film of this genre. It helps that he also gets some excellent, earthy performances by the standout cast highlighted by Peter MacNicol as the apprentice pretending to be a wizard and Caitlin Clarke as the girl who stands with the men and who provides a strong female lead role. And of course Sir Ralph Richardson, in one of his final roles, delivers a scene-stealing performance throughout the film.

Technically, the movie succeeds as well. As mentioned above, the settings deliver an authentic view of the world in the dark ages. And the dragon comes to life almost seamlessly through the combination of mechanical mock-ups, puppetry, and a twist on now lost art of stop-motion animation called go-motion. In truth, I have seen nothing from the CGI-age, including the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter movies, that bests the technical wizardry that the special effects crew of Dragonslayer used to bring the beast to life. It may not have been as grandiose and in-your-face as today’s CGI films, especially considering the fact that they teased audiences with only glimpses through the first half of the movie, but it definitely succeeded.

Dragonslayer failed to draw large crowds to the theaters when it was released, partly because it came out as a joint Disney/Paramount production and many expected a much more kid-friendly product. This movie actually led to Disney creating Touchstone Pictures which would handle their more mature films from that point forward. Since then, the film has flown under the radar and has never received the attention it truly deserves as a Fantasy movie that stands on par with other exceptional examples from the genre such as Conan the Barbarian, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and The Chronicles of Narnia films.  Unfortunately, the DVD of the film has gone out of print (though I’m sure they will do a 30th anniversary edition next year), but you can still find it at a decent price both new and used from Amazon sellers.

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Our ongoing series reviewing the greatest Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror movies. Note that these reviews may contain spoilers.

Directed By: Robert Wise
Produced By: Robert Wise
Written By: Michael Crichton (novel), Nelson Gidding (Screenplay)
Starring: Arthur Hill, David Wayne, James Olson, Kate Reid
Original Release: 1971

Reviewed By: John J. Joex

Rating: 4 ½ out of 5 Stars

Synopsis: A satellite crashes near a small town in Arizona bringing an extraterrestrial organism with it that kills all but two people, an elderly man and a baby. The government activates Wildfire, a team of experts trained to deal with threats of this nature. They at first investigate the town, then retire to the state-of-the-art, multi-level Wildfire laboratory to isolate and investigate their findings. They discover that the alien organism, dubbed Andromeda, is a crystal-structured microbe that killed its victims through disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) and that it is continuing to mutate. They cannot determine, though, why the old man and the baby survived and they keep them isolated as they continue to administer tests, and in so doing they stumble upon the fact that the organism came to Earth as part of a government initiative to produce biological weapons from micro- organisms of extraterrestrial origin. However, Andromeda mutates to the point that it manages to escape containment which sets off the failsafe that will destroy the facility to prevent the spread of infection. But the scientists determine this will actually have the reverse affect as Andromeda can generate matter from energy and this will cause a massive, worldwide contamination. It is then a race against time to stop the detonation and keep the outside world safe.

Review/Comments: The Andromeda Strain was a rare event in cinema when it came out in 1971 as it delivered a big budget, hard science fiction film dealing with mature themes. Whereas today Science Fiction and Fantasy has become quite prominent on the big screen, back then it had much less of a presence. And when films in the genre did come out they often aimed at the younger crowd. However, the Michael Crichton book it was based on hit the bestseller list in 1969, prompting the studio execs to give it a chance with a big screen adaptation. And they awarded it a faithful rendering which diverged very little from the original story which meant that it was a lengthy, slow-paced, intellectual movie. Now in the wrong hands, this could have proved disastrous and potentially resulted in an incredibly tedious film. But director Robert Wise was up to the task (who, despite having directed musicals like West Side Story and The Sound of Music, had previous genre experience with The Day the Earth Stood Still and would later helm Star Trek: The Motion Picture). Teaming with screen-writer Nelson Gidding, the two did an excellent job of distilling the story for movie-goers and keeping the movie from derailing into an overly-intellectual, techno-babble laden film.

The Andromeda Strain would give us an early version of the techno-thrillers that would later become quite popular with theater-goers, though it was much less Hollywood-ized than what we would see from subsequent entries like The Hunt for Red October or Crichton’s own Jurassic Park. It took a more sober, less glamorous approach to adapting the story and also eschewed big-name stars in the lead roles. The producers even avoided the temptation to cast a Raquel Welch-like actress in the role of the female scientist a la Fantastic Voyage (and guys, we could debate the pros and cons of this, but artistically it was the right move). The actors chosen were definitely more than capable in their performances, though, coming off as believable in their roles as dedicated scientists trying to combat a contagion of unknown origination. The scientists resolve the issues by thinking them through while employing their analytical and deductive skills, but do so without the film descending into a snooze-fest. An urgency is established early on when we see the results of Andromeda in the small town and this generates a palpable tension that helps carry the movie along as the team struggles to find a way to stop the threat.

And while the movie had little in the way of special effects (supervised by Douglas Trumbull ), it did have very high production values which showed up in the portrayal of the Wildfire facility, which acted as a lead character of sorts itself for the movie. And some may feel that the final scene when Dr. Hall must navigate the central core to deactivate the self-destruct mechanism was a bit contrived and Hollywood-ized, but the same set of events closed the book as well (and us Star Trek fans were already numb to the self-destruct gimmick). This did not devalue the movie as a whole, though, which still stands out as a thoughtful, intelligent piece of speculative fiction that was rare upon its release and has unfortunately once again become rare in the age of CGI bloat-fest blockbuster epics that prefer to numb the mind rather than engage it.

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Our ongoing series reviewing the greatest Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror movies. Note that these reviews may contain spoilers.

Directed By: Brad Bird
Produced By: Pete Townshend, Des McAnuff, et al.
Written By: Ted Hughes (Novel), Brad Bird (Story), Tim McCanlies (Screenplay)
Starring: Ed Harris, Eli Marienthal, Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick, Jr., Vin Diesel
Original Release: 1999

Reviewed By: John J. Joex

Rating: 4 ½ out of 5 Stars

Synopsis: In 1957, shortly after the launch of Sputnik, a large object crashes from outer space to the Earth which turns out to be a giant, metal-eating robot. A young boy, Hogarth (voiced by Eli Marienthal), who lives in the nearby small town discovers his presence and saves the robot from destruction when it starts to consume a power plant and is nearly electrocuted before he switches off the power. This leads to him befriending the metal being and he begins to teach the robot, which was damaged in the crash, how to speak (Vin Diesel provides the voice) and the ways of the people of Earth which includes showing it his comic books and telling it that it is like Superman. However, the landing of the robot did not go unnoticed, and a paranoid government agent, suspecting a Communist threat, arrives at the small town to investigate. The agent suspects that the boy knows something about what landed in the area and keeps a close eye on him. This leads Hogarth to seeking the help of a beatnik artist, Dean (voiced by Harry Connick Jr.), who runs the local junkyard and who builds sculptures from scrap metal. The Iron Giant successfully hides there, in the guise of a giant sculpture, and befriends Dean as well. While playing around, the Hogarth aims his toy gun at the Iron Giant which triggers a self defense system and leads it to retaliate, nearly killing the boy. Hogarth and Dean manage to revert the robot back to its previous state, but, as its self-awareness continues to grow, it fears it is closer to the villain from the comics than the hero. Hogarth, though, tells the robot that it can chose whether or not it wants to be a weapon. The government agent eventually discovers the truth about the robot and he calls in the military to confront it which places this potentially lethal living weapon between the military forces and the people of the town.

Review/Commentary: Based on the 1968 Ted Hughes novel The Iron Man, the movie adaptation follows a similar formula to E.T. though with less of the smarmy feel of that film and with a bit of a subversive bent. In many ways, this film has the feel of some of the classic Disney animated movies, though with more layers to peel than the standard Mouse-House fare. This one takes the formulaic child and his pal (dog, alien, giant robot, what have you), and infuses it with some Cold War tension and paranoia while also injecting an anti-war message that never throttles the viewer with self-importance nor descends into simple panacea. It definitely has a familiar feel to it, like the proverbial comfortable shoe, but it manages to separate itself from the pack with its spark of inspiration and its sincerity, the crucial elements that elevates most stand-out films above the more routine Hollywood output .

The Iron Giant also delivers another thing that has become rare outside of Japanese animation these days. It mostly steers clear of the CGI animation which has dominated the genre for the past decade or more in favor of hand-drawn animation (they did summon up the computers to aid with animating the Iron Giant himself, but he is done in the style of line drawn characters). Not that I have anything against CGI animation, but the style of movies like The Iron Giant, along with the Disney classics, emphasize the artistic expression in animation as opposed to CGI’s efforts to make more realistic characters and/or to simple wow the audiences with computerized pyrotechnics. The simplistic, retro look of the artwork invokes the comic books of old that provide a pivotal plot point in the film and also echoes the simple attitudes of the era it depicts.

Most importantly, The Iron Giant engages the viewers and involves them in the film. Early on, we feel for this strange alien robot and sense his loneliness and confusion. As he develops a friendship with Hogarth, we hope that the robot will find his true purpose, and even when he turns on the young boy we know that it is against his own will. And anybody who still has dry eyes toward the end of the film when the Iron Giant declares that “he is not a weapon” and chooses to sacrifice himself to protect his friends needs to check that they still have a pulse. Many family-oriented animated films tend to play it safe and only mildly engage the emotions of the viewers, but The Iron Giant takes it to a deeper level and really speaks to our inner selves and challenges us at the same time that it reassures us. Exactly what you would expect from a great movie.

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Our ongoing series reviewing the greatest Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror movies. Note that these reviews may contain spoilers.

Directed By: Don Siegel
Produced By: Walter Wanger
Written By: Jack Finney (Novel), Daniel Mainwaring (Screenplay)
Starring: Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, King Donovan, Carolyn Jones
Original Release: 1956

Reviewed By: John J. Joex

Rating: 4 ½ out of 5 Stars

Synopsis: Town doctor Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) returns to the California suburban town of Santa Mira after a short trip to find many of his patients eager to see him because they believe one or more of their friends or family are acting very strange, not like themselves. Several plead with him to help them, but when he observes the “afflicted” people he sees nothing out of the ordinary. He talks with his psychologist friend who dismisses the claims as an “epidemic mass hysteria”. But while on a date with a former flame of his (Becky Driscoll played by Dana Wynter), another friend of Miles tracks him down and urges the doctor to come to his house. There, they see what looks like a dead body, but it has almost no discerning features including no fingerprints. Miles notes that it resembles Jack, the friend who called him, in height and weight and they decide not to call the police and instead wait to see what happens with the body. Later that night, it opens its eyes and now appears to be a near duplicate of Jack. With his wife, Jack flees from his house to find Miles, who had taken Becky home and they discover large seed pods apparently of alien origin that appear to be growing duplicates of the townspeople that will replace them with emotionless replicas of their former selves. The four must find a way to warn the outside world while also not falling asleep, which is the point when the seed pods take over their minds.

Review/Comments: The original movie version of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers is widely recognized as a classic of Science Fiction cinema as well as a seminal film in the alien invasion sub-genre. But despite its reputation, modern day viewers should go into it understanding that this is a B-Movie through and through, with all cheesy acting and production short-cuts that entails. Of course the producers had little choice but to go this route because the film’s subject matter demanded that format at the time it was made. However, it does not resort to the exploitation tricks typical of that class of films as it tries to present a tale with some depth and substance, though not necessarily striving for a grand social statement even if it does end up stumbling into that territory. It flirts with horror movie standards (something unknown and sinister is pursuing the heroes) while also adding in the aliens from space twist, though without the expected rubber-masked, bug-eyed creatures more common of the matinee fare of the time. And it takes both of these elements right into the heart of suburban America, in the backyards of the audience watching the film, thus bringing a distant and nebulous thing of terror close enough to make the audience uncomfortable. They see the sleepy little town of Santa Mira, a mirror of the American ideal of the 1950’s, and they watch in horror as its people transform into soulless facsimiles of humanity.

Though not the first choice for the role, Kevin McCarthy is perfect as Dr. Miles Bennell with his expressive, wide-eyed visage and his inner frenzy boiling up just beneath the surface. As the film starts, he appears the picture perfect calm, cool, and rational doctor, but his inner angst quickly reveals itself and by the end he is a man at the edge of sanity. And while he and his former flame Becky Driscoll (Dana Wynter) know the pains of love from their tumultuous prior relationship, they ultimately decide they would prefer consequences this entails rather than sacrifice their emotions and humanity to meld with the soulless hordes.

People have looked back on this movie as an allegory commenting on the world of its time. Some see in the alien pods the specter of the alleged Communist threat that pervaded much of this country’s psyche at that time. Others see it as an indictment of the era of McCarthyism. For me, neither of these allusions quite fit the film which appears more to key off the vapidity of the conformity that suburban life represented in that era (and still today for that matter). The creative team, however, insist that the movie carried no allegory at all and that they just wanted to make a good scary movie. They succeeded at that, but they did so by tapping into the undercurrent of paranoia and tension seething beneath the surface of 1950’s America. The contrast of the idyllic small town, suburban life, that was more myth than reality, with the terror of an invasion from outside worked perfectly within that context giving us both an excellent horror/sci fi film along with a distillation of the underlying tensions of that seemingly simple though ultimately more complex age.

Thus, Invasion of the Body Snatchers can be enjoyed as the first-rate B Move it is or as a cultural testament of sorts with multiple layers to peel away and reveal the sub-consciousness torment in its sub-text. Finney’s book has received several more big screen adaptations since the 1956 version, though none have quite melded the themes of terror with the consciousness of a nation as well as this one. Better than providing a straight history lesson, this one explores the Id of its era.

As a bit of trivia, a young Sam Peckinpah, who would later go on to become a legendary filmmaker, had a brief appearance in the movie as Charlie the meter reader.  He had worked as an assistant to director Don Siegel on this and several other films and claims to have done an extensive rewrite of the screenplay, though this has never been confirmed.

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Our ongoing series reviewing the greatest Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror movies. Note that these reviews may contain spoilers.

Directed by: Terence Fisher
Produced by: Anthony Hinds, Anthony Nelson-Keys, Michael Carreras
Written by: Jimmy Sangster, screenplay based on the Mary W. Shelley novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
Starring: Peter Cushing, Hazel Court, Robert Urquhart, Christopher Lee
Original release: 1957

Reviewed by: Sam Christopher

Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars (Highest Rating)

Synopsis: A priest arrives at the jail cell of condemned man Victor Frankenstein and is told a fantastic story. Frankenstein is a scientist who, working with his friend Paul Krempe, has actually found a way to create life. First, the two men reanimated a dog but Paul backed away when Victor suggested they attempt to create a completely new life using human parts. Victor eventually put together his “Creature” using parts bought and stolen. Victor then staged an “accident” for a distinguished professor he had invited to his home so that Victor’s creation can have a superior brain. This brain was damaged in a struggle between Paul and Victor, rendering the Creature mute and insane. Paul shoots and buries the Creature in the woods but Victor retrieves it and revives it. Victor then uses the Creature to murder a house servant he has impregnated because she threatens to tell his fiancée Elizabeth about everything going on at the castle. He keeps the Creature locked away but it eventually escapes and threatens Elizabeth, leading to its being shot and falling into a vat of acid. The Creature melts away, no trace of it surviving. The action then returns to the present as Paul arrives for one last visit with his friend Victor Frankenstein, who implores Paul to tell the priest about the Creature. Victor is condemned to be beheaded for the murder of the servant girl and wants Paul to tell the authorities that it was the Creature who killed her. Paul, who in the story was the only other person besides Victor to ever see the Creature, shakes his head sadly and takes leave of his friend one last time. The film ends with Victor being led out of his cell, the shadow of a guillotine being the last image shown to the viewer.

Comments/Review: This is the film that brought back horror as an ongoing cinematic concern following the science fiction boom of the ‘50s. With the advent of the Atomic Bomb and then the more powerful Hydrogen Bomb, along with the Free World’s struggle with the Communist powers, science generally, and radiation in particular, became the catalyst for most speculative fiction to hit the movie screens in the early to mid ‘50s. Even the most famous monster from the period, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, eschewed the gothic for the rational (as it were). Most of the sf pictures of the day dealt with giant creatures mutated by radiation or an invasion of some sort, usually from outer space.

Enter Hammer Film Productions. Hammer had previously made The Quatermass Experiment, now recognized as a genre landmark. After this success, and its subsequent sequels, Hammer turned its attention to the US. They were handed a script that was basically a remake of Universal Pictures’ landmark Frankenstein. Jimmy Sangster was asked to rewrite it and Hammer Horror was taken from its infancy and a new generation of moviegoers thrilled to the classics… with a difference. Hammer shot in color, with a liberal amount of gore for the time, causing critics to label it “subversive” and “degrading” (usually high praise for any horror film), and the film focused more on Victor Frankenstein than the Monster. Also, Universal had copyrighted Jack Pierce’s makeups on Boris Karloff for their version, leaving Hammer to create a new look for the Creature. To smashing success. Another interesting thing about this film that is rarely if ever mentioned by reviewers is the fact that the entire story may not have happened. It is told to the priest by Victor, and the only corroborating “witness”, Paul, says nothing of it when beseeched by Victor at the end. The viewer is left with the distinct possibility that Frankenstein is simply an insane murderer who can’t face his own crimes.

Much has been made of the competing worldviews in Hammer’s versions of Dracula and Frankenstein, the difference between a Victorian romantic vision and one purely set in the Age of Reason. The main characters in these films set these precedents. While Dracula ’58 (see Must-Watch List: Dracula 1958) would present the Count as a feudal lord attempting to hang onto a way of life that had gripped Europe for centuries, Victor Frankenstein represents the new order at its worst. He is the Quest for Knowledge run so single-mindedly as to omit all human consideration and emotion. When people today speak of genetic researchers and other scientists as “Frankensteins”, they fear Peter Cushing’s unquenchable thirst and belief that expanding the frontiers of human knowledge justifies anything, up to and including murder.

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Directed By: James Cameron
Produced By: Gale Anne Hurd, Van Ling (Special Edition)
Written By: James Cameron
Starring: Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Michael Biehn
Original Release: 1989

Reviewed By: John J. Joex

Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars (Highest Rating)

Synopsis: The movie opens with an American submarine encountering a strange object moving very quickly through the depths of the Atlantic. The object causes the submarine, which is carrying multiple nuclear warheads, to crash. The military then commandeers an underwater drilling platform headed up by Virgil ‘Bud’ Brigman (Ed Harris) to assist in the recovery of the downed submarine which rests at the edge of a deep undersea trench. Military personnel are sent down to work with the crew of the platform and tensions run high. To make matters worse, the designer of the drilling platform, who is Bud’s estranged wife (Lindsey Brigman played by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), is along for the ride. In their attempts to survey the submarine, they encounter an apparently benign alien presence and attempt to communicate with it, though the paranoid Lt. Coffey (Michael Biehn) frightens it away. Meanwhile, above the ocean a hurricane is moving into the area and tensions are running high between the American and Soviet governments. Through a series of mishaps between the crew of the drilling platform and the military personnel, an armed nuclear warhead plunges several miles down into the depths of the trench. Bud (Ed Harris) must then go on what appears to be a one-way mission to disarm the warhead, but once at the bottom he again comes face to face with the aliens.

Review/Comments: You may think that you have seen The Abyss, but if you saw the version originally released in theaters what you actually saw was one of the greatest injustices in the history of cinema (apparently self-inflicted by Cameron himself, though). That was an edited version that cut about twenty minutes out of the masterpiece that James Cameron originally created. As it turns out, those twenty minutes are as crucial to the film as the smile is to the Mona Lisa. The original edit of the movie deserves only two and a half, maybe three stars. The additional twenty minutes moves the rating up to a full five stars (highest rating).

In the version originally released, Bud disarms the warhead yet appears to be trapped at the bottom of the abyss. Then the aliens, who we have learned almost nothing about, show up to save the day. They take him and the others from the platform back up to the surface and all is fine and dandy as a bright new day shines. I remember seeing this in the theater when it first came out and when the movie ended, I thought it was just at the intermission because there was no way that they could end the movie like that. But they did, and I did not realize until years later when the director’s cut made it to DVD just what a phenomenal movie Cameron had crafted. The twenty plus minutes cut from the original release focused more on the mounting tensions between the Russians and Americans and explained more about the aliens. This footage also contained the gut wrenching scene where the aliens launch enormous tidal waves as a threat to destroy all of the world’s major cities. Without these crucial scenes, the movie is just not complete.

There are many reasons to recommend the fully restored version of The Abyss. Technically, it has few peers. It gives us a rare hard science fiction movie that is scientifically accurate in what it depicts, and brought to life with virtually flawless special effects (in the pre-CGI-Overload era). The story is very engaging as it unfolds slowly and smartly and takes many twists and turns, and the aliens and their importance are kept a mystery until the end. And the movie also has something often missing in Science Fiction, drama. Both movies and television in the genre often tend to be overly intellectual or overly melodramatic. The Abyss, in contrast, delivers a dramatic story through and through. The scenes between Bud and his wife (particularly when he tries to revive her after she drowns and when she talks to him as he descends into the depths) are among the most engaging I have ever seen in any movie. The film also has a serious social message behind its action, and Cameron managed to deliver it with much more finesse than he did more recently with the overly derivative and self-righteous statements in Avatar.

Not surprisingly , the movie did poorly at the box office upon its original release. But since its revival on DVD, fans and critics have realized what an important piece of Science Fiction cinema Cameron actually created with this one. If you have not seen the full version of this movie, then it’s time that you give this one a spin and enjoy one of the all-time great films.

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Our ongoing series reviewing the greatest Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror movies. Note that these reviews may contain spoilers.

Directed by: John Milius
Produced by: Dino de Laurentis
Written by: Robert E. Howard (creator), John Milius (screenplay)
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Earl Jones, Sandahl Bergman, Mako
Original Release: 1982

Reviewed by: James Marshall

Rating: 4 ½ out of 5 Stars

Synopsis: Conan sits rapt as his father tells him the riddle of steel, that although no one’s word can be trusted, steel you can trust. Life and death is Conan’s boyhood world, and this proves true when raiders come and wipe out his entire village. His father is killed and Conan is left to watch his mother beheaded by Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones), the raiders’ charismatic warlord. Conan is lead away as a boy slave and chained to the Wheel of Pain. Years pass and he grows strong behind the giant milling machine, then he is taken to fight as a slave gladiator. His victories grow numerous until, for untold reasons, his master sets him free. Beset by wolves he discovers a sword and encounters an evil witch who tells him where he may find the cult of Set, snake worshippers linked to the raiders who killed his parents. He meets Subotai (Gerry Lopez), an archer and thief, and together, after meeting Valeria (Sandahl Bergman), another thief, they infiltrate a tower of Set and steal what they can. Their audacious caper gives them wealth and the attention of King Osric (Max von Sydow), the city’s ruler, whose daughter has gone with Thulsa Doom to his far off mountain fortress. Though romantically engaged with Valeria the vengeful Conan sets off alone to the fortress and is captured while attempting its infiltration. He is beaten by Thulsa’s two bodyguard generals, then admonished by Thulsa himself and crucified on a lone tree out in the desert. Subotai finds him and with the help of a wizard Valeria heals him. Soon the three thieves return for the King’s daughter. Inside the mountain fortress they take the princess and fight a fearsome battle, devastating the sanctity of Thulsa’s inner temple. While the thieves flee with the princess on horseback Thulsa lets fly a snake-arrow which pierces Valeria who soon dies in Conan’s arms. Another great battle takes place in the open with Conan triumphant, and he again returns to the mountain, ends Thulsa’s life, and destroys the fortress with fire, thus ending the snake cult.

Review/Comments: “That which does not kill us makes us stronger,” Friedrich Nietzsche’s own words open the film, accented by the pouring of molten metal, the casting and hammering of a steel blade, the forging of a sword. Schwarzenegger linked these together when he said that’s how Milius develops his characters – he casts them and then pounds them into shape. The analogy fits, Conan is a remarkable movie of character development and equally accomplished with its storytelling and directing.

Far from pushing phantasmagorical wizardry, Conan is not only subtle, it’s deep. The riddle of steel is a fable a man in Conan’s world could truly live by. Yes, there is the extreme; we witness magic in numerous forms, from the demonic spirit of the witch whistling through the air as a fireball, to Thulsa Doom’s morphing into a giant anaconda. But much of Conan is grounded in reality, and the leap of faith one must take to believe the magic is just close enough to reality to remain utterly captivating.

The cinematography is tried and true, far from outlandish or even unusually creative. Through mostly standard shots, Milius’s tells a bold, heroic tale that touches our sensitivities while displaying a stark brutality. There’s a historical foundation to Conan’s imaginary world, and Milius worked hard on proving it to the audience. The symbology of snakes, the talk of elemental gods, even the realistic attire lend to a well-developed, believable world. Every item fits the time and the place, despite all of it being make-believe. Steel, as discovered in the archeological record, has only been around for some 4,000 years, yet Milius would have us believe Conan’s world was alive 10,000 years before recorded history. It doesn’t really matter, since watching Conan is far more fun than history.

When it was released the critics who panned Conan as a run-of-the-mill sword & sandal flick completely misjudged the film. Conan has nothing to do with the ancient Greeks or Romans, and its theme and intensity is more closely akin to Apocalypse Now, about a rogue officer turned cult king, than say Harryhausen’s stop motion foray into Greek mythology  The Clash of the Titans. It stands on top in the sword & sorcery genre too, compared to its contemporaries like The Beastmaster, an entertaining though far less involved film, or The Sword and the Sorcerer, which goes very well with popcorn and soda pop.

Conan stands above the rest not only in its visuals and storytelling but also in its music. Basil Poledouris crafted the movie score, and its classically orchestrated melodies fit Conan’s world as if the scenes were written for the music and not the other way around. Heart pounding timpani resonates with Conan’s heroism, brash brass expresses his strength, lilting violins and small cymbals speak of his tenderness, and the epic expanses are brought out in sweeping symphony. In all Poledouris has conjured an exceptional score.

So what is so deep about this movie? It starts with the riddle of steel and the underlying truth in its maxim, for what is more trustworthy in a cruel and ruthless world other than cold, unforgiving steel? We find the answer to this perplexing question in a most unexpected source. “Steel isn’t strong, boy, flesh is stronger,” are the words of Thulsa Doom. It is the power of one man’s will over others’, Thulsa’s power over the flesh, his utmost charisma that is siphoning malleable minds to his snake cult.

The words of Thulsa Doom speak to human nature, our desire for something greater than ourselves, and the willingness of those not strong in their own minds to blindly follow a brilliant charismatic. Is Thulsa brilliant? Absolutely – but nonetheless evil. The last encounter between Conan and Thulsa Doom is pure genius in how Thulsa nearly succeeds in manipulating Conan with his words – listen once more to what Doom says to Conan.

There is another unspoken side to this as well. It is the bond of loyalty and friendship that is the power of the flesh, for we see that proven time and again in Conan’s world. Steel is used as a tool between these greater forces where the bonds of friendship are pitted against the snake cult of charisma.

Is Conan deep? Think about it.

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Our ongoing series reviewing the greatest Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror movies. Note that these reviews may contain spoilers.

Directed by: George A. Romero
Produced by: Dario Argento, Alfredo Cuomo, Richard P. Rubenstein, Donna Siegel
Written by: George A. Romero
Starring: Gaylen Ross, David Emge, Scott H. Reiniger, Ken Foree
Original Release: 1978

Reviewed by: Sam Christopher

Rating: 4 ½ out of 5 Stars

Synopsis: The zombie apocalypse, which began in Night of the Living Dead, is in full swing, with civil authority breaking down all around and most people being left to their own devices in order to survive. Four people—Stephen, Francine, Roger, and Peter—steal a helicopter (Stephen and Fran work for a tv station where Stephen is the morning helicopter traffic guy) and fly off in search of a “safe place”. The safe place they find is a shopping mall with upstairs offices separate from the stores, which are overrun by the walking dead. At first they think to hole up for a little bit but then decide they can close off the mall, clear it out and live there indefinitely. They take some tractor-trailers from a nearby drop yard and use them to block the doors to the mall. During this operation, Roger goes a little mad, losing focus and being bitten on the leg and the arm. He lasts long enough to help close off the doors and clear out the mall before dying. As the weeks and months pass, we see disenchantment settle in with the three leads until a roving band of bikers comes in to loot the mall. In their wake, the zombie Stephen leads the walking dead up to the apartments the survivors had made, leaving Peter and Francine to fly away in the helicopter, low on fuel and into an uncertain future.

Review/Comments: Where to begin…

This film is often seen as the ne plus ultra of zombie films. It is a splatter-filled, suspenseful romp. This story began for George Romero when he toured the Monroeville Mall near Pittsburgh, Pa. and saw the Civil Defense boxes of emergency food. Remember, this was the mid-‘70s, when indoor shopping malls weren’t just everywhere the way they are now. He began thinking about the story and got a call from Dario Argento, a horror director extraordinaire in his own right, who told Romero to fly to Italy and stay with Argento and his family while writing the script. That done, Romero called makeup effects fiend Tom Savini and said, according to Savini, “We got another movie; think of ways to kill people.” Then there was the casting, which mainly consisted of finding family and friends who wanted to be in the film. Well, that and hiring an actual motorcycle gang to ride through and tear up the shopping mall at night.

Which is another point. Romero’s now ex-wife, Chris, and Savini both say that this film could never be made this same way again now. Every day, Savini, has said, was like Halloween. Every day he would come up with some new effect, some new wildly gory demise for someone, and run up to Romero with it. Romero would virtually always give the okay and Savini and crew (which consisted virtually entirely of his best friend Taso Stavrakis) would put the effect together in a couple hours and it would be shot. The logo zombie—the bald zombie on the movie poster—was a member of a band that was playing somewhere nearby. He was just wandering around the set so they slapped makeup on him and put him in the picture. Romero himself says in a commentary track for Night of the Living Dead, and I’m sure it applies for this film as well, that there were all kinds of things he could get away with doing when it was “just us guys” that he hasn’t been able to do for years and probably never could on a SAG film.

The stars of the picture had all kinds of ideas about the filming, too. Gaylen Ross (Francine) wanted her character to be tougher, a strong woman in counterpoint to Barbra from NOTLD, and she was—a little. David Emge was cast as the “everyman” character but was a real standout after he became a zombie at the end of the picture, giving a near-Howard Sherman performance (see my review of Day of the Dead). Scott Reiniger (Roger) had a problem with a scene in the tenement at the beginning of the picture. He and Ken Foree (Peter) went into a room in the basement where the people of the project had thrown in their dead without destroying them. The zombies sit in the room, gnawing on bones and flesh. Reniger says he looked at Romero and said, “This is really sick, George,” and Romero smiled back and said, “I know”. Foree says his toughest thing was a scene where he had to shoot down some zombie children (played by Savini’s niece and nephew).

As with the other films in this series, there is so much about them to say, so much life in these stories about the walking dead. With NOTLD there’s the horror of what’s happening in the world just outside the window to keep the audience on a razor’s edge, here the character’s defeat the situation to a point before being brought down by other human more so than the zombies. This is a theme that continues into Day of the Dead, and even into the much-later Land of the Dead. These stories aren’t just catalogues of slaughter and gore. They are more about us than we sometimes want to realize.

See also Sam Christopher’s Reviews of Night of the Living Dead and Day of the Dead

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Our ongoing series reviewing the greatest Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror movies. Note that these reviews may contain spoilers.

Directed by: Terence Fisher
Produced by: Anthony Hinds
Written by: Bram Stoker (novel) Jimmy Sangster (screenplay)
Starring: Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Michael Gough
Original Release: 1958

Reviewed by: Sam Christopher

Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars (Highest Rating)

Synopsis: As told in his diary, Jonathan Harker arrives at Castle Dracula posing as a librarian, with the hidden purpose of destroying Count Dracula for good. After a bit of give-and-take with Count Dracula and Dracula’s “bride”, Harker destroys the woman and finds himself facing an angry Dracula. Dr. Van Helsing arrives at the village inn looking for Harker and is given the young man’s found diary. This leads him to the castle, where he finds the staked bride and Harker himself vampirised in the crypt. Van Helsing goes to tell Harker’s fiancée, Lucy, only to be told by her sister Mina and brother-in-law Arthur that she is too ill to receive visitors. We then find out that Lucy is under the spell of the Count. She eventually must be destroyed. Dracula then turns his attentions to Mina, while the good doctor and Arthur track the Count’s coffin, destroying it. This forces Dracula to run off with Mina back to his castle where Van Helsing catches up with him in time to destroy the vampire by forcing him into the sunlight.

Review/Comments: Believe me, the above synopsis does not do this film justice. I have a difficult time writing a synopsis for truly good films, as I want you to watch them. There’s nothing quite like discovering for oneself the poetry and beauty of a great tale. And this certainly qualifies. The second entry in Hammer’s renaissance of the Universal Monsters (called Horror of Dracula here in the US so as to distinguish it from Universal’s own 1931 film), this followed up on the phenomenal success of The Curse of Frankenstein (Must-Watch Review forthcoming) by keeping to the formula of having Peter Cushing handle the heavy lifting of most of the action while Christopher Lee played the “monster”. While this film could easily have been a star-maker, Lee would go seven years before returning to this character, going on to become most probably Europe’s greatest horror star in that time. In 1965, he would finally play the Count again in my favorite of his turns on the character, Dracula: Prince of Darkness (and this is all nostalgia for me, as D: PoD is the very first Dracula film I saw Lee in).

But there’s more to this film than the acting talent, although that alone is certainly enough to recommend it. Jimmy Sangster was a production assistant for Hammer when they approached him to write a script for their version of Frankenstein. At first he was reluctant but eventually penned what became The Curse of Frankenstein and history was made. He was asked to do two things: use the iconic characters and use them in such a way that Universal couldn’t sue for copyright infringement. Sangster did both to great effect. Then there’s the direction of Terence Fisher, who was the first director to bring the gothic to life in full color. His use of explicit violence and sexual undercurrents were revolutionary for his day, as proven by the disdain with which he was held by the “upright critics” of his time.

Vampires have always been the darker side of ourselves. In Hammer’s mythology they are demons strengthened in darkness and unable to withstand the purifying influence of sunlight, holy symbols, and running water. Hammer’s portrayal of the blood-feeding undead as horrific and evil and untrustworthy other-than-humans which must be defeated by men of strong faith and resolute spirit is a revelation in this day of sparkling supermen and “oh, he’s so cute” idolatry of our own bloodlust. Christopher Lee’s Count Dracula is urbane and refined to a point but also haughty and convinced of his own invincibility, a match for modern man in every way. He is who we are when turned from the light.

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