Mish Mash 19 (Black Sunday, Firestarter, Psychomania, Green Room)

Black Sunday

Nicely done atmospheric picture about a young woman and her lover in the 1600’s who are accused of being witches.  A ceremony is attempted to destroy them but it’s unable to be completed leaving a window cracked.  Two hundred years later they’re accidentally woken up from their dormancy.  Now it’s revenge time.

There are some great visuals like the beautiful black and white photography, a ghostly horse drawn coach approaching in slow motion, a very convincing aging/de-aging effect on the witch’s face (Barbara Steele (Shivers)) and there’s an iron maiden type metal mask with spikes on the inside that’s smashed onto the witch’s face with a hammer causing blood to squirt out, ouch.

There’s a little confusion about what these creatures actually are though.  The narrator calls them vampires but everyone else says witches.  They exhibit qualities of both so I guess they’re sort of hybrids.

Anyway, this is a good one to check out.

Firestarter

First and foremost I would not classify this as a horror movie but I’m including it here because I saw it this season and I don’t want you to be thrown like I was.

This is a sci-fi film about a nine year old girl (Drew Barrymore (Batman Forever)) who can start fires with her mind and her father (David Keith (Men of Honor)) who can influence people with his mind.  They’re on the run from deep state government agents who want to capture them and weaponize their powers.  I mean Drew can fire start so hard it causes steel to buckle and concrete to explode so I can see why this might be a security threat.  The government folks are without a doubt the bad guys here but they have good reason to be concerned.  I’m just sayin’.

The strongest aspect is the casting.  David Keith and Drew Barrymore are very good together.  They seem totally believable and natural as father and daughter. 

And while I always enjoy Martin Sheen (Wall Street) the other stand out is George C. Scott (The Exorcist III) as John Rainbird.  He’s a ponytail sportin’, eye patch wearin’, evil as all fuck sonuvabitch.  The main reason he takes the assignment to capture Drew is so he can covertly befriend and eventually molest her.  Yea, he’s a straight up pedophile.  Scott is mesmerizing as he switches back and forth from a cold blooded mercenary in front of Sheen to a vulnerable, and even likeable, undercover janitor in the presence of Drew.  I don’t know how many people could’ve pulled off both sides of this performance so convincingly.

And the ending is completely off the wall.  I won’t spoil it but I will tell you the director was Mark L. Lester who did Commando right after this.  The endings to both are ridiculously similar and awesome.

This one runs a gamut of emotions and I guess I kinda liked it overall.  I’d say that ending is worth the journey.  See it!

Psychomania

The leader of a real groovy British biker gang (Nicky Henson (Syriana)) called The Living Dead commits suicide and comes back to life with the power of invincibility.  In order for this to work you have to really wanna die.  There’s no cheating death.  If you hesitate or don’t mean it you’ll stay dead.

Once this guy tears out of his grave on his motorcycle at full speed (cool idea by the way) he encourages his fellow gang members to do as he did.  When they’re reassembled they kill some folks but mainly they just putz around like they did when they were alive.  They play traffic games with cars and generally annoy people.  Seems like a waste of invincibility but, whatever.

The plot is pretty morbid and I wonder if it led to anyone attempting this self-destructive ritual in real life hoping they would return from the dead with special abilities.  I sure hope not.  To be clear though I’m not holding the filmmakers responsible for other people’s actions.

This isn’t a very good movie.  The concept isn’t that fun I think because it stems from such a dark place.  The cast of characters is silly too with names like Chopped Meat, Gash and Hatchet and they have cartoonishly oversized goggles attached to their bike helmets and the girlfriend of the leader is such a goody two shoes who doesn’t fit in with what’s supposed to be a Clockwork Orange level outfit.

The whole piece is fairly lame with a faint rallying cry for suicide.  That’s an odd and disheartening combo.

Excellent title though.  It also goes by The Death Wheelers which isn’t bad but I definitely prefer Psychomania.

Green Room

Late to the party here but sure, I get why people were making a big deal out of this little movie a few years ago.  It has a nice setup of a punk band playing a neo-Nazi show in the sticks (not their idea but through a certain set of circumstances they reluctantly take the gig) and they accidentally witness the aftermath of a murder.  Now they’re held hostage until the situation is dealt with.

It’s all good.  Good acting, good tension, good pacing, well composed shots, etc.  I especially like how the main villain, Darcy (Patrick Stewart (Lifeforce)), is a fast thinker who makes quick decisions like he’s had to clean up similar messes many times before.  It’s a neat contrast to the inexperienced (in every way) band members who are trapped in the green room.  Their options are practically zero which extremely restricts their decision making and actions.

Darcy throws everything he can at the issue underestimating the ingenuity and fighting spirit of the young kids.  But there’s a point later on that shows the door to the green room can be broken down fairly easily.  So the incident could’ve been resolved much earlier but I’m glad it wasn’t ‘cause then we wouldn’t have this cool thriller.

And that’s how I would categorize it.  There are some gruesome deaths and a bit of gore but ultimately this isn’t a horror picture.  Neo-Nazis are scary in real life though and this is probably the only group you could do this kind of movie with.  You would have to drastically change the setup if you swapped out a different set of extremists.  This is also more clever than having the bad guys simply be a bunch of backwoods psychos.

If you’re looking for a taut picture that keeps you on your toes you’ve found one.