CRASH! – Nope, not that one, nor THAT one, but this one, the Charles Band one from the mid-seventies. After an accident involving an occult dog attack, a woman wakes up with amnesia. She can’t tell the doctors much about who she is, but her eyes glow red whenever a supernatural force possesses her. Meanwhile, bitter spouse Jose Ferrer is in the background playing mind games whilst a driverless car prowls the Californian turnpikes, causing one accident after another. I liked ‘Crash’. It doesn’t try hard to make sense, and in fact there’s a real random air to it. The atmosphere in places is on the trippy side of languid, although there are stretches where nothing much happens. I guess it has that classically grindhouse-era combination of wackiness and stiffness going on, which makes it a dead cert for seventies horror enthusiasts.
MANSION OF THE DOOMED – Another Full Mooner, MOTD has always been a firm fave with me. I can’t quite put my finger on what I like about it; a downer vibe, which is at the same time made somehow slightly silly (witness Richard Basehart’s pompous narration), along with the hazy feel of mid-seventies LA, all leafiness and long afternoon shadows, and then the ambience of darkened operating theatres where X-ray images glow. The plot isn’t much – it’s basically just an inversion of ‘Eyes Without A Face’, and tries to build whatever momentum it can by simply replaying the same kind of surgical encounter, but again, it’s the atmosphere that pulls me in. There’s something awful and squalid about that basement full of Basehart’s eyeless victims, it really hits a nightmarish note for me. Probably a footnote for many, but I recommend it anyway.
THE SADNESS – Wow, this one’s really going for the gore. I didn’t have any expectations when I went in, thinking “OK, another epidemic-y type zombie film – why don’t I have anything better to do?”, but I was quite surprised by what I saw. ‘The Sadness’ doesn’t say anything new or even, considering our post-pandemic slump, especially relevant, appearing content enough to take its place within the viral lunacy tradition and simply ladle on the offal. But blimey, were they serious about that offal-ladling. Some of the gore has a sleazy edge, one high point being a gross hospital orgy which relies on spilled blood and intestines by way of lubrication. After setting out such a splattery stall, the film does seem to pull back at points – come on guys, only an IMPLIED eye socket f*cking? But I’m not having a go, by and large this is pretty demented stuff, certainly for a flick considered streamable by the likes of Shudder. I would say that it’s a bit too long, and that the way it navigates between its splatter scenarios is a little stilted, with only a few recurring characters offering continuity – but in a film like this, that’s really not a problem. Hope it kickstarts a trend, it’s been fifteen, twenty years since horror movies were especially graphic. I prefer atmosphere these days, but even a hint of eye-related rogering is better than another jump scare.
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