The Wild Angels (1966)

 

When The Wild Angels came out in 1966 it was a huge box office hit and inspired a whole new subgenre of outlaw biker movies.  It was also a source of inspiration for Easy Rider (which also starred Peter Fonda). It was fairly controversial when it came out, but in hindsight it comes off as rather silly.  While watching the movie, I couldn’t help but to think of the Beach Party series (also produced by American International Pictures) in the mid 60s.  The main antagonists in the Beach Party movies (with the exception of Muscle Beach Party) were a biker’s gang, The Rat Pack, led by the dopey Eric Von Zipper. 

Zipper often came up with ridiculous schemes to “get those no good surfers” off of his beach, which always ended in total failure.  In The Wild Angels, the outlaw biker gang, The Angels, are led by Heavenly Blues (Peter Fonda), who, despite his “too cool for school demeanor” manages to be an even more incompetent leader than Eric Von Zipper.  Sure, Zipper’s schemes always failed, but at least he didn’t get any of his gang members killed.

The Wild Angels has a fairly simple plot:  Joe ‘Loser’ Kerns motorcycle has been stolen.  The Angels ride out to Mecca, California in hopes of finding it, which leads them to a garage run by a Mexican gang. The two groups brawl but, before it can be settled, the police show up.  Loser is separated from the rest of the Angels and steals a policeman’s motorcycle.  He gets shot for his effort and ends up in the hospital. Heavenly Blues finds out about this and leads a small group of Angels to sneak Loser out of the hospital; with his girlfriend Mike ‘Monkey’ acting as a Trojan Horse.  She pretends to be Loser’s sister and asks if she can see him, the policeman on duty reluctantly agree.   She whips up a few tears and, when the policeman gets distracted, unlocks the glass door.  The Angels get Loser out of the hospital but Heavenly is identified by a nurse on duty (who one of the gang members attempted to rape).  The Angels arrange for a funeral to be held in Loser’s hometown. They hold a service in a small church and even go the trouble of hiring a preacher to preside over the service. However, Heavenly is not satisfied with the preacher’s eulogy and decides that the Angels will honor Loser’s memory by having the party. The Angels tie up the preacher, tear up the church, and proceed to have an orgy. Finally, after the mayhem has ended, they go to bury Loser’s body in the local cemetery.  One of the townsfolk throws a rock at them, which leads to a brawl.  However, once they hear police sirens heading their way, the Angels bolt, leaving Heavenly alone to bury the Loser.  

The question I initially asked was:  Is The Wild Angels a parody of the A.I.P. Beach Party movies. It plays like a demented version of those. It’s easy to imagine Heavenly Blues being the leader of a surfer gang, with Mike being his best girl (the same year The Wild Angels came out, Nancy Sinatra appeared in the final Beach Party movie, The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini).
At the end of the movie, Heavenly Blues makes a famous speech:

We wanna be free! We wannabe free to do whatever we wanna do! We wanna be free to ride!
We wanna be free to ride our machines without being hassled by the MAN! And we wanna get loaded! And we wanna have a good time! And that is what we’re gonna do! We are gonna have a good time! We gonna have a party!

No doubt this speech resonated with the 1960s counterculture, yet is exactly the same type of speech Frankie Avalon would give in a similar situation. The only difference is that he would want to be “free to surf without being hassled by the Man.” I make this point, because by 1966 the Beach Party movies were considered old hat by the counterculture, yet this so-called “anti-establishment” movie seems content on plagiarizing them.  

Did the 1966 youth take this movie seriously?  I initially thought my theory of The Wild Angels being a Beach Party parody was correct, when I saw that Charles B. Griffith wrote the screenplay.  Griffith wrote a few scripts for Roger Corman; most notably Bucket of Blood and the original The Little Shop of Horrors.  Most of his scripts contain an element of dark humor; that includes his more “serious” scripts like The Undead and The Attack of the Crab Monsters. So, clearly The Wild Angels is a dark comedy.  Not so fast!  While Griffith is the credited writer, the script was largely rewritten by future director, and Orson Welles lackey, Peter Bogdanovich.  Corman found Griffith’s script to be unacceptable, so he brought in Bogdanovich to “fix it.” I have to wonder if Griffith’s script had more humor in it, which is why Corman found it unacceptable. Who knows?  All I know is that the finished script is a mess and completely devoid of any humor.

The movie helped establish Peter Fonda as a counter culture icon (Easy Rider would further cement this status). I must admit, I am completely baffled as to why that is.  Sure, Peter Fonda looks cool riding on his motorcycle, but he is completely devoid of any real personality. I would even argue that Fonda gives the weakest performance in the entire movie. It’s hard to believe a biker gang would follow this guy’s lead.  Fonda faired slightly better in Easy Rider, and that is largely because his character is devoid of any real agency. He just goes where the road takes him.  I also find the character to be somewhat problematic. I don’t think it was Corman’s intention to glorify the behavior of The Angels; they are, after all, white supremacists. Yet, Heavenly Blue’s speech at the end probably did resonate with many young people in the audience (especially since it was directed at a preacher – a symbol of the Establishment if there ever was one).  His treatment towards Mike is especially appalling; he dismisses her concerns and, out of pure spite and right in front of her, screws another woman in the church.  When Mike returns the affection of another biker, Heavenly punches the guy and gives her a dirty look.

Heavenly Blues fits well into Roger Corman’s galley of existential losers.  He could easily be descended from such characters like: Walter Paisley (Bucket of Blood), Seymour Krelboin (The Little Shop of Horrors), Quintus Ratcliff (The Undead), Roderick Usher (House of Usher), and Prince Prospero (The Masque of the Red Death). These are characters that have a skewed morality; “the ends justify the means” applies to them.  They avoid taking any responsibility for the actions, and that inevitably leads to their downfall.   There are multiple times throughout The Wild Angels where Heavenly could potentially right the ship, but he chooses to double down on his actions. It is fitting that movie ends with him all alone, burying the corpse of his best friend.  Movie critics and film historians like to slap the tag of auteur onto many filmmakers; but if you were to apply that to Roger Corman, most of them would probably laugh.  Yet, with the exception of The Raven, there is a fairly cynical, almost nihilistic world view that pervades most of Corman’s movies.  Not to mention that Corman had his own stock company of writers and actors who worked on many of his movies; in the Wild Angels, Corman regulars Dick Miller and Barboura Morris appear in small roles.

While 1967 is regarded as “The Summer of Love,” there was a significant shift in pop culture in 1966.
The Beach Boys released their album, Pet Sounds, which essentially signified an end to their surfing songs. The Beatles released, Revolver, which offered up more introspective songs (often fueled by drugs) and helped shed The Beatle’s “clean cut image.” They also announced they were done touring, which meant the only way fans could hear them was by purchasing their albums.  It should be noted that Walt Disney, the man who essentially symbolized the old studio system, passed away in late 1966.  Without Walt at the helm, Disney studios would flounder for the next couple of decades before achieving a renaissance in the 1990s. Whether that is a good or bad thing is entirely to up to you.

While The Beach Boys and The Beatles got all the attention in 1966, another significant song that charted the year was “These Boots Are Made For Walking,” sung by Nancy Sinatra.  It is interesting to contrast Nancy Sinatra’s character of Mike with her chart topping hit.  The song is about a woman who has had enough of her man’s shit and threatens to leave if he doesn’t straighten up.  Mike is the complete antithesis of this song – she is loyal to a fault.  Heavenly Blues is exactly the type of man that “Boots” is talking about.  He is completely dismissive towards Mike, often puts her in dangerous situations, and treats her like complete garbage.  When Mike asks Heavenly if he still loves her, he responds with “I don’t know.”  Interestingly enough, Sinatra played a similar role in The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini – where the man she pines for is fairly oblivious to her existence.  The only difference is that Bobby, her object of affection in The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini, is a good natured idiot. Heavenly is a first rate asshole - to the point where, just to spite Mike, he has sex with another woman on a church altar.  When she, hesitantly, responds to another biker’s advances, Heavenly gets jealous and punches the guy in the face; and the shoots Mike the evil eye.  

1966 - The Three Faces of Nancy Sinatra. 

The problem I have with Mike is that she is completely devoid of an agency. She constantly sides with Heavenly no matter how idiotic his schemes are.  While Heavenly and Mike could be seen as a sick parody of Frankie and Annette, the main thing that separates these two female characters is that at least Annette Funicello’s character, DeeDee, was constantly calling Frankie out on his bullshit.  If this were a beach party movie, when Frankie gives his speech about wanting to “be free,” this would be accompanied with a close up of Annette rolling her eyes at his juvenile mindset.  Mike is content with going along on the ride even though there is no real destination.   This is not the fault of Nancy Sinatra, who manages gives Mike an air of vulnerability, but the writers.  The fundamental flaw of many counter culture movies is their inability to write compelling female characters.  Don’t believe me!!!! In Easy Rider, the women solely exist to pleasure the main characters, Wyatt and Billy. They hook up with two women at a hippie commune and later on hook up with two prostitutes in New Orleans.  These women are barely in the movie and don’t have much in terms of personalities (despite being played by capable actresses).  In The Graduate, Mrs. Robinson is an interesting character, but she is the villain of the piece, while her daughter Elaine is kind of a flake. I often hear about how these movies “spoke to a generation.” Did they speak to women, as well? While watching The Wild Angels, I kept hoping Mike would follow the advice offered in “These Boots Are Made For Walking.” Kick the no good bum, Heavenly Blues, to the curb! Move on with your life! 

The also brings me to the movie’s most egregious moment – the rape of Gaysh (Diane Ladd) by the bikers Frankenstein and Dear John.  In fact, it could be argued that Frankenstein’s arc is that he successfully rapes a woman, after two failed attempts earlier on in the movie; he attempts to rape Gaysh at party and then a nurse while the other angels are sneaking Loser out of the hospital, both times he thwarted by Heavenly. However, at the end, while Heavenly is busy screwing the older Momma Monahan, Frankenstein persuades Dear John into helping him rape Gaysh (Loser’s grieving widow).  What I find so repulsive about this scene is how the filmmakers completely shrug it off. It has no relevance to the plot, and Frankenstein and Dear John are never held accountable for their actions. After having been raped, Gaysh walks up to Loser’s corpse and asks him for forgiveness. Why?
Even more troubling is that this trope would often pop up in many movies Corman produced for New World Studios – the only difference being that those rape scenes are far more graphic than the one in The Wild Angels (it happens offscreen).  There was an odd logic in many exploitation movies of the 1970s and 80s that there is no such thing as bad female nudity, hence they would often include a rape scene just to meet their quota of female nudity. Like The Wild Angel’s, these movies would rarely explore what effect the rape had on the victim; instead it was merely a plot device to motivate the heroes into action.
It’s also odd how sex in many counterculture movies is rarely depicted as a healthy or pleasurable act -
sex is either depicted as unhealthy (rape) or completely sterile (Benjamin sleeping with the older Mrs.
Robinson simply for the hell of it). Also, the question needs to be asked:  Wouldn’t Heavenly expel Frankenstein from the gang?  He’s not only a threat to members of the Angels, but it is his attempted rape of the nurse that leads to her identifying Heavenly to the police.  He is a total detriment to the Angels, yet Heavenly allows him to remain in the gang.  Hell, even the incompetent Eric Von Zipper would have had the common sense to boot this guy out.

The Wild Angels is interesting more as a curio than it is an actual movie.  It was a movie that marked a shift in the popular culture and anticipated more famous movies like The Graduate, Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, and Billy Jack.  Like those movies (with the exception of the superior Five Easy Pieces), it has aged fairly poorly.  What was once extremely controversial is now kind of laughable. Its screenplay is extremely haphazard in places and the more “titillating” scenes drag on endlessly.  It is essentially a half hour short film stretched out in a full length feature.  It is not the worst of its kind, but it’s not a classic, either. 

 

 

 

 

 

Credits
Cast:  Peter Fonda (Heavenly Blues), Nancy Sinatra (Mike ‘Monkey’), Bruce Dern (Joe ‘Loser’ Kerns), Diane Ladd(Gaysh), Buck Taylor (Dear John), Norman Alden (Medic),  Michael J. Pollard (Pigmy), Lou Procopio (Joint), Joan Shawlee (Momma Monahan), Marc Cavell (Frankenstein), Coby Denton (Bill Puckey), Frank Maxwell  (Preacher), Gayle Hunnicutt (Suzie), Kim Hamilton (Nurse), Frank Gerstle (Hospital Policeman), Dick Miller (Rigger), Barboura Morris (Mother).

Director: Roger Corman
Writers:  Charles B. Griffith, Peter Bogdanovich (uncredited)
Running  Time:  93 min.

Night of the Comet (1984)

{This review is significantly longer than I intended and contains spoilers. I was initially going to write a two page review of Night of the Comet but found such a task nearly impossible. There is so much to talk about in this movie and this review only scratches the surface. Most of the behind the scenes info comes from Shout Factory’s Collector’s Edition blu ray. It you are a fan of Night of the Comet, or this type of movie in generally, I highly suggest you pick up the Collector’s Edition. It’s well worth your money.}

I have known about Night of the Comet for sometime but it wasn’t until recently that I saw the movie in its entirety.  It was a prominent fixture on the local television station, but I only would catch chunks of it.  This is kind of surprising because, if you have read this blog before, you know it’s the kind of movie that is right up my alley. 

 In Night of the Comet, most of the world’s population has been wiped out (literally turned to dust) after the Earth has past through the tail of a comet. The post apocalyptic sub-genre of science fiction was extremely popular in the 1980s, but it really took off in the 1950s after the release of two novels: John Wydham's 1951 novel The Day of the Triffids and Richard Matheson's 1954 novel I am Legend. These two works of fiction really set the tone for many science fiction and horror movies that followed them.  In The Day of the Triffids, most of the world's population is blinded by a meteor shower which allows for genetically engineered plant life, the Triffids, to become the dominant species on the planet. In I am Legend, a pandemic has transformed the Earth's human population into vampires. The last remaining human spends his days hunting down these creatures and his nights boarded up his house while the vampires attempt to break in. Both of these novels were adapted multiple times, and rather unsatisfactorily.  

In 1955, producer/director Roger Corman got into the act and made The Day the World Ended.  In the movie, a nuclear war has wiped out most of the world's population and a handful of survivors meet up at a remote cabin. When they are not arguing with each other, they are having to fend off a silly looking monster.  Most post apocalyptic movies follow this formula, but what sets Night of the Comet apart from the rest of these films is that the plot is driven by two teenage sisters, Regina and Samantha. It also helps that both characters are likable and played with great aplomb by two vivacious actresses, Catherine Mary Stewart and Kelly Maroney. These are characters that you actually want to spend time with (especially when compared to dour and depressing male leads in previous post apocalyptic movies).  Even though  Regina and Samantha are mere teenagers, they are no pushovers.  Their father was a military man and taught them self dense strategies, and proper firearm handling. It would be extremely foolish for anyone to underestimate these two girls.

In his insightful commentary, Thom Eberhardt mentions that Night of the Comet was not initially conceived as a zombie movie, they were an afterthought when Eberhardt realized he needed something to menace the girls. This might explain why the zombies don’t behave in typical zombie-like fashion; they are fairly articulate and often wield weapons as opposed to lumbering stiffs that dominate the George Romero films.  The zombies feel rather arbitrary to the story; they could have easily been written as random lunatics on the street and the movie would essentially have been the same. The stock boys that terrorize Regina and Samantha at the mall are scary because they are complete psychopaths, who just happen to be zombies.  If Eberhardt had intended on making it a straight zombie movie, it probably would have significantly gorier and had less characterization.  The zombies are only temporary threat; it is revealed that they will eventually turn to dust like the rest humanity. If the girls can bide their time they will be home free. The REAL obstacle that stands in their way is a group of scientists pent up in an underground instillation. What are their motivations?  Do they want to help the girls? Or, is there a more sinister motive at play? The choice is a fairly obvious one, but it doesn't make the movie any less entertaining.

The best thing about Night of the Comet is that Regina and Samantha behave like actual teenage siblings, even though they look nothing alike.  They often get on each other’s nerves; they fight over boys; and bond over the silliest things (like shopping).   In the beginning of the movie, despite living in the same house, they inhabit two very separate worlds; Regina is working a midnight showing at the local theatre, while Samantha is stuck at a lame Comet party being hosted by their bitchy stepmom, Doris.  In a fairly clever touch, the first time the two sisters exchange any dialogue is over the telephone.  She doesn’t call out of courtesy but rather she wants Samantha to lie for her. She wants Samantha to tell their bitchy stepmom that she will be at the observatory watching the comet, when in reality she is shacking up with her co-worker, Larry.  This completely backfires and it’s Samantha who receives the full brunt of Doris’ wrath.  They’re not only in a different place physically, but mentally as well.  Regina is eighteen years old, and like all teenagers her age, she is ready to move on with her life. Samantha is sixteen years old and is still very much into the high school routine.  Like most teenagers, she lives for the weekend. In terms of a love life, Regina is having a sexual fling with a co-worker, while Samantha is still hoping that her high school crush will ask her out.  However, rather than lump them together, I think both characters are deserving of their analysis.

When we first meet Regina, she is living a rather carefree existence.  She is more focused on playing an arcade game, Tempest, than doing her job as movie theatre usher.  Her manager wants her to walk the house, much to her annoyance.  {Personal note: Having worked at movie theatre I can relate to this sentiment.  Whenever I did a walk through, I could often sense the glares of the moviegoers.  “Stop interrupting our movie.”}  It’s only after the game has ended that Regina reluctantly obliges her aggrieved manager.  However, before she can do that she must enter her initials in the top ten scores. While typing them in, she is annoyed to find someone else’s (“DMK”) initials are in sixth place. This irritates her so much that she spends the next morning knocking her unknown adversary out of the top ten.  It’s a nice way of establishing Regina’s competitive nature and her willingness to step up to any challenge (even a trivial one like an arcade game).  When she puts her mind to it, she can accomplish anything. { I know this a total coincidence, but it’s amusing that the other movie Catherine Mary Stewart starred in that year, The Last Starfigher, centers around an arcade game. It’s too bad Regina didn’t play that game because she certainly would have been more adept at fighting aliens in outer space than Alex Rogan.}  

Of course, Regina is completely thrown for a loop when she discovers that not only streets are empty (strewn with empty clothes covered in dust) but there’s a blood thirsty zombie in the alley way.  Regina nicely asks the zombie to back off, but when that doesn’t work she incapacitates him with self defense moves her dad taught her.  There’s also a nice detail in this scene that demonstrates Regina’s intelligence; when the zombie approaches her, she is clutching the keys to Larry’s motorcycle in her hand, and when she realizes that there will be fighting involved, she tosses the keys near the motorcycle rather than risk losing them in the skirmish.  This scene also demonstrates Regina’s confidence; she doesn’t for one second doubt her ability to take down this monster. He picked the wrong girl to mess with. Regina isn't without her flaws. In fact, she makes a near fatal mistake midway through the movie: in attempt to cheer up her little sister, she takes Samantha "shopping." The two of them are enjoying themselves so much that they let their guard down and allow themselves to fall in the stock boys trap.  They are saved in the nick of time by a group of scientists searching the city for survivors. What seems like the girl's salvation ends up turning into an even bigger nightmare. However, if there is one thing Regina proves throughout the movie it is never to underestimate her. She maybe down, but she is definitely not out.  

Regina finds herself in a position that she so desperately wanted to avoid: Becoming an adult.  Her first instinct, after having taken out the zombie, is to find out whether Samantha is alive or not.  After being reunited with her sister, she then takes upon herself to be Samantha’s guardian.  As the movie progresses, she becomes increasingly more and more like a mother figure to her younger sister.  Therefore, it’s not surprising that by the movie’s end Hector and she, along with two surviving children they have picked up, have formed their own nuclear family.  She essentially becomes the very thing she dreaded at the beginning - the overprotective mother.  At the beginning, she resents Doris for imposing a curfew on her; in the last scene, she imposes a curfew on Samantha.  Granted, Regina is a much more sympathetic and benevolent person than Doris.  She also emphasizes the importance of following the rules of the road to her surrogate children: Don’t cross against the traffic. Wait for the walk sign.  She becomes the ultimate mom. 

There  are nice subtle hints sprinkled throughout regarding Regina’s growing maturity and maternal nature; when Samantha yells at, and shoves, her for stealing the “last man on earth,” rather than yell and shove back, Regina thinks about it for a second and begins to laugh at the absurdity of the situation. What else can she do? In normal circumstances, neither of them would probably have noticed Hector. He’s not a bad looking guy, but he’s also not exactly the type of man that would grace the cover of a teeny bopper magazine. But now, through extraordinary circumstances, he is now the object of affection for both Regina and Samantha.

Samantha, in my humble opinion, is one of the best characters in 1980s cinema. This may seem hyperbolic, but Kelli Maroney gives such an energetic (and enduring) performance that it’s almost impossible not to love this character.  The nice thing about Maroney’s performance is that she actually behaves like an actual teenager. She has bad posture, bad habits (she spends most of the first act chewing on the same piece of gum), she is fairly rude, and extremely impatient.  There are many teenage dramas where the (twenty something) actors do not talk and act like teenagers (Riverdale is a prime offender).  They maybe sixteen in the script, but their body language and overall behavior suggests otherwise.  When we first meet Samantha she is slumped on the couch, munching on potato chips, and watching the television to drown out all the lameness around her.  She is the only teenager at her stepmother’s party and, even though she is sixteen, everyone regards her as a kid (one of the party goers pats her on the head).   Quite possibly the worst nightmare of any teenager is to be stuck at home on a Friday night and having to hang out with their parents. {This would have been especially true in the 1980s, when most middle class households had only one television set. Now a days, (boy do I sound old) you can watch movies and TV shows on your telephone.}  In Samantha’s mind, things can’t possibly get any worse than this.  

At first, Samantha seems to regard the whole “end of humanity” as an exciting adventure. It allows for her to get out of the house and explore the city; something Doris would have never allowed.  She can make a few jokes here and there, because the grim reality hasn’t yet set in and when it finally does, it hits her like a brick. In my favorite scene of the entire movie, Samantha tells Regina about how she heard, through her best friend, that her high school crush was about to ask her out. It’s then she realizes the harsh reality of her situation; her best friend and her potential boyfriend are dead, gone forever.  Overnight, her entire existence has been thrown into upheaval.  It was only yesterday that she was on her way to cheer leading practice and now everything is gone forever (not to mention there are blood thirsty zombies on the loose).  Incredibly, this key moment nearly didn’t make it into the movie; I’m sure the producers were concerned that it would slow up the pace. Thankfully, common sense prevailed because this scene is THE HEART OF THE ENTIRE MOVIE.  Samantha’s speech about loss is something anyone can relate to; especially those that have lost a loved one.  What makes it even worse for Samantha is the uncertainty that lies ahead. Where does she go from here?  Regina is ready to take the next step, but Samantha is a sophomore in high school and has had a fairly set schedule (school – cheer leading practice – friends – sleep), so it’s not surprising she would be in state of denial.  Next to death, the most frightening thing for humans has to be starting over and building a new life.  It’s really a burden that shouldn’t befall a sixteen year-old girl and yet that’s where Samantha finds herself. The problem I have with many horror movies is how they trivialize death. As the bodies pile up, our “heroes” don’t even bat an eye; they just go on with their business.  This is, by no means, limited to modern day horror movies because this type of attitude was fairly typical of the 1980s slasher movie.  Therefore, it’s refreshing to see a movie, in 1984, that gives the heroine a moment to mourn the loss of her loved ones.  

Surprisingly this wasn’t the only controversial decision regarding Samantha’s character. In Eberhardt’s original script, Samantha was killed off.  Again, common sense won the day and the character was allowed to survive the movie.  Perhaps, if Night of the Comet was more a straight forward horror, or if Kelli Maroney was a terrible actress, then killing Samantha off might have been an effective plot point.  But it is complete out of place in this movie. Despite its grim subject matter, Night of the Comet is fairly upbeat and optimistic movie. If Samantha gets killed off, it gives the movie a bitter aftertaste that would be impossible to rinse out, no matter how appetizing the finale is.
 

If Night of the Comet merely had two strong leads that would already be an accomplishment, but the fact that it has three is pretty damn incredible. I’m, of course, referring to Robert Beltran as Hector Gomez.  It would been rather easy to write Hector as a gun toting badass who gleefully mows down endless zombies, or as a lone scientist hoping to find a cure that will reverse the zombie process (ala The Omega Man), but in a smart move he is just an ordinary guy; prior to the whole "end of the world" he worked as a truck driver.  Hector is a fairly interesting character in his own right.  When we first meet him at the radio station, he is hiding in the shadows, clutching a gun, while watching Regina and Samantha from a distance.  He is stationed in the foreground of the frame and is presented in a fairly menacing light.  We don’t know if he is friend or foe.  When he reveals himself to the girls, he holds them at gun point and demands they show him their eyes; to make sure there are “still human.”  Yet, even after he has introduced himself, Regina still doesn’t trust him (she grabs a microphone and hides it behind her back, just in case he should try something funny).  However, Regina (and the audience) soon realizes that Hector is a first rate guy.  Robert Beltran is especially good in this role. He plays it completely straight (without a hint of irony) and has genuine warmth about him.   

Hector may come off as a tough guy but he is a softy at heart.  There is also a nice scene that illustrates to this point:  Hector knows that his family is probably dead, but he still drives down to his home just to make sure. If there is even a sliver of a chance they have survived, Hector is going to take that risk.  He arrives at the house and finds that it is deserted, but starts gathering photos and other tokens to remember his family by.  Then he hears a knock on the door and finds a zombie kid waiting on the other side.  If Night of the Comet were your average zombie movie  Hector, would, without any hesitation, blow the kid’s brains out and it would be shown in a loving, gory close up. Thankfully, Night of the Comet is not your average zombie movie and to Hector the thought of blowing out a kid’s brains, even if he is a zombie, is extremely nauseating. Hector decides to make a retreat.  He knocks over furniture to create distance between him and the boy, and successfully flees the house.  This scene gives us a nice insight into Hector’s character – he has a moral code.  He will only resort to violence if absolutely necessary. 

It is hard to pigeon hole Night of the Comet into a certain genre; it’s often labeled as a horror – comedy, but that is only slightly correct. It has a few horror tropes scattered throughout (like the nightmare within a nightmare scene) but most of its scare moments occur in the first half of the movie.  Tonally, it has more in common with Joe Dante’s Gremlins than it does with any of the zombie movies of the period. The best way to describe it is as cross pollination of different genres. It is a romantic comedy; a horror movie; a science fiction film; a teen comedy; and an action movie rolled into one.  The third act often plays like a low budget James Bond movie (with Dr. Carter in the role of a low rent Ernst Blofeld). Regina has been taken an underground instillation and, once she has learned the scientists’ true plans, is determined to escape – oblivious to the fact that Hector and Samantha are mounting their own rescue mission. It also avoids the cliché’ that was fairly prevalent in horror movies at the time – the cheesy jump scare to end the movie. In most horror movies , the villain makes one more lung at the heroine and it is either revealed to be a dream (Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Friday the 13^th), or it is left ambiguous to set up a sequel (The Evil Dead, Nightmare on Elm Street, Phantasm).  The ending of Night of the Comet is straight out of a romantic comedy (complete with a sappy love over the end credits).   In his commentary, Thom Eberhardt said that he was influenced by the movie Valley Girl, and even pays direct homage to that film(the Valley Girl movie poster and soundtrack make cameo appearances in the movie). It often feels like Regina and Samantha wandered off the set of that movie and accidentally stumbled upon the filming of Night of the Comet. Though, given that both movies were produced by the same company, Atlantic Releasing Corporation, that isn't too surprising. Hell, both movies feature Michael Bowen in a supporting role. If Night of the Comet and Valley Girl were made today, they would, no doubt, take place in the same cinematic universe. 
{While I was in the middle of writing this review, it was announce that, the recently relaunched, Orion Pictures is producing a remake of Night of the Comet. The irony being that in 1984 Orion was one of the studios that passed on the original. A Night of the Comet extended universe might come true after all. Be very afraid!} 

Night of the Comet was made on an extremely low budget, which means that it was made on a tight, fast paced schedule and there was very little room for retakes.  However, it did allow room for some improvisation and clever film making. In one memorable scene Samantha fires at a car with a MAC 10 for target practice, but the damn gun keeps jamming. This happens multiple times and she finally throws her hands up in frustration and says to Regina, in a matter of fact manner, “See, that’s the problem with these things. Dad would have gotten us Uzis.” Regina then replies, “The car didn’t know the difference.”  This a fun little moment for the characters and was made up on the spot, because the MAC 10 did, indeed, keep jamming on Kelli Maroney.  However, Thom Eberhardt, rather than shoot multiple takes, opted to work this on set problem into the script and the result is history.  A modern filmmaker would approach this scene completely different and digitally add in the gunshots.  He would walk over to the actress and in a calm voice say, “Don’t worry about it. We’ll fix in post production.”

{Personal note: When I was in my early twenties, I allowed myself to be hoodwinked into helping a friend make a low budget vampire movie (it was a blatant rip off of “Blade”).  My friend was so enamored by the filmmaking process (and the many attractive women he had talked into appearing in his movie) that he didn’t pay much attention to the continuity. Whenever someone would point out the blatant continuity errors he would always respond with “Don’t worry! I’ll fix it in post.”  He never finished the movie, but he did make a trailer for it. Thank you! Now back to review.}

Night of the Comet is a good looking movie. It baffles the mind that such a movie could have been made for such a small budget. Thom Eberhardt uses all sorts of cinematic trickery to make the movie bigger than it actually is; everything from matte paintings to forced perspective. In one scene, he had to rely heavily on close ups to hide the fact that the crew was tearing the set down while filming. You would think that such an imaginative director would go on to bigger and better things, but, sadly, the rest of his filmography is pretty forgettable. Though, he is credited as directing an episode of Parker Lewis Can't Lose; that alone makes it all worthwhile. 

It is often said that “timing is everything” and this most certainly was the case for Night of the Comet. The movie was released in November of 1984 and proved to be a minor hit (it grossed 14 millions dollars against a 700,000 budget.  It came out a few months after the PG-13 rating had been instated (making it one of the earliest PG-13 movies). Yet, I have to wonder what fate might have befallen it had it been released before the creation of the PG-13 rating. Would it have been slapped with an R rating due to “horror movie” stigma attacked to it? How would that have effect its release?  Night of the Comet was also released in an era when a low budget movie (without major studio influence) could be given a wide theatrical release. If Night of the Comet would have been made just a few years later, it probably would have been released directly to video - the ultimate form of cinematic purgatory. Thankfully, Night of the Comet avoided this dire fate and has maintained its status as a cult classic.

Credits

Cast: Catherine Mary Stewart (Regina Belmont), Kelli Maroney (Samantha Belmont), Robert Beltran (Hector), Mary Woronov (Audrey White), Geoffrey Lewis (Dr. Carter), Sharon Farrell (Doris Belmont),Peter Fox (Dr. Wilson), Michael Bowen (Larry), John Achorn (Oscar), Devon Ericson (Minder), Lissa Layng (Davenport), Ivan E. Roth (Willy), Janice Kawaye (Sarah), Chance Boyer (Brian), Stanley Brock (Mel), Marc Poppel (Danny Mason Keener/ DMK), Alex Brown (Monster in Alley), Andrew Boyer (Rogers), Dick Rude (Stock Boy), Chris Pedersen (Stock Boy).

Director: Thom Eberhardt
Writer: Thom Eberhardt
Running Time: 95 min.

Idle Hands (1999)

In the movie industry, timing is everything. In case of Idle Hands, its release date couldn’t have come a more inopportune time, April 30, 1999 – ten days after the Columbine shootings.   The movie opened to poor reviews (16% rating on Rotten Tomatoes) and an even worse box office ($4 million gross against a $25 million dollar budget).  It was nearly impossible for many critics to separate the ending of this movie from the tragedy that occurred in Colorado.  Duane Dudek of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel wasn’t alone when he wrote, “This film smacks of poor judgment and bad taste, particularly in wake of the Littleton, Colo., killings.”   However, it would be disingenuous to blame Idle Hands' piss poor box office entirely on the critics, after all, Stephen Sommer’s The Mummy was released the following weekend; Star Wars, Episode I – The Phantom Menace hit theatres shortly afterwards, May 19,1999. The reality is that Idle Hands simply didn’t stand a chance against these two juggernauts and it quickly died at the box office.
Yet, there were a few brave souls that actually stood up for the movie, even if they didn’t particularly like it.  Roger Ebert, in his two and a half star review, wrote:
After the Colorado tragedy, some commentators have wondered if movies like this aren’t partly responsible. I don’t think we have to worry about Idle Hands. Kids understand this kind of macabre comedy – which is in the ancient horror spoof tradition- and they don’t take it seriously; any viewer capable of being influenced by such silly gags would have to be deeply disturbed already.

Right on, Mr. Ebert! While it’s true that many horror fans might see Idle Hands for the gore, the fact is that we are always on the side of the main characters – most critics overlooked this fact. Not to mention, it’s kind of hard to root for an evil hand.  It’s not surprising that Idle Hands has often been compared to Sam Raimi’s masterpiece, Evil Dead II, given that their premises are fairly identical – the protagonist’s (Ash in Evil Dead II, Anton in Idle Hands) right hand gets possessed by a demon and gets loped it– however, this subgenre of horror goes back to the early days of cinema, most notably Robert Florey’s underrated The Beast With Five Fingers (1946). Director Rodman Flender was an apprentice to Roger Corman and the legendary director’s influence shows in this the movie - Idle Hands has a similar structure to two of Corman’s earlier movies, Bucket of Blood and The Little Shop of Horrors. The three movies feature a similar, down on his luck, protagonist – Walter, a social inept busboy, in Bucket of Blood, Seymour, a clumsy stock boy in The Little Shop of Horrors, and Anton, a slacker stoner in Idle Hands. They all harbor a crush on an attractive brunette – Carla in Bucket of Blood, Audrey in The Little Shop of Horrors, and Molly in Idle Hands. However, Bucket of Blood and The Little Shop of Horrors are truly cynical movies and it’s clear that Corman views his characters in a contemptuous manner; both Walter and Seymour are given the deaths they truly deserve.  Idle Hands, despite its heavy gore and high body count, is a rather sweet natured movie and Flender has genuine affection for his characters.  For instance, it is revealed early on that one of Molly’s hobbies is writing song lyrics in a notebook that Anton happens to pick up after she has dropped it. It is this hobby that initially attracts Anton to Molly (well, and the fact that she looks like Jessica Alba).  He tells his friends Pnub and Mick, “Her songs are badass, man. She’s like a poet or something.” Now, in a lesser movie Molly’s song writing would be played for laughs – there would be a close up of Molly as she reads her (terrible) lyrics out loud, while  Anton, in a reverse shot, would be biting down on his lip, trying awfully hard to contain his laughter.  Here, Anton, finally having worked up the nerve to talk to Molly, enthusiastically starts singing Molly’s lyrics back to her, which gets her to laugh.

Devon Sawa is extremely effective in the role of Anton.  Anton spends his entire day getting high and burying himself in his headphones that he is completely oblivious to the serial killer plaguing his small town (a mailman, a bar maid, and two twin brothers have been murdered). When Pnub asks Anton if he ever watches the news, Anton responds, “I hate that fucking show!” He also fails to notice that his house is covered in blood stains – his parents were murdered the previous night.   Therefore, imagine Anton’s surprise when he learns that his right hand is responsible for all these deaths.  Anton doesn’t have any real ambitions in life, his dream life would be “to lie around in bed all day and watch TV, while some hot broad brings me food.”  Anton maybe a slacker, but he does have a conscience.  After Mick has unwitting released the severed hand from the microwave Anton nuked it in, he is determined to stop it – especially learning that its main target is Molly, who is at the Halloween Dance.   Mick tries to convince him that it is no longer his responsible and that he needs some “Anton time.”  This leads to the funniest exchange in the entire movie:

Anton: No,no, no, you know what? Not this time. Okay, I’m through with that, I mean, all I do is sit around all day, veg out, I watch TV, I smoke pot…….
Mick:  No, no! No Kevin Costner speech, let’s just go.

Sawa is very good at physical comedy - my favorite bit is when Anton and his possessed hand fight over the TV remote; Anton wants to watch cartoons, but The Hand keeps turning it to horror movies.

Pnub and Mick are just as lazy as Anton  - they’re main ambition is to watch TV, eat junk food, and get high.  This ambition (or lack of) stays with them even after they return from the dead –instead of going to heaven (which they describe as “uncool” and “too far away”), they decide to remain on earth and continue their slacker existence.  Mick criticizes Anton for not having any real goals in life, but he’s isn’t exactly one to talk.  Seth Green and Elden Henson real shine in these two roles, largely because of how understated much of their delivery is.  These two characters could have easily been insufferable, but in the hands of two pros like Green and Hensen they are agreeable. The two of them are even given  a character arc - they go from being Anton's useless best friends to being his guardian angels.

Jessica Alba possibly has the toughest job in the entire movie, because Molly is the least interesting character in the entire movie - when compared to the rest of the cast.  Molly is your quintessential “girl next door” type, which means the filmmakers are more interesting in showcasing her attractiveness than giving her a genuine personality;  Molly, despite crawling through a ventilation shaft and being tied to a roof of a car, still looks like she could grace the cover of a men’s magazine.  Alba is definitely well cast in the role and is actually pretty funny at times.  My favorite Molly moment comes when Anton, after The Hand has murdered Pnub and Mick, looks for his cat in the shrubbery outside Molly’s house after The Hand has thrown it there.  The Hand rings Molly’s doorbell, much to Anton’s embarrassment, and she answers the door.  Anton looks like complete crap – his clothes are torn and covered in blood – and Molly asks Anton what he is doing there.  Anton replies that he’s looking for his cat and then adds that they got into a fight.  Molly notice Anton’s messy appearance and, without a hint of irony, says, “You got your ass kicked!”  Later on, Anton and Molly are making out on her bed, but The Hand keeps trying to strangle her, so Anton ties it to her bedpost. Molly pauses for a second, laughs, and then tells Anton that he is kinky.  How can I forget her dance scene? I’m sure there are many men who would find it sexy, but I always found it funny – Molly sways her body back and forth, while waving her arms over her head in a totally arrhythmic manner.  This is one, of a few, Jessica Alba performances that I actually like – there’s no slumming on her part; she is extremely likable as Molly.

Vivica A. Fox is a hoot as Debi, a druid priestess who drives across country in an RV, hunting down the evil that possesses Anton’s Hand (“There is evil out there and I’m going to kick its ass”).   I also like Jack Noseworthy as Anton’s metal head, and lecherous, next door neighbor, Randy.  Anton assumes that Randy is an expert on Satanism because he listens to heavy metal music.  Randy tells Anton that “Idle hands are the devil’s playground” and advises him to take up a hobby that will help occupy his time – Anton, unwisely, chooses knitting.

Rodman Flender keeps things going at an efficient pace and even adds style to the proceedings. Flender often uses match on action editing and graphic matches to link scenes together; when Debi is driving her RV, the camera tilts down to a close up of one its tires, then it cuts to the close of a shopping cart wheel - the camera tilts up to reveal that Anton is pushing the cart. Later on, there is a long shot of The (now severed) Hand crawling down the road which then slowly dissolves to a long shot of a bowling lane where Randy is hanging out with his friends.  He also begins the movie with an extremely ambitious crane shot: the camera starts on a close up of a Jack O Lantern, glides through Anton’s front lawn (littered with tacky lawn ornaments), gives us a glance of the living room window (covered in Halloween decorations), and finally settles on the bedroom window of Anton’s parents, located on the second floor.  The movie then dissolves into a close up of Anton’s mother reading the newspaper in bed. It not only does a nice job of establishing the time of the year (Halloween), but gives the audience a nice sense of the foreboding - we know something bad is going to happen to Anton's parents.

Idle Hands is the kind of movie that the phrase “acquired taste” was invented for. If your idea of good time at the movie is My Big Fat Greek Wedding, or Frozen, then I humbly suggest you keep away from Idle Hands. If you have a sick sense of humor, like me, then you will probably enjoy it! It’s definitely worth checking out and is not nearly the disaster that most critics made it out to be.

Credits

Cast:  Devon Sawa (Anton), Seth Green (Mick), Elden Henson (Pnub), Jessica Alba (Molly), Vivica  A. Fox (Debi LeCure), Jack Noseworthy (Randy), Katie Wright (Tanya), Sean Whalen (McMay), Christopher Hart (The Hand), Nicholas Sadler (Ruck), Fred Willard (Dad Tobias), Connie Ray (Mom Tobias), Timothy Stack (Principal Tidwell), Steve Van Wormer (Curtis), Kelly Monaco (Tiffany).
Director: Rodman Flender
Screenplay: Terri Hughes, Ron Milbauer.
Running Time: 92 min.

Jaws 2 (1978)

I have a soft spot for Jaws 2. This is mainly due to the sense of nostalgia it evokes whenever I watch it, as opposed to it being a good movie. It was one of the very first movies my dad recorded on our VCR (in 1986) and, in fact, I saw Jaws 2 before I saw the original movie (we rented Jaws a few months later).  I was seven years-old at the time, therefore, I could have cared less about character development, or plotting, the only thing that mattered to me was the shark. As unnecessary sequels go, Jaws 2 isn’t bad, especially when compared to the countless Jaws rip-offs that were being produced at the same time (Orca, Grizzly, Humanoids from the Deep, and Barracuda, to name a few).  I would even argue that it is even better than the source material, Peter Benchley’s novel Jaws, which inspired the first movie.  Benchley’s novel is a truly dreadful piece of exploitation – it is equivalent to the kind of cinematic trash that Roger Corman was producing at New World Pictures at time – heavy on sex and violence (Hooper and Ellen have an affair), but light on story and characterizations.  It is absolutely miraculous how Steven Spielberg was able to take a piss poor novel and transform it into a cinematic masterpiece.  Jeannot Szwarc, the director of Jaws 2, deserves some credit for turning in a watchable movie, even if it greatly pales in comparison to its predecessor. 

Jaws 2 biggest flaw is that is a crowded movie. It is populated with characters completely devoid of any personality - I struggle to remember the names of the teenagers, with the exception of Tina, largely because she has a knack for being at right place at the right time; it is she and her boyfriend, Eddie, who witness the motorboat explosion and, later, stumble across the corpse of the half-eaten killer whale.  This is unfortunate, because it’s hard to care about the characters later on when they are being terrorized by the shark. There is also the unfortunate subplot involving Len Peterson, Ellen's greedy boss and local developer, who opposes Chief Martin Brody. This is supposed to add friction to Martin and Ellen’s marriage, but only serves as meaningless filler.  Roy Scheider does his best to bring an air of credibility of the proceedings, but there are a few moments where even he is defeated by the material; his performance in the first film was much more naturalistic, here, he tends to overact at times.  

There’s also a sense of a déjà vu in the movie’s first half - Chief Brody suspects a shark is swimming in the waters of Amity, but is greeted with initial skepticism by the town leaders; you would think that Mayor Vaughn would have learned his lesson after the events in the first movie.  This also begs the question: Why center the sequel on Chief Brody?  It would make more sense for the movie to follow the exploits of Matt Hooper – he is an oceanographer, hence it is only natural that he would inevitably encounter another great white shark.

It is also not surprising that the sequel is much more excessive in terms of the shark. In the first film, it wasn’t until the midway point that we were given a good look at the shark and, even then, it was fleeting. The sequel blows its wad in the first twenty minutes; the shark eats a water skier and then attacks the speedboat that was towing her.  In a laughable attempt at making the shark scarier, the filmmakers give it burn scars, the result of being in the middle of a boat explosion that it accidentally caused; the woman in the boat freaks out when she sees the shark, spills gasoline all over the boat and herself, and then fires a flare gun at the shark, which results in a big explosion.

Though, rather surprisingly, the death toll is relatively small (seven total) – this is an advantage in the movie’s favor. I recently watched the Roger Corman produced Sharktopus, and the move is devoid of any suspense largely because the body count (over 30) is so high that it becomes fairly redundant - every time the movie introduces a minor character they are promptly devoured. Indeed, most of the deaths are played for laughs. At least in Jaws 2, there is some element of suspense as to whether or not a character is going to survive. I still find the death of Marge to be a fairly shocking –after pulling Sean to safety she is swallowed whole by the shark. I also liked the fact that Sean is still traumatized by her death in the next scene as to just shaking it off; which is a tendency in most modern horror movies.  The last half hour is the strongest part  of the entire movie – the shark maybe a ridiculous at times, but at least the characters behave in a realistic fashion (no one cracks a stupid joke, there are no displays of bad assery), they are genuinely frightened and just want to survive.  The scene where the blonde girl, Lucy, starts praying may come off as maudlin, but it is perfectly believable, especially after having just witnessed her friend get devoured. 

Jaws 2 differentiates from its predecessor in that the second half is a race to the rescue, as opposed to being a hunting expedition.  In the first movie, the second half follows Brody, Quint, and Hooper as they hunt down the shark. The movie focuses entirely on their efforts to track down and kill the shark, without every once cutting back to the mainland – it effectively gives the audience a sense of isolation. These men are cut off from civilization and if anything goes wrong, no one will be able to save them.  Jaws 2, on the other hand, constantly cross cuts between Brody and the teenagers, and the “suspense” is built around whether or not Brody will arrive in time to save the teenagers from being devoured. It moves at a swift pace, but by constantly cutting back and forth between the two locations, it diffuses the tension – after each shark attack, the movie will cut back to Brody on the police launch, steadily on his way.  Brody gets sidelined for most of the second half; it’s only be sheer happenstance that he learns of the teenagers whereabouts.  It certainly doesn’t help that the teenagers are cardboard cutouts and lack the screen presence of the leads in the first movie.

I would like to think the scene with the beached killer whale corpse is a shot at the Jaws rip-off Orca; that movie begins with a killer whale killing a great white shark. It was producer Dino De Laurentis’ (still bitter that his King Kong remake made less money than Jaws) way of saying that Jaws was fun and stuff, but it was no match for Orca. Jaws 2, while definitely inferior to the first movie, is leagues a head of Orca.  Though, it is depressing to see that one of Jaws 2 biggest “scare” moments – the shark attacking the helicopter – is lifted from the movie Grizzly, another Jaws rip-off. In that film, the title monster (a fifteen foot grizzly bear) attacks a helicopter, though it only manages to spin it around a few times.

Jaws 2 proved to be enough of a hit that Universal green lit two more sequels (Jaws 3-D, and Jaws The Revenge), though it only did about 40% of the original movie.  It is an acceptable waste of time, especially on a dull, Sunday afternoon. So, if it happens to be playing on your local TV station (do they still show movies?) open up a six pack of beer and give it a watch. 

Credits

Cast:  Roy Scheider (Police Chief Martin Brody), Lorraine Gary (Ellen Brody), Murray Hamilton (Mayor Vaughn), Joseph Mascolo (Len Petersen), Jeffrey Kramer (Deputy Hendricks), Ann Dusenberry (Tina), Mark Gruner (Mike Brody), Marc Gilpin (Sean Brody), Collin Wilcox (Dr. Elkins), Gary Springer (Andy), Donna Wilkes (Jackie), Keith Gordon (Doug), David Elliott (Larry Vaughn, Jr.), Barry Coe (Tom), Gary Dubin (Eddie),  John Dukakis (Paul), G. Thomas Dunlap (Timmy), Cindy Grover (Lucy), Gigi Vorgan (Brooke), Billy Van Zandt (Bob),  Ben Marley (Patrick), Martha Swatek (Marge), Susan French (Grace), Jerry M. Baxter (Helicopter Pilot).

Director: Jeannot Szwarc
Screenplay: Carl Gottlieb, Howard Sackler.
Running Time: 116 min.