O’HERLIHY PROUD OF ’HALLOWEEN’ ROLE
Miami Herald, The (FL) - July 5, 1982
Author: VERNON SCOTT United Press International
Dan O’Herlihy, a native of the auld sod, has appeared in scores of American movies and TV shows but never as an Irishman until now, playing arch-villain in Halloween III.
If it seems a comedown for a distinguished graduate of Dublin’s Abbey Theatre to be playing a menace in a Hollywood horror film, O’Herlihy is quick to disabuse the notion.
"This is the most interesting character and the first Irishman I’ve ever played in Hollywood," said the proud Hibernian.
"As a matter of fact, I’ve played nothing but Americans in this country going back more years than I care to count. I’ve even portrayed Mark Twain and Franklin Roosevelt. But never an Irishman."
As Conall Cochran, O’Herlihy plays one of the most fiendish villains in film history. Although his motivation may be
obscure, Cochran’s scheme is to kill off all the children in the United States.
Cochran, the sole owner and proprietor of a Halloween mask manufacturing company, has a micro-chip built into each mask, which, when activated by a TV signal, will kill anyone wearing the mask.
Cochran, of course, sees to it that on Halloween all 84 million American kids are wearing his masks. Then, during a TV commercial, the proper button is pushed and pffft, there goes the younger generation.
As is usually the case with horror films, fate steps between the maddened heavy and his would-be victims and the audience leaves the theater safe in the knowledge that they have been scared half to death.
"It’s delicious," O’Herlihy said with relish. "Cochran is a man who simply doesn’t like children. I’m the father of five and the grandfather of four, so Cochran is a man with whom I can identify."
O’Herlihy, who has starred in such stark dramas as Fail Safe, Home Before Dark and Imitation of Life, is convinced audiences prefer such other of his films as The Highwayman, The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe and The Black Shield of Falworth.
The success of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and horror films have convinced O’Herlihy that science fiction and fantasy are the order of the day for moviegoers.
"They are all played for reality, just as Halloween III is, but they are tales that can only be told in the motion-picture medium," he said. "They don’t work well in books, TV shows, on stage or in radio.
"It’s all fantasy and that’s as it should be. I’m all for it. People are staying away from hard-edged movie dramas.
"Horror and fantasy provide escape from the grinding reality of Tennessee Williams and Edward Albee, which drag audiences down to glory in neuroses.
"Escapism should be the central core of movies," he said. "I get bored with realistic films, even when they are well done. They are too predictible. Even good historical films are a form of escapism because they get away from today’s stresses and problems."
O’Herlihy’s most recent brush with fantasy was last year’s BBC classic gothic horror TV movie "Artemis" in which he played a Dutch organist chosen by the gods to disseminate death throughout the world by striking a certain chord in a 1,000- year-old cathedral.
"He was almost as fascinating as Cochran," O’Herlihy said. "Anyone he touched died immediately. It was a truly satanic story.
"It’s much more fun playing heavies than straight roles, especially when you can bring so much sincerity to a part. I played heavies in The Tamarind Seed, The Night Fighter and Home Before Dark, which my agent thought would ruin my career.
"Strange as it may seem, I’ve got my best reviews playing villains. But of the heavies I’ve played, Cochran in Halloween III may be the most villainous of the lot."
KIDS HAVE A SAY IN ’NIGHT’ by Dennis Georgatos
KIDS HAVE A SAY IN ’NIGHT’
Miami Herald, The (FL) - January 11, 1983
Author: DENNIS GEORGATOS Associated Press
A psychiatrist cast in the unfamiliar role of horror - movie producer wanted some advice on what scares young people, so he
went straight to the source, with newspaper ads asking for help.
The result is the movie One Dark Night, a film about a "school wimp" who takes a dare, spends the night in a mausoleum and ends up being kept company by living corpses with glittering eyes and coffins popping out of walls.
About 100 young people between the ages of 12 and 25 responded to the ads in San Diego newspapers last September and helped in the film’s production by offering comments, criticisms and suggestions.
"Basically, this is their film," said psychiatrist Thomas P. Johnson, executive producer and senior consultant with Comworld, the Orem, Utah-based studio that bankrolled the $865,000 venture.
Johnson said he solicited their thoughts because "I wanted their feedback, with the potential advantage being that we would be in closer touch with the grass-roots ticket buyer.
"Some people feel that people in Hollywood start making movies for each other and lose touch with the public and what the non-Hollywood people would like to see on the screen," he said.
Having young people help select the script, make plot changes and vote on versions they liked best had never been tried before on such a large scale, Johnson said, and the experience to the participants was a positive one.
"They are at a very critical stage of development," Johnson said. "Many of them feel that this is an adults’ world, and adults don’t listen, and this was a chance for them to find themselves in a position like
producer-director Steven> Spielberg. They got to call the shots."
The movie was shot in Hollywood, produced by Michael Schroeder and directed by Tom McLoughlin. McLoughlin wrote the script with Michael Hawes.
It opened last week at 300 theaters in the West. A South Florida release date has yet to be set.
"I liked it, but I expected it to be more scary," said Julie Phillip, 22, a student at Mesa College who contributed suggestions to the movie . "I would recommend it to my friends. It has good suspense. It’s pretty creative. And it was nice to be part of the moviemaking process, even if it was a small part."
Bobby Straker, 16, a La Jolla High School student who answered the ads "because I like the movies ," said the film is "100 per cent better" because of the input from young people.
The moviemakers didn’t use all the suggestions. While the young people came up with some macabre situations, Johnson said he was surprised that the consensus was for a nonviolent ending -- which the studio vetoed.
"It just goes to show you that young people don’t need to see a chainsaw hacking someone up or violent scenes with a lot of blood in a movie thriller," he said.
The young people who participated in the novel arrangement were not compensated for their time, nor did they receive screen credits. "I wish we could have done something about that, but we had to follow traditional Hollywood protocol," Johnson said.
Johnson, who has never been involved in making a movie before, said he was approached by Comworld last year "to see if my background with psychiatry in the prime movie age group of 12 to 29 would better the odds" of making a successful film.
Comworld is an independent studio, and one of the factors in seeking opinion was the fact that so many independent ventures lose money, he said.
Miami Herald, The (FL) - January 11, 1983
Author: DENNIS GEORGATOS Associated Press
A psychiatrist cast in the unfamiliar role of horror - movie producer wanted some advice on what scares young people, so he
went straight to the source, with newspaper ads asking for help.
The result is the movie One Dark Night, a film about a "school wimp" who takes a dare, spends the night in a mausoleum and ends up being kept company by living corpses with glittering eyes and coffins popping out of walls.
About 100 young people between the ages of 12 and 25 responded to the ads in San Diego newspapers last September and helped in the film’s production by offering comments, criticisms and suggestions.
"Basically, this is their film," said psychiatrist Thomas P. Johnson, executive producer and senior consultant with Comworld, the Orem, Utah-based studio that bankrolled the $865,000 venture.
Johnson said he solicited their thoughts because "I wanted their feedback, with the potential advantage being that we would be in closer touch with the grass-roots ticket buyer.
"Some people feel that people in Hollywood start making movies for each other and lose touch with the public and what the non-Hollywood people would like to see on the screen," he said.
Having young people help select the script, make plot changes and vote on versions they liked best had never been tried before on such a large scale, Johnson said, and the experience to the participants was a positive one.
"They are at a very critical stage of development," Johnson said. "Many of them feel that this is an adults’ world, and adults don’t listen, and this was a chance for them to find themselves in a position like
producer-director Steven> Spielberg. They got to call the shots."
The movie was shot in Hollywood, produced by Michael Schroeder and directed by Tom McLoughlin. McLoughlin wrote the script with Michael Hawes.
It opened last week at 300 theaters in the West. A South Florida release date has yet to be set.
"I liked it, but I expected it to be more scary," said Julie Phillip, 22, a student at Mesa College who contributed suggestions to the movie . "I would recommend it to my friends. It has good suspense. It’s pretty creative. And it was nice to be part of the moviemaking process, even if it was a small part."
Bobby Straker, 16, a La Jolla High School student who answered the ads "because I like the movies ," said the film is "100 per cent better" because of the input from young people.
The moviemakers didn’t use all the suggestions. While the young people came up with some macabre situations, Johnson said he was surprised that the consensus was for a nonviolent ending -- which the studio vetoed.
"It just goes to show you that young people don’t need to see a chainsaw hacking someone up or violent scenes with a lot of blood in a movie thriller," he said.
The young people who participated in the novel arrangement were not compensated for their time, nor did they receive screen credits. "I wish we could have done something about that, but we had to follow traditional Hollywood protocol," Johnson said.
Johnson, who has never been involved in making a movie before, said he was approached by Comworld last year "to see if my background with psychiatry in the prime movie age group of 12 to 29 would better the odds" of making a successful film.
Comworld is an independent studio, and one of the factors in seeking opinion was the fact that so many independent ventures lose money, he said.
’THE BEASTMASTER’: FROM HOME FLICKS TO HOLLYWOOD by Bob Thomas
’THE BEASTMASTER’: FROM HOME FLICKS TO HOLLYWOOD
Miami Herald, The (FL) - September 8, 1982
Author: BOB THOMAS Associated Press
A late entry in the summer movie sweepstakes is The Beastmaster, a new film by Don Coscarelli, who is accustomed to playing catch-up.
Coscarelli is the prodigy whose homemade movie was released by a major studio when he was not yet 21. He also gave the movie world Phantasm, which reportedly sold $25 million worth of tickets in the U.S.
Coscarelli is now an oldtimer of 28, and he is dealing in big chips with The Beastmaster, a $10-million fantasy-adventure that MGM is releasing. That’s a hundred times more than what his first movie cost.
As with their other three films, Coscarelli and his producer, Paul Pepperman, also 28, financed The Beastmaster privately, then sold it to a major releasing company.
"The title turned some potential investors off. They thought it sounded like a low-budget horror picture," Coscarelli related. "The story takes place in the Bronze Age and deals with a hero who has a rare ability to communicate with animals. In his quest for his origins and for revenge, he is helped by an eagle, a black tiger and two ferrets, with whom he has a telepathic capacity."
In searching for a new project, Coscarelli remembered a book he had enjoyed in the sixth grade. In rereading The Beastmaster, he discovered it wasn’t as good as he remembered. But he used the title and fashioned his own story, drawing from extensive research in primitive cultures. The backing came from two investors and foreign distributors who had profited from Phantasm. David Begelman, then president of MGM, agreed to distribution on the basis of a 20-minute presentation reel.
Coscarelli and Pepperman didn’t go crazy with their first big budget. They found a cheap rental for property owned by an oil company in the Simi Valley and built a prehistoric settlement, including a huge pyramid. John Alcott, Oscar-winner for Barry Lyndon, was cinematographer. The cast includes Marc Singer (If You Could See What I Hear), Rip Torn, John Amos and Tanya Roberts, last of "Charlie’s Angels."
"It was my first time dealing with professional actors," said the director, "and there is a difference. Before, the actors were motivated by the love of the project. This time the motivation was the paycheck: ’Do this or you’re fired.’
"Another revelation was working with animals. The only direction you can give them is a buzzer for food. It takes a lot of time to get a performance on that basis. Still, we finished principal photography in 12 weeks."
Coscarelli and Peppermen were college roommates in Long Beach, Calif., eight years ago. Too young to enter UCLA’s film school, they decided to make their own movie . Coscarelli’s father helped put together the $100,000 to make Jim, The World’s Greatest with an unknown actor, Gregory Harrison, now of "Trapper John, M.D."
Universal paid $250,000 to release the film, much to father Coscarelli’s relief. Next came Kenny and Company, filmed for $150,000 and bought by Fox for $250,000. Phantasm was another step upward; it cost $500,000 and made millions for Avco Embassy.
"After that I was deluged with horror scripts," said Coscarelli. "Things like Ghost Ship, The Beast Within, Claws and Rats. I decided I wanted to do something entirely different instead."
Miami Herald, The (FL) - September 8, 1982
Author: BOB THOMAS Associated Press
A late entry in the summer movie sweepstakes is The Beastmaster, a new film by Don Coscarelli, who is accustomed to playing catch-up.
Coscarelli is the prodigy whose homemade movie was released by a major studio when he was not yet 21. He also gave the movie world Phantasm, which reportedly sold $25 million worth of tickets in the U.S.
Coscarelli is now an oldtimer of 28, and he is dealing in big chips with The Beastmaster, a $10-million fantasy-adventure that MGM is releasing. That’s a hundred times more than what his first movie cost.
As with their other three films, Coscarelli and his producer, Paul Pepperman, also 28, financed The Beastmaster privately, then sold it to a major releasing company.
"The title turned some potential investors off. They thought it sounded like a low-budget horror picture," Coscarelli related. "The story takes place in the Bronze Age and deals with a hero who has a rare ability to communicate with animals. In his quest for his origins and for revenge, he is helped by an eagle, a black tiger and two ferrets, with whom he has a telepathic capacity."
In searching for a new project, Coscarelli remembered a book he had enjoyed in the sixth grade. In rereading The Beastmaster, he discovered it wasn’t as good as he remembered. But he used the title and fashioned his own story, drawing from extensive research in primitive cultures. The backing came from two investors and foreign distributors who had profited from Phantasm. David Begelman, then president of MGM, agreed to distribution on the basis of a 20-minute presentation reel.
Coscarelli and Pepperman didn’t go crazy with their first big budget. They found a cheap rental for property owned by an oil company in the Simi Valley and built a prehistoric settlement, including a huge pyramid. John Alcott, Oscar-winner for Barry Lyndon, was cinematographer. The cast includes Marc Singer (If You Could See What I Hear), Rip Torn, John Amos and Tanya Roberts, last of "Charlie’s Angels."
"It was my first time dealing with professional actors," said the director, "and there is a difference. Before, the actors were motivated by the love of the project. This time the motivation was the paycheck: ’Do this or you’re fired.’
"Another revelation was working with animals. The only direction you can give them is a buzzer for food. It takes a lot of time to get a performance on that basis. Still, we finished principal photography in 12 weeks."
Coscarelli and Peppermen were college roommates in Long Beach, Calif., eight years ago. Too young to enter UCLA’s film school, they decided to make their own movie . Coscarelli’s father helped put together the $100,000 to make Jim, The World’s Greatest with an unknown actor, Gregory Harrison, now of "Trapper John, M.D."
Universal paid $250,000 to release the film, much to father Coscarelli’s relief. Next came Kenny and Company, filmed for $150,000 and bought by Fox for $250,000. Phantasm was another step upward; it cost $500,000 and made millions for Avco Embassy.
"After that I was deluged with horror scripts," said Coscarelli. "Things like Ghost Ship, The Beast Within, Claws and Rats. I decided I wanted to do something entirely different instead."
THE INCUBUS (1982)
BIG HORROR IN ’INCUBUS’ IS THE ACTING
Miami Herald, The (FL) - September 25, 1982
Author: TERRY KELLEHER Herald Arts Writer
They say John Cassavetes appears in junk movies to raise money for quality films of his own making.
He certainly seems distracted throughout The Incubus, in which he assumes the traditional horror -picture role of the town doctor who inspects a succession of gored bodies and declares: "This is not the work of an ordinary human being."
The first time we see Cassavetes he’s behind the wheel of a parked car. He sits. He squints. He puffs on a cigaret. He
sighs. He squints some more. Come on, John, you have to start acting sometime.
Between and within lines, Cassavetes inserts pauses that suggest nothing except a wandering mind. At times he actually seems to be nodding off. "Do you hear me, Doctor?" demands a weird old woman after Cassavetes shows no reaction to a particularly ominous revelation. The doc doesn’t even bother to run a comb through his hair. "You look awful," a female reporter observes. She’s right.
Of course, a pro like Cassavetes knows a few tricks to keep on his toes. In a scene that places all the principals at a long table, Cassavetes disdains a chair and crouches, so that we see him only from the neck up. An intriguing interpretation. Is the character hiding something, besides his shirt? Cassavetes gives numerous broad hints of incestuous overtones in the physician’s relationship with his 18-year-old daughter. They never amount to anything but, hey, anything to relieve the monotony.
Monotony is the main problem with The Incubus. This Canadian film is not cheaply done; indeed, the publicity boasts of a $7-million budget. It’s no bloodier and no more degraded than most of today’s shockers, though director John Hough does take us to the autopsy room once or twice too often.
Nothing is new, that’s all. The closeup of the eyeball? Check. The "eerie" music that serves as an early-warning system, thereby reducing rather than enhancing suspense? It’s here. The cockeyed camera angles? Got ’em. Does the pretty tease in the bikini get hers when the monster comes around? Are you kidding?
The burning issue in The Incubus is auto registration. The movie was shot in Ontario; the story is supposed to be set in New England. But Cassavetes’ car bears a Wisconsin license plate. Pull over, mack.
Movie Review
The Incubus (R) *
...
CAST
John Cassavetes, John Ireland, Kerrie Keane, Erin Flannery, Duncan McIntosh, Helen Hughes
CREDITS
Director: John Hough
Producers: Marc Boyman, John Eckert
Screenwriter: George Franklin
Cinematographer: Albert Dunk
Music: Stanley Myers
An Artists Releasing/Film Ventures International Release
Gore, violence, nudity
At Omni, Palm Springs, Miracle, Normandy, Marina, Campbell Square, Cutler Ridge, Dadeland, Gateway, Sheridan, Broward Mall, Coral Springs, Lakeshore, Thunderbird
Miami Herald, The (FL) - September 25, 1982
Author: TERRY KELLEHER Herald Arts Writer
They say John Cassavetes appears in junk movies to raise money for quality films of his own making.
He certainly seems distracted throughout The Incubus, in which he assumes the traditional horror -picture role of the town doctor who inspects a succession of gored bodies and declares: "This is not the work of an ordinary human being."
The first time we see Cassavetes he’s behind the wheel of a parked car. He sits. He squints. He puffs on a cigaret. He
sighs. He squints some more. Come on, John, you have to start acting sometime.
Between and within lines, Cassavetes inserts pauses that suggest nothing except a wandering mind. At times he actually seems to be nodding off. "Do you hear me, Doctor?" demands a weird old woman after Cassavetes shows no reaction to a particularly ominous revelation. The doc doesn’t even bother to run a comb through his hair. "You look awful," a female reporter observes. She’s right.
Of course, a pro like Cassavetes knows a few tricks to keep on his toes. In a scene that places all the principals at a long table, Cassavetes disdains a chair and crouches, so that we see him only from the neck up. An intriguing interpretation. Is the character hiding something, besides his shirt? Cassavetes gives numerous broad hints of incestuous overtones in the physician’s relationship with his 18-year-old daughter. They never amount to anything but, hey, anything to relieve the monotony.
Monotony is the main problem with The Incubus. This Canadian film is not cheaply done; indeed, the publicity boasts of a $7-million budget. It’s no bloodier and no more degraded than most of today’s shockers, though director John Hough does take us to the autopsy room once or twice too often.
Nothing is new, that’s all. The closeup of the eyeball? Check. The "eerie" music that serves as an early-warning system, thereby reducing rather than enhancing suspense? It’s here. The cockeyed camera angles? Got ’em. Does the pretty tease in the bikini get hers when the monster comes around? Are you kidding?
The burning issue in The Incubus is auto registration. The movie was shot in Ontario; the story is supposed to be set in New England. But Cassavetes’ car bears a Wisconsin license plate. Pull over, mack.
Movie Review
The Incubus (R) *
...
CAST
John Cassavetes, John Ireland, Kerrie Keane, Erin Flannery, Duncan McIntosh, Helen Hughes
CREDITS
Director: John Hough
Producers: Marc Boyman, John Eckert
Screenwriter: George Franklin
Cinematographer: Albert Dunk
Music: Stanley Myers
An Artists Releasing/Film Ventures International Release
Gore, violence, nudity
At Omni, Palm Springs, Miracle, Normandy, Marina, Campbell Square, Cutler Ridge, Dadeland, Gateway, Sheridan, Broward Mall, Coral Springs, Lakeshore, Thunderbird
AMITYVILLE II: THE POSSESSION (1982)
’AMITYVILLE II’: THE HORROR GOES ON
Miami Herald, The (FL) - September 28, 1982
Author: TERRY KELLEHER Herald Arts Writer
They picked the wrong man from Rocky to appear in Amityville II: The Possession.
Burt Young, who plays Sylvester Stallone’s boorish brother- in-law in the Rocky films, is a wife-beating, child-abusing ogre in Amityville II, the "prequel" to The Amityville Horror . But Young isn’t nearly mean enough to face down the demons that scared James Brolin out of that notorious Long Island house. Maybe Stallone himself, or the fearsome "Mr. T." from Rocky III, could have been hired to pound the devil into submission. As it is, the champion of good is another priest brandishing a crucifix. The spirit is willing, but the firepower is insufficient.
If this sounds blasphemous, blame the cynicism of Hollywood, which has turned hell into a profit center with three Omens, two Exorcists and two Amityvilles. The devil’s weapons are more sophisticated than ever in Amityville II, thanks to special effects that are as much sickening as terrifying. Flesh bursts and peels, blood flows all over the screen. The priestly incantations, on the other hand, seem increasingly feeble. Poor Father Adamski (capable James Olson) can’t even secure diocesan authorization for a formal exorcism, as the evil one tauntingly reminds him. The wonder of it all is that Olson, the head of the family in Ragtime, manages not to be ludicrous.
The devil, as we know, can assume many forms. In Amityville II, the devil is the camera, chasing the cast through the house in swooping point-of-view shots. One might suspect that director Damiano Damiani wanted the audience to identify with Satan. Hmm, this calls for an exorcist. Further evidence can be found in Young’s character, Anthony Montelli, certainly the foulest father of the year. When the devil -- speaking through Walkman earphones, yet -- advises the oldest of the four Montelli children to pull the trigger on Dad, the suggestion does not strike us as entirely out of line. Mr. Montelli, after all, is the type who hears his wife and daughter singing and snarls, "What are you, the Andrews Sisters?"
With their flair for wretched excess, Damiani and screenwriter Tommy Lee Wallace (who happens to be the distinguished director of Halloween III) make it hard to bear Amityville II in good humor. We don’t have to look inside the body bags after Sonny Montelli wipes out father, mother and three siblings. There is more than enough offensive material here without gratuitous incest. But count on Damiani and Wallace to walk that extra mile for exploitation.
Movie Review
Amityville II: The Possession (R) *
...
CAST
Burt Young, James Olson, Rutanya Alda, Diane Franklin, Jack Magner, Andrew Prine, Moses Gunn
CREDITS
Director: Damiano Damiani
Producers: Ira N. Smith, Stephen R. Greenwald
Screenwriter: Tommy Lee Wallace
Cinematographer: Franco Di Giacomo
Music: Lalo Schifrin
...
An Orion Pictures Release
...
Gore, violence, vulgar language, implicit sex
...
At Cutler Ridge, Dadeland, Miller Square, Palm Springs, Miracle, Omni, Byron-Carlyle, 163rd Street, Plaza, Campbell Square, Gateway, Southland, Thunderbird, Coral Springs, Lakes, Movies at Plantation
Burt Young, who plays Sylvester Stallone’s boorish brother- in-law in the Rocky films, is a wife-beating, child-abusing ogre in Amityville II, the "prequel" to The Amityville Horror . But Young isn’t nearly mean enough to face down the demons that scared James Brolin out of that notorious Long Island house. Maybe Stallone himself, or the fearsome "Mr. T." from Rocky III, could have been hired to pound the devil into submission. As it is, the champion of good is another priest brandishing a crucifix. The spirit is willing, but the firepower is insufficient.
If this sounds blasphemous, blame the cynicism of Hollywood, which has turned hell into a profit center with three Omens, two Exorcists and two Amityvilles. The devil’s weapons are more sophisticated than ever in Amityville II, thanks to special effects that are as much sickening as terrifying. Flesh bursts and peels, blood flows all over the screen. The priestly incantations, on the other hand, seem increasingly feeble. Poor Father Adamski (capable James Olson) can’t even secure diocesan authorization for a formal exorcism, as the evil one tauntingly reminds him. The wonder of it all is that Olson, the head of the family in Ragtime, manages not to be ludicrous.
The devil, as we know, can assume many forms. In Amityville II, the devil is the camera, chasing the cast through the house in swooping point-of-view shots. One might suspect that director Damiano Damiani wanted the audience to identify with Satan. Hmm, this calls for an exorcist. Further evidence can be found in Young’s character, Anthony Montelli, certainly the foulest father of the year. When the devil -- speaking through Walkman earphones, yet -- advises the oldest of the four Montelli children to pull the trigger on Dad, the suggestion does not strike us as entirely out of line. Mr. Montelli, after all, is the type who hears his wife and daughter singing and snarls, "What are you, the Andrews Sisters?"
With their flair for wretched excess, Damiani and screenwriter Tommy Lee Wallace (who happens to be the distinguished director of Halloween III) make it hard to bear Amityville II in good humor. We don’t have to look inside the body bags after Sonny Montelli wipes out father, mother and three siblings. There is more than enough offensive material here without gratuitous incest. But count on Damiani and Wallace to walk that extra mile for exploitation.
Movie Review
Amityville II: The Possession (R) *
...
CAST
Burt Young, James Olson, Rutanya Alda, Diane Franklin, Jack Magner, Andrew Prine, Moses Gunn
CREDITS
Director: Damiano Damiani
Producers: Ira N. Smith, Stephen R. Greenwald
Screenwriter: Tommy Lee Wallace
Cinematographer: Franco Di Giacomo
Music: Lalo Schifrin
...
An Orion Pictures Release
...
Gore, violence, vulgar language, implicit sex
...
At Cutler Ridge, Dadeland, Miller Square, Palm Springs, Miracle, Omni, Byron-Carlyle, 163rd Street, Plaza, Campbell Square, Gateway, Southland, Thunderbird, Coral Springs, Lakes, Movies at Plantation
YOUNG FILMMAKER SHOWS GUTS by Frederick Burger
YOUNG FILMMAKER SHOWS GUTS
Miami Herald, The (FL) - September 4, 1983
Author: FREDERICK BURGER Herald Arts Writer
There is a look of wonderment on Sam Raimi’s innocent face, a deferential expression of curiosity in his drowsy brown eyes.
The looks are deceiving. The 23-year-old Michigan State dropout is a driven man. He is obsessed with a passion for making movies .
Raimi is savoring an early success. He has written and directed The Evil Dead, an unrated movie so gloriously gory that some American critics are calling it a cult classic.
The guts of the story:
Five Michigan college kids on a winter getaway to Tennessee are engulfed by demons and turned into horrific zombies. Carnage between them and a lone, spared soul ensues. Villainous vines and trees ravage a female character. Blood spurts everywhere, sometimes in blue and orange, just to keep things from getting too predictable. Eye sockets ooze. Arms and legs -- ripped, axed or bitten apart -- fly everywhere. Dismembered limbs twitch on splattered wooden floors, refusing to die.
This is violent rampage at its best -- or worst -- depending on your point of view. Sometimes camp, the movie doubtless will be seen as comic by many viewers because of its almost unimaginable excess. It owes its existence to every major horrormovie ever made and Raimi’s interest, as he puts it, in producing a movie that will make people scream.
"I think a lot of people go to horror films to be challenged, to see how much they can take," Raimi says. "We just kept it coming. It’s unrelenting."
Most all is done with surprising sophistication for a film that initially was shot as a Super-8 home movie , reshot in 16 mm and then blown up to 35 mm for theatrical release.
Raimi is learning fast about making movies , but he is rather
oblivious of ways used to promote them. So he is somewhat baffled that, during a promotional trip to coincide with the opening in Miami, reporters are coming around to ask him questions. He seems more content to be in the area so he can visit brother Ivan in Fort Lauderdale.
He figures he has precious little wisdom to impart, but he responds, however sheepishly, to anything that’s asked. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, he speaks with uncalculated candor.
"It has a limited purpose," Raimi says of The Evil Dead, his first nationally distributed movie . "It is schlocky, but it’s fun. I think it’s entertaining and jolting. We made it to shock and amuse, to get the adrenaline flowing. That’s really all the movie has to offer. It certainly doesn’t have much of a plot.
"For raw, visceral shocks and roller-coaster effects, it’s definitely the movie to see."
Horror -story author Stephen King has said the same thing. King admiringly calls The Evil Dead -- it long lacked a distributor -- "the most ferociously original horror film of 1982." King further notes that it represents a "black rainbow of horror ."
Of course, not everyone agrees.
A British critic castigated it as a "mindless, tasteless glut of gore." Raimi himself likes to quote the Atlanta critic who observed: "Even though the director is 23, this work looks like the work of an out-of-control 12-year-old."
For now, the criticism is only slightly bothersome. Raimi is more amused by it than anything else. What’s important, though, is that the movie is getting attention. And that could lead to another film.
Raimi didn’t have an easy time getting the film together. It was quite different from the Super-8 epics he started making when he was 12. This time he had to worry about "financing."
"None of my friends or relatives gave me money, because they knew what kind of punk I was," he says with a grin. "I was just a loudmouth kid making Super-8 movies . We were just punks with no track records, so we put on suits and started carrying briefcases."
In suits and with briefcases, Raimi and a couple of friends -- producer Robert Tapert and Bruce Campbell, who plays the lead character Ash -- were able to talk 15 doctors, lawyers, contractors and insurance agents in Detroit into investing $380,000 in the film.
That is what The Evil Dead cost when the eight-month production was finished in the summer of 1980.
The movie ’s distributor, New Line Cinema, estimates that it will gross $10 million from theatrical release in the United States and Canada. It should gross much more in Europe. There are reports that some French audiences literally have jumped to their feet and applauded when the closing credits rolled.
That’s heady stuff, but Raimi isn’t even counting his money yet. In fact, he may not make any, the finances of selling an independent film being what they are. He says he’s personally in debt $20,000, which his share of the profits ultimately may cut to a $10,000 deficit. He has been living with his parents in Detroit to curb personal expenses.
Raimi, the son of a furniture salesman, shakes his head when
discussing the finances of his first significant film, but it doesn’t discourage him. Another project is in the works, and there’s financing, which he cannot yet discuss.
Only one thing is important to him, regardless of the cost: making movies . He and friends now have formed Renaissance Pictures Ltd., which has offices in downtown Ferndale, a suburb 10 miles north of Detroit.
He hopes to begin filming The X Y Z Murders, a crime thriller, in Detroit in November.
"That would be my big break, and I wouldn’t louse it up," Raimi says. "I’ll try to make a good movie and come in below budget, so they
backers> will have a good experience with me. I got an early start, but it could be an early finish, too, if I don’t get the money for the next one."
The looks are deceiving. The 23-year-old Michigan State dropout is a driven man. He is obsessed with a passion for making movies .
Raimi is savoring an early success. He has written and directed The Evil Dead, an unrated movie so gloriously gory that some American critics are calling it a cult classic.
The guts of the story:
Five Michigan college kids on a winter getaway to Tennessee are engulfed by demons and turned into horrific zombies. Carnage between them and a lone, spared soul ensues. Villainous vines and trees ravage a female character. Blood spurts everywhere, sometimes in blue and orange, just to keep things from getting too predictable. Eye sockets ooze. Arms and legs -- ripped, axed or bitten apart -- fly everywhere. Dismembered limbs twitch on splattered wooden floors, refusing to die.
This is violent rampage at its best -- or worst -- depending on your point of view. Sometimes camp, the movie doubtless will be seen as comic by many viewers because of its almost unimaginable excess. It owes its existence to every major horrormovie ever made and Raimi’s interest, as he puts it, in producing a movie that will make people scream.
"I think a lot of people go to horror films to be challenged, to see how much they can take," Raimi says. "We just kept it coming. It’s unrelenting."
Most all is done with surprising sophistication for a film that initially was shot as a Super-8 home movie , reshot in 16 mm and then blown up to 35 mm for theatrical release.
Raimi is learning fast about making movies , but he is rather
oblivious of ways used to promote them. So he is somewhat baffled that, during a promotional trip to coincide with the opening in Miami, reporters are coming around to ask him questions. He seems more content to be in the area so he can visit brother Ivan in Fort Lauderdale.
He figures he has precious little wisdom to impart, but he responds, however sheepishly, to anything that’s asked. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, he speaks with uncalculated candor.
"It has a limited purpose," Raimi says of The Evil Dead, his first nationally distributed movie . "It is schlocky, but it’s fun. I think it’s entertaining and jolting. We made it to shock and amuse, to get the adrenaline flowing. That’s really all the movie has to offer. It certainly doesn’t have much of a plot.
"For raw, visceral shocks and roller-coaster effects, it’s definitely the movie to see."
Horror -story author Stephen King has said the same thing. King admiringly calls The Evil Dead -- it long lacked a distributor -- "the most ferociously original horror film of 1982." King further notes that it represents a "black rainbow of horror ."
Of course, not everyone agrees.
A British critic castigated it as a "mindless, tasteless glut of gore." Raimi himself likes to quote the Atlanta critic who observed: "Even though the director is 23, this work looks like the work of an out-of-control 12-year-old."
For now, the criticism is only slightly bothersome. Raimi is more amused by it than anything else. What’s important, though, is that the movie is getting attention. And that could lead to another film.
Raimi didn’t have an easy time getting the film together. It was quite different from the Super-8 epics he started making when he was 12. This time he had to worry about "financing."
"None of my friends or relatives gave me money, because they knew what kind of punk I was," he says with a grin. "I was just a loudmouth kid making Super-8 movies . We were just punks with no track records, so we put on suits and started carrying briefcases."
In suits and with briefcases, Raimi and a couple of friends -- producer Robert Tapert and Bruce Campbell, who plays the lead character Ash -- were able to talk 15 doctors, lawyers, contractors and insurance agents in Detroit into investing $380,000 in the film.
That is what The Evil Dead cost when the eight-month production was finished in the summer of 1980.
The movie ’s distributor, New Line Cinema, estimates that it will gross $10 million from theatrical release in the United States and Canada. It should gross much more in Europe. There are reports that some French audiences literally have jumped to their feet and applauded when the closing credits rolled.
That’s heady stuff, but Raimi isn’t even counting his money yet. In fact, he may not make any, the finances of selling an independent film being what they are. He says he’s personally in debt $20,000, which his share of the profits ultimately may cut to a $10,000 deficit. He has been living with his parents in Detroit to curb personal expenses.
Raimi, the son of a furniture salesman, shakes his head when
discussing the finances of his first significant film, but it doesn’t discourage him. Another project is in the works, and there’s financing, which he cannot yet discuss.
Only one thing is important to him, regardless of the cost: making movies . He and friends now have formed Renaissance Pictures Ltd., which has offices in downtown Ferndale, a suburb 10 miles north of Detroit.
He hopes to begin filming The X Y Z Murders, a crime thriller, in Detroit in November.
"That would be my big break, and I wouldn’t louse it up," Raimi says. "I’ll try to make a good movie and come in below budget, so they
backers> will have a good experience with me. I got an early start, but it could be an early finish, too, if I don’t get the money for the next one."
WOULD YOU DARE DO THIS...
Miami Herald, The (FL) - June 11, 1983
Author: LAURA MISCH Herald Staff Writer
After you see it, you may never take another shower without thinking, if only for the briefest instant, that Norman Bates is on the other side of that plastic curtain with a butcher knife.
You may never take another shower, period.
Alfred Hitchcock’s masterly, gory murder scene in Psycho was scary not only for the sheer horror of it but also because it could really happen. The villain was a human being, not a monster or evil space alien; the situation was possible, if far-fetched.
The original black-and-white footage is used again as the opening scene in Psycho II partly as a tribute to the late master of suspense and partly because it is still as shocking today as it was when it was made 23 years ago. Film schools often show it as a masterpiece of film editing.
For the uninitiated: In the original movie , actress Janet Leigh, playing a woman who has stolen some money from her boss, is on the run. In a driving rainstorm she makes a wrong turn and ends up at the Bates Motel, a lonely-looking place run by a strange young man named Norman Bates, played by Tony Perkins.
After eating dinner with Bates in his office, she goes to her room and takes a shower before bed. As she is soaping up, the audience sees, through the milky shower curtain, the blurred image of the bathroom door slowly opening and a tall figure stepping in.
In a staccato series of 78 separate shots that takes only 45 horrifying seconds on film, the curtain is flung open and the unsuspecting woman is brutally stabbed to death, the blood spiraling down the drain as she thrashes in agony.
Graphic and extremely violent, the scene was a milestone for horror pictures. Yet not one frame of film actually shows the character being stabbed.
"It’s much easier to use the imagination of the audience," Hitchcock once said. "People still want to enjoy the vicarious pleasure of getting away from fear."
The audience leaving the much bloodier Psycho II last week at one area theater was no exception.
"I thought the slasher parts were pretty good," said Marie Dickinson, 20, who enjoys Texas Chain-Saw Massacre and other
spatter flicks. "But I was more scared when they were creeping around the house not knowing who was around the corner and behind the door."
Exactly.
Hitchcock, who died in 1980 after making more than 50 movies , knew that building up the suspense slowly is much more exciting than going for the quick thrill. Psycho II director Richard Franklin borrowed much from the master: The new movie is loaded with startling camera angles, Hitchcock editing techniques and even dialogue taken straight from the first film.
"We were not trying to remake the original," said Hilton Green, who was Hitchcock’s assistant director on Psycho and the producer of the current movie . He said Hitchcock never intended a sequel to be made to the low-budget ($780,000) thriller.
"It was one of the most scary movies ever," Green said. "But I didn’t think so at the time. You lose your perspective when you’re that close to it," he said.
"I take the average man and put him through a bizarre situation," Hitchcock said 11 years ago. "I don’t use private eyes or detectives simply because the audience can’t identify with these people. They identify with the common man and not the professional, and I always like to get my audience involved."
Dr. James Sussex, former chairman of the University of Miami department of psychiatry and former chief of psychiatric services at Jackson Memorial Hospital, has not seen either movie -- but he is familiar with how people deal with fear.
"Seeing a movie like that is exciting," he said. "If you’re watching something weird or bizarre, even if you know that it’s fantasy, it tends to step up your heart rate, dilate your eyes. Your blood starts flowing.
"They can have the combination of fear and anxiety and know they are still safe," he said. "It’s safe terror. It’s even pleasurable. But past a certain point it can cease to be fun."
In 1960, after Psycho was released, a man who had strangled three California women confessed that he had committed the second slaying after taking the victim to see the movie .
"That does happen, in an infinitesimal number of people," Sussex said. "You could have a disturbed or highly suggestible person who can act on impulses triggered that way."
The psychiatrist said it is "not a good idea" to see a lot of violent movies , especially for young people.
"People require more violence as they go along," he said. "The more they see, the more they want to see."
In Psycho II, there is plenty.
Norman Bates, again played by Perkins, has just been released after 22 years in a mental institution, judged cured of his psychosis. He returns to the Bates Motel and gets a job in a nearby diner.
But for Norman, carving a niche in the real world is tough. Trouble starts immediately.
His mother, long dead even during the first Psycho, apparently has returned to drive him crazy -- again. There are more knifings. There is even another shower scene, but this one ends safely.
Eventually, the character reverts to his old self.
"Most psychotics are not violent," Sussex said. "But it is not impossible for it to occur. I’ve read about some real ones that were so bizarre I wondered if they made up. And it would be possible to be free of symptoms for 22 years and then have a psychosis return."
Green said Universal had a psychiatrist on the set of Psycho II as an adviser.
But most moviegoers aren’t concerned with the picture’s psychological validity -- they paid their money to be scared out of their seats.
Andy Hunt, 18, watched most of Psycho II through his fingers. Outside the theater after the movie , he lunged at his friends, pretending to stab them again and again.
They laughed and ran away from him, shrieking in mock terror.
"People are born to be frightened," Hitchcock once said.
There are no plans for a Psycho III.
WOULD YOU DARE DO THIS...
Miami Herald, The (FL) - June 11, 1983
Author: LAURA MISCH Herald Staff Writer
You may never take another shower, period.
Alfred Hitchcock’s masterly, gory murder scene in Psycho was scary not only for the sheer horror of it but also because it could really happen. The villain was a human being, not a monster or evil space alien; the situation was possible, if far-fetched.
The original black-and-white footage is used again as the opening scene in Psycho II partly as a tribute to the late master of suspense and partly because it is still as shocking today as it was when it was made 23 years ago. Film schools often show it as a masterpiece of film editing.
For the uninitiated: In the original movie , actress Janet Leigh, playing a woman who has stolen some money from her boss, is on the run. In a driving rainstorm she makes a wrong turn and ends up at the Bates Motel, a lonely-looking place run by a strange young man named Norman Bates, played by Tony Perkins.
After eating dinner with Bates in his office, she goes to her room and takes a shower before bed. As she is soaping up, the audience sees, through the milky shower curtain, the blurred image of the bathroom door slowly opening and a tall figure stepping in.
In a staccato series of 78 separate shots that takes only 45 horrifying seconds on film, the curtain is flung open and the unsuspecting woman is brutally stabbed to death, the blood spiraling down the drain as she thrashes in agony.
Graphic and extremely violent, the scene was a milestone for horror pictures. Yet not one frame of film actually shows the character being stabbed.
"It’s much easier to use the imagination of the audience," Hitchcock once said. "People still want to enjoy the vicarious pleasure of getting away from fear."
The audience leaving the much bloodier Psycho II last week at one area theater was no exception.
"I thought the slasher parts were pretty good," said Marie Dickinson, 20, who enjoys Texas Chain-Saw Massacre and other
spatter flicks. "But I was more scared when they were creeping around the house not knowing who was around the corner and behind the door."
Exactly.
Hitchcock, who died in 1980 after making more than 50 movies , knew that building up the suspense slowly is much more exciting than going for the quick thrill. Psycho II director Richard Franklin borrowed much from the master: The new movie is loaded with startling camera angles, Hitchcock editing techniques and even dialogue taken straight from the first film.
"We were not trying to remake the original," said Hilton Green, who was Hitchcock’s assistant director on Psycho and the producer of the current movie . He said Hitchcock never intended a sequel to be made to the low-budget ($780,000) thriller.
"It was one of the most scary movies ever," Green said. "But I didn’t think so at the time. You lose your perspective when you’re that close to it," he said.
"I take the average man and put him through a bizarre situation," Hitchcock said 11 years ago. "I don’t use private eyes or detectives simply because the audience can’t identify with these people. They identify with the common man and not the professional, and I always like to get my audience involved."
Dr. James Sussex, former chairman of the University of Miami department of psychiatry and former chief of psychiatric services at Jackson Memorial Hospital, has not seen either movie -- but he is familiar with how people deal with fear.
"Seeing a movie like that is exciting," he said. "If you’re watching something weird or bizarre, even if you know that it’s fantasy, it tends to step up your heart rate, dilate your eyes. Your blood starts flowing.
"They can have the combination of fear and anxiety and know they are still safe," he said. "It’s safe terror. It’s even pleasurable. But past a certain point it can cease to be fun."
In 1960, after Psycho was released, a man who had strangled three California women confessed that he had committed the second slaying after taking the victim to see the movie .
"That does happen, in an infinitesimal number of people," Sussex said. "You could have a disturbed or highly suggestible person who can act on impulses triggered that way."
The psychiatrist said it is "not a good idea" to see a lot of violent movies , especially for young people.
"People require more violence as they go along," he said. "The more they see, the more they want to see."
In Psycho II, there is plenty.
Norman Bates, again played by Perkins, has just been released after 22 years in a mental institution, judged cured of his psychosis. He returns to the Bates Motel and gets a job in a nearby diner.
But for Norman, carving a niche in the real world is tough. Trouble starts immediately.
His mother, long dead even during the first Psycho, apparently has returned to drive him crazy -- again. There are more knifings. There is even another shower scene, but this one ends safely.
Eventually, the character reverts to his old self.
"Most psychotics are not violent," Sussex said. "But it is not impossible for it to occur. I’ve read about some real ones that were so bizarre I wondered if they made up. And it would be possible to be free of symptoms for 22 years and then have a psychosis return."
Green said Universal had a psychiatrist on the set of Psycho II as an adviser.
But most moviegoers aren’t concerned with the picture’s psychological validity -- they paid their money to be scared out of their seats.
Andy Hunt, 18, watched most of Psycho II through his fingers. Outside the theater after the movie , he lunged at his friends, pretending to stab them again and again.
They laughed and ran away from him, shrieking in mock terror.
"People are born to be frightened," Hitchcock once said.
There are no plans for a Psycho III.
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