A rabid St. Bernard conducts a reign of terror in the small American town Castle Rock. Donna Trenton (Wallace) and her son Tad (Pintauro) are trapped in a malfunctioning Ford Pinto and the rabid dog, Cujo, has them cornered and nowhere to run.
“Satan’s Blade” is genuinely a likable piece of film-making that doesn’t for one second pretend it’s anything other than it is and on that strength alone it more than makes up for it’s (numerous) shortcomings
On March 23rd Mr. Larry Cohen passed away at the age of 82. A true auteur who left behind bucket loads of writing credits in a career than spanned five decades and along the way he directed a few gems. Always very witty but also concocting some truly original horror and suspense stories; Cohen’s legacy will live on with genre aficionados all over the world.
Arguably his greatest contribution to the horror genre was a trilogy of films concerning mutant baby monsters in the “It’s Alive” threesome. Cohen’s writing was spot on when it came to every parent’s fear of a child’s possible abnormality, society’s fear of all kinds of human made chemicals interfering with what Mother Nature intended and mankind’s cluelessness when it has to deal with something very different from them. Director Cohen also infused these semi-exploitation mutant movies with very adult and heartfelt drama and elicited some top-notch performances that really legitimized the material beyond B-movie schlock horror.
“Kingdom of the Spiders” was a low-budget production but a big portion of it was spent on procuring 5.000 tarantulas to stage the attacks and display a town riddled with them.
Deliciously wicked, fairly suspenseful and outrageously funny; “Theatre of Blood” is a one of a kind entry in the horror genre in that it assembles extremely talented thespians who do not shy away from gross imagery, gratuitous violence and general bad taste.
“Opera” is fairly giallo-esque with the black gloved killer, his black hood and preferred use of a knife but Argento basically uses the story as a springboard for some over the top set-pieces, wild and horrific imagery laced with bombastic music ranging from sweet ballads to famous opera numbers to heavy metal, tons of images of ravens and some incredible camera acrobatics.
A classic in the slasher movie cycle but completely dependent on mood and old fashioned suspense instead of blood and gore; “When a Stranger Calls” is in many ways a trend setter but differs from most slashers with it’s emphasis on the killer’s psychological state and the detective who’s hunting him.
“Slaughter High” arrived at the tail end of the slasher craze when most of these flicks were completely devoid of original ideas and creativity. They were having a tougher time getting financing, were cutting corners in all areas and many simply disappeared into oblivion.
“Curtains” is a film of two distinct styles. One is a murder mystery with heavy emphasis on mood, lighting and atmosphere while the other one goes for the jugular in stalk ’n slash mode so popular at the time.
“Bad Moon” is a very smart werewolf flick and they are few and far between. Werewolf films have always been littered with tragic characters who have been doomed to a lowly and lonely existence and this one is no exception.
